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  After a close poll, we have our winner, Cyrus! Which is great for me because of all those sweet quality-of-life features.   To our first adventure! -----  Video: A Brief History of the Realm  Music: Tranquil Days  We begin with our scholar in the classroom. Whenever a cutscene has voice acting, I will include a video link like the one above.   Indeed, our fair city-state is among the longest-standing on the continent of Orsterra. But there was another city-state with a history as long and proud as our own that came to a tragic ruin only eight short years ago.   There's no shame in not knowing an answer, so long as you have a desire to learn. Jumping straight into fluff backstory is an odd way to start things off, but we also immediately get an idea of what kind of teacher Cyrus is, and a hint toward his overall view points and personality.   Let's see... ...  Hornburg was ruled over by a royal family said to be descended from priests of an ancient and long-forgotten religion. On the other hand, our fair Atlasdam was founded by one of the original clans that inhabited the Flatlands.As Cyrus just mentioned, this city/nation is Atlasdam, a site of learning, and it resides in one of, of course, the eight regions that make up Orsterra, in this case the Flatlands. As for Hornburg, this won't be the last we hear of it in these Chapter 1 updates.   Correct you are, Your Highness! It was a time of great strife here in the Flatlands, as the eight clans waged a long and bitter war. Change would come when the armies of Grandport invaded these lands some two centuries ago. At the time, the rulers of Grandport sought to exert their influence over territories inland.  ...Oh, but look at the time! We'll pick up where we left off next time. ...and be prepared to answer questions on any of the material within. Yes, Professor.  The history is not really important, though it's a bit neat if you're replaying. What's important so far is that we get an idea of the respect Cyrus has for his students, that he teaches the Princess of Atlasdam, and that Therese may have other thoughts on her mind than her studies. But all that can wait for later. ----- Music: Atlasdam, Seat of Learning   Seems today's your lucky day. You've been granted permission to enter the special archives. Splendid! Finally I can begin my research. As usual for these games and LPs, parentheses around dialogue will portray thoughts.   We now have control! The radar is very useful in finding landmarks and quest markers on a specific map, as well as side quests and save points. The game also helpfully posts quest directions on the top-left corner after something happens.   NPCs that have speech bubbles can be interacted with, while others can't. For now, I'll be skipping all NPCs that aren't related to this quest and save them for later.  Once we try to leave, we trigger another cutscene as Therese waits near the entrance. ...  !? Music: Enveloped in Kindness  What can I do for you, Your Highness? If you can spare the time, I had a question about something we learned today. But of course, Your Highness. It would be my pleasure to answer anything. After all, my role as your tutor is as important to me as any of my research. Unfortunately, I cannot spare much time. Is the question a quick one? Yes, Professor. It will not take long. A very astute question, Your Highness. However, I fear that nearly all the texts detailing the nature of the religion were burned and lost when Hornburg fell. I see. A shame, that. I believe that the royal family of Hornburg were guardians of an ancient power...   -----  No need for apologies! And it would be my pleasure, Your Highness. That such questions occur to you is a sign of a sharp and curious mind. Your lectures on the history of the realm are most fascinating to me. For if I do not learn of our past, how can I hope to lead my people to a bright future? A most admirable philosophy, Your Highness. The people of this land are truly fortunate to be led by one of such wisdom and kindness. ...As I am truly fortunate to have the opportunity to serve in some small way. You are far too kind, Professor Albright. I am proud to be your student. ...Oh dear, I'm running late. Pray do not forget your assignment, Your Highness. Of course, Professor.  Oh, hello there, Therese. https://giant.gfycat.com/InfatuatedIdioticArieltoucan.mp4 Poor Therese. (oh man the url is perfect) Music: Atlasdam, Seat of Learning  Cyrus is unaware of any of this, the man has learning to do!  Again, we're ignoring distractions for now. Right to the library!  The lighting effects are really nice at times in this game, like in this dimly-lit library. Though it can do a number on the sprites...   Oh, Professor Albright. You're looking quite eager today. You're more on top of our collection than I am. Just sign here. With pleasure! Heh... Hm? Is something amiss? For someone known as the most brilliant mind in the Royal Academy... Haha! When you put it that way, yes. Much as a child is fascinated by a new toy... I am titillated by the prospect of acquiring new knowledge. Right. The expression on your face says it all. Anyway, everything seems to be in order. Enjoy your quest for knowledge, Professor. Many thanks, my dear! I most certainly will.----- SILENCE  (How odd. The tome is nowhere to be found.) (These archives are strictly guarded and curated. Wherever could it have gone...?) Of all the times to... Oh well. Might I ask of you a favor? What might that be? The tome I mentioned before seems to have gone missing. Could you locate it for me? Missing? Huh. I'll begin looking at once, Professor. ----- Video: Headmaster Yvon  We immediately transition to the Headmaster's office, and right into another voiced cutscene.    