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Feb 7, 2012

Taking the term "Koopaling" to a whole new level since 2016.


Well, it's time to start a project that I've wanted to do ever since I got serious about actually LP'ing things and not just thinking about it. I wanted to start my LP career with Cthulhu Saves The World, and now I feel like I've done enough that I can tackle this, but it's not fair to just start with CSTW. Breath of Death VII is the predecessor to it, the first RPG made by Zeboyd Games, who have also done a couple of interactive novels and as well as the third and fourth episodes of the Penny Arcade games, the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness ones.

BoDVII is a comedy RPG, and it pretty well succeeds at what it does. It's amusing, easy to get into, and your four playable characters are all different, unique in their own ways, add their own twists and turns to the plot, and feel different from each other. It's like how the cast of Final Fantasy IV or the cast of Earthbound has their own roles; there are also branching ability trees for the characters in this game. Upon leveling up, you can choose from two options for what you'd like to have raised; they're usually an option between a physical or magical attack, or raising physical or magical-based stats. However, you can take your physical heavy main character and turn him into a pseudo-caster, while taking your caster and making her more of a killing machine.

As you might have reckoned by now, we're going to do a twofer here; this thread is going to be for Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, while my next thread is going to cover Cthulhu Saves The World. They use very similar systems, but CSTW has some definite improvements that make it a better game. BoD is not a bad game, by any measure, and if you're a fan of old RPGs, such as Dragon Quest, you should check into giving it a shot. It's super-cheap on Steam (as in, you can get both games for $2.99), and they've got a good bit of content for that price. We'll be spending around fifteen hours or so (I'm highballing that estimate) on each game.

I'm going to aim for at least three updates a week, but some of you are already saying that I'll have four, maybe five. It's not crazy to think that; I seem to remember a time when you could count on seven to nine updates a week from me, but being married, having a baby on the way, and a job, I can't guarantee I'll update like I just discovered meth.

With that said, we're going to start this adventure. Let's dance.

Updates


Update One: DEM Beginnings
Update Two: A Black Wind Howls...
Update Three: Bonus Caves And Vampires
Update Four: This One Has A Zelda Reference
Update Five: Watery Caves And A Dragon's Blaze
Update Six: Le References!
Update Seven: Prison Break, Dem Style
Update Eight: Yup, Another Goddamned Cave
Update Nine: Subways, Crystals, Ruins, And A Sewer
Update Ten: Have You Ever Danced With The Ultimate Evil In The Pale Moonlight?
Update Eleven: Assume Something About A Ducktales Joke

Leave fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jun 14, 2016

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Feb 7, 2012

Taking the term "Koopaling" to a whole new level since 2016.
Update One: DEM Beginnings

Holy poo poo, I'm starting a new LP already!? Goddamn it, I need a busier schedule. Anywho, we're starting Breath of Death VII: The Beginning in this LP, so let's dance.



To start things off, we're in a post-apocalyptic world.



When you think about it, it seems a lot of older RPGs take place in a world where things definitely used to be better. We've all heard these arguments before, but it's still kind of interesting to think about.



Expect a few references here and there, plenty of jokes here and there, and a lot of me trying to be funny all over the place.



Our world for this adventure just hasn't seen better days; it is being run pretty much entirely by the undead, so it's definitely seen better days. Or maybe not. I'm not sure how the undead are at governing things.



Thirty seconds in and things are already hosed over.





I like the idea of having to save the screwed over world by completely loving it over, even harder.







Don't look at me like that; some parts of this game are kind of hard, okay?



Meet our protagonist! There's no renaming here, so here's another LP where I won't see anyone renamed Bowser.

:sigh:



Dem is about kicking rear end and taking names.



turned on the Thoughts-Subtitle-O-Matic.



But not talking. He's a skeleton, so he doesn't have a tongue. That makes the process rather difficult.



...Isn't he already dead?



Nah, I'm good on that. I've played before.



Ugh.



I'm actually using a PS3 controller that my computer thinks is a 360 controller. :ssh:





This was originally released on the X-Box Live Arcade, under the Indie section, and was ported to PC later.





...Why am I showing you this? You don't care! You're reading this so you don't have to play the game!





Before we do anything else, let's go chat up this NPC.



For he gives us a breakdown of our different stats and what they mean and govern.



Shaddup, Dem, I'm trying to be informative here.



: physical attacks and Will determines your defense against magic attacks.

: (But I already knew all this...)



