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Anastasiya posted:What we need now is some proper build up for our villains. We've seen three (I think) so far, but only once each, and at least one didn't even get a name. Yeah, I agree! Part of it is that the pacing is kind of messed up by the fact that I'm showing every skit I get, so it feels like I'm doing a lot, but the plot doesn't actually progress that much XD We'll get there, we're entering the point in the game where things start to happen, which is exciting! Hopefully. Mraagvpeine posted:Darth Numbers, it's okay to not have an update schedule. I know plenty of LPers who don't keep to a schedule. You don't have to apologize for it. ahh okay! ^^; yeah I just worry because when I was at school (and had a job that involved working on my computer for 5 hours a day) I was able to get a lot more work done on this LP than now (I think I made almost daily in the first couple updates), I'll try to do at least one or two a week!
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May 23, 2015 16:47
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Update 11 And back to Naos!   : Hmm. It may not be a good idea. : We can lay low at Hartman's place. : Good idea!   : Young Master, huh? : Right, around here he's the Young Master. Make sure to call him that. : Shut it!  : Now then, who asked you to find me?: Normally, I don't reveal my client's information. But I'll make an exception. It was a Tenos noble named Albert, do you know him?: I do not recognize the name.: Tenos is in the north, right? Maybe a noble fell in love with you.: Surely not...: It would seem it's because you're an Avatar.: He's gathering Avatars?: Just like Mathias...: Hey, just who is Mathias anyway?: Part of the Arca leadership, I guess? Somewhere in the upper ranks of it, in any case.: Why would this Albert guy be looking for Avatars?: He's probably searching for the Manifest as well.: …: Iria, are you okay?: My head just started hurting, but I'm fine now...: The Manifest?I like how no one cares about Iria. : Now that you mention it, Albert did ask me if I knew anything about a Manifest when he realized I was an Avatar. What is it?: It sounds familiar...: I feel like I've heard of it, but I can't remember... I've got a bad feeling about this.Zoinks, scoob!! : I see...: ...The Manifest! It was what destroyed Devaloka! This is horrible, we have to stop them!: Are you... sure about that?: A-actually, she might be right.: It has the power... to destroy the world?: Why is it on Naraka?!: Maybe because Devaloka collapsed.: That Mathias... she attacked my village for this?: The real question is why Albert is searching for the Manifest. Perhaps he intends to use it for war.: Man, if that happened... Naraka itself could bite the dust... : One could easily take the whole world hostage.: Then we gotta get it before Arca or Tenos can!: Arca... they're backed by the Privy Council.: Privy what now? : Long ago, the council was occupied by clergymen. But those days are long past...: What does that mean?: So Mathias wants the Manifest to restore the church to power?: I wonder.: So Arca has pretty much taken over the church.: Things do seem to be heading in that direction. : Does that include salvation for Avatars?: Whatever! Who cares what Arca is thinking?!  : Man, I'm beat. And my head hurts.: Would you care to rest your head in my lap?: C-Can I?: Why don't I assist you, “young master”?: Ack!: You know, since we're short on leads, we should probably head to Regnum.: Regnum? Hmm...    Anyway, off to Regnum! Hope you enjoyed A THOUSAND PAGES OF EXPOSITION.  : …..: Is something wrong? : Are you still worrying about before? It'll be fine. I know, I just can't help but be anxious about things at home. So what's the problem? …... Don't want to admit it, huh? If you want to play it cool, you'll have to find someone else to play along.Burn. I'm not trying to play it cool. So what if I want to see my parents? I've got my own reasons. Oh really... Come on, you've heard about the Forced Rehabilitation Program. We were captured by them. I see. Then I guess you're out of luck, you can't go back. Even if you want to. Oh my. That must be hard on you, Luca. I'm fine. I know that complaining won't change anything. Plus... What? Iria, you still need my power, right? Just knowing that is enough for me to see things through. What a sap. Right Spada? Wow... you're really something. Huh? I mean, you've really grown. All right, lets head to Regnum!Anyway, off to Regnum. For real this time.  As we near the bridge leading back to Regnum, we have this cutscene. A flash sideways? This is happening somewhere else, at any rate.          Sorry for this barrage of screenshots! These guys don't have skit profiles, so there's no real way for me to do it, other than just screenshotting.   Cold war, Tales Of style?       Poor Bradly        Anyway, back to us.   Hello Regnum! Anyway, that's the end of this update. It was a small one, but hey, you know what they say: Sometimes the updates are small. I don't know who says that, but someone probably does. Make sure to check out the update 11 skits, as there's about A BILLION of them!
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May 27, 2015 20:43
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Update 11 Skits THERE ARE SO MANY loving SKITS About Devaloka             Steel Your Heart                        Questionable Results             Ricardo's Duty                     Iria's Headache                    Why Gather Belief?                     The Reaper, Warden of Souls                Asura and Inanna's Meeting                     The Situation in Regnum               About Regnum                           Ricardo and I 1                     The Privy Council                    
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May 27, 2015 20:43
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They tried to bully Ricardo, omg. These kids... Spada is a good bro. For the characters that don't have skit portraits, maybe you can use some other images instead? Since we do have screenshots, we know who you're referring to... I am... suspicious of all this exposition. It feels like it's too early to have this much info. Someone must be lying.
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May 27, 2015 23:34
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Anastasiya posted:They tried to bully Ricardo, omg. These kids... Hmm. I'll try to make a portrait of Oswald based on his model, I could always just write "Oswald:" but that seems a little out of place? Thoughts? I love our cast of character's and their interactions, I sometimes think the skits are more fun than the game because you get to see all the little interactions and them loving with eachother :P
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May 28, 2015 01:03
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Based on other LPs I've seen, if you have a character with no portrait you have several ways of showing their dialogue. You can: a) do screenshots like you're doing, b) crop out an image from the game and write out the dialogue, c)similar to b except write out the person's name in bold and then the dialogue, or d) make up a portrait that describes all you need to know about the person in a funny manner with the dialogue after. For example, if you have an evil vizier character you could just put in Jafar from Aladdin.
