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Update I - The Framing Device So Nice, They Used It Twice ♪ BGM: Title Screen - boss.mp3 ♫ Well, here we go again.  ♪ BGM: Options - blood003.mid ♫ As a sidenote, I do recommend listening to the music. There's a certain charm that comes with these MIDIs, and I kind of regret not showing off the music in Düsterburg and Vampires Dawn. That might just be personal nostalgia speaking, though. Still, I recommend giving them a listen. Anyway, we kick things off with a list of controls. These are your basic RPG Maker controls, so there's nothing out of the ordinary here.    Now, our next choice is that of difficulty. And I'm afraid that as seems to be more and more the norm with my LPs, I'm going to have to call an audible before we even start. You see, at the end of the Vampires Dawn LP, I held a vote as to which difficulty we want to use, and how we should act in the game (good or evil, basically). The vote ended in favor of good and easy. I liked this, because I figured that translating the game was going to be enough work. However, now that we have an actual translation to work with, I think that I need something to counterbalance that. As such, we're going to be playing on Hard. Because I've come to realize that what people like most about my LPs is my suffering. However, with this comes an extra caveat: I'm not going to guarantee that we're going to be playing the goody-two-shoes. I'm going to attempt to do that, but I make no promises, primarily because I've heard that the difficulty in this game does not gently caress around. So if I have to play dirty, well, that's going to be what it takes. Still, I'm going to have to run up against a brick wall for me to abandon the plan. But enough fussing around about a difficulty we haven't even seen yet, let's move on.  No thanks, we'd like to see the intro.  ♪ BGM: Intro - awakening.mid ♫ First off, we get our developer logo with a bat flying across the screen.  We then cut to four people riding horses in a thunderstorm. Who are they? Where are they going? hosed if I know!  However, the unfamiliarity quickly fades away as we welcome back an old friend: The bloody text that talks about vague, over-arching stuff. In the interest of having less screenshots of the same stuff, I'll transcribe the rest of the text. TO DESTROY ALL VAMPIRES BROUGHT LIGHT INTO THE NIGHT WAS THAT THE END? WAS THAT THE BEGINNING? WAS THE EVIL DEFEATED? WILL IT EVER END?  I also feel the need to point out that at one point during that scene, the four jump their horses over a gap, and they float in mid-air for over a second before falling back down. Gravity does not work like that. Anyway, the screen fades to black.   We then cut to this strange scene.  The guy with the weird hat uses some sort of magic to really gently caress up these guys in robes, and we get more text. WHAT WERE THEY? WHAT ARE THEY? AND WHAT WILL THEY BE?  And after the guy with the hat kills everybody...  ...we get our first evil laugh of the game! We're off to a flying start!  ♪ BGM: Bad Night Story - vamp9.mid ♫ We then cut to a familiar set of characters.  Well, here we are! Welcome to your new room, Simon! Well, it looks okay, I guess... But I don't understand why we are going to live in the castle now. Now don't be like that, Simon. You know that your father is part of the king's guards now! And every royal guard gets the honor of letting their families live here in the castle. Hrmpf... His new job simply means that he will have even less time for me! Oh, Simon... At least you still have me! And my room is right next to yours! Great! Now I can hear your snoring every night! Hey, don't mock your old grandpa! I don't snore! You do! In fact, your snoring is so loud that even our neighbors complained! They thought we had a whole sawmill in our basement! Well, maybe I do snore a little. I'm not getting younger, after all! But I do know a good way to make sure you're going to sleep well after all. A good... or rather BAD night story! Oh yeah, Grandpa! Your stories are the best! I know, I know. I'm not known as "Gonrad, the Story-Teller" in the entire country for nothing! Grandpa! You're not even known in the next village! There you can see what kind of story philistines they are! But what are we waiting for? Shoo, shoo, to bed with you! Grandpa! I'm already 15! I'm not a little child anymore! If only you would act like that... Why is every old person like that? Why is every young person like that? All right, all right! I'm going to bed! But only if you'll tell me a good story. Perhaps you could continue telling the story of Valnar and Alaine? If you finally go to bed, yes! Like in the last game, Grandpa here is going to ask us some questions that set certain options in the game. Like this?This is the "blue with blood frame" option.  This is the "dark blue with plain frame" option.  This is the "grey with blood frame" option.  And this is the "oh my god what the gently caress is this" option. Oh, sorry, it's the "red with a fire frame" option. I end up going with the classic, the blue with blood frame option. After this, Grandpa gives us some options on how we want the dialogue boxes to enter the screen. Growing from small to large, fading in, or coming from the bottom or the left. I pick the "growing from small to large" option because that's the default. I'm not going to make GIFs of those options because let's face it, you're hardly ever going to see these animations. Moving on...  I'd say... 1) Fast - 2) NormallyGotta go fast. Do you want the story to have many, or rather not so many battles. I'd say... 1) Not so many battles - 2) Many battlesHm. I distinctly remember forums poster "a cartoon duck", whom I have to refer to like that in order to not make it sound like I'm even more insane than I already am, telling me in no uncertain terms to pick the former option here. Let's go and dig that post up... a cartoon duck posted:Related to the difficulty when the game asks you how many fights or whatever you want, I strongly suggest you pick the lowest option. It's been a while but I remember that option not doing what any sane person might expect it to do. Yeah, that sounds pretty much like a warning. So of course I'm picking "many battles". Because I'm thick. However, this isn't entirely just me being really stupid, but rather being very curious... in a stupid way. "That option not doing what any sane person might expect it to do" translates out to "this is a dumb thing, and it will be very interesting to see the dumb thing" for me. Of course, the reason I'm so readily jumping into this is that I have the capability to go back and change things thanks to the RPG Maker editor giving me godlike powers over the game. So if things become absolutely unbearable, I can reverse course, and you get to enjoy me ramming into a brick wall head-first in the meantime. And do you want there to be many puzzles for Valnar and his companions to solve, or not? I guess I'd rather say... 1) Rather not so many puzzles - 2) Many puzzlesOh, I already know I'm going to regret this one, too. But if there's some really dumb and complicated puzzle that makes me tear my hair out, I want to see it. And I know you want to see it, too. Do you still remember the first part of the story? Or did your young head already forget all of it? Uh... 1) ...I still remember everything! - 2) ...please tell it again!No sense in skipping the recap - get some of you that didn't want to re-read the first LP back up to speed a bit quicker. You really forget everything already? Well, fine, I'll quickly summarize it again. So... the story had five main characters. Valnar, Asgar, Alaine, Abraxas, and Vincent Weynard. These five determined the fate of all vampires. The story began with the young warrior Valnar, who had a terrible dream! him. And so, he visited Dr. Jarn one night in order to get a painkiller. After he was finally able to get back to sleep thanks to it, he was woken up by a scream. His girlfriend was gone, and a giant stain of blood was covering the ground. He went outside and discovered a blood trail leading to the nearby mountain. There he found a cave in which the vampire Abraxas was holding Aysha in his hands, and then thrusted a sword into her heart. Valnar was knocked out by Abraxas afterwards. He woke up at Dr. Jarn's place and immediately went off to find his beloved Aysha.As a sidenote, I'm going to keep the mistakes I do notice in, just for consistency's sake - like the "thrusted" thing above. If I do correct an error, it will be either because the sentence is incomprehensible without it, or it happened subconsciously in transcribing (this font the game uses does not play nice with my OCR software, sadly).  him into a trap and turned him into a vampire. From that moment forth, Valnar was plagued by constant self doubts. She had been decapitated, and was therefore not able to be revived through normal ways. Asgar needed the blood of a human who slept with a vampire. And as Asgar knew, Aysha was a vampire. Valnar never suspected that, until it became too obvious even for him. The three of them later found Aysha hanging on a tree. Abraxas' sword was still inside her heart, but Valnar wanted Asgar to use the resurrection spell, that had already worked perfectly fine on Alaine, on Aysha. But Aysha wasn't truly dead, because, as you know, a vampire is only truly dead when their head was removed from the body. That's why the spell failed, of course, and Aysha turned insane. She escaped and the three started to search for her. They found her deep in the Shadow Forest, where her connection to Abraxas came to light. pretext that she loved him. There was also Vincent Weynard, a priest who began the Holy Crusade against the vampires after they appeared one day out of nowhere and threatened humanity. Vincent hunted and killed almost all vampires, and was appointed high priest of the church because of that. One day, he faked his death after giving the prophecy he would walk the earth again one day. But as it turned out during the course of the story, he was actually the employer of Abraxas and the creator of all vampires. He'd found an old spell book, which he used to create the vampires. Valnar, Asgar and Alaine found and killed Vincent, and due to the power the book held, Asgar turned insane, and a fight between Asgar, Valnar and Alaine broke out. Alaine and Valnar fell in love with each other over the course of the story, and so they fought together against Asgar, who wanted to destroy the world. in the end, he lost, and from then on, he lived as a Blood Spirit. Because as you still may know, a vampire continues to exist as a Blood Spirit while suffering endless pain, without any hope of salvation. That's how it usually is, anyway. As you may remember, vampires are not afraid of sunlight or crucifixes. Only by being decaptitated can a vampire truly die. Garlic, of course, doesn't hurt them, either. But if a vampire doesn't have enough blood in their body, they get enraged and they can no longer control themselves properly. If a vampire suffers too great injuries due to weapons or magic, they fall into Rigor and must hope that someone heals their wounds. Until then, they are unable to move. A vampire that didn't fall into Rigor can, if they have enough blood, heal their wounds on their own. But this could obviously take a while, depending on how severe their wounds are. But back to the story... so Asgar was now a Blood Spirit and suffered pain beyond his imaginations. But first, I think I'd better close the curtains, then we will have a better atmosphere here.  Oooh, spooky. At any rate, we stopped at the point where Valnar and Alaine took the book to Valnar's house. There, they were pondering on what they should do next. After a while, they decided to drastically change the fate of one human. But even before that human was born, they became involved in a dramatic event... it all began on a beautiful summer day. The little Nyria wanted to play outside, but she had to help her mother, who was lying in bed with a small fever... but the weather in Thyrik was too beautiful for Nyria to stay inside all day.And with that, our story begins. I'm going to try and keep updates on the shorter side this time around, so this is as good a time as any to cut. Next time, we'll listen to the story of Nyria, a character that made absolutely no appearance in the first game, but is still related to something from there. Also, here's the artwork we saw this update in a slightly higher resolution from the game files:  Valnar, looking somewhat more edgy than the last time we saw him.  Asgar, looking 100% less like a dark elf now.  Alaine, having gotten somewhat more pale since the last game.  Vincent Weynard, with a really poo poo-eating grin. Oh, and just to mention this right away, don't expect the portraits to look exactly like this artwork either. Our vampires aren't going to look quite as pale as they do here.