Ah, but you don't know your own stats!



Dem is your basic starting RPG character; he's good at hitting stuff and being hit in return.



Techniques use MP, but are generally more physical based, while Spells are magic based. Dem doesn't have any spells right now, but his two Techs are good to start with. Multi-Hit will hit an enemy twice, while Deathblow deals more damage based on how high your combo has gotten, but will break the combo.



I'll cover what that means in a little bit.



Save points fully restore your MP; HP is fully restored after battles and you regain a certain amount of MP based on how well you kicked rear end (i.e., how fast you finish the fight).



And we can also save anywhere we want to, but only the save points will restore all MP.



: (Only a fool looks down upon an enemy before he has beaten them into submission.)



: and then regain all his lost MP in the blink of an eye.



Not even fifty images in, and characters are already stealing my lines. :argh:



Combat is super simple; there's not even any animations.



Each round, the monsters will gain 10% more strength, so it's in your best interest to finish fights as fast as you can, otherwise you'll be getting your poo poo wrecked harder and harder.



Dem's basic attack will do a good amount of damage, but let's check out his techniques.



Two hits, each for slightly lower damage than our regular attack, and only costs 5 MP. We'll start with this.



The game will tell you the HP of all enemies you fight, so I no longer have to worry about looking that up. :allears:





Being your basic, first enemies, Trolls are nothing to be afraid of.



Hell, they even have turn-wasting moves.



10% doesn't always seem like much, but after three or four rounds, that really starts to add up.





But it only takes a couple of rounds for our first fight to end.



Gold is our currency for this adventure, in case you weren't aware we were going fully old-school.







With each level up, we get to choose a bonus, which can be extra stats, new abilities, new spells, passive abilities; all that sort of stuff. Generally, I'm going to try and build each character as they come, so Dem is going to get more physical, multi-hitting moves. These both are spells, but I choose Fire Flurry, since it will add three to the combo, as well as doing a little more damage than Fireball, even if it is slightly more expensive.





Continuing on, we spy our first two treasure chests.





There's a Potion option in the menu of battle; they'll restore all HP, but if I remember right, they're finite within the game. They're best used for "Oh, poo poo, I'm nearly hosed!" situations than anything else.





Are you ready to rock!?



:sigh:



:negative:



abilities reset your combo after using them!



Well, that is certainly a big hammer.



But, we're going to follow the game's advice and build up our combo.



The Chief Troll has 180 HP, so we just killed him 33% in one round.



He hits a little bit harder than his minions, but he's still nothing to be afraid of.



Now, I could just use another Fire Flurry and finish him off, but let's do this with some style.



Deathblow is a touch pricey, but it gets stronger based on your combo. It'll break the combo, but it's meant to be a finishing move.



Look, it'll be more impressive later. Just wait until we have a full party of four, building up tons of combo each round, and then I bust it out.





Until then, let's look at our next level up.



The other option is +10 MP and +20 Magic; I go with the Strength and Vitality boost, since that's what Dem specializes in.



adventurer!



And then we're transported outside of the cave. Let's hit up the town. There's nothing else to do and we have to move the plot forward somehow.





Palad-Lennus? Apparently this is a reference to the SNES RPG Paladin's Quest, which was called Lennus in Japan? Hell, I dunno.



This is a reference to Resident Evil 4, though. I can tell you that without a doubt.



It's a weapons and armor shop; we can't buy potions, so these are the only shops we'll be visiting.



I don't know no staff users!



Each character has their own weapon type and armor type; Dem uses swords and shields.



I pick up the Iron Sword and Mirror Shield here, since Dem's Will is a little lacking.



After equipping them both, I go and explore the town. Heading south leads us to the Inn.



Which are free and act as save points, but without being shiny pillars of light.





In the town square, there's a couple of people to talk to.



I'm not sure how this skeleton speaks without a tongue, but, details...



What? I wasn't going to make a portrait for two words.



zero.

I already explained this, but thank you, Rozari. It's an important thing to keep in mind.



Probably. I'll probably also be the first one to rob you blind.







drat! My plan has been foiled by a locked door!





This is good advice, beyond it being obvious. You can regen a good amount of MP if you win a battle quickly, and kicking the poo poo out of an enemy also means your rear end gets kicked less. It's a good situation all around!



Lufestpolis?

Lufiapolis? A reference to Lufia, perhaps?



Whatever, let's hit the bar.



