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Finale Update – August 30th: Update LIV: Sweet Fuse Fizzles Out Check out the opening here! Opening Theme: Jet coaster Rendezvous - By Dasoku (Lyrics by EBATA Ikuko) Welcome to the Sweet Fuse: At Your Side SSLP! I have stuck primarily to JRPGs since I started writing LPs on the site. One of those JRPGs was World of Final Fantasy, but the other two were partial dating-sim titles (Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars and Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars). Now, the thing about those two dating-sim titles is that they were mostly aimed at dudes. You know, that kind where one self-insertable protagonist is thrust into a situation where he is surrounded by multiple gorgeous women and tasked with saving the world or some crap. There is no shortage of those kinds of games in Japan. However, even though most of these kinds of games appeal to men, there does exist a type of dating-sim that targets women: Otome games. Otome (meaning “Maiden”) games are typically dating-sims where the typical situation is flipped, meaning that the protagonist is a self-insertable lady that is surrounded by hot dudes.  Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, called “Bomb Decision” in Japan (…it’ll sort of make sense later, don’t worry about it), is one such otome game. It’s a romance/mystery visual novel that also involves some minor puzzle elements. It was a PSP title released in Japan in 2012 and North America in 2013. It was developed by Otomate (a subsidiary of Idea Factory) and Comcept (which is today a subsidiary of Level-5). Aksys Games published the title in North America. What is the game about? Other than romancing hot bachelors? The game follows Saki Inafune as she heads out to a new video game theme park that her uncle helped to create. Unfortunately, the opening ceremony is interrupted by a group of terrorists that kidnap Saki’s uncle, as well as the park’s management, and rig the theme park to blow. The ringleader is keen on making a deadly game of the situation and singles out 6 young men to act as the contestants. Saki also joins as a contestant, although in her case it’s because she volunteered. Is Saki a bad enough dude-ette to survive the various deathtraps, rescue her uncle, and save the theme park? Can she do it while also maybe grabbing a man-muffin along the way? We’ll find out. Also the terrorists are dressed up like Hogs, led by a guy named “Count Hogstein”, and Saki’s uncle is literally Keiji Inafune of Mega-Man/Street Fighter/Onimusha/Capcom fame… and Mighty No. 9 infamy. Wait, what was that last part? Hm? Don’t worry about it. Why do an otome game? I’ve been interested in doing one of these kinds of game as an SSLP for a while. I’m not the target market for these games, but I have played a few just out of a general interest in Visual Novels. I’m sure some other goons have done LPs of otome games before, but I don’t think it’s especially common. I figured this would be a nice change of pace and perspective for an LP. It also seems like it will be fairly short, so I don’t have to worry myself about investing 40+ hours on samey dungeon-crawling and tedious EXP grinding. Mainly, I want to see if this genre turns out to be fun for people. Also, I never did finish this game and I’ve forgotten a lot about what I did play (as it was about 6 years ago), so I’m kind of interested to see how this weird premise/story shakes out. Will there be thread participation, like in your previous LPs? Yes! Depending on the length of the game, I may decide to LP through every route. However, since I don’t yet know how long each character’s route is, I will be polling the thread on which character to tackle first. Each character’s route offers up different clues and information on the central mystery in the game. There’s also a character that only appears on a New Game+ playthrough. I don’t know if there is an accepted order to play through in terms of routes, which is why I’ll be leaving the decision to the thread. Puzzles are sort of a “get it right = continue, get it wrong = die” situation. Depending on how they work, I might look for suggestions from the thread on how to solve them, but this will mostly be for fun as there’s only ever one solution that will let us continue. Spoilers If you have somehow played this game before, then keep quiet about anything story/character related. The game is partially a mystery novel, so don’t be a dick and go spoiling anything about it. Will TCG be needed this time? This game is rated T in North America and got a CERO B in Japan (12 and older), so I don’t think I’ll need TCG for this game. The game case only lists Language, Mild Violence, Use of Tobacco, and Blood. Don’t get me wrong, otome games can and most certainly do get racy. However, I really don’t think we’ll be getting any of that from this game. Certainly not the kind of stuff that I felt I had to edit in the Conception LPs. ----------Updates---------- Stage 1 Update I: My Uncle works at Update II: Saki and the case of the "World's Slowest Poison" Update III: Ninja time! Also Towa's here Update IV: Saki's "Sweet Fuse" gets short Stage 2 Update V: Saki's Night Out Update VI: Saki's got the need for speed (Part 1) - Part 2 Update VII: Saki gets paranoid Stage 3 Update VIII: Saki-Doo, where are you? Update IX: Daddy Issues Update X: Fission Mailed Stage 4: Ryusei Mitarashi Route Update XI: Saki's Sweet Day Off Update XII: Wishin' you were here Stage 5: Ryusei Mitarashi Route Update XIII: Shore Leave Update XIV: First-name Basis Stage 6: Ryusei Mitarashi Route Update XV: Sweet Payoff Stage 7: Ryusei Mitarashi Route FINAL Update XVI: Blue Balled Stages 1-3: Towa Wakasa Route Update XVII: Déjà vu Stage 4: Towa Wakasa Route Update XVIII: Pity Party Stage 5: Towa Wakasa Route Update XIX: Slowly Making Sense Stage 6: Towa Wakasa Route Update XX: Metal Gear Saki: Tactical Otome Action Stage 7: Towa Wakasa Route FINAL Update XXI: Never Stop Never Stopping Stages 1-3: Kouta Meoshi Route Update XXII: It's like one of my Japanese animes Stage 4: Kouta Meoshi Route Update XXIII: Wait, those are real?! Stage 5: Kouta Meoshi Route Update XXIV: Night of the Living Dead Update XXV: Lazy Sequels Stage 6: Kouta Meoshi Route Update XXVI: Not JISHA Compliant Stage 7: Kouta Meoshi Route FINAL Update XXVII: Cruisin' on down main street, you're relaxed and feelin' good. Next thing that you know-- Update XXVIII: Very Lazy Sequels Stages 1-3: Kimimaro Urabe Route Update XXIX: Superstition ain't the way Stage 4: Kimimaro Urabe Route Update XXX: Exposition Dump Stage 5: Kimimaro Urabe Route Update XXXI: Your lucky numbers are... Stage 6: Kimimaro Urabe Route Update XXXII: My precious! Stage 7: Kimimaro Urabe Route FINAL Update XXXIII: And the whole world has to answer right now, just to tell you once again Update XXXIV: Jailbait Wait Stages 1-3: Subaru Shidou Route Update XXXV: An itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face Stage 4: Subaru Shidou Route Update XXXVI: 2-Step Verification Update XXXVII: He Wears His Sunglasses at Night Stage 5: Subaru Shidou Route Update XXXVIII: Shopping Spree Update XXXIX: Getting Warmer Stage 6: Subaru Shidou Route Update XL: Saki and the Pussycats Update XLI: To Protect and Smooch Stage 7: Subaru Shidou Route FINAL Update XLII: Shock and Awe Update XLIII: The Right to Remain Adorable Stages 1-3: Ayumu Shirabe Route Update XLIV: This is Saki Inafune, live on the scene for SFN Stage 4: Ayumu Shirabe Route Update XLV: Kick! Punch! It's all in the mind Stage 5: Ayumu Shirabe Route Update XLVI: I Understood That Reference Update XLVII: Crazy Wall Stage 6: Ayumu Shirabe Route Update XLVIII: It's about ethics in journalism Stage 7: Ayumu Shirabe Route FINAL Update XLVIX: Sugar Daddy Stages 1-3: ??? Route Update L: Paranoia Fuel Stage 4: ??? Route Update LI: Psyche Out Stage 5: ??? Route Update LII: At least one girl was totally into this Stage 6: ??? Route Update LIII: Motivations Stage 7: ??? Route FINAL Update LIV: Sweet Fuse Fizzles Out Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Aug 30, 2021 |
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Apr 27, 2020 18:21
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Update I: My uncle works at  Upon starting a new game, we’re given the option of naming our protagonist. The default name is Saki Inafune. If you have played the game before, then the game will actually ask you if you just want to use the same name you used last time. It’s a very small feature that I think is nice, which I also can’t remember seeing used very often in other games. Sweet Fuse does a few things that I really like which I don’t often see in a lot of other games as well. I’ll point them out as we go. We’ll be sticking with the default name. I know better than to give the thread naming rights.  A quick note as we get the ball rolling here: I’ll be writing Saki’s spoken dialogue in plain text, like what you are reading right now (except not bolded).  (I guess I fell asleep after all…)Her thoughts will be written in parentheses, like what you see above. Saki also does a lot of narrating, but I’ll get to that in a few seconds once she starts doing it. …Ugh, shut up alarm…!*After shutting off her alarm* …Much better! (Well, Uncle, I hope you’re ready!)  He’d invited me to the pre-opening event, but I’d been so excited and restless I’d barely slept.Whenever Saki narrates, I will use the portrait you see above. Sweet Fuse is more of a traditional Visual Novel than Conception Plus and Conception II were. The main character tends to do a lot of narrating in between character dialogue in order to explain things that are happening or make note of important things. (All right KANE DE BOO, let’s hope it goes well!) This little guy is called KANE DE BOO, and he’s The Gameatorium’s mascot. My uncle gave him to me a while back.Something I like about Japan is that everything in existence has to have a mascot. He’s super adorable, but more importantly he looks like a rice ball, and rice balls are delicious.That’s logic I can get behind. You know what other delicious thing KANE DE BOO resembles? Bacon.  (I wish I could bring some of my friends, but the invite said it was just for staff and their relatives… Oh well! I’m sure I can have lots of fun all by myself!) All right, time to get dressed! Since she mentions getting dressed, here is a full shot of our protagonist. Not sure about the booty shorts/stockings combo, but I like the hoodie. Also, that character card came from the official website. …It may have been in need of some proofreading. I hope that doesn’t become a thing with this game. I had a hell of a time trying to keep up with the avalanche of errors in Conception.  (I guess he was telling the truth…) My uncle is Keiji Inafune, a game creator known throughout the universe.Yes, Saki’s uncle is literally that Keiji Inafune. The guy that got his start at Capcom with Mega-Man and Street Fighter. He’s also been a producer for the Onimusha, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, and Lost Planet games. After splitting from Capcom in 2010, he founded Comcept (who is one of the developers of this game. Which is why he’s in it). Those of you who are younger probably recognize him from the Mighty No. 9 fiasco from a few years ago. The game that was funded through Kickstarter and was essentially a direct copy of Mega-Man, except it didn’t play or look as good and the entire project was engulfed in flames due to accusations of mismanagement and badly fumbled decision making (such as Comcept trying to promote a new Kickstarter for a completely different game of theirs while Mighty No. 9 was still suffering from delays). He’d been telling me for years that his dream was to make a theme park from all of his favorite games. This is a flashback, but there’s no indication as to how many years ago it was. Saki’s room looks the same as it does now, but that could just be due to recycling the background art. Either that or Uncle Keiji told Saki about this grand dream of his last month and has already made it come true.  *End of flashback time* (It’s not that surprising he did it, really… He’s always making his dreams into reality, and video games are a pretty big deal these days. Every single thing in the park is based on a popular game.)[Conductor]: …Now approaching Kanehama Station. Kanehama Station, next stop. That’s… well, I guess you could open a theme park there. Kanehama Station is an actual stop in Japan, but it’s located all the way on the northern tip of the main island (just before you have to cross over the water into Hokkaido). The nearest city is Hachinohe, which has a population of like 200k. Or maybe they are referencing some local Kanehama Station in one of the larger cities that I’m not aware of. (Ah! This is my stop! I sure hope nothing bad happens today!) It’s “The Gameatorium!” …Where exactly are the video game influences? I made my way out of the busy station, and walked quickly toward the park, excitement putting a spring in my step. (This is it! This is The Gameatorium!) The only people who’d been allowed in were staff members, their families, and some news crews, but even so the place was packed.Shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. There were likely hundreds or thousands of people involved with building this place. Factor in their family members and that’s a decent crowd for an opening ceremony. (Ah ha! Looks like that seat’s open!) We smiled at each other as I sat down in the empty seat.Who is “we”?  God dammit… this is going to be just like Conception, isn’t it? Listen, from now on if you ever see [sic] in the middle of dialogue or narration, know that it means I’m transcribing the text exactly how the game shows it. In front of the stage was a whole row of cameras. They had to belong to the press. (It’s really getting a lot of attention, huh? I saw a story about how The Gameatorium was about to open on TV just the other day.) I was still looking around excitedly when I heard a drum roll start up. It sounded like things were about to start! From somewhere near the stage I could hear a band begin to play. (This is it! It’s finally starting!) It’s Keiji! And he’s wearing a circus master outfit for some reason!  Weirdly enough, Keiji Inafune the man does not voice Keiji Inafune the character. He’s actually being voiced by Norio Kobayashi. Odd. Oh, and Saki is being voiced by Maki Kobayashi. Not sure if there’s any relation between her and Norio. (That’s him! That’s my uncle!) I almost leapt up to wave at him before I caught myself. *Mr. Inafune then cuts out* (Huh? Is something wrong with the mic? I can’t hear him…) He stepped back from the mic, confused, and tapped it a couple times. (I hope everything’s okay…) I was starting to fidget when suddenly—  …What? What is this?! I could see my uncle running back and forth in confusion. (What the heck is going on?! Who was that voice…? What were they talking about?!) Are we sure that this isn’t just some marketing stunt? [Man]: H-Hey! Look! I turned toward where he was pointing— Wh-What—?! What the gently caress is that thing?  [Woman]: Who are they? Is this some sort of performance art…? (Of course! That would make sense…) My uncle has always been good at thinking up fun stuff, and he’s got a great sense of humor. The guys in the unitards ran up to the stage, and starting [sic] tying up the men in business suits. I couldn’t begin to guess what was going to happen next, so I just kept watching with bated breath.[???]: So, uh… I’ve done away with that park mascot thing… KANE DE BOO, right? The same mascot I had on my phone strap… I’m not sure who the hell even said that. Was it one of those weird mime dudes? (Gosh Uncle Keiji, you sure think of some weird stuff…) Everyone seemed stunned that the park’s mascot would be “done away with” on the first day. Looking at how worked up the audience had gotten, I was sure my uncle was feeling pretty proud of himself. Then suddenly, smoke filled the stage, and I could just barely make out something rising up from below it. (What is that…? A costume?) It looked a little like KANE DE BOO, but it was… different. Hello, everyone. Good morning! Hogstein’s arms tend to disappear and reappear at random. He just looks like a lump of crap in this sprite. I had to stifle a laugh— his voice didn’t match up with his costume at all!Hogstein is being voiced by “Tanoshingo”, who is a Japanese comedian. Also a chiropractor, which… I mean, you’ve got to pay the bills somehow, right? He performed an odd sort of self-indulgent pirouette and bowed.  And boy howdy is this place a waste! I can’t believe you people were going to give this joker your hard-earned cash! So, for your sake… I will blow it up. Boom!*The screen shakes as an explosion is heard*  Seems like the hog man has the firepower to back up his boasts. Huh—?! No sooner had he spoken than the Ferris wheel exploded in a thunderous roar of flames. We watched, mouths hanging open, as the symbol of the park crumbled to the ground in a cloud of smoke. (I-I’m starting to think maybe this isn’t just an act…)I think that’s a safe bet, Saki. Companies don’t tend to blow up structures that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a marketing promo. As soon as I turned back to the stage, the entire crowd erupted in panic. The screams of frightened people quickly drowned out the fading rumble of the Ferris wheel’s collapse. (What?! This pig isn’t done yet!? No, forget about him! I have to save Uncle Keiji!) I fought my way through hundreds of terrified attendees toward the stage. Even as I did, Count Hogstein continued his stupid speech. I will now choose seven people to join me in a seven-day-long game! The bombs I’ve set to go off on that day will be stopped if the players can beat my game and solve my puzzles.”or the JSDF decides to show up and gun me down!”   If they can’t, well… Then the bombs go off, and this park will be gone! Poof, gone! (Wh-What?! Blow up the park?!) Eh, you’re kind of just stealing Jigsaw’s whole shtick. Also the Joker’s. (What the hell are you talking about?! Taking my uncle and the park staff hostage isn’t a game, you jerk! This park is my uncle’s dream! And there were so many people looking forward to enjoying it…! What should I do…?) Now then… Who should I pick to be my seven little heroes? Oink! Who indeed… (R-Right!) Hey, hold on! Everybody else was trying desperately to escape, but I raised my hand high in the air. Count Hogstein frowned. I’ll take your challenge! (I don’t really know what his game is, and if I’m being honest this is pretty scary, but…) Count Hogstein stared at me for a moment, then snorted. There aren’t any take-backs here, kid. I’m not gonna care if you change your mind. I-I know what I’m doing! I stole a quick glance at my uncle, tied up and gagged. He looked worried. I gave him the slightest of nods, careful not to let Count Hogstein notice.Who wants to bet that he totally noticed? (I can’t let this park get blown up by that creep! I’ll solve his stupid puzzles and I’ll save my uncle!) So that’s it for the prologue. We’re heading into Stage 1 now. As far as I remember, the first few stages are part of a common route where we work on building up affection points. Eventually we will be heading down one of the character paths, but first we need to actually meet those characters. Let’s take a look.   How the hell did that get built underneath everyone’s noses? (Well, they told all the participants to come to this plaza, so here I am…)  There they are! Also… why does that dude in the green look so familiar? He looks like some other characters, but I can’t put my finger on who. (…I see six other people…) Count Hogstein had mentioned seven heroes, which means the other six people there were probably the other participants… Ladies and gentlemen! And you guys too. Please, pay attention! (That voice! It’s him!)Hogman isn’t actually on screen right now. I think the implication is that he’s being heard through speakers.  Well, look who’s finally decided to grace us with his presence. Oh my gosh, finally. I was getting super tired of waiting, you guys.Looks like we’ve got an early contender for “PK’s least favourite character”.  Although I hear his voice, I do not see the man… ah… pig himself. From where does this voice come? There. It’s coming from behind that statue. Statue…? Oh! I see it!Please tell me that you’re not only just now noticing the giant Hogstein statue dead center of the plaza. Come on Saki, be more observant than that.   …This thing is gross. (Ha ha ha… Yeah, you got that right.) Well, it looks like you’re all here, so let’s move on to the fun stuff. Oink! You’re about to be pitted against the devious game I’ve devised. In other words! You are seven noble warriors who dare to stand up to the monstrous Count Hogstein! Oink oink! I think I’d prefer Count Hogula, personally. (Well, at least he realizes he’s the antagonist…) First, though, I thought it’d be nice to break the ice by exchanging names. You all know mine already, but I think you’re still strangers to each other! Since I’m such a swell fellow, I’ll give you a little time to talk amongst yourselves. Adieu! …And now he’s gone. Something of a wild spirit, isn’t he?I guess that’s one way to describe a terrorist bomber.  