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Hello again! We’re back with another classic SNES Let’s Play, this time with from Enix/Quintet: Or, as it’s known in Japan:  I love the fact that the swords are also slightly different. Either way, Soul Blaz/der is an action RPG from the same people who made Act Raiser. It was released in 1992, a year before Act Raiser 2, and in some ways could be considered more in the vein of a true sequel. You’ve got a deity called the Master sending his servant down to Earth to kill monsters and seal monster lairs in six areas before a final boss fight, restoring destroyed towns by releasing the people from the monster’s lairs. You don’t have the simulation aspect of Act Raiser, but there’s some pretty clear parallels. You’ll also see that some of the game screen elements look pretty similar as well once we get that far.  For reference, the US box art. It gives us no information on who the hell the Freilians are, but Deathtoll sounds intimidating and kind of metal. Not metal enough to stop us, but still pretty far up the scale.  The Japanese box art is a bit more representative of what we’ll be dealing with, to include the ominous monster that our avatar doesn’t seem to be aware of. On a side note, there are also connections between Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma. A boss in Soul Blazer becomes a secret boss in Illusion of Gaia, there are some hints within Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma that those games are connected and occur on the same planet. LP Concept This is going to be a primarily screen shot LP, with commentary and some prosthetic personality added on to the main character. I might consider doing some videos of the boss fights, but I’ll have to look and see if they actually seem interesting. I haven’t played this one before, but I’m not going in completely blind either. Updates should be about once to twice a week since I’ve got a pretty busy schedule for the next little bit. Questions? Weren’t you going to LP Fallout Tactics next? Yeah, still working out some technical details on that one. Turned out to be a bit more complicated than I thought… I may have to pay a visit the tech support fort. In the meantime I'd wanted to do this game as well so I figured it was a good time. Now, about that gameplay… Table of Contents Update 1 Update 2 Update 3 Update 4 Update 5 Update 6 Update 7 Update 8 Update 9 Update 10 Update 11 Update 12 Update 13 Update 14 Update 15 Update 16 Update 17 Update 18 Update 19 Update 20 Update 21 Update 22 Update 23 Update 24 Update 25 Update 26 Update 27 Update 28 Epilogue ddegenha fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Jan 22, 2015 |
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Aug 1, 2014 14:49
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Update 1  “Blah blah, yada yada. This is your chance to do something on your own, so don’t screw it up.” “Yes, Sir GodJesus. Are you sure you don’t want to deal with this yourself?” “Eh, I kind of forgot to put a bunch of convenient statues on this world so it’s going to have to be you. Should be fine.” “But we’re going to have to come up with something for the people to call you when you’re with them. Angel won’t do… maybe… Sambo?” “I don’t think so, Sir Godjesus.” “We’ll figure it out later. Whatever, just go out and save the world. No pressure.” With that intro we’re turned loose. You can see the similarities between this game and Act Raiser almost immediately, but there are a lot more RPG elements. We actually get stats, equipment, and gain experience by fighting rather than by population.  We’ll also be helped out by various Souls in our quest… more on that shortly.  We even get an inventory, including a much bigger space for items. You’ll notice that we don’t have any concept of money (Gems are something else entirely) so it’s not like we’re going to be selling anything we pick up.  We have two options available. Heading up brings us to the save option, but we’ll be heading left to move into what’s basically a tutorial area.   “You’re welcome, by the way.” “Er… thank you, Sir GodJesus. But I’m really more of a bow…” “Sir GodJesus! It’s coming after me! What do I do? How do I use this thing?” “I don’t know why you’re asking me, I only know how to swing it up and down and side to side. Just… hold on to the dull end, and hit him with the sharp end. It’s not complicated.” “That worked… I think that’s the last of them. Is this thing…?” “Monster’s Lair, yep. Looks a bit different, but you just have to clear out the demons and seal it. Give it a shot.”  “Now, I am living on Earth, away from the Master.” ”How’d that happen?” “That’s a long and boring story that’s also kind of embarrassing.” “It’s not that long and it’s actually not boring. There’s a reason I have that long list of ‘thou shalt nots.’” Y’know, I think I don’t actually want to hear this that much.”  “So how do you come in?” “You’ll have to get me gems to power my magic.” “Just… gems? Any kind of gems?” “Does this mean I have my own servants now?” “In.. a manner of speaking? I can only do a few things.” “That’s okay, it still makes me feel better.” So, the Mage Soul is our first Soul helper. Getting him opens up a third option, going down to enter the first of the six areas we’re going to be restoring.  ”This is not a promising start.”Thread Input What new name shall we bestow on our hero? ddegenha fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Jan 22, 2015 |
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Aug 1, 2014 14:52
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Yessss. Even though its successors end up nailing the gameplay better, I still like this game and think it has a good bit of charm for an early SNES Enix RPG. Of course, I've forgotten most of what happens in this game besides "Kill all enemies to progress further" and bits and pieces of the more bizarre plot points, so it should be nice to revisit all that.
