Let's Play The Way. No, not that one! The RPGMaker Classic!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play The Way. No, not that one! The RPGMaker Classic!

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Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Why don't you contemplate what's just taken place here while I Let's Play The Way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sip0_aGanpY

The Way is a series very important to me. I first played it as a teen in 2004, when its fourth episode released, which is when the series really came into its fame.

In 2004 it won its second Misao Award for game of the year. Misao Awards are basically the English speaking RPGMaker community's Academy Awards or w/e. Episodes 1-3 all came out 2002-2003 and got the 2003 Game of the Year award but I don't think the larger community really paid it that much attention until EP 4. By now, it's up there with A Blurred Line as an all time beloved classic in the RPGMaker community.

This is a pretty decently written game (albeit with some real clunky rear end sections here and there), with a neat cast of characters and a mysterious setting. I like its writing more than the majority of professional games, AAA or smaller studios, despite its severe flaws.

It's six 'episodes' long, and I'm pretty sure each episode is longer than the last. The first episode is only 50 minutes or so long, while Episode 6 is like a 10+ hour behemoth.

How many times have I played this series? Once, when Episode 4 first got so much attention. Once again when Episode 5 came out (Episode 5 also shared the 2004 game of the year Misao since they were both released in 2004), once again when episode 6 came out, in 2005.... and two or three times since then.

The story is a young wanderer by the name of Rhue is searching for his lost childhood girlfriend. That's the plot. The whole plot. I mean, there's serial killings and gang wars and unraveling the mysteries of The Way going on too but the core of the story is... it's almost like a character study of Rhue and the mindset someone would have to have that'd make them search for a probably dead girl for god knows how long almost single-mindedly.

As to the actual gameplay... it does have some serious flaws. Specifically, hidden items and abilities being.... hidden very obnoxiously. Also Episode 1 and 3 are kind of meh in retrospect but we'll talk about why when we get there. A lot of people dislike episode 6 or just don't think it lived up to the prior two episodes. It's very polarising. Episode 2, 4 and 5 are the most beloved ones. Personally? 6 is my favourite. It's just so strange, and that's from an already strange series.

And about those items and abilities being hidden obnoxiously? You basically NEED to use the walk-through if you want to stand a chance of legitimately getting the bad and ''''good'''' endings. The bad ending in particular requires you to win the series hardest boss fight (not actually that hard if you didn't miss too much) and four extremely gimmicky duels (referred to as plunges in the setting, and nearly impossible if you missed even small minority of certain items), and some other requirements like well hidden side-quests. The good ending requires the single most difficult 'normal' plunge to be won among other hidden side-quests and things.

There's a few things this series does really well, and one is that the lead, Rhue, has over 50 facesets (the RPGMaker name for character portraits in dialogue boxes) and they're used incredibly well to make him VERY expressive.

The game is also almost entirely custom systems, including the plunge system which was one of the series big draws. It's also one of the big flaws, for reasons we'll get into, even if it IS very cool and stylish.

Lastly, there's a mix of custom music and music from other sources in the game.

Oh, another Last Thing. There used to be guidebooks to download alongside the episodes. They had valuable setting information on locations, legends and factions, as well as info on the custom systems. Unfortunately, Lun's removed all downloads from his site and I cant seem to find the guidebook anymore. Almost all the information in it is in the game. The stuff that isn't, isn't really important or is game mechanic details.

Let's get started.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Episode 1: Part 1: Let's Plunge!
Episode 1: Part 2: The Second Asskicking.
Episode 1: Part 3: Asskicking The Third.
Episode 1 Finale: Story Time
The Wanderer's Guidebook.

Episode 3: Part 1: Kaves and Krav's.
Episode 3: Part 2: Blows to the Head.
Episode 3: Part 3: caves, caves, caves! too many caves lately!
Episode 3: Part 4: The Mask
Episode 3: Part 5: Hell, I've Seen Worse.
Episode 3: Part 6: A Farewell To Caves.
Episode 3: Part 7: The Motherless Man, Janwen's Revenge.
Intermediate Update: What If I Lost.
Episode 3: Part 8: Kloe's hosed Up Life.
Episode 3 Finale: Piss!!!!!!
ODDITIES II

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 04:00 on May 10, 2020

# ¿ Mar 18, 2019 09:34

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:26

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 1: Part 1: Let's Plunge!