So, uh, are we just supposed to tell each other our names and stuff…? Well, if we’re really gonna fight a villain we should probably have names. Knowing a man’s name is the first step on the road to trust. I’ll go first.Yes, finally! Hurry it up!  Subaru is voiced by Kenichi Suzumura. Wait… you’re a cop? Yes. I’ve got my badge right here… Whoa, awesome! I’ve never seen a real one before! What’s a detective doing at an amusement park? No way you’re off duty in that getup. Were you on security or something? Yes. I was in charge of security for the opening ceremony.  …He’s got you there, my man. Way to drop the ball by the way. Couldn’t spot a bunch of dudes wearing unitards and hog costumes roaming the park and setting up bombs everywhere. (He’s just… glaring. I guess he’s not the good cop.) Please, calm down. Fighting amongst our band will only lead to greater strife. Calm your passionate hearts. I am known as Kimimaro Urabe. I am, as you can see, a teller of fortunes.Kimimaro is voiced by Junichi Suwabe. (Well that’s a nice change of pace. He seems like he’s pretty nice, if a little weird. And he really does look like a fortune teller.)That’s not exactly a difficult look to pull off, Saki. I think just carrying around a crystal ball is enough to pass as one. Next would be… you. … (Did he… no hear?) Um, I think it’s your turn. What’s your name? Kouta is voiced by Masakazu Morita. Man, you’re cheerful. … (Huh. I guess he doesn’t talk much. But this kid… I feel like I’ve seen his face somewhere before.) …Anyway, guess it’s my turn, but do I really need to introduce myself? I mean, you’ve all seen me on TV, right? …No. My apologies, but I have little knowledge of the secular world… I don’t care about TV.I highly doubt that.  You look kind of familiar, but… I gotta be honest, if you were important, I’m pretty sure I’d remember you.Gotta say, so far I am totally on board for everyone dumping on this kid. Really?! None of you!? Oh my gosh, this is crazy! None of you have heard of the Junior Jr. Boys?! I was invited here today as a guest. (Of course! I remember!) The Junior Jr. Boys was a boy band that was super popular, mostly with girls. All the members were really cute, and a bunch of my classmates were fans. (Eh, boy bands aren’t really my thing, you know? That explains why he looked familiar, though…) I guess I’m just not very popular with old guys… I need to work harder on that.…Do you? Honestly, I think you’re better off riding the wave of young fangirls for as long as you can, then jumping ship to housewives when the time is right. I doubt you’d make much headway with older guys. Know your base. All right, I’m Towa Wakasa. It’s nice to meet you.Towa is voiced by Yūki Kaji. Something I haven’t really noticed until now is the mix of low profile voice actors with very prolific voice actors. For example: -Towa’s VA is also the voice of Speed-O’ Sound Sonic in One Punch Man, Clemont in Pokemon XY, Adol Christin in Ys VIII, and Johnny Joestar in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure -Kouta’s VA was Ichigo in Bleach, Marco in One Piece, Whis in Dragon Ball Super, and Tidus in Final Fantasy X. -Subaru’s VA is Kouichi in Digimon Frontier, Shinn in Gundam Seed Destiny, and Zack in Final Fantasy VII media. (I think that “old guys” comment might have made things a bit awkward here, but this kid’s definitely got the face of a star.) Sweet, I’m up next. Ryusei Mitarashi, lady and gentlemen. I’m an escort.Ryusei is voiced by Satoshi Hino. A what?! You heard me. In fact, I’m number one at Ulysses down in Ginza.Ginza? What the gently caress are you doing all the way out here? Ginza is like 700km south of here! …This game must be talking about a Kanehama Station somewhere in Tokyo. There’s no way it’s the one all the way up in the north.  A-Ah ha ha… ha…Dude, Saki is like… well, actually... she is of legal age (according to her character card anyway, and California law because that’s where Aksys is based in NA). On the other hand, that’s a localization change (Saki is 17 in the Japanese version). Regardless, maybe don’t be so quick to offer your “escort” services to this girl, especially when there is a police detective standing two feet away. (He doesn’t really look like an escort, but the way he talks…) So we’ve got a detective, a fortune teller, a nerd, a teen pop star, and an escort. He really cast a wide net when he picked this motley crew. All right, what are you supposed to be, then? You aren’t holding out on us, are you? Oh, sorry about that. Forgot give-and-take is the basis of any kind of information gathering… Ayumu is voiced by Ken Narita. He sighed. Then the only one of us remaining is you. You’ll have to excuse me for thinking your volunteering for this game is a little suspicious. (S-Suspicious…?)He’s not wrong, you know. Who willingly throws themselves into a death game? I’m Saki Inafune. I’m a high school student. I thought you might be. Why would a kid like you volunteer for something like this? To stop the bombs, of course! And to rescue the hostages! After I spoke, they all fell silent. You’re, uh… you’re pretty young.Just a peek behind the curtains: Everyone here is “pretty young” in relation to Ayumu. Detective Conan over there is only 22. Japanese Justin Bieber is only 17. Boy Toy is 24. Recent Mental Ward Escapee is 19. And Legal Scam Artist is 26. The oldest guy here is Ayumu, and he’s only 32 (which I guess technically counts as “ancient” in terms of anime age).  Why’d you volunteer, though? Are you totally nuts? Why didn’t you run away? That’s what I would’ve done. This whole thing is seriously whack. If we could leave, I’d go in a minute. I’m tired… No, we don’t want to aggravate him. It’s important to remain calm in a hostage situation, or you run the risk of escalating the criminal’s behavior. Seriously? Man, you’re a white knight, aren’t you… All your cop buddies this upright, or are you the star of the force? There is nothing more important than preserving human life. That’s true for any officer of the law, but more importantly, it’s true for any man. Yes, the hostages are most certainly a concern. Should I attempt to divine their fate with my crystal ball? Sorry, but I’d rather stick to information that’d be admissible in court.It works in Phoenix Wright. I… see. How unfortunate. Jeez… I wanna get outta here… …I think I need to sit down. (This is… disappointing. None of these guys really feel like hero material. But I guess none of them chose to be here, so I can’t really blame them for being upset. I’m just worried about whether or not we can pull this off…)This kind of confused me for a brief moment back when I first played this game. Namely that Saki is right about few of these guys being “hero material”. My initial thought was “Aren’t all of these guys meant to be heroic and chivalrous? Isn’t that the “point” of otome games?” Yes, it’s a stereotype, but the dating-sims aimed at guys are stereotyped as well (in kind of the same way actually). Thinking it over caused me to realize the logic to it, though. Some ladies like the “brave and strong prince sweeping you off your feet” angle. But other ladies hate that kind of thing, so I guess it makes sense to put in more cowardly or disinterested guys. That way you get routes with characters like Ryusei or Subaru where the protagonist is (I presume) protected and saved by the guys, and you also get routes where (once again, I presume) the protagonist takes charge and does the rescuing of the love interest (like Kouta and Towa). It’s weird that not many dating-sims/VNs aimed at guys do that. The stereotype is that guys always want to be the hero saving the damsel, but there’s definitely also guys out there that like a strong woman coming to their rescue instead. Usually in games like this (that aren’t otome games), the only variation in female love interests is varying levels of meekness. And no, tsundere’s don’t count in relation to what I mean. Tsundere characters are just angry and insecure.   (Oh, he’s back.) Now that you’re all best friends, I think it’s time to move on. Just follow my piglet to Castle Hogstein, if you please.  … This whole song and dance really chafes my rear end. Can’t he just come out here and talk to us? Please, Mitarashi, calm down. Given the situation in which we find ourselves, cooperation is likely the wisest course of action. I’m thrilled to see you understand. Now please, hurry! Our time together is short, and wasting it could cost you your life! What? Oink oink oink. Enough talking! Move it! Chop chop! Let’s just, like, listen to him, okay? Standing around here is boring anyway…Shut up, Towa. The grownups are talking. But yes, let’s beat feet. We need to find out what the whole death game thing is all about. All right, the castle it is. After all, they say a reporter’s best asset is his feet, right? (But… just what kind of game is he going to make us play…?) It wasn’t long before it opened up into a magnificent room that looked like a banquet hall from a period drama. Oink oink! Goooood afternoon everyone! Welcome to the world of despair!That’s Monokuma’s thing. Come up with your own ideas, pork chop!  You! A pig on a throne? What is this, some kind of half-assed political commentary…?I mean, he also introduced himself by condemning frivolous spending by a capitalist society. Not sure if it’s half-assed at this point. Although it is kind of overly obvious. Be quiet. He can hear you. Have you already forgotten about the hostages? Guh…!  Odd… There’s something strange at the base of the stairs… Looks like a box draped in blue cloth. … The box looked like it was about twice as tall as the piglets standing at attention next to it. What was in there…? This didn’t feel good. Weren’t you going to explain the rules? Uuuuh, well, once a day you’ll risk your life to challenge one of the attractions! That’s the game!He suddenly sounds a lot less sure of himself. Weird. He kind of let it slip earlier in the update as well.  Whoa, what?! The second rule is that you may not harm my illustrious person. That includes, of course, my piglets, who I think of as part of my own body. Sure. Fine. Next rule? The third rule should be obvious, but you are solely and legally responsible for any danger you might find yourselves in. I’ll have a waiver for you to sign. That seems like cheating…It also seems pointless. The guy is a loving terrorist. No court is going to uphold any loving waiver that he gets you guys to sign. The fourth rule… or, well, more like a condition I guess, is that if you can’t beat a game, then that attraction blows up! No second chances! You coward! What…? Oh no, my agent’s gonna freak! My sincerest apologies. Maybe you should think about that the next time you decide to go waste time having fun. Oink! What a jerk… And of course the sixth rule is that you’re not allow [sic] to escape. Obviously. Urgh… Oh no! As soon as he’d finished talking, Count Hogstein began to laugh, his stomach jiggling obscenely. (How can he laugh about killing people! He’s awful!) I frowned, trying to think of something to say, when—*The screen shakes a bit as Ryusei freaks out*  You son of a bitch! Stop! A man controls his emotions, he doesn’t let his emotions control him! Yeah, well I’m about to let my fist control his face! Shidou was doing his best to hold Mitarashi back, but I wasn’t sure how long he’d last. You need to calm down! If you get mad, you’re just doing what he wants! Correct. The rules prevent us from harming him. If we do, the hostages will be killed. Dammit! He swore and shook off Shidou, slamming his fist into a nearby pillar. With a slimy smile, he clapped his hands. At his signal, the piglets took hold of the blue cloth… It fell away from the box, revealing— Ah…! Guh! What I’d thought was a box was actually a giant cage, and inside of it was my uncle and the park management. So, he’s showing us how he can kill the hostages whenever he wants. Exactly. I hope you won’t hold it against me. After all, if you just follow the rules, I won’t be forced to do anything… unpleasant. Such as, for instance, dropping a giant metal ball. Oink oink! Metal ball?! As I spoke, he grinned and looked up toward the ceiling. I followed his gaze…  What?! There’s… there’s a giant metal ball over the cage!Thank you, Ace Detective. No…! It was all too clear what Count Hogstein’s message was. (That’s…!) It was what we were all thinking, even if I’d been too afraid to say it. That’s cowardly! They can’t even fight back! If you decide to hurt me, then… SPLAT! *Snort* Good thing he held you back, huh? Close call! Oink oink oink! He was so smug! I just wanted to punch him in that massive, jiggly, gut every time he opened his mouth.Saki, please stop describing his gut in detail. So long story short, you should try and follow those seven rules when you play through each attraction. There will be lots of puzzles for you to figure out, so I hope you’re ready to work together and solve them! And the ones we can’t beat will be… blown up? Wh-What?! Are you for real!?Was everyone unclear on that aspect? Did you think if you failed to beat one of the games he’d give you a couple of minutes to clear the blast zone or something? Well, if you can’t beat it, then you can’t get out, and if you can’t get our… Oink. …! He was talking about killing people! About killing us! How could he be so… so… casual?! Well, this wouldn’t be a very exciting game if your lives weren’t in danger. So make sure you don’t forget the rules! Oink oink oink! (I won’t let him get away with this!) Everyone else was staring at the arrogant pig, probably thinking the same thing I was. Everyone except for Wakasa… He slumped to the ground holding his head. I’d volunteered to play Hogstein’s sick game, but Wakasa hadn’t. None of them had… (I guess they’re victims too…) I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. There was no guarantee one of these men wouldn’t try to escape.My money is on Towa, personally. If anyone is going to gently caress us all over, it’ll be Towa. I knew my uncle, but apart from that the hostages were complete strangers to all of us. (I’m really not sure about these guys… I don’t know anything about them… No! I have to trust them! We’re going to be working together for seven days. If I don’t trust them…) I shook my head. We’d never be able to win Hogstein’s games unless we trusted each other. I leveled a glare at the pig. There was no way I was going to lose! Well, now that we’ve finished going over the rules, I think it’s high time we started today’s game. Oink! Finally getting started, huh? Today’s game celebrates the wonderful world of RPGs. Let’s move, everyone! Come along now! And we’ll stop it there for now. We’ve got our cast, our antagonist, the stakes, and the rules. Next time, we find out just what kind of “games” our plucky young protagonist is in for. However, in preparation for that, there is a small choice to be made. The Scooby gang will be splitting up a little next update, so Saki needs to pick a trio of guys to tag along with. Do we follow: Group A:  or… Group B:  
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Apr 27, 2020 18:22
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StrixNebulosa posted:Group B, they contain the dude I first hung out with when I played this game, and also my favorite of the dudes - yes, I've played this one! It was a really fun time and I'm looking forward to revisiting it. I liked the premise of it, because it’s so goofy. I'm honestly not sure why I didn't finish it. Could have just been a case of having too much to play. I actually got this game when I was snatching up every PSP title I could during stock clearout (the PSP was dead by 2013-2014, since the Vita had replaced it). I think it cost me $2.99 at the time. But I had also grabbed like 5 other titles at that price, so maybe I just hooked on one of those. If I had to guess, was your favourite Ryusei? He seems like an obviously popular one to me. Polsy posted:Voting A to start with (presumably they'll switch it up every game) I think it will get switched up, just to give more opportunity to build affection points evenly. I'm not sure when I'll do a vote on who to focus on. Maybe Stage 2, or maybe just whenever/if we get an individual choice instead of a group. There are some mechanics to still be introduced, so I'm going to wait at least until those are out of the way. I wouldn't worry about following along like you did for CP. The errors seem to be mostly confined to spelling and grammar. Honestly, the thing I'm most curious about is whether or not Otomate/Idea Factory/Aksys improved their quality over the years (in terms of VNs. I have a natural avoidance of Idea Factory RPGs). Otomate makes a ton of otome titles (including the "Code: Realize" and "Hakuouki" series). Although given what I've seen being dumped on Switch, I kind of expect the opposite to have happened. Side Note: I will never do a Switch VN. The English major in me would die inside before the second update started. A side note about some stuff with the LP: I only got limited feedback from the Sandcastle regarding image quality. The is a PSP title, so the screenshots you are seeing are scaled down from a 2x PSP resolution (PPSSPP only seems to let me work in multiples like 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x). 2x PSP resolution is too big for the archive, which is why I had to resize down. The original PSP resolution is much sharper, but I sort of felt like it would be too tiny (PSP resolution is only 480 wide), which someone in the Sandcastle sort of seemed to agree with. I'll do up a comparison shot tomorrow and you guys can let me know which you think works/looks better. As for character sprites, those seem to be the best I can do right now. Once again, I have been completely unable (using GLintercept and UMDgen) to yank the artwork out of one of these games and instead have needed to rely on cropping out from screencaps/artwork. Doesn't help that the characters in this game all have a very thick bordering on their sprites. If I can get a better quality/softer edged crop from GIMP then I'll eventually replace all of the expression sprites. As for Hogstein, his expression portraits are super wide, which I can't really work around. I hate that it throws off the alignment, but it’s the only way to get his facial expressions in there. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Apr 28, 2020 |
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Apr 28, 2020 01:20
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 This is an example of the original resolution screenshots. I think it looks better, personally. However I admit that it might be a bit too small. HardDiskD posted:If this is post-capcom, pre-mighty number 9 Inafune, can we just leave him? Blaze Dragon posted:Count Hogstein is actually the good guy, he's trying to stop Mighty Nº9 from ever happening. I say we let him win, personally. It'll take a few sacrifices but it's for the greater good. It's a trick ending situation. If we win, then Count Hogstein reveals the horror that will be released because of us. However, if we refuse to play the game, then Hogstein punishes us by funding MN9 himself using the money he stole from The Gameatorium. It's a no-win situation. We can't change the timeline. It's too late. Junpei posted:This is the reason why I like Izumi from A3 (which isn't an otome game because some of the boys are in high school and Izumi, the main character, is an adult), because not only does she get to snark at the quirks of the boys, but she has her own quirk in her curry obsession. I didn’t think about clarifying that, but maybe I should in the opening. Otome stuff is similar to dating-sims that are aimed at guys. Both of them are sub-genres within larger umbrellas of media. Just like there are games aimed at guys that don't necessarily involve romance, there are games aimed at women that don't necessarily involve it (like "A3!"). For a parallel to male marketed material, think of games like Kantai Collection. StrixNebulosa posted:My fave was Ryusei! He's a good guy. I kind of thought so. Out of the three in that group, he seems like the most popular archetype. I do like that about Sweet Fuse as well. Despite what I talked about in terms of "some women wanting to be the one in charge and not the one being rescued", a lot of otome games still involve the female lead being fairly passive. They are made to be special/the chosen one, but they also don’t take an especially active role. Basically, despite what people might think about this genre, Saki doesn’t quite appear to be the "norm". Like I said, Sweet Fuse does a few things differently that I really like. Saki is one of them, although we haven’t seen her really shine just yet. That happens when we start getting in to the whole death game thing.
