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In 2006, a little developer you might have heard of called BioWare was coming off a string of successful titles and wanted to try their hand at developing a game for a handheld console, so they decided to get a well-known IP to help boost sales. And what do ya know, a certain well-known gaming mascot just happened to hit rock bottom in 2006. So it was that Sonic Chronicles came into being. Sonic Chronicles is a mess. It was BioWare’s first crack at a DS game and it shows. It’s also a rush job. Producers have flat out admitted in interviews that they weren’t used to a shorter production timeline or working with a smaller team. The game looks, sounds, and at times even plays like an unfinished product. We’ll get more into why later. But still, I can't bring myself to call the game bad. The gameplay is serviceable, the combat’s actually pretty enjoyable, and it has a charm to it that I can’t quite describe. There are references (some hidden, a great deal overt) to nearly all of Sonic’s history throughout the game, and it all comes off feeling like a real labor of love. Maybe they would’ve cranked out a really quality product if not for production deadlines. Or maybe the references are just pandering to fanboys, the game was destined to fail, and I have Stockholm syndrome because Chronicles was one of my first DS games. I guess we’ll see along the way. On to the important parts. I’ll be a doing as close to a 100% run as can be considered possible for this game. I’ll complete all the sidequests, find all Chao eggs, recruit all the hidden characters, and for what it’s worth, collect all the rings. If I’ve left anything out, tell me and I’ll try to do it. Thread Participation This is an RPG, so spoiler alert, we're gonna have a party of 4 and a cast of... more than that. Once our party gets big enough that we start leaving people behind, I’m going to let the thread choose who our active party is between updates. Of course, sometimes game events necessitate certain parties, so you might get overruled. I might also start letting the thread vote on character abilities at some point down the line once I make sure you sadists won’t get me killed.  SPOILER POLICY :I don't care if you post things about the plot of this game, just please use spoiler tags. This includes talking about characters we haven't unlocked yet. Yes I know there aren't that many Sonic characters and so the character list is pretty predictable, but that doesn't mean you should post "Oh man I can't wait until you unlock [insert character] in the next area!" Predictions are fine. If you want to hope aloud for the triumphant return of Bark the Polar Bear, that's your own business. One last thing that only applies to people that have actually played this game to the bitter end: I know the Marauders/Nocturnus are knockoffs of Archie comics characters, but try not to give away the only actual interesting plot twist in the story. I mean, you can talk all about how the comic is bonkers and Ken Penders is out of his mind and stuff but don't go giving it away by saying stuff like "the villains in this game are an awful lot like some of the characters in the comic WINK WINK". We'll get there, I promise. Let's roll! Table of Contents  Chapter 1: Rolling Around At The Speed Of... average walking speed Bonus Update 1 Bonus Update 2 Bonus Update 3  Chapter 2: Trust Me And We Will Escape From The City Chapter 3: We Meet Up With The Worst Character in Sonic Adventure (by which I mean Knuckles) Bonus Update 4 Kinda-Sorta-Bonus Update 5 Bonus Update 6  Chapter 4: E.G.G.M.A.N... H.U.N.T Update 5: Define "Completely" -or- Dr. Eggman's Carpet-Bombing Extravaganza Update 6: Finding Frogs and other adventures (sidequest roundup)  Update 7: Tails and Eggman's Excellent Adventure  Update 8: Error 404 Emeralds Not Found -or- Knuckles Really Needs a New Job Bonus Update 7  Update 9: Mad Space Bonus Update 8 TwoPair fucked around with this message at 09:40 on Feb 8, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2013 07:56
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Reserving this post for future use
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Aug 20, 2013 07:56
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Update 1: Rolling around at the speed of... average walking speed. We start with this quote from Professor Gerald Robotnik.  If you don’t remember Professor Gerald, you can’t be blamed, he was in all of 5 minutes worth of Sonic Adventure 2 and then pretty much never mentioned again. He is Dr. Eggman’s grandpa and is responsible for making Shadow the Hedgehog. For that, he is a terrible person. Anyway, on to the present. Well, not the present, but the more recent past. Dr. Eggman is trying to take over the world again…  We open on fighter jets attacking Eggman. Man, don't remember having that kinda backup in a Sonic game before.  And apparently Eggman's latest scheme involved stealing a SHIELD Hellicarrier from the Avengers.  Again, drat! They are doing some damage (and Eggman doesn't really seem to be firing back at all)  Oh I guess that's why     And so Tails yanks out a bunch of wires. Pretty anticlimactic compared to fighting a giant robot or escaping an exploding ba-  drat!  Whoa.  Well at least we made it out alright.  What? Did they just straight up kill Eggman? Sonic has a signal watch? Sonic has a watch? Whatever. Here's that whole scene in video form with what Chronicles calls music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHYfXa4Q6x0 And with that, we start the game proper.  I do like these pretty title cards that come up at the start of each “chapter” of the game. Let’s see what our watch wants:   : We’re in big trouble, Sonic. I don’t know if you heard, but Knuckles has gone missing. And so have the Chaos Emeralds! As you can see, we have ~dialogue options~ because this is a Bioware game. The Sonic head is the “gently caress this, let’s get the game rolling” choice, while question mark options serve to get more chatty and flesh out the plot/world. We’ll be clicking them whenever possible. : Knuckles was fighting against the Marauders when he disappeared. We’re not really sure who they are, but they’re big trouble!: Please, Sonic. I’ll tell you more when you get here! : Why would they take the Chaos Emeralds?: The Chaos Emeralds are powerful gems, Sonic. Someone who knows how to use them could do just about anything with their power! The winking Sonic dialogue option appears when we have the option to be snarky. Because being dismissive of your friends’ concerns is WAY PAST COOL. : Without knowing who the Marauders are, there’s no telling what they’ll do with the Chaos Emeralds. We have to stop them! : Right. Let’s go! NO GIRLS ALLOWED  : Well, you know how she is. She wanted to meet you halfway and make sure you got here safely.: I’ll wait for you in the workshop. With you on the team, I know we’ll save Knuckles! : Let’s go!Finally, some PLAYING in this game. Let's add some music to set the tone:  Welcome to Hell  . Chronicles' music is panned pretty much across the board as far as review sites go. Rumor has it that the game had an entirely different soundtrack but due to some sort of copyright issue, BioWare was forced to scrap it at the 11th hour and replace all the overworld themes with stuff like... this to make launch. Things like the battle themes were supposedly unchanged, but the sound quality is still piss-poor, so it makes one wonder. Back to the game: The game starts you on top of this ring. Which is weird in my opinion, but whatever, it's just something I wanted to note. Anyway, we run a little to the left and we find  …this. And now, a quick rant about the controls. The game controls entirely through the touch screen. You drag Sonic around the screen, he controls poorly, and then we have action commands here. To hop up small ledges, you tap the context-sensitive jump button. To run through loop-de-loops, you tap the dash symbol.  weeeee Okay, you can press L or R to perform the action commands, but… why L and R? Why not just let me move through the screen with the goddamn d-pad, Bioware? It’s a hassle, and it makes the game physically frustrating to play for extended periods of time. Anyway, back to the game. If we walk back behind the loop-de-loop when we’re through it, we find…  …an egg! We’ll see what this actually is later. Moving to the west, we find…  …an old man! Oh, that wasn’t near as good a find as the egg… Oh gently caress me that speech bubble means we’re gonna have to talk to him aren’t w-   : Oh! Hey! You’re Sonic the Hedgehog!: What are you working on out here? : Oh, I won’t burden you with that, Sonic. I’m just an old man trying to chop some logs. The thumbs down icon would let us turn down the sidequest. But why would we ever turn down easy experience points? I cut out a little bit of extra dialogue where the old man explains action commands 5 seconds after the game explicitly explained in case somebody’s playing this game after a head injury. Anyway: : The wood is just right there. Thank you so much!This sidequest is pathetic. You walk over to the woodpile, hit the action button 3 times, and then walk back. Badda-bing, badda-boom. The silly part is that Bioware didn’t really animate Sonic doing anything when he’s chopping, so it looks like he’s just using his Force powers to be a lumberjack. Look:   : I won’t keep you any longer. Take this… I’m too tired for even POW Candy to help me!Jesus, how depressing does that sound. “Not even candy eases my constant suffering, Sonic.” : Nice job, Sonic! It’s always good to take a little time and help people out!: Let’s get going. We have a lot of work to do! Nifty. Wasn’t there a box a little bit to the north of the old man’s woodpile? Let’s loot that!   Man, item boxes look weird in this game. Anyway, speaking of items, since Sonic doesn’t really eat anything in his games, Bioware pretty much invented all the consumable items in the game whole cloth to stand in the stead of mushrooms and such, and some of the later power-ups get pretty inventive (by which I mean weird). However: there are no chili dogs to eat in this game! What a missed opportunity.  Moving further south, we come to this little dock with a red button. Stepping on it turns the button green and pulls a raft over to us. (Also, there is a checked off star above Sonic’s head because we did that sidequest. It just… hovers there for a bit)  We step off the raft, move 2 inches and… Sonic stops to talk to Tails. On a side note, it may seem from the way I've been writing, like I hate all the talking in this game, but I really don't. It's just the beginning part here that drives me up the wall. It has sooo much dialogue at the start, and we were sooo close to progress…  So yeah, this is Green Hill Zone, by the way. You wouldn’t know unless you’d checked the map. You remember the part in Sonic 1 when you ran past the old man chopping wood, right? : Good times? Like Eggman turning our animal friends into robots and pitting them against us?: Yep! Good times! : Well, I wouldn’t take too much time sightseeing, Sonic. We have to save Knuckles!: Don’t worry, Tails. What could go wrong in Green Hill Zone?Ha ha! What indeed…   HAHAHAHA Jesus Tails, this is why no one respects you.  : I’m on it! Enraged Armadillo HP: 30 Special Attacks: None Difficulty Level: 1/5 Notes: Armadillos are a joke, plain and simple. They don’t have a lot of health, they aren’t very fast, and they don’t hit very hard. The only reason they pose even a slight threat is because they don’t have any special attacks. Also we are Level 1 and our Defense stat is pretty low. Okay, let’s go ahead and do a combat tutorial. Since this is babby’s first fight, it consists of clicking “Attack” and clicking our target. Then:  Sonic’s basic attack is his spindash from every game since Sonic 2. He does it 3 times a turn (because he is fast, you see). In Chronicles, characters get multiple actions per turn based on their speed. So for example, Sonic gets 3 moves while Tails (who will of course be a playable character later) gets 2. Unfortunately, no matter how much you level up your speed, you never get more moves. Anyway,  I beat the armadillo. And hey, whaddaya know…  … A prize! Chronicles gives out prizes after every single fight, generally crappy stuff like Health Seeds and POW Candies. You have to really blow at this game to run out of Health Seeds. Also, note our sweet, sweet XP.  : Be careful out there, Sonic! Finally, movement! Also, you’ll note there’s another egg to our right. I grab it real quick, then head south and  gently caress  : Sonic! What happened?: Someone’s trying to block my way.: Why would someone do that? I’m getting a bad feeling about this, Sonic.: Don’t worry, Tails. I’ll find a way through this.: Good luck, Sonic!Man if only this platforming icon could JUMP? I mean, it’s not like they’re that high and HEY suddenly the camera jerks away from me:  Well speak of the pink haired devil.    Alright, weird transition, let’s move on…  It usually doesn’t matter which of the question mark dialogue boxes you pick actually, the early ones in the game usually all lead to the same information, generally by having the next dialogue “choice” be the same options as last time, just with one less choice. Anyway, you see which one I’ve picked, let’s continue.  : Oh, I’ve been just wonderful! Dexter is so sweet. He always buys me flowers, and he is always nice to me, unlike SOME people I know. : Oh yes, my Dexter...: When can I meet this “Dexter”? : Oh, he doesn’t live around here. And he’s very busy, you see. So I’m not sure when he could meet you.And Amy Rose finally hits rock bottom, inventing a fake boyfriend.  : I’m not exactly sure. The animals around here are usually so cute and nice, but they attacked me on my way out here! : Tails says the Marauders got him, but no one knows who they are. Yes, there’s no time to waste!  Wait what. The game stops you here to have Tails to tell Sonic that sometimes he can be a little impatient, so maybe you should take some time to not speed through dialogue so much and appreciate these dialogue options that the writers went to the trouble of giving you. The game stops you regardless of if you’ve sped through the conversation with Amy or if you talked to her about literally everything. ANYWAY, once you get done with that:  : Tails’ workshop is still in the northeastern area of Central City. Let’s go! : Just don’t get any ideas! I have a boyfriend now, you know. After that little infodump, we get back to playing the game and collect another egg. Almost immediately after collecting the egg, our previous egg hatches.  It’s a Chao! You may remember them from the Sonic Adventure series. I’ll talk more about them later, but all you really need to know is that Chaos (What’s the plural on “Chao”? Is it like “deer” where the plural is just the same word?) in this game work like equipment/gear in other RPGs. Also they hover behind Sonic and Company in battle. That’s really the only reason I showed this, just so nobody will be confused why a tiny ghost is haunting Sonic. Moving down, we trigger yet another cutscene.   : Hey, that looks like a security drone! I wonder what it is doing out there! : NEMESIS DETECTED. MUST ALERT COMMAND.: Oh no! I don’t know who “Command” is, but if the drone alerts them, we could be in big trouble! You have to smash it before it gets away!: Gotcha. This’ll be fun.Sonic runs up to the drone and…  Welcome to the running minigame. The drone’s trying to get away, of course, so we gotta catch ‘em. The meter on the top screen is the chase. If the drone’s red line reaches the top of the screen, it gets away and you lose.  Touchscreen gimmicks! You have to tap Sonic to make him jump the box. Failure to do so will make you fall behind and lose a little health. Not that falling behind is a concern here, since this a tutorial, and is thus un-losable. There will be boxes in the path of each character. This is easy now, but can make this minigame bitch to handle when we get a full party.  Speed boosters are the only way to actually catch up to enemies. If you catch the red line, you win and then enter the battle. Oh, and occasionally there are rings in midair you can jump for. Finally let’s wreck a loving robot!  Sentry Drone HP: 20 Special Attacks: None Difficulty Level: 1/5 Notes: Drones are also chumps, though less so than armadillos. They have less health, but attack harder, so if they attack you in a big swarm, you can lose a good chunk of health if they get a bunch of shots in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoibipuCCBs Not a good debut performance, Amy. A funny thing about combat in this game is since most characters’ attacks involve them running right up to the enemy, a “missed” attack results in them just getting SMASHED backwards like they got with a baseball bat. Alright, since that went a little fast (alright very fast), I’ll break down how combat works too.  You have several options: Attack is exactly what it says it is. Short, sweet, and to the point. POW Moves are your special attacks. We don’t have any yet, but we’ll get some when we level up. They eat your POW meter (the blue meter at the top) every time you use them. Defend is, again, exactly what it says. One other bonus to it, though, is that every turn your character defends, they regenerate some POW points. Items are around in case you need healing. More often than not though, you’ll just be regenerating your POW points because you’ll be using those a lot. Flee is… well, it’s running. You don’t want to do this, not only because IT IS COWARDICE, but because to flee, you have to play that dumb running minigame again, only with the enemies chasing you. You choose your action (obviously Attack in this case), then your target, then it's go time. If, for some reason, you want to choose your other party members’ actions first, then you can hit the arrows on the side.  Something you may notice is how the top screen promptly filled up with attack icons immediately. This is one of the things that bugs me about Sonic Chronicles’ fight system. If you want to do anything other than attack or defend in a turn, you have to do it first. You can’t mix things up, like Attack-Item-Attack or anything. The reason this is a real pain in the rear end is hard to get across in screenshots, but suffice it to say it is very annoying and I hope I can convey my annoyance with it to you.  After the fight the characters turn around and do a victory pose (Amy’s got cut off in the interest of  AND CANDY!  : You said stop it. You didn’t tell me to keep it in one piece! : Whoever sent that drone probably knows you’re here, Sonic. You had better be careful!And we’re off to the races again.  Oh look, an armadillo. This one's special though, because it's an actual, non-tutorial, random encounter armadillo! Beautiful. We are gonna murder the gently caress out of it.  Oh, and he’s got a posse too. Wasps are dicks, but very weak. Much like in real life! Wasp Swarm HP : 15 Special Attacks : Buzz Swarm Difficulty Level : 1.5/5 Notes : Wasps swarm you. They are dicks. Also, even though they have the least HP so far, at the start of the game when you’re a low level, they’re pretty adept at dodging your attacks. You’ll notice they actually have a special attack. It does a fair amount of damage and it poisons you. I couldn’t get one to do it for this update though. What I could do is a get a better image of Sonic and Amy’s post-game victory pose.  It’s… pretty weak. Anyway, after a sound thrashing, we get an Antidote, which cures status effects and 50 XP and HELLO  We leveled up! Stats in this game are easy to understand and automatic, except for the one bonus point you get per level to assign where you want to feel like you have a sense of control. What we really want is right here though  Here’s where the fun’s at. POW moves come in many exciting varieties, and you get 5 points towards buying them per level. You can burn them all and get level 1 of every attack, or conserve them and upgrade several attacks to their most powerful. I’m gonna be giving Sonic the level 1 Axe Kick here. It’s generally a good idea to give every character a move they can do on their own so you can mix and match teams later. One thing you want to keep in mind for this game is that your party will be changing a lot, so using any points on a move that requires another character means you better be committed to having that character around, or you’re screwed out of a move when they’re gone. Anyway, once we’re done there, we move on collecting all these rings  Then plundering this item box…  ...to get the sweet reward of...  Prune Juice.  I told you we’d see some weird power-ups. Anyway, we could go straight down and close out the area, but instead I get adventurous and head up the rock hill to the left and find this little fella Well, let’s get it on  Wild Boar HP: 45 Special Attacks: None. Well, okay, GameFAQs swears up and down they have something called Parry but I have never gotten one of them to use it. Difficulty Level: 2/5 Notes: Boars are pretty much just Armadillo 2.0s. They have more health, take more hits, and hit harder. In fact, with Sonic only at level 2 and Amy still at level 1, they can be a significant threat. Although still not much of one, now that Sonic has POW moves. In fact, let's see that new POW move in action! ELITE BEAT HEDGEHOGS ARE GO!  I love that Bioware thought "It's a special move right? We should do something with the top screen. Character art? Character art." Well, alright, now that we’re done with that, let’s move south a little bit and…  Is that…  Wheeee Well, that was fun.  We collect all these rings, fight the armadillo here, and keep moving east.  We keep moving past this ruin with some sort of mysterious symbol indicating that maybe we could go up it. If only there were a Sonic character that could climb poo poo! We grab the chest there (just another POW Candy and a Health Nut) and come to a little rock formation. Time for some parkour!   Now that’s how you grab an egg in style, son.  After jumping down off that cliff, that boar ambushes me. It’s a quick, easy fight, and not too notable except for two things:  Oh BioWare, you and your (literal) crazy items… and the other thing that happens :   Amy finally levels up! Good for her. We give her the Low Blow move, both because of the basic reason I said before of all characters needing a solo move, and because pretty much all of Amy’s other moves SUCK. Most of her best attacks are actually other people’s good attacks that happen to be combo attacks involving her. Anyway, getting back to the game, we get moving and find another rock formation to jump on to the right.  