Mraagvpeine fucked around with this message at 05:30 on May 28, 2015 |
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May 28, 2015 05:27
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Mraagvpeine posted:Based on other LPs I've seen, if you have a character with no portrait you have several ways of showing their dialogue. You can: a) do screenshots like you're doing, b) crop out an image from the game and write out the dialogue, c)similar to b except write out the person's name in bold and then the dialogue, or d) make up a portrait that describes all you need to know about the person in a funny manner with the dialogue after. For example, if you have an evil vizier character you could just put in Jafar from Aladdin. oh, I like that last option-- so like a picture of King Bradly from FMA cause Oswald kinda looks like him.
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May 28, 2015 15:30
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Oh man, this game. I actually played and finished this semi-recently, and... I'm not really sure how to feel about it as a flagship Tales title. It's wildly different in tone from the rest of the flagship games, is on a portable system usually reserved for Escort titles, and the protagonist is probably the least-likeable character out of the bunch - not that he's not likeable, just not as likeable as the rest of the cast. The Past Lives/Reincarnation thing is a really interesting change-up, though. I also like that there are in fact two stories going on here - what went before in the form of past life flashbacks, and the story you're going through as reincarnations. Having someone be the reincarnation of a talking sword was a really amusing take on the whole concept, too. But we haven't gotten to the best character yet. I look forward to people going nuts over them, especially their past life.  EDIT: If I had to level a more vicious criticism about this game, it's that I would have much rather been playing the characters they're reincarnations of. The entire political-war-etc plot of Asura and the rest just seemed so much more interesting to me than the game I was actually playing. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 16:51 on May 28, 2015 |
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May 28, 2015 16:42
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Darth Numbers posted:oh, I like that last option-- so like a picture of King Bradly from FMA cause Oswald kinda looks like him. Or you can crop an image out of their concept/official art.
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May 28, 2015 16:56
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RelentlessImp posted:Oh man, this game. I actually played and finished this semi-recently, and... I'm not really sure how to feel about it as a flagship Tales title. It's wildly different in tone from the rest of the flagship games, is on a portable system usually reserved for Escort titles, and the protagonist is probably the least-likeable character out of the bunch - not that he's not likeable, just not as likeable as the rest of the cast. The Past Lives/Reincarnation thing is a really interesting change-up, though. That's why I said "there's some debate about it", it's VERY different compared to a flagship game like abyss, etc. It's a lot shorter, and most of the substance is in skits, honestly. That said, it's VERY cool, and I like how nonstandard it is. The past live thing is more than a gimmick, it makes for really neat gameplay and plot marriage imo. Yeah I love that they were like "hey who can the sword fighting cab driver be? A GIANT TALKING SWORD WHY NOT." I assume you're talking about the last playable character we get? Yeah, they're pretty awesome. One thing I dislike, is how the villains are handled. I don't feel like they're as well characterized in this game, compared to Symphonia, or Vesperia, or any of the other games-- I just feel like they're not as interesting. That said, I loving love Hasta. Innocence also handles the 'betrayer' (which is a staple of Tales Of games, for those who don't know) in a really cool way. I kind of wish they had localized Innocence R to like the 3DS or something, and not hosed it up like they did, but hey.
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May 28, 2015 17:01
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In fairness, the villains in Tales games usually get the short end of the stick. Innocence kind of averted that by having the big villain (one of them, at least) be a childhood friend, and Abyss gave the villains a lot of characterization, but typically in a Tales game you get very little on the villains. Abyss got a lot of characterization out of everyone, though. Phantasia had Daos and you got just enough on him to understand his characterization; Destiny you didn't get very much at all, but it focused more on the Swordians anyways. Symphonia distracted you from it with its big reveal and tied everything into that, Legendia's villains were kind of hackneyed and the big selling point of it (for me) was the epilogue chapters and the characters themselves. I feel Innocence is kind of a cooke-cutter Tales game - the focus is all on the characters and their interactions (and holy poo poo, there's like five to six skits per area) like in most Tales games, and the villains are little more than a framing device. The villains getting their characterization is the exception (Kratos, most of the Abyss villains) rather than the norm. It's not bad, but it's not Abyss, and the characters aren't as strong as Abyss, Vesperia, or Xillia. It's a fun romp, though, I'll give it that - even if the guild dungeons are grindy bullshit.
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May 28, 2015 17:10
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(I'd like to just say we're approaching spoiler area here so try to refrain from Innocence or other spoilers from Tales Of games, for those planning on playing them.) For the most part though, I feel like we get a lot more backstory/motivation on the villains in other Tales games-- like the villain of Symphonia, while still an asshat, we got a good amount of information into their motives and reasons. Same with Vesperia's villain, I felt like they had more depth to them than Innocence's villains, but I think that's mostly due to hardware restrictions/not being able to characterize villains in skits. And yes, there's a fuckton of skits. As in, after every cutscene, area change, etc (plus certain battle stuff, and character friendship levels) you get like 5 skits. In the last update there were over 200 screenshots worth of skits, compared to like 50 screenshots worth of actual update :P
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May 28, 2015 17:40
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RelentlessImp posted:EDIT: If I had to level a more vicious criticism about this game, it's that I would have much rather been playing the characters they're reincarnations of. The entire political-war-etc plot of Asura and the rest just seemed so much more interesting to me than the game I was actually playing. I feel like this is always the case in every JRPG ever. The backstory events sound more interesting. I mean, every time there's talk of Symphonia and what everyone would like to see, it's always "Kharlan War prequel." Same for other Tales games, more or less. It's probably a combination of things -- because there's so much we don't know about prior events, we can imagine them being much more interesting than they would probably turn out in practice, for one. Also, there might be a bit of the fact that past event stuff isn't bound to fitting the mold of a normal storyline, which has a certain (kinda cliche) outline. Regarding Innocence being short and on a handheld, but still a flagship title, how does it compare to Hearts? I think in principle those aren't bad things -- sometimes these games get a bit too long, and if it wasn't a flagship, it'd probably end up another somewhat phoned in crossover instead.
