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People like to say that the god you pick in the first level determines the difficulty, but I don't really buy it. Xel'o'tath isn't necessarily any easier or harder than the other two, though I'll refrain from getting into details until we see some of the ramifications of the choice NineWheels made. Though I do agree that she's the logical choice for an LP that's doing only a single run. Looking forward to seeing more!
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Aug 26, 2014 01:31
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Wanderer posted:Isn't there something about how the ancient you pick also makes individual enemies tougher or do more sanity damage or something? I seem to remember that from back when I unlocked Eternal Mode, but it's been more than a decade. It changes what alignment most of the enemies have. As noted earlier, Chattur'gah enemies are beefier, Ulyaoth zombies explode (all of them in the room explode, so rooms clear fast and are easy so long as, y'know, you dodge the explosions...), and Xel'o'tath enemies have phantom limbs and heads and thus can't be disabled. Dunno about Ulyaoth's non-zombie enemies, but honestly I'd rather let the LPer get further into the game before we completely dismember it.
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Aug 29, 2014 22:56
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Lustful Man Hugs posted:It's not that they can't be disabled - it's that the phantom limbs do sanity damage instead of normal damage. Phantom heads still allow zombies to track you, which obviates the otherwise-solid strategy of "decapitations for everyone" (and then follow up with actually killing the zombies from angles outside their swing zones). Plus this ability works for other enemy types as well, which otherwise would actually be killed by losing their heads. This makes one chapter in particular a lot harder.
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Aug 30, 2014 00:42
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Real hurthling! posted:Does anyone else wonder why this game gets so much nostalgia hype? I played it when it came out and have watched a few lps of it and its kind of a repetitive turd. I can see a few reasons. First, as noted, the sanity effects are really quite novel (or were for the time at least). Second, it's a horror game, and there aren't too many of those, so one that's reasonably competently-implemented is going to be well-regarded by fans of the genre. Third, it's basically a Lovecraftian setting, so again, fans of that mythos are going to be happy. It's not without its flaws, especially as you note its tendency to re-use settings. But if you can allow yourself to get sucked into the atmosphere then it can be a lot of fun regardless.
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Sep 5, 2014 04:10
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Carbolic Smokeball posted:My only complaint is that he isn't very fleshed out 
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Sep 5, 2014 19:05
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Mantorok is definitely not Your Eldritch Pal. He kept the other three under control, but that's kind of like saying that Satan is keeping Hilter from breaking out of Hell. All of these guys are gigantic, immensely powerful, and couldn't give a poo poo about humanity. Frankly I'm amazed that one of them had the forethought to recruit Pious.
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Sep 7, 2014 04:58
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I didn't know that you were unkillable in this chapter  Also, that monster in the closing cutscene? That rear end in a top hat right there is why I don't buy that Xel'o'tath is easier than the other two gods. That thing has no head. Good loving luck killing it quickly when you can't decapitate it.
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Sep 18, 2014 17:25
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Oh yeah, and I don't get why the Trappers are enemies. They take you to another dimension...in which you can get a free heal or sanity restore or magic restore. You never have to fight more than a handful of chump zombies, so you're basically guaranteed to come out of there better-off than when you went in. So why are they billed as being enemies?
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Sep 18, 2014 18:06
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The first time you get to explore the second floor is awesome. I don't care that there's a jump scare in the game, because it's really well done and it's basically the only one. Also, it's hilarious how an overhead chop from the Ram Dao bisects your enemies horizontally. I guess they didn't want to add more model breakpoints and animations. 
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Sep 29, 2014 17:47
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Serifina posted:It's possible to play around with runes and unlock spells before finding a spell formula scroll, once you've got the runes (and the codices to read the runes). In fact I don't think you even need the codices. As soon as you get the Absorb and Self runes you can cast Heal Self, even if you don't know what the runes are. We also already have the runes for god mode (more or less), but we won't get the spell scroll to spell it out for us for awhile yet.
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Oct 6, 2014 17:24
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Quantum Toast posted:The Mantorok one sounds like it starts with Bankorok, so it's probably just Bind (Bankorok Aretak), which would make sense. The one he uses to communicate with his boss is a 5-point Magick Pool (Tier Redgormor), which is not normally used for video chat. Maybe he just uses it to power his eldritch TV or something. I was referring to Magick Pool as god mode. I'd forgotten about the one you mentioned.