The Headmaster is a bit odd, with bright red eyes.  How might I be of assistance, Headmaster? Music: An Ill Omen  Sir? I do believe I made my hypothesis perfectly clear...  You went out of your way to cite one of the texts in our special archives. The knowledge housed in those tomes is the Royal Academy's greatest treasure. I am fully aware of the value of those tomes, Headmaster. It is for that very reason I would share the knowledge with my peers- But that goes against everything- (Even my best argument is sure to fall on deaf ears.) (Knowledge is power, and power is to be hoarded. An unfortunate attitude, indeed...) That is all. You may go. Sir?  Thank you for your concern, Headmaster. In that case, I'll be on my way. Cyrus makes his departure, but before we leave the Headmaster... SILENCE    ...  Alas, we won't be privy to the contents of this conversation. We've got a book to read! -----  We simply have to make our way back left. Atlasdam consists of this center square, the three buildings we've visited, and the actual town section to the south. Towns generally aren't that big in this game. SILENCE  Did you have any luck finding the tome? I'm afraid not...  And as you know, the keys to the vault are entrusted to only a select few! Quite honestly, it would be easier to steal the crown off the king's head. It would seem we have quite the mystery on our hands. ...Or so the scholar in me says. Would you not agree? Music: Tranquil Days  But I can see you won't let it go until you've "cracked the case," as it were. Ahaha! You could say that, indeed. A habit I just can't seem to break. Once a puzzle is placed before me, I simply cannot rest until I've worked out a solution. Well, far be it from me to stand in your way.  Ahaha, I'll not deny it! Worry not - the tome will be back on the shelf before you can bat an eyelash. Right, thanks. Best of luck in your search. So we've got our hook for this chapter. We need to help the scholar find a book. ...As you might have guessed, Cyrus's Chapter 1 has the lowest stakes out of any of them. But that's also what makes it so wonderful. Music: Atlasdam, Seat of Learning  I suppose I should inquire with Mercedes as to where the keys to the library are stored. The guard at the front door would know who has been frequenting the library lately. As might my fellow scholars... Then, mayhap, I should pay the headmaster a visit as well... Most chapters will involve some use of that character's path action. In Cyrus's case, his path action is Scrutinize.  When you go up to a NPC you can interact with, it will show all path actions available for your current party. Any you can't do are X'd out.  This is one of the NPCs we need to glean info from, but of course simply talking to them won't get us what we need.  Once you press Y on a NPC, you choose from the available path actions to use.   Scrutinize involves Cyrus analyzing and questioning a NPC to glean background information from them. He shares this path action with Alfyn, whose version is Inquire. Alfyn's version is restricted by level, but Cyrus has a percentage chance to fail on most NPCs, depending on level and difficulty of the NPC. Fail five times, and you have to bribe the barkeep at the tavern to spread good rumors about you or else you can no longer do path actions in that town. Or you can just save scum.   For the NPCs important to this quest, though, we cannot fail the Scrutinize checks, and our interrogation results in some valuable information.    Hopefully we will soon!   That actually narrows the suspects significantly.  There's also this guy.   Russell has motive, but no key...    And the Headmaster has a key, but seemingly no motive to obtain the book...  And now it's time to do a bit of deduction of our own... SILENCE  There's no penalty for wrong guesses, but it's fun to try to suss things out yourself, and honestly the game doesn't do enough things like this. Only Cyrus gets these nice little deduction puzzles. Anyway, this one's pretty simple if you're paying attention.  There are only two keys to the archives - one belonging to the headmaster, and one to the guardsman. This is a bit trickier.  The Headmaster has no motive to steal the book, and it'd be hard to steal the key from his office. As for the guard...  It would be all too easy a task to lift the key off his person. It makes sense, doesn't it? The guard's character is already questionable, and he's the only other person with access to the vault...  The culprit must be someone who understands the true value of the tome.  Put it all together, and our villain is... Russell took advantage of the sleeping guard and snatched the key from him, then used the opportunity to pilfer the book so that he could sell it to pay off his debts.    Easier said than done! Music: Atlasdam, Seat of Learning   (I think it's time I did some fieldwork of my own.) Before we dive into our first dungeon, a tutorial on saving. You can only save at specific areas, but they're plentiful and you'll usually find at least one per screen, whether in the overworld, a town, or a dungeon.  The Danger Level has a summary of what level enemies we'll encounter there, and also that there are enemies there. Next time, we pause the story to go into battles and their mechanics! Cyrus would be proud. Mega64 fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 3, 2018 01:35
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Cyrus, the smartest idiot you will hope to meet. But then again that might be wrong with all us goons here.
