 So, what's all this then? Vampires Dawn: Reign of Blood (now ain't that a loving title) is a German RPG made by Alexander "Marlex" Koch and was released in 2001. It was made in RPG Maker 2000, so if you think "SNES Final Fantasy", you've pretty much got the basics nailed down as far as gameplay goes. The Vampires Dawn series is pretty much considered to be the apex of what I call the German RPG Maker renaissance, a period of time where RPG Maker games were being made in fairly great number, communities were flourishing and games magazines that came with CDs sometimes even had special sections just for RPG Maker games. The sequel to this game, Vampires Dawn 2, was so anticipated it even ended up getting top billing in the edition of Bravo Screenfun (a particular games magazine that very heavily featured RPG Maker games on its CDs) it came on the CD on. If you ask a German that remembers RPG Maker games from that time what he particularly remembers, odds are good it'll be Vampires Dawn. Your constant usage of the word "German" in that paragraph frightens me. Oh, don't worry, we've got that covered. Normally, this is where somebody would say that's because there is an English translation, but I've looked at that, and it's not to my tastes. If this isn't your first rodeo with me, you already know I'm fluent in both English and German, so I'm going to be doing the translation myself again, just like in other LPs of mine. So don't you worry, I'll be there to guide you through all the scary words, and I'll even explain the special little things that can't really be translated. Wait, "Vampires Dawn"? Yes, "Vampires Dawn". Not, as one would assume, "Vampire's Dawn", or "Vampires' Dawn". Not the dawn of a particular vampire, or the dawn of vampires in general, but it is the vampires themselves that do the dawning... somehow. So vampires begin? That doesn't quite make sense, given the events that happened in the past of when the story takes place - it's more like vampires have ended. So I guess it's supposed to be talking about some sort of rebirth? Then again, that should still have some sort of apostrophe in there. I guess Marlex thought apostrophes are just tacky. Alright then, tell me more about this game. Well, when I said "think SNES Final Fantasy", that does sum the game up pretty well. The combat is still RPG Maker 2000 style, meaning the Pokemon style "highest speed goes first, then down the line with everybody else" as opposed to the Active Time Battle system brought in in RPG Maker 2003 that the SNES Final Fantasy games use, so there's a difference, but otherwise, things are pretty much standard. So, much like with other games that use the same style, you're probably going to end up being there for the story, unless you're weird and really like grinding in anything. Even then, you should be playing Disgaea instead. Well, what can you tell us about the writing then? Alright, this is where things get a bit iffy. You see, I can't remember a lot in particular about this game, and I'm certainly not going to replay it entirely before starting an LP of it, because I have a strategy guide to keep me from missing things, and this game is pretty drat long. As of the original writing of this OP, I've played about an hour in, and I would say I just cleared the prologue, so there's that. From what I've played and what I've read online, the game is very dark (if you've read my Unterwegs in Düsterburg LP, take that and think... maybe a bit lighter than Rabenstein, but constant throughout most of the game) and has a very heavy amount of dark humor strewn about. Apparently dark humor, heavy on the sarcasm and with some hits of satire is Marlex's signature writing style, so that's what you should be in for going into this. OK, and what about the LP itself? If you've had the experience of reading my previous translation LPs, this shouldn't be too much of a difference for you. I think I'll make some slight changes to the formatting style I used before, but that shouldn't be a problem for you (bar the few points I marked with "new for Vampires Dawn", so read those). As for those who are new to my business, here's some pointers: - The translation will be purely in text form, images will remain unchanged for relatively obvious reasons. After an image with text shows up, the next thing usually should be the translation and then just continuing with whatever text follows, or sometimes it'll be commentary from my side that also explains the text on screen (usually when I pick up an item or describe a menu screen), or in some cases, I won't be mentioning the text on screen because it's self explanatory (as is the case when somebody just has an evil laugh or something like that). - For the German speakers: I'm going for substance over style. What this means is that I won't break my neck trying to find a translation that preserves all the facets of the original text, because sometimes that's more trouble than it's worth, and at the end of the day, I'm not a professional. Not even close. -  Whenever something I say has this guy in front of it, that means it's something related to the translation in particular. Explanations about idioms, puns and certain tics would be prefaced with this. - New for Vampires Dawn: In Unterwegs in Düsterburg as well as Udoiana Raunes, I could attach a face to pretty much every line of dialogue. In this game, this is no longer the case - only major characters get headshots, minor characters just get a name, and sometimes not even that (so sometimes we'll just be talking to "Man" or "Woman" or "Rich Man" or the like). So this time, there will be a mixture of headshots and text names. - New for Vampires Dawn: Also, because of this, the first line of every box of dialogue in the game is always the name of the character saying it. So that's going to be different when you're looking at the dialogue boxes in screenshots. Obviously, I'm only going to be putting it at the beginning of the entire text block that character is saying, and only if there is no headshot available for that character. Anything else I should know before going into this? Well, if you ask me like that, I would recommend reading my Unterwegs in Düsterburg LP. It's pretty long, and if you think you don't have the time for that, don't read it, but I'm probably going to make allusions to UiD a couple times in the LP, since there's some degree of crossover and Marlex was somewhat of an influence on UiD (as evidenced by there being a somewhat major character named Xelram in there), and I wouldn't want to spring those allusions on people without warning them beforehand, lest they get confused. So, consider yourself warned, I guess. Now, let's get going on this ride! Update I - Off to a Flying Start Update II - The Things I Do For Love Update III - Bad ∞ End ∞ Night Update IV - Compensating For Something Update V - 「Crazy ∞ nighT」 Update VI - Random Encounters, Random Encounters, And Random Encounters, Oh My! Update VII - "Should've Just Killed Him", the tell-all book by Asgar Serran, coming soon to a bookstore near you Update VIII - You have 24 odds and ends on a table, 23 fall off, what's left, an odd or an end? Update IX - More Money Than God Update X - Game Design 101: Do not use your RPG engine to make platformers Update XI - Odds And Ends II: This Time He Gets Even Update XII - Striking at the Heart of the Enemy Update XIII - Rock of Mystery Update XIV - Second Verse, Same As the First Update XV - Blood and Iro- I Mean, Silver Update XVI - Twilight ∞ nighT Update XVII - What A Terrible Night To Have A Curse Update XVIII - Actual Progress? Update XIX - Tropical Despair Update XX - It's A Political Revolution Update XXI - Wow, This Got lovely Fast Update XXII - Odds and Ends 3: The Endening Update XXIII - Dull Surprise Update XXIV - Ending I: The Good And Manly One Update XXV - Ending II: The Good And Cowardly One Update XXVI - Ending III: The Evil And Manly One Update XXVII - Ending IV: The Evil And Cowardly One TheMcD fucked around with this message at 01:10 on May 6, 2016 |
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Jan 16, 2016 15:23
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Update I - Off to a Flying Start Alright, let's get this show on the road.  Our first choice is to skip the intro or not, and for obvious reasons, we choose not to skip it.  And our story begins... with some old grandpa talking to his grandson, who is laying in bed. Alright, I'm game to see where you're going with this.  My grandson! You're already 15 years old now. Oh, grandpa! Don't start going senile on me again! Shhhh! It's time for me to tell you a very important story! GRANDPA! I don't need a good night story to go to sleep anymore! But this will most definitely not be a GOOD night story, more a BAD night story... Oh, grandpa! Your stories haven't scared me in a long time! We'll see...  Now, how should I tell you this story? Like it is right now, or rather... ...with bloody writing, like this? Or... ...just plain and simple? What do you like the most? Hm, I think you should tell it... 1) ...with a bloody border! 2) ...with bloody writing! 3) ...the plain way!I'll stick with the bloody border. It wouldn't be right to play it with the basic textbox, but the red writing is harder to read. As you wish... and should the hero hurry up a bit, or should he move about normally? Hm, I think... 1) ...the hero should walk quickly. 2) ...the hero should walk normally.Gotta go fast. Who the hell would ever want an RPG hero to move slowly? There's nothing more tedious than slowly trundling through towns, dungeons et al. Good, good... now, tell me, what do you know about vampires? Vampires? (Maybe this story won't be so boring after all!)Dialogue in brackets is the character thinking, in case you didn't know. I think it's a fairly established dialogue writing convention, but you never know. Well... hm... well, they hate garlic, die from sunlight and they abhor churches and crucifixes. They are also hurt by water, so rain is very painful for them. They can't cross running water, and they can only enter a building when invited into it. Hm... where did you learn all this? Well, dad told me some of it, and the rest I got from a book I once read. I figured that was the case... now, I'm going to tell you the truth about vampires! Those things you just told me only apply to the fourth and following generations of vampires. They are weak and vulnerable, but still dangerous. Now listen well:  Vampires are undead, but nobody knows how the first generation of vampires came into being! If a vampire of the first generation turns a human into a vampire, then the new vampire is a vampire of the second generation and therefore weaker than its sire. It follows that later generations are always weaker than their sires. So this game also follows the vampire generation concept in the way that later generation vampires are weaker than earlier generation ones, and that later generation vampires are a lot more vulnerable to the folklore solutions to vampires like garlic, sunlight and crucifixes.  But the undead do not die like normal humans. Vampires of later generations are easily killed with holy water, crucifixes and sunlight. But vampires of the first two generations are not harmed by such things. To kill such vampires, you must first drive a stake through its heart. That will paralyze it. Then you cut its head off and fill its mouth with garlic. Grandpa, that's disgusting! Yes, but if you don't do that, it will rise again! And by the way, vampires don't necessarily need to sleep in a coffin... they just do it because they heal their wounds more easily when resting in one. Vampires were widespread up until 400 years ago. They killed many humans and turned them into their own kind. We have a brave priest to thank for vampires being wiped out these days. He gathered many brave men around himself and led a Holy Crusade against the hellspawn. The Holy Crusade is an important event, so remember that name, it'll come up again later. The Crusade took many years to complete, but it was successful. Vampires were gone from this earth. At least that's what the people thought. But now, I'll tell you a story I heard when I was a child. Believe it or not, vampires still have feelings! But a vampire that cries, cries only tears of pure blood! More commonly, a vampire feels hate and rage! Grandpa! Get to the story already! Alright, you impatient brat! It's a story filled with feelings, love, hate, jealousy...Fade to black.  We then cut to a city at night, and we see some vampires strolling about.  They transform into bats and fly away, and we get some opening text. "IT WAS A TIME OF DARKNESS BUT HEROES CAME AND THE BLOOD RED SKY TURNED A LIGHT BLUE THE EVIL DIED FOR ALL ETERNITY" And then...   We have a title card.  We then cut into one of the houses in this town. I'm not going to explain who these characters are, because the game is going to be doing it for us in just a bit. Just know that the guy in the bed is Valnar, our main character, and the girl to the left is Aysha, his girlfriend.  .....zzzzzzz..... .....gnnnnnnnn.....Valnar turns around in the bed. .....noooooo..... .....arrrrrrrr.....He turns again. He's clearly not having a good time. .....stop it..... .....let me be.....And again. .....noooooo..... Now we're inside his dream.  Oh, you'll understand once your blood turns viscous and slimy as it flows through your veins! You'll see that you won't act differently to me at all! Never! What you want to do is blasphemy in the face of the existence of human life! Haha! Listen to you, you sound so ridiculous! Blasphemy! At this point, this mysterious character starts laughing, and it plays a particular "evil laugh" soundbite. I'm going to be counting these because I've noticed that Marlex gets quite a bit of mileage out of that soundbite. Evil laugh counter: 1  You pathetic human! Feel the taste of immortality! NOOOOOOOOOOO! Chomp. What have you done? And Valnar falls to the ground. Fade to black...  ...and cut back to his house. .....stop..... He turns again. I just want to point out that I object to the usage of five dots as ellipses. This game plays very fast and loose with punctuation, I find. .....let me be.....And again. .....noooooooo..... And finally he wakes up with one big scream.  Valnar? Aysha makes her way over to Valnar. Valnar? Are you alright? I had that dream again! The same dream again? Valnar, I'm worried about you! You've been dreaming this same dream every night! And that for four weeks now! This can't go on like this! You're right! If something doesn't happen soon, I'm going to break down! Now, just calm down a bit first! Always remember that I love you, Valnar! I love you too, Aysha! We cut to the character backstory room, read, where the game gives you the information about characters you kind of need to get started. "Valnar and Aysha Darnus."  "Aysha is Valnar's long-time girlfriend. She met him during a festival in Klennar." Klennar is the town we're in right now. There will be more placenames and we'll eventually get a map to place them all on, so just put Klennar in the back of your mind for now.  "They've been living in this city for four years now. She is a pretty young lady, however, she acts quite dismissive towards others.  "Recently, something seems to have been bothering her. But Valnar could never work out what that was."  "Valnar is a young warrior from Limm, a city north of Klennar. When his parents died, Valnar was already old enough to take care of himself. He fights with great passion, but ever since he had that dream for the first time four weeks ago, he's been becoming more and more nervous and fragile. He suffers greatly from this returning nightmare. But he gains courage and security from his girlfriend, Aysha, who always tries to cheer him up."  And back to the house. Now we're in control of Valnar, and this is where the game would start if we had chosen to skip the intro. Let's talk to Aysha. Do you feel at least somewhat alright? Well, I've got a terrible headache! My poor dear! If only I could do something for you! I better take my armor with me! Who knows, maybe I could run into thieves...While bopping around the house, we pick up a leather armor...  I better take a weapon! That's the only language that everybody understands! Even thieves....and a short sword. Let's jump into the menu:  From top to bottom, the options are "Items", "Skills", "Equipment", "Save" (note it not being available, we'll get to that eventually) and "Quit Game". Valnar is a warrior, at level 1, his status is normal, he has 21 HP and 0 MP and needs 33 XP to level up. He also has 0 "Filar", which is the currency of this game. And because I think "Filar" sounds kind of dumb, I'm going to be calling them "bucks" instead, at least in my own commentary. In translation I'll keep "Filar", I guess.  The only two items we have are the armor and sword, and we have no skills.   We equip our gear - a Kyojin short sword, which is "a small but sharp sword (+3 ATTACK)", and our leather armor, which is "a light leather armor (+3 DEFENSE)". Nothing fancy.  Searching around the house, we find some itching powder. It inflicts Berserk and Blind on opponents, and if I remember correctly, Berserk means the enemy will attack anything, either you or his own team, and Blind makes physical attacks really unlikely to hit. I may be remembering that wrong, though, we'll see when we get to use this stuff.  This is a book about vampires. Thankfully, vampires have been wiped out for good a long time ago! I wonder why Aysha has been reading this!? I don't want to drink alcohol right now! Even if it's from my favorite trader, "SephiMike"!Who likes community member cameos? Marlex likes community member cameos! Alright, now let's head out.  Aysha, I'm going to go to Dr. Jarn and have her give me some painkillers! In this rain? Be careful that you don't catch pneumonia! I appreciate your concern, but I won't be long. If your pain is really that strong, maybe you should get a full check-up. Yes, but for now something for this pain will suffice. I won't be long, a few minutes tops! Alright, Dr. Jarn only lives a bit north of here anyway. See you in a bit! I'll be right back... What terrible weather!As that massive blood writing tells us, we are currently in Klennar. Nothing much to do in town right now, all doors just lead to a "I don't want to go here" message, so let's head straight up...  ...to Dr. Jarn's place. This is Dr. Jarn's house!He knocks at the door.   Valnar! Come in! Valnar! What is it that's so important that you came here this late? I have an extreme headache! Hm, are you sick? Well, I'll give you some strong painkillers. But please come back tomorrow, then I'll give you a proper check-up! That might be for the best! Hm, this should help!And we get some painkillers. Thanks, doctor! I'll come back tomorrow! Well, then I'll see you tomorrow! The painkillers are actually an item. They heal 10 HP, and they also heal the status effect "Ill", which I think is a variation on poisoning, but again, not sure. With painkillers in hand, we head back home.  You're back! What did she say? She gave me some painkillers to start with, and then she said she would want to give me a thorough check-up tomorrow! That's definitely a good idea. Maybe you're seriously ill! Please don't get too worried about me. I've only got a terrible headache. But hopefully I'll be feeling better with these painkillers! I sure hope so, my poor dear! I'll take the medicine and go back to bed now. You should get some sleep too. Why were you awake this whole time anyway? I just had something to eat and thought about some things. Alright. But please come to bed soon and get some sleep. Don't worry. I love you! I love you too! Good night, my dear! Valnar hops into bed and we fade to black again. Then, suddenly, the music changes to ominous, slow, evil-sounding MIDI distortion guitar music! We hear a woman scream! Then, the "vampire bite" sound effect! Then, an evil laugh, however one that is different from the one I'm counting! And finally, a door being kicked open!   Remember how I talked about this game playing really fast and loose with punctuation? That's NINE, count 'em, NINE exclamation points! Whenever something like that happens, I'm just going to purge the extraneous exclamation points from my translation, because I see no reason to keep them around. I guess they indicate EXTREME EMPHASIS, but come on, you can do just fine with one exclamation point!  Valnar gets up and runs out of the room. Oh no! What happened? These god drat painkillers made me tired! AYSHA! Valnar really likes sinking to one knee or whatever this sprite is supposed to represent him doing. Aysha... where could you be? He heads over to the other side of the room to find what we've already noticed a while ago.  Blood! God damnit! What happened here!? She still has to be somewhere around here!Let's rush outside to see if we can't find a trail.  A long trail of blood!Follow the bloody brick road, follow the bloody brick road...  Even more blood! Maybe I can follow the trail! But I have to hurry! The blood is being swept away by the rain!Well, look at it! That's a LOT of blood! It'd be very strange if that just stopped all of a sudden. Also, I don't think there's a time limit on this. We continue following the bloody trail.  Oh no! Nobody can lose this much blood and still live... Yeah, that is a whole god drat lot of blood.  Hm, it seems like Aysha was dragged out of town! Aysha, hang on! I'm coming to rescue you!And out of town we head...  ...into some foggy rear end area. Pretty foggy out here!You're saying something - I can hardly even SEE you, Valnar!  As we continue to follow the trail, we get some more blood text. This doesn't all appear right now, but I'm just putting it all together here. "WHAT IS A DAY WITHOUT NIGHT? WHAT IS LIFE WITHOUT DEATH? IS ONE ALLOWED TO KILL FOR LOVE?" And some comments from Valnar, like these: What's going on here? This can't possibly all be Aysha's blood! Hm, this rope leads up this mountain. You can get a good view from up there. But that doesn't matter right now! It seems Aysha was brought up here! We climb up the rope and hit some sort of plateau, but seemingly, this is a dead end.  God damnit! The trail goes dead here! Hm, strange! There's also blood flowing from under these rocks! There must be a secret entrance here somewhere!And sure enough, if we just check the exact spot we're standing at right now... Let's see... Hm... There has to be a mechanism around here somewhere! Well, that was simple enough. Aha! Aysha, I'm coming! Now we find ourselves inside some sort of cave, and the blood trail is still going strong.  Wahnfried! Wait, no, wrong game. Also, wrong skin color.  You bastard! Let her go! Might as well bring this up right away - from what I've seen, people really like using "Schwein" as an insult in this game, which literally translates out to "pig". Now, "pig" can also be used as a perogative in English, but it's not giving off the same vibe as I think it should be. To my knowledge, "pig" as an insult in English means one of three things - the person is a police officer, the person is a glutton, or the person is a lecher. And neither of these fit in this situation and the other ones either. So I'm just going to use "bastard" instead. Could have used "rear end in a top hat" too - it just needs to be a more generic insult.Also, this guy is Abraxas. Remember that name too, it'll be important later.  Oh, you stupid human! Can't you see? She's DEAD! What you see is only a bloodless shell! Do you see her eyes? Glazed over, completely without expression! Murderer! Let her go! I'll execute you for that! You understand nothing! She died a long time ago! Liar! You killed her! I'll avenge her with your blood! This discussion with you is pointless! I'll now destroy her once and for all! You bastard! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Ow... Rot in hell, Molana! God drat that's one big sword. Molana?  Well, whatever this Abraxas guy's deal is, he does not gently caress around. Nooooooooooooo! And as for you, worm... Oh, Aysha! Who are you, anyway? It seems like you knew Molana quite well! After all, you stupidly followed us all this way here! You god drat bastard! I was her friend! And you killed her! You'll pay for that! Why are all humans just so shockingly stupid? I've saved you from great pain! And you won't even thank me! WHAT? You saved me from pain? Just you wait, you monster! Valnar leaps in to attack! You'll understand some day... Wha- And gets unceremoniously bitchslapped into unconsciousness. Some day... you'll understand... So we occasionally cut back to this place, mostly when we have some sort of time or place jump. And he just collapsed? Yes. Valnar had no chance against the stranger, who was just much too powerful. A single strike was all he needed to rob Valnar of consciousness. And why didn't Abraxas just kill him? That's a good question, but you'll have to wait until later in the story for the answer. Another question is why Abraxas called Valnar's girlfriend, Aysha, Molana. I bet she wasn't human. How do you figure that? Well, it's obvious. No human could lose that much blood. Even large people have eight liters at most in them. And what Aysha, or rather, Molana, lost in Klennar must have been far more! Well, aren't you a clever little brat! Alright, but what was she then? Hm, I bet she was a vampire! That could be, and what was Abraxas? A vampire too? Hm, and why would a vampire kill another vampire, even though there are already only very few vampires remaining in the world? Hm... no idea, grandpa. Continue with the story! Alright, so Valnar was now unconscious, his girlfriend had been stabbed... but in a different place, one year earlier, another very important event occurred. A vampire named Asgar......and that's where we'll cut it for now. We've established some backstory for Valnar, the first of our protagonists, and next time, we'll establish Asgar, because he also has a fairly long story coming up.
