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 What is dotHack? The .hack franchise isn't what you would call a mega-hit. However, there is an extremely loyal fanbase that buys everything .hack related. There is, not coincidentally, also a shitload of stuff that is .hack related. There have been several full-length anime series, at least seven games, four 45-minute one-offs that tie into the first series' story, more manga than you can shake a stick at, many novels, at least one actual MMORPG, and so many other kinds of merchandise that it boggles the mind. Unfortunately, CyberConnect (the company behind the franchise) have taken a "buy it all if you want to understand the full story" stance. This can get prohibitively expensive very quickly. About the Thread The primary focus of the thread is going to be playing through the first series of games, collectively "IMOQ" or Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine. In the last thread, we finished Mutation and catastrophic hard drive failure prevented us from continuing on with Outbreak. We're now here to finish Outbreak, and Quarantine.  While I would prefer you didn't post spoilers, I'm not going to create a big deal about it. If you absolutely feel the need to talk about Kite learning how to go super saiyan then please use spoiler tags as I have there.I would also really appreciate it if the thread didn't look like a classified FOIA document. Will You 100%? By the time we're done with Quarantine, the Ryu books will be completed and I will have unlocked all of the concept art.  Extra Notes Like I said before, the .hack franchise is very story-driven with some actually decent voice acting. Most of the "big name" voice actors in video games have at least one speaking role here. Expect to hear a lot of familiar voices as the game progresses on. Because of that, this will be a screenshot LP with accompanying videos. I will occasionally mark particular videos as ones that should be watched due to what happens in them. Text in italics is used for commentary that I've added. Bolded text is typically used for system messages or any narration done by Kite. FIRST THREAD SECOND THREAD  //Update 01 - Δ Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field //Update 02 - Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground //Update 03 - Level Grinding (Several Fields) //Update 04 - Δ Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand //Update 05 - gently caress Mia and Elk //Update 06 - Θ Quiet Eternal White Devil //Update 07 - New and Old Friends //Update 08 - Investigations //Update 09 - Screaming Conspiracy //Liminality Vol. 1 - In the Case of Mai Minase (ANIME WARNING) //Liminality Vol. 1 (Part 2) - Navel Gazing (ANIME WARNING) //Update 10 - Θ Chosen Hopeless Nothingness //Update 11 - Finishing up Vol. 1  //Update 01 - Θ Soaring Sky Bounded Abyss //Update 02 - Rachel, Nuke Usagimaru, and Moonstone //Update 03 - Moonstone's Adventure and Λ Nameless Seeker's Prairie //Update 04 - Λ Resurrecting Confused Judgement //Update 05 - Cubia //Update 06 - Kite's Day Off //Update 07 - .hack//SIGN Reference //Update 08 - Wiseman's Quest //Update 09 - Λ Pulsating Worst Core //Liminality Vol. 2 - In the Case of Yuki Aihara (ANIME WARNING) //Update 10 - Λ Bitter Fantasy Mirror World //Update 01 - One-Two-Three Gut Punch //Update 02 - The White Knight //Update 03 - The Most Badass Moment //Update 04 - What the gently caress, Gardenia? //Update 05 - It's actually pronounced Fid-hell //Update 06 - Σ Rising Implacable Sipping Bug //Update 07 - Cubia, Round 2 //Update 08 - Σ Sorrowful Sweltering Arena //Update 09 - Rachel's Courier Service //Update 10 - Operation Breakwater //Update 11 - Σ Chatting Snaring Twins //Update 12 - Λ Pulsating Sea of Cloud Whale //Liminality Vol. 3 - In the Case of Kyoko Tohno (ANIME WARNING)  //Update 01 - Relic City Lia Fail //Update 01.5 - Message Board Posts //Update 02 - Σ Screaming Wind Sand's Fate Castle //Update 03 - Σ Graceful Tempting Fallen Angel //Update 04 - Ω Cruel Vindictive Scars (Cubia Edition) //Update 05 - Ω Cruel Vindictive Scars (Tarvos Edition) //Update 06 - Rachel's Rescue Service //Update 07 - Ω Collapsed Traveler's Fort //Update 08 - Ω Raging Facing Mirrors Virgin //BONUS ROUND - .hack//Frägment //Update 09 - Δ - Reincarnated Purgatorial Altar //Update 10 - Corbenik //Liminality vol. 4 - Trismegistus (ANIME WARNING) //Update 11 - Data Stabilized //Update 12 - Δ Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field //Update 13 - Ryu Book Review //Update 14 - .hack//Sign Data Ghosts //Update 15 - Goblin Tag Final Rounds //Update 16 - Ω Hidden Darkside Holy Ground //Update 17 - Item Collection and e-Mails //Update 18 - Grunty Races and 100% Completion //Update 19 - Unison (ANIME WARNING) DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Jun 10, 2015 |
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Apr 15, 2015 04:17
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Supplementary Lore: The Tale of The One Sin Event - Why Orca is "pretty well known" in The World, by Senerio gently caress the Internet - How Pluto's Kiss nearly created the Fallout universe, by pointlessone Morganna - One player's tale of The God of The World, by Senerio gently caress the Internet Part II - The rise of ALTIMIT, by pointlessone Modified Characters - All about character models and why it's totally illegal to make your character look like an anime, by Senerio gently caress the Internet Part III - Players, admins, hackers, and "The World," by pointlessone Role Playing - Be whoever you want to be, by Senerio Gott Statues - Mistral discusses the finer points of item collecting, by Senerio About Grunties - Hotaru explains how Grunties work, by Senerio Optional Party Members - Senerio explains about optional party members and why they're awesome. About Magic - Nighthand explains the game's magic system. Physical Skills - Nighthand explains melee skills for the various classes. Class Skills II - Nighthand explains Heavy Blade skills gently caress the Internet Part IV - Before "The World," there was a man, a woman, and a beta, by pointlessone Class Skills III - Nighthand explains Long Arm skills Affection - berryjon explains the game's affection system in detail. gently caress the Internet Part V - "The AI Hunts" - pointlessone explains why the administration team of The World destroy all nascent AIs they come across. gently caress the Internet Part VI - "Aura and the Black Box" - pointlessone shows just how creepy the creator of "The World" really was. The Name of the Game - Onmi explains why the seven .hack games are named what they are FredMSloniker asked if I would capture all the Grunty Food audio, both English and Japanese. The image below links to a video with just that very thing! 
DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Apr 15, 2015 |
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Apr 15, 2015 04:17
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//Character List (Listed by order encountered.) Kite: A new player to "The World." He is a Twin Blade character class with light blue hair and is fairly short. He is the main character for the first four games in the series, and is thankfully not a silent protagonist. Always polite and friendly to anybody, he is quite easy to get along with.The player behind Kite is a 14 year old middle school student that enjoys playing soccer. Voice Actor: Mona Marshall (South Park, lots of anime)  Orca: An experienced player of "The World" who has been playing since the early days of Fragment. (The beta version of "The World.") He is a Blademaster character class, wearing very little armor and carrying a large sword. He is one of the two legendary "Descendants of Fianna," known as "Orca, of the Azure Sea." The title was gifted to him for being one of the players to defeat the unbeatable boss, The One Sin.All that is known about Orca's player is that he is named "Yasuhiko" and that he is in a deep coma. Voice Actor: Kirk Thornton (Naruto, Kingdom Hearts series)  BlackRose: Like Kite, she is also a new player to "The World." She is a Heavy Blade character class, and is very loud. She is quick to add her thoughts to any discussion going on, and is easily the most confrontational out of everyone Kite meets. She seems to have a personal stake in the goings ons in "The World."Behind the character, BlackRose is played by a teenage girl named Akira Hayami. She enjoys playing tennis more than anything else, and has two brothers: Fumikazu and Kouta. Voice Actor: Wendee Lee (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, various other anime)  Balmung: Balmung is a legendary player in "The World." He is the other half of the "Descendants of Fianna," known as "Balmung, of the Azure Sky." He dealt the killing blow to an unbeatable boss and was rewarded with a cosmetic change for his character. That is where he got his trademark wings. He basically defines the term "White Knight" and all that it entails. Like Orca, he has been playing since Fragment.Not very much is known about Balmung's player. Voice Actors: Doug Erholtz (Official VA of Squall Leonhart, Bleach) (Voice of Balmung during Infection) Crispin Freeman (Lots of Roles) (Voice of Balmung for the rest of the series.)  Helba: Not very much is known about Helba. She is an infamous hacker and... that's about it. She always seems to show up when something big is going down, and always knows far more than she lets on. She seems to have taken a liking to Kite.Nothing is known about the person that controls Helba. They are obviously a skilled hacker, and they seem to have a vast number of resources at their disposal. Voice Actor: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Lots of Roles)  Mistral: Mistral is an item collector - she wants to collect at least one of every item in "The World." She ran into Kite in the dungeon of Δ Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand. There, she saw him use Data Drain on a bug, and thought it was a pretty cool skill. She's a bit of an airhead at times, but is a solid addition to Kite's team. She is a very bubbly individual, always using some form of smilie to show just how she feels at any given moment.Offline, Mistral is played by a young woman named Mayumi Kurokawa. One of her favorite things to do is cook, and she has exchanged many e-mails with Kite about cooking and shopping for cooking supplies. She claims to get the best deals when she buys food because she haggles the prices down. Voice Actor: Sandy Fox (Akira, Love Hina, Trigun)  Mia: Mia is a very mysterious character in the game. She's the only PC in "The World" that looks like an anthromorphic cat. This makes her an accomplished hacker, because character modification is quite illegal. She's the only Blademaster that joins Kite's party for a long time, as well. She is never far from her companion Elk, and has a fondness for Armoatic Grass. Despite being pretty blunt and no-nonsense most of the time, she is also an expert Troll and enjoys torturing Piros.Absolutely nothing is known about the player behind Mia. Voice Actor: Debra Rogers (Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Zone of the Enders)  Elk: Elk looks almost exactly like Tsukasa from .hack//Sign, making him a Wavemaster. He can always be found with Mia, and she is probably his only friend in the game. This makes him pretty fiercely protective of her, and he has been known to be outright cruel to people who he believes to be drawing her attention away. He's pretty insecure, always stammering when talking to others.The player behind Elk is a middle school student named Kaoru Ichinose. He's a little younger than Kite, at 13. Voice Actor: Brianne Siddall (Bleach, Xenosaga series, .hack//Sign)  Piros: Piros is the comic relief. He plays a Heavy Axeman character and seems to always be role playing himself as a great hero in "The World." He has a unique character design