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Hello everyone! As you can probably tell, I'm new on the SA forums. I was brought here by the let's plays I've read on the Let's Play Archive, which inspired me to do my own let's plays. This one is going to be a purely narrative Let's Play. Yup, nothing but written words here. Not even a screenshot, because for some obscure reason my computer has trouble to handle these. I will try my best to make it understandable and fun to read. Like this helpful title said, the game we'll plunge into is going to be Shining Soul II, a GBA game made by Grasshopper Manufacture, Nex Entertainment and edited by SEGA. A fine game that gave me much joy when I was but a young boy, so let's go back to it to destroy it's magic, yay! It's probably not a well known game, but just in case some persons have already finished it, please do not spoil for the others' sake. Otherwise (and of course in accordance to the forum's rules) I don't think I have much to add to it. By the way this will be by no means a completionist run so don't expect me to be min-maxing like crazy or the likes. I'll try to upload these as frequently as I can, but be warned that my computer can and probably WILL be subjected to major gently caress-ups, and can affect the course of the LP. In which case I'll of course warn you at the start of the new post. I think everything I've said everything I wanted to here, so thank you for reading this and maybe following the let's play, and have fun!
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Sep 23, 2016 16:06
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 04:34 |
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Shining Soul II...I have good memories about this game. Thanks to my older brother, I discovered the game a very long time ago but finished it only several months ago, since when I was younger I gave up after being stuck by a boss. Since there are many characters, I'm going to play it again. Let's see...I finished the game with a Ninja, so let's play as a Dark Mage that time. I'm going to play Shining Soul II not with player's eyes this time, but with an observer's eyes. This ought to be fun... No screenshots nor any kind of visual support, sorry. First because my CPU has a...let's say really, really weird problem when it comes to screenshots, and second...put your imagination to work ! Or search on the internet if you really need to see for yourself. I'm going to call my character ''No 27''.Yes, that's lame, but I'll do it anyway because I can. I hosed up severely and managed to skip past many of the first dialogues in the game. I apologize, and will do my best so it won't happen again later. In this...sorta Let's Play, I will mess around a lot. Here is a quick guide in case you get lost : When something like that is written : Man : Oh hello, how are you ? That means I'm writing the game's dialogues as they appear. When this appear, during a conversation : (What the gently caress ?! Oh forget it!) That means I'm answering to an NPC, giving you my personal opinion. When this kind of thing is written : ''Yeah yeah, good luck and all I don't care. Where is my crack pipe ?'' That means I'm talking for the NPCs, imagining what they might think/would have said if I was the script writer. I think that takes care of it. If you are lost at one point or another, feel free to tell me. I hope you're gonna have a good time reading this...thing and have a good laugh. Soooo the game has begun. Hmmm, runs smoothly, not too ugly for a GBA game...let's see what you've got ! Okay the tutorial is...well very simple. A blue paste (the weakest enemy in the game) appear and I just have to beat it up with my staff, while the traveller next to me (Boken is his name...funny, since it's also the name of a Japanese wooden saber) tell me how to play. Thanks for telling me how to basically mash up the « attack » button to win, dumbass. To quickly cover the controls : attack with A, use items with B. Use L to choose between up to 3 equipable weapons, and R to choose between up to three equipable items (healing, mana regen etc), place them in these menues using the inventory screen. Start to bring up the menu, and Select to use the Soul, something I'll talk about later. When in the inventory screen, use the Select key while placing your cursor over an item to learn details on it, like the bonus stats a hat give to you if you equip it, or how much HP an healing item will give back to you when consumed. Boken then congratulates me on my very first victory. Something about being praised, even a little, for defeating such a feeble foe doesn't feel right. It's like someone lavishly praising you for crushing a cockroach. I mean I hate those things, and some people can have a phobia but...but I'm getting carried away. Let's continue. Oh by the way, your character is totally mute. The NPCs are basically conversing alone, and you can deduce your character's « answers » by the NPCs' sentences. Like, for example, when Boken said : Boken : Oh no ! Another monster ! Boken : What ? You want to take care of it ? Are you sure you can ? You just have to use your imagination and guess what your character said. It can be pretty fun. Try placing these lines in this dialogue, when you're supposed to answer : « That's not a monster, it's a living pudding ! I'm hungry now ! » « Oh come on, you're scared of THIS ? It's ridiculously weak ! Should