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Jan 16, 2016 15:23
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Man I played that game ages ago. The memories all come back when seeing these things. It was certainly one of the better RPG Maker games of its time if I remember correctly. All aboard the nostalgia train.
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Jan 16, 2016 15:42
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Oh boy, Vampires Dawn! It's been so long. Seeing the default RPG Maker character faces again is enough to make me miss the early 2000s. There were some amazing (and many not-so amazing) games in the RPM2K community back in the day. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
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Jan 16, 2016 16:31
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Oh man, it's my favorite bad RPGMaker game. I've been looking forward to this since your UiD LP!
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Jan 16, 2016 17:11
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I have to admit that I never managed to finish this game back in the day, so I'm looking forward to see where it goes in the end.
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Jan 17, 2016 00:47
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I've never heard of this terrible looking game. (terrible because it's made in RPGM2k). Are the profile pictures stock or from something else? They seem really familiar. I am interested in this LP to see the screen dialog shots and your subsequent translation to work on my own German language skills. Like flash cards, only if I needed to talk to a native speaker about vampires and fantasy equipment.
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Jan 17, 2016 01:35
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It's always good to be prepared.
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Jan 17, 2016 01:37
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Oh man this is something. We had like 4 big NOs in the prologue alone  Good luck on this LP, OP!!!!!!!!!
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Jan 17, 2016 01:59
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Brock Samsonite posted:I've never heard of this terrible looking game. (terrible because it's made in RPGM2k). Are the profile pictures stock or from something else? They seem really familiar. I am interested in this LP to see the screen dialog shots and your subsequent translation to work on my own German language skills. Like flash cards, only if I needed to talk to a native speaker about vampires and fantasy equipment. I'll be following for the same reason. Besides, my first textbook was very clear that you need to be sure to use formal forms of address with vampires, so I guess they're just a thing over there.
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Jan 17, 2016 02:05
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Yes! I've been waiting for this LP since you mentioned doing it in the Unterwegs LP! Thank you so, so much for translating this - I tried playing it myself, but between the clunky gameplay, the awkward translation, and my short attention span I decided to wait for this instead. Looking forward to more!
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Jan 17, 2016 06:36
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I took your advice and read your previous LP, and despite this being kind of pointless now, one of the paintings you didn't recognise was Edvard Munch's "Vampyr" or Vampire.  Excited to get in on the ground floor on this one!
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Jan 17, 2016 14:31
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Ah, RPG maker 2k games, that's some nostalgia I'm feeling here (don't ask me why, as most of them sucked). I do hope the brat keeps on being a smartass in the narration interludes, it should keep the story from becoming too stupid. Omobono fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 14:47
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I see this game includes another well known vampire legend.
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Jan 17, 2016 15:31
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I missed the Unterwegs LP while it was ongoing, and I just read it on the archive thanks to this thread. drat, what an amazing game-- it's better than a great deal of commercial efforts. I got the feeling this game doesn't really measure up, but I'm still really looking forward to it. Also, 'swine' is a perfectly usable English insult that has different connotations from just 'pig'. It might work better than just 'bastard' or 'rear end in a top hat'.
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Jan 17, 2016 15:58
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Oh boy, so many people on board already!Brock Samsonite posted:Are the profile pictures stock or from something else? They seem really familiar. Almost all the headshots we've seen so far are RPGM2K stock, with the exception of Abraxas's, I believe. Not sure, though, I don't have a copy of 2K on me, I use 2K3 for my "tearing into the game to see how things work" purposes, and my RTP for 2K has a whole bunch of weird extra poo poo in it that I'm certain isn't stock, so I can't use it for judgement purposes. Son Ryo posted:Also, 'swine' is a perfectly usable English insult that has different connotations from just 'pig'. It might work better than just 'bastard' or 'rear end in a top hat'. I've got to be honest, "swine" completely slipped my mind. However, I think I'll stick with "bastard" largely because it seems that I've forgotten that this game has quite the dirty mouth. Spoilers for the next update, both "poo poo" and "slut/bitch" get dropped. "Swine" almost seems too... dignified. I'll try to get an update out tonight, largely because I want to introduce everybody's favorite character to all of you. Also, I woke up this morning to find that two strange red marks have appeared on my neck, and I don't know where they came from. I'm not saying that I got bitten by a vampire or anything, but if I suddenly only start posting in the dead of the night, there might be an explanation for that.
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Jan 18, 2016 01:45
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Hell yeah, I'm in! Loved your UID LP, and looking forward to brushing up my German.
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Jan 18, 2016 03:35
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Update II - The Things I Do For Love So, last time, we stopped just before Grandpa was about to tell the story of Asgar. Now, let's actually see what his deal is. We fade to black...  ...and come back in some sort of jail cell. And now you can see that the vampire in Valnar's dream is in fact Asgar. Alaine... Alaine, my love... for how long have I known you now? Five short years. And I love you more than ever! I've been coming to this dungeon for five years now, just to admire you. And you haven't spoken a single word. And yet I know that you feel the same way... if only there was a cure for you... ... Through you, the human in me becomes stronger! You prevent the animal in me from taking control over me. Your love makes me strong! Confused man: Oh god! Let me out of here!  Did you say something?Confused man: ... (Wretched, filthy human!)Asgar does not appreciate being interrupted in his swooning and crooning over his beloved. Suddenly, we hear heavy footsteps! The guard is coming! I'll come back later, my dear! Asgar uses his vampire magic to turn invisible and just walk straight through the bars as the guard approaches. Guard: Hey, you disgusting lunatics! You're getting something special to eat today: Nothing! And you better now make any noise, or you'll get it with the whip!  (Some day, that guard is going to pay for that. But now now.)Asgar leaves the dungeon and we cut to our character exposition room again.  "Alaine Frynia"  "Alaine is a very young and beautiful lady. And yet fate had it out for her."  "She was found unconscious in a city one day. Nobody knew who she was or where she came from. Nobody knew her name. The people only saw a helpless body on the outskirts of the city. A doctor brought her to his house and started treating her, but it was pointless. Alaine stayed unconscious."  Hm, looks familiar. "The people began to speak of an illness that would soon spread to all inhabitants of the town. A short time later, she suddenly awoke from her coma. But she couldn't remember a thing. She wasn't even capable of thinking clearly, and was unable to speak at all. The citizens were just as perplexed as the doctor. Her inability to think clearly or talk only validated the citizens in their belief that it must be an illness, and so Alaine was banished from that city. She was brought to Shannar, where she now lives a lonely life in the insane asylum, together with other supposedly sick people whose symptoms are just as inexplicable. Only a necklace with her name on it keeps her from believing that she no longer exists or even ever existed in the first place!"  "Asgar Serran"  "Asgar is a vampire. Born 400 years ago, in a time where vampires flooded the land. His parents were killed by vampires, he himself was bitten by one, and now he roams the land, cursed with undeath." God damnit I don't like this last sentence. The original one is "Seine Eltern wurden von Vampiren getötet, und er selber wurde von einem gebissen, sodass er nun als Untoter verflucht durch das Land streift.". The particular problem I have is with that last bit - more literally, it would come out as "therefore he now roams the land as a cursed undead", I think, but I really dislike the usage of the word "undead" as a noun. Undead is a state, an adjective. In German, it's better because "untot" the adjective and "Untoter/Untote/Untotes" the noun are clearly different, whereas in English it's both just "undead". And I know that "the undead" is used to describe a great mass of zombies or something like that, but still, I'm really not a fan, I think it sounds dumb. It's like how in my Antitribu Mod playthrough in the Vampire: Bloodlines LP, I ran into the usage of "gay" as a noun - like if I said to a gay person that "you are a gay". It's technically correct, but it just sounds strange because the adjective is written the same way. But of course, "undeath" isn't actually a real word used, but "undeadness" just sounds dumb as well. Bah, the curse of being opinionated about language. This has been your "TheMcD bitches about words" for the day. Oh, by the way, before I forget, I'm also really annoyed about the "verflucht" in that sentence, because it's not clear whether it's the "undeadness" that is the curse, or if he's just cursed in general and also undead. Aaaaaaaanyway..."On his first day of being a vampire he swore that he would destroy his sire, but he had to put that plan on hold, for it was in that decade that the Holy Crusade against the vampires began. The Crusade was led by the priest Vincent Weynard." Vincent Weynard, another important name to remember. "Almost all vampires were destroyed, and the few that survived the Crusade continued their lives in hiding, in fear of another massacre. But time passed, and Vincent Weynard grew older and eventually died. Asgar believed that his time had come and started his quest to destroy his sire and with that avenge his soul. However, so far his search has been unsuccessful. He interrupted it to find a permanent dwelling for himself. He came to an inhabited castle on the top of a mountain. After killing and enslaving the previous inhabitants, he started scouting out the castle's surroundings. One day, he came to Shannar, where he met Alaine. She is ill with no possible cure, can't speak and is often plagued by uncontrollable cramps." Monument to the time I wrote that Alaine was plagued by "uncontrollable craps" and it took me way longer than it should have for me to notice it. I also laughed a lot more than I should have."Overwhelmed by her beauty, the last bit of humanity left in him grew stronger, and in an unusual twist, he fell in love with her. From that time on he regularly visits her in her jail and searches for a cure for her illness. On his rebirth as a vampire, Asgar gained the dark power of transforming into a shadow, becoming invisible to all living beings. Furthermore, as a shadow he can pass through solid objects, allowing him to reach any place."  