The chest just has the usual Health Nut. Going further down and to the right we hit the shore and…  …what is that? I’ve looked long and hard at it and I can’t figure it out. Is that plane wreckage? I just don’t know. Over to the left of… whatever that is… there’s this hill full of rings   and at the end of the rainbow…  Bet you didn’t see that coming. Amy gets the gloves because she hits harder than Sonic, and we move on along. (Feel free to contemplate how in the world Amy carries that hammer with boxing gloves on)  Finally, we reach this bridge and the end of Green Hill Zone. (Where’s the signpost?)  The game stops to warn you to save at this point.  : Sonic! It’s a Marauder!  : I’m not here to answer questions. Shade sent me here to stop you.: Who is Shade?  : Sonic, this Marauder is one of the strongest foes we’ve met yet! Are you sure we’re ready to fight him?The game chimes in for one last “Hey, maybe you should save here” message, in case you missed the one that popped up literally seconds ago before you stepped on the bridge. : Maybe you should explore Green Hill Zone and make sure we’ve got everything you need to beat him! ‘TUDE LEVELS SPIKING : The Marauders are powerful, Sonic. Much more powerful than a few armadillos and boars!And wasps, Tails! Did you see me beat up those wasps?  BRING THE HEAT : Good. Shade told me just to stop you, but I’d much rather knock you out.Wait a minute, how were you gonna stop us without knocking us out before? Whatever, let’s kick some heads and listen to that –snicker- lovely boss music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaPHwFb6JwM Marauder Scout HP : 80 Special Attacks : Stasis Grenade. If you don’t hit the prompt to dodge it, it’ll put your character to sleep for multiple turns, allowing every attack to hit. It’s a real bitch, but luckily the prompt to dodge it is really easy. I must confess though, my first time playing the game, I missed it so many times, I barely scraped through the fight. Difficulty Level : 3/5 Notes : This scout actually has 10 more HP than others we’ll be seeing. And we will see others. Oops spoiler alert I guess. Hitting a couple of high points of the fight:  You can actually start fights multiple ways other than the standard way I’ve been showing in the other videos. If the opponent’s speed is much higher than yours, or if they sneak up on you, it shows up as “Ambushed” on the bottom and the opponent gets a free shot in. The "TRAPPED" just means I can't run. It'll always show up in a boss fight. Also, you’ll notice that the Marauder is leeching my health throughout the fight. Also, the rear end in a top hat’s stealing my POW points. YOU DON’T EVEN USE THOSE YOU PRICK.   Since I move through menus fast and there’s no real cursor to see what I'm clicking on, I figured I should show you that I’m healing Sonic since I was kinda dumb and went into the fight half-cocked. Also, because there's no animation for healing or dodging it produces the funny effect of making it look like this Stasis Grenade attack that I dodge heals me.  Oh and since it just popped up, here’s what Amy’s Low Blow attack looks like since I showed off the Axe Kick:  BONK And one more thing you may have noticed  Unlike our animal pals from earlier, these guys don’t leave bodies. Weird.  That's what I was just saying! : I’m detecting an energy signature, like he teleported away!: Well, that’s just not fair!: Please hurry and come to my workshop, Sonic. We have to find Knuckles, quickly! I love this Sonic face. He’s just so pissy for no apparent reason. Jesus, Sonic, what crawled up your rear end? Are you mad that Amy got the kill shot on the bad guy? Do you secretly really not want to see Tails? It’s great.  Anyway, we finally move down the bridge and…  And so Sonic takes off for Tails’ workshop at Central City with an Indiana Jones-style line on the map. What will we find in Central City? Will Sonic & company find Knuckles? Will we uncover the secrets of the Marauders? Will Central City have lovely music? Tune in for 1 out of 3 of these things next time on Sonic Chronicles! TwoPair fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Aug 28, 2013 |
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Aug 20, 2013 07:57
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Amppelix posted:Also, are you ever going to explain the stats? Because they are not self-explanatory in the slightest, you liar. Holy poo poo, they're actually not! Yeah, I'm gonna do a bonus update a little later on in the week (possibly today) going more in depth with Chao stuff and POW moves and that kinda junk. Also you blew my mind about the stats, I had to go to GameFAQs to double check! I'll cover that too. I'll probably start dumping Codex stuff after Chapter 2 when we have a because right now we just have little more than just character profiles and stuff about Green Hill Zone. I should go ahead and mention right up that I had originally planned for this LP to update weekly, but I recently got a job with weird hours so any notion of a regular update schedule is out the window. CatsPajamas posted:
I don't want to spoil my own LP, but I think you'll be pleased next update. infinitycanvas posted:Weird that Bioware made this. Do the dialogue options ever make a difference in this game, or are they always all irrelevant? They pretty much all just serve to give more exposition. IIRC, sometimes the winking Sonic "be an rear end in a top hat" option has repercussions, but it's been a while since I've played the game, and I haven't recorded footage past the end of the next chapter.
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Aug 20, 2013 18:20
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BONUS UPDATE 1: Let's talk about Chao (I'm going with the "deer" version of the plural being the same as the singular). I picked up 3 eggs during that last update. There are 11 eggs in Green Hill Zone. There are 100 eggs in the game. That's a lotta Chao. Or is it? See, there are only actually 40 Chao in the game. Remember Choo? He's the first one we got (and the only one I actually showed). Look where it says "Common" near the bottom. Chao come in 3 exciting flavors: Common, Rare, and Unique, with Unique being the rarest and of course having the best abilities. How do you get one of these Rare or Unique Chao, you may ask? Pray. There is absolutely nothing but luck stopping you from getting all the Unique Chao in the first eggs you pick up. (Although there is one Chao that actually increases your chances of getting a Rare or Unique Chao). Conversely, you could pick up all 100 eggs, even the tough to get ones in the final areas, and never see a Chao that isn't Common. It's all luck of the RNG. Abilities of Chao range from the mundane like PP regen, to the absurdly useful, like the ability to have all your POW moves be successful, removing the need for action commands (I want this one) and all you have to do is equip them like items. Which reminds me, I've never actually showed the menu to the game. It's not really important, but hey why not:  From the bottom, left to right, we have Character stats, the Chao Garden, the World Map, the Equipment screen, the Codex, and the Save icon which looks like a book I guess(?). Anyway, you'd figure you'd go to the Chao Garden to get some Chao, but no, you go to the Equipment, then put them on like a pair of shoes.  And that's about all there is to say about Chao, gameplay-wise. Let's go to that Chao Garden anyway though, 'cause there's something interesting to talk about here.  Here's another one of our Chao, just because I figured you'd get tired of seeing Choo by now. (Here's the third one, which I just thought looked funny 'cause he was ostricized.) One category there is copies, because like I said before, with 100 eggs and only 40 types, you're gonna see some repeats. But the other thing that you may have noticed is that he's level 1. How do you level up?... Okay so, BioWare at some point during development thought "Let's make this thing multiplayer". How do you make a multiplayer Sonic RPG? The answer, if you're BioWare, is you don't. You make Pokemon... well that's not quite right... you make lovely Pokemon. See that "Trade" button on the bottom screen? That's how you level up. You find someone else with this game, you trade Chao, they both level up. The maximum level? 3. The rewards? Generally not worth it. Barbo there from the screenshot, for example, raises your Max HP 10% at level 1. When he's level 3, it's 15%. Whoop-de-loving-doo. I mean yeah, it's nifty, but to even trade somebody you're gonna have to find somebody else near you who actually has Sonic Chronicles. Which, let me tell ya, ain't easy. The thing I find weirdest/funniest about the Chao Garden is its existence. See, if you haven't played the Adventure series, ONE LAST THING: Remember when I said there were only 40 Chao in the game? Technically, I lied. There are actually 45. BioWare had 5 more Chao (their class is "Viral") on the cart that they were planning to give away at special events. On 9/28/08, 99 people got a Chao at the Nintendo World store in NYC. There were no other special events, due to poor attendance (apparently they were planning on giving out more than 99) and the other 4 special ones had to be uncovered by hackers tearing the game's code apart. edit: Added this for completion's sake. Wanamingo posted:Come on, not gonna tell us what they do? Uhhh, wasn't planning on it. Figured nobody would care, especially since we wouldn't be seeing them. Whatever though, here you go:
Here are all their pictures. They're all like identical little ninjas! TwoPair fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Aug 21, 2013 |
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Aug 21, 2013 04:00
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Wanamingo posted:Come on, not gonna tell us what they do? Uhhh, wasn't planning on it. Figured nobody would care, especially since we wouldn't be seeing them. Whatever though, here you go:
Here are all their pictures. They're all like identical little ninjas!
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Aug 21, 2013 06:19
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SuccinctAndPunchy posted:Can you savescum to get the kind of Chao you want? I never encountered the Chao that instantly makes all POW moves succeed, I only ever got slightly crappy passive boosts. Game was still crazy easy, but that Chao sounds like it'd basically break the game. Yes you can totally savescum to get what you want, but with a 1/40 chance (technically less than that for the rarer ones, I guess, though I can't find any official numbers on the odds), you'll probably be better off just getting all the eggs and crossing your fingers. Like you said, the game's easy enough that you don't really need the best ones Lots of people posted:poo poo about the music Yeah, the music's a big mystery, but unfortunately from what I've found it seems there really isn't much of an answer. Most of my information on the game comes from looking at hidden data still on cartridges, GameFAQs guides, and reading developer interviews. There's no unused music on the game, and you're never gonna find an interview with Bioware where they say "Whoopsie daisy guys! Guess we really screwed up there!  "So frankly, your guess is as good as mine.
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Aug 21, 2013 17:15
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Hey everybody posting about the comic, that's fine, the comics are fuckin' bonkers and deserve to be talked about, but there is like only one twist in this game's plot and a couple of you are really getting close to spoiling it. Just don't steal my thunder, is all I'm saying. CatsPajamas posted:That is unbelievable. I do not understand how obviously terrible mechanics make it into games. There is no conceivable thought process that leads to this being a good idea - at least not one involving outright sabotage or spite for players. TwoPair, I wouldn't expect you to waste your time spamming save states to get Chao, but can you use Action Replay codes or similar to show off the more interesting ones? Along with the team attacks, that seems like the main thing gameplay-wise Chronicles does to be even slightly different than a generic RPG. I hadn't thought about until I looked at your post, but then I looked up the AR codes, and there's not much I can do. There's one that gives you a shitload of eggs, but then it's still luck of the draw as to what pops out. I think as far as this playthrough goes, I'm just gonna cross my fingers and hope things turn out all right. But honestly, when it comes to the Chao, you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. They float behind your characters and provide buffs, and that's it really. I'll throw up links to pictures/information about the ones we don't just get normally . But maybe I will turn on cheats if I get bored.
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Aug 22, 2013 22:11
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Fedule posted:I'm sure it's possible to use AR to rig eggs for specific Chao (although probably not the hidden ones (at least not if the way they employ the RNG is as sane as I assume it is (sometimes it isn't (sometimes it really, really isn't)))), but no one likes the game enough to bother to go to the necessary trial and error to figure out exactly where the random number goes in memory and what numbers lead to what Chao. Okay, forget what I said. It is possible to hack 'em all, because I just found the right code for that. Regardless, I'm still gonna play the game normal for now, just to show the average experience. Probably will punch in the code at some point later on. quote:Related: What's your spoiler policy here? You don't mention spoilers at all in the OP. An excellent point! I didn't think about it when writing the OP 'cause the game's plot is pretty barebones, but I'll lay it out here, then update the OP as well. SPOILER POLICY:I don't care if you post things about the plot of this game, just please use spoiler tags. This includes talking about characters we haven't unlocked yet. Yes I know there aren't that many Sonic characters and so the character list is pretty predictable, but that doesn't mean you should post "Oh man I can't wait until you unlock [insert character] in the next area!" Predictions are fine. If you want to hope aloud for the triumphant return of Bark the Polar Bear, that's your own business. One last thing that only applies to people that have actually played this game to the bitter end: I know the Marauders/Nocturnus are knockoffs of Archie comics characters, but try not to give away the only actual interesting plot twist in the story. I mean, you can talk all about how the comic is bonkers and Ken Penders is out of his mind and stuff but don't go giving it away by saying stuff like "the villains in this game are an awful lot like some of the characters in the comic WINK WINK". We'll get there, I promise. Anyway, if I've looked over my notes right, I've got stuff for about 2 more bonus updates and then we'll get back to the actual story by Monday! TwoPair fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 05:02
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Bonus Update 2: Combat, Extended So let's flash back to when Sonic leveled up.  I said that the stats were self-explanatory. Well, shortly after posting the initial update, this post came up: Amppelix posted:Also, are you ever going to explain the stats? Because they are not self-explanatory in the slightest, you liar. SO, after looking back over stuff, I have to issue a correction: Attack doesn't mean Attack in this game. Neither does defense. Here's what those numbers mean: Attack - Determines your character's accuracy. Defense - Determines your character's ability to evade attacks. Speed and Luck are actually what you expect (Speed is just that, and Luck gets criticals), except Luck also affects if we get ambushed or do the ambushing in the field. I thought that was achieved with Tactical Stealth Action. I guess that actually makes more sense. But still, Attack and Defense are actually Accuracy and Evasion? What kinda bullshit is that? Better yet, if Attack and Defense aren't actually what they say they are, what is actually making our characters more powerful? I want answers, Bioware! Nay, I demand them!   Oh... so the actual stats that measure our attack and defense are invisible. That makes sense. By the way, as you might see by the screenshots, this fun fact is hidden more than halfway down the rule page, after all the status effects, an ad for Bioware's community site, and stuff about the elemental system. AH, there's the segue I needed! Let's talk elements. Remember when I said the Chao were Pokemon? Closer than you'd think. Here's the third one of our little buddies from earlier.  (See, he's ground-type! How cute.) And here's info on Whirlwind, another of Sonic's POW moves that we didn't get.  Earth damage? Wind damage? "What is this?", you're thinking. loving TRICKS is what they are. Bioware puts in this nifty element system so you think "Oh cool so it'll be just like how every other RPG has enemies that are weak to certain attacks" and yes, you would be correct. So what's the breakdown on how the elements work? Let's go back to the codex.  Okay, cool, so if it has wings I can use a wind attack. Well let me learn about the other elements, maybe it's a Fire Emblem weapon-triangle type of thing, right? Like, what effects what?  You're making GBS threads me right, this has gotta be a jo-      Holy gently caress. Not that knowing what element hurts what would even matter, there's no kind of monster manual or anything in this game to let you know what element they are. So unless you're gonna shell out for a strategy guide or play in front of a computer screen with a GameFAQs screen open, the elements are useless, unless you want to do a trial-and-error test on every enemy. In fact, they can be an active hindrance if you happen to run across an enemy that is resistant to the element that you're relying on (My first playthrough of this game, I picked Whirlwind as my first POW move because I figured hitting all enemies is better than only hitting one. Then I fought a bunch of robots that were resistant to wind attacks and got my poo poo kicked in). So yeah, elements are worthless. That said, a bunch of good attacks have elements attached to them but are still good attacks so I won't totally rule out getting them. Since I mentioned them earlier, I should cover the status effects. This game has a bunch of status effects! More than most and more than necessary if you ask me. They're also a pain in the rear end because you don't really know what they are. I mean, you know what they are:
One last thing and we'll be done:  Here's the (top half of the) image you get when you go to the character profile screen. Sonic is listed as a "Power Class". There are 3 classes: Power, Shifter, Support. I have no idea what the gently caress Shifter is supposed to mean. I mean, Amy is a Shifter and she hits harder than Sonic so I don't know, man. And that's everything you could ever need to know about Sonic Chronicles' combat system! TwoPair fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 02:14
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Bonus Update 3 - Bonus Content Obviously, by now it's a well known fact that this game was hastily finished and rushed out the door. But what's not well known is what could have been. There's some information on the cartridge that Bioware/Sega never bothered to remove before shipping, so we can peruse through it and see cut content. For example, if you remember that whole cutscene with Eggman's helicarrier and our attack on it? There's a whole script for an alternate beginning cutscene that sounds similar to the one in-game, only way more elaborate. Here it is! (By the way, any dialogue came with no hints as to who was speaking at any time. Sometimes you can tell it's obviously Sonic or Eggman or whatever, but I wasn't gonna go try to edit mugshots to this scene. Also apparently the original script spoiled the villains right off the bat, so I added a spoiler tag.) quote:[Open on a black screen. Fade in the following caption.] That whole scene where Eggman appears to get smashed by falling rubble is kinda dark, huh? There's also a string of text where Sonic gets dropped off on "Tutorial Island" by some random-rear end boat captain. quote:[CUTSCENE: A boat pulls up to shore on Tutorial Island. As it lands, a door opens, and Sonic and the captain walk out onto the island.] This one's all sorts of weird because it's not surrounded by anything. Was "Tutorial Island" a placeholder name for Green Hill Zone during development? Was the player gonna get dropped off via boat after Tails called Sonic before they decided to have Sonic running instead? Was "Tutorial Island" going to take place before the Eggman scene? Questions abound. What is weird is that, as un-fleshed out as the idea is, the "Captain" there exists in the game. He's got a mugshot for talking scenes and he's even got a character model! See, here's his picture,  that's totally unused anywhere else in the game, and here is his character model (hacked to replace the old woodcutter):  (Sorry the picture's so small, I didn't take it and so if I blew it up, it'd look like poo poo.) Finally, here's some alternate maps for Green Hill Zone. This is the actual map that we're on:  Here's a version of GHZ from the beta version of the game:  And this is the one shown at E3  Presumably, these maps would scroll with the player, since at 256 x 256, they're larger than a DS screen. Also, here's an enormous actual pretty picture of Green Hill Zone that Bioware put up on their site. Extra Stuff Last but not least, here's the  music from all the fights in the game thus far.    There are only four tracks. They aren't contextual or anything, when they play is totally random. I actually don't mind #3. If it were higher quality and didn't have those wacky bonking sound effects of the battle playing over it, I'd probably really enjoy it. Here are the mini-boss and boss tracks.   Sorry this update was so short! (Thought I had more stuff...) The next update should be an actual update where things happen and we'll finally get to see what the hell Tails wants.
