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This game is basically The Jungle, but anime and pseudo-french. Recette leads the french revolution in the post-credits before getting beheaded by fairies.
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Nov 10, 2018 23:32
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ChrisBTY posted:Nice Dragon Quest III reference there Yup! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMxYxP2pKHc&t=26s
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Nov 11, 2018 02:02
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Truthkeeper posted:As one person on the Steam forums put it: One of the best parts of this game is how many image macros of Cutthroat Capitalist Recette it inspired. Also it took entirely too long for me to realize that Tear isn't as big as her portrait implies she is and that she is, in fact, fairy-sized as expected. Omobono posted:Bigger budget is an understatement. Yeah the little girl is the newcomer's undeserved rage target, borne from Tear completely misrepresenting how you're supposed to actually play this game. The REAL legitimate target of everyone's ire, on the other hand, also happens to be a girl, except not little and certainly not cute and innocent. 
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Nov 11, 2018 02:51
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Was that a Hayate the Combat Butler reference, with the organs thing? Of course, the Popeye one is obvious. I am intrigued by this concept. Let's see where this goes.
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Nov 11, 2018 03:37
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Scalding Coffee posted:The ever-present dread that if even one week turns out poorly, she will live in the streets, forever. That’s actually a less  motivation than my original guess, which was “if Recette makes enough money Dad will love her again”.E: sorry recette you underperformed in 3rd quarter, your parents remain dead Mechanical Ape fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Nov 11, 2018 |
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Nov 11, 2018 04:45
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Super Jay Mann posted:The REAL legitimate target of everyone's ire, on the other hand, also happens to be a girl, except not little and certainly not cute and innocent. My blood pressure is rising just thinking about it.
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Nov 11, 2018 06:01
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azren posted:Recette's eyes are kinda unnerving. The little light reflections are so small that it gives her this kinda glazed look that says "I've seen some poo poo, man..." Having done several tours of duty in retail, can confirm. 'Tis the season for fist fights over discount towels.
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Nov 11, 2018 07:40
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pointlessone posted:Having done several tours of duty in retail, can confirm. 'Tis the season for fist fights over discount towels. Now is the winter of our discount tent.
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Nov 11, 2018 09:47
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Reveilled posted:Now is the winter of our discount tent.  and 
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Nov 11, 2018 18:10
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Nov 11, 2018 19:01
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Another satisfied customer.
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Nov 12, 2018 01:08
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I'd never noticed the Dragon Quest reference before, that's pretty neat. This game is so charming, looking forward to seeing someone who actually knows what they're doing play it.
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Nov 12, 2018 05:00
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Just What the Hell is a Pin Anyway? Alright, Day 2! Finally, a chance to play the drat game! … Okay, yeah, there’s like three more tutorials shoved in today.    Nnnmnmnmn… let’s do the very best we can… That is one seriously cranky fairy.  Sorry Recette, Costello you are not, and Tear is no Abbott. Oh… Tear! Right, g’morning! The clock does not have a “g’morning” hand!Why does basic courtesy make you so angry Tear? Recette, you are the proprietor of an item shop now. You must learn to be responsible and NOT sleep the day away. … Why in the name of Heaven are you smiling so much? That smile you had while sleeping is just getting bigger. Oh… no reason… I just… think I saw something nice in my dreams…Given that you were clearly dreaming about Tear, you and I have very different ideas about nice. … Tear, let’s give it our all! … Well, if you really are that dedicated to making this work, wash yourself and meet me downstairs.Of course she’s dedicated. There’s a Mafia enforcer about to take her house away if she fails. Uh, will do! -48 hours remain- Wait, that might be the wrong game...  … So, uh, what do I do now?The same thing you did yesterday, over and over again until the end of time. Welcome to retail. That is up to your judgment. If you sit at the counter, we can open up immediately, or we can re-organize the shop, or we could even go search for new stock around town… or elsewhere. Yikes, that’s a ton of options… how do I choose? It is as I said earlier. Running a place like this is more of an art than it is something you can simply follow a map through. Simply pick something. We will deal with what comes.More brilliant advice Tear, clearly you are earning whatever Terme is paying you for spending a month out here trying to get them their money. Well, okay… Right now, I’ve still got a decent stock, since I could only sell one thing yesterday, and no money to buy anything anyway. Gotta makes some sales today.  