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Jul 24, 2017 16:22
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Yeah! I'm pumped to see this play out. I really enjoyed the previous game and Dusterberg.
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Jul 24, 2017 16:45
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Back in the day when I first played Vampires Dawn, the first game was difficult enough for me that I just said gently caress it and played VD2 on easy, so a Hard mode run's gonna be interesting to see.
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Jul 24, 2017 20:18
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Aw yeah, here we go.  I like these games. They're just so earnest.
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Jul 24, 2017 20:42
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Thank you, I'm excited for this— and your tearing apart the maps and puzzles again.
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Jul 24, 2017 22:26
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quote:Beautiful 
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Jul 24, 2017 23:48
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Update II - Blood-Sucking Lightning Rods ♪ BGM: Thyrik - 7thguntz.mid ♫ And thus, we cut to young Nyria and her mother in the village of Thyrik.  Mommy, it's going to get better, don't worry. Of course, my little sweetheart. But don't go outside to play for too long because of that. I'm going to rest now for a bit, and hope that I'll get better soon. Nothing bad must happen to the baby. All right, Mommy. I won't be away for long. I'll play a little with Jona. Soon, you can also play with the baby! Please, always take good care of it, whatever happens. Sure, Mommy. Can I go outside now? The weather is so lovely! Go, it's fine... Later, Mommy! I love you! I love you too, honey!I can see the "Time Until Inevitable Tragedy" countdown already. Anyway, we now get control of Nyria and can take part in the most wonderful JRPG pasttime of "bop around the map, looking at things and talking to people".  Of course, Mommy. I'll be back soon!  against a giant dragon and won. Ever since then, he was given this title.We also have some more books to look at. Some boring tales about heroes. Here is an old book. I don't understand its content...Next, we head downstairs.    Maybe one day, I will understand why he left us... But I still have Jona and Mommy... Oh, Jona's probably already waiting for me. I should hurry, or else she will go off without me!We're not under any actual time pressure, so let's just keep looking around the house first.  I love the story of Alex and Christin! So beautifully romantic.God damnit, Marlex. Here is a book from the great author Dante-Farnel. One of my favorite writers. Hm, here is a book about the old Elras Mages. I began reading it at one point, but somehow this book was too mysterious for me. with them.That seems like a useful bit of information.  Now, let's head down to the cellar.   But then he just left...Nothing much interesting down here, so let's head out through the other set of stairs.  And with that, we're outside in the town of Thyrik, so let's go around and talk to some people!  No matter if you have a hat or not... You look like you always have a sunstroke! I can't believe this!!! Get lost, you cheeky brat!!! (It's true, though, heehee...) I'm doing great! Such great weather today! I'm going to play all day! Well, in that case, have fun! During this bit, we're not going to be going into any of the other houses. Fine by me.  Um, not really. That's okay! Send your mother my regards! Sure, will do. Nah, not today. Mommy doesn't like it anyway, and I'm playing with Jona today! Well then, take care of yourself! Sure, as always. And finally, we find who we're looking for in the top right corner. Stop moaning. My mom held me up. But now I'm here. Hey, I've got a good idea! Why don't we play hide and seek? 1) Good idea. You first! - 2) Oh, I don't feel like it.We could just skip this, but there's no real reason why beyond not wanting to waste time. Okay, I'll hide somewhere in the village and you search for me! And now close your eyes! Okay, I'll count to 10! 1... 2... 3... Hey, close your eyes! Otherwise, it's too easy! Oops...  And off we go on our search! Let's ask around a bit.  Did you happen to see Jona? She hid somewhere. Jona? Yes, she ran past here, but then decided to run south! Thanks! And sure enough, when we go south, there's Jona! Except there's one thing that makes this tricky. She turns around, then moves behind the tree. I also run behind the tree, figuring she's just hiding behind it, and mash the space bar. Nope, nobody there.  When I then decide to talk to this guy again, she just pops out from the other tree, then disappears again before I can get her! I'm looking for Jona. Did you see her? And then she pops back out from the other tree! I took a look at the events in RPG Maker, and the way this works is that Jona pops out from one tree, looks around, then pops back in and disappears. Then she teleports to a different tree in the village and the process repeats for all the trees in the village. This is pretty drat fiddly.  However, after some loving about, I finally manage to catch her. And no, before you ask, this is not something that is governed by the difficulty. I actually considered that for a second. But not here... Let's play a little outside of the village. Okay, let's go!Alright, let's go!  ...oh. OK then. Off to the other side we go.  And then she runs off the screen. I'll get you!Now we have to chase her down, though we don't actually have to chase her down, she just stays at one point we have to find. It doesn't take long.  Jona then looks up. Huh? What's the matter? A bat? Have you ever seen a bat here before? Well, I haven't... Hm... Well, I haven't, either. But there is always a first time. Let's got to the cliff, maybe we will see more! Yay, to the cliff...Alright, let's head to the cliff. We just have to move to the north a bit.   Uhhh... Not really. Oh, I bet that was the only one. We should enjoy the beautiful view instead. Do you see Asdion over there? Yeah, there, that teeny dot on the horizon! Huh, when we stand here like that, I have to think of Daddy for some reason. You still don't know why he just left? No... Mommy never told me. I think they had an argument. But Mommy is pregnant. How can he leave her? Don't be so sad. I'm sure you'll be fine with the two of you together. Yes, fortunately, I've been practicing with my throwing knives for several months. With that, I'll be able to protect Mommy and me... Listen, Nyria, my dad said, whenever you two need help, you can come to us! Thank you... But your mom still hasn't allowed you to use the throwing knives? No, she's scared that I might seriously hurt myself and that she would be all alone then... I've hidden the barrel in the living room. That way, I always have them at hand. I can only hope Mommy doesn't find them, or else I'll be grounded again. My dad always says there is a good future for everyone, as long as you know how to reach it. I hope so... And then we get another appearance from our old pal Blood Text as the sun sets. SO INNOCENT SO VULNERABLE SO NAIVE FROM THE SAME BLOOD AND YET SO DIFFERENT For the record, I have no idea what "from the same blood" means in this context beyond maybe "they're all humans and have the same kind of blood", since it's certainly not "they're related", which "of the same blood" usually stands for. This doesn't make more sense in the German version.  We'd better get back home! Oh, no, Mommy is going to get mad at me for sure! I wanted to be back home by now! ♪ BGM: Rain Sounds ♫ Let's go home quickly!We then head back to the village.  Well then, see you tomorrow! But now I have to hurry, so I won't get scolded too badly! It was nice today... Sure, as always.And then Jona heads inside as we head back.  We then hear some sounds of something being hit.  More hitting sounds, and a female scream. Nyria runs up to the door. Hey, the door is locked!She starts knocking at the door. MOMMY!!! Let me in!!!More fighting sounds and screams.  MOOOOOMMYYYYY!!!She knocks at the door again. We hear an evil laugh. Mommy...And then...  T... t... the... the bat!!! It's carrying Mommy away!!! How... how is that possible?♪ BGM: Throwing Knives - warlord.mid ♫ I have to save Mommy!!! I need my knives! I have to get in, and fast!!! And thus, we have a timer counting down. We have three minutes to find the throwing knives and find Nyria's mom. This is the first thing that is different depending on difficulty. Easy gives you seven minutes, Medium gives you five, and Hard, as you can tell, gives you three. Now, as Nyria already noticed, the front door is locked. If we try to open it, we get three options: Climbing up through the window, breaking through the door, or picking the lock with a hairpin. The way these options work is that we get a random number drawn, and depending on that, we either succeed or fail and have to try again. Climbing has a 1 in 3 chance, breaking down the door is a 1 in 8 chance, and picking the lock is a 1 in 5 chance. This will of course eat up a lot of time, and we can't have that. Of course, we know an alternative:    ✝ Throwing Knives obtained!Time to get a move on!   We head out the front door and make our way to the west.  We end up in a new area where we just have to find the right place. It's not that complicated, just follow the path. The area isn't large enough for there to be any real confusion.  We find the place with relative ease.  Get your hands away from my mommy!!! Heh heh, what have we here? Another young one that is going to satisfy my thirst! You sicko! Let go of my mommy and get lost! HARHAR! So cute. Ahhh... I can already feel her blood pour down into my throat. So warm and sweet... NEVER! I will protect Mommy! HARHARHAR! You are truly deliciously amusing. Well, what are you going to do? Cut my throat? ... Oh my dear child... Come here, I won't hurt you... Be good and come to the nice uncle... Hm? What's that? Die!!!  drat. Nyria does not gently caress around. ARRRRRRRRGH... NO ONE IS GOING TO HURT MY MOMMY! You're never going to hurt anyone again! Arr... aaa... rrr... Mommy... Mommy, please say something! Uuuuhhhh... Nyria... Quick, Mommy, we need to get away from here! Arrrrr... gargle... Quick, please hurry, Mommy! Stand up! Uuuhhh.... Everything hurts...! Mommy, quick, that guy... ROAAAA... AAAARRRR...   And thus, with that vampire having demonstrated some impromptu lightning rod capabilities, Nyria and her mother leave the area and we fade to black. The save screen afterwards signifies that it's time to go back to Grandpa, so that's as good a time as any to cut for today. Now, you might not know how this ties in with the story of the first game, but the information you need is already there to figure it out. And it's not like it's a spoiler or anything, we'll be told next time. Still, I'd like to know if you worked out what relation Nyria here has to the story of Vampires Dawn I.
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Jul 26, 2017 18:55
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I don't know any of the others, but Jona's portrait is definitely a lightly-recolored portrait from Xenogears--Margie, I think. Recycling is good for the environment.