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May 28, 2015 23:42
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Anastasiya posted:Regarding Innocence being short and on a handheld, but still a flagship title, how does it compare to Hearts? Funnily enough this thread got me to drop some cash on a Vita and Hearts R, so I'll be able to answer this question soon enough. It gets here tomorrow, so I'll have an answer in a few days. Innocence, on its own, is still a pretty decent game, though. It's just a repeat/amalgamation of the other games in the series, as far as gameplay goes, though. Every character more or less controls identically to a previous Tales character, which fits in fairly well with the whole Reincarnation aspect. Luca/Ruca controls almost identically to Yuri (Vesperia), Stahn (Destiny), and Luke (Abyss) - medium speed, decent range, and decent combo potential. Iria plays a lot like the medium-close aspect of Raven (Vesperia) with more focus on support and has a lot to recommend her for continuing combos. Spada plays very much like Lloyd (Symphonia) and Chloe (Legendia) - super fast, best combo potential, but slightly weaker per-hit than Luca. Ricardo plays similarly to a long-range Raven but with more focus on offense. Ange plays a lot like Philia (Destiny) in that she's a priestess with a blade who can call down the pain with magic, but has Rutee's (Destiny) speed and thievery. Our last character who we haven't met yet has my favorite combat style as well as being the best character. The only thing that Innocence does differently is its assumption of you constantly swapping characters to maximize your combo potential - the AI in this game is slightly more sluggish/disinterested than in other games, which means your AI-controlled allies don't go all-out as brutally as they do in, say, Vesperia or Graces. The ease of swapping between characters is something other Tales games didn't do very well, and with all of them having decent-to-great combo potential, it works really well - if you play it that way. You don't have to, but you didn't have to use the aerial combos in Vesperia either. Eking the most out of the combat system does rely on it, however. But if you just wanna play this game normally, you could do worse than controlling Spada. Like Lloyd, he is a complete shitwrecker with good base combos and combo artes. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 22:36 on May 29, 2015 |
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May 29, 2015 22:26
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To be fair, most Tales characters are carbon copies of other character's fighting styles. The Tales Of formula works pretty well, so they keep with it. The haven't changed up the battle system significantly in a few games, (though the "special skills" has changed a bunch from game to game, and I love how they do it in innocence IE styles.) As I said Innocence's fighting style is actually one of my favorites for the very reason that there's a dedicated button to switch characters, and you're encourage to rack up crazy combos like I mentioned on the first page. I'm actually gonna be recording boss battles again in addition to screenshots of them for those who don't prefer the videos-- I feel that screenshotting boss battles kind of cheats you on the really cool combat of this game, and I'm sorry for that. For instance, once you get a few moves that hit a bunch of times (Spada's Lightning Tiger Blade comes to mind, or any of the Sword Rain skills), it's REALLY easy to rack up combos in the hundreds of hits (and it feels super natural and fun to do so). But yeah in terms of innocence not being innovative, any game (excluding those made by Team Destiny, because the combat is a little different in those) in the Tales Of series essentially has the same combat system, with little quirks and tweaks here and there (the tethering in Xillia, for instance). I wish Innocence R had been localized-- the graphics and combat are a lot of fun, shame they added 2 awful characters and put in the random encounter system >.>
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May 29, 2015 22:52
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That does sound fun. Of course, I also happen to like telling all my characters exactly what to do, so I ended switching between them a lot...RelentlessImp posted:Funnily enough this thread got me to drop some cash on a Vita and Hearts R, so I'll be able to answer this question soon enough. It gets here tomorrow, so I'll have an answer in a few days. Was Hearts localized? I'm kinda considering picking up some handheld for myself, but I'm not sure if there are any in English without a fan patch?
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May 30, 2015 00:28
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Anastasiya posted:Was Hearts localized? I'm kinda considering picking up some handheld for myself, but I'm not sure if there are any in English without a fan patch? Hearts was ported and updated to the Vita as Hearts R, and received an NA and EU release. Innocence remains one of the very few Tales flagship titles that hasn't been ported and translated into English - the others being Tales of Destiny 2 (the localized "ToD2" is actually Tales of Eternia), which has been localized to China and Korea, and Tales of Rebirth (Japan-only), both on the PS2. Even Phantasia has achieved English re-releases, on the GBA and the iOS, and has re-released in Japan a few times - on the PSX, the PSP and as a cell phone downloadable game. EDIT: On the other hand, there have been very, very few escort titles translated to English and given NA releases. The Narikiri Dungeon games (1, 2, 3), Summoner's Lineage, Dice Adventure, Tactics Union, Reve Unitia, Tales Vs., Tales of the Tempest, Twin Brave, Eternia Online, Tales of Tactics, Breaker, Commons, Tactics Gaiden, Wahrheit, and Asteria are all games that never made it out of Japan to my knowledge - neither have 2 out of 3 Radiant Mythology games, with only the first receiving an NA and EU version. The only sequel to come here was Dawn of the New World. So with the escorts (Dawn of the New World, Radiant Mythology 1) you could say we've gotten the short end of the stick in its entirety when it comes to Escort Tales games. We didn't even get the Keroro RPG that was a spin-off, developed by the Namco Tales studio. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 02:36 on May 30, 2015 |
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May 30, 2015 02:14
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RelentlessImp posted:Hearts was ported and updated to the Vita as Hearts R, and received an NA and EU release. Innocence remains one of the very few Tales flagship titles that hasn't been ported and translated into English - the others being Tales of Destiny 2 (the localized "ToD2" is actually Tales of Eternia), which has been localized to China and Korea, and Tales of Rebirth (Japan-only), both on the PS2. Yeah there's a cool and fun mixup where the games "Tales of Destiny 2" and "Tales of Destiny II" are actually completely different games! Yay for localization shenanigans! Sadly Phantasia has aged really poorly, despite getting remade a bunch of times. The GBA port of the SNES game has some of the worst voice acting I've ever heard, and there's a hilarious mistranslation where at one point, they mistranslated "ragnarock" to uh... this. 