I start calling you Radditz ? » « Oooooh my, look at this ! A new toy for my sex dungeon ! Leave it to me ! » Hehe...I'm so mature. So our guy goes to a tournament in a town, and fight a centaur. The fight looks to be in the adversary's favor, until the King decide to ruin everyone's day by interrupting the fight, saying something is of the outmost importance. What is it old man ? An invasion ? A feud with a neighboring kingdom ? A propecy of Doom is starting to happen ? The alcohol cabinet is empty ? King : My daughter, princess Camille, has been kidnapped ! … Really ? REALLY ? With all due respect, your majesty, that's a pretty lovely excuse to interrupt a tournament. The small folk, covered in pig poo poo and having huge families to prepare for the inevitable and numerous children deaths have been waiting for this for a long time, the only moment they can see the snotting nobles and brutal knights (who are respectively leeching them with taxes and pushing them around violently) killing each other and cheer at the slaughter with total inpunity, and you stop it because your daughter has been kidnapped ?! Maybe she just left the castle for fun. I mean if I was a spoiled brat locked 24/7 in a castle with everyone around me acting in an hypocritical way because my parents can order their execution just because they decided to, I think I would want to leave too. To see how is the REAL world, you know, not a cardboard-like, fake setting of a life. And even if she's REALLY been kidnapped, that's kind of her role, as a princess. In most of fantasy worlds, princesses serve NO PURPOSE except ''being abducted by monsters/evil wizards/traitorous knigts and what not'', simply to give the story a PLOT. Oh whatever. Since we're in a vanilla fantasy video game, I can already guess who is going to be sent after her... King : Deatharte, please find and bring back my daughter ! Deatharte : Yes, your majesty, I will fulfill my mission. Uh ! I guess the centaur guy I was fighting will be the one who's going to do the chore. Finally a King with an army, and a King who is using it ! You're already have earned my respect, your majesty, at least more than the king in the Zelda serie, and many more different video games series. Wait a second...Deatharte ? That's his real name ?! Who names their kid like that ?! The poor horse-man must hate his parents...even if he somehow managed to become what seems to be the King's right hand, despite being named DEATHARTE. Also, bonus point for the King. He is afraid for his daughter, so he does what ANYONE in their right mind (or who sincerely cares for their offspring, at least) would do : send the best guy available, the one most likely to succeed, and not some random jackass no one knows poo poo about and who just arrived. That's me, if you didn't get it, or the player character in general. Let's go back to the story. The King talks to me, apologize for interrupting the fight (and he is not a pompous rear end in a top hat ? I really like him!) and, in recognition of my skills, invite me to see him in Klanthol Castle. My skills ? I exchanged like, three blows with your right hand and it was enough for you to judge me as ''skillful'' ? and he was the one having an advantage in the fight, which makes sense since he is the castle's champion while I...um...well I'm nothing. For now... So I go to Klanthol's castle, then I'm lead to the throne room. Basically the King tells me about a Goblin Fort that lies not far from here. I must specify, he said he JUST learned about it. Okay, what the gently caress is wrong with you people ? Your daughter being kidnapped ? Okay, if the abductors are skilled enough, the victim taken by surprise and if they are helped by traitors, it can be done quickly and stealthily. But how in the gently caress did you missed a WHOLE FORT being built next to your loving castle ?! As the King, don't you have like, scouts or patrols around ? The wilderness is CRAWLING with monsters, don't you do something to protect the travellers and villagers ? Maybe the local way of dealing with the problem is ''No monster can enter the castle and that's fine by us. Anyone outside of it, go gently caress yourself, LOL !''. Pfff...continue. Sooo he tells me Deatharte (that name...I just cannot...whatever) has sent no reports nor given any signs of life since his departure. I have a bad feeling about this... So he wants me to go the the Goblin Fort, who is logically filled with warriors and maybe backed up by the workers who just built it, and look for his daughter. I loving knew it. And oh yes ! Very nice plan, King Dipshit ! ''Oh my best warrior has more than probably failed and been killed in his mission ! How about sending a young man, completly unexperienced and with a lovely gear, in the exact same mission ! What could possibly go wrong ?'' I take back what I said earlier, I HATE you, prick. And do you think he is going to help ? Of course not ! He gives you no money, no better equipment. He basically says ''Go find my daughter, dog. And fetch me a beer, while you're at it.''