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  The History of the Jade Empire (from the manual) posted:The Jade Empire. Fashioned from the Void by the will of the Great Dragon and blessed from its creation, the empire stands at the heart of the civilized world -- a cultural wellspring in a sea of barbarity. Jade Empire is an action RPG set in a fantasy world based on Chinese mythology, developed by BioWare and originally released for the Xbox in 2005. Jade Empire was ported to PC in 2007 as Jade Empire: Special Edition, which also came out for iOS and Android in 2016. The Special Edition is the same basic game as the original release, but adds a couple of new fighting styles as well as an extra playable character (that was previously exclusive to the Xbox Limited Edition). The LE actually has an exclusive style that didn't make it over to the Special Edition, but other than that the Special Edition is basically the Limited Edition with even more content. Generally speaking, Jade Empire is one of BioWare's less popular titles and is very streamlined (someone might say dumbed down) in comparison to their earlier work. There are a few stats you can raise as you level up and a couple of skills, as well as a decent selection of fighting styles, but there's not much in the way of number-crunchy RPG stuff. Combat is still turn-based at least from a technical standpoint, but has been tweaked to feel as close to real-time as you can get, and is also rather simplistic. Only one party member can be selected as an active follower, and character customization is rather minimal with only a handful of preset character models to choose from (you can at least customize their fighting styles, stats, and name). As a result of the streamlining, a lot of old-school BioWare fans and even those who came on board with KotOR like I did were a bit unhappy when this game came out. There was planned to be quite a bit more to the game than eventually ended up in the final release, as at least one major area had to be cut and a town-building minigame (where you supposedly could run your own martial arts school) also got axed. Despite being a leaner experience than the ones BioWare fans were accustomed to at the time, Jade Empire is certainly not a bad game (even though the 9.9 score from IGN may have been slightly over the top). It still has a ton of sidequests, cool areas to explore, lots and lots of dialog, memorable characters (and romance subplots if that's your thing), striking art design that helps the visuals hold up quite nicely to this day (hence the "Art" thread tag), and a fantastic soundtrack composed by Jack Wall. Those who like the game tend to really like it and I'd consider myself a fan of Jade Empire as well, having completed multiple playthroughs over the years. Unfortunately, BioWare has never gotten around to making a sequel, which is very much a shame because I think this world had potential for a lot more than we see here. Despite the fact the Xbox cover art is more prominent in the OP, I'm playing the Special Edition on PC. This LP is done in screenshot format due to the sheer amount of talking to people and running around. I am going to add videos (without commentary) for bigger fights and other cool moments that screenshots don't quite do justice to. I don't have any kind of strict update schedule because I'm a lazy bum (as those who followed my GTA4 VLP can confirm), but I'll try to get at least one update posted each week or so. Oh yeah, this is an Open Palm (good) playthrough. Every other Jade Empire LP I have seen has gone full Closed Fist rear end in a top hat, which just isn't my style at all. Yeah, I'm one of those weirdos who don't like playing evil characters in RPGs.  SPOILER POLICY: ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS (this includes vague wink-wink-nudge-nudge poo poo) UPDATES Episode 00: Character Selection Chapter 1 Episode 01: Tale of Two Rivers Episode 02: Ghosts at the Beach Episode 03: Exposition Dump, Part One Episode 04: The Dragon Amulet (Exposition Dump, Part Two) Episode 05: Red Skies Chapter 2 Episode 06: The Landing Episode 07: The Brave Episode 08: Wu the Lotus Blossom's Kitchen Nightmares Episode 09: The Beaten Baker Episode 10: Matchmaker Episode 11: Preparations Episode 12: Ashes and Bones Episode 13: The Jade Heart Episode 14: Pirates! Episode 15: Marvelous Dragonfly Episode 16: A Forest Episode 17: The Forest Shadow Episode 18: Tell your children not to walk my way Bonus 01: Zither of Discord Episode 19: Breaking the Curse Chapter 3 Episode 20: The Heavenly Lily Episode 21: The Magnificent Bastard Episode 22: The Skies Above Episode 23: Silver Phoenix Episode 24: Gonna Fly Now Episode 25: On Silver Wings Episode 26: Golden Phoenix Episode 27: WORDS Episode 28: Creative Pursuits Episode 29: Black Leopard School Episode 30: Get Back In That Hole, Partner Episode 31: Tale of the Mournful Blade Episode 32: In which we finally reach the fortress Episode 33: Team Lotus Episode 34: Spirit Shard Episode 35: The Grand Inquisitor Chapter 4 Episode 36: The Imperial Palace Chapter 5 Episode 37: Eternal Battle Episode 38: Corruption Chapter 6 Episode 39: The Second Righteous Siege Episode 40: Released Chapter 7 Episode 41: The Great Wheel ------ DMorbid fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Sep 20, 2017 |
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Nov 22, 2016 12:34
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Nov 22, 2016 12:35
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Episode 00: Character Selection MUSIC: Jade Empire Main Theme Welcome to Jade Empire! As soon as we hit the title screen we're treated to Jack Wall's wonderful main theme and a scenic shot of the game's starting area, which do a great job establishing the feel of Jade Empire before we even press start. One slightly unfortunate issue here is that the game wasn't quite optimized for widescreen; as a result things like the menus and HUD elements are stretched horizontally. The actual gameplay looks fine, so it's not a huge deal.  The character creation is rather streamlined compared to KotOR. We don't get to customize our appearance or anything like that, instead we have a selection of seven predefined characters (six in the original Xbox version; Monk Zeng here was only in the limited edition as well as the Special Edition we're playing)  The streamlining is obvious from the stats screen as well. We only have three main attributes to raise: Body, Spirit, and Mind, affecting your health, chi and focus stats respectively. These main attributes are raised using skill points from levelups. There are also three conversation skills, each determined by two of the main stats: Charm (Body + Mind), Intimidate (Body + Spirit), and Intuition (Spirit + Mind). We can find various ways to boost our stats and conversation skills throughout the game, but it is all very simple. As for Monk Zeng himself, he is a Magic type character and by default he starts off with a boost to his Spirit, making him ideal for using magic styles and boosting strikes with chi. You can click on the Custom option to allocate the points yourself if you want to, which is what I'm showing off in the screenshot. You can also select which fighting styles your character starts with, or just stick with the defaults. Before we do anything else, though, let's look at the different characters.  Wu the Lotus Blossom is a Balanced character, who as you might expect are decent at everything they do and have no advantages in any particular area. She's on the original box art and prominently features in promo materials, so she might be considered the "canon" main character of Jade Empire if you care about that kind of thing.  Furious Ming is a Fast character, which is also quite self-explanatory. He's not as strong as other classes, but makes up for it with speedy attacks and dodges. Fast characters get a boost to Focus, allowing them to use weapons for longer or spend more time in Focus mode (sort of a bullet time thing).  Tiger Shen is a Strong character. No prizes are awarded for guessing what his strengths and weaknesses are. He lumbers around and facetanks enemy attacks like no other. Literally no other, because he's the only Strong type character in Jade Empire. The other classes get both a male and female option.  Radiant Jen Zi is the female Fast character. She starts off with a slightly worse Body attribute than Furious Ming (possibly due to her lack of pants), but makes up for it with higher Spirit.  Scholar Ling was the only Magic type character in the original release of the game, here her counterpart is of course Monk Zeng. She's a bit less durable than Zeng, but her higher Mind allows for more Focus.  Lu the Prodigy is the second Balanced character and starts off with a higher Body attribute than Wu the Lotus Blossom. I'm sensing a bit of a trend here, not that it really matters because you can allocate the points however you please. Lu also has most boring design of them all, so nobody ever plays as him.  In this LP, we're playing as Wu the Lotus Blossom. I kept the default stats and fighting styles because those will do just fine for now. You can also change your character's name, either by typing in DONGS or BUTTS or whatever or trying your luck with the random name generator. We'll be going with the default. Let's begin the game then, shall we? DMorbid fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Mar 22, 2017 |
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Nov 22, 2016 12:35
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Episode 01: Tale of Two Rivers Jade Empire has no opening credits or epic cutscenes or anything like that to start things off. As soon as we've set up our character, we start off with a panning shot of what looks to be a martial arts academy of some type. This is the Two Rivers School, located in the town of Two Rivers in a remote part of the Jade Empire, and if we look closely we can see some of the students of the school practicing their moves.  Our main character, Wu the Lotus Blossom, is the top student of this school and we can see her sparring with another student in the center ring.   This is Jing Woo. We don't know much about him right now, but he seems to be friendly to us even though Wu is the superior fighter.  The dialog system is mostly the same as it was in Knights of the Old Republic. One detail that doesn't show up very well in screenshots is that Wu's facial expression actually changes depending on the tone of the currently highlighted dialog option, smiling when you're picking a friendly response and frowning when you're a dick. Jing Woo is a good guy, so we'll be nice to him. I just realized that the bottom option here is pretty much just "You fight like a cow" from Monkey Island.  Happily! I feel that I learn something every time I face you, even if it's only a new place to nurse a bruise. So long as you're certain you have time? I am rarely beaten, friend. Let us begin.MUSIC: Fist/Test Your Mettle Jade Empire is a full-on action RPG with combat that is technically still turn-based with action queues like KotOR but has been tweaked to feel as close to real-time as possible. The fighting system is not particularly complex or difficult to master, but you do get a decent number of different fighting styles to choose from and there are some pretty cool ones in the game.  Button 1? Great. Jade Empire came out on PC before Xinput support really took off, so we're going to have to see which button does what. Button 1, or A, is our basic attack, and the tutorial is telling us to try it on Jing Woo here. Our starting style is Legendary Strike, which is your basic kung fu style with a lot of roundhouse kicks and that sort of thing.  The blue lightning aura around Wu denotes a strong attack, which is used by pressing X (or Button 3 in this case). I didn't actually mean to press it here and there's a separate tutorial for it, but might as well show it off anyway.  Focus mode (Y button) slows down time, which obviously can be very helpful in fights against tougher foes. As the popup helpfully informs us, Focus mode also drains your Focus (the yellow bar) constantly and quite fast as well, so you can't rely on it too much especially if you use other styles that consume Focus.  Once we've hit Jing Woo enough with our basic strikes, the game teaches us how to block (B button). As long as you hold block, you're protected from basic attacks.  ]Jing Woo eventually decides to clock us in the face with a strong attack, bypassing the block and dealing major damage. Chi healing can be used at any point as long as you have some blue bar left.  Now that we're all healed, we need to hit Jing Woo with a strong attack of our own.  The PC version's default input for evading attacks is a double-tap in any direction. It's incredibly awkward and doesn't seem to work half the time, but fortunately you don't have to deal with it. Switching to the alternate (block + direction) input makes Jade Empire's combat far more enjoyable.  We finish off the tutorial by beating the living hell out of Jing Woo, which appears to be a fairly common occurrence around here. MUSIC: Hills and Fields - The Dance of the Babbling Brook   The master of the school was watching our little tutorial bout and seems to be satisfied with our progress.  I learn something every time we meet, proving that loss sometimes is the best teacher. Thank the heavens that the bruises are worth it. Thank you for the bout. You are gracious, as always. I regret that there won't be much time for such practice now that you have almost finished your training. Master Li told me to pass on that you should speak to him when you have the chance. He said you could take your time, so you need not rush. Why didn't you tell me earlier? He specifically told me that it was no rush, so I didn't think it would be vital. Besides, who could turn down a chance to practice with you? You have some time to wander the school and talk with other students. Smiling Mountain likely has some of the younger students available if you want to spar. I shall leave you to it. Take care, my friend.  As Jing Woo mentioned, we now have time to wander around and talk to the other students. The chufty fellow over there in the upper right corner is Smiling Mountain, and he can set up some practice fights for us if we feel like beating up more underclassmen. Right now, I think we'll just have a chat with a couple of the other students.  Restless dead? Pft, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.  Do my senses detect a hint of sarcasm from Student Lin here? Well, yes, to be honest. It turns out some of our fellow students aren't quite as friendly with us as Jing Woo was earlier and there's some resentment over our status as the top student.   I understand your training is almost complete. I wonder who will replace you as our "example?" It certainly won't be me. I can't even imagine Master Li saying, "You must strive to be like Lin in all things," to the others. Just the opposite, more likely. If you want Master Li to say it, don't give him a choice. Be the best you can. That makes sense. Is that how you live your life? If so, it certainly seems to be an effective philosophy. Maybe I should spend more time training and less time worrying about where I stand in the school. How else will I be good enough to take you down one of these days? Besides, there might be bigger things to worry about. I find myself intrigued by the ghost tales that everyone's mentioning?Huh, seems like there's a lot of talk about ghosts going around.  Other than what Dawn Star "senses," all I have is stories, but they're becoming more and more common. Tales of people being haunted by loved ones, and mad ghosts attacking people on the roads or even in their homes. And Master Li accepts Dawn Star's ability to see and sense things others can't. If he believes her, then how could I believe otherwise? Where do these ghosts come from? According to the stories, ghosts are usually people whose souls are trapped in this world either by circumstance or because they won't let go of their old lives. The thing is, those circumstances are very rare, and you never heard about ghosts ten years ago. Now everyone's talking about them. It's like something has happened, and people aren't leaving this world like they should be. Either that, or it's mass hysteria, but I can't believe that explanation. Goodbye for now. Stay well. After all, how could we learn without our most senior student to guide us.Lovely, thanks. Lin mentioned someone called Dawn Star who can apparently sense ghosts or something to that effect. That's a party member name if I ever heard one. Dawn Star is actually supposed to be a longtime friend of ours, and we'll see more of her soon enough.  Right. Let's go see Master Li, we've wasted enough time screwing around here.  Gao seems to have been visiting the master and doesn't sound too happy about their discussion. Let's have a chat with him, I'm sure he will be very friendly to us since we're Master Li's favorite student and all that.  If I'd known it was holding up your training, I would have come sooner. Really? You would have dropped everything to make way for me? I don't think so. You're far too important to waste time worrying about my education. Master Li certainly considers your training important enough to shove all others aside, so why shouldn't *I* bow down to your greatness?Such a personable fellow! Gao is voiced by Nathan Fillion, who does an excellent job playing this arrogant jackass.  I really should have picked the lower option. Oh well.  I'm sure Wen could stammer out an answer for you, something to make you feel all warm inside and just great about yourself. Master Li wants to talk to you. Do me a favor, and go talk to him. Then maybe I can actually receive some education at this school. What a cheerful person. Now that he mentions it, I think I do actually have some other business to attend to first. Master Li can wait a bit longer, he did say there's no rush after all.  First off, we have some reading material to check out. These scrollstands give us a bit of EXP, and we can also earn some useful stat boosts if we do enough reading so it's always in our best interest to look around for scrollstands and books.  This particular scroll has a bit of Jade Empire lore for us.  The box next to the scrollstand contains a scroll on martial styles.  Iron Palm and Viper are the two new styles introduced in the Special Edition. To master them, we need to find three scrolls of each. They're technically not mutually exclusive, I believe, but one of the Viper scrolls is a reward for doing some pretty evil poo poo and I'm playing this as a good guy. (edit: they are in fact mutually exclusive, as the same quest that gives you the Viper scroll gives you an Iron Palm scroll instead if you're not an rear end in a top hat) Actually, that's something that should be explained in a bit more detail. Like most BioWare games released after KotOR, Jade Empire has a morality system with two paths: Way of the Open Palm and Way of the Closed Fist. It wasn't necessarily supposed to be a simple good vs. evil system like the one in KotOR, but in practice that is what it ended up becoming anyway. Closed Fist was meant to be more of a "strength is power and the poors should pull themselves up by the bootstraps instead of asking me for help" path, but some of the things you do as a Closed Fist character are just ridiculously evil. In any event, we've got a couple more books to look at:     Harmonic Combos are a gameplay mechanic I've never really used all that much on any of my Jade Empire playthroughs. It can be very useful and I will be showing it off as best I can, but it's not something that is absolutely required by any means. Might as well talk to some more students while we're here. The guy in the red headband is Wen, who Gao told us may be willing to tell us just how great we are.    Sometimes I wonder if I am ready to train with others of such skill, even in the robes of a junior student. I feel a long way from my home in the Imperial City. If you are here, you belong here. You're right. Master Li would not have accepted me if he did not see potential. He measures all people carefully. I will just have to work twice as hard to catch up to your level of skill. Even then it will take a long time to be your match. How long have you studied with Master Li? That doesn't really answer the question, you know.  I'm sorry. I shouldn't pester you with my questions. Is there something you need? Since you're new, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on Master Li. He is one man and guides his students well. My last school had two masters who feuded all the time. It made learning very difficult. Wu is clearly not impressed. Or she was blinking as I took the screenshot. Pick one.  I'd demonstrate, but I don't think I even could. Master Li's teachings have been so much more effective that I have forgotten most of what I learned in the capital. How do Master Li's skills measure up to your teachers in the Imperial City? He is greatly skilled and tutors his students intently. You especially. My school in the city was mired in politics. Not an environment that promotes diligent study.All right, that's enough of that.  Tho Fan is the fake language BioWare created for Jade Empire, and basically sounds like three phrases repeated over and over like the alien languages in KotOR. There aren't that many Tho Fan speakers in the game anyway, so I'm not sure why they bothered. Well, it's a nice bit of worldbuilding, I suppose.  Right, that's definitely enough messing around, let's finally go and see Master Li. Gao certainly looks like he's waited long enough. MUSIC: The Way of the Open Palm     You are my best pupil, though you came to me an orphan. I have tried to prepare you for the responsibility your skills will bring. Have you given thought to your future? Here's a better look at how the player character's expression changes depending on the dialog option. It sometimes looks a bit silly due to the low-poly faces, but the idea was neat and nowadays BioWare does a similar thing with their dialog wheel icons.  I recall that, as a child, you fell and bruised your arm. I comforted you, saying that small pains are part of learning. But not every setback imparts wisdom. You must be careful. Sometimes all you learn in defeat, is that you have been defeated. This world is out of balance. Spirits grow restless, and you have a role to play that I have kept secret. Unimpressed Wu is the best (and so is my timing with screenshots).  The people are scared... I do not have all the answers, but I know you will become very important to the fates of many. You will be called to face a great evil. What is this interruption? This had better be important... there is much to say. Where is she now? Still outside the village by the outlook. Ni Joh couldn't carry her. Please come, Master Li. The bandits are not at the village yet, but they could arrive at any time! What would you have me do, Master? The time for practice is over. Go to Gujin the weapon master and get a weapon. You may soon be called to use it. On your way, make certain Dawn Star is aware of the danger. Her skills have always complemented yours, so take her with you. Prepare yourself for a potential attack while I tend to my fallen student. I will return as soon as I can. We will continue our discussion when the threat is over. I will do as you ask. Good. The time comes when you will know all you need to. For now, keep the basics at heart. Master Li walks off to help out Kia Min, and before we go anywhere we can explore his place a bit.   We find these figurines next to a statue of a lion, and if we interact with it we can place the figurines on the altar while matching the color of the orb in the statue's hand. That seems like an insultingly simple "puzzle" even by BioWare standards, so let's just hold onto these things for now and see if there's anything else we can do with them.  Next time, we will go find Dawn Star and see if we can beat up some bandits. See you then. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Nov 22, 2016 12:36
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I'm actually playing the Steam version here. It should work pretty well once you manage to get it to launch without the "Can't find Steam" error message (which involves copying the steam.dll file from your Steam folder to the Jade Empire folder, after that it should be fine). The PC version in general has always been a bit wonky, I also have the physical DVD release where the autoplay is broken and you need to actually go click on the installer.exe. Oh, and the spine on the steelbook case reads "Jade Emipre". 
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Nov 22, 2016 13:27
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 Welp, time to edit those earlier posts a bit. I could always tell that Jade Empire ran on pretty much the same engine as KotOR, but assumed the combat was actually real-time. I've noticed some weirdness at times, especially when fighting enemies with polearms, but I always just thought I was doing something wrong. 
