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Wounded Land posted:If you pronounce Viletta wrong, you go from an unusual human name to "oh she's the bad guy in some terrible 80s kid's show about love and friendship and cereal." Well, I mean, this is Super Robot Wars, and she just joined Ingram in secretly being an alien all along. So she basically is the bad guy in some terrible 80s kid's show about love and friendship and KataraniSword fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Mar 15, 2015 |
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Mar 15, 2015 23:48
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KataraniSword posted:True, but it's a surname, and Vadim, while potentially a given name, is strictly masculine. That said, "Vadim Beretta" would probably fit the naming scheme just as well, if they chose to take it that way. It would make the "I'm related to Ingram" reveal make a little less sense, though. It certainly could be, given that in Alpha 3 you have a couple similar characters named Macready (The Thing), and then in 2nd OG there's another one named Barton (Big Trouble in Little China).
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Mar 17, 2015 13:55
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Oh great. So they're taking humans as psychic batteries?
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Mar 22, 2015 18:23
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Mission 31 Masaki has passed Ryusei up on the killboard. This is a good thing, since the extra five starting morale means he can Cyflash that much sooner.  Ingram dropped something very special last mission: a High-Performance Cybernetic Brain. It gives you an extra two squares of movement, +25 to mobility, +20 to your hitrate, and an additional +1 to all of your weapons' ranges (aside from weapons that only have 1 range in the first place). In pretty much any other game, this item is a Haro, Amuro Ray's toy companion from Mobile Suit Gundam. It is one of the best items ever. Anyway, I throw it on Cybuster, since Masaki's been good-but-not-great in all of those categories (except movement) and can make full use of it.  Atad: "Wake up... my beautiful little doll."   Atad: "Your name is Gaza. Gaza Haganer..." Gaza: "....." Atad: "Do you understand me? I am the one who gave you your new body... Atad Shamran." Gaza: "Atad... Shamran..." Atad: "Good boy. Now, listen carefully."   Atad: "From among our samples, you have been chosen to bathe the world in blood." Gaza: "Blood... bath..." Atad: "Yes... you'll find it a most enjoyable game." Gaza: "Game..." Atad: "Now, sleep. You will go forth soon enough."  Ingram: "These are your modifications?" why do you bother hiding his face if you're going to use his name    Atad: "Aleph. You're back" Ingram: "Don't call me that. How are those captured by the Eved-class Megillot units?" Atad: "Most promising. A fine start to our harvest, don't you think?" Ingram: "I see..."   Atad: "Did you bring a new toy back with you? I'll have to make my adjustments." Ingram: "No. Kusuha Mizuha has to be kept separate from the other samples. I'll handle her adjustments myself." Atad: "A Class Gibol candidate? All the more reason to incorporate her without delay." Ingram: "Then they will never attain Gibol class of their own power." Atad: (Hmph... aren't you full of yourself.)   Kirk has finished replacing the damaged pieces of the R-3's frame; now, they just have to wait for the T-LINK System's core to recover. Robert is instantly at Kirk's throat for talking about Aya like just another mechanical part, forcing Jonathan to break them up. Jonathan comments that Kirk never changes; just like Marion, his people skills are... lacking. Kirk brushes it off, being more interested in the R-GUN's repairs, which should be completed the next day.   Something is still bothering Robert. Why didn't Ingram destroy the R-3? He had the perfect opportunity, so he must have passed it up deliberately - but why? Kirk theorizes that Ingram meant to use Aya as a "catalyst," that he was deliberately trying to awaken Ryusei's powers. This might also explain the decision to capture Kusuha...   Whatever the case, Ingram's got us in a tight spot, given that he knows all of our capabilities. Robert disagrees; science has yet to find a way to accurately predict human potential, so we'll surprise him yet.   Excellen bumps into Rai and asks for directions to the infirmary, which happens to be right in front of her anyway. He's already checked on Aya himself; no sign that she's waking up yet. She suggests a kiss from the handsome prince for the sleeping beauty, and Rai responds by heading off to work on the R-2.   Radha and Lune are already in the infirmary, both having worried about what will happen when Aya wakes up; how will she cope with betrayal from somebody she cared for? Radha thinks to herslef that it's more than just Ingram - if he's gone to the enemy, then Viletta may have...   Aya: "U... uhh..." Lune: "Aya? You're awake!?" Aya: "Lune... I had a dream..." Lune: "A... a dream?" Aya: "Major Ingram... he shot me... but th-that wouldn't happen, right?" Radha: "Aya..."   Excellen: "Okay, enough of that. I hate to break it to you like this, but that wasn't a dream. It happened." Aya: "...Huh?" Radha: (Excellen, you...) Excellen: "Ingram betrayed you. He betrayed all of us." Aya: "Th-that can't be!" Lune: "It's the truth, Aya. He attacked us... and when he left, he took Kusuha with him."   Aya: "Th-that's... ugh..." Excellen: "Crying isn't going to solve anything. And telling you it's going to be all right won't either." Aya: "Excellen..." Excellen: "Look, if you want to cling to this idea you have of Ingram, I won't stop you... but crying still won't help."   Lune: "Yeah. It's pretty harsh of us, but..." Aya: "Lune..." Lune: "You're through with him, Aya. Go after Ingram, grab him by the collar, and slug him one - with all your feelings behind it." Aya: "F-feelings?" Lune: "Yep. Least, that's what I'd do if it were me." Excellen: "That's right. We're not samples, we're people with feelings. Shouldn't we teach him a lesson?"   Aya: "...Okay. Go after Major Ingram... and slug him one!" Lune: "That's the spirit!" Excellen: "Times like this, you've got to chin up." Aya: "You're right... thank you, all of you..."   With that settled, Radha decides it's time to teach Aya an asana to soothe her emotions. Excellen and Lune both head for the door, but there's no escape; Radha expects them to join in as well. Aya tries to take a raincheck, seeing as how she just woke up and all, but Radha won't be deterred...   With Ingram's defection, the strike leader position is once again vacant, but Daitetsu has already decided to offer Kyosuke the job. He's surprised, having thought that Aya or Irm would be first in line (and higher-ranking), but Irm doesn't want the responsibility and Aya actually recommended Kyosuke, having enough on her plate herself. Even Katina comes out and says that he ought to do it - if she gets stuck in a position like that, Russell's going to be on her case all the time. (She doesn't seem to care that Irm wasn't offering her the position anyway.) At length Kyosuke accepts, meaning that he'll be promoted to full lieutenant as part of the emergency restructuring.   He'll be getting his first test soon enough; an alert sounds with impeccable timing to inform them of Aerogater troops closing on the Far East Base. This would be the first time the aliens have launched a full-fledged assault on a military facility - either they're changing their tactics or they're after the Hagane and Hiryu Kai specifically. Rather than wait for them, Daitetsu intends to head out and intercept...  Mission 31: The Face Beneath the Mask  Thanks to having destroyed the R-GUN last mission, we now get to keep using it. I swap Leona into it for the moment.   Our units deploy, and everybody's adjusting easily to the change in leadership. (Tasuku's salivating at the thought of being able to win more money off of Kyosuke, now that he'll have a higher salary.)   Ryusei is understandably subdued, so Kyosuke gives him the ATX pep talk: stop thinking and get to killing.  Objectives. Kill everything, no mastery yet.   Here we are. A great big city map, with lots of distance between us and the enemies. Last mission the city terrain worked against the enemies, since any slow and/or landbound units had to either move slowly over the buildings or bunch up in the streets. This time around, it's the opposite; any landbound units will have to go through that little bottleneck between the buildings northwest of the lake, so we're going to have half our units charging ahead and the other half trudging along behind.  In terms of opposition, we have a handful of Megillots, Mishleis, and Zechariahs. Doesn't look all that threatening, does it?   Wrong, of course. Now that we're approaching the end of the game, the Aerogaters are no longer messing around; their drone units, once just cannon fodder, are nearly all equipped with high-accuracy status weapons to annoy the crap out of you and drain your energy and/or morale in the process. They may not kill you, but they'll soften you up for the rest of the enemies to take out.  Also, Leona learns her final spirit: Alert.  Some pilots have super awesome final spirits, while others have spirits that you'd normally expect a pilot to start with.  Speaking of which, Garnet learns Rouse.   You will learn to hate Mishleis, because this is what it looks like when you attack them.  