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 Conception Plus Japanese Opening Theme: “Destiny ~ 12 Kaime no Kiseki” by Nano Note: This is the Japanese opening cutscene for Conception Plus. I’ve got a whole spiel about this in the first mini update because of some weird changes that were made to it from the PSP version, and also changes that weren’t made from the PSP version in Japan but are made in the English localization. Welcome to the SSLP of Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars. One year ago (2018) I decided to take a shot at my first LP on SomethingAwful by doing Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars. During that LP, I made the promise that I would LP the first game in this series if it ever saw the light of day on English shores. Apparently I misjudged the capability of Spike Chunsoft’s fledgling North American branch, because they went full throttle on English localizations. They released 12 games in the span of 16 months and Conception Plus was, fittingly (this’ll make sense later), number 13. What is Conception Plus? Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars is a remastering of Conception: Ore no Kodomo o Undekure!, which was a visual novel/dating sim/JRPG hybrid released in 2012 for the PSP. This is the first game in the Conception series. The sequel, Conception II (which I already LP’d here), only shares some general terms and ideas, so it doesn’t matter what order you read these in. Like Conception II, this game follows a self-insert protagonist that has to have fantasy not-sex with a bunch of ladies in order to create magic spirit warrior children to help him fight monsters in the world that he has been pulled in to. Also, that fantasy mind sex stuff has been ordained by Star God. Star God really loves entrusting the fate of the world to horny teenagers that he proceeds to blue-ball for fun. Did Conception Plus add anything new? Yes, although I’m still a little unclear as to exactly how far the changes go. Graphical improvements should be obvious given that this game is coming to the PS4 from the (long dead) PSP. Aside from that, there is an additional Star Maiden, network features, a CII style Database (which is a godsend for me), extra sexy (unless you bought the English PS4 version), as well as some other stuff like a personality adjustment for one of the Star Maidens (this is a weird one that we will discuss almost immediately in the first mini update). According to a marketing release, changes were also made to game balance, comfort, specifications, and some features were added (as well as removed). I can’t find any concrete information on what any of the game balance stuff actually means, but for the love of Star God, please tell me that it means a bump in difficulty. I'm begging you Spike Chunsoft. I will be sure to highlight any new features or changes that I know of as they are introduced. Some of them are confusing and some of them are funny (such as the PS4 changes to sexy stuff that caused the "CENSORSHIP!!!" crowd to rise from the grave and throw a temporary shitfit). What kind of LP is this going to be? This will be a blind screenshot LP with video and music links where appropriate. The LP is almost completely blind because the original PSP release was never brought to the West and I never bothered to search it out for import after playing Conception II. There will be thread participation, the same as with the CII LP, and I don’t intend for this to be a completionist run. Speaking of… What kind of thread participation? In Conception II, I had the thread vote on a few things to help steer the LP. People voted on which Star Children to include in teams as well as which ending we would get. Those two things came back for this LP, although they worked slightly differently. -Team A(wful) made its return for voting. The thread voted for individual Star Child classes to include in the team and offered up names for the little buggers. -Team B(astard) was made up of Star Children classes chosen by me. However, I placed a condition on this team that said I had to swap in whatever Download Star Children the game decided to randomly grab. Sometimes that only happened once during a team's lifespan, while other times it happened twice, meaning that I had to kick out some of my personally chosen Star Children. -Team C was decided on as a whole team. I used full team suggestions that users in the thread submitted. -The "Final Teams" were decided on using a mixture of voting and basing Star Children off of users in the thread. -Voting on the Heroines also made a return and was more important than before. Why? Because if you watched the opening cutscene (or read this intro) you will have seen that this game has way more heroines to choose from than Conception II. Instead of the 7 heroines in CII, CP gives us 13. We’re going to want to narrow that scope a little to focus mainly on 3 or 4 heroines, because trying to follow 13 different routes at once would take forever with my intended update schedule. Naughty Content Just like in CII, always remember the words of The Dark Id:  It's an anime VN/JRPG, it's going to have risque content, although it's largely limited to particular heroine routes. It doesn't have any actual nudity, but there are a few CG's that you wouldn't want people catching sight of over your shoulder at work. There's also likely to be blood in some event CG's. The game has an M rating in North America. I will warn in advance of any particularly bad scenes. Also, I know first hand how great SSLP's are for reading during boring work days, so if we run into any embarrassing scenes I'll either censor them or I'll just link to the CG so the decision is left entirely to you (probably the more considerate option). Updates: ---------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue/First Offering: Aries Update I - I've been searching for a man, all across Japan Special Update I - Conception Plus' Delivery Problems Update II - No need to fear me; I did not come to touch Update III - The Stars predict tomorrow you'll wake up, do a bunch of stuff, and then go back to sleep Bonding Update I - Aries, Taurus, and Gemini Bonding Update II - Cancer, Leo, and Virgo Bonding Update III - Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius Bonding Update IV - Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces Update IV - Let me see what Spring is like on Jupiter and Mars Update V - Every day there’s sorrow; today, tomorrow ~ But I’m dancing instead Second Offering: Capricorn Update VI - If there's something strange; In your neighborhood Bonding Update V - Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Libra, Aries… and to a lesser degree the rest Bonding Update VI - Aries, Libra, and Scorpio - Summary of Sagittarius, Pisces, and Leo Bonding Update VII - Capricorn, Virgo, and Cancer - Summary of Aquarius, Gemini, and Taurus Bonding Update VIII - Aries, Libra, Capricorn, Scorpio, Virgo, and Cancer Bonding Update VIII - Summaries of Sagittarius, Pisces, Leo, Aquarius, Gemini, and Taurus Update VII - I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take (Dungeon) Update VII - I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take (Story) Third Offering: Libra Update VIII - Drink blood like a vampire without warning Special Bonding Update I (Alfie Bonding) - I'm a goddess with a blade - Part 1 Special Bonding Update I (Alfie Bonding) - I'm a goddess with a blade - Part 2 Update IX - I've been battered, but I never bruise. It's not so bad (Dungeon) Update IX - I've been battered, but I never bruise. It's not so bad (Story) Fourth Offering: Leo Update X - Just about the time you’re thinkin’ it’s alright ~ Breakdown. Takedown. You’re busted Special Events I - The Autumn Festival Bonding Update IX - Ophiuchus and Aries (Part 1) Bonding Update X - Leo, Cancer, and Capricorn (Part 1) Bonding Update XI - Libra and Bottom 7 Maiden Summaries (Part 1) Bonding Update XII - Ophiuchus, Aries, Leo, and Cancer (Part 2) Bonding Update XIII - Capricorn, Libra + Bottom 7 Summaries (Part 2) Update XI - Couldn't see a thing but open skies Fifth Offering: Taurus Bonding Update XIV: Ophiuchus, Aries, and Leo + Summaries of Virgo, Pisces, and Scorpio (Part 1) + An explanation Bonding Update XV: Cancer, Capricorn, and Libra + Summaries of Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini, and Taurus (Part 1) Bonding Update XVI: Ophiuchus, Aries, and Leo + Summaries of Virgo, Pisces, and Scorpio (Part 2) Bonding Update XVII: Cancer, Capricorn, and Libra + Summaries of Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini, and Taurus (Part 2) Update XII: Toutes celles qui rentrent dans le jean slim en taille 34 Sixth Offering: Gemini Special Events II: The Star Conception Festival (Part 1) Special Events II: The Star Conception Festival (Part 2) + Valentine's Day Update XIII: You come on like a flame; Then you turn a cold shoulder Seventh Offering: Cancer Special Update II: “Conception: The Game: The Anime: The Advertisement” (Episodes 1-3) Update XIV: I’m seeing things I thought I’d never see Eighth Offering: Virgo Bonding Update XVIII: Final Bonding Events – Ophiuchus, Aries, Leo, Cancer + Virgo Summary (Part 1) Bonding Update XIX: Final Bonding Events – Capricorn and Libra + Summaries of #8-13 (Part 1) Bonding Update XX: Final Bonding Events (Part 2) – Ophiuchus, Aries, Leo, Cancer, Capricorn, Libra Bonding Update XXI: Final Bonding Events (Part 2) – Virgo, Pisces, Scorpio Bonding Update XXII: Final Bonding Events (Part 2) – Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini, Taurus Update XV: Black is white, up is down and short is long Ninth Offering: Scorpio Special Events III: Flower Viewing Part 1 - Scorpio, Ares, Leo, and Cancer Special Events III: Flower Viewing Part 2 - Capricorn, Libra + Bottom 6 Summaries Special Events IV: Day at the Beach Part 1 - Aries, Leo, Cancer Special Events IV: Day at the Beach Part 2 - Capricorn, Libra + Bottom 7 Summaries Update XVI: They see me walk; They hear me talk; I make them feel; Like they’re on Cloud Nine Tenth Offering: Sagittarius Special Update III: PK finally breaks – Conception: The Anime (Episodes 4-6) Update XVII: Once I ran to you; Now I'll run from you Special Events V: Final Side Events (Part 1) - Leo, Cancer, and Libra Special Events V: Final Side Events (Part 2) - Gemini, Sagittarius + Summaries Eleventh Offering: Aquarius Update XVIII: And what matters ain’t the “who’s baddest” but the ones who stop you fallin’ from your ladder Update XIX: Prince oh Prince, are you really sincere? That you one day aren't gonna disappear Twelfth Offering: Pisces Special Update IV: If nothing else, I’m a glutton for punishment – Conception: The Anime (Episodes 7-9) Update XX: All the burdens gone; Open the chest once more Final Offering: Ophiuchus Update XXI: The hero always saves the world; The villains get what they deserve; The boy will always get the girl Post-Game Cleanup Extra Update I: Alternate Endings and PK's thoughts on the Maidens Extra Update II: Final thoughts on the game Special Update V: Let’s finish this. Please – Conception: The Anime (Episodes 10-12) LP Extras Images, Videos, and Guest Contributors Astrology Corner, with contributions from user AnAnonymousIdiot Japanese Version Comparisons, with contributions from user Polsy Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:43 on May 12, 2020 |
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LP Guest Contributors I had some unexpected help from a few users in the thread over the course of the LP, so I want to give a shout out to them and the stuff they've contributed. ~Astrology Corner, with contributions from user AnAnonymousIdiot~ User AnAnonymousIdiot gave their input on the Star Maidens and how closely they relate to their respective Astrology Signs. These were usually posted after Bonding Updates or major story developments. ~Japanese Version Comparisons, with contributions from user Polsy~ User Polsy was kind enough to help out with comparisons of the English version of Conception PLUS to the original Japanese release of the game. I wanted to stay blind for this LP, so I avoided looking for videos of the Japanese version to compare with. User Polsy decided to take on that task, particularly with regards to changes in the character Mahiru's personality (which was altered for this HD upgrade). Polsy's ability to translate Japanese is also greater than mine. Bonus Images 1. Spike Chunsoft Needs a Spell Checker:  Spike Chunsoft's fledgling North American office is having a touch of difficulty with reviewing their localisation work. Those of you that read the CII LP will remember the discovery that someone apparently went back and redid the Atlus translation from 2014. CII's Steam release in 2016 had a bunch of spelling and grammar errors that didn't exist in the PSV/3DS version that Atlus did. The trend seems to continue with Conception Plus, as myself and the rest of the thread have been finding spelling and grammar errors all over the place. One of my favourites is the moment Itsuki is told that the Star Maidens are selected "by the population", which would imply that the citizens of Granvania vote for who should become the next Star Maiden. The thread pointed out that what was probably meant in the Japanese version was that Star Maidens are chosen "from the population", which makes complete sense given that Star God is bestowing His power on people and probably would handle the selection process himself. Other highlights currently include starting a sentence with a lower case "L" in "Let's", as well as Narcisstes saying that he's relying on Mahiru to lead the "other 12 Star Maidens" even though there were only 12 Maidens in total (Mahiru included). Is it kind of petty? Yeah, I will fully admit that it is. If it was only an occasional thing, I'd brush it off. It's not an occasional thing, though. It's happened quite a few times and (as of my writing this) the LP hasn't even cleared the second dungeon yet. The point is, Spike Chunsoft are in desperate need of some form of proofreader. Or maybe just a basic word processor. This image was made by me after reaching a point where I felt that using [sic] to highlight errors that SC was responsible for (as opposed to errors on my part) wasn't doing enough to really hammer home how bad this problem is. 2. Character Chibi Sprites User Polsy found the official anime website at one point during a discussion on the anime. However, while looking through it, I noticed that there were some chibi versions of the Star Maidens/Itsuki/Mana that seem to have been created just for the anime website (they don't appear on the game's site, original or Plus).                I think that only five of these sprites show up in the website itself. Itsuki/Mahiru/Mana/Lillith and Lillie/Arie. They were included in the pages that give background information. Although only a handful of them are actually used, a full set was apparently drawn (likely for use on merchandise). Polsy fiddled with the URLs and discovered that most of these chibi sprites were actually uploaded, even if they weren't used on the site itself. The only two that were missing were Femiruna and Alfie. Both Polsy and myself tried everything we could think of to track down Femiruna's sprite. I eventually discovered that Femiruna's chibi art had spelled her name as "ferumina" in the image URL. No idea why, but whatever. Alfie's remained a complete mystery. I tried every possible alternate spelling I could think of to no avail. In the end, I did manage to find Alfie's chibi art on a listing for small acrylic standees that were part of the merchandising for the anime/game. "SAMPLE" was originally plastered over it, so I did what I could to fix that. It's not perfect, but it's all I could do to ensure that Alfie's chibi art wasn't excluded. 3. A cheap shot that you may have missed During our introduction to Femiruna, I had made a small edit to one of the shop signs that nobody in the original thread seemed to notice. Either that or it was simply incredibly lame and everyone silently agreed not to acknowledge it in the hopes of pretending it didn't happen.  It's probably the second reason. Videos This game isn't as video or cutscene heavy as CII was. I only really needed 2 videos for this LP and both of them are battle related. Aries Seal Boss (+ Battle Example) Leo Boss Fight + Seal Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:37 on May 12, 2020 |
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Update I: I’ve been searching for a man, all across Japan Song Reference: Butterfly – Aqua  I’ll be skipping over the opening cutscene. There’s a mini update I have in mind where I will discuss the weirdness involved with it, among other things that will be noticed in this update. For the time being, let’s just focus on the mountain of exposition and world setting that is about to happen.  Just after selecting to start a new game, we’re asked to customize our protagonist a little. Leaving the naming of the protagonist up to the thread would be ill advised, so I’ll leave it as the default: Itsuki Yuge. We can also choose his birthday and blood type, although this doesn’t have any impact on gameplay as far as I know. His birthday will be the start date of the LP (it’s November 8th where I am), and I change his blood type to O for no particular reason. I’m not familiar with the implications of our protagonist having O type blood. I know it’s a Japanese thing, but I don’t care enough about divination or whatever it is to bother researching the details.  Also, the English release of this game has the Japanese swimsuit DLC pack included, which is nice, I guess? I suppose it beats having to pay for it for the people that care about that. No, we’re not using this option. It looks stupid and out of place. It also removes nearly all of the design elements of the maidens. ???: Mahiru Konatsuki. The girl I grew up with, and my childhood friend.  ???: She gets high marks in academics and sports. She’s always taking care of others. She’s what you’d call the “popular girl” at school. Three years ago, my parents died in an accident… Really checking off those protagonist boxes, aren’t you Conception? ???: Now I live with her family at their house.    Getting flashbacks to Narika’s route in Conception II here. Maybe we should just pretend like we never got the text.  Never mind, we’re throwing caution to the wind. ~School Roof~   Thank you for coming…This is Conception Plus Mahiru. Why do I specify it like that? Well, in the process of remastering this game from the PSP version, the developers decided that Mahiru needed an attitude adjustment. I won’t derail the update with it right now, since we only just started. I’ll discuss it in more detail in the mini update. It’s… strange. Sorry for calling you out here even though we’re in the middle of exams. It’s fine. Even if I went back, I wouldn’t have anything to do besides studying.Also, that was Itsuki talking earlier. No idea why they kept it a mystery, since it’s obvious who it is. Then again, I didn’t do so good on the English exam today.That’s your fault for playing games instead of studying.Anyway, it’s rare for us to meet at school like this.Yeah… There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about.You invited me to the roof, don’t tell me you’re asking me on a date.No way… You play too many games…Hey, it could happen. There has to be some basis for the idea. Besides, we used to play those games together all the time.That was… a long time ago. We have to prepare for college exams next year… so there’s no time for that.Oh, right… entrance exams… That’s… So, what was that stuff you wanted to talk about!? Something you don’t want your mother to hear?Yeah… Not really… We occasionally get the option to choose what Itsuki will say. It doesn’t change much except for a line or two of dialog, at least in main story scenes. Bonding scenes will be different. I’ll make sure to point out any particularly amusing choices. I see… So what did you do?Nothing really, but… Well which is it? Did something happen or not? …Mahiru?Itsuki, please listen carefully.I’m suddenly not feeling so great about this.… I… …What?I’m going to have a baby. While “Is it… mine?” is tempting, it’s also pretty stupid to say considering the detail a character will blurt out a little later. I don’t intend for LP Itsuki to hit that level of idiot. …You’re messing with me, right?Why would I joke about that? Itsuki, I’m sure you want nothing to do with this. You probably just want to go home, eat chips, and play video games.That sounds really good right now, actually.…Right, that was probably the wrong thing to say. Sorry, I guess I still don’t believe it.They say fact is stranger than fiction… But anyone would be surprised if they heard something like this.A-Anyway, maybe we should go talk about this inside. It’s cold out here.Huh…?Well, cold weather can’t be good for the baby, right? Isn’t that a thing?Y-Yeah… Uhhh…. Guys? I think reality is collapsing behind you. poo poo, is it an earthquake?!Itsuki, look up!Wh-What the hell is that?!  *Both Mahiru and Itsuki get sucked up into the crazy sky hole*   …So that happened. Oh well, better add this spot to my map of Tokyo. Need to know where all the dimensional rifts are so I don’t accidentally stumble into one. I’m going overseas to study next year and that poo poo costs serious money. I don’t have time to be farting around in the Feudal Era or Soul Society or Cephiro or the Digi World or wherever the hell our protagonists are about to wind up. ~???~  Oh god, where are we? What happened?Ugh…You doing alright?Yeah, I’m fine… It doesn’t hurt anywhere.Good to hear.I thought we were at school… Where are we now?Beats me.This is a creepy place. I don’t want to stay here…I dunno, I think it looks kind of cool. It’s like an old school RPG dungeon....Okay, okay. I was just trying to make it less spooky. Come on, it looks like there’s an exit over there. Alright, we have control now. Not for very long mind you, but we do. Standard camera controls are in play. You could rotate the camera with L and R, but the right stick just gives you complete control so why would you bother with the shoulder buttons?  Also, Itsuki has a goofy run cycle and stance. Why are you superhero posturing, Itsuki? There’s nothing in here. Anyway, there’s only one door out of this place, so run up to it and hit X or A or whatever your confirm button happens to be. Should we stop for a bit?After running through a small hallway, the next scene triggers. I’ll be all right… We barely walked at all. But thanks for looking out for me.No problem. I’m trying to support this whole pregnant thing any way I can.Itsuki, listen to me. You may not believe this either, but… Wait, what? Mahiru, if you don’t have a boyfriend then how the hell can you be pregnant?But I’ve been feeling strange since about three weeks ago… I checked online and found my symptoms are signs of being pregnant.Ah, Dr. WebMD. The world’s most trustworthy medical professional. Those symptoms could point to a lot of different things though.I thought the same at first. Like, maybe I was just imagining it. But I took one of those pregnancy tests and it came back positive… That must mean I’m pregnant, right?Well, those things can be wrong, can’t they? Did you talk to an actual doctor about it?Not yet… I was too scared to…What if I went with you? Think that would help?Yeah…Great. Then let’s find our way out of here and head to a clinic. I’m sure this is all just a big mistake.Say, Itsuki…What’s up?Let’s go back together… then we can play games again.Now you’re speaking my language. This place really has me in the mood to check out this new-Ugh…Hey, you’re the one that suggested it. Agh!Oh, you’re still feeling sick. Do you need to throw up? Mahiru? That doesn’t look fun.  Did… Did a monster just pop out of your mouth?!*The buff monster man charges Itsuki* Guh! (poo poo, that hurt! It’s going to kill me!)*Then, a flash of light*  Wait, where did this sword come from?! The game throws us into a battle and wants us to attack the monster. I’m not going to spend time explaining this, because your only option is to do what the game says. We kill it and move on. That… was… AWESOME! I killed a monster! Hey, Mahiru, did you see?!Ugh…Right, sorry. Not the time. Come on, I think the exit is over there!Forest  This has to be a bad dream…Uhh, Mahiru? I think you’ve got something on your face. Ah… Wait, there’s something on your hand too.. Haha, we’ve got the same thing. We’re like a couple now.You’re in a weirdly good mood all of a sudden.You think so? Compared to being mysteriously pregnant, this is nothing…???: Nar! There they are! Nar! Narcisstes!  That stuffed animal is floating and talking…It also has handcuffs on it. What’s the deal with that?Wait, I think I know what this is… It has to be a drone that uses AI or something. I’m Mana. Isn’t that a nice name? Once you hear it, you’ll never forget it. That’s the kinda name it is.There will be other reasons for us remembering Mana’s name. None of them are good. Mana sucks. I hate cutesy mascot characters. It also just now occurs to me that Conception II never had one. I’m going to miss that aspect of Conception II.  Wow, not only can you talk, you can carry on a conversation? Modern figurines have really advanced from what I remember… I feel like the future has left me in the dust.What is this “figurine” you’re talkin’ about? I don’t know that word.Um… In short, it’s a toy for adults. Isn’t that right, Itsuki?I really don’t think you should phrase it like that.What? Are you calling me a plaything?!I guess that’s not quite right, huh.So, what’s your name?H-Huh? M-Me? I’m… Mahiru Konatsuki.*sniff, sniff*… I can tell you’re a virgin. You smell like a green banana!This is just a taste of what Mana is like. I’ve seen people online say that it gets worse, so look forward to that I suppose. What?! This toy is so rude!Also it can smell. I don’t think that’s something you can program.And you, what’s your name? Screw you, Mana. I am not telling you that.What?You’re shady as hell.Sh-Shady? But I’m soooo cute. How dare you call me shady!You can be cute but still shady… And anyway, you’re not that cute to begin with.Wh-What?!But, I know there’s a lot of people out there who are into that ugly-cute thing. *And then this dude shows up to mercifully interrupt this conversation* That’s right, Nar. He’s the God’s Gift this time around. Look, he has the Star Brand. It seems that way.I dunno why there are two of ‘em though.Two God’s Gifts… Interesting.Um, who are you? And where are we?Also, what’s this stuff about God giving gifts?Excuse me. I apologize for the late introduction. My name is Narcisstes. I am the palace scholar of the Kingdom of Granvania.Where is Granvania? Is that like Transylvania?It’s a world in a dimension different from yours. The God’s Gifts who have come to this world have called it a “Fantasy World.”Fantasy World? Are we legendary heroes!? Is what I think happening, actually happening!?Let’s save the details for later. How about I guide ‘em away?Yes, please do. It’s dangerous to remain out here. There are some hungry, wild animals around these parts.Hold on. Where are you taking us?To the castle. I would like for you to meet our king.Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Let’s do that!*And then a magic symbol appears on screen and everyone is whisked away to…*   This is our “Star Energy.” Your kind would probably call it magic.Is this place-It’s the castle town of the kingdom. Um… Will we get sent back to our world after we meet the king?Yes, but just as I said earlier, only if you accept our king’s suggestion. Please look ahead.Kinda sounds like we’re being blackmailed here, but whatever. We’re in generic fantasy land. We can roll with it.  Correction, generic fantasy land with a touch of future tech. That is National Star God Academy, the pride and joy of Granvania. The people of Granvania come to this academy to learn the ways of this world.I’ve seen this place in a movie before. You study magic here, right?The students learn to control the Star Energy they all hold within themselves. It’s on the way, so let’s take a look around the academy.Why don’t we just teleport there? You did it a minute ago. You can’t just bust out magic teleportation and then not bother using it for everything. I know I sure as hell would if I had it.  It’s a lot bigger up close. Do you really get this many students?The academy is an all-in-one educational institution. There are also many other facilities, like a church and a hospital.Oh, looks like the Star Maidens are gathering.poo poo, they can smell protagonist.  Like a pack of sharks. Just look at them. Star… Maidens?They’re all young and bubbly. Doesn’t that get you excited, Itsuki?Uhh, I guess so. What does that have to do with being that God’s Gift thing? Doesn’t the hero usually go explore dungeons and kill monsters and all of that cool stuff? Are they going to be our party members or something?I’ll introduce you to the Star Maidens later. Let’s go to the castle. Check this dude out. Pretty fancy dudes. Kind of wish I had a tie like that. Also that shirt. And the coat. I like the whole ensemble, really. Your Majesty, I have brought them. I welcome you. I am the king of Granvania, Shangri-La.That’s the name you’re going with? The mythical promised land supposedly located in the Kunlan Mountains in China? That’s silly, Conception. I am sure you two are surprised, for what happened was quite sudden. However, please listen to what I have to say.What do you mean? Just send us back to our world already.Slow down, Mahiru. Let’s hear him out.Very well. I shall be direct then. This world is in danger. We need you two to save us.That’s so sudden… You can’t just tell us that out of nowhere!I’m okay with it, personally. This sounds awesome.Of course… Narcisstes, explain to them so they may understand.Allow me to give you more insight into our world. Sora is a world which hosts a civilization developed by science. Our world, on the other hand, is built around Star Energy. I’m sure you remember, but Star Energy is what your kind would consider magic.Yeah, yeah. Our world is all about technology and yours is about magic. It’s not a difficult concept. Keep it moving Narc. We have a lot of intro poo poo to get through. Now, make sure you pay attention. This is where it gets important.*And then the game agrees with my viewpoint by skipping over all of Narc’s exposition* So basically… There are a bunch of monsters called Impurities in the Stardust Labyrinths… And the protection offered by the 12 Star Offerings there is about to fade… The Impurities are overflowing, bringing about chaos in this world.Thank you, official Itsuki. I’m sure Narc’s version of that exposition was like 10 minutes long. But that won’t happen. You see, each time a Star Offering loses its powers… a gift from the Star God appears in this world to save us.And that’s supposed to be us?Do you see it all coming together now? Yes, you two are the chosen gifts from the Star God. In this world, every 10 years… a God’s Gift with the Star Brand of the depowered Star Offering appears. They come from the Gate of Light connecting this world to Sora. God’s Gifts have a duty to purge Impurities and bring balance to the labyrinths. Thus, we need you to fulfill that duty. It must be done.Man, Star God is an rear end in a top hat in this game. I mean, he was kind of a dick in Conception II, I guess. Sort of had the drunken idea to bestow his power on a bunch of teenagers and then make them dry hump each other in order to summon the spirit warrior kids. Still though, Conception II Star God didn’t go barging into a different world and kidnapping people to force them to save Granvania every 10 years. Is the god of our world cool with that? The fate of the world rests on your shoulders.In other words, Itsuki and I… As expected of the Virgo Star Maiden. You learn quickly.But… we’re just students. We wouldn’t know what to do… How are we supposed to save the world…?I’m kind of pumped for this myself, but I’ll be honest, Mahiru has a point. I’ve played a lot of games about being a hero, but it’s not like either of us—Ugh…*And then Mahiru hits the floor for an unexpected nap* Mahiru!Reone! Is Reone here? Take the girl to the medical office.Is she going to be okay?! She’ll be fine. She’s probably just a little tired. Ah! This Star Brand! Is she the Virgo Star Maiden?Yes… There are too many unknowns this time around. Itsuki, you should rest too. Reone, can you take him with you? Itsuki, not to worry, Reone is the palace physician.As long as someone here knows what they’re doing. I’ll carry her over, just lead the way.Thank you. You know, you’re quite handsome when I look at you up close…Uhh… th-thank you? Where did that come from?Pump the brakes, Reone. Jesus, a girl just collapsed on the floor and needs medical attention. You’ll get your chance to hit on the designated protagonist later. Itsuki, I ask of you to save this world. You may return to yours after.That’s not really a request, you know. It’s more like an ultimatum.Let’s head to the medical office now.~Star God Academy Clinic~  As well as I could considering what happened to Mahiru. I’m sort of excited for this world saving adventure, but it’s really stressing Mahiru out. We really need to get back to our world, for her sake.After you fulfill your duty, the Gate of Light will appear. You can both return to your world then. I’m sure you still need some time to process what we’ve told you. But you two are, without a doubt, God’s Gifts. The Star Brands on your bodies prove that.Yeah… what is that brand thing exactly?That is proof you are a God’s Gift. Her mark is of Virgo. God’s Gifts have the Star Brand of the Star Offering whose power has been lost. And one of those dies every 10 years, right? So we just need to restore the Virgo Star Offering and then we’re done? …Excuse me?Don’t make a woman repeat herself. I’m telling you to take your clothes off.Could you maybe not say it like that?Oho… How else would I say it?Maybe like a doctor would? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be?You need to learn how to talk to older women… young man.Oh please, what are you, 20? I’m betting 21 at the absolute oldest. Don’t go pulling that maturity crap on people who are maybe 2 years younger than you. I’ll teach you that with a little one-on-one…Whoa! Hey! Watch the hands!*Reone then proceeds to jump Itsuki and strip him to the skivvies* Whew… I let you keep your underwear on, so you better be thankful.Right. Why exactly am I almost naked?.jpg) Speaking of, I wonder if that’s a particular brand? I can’t quite read the text. I think it’s in Japanese, but it might also just be jibberish lettering. My body? What about my—What the hell…All 12 of the constellations have their Star Brands on your body. It wasn’t just one Star Offering that lost its powers… All 12 have.That’s probably bad. Do you understand what that means? Impurities not absorbed by the Star Offerings will increase twelvefold. And if they break out of the labyrinths, this world will end. That’s why we need your help.But what do you expect me to do? Is there a boss monster or something I have to go and fight? Or some kind of magic crystal I need to find?Does that mean you’ll accept?Doesn’t seem like I have a choice. Although even if I did, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit excited about being a hero. Anyway, back to the problem. What exactly am I supposed to do?You must exchange the powerless Star Offerings in the labyrinths with new ones. That is the duty of God’s Gift. Oh, hey Mahiru. Whoa! Mahiru! When did you wake up?I’ve been awake since you started taking your clothes off… But I didn’t want to interfere, so I pretended to stay asleep.I didn’t really have a choice, you know. You saw what she did.Haha… You’re a funny one.If you ask me… that’s too unreasonable.Even if it is, you have no other way of returning to your world.  Wait, I thought she was a God’s Gift too, just like me. She’s doing something else?What’s that?I’ll explain some other time. Just rest up for now.I have to agree with her on that. I think you still need some rest.…All right.*And Mahiru wanders off to continue resting* As she said, there are monsters dwelling in the Stardust Labyrinths. Deep inside are the Impurity Gods. Unless you defeat the Impurity Gods, you cannot place the new Star Offerings.What’s an Impurity God?That’s what becomes of a Star Offering when it loses its powers. It begins fusing with the Impurities deep in its labyrinth… and it quickly becomes a powerful monster called an Impurity God.So this is different than how it worked in Conception II. In that game, the boss monsters were something of an energy source for the labyrinths. They formed when a massive amount of Dusk energy pooled together. The heroes seal them in Matryoshka dolls in order to cut off the energy supply, which stops the monsters from continually respawning. In this game it seems that Dusk/Impurities just naturally flow into the labyrinths and are sucked up by the Star Offerings. When the Star Offering finally hits its limit, the amassed energy causes it to turn into a boss monster. Then I guess a God’s Gift goes in, kills it, and the energy just vanishes? Or does the new Star Offering suck up the energy of the old corrupted Star Offering? Both of those explanations raise some questions/issues. Wonder if we’ll ever find out the answers? You guys can fight them though, right? I mean, you’ve got magic and stuff.Unfortunately, no.  We can’t even hurt one. Our long history proves that.Wait, you guys can’t even scratch it?! Then there’s no way I can kill it! I don’t even have cool magic… that I know of.No, you are God’s Gift. You are the warrior who will save this world. And you’re not alone. You have many allies on your side. You’ll need the power of the Star Maidens to fulfill your duty. Now, come with me, Itsuki. I’ll introduce you to the Star Maidens.Finally. About time we get to this. The sooner we meet the Star Maidens, the sooner I can get the introduction bonding events out of the way and the sooner we can vote on which of the loving ~Granvania Shopping Center~  Itsuki, your bed’s ready! Wanna see? You can have some fun with any of the Star Maidens at any time now.Uhh… What is she talking about? What fun?Mana, hold your tongue. But before we meet the Star Maidens, I’ll take you to where you’ll be lodging.Oh, and I’ll be your guide for a while, Itsuki.Please Star God, no. Let us be rid of Mana. This is a blind LP, but Mana’s reputation as supposedly complete garbage has still managed to find its way to me. Oh, right. It should be noted that despite the perviness and general skeeviness, Mana is actually a girl. She uses the pink text box when she speaks, which is the color all the other female characters use (boys use blue), and she’s voiced by Sarah Williams in English (Yurin in Japanese). You get to have this beauty by your side, so you better be thankful. Now we get to have a little control. By that I mean we are allowed to push X and go to the Inn. Riveting. I will say that Conception Plus is much better about tutorials than Conception II was. There’s still a moving van’s worth of exposition to unload, but we’ll be let off the tutorial leash almost entirely by the end of this update.  This will be your frontline base until you fulfill your mission. You should have everything you need, but ask Mana if you need anything else.What about Mahiru? Where is she?Mahiru will be given a room in another dormitory. Do you need to be with her?You two were in a relationship?! What a pervert! Guehe… So, what were both of you up to before you came here?We’re not a couple! Also, how would I be a pervert for wanting to see my girlfriend if we were a couple? And we weren’t doing anything weird before we came here! She was just telling me—wait, no, going to stop myself there. Listen, I’m just worried about her.You can see her whenever you want. There’s no need to worry. Mana, please take care of the rest. Itsuki, come to the square when you’re ready. I’ll introduce you to the Star Maidens.  There we go. There’s the relentless barrage of tutorial cards that I was bracing myself for.  The Inn is mostly just where we go to save and advance time. There’s a few small things to do with Star Children that we’ll get into later, but a lot of the options you see here can be accessed from other more useful places. I’ll be waiting outside, so come out whenever you’re ready. You better not do anything weird just because you’re alone!You said it’s my room. I’ll do what I want, thank you very much. Although, not right now. I still have too many questions to think about relaxing.We get the chance to save, so I do just that. That’s all, so let’s keep this intro going.  Let’s talk about how you walk around the castle town.  All straightforward stuff. We’ll get more detailed looks at all of these places and letters and stuff as they become available. Reo is waiting for you at the academy. Now try going there. This time we actually have two choices for places to go. We’re supposed to go to the academy to meet the other Maidens, which I do actually want to get to, but the Palace has some more lore for us that sheds important light on how things work in this world. Let’s quickly check it out.   Narc here offers to tell us more about the world and Impurities and junk. At first it seems like he’s just going to repeat everything we were already told, but he actually has quite a bit of new info. Let’s start with asking about the Fantasy World.  After repeating the info about “Sora” and how this world is based on magic and ours is based on science and blah blah blah, he gets into new material. Our people receive blessings from the god of their birth month.And that’s it. It isn’t much, but it raises the question as to the hierarchy of Gods. Is Star God the supreme God? Are the 12 birth month gods collectively known as the Star God? I kind of wish he talked about this a bit more. I’ll have to look through the database later and see if it’s explained more thoroughly. Moving on to Impurities. In this world, Impurities are released as people bed with each other. Impurities are… Negative energy? What kind of insane BDSM poo poo do the people of this world get in to? Impurities, when left to their own devices, will fuse and turn into monsters. They then become beings that bring disaster. They’re far worse than wild bears. But people cannot simply stop being intimate, as it prolongs our species.So sex makes babies…. And also sometimes monsters. Who the gently caress designed this world? Was Star God drunk off his rear end, or did those 12 birth month gods suffer from a case of a “too many cooks spoil the broth”? This is also different than how it works in Conception II. In CII, Dusk energy was the monster creating force. Dusk energy was just an element that governed people’s desires. It wasn’t necessarily bad, as people can have a lot of desires that aren’t evil or wrong, like living for example. There was a bit of discussion in the CII thread about Shinto beliefs and purging impurities and stuff like that as it related to the concept of Dusk. Unlike in that game, there’s no debate here about the nature of the “dark” energy. Impurities seem to be 100% bad. At least as far as we know right this moment. That is why we use Star Energy to seal away Impurities in a special place. And that place is within the Stardust Labyrinths. Ever since, all the Impurities have been absorbed and stored within them. Still… people will continue sleeping with each other for all eternity.Wait, so what were things like before that mage created the Impurity vacuum? Did monsters just roam everywhere? The labyrinths ebb and flow with Impurities because of this. To prevent overflow, we have 12 Star Offerings deep within the labyrinths. That sums up the nature of Impurities.Choosing “A different question…” will give us two other topics to ask about. We’ll start with Star Offerings.  For every constellation, there is one Star Offering. Each of these… blessed by that constellation’s god, has the power to absorb Impurities. Active Star Offerings continue absorbing Impurities in the labyrinths.  The periods in which they lose their powers are offset by 10 years. In other words, one Star Offering is lost every 10 years. Despite knowing this, we are still unsure of the specifics of a star’s passing. The ancient texts only say this divine law: The stars revolve around the world.I see we’re still operating on the old Geocentric theory in this world. That’s cool. It’s a different dimension I guess. There’s a chance that everything here does actually orbit the Earth. And when a Star Offering is lost… The Impurities amassed by the citizens of that constellation cannot be absorbed. The Impurities would spill forth from the labyrinths to attack our world. When that happens, the world will be thrown into utter chaos. But that will not happen, for each time a Star Offering loses its powers… a God’s Gift appears in this world to save us. That sums up the machinations of the Star Offerings.So every ten years there’s a group of people worldwide who wake up and read their horoscope to find that their sex life (and those of their lovers) is officially on hold until Star God can summon a God’s Gift and sort poo poo out? That’s gotta suck. Although I guess each astral sign only experiences it once every 110 years or so. Granted things are a little different this time. Asking about God’s Gift is the other question for Narc, but he just repeats stuff we already know. Star God sneaks into Sora (Earth) every ten years and swipes somebody to act as God’s Gift. God’s Gift has to cleanse the Impurities in the labyrinth and swap in a fresh battery. Then the Gate of Light opens back up and the God’s Gift gets to go back home. Then he talks about Itsuki being the only hope for the world and all that JRPG protagonist nonsense.  Alright, that’s all for now. This went a bit longer than I thought it would, so we'll have to meet the Maidens that we'll be putting up with for the next 20-30 updates in Update II. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Nov 8, 2019 |
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Nov 8, 2019 04:54
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The temporary post I made here was rolled into Update II. Check it out here and skip past the first part if you already read through the Maiden introductions.