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Aug 25, 2013 08:05
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Yeah sorry, I've had some family health issues lately. The second update is like 90% done but I had to redo a little because of... well, my update process is complicated and I'd rather not get into that. Anyway, bear with me, update'll definitely be done within a week...
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Sep 14, 2013 00:16
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UPDATE 2: Trust Me And We Will Escape From The City So... HOLY poo poo IT'S BEEN A MONTH SINCE THE LAST UPDATE? Where were we? Oh yes, on our way to Central City. Well, we’re here! Let’s see a quick tour of the place!  Welcome to Central City:  This charming audio might sound familiar to you as an awful, awful rendition of Sonic 3D Blast's Diamond Dust Zone. Only in that game, Diamond Dust Zone was a snow level and Central City is well... a city... that isn't snowy at all. So the music doesn't really match at all. Oops! Anyway, game time:   : That Marauder wasn’t so tough. : But they clearly know you’re here, Sonic, and they’re trying to stop you! : After what they did to Knuckles… I don’t want you to get hurt! : Don’t worry about me, Amy. I’ll be just fine. : Fine. See if I ever worry about you again! : Let’s just go find Tails. Is his workshop still to the east of here?  Yes, let’s…  Holy poo poo, Sonic, are you blind? “Is it to the east?” It’s beside you! Anyway, we go inside to see Tails…  Tails’ workshop is a base. There are several bases in the game. We hang around here, get mission objectives, then when we leave we can adjust our party setup (once we have more than 4 party members), and we get a nice full HP/PP restore. Anyway, let’s talk to Tails.   : Not too long ago, Knuckles came to me for help. Six of the seven Chaos Emeralds had been stolen, and he wanted to set up a trap.: When the Marauders came to take the last Emerald, they somehow jammed my trap and overcame Knuckles with sheer numbers! : They had some crazy machines, Sonic. More advanced than anything I could put together. : They just pointed at my trap, and it broke! Then they turned on Knuckles!  : Right. I’ve searched my files for mention of Shade, but I haven’t found anything. Mocking your kidnapped friends: WAY PAST COOL. : If you’d seen him, you wouldn’t say that, Sonic. He knocked out a lot of Marauders before they finally beat him. I love this guy  : We don’t know where they’re keeping him. If we just go out there without a plan, we’ll waste whatever time Knuckles might have left.: Luckily, we’re not in this alone. GUN has some ideas where we might look. : As you know, GUN is the Guardian Units of Nations. They’re the military, Sonic. The multi-headed dialogue option is the “friendly” option where you just shoot the poo poo with your teammates.  : I wanted to talk to you, too, Sonic! It feels like forever since you left on your trip.: I was happy when Knuckles asked for my help. Between you and me, I was getting bored working by myself. : I’ve been pretty good. Without you around, I’ve had to handle a few things on my own.: Nothing big, but a rampaging bear here, a power outage there. I guess without you, I had to grow up a bit.  : Yeah! Hold on, Knuckles! Here we come!So we take off and leave. You’ll note Tails is gone now, since he’s officially in our party (and apparently that means he’s said all he needs to say forever)  Well, correction: We try to leave. When you hit the exit icon, you get a mysterious sound effect and then…  : Sounds like… robots?: Robots? Here?: Let’s go see what’s going on. : Right!So now we go outside and see…  Hey wait a second have I seen that design before?  Yeah, that’s a-   : But I thought we defeated Eggman for good!: Who cares? Let’s smash ‘em!gently caress you Sonic, it’s not that easy to smash ‘em, ‘cause they’re...  MOTHERFUCKING SWATBOTS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLzdbPpgJoM I’m sorry, let me be more formal and do this in my usual format: HP : 45 Special Attacks : Crusher. If you let this attack hits you, not only will it hit you like a ton of bricks, it’ll also inflict the Weakened status effect, so future attacks will hit you like more tons of bricks. Difficulty Level : 8/10 (I revised my difficulty scale... also I’m thinking about getting rid of it altogether) Notes : Swatbots are actually an enemy from one of the Sonic cartoons. I never watched them personally, but seeing them in a game might be a big deal to some people. Anyway, this guy has 45 HP, but other Swat Bots we’ll see in the game have 90. So keep that in mind when I go into further detail on how tough they are. gently caress ME is this fight tough. Maybe you can’t tell from the video, because I was prepared for that one. I actually recorded that a while ago (this LP has been long in the “planning” phase before it was in the “making” phase). Here’s a video I made last week just so I could get the close up screenshot of the Swatbot. You might say I was rusty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jOUqX7BwHE And on that playthrough I actually leveled up Sonic higher than he is on “our” run! Swatbot here can and will beat your rear end thoroughly if you’re not ready. Hitting a couple of high points of the fight(s): You’ll notice something very important in the success run:   I take out the drones first. The drones themselves are a nuisance, but they aren’t the threat. No, the threat is the Swatbot. It hits like a truck and its armor is thick. But you don’t go for it first. Because the Swatbot has a secret ability. The bad video shows you what it is.  Feel free to play this as your complimentary soundtrack. So yeah, the loving thing gets back up every round. It has to be the last thing you kill. Which is why you have to knock out the drones early, or this happens.  The drones start using Evade, which just makes every attack against them miss. Which makes the Swatbot effectively invincible. Like I said, this is a bitch of a fight unless you know exactly what you’re doing. I had to spam a lot of healing items to make it through the 2nd runthrough there. Speaking of healing items, you’ll notice Tails being dead in most of these GIFs/pictures. That’s because the game pulls a real dick move here. In this game, your team levels with you. Your whole team, including the guys who aren’t in your active party. The inactive guys are usually a level or two behind the ones you’ve been using, but the game still throws them the EXP to let you switch out anybody any time. So when you recruit a new character, the game automatically opens up the stat screen as if the new guy had leveled up so you can assign their bonus points and buy their POW moves. Not with Tails. Tails stays level 1 until the end of the fight. And in this game, Tails is Support-class, which means he already has poo poo for attack.  (It’s like watching a puppy fight a bear)His only POW moves consist of healing the team and providing buffs/debuffs. By keeping him from leveling up, the game essentially makes Tails worthless for this fight. And his currently piss-poor defense (oh, I’m sorry, I meant armor  ) stat mean he really won’t even stay alive long enough to have him just play medic by passing out items. But oh well, I guess he makes a good meatshield for Amy and Sonic to do work I guess? GODSPEED BUDDY  Anyway, that’s the Swatbot fight. It’s a bitch, but it is possible to win. After we get said win, Sonic levels up:  I don’t buy his next move because I haven’t decided between his combo move with Tails or his combo move with Amy. But Tails levels up, like I said, making him actually useful!   We buy his Medi Bot skill, which will immediately make him an invaluable asset to the team, and then Tails starts talking to us about what just happened. : I was right. These are Eggman robots. : Yeah. These ARE Eggman robots, but they’re old models. Damaged. Eggman would never use old, run-down robots. Unless... : Me too! Those beady little eyes. That great big broom of a mustache!: We don’t know for sure that he’s back. But if he is...: GUN will want to know about these robots. Let’s go tell them now!: Oh, I hope we’re wrong about Eggman. Anyway, after that mess, we immediately run back into Tails’ place and out for a full heal then head towards the city... Where we run into...  Okay we already saw her at the start of the update, I’m not gonna act surprised, Rouge is here.   : Leave him alone! : Oh, I’m sorry, am I flirting with your man? But here I thought you had a boyfriend! : Well, fine. But when she gets her nasty Rouge-germs all over you, don’t come crying to me! : Mmm-hmm. : Because I’m the only reason you’re getting in to see the Commander, and the Commander is the one who can help you. : Absolutely not!: We don’t have much choice. Rouge is a sneak, but she’s our link with GUN. This is our only hope. CHOOSE YOUR : I’m not being judgmental! Rouge is a thief! How can we trust her?: She’s our only contact with GUN, Amy. We have to try.: Fine. Whatever.ALTERNATELY : I wish it were different, Amy, but we have no choice.: I guess so. We’ll deal with it together.Either way, it ends in this:  Then we take off:   WOW WHAT A LONG JOURNEY. Also, what a lovely secret base. Or maybe it’s not supposed to be secret, but still, for the FBI/CIA, you guys have poo poo security. We head inside.  Nice base you got here.    : Actually, Sonic was nice enough to— : That’s lovely. Have a glass of milk and sit down. : But I— : Tails probably briefed you on the situation, so let us begin. : We don’t know why the Marauders wanted the Emeralds, but now that they have them, they’re likely to go after the Master Emerald next.: What about Knuckles?: Knuckles is the only one who has seen the Marauders up close. He knows more about them than anyone in the world.: I believe that to stop the Marauders, you need to extract your friend Knuckles and learn everything you can about them.: But Knuckles could be anywhere! We have no idea where to look! : Ah yes. Where to look. We have just the thing.At this point, the game stops to give us a new title card, letting us know we’ve officially reached Chapter 2  ...And we immediately resume our conversation.  : For a while, we had no luck. But recently, our satellites noticed some activity at four locations in Green Hill Zone and Central City. : Recognize those places?: Those are Eggman’s old hideouts.: Could the Marauders be working for Eggman?: We don’t jump to conclusions here. We have to work with the facts.: Unfortunately, we can’t tell which, if any, of these hideouts is the one where they’re keeping Knuckles.: We’re not taking chances. We’ve posted soldiers in Mystic Ruins to watch over Angel Island. Vector the Crocodile and Team Chaotix have volunteered to scout for further clues. They’re on the channel now. : They have been instrumental in pinning down these four locations. Now it’s up to you to explore them for signs of Knuckles. : This is the first I’ve heard of this. We’ll have Team Chaotix do some digging and see what we can come up with. : We’re on it.That’s good. Team Chaotix are detectives you want on your side.  : We detected electronic resonance coming from those old hideouts, and we’ve seen shadowy figures going in and out.  : I can’t spare troops, son. The Marauders are a major threat, and I can’t leave the land unsecured.: Besides, rescuing the echidna takes the kind of small-unit tactics you and your team are known for. : Good. Our satellites have picked up activity at two locations in Green Hill Zone and two places inside Central City. We’ll mark them on your map. Visit each one, and you should find the echidna.: Good luck, team. Now go.Finally. Thought that guy would never stop talking.  Anyway, we step back outside into sunny Central City and start looking around. Our minimap has two stars marking where we’re supposed to investigate. We’re gonna head for the northwestern one.  First things first, we see this guy over here hangin’ around, so let’s have a chat!... (well, after I run around in a circle and grab those rings...)   : Oh. Whew. It’s just Sonic the Hedgehog. Hm. Maybe you could help me.: I’ve had reports of a gang of robots terrorizing citizens of Central City. I’m supposed to shut them down, but... Yeah, aren’t you one man fighting multiple killbots? What a pansy. : Hey, now! Don’t you judge me, Sonic the Hedgehog! I don’t see YOU bringing in gangs of robot hooligans! : That’s why you’re a hero, Sonic. You’re always willing to help a friend in need! : They have to be in Central City somewhere. If you find them, just wreck them for me! And now we have a side mission! There’s now a gang of robots around the town that we’ll beat up later and get more experience. It’s kind of weird because we’ll be fighting more robots and so this guy’s robots don’t really stand out. Our map has two more stars on it. One for the guy, and over to the left, where his robot targets are. We’ll get them eventually... So now we move a little east...  ...Over to this guy, and one of my favorite parts of the game (because it’s dumb). IT’S PUZZLE TIME BITCHES   : You could get onto the rooftops by climbing this pipe... but there’s a section missing. Someone would have to finish the pipe first.  Why indeed? If you choose the thumbs up option, dude charges you 30 rings for a hint. If you hit the thumbs down option, you opt out of doing the puzzle.  : All right! Touch the Exit Arrow to close the puzzle, and come back to me if you want a hint!Yeah, whatever, Professor Layton. Anyway, let’s get to work. The game gives us a quick view of the puzzle area and it’s usually pretty obvious what you’ll be doing. It usually just ends up being “park all of your characters somewhere at once” or something. Speaking of which...  Oh hey, it’s our whole team out at once. Yeah, the puzzle sections require to move your whole party to different sections. So first things first, we move Sonic up to this button...  ...which does nothing, so we switch to Amy and have her stand on that other button. Something I haven’t mentioned until now is that tapping the little faces in the top-left corner changes which character you’re controlling.  Well, that got the generator hoppin’ around. Next, we send Rouge up to that big red button and press it  Finally, the one part that’s actually kind of confusing, you have to send Tails around to the pipe, where a prompt will show up, letting him actually put the hook on the pipe.  Then have Rouge hit the button again, and voila:  Wow... that pipe really doesn’t look in place at all, but whatever, the camera shifts back to Rouge and...  NOW WE ARE ONE. I think it’s a weird way to end things and get everybody back together. Anyway, then we get our prize.  Some bonus XP and a Revive. Said bonus XP is enough to level up almost everybody but Sonic! Amy:  Tails:  But most importantly Rouge finally levels, giving her all-important POW moves.   Unfortunately... hers kinda suck, but we’re gonna go with Jewel Storm for now. Well, anyway, we went to the trouble of making that pipeway, and the guy said we could use it to go to the rooftops, so I guess we just walk through it?  I KNOW NOW WHAT I MUST DO  Wait, is that...  We stop for this Chao egg and-  : NO WE DON’T WE GO FAST (I had too many frames and had to come up with a dumb way to cut the GIF in half, but the game really does force you through that whole thing. No breaks on that one rooftop! GOT. TO. GO. FAST.) Anyway, we beat up those wasps, then we do turn around to collect those rings. Another thing that I’ve kind of covered but I’ll do here in greater detail is field abilities. Different characters have different abilities in the field, which will make some areas inaccessible and will force you to adjust your team at times. Mostly all I’ve shown is Sonic’s dash ability, but quite obviously, you can hit the top faces on top to switch to Tails...  ...which turns that Flight logo to the right from grayed-out to available. We can now fly over.  We keep hopping along towards that egg but run into another group of wasps. Nothing of note really happens except I use Rouge’s Jewel Storm move for the first time:  Holy poo poo that sucked.  We have Tails pick up the egg , then check out the back of this place...  Another thing about Field Skills is that they level up too. Right now Tails (and Rouge) can only fly short distances, but they’ll be able to fly longer eventually. The skills only go up to level 3. Anyway, let’s head back the rooftop where Sonic landed before.  Oh hey, look, Tails would’ve had to lead anyway, even if we weren’t playing collect-a-thon with eggs. Across the way there’s another wasp fight, and we keep moving up.  Annoyingly, you can’t get to that item box right now. You get there through another path. But come on, it’s right there, I could totally jump off that roof, game! Anyway, what’s ahead, oh, more wasp fights...  The journey proves worth it though, because eventually we arrive up here: Where we get a Chao egg and this item box which gives us  A Refresher! The little symbol beside it means it’s an equippable item. (Characters have three item slots. In true Sonic fashion, it’s Shoes, Gloves, and Other, because what else are you gonna wear, pants?) Anything that gives you a constant stream of PP is useful as hell. We stick this on Tails since he’s our team healer. Now we start moving west on these other rooftops. Hey are those robots?  Yep, those are robots alright. I am supposed to be on robot watch. Anyway, you run up to this door,  ...which takes you up like two inches onto this platform,  And then go into the other door over there on the right in order to find...  ...a room that’s suspiciously devoid of anything besides an item box. Huh. Well, what’s in the box?  Well, that’s strange and will surely never come back into play. Alright, getting back to the game, we go back outside and jump down on top of that sentry robot, beat it up, and then go back behind it to see this shady place that looks like the back alley behind a bar. (Also, Sonic leveled up. I bought him and Amy’s combo move, Fastball)  So naturally we waltz in the door.  Alright, so this is one of those bases the GUN commander wanted us to check out. Every time you enter one (there are 4 in case you forgot), the exact same thing will happen. The game will take over, your character will slooooowly inch forward a little, and then you’ll get a little flavor text.  : Here’s one of the hideouts we’re supposed to explore!: It looks abandoned! There’s no one here!: Looks can be deceiving, Pinky. There could be something valuable in there.: You mean like Knuckles?: Mmm. Right. Like Knuckles.Yeah, so let’s get this investigation under way. We take two steps and  GODDAMMIT SWATBOT. (Okay, before somebody else points it out, the Swatbot appears to clip out of nowhere. It comes down on the bottom screen of the DS. It just looks really funny because the top screen makes a cohesive image with the bottom, which makes it look funny when you take out the screen gap like I do.) At 110 HP, these Swatbots are twice as strong as the one that’s a miniboss. Ironically, they’re actually easier. Maybe it’s because we’ve leveled up? Maybe because it’s because Tails is useful? Maybe it’s because we have 4 party members? Probably all of these things. (Except for Rouge being useful.) I’ll throw in a video for the hell of it and show a couple of things that happened just because I treated the first Swatbot like Jason Voorhees and these more like regular ol’ chumps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXIqx69VMkE Around 20 seconds in I freeze for a second. That’s why you don’t try to record footage and watch TV at the same time, kids! There’s nothing really notable about this fight except for two things:  The “Ambush” sign happens when you run into an enemy and you’re significantly faster than them. That lets everybody get a free basic attack. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t let you coordinate who the attack is on so you can see everybody just kind of runs off and attacks whichever one they want. The other thing that happens is Tails starts really embracing his role as healer.  His Medi-bots are just little flying disks that fly straight into your ally. Honestly, their usefulness is less for restoring health and more for restoring PP. So Tails’ first move pretty much every battle from now on (at least the way I use him) consists of making a Medibot for himself even if he’s not injured so he can have a steady stream of PP to make everyone else Medibots. Also, whenever he uses it on himself, there’s obviously no little flying disk so it look like he spins in a circle and just starts healing. Other than that, the fight is pretty by the numbers stuff. Afterwards, Tails starts talking again.  : I found some sort of device. I think it’s a communicator!: Hm. It seems broken. But maybe if we had more parts, I could get it working.: Knuckles isn’t here. He must be in one of the other hideouts.Thanks detective, the place isn’t exactly a sprawling base, I’m pretty sure you could tell there’s nothing here. : Let’s go! We go collect that item box in the corner (it was nothing but some health items) and take off.  Jumping off this edge leaves us back in front of GUN HQ, and then we take off heading back towards Tails’ Workshop to get to the other hideout (it’s the star on the right, in case you forgot)  But before we do that, we run a little further past the workshop, over to the right of this... air control tower? Is that what this is? Anyway, there’s a Chao egg.  Now we get back to our mission. Moving to the right of the workshop, there’s a trail of rings leading to...  Sir I believe you are blocking my large red arrow/objective marker. We waste the drone and move down a bit to our objective:  Oh. Well let’s get our Ninja Turtle on I guess.  Hey, I’ve been here befo-  : Another hideout! Let’s look around!Did you think I was exaggerating when I said this would be the same thing 4 times?  I was not exaggerating when I said this would be the same thing 4 times. Anyway, 2 Swatbots, 110 HP each, I already posted a video. The only thing interesting here is that I show off Sonic and Amy’s new move.  I should also explain a little about team moves.  You can see everybody’s move there. When I choose to do the Fastball attack,  It takes one of Amy’s moves and her PP too. Usually the extra power is worth it though. Anyway, post-fight, Tails levels up!  I buy the Medi-bot upgrade because since it costs 5 PP to use and heals 4 immediately upon using, it makes it almost free now for Tails.  : You know Sonic, if we found more of these, I might be able to rewire them and use them to trace the source of the signal.: With that, we might be able to find the Marauders’ headquarters, where they’re probably keeping Knuckles. : We’ll find him. I know it!: Let’s keep moving. So we get another communicator. At this point, we’re done with Central City, but I want to clean up some side quests. First of all, we obviously have to help that poor hapless GUN soldier with his robot problem, since we have gotten pretty efficient at robot killin’ these days. After a quick stop-in at  That we can dash through (except I didn’t make a gif because this dash is very boring. Sonic goes entirely underground and all you see is the camera moving across the rooftops that we traveled across earlier.  The point is, it gets us over to that area we couldn’t access before.  Run about two inches north and you’ll see our good ol’ buddy and trigger some talking  : These must be the robots the GUN soldier told us to find!: Let’s smash ‘em! The fight here isn’t really special, which is unusual because the side quests’ “final bosses” usually mix up the formula some way, whether it’s by introducing a new enemy type or just beefing up an old one. I guess it’s the first time since the first Swatbot fight that we’ve had to fight both Swatbots and drones? Whatever, at this point we’ve become pretty good at fighting both. But hey, we got a lot of EXP and you know what that leads to: LEVEL UPS! This time it’s just Amy.  Normally I wouldn’t bother showing the stats screen, but this time in the bottom left, her Smash skill leveled up. Now we can destroy stronger boxes! Also she can dash now... so watch out Sonic, I guess?  (Also I bought level 2 Low Blow but whatever)  Where the gently caress did you come from? (You don’t have to go tell this guy the mission’s finished or anything, he just knows somehow and starts talking. I guess he is on the other side of the building, he probably just heard the comical bonking sounds our attacks make. Maybe he’s just yelling at us over the wall.  : Yes. I’ll make sure to recommend that you head up all future anti-robot task forces.: Er, yes! That’s... quite an honor! But... I mean, I... er, of course.: Here is your reward for helping me in this mission. We’ll be in touch if we need your help again!: Take care, Sonic. And, er, stay out of trouble! What? A pack of gum is the reward? Is this guy my grandma? The EXP reward is less than what we got for just beating the robot. Laaaame. There’s a Chao egg that we grab back where the robot was standing, and an item box next to where we came out on the ramp  By the way, for weird item fans, here’s a new one:  Clover juice! Start making your smoothie recipes now. After going back through the underground tunnel I go back to the center of town,  ...then head off to the right. We’ve been spending so much time on the roofs in this part of town that we’ve been ignoring this shmuck.  Let’s have a chat.   : Because I... well... because they’re ROOFTOPS!I’d be snarky, but I kind of love this bit of dialogue  : There must be a queen wasp up there somewhere. If someone were to defeat her, the wasps might go away. (A smarter man would’ve initiated this sidequest earlier when we were on the rooftops, but whatever, we saved it for the cleanup portion.) I head back to the same rooftops So we head back to the rooftops (in case you’ve forgotten, I mean these) Only now they are repopulated with a shitload of wasps. It is very annoying. We arrive eventually over here:  Yikes. That is a wasp problem. MINIBOSS TIME:  Queen Wasp HP: 120 Special Attacks: Poison Quill. It hits you a little harder than the normal attack, and true to its description, it poisons you. Also it can do that annoying-rear end Evade that the normal wasps do. Difficulty Level : 5/10 Notes : Queen Wasps can be tricky... I guess. They hit kind of hard and they have a good bit of HP. The only problem with them is that by the point you fight them, your guys are leveled to the point where the Queens really aren’t challenging anymore. All you have to do is just keep the pressure on and knock it out early, since it doesn’t resurrect like Swatbots. You do have to watch out for that loving Evade “attack”... thing. This fight is piss easy but here’s a video anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbDGY_f1Oh4 Only real notable thing you might’ve missed:  That can of Bug Spray finally came back into play! It lowers everything’s defense. And offense?  Once again, Chronicles’ weird status effects lead to not really understanding what’s going on. The item description for the Bug Spray doesn’t help either, only saying that it “weakens insects”. Oh gee thanks, game. Other than that, this is just a standard fight, only with a slightly bigger bug. Anyway, Sonic and Rouge level up...  ...and we bought Axe Kick and Jewel Storm Level 2. Now we have to go back to the guy we received the quest from. It’s kind of weird, since our last sidequest just ended immediately, but for this one we have to chat. Oh well...  : And you defeated her? Awesome! Woo hoo! The prize is an Antidote (cures all status effects) and 50 EXP. Again, the quest rewards are really kind of terrible in comparison to what we get from the actual fights. These early sidequests are really kind of bullshit. Now that we’re done with that sidequest and we’ve finished the main mission of finding two hideouts in Central, we’re done with this place (for now). However, there are still two hideouts to go, so let’s do everyone’s favorite part of an RPG and backtrack! So let’s go back to the only other area we can go, Green Hill Zone:  COMING UP: Knuckles? More robots? Armadillos again? 2 out of 3 ain't bad. ALSO, hey, I made these character profile things with all the characters' codex info and the descriptions of their POW moves, that way I don't have to keep describing characters' moves every time there's a level up.         ALSO ALSO, I am aware I talked about Medibots in a Sonic LP this update. You may commence in bad meta-humor regarding the forums. TwoPair fucked around with this message at 09:53 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2013 22:57
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SonicRulez posted:Man, Sonic is so incredibly unlikable if you choose to play him that way. I'm waiting on Tails to just knock him out. Also, why not invest in Tails' team up move with Sonic if it does more than Sonic/Amy's? I focused on Sonic/Amy's more because Amy is (most likely) going to be a staple of our team more than Tails. There is at least one more healer in the game that we might switch Tails for, (or alternately we could get 4 power characters and just start munching consumable items at alarming rates) so I didn't want to commit too hard to using him. Allarion posted:Seeing this thread just reminded me of how much I disliked this game, and actually was the kickstarter for me starting to dislike Bioware. The story and dialogue has potential, but the battle system, stats, and music are just so terrible. My main issue is just that after a certain point, you realize that everything revolves around using POW attacks and combo attacks if you want to actually finish battles efficiently, hence why Tails and future character who is better than Tails are never gonna leave your party, since they're the only ones who can restore PP, as well as healing, and maybe defense buffs. And of course, every POW attack is always going through the motions of touchscreen quick time events, so it can get tedious after a while, especially if some random lowbie enemy attacks you. If I recall correctly, your characters never get strong enough that they can faceroll random mooks with spamming attack and POW attacks are almost always the fastest way of finishing a battle. Still, I had high hopes for this game at the time, and if it had a more consistent system rather than some weird blend of JRPG battles with WRPG stat balance, it might have been a more worthwhile game. Well to be fair, I think special attacks are always gonna be the fastest way to end a battle in any RPG. I do see where you're coming from though, (I mean trust me, I get tired of playing Elite Beat Hedgehogs every battle) but I think a lot of the time it is possible to just straight up attack your way to victory. At least, on non-robot opponents...
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Sep 24, 2013 07:19
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^^^ HEY BRO I SAID DON'T SPOIL ANYTHING. Nah whatever the game did already spoil it. Get hype for Froggy, indeed. e: Also, on the topic of '06 stuff, Crisis City may suck or it may not, but it's music is totally one of my favorite tracks in recent years. TwoPair fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Sep 26, 2013 |
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Sep 26, 2013 09:31
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Lizard Wizard posted:
Thank you for beating me to that joke. Lizard Wizard posted:Isn't the defining version of Blaze's dimension basically "We have Robotnik, but worse"? Also, "our emeralds are square" A quick update on updates by the way: The next one was supposed to be up yesterday, but then in the process of capturing screenshots/video for update 4, I actually found a much better cutoff point for #3, so I've got to rewrite a few things, make a few more gifs, etc, etc. Anyway, I'm not gonna keep a month-long gap between updates again. hopefully
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Oct 1, 2013 19:02
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You thought this thread was dead? Well so did I! JOKE'S ON ALL OF YOU. Update 3: We Meet Up With The Worst Character in Sonic Adventure (by which I mean Knuckles) Ah, back in scenic Green Hill. I’m going to start posting full screenshots a lot more since we’ll be skipping a lot of the scenery we’ve already visited, and the map up top will help keep track of where we are.  We can see one of the hideouts on the map by the star already marked for us, but we’re gonna go over to the right back to that plane wreckage (or whatever it was) on the beach because I just have a hunch about this kind of thing that’s totally unrelated to my previous experience with the game  Oh hey, what do you know, look at the map, there’s the other star! Just a little further to the south, there’s an island to the right that we need Tails to get us to.  (There’s also wasps. Far too much of revisiting Green Hill is spent trying to avoid all our old pathetic animal pals.)  Once we finally get to the top we move a little north and surprise,  There’s the hideout.  Same song and dance  : Another hideout! Let’s look around.Yes let’s. No wait, let’s don’t because we know exactly what’s here. Two Swatbots. It’s the exact same fight as I’ve already posted, only faster because we keep leveling up and they just stay the same. Let’s just cut to post-fight banter : Hey Sonic! Look! : Where could they be keeping Knuckles? Could there be somewhere else that GUN couldn’t find?: Let’s keep looking and find out! And another one bites the dust. Let’s move for that last hideout and we can finally get done with this chapter.   So, yeah, the last hideout is right over to the left and...  Tails no. Tails why. Anyway, while victory is within our grasp, a little extra EXP never hurt anybody.  Wait WHAT? HOLD ON.  Tsk tsk Bioware QA department. Back to the show. : Can you figure out how to lower it?He offers to give you hints for rings again. gently caress you, Puzzle Man. Don’t patronize me. : Let me give it a shot!This puzzle is easy. Easier than the last one, which wasn’t too hard to begin with...  So, 4 characters, 4 buttons, a large gap, and 2 of them fly.  Tails flies across the remaining gap to one of the other buttons,  ... and Rouge jumps to the last one.  (Technically, the action icon for Rouge is a jump, so we could’ve had her stand at the bottom and Sonic go up top. We only needed one flyer for the puzzle, we just happened to have 2 around right now.) Anyway, TRANSFORM AND COMBINE  (That never stops looking stupid to me) Anyway, it’s all worthwhile because we get our reward: 250 sweet, cheap experience points, no fights required. And a revive, but whatever. That’s enough to level up Tails, actually!  We’re actually gonna invest in his Adrenaline Rush skill here just to experiment around with giving people extra moves. So now we explore this new unlocked territory above the bridge. Over to the left there’s a stream we can cross...  Which leads to a nice little ring trail  at the end of which is  Oh hey, it’s Cream the Rabbit, a character from another game who doesn’t want to kill us! Let’s go say hi.  : Cream! You poor thing, what are you doing out here? : Oh, Amy, it’s terrible! Cheese and I were out picking flowers when we were attacked! Angry animals came out of nowhere!Cream there is a Swatbot like 5 yards away from you, I wouldn’t be concerned about the armadillos : We tried to run, but we got separated! I haven’t been able to find Cheese since! : Oh, you remember, Sonic. Cheese is Cream’s pet Chao! : He’s my best friend! : We got separated when I crossed the river, but he could be anywhere! He wouldn’t go outside the Green Hill Zone, though, I’m sure of that!  : Hooray!: I want to keep looking on my own. Maybe if we split up, we can find him sooner!  : Be careful, Cream!: I will!Well, now we have to find a missing Chao. I’ll do it!... later. We can’t actually do the sidequest right now (or the other one a little further up the hill there, but I just thought it’d be neat to show Cream there. Back to business! AWAY!  Movin’ south! Goin’ for that stump!  gently caress ME C’MON. Alright, so I fight off the annoying drones and then it’s into the tree  : Hey, team! Look! But alas, Knuckles is not inside. Two more Swatbots are. Here, I’ll repost the video so you don’t even have to go to the last update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXIqx69VMkE This time I beat them faster, but nothing notable enough happened. : Hey Sonic! Got something! Another communicator!Yaaay? : And still no Knuckles!: I think I... Yes! I’ve got it! : It’s there! In the Mystic Ruins! : Leave me alone, Sonic! I was just being helpful!  : Er... what? The Chaos Emeralds?: Ah, yes. Let’s get moving, then! Knuckles could be in trouble, you know! No time to lose! Okay, we’ve got a destination, let’s get the hell up out of here! Like... okay, Central City, but then new locations!  There it is, at the bottom of the map: the open road that’ll take us to Mystic Ruins. Let’s get outta here.  Oh that doesn’t look good.  Bro come on. Come on bro.   