Kyosuke's numbers are so pitiful that your best bet is to armor him up as much as possible and cast Strike (which is cheaper than Focus), treating him like a super robot.   The R-3 Powered's Strike Shield is essentially the same as the original version.    That goes for the animations too. Apologies to everybody who was hoping for another new attack cutin. I know I was!  The enemies take a staggered approach towards coming at you; only the Megillots move on the first turn, then the Mishleis join in on the next, then the Zechariahs. If hitting the drones gives you too much trouble, you can easily end up with a bigger fight on your hand than you expected once the heavier units start moving. On the bright side, the Zechariahs don't have a post-movement attack.   On Turn 4, it's becoming clear that the Aerogaters aren't making any moves on the Far East Base - they're here for the crew specifically. This would confirm what Ingram said about their being "samples" - but the question remains, samples for what?  Getting to the Zechariahs is actually a relief, since you're fighting something your people can hit reliably. They also lack the status weapons that the drones carried, so they're easier to dodge as well. Excellen got hit anyway.   As the enemy forces are thinned out, more arrive - a crowd of Yirmeyahs, off to the side of where the main fighting is taking place.   The enemies seem to be performing better than we're used to - no doubt upon his return, Ingram had them programmed with the team's combat data. The spiders look like they've been optimized for water and land combat as well. Tasuku has a bad feeling - even with all of this, the enemies still probably have a trick up their sleeve. Kyosuke agrees, warning the crew to expect hostile reinforcements.  That's a lot more Yirmeyahs than I have the patience to deal with, so Lune's going to charge in there and Psycho Blaster them all.  I mean, she'll do it as soon as I clear out that one twin and give her a path.  I'll just put Irm on it.  And the Hiryu.  And Ryusei.  And---  Okay, they really were not kidding about these Yirmeyahs being optimized. They dodge like little bastards and they have a surprising resistance to damage.   Anyway, after sending four units after a single twin, I finally have a path for Lune to move in and do her thing.   And that's all we have to show for a Valored Psycho Blaster. An attack that decimated entire enemy formations only a couple missions ago is now doing damage like this. And Lune's stuck in the middle of them, and I'm not placing good odds on her ability to survive a full round of being shot at.    Time for some wasteful emergency spending. Leona casts Valor and eliminates one twin with Metal Destroyer, then moves in closer. We'll have to hope that a few of them will be too distracted by her and Irm to focus on the Valsione. Fingers crossed for the next enemy phase...     Tasuku's hunch comes true as a new mech appears - the blue command unit that retrieved Ingram after the previous battle. (Excellen: "I bet it thinks it's better than the green ones.") Ryusei is about to rush the newcomer, thinking that Ingram must be in it, but Aya doesn't think the pilot is a person. She can't tell what the pilot is, though...  ...And Galuin isn't saying anything to help her.  Russell detects an approaching friendly contact (for a change)...   ...The Gespenst Mk. II Type-R, a very welcome sight (and apparently a surprising one to the alien commander).   Gilliam apologizes for the delay, and Team Ryusei gets the quick rundown on his background.   Masaki: "Umm... Major Gilliam Yeager, right?" Gilliam: "...! You're the Elemental Lord from the report." Masaki: "Masaki Ando. Uh, have we... met, somewhere before?" Gilliam: "...I think this is the first time." Masaki: "Huh. Just my imagination, I guess." Gilliam: "....." Masaki: "Sorry. Didn't mean to weird you out or anything." Gilliam: "Don't worry about it."   Gilliam thinks that more importantly, the Hagane and Hiryu Kai are the only Federation forces to have encountered these humanoid Aerogater machines. Even taking Ingram's connections into account, it shows an uncommon interest in these two ships.  With this final wave we now have the battle mastery revealed: take out Galuin by the end of Turn 7 (it being the enemy phase of Turn 4 now). He flees at half health.   The enemy command unit is the Ezekiel, with a fairly hefty 32000 health, an anti-beam field, and a long-range gun. Galuin himself comes fully loaded with skills: Prevail, Counter, Infight, Command, Revenge, and E-Save.  Of course, he came with a bunch of Habakkuks just to make me miserable. And of course I was keeping the Hiryu Kai at the back of my formation to support my other guys from a safe distance.    Miraculously, Lune pulls through against the Yirmeyah swarm while only getting hit once.    BOSS MUSIC Then Lefina was targeted by Galuin, whose gun was like that of the G-X and whose emission was like that of Wing Zero.         The Hiryu's E-Field means that defending will keep most of the damage off of you.   After our first exchange with the Ezekiel, Gilliam reacts with surprise. Latooni has noticed it as well - there's something familiar about the mech's maneuvers. But surely, this is the first time we've encountered it...   The Hiryu manages to weather the assault from the newcomers by defending, but its energy reserves won't last for another turn of this.    I can feel my willpower draining away just looking at all these Habakkuks, and Masaki's out of energy. A quick Renew from Aya takes care of that, though.   Masaki does a Cyflash to soften the latest wave up.   We end up with Rio, Kyosuke, Rai, and Excellen continuing to focus on the Zechariahs while everybody else goes to work on the Habakkuks.     Their general HP-blobbiness means that even post-Cyflash it takes a couple of attacks like these to bring each squad down, so we want as many people on the job as possible.   Case in point, this guy on the right was outside of the Cyflash's range. It ended up taking a Chakram from Bullet supported by a Cross Smasher from Garnet followed by another Cross Smasher to bring it down. Multiply that by about fifteen or so and you have your average fight against a squad of Habakkuks. And then they start sending ones with more health.  By the end of the turn we're still only about halfway through them.   The Hiryu runs out of energy after a couple more hits, but still is able to carry through, then gets a Renew from Aya afterward.  We make short work of the rest immediately after.   At this point I just started popping Valor on my guys to make it go faster.  Then there's just Galuin. Thankfully, the Ezekiel doesn't have much in the way of defensive abilities, just a lot of health.   Irm puts a large dent in it with Darkness Blade.      Then Masaki and Ryusei finish it off with a Valored Cosmo Nova/T-Link Knuckle combo.  Really, the R-1 doesn't hold a candle to a lot of other mechs in terms of damage, but drat if I'm not going to show off that pose whenever possible.   Galuin doesn't have much to say about losing.   Here's what I'm talking about with pilot spirits. Masaki's ultimate spirit is Strike, something most pilots had a long time ago. Ryusei's ultimate spirit is Zeal, which lets him move a second time this turn.  Anyway,  With Galuin destroyed, the mission abruptly ends. Kyosuke version:   On Kyosuke's route, Gilliam arrives with a bit of a surprise - the PTX-001, the original Personal Trooper.  Because we got Gilliam up to level 23 before the end of mission 19, we qualify for the Gespenst Type-R, a Kyosuke-route-exclusive secret. This was your starting mech if you played a Real pilot in SRW F and F Final (before switching over to the Huckebein). Its main feature is its impressive handling, since it's pulling numbers that the R-1 or Weiss would get without any upgrades. Its weapon lineup is pretty barebones, but with a Neutron Beam built in, what else could you want?           Short, sweet, and to the point. I could've sword the beam was blue in SRW F, though.   Gilliam still hasn't finished his investigation, but in light of everything that's happened, doing his part on the front lines takes priority. Lefina and Sean are glad to have him back, though Kyosuke will remain the unit commander, which Gilliam is fine with.    This is Gilliam's first time seeing Kai in a while, and the ex-Aggressors take a moment to exchange a few words. Kai laments that it's been getting lonely in the Federation with Sanger and Elzam off in parts unknown. Gilliam says he believes their old comrades will be of great help to them in time, prompting Kai to observe that he "always speaks like a prophet."   Daitetsu and Tetsuya arrive; at Gilliam's request, they've brought Latooni with them. Gilliam wants to show the captains the combat data she logged in the previous battle from the enemy command unit, dubbed the AGX-12 "Knight." Gilliam is less interested in the mech's capabilities than in its movements, however, and asks her to explain.   She says that she recognizes the maneuvers, having seen them while she was in training at the School. Gilliam thinks along the same lines, and after a moment Kai realizes that he knows them as well: they're maneuvers devised by Colonel Kar-Wai Lau, founder and former leader of the Aggressors. He vanished and was presumed lost while testing the second Gespenst unit.   