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TheLastRoboKy posted:Kyosuke's complete deadpan responses to Excellen's behaviour will never stop being amusing. Yeah, they make a great combination, and somehow Excellen just keeps getting more amazing.
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May 18, 2015 04:54
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Seyser Koze posted:I could make some sort of incisive and witty comment about how pretty much all the women are doing the cooking, but instead I'll laugh at how the world's cuisine divides up into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and "Other."  part of this.
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May 19, 2015 02:36
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I'm a bit late on this, but I'm one of the weirdos who doesn't like the "Kyosuke punks the R-Gun in one shot" scene. It relies too much on breaking the unspoken rule that you don't attack someone during a transformation sequence, and it doesn't make Kyosuke look badass so much as it makes everyone else look worse. Really, that scene would have been better if that had been the moment you got Trump Card (also if Trump card were actually worth a drat, but alas) or Rampage Ghost. Have everyone be all surprised by the new R-Gun, show off an attack, then have Kyosuke go "You know what? gently caress this." and bust out a new attack of his own.
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May 21, 2015 01:09
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 Mission 36: Marionette Soldier   Gaza bitches about being sent out here by himself, with only that gloomy cyborg Galuin for company. Maybe he'll blow some poo poo up to let off some steam...   ...Or maybe the good guys will arrive and give him something else to think about. At Kyosuke's advice, Excellen and Garnet are doing situps to work the alcohol out of their systems. Meanwhile, Kyosuke is stone cold sober, having drunk nothing but oolong tea at the party. Irm likewise claims that he only drank iced tea, though neither Garnet nor Excellen is buying it.   Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Aerogaters still haven't made any move to attack the base, but it still seems so unnatural that it's unnerving to Lune. Gaza's been waiting for a chance to squash some bugs and get rid of this headache he's been having, and is only too ready for a fight.  The mission objective is simple enough: clear the field. In... ten turns. That's almost twice as long as most missions have been taking.  We're back at the Sevastopol base from Mission 27, where we fought Tempest and Hans for the last time. On the enemies front we have a few Yirmeyahs, a bunch of Zechariahs and Habakkuks, a few Ezekiels...  ...and both the Ezekiel Adom (Gaza) and the Ezekiel Lavan (Galuin). And Gaza's parked on a base again. On the other hand, this time he's flying, so he won't doesn't get the defense and evasion bonus on top of the HP and EN regeneration. Thank goodness for small mercies.  There's rather a lot of space between us, so the team steps on the gas and starts moving forward. The Yirmeyahs and a few of the Zechariahs start to move forward as well.   On turn 2 we start to engage. The left wing (the R-Series, Latooni, Lune) take out the spiders with a minimum of bullshit; they're no longer an issue at the beginning of turn 3.  The Zechariahs are a bit more enduring; they're farther away, they're bigger, there's more of them, and they have all this lovely base terrain to stand on. Masaki keeps them busy on turn 2, then unloads a Valored Cyflash on them on Turn 3.  His natural hitrate isn't great with Cyflash (as with most MAP weapons, and the terrain doesn't help) so Aya uses Attune to give him a 100% for the turn. Masaki's Strike is horrendously expensive (30 SP, when most other pilots can cast it for 10 or 15 and Valor costs Masaki 40), but between her Mental and SP Regen skills Aya will hardly notice the cost.   Anyway, the Cyflash leaves the Zechs at roughly half health, making them relatively easy pickings for the my right wing to take out. (That's Kyosuke and Excellen, the Grungusts, Leona - Masaki's hogged enough kills for a while, so I don't need to feed them to him.)  The Zechariahs are more or less wiped out by the end of turn 4, but we just sort of clean them up in passing as we move by towards more important targets.     In the process, Lefina hits level 37, qualifying us for the second battleship-captain secret.   I'd also just like to point out that I haven't spent a dime on upgrading the Lion (as in, the DC grunt mech Ryoto was using when he joined way back in mission 16), and yet Giado - arguably the weakest pilot in this game and its sequel - is almost untouchable in it. It's a seriously underrated machine, and I really don't have any complaints about giving Giado a chance to contribute.    It also means I get to post the game's best music track again.    The Habakkuks are the first real hurdle in this mission, because good God they're shredding the Grungusts. Keep in mind that this is Ryusei's route, where they've actually been getting a decent amount of upgrades.   Absorbing the Habakkuks' attacks with armor evidently isn't an option, so Leona parks herself on a convenient base and dodge-tanks them instead. She actually contributes quite a bit to this mission, even if she gets fewer kills than I would like; her shotgun goes a long way towards wearing down the many enemy twin squads. Maybe she's trying to prove herself after the cooking incident.   I want the Habakkuks dead, so on Turn 5 Masaki moves up and Cyflashes again to wear them down further.   He also takes a chunk out of the Ezekiels, which on the whole seem less dangerous despite being the higher-ranked unit with half again as much health.   