Alright, so that's what the game has to say about Asgar. Here's what I have to say about Asgar: Asgar doesn't give a gently caress. He is an evil motherfucker, but he's not evil with a plan, like Wahnfried from Unterwegs in Düsterburg. Wahnfried has a command structure and a clearly organized hierarchy with which he runs his domain with an iron fist. Asgar has a hierarchy that consists of "me" at the top and "all you other shitheads" at the bottom. If Asgar wants it, it's only a matter of time before he gets it, he doesn't give a drat how many corpses line the way there, and he'll kill every last motherfucker in his way personally. And this introduction chapter will be showing that off as well. For now, we're now out of the dungeon, the sun is shining, the chickens are clucking (a bit too much for my tastes, those are some noisy loving chickens) and I poo poo you not, a MIDI version of "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" by Bryan Adams is playing. Good lord. Let's go and talk to some people.  Woman: You've really got to feel sorry for those guys down in the asylum! Locked up simply for being different to us.Woman: Well, they are a bit crazy, too. (If this bitch calls my love "crazy" one more time, then may god have mercy on her soul!) Woman: Life is so nice and peaceful here! Peaceful? I guess. (You lovely humans don't have a drat clue what peace actually is!) By the way, I'm not pulling a fantranslation thing with the swearing here, even though I personally loving love swearing. Asgar is just a massive pottymouth. Man: I'm glad our village is on this far-off island. That way we can stay out of the commotion going on in the rest of the world! (If you only knew what could happen to you here...) Man: Today is a great day, don't you think? Well, I'd say there's a bit too much sunshine.You might be noticing some patterns emerging, particularly on how Asgar feels about humans. Let's start barging into houses now.  Woman: Welcome to the mayor's house! The mayor is on the first floor! Is he busy right now?Woman: No, but you need to make an appointment! Appointment? But I have to see him now!Woman: Alright, then just go on up to him!  Man: Behave yourself in this noble house! Alright! I won't destroy anything! (As long as the mayor lets Alaine go free today!)More people to talk to up on the first floor.  Mayor's wife: Welcome to the mayor's house! Hello. Is he here right now?Mayor's wife: You're in luck! He's sitting at his desk right now!  Mayor's daughter: What are you doing here? My daddy is the mayor and doesn't deal with people like you! (Cocky little bitch!)Asgar gives no shits if you're a kid, he'll call you a bitch anyway.  Mayor: You again! Yes, mayor! Me again.Mayor: Listen to me, I have absolutely no intentions of releasing these lunatics from their jail! And your lady love is clearly deranged! She won't talk with anybody, has constant strong cramps and doesn't look very healthy in general either. Don't talk about Alaine that way! Listen, mayor! I'm starting to lose my patience. This is the third time I've come to you, the last time being half a year ago! And you still haven't gotten any smarter! (So far, I've shown clemency to you and your village because I thought you disgusting fatass would eventually listen to reason and let her go. Normally I try to leave you humans alone as much as possible. But apparently you have no idea just who you're provoking with your behavior!) Mayor! Let Alaine go. I don't care about any of the others.Mayor: No! She might be sick and could be spreading her illness all around town! I can't risk the lives of the honorable citizens of my village! Alright, mayor! You asked for it. I will leave. But I'm warning you: You have summoned a great disaster!Oh dear, that doesn't sound good. We head back down to the ground floor.  (Alright. If that's the way he wants it... I'll fly back to my castle, and after I've regained my strength, I'll satisfy my thirst with him, and not only him, but this entire village!)Not so fast, Asgar! You can wipe this village off the map later, but we still have houses to barge into!  Artist: Welcome to my humble studio! What can I do for you? Well, nothing, really. I don't know why I came in here, either.Artist: That's a shame. But if you ever need a professional portrait done, just come back here! Above: A realistic RPG character dialogue. "Why are you here?" "The voice in my head ordered me to come in here and now it just left me out to dry."  Woman: Oh, what brings you to this house? Umm, I'm just looking around.Woman: Hm, well, don't touch anything, or I'll call my husband! And upstairs:  Man of the house: Whatever, is that you? ... Excuse me, "Whatever" is my wife's nickname. She wanted to make something to eat. ("Whatever"? You stinking humans just keep getting stranger!)More pretty blatant community cameos. There's one coming up that I actually thought was kind of cute, though. On to new houses!  Sir Kedrigh: Hey, what are you doing here? Get out of here! I didn't ask you to come in! (Arrogant human vermin!) Woman: Hm, unfortunately I have to ask you to leave! We don't like people that just barge into others' houses! Alright, I'm leaving. (Hospitality a foreign word to you, you disgusting humans?)We pilfer some painkillers from that room, then head upstairs.  Girl: Hello! Do you want to play with me? Play? HARHARHAR! (Oh, I'd just LOVE to play with you!)Girl: (What a rude guy!) The great thing about Asgar is that that line isn't even remotely creepy because you know he's just thinking about murdering her, just like with any other human. That's just par for the course for him.  Old man: ...c o u g h... ...c o u g h... Oh, old age is going to kill me! (It's not just old age that's deadly, you old fart!) I love this guy. As we walk around town, it starts raining - there's weather effects that occasionally show up. Also, if you're paying close attention to the screenshots, you'll note that it's getting darker too - this game has a day/night cycle too! That's pretty impressive for a RPG Maker 2000 game!  Woman: Hello! Do you want to stay the night? No thanks, I'm not tired! (And how does this woman get the idea that I want to stay the night here? This tavern is absolutely disgusting!)To be fair, you did walk into an inn in an RPG and talk to the woman at the counter. The only thing they're good for is sleeping.  Woman: Hello! Do you by any chance know how I can get to the mainland on the cheap? No, apart from taking a ship, I don't believe there is any other way!Woman: drat! I spent my last money on staying here!  Woman: Come and warm yourself with this wonderful fire! You look cold! Thanks for the offer, but I don't have any time right now.Woman: As you wish. But don't say I didn't warn you when you get a cold! (A cold? HARHAR! I haven't been sick in centuries, HUMAN!)That's everything in this town, so let's head out and get to Asgar's castle.  Tomorrow you're all going to die! Asgar then transforms into a bat...  ...and flies to his castle.  Hm, also looks kind of familiar.  He flies over a pretty massive-looking map and eventually settles down on one of the roofs.  Now I'll go and sleep in my crypt...Alright, let's check out Asgar's big-rear end castle a bit.  Oh hey, a minotaur! This guy is named Ronak, and he's not that smart.   Master, you're back! As you can see, yes, I am! Master, I put your favorite books in that shelf back there! You keep forgetting to put them back after you've read them! Alright, Ronak. Now, go and get my coffin ready, I'm going to sleep a bit. As you wish, Master! I'll hurry!Ronak walks a bit, then stops. Uhhhhh, Master... What is it!? Where was your crypt again? You no-good worm! Master, please, have mercy! Please don't hit me again! Alright. But how many times have I explained the way to you now? So, you go to the right, then down the stairs, then to the left, then down the stairs again. Then you head outside and go into the inner building of the castle! Then you go straight on to my crypt! Yes, Master! I'll hurry!Again, Ronak walks a bit, then stops. Master, I forgot it again! Oh, forget it! Just clean up here! Yes, master! (I should probably take a look at that shelf. Who knows what he put there!)That's probably a good idea. We also find a healing potion in a barrel, which is incredibly overpowered for right now - it heals like 300 HP versus the 60 Asgar has now.  Here's some of my favorite books: "Dark Shadows", "SOM", as well as my diary, which I haven't used in a long time... hm, unfortunately, the password for the entrance to my crypt is still here too... "The Fire Sweeps over My Life". I should probably destroy that book soon, just in case...I'm not sure what "SOM" is, but "Dark Shadows", i.E. "Dunkle Schatten", is the first RPG Maker game that Marlex made. Maybe I'll play that between VD1 and VD2, or maybe not. I honestly can't remember whether it was interesting or not.  Alright, so we head to the right, and down the stairs, and... at that point, I also ended up forgetting the directions. So of course I go down, not left like I should. It's the scenic route!   Master, you should create more servants! Hm, you might be right. There are too few guards here... but who would dare to infiltrate my castle? Especially since hardly anybody knows that I'm now running this place! While bopping around, we also pick up a talisman, which is an equippable item that protects against Curse, which I think is another status effect, but not sure what it is. We also find a bandage, which heals a slight bit and heals the status effect Bleeding, which I believe is essentially just stronger Poison. Again, we'll see more about that later in the update once we get into our first fight.  Also, I take the time to check out Asgar's skills. He can raise a skeleton, which is a skill that gives us a temporary extra party member, he can pre-emptively kill off the raised skeleton, he can turn into a wolf for a limited amount of time, which I'm not quite sure what exactly the gain from that is, he can pre-emptively end the transformation, and finally, he can suck blood, which is a battle skill.  He also has a simple sabre ("A simple, cheap sabre (+4 ATTACK)") and some iron armor ("A set of armor made from good iron (+6 DEFENSE, -2 AGILITY)") equipped.  There's books about love and hate in here... though I find love-hate to be something special as well... I've hidden a little bit of something here, but I don't need it right now...So I guess I'll be checking that every time a new bit of story passes by.  Here we have some books about murder and slaughter! I'll have to read those soon! "Mord und Totschlag" is an expression in German that generally means something along the lines of "a really big kerfluffle". For instance, when you go to a Thanksgiving party and your racist uncle gets into an argument with your college-visiting liberal sister and it eventually devolves into a massive table-wide argument between everybody, the next door neighbors could say "it sounds like 'Mord und Totschlag' in there". However, Asgar surely means this literally here. And "Totschlag" is technically "manslaughter", as in the crime that is different from murder, but that doesn't really make sense. It's surely just general slaughter here. We also find some life nectar in a barrel - this gives a character +1 HP permanently. A whole +1! Can't imagine that being too great, but I guess it's free.   Master, you are the mightiest creature on this planet! Evil laugh counter: 2 Oh, how right you are! Master, please make sure that you have enough supply for blood! You need new prisoners! Thanks! But why am I supposed to be doing that? YOU'RE THE SLAVES HERE! MY SLAVES! YOU WILL BE TAKING CARE OF THAT! As you wish! Hm, here's a book about the origin of Earth... "and on the seventh day, God created..." HARHAR! "GOD"! Nothing but a tool in the false play of believers. In the name of GOD the Holy Crusade was organized! In the name of GOD countless vampires were wiped out! If I ever get to meet GOD face-to-face, he will pay for that...Asgar is not a big fan of religion, but his plan of giving God himself what for for the Holy Crusade is an interesting twist on anti-theism.  