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Jul 26, 2017 20:42
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Playing hard mode, just for giggles, eh? No ulterior motive at all.
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Jul 26, 2017 22:58
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I like Nyria already! Picayune posted:I don't know any of the others, but Jona's portrait is definitely a lightly-recolored portrait from Xenogears--Margie, I think. Recycling is good for the environment. I KNEW I saw that portrait somewhere!
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Jul 26, 2017 23:28
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Nyria has my vote for best protagonist.
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Jul 27, 2017 01:24
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Not even one update in and we've already committed the capital crime of not dyin'. Can't say I didn't expect it though.
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Jul 29, 2017 03:42
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Update III - Life-Changing Tragedy In 5... ♪ BGM: Bad Night Story - vamp9.mid ♫ That does remind me a little of Valnar back then, Grandpa! Maybe a little. But what's important is that Nyria succeeded in this situation, whereas Valnar failed drastically in a similar situation.So the thread isn't the only one that's on record as saying that Nyria > Valnar. It only takes one update to make an impression. Well, well... but I have to say, she does have talent. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the vampire's shoes. Yes, Nyria trained secretly, because she anticipated that she could protect her mother and herself at one point. And several months later, there was someone else who had to be protected. Nyria's mother gave birth to a little girl and called her... ♪ BGM: Thyrik - 7thguntz.mid ♫ Not to be overbearing, but you should remember this name. Of course, Mommy! Come on, Jayna. Come to your sister! Yes, come to your sister! Dear little Jayna...Jayna starts moving towards Nyria. Yes, you're a good girl!Jayna then moves towards her mother instead. Hey, to me! Not to Mommy!Nyria walks over there as well. Ohhhh, you are SOOO cuddly! Now, come here, my little Jayna! My little sister... And so, many happy years passed. As Jayna grew up, she often played hide and seek with Nyria and Jona. Nyria and her mother never told Jayna about the dramatic events from back then, however. They believed she already had it rough enough without a father. And so the little Jayna became a young girl...  Of course, what do you think? Well then, let's go! Let's pick up Jona, too! All right.They then walk downstairs.  But don't come home late! We'll have dinner soon! Of course! Well then, enjoy yourselves! And please don't give Jayna one of your knives... How do you... Come now, you don't really think that I haven't noticed over the years! ...well, shoot. Anyway, we'll be outside!They then go out the front door.  Where are we going? Today, I'll teach you how to fight! How to fight? But Mommy said... Forget what she said! I assure you that it's important to know how to fight properly. Well, if you say so... Trust me, I'm your big sister, I know what I'm talking about! What are we still waiting for, then? Ah, right, where is Jona waiting, anyway? On the large meadow. You mean the meadow southeast of here? Sure, what other would I mean?And with that, we're off to explore. We can't enter any buildings, but there's a lot of people to talk to, so let's get going!   No one wants to go out with me. Everyone only has eyes for you. Don't ask. It's almost starting to annoy me. Sigh... if only I were in your stead... While bopping around Thyrik, I get to notice one particularly annoying thing that Marlex did - he made the top parts of the roof of all the buildings impassable, even though you should be able to walk past them due to how the perspective works. It's not hard to do, but alas.  Oh, Stephan, the last time was kind of nice, but somehow I don't have the desire to spend the evening with you again. Oh, what a bummer. But I'm so in love with you! What else do you want me to say? That you love me! I'll be going now...This is going to be a running theme for this bit - basically every male person in this village wants to gently caress Nyria.  Oh JayJay, you can spare me your little games. You know I'm not interested in you. Hey, I'm the best thing that could happen to you here! I can take down two wolves at once! Come on, give me a chance! Nah, don't do it! You should take ME instead! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Hmpf... for some reason, you two are bugging me... But... but... I'm leaving... Hello, Emilia! Say, how are you doing today? Great! My husband gave me flowers today! Hey, that's nice. I wish I had somebody who would give me flowers. But all the boys here always only want the one thing. Oh, there are so many men in this world. There ought to be someone even you will like. Right... Then you wouldn't have a chance, just like the others. Hoho, if you knew... gasp... gasp...  And then hide in the bushes! You know what I mean... Nah, I'd rather not. I still have scratch wounds from last time! Those stupid pricky shrubs... How could I've known that it was a bush with pricks? Let it go. You had your chance. Pah, women! It's cute when even a short one like you has the biggest ego. Ego-what? Don't talk such nonsense. I'm gonna be a big hero soon! And then, I'll have hundreds of girls around me, who will all look better than you! Of course... but now go and play with your cute little wooden sword! Otherwise, you'll end up in every possible third class adventure... Nah, that won't happen to ME for sure! I am Alex, after all!In case you need a refresher, Alex is the default main character that the engine sets you up with when you create a new RPG Maker 2000 game. As such, there are a lot of different (bad) RPG Maker games that star Alex, since people didn't bother to change their main character at all. However, this is also a bit of a personal topic for Marlex - his first game, Dunkle Schatten, also starred Alex. This game was quite the oddity, in that it was a game that starred an Alex, but was actually good.  Of course. But I have my reasons. Jona's waiting. Oh, I guess you young people will never learn... What's going on here? He's lovesick! He's threatening to jump! Hey, Condor! What the heck are you doing up there? I'll... I'll jump! I'll do it! I'll do it! If you don't go out with me! I'M GOING TO JUMP! GO OUT WITH ME, NYRIA! OR I'LL JUMP! You want me to go out with you? No way... ...BUT... but... NYRIA! He won't jump anyway...Nyria goes to leave, and...   Ouuuuuuuuch... my nose... What were you thinking... If I bleed to death, it's all your fault, Nyria! Don't exaggerate. His own fault!I think that's all the people we can talk to, so it's time to head out.  We head east to go back to the place where we were with Jona in the previous scene.  ♪ BGM: Silence ♫ Then we head south and find Jona in a strange walled-off area, facing off with some sort of snake. Isn't that dangerous? That's a Kronus-Adder. Highly venomous... Don't worry, Jona knows what she's doing. Pay attention to her posture and her quick reactions... Yes, she's good... Come on, you stupid creature! I'll finish you! Watch out, Jona! Heh heh, and here comes my finishing blow, stupid snake! Exciting combat scenes! Haha, it's running away! Well done, Jona! drat it, Jayna! What are you doing!? Come back here at once! Snakes, much like bullets, just shoot forward until they hit something. JONA! Uhhhhh... drat iii...  Waaaaahh...  Jona, please say something... ... Nyria lost her best friend because of a stupid mistake by her sister Jayna. But Nyria hid her anger towards Jayna, so her mother didn't have to worry. But inside of Nyria, the anger was burning, and it wouldn't go away so quickly. A short while later, Jona was buried at her favorite cliff. ♪ BGM: The Grave At The Cliff - Gojista Regrets.mid ♫ ...I am so dreadfully sorry! It was... not... your fault... It was! It was all my fault! It had to be... fate... ... Sometimes, life is so incredibly cruel... she could never achieve something in her life...   And once more, we are reunited with our old friend, Blood Text. JUST A GAME OF GOD? FORTUNE AND MISFORTUNE JUST A WHIM OF GOD? EVERYONE MUST GO DOWN THEIR OWN PATH WHATEVER THE FUTURE MAY BRING So Nyria proceeds to just stand there for quite some time.  Quite some time. I wonder how tides work, given how close the moon here is.  control over. I will join the army of King Gerald in order to improve my skills and abilities. I don't want to get into a situation again where I can only watch helplessly... ...that makes Mommy and me very sad... I have decided, and there are no alternatives for me. ...And fade to black.  ♪ BGM: Bad Night Story - vamp9.mid ♫ They were very worried that Nyria had to go to war, and that she might lose her life. Nyria, however, didn't concern herself with the worries of her family and left for Tranak Castle a few days afterwards in order to apply for military service. She wanted to become strong. Very strong. She never wanted to watch helplessly while her family or friends are dying. She was accepted and served King Gerald from that moment on. Months passed, and Nyria rarely wrote a letter about how she was doing. But one day, a letter was sent to her family, which was from Tranak Castle, but was not sent by Nyria... ♪ BGM: Thyrik - 7thguntz.mid ♫  Yes, mother? Oh, Jayna... What is it? Read this letter, Jayna! It's from Tranak Castle!  Tranak Castle was attacked... King Gerald is dead... All the advisors and the queen as well... The guards didn't notice anything! How is that possible? Who or what could have snuck into the royal chamber and killed everyone without anyone noticing? I hope Nyria is okay! Unfortunately, the letter doesn't mention anything about her!Gee, I wonder who could have committed such a dastardly act! Previously, on Vampires Dawn I posted:Oh, right. Note that there's a bit of a diversion from our canon here - in our version of the events, the reason the guards didn't notice anything is because, well, they were all dead. In Marlex's version, they apparently did Abraxas's tower first and gained entry to the castle by showing the emblem from the tower to the guards. The letter is not from her? Who sent it, then? And where is Nyria? I hope she isn't one of the victims! three months worried Jayna and their mother greatly. But if Jayna knew what else was waiting for her, she would have had to worry far more... because four months after the letter arrived, two persons came to the village, who would determine Jayna's future. And it was going to be a grim future...And I think that's a good point to cut for now. Next time, we're going to meet those two people that are going to shape Jayna's future - though you should already know who they are. TheMcD fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Jul 30, 2017 |
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Jul 30, 2017 16:44
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Haha what?! First, every male character in this update was nuts. Second... that whole snake scene. 
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Jul 30, 2017 18:14
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After exploring the entire town completely once pre-time skip I didn't bother to do so again because this place is surprisingly large for a quaint JRPG-style village. Nyria's sprite made me think she was supposed to be homely, not the hottest person in town.
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Jul 30, 2017 19:17
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a cartoon duck posted:After exploring the entire town completely once pre-time skip I didn't bother to do so again because this place is surprisingly large for a quaint JRPG-style village. Nyria's sprite made me think she was supposed to be homely, not the hottest person in town. The funniest thing about the size of Thyrik is that it actually grows from time skip to time skip. This is the size of Thyrik in the second update:  This is the size of Thyrik in the third update:  And this is the size of Thyrik in what will be the fourth update:  Compare that to Asran, which hasn't grown between the Holy Crusade and the current day. Quite a difference!