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Nov 14, 2019 |
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Nov 8, 2019 04:58
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Commander Keene posted:Looks like a screenshot error here. You have a shot above that makes no sense where it is, and the same dialogue transcribed a few lines later. Good catch, thanks. I'll fix that as soon as I can. The Flying Twybil posted:...I'll admit my eyes glazed over pretty quickly. I saw enough of the last one to know what to expect. I suppose these internet rants about censorship regarding this game are dumbfounding and/or worth a laugh. Keep in mind that this is the exposition dump intro. It's hard to stay focused when the game is talking at you for half an hour about generic anime fantasy garbage. I know it's still very early, but CII actually feels like it has a better story and atmosphere, at least based on the intro. Maybe it's just because I grew attached to certain characters and their crap, but so far CP hasn't been giving me the same feeling that CII did. Maybe it has to do with the smaller supporting cast. According to the database, there are only 3 other characters in the extended cast and it's possible they are our antagonists. I can't remember exactly, but I know that CII had a much wider supporting cast than that. Kemix posted:Looking good so far. Also I’m already annoyed by Ruka but can’t fault her for it regardless. This is blind, so I have no bias towards particular characters like I did in CII. That said, Ruka is sending the strongest Tsundere vibes out of the 12 and I don't like that. Lillie seems to be leaning towards that too, but the only indication of Tsundere tendencies we've seen so far from her is her being pissed that mana clubbed her over the head with a hammer. Granted I will probably still hate Lillie regardless, because she looks like a character type I typically want nothing to do with. Ratoslov posted:Mana, man. I came into this with low expectations and I was disappointed. People online say that Mana is a low point for this game. So far she's only been slightly more of a creeper than Chlotz, but maybe she gets a lot worse once the game actually gets going. There has to be some reason why the fanbase is against her. __________________________________________ Just a few things of note about this LP so far. -For those of you that read through my CII LP and enjoyed the expressive character portraits, I'm really sorry that they are missing here. CP does use the same Live-D (or whatever it's called) system that CII used for character sprites, but I'm unable to get the art assets for this game. Like CII, the Steam version of this game is just an exe. I tried some tools to explore the file or scan for certain assets, but nothing worked. As for online help, somebody posted a request on another site for the sprites to be ripped back in October, but it hasn't been responded to. The game only came out on the 5th, so maybe someone will get around to working their magic now that it's actually out. Unless they do though, I'll have to keep using these static sprites. If things change and I get access to all of the assets by the New Year, then I will look into replacing everything with the expressive portraits. I'm not even really that happy with the current portaits to be honest. They aren't as nicely framed as I want them to be. Unfortunately this game has basically zero artwork floating around, so the headshots I have now are the best I can do on that front. -Music links will go up soon. The Steam version includes a 57 track OST, so I should be able to link to it myself. So far I haven't found a playlist of the songs on YouTube to use, so I'll probably have to upload it all myself. Somebody has the PSP soundtrack, but I'm not sure if all the music is the same as in Plus. -Cutscenes will be linked in the future. The cutscene in the intro wasn't linked because the drat thing is like 4 seconds long. The two screenshots I posted from it are basically half the scene, so I didn't bother waiting for that before posting. That being said, there are apparently only 3 cutscenes in total, according to the file folder. -I'm still working on Itsuki's personality. He really doesn't get many opportunities to speak during the intro since Mahiru does almost all of the questioning and reacting to things. I intend for him to be a typical teenager that's jazzed as hell about the idea of getting to act out an RPG in real life, except the reality of it is not as glamorous as imagined. I'm trying really hard to hold back on snark because that was Wake's thing. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Nov 8, 2019 |
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Nov 8, 2019 13:17
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Drakenel posted:If anything, I was reading him as a more laid back wake that's happy to help, but still isn't afraid to go 'wow that's lovely of you guys. Really? That works too. Like I said, still working on it. I haven't played ahead much beyond what you see in the update, so I don't have a lot of official dialog to work with yet. Commander Keene posted:It's more like they dialed back the anime for the sequel. And that one was still full of typical anime tropes. Although let's be fair, it's still really early in the game. I'm getting this weird inkling that the story in this game is going to be even more bare bones than CII. Maybe it's because the supporting cast is so small. I'm honestly not sure if we'll get a lot of anime in this game. I could be wrong though. Maybe I'm just weirdly unused to playing games 100% blind because of the advent of YouTube and poo poo. I'm used to at least some tiny bits of the overall story trickling in during the wait for release. Or catching screenshots of later parts of the story. OOrochi posted:Also, what the heck is up with Narcisstes’s teeny hat? I have no idea. I've been noticing more lately that Japan seems to have an obsession with tiny hats. Code Vein has a ton of them that just sit on your character's head, covering like 10% of the noggin. God Eater had them as well. Is it some Mad Hatter thing? Do the Japanese just find it really cute? I'm kind of baffled. Also frustrated because they look loving stupid. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Nov 8, 2019 |
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Nov 8, 2019 23:05
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Cloudmonkey98 posted:You know, when you're gods, asking to borrow a person is probably like asking to borrow a cup of sugar, petty and minor Except that Star God asks for a cup of sugar every 10 years, which probably feels like every few seconds for a God. CP Star God seems like kind of a loser so far. Also, you'll get your classmating answer in Update 2. I've got a whole diatribe to go on about that, mainly in regards to the people on the Steam message boards and the absolute shitfit they threw. Polsy posted:Pretty sure it's 'from the' citizens, not 'by the', but I don't know how they managed to mistranslate that multiple times and also (presumably) proofread past it. That never occured to me, but you are probably right. That would make more sense and also explain why Mana assumed the Maidens would be confused/shocked. As for how they would manage to repeat that error multiple times, it's Spike Chunsoft. I have a mini update to post tomorrow that gives them some credit for the translation work of the NA branch, but that doesn't mean they have gotten their poo poo together. For example, take a second look at the Church description:
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Nov 10, 2019 |
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Nov 10, 2019 03:26
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Special Update I: Conception Plus’ Delivery Problems Before we keep going with this LP, I wanted to discuss some of the weirdness with Conception Plus-  NO! NOT THAT WEIRDNESS! We’re not going anywhere near the anime adaption just yet and lord help us all when we inevitably do. No, this weirdness concerns the transition from 2012 Japanese-only PSP game to 2019 PS4 remaster exported to the English speaking world.  As stated in the intro, Conception Plus is an updated rerelease of Conception for the PSP, which released back in 2012. It only came out in Japan, yet its sequel (Conception II) did get an English localization courtesy of Atlus. Why Spike Chunsoft would choose this title as the one to dig out of the closet and give an HD update to is anyone’s guess, but they did. Why their newly established North American branch would choose this game to localize is a bit of an easier question to answer:  It’s because they’ve apparently embarked on a mission to speed-run Spike Chunsoft’s entire library. The NA branch opened in December of 2017 and after the Christmas party was finished they buckled down hard. They’ve been translating games like mad since early 2018. Anyhow, the stars somehow aligned perfectly in Conception’s favour and it was brought back for a second chance at life. Now that it’s here, we can take a look at some of the oddities that popped up along its journey. ~Opening tomfoolery~ The first one, which you should have noticed immediately if you watched the opening cutscene linked in the intro, is this affront to the English language:  It’s a little difficult to fully make out because the text starts to fade just as the last few words are appearing and the background light obscures it in places, but here is what it says: “You are about to witness a Tails, The Legend of Messiah, that will be handled down generation after generation.” That’s from the original PSP game’s opening. If English is not your first language or you somehow don’t see anything wrong with that, then let me explain. If I included a line like that in a paper to any of my English professors, they would be genuinely concerned that I fell and struck my head at some point between classes. -You don’t witness a “Tails”, unless you’re playing a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Additionally “Tails” is not a story, that would be a “tale”, which also wouldn’t be capitalized because it’s in the middle of the loving sentence and not a proper noun. -“a Tails” is a conflict of singular and plural. -The Legend of Messiah sounds like a sweet JRPG that’s being way too on-the-nose with its plot. But if that's what they wanted to go with then it should have been the "Legend of the Messiah." -You don’t “handle” a legend or tale down through generations, you “hand” it down, as in to pass it on. You get the point. It’s a complete mess is what I’m saying. Also pretty nonsensical. Japan, I know you guys like to use English to make things seem exotic or foreign. We English speakers do the same thing when we mangle Latin to try and appear sophisticated. I get it. But for the love of god, is it too much to ask that you run this poo poo by a native English speaker before sending it to the presses?  Apparently it is, because this is a screenshot from the Conception Plus intro. They went through the effort of doing a remaster and yet didn’t bother to make this incredibly simple fix. And don’t start with that “How do you know it’s easy? Have you ever made a game?” horseshit. I know it’s easy because Spike’s freshly opened North American branch DID fix it:  ”You are about to witness a tale, the legend of God’s Gift, that has been handed down for generations.” That’s much better. It sounds natural and it’s also not as overly pretentious as that “Messiah” thing. That’s a screenshot from the PS4/Steam English localization. Now, I know what else you might be thinking: “Okay, so the NA branch had the time to be able to change that small thing. Maybe the Japanese office didn’t. They had to actually develop the game after all, so maybe they had to make do with just reusing the old PSP intro.” Maybe so! Except not! I originally gave them a pass on this because I thought the same thing (this was before I knew the English version fixed it). It’s a small studio and an incredibly niche game, so they likely just pulled out the raw footage of the PSP opening animation and slapped a new title card on it to save some time and money. Then I noticed something:  The images on the left are from the PSP opening animation. The ones on the right are from the PS4/Steam version. They decided to reuse the same intro, but they also felt the need to go back and add in these weird aura effects to the sword and monster (as well as the glowing red eyes on the monster). Why? I’m not going to pretend that this took a lot of time or money to do, but there’s no question that it did take some amount. So why bother with it? I can’t imagine many people would argue that it greatly improves the opening in general. It’s also a little weird because Conception Plus introduces a 13th Star Maiden created just for this remaster, yet there is absolutely no sign of her being added to the intro. She doesn’t even get to be cheaply photoshopped in to that shot of Shangri-La, Narc, and Mana. Doesn’t it seem slightly more important to get her featured somewhere in the opening animation rather than making sure the protagonist’s sword is glowing? They clearly did work to touch up the intro, but in ways that don’t especially matter. ~Lillith’s not the only character with an alter ego~ Anyway, enough of that. We’ve got more to touch on. Such as Mahiru’s personality change. I mentioned this near the beginning of Update I as well as in the intro. In the transition to HD, the developers decided to tweak the personality of one of the characters. Unfortunately, instead of tweaking the personality of one character that really needed it (Mana, I’m talking about Mana), they turned their sights on Mahiru.  In the PSP version of Conception, Mahiru is more stuck-up and colder towards the protagonist. Her personality is heavier on the Tsundere side with a healthy dose of snark. She’s the school idol and is more concerned with that status than she is in the Plus version. However, despite the distance she tries to put between her and Itsuki, it's clear that she still sees him as her childhood friend (she does confide in him about being pregnant after all). Getting pulled in to Granvania causes her to grow a bit as a character and she gets kinder as the game goes on (according to what I’ve read about this whole thing online).  Compare the PSP screenshot to this one from the remaster, though. Mahiru in Conception Plus is a lot kinder and a bit more on the meek side. Upon Itsuki asking if she is kidding with the “I’m pregnant” thing, she responds like this in the Plus version: Why would I joke about that? Itsuki, I’m sure you want nothing to do with this. You probably just want to go home, eat chips, and play video games.Mahiru says this in kind of a hurt or disappointed tone in Plus. The kind of tone that says “I really need you to support me right now and not treat this like it’s nothing.” Her response in Conception PSP is along the lines of: Yes, this is just a joke. Is that what you want to hear? It is, isn’t? You just want to get this stupid conversation over with so you can go home. I’m sure you can’t wait to stuff your face with chips and play video games.Her tone in this response is angrier. She also quickly leverages their status as childhood friends in a sympathetic play to try and make Itsuki feel bad for responding like that. Now, I’ve seen things like this happen before in the process of localization. Mistranslating and misunderstanding of the Japanese script can lead to characters sometimes having different personalities compared to their original incarnations. This isn’t that. This personality change was made by the Japanese developers. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of many instances where the makers of the game changed a character’s personality for a rerelease, especially not a main character. If anyone can think of a time where this has happened, then let me know. I’m confused as to why they would make this change. Don’t get me wrong, I know what the idea behind it is. They wanted her to be more submissive and more appealing to players, so they made her nicer and more caring. The problem with that is that this is partially a dating-sim visual novel. PSP Mahiru is a Tsundere, which is an incredibly popular type of character (not to me of course, but to each their own I guess).  And if there are players that don’t like that kind of character? There are ELEVEN (twelve in Plus) other girls in this freaking game to chase after. So why change just Mahiru? No matter what personality you give her, you’re going to get overlap with others. We haven’t seen a lot of Ruka yet, but I get the feeling that she’ll be a Tsundere as well. So even if the devs changed Mahiru to avoid overlap with Ruka, they likely just made Mahiru closer to one of the other heroines. What’s the point? Unfortunately I can’t really find out. I couldn’t find any concrete information on why the developers changed her. It could have been because of focus testing, maybe it was because they found that players were being turned off from the game during the intro due to Mahiru’s attitude, maybe it was to better market the anime adaption, who knows. Either way, I find it very strange. ~General strangeness~ On top of all of that, there are a few other weird things I’ve noticed with this game. Some things were present in the original PSP version and just don’t seem to have been corrected, others seemed to happen in transition.   For one, Lilllith’s hair color seems to shift depending on what scene she appears in. In the opening as well as the small cutscene that plays as the Maidens are being introduced, her hair appears as more of a green. Maybe like a mint, or at most a turquoise. The Maiden introduction shot has her hair as R=167, G=248, B=207. But now let’s shift that to her gameplay appearances:   The second image is the one that the cutscene you saw screenshotted above transitions in to. The breakdown on this shot is R=187, G=255, B=244. Green stayed almost the same, but the Red and Blue were bumped by 20 and 40 respectively. It’s a minor thing, but it’s made really noticeable when we move from cutscenes/illustrations to gameplay. You can also see that Farun got hit with that a bit as well. Mahiru's hair color is also noticeably lighter in her PSP model, but that seems to have been corrected in her Plus model.  Speaking of cutscenes, despite this being a remaster, Conception Plus actually removed at least one of the cutscenes that was present in the PSP version. The image you see above is from a cutscene that, in the PSP version, played immediately after the “running up the stairs to the roof” scene from the opening seconds of the game. This scene doesn’t exist in the remaster. The Steam version only has 4 unique files in the movies folder. There’s the Spike Chunsoft logo movie, the opening, the “sucked into the sky” scene from the beginning, and the maiden introduction scene (which is less of a full cutscene and more of an animated illustration, if that makes sense). Except for the maiden intro scene, the movies come with three different names: _jp for Japanese, _en for English, and _zhtw. User Admiral H. Curtiss informs me that zhtw usually stands for traditional Chinese. There is a Chinese version of the game on the Singapore Playstation Store, but the language option doesn't seem to be included in the English release despite the presence of the cutscenes. I don’t know if there are any other cutscenes missing besides this one, but as for why this specific scene was cut, I believe it’s because it contradicts Mahiru’s personality change. The scene from the screenshot has Mahiru telling off Itsuki for being “12 seconds late”, which was part of her original PSP personality. I’m guessing that the developers of the remaster simply couldn’t find a way to write this scene to fit Mahiru’s rejigged personality since her body language is clearly meant to convey annoyance.  In addition to removing cutscenes, Conception Plus also removed the “Touch Communication” feature. This was present in the original PSP version, but Spike Chunsoft removed it for the Plus remaster. The Touch feature allowed you to weirdly touch the Star Maidens during conversations. Those of you who read the Conception II LP will remember this feature only cropping up maybe twice during the entire playthrough (once in Narika's route and once in Feene's). Those of you who didn’t read that LP may instead remember this from the Fire Emblem: Fates internet shitstorm a few years ago. There was a big outcry from weirdos on the internet that the English release of Fates wouldn’t let you pet and prod your Fire Emblem waifus and husbandos. Cries of “Censorship!” rang forth on gaming sites everywhere. I don’t really care personally. It was barely used and kind of janky in Conception II. I only mention it to document the change in attitude towards that kind of content, even from Japanese developers. This is a little bit important for what’s to come in Update II, because we’ll be seeing something that wasn’t removed from the game that is arguably way more risqué than being able to poke people while they’re talking. It also led to its own internet tantrum being thrown. Finally, to top things off, let's talk about the mess that the PC release was in general. I don't have screenshots for this crap, but here is a shortlist of the kind of stuff that I've been going through: -The game originally released without the Launcher. If you don't play PC stuff much, a Launcher is typically used to adjust graphics options and keybinding for games that don't just include those things in the in-game menus. So for about a week after this game came out, people couldn't adjust the resolution or V-Sync or change their controls. Spike Chunsoft originally made a post on the Steam boards saying that "The launcher should be there, guys. Go check again." When people pointed out that "no, the launcher most definitely is not there", SC apparently realized that the launcher files were in the Steam Developers page, but hadn't actually been released to the general public. -Even after the launcher got released, I was unable to make use of it due to an apparent Javascript error that said a module was missing from a Temp file on my SSD (which is not where my games are installed). Despite staring at the supposedly missing dll files, the error persisted and I wasn't able to find a way to fix it. I sent an email to the address listed on Spike Chunsoft's Steam Technical Support page and a short time later the email came back undelivered. The email SC lists on the Support Page apparently doesn't exist, or has been shut down. So instead, I had to find a different tech support email address from their Twitter account. -The reply I got from their support team said to update drivers, check the registry, run a malware scan, and run a virus scan. That is the digital equivalent to saying "Did you try turning it off and on again?" -After trying to reinstall the game to fix the above problem, the first attempt resulted in the game getting stuck at 100% download but not being actually installed. The second attempt installed, but the sound wouldn't work. The third attempt didn't fix the original error, but everything else was back to normal so I just slowly backed away and decided not to touch anything for fear of everything going to an irreversible hell. -In addition to these general issues, someone on the Steam boards has reported that this game supposedly suffers from a memory leak that can cause it to use up gigs of memory. I haven't had this problem myself (yet), but until it gets patched I will have to keep my task manager open in order to monitor my PC's performance. -A patch was released about a week after release that swapped out the existing movie files for "High Quality" versions. The difference in quality is very noticeable. As an example, the file size of the originally installed movie files was about 11mb for the English version of the opening movie. The High Quality version of that same file clocks in at 37mb. I have no idea where or how they got "Low Quality" movie files to begin with. It's possible that they accidentally compressed them during the port, but that still doesn't make a lot of sense. Best guess that I have, though. Future PK Edit: On top of the issues above, here are two more that I encountered as the LP went on. -The game would occasionally lock up for 30-40 seconds at a time when some kind of loading was required. Usually it happened when trying to open the menu or change rooms in the Labyrinths. After 30-40 seconds, the game would finally recover from it's brain fart and load up whatever it was that triggered the lockup. When it did, and assuming I was inside a dungeon at the time, the frame rate would proceed to get wonky. It would fluctuate between 10-30 fps at random while running around. Most of the time a restart would be needed, but sometimes just exiting to the world map would fix it. You want to know what's weirder? The frame rate dips are only visible in-game, as in live game play. What I mean is that my OBS recording of the footage would not show any frame rate wonkiness. If you play it back, it looks totally normal, but the live game play would show slowdown. And no, OBS was not the cause of this problem. This issue happened regardless of what setup I had going. Full screen with OBS running, full screen without OBS running, windowed with OBS, windowed without OBS, it didn't matter. -From the start of the game right until the end, the game only had about a 40% chance of starting with audio. Want to see how I could immediately tell if this was the case?  Seeing the opening stuff pass by at light speed is how I would know if the game was starting properly or not. If it flicked by like what you see above, then there wasn't going to be any audio. There were times when I needed to relaunch the game 4 times before the audio would finally start. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Nov 10, 2019 19:35
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Admiral H. Curtiss posted:I don't have the files in front of me to check, but 'zhtw' usually stands for Chinese using the traditional writing system. I'll go back and check again. I'm not familiar with traditional Chinese, but I thought for sure I saw katakana and hiragana. It was only a split second shot of the text message from the opening scene though, so it's entirely possible I misidentified it. I've never seen the tag zhtw, personally. Granted I don't usually go poking around in the files of games. Odd for it to have a Chinese version of that 4 second cutscene. Chinese isn't a language option for the game, at least not the English release. The only language options are English and Japanese. Edit: Never mind, you must be right. There is apparently a Japanese/Chinese version of this game on the Singapore Playstation Store. That must be why the cutscene exists. Not sure why they left that cutscene in when the language option was removed, though. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Nov 10, 2019 |
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Nov 10, 2019 22:33
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Update II: No need to fear me; I did not come to touch Title Song Reference: I Like to Watch (Milo's Night Out) - Prozzak ~Star God Academy Field~ Itsuki, I was waiting for you. Let’s go to the Star Maidens’ classroom.~Star Maidens’ Classroom~  There they are. Well, most of them. Mahiru isn’t pictured here. Also we seem to be missing the 13th Maiden that was added for Plus. I wonder when she turns up? Oh, looks like everyone is already here.Itsuki, these are the Star Maidens. By Universal Law… they are each chosen by the citizens and blessed by the Star God.Just so you know… Universal Law refers to the will of the Star God whom we worship.I am the Scorpio Star Maiden chosen by Universal Law. Come on, Itsuki, say hello. It can be short.Oh, okay. Uh… Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you.…Is that all? That’s rather abrupt.Hey, you said it could be short. What do you want me to say? I still don’t even know exactly why I’m being introduced to them. Plus, they’re all staring at me. I’m kind of nervous.Well, all right then.Looks like everyone’s here. How about you all introduce yourselves?I already did, so how about the others? All right, everyone. Let’s go in order and be concise.  I serve the church.  I’m usually out delivering mail. Nice to meet you, Itsuki! Oh, I should mention that Lillith has an alter ego…Excuse me? What do you mean by that?This!*Mana proceeds to whack Lillith on the head*   Mana, you wench! Where’d you even get that drat hammer?! Why’d you hit me anyway?!This is Lillith’s other personality, Lillie. If you hit her upside the noggin real good, Lillie comes out.You can ask her for more details about that later.This kind of took me by surprise. Everything I’ve seen in terms of promo stuff and the opening and the fact that Gemini is known as “the twins” led me to believe that Lillith and Lillie were two separate characters that shared the Star Maiden status. I guess that’s technically still true, although instead of sisters or something we’ve got a magical fantasy bipolar disorder. Also, I could have sworn that the blue haired one was named Lillie and the pink haired one was Lillith. She has bat wings for god’s sake! God drat it, now I’m going to have to rename the head pictures. Next!  You don’t need to remember my name…Great. I’ve already got an inkling as to what my opinion of you is going to be.   So long as I am a Star Maiden, world peace is guaranteed! Oh, God’s Gift, you will have nothing to worry about! As for me…Don’t you dare loving do that noble laugh. I swear to god if that’s your thing. That’s enough. I said to be concise. Next.Thank you, Reo.  Please don’t be proto-Ruby. That’s all I ask from you.   I love caring for animals because they’re so fluffy.  I’m the Capricorn Star Maiden. I was actually a traveler, but now I work at the tavern! Nice to meet ya, Itsuki!  I’m the Aquarius Star Maiden. I hope you’ll stop by to buy my bread. Come on, Yuzuha, you’re the last one. Oh! I’m… um… Yuzuha. I’m usually painting at home… A-And… I might be the Pisces Star Maiden…I know what you’re probably thinking, what with the look of the hair and her being Pisces (the fish), but I can confirm that she is not a fish person or mermaid. At the very least she has legs, according to her database model. That’s what I originally suspected anyway. Femi seems to be some kind of beast person, so I figured it was possible that Yuzuha was some kind of fish-human. Not “might,” you are. Including Mahiru, these are the 12 Star Maidens.So, about them… They were chosen to purge the Impurities and reborn as Star Maidens.Not my typo, Mana really does say “and reborn”. I missed you Spike Chunsoft. I thought you had really upped your game by fixing the hilariously bad English in the opening cutscene, but it looks like I still need to keep my wits about me. They’re able to create the Star Offering of their constellation just the once… And must fulfill their duty for the next 120 years until their powers are lost.For 120 years?! How are they supposed to do that?Also, why 120 years? They can only make the Star Offering one time. Do they have other things they have to do as part of this whole Maiden thing?  Maintaining your youth for 120 years seems like a sweet deal to me.But the previous Star Maidens were different. The “Star Chaos” three months ago made them lose their Star Offering powers.I’m guessing that has something to do with the fact that I have all the Star signs on me instead of just one. Why “Star Chaos”?It is what we are calling that incident. All the Star Offerings suddenly vanished in a single night. The Star Maidens are one with the Star Offerings. That’s why when the Star Offerings lose their powers, so do the Star Maidens. Then, and only then, do they finally complete their role as a Star Maiden.So far they haven’t made it clear what exactly losing their powers entails. Do they die? Does father time finally get a chance to swing the chrono bat at them and 120 years of no aging just catches up all at once? Do they just start aging like normal again and live out their lifespans like normal? The Star Chaos caused all 12 previous Star Maidens to lose their powers. We were chosen next. They were all chosen to be Star Maidens just over a month ago. They must’ve been really confused to see the Star Brand on their bodies!Didn’t you say they were chosen by the citizens? How would it come as a surprise? Or is that “chosen by the citizens” thing just symbolic feel-good BS? Being chosen out of the blue must have been nerve-wracking. So much pressure!Up till that day… None of them thought they would become a Star Maiden. But… there’s no time for that anymore. Even now, the Stardust Labyrinths are beginning to overflow with Impurities.God’s Gift appears when the Star Maidens are chosen. That’s how you got here.You are a rare type of God’s Gift with the marks of all 12 constellations.So does that mean Mahiru has the 12 Star Brands too? No. She only has the Virgo Star Brand. ”It seems”? You don’t know for sure?This is the first time in centuries the Star Maidens have been chosen like this.Same with how two God’s Gifts appeared at once.So Star God hosed up his count of maidens and just decided to swipe some Earth girl while he was out shopping for a new God’s Gift. Nice work, Star God. It must have something to do with the Star Chaos.Usually, only male God’s Gifts are summoned, due to Classmating and all that.Classwhatting?Also, the Star Maidens have always been from this world, chosen by the citizens.But this time, only 11 were chosen. The Virgo Maiden was excluded.That’s when Mahiru appeared with the Virgo Star Maiden Star Brand.There are so many things we just don’t know this time around. When did you get here, Mahiru?You always appear out of nowhere.I’m always eavesdropping.I suppose I don’t have to repeat my explanations then.I doubt I can really serve as the Virgo Star Maiden in the first place. But I have to. Otherwise, I can’t go back, right?As expected of an honor student. While I’m at it, can I ask you something?I really wish Reo said that sarcastically. It was begging for it. Did you spit something out when the Star Brand marked you?I did. It was this creepy, ugly… thing. Ugh… I feel sick just thinking about it. Or is it morning sickness?Morning sickness?Mahiru thinks that she’s pregnant. We haven’t actually confirmed that though.Oh… Then you don’t need to worry. You simply spat out the Impurity within you.What do you mean?The ones chosen as Star Maidens… They expel any Impurities from their bodies prior to being reborn. It varies by person, but to some, they show signs of pregnancy.Then… I’m not really pregnant? Yeah, because she’s my friend and it was bothering her. Of course I’d be relieved for her.Oh, really? I thought you two would make a great couple.D-Don’t be stupid! Why would I be with Itsuki…Ouch. Didn’t realize I was that repulsive.Aww, you’re so cute when you’re embarrassed. Just as a precaution, I’ll give you a check-up later. I may not look it, but I am the palace physician.You don’t really act like a physician either. At least not a licenced one. I see… So I wasn’t pregnant. Thank goodness…So what happened to the Impurity she expelled?I summoned a glowly sword and cut it in half. It was pretty cool actually.Amazing. As expected of a God’s Gift. That strength will help you enshrine the Star Offerings the Star Maidens create.What am I supposed to do? What’s this Star Offering?I’ll teach you how to conjure it later. It’s a tiring ritual, but you’ll be fine. Now, that’s about it for the Star Maiden introductions.Oh drat, I forgot that we did that. Have they all just been standing around in silence this entire time? Itsuki, we need to talk. Come to the church later.Oh, okay. See you there, then.We go back to the city map, but we only have one option on where to go. Well, let’s get this out of the way, I guess. Going to have to do it eventually. ~Church Spirit Chamber~  Magic? Am I going to get cool magic? Because that would really help with the whole “saving the world” thing.To fulfill your duty, you will need the help of the 12 Star Maidens. Remember what I told you?You mean that thing about the Star Offerings?Yes, but that’s not all. The Star Maidens have another important duty. That is Classmating. Even if you are God’s Gift, going to labyrinths alone is suicide. You need allies to join you in the fight.Whew. Not going to lie, I was a little afraid that you guys were going to make me go in alone. Having 12 other people in my party is definitely reassuring. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to defend the Star Maidens in the labyrinths as we fight together.Unfortunately, they have no direct ability to fight impurities.Wh-what…? But but, if they can’t fight then- ….What?CHILDREN!? Hold on, I am not ready to be a dad! I’m definitely not ready to… you know… with the uhhh… I mean, 12 women?!Pardon me. Star Children to be exact.The Star Maidens will Classmate with you and create Star Children. Itsuki, you’ll be surrounded by 12 beautiful girls. It’s like your own harem. Isn’t that awesome? I bet you can’t stop drooling right now.I JUST WANTED TO BE A HERO! I wanted to fight monsters and gather a party and go adventuring and scream at people for not doing their job right! Since when did the hero’s job turn into… breeding!? All of these options are basically “Uh, beats me.” LP Itsuki is not going to be that stupid. How the hell does a guy about to tackle undergrad not know how babies are made? …I mean… I know the basics of how it works…When did you…?Oh…? You don’t look like the type though. I guess you know when to get down to business, ya perv!Listen, that stays between me and my brows—actually, never mind. Let me put it this way. I used to help my grandfather a lot with his cattle. I know how to “plant seeds.”Oh, I did too.Wait, you meant you have experience fertilizing plants with cow manure?…Sure, let’s go with that.Whatever. It was stupid of me to ask.Can we get back to the whole “Itsuki becomes a dad” thing now? I feel like we haven’t properly talked about that.Listen carefully. God’s Gifts go into labyrinths with Star Children to fend off the Impurities. Itsuki, you will create Star Children with us through the Classmating ritual.Now you’re confusing me. Aren’t you supposed to be a doctor? Just how long do you think it takes to raise a child?! And hold on… Why are you talking so casually about making children?! And so we still don’t get any idea of what the gently caress the Classmating ritual actually involves. Conception II was very cagey about it as well. From what we’re told in that game, Classmating apparently just involves God’s Gift holding hands with the girl at an altar and the two of them proceeding to think really hard about each other. Apparently it doesn’t even require direct physical contact, as Ellie initially doesn’t like touching people and will just hold on to Wake’s shirt. Conception is telling us that the Classmating ritual doesn’t involve sex, or at the very least it’s different from sex. But what does that mean? Do they just dry hump each other? The Conception anime adaption tells us that it isn’t sex as well, but-- well, let's save that for the anime discussion later down the road. Either way, I have a feeling that this game won’t be explaining the ritual any farther than what we’re being told here. I guess we’ll just stick with the assumption that it’s like CII, which is to say that Itsuki and the Star Maidens will just stand there and think about each other or eye hump each other or something. Star Children are warriors born to carry out the mission of God’s Gift. It’s not the fruit of your loins that you’re thinking of. From the moment Star Children are given life… They become the only existence, next to God’s Gift, who can purge Impurities. Stardust Labyrinths also have doors that only open with Star Children present. That’s why you need Star Children to fulfill your duty.I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.Same here. Are you really trying to tell me that a bunch of kids are supposed to be my dungeon party? I’m so dead…It’ll be faster if I just show you. We’ll conduct the Classmating ritual now to create a Star Child. Come, Mahiru. I’ll show you how.W-Wait, Dr. Reone. A-Are you telling me to make babies with him right now? Haha… You’re not serious, are you?I’m sure you’re only embarrassed because everyone is watching. Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.People are going to WATCH this!? What the gently caress is wrong with this world!?”Get used to it”?Fuehe… It only hurts the first time.Mana, stop teasing Mahiru. But Itsuki, do be gentle. It is her first time.Be gentle how? What the hell am I supposed to be doing?Just do as I say, and you’ll get it right the first time around.N-No… Don’t just start going at it!Mahiru, this is to return to your world. You must accept it.Nooo! While our heroes protest and get really creeped out, the game informs us that Reone will be choosing our Star Children classes this time. However, after the tutorial team is made we’ll be free to chose what we want. Or rather, the thread will be free to choose what they want. I’ll go into more detail about that a little later.  Every time you Classmate, there is a little scene that will play which shows the spectral Sailor Moon body of the chosen Star Maiden suggestively moving around. These get more elaborate and more suggestive as the game goes on. I’ve edited this screen shot to make it acceptable for an LP that might be read in the presence of prying eyes. If you really want to see the unedited shot, then here it is. It’s only Sailor Moon style “nudity”, but you’ve been warned regardless. Now, I’m going to pause things for a moment to highlight a little something about these scenes. The scene you’re seeing above is actually from the PS4 version, which was censored in North America. A handful of people on message boards went absolutely apeshit over this when it was announced. There was a lot of complaining about Spike Chunsoft capitulating to Sony’s recent censorship policies in regard to Japanese games. For those who don’t know, Sony has recently changed gears and enforced a censorship policy on Japanese games and the sexual content they may possess. People have been bitching about it for a while, but the basic idea behind it is that Tokyo is about to host the Olympics in 2020 and like every country that gets the “honor” of hosting that gigantic waste of taxpayer money, Japan is doing everything it can to polish its image for the easily impressed/offended tourists that they hope to attract. Anyway, got a bit off track there for a second. So, the PS4 version of Conception Plus was censored for North America. How was it censored?  There. Here is the unedited. Yes, that is the change that was made for the North American release that caused some people to poo poo their pants in rage, spam Spike Chunsoft’s Twitter with complaints, vow to “vote with their wallets”, and take a stand against censorship. Oh, also some people were hoping for Spike Chunsoft to go out of business as a way to make them pay for this egregious transgression. I want to reiterate. The censorship that Sony allegedly imposed on this game for North America was not to cut out these weird sexy scenes entirely, nor was it to even make them slightly less suggestive. They CHANGED THE COLOR OF THE BODIES AND SHOWED THE FACE. For those of you who read the CII thread, the censored version of these scenes is basically identical to the scenes in CII. CII went further and made the ladies’ bodies neon colors. And that wasn’t even censorship! It was just the way that CII did it.  Jesus Christ guys, it’s a color change. Not like you’ll be watching these more than once anyway. I made my love of transformation sequences very clear in the Conception II LP, and even I didn’t watch those drat things every single time they showed up. Anyway, it turns out the Steam version was left uncensored, just like the Japanese version. The message board people declared victory in their ongoing Holy War against censorship and acted like they had achieved a great victory. Meanwhile, the more likely explanation is that Spike Chunsoft was lazy and didn’t bother censoring the PC version because Valve doesn’t give a poo poo, unlike Sony.  What were we doing again? …Oh, right. Star Children. Yeah, so here are our first two Star Children. Every time you make a Star Child, they will pop out of their little Matryoshka dolls holding a card. These cards give different bonuses. These two little tykes have 10% off BP cards, which means that it took 10% less Bond Points to create them. We’ll be introduced to Bond Points later. All you need to know about it now is that we need to use the points to make Star Children.  We also get another two Star Children to round out the team. They also pop out with the 10% off coupons. This is a tutorial, so the cards will always be the same, but once we start making our own, these cards can have a range of effects. Sometimes it’s cash, sometimes it’s a boost to the Star Maidens mood, those kind of things. Also, it should be noted that this is a special tutorial Classmating. Unless things are different in this game, then twins are the best you can do in a single Classmating ritual (and twins are pretty rare). You can’t get quadruplets like what happened here. This is simply to give us enough Star kids for a full team. What… what just happened…? I’m so tired…My mind is going blank… I don’t really remember what happened during the ritual. Sh-Shut up!But wasn’t it easier than you thought? Now you all know how to do the Classmating ritual.You gotta do that with all 12 Star Maidens from now on. You better get training to increase your stamina, if you know what I mean. You gotta take the initiative. All the Star Maidens are virgins after all.Please stop talking…One condition to be selected as a Star Maiden is keeping your virginity intact.Normally I’d ask why Star God would make that a prerequisite, but apparently sex in this world is a source of monster juice, so I guess that makes sense. Also, does that mean that Maidens need to maintain virginity for their 120 years of service, or is sex okay after they’ve already been made into Star Maidens? Because if it’s the former, then that is some serious monkey’s paw poo poo, “You shall receive 120 years of life without aging, maintaining your youthful beauty for over a century! …But you also can’t have sex! Star God, out!” Aren’t you happy? You can get with all 12 of them. You gotta be grinning deep down.Oh yeah. Nothing beats getting blue balled… and whatever the female equivalent of blue balls is. Mana, what are you whispering?Oh, sweet nothings is all.Someone please make it stop.Now, this is important, so listen carefully.  How well you interact with the Star Maidens is key to your mission. I can tell you’re not that good at winning over the ladies. But you really gotta be on the prowl when you interact with the Star Maidens. Being a bit forceful is necessary at times too… Guehe…Has everyone grown attached to Mana yet? Huh? Let me get a shout out from all the CII LP people out there that loved Chlotz’s creeper antics and were desperate for more. (I can’t believe this… This is nothing like what I imagined… Well, I’m still supposed to be a hero. If I don’t give this my all, then me and Mahiru won’t be able to go home… and also we’ll probably die here when the monsters kind of overrun the entire country. Stay cool, Itsuki. You can do this… probably…) Let’s make Star Children…Itsuki, that’s not very manly.He doesn’t have it in him to stay that with pride…It doesn’t actually matter what you say here. The responses from Reo and Mahiru don’t change for this choice. Oh, one more thing, Itsuki. There’s actually one more thing about the Classmating ritual. There’s more?! Are you kidding?Hehehe… It’ll be like a dream come true for you, I’m sure. You can actually take in two Star Maidens at a time…Oh, that’s great… As if I wasn’t under enough pressure as it is. Yeah, really taking one for the team on this. Nar, you came at just the right time.There isn’t some insane version where I have to take all 12, is there?Not to worry, I will tell him that when the time is right. There’s something else you must know first. Will you hear me out?I kind of want to sit down for a bit, but I guess it’s better to get this all out of the way at once. So, go for it.All right. Time for the next step. Let’s talk about Party Formation.Oh, okay. That sounds cool, actually. This is a bit different from Conception II. Our Star Children teams will be groups of 4 for this game instead of the groups of 3 that CII used. This is the same as it was in the PSP version of Conception.  Speaking of Party Formation, here is what we’ve been saddled with for the tutorial team. It’s not bad, but also nothing special. We’ve got two boy fighters (Pit and Arthur), a mage girl (Vanessa), and a healer girl (Natasha). Where’s our Tank, Reone?! I thought you were going to choose a balanced team. A party of four is 1 Tank, 1 Healer, and 2 DPS. Here are the database entries for the individual classes we have:    Also, yes, boy Clerics always have that expression. It’s creepy. That’s all there is to it. After the Star Chaos, creating new children has been banned in this nation. That is only a temporary solution however.Yyyeah, good luck trying to enforce a nationwide ban on sex for very long, even with the world at stake. At this rate, the species will be unable to prosper. So I thank you, Itsuki, for accepting this mission, whatever your reasons.Not like I have a choice.~Inn Room~  Okay, I guess we’re skipping to the next day. Yesterday must have been crazy taxing from all the info you had to process. But now you have a general idea of the situation this nation is facing. We’re going to the shop today to gather some fighting equipment for you.Oh, cool. I can get behind that. This is more the kind of thing I expected. But, how are we going to buy that stuff?This is from the king. His orders are for you to prepare for you mission. Oh, hell yeah! That’s what I’m talking about. It’s about drat time we see a ruler that’s willing to take the “no expenses spared” route for the one person that everybody’s life depends on. poo poo, in CII our boy Wake was stuck having to earn AngelMarker fun bucks by fighting monsters. It’s a check.He’s giving me all of this?!The fate of the world rests on you. You can buy up the entire shop if you’re so inclined.I am indeed so inclined.  Okay, let’s not go crazy. I love me some cash, but I draw the line at being a douche about it. What do ya think, Itsuki? Doesn’t it feel great to be rich?To be honest, all of this pressure is kind of making me sick…You’re so pitiful… Anyway, let’s go shopping. It’s too dangerous to explore the labyrinths without the proper equipment.I will rarely ever agree with Mana, but in this case Mana is right. Stop being a loser, Itsuki. Let’s go make some poor shopkeeper’s month and kit out our kiddos. ~Granvania Shopping Center~  We got plenty of money to blow!That doesn’t mean we should waste it. I’m all for buying up useful stuff like items and equipment, but I’m not blowing money on getting drunk.You’re such a square! You’re no fun at all!Gonna side with Itsuki. Spend much but spend wisely. Also, what the hell even is the drinking age in Granvania? How do you determine legal drinking age for beings like Mana? There’s another question that will come up— *Douchebag outta nowhere*  Who was that? A drunk this early in the day?Forget that. What was with that stupid getup? Who walks around in a bird mask and skin tight spandex? The bums are really crawling about everywhere.Says the one that wanted to go get hammered after shopping.Anyway, let’s go cash that check, Itsuki!Sure, su—What happened?I could have sworn I had it in my pocket…Wh-Wh-Wh-What?! Where’d it go?!Maybe it’s… wait, there’s a hole in here!Wh-Wh-What did you say?! G-Go look for it right now!*One fruitless retracing of steps later*   Dammit!Wait… Maybe it was that masked man from earlier who bumped into you?! Did he pickpocket you?!WHAT THE gently caress IS THAT GUY GOING TO DO WITH A CHEQUE?! It was written by the King of Granvania specifically to God’s Gift and has 9,999,999G as the amount! What bank in the world is going to cash that poo poo without verification?! Especially when the dude handing it over is wearing a goddamn bird mask! This entire hero thing has gone to hell… I’m really starting to hate this place.What’re you gonna do, Itsuki?!I guess we better go tell the king that we lost it. Maybe he can cancel it or something and write a new one.You can’t do that! If you do, who knows what punishment he’d dish out to me!Well, I was the one that got pickpocketed.I was ordered to be your babysitter! That definitely won’t fly! Ugh, I’ll be punished dearly for this… This is the end for me…Not gonna lie Mana, you kind of have it coming to you. Itsuki wasn’t the one out there on the street loudly proclaiming how loaded you were. Seriously, you couldn’t just keep your mouth shut until we were done shopping? Ugh… fine. We’ll keep it a secret. I’ll figure something out with the supplies.Itsuki, here’s my life savings. Try to get what you need with this. Your attempt at making amends is like poison to my veins… Get that pocket change away from me!Are you sure you want to do this?Of course not! But we don’t have any time to save up the money! Taking too much time will make Nar super suspicious.I guess you’re right.We’re in this together, at least for now. I’m prepared to do what I need. I didn’t think we’d trip up so early though. Once you’re done preparing, it’ll be time to head into the Stardust Labyrinths!  gently caress you, Mana! Take your 2,000G and choke on it! Son of a… Alright, it’s okay. I’m calm. It’s only 9,997,999G less than expected. Let’s just… let’s see what we can do. The Shop is up first.     Here is everything you need to know about shopping. I’ve never found Bulk Buy particularly helpful, personally. I prefer to equip on an individual basis.  Let’s take a look at what we can do, if anything.  Items are all standard stuff. Potions are for HP, Mana Stones are for MP, Star Drops revive, and everything else is for curing various status effects. All of these are far too expensive for the pittance we got from Mana. That’s okay, though. If this game is anything like CII then we’re going to wind up getting most of our items from dungeon runs. What’s the scene like over in the equipment isle?  Jack poo poo. That figures. The one upgrade for Itsuki is beyond our newly reduced savings account. Also, I’m sure the game will do it at some point, but here’s a run down of the stats since they’re here in front of us: ATK – Physical Attack Power TEC – Accuracy (has an impact on critical hits) DEF – Physical Defense SPD – Speed (affects turn order and dodging) MAT – Magic Attack Power MDF – Magic Defense LUC – Luck (affects stuff like critical hit chance and item drops) Unless things have been greatly revamped in this game, then Speed will be the most important stat. Speed determines how quickly your characters’ turns come around. The faster you are, the more turns you get. Having more turns than the enemy gives you more flexibility in healing and responding to attacks.  Other than that, we can’t afford any new armor for Itsuki. None of the accessories are worth it. We only have enough cash to give one of our tutorial kids an upgrade, but I pass on doing that because we haven’t gone dungeon exploring yet. We'll get upgrades for them from there. Might as well check out the Tavern before moving on.    The Tavern is where we pick up quests, although some quests will apparently come to us directly from the Star Maidens. Completing them is how we get new items in the shops.  Also, Farun works here, which she mentioned earlier in the update.  There’s a bunch of quests available right from the start. As far as I can tell, all of the ones we see here are already active. The tutorial card just told us that we’ll get the ability to take on more quests as we complete others, but I’m not seeing any way to accept quests. Weird. Oh well, I’m not going to complain. Just means that I can tackle all of them at once. Anyway, off to the Stardust Labyrinths, where there is apparently an event. ~Granvania Shopping Center~  Even if you head to the Stardust Labyrinths, the entrances aren’t open. To open them, you need the help of all 12 Star Maidens.Okay, well let’s go do that then. Why the hell did you point me here if we can’t go? ~Palace Throne Room~  The fate of the world is in your hands. I wish you the best.Itsuki, I entrust these Star Offerings to you. Enshrine them in the deepest parts of the 12 labyrinths to complete your mission.Well that’s nice. We were actually given the magic doodads that we need to save the world before being shoved into the monster filled death mazes. What a novel concept.   Right, Ruby? You unbelievable dumbass.Now, take the Star Maidens to the labyrinth entrances. Itsuki, go to the Stardust Labyrinth once you’re ready.Finally. Off we go.  You guys have satellite dishes in this world? Anything decent on TV around here? So this is where the labyrinth is, huh…These great labyrinths… They were constructed by Mirei’s ancestors to seal the Impurities.  They passed their hopes down to us as I took over their mission. That is why I need your help, Itsuki.Uh, right. I’ll do my best.All the Star Maidens are here. Everyone, just do it the way we practiced yesterday. Mahiru, you remember, don’t you?Yes… It’s easier than making the Star Offering.This gate is the entrance to the labyrinths only to be used by God’s Gift. It’s usually locked by the Seal of Thorns. But we’ll be unsealing it right now. Mirei, let’s start.We will now conduct the Unraveling Ceremony on the Seal Gate of the Stardust Labyrinths. Then we get a little clip of each Maiden’s face appearing alongside their star sign. It isn’t nearly Sentai enough for my liking. I miss the transformation sequences from CII.   Phew… Oh, geez…You looked like a sorceress. Wish I could learn some magic like that.Never mind that. Just be careful out there.I can do this. You just have to trust me.Yeah… I’ll do that.(At least, I hope I can do this…)I haven’t slept at all since creating the Star Offering and practicing for this ceremony. I feel bad about it, but I need to get some rest now.Mahiru, you did well. Thank you.You don’t need to thank me. It’s all to get back to my own world.Itsuki, before you go into the labyrinth, I’ll explain the structure of it. The 12 Stardust Labyrinths each have a chamber hidden deep within. But this is the only entrance.  Go through the gates to get to each labyrinth. The labyrinths all go deep underground, and the lowest level is B15.Not liking the sound of this so far. 15 floors was a pain in the rear end to get through in CII. Not to mention boring as sin. Every five floors, the Impurities’ energy signatures will become stronger. They basically get harder to fight every five floors. Don’t get too cocky. Return to the surface if you sense you’re in danger. Also, the labyrinths of the four seasons are of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. When you get to B10, they’ll branch out and reveal three more labyrinths. Four labyrinths with three branches make them a total of 12 labyrinths.I’m going to assume that these paths are all locked off behind story advancements. I don’t expect we’ll get a choice as to which gate to enter or even which branch to go down. At the bottommost floor, the Impurity Gods await you. That’s all the dirt I’ve got on the Stardust Labyrinths. Itsuki, are you ready? Let’s go!  And here’s the gameplay loop. Like CII, this game doesn’t seem to have any kind of hard limit on time. We can rest and fart around as much as we want, since only the plot can advance story time.   You should start from the Spring Labyrinth. The Impurities there aren’t as strong. Go to the end of the Aries Labyrinth and enshrine the Star Offering. By then, you should be strong enough to take on the other labyrinths.Alright, let’s do this I guess. Come on… uhh… kids? Party? Star Children? Not really sure what I should call you. Well, we’ll figure it out on the way.Have to stop there for now. Next time, we'll check out the dungeon and also the Star Maidens. Decisions have to be made for both. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Nov 14, 2019 |
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Nov 14, 2019 01:19
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BlazeEmblem posted:So none of the star maidens are going into battle with us? That's just going to make them even more forgettable. Unfortunately no. This is an Itsuki and the kids deal. Not sure how much involvement the Maidens have outside of dungeons. Reone seems to play a big role, and Mirei seems pretty important, but the others have so far been mostly silent and out of sight. We'll see if that changes. The reason it's called Classmating will be explained next time, although the explanation is still technically incorrect since Itsuki is not going to be made a student of Star God Academy. Not according to Narc anyway. So, a few fun facts about this game's release: -There was a patch today that replaced the movie files with high quality versions. The difference in quality is definitely noticeable, especially in the opening. I am dumbfounded as to how this happened. Where did the crappy quality movie files come from? -The game originally released without a launcher. You may have noticed that the screenshots have been a little blurry compared to CII. Until today, I've just been playing the game with default settings (which were something of a mystery). Apparently SC has fixed this issue and the launcher is appearing where it should be, which means that I should be able to mess with graphics settings now and match up the resolution with OBS. Hopefully this will result in a slight bump to the screenshot quality. Yes, for about a week after release you couldn't change graphics or keybinding settings on PC. You could edit the ini file, but the changes apparently reverted after every launch. -I forgot to mention this, but on release day, Spike Chunsoft held back the Steam release of the game until 6pm PST on November 5th so that they could do a live stream at that time as a release event. That means PS4 people were free to play as soon as they could buy their copy, but Steam users were left waiting until 6pm on the West coast of NA even though the game had technically been released 18 hours earlier. I'm on the East coast, which meant that the PC version for me didn't unlock until roughly 10:30 at night, 22.5 hours into release day. I'm stressed out because of final term papers and depression and final exams coming up. This LP is providing so much joy right now.  I missed you Spike Chunsoft, you and your complete inability to avoid tripping over your own feet.
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Nov 14, 2019 |
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Nov 14, 2019 02:55
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Ratoslov posted:We need to make a boy cleric. Party choice will be coming up after the bonding updates, but considering how limited the classes are right now, I am fairly certain that a boy cleric will be part of at least 1 team. We need 12 Star Children to fill out all of our teams. Drakenel posted:I mean, most of it at Mana, just please snuff the abomination at the earliest convenience. But... Yeah I see the sequel was an improvement in a number of ways. SSNeoman posted:I gotta say, this world seems to suck a lot more than CII's. It's a hell of a lot less compelling too. That's the thing that's a little hard to reconcile for me. They've made some improvements, but at its core this is still a prequel game. This was their first try at building this universe, so it's likely going to be lacking in a number of ways compared to the sequel. What's more, I believe this game was originally largely developed by Chunsoft before they merged with Spike, so it was a smaller developer compared to what CII got. Part of me is actually getting a little worried that we won't really get a story beyond what we've just seen. CII had story segments before and after every dungeon, but CP seems to have set us up and then told us to come back once all the Star Offerings are in place so they can fire off an ending. I hope that isn't the case, but if it is then I may have to rethink my Maiden vote thing, otherwise this is going to be a really short LP. AnAnonymousIdiot posted:At this point I wish Mana turns out to be some sleeper agent for the Impurity nonsense from what little I'm gathering from this update. It'd be kinda clever. OOrochi posted:Jesus, at least Chlotz had some decent qualities eventually. Mana is just stupid. Don't get your hopes up. Mana seems way too annoying for the game to give us the mercy of escaping. Usually the most irritating character is the one that sticks around and dodges every bullet. Don't get me wrong, I'm hoping you're right because I would really enjoy a Mana boss fight. I just think it's a long shot. The other hope spot is that Mana says it was her job to babysit Itsuki "at least for now". I am desperately praying that that means Shangri-La will eventually see fit to leave us to our own devices and pull Mana off of Itsuki-watch. Commander Keene posted:I dunno that much about MMOs, but the archetypal D&D/fantasy party is Fighter/Cleric/Rogue/Wizard, classified in 4th Edition as Defender/Leader/Striker/Controller. I was operating on a FFXIV system, although it still kind of fits. We've got a Wizard and a Cleric, but the Fighter Star Children seems to be doubling up on the Rogue/Striker. They've got okay defences, but Fighter SC's are definitely attacker types. They certainly don't excel at defences or survivability. megane posted:Every cutesy talking animal sidekick is awful, but holy poo poo, Mana might take the title of the worst one ever. It's like they sat down with the explicit goal of making the player hate her guts as fast as possible. I'm really hoping that she gets better as we get further into the game. Chlotz was a pretty big creeper and a major pain in the rear end at first as well, but he really redeems himself starting a third of the way through the story, and by the end of the game he has left behind a lot of his more annoying behaviour. Not saying that Mana is going to do that, but there's at least a chance. Maybe? Please? The Flying Twybil posted:I started doing LPs to hold back my depression, so I'm glad to hear your LP's helping you out! Having a project to work on that will be enjoyed by even a handful of people definitely helps keep the demons at bay. If I had more of a personality I probably would have gone into streaming. As for the errors and lack of basic things like a launcher: Stuff like this really should piss me off, because it does for bigger companies like Sony, Nintendo, Sega, or Square, but I just can't bring myself to get worked up by it when it's a smaller company like Spike Chunsoft. It's like watching a baby deer stumble around while trying to walk. There's something adorable about seeing them screw up in such strange ways, like failing at basic grammer/spelling checks. That said, I only find it amusing in a growing pains sort of way. Their NA studio is almost two years old now. They better start ironing out flaws if they want to build themselves up like Atlus or NiS America. If I'm back here in two years doing another SC game and they are still loving up like this, then I will be decidedly less jovial about it. I will check on the movie files tonight. I'm curious to see what the difference is in terms of file size or format, or if there is a difference. I know the opening movie file was originally only like 11mb. ------------------------------------ Just a preview of what's to come, whenever I have a moment away from term papers: I'm going to do first stage bonding updates over the next week or two. Spoiler alert, the first dungeon actually puts up a bit more of a fight than CII's. I was only able to clear 1 floor before I had to back out and heal up. Itsuki is also having a little trouble pulling his weight. So I need Star Children. And those Star Children need moms. So we need to sort out this whole 12 Maidens thing and narrow the focus (at least for now. As mentioned above, this might change if I discover that there is a bare bones story in between dungeons). Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Nov 14, 2019 |
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Nov 14, 2019 17:52
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Polsy posted:Most likely this wouldn't have been their first choice but they needed to keep it the same as Conception 2, where it made more sense. It's basically 'love ceremony' in both games in Japanese. It's definitely the better of the choices in my opinion. The press release about the English localization that listed the improvements made to the game refers to it as "love ceremony" or "love ritual". Classmating doesn't fit especially well since God's Gift always comes from Earth and he technically isn't made a student of the Academy since he has world saving stuff to do. But Love Ceremony is also a bit weird since there's no love involved (at least at the start) and we are specifically told that the ritual doesn't involve physical love, as in sex. Bonding Ritual or Bonding Ceremony may have been a better choice, but that's kind of out of the hands of the localization team. mateo360 posted:Mana just reminds me of the most evil creature in the universe I wish this game would pull some twisted poo poo like that. I'll be working on a short update tonight that goes over the battle mechanics and also sets the stage for the Bonding Updates. As I stated before, I plan to narrow the heroines down to 3 or 4, but if the story of this game appears to be as thin as I fear, then I'll consider doing away with the vote and just showing off every route in the name of content. I still need to clear the first dungeon in order to get an idea of how much main story this game actually has. I haven't done that yet because I need Star Children to fill out the teams. Also, it looks like screenshots will be staying the same. I got the update for the launcher and immediately found out that it doesn't work for me. I keep getting Javascript error boxes about missing dll files. The place they are supposedly missing from is a file in a Temp folder on my SSD, where this game is most certainly not installed. I sent a support email to Spike Chunsoft, and after tracking down a different support email (because the one listed on their Steam page doesn't exist), I was told to try checking the registry and update drivers. That's the digital equivalent of "Did you try turning it off and on?" Anyway, nothing I did fixed it, even when I was staring directly at the dll files the error was saying were missing. Uninstalling the game on my HDD and reinstalling it on my SSD resulted in the first attempt getting stuck at 100% download and not installing. Attempt #2 resulted in the game installing but the sound not working. So I put everything back to where it was and I'm just going to back away and not touch it ever again and pray that the duct tape and shoe strings holding this game together manage to last until the LP is finished. I have never had trouble with a PC game until this one. What insane pagan magic does SC use to port these things? I've seen people reporting memory leaks as well that cause this game to start using up gigs of memory.
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Nov 19, 2019 18:00
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Commander Keene posted:If it's just some graphics settings that need to be tweaked every time the game launches, you might be able to set something up with a Windows batch file that you use to make the tweaks and launch the game with one click. I tried messing with the ini file, but the resolution changes don't seem to be taking hold. The game always launches windowed in a resolution I can't figure out, which is why my OBS recording is off a smidge since I think that's set to 720p. I may try fiddling with it while it's running. Maybe it is going at 1080 by default despite being windowed. Either way, that thing I said about finding it adorable is quickly starting to fade. I wasn't expecting this level of crap to suddenly pop up. Now I have to start running my task manager next to the recording in order to monitor the memory usage and watch for leaks. Gilgamesh255 posted:So wait, people effectively have to stop having sex, otherwise bad things happen? I doubt the devs have any knowledge of what that is. At the moment they have to stop, because some freak occurence happened that resulted in all the magic evil vacuums breaking down at the same time. Normally what happens is every 10 years a single doodad stops working, like say Aries or something, and then all the people born March 21 to April 20 have to keep it in their pants until Star God gets off his rear end and grabs some plucky teenager from Earth to blackmail into swapping in a fresh doodad. Either way, there's going to be an increasingly pissed off and stressed out population the longer God’s Gift it takes to fix things. MythosDragon posted:Yo, good to see you you're still insane enough to do this. Don't worry about it. I appreciated the offer, but I know that people have better stuff to do in their lives than this. Whatever it is that came up for you, it was hundreds of times more important than chronicling the spelling errors and weird nonsensical changes in an anime dating-sim JRPG. You guys sit back and (hopefully) enjoy. I'll deal with pulling the cart. This increasingly rickety cart with strangely shaped wheels.