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May 30, 2015 02:34
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So you could say, when it goes off things are gonna be... hopping.
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May 30, 2015 02:38
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I heard Tales of the Tempest was the worst Tales game. Is that true?
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May 30, 2015 03:02
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Mraagvpeine posted:I heard Tales of the Tempest was the worst Tales game. Is that true? Yes. It's so bad, they demoted it to an escort title from a mothership title, because it was so amazingly terrible.
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May 30, 2015 03:12
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Darth Numbers posted:Yes. It's so bad, they demoted it to an escort title from a mothership title, because it was so amazingly terrible. Didn't they only come up with the whole escort/mothership thing after (because of) Tempest? Before that, there were Tales games, and there were the obvious spinoffs. I don't think they even had a classification system because everyone knew which was which until Tempest confused everyone by being seemingly a full, real game and yet sucking. ...Well, I could be wrong. I don't keep up with events consistently.
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May 30, 2015 07:27
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Anastasiya posted:Didn't they only come up with the whole escort/mothership thing after (because of) Tempest? Before that, there were Tales games, and there were the obvious spinoffs. I don't think they even had a classification system because everyone knew which was which until Tempest confused everyone by being seemingly a full, real game and yet sucking. So mothership titles are the main games essentially: Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Xillia, Tales of Phantasia, etc. Escort titles are the spinnoffs: Tales of Symphonia: The lovely Sequel, Tales of VS, Tales of the World (which were basically crossover games where you could have characters from a bunch of different games in your party) and yes, Tales of the Tempest. I can't confirm whether Tempest was the origin of the mothership/escort system, but I do know Tempest was so awful it never got localized and was demoted to escort from mothership, so it's possible that with the release of tempest Namco said "hey guys, this is a mothership title, it's part of a new system we're classifying games in! Oh wait, no it's so lovely, it's now an escort title". I don't know the exact chain of events though. It was like, the most bland poo poo you'll ever play, 1 dimension characters and a stupid plot, the only redeeming thing about that game was the music was pretty neat, and the battle system was interesting.
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May 30, 2015 16:12
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Honestly, the only thing I know about Tempest is that even the opening isn't fully animated. There's a bunch of shots from the game itself instead. Even the silly crossovers have real openings. It's not a great measure, or anything, but as a fan, I feel this speaks about the quality of the game. I want my Tales games to have cute anime openings. (Circling back to Innocence, I vaguely remember R getting some extra anime cut ins? Or am I confusing with something else?)
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May 31, 2015 22:34
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Anastasiya posted:Honestly, the only thing I know about Tempest is that even the opening isn't fully animated. There's a bunch of shots from the game itself instead. Even the silly crossovers have real openings. Yeah Tempest was like... not even half assed, it was quarter assed. The game itself was way too drat short, like at least half the length of Innocence I'd say. I think so! Mainly just because of hardware restrictions, the DS just can't handle super cool anime cutscenes like in most other mothership games. I think the biggest problem with Innocence was its hardware restrictions, which makes it kinda sad that Innocence R was never localized (and they decided to add random characters who weren't in the original and don't make sense in the game into it)
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Jun 1, 2015 06:32
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Man, I've been looking back into Innocence R-- one of the really neat things about it is that you can have 4 party members, instead of the 3 in the DS version. The way Overlimit is done is also more like Abyss (Everyone has their own bar and it looks like it stays full, instead of how the tension gauge slowly depletes.) And of course, the graphics are ever so pretty. Too bad I don't own a Vita! In other news, finishing up an update-- it's extra long and has not one, but TWO videos! New and improved! Stay tuned.
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Jun 6, 2015 20:21
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Update 12 All right, let's start searching for Avatars. Do you think there are any left from the Rehabilitation Program? There have to be some people still in hiding. And how do you plan on smoking them out? And are they even willing to work with us... Uh... w-we'll just figure that out when we get there! Anyway, let's go. Let's go? Where we goin'? Somewhere!Iria is the best navigator.    Anyway, let's go bother Luca's parents.  Is something wrong? ….. I see. Then we should move along. S-sure. Fine, guess not.      That dude just decides “nah I'll leave”  I love Ricardo's pose here.  Man, that was too close. Ain't you a little jumpy? Not like they're gonna know you're an Avatar just from lookin'. But Spada, you caused quite a scene when you were arrested. They might recognize you. Uh... Looks like it's you who should be hiding. What'd you say?!  Hmm... Oh, I know a good place! Where? Look for the manhole over in the industrial district.  This is the place. Used it so I'd have somewhere to hide when I ran away from home. You want us to crawl into a sewer?! The stink ain't too bad. M-my, what extravagance we have to look forward to. Ange, you're really not fooling anyone. I want everyone to check in periodically and report your findings. This is a really neat close up on Spada, I kinda like it. Then let's pair up and move out. I'll flip a coin.    That's him flipping a coin.     So now we have to collect information with just Luca, time to move out!  This is unrelated but I thought this picture of Luca running against a wall was hilarious.   You literally have to just walk around until you have the misfortune of arriving near Luca's house.     Hmm... maybe not go in there.        I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW MY UNCLE WORKS AT NINTENDO  H-hey, what should we do?I'm using pictures of genome soldiers from the Metal Gear Solid concept art to act in place of a portrait for these soldiers.  Uh...That's the other soldier.  Well... everything seems to be in order here... …...  That awkward moment when you yell at soldiers who are making accurate accusations about your lovely son.    That's... oddly sweet.   I kinda like Luca's parents, even though they aren't relevant to anything. Mother... Father...    THE MESSIAH HAS RETURNED  Clearly just a rumor. Oh... really? (Didn't they see me? I was sure they did...)   Was that... what happened?      So the bully's were slightly nice after all, happy day! !!    Wasn't there just someone with you?  I-is that right? ….Not sure if it's visable, but Luca is literally hiding behind the skinny guy. Hmm? Who is that over there?  