Here's another copy of the book "Dark Shadows". "... to which Alex replied: Well, it's just that I'm allergic to chickens..." Very entertaining. "... and suddenly, Gargasch started beating his victim down..." Yeah, Gargasch is definitely my favorite character of the book...IIRC, Gargasch was the main villain of Dunkle Schatten, as if that comes as a surprise. Of course the main villain is going to be Asgar's favorite character.  Eventually, I do manage to find my way to the outside area of the castle...  ...and into the antechamber for Asgar's crypt! Very spiffy looking. Oh, master! Your crypt has been made ready for you! Good! I'm in need of some sleep! Of course, when we get inside the actual crypt, things get decidedly less spiffy.  drat... my pantry just keeps getting more and more empty! Master, you're currently storing 0 kg silver here!Amassing silver is going to be a thing later in the game.  And of course Asgar has the still bleeding heads of kids mounted in front of the entrance to his resting place. It really brings the feng shui of the place together.  Good, here's the entrance to my crypt. And the password mechanism still works, too. Very good. Now to quickly enter the password: Here you're just given the choice between four different letters and have to pick the right ones. The right ones, of course, are the capital letters in "Das Feuer Fegt über Mein Leben".  And now I'll take my rest for the massacre tomorrow. You know, for being Asgar's resting place, this room is hardly decorated as befits somebody like him. I guess since he spends most of the time in the room in a coffin, he doesn't really care for the aesthetics.  Finally, I'm back here... now for some sleep. Good night, Asgar. Sleep tight, you'll have an exciting day full of murder tomorrow to look forward to!  I'm hungry!Evil laugh counter: 3 Alright, it's time to get to work! Time to head outside, rescue Alaine and show those bastards in Shannar what for!  Ah, what a wonderful day! Time to show those disgusting humans who's in charge around here! And Alaine will come to the castle with me! I just have to make sure to leave no survivors! It wouldn't be very smart to provoke another crusade! That really was the only reason why I haven't rescued Alaine so far. That fear of another crusade. But this night I realized that a vampire can't give in to fear, especially not fear of something as minor as that! And now it is time for my banquet to begin!And yet he can't turn into a bat and fly away from here, first we need to walk a bit further to actually get outside the castle.  Thank you, blood text. I didn't know this was Asgar's castle. Shannar, brace yourself! And we're off! But when Asgar arrives at Shannar...  Strange, what's going on here? It smells like fire and blood! A lot of blood...He walks to the center of town.  An execution! Mayor: Hurry up with the last one! We have to wipe them all out! They're all infected with a plague! They're not only mentally damaged, but also have a highly contagious illness! Quick! Kill the last one of those lunatics and throw him into the fire! It's the only way we can prevent the disease from spreading! Wait, lunatics are getting executed, and that guy is the last one? I don't like where this is going... Rest of the population: KILL! KILL! KILL! Executioner: Alright, pal, it's your turn! Confused man: No, please, have mercy! I'm not sick! I'm different than you, but not sick! PLEASE, HAVE MERCY! I'm Magemaster! Please don't kill me, I'm peaceful! Mayor: He calls himself "Magemaster"! Do you hear that? "Magemaster"! He's sick and must be exterminated, or he'll infect us all! Executioner: Come here, pal! Confused man: No, PLEASE!  Rest of the population: KILL! KILL! KILL! Mayor: Now then, "Magemaster", may your soul rest in peace! Confused man: Noooooooooo!  Rest in peace, poor Magemaster. When he signed up for a cameo, he had no idea what was in store for him. It's quite amusing to see humans destroying themselves!Mayor: Alright, everybody! We'll burn his corpse too! He was the last one out of the asylum! (Asylum? Oh nooooo!)Asgar finally clues in on the problem that his plan of rescuing Alaine has just run into.  Mayor! You burnt the insane people!Mayor: Yes, they had an infectious illness, and I prevented it from spreading! You did WHAT? AN INFECTIOUS ILLNESS!?Mayor: I'm sorry for your friend, but she was sick too! You KILLED Alaine? RAAAAAAAAR! HOW DARE YOU!?Mayor: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! HE HAS FANGS! A VAMPIRE! Rest of the population: AAAAAAHHHHHH!   FOR ALAINE! REVENGE! NOBODY GETS OUT OF HERE ALIVE! (I should transform into a wolf, that way I can dish out more pain...)Good idea. We select the wolf transformation from the menu.  Wolf's soul, give me your power!I'm not entirely sure what this does beyond letting us kill villagers. I don't think it lets us do more damage, it might just be entirely situational.  But first, we run into the executioner. Executioner: I'm not scared of you, vampire! I will destroy you!  Alright, so, combat. Combat is simple, especially this early in the game.  We can do the standard giving orders to each character thing, we can let the computer call all the shots (we won't) and we can flee (actually we can't right now, also, we won't).  Asgar can attack normally, he can use a skill, he could defend (but we won't) or we could use an item if we wanted to (we don't).  For now, we want to start combat out by using Asgar's blood sucking ability, which restores MP - which I should be calling BP from now on, standing for "blood points" (which is why Valnar didn't have any, he can't use blood magic because he's not a vampire!) - and can also cause the Bleeding status on an opponent. And since I have the RPG Maker editor open right now, let's look up all the status effects: "Starre" (rigor - as in "rigor mortis"): Basically "dead", but for vampires. "Fluch" (curse): Halves all your attributes (god drat that's strong). Doesn't end on its own. "Blind": Drops hit chance to 20% of standard, has 20% chance of ending every turn, will always end after 8 turns. "Stumm" (mute): Prevents all spells from being cast. Doesn't end on its own. "Rasend" (berserk): Halves defense and intelligence, makes you attack enemies randomly, drops hit chance to 90% of standard. Doesn't end on its own. "Verwirrt" (confused): Drops hit chance to 80% of normal, makes you attack allies randomly. 30% chance of recovery per turn, 25% chance of recovery every time that character is attacked, guaranteed recovery after 3 turns. "Schläft" (sleep): Can't take any actions. 25% chance of recovery per turn, 80% chance of recovery every time that character is attacked, guaranteed recovery after 3 turns. "Gelähmt" (paralyzed): Can't take any actions. 30% chance of recovery per turn, 20% chance of recovery every time that character is attacked, guaranteed recovery after 5 turns. "Krank" (sick/ill): Hit chance drops to 60%, lose 5% of max HP plus 1 and 5% of max BP plus 1 per turn in battle, lose 1 HP and 1 BP every 5 steps on the map. Doesn't end on its own. "blutet" (bleeding): Hit chance drops to 70%, lose 5% of max BP plus 5 per turn in battle. Doesn't end on its own. This is what is inflicted on our party. "blutmens" (short for bleeding, human): Lose 20% of max HP plus 15 and lose 30% of max BP plus 10 per turn in battle, 20% chance of recovery every turn, guaranteed recovery after 5 turns. This is what our blood sucking ability inflicts on opponents. As you can see, it's VERY potent, and should be inflicted whenever possible! "vergifte" (incomplete "poisoned", due to character limit): Has "halve statistic" checked, but no actual statistics to halve checked, so I guess that part does nothing. Lose 10% of max HP plus 5 per turn in battle. Doesn't end on its own. Now, wasn't that insightful?  And once we get the guy to bleed, we just wail on him with normal attacks until he goes down.  HARHAR! Feel my power!Then we just spend a bit of time wandering around town murdering all the villagers - they go down just like the executioner, but without a fight. Chomp animation, puddle of blood.  It takes a while - in fact, I had to re-cast the wolf transformation and night started to fall, but eventually, we find and kill everybody. Alright, I got everybody! Alaine! I have to check the fire! And I'm going to be Mr. Efficient and immediately go to this bucket of water that caught my eye the first time around. I should be able to extinguish the fire with this! Alright, I'll quickly extinguish the fire! Asgar then puts the fire out, jumps in, grabs Alaine...  ...and carries her out of town.   Oh, Alaine! What have they done to you?He brings her to a place on the other side of the island.  Oh, Alaine! I will bury you at this beautiful place! I will find a place worthy of your beauty!To the north, we find a cave.  What a wonderful place! Here, your soul will hopefully find the peace it deserves...   Fade to black. So that's Asgar's backstory. Next time, we'll see how the two stories we've heard come together, though you can probably hazard a guess if you've paid attention to the locations. TheMcD fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Feb 20, 2016 |
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Jan 18, 2016 04:49
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Welp. Beginning the game by a "slaughter an entire village" as a minigame is unique. Though the tears of blood thing is silly. It's a bit too "CRAWLING IN MY SKIIIIIIIN" to take seriously.
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Jan 18, 2016 05:45
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I suppose the phrase "bloody murder" as in screaming bloody murder could be used since it also is an expression that could be interpreted literally.
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Jan 18, 2016 09:58
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SSNeoman posted:Welp. Beginning the game by a "slaughter an entire village" as a minigame is unique.
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Jan 19, 2016 03:00
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Yeah, I think when Vampires Dawn came up in the Düsterburg thread, the phrase "product of its time" came up a few times. Get the feeling we're not going to be getting rid of that general vibe any time soon. Though I don't know, I'm not too hard on the tears of blood thing - vampires do pretty much everything with blood, would go to show that they would cry blood as well, it's just the fluid they have the most readily available, what with the rest of their bodily functions being pretty much dead all around. Though I would guess that vampires still have need of regular tears, since they still need to clear the garbage off their eyes at some point or another. Hm. Thesaya posted:I suppose the phrase "bloody murder" as in screaming bloody murder could be used since it also is an expression that could be interpreted literally. I thought of "bloody murder", but nixed it for some reason or another. One problem I have is that translation decisions are very much made on-the-fly, as one would presume from somebody that speaks both languages natively - I just go with whatever seems natural to me at the time. This works out well most of the time, but occasionally something like that pops up where I wonder what exactly I thought to make what I picked more interesting than whatever I didn't pick. I think the decision revolved around the idea of turning two nouns into one not being palpable to me at that moment. EDIT: You know, I really didn't want to strongly consider the different potential cases for just what blinking does with vampires as opposed to humans and the pros and cons for those cases just before going to bed. This is going to make for some weird sleepy-time. TheMcD fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Jan 19, 2016 |
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Jan 19, 2016 03:09
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Well, this'll be an experience, at least. I liked the original Dusterburg, and it seems we're getting a lot harder-core into the whole vampire powers thing now.