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Nov 20, 2019 14:13
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Update III: The Stars predict tomorrow you’ll wake up, do a bunch of stuff, and then go back to sleep Title Song Reference: That’s Your Horoscope for Today – Weird Al This update is going to be on the short side. It’s also going to be real tutorial heavy, but we need to get it out of the way at some point, so it might as well be now.  Only the one option, so Spring it is. Let’s blow through this in one shot and move on.     All the same as CII. Dungeons are randomized, so I won’t be able to provide any kind of walkthrough in case people out there are following along. We can also jump back in to the dungeon from any floor that we’ve been to, which is very handy for quests. Speaking of quests, the yellow exclamation point symbols will point out where quest monsters or items can be found.      And here’s some more details on dungeon gameplay that I won’t have to try and awkwardly explain. Cool.  It’s finally gameplay time. We’ve got our little team of star kids with us, so let’s check out what this game has to offer.  The game pops up some tutorials on stats when you check the menu. I’ve already covered it, but I wanted to include this card because it is providing incorrect information. Defense does not “mainly affect the damage output of normal attacks and physical skills.” Defense affects the amount of damage you take from physical hits. Oh, Spike Chunsoft. Normally I’d be ticked off with so many blatant translation and grammar errors. But the way you do them is just too amusing for me to care that much. Oh yeah, here is the elemental affinities chart. It looks largely the same as CII, although Void appears to be outside of the chart. In CII, Void was the counter to Light. In Conception Plus, Light seems to be some kind of super element. Lovely. They don’t explain what the triangle means, but I hope to god that it doesn’t mean Light is super effective against all the base elements. That’s how it worked in CII, except CII had Void as a counter.  Monsters on the map in this game appear as their actual models, it seems. I hope that holds true for every monster, because that would be really helpful for doing quests. CII had a skill that would show you what monsters were in a party from the dungeon map, but you had to keep reusing it every so often and it wasn’t quite as helpful as just seeing the model running around. The other thing I want to point out is that those blue crystal things are treasure chests. You can open them to get items. Some enemies are aware of this fact, as well as the fact that you need to get through doors in order to advance. So sometimes when you enter a new room, the enemies within it will all make a break for the nearest chest or door and block it. The guy on the left in the screenshot will just stand in front of that door until you beat him. The guy in the back on the right side of the screenshot will circle around that chest to stop you from getting it unless you beat him. They are assholes.    More tutorials! This is all common stuff. Mecunite is something we’ll get to in a minute.  The first enemy is Bootes which… is actually kind of scary. Or maybe not. The first Team A(wful) in CII fought the first labyrinth boss single-handed, and they were 6-8 levels under it. I’m probably just applying too much regular JRPG logic to this. I'll show off a video of how all of this works once we're ready to tackle the first boss. For now, here's a text and screenshot explanation.  So the battle system in this game is pretty simple, but it’s kind of difficult to actually explain. As you can see here, the enemy stands in the middle of the circle while our party members occupy the four surrounding zones. There can only be one Star Child team in a zone at a time, but they can move around to any unoccupied zones during their turns. Itsuki is able to occupy any of the four zones, even if there is a Star Child team already in it. What you see above is considered one battle circle. There are 9 of these on the battlefield arranged in a 3x3 grid. The enemies can move to any circle on the field, but they must do it one move at a time. Itsuki and the Star Children can only move to a circle that has an enemy in it, but they can jump from one to the other without having to use turns to travel there. Most of the time, this will heavily benefit the player, since you can do things like force the enemy to waste turns trying to get into an attack position. However, there are certain circumstances where this works against the player. There was a memorable example of it happening in CII during one of the boss fights.  Other than that, every enemy has at least one direction where they are weak. Attacking from these directions will deal bonus damage, as seen above. The player teams will take extra damage if they are attacked from behind, which happens when an enemy attacks from the circle that the team has its back to.  Sometimes the enemy will try and pull a charge attack. A purple aura will flare up around them and they’ll seemingly skip their turn. You’ll notice that “Caution” is now appearing on the zone our heroes are standing in, though. This is one reason why Speed is such an important stat. If you are fast, you’re more likely to get a turn before the enemy can pull off the charge attack. This lets you just move out of the way. Slower teams will likely wind up getting outrun by the enemy before they can get to safety. There’s a tactical way to use enemy charge attacks to your advantage, but that requires an explanation of the Chain Drive gauge.    And here’s that explanation. The game doesn’t give it to you right away, but the tutorial card is already in the database. The best way to build the CD gauge right now is by attacking an enemy head-on during one of their wind-up attacks. Certain Star Children get access to skills that can raise the CD gauge in other ways though. This is another reason why Speed is important. If you’re too slow, then Chain will likely wear off before you get the chance to really capitalize on it.  Another battle option that doesn’t get explained unless you try and use it is Mecunite.  Mecunite uses up BP, but it lets the Star Children really wreck house.    At least this transformation sequence stayed around. Mecunite was present in CII as well, although it had way more possible forms in CII (30 of them, I think). CP only seems to have 7 or 8 different forms.  Mecunite is limited to 4 Turns, but it provides a huge boost in firepower. MU’s special skill, in this case MAT CODE D, uses BP but hits all enemies in the battle and also reduces their MAT.     It’s really good for clearing out troublesome encounters. Or for wiping any boss minions off the field. Other than that, MU’s just have some regular skills. The difference is that the stats will be higher than the Star Child team. Just to quickly skim the rest of the tutorial cards: -There are four status ailments (Poison, Paralysis, Seal, and Panic). Poison hurts you every turn, Paralysis reduces speed, Seal prevents you from using magic/skills, and Panic is a combination of Seal and Paralysis. -Star Children return to Matryoshka dolls when their HP hits 0. Despite having a "Team HP", each Star Child still has a personal HP bar, so it is possible for individual Star Children to get knocked out. The more individual Star Children get knocked out, the weaker the Team will get as a unit and the fewer skills they can use. If Itsuki gets KO'd, then we're done. This game is running on SMT rules. A Game Over will kick us back to the map and we'll lose 20% of our cash. -You can toggle a "Speed Up" using the right bumper on a controller to make battles go faster. Like any RPG with this feature, you'll probably leave that on permanently as soon as you find out about it. -You can also set up Auto-Battle tactics if you want to let the game play itself. Probably not going to use this myself, because then I'll stop paying attention to battle and that will probably result in getting wiped.  The hell is this doing in here? Oh well. It’s a quest item, so at least we don’t have to debase Itsuki by having him give it as a gift.  We’ll have to stop here for now, because Itsuki and the kids took a beating. They’ve also barely managed to level up. I actually had to peace out of this dungeon on the first floor because the team wasn’t in great shape and I didn’t want to burn Potions since they are fairly expensive and the dungeon isn’t littered with them.  Just to give you an idea, the enemies in here only pay out about 5-10 experience. The kids managed to get to level 3 upon clearing the floor, but Itsuki only just barely got to level 2 and he needed healing from the Star Children about halfway through the floor (he is fairly slow at the moment, so he can’t dodge charge attacks very well). His stats at level 2 are only roughly on par with the Star Children Tutorial Team at level 1 (he’s actually still slower than they were). Itsuki is a definite weak link right now, which I guess sort of makes sense. He isn’t a trained swordsman and he doesn’t have the fire support of a Star Maiden, unlike our boy Wake in CII.  I may actually be awake for half of this LP! I mean, it’s not hard, but it is giving me hope that this game won’t be a complete cakewalk outside of a single boss fight. In CII we had Wake and Fuuko blitz the first dungeon with a single (tutorial) Star Child team the second that we were given access to it. The only reason we didn’t cap the dungeon in one run was because of Ruby being an unforgiveable moron. Once we were given access to the entire dungeon for realsies, Team A(wful) 1.0 just destroyed the place by themselves and broke the boss over their tiny knees without Wake and Narika having to lift a finger. I mean that by the way. I did the first boss fight in CII by skipping all of Wake/Narika’s turns and using only Team A(wful) 1.0. Also they didn’t need healing. It was exactly as sad as it sounds. Anyway. Preparations must be made.  After the game talks at us a little more anyway. I didn’t lose any limbs and none of the little kid warriors died. I consider that a good first run.Well, you do have the best guide possible. Mahiru? Were you waiting around for me to come back?O-Of course not. I just happened to be here. But I’m glad you came back in one piece. W-Well, bye… I’m going back on my walk.*Mahiru books it* Geez, Mahiru. You know, it’s okay to be worried.~Palace Laboratory~  Ehhh, not quite. We’re working on it though. At this rate, you’ll be able to defeat the first Impurity God very soon.I think now is a good time to explain how to Tri-Mate. Tri-Mating is the Classmating ritual, but with two participating Star Maidens. By doing the ritual with two Star Maidens… you can produce superior Star Children. However, the Star Maidens must be sufficiently powerful to do so. A Star Maiden’s power will increase as their bond with you becomes more profound. Therefore, you can only conduct Tri-Mating with the Star Maidens you are closest with. First of all: Mana, shut the gently caress up. Second: I’m not sure why the game explains this to you now. If CII is anything to go by, Tri-Mating won’t be available for a while. We haven’t even started to get close with the Star Maidens yet. I’ll explain this a little more once we get to the Bonding events. Since you’ll be dealing with two at the same time, you’ll need tons of energy. You have to have a high level, otherwise, there’s no point to it.So why are you telling us now? Introduce this once we reach a point where it’s actually possible. And they’re still Star Maidens. Not all of them would enjoy Tri-Mating with each other. I’m sure many would feel embarrassed to be exposed in front of others. Then again, it never hurts to do some interesting moves with them. Ahaha.What “interesting moves”? What do you mean "exposed in front of others"? What the gently caress does this ritual involve!? Is it sex or is it not sex? Make up your drat mind, game. …Oh, one more thing. Tri-Mating won’t deepen your bond with a Star Maiden. If you wanna deepen your bond, you should stick with Classmating. You better keep that in mind.I’m just going to pretend that I know what you mean.But also remember that you will need stronger Star Children to defeat stronger enemies. It’s best to use everything you have at your disposal.Nar, your smug face is really deceiving when you say such harsh things. Not like they really have a choice. Leaving aside the fact that Mahiru was kidnapped from her own world and can’t go back unless she does this, the other Star Maidens have had the fate of their world and everyone/everything they love loaded onto their shoulders. I never thought the day would come to utilize Tri-Mating…What do you mean by that? Is this Tri-Mating stuff not a normal thing?At least for the last few centuries… There hasn’t been a God’s Gift who Classmated with multiple Star Maidens. That’s why Tri-Mating is only known among the scholars of history… It’s been passed around merely as legend. To us, Tri-Mating is a new concept.You better be prepared, Itsuki. You’ll be the one experimenting with all the ladies.Great… So now I’m a test subject, too. It gets better every day…Why has the “art” of Tri-Mating fallen into legend? God’s Gifts show up every 10 years. Even if the monsters/threats those God’s Gifts had to deal with were way easier than Itsuki’s, why wouldn’t you make use of Tri-Mating anyway? Wouldn’t you want to make the strongest Star Children possible just in case something were to go terribly wrong? Actually, never mind. This is the same game series where a character deliberately withheld a monster immortality neutralizing McGuffin from humanity’s only hope because she “didn’t plan on” him running into it early, as he was about to go exploring the ever changing labyrinth where said immortal monster is known to live. I will now introduce you to the other students of the academy. Come with me.~Star God Academy… Roof? Amphitheatre? We’re outside.~  This makes the term “Classmating” not entirely appropriate, since Itsuki won’t be a classmate of anyone except technically Mahiru. Although in Japanese it’s referred to as “Love Ceremony” or “Love Ritual”, so I guess this was just a translation choice to make it a tiny bit less odd sounding. Classmating is much more appropriate in CII, where Wake is actually a student the same as the heroines. Like with the 12 Star Maidens, I hope you will all get along.Uh, hey. Nice to meet you all.Is that… Is that LightBlueHair over there in the back? Dude! I thought you died! Although, I guess this is technically--  Oh, okay. I guess we’re moving on then. This is a special class for the Star Maidens. Outside of being the dean of the academy, I teach this class.Looks pretty much like the classrooms in my world. Outside of the medieval architecture designs I mean.This class is comprised strictly of the 12 Star Maidens. It was hastily put into the curriculum a month ago, after the Star Chaos. The Star Maidens attend this class every few days each week.I guess that means Mahiru will be coming here, too.To build profound bonds with the Star Maidens, you must visit the academy often.Itsuki, be sure not to hit on the other female students.How much energy do you think I have? I already have my hands full with world saving.I’m sure you’re tired from everything. Please head to your lodging to rest.I’d really like that. Thanks. Okay, we’re largely set free at this point. That means now is the time to get busy with micromanaging and preparing for dungeons.  First of all, I pop into the Tavern to turn in quests. We only went through one floor, but there are already two quests ready to turn in. One of those is the result of me having a death grip on Potions. I probably shouldn’t turn this in until the Potion supply increases but screw it. Need to check those boxes off. I also hand in that Human Pretzel game we found in the dungeon. On top of a 2,000G reward, this quest also gives 3 different gift items for completing it. Something tells me that a book of scary stories, a magic backscratcher, and Hors D’oeuvres will go over a little better with the ladies as gifts than Twister: I Hope You Can’t Feel My Boner.  Now that that is done, we’ve got a tiny bit of cash on hand to maybe outfit Itsuki and a handful of new Star Children. We’re going to need some new Star Children first. Unlike CII, we’re going to want to go into this with a full party. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Hm? There’s nobody here. Can I not do that whole ritual thing right now?Of course not! What the hell do you mean? We did introductions already. I said hi to them all.Just how thickheaded are you when it comes to women? If you really want to Classmate with them… You have to visit the Star Maidens personally! Learn your manners!Okay, okay. I’ll go and say hi to everyone individually. Why does everything in this world have to be such a pain? Mmkay. I guess we need to get bonding out of the way first. In CII the introductions just happened when you picked someone to Classmate with.   Next on the agenda: Bonding. If you weren’t around for the CII LP, then here is how the “deepening bonds” stuff works. We get 5 hearts at a time. We use these hearts to spend time with the heroines and build up a relationship/bond with them. Viewing an event with a maiden uses up 1 heart and you can only spend time with a particular maiden once before you need to advance time by resting at the inn or exploring a dungeon. Keep in mind that there is no time limit on the main story (as far as I know), so we could just bond with all 12 ladies by resting every time we run out of hearts.     There are 2 kinds of bonding events: Generic and Unique. Unique events are ones that advance each maiden’s character/story arcs. These usually only happen at the beginning and end of a bond gauge (that’s the gauge you see surrounding the emoji face above the stat graph). These bond gauges are locked by story progress, so you can’t just max all 5 gauges right from the start. This is also why telling us about Tri-Mating is pointless right now. It’s not like we can power level the bond gauge, because the game gates each section off. In CII, we didn’t get the ability to Tri-Mate until roughly the fourth dungeon, at which point I think the third level of bond gauge was unlocked (Wake was around level 22 by that point).   Other than that, the Star Maidens’ moods can change based on what kind of answers you give during bonding events, the gifts you give them, Star Child bonus cards, and all sorts of fun stuff. The better the Star Maiden’s mood, the better the Star Children you make with her will be. If the mood ever drops to red angry face, then you won’t be able to select the Star Maiden for Classmating at all. Honestly, you really have to try to get the mood to drop that far. Even if you have absolutely no idea what the “good” answer is during a bonding event, you usually have a 1 in 3 chance of picking the right one at random. The bad answers are also fairly obvious a lot of the time. Plus, Generic events will eventually repeat, so sooner or later you’ll know all of the right things to say during them. It’s very easy to maintain a max mood rating.  You also get Bond Points (BP) for doing these events, which you can see in that little gauge to the bottom left. BP is what we need to make Star Children, Mecunite, use certain super powerful attacks, and other random gameplay stuff. Increasing the Star Maidens’ bond gauge also lets us create stronger Star Children and new classes.  One last thing that I don’t think the game explained during all of those tutorial cards. It seems that we can get some kind of Bond bonus for the Star Maiden whose month we are currently in. Not really a big deal because of how repeatable the bonding events are, but maybe it will have some kind of bonus on the Star Children. I’ll have to look for a tutorial card in the database to see if it is detailed.  Which brings us here. Dungeon 1 doesn’t seem to allow for the kind of sleep walking that went on in CII. We need Star Children. A lot of Star Children. 12 Star Children to be exact. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview of what’s happening next: There are currently 12 Star Maidens that we can bond with. My intention at the moment is still to make the thread vote on 3 or 4 Maidens to focus on, because following up on 12 different character arcs after every dungeon would take forever. That said, this is assuming that the game also throws main story segments at us after each dungeon. We’ll figure that last part out later on, once we get an idea of how much main story there actually is. There’s a real possibility that we’re just expected to go from boss to boss until it’s time for the finale. So far it doesn’t seem like this game has the necessary supporting cast to do regular story breaks. Either way, there is something that needs to be done regardless of how updates go in the future. 1. The next few updates will be Bonding Updates. I’m not sure exactly how many I will need, but I will probably break my posting schedule temporarily in order to get this done as quickly as possible. 2. I will show the Introduction Event as well as the first major bonding event for each Star Maiden. 3. After all the Maidens have had a turn to drum up interest in their personal story arcs, the thread will vote on 3 (or 4, I haven’t quite decided yet) of the 12 Maidens to continue following. If CP turns out to have an actual story that pops up between dungeons, then the Maidens with the most votes will become the focus Maidens and we’ll see the full bonding events for them while the other Star Maidens will just get summaries of their events. 4. After all the bonding stuff is done, I’ll be looking for thread input on crafting our first set of dungeon teams. More on that when the time comes. It doesn't really matter because we'll see all of them eventually, but shout out in the thread if you have a particular order you want the Star Maidens to go in (or if there are certain Maidens you want to see first/last). If nobody has any suggestions then I'll probably just go by their Star Sign order (from January to December). Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Nov 22, 2019 |
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Nov 22, 2019 01:25
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Commander Keene posted:I haven't read the new update yet, but I thought of a thing you could try. Take a screenshot using a program like Irfanview or even the Microsoft Game Bar that does window capture and look at the resolution of the resulting PNG image. You might need to adjust for the title bar, but it should give you a reasonable approximation. I'll try that out, thanks. I tried setting it to 1080p in OBS, but I don't think there was any change in quality, which means it's likely still up or down scaling from the real resolution. Someone on the Steam boards is saying they are having the same problem with the launcher as I am, so maybe SC will eventually look into this. Either way, I've gone back and added in all these fun little issues to the Mini Update where I rant about CP's weird problems.
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Nov 22, 2019 02:06
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Ashsaber posted:Well, Tri-mating being this legendary thing kinda makes sense, since every other time apparently only one of the offerings fails, so only one star maiden would be chosen, logically. Kind of hard to do something with two star maidens when there is only one around. Cloudmonkey98 posted:Also yeah I think Tri-Mating is a legend because God's Gift usually only hung around the Star Maiden of the current decade's crisis, rather then all of them It's possible, it just seems strange. There are always 12 Star Maidens, even if their offering isn't broken, because we were told that they stop aging for 120 years until their offering does give out and their job as a Maiden is done. I guess it's possible that all the other Star Maidens are out wandering around the world. We haven't been told what they do once the offering is restored. I guess there's no reason to hang around Granvania for 120 years if you know that the Star Offering runs on a predictable cycle. But we were also told they had to carry out their duties as Star Maidens until they lose their power. So if they don't have to be around every ten years to help God’s Gifts, then what the hell do they do for over a century? Commander Keene posted:I'm just guessing, but I think that the unidirectional arrows with the "O"s and "X"s on them indicate an elemental advantage/disadvantage set. It looks like the elemental magic has its own rock-paper-scissors, Dark magic is strong against all the classical elements, Light is strong against Dark, and Light and Elemental magic are maybe neutral? The arrows there point both ways and have triangle symbols on both ends, so I think it's indicating some relationship outside the usual dichotomy. Maybe they're both strong against each other or something (which would make Light the glass cannon element). AweStriker posted:That triangle symbol I've sometimes seen used for "not very effective" (as in Etrian Odyssey's vulnerability displays) so maybe Light deals less damage to the classical elements and the classical elements deal less damage to Light in return? I'm mostly just used to CII's chart, where Light was outright superior to everything. 'Not effective' or 'equal to each other' is probably right. The enemies in the very first dungeon are Light element Defence and Attack. That would be a pretty big dick move if Light beats everything else. Although that raises the question as to why you wouldn't just make the enemies Void element in the first dungeon, since it's meant to be a tutorial. I wonder if there's a story reason for that, like maybe Light is part of the impurity problem.
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Nov 22, 2019 14:13
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Polsy posted:Looking at a Japanese let's play of the PSP game there only used to be 3 hearts/week for bonding. Guessing they bumped it to reduce tedium for people who really wanted to grind to the current max. I honestly don't know why they bothered to keep this system at all. The passing of time doesn't appear to change anything, so all the limited hearts do is waste roughly 10 seconds of your time every so often. Bumping it to 5 does help, but it would have been better if they had just done away with it entirely. The only way it makes sense is if the game used a Persona system of having a limited amount of time available. My guess is that they wanted this, but the idea got scrapped late into production. Although this raises the question as to why they tried it again with CII. Tenebrais posted:Given the arrows, I'd have interpreted it as Light being strong against the classic elements and the classics being strong against Light. Do the kids have elementally-oriented defences? If not, that'd mean any element they bring is strong against these early enemies. Cloudmonkey98 posted:Assuming this is like C2, and I recall things right, a Star Kid Team's element is the majority of their elemental influence, each kid is naturally worth 1 point, and some gear in C2 had its own elemental influence values for offense/defense respectively Circle definitely means super effective, so I lean towards Triangle being neutral or not effective, as others have said. This means any element we bring is not going to have an advantage or disadvantage against these starter enemies, and vice versa. The exception is Dark, which would be bad against these Light based starter enemies. As Cloudmonkey said, the kids do have elements in attack and defence. How they get those elements is something I'm currently unsure of. In CII, each heroine had an element (or combination of elements) that got passed on to the Star Children. I haven't seen any indication of the CP Star Maidens having elements this time though. Our tutorial team seems to be largely random despite Mahiru being the mom of them all.
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Nov 22, 2019 18:55
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Yeah, God's Gift just seems to be the term that people in Granvania have for whomever gets nabbed by Star God from The only time they really call Mahiru a God's Gift is when they first find her with Itsuki and when they are explaining why they thought there were two of them. After they realize what's going on she is just called a Star Maiden, or the Virgo Maiden. As to whether she can fight the monsters, I'm not sure. Reone told us outright that they can't kill them, although she was a little unclear if she meant Star Maidens specifically or just people from Granvania in general. We haven't seen any indication of soldiers or defensive lines around the Labyrinth, so it probably means that all Granvanian people simply can't do anything to them. On the other hand, why is Itsuki able to if Mahiru can't? Presumably people from our world have some kind of innate power that allows them to destroy the Impurities, which is why Star God has to nab them from Earth every ten years. So Mahiru should have that innate ability as well. If it isn't an innate ability of people from Earth, then that means it's a power that Star God grants to the person. So He gave the power to Itsuki (due to how Classmating works) and then made Mahiru a Star Maiden because He was still one short. But if that's the case, then why go to Earth at all? If Star God can bestow the power of monster killing on people, then why does He need to kidnap people from Earth? Why not choose someone in Granvania? All the Star Maidens are from Granvania (normally). Yes, the most likely explanation is obviously a plot hole, or lazy writing, but I like to ponder about this kind of stuff. Theories are fun.
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Nov 23, 2019 12:34
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Bonding Update I: Aries, Taurus, and Gemini Alright, so before we can go building our roster of little monster hunters, we need to build our relationships with the Star Maidens. We’ll also be looking to narrow the field and bench a couple of the ladies, at least until we find out for sure how much main story we’re working with in between chapters.  For the next few updates, we’ll take a look at the Introduction scene, the first Classmating scene, and the first real (unique) bonding event for each Star Maiden. I’ll be going in the order pictured here, in the database. I had originally organized these in the order that their astrological signs go in from January to December, but the launcher (which I learned can apparently only be launched from the Steam Library, not the desktop or game file folder) and OBS decided that working together wasn’t something that either of them cared to do. I got back from an hour and a half of recording to find a video which immediately froze when I went into full screen. Turns out I have to set the launcher to Borderless (which looks identical to Fullscreen) in order for OBS to record it properly.  Ugh, anyway, it was this whole thing. Point is, I had to go back and re-record all of these from the database which kind of irked me, so I just went from top to bottom to get through it as quickly as possible. I also don’t want to skip around the recording so we’re starting with Arie and ending with Yuzuha. Deal with it.  Huh, so there is a regular Church here as well? I guess it makes sense. The Church of Classmating doesn’t seem particularly suited to actual worship.*The screen fades to black for a split second* Whoa… what’s happening?... Kind of… dizzy…*The screen fades again, quicker this time* Wh-What’s going on? I… I’m freaking… out…*And our novice hero quickly drops like a rock as the screen goes to black*  Where…? What happened…?You collapsed in front of the church.Oh… right. I got really dizzy for some reason… It must have been from the heat. You have a slight fever. Please don’t overwork yourself.Sorry… I think all of this God’s Gift and world saving stuff just caught up to me all at once. Maybe I should have taken more time to let it all sink in… Here, please just relax. It’s best to rest when you’re ill. Why did you come to the church anyway?Oh, right. I wanted to see you. Thank you for coming here to see me. Haha. You’re quite different from how I thought you’d be, Itsuki. Until I saw you at the church, I thought you’d be more stout.Yeah, sorry about that. I’m probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think “God’s Gift.” No. I was worried you’d be a scary person. I’m happy you seem to be kind.Oh, that’s what you meant. That’s kind of a relief, then. I’ve introduced myself prior, but allow me to do so again: My name is Arie, and I serve the church.You said that before. What do you mean by it, though? I deal with churchgoers, and sometimes I teach classes for the children. Um, how about you? Did I meet your expectations?Uh… well…(What the hell do I say? Think, Itsuki, think… drat, this feels so different than talking with Mahiru. We just say whatever stupid things we want to each other… Oh poo poo, is this what talking to girls is actually like?!)...Y-You’re really beautiful. Haha… But thank you for the compliment.(Wow, I didn’t think that would work.)A-Anyway, thanks for looking after me. Sorry I just dropped in front of the church like that. Not at all. This is by the hand of the Star God. I only became a Star Maiden recently, so there are many things I don’t know. But this is my duty given to me by the Star God. I’ll do my best to fulfill it. I pray that you also feel the same.Don’t worry. I’m still kind of nervous, but I plan on giving this my all. Speaking of those duties, it’s time to get used to Classmating. Every Star Maiden gets a scene like this when you go to try and Classmate with them. There are a few more of these as the intimacy gauge rises that shows both the Maiden and Itsuki getting less and less weirded out by the whole Classmating thing, so this won’t be the last time we have one of these. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Okay, let’s give this a shot, Arie. Do you not want to? It’s not that I don’t… It’s rather… embarrassing.Well, I can understand that. I won’t force you, you know. If you want to try some other time instead— Itsuki, why do you want to Classmate with me?It’s for the sake of the world, right? For this world… I see. As God’s Gift, your actions will change the fate of this world. I-I didn’t mean it like that! I just… I will prepare myself, Itsuki.Well, whatever works I guess. As long as you’re sure, then let’s try making one of those Star Children. …Yes. But… may I ask one thing?Oh, sure. What is it? This… is my first time doing something like this… So, um… please… be gentle…Of course! I totally know how to do that… I just have to… uhhhh…*And then Classmating happened. Whatever the hell that entails. According to Reone, it’s not sex. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. Pillow fight, maybe?* Huff… Huff… Phew… A-Are you, doing okay?(I don’t think that will ever not be weird…) Y-Yes… I’m fine.Okay. Your face is really red, so I just wanted to make sure. Th-That’s not true. I’m only a little dazed. It was my first time doing the ritual. I didn’t know it was like that.Like what? Does it feel different for Star Maidens? W-Well… Um, Itsuki. May I return for today?Huh? Oh, sure. I think this went really well. Thanks. I’m glad. Now, if you’ll excuse me…*And Arie books it* What the hell am I missing about this Classmating thing? I know the build up is really embarrassing, but it’s a relief when it’s done… right?Certainly a mystery for the ages. It makes a lot more sense if we go by the anime adaption’s depiction of Classmating, but the anime is also playing things up because they want to cash in on the Highschool DxD market. The vague nature of this whole thing makes it really hard to write Itsuki for me, because how embarrassed or shy official Itsuki gets varies wildly in the bonding events. But then he is usually very well composed in Classmating scenes. He maintains a “this is just a job, let’s get it done” attitude in when Classmating, but we’ll see later that some of the Star Maidens can make him fairly uncomfortable just by leaning in a little close. I’m getting too many mixed signals here, game. It’s an M rated game and your anime adaption just throws all subtlety to the wind, so stop gaslighting me. It would really make my writing job easier. Anyway, some indeterminate time later…  ♪Hmm hmm hmm.♪ Mmm.♪ Oh? Hello, Itsuki. Did you need something from the church?Hey, Arie. No, I was just passing by. You seem to be having fun with your cleaning. Did it appear that way? Though, I do like to clean… This is part of my training, so I must take it seriously.You train by cleaning? Yes. Cleaning is the best sort of training to cleanse your mind and body. My days at the church always start with cleaning.Wait, you do this every day? That’s pretty impressive. I definitely couldn’t do that. It’s nothing special. This is like a habit for me.Wish I had that habit. Then again, I’m a friendless and loveless loser, so who the hell am I trying to impress? As long as there’s nothing biohazardous then I’m okay with mess. Itsuki, how about you try it? You’ll get used to it immediately. Serving the church together with the sunrise feels really good.I don’t know. It sounds like a pretty tough thing to keep up, especially every single day. I’ll be honest, I’m lost with this next transition. I’m just going to let Official Itsuki speak for himself. The heart of serving… That sounds like a difficult concept to grasp.I have a feeling that something was lost in translation here. Arie just basically said “helping others can motivate you.” She didn’t use any flowery language. Itsuki just busting out “The heart of serving” sounds really strange. It’s not difficult. It just means you are accomplishing things for others.Again, very straightforward. I do so for the Star God. And I serve the people who believe in Him. Itsuki, you go into the labyrinths almost daily. Do you not do so because it is for the sake of someone else?Hmm… I guess it’s for the sake of people like you. Yeah. I don’t want the people of this world being overrun by monsters. Oh… that’s what you meant. I was surprised to hear you say such a thing. Itsuki, you are a wonderful person.Well, let’s get go overboard. Could I get like a pamphlet or something for this place? The clergy seem miles better than in Earth religions. Then again, Star God seems like kind of a dick in this world. No, it’s fine. I think you’ve given me some better perspective on the “heart of serving” stuff. Really? That makes me happy. To understand the heart of service is the first step to serving the church.That’s great, but I don’t think I’m ready to go joining a church. I appreciate that she’s not pushy about it. Church people are almost never like “Okay, well if you change your mind then just let me know.” They’re more like “I see, well how much brow beating will it take for you to give in and just agree?”  Organized religion, man. No concept of “leave me alone.” Anyway, let’s get to know Tarua next. That last conversation was confusing and slightly incoherent. Hopefully Tarua will be more straightforward. ~Star God Academy Field~ They told me Tarua was around here, but I don’t see her. Outta the waaay!Wait, what?! Whoa!*Tarua comes flying at Itsuki like a bat out of hell and rams into him. So I guess more like a bull out of hell since she’s the Taurus star Maiden. Dammit, why couldn’t she be Aries so I could make ramming pun?*  Augh augh… I hit my head… I can’t really pump the brakes when I stop running… Owie… Oh no! The letters! I dropped all the letters! I have to pick ‘em all up!Ugh… well at least the letters didn’t get shredded… I think you broke a rib… What about you? Are you okay? Augh? I’m totally fine! I always bump into stuff! (Maybe I should go see Reone after this…) They tell me to be careful not to run into stuff, but that doesn’t matter!Actually, I think you should listen to those people more. You’re going to hurt yourself eventually. Thanks for worrying about me! Huh? Hey, now that I got a better look, you’re Itsuki. What are you doing here? Are ya bored?No, I was just trying to find you so I could say hi. To me? Why? We already said hi the other time.That’s what I said! But Mana told me that God’s Gift has to have good manners and all that stuff. I have to Classmate with all of you, after all. So I guess she technically has a point. Oh, I guess so. You really like following the rules, don’t you, Itsuki. Then I’ll be like you and say hi to you again! I’m Tarua! Nice to meet ya! You mentioned that before. You run a postal service or something? Itsuki, if you ever want a letter delivered, just catch me.I’ll keep that in mind, although I’m not really sure who I would send letters to in this world. By the way, didn’t you drop a bunch of letters? Augh?! That’s right! I dropped the letters when I bumped into you! Augh augh! The boss will yell at me!Your boss? So you don’t just handle it yourself? Yeah. I live at the post office where the boss is. He’s real strict, but my goal is to be a great mailman like him!…I see. Probably want to aim a little higher than that, but everyone needs a goal in life I guess. Boss always says to finish the job I started.*Tarua takes a second to go and grab all the scattered letters* All right, finished gathering it all. I’ll be going now!Right, take care then. Try not to destroy anyone else’s chest cavity. Augh! See ya! All right! I gotta make up for lost time!Going to have to be careful around her. God, my chest still hurts… Feels like I got hit by a brick…So we’ve established that Tarua likes to run around and has a total disregard for bystanders. Also her name is Tarua and she’s the Taurus Star Maiden. Way to be creative Spike Chunsoft. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Okay Tarua, it’s time to try the Classmating ritual. Augh… So it’s finally here… I guess we’d have to do it eventually. I am a Star Maiden after all… Wait, no. It’s not like we’re fighting, right?No. No we are not. Please don’t charge at me like you did yesterday. Y-Yeah… I guess I’m just nervous… But I don’t really hate it, you know? Helping you is my job. Augh augh. Now I’m even more nervous…Well, hey, I’m nervous too. It’s okay. Augh augh augh! Itsuki, if you’re like that, then I’ll get worried too.Right, sorry. I’m still kind of bad at this. Listen, it’s perfectly fine. I’ve done this before… twice, nothing bad happens. But… Augh…What the hell is that noise? Is this like Ellie’s “Aheheh” thing? No, I shouldn’t think about it. Okay! I’ll keep my mind blank! Itsuki, I’ll do my best! So pat me on the head when we’re done. I guess I can do that, if it’ll help calm you down. Really? Hooray! I’ll do my best!Good to hear. Now, let’s try and make some Star Children. Augh! We’ll make tons!Okay, let’s not get too eager. Augh… But I wonder if it’ll be okay… Augh augh! Stop stop stop! I shouldn’t get in my head! I have to keep focus here! Okay! Bring it on!Could you maybe not say it like that? Please?*Classmating again! Yay!* Augh… Augh augh… Ooh…*And then Tarua promptly eats floor* Hey! What’s wrong?! …Did she faint? Ouch. At least when I did it I had grass to cushion the fall. Note to self: Be ready to catch the Star Maidens after the ritual.*Some time later*  Yeah, it’s done. You did well. But I passed out, so I don’t know that.Okay, that part wasn’t so great, but everything else was good. Did I do my job as a Star Maiden well?I think so. The Star Child looks pretty tough. I think that’s thanks to you. Th-Thanks to me? Hehe… That’s great. It was pretty easy with you. Thanks. Well… Mm…Why are you leaning in like that…? …Ohhhh, yeah, you wanted a pat on the head. Yeah. You promised me.It’s kind of embarrassing, but I guess I did kind of agree to it. Well, here goes. Ahhn…Uhh, you okay? Augh? Did I say something?You kind of made this little noise. O-Okay… Oof… Mm… Oof… Augh augh… I’m melting…(Getting really uncomfortable here…) I feel weird. It never feels this good when other people pat me… Itsuki… You’re what people call… an expert!Japan, what is with this head patting thing? You’re making it too weird. Stopping now. Augh! Thanks, Itsuki! It felt really good! I’m glad the ritual turned out fine. Now we can do it all the time! Let’s do it again later, Itsuki!…Sure. I…I will definitely keep you in mind. Okay! Well, um… If we do Classmate right, will you pat me on the head again?Uhhh… Of course. In the event that we do Classmating again and it goes well, I will look into giving you more pats on the head. Augh! Hooray! I’m going back to work now! See ya later, Itsuki!*And Tarua trots off* I hope that was enough conditions to give me an out.One more Tarua event to go. Some time later… ~Star God Academy Field~ Augh! Hi, Itsuki!Hey, Tarua. Out delivering letters again, huh? Yup! Been running around since morning till my bag was empty! It takes you the entire day? Boss can finish even faster. I’m pretty slow with deliveries, so that’s why I get a head start.Hold on. You run around at breakneck speed all the time. How does it… Oh, wait. I guess you must carry more letters than him. That’s not true. I always split them down the middle with Boss. But I always take twice as long as Boss to deliver everything. I run too fast and go right past the delivery address… Looks like I still need more training. Augh… What can I do to deliver letters more efficiently?Have you considered maybe not running so fast? If only it were that easy……It is. It is that easy. I’m always running full force. It makes me wanna deliver those letters as fast as possible.That’s an… interesting way of looking at it. Well, Boss taught me all that. I’ve been watching Boss work ever since I was small. He’s been a big influence.So he’s like your dad or something? Augh… More like a foster parent. He adopted me when I was small. Zeus and Europa? Mythology reference! Up top!  I guess he is my dad then…Oh, right. Orphan stuff. Proceed. Augh? Maybe my grandpa? He’s pretty old. But he gets so mad when I call him that. He really is an old dude though.Sounds like you really love each other, in your own ways. Augh… When you put it that way, it’s kinda embarrassing. But Boss gets so mad when I swipe food before dinner. He’s stubborn too. Aww. He’s a big angry alcoholic sweetheart. Augh… If he heard this, it’d just go to his head, so let’s stop it here! Augh, look at the time! I better get back to my deliveries!Didn’t you say your bag was empty? You still have more to do? I only finished half! I have my afternoon deliveries to do next! Augh augh! I used up too much time talking to you!Sorry, I didn’t mean to hold you up like this. No, it’s okay, really. I like talking with you. Augh! See ya later!*And Tarua takes off* Man. Starting to feel kind of bad. I thought the Maidens just kind of chilled out at the Palace or something while I was in the Labyrinths, but so far they’ve all been making me look like a lazy rear end in a top hat. I need to put more effort into this hero stuff…You’ll get there Itsuki. Once we get you outfitted with a full team then you’ll be in for some intensive training. Now that I know the enemies have a little bite to them, I’ll be playing this like an actual RPG.  But before that, we still have ten more Maidens to get through. On to Lillith!  Am I in the right… Nevermind. There you are, Lillith. Oh my. Hello there. Um… You are… Maud’s Gift or something?God’s Gift, actually. What even is a Maud?Oh, that’s right. I made a mistake. Hehehe~ What brings you here today?I’m trying to check in with all of the Star Maidens. I need to greet everyone personally, or something like that. Anyway, is this where you do your fortune telling thing?That’s right. Do you like having your fortune told, Itsuki?I’ve heard some. I wouldn’t say I’m a fanatic about it or anything.Oh, I see. I’d prefer to know how the hell you use your hair like a cloak. How is it staying in a solid unbroken sheet like that? Got it. I’ll pass for now, though. I wanted to learn a little more about you… um, both of you I mean. I think?I understand. Please, wait a moment. Um… “Itsuki is here to see you.”What’s that for?A memo for Lillie. Let me go make some tea.3, 2, 1, aaannd- Ahhh!*There’s the sound of glass breaking and the screen shakes a bit* Hey, Lillith? You okay back there?Ow… I hit my head… And you are… Lillie? Right?Hey, you bastard! Don’t go looking at me with those pervert eyes. What are you doing here anyway?Since when am I a pervert? I mean, an open one. Don’t pin Mana’s crap on me.*Lillie finally notices the memo* Hm? Oh, there’s a memo. Let’s see… “Itsuki is here to see you”? Oh, so that’s why. You came to make a move on Lillith, huh?Why do people keep thinking that about me?Kekeke! You get to be lewd with 12 girls, don’tcha?Oh god, please. Don’t tell me she’s another Mana. One is enough. You sure got the long end of the sick, you perv!Right. How about we just move on from that. Now that you’re here, it’s a good time for us to talk about… you know.What? You didn’t hear from her already? About our split personalities. Bah, such a pain in the rear end! Fine… I guess I’ll tell you. There are two people inside us. One is Lillith, who you met, and the other is me. When we bonk our heads, our personalities flip. If you see these spooky blue hearts pop up during choices, it means you made the “bad” choice. Pink hearts indicate the “Best” choice, and nothing means the choice was neutral. I chose this one mainly because it’s funny. Every time you hit your head? Are you… all right?What? You making fun of me?No. But Mana hit you before, so I figured maybe it was a regular thing.I don’t get my head beat year round, if that’s what you’re getting at. Mana’s the only idiot who’d dare hit my head all the time. It’s not just physical, any sort of shock to our brain can flip us.Weird. Sounds like a tough spot to be in.It’s nothing once you get used to it. Anyway, nice to meet you and all that. Here, shake my hand.Oh, sure. Nice to meet you—*There’s a squishy noise* What the hell is…Kekekeke! I got you, you idiot!Is this gum?It’s garlic gum! I picked the one that stank the most! Come on now! Better hurry and wash it off! Kekekeke! See ya later, Itsuki! Hope we get along!*And Lillie takes off* It’s just garlic. Besides, that means she’s got it on her too. Ugh… either way, I can tell she’s going to be a pain to deal with.Personally, I propose carrying a whiffle bat or something with you when you go to see her. Whiffle bat always makes me laugh.  Time for Classmating, Lillith.Oh sure… Hmm… What should I do…? Now that it’s time to actually do it, I’m getting embarrassed. Are you fine with this, Itsuki?Eh, not exactly. I’m getting used to it, but I can still get embarrassed. My gut is actually in knots just thinking about having to do this with Re—You know what, not important.Oh, I see. That’s a relief. I was worried I would be the only one to be so embarrassed. Listen, if it’s too much then we can always try another time. Just throwing that out there.No, I will make it through with my willpower. Hip-hip-hooray! …Whatever works I guess. Let’s go.Yes. I’ll do my best!*And then Classmating happened* *sigh*… That was wonderful. It actually wasn’t all that bad.Did you not know how it works?I did, but my imagination still ran wild. It’s a bad habit of mine. I can’t help but think of so many different situations. Yeah, that sounds like an active imagination to me.That’s right. I’m always daydreaming, so I often think about these things. This one time, I thought about how cats evolve to be just the cutest. By the time I realized, a day had already passed.And did you get anything from that?In the end, I think they’re cute just the way they are.…Riiiight.But, to be honest, it wasn’t too difficult… It was just enough for me. If it weren’t, I’d just get Lillie to do it in my place.Did I miss something here? What wasn’t too difficult? Speaking of her, is she asleep or whatever?Yes. We aren’t aware of each other’s actions when one is awake. That’s why we write down memos for each other to keep ourselves informed. But in the moment we switch, we can feel each other’s emotions.  But we can’t figure out exactly what the other is thinking at the time.There are so many ways that could go horribly awry. I think I understand. Sort of. As much as I can understand magical personality changes.Wait, what time is it now? Oh… Looks like class is about to start. If I’m late again I’ll surely be scolded… I must go now. Farewell.Her planet needs her. After some class time, Itsuki rolls back in to her fortune telling studio to check on the Wonder Twins again. ~Fortune-Teller Manor~ Lillith? Are you in—Oops.Oh my. Please wait a moment, Itsuki. I have a guest over right now.Sorry, don’t mind me.Now then… Hmm… [Female Student A]: What? Really? Isn’t that great, Tak? [Male Student A]: Yeah, Mitchie. But I already know that even without getting our fortunes told. [Female Student A]: Oh? Really?! You make me so happy, Tak! Sorry to keep you waiting, Itsuki.Don’t worry about it. Sorry for interfering with your work.Not at all. I was thinking of taking a break anyway. I’ve been telling fortunes since early this morning, so I’m pretty tired.You must be really popular. Are your readings super accurate or something?It’s a bit embarrassing to say myself… But my customers do say I get things right all the time.That’s because they’re asking stupid poo poo like “Are me and my girlfriend in loooove?” Also, you’re giving bullshit “psychic” answers that are vague enough to be correct regardless of what happens. Many of the students come by and ask for readings on love.[Female Student A]: Everyone says how accurate her readings are. Right, Tak? [Male Student A]: Oh, Mitchie. Everyone is talking about the genius fortune-teller! (Huh, maybe I should have gotten her to tell my fortune. Then again, maybe that’s not such a good idea considering the monster fighting I have to do…) Aww… Now my face is on fire… I’m going to go wash my face.Hey, Lillith! Watch out for—Huh? Ahhh!*And Lillith promptly eats floor* This probably isn’t a good thing…Ugh… drat, that hurt. Did I step on the crystal ball? Clean that crap up, geez…[Female Student A]: Huh? L-Lillith? What? Who’s asking?The customers. [Female Student A]: Oh, you already did earlier… You guys might want to leave now. Before the good times end.What are you talking about? My fortunes are much better. Just you watch. Here goes…(This is going to be a disaster.)Mmmm… And the results are in! Ah… That dude is cheating on you.[Male Student A]: D-Don’t be stupid! Wh-Why would you say that?! [Female Student A]: Why are you panicking? Don’t tell me you really are cheating on me! He’s panicking because your relationship is as weak as a wet napkin and he knows that you’re about to completely tear his head off regardless of what he says. Ah, young love. Oh, I see who the girl is… [Female Student A]: It’s Mie! It has to be her! That fits her description! That sneaky average height/average build tramp! [Female Student A]: You’re cheating on me… I don’t believe you, Tak! We’re through! [Male Student A]: Wait, Mitchie! You got it all wrong! Kekekekeke. They’re so friggin’ dumb… They really fell for that lie.You feel like telling me why the gently caress you lied to them like that?What? Because it’s fun, that’s why.For fun?! You destroyed that couple because it’s fun?!Yeah, it is. Got a problem with that? You better not try to lecture me.  You and everyone both sides of you know will die a horrible death without Itsuki. Your continued existence depends on him. Why is that such a difficult concept for people to grasp in this series? If Jesus Christ came to Earth and God burst out of the clouds to go “Listen, I sent him here to save everyone. It’ll be fine.” Would there be people going “So you’re The Messiah? Pfff, big deal. Don’t go getting all high and mighty.” Nobody tells me what to do. Kekekeke…[Male Student B]: Excuse me. I heard the fortune-teller here is really good, so… Run! For the love of god—You’ll have bad luck! It’s written all over your face![Male Student B]: Wh-What?! You can tell just by looking at my face?! I can totally tell! You’ll either have bed bugs, get sick, or die in the next three days!Would you shut your drat mouth you—Shut up! Don’t tell me what to do![Male Student B]: Y-You’re lying… That can’t be true! Noooo! *Male Student B B-B-Books it* He’s running away… Hey, come back here!Where do you think you’re going? Keep this in mind for future reference. We learn something about Itsuki in one of these opening bond events that relates to this and I think the game completely forgets about it during bond events like this one. I’m gonna go bully him until he cries! Kekekeke!*And then Lillie books it* …She needs to be taught a lesson. How the hell does Lillith live with that inside of her?Even though this is blind, I’m keeping commentary to a relative minimum because the thread will be the ultimate arbiters of our path in this game. But I’m gonna be frank with all of you here… Move over Mana, PK has a new most hated character! Next time on “The Bachelor: Granvanian Destinies”:  Goddammit, Conception Plus! It’s not a freaking contest!
