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Picayune posted:Well, now I know I've been broken by Taro Yoko games: when the guard wrote so nicely about his sister marrying into the gentry, I was wholly expecting her to be thrown into this prison a couple of entries later. Hell, I thought she was going to end up being that madwoman the writer mentioned, the one who kept her wedding dress and all. Taro has indeed broken us.
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Apr 12, 2018 04:04
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That poor guard lost his mind. If he tried to leave for whatever reason, they'd probably lock him up with the rest of them.
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Apr 12, 2018 04:48
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I know it would've been hard to cutscene up for something that could've been missed entirely, especially since it's optional, but with how vocal and confrontational the characters are it felt really out of place for them to have no comment on the guard's journal. Granted, even with just the few interactions we've seen them have, I'm just thinking that Koudelka/Edward would shove this in James' face.
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Apr 12, 2018 06:18
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It's more for atmosphere than anything. My first playthrough I couldn't work out the drat code for that box, and just figured I just missed out on some loot. And here's bit of unused content - most of the documents have icons linked to them, but they're never used because all documents go immediately to the "Read" section of the menu, as TDI mentioned, so you don't see it as an actual "item", as such. I don't know if they exist in the earlier Japanese versions (as an early screenshot shows something from later which also goes unused  ), but they don't appear to be in the PAL/US versions, unless they're buried somewhere."Guard's Diary"  Here, it's a book. I'm sure you all know what books look like. (The icons do get a bit more interesting later).
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Apr 12, 2018 07:03
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The Dark Id posted:Solaris Also, wow, that is one dead person about every four days. I wonder if Yoko Taro is somewhere in the game's credits.
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Apr 12, 2018 16:12
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Picayune posted:Well, now I know I've been broken by Taro Yoko games: when the guard wrote so nicely about his sister marrying into the gentry, I was wholly expecting her to be thrown into this prison a couple of entries later. 4th June, 1716 Today, I was ordered by the warden to watch over the prisoners in the west wing. Although this is my first assignment since arriving, I do not look forward to it. This is different from punishmenting some simple beggars. What sort of man could take pleasure in beating women and children? Received a letter from Mum in Southampton today. She complains that I wasn't able to attend my sister's wedding. Apparently, she married a Gibbs boy -- one of the wealthier land-owning families in the area. I'm sure she'll be happy; she's been brought up well and should have no problem fitting into even a gentry family. It seems like just yesterday she was a baby, following me around clutching her favourite little doll. I'm fiercely proud of her, though, even though I worry she may have been pampered a bit too much. I wish her the best of luck as she now starts her own family. 31st August, 1716 The mad woman in solitary confinement has died. If there is such a thing as fate, she must have been born under an unlucky star. She was a merchant's daughter whose hand had been promised to the heir of a wealthy family, but he had a change of heart and abandoned her. He eventually married a nobleman's daughter, and was adopted into the family, which had no heir. She was brought here to keep her out of the public eye. She kept the wedding dress she never got to wear until the day she died. I wonder -- who is more insane, her or us? I would bet money that is his sister mentioned in the second entry and he just didn't know it.
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Apr 12, 2018 17:17
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Miliardo posted:Also, wow, that is one dead person about every four days. I wonder if Yoko Taro is somewhere in the game's credits.
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Apr 12, 2018 18:59
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Eopia posted:I would bet money that is his sister mentioned in the second entry and he just didn't know it. The guard's family is too poor to afford good schooling for the youngest son, (his family being poor is why the guard took this job) and his mom's letter confirmed that his sister's wedding happened. The madwoman didn't even get a chance to wear her wedding dress before being disappeared, had an arranged marriage planned ( guard didn't even know his sister was getting married until mom's letter), was from a merchant family (implied to be well off), and he doesn't say how long she's been imprisoned. Pretty sure he'd recognize his own sister, too.
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Apr 12, 2018 19:41
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it’s a lot more fun to think she was the guard’s sister though
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Apr 12, 2018 21:29
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It seems like that holy water still has some power to it, at least. Though who knows what church was involved in that.
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Apr 13, 2018 02:52
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A bunch of assholes arguing all the time, you say?
CountryMatters fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Apr 13, 2018 |
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Apr 13, 2018 10:33
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Kind of disappointing everyone didn't dunk on James and his "these were all thieves and heathens, gently caress em" crap after reading that diary.
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Apr 13, 2018 17:54
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CountryMatters posted:A bunch of assholes arguing all the time, you say? The new Koudelka television show looks promising!