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Nov 3, 2018 02:52
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"Gosh, we just got a new rare book in. Surely if I steal that one instead of any of our other rare books, nobody will walk in looking for it anytime soon!" Russell, you maroon.
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Nov 3, 2018 02:54
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Bruceski posted:"Gosh, we just got a new rare book in. Surely if I steal that one instead of any of our other rare books, nobody will walk in looking for it anytime soon!" Russell, you maroon. Unless he stole it for the Headmaster just to spite Cyrus for daring to spread knowledge around and handed it off to Therese because she asked nicely and knows that returning such a tome would be a feather in her cap for catching Cyrus's attention at the suggestion of Princess Mary who in fact wants that knowledge to spread because knowledge is power and the smarter her citizens are the more powerful they are. Or perhaps it's because the Princess does not want the book found so that it's knowledge can be spread, which gives Atlasdam an advantage over it's neighbors and this is just a prelude to world conquest!? Truly we are just scratching the tip of the iceberg here dear Watson! It's a plot of the highest order!
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Nov 3, 2018 03:09
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JamMasterJim posted:I am happy therion got a decent amount of votes, but sad Olberic is last.
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Nov 3, 2018 03:30
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Cyrus is such an earnest fellow, it seems. Lovely voice too. 
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Nov 3, 2018 03:41
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Now I’m seeing Cyrus as Giles because I can totally see Giles investigating a missing book and interrogating the whole town
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Nov 3, 2018 05:17
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The Thought Route music from the recent Ace Attorney games fits too perfectly when Cyrus does these bits of deduction.
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Nov 3, 2018 06:09
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But he hasn’t been presenting his
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Nov 3, 2018 06:15
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....Holy poo poo. All of the hype around this game is legitimate. I can't read anymore, I'm already buying it off the eshop. The music is what sold me man. All of the tracks in the update are so simple but are perfect what the scene. This is incredible.
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Nov 3, 2018 08:29
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This starting city reminds me of Al-Khampis.
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Nov 3, 2018 15:45
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Regalingualius posted:But he hasn’t been presenting his He has a lot of social status, considering he's the princess' tutor. He's clearly a prosecutor, not an attorney.
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Nov 3, 2018 16:24
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I'm wondering if the reason that Yvon doesn't want any information from their private library leaked is because there's something shady in their kingdom's history recorded in that private collection. Maybe tied to the lesson being taught at the beginning of the chapter? I remember Final Fantasy XIV had a somewhat similar hook in one of its job quests. Yapping Eevee posted:Lovely voice too. Is that the narrator from The Stanley Parable? Blueberry Pancakes fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Nov 3, 2018 |
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Nov 3, 2018 16:27
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 Video: First Battle  Welcome, students! Today we're going to learn about the fascinating world of battle! Let's begin. Music: Battle I  Time to teach you a lesson!  My years of research allow me to deduce an enemy's weakness at first encounter! Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. You may not even know the importance of weaknesses! Well, students, it's time you learn with experience! Everyone from the lowest pauper to the hardiest warrior can use the basics. You can simply attack with one of the six common weapon types within Orsterra, and for some that may be preferable. Many enemies have weaknesses to at least one of these weapon types, and if you've got the muscle, you can make them regret tangling with you! Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, and it's wiser to live to fight another day. There's no shame in running away from powerful foes, though more often than not you'll be unlikely to outrun them. You can also choose to Defend yourself, absorbing less pain and allowing you to grab initiative for the next attack! It is wise to always be prepared. Grapes are good for recovering health, while Olives can help restore fallen comrades. You'll want Plums to recover your stamina to unleash your special attacks! Of course, the special attacks! We all have our jobs in the world, and this experience grants us the knowledge to utilize special attacks! I myself have learned a few spells here and there in case I get in a little trouble, as I'll readily admit I'm no good with a blade. For now, let's observe this foe so we can plan accordingly. A couple bruises, but no worse for wear! I deduced from earlier that this foe is weak to my staff, so a good whack should stop it in its tracks!  