PAUSE  The gently caress is this? For a minute I thought that it was just a fair miss, and “island” is just a valid spelling in that context, but I typed out the sentence and Word catches that it’s wrong so I guess Jay Turner (the only credited writer) was banging this out at like 5 in the morning and couldn’t recognize the green squiggle. It’s sloppy, and somebody between Turner, the QA department, and the production team should’ve caught it. I mean, this is the second error like this in just this update! How many more of these could we run into? Anyway, WE NOW RETURN YOU TO THE PROGRAM CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS  : There’s an airfield on the other side of Mystic Ruins. Maybe we can get in from there.: Wait... you mean...?: Yes. Let’s get back to the workshop, team.: We’ll take the Tornado!Okay, so we’re taking the Tornado. To do this, all we need to do is run back to Tails’ base at the start of the level. I’m not setting up a boss or anything, just cutting out the trip. Anyway, we get to the base and head inside.  Typically before a chapter change or just during certain moments in the story, your team will all gather in the base and you can chat them up for the hell of it. Also Amy is almost always available to talk to, as part of the optional “Be nice to Amy/Be a total rear end in a top hat to Amy” thing the game does. Anyway, Tails starts talking as soon as we get inside, so let’s listen: : I had hoped to get by without her. She’s not really up to spec. : I can’t be sure but, I can hope.: If the signal leads to a headquarters, then we’ll probably find Knuckles there. : I had to use some of her parts for the trap I built for Knuckles. Those parts were destroyed when the trap blew up. : It’ll get us there. I’m just not sure it’ll get us back.Thanks Tails, you’re a beacon of hope. : I’ll need some time to adjust the flaps, if you want to rest a moment. When you’re ready to go, just go outside and interact with the plane. We’ll be in Mystic Ruins in no time!Next let’s harass Amy.  : I’m—I’m not afraid to fly, Sonic! I just don’t think that plane looks up to code, is all.   : Hmph! Why would I do that? Ha ha ha! That makes no sense, Sonic! : You’re so funny. But not as funny as my Dexter! : We’re leaving soon. Be ready.: I can’t wait to meet up with those Marauders. I’ll show them a thing or two!I can’t decide if Amy’s delusion is just sad or if Sonic’s taunting is starting to descend into outright cruelty. Anyway, let’s talk to Rouge now.  : I’m fine. Ready as I’ll ever be. : Boy, you sure are good at detecting sarcasm, aren’t you?: I mean, yeah, there’s a certain rugged look there, but he’s not my type. Too buttoned up for me. : I’ll be ready, darlin’. Don’t you worry about me.”Darlin’”? What, is Rouge southern now? Well anyway, we head outside and  POOF a plane appears. You go up, tap it, the rotors start turning (I tried to get a GIF of that but it just wouldn’t capture right) and then you get...  The world map! Now we can fly to our past locations because they have air traffic control towers! (You may not have noticed them but they were totally there) Let’s get the hell out of here!  Tails, I don’t see anybody else. Where are you keeping everybody, Tails.  Ah, welcome to scenic Mystic Ruins.  Our musical accompaniment in this area is a heavily remixed version of The Final Fight from Sonic 3D Blast. (Seriously, I didn't realize it was a remix until I read it and then I still had to listen to the song like twice. It's hard to catch.) Anyway, we're in a new area, so our team has stuff to say about it.  : It isn't usually this foggy in Mystic Ruins. I can't even see Angel Island from here!: Mystic Ruins? More like "Soggy Ruins," if you ask me. Ew.: I don't see any GUN soldiers here. Looks like the coast is clear.: The ruins should be to the east. Let's go find Knuckles! And with that we're on our own. There's not much to do in this area right now besides collect these rings surrounding us...  ...because everywhere else is blocked off by these fog clouds. This route in particular is the direction we have to go, so we just head toward it anyway, until Rouge pipes up to interrupt us.  : That's not us, Rouge. It's...: It's coming from over there! Look!: Some kind of gas cloud. I wonder where it came from.: Ugh. That stuff smells horrible!: It's not just stinky; that gas might be deadly!: Maybe there's a way around. I...Or maybe we need a hero...  : I don't know, but it's coming from the cloud!: Ready to fight, team! Oh yes. But wait no Big it's poison ga-  Oh.   : Amy!!!: Ugh! No hugs, Big. Not while you smell like that.: What are you doing here, Big? : Uh, I was just fishing in the lake over there, and I thought I heard my good friend Amy Rose! : How did you get through that gas, Big? It seems very dangerous! : Oh, that? That's the sneezy fog! It makes me sneeze.So Big huffs poison gas constantly? This explains so much.  : Ah-ah-ah... ah-CHOO!: Ugh. I'd almost rather stand in the fog. : All of a sudden, we heard all this noise and saw all these flashy lights! I looked over and saw the soldiers running, and the sneezy fog rolled in!: This "fog" is actually some kind of gas. Someone must have used the gas to chase away the GUN soldiers! : Poison gas?! Oh no! Where?: I think maybe it just doesn't affect him Sonic. Big is pretty tough.  : Definitely. He's just the sweetest!: Sure! If he can survive the gas, maybe he can get us through it!: Hmph. The more the merrier, I always say. : Yay! I go with Amy Rose!: Now we just need to get through that fog.: Big can help with that! Let's go!Yes, let's! But fiirrrst, you may have noticed that we now have 5 party members! Well guess what, only four can play at a time, so immediately after we get done talking, we get kicked here, to the party selection screen!  You'll now go here every time we leave a base like Tails' Workshop or every time we recruit a new party member like we just did with Big, in case you want to adjust your active roster. The way it works is you just click you team members' heads, their stats appear on the left in case you want to check how useful they'll be (you can also use the tabs at the bottom to check their POW moves, field skills, equipped Chao/items, etc.), then you click over to the empty spots on the right underneath Sonic's head. You'll notice that Big has been preselected for us by the game, as he is necessary to finish the chapter, and Sonic can never be switched out. So it's So let's meet Big:    Auto-leveling kicks in to catch Big up to speed with his new teammates. We buy up to level 2 of Battering Ram for his sole POW move. Don't worry, I'll pick up something Froggy-related in the future. So let's take off.  Invincible is a weird field move. It's weird because it takes control from you like all the other field moves, but all you're doing is walking. Also it's awkward because sometimes the computer gets caught on stuff and just in general works a lot wonkier than you'd figure a computer programmed to go from point A to point B. Anyway, you can see this soldier down at the bottom of the path and he's just the man we want to talk to!  : I've seen some suspicious activity on those high cliffs. Maybe if you got those vents blowing, you could fly up there. You know where this is going: PUZZLE TIME.  Here's our puzzle (gif cut down for length) and it's actually kinda challenging! Well, not really, but it's not as blatantly easy as the earlier ones. As you can tell, the four buttons down to the right are the key. The reason I say it's kinda challenging is that there's no real rhyme or reason to what you have to do. It's not to have all 4 characters stand on the buttons at the same time, that's for sure. Anyway, here's the actual solution. First, we move Sonic and Big onto two buttons.  (As you can see, like I said, it's a little bit of total guesswork as to what button combo is the key) And that makes this little microchip thing pop out of the ground. We have Amy grab it, (which produces the funny effect of it just floating above her head) and wait at the other hole in the ground  Then after a little fumbling around, I get Sonic and Big arranged in the right way to pop the other container out of the ground.  After pressing the contextual icon anywhere near the container to get Amy to put the chip in the container, all we have to do is get either of our button guys to move so the container will go back in the ground.  And voila! How in the hell that was supposed to power fans I have no idea, but whatever. We've got our experience, we can advance, and hey, Big leveled up!  BRING THE FROG. Anyway, we did all that so we could start the fans. See, the fans are actually necessary because we need them to help Tails fly us up.  ...I guess he uses the updraft or something? Anyway, only a very short distance north,  ...well, there's a Chao egg, but also a big mysterious door! Let's go in.  Oooo, spooky.  : I hope Knuckles is okay!: I don't like it here. Can we go?: We're okay, Big. Sonic's here!: Hm. If this is a Marauder hideout, maybe we should take a look around.: Let's get moving, team. Knuckles won't rescue himself.Indeed. There's nothing in this tiny room, so we move to the next one and  Oh. Hi.  : Of course, you're too late. The plan is already in motion.: Scouts, alert Procurator Shade. Tell them Sonic found us... and that his little quest ended here.: I don't think so, Marauder! Bring it on!Despite it sounding like the buildup to one, there isn't a miniboss here, or a forced fight at all. Marauders have officially become normal enemies, and they just wander around like armadillos and Swatbots. We don't even have to fight them, we can just kind of dodge them like you do Pokemon trainers. Buuuut I fight them anyway because dodging them's more of a pain in the rear end than fighting them. So hey, here we go  Marauder Vet Scout HP: 80 Special Attacks: Phase, Stasis Grenade Difficulty Level: 3/10 Annoyance Level: 8/10 Notes: Vet Scouts really aren't any different than the other scout we faced as a mini-boss. You don't want to get hit by the Stasis Grenade because it'll shut you down, and Phase is a huge pain in the rear end. Other than that, you should be more than strong enough to lay the smack down on these guys by the time you see them. Here's a video for you since I have no actual mini-boss this update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw5pe259vys Only a couple observations here.
Anyway, back to business. Now that we're done fighting, we have two doors.  The one one on the left takes us to this little room with a Chao egg and nothing else  The one on the bottom leads straight into another fight where nothing of importance happens.  Then there's this electrical thing...  Well goddamn, Big. Anyway, the only thing down there is ANOTHER Chao egg.  Joke's on us, because the actual place we had to go to was neither of those doors, it was back over here!  Kinda hidden off to the right. Anyway, as soon as you walk through the door, you get this.  HEY KNUCKLES WE'RE HERE TO SAVE YOU oh well this is awkward.  : Knuckles! You're alive! : I am. I thought you might try to rescue me. I just wasn't going to sit around and wait.  : It's the Marauders. They took the last Chaos Emerald, just as we predicted. : They somehow disabled Tails' trap and overwhelmed me with numbers.: There must have been a lot of them!: There were, and they fought like nothing I've ever seen. Still, I would've beaten them, but their leader was too strong. : I assume they got the Emerald?Yes they did, Knuckles. You just said they did when Sonic asked. I love this game. : Yes. I'm sorry, Knuckles, I couldn't take them by myself. : Not much. They wore dark masks and armor, so I couldn't make out who they were. They wear high-tech armor and fight like mad. Whoever they are, they're trained for battle. : Their leader is named Shade. She's... tough. She nearly took me down on her own.: There's something else, though. The Marauders wanted to get rid of me, but Shade ordered them to just lock me up. : Anytime the Chaos Emeralds are in danger, Eggman's the first villain I think of. LP Crisis: I'm running out of sarcastic jokes about how much of a rude dude with 'tude Sonic is. Please feel free to make submissions. : Sonic! You know, it's a real rear end in a top hat comment to say to his face, but I kind of have to side with Sonic here, Amy. I did my homework, and Knuckles has hosed up his job in:
I'm pretty sure Knuckles would've definitely been fired by now if he weren't literally the last echidna around for the job. Let's get back to talkin'  What's funny is Sonic's line is the generic "Let's go!" line that comes up when you're out of dialogue options and it's the default through that whole Knuckles conversation. But in this context, it just sounds like "NOPE DONE TALKING, LET'S GO." : This is my fight, Sonic. I am the last echidna and the last guardian of the Emeralds.: Oh, don't be pig-headed, Knuckles! You can't do this on your own! : You've been gone a long time, Sonic, so I'll say this nicely.  : You... You're probably right. I couldn't beat them alone.: Just know that they're very strong, and very dangerous. They have technology unlike anything I've ever seen before.: They seem to come out of nowhere. If defeated, they disappear into thin air : We won't win this one by being overconfident. We have to be better.: So what do we do?: We go to Angel Island and protect the Master Emerald. We need to get up there before the Marauders do. There's no time to stand around talking. Let's hurry.After that, the game takes us outside the bunker for this next bit  : Right. Let's get back to the workshop now!: No. Wait. Look in the sky!: What is it? That gif is actually one of those "cutscenes" like the one back from the intro, so if you want to see that again, but with 7 seconds of sound, click here Immediately after that scene, we warp back to Tails' Workshop to work out a plan. : I don't understand. How could Angel Island move away?: How can Angel Island float? : But... I was just asking a question! : These communicators we found are old Eggman technology. They were made only to respond to a special frequency that Eggman used.: If I can rewire them once again, maybe we can reverse them and use them to detect that frequency!: So we could use them to find Eggman!: This is a waste of time.: If Eggman has all of the Chaos Emeralds, he won't stop there. He'll go after the Master Emerald. On Angel Island. : It should. The communicators are already made to detect Eggman's electronic signature. : That would be good news, wouldn't it?  : But... I...: When we defeated Eggman the last time, it looked like he was gone for good.: I don't think he could have recovered that much in so short a time.: Then he'll be easier to defeat this time.: Hey, if Eggman has the seven Chaos Emeralds, I say we go get him now. He's bound to have something shiny we can... rescue.: I have an idea!: ...: ...: ... : If we find Eggman, we'll find Angel Island.: Right! In the meantime, everyone rest up. We have to be ready to fight if we're going after Eggman.: Sonic, just head outside when you're ready to go. It won't take me long to rewire the communicators!Cool, time for incidental dialogue. Starting with...  Amy! Actually our conversation with Amy is pretty short this time, because pretty much every option ends the conversation : I can't believe Eggman might really be back! See, the top option is the rush option that ends the conversation, and the thumbs down is the super-tool option of "Don't be such a baby. We'll beat him like we always do!" (literal dialogue) that also ends the conversation immediately. There's a lot of thumbs-down and regular-Sonic-head choices in this conversation to try and make you cut it short. ANYWAY...  : Well, we always have to go out and fight Eggman. It'd be nice if, you know, we could have time to do other stuff. : It was nice just being able to look outside and not see robots coming to beat me up.: I'd miss the action, honestly.: Hm. Maybe I would, too. Who knows?: I better go get ready. We have a job to do!Next on the list is:  Big  : Is your name Froggy? No. Your name is Sonic. So-nic. : Who is Froggy?: He's my best friend! We've had all sorts of adventures. I just don't remember them all.: Froggy was just telling me that he hasn't seen his friend Norton in a long time. He's starting to get worried! : Well, not in so many words. More like he HINTED, I guess. : I don't know. I'm sure he's somewhere, though! : He look like... hm. He's like, small, and green, and hoppy. Oh! Like a frog! And we will! This is now an actual sidequest that we will be doing. Random frogs will retroactively appear throughout the areas we've visited and we'll collect 'em until Big (and Froggy I guess) identifies the correct one. Don't worry though, he doesn't have to be in your party or anything. : Yay!Next on our list: Knuckles (Tails doesn't have anything to say other than "I'll be done working on that transmitter in a minute when you're done talking!"   : Right. He needs to tinker with his machines. Meanwhile, the Marauders are about to get their hands on the Master Emerald. : The Marauders took the first couple without anyone knowing. They had some kind of teleportation device, or something.: One minute, there was no one there. The next, there they were, stealing the Emerald. Then, gone again. Like ghosts.: When they took the last Chaos Emerald, I tried to fight them. : I'm not sure. I think maybe they just wanted to test me, see what I could do. : Then let's stop messing around and get Angel Island back. We're just wasting time.All right then, let's head outside and advance the plot  .... which means naturally Tails starts talking again immediately.  : This tracker won't lead us right to Eggman, but it will beep when we get near him!: We'll have to travel all over. When the tracker starts beeping, we'll know we're close.: I've tuned it to Eggman's electronic signature, so any Eggman device that's out there might make it beep. : Eggman could be anywhere! We should search Green Hill Zone, Central City, and Mystic Ruins.Golly, it's pretty convenient that Eggman should happen to be in one of the three places we unlocked.  : Right! He should be pretty weak, but even a weak Eggman is dangerous!: Look out, Eggman! We're coming for you!Yep, we're coming! Next update, in:  Also, character updates: Since Knuckles formally joined our party, here's his codex info/POW moves:   Also, since Knuckles joined up, here are Rouge's and Sonic's full POW move lists since they had combo moves with Knuckles. Rouge:  Sonic:  See you next update! TwoPair fucked around with this message at 09:59 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2013 19:02
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NeoAnjou posted:You go wild over 'island', but don't pick up on 'It looks like someone raised to bridge that leads to the rest of the Green Hill Zone!' ?!? Oh wow. Totally missed that. I guess "island" just stuck out to me because Angel Island is the name of a place. I'll probably go work up another gif and edit it in later on...