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Feb 23, 2020 |
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Nov 26, 2019 02:28
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The Flying Twybil posted:They can't all be this bad, right? Purely from a personal position after having seen everyone's introduction, this is how my vote is shaping up: Arie, Reone, Farun, Sue, and Mirei are all fine in my books. At the very least I see the potential for interesting/sweet/funny interactions. Also there's Mahiru, whose remaster induced personality change has apparently made into a mess, except I think it's a funny mess because she flips wildly between emotions from sentence to sentence. Femiruna was fine, for the first few sentences, but the second that laugh popped up I grew to hate her. I said this in the World of Final Fantasy LP, but I despise the noblewoman/Ohohohoho type characters. That laugh is one of the most irritating sounds imaginable to me. So that's purely a personal taste issue. Other people may just find her to be a naively sheltered type that has potential for a lot of growth as a character. Collette, Yuzuha, and Tarua are drat children. They creep me out. Sue sort of looks like she fits into the child category as well, but I give her a pass since she doesn't make things weird or say uncomfortable things. By that I mean she doesn't do stuff akin to Tarua's head patting fetish. She seems like the kind of character that you just have regular conversations with. I'm sort of okay with Lillith, but Lillie completely drags her down. Lillie is someone that needs a good rear end kicking. It would have been bearable if it was just juvenile pranks, but those random students did nothing to deserve being harrassed and hosed with like that. Lillie is terrible. LP Itsuki gets pissed at her, but Official Itsuki acts totally indifferent to that bullying she does, so I don't see any potential comeuppance in Lillie's arc that would persuade me to want to see it through. Ruka is... I actually don't know what to make of Ruka yet. I hate Tsundere characters, but her story has some potential to be fairly serious and interesting. I'm at least willing to consider voting for her to give her a shot. The 13th Maiden is a complete wildcard. I have no idea when she shows up or what the hell she's like. The only thing I know about her is her appearance and that she doesn't look like a 12 year old. So no, I don't think they are all as bad as what we just saw. I think the database just ordered them in such a way that we got saddled with some unlikable characters right from the start. I can't say for sure how the thread will lean, but I'm fairly confident that Farun will at least be well received. OOrochi posted:I am wondering if Arie is going to turn out to be a secret assassin or something like the other girl who was involved with the church. There has to be something going on under the habit. Arie is giving me minor Narika vibes, and Narika's arc got loving weird after the halfway point. Secret church assassin like Ellie is another possibility, but the church doesn't seem to play a major role in this game compared to CII. If we're taking bets as to which character is doing secret shady stuff for an organization, then my bet is currently on Mirei and King Shangri-La over in the palace. Mirei is the palace mage/scholar or whatever, so maybe she works on forbidden research or spells for the King. Her ancestors were also responsible for the Stardust Labyrinths, so maybe she knows a dark secret about them or something. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Nov 26, 2019 |
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Nov 26, 2019 17:31
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megane posted:They're in the traditional zodiac order, which starts with Aries (because the year used to start in what we would now call March). I didn't even take notice of that. I thought they just threw them in the same random order they used in the opening. To be fair, we need to keep in mind that this is partially a dating sim game. Somewhere out there, a not insignificant number of players are drooling all over those insufferable characters. Huh, now that I say that, I wonder... back in minute. Edit: Nevermind. All I could find on character popularity is a few people from message boards. One's a Collette lover and the others seem to like Lillith/Tarua/Yuzuha. Still, that's enough to increase my disappointment in humanity a little more. Polsy posted:I would've been willing to put this down to 'separate people were translating each half of this conversation' (for some reason) and one of them decided 'the heart of serving' was bad, if it wasn't for the fact she then goes ahead and says it anyway later on. As sad as it is, I kind of think you are wrong. Not because I don’t think that explanation is plausible; I think it makes perfect sense actually. But making perfect sense is why I think the explanation is wrong. Given what we've seen so far from SC, the answer can't be that straightforward. It has to be far more clumsy. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Nov 27, 2019 |
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Nov 27, 2019 03:23
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malkav11 posted:Definitely not voting for any of those three. Arie is one of my favourites in terms of design (the other being Mirei), but I do agree that she's kind of boring based on this intro. She's the religious one, that's basically the only thing we learn about her in this event (and she told us that up front during the Maiden greeting scene). That said, I plan to put in a vote for her because I am convinced she is hiding something. Maybe it's a Narika-esque psycho possession thing, or maybe it's secret church assassinations. Whatever it is, there has to be something going on with her. AnAnonymousIdiot posted:Looking at the above I have to wonder if 'Classmating' is just a code word for a mind-meld, where the psyches of everyone involved get blended together, and afterward have to separate themselves before returning to their bodies. There has to be at least something to that effect happening. The weird sexy astral projection clips that play before Star Child selection seem to suggest it. It would also sort of explain why the Maidens get nervous and embarrassed all the time, since mind/soul melding has got to be a deeply personal experience. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Nov 27, 2019 |
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Nov 27, 2019 04:00
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SSNeoman posted:What does classmating entail in the anime? I plan to do an examination of the anime at some point, although that's a ways off because I don't want to accidentally spoil anything for myself. All I've seen of the anime are a few random clips from the first few episodes, but basically classmating in that is as close to actual sex as they can get without being relegated to adult only stores/sites. Itsuki is in nothing but his boxer briefs and the Maidens are buck naked, except there are floating Mana head censor circles covering the naughty bits. From what I've seen, the Maidens are there in a big curtained off bed and the camera shifts away as we see shadows and bed sheets flying around. The anime also has a line about Classmating not being sex, although Anime Reone doesn't tell Itsuki or Mahiru this until after a Star Child has randomly materialized, so Itsuki is like 10 seconds away from actually doing the deed with Mahiru before either of them learn this fact. Mana also implies WAY heavier in the anime that Itsuki and Mahiru are going to have to gently caress. I guess because Anime Mana and Anime Reone find it hilarious to make two childhood friends believe that they need to have sex in order to save the world. So based on this, Classmating in the anime is literally just foreplay or naked grab-rear end. There's nothing else it could be. The game doesn’t suggest any of this outright. There's even a sprite of Itsuki in just his underwear already in the game, but it isn't used for the Classmating scene. The game likes to tease it, don't get me wrong, but they keep it way more vague than the anime (which I guess makes sense because the anime is designed to titilate and it's existence is entirely a marketing tool for the game). As cheap and hollow as the anime most likely is, there was a clip from Episode 1 which I found geniunely funny for how awkward it was. I'll give it that. That’s probably the only actual laugh in the series though.
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Nov 27, 2019 10:42
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Bonding Update II: Cancer, Leo, and Virgo Alright, let’s keep the pain train rolling. The last batch of Star Maidens delivered… mixed results. Turns out Lillie is kind of an rear end in a top hat and Tarua has an unsettling love of having her head patted, which leads to really uncomfortable Classmating scenes becoming even worse because she looks like, you know, a kid.  Anyway, this update we’ll be taking a look at Ruka, Femiruna, and Mahiru. Results may be equally disappointing, depending on your opinion on three major character archetypes. ~Star God Academy Classroom~ Oh, it’s… umm, Ruka, right? The one that said not to remember her name? If you’re here to deepen our so-called bond, it’s not necessary for me. I can tell the type of person you are instantly. Okay… how exactly do you do that by just looking at me? You haven’t heard? I am a “Tsukuyomi.”You mean that stupid edgelord bullshit from Naruto? Or do you mean the moon god? Should I know why that’s important? I suppose a God’s Gift wouldn’t know that.Question: Why does she know that word? We are in a completely different world. I can let the Miko outfit slide, sort of, because fashion is weird. Fine. I’ll explain from the beginning. You won’t suggest something as idiotic as deepening a bond with me after this.  And I’m one of them. So you can read minds. That’s what I just said. My kind may be rare, but we exist. Now stop talking to me. It’s all meaningless. I don’t think talking is meaningless. It’s how people get to know each other. I heard you were God’s Gift and wondered what type of person you were… But you’re no different from the others. Anyway, now you understand. If you don’t want me reading your mind, then don’t come near me. Got it? Near you? Is that how it works? Is there like a certain distance I need to be in order for you to do the mind reading thing? You’re full of questions, aren’t you? Uh, yes. You said you can read minds. It sounds cool, so I want to know how it works. I can tell right away by touching your forehead. That’s why you should stay out of arm’s reach. No one wants their mind read. Fair point, I suppose. Not going to lie, though. I still want you to try it. You don’t care about your mind being read? What are you, a saint? Probably closer to the opposite, actually. You’re so shady… I sympathize with your circumstances, but I have my own things to deal with. Are you done with the questions? If you have anymore, just spit them out. Fine. I was just curious is all. Anyway, if you can only read minds by touching people’s foreheads, then why don’t you just try not doing that and having a regular conversation? I can’t do that. As a Tsukuyomi, I can tell when the other person is lying. That can be detected without touching and merely through speech.Are you making this poo poo up as you go? So when you talk to me, you can only tell the truth. Do you know how draining that can be? I’m extremely unfit to be a Star Maiden. I mean, I could just speak honestly. We’re talking right now without any problems. Problems will arise eventually. And people will get sick of me and move away. Hm? What did you just mumble? N-Nothing… Anyway, I’ve warned you that I’m a Tsukuyomi. If you don’t mind getting your mind read, then I’ll do my job as a Star Maiden. Though I doubt our relationship will be healthy if I know your deepest thoughts. Well, you don’t know that until you try. Right? Guh… Why are you so prepared to do this? Because if I’m not then we all die? If you insist, then do what you want. I have something else to do, so I’m going. Mind telling me what that something is? I have to do my laundry. Why should I have to tell you that? I’m trying to learn stuff about you. That’s how this bonding thing is supposed to work. I think. Ugh… Hmph. It won’t be long until you can’t say that anymore. Just you watch. Goodbye.Okay, Ruka seems to be permanently stuck in her angsty teenager phase. Doesn’t seem like it’s all that hard to get her to open up though. We didn’t get a demonstration of her supposed mind reading ability, but we’ve got a way to make her show us. Classmating time! ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Ready to try Classmating? A-Are you insane?! I told you before, didn’t I? I’m a Tsukuyomi that can ready minds just by touch alone.  Think you can handle that? Don’t have a choice. Classmating is part of the bond deepening thing, so we need to do it if we’re going to make stronger Star Children. I have to give this everything I’ve got. Uh-huh… I guess you’re not lying… I can tell if you were even without touching you. Did I tell you that before? Yeah, you were pretty clear about it. I’ll just have to not lie to you. O-Oh… E-Even if you don’t lie, who knows what you’re thinking. So I’ll go ahead and read your mind right now. I-I mean… doing the ritual will let me see a bunch of stuff in your head…User AnAnonymousIdiot put forth the idea that Classmating actually involves mind melding or something to that effect. This seems to support that idea a little. It would explain why the Maidens get really shy/embarrassed afterward, since that has to be a super personal experience and also trippy as hell. If you think of anything lewd, I’ll never do the ritual with you again. Are you okay with that stipulation? Sure. I have way too much on my mind at the moment to be thinking things like that. Read as much as you want. You’re a brave one. I admit you’ve got guts. But all men are disgusting. I’m sure you’re thinking of something lewd right now at this moment.I’m personally thinking about what a garbage fire my term papers were and what kind of terrible grades I’ll probably get which will in turn stress me out about my final exams even more so than normal. Hurry up and move your forehead closer. It’s the quickest way to read your mind. Like this? Hurry up. Your bangs are in the way. They’ll reduce the accuracy of my Tsukuyomi powers.You are putting an awful lot of conditions on this power of yours, Ruka. It has the unmistakeable aroma of someone that is making poo poo up. Okay, okay. There. Go for it. Hm? You have a pretty wide forehead. Are you mind reading or fortune telling? Because I already know someone that can tell fortunes. Yeah, yeah, keep talking. I’ll rip off that façade of yours. Here goes. Remember that I got your permission to do this. Come on already. I want to know how this works. … … …Huh? What’s wrong? I’m pretty sure I’m not thinking about anything weird right now. Wait… You did something, didn’t you? What kind of thing could I possibly do? I-I don’t know. But really… what’s going on here? I don’t sense any sort of barrier. It’s like I’m touching air… Could it be… that your head is empty? Uh, no. Listen, I may not be an honor student like Mahiru, but I’m not an idiot. There’s no other explanation. Tsukuyomi react to the other person’s Star Energy to read their minds. Everyone in Granvania has some amount of Star Energy in them. That’s why there isn’t anyone in this world whose mind I can’t read. Granvania? You mean that world that I’m not from? Oh… R-Right… A God’s Gift’s Star Energy is different from those of this world. So that’s why I only sensed a power that felt like air. Hm… I guess that does make sense. You could try it on Mahiru if you wanted to make sure. She’s from the same place I am. You’re right. It feels weird for me, so I’ll test it out when I get the chance. If that’s the case… maybe I just can’t read the minds of God’s Gifts… Ugh… So then, you want me to do the ritual without being able to know what you’re thinking? What sort of punishment is this?! What’s the problem? Do you just not want to do it? I-It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s to save the world. I understand that as a Star Maiden. I was just caught off guard because I thought I’d be able to read your mind… Ah, so you got freaked out about it. Wh-Wh-What are you saying? H-Hmph… Let’s just get this over with. I was just a bit shaken up earlier. I-I’ll do it! So hurry up and get ready! I am ready. I’ve been ready this entire time. H-Hmph. The ritual is just that: a ritual. I don’t need to read your mind…*Classmating happens, loving FINALLY* Huff… Huff… Was that it? Yeah, that’s it. I think I’m starting to figure out how to work this. What about you? Are you feeling okay? You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll tell you right now: Don’t let it get to your head. I think nothing of doing this ritual with you. Sure thing. Even still, thanks for trying. I-I’m going home! Jerk!*And Ruka takes her leave* I do not understand that girl.She’s a Tsundere, it’s what they do. Moving on, let’s finish up with Ruka so I can grit my teeth in preparation for Femiruna. ~Star God Academy Field~ *sigh* …Nobody here either. This bond deepening thing is kind of difficult when I can’t actually find any of the Star Maidens. Where’s Ma—… No, wait. I’m not that desperate. Not yet.*Small child out of nowhere! And no, it isn’t Tarua this time* [Barefoot Girl]: Ow! Oh, sorry. I’m kind of spacing out a bit. You okay? Oh for… goddammit, give me a minute. Stupid database not including NPC portraits… making me clip them out of backgrounds. Why are you running around without any shoes on? You’re going to hurt your feet like that. Here, I’ll carry you. Come on..png) Oh… Is that okay?There, good enough. I swear to god, you better show up in more than just this one scene. I don’t mind. I’m trying to be more like the kind of guy that could reasonably live up to his title. Okay… Then maybe I’ll ask you to do that. Oh, here it is. Thanks for taking me home. An orphanage, huh?... Oh, Ruka… Wait, Ruka’s here? Hey, what happened to you? Why are you barefoot? Um… I took off my shoes to go play, and some crows stole them… You’re lying again… Why do you lie so much when you know I can see right through it.Kids are stupid, Ruka. I-I’m gonna go do my homework… Thanks, mister.*Barefoot girl books it* *sigh*… Why is she always like this… Well? What are you doing here? She ran into me while I was at the Academy. I carried her home when I saw that she was running around barefoot. Is she your friend? As you saw, it can be a bit awkward, but I make do. You live here too? Hmph. What about it? Nothing. Anyway, maybe you should talk it out with her. There must be some reason why she lied like that. Th-That’s got nothing to do with you. I don’t need your opinion on the matter. We have our own circumstances here… Anyway, it’s a bigger problem that you found out where my home is. Don’t bring any other God’s Gifts and Impurities or whatever into this place. Most of the kids here are nervous enough already. So stay away, basically. I can respect that. What should I do if I need you for something, though? That will never happen. But if you do have to come here, call yourself something different. Something different enough that the kids here won’t see through you. So your friend, then? Well, that sounds most convincing. It’s hardly a lie either. Really? That means we’re making progress on the bonding thing. We’re already friends. Th-That’s hardly a lie… You’re… barely a friend. If I had to rank you, you’d be on the bottom, you hear? Well, I guess it’s a start. You can just leave it at that. It’s never going to happen anyway. Now, are we done here? I have to go back and make dinner. I’m very busy. You cook everything yourself? Who else would? I’m the only adult here who helps out. You count as an adult here? Sh-Shut up. I’m at the age where I should have left the orphanage already. But I’ve been here since I was five. I work here because I still feel I need to. I see, so a similar situation to mine. My parents died years ago and I’ve been living with Mahiru’s family ever since. I see… I guess you went through a bunch of stuff too. Orphan bonding! Yay! I thought you were more shallow. I thought I could see right through you after reading your mind a few times.Once again, this next part is weirdly translated. Take it away, official translation! You’re really going all out on me… That’s how most people whose minds I read are.Maybe it’s because I’m really worn out at the moment, but… what? It’s people like that who get mad when I read their minds. Anyway, we’re done chitchatting here. It’s time for you to go home. Oh, sure. I won’t keep you any longer. This was fun though. Huh? Fun? Which part could be considered that? I don’t think we talked about anything except stupid and mundane stuff. We got to know each other better. We also bonded over our mutual lacking of parents. I guess that’s more of a dark humor, but still. I guess. You are just such an unrelenting bummer. Hmph… We sure talked a bunch. I think it’s been a while since I talked to anyone for this long. I can tell when people lie, so they all avoid talking to me. It would make everything so tiresome.Have you ever considered maybe getting a pen pal or something? Then I’m the perfect chatting buddy. You can’t do that stuff to me since I’m a God’s Gift. I-I don’t need a chatting buddy… I really need to go and prepare dinner, or I’ll be late. Right. I’ll see you again at the Academy then. A-Again…? *sigh*… Whatever. Just don’t come here anymore.And that’s it for Ruka’s intro. Fascinating stuff. Twenty bucks says that her “mind reading” thing is just something she made up to try and push people away. I’m going to have quite a bit of money riding on various bets by the time we’re done with these intro events.  Anyway, next up is Femiruna. ~Granvania Shopping Center~ Femiruna’s house should be up ahead somewhere. At least she seems like the talkative type, unlike Ruka. Should be a little easier to get to know her. Wait, is that her voice? I am not in the mood for blue. Do you not even know my color preferences? Before I consider you a useless servant, go and buy another one!No. No, no, no. Don’t do this to me, game. Femiruna? …Oh? Itsuki. Good day. Are you having trouble with something? Something is quite wrong. I am the unluckiest person in the world. Servant? Are you super rich lady or something? A super rich lady…? I am surprised to hear of someone in Granvania who does not know who I am. Oh, come to think of it… you are not from this nation, correct? That is the case, yes.Wait, wait. Hold on a minute. Is Granvania a country or the name of the world? You keep using those two interchangeably, game. Are they both named Granvania? Very well. In that case, I shall educate you. My father is the richest man in all of Granvania. As his daughter, of course I would have servants. Oh, okay. That’s cool, I guess. That’s basically what rich people in my world have. So, what do you want with me? We have to do the Classmating ritual at some point, but I’ve been told that I need to greet you properly. So you are making your rounds to speak with the Star Maidens? How admirable. I thought you would be much more full of yourself being surrounded by them all. I wish people would stop saying that about me… Let me be blunt with you. My social standing is exactly as I just described. You must be honored to have the chance to do the Classmating ritual with me.I was about to comment that Femiruna should be the one honored to Classmate with Itsuki, since he’s God’s Gift and is the one regular person on this planet capable of battling the weird sex monsters… monsters made when people have sex… you know what I mean. Anyway, I was about to comment on that, but this supposedly happens every 10 years and all the God’s Gifts apparently decide to return home after saving the world, so I guess their social standing wouldn’t be that high. On the other hand, this is pretty much the same deal as with Yuna/the summoners in FFX and people seemed to have a lot of respect for them. I’m getting the feeling that patience is going to play a major role in this bond. That is correct. I will need to be patient with you. I will conduct the ritual with you just like how I eat those despicable carrots. In any case, it is a glorious thing to be chosen as a Star Maiden. Seriously though. You would think some aristocratic family like Femiruna’s would be all over this situation. There has been a major crisis, their daughter is chosen to be one of only 12 Star Maidens, and she’ll be working with a guy called “God’s Gift” in order to save the world. You would think that Femiruna’s dad would talk to his daughter and make sure she was doing everything she could to make a good impression in the hopes of scoring an arranged marriage or something. Oh, my servant is back. Well, I am quite busy, so I will excuse myself now.*And Femiruna wanders a few steps away* Why did you only purchase one?! I cannot believe you… I have had enough! I will purchase all the merchandise in this store! Nooo! The noble laugh! My poor ears! Some of these girls are going to be really tiring to deal with…~Church Spirit Chamber~ *sigh*… Why must I come here myself? It would be more proper if you came to me… Unless somebody forgot to tell me something, then I’m pretty sure this is the only place where Classmating can happen. I understand that. It is a matter of mental preparation. Listen, I know you don’t really like this, but can we please focus on the Classmating ritual? I’m still short on mon-- I mean Star Children. I really need you to be on board with this. Together, we will be able to create the most powerful Star Children. (God, I hope so.) Sounds good to me. Let’s do it. Ah! H-How dare you approach a lady so suddenly? Have you no etiquette?! P-Please… I cannot believe you! Sorry, sorry. I thought you were good to go. If you’re nervous then— I-I would never be nervous over a mere ritual! Perhaps you are the one who is nervous? Well, I won’t argue with that. It’s always a little nerve-wracking doing this for the first time, even if I am used to the general process. Ohohoho! What a pitiful God’s Gift you are! (Please let this be the ritual where I wake up from this nightmare…) I think we’re both relaxed enough as it is. We can start now. Y-Yes… we shall.*♫Creepy Classmating sceeeennne! Unless you have the PS4 version!♫* Huff… Huff… Is everything okay? Not dizzy, are you? Well? Is our Star Child a powerful one? Too soon to tell, but thanks for your work anyway. It seems you have enough manners to thank me. If you express your gratitude and plead with teary eyes, I may just cooperate with you again. I’ll be sure to remember that the next time I come to ask you. Ugh… one more time. Please, please do not do the laugh. I beg of you. Let me rest my ears. ~Star God Academy Field~ Hm? Oh, Femiruna’s chatting with another student. Kind of figured she would consider that to be beneath her. Maybe I got the wrong impression. You there. Stop right there. You have dropped your handkerchief.[Female Student A]: Th-Thank you, Miss Femiruna!  [Female Student A]: I-I’m sorry! I made you pick up something so cheap! Don’t sully yourself like that. But thank you very much! *Female Student A hauls rear end out of there* W-Wait… I simply wanted to say that the floral pattern was beautiful… *sigh*… Something wrong? …You?! When did you get here?! Around the same time you picked up the handkerchief. That was from the very start then! I did not think you to entertain such despicable hobbies as stalking. …I don’t stalk people, Femiruna. I sort of have more important things to do than following people around. You know, like world saving. I suppose that would be true. That is quite convincing. Very well. I forgive you this time. Wait, what am I being forgiven for exactly? By the way, did you want something from me? I am a busy person, but I may grant you a little bit of my time. I am rarely able to speak with even the students of this academy. Why? There’s lots of them around. It is because I am of noble status. Will there be bugs who dare touch the elegant flower blooming on the mountain?Uhh, yes? That’s what blooming flowers do. It attracts insects for pollination. So they avoid you because you’re rich. They’re still your classmates though, aren’t they? They should know you at least a little bit. I was not originally a student of this academy. My father ensured I was tutored by teachers of various disciplines at our manor. Okay, now I get it. You just aren’t used to this yet. You need more time to adjust. Used to it? You mean me? Ohohoho! It is the other way around, I assure you, Itsuki.  It may take a little time, so I am waiting for that day to come. I think you’re in for a bit of a wait, then. I came to the academy not only at Father’s recommendation, but of my own desire. So it wasn’t just because you became a Star Maiden? Yes. There are many things I cannot learn within the walls of the manor. I would like to learn many things during my limited time at the academy. What do you mean limited? Oh, time is slipping away. I must bid you farewell now. You should be honored that I bestowed my precious time to you. Granted, you are the only one who would shamelessly come talk to me here. Should I not do that from now on? *Femiruna wanders off* She seemed kind of mad there at the end. Was it something I said? I thought I was doing pretty good with the “talking to girls” thing. One down, one more on the way. It’s finally time for us to catch up with Itsuki’s childhood friend about all the crazy stuff that’s happened since that fateful day on the rooftop. I wonder how that whole personality adjustment is working out for her. ~Star God Academy Classroom~ Man, it’s kind of spooky in here when it’s quiet. Do you have all of your classes in here? Yeah, I do. Why? Hey, what are you doing here? I wanted to know what exactly you guys study in here. But class is already over. So why are you still here, then? I handle the daily tasks, so I’m finishing up the class report. Must be tough having to deal with classes in a different world. It must be tough for you going to the labyrinths, Itsuki. Besides, you should focus on your relationships with the other Star Maidens. Why are you wasting your time here? Well, I mean, you’re a Star Maiden too. I should also be working on a relationship with you. W-With me? Besides, I know you better than anyone else here. Seems like there’s already a solid foundation there. Well, we are childhood friends… Maybe it’s like a fate thing? You know? That’s new information. Either Itsuki omitted that in the opening or the translators hosed up. Either is possible. I bet you say that to all the other Star Maidens too… Did you say something just now? You’re kind of quiet. No… Come on, I need to write the class report. I’m busy here. Why are you being so cold? It’s like you’ve been dodging me since we got here. I-I’m not treating you any differently. It’s just your imagination.”I’m not crazy, you’re crazy!” Says the girl that had her personality adjusted by the developers for no adequately explained reason. Alright, fine. I’ll get out of your way. I’ll try and stop by earlier next time. Sure… O-Oh… And, thanks for coming… Hm? You were actually worried about me, weren’t you? Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? Look at where we are and what we’ve been dragged into. I’ll be fine. I’ve gotten used to the academy here. Except for Lillie. Also, did you know? Mr. Narcisstes is really popular among the female students. Not really surprised about that. Is he a good teacher though? Yeah. The class is more interesting than I thought it’d be. He sometimes cracks these dumb jokes that no one laughs at though. You starting to get a bit of a crush on him? What makes you think that? Because he’s a good-looking dude that is interesting and cracks jokes and is also a teacher? Right. (Like you’re one to talk.) Now then… I need to finish up the class report and go home. I have to study for tomorrow’s class, and also do my Star Maiden duties. I’ll do my best so I don’t drag you down. You’re such a square, Mahiru. Itsuki, I know things are tough, but let’s keep working at it.I get the feeling that Mahiru’s personality change has been fumbled a bit. You can still see the original colder/stuck-up attitude towards Itsuki that she supposedly had in the PSP version, but then there’s this kinder “I have a secret crush on my childhood friend and am bad at hiding it” personality kind of lightly brushed on top of it. I wish I had the PSP version so I could try and compare the scenes animations as well. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Anyway, we’re doing Classmating, even though Mahiru and Itsuki already did that. Mahiru, I need your help to make more Star Children. You know, in order to go into the labyrinths and kill the monsters and— *sigh*… It seems this was inevitable. I guess. You guess…? It was up to you in the first place. Listen, this is weird, okay? Give me a break. But are you okay with us doing… that?What is “that”?! Explain, dammit! Of course I’m not okay with it. You seem rather calm about it compared to me… It makes me nervous, but I agreed to fight and save this world… sort of. Okay, I was actually forced into it, but either way I’ve accepted the fact that this needs to be done in order for us to get back home.At this point the screen blacks out for a brief moment, but Classmating doesn’t happen.  It cuts back to this. I’m not entirely sure why it happens. It doesn’t seem like a brief time skip or anything. It’s the first time we’ve done this together, so you’ll take the lead, right?…No, it couldn’t possibly… Is it because they had to remove some kind of scene were Mahiru’s old personality was too blatant and they couldn’t/wouldn’t rewrite or reanimate it? So they cut out that part of the event and used a brief fade to black effect in order to cover up the cut? Come on, Spike Chunsoft, really? Please tell me there’s another slightly less stupid reason for that weird jump cut. Oh yeah, this is the first time since that practice round, isn’t it? Crap… now I’m getting more nervous about this. S-Stop it… if we’re both nervous, it’ll negatively affect the born Star Child. You’re right… We need to find a way to relax a little. Relax… I just remembered that you’re good at impersonating a monkey. It helped me relax at my piano recital that one time. Are you kidding? That was back in grade school, Mahiru. I was a kid. I really liked that monkey act of yours, Itsuki. Uh-uh, not happening. That’s way too embarrassing. But I’m the only one here. Whatever happens here, stays here, right? I can’t believe this… Fine, I’ll do it. Yes! It’s been so long since I’ve seen it. Can’t believe I have to do this to save the world… Well, here it goes. Eek! Eek! Eek! Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh! U-Um, I think I’m good now… Thanks. I told you. I feel like such an idiot now. We both won’t be able to relax at this rate… Maybe we should try some other time. I’ll try and find one of the other Star Maidens. No… What? I said no. You said you’ll have trouble in the labyrinth if it isn’t a Star Child between us, right? I think you’re taking some liberties with what I said, but sure, that’s the general idea. You have to do it with me today. But you’re nervous. I don’t want to force you into it. I know it’s super weird for us. I appreciate your consideration, but don’t give your childhood friend special treatment. I have every intention… to fulfill and even surpass my duty as a Star Maiden. Just a little bit of tension shouldn’t interrupt the ritual too much… I feel ya, Itsuki. I’m getting the inkling that the developers really half-assed this personality change idea. Sh-Shut up! I feel more relaxed now after talking it out! Come on, Itsuki. Let’s make the best Star Child ever! A Star Child between two God’s Gifts will never lose to the Impurities*.*Gameplay will not necessarily reflect this. Right. If you’re determined, then let’s do this. Now or never.*And then Classmating finally happens. Not a weird fade cut* … … So… how was it? It would have been better if you didn’t ask me that… Right, sorry. But it’s so weird… I feel like I’m floating… Really? Is that what it feels like for everyone? According to Mr. Narcisstes… when a Star Child is born, they’re made from a part of the female. Ah, I get ya. Same feeling as taking a really satisfying dump. So they are a part of you? Does this mean I’m another step closer to fulfilling my duty? Seems like it. I’m glad we made a healthy and cute Star Child.Okay, that wasn’t quite as awkward as I thought it would be. I was expecting that to go about the same as when Reone basically forced the two of them together. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Feb 23, 2020 |
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Dec 1, 2019 04:15
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Son of a... ugh... This is part of Bonding Update 2, it just wouldn't fit because these three Maidens won't stop talking (the character count for the last Bonding Update was like 10-15k characters shorter). I will reorganize these into single posts once all the Bonding Updates are done. Here is Mahiru's second main bonding event. ~Star God Academy Classroom~ *The bell rings and Mahiru slowly wanders into the scene* Thanks for waiting, Itsuki. You came to build up our relationship, right? I got here earlier than last time so I could see everyone in class. He was giving a lecture on strengthening bonds, so maybe I should have come even earlier. Feels like I could benefit from that, too. I noticed you came in. Ha, my little sis sure is trying to make me proud. Hah, I can’t have my big brother feel ashamed of me, you know. …Okay, I know Narcisstes said in the lecture that treating each other like family was a good idea, but is this really the best way to build up a bond? Give me a break, big brother. You think doing this cheap act is really going to help? No, no I do not. I think this is just going to make things incredibly weird and uncomfortable for everyone involved. Except maybe Tarua… and Reone. What are we supposed to do then? I’m not sure… I honestly don’t know. Mr. Narcisstes was hazy on the details in the lecture. He said bonds are what bond God’s Gift and a Star Maiden together. I think there was a pun in there somewhere…Narc sounds like a lovely teacher that tries to sound profound by being purposely obtuse. So… what then? In other words, we should probably just try a whole bunch of things. Well don’t look at me for ideas, I’m fresh out. Yeah, yeah. I knew you’d just dump it all on me. How about this? Talking is one way people get to know each other, right? We’re childhood friends, and we share tons of memories. I think that’s something we should take advantage of. You want to just tell stories about each other? We can deepen our bond by opening up and understanding each other better. Was I an embarrassing kid? I don’t remember any moments in particular. According to Mr. Narcisstes, women are better at remembering those things.And what exactly are Narc’s credentials? Does he have any peer-reviewed research to back that up? That’s why I’ll help you remember. Alright, I’ll leave it to you then, I guess.*And then we get another fade to black cut, for some reason. Was Mahiru setting up a puppet theater for this or something?* A long, long time ago… That was 10 years ago, when I was still in grade school. Mahiru wasn’t particularly good at socializing with others.  At that time, Mahiru was timid, so she just quietly withstood everything. On a side note…  Uhhh…. O-Okay… not sure I needed that little bit of information. One day, on the way home from school… Mahiru was surrounded by some boys in her class. There were six of them! Not going to lie, I like Mahiru’s “lean back with hands on hips” animation. It’s hard to see in screenshot form. You were a master martial artist in grade school? Are you for real right now? I’m just embellishing the story. Is that what you want to call it? We’re almost at the climax, so don’t interrupt me. Alright, alright. I’ll be quiet. Now then… Oh no! The pitiable Mahiru was about to suffer at the hands of those beasts! But at that moment! “Don’t you dare touch Mahiru!” Crap, this is quickly coming back to me now. She heard a voice from behind her. When she turned around, she saw… Me, right? Do you remember now? Unfortunately. I got my rear end kicked trying to help you. And after the bullies left… With your nose bleeding, you said this to me while I cried: Thus ends the tale of the rescued Mahiru. Such a loser. This game had come out and I was feeling so inspired and heroic. Then I go and get the poo poo kicked out of me and top it all off by saying something like that. I kept mulling it over in my head for days after that and even lost my appetite for a while. Why did you do something so reckless? If you were going to end up that way, you should have left me alone. No, I couldn’t… Huh…? They were bullying you. I couldn’t let a bunch of jackasses get away with something like that.Remember back in Lillith/Lillie’s event where Lillie gleefully runs off to explicitly bully some poor guy until he breaks down? The angry dialog was written by me, Official Itsuki completely ignores all of that and says something along the lines of “Oh boy, what am I going to do with her. That scamp.” Oh… But you know what? I honestly did feel happy. Back then, you looked like my knight in shining armor. Hey, Mahiru…? Hm…? You are making this so weird right now. That line was more embarrassing than the story. Wh-What?! I-I can’t help that I really felt that way! Well, at least now we both shared an embarrassing moment. Either way, I did promise to protect you. So I guess I better make sure I’m a better knight than last time. Need to make sure that Black Belt Princess Mahiru gets back home safe and sound. Say… speaking of promises… Do you remember our promise in grade school during summer vacation? Which summer vacation was this, exactly? It was during the Autumn Festival 10 years ago. I promised something then? What was it? You don’t remember at all? Drawing a blank, sorry. I… I guess you wouldn’t remember after all. In one ear, out the other. Did someone gut your pumpkin head?Another twenty bucks on “Childhood Marriage Proposal.” I’ve got a good feeling about this one. Anyway! I had fun talking about our memories! I think our bond has deepened quite a bit, wouldn’t you say? So, that’s that!*Mahiru turns and walks off* …She is piiissed. Promise at the Autumn Festival… 10 years ago… The hell is she talking about?And that’s all for Mahiru! Another three Maidens down, only… 6 more to go… dammit. Next time on Intro Bonding: Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Feb 23, 2020 |
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Dec 1, 2019 04:17
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Ratoslov posted:Why are all the women in this dimension terrible? Way too many characters and not enough time or budget. CII did the right thing by cutting the heroine count in half. The only thing I can suggest is that maybe they get better later in their arcs. We've only seen their introduction after all. Commander Keene posted:Probably should be "mad"? Also, about halfway through Ruka's stuff you start using "ready" instead of "read" for the whole touch telepathy thing. Yeah, I caught those. I appreciate the mention though. Now that my semester is over I'm going to quickly scan through and correct the little errors so far. I'm using Word for this LP instead of notepad, but auto-correct has it's own pitfalls as seen here. Commander Keene posted:I'm guessing this is supposed to be more of a "just like siblings" kind of thing rather than directly blood related. Also, jeez that personality change. It's like they only bothered for half her lines. It's enough to give you whiplash. SSNeoman posted:I'm hoping that's a mistranslation because otherwise this is gonna be AWK-WARD... BlazeEmblem posted:I was originally going to go with Mahiru until I saw the relatives line. This is the first time it has been mentioned (I think). The two of them have different family names, but I know that that doesn't really mean anything. A mistranslation wouldn't surprise me, but honestly I think we’re probably dealing with cousins here. As BlazeEmblem pointed out, it would make sense for Itsuki to go and live with relatives after losing both parents. It's possible that Mahiru’s family took him in because Itsuki and Mahiru were friends, or their families were, but it's pretty unlikely. Itsuki would have been anywhere between 10-15 years old when his parents died (they were still alive as of 10 years ago, as we just heard in that bonding event), and Japan's CPS have way more authority over where he would go as an orphan than in places like Canada, Europe or the US, so being placed with the family of some random school friend doesn't seem likely. If I spot a video of this bonding event in Japanese, then I'll watch through and see what word is used in the original. I would say there's a good 80% chance that the two of them are cousins, though. Anime and Japanese games are known for having an unhealthy attachment to blood ties in romance stuff, or at least to ties that get as close as possible to blood relations. Kaishai posted:Mahiru is still my favorite Star Maiden so far despite her personality see-saw, or maybe because of it. She isn't so meek and shy as to be a total childhood friend cliche. She isn't quite in tsundere territory. She has a complex personality, even if it's complex for weird reasons, and I'll take that over the laughing stuck-up cat lady. Regarding Mahiru, I suppose that is one way to look at it. SC's fumbling may have accidentally given her more depth (I refuse to believe it was intentional ). As for Ruka, she already knows that her mind powers don't work on Itsuki, so hopefully that does take a back seat from now on. They would have to keep bringing in NPCs to force it back into the conversation for no reason. It looks more like Ruka’s arc is the typical "person hates people and is alone, but the protag helps them get happier" thing. I have no problem with that in theory. How it is handled in practice is something else. Omobono posted:Ms. Ho Ho Ho has the laugh so I'm going to propose her just to make the LPer suffer Of course you'd do that. I get to vote too, though, since this is blind. So at least I can fight it. That last part is honestly just what everyone should be looking at. I'm not saying that none of these girls can develop interesting stories. I argued that Narika's was good in CII, as was Ellie's (although not because of Ellie). But CII was the sequel where the writers/director were more experienced with this series. Despite being brand new, CP's core is still technically the 2012 PSP "first try at this series" script. I'm not overly hopeful of a surprising character arc from anyone except maybe the new girl, since all her stuff is freshly written. With that said, aiming for heroines that seem to provide the best chance at laughs, unintentional or otherwise, seems to be the way to go.
