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AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

Yeah, feudal Japan isn't nearly as ancient as the lack of technology (thanks, isolationism!) would have you believe.

E: Update towards the bottom of last page.

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NewMars
Mar 10, 2013
Also worth noting: Ryoma being a powerful fighter isn't out of character for the man himself. He was both a master swordsman and a marksman. In fact he pretty much gave up the sword in favor of the gun, later on.


One of the weirdly specific details that is included is that you can see every character wearing sandles in their sprites. Except for him. This is because he famously wore western-style boots under samurai garb as a political statement.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



On that note - Amakusa's introductory "Elohim Essaim".

Elohim is one of the Hebrew pseudonyms(?) (can't remember the technical term atm) for God, since you're not supposed to use the true name. No idea about Essaim though - a fairly creative spelling evolution of something I can't figure out?

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

I assumed it was backwards and came out with "Mi asse, mi hole". I may or not be five. :downs:

ArcadePark
Feb 4, 2011

Damn it, It's all your fault!

AlphaKretin posted:

Yeah, feudal Japan isn't nearly as ancient as the lack of technology (thanks, isolationism!) would have you believe.

E: Update towards the bottom of last page.

Wan't fuedal Japan fought with shitton of firearms? Nobunaga was infamous for revolutionizing rifle tactics in Japan.


Also, this is the Bakumatsu period, Also known as the late Edo period, which means this is far, far away from the feudal Japan, despite the looks of this castle.

Mygna
Sep 12, 2011
'Elohim Essaim' is the default "Christian Mysticism" chant used in a lot of Japanese games/manga/anime, which is pretty funny sometimes because it's actually a black magic incantation from the Grand Grimoire. Still pretty fitting in this case, but a bit inappropriate when used as a regular prayer (such as by the heroine in Your Lie in April, to psych herself up before a concert. Beelzebub is a master violinist, apparently). At least it shows that westerners aren't the only ones being dumbasses about 'exotic' mysticism, I guess.

Unoriginal One
Aug 5, 2008
I'm going to make a small note that, as you may have noticed in the update, at least one of Sonic's attacks forces the enemy to change which way they're facing. While this may not seem like much, it takes an enemy time to change which way they're facing, and some enemies can't attack from certain angles. So if Sonic is fighting alone for whatever reason, he could conceivably sit in an enemy's blind spot and spin-lock them to death.

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."
As a note, you are not required to kill any of the Trap Master's logs. You can kill the Trap Master in one hit with one of Oboro Sonic's ranged attacks (I forget which one it was offhand), without having to do anything to the logs. I feel like it's important to note that attacks always go to the targeted square, nothing blocks the line of fire. This can make that encounter a little less tedious than the Lost Souls, as you don't need to move around to get into attacking position, but the Trap Master is accompanied by a brief cutscene, so it's really six one, half-dozen the other.

Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land




all your screenshots love to freeze my broswer for some reason

I don't have that problem for other LPs. Or anywhere else for that matter

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



DOOP posted:

all your screenshots love to freeze my broswer for some reason

I don't have that problem for other LPs. Or anywhere else for that matter
Don't use firefox for gif and image heavy updates. I switched over to chrome, and that fixed things (both here, and in the Star Control LP)

Mygna posted:

'Elohim Essaim' is the default "Christian Mysticism" chant used in a lot of Japanese games/manga/anime, which is pretty funny sometimes because it's actually a black magic incantation from the Grand Grimoire.
Ok. But what does it mean?

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.
Everyone sure jumped on that Ryoma business, huh.

EclecticTastes posted:

I feel like it's important to note that attacks always go to the targeted square, nothing blocks the line of fire.
Actually, this is not always true. I know that at least Shuriken Storm will get blocked by the logs; this does mean you can target things inside its range shadow if you want to, à la crossbows from Final Fantasy Tactics. :eng101:

DOOP posted:

all your screenshots love to freeze my broswer for some reason

I don't have that problem for other LPs. Or anywhere else for that matter
I, uh... I don't know what to tell ya, bud. :shrug: I just record with Fraps and extract images with VirtualDubMod. (With VirtualDub for .gifs.) Then I put them onto LPix using Rightload and jam the links into place with the RightloadUrlAutoReplace tool.