Once the Habakkuks are softened up, Kyosuke and the Grungusts can clear the right side without too much fuss. They don't have a problem dishing it out, it's when the enemies get to shoot back that it's a problem. Rai ends up being the one taking point on the left side, which pays off in a way I didn't expect.      That's just the R-2's Hi-ZOL Launcher. No Valor, no nothing except a bunch of money spent on it because it makes R-Formation stronger. As you can see, it wasn't exactly money wasted. I don't think the left wing will be having any problems with the Habakkuks.   On turn 5 we finish the Habakkuks and get in position to take out the final targets - the two bosses and their Ezekiel cohorts. (Actually, the generic Ezekiels are a minor distraction at best. At this point they're just Zechariahs with around twice as much health, so you just have to stake them that much harder. No big deal.)   We'll take Gaza out first. Though he takes the first shot. Okay, actually it's the second and this conversation is from earlier, when we were still wading through the Habakkuks.   Gaza: "C'mon, let's have some fun! A good battle gets the blood boiling!" Ryusei: "!?" Rio: "Ryusei... doesn't he seem familiar?" Ryusei: "Yeah... like Tenzan... Tenzan Nakajima."   Masaki: "You're kidding. He died when we wiped out the DCs." Excellen: "Maybe it's a ghost? Or maybe he has a twin brother?" Masaki: "Why the hell would he have an alien twin brother!?" Radha: (Could it be...)    Ouch.    Irm gets some of his own back, though.    Kusuha attacks next, supported by Irm again. I ended up sticking the Hyper Jammer on her Grungust, which pays off a bit here. With her Guard as cheap as it is, though, I may have been better off putting it on Irm and swapping some armor onto her instead.  Kusuha did less damage than I would like, but she's a tad underleveled. It's still enough to get Tenzan's attention:   Gaza: "Not bad... not bad, for a bunch of primitive monkeys! Thanks to you, this game just got a whole lot better. I'm gonna have to get serious!" Masaki: "Game?" Ryusei: "No way... could it really be him?" Gilliam: (If our suspicions about the Aerogaters' goals are correct, it's a strong possibility...)  "Getting serious" means casting Spirit. Not that it'll help him much, he's going down this turn.   We're on a roll, so Excellen slams him with a Rampage Ghost next.  This knocks Gaza below another event threshold...   Gaza snarls that we just don't give up. A moment later, he's overcome by a renewed bout of pain in his head. At first Radha thinks it might be telekinetic feedback, like what Aya has been suffering - but then she realizes that it's impossible; there've been no TK signals from Gaza's machine.   Gaza: "F-loving bastards...! Twice was bad enough, but you think you can do this to me three times and get away with it?!" Latooni: "Three times? But we've only fought that frame twice..." Gaza: "Th... that's it! This time, you're gonna pay! I don't care what Levi and Atad said, everybody here is dead meat!"   And a bunch of MAPWs are launched.   Their destructive power is catastrophic, and would represent a total shift in the Aerogaters' willingness to target Federation bass directly. As Gaza cackles that once these go off, maybe his headache will go away, it becomes clear that he's acting on his own. He doesn't care; we're all going to die at Neviim anyway, so what's the different if it happens a ittle sooner?  Without missing a beat, Kyosuke gives the order to disable the missiles - and carefully.  A half-dozen  But hey, they're way off in the corner, so I have time to kick the bosses around before they become an issue.   In any case, Kyosuke's in a good position to finish Gaza off, but he has plenty of levels. The same is not true for Kusuha, so Lefina tosses her an extra turn and she moves over to finish the job.      Even with Love cast she still can't do enough to finish him, but Kyosuke's there for support.   Gaza: "Wh... what is this...!? I... I know this feeling... from a long time ago...! What the hell! Where do I know you from!? Agh... my head...! Tch, I'm outta here!"   Sweet, sweet XP. Just Galuin to deal with now. And a couple Ezekiels nobody cares about. Oh, and those nuclear missiles.   When anybody attacks Galuin (I'm rewinding a little bit, he tried to take Lune out a turn or two ago), Latooni and Gilliam note (again) that his movements are just like those of Colonel Lau. Galuin is silent...   : "GES... PENST..."...Until you attack him with a Gespenst. I pretty much brought Gilliam along just for that one line. Other people will be doing the work here.        People like Aya supported by Lefina.  And then Rai.  And then Masaki. He doesn't have enough SP left for another Valor, but Cosmo Nova's up to the task.  At this point I want to farm some more experience into low-leveled people (Leona and Lune, in this case), but here's where things get aggravating. Between his barrier and level-5 Prevail, Galuin takes relatively little damage from anything that's not a giant finisher now. The Wildschwein's disk slicer only does around 3000 or less damage, with Valor. With the 40% damage penalty due to being a twin supporter, Lune will be lucky even to get through the barrier.   I ping him a couple times with other people, then I break down and savescum the hell out of him until Leona and Lune both land their 70% hits. You caught me again.  Galuin:    More sweet experience.  So, about those nukes. They have 5000 HP, and actually have a pretty powerful melee attack if they close to one square away (as you might expect, I guess). If they get to attack the Hiryu, we're in trouble. If we hit them too hard, we're also in trouble, and that's a lot more likely now than it was way back in Kyosuke 6 when the Weissritter was making its debut and we had to do the same thing.  