among all other male Heavy Axemen in the game - his PC doesn't have a helmet.The player behind Piros is named Hiroshi Matsuyama. He's in his early thirties and works as a programer for a large company. He has a love of strange food. Voice Actor: Daran Norris (Fairly Odd Parents, Lots of other roles)  Natsume: Natsume is another Twin Blade. Kite first met her when she posted on the forums about looking for the Spiral Edge. She's a bit naive, and is really down on herself. Despite that, she's very energetic and gives 100% to anything she does.Offline, Natsume is played by... Natsume Oguro. She's a 15 year old librarian, and (though she doesn't realize it at first) she knows Kite's player in real life. Voice Actor: Lia Sargent (Xenosaga series, Star Ocean 3, Cowboy Bebop)  Sanjuro: Sanjuro is a Heavy Blade, like BlackRose. He looks similar to a Ronin, or a wandering Samurai. He has an eye patch, and uses Katana-type weapons exclusively. He really hates PKers, and views himself as a wandering hero.Sanjuro's player is actually a Japanese teacher from South Dakota. He plays on the Japanese servers to improve his skill in the language, by playing with those who are fluent in it. He is a huge fan of Samurai films starring Toshior Mifune. The character's name came from "The Hidden Fortress." Voice Actor: Steven Jay Blum (Every Role Ever)  Gardenia: For some reason, Gardenia has a fan club. The first introduction we get to the character is through her fanclub circlejerking each other on the forums. She finds the club annoying, and the only reason she joins with Kite is because he's both persistent, and not a member of the fan club.The player behind Gardenia is a High School senior, and president of the Naginata Club. She loves flowers, which explains her name. Voice Actor: Carolyn Hennesy (General Hospital, Dawson's Creek, Click)  Lios: Lios is the head system administrator for "The World's" Japanese servers. The "power-up" books that Kite received during Infection were his doing. He had hoped to silently delete Kite's character data through them. He is something of a grouch, but his heart is in the right place ultimately.Head SysAdmin for "The World" is both who he is in the game and real life. It's his job, after all! Voice Actor: Bob Papenbrook (Suikoden V, Digimon, many other video games)  Nuke Usagimaru: Nuke wants to become a stand up comedian. He is the host of an internet show where he provides running commentary over battles. He likes Kite because he sees him as the ultimate straight man to his comedy act.Nuke is much the same offline as he is online. Fun fact - he and Rachel actually successfully become stand up comedians by the time the GU trilogy rolls around. Voice Actor: Derek Stephen Prince (Kingdom Hearts series, Bleach, Naruto, Xenosaga Series)  Rachel: Rachel is a very greedy lady. She's always chasing after some idea or another to make her a lot of money in the game. Every couple weeks, she posts a new message on the Boards with a new service she's started. Offline, Rachel is a 19 year old "freelancer," as she calls herself. She wants to become an Editor-in-Chief of something. It doesn't matter what she's EIC of, she just wants that title. She's also Nuke's editor by e-mail. Voice Actress: Julie Ann Taylor (Akira, Patlabor, Nier)  Moonstone: He's a silent, brooding loner hero who speaks in short often... ellipsis... filled... sentences. He seems to chase after moon-themed items. He likes Kite because Kite is strong.Offline, Moonstone is obsessed with working out. He has a pretty intense list of exercises her performs morning, noon, and night. He made friends with a little puppy while out jogging. Voice Actor: Lex Lang (Agents of SHIELD, Mass Effect series, Digimon)  Marlo: You remember that kid in High School who wore black leather, played with a lighter, and carved symbols into his arm with a paperclip? That's Marlo. He's constantly negative, he's a bastard to the few friends he has, and fashions himself as a brooding anti-hero.Offline, Marlo's player is a 17 year old who drinks beer and refers to himself as a loner. That should tell you all you need to know about him. Voice Actor: Robert Martin Klein (Suikoden IV, Digimon, Leap Frog Educational Products)  Wiseman: Wiseman fancies himself as an information and item broker. He's an excellent strategist and something of a modest hacker.Offline, Wiseman is a 10 year old kid. He hates carrots for no particular reason and plays Digimon Card Battles. He also enjoys playing soccer. Voice Actor: Steven Jay Blum (Every Role Ever)  Terajima Ryoko: Where to begin with Ryoko? She's very polite and formal, but can be very territorial if she wants something. Kite is her only male friend.Offline, Ryoko is a rich heiress. She attends an exclusive private all-girls school that sends its students to Hawaii for a field trip. Her father is also a very controlling man who once black bagged a boy for expressing interest in his daughter. Voice Actress: Julie Maddalena (Monster High movies, Love Hina, Star Ocean 3) //Character Class Descriptions (courtesy of berryjon) Twin Blade Wave Master DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Apr 15, 2015 |
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Apr 15, 2015 04:17
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This was originally posted in Late December, 2013. It is included here for completeness's sake. //Update 07 Greetings everyone. Because there's currently a small coating of snow and ice outside and I have literally nothing better to do at 7:45 AM, here's another update. Also, y'know, because this update is short as hell. It's "only" 70 images, not counting talking heads. Today we're gonna tackle the Anti-Existence. The Enemy. We're gonna tackle the other recurring boss in these games that aren't the phases. Let's get started, eh?   So, hey, a level 62 area means we're finally gonna face new enemies!    I've always had a soft spot for the "horde of insect" enemies. Even as far back as those flies in Diablo 2's desert levels. I just like the concept! Also these guys are loving stacked HP-wise. They have more health than the past two data drained phases, and have more health than the upcoming boss. They're also only level 60 enemies. It's a subtle indication that the gloves are starting to come off - we're just about 2/3 done with leveling and we're facing enemies that are halfway to the HP cap!    Speaking of levels, here's the latest from the party. I'm fairly certain that Balmung is forced into your party for this bit. Not that it matters - he's more than capable of holding his own in a fight! Going by the stat numbers, he's more magically inclined than Blackrose, with a couple more points of defense. She's whipping his rear end on defensive stats, however - at a three level disadvantage, no less. Her equipment is also less up-to-date than his is. Basically, Blackrose is much, much better than Balmung in nearly every way. He's no slouch, but she's simply better.  Now, I was celebrating about new enemies. But the game is also a master of trolling. Look at the map layout for the floor. Very few enemies in general, and only one between us and the way down.  It's not even that exciting an enemy. Kite's blades cut it to size and that's that.   Now, when I was streaming this, what, 6 months ago? I was freaking out in this dungeon. I knew what was coming and I was dreading fighting it. So I may have overcompensated a bit and filled up on consumables.  Second floor is no more exciting than the first. The big room was empty, and the only monster portal contained another of those dark dragons we just fought.  Finally the third floor, which was completely devoid of all life whatsoever. There's something really  -feeling about this dungeon. Like the developers couldn't be bothered to make a major boss dungeon exciting or even remotely challenging.Video:    What are you up to, Lios?  : Damaged data?   : What's this?: I think she wants to say something... An earthquake happens before anyone can talk to Aura.  Also Kite gets attacked by suspiciously familiar purple-blue roots.   This loving amazing track starts playing for the Cubia boss fight. It's totally worth a listen. Come to think of it, the track that plays from the start of the cutscene until Cubia appears is also pretty awesome. For all that I will bitch about the gameplay, .hack had some really great music on its soundtrack.  : Huh? Wh - what is it?! Something like that exists?!: It's... it's that thing again!: It's big... too big! Can we defeat it?  : It's... growing! So, Cubia. ...Again. Nothing about this boss has changed. It has the same patterns it had back in Mutation.   First the core comes out, and it's resistant to a type of damage - in this case, physical.  Then the core starts spawning Gomoras. Kill the Gomoras and the core will retreat.  Also thanks to the marvel of screenshots and frame-advancing, you can peer at what's inside the core!   Then Cubia will attack with one of its super skills.  Eventually we'll kill the core. That's where the fight ended last time. We're... not as lucky this time.   No. See, Cubia's gimmick is that each successive time you fight it, it gets another core. Also take a very good close look at that core. What's inside it? It looks familiar... Anyway, skipping ahead 20 minutes...  Cubia starts dying when we kill the second core. The next time we fight it, in Quarantine, we'll have to kill three cores. I did a pretty in-depth coverage of Cubia back in Mutation. So if you need a refresher, you'll want to re-read that. It's Mutation's 5th update!       : ......Hm. Looks like Lios was watching us fight Cubia. I wonder what he's up to.  : Hey... by any chance is Cubia trying to stop you from meeting her?: Stop?: After what's happened, that's what I think... but it always runs away. I don't get that part.: But... what happens if I meet Aura? Why does Cubia want to stop that?: How should I know! Think about it yourself!: So, what is it?: I'm telling you, I don't know!: I see... Jesus Christ, Blackrose. Kite and Balmung were asking perfectly cromulent questions and you jump down their throats for it. What crawled up your rear end all of a sudden?Anyway, the party gates back to an empty Carmina Gadelica.  \: The infection is getting worse. We can't keep fighting on scattered like this...: What do you mean?: ...Lios: Lios?! : You do realize it's Lios right?! Are you insane?: Lios wants to restore this world as well. I'm sure he'll lend us a hand.: I agree with you.: I'm pretty sure Lios won't help us. : Yeah, well... he's got his corporate side that won't let him say yes easily, but...: We need the information within CC Corp. itself too.: The question is whether Lios will accept Helba.: Yeah, that's the tricky part.: Oh, all right. : Summon? How?: Just watch.: Actually, the problem is what to do after they're summoned.: Did you say something?: ...No. I love this scene. It's so small, so easy to overlook and yet it's so important. They recognized a problem, realized they needed a solution and hashed out a workable solution to that problem. It's the party's first steps of moving to being an active force instead of a reactive one!     Future Bay 21, hm? Movie theater and shopping area, hm? .hack//Liminality Vol. 2 - In the Case of Yuki Aihara posted:It's been 11 months ago that I did Liminality 2 and I still really loving hate Yuki. This also means that I was really wrong about the timing of those events, because the news story is obviously referring to them.   Yeah, the party really needs to get Lios on their side quickly. The simple act of fighting Cubia caused those blackouts. Not data draining, just fighting.           But not as food right? I love Kite's responses so much!     That was short and relatively painless! NEXT TIME: we'll see just what Blackrose's scheme to get Lios and Helba together was, and we'll also do some of those sidequests. See y'all then!