Old man wants a sword. Well, I’m gonna need to run a background check, and there’s a 10 day waiting period once that clears. Nah, it’s fine, he can have it. Gotta play around with the numbers to pin down those bonuses, trying 107% here.  Got the near-perfect +15 XP bonus.  Getting really worried about the old men in this neighborhood. Made this sale at 108%, didn’t get the bonus. Gotta try fishing a little lower. Only the two sales this block. The money isn’t great, but I made enough to make another trip out to the Merchant’s Guild, maybe pick up a couple more swords.  It’s not easy to see on a screenshot, but the Adventurer’s Guild is glowing, indicating that there’s a cutscene for me to see. Cutscenes at town locations pop up frequently, usually just a little side scene, sometimes important story progression. This one is story, but it can wait for now.  The Town Market is as valid a place to buy merchandise as the Guild, having mostly accessories, food, and non-useful stuff like books and treasures, and later in the game, items to decorate the shop. Unfortunately, I blew all my pix at the Merchant’s Guild before coming here. This trip out took a full quarter of the day, clearly Recette’s not much of a jogger.  Back at the shop, a brief look at the menu I can get by talking to Tear. She can describe the shop’s decoration as a graph:  Or tell what I’ll get at increased levels:  Or get repeats of her tutorials. Oh please God no. Opening up for the afternoon:  The Guild Master swings through from time to time. He’s clearly got money to burn.  He’s buying the cheapest item in the store.  Still, I did get the NearPin bonus on the sale. Also, yes, Recette does drop confetti from the ceiling when she makes a sale.  They say this even if they take your first offer with no haggling.  I managed to make enough sales with enough bonuses to get up to Level 2. This was a terrible mistake.   to sell things to people and not drive them to burn the shop in anger.Because Tear gotta Tear.  Yepperoni! Easy as pie! Being a truly great store owner involves more than selling things however. There are times when people will want to sell items TO you, as well.And that means another loving tutorial. Really?Yeah, Recette, really. I know it feels like the last one just ended, but we’ll just have to suffer through. I suspect we will begin to get such offers soon. But I already buy stuff from the guild and the market. So why should I worry about buying stuff from the customers?Because buying something counts as a sale for the purposes of the sale chain XP bonus. So you have to grit your teeth and buy their ancestral family heirloom sandwiches. There is one major difference between a guild or market purchase and a purchase from an individual – individuals do not have set prices… you can haggle as you do when selling. Haggle DOWN, that is. Ooooh, so I can get stuff really cheap? But that seems like it’d be really hard. Fundamentally, buying and selling are not that different. The customer shows you an item they wish to sell, and then you set a price and perhaps negotiate. Obviously, you wish to pay less than the base price of the item. Okay! So… buy low, sell dear, right? Just so. That is the very core of a successful business. Now then, shall we practice? The fundamental procedure is the same as when selling.Do I have a choice? Kaio! Seriously, where does she get all these swords from?  Poor Recette, having put up with Tear’s strange delusions about buttons. So what should I set it to?... You can earn NearPin and Pin bonuses when buying too. 70% is usually a good base number to aim for.  Try lowering the price a bit more – 70% or less, perhaps.That was 70%, Tear. Do you need to go back to Fairy School? To satisfy her, I knocked it down to 69%. Excellent, this is a good price level. Yes, between 50% and 70% is a good target.As usual, Tear’s advice is bad. You will gain an item to sell without giving up too much money. And that… is essentially how it goes. You seem to have a decent enough grasp of it. Well. Let us put theory into practice again. I will “sell” you several items. If you buy them from me successfully, I believe you will be ready to proceed.And so we did it again.  And again.  You want to talk about vendor trash? There’s your loving vendor trash. Nobody ever buys this poo poo. Luckily, Tear doesn’t take up the whole drat night, and I have time to open up again.  Scored a few more NearPin bonuses.  And cleared out most of my inventory.  Recette and Tear end every night this way.  And the game ends every night showing you the books. Items you sold to customers on the left, bought from customers in the middle, and fell off the back of a truck on the right. You get a rating depending on having done something, one way or another, only screwing around doing nothing all day gets you lower ratings than this.  -72 Hours Remain- Whoops, sorry, wrong game.  