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Nov 22, 2016 14:27
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Episode 02: Ghosts at the Beach Last time, we found out bandits are about to attack Two Rivers and were told to go get a weapon from Weapon Master Gujin in order to fight off those ruffians. Master Li also told us to take Dawn Star with us, so let's go to her house and talk to her.  I still think Jade Empire is a pretty nice-looking game, at least when it comes to the environments and art design. The character models were never that great, although they were still a step up from KotOR.  Dawn Star's house is right across this small bridge here. I'm not entirely sure where we (or the other students for that matter) live because the only actual buildings inside the school gates are Master Li's home and Dawn Star's place. Maybe everyone has houses in the town proper? This is probably the kind of thing you shouldn't think about too much. (edit: Smiling Mountain's little practice area is surrounded by a few small houses, so I guess those might serve as dormitories)  Wait a minute. Is that...  oh goddammit Gao  His name is Gao the Greater, and he built a fortune out of some ragged thieves and slave traders. If my charm can't lift your spirit, I'll buy the ground from under you. Flaunting your father's undeserved wealth does not impress me, Gao. It only serves to push me further away. You step beyond your station. She and I are discussing her future. Thank you, Gao, but I'll pick my own poison. Now leave, and, if you'd be so kind, stay downwind. I won't forget this, Dawn Star. You show great disrespect. You, as well. You will not take all the glory if there is an attack. We are not through.Well, I suppose I'd be angry all the time as well if my name had "the Lesser" attached to it. MUSIC: Dawn Star Theme  He acts like he is above Master Li's teachings. Such are the conceits of wealth, I suppose. I appreciate that you arrived when you did. What did Gao want? What does Gao the Lesser ever want? He is convinced he can buy everything, and that includes people. He is a spoiled little man. I'd rather not dwell on him. Let's not increase his influence by talking about him after he's gone. What is it you wish? You know about the bandits. Master Li said to get a weapon from Gujin. Yes, he said you were coming. He just passed here with Si Pat, on his way to help Kia Min. It's strange that simple bandits would launch such a raid. Master Li was concerned that this would interrupt your training. His respect for your potential is just so... absolute. Has he told you any more about your future?He did say we'd be facing a great evil and that we have a role he has kept secret, but I think the bandits are the bigger concern at the moment.  You're right. As useful as it was to help Master Li learn about the restlessness of the dead, thanks to my "gift," I see enough disturbing things as it is. If we can stop the bandits quickly, we can keep everyone safe. Let's go get your weapon from Gujin's workshop. It shouldn't be too hard to fend off simple bandits. They are foolish to attempt such an attack. Let's go together. I could use the company. Of course. Good company will make the walk go faster. And with that, Dawn Star joins us as a follower. As I mentioned in the OP, you can only have one party member following you at all times, and as the game is pointing out here we can set each follower's tactics to Attack or Support. I tend to keep them on support duty a lot of the time, because they're not always the most efficient in combat. Dawn Star's support ability restores your chi during fights and does it pretty quickly as well, which is incredibly useful in longer combat segments. Of course, I keep her on Attack for this update and make things way harder for myself than they should be.  Hold on, we've got another scroll to read.  The Great Wheel. The cycle of life, death and reincarnation where a person's spirit is eternal and unchanging. Since Dawn Star's "gift" has to do with the spirit world, it's rather appropriate that this particular bit of lore can be found at her home. Next to Dawn Star's house, we can also find these:   The Spirit Font fully restores your health and chi, while the Focus Shrine does the same to, well, focus. These are scattered around the game world, usually before boss fights and other tough sections, and can be used as many times as you need.  Now that we have Dawn Star with us, we can head to the town proper and visit Gujin's workshop to get our weapon.  Unfortunately, trouble is brewing on the other side of the gate as some of the bandits have made their way to town and are now bothering the peasants.    You're right, this isn't worth it. Poor guy had no chance.   The bandits don't fare all that much better. I can't believe they moved so quickly. We need your weapon. Gujin will be in his shop north of the main stairs. Here we are. We talked to the bystanders after the fight, but all they said was basically "Heavens no, they killed him!"  This gentleman is Gujin the weapon master himself. Gujin speaks Tho Fan, which is of course subtitled for our convenience (and because the characters understand it).   Oh, there's no need for titles. Not from you two. Why do you insist on speaking like that, Gujin? The Old Tongue, you mean? Anyone with half an education understands Tho Fan, and some of us prefer the way it rolls of the tongue. Don't act like it's a surprise. Lots of people speak it, although I suppose it is concentrated mostly in the Prosperous East. [switches to English] If you'd prefer, I don't need to use Tho Fan. Now, what brings you here? Already? I assume you dealt with them, and the rest are in for quite a surprise when they get here. Well, no time to waste.Yeah, those two bandits didn't last very long, did they? To be fair, most of the folks we'll be fighting will be much tougher.   I don't remember if it's ever really mentioned, but Dawn Star's sword is called Gujin's Favor. Party members' weapons are a bit special in that they can damage enemies that weapon styles don't normally work on. Obviously this is because only the main character can switch between different styles and the followers only have one, and it would be dumb if they couldn't damage certain foes at all, but that also leads to this rather silly situation where everyone else seems to have better weapons than the protagonist (although ours will do more damage in general). But I'm getting ahead of myself here, let's actually get that weapon first.  Well, two actually, but you need to chose which one you'll take. Master Li wants you to stay focused on your first weapon. Is there anything special about these weapons? Anything? *Everything.* I don't know where your master acquired these, but he has honored me with the care of two legendary weapons. You may arm yourself with either the legendary long sword, Fortune's Favorite, or the famed long staff, Golden Star. Tell me about the long sword, Fortune's Favorite.I know perfectly well which one I'm choosing, but let's just have Gujin tell us about both of the weapons for posterity's sake.  How your master found it, I cannot say, but this ancient long sword is yours if you wish it. Let me hear about the staff, Golden Star. They say Golden Star was forged as a gift to a water spirit of the Silkworm River. A young noble convinced the Great Eastern Serpent to fly him to the stars, where he dipped this staff in the tail of a comet. It could be pure fantasy, but this staff certainly isn't. It's strong and has an excellent reach. Your foes will tremble when they see you wielding it.I used the staff on my first playthrough and never really liked it all that much, it always felt kinda slow and cumbersome to wield. Which means that we'll be taking the sword.  If you decide you truly don't like it, however, you can come see me after the bandits are dealt with. Is there anything else? One more thing you need to know. These weapons strike with deadly precision, but to wield them safely you must focus with each strike. Master Li has been training you so that you'd be ready for this kind of weapon, and the drain won't be crippling, but you will get tired over time. I should go see the townsfolk now. That you should. These people will be looking for you for leadership until Master Li gets back. I know you'll do well.As we finish the conversation, Student Si Pat runs in again.  Calm down, student. What has you so flustered? The bandits! They've already been sighted by the beach, and they're making their way toward the town! Does Master Li know they're already here? Master Li hasn't returned yet with Kia Min. I'm sure he will be back before long, but we must depend on you until he returns. I doubt asking Si Pat to come help us out with the bandits would be of much use because he's not exactly a great warrior, so let's just send him back to the school to warn the others. He'll probably go there no matter what you pick here.  Make your way to the beach and teach these bandits a lesson! I know you can. You've done well, lad. Go back to the school now. Your friends have some new weapons they're dying to try out, I'm sure. All right. Weapons are separate fighting styles that you can switch to at any time by quick-selecting it on the d-pad, and as Gujin said we can't use them indefinitely due to the focus drain. Eventually we'll be able to use weapons for quite some time as we gain levels and put some points to Focus cost reduction, but for now we shouldn't be relying on our sword too much. Before we go anywhere, there's one more scroll we need to take a look at.   Nothing particularly exciting in this one, but there's a reason why we wanted to read it.  It completes a book set, which gives us a permanent stat boost.  As we make our way towards the beach, some more bandits show up to pester us and get cut down immediately. One of them drops a yellow orb, which you can collect to restore some focus. There are also red and blue orbs that restore health and chi.  Closer to the beach, we run into these guys. This is kind of supposed to be a tutorial for area attacks (A + X) but I completely fail to notice the tutorial popup. AoE attacks are pretty good for crowd control, as you might expect. They don't do much damage, but enemies get knocked around and you get some breathing room. This jerk with the beard has a polearm, which are incredibly annoying when wielded by enemies due to the range and the poking attack they just love to use. The pokes seem to go through our attacks, so we're kinda getting roughed up here.  Will you stop poking me with that stick so I can kill you. At least we've got some chi left for healing, albeit not for long.  Well, EVENTUALLY we manage to take down all these idiots, and it only took all our chi and most of our focus. Dawn Star also got knocked out at some point, so this went all kinds of well. Jade Empire is not a difficult game, but this tutorial section can be tough if you're just starting out or haven't played in a long time. You don't have much health, chi or focus to play with, and some of these enemies can mess you up in seconds. The game gets much easier pretty soon.  All right, let's get going to the beach then.   Oh hey, autosave. Jade Empire doesn't autosave all that frequently, so when it does you can generally assume some poo poo is about to go down. And when poo poo goes down, I have video of it. VIDEO: You should probably watch this     Si Pat mentioned earlier that the bandits on the boat fired something at Kia Min. I hope it wasn't a cannonball, and if it was I hope she fared better than these poor sods.   The bandits attack us, of course, and the bald weirdo on the boat keeps firing cannonballs at us. The only warning we get is Dawn Star going "look out" about a second before we get blown up. Fortunately, one hit won't kill us, and the cannonballs don't discriminate between us and the bandits.  Once we're done with the guys on the beach, another wave of bandits shows up and this time they're a bit tougher.   dammit Getting hit by a cannonball won't kill us, but we do get lit on fire which causes damage over time. We don't really need that with our chi being low enough as it is. This fight can be really tough for a new player, I died here multiple times on my first playthrough back in the day.  Here's the bandit leader, who fights with Wolverine claws. That is actually a style we can pick at the start, called Leaping Tiger. Magic type characters start with it and we can learn it later on. It's pretty good at higher levels. If this is the bandit leader, though, who is Mr. Cannonball-Head on the boat?   DAMMIT  On the plus side, the cannonball also hit the bandit leader and he was easy to take out after that, and at this point it's just a matter of helping Dawn Star take down the last bandit.   By "this" he obviously means Bink video compression from ten years ago. Truly the most terrifying of foes.       Or he may be summoning vengeful ghosts, at least one of whom is using ice magic.  Spirits aren't affected by man-made weapons, so our sword is useless here. Not that we have the focus to use it anyway. Dawn Star's sword can hurt these guys, though, but it doesn't do much damage to them (or in general).  We have two ghosts with ice magic and one wielding a polearm, neither of which is very nice. These ghosts don't have much health, though, and are arguably easier to take down than the bandits earlier.  Like so. The sorcerer on the boat is not pleased and decides to teleport himself to us.    Before he can do anything, we are interrupted by another heavily compressed FMV.   Master Li is obviously done with Kia Min, and is now racing towards the town at inhuman speed.           Assassin? And it seems like he was looking for Master Li as well.  Before the assassin gets another word in, Master Li attacks him and starts giving him a proper beatdown. The assassin, while clearly powerful and even able to command spirits, has no chance against a true master.   CRACK.  Whoever this assassin was working for, he's not going to report back to them.  Dawn Star can explain the nature of such creatures. I must go and make sure everything is in place. I thought I had more time, but perhaps you are ready. Do not be so quick to thank me. My influence caused this attack. You were not meant to see this yet, but now there is no choice. I will explain at the school. --- Next time, we will learn the truth about many things, including the role Master Li has planned for us. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Jun 20, 2017 |
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Nov 23, 2016 07:32
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7c Nickel posted:Hey. You might need this mod. For... reasons. But yeah, the fade to black in those scenes is really dumb and pointless. I don't know why they would even do that, BioWare doesn't seem like they'd go "we can't have gay kisses in our video game, censor this filth!"
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Nov 23, 2016 09:14
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I briefly considered a VLP, but there's just so much talking in this game that it would have been the most boring thing in the world to watch (and that's before you take my commentary into account ). An SSLP with videos of important action scenes seemed like the way to go. I have wanted to LP Jade Empire pretty much since I joined the forums (maybe even before that), but never got around to it until now.
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Nov 23, 2016 13:48
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I'm one of those weirdos who can't bring themselves to play as a total rear end in a top hat in RPGs, so closed fist stuff will be kept to a minimum unlike in every other Jade Empire LP in existence. I will definitely be pointing out just how much of a dick you can be when we get to those parts of the game.
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Nov 24, 2016 04:16
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Episode 03: Exposition Dump, Part One Last time, we stopped a bandit attack on Two Rivers and faced our first spirit opponents, summoned by a mysterious assassin looking for Master Li. Master Li has told us we're ready to hear about the role we are meant to play, so we'll be heading his way soon enough.  First things first. The ruckus at the beach gave us enough EXP to level up, so let's take a look at what we can do here.  I do like it when the game does my work for me.  We put one point to Body and two to Mind, which gives us a bit of that extra focus we want for more fun times with weapons. At this stage, Fortune's Favorite drains focus at an immense rate and we want to fix that as soon as we can.  Here's the style menu. We've got ten points to put into our styles, and right now we'll focus on our martial and weapon styles. Heavenly Wave is a support style that slows down enemies, but I've never found it all that useful compared to some of the other support styles.  We'll prioritize focus cost reduction for now. A bit of extra damage and speed won't hurt so we put one point into each, but we really want to maximize the use of our weapon style as soon as we can. Of course, the higher the rank the more skill points it costs to purchase.  As far as Legendary Strike goes, we'll put a couple of points into damage and one into each of the other categories. We haven't used chi strikes yet, but might as well power those up a bit already.  That'll do it. Master Li mentioned that Dawn Star can explain the nature of the spirits we fought earlier, so let's have a quick chat with her before we go back.  This is so confusing. Master Li said I could explain the nature of spirits, but... these were different. That sorcerer forced them to appear, like wild dogs let loose. So many spirits seem lost, asi if the way to their rest is blocked. I didn't think they were dangerous, but those on the beach... I sensed madness. Time drove them mad. You disrupted them by defeating them in combat. They will not reform in a long time. I hope there is peace in that, but I don't know. So much is worrying me.Punch the ghosts hard enough and they'll go away for a while. Simple enough.  I was worried enough when we were expecting bandits, now it seems there are dangers we don't even know about. Master Li called that... that sorcerer an *assassin.* Assassins don't attack at random. They have very specific prey. I don't... I don't want anything to happen to this home. I've never belonged to anywhere else. I really should have asked Dawn Star about her name here. I assumed I could still pick that option once we're done talking about where she used to live, but it doesn't appear again after this. She mentions that there apparently was a red glow on the horizon the morning she was born, and that's what she was named after. This may or may not be relevant later. Would it be strange of me to say I don't know? I have very little memory of my home before coming here, even though I was three years old when I arrived. I remember moving around a lot... never staying anywhere for long... and for some reason, the robes of that sorcerer looked familiar to me. I don't know why. I'm sure it's nothing. Just the memories of childhood playing tricks. With glimpses of the spirit realm invading my thoughts. I could have seen them anywhere. Why did you move around? How did you come here? I can't remember specific incidents, but I am used to being shunned. People are not very welcoming of those who appear to not let the dead lay peacefully.That would explain why she seems to spend so much of her time isolated from the other students. If you talk to them at the school, they may mention that Dawn Star tends to keep to herself.  Master Li doesn't know who that guardian was, or what I needed protection from. He promised to look into it, but he has not had time. Your training has taken precedence. My abilities are just a curiosity. You are the center of attention here. I prefer it this way. I can just... be.Honestly, at this point it feels like Dawn Star's abilities are a lot more special than ours. She has a connection to the spirit world whereas we just seem to be really good at kicking people in the head. Of course, we don't yet know what Master Li has to say about our special role.  Yes. I suppose you know something about that, as well. I hope this does not sound odd, but I am glad we share that. Thanks for this talk. The events on the beach worried me, but you always improve my mood. Let's get back to what you need to do. How did you help Master Li find out about the restless dead? I don't want to think about it too much. Manipulating chi has not come as naturally to me as it has to you. The things I do are... different. I can see spirit shapes and hear the odd whisper. Master Li was surprised, but he has not had time to look into it further. Your training is his primary interest. Hopefully, I'll find my skills useful for more than just keeping me up at night. Could we go on to something else? What do you know about the spirit world? We are all spiritual creatures. When we die, our spirits are released to find their way to the underworld. The journey eases the transition from life to death. If their time among the living was troubled or painful, spirits sometimes get lost. They can seem almost alive and are often mistaken for living creatures. They usually only appear for a short time. They say what they need to say and then are drawn to the underworld. What makes them so threatening? If a person's life was very traumatic, his or her spirit can lose its way for a long time. They can go mad trapped in the world of the living. Maddened spirits change. They lose their connection to the living world and begin to channel darker emotions. They can be very dangerous. I've only seen hints of those. It's been enough. I'm very worried about what may be coming. What happens to them in the underworld? I don't know. That's the kind of thing old men sit on mountains to discover. Some say it's a place of judgment. Maybe it's about reincarnation. You'd think we could just ask the spirits themselves, but if we can't really understand our own answers, how can we hope to fathom theirs?All right, that's enough of that for now. Hope you enjoyed the info dump on ghosts.  Here's the journal. Nothing fancy about it, just showing it off for posterity.  We see an old man over there tending to a statue of Emperor Sun Hai, but we'll leave him to it for now and have a chat with him later. There are some other people on the beach we can talk to, the guy in white is Ni Joh who was mentioned by the farmer in town and somehow seems to have survived a cannon ball blast without a scratch. I mean, we did too, but we're the protagonist so that doesn't count and everyone next to Ni Joh blew up into a pile of gibs.   "Alive and useless, just like you" is accurate but a bit harsh, so let's not go there.  When we earn Open Palm points, a glowy blue halo appears over our character's head. Obviously, getting Closed Fist points is represented by a red glowy thing. I pick Closed Fist options so rarely that I forget what it is, but I do know that your shadow grows tentacles if you have enough Closed Fist points. That's kind of neat.  As we start heading back towards the town, we bump into this lady who says she's looking for Dawn Star. Doesn't seem to be looking very hard, considering Dawn Star is right behind us, but never mind that.  I'm glad, Mrs. Jong. Having said what she needed to, Mrs. Jong walks off and Dawn Star explains what the deal was.  Some spirits return because of trauma, to rectify something that disturbed them in life or death. They are very focused. When the pain is gone, they find rest. At least, they are supposed to. Jin's spirit told his mother the accident wasn't her fault. Now he wanders, unconnected to this world and unable to pass to the next. Troubled spirits can be set to rest for a time, but unless the greater problem is corrected, it seems all dead are destined to wander until they go mad. I'm sorry. This has been difficult. I don't want to think about how it affects... specific people. I'm still not sure I should have told Mrs. Jong about her child. I don't think the issue was with Mrs. Jong not wanting to hear it, she just didn't understand how Dawn Star's abilities work and then apologized when she realized her mistake. You can't really blame Mrs. Jong for not understanding, either, because the spirit world is weird and creepy, but Dawn Star was trying to do a good thing and it just didn't quite work out.  