Thankfully, we have Ryoto. He's done literally nothing this mission - the R-GUN isn't all that speedy and he doesn't have Accelerate - but by now he's made his way over there.  This is useful because he knows Mercy, a spirit we haven't had much reason to show off yet. Behold, while I gently smite these nuclear missiles into oblivion with the Shishioh Blade.    If you've cast Mercy and are poised to finish off a weaker enemy, instead of killing them you'll leave them with ten health. It's a great sanity-saver here, since you can just go all-out with a powerful weapon instead of trying to slowly ping the missiles into the red zone.   Of course, there are six nukes and only one Ryoto, so we improvise a bit. He hits one, casts Zeal for an extra turn, hits another, Zeals again, hits a third, then gets a free turn from Latooni to hit another.  He takes out another on the next turn, and we're tapped out for extra moves. However, Sean has Mercy as well, so I figure Aya can use her laser cannon to soften the last one up and the Hiryu can finish the job next turn...   ...but hey, that works too.  And that's the mission.   Gilliam reports his suspicions to the captains about Galuin's response to seeing a Gespenst, and breaks the idea that the alien commander is actually Kar-Wai Lau. Stuff we saw not too long ago with Kyosuke, in other words.   Back at the base, it's finally time; the briefing for Operation SRW will be in only two hours. It's the final countdown... (insert music video here)    It wouldn't be the tense moment before an operation without some comment from Excellen. She says their situation is like manaita no ue de koi (まな板の上で恋), "love on a cutting board." Which doesn't make sense, so Ryusei tells her it's manaita no ue ni koi (まな板の上に来い), "come to the cutting board." Then Masaki has to tell them both that it's manaita no ue no koi (まな板の上のコイ), "like a carp on a cutting board," referring to an essentially doomed situation.How they can tell the first two were wrong when Atlus did away with the entire passage by having Excellen say "gee, I don't even have a witty remark this time" to which Ryusei responds "this time?" and comic hijinks ensue. That's it for today... but before we go, a very, very special intermission skit. quote:
Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 21:11 on May 23, 2015 |
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May 21, 2015 05:38
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Nicely done, Leona.
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May 21, 2015 15:29
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Wounded Land posted:Nicely done, Leona. She's not taking anyones poo poo. I mean really do you think that Katina would let the potential girlfriend of one of her subordinates not be as equal a hardass as she is? Katina probably put a poster in Leona's room reading "What would Katina do?"
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May 21, 2015 15:37
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Onmi posted:She's not taking anyones poo poo. I mean really do you think that Katina would let the potential girlfriend of one of her subordinates not be as equal a hardass as she is? Katina probably put a poster in Leona's room reading "What would Katina do?" Let's be honest, Katina would put that poster in everyone's room.
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May 21, 2015 20:13
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Seyser Koze posted:It wouldn't be the tense moment before an operation without some comment from Excellen. She says their situation is like manaita no ue no koi (まな板の上で恋), "love on a cutting board." Which doesn't make sense, so Ryusei tells her it's manaita no ue no koi (まな板の上に来い), "come to the cutting board." Then Masaki has to tell them both that it's manaita no ue no koi (まな板の上のコイ), "like a carp on a cutting board," referring to an essentially doomed situation. I don't speak or read Japanese, but my rikaikun extension for Chrome is telling me that the'yre not the same spoken aloud, and I can tell from the hiragana that it's right. The first is "manaita no ue de koi", and the second is "manaita no ue ni koi".
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May 21, 2015 21:05
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Onmi posted:She's not taking anyones poo poo. I mean really do you think that Katina would let the potential girlfriend of one of her subordinates not be as equal a hardass as she is? Katina probably put a poster in Leona's room reading "What would Katina do?"
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May 21, 2015 22:36
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AradoBalanga posted:That probably explains Russel's sky high defense stat as well. Russel is highly trained in the art of Katina-wrangling. He's had a lot of practice taking hits.
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May 21, 2015 23:41
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AweStriker posted:I don't speak or read Japanese, but my rikaikun extension for Chrome is telling me that the'yre not the same spoken aloud, and I can tell from the hiragana that it's right. Whoops! You're right, the prepositions are different, and really obviously so too. No idea what I was thinking. Something involving "let's wrap up the update for this boring mission already so I can go to sleep," probably.  Koi (love, come (conjugated), and carp) is the same, which is what I was driving at. Ah well. Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 03:04 on May 22, 2015 |
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May 22, 2015 02:56
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...yeah, that mission was quintessential SRW. "Yeah, you just have to clear this map nice and slow, so be careful and OH gently caress THERE'S NUKES".