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Apr 28, 2020 20:38
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Update II: Saki and the case of the "World's Slowest Poison" Is everyone ready for some actual mystery? What about games of life or death? I know I am. This update gets the ball rolling and also introduces a few mechanics that will make up the “gameplay” aspect of this game. Granted, those gameplay mechanics are mostly about affection point building, but still. Before the opening, my uncle had told me that the park was divided into seven different themed areas. Each area has a main attraction that represented the theme. During the intro update, we met our girl Saki and also the six hunks that she may or may not eventually shack up with depending on the thread’s wishes. Count Hogstein then started to lead everyone towards the first game. I glanced around as I walked, trying to compare what I was seeing to what I remembered about the park’s layout. No one spoke, and our footsteps were heavy and slow. Everyone’s mind was on what the pig had told us. (Whatever. Right now I need to concentrate on figuring out how to beat these games.)You can’t really do that right now, Saki. You have no idea what the games will be like. Let’s hold on that until we actually see what they are all about. I was glaring so hard at the back of the piglet’s head that I didn’t hear Shidou start talking. The pig already said that, bro! I got it the first time! Yeah, but I doubt that vile beast told us the whole story. We need facts. Details. We need to know the park. Urgh… Uh, well, I know a little bit about it. I explained to them what I’d been thinking earlier. So the main attraction in the RPG part of the park is probably— I know that’s supposed to be a Final Fantasy VII reference, but all I can think about from that name is how much I miss the Way of the Samurai franchise. Oh, so you know about all this, then? N-No! Not… not really. I just… happened to know that… one thing. All right? (That seems like kind of a weird response, but whatever…) Shidou frowned at Mitarashi, then turned to me. Y-Yes…? So do you just ‘happen to know’ these things too?It’s a video game franchise, Shidou. Chill the gently caress out on giving Saki the third-degree all the time.  Which Shidou should have guessed seeing as how he was in charge of security for the grand opening where only staff members of the park and their family were in attendance. Shidou is kind of a crappy detective in some respects. Like, yeah, questioning people and giving them a bit of a side-eye when they know a suspicious amount of information is all well and good, but this isn’t one of those times. Saki would have had to be related to someone who worked on the park in order to be invited to this opening in the first place, so of course she would know stuff about it. Hell, this is a theme park that’s about to open to the public. There’s likely been marketing material out there for months now. Is that so? Then… perhaps they were in the enclosure we saw earlier?Everyone in the park has a connection to people who worked on it! We were told that right out of the gate! Hey, Shidou? You want to be suspicious of people, then how about questioning what the hell Kimimaro, Ryusei, and Kouta are doing here. How did those three get invited to this park? Ayumu is a journalist, so he has an excuse. Towa seems to have been invited here to act as entertainment, so that explains him. But who the hell invited the male escort, tarot card reader, and shut-in? Yeah, they were… Excuse me? Yeah…To those of you pissed that Saki just took that little “even though you’re a girl” comment on the chin: Don’t worry. Saki is not going to be spending this entire game being cradled like an infant because she has boobs. She’ll give Shidou an earful for that little snipe later on… or maybe she won’t… it’s— Well, you’ll see. We’ll be getting to it during Stage 1. Oh… Please, accept my condolences. Urabe squeezed my hand reassuringly, and gave me a somber bow. (Maybe I should’ve mentioned my uncle earlier. Then they might have been more wiling [sic] to help me…)Probably not a great idea, Saki. You tell them and I’m sure Hogstein will find out as well (if he hasn’t already). I thanked him, and let go of his hand. …It’s called Samurai Fantasy. In the game, a party of adventurers set out for Edo Palace. The castle and the country have been taken over by the nurarihyon, and the adventurers have to stop them. Well look at you, Encyclopedia Meoshi. You some kind of game freak? Yeah… I like games. I heard they were gonna be giving out exclusive DLC at the opening today. That’s the only reason I came… (Oh… So that’s why he knows about it…)So Kouta just walked in here to get promo DLC? I get the feeling that the whole “staff members and their family” thing was a mistranslation. It seems part of this game’s mystery will be us trying to figure out what details in the story are true and which ones are just bad translation work. Meoshi frowned. Huh? What the heck’s DLC? Right. Fascinating. I think we’ve all got the basics here. But the question we ought to be asking, the question right in front of us, is “What sort of devious puzzles did the pig make?” Yes, he’s quite a villain. I imagine there will be traps and the like that we won’t expect. Shirabe sighed, and shifted the cigarette in his— (So he likes sweets? Huh… I never would have guessed. I totally thought that was a cigarette.) For some reason I found my eyes drawn to it. It was almost… hypnotic…Saki, focus! Yes, Pocky is indeed delicious and awesome, but we’ve got things to do. Well, no point in sitting around, then. Yeah… If all of… this hadn’t happened, what would Samurai Fantasy VII have been like? I felt sad. I had a feeling Uncle Keiji did too. It’s Samurai Fantasy VII! The gate looked like one from a European castle, but the towers that rose up behind it looked Japanese. It could have come across as cheesy and contrived, but I thought it was a nice touch. It’s just like the game… Really? Yeah. Yeah, that’s great, but check this out! Huh…? I turned to look— A statue of Count Hogstein! It was just like the statue we’d seen in the plaza. It does seem likely… Argh… I don’t want to do this! I want to go hooooooome!God, you are such a winy little poo poo. Just as Wakasa began to moan, Count Hogstein appeared on the screen. Now you must enter Edo Palace to defeat the evil nurarihyon who controls the country of Edo! As you have already been informed, this quest will put your life in danger! Oink oink! His disgusting voice echoed through the empty air. Uuuuuhhhhhh… Wakasa had covered his ears and shut his eyes tight. Just looking at him made me feel a little helpless and scared. (I volunteered for this. I have to face the consequences.) Shidou gave me a small nod. ”And she’s a girl! If she can do it while managing to fight off the vapours, which all women suffer from, then you can too.” Urgh… He slowly stood back up, but his face was pale, and he looked ready to collapse at any moment. Um… Maybe he should stay out here?I agree with that. Let’s ditch Towa. He’s dead weight. I don’t remember there being a rule about all seven of us having to go into the attraction. Yeah. He’s just gonna get in our way if he keeps freaking out all the time. Sweet, we’re all in agreement then. Probably smart not to put all our eggs in one basket either. Rather not be dismal about this, but if we blow this game, who’ll save the hostages?I mean, not Towa. Let’s be honest here. If we blow it and Towa is still alive, then the hostages might as well off themselves, just to save time. Then we’d only need, what, like one or two of us to actually go in there, right? Th-Then I’ll just— But before he could even finish his sentence, Hogstein’s voice rang out again. Where’s the fun if it blows up and some of you aren’t in it?Too loving bad! You laid out the rules and everyone having to participate wasn’t one of them, so piss off and let us leave Towa behind!  Besides, unless the seven of you work together, you’ll never be able to finish it… That’s our concern, not yours. Ah…! I glanced over at the others to see them staring silently at the screen. …That’s it, then. We all go together. Urgh… All right, I’m going.Fiiine. I guess we could always use a meat shield. Hogstein nodded sanctimoniously. Now then, please follow my piglet here into the castle! Oink! The person in black turned to us and gestured. … I get the feeling he wants us to follow him.That would be what Hogstein just literally said, yes. Thank you, Towa. The piglet nodded earnestly. The little creep can’t talk? ”And only the men!” Shidou strode off toward the castle without waiting for the rest of us to follow. I trotted along behind him, and the other [sic] slowly followed suit. As we got close, the castle’s gates began to grind open. Hey, what’re we gonna have to do in there? It didn’t speak, just twitched around like a worm in a frying pan.Weird. I got no idea what the little bastard’s trying to say. You think all of ‘em are like this? I’m not sure… Was it possible Count Hogstein had forbidden them from talking…? Do all of you have watches? We all nodded, and each held up a watch or a cell phone— anything with the time on it. Look at the time. Right now it’s noon on the dot. And we’ve got seven hours left. Right. I need you all to be alert. Will do! After all, if we didn’t stay alert… in seven hours, we’d be dead. We walked through the gate, and up to the castle. Up close, the towers looked even taller. The piglet gestured for us to go in. Inside was a long hallway that looked like a set from a period movie. I could just see a room at the end of it. I suspect that is our destination. Yeah, I think you’re right. We moved down the hallway slowly and carefully, until we reached the door at the end and stepped into the room. My, this is certainly extravagant… Just like the outside of the castle, the interior was also an odd mix of east and west. This particular room seemed to have a stronger European influence. In the center was a statue of a creepy-looking animal. A… lion, maybe? Looks like a Walk/Don’t Walk sign. The doors to the left and right had chains bolted across them— obviously we weren’t going out that way any time soon. This room is creepy. I sure hope we’re not going to get locked in here or something…Saki, please don’t say poo poo like that. You know what’s— …!  Rrgh…! Damnit! It’s locked! …You just had to say it, didn’t you?!Saki’s skill at figuring out game logic is a bit rusty, apparently. What are we going to do? We’re trapped, you guys… I’d meant it as a joke, but suddenly being trapped in the room with that statue didn’t seem so funny. Still, standing around worrying about it was only going to waste time. …If we want to get out of here, then we’re going to have to solve this puzzle. Here we go, first puzzle of the game. Let’s see what we’ve got going on in here. Hey, don’t do anything rash. We need to think about this carefully. Yeah, and then we’ll still be thinking carefully when this whole place goes boom! …Hrm. I guess you don’t get to be a police detective without being methodical… (We do need to be cautious, but Mitarashi’s right too… If we don’t move quickly, we’re gonna be in bad shape.) I started moving around the room, examining things, and before long the others started to do the same. They are the most suspicious things in this room. Come on guys, I know you’ve got seven hours to figure this out but that doesn’t mean you need to use every minute of it. I mumbled to myself and walked toward the statue. Then suddenly, I heard a mechanical voice begin to speak.[Announcer]: Awaken to your destiny, and slay the demon nue. Fail to slay the nue, and die by its poison. Huh. Think that was some kind of hint? A nue… hmm… What’s a nue? Oh my god, hurry it up! Of course they mean the statue! You think they were talking about the loving sign? Or the curtains? He raised a hand to point at the thing in the center of the room. Oh… so a nue is an animal? I’d thought it was a lion or something at first, but as I looked closer I could see that wasn’t even close. Ah yes, the nue. A Japanese creature of myth and legend. Whoa… That’s pretty cool. So why the hell’s it here? *A purple light scans down the screen* What…? What the heck is this?!Probably the poison that was mentioned just a minute ago. Get away from there! His voice was slightly muffled by the handkerchief he’d suddenly pressed over his mouth and nose. The rest of us all clasped whatever we had to our own faces. O-Oh no… Is this poison gas…? I’m afraid it probably is. By now the stuff pouring out of its mouth was purple. Clearly it wasn’t ordinary smoke. Smoke would have risen up, but this was slowly spreading out over the floor. Ayumu frowned, and rubbed a hand across his rough beard. Whatever happens, we can’t just start running around. There’s no place for this gas to go. If we move it too much, we might end up spreading it. Then what the hell are we gonna do…? We’re gonna die if it fills the room up!I’ll be honest, it’s looking more likely that our heroes are going to bite it during the first puzzle. A well-oiled machine they are currently not. Don’t shout! We need to keep the air still! The calmer it is, the longer that gas stays on the floor. Guh…! L-Let’s just calm down… We’ve still got plenty of time before the gas… um… We’ve got plenty of time! The little lady’s right. If we can solve this puzzle, we should be home free. The one thing I hate about mystery VN’s (especially ones with character routes/dating-sim stuff) is that every loving character currently present needs to get their own line reaffirming what we already know/just said. The room is filling with poison gas, you idiots! We know this! Can we please start talking about how to solve the drat puzzle? Ch-Chill out?! How are you so calm!? Wakasa, no—!poo poo, here we go. Towa is about to screw us. He shot across the room to the door we’d come in through, and began to furiously twist the handle. It’s locked! Didn’t you hear what I said? We have to keep the air calm! He had gone into a state of total panic, frantically pulling on a door that clearly wasn’t going to open. Were you even listening, you little twerp?! He said we’re gonna run out of air if you do that! Wait! I gestured desperately to Mitarashi to calm down, and walked as slowly and carefully as I could over to Wakasa. Hey! Wakasa! Listen to me! I like that Saki is now starting to assert herself, but I think we just should have let Ryusei punch Towa in the face or something. You have to calm down! We can get out of here! We just have to solve the puzzle! She’s right. Everything’s going to be fine. When had he…? As I was wondering how he’d moved so quietly, Shidou reached out to take hold of Wakasa’s arm. …Guh… really? Urabe spoke up. Look at the gas. It’s coming out very slowly. We have plenty of time left before it becomes dangerous. There is no need to be rash. Urgh… I saw his hand loosen and slide off the doorknob. (Shidou was awfully… reassuring…) Then again, he was a police officer, and of all the people there, he seemed the most reliable. When we said things would be all right, you believed him. (And Urabe made a good point too.) Slowly and carefully, we made our way back to the statue. The thing that voice said earlier sounded like a hint… Do any of you know what it might mean?Half an hour after the poison started seeping out, we finally start considering solving the puzzle to stop it from killing everyone. Good stuff.  The latter part appears to be fairly straightforward. Perhaps we should concentrate on the line which says “awaken to your destiny.” Maybe, but we still don’t know squat about this room. We need to look around some more. Yeah… We don’t have a lot of time, so why don’t we split up? Ugh… Fine. How’re we gonna split up, then? Um, let me think… So here is our first choice. I asked the thread to pick and ended up getting four votes: Group A, Group B, Group A, and Group B. Lovely… But that’s fine, at least for this instance. I can use this to show off a mechanic that I think is nice. To do that, we’ll first go with Shidou, Wakasa, and Meoshi to examine the panels. How about me, Shidou, Wakasa, and Meoshi look at those panels? …And why did you choose these groups? Huh? Wh-What, are they bad…? No. This is fine. Who cares?! Why are we whining about who’s doing what? We don’t have time for that!Thank you, Ryusei! Everyone stop bitching and let’s get to making progress. We’ve got 2 different clocks running, so stop wasting so much time over nonsense. Then let’s get going! And with that, we split up. Shidou, Wakasa, Meoshi, and I headed toward the panels. I took a closer look at the panels. Each one had a human looking silhouette. One panel was lit up. Yeah, they look like people… One of them has a sword, this one has a bow… Meoshi suddenly spoke up. There are names under each one. Hm. So I guess they’re not all fighters. Right. I wouldn’t really call a mage a fighter…Then you’re rolling the wrong character build. I was trying to figure out what it meant when Meoshi spoke. I think they’re classes. Classes? Wakasa piped up. Oh, you mean like in RPGs?Like the entire theme of this part of the drat park? Yes. That is exactly what it means. Listen, I swear that they don’t remain this stupid. At the very least they improve slightly after we get through this first stumbling block. Yeah. Right! Of course… I get it now! I punched my hand in victory. The panels had to be for character classes, just like he’d said.Not something to be proud of, Saki. He spelled it out for you, after all. But only one of them is lit up… Yeah, the monk one. Hmm… Why only that one? There had to be some sort of meaning to it… You, Meoshi. You know a lot about the game this attraction was based on, right? Yeah, I beat it once. Give me a summary of it. Quickly. A party of seven! That must be what the panels are! I realized I was yelling and quickly shut my mouth, but Shidou nodded thoughtfully. Yes, that must be it.Oh my god, Subaru actually does have different facial expressions! The seven heroes… But I don’t get it… Why is this guy the only one who’s lit up? Hmmm… We should report back to the other group and strategize. They must have found something by now. We all agreed, and headed back toward the statue and the other team.So this is where the two groups meet back up into one. Saki will talk about what the other group learned in their investigation, but it’s a brief summary. The nice thing about Sweet Fuse is that we can easily pop back and check out what the other group went through. Obviously, one option of doing this is simply making multiple saves and reloading one from just before the choice of which group to go with. However, Sweet Fuse has a different way of doing this.  At (just about) any time, you can open the menu in order to do stuff like save and load and adjust options. You also have the “Dialog” option, which let’s you look back through everything that’s been said during this play session (in case you missed some dialog or accidentally skipped through it or something). There’s also a button press that can do this from in game, but I can never remember which one it is.  Anyway, if you open up the log, you’ll be able to go back through the conversation and read what was said as well as check on which choice you made. You can also have the voice clips replay by pressing “Square”.  However, you can also press X to “Rewind”. Rewind will take you back to that point in the conversation so you can go back through it. This is really useful for checking out other choices or picking up affection points that you might have missed.  