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Oct 6, 2014 18:29
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Ghetto Prince posted:Yeah, that's the first two paragraphs of Mountains of Madness, and it doesn't get any better. It's one hell of a slog to read. That wasn't especially difficult. Anyone who's read any of the Paarfi of Roundwood books (note: high fantasy, not horror) shouldn't have any trouble. Though those are probably an acquired taste.
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Oct 7, 2014 02:04
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HOOLY BOOLY posted:Hey guys am i remembering right that there is a level with spoilers? You aren't the only one; I thought that was the next one too for some reason. Maybe because it's kind of a pain in the butt to play that chapter...or at least that's how I remember it anyway. But proper discussion can wait for later.
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Oct 8, 2014 15:08
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PurpleXVI posted:Also was it a DESIGN decision to make everything narrow corridors, or was it a result of the Gamecube not really being able to handle anything more elaborate in a lot of cases? I'd wager a bit of both. Claustrophobic locations help keep the combat from becoming trivial, and give the sanity effects more impact IMO. As for technical capabilities, while the Gamecube is absolutely capable of better, didn't someone say the game was originally slated to be released on the N64?
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Oct 19, 2014 15:56
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Not to mention that Ninewheels also knows how to fight effectively. It's not as trivial as he makes it look -- characters move slowly, attacks have windup times, and it's very easy to get dogpiled and pummeled into oblivion. Especially if you insist on using your melee weapon for everything since you don't know when there might be a supermook later in the level that warrants busting out the big guns for.
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Oct 20, 2014 15:45
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Mehuyael posted:Just because you beat it in 2:08:43 hours the first time you played it doesn't mean it's easy for everyone. That's also a nasty combo, since when you're fighting Chatturgah, you're more likely to be low on health, and when you're fighting Xel'o'tath, you're absolutely going to be low on sanity. The big problem with balancing magic, though, is that it recovers over time. I definitely remember walking in circles in a safe room until my magic meter had refilled so I could recast more healing spells. When you can pull that kind of trick off reliably, any fight that doesn't totally exhaust your resources is one you can completely recover from. Maybe you should get magic from performing finishing moves, instead of sanity?  (And then remove the over-time recovery, of course)
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Oct 20, 2014 17:20
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PurpleXVI posted:You could always base what drains it on what deity you use as a power source, rather than having a single power source for magic. So you'd drain health to cast the healing spell?
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Oct 20, 2014 23:06
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tlarn posted:I was actually expecting the Custodian buddy to be the legionnaire lich throughout the chapter; I thought it being the inquisitor/cultist would be too obvious, but oh well. Evil is not subtle in Eternal Darkness. It is not subtle at all. Really if there's anything to be learned from this game, it's that people with poor posture ought to be just shot on sight. Save us all a lot of trouble. Also, I have to admit I was really expecting that Meditation Rod to cast a Xel'o'tath-aligned spell. 
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Oct 26, 2014 20:59
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apostateCourier posted:Are we going to see the alternate Paul deaths? Conveniently, they're already on YouTube.
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Oct 27, 2014 17:11
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All of the shades in the game are blue -- Karim, the girl he went after, Alex's grandpa, and Maximillian's ghost (seen very briefly during one of the intermissions). I may be forgetting one or two, but I think it's just that blue was chosen for ghosts in this game.
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Oct 31, 2014 20:51
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Along similar lines, our Venetian dude may be the Chosen simply because Ulyaoth is up against a wall here and needs to vacate the premises pronto. Being the Chosen doesn't imply you're going to succeed, just that Ulyaoth thinks you're the best chance it has of keeping its artefact away from Pious.
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Nov 1, 2014 04:32
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SWMadness posted:How hard is the Guardian boss fight if you don't have that magic pool running? Like if it was a first-time blind run and you didn't have access to abusing the magic system? Looks more tedious than actually challenging once you figure out the pattern though. You get five full refills of magic, which should be plenty, and nothing's stopping you from casting healing spells instead of attack spells in the gaps, so you should have a decent amount of time to figure out the pattern. When I played the game I basically kept Magick Pool up all the time, though. The only problems with it are a) it's expensive (note how he was basically tapped out after casting it once), and b) Mantorok Magick Pool keeps your sanity up so you don't see sanity effects.