Marvelous! We've broken through its defenses, and now it's helpless before us. It'll take a bit of time to recover, but be aware that once it does, it will always take initiative. Best to hit them hardest when they're down!  As the battle progresses, you'll accumulate power that you can use to "boost" your attacks to the limit! You shall fear my wisdom!  Enemies usually have multiple attacks, sometimes elemental. However, for some reason I have never been broken myself. How peculiar.  Techniques cost stamina, and they can really rough up the competition! But they only really shine if the enemy is broken and you boost them to their limits. You don't have to be a scholar to discover a foe's weaknesses, mind. Similar enemies generally have similar weaknesses. Likewise, a foe aligned with an element will likely be weak to the opposite element, that is, Fire and Ice, Lightning and Wind, and Light and Dark. And if you're especially experienced, you may be able to deduce weaknesses from the "order" of things, but that is for advanced studies. The beautiful thing about breaking an enemy's spirit is that weaknesses no longer matter. Fireball and Icewind will do the same damage to this foe now, even though it's only weak to one of the two. This is invaluable for simultaneously damaging broken foes and breaking others!  Lesson concluded. Addendum: There are incentives for fighting well. Simply breaking a foe will enlighten you with more battle experience, while completing a fight quickly will help you learn skills faster. You shall also obtain more money for completing a fight unscathed, and while you may be curious why so many foes carry money, my research in this area has led to nothing but dead ends. Gain experience to gain strength! You become more powerful and occasionally regain what strength you lost without having to resort to items. Sometimes it's worth fighting a few extra enemies to be better prepared for more powerful foes! And that's it for today's lesson on battles! These are only the basics, but this knowledge should be more than enough to get you started on your respective journeys! With that, tomorrow's homework is to memorize this formula. Dismissed!-----  I'll take over for the easy stuff. We're missing a couple of options, but we've got enough for now. We'll skip over Miscellaneous, which deals with Settings and Return to Title, and Healing, which involves using healing techs of characters like Ophilia and Alfyn to recover HP.   The World Map will eventually show us a large and diverse world to explore, with the very wonderful ability to instantly fast-travel from anywhere to any town in most circumstances.  Journal recaps each character's story so far, even allowing you to review cutscenes. There's a similar function to keep track of side quests once we start obtaining those.  Inventory is, well, your inventory. All your consumables, equipment, and key items are stored here. Grapes restore 500HP, Plums 40SP, and Olives revive a fallen character.  Weapons and armor have various stats they boost, and are quite diverse in doing so!  We also have a Knowledge tab for information we learn from NPCs with Scrutinize/Inquire. These are useful solely for quests.  Status is simple. The key things to note here is that for Physical Attack, the value used is from the weapon being used, while for Elemental Attack, it always uses the highest value from all your weapons. There is one specific exception to this, but it won't come up until much later. The other thing is that Elemental Defense is directly tied to healing, so you want your healers to have a lot of Elemental Defense, which you'd want anyway.  All gear is available to all characters, absolutely no limitations on jobs or gender or whatever else. The only exception of course is a character can't equip weapons its job has no access to, which means Cyrus is stuck with staves. Otherwise, he can use the same shields, head gear, and body gear as someone like Olberic, though of course he'll prefer the ones that boost elemental attack and Max SP. Next time, we'll unlock the Skills menu and do a quick rundown of all the skills Cyrus can learn, and following that we'll finish off Chapter 1 of Cyrus's story. Mega64 fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Nov 11, 2018 |
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Nov 3, 2018 17:02
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For extra credit, click the music link!
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Nov 3, 2018 17:17
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I actually heard the lecture in Cyrus' voice. Weaknesses are a big part of why Cyrus is so good. His study foe ability is innate, meaning nobody else can use it, and it will reveal a new weakness for each enemy type* at battle start. This includes bosses. *meaning, if the enemy formation is two wolves and a goblin, you'll discover one new weakness for the wolves and one for the goblin It doesn't sound like much, but once we're out of tutorial land bosses will have a lot of shields, and the combat is balanced around them being broken 24/7. An headstart on knowing where to hit to get the important first break is really good. The other part is that as a Scholar Cyrus hits three different elements, all three AoE, and his advanced spells strike twice.
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Nov 3, 2018 17:17
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I love that you did that in character as Cyrus! However, you mixed up the end of battle bonuses. Unscathed gets you more cash and finishing fast gets you more JP.
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Nov 3, 2018 17:22
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Some Numbers posted:I love that you did that in character as Cyrus! However, you mixed up the end of battle bonuses. Unscathed gets you more cash and finishing fast gets you more JP. Fixed, thanks!