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May 23, 2015 08:54
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Kyosuke Route, Mission 36  Atad is furious over Ingram having lost another sample; she's beginning to doubt that he's actually under the Judecca's control. And at the same time, Beth - or rather, Viletta - still hasn't returned from her reconnaissance mission...   Gaza comes up to her and demands to know what's wrong with his head; he doesn't want to break off another battle because of the pain. She tells him to be patient, as he's still awakening. When that doesn't satisfy him, she decides to make use of his talents - to replace the samples Ingram lost.   He wants to know why they're wasting time catching people instead of killing them, and Atad responds that he doesn't yet understand Neviim's purpose. It's a kibbutz for the nurturing of specimens - and for that reason, they need new samples. Luckily, she has one in mind.    Garnet hatches her plan to throw a party and take everybody's mind off the coming battle (this time to celebrate Excellen's return.) The captains have already given their permission, with the stipulation that alcohol is forbidden. There's some concern over whether they'll have enough ingredients for all the dishes everybody wants to prepare, but Elzam has it covered, being only too happy to open the Kurogane's pantry for them.   Rio asks Leona to help out, since she's so good at everything; she tries to beg off, but gives in when Elzam advises her to go; if she watches carefully, she'll be able to learn a great deal. This gets Tasuku all excited, because he's an idiot.   Katina asks if anybody knows how Excellen's doing; Russell says her exam didn't turn up anything unusual, but...   Excellen: "Uh... uhh..." Kyosuke: "Excellen, you're awake?" Excellen: "...um, Kyosuke? How long have you been here?" Kyosuke: "Don't worry. The exam gave you a clean bill of health, but we shouldn't take chances."   Excellen: "Would it be better if I floated off the bed and my head spun around?" Kyosuke: "No, but I'm here if it happens." Excellen: "Heheh... same old Kyosuke."   Excellen: "Um, Kyosuke... when I was hypnotized, did I say anything... weird?" Kyosuke: "Weird?" Excellen: "Uh. Well, um... y'know." Kyosuke: "You mean how only Ingram can understand your loneliness? That sort of thing?" Excellen: "Oh, God. Really...?" Kyosuke: "Sergeant Kusuha didn't remember anything from when she was taken. Do you?" Excellen: "Um... maybe. But I'd rather keep it to myself."   Excellen: "Don't tell anybody, okay? Kyo- ow." Excellen: "I love hugs and all, but that hurts..."   Kyosuke: "I can't read minds, and I can't know everything you're thinking. This time, things turned out all right. But there's no guarantee we'll get lucky a second time. I don't want this happening again." Excellen: "...Okay."   The party commences, and Giado's wowed everybody with his singing again. Hearing that he was planning to make his professional debut before he enlisted, Excellen turns to Kyosuke and asks what he can boast about. Kyosuke replies that nobody's broken more prototypes than him (not quite what they had in mind). When the food is brought out, Elzam's cooking steals the show. Sanger tells everyone that his culinary skills were renowned amongst the colonial forces; he had a tradition of preparing a feast for his men on the eve of an operation, one which made him quite well-loved by the troops. It's a talent Sanger doesn't have (though Tasuku says he could picture him slicing sashimi in midair).  Kusuha and Aya bring out the next courses. Excellen admonishes Kusuha for working, given that it's a party for her safe return as well, but she says she can't just sit by and not help out. Excellen brightly replies that they'd be fine just with cup ramen, so not to worry. This has Aya worried about Kyosuke's health, but he doesn't seem too concerned.   Bullet: "Tasuku, you're up next. Ready?" Tasuku: "Just a minute..." Leona:  Tasuku: "There she is! The line for Leona's cooking starts right behind me! Time to dig in!" Leona: "W-wait...!"   Tasuku: "Huh? This taste's a bit..." Bullet: "H-hey, Tasuku? Your color's looking a bit..." Tasuku: "Urp!? Wh... what... is this...?" Leona: "Ah... ahh..."   Tasuku: "Q... quick... I need a drink!" Kusuha: "Here, Tasuku! It's a health drink I made..." Aya: "Huh?! No, wait!!" You're doing God's work, Kusuha.    Tasuku: "*glug* *glug*" Tasuku: "Phew..."   Tasuku: "...............Bullet." Bullet: "Are you... okay?" Tasuku: "Postpone my magic show. Radha can do some yoga first." Bullet: "What?!"   Tasuku: *thud* Bullet: "W-what the... holy crap, he's foaming at the mouth!"   They rush him off to the infirmary (ignoring Katina, who says it must be part of the magic show and they should just watch); it appears the one-two punch of Leona's cooking and Kusuha's health drink were just too much for him.   Kuro and Shiro come in, looking for Masaki. They tried to get him to come to the party, but he was muttering about how this is no time to relax. This brings Kyosuke up short; they only just recovered Kusuha and Excellen, and that was a lucky break. If Masaki's planning to go out on his own, it can't be tolerated. He tells the cats to find him and make sure he stays on the ship, with the threat that he'll make guitar strings out of them if they fail.   Aya thinks he might be overstating things a bit, but it seems Kyosuke is in no mood to take chances on a third time. Cybuster is a prime target, and as the strike commander he's determined not to let this happen yet again. Realizing that he won't be dissuaded, Aya agrees to prepare a force to go look for Masaki.  