Gilliam now raises the possibility that Colonel Lau is still alive - and that we just fought him as the pilot of the Aerogater command mech. This pretty much blows everybody's minds, and Lefina raises the much more reasonable-sounding possibility that Ingram is programming the alien machines with the Aggressors' data. Gilliam admits that he's never met Ingram and has to consider the possibility, but at the same time, there's no explanation for why the mech only used Kar-Wai's data, and nothing logged after his disappearance.   This all strikes Daitetsu as strange; with the Aerogaters' superior technology, why would they use a human's combat data? Or... is that their goal? In any case, this is an anomaly, and Gilliam believes that by investigating it further, they can uncover the real reason the aliens are here.  In the original Latooni went back to wearing her opaque glasses in this scene; afterwards, Sean orders her to go back to wearing the clothes Garnet picked out for her and confiscates the glasses. At the end of the mission we get the Graviton Launcher, basically the ranged counterpart to the Shishioh Blade. You get this if the other route's hero had at least 55 kills by the end of this mission. Both routes got it, though Ryusei was scrambling to get his last couple of kills this mission on Kyosuke's version. If you got the Gespenst R on Kyosuke's route, you still get Gilliam's Gespenst Mk. II Type-R if you're inclined to use it. And at this point, Ryusei and Kyosuke's routes diverge once more. Although rather than our two heroes splitting up and doing their own thing like before, we're basically going to be looking at the canon version of events (Ryusei) and the alt-history version (Kyosuke). Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Mar 22, 2015 |
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Mar 22, 2015 20:17
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Gilliam is the best. The Gespenst-R only has five more mobility than the Mk-II R, it's just that Gilliam is made of ridiculous amounts of dodge. And then his ace bonus makes him even MORE dodgy. He's made for charging into enemy formations and weakening everything. Are you upgrading the attacks for R-Formation, Seyser?
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Mar 22, 2015 22:12
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I like the Gespenst R. I like the upgrade it gets in OG2 a bit more. Mostly because that unlocks Gilliam's new personal theme, Hero Senki.
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Mar 22, 2015 22:35
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I remember when I played this stage on the GBA version, I was convinced that Galuin was Tenzan because of the "game" thing. The Neutron Beam's sprite looks exactly like the one in SRWF, which pleases me more than it maybe should.
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Mar 22, 2015 23:25
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Wounded Land posted:I remember when I played this stage on the GBA version, I was convinced that Galuin was Tenzan because of the "game" thing. Atad was waking up 'Gaza' earlier, not Galuin.
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Mar 23, 2015 00:54
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MarsDragon posted:Gilliam is the best. The Gespenst-R only has five more mobility than the Mk-II R, it's just that Gilliam is made of ridiculous amounts of dodge. And then his ace bonus makes him even MORE dodgy. He's made for charging into enemy formations and weakening everything. On Kyosuke's route I will be. Not so much on Ryusei's route (aside from what I already put into T-LINK Knuckle) since I'll probably be using that other mech instead.
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Mar 23, 2015 01:30
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Seyser Koze posted:On Kyosuke's route I will be. Not so much on Ryusei's route (aside from what I already put into T-LINK Knuckle) since I'll probably be using that other mech instead. Combination is a free action, you know. You can actually decombine the SRX, use R-Formation twice with Rai and Aya, before combining back into the SRX to use Aya's Renew to recharge all three R-Series mecha before attacking using Ryusei. GilliamYaeger fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 02:07
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GilliamYaeger posted:Combination is a free action, you know. You can actually decombine the SRX, use R-Formation twice with Rai and Aya, before combining back into the SRX to use Aya's Renew to recharge all three R-Series mecha before attacking using Ryusei. Add in the fact that parts on the R-Series don't count for parts on the SRX, which means you can load Ryusei and Aya up with SP Drinks... Yeah, that and Ryusei's Zeal make it more than possible for the SRX Team to solo the entire game. (I know this because I did it) Everything they do is just stupid spammable. And you get the SRX so incredibly late that it's really just crippling yourself to not make the R-Series into decent attackers on their own. It's not like OG2, where you get it a little after the halfway point, it's way late.
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Mar 23, 2015 02:16
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drat. That's a serious grade up for the opposition. I hope they don't end up annoying you to death or something.
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Mar 24, 2015 04:06
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MarsDragon posted:Add in the fact that parts on the R-Series don't count for parts on the SRX, which means you can load Ryusei and Aya up with SP Drinks... Yeah, that and Ryusei's Zeal make it more than possible for the SRX Team to solo the entire game. (I know this because I did it) Everything they do is just stupid spammable. You can get off something like eight-plus attacks from the SRX itself using Ryusei's Zeal in combination with SP Drinks and Hope, in addition to another two shots of R-Formation from Rai and Aya. Personally I've always pictured that looking like the SRX doing some sort of crazy gun-kata with the HTB Cannon. The SRX is the best one-turn boss killer in the entire series, especially if you've got a bunch of dudes with Rouse to boost Ryusei's Will sky high at the start of a map.
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Mar 25, 2015 13:19
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To be fair, at that point most of the damage is because Ryusei can take a ton of turns and two R-Formations are just the icing on the cake. That said, given how stupid late you get the SRX in OG1, upgrading T-Link Knuckle and Strike Shields help Ryusei and Aya out a lot in the midgame (bit late for this LP yes, but in general), before you get other options. Rai's stuck for a good long while, but when you get it Hi-Zol Launcher (scatter) is a long range, powerful ALL attack on a guy with a solid ranged stat and Hit and Away. There are a points where that can be more useful than just using the SRX equivalent. Plus you can twin the R-2 up with any Huckebein for a +70% crit chance on everything, which is just crazy. I recall someone on /m/ claiming that fully upgraded R-Formation was better than the SRX's best in OG1, but I couldn't find the guide scans to back that up.
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Mar 26, 2015 15:50
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MarsDragon posted:I recall someone on /m/ claiming that fully upgraded R-Formation was better than the SRX's best in OG1, but I couldn't find the guide scans to back that up. I don't think it's better in a strict raw-damage sense? But it's got a much better EN-to-damage ratio so it ends up doing a lot more damage in a long haul spamfest.
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Mar 26, 2015 21:36
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Yeah but when you want that boss down right fuckin now A certain Valored attack is amazing.
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Mar 27, 2015 00:22
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KataraniSword posted:I don't think it's better in a strict raw-damage sense? But it's got a much better EN-to-damage ratio so it ends up doing a lot more damage in a long haul spamfest. Eh, with SP drinks on Aya EN becomes less of an issue thanks to Renew.
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Mar 27, 2015 00:31
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MarsDragon posted:Add in the fact that parts on the R-Series don't count for parts on the SRX, which means you can load Ryusei and Aya up with SP Drinks... Yeah, that and Ryusei's Zeal make it more than possible for the SRX Team to solo the entire game. (I know this because I did it) Everything they do is just stupid spammable. I'm also dealing with limited funds and don't want to be doing exactly the same thing on both routes, especially now that we're splitting off into separate paths again instead of "here's Ryusei's route, and then here's a paragraph about what was different on Kyosuke's." Really for variety's sake I shouldn't be leaning on Rampage Ghost as heavily as I am, but that will take care of itself in a couple missions anyway. I will be sure to do one proper SRX beatdown just to show it off, though. Also there may or may not be an update this week, since my boss just let me know that we don't get enough quality time together and we should spend the weekend deepening our relationship. Also I spent the first half of the week knocking out the platinum on God of War. Having done so, I can safely say that I really didn't like God of War very much.