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Apr 15, 2015 04:18
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//Update 08 Hello everyone! It's been a very long time, hasn't it? By my reckoning, it's been 15 months since last we met. How is everyone doing? Because I can't very well stay away and I didn't want to leave this unfinished, we're back again. Let's see this out, shall we? I reposted the last update just above, but to cover what we did last time, we fought Cubia and made the subtle change from being a reactive force to an active one. Our first goal is to get Lios and Helba on the same side. It will not be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is. So, without further ado, shall we?  Last time, Blackrose did say that she posted a message on the board we should take a peek at. Perhaps this is it!  I hope Blackrose knows what she's doing. This post seems innocuous enough, but with how Lios has been acting, I don't doubt he knows she posted it.  Video:  : The plan is perfect! I'm not a woman for nothing!: I guess we should head to Net Slum: Λ Pulsating Truth's Core, for now. We pick up Wiseman, though we don't need him straight away. It'll save some time when we go to the next dungeon. Video:   : Well, I don't know what you're both up to, but I'm afraid I deleted that post. It's no more. The truth is... she won't be coming here, I'm sorry. Tell me that's not the epitome of  : The hackers... they're having a good laugh. They find the current affairs to be quite amusing. What do you intend to do with them? I'm curious to know, tell me.: Why do you say things like that? Because it's the company's policy?: What?: Lios, you should know by now that the problems are unrelated to Helba.: What do you know? Do you think you're a hero now because of that bracelet? Don't make me laugh! So wear that thing if you want. I will restore the system without the help of that abominable item! : I'm trying to tell you that if we want the same results, we should work together.: I do not work with hackers!Lios knows Kite's right, but his pride won't let him agree right out. He's already made up his mind to agree to help but doesn't know how to say yes.  : If he wasn't so thick-skulled, I'd have done it already.: Helba! How'd you -: A deleted post is meaningful, fraught with significance Did you actually think I would pass up something that juicy? Deleting messages with clues that point toward the truth? Shameful! Even a pig-head like you is aware of the present situation... right? : Fair enough, but first prove to me that you aren't a pig-head.: What?: The players who fell into comas during the game continue to suffer. What we ought to be doing right now -: All right. If it will stop your insistent demand, I will do it on one condition. You can prove to me how serious you are by obtaining a Virus Core from the lowest level of the dungeon. The dungeon of Σ Sorrowful Sweltering Arena.Told ya! He found a way to agree in his own way. Kite's already picked up on this, too. He's a pretty perceptive little guy! : That's not a problem! : Don't be ridiculous! What are we supposed to do if a Data Bug suddenly shows up?!: Understood. I agree.: Huh? Are you kidding? "Understood?" What are you saying?!: If I do it, you'll work with Helba? : Only if you fulfill the condition.: It's nearly impossible to soften that pig-head. I want you to show him that you're serious. Σ Sorrowful Sweltering Arena is added to the Word List.  I'm not gonna lie, I have absolutely no idea what level Kite is at right now. It's the same as what it was when he fought Cubia. 61, I think? Anyway, a level 62 area isn't a problem in the least.   : You understand?: I understand. I won't use Data Drain in this area... but Lios, you'd better keep your promise, too.: ...... This is an incredibly simple dungeon. There's maybe three or four monster portals between us and the goal.  This is a new enemy. They're weak to lightning elemental attacks and are wholly unremarkable except for one nasty thing that they never did here. This monster type has a chance to deal Death damage and it's something innate to all of them. Funny enough, I never saw any of them do it until I was doing post-game stuff in Quarantine. It turns out that even at the level cap of 99, a level 15 monster in this family can still take off 90% of your HP with one swipe. It's a little annoying.   We fought these guys in Cubia's dungeon. They're just as worthless as they were then.    These three floors seriously had no monsters between us and the exit. I still somehow fought the lone portal on the fourth floor because I got turned around and confused. It was another pack of Undead Voodoos, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, purple mist means a data bug, and we're not allowed to use data drain. This could get nasty.   Lios is here to make sure we hold up our end of the bargain. : Let's go!So there's something slightly wrong about this data bug.  Like the fact that it's down by 2/3 of its health and still hasn't protect broken.  We just killed a data bug. That's... that's not how that works. Before my old external hard drive suffered catastrophic failure at the end of the last thread, I had a recording where berryjon and I sat around bullshitting for 15 minutes as I slowly beat a data bug to death. Eventually its health hit a minimum and refused to go lower. I want to say that it was at 50% health that the data bug stopped taking damage. It was well past the point that the thing protect broke. In fact, as I recall, it protect broke several times, and continued to do so even after hitting the invulnerable point. This data bug didn't do that. Its health went to 0 and it laid down and died. It never protect broke once. Care to hazard a guess as to why that happened? Video:  : Why didn't you use Data Drain? You might have fallen into a coma.: You're the one that made him do it! What the hell are you saying?! We've fought something a lot stronger than that one! You don't know anything!: Lios knows.: Huh? : What are you talking about? Anyway, that Data Bug you just defeated was a fake one that I created. If it was real, it wouldn't have gone that easily. Don't get cocky.: I had a feeling it was. This game is just as important to Lios. So someone like that won't make us do something dangerous.: Why didn't you say that in the first place? I thought I was going to have a heart attack! : Whoa!: Lios, you lose.God dammit, Helba. This isn't the time to be gloating like that. You know it makes Lios defensive! : Yeah, I lost... I completely lost. This hell isn't amusing...: Lios, while I'm at it, I'll tell you something else. CC Corp. has begun to create a script for their farce.: Hmmm?: Agencies that were sympathetic to CC Corp. are preparing to announce that the company is responsible. After hearing that, the upper management is going out on a gamble for their own protection.: Gamble? : They are planning on throwing this world in the dark, along with the lost ones.: No!For the first time, his farce drops. As cold and detached as he pretends to be, he does genuinely care about the game and its players. I think this news, more than the bet he lost, is what galvanizes him to help us. Before, he was sulking because Helba was rubbing her victory in his face. But this news she dropped has upset him enough that he's willing to finally go against the company and help the hackers he so despises. : They'll probably say that hackers or terrorists are responsible for it.: But that won't... do anything. That won't stop the infection of the network!: Yes, you're right. CC Corp. know that, but they are still proceeding with it. : We'll have to do something before they do something stupid.: ......: Lois, I did what you asked, but... I won't force you.: You are such a brat... All right. I'll keep my promise. I will help you. : You did pretty well. It's going to get busy.: This is it!: Yeah, it is!We're finally now all on the same side. Now that we're not fighting each other while we fight the Wave, maybe we'll make some headway into bringing the coma victims back. At the very least we should be able to limit the damage that happens due to data draining one of the eight phases, or even from fighting Cubia. At any rate, that's enough for now. So let's see what's new on the message board, and see if we have any e-mails.    Lios did say he deleted Blackrose's post.  What? How does that even? WHAT?    Good to see that creepypasta is a universal thing. I think. Anyway, this is worth investigating even if it's just for a quick level or two. Σ Fleeting Fallow Chaos is added to the Word List. We've also got some new e-mails! Let's see what everyone's up to.     Why is Kite cursed to be surrounded by people who can't communicate properly? Between Gardenia and Moonstone, I swear...    Digimon Card Battles is a thing that exists in the .hack universe? I can't even laugh at that. I'd feel bad if I did. It's like making fun of someone for liking to play Hearthstone. It's just not cool, y'know?    I'm pretty sure Kite is saying he's never seen a disaster movie in the rear end in a top hat answer. You'd have to live a fairly sheltered life to have never seen a movie, even in the weird universe that .hack takes place in.  from Helba and Lios, we should be able to narrow it down. It's all because of you.  Sure, Blackrose. Suuuure. That's all for now! NEXT TIME: We help Rachel and Moonstone. See y'all then! DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Apr 16, 2015 |
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Apr 15, 2015 04:22
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Shinjobi posted:I'm impressed (and concerned) that you're continuing the LP. Think your body can handle it? It only gets worse from here! I've been past the pale and come out the other side a lessened person. I'm ready. Also I've finished recording all of the remaining sections in the last two games, captured screenshots from the recordings, and even written the updates. I'm not gonna make some grand claim, because that's inviting disaster, but I am prepared for any eventuality short of being crushed to death by a spontaneously de-orbiting satellite.
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Apr 15, 2015 04:59
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//Update 09 Hello, everyone! Welcome back! After accomplishing the impossible last time, I think we deserve another break. Unfortunately we have to deal with Rachel and Moonstone, so it's not gonna be a very restful break. Oh well, nothing for it. The sooner we get started, the sooner it'll be over with. So lets-a-go!  Does it feel like, to anyone else, that these e-mails are bookending our progress? Maybe it's just me.  Gardenia is like a cat. The people who show her attention and affection get ignored for the one person who doesn't care. Presumably this means she also coughs up hairballs and claws the door frames. What? I wouldn't put it past her.     I'd kinda like to see a collectible card battling game where 3 or more people fight in a giant brawl. Was that how MtG worked? I seem to dimly remember 3 or 4 people playing magic games before classes started in the mornings during high school.     Just listen to the sound those bugs make. Gross gross gross.  So, starting off with Rachel's quest...  I get the feeling we were meant to do this a while ago. Y'know, before Cubia or even possibly Fidchell.   : (Kida) Hey! You guys are the Rachel Courier Service?: Yup, that's us!: OK, I've got a job for you. There's a player called Akai in the dungeon, so give him the Red Sword and get the Yellow Cap.: No problem!  Oh the Sled Dog Kings. Oh these guys. How I searched and searched for these guys. I wanted to data drain one to get a juicy gooey item, but I couldn't find them anywhere. But that's a story for later on down the road.  These Dark Stalkers are really kind of forgettable. Their monster type is always either physical or magical tolerant. Otherwise they're wholly unremarkable.    : (Akai) What? You brought it now? You guys were late so I traded the Yellow Cap with Aoyama. But I'm sure if you explain it and give him these Blue Boots, he'll give it to you. : I think Aoyama is at the very bottom.: Urgh... we gotta find Aoyama! I really think the game intended these dragon enemies to be mini-bosses. They have a fuckton of health. However they also, to a one, have crippling elemental weaknesses. This particular one is weak to wood element, which Wiseman is exploiting here. So instead of being tough encounters, they just take marginally longer than most others and occasionally deal more damage. But when your Wavemaster can heal the whole party for 800 damage at a time, and with how plentiful recovery items are...  Yet another of these three floor dungeons. Aoyama is obviously to the north, and the Gott Statue is to the east.     A fairly nice pair of pants for the heavy armor user in your party.   : (Aoyama) Hey, you can't ask for something back after you traded it.: Oh come on... Please... trade for it.: Oh all right... but only this one time. : Thanks a lot!!: OK, let's give the Yellow Cap to Kida on B1. The game is merciful enough to teleport us back to B1 to hand the item over. : (Kida) Hey, thanks a lot!  : Um... I've just been wondering...: What?: If you just asked Akai to come here, you really didn't have to ask for a courier...: Ah... uh... it just seemed interesting, so I just felt like asking...: Wh - wh - whaaaaaaaat?!: Ah, well, thanks a lot... um, bye!: Oh man, he was toying with us!: ......: You're not getting away! Rachel left to go commit assault against Kida. So we're gonna just invite Moonstone so we have an alibi for when she gets arrested.    He's getting better at this whole "talking to other people" thing. Soon we hope to start him on complicated things like verbs and sentence structure.    Time Visitors are part of a class of enemies that are deceptively powerful. It has half as much health as that dragon encounter in Rachel's dungeon, and it also hits like a truck. They also become more common the higher the field's level climbs.  Yet another three-floor dungeon.   There are so many things I want to write here, but everything that comes to mind doesn't feel appropriate or funny. It just somehow makes so much sense that Moonstone is obsessed with the moon. : :-) I'll give this to you, Moonstone.: Are you sure?: Of course! : Thanks... For you: : Thanks!: ......: OK, let's go back.: Yes.  Moonstone is pretty generous! I forget where we got the Feng Shui, but it's also pretty nice.    Okay gently caress this. gently caress it. I'm tired of grinding for virus cores.   So I'm gonna cheat like a motherfucker. Suddenly the game has magically improved 1000%. Virus cores are a horrible mechanic and I will not be sorry to see them go. They're purely bullshit padding and add absolutely nothing of worth to the game. The fact that every couple quests you have to go out and pointlessly grind through enemies hoping one will drop a virus core is actively disrespectful of the player's time.  Inside of the field we meet this lovely fellow. As best I can figure, he's got a drill speared through his chest. I guess someone tried to go Simon on the golem, but lacked the requisite spiral power.  If I'm not mistaken, I believe Nightmares can deal a Death hit. Otherwise they're just more fodder.  I'm gonna be perfectly honest here, until I fought them I had completely forgotten this style of enemy even existed. Give me an hour and I'm sure I will have forgotten again.  And we have another version of the freaky floaty alien enemy already.   These sand enemies are more annoying than anything else. They have a lot of health and despite being weak to wood element, they don't take a lot of damage from it.   Yet another three-level dungeon.  This guy wasn't very hard. I don't remember him dealing very much damage.    Hahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Oh my god that's funny as hell.  It doesn't live very much longer.    Σ Resonating False Grasslands is added to the Word List.      Aww. Moonstone made a friend.      You know, if I had to join a sports club, the Badminton Club would be about as far down the list as it could go. I don't even know how to play nor do I have any desire to learn.  Rachel I'm pretty sure there are better ways to make money than launching courier services. Like just going to lower level fields, looting every chest, and selling all the vendor trash. NEXT TIME: We're on our way to the end of the game. We won't fight the final boss next time, but we'll be in position to do so afterwards! Stay tuned!