I guess blame is easier to understand than chance. Come on, we should go see if the students are all right. Master Li will be waiting. Before we go anywhere, let's help ourselves to the bandits' loot which amounts to 122 silver. Not exactly a pile or riches, but it's something at least. We can talk to some of the peasants around town, but all they say is basically "I'm glad Master Li is here and his senior student is such a badass".  In the southern part of town, we run into these fine gentlemen.    It wouldn't be a BioWare game if we didn't get harassed by a bunch of drunk idiots at some point (well, actually I don't remember if that happens in any of their games aside from Jade Empire and KotOR).  Unfortunately, these inebriated fellows are actually Gao's goons and can't be talked down unlike the guys you run into on Taris early on in KotOR, so we're fighting.  It's just as well, I didn't show off the Heavenly Wave support style yet so this gives us a good opportunity to do so.  Heavenly Wave, as the popup over this guy's head suggests and I mentioned while leveling up, slows enemies down. Unfortunately, low-level Heavenly Wave is itself so ungodly slow to use that it's far more efficient to just use your martial or weapon style in most cases. There are some boss fights where it can be useful, but I find other support styles to be much more effective. Support styles also don't work on certain enemy types, although I can never quite keep track of which enemy resists what unless I try different styles on everything. After we dispatch these jerks, I do what I should have done a lot earlier and switch Dawn Star to support mode.  Her longsword just does so little damage that it's not worth using her in battle, especially since she doesn't seem to have all that much health. Active chi recovery is far, far more useful and Dawn Star's one of the better support characters as a result.  Student Si Pat has been assigned to guard the school gate, which seems like the kind of job that should perhaps be left to someone who can actually fight. We can harass him by testing his knowledge on the different styles (Martial, Weapon, Support, Transformation, and Magic) as well as how chi works, but we'll look into that stuff when it's relevant. There's enough talking in this update as it is.   Before we head back to the school's courtyard, let's check this side path to the north. There are monkeys   I like this little area the path leads to, it looks really nice with the waterfall and leaves falling from the trees.  More importantly, there is this tomb we can interact with.  [A small bowl sits beneath the stylized image of a lion, ready to accept offerings of silver to speed the spirit of the departed to his rest.]  [The coin disappears through a thin slot in the bottom of the bowl. There is an audible clicking sound.]   We did see a statue of a lion earlier, so we might want to give that another look in a little bit.  First of all, though, Kia Min is back and we can chat with her, so let's ask her how she's doing after that injury she received in the bandit attack.   It is good that you are here. My foolish lack of attention forced Master Li to come to my rescue and left me with a wound that will take a few weeks to heal. Master Li assures me I will heal in time. It's a shame, as Smiling Mountain was teasing me just yesterday with some "special prize." My sidequest sense is tingling.  He teased me by saying if I could go one higher, he might have a prize for me. I suppose he might make the same offer to you, if you're up to it. If I could fight, he could likely round up enough opponents for you to make a run at a new record, but I can't face anyone with this wound. Is there anything I can do to help with your wound? Unless you can speed up time, I'm not sure there's much that can be done. Master Li has already tended to it. Then again, I vaguely recall a grass or herb that hastens the healing process. Someone like Old Ming might know for sure, he's quite interested in herbs.Remember the old guy at the beach who we ignored earlier? That's who we're gonna go talk to now. We can ask Kia Min more questions about the herb and Old Ming, but she doesn't have anything useful so let's just get this show on the road. She does say that she'll reimburse us if we have to buy anything, so that's nice. The important thing for her is to be able to fight again as soon as possble.  Also, remember how Master Li ran to the beach inhumanly fast? We can do that too by activating focus mode outside of combat.  We manage to actually run past this villager, who seems to be in a bit of a pickle. Of course, we'll ask if we can help in any way.   Oh, you're one of Master Li's students, right? Yes, I've heard about you. Quite skilled, they say. Well, don't mind me. Why are you nervous? Anything I can do to help? Oh, I wouldn't think to presume. The town doesn't owe me anything, and neither do the students of your fine school. I'm not from Two Rivers, though I do occasionally come into town to do some business. Today has not been an overly good day for me. I was hoping to make a little more silver than I did selling my wares. Why do you need money badly? I owe a small amount of silver to a man who works for a... gentleman named Gao the Greater. He's quite insistent that I pay, but I'm falling a bit short. It is no more than the price of a small pig, but Gao the Greater takes his debts very seriously. What will happen if you don't pay the twenty silver? Gao the Greater is not known for his generosity. I.... No, I'll figure a way out of this myself. Yeah, I think we may be able to spare twenty silver to help this guy out. We don't need Gao the Greater's thugs breaking this poor bastard's legs, even if he kinda brought this on himself by borrowing money from Gao's associates in the first place.  That seems close to begging, and the spirits of my ancestors would be shamed if they thought I was doing that. Ah. I see he needs some convincing. This is our introduction to the three types of persuasion checks in Jade Empire, instead of just a singular Persuade option we can use Charm, Intimidation or Intuition. Your skill in these depends on your attributes, which I went over in the introductory update but just in case you didn't read it: Charm = Body + Mind, Intimidate = Body + Spirit, Intuition = Spirit + Mind. Most persuasion checks in the game aren't particularly hard, and if you're playing a character with fairly balanced stats you should be able to hit them pretty consistently. JUST TAKE THE MONEY YOU JERK  I'll take just enough to pay back what I owe. Many, many thanks! That will make his life a lot easier. Gao's father is not a good man to have angry at you, from what I hear. Farewell, student! I'm off to deal with my debt so I can get back to my farm in peace! We heard Dawn Star approve of us helping the guy out. As is the norm with BioWare games, your companions will chime in with approving or disapproving comments based on your actions. Dawn Star is maybe the most compassionate of your followers, so she likes it when you do nice things and help people. But with that sorted out, let's finally do what we came here to do and talk to Old Ming about that herb.  One of the students was wounded during the bandit attack. Oh, yes. I heard about that. Some fool girl out walking on the overlook, wasn't it? Serves her right for not studying or meditating, I say! Well, there's no accounting for youth. She probably wants something to get her moving again, so I'd say you need a poultice made from red silk grass clippings. Merchant Fen Do should have some, but don't let him talk you into clippings of bearded tongue grass. That won't do at all. What's the difference between the two grasses?Aside from "bearded tongue grass" sounding really gross, that is.  Bearded tongue grass will make her feel the same, but it's only deadening the pain. It doesn't actually do her any good. For most people, bearded tongue grass would be fine, but I know the fool girl would start practicing again and tear something vital. That could leave her crippled.All right, that's all we need to know. We could ask Old Ming about a number of things such as the Emperor and the Long Drought and spend fifteen minutes listening to him go on and on, but he doesn't really have anything to say that won't come up in a less boring manner. So, we're off to see Merchant Fen Do for that herb.  And don't you let that Merchant Fen Do talk you into the cheap stuff! He might make a few extra silvers, but your friend's health isn't worth his profit margins.Thanks, old man. This is one of those quests where the Closed Fist path has absolutely nothing to do with the supposed Closed Fist philosophy. If we were to tell Kia Min that no, you should just let it heal on its own and maybe train harder in the future so you don't get hurt next time, that'd make some sense but if we bought the bearded tongue grass we'd basically be doing it just to be a gigantic rear end in a top hat to a person who hasn't done anything to us. Closed Fist obviously doesn't appreciate "weakness" like getting injured by bandits, but it also doesn't expect us to actively gently caress over those who we deem to be weak (how are they supposed to get stronger if they get crippled due to our actions?) Which is what we'd be doing in this quest if we took that path. I suppose we could tell her she needs to take it easy, and if she aggravates the injury it's her own fault?  I guess you could argue that we'd save some money and Kia Min would be able to fight at least once, which would help us get the special reward from Smiling Mountain, but the amount of silver we'd save there is so pitiful that it's not worth it in the slightest. Speaking of which, here's Fen Do.   The only shame is that their ship sunk. Think what we could have done with their plunder. Ahh well, that's another opportunity lost. In this town, it's vital for a businessman to keep tabs on anyone with two coins to rub together. Things haven't been this slow since the Long Drought. That master of yours keeps things ludicrously stable, while merchants thrive on strife. During the Long Drought, prices rocketed into the sky like fireworks. Let's talk about what you can do for me. Happily. We don't need to waste time on my gripes when there's silver to be spent. I'm looking for ingredients for a medical poultice.Let's just get to business so we can get out of here.  Anyway, I've checked my stocks and I only have enough ingredients to make one dose of the salve for a poultice. I'm not sure how much good it will do by itself. Might take a bit of the sting away. Seriously, if you get the bearded tongue grass you're worse than double Hitler.  Expensive stuff that. Very pricey. Hard to acquire, too. Would certainly help her wound, but I know something just as good. Get her some bearded tongue grass and she'll feel better. It won't hasten the healing any, so she'll have to take it easy, but it will deaden the pain. If you think you can justify such opulence to heal something that time would take care of, who am I to argue? I'll just need your payment to prepare the poultice. 50 silver isn't bad at all, we have several hundred, but let's see if we can get a discount anyway.   Once again, we can use our persuasion skills to try and get him to lower the price. I think charm should work nicely here.  We now get the red silk grass for 40 silver, which isn't a massive discount but every little bit helps.   That's all we need for now. We can also ask what Fen Do has for sale, but it turns out he has absolutely nothing. Apparently, people are scared to travel so goods don't get to Two Rivers. Right, let's head back to Kia Min and tell her we got a poultice that should help her wound.   The poultice must have cost you some silver. Let me repay you! What did it cost? Obviously, the "best" option (as in the one that earns us the most Open Palm points) is to refuse the reward, but if we're going to do a fetch quest I'd rather not lose money while doing it. We may be Open Palm as hell but we're not stupid. So, let's just tell the truth.  We make a huge profit of ten silver, but more importantly we can now try Smiling Mountain's challenge.  I wonder if Smiling Mountain is his birth name or if he earned it later.   Is there anything you need? Perhaps a training session with some of the students? It would do them good. Are there students available to spar with? Yes, and the students are on edge from the bandit attack. It would do them good to work some of that out. And now that Kia Min is feeling better, maybe you'd like to challenge her record in my little training exercise.All right, let's go. We could've sparred with students before and actually earned some stat bonuses from doing so, but when you ask about sparring before doing Kia Min's quest Smiling Mountain says "Well yeah I guess I could set it up but I'm sure you want a bigger challenge" and I assumed that meant it was just an option for new players who want to practice combat.    Yes, we took them all down with the sword.   Our reward for beating these guys into submission is Alloyed Body, a special stat-boosting technique (+5 to health and focus) devised by Smiling Mountain. We can also buy some slightly worse ones from him, all of which have some sort of a negative effect to one stat along with the bonus to another one. We buy Heart of Gold (Chi +3, Focus -1), sadly not being able to afford another technique to go along with it.  Before we talk to Master Li, there is the matter of the lion statue we saw earlier.  [The altar and statue serve to show students a real example of lessons otherwise presented abstractly in class. It has not seen use in some time. The altar is less ornate than the statue, and was replaced many times after frustrated or deliberate outbursts from students, but that, too is part of the exercise. There is mention of a greater reward for the more investigative path, but that was probably an additional element of the test performed by the master who placed it. You cannot recall Master Li ever referring to this statue. Different masters prefer different methods of teaching.] [Approach the altar.] As you may remember, we picked up red, blue and yellow lion figurines. The obvious solution would be to place those on the altar one after the other, corresponding to the sphere's color and doing so gives us 1 silver, but as the text said there is a greater reward for a "more investigative" path. And we did find that lion head token earlier...  [Place the token from the Old Master's grave in the lion's mouth.] Oh my, such a fiendish conundrum.    Apparently, solving a "puzzle" a three-year-old could figure out counts as a momentous occasion.  Our reward is Gaze of the Lion, another technique that boosts our stats permanently (Health +2, Focus +2). You can also smash the altar for 25 silver pieces if you prefer. All right, now let's go talk to Master Li.  It means, however, that I must accelerate your training. These invaders discovered us by accident, but as you likely suspect, they are related to your destiny. You have trained hard and are ready. You will have a pivotal role in some great events, my student... after you return from the Spirit Cave.Well, that sounds slightly ominous.    If you spent less time coddling her, you would have many promising students instead of one. Once again I should've picked the bottom response. It's not wrong, and since we're talking to Gao it doesn't matter if we're dicks to him.  I understand that this student has received preferential treatment and I have suffered for it. Whatever is in this Spirit Cave, I am worthy of facing it too! If she is truly better than me, let her prove it. I challenge her.Spoiler: He's very much not worthy of facing the Spirit Cave.  I will not have you brawling in the street. If this must happen, it will happen in the ring, as a proper test of your abilities. Gao, you are restricted to styles that I have taught. I know the dark tutoring your father, Gao the Greater, has imparted, but I won't have any such sorcery here. Hobbled before I begin. Of course, how else will your precious protégé win? I am ready now. Let's begin. Then let the fighters meet in the arena....      Fighters! Begin!VIDEO: Boss: Gao the Lesser Apologies for the desynced audio in this clip, I didn't notice until I was preparing a video for the next update that the sound is off. Premiere Pro apparently still doesn't like variable frame rate footage from Shadowplay. The video in the previous update was fine because the game and the video were both 30fps, I did the INI tweak after that to run the game at 60fps. Guess I'll either record in 60fps from here on or just play the game at its default 30fps.  Gao has quite a bit more health than any of the foes we've fought before, and also uses Heavenly Wave to try and slow us down. Chi strikes help us do a bit more damage to him, that's what the blue glow around Wu's hands is.  Gao also uses area attacks quite often, and I figured I'd return the favor.   All in all, Gao isn't that tough. I didn't need to heal that often, and the reason my focus is so low at the end of the fight is that I tried using focus mode and the sword at the same time. That drains the focus gauge like nobody's business.  Defeated, Gao hobbles off.   Or at least pretends to do so. What, you thought he wouldn't try to cheat at some point, preferably when we let our guard down? (Also, I just noticed that part of the bottom of this screenshot and a few others is cut off for some reason. I blame Fraps.)     Master Li isn't having any of it, and steps in to block Gao's fire spell.  That is the face of a man who has realized he hosed up.  And this is the face of a man who has finally had enough of dealing with Gao's antics.  You are no longer welcome among my students, and your father's house shall have no more business here, despite his influence. I was not beaten! Not by this peasant! You were defeated by your own foolish ambition and predictable temper. I will speak with you in my chambers about your expulsion. Go now! Enjoy the words of your fellows. I will wait in the main hall, where we will discuss the Spirit Cave. Be certain you are ready when you come to me; your life is about to change.We won't spend too much time chatting with the students, as they basically just tell us how cool we are and how Gao is a big jerk. We've established both of those things pretty well by this point, I think. We'll listen to what Dawn Star has to say, though.  I hope he isn't allowed to stay. Punishment just makes him worse. Master Li has bent like a willow to accommodate him and his sorcerous father. Master Li does what he must. He is our master. But don't you wish that some things made more sense? Anticipation is grueling... so much could be happening that you just don't know about. It scares me sometimes, all this talk of troubled spirits. I didn't ask to be a part of it. As much as you want to know more, I doubt you had a say in your fate, either. I'm... I'm sorry, this is supposed to be a happy time. You've proven your ability and... Master Li is waiting for you. You should go to him. Yeah, not spending too much time talking to these guys. We can ask Lin about the Spirit Cave because she's heard a bunch of rumors, but all she really has to say is that the cave is really spooky.  Let's just go see for ourselves.  Yes, Master. I am ready. Wait outside, Gao. I will finish with you later.  Does it have something to do with the bandit assassin? I take responsibility for it. You see, I used to be more than a humble teacher. To learn of yourself, you must learn more of me. I was once leader of the Imperial Army. Master! You've never said anything about this! I will tell you more, but first, we have an uninvited visitor.   He should respect even the most humble person, because who knows what lies within? That includes you and me both. Why hide that you are the Emperor's brother? I was ashamed. He seized your homeland during the Long Drought. It was an aggressive change in the Empire that would soon bring Death's Hand to power. I withdrew my support, and tried to rally your people against the siege I had helped plan. A doomed effort. Many died on both sides. Sun Kin, another brother, also fell. This, I think, is a good place to stop for now. This update is long enough already, and we've barely gotten started with all the exposition. There's a reason why this update is named as it is. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Nov 30, 2016 19:29
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Goddammit, some of the images aren't loading properly for some reason (that reason being "I am an idiot who keeps mistyping the filenames for the Rightload URL auto replacer script"). I'll fix it, and a couple of other typos while I'm at it.
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Nov 30, 2016 |
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Nov 30, 2016 19:35
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Unfortunately, the guy who gives you that quest just tells you to gently caress off if you're Open Palm.  I'll at least make sure to talk about the quest when we get there.
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Nov 30, 2016 23:25
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sebzilla posted:You mention not using harmonic combos much, in my experience they're pretty crucial on higher difficulties. Totally agree that you can ignore them on easy though and maybe normal though.
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Dec 1, 2016 20:46
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TK102's save editor seems to work for that purpose. Took a bit to get it to find my save files because the editor hasn't been updated for the Steam version, but I got it running and should be able to go Closed Fist if I want to. The alignment system seems to work the same way as it did in KotOR (which makes sense, as a lot of the systems are the same), except here the default alignment value appears to be 100 points instead of 50. I don't know how many points I need for the Zither of Discord quest, but I'll play around with different values (edit: I assume 0 points is max Closed Fist) and see how it goes. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Dec 2, 2016 |
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Dec 2, 2016 02:34
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I'm slightly regretting the fact I took Legendary Strike instead of Leaping Tiger at the start, but we'll certainly be getting some of that Wolverine action later. On the update front, I've been a bit ), but I did just finish recording a five-hour session and played through most of the next main area. I can now understand why Jade Empire LPs tend to lose steam around that point, because there's just so many sidequests. So much running and talking. I did mention that I wasn't really planning on doing any romancing on this playthrough unless the thread wanted to see it, but really no self-respecting wuxia story is quite complete without some kind of romance in it. So, I'm putting up a vote. Are we going to go with: A) Mysterious female B) Handsome rogue with a tragic past C) Dawn Star (normally only available for a male character, but there is a mod to unlock the option) D) No romance, we don't have time for that kind of thing Voting lasts for a week, starting from the time I post this (1 AM, UTC +2). By that time the LP won't be anywhere near the point where this becomes relevant (and where I am in the game at the moment isn't quite there either), but I want to get the vote out of the way early so I can progress with the story. Remember to post your choices in bold so I don't miss them. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Dec 9, 2016 |
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Dec 9, 2016 00:04
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MightyPretenders posted:B is the obvious choice, perhaps too obvious. In other news, I messed around with the save editor and got everything set up for the bonus Zither of Discord update. I mean, I could've just set Wu's alignment to 0 for full Closed Fist, but I decided that someone else would be a better fit for that kind of thing. Someone who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty, someone who has a history of... extreme behavior.   The way your shadow grows tentacles when you're Closed Fist is really cool and totally not a sign of your character being super evil.