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Jan 27, 2020

# ¿ Mar 18, 2019 09:35

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

DarkParchment posted:

Wow, I figured the first ''real'' fight would be the old classis ''can't win, get wrecked'', but the cutscene rear end whooping was FAST.

I never heard of ths game, sounds interesting to follow!

Yeah, Strata pretty much yells SNEAK ATTACK and then hits Rhue with his sword so hard he skids and leaves a blood trail in a split second. Strata's no joke and I think this scene and his theme really sell that.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2019 11:32

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 1: Part 2: The Second Asskicking.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Jan 27, 2020

# ¿ Mar 18, 2019 15:25

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 1: Part 3: Asskicking The Third.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Jan 27, 2020

# ¿ Mar 19, 2019 07:11

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 1 Finale: Story Time

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Jan 27, 2020

# ¿ Mar 20, 2019 06:35

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Cloacamazing! posted:

Oh cool, it's one of my favorite RPGMaker games!

I still have the Wanderer's Guide Book saved, so if anybody is interested, here you are: https://www.file-upload.net/download-13543625/WanderersGuideBook.doc.html

Oh wow. This is a pretty early version too. He was still make newer versions of it as episodes came out. I remember there being some discrepancies between versions. And yeah, there's a whole bunch of nice lore stuff in it. Some of it winds up being pretty irrelevant. Like, I don't think Shifters and Sensers come up at all really?

# ¿ Mar 20, 2019 08:28

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

The Wanderer's Guidebook.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Jan 27, 2020

# ¿ Mar 20, 2019 08:38

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Cloacamazing! posted:

Shifter - People who are able to shift their aura's, usually by attaining a certain state of mind.
Senser - A person with the ability to sense other wanderer's auras.

The terms Shifter and Senser aren't used, but I can think of several examples for both. I'll point them out when it becomes relevant.

Well, for one thing, when Gaius uses Beyond Oneself, the message is that 'Gaius shifts his aura'. But I don't remember it being discussed in much detail if at all.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2019 09:36

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 1: Victory.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 20, 2019 18:00

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 2: Reaching Lide

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 21, 2019 16:47

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Twiler posted:

Looking back on the story in retrospect, Gaius leaving the group and then re-appearing almost immediately seems odd to me. It doesn't seem to serve any purpose with regards to the story. Perhaps it's another case of plans being changed?

There's no purpose in it that I can tell, except maybe that Gaius had to go perform his 'duties' and just wound up meeting them again by chance. From a story writing perspective, it's a little odd and pointless, but it'd make sense for the character. It's the first meeting that sticks out to me for reasons I'll be able to explain a lot later.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2019 19:49

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Also, uh.... He left again. Already. We wont see him again for a while. lol.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2019 20:01

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Tallgeese posted:

I am glad that someone is finally LPing this series. It is one of the best.

Wish I could find more like it.

Out of curiosity, you plan on showing off the Scarred?

I'm showing off everything. I'm even going to talk about all the weird stuff in the code of Episode 6.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2019 20:05

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Tallgeese posted:

Oh, as an aside since I just noticed this and did not want you to miss it, one of the updates uses Rhue's portrait for "You all right Rhue? You look sick.".

Right, thank you. Fixed now. And I keep forgetting to give my thanks to Cloacamazing! for the guide book every post, so here it is. Thank you.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2019 21:31

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 3: Kloe And The Quest To Rid The Way Of All Evil!

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 09:19 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 22, 2019 13:51

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 4: How Sweet It Is.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 09:59 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 23, 2019 15:11

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Tallgeese posted:

My memory is a bit hazy, but did I not see a mirror behind the shopkeeper?

Can't interact with that one. There IS one in Lide you used to be able to interact with but Lun disabled it in the 2.0 versions (intentionally or not I don't know). It's a little bit until we get that opportunity anyway. The rest throughout the series are still usable though and still have their... tracker.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2019 02:09

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

SSNeoman posted:

BTW OP are you using Irfanview? It'd help a lot since it only takes pictures of the client area so the game's window elements don't show up. You an also use it to resize portraits to keep em mostly the same.