I bet Dem is a whisky man.





This is far more amusing to me than it should be. I just love the thought of a badass skeleton warrior drinking chocolate milk. It's so :3: to me.



You need to figure out how the hell these guys are speaking, Dem. It's gotta be a ton better than just having your thoughts on Subtitle-O-Matic.



Who's the chick at the end of the bar? Dem, go flirt with her, using elaborate hand gestures and interpretive dance!



: (Huh?)

: Where are my manners! I forgot to introduce myself! How embarrassing! I'm Sara the historian! I'm on a quest to explore ancient ruins and uncover the secrets of the past and you're just the bodyguard I need! So what do you say?

: (Wait, what?)

: So you'll do it! Wonderful! The first ruins I want to go visit are to the east, but before we do anything we should probably talk to the townspeople for tips and explore the countryside for fun and profit!



Hmm, could be. She's certainly forward with what she wants. And we're not doing anything better.





Assume I made a joke about boners and skeletons or something.



And so she has! She's our magic user.





These are kind of like Double Techs in Chrono Trigger, and they're pretty powerful.



Sara is about using magic, and healing allies.



She also has a Technique called Research, which raises her Magic by 50%. She has stuff available to buy in the shop, but I blew my money on Dem, so...Yeah. We'll get back to that.



Now, let's embark on our epic adventure to discover ruins, gain profit, have fun, and maybe save the world!



Oh, yeah, Sara is a ghost. I forgot to mention that.



We now have the broad strokes of the story! We're going places in just the first update!



I mean, not anywhere further than this right now, since it's break time, but we're going places! But that's for next update!

Stay tuned!

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.
Ah, BoDVII. A solid game that sometimes appeals to nostalgia while also doing interesting mechanical things of its own. (The combo building/breaking, enemies getting stronger each turn, etc.) Certainly worth the price of admission.

CSTW will definitely be something I'm looking forward to as well, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. :v:

SMaster777
Dec 17, 2013

I wish this was my Smash main.
Leave, you're loving insane, and your LPing habits are loving insane.

:munch:

....Doesn't mean insanity is a bad thing, of course.

Zenithe
Feb 25, 2013

Ask not to whom the Anidavatar belongs; it belongs to thee.

Yapping Eevee posted:

Ah, BoDVII. A solid game that sometimes appeals to nostalgia while also doing interesting mechanical things of its own. (The combo building/breaking, enemies getting stronger each turn, etc.) Certainly worth the price of admission.

I played and loved Cthulhu Saves the World, which was much more polished but in a similar vein to this one. I'm looking forward to this, as I never really got into. Despite the fact these are comedy games, "serious" jrpgs could take a lot of mechanical cues from these games.

KirbyKhan
Mar 20, 2009
Probation
Can't post for 3 days!
Soiled Meat
I remember this game as being really great for a $3 game. The combat was actually fun. But holy poo poo, I did not remember how basic this game's writing is.

Sweet LP dude. I hope you stick with it, games like these need to be archived.

Dr. Buttass
Aug 12, 2013

AWFUL SOMETHING
When you say this game "succeeds at what it does" I really hope you were talking about the part where it's a JRPG because the quality of the writing and the "comedy" are legitimately the reasons I couldn't bear to finish either this or Cthulhu Saves The World. To say I found them grating is sort of an understatement; by the time I gave up I was ready to run a pizza shop for a good year.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

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

Clapping Larry
Lufestpolis is another Palad-Lennus joke -- Estpolis is the Lufia series title in Japan. (They named it after the world.)

IAmTheRad
Dec 11, 2009

Goddammit this Cello is way out of tune!
You can really tell that this is a game ported from another system with some of the text.

Go ahead and remove your hard-drive while the PC is in use. Or the memory unit. I'm pretty sure nothing bad will happen if you hot swap RAM or internal HDDs on your everyday computer. (Note: Don't do this. You will break your computer and possibly electrocute yourself).

I never played this game before. So when I first saw that portrait of Sara in the screenshots I wondered how a perfectly normal human could walk around in a town full of the undead without being attacked. Finding out she is a ghost made sense to why she's allowed in the town. You probably can't even tell she is one unless you see that landscape establishing shot. Can you even tell with her small character sprite?

mauman
Jul 30, 2014

Whoever's got the biggest whiskers does the talking.
I made the extreme mistake of playing Cthulhu before this game.