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Dec 9, 2016 02:53
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Episode 04: The Dragon Amulet (Exposition Dump, Part Two) --------- As we finished off last time, Master Li revealed his true identity as Sun Li the Glorious Strategist, brother of Emperor Sun Hai and former leader of the Imperial Army. He also told us he'd explain how Wu came to be in his care, so let's hear the story. VIDEO: Escape from Dirge (SERIOUSLY WATCH THIS) If for some reason you can't watch the video, which you really should because screenshots don't exactly do it justice, here are the highlights:  The temple of Dirge in the Land of Howling Spirits is under siege from Emperor Sun Hai and his men. A gentleman who looks like a monk of some sort is looking on, accompanied by another man who is carrying a baby. That must be Sun Li in his younger days, after he rebelled against the Emperor's evil schemes. We can probably figure out who the child is.  As the two men contemplate what to do, the Emperor's accomplices are cutting a swath through the monks.  This must be Sun Kin, the youngest Sun brother who would fall in this battle. So far he's having no problems, though.  And this can only be Death's Hand, wearing terrifying armor like that. The ominous figure who, according to Master Li, was gaining influence over the Emperor around this time.  Behind them is the man himself, Emperor Sun Hai of the Jade Empire.  After cutting down all the guards and the monk from earlier, the three of them make their way inside the main hall of the temple. Being distracted by... whatever it is they came here to do, they don't notice the guy sneaking around behind them.  This gives him the opportunity to grab an amulet from the altar.   As he makes his escape from the temple, we can see that something sinister is definitely going on there in the background. We don't know what it is, but if this plan was evil enough for the Glorious Strategist to rebel against the Emperor, it must have been something serious.   Whatever the Emperor is doing is clearly more important right now than investigating random noises, so nobody pursues despite this close call.   An explosion destroys the wall of the temple. This might have something to do with Sun Kin's death, but obviously there's no time to worry about that now.   After all is said and done, Sun Li is safe along with baby Wu and the amulet.  Who is this "Death's Hand?" He is the right hand of the Emperor, and rules the Lotus Assassins in place of Prince Sun Kin who was killed at Dirge, a death he may have orchestrated. He shows no hesitation, and gave no thought to the lives of those we faced. His influence poisons the Emperor. I have no doubt he is utterly evil. Well, he certainly looks the part. The coloration on the robes we saw on the Lotus Assassin earlier matched the armor of Death's Hand, which makes sense if he's running the whole thing.  Yeah, I got that impression from him in the flashback.  There were three: Emperor Sun Hai; Prince Sun Kin the Hand of Heaven; and myself, Sun Li the Glorious Strategist. Age decided our place in the order of things. Sun Hai was the eldest and therefore emperor. I was next and was head of the army. Sun Kin was the youngest and leader of the monastic order. Your people were guardians, but we did not have a clear idea of what. It is tied to your destiny. I will explain if you want me to move on. Can you tell me anything about my people? Most in the Empire know nothing of the Land of Howling Spirits. I found its people to be honorable, but I can't tell you more than that. There was no time to learn more. Let's move on. Tell me what this has to do with my destiny.Yes, I'd say we've been waiting long enough. All this information is of course rather important and interesting, but we really want to be learning more about our destiny especially after that flashback.  Our dead no longer drift to the underworld. They wander lost, going mad. In time they may overwhelm the living. Why haven't I witnessed this? We are on the edge of the Empire, and not all spirits make their presence known. We are not immune, but I kept you isolated. This information could endanger you. The first assassin found us by accident. The next attack may not be so... unfocused. To fix the world you may threaten the power of some dangerous people.We're meant to fix the world? Well, no pressure or anything. At this point we still don't know how exactly we're special or how we're supposed to fix things, since for all we know we're just really good at kicking people. It's been a useful skill and all, but that's not going to help much if we're having problems with the dead not going to the underworld as they should.    Is it safe? No, but few places truly are. This has been a lot to comprehend, so take your time. There are instructions inside, and something that belongs to you. An amulet.Oh, so that's where the amulet from the flashback went.  Guess we're going in.  Welcome to the Spirit Cave. This is supposedly the final test for Master Li's students, and if you talked to Lin earlier she would tell you how this place is really spooky and some students never returned from here. However, if the amulet's here and presumably has been for the last twenty years, that'd imply it's very specifically the final test for Wu and it's doubtful any other students have ever come down here. Wu is the most senior student of the school and has been here since Master Li first arrived, and it doesn't seem like anyone has graduated from the school before her. Well, nobody taught by Master Li, at any rate. I'm sure someone graduated from this place when the old master was still around many years ago.  As we make our way down the entrance tunnel, we run into this sealed gate.   [You are tied to the reason why spirits wander. Many appeared after your people fell, and some are held in this cave. They are drawn to your amulet. It is ahead, waiting for you. Be careful. It is desired by many seeking power beyond the mortal realm. I make no apology for these trials, my student. You will come to see how necessary they are.]  With that, the clay seal breaks apart and lets us venture deeper into the cave.  I quite like the look of the Spirit Cave. I mean, it *is* a cave so there's only so much you can do to make it look good, but it looks a lot more pleasant than the cave levels in KotOR and Mass Effect (or even some of the later ones in this game). There are even colors other than brown and grey!  Some water as well, letting BioWare show off their improved water effects (I always liked it when games in the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era were showing off their water effects, even if that often meant having an early sewer level or two).  The passage takes us to this larger cavern area. There are some vases and barrels we can smash for some extra silver, but the most important feature here is the stone pillar at the back.  Let's take a look.  [The Dragon Amulet was with you in Dirge. I understand what it does, but you are the one meant to be trained in its use. I am sorry that my actions denied you this.] Well, what are we waiting for?    Lots of things explode in this cave, it seems. Wu is taken by surprise and knocked down a bit, but doesn't get hurt.   As much as Gao liked to tell us how he was totally worthy of facing the Spirit Cave, I doubt he would have gotten this far even if he had smashed through the flimsy wooden gate.  Wu, however, has obtained what is rightfully hers. The Dragon Amulet, which was brought along with her from Dirge twenty years ago.  As a bit of an interface spoiler, the Amulet tab has actually been in the menu since the beginning, although obviously it didn't have much of anything there until now. We picked up this Flawed Warrior Gem along with the amulet, and as you can see it gives us a +1 boost to our Body attribute. Other gems give us boosts to our stats or conversation skills, or have more special effects that I'll mention whenever we get some of the more interesting gems. Right now, let's just jam this in one of the three slots and see what else the Spirit Cave has in store for us.  [Even mindless spirits may be drawn to you, just as they were confined here. In achieving your true power, you become a target that many will not be able to resist.] Speaking of mindless spirits, here's three of them!  These guys are not too strong, although we do want to keep an eye on the one with the polearm because polearm guys in this game are jerks.  One of the spirits manages to set himself on fire by jumping right into one of the torches. Good job.  Of course, we have to use Legendary Strike against spirit enemies since our weapon is useless against them. That makes it an even bigger pain to deal with the polearm ghost since his reach is so much longer than ours, but he eventually goes down.  After we dispatch the spirits, we head towards another sealed gate.   [Hold up the amulet you found in this room][The amulet glows brighter, and suddenly the inscription on the clay seal is clearly legible]  [Seek the source of this problem, and eradicate it. That is your purpose and burden. I hope that the basics that I have taught you will aid you in setting everything right.] Just like before, the seal breaks and we can go through.  There is nothing in the tunnel except for yet another gate, so let's go check that out.  [Not all spirits succumb to bestial rage. A strong will can transcend death. These beings may have powers beyond any living foe, and intelligence to beguile and confuse. All will suffer if the dead remain this way. Soon you must leave Two Rivers. Seek the source of this problem, even if it leads to the heart of the Empire. I have old friends who may guide you, but I have old enemies, too. The cave is secure; meditate on what you see here. When you leave, all will be changed.] You know how this works by now.  Past this final gate, we encounter an FMV. I'm not sure why they chose to make a 16-second clip for an old man ghost slowly walking towards you, but that's what happened. I will also mention that the FMVs are stretched when the game is played in widescreen mode, because of course they are.    So yeah, this is the Old Master, whose tomb we saw earlier and who set up that "puzzle" with the lion statue. He obviously died long ago, but his spirit still wanders down here, most likely because of the whole thing with the dead not passing on to the underworld as they're supposed to be. I would've assumed he died before all that started, but who knows.   Master, student, farmer... whatever I was, I should be dust. Instead, I am pulled to nowhere. Frustration! The way is blocked, the shepherd is gone! Cannot escape the living. Milling... stinking... you cloud the way! He's very rude, I must say. Must have gone insane while wandering around as a restless spirit.  What will become of the world if no souls are replenished? Eventually there will be an end. You are blind to the danger, blind to the truth. You can only understand if you see. I will make you see. I will make you understand!It was mentioned in one of the earlier updates, but basically the way the cycle of life works in Jade Empire is that a person's spirit is eternal; it passes through the underworld and is then reincarnated in another body. However, if the spirits of the dead can't get to the underworld and therefore can't reincarnate, the world is in serious trouble before long.  In any event, we need to fight the Old Master and a couple of other spirits he summons.  I remember this fight being kinda hard on my very first playthrough back in the day. It's really not, and I have no idea what I was doing wrong back then. The Old Master can use ice magic, but he's got so little health that you can take him out with ease.   He does manage to drop a big block of ice on our head just as he dies, which is very rude of him.  His buddies go down just as easily. This was technically a boss fight, but if it wasn't for the following scene I wouldn't have bothered to put up a video of the fight. VIDEO: A Mysterious Spirit  Once the spirit of the Old Master has been taken care of, Wu begins her meditation.  Before she can really meditate on what she's learned in the Spirit Cave today, though, something interrupts her.     We find ourselves back in a cave, but this is clearly not the same one we were in. This one has more of a water motif going on.    As Wu wonders where she is and how she got there, something materializes behind her.   Another spirit, in the form of a woman in blue. She certainly doesn't look anything like the ghosts we've been fighting.   She also doesn't seem to be hostile, and actually beckons Wu to come closer.  It was hard to see in the low-quality FMV, but this spirit has what appear to be scales on the side of her head and her "hair" seems to be made of water. It looks like it flows like water, at least, which doesn't come across in the screenshots but is quite obvious in the video.     I do not have strength to answer. I am cut open, and the way to the underworld is shut. Spirits are lost with no shepherd, no guardians. You must restore us. The amulet is a focus; it will guide you. But when you know both sides of the veil of death, ability alone will save you. I have a moment of power, a window to grant knowledge of a primal energy. You must choose between ice and fire, and I will grant the skill to bring them to your hands.Whoever this spirit is, she seems to have something to do with the wheel of reincarnation, and she also appears to know exactly who (and what) we are. Not only that, but she's going to teach us a magic style, which will come in very handy against the undead.   This, of course, means that we can only pick one for now but will be able to learn the other element later if we wish.  I find the flame to be more useful. It does more damage, which is always a good thing, and it can immolate enemies which is also handy.  Is this the kind of style Master Li cautioned Gao against using?This is the exact same style Gao uses, so yes.  I can do no more... I must fade. Pity those spirits that have grown twisted. You will come to know their pain when life leaves you. Pity the world if you fail, Spirit Monk, for you are the last.   As we return to the Spirit Cave from... wherever that was, a portal opens next to Wu.  We were told to meditate here for some time, but if this portal is showing up it must mean we're done here. We don't know how long we spent talking to the spirit, anyway -- in the real world it may well have been a day even though it only felt like a few minutes.  And yes, we have our first magic style. Using magic drains our chi, but the cost can be reduced by investing some skill points into the style. Most importantly, being able to throw fireballs means we now have a ranged attack, so enemies with long weapons just got slightly less annoying.   There are some goodies laying around in the cave, probably the most important being the first Iron Palm scroll. There are also a couple of scrollstands for us to take a look at before we leave, so let's do that.      Now that we are seemingly all done down here, we just have to walk into the portal. Hopefully Master Li has an explanation for what we saw here.     Apparently, that was not part of the plan.  A vision? Ah... of course you did. A natural reaction to the great amount of information I have placed before you. It may have something to do with your amulet. Er... tell me, did you learn anything about the destiny that stretches before you? Or what has led you this far? She said I was the last Spirit Monk. What does that mean? Be careful, I do not want you to be... misled by sources I cannot anticipate. Your people had warriors by that name. I regret that my actions caused their downfall. Twenty years ago the Empire was mired in drought. Your people revered the Water Dragon, so their temple of Dirge was the ideal place to ask the heavens for help. But the Water Dragon governed more than just moisture. The drought was part of the natural order, and not for mortals to alter. The Spirit Monks denied us access. The Emperor was incensed. He asked me to plan a display of power that would force their compliance. As our armies marched, I realized how wrong we were.  What else did this vision reveal? You were only to retrieve the amulet, learn to place gems in it, and meditate on your future. I don't want you to be distracted.Before we can answer, Jing Woo barges in.    That doesn't sound good at all.  No, Master Li. There is no sign of her. Your appearance put Gao's disgrace out of my mind, but it would seem that your... early exit from the caves has come at just the right time.  What better way to show mastery over your abilities than to turn them towards helping your fellow student? Seek her out. I doubt she is in the school, and someone would have seen her if she was in the village. You might want to try the surrounding marshland.  You learned in the cave how single gems are viewed as trinkets and used by self-professed healers and would-be sorcerers, but you can unlock their full potential. Make sure you have everything you need when you leave to find Dawn Star. Do not cloud your mind with anything else. When you return, your course will be clear. Master Li hands us 250 silver and sends us on our way. We can talk to the other students if we want to, but none of them have anything particularly useful to say. It seems like Gao was in quite a hurry to leave for some reason, and it doesn't really take a rocket scientist to figure out that he probably had something to do with Dawn Star's sudden disappearance.  We can now buy gems from Smiling Mountain and Fen Do. Neither of them sells any particularly good ones, but we can afford another one of Smiling Mountain's special techniques so let's buy that. Unfortunately, we can't quite get both. Maybe if I had screwed over Kia Min in her sidequest...  This kid is all right, none of the other students really give a poo poo about Dawn Star.  I always thought these loading screen images were kind of terrible. Dawn Star looks weirdly off-model here, although the widescreen stretch-o-vision probably isn't helping matters.  wait what   And why has none of you tried to put out the fire?  I wonder what could have been in that sack!  Seriously guys, you could've at least put out the flames. Poor Si Pat probably died instantly, but still. Even though he didn't have any dignity in life, that doesn't mean he shouldn't have some in death.  I WONDER  I also wonder what on earth is going on with this woman's eyes.  These villagers don't have anything useful to say, so let's just leave them. We can ask if they thought it might have been a person in the sack, but they apparently couldn't tell.  Fen Do finally got some stuff in stock, including a few gems. We buy an Inferior Charm Gem (Charm +2).  Here, by the way, are our attributes and stats as well as our conversation skills.  On our approach towards the town gate, we run into some of Gao's men looking over what appears to be the lifeless body of the gate guard. Did Gao kill him as well?    The young master thought you might come after him, so he left us here to slow you down. You were lucky against those bandits, but we're not so easy to push around. We're really not in the mood to grapple with these morons right now.  No wonder Gao the Lesser didn't want to face you. If you want to go after him, just go. It's not worth fighting with you. So much for not being easy to push around.  The gate guard turns out to be alive after all, so we help him up and see if he has any information on Gao.    Gao! That spoiled little noisy cricket! He hit me without cause! You're lucky to be alive. Gao murdered a student on his way to you. That repulsive... I wish I'd known ahead of time. You know, before he hit me. Gate guards. We're an unappreciated lot. I'm sorry about that student. I truly am. Did he have Dawn Star with him? I didn't see her. He was dragging a large sack and I asked if he needed help. He said, "No, just the key to the gate," and then he conjured this ball of flame around his hand. I don't really remember what happened next. I might have passed out. No one's ever threatened me before!What a hero.  There's only one place he could have gone if he left the village. The path leads past the fields to the swamps. What did he do? Why would he resort to attacking me just to leave the village? Holy poo poo! A main character in an RPG actually manages to figure something out on their own!   Will do.  And thus, we leave Two Rivers for, presumably, the first time since we arrived here with Master Li. Next time, we'll be exploring the swamp. See you then. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Sep 8, 2017 |
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Dec 11, 2016 19:30
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Fortunately, the swamp level is really short. There's a couple of fights and one simple sidequest, and that's pretty much it.
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Dec 11, 2016 22:32
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Xander77 posted:Or if you grabbed the chest full of money during the village attack... (then refused to give it back to its rightful owner)
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Dec 12, 2016 13:05
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The Spirit Cave is a strange place with strange powers. 
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Dec 15, 2016 13:09
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Voting time has ended and option A - the assassin - has clearly run away with it. Romancing shall commence once we get that far.
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Dec 16, 2016 00:36
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Yeah, I meant to talk to him earlier but just kinda forgot about him at some point. He'll also mention that he never really wanted to be a gate guard, but it was either that or working the fields at his grandfather's farm.