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Jul 30, 2017 19:56
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a cartoon duck posted:Nyria's sprite made me think she was supposed to be homely, not the hottest person in town. She also apparently really gets around, drat.
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Jul 30, 2017 22:41
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Part of me wants the protagonist chaining to continue, so that we actually end up playing Jayna's great-granddaughter or something. We're just getting a big run-up!
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Jul 31, 2017 07:55
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Picayune posted:Part of me wants the protagonist chaining to continue, so that we actually end up playing Jayna's great-granddaughter or something. We're just getting a big run-up! And if McD's post is any indication, by that time Thyrik will be about twice the size of Midgar. We will still only be in it for the first act of the story, then never enter it again until near the very end of the game. Who in the hell names their kid "Grondo", and who in the hell willingly keeps it!?
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Aug 1, 2017 04:52
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a cartoon duck posted:After exploring the entire town completely once pre-time skip I didn't bother to do so again because this place is surprisingly large for a quaint JRPG-style village. Nyria's sprite made me think she was supposed to be homely, not the hottest person in town. Putting a knife through a boar's forehead at 50 paces has an attraction all its own.
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Aug 1, 2017 05:56
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Update IV - The Return Of Bopping Around ♪ BGM: Thyrik - 7thguntz.mid ♫ And now, we're back in Thyrik. And as we all know, blood text telling us which city it is, which only shows up the first time we enter it, can only mean somebody very particular is entering the city...   We are going to turn only one more human into a vampire. One single young lady, to be more precise. She shall become our daughter... our daughter for all eternity. It has to be the right one! Well then, let's see if we can find a girl here that can meet our expectations.  The option menu can also be accessed via the 1-9, +, -, * and / buttons.Well, then! Yes, much like the last game, this game also has a separate menu that you can access from an item that sits in your inventory. Might as well take a look at that.  When we head into the menu, we see that Valnar and Alaine are both at the max level from the last game. Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that's not going to last?  Also, looking into the skills, Valnar seems to have gone the same way we made him go in our playthrough, with nothing but light spells.  Alaine is loving cheating, though - Apocalpyse and Chaos are both level 45 spells! You can't have two of those!  Oh hey, the game also gives us a tutorial for the main menu, that's helpful! We'll go and check that out. You'll also notice the save stones. Much like the last game, we have a single use item that allows us to save. Now, on Easy, you actually get a save crystal, which is an unlimited use save stone. On Medium, you start out with 10 save stones, but on Hard, we only get 5. Limiting the amount of times we can save to make the game more difficult is... kind of a dick move, really. However, I'm still going to try to live with it until it becomes totally unbearable before I just give myself a save crystal like I did in the first game. Anyway, on to the tutorial!  can select the category you wish. With ENTER, you can access the category. There are the following categories: you can browse through all the quests. You can return to the menu with the ESC key. A number on the picture shows the recommended level for the quest.That sounds like a really good feature. Knowing whether you can take on a quest or not beforehand is preferable to just running head-first into enemies that murder you.  to the difficulty level, determines the ending of the game.Also a good thing - telling you right away what determines the ending you get.  to look at the map of the world, which shows all castles and capitals.    the duration it takes for the pop-up window in the skills menu to appear. Yeah, I guess we can remove this. Now, let's take a look at this menu ourselves.  We only have one quest going right now. This also makes for a good reminder what exactly you were doing if you haven't played in a while. The other game had something like that too, but it didn't look as nice.  Our status is as follows: Playing Time: 0:36 Secrets: 0 of 1250 Humans you sucked blood from: 0 Humans who died in the process: 0 Transformed humans: 0 Converted humans: 0 Number of battles: 0 Amount of escapes: 0 Humanity: 50 Tax revenue: 0 Disturbances among the population: 0 Filar in the castle: 0 This already spoils some things - apparently we're not going to get our money from silver mines this time around, but rather from taxes. Also, our starting humanity is 50 on Hard, 60 on Medium and 70 on Easy. And since there seems to be not only transforming humans in this game, but converting them as well, we could have used some more humanity leeway.  In the map menu, we get to see the map again. I guess that needs to be overhauled, since, y'know, Tradan is now kinda dead. Also, Thyrik here doesn't show up on this map, since that city wasn't in the original game.  In the running menu, I notice that we don't have the full party visibility activated, so I turn that on because hey, that's another thing that RPG Maker 2003 can't do by default and you have to do weird workarounds to get it, and that's neat.  For the battle music, we get four choices. ♪ BGM: A Very Dark Day - VD2Kampf1.mid ♫ ♪ BGM: Blood, I Need Blood - ADemon.mid ♫ ♪ BGM: Crush Them - Xboss06.mid ♫ ♪ BGM: Death Is On Its Way - companile.mid ♫ "Blood, I Need Blood" is a remix of the Stage 1 theme from Castlevania: The Adventure. Don't recognize the other three except for the fact that "Crush Them" is actually a big boss theme for Vampires Dawn I - I think it only got used for Vincent Weynard. I end up picking "Crush Them" because I like that one the most.  The text menu just allows you to change your mind about the choices you made back in the first part - at least regarding the text boxes. No backsies on difficulty, though.  And this stuff just isn't even relevant to us yet, so let's just ignore that. So, that's the menu done with, which means that we're now going to move on to bopping around town, talking to everybody. But before we do that, let's take a look at the maps for Thyrik, because they're quite interesting.  This is the map we get of Thyrik during the bit with young Nyria.  This is the map we get of Thyrik during the bit with older Nyria.  And this is the map we get of Thyrik during this bit with Valnar and Alaine. Turns out that over time, a village can actually grow! But not if you're Asran, which apparently didn't change at all between the time of the Holy Crusade and today. Anyway, let's get to exploring.  You'll note that we have a new menu for talking to people. The old one had four options and was made in text only, but this one has six options and is made with fancy graphics! Our options are to talk to the person, read their thoughts, suck their blood, transform them into an item, convert them into a vampire, and exit the menu. For this bit, using anything but "talk" or "read mind" gets a "why are you doing that" from Alaine and you don't get to do it. So, what does this person have to say and think?  You'll also note that this guy has a generic portrait. A lot of characters in this version of the village have a generic portrait for some reason.  That's your house, so you should have something to eat here! Well, since you simply walked in here, I thought you were going to give me some delicious ham or something like that out of good will... Out of good will? Some HAM? Hmmm... ham! There's just nothing better... (No wonder this guy has a few pounds too many!)Hm. Let's see what he's thinking, though I think I can hazard a guess.   Or some bread and dripping. Hmmm... drat it, I just can't decide again.Yep.  Do you want to be like your dad? Nah, Dad's always eating everything away from me! I can't get big and strong that way! Your dad eats everything away from you? Poor child! Sometimes I get really scared. Recently, we didn't have any more food left in our house, and then Dad started to look at me with a weird expression all of a sudden! ...I'd rather not think about it! But there is so much food on the table! Yes, but Dad said it's his dinner, and that I can't have any of it! I'm not supposed to become like him, after all! We can't afford that... What a barbaric way of raising your child! Ohhh, I am so hungry! How am I supposed to become a great hero if I don't get anything to eat! Hopefully, Dad leaves a few crumbs for me again...In general, I'll just put the thoughts of the person after the part where we talk to them. Now, it's time for the best part of this exploring - looking at book cases!  "The Brief Existence of the Sausage". Lots of cookbooks for all kind of flavors. Hm, here are lots of cookbooks. Looks like someone likes to eat. Good day! It appears you are very polite towards strangers. Yes, that's true, I guess. Someone here has to show the famous hospitality of Thyrik. Famous? What rock do you live under? Every man and woman knows the famous story of the sick man who managed to stagger into Thyrik with his remaining strength, and how he was heartily welcomed. And then he received the best medical treatment you could wish for. Well, we really have never heard a story like that before! Oh, all right. I just came up with that! But still, I want to make Thyrik a place of friendship and joy! I'm working on that every day. Well, that truly is a commendable attitude. Thanks. But now I have to look for other strangers who I can welcome just as friendlily as you! Well, in that case... Oh, strangers! I'm going to show them what hospitality means! First, I'm going to greet them, then I'll give them some welcome chocolate. Afterwards, I'm going to invite them for some tea, and then offer them to spend the night at my house. THEN they will know about the hospitality of Thyrik. Although, what if they have vermin? Fleas, lice or ticks? ...oh, I think they won't be disappointed if I simply greet them... No, thank you, we don't wish to spend the night in town. In case you change your mind, you know where you can find me! Of course. Pffff... when I look at those guys, I'm almost getting total goosebumps. Scary folks! Haaaaaaang on a second...  Beautiful dog! Pant pant... Hello! You look like you're not from here. Well, so do you two! That's right, well observed. We're from Klennar and... we're visiting friends. Well, I just came from Düsterburg, and hell's gone loose there. And so I thought I'd go on vacation with Julie a little. Julie? Your girlfriend? Heh heh, no, my dog! Anyway, we'll be staying here for a few days, until duty calls again. Düsterburg wants to be saved, after all, and somebody's gotta do it. Well, I wish you some relaxing days! Thanks! Oh, that Wahnfried is driving me nuts! Also, I should go out with Libra again at some point. She's so grouchy lately! But who's going to take care of Julie in the meantime?So yeah, that just happened. Asgar got his appearance in Unterwegs in Düsterburg, and now Grandy gets his appearance in Vampires Dawn. Don't try to imagine how this appearance can actually be worked into the story of Unterwegs in Düsterburg. Even if you somehow explain this away as happening before Wahnfried erased Grandy and Libra from the timestream and therefore not being remembered by them, you can't possibly explain Asgar's appearance in UiD. And EVEN IF you manage to twist yourself into a pretzel and somehow explain that, you can't possibly marry that with Alaine becoming the Baroness of Shannar and gifting a portrait of herself to Wahnfried. And that's not mentioning something that's going to be coming up.   