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Oct 23, 2013 20:00
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Wild Knight posted:Please do. For some reason I laughed the hardest at that part of the update. Amppelix posted:Hey, you don't get to complain about Sonic being an rear end in a top hat when you're picking the answers for him! Who's complaining? I simply find it amusing that these people even continue to be around him when he does nothing but be a dick to them constantly. Dolash posted:Please never stop choosing the jerk-est options available. AYE AYE
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Oct 24, 2013 17:31
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So hey guys, for the next update, we're actually gonna have a little bit of voting! Like I said in the update, we now have more characters than we do party slots, so we have to choose who travels where. Sonic's non-movable, and I'd like to keep Tails around of course, since we always need a medic. But that leaves us with two party slots to fill. So, we have Amy, Big, Knuckles, and Rouge. Pick two for the next chapter (although, since we will be backtracking to all three of the visited areas, Big will be going to the Mystic Ruins whether you pick him or not) Also, since it's Halloween, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhZkds-W45s TwoPair fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Oct 25, 2013 18:10
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Alright, since it's been one week (and people haven't really been voting for a while), I can safely say our team next chapter will be Amy and Knuckles. It's okay though Big fans, like I said, he'll be forced in during the Mystic Ruins portion of next update. And
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Nov 1, 2013 00:37
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Supplementary Update 3.1: Bioware Writes Fanfic So Sonic Chronicles has a codex, you may remember this when I covered how the rules section teaches you nothing about the elements and that the stats are hosed up. The other functions of the codex are to keep track of your current quests and sidequests, and to contain backstory on all the characters. Along with that backstory on all the characters is backstory on a lot of poo poo about the Sonic universe in general. Like, a lot. Some of it factors into this game's story, but a lot's just there, like somebody at Bioware just decided to make sure that people didn't forget the plot to hit videogame Shadow the Hedgehog. So I thought I'd give people a text dump of the codex up to this point, because I figure people might like it. You may notice a thread going through lot of these entries is mention of "Gizoids" and a fella named Emerl who was one. Emerl was kinda the main character of Sonic Battle, a strange sort of Smash Bros-esque fighter game with Sonic characters on the GBA. Here's the game's plot in a nutshell: Emerl is an ancient killbot who lost his memory but can mimic people's fighting moves flawlessly (if you read comics, he's basically Taskmaster. Sonic & company spend the whole game teaching Emerl how to fight because it's the only thing he really knows how to do, and also feeding him Chaos Emeralds because that seems to restore his higher brain functions (and because they're idiots who can't see this going wrong at all). But then, after a mishap with a laser cannon, Eggman accidentally restores his original killbot programming and Sonic has to put him down. (Also, Emerl breaks the Master Emerald. NICE JOB, KNUCKLES.) Anyway, here's that text dump I talked about : quote:The Fourth Great Civilization
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Nov 6, 2013 09:43
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Ashsaber posted:Let's see... well they can't tell blue from black and red apparently, and their robots do gently caress all to slow anybody in SA2. Plus in Shadow thir Commander basically uses the army to fufil his own vendetta, and has GUN troopers shooting at you even if you're helping them. Oh, don't forget the stunning display of competence from all the GUN troopers we've seen so far in Chronicles! But hey, if it weren't for their useless robots, Sonic wouldn't be able to chain homing attacks to cross long gaps! GUN: Saving the day through incompetence.
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Nov 7, 2013 00:26
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Onmi posted:Also, on the "Great Civilization" stuff in the Codex, I'm fairly certain that was in the comic. And it was just as dumb there Hold up pardner, we'll get there.
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Nov 7, 2013 10:00
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^^^ Interesting. Be sure to mention it when we pass it, as I've never heard of or encountered any glitch like that. Anyway, hello! I guess it's time for the thread's bi-weekly update that I'm not dead. This next update is just longer than I initially anticipated so I'm actually having to go back and redo some areas to find some decent cutting points to split the update in half. So to burn some time here's a  Pseudo-Update! Remember back when Tails and Knuckles talked about their grand plan to lure the Marauders with a Chaos Emerald and how that backfired and how that's the whole reason Knuckles got captured in the first place? The Archie Sonic comic actually ran a backup feature a month before Chronicles came out showing this incident! Nifty! So enjoy a scene of Knuckles getting his rear end kicked:      (Sorry the image quality on these is subpar, seems few people on the internet really care about preserving the quality of a backup story about a game that not that many people liked!  )
TwoPair fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Nov 21, 2013 |
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Nov 21, 2013 22:14
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Welcome to a special CYBER MONDAY bonus super-short update! This is appropriately themed because we're going shopping today in the wonderful town of Central City! And we'll talk a little bit about how it's bullshit! (These screenshots are actually from back around Update 2, but I couldn't find a place to make it feel organic there, so I decided to just stick them here) So this door! It’s a store. It actually has a little billboard featuring one of Sonic’s shoes above it, which I’m sure is purely cosmetic, but I like to imagine they sell Sonic shoes. Unlike most other RPGs (that I know of) , this door is the store. When you click on it, you go straight to the buy/sell menu. No shopkeeps or anything.  The current number of any given item you possess is in parentheses next to the item name, so for example, you can see we’ve got 2 Health Leaves. Like I said in the first update, we don’t care about consumables, since the game gives those out as post-combat rewards regularly. However, moving down, we can find...  Gear! Like Amy’s boxing gloves from the first update, only buyable! Speaking of which, you’ll notice that we’re paying with the rings we’ve been collecting throughout the game. You’ll also notice on any screenshot with the top screen included that rings have a limited number. This is horseshit. The only way to gain more rings past the stage limit is by the little escape minigame you get when enemies try to run from a fight (or you yourself run) because occasionally rings will appear that you can jump for and gather. However, your primary method for getting more rings after you've explored every nook and cranny of the actual level is by selling items, so if you want to really stock up on poo poo from the store, you better get real used to selling junk, and I do mean junk since the items you’ll have the most of are Health Seeds and POW Candies, which sell for utter 5 and 3 rings respectively. This is horseshit. Anyway, I picked up a  Chao Print Dress for Amy,  an Angel Amulet for Sonic in case he gets KO’d, since he's pretty much the backbone of the team,  a pair of work gloves (at the time they were for Rouge in hopes they’d let her stop sucking so much, but I think now they're on Knuckles)  and a pair of good shoes for Tails since he needs the defense. You'll notice that some Gear is themed specifically towards certain characters. For example Amy gets the dress because Amy's the only character who wears dresses, and she can't wear the same shoes Sonic and Tails can because I guess "generic blue and white shoe" doesn't come in ladies' sizes. You'll also notice that there are characters blacked out. I did that. In the game, they're just kind of shaded out and if you squint you can see the whole character roster. This game tries really hard to spoil itself. Like, seriously, after a couple more updates when we have the whole roster, I will show you in great detail how much this game tries to spoil itself. e: Yessss, minutes on the clock wooo still cyber mondayyyy e2: VVV: Oh no, it's not difficult at all to brute force it. I mean, as you can see, the items only add like +1 and +2s to your stats. There's no game-breakers to buy at all, they're just handy. TwoPair fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Dec 3, 2013 |
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Dec 3, 2013 05:57
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AnotherGamer posted:... where Rouge comes in handy... I don't believe you. That actually does sound interesting, but (in my opinion at least) it's a hell of a lot better to just screw items and roll with a better character than use Rouge and grind for rings/stuff.
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Dec 3, 2013 09:00
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Hey thread, I'm at an awkward point recording footage, so gimme some opinions. The problem I'm having is after we complete this next mission (by which I mean finding Eggman), there's only one small level before a big point of no return in the game. (Yes, there is a point of no return in this game, no we're not already at the end boss). So what I'm saying is, would you like: a.) An update consisting of story, an update of sidequests, and a shorter update where I just blaze through the next area sidequests and all? or b.) an overstuffed story update possibly split into two parts, and an overstuffed sidequest update done the same way? For people who have played the game, what I'm really trying to say is, should I really bother cramming in Chapter 4 just so I could show off Shadow while backtracking to do sidequests?
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Dec 14, 2013 19:42
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Welcome to the last update of the year! And it's a big 'un to make up for lost time! Update 4: E.G.G.M.A.N.... H.U.N.T. Previously on Sonic Chronicles, we rescued Knuckles and found that Angel Island had vanished. The team also concluded that Eggman had to have something to do with it. Tails whipped up some tracker out of old Swatbot parts and now we're on our way! After talking to everyone last update, we exit the base and choose our team. The thread voted to keep everything mostly the same though, with Sonic, Tails, Amy, leading the way with new recruit Knuckles joining up. So first things first, like when any new team member leaves the base for the first time, you have to assign all his stats and moves.  Uppercut's a valuable solo attack like every character should have, and Revolver Slam is pretty great power-wise as well. Best of all, both moves are armor piercing, so they'll be able to tear up all of our robotic enemies when they're assholes and go into defensive mode. Well, time to take off towards... somewhere? Like Tails says, the Eggman tracker just leads towards Eggman tech, which is scattered all over all 3 zones we've been in so far. However, it doesn't give us clear objective markers. You actually have to walk all over the map and wait for the annoying thing to beep before you can actually get a device. Here's what it sounds like:  (well, with some background noise. I'm not really an audio wizard who can isolate the sound/I didn't care enough to try for a 2-second clip) I was going to complain about this mission, but after playing through it to capture footage, it's actually rather neat. It forces the player to explore the game, collecting Chao and checking out sidequests they might otherwise have skipped. Also, unlike the last time we went on an exploration quest, we do things besides just fight Swatbots. So let's start our wandering right here in Central City. First things first though, down to the right...  ... we pick up this Chao egg.  Then we head downtown.  Over to the left near the GUN building is a wall with a great big arrow on it pointing up.  It's not the first time we've seen a wall like this! When we've approached them in the past, a prompt always appears for a ladder, implying these walls can be climbed. Well gosh wouldn't it be convenient if  Well I'll be damned. Actually we could've just taken the long way around because we've been up here before. But wow why would you? Anyway, immediately upon climbing the wall, our Eggman detector goes off and Tails cuts in to talk.  : Let's go check it out!Yes, let's. So we move a little more north. You may recall this is actually where we picked up one of the Eggman trackers when we beat up some Swatbots for it.  And what do you know, there's a Swatbot! But he's not moving... And suddenly everyone starts talking.   The other dialogue option is "Swatbots can't be sad, Amy" which is the meaner option, but doesn't elicit a response. This choice nets the hilarious  Sonic being kind is utterly shocking to everybody... : The signal seems to be coming from here. But why?: Let's find out what's going on.: I just hope it's not dangerous!  : *bzt* I seem to have lost my mission *bzt* My programming is forgotten. *bzt* : I say we smash it!: I say we ignore it and keep moving.: I don't know, Sonic. What if this is a clue? This part is neat. You actually have two unique choices! This one is the "gently caress off, robot" choice in case you want to come back and finish the quest later option (though I have no idea why in the world you would want to leave in the middle here. I'll show all the dialogue the three paths can give you. We'll start with this one. : *bzt* The soft creatures are no help to me. *bzt* *bzt* I beg you to let me be alone *bzt*Of course, like I said, that does nothing. You just have to go back and talk to him again. Anyway, here are our two paths: quote:PARAGON: You're pretty much always better off fighting the Swatbot because it nets you a bit of XP and you'll be so strong at this point in the game that it's essentially free XP. Both paths lead to the same result though:  And with that we're adventuring again. We jump back down and start heading back towards the middle of town  Because we're heading up to the rooftops again.  After Sonic does his little loop-de-loop again, we come over to this ledge and have Tails fly across and grab a Chao egg  This is actually notable because last time we were here before, Tails' fly skill wasn't leveled up to the point where he could cross this gap. Next over to the left, there's a ramp. And where there's a ramp, well...  RADICAL That's about all we can do in this area for now, so we head down  and start to head towards the Mystic Ruins...  That is until Sonic stops dead in the middle of the road.  *sigh* Yes Tails, I have eyes too. Suddenly our Eggman tracker goes off though. *gasp* What could it be?  BAM. I love it. Sonic falls down, Shadow clips through that road sign, fantastic stuff.  : Shadow.: Why would Shadow set off the Eggman tracker?: I don't know, but I'd like to find out.: He went into Mystic Ruins. Maybe we should follow him.Mayyyybe we should. Or maybe we should completely ignore that and catch up with him later. Yeah we'll do that other one. I just wanted to see Sonic get hit. Note: It is totally possible to miss this scene since you can just jump in the Tornado, fly to the Mystic Ruins and encounter Shadow there without going down the road here. What we're actually going to do is first go to our right  and have Knuckles scale this wall to find...  an item box and the final Chao egg in Central City! Inside the item box we find...  Some sweet-rear end kicks. Hey, speaking of sweet-rear end kicks, let's go to the item shop!  ... or more specifically juuuust to the left of the item shop, where the Eggman sensor goes off and our characters stop dead. : We got a signal! It must be around here somewhere.Gosh I wonder where it could be--  I think I might have a lead. Could it be this house with the large red arrow over it?  Oh I'm onto something. I might make detective yet!   : What can I do ya for?: Awww no way. Eggman's here.Attaboy Tails, tear this place apart. Go Jack Bauer on his rear end.  : Eggman? Are you folks looking for Eggman?: Yes! Have you seen him?: No sir, no I haven't. But I thought he was gone for good! : I don't know, young fella. I've been called many things in my day, but as you can see, I'm not Eggman! : What sort of equipment?: Oh, I got it this from a salesman a couple days ago. Said his name was Sal, I think.Wait what  what  Sorry we now return you to your regular scheduled broadcast : He told me it was a coffee maker, he did. And I love me some coffee!: Anyway, after he left, I couldn't get it to work.: I traded him my favorite stapler for it, I tell you. I don't know what came over me.: I think I was ripped off. I don't think it is a coffee maker at all! : See it? I'll do ya one better. If you can get me my stapler back, you can have it. That salesman said he was heading off into Green Hill Zone. I got no idea what he'd be doing out there. : Name's Sal, I believe. He's a shifty sort, but my old coffee maker went on the fritz, and I was desperate! : If it's a piece of Eggman equipment, it might be worth looking at. Maybe it can help us find him.: The poor man! We have to help him!: This is a waste of time, but we can't let that salesman get away with this. : I sure would be thankful, Sonic. Just come on back here when you're done. : I'll have that piece of equipment all shined up by the time you get back!Alright, let's go get a stapler *shotgun cocking sound* I'll cut straight to Green Hill since we don't run into anything else on the way.  As you can see, we have an objective star showing us where to go now. Right over near the shore, we find our man.   Yes this gentleman looks legit  : Oh! Fabulous things. Things you can't live without! Of course, I don't sell things for money. I'm a bartering man. Goods for goods! Easy trade! What do you need? New socks? A jaunty hat? A sack of tomatoes?  : There's nothing here we can use, Sonic. It's all knickknacks and useless junk.  : What? Me, cheat? You must be mistaken. The last time I traded anything to a shopkeeper, it was a fair deal: his stapler for my coffee maker. : Trading! Something for something, nothing for nothing!  : Well, I... You don't have to get upset, now! Here! May your papers stay together forever, I say. Whew.  Seriously, Bioware, an Office Space reference in 2008? Tsk, tsk. Anyway, we could go over to the right, take the Tornado back to Central, and wrap up this portion of the quest.  Buuuut, there's something else to the right of that.  Over here in the corner of the map lies a great big tower with a wall for Knuckles to scale!  Normally these just lead to treasure boxes or Chao eggs, but this tower's different, because instead of a Chao egg, we find  a whole pre-hatched one!  : Don't worry Cheese! You're safe with us! And then we just get him as an item. The XP's a nice bonus too and it's enough to level up both Tails and Knuckles. The box has some weird assorted items for us. Here you go weird item fans.  Well, now that we have Cheese, let's go back and deliver him to Cream back where she was. Only as soon as we cross the bridge to get over to where she is  ...  