That last thing is great, by the way. Saves me so much hassle.

Edit:

Xander77 posted:

Don't use firefox for gif and image heavy updates. I switched over to chrome, and that fixed things (both here, and in the Star Control LP)
Ah. I must admit, I've been told my LP is rather phone-unfriendly.

Thuryl
Mar 14, 2007

My postillion has been struck by lightning.

Xander77 posted:

Ok. But what does it mean?

It doesn't necessarily mean anything in particular, or rather the meaning isn't the point. Using butchered versions of foreign or liturgical languages to create meaningless "magical" phrases is a tradition that goes back at least as far as the curse tablets of the ancient Greeks, which often included phrases in pseudo-Etruscan or nonsense languages to reinforce the sense that they held secret mystical power. Likewise, the word "abracadabra" may have arisen from a heavily corrupted Aramaic phrase. This is likely another example of the same trend: the author probably wanted something that sounded enough like Hebrew to impress people who didn't actually speak Hebrew.

Thuryl fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Feb 18, 2016

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Yapping Eevee posted:

Actually, this is not always true. I know that at least Shuriken Storm will get blocked by the logs; this does mean you can target things inside its range shadow if you want to, à la crossbows from Final Fantasy Tactics. :eng101:

I think it might be that projectile attacks, in particular, are blocked. It's interesting how there are so many different types of attacks, but their properties only ever come up in fairly isolated situations.

Pittsburgh Lambic
Feb 16, 2011

It's sorta clever of the designers that they made sure that the first areas of the castle that the player encounters seem more or less "normal" -- you run into guards, or ninjas, or angry samurai, or old men, all of whom you get to butcher.

It's only later on that the lurking evil of Ode Iou's castle starts to show its teeth, and that makes it all the more effective. The ordinary little ninja swordfights come by the dozens, to the point that you almost forget that this is a fantasy castle -- until a nasty wooden automaton with a painted grin on its face pops up and springs an impossible trap around you. Then the rooms themselves start loving with you. The effect is really unnerving; the castle hallways all look the same but they feel more alien and sinister the further in you get.

Pittsburgh Lambic fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Feb 18, 2016

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

EclecticTastes posted:

I think it might be that projectile attacks, in particular, are blocked. It's interesting how there are so many different types of attacks, but their properties only ever come up in fairly isolated situations.
Yeah, it's projectile attacks, Ryoma's gun attacks are also blocked by the wooden logs. Most attacks are pretty logical at least, Sonic's butterflies and other jutsus get around the wooden logs no problem (Cube's Maser also pierced through his boss and would likely do the same here.)

Speaking of Ryoma everyone else has pretty much done his historical relevance and the basics of how he does in combat, so here's some nitty gritty game stuff about him:

40 ATK power on a weapon is really strong (you get another 40/48 power weapon as a reward for stealth play for instance.) You certainly won't see anything as or stronger in any of the chapters so far. However a previous lesson comes back here: Ryoma's attacks kind of suck in terms of damage. Sonic will regularly out damage him with his attacks and Ryoma is most useful as another target to be attacked/tossing items/stunlocking enemies with.

So you might have the entirely reasonable thought of nicking that sword from him. You can certainly change Ryoma's equipment and he can apparently use the way-crappier swords you've picked up as well. Except it won't take. You'll exit the screen and go about your business until you get into a fight/get another piece of equipment and notice something off. So you'll go into the equip screen and Ryoma will still have his sword. The game does not let you nick his Yoshiyuki.

Kinu Nishimura
Apr 24, 2008

SICK LOOT!
You actually unlock the same weapon as a reward for stealth play.

edit: oh ok

Kinu Nishimura fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Feb 18, 2016

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

alcharagia posted:

Blatant spoilers.