H-hey! Stop right there!! We should rest for a bit... And here's our final party member! I know at least one person in thread was excited for her, I personally like her because of her fighting style and her past life, which are both really funny/badass. Huh?   Ya don' look like state people. How'd y'all find this place?Southern accent intensifies. Who are you? What are you doing here? This's where we live, hear? Well, more like we jus' kinda barged in an' took over. SOUTHERN ACCENT INTENSIFIES Is that right? Sorry, I had no idea. Well, long as y'all ain't state people, it's cool.    …. Hey Luca! You in here!? Is something wrong, Iria? Stay out of this Ange! Why are you blaming me for this? We just happened to be walking nearby, I wasn't going to see my parents. T-that's just an excuse! Why would you go that close to your house in the first place? I thought that was where he was supposed to search.Gosh Iria, what's rustled your jimmies?  Iria, what has you so upset? Aw, man, keep it down. My ears're ringin' here. I wonder if Hermana and Spada's inability to enunciate “g”'s means anything... but that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY. Who are you? That's what I'm askin'. Anyway, get inside 'fore the soldiers come. Are you sure it's okay? Don' worry 'bout it. Now hurry an' follow me.  Anyway here we are, at Hermana's house. Usually I'd call the update around here, but I'll give you guys a bit more because I've been a little scarce on the updates.  ….. What is this place, exactly? Kinda like an orphanage, I guess. Oh, really? As a member of the clergy, I have a hard time imagining this place as an orphanage. Geez Ange, way to be an rear end in a top hat. Well, it's also kinda not, see? All the normal places're full up cuz of the war.  The kinda kids livin' here ain' fit for that kinda thing. We're jus' doin' what it takes to stay alive. So how are you feeding yourself? I don' wanna say. I mean, y'all promise not to get mad? I ain' good with scary folk. 'Course I know better. But it ain't like we got any other choice. Ain't easy for kids like us to to earn any Gald, hear? Lady, that's harsh. Ain't like we're livin' here cause we wanna, hear? Hidin' here's the only way we can get by. Don't yell at me, it makes me sad... Iria, calm down. You're scaring the poor girl. I-I'm sorry, okay! I think I have another headache coming on...  Whoa! The hell happened to my hideout!? Who's the kid?Spada, you're all kids.   Heard the story from my pal Luca here. An' I was thinkin' maybe we could work out some sort of trade. I'm not sure you make an acceptable trading partner, but let's see what you have to offer. We hear all sorts of stuff, see? So maybe we can get the info yer lookin' for. And in return? All business, huh? I hear there's somethin' real valuable in this here cavern. Think y'all can help me get it? Something valuable? Like a jewel? There's this crazy mushroom you can use in some kinda elixir of life or somethin'. A mushroom? As in a mushroom mushroom? Ya know of some other mushroom? Yup, that, prolly.Ange partakes of a different sort of mushroom, possibly? Hear you can sell it for some crazy cash. Crazy. If we had that, we could get by more honest-like, you hear? What should we do? We really have no way of confirming this brat's information.Don't feel bad Hermana, he calls everyone that. I say we do as she asks. Is everyone okay with that? I have no interest in charity work. … As you wish, then.Ricardo's favorite movie is The Princess Bride. Well then, Hermana, we have a deal. All right! The sewer hooks up to a cavern deeper in. For real? News to me. That's no good, bud. Ya gotta pay more attention. Lemme show ya the way. Hermana hasn't actually joined our party yet, but she will soon!     Same here.  It can't be mere coincidence. Do you think it's related to our past lives? Perhaps it is some sort of shared memory... Right on. Let's finish and ditch this dump.  Why's it smell like dogs? This ain't no place for a dog.That gets explained, don't worry. Anyway, there's kind of a tough boss coming up, so I'm going to be switching back to my go-to party of Ange, Spada, and Luca. ANYWAY! I recently got a better recording setup, and someone mentioned wanting to see the dungeon crawling, so I recorded it! It's sped up 2x because I'm awful with directions and kept going the wrong way, also I ended up cutting out some of the battles because even sped up, they're tedious. I recommend watching the video, but if that doesn't do it for you, here are some radical screenshots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TbKoELfw38                    And here we are at the save point!        An altar. The ancient writing on it indicate that it is quite old. Where you seein' this? I miss the expiration date or somethin'? Although Man was cast down from Devaloka, the Devic script remained in use for some time. As time passed, the alphabet changed little by little until it achieved its current form. Odd. I've never seen this kind of writing before, but I understand it. Perhaps we can assume that we learned it by reading it in our memories of the Devic Era. Such prayers are typically associated with the regional beliefs that preceded the unification by the church. Given the sheer size of this area, it much have been a place of considerable ritual significance. So why was it abandoned? The answer relies upon five volume's worth of church history. I would be happy to prepare a series of lectures for you. Just lemme outta here, then you can start. …. Of course. My apologies for bringing up such a boring topic... Don't say that. I wouldn't mind hearing more about it. How thoughtful Luca. Perhaps I can provide some lessons for you-- just the two of us.OH BABY H-hey! Maybe I wanna learn too after all... Spada, given your aversion to studying, perhaps we can start you by copying manuscripts. W-wait! I take it back! We good? Let's go! Let's keep going.     What's this thing? The light is pooling. What could this be... Oh, my... Do you know what this is, Ange? Ooh, shiny!  Think it's safe to touch? There's nothing to-- FLASHBAAAACK Beware, Asura's forces are coming!This is technically a Ratio soldier, not a human soldier, but I'm assuming you guys know what I mean with this thumbnail. Well, especially now that I've told you.  That's right, Asura has a loving dragon.   The time for battle is at an end! People of Ratio, hear me! Let us lay down our arms and join hands as we march onward! I knew this day would come, yet life without battle seems so very lonely.  That's right, my dear Inanna. I can now show you the beauty of this world as it existed in ages past.  But I would, Vrtra. The world that you once lived in, the world you described to me in my bedtimes stories, means everything to me.Imagine having to change a demon lord's dirty diapers.   Excellent. See him in. Mmm. I could not have done it without your support. You have my sincere thanks. Oh, Master Orifiel! Master Asura... Master Orifiel, your sullen mood is unbefitting such an auspicious occasion. Himmel is dead... or rather, he was murdered. I imagine they sought to punish my betrayal, or send a message to other defectors. Or perhaps both... your purpose for siding with me was to save Himmel, was it not? I betrayed him! I allowed myself to be filled with joy as I heard of your victory! In that moment I forgot all about Himmel, even as he waited for my return... Forgive me... ….I cannot accept your apology. Your will and Himmel's will are one and the same. I will honor him by serving you. Then you will join us? I would have you. With this, we step one step closer to the perfect world. I will gain Cerberus's approval and obtain the true prize...   