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Apr 14, 2018 06:41
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CountryMatters posted:A bunch of assholes arguing all the time, you say? I am imagining some things and they're all excellent
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Apr 14, 2018 13:23
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 Episode IX: Poor Little Angel .jpg) Welcome back to Koudelka. That was a rather unceremonious disc transition. It didn’t help it was one of those lousy ones that contains no save spot. So if your disc is a bit dirty or your emulator has trouble swapping discs on the fly, that can be... problematic.  I may as well mention a fun quirk of playing Koudelka on a physical disc. Koudelka is a four disc game, mostly due to it having a decent amount of voice acting and FMVs (movie files being the usual culprit for multi-disc games.) A couple of these FMVs are the splash screens for the publisher, Infogrames (which is the current incarnation of the corpse of Atari these days) and Sacnoth, the developer. These can both thankfully be skipped. The trouble is that Koudelka’s main menu defaults to New Game on all four discs. Overzealous skipping can easily lead to hitting New Game which sends the player to an Insert Disc 1 screen. The issue is that there is no backing out of this screen without resetting the console. Remember, this game lacks the handy hold all the shoulder buttons plus Start and Select that many games had to soft reset. So that’s fun! .jpg) So where has our trio of chucklefucks landed, you ask? Why a prison cell full of another corpse pile, of course. For a dungeon, the upper levels were really lacking in the whole confinement space thing. Glad to see they sorted that out on the lower levels. .jpg) Unfortunately, there’s no obvious way out of this room. So let’s investigate the prison bars and have another snippy conversation in the meantime. .jpg)  Darn! How does it look? You think we can get out? I don’t think so. You’d need the strength of a bear to break those bars with your hands. OK. I’ll give it a shot. ...Give what a shot? Punching the bars. I just said you’d need the strength of a bear to break those bars with your hands. <puts up fists> I’m getting pretty good at punching stuff. Edward, you cannot punch those bars down... Well not with that attitude bringing me down. Tch. Forget it. ...... <starts inspecting cell bars>.jpg)  What do you mean we can’t get out?! How hard can it be? <motions to corpse pile> Why don't you ask these guys? <jumps back> Dammit! Did you see that? Someone’s in here. Someone alive I mean and not a ghost or mummy. I... think... Will you shut up and get us out of here? How hard can it be for thieves like you to get us out of a place like this? <puts hand on hips and adopts a stance of letting Edward beat this guy’s rear end this time>.jpg) <pokes James in the chest> Try saying that on the East End, holy man. Your severed head would hit the ground before you even finished the thought! This is worthless... I can’t believe I’m even wasting my time on you. I’m on a mission from God. <scoffs and backs off to fume> Next time... I’m telling you... I’m gonna use my bear strength bare fists and that’ll be that....jpg)  <high pitched ringing> Hehe. What a waste... Such a terrible waste. Hehe..jpg) My name is Charlotte. Not that it means anything. Not that you have a prayer. I’m talking to three dead people. Nobody’s going to save you. No one. So you died here as well? No, I just became a spirit in this cursed place for a giggle. OK... Dumb question. Yes. I died here too. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago. They locked me up in here right after I was born. They beheaded me the day I turned nine. Happy birthday... I’ve been trapped here ever since. And nobody even knows who I am. Hehe! Did you just say your name was Charlotte? Nice work. You remembered my name. Who am I beyond that? A err... little girl that was in prison all her life and died here? Ain’t exactly filling a book up with that biography. <ghost scowl> I hope you take the longest to die....jpg) <approaches the bars> My poor little angel... Hah! Poor little angel? Me? Save your pity for yourself. You’ll be dead within three days. Not true... I don’t know what your circumstances are but I know your mother loved you very, very much. ...... ...My mother? <floats toward James> I don’t know her face... Her name... Where she came from... Nothing. You’re telling me that means nothing. From the day I was born to the day I died... no one ever loved me. And I never wanted to be loved. Just die... All of you! Just die!.jpg) And with that, Charlotte fades away. What do you know? James is capable of not being a dick to someone. And that somehow still makes the party in question hate him more. Speech checks were James’s dump stat.  Music: Waterfall .jpg) Charlotte doesn’t depart without leaving us a present. A new mid-boss appears as soon as the cutscene ends – the Nobleman’s Spirit. A fancy ghost lad with a rapier. Is the rapier a ghost too or did it go out and acquire one for its haunting? That seems like it would be inconvenient if you’re incorporeal and have to keep remembering not to float through a wall and drop your weapon. .jpg) .jpg) Despite the rapier, Nobleman’s Spirits (they’re actually a common enemy type beyond this fight) are elemental casters that rarely perform physical attacks. So I guess the rapier is more of an ornate wand than a sword. Noblemen are weird like that. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Magic attacks (other than Geyser, which it absorbs) and good old fashion fisticuffs will quickly put this noble ghost into the ground. Edward leveled up his Barefist weapon affinity to Level 3 during this fight. He now has a random chance to do three strikes in a row if the RNG Gods smile upon us. They rarely do... .jpg) Our reward for defeating the rapier sporting 1%er ghost is a... rifle? Koudelka, I’m not sure I’m following the logic of this here. But if you say so. This is a guaranteed drop from this mid-boss. Rifles are lumped into the same class as pistols in the Guns banner (Koudelka being actually Level 2 at Guns thanks to just taking potshots during random battles where magic would be a waste.) .jpg) The Rifle holds 12 shots versus the Single Action Army pistol’s six rounds. But while the SAA and Rifle is the same class of gun, Rifles take their own bullet type which leaves us a bit dry on ammo when using this going forward. Music: END .jpg) In any case, the Nobleman’s Spirit was evidently a load bearing mid-boss as the left hand wall of the cell crumbles as soon as the battle is completed. Well that was an easy jailbreak. Let’s see where our freedom takes us... .jpg) Oh... the torture chamber. Lovely. This must have been where the guard from that diary hung out a lot while he was on duty. The flayed corpse in the center of the room is the only thing Koudelka will remark on. But there are a couple new weapons we can pilfer here. Let’s take a closer look. .jpg) I knew the Welsh would end up being Templars. It was obvious from the start. The Mace is lumped into the Clubs weapon category along with the pipe and hammers we’ve picked up earlier. .jpg) To the bottom right of the torture chamber is a pair of Knuckles. Bare-hand has its own class of weapons, despite Edward going it unequipped. These tend to be the most durable of the weapon classes, even if there isn’t a huge increase in stats while equipping ‘em. We may find ourselves slipping these on Edward for a boss encounter or particularly tough run of enemies in the future. .jpg) .jpg) No sense in hanging out in a torture chamber. I cannot imagine the smell in there is anything resembling pleasant. Heading out leads us to a hallway and the first Temporary Save point of Disc 2. For some reason the early part of Disc 2 really lays on heavy with the temporary save locations. That’s not the interesting part of this corridor. Instead, let’s investigate those two corpses next to the door here. .jpg) You see something green and shiny between the two bodies. It looks like the “Green Key”, but you can’t get to it—Valna and Vigna are in the way. Do you want to pull the “Green Key” away from Valna and Vigna? <Yes> As you try to take the key away, the mummies begin to speak. Valna says “Give us back our dolls,” and Vigna says “Run! Get away while you still can!” Music: Waterfall .jpg) We’re now thrust into battle against Valna and Vigna – a pair of spectral dolls. This is not another midboss fight or... even a real fight. This is a unique little battle meant to serve exactly one purpose: grinding out magic/weapon proficiency.  You see, Valna and Vigna have flawless defenses. Absolutely no attack in the game can hit them. You can Gameshark all stats up to 99 and they’ll still shadow step past anything thrown at them, whether it be physical attacks or magical spells. Likewise, while they can attack. They do so maybe once every dozen of our party’s turns and it’s only a very weak spell for maybe 30-50 HP of damage. They’ll then return to no-selling everything again for another dozen turns. .jpg) The thing with Koudelka’s battle system is that even if an action whiffs, it still counts just the same towards leveling up proficiency in that category. So our party can hang out to their heart’s content flailing at a pair of ghost dolls like dinguses and get way more skilled while doing so. .jpg) The only way to end this battle is to Escape from it. The trouble is that Koudelka doesn’t actually tell you how to escape from battles. It’s a hidden menu option accessed by hitting O when a character gets their turn. Definitely didn’t have to look that up when I played this the first time.  As with all things in Koudelka, escaping has a random chance of succeeding and if it fails, the character just wastes their turn. Even if it’s against a pair of dolls that barely fight back and specifically tell you to escape before the battle begins. That said, enjoy James’s “naw gently caress this noise” escape animation. Music: END .jpg) The door next to the mummified corpses of Valna and Vigna just happens to be opened by that Green Key they’re guarding. Seems we’re going to have to return here with their dolls if we’re going to see what’s behind that door. .jpg) .jpg) We’ll just make a mental note of that for now and continue into the next hall. Which is also a temporary save spot for... some reason. While there’s not much to be said about these couple of corridors, there are quite a few new enemies stalking about in Disc 2. Let’s take a brief look... Music: Waterfall .jpg) .jpg) We’ve got your poisonous Zombie Dogs skulking about. Little to say about them beyond the poisonous bites and being surprisingly damaging for a rotting dog headbutting a guy. They’re no Cerberuses, I’ll tell you what. Survival horror dog enemy not smashing through a window to introduce itself? Shameful. .jpg) .jpg) The only real noteworthy bit about these ill-mannered puppers is their death animation is amusing, since they fall on their butts like a human and just seem to be kind of bummed out you beat them. Maybe they’re not the worst dogs... .jpg) Next up we’ve got the Exploded Corpse. It is err... a walking corpse whose upper torso has exploded. Pretty self-explanatory, honestly. Apparently, the only reason the lower torso and legs are intact is because they were durable as hell. For some