Come on, man, tag that poo poo.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



Ryoma's power scale is very specifically tuned to let you breeze through the regular content with ease even if your were stealthing it up until you got him, but be kind of useless against the optional bosses (except as a distraction)

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Yeah, it's interesting how the castle is... evolving, I guess you could say? Some fights you want to avoid but can't (can you run from them?) and the traps are ramping up.

Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land




Xander77 posted:

Don't use firefox for gif and image heavy updates. I switched over to chrome, and that fixed things (both here, and in the Star Control LP)
Ok. But what does it mean?

the Super-League LP (and Last Remanent and etc, etc) is image heavy and firefox loads that just fine

:iiam:

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

DOOP posted:

the Super-League LP (and Last Remanent and etc, etc) is image heavy and firefox loads that just fine

:iiam:
It's large GIFs that freeze Firefox. Has to do with the new smooth scrolling and hardware acceleration settings in it.
Static images are fine because they're static.

Glazius posted:

Yeah, it's interesting how the castle is... evolving, I guess you could say? Some fights you want to avoid but can't (can you run from them?) and the traps are ramping up.
IIRC there are a subset of fights you cannot run from. This is actually more of problem than usual because said fights are a right pain.

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
The name of the terrifying old woman Okame no Kata is presumably a nod to the goddess Okame, who's generally depicted in masks and such as having a round face with bulging cheeks and a high forehead. Okame personified mirth and good fortune. Of course, standards of beauty have changed over the centuries, and these days okame is a derogatory term for a plain woman, particularly one who resembles an okame mask. In short, Okame-no-kata's name is basically "Homely Woman."

Also, if the Japanese guide I found while trying to find the name's original kanji can be believed, you can kill her without penalty and she drops some kind of equipment when you do. EDIT: Or maybe it's saying that if since she doesn't count until she actually dies you can safely beat on her for a while and hope for a random drop. Slight difference there.

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Feb 19, 2016

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Seyser Koze posted:

The name of the terrifying old woman Okame no Kata is presumably a nod to the goddess Okame, who's generally depicted in masks and such as having a round face with bulging cheeks and a high forehead. Okame personified mirth and good fortune. Of course, standards of beauty have changed over the centuries, and these days okame is a derogatory term for a plain woman, particularly one who resembles an okame mask. In short, Okame-no-kata's name is basically "Homely Woman."

Also, if the Japanese guide I found while trying to find the name's original kanji can be believed, you can kill her without penalty and she drops some kind of equipment when you do. EDIT: Or maybe it's saying that if since she doesn't count until she actually dies you can safely beat on her for a while and hope for a random drop. Slight difference there.

It's the latter. The final defeat counts as killing a woman, but you can otherwise beat her up all you want.

eladank
Feb 22, 2013

Xander77 posted:

On that note - Amakusa's introductory "Elohim Essaim".

Elohim is one of the Hebrew pseudonyms(?) (can't remember the technical term atm) for God, since you're not supposed to use the true name. No idea about Essaim though - a fairly creative spelling evolution of something I can't figure out?

Elohim isn't a pseudonym, it's just the word god in Hebrew as in "I am Yehova 'elohiha' (your God), who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other 'elohim' (god[s]) before me",

Essaim is the Hebrew word for transit (assuming it is pronounced as it is written), so "Elohim Essaim" is like some kind of divine bus company - which is probably not what is meant and the Essaim in this context is supposed to be something else.

and that concludes our Hebrew lesson for today.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



eladank posted:

Elohim isn't a pseudonym, it's just the word god in Hebrew as in "I am Yehova 'elohiha' (your God), who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other 'elohim' (god[s]) before me",

Essaim is the Hebrew word for transit (assuming it is pronounced as it is written), so "Elohim Essaim" is like some kind of divine bus company - which is probably not what is meant and the Essaim in this context is supposed to be something else.

and that concludes our Hebrew lesson for today.
That you for your valiant attempt to teach an Israeli how to speak Hebrew. Elohim, Adonai etc do have an established separate translation of their own at this point, but they all have their genesis as alternatives to Jehova. Elohim probably does stem from "El" (a minor local deity, probably) or "Elim" which has been established as "gods", but that's not what is really stands for in particular.