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Dec 1, 2019 14:57
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Polsy posted:This is presumably just referring back to the 'shallow' line but it flows awkwardly. You're doing Star God's work, Polsy. I didn't bother checking the Japanese official website. I didn't realize they had little profile sections. The English official site is pretty barebones in that it just lists the features and allows you to choose a character theme for the page. Either way, that answers the relatives question. No mistranslation on SC's part, the two are indeed related by blood. Not overly surprising. I'll be able to match it based on context and dialog the next time I'm on my PC. But based on the video you gave me it does indeed look like SC just cut out some of Mahiru’s actions/speech and covered it up with a fade transition. The cutscene from the start of the game I can understand, but god drat SC, you had to reanimate the models anyway, could you really not find a way to take Old Mahiru out?
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Dec 1, 2019 22:13
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Bonding Update III: Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius Third bonding update, here we go. This is the halfway mark, so by the end of the next update we’ll finally have an idea of what all 12 of the Maidens are like, at least on a surface level anyway. Then we can cut the roster down to make things more manageable.  Before that, we need to check up on the next three ladies. Mirei is up first. ~Star God Academy Field~ … Finally, there she is. Man, it’s getting harder to track down the ones I haven’t met with… although I guess that kind of makes sense… I’m really tired.[Male Student]: It’s all a misunderstanding! Miyo! Please don’t break up with me! [Female Student]: Liar! You cheated on me! I’ll kill you! Before you ask it in the thread (or go back and check if you’re reading this on the Archive), no, these are not the same two students from Lillith/Lillie’s bonding event. Those two were named Mitchie and Tak. These two are apparently a different couple going through a break up because the dude allegedly cheated on the girl. High school was fun. …[Male Student]: Calm down, Miyo! Please don’t kill anyone! [Female Student]: I’ll kill you then myself! I’ll die and curse you! And that woman! Aaaahhh! Does this stuff just happen every day in this place? *sigh* Well, at least Mirei is right there. She’ll— —do nothing, apparently.*Itsuki heads over to figure out what the hell is so engaging that Mirei can tune out some girl screaming about a double murder suicide.* Uh, hey, Mirei? Oh, it’s you, Itsuki. I was just reading an interesting academic paper. Do you not hear what’s going on right in front of you? Shouldn’t you be doing something about it? Why should I mediate someone else’s fight? Well, she’s kind of yelling about killing herself… and also at least two other people. Then how about you stop them?She’s got you there, Itsuki. Isn’t that part of your duties or something? Don’t the Star Maidens help the people? Like say, by stopping them from killing themselves? If she really intends on killing herself, she wouldn’t say it, she’d just do it. Perhaps, but see the thing about psychology is that it isn’t an exact science. Isn’t that right? You there! The female student![Female Student]: Wh-What?! Leave me alone! If you really want to die, I have this magic potion I’ve been developing. Your head will fall right off without any pain or suffering. Would you like to try it?[Female Student]: N-No… I’m fine… Uh, let’s go. [Male Student]: S-Sure… Sorry about this… …You win this time, psychology. Goodness… This love thing is so foolish. Because of those two, I’ve wasted some of my time. I think it’s foolish, but what do you think, Itsuki? Would you waste your precious time over useless things like love? I don’t think it’s useless or a waste of time. I think it’s important. Well, it’s like… Love is a sign of a strong bond between people that help and support each other. In order to build up a bond and maintain it, you need to invest time into it, right? That’s what God’s Gifts and Star Maidens have to do for example, and they are responsible for saving the world. I mean, let’s not even get started on what kind of anarchy ridden hell hole the human world would turn into without love. I see. It’s interesting to hear opinions other than my own. That’s not enough to change my mind… But I thank you for stating your opinion. No problem. Not sure what I said made complete sense, but if you got something out of it anyway then that’s great. Well, never mind this. My own research takes priority above all else. I’ve finally found the subject… that I want to research the most, and they’re right in front of me. …Wait, what? Heheheh… You’re an unknown. There’s no subject of research more interesting than you. Uhh, hold on a second. I’m not that interesting of a guy. I’m kind of plain, actually. I will find out everything there is to know about you as God’s Gift. That is the research I want to do most right now. That’s why I will be proactive with you in the Classmating ritual. The other Star Maidens seem to be embarrassed about it, but not me. In exchange, I hope you’ll cooperate with my research. I’m getting sort of unsettled by the way you’re looking at me. Don’t worry. I may call it research, but I won’t be doing anything scary to you. So please, rest assured. Heheheh… (Why me? What the hell did I do to deserve all of this? Well… I said I was going to give this my all and I need the support of Star Maidens, so…) I guess I don’t really have a choice. Alright, we’ll help each other. Heheheh. Now I have your permission. H-Hey! You said no scary stuff! Itsuki. That was a joke. If you’re going to joke, then could you at least make an appropriate face? Otherwise I’m going to think you’re completely serious. Heheh. Very well. I’ll work on that. I must go to class now, so I will excuse myself. I hope we will get along. I’m looking forward to many things from you. Heheh… I’m going to regret this…Well, at least she’s not Ruby. That’s all I personally wanted from this character. Any other positives are just icing. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Hm… The Classmating ritual, I see. Hm? … Something wrong? Why are you staring at me like that? Whoa! Hey! Wh-Why are you touching my face like that?! Don’t move. Yes… You are incredibly tense. Your cheek muscles have hardened, and your temperature is high. Your pulse is fast as well. Are you nervous? Uh, yes? Obviously. Why is that? Because, it’s uhh… I mean, I’m Classmating with you. With me…? What an interesting opinion. Why would you be nervous Classmating with me? Th-That’s… Okay, I’m going to be blunt. You’re kind of hot. Plus you’re getting up in my face and touching me and I’m getting super uncomfortable. Hm. I don’t know about my own appearance…Yeah, you sure look like someone that doesn’t care.  Kind of. Well, how about it? How am I compared to other Star Maidens? Does it make you nervous thinking of what we are about to do? Hm? Yes. That’s why I try and focus on other stuff during these rituals. But you are making that really hard right now because you are getting way too close! Oh, really? You’re so strange. All right. Then should I wait until you’ve calmed down? Let’s just… Let’s just get it done before I lose whatever nerve I have left. I see… Then shall we, Itsuki? Let’s begin.*And then completely dry, scientific, passionless Classmating happens. I presume*  Does this help your research? Yes, of course. It was an extremely exciting experience. If you weren’t here, I never would have been able to experience it. I thank you for that. Now then, I need to make progress on my research with this interesting experience. Let us meet again. *sigh* Glad I could be of use.~Star God Academy Classroom~ Itsuki, can I ask you to do some physical labor for me? Oh, Mirei. Yeah, I guess so. What kind of physical labor? Oh, that’s all? Yeah, I can do that. Let me see. I knew I could count on you. I’m glad I asked you. I would appreciate if you could open it for me. I think you’re going a little overboard with this. It’s just a lid on a jam jar. I was going to be in trouble if you refused. Now hurry and open it. Right away. Okay, okay. Relax. Let’s see, just—Hrgh! drat, that’s really on there. I wish you luck. Try to open it no matter what. I really want some jam with my bread. God, who the hell screwed this on? Let me get a better grip… Hrrrggghhh! There! Got—*The screen shakes a little and goes white for a second* Well done. You have my thanks. *cough* Ugh. Mirei? What the hell was in that jar? I tried to make it instantaneous, but you’re still conscious, I see. I should up the concentration for it. Hmm, but that may make it fatal. Wh-Why the… hell… I prefer margarine on my bread. please… let me land… on something soft…*And our hero once again drops like a stone. This is becoming a concerning trend with him* ~???~ Ugghhh… I didn’t land on something soft, did I? Good morning, Itsuki. How do you feel? I’d like your opinion as your monitor. I may be able to use this sleeping medicine for insomniacs after all.I’ve got a feeling that near instant sleeping gas isn’t a good long term solution for minor ailments. Where… where did you take me? Wait… did you strap me to this table?! Yes, I tied you down. It’s no ordinary restraint. I used Star Energy with it. You can’t tear it off by force, so it’s futile to fight it. Hold on, what are you planning on doing to me…? Heheheheh… You said you would let me research you as God’s Gift. And you said no scary stuff! Heheh… There’s no need to be afraid. I just want to know more about you…  Whoa! Wait just a second! I’m not okay with that! Yes… An interview. What type of place is Sora? What living environment did you inhabit? There are many things I need to ask you. You’re quite an interesting subject. Oh thank god, that’s what you meant. Mirei, if you just wanted to ask me questions then all you had to do was just ask. You also don’t need to tie me down to do it. That’s not true. Research materials are always restrained. Let me rephrase that. I don’t want to be strapped to a table. It’s all right. You’ll get used to it soon. First, what is your favorite…*And then the screen fades to black for a moment as Mirei bombards Itsuki with questions* …I see. So that is how you spent your childhood. Next question. How much longer is this going to take? I have plenty of other questions. Do you want to quit? …Well, if you take these straps off then I’ll be more comfortable and-- I refuse. That would ruin the mood of the experiment. The restraints won’t kill you, so be patient with me. Now then… Itsuki, I hear boys your age have an overactive libido.  Books? Mirei, you’re talking to a guy from 2019. That poo poo is all digital, baby. I-Is that really something that you need to know?! Hm…? You’re nervous. C-Could you please back off a little? You’re face is way too close. Hm. This is interesting. Your reaction changed again. Is it because my face is closer to yours? Hm? You’re turning red. Are you getting a fever? I see. This is interesting. When you move your face closer to God’s Gift, changes occur in his body. Being God’s Gift has absolutely nothing to do with that. All right. I’ve found out many things about God’s Gift today. Let’s call it a day. That’s a great idea. Let’s do that.*And Mirei proceeds to wander off* I’ll have to organize all the data I’ve obtained… Hey! I’m still tied down! Mirei!Funny stuff. Oh well, at least she isn’t doing actual experimentation on him. He’s going to be getting enough physical punishment from the dungeons as it is.  Speaking of, we should have Itsuki check in with the palace medic. ~Star God Academy Clinic~ Oh, what’s wrong? It’s been a tough week trying to get used to all of this stuff. But that’s not why I’m here. At least not this time. I just wanted to learn a bit more about you. Are you busy? A doctor is always busy in this world. Thought, as the Scorpio Star Maiden, I do have some freedom. Would you like some coffee. No thanks. I don’t want to interrupt you if you’ve got stuff to do. Haha… You’re so considerate in such strange ways. How about we chat a little? Is there something you want to talk about? I’ll answer anything. Well, if you’re sure. How about telling me about this place? Haha… Are you that interested in my office? Sure, I’ll tell you about it.  I’m relieved to hear you understand such a principle. You sound more like a teacher than a doctor. Is that a compliment…? Well, I suppose I should take it as such. We have to deepen our bond together after all… Should I tell you more about myself considering the question you asked? That’s the idea. Haha… You’re an honest one. I’m a palace physician, but I’m also the public health doctor of this academy. Managing the health of the Star Maidens and God’s Gift is my main job.  As well, as the Scorpio Star Maiden, I will do the Classmating ritual with you. Well? How about it? Does that satisfy your request? Right. So you’re the doctor. Yes. That is the most important detail for you to know. My duty is to monitor your health. If you ever feel ill, even just a little, come to me. I won’t consider it trouble no matter the case. Just assume I’m your personal physician. Is there anything else you want to ask me? Um, th-that’s way too much information. I’m good. Oh, that’s too bad. I’m actually quite proud of my body. No matter. Come back next time so we can chat over some coffee. I’m usually here. Right. I’ll be sure to come by again. Yes. I hope to build a fantastic relationship with you.  Goodbye now. Please look after yourself.So despite Reone being the Star Maiden we’ve spent the most time with (outside of maybe Mahiru), the only thing we really know about her is still that she’s a doctor. She is surprisingly tight-lipped when it comes to herself. Maybe Classmating will change that. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Are you ready to do the ritual today? Haha… So you’ve finally picked me. It took you long enough. I thought you might be teasing me. Focus, Reone. No, it’s more like I needed time to… prepare. So, how do you want to do it today? Should I take the lead? This is our first time doing the ritual. You aren’t the least bit nervous? The others seemed kind of hesitant about it. Why would I hesitate at the chance to create Star Children that will help save lives? Don’t say such uncouth things right before the ritual. You should just focus on making our hearts entwine. Huh, you have a point there. I don’t feel as nervous when I think of it like that. Still, this Is our first time, I’m not sure if I know you well enough to do this very well. Oh, don’t overcomplicate things. All you have to do is react in the heat of the moment. It’ll make the Star Children we create even stronger. Many other factors are at play, sure, but this is the foundation. I’ll pretend I know what you are talking about. …I know. How about we do a test run? Once again, not my typo. I should make an icon or something that I can pop in every time a Spike Chunsoft grammar error happens. We’ve quickly reached a point where it’s impossible to tell their fuckups from mine. I’ll accept it no matter what it may be. Here, try it out. I don’t think that’s a great idea. I only manage to get through these things by not imagining. Thinking about us kissing or something wou— Oh, you’re a bold one. Of course. Come here. Here, pull your chin back… and don’t close your eyes. H-Hey! That wasn’t a suggestion, that was— Mm… Haha… Well? It’s our first time, so I hope you’re satisfied with it being on the forehead. (My heart feels like it’s going to explode…) I-Is stuff like that really going to help make stronger Star Children? If your desire to kiss was true, then yes. But that all depends on your emotions. This should go well, at least with me. That’s really all it takes? What do you mean? Just thinking out loud. Is that your gut instinct as a God’s Gift with first-hand experience? I don’t have any experience with it all. But that ends today. I hope we both can learn so much from today’s ritual. I’ll take the lead at the start, then we’ll just go with the flow. What do you think? I may not have the experience, but I do have some knowledge. A-Are you sure? Haha… I’m confident of it. I’m sure I can satisfy you. Now shall we begin? …Please be gentle.*Classmating, you know the drill* Phew… Did it go okay? It was fine. I think it went better than expected considering this is our first ritual. But I was expecting more. Haha… In other words, I wasn’t good enough for you? Don’t say it like that. I would’ve liked it if you lasted a little longer.It’s not sex, game. You established that. Piss off with this “Haha, premature!” crap. But, you’re still young, so we can’t help that.Also piss off with this “Reo is a cougar/maneater” crap. She’s like 23, at best. Also she’s a virgin, which the story took great and unwelcome pains to explain to us. Right, right. I’ll remember that for next time. Haha… I hope so. I’ll go on ahead. I still have some work to do. I’ll see you around.~Star Academy Clinic~ Reone, are you there? Oh, you’re here again. What’s the matter today? You don’t look ill. Looks can be deceiving. The other Maidens have been… I don’t want to say dangerous, but there’s no better word coming to mind right now. Anyway, I figured I should see you. Haha… I suppose there isn’t anything fun about visiting a doctor’s office.  I do have to perform regular examination on your body… That’s fine with me. Between the headbutt to the chest I took from Tarua and the sleeping gas from Mirei… and also that time I passed out in front of the church; I could use a once over. What do I need to do? Take off your clothes and stand in front of me. I pour Star Energy into my stethoscope… and by touching your body, I’ll know if each part is functioning correctly.Wow, we’ve got a true medical professional here, folks. Wonder how many years of medical school it took for that PhD.? You’re still young, so I’m sure the examination will be over rather quickly. Does my age really have anything to do with that? Of course it does. Boys your age are the easiest to examine. Even if I’m a little aggressive, your body will react appropriately. Don’t tell me you feel embarrassed in front of a doctor.I have serious questions about the quality of Granvania’s healthcare services. Okay, calm down. Just give me a minute. I’m glad to see how obedient you are. I was curious what I’d have to do if you resisted like the first time we met. That incident is exactly the reason why I’m not resisting this time. …There, done. Well, I do recommend you take everything off for the test. Not happening. Oh, that’s too bad… Well, if that’s what the patient requests. I’ll start with your back. You can stay standing for this.*Reo wanders around to the back of Itsuki* I’m going to start the palpation now. … Wh-Whoa! What the hell are you doing?! Why are you crying out? Why the hell does my back feel wet?! That’s just how it is. I’m inserting Star Energy into your body.Reminds me of the time I went in for an MRI of the head a few years back. The contrasting agent you are given causes this really weird wet/water sensation that rolls through your body when the scan actually happens. However, unlike Reone, actual doctors tell you about that poo poo before you feel it so you don’t get freaked out. Hm… Your back seems fine. I’ll check your front now.*Reone comes back into frame* I’ll begin with your stomach. If you feel any heat in your body, tell me where it’s coming from. Well? Do you feel any heat around your stomach?  Well, my face feels like it’s on fire. Oh, you’re right. Your face is bright red. But that’s definitely not from an illness. Haha… You’re so cute. Look at you getting all bashful.*The screen fades to black as the examination takes place* Whew… Your body is as healthy as they come. That’s a bit of a surprise, although it’s a good surprise. You can put your clothes back on now… Finally. Don’t need to tell me twice. I love people with such defined clavicles. Uh, thanks? I don’t think I’ve ever had someone compliment me on them.Everyone has a fetish for some body part, I suppose. Gonna be honest, first time I’ve heard of this one though. You’re only the second person I’ve ever complimented, you know. Second? Yes, the second. …You see that photo? The person next to me was the first. Now he had some solid clavicles. You look different. How long ago was that taken? That was before I became a physician, so it’s been about five years since then.Right, so when you were between 17 and 19? Meaning you’re between 22-24 or something now? Or did you take a few years off after high school. No way in hell that you spent 10 years in medical school. Not with that magic “this will tell me anything that’s wrong with you” stethoscope. …I think you resemble the boy in the picture, if only a little. Ever since I met you, that’s been on my mind. There’s something about you two that’s just so similar… Oh, I’m sorry… I suppose you don’t like being compared to others. Kind of depends on who I’m being compared to. I suppose you can rest assured then. In my book, he’s one of the best I know. So who is he, anyway? You look pretty close. Well… I’ll leave our relationship to your imagination. A woman always has her secrets.Hm… This is a tough one. I originally thought “mentor”, but she calls him “boy”, so that can’t be it. Itsuki didn’t say anything about him looking similar to her, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not her brother. I tried zooming in on that picture, but I can only make out one person, not two, so I’m not sure if that’s the photo she’s referring to or if there is another one offscreen that we don’t see. It’s between “first love” and “little brother.” …Screw it, give me twenty on little brother. That “A woman always has her secrets thing” sounds like a red herring/teasing. I’m guessing “little brother that got sick and died which motivated Reone to become a doctor.” Fair enough. If you don’t want to talk about it then I won’t try and pry it out of you. Oh, come now, don’t pull away there. You’re no fun. But… I guess you’re similar in that way too. Well when you say it like that, I do kind of want to know more. Haha… We can save that for next time. Until then, just be careful you don’t injure your handsome clavicles. If you promise me that, I’ll tell you who that boy is. That’s a tougher promise to keep than you would think, but sure. I’ll be careful with them. Good. You may go now. There are many things you must attend to. I’m sure you’ll put your all into it, but good luck. The future of this nation depends on you. Okay, one more to go for this update.  I heard Sue was supposed to hang out here, but I don’t see her. Maybe people were making fun or her or something?[Horse]: Brr… [Pig]: Oink oink! [Chicken]: Cock-a-doodle-doo! (Didn’t expect to see normal animals like this in a magic fantasy world. This place is just constant disappointment.) What’s wrong everyone…? Don’t get so excited.*Sue wanders into the frame* Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you. I wanted to say hi. …Oh. Hi. Well, I have to go and take care of them.[Horse]: *neigh* [Pig]: Oink oink! [Chicken]: Cock-a-doodle-doo!  You take care of all the animals here? Is this your farm? Yes. They’re all my friends. I take care of them every day. …They don’t belong to the academy. I brought them from home. Oh, that’s cool. I’ve worked with animals before. They’re pretty cute. …Yes, very cute. No one really praises them. They make loud noises all the time. That’s why… Hm, thank you. Do you want to know their names? Yeah, sure. What are they? …Let me introduce you. [Horse]: *neigh*! That is a badass horse name. This one is Kere-Kere…[Chicken]: Cock-a-doodle-doo! Eh, not quite as awesome. This one… is Algernon.[Sheep]: Baaaah! Those are… interesting names. …Yeah. They’re all very well-behaved. Itsuki, can I ask you for something?Whoa, whoa. Hold up. What about the cow that is clearly there in the background? Does she not have a name? Of course. What is it? I’ll fulfill my mission… as a Star Maiden. But to me, taking care of them is most important. Part of it is because I love them, but… I do want to become a zoologist.At least someone around here has some aspirations. Really? My duty as a Star Maiden is secondary. My animals take priority… Is that okay? Yeah, I don’t see a problem with that. …Really? Of course. We can work the Classmating rituals around your schedule. I have plenty of things to keep me busy when you aren’t available. So whatever is most convenient for you. Thanks… You’re very kind. I’ll try to help out as much as I can. Are you done saying hi? Yeah, that’s enough for today. I won’t keep you any longer. I’ll drop by again some other time. Yes. If we talk some more, can we make stronger Star Children? I think that’s generally how it works. Alright. I’ll see you later, Sue. Yeah. Bye…Okay, a little quiet maybe, but at least that was just a completely normal conversation. No weird head patting or split personalities or sexual harassment or kidnapping or random denials of arson. Let’s see if we can keep that up, okay Sue? ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Thanks for coming, Sue. Could I ask you to try the Classmating ritual today? Okay… I’ll do it. Well yeah, but don’t you need to mentally prepare or something first? …Why would I need to do that? I’ll be fine. Do you need to mentally prepare? Normally I would, but you’re being oddly normal about this. Are you not nervous or anything? …No. This is like caring for my animals. I will take care of you and make Star Children. …It’s the same. We’re all animals anyway. …Well, you got me on that one. I’ll do the ritual with you and make tons of kids. Okay, just so we’re clear: Classmating and animal mating are not the same thing. It’s very important that you understand that. If you want to wait to Classmate… then I’ll wait too. But if you’re ready, let’s hurry up. H-Hey! Slow down!*Classmating happens. There’s only so many ways I can say that* … *sigh* There, all done. At least it feels like it’s getting easier. I’m not as tired as I used to be. Hm? What’s wrong, Sue? …This is strange. It feels strange… deep in my heart. Maybe you’re getting sick? It feels ticklish and… warm. It’s just weird. Are you sure you’re not having heart flutters or something? You’re the only Star Maiden so far to say something like this. I don’t… dislike this feeling. Well, as long as you’re okay with it then I guess it’s fine. Still think you should have Reone check you over though. Yeah, I’m all right… So, do you want to do it again? Take it easy. This is fine for now. I’ll ask you again some other time. I need to go back to my animals… Bye.I feel like Sue is taking the “mating” part of “Classmating” too literally. Oh well, now that she knows how it works it should make things a little less awkward. ~Sue’s Ranch House~ …Rottweiler. I know it’s cold, but I need to trim your wool a bit. What are you up to, Sue? If you get puffier, you can’t move.  Oh, Itsuki… Is something wrong? Nothing wrong. I just stopped by to see you. You seemed pretty focused on whatever you’re doing there. My sheep, Rottweiler, won’t let me trim his wool. He’s resisting so much, so I’m just going to do it tomorrow. You trim the sheep, too? Yeah. There’s more to taking care of my animals besides just feeding them. What they produce is really popular. I can deliver it to stores around town. It’s also used in the cafeteria. That meat line would be funny, but also super mean. Let’s not be mean to Sue. She’s been all right so far. You mean like eggs and milk and stuff? Yeah. Have you tried them at the cafeteria? The flan and white sauce pasta are both really good. Can’t say I have, but thanks for the recommendations. You sure seem happy when you’re talking about your animals. Yeah. I’m happy that everyone acknowledges them. The stuff they make is really popular. So I’m happy too. Sounds like a tough job, though. Not a people person, huh? I guess you don’t like to talk. Really? Am I not talking normally to you? No, that’s not what I meant. I’m okay with talking. Especially to animals. Talking to people… not so much.  That’s why I don’t like talking to people. Or with you… Oh… Should I stop then? No… This is just my own preference. I have my duty as a Star Maiden. Don’t mind what I just said. Just do what you want. I see…And then the scene just kind of ends. Official Itsuki just says “Sue…” and the event is over. Kind of a bummer, but whatever, we can’t stop to mull it over right now.  We’ve still got three more Maidens to go, after all. The last three in fact. Next update we’ll wrap up the Maiden Bonding with Farun, Collette, and Yuzuha. Then we’ll finally, mercifully, be ready to start building Star Child teams so we can get started on this world saving business. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Feb 23, 2020 |
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Dec 3, 2019 23:43
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mastersord posted:Did I miss any? I think Yuzuha fits the first one a little, but the other two don't really match up with what you have. Farun is peppy and teasing, but she mainly just wants to do this whole Star Maiden thing and get back to her traveler life. Collette is hard to pin down. I wouldn't say she's in it for profit though, at least no more so than any other person whose life depends on their business paying the bills. AnAnonymousIdiot posted:Three more to go. And no I'm not counting whoever's the Serpent Bearer. The art book might have it, but that only came with the Special Edition, which I did not get. NiS America apparently cut a deal with Spike Chunsoft and so the SE is only sold on NiS's online store which always sells everything ridiculously overpriced and is prohibitively expensive for anyone outside of the US. But yes, the addition of the 13th Maiden does push around the usual Star Sign dates. I'll post the revised whenever she is introduced. I know I shift from being a Taurus to an Aries under the alternative astrology calendar. As for the Maidens, although there are no specific dates that we can find, it's safe to say that they were born in the related month. There has to be some reasoning to Star God's madness. On the other hand, the 13th Maiden’s addition implies that humans have control over the actual arrangement of dates, at least a little. For example, what happens if the Serpent is introduced and someone that was a Scorpio shifts to Serpent while the Scorpio Star Offering is out of order? Can that person go back to loving? Does the monster making sex energy know that it needs to go to the Serpent Star Offering now? In terms of the cliche storm characters, you kind of need to accept that when getting in to these kinds of games. As Neoman said, the idea is to lay out everything about a character up front so that the player can latch on to whatever type tickles their particular fancy without dumping time into actually getting to know someone they might not like. Generally the cliches tend to fade away as a character's arc progresses. Key word is generally. One of the main reasons I hate Tsunderes is that it's one of the types that rarely shifts to the background. The trait is always front and center and taking attention away from characterization. It's not just a "dating sim for guys" thing either. I play some Otome games as well and they like to do the same thing, although they prefer to have a lot of the guys be very similar in the sense that many of them are gentle or soft spoken. Then they'll have the one bad boy in there because of contractual obligations. Otome games tend to have less extreme variety in characters. Anyway, as I keep saying, characters in these types of games tend to get more interesting and likeable as their arcs progress. I'm not saying these 12 will follow that, but there's still hope. Now that their  personalities have been established, my hope is that the bonding will move on to establishing some actual character or backstory.
