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Pesky Splinter posted:It's non-canon, but the Koudelka manga shows that Roger is immortal enough to survive decapitation, and someone punching him so hard their fist goes through his chest. And he's just like " If this was Canon it would make A LOT MOre sense as to why Albert wanted to use her as a battery for the Ziggurat phone to call God.
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Jan 27, 2019 06:15
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I'm immortal, idiot."
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Geostomp posted:Given what we’ve seen from the Manuscript this far and the fact that Roger deliberately ensured whatever he used couldn’t be replicated, this is the most likely answer. he's a mad alchemist, but it doesn't mean he's an immoral one
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Jan 27, 2019 06:49
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Pesky Splinter posted:His former apprentice, Not-Albert Simon, De Gaulle is also immortal, which Koudelka solves by making a giant goat god punch him in literal pulp.
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Jan 27, 2019 10:16
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Episode LXXIX: For Tomorrow Music: Tanjou .jpg)  D-Dad…? <steps forward> It’s been a long time. I’ve been waiting for you. D-Dad? What are you doing here? Hee hee hee… I’ve always been here. I’ve always watched over you. You just never noticed.Yuri and Colonel Hyuga approach one another. .jpg) I thought the jig was up with that whole Fox Face affair. But you moved on again without noticing once more. I've got to say... that whole business was really weird, son... <rubs neck> Yeah... How are you? You’ve continued your travels and must have grown much. I can see you've gotten more than a few levels under your belt. Not to mention Fusions. Amon, huh? Nice. Heh. I punched that one out of that jerk Albert Simon. That is not how that usually works... But if you say so, son... Feel like fighting me?  Fighting you?! Yeah.Ben turns away and stares at the sun. .jpg) ...the Seraphic Radiance, will be released from my body. <steps forward> Seraphic Radiance?! That terrible monster… inside Dad?! Crap, I nearly forgot about that thing. It leveled an entire city, Yuri. I've had a lot on my plate lately, dad. Dunno if you heard in here, but the world is about to end. <shakes head> Don't get too worked up about that. There is a world-ending crisis every other year. Just hope you're not roped up in too many of them. It wears you down after a while. Both literally and figuratively. <shakes head> So… you sealed that monster to protect my soul? <nods> I already told you. I’ve been watching over you. Did you really think you sealed a dark god just by your girlfriend bargaining with a few metaphysical representations of your vices? Kinda hoped so, yeah... The ancient god who lost once at Shanghai. If you can’t conquer him, of course, it will mean your life.Colonel Hyuga turns back to Yuri. .jpg) Power to make gods throughout the universe tremble. Me…? Fuse with the Seraphic Radiance…? <nods> Yes. Believe in yourself, and come at me with everything you’ve got! Every battle offers an opportunity of victory It’s up to you to summon the courage to grasp that moment! A fearless heart, unfaltering confidence which grants calm. That is the Spirit of Bronze. That’s the only gift I can offer you!! <nods> The Spirit of Bronze… All right, Dad. Let’s do it!.jpg) Music: Brain Hopper .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Time for the fight of the century! The battle of the Hyugas! I mean... I know we already kind of did this with Fox Face. But now it's the genuine article Ben Hyuga's ghost or... soul inside Yuri or... something. Look, the point is Yuri and his dad need to punch each other a bunch. .jpg) Well, by "punch" I naturally mean Yuri is going to Fuse into Amon and shoot a load of powerful eye lasers at his father. As you do. .jpg) Ben Hyuga, on the other, will actually stick to punches and kicks. It's literally his only move in the start of the fight. But Ben can throw a heck of right hook since his physical combo does between 150-250 damage against Yuri every turn. It is worth mentioning that strangely enough, while the playable Colonel Hyuga earlier in the game and Fox Face both just reused Yuri's attack animations, boss Ben has a unique combination strike for this fight. .jpg) For the most part, this fight is entirely a stat check for Yuri on top of an inventory check. Remember how we stocked up on Thera Extracts (full heals) at the Silent Peddler a few updates back? Those weren't just for Halley to survive the Pit Fights. They'll also very important for this fight since Yuri has to manage by himself. I came into this fight with 13 Thera Extracts and ended up using nine of them by the end of the battle. As for stats, Yuri pretty much has to have 800+ HP available to him to make this fight viable which means he needs to be at least in the upper 40s Level wise. .jpg) Not for this first part of the fight. This is just the warm-up match. After we deplete 4000 HP from Ben Hyuga, we move to the second phase... .jpg) Take the power of the Seraphic Radiance in your hands!Music: Ghost Jogging .