And thus begins the descent into madness. Here's the deal: We're playing on Hard, and there's one particular mechanic that will gently caress us pretty hard unless we gently caress it right back. There's a guide online on how to gently caress it right back, and I'm going to attempt to follow it. The first step on this guide is "find as many secrets as you possibly can, because every Filar and every item you can sell for Filar counts". There are some other steps, but we'll get into those when those become relevant. For now, we "unf unf unf" our way around every room we can find, trying to find every possible secret.  Yes, by telling us where we can find the nicest girl in the village! The nicest girl? I guess you are a few years too late. The love of my youth Nyria has left a long time ago... sigh... she was soooo beautiful! And now, there aren't any nice girls in this village anymore? Oh Nyria! Why did you have to leave me? Uhm, I guess we better leave him and let him indulge himself in his thoughts. Oh, Nyria! Nyria! Nyria! My beloved NYRIAAAAAAAA!  Disgusting! Come on, leave him, Valnar! Drunk as a skunk... I ain't not drunk... Naaaaah, I... not drunk *burp*... Yuck... Anything else I can drink? More beeeeer?   I guess we should look at the items we find as we find them. So here we have some healing items, one healing a decent amount and one healing gently caress all. Also, I guess this is a good opportunity to mention that Vampires Dawn was not immune to the scourge of HP Inflation that took place throughout all of JRPGs. Whereas our crew's HP would cap out at 500~600 HP in the first game, in this game it caps out at 3000+. Also, the biggest boss in the first game had 7000 HP, whereas the biggest boss in this game has 16000. Though if you're playing on Easy, that 16000 gets cut in half. So those are some ballpark numbers we're going to be working with.  What do you mean? Didn't you notice? Beer's gotten more expensive! And the monsters these days don't even have one tiny bit of Filar! I have to drink here on account! Sad, sad...So here we have a hint towards this game doing the same thing the previous game did - monsters don't drop any gold. You can't grind for money in this game, which might turn out to be a bit of an issue. But we'll find a way around it, I'm sure. Well, you don't have to drink beer. Hey, I'm a warrior! That's part of my image! (Strange fellow!) What horrible times! Terrible times! Catastrophic times! The worst times of all times! Truly, these are the worstest times. If even a warrior cannot afford some beer... We would like to know who the most popular girl in this village is. The most popular girl? She already left a long time ago... Nyria was her name, and she was one hell of a woman! And what other kind of girls are there in this village? Well, there are several of them, but I think you should go and see for yourselves... Thank you for your help, regardless. Not a problem! Oh, I hope these are paying customers! Everyone else here's been drinking on account for weeks! As if there aren't any jobs here!Uh, hang on a second...  ...nope, we're dead broke. Also, god drat, Glazius in the thread must be on to something here. There is no way Nyria gets everybody's dicks so wet they stay that way for years even after she left the place for greener pastures (well, redder pastures, given the way we left the place she went, but I digress). This place has to have a fetish for murder she fulfilled to the utmost.  In the next house, we find some money! Every bit helps.  Well, actually, we are looking for a nice girl. Excuse me? What sort of people are you? I'm not dealing with that sort of things! You should try again in Uruya! We didn't mean it like that! Yes, yes, of course not! Oh, never mind... It's time for me to find a girlfriend. I always kind of hoped that Nyria would come back one day, but looks like that won't be the case. And I don't want to die a virgin, after all! Hello! Hello! Pardon me, but I am busy at the moment. I have to clean half of the house before my husband gets home from the bar! In that case, we won't keep you. That disgusting dust is everywhere! I wish there was an effective way to deal with that! What news? They say the town Tradan was completely destroyed! But that happened a long time ago. Oh? Dang it, why am I always the last to learn about stuff like that? Well, it happens... Now Tradan was destroyed! What's going to happen next? When even whole towns get obliterated. I hope that doesn't happen to Thyrik as well... brrr... I don't even want to think about that! Otherwise, I won't be able to sleep soundly! There's a door here. I don't know how I noticed that there was a door here. I guess I just figured "there's no way this house doesn't have a door, the house wouldn't be here if I couldn't go in".  More books! Hey, here is a copy of the book "The Secret Arts of Dr. Man Tu Chi"! Whooee, take a look at this, Alaine! My goodness... Ugh, Valnar, what are you reading this time? Obviously, these people were young and needed the money... the things some people are willing to put themselves through... Hm, just some very embarrassing books about the humans. Thank you! We didn't want to be much of a bother. No problem. Feel free to take a look around... We'll do just that... Fortunately, it's so peaceful in this village. That way I don't have to worry about the well-being of my family... MORE BOOKS! garlic, holy water, and crosses. They are incapable of entering churches, and they are the embodiment of pure evil. An encounter with a vampire is always fatal. Hahaha, have you ever read such nonsense before? No. Always these terrible prejudices... Here is a book about two inmates of the lunatic asylum in Shannar. Hmmm... it's about two brothers who always thought of themselves as the best and only criticized others. Different opinions were abhorrent to them, and in order to emphasize their personalities, they called themselves "TheByteReaper" and "Wizard0815", which, however shocked the general public and caused them to send them to Shannar to the lunatic asylum. Of course they had a lot to complain there as well. And then, they complained happily ever after... very unympathetic, those two...I wonder if this is a lighthearted jab or Marlex genuinely calling people out for being complainers.   Another secret. A status effect healing item is always welcome.  Excuse me, we didn't want to be too bothersome. We're just taking a look around. That's all right. I'm living here peacefully with my son Jan, who truly turned into a wonderful boy! Glad to hear it! It's great you can live here so happily! Thank you! I hope Jan will become a great adventurer some day! And that he earns riches and fame! That would make me very happy. He will. I'm sure of it. Oh, my little Jan! I'm sure you will be a great adventurer! Hello, little girl. We're just looking around a little, and we're having a chat with your nice family! Yes, that's good! After all, talking is fun! I enjoy talking, and talking frequently! Daddy says, sometimes, I'm talking too much, but I don't agree! Only someone who talks, can... Uhm, I'm sorry, little girl. I think you're right, but our time is running short. Oh, what a bummer. But if you want to talk, I'll be here! Hopefully, these two want to talk to me! I get the feeling Daddy doesn't even listen to me anymore! Even though I only ask him a few hundred questions per day at most! Hello, little man. Mommy told me not to speak with strangers! But for you, I'll make an exception. After all, you look like you are really nice! Cute little boy! Here, take this lollipop, you are my friends now! Thank you! ✝ Lolly received! Unfortunately, we don't have any gifts for you! No big deal, eventually, you're going to find something, and then you can come back here... Okay! (Such a nice little kid!) Hey, they look really nice! I bet they are very friendly! This lollipop is actually part of an unmarked side quest I didn't know existed. The thing is that I didn't find any real walkthrough for this game, just disjointed guides about particular things, like marked sidequests, treasure maps and such. Basically, what we do with the lollipop is we bring it to that kid that was hungry, and in exchange, he gives us a teddy bear. We bring that back to this kid, and we get an angel amulet, which is a piece of equipment that gives +5 to Intelligence. Hypothetically useful, and it would have been worth money, so missing out kinda sucks. I'll see if we can end up coming back for this. Anyway, there is still a ton of this village to go, and I'm already hitting 20K characters. I'm trying to keep updates shorter, so I'll cut it here. We'll continue bopping around town next time.
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Aug 2, 2017 21:28
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Yay we're gonna kidnap a daughter! How sweet!
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Aug 2, 2017 21:56
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SSNeoman posted:Yay we're gonna kidnap a daughter! How sweet! I mean, given the people we could compare Valnar and Alaine to (Asgar, Abraxas, Weynard, to name some), only kidnapping a single girl to turn into your daughter for all eternity is downright saintly. Baby steps, people.
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Aug 2, 2017 22:05
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You've really got to pixel-hunt every town to get the money to survive hard mode? Ouch.
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Aug 6, 2017 14:44
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Glazius posted:You've really got to pixel-hunt every town to get the money to survive hard mode? Ouch. Well, I don't know that. All I have is taking someone else's word for it. However, the guide also tells me to go through the first part of the game without buying a single piece of equipment and not using any items unless I absolutely have to, so it's not loving around. We'll have to see how things go. EDIT: Oh, and it also tells me to not finish any quests and to keep my level as low as possible. I'll end up going into greater detail just how this all makes something easier later on. TheMcD fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Aug 6, 2017 |
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Aug 6, 2017 18:07
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It's quite a story. I mean, I didn't read the first LP, but that summary alone was all kinds of something. Also, stealing someone's kid... maybe it isn't as bad as some of these other creepy guys but come on. Pretty terrible.
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Aug 7, 2017 15:45
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Looks like the town art assets are pulled straight from the original Wild Arms, in addition to the portrait from Xenogears earlier. I'm curious what else we'll be seeing used in the making of this.
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Aug 7, 2017 16:44
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Blademaster_Aio posted:Also, stealing someone's kid... maybe it isn't as bad as some of these other creepy guys but come on. Pretty terrible. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty terrible, but the other vampires we've met in the first game set the bar so low even a cockroach couldn't limbo under it. Just the fact alone that Valnar and Alaine say "hey, we're going to ruin two people's lives and then not ruin more people's lives" is a massive step up from "we're just going to ruin everybody's life because gently caress humans". Broken Box posted:Looks like the town art assets are pulled straight from the original Wild Arms, in addition to the portrait from Xenogears earlier. I'm curious what else we'll be seeing used in the making of this. I wonder just how many of the MIDIs used in the soundtrack are actually original. Probably not a lot.
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Aug 7, 2017 19:18
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TheMcD posted:Yeah, I mean, it's pretty terrible, but the other vampires we've met in the first game set the bar so low even a cockroach couldn't limbo under it. Just the fact alone that Valnar and Alaine say "hey, we're going to ruin two people's lives and then not ruin more people's lives" is a massive step up from "we're just going to ruin everybody's life because gently caress humans". I'm gonna bet that the game is 100% made out of stolen assets where it's not rtp assets.