Please don’t. Sure, what’s up? Concerning the debt… I have a suggestion concerning it’s repayment. You do? Paying it all back at once is wholly beyond your means, so I recommend smaller weekly payments to slowly chip away at it.Once again, this idea is terrible, and is the only reason why it’s possible to get a game over before the end of the month. “Wholly beyond”?... Uh, you know, you never told me how big Papa’s debt is, exactly…820,000 pix. It’s painful, but hardly earthshattering. That is because you would faint if you found out. For now, it is a secret.Have I mentioned recently that the entire way Terme operates is shady as gently caress? I-I’d… faint?... As the store begins to build up steam, we will increase payment size.  The first and last payments are generally the worst. Please be sure to check it regularly. Kay-ya! I’ll keep an eye on it.Got plenty to do today, and it means getting out of the shop for a while.  Besides the Adventurer’s Guild, I’ve got cutscenes at the Town Square and Chapel. I’ll knock those out first.  You never seem to have trouble relaxing even when we are NOT in the plaza… Ehehe… well, it’s healthy, right?Tear spends a lot of time bitching about Recette’s work ethic, despite never lifting a finger herself. Meanwhile, over at the chapel…  What on earth a-… yes, that is right. I work for Terme Finance. So you’re employed by them, right? What’s it like?Recette is well aware that Terme is basically the local Mob and wants to know what working for them is like? Erm… no. That is not quite accurate. I was contracted to Terme through another organization. Thus, I am not really an employee per se. So, you’re just contracted? I’m surprised, you seem so- It is not that surprising. Almost all fairies in human society belong to a fairy-specific contract agency. There are, of course, a few free-agent fairies out there as well, and- So that’s how it works. Er, yes. To tell the truth, it can be difficult for fairies to find employment in human society, so the agencies were founded an age ago in order to help facilitate fairy livelihoods. That’s amazing!An entire species is basically held in serfdom to us! Feudalism, ho! … Quite. But that’s enough of the side attractions. The main show is waiting at the Adventurer’s Guild. Next time. NEXT TIME: Gentleman Adventurer! Truthkeeper fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Nov 12, 2018 |
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Nov 12, 2018 07:48
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You may want to keep an eye on your mouse cursor, its showing up in a lot of shots and is slightly distracting.
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Nov 12, 2018 12:32
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So, which game has the worse debt mechanics? This game or Tales of Xillia 2?
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Nov 12, 2018 12:47
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Truthkeeper posted:To satisfy her, I knocked it down to 69%. Nice. Anyway this game looks like a lot of fun, I'll pick it up on Steam the next time it's on sale.
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Nov 12, 2018 13:08
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There's a missing close italics bracket in the middle of the update at this line:quote:Yeah, Recette, really. I know it feels like the last one just ended, but we’ll just have to suffer through. But thank you for putting in italics! It definitely improves the readability of the whole LP. We've got only a couple tutorials left, and those really are the worst part of the game. The actual mechanics of running the shop are really well done. Also, people will almost always accept a first offer of 51% for their goods when selling to you, so if you don't mind missing on the near pin XP you can save some dosh that way. I personally do that because I have most of my cash invested in my goods for sale and don't leave a ton lying around for purchasing someone's heirloom ham sandwich. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Nov 12, 2018 |
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Nov 12, 2018 15:26
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It took me ages to finally win this game when I got it because I followed Tear's advice at first. She's almost as bad as Navi at "Hey, Listen!"-ing
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Nov 12, 2018 17:02
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Tear has no real incentive to help you. Terme gets paid either way. But if you do well, Terme gets their money back over time. If you gently caress up, they get whatever you already paid, plus the house, and they get it right away. There's no conflict of interest here, right? 
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Nov 12, 2018 20:36
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MechaCrash posted:Tear has no real incentive to help you. Terme gets paid either way. Has there ever been a game where, for story reasons, the tutorial deliberately lies to you?
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Nov 12, 2018 20:50
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Undertale starts with a lying flower.
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Nov 12, 2018 21:14
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The thing is that Tear's advice is perfectly sound if the goal is to maximize your monetary return on every transaction, which intuitively is what you want to do in order to be able to grow your business enough to cover the continually rising debt payments. It's just at odds with the true progression system of this game which emphasizes customer relations and satisfaction above all else, and this disconnect is so awkward and yet calculated that I still don't know if it was intentionally designed this way.