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Dec 17, 2016 03:12
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Episode 05: Red Skies Last time, we learned from a mysterious spirit that Wu is the last Spirit Monk. Before we could learn more from Master Li, we found out Gao has kidnapped Dawn Star. There is only one way Gao could have gone, and that is to the swamp outside Two Rivers.  Here we are. It's... well, it's a swamp. It's very drab and boring, just like any self-respecting swamp level in a video game. That said, we're here to find Dawn Star, so we should get a move on before Gao gets too big of a head start.   Naturally, the swamp is infested with all manner of scum, and we barely get to take ten steps before we overhear bandits threatening some poor bastard.  Apparently, the local ruffians aren't too pleased about Gao's mercenaries running around the swamp, or about us being here for that matter.    Now that we've murdered/horribly injured our first men outside Two Rivers, we should probably find out why the bandits were threatening Merchant Hing here.   Merchant Hing is voiced by Jeff Page, who you may know better as Conrad Verner from the Mass Effect games. Nothing special about that, really, because BioWare uses the same voice actors all the time, just thought it was funny to hear Conrad's VA voicing another hapless moron.   We were traveling to Two Rivers. I bring goods between the farms that line the valley. I knew we were getting too close to the marshes. Why was I so foolish? Of course these thieves would strike at my beautiful Fen. I can't leave without her. They'll work her to death, or eat her, or worse! Can you do anything? Please? If I see her, I'll do what I can. I thank you, and my Fen will thank you when she is returned to me.I decided to give Wu a new portrait, because that render didn't look anything like her in-game model. Of course that one also stood out more, but this should be okay as well. If it's not, please let me know.  We'll keep an eye out. It would've helped if Hing could have told us what Fen looks like, but if we beat up every bandit in this swamp I'm sure we'll run across someone who knows something about her.  We also leveled up during the fight. I'm not showing off the leveling from here on, because there usually isn't that much to say about it. If there is something interesting, I'll point it out.  As we make our way forward, we're greeted by a cutscene.  Someone's being attacked by Gao's men, but doesn't seem to be intimidated by them in the slightest.    Being surrounded by Gao's soldiers doesn't bother him much either...   ...and as such he proceeds to murder the poo poo out of them with his staff.   He also clearly doesn't mind finishing off a defeated opponent.  When he's done with all the murdering, he notices Wu looking on and approaches her.  This is a very reasonable response on her part. We have no idea who this person is, aside from the fact he's a skilled combatant and fights without mercy. For all we know, he's just another bandit.  A misunderstanding? I still say we had a very appropriate reaction to a staff-wielding maniac approaching us after effortlessly killing half a dozen trained soldiers, but sure, let's call it that.    I don't picture a thoughtful and perceptive emperor fighting in a swamp. I see your point. There are differences. Tien was a knowledgeable man, whereas I feel that a person can sometimes think too much. I don't believe I need to explain myself beyond that.Sagacious Zu is obviously a man of few words. Still, though... why live in this swamp? I doubt he's staying here for the great weather and picturesque scenery.  I meant nothing. It's just that I was trained fairly well, so I recognize when someone else is skilled. If you are not an enemy, why are you out here?Seriously, there's a perfectly fine town right next to the swamp and you even visit it regularly. I'm sure he has his reasons.  Besides, I have already shown that I have no love for the more common kinds of filth roaming out here. Why were you fighting Gao's mercenaries? If you know that name you know the type of men the family employs. I wonder... does their increased presence in the marsh have anything to do with why you are here? Gao the Lesser? I know the family. This is a brazen act, even for them, but now I understand why their men are clearing a path through the marsh. No wonder you came out here as you did; you're looking to rescue someone. You probably gave no thought to your own safety. That is very selfless of you. I tend to think more... efficiently. I did hear something about a camp. They seem to be killing bandits so they won't be disturbed. There wasn't much more. I just wanted some peace and quiet. You must know the swamp well. Can you lead me in the right direction?I mean, you have a unique character model and I'm pretty sure we saw your silhouette in the party screen (and you were on this area's loading screen as well), so we all know where this is going. Let's get to it, shall we?  What? You'll just sit here in the swamp for the rest of your life then? Fine.   I'm sorry. I'm sure. Thanks for nothing, Zu. Have fun doing whatever it is you do around here, I'm off to kick Gao in his dumb smug face again.   Well, that's more like it.  I can refuse some fool determined to get lost in the swamp, but I doubt your friend earned her fate. Gao the Lesser shouldn't get such a prize without a fair fight. Now come, we have some catching up to do. We'll find them. Like I said, they can't get out in that direction. Not on foot. Also, he totally pulled that excuse from his rear end, but we're not gonna ask about it further. Not that we can do so at this point, anyway. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.  Let's go. The main camp is to the north, but there are soldiers all around this area. If you want to find trouble, let's do it quickly.  Zu has joined the party, and we should not believe what the game is saying about him being a valuable asset in battle because he's just as useless at fighting as Dawn Star. His support ability isn't that great either and he's generally a bit boring, so I rarely roll with him unless the plot requires it or he has unique dialogue with an NPC. He is also a Closed Fist character, so he disapproves of all kinds of altruistic deeds. Not to the extent of MORRIGAN DISAPPROVES (-10), but he's still a bit of a drag at times.   Now before we go anywhere, there is a scrollstand we need to look at. Priorities, you know. This scroll has some information on ogres, which we haven't seen yet but that'll change soon enough.  As Zu helpfully informs us, we have two paths to the north. It doesn't matter which path we take because they both converge to the same location, and in fact the most efficient way to do this is to explore both paths. There's plenty of EXP to be gained, and the paths are also very short so it doesn't take much time to check out both of them. This whole area is actually very short and linear, if you skip all dialogue you can easily get through the swamp in a couple of minutes. In any event, let's start with the path on the right.   I guess we may have found the Flower of the Fields.   Let's just do a bit of pest control first.   I thought I was saved when they killed the bandits that raided my husband's wagon, but these soldiers were no better. You have my gratitude.  Oh. Oh my. At least we didn't call her Fen, that would have been awkward. Well, more so.  Zu, at least, seems quite amused by the situation. I didn't think he had a sense of humor.  You aren't the Flower of the Fields that Hing mentioned?I guess that's a safe assumption to make at this point.  Fen! Come!  Moo.  I knew this great fighter would save you. I couldn't leave without you. The cart needs your strength to pull it.    Great Dragon give me strength Have either of you seen a man named Gao? Gao? One of the soldiers said someone with that name is at a camp to the far north. Of course, he may have been speaking of someone more important. Perhaps the camp goat! I prayed for your safe return, dear, but the cart will not move itself. You will be lucky if I don't make you pull it while the ox rides. She is clearly important enough. This has all been fascinating, but is there a reward or something?  Yes, dear. Do I have to slaughter that thing for you to show me some attention? No, dear. Are you lying again? No, dear. Are you listening to me? No, dear. Wonderful. Let's forget that whole episode ever happened and check the rest of this path.  This is the camp Sing Wa was talking about, but as mentioned we're not going there just yet because there is a whole other path to explore.  At least someone bothered to build something resembling a bridge on this path so we don't need to wade knee-deep in swamp water. Not that it makes any difference to us at this point, since we've already spent some time doing exactly that.  The left path has a couple of Gao's men, who mistake us for bandits.  Fortunately, some actual bandits show up to correct them.   We proceed to kill them all. There's not much of a difference between Gao's men and regular bandits, really.  And this is the end of the left path. We're right back at the mercenary camp, and standing next to us is quite an interesting contraption. We'll get a better look at it soon.   Just got to take care of business first. We can actually see the contraption a bit better from here, looks like a big mosquito of some kind.  Zu went and got himself knocked out. Good job. The cutscene made him look competent in a fight, but I guess not. What we're doing here is the area attack of the Dire Flame style, in which you conjure up this fire-spewing dragon to immolate anyone foolish enough to be in its area of effect. The problem with this attack is that it's massively slow and you can still get damaged while doing it, which is one reason why I'm a bit low on health here (another reason is that I am bad at video games).  Huh, one of them managed to stay alive. Good for him, he'll tell us what we need to know.  Fine. Just tell me what I want to know. Yes, I can do that. Whatever you want.Hm, he's more co-operative than I expected.    Well, we read that scroll earlier so we know about ogres, but demons? So far we've been fighting mostly bandits and the occasional spirit and have barely heard about demons even being a thing. I think if you speak to Si Pat and ask him to list all the fighting styles, he'll mention transformation styles that will allow you to change into a creature or even a demon, but that's about it.  Why did he kidnap Dawn Star? I don't know. He just said it was very important that he get her tonight. He brought a few groups of us over for it. We didn't take her; we made Gao do that himself. I know we shouldn't have let him talk us into any of this, but he doubled our pay. It was just one woman. Compared to some things... well, all I'll say is that this wasn't the worst thing done by a Gao lately. What do you mean? Look, that's all I can say. Just let me go. I won't be any more trouble for you. If I go back to Gao's father, I'll be killed as a failure. Yep, Closed Fist all right. He's usually fairly pleasant so you kinda forget about that, but then he chimes in with "FAILURE SHOULD BE PUNISHABLE BY DEATH" or something to that effect.  Get out of here. I'll follow Gao into the cave. We don't kill surrendering opponents. What the poo poo, Zu? Maybe he thinks this guy will go back on his word and tell Gao the Greater or whatever, but I highly doubt sparing this random mook's life will turn out to be our undoing.  The merc runs off. Before we head into the cave, let's just explore this camp and steal everything not nailed down.  BLARGHFGHLWell, that's a dick move. Many loot chests in Jade Empire are trapped in various ways, and you get hurt if you don't manage to focus evade the trap. Before this, the game has not told you that is even a mechanic.  I may have accidentally pressed A when the trap activated. I like to interpret this line as Zu making fun of us.  Yes, thanks. We can also get some gems that increase our chance to evade traps, as well as ones that let us see which containers are rigged. Right now, there is no way to tell.  Let's just get into this cave before we embarrass ourselves any further.  This cave could maybe be considered a mini-dungeon, although there is barely anything to it so I don't know if it really counts as one. We can just about see there are a couple of paths we can take, so let's see if we can find Gao and Dawn Star.  Well, first we find two ogres on the path to the right. There's also something going on further ahead, seems to be another ogre walking around.  Walking around or, more accurately, fighting Gao.   Gao has no time for any of that nonsense. If you didn't read the scroll earlier, this cutscene also gives you a hint on how to deal with ogres. They are very weak to both fire and ice.   Gao manages to cause a cave-in by knocking the ogre down. Either the impact was much larger than it appeared, or these are load-bearing ogres.   At least Dawn Star seems to be doing okay and got free at some point, which is nice to see.  I wonder how long they've been at this.  Be careful, that means fresh enemies for us. These caves harbor strange creatures. The path to the right has two ogres, whereas the path to the left only has one. Starting with the path that has fewer ogres is generally a decent idea. Both paths are actually dead ends and there's only a couple of chests at each of them, but since we're here let's fight some ogres.  As you may have figured out, ogres are very strong but also extremely slow. One of them is no problem at all.  Fire works well, as Gao demonstrated in the cutscene. That one fireball is about to hit Zu, but there's no friendly fire here so no harm done.  The two ogres at the other dead end aren't really that much more of an issue. As long as you can avoid their clubs, you should have no trouble whatsoever.  dammit These chests have nothing good in them, by the way. This one has a bit of silver and the other contains a Scholar's Gem of Fate, which increases the drop rate of focus powerups at the cost of a -1 reduction to Mind. Can you say "vendor trash"?  I do quite like those glowing mushrooms. They make this cave a little bit less boring to look at.  Oh, and speaking of inconveniences.   Toad demons are no joke. They're much tougher than ogres and their attacks are harder to avoid, and being demons they are immune to magic styles. They're also too fat to be affected by area attacks from any style.  Oh, and their attacks poison you on top of being pretty strong in the first place.  They have a couple of special attacks, the first of which involves their tongue. I don't know how much damage that does or what status effects it causes, because I'm absolutely not going to get hit by that.   Like I said, magic won't work at all.  This is the toad demon's other special attack. He charges at you and tries to hit you with his massive gut, which (I'm assuming) does massive damage but is pretty easy to dodge because it's telegraphed from a mile away.  Eventually I figure out that weapons work just fine, and Fortune's Favorite makes fairly quick work of the demon.  And we get our first transformation style! That's right, you can be the toad.  Honestly, I've never used transformation styles very much because even though they're powerful and it's fun to stomp around as one of these guys, they tend to be a bit too slow and lumbering for my liking. There's Gao and Dawn Star. As I said, the cave is a very short area and only takes a couple of minutes to explore.   Gao reacts to our presence in his usual dignified and understated manner.  Did he think we wouldn't come after him after he kidnapped our best friend?      I... don't like the sound of that.  You'll see. Death comes from above to ferret out your hidden master and his real name! Dawn Star was the only thing I wanted to save, and what thanks do I get? Nothing! So be it, I'll just kill you all and forget your pitiful little village ever existed! What have you done, Gao? You'll see. You've already lost, no matter what happens here. You'll see. I'll make you see!Yeah, that's what the ghost of the Old Master said, and look what happened to him. It does seem like Gao knows something we don't and it'd be nice if we could investigate that further, but that's unfortunately not an option here. Most dialog options we get here are of the  variety. If we have to fight this moron again (spoiler: we do), we'll get Dawn Star to help us out.  Actually, I think Dawn Star might want to kick Gao in his stupid face herself, but she'll have to settle for support duty.  I'm pretty sure everyone except the main characters know where this is going. Right now, though, all we can do is fight Gao once more. VIDEO: Boss: Gao the Lesser (again)  I don't know how, but Gao manages to hit us with a strong fireball from point-blank range. That was not pleasant.  Despite that minor setback and the fact he can now use his fire magic against us in the first place, Gao isn't that much tougher than he was in our previous encounter. Dawn Star's chi-restoring ability is of course extremely useful here, and the game even drops a chi powerup for us.  Gao probably didn't expect us to also be able to throw fireballs. What better way to take him down than the very same magic he's been using against us and been all smug about?   Unfortunately, while I spend several seconds setting up my fire-breathing dragon attack, Gao takes the opportunity to heal... and keep healing while on fire. Welp, so much for all that progress we've made in this fight.  One nice thing about the combat in Jade Empire is that enemies can also run out of chi. Gao used all of his on healing, so now all we need to do is beat him up some more and that should be the end of that.  The end of Gao the Lesser.  He had to know that someone in the village would come for me... although I suspected it would be you. I wouldn't let anything happen to you, Dawn Star. Well, I am grateful I have you as a friend. I've always respected your strength. I'm surprised Gao didn't have an interest in you, instead of me.   Yes. Yes, he was. About the things he was saying before we fought him, though...   Never mind that, why are his arms covered in brown gunk?  I don't know, but I think we should head back to the village. Agreed. I want Master Li to know that we are both safe. It's too bad, though; he wanted to reach Gao. I'm sure of it. Gao just seemed to get more and more bitter. He didn't respond well to discipline. It's too bad. Zu, head for the entrance. Dawn Star and I will clear the rest of the cave.We could leave immediately, but there are goodies to be found.  That mosquito-looking thing we saw earlier? That's a flying machine. The world of Jade Empire has a hint of... magical tech? I guess you could call it that. We haven't seen much of that technology yet, but we'll be seeing all kinds of interesting contraptions later on.  Gao drops this gem, which gives us a +5 boost to Intimidation and +1 to Body and Spirit. Pretty good, although I usually prefer to use Charm or Intuition rather than Intimidation.  I'm not sure what the point is of having these spirit and focus shrines AFTER the boss fight. I certainly would've liked to top up my chi before fighting Gao.  Viper's Wit is a technique (Focus +2, Charm +1), not to be confused with the Viper martial style.  Here's what evading a trap looks like. Usually there is some kind of dodge animation as well, but maybe I was too far from the chest for it to actually trigger.   This is the first scroll of the Viper style, which we won't be seeing in this playthrough because it's a Closed Fist style. I'd show it off in the bonus Zither of Discord update, but the save editor doesn't seem to let you add or replace fighting styles.  That's all the loot, let's get out of here.  I didn't realize you took that much of a risk getting to me. Thank you. I didn't want to fight them all, but there was no real choice. I heard Gao yelling at them to kill any bandits who might approach. I guess they wouldn't stop to ask questions. His mercenaries didn't seem too eager to follow me into the cave, though. It seemed like they were humoring him.Yeah, that's what the merc told us as well.     An entire fleet of flyers and some kind of airship. That doesn't look promising.   You may have won a victory over Gao the Lesser, but it looks like he put things in motion that have outlived him. What? What do you mean? These machines have weapons. They drop casks that explode on impact. There will be soldiers on the ground as well.Definitely does not sound promising.  He kidnapped you so you wouldn't get caught in an attack? It doesn't matter! We have to get back! The students... everyone will need our help! No Zu, we're not going to sit in the swamp while Gao's flyers bomb the town.   I doubt there are two people in the Empire that know *how* they work. It's a baffling combination of magic and artifice. How do you know so much about it? I've seen this kind of attack before. The tools used are different, but it's the same kind of destruction.Wouldn't that be a different kind of attack?   There is a handle attached to something like the reins of an ox yoke. You move it left and right, forward and back. It should swim through the air fairly smoothly. Will you come to help us, Zu? You seem to have a good heart. If... you are intent on returning, I will accompany you. I have already done more than I wanted, but I could not avoid this forever. I'm sure that's nothing and will never come up again.  Perhaps I am imagining it. We will discuss it another time. I hope we are not too late.  At least we got it into the air. Flying it and landing it might be tougher, but so far so good.     It seems we've got everything under control as far as flying this thing goes. Now all we have to do is head towards Two Rivers and hope we are not too late. You know how BioWare's games occasionally have vehicle sections spicing things up? KotOR had the swoop racing and the space battles, Mass Effect had the Mako (and Hammerhead, but I'll pretend that doesn't exist) Well, Jade Empire has its own take on these. I don't know if there was a gas leak or what at BioWare's offices when they were coming up with concepts for Jade Empire's minigames, but somehow we ended up with... well, this:  VIDEO: A vertically scrolling shoot 'em up   It's a pretty involved one as well. We can use various powerups (Radiant Aura is the only one we have for now, it's a shield that absorbs a bit of damage) and upgrade our main cannon to fire two or three shots instead of one at a time. As far as shoot 'em ups go, this definitely isn't Radiant Silvergun or even Ghost Pilots, but you can't blame BioWare for half-assing it.  While this is very, very weird, it also works quite well in this particular section of the game. As we fly over Two Rivers, we can see the town on fire below us and I think this is more effective than a simple cutscene would be. This is the school, and it has been hit hard already.  The town has not fared any better. We are, indeed, too late. Not that we'd have had much chance against a whole bombing fleet anyway, I suppose.     We eventually land on the beach. Everything is destroyed, but maybe we can still find someone who survived.    We will find survivors. There has to be someone left. I hope you are right. Master Li wouldn't let this happen. Not without a fight. Do what you can together. We will meet in the heart of your school.Zu runs off, presumably to scout ahead. He seems to know a lot about what's going on, so perhaps he can find something that could help us. Maybe not. Doesn't seem like there's much to be done for Two Rivers at this point.  This is not how it was supposed to go. We were supposed to beat up Gao, rescue Dawn Star and come back in time for a celebration at the beach.  We immediately find out Old Ming didn't make it.  At least it seems he died doing what he liked best, tending to the statue of the Emperor. This whole section has pretty great atmosphere, bolstered by the fact we've actually spent time in this area, knew all the townspeople and therefore have a connection to Two Rivers. Obviously, it was the boring tutorial village and I doubt anyone's too broken up by its destruction, but at least they gave us some reason to care.  I think that was Lin.   They said no survivors, so there better be no survivors.  Looks like we have a few more peasants to put down. Let's just make it quick. Well, if you insist.  Things aren't getting any better as we approach the school. No sign of survivors.  Wait, perhaps I spoke too soon. Looks like someone's still fighting.  Kia Min is still kicking rear end, thanks to us helping her out earlier. Had we screwed her over and given her the bearded tongue grass, this fight would have had a very different outcome.  I'll look to the villagers and save as many as I can. Go! It's a bit hard to tell in the screenshot, but there are a couple of other people escaping ahead of Kia Min. At least some made it out okay, it seems.  Not that you could tell by looking at the state of the school. There's something going on in the center ring, but it doesn't look good.  Indeed, it's just one of Gao's men murdering yet another student.   Of course he's gloating. With the exception of that one merc whose life we spared back in the swamp, everyone who works for (or is related to) Gao is required to be as much of a raging dickhead as possible.   I think we have a pretty good idea why, but might as well ask.   Men! Gao the Greater wants this village cleared! Get the job done!  A couple of waves of Gao's mercs for us to mop up, they can't really do much to us at this point.  The lieutenant eventually joins the fray with his Leaping Tiger claws.  He has more health than the low-level mooks around him and hits a bit harder, but dodging his attacks isn't that big of a deal.   This is a support style we haven't seen before. It's called Storm Dragon, and it's one of the more useful ones especially if you want to do harmonic combos. "Shocked" status causes damage over time, although the amount is rather minimal.  The fight takes a bit longer than I would've liked, because this dick keeps avoiding that last hit and his martial style has a range advantage over mine. So, I end up throwing a fireball in his face.  Jing Woo emerges from the wreckage, badly wounded.  Shhh. We've chased off all of Gao's men. You'll be safe now.    It turns out Gao's men weren't responsible for this whole thing. They were involved, obviously, but it seems the Lotus Assassins did the heavy lifting and Gao's goons got to mop up what was left.   Death's Hand himself arrived to oversee the proceedings. No wonder almost nobody made it.   Jing Woo finally succumbs to his injuries. It's a miracle any of the students even survived this long against such a horde.   Master Li was taken when it began. He went without a fight, giving them what they wanted, but afterwards the students... they were killed anyway. The figure your friend spoke of is Death's Hand, the leader of the Lotus Assassins. This... student was strong to live as long as he did. Woo mentioned a woman giving orders. What about her? A lieutenant, perhaps? Death's Hand leads all others. He would not appear unless this was important. He usually acts behind the scenes. I don't know why they were so intent on taking your Master Li, but they never attack without purpose. Master Li told me that he was the Emperor's brother. Gao overheard. That's... not possible. Sun Li the Glorious Strategist was the Emperor's brother and the head of the Imperial Army. Your Master Li cannot be him. I'm pretty sure this is the first time Dawn Star actually learns about Master Li being the Glorious Strategist, although I suppose Gao may have mentioned it at some point.  And besides, the Glorious Strategist would not have made such mistakes. What mistakes? Revealing himself, for one. For another, he would have known that giving himself up would not save your students. If Death's Hand is as vicious as you say, he had to try something. The Glorious Strategist would know his enemy, and if anything is true about Lotus Assassins, it's that they don't leave survivors. I should know. That would explain how he knew so much about the attack. Still, if Zu was still associated with them, he would've tried to kill us already and certainly wouldn't have helped us find Dawn Star.  I like it when these games let you pick a reasonable response.  You know a lot. We will have to talk about the source of that knowledge. Well, I guess this is still a reasonable thing to say here. Zu may not be a Lotus Assassin anymore and doesn't seem to be trying to actively kill us, but we'll still want to be on guard just in case because we still don't know much about him or what he may be planning.   I have to say - while the faces in Jade Empire occasionally end up in  territory, the expressions we see here are quite well done for the time. Especially Dawn Star's. It won't be stable enough to get to the Imperial City, but we might reach the trading village of Tien's Landing. All trade routes lead to the heart of the Empire. If we are lucky we can find someone to give us passage. If we're lucky. And so, with Master Li missing and most of their friends dead, our heroes leave the ruins of Two Rivers - their past - behind them for good.  As for the future, all they know for sure right now is that they must find Master Li, and to do so they need to get to the Imperial City via Tien's Landing... somehow. Wu and Dawn Star have spent their entire lives being guided by Master Li, and now that that guidance is gone it's pretty much off to the unknown for them.  Let's go.  
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Dec 21, 2016 |
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Dec 21, 2016 21:02
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Huh, I must have missed an option in the editor then. I saw that you could remove styles, but didn't notice a way to add them. I'll give it a shot.
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Dec 21, 2016 21:37
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resurgam40 posted:And that's another memorable bit, the Flower of the Fields quest. If you can, you should listen to the voice acting for that part, because it, particularly Sing Wa, really makes it.
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Dec 21, 2016 22:09
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Glazius posted:Did doing whatever it was to the Water Dragon even make it rain, in the end?