As for "Essaim", there's no conjugation of the Hebrew "Nesia / Hassaa" that could be plausibly converted into Essaim.

Blastinus
Feb 28, 2010

Time to try my luck
:rolldice:
Crap.
Alternative explanation, the translation picked something that would sound mysterious without actually meaning anything.

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


It's probably the Hebrew version of dog Latin.

eladank
Feb 22, 2013

Xander77 posted:

That you for your valiant attempt to teach an Israeli how to speak Hebrew.

as another Israeli you are welcome, and while you have a point about Elohim, this:

Xander77 posted:

As for "Essaim", there's no conjugation of the Hebrew "Nesia / Hassaa" that could be plausibly converted into Essaim.
is wrong, while it's very rare to see הסעים outside of public transportation companies/departments, it is still correct.

ultrafilter posted:

It's probably the Hebrew version of dog Latin.
I am sure it is dog Hebrew just to sound cool and exotic, I just find it funny that they actually hit a real word.

about the game, the ninja era is the one I liked the least back when I played it forever ago, due to the gimmick not clicking and the castle being a giant maze.

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.
Update 16: Mechanised Melee.



Hey there, lady. What’cha doing?



Oh, you’re calling the guards. How very sensible.



...Four elite samurai would actually be dangerous if they attacked us all at once.



.......



Augh, get ‘im!



Fortunately for any pacifists out there, what seemed like an unavoidable encounter will actually end with the masked man killing the four enemies for us…



Unless we cut in, that is. And you do have to be quick about it! There’s not much time before he’ll start killing them.



After Sakaguchi Chiushi, Tanaka Koharyu, Murakami Eiji and Tanaka Shinichi are slain in one way or another, we can actually walk right past this guy. He won’t attack unless you talk to him.



I have become a demon… And I shall kill humans!!



The ‘demon’ is an interesting enemy; he has high defence and moves with fancy names like ‘Root of All Evil’, ‘Two Fears’ or ‘Three Great Defeats’… which all do about 25 damage to Ryoma. :v: Two Fears and TGD will stop feet and hand techs from working respectively, but even so, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is an easy fight.



...Until he pulls this move. You might want to be careful about avoiding this one. :sweatdrop:



Our masked man is only worth an EXP value of 8, which means that Sonic-maru didn’t even get much out of that fight. But hey, at least it was different! And speaking of different, let’s look in the room that guy came out of.



If we talk to the person inside, we hear a steady beat… and then a chime as he pulls a magic trick for us.



This definitely feels like yet another reference I’m not getting. The tiger is the same as the ones from the Kung Fu chapter, and the Dumb Monk (or Witty Priest as the old RPGC site calls him) is a non-threat. He does have 336 HP though, so it takes a while to kill him.



Uh… Thanks? (The monk then fades from existence.)



I have to concur with the thread; things are getting weirder as we go deeper into Ode Iou’s castle.



You’ve killed 65 people. Are you going to kill me too?

Got it in one, old man.

Such is my fate…



Leaving aside how Shohei knows how many people we’ve killed, you’ve probably guessed that things go a little differently when you haven’t killed anybody.

Sir… It appears that you still have yet to harm a single person! Remarkable! Perhaps you really can save this accursed castle. Please, take this with my regards.

The old man then hands over ten Castellas, the better healing item… one at a time. But hey, free stuff!





There’s more free stuff just ahead, though I’ve yet to use any of the consumable attack items. Part of the old Megaelixir mentality, perhaps.



The stairs lead to yet another fork in the road… It’s really no wonder that I can’t find any maps of this chapter.



The left side has another secret passage, but let’s ignore that for just a moment.



The hallway proper leads to this sleeping guy. You have to interact with him five times just to make him say this line… and then another five to get him pissed off enough for a fight.