. Augh...first, let's take a look around. It can't hurt to take my time and talk to people. What could happen to the princess after all ? It's a video game, she can't be tortured or raped...right ? Right. So let's talk to the queen, who introduce herself as ''Queen Ivonne''. Princess Camille, and now Queen Ivonne. Sure is a lot of French names in a single game, Japanese game to be precise...why not, still better than random and disturbing names, like, I don't know, Deatharte ? Alright, I'll leave him alone. So she seems like a very likeable person, but a bit strange too. While her husband is filled with worry for their child, she basically says : ''Meh, you worry too much, honey. I'm sure our little girl is perfectly fine on her own.'' Yeah, it's not like she had been captured and is actually detained in a monster-filled military facility...but her calm and confidence are actually refreshing. Most characters in this sort of games, tend to overreact a lot. In this room there is also a guard, who hasn't got anything useful to say. And an old wizard (every king just HAVE to have an old magician in their court, it's a must-have. Only Steward Denethor was dumb enough to refuse an old wizard's services) who will give you some tips, most of them pretty basic. There is also a thingy in this place, a Light Orb. It basically indicates the balance between Light and Darkness in the world. After the first game's events, Darkness was defeated and Light prevailed for a long, very long time. But this overdose of joy, love, flowers, sunshine, cookies, bunnies and poniesallowed the Darkness to come back, somhow. The light orb indicates what the balance between these two things is. The game currently describe it as ''cloudy''. So I guess it means bad news. So I took my sweet time. The inner castle is actually bigger than one might expect, and tons of NPCs to talk to. Most of them are, game-wise, utterly useless, but I kinda like it. It makes the game feel a lot livelier, I much prefer this than a game completly empty of characters unless those absolutely necessary for the plot and it's advancement. There is a barracks with centaur knights, who give you tips about stats. A kitchen with an apparently hungry and gluttonous guard in front (to be honest he looks like a fat peasant pretending to be a guard), and inside is a cook preparing food. There is also an old man holding a fork and a knife in front of a plate. The cook is focused on his recipe, and the dude on this future meal. Well...guess I'll leave you guys. A bit lower is a room with two young girls and an old man (Wow, there sure is quite a few of old guys here...I guess this kingdom might not be so bad, since at least some people can live long enough to age.). One of the girls, with pigtails (apparently the youngest) is wearing a blue shoe on a foot and a red shoe on the other. Are you starting a social rebellion of some kind ? Girl : I can't find my other shoe ! I can't go out like this ! (Oh. Question : this is a big room, but there is like, two beds (the beds in this game are HUGE by the way), a desk and a couple shelves. How did you manage to lose anything in here ?) Girl 2 : *giggles* Please don't stare at me ! (Alriiiight I don't know if she is shy, vain, or if my character is some kind of creepy stalker, you know, the dude who stares at the others without a pause, without even blinking...) The old man just say : Old man : Hmpf, My granddaughters are so careless. (Well I guess their parents (or you, since the girls' parents are nowhere to be found) are the ones you should bother with that. Erm and I have a question for you. There are three of you people in this room, but only two beds...please tell me your granddaughters sleep together...it's not my business, I know, but...oh hell. See you.) On the castle's remparts...wait...WHAT ?! This castle is well, a castle, but from the outside it looks a lot tinier ! And it's design is absolutely bad in case of a siege ! We better take care of the Goblin problem before they go on the offensive. So on the remparts is a wolf-man searching for another guy. Have fun with that. In the castle's corridors are more ''useless'' NPCs, but at least each one had a different appearance and different lines. That's always nice to see in a video game. The central room of the castle is more like a mall, with the different shops all gathered here, which is incredibly convenient. Going from left to right, there is an elf lady dressed in a dark/occult style with a cristal ball, we don't need her services for now. Then there is an elf lady with two children selling healing items. On their right is an elf ''bank'' clerk. You can store objects and money there, and it's totally free. If needs arise, you can buy more shelves later to store more stuff. After the bank is the weapons seller, a badass-looking and beefy veteran with an eyepatch. When a character as an eyepatch, you know don't wanna gently caress with them. Even if they never ever fight during the whole game. Next to him is a dark-skinned elf lady, I'm signalling this because except for her everyone is of the ''Caucasian'' type in this castle. She sells armor stuff. And finally there is a dwarf (no fantasy world is complete without dwarves and/or elves), who can craft things for you if you bring him materials you will find in the dungeons. The original and confusing thing with him is YOU get to choose how much you want to pay him. He can work for free, but making him do that is the best way to waste your materials, since he will take revenge on you and your cheap rear end by crafting lovely gear at best. So that covers Klanthol Castle itself. Let's go outside, in the court. There is a child, probably an elf, named Wanby. He runs around a tree. And that's ALL. He do that, and only that. He is nice and