Again, you could always just make a ton of saves and reload as necessary. I still really like this feature though, and I wish that more VNs would do it. It’s a bit easier than trying to juggle save files.  The game will also highlight a choice you’ve already made in Blue (there will also be an arrow in the text log which points out the choice you last made). Anyway, we’ll use this opportunity to check out the other path, since the thread was too indecisive to pick just one. Myself, Shirabe, Mitarashi, and Urabe will check out the statue. Very well. Shall we…? I really didn’t want to get too close to a weird, poison-spewing statue, but it didn’t look like I had a choice.This group is a lot less mouthy than the other and they don’t go whining about Saki taking the lead.  Yeah. Shows up in stories. It varies some, but it usually has the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon dog, the legs of a tiger, and a snake for a tail. Shirabe tapped his forehead with a finger as he spoke. You seem to know a lot about this stuff. In my line of work, you pick a few things up. Okay, that’s great and all, but I still don’t understand what the hell this thing’s doing here.Well, it’s express purpose seems to be very slowly killing all of you. And, unbelievably, it has so far been succeeding. Well, perhaps a closer examination will reveal more. Be careful of the gas. Right. We examined every inch of the statue, taking care to avoid the poison. Oh… What’s wrong? Push it! Push every button! I pointed to the base of the snake-tail. Found one on its belly, too. Is that so? Its leg appears to have one as well. All in all, there were five buttons. One each on the head, neck, leg, stomach, and tail. What do you think they are? Should we push one?Do it! Do it! No! Are you nuts?! Whoa, take a chill pill, man. I wasn’t gonna do it. Mitarashi grumbled and turned pointedly back to looking at the buttons. I wonder if pushing one of these will stop the gas… Hm… And now we’re back to the common route. Let’s talk shop. …All right, let’s go over everything: The panels are the seven adventurers from Samurai Fantasy VII. The only one that is lit is the monk. The five buttons on the nue are on the head, neck, leg, stomach, and tail. That’s everything, right? Everyone nodded. The panels and the statue must be… connected somehow. But what does “Awaken to your destiny” have to do with them…? Hm… (This is tough… What does “awaken to your destiny” mean?) As we thought, the soft hiss of gas filled the silence. (We have to do something, and soon, or…) You’ve wasted an HOUR on this? The hell have you been doing?! Man… We’re not getting anywhere. I say we just go balls-out and hit one of those buttons.YES! Button time! Huh? W-Wait, stop! I tried to grab him, but he just shook me off. Stop! Shidou dashed forward to try and stop him, but Mitarashi hit the button on the statue’s leg before he could. Everyone froze… Huh…? Huh. Now that mage one’s lit.See? Now we’re getting somewhere. Always push buttons. Yeah, it is! Ha! See? Just gotta go for it. What’re you all worried about anyway? Just… don’t do that again, all right? Hey! Back off, cop! You’re not the boss of me! Ah! Before anyone else could stop him, Mitarashi smacked the button on the nue’s stomach. Damnit Mitarashi, what the hell!? He grabbed the other man by the collar and shook him. No, stop! I tried to shove them apart, but as I did— Probably nothing good, but hey, at least stuff is happening, right? *Another pink light scans down the screen* The mage panel! It’s turned red! What? Gah! Th-There’s more gas coming out of its mouth! What?! Rrgh… Mitarashi and Shidou leapt away from the statue, and I could see that gas was indeed pouring out of its mouth much faster now. You idiot! Do you realize what you just did? Were you even thinking?! We’re risking our lives with every move we make here! Jesus, I’m sorry! But hey, look at it this way, now we’ve got some idea of what’s going on with these buttons! Yes, I… suppose so, but still! You need to learn to exercise a little restraint. … Meoshi quietly raised his hand. Did you notice something? Well… not so much notice as… remember, I guess. What did you remember, then? A trick? It’s weak versus arrows, but you can’t hit it with an arrow unless you, uh, set up the attack first. First the monk hits the legs with a special attack. That stops it. Then your mage hits the tail, which keeps it from casting spells.”Then the Tank fucks up by standing 1 meter to the left, which causes everyone else to fail, thereby making it all the Tank’s fault.” Finally, you use the hunter to attack with his bow… Monk, mage, hunter… There’s a panel for each one on here, right? Oh! So that’s why the monk panel was lit up! Mitarashi just got luck and pressed the right button. And now the mage one is lit up! Probably… So, next up would be… (Hm… Which button are we supposed to press next?)We get a choice here between “stomach” and “tail”, but come on; Saki isn’t that dense. The tail should be next. Right you are, missy. Even the best headline means squat if it’s not carrying the heavy weight of the truth. Use your noggin and the truth’s your friend. I think you may have a bit of promise. That choice was one that could provide affection points. The little animation you’re seeing above is technically called “Exp-LOV-sion”. All it means is that you can see when affection levels have increased with the different guy. You can turn this off in the menu, although I’m not entirely sure why you would. The current affection levels can be checked from the pause menu. Just a note: Rewinding undoes whatever affection boosts you got from choices that haven’t happened at the point you pick things up. So you can’t just boost affection and then rewind to pick a different character or option in order to farm affection points. (Okay, sounds like the tail is probably right.) Very well, I shall push the button. The tail, correct? When Urabe pushed the button on the statue’s tail, a small chime sounded. Ah ha! The red light on the mage’s panel has turned off! When the mage panel turned off, the hunter panel had lit up. It’s on the hunter now! You were right, Meoshi! Awesome… Now there’s only one more button to push. He let out a long, shaky sigh of relief. (Yeah, we’ve only got one button left, but… which one?) Meoshi had said the hunter attacked last, but he hadn’t said where. It didn’t take long for the others to come to the same conclusion, of course. The next button is the last one, but… which button is it? You, Meoshi. Where does the hunter attack this thing? Meoshi shook his head slowly. Sorry… I don’t remember. What?! You’ve gotta be kidding me! Don’t be too hard on him. Who’s going to remember every single detail of a big game like that?The Batomys in Valkyria Chronicles requires you to throw grenades inside the heat sinks after it overheats (or you can try and hit it with a Lancer round). Also, Gi Nattak in FFVII can be defeated immediately by using a Phoenix Down (or other full heal item) on it. That’s right, I’m calling Meoshi out on his lack of knowledge. This is bad… If Meoshi couldn’t remember, though, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do. Then suddenly, Shirabe spoke up. Attack with a bow… bow… bow… Wait… He was mumbling to himself and tapping his forehead with his fingers. (Is this some sort of nervous habit? He was doing it before, too…) In “Minamoto’s Slaying of the Nue” and Yoshitoshi’s “New Forms of 36 Monsters,” the nue is shot in the neck! You’re right! I think it was the neck! Okay. So the button on the neck is the one we should press next? (Wow, Shirabe sure knows a lot of stuff!) Very well, I shall push the button on the neck. As he spoke, Urabe leaned over and pressed the button. “One puzzle down!” I though. But…*The hunter panel turns red*  B-But… Why is the hunter’s panel red…?*Another pink scan of the screen* The gas was also coming out of the nue’s mouth faster than before. Damnit! What did we do wrong?! That should have worked! None of us had the answer. (It should have worked… Shidou is right, so what happened? Something’s off…) I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’d missed some important part of the puzzle. I ran the announcement we’d heard earlier over and over in my head. (What am I missing from that announcement…?) So here’s the puzzle solving mechanic for this game. Well, the mechanic that doesn’t involve just making dialog choices anyway. Explosive Insight usually occurs when everyone is at their wits end. Saki will take a moment to think over recent information and try to discover the key to the answer the group needs. It works a little bit like the Testimony System from the Ace Attorney series.  The game will give us a few pages of Saki’s thoughts. You can flip through them with the left and right D-pad and select words or phrases using Up/Down. The words or phrases in blue are the important ones, but there are quite a few of them that can be selected.  You are allowed to place “Insight Bombs” on three of those blue words/phrases. There’s only one correct choice, so you basically get three chances at finding it. Let’s use this one as an example. The blue choices are as follows: - ”fail to slay” - “awaken to your destiny” - “statue” - “slay the nue” - “specific steps” - “attack the neck” - “die by its poison” This is the first puzzle, so it should be pretty easy. We’ll find out next update if Saki (and the thread) can figure out the keyword that will lead us to the answer the group needs to not die from poison gas. .gif)
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:12 on May 1, 2020 |
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Apr 30, 2020 23:28
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Blaze Dragon posted:Isn't this Mitarashi? He's the one who commented about Samurai Fantasy VII. Thanks for catching those. These LPs with multiple expressions per character are a pain in the rear end. I haven’t come up with a good system for easily doing "Find and Replace". The Nue=Neu thing happened because "nue" shows up a lot and also I have "neu" as an expression tag to represent neutral, so I kept having to switch between them while writing. That’s my bad. I'll fix that with the image tags in a bit. Edit: Also, the Piglet head icon is huge for some reason. The hell happened there? Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 01:24 on May 1, 2020 |
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May 1, 2020 01:14
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HardDiskD posted:I think this should be ought, right? Yeah, I got around to fixing that one. Also another Kimimaro portrait I missed. Not sure how "ought" became "ouahgt", but oh well. That's why you have proofreaders and editors, right Aksys/Spike Chunsoft? Ghost Car posted:I'm guessing the missing piece of the puzzle is that each role is supposed to correspond to one member of the group and the right person has to push the button, so... "awaken to your destiny," I guess? Seems to be the consensus of the thread. We'll go with that as one of the choices, and then I guess I'll randomly pick two others. StrixNebulosa posted:Also ugh reading this LP makes me want to replay it instead of waiting for updates. Normally you would be in luck, because people that followed my last 3 LPs know that I'm bad (or maybe good? Not sure how people feel about it) for rapid-firing updates. I tried to limit myself to once a week during my Conception Plus LP and that lasted for maybe a month before I was putting out updates every 2 or 3 days. This LP seems like it will be moving a little slower though. On top of the heavier transcription, I'm also fumbling around with those drat expression portraits. Haven't had to do that since Conception II. I need to come up with a new tagging system to make this easier on myself. Jadecore posted:Yeah, backing up "awaken to your destiny". If there are seven of us and seven classes, then each of us must correspond to one of the classes. So in order to work this out, we have to decide who Hogboy decided was the archer of these participants. Can do. The destiny thing seems to be what the thread has locked into and I think it's a fairly safe bet. The good thing about this whole mechanic is that it gives you three choices. This kind of thing is way more frustrating in the Ace Attorney series where you are trying to come up with a single statement that nonsensically matches up with some random trash you found on the ground (otherwise known as "evidence").
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May 1, 2020 13:28
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Update III: Ninja time! Also Towa's here When we last left Saki, she was trying to figure out the missing piece of information we need to solve this puzzle. Everyone in the thread zeroed in on “awaken to your destiny” as the key phrase, so we’ll go with that.  Remember, as long as one of the choices you made is the correct one, then you pass. Things will get harder as the game goes on, although I’m not exactly sure how much harder it gets. I would imagine that the number of possible choices will go up, but we’ll have to wait and see if the answers get more obtuse or harder to guess.  If you get the correct word/phrase, then Saki’s insight will be incited. If you don’t get the correct word/phrase…   Well, you can probably guess what happens. For this puzzle, a game over has Saki getting frustrated that she can’t figure it out. Then the boys start commenting that it’s getting harder to breathe, shortly followed by them coughing out their last words as the poison gas kills them all. Saki apologizes to her uncle as she dies. Future death trap game overs will likely be a bit more… messy, should we fail. Let’s do our best to avoid those outcomes, shall we? Also, in case you’re curious, the game over screen will give you a chance to “Try Again” if you fail the Explosive Insight segments. It will load up a line or two before the scene triggers. Seems kind of lenient to me, but I guess this is a T-rated game (12+ in Japan). You’ve got to have some way of letting younger players (or older players that are bad at mystery thinking) brute force it in case they can’t figure it out. We still haven’t figured out what “Awaken to your destiny” is supposed to mean. Could it be the hint we need?  It was very insightful of you to notice that. Well, if you “awaken” to your destiny, then that means you figure out what it is, right? (I think this is it! We’re finally gonna beat this puzzle!) The panels with those pictures on ‘em need a closer look. Maybe they’ve got something to do with awakening to our destiny. Um… I just thought of something…First time for everything. I’m sorry, Towa lovers. He instantly became my hate sink in this game and I don’t think he’ll be shaking off that status anytime soon. Well, spit it out, Wakasa. Yeah. So they put seven panels here for the party… and there are seven of us. You think maybe there’s a connection? You’re right! Count Hogstein did call us heroes… Maybe each of these panels represents one of us! Of course! To awaken to our “destiny,” we have to determine which panel corresponds to which person! That has to be it! So if Mitarashi and Urabe pushed the buttons earlier… Then they have to be the monk and the mage, right? I mean, he is somehow managing to make that crystal ball float. If anyone was going to be the magic user, it would be that guy. Hm… Perhaps because of how we look? Huh? What do you mean? I believe we must take into account our personalities and appearance, instead of simply looking at our actual careers. Then who’s the hunter? C’mon, obviously it’s this guy. Me? Why am I the hunter? Well, you’re a cop, right? That means you got a piece. He grinned, making a gun with his hand, and pretended to fire it. Honestly, my guess was Ayumu. He’s a journalist, following up on leads and tracking down info. I know that fits with Subaru as well, but I sort of pegged Subaru as being the Warrior since he’s heavily armed (well… “heavily armed” from a Japanese perspective, anyway). He’s also got the whole “Protect the public” thing going on, which is typical of the noble warrior/hero character. All right. Huh? Wait, that was a joke. Wh-What? Before anyone could stop him, Shidou reached over and pressed the button on the neck. Everyone gasped—Why? If Ryusei is wrong, then just have Ayumu run up and tap the button. They haven’t established any punishments for trying too many times. The gas starts coming out faster, but it would only take a second or two for Ayumu to give it a shot. Ah! The flow of gas from the nue’s mouth suddenly stopped. Look! The statue’s moving! Yay! We finally did it! And it only took an hour and a half… Great job, team… As it did, a chime sounded and the hunter panel turned green. All the gas is getting sucked out through the ventilation. He was right— I could see the thick fog quickly vanishing into vents on the walls. (It looks like we’ve beaten the first part of this game…) I let out a sigh of relief. It took only a few moments for all the gas to disappear. drat… I felt the entire room relax. Hm… Everyone, that is, except for Shidou. He was busy frowning at the nue. Is something wrong? So this is just going to keep going… Well, this is the first stage of the first area. We’ve got a long ways to go.We sure do. That’s why you shouldn’t be wasting so much time just standing around. Get a move on! All of the attractions have likely been modified to make them lethal, like this one. Again, I don’t understand that part. No court will side with Hogstein on the matter of “Signed a waiver that absolves the terrorist of liability for his death traps”. That just means that if we want to get through this we’ll have to be like the adventurers in the game and work together. They all nodded. Just then, a short tune played over the room’s speakers, followed by an announcement.