It might only be the early hours of the morning, still before sunrise… But everyone else is up and getting murdered, so why should this guy be any different? :mmmhmm: With only 160 HP, he doesn’t even get to attack.



The temptation to steal another LPer’s joke is strong. IN HELL!



Heading back to the secret door just north of the sleeping guy, we head on through it and another immediately after…



Which comes out here. We’re headed up the ladder, not down the stairs.

(No music.)

This leads us to the attic, and something I’ve been largely avoiding: traps. The other path we could have taken to get into the third building (back above the storehouse, remember?) is absolutely littered with all manner of them, while this route means we only have to deal with some gimmicky encounters.



Moving between the visible traps will start the fight; make sure to go south instead of east.



The first encounter is the most dangerous of the lot, as Fire Traps like to use Flamethrower as you try to pass by them. This will deal about 70 damage to Ryoma and 160 to Sonic.



Attacking them will also make them counter with Explosion, which hurts even worse. Either kill the left-most one at range and run through the gap to the Trap Master, or follow the path. Your choice.



The second encounter is much easier to deal with; have Sonic use Shuriken Storm to take out the Gas Trap below Ryoma, who can then escape and slash the Trap Master to death.





This would be why you head south, by the way. Ryoma gets Maria’s Veil now that Sonic’s done with it.



The Water Buddha Statues and their boss shouldn’t get a chance to act, since the Shura statue dies to one Shinobi Slash.



These guys are in much the same position; move Sonic into the middle and use Cross Slice.



We’re now at our destination, but Sonic actually hit level 9 during one of those fights and I want to show off his new move.



This, uh…



This may have been a poor choice.

-------



No… Sonic-maru… It seems that the rising of the sun over our fair land is still a long way off…



Yeah, let’s just pretend that didn’t happen, shall we?

-------



Sonic the definitely-not-dead shinobi leaps down into the next room, while Ryoma uses the ladder like a sensible person.



We have a nice little tea room waiting for us through the door, but now is not the time for beverages.



I’m surprised that you’ve made it this far! You must be very tired. I was just about to have some tea. Please, join me. Have a seat…



Why yes, this is indeed a trap. You can see the same blue cushions there and everything.

-------

In a more gullible and pacifistic timeline posted:





What an obedient little Shinobi… Too bad your obedience is going to cost you this time!


And then you have to walk alllllll the way back. Oh, and if you lack the Basement Key, the warden will still be there. Just cloak yourself and he’ll open the door to try and figure out where his prisoner went.



Also, this expression is great. But enough about the adventures of Sonic’s alternate universe counterpart.

-------



Look, I’m in a hurry. Please just take a seat on the cushion and relax!

Still not buying it, buddy.

... Shoot!



*click*

All right, I’ve turned the trap off. Don’t worry, it’s quite safe now! Come, come! Sit down…

In that other really gullible timeline posted:




A picture’s worth a thousand words, folks.

Shoot! All right, you win!!



By the way… How did you like all of the little gadgets set up around the castle? Oh no, they’re not ALL traps! My wonderful mechanical body, for instance…



-------



Welcome to our next miniboss fight, Clockwork Gennai and his six Electrodes. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Let’s just kill the main guy and everything else will Break Down!” And you’re right, they will.

However! There is a very good reason not to kill Gennai until his minions are dead.



The minions themselves don’t pose much threat; their attack is inaccurate and barely hurts Ryoma, though Sonic will still feel the pain. They will counter melee attacks with Explosion, so try to avoid that.



Gennai is shamefully easy once they’re gone, because any remotely decent attacks he has are ranged. If you get right up in his face, he will only use Mechanical Piece to deal 1 damage and push you away.



Which means Ryoma gets to clown him with Polaris Single-Blade.



:toot:



And this is why you should kill the minions first; it makes Gennai very likely to drop this key item, which we will be using for side stuff later.

-------



My body won’t stop!



And that is why you don’t turn yourself into some kind of unholy automaton.