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Jan 19, 2016 04:02
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I actually thought Dusterburg was okay. I don't really remember anything distasteful in there.
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Jan 19, 2016 04:47
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Update III - Bad ∞ End ∞ Night So, in the last two updates, we first got to hear some backstory regarding Valnar, and then some backstory regarding Asgar and Alaine. We could also figure from the dream we saw Valnar having that these two stories are going to intersect somehow. And in this update, we're going to see just how that happens! But first, we're back to the storytelling part. How sad... Yes. Asgar had lost the one thing that still brought him joy in his undead life. He buried her at this beautiful, quiet place, hoping that her soul would find the peace it deserved. Grandpa, this is a really sad story! A vampire loses the one thing he still had feelings for! You could almost feel sorry for him... But only almost. Asgar has killed many, many, many people. You can't feel sorry for a creature like that! So, grandpa, how does the story continue? Well, the distraught Asgar spent many weeks grieving. His anger towards humanity grew inside of him and he was taken over by rage! Until one day, he could no longer stand having lost Alaine. He started searching his castle's secret library for a spell to revive her! And after days of searching, he finally found a spell that could bring her back from the dead. But the spell required a great sacrifice. It was a dark, ancient and very powerful vampire spell, developed by a vampire of the first generation a long time ago. But the sacrifice for this spell was truly gigantic. GRANDPA! Just spit it out already! What sacrifice? Asgar needed... *cough* *cough* GRANDPA! Alright, you cheeky runt! Asgar needed a human's blood. But not just any human's blood, no, but the blood of a human that was head over heels in love with a vampire and who has also... well... What? Well, the blood of a human whom had also slept with a vampire! GRANDPA! I'm only 15! I know, I know... what am I to do when the spell requires such a sacrifice. Alright, keep telling the story. Well, Asgar was obviously enraged. How could he possibly find such a human? After all, pretty much all vampires have been wiped out. Valnar? Now, stop skipping ahead already! Anyway, Asgar searched for many weeks, until one day, he found out about Valnar! He knew that Valnar was the right one for the spell he had planned. He spied on him for a few days and made sure that he wasn't found out by her. Yeah, "her". This isn't the first time I've seen a different pronoun just pop up like this, it happened in Düsterburg as well, but there it didn't make any sense at all. Here, it kind of does, in that Asgar was making sure that Aysha/Molana didn't discover him, since staying hidden from a human is child's play for a vampire, so Valnar isn't the problem here. However, grandpa here hasn't mentioned Aysha/Molana at all so far, so just saying "her" kind of leaves us hanging. Technically, it could be any other female we could think of, but as it stands, there's only one possibility that makes sense, so I wouldn't call this an error per se.Also, just to note, I'm probably going to be using Aysha and Molana interchangeably in my commentary. You know they're the same, so you shouldn't get confused. And so Molana is actually Aysha! Exactly! But Valnar had never even considered that she could be a vampire. He never noticed? But what about the fangs or the cold, dead skin vampires have? I told you about the different vampire generations, right? And vampires of the first two generations are masters of disguise. They can make humans believe that their skin feels warm. This works through thought manipulation. And vampires in general are capable of hiding their fangs - after all, they'd be found out pretty quickly if that wasn't the case, don't you think? Hm, that's true. And so what happened to Molana? Well, like I told you, she was killed by somebody, that somebody being Abraxas. So was Abraxas working with Asgar? No, Abraxas and Asgar have never met, and didn't even know of each other's existence.Well, that's good to know. So Abraxas killed Molana before Asgar could grab her and Valnar? Yes, and I'll tell you later what Abraxas is all about. Anyway, after collapsing, Valnar awoke at Dr. Jarn's... Valnar! Finally you're awake again! Aysha! Calm down! Everything is fine! No, nothing's fine! Aysha is dead! I have to go and find her killer! Calm down, Valnar! We found you out in front of the big mountain. You were unconscious. You probably fell down there! You should be glad you're even still alive! But the blood! Blood everywhere! Sorry, Valnar, but we didn't see any blood anywhere! The rain! The rain must have washed the blood away! Just calm down, Valnar! You need rest! Did you find Aysha's corpse!? No, just you. You were laying at the foot of the mountain, unconscious. Aysha was murdered! That was surely just trauma caused by the fall. I'll give you some more painkillers! I don't need painkillers! I need to get to Aysha! Oh god drat I forgot just how the writing for this game gets at times. I can't even pinpoint just what exactly it is that irks me, it's just ~*writing stuff*~. Partly it's how the characters really seem to like reiterating themselves, partly it's Dr. Jarn here just figuring that Valnar must have been climbing that mountain in the middle of the night during a violent thunderstorm just for shits and giggles and not considering that he might have had a suitably pressing reason to attempt something really dumb like that, like, y'know, his significant other getting dragged off, leaving a massive trail of blood or something. Or is Valnar just the village idiot and this is a regular occurrence?Villager: Dr. Jarn, come quick! It's Valnar again! What is it this time?Villager: Apparently, he and Aysha were playing Truth or Dare, and she dared him to jump off the roof of the inn! She didn't think he'd actually do it, but... God loving damnit, Valnar. Alright, bring out the spatula, you know how this goes by now...I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming: Hm, thinking about it, I am a bit surprised she hasn't shown up here yet. She's DEAD, damnit! Don't you understand!? Valnar, if what you're claiming is right, then you best get going and look for her immediately. Maybe one of the people living here noticed something? I have to get going immediately and find her corpse and her killer! Boing. I guess we didn't see what exactly Abraxas did to Valnar after bitchslapping him into unconsciousness, though we know he brought him out of the secret cave and to the bottom of the mountain. Not too surprising he wouldn't take a lot of time to recover just from that. Thanks for taking care of me, but I really need to get going!Do we need to get going? I don't think we've mentioned getting going yet, let's mention it again! Hurry up, but be careful!Alright, and we're back in control. First order of business, rummaging through other people's stuff.  I'm not searching through other people's closets!Well ain't that something new. Guess we've got nothing to do here then.  Thanks for the reminder. I forgot where we were for a second there. drat! How could this happen? And then that stupid weather! And my terrible headache! What have I done to deserve this?Beat. Hm, somehow, I feel like I'm being watched! And why is nobody out on the streets? I should ask around if anybody's seen anything that could help me!Bah, it's nothing!  It seems like there's a cool breeze coming from this direction. Strange.Nothing at all! Now, I'm just going to make this relatively quick, because there's not much here that's interesting. Valnar goes around town into different houses, and has conversations that go like this: oh no my girlfriend is dead please helpSome guy/girl: oh no that's terrible but i didn't notice anything because of the rain / because i was sleeping well thank you anywaySome guy/girl: good luck anyway, and bye byeOver and over again, with some occasional "RAAR I WILL HAVE REVENGE" thrown in. Notables include a little girl noticing something suspicious - her dad sneaking into the kitchen at night to eat even though he's supposed to be on a diet, a rich woman noticing something suspicious - that being Valnar, who just bursts into their house...  ...and this guy, called "Silas Coldfire", which I'm pretty sure is another community cameo. Also, a recolored Alex. He doesn't have anything interesting to say either.  So let's just skip to after I've asked everybody. DAMNIT! I've asked everybody and NOBODY could help me! How could all of this happen? HOW? Aysha... I've failed! Failed in every way possible! I couldn't protect you! I loved you... and only proved it to you so rarely! I wanted to be with you forever! FOREVER! And now you're dead! Dead because I couldn't protect you... I can't understand! Why? Why did somebody kill you? ... And why did he call you Molana? If only I had an answer! Aysha! DRAMATIC POSE I will make your murderer pay for what he did! If nobody here wants to help me or nobody even can help me, then I'll help myself! Maybe I'll find some clues on the mountain!I just love the way Asgar is just chillin' on the side there, by the way. Probably just thinking to himself. "drat, the blood of this idiot is going to bring my beloved back? The things I do for love..." So we head out the front gate again, with Asgar in tow.  But Valnar isn't quite as stupid as we thought he was - just mostly. Something's not right here! You're right! Surprise, motherfucker! Who said that? I DID! Like I said, I love this guy. Who the devil are you? You can call me Asgar! But I'm not here to talk with you! You're involved with the death of my girlfriend!Taking bets on how many times Valnar said that today. "I see you there, you well! You and your bucket think you're innocent, but you're WRONG! Water washed away Aysha's blood, so water is guilty! And that means YOU'RE guilty! You'll get yours soon enough!" "And you, bed! Don't think I didn't notice you! If I wasn't laying in bed when Aysha got kidnapped, she would still be alive! I'll destroy every single bed in the world if I have to! FOR AYSHA!" ...Christ, I'm just taking every opportunity to take the piss out of this guy. Didn't think I'd be dialing up the snark that much by the third update already. I mean, Valnar does make a convenient target. The death of your girlfriend? Oh, yes, of course... your girlfriend... So you do have something to do with it after all, you bastard! Calm down! I know where your girlfriend is... You're in league with the killer!Evil laugh counter: 4 See, Asgar thinks this is funny too. Come with me! I'll show you where your girlfriend is! NEVER! This is clearly a trap! As you wish... but think about it... without me, you'll never find her. I'm the only one who knows where she is and who would tell you... OK, I need to bring this up, because this has been bugging the poo poo out of me. Whenever Marlex uses "I know", he always writes it as "ich weis", which is wrong! It's "ich weiß"! I would have been a bit less annoyed if he wrote "ich weiss", since at least we've got the "ss/ß" problem going on there, in that it can sometimes be iffy to decide just what to use, but that's not even the case here! First I thought he uses a single "s" as a replacement for "ß", but go back to the first update and find the dream sequence - there, "fließt" clearly uses the sharp S, so it's obviously available! The real problem is that that phrase comes up a lot, and every time I see it, it just annoys me a bit more. Why would you do that? First kill her, then show me where she is?I do like how Asgar isn't even contending that point anymore. He picked up on Valnar being fully on a one-track-mind right now right away and just isn't bothering to try and convince him that he actually didn't have anything to do with Aysha being killed, even though it's actually true that he has nothing to do with it. Well, let's just say that I feel bad for you. Not too long ago, I myself have lost a person that meant very, very much to me. I know your pain! You suddenly just feel sorry for me? I'm not buying that! Well, then I'll just leave. And you'll never learn the secret behind her death... ...alright. Show me where she is! Gladly... we'll be there soon! You better hope, or you'll get to feel my sword! Alright, you don't need to threaten me! Just take my hand, my magic will bring us to her! (Magic? He's a drat mage?) Are you coming, or not!? Alright... And we're off to the races!  