We have the same scene with Tetsuya and Lefina from Ryusei's route, although instead of ending with an alarm for an enemy attack, this time it's an alarm that somebody's leaving the hangar.   Lune has followed Masaki to the hangar, to his extreme annoyance. Shu hasn't made a move since open conflict with the Aerogaters began, and that's got him on edge. Shu's not the type to do anything overt, but he's up to something in the shadows, without a doubt. Lune is determined not to let him go off alone, and when he tries to tell her off, she fires back that since Shu was conspiring with her father, if he's planning something new, that involves her too. Masaki angrily says that she can do whatever the hell she wants. I really have no idea what brought this on. Hey, we're heading into space in preparation for the assault on the enemy fortress. This is, without a doubt, a brilliant time to go chasing after somebody completely unrelated.    The cats rush to the hangar; Masaki yells at them for wandering off, then ignores them when they try to change his mind. Tetsuya comes on the intercom to demand an explanation, but Masaki just says he's going out on recon.  Mission 36: Power Within   Masaki thinks it's as he expected; Cybuster's picking up a reaction of some kind, though it's unclear yet if it's the Granzon or something else. The cats have rather less faith in him, and when he claims that he's more accurate than Kyosuke, the threat of being turned into guitar strings makes Shiro even more worried. (Kuro tries to reassure Shiro that Kyosuke wasn't serious, but then again, it is Kyosuke they're talking about...)    Lo and behold, the Granzon appears with all the  that Shu can muster. As far as Masaki is concerned, this is total validation of his worries; Shu says that he would compliment him, but he knows Masaki is too ignorant to have put that much thought into it. Man, even an obviously-fake Shu who's being used as a prop in a Very Special Episode about the importance of making responsible decisions can dish out some sick burns. I guess Atad's just that good. Or Masaki's just that easy of a target.   Spying Lune, Shu asks if she's come back to the Earth sphere to continue her father's work; after all, without the power to defeat the guests or the Aerogaters, humanity is doomed. If she's come to revive the Divine Crusaders, he'll be happy to help her do it.   Lune isn't buying it for a second, and even Masaki thinks this doesn't actually sound like him. Masaki asks why he's gone back on his word (from mission 23), but Shu smoothly responds that Masaki was just naive to believe him; in other words, even if this Shu is a fake, he's not taking the bait.   So, it's just two of us and Shu. To earn the battle mastery, we need to get him below 70% health within three turns. Shouldn't be too hard, all things considered.   We'll need the stronger attacks to pull it off, though. Masaki's an ace, so that's +5 morale, and he's equipped with the magical headband of glorious Nippon for another 10. I have him cast Spirit once to put him over 120, enabling Akashic Buster.  Shu gets a decent hitrate versus Cybuster, but Focus should take care of that.  Or he'll just switch to an energy-drain attack and get the same hitrate as before.  Still, 40% isn't terrible odds. I guess.  Masaki: "I knew it... something's not right!" Shu: I dunno, it sure looks like Shu to me.   Getting the mastery in three turns shouldn't be any problem at this rate, provided that Shu doesn't energy-drain him so that he can't use Akashic Buster any more.   What did I just say, Masaki?    Lune takes up a position next to him, which was a good thing since Masaki fails to dodge again on the enemy phase (  ) and she takes the energy-drain in his place. The Valsione's attacks are ammo-based, so this doesn't really cost her anything.   Masaki counters with Akashic Buster again, then on the next player phase we deliver an AKASHIC SMASHER (okay, it's just Lune with Masaki supporting) to knock Shu below the threshold.    Shu laughs; Masaki will never destroy the Granzon with such halfhearted attacks. He wants to see Cybuster's true power, the power that comes from merging with the spirits... just like back then.  Masaki thinks that while he may not be Kyosuke, it's time to take a gamble... This is a brief reference to Masaki's backstory. Basically, Cybuster is strong in combat (as we've seen), but Masaki normally only uses a fraction of its full power, which is otherwise capable of literally erasing its enemies from existence. This is generally a bad thing for both Cybuster's pilot and anybody who happens to be in the area, and Masaki only came close to it once before this. It was a traumatic experience. Shu was involved.     Shu does Black Hole Cluster. That's not an evasion; Masaki actually takes the hit for zero damage.   Having shrugged off the attack, Masaki relaxes a bit. Their eyes may have been fooled, but Cybuster was not: this isn't Shu. It shouldn't be that surprising; if the Aerogaters can control a person's mind, creating a convincing illusion isn't that big a stretch. With that established, he yells for the little trickster to show itself.    Atad is impressed that they've seen through the Trauma Shadow, a device she's perfected that can read the memories of its targets. She asks when, exactly, he figured it out. Masaki says he knew from the beginning that something was strange - call it intuition. He's faced Shu a number of times before, and never knows what he's thinking. But he knows enough to know when it's really him! Atad is ecstatic at this discovery, being more determined than ever to claim Masaki as a sample.   