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Nov 12, 2018 21:26
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habeasdorkus posted:There's a missing close italics bracket in the middle of the update at this line: Please point those out when you spot them. I'm a lazy gently caress, so I ran the update through a converter that in theory was going to handle the BBCode for me, but in practice I think I spent more time chasing broken tags than I did writing the update. habeasdorkus posted:We've got only a couple tutorials left, and those really are the worst part of the game. The actual mechanics of running the shop are really well done. Also, people will almost always accept a first offer of 51% for their goods when selling to you, so if you don't mind missing on the near pin XP you can save some dosh that way. I personally do that because I have most of my cash invested in my goods for sale and don't leave a ton lying around for purchasing someone's heirloom ham sandwich. My main issue with the tutorials is that the game has to come to a screeching halt every time Tear wants to tell me how to do something. Not making them optional was a huge mistake. And for all the information that gets dumped on you, as we've established, so much of it is either misleading or flat out wrong that I almost feel like it would be better for the player to be thrown into the deep end with no instructions at all. MechaCrash posted:Tear has no real incentive to help you. Terme gets paid either way. Depends on the value of the house. My best assumption is that the house has lost value over time since the loan was made, and it's now in Terme's interest to get their full value out of Recette, with a side bonus of, if she fucks up, converting the house into a profitable shop has increased it's value. Mechanical Ape posted:Has there ever been a game where, for story reasons, the tutorial deliberately lies to you? It was technically a major feature of Bravely Default. Super Jay Mann posted:The thing is that Tear's advice is perfectly sound if the goal is to maximize your monetary return on every transaction, which intuitively is what you want to do in order to be able to grow your business enough to cover the continually rising debt payments. It's just at odds with the true progression system of this game which emphasizes customer relations and satisfaction above all else, and this disconnect is so awkward and yet calculated that I still don't know if it was intentionally designed this way. Tear starts off the whole spiel by talking about how you have to make your customers comfortable, and then explains how to wring them for every penny they're worth instead of carefully managing them for increased profit later. The explanation might boil down to Tear has no idea how to interact with people. Would certainly explain why basic courtesy from Recette infuriates her so much.
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Nov 12, 2018 22:02
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Truthkeeper posted:Because buying something counts as a sale for the purposes of the sale chain XP bonus. So you have to grit your teeth and buy their ancestral family heirloom sandwiches. Is the only other italics fix needed, I think. Pressing ctrl+I will italicize a selected set of text when posting, something I found invaluable in my own LPs. Truthkeeper posted:My main issue with the tutorials is that the game has to come to a screeching halt every time Tear wants to tell me how to do something. Not making them optional was a huge mistake. And for all the information that gets dumped on you, as we've established, so much of it is either misleading or flat out wrong that I almost feel like it would be better for the player to be thrown into the deep end with no instructions at all. I'm not sure who would say it, maybe the guild master, but there should be another source of information on how building relationships with customers helps develop loyalty and willingness to spend more. Tear could even huff about how that's giving up much needed money in exchange for an uncertain future, but at least then the tutorials wouldn't be downright misleading. Also, yeah, autoskipping the tutorials would be really nice.
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Nov 12, 2018 22:15
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Wait, I started up the game in response to this thread and I was able to skip past the tutorials... Is that from a new patch, or because it remembered I played the game a bit before?
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Nov 12, 2018 22:41
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Huh, I replayed the game a few months back and I couldn't skip the tutorials but was using a new computer since I first played this in like 2012. edit: I watched through those tutorials for nothing?! Shucks. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Nov 13, 2018 |
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Nov 12, 2018 22:48
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Zanzibar Ham posted:Wait, I started up the game in response to this thread and I was able to skip past the tutorials... Is that from a new patch, or because it remembered I played the game a bit before? Huh. The man's right. There's no onscreen prompt for them like there is for cutscenes, but the tutorials are skippable now. That's certainly new. Ha. Ha ha ha. BWAHAHAHA! On the downside, i still have to play through them for this LP, in the interest of getting everything.
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Nov 12, 2018 22:55
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MIght've been just the cutscene skip option working for them.
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Nov 12, 2018 23:10
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Not even a little mention of the options menu in an LP. Shameful.