So when I finally did try to play this game, I just couldn't :saddowns:

Looking forward to this lp, and maybe (just maybe) I might finally play it as well.

Stroth
Mar 31, 2007

All Problems Solved

IAmTheRad posted:

You can really tell that this is a game ported from another system with some of the text.

Go ahead and remove your hard-drive while the PC is in use. Or the memory unit. I'm pretty sure nothing bad will happen if you hot swap RAM or internal HDDs on your everyday computer. (Note: Don't do this. You will break your computer and possibly electrocute yourself).


... It's a retro gaming joke, not a porting artifact.

Dr. Buttass
Aug 12, 2013

AWFUL SOMETHING
Counterpoint: How old is IAmTheRad? How familiar are they with retro gaming that they would even really know that? This is kind of what we're in for with the humor. The references are all the epitome of nerd humor, they're just straight references that don't stand on their own, aside from the bit IAmTheRad complained about, which is at least mildly absurdist. The rest of the jokes are pretty much going to be limp-wristed metacommentary: "Oh look, it's a trope, isn't that just like an RPG, how tiresome. Well, it's an RPG so we gotta."

I couldn't even tell you if it improves with time because I was overwhelmed within the first hour or two. Let's find out together!

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
This game follows Dragon Warrior difficulty and that annoys me at points so I never finished it.

As far as the humor goes, the cream of it is in the town names as far as I remember. Mainly because I got the first several immediately and they make me go 'oh man they know what those games were called' and it brings a nostalgia smile to my face.

The meta RPG humor is fit for the style it's going for however, that being 8-bit era stuff where you have such classics as Link's Awakening's 'I AM ERROR' and Mike Jone's adventures through a series of islands/time periods where everyone is strangely obsessed with cola and pizza. You could call it excessively tongue in cheek except as a skeleton, DEM has neither tongue nor cheek.

Shardix
Sep 14, 2011

Don't have a fire cow, man


Hmm

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
I really need to get around to finishing this game. It's not even that long so I don't have any excuse. I don't even remember why I stopped.

StupidSexyMothman
Aug 9, 2010

I really liked the free MP regen after a battle to break me of my "But what if I need that MP in a later battle? :ohdear:" habit. Clever mechanic.

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
Star Ocean does that too. It can get pretty significant once someone's Stamina is high enough

Rastan Beeza
Apr 3, 2016

Pancakes and vegetables are an important part of a dragon's daily diet.
Although I did enjoy these games, I will have to agree with Dr. Buttass a bit, in that BoDVII is bit too over the top with it's nerd humor, but I feel that Cthulu was able to move past it thanks to the game's theme.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Really? I thought CStW was even more nerdy in its humor.
Mainly because of cthulu himself.

Though the insanity mechanic was nothing sort of genius, layered on top of the combo mechanics and it just gets to one of the most fun turn based RPGs ever made.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

IAmTheRad posted:

Finding out she is a ghost made sense to why she's allowed in the town.

As the intro established, it's not so much 'why she's allowed in the town' as 'why she exists'. Everybody's either dead or undead.

Also, I guess I'm going to be the one to point out the obvious and assume DEM's last name is Bones. :downs:

Weavered
Jun 23, 2013

Never heard of the game before but the premise seems interesting. Looking forward to another brilliant Leave SSLP!

Kaboom Dragoon
May 7, 2010

The greatest of feasts

Huh, I wondered why you were firing this up every 15 minutes on Steam this week. Obvious in retrospect.

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Really? I thought CStW was even more nerdy in its humor.
Mainly because of cthulu himself.

Though the insanity mechanic was nothing sort of genius, layered on top of the combo mechanics and it just gets to one of the most fun turn based RPGs ever made.

He uses 'f'tagn' as a swear word. It's hard to get much nerdier than that.

IAmTheRad
Dec 11, 2009

Goddammit this Cello is way out of tune!

Dr. Buttass posted:

The references are all the epitome of nerd humor, they're just straight references that don't stand on their own, aside from the bit IAmTheRad complained about, which is at least mildly absurdist.
I thought it was a relic from being ported from the Xbox 360, not a reference to retro gaming. If it was more along the lines of "Hold reset before power off" I would have understood the reference. Some of the references are just terrible. Others are a bit more obscure. Seems like it's more along the lines of master system over 16bit or 8bit.

Nemo2342
Nov 26, 2007

Have A Day




Nap Ghost

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I really need to get around to finishing this game. It's not even that long so I don't have any excuse. I don't even remember why I stopped.