[Announcer]: The Room of the Guardian has been completed. You have obtained a reward. A reward…?Sweet! Loot! Before we had time to ponder what it meant, the base of the statue popped open. There’s a scroll… He pulled it out of the chest and showed us.Ability Scroll? Maybe we can teach Towa a skill which makes him not such a pansy? This looks like a map of this attraction… See, here’s the room we’re in… Then there are two more rooms with puzzles in them.Great, there goes the next 5 hours of our time. I turned to see him glancing down over my shoulder at the map. There were indeed two more rooms. Two more? drat, this one took us two hours…BECAUSE YOU KEEP STANDING AROUND AND YAMMERING! Seriously, the path to the next area has been open for like 5 minutes and yet nobody has made a move towards it yet. Then we’ve still got five left, chum. We’d better get moving then, don’t you think? Right… *sigh* I’m not gonna live through this, am I? I just wanna go home…Yeah… We all want you to go home too, Towa. We headed down the stairs, toward the Corridor of Hate… Finally, a new puzzle. Let’s try and get through this one sometime before the end of the week, okay? When we reached the bottom of the stairs, we found ourselves in a long stone hallway. It was dark and gloomy, but there were torches mounted along the walls casting enough light to see by. This place is scary… … I moved a little closer to one of the heads, and noticed a set of panels. These are just like the ones we saw a bit ago… The one that’s lit now is… the bard?So, Towa then. Come on, that one is obvious. Huh? What’s it look like? Mitarashi pushed forward toward the panel— Whoa! Gah! This is an arrow… Sure enough, there was now an arrow embedded in the opposite wall.Wow, really upping the stakes, huh? Granted, this does mean that there’s not as much pressure to move quickly, which means we’ll probably be stuck here for eternity while everyone tries to figure this out as slowly as possible. drat, that was close! A second later and I’d have been a shish kebab… Have a look at this arrow. Too thick for a bow, don’t you think? This is a crossbow quarrel. If you want to die that’s your business, but I’d appreciate it if you could— just every now and then— look before you leap. Urgh… (That must have been scary, even if he won’t admit it…) If nothing else, the arrow sticking out of the wall was now a powerful reminder that we needed to be careful. D-Do you think each of these heads has a trap like that in it? Looks that way. Walk in front of one of those faces and you end up with a fancy new hole or two. Shirabe’s shoulders slumped in exhaustion as he finished, and Wakasa looked too shocked to speak. Then the voice was quiet. Oh, thanks! Would have been nice to know I needed to “proceed with care” before I just about got skewered. It was true that if the announcement had come on earlier he wouldn’t have been in danger, but if he hadn’t been in such a hurry in the first place…Eh. There’s a solid chance that that announcement is only triggered once somebody actually trips the arrow trap. I think it would have been the same result either way. Now what in the furious hell do they mean by “give ear to the song of the demons”? And what’s that “purification” nonsense about… Shirabe scratched at his beard and worked the candy around in his mouth. Perhaps it would be best to take these questions one at a time. Shall we start with “give ear to the song of the demons”? All right, well, obviously the “demons” are these ugly bastards. …And that’s all we really know. We need more information, people. Facts. Verifiable facts. Shirabe edged toward the nearest head. Very, very carefully, he began to examine it. Yes I do. This fella’s got a little light on his forehead. I figure it’s some sort of sensor. Let me see… Oh yeah. I see what you’re talking about.Don’t start crowding around the loving arrow shooting demon head! Every person in the room doesn’t need to personally confirm that little bit of info, you know. Time to put it to the test, then… Ah! I jumped as he waved his hand in front of the demon’s nose, but no arrow came out. Relax. See? Long as you don’t trip the sensor, no arrow. Easy. You scared me…Yeah, hey Ayumu? Maybe give people a little bit of a heads up before you go testing out theories. Saying “Let’s test it!” is not cool. He sighed, and told everyone to step back. He waved his hand over the demon’s face again, this time in front of the sensor.Now see? Couldn’t you have done that the first time? You guys all poo poo on Ryusei constantly for doing basically the same thing. Aie! Just like before, an arrow shot out of the demon’s mouth with blinding speed. Is your hand all right? Nothing to worry about, little lady. Pulled my hand away at the last second.Why did you even need to pull your hand away? The sensor is all the way up on its forehead. All you had to do was pass a finger through the laser. Don’t tell me you did a big sweep with your hand over the entire face or something. That’s fine, but there are a lot of these heads, and there’s no pattern to them. It would be impossible to avoid them all. Indeed… We all sighed. (There’s no way we can just… run past them or something. That means there’s got to be a way we can disable the arrows.) I was still mulling it over in my head when Wakasa suddenly spoke up. Did that… What is it? If you say so. All right, let’s get back to figuring out the puzzle. Mitarashi rolled his eyes. No one’s gonna blame you! Not like any of us know what the hell’s going on! Just spit it out, kid! He started to move toward Wakasa. (Hmm… I do want to know what he noticed…) There’s an obvious affection point for Wakasa here, but I don’t like him so I’m just gonna let Ryusei do his thing. If the thread decides on the Towa route for some reason, then I’ll just reload from here. (Mitarashi is being way too pushy, but we do need all the information we can get…) You need to tell us what you noticed. It might be the hint we need to figure out all this out! [sic] Um… I don’t really think it’s going to be what you think it is, but… I guess you’ve got a point. Wait, what? How is that an affection increase for Towa?! We were on board with just letting Ryusei intimidate him! …You win this game of reverse psychology, Towa fans. Why the heck are you being so secretive anyway? Well, at least I’d gotten him to talk. …I thought I heard something from the demon’s mouth. It was really faint, like a sort of… stretching noise. …Stretching…? Wakasa was still mumbling and thinking to himself when Shidou suddenly raised his head. “Give ear to the song of the demons”… Can you still hear it? He shook his head and frowned. So once the arrow fires, you can hear the noise for a little while and then it stops?Yes, the reloading mechanism. Come on, people! You don’t really need this spelled out for you, do you? Maybe, but… I could have just been imagining it. I mean, the rest of you couldn’t hear it, right? We may not have, but there is an easy way to determine the truth. Perhaps we should fire another arrow? Right, one more time, then. Wakasa, raise your hand when you hear the noise, then drop it when it stops. Okay. A-Are you sure I should do it, though…? You may be the only one of us who can hear it. …All right. Good. I’ll trigger the sensor. You sure? Are you gonna be okay? Saki, there is no reason for you to suddenly start doing this. Ayumu has already done it, so he’s got a better handle on it. Why are you just randomly deciding to try it out? I stepped up to the demon’s face, glanced nervously around, and then waved my hand over the sensor. Just like before, an arrow shot out and embedded itself in the wall. Oh…! His hand shot up. Then, before I could even react, Shidou stepped in front of me and waved his hand in front of the sensor. …? What had he done that for? I was still wondering when Wakasa lowered his hand. What was that? You were watching, right? I didn’t trigger an arrow. Oh! Yeah, you’re right! Ah, how clever. I see now… So the noise Wakasa heard was the trap reloading. Hm… Yes. My best guess is that it takes approximately five seconds. A fact we could have discovered ages ago with some simple testing. Finally, we’d figured out one part of the announcement: “Give ear to the song of the demonds.”A totally worthless part of the announcement, I might add. Again, simply testing the sensor more than once would have told us that. Being able to hear the reloading process changes absolutely nothing about how long it takes. It would be different if all of these heads were on different timers or something. I couldn’t hear anything though. You must have really good ears! All right, we’ve figured out how the demon faces work. Now we just need our bard to do his little performance one more time. Yes, I agree. They were right, the bard panel was lit up. But… who’s the bard? That would be you, Towa Wakasa. What? Me? And that’s your job, right? You sing, dance, entertain, etc. Besides, you were the only one who could hear the “song of the demons.” …Okay. I just need to do what you guys did, right? He glanced at me and swallowed. For a moment, I was worried he was going to say he was too scared to do it. (Maybe now that I’ve done it, he’s too embarrassed to say he was too scared to do something a girl could…)Come on, Saki. Don’t you start with that too. Wakasa said nothing, just turned back around and slowly approached the demon head. He waved his hand in front of the sensor… Oh, look, the bard panel turned off.So Towa’s role in solving this puzzle was entirely meaningless. He didn’t really contribute anything, because we could have easily discovered how all of this worked just by doing some very low-risk testing.  A ninja, huh. Well, we know it’s safe for about five seconds after the trap fires, but… In theory someone could trigger the arrows as they ran, using the five-second intervals to move past each head, but the coordination required would be… One slip-up and they’d be toast.How short is five seconds in your world? Holy crap, I can get out of my chair and leave the room in five seconds. You’re talking about crossing a laser pointer beam. You could leisurely walk past the demon heads in the time it takes those things to reload. My 90-year old grandfather could cover that distance in that amount of time. Everyone was silent. Then, finally, Shirabe spoke. Well, first we have to figure out who our ninja is. All we’ve got left is myself, the gamer kid here, and the young lady. Ain’t no way it’s me or her, so that leaves you, pal. Meoshi’s mouth tightened slightly, but he began to walk toward the demon heads. Meoshi…? What?! H-Hold on a second! Let’s not rush into anything! She is correct. The poisonous gas afforded us some margin for error. A crossbow bolt through the abdomen affords somewhat less. … Meoshi stopped, his brows knit. (What are we going to do now?) I think you guys are really overthinking this one. Is the “light that shines in the darkness” supposed to refer to these torches? Or maybe the sensors in the demons… No idea. We all shook our heads in silence. We really don’t have time to let you all sit around and discuss this for the next 4 loving hours. We’ve got a timer running. Let’s do this. I think we’re going to have to trust Meoshi. I didn’t like it, but there was nothing else we could do. We were out of options.Unless the mechanics of this trap were horrible translated and we’re missing some critical piece of information on how this works, then I think everything will be fine. It’s not like the guy has to run the length of the entire hallway in five seconds. He just has to swipe his hand, move 6 inches in 5 seconds, then repeat. …All right.Choosing “Let Meoshi try” is an affection boost for him, by the way. He looked me in the eye and nodded, then turned and headed down the hallway. Oh no… I can’t watch… Wakasa covered his face with his hands and turned away. Everyone else watched Meoshi go, but none of us felt good about it. …Here goes. He took a deep breath, moved into a crouch, and leapt forward. ”If we all Naruto run, the”— Never mind, I can’t finish that. That meme was stupid within 2 seconds of it being born. Wow! He quickly established a rhythm, touching a sensor, waiting a split second for the arrow to fire, and then moving past to the next one. drat… Look at that kid go…Again, I don’t find this particularly impressive. I know five seconds seems like a short amount of time, but when all you have to do is move past a laser pointer it may as well be an eternity.  He’s like a real ninja…Not really. A real ninja would have covertly taken out one of the piglets and put on his disguise, then slit Hogstein’s throat after getting close. Less Naruto and more Agent 47. Even Wakasa had lowered his hands to watch in amazement. In a few moments he disappeared into the darkness, and all we could hear was the “thwack” of arrows firing. Oh! A familiar chime echoed down the dark corridor. It looks like he made it. Guh! I threw up an arm to shield my eyes from the sudden light. As my eyes adjusted I looked up. I hadn’t noticed them before, but there were florescent lights all along the hallway’s ceiling. And down at the end I could see Meoshi, giving us the thumbs-up. Good job! That was amazing! I grinned and returned the thumbs-up. (He really is a ninja! There’s no way I could move like that.)Then you need to hit the gym more. Even a fat rear end like me could have done that. He sure hadn’t looked very athletic, but the way he’d moved… It would appear the sensors no longer… sense. As he spoke, he waved one of his hands in front of a demonic face. Nothing happened. He gestured toward a spot on the wall. It looked like the switch had turned on the lights when it turned off the demons. So this is what it meant by “purified by the light that shines in the darkness”… I’ll be damned. He wiped sweat from his brow as he spoke, and gave a wavering sort of grin. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and headed down the hall toward Meoshi. Well check you out, bro! Not bad, not bad! Mitarashi ignored him and gave Meoshi another hearty slap on the back. You really saved our bacon, kid. Yes, well done.Why weren’t you guys this appreciative of Saki when she figured out the whole “awaken to your destiny” thing? That was quite a predicament… Thanks! W-Well, uh, someone had to do it… He looked down at the floor as we spoke, his cheeks turning a bright shade of red. It looked like Meoshi didn’t take compliments very well.Whatever. At least we weren’t stuck on this puzzle for hours, like we were with the last one. We’ve only got one more puzzle left. Oh man… Why can’t we be done already? I don’t think I’m gonna make it… Yeah, there’s still another puzzle, but we got this far, didn’t we? That’s two puzzles! What’s one more?Depends. Are you going to spend 3 hours on the next puzzle? Because you’ve already blown a lot of your seven allotted hours.  I get that a lot. Wakasa gave me a look, but before he could speak—*Another chime goes off* Whoa! That’s the same sound we heard when we cleared the Room of the Guardian! The fanfare was quickly followed by an announcement.[Announcer]: The Corridor of Hate has been completed. There was a loud “clank” from the end of the corridor, like a lock opening. I let out a sigh of relief. (Only one more puzzle, and then today’s attraction is over!) Oh god, stairs! There goes the last few hours of time we have left. The Corridor of Hate led to a long staircase that took us up and up. According to the map, the last room is at the end of these stairs. So far we’ve spent… about three hours. How did you spend a full hour on that loving puzzle? You can’t even tell me that they spent time searching the room. It was a single hallway. Show of hands: Who thinks they are going to come right down to the wire on the seven hour time limit? I can totally see them blowing the last four hours on the last puzzle. We’ve really only been here for three hours…? It had seemed much longer. Maybe because I hadn’t been able to see that [sic] sun?”that sun”? …Is there more than one in your world, Saki? (It feels like we’ve been in here all day… I’m tired, and now I’m starting to feel hungry.) Then, almost as if he’d heard me, Meoshi suddenly sat down on the stairs. Are you all right?! Yeah, I’m fine. I just need to… rest a little… (He’s obviously tired out… That stunt earlier must have taken more out of him than he let on.) Mitarashi stopped and came back down the stairs toward us. He frowned, and took hold of Meoshi. Huh…? What, I gotta spell it out for you? Just lemme help. And maybe start training your body a bit, don’t just play games all day. You’re a man, aren’t you? With a grunt, Mitarashi hauled Meoshi to his feet and propped him up on his shoulder. Whoa, dang bro, you getting enough to eat?! I feel like I’m lifting a pillow! I’m fine. I watched them head off up the stairs. I’d been so busy thinking, I’d fallen to the back of the line. (Who knows what the next puzzle is going to be… I need to get up these stairs quick!) Still, they were a pretty rough climb. When we started I’d been hopping up them at a good clip, but now it seemed like they went on forever…Stairs are like that.  Are you all right, Inafune? Oh, um, yeah… Your life has been in more or less constant danger for the last several hours. There is no shame in feeling a bit tired. Another affection choice. I’m still getting whatever points I can because we haven’t reached a point yet where we need to start focusing on just one dude. After a moment or two of thought, I took Urabe’s hand. I was tired, and I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way. Thanks. …Sorry. There’s no need to apologize. I am happy to be of assistance. If need be, I can even carry you. I-I don’t think it’ll come to that! I’m fine… We have plenty of time left. Tiring ourselves out before we reach the final puzzle will help no one. A slightly slower pace would be a wise choice.There’s always “plenty of time left”, until there isn’t. Urabe smiled again, and gave me a conspiratorial wink. (He’s really nice…) At long last we reached the top of the stairs. In front of us stood a set of double doors. Everybody else was already there, taking a moment to catch their breath. There you are. I call bullshit. Egypt is not cool with people climbing on the pyramids, least of all some dime-a-dozen J-Pop boy band. Sure could use a pick-me-up right about now… Are you all right, Meoshi? Yeah. Mitarashi gave me a hand… Good. Listen, Ryusei. We can’t all have the body of a Greek god, like you do. Also, getting to the gym is kind of out of the question at the moment due to the whole virus lockdown thing. I was making such solid progress on the bench, too...  Everyone else was panting and tired, but Mitarashi seemed as energized and relaxed as he had an hour ago. Shidou looked as if he was about to say something, but before he could— Hogstein?! We weren’t likely to forget that voice anytime soon.[Count Hogstein’s Voice]: I have to say, I’m having a lot of fun watching you lose your minds. From somewhere safe, of course. Oink oink! Bastard![Count Hogstein’s Voice]: Ooooh, how scary! His attempt at manipulation was clear… To everyone except Mitarashi, apparently. Don’t let him provoke you. You can’t fight him, not here. I know that! Rrrrgh! He shook Shidou off and spat angrily. Shirabe appeared to be thinking the same thing I was. There are probably surveillance cameras all over the place. Right. He shoved another snack into his mouth and started scratching his beard.He is getting some good mileage out of those things. There’s no way in hell that I would have made a box of Pocky last for three hours. Hell, three minutes may be a stretch. [Count Hogstein’s Voice]: Well, at any rate, the next puzzle is the last one in this attraction, so make sure to enjoy it! Until we meet again! Well, if we meet again. Assuming you’re not all dead. And with that, he was gone. drat pig! What the hell was the point of that? Is he just trying to mess with us?! Yeah, well, I’ve been pretty pissed this whole time, you know? Didn’t exactly need his help. Yeah…Good contribution, Towa. Maybe, but a little taunting isn’t any reason for us to get our panties in a bunch. We oughta rest a bit before we move on. Meoshi’s looking pretty beat. Right. Sorry… Gaaah! I can’t deal with this! Soon as we get outta here, I’m turning that bastard into bacon! We agreed to rest a little longer before heading to the last puzzle. (Is he really just doing this for… entertainment? He’s taken the park staff hostage, and chosen seven “heroes” to solve these puzzles…) *After a little wipe transition to signal the gang taking a break* After a few minutes, we gathered ourselves and moved to the door, ready to take on the next puzzle. All right, let’s do this! Get your heads in the game, people! Mitarashi grabbed the doorknob and looked back at the rest of us. We all nodded back. Our short rest seemed to have restored some sort of calm. Even Wakasa looked determined. (All right! Time to go to work!) That’s a big room… We’re going to be in here for a while, aren’t we…?
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May 3, 2020 19:08
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Just a status update: The next update is being worked on. It's just going very slowly. Hasn't been a great week for me. I'm going to need input from the thread on which guy to pursue, but I'll hold off on putting up a poll until the next update is out. Quite a bit happens that could colour people's impressions of the guys and impact their decision on who to vote for. Hopefully this will all fit in the one update though.