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Nov 13, 2018 03:59
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A Gentleman Adventurer and the Merchants of Fortune Alright, enough cutscenes and tutorials, let's get to some action... preceded by a cutscene and a tutorial.  This is the “Adventurer’s Guild”. The guild manages expeditions to the various untamed wilderness areas or abandoned ruins near the city – the areas commonly referred to as dungeons. Without approval, adventurers cannot visit the dungeons. Aw nuts, so we can’t just go into a dungeon ‘n pick up everything we get at 100% profit… It is still a very good idea – a great many people have made fortunes that way. If you wish to do so, however, we must first hire an adventurer. Hire? Can I just pick anybody? The truth of the matter is a bit complicated. Even if you pay them, few adventurers are willing to risk their lives simply for the benefit of a complete stranger. Ooooh. So they turn away people they don’t know very well? Indeed. You should first get to know a few adventurers, and build up a certain level of trust with them. If all goes well, they will give you a symbol of their guild membership - this usually takes the form of a card. With that in hand, we can bring an adventurer with us. So it’s like they’re inviting us to a dinner party!Recette… yeah, sure. Well, dinner parties usually do not include blood-mad beasts attempting to rip you limb from limb… But the analogy does work. Somewhat. Right. So first, I need to meet an adventurer… hmm… Which, for us, should not be that difficult, yes? After all, we run an item shop, so we should get a few coming in as clients on a fairly regular basis. Oh yeah! Well then, I’ll do my best to get a dinner invitation! … Indeed. Just be careful that “Recette” is not on the menu.For once, Tear’s advice isn’t bad. This is more or less the process for getting adventurers on-call. Meet an adventurer, they start coming around the shop and you can run into them around town, and then eventually you can recruit them. With an exception… … Huh? Is something wrong? Well, that guy, over there… Spiky hair, check. Goofy outfit, check. Loud and obnoxious, double check. We just found us a shonen anime protagonist.  If I can’t work, I can’t get the money! And if I can’t get the MONEY, I can’t get the ITEMS! And if I can’t get the items, apparently I can’t WORK! AGH!The continual plight of the working class anime protagonist. Heaven, if I had a few things I could at least visit the Hall of Trials… I wonder what’s going on? He seems to be a rookie adventurer complaining about his inability to complete the required guild test… Test? Well, the guild hardly allows anyone in off the street. You can only officially work for the guild after passing a test. An item shop owner is hardly the only job with challenges.. Hmm! I have an idea… Bwuh? I do believe we have found our first adventurer. Wait, what do you mean by – uh, Tear! Wait! Son of a… I burned what cash I had just getting to this city… If I can’t get into the guild, I dunno what I’ll even do for dinner money… now I’m hungry. Great. Tear, you clearly know nothing about how to interact with people. I realize you’re a fairy, but that’s no excuse for acting like you grew up in the woods. … Who you callin’ “Seedy”?... Er… uh, well… you two would be?... We are a pair of merchants who happened to be passing. Merchants? Oh… you heard me talking. Sorry, but I’m way too broke – and seedy – to buy anything. Believe me, I could tell by your seedy nature that attempting to sell you anything would be a colossal waste of time.She’s right about that. C’mon Tear, stop with the “seedy” already. He isn’t a plant… So are you two going to prune me, or what, here? Would you like it if we came with you to the Hall of Trials? If you require equipment or items, we can provide them. I’d call you a pair of angels, then, but… why? Business, naturally. We help you pass the trial, you provide us with your card. Oh, I get it! We help Mr. Swordsman clear the dungeon, and then he gives us his card, a sign of eternal friendship! “Eternal friendship” is rather irrelevant in this case, but it does work out neatly for all of us. What do you say? I see… you guys are pretty new at all of this too, huh?Swordsman-san is pretty damned perceptive. He’s an idiot, but he’s a perceptive idiot. Our offer, “Mr. Swordsman”. Yes, or no? All right then! Heck, I got nothin’ to lose! Well, aside fromm my precious life, anyway… Yayifications! Glad to meet you two, uh… I’m Recette! Nice to meet you! I am Tear. Call me Louie. Louie the swordsman! Good to meetcha! Yes, yes. Now then. We will begin all of the preparations for a dungeon visit, including a visit to the central market to pick up food and other restorative items.Nope. Not gonna bother. We will then return here for you when we are ready. Right! I’ll be waiting here.Any adventurer working for you is always at the guild when you want them. I’m not sure if the implication is that they live there or are just always on duty.  I decided to buy stuff to sell in the shop. Once you’ve had some practice, there’s no need to bring extra healing items to the first dungeon.  Louie is clearly the only adventurer available right now. This screen also shows you his current loadout, in case you have an upgrade (or a piece to fill that empty slot) to lend him. Most adventurers have a small fee to hire them out, but Louie is always free.  At the beginning of the game, your adventuring inventory is 20 slots. Anything you take out with you, outside of the adventurer’s property, takes up those slots.  