As you might imagine, Asgar isn't bringing Valnar to wherever Aysha is...  ...but somewhere else we know fairly well!  My god! What kind of magic is this? A very powerful one... your girlfriend lies in this cave. Aysha... what are we waiting for?Alright, let's head inside! You can already tell where this is going, so let's not dilly-dally!  This is where your girlfriend is buried... Wait a second... this gravestone says: "Here rests Alaine Shyna I will forever love you even after death do us part" It doesn't say "auch nachdem der Tod uns geschieden hat", but I thought it sounded better that way. This isn't Aysha's grave! Let me take a look! WHOOPS! Well, that's a surprise! That's MY girlfriend's grave! "Wait, were we talking about YOUR girlfriend? drat, I must have misheard you! I really thought you were talking about MINE! Well, now isn't that just a funny little misunderstanding we have here?" Really, when you compare Asgar to Captain Lovestruck over here, it's clear who the real star of the show is. YOUR GIRLFRIEND? What's going on here? Evil laugh counter: 5 You're so naive! I don't know your girlfriend! I've just been watching you. I didn't even know that she was dead until you told me! You bastard! And then I lied to you to get you here! Really, I wanted to just knock you unconscious and drag you here... but your desires towards your girlfriend just made it easier for me! So it is a trap! But why do you want me here? Because I want my girlfriend back, that's why! I found a spell with which I can revive her! What kind of mage are you that you have that kind of power? Mage?Evil laugh counter: 6 I'M A VAMPIRE! A... a... vampire? Why didn't you revive her as a vampire, then? I thought vampires could do that! Normally, yes! But my girlfriend was beheaded! And a beheaded corpse can never return to life as a vampire!To note: You'll see the "beheaded" thing come up more often when it comes to vampire death, but I've heard the "fill their mouth with garlic" thing doesn't seem to come up after the one time grandpa brought it up in the beginning. Probably because it makes things a lot more complicated. I'm not sure if that's true, so let's pay attention to see how that goes. And what do I have to do with this? I've already told you that I found a spell with which I could still revive her. And not just in the form of a lousy skeleton or zombie! I could have done that already, but I want HER back, not a skeleton or zombie! With this spell, I can revive her as a vampire of the FIRST generation! A vampire? A vampire of the first generation?Metal Gear? Yes! And for that, I need YOUR blood! My blood? Why do you need my blood, of all things!? Because the spell requires the blood of a human that has slept with a vampire! BUT I'VE NEVER SLEPT WITH A VAM- OH NOOOOOOO!By George, I think he's got it! I think he's finally got it! Aysha was a vampire, wasn't she? Correct. She was a vampire of the second generation. And this entire time, she's been manipulating your thoughts! How weak you humans are! How can that be... Aysha, a vampire? And now I'm going to sacrifice your blood to get back my beloved Alaine! But you're in luck! The spell doesn't require me to kill you, a few liters of blood suffice. And since today's your lucky day, I'm not going to kill you! Instead, I'll turn you into my slave! But I don't understand this at all! How can this be!?And at this point, we come in where the dream started. Oh, you'll understand once your blood turns viscous and slimy as it flows through your veins! You'll see that you won't act differently to me at all! Never! What you want to do is blasphemy in the face of the existence of human life! Haha! Listen to you, you sound so ridiculous! Blasphemy!Evil laugh counter: 7 Controversial, since that's technically a duplicate laugh, but I'm counting it regardless. You pathetic human! Feel the taste of immortality! NOOOOOOOOOOO! Chomp again. What have you done? And Valnar falls to the ground again. Fade to black again...  ...but this time we're back in our storytelling scene. What a bastard that Asgar is! Yes. His soul is filled with rage. But now, it seems like he's achieved what he wanted. And maybe even more than he hoped for. Don't you talk in riddles, grandpa! What happens next? Well, Valnar fell into a trance-like state. He was dreaming and in neverending pain as well... We cut to a scene that's just a whole bunch of Valnar screaming...  ...evil magic effects, and shifting backgrounds. The scrolling backgrounds means that making GIFs of this scene will run me several MB, and it's nothing really interesting, with Valnar's dialogue basically being variants on "*screams*". The only important thing that happens...  ...is that turning into a vampire apparently dyes your hair. Also, changes your clothing color to the standard vampire combo of black and red. Well, either that or he's got a career as a croupier ahead of him, but I doubt that. And this bit segues seamlessly into this:  Ah, my love! He's coming to! Take these glasses... you're going to be a bit sensitive to light now. Welcome to my world, Valnar!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!Man, Valnar sure is negative. Also, hooray, now I can just forget about Human Valnar's headshots, Vampire Valnar strangely enough has like half the number Human Valnar has.  Also, still really fond of sinking to one knee.  How dare you? HARHAR! You ask me how I dare do that? I'll tell you how! YOU... ...BELONG... ...TO ME! Evil laugh counter: 8 From now on, you're MY PROPERTY! And if you ever dare to question my authority, you will die! And now, I'll give you some time to think! N- And fade to black.   Where... where am I? What happened? ... Aysha... why, just why? Why is this my fate? Reborn as a vampire... why couldn't I just die, just like everybody else... why is fate so cruel to me... born to suffer... born to kill... Aysha... Valnar decides to take a bit of a walk.  Because let's face it, we weren't getting this existential crisis without a "standing at a balcony, staring wistfully into the night" scene. Is there still something human in me? My soul? My conscience? ... I'm cursed for all eternity! Woo, more bloody writing. "BORN TO KILL MOCKED BY FATE WHAT IS THE HUMAN LIFE WORTH WHEN IT IS UNDEAD?" There's always this thread that goes through vampire fiction - the idea of vampires as the next step in evolution. Really, it depends on the work, but in this case, at the very least for vampires of the first two generations, this very much holds true. Vampires are superior in pretty much every single way. And honestly, I'm pretty much on Asgar's side here. Being a vampire kicks a lot more rear end than being a human in this world, and as we go along, you're hopefully also going to see why. Though, there's one thing that does shift things heavily into the favor of camp "not being a vampire", but that's something Valnar doesn't know. I hate him! I hate him endlessly... maybe I should run? Or maybe he knows a way to turn me back... what's his name, anyway? And where does he know my name?I'm not sure if vampirism causes short-term memory loss, but you should know both these things, Valnar! He introduced himself to you, and he stated that he spied on you in order to see that you and Aysha were in fact loving! If you're spying on somebody and notice that he is loving with a vampire, literally, but don't pick up his name, then you're quite frankly doing a lovely job at spying! Also, pretty sure vampires can read minds. I... I... I'm hungry... Well, Simon, what do you think Valnar does in this situation? Hmmm... 1) He tries running away... 2) He goes back to bed...One of these choices gives us an extra scene, the other doesn't. Running away it is. Alright, he tries to run away... No, I'll never be like him! I'll run away and look for a solution... And we're off!  We run down a mountain path, completely unopposed...  ...and end up on the world map. However, to get away from Asgar's castle, we'll have to go through a forest...  ...and something tells me this forest isn't normal. As we walk through this forest, we hear wolves howl every once in a while, and after a while, it seems like we're just covering the same ground over and over again, and that's because we are. But this isn't the Lost Woods, this isn't a matter of going north, west, south, west or anything, we're just straight up trapped, and the only thing we can do is keep walking. drat! This forest is massive!We keep walking around, until... Tsk, tsk, tsk... only the weak run away! LEAVE ME ALONE! GET AWAY FROM ME! How disobedient... I'll have to teach you proper manners... but for now, you're coming BACK! NEVER! YOU'RE AN ANIMAL! HARHAR! I know... but really, you should come back. Otherwise, I'll have to tell the wolves to hurt you! Wolves? WHAT AM I A VAMPIRE FOR? I'M NOT SCARED OF THAT! Naive... as it was to be expected... you're only a young vampire... AND I AM YOUR MASTER! Did you believe these were normal wolves? Where are your wolves? I'm not seeing any! But you can HEAR them! ... I'll be seeing you tomorrow.Another wolf howl. GOD DAMNIT! Where are those wolves? From that point on, wolves start showing up. I think they grow in number until they get you, but of course I run head-first into the first one because I am not good at the vidya gaems. Get lost, you miserable mutt! Suffice it to say the wolves didn't like that.  And Valnar doesn't really take it well either. Fade to black.  We come back in the morning, just like Asgar said. Good morning, Valnar! Is he already awake, dear? Soon... ... GOD DAMNIT!I think he's awake now. Tsk, tsk... such a bad mood today? And that this early in the morning? And to think we got you SUCH a wonderful coffin! Just for you! YOU BASTARD! Watch your tongue, Valnar! Or you'll really learn what pain is like... ...where do you know my name from, anyway? HARHAR! That's the easiest thing in the world! We just read your mind!Told you! Read my mind?Metal Gear? Oh, alright, I'll stop. Oh, how rude of us! We haven't even introduced ourselves! I'm Alaine, and this is Asgar! Don't think I feel honored now... Oh, Valnar! Just accept what you are now! Do you even know what you're asking of me? I'm supposed to just accept that I've become a... a MONSTER! A monster? No... ...rather the next step in evolution! A creature of higher power! Strong enough to enslave humanity!See, Alaine knows what I'm talking about! And don't forget that she's been a vampire just about as long as Valnar - she's clearly much quicker on the uptake here! You're insane! Insane? Maybe... but definitely powerful! Evil laugh counter: 9 But I've prepared a game for you! Since you're such a young vampire, I thought we should play a game that I played a lot when I was a child! You want to play a game with me? Because I'm a young vampire?OK, I didn't really think that I could turn the "Metal Gear?" thing into a running gag. I didn't pay attention to it in the first two updates, but drat, Valnar sure seems to have a habit for repeating what others say in an asking tone. If you win, you'll even get something that I'm sure you can use! And by the way, all my servants have been ordered to follow your commands... just as long as you don't tell them to go against me or Alaine... But you wouldn't dare to do that, would you? Well... 1) ...I wouldn't be so sure about that. 2) ...of course not...You know, I think that Asgar has sufficiently proven that he is the one in charge here, don't you? I don't think we should pull a quick one on him, at the very least not right after what we just pulled. No, of course you wouldn't do that... not after everything I've done for you, am I right? ... So, what do you say? Do you want to play a game with us? Well... 1) ...no thanks! I'm not a child! 