You might also wanna use LPix.org with the Rightload plug-in, it'll be way faster and more reliable than imgur

Right, I'll take a looksie. I was planning on going back and fixing the portraits sometime soon anyway.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2019 05:19

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

I just finished going back and fixing the portraits, with only a few exceptions, like Wes and Dana.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2019 11:02

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 5: Barracuda?

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 25, 2019 12:16

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Gloomy Rube posted:

I remember this game, I think I got to part 3 or 4 before ending up losing interest. I'd been playing Legion Saga 1 and 2 and was looking for more stuff along the same vein (So not Legion Saga 3, ho ho) and came across this. I'm not sure what turned me off it, but it might have just been that I was trying to marathon it all at once or something. Plunging always felt like a weird system to me.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes and what stuff I missed! Thanks for doing this LP!

Ah, Legion Saga. I remember playing at least 1 and 2 of that. Not sure if I played 3. It sometimes feels like its been forgotten compared to a lot of contemporaries. I barely remember anything about them too.

When I was considering doing this LP, my other options were the Laxius Saga, the whole series, no joke. I legitimately like Laxius Power 1 and 3... from a gameplay perspetive. However, the writing over the whole series has made me laugh more than anything I've ever played, and its completely unintentional. It's not so bad its good. It's so psychotic its hilarious. The initial trilogy were big RPGMaker 2k classics too. In fact, Laxius Power 3 beat The Way Episode 6 at the Game of the Year Misao (Though The Way Episode 6 won TONS of other awards for that year). The Way fans had a real stick up their rear end about that, even ten years later when the admin of the Way forms made a post in 2015 on the dead The Way forums where he complained about it. The Laxius Force trilogy though is exceptionally bad to play and I only finished them because I wanted to see what new insanity would come next in the plot, and I was never disappointed in that regard.

The other series I considered was Master of the Wind which was released episodically like The Way. The first arc released in 2005, when The Way was wrapping up. Arc IV won the 2007 Misao Game of the Year and Arc VII, the finale got the 2011 GOTY. Probably deserved it too. I really like that series a lot. It's much more the typical JRPG game than The Way is, but the cast and story are what make it. I guess the writing can be REALLY hamfisted about its themes and morals at times though. I do like the plot though. It never delves into save the world stuff, and the villains are the underdogs trying to manipulate and sway people to their ideology without using mass mind control or some crap like that.

Last Scenario and Exit Fate would have also been options if they hadn't had pretty good LPs done already. They're both fantastic games you should play or read the LPs on the LPArchive... And they're both made by a goon! The same goon!

What else is good? I liked Ara Fell a bunch but didn't finish it...

I have a real soft spot for Pokemon Reborn. It's the first Pokemon game I've played since Gen 3 so I had a blast. Some of the field effects are complete FUCKS, though. And I laughed at the writing a whole bunch, but sometimes its just too offensively bad to be hilarious. And that's REALLY saying something after having laughed at and loved the terrible writing of 7 Laxius games. But someone started a LP of that already, so oh well.

I can't think of anything else. I used to spend so much of my free time downloading rpgmaker games but I can barely remember any off the top of my head.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2019 14:15

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Cloacamazing! posted:

I think I played the first Laxius Power once... There was a sword dude and his elf girlfriend and his nun friend and their dog and their cat and their drunk teacher and they all wanted to go through a forest or something. That's about the point when I stopped playing, because the game had just given me six party members with maybe three character traits between them.

Are you planning to show the stuff hidden in the Game Over screen?

Yeah, it took me a bit to track down what it says but I found it, and will bring it up soon or later.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2019 18:21

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 6: Rhue of Landorin.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 11:14 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 26, 2019 12:44

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emlVmR6zE_E
forgot to mention this plays during the first part of the flashback scene.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2019 15:36

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

SSNeoman posted:

Well that story has more holes than swiss cheese.

Definitely. My personal theory the first couple times I played this, was that Rhue was so traumatized he remembered his assailants as beasts and they were actually related to OR one and the same as the men that gave him the sword. Though I had no clue why.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Mar 26, 2019

# ¿ Mar 26, 2019 22:51

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 7: How Sweet RNG Is ALSO How I Learnt To Stop Worrying and Love my Sword ALSO Traziun's Food Ordering Advice ALSO A LOT OF OTHER STUFF

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 28, 2019 08:26

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

The writing in the Lide arc gets pretty drat stilted, especially as it gets closer to the end.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2019 09:43

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Woog posted:

Suprising. Not really

Also just lol at Rhue not knowing why he knocked the sword into the pits.