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Now it's time for the real boss fight -- Seraphic Radiance. It's nice of Yuri's dad to shrink it down to a reasonable scale. It wouldn't exactly be fair if Yuri had to plink away at an 800-foot tall god. Instead, he can just get a nice, up-close look at the big veiny nightmare angel and its three belly buttons. .jpg) Yuri's mode of attack is unaltered. Demon Rays will do between around 575 HP of damage every turn and we're not getting a better investment of damage dealing than that. .jpg) .jpg) The thing is, now Yuri only gets to attack twice tops before having to use a Thera Extract. Seraphic Radiance is NOT playing around. It WILL kill Yuri in three rounds if he does not heal. At the bare minimum, its physical strikes do 250+ damage in a single round. If it feels particularly ornery, Seraphic Radiance can just delete just shy of 400 HP of damage in a concentrated telekinesis combo. This is why we wanted at least 800 HP before coming into this fight. That way Yuri can get two good rounds of attacking in before he needs to heal. Granted, there will be a round wasted on MP restoration eventually as well. But overall, two rounds of offense is a lot more viable than a resource race of one round of attack and one round of healing anything less than 800 HP would provide. .jpg) .jpg) With that said... that's kind of just how this fight goes. If Yuri can maintain Attack, Attack, Heal with little in the way of interruptions... he's pretty much good to go wearing down Seraphic Radiance's 8000 HP. That's not very interesting, but if we're being real, boss fights in the back half of the game have sort of left something to be desired in general. .jpg) Seraphic Radiance does have one other trick up its err... snake sleeve? Why does it half a flesh coil that turns into a snake? Between the long, gnarled nails and the snake wristband, it must be a pain in the rear end for that thing to type anything. .jpg) .jpg) Malcto is an attack that damages Yuri for nearly 300 HP and restores some HP to Seraphic Radiance. This really isn't much to write home about. The amount of health it restores is kind of trifling at maybe 150 HP tops and 300 HP of damage is the same as it was already doing. It also rarely casts this spell so it's not a Mammon situation where it turns into a damage race against a boss that is spamming heal constantly. It just makes the fight drag on slightly longer. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Cutting to chase, skipping past about fifteen minutes of further shooting lasers and healing himself, Yuri manages to defeat the Seraphic Radiance. That ain't going to bring back the thousands of dead Chinese folk back in Shanghai. But it's a start. Music: Results .jpg) For his efforts, Yuri shoots up another level and gains a hefty inheritance from his dead dad. .jpg) We also receive a ring that halves all Elemental damage, except weird non-elemental bosses of which there are exactly two left in the entire game. .jpg) But most importantly, Yuri obtains the final and most powerful Fusion in Shadow Hearts - Seraphic Radiance. We'll take a closer look at that in a minute. Music: ENDS .jpg) Dad!! I… Did I do the right thing? Hee hee hee… You're a Hyuga, son. Do what we always do... Just wing it! It'll probably be fine. Probably!.jpg) .jpg)  CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO! (You should watch this, it's the only time Papa Hyuga gets any voice acting.)Music: Tanjou .jpg) Why do I worry so? I’m blessed with true friends, I have enemies to battle and my body remains strong enough to face any challenge. Can there be any greater happiness than this? Do not waver, forge ahead! The blood of the Harmonixer, the power of fusion….jpg) You’ve come this far since awakening, have you not? You’re a man, aren’t you? You must not halt your steps. When you choose of your own free will to halt your steps THAT will signify true defeat. Go! Continue to put one foot before the other..jpg) For every man there is a resting place. Grit your teeth, and no matter what setbacks you may encounter along the way, continue on to that place. THAT is victory! Heh heh ha ha ha ha!.jpg) Don’t look at me like that. You’ve grown, son. That little boy that used to hide behind his mother’s back when I came home... has grown big and strong. Do you remember the garden you and I made for your mother in the back yard? I only wish I had more time….jpg) I'll go now. Keep watching over me!.jpg) And that concludes the Seraphic Radiance sidequest. Though, there is one last thing left to do in the Graveyard before we depart and never return the rest of the remaining game. .jpg) If we now go check behind the tree where Ben Hyuga was hiding out to make his dramatic entrance, we now find... .jpg) Father's Coat -- Yuri's ultimate armor and the very last piece of ultimate equipment in Shadow Hearts. This provides +83 Physical and +77 Special defense on top of halving both Light and Dark Elemental damage. Zhuzhen is going to get weak in the knees if he sees Yuri stroll up wearing this. .jpg) We should probably take a look at Seraphic Radiance. Unlike every other Fusion in the game where Yuri just started wearing the skin of the Fusion monster he defeated (or at least something fairly similar in Amon's case), Yuri gets a completely new look for his version of Seraphic Radiance. That look being a sparkling naked angelic Ken Doll with tribal tattoos. Sure, why not? Being the ultimate Fusion in the game, Seraphic Radiance hosts quite the hefty stat buff:
.jpg) We're now done with the Graveyard forever. Before we wrap things up and actually get to the main plot for the remainder of the game... .jpg) Music: NDE - Near Death Experience .jpg) Let's take this thing out for a test ride, shall we? .jpg) Get a nice view of Seraphic Yuri's sculpted rear end as he telekinetically fires blasts that do... around the ballpark of 400 damage on just standard Hits on the Judgment Wheel. .jpg) Other than the high SP cost to Fuse into Seraphic Radiance, there is also a substantial MP cost for all of its abilities. At most, we're getting three or four of them out before Yuri runs dry on mana. But... they usually get the job done in that time. .jpg) Praise the Sun, it's For Everyone! .jpg) .jpg) Remember in the old primitive days when we used Ignition Fusion to buff Inferno's Attack Power so he could punch better? Wasn't that quaint? .jpg) For Everyone raises the entire party's Physical Attack/Defense and Special Attack/Defense by 30% (36% on Perfect Hit) as well as giving everyone a +30 Agility boost for five rounds. That is... rather substantial all round. Seraphic Radiance might be a wee bit busted. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) For Tomorrow is an attack that hits all enemies for Non-Elemental damage (to the tune of around 600-700 damage) and distributes that HP to the party for a full heal (or drat well close to it.) That's not exactly going to replace Alice and Arc. But it's there just in case. Music: SSC - Special Short Cuts .jpg) Finally, we do need to sort out the final [????] Skill by having Yuri go Berserk on purpose for the last time in the game. This unlocks... .jpg) .jpg) For the Children, the highest MP consuming attack in the game at a massive 200 MP a cast. So what does For the Children exactly entail? .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Do you think Albert Simon is the only one that can summon a calamity from deep space? Pfft. 200 MP and Yuri can do that. In a reasonable timeframe, no less. Where is your space disaster, Simon? It's been nearly two months! .jpg) For the Children just hits all enemies for the damage cap. Full stop. You cast this and the enemy takes 999 damage making it the single strongest attack in the game. I suppose that's worth burning through half of Yuri's total MP. .jpg) Welp. That's it! We have now officially seen all the side content in Shadow Hearts. Tune in next time as Yuri and the gang head into space to begin sorting out that whole Neameto Float business as the final stretch of Shadow Hearts begins!    Video: Ben Hyuga/Seraphic Radiance Battle Highlight Reel (You should watch this.)  Video: Seraphic Radiance Yuri Special Attacks (You should also watch this.)   Seraphic Radiance Yuri Render - Yuri has attained ultimate power... but at what cost...? It's his junk.
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Jan 27, 2019 20:02
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A normal game would've come up with music just for that one fight, or at least reused a major boss theme. But Shadow Hearts is no normal game....
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Jan 27, 2019 20:21
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The Dark Id posted:
SEX=USELESS
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Jan 27, 2019 20:36
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ultrafilter posted:A normal game would've come up with music just for that one fight, or at least reused a major boss theme. But Shadow Hearts is no normal game....
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Jan 27, 2019 20:40
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So if memory serves, For the Children actually does more damage than it says it does. There's some enemies in the final dungeon with more than 999 HP, and FtC still kills them. That Shadow Hearts created a visual damage display lower than the amount of damage it would actually let you deal is... very Shadow Hearts.
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Jan 27, 2019 21:40
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The Dark Id posted:If we now go check behind the tree where Ben Hyuga was hiding out to make his dramatic entrance, we now find... A coat from his psyche... an Emperor's New Clothes situation we've got going here?