I remember getting about half-way through this and then stopping, but I can't remember why either.

Dr. Buttass
Aug 12, 2013

AWFUL SOMETHING

IAmTheRad posted:

I thought it was a relic from being ported from the Xbox 360, not a reference to retro gaming. If it was more along the lines of "Hold reset before power off" I would have understood the reference. Some of the references are just terrible. Others are a bit more obscure. Seems like it's more along the lines of master system over 16bit or 8bit.

See, that's exactly my point. Jokes die a slow, agonizing death if you need to explain them, and nerd humor is basically a finely calculated strategy to maximize the chance you're going to have to explain the joke. In a good joke, the setup will give you the context you need to understand it; in a nerd joke, the setup is "you are interacting with someone who identifies as a nerd." If you haven't also seen/read/played the thing they're referencing, there is no joke, just some confusing gibberish that brings the conversation to a screeching halt while someone explains it to you. On rare occasions, the reference will be the right combination of nonsensical yet apropos that with a bit of tweaking it could stand on its own as a bit of absurdist humor, like the thing you got hung up on. It's almost always an accident and it's still at the mercy of whether or not the audience is familiar with the subject of the joke.

I loving hate nerd humor.

Yzuped
Apr 22, 2014
Y'all realize it told him not to remove his goddamn hard drive , right?

Ryushikaze
Mar 5, 2013

EponymousMrYar posted:

This game follows Dragon Warrior difficulty and that annoys me at points so I never finished it.

As far as the humor goes, the cream of it is in the town names as far as I remember. Mainly because I got the first several immediately and they make me go 'oh man they know what those games were called' and it brings a nostalgia smile to my face.

The meta RPG humor is fit for the style it's going for however, that being 8-bit era stuff where you have such classics as Link's Awakening's 'I AM ERROR' and Mike Jone's adventures through a series of islands/time periods where everyone is strangely obsessed with cola and pizza. You could call it excessively tongue in cheek except as a skeleton, DEM has neither tongue nor cheek.

For me the humor in ERROR is that he's not. He is legitmately named error. But his brother Bagu is an error. He's supposed to be Bug.

Leave
Feb 7, 2012

Taking the term "Koopaling" to a whole new level since 2016.

Yzuped posted:

Y'all realize it told him not to remove his goddamn hard drive , right?

And I'm glad it did! I was just seconds away from yanking that fucker out!

Leave fucked around with this message at 07:10 on May 29, 2016

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

What if you put your steam game saves on your USB connected external hard drive? Fair warning, imo.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

How is DEM supposed to drink a potion?

Randalor
Sep 4, 2011



He has a mouth. Seems fairly simple to me.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Randalor posted:

He has a mouth. Seems fairly simple to me.

But no skin around the throat. It'll just go everywhere.

WeedlordGoku69
Feb 12, 2015

by Cyrano4747
Yeah, the "don't remove your hard drive or memory unit" thing is one hundred percent a porting artifact, not a deliberate joke. That's what nearly every Xbox 360 game tells you while it's saving.

Randalor
Sep 4, 2011



The Lone Badger posted:

But no skin around the throat. It'll just go everywhere.

Hey, you asked how he was supposed to drink it, not how he was supposed to ingest it. If he had a throat, then it would just spray out of the wounds anyways.

thedaian
Dec 11, 2005

Blistering idiots.
I really like the mechanics of this game (and Cthulhu), and if you can handle nerd humour, the game does a decent job at poking fun at RPG tropes (SARA forcibly joined the party).

The biggest problem with this game, and Cthulhu Save the World, is that the dungeon maps are huge, and laid out like mazes, with plenty of dead ends and similar looking corridors. It makes a lot of areas more tedious than they should be, especially if you're trying to find most/all of the treasure. Without the whole "battle counter" system allowing you to eventually not get into random battles, these games would be a horribly boring slog to get through. As it is, usually when you are getting bored of dealing with random battles in an area, they stop happening.

100 HOGS AGREE
Oct 13, 2007
Grimey Drawer
Naw man you just break the potion over your head and let it soak in. It's just that magical.

Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

Live, laugh, kupo!

100 HOGS AGREE posted:

Naw man you just break the potion over your head and let it soak in. It's just that magical.

Great post/avatar combo.

Leave
Feb 7, 2012

Taking the term "Koopaling" to a whole new level since 2016.