FLASHBACK OVER. But we're still going! I promised you a boss fight and by golly you'll get one. …Did you all see that? That was from when the Sensus unified Devaloka, right? Himmel... So everyone saw it? Ricardo, you too? I did, but I don't know why. I wasn't even there. He doesn't even go here! So what exactly was that whirlpool of light? Why do you know something like that? I encountered the same thing in the basement of the cathedral. It was what caused me to awaken... So there're other places jus' like this? Makes sense. If we start lookin' for these things... We'd remember more an' more stuff. Sounds like fun! Excuse me? Wait a sec! You saw it too? Right on. I'm Vrtra, see?That's right. In our party we have: A demon lord, his talking sword, his girlfriend, a reaper of souls, a tactician, and now A GIANT loving DRAGON. Really?! Jus' kiddin'. Man, don't scare me like that... I was jus' kiddin' about that too! I really was Vrtra, Who're you? Asura? I'm Asura. For real!? Man, ya look way too skinny for Asura! Oh well, I'll beef ya' up! Wait just a second! Were you really that dragon? Yup! I was all huge an' I'd fly 'round and give the boot to all them Ratio guys!! You were Inanna, right? Anyway, these dreams I been seein' forever mean somethin'. Good to know. They're memories of our past lives, of the Devic Era. Oh, my past life? I'm with ya', rock on. Even though they were jus' dreams, I always got real lonely when I had 'em. Why? When Devaloka fell, I was the only one left... Everybody else died and left me by my lonesome... I see... I was whisperin' Asura's name to my last breath. It was like that for hundreds, thousands of years... all alone. An' jus' when I thought the loneliness would never end, I'd wake up. Vrtra was always thinking of me? 'Course, things didn't change much when I woke up. Even when I told people 'bout it, nobody really got it. You must have been so lonely... let me give you a hug... Naw, I'm good now. I got you guys as friends, see? What is it? It's about that mushroom we were looking for... Coda's found it. And he's eating it. If you noticed, why didn't you stop him!? I didn't want to ruin the mood.Ricardo, you dork.     At least there's some of it left... Then why don't we head back?CAN WE FIGHT THIS BOSS ALREADY The other kids oughta be comin' back from work 'bout now. Let's go see them.Anyway, we have to walk back to the beginning now.  Woof! We can see that. There are two of them. We can see that too!     Hmm? Do I know ya? ….The guardian of the Manifest. Cerberus, right? His name is literally “dog” in french. Huh? Whacha askin' me for? I ain' the one who was watchin' it.  Child, why are you searching for the Manifest? Wait a second... something doesn't feel right about that memory. Huh? Why did Asura want to obtain the Manifest? It's difficult to imagine he went through all the trouble of unifying Devaloka just to destroy it. However, if I recall correctly, the Manifest was... We don' know what we don' know, now leave us alone! I'll ask again. Why do you seek the Manifest? Choose your words wisely if you value your life. Ricardo, I do wish you would refrain from threatening children.  Loose lips, huh? Guess he's with that Arca thing.  Empty rhetoric. Repeating hollow words won't help you now.   We've finally been reunited! I'm going to make sure she's never alone ever again!  His dogs are named Cer and Ber. FUNNY JOKE NAMCO HAHA Anyway, boss battle time. I recorded myself beating it (at normal time, unlike the dungeon crawling one), and I encourage you to check it out, but if you're a screenshot kind of person, screenshots are below.  Chien Fight It's kind of a tough fight, as you can see I had to use a life bottle, and Ange was on Heal Duty for a lot of it. It's annoying because you're fighting 3 really mobile enemies, and if you noticed, I hadn't bought a new weapon for Ange, so all my attacks with her did 1 damage. I kept trying to get Infinite Jam (the overlimit of this game) off, but I just ended up dying in the other runs, so I ended up keeping this run instead. You'll see Infinite Jam soon, I swear! We're nearing the plot point where we unlock the ability to get our Mystic Artes as well, so next boss battle I'll make a point to include Infinite Jam and Mystic Artes. Anyway, for those not liking videos, screenshots are below.                    Anyway, that's the end of that battle! This update was super long and I hope y'all like it, make sure to tune in for next time's update, and check out the Update 12 Skits! Darth Numbers fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Jul 14, 2015 |
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Jun 6, 2015 22:37
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Update 12 Skits About Animi...                    Who was that kid?              Ange and I 1                      Iria's Headache Strikes Back        Iria and I 2                      So what's with the rat?           A Real Self-Introduction             
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Jun 6, 2015 22:44
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Yay, Hermana! The end of Vrtra's life is intensely super sad and mildly existentially horrifying - having to wander alone, all your friends dead, just waiting to die. Poor Vrtra. Hermana basically fights like Senel Coolidge from Tales of Legendia - super short range, super fast hits, late multi-hit combos, hits slightly harder than Spada but less than Luca - but without the Downing+Throwing thing that made that game's combat super annoying. Later games discarded the "downed enemies take less damage" thing in one way or another, anyways - this one certainly did. She also has some elements of Judith with leaping/diving attacks to keep in theme with Dragon, and one of her base artes throws someone into the air and downs them as a kind of callback to Legendia and Senel's throw artes, along with her Down+Basic Attack combo being a sweep, angled upward kick, diving downward kick that knocks people down. Spada being the reincarnation of a talking sword is cool and all, but a loving DRAGON is better. Hermana is basically what you would expect from your average Tales protagonist that you don't get in Luca - the super positive, always look on the bright side, look for ways to make things better protagonist. But she has a kind of terrifyingly serious side reminiscent of Yuri Lowell, too, which one can only assume is inherited from Vrtra or as pragmatism brought on by the way she grew up in this life. About the only thing I dislike about Hermana is her friendship with Coda - but I dislike the rat to begin with, even if he grows on you eventually. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Jun 6, 2015 |
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Jun 6, 2015 23:09
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RelentlessImp posted:Yay, Hermana! The end of Vrtra's life is intensely super sad and mildly existentially horrifying - having to wander alone, all your friends dead, just waiting to die. Poor Vrtra. Hermana is tons of fun to play, yeah. With the added bonus that her mystic art turns her into said GIANT loving DRAGON, she's pretty darn neat. Also for some reason she always reminds me of Sayaka (blue madoka).   Am I crazy? I think it's the blue hair and the cape. Darth Numbers fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jun 6, 2015 |
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Jun 6, 2015 23:21
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Vrtra? I... feel like they lost a vowel in there somewhere. Hermana is cute though, and having a dragon (reincarnated) is cool, of course. I also kinda like Ange and Luca together, they've got an interesting dynamic. Wonder why Spada suddenly decided to interfere with Luca's best chance to "get some" (not that he would, but still.) It's nice that Luca's parents and friends are actually nice. Wish Iria would lighten up too...