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May 8, 2020 17:01
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Update IV: Saki’s “Sweet Fuse” gets short It’s time for the final puzzle of the first stage. We were supposed to have about four hours left until the day’s deadline, but I’m sure our intrepid group of mystery solvers has managed to waste at least an hour of that just getting here from the last puzzle. The walls were all sliding doors, but a massive chandelier hung from the ceiling. It looked like a house built during the late 1800s or early 1900s. In the center of the room was another strange statue. And just like before, next to it was a device with seven panels. Shirabe tapped his forehead and nodded. That’s a nurarihyon. What’s a… nurarihyon? It’s a monster that goes into people’s houses and drinks their tea. This one is… different, though.Ehhh… kiiiind of? The tea drinking thing is a modern (as in 20th century) interpretation of the nurarihyon that’s based on little more than drawings of it from the Edo period. Those drawings didn’t have any explanations attached to them as to what the yōkai being depicted was or did, so people have just been kind of guessing based on little scraps of writings that come to light as well as the paintings of it. For the “tea-drinking” interpretation, the nurarihyon takes it a little further than simply swiping people’s refreshments. It also supposedly sits around and smokes like it’s the boss of the place. They’re basically the yōkai equivalent of that friend that calls you up looking for “a place to crash for a few days… maybe a week. A month at most”.  This is the final boss from Samurai Fantasy VII. Ah. Well, that makes sense, I guess. Yeah. Moving carefully and checking everywhere for hidden traps, we slowly approached the statue. It’s beautiful…Why do you always look so sinister when you do that? What the hell, bro. Are you serious? It just looks like some sorta ugly alien. Being super weird right now, Kouta. He didn’t go so far as to touch it, but I got the impression that if he thought it was safe, he would have. (Meoshi is kinda funny…) I was watching him gaze appreciatively at the statue when I heard a familiar voice. It was… confusing.Seems pretty straightforward to me. Figure out who the priestess is and search the room for a “Holy Seal”. For the love of god, do not take the next 2 hours to come to this conclusion, Saki. A priestess, huh… The lit panel was a picture of a woman… We should investigate the room thoroughly. Once we know more, we can examine the hint more closely. Inafune. Yes? I think we should split up again. I would like you to decide how. Me? ….Why? You seem to have good… intuition. Does anyone have any objections? Fine. Whatever. Let’s just get moving. So we’ve got another choice as to who to go with. I don’t have the room in this update to show you every path and the thread has remained dead silent since the last update I posted. Both Shidou and Mitarashi have yet to get an affection point, but they are also both on separate teams in this choice. In the interest of spreading out Saki’s attention (until the thread decides on who they want to focus on), we’ll partner up with Mitarashi this time since he’s going solo otherwise.  Uh, do you guys know what these are supposed to be? Uh… well I’m pretty sure they’re demons. I think this is probably the Parade of 100 Demons.Whoa, hold up. *Checking the “choice” screenshot again* HA! Oh my god, either the translators or the developers completely forgot to include Towa in that “splitting up” option! I think this is a translator error, or more specifically, a text box issue. Because of “sliding doors” and “Mitarashi”, there is not enough space left to fit in “and Wakasa.” But if that was the case, then they should have just removed “sliding” and just written it as “Examine the doors with Mitarashi and Wakasa.” That probably would have been able to squeeze in there. Do you know a lot about demons? No, not really. I was just in this movie about demons, so I picked up some stuff. Can’t say I have. Did you play the character that bites it first? Because I might be interested in checking it out if you did. S-Sorry… no… Man, talking to you is depressing. I enjoy the collective dumping on Towa that everyone seems to have agreed to. Hey! It’s not my fault she’s some kinda shut-in! …Anyway, look. I thought these were real at first, but… They’re just painted on. See? Yeah, I guess you’re right. If they were real it’d be way too easy to get out of here.fakedoors.com. Hold on a second… I pointed to a section of wall. That one looks like a real door… Really? …Huh, you’re right. This one’s real. Wait, look at the other wall… There’s another one! What?! Then… I’ll bet only one of these is the right door… I don’t think we’re gonna find anything else. Let’s go see what the other groups found. Mitarashi and Wakasa agreed.*After joining back up with the others It only took a few minutes to go over everything we’d learned. Shidou reported finding a diamond-shaped hole going all the way through the statue, from its stomach to its back. Shirabe had found a mark on the floor that looked like three leaves of wild ginger. He suspected this was the “holy seal.” Okay, looks like we’ve found everything we’re gonna find. Now, how does this mess connect to what we heard? It’s not difficult guys, come on. Shidou reached over and puts his hand on my arm. Inafune, you’re going to have to do it. What? Why me? Well, you haver to be the priestess. You’re the only woman here, after all.Solid reasoning, except there is a glaring hole in that logic that I’m sure the LP readers will catch on to. That, and the only people who haven’t gone yet are you and Shirabe. There’s no way in hell he’s a priestess. Oh… Yes, I guess that make sense. All right, I’ll give it a shot! I took a deep breath and pushed the button. Everyone swallowed… Huh? Nothing’s happening… I’d been expecting… well, something. This was odd. Ah, of course. Shoddy workmanship on the death traps. That must be the reason. Right! I pushed again, as hard as I could. Um… I don’t think it’s even moving.Jiggle it a little! Try pushing on the corners! What? Maybe it’s broken…Just once I’d love to have a moment where a death game thing is actually broken and the psychopathic murderer has to tell everyone to hold up for a minute while he sends a maintenance guy in to fix it. He gestured for me to move aside, and pressed down on the seal with his foot. Oh. What the hell…? Why’d it work for me? I guess you must be the priestess. What? No no no no. That’s crazy! Lies! Look, if I’m either of those little pictures, I’m the warrior!I honestly think Subaru fits that mould better than you do. He’s been kind of the “take charge” and “let’s go” guy so far. Saki fits the role of Priestess better in my eyes, but it’s not because she’s the only woman in the group. The priestess (in this collection of classes) would suggest wisdom/guidance, which seems to be Saki's whole deal. Ayumu does fit that a bit as well, though. He looked hurt and a little flustered, but…Also, I cannot believe that this 32-year old man is getting pissy about being assigned the “woman” job class. Hnnk ha ha ha…It’s totally expected from someone like Towa of course, because he’s a loving grade-schooler that also probably thinks “What are you, gaaaay?” is the height of repartee. Are you kidding me? This old fart’s supposed to be a priestess? Ah ha ha ha ha! I suppose the old adage is true: One cannot judge a book by its cover. D-Don’t laugh at him! But it’s so… funny…You guys do realize that you need him to escape from this place alive, right? Like, all of your lives are in his hands right now.  It is a little strange, but… at least it looks like we got it to work. Shidou had remained silent until now, but he suddenly spoke up. Or perhaps Inafune isn’t actually represented by one of these panels.There it is. Have you caught on yet? What? Why? The warrior on that panel might be for whoever was originally intended to be here instead of you. I see. That would make sense. Right. Wait… wait, you’re saying I still would have been the priestess?! Calm down. It’s only a guess. But if you think about it, the fact that this game seems so specifically tailored to us is even more unsettling.It also raises a lot of questions like “Who was the seventh participant supposed to be?” and “If this was set up to be tailored to a carefully chosen group of people, then why did Hogstein cave so easily and let Saki muck up the whole thing? He could have just told her to get lost when she insisted on joining.”  The humor of the situation was beginning to ebb. Yeah, uh, I really don’t care who the priestess is. We figured out this part of the puzzle. Yeah… So, what do we do next? Oh hey, take a look at this. Part of the floor opened up. We all ran over to see what Wakasa was talking about. Sure enough, there was now a large hole in the floor. Looks like there’s something inside… Let’s see what it is… Mitarashi, either unafraid or unaware of the possible danger, stuck his hand into the hole and pulled out… Sweet! Looks like it. First time I’ve ever held a real one. This thing’s pretty heavy… Look, on the guard… Do you think this is…? Wild ginger… The same seal as before. This must be the holy seal, then? Tokugawa Ieyasu did have two swords from Muramasa that were considered heirlooms, although the modern day branch of the Tokugawa family only has one of them left in their possession (I’m not sure what happened to the other one. It was probably lost or misplaced at some point in the last 350-400 years). I don’t think there’s any real-life connection between them and the nurarihyon though. Yeeeeaaaah…. What it is, is totally sweet-looking. A holy seal, huh… Mitarashi drew the sword from its scabbard with a flourish, and swung it around a few times, grinning and posing.[Announcer]: You have obtained an item. The voice echoed across the room. I guess we got it right. Apparently. The next part is “defeat the demon king,” so… Well that’s easy. Mitarashi swaggered over to the statue and with one dramatic motion shoved the sword through it. See? Fits that hole perfectly.Must… resist… juvenile joke…  I suppose this would count as defeating the demon king. Mitarashi gave the sword a final shove, and the statue made a small “click,” followed by an electronic whirring noise. Hey, looks like that triggered something! What do you think that noise is?Nothing good, more than likely. Probably that. The light is… moving… We watched as it slowly turned to point at the top of the sword. It’s reflecting off the katana, and pointing to the… door on the right-hand wall! “The light of victory will illuminate your path.” That’s it. We’ve solved the whole drat thing. Yeah! I gave him a vigorous nod. All right Inafune, you open the door this time. …Warrior, huh…. Here goes!  Oh poo poo! We’ve got to fight the Demon Wall now! It’s just like Final Fantasy! What…? I stepped forward to get a closer look—*”You done hosed up” noise* A harsh buzzer sounded. The warrior panel turned red…?Well, yeah… What did you think was going to happen? Saki is supposedly the Warrior, but Ryusei is the one that grabbed the sword and stabbed the Demon King. I don’t recall the puzzle/lightboard mentioning anything about the Monk. Oh yeah, and maybe now is a good time to duck. Get down! As he shouted, I heard an arrow fire from the demon. Aaah! Suddenly I was frozen in place by surprise and terror. I squeezed my eyes shut—???: You idiot! Aieee! Something slammed into my body— “The arrow!” I thought… (No… Wait, this is another body…) I opened my eyes and looked up… drat… That’s going to require a band-aid for sure. Maybe even two. Urgh… You okay? Wh-What…?! His face was twisted in pain, and it took only a moment to see why: The bolt that had been meant for me was buried in his shoulder. Are you all right?! Guh… This, uh, hurts a little more than I expected… (Mitarashi saved me?!) I realized my mouth was hanging open and quickly shut it, but I felt awful… Here’s an affection point for Ryusei. The “correct” option kind of threw me off, but I guess that means I’m not really in tune with the characters yet.  What were you thinking?! Heh… Got some fire in you, huh? You’re all right. Again, I figured the first thing you’d say when someone takes a bullet for you is “Are you okay?”, but Ryusei is kind of the “tough guy” so opening with “What the gently caress?!” does seem more appropriate. Er… I-I’m sorry. I mean, thank you. I mean… I don’t know what I mean… Don’t sweat it. I don’t even know why I did it. Just kinda happened. He grinned. C’mon, it’s just a flesh wound. You’re acting like an old woman. That’s an awful lot of blood for a flesh wound, pal. And you gotta consider infection. Once I saw a man’s arm just turn green and fall off. Now, hold still…Thank you, Ayumu. Way to keep the situation calm by talking about the horrors of gangrene. We watched for a few tense minutes while Shirabe applied some rudimentary first aid. Here, take this! Thanks. I handed him my handkerchief, which he skillfully tied around Mitarashi’s arm. To be fair, you weren’t the only one responsible for this. This was definitely a group fuckup. Shidou grimaced and slammed his fist into a nearby wall. Hey, this isn’t just your show, man. Stop trying to act like a hero.Says the man that just acted like a hero. No, that’s not it! I should have been on my guard… told everyone to move away from the door…At least somebody is finally starting to think about common sense precautions that we can apply to every puzzle. …Well, I’ve patched him up as good as I can, but this man needs to get some real treatment, as soon as possible. Mitarashi nodded in thanks. Then we need to get out of here as fast as we can. So… what did we do wrong? Yeah. That’s the first thing we need to figure out. I tried to fight down the growing feeling of panic and go over what we knew, but I couldn’t hold my thoughts together. I was so sure that was the answer… As was I. Shirabe continued to mumble to himself and scratch his beard as the rest of us thought. But now there’re only two doors left! We’ve got a 50-50 chance of getting it right! Unless they’re both wrong… Heh heh…Towa, if that’s all it took then we wouldn’t have needed to bother with this entire sword and statue crap. We could have just stood off to the side and opened each door until we found the exit. I could tell he was trying to lighten the mood, but his words had the opposite effect. See, this is the one time where I could understand them taking like 30 minutes or an hour off. Someone almost got killed and another took a crossbow shot to the shoulder. That calls for a bit of a breather. (It must hurt more than he’s telling us… We need to do something, fast.) Let’s… let’s go over everything again. Starting from the beginning. I nodded, and starting [sic] running over what we knew in my head. (Shirabe pushed the switch, and then we found the katana with the wild ginger seal on it. That was the line, “Take in hand the holy seal, and with the prayer of the priestess.” Next, we stuck the sword into the statue… And it made a sort of clicking noise, which was the “defeat the demon king” part.) …Damnit! What did we miss?! (It seems like we did everything we were supposed to, but something feels wrong…) I wracked my brain for what that might be. (When we examined the room, did we miss something important?) Time for another “Explosive Insight.” Granted, we are still in Stage 1, so the answer should still be really obvious. The keywords/phrases this time are highlighted in bold: (I think we’ve got the announcement riddle figured out this time, so I’ll look at the stuff we found around the room. It turned out that the nurarihyon had a diamond-shaped hole that went all the way through the statue, from its stomach to its back. We also realized that the statue and its base were made of different materials.)Just a note: The statue and base being made of different materials comes up if you go with the group that checks the statue. Not really sure why Saki didn’t mention it in the summary she did when everyone grouped back up. It is mentioned if you go with Shidou and Urabe. (On the floor we found a mark that looked like a stylized three-leafed wild ginger plant. The mark appeared to be a button too. When we examined the doors along the walls of the room, it turned out that most of them were fake, and just painted on. …But not all of them. Some were real— three, to be exact. So… what are we missing?) ”Different” is the keyword here. …We forgot about how the statue and its base are each made of different stuff. So… couldn’t there be something hidden there? I looked up to see six stunned faces staring at me. I saw it, I even mentioned it, and then… In that case, perhaps we should consider what that difference might mean. We huddled around the statue and began to study it with renewed interest. (We have to figure this out quickly!) Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mitarashi, still trying and failing to hide how much his wound hurt. I began to circle around the statue. (Hm… What is this thing made of anyway?) Without really thinking, I reached out to touch it— Only to have my arm suddenly grabbed and pulled away. Whoa! What were you thinking?! You’re a woman! You shouldn’t be touching that thing! Guh…! He grabbed me, and now I was getting yelled at? Yeah, Subaru’s random misogyny is getting pretty irritating. Let’s do something about that, shall we? It sure sounded sexist to me. This is another mechanic, although it’s basically just a typical visual novel choice. Throughout the story, Saki’s temper will sometimes build up and reach a breaking point. We’re given the choice as to how she should respond in these moments. Should she blow her top and tear into the thing or person that’s pissing her off? Or should she hold back and let a cooler head prevail? Some of these moments can result in Affection Point boosts, other times they don’t have any bearing on affection levels and you’re “free” to play Saki however you feel.  In this case? You bet your rear end that we’re going to put Subaru in his place.  This game has some minor graphical hiccups because the resolution is being bumped for the LP in the interest of readability. That’s why you see that little weird box around Saki’s face. That doesn’t show up in the standard PSP resolution. Saki’s “Get Mad” and “Insight” moments are animated a little bit, so that’s where the problem is originating from.  Although it doesn’t happen for the “Shock” moments of the guys for some reason… Beats me.   A-Ah! Sorry… Yeah, okay, maybe I didn’t really think too hard about whether or not I should touch that thing. But my being a woman doesn’t have anything to do with it! What the heck were you thinking?! Well, I did stick my hand out when I shouldn’t have, and I apologize for that, but don’t do that again, okay? This is a case where “Get Mad” results in an affection increase. Remember, if you are really concerned about that part of the game, then you can always use the Rewind feature to pop back to the choice and try the other option just to make sure you aren’t missing an affection boost. I should have been more careful, but if I hadn’t called Shidou out on his malarkey I would have felt pretty steamed. Shidou hung his head and rubbed a hand over his eyes. Look I’m… I’m really sorry. I’m a police officer. A detective. My job is to protect people, but I failed. I was angry with myself, and I pushed that onto you. It was wrong.My dude, I think she’s more upset that you implied that her being a woman meant she should just stand back and not do anything. It’s okay, really… He bowed his head. You’re too serious, bro. I can barely even feel this. If I had a band-aid I’d be fine. If we’re being honest here, I don’t really like you that much, but we’re all still counting on you, all right? Back me up here. Yeah! You don’t need to be so hard on yourself. Mm… So, you all right now, Defective? Shidou pursed his lips. It’s “Detective” and you know it. Details! C’mon man, don’t sweat the small stuff! Ha… All right, I suppose you win this one. Shidou sighed, and gave us a small smile. We nodded, and turned back to puzzling over the statue again. Hey guys… You think maybe it turns? He pointed down toward where the statue met the base. Stand back. I’ll see if I can move it. Carefully, Shidou stepped forward and put his hand on the statue. When nothing happened, he slowly started to push… It moved! Not very far, but it had moved. It appeared that the katana could be used as a sort of handle to rotate the statue. Good. Inafune, I think you should take over now. About time you figured it out. There might be more tricks, so just go slow and be ready to get out of the way. Right. Got it. I moved the statue slowly, bit by bit, and before long… The head suddenly shot off and flew across the room, slamming into a wall and dropping to the floor. O-Oh man, that really scared me! I thought my heart was gonna stop! His eyes were so wide I could see the whites, and his breathing was fast and shallow. The panel’s green! So our warrior has defeated the nurarihyon.Yeah, it’s almost like there was some previously established connection between the panels and the character classes. Seriously, guys. It’s the entire gimmick of this stage. How could you forget about it so easily? Hrm. So our steps were right, in a manner of speaking, we were just missing one… Shirabe groaned and shook his head. Its pointing to a door on the left. Let me handle it this time… He strode off toward the door and, once he’d made sure we were out of the way, pulled it open. That’s it! Thank goodness… He let out a sigh of relief, and I follow suit. I’d never thought I’d be happy to hear that voice, but for once I was. Look! You can see outside! This must be the exit! We began to cheer. At last, we’d finally finished the first day’s game. Our faces were drawn and tired, but every one of them was split with a relieved grin.