Carbon dioxide posted:

What if you put your steam game saves on your USB connected external hard drive? Fair warning, imo.

I actually do this, and I'm absolutely terrified of bumping it at the wrong time and loving myself out of some progress.

Kaboom Dragoon
May 7, 2010

The greatest of feasts

I have all my Steam games on an external HD. Worst thing that's happened to me is that I once had to reinstall Fallout NV after a power fluctuation.

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Leave
Feb 7, 2012

Taking the term "Koopaling" to a whole new level since 2016.
Update Two: A Black Wind Howls...

Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, we started the game and had Sara, the ghost historian, forcibly join our party. Today, we're going to explore a side dungeon and then an actual dungeon, so let's dance.





We're already out on the world map. We're going places! Namely, to that place northwest with the treasure.



There are 200 random battles on the world map,, which doesn't sound like a lot, but you can still dash around, so you move pretty quickly, and random encounters aren't super common.



I used the Fight command there and got into a battle with a couple of fellows that wandered off the set of some Harry Potter ripoff.



70 HP is a lot, but these guys are trees. What do we have that is effective against trees?



Yeah, that's right.



Sara is our agility queen at the moment, so she'll be going first, or damned close to it, for a good long while. Dem, on the other hand, is quite a bit slower than the ghost.



However, true to RPG form, his being slower is backed up by his hitting like a motherfucker.

And since I lit a tree on fire, I have a good excuse to post this clip.





Sara is going to be gaining a bunch of levels this update.



The other option was to increase her Strength, but she's better at magic and not being killed by magic. I'm totally on board with that.



Normally, a fight is denoted by a black square descending on the party. It's not the dope mosaic effect of Mother, but I'll take it.



There's a grammar Nazi reading this that now has an eye twitch that won't leave for several hours.



Beeflies are completely pathetic.



Angry Flowers are angry, and therefore, much tougher.



Don't judge her. She's not supposed to be smacking poo poo to death.



Though, by the end of the update, she is much better at it.



And in this shot, it looks like she decapitated the Flower! :black101:







When it comes to the level up bonus stuff, do you guys want me to show you the two options and one I chose, or just the one I chose?





I chose the single target Boo! because 100% to stun a single enemy are odds that I like. 40% to the enemy party is a little too low for my tastes, and I couldn't be sure I'd stun what I wanted to stun.



We could head straight east and get through the next dungeon and stuff, but remember the lady who mentioned the cave to the northwest with some treasure in it?



It's where we're going first.



We can't cross the mountains, but these little things here, whatever the hell they are, can be crossed.





There are a ton of different types of enemies in this game; we're going to see a good variety in this update alone. Some of them are your standard RPG fare, though.





These guys aren't too tough.



Boo! takes an enemy out of commission for a turn. It's a decent ability for Sara, since she's quick enough that she can incapacitate some real pains in the rear end and let you beat the poo poo out of them.





It only lasts a single turn, though, but that can be enough to avoid a bit of damage or an enemy activating an ability that could prove problematic.









Fishmen!





They can do a good bit of damage and attack before Dem does, and Sara isn't going to kill one of these guys in her turn.



But, by giving you full HP after each encounter, I think that let the developers have a little more freedom in designing enemy encounters and letting them be a little more powerful than they would normally be.



If we head south just a little bit from here, we can actually see Palad-Lennus.



Inside the cave, it looks like a cave.



It's a fairly small cave (and note, it is called a Bonus Cave), and only has 10 battles allotted to it. If I rushed to the end as quick as I could, I could probably hit the treasure and get out and fight maybe three battles.





Like any good cave, it's full of goddamned bats.



And they're about as powerful as they ever are in video games.



As per usual, they're very very fast, but don't hit very hard.



Sara can nearly one-shot them, but Dem has absolutely no trouble taking them apart.







For this level up, I took the extra Agility. Sara is already going to be a magical powerhouse, and a fast one at that, so I'm going to make sure she's as fast as can be.







Maybe three battles was lowballing this a little bit. Then again, I'm halfway through the cave already.



Well, these guys look a little more intimidating already.





Mystic Flies are palette swaps--already!--and just a skosh tougher.



They have this ability, though, which will hit the entire party. It's not supremely powerful, but Sara has a much smaller HP pool than Dem, even if she's taking less damage from magic attacks.



And these douchebags just hit hard.



This early in the game, we're basically just going to smack poo poo until it's dead.



Which I have no problems with.



Ooh, Dem gained a level!