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Aug 1, 2014 15:00
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Oh man, I love this game. I'd be clamoring for Square-Enix to remake this one if I wasn't so terrified of how badly they'd screw it up. Anyway, I'm voting to name the hero Michael.
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Aug 1, 2014 15:18
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No joking around. Metatron.
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Aug 1, 2014 16:25
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Oh my this game. My mother loved this game. Never did get Illusion of Gaia (or Terranigma since I'm not European) She always had trouble with a late game boss, but when I played when I was older I realized it's a pretty easy game.Baron La Croix posted:No joking around. Metatron. Agreed.
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Aug 1, 2014 16:34
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Sweet. I like this game, but never got very far into it. Metatron is cool, but I like Megatron
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Aug 1, 2014 16:51
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Charles Barkley Restore the world with Slam Jams.
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Aug 1, 2014 16:58
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EzEight posted:Charles Barkley This. This is the best plan.
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Aug 1, 2014 18:41
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Oh, sweet. I love this game. I'm gonna say Blazer for the name. He's Lord GodJesus' chosen goon to fight across the land, not someone actually important in Heaven.
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Aug 1, 2014 18:56
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Baron La Croix posted:No joking around. Metatron. I'm up for this. Angel's always been the straightman to Godjesus' whacky hijinks and lightning sprees.
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Aug 1, 2014 19:11
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This has something to do with Illusion of Gaia, then? I never quite got that. Looking forward to more marginally sane chicanery from Lord GodJesus and his servant The Metatron!
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Aug 1, 2014 19:16
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Man, I loved this game as a kid. Slowly building up a city/homebase/whatever was my favourite thing in an RPG. We are definitely The Metatron.
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Aug 1, 2014 19:33
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Turbo!
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Aug 1, 2014 19:44
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Barkley! Search your heart, you know it to be true.
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Aug 1, 2014 20:48
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Ciaphas posted:This has something to do with Illusion of Gaia, then? I never quite got that. This game, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma are a loose trilogy sharing some character names and themes. I'm getting major deja-vu with the thread title, did you/someone try this before?
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Aug 1, 2014 21:31
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Added Space posted:This game, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma are a loose trilogy sharing some character names and themes. Same text font, too. Added Space posted:I'm getting major deja-vu with the thread title, did you/someone try this before? I think it's because "Blame yourself or God" is a famous line from FFT and was used (in a modified way) by J. Alfred Prufrock in their FFT 1.3 LP "Blame The RNG Or God: Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics 1.3" , while "Jesus" is from Quovak's excellent "Does Jesus Get Whacked When He's Weak? Chrono Trigger, Level 1" LP. At least, those are the first two LPs I think of when I read the title...
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Aug 1, 2014 21:41
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Kheldarn posted:Same text font, too.
