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Shifty gimbal
Dec 28, 2008

Hey you... I got something to tell ya
Biscuit Hider
There is a solution to the mystery of the water. Having seen the way you've been attacking this so far, I'm positive that if left at your own devices, it will remain a mystery forever.

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Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin

Gimbal lock posted:

There is a solution to the mystery of the water. Having seen the way you've been attacking this so far, I'm positive that if left at your own devices, it will remain a mystery forever.

Yeeeah, if I remember my own first playthrough Natural 20's not going to be in a position to notice the odd section of breakable floor anymore. Unless he gets lucky in the Reverse Castle, and it's highly likely he won't get there without prompting, either.

Subweapon chat: I loved the rebound stone right up until I found the Agunea.

Actual weapon chat: Two-handed swords aren't bad. The lack of a shield doesn't have much impact when you're not actively using the shield anyway.

Boot chat: The Secret Boots actually resize Alucard's sprite by a few pixels. They don't add anything, it's literally just like stretching it in photoshop.

ulmont posted:

It does.
Cool, your statement is making me feel bad about not being able to immediately edit my post four hours before I woke up this morning. And you haven't qualified it, either, so it's making me grumpy that I'm being told something without evidence. You've hit an anxiety and a pet peeve, wanna try and guess a kink, go for the trifecta?

Head Hit Keyboard
Oct 9, 2012

It must be fate that has brought us together after all these years.
Best subweapon in this game in this game is the knife. Fight me. :colbert:

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug

Head Hit Keyboard posted:

Best subweapon in this game in this game is the knife. Fight me. :colbert:
Would you accept COOLEST subweapon? I did always like Grant most in Castlevania 3 :shobon:

Alucard's subconscious also probably agrees, given the doppelganger used the knife even as they were beaten to death by a bible.

But knife spam can't let me spam it to check for fake ceilings :sigh:

SatansOnion
Dec 12, 2011

Granfalloon is in fact a Vonnegut reference (in a rather odd place, though)

in Order of Ecclesia, Dracula's Castle has well-stocked kitchens and a dining hall, which felt slightly odd given Dracula's, y'know, dietary needs

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.

Gimbal lock posted:

There is a solution to the mystery of the water. Having seen the way you've been attacking this so far, I'm positive that if left at your own devices, it will remain a mystery forever.

I solved the mystery!

The solution is get enough health to tank the water.

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



SatansOnion posted:

Granfalloon is in fact a Vonnegut reference (in a rather odd place, though)

in Order of Ecclesia, Dracula's Castle has well-stocked kitchens and a dining hall, which felt slightly odd given Dracula's, y'know, dietary needs
In some stories vampires can eat normal food. Whether or not they need it in addition to blood is another story entirely.

Besides, there are all of the "servants". Even if the master himself doesn't need to eat, the help might.

Zanzibar Ham
Mar 17, 2009

You giving me the cold shoulder? How cruel.


Grimey Drawer

Dareon posted:

Cool, your statement is making me feel bad about not being able to immediately edit my post four hours before I woke up this morning. And you haven't qualified it, either, so it's making me grumpy that I'm being told something without evidence. You've hit an anxiety and a pet peeve, wanna try and guess a kink, go for the trifecta?

I mean, if you're talking about something you aren't sure Nat20 knows yet, that counts as spoilers as far as I know.

Just follow the old adage of 'if you find yourself writing in your post that you're not sure what you're posting is spoilers or not, then you should probably play it safe and assume it's spoilers'

e: and I now notice I'm also not blameless here, so it's something I should work on as well

Zanzibar Ham fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Aug 7, 2018

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.
I mean, broadly speaking I'm happy for the thread to effectively self-police on this. So please don't worry too much, but obviously the fun is in me not knowing things, so I rely on you guys to be judicious.

Tea hasn't seen anything he's particular perturbed about not being in spoilers so far.

Mr Cow
Oct 6, 2007

mooty dollars :3
Nap Ghost
hi i am enjoying your lets play quite alot, i saw there are 2 more videos in the playlist but they are listed as private? also the wolf special and the boot relic the two items you already have - use commands like spells qcf+attack (hadoken motion) for wolf and with the jump boot relic down then up + jump to super jump. (like a flash kick in street fighter but you dont need to charge)

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.
There'll always be a few private videos in the list. Tea and I record on Sundays for a minimum of an hour usually. Once I've edited everything I upload all the videos to youtube and set them on timed release for 11pm GMT on Monday/Wednesday/Friday until I'm out of 20 minute chunks.