The Hagane arrives, and Aya is relieved to see that Masaki and Lune are safe. When Kyosuke asks why he didn't return to the ship when he ran into trouble, Masaki just says that he can't just turn his back on the enemy. After some coaxing from Excellen (and Katina, of all people), Kyosuke decides it can wait until they get back.  Atad: (I expected the rest of you to come. But I have another surprise in store for you...)  So, we've got us a bunch of Megillot and Yirmeyah drones, a line of Zechariahs, and then Gaza and Atad in their custom Ezekiels. It's a pretty easy mission, so I'm going to take the opportunity to farm up some kills for non-aces and level up some people who are lagging.   People like Kusuha, Radha, and Katina pick up a couple each on this mission. Daitetsu also hits level 37 for his secret.   Since Lune was the one who attacked Shu last, Masaki can still move right away and gets right into the action. Lune doesn't have much left to do this mission except kill this one Megillot. Everything will be over by the time she catches up with the rest of the group.   Fighting Gaza (well, he attacked us, really) leads to the same conversation from Ryusei 36, where the crew talks about how he reminds them of Tenzan.   It's been a while since I did a Cyflash specifically for earning money, as opposed to just wearing crowds down to preserve my sanity. This one goes pretty well, and anybody it doesn't finish off is a free kill for somebody else.    By the end of Turn 3 the Zechariahs are almost completely wiped out, leaving just the two bosses.   And they're not so tough either. The enemy formation was so small that we have plenty of SP, and 40k health isn't very much when a Rampage Ghost can knock off half of it.   So long as you remember to cast Strike when attacking Atad (or else After-Image will find ways to annoy you), there's no problem.  I decide to twin Kusuha and Rai up for the Atad kill.      And then Atad surprises me. I wasn't expecting to get countered. Lucky I didn't send somebody more fragile.        Kyosuke and Excellen support to finish the job.   Atad: "Tch! Where are the reinforcements!? My instructions were quite clear! Did something happen to them!?" Atad: "...There's no choice. Withdraw!"   That worked out well. If Excellen and Atad ever fight directly you get this exchange: quote:Atad: "It's you. Hmhmm... of course..."  Kai and Russell twin up to finish off Gaza. They both have the problem of being in slowish machines and not having Accelerate.        Down he goes.  Gaza says we've done well, for a bunch of mere monkeys - but he's in a good mood, so he'll let us off easy for today.   With the area cleared, Daitetsu orders a withdrawal. Masaki hesitates a moment; he saw through the fake, but he's sure that his first premonition - the one that brought him out here - wasn't mistaken...   After they're gone, it turns out that he was right.   (Hmph. That wasn't a bad showing, Masaki. As Professor Bian expected, you've honed yourselves into a fine sword against the aliens. Still, I couldn't just let them steal my likeness without consequences. You can handle the rest, Masaki... along with your friends on the Hagane and Hiryu Kai.)   Kyosuke: "I understand you have your circumstances. Don't let this happen again. I don't want to lose any firepower... or a comrade." Masaki: "....." Kyosuke: "What's wrong?" Masaki: "...That's it?" Kyosuke: "No point in preaching. It only needs to be said once. ...Well, that's what I think, anyway." Masaki: "...Huh?"   Kai: "Where's the miscreant hiding!? ...Hm? There you are!!" Masaki: "What's going on, old man!?" Kai: "You're in the army now, Masaki Ando! If you won't learn the meaning of discipline, then you'll learn why the cadets call me the Demon Instructor!" Masaki: "Geh!!" Kai: "You'll listen until I'm done with my lecture! Assume the position!" Masaki: "Y-you don't mean... you want me to take a seiza!?"  Seiza is a rigid kneeling posture used in formal settings. It involves keeping your knees together and the tops of your feet against the floor, such that you're sitting on the soles. Try it out yourself for a minute or so, and you'll see why it's also favored by authority figures when chewing subordinates out for mistakes.  Radha: "Major Kai, don't you think this is a bit much for poor Masaki?" Kai: "The better to listen to what I'm saying. Mind your posture!" Radha: "But if his legs are numb, it could be a handicap in battle... oh, I know!" Shiro: "I got a baaaaaad feeling about this..."   Radha: "Why not make him hold a yoga asana instead?" Kai: "Hm. That's a good idea." Masaki: "Are you kidding me!?" Kuro: "We knew it..."   Giado: "Yeesh... too bad the Major got his hands on you, Masaki." Garnet: "And Radha's yoga on top of that... that really must be hell on earth."    Meanwhile, at Mao Industries, who should arrive but Viletta - some relief for Ring and Yuan, who hadn't heard from her in some time. She has a request: lend her the second Grungust unit. If the future of humankind is at stake, then her place is with the crews of the Hagane and Hiryu Kai, if they'll have her.   (I have to do what I can... isn't that what you want, Ingram?) We're getting this scene because we didn't pull off Viletta's secret, which required us to have her at X level before she left the group. If we'd succeeded, she'd be requesting a different mech here. But we'll get to that.