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Aug 1, 2014 21:45
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Kheldarn posted:I think it's because "Blame yourself or God" is a famous line from FFT and was used (in a modified way) by J. Alfred Prufrock in their FFT 1.3 LP "Blame The RNG Or God: Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics 1.3" , while "Jesus" is from Quovak's excellent "Does Jesus Get Whacked When He's Weak? Chrono Trigger, Level 1" LP. In honor of the thread title we should name him Ramza.
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Aug 1, 2014 22:00
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Double Rabite posted:In honor of the thread title we should name him Ramza. I can get behind Ramza. If only there were buttpants.
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Aug 1, 2014 23:38
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Are you sure that's enough armor, Enoch ?
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Aug 1, 2014 23:44
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Hunter Noventa posted:I can get behind Ramza. If only there were buttpants. I'll toss in for Ramza, too.
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Aug 2, 2014 01:44
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Frag it, changing my vote to Ramza.
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Aug 2, 2014 01:55
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Oh man, I love this game. It's one of my all-time SNES favorites. It's got a lot of cool things going for it, especially considering when it came out. Because I've played this game to death several times, I'm going to be an rear end in a top hat and say Turbo, too. 
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Aug 2, 2014 01:56
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Freedan for the name. Why not go all-in with the Illusion of Gaia references?
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Aug 2, 2014 04:06
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Beelzbub or bust.
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Aug 2, 2014 04:28
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If we've got FFT on the brain, why not Yourself? If anything goes wrong, the people can blame him, or GodJesus.
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Aug 2, 2014 04:51
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Hello Micheal, nice to see you again.
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Aug 2, 2014 05:07
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I could have sworn you already did this? I know you did Actraiser, maybe I'm getting confused in my old age  Rangpur posted:Are you sure that's enough armor, Enoch ? Liking this a-bunches. Maybe we'll get some sweet jeans in the next update.
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Aug 2, 2014 05:10
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I liked the Megatron suggestion myself.
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Aug 2, 2014 05:44
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Baron La Croix posted:No joking around. Metatron. I'm a bit biased but yeah this.
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Aug 2, 2014 05:46
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Oddly enough, I was just playing through SoulBlader on my good old Retro Duo not too long ago - got to that point where the only thing left to do is fight the final boss, but all I ever want to do is grind for levels. Guess I should finish it soon - translating as much of the Japanese as I can is at least good practice, although most of it's only easier because I remember the English version of the game just well enough to get by.
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Aug 2, 2014 06:21
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I play through this game about every summer or so. Only Mr. T has enough pity to save this pitiful world.
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Aug 2, 2014 06:36
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Baron La Croix posted:No joking around. Metatron. Yeeeeeessssssssss..... Also, if this get's voted in you should totally replace his portrait with that of Metatron from the SMT series. Either that or Alan Rickman from Dogma. mauman fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 06:59
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Eight character limit? Call him Soulblad.
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Aug 2, 2014 07:47
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Rangpur posted:Are you sure that's enough armor, Enoch ? No problem, everything's fine.
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Aug 2, 2014 07:55
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Enoch! Let's get super-old school!
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Aug 2, 2014 08:10
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Nidoking posted:Oddly enough, I was just playing through SoulBlader on my good old Retro Duo not too long ago - got to that point where the only thing left to do is fight the final boss, but all I ever want to do is grind for levels. Guess I should finish it soon - translating as much of the Japanese as I can is at least good practice, although most of it's only easier because I remember the English version of the game just well enough to get by. Without spoiling things, did you notice any major differences between the two versions?
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Aug 2, 2014 11:27
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Mega64 posted:Without spoiling things, did you notice any major differences between the two versions? Definitely nothing major - possibly a few differences in dialogue due to space constraints or Nintendo's censorship (like some people may have been drinking alcohol), but nothing that stood out to me.
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Aug 2, 2014 13:30
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I'm all for Metatron.
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Aug 2, 2014 14:58
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