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Dec 24, 2016 18:17
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Episode 06: The Landing Last time, everything went to hell as Two Rivers was burned to the ground, nearly all of our old friends were killed, and Master Li was taken away by the Lotus Assassins. We know we need to get to the Imperial City, but our first stop will be the nearby town of Tien's Landing because our Mosquito flyer doesn't do long distances all that well.  If we wanted to, we could've had another shoot 'em up section after leaving Two Rivers. However, I decided to skip it by choosing the evade option instead of attack. I like the fact the game doesn't force you to do the flyer sections after the initial one, although we will still be seeing plenty of that stuff because there is a fairly important sidequest that involves a lot of flying and shooting.  This is what the cockpit of a Mosquito flyer looks like. We're experiencing some minor turbulence at the moment, but no worries, everything is under control.   Well, at least until a big chunk of our horizontal stabilizer snaps off.   After that, it's mostly a matter of finding a bit of ground that doesn't have too many people or buildings on it. Maybe also avoiding the cliffs. And the dam.  We've found some ruins and it looks like we might be able to land smoothly between the buildings. Just gotta keep it steady and...  ...dammit   And we're dead. We could've totally pulled that off if some idiot hadn't left a chunk of wall in the way. VIDEO: I can fly this thing, I sw--*CRASH*   Actually, we seem to be doing relatively well after that, we're moving and everything. Considering this was the first time our heroes were flying an aircraft (aside from Zu, possibly), that landing was a fairly decent effort.  It's a miracle we all survived unharmed. Uh... we did all survive, didn't we? I like the option, but the decent thing to do is ask if our friends are doing okay. How did we survive such a violent impact without so much as a scratch on any of us? The safety measures on these flyers must be outstanding.  A what? Maybe he could've mentioned this before we took off, although I guess we were leaving Two Rivers no matter what and it wasn't like there would've been wind maps lying around. Maybe one of Gao's men might've had one? Someone must have.  Huh, we could actually ask why Zu didn't mention wind maps earlier, although I didn't do so and therefore don't know what he says about it here. I'm gonna assume it's something similar to what I just wrote there.  And there's our first main goal for this section of the game: find a wind map.  Hey, just because the flyer has exploded into a million pieces and is currently on fire doesn't mean... eh, he's right. We need to find a replacement somehow, which would be our second main goal at the moment.  Ha! You make it sound so simple. Flyers and wind maps are rare things, even in the Imperial City. Out here they're all but unknown. Gao and his pirates used flyers to attack Two Rivers, and the Lotus Assassins who took Master Li had them, too. Somebody around here must know something about them. Don't worry, Dawn Star. I'll find a way to get us flying again. I'm... I'm sorry to get upset, but every second we're stuck here, Master Li gets farther away from us. We're near Tien's Landing. It's a small village, but maybe someone there knows where we can find a new flyer. If nothing else, I remember a clearing suitable for a camp. And if we can't find a flyer, we can always follow on foot. To the south of the village is a forest. A trade route leads through it to the Imperial City. The village is across the bridge and beyond a large marker stone. Look for the giant rock with a painting of a fish on it, and you'll know you're heading in the right direction. Let's get moving. Dawn Star, come with me. Very well. I'll wait here for now. It's not so different from the marsh, actually. More of an impending sense of doom, but that could just be your influence.What? Hey! Just because I almost got us killed in a flyer crash doesn't mean...  The Chapter 2 introduction is actually supposed to pop up at this point, but I thought the beginning of the update was a more appropriate place for it.  Oh, good. That'll explain the sense of impending doom, I assume.  It's just a bunch of ghosts, though. Convict ghosts, to be exact. We're going to assume these are ghosts of convicts who died and not inmates of a ghost prison, but whatever they are they're just a random trash mob and no different from the ghosts we've been fighting so far.   Once the ghosts are dealt with, Wu is hit by a sensation she remembers from earlier.  He carried a piece of your amulet. It was separated, broken apart, so your enemies could not find it easily. You have the first piece. It trains your abilities now.Huh. Wonder what happened to that Spirit Monk. I'm assuming he died since Wu is supposed to be the last of her order, but who knows.  These three pieces are physical, but there is one more. It cannot be found, only earned. This final piece is all that will save you in the end. A vision. The same creature I saw in the spirit cave at the school. You saw a vision? Strange that I could not make it out. Strong spirits are usually quite clear to me. Please tell me if you have any more. We shouldn't stay here. It... it isn't safe. There's so much pain and suffering in this place that I can barely think. What did Zu say again? A clearing near Tien's Landing across the bridge and south. It sounds simple enough. Lead the way, and I'll follow.Bringing Dawn Star to areas with a big spirit presence occasionally gives us some interesting dialogue. Sadly, she usually can't tell us when we're about to be ambushed by ghosts like she did here.  There's nothing of interest in this area near the flyer, aside from a destroyed focus shrine. Obviously, it doesn't work, not that we need it right now anyway.  Let's keep heading south. The scenery here is a bit brown and grey for my liking.  We can interact with this headstone, so let's check that out.  This is a cutscene, we didn't actually have to evade the trap.  If you mess with grave stones outside Tien's Landing, there's a good chance you disturb some spirits and get attacked by convict ghosts.  Like so. Nothing special about these guys, and I don't think they drop anything interesting either. Headstones do have money and items, so checking them is usually a good idea if you don't mind fending off a few angry spirits.  This must be the clearing that was mentioned before.  The bridge leads to the site of the Great Dam. We can't do anything with it right now, so let's keep moving.  Past the spirit font, we see this building we must pass through.  There's nothing inside except for these conscripts. I guess this is just a tunnel of some sort.  stupid 3rd person action cameras  Yep, nothing else in the tunnel. We should be pretty close to Tien's Landing when we come out.  However, it appears someone's been watching us.   If you've been paying attention, you'll recall we saw this person in the cutscene when we left Two Rivers. Now she's followed us all the way here.    At this point we don't know why she's following us, but she certainly knows how to make an entrance.   And she thinks we're working for Death's Hand. Perfect.  I don't suppose we can talk about this?  Oh, we can. Or at least we can try.   Death's Hand went too far in ordering its destruction, and Gao the Greater sought to profit from it. My retribution will end with them, but it will begin with you. Let's all say hi to Silk Fox. Technically we're not supposed to know her name because she never mentioned it in that conversation, but since the game helpfully points out her identity on the HUD there's no reason to pretend we don't know.  Despite talking a big game, Silk Fox is a complete pushover in this fight. She's less dangerous than a random trash enemy, so this doesn't take long at all.  When we get her health low enough, she yields.  Allowed. Uh huh. I don't think Silk Fox expected to fight a Spirit Monk, and now she's trying to save face and pretend we didn't completely clown her right there.  I am not in league with Gao or the Lotus Assassins. So it would appear. You lack their branding... but if you are not one of them, who are you? A monk? A mercenary? A bandit? You chase a great evil... larger than you realize. Leave, and you may survive. Others have tried to face Death's Hand, but were destroyed, as Two Rivers was.I don't know why she would even consider we might be bandits, we're far too competent for that to be the case. That said, Silk Fox seems to know a lot about Death's Hand and doesn't seem to think we have much of a chance against him. And to be fair, we'd get destroyed if we tried to fight him right now.  Your honor sends you toward peril, but you do not flinch from it. A trait of fools... and perhaps the occasional hero. I also seek answers from Death's Hand and his minions. If you truly oppose him, you will need to find your way to the Imperial City. Of course, only the Lotus Assassins can come and go as they please, thanks to Gao. Travel routes by land and water are blocked, but they use wind maps and flyers to further their goals here and in the surrounding forest.So we can't walk to the Imperial City, then. We have to find a flyer and a wind map.  Farewell. Gotta say, that's a hell of a vertical leap.  With Silk Fox gone, we're free to head towards Tien's Landing. There's the big fish rock Zu mentioned earlier, and past that to the right is the path to town.  So, obviously, we go left. The first thing we see is a small herd of goats doing goat stuff.  Any of you fellows seen a wind map around here or know where we could find one? No? Aw.  Maybe these gentlemen will be more talkative.  They are, but they also want to murder us so I doubt they'll be very helpful in our search.   I am a soldier of the Imperial Army, sent by Death's Hand to destroy anyone foolish enough to enter this place. Unfortunately, this includes you! Kill the peasant! This goes about as well for them as you might expect.  After the fight, this guy comes out of hiding and begs us not to kill him.   Even though I wear this uniform, I am no soldier. My name is Chen Yi. I'm just a simple peasant from the town of One Stone. These soldiers passed through my village a few weeks ago. One of them angered the Lotus Assassin who was in charge, and the Assassin killed him! As I was coming back in from the fields, they grabbed me to fill his place. They put this uniform on me--blood stains and all--and told me I was in the army!That... seems like it would be a rather ineffectual method of conscription.  Like, don't you even get any training? Arming random peasants who may or may not know which end of the sword you point at enemies doesn't seem like something the Imperial Army would do, even if the Lotus Assassins are actually calling the shots. What would the Glorious Strategist say?  Go. Leave here and never return.In any case, I let this poor fool go. If it turns out he was lying and he attacks us, well, he saw what happened to the last three guys who tried.  I want to say there are a couple of situations in BioWare games where you decide to show mercy on someone like this and they do in fact attack you afterwards, but I can't think of specific ones. There's that one asari merc in Mass Effect 2, but it's pretty obvious from the start that she's lying and just wants Shepard to lower their guard. Also, she doesn't attack you, she just runs off and you find out later that she was the murderer the cops were looking for.  Dawn Star approves, of course.  There's a focus shrine and a few chests in the watchtower. The loot is fairly inconsequential for the most part, but then there's this. The Silk Strings are a quest item that's completely useless to Wu, but our buddy Wei Shen will be able to make use of these in his very special episode later.  Traps? Pft.   This orb that has a picture of the amulet is a gem pickup. You very rarely see these, as you generally just get gems from containers or vendors and even when you get a drop from a boss it just goes straight into your inventory.  The path that leads to more ruins is crawling with spirits, and due to the danger it's locked right now. We need to find a key for the gate if we want to get in.   As we've finished looking around here for now, we can finally enter Tien's Landing.  Zu got bored of waiting and just came straight here. He seems to have missed all the action, as he doesn't mention seeing our fight with Silk Fox or anything like that.  Well, that's very thoughftul of him. We'll take a look at the gem in a bit.  I will stay here at this new camp unless you need me. It seems like a good enough place to base ourselves out of. Good Fortune (Intuition +5, Mind +1, Spirit +1) is quite a nice gem and will go into our amulet right now. That means we have gems equipped for all three of our conversation skills now.  Since we're at camp (well, we technically aren't, but close enough) it's a good time as any to have some conversations with our party members. Let's start off with Dawn Star.   Strange enemies, troubling plots; I will be glad when we can leave this place to find Master Li.Unfortunately, we just get the "I don't have anything important to say at the moment" conversation at this time. Everyone who has played Jade Empire should be quite familiar with these.  Maybe I just feel this way because of what happened at the school or what I fear will happen to Master Li. I just know we must be careful.We can also ask what Dawn Star thinks of the area we're currently in, which in this case is of course Tien's Landing.  I will... but I cannot help worrying, or thinking about what has happened to Master Li. It will be okay. We will save him. Yes, of course. I am glad you are strong in the face of all the death and destruction we've seen.Let's actually get to the camp now.    I don't want to think like that. We will set things right. We have to. Not that we won't be performing a whole lot of killing nonetheless, of course.   Okay, now that we're actually standing around this campfire here, let's see if we can get anything interesting out of Zu.  I have questions about you and the Lotus Assassins. I can assure you that I no longer share an allegiance with them. It was a short dalliance that ended on poor terms. Why did you leave them? I won't discuss that. Perhaps I will say more when I know *your* motives better, but for now, my past is my own. I am supposed to accept that answer? I wouldn't have much respect for you if you did, but it is all that I am going to offer right now.Oooo. Mystery man.  Still, he's got our back. Maybe later he'll tell us what went down with the Lotus Assassins.  It has been a long day, so we'll take a break here. When we continue, we'll explore the town of Tien's Landing and see if we can find the piece of the amulet that was mentioned by the spirit earlier. ----- DMorbid fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Jan 6, 2017 06:03
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I was so, so close to calling this update "Chinese Ninja Warrior". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVIpnoptwSQ
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Jan 6, 2017 13:22
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Episode 07: The Brave Last time, our heroes crashed their flyer outside the town of Tien's Landing, eventually reaching the town itself despite getting attacked by ghostly convicts and a mysterious warrior known as Silk Fox. Next order of business for us is to explore Tien's Landing and see if we can find 1) a new flyer, 2) a wind map so we don't crash that flyer, and 3) another piece of the Dragon Amulet, which is supposed to be around here.  Making it to Tien's Landing also gives us a new main menu background, at least on the rare occasions the game actually bothers to show it instead of the default one. This one looks quite nice, although the stretched logos bother me more than they probably should. I've looked for a proper widescreen patch that would fix these and the FMVs, but apparently there isn't one.  Here we are, at the lookout point next to our camp. We could stand here enjoying the sunset for a while longer, but we have more important things to do so let's get on with it. This and the next couple of updates are going to be very talky as we explore the town and chat up all the people.  Tien's Landing is one of the best-looking areas in the game, which is kind of a good thing because we're gonna be here for a while.  These women, on the other hand, look like they're leaving the place.   Huh. Well, that's not really the kind of thing we wanted to hear as soon as we arrived.  About that... you do know the way out of town is crawling with ghosts and bandits, right?    It's sure to be more exciting than this dead place. Though impulsive, my daughter Fuyao speaks truly. The Great Dam down river has opened, the river is too low and treacherous for anyone to navigate. We are cut off from the Empire. The people are starving and pirates terrorize the town. Our leader Minister Sheng seems powerless to do anything. So, we choose to try our luck in the wilderness.Things do sound quite bad around here, but at least your town is still standing and your friends haven't been murdered by the Lotus Assassins. And did I mention there were bandits and ghosts all over the wilderness? We were just there, you know.  You don't know the whole story. Minister Sheng would probably pay someone to close the dam, but nobody is brave enough to make the journey. There are dark things up there. Some claim it is ghosts, trying to torment us. Some think it is pirates. I don't know. All I know is that there seems to be no way to get the Great Dam closed again. I thank you for your concern. Most people only look out for themselves in days such as these. I have heard of the dangers: wild animals and worse men. Pirates and slavers who swoop down in their flyers on unwary travelers.Yeah, you know what they say about swooping. Still, we might be able to... liberate one of those flyers.  I brought Zu along for this first trip to town, as he has some interesting dialog a bit later.  Some believe there are even worse things in the wilderness: ghosts that torment the living. Still, it's better than sitting in Tien's Landing waiting to die.As much as I'd like to have an "yeah, about those ghosts... I just fought a dozen of them right outside the town so it's really not a good idea to leave" dialog option, there isn't one.  The dam is down river from us. When it was closed, the water backed up and drained very slowly, causing the level of the river to rise. Now that it is open, the water is flowing too fast and low where it flows at all. Most ships cannot weather it. The town is cut off. That is why we are leaving. Why did the Great Dam open? I don't know... Minister Sheng doesn't know. Nobody knows! But the town is dying, and I would rather try my luck out in the wilderness than stay here. I will let you be on your way.That is a great and in no way suicidal plan. I swear, if I end up having to free these two from slavers in a couple of hours...  If we ask about Fuyao's dad, Yifong implies he died and doesn't go into specifics.  Yifong and Fuyao head out to the wilderness, and we continue on towards the nearest large building. It seems there's some kind of commotion going on outside.   Wanna bet? Of course, he's not talking to us right now and is addressing the older lady in front of him.  This lady here, who doesn't have the time or patience for any of this nonsense.  I hate this town already.   All right, enough of that. These idiots are going down. For some reason, you get the option to just stand back and watch as they attack this lady. I'm not sure why you'd pick that, but you can if that is your thing.  Sure. Good luck with that!  These guys turn out to be sailors, and there's quite a few of them hanging around town. I'll try my best not to make too many Shenmue jokes when interacting with them, but I'm not promising anything.  They don't put up much of a fight.  And this is why I brought Zu along. It turns out he and Hui here are old acquaintances.  I know. After we spoke, I followed you. I... I wanted to be sure she was given a good home. You did well, Hui. Hui and I knew each other long ago. She was a soldier, and I... I needed her help. There was a child... an orpham. I knew Hui could find a good home for her. Nah, I don't think they're talking about Wu here, despite the top option assuming that to be the case. Not everything revolves around the player! Well, I guess it kinda does since we're the only ones who can fix the world. In any event, it might be better to just ask them who that kid was.  Where is this child now? She's... safe. That's all you need to know; she doesn't concern you. Besides, we don't have time to worry about something that happened almost twenty years ago. Yes, those are old worries. Thank you for your actions today, even if these men were no real threat. Just simple sailors frustrated at the shallow river that holds them there. There *are* pirates in the area, and they pose a far greater danger. You will likely encounter them... especially if you are the one I am waiting for. As Sagacious Zu mentioned, my name is Hui. Tell me, young woman. What is your master's name? We don't really know what's going on with Hui, and it might not be the best of ideas to blab about Master Li's true identity to everyone we meet, so let's just keep things simple.  So much for not worrying about things that happened twenty years ago, I guess!  Hui's word is also enough to convince Zu that we were telling the truth about Master Li being the Glorious Strategist. Maybe we can get something useful out of him next time we have a chat.  The Glorious Strategist was certain the path to the Imperial City would bring you here. He was also very specific about how I present my information to you. You must be ready.Of course the Glorious Strategist would expect his past to catch up to him one day, and he'd prepare accordingly for that situation.  I served under Sun Li and was one of the soldiers he trusted enough to contact after Dirge fell. Li knew the events there would have great consequences. He told me of the weeks-long siege, and how the Spirit Monks were slaughtered so his brother could take their temple. It was madness... the Emperor killed the Water Dragon itself! The Water Dragon... the Shepherd of the Dead, a goddess of rebirth. To try and steal her power; to even think it could be attempted... has any mortal ever shown such arrogance?How did he even manage to pull off something like that?  There are many beings that exist beyond our experience. The heavens are governed by a Celestial Bureaucracy. Each facet of existence is managed by a specialized attendant. Most appear to have little influence, but some, like the Water Dragon, have a portfolio that grants exceptional status. She was said to have governance over the Great Wheel. She was not a maker, but all life that ended passed her gaze before returning to the earth in another form. Sun Hai sought rebirth for his Empire at the cost of the natural order. Her body was taken to the palace as a grim trophy of the power that ended the Long Drought. All the while, the people hailed the Emperor as a hero, ignorant of the price.We've touched on a lot of this stuff before, but this is the first time we really get an idea of what happened to the Water Dragon. This is also the first mention of the Celestial Bureaucracy, the pantheon of gods and spirits that govern all existence and presumably do a whole lot of paperwork.  Even a god is not invincible. They have their place, and it can be challenged. Sun Li could not stop the slaughter of the Spirit Monks. He fled the battle with you in his arms. Most believe Sun Li fell at Dirge... a lie spread by the Emperor. A handful of us knew that he lived, and we also learned the terrible price of his rebellion.I don't think he ever mentioned that last part of the story.  Oh.  In case you didn't yet figure out Death's Hand was really loving evil, here you go! He murders babies, or at least orders his goons to do that for him.  He probably didn't think his family would be harmed, but even had he known, he might still have saved you. Li knows you have a destiny to fulfill. You're the last of your kind.So because Wu is special and apparently the only one who may be able to fix this entire mess, Master Li would've sacrificed his own wife and child for... the sake of the greater good, I guess? Whether or not that is the case, I'm sure thinking about it will make her feel just great about herself.  It is time to continue your training, and I am honored to add to the basics that Sun Li instilled. A brief description should reinforce the style you saw me use.Actually, I was too busy beating up those sailors to pay attention to what Hui was doing alongside us, but never mind that.  I'm guessing she's going to teach us something useful. If Master Li specifically told her to teach us whatever this style is, it can't be a complete waste of our time.  Magic and weapons tire you. Draw on them too much and you could be left defenseless. Spirit Thief restores your chi, prolonging your ability to fight or ignore wounds. It is especially useful when enemies are immune to basic martial attacks, when you *must* use magic or weapons. It can even immobilize a foe, allowing time to recover even more. This short lesson should be enough for now. Come, speak with me in the teahouse. We will talk of your master... and more. I don't know why she kept mentioning weapons because those use focus instead of chi, and Spirit Thief doesn't restore focus. She's not completely wrong though, Spirit Thief can be a lifesaver in certain situations.  We might as well put it in our quick style menu right now to replace Heavenly Wave. Unfortunately, we can only have four styles mapped to quick slots when using a controller whereas the keyboard lets you map up to ten styles to the number keys. I can't play this game on a keyboard at all, so I'm stuck with four quick slots.   Before we go inside, we'll take a look at a few things. First of all, we've got another bookstand. This one mentions an inn somewhere in the Great Southern Forest, as well as some kind of a shadow in the trees that keeps following people around.  We've also got some townspeople to talk to, so let's do that.   We're definitely planning to leave this town as soon as possible, but turning around is not an option. Sorry.    Why do you wish that? Everything in Tien's Landing is falling apart. Sheng, the local minister, is helpless to deal with all our troubles. You should get out while you can. Goodbye.This minister sounds rather useless.  Well, technically we don't live anywhere because our home was just burned down.  Good to know!  We saw this woman in the background while we were talking to Hui outside the teahouse. She seems to be having some problems, as indicated by the sobbing and that large yellow quest marker over her head.     It's my fiance, Baker Bei. Every day a group of thugs attacks him and beats him up. He tries to avoid them, but they find him wherever he goes....why? What did he do?   Seriously. I doubt they're going around beating this guy up just for fun. There has to be some reason for it.  I'll take care of those thugs for you. I knew you'd understand, being a woman. Thank you, my lady! If our firstborn is a girl, she shall have your name.I don't remember what Lan says here if you play one of the male characters.  