Dem already has plenty of HP, but he's fairly slow and magic will beat his bony rear end. So let's try and fix that.



Sara is nearly Dem's level! :sugartits:





Now, this was kind of a tough choice. On the one hand, being able to cure an entire party at once is pretty nice; 5 MP isn't all that much, either. On the other, being able to heal someone and also cure any status effects is also pretty nice, and Potions can help with the others if they need it, but...

Hell, I took Purity. I'm not really sure why. I'm starting to think that might have been a mistake. Not one that will make me restart this playthrough or anything, but I might regret this in the future. We'll see.



Now, I'm probably going to forget about this in the future, but let's Chat.









See, it's true. You all thought I was just making a joke last update.



Though, how the hell do the other skeletons speak...?



Eh, whatever. Let's grab some treasure.





Hmm, not bad. Sara could stand to be a little stronger...



However, that's not really her specialty, nor something that concerns me. If a mage having low strength bothered me, I'd never get anywhere in these RPG LPs. She's got some things she's really good at, so let's make sure she remains really good at them.



I had six fights left at this point, so I made sure to finish them off. I mean, why not do that?



Now, that sounds pretty good. Enemies being half as fast as they were before? Could come in handy.



However, Rain of Fire is pretty fuckin' cool. Dem casts it once, and from then on, every enemy takes 21 damage, per turn, with no way to mitigate that damage. It also adds to the combo count. Not to mention, it's pretty rockin' to imagine a skeleton raining fire down on some unfortunate fools in his path.





Sara wears Rings for her armor.



Well, that basically doubles her Strength!





She's still nowhere near as strong as Dem, but that Strong Ring did double her Strength. The other 10 comes from her Staff.



With that out of the way, let's get through the plot dungeon.



After we get there, of course.



That is a whole lot of ugly in one party. Yeesh.



I'd have thought a cyborg toad would be a little tougher. Someone in the thread pointed out that it might actually be an undead toad, and that's the skull poking out, and that's probably more correct than cyborg.

However, I prefer to think of them as cyborg toads.



Lizardmen are tough, though. And on the upside, they don't look like Ted Cruz, who is often reckoned to be a lizard person.



Let's try out our new ability! 15 MP is a bit much out of Dem's pool, but eh, he's not using it for much else.





Meh. Nothing to worry about.



Especially since we've just roasted them to death while hardly lifting a finger.



From there, mopping up the rest of the enemies is pretty easy.



Even though the LIzardman hits like a son of a bitch.



:flame:









After this battle, I'm makin' waffles!



They're Ogres. What do you want me to say about them?



I mean, they definitely don't like being lit on fire.



Then again, I'm not sure that many creatures enjoy being burned to death.



:toot:





For me, this one was a no brainer. 60% chance to escape a battle I might need to get the hell away from? No thanks; I'll spend the extra 20 MP to guarantee I'm getting the hell out of there.



I don't plan on doing much fleeing, but if I need to, you can rest assured I'm going to get the hell out of there.



I'm not checking every last one. You're out of your wispy mind if you think that's happening.





Ugh.



That does sound like something my wife would say, now that I think about it.





Twenty five battles? Holy poo poo. I definitely didn't hit all of those while I was here.





All of the tombstones in this bunch say the same thing. It's a little disappointing, but there are tons of graves around here, so finding something unique for each one would have been a huge pain in the rear end.



Heading south, we hit our first encounter.



A spooky ghost!





Sara is much improved at smacking poo poo with that Strong Ring equipped.





As this is a graveyard, all the enemies are some level of spooky.



Then again, everything in this world is part of the undead, so maybe I could expand that statement to include all of the enemies in the game.



I'm imagining a Wal-Mart built entirely out of tombstones.



North of there is this impassable gorge, so let's head south.





But not before beating up a pair of Crows.





Not much interesting went on in this fight. They're friggin' Crows; what do you really expect?



They're not gigantic assholes, like the Crows in Earthbound.





I should have gone right here. For some reason, I didn't.





Eh, oh well. If I'm missing something important, someone in the thread will point it out.



I can see you--yes, you--typing up the post already.



I sense an odd level of disappointment in this statement.





Zombies can be assholes, but they're not usually too bad.



Their HP is kind of high-ish, but nothing we can't break down.



This is included because the thought of a ghost spooking a zombie to stillness amuses me more than it should.



And then she takes it out with her bonkin' stick.