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Jan 27, 2019 21:45
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I seriously wonder what the spirit of bronze was supposed to be in the original Japanese. Also, is this thing going to be used at all? Because it's not like this game was challenging to begin with, but hoo boy does the final fusion break what little left that's thrown at you.
Shitenshi fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Jan 27, 2019 |
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Jan 27, 2019 21:45
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Yuri straight up turned into Devil Jin Kazama without his pant (or junk). gently caress yes, this is the good poo poo.
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Jan 27, 2019 22:12
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Shitenshi posted:I seriously wonder what the spirit of bronze was supposed to be in the original Japanese. Also, is this thing going to be used at all? Because it's not like this game was challenging to begin with, but hoo boy does the final fusion break what little left that's thrown at you. I mean, if Id was just using Amon to deal with anything vaguely threatening, then he certainly will Seraphic Radiance to pulverize what ever "difficult" things are left. I honestly didn't find SH 1 or 2 too difficult, even on modern technology and it's inherent latency. I think I game-overed all of once in SH1, right at the beginning of the game before I really understood how badly berserk fucks you up. In 2, I only game-overed twice (at least in the main missions. Probably some more in the side quests. looking at you, tower of man), and one of those times was because I pulled a powered-up reverse devil off of Lucia and instantly went from completely fine to the entire party getting petrified or paralyzed. So not really my fault, except for the part where I put the accessory that powers up Lucia's tarot cards on and actively used the ability, because I'm a sucker for random bullshit (I totally kept doing it too). Maybe a lifetime of music has left me with good rhythm?
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Jan 27, 2019 22:13
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Un-fused Seraphic Radiance reminds me of first form Eve from Parasite Eve, with the white body, claw hands, and red weird hair. I'm also not sure if For the Children is Yuri summoning something from space, or essentially zooming out to get an intergalactic run-up to slam into the enemy with some light show lasers for flare.
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Jan 27, 2019 22:33
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DiggleWrath posted:tower of man Ah, The Man Festival! 
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Jan 27, 2019 22:42
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Shitenshi posted:I seriously wonder what the spirit of bronze was supposed to be in the original Japanese. 鋼の魂 - Soul of Steel. The metaphor still works, just a bit more antiquated.
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Jan 27, 2019 22:47
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It's always nice to get these scenes of closure with dead parents in an RPG. Papa Hyuga's soul shackling the demonic god(ess?) to protect Yuri is a good touch, but it does show that Alice got straight up swindled by those masks.TalkLittle posted:A coat from his psyche... an Emperor's New Clothes situation we've got going here? We've been pulling objects out of and into Yuri's soul for a while now and nobody's questioned it in-game yet. I'm more than a little disappointed that nobody is likely to mention when Yuri displays that he has full mastery of the dark god that vaporized a good chunk of a city about a year ago. Geostomp fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jan 27, 2019 |
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Jan 27, 2019 22:58
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You know, it’s nice to see your reward for The Ultimate Boss Battle is something that is basically the “I Win” button on steroids so you can just teabag everything else within the game. It’s annoying how many games that you can play with big bosses give you something that is just a trophy for winning.
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Jan 28, 2019 02:39
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Kemix posted:You know, it’s nice to see your reward for The Ultimate Boss Battle is something that is basically the “I Win” button on steroids so you can just teabag everything else within the game. It’s annoying how many games that you can play with big bosses give you something that is just a trophy for winning. In theory, but there's not really a whole lot left, and by the time you can beat the Seraphic Radiance you can steamroll everything else anyway.
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Jan 28, 2019 03:10
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CmdrKing posted:So if memory serves, For the Children actually does more damage than it says it does. There's some enemies in the final dungeon with more than 999 HP, and FtC still kills them. Eh, IIRC both Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger have the same issue (except with 9,999 damage being shown instead of 999). So I feel like it's at worst a nod back to two of the best RPGs in existence.
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Jan 28, 2019 04:30
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.jpg) I can't be the only one who sheepishly said "oops" upon reading that, and then promptly reveled in it's unbridled power.
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Jan 28, 2019 05:58
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Geostomp posted:We've been pulling objects out of and into Yuri's soul for a while now and nobody's questioned it in-game yet. I'm more than a little disappointed that nobody is likely to mention when Yuri displays that he has full mastery of the dark god that vaporized a good chunk of a city about a year ago. In fairness, every other fusion is a 1:1 copy of the thing he fused with, but this looks very different and is much smaller than the original so I don't think anyone would assume it's the dark god rather than just some other weird monster Yuri ran into.