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Mar 27, 2015 00:42
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GilliamYaeger posted:Eh, with SP drinks on Aya EN becomes less of an issue thanks to Renew. True, but I'm pretty sure that's only applicable to OGs; the GBA OG1 didn't have SP Drinks from what I remember.
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Mar 27, 2015 00:42
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KataraniSword posted:True, but I'm pretty sure that's only applicable to OGs; the GBA OG1 didn't have SP Drinks from what I remember. It did but there were very few in the game.
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Mar 27, 2015 03:42
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Seyser Koze posted:Having done so, I can safely say that I really didn't like God of War very much.
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Mar 27, 2015 04:32
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Mission 32, Ryusei Route Our new toy from last mission is the Graviton Launcher, which has it all - power, range, good accuracy, and a reasonable-ish energy cost. Unfortunately it does have a morale requirement, unlike the Shishioh Blade, but you can't have everything. I put it on the 009, since Latooni has a good combination of Gunfight and a decent shooting stat (and she doesn't need the EN for anything else).   We have a pile of cash accumulated, most of which goes into shoring up our units' stats. The entire R-Series gets its energy maxed out, and I pick up some mobility upgrades as well. Also I hadn't upgraded the Valsione yet at all, which explains a bit of Lune's trouble with not getting hit.    We also have a pile of PP accumulated. Daitetsu picks up SP Regen for his last slot, since he really needs to be able to cast Strike all the time to contribute in battle. Tetsuya gets a couple levels of SP Up.   Then I go around the heavyhitters and pick up Break Morale Limit, which raises their maximum morale to 170. It's not a huge damage boost, but Ryusei, Irm, Masaki, etc. have Attacker already.   Other units that need to be able to dodge get Predict, which gives a 10% boost to hit and evade when above 130 morale.  The rest of the points start to go into boosting their stats, since I'm out of space for new skills. Latooni went from just being near the front of the pack in her shooting stat to having the highest on the crew.  Aboard the Death Star...   Ingram: "What are you, Kusuha Mizuha?" Kusuha: "I am... a weapon... of the Empire..." Ingram: "What is your enemy?" Kusuha: "All... who oppose us..."   Levi: "Aleph Balshem. How are the captured Earthling's adjustments?" Ingram: "Almost done. And I asked you not to call me Aleph." Levi: "Why does that name trouble you so? Well, no matter. Can she be used?" Ingram: "It shouldn't be a problem."   Levi: "There were reports that Galuin Mehabel showed a slight rejection in the last battle." Ingram: "He was one of the initial samples. Not much of him is human any longer. It's most likely a mechanical breakdown..." Levi: "Then I want to see this woman's adjustments for myself."   Ingram: "As you wish. Answer me, Kusuha: what is the Hagane?" Kusuha: "An enemy... to defeat..." Ingram: "And the SRX and ATX teams?" Kusuha: "Ugh... uhh... th-they..." Ingram: "What's wrong, Kusuha?"  In the original Ingram asks her about Ryusei and Bullet specifically.  (...Why? This is familiar... I've seen it before. Was I also... no, impossible. I am a pure Balmarian.)   Ingram: "Answer me, Kusuha. What are the SRX and ATX teams?" Kusuha: "Th-They are... enemies... to defeat." Ingram: "Correct. Do not forget it."   Atad: "Milady. May I send Gaza Haganer on the next mission?" Levi: "His first battle..." Atad: "The Hagane and Hiryu Kai will be a fine test of his abilities." Levi: "Then he will go as this woman's subordinate." Atad: "Ingram's sample?" Levi: "You have no objections, Ingram?" Ingram: "...None."   Levi warns Atad to take care not to unduly damage the harvest; Atad thinks to herself that "undue" leaves her plenty of leeway to do as she pleases.   Ryusei and Rai get some bad news: until further notice, the R-Series is under lockdown, and pending an investigation, their pilots are prohibited from combat. Ingram's defection has drawn the suspicion of the Federation brass, and that also holds true for his former subordinates. Furthermore, while Tetsuya has faith in Ryusei and Rai, he can't say the same for their machines; both were constructed with EOT, and considering the R-2's Tronium engine, he doesn't want to take any chances that Ingram left a nasty surprise for them to discover later.   Rai accepts this as a matter of course, but Ryusei is furious: forget about defeating Ingram, he's not even being allowed to try and help Kusuha. Surely Ingram is laughing at him aboard the White Star...   Rio happens by Bullet while he's practicing sword strokes; he readily tells her that his teacher has instructed him to attain mastery of the sword, an indispensable skill for a true samurai. But of course, she knows all about that; every Japanese man longs to become a samurai! That, or a ninja. Rio silently thinks that Bullet doesn't really grasp Japanese culture all that well... That and she's Chinese. Smooth, Bullet.    Bullet: "Also... working out like this helps keep my mind off things." Rio: (Like Kusuha...) Rio: "Um, Bullet... you know we're going to get Kusuha back." Bullet: "Yeah, of course we will."   The alarm sounds; the Aerogaters are warping in over the Kawasaki district and attacking indiscriminately. Laker orders the Hagane and Hiryu Kai sent to intercept at once... but if they're not targeting the ships, are they after something else?  Mission 32: Strings Uncut   Gaza: "These Earthlings are weak. Are they actually good for anything?" ???: "Gaza... those are not the targets Lady Levi specified..."   Gaza: "Aww, stow it, you drat puppet. Atad gave me all the permission I needed!" ???: "Permission...?" Gaza: "That's right! Told me to kill everyone I saw!" ???: "This is not Lady Levi's will..." Gaza: "Heh! You're just a doll, so sit in the back and keep your mouth shut!"  With the R-Series grounded, some other people are going to need to pick up the slack. I send Radha and Tasuku in along with the usual Ryusei-routers.   The units launch, and Bullet is ready to rush forward and tear the enemies apart. Kyosuke and Excellen have to admonish him that he'll get his chance to rescue Kusuha, and not to make any mistakes before that time.   Gaza: "Ughh...! My head... it's killing me!! Right when I saw these guys..." Gaza: "Rgh... thought you'd show yourself in front of me, did you... Well, now you're dead meat! Gaza Haganer will exterminate you all!!"   Tasuku reacts to this; there's something familiar about the enemy command unit, and he's not talking about the fact that it's the same model of mech. He asks Radha if she can feel it, but she doesn't detect anything...   Leona: "It's unusual for you to take an interest in anything but women and gambling. Perhaps Hell is freezing over." Tasuku: "Well, I'll give you the gambling, but you know I've only got eyes for you, Leona." Leona: "I don't believe you. And in any case, focus on the battle." Tasuku: "Yeah, yeah..." Why are you on the Hagane, Leona? Oh, right. The R-GUN is grounded too.   Tasuku hopes that the feeling he had was just his imagination, while Gilliam intends to watch this command unit very carefully...  Objectives. Wipe out the enemies; take out Gaza, who flees at 40%, for the battle mastery. Losing Bullet is a defeat condition.   Despite the size of the map we're largely confined to the east half of it. We're down in the southeast corner, Gaza's up in the northeast, and there's another pack of Aerogater grunts in the middle.   Enemy unit composition is some Megillots and Zechariahs in front, a bunch of Habakkuks (  ) bringing up the rear... And Gaza's Ezekiel Adom. Galuin on the last mission was just a warm-up; from now on the Aerogater officers will have custom-tailored versions of the Ezekiel (and we'll start meeting the basic Ezekiel as a grunt unit). This one's pretty nasty, with decent mobility, good armor, and a G-Territory, which negates any damage under 1800. Oh, and he's parked on a base that gives him a 30% damage and evasion boost.  