The implication is meant to be that he didn't have control of himself for a moment, but it comes out a little goofy as written. Lun's definitely no perfect writer.

A friend of mine played the series a few years ago at my recommendation. He enjoyed it so much that he nearly did the LP instead, before realising how much work it is. He is now reading this LP, and he was shocked by how much Lun really took the the hammer and nails approach with the end of this arc, which is definitely the case.

I've always felt Lun excels more in plotting, setting and character design more than his actual dialogue. He does improve over the series, and... a big reason for that is he has far less exposition to get out there. Though, I never understood why he bothered when the exposition is largely in the Guidebook... Though the rarity of the Guidebook now kind of retroactively justifies it.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2019 08:03

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 8: Marna Stretch Part 1: Gaius, Headhunters, Rats, Woolies and Zealots.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 29, 2019 11:03

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

SSNeoman posted:

I can't get a bead on Rhue. Just talk to the woman, you're gonna look shady as gently caress if you do this.

The best thing to keep in mind with Rhue is that he's VERY impulsive, actually is the kind of shady type at times, and he will brook no delay on his journey that he doesn't decide upon himself. He already thinks Kloe has it out for him too. And Strata is very dangerous.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2019 11:12

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2: Part 9: Marna Stretch Part 2: So long Marna!

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 30, 2019 14:37

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 2 Finale: Turnway and Murder

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 13:15 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Mar 31, 2019 11:03

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Oddities.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Jan 28, 2020

# ¿ Apr 1, 2019 07:25

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 3: Part 1: Kaves and Krav's.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Jan 29, 2020

# ¿ Apr 1, 2019 13:13

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Episode 3: Part 2: Blows to the Head.

Fleshwit fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Jan 29, 2020

# ¿ Apr 2, 2019 11:11

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Tallgeese posted:

I think I can explain the Purpose of the Way line. I would not recommend people who haven't played the series click this.

Very early Christianity, we're talking when St. Paul was alive, was called "The Way." See Acts.

The games are rife with mostly subtle and some not-so-subtle references to Christianity. Slade's skill, Outer Darkness, is in fact one, but you would never notice it being one until later. Most people would think it is just a cool attack name until they start noticing other references, many of which are, again, subtle.

There's therefore two ways to read the line.

1) God is truth. Fairly simple.

2) Purpose as lowercase. The purpose of going through the Way is to find the truth, implying that the Purpose does not exist as a separate entity but is in fact an anthropomorphized abstract concept. In 2 Peter 2:2, Peter refers to following Christ as "The Way of Truth." Notice that you found the line in Episode 2, which is either coincidence or a blatant reference.

Oh, I actually meant the large bit of what seems to be mostly random text. I had an idea of number 2 since that's something implied by the plot eventually, but explaining it in greater detail (especially the Outer Darkness name, which I didn't know was a reference, since I know gently caress all about much to do with religion.) was very helpful, thank you.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2019 21:58

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

SSNeoman posted:

I feel like too many people in this game have a habit of slashing first and asking questions later.

It's kind of funny sometimes because it feels like half of everyone is an impulsive psycho or just nasty and the other half, even if they seem or are genuinely nice, have agendas that involve violence. Except for Kloe and Lyrra. They're good.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2019 22:08

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

Tallgeese posted:

I believe you have Slade's skill, "Outer Darkness", as "Out Darkness" in the post.

Fixed, thank you.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2019 23:09

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:26

Fleshwit: Apr 25, 2011

I just picked up a doujin rpg called The Sacred Tears TRUE on Steam. I think it's made in RPGMaker 2k3 as opposed to merely 2k like The Way. Seems it was made in 2005, and only got translated to English in 2014-2015 by, from the sounds of it, some fans. Has an interesting little quick, if somewhat random, custom battle system. I'm still only relatively early in it, so it's still at the cute and lighthearted stage, but it supposedly gets dramatic later on. Very promising start though.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2019 00:09

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play The Way. No, not that one! The RPGMaker Classic!

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