Speaking of, I had to learn about how browsers handle frame delays in .gifs to make this one. Turns out having frames on a 10ms delay makes browsers treat them as 100ms instead (except for Safari who displays them for 30ms), so they need to be lengthened to 20ms in order to not appear so sluggish. Here’s the old version of this .gif for comparison. :eng101:



Alright, that’s more than enough tech talk. Back to :ninja:



See that slot on the right? We’ll be coming back soon to do something with that. (Sonic actually has everything we need right now, but a pacifist won’t.) For now, let’s head through the door.



The staircase upward heads toward the end of the chapter; we could head there right now, but we have plenty more places to see and people to kill.



So downstairs it is.



I’m not really the princess!

Heh… Don’t matter. I’m afraid you can’t live now that you’ve seen us…

Somebody help meeee!!



Hello!



Goodbye.



Aizen, Kongo, Fudo and Ashura bring us ever closer to our final kill.



What a strong man…



Sorry, lady. We’re on a mission.

Back in the land of the gullible posted:





You’re MINE now! Prepare yourself for eternal pleasure!!


:rip:

But wait, what if…

What if Sonic was gullible like that pacifist posted:





Ode Iou doesn’t have any daughters!



Ahahahahaha!! You must be the man that Lord Iou was expecting…



If you fell for THAT you must be REALLY thick! If only you had accepted my offer!

There’s actually a fight if Ryoma’s around to save Sonic, but we’ll take a look at that another time. (I’m asking you all to be patient about a lot of stuff in this chapter, aren’t I?)



As things are, we’re going to deny the ‘princess’ for now.

I see…

Oh, and guess what?



If you talk to her again, you get a murder option.





And indeed, you can kill Yodogimi here if you wish to.



She is the one exception to the Don’t Murder Any Women rule, despite what Sonic’s mental count says. More on that, you guessed it, later.



Get lost, Matsukaze.



Upstairs, Tokita Jujinmaru is holding another password check.



But this just leads back to that fork where I commented about a lack of maps for the chapter, right before the sleeping guy.



Sooooo now we need to retrace our steps back to where we entered the trapped attic. (Take the left door at the fork, then the secret passage.) Now we’re going down here.



And up into another part of the attic.



This room would be absolutely packed with Trap Masters if we had come here earlier, but defeating Gennai disables all of his traps throughout the castle. They’re a hazard that dumps you in that pit if touched, which of course goes straight to the jail cell.





There’s a nice armour upgrade up here, as well as an item we can use on those poles to make a tiny shortcut through this room. :effort:



The helmet is definitely appreciated though.





Okay, now where are we?





Well, the hidden passage leads back to where the old man was keeping score on our murder spree.



While the other path leads somewhere new.



This room is a right pain if the traps are still active, opening pits all over the place; some on proximity, some on a timer.



It has a copy of Sonic’s starting gauntlet and a few attack items lying around.



Oh, and a secret down this hole. Just this one.



Pictured: What Ryoma will say each and every time we fall down a hole.

Also, you have to follow a particular path to reach that chest. Go left, down twice, then right.







Yeah, I don’t know either. Let’s pick things up back in the attic above… next time.

Yapping Eevee fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Apr 9, 2016

Unoriginal One
Aug 5, 2008
An additional note for pacifist runs, one of the fire based traps in the attic can use one of Sonic's higher-end fire skills. If you're willing to grind enough so that you can actually take a hit from it and survive, you'll pick the skill up yourself for a rather large -and much needed- boost in power.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



Goddamn, that's two things I didn't know about this game.

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."
Note: The "This's Awesome" (originally translated as "Surprised Guy", so basically the name of the item is just the shocked reaction it elicits, apparently) doesn't just have the (slightly) highest defense of all footwear in the chapter, it also makes you absorb every special tile, making it incredibly useful in this chapter, in particular, as it has the most tile manipulation by a fair margin. Normally, you'll only absorb water tiles, thanks to the Suijin's Tabi, the other candidate for best shoes due to their +8 Speed.