Louie doesn’t have any headgear, so I’ll bring a hat for him to wear. Once he equips it, it won’t take up inventory space anymore, but I risk losing it if we’re taken down.  I also could have given him this charm, which has more magic defense but no defense at all. The hat is more useful here.  Just so. “Welcome to the jungle”, as they say. You know… aren’t we just going to hold Louie back here? I mean, I’m not a monster slayer… I’m scared!...Surprisingly insightful coming from Recette. The two of us are perfectly safe. There is a protective field around the two of us… To the monsters, we may as well be invisible. Really?! That’s amazing! So Louie is perfectly safe too then?Yes Recette, that’s why Tear specified “the two of us” she was talking about herself and Louie. You get to be bait. Er, not… quite. Aww, why not? While in the field, we do not need to worry about monsters, but this is accomplished by making us virtually intangible to everything inside this place. We can directly manipulate nothing. Wait, so we can’t collect things? Why are we here then?Secondary weapons, obviously. If Louie’s sword breaks, he’ll throw Tear at the monsters and she’ll kill them with an overly long tutorial. That’s why our adventurer remains outside the field. Oh, I see. He’ll pick stuff up for us! Should our adventurer be injured, we can place him in the field and retreat.It’s nice to have a game explain why dying in a dungeon in the middle of nowhere isn’t a game over. Since we must carry him back, however, we can take very little else with us. One item, at most.This amount will increase as we level up, maxing out at 3. So even if we run into trouble, we don’t lose everything? But wait, I thought you said we can’t – Yes, I will elaborate further if need be later. Naturally, if we get out safely, we can bring as much as out bags will allow us to carry. Well, our bags are not bottomless. If we run out of space, it will be up to us to decide what to keep or discard.Inventory management in dungeons is a surprisingly big deal. Shoulda sprung for a bag of holding, or at least a handy haversack. So, the adventurer focuses on adventure, while we keep track of what loot he should keep.“Keep” being something of a misnomer, as Recette and Tear get everything. I guess that makes sense… Kay-o-day! Let’s get to it! In the absence of tutorials, adventures start by offering you a chance to equip anything extra you brought in. In dungeons, you freely control your adventurer, Louie in this case, while Recette and Tear follow along behind shouting encouragement. Louie is a swordsman, we waves around a sword, has a shield to block projectiles, and wears medium to heavy armor. He’s an excellent starter character for learning the dungeon mechanics and not a bad choice for taking all the way through the game’s six dungeons. Fighting as Louie is very much like playing Legend of Zelda, and taking advantage of his sword’s swing arc to hit enemies to his right side and his shield to be able to dodge and block attacks is key.  Adventurers each have their own levels, and gain experience in the more expected fashion of slaughtering everything in sight. They learn special moves as the level, Louie starts with a fairly useful Spin Slash which costs 5 of his 10 skill points and can hit enemies around him. Like I said before, he’s basically Link except poor. And loud. The tutorial dungeon, the Hall of Trials, is primarily full of slimes. They come in green, blue, and red, with greens being ridiculously easy but numerous, reds being harder but generally found one at a time, and blues being in the middle (and most often encountered in traps). Ideally, you never want to charge an enemy head-on with Louie. His sword swing covers a decent arc in front of him and to his right, so it’s best to come at them from the side so you’re not lined up to take a hit.  You can form kill chains by killing large numbers of enemies in quick succession, which, much like sales chains, increase the amount of experience Louie gets. They’re hard to keep up from room to room, particularly if you have to stop and pick up loot like this. Killed a slime, dropped a sword.  It’s easy to pick up large numbers of items while adventuring. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it’s crap like this. You might note the circle around Louie filling up. That’s his experience bar, after clearing two rooms he’s already halfway to leveling. These first levels come early, and since you’re fully healed on leveling, I can get away with not bringing any healing items along.  Some rooms or hallways are trapped. In this case, it’s a fairly normal trap, falling boulders (which I avoided, while the slimes had some trouble). Others get… strange.  On any given floor of a dungeon, your goal is to find this teleporter to get to the next floor. If you want, you can jump on and progress immediately, or take advantage of respawning monsters to grind more. The game will eventually punish you for spending too long on a floor by spawning invincible superenemies, but that takes a very long time.  Enemies explode into showers of gems when you kill them. The gems are experience points for Louie, rather than anything valuable, and are generally sucked into the passing adventurer.  I believe somebody was asking about vendor trash earlier? Most of the time, you don’t want to sell these drops in the shop, unless you get a lot of them, they’re more often used in crafting later.  Found a bow in a chest. Like rooms, chests can be trapped, and you have no way of knowing until you open it (usually, but there is adventurer who can detect traps).  