Sonic locks in place again as our Eggman tracker goes off. Tails pipes up to tell us to look around as usual, so we just head a little bit forward...  Another giant red arrow? I am getting the hang of this investigating business. Hey wait what's that?   Well of course we'll help why wouldn't we help someone in nee-  Holy poo poo that is a giant scorpion all right. Sonic immediately rushes it in a prescripted maneuver. Let's roll then!  Giant Scorpion HP: 225 Special Attacks: Tail Sting Difficulty Level: 7/10 Notes: Giant Scorpions are about as disturbing as you'd imagine a giant scorpion to be in real life. They're hard to kill with a shitload of HP, and they hit very hard. Their Tail Sting attack is dangerous, but like any special attack, it can be dodged if you're quick with button prompts. Their regular attacks are rough and tough and will kick your rear end. I tried to split my team and fight them at the same time but that is a mistake. They don't regenerate like robots do. Just gang up on them one at a time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmFLek_Y4YU Nothing notable happens in this fight (you know, aside from fighting giant scorpions which is kind of a big deal, I'd think), but here are some gifs of Knuckles' two POW moves in action if you didn't watch the video.   Oh, and Amy leveled up, but we didn't power up any of her moves so whatever. So hey, how about that kid that nearly got scorpion-ed to death?  : Thank you! You saved me!   : I don't know! I had just built a fort in here, and I was hooking up my new defense system when they came!: Defense system?: Oh, it's this piece of metal I found. It's just junk, but I pretended it was an alarm and a cannon! But I think the scorpion wanted to take it away!: Why would a scorpion want that piece of junk?: Can I see that? : I don't know. I just thought it looked cool. : Really?! I get to travel with Sonic the Hedgehog?! Wow, my friends will never believe this! I won't make a peep! I promise! : Strange... this device seems to interact with the other device we found! If we find more, maybe we can find out what they do!: We'd better keep looking for Eggman. Let's go.Yeah, let's go, now that we have another Eggman device we should get this kid back to his home in... Emerald Town... wait where now?  Oh wait that's right EMERALD TOWN DOESN'T EXIST. WHERE ARE YOU FROM BOY?  That's more like it! Now get back into... wherever the hell our inventory goes. I guess Amy has big pockets on that dress. Jokes aside, this blunder's really astounding because in other options on the dialogue tree, the kid says he's from Central. So the question is how did this happen? If Central City was Emerald Town at some point in development, how did somebody not just run a find/replace on all instances of Emerald Town when the decision to change the location name was made? Alternately, maybe there was actually a whole other area in the game called Emerald Town... but then wouldn't you delete all reference to it when the decision to get rid of the area was made? gently caress it, I don't know. This one just boggles me. Anyway, we got our Eggman device, we got a small child, we got some XP. Let's get back to business. I believe we were delivering a Chao to a rabbit.  Ah yes, that's right.  Cream's exactly where we left her, let's get this Chao off our hands before we start some other sidequest by accident!  : Cheese! I was worried sick! Thank you so much, Sonic! So much! : Oh come on, Sonic! You and the team are all back together, running around the Green Hill Zone. What is it? Is Eggman back? Someone new? : Hooray!: You can always count on me, Sonic! Cream and Cheese are at your service!: Let's get moving. We have work to do!: Yay!And with that we have Cream as a party member   When people post about a game-breaking character in the thread, they're talking about Cream. She restores PP so quickly to your entire team that you can pretty much constantly use POW moves when she's on your team with no consequence. The only downside to her presence is the fact that she can only move once per turn as opposed to Tails (our other healer) getting two. You can actually turn down Cream's request to let you join the team though, if you're an idiot. Here's what that looks like: quote:
I'll mess around showing off Cream some other time, we voted on characters for this update and by god I'll stick to them! Anyway, that's all we had to do in Green Hill. Well, okay, there's one more tiiiiny thing...  gently caress YOU WALL  Sorry, you just run into a lot of climbable walls in the game before you get Knuckles and it's very liberating when you finally unlock him to finally go get all those eggs and junk... anyway let's just go back to Central City.  You'll note that we have two stars on the map for our two quests to complete. As soon as we head for the first one, control cuts away for this...  That... is not a well animated child.    : Who are your friends?: Papa, this is Sonic the Hedgehog, and these are his friends!: Thank you so much for finding my boy. How can I ever repay you? Ah, yes! Take this!: It's not much; just a token of my thanks for returning my precious boy!: It was our pleasure, sir. : But Papa...Ba-dum-tsssh and that's the end of that quest. The item the dad gave us was just a Health Leaf. It's worth noting that you don't actually have to do this. The kid says in the cave he can get himself home if you don't offer to take him. You never get to find out if he made it, mind you, so I guess this is more for your clear conscience and the free leaf. Well now all I guess I have to do is go here...  and smack the guy over the head multiple times asking why in the world he thought the Eggman device could be a coffee maker.  So talk, old man, and give me my gizmo. : If it isn't Sonic the Hedgehog and his little buddies! : Fantabulous! Splendid! And as promised, here is that blasted machine.: I hope you find some use for it. I certainly didn't!: Look, Sonic! It's another Eggman device. No wonder the old man couldn't get it to make coffee!Tails I thought we had established that a while back. For a guy who can make a fully functional robot, you really are dumb sometimes, Tails. : These devices have a few things in common. Let's see if we can find a couple more.: We better keep looking for Eggman. Let's go. Pictured: Something that is easily mistaken for a coffee machine. Anyway, that wraps up our business here, so now all that's left is to journey to Mystic Ruins. But of course first that means we have to venture over to HQ to switch Big into the active roster since he's the only one who can really get through the Mystic Ruins right now...  Sorry, Amy, you're off the squad for now. Knuckles gets to stick around because he's the newer guy. Anyway, let's hit the plane! Like immediately after exiting the plane though...  Huh. That's new.  Yup, definitely guessing that's not indigenous to the region. Robodillo HP: 90 Special Attacks: Cyclone (doesn't cause a status effect, just hurts more) Difficulty Level: 5/10 Notes: Robodillos are robotic armadillos. We've killed plenty of armadillos and plenty of robots but together they're a minor annoyance to be reckoned with! The real pain in the rear end of the robodillo comes in the fact that it self-repairs like so many other robots, but they tend to move in large packs, which means you have to knock all of them out in the same turn, which can be a real pain in the rear end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6a5nc6Siw I really could've ended that faster if I just broke down and used Big's Froggy Rain attack when all their health was low, but at this phase in the game I had gotten really obsessed with having everybody's HP/PP at max all the time. Don't worry, this OCD gets out of my system soon. Anyway, hey, a robotic armadillo, that's a little out of the ordinary, huh? Turns out Sonic's team actually takes notice of this.  : That animal seemed to be... roboticized.No poo poo.  Side note: "Roboticized" is one of the silly words the cartoons and comics made up back in the 90s! Tie-ins to Sonic lore all over the place!  : Looks like we were right about Eggman being involved.: The signal doesn't stop here, Sonic. We have to keep following it to find the source. Wait, what signal are we following?  Note the lack of an objective star. Humorously, the robodillo isn't a scripted encounter, but the game reacts like it is, telling you to go follow a signal you don't actually have. More humorously, it gives you said signal...  ...literally two steps later. You could probably get the signal without even encountering the robodillo though, although I've never been able to get around the little bugger personally. Anyway, now we have our objective, let's head northwest .  Oh, Big, you fume-breathing cad. Anyway, in this room we have  ...more robodillos  : Sonic! Look out!: I think the signal is coming from the big one!: I'll take care of it!This one actually does come at us in a scripted sequence. The fight isn't any different though. Just another 4 robodillos. The only thing that's different this time around is that I wise up and stop getting so stingy about POW points...  Frogs - 1, Robots with spikes on their backs - 0.  : Look, Sonic! That box on the leader's head is an Eggman device. That must be what turned these animals into robots!: That must be what our tracker detected!: Hm. I can't tell what it's used for. Maybe I can examine it some other time. And with that we get another Eggman device. We also get the Chao egg in the room and raid those boxes. The one on the right has health items. The one on the left has...  more bitchin footwear. Next on our tour, we head down south back to that fan puzzle that let us get in to the Marauder hideout and  As soon as we reach the guy that offered to help with the puzzle, the Eggman tracker goes off again, and tells us the objective is... well, at the fan puzzle. Oh God we're not gonna have to do a puzzle are we?  Oh nooooo wait thank God, the game takes control here.   How long have you been perched there?    So here's something interesting. The little "talk to your team" option is sometimes contextual to your team! Sometimes it's not and you'll just talk to Tails/Amy/other characters regardless of whether they're actually on your team or not. But in this case it is! I'll try the best I can throughout the course of the LP to get every character's reaction to prompts like these. No promises though, because a lot of conversations like this occur a long way out from a base where switching characters is possible. Anyway, let's just play this as if I have everybody with me at the same time. What should we do, guys? : I don't know, Sonic. Why would Shadow set off the tracker like this?: We can take him, but it'd be a waste of time. : Thanks, Sonic!: Let's just go, Sonic!: Must it always be combat with you men?: My face itches.  : How should I know? Are you accusing me of something?: We have an Eggman tracking device. And you're making it beep like crazy. The other option here just has Sonic say that they're going to keep an eye on Shadow. Shadow then tells Sonic to screw off and then leaves, and he drops an Eggman device as he leaves. There's actually a lot of different dialogue options in this particular tree that I'll probably put together in a bonus update later on. They all end one of two ways though: Either Shadow leaves pissed, or... : I get tired of you accusing me of things I didn't do. All right, let's do this.  Shadow the Hedgehog HP: 225 Special Attacks: Chaos Spear Difficulty Level: 4/10 Notes: Shadow's a joke. I mean, he's got more HP than you, but you've got 4 guys, and thus sooo many more turns to get damage in. Chaos Spear's a rough attack though, so definitely make sure to not get hit by it. Interestingly, its two spears will either target one guy or two separate guys completely at random. You definitely want it to split up, in case you miss the prompt to dodge the attack, because like I said, taking both spears is a real bitch, and might actually kill characters with less HP (read: Tails) if you're underleveled. Still though, you'd have to be trying to lose to this guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjo1rp31z9s  What? Don't look so smug at me, rear end in a top hat! I just beat you up! I'll have the cat rain frogs on you I swear!   : Hey, Shadow left something behind. This is what set off our tracker!: It looks like another Eggman device. Hm. I think I have all I need to... Yes! These fit together like so... and you clip this here... and connect this... Yay!: The devices come together come together to form some kind of random pattern generator. I'm not sure what it's for. Well okay... what the gently caress is it for? Hello? Game? ...The game goes from being pretty fun to being pretty horseshit right about here. You're still on an Eggman hunt, but the game's really non-specific about what it wants you to do. The answer is "the same drat thing", but it gives the impression that something's different. Well something is, in that this time the tracker won't beep and lead you on any fun quests occasionally. It's just a boring slog checking every nook and cranny of the map. Thanks to *~LP Magic~* though, you the reader don't have to watch that. We're just gonna cut the bullshit and go to the base. The obvious hiding space for Eggman would be somewhere in Mystic Ruins since it's our newest area and still has so much unexplored territory... however if you thought that you'd be wrong. We're heading back to Green Hill. (We're also picking Amy back up on the way since Big's done with his toxic fume duty).  Remember back here when we first met up with Amy? Down south there's that ramp that leads up to the loop-de-loop. Of course sharp-eyed viewers may already see where I'm going here IT'S THE HOLE IN THE MOUNTAIN. See, go a little up the mountain, actually roughly where the first Marauder threw those boxes at us in the first update, and suddenly   That's not strange, it's pretty obvious why a signal would lead up there. Anyway, immediately after climbing up there...  : What's that? Some kind of forcefield?: We have to get through it.: Hm. I have an idea. I think I can use this pattern generator to match the frequency of the... Yes! Got it!: The forcefield's shutting down!: Wait! Do you hear that?: Laser Sentinels! Get ready, team!  Laser Drone HP: 50 Special Attacks: Evade, Buzz Saw, Full Power Difficulty Level: 7/10 Notes: Laser Drones are like poisonous insects, in that you can totally crush them, but if you don't watch out, they will loving kill you. At 50 HP a pop, Laser Drones should be as much of a joke as any of the other drones in the game, but then they attack and they will teach you why they are minibosses. Laser Drones hit like tons of bricks. It's drat good they're easy to kill because you want to kill them as fast as possible. God help you if they start doing that Evade thing that drones do. Their Full Power attack is an instant KO if it hits. And yes, they self-repair if you don't knock them all out at the same time. So yeah, strike fast, strike hard, do not be afraid to burn POW points. I was gonna post a video because they are minibosses, but then like I said, I beat 'em up. This is about all that needs to be said on the matter:  Laser Drones: The most pathetic, most deadly robots. : Those were definitely Eggman's robots. And they looked new! : We'll be ready, Sonic. Let's go! Well, once more unto the breach...  WELP.  No poo poo, Tails? : This certainly looks like somewhere Eggman would hang out.: This is our chance to find out what's really going on.: We've got company, team. Get ready! Oh what's the big deal, it's just some Swatbo-  gently caress. New from EggCo, Swatbot Mk 2, putting the "Holy poo poo" back in Swatbot. Anyway let's do this. Swatbot Mk. II HP: 200 Special Attacks: Crusher Difficulty Level: 8/10 Notes: Okay, so Swatbot Mk 2s aren't as frightening as that very first Swatbot, but they're close. Mostly because the Mark Twos just do not die. You better hope you have armor piercing attacks to use on these bastards because their defense is through the roof. And of course they auto-repair if you don't kill all of them in one turn, so there's that bit of fun. Also, they hit really hard, but you can heal faster than they can hurt (at least if you're lucky and they're not actually focusing on one target. If they're focused, well then poo poo, you better get an IV drip of healing items or just concede that character as lost.) And watch out for the Crusher attack of course. That poo poo'll do a number on you as well as knock your attack to zero. Really, the Mark Twos are an endurance contest. As long as you can hit harder for longer than they can, you've won. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVs8CacJcuY DONE.  Wait you mean I have to do 2 more of these fights now? Wait, who's that I see running strangely towards me?   : Eggman!: I knew he was still around! I knew it!: You're finished, Eggman! : Don't trust him, Sonic! : Ha ha ha! My dear, I wouldn't trust me, either! : But I am as angry as you are that someone has the gall to activate MY old machines and use them for their own purposes! : It just looks bad, I tell you. I was young when I made those old robots! Young and full of beans! : He's right, Eggman. Everything points to you.: Ha ha ha! Sonic, it's adorable how much you hate me.: But you simply must trust me, my blue spiky friend.  Gasp! Can Eggman be telling the truth? What's Shadow up to? And did everybody just forget about the loving invading alien...things?  oh wow I guess nobody forgot about the Marauders after all. NEXT TIME ON SONIC CHRONICLES: Playable Eggman. Not a joke. TwoPair fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Dec 31, 2013 23:00
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Hoisted by my own petard! Sooner or later, I'll nitpick grammar in an update without loving up grammar myself.
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Jan 1, 2014 04:36
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Yapping Eevee posted:Calling it now: If we have playable Eggman, he's going to need Tails for at least one of his moves (because that's blindingly obvious). Yes actually! I really should've tacked this on to the end of the update, but here's the codex info/moves about Eggman:  
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Jan 2, 2014 06:38
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Endorph posted:Sonic Rush is the only video game to sample a Malcolm X speech for its BGM. Say whaaaa? I legit love the Rush soundtrack. I just wish I wasn't so godawful at the game itself. I still don't think I ever beat it and the only reason I know the ending is because I watched Lyrax's LP of it. Oh, quick question. The general consensus seems to be that people really want me to add Cream and Eggman to the team next update, so the only thing important is who's our 4th team member? Or if you don't want Cream and/or Eggman, who's the team going to be next update? Remember your choices are Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Cream, Big, and Eggman. Pick 3. Okay, go back to discussing other games. I'm not being sarcastic, I totally don't mind talking about other Sonic games. TwoPair fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Jan 5, 2014 |
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Jan 5, 2014 00:46
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XaviortheSavior posted:For those talking about Tails' Heroes voice actor, I have a bit of trivia that may make things clearer: Oh yeah, just forgot to list him.
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Jan 5, 2014 02:45
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Thanks for the PM. It looks like the general consensus is Eggman, Cream, and Big so that's what we're going with.