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Apr 16, 2015 18:58
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Seyser Koze posted:I just went on PSN to buy the games. Then I was sad.  Unless you're referring to the GU games, you just dodged a bullet.
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Apr 17, 2015 03:42
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//Update 10 This update is gonna be a quick one. I probably could combine this and the next, but that would only serve to create one gigantic update and those take forever to write. One hour of furiously typing is better than several.      Moonstone does have a soft side! Aww, that's adorable.        Kite poking fun at Rachel never gets old. Anyway, for once there are no forum posts to greet us, so we're off to investigate those keywords we found last time.    Oh I will never get tired of looking at that full complement of virus cores.  Commando bees sound like bad news. Like the sort of badass insects that could give killer bees a run for their money.   I don't even have things to say about some of these enemies. They're just completely forgettable.    Look at that, a dungeon that goes past the third floor!  Video:      : Harald...Occasionally the white rooms sync up with the game's story. I'm sure that if I were better at reading hidden metaphors, I'd find they all did.   Quarantining the area where the wave appears sounds like it might work. In theory it should prevent the damage from spreading!  Video:  : Let's begin.: The general idea is as written on the mail. If there are no questions... Helba, please tell us about our assigned roles.   : The remaining will quarantine the operation from other areas. That is all.: We have yet to specify the location. We will commence the operation as soon as we know. Each of you, be prepared until the operation commences. I will mail you the operation period. That is all. Dismissed!So it looks like I was right. The plan is for Lios to track the wave, Helba will herd it to a predefined area, then while Kite engages it in fighting the wave itself, everyone will quarantine the entire field, so when Kite eventually beats the wave the damage will be contained. Thank god that Lios is bringing some employees with him, because it sounds like we potentially may not have enough people to quarantine the field.   This is good advice anyway. Playing in a darkened room with just the glow of a monitor is a great way to gently caress up your eyes. Or at least give you a migraine. I have to have my desk lamp burning all the time to give me enough light to work by.   Anyway, we don't have any new e-mails yet. So let's see what's shaking in town.  Oh, hey Elk. : I can't get in touch with Mia at all. Have you seen her?: I haven't either.: We promised to meet... I'll look a little more. Later! We get a new e-mail notification. That's probably Wiseman, so let's see what's up.     The fact that CC Corp. has a cover-up unit is pretty hosed up.  We've got our destination. We've got our orders. Let's get to NetSlum! Video:   : This is it.: Be on guard.: Let's make sure we're prepared before we begin.: There is nothing to worry about. You can do it.: Well then.: Huh?: Come on.: Go on.: Yes.: We can't get started until you say it!: Um... uh... this operation is to find the clue to restore "The World" and to help the comatose victims. It's my understanding that Wiseman named the operation in hopes that, like the jetties on the beach, we can nullify the powerful force of a wave by working together. Everyone, please lend me your hands!: I would like to see Orca again as well. We gathered here for the same purpose.: You, the holder of the bracelet, shall commence the operation.: Show us what you got!  : That was good.: I'm ready.: I'm counting on you.: Leave the quarantine to me. You just focus on the fight.I'm cutting it here. I'm sorry that I was somewhat light on commentary this update, but there really wasn't a lot to say. NEXT TIME: Phase 5, the Machinater. See you then!
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Apr 18, 2015 20:07
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AriadneThread posted:now that i think about it, what the hell does 'quarantining the area' actually mean in a video game? The best I can figure it, the Wave has already made Σ Chatting Snaring Twins its current lair. So while Kite his party are engaging the Wave in combat, Helba and Lios's men are doing something to quarantine the field from the rest of the game. It's not going to work. These are small jetties trying to hold back a tsunami.
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Apr 18, 2015 21:37
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//Update 11 Hello again everyone! Are you guys ready to beat the game? I sure as hell am! Last time, Wiseman and Helba briefed us on exactly what should be going down, so let's hope Murphy's Law doesn't come into effect.     I've already preemptively cut out the level grinding. We're actually going into this final dungeon two levels too low, but it really won't turn out to be much of a problem. We're also stocked up as far as we can be on consumable items.   Hand of God starts the pain train out. It sucks that Wiseman can't contribute against her, but it's rarely worth breaking the tolerances on trash mobs.  Though she does drop a neat weapon for Blackrose, who seems to like her new killstick.  Liches return from the Sora event dungeon. These enemies become distressingly common the higher in level you go. You know what's sad? Eventually I'm gonna be savestate scumming monster portals hoping for one of these guys. Look forward to that in the distant future!   Wiseman gets a new hat somewhere on the second floor.    Somewhere on the third floor, Kite gets a new hat too.   Finally on the last portal of the third floor we get this sign. That's the first time we've seen one of these in an incredibly long time. I haven't been keeping up with the all field and all dungeon portal clears, and it's going to come back to bite me in the rear end at the end of Quarantine. To get the last reward from the Ryu book for "all dungeon portals cleared" you need to clear 75 dungeons of all portals. Video:    I like to imagine that Helba made a field-wide announcement.          Gorre looks so loving ridiculous. Two silver guitar picks or whatever those faces are. : Just who designs these freaky things anyway?!Someone fed the artists tabs of acid after keeping them awake for five straight days. Alternatively it's because GAINAX is listed in the credits. Video:  The video linked right above details all of Gorre's abilities if you want to see what they look like in action. To make things easy, I'm gonna treat the two of them as a single unit. They move in sync, they attack in sync, and they share a health bar. For all intents and purposes, they are a single unit. As far as Gorre goes, one of them is magic tolerant, and the other is physical tolerant. I decided to use the Standard Strategy and put Wiseman on healbot duties while Kite and Blackrose beat the ever loving poo poo out of the magic tolerant half. I probably could have told Wiseman to nuke the physical tolerant one and have been just fine. Unlike the previous three phase fights, Gorre is a little more akin to a proper final boss.  This is how it opened up the fight. Yep, because there are two of them, you take double the shockwave damage when Gorre slams into the ground. Fun, huh?    Gorre also possesses the standard repertoire of charm, sleep, and paralysis. I also don't know if it was just because he was incredibly unlucky or not, but it had a hate boner for Wiseman. Almost all of its special attacks were directed against him.   The thing certainly is pretty creepy at least. Those yellow eyes and that mouth full of teeth emerging out of an otherwise flat stone is the sort of poo poo nightmares are made of.   This shot was taken a second before Wiseman died from being electrocuted to death.  Yellow Gorre: You know, they really tick me off. Blue Gorre: Yes well. Shall we do it then?       The field name's starting to make sense, eh? Σ Chatting Snaring Twins. They're talkative, there's two of them, and their abilities have a theme of plotting and scheming.  Gorre also has data drain. But that's to be expected from a phase fight. Though seeing those two hosed up stone faces staring at you before you go comatose has got to be pretty high up there on the "what the gently caress" o meter. Despite being more like a proper final boss, Gorre still isn't a very good fight. With the exception of Skeith and Magus, all the phase fights have had one thing in common. The next three will also share this trait to some extent or another. They're loving cowards. They run very fast around their fields, only stopping to occasionally use one of their abilities before taking off again. Skeith was aggressive. Instead of running, he was mixing it up with your party. Innis ran away, and despite hitting somewhat hard, it never pushed things. So you'd have time to heal up before its next attack. Magus was so concerned with setting up its instant kill gimmick that it didn't have time to do anything else. Fidchell ran away. It stopped to occasionally use one of its prophecies and then half the time forgot to follow up while the debuff still affected your party. Gorre is a more pronounced coward than the previous phases, because I swear the loving thing is faster than the previous four. The next three also move extremely fast, for the record. The fight I recorded took 20 minutes. Most of that time, no joke, was spent chasing the boss around its field. By the time I protect broke the boss, I had gotten so sick of chasing it around that I had given both Kite and Blackrose a speed buff. The point I'm getting at is that because these bosses spend so much time running around, the threat they present to your party is close to zero. You always have plenty of time to top your health off after each ability fires. To actually get a game over against this boss, you'd have to come in to the fight itself at something like level 65 after having done absolutely no side-quests. Well that or just straight up fall asleep while fighting it. To be honest, this is the more realistic prospect between the two. Video:   Even being data drained that thing is loving creepy as hell.    As per the usual, the epitaph stone versions of the bosses are the more threatening part of the fight. These things don't spend their time running away, and instead elect to stomp around and occasionally cast obscenely high level magic.  Oh wait, its magic stats are so poo poo that it can't even be a threatening epitaph stone boss fight. We took hundreds of damage there! HUNDREDS! Jesus Gorre, you were the worst. Video:  ***THIS IS THE ENDING*** Blue Gorre: Why me? Yellow Gorre: No! I can't, I can't, I can't! Blue Gorre: Why me? How? You know, hearing them scream and cry as they died really took all of the satisfaction out of that kill.    : All appears to have gone well. An investigation will still be needed, but... I guess you've succeeded, for now. : Let us rejoice at our triumph.  More earthquakes are shaking the game. : The immensity... There's a possibility that it's the "Cursed Wave" itself. It's moving... : Counterattack? No! Before we start celebrating, can I ask something here? What the gently caress is Kite even talking about? What true rule? This ending makes no sense. Kite is just spouting gibberish and the game's doing this dramatic zoom on his face and it's all rather dumb. Some of this is still me being salty about Gorre being another lovely phase fight, but this last line really cements Outbreak as being the worst entry in the series. Anyway, that's enough out of me. All that's left are the credits. I recommend you click on the video and just listen to them in the background. The credits music for the first three games is one of my favorite tracks from the entire series. See you guys next time when we tackle post-game content!                    Oh and I wasn't kidding earlier. GAINAX really is in the credits for the game.  