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Aug 7, 2017 19:35
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Update V - I Just Realized How Many Towns There Are In This Game And I'm Scared Now ♪ BGM: Thyrik - 7thguntz.mid ♫ So, last time, we walked around town, talked to people, found items in barrels, and did nothing of real consequence. This time... we're going to be doing the same. Fun!  There's somebody we're talking to hiding behind the tree, honest! Hello, my child! Do you want to suck me dry? What ever gave you that idea? My mom told me stories about vampires that especially suck the blood of little girls who weren't behaving! And today, I didn't finish eating, so my mom said that one day, the vampires will come for me! Don't worry, we surely don't want to suck your blood!Yeah, sucking blood from little girls is woefully inefficient - you get the least amount possible from them! My mom said all vampires say that! What makes you think we are vampires? Um, um... Mom said you can never know if a stranger is a vampire! Heehee, you really have a wild imagination! Oh, are these two vampires? Mom warned me that vampires would suck me dry if I don't start to finally behave! But I'm still so young. Hm, this house looks familiar. I think we'll come back here later.  over... we no longer need any weapons! Of course, you're right...Alright, guess I don't have to go over equipment just yet.  We heard there are a lot of kind people in this village! Well, it might have been like that back in the days. Many years ago, the most beautiful girl in the world used to live here! Her name was Nyria... but one day, she decided to enter the ranks of King Gerald's army. Who knows what brought her to do that. At any rate, after that, about 90 percent of the young men decided to enter King Gerald's army as well. Only because they were all hopelessly in love with her.So basically, they entered the army looking to gently caress Nyria, and instead got murdered by vampires. Good job, guys. I was too young back then, otherwise, I probably would have done the same thing. So, isn't there anything else going on here these days? Looks like it. You're not going to find another person like Nyria ever again. I see. What a boring day. If only I had joined King Gerald's army back then together with Nyria! Well, we just wanted to have a nice chat. Oh, I'm very sorry, but there are a lot of different things on my mind at the moment. I don't feel like talking right now... It's all right... Does he even love me anymore? Or not? Somehow, he no longer seems to find me sexy at all. Could it be that I gained weight? Or do I have to improve my wardrobe? Why doesn't he go out with me anymore? Did I become to ugly for him? Does he have another girlfriend? Just why!?Well, judging by the tastes this village has, there seems to be only one option:   We have the extensive version back at home, if you are interested in reading it. "Unterwegs in Düsterburg", and "Tara's Adventure". I know all of them, they are pretty good.So Unterwegs in Düsterburg is now a legend in this universe, even though the main character of that legend is currently sitting in an inn in this very village, and is talking like his story hasn't even finished yet. My mind is breaking. The other titles being mentioned are RPG Maker games as well.   You must be new in this village. Yes, we're here for a visit, so to speak. Is there anything I can do for you? No, we're just taking a look around. As you wish. If you do need something, you can just tell me. Excuse if I'm being too personal, but do you live here alone? This house is pretty large. Sigh, that was a saddening question you asked me there. I had a wife and a daughter once. My wife died 2 years ago. She had become very bitter since that one day, and she lost all her joy for living. She cried herself to sleep almost every night, and I was unable to console her... What happened? It was so sad... my daughter died because of a snake bite. It was the bite of a Kronus-Adder. She died very quickly. It makes me so endlessly sad. I'm so sorry... My wife was never truly able to move past our beloved Jona's death... and now I'm alone. But my time will also come soon. Then, I will be reunited with them... ...we'd better go... My only comfort is my cat Mira, but she's always running away... and there's also Ms. Erys, who visits me from time to time. She's the mother of my little Jona's best friend... That's wonderful... we really need to keep going now, though. Thank you for your visit. I'm so lonely... and where is my cat this time?We're going to end up having to find that cat, aren't we?  "Postology - The Chosen Ones". Sounds peculiar. Hm, looks like it's about a cult, and its members supposedly found enlightenment. Apparently, there are only a few of them: PsychoSkull, Jeckel, Blackmirror and someone called Genohunter. I find this to be highly suspect. Odd, I've never heard of this cult before. Hey, what's written in here? "... and so, the cult had to disband, and its members are now acting from the shadows, in order to proclaim the great 'Time' again one day. Until then, they are part of other cults and wait..." Put that away, Valnar. We don't want to have anything to do with cults anymore! Here is a book about the basics of magic. Hm, the spell "Ice Bolt" is written here. Pfff, clearly one of the weakest spells in existence. Here are just some boring books about taxes and things like that...I wonder if that "Ice Bolt" spellbook is going to be handy later.  Doing fine, and you? Well, so-so. For some reason, there is no girlfriend here for me. Why is that? There are a lot of girls here. Sure, but they aren't appealing to me. The world is big, go and find one! Well, I don't have any money. Besides, I like it here. Well, then we can't help you, either. It's all right, not a big deal... Pfff, why is no girl here interested in me? Probably because I'm poor! But I really should start earning some Filar. But then I would have to wake up early... oh, rather not, then! We're looking for a pretty girl in this village. Pretty girl? Only Jayna comes to mind. She lives with her mother in the center of the village. Thanks for the tip. We're going to look there.Oh hey, somebody who actually gave us some useful advice! Hm, what could these people possibly want from me? I am just a simple house wife. Very odd. Well, of course I noticed that immediately, Valnar. Of course...  So, these healing phials are another healing item, sitting in between the two we've already found. Exciting!  Thank you for the warm reception! My girlfriend here is Alaine Frynia and my name is Valnar Darnus. Pleased to meet you, my name is Dante-Farnel! THE Dante-Farnel? The author Dante-Farnel? Yes, that's me. My work "The Sovereignty of the Human Existence" made me pretty famous... (I haven't read such nonsense in a long time, but I'll be nice anyway...) Yes, it truly is such a marvelous piece wf work with so much... truth! Thank you. I let all my life experience flow into it. The domination of mankind over every other living creature and so forth. And what are you currently working on? On the book "Human or Animal", which is about me explaining why the human alone is destined to be the highest race. (Just listening to this and I need to hold back my laughter...) Yes, I guess that's true. Very well, we'll be on our way now... As you wish... And that is why I think that only the human can and must rule over the animal. After all, nothing can compare to the strength and intellect of the human, and that is why we must continue not to forget to extend our control over nature, and so on and so forth... I don't think so. Dante-Farnel probably doesn't want competition from his own family. Dozens of books written by Dante-Farnel. Hey, here is a book that was not written by Dante-Farnel! Oh, never mind, I just misread that. No, not really. We just like to look around. I bet you also think Daddy's books are great, right? Um... sure... That's good! Daddy is the best! And he is my role model. Uh... that's nice... I'm also writing my own books! My first book was "Adventures of Alex". Daddy said I would become a great writer one day. Just like him! Uh, that's really great. I think we have to leave now, though! Hey, should I tell you about my second book? It's called "Adventures of Alex 2". Isn't that a great title? Yes, yes... we really have to leave now... Soon, I will finally have finished "Adventures of Alex 2", then I can start my next big work. Hm, what would that be? Ah, I know! "Adventures of Alex 3"! Yes, that will be good!There are two kinds of games in the RPG Maker world: Games that use Alex as a protagonist, and games that take the piss out of Alex. There are no alternatives.  A lot of books on this shelf. Hm, here are at least 10 copies of the book "The Sovereignty of the Human Existence". More copies of "The Sovereignty of the Human Existence". Here are more works by Dante-Farnel. And a few more works by Dante-Farnel. I think Dante-Farnel doesn't have any other books aside from the ones written by him. What an ego. No, we actually wanted to speak with you. With me? Strange, people normally only wish to speak with my husband. His books are very famous and popular, after all. Say, how come you look so much younger? Well, I AM 30 years younger than him. But it doesn't trouble our love in the slightest. Glad to hear it... Thank you, but please excuse me, I still have things to do. Of course. I always have to cook for that old geezer. That's so annoying... Oh well, what wouldn't you do for money and fame. At least he doesn't want to sleep with me, that would be horrible. It's about time for that snot to kick the bucket, so I'll have all the money to myself! Human Existence". I'm starting to think his book was never as successful as Dante-Farnel claimed. He probably just got himself all the copies to his home and claimed that the book sold thousands! I have that impression as well. This shelf is full of copies of "The Sovereignty of the Human Existence". Another healing item. Useful!  You like cats, don't you? There must be hundreds of them here? Now, there aren't that many here, but you're right, I love cats more than anything! I love playing and cuddling with them! There is nothing more wonderful! (The question is, where does all the feed come from...) Do you also like cats? Well, I never had one before. And it's going to stay that way! I see. Well, feel free to look around, and be sure to pet them a lot! Hm, should I pet Minka or Jessi? Or rather Mimi? Or Surri? Elmar? Bummi? drat it, why don't I have more arms? Upstairs, we find another serum. It probably won't come in handy, but it's something we can sell if need be, so it's always useful.  For some reason, I always have to smirk because of those. Here is a book about ghosts, which supposedly only show up at night, and who want to pass on their powers to someone. Well, we also have seen a lot of ghosts, right, Alaine? Countless, Valnar, countless... Hm, here is a book about necromancy. "...and skeletons only have a short life span and usually very narrow range of vision, which is limited to a linear area in front of them, while zombies are capable of seeing in a cone-like area....that sounds like a stealth mechanic. Please don't be a stealth mechanic.  Free money!  My apologies, just continue. Yes, I'm sorry that I am unable to take care of you... Ah, not a problem, we can take care of ourselves. Did I already put in the salt or not? And paprika, oregano, pepper? Just where are the rest of the spices... Hm, here is a book with introductions to all the cities in this world. Shannar, Asdion, Lombar, Thyrik... and a lot more.Well, I guess the section on Shannar will need a bit of an overhaul.  Oh, hey, an interesting item!  