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Jan 5, 2014 19:34
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When last we left our heroes... Update 5: Define "Completely" -or- Dr. Eggman's Carpet-Bombing Extravaganza.  : Likely story, Eggman!: Not so fast, Amy. He might be telling the truth.  : I have been tracking the Marauders for some time, ever since they tripped a sensor in one of my old hideouts.: So desperate are they that they use my old, cast-off bases as headquarters! They've even programmed my obsolete-model robots to do their bidding!: The sheer nerve of it all! The least they could do was ask!: Ha! But I have the last laugh! So durable is my machinery that I was able to watch them as they worked.  Comedy alternate option posted:: Why not? These Marauders have the Chaos Emeralds. They're as much a threat to me as they are to you!: I know how much trouble you'd be in if I had them right now. Oh, the glorious carnage I could cause! Ha ha ha ha ha! Tip #1 for explaining how you've changed your ways: Don't say how you'd still take over the world if you had the power. Way to make yourself look reformed, Eggman. : Ahem.: The robots we've seen so far have been old models, Sonic. Eggman's too proud to rely on old machines. The Marauders must be using Eggman's old robots to fool us into going after Eggman instead!: Hm. There's something to that. My captors were way too skilled and capable to be Eggman's minions.Well thanks for that insight Knuckles, since you were the one that was so adamant that Eggman just had to be the culprit.  : Well. And here I thought you might have found patience on your little sabbatical. I have charted the flight path of your Angel Island. And with equipment no more advanced than a rusty garbage can lid. According to my projections, Angel Island is being pulled to Metropolis, where the Marauders are based!: The Marauders must have polarized the Emeralds to attract the Master Emerald, essentially towing Angel Island right to them! : Simple! They don't have the numbers to take on the GUN soldiers stationed in Mystic Ruins....: So they decided to bring the island to Metropolis! : But Metropolis is almost impossible to get into, even when it isn't completely ruined!  NO GOOD GUY BAD GUY TEAM UPS : We might not have a choice! If anyone can get us into Metropolis, it's him!: I hate the idea, too, but I think Eggman's right.: It's about time Eggman helped out. Let's just keep an eye on him.: Listen to them, my blue friend. You need me. These three are actually the same three dialogue choices as last time, the thumbs down one is just interesting. But hey, how did Eggman survive that helicarrier crash in the beginning? : Oh, a glorious tale! Ha ha ha!: I almost didn't make it out! But in my incalculable brilliance, I had anticipated my own defeat!: I managed to call a life-support robot, which I had designed just for this purpose, to my side.: The robot rescued me from the wreckage, dragged me to safety, and nursed me back to health.: That sounds awfully convenient.Thank you Rouge, for saying what everybody's thinking. : Since then, I have worked to cobble these defenses and machines from mere scraps, unworthy of my genius.Okay, that's enough backstory  : Metropolis was my most heavily fortified fortress! Laser turrets! Deadly robots! Acid traps! Oh, it was beautiful!: Most of that was destroyed after our last battle. But the Marauders have been rebuilding. : We must travel to the Blue Ridge Zone and work our way to the edge of Metropolis. From there, I can get you into the city, and you can bring down the Marauders from inside.: One problem: The Tornado isn't quite ready yet. I don't think she'll fly us all the way to Blue Ridge!: Then we shall work together. With my help, your little airplane will be able to reach the ends of the world!Will it also be able to seat 8 passengers, one of whom is Big the Cat? Because it's a biplane, Doc, and it's getting cramped, and you're no lightweight yourself. : The Tornado should be ready by the time you're ready to go, Sonic. Just go outside and activate the Tornado when you're ready! Pictured: The face of heroism  So at this point the game warps you back to Tails' Workshop. Also, judging by Knuckles' last comment, it seems like that whole conversation was supposed to be taking place inside the workshop? But the background was still Green Hill? I don't know man. Anyway, we have the traditional "talk to friends" session before starting a new chapter to run through so let's start with Amy. Amy is incredibly boring, there's no option to be mean to her or be nice.  : Right, and I guess he's better with us than against us. We should get going. We have a lot to do.The thumbs up is "Well maybe he has changed" and the thumbs down is "I still don't trust him". Boring as hell because Amy just pretty much brushes off everything to get to that "We have a lot to do" line. Anyway, Tails, what do you have going on?  : I think so. I don't trust him very much, but I have to admit, he's a brilliant scientist!: We better get to work. Just head out and activate the Tornado when you're ready to go!Okay, on that note, let's roll! We leave the workshop and hit the character select screen.  By popular decision, our team this chapter will consist of Big, Cream, and new actual playable team member Eggman. Speaking of whom...  We hook Eggman up with Bombardment for now, since while we will be running into robots, we don't have Tails around, so there's no reason to waste points.  Cream we set up with two levels in Refresh, meaning that she now uses it for free (healing 10 PP while casting it for 8) and a level in Heal. So now we've got her to pretty much give us non-stop POW moves all the time. Cool. (Here are their stat screens if you actually care...)   One kind of important thing with Cream that's easy to mess up is that you kind of want her speed to be low so she can move last, thereby restoring everybody's POW points after they've burned them out. This is something of a problem when your other team members are Big and Eggman, because they are slowwww. It's easy to mess up, because your natural inclination is always GOTTA GO FAST. Anyway, back to action, we got a plane to catch.   True to his word, Eggman has indeed made the Blue Ridge Zone accessible to us, so let's go.   Welcome to Blue Ridge Zone.  This hot track is based off of Sonic 3D Blast's Diamond Dust Zone Act 2. Dare to compare. Anyway, now that we're at a new area, it's time for the customary tour of the new area.  Oh hey, I guess that's where Shadow went...  And there's the rest of town... Now for talking.   : Brr... I'm cold!: Hmph. If I'd known it'd be this cold, I'd have worn my other boots.: I've never really been here before. It seems... quiet.: We don't know much about this place. We need to be careful.Those lines just now are entirely dependent on whether you have those characters in your party. Eggman and Big just don't have much to say, I guess. : We've landed in Station Square. That means that the back door to Metropolis is to the north.s : Let's go!Yes, let's.  Not much to see right now in "Station Square" as long as we're skipping sidequests. Check out this truck and wild west saloon, I guess. Side note about "Station Square"... I'm kind of confused about the name. See, Station Square was a town introduced in Sonic Adventure 1 and it was kind of a big city. I guess they just needed a name for this assortment of buildings? Make up your own explanation. Anyway, gently caress it, we all saw him at the start, we all know what's coming, let's go ahead and talk to Shadow. In fact, the game so knows what's coming that as soon as you hit this point:  It locks you into a cutscene where Shadow and Sonic walk up to one another to start talking.  Whoa check out that sick frame where Sonic clips through the building. Way past  : You can't outrun me, Shadow!: Maybe not. But I can outfight you!Okaayyy then. I guess this'd be real cool if we'd taken the peaceful route and hadn't beaten you up last update... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEr5sDvr__4  Shadow the Hedgehog HP: 350 Special Attacks: Chaos Spear, Chaos Rift Difficulty Level: 7/10 Notes: Shadow's still pretty much a joke. Like before, you've got sheer numbers on your side and will overwhelm him pretty quick. BUT he does have one new trick this time: the Chaos Rift. Watch the gently caress out if he uses it because if you miss the prompt to dodge it, you will get instantly KO'd. If you only miss some of the prompt you have a chance of merely getting a Distract status instead but will probably still get KO'd. It's a real bitch, but luckily it's an easy enough prompt to hit. One thing you might have but probably didn't notice is that I forgot to switch Ferox, a.k.a. the Chao that makes POW moves auto-complete, over from Tails to Cream. Holy poo poo, Cream's button prompts are hard to hit. It's nearly a dealbreaker for me when it comes to choosing her to put on the team (if you don't have Ferox). Anyway, we beat Shadow, what's happening now...  what  Well okay then If you haven't been watching the fight videos I've been putting in these updates, you should at least check this one out, because the game pulls some bullshit and plays that bullshit escape minigame that I showed at the start of the LP with you again. Only with an interesting twist...  Oh hey look, it's not a crate we have to jump over this time, it's Chaos Rifts. No, they're not insta-death, but they do knock off 25 HP a shot to make this battle extra hard. Since you're probably already curious, no you can't die just by sucking at the chase. If you blow unbelievably badly, you automatically catch Shadow when you hit 1 HP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R40q14cm-M0 Shadow the Hedgehog HP: 75 Special Attacks: Chaos Spear, Counter Difficulty Level: Variable Notes: The difficulty of this fight pretty much comes down entirely to how well you did in the last fight and how good you've gotten at the game in general. Since it's just Sonic and Shadow, mano-a-mano, you can't rely on numbers, and if you're down on health and/or PP from the last fight or that bullshit minigame, you're going to have to spend valuable turns healing yourself instead of fighting. Lastly, I HOPE YOU BOUGHT AXE KICK HAHA. This is like one of two fights in the game where the game isolates Sonic from the other characters in his party and makes you go it alone so hopefully you didn't blow your points on that bullshit Whirlwind attack. Oh, concerning Shadow: Luckily, he's done flinging Chaos Rifts (I think? I've never seen him use one in this phase) but he'll still use the Spears and he's got a nifty new move called Counter which is just one of those bullshit "dodge everything" moves that a bunch of enemies have. ANYWAY, that's it, we're done with this rear end in a top hat.  : Have you been working for the Marauders? : The Marauders? Why would I work for them? I've been searching for E-123 Omega. But ever since I got here, these Marauders have been coming out of nowhere to stop me. : Arguing won't get us anywhere. : E-123 Omega is one of Eggman's most powerful robots. Unlike Eggman's other robots, however, Omega was... intelligent. He hated Eggman. Omega was trying to track down Eggman. I've searched all of Eggman's old hideouts for Omega, but no luck. : Because a powerful and friendly Eggman robot is a valuable ally. Even the likes of you should understand that.: More than that, though, he was my friend. And I won't let a friend rust in Metropolis at the hands of those Marauders. : Looks that way. I will join you for now. Strength in numbers, right?: Keep your friends close... : Exactly.: Omega should be in Metropolis. If we make it inside, I'd like to look for him. At this point, the game does its customary thing of stopping to give us the chance to add Shadow to the party, but we're not gonna right now. Later, perhaps...  Well, left or straight? We'll be going left, since the straightforward path only leads to Chao eggs.  Whoa. I immediately regret my decision. Jokes aside, after a couple chapters of lobbing easy challenges like Swatbots at you, Blue Ridge Zone introduces a bunch of all new monsters and most of them are pretty tough! Anyway, let's see the big ol' bastard.  Shield Pawn HP: 180 Special Attacks: Shields Up, Quake Difficulty Level: 1/10 Annoyance Level: 11/10 Notes: Shield Pawns are an exercise in pain. Not because they're tough enemies, but because they're tough to beat. True to their names (and appearances), their defense is incredibly high, making it difficult as hell to hurt them. God help you if they use their Shields Up move, which is basically them curling up like a scared turtle and preventing you from doing anything to them for several turns.  Quake's a real dick move also, because it does very little damage, but can potentially put your whole team to sleep if you don't hit the dodge prompt. However, if you have a character with armor-piercing moves, Shield Pawns are much less of a bother to you. Guess who has armor-piercing moves in my current party? NO ONE. This fight took 6 whole minutes. I thought about including it in the update as a video but goddamn it is boring footage on a rewatch. Also, one thing I realized in this fight, Laser Drones don't regenerate like other drones do. Anyway let's get back to following the  gently caress.  Dragodon HP: 150 Special Attacks: Tailswipe, Regenerate Difficulty Level: 3/10 Notes: Dragodons are mercifully much easier than our last encounters. Just a straightforward beat-em-up. They do hit hard, but nothing too dangerous. Their Tailswipe attack hits the whole party and if it connects you're both weakened and lose the ability to flee from battle. Actually, it will always connect. Even if you hit the dodge prompt, it will do 1 HP of damage, so... I guess try to stay above 1 HP.  Also they regenerate about 25% of their HP every turn. Luckily they don't rise from the dead like the robots do. Okay, let's get back on this nightmare tour...  The billboard says "Come to Klondike". Normally, I'd bitch about grammar, but maybe Klondike's just a magical land where I'm not assaulted by giant robots/animals every two feet...  OH GODDAMMIT.  Raptor Hawk HP: 100 Special Attacks: Feather Barrage Difficulty Level: 6/10 Notes: Raptor Hawks are even more straightforward than Dragodons, thank God. No healing, no gimmick. Of course, the flipside of this coin is that they hit hard as hell.  Case in point They can do a good chunk of damage with their basic attack, so you really want them to use their Feather Barrage attack to give yourself a shot at dodging everything. Feather Barrage itself shoots 4 feathers that will hit any assortment of your party members for at random, but the dodge prompt is pretty easy to hit, so no worries. Moving onwards and upwards...  This man has a sidequest for us. We're not doing sidequests this update though, so let's keep moving along. Also I awkwardly wait for this Shield Pawn to shuffle out of the way because gently caress fighting Shield Pawns.  Further north on our scenic tour, we can see a Chao egg nested up on a pillar. To get to that, you have to go on the straight path back at the split where we recruited Shadow. Also, hey look, a Dragodon.  Until finally, we hit our gold star, meaning we're at our destination. Or we would be, if the game hadn't seized control from us for a cutscene.  : That voice... I know what you're thinking, "That image looks like poo poo". Well keep in mind it is blown up twice the size it should be... still ain't great though. Here's the clip that actually plays with it if you wanna hear that sick 3 seconds of sound.  Oh hi  : You!: You must be Shade. : Yes. I am Shade of the exiled Nocturnus Clan. Turn around now, primitives. Don't make me destroy you.: What have you done with the Chaos Emeralds?!: Don't worry. They're safe. *gasp* : What?!?: She's an echidna!: But I thought Knuckles was the last!: This is... not possible! Only my bloodline survived the wrath of Perfect Chaos! : You can't be the Nocturnus Clan. This is a trick! : And yet here I stand. Now, step aside, or I will show you the power of the Nocturnus! LET'S ROLL SON https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caHkpwnhWxo  Nocturnus Velite HP: 90 Special Attacks: Stasis Bomb, Phase Difficulty Level: Who the gently caress really cares, these are the same guys we've been fighting with different names and more HP. Dodge the Stasis Bombs, Phase sucks, blah blah, we all know what we're here for...  Procurator Shade HP: 200 Special Attacks: Blade Rush, Reinforcements Difficulty Level: 7/10 Notes: Shade's a tough cookie. I mean, I make it look easy  , but if you don't know how to tackle her, you'll find her difficult. First of all, all of her attacks leech both health and PP from you, which is a huge pain in the rear end. Blade Rush, if it hits, specifically inflicts a Leech status effect which keeps leeching you even if she's not hitting you, a la Leech Seed from Pokemon. Plus it hurts, you know. Additionally, she'll call in backup every single turn if you knock out one of her backup guys before you knock her out. She doesn't rise from the grave or anything, so knock her out early and leave her on the ground while you mop up the rest.That fight was enough to level up Big and Eggman. I'm not upgrading their moves yet though, because... reasons. Anyway, we beat up a member of a once thought dead race, let's look into that...  : Stop them, team! : This party is over, friends. You will not follow us. Here's the actual clip, with the obligatory 3 seconds of sound.   PARAGON quote:
quote:
By the way, this little mini-scene with Amy doesn't happen if she's not in your party at the time of the Shade fight. Normally the post-fight dialogue starts here (it still just keeps going from here from the Amy lines). : We have to find another way. : There are railway tunnels that lead into the city not far from here. If we can find one, and it's not completely caved in...: We can get in that way. : There are countless ways into my city! Er, most of which I have kept secret... even from myself!  : Yes... I.... Okay champ, you're the one that just found out you're no longer the last of a species but hey, process your emotions however you want... : The tunnels are off to the west.: The Marauders won't just let us go. We should be careful.: Let's go, team!Immediately after the game resumes, the camera pans over to the left side of the map where the avalanche has triggered an event...  Well hot drat that's convenient. It even parked us right near the gate. Anyway, we know the drill at this point, it's a puzzle.  Yeah Puzzle Guy, we know it's a puzzle, no I'm not gonna pay you for a hint, yes I wanna do it now. Well, okay, there is one funny bit here...   Oh, that Eggman! (cue laugh track) Okay, so this puzzle's goddamn devious because of the way this game is set up. It's so much harder than it should be. Observe:  Now with characters:  What happens here is you get Sonic to press the button, which makes a pattern appear on the screen there.  Then you take your characters and have them stand on the buttons corresponding to the patterns on the wall that will make the pattern on the screen. Some of you may already see the problem here. First of all, all six wall patterns aren't on screen at one time, meaning you have to run around to look at them. Second, you can't see the pattern you're aiming for unless you have a character run up to the door. Third, if you hit a wrong button during this puzzle, the puzzle resets and tells you a different pattern to make. And you have to do the puzzle three times anyway (each time making one more character stand on a button.)  The puzzle itself is really not that hard. But the way the game makes you play it is infuriating. If nothing else, utilizing the top DS screen to show the target pattern would be much better than having to run up and check if you forget, but no, the top screen stays devoted to the map, you know, in case you have to leave and go somewhere outside of this puzzle (you can't leave puzzle areas without hitting that bottom arrow and quitting them first). Here's a video if you care to watch me stumble through it. Anyway, let's put this bad memory behind us.   Let's head on in...  : Won't the Marauders know about these tunnels?: Ha! Silly girl. You know nothing of the sublime art of infiltration. This is the game's way of telling us we're at a point of no return. We're not at the end of the game by any means, but after we enter the tunnel, we won't be going back to any of the game's prior areas, so we won't be going yet. Next update: SIDEQUEST-A-PALOOZA as I clean out everything in the game's previous zones before we take off to Metropolis. Also next update, while he's served us well, Big's going to take a break and we're going to let Shadow join up on our squad of rookies. Here's his info, by the way.   Bonus Content: Sonic the Glitchhog Before the fight with Shade, after she talks to you, she runs up to you to start the fight. All fights start this way, even boss fights. However, with Shade if you stand in a certain area of the map (the very bottom near that little glacier) when the cutscene triggers, she gets stuck when she walks towards you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZNAvYluzWc PROGRAMMING! 
TwoPair fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Feb 6, 2014 |
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Feb 6, 2014 09:36
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Onmi posted:Ugh Shade, You are based off the worst character from the worst part of old Archie-Sonic... So in essence you're a perfect fit for this game. I'm going to still let this stuff play out before I get into the whole Pendersanity-Comic Book-Sonic Chronicles craziness. Please do (let it play out, I mean). Only about one-to-two more updates before the big reveal where the villains tell you the whole plot. Then chat away.
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Feb 6, 2014 15:51
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Ometeotl posted:I think Knuckles swallowed the Master Emerald in a last ditch effort to protect it from yet another inevitable hoisting/shattering. Shao Kahn confirmed for next Sonic villain, since Knuckles will never be a successful guardian and that emerald's gotta get out somehow.
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Feb 7, 2014 02:56
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A note on comics chat: Since it seems like everybody wants to talk about the comics a lot, there is a thread in the actual BSS on this very forum that's not the pun name for this thread all about the Archie Comics line, including the Sonic comics, right here. So I mean, if you wanna talk spoilers to your heart's content, do so... just do so over there for now. I'm not trying to shut down any talk of the comics, it just seems like a lot of people are trying to tiptoe around stuff we haven't gotten to yet and I'd rather not do that. And well... I would rather focus on Sonic games than comics, but I understand there's not much to talk about with this game right now.
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Feb 10, 2014 06:17
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Dr. Buttass posted:The comics were inventing metric shittons of unnecessary characters before it was cool. Sonic has dated a bunch of them but literally all romantical and relationshipical tension is dead because we all know he's gonna hook up with Sally in the end. And just in case you're one of those weirdoes who doubts obvious things like the wetness of water, they've done a bunch of Xty Years Later storylines and Sonic is married to Sally in all of them. Except for the one where weird time shenanigans turned Sonic into a depressed hobo, and Shadow married Sally instead because reasons. At the end of which Sally divorced Shadow and married Sonic. To be fair, the metric shittons of other characters weren't strictly unnecessary, just because if nothing else, it's drat tough to write a world with three characters. I mean, the Sonic comics started back in the 90s when the games' plots were still limited to the instruction book style 3-paragraph stuff like "Sonic is a dude with 'tude who beats up Dr. Robotnik and Tails is his buddy". The Archie Sonic Comics started in '92 and the UK's Sonic comic started in '93, before Sonic CD, so not even Amy and Metal Sonic were around yet. It was just Sonic, Tails, and ... This LP has forced me to go way too far down the rabbit hole of Sonic canon.
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Feb 11, 2014 00:32
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Yeah, personally I like Colors more than Generations. YEAH I WENT THERE. Oh, a quick note on the LP: My computer's actually been out of commission for the last couple of weeks because the graphics card on it got busted, but it's fixed now. Now I can actually start recording footage again and get to work on the LP. Of course, I don't know why I'm saying this because my update schedule is nonexistent and currently I seem to update around once a month so see you at St Patricks Day but no really I'll start working I promise. TwoPair fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 21:39
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