reason, these enemies have more HP than the last couple bosses we faced at 1300 HP each. .jpg) .jpg) These bombed out husks attack in two ways. Either by spilling their guts... quite literally... for a ranged attack that is technically considered to be Earth elemental for reasons beyond my understanding. .jpg) .jpg) Or by just sort of violently rumbling in a shower of guts, viscera and giant maggots at a target in front of it. This, on the other hand, is considered to be a physical attack. The inner works of a decaying human body are a mysterious subject indeed. .jpg) .jpg) Finally, we have the Pricktails which are some manner of crude man-scorpion fusion which resulted in a... giant scorpion with awkward frog legs and only a single claw. Not sure what you’re playing at with this one, Koudelka. That's a decided downgrade from just a big rear end scorpion. This is some Z-Tier bio-organic weapon that even Umbrella would have tossed in the dumpster. These dinguses can poison with their sting, but they’re incredibly slow moving and are unlikely to get the chance. Music: END .jpg) Getting back on track, beyond that previous Underground Tunnel, we come upon a Mortal Kombat stage in a skeleton filled acid pit. That escalated quickly from the secret torture dungeons, huh? .jpg) To right of the entrance is a device that gives us the option to acquire some acid for reasons that aren’t entirely clearly. Unfortunately, we cannot use any of our party’s thick skulls to transport said acid at the moment. We’ll just have to remember this device is here when we inevitably stumble upon an empty container capable of handling a vague highly acidic liquid. .jpg) This room is somewhat confusing to navigate thanks to the cinematic camera angles. Here we are further down the perimeter of the central acid pit. There is a door further ahead. .jpg) If we head through that door (which leads to yet another Temporary Save room) we’ll find a gate at the far end that is being held by some mysterious force aka go beat a boss before this path will unlock. .jpg) OK, then... we’ll just return to the main acid pit room and continue to the far end where... the gate is all caved in and it’s a dead end too. Huh... .jpg) As it turns out, if we retrace our steps and run towards the camera on this screen, there’s another path which leads to progress. I definitely... DEFINITELY didn’t get mildly confused as to where the hell I was supposed to go and ended up fighting an extra half dozen random battles the first time I played this game. No sir... .jpg) In the obscured by the camera angle room, we come upon... Yeah... something definitely isn’t right with this room. It’s looking just a touch evilish what with the sickly purple vines and blood flowing along the floors and ominous statue at the far end. .jpg) We’re going to just quickly top off everyone’s health and perhaps switch Edward over to an Earth based weapon we have in our inventory. No reason... just feeling earthy, ya know? .jpg) So let’s step onto the occult rune in the central platform and face the next major boss fight. Fun fact: Given the lack of temporary save points in the Japanese version of the game, this is the first one on Disc 2. So if the player gets a Game Over at any point here up to and including this boss, they’d have to re-insert Disc 1, walk one room over to trigger the disc transition and re-insert Disc 2 to give it another go. Developers that didn’t put save points at the end of discs during the PS1 era should be tried in the Hague. Music: Incantation Again .jpg) Aww CHRIST! This thing is a bit of an escalation from our previous boss encounters of large plant, elemental eyes, wedding zombie and ghost clones... Real step up from that to some bulbous Lovecraftian alien abomination. .jpg) Meet the Mad Fly. Jeff Goldblum this ain’t. This big boy comes packing 3025 HP and is a Wind Elemental enemy, although it also absorbs Dark Elemental attacks. Not that the latter would be much of an issue unless we switched to a weapon that randomly obtained that element. .jpg) Being a Wind elemental boss, it’s extremely weak to Earth elemental attacks. Which is why we equipped Edward with that rapier. Too bad Ed has never once in his life held or seen anyone wield a rapier (ignore that ghost earlier, it didn’t know how to use that thing.) As such, Eddie just bludgeons enemies over the head with it like it’s a stick. C’mon Edward. You stab with a rapier in video games. Everyone knows that. Get it together. .jpg) .jpg) Koudelka is the heaviest hitter here with Megalith doing nearly 500 HP of damage a turn. Don’t ask me how a ground based magic attack hits a flying enemy. Koudelka plays by its own esoteric set of rules only it is privy to... .jpg) While Koudelka and Edward are leading the offensive, James is on back-up support duty. Particularly, boosting the Agility of his two companions. James has managed to upgrade Fortify Agility to Level 2, so that’s a decent kick in our step. Boosting Edward’s Strength and Koudelka’s Intelligence isn’t a bad idea either. Assuming he gets a chance past his secondary duty... .