You might remember items from the first game that could be used in battle. Most of those were items that inflicted damage of some sort and maybe had a chance of inflicting a status effect, but these are different. They don't do damage, but instead inflict different status effects. They may or may not be useful, depending on how status effects work in this game. We'll get to that later. Also, to note, I'm missing things in this village. I missed two staircases leading up in different houses (including the one we're in right now), and I missed two people walking around in town. Whether this is because this town is massive or because I'm just thick is left to an exercise for the viewer. I'm trying to be thorough, but it's hard at times. We'll have to see how this goes as we go along. The floors in the houses I missed aren't too interesting, but the two people outside I'll show you at the end of the update, because they're interesting.  Um... 1) ...not now, kid! - 2) ...sure, we're game!Eh, sure, why not. That's great! All right, I start running and you try to catch me, okay? Every time you catch me, I'll give you one Filar. That's my pocket money. Well, start running then! And off he goes! Hey, the kid is pretty fast! We catch him fairly easily. Thanks, kid. I'm here if you want to play with me again.We can play catch with him three times. If we do it the third time, he gives us a ring that would give a +5 Defense and would sell for a bit of money. Of course I don't do this, because I only learned about this in post. God loving damnit. I'm going to end up having to scan this entire game with the RPG Maker before I do anything, aren't I?  Golbar? That name sounds familiar. It's a large lizard with a cape. Smells pretty bad. That's what I heard. Ah, THAT Golbar. Well, you won't have much luck. Why is that? Heh heh, well, no reason... Now I want to know what you meant by that! Don't bother, you won't get anything out of us... Hrmpf... (Hehehehe...) Golbar, where are you? One day, I will find you, and then you're done! And then I'll get the reward! Yes, that will be sweet. And the rest of him will become a delicious soup. Yummy, yummy, lizard soup... All right, I'm sure you have a lot of work ahead of you. Clean, clean, clean! Even my mother used to tell me: "Child, you have to clean!" A book about miscellaneous items: "Flame Potion - Engulfs all enemies in deadly flames", "Ice Salt - Freezes the blood of the enemies", "Lightning Dust - Deadly charged up particles cause the enemies to whimper in pain". Hm, here is a book with the title "Diary of Dreams - Das Tagebuch der Träume". Someone called Marlex seems to have written down his dreams. ... My goodness, those truly are intense... I can only agree with you... Here is a book about the cult of the Children of the Apocalypse. Do you still remember, Alaine? Of course. It was those who had their headquarters in Asdion, and who had secret shops located in other cities, which they used to sell blood. I wonder what happened to them ever since there aren't any vampires left aside from us? I assume they looked for another occupation... So yeah, here's one of the items we just read about. This inflicts the Burning status on enemies, and only that. It doesn't actually inflict any damage like in the last game.  it's only because we invited them! And YOU were definitely not invited in here! We apolog... Or could you be the new cleaning staff? Hmmm... the readheaded one looks like she'd be great at cleaning dust. You boy, however, don't look like you could be of any use. Come, Valnar, we'd better go before some kind of accident happens! Well, I haven't heard something so impertinent in a long time! LEAVE AT ONCE, YOU RABBLE! Fie, what sort of poor suckers are those two? You really just have to take one look at their clothes, and you can immediately see that they are from the gutter! Miserable rabble! thoughts at work?The house maids all say the same thing, but think different things for some reason.   a lot. Hm, here is a book with the title "Scars of Apokalypse - The Masterpiece". Sounds like somebody heavily overestimated themselves... There are only a few financial books here. To be more precise, there are 16 books full of entries of the fortune owned by the family in this house. My goodness, they have a lot of Filar... the question is WHERE they hide it. Valnar, stop thinking about that... Hey, one is entitled to wonder... Hm, I also like this one a lot: "The White Tribunal". It's about the fear of sorcery and its prohibition. Ah, here is a good one: "Panik Manifesto - The Fear of the Dying Swan". A very philosophical book.I have no idea if those are books, or RPG Maker games, or just poo poo he made up.  Looks kind of like you, don't you think? Well, it is VERY abstract! But you still have a point, though. I wonder who painted this? Hey, this looks a little like me! Yes, truly, the hair and the nose... and the very expressive eyes! Yes, it definitely does resemble me to some extent. Even if the body was drawn in an unproportionally abstract way. But it has its appeal... Hm, who is that supposed to be? Looks a little weird. Well, there just are some undefinable pieces of art in existence... Right you are! Someone will get fired for this, I guarantee! Now, calm down! I must have misheard you!? I am Lord Gabo, the most noble man in this village! My intellect and my wealth downgrade every other person! I believe somebody has a slight ego problem. Out with you, you filthy vermin, you paltry rabble! I can't take the presence of this person any longer. Come, Alaine, we're going! Oh, what is this unbearable smell? Gross, gross, gross, this pathetic rabble in front of me downright disgusts me! So miserable, so unintellectual... a lot. Here is a book with the title "Vincent - The Executor". It's about a maniac who kills one person after another with his sword. Not exactly to my taste for literature. Not to mine, either. Hm, here is a book with the title "The Love of Today's Generations". Apparently, it's about two children who endlessly love their parents, and who are called Schirp-Schirp and Winnie. Interesting study about the parent-child relationship, in my opinion. Speaking of children, we should get back to finding an appropriate daughter for us. True, somehow these bookshelves are always distracting to me...  Another item to throw on the pile and probably sell to fuel the war chest.   a lot. Oh, and here is a book I haven't read in a long time: "The Black Mirror". A book about the dark side of the soul. Slightly exaggerated, but still recommendable.You might notice that every book case in this place brings up that "strikingly good condition" bit. I just cut it out when I'm not making a screenshot. Hey, I know this one! "Little Angel, My Great Love!" Very romantic... make some money this way! a lot. But when I take a closer look, I do see a few dust grains... What? Oh, I have to remove those at once! Otherwise, there will be nothing but trouble! Alright, so that is it for exploring this town. Next time, we'll check into Jayna's house and actually progress the plot, but before that, I still have two people to show off.  First, this guy is standing all the way at the top of the map. I didn't look at the top of the map in the center, just on the sides, where I didn't see anything. This guy's name is "Lord Mandrake", which is... a name, I guess. Hey, you are one of the Children of the Apocalypse! You mean I am one of what used to be the Children of the Apocalypse. Because of the extinction of the vampires, we lost all our source of income, and were therefore doomed. I am one of the last who still run around in this cloak. You didn't find a new ocupation? Not yet. And it seems there is nothing to be found in this village, either... I'm sure you will find something new. I hope so... Where did all the good times go? Back then, when there were lots of vampires, our future was secured. But then, everything changed. Abraxas, I hate you! Just why did you kill all vampires? And this guy is standing in around in the middle of the map, where he probably was hiding behind a tree when I walked past. He is a "mysterious man". Hey you! Interested in some hot goods? What kind of hot goods? Well, you know, hot goods. Hard to come by books like "Mega Duran - The Life of a Legend", "The Secret Arts of Dr. Man Tu Chi", or "UiD - Walkthrough". All hot stuff! Where did you get those books? Hey, I acquired them totally legally, trust me! For the more fancy people, I also have some totally hot leather armor. With really tight belts. You know... Hm, sounds interesting! I think I didn't hear right, Valnar! I will NEVER put on something like that! If you like it, you can wear it! All right, all right. I guess we're not interested, thanks. Should you change your mind, you will find me here. Oho, she looks spanking hot. I bet I can get her to buy the leather armor. With top-notch prices, obviously. Top-notch for me, heh heh... and the guy looks like he could need "The Secret Arts of Dr. Man Tu Chi"...So that's that. Next time: PLOT! And sidequests!
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Aug 7, 2017 19:41
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I get shout-outs but Marlex needs to chill on the shilling.
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Aug 7, 2017 20:36
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As long as it's happening during low tension scenes, I don't really mind the shout-outs. When the fight scenes start to be brought to you by Coca-Cola and the inevitable reversal of fortunes is sponsored by Kinder Schokolade, though...
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Aug 7, 2017 22:57
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Yeesh, with that name, I am glad that he's not going to be an important character. ...He's not an important character, is he?
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Aug 8, 2017 02:29
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Some of the humans in this village are kind of unpleasant. You have that author guy, that super rich couple, the gold digger.
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Aug 8, 2017 02:56
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Blademaster_Aio posted:Some of the humans in this village are kind of unpleasant. People in the VD games generally. I feel that makes its good/evil choice system better than a fair amount of other, bigger games that have that just by giving you a "gently caress it, just kill them all" button to tempt you with if a bunch of NPCs rub you the wrong way and making the good choices a bit more impactful than it would be if it was just doing nice things for people who're nice to you and politely ask for help. It's still not particularly deep or complex since good/evil choice systems pretty much can't be by design, but it's more than nothing at least.
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Aug 8, 2017 09:01
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a cartoon duck posted:People in the VD games generally. I feel that makes its good/evil choice system better than a fair amount of other, bigger games that have that just by giving you a "gently caress it, just kill them all" button to tempt you with if a bunch of NPCs rub you the wrong way and making the good choices a bit more impactful than it would be if it was just doing nice things for people who're nice to you and politely ask for help. It's still not particularly deep or complex since good/evil choice systems pretty much can't be by design, but it's more than nothing at least. Case in point is how we were able to completely annihilate Lombar, Castle Tranak and the hideout of the Children of the Apocalpyse back in the first game. If you want to wipe towns off the map, you're totally given the option to do that.
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Aug 8, 2017 11:51
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TheMcD posted:
Isn't Tara's Adventure one of the versions of Dragon Quest Monsters 2? Or is it an RPG Maker game as well? DQM2 was released in 2001, and this was released in 2005, so it's a possibility that it's a reference to that game.
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Aug 9, 2017 23:37
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Epicmissingno posted:Isn't Tara's Adventure one of the versions of Dragon Quest Monsters 2? Or is it an RPG Maker game as well? Tara's Adventure was an RPG Maker game as well. Notable for being stuck in development hell and never being released beyond a demo. GSandSDS worked on it!