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Jun 7, 2015 01:27
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Anastasiya posted:Vrtra? I... feel like they lost a vowel in there somewhere. Vrtra is a reference to Vritra, romanized as Vrtra (" वृत्र "), a Vedic Asura, known also as Ahi, or Snake. Typically depicted as a dragon blocking the course of rivers, Vritra is the personification of drought and is the adversary of Indra, who, in the Rig Veda, destroyed all of Vritra's 99 fortresses and had their two jaws broken by Vritra before throwing the dragon down and crushing its own fortresses, thus liberating the rivers. Indra then went on to kill Vritra's mother with his thunderbolt. A lot of this story is influenced by Brahmanism (and by extension, Hinduism), even going so far as to appropriate a lot of terms and redefining them - Asuras, Devas, even taking names like Vrtra. It would have probably been more appropriate to translate it to Vritra, but I don't know Japanese and couldn't tell you, but Vrtra is at least semi-accurate in terms of references.
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Jun 7, 2015 01:38
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Anastasiya posted:Vrtra? I... feel like they lost a vowel in there somewhere. Yeah, you hear them say it in a few cutscenes and it's literally just "VRTRA", like I'm not sure where they got the name XD The first time I played it I totally shipped Ange and Luca, I think they're super cute. The true ship is Spada and Luca though, just guys bein' dudes. Yeah I really like that scene, it kind of redeems them for me.
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Jun 7, 2015 01:40
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RelentlessImp posted:Vrtra is a reference to Vritra, romanized as Vrtra (" वृत्र "), a Vedic Asura, known also as Ahi, or Snake. Typically depicted as a dragon blocking the course of rivers, Vritra is the personification of drought and is the adversary of Indra, who, in the Rig Veda, destroyed all of Vritra's 99 fortresses and had their two jaws broken by Vritra before throwing the dragon down and crushing its own fortresses, thus liberating the rivers. Indra then went on to kill Vritra's mother with his thunderbolt. A lot of this story is influenced by Brahmanism (and by extension, Hinduism), even going so far as to appropriate a lot of terms and redefining them - Asuras, Devas, even taking names like Vrtra. It would have probably been more appropriate to translate it to Vritra, but I don't know Japanese and couldn't tell you, but Vrtra is at least semi-accurate in terms of references. Man, RelentlessImp over here is showing me up! Thanks for the info, that's really neat! Do you happen to know why heaven and earth were translated as Devaloka and Naraka? (I feel bad, I beat you to the punch on LPing Innocence, you know a lot about it!)
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Jun 7, 2015 01:48
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Darth Numbers posted:Man, RelentlessImp over here is showing me up! Thanks for the info, that's really neat! Do you happen to know why heaven and earth were translated as Devaloka and Naraka? Don't feel bad, my only attempted LP imploded due to life (I tried to do the fanslated Innocent Sin like three months before the PSP rerelease dropped.) And I only played Innocence through once, cheating after six hours of Guild Dungeons, so you're in a better position than me. I might attempt to LP Hearts R, though. As to why these things are named the way they are, it's basically because Brahmanism and Hinduism from which its major concepts are borrowed from. Naraka is the Hindu Underworld, which in some schools of Hinduism can be taken to be a place of torment, or a literal Hell, where the soul is sent to be scourged of sin. In Buddhism, it distinctly refers to worlds of greatest suffering. Unlike a Christian Hell, Naraka is not eternal, and is more akin to a purgatory and expiation period. A deva loka is a plane of existence for Gods and Devas. To the Hindi, it's where mortals go to in between reincarnations if their lives have been dedicated to light and good. It's one of the steps towards learning all you can about human existence, and once your existence has exhausted all those possibilities you can ascend to higher planes towards Vishnu and Shiva, Vaikuntha and Sivaloka. (To any Hindi, Buddhist, or similar practicioners, please correct me if I get anything wrong, I'm mostly going off memory and Wikipedia double-checking, as I haven't devoted any real study to the religions since college and my memory is pretty bad. Reading through a partial English translation of the Rig Veda, which itself was translated into Latin first, twice doesn't or barely qualifies me to talk about a lot of this, so take it for what it is.) I suggest not researching a lot of these terms yourself, though - while the Tales team didn't stay very close to the source material, they did shamelessly adapt some of it to fit their game. For example, Indra's battle with Vritra began shortly after Indra's birth, while in this game Vrtra seems to have helped to raise Asura, who can be seen as an Indra stand-in. Just, friendly caution researching the terms if you haven't played this game through, a few things can be spoiled by inference. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Jun 7, 2015 |
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Jun 7, 2015 02:09
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RelentlessImp posted:Don't feel bad, my only attempted LP imploded due to life (I tried to do the fanslated Innocent Sin like three months before the PSP rerelease dropped.) And I only played Innocence through once, cheating after six hours of Guild Dungeons, so you're in a better position than me. I might attempt to LP Hearts R, though. Ahh, thanks for the info! I haven't played Hearts R yet, I'd be excited to see that! Yeah the first time I played I ignored the guild dungeons completely and was pissed off when right before fighting the final boss, I had to grind 10000 level 1 guild missions of "find this one enemy and kill it". but yeah, thanks for the info on these terms! That's actually a really good point, I can imagine of at least one major plot point that could be spoiled by looking stuff up. So maybe don't do that! Or if you do, don't post it in thread XD
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Jun 7, 2015 02:45