Gaza's pretty well loaded with skills, too, with high-level Gunfight and Revenge along with Prevail. Prevail isn't really a problem here, since level 4 Prevail kicks in at 40% health and we'll have to kill him from a higher level than that anyway.   Anyway, we start moving people up towards the front. Kyosuke, Excellen, and Irm lead the charge towards the grunts in the middle of the map, while Masaki, Lune, Tasuku, and Bullet cut a line straight towards Gaza.   The Hagane needs to be level 35 by the end of Mission 34 for another secret, so Daitetsu steals a couple kills here. Also he learns Valor.    After one turn Masaki is close enough to start drawing fire from the enemies. Gaza isn't too dangerous at this range, but that's going to change pretty soon.       Masaki whiffs on the counterattack, then does a little minor damage to some of the Habakkuks.       Between the Alt's armor and its beam coating, the Zechariahs can't even scratch Kyosuke.   On Turn 2 we continue trudging forward.    Daitetsu kill-steals a pair of Zechariahs and hits level 34.   Bullet!    Once a couple more enemies go down (read: once Lune finishes Bullet's target for him) Russell picks up another enemy contact approaching from nine o'clock; Kyosuke warns everyome to stay alert.   Irm switches to drill-tank mode and moves up to help keep the Habakkuks busy. They can barely scratch him, and Drill Attack is pretty great for countering.   Latooni sees a prime opportunity to get some shotgunning in and the dirty cheating RNG hits her.      On the second enemy phase, Gaza goes for Irm, who defends. Still no real problems from Gaza just yet.   Tasuku absorbs some fire from the Habakkuks to boost his morale.  Over on the left, Excellen kills somebody and triggers the next scene.   Gaza concedes that we're not half bad, but he's just getting warmed up - it's time for the main event! Bullet feels a sudden pain in his head - something's coming.   The promised enemy reinforcements arrive, led by the Grungust Type-2.  Kusuha: "Objective confirmed... destroy... the enemy..."   The group collectively freaks out upon realizing that Kusuha has been turned against them. Ingram must be controlling her, somehow; doubtless he knew exactly what effect her appearance would have on her former comrades. Bullet tries in vain to get her to acknowledge him, only to get the same "destroy... the enemy..." response. He starts to panic, but Kyosuke tells him to stay calm and focus on one step at a time. First, get her away from the Aerogaters, then find a way to return her to normal... if it's not too late.   Irm: "Hey, Kyosuke." Kyosuke: "I know what you're going to say. But if we're going to help Sergeant Kusuha, we have to take a gamble." Irm: "Yeah. I just hope we don't regret this..."   Excellen thinks that something else is going on - Ingram would have to know that sending Kusuha out alone like this is just asking us to take her back. Kyosuke relays the new orders to the team: finish the enemies, and disable the Type-2. Retrieving Kusuha is a priority. Katina comments that that's easier said than done...  And we have a new objective! Our primary goal is to bring the Type-2 below 10% health. This will end the mission, so we want to take Gaza down first.   Of course, Excellen immediately gets swarmed by Yirmeyahs and falls under a barrage of 20-or-30-percent-accuracy hits. Time to reload the beginning of last turn and try again.  This time I have Latooni take the position closest to the reinforcements; parked on the building with its 25% dodge bonus, she has a much better chance of lasting out the turn than Excellen does.  This means she gets the chance to use her Graviton Launcher.            And this is without upgrades. As a reminder, the Graviton Launcher has an 8-square range and the 009 has enough energy to fire it ten times without needing to tank up again.  When Kusuha arrives, Latooni fares much better vs. the spiders than Excellen did. After-Image helps out, too.  Anyway, we're caught up again, so let's have a look at our wayward pilot.   That's not too bad. The Grungust Type-2 now has approximately double the health it had under our control, but its capabilities haven't really changed, and Zombie Kusuha doesn't have anything beyond her basic loadout of abilities (Telekinesis and Supports).   But as I said, we need to focus on Gaza first if possible. We can start by clearing out all these drat Habakkuks, so Lune starts us off.     That puts enough of a dent in the rest that my guys can kill them in a couple of hits each. I'll probably spend the next turn cleaning them out and then go after Gaza in earnest.   Turning our attention to Kusuha's team... well, Zechariahs are pretty much free kills compared to the spiders, so there's not much to worry about here; we know already that they can't even touch Kyosuke, and Ryoto and Latooni, and even Giado can fly circles around them as well. Kusuha will support-defend anybody who's next to her, which is a little annoying.   On the enemy phase (only the third one - this mission goes fast) we counterattack Gaza for the first time.        Akashic Buster really ought to do more damage than that.   Kusuha will move constantly towards... somebody. No prize for guessing who. She'll still attack any of your people as she passes them by, though. Kusuha has the same boss music playing as Gaza and Galuin. Unlike when we were fighting Shine, the battle encounters with Robo-Kusuha are spread out all over. I took a stab at splicing them together into one video this time around.       Shouldn't be difficult to bring her down when it's time to focus on her.  We also clear out the Habakkuks and start eliminating the Zechariahs; on the beginning of this next turn, we finish the job. Daitetsu didn't quite hit level 35, so we'll need to bring him out for one more outing in the next two missions.   So, to Gaza. Maybe we can start out by using Rio's special ammo to spike his mobility...   Nope. With the aid of his defensive terrain it can't get through the G-Territory. If I'd noticed that the R-GUN was grounded I would've moved Leona into something else, twinned them up, and used Fury, but not this time.    And that's all the damage that Cross Smasher does. Ugh.  Gaza has some decent dodging ability against your Supers, so casting Strike is a necessity. Masaki's Strike is obscenely expensive, so he's making do with Focus.   Which sucks, because to do even this much damage you usually need to be casting Valor as well. By some miracle Garnet manages to hit Gaza on a support attack; I checked right after this and her hitrate is abysmal.   The Huckebein Mk. II's G-Impact Cannon (not Valored) does a mere 2500 damage. Bullet nearly dies to Gaza's counterattack. We're going to need to hold off for another turn and bring Kyosuke and Excellen in to help take him down, given that we need to do around 17000 damage in one hit.  On the enemy phase, Kusuha finally reaches her designated target.   Bullet: "Kusuha!!" Kusuha: "You are... an enemy..." Bullet: "No! I---" Kusuha: "Destroy... the enemy...!" Kusuha #2: Angry Zombie Kusuha     One more of these ought to do it.   On the next enemy phase I'm sick of Gaza, so I bring Kyosuke over and hit him with a Rampage Ghost (without Valor).  Keeping in mind that the attack ignores barriers, this is still several thousand less damage that it would be doing anywhere else.  But it leaves us in a good position to finish him off. Irm and Masaki twin up for the kill and fire off a Valored Darkness Blade/Cosmo Nova combo.         And it still only just finishes him off. A twin backing them up would've made this a non-issue, though.   Gaza: "I'm defeated?! drat it! If it wasn't for this headache...!" Gaza: "Just you wait! I'm gonna paint the world in your blood!"  We missed out on one line of combat dialogue here. quote:Gaza: "Hyahahaha!!! C'mere, little bugs, I'm gonna zap you!"  With that done, all that we need is for Bullet to do another attack on Kusuha. And this time he actually acknowledges that it's her.  "I can't hit the cockpit..."    "Kusuha! Is my voice not reaching her...?"   Bullet: "Kusuha!!" Kusuha: "Bullet... my... enemy..."   *TK flash* Bullet: "Ugh!" Kusuha: "Aagh...!" Bullet: "K-Kusuha... please, wake up...!" Kusuha: "Uh... uhhh.... you... must die..." Bullet: "STOP!!"   *TK Flash* Kusuha: "M-my head... it hurts..." Bullet: "...!! Am I getting through!?" Kusuha: "A-ah... h... help me..." Bullet: "Kusuha! Can you hear me!?" Kusuha: "Help me...!" Bullet: "Kusuha!!"    Bullet: "Sh... she's gone... drat it! GOD drat IT!" In the original, when Kusuha starts saying "help me" and Bullet tries to get her to respond, she says Ryusei's name. Kusuha goes down so quickly that there isn't much opportunity to see what people say to her. Here's what we missed: quote:Kyosuke: "Kusuha!" quote:Rio: "Kusuha! It's me, Rio! Rio Meilong!" quote:Kusuha: "Cybuster... enemy... destroy..."   The enemies have completely withdrawn from the area, Kusuha included - and there's no word of a similar attack, or even a sighting of Aerogater drones, anywhere else. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this terror raid on Kawasaki was done specifically to get the Hagane and Hiryu Kai's attention.   Some of the pilots discuss the recent mission. Bullet was on a general rampage after he got back, taking his anger out on everyone, but it looks like Kyosuke and Excellen might have managed to talk him down. Irm at least isn't going to hold it against him, considering what's happened.   Ryoto: "...What if she can't be turned back to normal?" Irm: "I'm guessing Ingram wants us to be wondering that." Irm: (Kyosuke's gamble hasn't blown up on us... yet.)   Russell, at least, is keeping an optimistic outlook. Kusuha reacted to their voices in the end; if they did it once, they can do it again. Katina agrees, to Irm's surprise; she says that she doesn't want to spoil the mood. Russell thinks that's a first for her, but doesn't dare say it aloud.   Radha's been thinking on what happened. There was a telekinetic reaction when Kusuha and Bullet made contact; whatever Ingram was really looking for, it has to be somewhere in the Institute's research.   Gilliam: "Radha... you needed me for something?" Radha: "Yes, Major... please, come in." Gilliam: "As of late there hasn't been any issue with my health, but..." Radha: "...Huh?"   Gilliam: "You... didn't call me here for yoga?" Radha: "N-no..." Radha: (...Does everybody think I'm going to make them do yoga?) Gilliam: "...Sorry, my mistake. Then, what did you need?"   Radha explains that she needs his intelligence codes to access some classified data. The Aerogaters' heavier mechs are emitting telekinetic waves, similar to the ones used by Ingram and Viletta. This is consistent with Gilliam's own investigations, and when Radha says the data may have a clue to Ingram's real goals, he agrees to give her the access.   Investigator: "So, Ensign... you maintain that you have had no dealings with the Aerogaters." Ryusei: "Of course not! We only found out Ingram was a traitor the other day!" Investigator: "And you have not been exchanging classified information with Ingram Prisken in secret?" Ryusei: "Information!? Why the hell would I do that after he stabbed us in the back!?"   Investigator: "Fair enough. Incidentally, as a matter of course we also examine family records." Ryusei: "M-my mom and dad?" Investigator: "Your father, a police officer... killed in the line of duty a few years ago. A bank robbery turned hostage situation, was it?" Ryusei: "....."   Investigator: "And your mother... her name is mentioned in the files Ingram left behind." Ryusei: "My mom's name...!? That can't be true!" Investigator: "I'm afraid it is."   Investigator: "ICS Subject #3, Yukiko Date. Admitted SE 163; discharged SE 165." Investigator: "Ingram's notes are quite detailed. Even after her departure, her test data was used in research." Ryusei: "That's... the place where Aya's dad works..." Investigator: "Correct. In addition to developing the T-LINK System, he was the director at the Institute." Ryusei: "Wh... what was my mom doing there?" The Institute's name literally translates to Brain Institute. Atlus used the abbreviation ICS, but like a number of their abbreviations I don't think they ever actually said what ICS stood for in-game. Institute for Cerebral Science?   Investigator: "It appears it was no coincidence that Ingram chose you to pilot the R-1." Ryusei: "Y... you've gotta be kidding me..." Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Mar 29, 2015 |
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Mar 29, 2015 01:10
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The (limited) explanation of what ICS was comes a bit later on, and is (kind of) expanded upon in OG2. Outside of that, the ICS is treated as fluff and practically forgotten after this game. That said, I think it's supposed to stand in for the institute from Zeta Gundam where people like Rosamia came from (forgetting that name, at the moment), like a lot of things in OG.
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Mar 29, 2015 01:42
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Fortunately no one started making cyber psychodrivers...at least not that I can think of. Looking at the dates, it looks like Ryusei's mom left ICS about the same time Aya would've been born, and a few years before she had Ryusei. I could've sworn she left later than that, but I guess not? She would've been 15 when she left. Seyser Koze posted:That and she's Chinese. Smooth, Bullet. She's actually half-Chinese half-Japanese, if I recall. It's in the character encyclopedia, it never comes up in the game. Though I'm not sure how much it really matters, since she's from the Moon... And yeah, this is one of those missions where I was very glad I gave Irm Support Attack way back when. I like to spread that skill around as much as possible and then deathball my way across the map. I'm pretty sure it gives an accuracy bonus too, which is probably why Garnet was able to hit when she was supporting but not when attacking on her own, but don't ask me to give the formulas for that.
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Mar 29, 2015 01:57
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Seyser Koze posted:
If you work for a group capable of mind erasure and control, and you have even the barest inkling that it might have been done to you, the answer is going to turn out to be yes. Everything before coming to that conclusion is just futzing around.
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Mar 29, 2015 04:11
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Montegoraon posted:If you work for a group capable of mind erasure and control, and you have even the barest inkling that it might have been done to you, the answer is going to turn out to be yes. Everything before coming to that conclusion is just futzing around. I personally would wonder why, if she WERE Pure Balmarian, she would not be used to seeing it, considering they did it to Gaza, Gaulin and now Kusuha. And have probably done it in the past. Levi could not be the leader AND not recognize it without being a drastically incompetent leader.
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Mar 29, 2015 06:42
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Onmi posted:I personally would wonder why, if she WERE Pure Balmarian, she would not be used to seeing it, considering they did it to Gaza, Gaulin and now Kusuha. And have probably done it in the past. No you see, she's just so good at delegating that she's never had to worry about it before. Atad and Ingram take care of all that stuff for her so that she can focus on important leader things, like broadcasting spooky messages to the Earthling's government.
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Mar 29, 2015 11:28
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Montegoraon posted:If you work for a group capable of mind erasure and control, and you have even the barest inkling that it might have been done to you, the answer is going to turn out to be yes. Everything before coming to that conclusion is just futzing around. Let's be honest, any form of mind erasure and control worth anything has to include
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Mar 29, 2015 15:35
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She who lives by pushing yoga dies by being mistaken for pushing yoga. It's a sad but necessary existence.