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Jan 28, 2019 11:00
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Gilgamesh255 posted:
Like Papa Hyuga said: “end of the world” scenarios are fairly common here. When Yuri mind blasts Albert and his cosmic horror into submission, that should count for the omen this refers to.
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Jan 28, 2019 12:17
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I do wish this game had more mechanically interesting superbossfights other than attack-attack-heal strings.
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Jan 28, 2019 13:54
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.jpg) I know it's just incidental positioning, but Alice in the back row just looks like she's trying to keep her head turned to the left more than necessary so she's not stuck staring at her floating boyfriend's rear end. Just eyes forward, blinders on, until he changes back.
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Jan 28, 2019 14:19
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Have we had a boss that attacks sanity instead of HP? It seems like an obvious thing to have in a game like this but I don't remember seeing a boss dedicated to the strategy. Probably the most interesting thing they've done in terms of bosses are the ones that futz with the Judgment Ring but you've got accessories to make yourself immune to that so welp. Pesky Splinter posted:鋼の魂 - Soul of Steel. Mecha won't exist for like 50 more years, goddamnit Ben stop breaking the timeline!
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Jan 28, 2019 14:30
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GimmickMan posted:Have we had a boss that attacks sanity instead of HP? It seems like an obvious thing to have in a game like this but I don't remember seeing a boss dedicated to the strategy. All the Masks had sanity-draining attacks, at the very least. quote:Mecha won't exist for like 50 more years, goddamnit Ben stop breaking the timeline! 
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Jan 28, 2019 14:40
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GimmickMan posted:
and given the Judgment ring is your main form of dealing damage, it's less interesting and more frustrating. The sequel vastly improves on the battle system so the fights don't feel like massive drags.
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Jan 28, 2019 17:01
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Kemix posted:You know, it’s nice to see your reward for The Ultimate Boss Battle is something that is basically the “I Win” button on steroids so you can just teabag everything else within the game. It’s annoying how many games that you can play with big bosses give you something that is just a trophy for winning. Unfortunately for poor Albert, it isn't the kind of Teabag he enjoys I'd wager.
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Jan 29, 2019 20:15
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OminousEdge posted:Unfortunately for poor Albert, it isn't the kind of Teabag he enjoys I'd wager. Duh. Albert is a loose leaf tea snob.
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Jan 29, 2019 21:31
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Aw, Seraphic Radiance just wanted to help out all the children! By hitting them with space! Children LOVE space!
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Feb 1, 2019 04:47
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Yur-eye the Summon Guy! KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL
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Feb 1, 2019 21:39
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Robindaybird posted:and given the Judgment ring is your main form of dealing damage, it's less interesting and more frustrating. Yeah, not only do you have more options, if you feel like it you can just turn off the Judgement Ring entirely (at the cost of not being able to do those criticals for hitting the sweet spots anymore).
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Feb 1, 2019 22:37
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Episode LXXX: Nobody Knocks the Door Music: Atmosphere - Blow Up .jpg) We are now officially done with every single bit of side content (within reason) in Shadow Hearts. Nothing remains but tackling the Neameto Float. .jpg) Since we had around 700,000 Cash in our war chest going to waste, we may as well splurge a bit ahead of time getting some Acupuncture from Wanderer Meiyuan for our ultimate weapons. At least, the ones for our main Yuri, Alice, Margarete party... And only the Level 1 and 2 Attack Power and Hit Area.  