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May 25, 2015 21:02
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Seyser Koze posted:This is a brief reference to Masaki's backstory. Basically, Cybuster is strong in combat (as we've seen), but Masaki normally only uses a fraction of its full power, which is otherwise capable of literally erasing its enemies from existence. This is generally a bad thing for both Cybuster's pilot and anybody who happens to be in the area, and Masaki only came close to it once before this. It was a traumatic experience. Shu was involved. That said, this does say a lot about Cybuster in the OG games. It still manages to be a seriously powerful unit across all of the games, despite not only being at...I want to say 10% full power (someone double check that), but the surface world machines slowly increasing in their power as well as time goes on. Right now, only the SRX and maybe the Grungust and/or Valsione could potentially match Cybuster's current strength. By the time 2nd OGs ends, the Steel Dragons will have added a good number of powerful machines to their arsenal (on top of what is already on hand) that could probably give Cybuster a run for its money.
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May 25, 2015 21:36
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When Kyosuke says nobody has broken more prototypes than him, does he mean with or without all the enemy super prototype mechs you tend to fight in these games? Also, props to Tasuku for still standing for a good thirty seconds after brand mealtime.Dumb question. Is Kai actually Russell from the future where they grew a mustache?
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May 25, 2015 22:07
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Section Z posted:When Kyosuke says nobody has broken more prototypes than him, does he mean with or without all the enemy super prototype mechs you tend to fight in these games? Probably without. Remember, he had an rear end in a top hat superior that tried to kill him by malfunctioning prototype. I get the feeling that wasn't an one-off.
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May 26, 2015 00:00
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If Hans could have arranged it, he'd have had Kyosuke test-pilot Irm's bicycle with rockets on it.
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May 26, 2015 01:41
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And despite that, Rocketbike would become one of the best generic units in the game's roster.
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May 26, 2015 01:47
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"I basically just soloed this entire map, but you did alright, Masaki. " God dammit Shu. Why don't you just save the world already?
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May 26, 2015 11:34
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Glazius posted:"I basically just soloed this entire map, but you did alright, Masaki. Shu is a titanic rear end in a top hat, especially to anyone who goes and screws with him. Whatever hilarious (and futile) amounts of reinforcement the aerogators were going to send he just ate them for daring, DARING, to use his image.
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May 26, 2015 13:50
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AtomikKrab posted:Shu is a titanic rear end in a top hat, especially to anyone who goes and screws with him. Whatever hilarious (and futile) amounts of reinforcement the aerogators were going to send he just ate them for daring, DARING, to use his image. There's one thing you need to understand about Shu. He loving hates aliens. Like... he has a list of priorities inside his cockpit, Troll Masaki, Smirk, Hate Aliens.
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May 26, 2015 17:38
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Does he consider Volkruss an alien?
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May 26, 2015 17:41
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Wounded Land posted:Does he consider Volkruss an alien? No but that one violates Shu's no.1 rule. Never try to control Shu Shirakawa For a guy who endlessly smirks and refuses to just say what's going on, he's very devoted to fighting against those that would control or enslave humanity. He's just, ya know, the worlds biggest dick head. I'm fairly certain that even after freeing himself from control and becoming a good guy, he takes the time to troll Masaki just cause.
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May 26, 2015 18:03
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Onmi posted:There's one thing you need to understand about Shu. He loving hates aliens.
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May 26, 2015 18:22
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Wow, I had completely forgotten that stage happened.
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May 27, 2015 06:40
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MarsDragon posted:Wow, I had completely forgotten that stage happened. The final act definitely feels like it has a lot of dead space. There's rescuing your captured teammate(s) and the unveiling of SRX and the Rivale, but otherwise there's a bunch of "the Aerogaters poked at us. Then we chased them off. Then it happened again." The fact that our task at this point is explicitly to sit around and draw enemy fire while we wait for the Feds to get their poo poo together doesn't help.
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May 27, 2015 14:40
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Meanwhile, in a proper SRW game, there'd be at least half a dozen other storylines going on during this otherwise-dead period. 