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) ...Healing Edward. Our tank is definitely putting in some work during this boss fight. While Mad Fly does possess a couple long range spells, it mostly focuses on physical attacks. Which means Ed is eating them all as long as he remains up front. Mad Fly’s humanish head-butt is the more damaging of its two physical strikes. But the attack with its legs can cause poison damage. Which isn’t the biggest of issues, but it certainly doesn’t help when Edward is already getting comboed regularly. .jpg) .jpg) As I said, Mad Fly does have some magic attacks which come possessing random elemental affinities. These aren’t a big deal if they hit our back row fighters. The only real issue here is occasionally these spells can cause Silence and that’d put a big kink in our battle plan. Thankfully, I didn’t encounter that this battle. .jpg) So James remained in the back row keeping Edward on life support so he could chip away with melee attacks with the seldom buff if the heat stayed off our tank for a turn. .jpg) .jpg) Koudelka moved up a couple rows to better her casting since the stupid knockback mechanic for critical strikes by Edward meant the Mad Fly was pushed nearly to the back row on the grid. A little bit risky. But it worked out alright. .jpg) .jpg) Meanwhile, Edward never did figure out how to use a rapier right. But he put in a good amount of work bashing the abomination with the sword hilt and acting as a competent meat shield for his allies. Rest in peace, Mad Fly. You weird disgusting abomination you. .jpg) .jpg) Mad Fly’s passing brings with it a Level Up for our entire party. But more importantly, we’ve discovered yet another piece of jewelry for a statue we’ve yet to even lay eyes on. At this rate we’re going to have an entire closet full of jewelry and clothing for this lousy statue before we even locate it. .jpg) And that concludes our first dip into Disc 2 of Koudelka. Tune in next time for ill-fated treasures, ill-looking creatures, plant vaginas and other unpleasantness as Koudelka continues!    Video: Episode 9 Highlight Reel   Charlotte D’Lota Render – This torture dungeon was really big into letting folks keep their elaborate dresses. No shoes though. That’s taking it too far. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Apr 15, 2018 |
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Apr 14, 2018 19:43
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I honestly love how hosed up the Mad Fly is, with that hideous little chest face.  I think it's a programmer's oversight, but it's actually possible to poison Valna and Vigna, and their health will decrease. The problem is all the random factors - and poison will actually wear off eventually on them - and it ticks down so slowly that you'll be there for literal hours. And they can also heal, potentially making it pointless. Even as  as I am about this game, there are some things man was just not meant to know. Another little detail, this battlefield background is covered in runes;  I can't tell if they actually mean anything, at least nothing in English 
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Apr 14, 2018 22:46
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So the earrings or the necklace I can see them looking at and saying "yes, this is obviously what it is and is way too huge for us to put on." But the ring? Whose to say it isn't a bracelet besides the omniscient item description gods? Or is this statue just slightly larger than a person?
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Apr 15, 2018 02:25
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FeyerbrandX posted:So the earrings or the necklace I can see them looking at and saying "yes, this is obviously what it is and is way too huge for us to put on." But the ring? Whose to say it isn't a bracelet besides the omniscient item description gods? Or is this statue just slightly larger than a person? It'd have to be a pretty big statue if its ring finger was the size of a human wrist.
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Apr 15, 2018 02:57
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That room with the Mad Fly reminds me of something from every PSOne survival horror game imaginable. You don't need the text box to tell you poo poo is gonna go down.
Shitenshi fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Apr 15, 2018 |
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Apr 15, 2018 06:51
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For a moment at the end I thought that statue in the boss room was the one we were getting all this stuff for, but I guess not.The Dark Id posted:They rare do... Not entirely certain on the 2nd one, but I typically always hear "guaranteed" in that context.
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Apr 15, 2018 08:44
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Whoof. A boss which will boot you back an entire disc if it kills you? What a strange artifact of the time. How many generations did disc issues end up lasting, anyhow? Like, two?
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Apr 16, 2018 05:19
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There are a handful of multi disc 360 games, so 3 generations!
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Apr 16, 2018 05:50
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Glazius posted:Whoof. A boss which will boot you back an entire disc if it kills you? What a strange artifact of the time. How many generations did disc issues end up lasting, anyhow? Like, two? Most multi-disc games save on disc change for a bunch of precautionary reasons. This is just a unique Koudelka flavour of mean-spirited difficulty.
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Apr 16, 2018 10:13
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quote:Charlotte D’Lota Render – This torture dungeon was really big into letting folks keep their elaborate dresses. No shoes though. That’s taking it too far. But she was locked away immediately after being born.  So someone saw fit to give her a very pretty dress when she was 8-9.
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Apr 16, 2018 12:22
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Darth TNT posted:But she was locked away immediately after being born.