Despite having blown through all the additional content in the game, we are still woefully short on funds to fully upgrade everyone. Meiyuan's prices are insanely unreasonable to even fully upgrade a single character. Just getting Yuri's Nightbird Claw to Level 3 in all three areas would cost 300,000 Cash. Alice would be another 226,200 Cash and Margarete would be another 276,720 bucks for a grand total of 802,920 to fully upgrade all three characters. Were you a crazy person and wanted to fully upgrade all six characters weapons to maximum it's 273,360 for Zhuzhen, another 291,500 for Keith and finally 244,920 for Halley... Or a grand total of 1,612,700 Cash or a little less than a million more currency than we've accumulated the entire course of the game. Meiyuan, maybe gently caress off forever out of the series after this point, yeah? .jpg) The rest of our funds can go toward stocking up on consumables, particularly MP restoring ones. None of this is remotely necessary for the final dungeon. It's a final dungeon in a JRPG. We're have technically meant to have gone straight here and conquered it right after Amon and the Nemeton Underground. .jpg) With that said, buckle up because this is the longest dungeon of the game by several magnitudes. The average Shadow Hearts dungeon was like... 10-15 minutes in length and like three screens long. At the far end, you'd maybe have a thirty minute stretch with the Ancient Ruins, Kuihai Tower or Nemeton Underground type actual dungeon type areas. Music: Nobody Knocks the Door .jpg) This one has a run time of two and a half hours from start to credits roll. And that might be with me getting fed up with the random encounter rate and tossing on the accessory that halves it mid-way through. .jpg) We briefly encountered this opening foyer with its lovely ornamental beating heart centerpiece. The aesthetic of the Float is... odd, to say the least. A mish-mash of sci-fi, technorganic weirdness and... just kind of Ultimecia's Castle from Final Fantasy VIII too. As I said, it's a long rear end dungeon. Regardless of that, up above the heart we've got two stairs up. .jpg) Let's head to the northwest first, where we find... .jpg) Huh? A dead end? We gotta find some way to remove this seal, eh. Really wish I remembered how I did that 40 foot leap off that train the one time... Seems like it would save me a lotta headache at this point..jpg) OK. So we need to flip a switch to turn off a forcefield. That seems easy enough. Let's just go the other way. Except, of COURSE, there are random battles in the final dungeon. Why wouldn't there be? Foolishness. .jpg) Music: NDE - Near Death Experience .jpg) We don't have very interesting enemies on the first floor (ignore the part where there's clearly multiple stairs upward and most of it is on like the third floor) of the Float. These are Enkidu, which are just a gross looking variation of the Shear enemy type. The most annoying thing they can do is steal 50-100 MP from a single character. But they all only possess 250 HP and the gang can easily wax them all in a single round. Enkidu at least has a touch of mythology behind its name. Wikipedia on Enkidu posted:
.jpg) Beyond that, we have Emptiness, which is just a remix of those floating armor ghosts from way back in Keith's castle. These actually the most dangerous things early on solely due to the fact they have HP Lowering as their default attack and that just flat out deletes 66% of the targeted character's HP regardless of defenses. .jpg) Lastly, there are Hangmen. It's just a different palette of the upsidedown guys that shoot you. That is... that's all. They've got nothing new going on. They just cast Gun. Music: Nobody Knocks the Door .jpg) .jpg) Anyway, battles aside if we went this direction earlier, Yuri would have zero comments on this mid-aught first-person shooter corridor. But now that we've seen that force field, this scene will trigger. .jpg) .jpg) OK everyone, let's just look at the ground and walls for a minute. That'll probably help. You'd think that giant tube in the center would be of note but you'd be wrong. After a bit of shuffling around the room, Yuri demands everyone check in. .jpg)      <head shakes and shrugs> drat. Nothing, eh. Of course we need some kinda science guy for the last stretch. Where are we gonna get one of those? Wasn't that Roger Bacon guy all about science? Yeah, but he's gotta work the teleporter. It appeared he was just running on a treadmill and the rest was automated. Yeah, well... I don't think he can fight. We can't bring him here. <frown> ...I haven't fought since Rouen. <turns and kicks a wall> drat it all!!.jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Is there no problem that a punch or a kick will not solve in the Shadow Hearts universe? Very rarely and it's usually because some bullshit is obstructing said punch or kick. .jpg) Everyone makes a break for the door. Except... .jpg) .jpg)  Huh, what is going on here?Yuri goes up to touch the clearly bad news electric force field like a dingus. .jpg) This is a type of seal… An incredibly powerful kind. Touch it and you’ll be burned to a crisp in the blink of an eye! <recoils> To a crisp! <gasps> Or at the very least, it will zap you strong enough to make you do a full flip across the room. Remember when that was a frequent occurrence? ...Man, I'm glad that stopped happening very often after China. Either way... <shakes head> That doesn’t sound too good. Why'd this happen? <shakes head and shrugs while looking at Yuri> ‘Cause this kid was kicking it! <shakes head> ...  <disappointed head shaking> Just hold on a second. I'll find a way to break the seal and get you out of there..jpg) OK... So, it's time to pick a new party leader from the remaining four characters. Now, 97% of the way into Shadow Hearts. Also, it's semi-randomized who will be trapped in the force field with Yuri. The playthrough I did prior to this one it was Yuri and Halley. It might just pick randomly from your active party but I'm not even sure about that. .jpg) We're just gonna go with Margarete to hold down the fort. Alongside her is the going straight into the endgame with minimal sidequests Halley who is still semi-viable. Keith... exists, I guess. Sorry, Zhuzhen. We are never using you again. You're the Cyan of this group. Literally, everyone can do anything you bring to the table but faster and more effectively. Which is a shame, since you're definitely more of an actual character than Keith, who barely exists in that regard, and Halley, who immediately stopped mattering or even speaking after Koudelka was rescued. But such is the nature of JRPG mechanics and team compositions. .jpg) Now, you might think the game is going to pull a Final Fantasy VI where you need to split up the party into different teams to go through multiple parts of the dungeon. And be really annoyed the first time you played it because hosed if you used more than half those characters. The gently caress am I gonna do with Gau in a party? Gimme a break. But, it's not exactly that. Let's go back to that force field from earlier that we the player saw deactivated but our party has no idea Yuri actually helped and didn't just break things like an idiot. .jpg) So I guess this is what they call a mixed bag of blessings....jpg) I think I've heard a mixed bag and a mixed blessing but not combined. That seems like trouble honestly. .jpg) So right past the force field stairs is this Halo's Covenant ship looking rear end corridor. See that big triangle on the wall that just looks like a background thing? What if we check that out. .jpg) .jpg) Well, there's no other way I guess. Here goes. Push!If you think that bizarre prompt was just Margarete being kind of weirdo... naw. Straight-laced religious girl Alice Elliot will also feel the desire to .jpg) .jpg) And I'd have never spent that year in Hokkaido if not for punching that horse. That's a heck of a story....jpg) Ah! Somehow you all did it! I had faith in... some of them... You don't have to lie to me. Yeah... Let's go see if they're trapped in a force field now. ...Oh no..jpg) So we're just playing as Yuri and Alice now. For reference, I got it exactly one random battle with Margarete, Halley, and Keith. And one battle with just Alice and Yuri. If we retrace our steps the whole... three screens it took to flip that switch, then... .jpg) Hey, kid! I see you got out. Thank God. I thought I was stuck! That'd be a real anti-climax, huh? A wee bit. You caused us a lot of trouble, you know. I hope you at least feel sorry. I know it and I feel bad, okay. Even though it really feels like all you had to do was go up some stairs and hit a big switch. Pretty much! Yeah... my guilt tripped feelings are already waning. Well at least now we can go forward. You're either very, very lucky or very, very good. <laughs> Ya see, you got me to thank after all. Y'all had me doubting kicking stuff would work. I had like a minor existential crisis over that.  .jpg) So that gimmick of splitting up the party and perhaps being forced to use a less than optimal configuration? Yeah. That was five minutes long. It never happens again. We just use our preferred party the entire rest of the dungeon. I'm mildly baffled why that segment existed. Also, that's cute you keep trying to sneak into the party Zhuzhen. Get out! .jpg) Back to the dungeon at hand... part one. We have a path to the north and southwest. .jpg) Southwest? Force Field #2: Lime Edition. We'll just put a tack on that and remember it for later. .jpg) .jpg) Northern path? A few more sets of stairs before we come to his techno-bone altar platform and something that couldn't look more like a boss encounter if it tried. .jpg) We're pretty good with prep for this boss just having the usual stuff and Crucifixes. But we are going to move everyone to the back row for reasons that will become apparent shortly into the fight. .jpg) No dialog or fanfare for this beast. Just an exclamation point shooting out of Yuri's head and away we go! .jpg) Music: Demon's Gig .jpg) Meet Yamaraja: Wind's even more cosmic horror looking distant relative: Soul Block. Don't ask me about that name. It's exactly the same in Japanese and there's no theme going on with the five in total bosses of this dungeon. .jpg) .jpg) It's all late-game Bloodborne rear end looking nightmares as bosses here on out. This is honestly the most low-key one of the bunch since you can kind of easily describe it as some malformed dark angel thing with a spiked tentacle for a face. They get way more abstract after this... Looks aside, Soul Box is a Light elemental affinity beast which has 7500 HP we need to burn through in order to reach the next part of Neameto Float. So let's get started. .jpg) .jpg) Our first order of business, and a common thread for bosses going forward is to Fuse Yuri into Seraphic Radiance and use For Everyone, which boosts err... everyone's stats dramatically. Especially, their magic stats are of interest here. .jpg) The reason? Much like Yamaraja: Wind this guy is just plain immune to physical attacks. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) So we're just going to have to go all in with everyone's best Special Attacks. With For Everyone, all three characters are doing within the ballpark of 500-600 HP of damage per turn. There is one big downside of For Everyone that I didn't mention and it seems a mistake entirely related to mechanics that seem like the same kind of dumb poo poo Koudelka (the game) had running through its veins. For Everyone boost Agility by +30 across the board. Boosted Agility not only means everyone gains their turn faster in the unseen battle order. It also means the Judgment Wheel spins way faster. So basically everyone has near double-speed Judgment Wheel spins since most characters have Agility in like the 50ish range. Which makes all attacks, especially endgame ones, way harder to successfully pull. That doesn't feel like a mechanic balance thing. That feels like a whoopsie or mechanics are tied to something dumb we didn't think through the thing. .jpg) .jpg) Beyond the Physical strike immunity, Soul Cube is kind of a nothing boss since it has Shockwave, which hits everyone for around 100 HP of damage. .jpg) .jpg) It also has Pulse, which... hits everyone... for around 100 HP of damage. It's just two attack animations that do the same exact thing. I think Pulse might be Light elemental so if we had a Dark Elemental fused Yuri out here then maybe it would hurt more. We do not. So no, it just has two attacks that do the same thing but one is flashier. .jpg) It can also slap folks with its noodle head, I suppose. That also does around 100 HP of damage but to a single character this time. It looks gross though, so it has that going for it. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) That's kind of all that can be said about Soul Polygon, a boss that is just sort of an early boss with its model rejiggered, a new palette and better stats. Music: Results .jpg) Nothing about the first floor of Neameto Float is putting its first foot forward. But fear not, there's still a lot of it to go. Like an unreasonable lot... .jpg) But on the plus side, tune in next time for maybe the best music track in the game as the final dungeon of Shadow Hearts continues!  Video: Soul Block Boss Battle Highlights The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Feb 6, 2019 |
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Feb 5, 2019 00:54
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The Dark Id posted:We are now officially done with every single big of side content (within reason) in Shadow Hearts. What are we missing? I don't remember anything else.
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Feb 5, 2019 01:39
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ultrafilter posted:What are we missing? I don't remember anything else.
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Feb 5, 2019 01:40
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The Dark Id posted:
 Also, I'd personally go with "It would" or "It'd" rather than "I'd" here, but that's mostly a stylistic choice. The Dark Id posted:We're just gonna go with Margarete to hold down the fort alongside going straight into the endgame with minimal sidequestsHalley and exists, I guess, Keith. Sorry, Zhuzhen. We are never using you again. The Dark Id posted:The gently caress am I gonna do with Gau in a party? Gimme a break. 
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Feb 5, 2019 02:58
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Really wish I remembered how I did that 40 foot leap off that train the one time... Seems like I'd save me a lotta headache at this point.
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The Dark Id posted:We are now officially done with every single big of side content (within reason) in Shadow Hearts. Nothing remains but tackling the Neameto Float. Should be "bit," I think. Commander Keene posted:I'm not 100% sure what's going on with this sentence? Something more like "We're going with Margarete, because she's been along for most of the endgame and sidequests, and I guess Halley and Keith exist", I think? He's saying we're going with Margarete, Halley whom we've done the minimal amount of endgame sidequests for, and Keith, who exists, I guess. Commander Keene posted:Don't you badmouth Gau. Gau is only good if you're willing to go out of your way to learn which of his fifty billion Rages are actually useful, or if you're just going to do the Wind-God Gau exploit. If you just wanna play the game like a normal person and button mash your way through fights or blow poo poo up with magic, Gau sucks.
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Feb 5, 2019 03:12
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W.T. Fits posted:
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Feb 5, 2019 05:29
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Gau is a shitwrecker, but the game's full of shitwreckers leaving poor Cyan in the dust
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Feb 5, 2019 05:37
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This dungeon really does remind me of Kefka's tower In that it seems confusing as all hell to even tell where you are going and what you are walking on half the time. Also, boy was I sour when it turned out I had to fight a superboss with my weakest team in FF6. Though Relm managed to kill it in the end with a simple jab. (This was before I even knew about Relms ridiculous magic stats)
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Feb 5, 2019 22:41
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