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Aug 11, 2017 23:04
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Update VI - Vampires: Naturally Willing To Help ♪ BGM: Thyrik - 7thguntz.mid ♫ So, this time around, we'll actually get to do stuff, though we'll start with looking around this place first.  knives in here. When we walk to the kitchen, the portrait flashes for some reason. Hmmm? What is it? Did that picture just flash? I didn't notice anything. But Alaine, take a look at it. Such a beautiful young girl! Something tells me she is the right one! ...you're right, Valnar, she might just be the right one. At the very least, we should take a closer look at her. If we still like her, she will become our daughter... our daughter for all eternity! Now, we just have to find her! There's an old lady over there in the kitchen. Maybe that's her mother... We should definitely ask her!Not yet, though. Let's finish looking around the house.  pyramid centuries ago. They were very powerful. Well, we're not too shabby, either. After all, we annihilated that what was left of him. True enough. Here is the best work by the author "Dante-Farnel". It's about the human existence. All just nonsense! If he knew... But he was close to the truth. Well, someday even he will find out the truth... humankind is not the most noble of all races. But it is also not quite as destructive as the vampires. That's why we haven't created new vampires, after all... Speaking of which, we really should find an appropriate young girl now. Here is another copy of "Dark Shadows". You already have 3 of those at home. Hey, I just really like this book! And in case one book gets lost, I still have some in reserve... You're going a little far. Valnar, we're living peacefully with the humans now. There is no reason to learn any more spells. All right. I know where to find it at least. Oh, Valnar... Oh, here is a book about the Children of the Apocalypse! Let it be, Valnar. Those times are over... Here is a book about the general "Drako the Great". Unfortunately, I currently don't have the time to read it...Hm, nothing much up here either. No secrets in this house, it seems. Anyway, let's kick this plot off.   cooking that I didn't even notice you. It's all right, we're used to it, anyway. Is there anything I can help you with? We would like to know who that girl on the picture back there is. You mean the painting of Jayna? She's my daughter. My little gem. Where can we find her? Well, she could be anywhere, actually. She's outside very often. Maybe one little hint? Hmmm... maybe I will help you if you can do me a small favor. I forgot my glasses at Mr. Sorads' place. If you could bring them to me, I will tell you where you can find Jayna. So, where does Mr. Sorads live? In a house northeast of here. I'm sure you will find it... he's a lonely old man. His daughter Jona died in an accident...Well, we've already visited him, so let's head back there.  Yes, we're looking for a pair of glasses that were left here. Glasses? Ah, yes, Ms. Erys forgot them here the last time she visited. Can we have them, please? We were sent by her to retrieve them. Of course...Beat. Oh, I'm sorry, but I can't recall where I put them at the moment. Would you mind looking for my cat Mira in the meantime? Without her, I'm so lonely, after all. In the meantime, I'll be looking for the glasses, all right? You want us to look for your cat Mira? We're no animal catchers! 1) We would love to help! - 2) No, not a chance!We could skip this entire bit by just telling the guy to gently caress off, but we gain Humanity from doing quests, and that's a valuable resource. I gladly help people with their problems. Oh, that is truly kind of you. She ought to be somewhere in the village, and she has gray fur! I will look for the glasses while you're searching.If you're playing on Easy, he actually gives you a hint as to where Mira is. No such luck for us. ... Now I'm even playing the animal catcher on the great hunt for the mystical cat Mira... Oh, Alaine. We've known each other for so long... you should have gotten used to my great willingness to help by now... I'm just saying you shouldn't overdo it. Not every human deserves our help...And thus, the great search begins. I aimlessly bop around town for a decent amount of time, until eventually...  ...we find the cat!  Great, Valnar! Now the cat ran away from you! When I get that little... The cat tries to hide behind a tree, but eventually, we get it again.  drat it! And once more. Hehe... and now, back to your owner... Well, if I wasn't a vampire, I would have gotten a headache by now...  Also, we're now officially questing. Now, off to get those glasses.  Yes, here she is! Oh, finally, there you are, Mira, my cute little kitty! May we have the glasses now? Um, I'm sorry, but I couldn't find them yet! But while I keep searching, you could do me another favor. Just a little one! Hrmpf... Sure, what can we do? Well, you did bring me back my little Mira. But surely, she's hungry, and I... don't have any feed left in my house! Could you please get some for me? There is another cat owner in this village, but I can't remember who it is right now... Don't worry, we'll find that person and ask for some cat feed!Again, if we were playing on Easy, we'd be given directions. But we've already found the other cat owner's house, so back we go.  Truly, these are the most epic of quests.  We could use cat feed! Would you mind giving us some? Not at all. So, you got yourselves a cat, I assume? Well, something along those lines... Here is a pack of delicious cat feed! It's the best! Tastes great! (I'll just pretend I didn't hear that last part!) Thank you! ✝ Cat Food received! We'll be leaving, then. Come again if you get another desire for cuddling something! Yes, here you go! Oh, thank you so much! She's getting really hungry! (So am I, if this goes on...) So, have you found the glasses by now? Well... uh... You cannot be serious! You haven't found them yet? To be honest... no. I just can't remember WHERE I put them. I believe we should look for those drat glasses for ourselves! Feel free to do so, they should be lying around here somewhere.So now we just get to search this house all over again. The first time around it was for secrets, now it's for glasses.  And eventually, we find them! Finally! ✝ Reading Glasses obtained! Yeah, we found them upstairs! Please let me take a look... Those better be the glasses of Ms. Erys. About that... About what? Well... uh... these are my glasses. YOUR glasses? But if these are my glasses, what is inside my breast pocket? ...oh, there are the glasses of Ms. Erys! They were inside your breast pocket all along? Uh... hehe... you know, I'm an old man, I tend to forget things! Looks like I got these two pairs of glasses confused! You have got to be kidding! YOU HAD THEM WITH YOU ALL THE TIME? Please don't get upset. I am old and lonely! Then just give me the glasses! Oh, of course... there you go! ✝ Glasses received! Now the time draws closer when it will no longer be just the two of us. Should the girl meet our expectations, we will finally be a "family". A small happy vampire family who lives peacefully among the humans. That will enrich our eternal life. Though I will have to get used to becoming a "dad"... It has been my wish to be a mother for such a long time. And since vampires can't birth children, we will have to take that girl and turn her into one of our own, and then, live happily until the end of all days. Well, what are we waiting for, then? Let's determine our future and go back to the old lady... And off we go. Yes, here they are. It was quite a bit of work until we finally got them, but here they are. Can you tell us now where we can find Jayna? What, Jayna? I have no idea, she's hanging around outside somewhere. WHAT? You don't know? YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! Calm down, Valnar, we didn't want to attract attention... she's just an old woman! Say, where is her favorite place to hang out? Jayna? Well, I already told you that. Outside, obviously! This has to be a joke! What a nasty old cow! Just an old woman, huh? Relax, Alaine, we're going to find her even without the help of this old lady. ... That is such an amazing conclusion to that sidequest runaround. You get a sidequest that you hope will progress the plot. In order to do the sidequest, you get another sidequest. You do that minor sidequest, but it doesn't progress the major sidequest, so you do another minor sidequest. Then that advances the main sidequest. So you go in to complete the main sidequest, and you get... gently caress all. Of course, that's not entirely true, since you need to do this in order to trigger this next event, which happens when we step outside the house.  WHAT was THAT? No idea, maybe we should go after it? Then let's be quick! Otherwise, it'll be gone...Off to the west!  This brings us back to the area where young Nyria fought the vampire. But instead of a vampire, we find...  ...Jayna! She has beautiful hair! Of course, it's the same color as my hair, after all! Perfect! I could search for Nyria, find out if she's doing well! Why didn't she write? We're so worried! Why aren't we together again like back then? Nyria, mother and me. We were so happy! Oh, little butterfly. You know no worries, right? It seems she misses someone... do you think we're doing the right thing? We take her away from her life. Leaving her no choice! Oh, Valnar. You didn't have a choice back then, either. And yet, you can't imagine a better life than that of a vampire. Back then, you lost your beloved Aysha. And today, you love me. Life always goes on. New situations also mean new chances. Chances to make your life better. She may miss her family for a short time, but after that, she will accept us as her new family, and she will love us. And we three will live together very happily! And yet, this place is so strangely appealing to me, so that I never really wish to leave it. As if there was some kind of mystical aura that holds me here. This place definitely has something exceptional. So beautiful and quiet. Huh, someone's there... (We should transform her now!) Well, let's talk to her first. Well, we actually wanted to talk to you a little bit... Talk to me? Yes, your picture has piqued our interest! You mean the painting in my house? Yes, it's gorgeous. It was made by an artist from Shannar. She's good! Yes, we know her.Don't try to connect this with the paintings we saw in another house, which were the ones we had made in the first game, but Alaine and Valnar didn't recognize them. Your head won't make it. You seem to be such a buoyant young lady.Apparently "buoyant" can also mean "happy, full of life". I just had to look this up because the alternative didn't exactly make sense. Well, normally, yes. But at the moment, I feel very lonely. I worry so much about my sister, and to be honest, I barely have any friends here. Oh, you no longer have to worry about that. What is that supposed to mean? (Now, my little lady, begins your new life. Your life with us!) Hm, who are these strange people? What do they want from me? Well, let's do it then. ♪ BGM: Silence ♫ Hm, what are you doing? ...  A strong burning feeling flowed through Jayna's young body, and she fell into a painful fainting... ♪ BGM: Transformation - 01.mid ♫ We then see Jayna falling in some sort of ethereal realm.  We also get another appearance by our old friend, Blood Text. This time, it has this to say: WHAT DOES DEATH MEAN? WHERE IS THE LIMIT? WHERE IS THE LIGHT THAT WILL LIGHT THE WAY? WILL ETERNAL DARKNESS FOLLOW NOW? THE BODY DIES BUT THE SOUL REMAINS And then... ♪ BGM: Silence ♫   Well, this sure is a spiffy looking place. I wonder where this is taken from.  The weird eyes start flashing red, we fade to black, and then...  ...I think this is trying to tell me something.  ♪ BGM: A New Life - Ending2.mid ♫ Yes, wake up to her new life. Her first view with the eyes of a vampire... Good morning, my precious... What... what happened? You are different now... your life is better from now on... What do you mean? And what happened to my eyes? Everything looks... so different! Don't worry, that's normal. Your eye sight has become much stronger. You can see sharper now, and you can see in the darkness. Also, your overall perception has improved greatly. Now, you are something better... Something better? I don't understand anything! Who are you? Where am I? You will understand soon enough! You don't have to worry, everything is fine. Am... am I... dead? Dead? Hehe, no, not at all. Not in the way you think... My mother... my sister... where are they? Your mother is over there. And I am your... father! ...Nyria, help me...And so that's where we're going to cut for today. Jayna has made her first step into her life as a vampire. Next time, we see how she adapts, and we meet another old friend again.
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Aug 11, 2017 23:08
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