On a practical level this means that if I've got drunk out my mind on Friday and forgotten the LP exists, the videos will still release even though I don't update the thread until a hungover Saturday morning.

So yes, if you're expecting a video to be out and this thread hasn't updated 95% of the time, the video will be out.

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.

Episode 21 - Maybe I should take a nap

SatansOnion
Dec 12, 2011

I reckon Maria set up the spikes and the grate behind her because she needed a place to rest her feet, pop a potion and polish off some wall meat; and naturally she doesn’t want just anything to walk in on her

also, vampires as we understand them today are totes a metaphor for arrogant aristocrat types who empower themselves by stealing the lifeblood of others

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



The best thing about the Spike Breaker is that it works as long as you have it equipped, regardless of what form Alucard is in. You can be wrecking spikes as a wolf, a bat, or even a cloud of mist.

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you
I don't think the Castlevania show can be considered an anime, considering it's a western cartoon.

Explopyro
Mar 18, 2018

Speaking of poorly-translated and/or misleading hints I have to think something went wrong with the hint text for the Gold and Silver rings. The room where you have to wear them is nowhere near the Clock Tower, after all. Weirdly, I still ended up going to the right place first; I don't know why I had that intuition.

Gimbal lock posted:

There is a solution to the mystery of the water. Having seen the way you've been attacking this so far, I'm positive that if left at your own devices, it will remain a mystery forever.

I meant to respond to this earlier - I wish I could remember how, but I actually stumbled across this one without looking it up somehow. I think I might've had the faerie active at that point, I can't think how else I could have found it. That said, I'll be shocked if Nat finds it in the LP too, I don't see him going back there. The weird thing about this is that as far as I can tell, it's only in that secret area that the Merman Statue even does anything; they made some weird design decisions in this game.

This game is addictive; I couldn't stop playing and I've now finished it three times somehow. And since Tea mentioned Luck mode, I can say that the second one was that and it did indeed give me a much greater appreciation for the magic. I didn't use it consistently throughout the entire run, but starting out knowing all the button combinations definitely changes the experience a lot and I honestly liked it better than I'd been expecting to (it's certainly given me a new appreciation for the way they implemented it). One thing I've noticed is that even without using the backdash, Alucard seems to walk backward a bit before turning around - I could be wrong, but this seems relevant to how the back/forward inputs are registered for the spells, and once I noticed it I seem to have gotten more consistent at pulling them off.

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




That succubus fight is pretty amusing because of how nasty Alucard gets there. When he chats with Death earlier, he's just got an attitude of "have to make the bad castle go away" - but here he's practically gloating about the special hell he's claiming that the Succubus is consigned to.

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin
Those two skeletons did more damage to you than the succubus did.

Shifty gimbal
Dec 28, 2008

Hey you... I got something to tell ya
Biscuit Hider
Nat can simply enjoy the ride for now because he's hit a progression curve where the game isn't going to push back on difficulty for a little while. Don't you worry though, if Yorkshire does his guide job properly, the game isn't going to restrain itself forever.

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



Gnoman posted:

That succubus fight is pretty amusing because of how nasty Alucard gets there. When he chats with Death earlier, he's just got an attitude of "have to make the bad castle go away" - but here he's practically gloating about the special hell he's claiming that the Succubus is consigned to.
Death wasn't impersonating his mother and basically spitting on Alucard's memory of her last moments.

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




Commander Keene posted:

Death wasn't impersonating his mother and basically spitting on Alucard's memory of her last moments.

Of course. I just find it well done - Alucard comes across almost emotionless most of the time, but it shows here.

Jade Star
Jul 15, 2002

It burns when I LP
Doesn't look like it's posted yet, but it out on youtube so... You monster. All of those candles and you didn't even bother collecting the last one. You knew it was pointless and you persisted! :argh:

Explopyro
Mar 18, 2018

On the subject of games where the prologue is the ending of another game in the series - off the top of my head, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (1993) definitely did it before this, though it's a bit different since it was actually the ending of Lufia II (which came out in '95/'96) so you could just as accurately say they expanded that prologue into a prequel game later. It does work pretty well as a storytelling device, definitely. I can't think of any other games that have done it, but I'm sure they exist.

Good eyes noticing that upside-down room! I didn't even see that.

Did you notice your bat familiar breathes fire when you do?