friendly, but there is something mesmerizing about his activity. Maybe he is a scientist, trying to prove trees can feel dizzy and waiting for it to puke to prove his theory. Or maybe he is making a ritual dance, to summon a demon so huge he will open his mouth to swallow the whole universe. Or mabe he is just playing. That's the lamest theory of all. There is a lady in front of a fire, saying the fire is artificial but I can use it to raise my fire resistance. Well, I'm not one to turn down an opportunity to get better, so let's jump in the... OW ! YOU loving LIAR ! THAT HURTS ! THAT... Oh wait, I'm fine. Turns out she told me the truth. Even if my character yells and has the small red number indicating he is losing the said amount of health, my HP stays up. And I'm going to cheat by using the emulator to speed up time. There, now I have a 14 resistance score against fire. I don't know if it's a percentage or something else, but it's better than the 0 I had before, for sure. I enter a very tiny building on the side...to discover it's actually an inn. drat that place is a lot bigger than I thought from the outside...unless it is built underground. No windows, so it's probable. The barman is nice, he even has the decency of being surprised to see a young person here. You hear that King ? This man is disturbed to see me in his inn, thinking I am too young to drink, yet you send me to what's going to probably be my death ? Take a few notes, bastard. There are also three rather impressive-looking adventurers (a bull-man, a mouse-man and a boar-man) with impressive-looking gear, but they don't have anything useful to say. They are just drinking. In a corner is a bard, who speaks in a very poetical way, it's kind of soothing. Boken is here, too. Nothing useful to say, how unexpected... In the other corner is a door, leading to a room, where a white-haired young girl (!) asked me if I want to rest. So this is the ''regen zone'' of the game, very good to know. And I feel like we'll be visiting it very often. If you talk to her just after you rested, she'll say : White-haired girl : Don't push yourself too hard. (Aw, thank you miss ! She cares about me !...someone has to, since apparently my parents are dead/missing/far away/thegamedon'tgiveasinglefuckaboutthat.) Well I've explored Klanthol castle. It's been fine, people, but as a traveller, I must be on my way. Maybe I'll be back someday, but for now, farew... What ? Oh, right. The girl. Alright, I'll go to the loving Goblin Fort... DarkParchment fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 16:18
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TL:DR the let's play. Sounds like a hoot. Or not. Mostly not.
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Sep 23, 2016 16:25
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Aishlinn posted:TL:DR the let's play. Sounds like a hoot. Or not. Mostly not. Heh yes, I got a bit over enthusiastic for the first post, I'll try to correct that for the others...or maybe edit the first one. Anyway, thank you for answering. Done, with some luck it's a bit easier to read now (holy drat you were right, that was a brick wall!) DarkParchment fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 16:45
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DarkParchment posted:Heh yes, I got a bit over enthusiastic for the first post, I'll try to correct that for the others...or maybe edit the first one. Anyway, thank you for answering. the reason that let's plays of text based games work at all is because the games (usually) do a very good job of describing everything in exactly the detail the game designer wants. this doesn't really have any of that. It's hard to envision all that because this isn't that kind of game.
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Sep 23, 2016 19:49
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You're trying to LP a video game without... showing us the video game. If you are having issues taking screenshots go here and make sure you specifically read this as it will directly address your current issue of trying to show us a game... without showing us a game.
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Sep 23, 2016 22:21
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This isn't really how an LP is supposed to work. You would probably know that if you had taken the time to read any other threads in this forum before posting, which you obviously did not do. Lurk more, then post.
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Sep 23, 2016 22:25
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 04:34 |
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Okay. Um. OP, I like your enthusiasm. I'm only 50% taking the piss when I say this. Not many people love LP enough to plough ahead with an LP despite not being able to capture screenshots or video. It's not that I can't admire that. It's just... if there's a circumstance that will compel us to allow a LP with only text, this isn't it. We've got a tech support thread. They'll help you! They'll help you make the LP you deserve to be able to make. I'd throw in some token probation to show you we mean business but that would just stop you from asking the tech support thread for help, and I've got my priorities straight. Good luck!
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Sep 23, 2016 23:34
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