This is what makes them a little assholish. Poison does a bit of damage each turn.



I'm pretty sure that each round, it does the same amount of damage, but that the damage inflicted is influenced by the amount of HP you had when poison was inflicted. If a fight drags on, poison could make it a pretty dicey affair, but this early, it's nothing to poo poo yourself about.









Calling those numbers is how you get to drive go-karts with skeletons.





We didn't get much of a look at the Ghost before, but they do have this magic attack. It does a fair bit of damage, and I wanted to be sure I mentioned it at some point.



And since Dem leveled up in that fight, I may as well have.



Hmm. Not bad. Stronger hits on a multi-hit attack is good.



However, this is more hits. Which adds to the combo count, which leads to stronger Deathblows and stuff of that nature. I like being able to boost my combo to absurd levels and skills like this are what can do it for me.





As soon as I took this shot, I went and posted it on Geop's Twitter. I thought he'd appreciate it.







Much like I appreciate finding Gold.



Heading the other way leads us forward.



There's a lot of dead people in this graveyard. And in this world. Why does a world of the undead need a graveyard? It's probably a relic from the world of the living, but what happens to dead things when they die?



And now, a personal battle for Dem.





Or maybe not. There's a few differences between our piles of bones.



This guy is faster than Dem, but nowhere near as strong.



Then again, Dem is using a sword. But if this were Dark Souls, that wouldn't be all that effective.





Oh, come on! That's just lazy!



You basically made a necrophilia joke on the last one, why can't this one have a dick joke or something?



Or something about boners. I mean, they're graves, c'mon!



Then again, that's not exactly this game's type of humor.



:3:





I have some shots of me going south from here, then back north.



Why did I take those? :psyduck:



I've posted a lot of Youtube links in this update.



GRANDFATHER NO





:krakentoot:



Well, that's one hell of an agility boost.



But while that helps Sara out, she's still pretty speedy. I think I've mentioned this before. Dem, and some of our later party members, will need help keeping up, so I take Blessing to help with that.



Excellent. You never know when you'll need a Potion.





There are more graves to the south.



...I don't think that's a joke at all!







That's quite a winding jog just to find a hundred Gold. But, hey, free money.



Heading the other way keeps us going forward and pushes us one step closer to leaving.





We take the left fork from here, to get some more treasure.



That's not a joke, either!



We could have bought one of these back in town, but I think I made the right choice with the Mirror Shield.





On our way back, Dem gains another level.





These are both good choices, but I go with the +10 to all stats. Dem has plenty of HP for now, and his MP pool is just fine for his needs.



The right fork just leads to a save point, which means we're nearly at the boss.







Well, if this isn't a walk to a boss fight, I don't know what is.





:sugartits:



Sara also gets the general stats up, but in hindsight, the extra HP and MP might have been more beneficial.



I have musical evidence that suggests otherwise.

Don't give me that look; you can Google "Don't Fear The Reaper" just as easily as I could post the link.





Hmm. I've seen better uses of the line.





It seems a little early to be fighting Death, but I guess we're not playing a Castlevania game.



However, I've got a plan to kick the poo poo out of him.



Boo! is not part of it, but I thought you'd want to see what it does to bosses.



Grim here is nothing special; he's just a tougher enemy, with more HP and more ability to take your HP away.



He can also steal some of your MP, but since our skills aren't boosting us through battles, that isn't much of an impediment right now.



It's worth showing that bosses are immune to Stun. Not worth much, granted, but there you go.



After another Multi-Strike and a Sara attack, I bust out the Deathblow and put the Grim Reaper down for the count. :c00l:



:swoon:





The other option was for another 20 Will and Magic, but Strength and Agility will serve Dem better.



Now that's not bad. Being able to hit all enemies at once is pretty good.



But I prefer this one just a bit more. It's a little more expensive, but it hits three times. Random enemies doesn't sound all that good, but if there's only one enemy around (such as a boss), then that jerk is getting hit three times; if there's two, then one of them is getting more hosed up than the other; it might not always hit the targets I want if the enemy group is large enough, but for the most part, I can twist the odds in my favor to smash something good and hard. Plus, it adds 3 to the combo count.





Aww, stop it, you're making me blush.



Hey, she's getting there, Dem.





And now, we're free! And also taking a break, but that's to be expected.

Next time, we'll stop into town and see what's shakin' over there. Stay tuned!

Leave fucked around with this message at 05:48 on May 31, 2016

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