Despite what she tells us about hurrying, you're not on a timer or anything like that and can spend just as much time as you want tooling around Tien's Landing. Which is good, because that is exactly what we're gonna be doing for the next while. Bei is not in any danger until we actually go meet him.  Behind the fence, we've got a pretty nice view as well as a couple of bamboo casks to loot.  gah  Well, that's new. Seems like a quest item, so let's take a look at what the menu blurb has to say.  First off, though, let's look at the silk strings we picked up last time. They're for a musical instrument, perhaps a zither of some sort.  Obviously, this will be used for building something later.  Behind the teahouse is a kitchen area, and we can have a chat with the workers.  The, uh, door was open?    Speaking of stepping back, I do believe we were meant to meet someone inside this fine teahouse. Maybe we should get on that...  As much as I'd love to beat this guy to death with his own arms, I think it would reflect poorly on us if we brutalized an employee of this teahouse.  I want to ask something about you.Such as "how can a person be so incredibly unpleasant?"    No. No, I am quite certain that the problem is with the customers. If you wish to keep your position, Mister Wong, you will smile and nod. You are very harsh with your assistant. Mister Wong is here to cut the vegetables and heft the rice bags. His job does not include criticizing the menu. I am the head chef. He is nothing.With encouragement like that, the kid will surely go places.  There is a small chance he could become slightly more than nothing, but I have seen no sign of it as of yet. Some people are heroes; some merely clap as heroes walk by.Right. And some get stabbed by disgruntled employees or customers. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about.  I'm not sure why we can ask this guy about the spirit world, he doesn't seem like the type to know anything about such matters. Let's just go away before he starts talking again.  I don't know if I want to eat what he's making.  Ah, he's one of those cooks.  There's some underwhelming loot back here. The Greater Warrior's Gem of Fate makes health pickups drop more often, but I don't like to waste one of my precious gem slots on that. This is a "greater" gem, so it should fetch a decent price when we sell it.  Now that we're done out here, let's finally go inside and talk to Hui.    Before we can continue our conversation, the sailors we beat up outside the teahouse come back for seconds. Would be a terrible shame to disappoint them.  Hui is great.  VIDEO: Oh no, we have more useless mooks incoming.    They've got a cool entrance and everything!   For whatever reason, this last guy decides to smash one of the tables on the landing.  "Yeah, check out how badass we are"  Smashed tables also means improvised weapons for us. We can pick up a couple of table legs and go to town on these morons.  Like so. Improvised weapons have limited durability and these chunks of wood are quite slow to swing around, but they're also very powerful. Not that it particularly matters here, because I didn't pick them up until there were only two guys left and they both were almost dead anyway.  We can get back to business. Sun Li gave me instructions to await you if... if anything should happen. I have prepared for this day for well over a decade. The full extent of what the Glorious Strategist knows is beyond my mind to comprehend; he is without peer. All I know is that I had instructions to wait for you. Sun Li asked me to seek a piece of a special amulet he wanted you, his prize pupil, to have. It was broken apart and scattered when the Spirit Monk temple fell. He intended to--and I assume he did--give the main piece to you. Rumor placed a smaller part with a fleeing apprentice monk, but it had been some years, and the trail was cold. So you searched for the rest of the amulet? I eventually learned the monk had fled to old Tien's Landing. He was there a year or so, but died of lingering injuries and was buried with his possessions unsorted.Ah, so that's what became of the monk. Kinda figured as much.  Now the Lotus Assassins have drained the lake and exposed the ruins of old Tien's Landing. It seems they are searching for this piece of the Spirit Monk amulet too. Yes, Sun Li intended you to find it; I was to tell you about it if anything happened to him. It was the last order he gave me, and I have waited years to fulfill my duty. I choose to believe that my service was valuable and vital. You would have come here eventually. The amulet would draw you, at least. How long have you been waiting for me? It is coming on fifteen years now. As I said, I learned the location of the amulet after the monk died in old Tien's. It has been difficult, serving and waiting in silence. Can you tell me more about the amulet? I only know that I had to find the piece I was tracking. I did so; it is in the ruins. You must find it before the Lotus Assassins do. You will need it to help your Master. How do I get to the ruins? The gates leading to the ruins are locked, but Minister SHeng can give you the key. You can find him in the town square, the highest point in Tien's Landing. I suspect the Minister is eager to have someone investigate the opening of the Great Dam. You can use this as an excuse to get the key and explore the ruins.Looks like we'll go talk to Minister Sheng, then. First off, though, let's see if Hui could help us find a replacement for our flyer.   You can find Sheng near his still-smoldering office in the center of town. I'm sure he will welcome your assistance, even if your reasons are your own."Still-smoldering office"? Now that sounds promising, either Minister Sheng is so hated that someone burned down his office or he's so incompetent his office somehow burned down by accident. Just the kind of guy we need to help us. Speaking of help, though, let's ask Hui a couple of questions about herself.  There is little to tell. I served him years ago in the Imperial Army. I was a tracker and soldier. I was not at Dirge when it fell, but I heard the tale of Sun Li's death. But I refused to believe he was dead. In time, my faith was confirmed. He sought me out and told me what really happened. I swore my loyalty to him on the spot. I revere him as a teacher and... I revere him. Even when he ordered me to distant lands, my loyalty never wavered. But I am tired. I long for an end to my service. You sound regretful.I regret nothing but I do long for an end to this update, because jesus christ there is so much text to transcribe in this part of the game. Of course there's no game script available to make this easier. Technically I could copy text directly from the dialog.tlk file, but it's not exactly organized so that would be more trouble than it's worth. Oh well, we're almost done with this conversation and then I'll call it. We who serve him are sometimes forgotten; left to toil in obscurity until the time to act is thrust upon us. So it was with me, waiting for you. Remember: Go to the ruins and claim the amulet before the Lotus Assassins do. You will need it to survive the trials that lie ahead. Despite what Hui says, we don't actually have to go look for the amulet yet if we'd rather look for the new flyer or the wind map first. Finding the amulet does feel like the most urgent one of our current tasks, so we'll start with it. Not next time, though, because we have a town full of sidequests open to us and there's plenty of things to be found in this very teahouse! ----- DMorbid fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jan 18, 2017 |
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Jan 18, 2017 17:52
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I recall promising to post a video of the Flower of the Fields quest, so here it finally is.
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Jan 18, 2017 20:38
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Xander77 posted:Also, why would you not take the "I was that child, right?" option? It's seriously one of the better dialogs in the game. I never pick the "I was that child, right?" option because that doesn't seem like the kind of thing my character would say in that situation (even though you're the protagonist and a special boy or girl, why would you automatically assume they're talking about you?) What do they say if you pick it?
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Jan 18, 2017 21:01
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I thought I had read in Tech Support Fort that Capture2Text is a bit hit-or-miss so I just kinda went with manual transcribing (I was hoping there would be transcripts available somewhere like there is for KotOR, but alas), but I gave it a shot just now and it seems to be working almost perfectly. For me it's not really any faster than transcribing manually, but at least I don't need to type as much. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Jan 18, 2017 21:59
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Bot 02 posted:So what I gather from the story so far is that the emperor had to attempt the desperate but necessary act of killing a god who was subjecting his people to a devastating drought? Seems like he was the underdog hero of a classic "man versus god" story if you ask me. edit: DMorbid fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Jan 18, 2017 |
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Jan 18, 2017 22:25
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Episode 08: Wu the Lotus Blossom's Kitchen Nightmares Last time, we arrived in Tien's Landing and met Hui the Brave, a former soldier under Sun Li's command who was ordered by Master Li to wait here for his best pupil. Now that we're finally here after fifteen years, she has told us a piece of the Dragon Amulet is located somewhere in the ruins of old Tien's Landing. Unfortunately, the Lotus Assassins are also on the lookout for the amulet piece, so we should hurry.  We're not actually in any hurry whatsoever, so before we head out to look for the amulet piece we can take our time exploring Tien's Landing. Might as well start by checking out the rest of this teahouse. MUSIC: The Tea House  I can only assume this guy smells like a brewery.  Meet Ru the Boatswain. Ru here has apparently decided to be the one to close the dam and earn the adoration of everyone in Tien's Landing, but before he gets to that he has to build up some courage. He's clearly been building it up for quite some time now.  Yeah, I think at this point he might not be in any condition to go out there.  That is probably a good assumption to make. Of course, we're supposed to be closing the dam instead of opening it. Maybe he could close the dam by passing out and blocking the floodgates?  We leave the good boatswain to his binge-drinking. Also, this waitress doesn't seem to be too fond of the rowdy sailors hanging around the teahouse.  Speak of the devil. These guys probably saw how we beat the everliving poo poo out of their buddies a few minutes ago, so they don't try anything funny with us. Looks like their captain is having some problems keeping them in check.  Classy bunch of fellows.  This guy doesn't look like a sailor. Let's see if he has anything interesting for us.  Uh, okay then. Guess he doesn't fancy a chat at the moment.  Might as well be polite, though.   Unfortunately, this town presents scant opportunity for a suitable match. Seamstresses, barmaids, peasants... I may as well marry the harlots selling themselves in the street!Well, I'm sure a gentleman with such a winning personality will have no trouble whatsoever finding himself a wife.  Let's just back away slowly before he starts hitting on us. If you call him an rear end, which I should have done, his reply is "Your jibes can nary prick the armor of my pride; they are blunted barbs forged by the sputtering flames of your lesser intellect".  I certainly hope not.  Let's go talk to someone more pleasant, like this ogre. Uh... hold on, why is there an ogre in this teahouse?    No! Zhong not want to go home. Zhong doesn't want to see ox.And so we learn that ogres aren't always the kind of mindless brutes we fought in the cave earlier.  Zhong here obviously works at this old man's farm, but there's been an incident involving an ox and now things aren't going so well.  Despite acting civil for the most part, Zhong is still an ogre and smashing things is what ogres tend to do best.  Maybe the farmer will tell us what's going on.     I am Dong Ping, Zhong's employer. Zhong works on my farm. but the other day, he accidentally killed one of my oxen, and since then he has refused to come back. Some of the patrons here are unnerved by his size. I'm worried that if he doesn't leave with me soon, the owners may take matters into their own hands. If he gets hurt... or worse, I'll be ruined. I can't run the farm without him. But I don't know what else to do. He won’t listen to me.I guess we kinda implied Zhong was his slave there. Didn't mean to, it was just an awkward turn of phrase. Maybe we can at least help him out, hopefully without anyone getting smashed up.  You... will? I must warn you... Zhong is... well, he's very strong willed, and very strong. I am grateful for your help, but please be careful. Zhong the Ox Carrier came by his name honestly. I would hate to see him hurt you, or anybody else, for that matter. Speak softly to him, and you should be okay. Well, here goes nothing.  Zhong is voiced by none other than Mark Meer, who did a lot of voices for various creatures in BioWare games even after he was cast as the male Commander Shepard. Dude's got some pretty impressive range, although here he's just doing the kind of "strong but dumb" voice you might expect from someone like Zhong.  Speak softly and you should be okay, he said. Let's hope that works out.  aw   Ox was Zhong's friend. Zhong killed a friend, and now Zhong is bad. If you don‘t go back. your master will starve. Master have other ox. Master won't starve... master better off without Zhong. This might work.  You have been nice to Zhong. Zhong like you. Zhong hope you have good day.aw   Come Zhong, let's go home. With that, Dong Ping and Zhong leave the teahouse.  The owner of this place seems to have noticed our little discussion with Zhong. I can definitely see why an ogre in the middle of a teahouse might give some customers pause, even if he's as relatively harmless as Zhong.  The owner hands us 300 silver and walks off. We'll talk to him again soon enough, but first we have more of the teahouse to explore.  Let's see what this rather rotund gentleman is up to.   Okay. I generally try not to be a dick in these conversations, but there is no way I'm not picking this option.   It's too bad that people outside my home of Shangdang county cannot seem to stomach the delicacies that I prepare. They truly don't know what they're missing. l was recently at the Imperial City, and not one person there could eat so much as two of my dishes. Such weak constitutions, all of them.Fortunately, Chai Jin can take a joke, but it doesn't seem like most people can take his dishes.   For example, this dish of roasted cow heart sautéed with bile of leopard has a particularly nasty effect on one's constitution. Other dishes like my monkey's brain stew can have a negative effect on the workings of the mind. Still others can deplete one's spirit. It can be quite dangerous if you eat too much of one type of food... or if you are particularly weak in certain areas of your character. Okay, I think I understand the problem. This is the best idea ever.  Give me 300 silver to cover my expenses. If you can eat all three dishes in a row and stay on your feet, I'll give you back your money, and you'll leave none the poorer, but well fed! Remember though, these dishes tend to take a little out of you. I will describe the dishes that affect constitution first, followed by those that affect mind, and then spirit.I can't see how anything could possibly go wrong here.  Well, if it's fresh shark, then there's no problem whatsoever! This is kind of a puzzle, but not really as the correct course (heh) of action is quite obvious if you've paid any attention to Chai Jin. Basically all we need to do is eat one of each type of food.  The roasted bear heart seems like the least offensive of these dishes, so we'll go with that.  Now, the next three dishes are a bit more potent. Be careful what you choose. We have pickled haunch of deer served with brown beetle paste, cold eagle eye soup, and jellied eels stuffed with fermented seaweed. Take your pick. I'm pretty sure that is an actual delicacy somewhere in Asia. Hell, I've seen Ashens try more horrifying things than that in his international food specials.  And so we move on to the last dishes. These are some of the most notorious recipes in Shangdang county. Choose carefully. We have boiled ox testicles smothered in a succulent cream sauce, curdled porcupine bladder in clabbered rat's milk, and raw alligator eggs served in warmed goat's gall.   Since we already ate one of Body and Spirit dishes, let's finish off with a Mind one.  I couldn't possibly keep your silver after such an excellent display of digestive fortitude. I will gladly give back your 300 silver... or we could make this interesting. If you are really daring, I have one last dish that I haven't even had the nerve to try myself. I'm sure it's safe... I think. Well, there's no telling how it might affect us. Sure thing, what's a little death by poison among friends? It's not like we can taste anything ever again.  The ingredients are very rare and it costs me quite a bit to procure them. especially while I'm stuck in this... quaint village. I'll need another 300 silver from you. Of course, if you survive this final dish, I will gladly reimburse all your silver. I may even have a few treasures that I could part with.I totally forgot he got the recipe from the "loud, annoying foreign man"! We'll be meeting him later and someone in the thread already mentioned that the only foreigner in this game is voiced by John Cleese, so basically this whole sidequest is a setup to a joke about British cuisine.  This treasure had better be worth it.   Okay, that fade to black isn't very promising.  Well, how did it taste? What did it do to you?We're totally fine, it takes more than a bit of horrible food to take us down.  We had more than enough points in every attribute to easily pass this challenge. Now, if we were to lie and say "nope, it's totally safe", Chai Jin will in fact drop dead the instant he eats... whatever this was.  Please, take your silver, and take this. It's a small trinket that belonged to my family. I have no use for it, and you've certainly earned it. If you'll excuse me. I must go in search of new ingredients, for it seems you have eaten everything I have. Good fortune to you. Wow, that did some damage all right. Our spirit took by far the smallest hit. Our reward for doing all this is a chunk of EXP and the Bronze Tongue gem (Charm +4, Intimidation +4, Intuition +4), and of course we get our money back. Quite worthwhile in the end, although we could also have had Chai Jin eat that last dish and then looted the gem and our money off his corpse.  Over in this corner, we have an old man staring at the wall. He's a named NPC, so he probably has something for us.  Hey, that's not very kindly at all.   Sorry doesn't count for much. Sorry can't erase our mistakes. Sorry can't change the past. Who are you? I'm nobody important... nobody at all. And I have nothing to say to you. What are you talking about? Nothing. It's not important. Not anymore. Well, that was not what I expected from someone named Kindly Yushan. There's clearly a story behind all this, but right now we don't get anything more out of him.  That is everyone on the second floor, let's head back downstairs and talk to the rest of the folks.   Mother Kwan seems like a nice old lady.    Yes, yes. I owned the teahouse for many, many years. At least, I thought I did. But then Master Dutong came to town with that Imperial Writ. Oh my. wasn't that a shock!We, of course, met Master Dutong when he handed us our reward for convincing Zhong to leave.  He was nice enough to let me stay on here as a helper. I steep the tea, Yanwan takes the orders, and Master Dutong... well, he mostly just drinks his wine.  That sounds a bit odd.  It's totally possible that Dutong's writ was legit, but that guy seemed a bit dodgy in general so maybe we should make sure.  Oh dear. Yeah, we should check out that writ. It might be real, but Mother Kwan really should've known better than to give the teahouse to Dutong without even checking the writ.   All this talk is just the rambling of an old woman. Put it out of your head and enjoy yourself. It may not be mine anymore, but this is still a fine teahouse.If Master Dutong really has a legitimate claim to the place, I'm sure he won't mind us looking into this.  Before we go talk to Dutong, let's see if the steeper has any information we can use.   I'm sorry about that. I still can't get the hang of this new position. Sometimes I wish Old Mother Kwan still owned the teahouse so things could go back to the way they were. Right. About that...   Okay, I have to hear this advice before we do anything else.  That's... very profound.   Okay then. Here are the other pearls of wisdom Yanru has been told to memorize: - The wise man will always remember that falling leaves spiral downwards, but only until they rest on the earth. - If you drop a rock in a well, you'll hear a splash--but if you drop a feather in a fire, you'll hear something very different. - If you must sleep on the same bed, at least try to dream different dreams. - When one's foot knows what one's hand is doing, one is dangerous; but if the belly button has not been consulted, havoc will ensue.  We're not here for questionable proverbs, though, so let's get down to business.    Oh for heaven's... did none of you consider fetching Minister Sheng (or if he wasn't around yet, getting the closest thing to an authority in this town) and asking him to check the writ?  This is maybe a bit too much to assume when we haven't even talked to Dutong about the writ yet. If the line was "It's possible the writ might have been a forgery" or something to that effect it wouldn't sound quite so silly.  Problem is, Dutong's already shown everyone the writ, and now he's got it locked away. If you're right, he'd never bring it out again. There's no way to prove he cheated Mother Kwan.Again, we're assuming quite a lot here. We need more to go on.  If we go ask Dutong about the writ now he's like "do you morons actually think I'd show my Imperial Writ to every random person who asks?"  Usually I mix it with water so he doesn't get too drunk too fast, but I could start sending it to him unmixed. Don't worry about that. He never passes out, no matter how much he drinks. Actually, he usually goes through three stages of drunkenness. Dutong gets very friendly when he starts to drink. You might get a confession out of him then, but I doubt it. He's not really all that drunk at that stage. Usually after about seven bowls. he slips into depression and sorrow. He complains about how his life is worthless and what a bad and sinful man he is. Not a pretty sight.Seven bowls seems like it might be the sweet spot if we're going to get something out of Dutong.  I think there was a sidequest in KotOR where you had to interrogate a prisoner using these same mechanics.  The restorative tastes pretty foul, but it does the job. Works instantly and makes a man sober as an Imperial Judge. Dutong's guard keeps a vial handy at all times, just in case. The guard gave me a few vials so I could slip them into Dutong‘s wine when he starts to get paranoid. Keeps him from getting out of hand. Let's send Dutong some drinks.All right, let's get to it.  The Imperial seasoned spirits are a lot stronger. One bowl of that is worth three bowls of peasants' wine. And if Dutong gets too drunk, I have the restorative to sober him up. Got it. So we start off with some peasants' wine and then send him two bowls of Imperial seasoned spirits. That should get him talking.  ONE BOWL OF PEASANTS' WINE AND TWO BOWLS OF SEASONED SPIRITS LATER  When you see this cutscene of Dutong getting up and staggering around, you know you've given him the correct amount of booze.  Right, time to see what Dutong has to say about the writ.    Something is definitely up if he's reacting like that when we mention the writ.  Go ahead. We'll listen.   Oh, I'm a deshpicable pershon! A bad, bad man. The writ... it'sh a fake! A forgery. I made it all up!And there we have it. Dutong's writ was indeed a fake, probably made up by him so he could take over this teahouse and get all the wine he could drink for free.   The animation for the guard giving Dutong the restorative potion is a bit... lacking.   And now I have the strangest memory... as if I... oh no. Did I... did I say anything to you, stranger? Anything about, oh, I don't know... an Imperial Writ? What? No! I never said any such thing! I heard what you said, Dutong! I knew you cheated Mother Kwan out of this place, and now we have proof! You can't get out of this now! Ah. I see what you're after! Oh yes. Three Sheets Dutong was not born yesterday--or the day before that! Indeed, we are speaking the language of commerce. I will give you a great deal of silver to keep this little secret from getting out. Lots of silver for both of you, if you keep quiet about this.Sure! Or we could break his face, that sounds even better.   He does apparently give you a pretty decent amount of silver if you agree to keep quiet, but we're not having any of that poo poo.    That's the last we'll be seeing of Three Sheets Dutong.  I'll get right on that.  Dawn Star approves as well, as she tends to when we do stuff like this. Let's go tell Mother Kwan the good news right now.  Dutong's writ was a forgery. A... a forgery? Are you certain? Dutong confessed. The teahouse is yours again. That... that scoundrel! No wonder he left here so fast! Cheating an old woman out of her hard-earned living... the very nerve!  You've given me back the only thing I ever cared about... and you've done a service for this town, too. I'm going to turn this place back into a respectable, quality teahouse! It was nothing. I was glad to help. I don't have much; the only reward I can offer is my humble thanks. That, and a promise that you will always be welcome here at Old Mother Kwan's. That's all the reward we need.  Next time, we'll explore the rest of Tien's Landing and dick around doing more sidequests instead of following the plot missions! ----- DMorbid fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Feb 16, 2017 |
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Jan 19, 2017 21:05
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Shinji117 posted:Waaaaaait a minute, what are you doing in China Count Rugen you're a torturer not a cook. edit: oh goddammit I got Mind and Spirit mixed up during that quest, I'll fix that DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Jan 19, 2017 |
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Jan 19, 2017 21:27
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I was hoping to get an update ready just in time for Chinese New Year, but I had to deal with a bunch of real life poo poo over this past week and just now got around to working on the update. I'm sure it's still going to be the 28th of January somewhere in the world when the update is posted.