Additionally, if you try to talk to the demon man before killing all four samurai, he'll automatically finish off the rest before you fight him, denying you their numbers, so mass murderers beware! :eng101:

Looper
Mar 1, 2012
this should've taken place in the byzantine empire for all the weird poo poo going on

Kinu Nishimura
Apr 24, 2008

SICK LOOT!

EclecticTastes posted:

Note: The "This's Awesome" (originally translated as "Surprised Guy", so basically the name of the item is just the shocked reaction it elicits, apparently) doesn't just have the (slightly) highest defense of all footwear in the chapter, it also makes you absorb every special tile, making it incredibly useful in this chapter, in particular, as it has the most tile manipulation by a fair margin. Normally, you'll only absorb water tiles, thanks to the Suijin's Tabi, the other candidate for best shoes due to their +8 Speed.

what the hell is this item and why have i never heard of it. what the gently caress

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

alcharagia posted:

what the hell is this item and why have i never heard of it. what the gently caress

You have to fall down one specific pit on the trap floor that's made of pits, with the only thing resembling an indication of where it is being that it's due north of a Genji item. As far as I know there is nothing at all that tells you where it is or how to get it, and the bizarre name for the item implies that it was intended to be a secret on-par with the Basic Rock, minus the movie reference (unless it's to some old Japanese film I'm not familiar with, which is entirely likely, I'm not especially familiar with foreign cinema outside of spaghetti westerns and a handful of specific, well-known films like the works of Akira Kurosawa).

Anyway, your reaction is somewhat emblematic of Live A Live, in general. There's a ton of items you have only the most minuscule chance of obtaining from only a single encounter, or that are easily missed or overlooked, and you're often left wondering why the hell it was even included, as they're not even always the best items.

EDIT: I actually have a theory about the This's Awesome, now. Maybe during playtesting, they found that players had a tendency to fall down that specific hole rather than take the long way out of the room when collecting Genji gear before defeating Gennai, so they put a fairly useful, but not overpowering, reward at the bottom, rather than dumping you into the basement.

EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Feb 21, 2016

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
While the Grappling Hook is kind of meh when you've disabled all the traps, it's pretty necessary if you haven't.

Yapping Eevee posted:

This room would be absolutely packed with Trap Masters if we had come here earlier, but defeating Gennai disables all of his traps throughout the castle. They’re a hazard that dumps you in that pit if touched, which of course goes straight to the jail cell.





There’s a nice armour upgrade up here, as well as an item we can use on those poles to make a tiny shortcut through this room. :effort:
Eevee isn't kidding, that small hallway below where he got the grappling hook has a solid two lines of Trap Masters and their lethal Fire/Other element traps. They're positioned in such a way that you would have to fight all of them in order to get down there without using a grappling hook.

That's somewhere around 30-40 battles with encounters that can kill you almost effortlessly if they use the wrong move.

The grappling hook lets you skip that. Thank goodness.

Edit: also the This's Awesum item is endemic to the game being SaGa-like.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



alcharagia posted:

what the hell is this item and why have i never heard of it. what the gently caress
Should have read the last LP?

dscruffy1
Nov 22, 2007

Look out!
Nap Ghost

Yapping Eevee posted:

The temptation to steal another LPer’s joke is strong. IN HELL!

:v:

I think the only part of the other LP I saw was Ninja chapter and I don't remember much of it. Definitely interested in seeing how all this pans out but it's good stuff so far.

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

Googling 'elohim essaim' turned up a page about some anime that also uses the line. It keeps mentioning that essaim is French for swarm (as in locusts) but I'm not sure if that has to do anything with anything.

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Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.

EclecticTastes posted:

it also makes you absorb every special tile
Well, that's gonna be useful to know when I record the rest of the chapter. :getin: This's Awesum! is certainly a bit of an odd item, but I like that little pet theory. Sounds plausible.
:shobon: It was meant as a compliment. And hey, welcome to the thread. I'm glad that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

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