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Nov 3, 2018 17:34
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Couple of typos in the first story update:Mega64 posted:
I think this is supposed to be "territories inland". Mega64 posted:
Should be "is as important". Mega64 posted:Fail five times, and you have to bribe the barkeep at the tavern to spread good rumors around you or else you can no longer do path actions in that town. Or you can just save scum. Not really a typo, but this feels like it would read better as "spread good rumors about you," or possibly "spread around good rumors about you."
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Nov 3, 2018 18:05
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W.T. Fits posted:Couple of typos in the first story update: Fixed them all, thanks!
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Nov 3, 2018 23:09
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Yeah, love your characterisation of Cyrus. You planning to keep Cyrus as interjecting author-voice for the other characters stories or are you gonna switch over to them when it's their turn? Either way, looking forward to this LP.
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Nov 4, 2018 01:49
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This was more a one-time thing I decided to play around with, don't know if I could make it work in the long term. That said, I'll likely do custom dialogue stuff in lighter parts of the game, particularly when meeting the other protags since the way the game handles joining them is kinda dumb. I'll probably play around with some other sorts of gimmick updates in the future for non-story stuff, I don't really get as silly and dumb with this stuff as I probably should.
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Nov 4, 2018 02:30
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If I remember correctly, which I don't, I was pretty drunk for Cyrus' section. It's good to see it again.
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Nov 4, 2018 04:49
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This looks interesting! Shame I didn't get here early enough to vote, but I'd have gone for Cyrus anyway so  Yapping Eevee posted:Cyrus is such an earnest fellow, it seems. Lovely voice too. Rabbi Raccoon posted:Now I’m seeing Cyrus as Giles because I can totally see Giles investigating a missing book and interrogating the whole town Glad it's not just me. On both counts.
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Nov 4, 2018 08:57
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Cyrus, you're really just here because you're stressed and want to punch monsters, aren't you?
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Nov 4, 2018 13:04
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 Music: Dark Caverns  Welcome to the first dungeon of Octopath Traveler!   I'm going to be honest here, the dungeons are pretty uninspired. No puzzles, nothing interesting beyond potentially the settings and graphics of them. You just wander around a screen (multiple screens in later chapters), find paths to loot, and fight through randoms to get to the boss. They serve their purpose, but otherwise they're just filler and if you're lucky there's one or two you might actually remember after finishing the game. At least the music's good, as it always is. Music: Battle I  There's a handful of enemies, of course. We met the Ice Sentinel early on, and they are weak to a lot of weapons and, as you may guess, Fire.   Likewise, there are Fire Sentinels weak to Ice. Generally for these Chapter 1 dungeons, that character should be able to break every enemy they come across, though a couple may need to reach into their bags of tricks to do so.  I forgot to mention last update that the enemies' names change color as they take damage. I forget the exact percentages, but they turn green at around 50%, and red around 10% HP left. A couple of abilities we'll get with later characters will also unintentionally serve as a pseudo-HP tracker.  There's a good variety of items available. Soulstones come in all six elements, and simply use that element on the entire enemy party. Not as important since we're using Cyrus, but the Wind, Light, and Shadow ones should be handy to have, plus there are stronger versions of these Soulstones we can get later.   I didn't see many of these guys, but they aren't weak to any of Cyrus's elementals, which means breaking through their whopping two shields with his stick before blowing them away with a boosted spell. Music: Victory Fanfare  Also, I forgot the victory fanfare last update. Oops! Cyrus will eventually hit L5 in this dungeon, which is pretty much where every character should end up.  Hitting 30JP unlocks the Skills menu, as we can now purchase our first skill. Music: Dark Caverns    The skill system is interesting for this one. Each character always starts with the top two skills unlocked, then can unlock the next five in any order. The final skill, called a Divine Skill since they stem from the powers of the gods, is only unlocked once all the others are bought, usually being very powerful but also requiring max boost to even be used. In addition, there are passive skills you get after learning enough skills that you can slot on your character for, well, passive benefits. I'll go ahead and be spoiling all of these so I won't have to later. Let's go ahead and take a look! ----- Fireball (8SP) - Deal fire damage to all foes. Icewind (8SP) - Deal ice damage to all foes. Lightning Bolt (8SP) - Deal lightning damage to all foes. Simple target-all spells. They deal 133% of the net (Elem Att - Elem Deff) damage to all enemies. Each boost point adds 90% more damage. Interesting