One of the more common chest traps in lower level dungeons is this group of blue slimes that circle around and close in on you. If you can get outside the ring early, or have really good timing when they’re around you, Louie can wipe the entire group with his spin slash.  Like so.  There’s actually a lot of strategy to dungeon crawling. Rather than just rushing in and beating on everything, sometimes you should wait for the opportune moment. Hitting an enemy from behind, from the side, or while they’re attacking all do increased damage.  Generally, Recette (well, more likely Tear) can identify everything you come across in the dungeons, but occasionally something unidentifiable will pop up. These are unknown crafting ingredients which require higher merchant levels to identify. They’re generally useful to keep, but not so valuable that you shouldn’t ditch them if something worth a lot of money comes along.  As far as I can tell, these tentacled guys (Green Ropers and their thousand palette swaps) are the only monsters that deal collision damage. It’s so unusual that I often forget other monsters don’t while I’m playing.  The last remaining enemy type in this dungeon, gnolls. They come in two flavors, melee gnolls will try to punch you, ranged gnolls throw chestnuts. They’re the toughest things in the Hall of Trials, and are just dangerous enough to be annoying at this point. Louie can block the ranged attacks with his shield, luckily.  They also sometimes drop chestnuts, which can be used in crafting. You might note this chestnut is +3. It’s not worth any more than a regular one, but selling this to a customer would get me a slight boost to reputation with that customer. Items with pluses are hard to come by, if used in crafting a piece of equipment they’ll add directly to its stats.  I managed to fill my entire inventory with crap already. Later you have to be conservative and think about what makes the most sense to bring back.  In this case I just let Louie eat the walnut bread to end the dungeon with full health.  A really big chest and a skewed camera angle? That’s always exciting.   This is… Did I… do it? I did, didn’t I?! Poor guy’s so enthusiastic, it’s hard to rag on him for being excited about clearing the tutorial dungeon. Oh sweet mystery of life! Now you’ll give me money! Way to go, Louie! Recette! Tear! This is all thanks to you guys! This is all well and good, but there is a treasure chest just ahead. It behooves us to investigate thoroughly.I’m with the fairy on this one. Loot now, celebrations later. I’d say drinks are on Louie, but he’s still broke, and none of these characters look old enough to drink anyway. Tear, you really do like going for the money, don’t you?It’s literally her job, yes. Wha?! I… do not spout such foolishness! Heeey, heeey, now. I love me some treasure too. Don’t worry, Tear, I feel you on this. Really, you two completely misunderstand me!...And so Louie finally walked up the steps and opened the chest.  Hah! Give me just a sec here! Wow, cards! So this is an Adventurer’s Guild card… Uh… here, Recette. Take one. Like we promised. Huh? … Oh yeah! Okay! While you did promise to give us your card eventually… We are not so crass as to demand your very first card. You really should think about who you want to give your first –Tear, you’re making it sound like something very different. No, I want this. Recette! I beg you! Please! Take my very first card!Not getting much better. I’d love to! Thanks, Louie!Recette, you are far too young for that sort of thing! Awesome! I can’t wait to adventure with you two some more!Right, adventuring, that’s what we were talking about. Merde. Really now… young people… Mysterious door appearing from out of nowhere hanging in the air. Well that’s not creepy or anything. Hey, Tear? What’s this thing that just showed up?It’s called a “door”, Recette. It’s weird and creepy, but still a door. Ah, yes, that. That is commonly referred to as a “Goho-“ Erm, what am I… a “Door of Return”, I mean.I’m missing the joke here. TVTropes tells me it’s a Persona reference. That’s at least two references I haven’t gotten so far, I missed the Dragon Quest one earlier too. This game is overloaded with references, I’m probably only going to get like half of them at best, so feel free to call them when you see them. If you enter that door, you can return to town in an instant. This one has appeared because we have cleared the dungeon, but they are often encountered during normal exploration too. I believe they usually appear roughly every five levels or so.Every five levels for the first few dungeons, ten levels in later ones. But, wait. If we take this back to town when we’re hallway in, don’t we have to start all the way at the beginning again? Not at all. You can always head back to the floor that had a door on it. In fact, if you do not use a door, you DO have to restart. So if we find a door, we should always use it? Almost always. If we need to rest or unload, then we should use the door. Remember though – returning home takes time. Furthermore, leaving ends the current contract with our companion, and we would have to re-hire him or choose a new one. If there is something specific in a dungeon that you desire, you can simply ignore the doors and press onward. Alrighty, then. I think we have to go home now, though. Quite so. Oh, just to be sure… in the future… Please try to avoid referring to this as “going home”, yes? Ooo… kaaaaay?... Louie opens doors the same way he interacts with everything else in the dungeon. He hits it with his sword.  