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May 27, 2015 19:03
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OG1 keeping it simple and grounded sometimes works against it, most noticibly here. On the other hand there's only one more stage each before we hit the proper climax, so the dead period should be over soon.
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May 27, 2015 19:31
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Wounded Land posted:Meanwhile, in a proper SRW game, there'd be at least half a dozen other storylines going on during this otherwise-dead period.
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May 27, 2015 21:38
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The impression I got after the fact was that OG1 is an original plot left to its own devices to fill up a whole game, while OG2 is actually a regular SRW.
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May 28, 2015 00:10
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CmdrKing posted:The impression I got after the fact was that OG1 is an original plot left to its own devices to fill up a whole game, while OG2 is actually a regular SRW. OG2 is a regular SRW in so much as there's multiple original plots happening at the same time, but yeah pretty much. OG1 is pretty much what, the plot of Alpha 1 minus all non-originals? Most of these characters are actually choices for your protagonist in Alpha 1 after all.
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May 28, 2015 02:06
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The first half of the game is basically the plot of Super Robot Wars 2.
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May 28, 2015 02:22
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OG1 actually diverges pretty heavily from Alpha, despite looking similar on the surface, to the point where we still don't know if Alpha 3 is even able to happen in the OGverse or what it'll look like when it does. Alpha 1 was pretty unwieldy, since it was practically a SRW Greatest Hits game itself. "OK, we'll take the villain from Shin SRW and give him the villain from Super Hero Operation as a devious backstabbing advisor, then we'll take the hero from SHO and make him the team leader for the heroes from Shin SRW and hey we should totally put Masaki in there because why the hell not and that means we should probably add Lune and wouldn't it be cool if Dr. Zoldark from SRW2 was actually a good guy this time around and while we're at it let's age up one of the couples from F and put them in as supporting characters and---" 
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May 28, 2015 02:29
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Hunter Noventa posted:OG2 is a regular SRW in so much as there's multiple original plots happening at the same time, but yeah pretty much. OG1 is pretty much what, the plot of Alpha 1 minus all non-originals? Most of these characters are actually choices for your protagonist in Alpha 1 after all. OG2 combines: SRW 3, Impact, three Alpha 2 plots (one full one and parts of the other two), Advance, a little bit of Alpha Gaiden, and the few leftover scraps of Alpha 1's plot, all on top of some added original content. The latter can turn into a clusterfuck very fast because of just how much is going on at one point that the game expects the player to sort of keep track of.
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May 28, 2015 02:30
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Seyser Koze posted:Alpha 1 was pretty unwieldy, since it was practically a SRW Greatest Hits game itself. "OK, we'll take the villain from Shin SRW and give him the villain from Super Hero Operation as a devious backstabbing advisor, then we'll take the hero from SHO and make him the team leader for the heroes from Shin SRW and hey we should totally put Masaki in there because why the hell not and that means we should probably add Lune and wouldn't it be cool if Dr. Zoldark from SRW2 was actually a good guy this time around and while we're at it let's age up one of the couples from F and put them in as supporting characters and---" Basically Alpha 1 is a glorious, slapped together mess.
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May 28, 2015 02:33
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AradoBalanga posted:The latter can turn into a clusterfuck very fast because of just how much is going on at one point that the game expects the player to sort of keep track of. And it can't come soon enough.
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May 28, 2015 02:34
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Seyser Koze posted:while we're at it let's age up one of the couples from F and put them in as supporting characters and---" ? Which couple is this? (<--- not familiar with this series beyond OG1-2 and EF, sadly)
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May 28, 2015 02:55
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Seyser Koze posted:OG1 actually diverges pretty heavily from Alpha, despite looking similar on the surface, to the point where we still don't know if Alpha 3 is even able to happen in the OGverse or what it'll look like when it does. Ingram ended up in charge of the SRX team by the end of SHO anyway, I'm pretty sure. The SRX team which also included Bullet, Kusuha, Ryoto and Leona. SHO was kind of weird and I wish there was more information on it in English because a lot of what I know is stuff I had to translate myself out of screenshots my friend took. And I know I'm not that good at Japanese.
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May 28, 2015 02:59
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SorataYuy posted:? Which couple is this? (<--- not familiar with this series beyond OG1-2 and EF, sadly)
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May 28, 2015 03:00
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SorataYuy posted:? Which couple is this? (<--- not familiar with this series beyond OG1-2 and EF, sadly) Irm Kazahara and Ring Mao, who are apparently the canon protagonists of SRW 4/F+FF. SRW 4 had an Alpha-like system where you chose the lead from several face + personality options and you got a corresponding love interest. This is also the origin of the Grungust-- if you chose the Super route, it was your midgame upgrade and a literal 18th birthday present from your father (you started with a Gespenst Type S). The Huckebein was the Real route upgrade, but not as silly in presentation.
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May 28, 2015 03:04
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