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Apr 16, 2018 12:39
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quote:
James consistently has the best animations.  help, this gif is garbage, and I don't know how to embed the gifv. Out of everyone you can tell he wants to be there the least. EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Apr 17, 2018 |
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Apr 17, 2018 03:24
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Episode X: Unpleasant.jpg) Well, we’ve converted this area from a Mortal Kombat stage to a Soulcalibur one. I suppose that’s a marginal improvement. But we now have our first Permanent Save on Disc 2. So that’s nice. It’s only about 25 minutes or so until the next special item unlock milestone. So let’s trudge around the acid pit for a bit doing a spot of grinding and seeing what other ghouls and ghosts are skulking about in the random battle dimension. There’s still quite a few in the immediate area. Music: Waterfall .jpg) First off, we have this nightmare creature – the Tamacoss. This top boy is an unbaptized infant that died and ended up in Limbo. Wherein apparently freaky poo poo happens turning them into a fleshy chaos orb baby. This little bundle of joy is actually a reoccurring enemy in the Shadow Hearts series appearing as a boss monster in all three games. .jpg) Sadly here, it is only a common trash mob capable of crying paralyzing tears and slapping people with poisonous tiny baby hands. Edward has no qualms with punching undead babies. I’m sure James would similarly justify such action by saying any unbaptized baby was probably a poor immigrant that deserved their fate. Lousy babies always looking for a free handout. Bootstrap it up, kid! I don’t care if your feet are obscured by a giant mount of writhing chaos flesh. .jpg) The Seeker Trio has disbanded since that earlier boss fight and started appearing individually as random encounters. They’ve also rebranded from “Seekers” to “Watchers.” I dunno guys... I know some inter-dimensional cannibal space babies that could put you in legal trouble for copyright infringement for that name. They behave exactly as their earlier counterparts. Just with far less HP. .jpg) .jpg) Next up we have either a Beholder’s severely undercooked little brother or Mother Brain’s inbred half-cousin, the Eyeball. It’s a big gross lump of brain tissue with several eyeballs in random places like a G Virus era BOW. It just kind of slowly slides around and whacks folks with its broken eyestalk. Maybe it has some other attack, but Edward poked out its eyes far too quickly to see them. .jpg) Finally, we have the Inverse – an upside-down dude that has grown several additional heads out of its first head. Cannot say what the deal with that is.... Seems highly inconvenient. Inverse is a monster that also appears in the first Shadow Hearts. .jpg) .jpg) Despite this being a random battle, this might be one of the most dangerous enemies we’ve encountered thus far. As it comes equipped with the mighty power of a gun. Turns out getting shot by a regular rear end gun really hurts compared to being slapped by tentacles or magic spell casts or even being bitten. Koudelka straight up got double tapped and died. That’s the first time anyone had gotten KO’d in the game thus far. Inverse seems to prioritize just taking back row party members to headshot city. So he’s a real prick. .jpg) I did a trial run of the first disc of Koudelka before starting the LP proper to double check I actually wanted to go through this game. Inverse can show up as a random battle in the very first room past where Koudelka and Edward meet. The very first random battle I encountered was against an Inverse who proceeded to ventilate the duo resulting in a very unceremonious end to their adventure after about five minutes of gameplay. That’s a real good first impression... Music: ENDS .jpg) In any case, the allotted time has arrived of 3:33:33. This time around, our inventory was closest to the 32 item mark. Only had to drop a single stack of bread to get us to the appropriate inventory space. So what’s our reward this time around? Let’s just reload the game and... .jpg) ...Enjoy some Cat Foodod? Infogrames, how did you manage to typo the word “food”? C’mon, son. .jpg) Cat Foodod is actually just the Dried Food item that is the mid-range consumable heal. You know... the one we got from a random drop back in like the third update? The one we already were carrying eight of before this juncture. Yeah... in retrospect, I probably should have taken a closer look at what this was and not wasted half an hour running in circles waiting for it to unlock. Hmph... .jpg) .jpg) Anyway, back on track. Now that the Mad Fly has been slain, the “mysterious force” it was emitting has dissipated, allowing us to progress past the Acid Pit and adjacent corridors to... .jpg) Another storeroom filled with crap. Naturally. Before we can investigate our surroundings further, a game immediately takes over for a cutscene. Maybe this one will end amicably and not in an argument nearing blows. Maybe... .jpg) <examines table> Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I can’t believe these treasures are in this monastery. <looks closer> Is that Montaigne’s signature? Gesundheit..jpg) <continues pouring over table> Oh, that's a Caravaggio! Unbelievable truly. Why have these treasures been forgotten? <scoffs> Treasures... If these treasures can be contributed to the Vatican, their value to Christianity is unquantifiable. What a discovery!.jpg) Do you remember what this place is? It's not just a monastery. It was a prison. People were executed for fighting each other for supremacy. These “treasures” must have been taken from them... soaked in curses and hatred. You'll be cursed if you worship those things. Do you honestly think we’re constantly coming against ghosts and cursed undead here just out of coincidence? I’m not looking forward to seeing that fly... man... THING in my nightmares next time I catch 40 winks... I am a busy man that does not have the time to teach you the importance of faith. But I will tell you why we have found these treasures. It can only have come from the guidance of God. God sees all. He knows all. Got it?! Preach to the converted..jpg) What about you Edward? You seem a little more educated than she. I don't really care. Talk to me about monetary value. Save the holy crap. <chuckles> How much is the Vatican forking over for this stuff? I don’t see you lugging it