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Dec 4, 2019 |
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Dec 4, 2019 04:06
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Bonding Update IV: Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces Finally, we’re down to the last three Star Maidens. At the end of the this update we’ll finally be able to get down to benching some of them, which will probably be an easier process than I initially expected because the thread so far has been apathetic at best about the 9 ladies we’ve been introduced to so far.  Maybe we can turn the mood around with Farun. ~Tavern~ (Sure is busy in here… Then again, Narcisstes said that there’s a sex ban in place for the time being, so I guess hitting the bar is the only way to take the edge off.) Here! An’ for you, mister! I got your booze right here! Huh? The order’s wrong? You didn’t order any booze? Oh, who cares! You’re a man, ain’t ya? Drink up!One of our heroines, ladies and gentlemen. Encouraging drunkenness among the sex deprived populace. Oh. Wait… Hey. Sorry, I’m not here as a customer this time. Oh, is that so? Then… it’s ‘bout that thing, huh? Oh, I see… So it’s finally come… I… what? I’m Itsuki, remember? The whole God’s Gift thing. The world ending danger. That stuff? Oh, yeah, God’s Gift. Hehe. Just kiddin’. I do remember ya. Just have a seat. You’ll be getting’ somethin’ to drink, right? Uh, no. I’m not here to drink. I believe I just said that. I’m here to see you, Farun.I want to point out that Official Itsuki says something along the lines of “I’m not old enough to drink, yet.” Why is every JRPG protagonist such a loving square? I know the out-of-universe explanation, which is that the drinking age in Japan is 20 (kind of like how legal age in media is always 18+ because of SoCalization – Side Note: Don’t TV Tropes that right now. I know it’s tempting, but at least finish this update first). It just weirds me out for fantasy settings like these. Farun looks like an elf or something for God’s sake. Does her lifespan directly correlate? Oh? So ya came to see me, huh. Tryin’ to sound all handsome an’ everythin’. I’ll have ya know I’ve heard that a million times already. If you’re tryin’ to hit on me, ya should think of somethin’ more unique. Not really why I’m here. Ahaha. Gotcha. Have a seat for now, Itsuki. Let’s have a chat. Ya know? For the future. Hehe. Um, let’s see. Should I introduce myself again? That would be a start. We can keep going from there. I’m Farun. I’m a dancer, but I’ll do my best as a Star Maiden too. Didn’t you say you were a traveler? Hmm. I guess I’m both. I travel from place to place often.  That’s me, Farun. Ahaha. An’ yet, when I came here, they suddenly told me I’m a Star Maiden an’ stuff. They even put me in an academy to boot. Gimme a break, ya know? That’s why I have high hopes for ya. Uh, for me? Why? I mean, other than the obvious. Just go an’ save the world in a jiffy! Then I can go back to travelin’. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t Star Maidens have to perform duties and protect the Star Offerings or something for the next 120 years? What? Really? I didn’t hear ‘bout that… Hold up! Gimme a break! Well, not for a while anyway. I think. Not really sure what happens to you when the 120 years have passed. I still have so many places I wanna go to! I can’t just stay in one place forever! Not really sure what to tell you. I’m just repeating the stuff that Narcisstes, Reone, and Mana said. Hmm… This is bad. I better go an’ talk to the big wigs at the castle. Anyway, Itsuki! I’ll need your help! Go beat up the bad guys an’ save the world or whatever! I’m countin’ on ya! I’m going to do my best. Hmm. Ya don’t sound very dependable. I’m not exactly the kind of person that hypes himself up like that. Yeah, I can tell as much. Anyway, I hope we can get along. I’ll try cooperatin’ as much as I can. It’ll end up helpin’ me too. M’kay, well… That’s that. See ya later!I don’t know Japanese well enough to tell if Farun’s lines are written with a “Kansai Accent” in mind, or if they are just generally informal. The localization seems to treat it as such though, with the way that Farun’s lines have been translated. Farun’s English VA is also Tia Ballard, who is from Texas (although I’m playing this in Japanese, so I don’t know if she actually uses the Texan accent). On the other hand, the Japanese VA for Farun is Kazusa Aranami, who is from Chiba (near Tokyo). ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Oh well, not that it matters. I just point it out because Farun is really the only one with an “accent”, at least in terms of what comes across in text. It also pisses me off because I constantly have to correct myself while transcribing her dialogue due to the incorrect spellings. I see. So you’re here for the Classmatin’ ritual. I see, I see. So we do it here. Uh-huh. I see… I see… Hmm… Are you doing okay? Hm? What do ya mean? Huh… or maybe they were going for a Cockney accent? Is “cheeky” something that Southern Americans typically use? Don’t ya worry ‘bout me! Big Sis Farun will take care of everythin’! (I really wish Narcisstes hadn’t put that “family” thing in their heads. It’s making this so umcomfortable.) Okay, well if you’re sure then I guess we should start. Oh… S-Sure. I guess so… … What is it? I thought you were okay? Y-Yeah, I am. I did say that… It’s ‘kay… It’s ‘kay… Then should we start? … Farun? …S-Sorry! H-Hold on just a sec! Really! Just a sec! *inhale*… Whew… *inhale*… Whew… I think I saw you doing that breathing technique just outside as well. Are you sure it’s okay? Th-That was before we came to the church! An’ this is… just… preparation. U-Ugh… I think we should try this some other time. You seem like you’re freaking out a bit. O-Okay! I’m okay! I’m okay now! Alright, let’s try this again then. …’kay. Let’s do this! Bring it on! Let’s get on with the Classmatin’ ritual! I’m trying! Try and relax a little.*Classmatin’* Huff… Huff… Huff… Do you feel okay? Y-Yeah… But I was… surprised with a ton of stuff there. Phew… But that should do it! Yeah! So, how was it, Itsuki? How’d I do? (…That means she doesn’t actually want the truth, right? I think that’s how it works when talking to girls. Just, say something nice. Be positive.) I think you did great. Hehehe… Dummy, don’t say that with such a straight face. No, I mean it. Uh-huh… I see, I see. Well, I guess it doesn’t feel too bad to hear that. All right! Well, that’s it for today! Phew. It’s finally done. Thanks a lot, Farun. Hm? For what? I’m doing this cuz I was chosen. Since I’m cooperatin’, I hope ya try harder. That’s the plan. Well, I gotta go to class now. See ya later!That didn’t go too badly. Probably a good idea to bring along some liquid courage next time though. She does work in a bar after all. ~Tavern~ M’kay! Here’re your drinks an’ appetizers! Hm? Yesterday’s dance? Oh, ya liked it? Thanks! I’m a professional dancer. Ya know I have the skills to show for it.*Farun then runs into frame* Oh. Hey, Itsuki! Welcome! Why does it feel like I’m invisible while I’m in here? Well, business is boomin’ here. Oh yeah, you said that you were a dancer. Yup. I go from place to place to learn an’ master all sorts of dance techniques. I really am pretty good, ya know? It doesn’t hurt ya to pay a li’l respect. Well it’s kind of hard when I haven’t actually seen your dancing. What types do you know? Tons an’ tons. There’s one for ceremonies, an’ one for banquets. I know stuff to perform at taverns like this, as well as the palace dance. Oh, that’s cool. An’… I also have a special dance. A really… really, special one. I rarely show it, if ever. Hehe. What sorta dance do ya think it is? Is it like a dance for your lover or something? Hahaha… I ain’t tellin’! This is top secret from Big Sis Farun. Well you did ask me to guess. Ahaha, sorry ‘bout that. But I didn’t think that’d be your first guess. You kind of narrowed it down quite a bit, so I just answered with what popped into my head. Hehe… Anyway, there’s this extremely special dance. I know of it, but I’ve never actually danced it.Is it the Safety Dance? The Hustle? Time Warp? Technically Itsuki could teach you a ton of dances that this world has probably never witnessed before. Can’t say that all of them are worth passing on though. Hmm… I don’t know… I don’t think I’ll ever have the opportunity. But that’s just a guess… Hehe. I wouldn’t know, but I would kind of like to see it some day. Itsuki, ya wanna see it? Hmm… I doubt it. Ahaha…  I do hope ya come to see me sometime. What do ya think?This is sounding like a marketing ploy to me. Sure. I’ll definitely try and get in. Oh, definitely, ya say? I see. Please don’t threaten me. I’ve had enough of that this week. Ahaha… But seriously, ya should come see me. I really want ya to see me dance. I’ll look forward to it. Yeah, well, that’s that then. Uh-oh. Looks like we spent too long talkin’. I need to get back to work! See ya later!And that does it for Farun. Next is…  …dammit. Quite possibly the most child looking character we’ve seen so far. That includes that little barefoot orphan girl from Ruka’s route.  Welcome! We strive to bake you joy in every loaf! Welcome to Collette’s Sweet Wheats! …Oh, its [sic] you, Itsuki.I’m just going to fall back on the tried and true sic method for every time Spike Chunsoft fucks up spelling or grammar. Or at least for every time I notice it. You’ve come all the way to my shop. Is something going on? Or were you lured in by the delicious smell of the bread wafting in the air? No, everything is fine. I just wanted to properly introduce myself. Although food does sound nice right about now. My now! I’m happy to hear you say that. Indeed, delicious bread can have that power over people. And you being lead [sic] here today isn’t just coincidence. It’s a natural phenomenon. Just like how a stone cannot resist gravity. I’m pretty sure it’s just because I missed lunch. Good sales pitch, though. Neeheehee. Of course, any and all are welcome in my bakery. Now then, please choose whichever bread you’d like. So, will you have some of my bread? My recommendation is… Hold on, bread is good, but the reason I came here was to hear more about you. We don’t really know anything about each other, which isn’t doing us any favors in the bonding department. Lunch can wait a little longer. Well, now that you mention it, that is true. Please forgive me for earlier. Well then, ahem. I’m Collette, the Aquarius Star Maiden. I run this bakery day in and day out. I’m the charismatic proprietor as well as the cute girl who works at a shop. I guess you know by now that I’m God’s Gift. I hope we can work together to solve this end of the world thing. Yes, likewise. Is it all right if I keep calling you Itsuki? That’s fine with me. Not sure I really live up to the name “God’s Gift” just yet, anyway. All right. Now then, Itsuki, let me ask you a question. What do you think of my bakery? No funny/rear end in a top hat choices here, unfortunately. You can call it “cute”, “clean”, or “nice”. (Why do they keep saying that? Uhh… quick, think of something…) It’s very… nice? Hmm, that isn’t a very satisfying answer. I want to know what you think in more refined detail. For example, the decorations are nice or the place is clean… Things like that. After all, it stands to reason that this bakery is nice. That’s because I’m the proprietor.You know Pride is one of the Deadly Sins, right? It’s also where everything went completely to poo poo in Conception II. You asked me that out of the blue. I can’t really give you a detailed answer when I’ve only been standing in here for a few minutes. I see… I’m sorry for coming at you like that after your compliment. However, when you compliment me in the future, do give me precise feedback. (Great, that’s a minefield I’ll have to wade into eventually…) I’m sorry, I got wrapped up in idle conversation. I need to start baking the next batch, so I will excuse myself. You bake and sell everything in here by yourself? Yes. I mentioned it briefly in passing before, but I run this bakery solo. I also have my duties as a Star Maiden, so I will be much busier than before. Sounds like a tough job that’s going to get tougher. Not at all. I can manage. …I know. If you’d like, please take that unsold bread home with you. It was baked this morning, but I’m sure it’s still nice and soft. Oh, well, thanks. Are you sure it’s okay for me to take it? Of course. I will receive payment for it however.Gonna bill the poo poo out of the palace for it, huh? You sure do have all your bases covered. You have to be like this if you expect to run a business well.You could also try taking some introductory economics courses. Judging by that screen shot and the fact that you mentioned unsold bread from this morning, I have a feeling you don’t quite grasp supply and demand theory.  ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Okay, Collette. It’s your turn for the ritual. So the time has come… I didn’t think for a minute that I would be selected. Please for the love of God, stop drawing attention to that. And to think I’d be made to do the ritual… You certainly are a lusty fellow. (I’m so glad that nobody from my world can see this.) Could you not say stuff like that? You’re a Star Maiden, of course you’d be selected to do this ritual. My my. I see you’re getting defensive but not denying it. So I was right. You are lusty. I’m not. At least not in regards to this ritual stuff. You may be right. Instead of lusty, you’re probably more… cocky. I suppose my cuteness has that effect on your and you can’t help yourself. What the hell are you going on about? Neehee. That was a joke. I was just joking around to lighten the tension before the ritual. I feel a bit better now. I, mean, [sic] I am at that sensitive age. I suppose I’m as nervous as anyone would be. Now then, what are we supposed to do? Wait, you mean you don’t know how this works? I just wanted to see what you were into first, then I’d come up with a plan of action. I think you’re really exaggerating what this involves. Trust me, that isn’t going to happen. I’ll make sure of it. All right. I’ll trust you. For now. It’s better to just come out with it than sit here worrying about it, right? Well, I guess in the case of this ritual, something really will come out! Please don’t phrase it like that. I beg you. Ah, right. After this ritual, you need to treat me to something. I want to have something nice to eat.Man, you are just riding this for all it’s worth, aren’t you? Normally I’d be defensive about cash, but the little bit that we do have left technically came from Mana. I have no reservations at all about blowing Mana’s money. Think of it as a treat for doing the ritual. Why do I have to treat you? This is for the sake of the world. Oh, come now. It’s just an act of kindness to me. I’m not all that hungry, so something light and simply is fine. I’ll leave you to decide. So… what? Something like bread? Is that what you’re driving at? But really? Getting bread for the girl who runs a bakery? Oh, maybe you thought I’d be happy if you suggested bread? Are you not? You’re surprisingly rude.Pot calling the kettle black, Collette. It’s not like I live solely on bread. “Man does not f-yeast on bread alone.” That’s what dieticians say as well. It’s a wonderful teaching that states that nutritional balance is important for growing girls. I’m fairly sure that you are misunderstanding that. Rather than worrying about that, I thought I said I’d like something light and simple. Pita is the only type of bread that fits that requirement. Listen, can we just focus on the ritual? Are you ready? Yes, I’ve been prepared from the start. Well then, shall we begin?*Classmating which includes a very inappropriate cutscene* Phew… Is that it? I’m really tired… That actually went a bit easier than the past few times. Th-That was easy…? I was pretty embarrassed… You’ll get used to it. I have. Mostly. Hmm, I wonder if it’s something that’s good to get used to… It’s supposed to be a sacred ritual that helps prevent danger. Oh, I know that already. Anyway, what do you want? Ah! You remembered… I think that’s a wonderful characteristic you have. Well, nice job on the ritual today.Thank god that’s over with. For now. Whatever, I’ll let future me deal with that. ~Collette’s Sweet Wheats~ Welcome! We knead happiness into your heart! Welcome to Collette’s Sweet Wheats! That’s pretty rude of you. I’m here to buy bread today. Oh, so you’re here as a customer. My apologies. Please, take your time… is what I’d like to say, but I’m going to close the shop in ten minutes. Are you going somewhere? No, but I do need to bake more bread in the back. After all, I do everything from the baking to the selling all by myself.There are a lot of bakeries like that. They still manage to actually sell poo poo while doing it though. I have a personal rule for people to only eat freshly baked bread. Must be nice to have that kind of freedom. Yes, it certainly is. Some famous person once said, “Freedom has its price.” But no matter how busy I get, thinking about that freedom energizes me. So no complaints then I guess, huh? Then everyone will be full and happy. Now then, shall I wrap up your bread? How about a bitter chocolate croissant that carrier an air of mischief with it? I’m sure if you munch on this alone in the park, you’ll get all the girls.Oh yeah, girls love a guy that sadly sits alone on a bench in the park eating chocolate croissants. Why didn’t I think of doing that? Could I just get some normal bread? In that case, the girls will be able to leave you alone.Yeah, nothing says poverty like eating chocolate covered croissants. Does all of your bread have to be eaten alone in the park? I’ve got it. In that case, I’ll throw in a heel of bread too. Just like there was the high heel boom, we’ll make a bread heel boom too. Please make a movement out of this, Itsuki. (Oh, it’s going to be a movement alright.) I guess I can do that, the talking about bread part anyway, not the “moe” part. As long as I keep getting free bread like this. Oh?! You will? If this somehow works, then the bakery’s sales will be set. I asked expecting you to say no. But you know, Itsuki… That yes-man response of yours has really moved me. That’s not a compliment, you know. That’s not true. I highly evaluate that challenging spirit of yours. Well, I’ll give you the heel for free anyway, so eat it wherever you’d like. Okay. Sorry to get in your way. Not at all. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to talk more. Please eat the heel, crumbs and all. I promise it’s very delicious.I’m going to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what the hell Collette’s character is.  Oh well. Not the time to think about that. We’ve got the ~Star God Academy Field~ Okay, I only need to meet with one more Maiden and then I can get to work on putting together a proper team for the Labyrinths. I doubt I’m going to find that Yuzuha girl here at the academy though. She mentioned something about working at home. I should ask Reone or Narcisstes about where she lives.~Yuzuha’s Workshop~ …*sigh* Why did I have to become a Star Maiden… *There’s a sound from somewhere* …Hm? …Wh-Who’s there?*Yuzuha moves to check it out* Sorry, wasn’t trying to scare you. I was knocking at the door but you weren’t responding.…Is that a coffin bed? Um… You don’t have to say sorry… It was my fault for daydreaming… Hi, Big Brother… Did you, uh, want something from me…? I wanted to drop by and properly introduce myself. I thought you already did that the last time… Oh, you said “properly.” Okay. I guess proper salutations are needed… Um… I’m Yuzuha. I think I’m the Pisces Star Maiden… N-Nice to meet you… Nice to meet you too. Oh, yes… Nice to meet you… *sigh*… Looks like he’s not someone scary… What was that? You kind of drifted off there. O-Oh, it’s nothing… Don’t mind me. Please, continue… Okay. Well, umm… you have a lot of paintings in here. Do you do that as a hobby? It’s my job, not so much a hobby.  …But now I also have to work as a Star Maiden… *sigh*… Do you not want that? Well, I can’t help it now that I’ve been chosen… I don’t really want to, but I’ve given up on resisting. I’m really good at giving up… So please… don’t mind me, Big Brother. I’ll do my job as a Star Maiden properly. …Oh. I’m calling you “Big Brother”… Does that sound too pushy to you? Well, I know Narcisstes gave a lecture to you guys about thinking of us like a family, but I’ll be honest, the Big Brother thing is kind of weirding me out. I don’t know what else to call you… Maybe something like, “Mr. Itsuki”? Or just “Itsuki”? Mister…? Hmm… I guess I could call you that… But… that’s supposed to show seniority, right? That means I’ll have to call the other Star Maidens “Miss.” It’s an honorific, Yuzuha. You are supposed to follow it with a name when you know it, like Miss Arie or Miss Reone. I mean, Big Brother is kind of the same. A lot of guys could react to that. That’s okay. You’re the only man I know. What about Narcisstes? Hmm… He’s more like “Teacher,” or “Uncle” maybe? So I prefer to call you “Big Brother.” But, if you insist, I guess I can call you “Mister”… Honestly, ”Big Brother” just feels weird, but I guess just call me whatever you feel comfortable with. Thanks, Narc. Real good job on that stupid creepy “think of each other as family” lecture. …Um, is there something else we have to talk about? I don’t really notice these things, so please tell me. No, I just came by to say hi to you. I don’t really have any other stuff to talk about right now. Oh, okay. Sorry… I’m sure you found out today, but I’m bad at talking… So, I’m sorry… You don’t have to apologize for that. Just keep in mind that we’re going to have to talk in order to strengthen our bond. S-Sure… But it still won’t be fun talking to me. Big Brother… you have to use your time wisely… Spending time like this is wise. But I… Just don’t worry about it, okay? I decide how I spend my own time. … I’ll stop by again some other time. See you later. Okay. See you…*And Itsuki takes his leave* … “I decide how I spend my own time.”… I don’t know…Good stuff. I’m sure the Classmating ritual will go just swimmingly. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ What? W-With me…? Ugh… Big Brother… Do we really have to? Kind of, yeah. It’s part of saving the world. I won’t force you into it, though. O-Okay… Let me think… I know I shouldn’t refuse, but… You aren’t the only one. …You too? As much as me? Probably. O-Oh, really… So it’s the same for you… I’m a bit relieved to know I’m not the only one. But the other Star Maidens feel the same way, right? We all get scared and nervous… (Well, except for Mirei… and Reone I guess, but that’s beside the point.) It wouldn’t be fair if I’m the only one who doesn’t do it… Okay, I-I have to gather my courage. No problem. Are you feeling a little more ready? U-Um… I am now, but… I don’t really know how to Classmate… You too?! Is this not part of your classes or something? It seems like a major part of the Star Maiden thing. Ugh… I’m sorry.And Narcisstes just let that slide? He didn’t even try and get you to pay attention? The class only has 12 students in it, don’t try and tell me that he just didn’t notice. I had 16 in my ESL tutoring classes and I knew drat well whenever someone was passed out or not paying attention. Big Brother, this may not be your first time… But… it is for me… so… um… I understand. Just leave it all to me, okay? I’m sure I can make this work. Oh… Yes, please. I’ll do as you say… So please teach me… Please… Calm down, you can count on me. I think. Okay… Then, um… *Final introductory Classmating! …Sort of!* *sigh*… It’s finally over… I’m so sorry… I don’t think I did it well… Don’t worry about it. You get better with practice. All right, thanks… I feel so tired right now. Sure thing. Thanks for everything. Okay… Bye, Big Brother.Okay, let’s waste no time in finishing this up. ~Yuzuha’s Workshop~ O-Oh, Big Brother…? What are you doing here? I’m off from class today, so… Do you have an emergency? No, nothing like that. I just wanted to check out some of your paintings. I didn’t get the chance last time. Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? Oh, so that’s it… That’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say that. …Oh, but none of them are finished. Can I show them to you when I’m done?What about that clearly finished one above the window? The one that’s already framed? It’s a bit embarrassing, but if you want to see, I’ll let you… Oh, is saying “I’ll let you” a bit too rude? Not really. They’re yours, so it’s your call. I’ll look forward to it. I-It’s nothing to look forward to… Great. Anyway, do you live here by yourself? Oh… y-yes. Yes, I do. Going to and from here to the academy is my daily routine. I really don’t like going outside though… Why? Do you not like being around people or something? Yeah, I’m terrible with them… Before I was a Star Maiden, I never left home… so I never got used to people. That’s why if someone talks to me, I don’t know how to respond…  I don’t understand how we’re able to… Well, the fact is that you are talking with me just fine. So maybe if we keep that up then you can get used to talking to other people. I think I’ll be fine… Time passes quickly when I’m painting, and it’s fun too. I’m okay with the way things are… I think I was just born like this… That seems a bit sad, doesn’t it? Why not just keeping talking with me and the Star Maidens, then? I think that’s just a waste of your time… I told you before. The time I’m spending with you isn’t a waste. Just go for it. Oh… you’re so forceful, Big Brother. You’re the complete opposite of how passive I am…  I’ve told you already, but I’m really good at that… Whatever helps. Anyway, I’m going to head back for today. I’ll check in again later. Y-Yeah… U-Um… See you later…And that’s it, at least until Maiden 13 decides to show up. Now comes the good part (for me). Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Feb 23, 2020 |
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Dec 5, 2019 23:59
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Balache404 posted:Wow, not a lot of stand-out choices. Everyone's either a walking stereotype, insufferable, or a literal child. Still, there are some that could be interesting. Holding out hope that whoever the Ophiuchus maiden is really stands out. I have high hopes for Maiden 13. She's the only one written by a more experienced development team since she was made for this remake. All the other maidens were written by 2012 Spike (not Spike Chunsoft, just Spike. They hadn't quite merged at the time of development). She doesn't look like the type to have a weird personality quirk, but there's no guarantee. BlazeEmblem posted:Collette. Another reason I used a poll site this time. People are more likely to vote truthfully if it's anonymous. Honestly, Collette isn't that bad in terms of a character. I'm having trouble pinning down exactly what her character is, because she seems to shift between three different types from event to event, but at the very least she seems sort of normal. She's the merchant character, who I don't personally mind too much. Of course, the thing holding her back is the fact that she's a drat child in a dating sim. Regardless of what her story arc is, there's only way this ends and it's creepy. The other possibility is always troll voting. SSNeoman posted:I think Sue is kinda okay and boy do I have some perspective for Arie now. Well, let's see if the story goes somewhere with this. I actually screwed up in voting. I intended to vote for Sue, but I clicked on Mahiru as my sixth choice because I remember finding her inconsistent personality to be entertaining. I forgot about the cousins part. Oh well, what's done is done. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Dec 6, 2019 |
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Dec 6, 2019 03:46
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Polsy posted:The Japanese guy whose video I was looking at noted the very audible pig also disappears here. Kind of weird considering there's a second named sheep later on anyway. They're in a better place now... a Wendy's baconator.Ibblebibble posted:Bit late, but zoologists aren't the same thing as veterinarians Spike Chunsoft Spike Chunsoft is terrible at depicting a lot of these jobs. We've got a Doctor that acts more like a nurse and uses a magic body scanner in place of actual medical knowledge, a rancher that thinks taking care of animals and studying their ecology is the same thing, a postal worker that can't deliver anything on time, a baker that shuts down their shop for hours at a time in the middle of day in order to bake more bread despite not having sold through the stuff they already have, a painter that doesn't have any completed works to show, etc. AnAnonymousIdiot posted:I get the impression that Mirei and Collette were supposed to be the other Zodiac - Mirei as Aquarius, and Colette as Libra - judging by what we're seeing so far, but that may be just me. It does seem that way, doesn't it? I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they made Mirei the Libra Maiden because Libra kind of matches Library and Mirei is the smart one.
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Dec 6, 2019 15:41
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Everyone is on a roll. I like where this is doughing, therefore...inflatablefish posted:I have shamelessly voted for Collette. Why?  this is an acceptable reason.
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Dec 6, 2019 19:24
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Bread puns aside, I have a small update. I'm pretty sure that Star Children stat requirements are a combination of Itsuki's stats and Star Maiden bond level. I have an exam this afternoon, but when I get home I'm going to grind the bond levels to their current max and see if that changes how reliably I can create certain classes. Itsuki is currently level 5 after a bit of leveling I did last night. As things stand, the classes we will have access to right away will likely be limited to Fighter, Thief, Merchant, Monk, Magician, Archer, and Cleric. The classes beyond those I just listed have a major jump in their stat requirements, so they likely need Tri-Mating to be accessible initially. Because the method for building stats is different in this game, I'll run the Team vote at the same time as the Maiden vote. It's very unlikely that I'll be able to get certain classes using only our chosen Focus Maidens. Probably not going to be much family synergy going on in the early game. There also appear to be season specific events cropping up. From what I can find online, they seem to reoccur every year, so they don't appear to be missable. I'm not quite sure how I will go about fitting them in to updates though. For the time being, I will record my grinding in case any pop up, and then I'll try and find a place to fit them in as we go. I don't know how involved they are just yet either. Mana just randomly appeared at the start of May and said the Maidens are practicing for an upcoming Sports Festival or some poo poo. I also haven't learned anything regarding the appearance of Maiden 13. I can only assume that her introduction is story gated. Anyway, expect Team voting sometime tonight. Team B won't work quite the way I was hoping, so voting will only be for Teams A and C. If you'd like to think about suggesting a Team for slot C, then use the classes I listed above. Team Voting won't run for very long since I need something to work with for dungeons (The Spring dungeon will apparently only stay open during Spring, which means I'm on a time limit for getting this tutorial seal done with, otherwise I need to circle back around to next Spring).
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Dec 7, 2019 15:41
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~Star Children Voting: Opening Rant~ The Maiden Voting is still going for now, although it has definitely dropped off by this point. I’ll leave it until tomorrow before finalizing the results. However, there is another matter that needs attending to. We need Star Children. Three teams of them to be precise. Normally I would wait until the Focus Star Maidens have been chosen so that I could primarily use them as the mothers of our little spirit warrior children. Unfortunately…  The required stats to make more than the absolute basic of classes is frustratingly high. Fighters, Magicians, and Clerics are simple to make and any of the Star Maidens can manage those. On the other hand, Thief, Monk, Archer, and Merchant can only be made by very select Star Maidens whose stat spreads perfectly line up with the class in mind. The game does not explain how to improve the stats at all. I couldn’t even find any solid answers online. I’ve figured out some basics, but I won’t bore you with those details here. I’ll probably save that for the next real update since that will mostly be comprised of dungeon.  Basically, I have little loving clue how to properly manipulate this. It was way easier to control in Conception II, but Conception Plus has made it a huge grind. In other words, there probably won’t be as many Star Child Team shakeups as there were in CII, because new classes will likely be at a premium. I don’t expect we’ll see any new classes after this until Tri-Mating is unlocked. But let’s focus on what we can do. I’ve done my best to give the thread as much to work with as I can. ~Star Child Team Voting: First Round~ Here’s how it works: -We have 3 Team slots. Team A: Team A is hereby known as Team A(wful), just as they were in CII. Team A(wful) will be made up of whichever four classes get the highest number of votes in the poll that I will link to. More on that below. Team B: Team B is hereby known as Team Psycho. Team Psycho will be decided on by me. However, in the interest of making life potentially difficult for me in the same way that letting the thread choose my teams does, there is a condition I will have to follow. See, this game has a particular online feature that was added for Conception Plus:    When connected online, there is a chance that the Star Children made by other players will appear at the Inn to be potentially recruited. I don’t know what the RNG for this involves. All I know is that every time Itsuki comes back from dungeon crawling, there is a chance it will happen.  This happened once during my grinding of Itsuki’s level and the Star Maidens bond gauge, which you can see in the screenshot above. It seems to be someone’s tutorial kid. You can tell that this is another player's Star Child by the Wi-fi/Network symbol on Mahiru's portrait in the top right. So here’s what I will do. I can pick whatever classes I want for Team B whenever there is a Star Child Team Vote. However, any time another player’s Star Child pops up at the Inn, I must put it in the team. The results of the Maiden Vote will determine who I have to swap out. For now, I just need to make sure that Team B includes this rando Steam user's “Natasha.” Team C: Team C is open to the thread. Anyone in the thread can put together a team as a suggestion. I’ll collect the suggestions and pick one at random. The rules for Team C suggestions are as follows: -Put your suggested teams in bold -Choose any combination of four from the currently available classes (Fighter, Thief, Merchant, Monk, Archer, Cleric, Magician). You can pick multiple of the same class if you want, there’s no limit on that -You can give the team a name if you want, but it isn’t necessary -You can specify Boy or Girl for each class if you want, but this is also not necessary -You can name individual Star Children if you want, but if you don’t then they will get whatever random name that CP comes up with from its internal name generator. Names have to be 8 characters or less. -If you suggest Fighter, Magician, or Cleric, then you can specify who you want the mother to be (the Mother determines the hair color of the Star Child). Unfortunately, you can’t specify the Mother for Thief, Monk, Archer, or Merchant, at least not yet. Those classes can only be created with certain Star Maidens and help from RNGesus. Finally, here are the classes we currently have to work with. I’ve highlighted their specialty skill which they normally learn around level 10 or so.         Note: I have no idea if Merchants can learn both Specialty skills, or if they just get randomly assigned 1 of the 2 available. Team A(wful) 1.0 voting is over now. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Dec 9, 2019 |
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Dec 8, 2019 00:27
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Slaan posted:Team Clam Should I ask where that name came from? AnAnonymousIdiot posted:Astro-ramble I assure you that you have put more thought into this than the developers. Like I said before, I'm sure Mirei was chosen as Libra because they drew a Libra = Library = Intelligent connection. I'm sure the character designs and Star signs were picked out first and then their personalities were built around how they looked. Incidentally, I match with Taurus quite a bit, except for the resilient to change part. Change is what I keep trying to bring about in my life, it just hasn't been going well. Commander Keene posted:How many slots does each team have? Each team has 4 slots. This is difrerent from CII, where teams were made of 3. I think CII reduced the number to compensate for the fact that the Heroines were able to team up with Wake. megane posted:I'm glad Male Cleric still has his terrifying thousand-yard stare. He has and always will see some serious poo poo. Makes me wonder what the hell the Male Clerics go through in the Star Realm before getting summoned.