And that’s the tutorial dungeon. I walked out with a decent little haul of loot and it cost me absolutely nothing going in. Your only adventuring costs are the cost of your adventurer (free for Louie), the cost of whatever consumables you bring in and us, and the opportunity cost of spending half the drat day in there instead of opening the shop.  Leaving me with enough time to open up once before crashing for the night.  Some of those monster drops are worth a pretty bit of cash, but customers won’t often go for them.  Then again, I put out that lovely statue too.  Now that I’ve met Louie, he’ll stop in once in a while. Adventurers will visit from time to time as soon as you’ve met them, but they won’t equip anything you sell them unless you’ve got their card. And they’ll often buy things they can’t equip because they’re dumb.  Case in point, Louie’s buying another set of the armor he’s wearing.  Still, money and experience is money and experience.  A day well spent! NEXT TIME: You Have a Soul Sucking Retail Job
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Nov 13, 2018 08:55
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Getting Adventurers to equip items you want can be such a pain in the rear end.
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Nov 13, 2018 09:15
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The hat thing is, I suspect, a reference to the beginning of Gundam SEED, in which the character Cagalli wore a hat much like the one there and was mistaken for a boy (the joke being that her Japanese actress tends to voice boys a lot). The door is indeed a Persona reference, but it's something that was changed in localization. The original was an Anywhere Door, a Doraemon reference. It was changed because expecting the kind of English-speaking nerd who'd buy this game to catch a Doraemon reference was a hell of a longshot, but Persona was doable. When you loan an adventurer a piece of gear, the gear that they actually own will be kept in your bag, mostly as a game balance thing (you want to loan Louie your Vorpal Sword of Face-Wrecking to use instead of the rusty piece of poo poo he normally carries, there's going to be an opportunity cost), but it's a bit odd that there isn't a locker or anything at the Adventurer's Guild. They will permanently equip and use equipment that they buy, and there's systems coming up that make that a little less of a pain in the rear end, but I have on several occasions put out a piece of nice gear for an adventurer buddy only for a completely different one to wander by and buy it. It's worse when the game mistakenly thinks the gear is an upgrade when it really, really isn't. At that point, you have to choose between "this idiot downgrades their gear" or "break my selling chain."
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Nov 13, 2018 09:41
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And this is where the Capitalism comes in. The Recettear Corporation provides the funding (capital) required to explore dungeons, and in return they take everything found in the dungeon. The adventurer gets a flat salary, and the excess value they produce goes entirely to the capitalist. Who isn't even risking their life.
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Nov 13, 2018 09:44
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You are hiring mercenaries. They put their lives on the line for cash and bloodshed.
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Nov 13, 2018 10:00
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And it's certainly not like any of them are all that hard up for money either. So it's all good- the system works! 
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Nov 13, 2018 10:04
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CommissarMega posted:And it's certainly not like any of them are all that hard up for money either. So it's all good- the system works! Yeah, try telling us that again once we've had a few more of Louie's scenes. I'm partial to the one where he's hungry and Recette helps him learn about which plants in the town square are edible, because it's just that drat heartbreaking that she had to learn about that herself to keep going while Papa Lemongrass was off fighting dragons or whatever. Speaking of 'or whatever'... well, that's a hell of a lot later, we'll get there when we get there.
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Nov 13, 2018 10:14
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I thought the chaining mechanic in dungeons wasn't time based, but monster based, ie as long as you're killing the same type of monster (such as only green slimes) the chain keeps going. Of course I haven't played the game "that far" in a long time, but that's what I remember.
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Nov 13, 2018 11:43
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Ah yes, the Goho-M. Reminds me of the time it took me 4 Disgaea games to get 'Mr. Gency Exit'
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Nov 13, 2018 12:45
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Goddamit, you can just loan adventurers gear as you head into the dungeon? This could have saved me so much frustration (back in 2010).
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Nov 13, 2018 15:06
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Louie was the only adventurer I was really able to use. None of the others seemed as easy to use.
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Nov 13, 2018 15:12
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