all out yourself in that purse. <starts pacing> Hmph. Seems I am disappointed once again. I believe these dead thieves are better than you two. At least they appreciated true value. You do know you’re talking about stealing these books yourself, right? You realize what that makes you too, correct? Begins with “t” ends with “hief”, Father... <scoffs> I simply wish to relocate these treasures to their proper position in the Vatican. No more... Uh-huh... Instead of preaching I want you to understand something, OK? You can't label all those dead bodies as thieves hunting treasure. I saw plenty of dead women who were cut up and mixed in with the mummies... and they were pretty fresh... To make no mention of the children too. Such as that ghost girl we just talked to twenty minutes ago... I don’t think she was here picking pockets....jpg) Yeah strange. Even if I was used to seeing dead bodies I'd be vomiting. So it is that couple. But why? ...The Welsh. They’re just plain evil. Fools! How could a kind and faithful couple be cold blooded killers?! This is the work of jealousy and greed... and pagans born of savagery -- immigrants. ...OK. Just going to throw some racism in there for kicks, huh? A mere observance of facts. Anyone can see it. <groans and makes jerk off motion> I will not be a party to such abusive slander! This is... this is so unpleasant..jpg) Good talk, everyone. Back to business. We’ll be ignoring James’s treasure stack in favor of a couple out items of more use to the party at the moment. .jpg) Wouldn’t want to break immersion with a woman pulling back a bow string unaided. Unlike the rifle we picked up earlier which still fell under the Guns banner, the Bowgun is its own Crossbow class of long ranged weapons. There’s only one other weapon in the Crossbow weapon type that comes much later in the game. The crossbow is generally stronger than pistols but weaker than rifles. .jpg) Naturally, crossbows have their own ammo type in arrows. The real advantage a crossbow has over a gun is that it doesn’t need to be reloaded periodically. As long as there are arrows remaining, it will automatically be reloaded after each shot. That said, arrows are much less abundant than pistol or rifle bullets. .jpg) Inspecting the room further, we find a door locked with a Red Key. If you’ll recall, the dining room of Ogden and Bessy was also locked with a Red Key after they booted us back into the hall. So that’s two colored keys and three doors we have to remember to check later in the game. For now, let’s head to the door directly to the left of the Red Key lock to... .jpg) A staircase leading upstairs. At least we’re out of the acid pit and abomination filled basement. Before we trot upstairs, the background here in the center of the wall can actually be inspected. Let’s take a closer look. .jpg) If you poured water on it from above, you might be able to get it out. .jpg) If you poured water on it from above... we could totally snatch a statue out of it for... some reason. Koudelka is really not good about giving a motivation to collect key items, is it? Anyhow, upstairs we’ve got a couple more points of interest. The corner of this wall can be inspected, even if there is very little indication that it can be. .jpg) OK. Someone jot down Bong, Pitchfork, Eye, Ankh with Devil Horns. I’m sure this will be relevant at some point. Probably... .jpg) Also in this room we find some more wine with magical regenerative properties. Shotgunning some Rose Wine restores 100 MP to our adventurers. Good to know. .jpg) Continuing onward, there is a whole mess of junk to inspect in this storeroom #53 of the Nemeton Monastery. For instance, in the back of the room we find... .jpg) .jpg) OK, let’s just pilfer this stone slate the size of a poster for future use. Ya know... just in case we find a printing press or some similar ink works in a drafty attic of the ground. You never know! .jpg) .jpg) In the foreground we find the 1898 version of a nonsense tweet by a lovely bot. #Wales #MakeNemetonGreatAgain .jpg) Finally, we’ll just grab a lion shaped paperweight on the off chance we find a lion shaped paperweight hole to shove this in further into this kooky mansion. Maybe it’s in the same room as that statue with all the jewelry we’ve been accumulating or those color coded keys. .jpg) .jpg) Moving onto the next room... oh boy. Here we go again. This game does feel rather dense with boss battles when you cut out the 20+ minutes of filler that random battles bring in-between major boss bouts. .jpg) We’ll do a tiny bit of prep work here. This go around we don’t have anything that will particularly augment Edward’s ability to dish damage with elemental attributes. So we’ll just slip a non-elemental pair of Brass Knuckles onto him to boost his damage output and speed for a time. .jpg) We’re also going to push Koudelka to the front lines of the grind so her magic attacks will prove more potent than the back row. We may be leaning on her heavily as our major damage dealer in the fight ahead. .jpg) Let’s step on up to the plate and face the second major boss of Disc 2... Music: Incantation Again .jpg) Meet the Dark Young – a big ugly walking teethed vagina plant. Dark Young is actually just a low-poly version of a creature shamelessly copied and pasted from the Lovecraft Mythos -- the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath. Well... sans quite a few legs and more mouths. The Dark Young comes sporting a respectable 2916 HP. .jpg) .jpg) This fight is more annoying than anything. Dark Young is fairly resistant to physical attacks so Edward’s damage output is only OK in this fight. We are mostly keeping him up front to tank any physical attacks since remember nobody is allowed to pass anyone else vertically on the battle grid. Its physical attack, a big swinging whip with its tentacles, is nothing to worry about. James can top Edward off as necessary to keep him in line. .jpg) Most of the damage output during this fight is going to be from Koudelka. The Dark Young is an Earth Elemental enemy which makes it weak to Wind spells. However, since we have Level 2 Flare with Koudelka, that ends up outputting a little bit more damage overall (300-350 damage a cast versus Tornado’s 225-275 HP of damage.) So she’s on pyromancer duty. .jpg) .jpg) The real thing that makes this battle obnoxious is the fact that the Dark Young has a magic spell that hits all party members. This will do a real number on Edward, but James and Koudelka eat enough PIE to shrug it off. No, the real nuisance