More subweapon talk: I can't bring myself to like the cross in this game. In most Castlevanias I played it ended up being my favourite, the boomerang version is really good at layering hits and it's just tricky enough to time well that it feels rewarding to do. But for some reason Alucard is stuck with the item crash version only, which costs 100 hearts and doesn't seem worth that price (plus for whatever reason I seem to accidentally trigger subweapons a lot in this game, and losing 100 hearts that way is rather frustrating). And another layer of weird, the boomerang version is still in the game, Richter can use it.

Somehow I don't think subtle hinting about the stopwatch is going to be enough to get Nat to find the Alucart stuff, Tea. That ship seems to have sailed.

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




Something is confusing me.

Are there no Nova Skeletons in the normal castle? I was really looking forward to those.

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin

Jade Star posted:

Doesn't look like it's posted yet, but it out on youtube so... You monster. All of those candles and you didn't even bother collecting the last one. You knew it was pointless and you persisted! :argh:

Personally I'm just irrationally irritated that he shifted out of bat form and swatted the candles rather than shooting them with his brand new fireballs.

Also:

ulmont
Sep 15, 2010

IF I EVER MISS VOTING IN AN ELECTION (EVEN AMERICAN IDOL) ,OR HAVE UNPAID PARKING TICKETS, PLEASE TAKE AWAY MY FRANCHISE

Dareon posted:

Personally I'm just irrationally irritated that he shifted out of bat form and swatted the candles rather than shooting them with his brand new fireballs.

:same:

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



...Huh. In the version that comes with Dracula X Chronicles, there is a boss fight in that room under the clock; it's Maria. She says something about having to prove your strength to her and then she proceeds to fight you. She's actually fairly tough.

Jamesman
Nov 19, 2004

"First off, let me start by saying curly light blond hair does not suit Hyomin at all. Furthermore,"
Fun Shoe
I'm a little disappointed that Tea seems to be guiding Nat20 away from the bad ending. I was interested in seeing what the reaction would be to killing Richter and the game being over, THEN leading him to the alternate that takes you to a whole other castle.

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.

Episode 22 - Fire breathing bat cannon


Uh yes.

I got very drunk last night. Good job with the auto posting youtube.

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug
Bat is back :neckbeard:

:buddy:

Shitenshi
Mar 12, 2013
I'm surprised THAT was the room where Maria gives you the Holy Glasses. I'd expect a lot more from a sinister underground chamber with a coffin grasped by a demonic hand.

And it cracks me up that the succubus is so easy to beat as a boss, because she has literally nude official artwork drawn straight from Kojima. Needs to be dressed better. A chainmail bikini at least.

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




I'm pretty sure that her in-game sprite is bottomless.

Jamesman
Nov 19, 2004

"First off, let me start by saying curly light blond hair does not suit Hyomin at all. Furthermore,"
Fun Shoe

Gnoman posted:

I'm pretty sure that her in-game sprite is bottomless.

Nah she has underwear on, but her baps are hanging out in the breeze.

I even think they made an action figure of her that was also topless.

Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

The tools of a hero mean nothing without a solid core.

Jamesman posted:

Nah she has underwear on, but her baps are hanging out in the breeze.

I even think they made an action figure of her that was also topless.

Our reaction to that back in '97 was "yup, not a Nintendo game." Also for Alura Une, the flower girl.

Head Hit Keyboard
Oct 9, 2012

It must be fate that has brought us together after all these years.
INT is used for than just spells. It's also what all subweapon damage scales with! Probably still not enough to bother with that particular Shield Rod combo but it is helpful to know.

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug

Bruceski posted:

Our reaction to that back in '97 was "yup, not a Nintendo game." Also for Alura Une, the flower girl.
Give that blood back right now you overgrown flower! I stole it from the bloody zombies fair and square :argh:

Shifty gimbal
Dec 28, 2008

Hey you... I got something to tell ya
Biscuit Hider
It ain't a Castlevania game if there aren't any free range boobs hanging out on statues, or are actively trying to kill you.

Arcturas
Mar 30, 2011

As someone who's never played this game, thanks for showing it off. It looks pretty neat. (Also, please use something other than the shield rod! I'd like to see more weapons even if they're suboptimal. And maybe they won't be if you can get a faster attack speed for nominally less damage!)

Royal W
Jun 20, 2008
I'm noticing that Nat seems to have forgotten about the buffs the shield rod can give. He's leaving a lot of damage on the table going into boss fights without using the attack buff from the knight shield.
Also watching you traverse with bat and mist when you have the gravity boots is killing me.

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Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.

Episode 23 - Bat Friend Doesn't Like It

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