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Oh man, this game. I was thinking of LPing it myself when I finished the one I'm on; looks like you beat me to it! But actually, I'm just really happy to see it getting some recognition. It seems very much to be the dark horse of the series, especially outside of Japan where most people have never heard of it. I find it to be super charming, and the controls just feel good. Going back and forth between some of the other games in the series (some of them even more modern ones), I was surprised at how well this one worked. I think my favorite part is probably the few seconds of buffer you get after battles end to pick poo poo up, because heals still properly go through during that time, unlike other games where you lose the MP but the person probably didn't receive the HP gain. Though it did take me an embarrassingly long amount of time to even realize you could move the camera on the overworld. Darth Numbers posted:And yeah, I really like how Ricardo literally doesn't care about his past life, as opposed to LITERALLY EVERY CHARACTER who's like "PAST LIFE PAST LIFE PAST LIFE" (not that I dislike the past lives, its one of the cooler aspects of Innocence, I just think it's funny how little fucks Ricardo gives). This is actually something I really like about this game. Everyone handles their relationship with their past lives a little differently. Luca, for example, actually has an incredibly unhealthy relationship with his idea of Asura -- he looks up to him for being cool and manly, to the point that he so wishes he were Asura, he kind of forgets to be himself. We saw him start laughing maniacally that one time on the battlefield because of it. And he has this problem with some of the others too, where he can't seem to separate their past lives from their present selves, most notably with Iria. He's not the only one with this problem, but it seems to be something he's more likely to share with our villains than our other party members. Spada, on another hand, doesn't seem to care super much about past lives, except where Luca is concerned. Right off the bat, when he figured out that Luca was Asura, he became incredibly protective of him. But even then, that was more of just a jumping off point for him, after that he's definitely seemed to switch from being protective of Asura to being protective of Luca. And then we've got Ricardo, who gives so few shits about their past lives (probably because he was dead for all the cool stuff) that he actively tries to ignore it. Ange is pretty similar in that regard, she jokes about the past, but is much more invested in the present. The other two tend to be somewhere along the lines of Spada's line of thought, where they have pretty selective things that they care about. While I'm pointing out charming things about our characters, though, I think you should all stop and take a really good look at how our characters carry themselves. And then notice how Luca is always slouching. He has so little confidence that he can't even stand up straight. And whenever he gets flustered, he pretty much tries to curl himself into a ball. It's kind of adorable but also really sad, and says a lot about him compared to his companions without even having to say it. They say it a lot anyway, though. Also charming, though it was a while ago now, is Hasta's voice actor. It doesn't come across in screens at all, but that man is on point. He goes from sounding very bored and calm to sounding excited and psychopathic at the drop of a hat. It's astounding. On more present matters, gently caress Chien. I'd spent that entire dungeon chucking apple gels at Spada to get him to like me, so I had like four to work with for this boss battle, and my party was Luca, Spada, and Ricardo. This was also before either Luca or Ricardo learned how to heal, so there was a lot of running around trying to get away from his dogs. It still wasn't too difficult -- I think I used maybe one life bottle? -- but it was a jump in difficulty I wasn't ready for.
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Jun 7, 2015 19:41
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yokaiy posted:Oh man, this game. I was thinking of LPing it myself when I finished the one I'm on; looks like you beat me to it! But actually, I'm just really happy to see it getting some recognition. It seems very much to be the dark horse of the series, especially outside of Japan where most people have never heard of it. really good analysis here! Yeah I was planning on LPing Innocence for ages, finally got off my rear end and did it, sorry to steal your thunder :P The controls are really tight-- I'm using a PS3 controller which essentially has the same setup as the DS for face buttons, and it's a ton of fun. My battle with Chien was actually kind of embarrassing (Spada died twice, and even though I knew the Chien battle is annoying as gently caress, I still redid it a few times. It's really frustrating because him and his dogs can knock you out of combos really easily, and unfortunately fighting 3 boss type enemies isn't very conducive to Innocence's "switch all the time" theme. Also for the life of me I couldn't get Infinite Jam off-- I think it's because I have L and R on the L2 and R2 of the controller instead of the click buttons, so it wasn't registering L and R at the same time. Whatever it is, it's annoying as gently caress, because I wanted to show off Infinite Jam in that battle, oh well. Hasta is great. He has my favorite line in the whole game, actually. We haven't gotten to it yet :P I love how Spada is very nonchalant about the fact that he was a talking sword in his past life, like it didn't phase him at all. About Luca-- he's Emil done right, in my mind. Emil was also a wimp who got crazy power, but instead of being interesting about it (like how Luca struggles to come to terms with him being Asura), Emil is just an unlikable character the whole game. And that dungeon (like every other dungeon) sucks, because it's just "walk around until you find the right path". Symphonia (For the most part) did dungeons so well, by god! But yeah, the Chien fight is BS.
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Jun 8, 2015 02:40
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So JRPGs can muck up and be weird with eastern religions just as well as western ones. Well at least it's unilateral is what I say.
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Jun 8, 2015 03:20
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I feel that a game with these elements will also have themes of fate and destiny.
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Jun 8, 2015 04:08
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