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Apr 20, 2015 20:35
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//Update 12 Welcome back everyone! Today we're gonna tackle the bonus content in Outbreak. That is to say we're gonna go to Ryoko's dungeon and then the optional bonus dungeon and then completely forget about the Liminality fields altogether. Sounds good, right? If you want a preview of what those fields look like, just imagine the enemies from Ryoko's dungeon, but five more times.    Apples that taste like potatoes sound like the most awful thing.  "DNA analysis shows that the footprints belong to this creature" I don't think that's how that works. Like at all.   I thought the Panthers were a Carolina team. A 15-game winning streak is still pretty drat good, though.   StarChild being wholly incompatible with ALTIMIT means that it's gonna have an extremely slow adoption rate. Who wants to make the change to a completely new operating system when absolutely none of your old programs and games will work for it?     Λ Pulsating Sea of Cloud Whale is added to the Word List. You know, despite Outbreak introducing Σ Server, there were an awful lot of Λ Server fields we were told to investigate. I mean, Carmina Gadelica is much better laid out than Fort Ouph, but you would think that the developers would want the higher level players in Σ instead. Anyway, a save-and-reload later and we have some end-of-volume e-mails from our buddies!     Rachel had an oddly aggressive tone in that e-mail, and Wiseman seems to think we were begging him for cheap items.  At least Moonstone appears to have our backs.  These dungeons aren't gonna run themselves, so let's grab Wiseman and Ryoko and go adventuring!  This should be really easy!  This was the first portal in the field. Ryoko's dungeon is full of data bugs. If I had to hazard a guess as to why, the developers wanted to get you accustomed to Quarantine's dungeons. Any other guesses involve the developers being complete assholes and I want to hold on to that slight bit of innocent hope otherwise for as long as possible.   Iron giant style data bugs are always a pain to fight because of how much damage they deal.   The destination room is just to the north of this round room. Video:    : An enemy! Let's get him!: No, wait! Don't rush in so recklessly!   Swing and a miss!   Strike two!    It can be a little hard to tell what's going on, thanks to the awkward way the enemy bends its arm. But it's raised its blade arm up and intends to bring it down on Ryoko.   But Kite's a little too fast for it!     GEE I WONDER IF RYOKO HAS DEVELOPED A CRUSH ON KITE I HONESTLY CAN'T TELL. (No I didn't edit that image. The game seriously zooms in on her face and adds a soft pink glow.)   Kite, ever the gentleman, drops her on the ground before he gets punted across the room.       If you watch the video, you can hear Kite yell out something. The monster shudders and then the light on its face dies.   Not gonna lie, if the games had a system where you could deal backstab damage, the combat would be vastly improved.  : Are you all right?: I'm sorry. I was out of line and I... I... I attacked carelessly. I'm completely... useless. I mess things up every single time, without fail. Even in a game, I cause trouble for other people. I can't apologize enough. Please forgive me.It's just some slight damage, Ryoko. Potions are cheap, and Kite knows a healing spell. It's fine. Really! : Hmm, if that's truly how you feel, then all you have to do is change. I'm sure you can do it. Everybody, including me, likes you a lot.: Thank you so very much! If you watch the video, Ryoko's wings are really expressive. When she's apologizing to Kite and belittling herself, they droop. But when Kite tells her it's fine, they straighten back up. Also back when the camera did the zoom in on her face earlier, as the screen turned pink, her wings were doing this fluttering thing. There's a dungeon very late in Quarantine where you can see the magical expressive wings in action again.  For our troubles, we get +30 HP, which is a pretty good reward, all things considered. Back in town, we get an e-mail notification, so jumping ahead...          Ryoko's dad, as we'll come to find out, is completely insane. I'm also trying to figure out just how loaded Ryoko's family is. Look at those field trips. After seeing the aurora borealis, they go to Hawaii to warm up. That school has to educate the children of the top 1% of the top 1%.  Now that Ryoko's been dealt with, let's round up the usual gang. It's time to take on the real bonus dungeon!   Nope. Never gets old.  It wasn't something I ever saw while playing Outbreak, and never had recording software running when I encountered it in Quarantine's post-game, but occasionally while in Σ Server fields, you can look up in the sky and see several eyes staring back down at you. Presumably we're up on top of the body those eyes belong to right now. Take a good look around when you come up here. This dungeon exterior is completely unique in all of the games!  Inside we have the most dungeon type. Oh boy another stomach dungeon. They stopped being gross and creepy a long time ago and now are just kinda blasé.   The dungeon itself is also tiny as hell. I went out of my way to get the "All Dungeon Portals Cleared" bonus and it involved clearing maybe two extra monster portals all-told.   I tried repeatedly. I must have recorded three separate attempts, and there were at least two more that I didn't record. For all that I tried, I could not get this bonus boss to protect break. He has 9999 HP, and according to some forum posts I saw on the matter, you had to deal over 8000 magical damage to it. This boss is magic tolerant, and breaking that tolerance took multiple Beasts Banes each time the break wore off. So yeah, I eventually gave up on getting the rare weapon the boss dropped. It wasn't worth the time, effort, or resources it would have taken to get a weapon I wasn't going to use anyway. As far as a strategy for fighting the Black Death is concerned, put Wiseman on healing duty, have Blackrose stand in front of the boss, and put yourself on its hind quarters. If the boss starts to turn around for any reason, run as far away as you can until it turns back to Blackrose. She can take its hits, Kite can't.  : I've killed the root of the infection, so it should be fine now.          We've been getting lots of desktop wallpapers recently. I'll show them all off at the end of Quarantine when we have a complete set.    Looking at Blackrose's equipment, it occurs to me that she's still wearing that Ceramic Helm that we got that way back in one of the Infection bonus dungeons. Whoops. That's the end of .hack//Outbreak, though. I hope you guys enjoyed it. NEXT TIME: Liminality vol 3: In the Case of Kyoko Tohno                       
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Apr 22, 2015 21:03
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All right, here's the deal. Starting the day after tomorrow I'm leaving on a trip and will be gone until the early part of next month. So this is the last update until May. While I would rather be ready to start Quarantine when I get back, Liminality 3 is awful and I don't want that to be the last update for such a long period.
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Apr 22, 2015 21:08
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Shinjobi posted:I think it was more boring than anything else. This. Also I'm kinda irritated about there not being a transcript available online. There is absolutely no action going on in Lim3, it's just Tokuoka and Kyo touring a mountain tourist town learning about its history while Helba and her employee Bith the Black test everyone's patience with bullshit mind games.
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Apr 23, 2015 03:56
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AriadneThread posted:i remember a dramatic burger eating scene 
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Apr 23, 2015 06:14
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//Liminality Vol. 3 "In the Case of Kyoko Tohno" Hello everyone, I'm back from my trip. We're not quite ready to dive into Quarantine territory, but we've already covered everything in Outbreak. You might say we're in a state of liminality. Or, more appropriately, Liminality. Specifically Liminality Vol. 3 - In The Case of Kyoko Tohno. You could be forgiven for skipping this one. Or just watching the anime version. Ultimately this is just half an hour of Tokuoka and Kyo being led around a tourist spot to look at the scenery and talk. So expect lots of shots of cool historical things in the background. My commentary is probably gonna be a bit sparse as a result. If you want to watch the anime version, I found someone on youtube who uploaded it. So, have at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCNe2WLaoWs Opening Theme: Kimi Ga Ita Monogatari  Like the last volume, someone was kind enough to add subtitles in a hideous font to the Japanese text.  Tokuoka is sitting and smoking. Kyo is leaning on a fence nearby, as we will see in a minute.  : So why did they come to Takayama of all places?  : My parents said they could work anywhere, as long as there's Internet access. : Oh, I see. SOHO? (Small Office Home Office): The so-called literary profession. The depth of culture is amazing here! It is so rich in folklore. A real goldmine, but...: Yeah, but what?  The cameraman just filmed a couple (not Kyo and Tokuoka) buying a pamphlet. Sure, why not?  : I don't know, maybe it's just me, but sometimes it feels like this place is... too "inside.": Inside? How do you mean, inside?: Was there some reason you wanted to meet out here, in Hida?: Ah, well if I'm gonna come all the way out to Takayama, I might as well see the sights! : Not exactly mild weather though, is it?: This is mid-winter! Besides...: Huh? Ah, you mean this. A phone starts ringing.   : *gasp*  : Helba!   : "I would like to discuss some matters concerning recent incidents which have occurred in "The World." I apologize in advance for any inconvenience, but if you are interested meet me at the place where the Carpenter's Daughter sleeps" - Helba.: Helba? Is that a character in the Epitaph? : Helba is the Queen of Darkness.: Really? That's not what I heard.: What did you hear?: That she's a legendary, notorious hacker.: Interesting. But I don't like it!: You wanna expand on that a little for me?: In the Epitaph, Helba is a strategist. She has lots of information and knowledge. She's much more ingenious than Apeiron, King of the Light. And now this hacker's using her name for some reason. Very interesting.: And that's what you don't like?: Look at the timing of this message. It means this Helba knew exactly when you and I were planning to meet.: Well, I suppose it could just be a coincidence. But then again, you may be right. Someone could have hacked into my mail. Or yours.: There's something else. They say that if you delve too deeply into the Epitaph of Twilight, strange things begin to happen. Very strange things, it's like the Hundredth Tale in "The Hundred Stories." You understand?EagerSleeper posted:I'm usually a lurker on this thread, but yay, I'm glad I can help out on at least one thing! The '100 tales' that they're referring to in Liminality is the Hyakumonogatari, an old form of storytelling tradition where people would gather up a hundred candles, and a hundred scary stories and set out to have a terrifying night.   : Mr. Tokuoka from Tokyo. You have a telephone call. Mr. Tokuoka from Tokyo you have a telephone call. If you are in the building, please come to the front desk.: Did you tell someone you were here?: No. Kinda eerie, isn't it?   : What happened?: The bastard. He had the nerve to ask me how committed and dedicated I am.: It was a man?: Yeah. Said he was speaking for Helba. Said his name was Bith the Black. Another character from the Epitaph?: That's Helba's retainer. That means they're active, that they're not just watching inside the net. I don't like this. I mean I really don't like it, and that's why I'm going to pursue it. That's a pretty cool statue. It stands to reason that something that awesome-looking would be found in the local hotel's lobby! : The place where the Carpenter's Daughter sleeps. Here? : They say that when this three-tiered pagoda was built, the palace carpenter killed his daughter and buried her underneath it.: Well that's rather, uh... : It doesn't seem like anyone's around this place now. Another phone ringing! This time it's Tokuoka's.   : Oh, hey Mai. What's up?  : Nothing. I just didn't understand the e-mail you sent me.: E-mail? : Please go to the place closely related to Sadako. What's that mean?: Wait a sec. When did you get that e-mail?: A minute ago.: Okay, don't worry about it. I'll call you back later, Mai. : You know, this could be a big problem for us. Not gonna lie, I have no idea what this statue is, but it's ugly as sin. : It's some kind of threat. Is that what you think? : It's probably to demonstrate that Mai and possibly even Yuki are both under surveillance.  : What if Helba's a cover? Someone from CC Corp. could be using it as a warning.: I don't really think it's them.: They don't want us sniffing around. What if they're saying that CC Corp. is off limits?: It's not their style. They wouldn't beat around the bush. If they ever want to threaten us, it'll be direct... and very ugly.I would contend that some form of beating would definitely be involved in CC Corp's threat. The kind where one security guard kicks you repeatedly while the other smacks you in the head with his baton. Kinda like this:  : Hmm, I guess you've got a point. But why then? Is there a reason we're being led from place to place?: To find that out I guess we're going to have to keep following this Helba and her friend, Bith the Black or whatever his name is. Which leads us to that Sadako thing. What is that?: I have no idea. I've never heard of Sadako.: Well of course I know there's a character named Sadako in that horror movie. But I'm sure that's not nothing to do with it.Anyone who knows even the slightest bit about popular horror movies knows who Sadako is.  : Horror movie?: Yeah, she's some kind of psychic.: I get it! Then it's over here. : What? Wait a minute! Hey! You know where it is just from that?  Someone in the back seat of a car is looking at Kyo and Tokuoka.  : This is professor Tomokichi Fukurai of Tokyo Imperial University. When he researched clairvoyance and spirit photography, he became so passionate that he was ordered to take a leave of absence because it was inappropriate to conduct research of that nature. He was originally from right here in Takayama. : Hmm. A local boy, huh?: Hida is a mysterious place, isn't it? It's inconveniently located in the middle of the mountains, but people have lived here since the Jomon era. And the other day some school kid told me the story of the Okame Stone beneath the Ebizaka streetlight.According to Mysterious Subtitle Person, the Jomon era is circa 400 BC. : What about it?: That's all there is to it.  A Google search turned up someone on "dothackers.net" asking for clarification on what Kyo said. Apparently an Okame Stone is just an oddly shaped stone.: Huh? No, no. What do you mean "that's the end"?: I'm afraid that's all there is to it! But you see, after enough time has passed, even something like that can become a legend here. : I'm referring to the power of this place. This land. This is where Dr. Fukurai was born. Growing up here may have given him a different perspective, a different paradigm than other people.: So you think there's some connection between that and the Epitaph of Twilight?: Oh, you're right. A paradigm shift. I see, I never really thought of it like that. This seemingly-pointless cut away will make sense in a minute. This old woman is obviously walking from the direction of that parked taxi, though. : I think you need to fill me in. What is the Epitaph of Twilight all about, anyway? : It's about a race of sprites. They cast no shadows and are unlike anything you've known before. But this race is being devoured by a woe known as the "cursed wave." They are in despair, and on the verge of extinction, and the wave is advancing closer and closer. It's relentless, nothing can stop it. Then when there's no other hope Apeiron, the King of the Light, and Helba, Queen of Darkness join forces, forging an alliance to strike back against it.: Yeah, but they have no way to fight it, right?: There's a legend. It says that when the wave emerges, three beings with shadows will set out in search of the Twilight Dragon.: So these beings can't fight the wave, but the dragon can.: The beings are one human and two half-sprites who cast shadows. They set out on a journey to the wavering peninsula at the edge of the world. Halfway through the journey, they are assisted by two allies: Fili the White and Bith the Black.I'm not good at dealing with metaphors and reading deeply into things, but let's try and sort this out for a moment. Kite in all likelihood is the human in this tale. Blackrose would be one of the half-sprites. I'm not sure who the other would be. Maybe Orca? Helba is Helba, naturally. Lios is another name for Apeiron the King of Light. Given that we know that Bith the Black is Helba's retainer, we could reasonably assume that means Wiseman is Bith the Black. This logically means that Fili the White is Apeiron's retainer. Given how Balmung worked with Lios in Mutation, that means that he would be Fili. I guess that means Aura is the Twilight Dragon? Another possible interpretation is that Kite is the dragon, but it makes more sense for him to be the human. It's not a perfect reading, but it was a fun thought experiment at least! Feel free to post your own interpretations. I'm curious to see what you all come up with! I also know that Wiseman is not the Bith we're dealing with here. : That's Bith. Got it.  : But why did he send us here?  : Hey mister. Are you Mr. Tokuoka? I don't think I'm mistaken.: And ma'am, you are?: That doesn't matter. I've been sent to give this message to Mr. Tokuoka. : Dual-sided demon?: Victory wish? Lady where'd you get this? : Fearful. So fearful... : Wait! Who asked you to give this to me? Ma'am! Hey!: Fearful. So fearful...: She's afraid.: What's she scared of?: *shrugs*   : Hey, wait! Hold on! Gah!  : What was it? : Dual-sided demon leads us to Senko Temple. But victory wish?: Hey, don't look at me. I don't even know what the dual-sided demon thing is about. : It refers to a powerful man from Hida in the mythical age. This warrior had two heads, four arms, and four legs, representing good and evil coexisting in one body.: Jekyll and Hyde with no on/off switch. : So if you put it all together, you think there's some significance to all this?: How do you mean?: I mean following all these clues around Takayama. What's the whole point of it?: Like I said before, I don't know. But, think about it. We solve a small puzzle piece which leads us to a new location, where we find some kind of clue that points us to the next location. Now doesn't that remind you of something?: An RPG? : The truth is we don't know what the rules are, or who we're going to run into at the end of this thing. But, if that's the way they want to play it, then I'll take it as far as it goes. What the hell, I'm thinking we should just fasten our seatbelts and enjoy the ride.: Well if that's the case, we'll have to call on our strategist for inside information.: Huh? : My mother is the editor of a local magazine. You'd be surprised how much she knows about this town.   : That's Sakuayama Hachiman Temple. That's the shrine where it originated, yes. Lord Takefurukuma who came to exorcise the dual-sided demon built it for his victory wish. Shall I send you some documents? Okay. By the way, I got a call from Mr. Hokiguchi in Koufu a moment ago. He said he saw you walking with some middle-aged man. Who are you with, Kyoko?: He's a guest from Tokyo. I'm just showing him around!: He's middle-aged? : Mom, does that bother you?I mean what's wrong with meeting a middle-aged guy you know from the Internet? Kidnappings certainly don't start that way or anything! Also a car drives up and honks its horn.  & : Huh?: What is it?: It's dad.Tokuoka hears this and swallows the smoke he was about to blow out.   : I'm on my way home from a meeting. You two want a ride?  : You came all the way from Tokyo about the Epitaph of Twilight? That's a strange coincidence. You're the second person today who's into that!: There was someone else here?: He was from out of town. I just had a meeting with him. He wanted me to translate the whole thing.: Really? So did you take the job?: No, I don't wanna get involved in all that.: Do you mean because it's the 100th Tale of The Hundred Stories?: Not just that. There's also the problem with the original text.: That's right. I forgot all about it. You never heard the story of how the Epitaph became public.: Huh?: It first appeared on the personal website of a writer named Emma Wielant. It was only online for a very brief period of time. Hardly anyone saw it. Eventually, some high-profile fantasy researchers and occultists became aware of the work. But by that time, Emma had died tragically and the original version was lost.: She died at the age of 28 in an automobile accident.: Yeah, that's right. Some of her most dedicated followers pieced together sections of the text, restoring about 70% of it.: But then came the release of "The World." Shortly after its release, someone posted that its prototype, Fragment, was modeled after her work by the genius programmer, Harald Hoerwick. Of course, that changed everything.: Oh, I get it!: You understand?: Fakes and alterations. That's it, right?: Mm-hmm. You got it. Since it was first published in plain text format, anybody could easily alter the content. So her work was butchered and everything after "The World" is atrocious. You can't even bear to look at it. Even if the missing portions of text were found, it would be extremely difficult to separate the original sections from the fakes.: That's why the full scope of the story, the true story, is still unknown.  : That's it, the Epitaph of Twilight.: So, uh, this guy who asked you to do the translation. What was he like? I mean, if you don't mind my asking.: He was very well-dressed, but he had a strange attitude. He was kinda gloomy.Sounds like our mystery friend from earlier. : Do you have his business card? : Ichiro Sato.: Talk about a fake name. Ugh. : Thanks.: Thank you! : You think Ichiro Sato and Bith are the same person?: Maybe. Well, since we're here let's take a look around before we go to the next spot. : So, were Emma and Harald acquaintances?: To Emma? Yes. But to Harald, she was much more. : Unrequited love?: It probably was. I don't have many details about Harald's life, but I have the impression that Emma loved his talent, but not him. When they first met, Emma already had a lover. He was 20 years older than her.: What? : It seems that she was very beautiful, but also very high maintenance.: A rich girl?: Her family ran an old winery.: Really? So how does the winery girl meet up with Harald, the computer genius?: There was more to Emma than a girl from a rich family. She lost her mother at an early age, and her father died when she was 18. According to the will, her uncle was appointed as her guardian. But the uncle decided that he wanted to get his hands on her inheritance. So he "kindly" offered to adopt Emma as his own child.: What a lowlife. : Yeah, but Emma was too smart for him.: She refused?: Mm-hmm. But the inheritance was in a trust. It was set up so she couldn't access it until she turned 20. So she decided to go to nursing school to support herself until then. : Ahh, good going Emma. I'd fall in love with a girl like that too.: Unfortunately, on the morning of her 20th birthday, overwork and stress finally caught up with her. She started coughing up blood.: Blood in her lungs...: She was lucky. It didn't get out of control, and the coughing stopped pretty quickly. But on the advice of her physician, she checked into a health resort in southern France. That's where she had a supernatural experience that would influence her entire life from that time forward.Tokuoka thinks back to one of the first stops they made, the one associated with clairvoyance and spirit photography and realizes that's what Emma was studying. : That's it! And soon after that, she moved on to Rudolph Steiner's work. : Anthroposophy.: Yes. It's all coming together, right?: If I remember this correctly, Harald was trying to forge a relationship between humans and computers and he used anthroposophy as a starting point.: Meanwhile Emma was immersed in the same philosophy, trying to understand the meaning of existence. That was when she started writing the Epitaph of Twilight.: As Harald was developing his own design, Fragment. I still don't get it, though.: Yeah, something is missing. It still doesn't explain the things that are happening in "The World.": Is there anything else?: Well, yes. But I can't really say how much of it is true. It's impossible to verify the story.: Go on. I'm all ears!: When Emma had the auto accident, apparently she had called Harald and she was on her way to meet him. Of course he had no way of knowing she died. They say he waited for her under a large ginkgo tree on top of a hill.: Hmm... Someone's phone rings again! This time it's Kyo's.  : Yes?  : Kyo? What's this about?: You mean the e-mail?: Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.: Sorry, it's for me but I had them forward it to you. Uh, would you mind reading it to me, Yuki?: You're being weird. Okay, here it is. "The cross of smoke rises, lake of water sprites." I think that was it. : I got it.: Hey, is Mr. Tokuoka with you? He may not look like it, but he's pretty rich y'know. Make him buy you dinner!: I'll take it under advisement. See you later, Yuki. *hangs up* New location.: We have to go all the way back down, huh? Oh come on, everyone knows that climbing the stairs is the hard part. Going back down is cake!   : This place has caught fire several times over the centuries. But one time, the rising smoke formed the shape of a cross.: A cross over a temple?: That's why it became an urban legend. Oh? : Looks like this is the final confrontation. : Past here, there's a lake where water sprites appear.: This is very well thought-out. & : *gasp*   : Pleased to meet you.: Bith the Black!: Ichiro Sato!: Ah, you already know my other name. That makes things simpler.: How so? It's a fake name, isn't it?: Of course.: You're getting on my nerves.: Names are just symbols. I'm sure you're aware of that. For example Kyo... Kyoko Tohno. And Sieg... and Tomonari Kasumi. Though they're different names, they all stand for the same thing.I'm fairly certain that names don't all stand for the same thing. That's kind of the whole point of naming something. To, y'know, differentiate it.  : What do you stand for? What is it that you actually do?: I'm a representative. I told you that in the beginning when we spoke on the telephone. Of course, Queen Helba has many clients.: Hmph. Hackers have clients?: Now, now. That isn't like you Mr. Tokuoka. Hackers also make excellent security analysts and cyber investigators. Isn't that right? Why don't we sit down and talk? Perhaps over lunch? We can try the local cuisine.  I'm pretty sure that a national fast food chain isn't local cuisine. It reminds me of when my dad went on vacation to Oahu a few years back. Instead of eating at any number of potentially awesome local restaurants, he ate every night at Subway and every morning at McDonalds. : They don't have Hida beef in this town? Or Hoba miso? No, we have to come here of all places. : Please, feel free to have your favorite dishes later. Together.: I'm fine here.: The portions are skimpy, and I can't even taste the meat. Can you? : Let's talk about that later. I was saying that when Harald designed Fragment, he based it on the Epitaph of Twilight. But if he had merely modeled Fragment on the worldview found in the Epitaph, then that would not have caused the chaos that is now occurring in "The World." Do you get it?: We're with you. So what did create the problem, Einstein?: Simply this. To put it in a nutshell, Harald brought the "outside" into the "inside." That's what we presume, so the boundary is wavering. Severely. Of course, you understand that if the wavering were to increase, the results could be devastating. : Can you simplify that so that I can swallow it?: Ugh. You're doing that to make a point?: Inside and outside, religious and secular, divine and worldly, they go together. Every society places the world in order through the concept of opposites. But these elements can never be separated into two wholly distinct parts. There's always a gray area where distinctions blur into ambiguity.: Tomonari Kasumi was also known as Sieg. Physically he was in Kanazawa when he lost consciousness. That occurred inside the game, though of course he exists outside the game. Tokuoka has had enough of this poo poo. : So then we must ask the question where was his consciousness at, the inside or the outside?: Do you see now? It's possible to explain it either way, from inside or outside. : Uh-huh. They say reason and plaster stick to anything.: Exactly. However to make it stick you have to use force, and you have to control that force. That's the true nature of boundaries. In anthropology they have a name for this, liminality. Maybe it's because this is the third time I've heard it in the past 6 hours, but the inside and outside stuff makes some sense sense. But what the gently caress is he talking about otherwise? Why does force enter into the equation? Why does force mean boundaries? Ugh, is this more anime bullshit where characters spout complete nonsense and act smug about it in the hopes that they sound deep and meaningful? : So, you still with me?: Liminality?: Well, um this is slightly different, but can I try?: Sure. : When my family moved here from Suginami we were new here, so we were "outsiders" that came to the "inside" of Hida. My parents chose to assimilate, to get "inside" the community by working at it for two years. Although, I'm still on the outside somewhere.: So your boundaries are wavering as well, is that it Kyoko?: Perhaps, but this isn't where I belong. My heart isn't here.: So the answer is simpler than you think.: What do you mean?: You merely separate the "outside" from the "inside" isn't that right? You're autonomous. An outsider who will leave this city in time. Fortunately, the "outside" that Harald brought inside the game also seems to be autonomous. Like you, it hasn't fully assimilated. You see, if that turns out to be true, then all we have to do is help it along.: Yeah, how?: If you want to know that, you'll need to make a commitment. No more wavering. Worst case scenario, we'll be identified as criminals and they'll come hunting for us. So, you still wanna know how?  : Yes. Tell us everything.  : What if I asked you to pretend we never had this conversation, make it a blank slate?: Ultimately, we'd lose our ability to fight back and CC Corp. would win, destroying the servers and burying the whole thing in total obscurity.: You're kidding.: That's what CC Corp. intends to do. If they aren't stopped, the clues to saving the coma victims will be lost forever. : Our next contact will be on Christmas Eve in Urayasu.With that, Bith drives off. Also no points for guessing when the main plot for this series comes to a head.  : This has gotten totally out of hand.: Even if we never face the worst case scenario, we are still committing a crime.: You still wanna do it?  : I know where I'm going now. This is my game.This took an excruciatingly long time to type up and I'm kind of doubting it was ultimately worth doing. Absolutely nothing at all happened except for a lot of lore being filled in. See you next time guys. We'll be doing something much more exciting then! DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 02:06 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 00:04
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Shinjobi posted:Like watching anime paint dry. Just to move things along, and also because this update was boring trash, I'm gonna be posting the first Quarantine update tomorrow. Now you guys see why I didn't want to leave the thread on this for a week.
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May 2, 2015 02:27
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//Update 01 Well everyone, this is it. We've gone through 3/4 of this series and we're in the home stretch. Quarantine is an incredibly short game. Due to the way I've been trying to cut off updates, it's still going to feel about as long as the others, but trust me when I say that the majority of the stuff happens in rapid succession. Imagine me repeatedly snapping my fingers there for accentuation if you like. But getting to the end of the story is only the first half of the trouble we're going to get into. It took use 39 hours or so to get to Quarantine. As you may have guessed, I've recorded everything up through the end of the game already. It will take us another 77 hours to complete absolutely everything. Yes I do mean absolutely everything. But more on that later. Pre-Title Demo: ***LOTS OF SPOILERS*** I'm including the pre-title screen demo for the sake of completion. I strongly urge you to not watch it unless you've already beaten the games. There are some pretty major spoilers in there if you know what to look for! I'll see you guys on the other side of the intro cutscene. Enjoy! Video:      : The day that he first played "The World," his friend Orca fell into a deep coma as a result of Skeith's Data Drain.  : "The World" isn't just an online game. Something with another purpose is lurking within it. : The Book of Twilight, handed to him by the girl Aura, transformed into a bracelet, giving him two extraordinary powers.    : Data Drain, the power to alter monster data.    : And Gate Hacking, which allows him to gain entrance into protected areas. It was these very same powers that put Orca into a coma. : However, contrary to hope, the situation continues to worsen.    : Casualties are no longer contained to the game, and the damages extend to the real world. What is the intention of the game designer, Harald? What is the Epitaph of Twilight, that supposedly is the key to this mystery?  : Nonetheless, they have finally found a clue to counterattack. : This marks the beginning of the counterattack. : Counterattack? No!  The same spiel we've heard two times now, just slightly modified. I'm still just completely baffled on what it is Kite's talking about with the true rule of the game. That Harald created. Can't forget the dramatic zoom in on his face with that stinger.  Anyway, because it's the start of the volume, we have some incredibly important e-mails to attend to. In fact, if you try to do anything but open the e-mail program, Kite will  Starting from the bottom...  Throughout this volume, more than others, they refer to the Cursed Wave as a huge data file. I like to imagine that it's just this giant multi-terabyte .dat file being moved around on the servers. You can now go to Ω Server. Select Other Servers from the Chaos Gate Menu. Omega Server access means we've got ready access to some bafflingly powerful equipment, as well as the best consumable items. Aura's garbled e-mails are becoming more readable as time goes on.   Oh boy. The item completion event. In the last incarnation of this thread, I said that doing that particular event would be antithetical to actually completing the game. I still stand by that sentiment. So let me put this as plainly as I can. DO NOT DO THE ITEM COMPLETION EVENT. IT IS NOT WORTH THE EFFORT IT REQUIRES FROM YOU AND WILL MAKE YOU HATE THIS AWFUL GAME SERIES. We'll cover that more later, though. Much, much later. On to the news.     Reading this article reminded me that at one point in the dotHack universe, the US President's name was actually Jim Stonecold.   Scintillating, no?  In all seriousness, apparently the poo poo is hitting the fan harder than we anticipated. Anyway, on with the game!  We'll be looking at the board posts in their own separate update. I captured screenshots for them, and when I was done I realized that there would be a giant block of 40 message board posts in the middle of my update. Nobody, least of all me, wants that. So I've shuffled them off to their own bonus update which will follow shortly after this one. If you're the type to look at screenshot names, look at the numbering between that image and the next one. The last screenshot was 01046. The next one is 01088, meaning I cut out 42 message board posts. Video:  : Do you know where Mia is? She was right there. Hey! You know where she is, right? Tell me... tell me where she is!: I - I don't know... I just got here.: OK... if you see her, tell me! You have to tell me!: Yeah. OK. Poor Elk. Without his buddy, he's completely lost. Anyway, this cutscene is a bit weird. It'll ambush you the first time you log in to Σ Server. So it could be as early as now or as late as 20 minutes from now. We happened to end the last game on Σ Server, so we got to see it now.  Lia Fail awaits! Video:  (You should probably watch this to understand what's going on) Oh good, the new root town is unstable.    Thought it doesn't look corrupted. Gonna spoil something that's gonna be revealed in a minute anyway, but it's a shame we never really get to explore this place. It looks really pretty.  : ......  With all the inverted color images I'm posting, I really hope I'm impressing on you just how unstable this place is. Fields with active phase fights aren't this unstable. This server is barely holding itself together.  : Aaaaah!And now a massive earthquake is rocking the game, and the colors basically go permanently inverted. Ω Server is crashing.  : It's too dangerous here... We're warping!: Helba?! ...Warp?   : Welcome to Paradise!: Net Slum?: It's a mirror of Ω Server... which is mine.You read that right guys. The new root town is Net Slum. It's extremely awesome! : When did you - I can't let my guard down for even a minute!: ...But we're safe because of this mirror server.: Yeah! What do you expect us to do in a place that unstable?! : Is that how you apologize to someone?That is the first time we've ever heard Lios apologize. Blackrose may not have liked it, but he sounded genuinely contrite. She's the only person still operating under the assumption that we're working at cross purposes with Lios, instead of with him. In fact, this is one of, if not the last, times we'll ever hear Lios called a pig-head. : I am telling you I am sorry!Of course, Lios is still Lios. : Well, there's no point in arguing about something that's already happened.: Yes.: True.: Yeah.: Wha - what?! Why are you all...Video:   : Let's begin our strategy meeting.: Hmph.She's still pouting because nobody wanted to join her in hurling senseless abuse at Lios. It really shows just how immature she is compared to even Kite, who is several years younger than her. Or Wiseman, who is much, much younger than either of them : The Wave is still moving at this point. If it is difficult to determine the location, let's specify its movement. That is essentially the plan for this operation, right?: Yes. Orca told me about it before.Come again? : Orcas - killer whales - create an enclosure when hunting prey, to close any escape paths. But if there's no place for the prey to run, then they will disperse. So they create an escape route on purpose to lure the prey to where it is the most convenient.: Most convenient?: The surface... it's a dead end for the prey.Kite is probably referring to the "Carousel Feeding" strategy that Orcas use against schools of fish. To quote pbs.org... "pbs.org posted:
: So, if your enemy is moving, I was thinking maybe we can apply it.: It is a good plan.: Using the analysis of the Virus Core provided by Lios, Helba is developing a vaccine program.: The vaccine won't be able to destroy the wave. But it may be able to corner it... Don't worry. Leave it to me. But, are we going to have enough people?: That's not a problem. We'll have my employees that I trust do it.: We'll get more pig-heads...: Shut up!Who is surprised that the teenager and the hacker are the two most immature people in our party? Show of hands? : Putting pig-heads aside...: What?!: Excuse me. What do we need to do to prepare for the operation?: Hmm... I would like to measure the data fluctuation. I would like for you to investigate Ω Bigoted Snowflake's Capsule as soon as possible.: Yes sir!: Meeting adjourned!Ω Bigoted Snowflake's Capsule is added to the Word List.  So let's explore  Omega Server isn't very big, which is why I like it the best. If you're hunting a specific player for one of their trade items, this is the best server to search on. Not pictured is the magic shop which is on the north end of the map, just out of view.  The weapons in the shop are all really high level stuff. The three twin blade weapons are all different elemental affinities.  The armor are all level 71-74 depending on type, and as you can see from the image, have incredibly powerful healing spells attached. Everyone in the party gets a full complement of new armor to replace the outdated stuff they were wearing.  The magic shop has all the top-tier magics. The scrolls pictured, the "call" spells, are the best trade resources in the game. Three of these will make any trade succeed. (Excepting, of course, the ones that require specific items.) I don't want to think of how many millions of GP I spent in the postgame loading up on Nightcall scrolls. The scrolls are also one of the best ways to raise affection in party members. Magically-inclined party mates will get as much as a 50 affection boost per scroll! Less easily impressed friends will "merely" get 20 points. That means that even starting from 0, you only need, at max, 500,000 GP to cap out someone's affection.  Healing Elixirs, as pictured, are a spammable instant full heal on anyone, regardless of how much HP they have. Emperor's Souls are a full SP recovery. You're going to want a bunch of each. Quarantine doesn't pull any punches when it comes to difficulty. The designers know that you now have access to full heals and have adjusted things accordingly. More so than before, enemies will hit like rocket propelled freight trains. Anyway, that's all for now. Next time we'll measure that data fluctuation for Lios. There's also a bunch of forum posts coming in a quick bonus update. I wouldn't blame you if you skipped them. DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 23:03 on May 2, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 21:43
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SSNeoman posted:I still want to know what was the train of thought behind the item collection quest. Luckily for the item collection quest, you don't need to get any of the rare items, or any of the stat boosts. So you don't need Sora's Blades, but you do need every regular type of weapon and armor and so on.
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May 2, 2015 22:52
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Click this for the update:  This is the bonus update I alluded to yesterday with like 40 message board posts. Tomorrow will mark the second actual update for Quarantine and after that I'll go back to the one every other day format. EagerSleeper posted:I'm usually a lurker on this thread, but yay, I'm glad I can help out on at least one thing! The '100 tales' that they're referring to in Liminality is the Hyakumonogatari, an old form of storytelling tradition where people would gather up a hundred candles, and a hundred scary stories and set out to have a terrifying night. Totally sticking this in the Liminality 3 update as an explanation! DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 21:01 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 02:03
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Another update! Click this for the update:  Like I said earlier, after today they're going back to the once every other day format.
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May 4, 2015 21:00
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I'm kinda anxious to get this update out, so it's going up earlier than I would have otherwise posted it. This, guys, is one of the big ones. I'm sure that not a small number of you have been waiting for this moment from the instant I first started this series back in 2011. Today we're fighting Phase 6: The Temptress. Click this for the update: 
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May 6, 2015 18:59
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Click this for the update:  Believe it or not, we're almost done with the story of Quarantine. DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 23:25 on May 10, 2015 |
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May 8, 2015 21:30
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Click this for the update:  We're now officially in the endgame! The next several updates are all gonna be sidequests and level grinding.
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May 10, 2015 23:28
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SSNeoman posted:When you don't have to hunt down the absurd number of virus cores they ask you, yeah it's pretty short. We've really only had to protect break one field this entire game so far, so it's not even cheating in the virus cores. Quarantine is just really, really short. I have 20 updates planned for Quarantine, counting all of the postgame stuff. EagerSleeper posted:Also, maybe I wasn't paying that much attention back when, but An Shoji was kidnapped? Kidnapping her was only part of all the hosed up stuff she did to An Shoji. Morganna rendered her comatose, hosed with her memories to make her forget anything good that had ever happened, and then emotionally abused and manipulated her to the point where she withdrew from everyone. That memory fuckery also changed her self image to make her forget her own gender, which is why everyone calls Tsukasa a guy.
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May 11, 2015 03:28
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Click this for the update:  Two sidequests and one story field down.
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May 12, 2015 21:29
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AriadneThread posted:ever since you cheated in those cores, i've wondered what would happen if you sequenced broke the game CC2, for all their faults when they designed this series, were pretty good about locking down most chances to sequence break. As far as I'm aware, the opportunity we have now is the only chance you get to do it at all. I'm going to be a little more in-depth about this when we get to the final dungeon in the LP proper, but the game soft-locks once you get to the bottom of Δ Reincarnated Purgatorial Altar. There's a better answer that requires me to put in far more effort than I'm willing to do for a single screenshot showing what happens.
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May 13, 2015 11:48
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Click this for the update:  One more sidequest and then it's time for the end of the game!
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May 14, 2015 19:35
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Click this for the update:  I wouldn't expect an update on Monday. My brother's wedding is that day, so I'm going to be busy with that.
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May 16, 2015 18:40
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Bonus update today to make up for not having one tomorrow. Click this for the update:  It's not story related in the least, but I think it's pretty cool at least. This is a related pro-click by the way. Don't click on this until you've read the update, though.
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May 17, 2015 22:09
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http://nichegamer.com/2015/05/cyberconnect2-is-releasing-an-hd-remake-of-hackg-u/ So this is a thing that's happening.
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May 18, 2015 20:31
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Click this for the update:  I would have posted this earlier, but then I played some Grimrock 2 and my entire day disappeared into a black hole.
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May 20, 2015 00:06
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Click this for the update:  This is the final boss of not only Quarantine, but the entire series. I also apologize in advance.
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May 21, 2015 18:27
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AriadneThread posted:*sora noises* You poke fun, but that's what I'd describe them as. He's narrating his hops and flips with completely nonsense noises. SSNeoman posted:I will say one thing about the phases, they always manage to look alien and menacing. An yet they all have that eye theme. The eye thing is apparently Morganna's brand icon or whatever.
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May 21, 2015 19:00
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Szurumbur posted:How can there be next time if you've just defeated the final boss? We didn't beat the final boss. The game servers crashed before we could win.
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May 21, 2015 19:55
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Click this for the update:  Merry Christmas I guess? I know this was kinda hard to follow, but it makes a little more sense if you watch it in action.
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May 23, 2015 16:18
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Cleretic posted:So correct me if I missed something, but Liminality's where we actually learn about Harald, Emma, Aura and all that, right? At the time I did the writeup, I was a little bit salty about there not being a transcription online. I would have to watch two seconds of the anime, then pause and type out what was said. Repeat for approximately three hours. As far as I know, I have the only transcriptions of all four Liminality episodes on the Internet. I still stand by what I said. Liminality 3 is easily the weakest of the four anime episodes, because nothing at all happens in it. The first one opens up with Tomonari and Mai being rendered comatose, and ends with the same almost happening to Tokuoka. The second has a massive disaster at the Bay 21 Complex. The fourth has our heroes breaking into the Megafloat Information Center in the middle of the night to set up a backup server so Kite and company don't fail. The third episode just has Tokuoka and Kyo walking around the city she lives in, looking at the local tourist spots. Liminality 3 did give us the following, however.
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May 24, 2015 19:45
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Click this for the update:  If you're in the US, happy Memorial Day! Be sure to enjoy a burger that has been grilled out. If you're not in the US, you should also do that thing. Burgers are awesome, yo. Also enjoy this update. This is the ending.
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May 25, 2015 16:12
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SSNeoman posted:It helps if you watched SIGN and know the story behind that story, but yeah, this ending is lackluster. Black Balloon posted:Really not feeling much emotional impact from that ending. There's another ending. Though we have to go above and beyond to earn it.
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May 25, 2015 23:50
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Click this for the update:  Something I didn't mention in the update... (mouse over this after reading) When you get the bracelet back, the game restores how corrupted your character was as well. If you had a hard time in Δ Reincarnated Purgatorial Altar, you probably shouldn't use Data Drain straight away.
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May 27, 2015 19:37
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