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Dec 8, 2019 03:03
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Balache404 posted:Since this is an idea that spontaneously popped into my head, I'm gonna petition for Team Canada (because we da best) consisting of Female Merchant, Male Cleric, Female Archer, and Male Mage.  Alright, voting has closed for both polls as of this post. There was plenty of time for voting on the Focus Maidens. The Star Child Teams had a lot less time for voting, but I can't do a thing without them so I kind of needed that taken care of quickly. Next time Star Child Team voting happens, I will let the poll run for a longer period to give more people a chance. For now, here are the results: ~Star Maidens~ 1. Arie 2. Mirei 3. Reone 3. Farun 5. Mahiru 6. Ruka The Star Maiden voting didn't have much in the way of surprises. The thread made its overall apathy towards the heroines known quickly and vocally. There were clear divisions between groups though. -Arie and Mirei maintained steady support throughout the entire vote (Once Arie got to the top of the poll, she stayed there). Arie, being seen as the most normal/sane of the heroines, got the most votes by a good amount. Mirei also managed to break 40 votes despite the fact that she drugged and kidnapped our hero. -Farun saw good initial support, but it ebbed and flowed over the days to eventually land her tied for 3rd with Reone. Reone's support kind of went the opposite of Farun's. While she had solid support, she was clinging to the bottom and actually fell out of the top 6 two times before managing to claw back up to 3rd. -Mahiru was all over the place, which I guess is fitting for her remake induced personality crisis. In the end, she managed to dodge the 6th place tie by only 2 votes (one of which I admit was mine, as I had intended to vote for Sue over Mahiru but messed up). -Ruka and Sue both tied for 6th. I decided to use RNG to break the tie and Ruka ended up winning out. Ruka kind of just hung out in the middle of the pack for most of the poll. Sue was always hanging on to the bottom, but she did see a boost in support over the days that had her break into the top 6 at one point. A strong showing. I considered counting my mistaken vote for her to break the tie, but I decided against it. The numbers are what they are and I'm the one that messed up my vote. Can't go changing the results based on my whims. -Everyone else only saw scattered support. Yuzuha was the only one in the bottom 6 besides Sue to break 20 votes. That did surprise me a little bit, I will admit. I didn't think Yuzuha would pick up any kind of enthusiasm from the thread. Collette also got a decent number of votes, although at least some of that was from user inflatable fish and their love of bread based puns. Femiruna just existed, while Lillith/Lillie and Tarua didn't even get into the double digits. I'll go over some of this in the update, but the main point at the moment as that Arie, Mirei, Reone, Farun, Mahiru, and Ruka will be our focus maidens for the near future. I'll do one more bonding update for them after the dungeon update is finished and that will cap off their first level of Bond Gauge. The other six heroines will get a basic summary of what happens in their bonding events. Once Maiden 13 is finally introduced, whenever the hell that may be, I will do a bonding update with her to get her caught up to the others, after which we'll do another poll to see if the thread wants to shake up the choices to make room for her. ~Star Children~ I wanted to give more time for this, but my hands are tied until the choice is made, so I had to keep the voting window short. Here are the basic results (detailed results will come during the next update, since I haven't actually created any of these yet): -Team A(wful) will be made up of Cleric (Boy), Fighter (Girl), Merchant (Boy), and Archer (Girl). There was a four-way tie for the last two positions, so RNG had to decide (the poll arranges ties by the order I entered the answers in, so I couldn't just go by that). There were no name suggestions, but instead of letting the name generator pick these I will name them after users that submitted unused suggestions. So Team A(wful) will be Ratoslov (Male Cleric), Balache (Male Merchant), Cmdr. K (Female Fighter), and Leto (Female Archer). If user OutofSight wants to suggest something else, then go ahead. I couldn't think of a good way to abbreviate your username to fit within 8 characters. As it stands, I made another mythology reference because I am a dork (I thought Artemis was too predictable). -Team B will probably be a Female Monk, a Female Thief, and a Male Fighter. Natasha the Female Magician will also be in the party, because she was recruited from another player which means I have to use her in my team. I didn't follow any particular reasoning for this, other than "I need to hit things hard." The Thief is in there to give a much needed boost of speed. -Team C was chosen at random from the three suggestions received. User Slaan's party gets the nod from RNGesus. So for now, Team C will be known as Team Couscous and be made up of Andre (Male Monk), Amber (Female Monk), D'Angelo (Male Thief), Adele (Female Merchant). Now that that is done, I need to go and actually create all of these and outfit them for a trial by fire. I'll get them to level 2 or 3, and from there they will have to do all of their leveling on the way to the boss, because we've spent enough time farting around in the tutorial section and I'm desperate to make some actual progress.
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Dec 9, 2019 15:49
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AnAnonymousIdiot posted:So, I've been thinking and I have to wonder: after the Impurity nonsense is handled, what happens to the Star Maidens when these Offerings can no longer contain these Impurities? Do they get kicked to the curb? Do they get afflicted with that Impurity by association with the Offering the Star Maidens created? So far we haven't been told anything about the previous Maidens. All we really know about this whole thing is: -Maidens are chosen -They can make their Star Offering only once. -They then become ageless for 120 years until their Star Offering gives out. -They spend those 120 years performing some kind of duties meant to protect the Star Offering. They can't go into the Labyrinths where the Star Offerings are housed, so what these duties are are a complete mystery. Based on the fact that we haven't heard of or been introduced to any of the previous Star Maidens, it's safe to say that they are no longer needed for anything once their Star Offering stops working. I would imagine that this would be a relief, since (judging by Farun's reaction in her Bonding Event) the Star Maidens are basically chained to Granvania for 120 years while they are a Star Maiden. Beyond that, we don't know if 120 years just catches up to them all at once and they die, or if they rapidly age, or if they just pick up from where they left off in their natural lifespan. The two most likely scenarios about this stuff are that: A.They didn't think about this at all and we'll never get an explanation. B.The game will reveal some kind of shocking truth about what happens to them somewhere near the very end of the game, like previous Star Maidens become the new Impurity Gods or some poo poo. I hope to have the next update done for this evening. The battle video will be a few days late because apparently there's some kind of "gently caress Youtube" thing going on right now to protest the bullshit they've been pulling on people. Doesn't personally affect me, but basically all of my TV watching comes from various non-millionaire creators so I feel like I should show some form of solidarity.
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Dec 12, 2019 20:10
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Update IV: Let me see what Spring is like on Jupiter and Mars Song Title Reference: Fly Me To The Moon – Written by Bart Howard and performed by like 400+ different people since 1954 (I prefer the Helena Noguerra version from Bayonetta, personally)  Bonding Updates are finally done (for now) and the thread has cast their judgement upon the Star Maidens. Based on polling, our Focus Star Maidens for the immediate future are as follows: Top 6 1. Arie 2. Mirei 3. Farun 3. Reone 5. Mahiru 6. Ruka Bottom 6 7. Sue 8. Yuzuha 9. Femiruna 10. Collette 11. Lillith/Lillie 12. Tarua Arie and Mirei both dominated the poll, maintaining a 7-11 vote lead over 3rd place position. Farun and Reone tied for third, Mahiru managed to hold on for a spot despite the discovery that she is in fact a blood relative of Itsuki, and Ruka tied with Sue for sixth but RNGesus determined that Ruka was more deserving. There were only a few surprises. The thread had a pretty uniform opinion of the various Star Maidens based on their introductions. The voting largely lined up with that. Mirei’s mad scientist vibe earned her a few fans and a lot of people supported Arie simply because she was the most normal/sane of the heroines. The middle of the pack consisted of a close race between Star Maidens that the thread considered tolerable. The ladies bringing up the rear were mostly the ones that look or act uncomfortably close to children. Also Femiruna was there, I guess. What this means is that the Star Maidens above will be the ones who get Bonding Updates devoted to them for time being. I’ll show the complete bonding events for them whenever it’s time for us to take a story break. The Bottom 6 Star Maidens will just get short summaries of their events whenever a Bonding Update comes around. You’ll get the gist of what happened, but not the complete details. There will be chances for the thread to change their minds. The next vote will happen whenever the new Star Maiden gets introduced to us. That could be really soon, or it might not be until halfway through the game. I have no idea right now.  The other vote that happened was the Star Children Team Vote. Here are the results of that polling, as well as how each Team will work from now on: Team A is known as Team A(wful), the same as in the CII LP. Team A(wful) is made up of four classes that received the highest votes in the poll. Since there were no name suggestions, I named the current members after SA users who submitted team ideas.  In this case we have (clockwise from the top left): Cmdr. K (Female Fighter – Mother: Lillith/Lillie), Leto (Female Archer – Mother: Mirei), Balacha (Male Merchant – Mother: Femiruna), and Ratoslov (Male Cleric – Mother: Yuzuha). Just a side note: Despite my dislike of Lillith/Lillie (mainly Lillie), she gives Star Children a really cool hair colour when selected as the Mother.  After kitting everyone out with some basic equipment, here is how their stats break down at Level 1. Not too bad, although nothing particularly noteworthy either. Despite their solid MAT, the lack of a Magic Caster means that it won’t do them a lot of good. Their main focus will be on ATK.  Team B is permanently Team Psycho Knight. I get nearly full control over this team. I say nearly because Conception Plus introduced a new feature to this game that I will employ in an effort to make life more difficult for myself (it’s funnier that way). Conception Plus has an online feature which randomly uploads Star Children that you make to the internet. Other users’ Star Children are also randomly downloaded from time to time and can be recruited from the Inn. This triggered once while I was training Itsuki, which resulted in:  Some rando Steam user’s tutorial kid being recruited. You can tell that this is someone else’s Star Child from the Wi-Fi/Network symbol that appears in the mother’s portrait (Mahiru was the mother in this case, which you can see in the top right of the stats screen). So Team Psycho Knight is chosen by me, except that I am required to swap in any downloaded Star Children that happen to appear. This happens any time that one shows up at the Inn, not just during Team Votes. So if I’m unlucky enough for this download to trigger multiple times in a short period, then I could easily wind up with a completely different team than I initially chose.  For the first round, I put together a team of Cecilia (Female Thief – Mother: Farun), Victor (Male Fighter – Mother: Arie), Victoria (Female Cleric – Mother: Arie. She and Victor are twins), and Natasha (Female Magician – Mother: Alternate reality Mahiru). Team PK has a pretty bad stat spread in comparison to the other two teams, no doubt as a result of that tutorial kid I got saddled with from some other user. The one area they will excel in is Magic. Team A(wful) has a better MAT, but they don’t have the actual magic skills to take advantage of it. Team PK’s MAT is roughly on par with Team A(wful)’s, but because there is a Magician in the party they will actually be able to utilize spells. I guess it’s not all bad. It is mostly bad though, because Natasha is level capped at 10, which means she will very quickly become dead weight that I can’t get rid of until the next Team Vote.  Ugh, anyway. Team C is chosen based on suggestions from the thread. SA users submit full team suggestions in the thread and then one of them is chosen randomly to become Team C. User Slaan was chosen this time, so Team C will be known (for now) as Team Couscous (Slaan had recently eaten dinner, which apparently inspired their name choice). Team Couscous is made up of D’Angelo (Male Thief – Mother: Ruka), Andre (Male Monk – Mother Ruka), Adele (Female Merchant – Mother: Femiruna), and Amber (Female Monk – Mother: Tarua).  Team Couscous is what would happen if Killdozer had rocket boosters equipped to it. They have better ATK, SPD, and DEF than the other teams. The drawback should be their low TEC affecting their ability to actually hit things, but missing is very rare in this game even with a low TEC stat. The only thing they suffer from with this is probably a low critical chance, which is exacerbated by their middling LUC stat. So those are the teams we are rolling with for the time being. I give everyone some basic weapon and armor upgrades as well as some accessories that were picked up during Itsuki’s training. Itsuki also gets that Scimitar we saw previously, as well as some new armour. Some of you might be asking where the money for upgrades came from considering that we were left dirt poor as a result of Mana attracting the attention of a pickpocket. Well, here’s the thing about that…  Star Children that you don’t have a use for anymore can be given Independence. This is how you increase the Granvania Level that you can see in the bottom right of the map screen at the start of this update. Increasing the level opens up new shops and makes existing ones better. Independent Children also do things like occasionally send gifts to Itsuki at the Inn. Obviously, the higher the level of the Star Child, the more experience it will give when made Independent. Granting Independence to Level 1 Star Children does almost nothing to level up the city, so you really should be aiming to train them a bit before doing it. Well, normally you should aim to do that. Sending out a bunch of Level 1 Star Children is sort of helpful during the early game, because Independent Star Children leave behind all their equipment. Every Star Child is born with a basic set of equipment. Now you know where the funds for our war chest came from. I did what I had to, okay? If Mana wasn’t such a gloating rear end in a top hat then I wouldn’t be stuck having to farm God children like cattle.  Moving on. Some new stuff did open up after I flooded the streets of Granvania with Spirit Warrior Children. We’ll talk about those another time, though. We are long overdue for some dungeon crawling and story progression. Apologies for how long this opening is taking by the way. In Conception II we only had a few heroines to meet before we were able to blitz the first (heavily tutorial-ized) dungeon and obliterate it. CP just dumped 12 heroines on top of us right from the start and told us to go do whatever we felt like. It required a lot more preparation work than CII.  But now we’re finally here and ready to get poo poo done. The Spring dungeon is the only one open to us, so we start there on the first floor. Technically we could start on the fifth floor because that’s how deep I got while training Itsuki, but our newly born little strike force needs levels before heading into uncharted territory.  Everything goes well for the first few floors. We’ve already seen all the enemies that this section of the dungeon has to offer, so I won’t bother going over them again.  However, I do want to point out a particular skill of Itsuki’s. Itsuki has something called God’s Poke which will instantly kill weaker enemies just by running into them in the dungeon. You get the spoils of the battle without having to actually battle them. Unfortunately, CP does not provide any visual indication of whether the enemy you are running towards will be instantly wiped out or pull you into a battle. In CII, the enemy models were made smaller and were also a deeper purple when they could be God’s Poke’d.  The enemy models in CP don’t change at all, so you can’t really tell if you’re going to trigger God’s Poke or not.  The other thing to note about CP’s dungeons are the prevalence of traps. In CII, dungeon traps were incredibly rare up until the later half of the game. In CP, traps are incredibly common right from the very first dungeon. I took a hit from the Falling Stones trap (-10% HP, no visual indicators as to where these traps are) probably every other floor, sometimes twice on a single floor. Explosions will also happen sometimes when you open treasure chests and also result in a -10% hit to your HP. It’s very annoying.  Fortunately, the game is merciful enough to give us some help. Healing pots, like the one in the screenshot above, appear fairly regularly. There are four types that I have encountered so far: Yellow cures all status ailments for the party, Green is a full HP heal, Blue is a full MP heal, and Pink is 100 Bond Points. These pots are single use, so if you find one you may want to save it for later if you don’t immediately need it. Full HP is especially useful since you can run to the next room, grind for a bit, then come back for a top off before continuing. Or, if it’s an MP heal, then you can use healing spells to heal up your HP first, then top off the MP with the pot.  Occasionally you will get a “Mail” notification, either in battle or in the dungeon map. The Star Maidens will send messages about random poo poo from time to time. Only Itsuki can check them and doing so will use up his turn. In this case, Sue has something for us. Let’s have a read. To Itsuki. This is Sue. Aegis gave birth to a really cute girl. If you want, I can give her to you. But you’re in the labyrinths… so she might not be good for that. Aegis is a turtle. If you take her into the labyrinths, she might get left behind. But turtles live long, so she’ll always be waiting for you. If you do want her, tell me and I’ll bring her to you. Bye. From, Sue.gently caress yeah I want a baby turtle! Are you kidding me? Plus, I don’t trust her with you. No offence to Sue, but animals on her ranch seem to be under questionable care. We still don’t have a name for the very visible cow in the barn, and user Polsy pointed out that the pig from Sue’s introduction seems to have vanished.  Leaving behind tutorial stuff for a bit, let’s have a look at some new enemies that have appeared since the first time we were here. Micros usually fight alone, at least in the first few levels of the dungeon. They are tougher than Bootes but also a bit slower. They also like to spend their first turn charging for a big attack. That means that these guys are ripe for chaining.  Hit them head on when they are trying to charge their big attack and you should be able to chain them before they actually get a chance to strike. From there you can easily build a combo of between 3-7 hits. Chain Combos will give you bonuses to EXP/Money/BP. In CII, Chaining was nearly impossible to make use of because almost everything died in one or two hits. The enemies in CP have so far been made of tougher stuff than their CII counterparts, so Chaining in this game is much more viable.  Crux is the next new enemy design we run in to. They can attack in two directions at once, so watch for that in your positioning (they attack two zones that are opposite of each other, so Front/Back or Left/Right for example. These guys are not the important enemies in this encounter, though.  That would be these little buggers. Sagitta are rare spawns that will try and run from you when you move towards them on the dungeon map. They disappear after a short while and can move at basically the same speed as Itsuki. You need to chase them towards a nearby wall so that they get stuck and you can catch up to them in time. Sagitta, as well as all of their colour swapped variants, are EXP Pinatas. They are incredibly fast and very resistant to magic, but their physical defence is mostly garbage. They have a chance to run from the battle if their turn comes up, so kill them quickly. The good thing about the early Sagitta is that by them running, you are almost guaranteed to get an Advantage on them that will let you move first.  The trick is to take out the Sagitta first, then try and set up a chain on the enemies that accompany it. Doing so can net you a good chunk of EXP (typical battles at this point pay out 8-16 EXP, just for reference).  One final dungeon gimmick that I will highlight for now is this thing. Altar’s allow you to offer up an item or piece of equipment and get something else of roughly equal value in return. You are more likely to get items in return that you don’t already have, so you should always be making use of these. In this case, I offered up an extra Short Sword+ and received a Trident. We don’t have any spear wielding Star Children just yet, but it might be handy in the future.  Anyway, that’s enough of that. What I’ve shown off is the basic dungeon crawling stuff to watch out for. From this point on, I’ll show off new enemy designs only. This game loves to use colour swaps for enemies, so I’m not going to document each and every one of those slightly different variations. Let’s just buckle down and get this first Star Offering in place. Upon reaching the Next Floor Portal on Floor 5, we are given this warning. This means that a mid-boss is up ahead.  It’s completely different from all the fodder we’ve beaten! It doesn’t look like we’re moving on until we beat it. It keeps moving to block our path. Itsuki! Go and put down that wild horse! Don’t worry, I think we can handle this now. Listen, Itsuki! Use MECUNITE on stronger opponents! The Star Children on your teams…  Star Angels are an evolved form of Star Children! Neat. We already know how to do that, though. Let’s go, everyone! Our first mini-boss! Equuleus is less of a mid-boss and more of a preview of what the basic enemies will be for the next five floors of this dungeon. It’s got an inflated HP pool, but other than that it’s nothing special. It can dish out about 200 damage to Itsuki and 25-80 damage to each individual Star Child.  That being said, it doesn’t hurt to have some healing on hand. Ratoslov the Cleric of Team A(wful) eats dirt after two attacks. To be fair to him, the Star Children have been building levels as they go, so they’re probably a little underleveled for this fight. I don’t really have the patience to grind them up to a decent level at the moment, since it’s been so long since we’ve made actual story progress.  Not that it made much of a difference for this fight. Team Couscous scores a hard hit with their Devil’s Back skill during the very next action and vaporizes this thing. Devil’s Back attacks from 3 directions. In this case, that allows Team Couscous to hit 2 of Equuleus’ weak points at the same time, resulting in the higher damage you see above. We get 50 EXP for the fight which gets Itsuki and most of the Star Children to Level 10. A few of the others manage to hit Level 11.  The lower floors harbor even stronger Impurities. You shouldn’t overdo things at the start. You’re better off returning to the surface. Your Star Children are tired. I’m sure you are too. Well, I’m actually feeling pretty good. It’s still a good idea to go back, though. We’ll need to fight our way out as well, after all. That’s not true. Take a look, Itsuki. You see that dimensional rift there? The dimensional rifts were placed in the labyrinths during their creation. Anyone besides the Impurities can use these to return to the surface. Come on, Itsuki. Let’s use the dimensional rift to get out of here.We already knew about these dimensional rifts, AKA “Portals.” However, the game forces us back to the world map regardless. I take the opportunity to save and check out the shop, which is saying that there is new stock available. Unfortunately it’s just a bunch of accessories that resist various “Stat Down” statuses. I don’t find those to be worth it, especially since we’ve picked up good accessories like “+20% Speed” and “+20% HP.”  We pick back up in the North Star Labyrinth on Floor 6. This is still the Spring Labyrinth, they’ve just decided to give different blocks of it different names. It’s also nighttime now. The standard enemy for this set of floors is the horse thing we just fought, except they’re green this time and called “Equulaos.” Their stats are also lower than the mid-boss version. Nothing noteworthy. We also get recoloured Bootes enemies called Booteles. No change in element, they just have slightly better stats.  One noteworthy thing is the addition of a new trap type. These spike traps are easy to spot and also make noise when the spikes extend, so getting hit by them is nearly impossible unless you simply don’t give a poo poo. So far they only show up in hallways between rooms, where enemies can’t spawn, so you won’t be pushed into them while trying to dodge enemies. I heavily presume that these will get more dangerous as the dungeons progress.  A new enemy type shows up on Floor 9. Fornax just kind of exist. They have elemental spells, but not the MAT to really make use of them. These versions don’t anyway. Future variations might. Something to note is that enemies in this section of the Spring dungeon start dropping Starbox Keys. These keys can be used to open locked treasure chests, so it might be a good idea to farm a few.  While exploring, I stumble on this strange room. Nothing like this in CII. Wonder what it does? I assume something good, seeing as how there are floating astrological signs everywhere.  Okay, that’s what these are. In CII, there were magical floating balls of energy that would show up on dungeon floors sometimes. They gave various bonuses (of varying usefulness) that applied to the current floor. These rooms seem to be a replacement for that. Good to know. In case you're curious, the EXP boost isn't a lot. It only makes a difference of a few points at the moment. I'm guessing that it's percentage based, so it will probably be more helpful later in the game.  On Floor 10, we get a slightly more concerning message from the portal.  And that lean belly! That thing’s gotta be super hungry right now! Yeah, it might be a good idea for you to hang out in the back. You’re kind of bite sized. You don’t need to tell me again! Itsuki, get out there! I’ll be cheering you on from behind! Despite Mana’s warnings, this thing isn’t actually all that fast. I mean, it’s swift enough to keep up with our teams, but it’s not like it’s running circles around us or anything. I’m personally more concerned with its defences. In terms of attack, Lupus likes to use Cyclone a lot. This can deal a fair amount of damage, but only around 100 or so to each Star Child. However, keep in mind that none of our Teams are weak to Wind. If we did have a Wind weakness, then this would be a bigger issue. The Fornax like to cast Frost, but by the time they’ve gotten into position to actually use it you should have Lupus almost dead. Not a scary fight. Like the last one we fought, this is mostly just a preview of enemies to come.  From here, you can go to the Aries, Taurus, and Gemini Labyrinths. The Impurities will be stronger than before. How about returning to the surface so you can regroup? I see a dimensional rift over there.We don’t get a choice here and are once more kicked out of the dungeon. Not to the world map this time, though.  Hm… Speaking of the Spring Labyrinth… I heard from Mahiru that on Sora, there’s a country called Japan… And they do this “flower viewing” thing in the spring. That’s right. Japan is where we’re both from. Some adults get wasted under a tree and fight each other. Is that true? That’s not the point of flower viewing, Mana. You’re supposed to watch the cherry blossoms. Then you don’t need to booze up? No. No you do not. So you’re saying adults and kids can enjoy it. All right. Then let’s do the same thing in Granvania. Well, there’s nothing wrong with that I gue- Drinking in public is also one of the great things about flower viewing! Alcohol makes everyone friendlier. Hopefully that’ll deepen your bonds with the Star Maidens even more! I am not getting drunk in public, Mana. You realize that’s not exactly tolerated, right? Oh, come on… You’re not on Sora. Who cares about those pesky rules? Well, even if you don’t, most of the other Star Maidens will.Mana raises the point I keep making. Official Itsuki here repeats that crap about not being old enough to drink. Mana rightfully points out that we’re not on Earth, let alone in Japan right now. Stop being a square, Official Itsuki. Live a little! I mean I personally don’t drink, but that’s more because I hate the taste and it’s way too loving expensive to justify. Also because I’m friendless, loverless, and miserably depressed, so drinking alone is a one way ticket to fatal alcoholism. …What was I talking about again? I hope you’ll at least play nice. Wait a… I get it! You feel like telling me what you’re whispering about? Oh, sweet nothings is all. That’s what I thought. By the way, what are these cherry blossoms like? They’re a popular flower in Japan. Kind of a pale crimson when they bloom. It happens in the Spring. What sorta color is a pale crimson? Well it’s crimson, except pale. You know, kind of like pink? Do you know what that is?I have no idea why Official Itsuki just doesn’t say pink to begin with. Oh, I think I do. Kinda like the color of a drunk girl’s cheeks. It’s the sexiest color. So the Japanese drink booze for flower viewing. How tasteful. Lemme try to find a similar plant in Granvania. Now that people can’t get it on with each other, there’s not much fun to be had.So you’re going to encourage drinking and romantic scenery? That seems a little counterproductive. I’ll ask the king to make this flower viewing more widespread! I heard from Mana. Narcisstes, I trust you will arrange for the people to attend flower viewing every spring. Understood, Your Majesty. We’ll find a plant similar to cherry blossoms and plant them in a special location. Uh, okay. I guess this will be a thing from now on. I have discovered that there are seasonal events in this game that happen every year. There is a sports festival coming up in May for example. We’ll check those out when we get the chance. I won’t get into detail right now since we still have a Star Offering to pop in. Now you can guzzle down in spring during the celebrations. Can you even drink? Just how old are you? Let’s just say I’m older than you. Oh, and when the time comes from flower viewing, you better ask a girl out. Maybe they’ll even invite you!I have a feeling that both of those things will go poorly until we’ve built up the bond gauge a little more. Anyway, after that minor diversion, we’re free to continue our push into the Spring Labyrinth. Back to the grind.  The Impurities are weakened at the Aries Labyrinth, so let’s head there. If you can’t enshrine the Star Offering, I worry about the other labyrinths… I know that. I’m doing my best here. Despite what Mana said, I’m pretty sure the Impurities in the Aries Labyrinth are not actually weakened. We started the game in the Aries portion of the calendar, but we are currently in the Taurus months, which I assume means that the Taurus Impurities are being weakened. I won’t fault the game for this, because I’m sure they figured that players would have reached this point within the four weeks of April. I just spent that time farting around in order to grind out all the bond gauges. Also, we’re technically one year later. Due to all the grinding and resting I had to do, the calendar had advanced into Summer, so I decided to keep skipping weeks until we circled back around to April again. We’ll just ignore that little bit of gameplay for narrative purposes.  Once we’ve hit Floor 11 of a Labyrinth, the design changes to reflect whatever star sign we’ve entered. For now, the enemies consist of green generic versions of Lupus as well as the generic versions of the horse enemy. There’s also white versions of the Bootes enemy.  We also get a message from Lillith at one point. Hello. This is Lillith. This transmission thing is so convenient.How the hell are they doing this, by the way? Granvania hasn’t shown any hints of Information Era technology like smart phones. I think we’ve spotted some display screens, and Narcisstes has a hologram projector in his study or whatever the hell that is, but those seem to be magic based. Even if we assume that the Star Maidens are using Mahiru’s cell phone, that doesn’t explain how the Earth devices are communicating with each other. Are those satellite dishes on the outside of the Labyrinth also cell towers? You can send mail to someone far away. Did you receive this? Please let me know if you did when you return. I hear the labyrinths are very dangerous places. I got worried, so I sent you this. How are you doing? Please don’t get defeated. And try to make sure you don’t get sick. Good luck. I’ll be cheering you on. I hope to see you later. From, Lillith.Good stuff. Moving on.  On Floor 13, we stumble on this mean looking thing.   Pseudo is accompanied by two little helpers. I don’t know why this fight is here, exactly. I only found this guy once and he’s related to the Impurity Boss that we’ll be fighting. I’m not sure if this is just a rare spawn of a generic version of the boss, or if this is supposed to give you a preview of what you’ll be dealing with. It’s a little odd for it to appear here, though.  Speaking of the Impurity Boss, we finally reach it after getting to the portal on Floor 15. If you were curious how to tackle that Pseudo creature up there, then pay attention to this fight, because they are basically the same thing.  This is… uh… a little more intimidating than I imagined… We must defeat it and enshrine the Aries Star Offering! R-Right… You’re right. We have to do it. It’s too late to be nervous. Come on, everyone! Let’s make sure that Arie’s offering gets put to use! Let’s do this! This is Pseudothei of Aries. It’s a Light element Impurity God! It uses Light magic! Star Children that are Dark elementals must watch out! It’s a little late for that information, Mana!Typical Battle Example + Aries Boss Battle  This boss is the same as the generic version we encountered on Floor 13. Pseudothei has the same two helpers with him, but he has better stats and the ability to heal statuses. Those are about the only differences.  That being said, those inflated stats do make a difference. Leto gets taken out with that one attack and Team A as a whole is left barely clinging to life. Of course, that was a critical hit, but even a standard hit from Pseudothei can knock out half of a Team’s HP.  As a quick aside, you only have to use Bond Shards on KO’d Teams. That means all members of a team have to be knocked out in order for it to count as needing a Revive instead of a heal. Even if three of the four Star Children are knocked out, popping a potion or using a healing spell will get the others back on their feet. For example, you can see that Leto is out of action right now. But because we’ve got at least one Star Child still rocking some HP, we just need to throw a potion and…  Leto is back on her feet. I make this note because Revive items are expensive and a little on the rare side right now, so you really don’t want to be wasting them on single Star Children when a potion will do the same thing. We only need to use Revive items or spells when every Star Child on a Team is knocked out at once.  Back to the fight. The two adds in this fight can cast a fairly potent Heal spell on themselves and others. That means trying to tackle the boss first is a bad idea. Focusing all of your attention on the adds is also a risky proposition though, at least if you leave Pseudothei to his own devices. He starts in the center of the field with all of your teams surrounding him while the adds tend to start in opposite corners (or at least they did for me).  I’ll be honest, this is a pretty hefty challenge for an introductory boss. Unless you’ve overleveled, then going into this with fewer than 3 teams is likely suicide. In our case, it’s still close to suicide even with 3 teams because we’re probably underleveled. I can still make this work though. I chose to employ the same strategy that was used against the final boss of CII. That strategy being “let the main boss use one of the Star Children teams as a punching bag.” Team A(wful) remains in the center and defends whenever they aren’t dousing themselves in potions to stay alive. While that is happening, Team PK and Team Couscous help Itsuki gang up on the adds one at a time in order to overcome their healing.  Team Couscous gets a lucky shot on the second add with a skill called Brain Shaker that manages to inflict Panic. So the second add goes down with less of a fight than the first one did since it’s confused and doesn’t think to use its Heal spell. Instead it sticks to basic attacks.  Once the second add falls, I take the opportunity to get some healing and MP restoring in before everyone migrates to the boss circle to start chipping away at his health.  By the time everyone is ready to rush the boss, he has mostly drained himself of MP by constantly casting Shine on Team A(wful). At this point he switches to pulling charge attacks. Team A(wful) had taken enough of a beating, so instead of attacking Pseudothei head on and aiming for a Chain, I have them move out of the way to dodge the attack.   Team Couscous is unfortunately not as lucky. The boss outruns them during his second charge attack and nearly wipes the team. Andre just barely manages to hold on with 25HP. Before the next boss turn comes up, I have Itsuki throw them a full potion which gets everyone back in fighting shape.  Pseudothei goes for one more charge attack, but Itsuki and Team Couscous finish him off before he can actually do it. We get 120 EXP (20 of which came from a Chain bonus that I got on one of the adds). We also get 3000G and 3 Star Drop F.    That’s it? Couldn’t we have just brought a big Allen Wrench or something? …Is it working? Hmm… The Star Offering is still young and can’t fully suppress the Impurity God’s powers. The evil power that escaped will wander the labyrinths and power up the Impurities. What?! But we beat the boss! You’re telling me that we’ve just made the monsters in here stronger?! But with this, the number of Impurities in the Aries Labyrinth will decrease. Come on, Itsuki. Let’s go back to the surface. *sigh* Well, I guess that’s sort of good. Sure, let’s head back. Smell that fresh air. It feels so relaxing. You managed to enshrine the first Star Offering. Itsuki, let’s keep this up and defeat the Impurity God! You know, I was really worried and honestly pretty terrified of having to do this. I knew being a hero wasn’t a walk in the park, but I think I underestimated just how scary it actually was. But now? I’m feeling more confident about this whole thing. I’m sure there’s still a tough road ahead, but I’m not afraid anymore. We can do this. We can— *The ground (and screen) shakes while this mysterious roar happens* What the hell is happening!? Mana! Please tell me this is normal! Huh?! Don’t get cold feet on me now! I’m trying!*The shaking finally calms down and the roaring stops* That roar really shook me down to the bone. What was that? Some kind of Granvanian animal? No animal can make that sound. That thing’s like… …Yes? I dunno. Ugh, that figures. It came from the labyrinths, so it may be an Impurity God. It’s so creepy. We need to get outta here. No complaints from me. Let’s go everyone! You’ve finally defeated an Impurity God. Congratulations, Itsuki. I don’t think that’s actually sunken in yet to be honest. Defeating an Impurity God so quickly shows you’re a special God’s Gift. Can we forget about that for now? I’m more worried about what just happened with the ground and everything. That’s understandable. It would seem like something stirring in the labyrinths is the cause of that. According to the documents I’ve researched, which span multiple centuries… There are no records of this happening previously. Great… That’s never a good thing. It kinda sounded like… a scream. Right, Itsuki? That’s a disturbing way to put it, but yeah, it’s accurate. It definitely sent a chill down my spine. So are you two saying you heard something as well? Yup, that’s right. Hmm… But I wonder why though. I can’t really explain it, I just got this sudden feeling of dread… Whatever the case… I’ll try researching this further. Hopefully I can find something out. I’m not good at reading, so I’ll leave that to the bookworm. Itsuki, you must be tired. You should go back to the Inn and rest. Yeah… That’s a good idea. Can you come with me? Oh come on… really? *sigh* Well, I guess I can’t really ignore the King… I’ll find a way to power through a little longer.~Palace Throne Room~  It seems the Impurities are finally dwindling in the labyrinths. Well, that’s good. But how can you guys tell that from out here? I constantly monitor the labyrinths with my Star Wall. What is that? A device that was set up by my ancestors when the labyrinths were erected. Mirei, the more you explain it, the more you’ll confuse Itsuki. It’s not really that confusing. My world has something called radar. Sounds like the same idea. If you want to know the intricacies of how it works, come to my room later. I’ll tell you all about it then. Aha… I think I’ll have to pass on that part. Don’t worry, Itsuki. I don’t really get it either. Don’t lump me in with you, Mana. I’m just too tired for lectures right now. The new Star Offering is absorbing the Impurities just fine. Isn’t that right, Mirei? …Yes. At this rate, all the Star Offerings will be enshrined in no time. It may not be much, but I’ll be holding a banquet for you in celebration. Use that as an opportunity to get to know the Star Maidens better. It will also serve as a welcoming party for your God’s Gifts. And don’t say it’s too late for that. Remember that our nation is in turmoil. A party like this isn’t normally allowed unless something significant occurs. Significant, huh? I wonder… You’ve already done this so far. So everyone in Granvania is thankful to you, Itsuki. Now, my subjects, prepare for the banquet. Good news, everyone! The God’s Gift didn’t get immediately killed! Today, we celebrate! Anyway, that’s a good place to end things. Next update, there will be a big party and we’ll awkwardly dance with Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Dec 15, 2019 |
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Dec 12, 2019 23:07
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