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Mar 31, 2015 04:36
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Kyosuke Route, Mission 32  We start out by passing out a few more skills. Pretty much everybody with a high dependence on energy weapons gets E-Save; people who need to be able to dodge but can't quite pull it off get Predict. Katina gets Break Morale Limit because Katina. Since the Gespenst-R's Neutron Beam is ammo-based, the Graviton Launcher goes with Gilliam this time. Again, no other energy-based attacks means more energy to use for this one.   We start out with the scene where Ryusei and Rai get the news that they're grounded. No changes here.   Bullet's doing his sword strokes; once he gets to a thousand, he growls that it's still not enough and forces himself to continue. Excellen and Kyosuke urge him not to push himself so hard...   Kyosuke: "Bullet, if you've got some steam to blow off, then go out with me." Bullet: "...Huh?" Excellen: "K-Kyosuke... don't tell me---!?" Kyosuke: "Not what I meant." Excellen: "As usual... anyway, suit up, Bullet. We're deploying soon." Bullet: "...Where?"   Kyosuke: "Reconnaissance. Thanks to Ingram, the SRX team can't fly until they've been cleared. Katina's squad is in charge of guarding the ship... so it's up to us to go out there." Excellen: "Who knows, maybe we'll find Kusuha while we're out?" Bullet: "You think so, Lieutenant... Roger! I'll go get ready!"   Kyosuke: "....." Excellen: "Well, it got him to cheer up, didn't it? Anyway, I didn't know commanders did scouting missions." Kyosuke: "They don't. I asked the captains for permission. And I don't like sitting around, either." Excellen: "Alright then... guess I'll go after Bullet."   Then we have mostly the same scene of Ingram "programming" Kusuha. At the end, when Atad asks for permission to give Gaza a test run and Levi decides to send Kusuha as well, there's a bit more.   After Levi tells Atad to show proper restraint with Gaza, Atad thinks that there are so many exquisite treasures among the Hagane and Hiryu's crews - to say nothing of Cybuster.  Mission 32: The White Knight Vanishes   Bullet's squadmates have to chide him about losing his focus during the recon run. Excellen figures it's okay so long as they got him out of that stuffy hangar, and Kyosuke says that sometimes you have to stretch your muscles for real instead of just doing practice swings. Bullet is properly mortified that everybody could see him moping, and Kyosuke adds that if he'd been an attacker, he could've taken Bullet by surprise easily enough. Against Master Rishu, even with a gun Kyosuke wouldn't have dared try the same.   The efforts to keep Bullet focused aren't really working; he confesses that he knows he's not handling things well, but he can't stop thinking about what Kusuha might be going through now. Excellen drops the bombshell that she may come back to them as an assassin, a possibility that Kyosuke also acknowledges - but if that happens, it'll be an opportunity to rescue her.   Excellen: "That's right. Until then, positive thinking!" Bullet: "You're so strong, Excellen. I wish I was more like you." Excellen: "Want to find out up-close how strong I am? *giggle*" Kyousuke: "Just make sure you only adopt her good habits."   At that moment Bullet receives a telekinetic shock, and the trio prepares themselves for the inevitable wave of attackers. Not just any wave, though - the Type-2 is here.   Kusuha: "Bul... let... help... me..." Bullet: "Kusuha!" Kusuha: "Help... me..." Kyosuke: "They're not keeping her prisoner? ...No, something's not---"   Bullet: "Hang on, Kusuha! I'm coming!" Kyosuke: "Bullet, wait! We don't know the situation! It might not even be her!" Excellen: "Nothing you can do about raging hormones. We'd better back him up, huh?"  Seeing no choice but to roll with it, Kyosuke gives the order - aim for the Type-2's legs and try to bring it down in one piece.   And that's our objective again - bring the Type-2 below 10% health, within 2 turns for the mastery. We have a line of Megillots and a line of Zechariahs between us and Kusuha.  If this map looks familiar, it's the same one from way back in Ryusei 7, when we had to disable a couple (nuclear?) submarines. We start out in the opposite corner this time and are going to work our way over to the southwest.   On Kyosuke's route, Bullet and the Huckebein are strong enough to reliably one-shot the bugs, which is a welcome change of pace.   Meanwhile, Kyosuke is one-shotting Zechariahs.    On Turn 2 we're ready to rescue Kusuha, but we have three people and 13000 HP to chew through, so being timid could mean not making the mastery deadline. Excellen starts off with Oxtongue D (or W).   Excellen: "Kusuha! Are you okay!?" Kusuha: "Uh..." Excellen: "Just hang on! We'll get you out of there!"  "Take a V, and another V, and you get Mr. W!"  After changing it to Oxtongue D, Atlus had something along the lines of "Take a D, and that makes it 'double!'"      Kusuha's reaction to being attacked from out of range: "Are you... afraid of me...?"  Bullet's infamous for underperforming when it counts, so Kyosuke will step in instead.   Kyosuke: "Sergeant Kusuha!" Kusuha: "....." Kyosuke: (What is this? We're lucky she's still alive, but... something's wrong.)  "She's not stopping! What's happened to her...?"     He gets a bit overzealous with Revolver Stake...   ...And accidentally kills her.  Oops.   Reloading from the start of Turn 2... this time Kyosuke stakes Kusuha first, and then Excellen follows up with Oxtongue B.  "Honestly, Kusuha! I never suspected you were a bad girl."      Bullet didn't get a shot at her this time, so here's his dialogue. quote:Bullet: "Kusuha!!"   The team's attacks take their toll and the Grungust comes to a halt. Now they just have to get her out, and Bullet rushes forward to do the job.   Kyosuke: "What...? Bullet, wait!" Bullet: "Kusuha! It's me! It's Brooklyn!" Kusuha: ".....!" Kyosuke: "Don't drop your guard, Bullet! Be careful!" Excellen: "...!?"   Kusuha: "Bull... let...? Bullet..." Bullet: "That's right! Just let me open the hatch! You're safe now!!" Kusuha: "Bullet... is..." Bullet: "!?"   Kusuha: "An enemy. Eliminating..." Bullet: "Kusuha!?" Excellen: "Look out!"  This isn't going to go well.   "Goodbye, Bullet..."    They gave Kusuha separate glassy-eyed cutins for when she's brainwashed.   "Bullet, look out!"   "Ugh...kh... Kusuha, that's enough playing around...!"  "Lieutenant?!"   Excellen: "Agh...!" Kyosuke: "Excellen!"   Bullet: "L-Lieutenant! Kusuha, what are you---" Kusuha: "Destroy... the enemy..." Bullet: "Sh... she's being controlled...?"   Kyosuke: "Excellen! Respond!" Excellen: "Weissy's always been so delicate... but that was a bit much..." Bullet: "Lieutenant!!!" Excellen: "I'll scold you later. Now, just do what you can for Kusuha..."  Right on cue.   Gaza: "Thought she was just a puppet. But she came in handy after all!" Bullet: "Reinforcements, now...!?" Excellen: "This's bad... c'mon, Weissy, we have to move..." Gaza: "Well, you've done your part. Time to die, little doll!!"   Bullet: "Kusuha!!" Gaza: "Hahahaha! Perfect! And now..."   Kyosuke: "poo poo...!" Gaza: "This white one is all ours!"   "Kyosuke!"    Kyosuke: "Excellen!!" Gaza: "Hehehe... didn't you hear me? She's all mine now!" Kyosuke: "drat you...!" Gaza: "Now I just have to finish the rest of Atad's orders... Are you ready for a bloodbath? 'Cause Gaza Haganer's here to deliver! Hyaahahahaha!!"   Bullet: "Lieutenant, leave them to me! Go after Excellen!" Kyosuke: "...Eliminating the enemy is the top priority." Bullet: "What!?" Kyosuke: "If we spread out any farther, they'll pick us off individually." Bullet: "I... I'll be fine! Excellen's more important!" Kyosuke: "We have to worry about the Type-2. And while we chase them, another force may attack somewhere else..."   Bullet: "Are you saying we should just abandon her!?" Kyosuke: "QUIET!"     Kyosuke: "Until the Hagane and Hiryu get here, eliminating the enemy is the primary objective. Do I make myself clear, Bullet?" Bullet: "R... roger..."   Gaza: "Ooh, look at you, all fired up. But that makes the fights more fun, right?" Kyosuke: "I don't care about your fun. Get over here and let's get this over with."  Kyosuke: (Excellen...)   Our new objectives are simply to wipe everyone out. In addition to Gaza in his Kyosuke-route debut, we have a legion of Habakkuks and a few Yirmeyahs as well. Interestingly, the Habakkuk doesn't actually perform all that well underwater and can't even use its main guns.   Most of Kusuha's squad was still alive, so rather than charging in, Kyosuke and Bullet hang back and clean most of them out first.   On Turn 3 our backup arrives; everyone immediately notices that Excellen is missing, but Kyosuke won't say anything beyond "I'll explain later," and Irm has to get them to drop it, saying that Kyosuke has a job to do as the strike commander. Like on Ryusei's route, Gaza freaks out on seeing our heroes and Tasuku thinks there's something familiar about him.  With the SRX team, Excellen, and Kusuha all out of commission, I bring in Latooni (Raubtier) and Ryoto (009) to back up our forces. Ryoto's only level 24, so he has a fair bit of catching up to do.   