from this spell is that it will randomly inflect Silence on potentially the entire party. .jpg) .jpg) Which means burning turns using our (quite limited 4 total at the start of this fight) Panaceas to remove the status infliction so Koudelka can cast spells again and James can continue buffing and healing everyone. I really hope the game’s RNG spots me a few more of those because I was down to one Panacea left by the time this fight ended. .jpg) .jpg) Naturally, I ended up burning one just before the boss was defeated and the end of battle neutralized all status effects. As it goes in the chaotic whims of Koudelka’s battle system. Music: Level Up! .jpg) Despite being kind of a nothing boss, Dark Young gave way more EXP than any other boss so far. Everyone in the party leveled up twice from slaughtering that prey. I mean, punching out a Lovecraft Boy is quite an achievement if you think about it. .jpg) .jpg) As a bonus reward, Dark Young drops an Evil Horn – a special unique Spear type weapon. There are a handful of special weapons in Koudelka. This is the only special spear. Most of ‘em are relegated to the Swords class of weapons (Knuckles, Knives and ranged weapons get nothing special.) This particular weapon boosts Intelligence +3, PIE +6 and Mind +4 and also inflicts poison on strike. More importantly, unlike most weapons which will break between 15-30 hits (all but one weapon in the game has a 15 hit minimal durability) the Evil Horn lasts a minimum of 100-255 hits. Spiffy. .jpg) In any case, job’s done and another Permanent Save Point is restored. Tune in next time for further abomination punching and ghostbusting, gimmick boss battles, gunfights and a spot more good old fashion anti-immigrant racism as Koudelka continues.  Video: Episode 10 Highlight Reel The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Apr 21, 2018 |
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Apr 17, 2018 19:19
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I think one of the main things making James tolerable is that no-one takes his poo poo and Koudelka and Edward are just as impatient with it as the player would be.
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Apr 17, 2018 19:44
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James actually went there with the immigrants thing. What a jerk.
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Apr 17, 2018 20:00
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The Dark Id posted:Ankh with Devil Horn Or, as its more commonly called, Mercury. 
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Apr 17, 2018 20:42
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Man, the hosed-up monster designs - I loved them in the first Shadow Hearts, and I love them here.
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Apr 17, 2018 21:08
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Fun fact: They didn't typo Cat Food. What they did was forget to throw a null character at the end of the word "Cat Food". Dried Food is ten characters, pull a null to say "that's the end of the text". Cat Food is eight, but without a null character, and typed over the "Dried Food" name, it'll be... "Cat Foodod" And that's CS 101. Tallgeese fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Apr 17, 2018 |
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Apr 17, 2018 21:42
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I feel the party dynamic is pretty neat and unique here, its good. Edward is probably just following Koudelka since she seems to know a bit more about whats going on and its probably a good idea to follow the person with healing powers and magic when you find yourself in a house full of angry ghosts and zombie ghosts, plus he may still get to steal something. Meanwhile the two have only refrained from shooting James and moving on because he is for some reason following them around and providing a backup caster/punching bag. If James ever refused to fight I'm pretty sure he'd be left for Werewolf chow in short order.
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Apr 17, 2018 23:29
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>> James yelling about foreigners when he's an Irish man who works/traveled from the Vatican and is now in Wales.
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Apr 17, 2018 23:43
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Yeah, given how things have evolved we're basically keeping James around just to keep the heals going. That's an interesting consequence of mages needing to get in close.
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Apr 18, 2018 03:18
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EagerSleeper posted:>> James yelling about foreigners when he's an Irish man who works/traveled from the Vatican and is now in Wales. No you see, it's okay because he's one of the good ones  God I hate James.
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Apr 18, 2018 07:53
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Yeah, there's always room to be awful, no matter who you are or where you're from. One of those "fun" life things. I'm glad the proximity magic thing doesn't seem to have been applied to the support magic. The Dark Id posted:I’m sure James would similarly justifying such action
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Apr 18, 2018 08:30
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Zagglezig posted:Yeah, there's always room to be awful, no matter who you are or where you're from. One of those "fun" life things. It just feels that if you are going to start yelling about foreigners then you should try not to do it in a place which quite literally view you as scum.
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Apr 18, 2018 08:51
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Hunt11 posted:It just feels that if you are going to start yelling about foreigners then you should try not to do it in a place which quite literally view you as scum.  "
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Apr 18, 2018 08:57
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According to its description the Eyeball is a literal sentient tumor, so that's a cool thing to have in your prison monastery. Also the Inverse got their clothes washed for their Shadow Hearts appearance, wouldn't want people to think they're some kinda weirdo after all. 
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Apr 18, 2018 09:21
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