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Jan 28, 2017 22:42
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Episode 09: The Beaten Baker Happy Year of the Rooster! Last time on Jade Empire, we nearly killed ourselves with disgusting food, persuaded an ogre to leave the teahouse peacefully, and returned said teahouse to its rightful owner. We still have the whole town of Tien's Landing to explore, so that is what we'll be doing this time.  Obviously I'm not including most loading screens, but I may occasionally throw one at the start of an update if there's some interesting lore on it. Poor Tiger Shen is looking a bit squat there because of the aspect ratio weirdness.  Dawn Star looks like she has something important to say, but when I talk to her she only has the usual "strange enemies, troubling plots" dialog. We'll go back to the camp at some point in the near future and see if she has something more relevant for us there.  We're not going there now, though; we're exploring the rest of the town like I said. Some sailors are loitering on the path and trying to convince some lady that they're actually nice guys and it's not their fault their ship crashed here, and people should relax and go drink with them.  We can't do anything with the sailors, so let's continue on to the southern part of Tien's Landing.  Maybe you don't see ghosts, but from the looks of things here it seems like you're not going to find too many fish either. There pretty much is no river.  Most NPCs in this area are generic peasants that don't have anything to say, but let's see if Chumin here has something for us.   Judging from the greeting, I'm going to hazard a guess and say he's a woodsmith.   There are several customers who owe me money, but with the dam open, times are hard. I can't expect them to pay me when they can't even feed their families. And if they don't pay me, I can't afford the raw materials to make my woodwork. It's a difficult situation, but I'm trying to make the best of it. You might be right. I'm a fine craftsman, but I'm not much for business. I extend credit too easily, and then I can't bring myself to collect. It's just not in my nature. I could lend yo some silver to get back on your feet.I'm pretty sure we could afford that.  All right then, we'll let him do things his way. We could also offer to help him collect ("I'm the god of unpaid debts" ), but he refuses that as well. That's all we can do with Chumin right now, so let's move on. We find this gentleman next to the path back to the teahouse. Hey there Lishun, what's the word on the street?    In fact, I think your presence here is a sure sign that things are looking up. Soon all our problems will be solved... It's just like I kept saying.Are there any visitors who didn't crash their flyer next to the town like we did?  Things will get better. They always do. It's like my father used to say: The greater the problem, the greater the solution. I'm sure it will all work out.Uh, sure. I should go.  I suppose it is nice to see someone who isn't full of doom and gloom around here, even if that means they're slightly delusional.   Moving on. The large building here, also seen in the Tien's Landing version of the title screen, is the boathouse. While it would be grand to be able to take a tour, we can't actually go in there right now so that's gonna have to wait.  On the other side of the boathouse, we find this portly fellow.  There's a few people walking around, certainly, but due to  It's also not a big city in any way, shape or form.  Who are you? My name's Tian, but everyone calls me Big Tian 'cause I'm so big. I came to the city to try and find me a wife. So far it‘s not going so good. Say, you're real pretty. You want to be my wife? You could come live on my farm. I got chickens and oxen and lots of land.We're going to pass on that, of course, but Big Tian at least seems to be quite pleasant compared to that arrogant idiot Yaoru.  ...Oh. Well. Ugh. I guess his heart is in the right place and he's just too much of a simpleton to figure out minor things such as tact.  Oh... okay. Well, do you know any other pretty young gals looking for a husband? I don't know any eligible women.Yeah, we haven't really met anyone here in Tien's Landing who would fit the bill. Seamstress Lan is engaged to Baker Bei, and none of the other women we've met so far have said anything about looking for partners. I don't think Dawn Star is interested either.  He kind of reminds me of Zhong, just slightly more intelligent.   Enough of that nonsense, we've got a book to read. Jade Empire has a ton of lore stuff like this that sounds really cool but is sadly never seen in the game. Maybe in the sequel... (was what I said back in 2005)  Good luck with that, friend.  These two are talking about a game of some kind, but as far as we can tell they're just standing around. Let's see what's up with them.    Hrmpf. A wise move, but you know you cannot win. You stall this game the way you hesitated to learn of harmonic combinations. You must be bold, Vo. You are being rude, Jian. We have a guest. Let us place the game on hold a moment. Bunch of rude old men in this town, I tell you.  We are having our game of Yi interrupted. Playing without the board or pieces is hard enough without some stranger interrupting. Surely you know of Yi, "the capturing game?" Played on a board of nineteen rows and columns, the black and white pieces capture territory for their player. So yes, they're playing Go (or wéiqí, as it's called in China) without a board or pieces. In ancient China, wéiqí (or simply qí) was considered one of the four arts of the scholar, and one of the theories on the game's origin suggests it was an ancient method of fortune-telling cosmologists used to simulate the universe's relationship to an individual. That sounds like the kind of thing Jian and Vo here would be all about.  None. Too many people seek our guidance.You're the worst trainers ever.  And look where that got us! Your foolish devotion to the Way of the Open Palm drove you from my tutelage and made you weak. No more! End of subject. I'll leave you two to your game.I know when I'm not wanted.   I, too, see strength, but also the capacity for understanding the world and your place in it. You could prove an interesting pupil.That's sounding a little more promising.  I will make you an offer. Show me that you understand every nuance of the Way of the Closed Fist, and I will teach you how to bend the storms to your will through Tempest.Does that involve smashing flasks over your head and setting yourself on fire? (Spoiler: No, although it's still a good magic style)  The gimmick with Tempest and Stone Immortal is that their damage output scales based on your Closed Fist or Open Palm points respectively. Of course, this means that if you're Open Palm but think Tempest sounds cooler than Stone Immortal you're kinda out of luck even if you temporarily go Closed Fist (or cheat to get both styles). Tempest will just end up doing poo poo damage.  Wu has been a pretty stand-up gal, so I bet we're far enough on the Open Palm path to learn Stone Immortal.  Or not. We are pretty close to the required 50% Open Palm, so it shouldn't take too long to get there.  That's everything we can do in this particular area at the moment, so let's make our way southeast.   These must be the goons who keep beating up Baker Bei, Also, that was a pretty catchy rhyme from him, maybe he should consider a new line of work.  Ai Ling? That's a name we haven't heard before.  Since Ai Ling clearly commands a group of thugs and has told them to beat up Baker Bei for whatever reason, she doesn't seem like a particularly pleasant individual.   Hold on a sec. We got company. You're a little too interested in our business, friend. Looks like we gotta teach you to back off when Ai Ling's boys are working. Beating up some baker counts as work? Let's see what happens when they meet someone who can fight back.    That is what happens. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to hit him with the dragon AoE attack.    They... they might have killed me if you hadn't stepped in. Thank you. I never expected such help from a stranger. You spoke to Lan? How humiliating! My fiancee must have told you I can't protect myself. The woman I love doesn‘t have any faith in me! Oh, the shame! I'll never live this down. She's just worried about you. Yes, you're right, of course. I suppose I can't fault Lan for being worried about me. I've taken some serious beatings lately. I didn‘t mean to sound ungrateful. I'm just worried about Lan. She's very emotional. I've done my best to try and keep her from becoming involved in this. So why did those thugs attack you? Those thugs are acting on Ai Ling's orders. She's the head of their gang. They have a small hideout in the boathouse. Ai Ling and I were friends when we were children, but we drifted apart as we grew up. She fell in with some rough people... as you've already seen. Ever since I got engaged. Ai Ling has become obsessed with me. Every day she sends her thugs to beat me up. She says she won't stop until I go talk to her. She has to be doing this for a reason.I mean, that doesn't make any sense whatsoever.  At least the beatings on the street are out in public. They won't kill me in front of witnesses. Well, not on purpose, anyway.Silver linings and all that. Still, this seems rather strange. Why would Ai Ling send her goons to attack him if they haven't even spoken in years? Something doesn't add up here.  I'm being completely honest, I swear! I... I know how this looks. You must think I've done something to deserve this. But I have no idea why Ai Ling is after me! Maybe I could talk to Ai Ling for you.Bei does genuinely seem like he's just as confused about this situation as we are. The one person who will surely know an answer to all this is Ai Ling, so we're going to go meet with her.  We'll be heading back that way once we're finished looking around the southeast part of town.  Hm. I guess this is also the seedier part of Tien's Landing.  I don't actually remember seeing any fishermen in Two Rivers, to be honest.  Merchant Jiang here doesn't seem to quite understand how this business thing works. We'd probably spend some silver at his store if he'd just consider selling us something. I'm sure there's someone around here who doesn't turn away paying customers.  Maybe this lady here knows what she's doing.  [insert your favorite RE4 merchant line]   Regardless, it‘s good to meet you! I‘m Darting Lynx, the acrobat. Unfortunately, I'm not putting any shows on in Tien's Landing, if that's why you're here. Let me tell you, it raises a few eyebrows at first. That's why I tell people I'm an acrobat up front these days. I travel around the countryside putting on acts and sometimes teaching people a few tricks. Hey, now that I think of it, you're a warrior, right? I may not be putting on any shows here, but I could teach you a few techniques to improve your balance and speed if you're interested. How did you come by the name Darting Lynx?Training sounds fantastic, but we gotta focus on the important things.  I was quite young, and my master felt I was a little too fast for my own good. "You dart like a lynx," he would say, "but you balance like a drunken frog!" He taught me to slow my movements and really focus on what I was doing, but his nickname for me stuck.Incidentally, Drunken Frog would be my acrobat name.  Let's get down to business, though.  You'd think *we'd* be the ones having a hard time. I swear, if men had breasts they wouldn't be able to walk straight, let alone hold a handstand. Let's see what I can teach you. Darting Lynx sells a couple of gems we have no use for, but we're here for the techniques. Balance of Nature is the most expensive of the four, but it's also the only one that doesn't come with any negative effects. After we sell off our surplus gems, we buy Balance of Nature, Conditioning of the Body (Health +7, Chi -3), and Swallow's Grace (Charm +3, Intuition -1). We'll come back for Hawk's Elegance (Health -3, Focus +7) later, as we can't quite afford that one yet.  This looks to be the ship the sailors arrived on, now grounded until someone closes the dam.  Here's Captain Ing, who appears to be losing his authority over his crew at this point (the sailors at the teahouse mentioned that Ing told them not to go there).  Doesn't seem like these guys are much more receptive than their crewmates.   I've had enough of your orders! Now get back in that ship. I'm your captain, understand?Things really aren't going well with the sailors and their captain.  We should maybe go take a look at that dam before the sailors wreck the whole town.  You can actually speak to Captain Ing to get a sidequest, but of course I completely forgot to do that. I'll get to it soon enough. For now, let's check out this walled area down here. Some of the sailors hang out here, along with another NPC we'll be ignoring for now.  Sorrows? What do you mean? It's no fun bein' trapped in this town. We don't know nobody, we ain't sheen our families in months, and now we're shtuck here. *hic* That'd drive anyone to drink. I'll be going now. Uh... okay then. *hic*Well, that wasn't very exciting, although it did tell us that not all of the sailors are assholes and some of them are just frustrated because they're stuck in this dump and people hate them because some of their crewmates are causing trouble.  Scholar Six Heavens is the NPC you talk to in order to start the Zither of Discord quest. There probably isn't any reason not to talk to him, but I decided to ignore him for now just in case. I'll come back with Wei Shen once we have the items Six Heavens wants.  This sealed gate always confused me. You can see on the map that it's just a shortcut between the boathouse area and the place those sailors and Scholar Six Heavens hang out, but for some reason it remains shut forever. I can only assume that was done for technical reasons on the original Xbox, to help with loading or frame rate or whatever.  Speaking of the boathouse, we should go see a gang leader about a baker.  This jerk is the reason we couldn't get in earlier. The door is locked, and we seem to have... misplaced our membership card to their exciting club.  However, since we met Baker Bei, we now have an extra dialog option that helps us persuade the guard to let us in.   All right, let's finally find out what the hell is going on with Baker Bei.  I'll try to make sure it doesn't come to that, but I'm also quite sure we're strong enough to take on a bunch of thugs and win.  It's a bit hard to see in the screenshot, but the person with the yellow arrow over her head is Ai Ling.  We don't actually need to go over to her, because the game takes over at this point and she comes up to us when she notices we're there.  Along with a number of horrible burn injuries, yes.  Huh, apparently we didn't kill those guys this time. I just generally assume everyone we fight is either killed or suffers gruesome injuries unless the game shows them getting right back up after the fight, but I guess these gang members didn't get too badly brutalized.  But we're not here to talk about those idiots, we're here to find out more about the situation with Bei.  That'll complicate things if it is true. Bei did mention that he barely knows Ai Ling these days and hasn't even spoken to her in years, though.  And he certainly didn't say anything about any marriage promises.   But the fact is, Bei promised to marry me long before that seamstress batted her brazen little eyes at him.If we're talking about the same Seamstress Lan, "brazen" is not the description I would use for her in any situation.   Yes, sending a bunch of thugs to assault the guy might not be the most efficient way to get him to come to your criminal hideout and talk things over.  Bei promised to give me all that. He promised to marry me. and now he's trying to weasel out of it. But a promise is a promise. I won't forget that, even if he tries to.I can see only one way to make any sense of this.   I'll go get Bei right now.Better drag him here immediately and get this over with.  After a quick fade to black, we're right back inside the boathouse with Bei (I'd have liked to see that conversation) and...  ...Lan, who is here as well. This is going to be awkward for everyone involved.    True or not, I'm sure she will take this well.   Don't pretend like you don't remember, Bei! It was summer, and we were sitting on a little raft catching fish. I was upset because Lishun had called me ugly. I was crying, so you took my hand and said, "I think you're pretty, Ai Ling. And someday, when we‘re grown up, I'll marry you." What? But that... that was years ago. We were kids. We were only six years old! You can't hold me to that!Okay. Time out, guys. This is getting silly now, but what I'm wondering is just how old exactly are Bei and Ai Ling supposed to be? Ai Ling seems like she's in her early 30s at most and they're the same age, but Bei was given the "middle-aged dude" character model and as such he looks as if he's twenty years older. Poor guy must've aged really badly. ANYWAY, back to the situation at hand...  Seriously. All of this was over some dumb childhood "marriage promise"? Come on, you're better than that.  But that same day, you gave me the frog back. You said you‘d never, ever, ever do anything to make me unhappy. Kids always say things like that. It doesn't mean anything! Ai Ling's expressions in this scene are a bit weird in general, with her eyes wandering all over the place, but here she genuinely does look hurt despite the ridiculousness of the situation.  Well, if we're going to hold people to promises they made as tiny children, let's hold Ai Ling to hers. The game also gives you the option to suggest that Ai Ling and Lan should fight to the death, which ends with both Bei and Lan getting killed. Then, Ai Ling blames you for causing the bloodshed and you kill her too (along with everyone else in the boathouse). This, of course, gives you the most Closed Fist points you can earn from this quest. Closed Fist totally isn't about being an evil rear end in a top hat who kills people for no reason.   You changed, too.You can still pick the super evil option at this point. We, uh, won't.  Instead, we've persuaded Ai Ling who finally comes to her senses.   Once again, we might be doing this pretty much 100% Open Palm, but we're still not going to refuse a quest reward because that would just be stupid.  Uh, you kinda already promised that when we said we'd help Bei, but thanks anyway I guess.    With the crisis peacefully resolved, Bei and Lan are free to go back home and presumably get married at last. Ai Ling realizes she's been unreasonable, and there are no hard feelings between them.  Well, Bei and Lan may have gotten their resolution, but what of Ai Ling and her hopes of having a family? Maybe we're not done here just yet. ----- DMorbid fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Jan 29, 2017 |
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Jan 29, 2017 02:47
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FeyerbrandX posted:A little joke about Three Sheet's name. Don't know the origin, but being "three sheets to the wind" is a term for being drunk. So if the game didn't hold your hand this tightly between the old woman saying he wants his wine and the other guy saying he's a very specific type of drunk you could infer it from that, I guess.  "Sailors at that time had a sliding scale of drunkenness; three sheets was the falling over stage; tipsy was just 'one sheet in the wind', or 'a sheet in the wind's eye'".
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Jan 29, 2017 14:06
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Poil posted:So the candidates for playing match maker are:
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Jan 29, 2017 15:26
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