On the first couple of turns with the whole team we focus on eliminating the nearest enemies and having everybody else form up at the edge of the river. Hopefully this will keep the Habakkuks busy so that they don't all come out of the water to attack us. If we can eliminate the Yirmeyahs before they can get a shot off, that's a bonus.   Lefina levels up a few times; she learns Enable at level 34, then hits 35 to qualify for her secret on Kyosuke's route.  Compared to Ryusei's route, this is actually pretty simple. Instead of having to trudge through a city and fight enemies on defensive terrain, you have a big open field and can hit most of your enemies when they're stuck on unfavorable terrain.    Lune MAPs all the Habakkuks with a Psycho Blaster and leaves most of them at half health (the ones that she doesn't kill) - easy prey for the rest of our team.     The Graviton Launcher isn't quite as godly for Gilliam as it was for Latooni. I'm guessing that's her Gunfight skill at work, but not positive.     Radha doesn't have the offensive oomph that I would like, but she's dodging just fine in the Wildschwein(at least for now).    She also left an easy double-kill for an underlevelled Latooni in the Raubtier.    Really, after Ryusei 32 I'm sort of amazed at how easily this one went. Part of it is probably that Ryusei's route is missing most of its main characters, while Kyosuke still has (almost) everybody. Tasuku in particular is actually hitting things, which he has severe difficulties with on Ryusei's side due to the general lack of love that he's received.   Another turn or so and the Habakkuks are wiped out. On to Gaza, who's not parked on a base that gives him a 30% defense bonus or 20% HP regen this time around.   Not mentioned in the objectives (since he's not the mastery requirement this time) is that he does still flee; we have to guess when he does it. I'm assuming 30%, because it definitely wasn't 40 this time around. Of course, I didn't know that when I was actually playing the mission, so I spend a couple attacks gingerly poking at him with Tasuku and Gilliam.   It feels so weird not having Rampage Ghost to use on bosses anymore. I spend a while dicking around trying to figure out who's going to get the experience and how I'm going to pull it off in the first place when I haven't been dumping cash into Darkness Blade like I did on Ryusei's route.   Then I say gently caress it and have Gilliam knock (another) big slice of health off him with a Valored Graviton Launcher.   And I figure Kyosuke needs to work out some aggression, so he twins up with Katina and (finally) uses his new attack from way back in Mission 24: Trump Card.                       That actually did a lot more damage than I expected. Trump Card isn't as good of an attack as you'd hope, because a) it has a 1-space range, b) it can only be used before moving, meaning you have to blow SP casting Assail if you want to use it on the go, and c) it gets exactly one shot, but isn't as awesome as other one-shot attacks like Cybuster's Cosmo Nova. Here, though, it works mighty fine.   Excellen is gone, but with the enemies destroyed, Eun picks up Kusuha's life signs in the Type-2's wreckage. They've recovered her... but at great cost.   The ship withdraws, and a short time later Sanger arrives, cursing his own lateness. Still, Kyosuke made the right decision... and if they are still willing to view Sanger as a leader, he will see that loyalty repaid.   Bullet: "I'm sorry, Lieutenant! If I'd been more---" Kyosuke: "What's done is done. Get some rest, Bullet." Bullet: "Are... are you serious!? This is my fault!" Kyosuke: "We should just count ourselves lucky to have Kusuha back." Bullet: "B-but..." Kyosuke: "That's enough, Bullet. She'd say the same thing. It'll... it'll be fine." Bullet: "..."   Kyosuke: "If not... we'll do something about that when the time comes." Kyosuke: (Be safe, Excellen. ...I have to believe that.) We all poo poo on Bullet a lot, but unlike the heroes from a couple of other recent LPs, he at least knows when he's screwed up.  Meanwhile, not that far away...   Sanger meets with Elzam on the Kurogane's bridge. The Hiryu Kai and Hagane are losing their strength - first the R-Series, and now the loss of Excellen. Most likely this is what the Aerogaters were trying to achieve... Sanger is furious with himself over failing to protect his subordinates, but there's little choice in the matter; they're not in a position to take action openly, so they must do what they can from the shadows.   The Kurogane will continue to covertly observe the Hagane and Hiryu. Sanger chafes at this, but Elzam only says that they must take things one step at a time. They must look for a way to regain the power that has been lost - and Elzam will need Sanger's help to do it. Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 02:26
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Radha's in the Wildschwein. Also, I kind of like this short resolution to the Kusuha kidnapping a bit more compared to the more drawn out version Ryusei has to deal with. It's quick and done with, no need for long periods angst and drama all dancing around the obvious "we'll get her back when the plot finally lets us" statement like a bunch of loons. Of course it leads into the Excellen kidnapping subplot...which only serves to lightly tease that Impact's plot is coming in the next game. And lead to a wonderful moment later on in this game.
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Apr 1, 2015 02:58
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AradoBalanga posted:Radha's in the Wildschwein.
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Apr 1, 2015 03:02
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Why would they even start with the "Kusuha gets captured" plot on the Kyosuke route if they're just gonna immediately switch her out for Excellen?
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Apr 1, 2015 03:19
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Alacron posted:Why would they even start with the "Kusuha gets captured" plot on the Kyosuke route if they're just gonna immediately switch her out for Excellen? Because they still need to get that part of the Alpha plot out of the way (Though in Alpha itself it's Bullet who always winds up kidnapped and Brainwashed and Kusuha has to go save his stupid rear end) and they wanted to give them a Love Love moment. The Record of ATX Manga just has both girls kidnapped at the same time. all of which happens before Shine is kidnapped
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Apr 1, 2015 03:34
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Seyser Koze posted:but unlike the heroes from a couple of other recent LPs, he at least knows when he's screwed up. whichever LPs might these be?
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Apr 1, 2015 03:37
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The whole Excellen kidnapping thing is really dumb, and it's where the weaknesses in Kyosuke's route really show. This is just an awkward way of trying to pretend Kyosuke has something to do with the Areogators (he doesn't. He really doesn't) by damseling Excellen in a goofy and pointless way. Kusuha had all the setup with Ingram and such, then they just give her up and grab Excellen for no reason. Honestly a lot could've been solved if they had just traded Kusuha for Bullet on Kyosuke route, so the Areogators are still going after psychics, and you still do the kidnapping plot point. Or even if they'd given the Areogators some of the commanders from Alpha instead of just Ingram and Levi, who are both very very much the SRX Team's enemies. Drop the kidnapping storyline, have Laodecea or someone make Kyosuke mad, and it works out a bit better.
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Apr 1, 2015 15:36
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Gyra_Solune posted:whichever LPs might these be? Leonard in White Knight Chronicles was the one that came to mind. I was also thinking Kira from Gundam SEED even though he's not in any way the protagonist of SRWZ. So it's more like one LP and an anime tangentially related to another LP.
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Apr 1, 2015 19:28
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You do get rewarded for shooting Kira out of the sky, repeatedly, so it's not that bad! 
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Apr 1, 2015 19:35
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MarsDragon posted:The whole Excellen kidnapping thing is really dumb, and it's where the weaknesses in Kyosuke's route really show. This is just an awkward way of trying to pretend Kyosuke has something to do with the Areogators (he doesn't. He really doesn't) by damseling Excellen in a goofy and pointless way. Kusuha had all the setup with Ingram and such, then they just give her up and grab Excellen for no reason. Right, there was no need for Excellen being kidnapped two times in two games.
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Apr 1, 2015 19:35
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Fortunately this stage is non-canon. Somebody said it's Excellen telling the story and I like that. "And then Kyosuke saved me like a knight in shining armor!  " "
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Apr 1, 2015 19:38
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