note, every element has a single-target and multi-target version. The characters for Wind/Light/Dark have both versions, while the single-target Fire/Ice/Lightning skills go to Therion/Alfyn/H'aanit respectively. The single-target versions are more powerful, but Cyrus will still do comparable damage simply because he's more focused on Elemental Attack. Analyze (1SP) - Reveal the HP and one weakness of a single foe. The weakness revealed is random. Boosting it reveals more weaknesses, one per boost point, meaning max boost results in four weaknesses revealed. Helpful for bosses or when exploring a new area! Fire Storm (22SP) - Deal fire damage to all foes twice. Blizzard (22SP) - Deal ice damage to all foes twice. Lightning Blast (22SP) - Deal lightning damage to all foes twice. The individual attacks are slightly weaker than the one-hit skills, each one only doing 120% the damage of net Attack, but again, they hit twice. This also means ripping apart elemental shields more easily, and as a bonus boosting them boosts each hit by 95% per point spent. The only reason I don't want to use them is because 22SP is a lot for this stage of the game, but it's still more than doable. Alephan's Enlightenment (30SP) - [Divine Skill] For two turns, spells cast by a single chosen ally that usually target all foes will instead be focused on a single foe at increased intensity. It seems to double the damage dealt by these. I haven't messed with this one much so I can't really say much, but considering it requires max boost and doesn't have a long duration, I'd personally rather simply cast a spell twice. I'll probably mess around and see for myself when I eventually get it, though. ----- Next, passive abilities, in the order we learn them: Evasive Maneuvers - Reduces the rate of random encounters. (Equipping this skill with multiple characters will have no added effect.) It's a good deal of a difference, and as you may have imagined this skill is one of the best in the game simply for the quality-of-life benefits. And you wonderful people voted so that I'll always have access to it! Elemental Augmentation - Augments the equipping character's elemental attack strength by 50. The second-tier passives generally boost stats, and this is one of the better ones since it means Cyrus can tear foes apart more easily. Percipience - Prevents the party from being surprised by foes. (Equipping this skill with multiple characters will have no added effect.) Nice quality-of-life, but hardly vital later in the game. Vim and Vigor - The equipping character will regenerate HP each turn. The exact amount is 10% of max HP. Decent, but there are so much better passives out there that for an ultimate passive, it's not as impressive as it seems. -----   I opt for Lightning Bolt for additional weakness coverage, as being able to hit 4/12 weaknesses with one character is very useful, especially since he doesn't have to deal with gimmicks like all the other characters who can hit more. Analyze will probably be next, and then I'll probably just pick the hit-twice skills randomly. They're really nice, but also really overkill this early in the game. Back to the dungeon!  Herbs cure one of the seven status effects you can be inflicted with. They're handy to have, but also pretty cheap, so they're not that exciting to obtain in the wild.   Our current meager Robe only gives +3 PD and +7 ED. This is a huge upgrade even without the Speed boost!  Ah, I did not realize this was such a popular location! Every Chapter 1 dungeon has a random vendor hanging around for no good reason. Well, the gameplay reason is good, so that you won't be caught unprepared by the upcoming boss.  Some items are just vendor fodder, like this coin. This baby sells for 1500 leaves (the currency in Orsterra), and considering we finish this dungeon with 3700, this is a nice find indeed.  We eventually reach the end, so... ----- SILENCE  Looks like we've found the secret lab of the book thief.   Are you always in the habit of barging into your peers' offices while they're working!? Apropos of nothing, mayhap you've heard that a certain tome was stolen from the archives. ...I haven't the faintest clue what you're talking about. Come now, Russell. Playing dumb is just going to drag this out for the both of us.  Unfortunately for you, at precisely the moment you were trying to sneak back with the key... Your friend the guardsman was just waking from his little slumber.  Music: For Truth   Figured you'd say as much. Then perhaps you'd care to accompany me to the academy? To prove your innocence, of course. !  Video: Boss - Russell Music: Decisive Battle I   Time for the first boss battle! I'll be doing videos of all boss battles, which may be worth watching if only for the myriad of battle voices. Voices for boosting, low health, status effects, evading attacks, getting KOed, and of course one for each and every ability in the game. It's impressive work!  Russell is accompanied by two Water Wisps, which will use ice attacks on Cyrus.  They're weak to Fire and Lightning, while Russell is weak to Staves and Ice. Thus the game forces us to choose which to take out first, and even though Russell is the more dangerous threat, the Water Wisps' weak attacks will add up over the course of battle, so I pick them to take out first.   So it's a couple rounds of weakening them, followed by a full-boost blast from a spell of my choice.  I'm experimenting here to find and expose weaknesses, but the optimal strategy here is to break the wisps, then do a fully-boosted ice spell so that I can chip away at Russell while still blasting away the wisps.  Russell's got a bit more variety to his attacks. In addition to basic physicals...   ...he has some decent fire and ice attacks, both single-target and party-wide. He'd be more of a threat if I had a full party, but Cyrus can tank elemental attacks pretty well so they're not really that scary.  A lot of bosses also have this signal that they're about to do a big attack. If you can break them, do so to interrupt these! Otherwise, I hope you can take a hit.  In this case, Russell hits with Icicle Storm, which delivers three ice hits. Again, Cyrus just shrugs them off with his high ED.  After a few rounds, I manage to eliminate the Wisps, allowing me to focus on Russell.  While Icewind would do more damage than one of Cyrus's meager staff attacks, it also costs SP and I'm not doing much damage to an unbroken foe anyway, so it's better to chip away and then do my big move when he's busted.  Like so.  Russell prepares another incantation, but this time we're ready for him!    And that's the kill shot!  Refreshing Jam is the Elixir of this game, fully healing HP and SP. Good stuff. ----- SILENCE  That tome would fetch a small fortune. This is true. And yet, did you not for a moment consider the consequences? A grave crime no matter who would perpetrate it, but all the more unforgivable when committed by one who calls himself a scholar. Cyrus values knowledge and the sharing of it above all else, so it especially wounds him when his colleagues value things differently. ----- Music: Atlasdam, Seat of Learning  That I did. And yet, I fear this may not be the only volume our friend had purloined. Russell has already confessed to the full extent of his crimes...and revealed the names of his business associates. We need only track down the books and purchase them back. I'll speak to the guards and see that we redouble security of the archives. What's this? It says there's another book still missing. Did that scoundrel of a scholar steal this one as well? It's been missing for some fifteen years now. Russell's aggressive borrowing only extends some two years back. I see. So this volume was lost - or stolen - long before that. ...Right as always, Professor. According to our records, it would seem to be a compendium of ancient rites and long-lost magicks. If I am not mistaken, it was the single oldest volume housed within our archives. Needless to say, it was a tremendous loss. Professor Cyrus Albright, Book Dick.  Again? What could it be this time?  I have no interest in accolades. But if he insists...  Just a short jaunt over to the Headmaster's Office. Video: A Forced Sabbatical SILENCE  ...Good. Enter.So we do.  Yes, Headmaster? What can I do for you?  ...Professor Albright. A most...troubling report have reached my ears. A report, sir? Music: Creeping Dread  ...! If it is untrue, then say so. I would like to take your words at face value, Professor, but I fear the situation is not so simple. A rumor regarding the royal family, even an unsubstantiated one such as this, is sure to spread quickly. That is something that simply cannot be allowed to happen. Surely, you understand. And so what do you intend to do with me, sir? It is not an easy decision to make. Dismissing you outright would be tantamount to an admission of guilt.  Professor Albright is put on extended leave, while official accounts state that he's doing fieldwork in a distant land. SILENCE  Do we have a problem, Professor? Opportunity? For what? Music: Tranquil Days  I was just wondering when I might find the time to do a bit of research in the field. (...In search of an ancient tome that disappeared fifteen years ago.) ...Is that so? Do tell, Professor. What is it that you intend to investigate? Good day to you, Headmaster. SILENCE   ...----- Video: Therese's Regret SILENCE  Oh, Therese. What is it? I...I heard that you were leaving the academy. Then you heard true. ...!   You...You knew? Not until just this moment, when you apologized. Music: Enveloped in Kindness  I just wanted you to...pay more attention to me. And that's why you went to the headmaster? Y-yes... But I... I just wanted to get you in a little trouble...  You were? I daresay the timing couldn't have been better. You see, there's a certain matter I simply can't wait to investigate. Besides, I am not entirely without fault in the matter. SILENCE   Music: Cyrus, the Scholar   The line delivery for this one is perfect.  And yet, Her Highness is always eager to ask questions, and I was all too eager to answer them. In doing so, I may have given the impression that I favored her above you and the others. This was not my intention, but I am at fault all the same.    Um, Professor...? Yes? -----  Yes, Professor. Will...will I ever see you again?   And so Cyrus makes his departure from Atlasdam...for now. We'll come right back next update to show it off proper.   But it's a lively little area nonetheless. Video: Setting Out  (My erstwhile colleague Odette knows more about arcane studies than anyone I know. Last I heard, she sojourned in Quarrycrest. I should begin my journey there.)   And so we end Cyrus's Chapter 1. He started things off looking for a book, and now he's ending things looking for another book. His next task will be significantly more challenging for sure...  ...but he doesn't have to do it alone! In fact, I daresay it's time to build our party up from this Monopath Traveler. The game encourages you to go to the next town either clockwise (Tressa) or counter-clockwise (Ophilia), but that's completely optional! All seven characters are available as far as I'm concerned, so pick the ones you want to see next! I'll recruit the winner once I get the next update up, showing off the city of Atlasdam. Until next time! Mega64 fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 4, 2018 16:34
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I feel like Cyrus's next companion should always be looking for a bargain.