2) ...hm, alright...I think we should play along. He promised to give us something nice if we play along, so we should take him up on that offer. Also, again, not picking that option just skips us ahead in the plot, so no reason not to play. Very good! Alaine and I have hidden 20 magic letters around the castle for you to find. Every letter leads you to the next one with a few key words or sentences. We'll wait here for you until you've found them all or you want to give up. But you have to leave the letters laying where you found them, otherwise it'd be even easier! Anyway, here's the first letter! "Lost in the wind the second letter is! Search where the wind blows the strongest..." And of course you only need to search the castle! And what is that supposed to mean - "where the wind blows the strongest"!? Well, that's the riddle that you're supposed to solve! But I'll give you a hint: The wind usually blows the strongest above the four corner towers... And that means that I'm supposed to check out the top floors of the four towers? Exactly! But you've got to work the rest out for yourself! Then keep my reward at the ready, I'll be right back! HARHAR! Good luck... you'll need it! And we're off! Again! But before we leave things off, here's one particularly annoying thing about this game that I will be cheating my way around like a motherfucker:  In this chest, we find five "save crystals". These do exactly what they say - they let you save. And they're finite. I guess I can see the reasoning behind a limited save system, but it's just not fun not to be able to save whenever you want. If you could only save freely on the overworld, and use the gems to save in dungeons or before tough fights or something, that I would be more on board with, but as it stands, I'm just giving myself unlimited save crystals and that's that. I think there's a place where you can get theoretically infinite crystals, but there you'd have to grind to get them, I believe, and again, I'm already going to be doing grinding, I don't want to grind even more just to save. So, since I'm quitting my first batch of gameplay, let's save. When we use one from our inventory...  ...we get this picture, alongside the text "Blood will flow! What does it matter what body it comes from..."...  ...and we can save! So with that, it's time to wrap it up, because the first batch of footage I recorded is done, and before I start the second one, I need some opinions from you folks. That can mean only one thing! SUPER DUPER EXCITING VOTE TIME! Yes, it's time to vote! Before I can record the next batch of footage, I'll need some guidance from you guys and gals out there. You see, this game has four endings you can get (not really a spoiler, I would hope), and while you're not locked in early by any stretch of the imagination, locking yourself in can make things more consistent, and I like consistent. So with that in mind, I need you to vote on two different questions. 1) How should Valnar act in general? OR B) Evil  Sorry, let me try that again, this time with less Bernie thread. A) Good  OR B) Evil  In this case, it's not necessarily "good vs. evil", but it might as well be. A more precise question would be if you want Valnar to hang on to his humanity or just toss it and embrace Asgar's point of view of "you're the alpha dog around here, so treat humans accordingly, like the playthings, walking blood bags and servants they are". But really, it boils down to "good vs. evil" anyway, since embracing Asgar's philosophy means being a dick, and rejecting it means not being a dick. To note, the actions we've taken this update already had an impact on that. Running away was a Humanity++, staying would have been Humanity--. Telling Asgar you won't betray him was Humanity--, telling him you wouldn't be sure about that was Humanity++ (and would have had him quipping "oh, you're rebellious! I like that!"), and playing the game was Humanity--, whereas telling him to shove his game up his rear end was Humanity++. So right now, we're sitting at -1 Humanity, but that's nothing we can't change in the future. And then... 2) How should Valnar act in battle? A) Be a manly man  OR B) Be a coward  This essentially boils down to "should I freqently run from battle or not". And really, it's not even about that. Since you're not really going to see the grinding and the plain combat between important things a lot, this doesn't have any actual impact on the LP. I will fight every battle, because everybody that played this game can attest that grinding is very much something you're going to be wanting to do. So essentially, you're voting on "do I want this variable to be high or low when the point where it becomes important comes", which I will be setting using the RPG Maker editor if necessary. And that will have a surprisingly significant impact on the ending. I think you can probably figure where my loyalties lie if you've read my previous vampire-related LPs (for the record, it's Evil/Manly Man), but don't feel obliged to follow along with that. I have absolutely no idea which of the paths is more interesting, and I can't remember any of the endings either, just that they were quite wildly different. So go ahead and vote!
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Jan 23, 2016 00:12
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I cannot for the life of me distance my political views from LPs. So even though I think Evil would be more interesting, I'm going for Manly Bernie.
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Jan 23, 2016 01:33
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Asgar needs a straight man to play off of, so let's have Valnar be good. I can't remember how the whole brave/coward thing affects thing. I got a guess how, but I didn't think how often you flee affected that thing. Let's just go with brave I guess.
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Jan 23, 2016 02:10
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Good, unless we miss some cool scenes and manly!quote:...Christ, I'm just taking every opportunity to take the piss out of this guy. Didn't think I'd be dialing up the snark that much by the third update already. I mean, Valnar does make a convenient target. And welcome to why "repetition is bad in writing", a well-traveled road by literary critics. Repetition can be useful for conveying the importance of information, but when a character does it excessively or for every minor detail, the result is just annoying. It doesn't add anything new to the dialogue, it doesn't expand current developments any further, it's just there for padding. quote:this game owns
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Jan 23, 2016 02:36
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I do kind of like the choice mechanics in this game, at least where it's a little kid deciding how the story goes. Maybe it's just Princess Bride nostalgia.
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Jan 23, 2016 02:51
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I assume Alaine is adapting better to the vampire thing because she was already and knowingly dating one, instead of getting kidnapped and drained by an rear end in a top hat the day the girlfriend died; furthermore, getting raised as a first-gen instead of whatever generation Asgar is +1 probably helps.
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Jan 23, 2016 02:54
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Good and manly, please!SSNeoman posted:this game owns I laughed out loud at the timing on that scene, it's magical.
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Jan 23, 2016 03:13
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Valnar needs to realize that to get revenge on Asgar, he needs to outevil him and outmanly him!
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Jan 23, 2016 03:23
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Omobono posted:I assume Alaine is adapting better to the vampire thing because she was already and knowingly dating one, instead of getting kidnapped and drained by an rear end in a top hat the day the girlfriend died; furthermore, getting raised as a first-gen instead of whatever generation Asgar is +1 probably helps. Don't know if it's already been established, but Asgar is second gen, so that makes Valnar third gen, still quite badass, but barely out of the "really badass" zone reserved for first and second gens. And I guess Alaine could have already become acquainted to the idea, but as far as I'm concerned, she was stuck in some insane asylum, completely unable to speak, and somehow some random guy just keeps popping in and out, swooning about how much he loves you, and you can't do anything but stare, because clearly this is just another sign that you've gone completely bonkers. Then one day you get executed by the guillotine, then wake up and turn out to be completely healed of your illness, and have a bunch of kickass powers to boot. So I guess there's a reason why Alaine would totally be on board with the whole vampire thing - it completely cured her of what she had before, so you don't know what's going on, but this is already awesome. But the reason I think Alaine is totally fine with this whole vampire thing is because she spent years in an insane asylum, getting poo poo on at pretty much every opportunity. You'd loving hate humanity too after that, and if you end up together with some other guy that hates humanity just as much as you do and the both of you have massive supernatural powers, things get a lot easier. Really, I just want Valnar to nut up and be less of an angsty motherfucker, but that's clearly what we've signed up to go through. Can't imagine he's going to realize "hey, guess what, you probably didn't actually love the supernatural being capable of mind control, just a thought" any time soon.
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Jan 23, 2016 04:12
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Good and manly! Also, that little 'saving game' image is from Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption. I wonder if Valnar will be as thick as Christof?
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Jan 23, 2016 08:24
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Goodness and Manliness shall be our guides, because struggling with the evil of his  nature would give Valnar more to moan about. As he's turning into a deviantart OC, being angsty should be his natural state.
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Jan 23, 2016 08:35
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Well, Valnar's still a professional soldier, in the sort of setting where that gets a lot of work. Be Good and Manly, just to piss off Mr. Stupid-Pigment-Combination.
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Jan 23, 2016 09:04
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Oh my God Vampires Dawn. I got this from my brother back in... 2003? And it was ~so edgy~ (but didn't even use the term sex). Rereading it, it's get that charming 90s homemade B-game feeling to it. Some of its custom mechanics are pretty neat (and, props to the creator, it must've been a bitch to implement in RPGMaker2000) and set it apart from the "SNES Final Fantasy" default setting (As in, literally, RPGMaker is by default set to produce an SNES FF). I spent some fond moments using the RPGMaker2000 IDE (I still have it, and it still works) to edit my stats and steamroll everyone, because I was able to figure out how to mess with the game but not how to actually level grind. And then I played Vampires Deaf, the parody version. 
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Jan 23, 2016 13:24
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Lunar Suite posted:And then I played Vampires Deaf, the parody version. Oh lord almighty, I remember that. Why do I get the feeling I just have to LP that as a bonus after this game is done?
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Jan 23, 2016 14:19
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TheMcD posted:Oh lord almighty, I remember that. Why do I get the feeling I just have to LP that as a bonus after this game is done? Give me two more hours and I'll have finished translating it. Since I have RPGMaker2k running, I can just edit the actual game. Also, two words. "Die Hamptons".
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Jan 23, 2016 14:58
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Well, I find Valnar boring as gently caress already so I am going the Asgar route of evil. And although there isn't really an option to talk your way out of any conflict I am still going to vote for coward, although I am pretty sure I am going to be outvoted concerning that. *edit because it's Asgar not Ansgar. Which is a shame because Ansgar is an actual old Norse name and the implications of that could have been interesting.
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Jan 23, 2016 15:45
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