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Nov 4, 2014 22:27
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citybeatnik posted:It really does seem as if a character's direct contact with firearms and their general complexity is directly proportional to how non-hosed they are at the end of their story. Ehh, Maximillian didn't make it out so hot. It's mostly that characters that live around about when Edward Roivas (a.k.a. Grandpa) does are more likely to survive since at least some of them need to meet him in person to deliver artefacts.
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Nov 6, 2014 00:07
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Clarste posted:I don't remember the boss fight being even that involved. I recall just casting damage field and being immune to everything it threw at me so I could cast the attack at my leisure. The only mildly interesting part was using the 3 point field to buy time to cast the 7 point field since the weaker one breaks after a few hits. That sounds more like the shield spell than damage field. Damage field is the one that sets up a barrier that hurts things that touch it; shield is the one that just protects against damage of any kind. Damage field is only really useful against enemies that attack in melee. Plus it's used to force the player to learn Dispel Magick, to teach them the rock-paper-scissors alignment stuff, etc.
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Nov 6, 2014 02:26
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Is that the Ulyaoth voice telling him to do things? A neat touch, if so -- the submissive Ancient helping you destroy the one that is dominant over it.
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Nov 19, 2014 06:11
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Lustful Man Hugs posted:I'm not sure if that's Ulyaoth or Mantorok. Can anybody confirm this from another run? Mantorok is more whispery -- you can hear his voice when NineWheels casts Mantorok-aligned spells. And yeah, I got the distinct impression that Michael was going to go off himself as soon as the cutscene ended.
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Nov 19, 2014 15:51
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Lustful Man Hugs posted:Originally, he did commit suicide in the game (I think somewhere there's a cutscene where that happens). But now he lives long enough to deliver Gladius and the Artifact to Alex, so presumably he survives until the end of the game. He says flat out that he's not going to survive the night, and that there's something he needs to do (besides deliver the package) before they get him. That's not very subtle, in my book. On a different note, I find it amusing how Michael's unaimed three-hit combo includes impaling his enemies by thrusting the axe straight through them. Usually the animation re-use isn't quite as jarring as that. Also, while Michael has fantastic stamina and health, his sanity and magic meters are both pathetic. If I recall correctly, he can't even afford to cast a 5-point Mantorok Magick Pool, let alone a 7-point.
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Nov 19, 2014 19:00
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PurpleXVI posted:Wait, you actually HAVE to enchant the bomb, or is that optional? I genuinely can't tell if it's a joke because sometimes the game DOES do some cool things and ENCHANTED C4 FROM THE DEAD GODS would be pretty loving cool. What happens if you place the bomb unenchanted? Assuming it's not a joke. It won't let you place unenchanted C4 because the boom won't be big enough.
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Nov 20, 2014 05:17
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Lustful Man Hugs posted:Right. Like I said, they initially planned to have him not survive, but in the released version of the game, someone delivers the artifact to you in the year 2000, and who else could it possibly be but him? Western Union, duh
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Nov 20, 2014 06:06
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Thesaya posted:How on earth did I miss this for so long?! Just two weeks ago I went through the entire subforum looking for interesting LP's I wasn't already watching. I am entertained by this and seem to have arrived just in time for the grand finale, so yay! For future reference, there's an RSS feed of new threads in the LP subforum (and similar feeds for other SA subforums). Won't help you for interesting threads that have already started, but you shouldn't miss any new ones once you subscribe, anyway.
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Nov 21, 2014 17:40
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Which raises a question: is there any reason to use a Mantorok shield instead of a different one, especially when dealing with yellow (i.e. "unaligned") damage? And are Mantorok shields more expensive than aligned ones? Anyway, thanks for doing the LP, NineWheels! A nice little trip down memory lane. The game's substantially more repetitive than I remember it being, but thanks to the magic of editing, we didn't have to suffer through all the redundancies.
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Nov 27, 2014 00:58
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