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Nov 4, 2018 16:53
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W.T. Fits posted:I feel like Cyrus's next companion should always be looking for a bargain. I dunno, I kinda want Primrose for the hilarious tonal shift. Mega64 posted:Alephan's Enlightenment (30SP) - [Divine Skill] For two turns, spells cast by a single chosen ally that usually target all foes will instead be focused on a single foe at increased intensity. This spell is bonkers. I cannot begin to describe how broken it ends up being when Cyrus settles into his natural endgame niche.
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Nov 4, 2018 17:11
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The conversation with Therese is a lot funnier if you read Cyrus as slightly sarcastic as well as slightly clueless Also the headmaster's assistant seems to be voiced by a text-to-speech robot. Presumably deliberately but it's a bit strange compared to the rest of the (good) human voices.
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Nov 4, 2018 17:13
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I kinda hope this isn't the last we see of Therese. Although uh, speaking of "not sharp," accusing someone of something that might get him executed at worst isn't exactly on the "teasing someone you have a crush on so they know you like them" scale.
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Nov 4, 2018 17:22
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Mega64 posted:
"By which I mean I am going to die, Therese. I am going to die in disgrace and exile because you slandered me. Ta-ta!"
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Nov 4, 2018 17:29
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Quick suggestion for those of you playing along at home: if you do opt to grab your party members in a non-linear order, take the time to quickly step into the towns that you’ll be passing by on the way to the party member you’re really after if you want to save yourself a ton of travel time in the early game.
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Nov 4, 2018 17:32
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Natural 20 posted:This spell is bonkers. I cannot begin to describe how broken it ends up being when Cyrus settles into his natural endgame niche. Alephan's Enlightenment is not that useful when cast by Cyrus, who's your best elemental attacker and so really should use his max boost for an actual damaging spell. Now, someone else casting that on Cyrus? 
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Nov 4, 2018 17:34
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Omobono posted:Alephan's Enlightenment is not that useful when cast by Cyrus, who's your best elemental attacker and so really should use his max boost for an actual damaging spell. Oh no, Cyrus casts it because he's not the most powerful elemental attacker in the game.
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Nov 4, 2018 17:38
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Cyrus totally rules. Go forth, heroic nerd. Learn things.
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Nov 4, 2018 17:41
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Anyone who hasn't played the game, definitely watch the boss video. The game seamlessly blends For Truth into Decisive Battle 1 and does it for every character at every boss fight. Also, it's time to go bargain hunting.
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Nov 4, 2018 18:13
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Some Numbers posted:Anyone who hasn't played the game, definitely watch the boss video. The game seamlessly blends For Truth into Decisive Battle 1 and does it for every character at every boss fight. What makes this even more impressive is that every character has their own theme, and they all seamlessly blend into the boss theme.
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Nov 4, 2018 18:18
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Mega64 posted:The weakness revealed is random. Boosting it reveals more weaknesses, one per boost point, meaning max boost results in four weaknesses revealed. Helpful for bosses or when exploring a new area! Its nice, but either Cyrus himself does the job for free at the start of combat, or I just beat, stab, or throw any and all magic I've got at my disposal for the first few rounds and do it without consuming a turn just to learn a weakness (but for bosses I do confess sometimes wanting to know the HP). Also, I think there is a way to permit Enlightenment to be used to its fullest power, but I've yet to do so... not just because I don't have it yet, but because old habits die hard
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Nov 4, 2018 18:23
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ZeButler posted:What makes this even more impressive is that every character has their own theme, and they all seamlessly blend into the boss theme. Right, I did forget to mention that.
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Nov 4, 2018 18:30
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I feel like Cyrus’ magic hits everything because it’s a manifestation of the rage people get when their reading is constantly interrupted
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Nov 4, 2018 19:00
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