[Announcer]: Stage one has been cleared. You have obtained a reward. One of the floorboards in the passageway popped open. Inside was a treasure chest like the one we’d found in the first room. Laaame. He pulled it out and frowned at it. We can think about that after we’ve gotten you taken care of. How about you give that to me for safekeeping? Right! We need to get you treated! Let’s go! I broke into a run, and I heard everyone else doing the same behind me. (It wasn’t easy, but we did it! We beat Samurai Fantasy VII!) You’ve got to be kidding me. THREE HOURS?! I felt a chill go up my spine. If we’d taken just a little longer to finish… Ugh… You! I glared at the screen with the pig’s ugly face on it. Really, you did an excellent job. You used your strengths to complete each challenge. I was quite moved. As if! Oink! I imagine you’ve got some idea what sort of fun you’ll have to look forward to in the rest of our games now, hm? And you also understand just how high the stakes are. I felt everyone tense. We knew exactly what he meant. (We had a bunch of close calls already, and we’ve got six more days of this…) My chest tightened. We could only go on so long. Sooner or later, we would slip up, and someone would… (I… I can’t let that happen.) Shidou’s voice broke the silence. Oink? A reward? Yeah. This is a game, right? What kind of a game doesn’t have some kind of loot or treasure when you beat it?I think the reward for this game is that you all get to keep living. Why are you suddenly trying to fish for prizes on top of that? Shidou nodded in agreement. (They’re right, it’s not fair to have to go through all this for nothing.)I don’t think any of you truly grasp the situation you’re all in. (As for my reward… I’m just hoping to save my uncle.) drat… Pretty generous for a hog. Shidou’s face didn’t even twitch. I don’t know what you hope to accomplish with all of this, but I know what my reward will be: the safe return of all the hostages! …! None of us had expected that, least of all Hogstein, who began to shake with rage.Uhhh… what?  Gentle maiden…? What?! C-Cocky? Monkey!?Why the hell is he getting so pissed off? What, were you planning on keeping all of the hostages once these games were finished? That defeats the purpose of a hostage. You don’t have any leverage over someone if you never plan to release the hostages in the first place (and the others are aware of that). H-Hey, what do you mean by “snot-nosed”!? Meathead?! Are you talkin’ to me, pal!? I supposed [sic] the, ah, swindler would be me… What, does the truth hurt?! Who do you think’s been keeping you alive?! Stop that, you emo twerp! You too, you hairy old fart! Don’t even get me started on this detective who spends hours on his hair even though he’s going bald! Wh-What?! I’m not going bald! A-And this is just how my hair looks!  (What the heck is going on here?! Where did all these insults come from? I understood that he was angry, but this was going too far.) Oh, we’re definitely getting pissed this time.  That line is going to bug the hell out of me for the rest of this playthrough.  Aaah! Sooooorrryyyyyyyy! An apology’s not gonna cut it! Really full of piss and vinegar, isn’t she? Oink… All right, fine. I’ll return the hostages, just like you asked. Then, um… why did you get so mad? Oink oink, oh I just forgot that you’ll all be dead before the week is over, so I can promise you whatever I want. Ahem! Now then, I imagine all of you are very tired. Fear not, your hotel will arrive shortly. While you wait, you’re free to do… whatever you like. Explore the park! Eat at a restaurant! This is an amusement park after all. Amuse yourselves! Once you’re all finished, please be sure to meet up at the far end of Adventure Village. Oh, right. I apologize, but none of the attractions will function. At all. Oink Oink. Now, I bid you all farewell! Ah. The screen blinked out. That’s what he said. Not quite sure what it means…Yeah, that was a little strange. Is he going to airlift it in or something? Because that would be awesome. Meh. We’re gonna find out soon anyway. Meanwhile, let’s go have some fun! Without waiting for a response, he took off toward one of the park directories. …It would seem he really enjoys theme parks.Well, I mean he did come to the grand opening of one. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.Also, doesn’t he still have a horrible shoulder wound that we need to properly treat? That was probably why he knew so much about this one. I think he’s still kind of trying to hide it, so maybe we oughta leave him alone. True… If that was the case, though, he wasn’t hiding it very well. Still, no harm in leaving it unsaid.*After a screen wipe*  Apparently he hadn’t been listening to Hogstein that closely. Man… I never got to eat lunch. I’m starving. Can we go look for a restaurant? I hadn’t realized it until he said it, but I was hungry too. Starving, in fact. A wise choice. I’ve also grown somewhat peckish. A man can’t fight on an empty stomach, you know. I think I’ll join you. Yeah, true, but I think I wanna hit up the main office first. I’ll catch up with you guys later, cool? He didn’t seem to want to say it, but I had a feeling Mitarashi wanted to try and find something to treat his wound with. But… if the attractions aren’t working, wouldn’t that mean all the games are offline too? I still want to check. We don’t know squat about what’s going on here. I’m going to go see if I can dig anything up. All right, I’ll go with Mitarashi to the office, then. He’d gotten hurt because of me. It felt wrong to just leave him… Huh? Why? It didn’t sound like he was very fond of the idea. Um, I… You wanna help, then leave me alone. I’m a lone wolf, man. The brush-off didn’t get much clearer than that. (Hm… What should I do?) If I try and convince him to let me come, that’ll be… awkward. Good question, Saki. We’ll let the thread decide for you. Now that our heroes have made it through Stage 1, we need to make a clear decision on which of the guys we want to chase after. Everyone has a single affection point right now, but we need one of them to have a lead in order to get ourselves on their route. Vote Here Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 22:13 on May 10, 2020 |
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May 10, 2020 20:34
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Polsy posted:They kept the restaurant staff around? Very thoughtful. I'm curious about that. Are there people still in this park or are the protagonists just expected to fire up a deep fryer and cook for themselves? Maybe the piglets are manning the food stalls. Also, thanks. Got it fixed. I haven’t done my reading of the post yet, so there's probably other corrections to make as well. Jadecore posted:I can only hope these dorks start getting a little faster in future puzzles. I suppose they're supposed to take a little longer for the first one, but at the same time, these have been generally very tutorial level puzzles. Like, I know the passage of time is weird because these events are compressed through their nature as part of a medium, but I'm having trouble imagining what the hell they did to fill 3 hours in that one room. I'm pretty sure escape room games in the real world only take about an hour and a half at most, and those things are way more elaborate than what we’re seeing here. I can’t imagine standing in that mostly empty room for 3 hours trying to solve a puzzle that you already know the trick to.
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May 10, 2020 22:24
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Ghost Car posted:Yeah, you know, I'd never thought about it, but having done my share of real-world escape rooms, it really is unrealistic that there's never a moment in any of these games where they try something that seems to be the solution and nothing happens and then the mastermind comes in on the PA and goes "Uhh, sorry, guys, that was supposed to open the door but I guess there's a problem with the magnets, hang on a second..." (It's always the magnets, IME.) Fuckin magnets, how do they work! I just want to see that happen. I know it's a hard joke to use because death game stuff is usually serious or horror style and a joke like that would destroy the tension, but I think stuff like Sweet Fuse is just goofy enough to make it work.
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May 12, 2020 01:05
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StrixNebulosa posted:No one's voting for the journalist! I'd be sad, as I did his route first - except that after seeing it I found I liked him a lot better as a supporting character instead of a love interest. It's been long enough that I can't remember details, but the age gap became something of a factor as to why I didn't care for him. I think. I'm still sad about that because I really like his design. I wouldn’t feel too bad about it, the audience for this LP is probably a lot smaller than others so there's probably not going to be much of a voting pool. Age gaps are a persistent issue with these games, although I will admit that it threw me off here. Male focused dating-sim/JRPG's with character routes usually have a creepily young girl in the mix, but the protagonist is still almost always within 4-6 years of them. Even the obligatory "older/mature woman" is like 26 at most. But this is (I think) the first time I've ever seen an age gap of 14+ years between the protag and a love interest. Obviously that excludes the stupid bullshit "500-year old that just looks like they're 12" situations. Now, I know it’s more "acceptable" in this case because the protagonist is a girl that is technically doing the pursuing, rather than the one being pursued. Even still, that’s a BIG gap. 32 isn’t old or middle-aged, but it does strike me as being outside the strike zone for teenagers. I would understand it if this were an M-rated title, because the general audience for the game would likely be women in their 20s, but this is T-rated. I'd imagine the playerbase leans more toward teenagers; the kind that think 30+ is ancient. But I understand where you're coming from on Ayumu as a character. He likely works well as part of the cast, but having him as a romance option just makes things weird. The two Conception LPs I did each had a character like that. Hwurmp posted:The manwhore is the only one who hasn't raised any red flags...yet I'm sure they'll all have skeletons in their closets. Keep in mind that Hogstein picked each of them to take part in this whole thing. They all must have some sort connection or shady thing that ties them to whomever is inside that pig costume (at least, I heavily presume it's a costume). They all must have done something to get on Hogstein’s shitlist. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 04:03 on May 12, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 03:55
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TracerK posted:I wish more visual novels had the option to call out on others' bullshit, especially in some where I get progressively angrier at both the offending character and the hero(ine) for putting up with their garbage to the point where the game/visual novel is relegated to the bottom of the endless backlog pile. Blaze Dragon posted:Seconded. Being able to tell people to gently caress off when they're being shits is amazing and has made me like this story a lot more than that mess of a puzzle did. Seems like everyone likes that idea. As long as it's not a " Ryusei Affection" thing, I'll have Saki tell everyone to gently caress off whenever the choice is presented to us. Speaking of, the polling is closed now. Ryusei won out by a wide margin, so he'll be our first route. As I said in the OP, I'll look into the possibility of going through all of the other routes later on. I need to see how long this first playthrough takes, then check and see how much actually changes from route to route (it seems like it's mostly limited to particular scenes, at least for now), and finally I'll have to see how much time I have left before I possibly disappear from LP stuff for the fall/winter (assuming my plans don't fall through, which they are currently in danger of doing because of the lockdown stuff). I already started work on the next update. Hopefully I'll have it up by tomorrow, since it's shorter than the past few updates. Seems like the Stages are going to go by a bit quicker now that all the setup exposition is out of the way.
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May 16, 2020 17:42
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Update V: Saki’s Night Out Okay, so the thread made a clear choice for Saki to chase after Ryusei. That’s who we’re going to shoot for (no pun intended) this time. We’ll look into the possibility of doing all the other character routes once we get through Ryusei’s. I need to see what it would involve and where we are time wise (I may be gone during the fall/winter, so one playthrough may be all I can manage before then). I thought about it for a moment, and decided I should go with Mitarashi after all.So despite Mitarashi brushing off our plucky heroine, we’re going to have her chase after him anyway. The goal from this point forward is to get as many of Ryusei’s affection points as we can while limiting the affection points we get towards the other guys. Honestly, judging by how the choice/affection system seems to work (as well as including another mechanic that will pop up shortly), it seems pretty easy to get the route you want even if you aim for getting every affection point. But I’ll be avoiding the excess affection points just in case. Maybe there’s some kind of threshold point difference that has to be reached that I’m not aware of.  Oh well. Stuff to learn as we go, I suppose. Doesn’t change the fact that we’re going with Ryusei. What the hell is this? Didn’t I tell you not to tag along? I know, but I feel responsible for what happened. Please, just let me come with you. I knew he wanted to be alone, but running off just felt wrong to me. I needed to take responsibility for his injury. Mitarashi sighed. Look, I can take care of myself, all right? I’m not a kid. I don’t need you mothering me. *The screen shakes a bit* Ow! I felt something thwack me on the forehead, and it was a moment before I realized Mitarashi had flicked me! He’d moved so fast I hadn’t even seen it. Anyway, looks like we’re here. While I was still rubbing the red welt on my head, Mitarashi jogged off toward the office. (Urhg… I’m not a kid! Well, I mean I guess technically I am in school, but still!)That’s not really the metric for “kid”-ness, Saki. I’m in school as well, and I’m 30. Such is the miserable state of the job market. I frowned and ran off after him. Mitarashi grumbled as he wiggled several light switches to no effect. drat pig… Sure is thorough, I’ll give him that. I bet he’s shut off the juice to every building he doesn’t need. Probably… I’ll bet we can still find a first aid kit in here, though. Fortunately there was a sliver of moonlight shining through the window, which gave us at least a little illumination. I started to root through some drawers that looked like they might have what we were looking for. Ugh… Man, this is a pain. It was so dark that I couldn’t really see him, but his voice made him sound much closer than I’d thought he was.*The screen shakes* Aaah! Huh? What, you find something? N-No! Nothing! I doubt he thought anything of it— someone with his profession probably touched lots of hands. (I’m still just a high school girl, though… Touching some guy’s hand is kind of a big deal!) I was suddenly very aware of the fact that we were both in a dark, cramped room, very, very close to one another. Oh, h-here it is! Th-The first aid kit, I mean!Calm down, Saki. As I’d stumbled back from my close encounter, my other hand had brushed up against a box— the first aid kit he’d been looking for. Oh, awesome. Toss it over. N-No. I mean, you can’t really do it yourself, can you? What, you saying you’re gonna do it? Wh-Why do you think I came?! I forced him to sit down on a nearby bench and set to work. Ugh… This is a pain. Stop saying everything’s a pain. You’re gonna be in real pain if we don’t get this wound cleaned up.Yeah, Ryusei. Keep up the tough guy act and you’ll quickly find yourself with one less arm to drag around. Fine, fine… Is that really where he got hit? I could have sworn it was more shoulder and less arm. Then again, he did have that big coat/shawl on, so it was kind of hard to tell for sure. He pulled off his jacket with an exasperated sigh, exposing the area where the arrow had struck him… as well as several other areas.Focus, Saki. Now’s not the time, girl. (What I wouldn’t give for a working light right now…)Yeah, I bet. I pulled my focus back to the first aid kit, and quickly soaked one of the cotton balls in antiseptic.I know that supplies are kind of hard to find right now, but maybe you should try and find some water to clean the wound before you go slathering antiseptic on it. This is going to hurt a bit. It’s fine. I’m used to pain. Well he did kind of shrug off a crossbow bolt. Antiseptic is a bit of a step down from that. (Wow… I had a cut treated like this once, and it hurt like heck. He must be tough.) Um… Thank you. A lot. For… what you did back there. Man, this is why I hate kids. What…? I-I see… Besides, I’m an escort, remember? You could say it’s my job to protect a lady’s smile.That’s one way of looking at it. Although I guess that counts you out, huh? I’m here for ladies, not kids. Oh, hey, treatment’s done. Thanks!Dude, you’re the one that was throwing out business cards to Saki the moment you introduced yourself. Don’t start with that “kids” and “ladies” thing now. *Another screen shake* Guh—! He gave me a smirk, and patted me on the head. So what, you hoping to be a nurse when you grow up? (That doesn’t give him an excuse to keep calling me a kid, though!)Definitely the tsundere of the group. What’s up? You look like you wanna say something. He paused as he put his coat back on to look at me, one eyebrow cocked. Yeah, our Saki’s going to be aiming a little higher than “housewife.” D-Don’t treat me like a little kid… What, are you telling me you’re all grown up now? No, that’s… not really what I meant… I blinked, and suddenly his face was right next to mine. Well, if you’re an adult, then how about this…? Aaah! Gaaaah! That’s where I got shot!Hey, you’re the one getting up in her face. That’s what you get for teasing. I-I’m sorry! But you shouldn’t make fun of me like that! Okay, okay, my bad… Can’t say you’re acting like an adult, though.Can’t say any of you guys have been acting like adults, either. Urabe has probably been the most level-headed so far.  That choice was an affection increase for Ryusei, which should be obvious. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that would be impressed with “I dream of marriage!” (This is hopeless… There’s no point to arguing with him.) Well, we got what we needed. What do you say we go grab some food? You hungry? Yeah!Food time! We ran back to the restaurant to find everyone else already there, and proceeded to enjoy a delicious dinner. Everyone looked up from their mostly-empty plates. As far as I can tell, the area outside the park is empty. My guess is the pig’s using the hostages to keep the cops and the media away. The entrance isn’t locked. If we wanted to, we could just walk out, but then he’d kill the hostages.There’s a 90% chance that’s a trap anyway. Guaranteed there’s some kind of instant kill device set up at the gates that triggers as soon as someone tries to walk through it. There doesn’t appear to be any park employees anywhere: Everything’s being run by the piglets. No! Now what will Saki ride with the guys in order to have a romantic moment?! Everyone sighed. We’d known things were bad, but to hear it all laid out like that… Hogstein manages to appear inside the park without warning, makes a big entrance, kidnaps the entire staff, and seizes control. Just what is he? We don’t even know what he really wants. This has to be a huge amount of work… Is he just doing it for… fun? No idea. If he is, that’s a pretty messed-up idea of fun. Indeed. But even so, this seems like a great deal of trouble. He must be reeeeeal bored if he thinks this is a good time. When I get my hands on that little jerk… Well, we’ve still got a long way to go, so we’re all gonna need to work together! Everybody nodded. Oh, sweet. The Titanic. That’s something we should be climbing aboard. Also, maybe we really are near Hachinohe. There’s no way that a local amusement park managed to purchase open harbour space anywhere near Tokyo. Not to mention all those trees and that empty skyline in the background. Maybe this is supposed to be the moat that runs all the way around the park? The amount of money and work it would take to make something like that deep enough for a cruise-liner to sail in would be tremendous though. You’re talking a 30+ foot deep trench that runs like 10-20km around. After dinner, we headed toward Adventure Village. Shirabe seemed to know the way, so he was leading us. Whoa! What the heck is that?! Ah! At the far end of Adventure Village, a gorgeous cruise liner had been anchored near the riverside dock.poo poo, now that I think about it, where the gently caress did Keiji Inafune get the cash to afford a cruise liner on top of the amusement park? Even “small” cruise ships are like $200 million. Ah… Well, now I see what he meant by “arrive.” We all stared at the ship for a minute or two, amazed by its size and grandeur. So this thing must be from a game too, huh? Well, we may as well board. Keeping a close eye on his surroundings, Shidou headed for the ship. The rest of us followed. Fancy. As it turned out, it was just as spectacular on the inside as it was on the outside. The décor wouldn’t have been out of place at a five-star hotel. drat, I would’ve been stoked to get invited here if I wasn’t in the middle of some stupid game. Yeah… They both gazed around the lobby and sighed. Hm. Is it moving? Yeah, I think so. It had begun to move as soon as all of us were aboard. Shirabe frowned as several piglets appeared. …! …!I hate these guys. Looks like they still can’t talk. They began to wave their arms and bodies around wildly, trying desperately to communicate… something… without words. Are… are they saying they’ll show us to our rooms…? Huh? W-Well, I’m… not sure. Just kind of… instinct, I guess? We followed the piglets to the rooms we’d been assigned. As soon as the piglet shut the door and left, I collapsed onto my bed. After a whole day running around, lying down felt so, so good… Ugh… No, I’m gonna fall asleep if I stay here!I mean, sleep seems like a decent idea. What’s the problem? I had to clean up. With a mighty effort, I hauled myself out of bed and toward the bathroom.*After a slow black screen wipe* A shower was my first priority, and after I’d dried and dressed, I began to really examine the room.It’s not bad. Seems a little skimpy on amenities though. It was about the size of a spacious single in a hotel, but it was neat and pretty. It was also well-stocked with just about everything I could need.I know it’s tempting, Saki, but do not touch the mini-fridge. That’s how they get ya. loving $3 for a chocolate bar and $5 for water? Highway robbery. Just walk down to the end of the hall and hit up the vending machines instead. Still a bit overpriced, but it’s a good middle ground between walking out to a nearby convenience store and getting raked over the coals come check out time.  At last… Feeling refreshed, I finally let myself fall into bed. But… (So much has happened today… I’m tired, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep.) As soon as I lay down, my head was flooded with thoughts of my uncle, the game we’d just played, and whatever game we’d be playing tomorrow. (Just worrying about all of this isn’t going to get me anywhere…) The exhaustion from before was gone, replaced with restless energy. And what better way to make use of restless energy than by nagging one of the guys? Break Time are little interludes where we can get a scene with one specific object of affection. Sometimes Saki will get scenes with individual guys over the course of the story, but that only happens occasionally. As we just saw at the start of the update, while Mitarashi was going it solo, the other guys were partnered up with each other to some extent. If the thread had chosen someone other than Mitarashi, we wouldn’t have gotten that 1-on-1 scene. But Break Time is a guaranteed personal encounter.  The thread has spoken for this first play through, so we choose to spend our free moment with the sexy escort sporting the bloody hole in his shoulder.  I can’t get to sleep. Hm. Can’t say I blame you. Mitarashi was leaning on the deck railing, looking out over the river. He didn’t even bother to turn around when he spoke. What are you looking at? Our city. You can just see it from here…What city might that be, by the way? Oh… It’s beautiful. Like some kinda jewel. He was right. Through the gaps in the forest surrounding the park, I could catch glimpses of the city at night, and it was dazzling. Wow… It’s really pretty… Yeah. I did say that, huh… But that’s just the surface, you know? Scrape that off, and it’s ugly. Pretty skin, hateful heart. Kinda like a person.Really digging into your inner Blake, aren’t you? Could be Jonathan Swift’s “A Description of a City Shower” as well, although this setup strikes me more as a “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” kind of thing. Or, you know, one of the thousands of other poems out there that rips into illusion versus reality/mask versus truth stuff. Mitarashi… He looked… sad. Well, I guess I can’t expect a kid to understand, huh? That so? Well, what do I know, maybe you can. But maybe you’re better off not knowing. Um…? What? Look, I’m just saying it’s… good, I guess, to be able to appreciate something without turning it ugly somehow. I still don’t— Ah… achoo! I suddenly realized that it was actually kind of a chilly night. Ah man, you didn’t even dry your hair before you came out here, did you? Come on now! Hey! Wait! What are you doing!? There’s something about “picked me up bodily” that I find funny. It makes me think that he just grabbed her like a crash test dummy and shook her around. Taking you inside. If you stay out here you’re gonna catch a cold. Guh…! I can walk by myself, you know! Calm down, kid.An affection point for Ryusei pops up here. This is just for Break Time. It wasn’t the result of any choices that I didn’t show during this event. I pouted all the way to my room, but he refused to set me down. I am extremely disappointed in this game for not having a CG of Saki, with arms crossed and pouting, being princess carried by Ryusei. I flopped into bed, and was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Hm? It was supposed to be a peaceful day…???: Is Dad awake yet? Should I go wake him up? ???: He he… Why don’t you let him sleep in a little longer? Daddy hasn’t had a day off in a long time. He’s very tired. And you don’t want to get tired later, do you? Maybe you should sleep a little longer too. ???: Hm… Maybe. But… but what if it runs away while I’m sleeping?! ???: It’s an amusement park, dear. It won’t be going anywhere. It’ll be waiting for you when you get up. So let Daddy sleep in. When he gets up, we can pack some lunches and go to the park together. Does that sound like fun? ???: Yeah!  All right, that sure was a thing. Wonder what that was about? It sounds like a memory of Saki’s, but her name isn’t used, she hasn’t mentioned a pendant, and she never hinted at her parents being around. Maybe they were talking about a different amusement park and that was a memory from when Saki’s parents were alive? My bet is on dead parents. There are always dead parents involved somehow.  It had brought me breakfast, which I ate quickly before changing and heading out.Changing? Did they ship in extra outfits for Saki or something? Gotta hand it to Hogstein. He’s an rear end in a top hat, but god drat if his supply chain game isn’t on point. Morning! Shidou, Shirabe, Urabe, and Mitarashi were all already waiting in the lobby. Yo. They all looked up and waved or nodded as I walked in. Did you sleep well? Yeah, thanks for asking! Urabe gave me a quick, gentle smile as Shirabe began to talk. Apparently this boat’s gonna dock around 11:30. How do you know that? I asked one of the piglets. You… what? I wanted to ask what sort of gestures they’d used to communicate time, but I got the feeling there were more pressing things to deal with.That doesn’t sound that hard a thing to communicate. Make a finger motion like the ticking of a clock hand, then just motion “1”, “1”, “3”, and a closed fist for “0”. As Shirabe finished, Wakasa and Meoshi walked in. Good, we’re all here. I’ve been thinking we should exchange phone numbers. Calling one another shouldn’t be against the rules. What? Why? Just sounds like a pain in the rear end… Better safe than sorry. We have no idea what might happen out there. Show of hands who thinks that the group will immediately be split up? Seriously, Ryusei. You have absolutely nothing to base that assumption on. You think that every death game is going to be just like the one in Samurai Fantasy? I mean, I’m pretty sure we can see a “Horror Land” section of the park on the map. You know goddamn well that we will not be sticking together as a group in a place based on horror games. He rolled his eyes, but pulled out his phone anyway, and started sending his contact info to each of us in turn. (Looks like he uses that phone a lot… Well someone like him would have to, huh?) I, on the other hand, had never been good at using my phone. Trying to share contact information was always awkward and confusing.Christ, Saki. Were you living as a priestess in the mountains or something? I barely used my phone as a teenager either, but I still knew how to work the drat thing just by playing with it. Keep in mind that this game came out in 2012, which is presumably also roughly the time it is set in. Cell phones were not new fantastical devices in 2012. I think Samsung already had the Galaxy S3 out by that point. The iPhone was up to 5 or some poo poo. (I wonder how his arrow wound is doing…) I was still fumbling through screens on my phone, when Wakasa trotted up, phone in hand. Don’t sweat it. Your number will be promptly deleted as soon as this stuff is done with. Better yet, how about we not get your number to begin with? I’d sooner die than rely on you saving us. Right, sure. I’ll be careful. He watched me trying desperately to make my phone work for a few more minutes before sighing exasperatedly and grabbing it from me. Are you sure you’re a high school girl? Yeah! I’m just… not good at this kind of stuff. He rolled his eyes, shot through menus so fast I couldn’t even see them, and sent me his contact info. So just push this button and you’ll see this screen. Hit this one to confirm. Thanks! You really are a weird chick, you know that?Shut it, Towa. I couldn’t really argue the point, but it still wasn’t a very nice thing to say. At any rate, his instructions turned out to be helpful: I collected everyone else’s info without too much trouble, and gave them all my own. Why are tools of supposed convenience so difficult to use…? Y-Yeah… He let out a long sigh. Yeah, they’re real harmful. We should get rid of running water and indoor plumbing, too. They make life too easy.I said shut it, Towa! …That was legitimately funny, though. …I, uh, don’t usually get people’s phone numbers… I think this is the first time I’ve ever gotten more than one at a time. You serious?! I had to delete a couple people last week or I was gonna run out of space! Delete them…? Won’t that be a problem? Huh? Oh, no, not really. I mean, they’ve got my number. They can hit me up if they need something. Not like I was ever gonna call them anyway… (I was right when I met them yesterday… These guys are pretty weird.) Every time I look at him, I just wanna kick his rear end. Mitarashi glared at the statue and cracked his knuckles. Gooooood morning everyone! There he is! As he spoke, an image of Hogstein appeared on the monitor. Isn’t the weather just amazing!? It’s a wonderful day for a game, wouldn’t you agree? Oink oink oink. Somebody’s in a good mood. He’s off relaxing somewhere while we’re trapped here. Of course he’s in a good mood. Hogstein sighed dramatically. This whole game is about using your heads and following my rules, you understand? We know. If it’s a game, that means it can be beat. That means you haven’t made any puzzles that can’t be solved. I know the game won’t do it, but god am I hoping against all odds that we get to see Ryusei beating the poo poo out of Hogstein. Oh ho ho ho ho hoink oink oink! But will you be able to?!Depends on whether or not interest in this LP stays up. He really makes me mad! What an arrogant jerk! You better not underestimate us. Just then, a chime echoed across the park. Well, the time just flies! It’s noon already, which means it’s time for today’s game to start!Where are we going this time?  Aww yeah, we’re off to the races. Next time on Sweet Fuse: Some non-copyright infringing Mario Kart. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 17:20 on May 19, 2020 |
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May 17, 2020 01:34
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HardDiskD posted:Shouldn't this be the "Saki thinking" gif? Fixed it, thanks. HardDiskD posted:Wow Saki went straight to hand holding! I thought this was a wholesome game PK I'm so sorry. I made an error in judgement. You’re right, I should have had TCG covering up that salacious scene. Hand holding is way too hot and heavy for our innocent readers.
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May 17, 2020 02:43
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mateo360 posted:is this a typo or a [sic]? I honestly don't even know. It could be either with this game. I'll fix it so that I don’t forget about it, but when I get the chance I'll go back and check my recording to make sure. Either way, thanks for catching that. Astrofig posted:Saki: Wow, the stars are pretty-- "Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."  Ladies love the broody guys, apparently. For real though, this is about what I expected from Ryusei. This is about as close as he can get in a T-rated game to ranting about the prostitution and drugs and abuse and all the other illegal poo poo that goes down behind the facade of the city that he would no doubt have encountered as an escort (even if he is the Host Club kind and not the full-prostitution kind). If this was an M-rated title then Ryusei would likely say he operated out of somewhere like Kabukicho rather than Ginza. Jadecore posted:How much does our protagonist even know about the sort of devices and games her uncle is making a theme park about if she can't work her cell phone? Right? She doesn’t seem to know anything about the games the park is based on either. Not everyone follows gaming, but it seems weird that Saki is so technologically inept when she has a famous game developer as an uncle that she seems to be very close to. She doesn’t seem to be gamer, she hasn't said anything about sports or hobbies so far, and she barely knows how to operate a cell phone. What the hell does she do every day? Blaze Dragon posted:Saki "what's a phone" Inafune, niece of Keiji "how do I kickstarter" Inafune. Oblivion4568238 posted:Oh no, he was very good at the Kickstarter part. It's every moment from pledges closing to the game's release that was abysmal. This. He wrung close $4 million out of about 70k people. That’s about $65 a person. Essentially, he got 70,000 people to buy a $60 game before the ink was dry on the concept art using nothing but lofty promises and buzzwords like "Classic Japanese", "all-star team", "evolved", and "veteran." The only way you could get more "peak Kickstarter" than that is if you up and disappeared with all the money before people caught on that the entire project was in flames and started looking for refunds. It's more like a case of: "Saki 'what's a phone' Inafune, niece of Keiji 'how do I run a company' Inafune."
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May 18, 2020 17:17
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Note: This update is in two parts because I didn't quite have enough room to reach a good stopping point. I'll figure out something later when it comes to archive prepping. Maybe I'll staple the first part of this update on to the end of the last one. Update VI: Saki’s got the need for speed  Time to get back on track.  Saki and the gang were headed to the races last time. I wonder if it’s possible for them to blow six and a half hours on a death game that specifically revolves around going fast? I guess we’ll find out. We were part-way there when Shirabe began to speak. So, where’s he sending us off to next? Hm… I think he said Alice… Alice something… Wait, why are you asking me?! Alice Kart Grand Prix…? Right! That’s—… Uh, I mean, what’s that? Never heard of it.Ryusei, it’s (…Does he really think we don’t notice?) We all did the polite thing and ignored Mitarashi’s bizarre outburst.Honestly, you guys should be encouraging him to come clean about his gaming. These death games are all centered around the video games that the attractions are based on. Not being a gamer is a liability here. I mean, let’s be real here. Towa, Subaru, and Kimimaro have been dead weight so far. Kouta and Ayumu put in most of the legwork during that first game.  That figures. Why does Japan have this weird fascination with Alice in Wonderland? Cardcaptor Sakura had an episode revolving around it, One Piece did it, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Alice in the SMT series, Super Mario Bros. has allusions to it in just about everything it does, Kingdom Hearts… well… okay, I’ll let that one slide since it’s a game in partnership with Disney.  But then there’s also Heart no Kuni no Alice, which is an Otome-fied version of Alice in Wonderland with sexy Cheshire cat and White Rabbit. Probably for the best that I didn’t choose that one over Sweet Fuse. Those games get a little hosed up as the series progresses. Point is, why you gotta be latching on to Alice in Wonderland, Japan? You can mess with the other people on the track, so it gets played a lot at parties. It’s actually gotten to be kind of a hit with casuals.Got it. It’s literally every Kart racer in existence, except for really early stuff like Hang On! and Power Drift. He was right… even I knew people who were into Alice Kart. Mitarashi’s eyes had shone with excitement at every word Meoshi had said. Do you really think it’s gonna be a normal kart race, though? I mean, yesterday we… um…It’ll be fine. Worst cast scenario, they make the Red Shell a literal heat-seeking missile. His face grew pale, and he trailed off, but at least it didn’t look like Wakasa was going to refuse to enter the attraction again. (I’m scared too, but I’ve gotta do my best! Especially now that Shidou’s gotten Hogstein to agree to release the hostages!)And your basis for believing he’ll keep his word is… what exactly?  Now, each one of you will compete in this race. The prize? A seat at a tea party!Lame! Give out trophies! Those seats are first come, first served, so only the pair that wins gets to go! Oink oink oink! My condolences to the losers. Now then, please, follow my piglet insiiiiiiiiiide! Guiiiiide! Take them in! With that, he was gone. Tea party…? I guess we won’t be getting off easy with just a race, then. Yes. I’m sure there will be more surprises later, too. Don’t let your guard down. What happened to that giant racetrack we saw outside? Why are we in the kiddy pool of kart racing? After a short walk, the attraction opened up onto the racetrack. Meoshi hadn’t been kidding when he’d said it was Alice in Wonderland-themed… There were decorations everywhere. It was pretty impressive. None of this stuff feels like it really goes with a race track… Yeah, it is a little weird, isn’t it? That’s what people liked about it. The disconnect made it really popular. No accounting for taste, I guess. Before we could continue, the announcer started up. Two? Hey, dumbass? You do realize that you recruited seven people for this game of Saw, right? I’m guessing the karts are… those. Looks pretty standard. There are eight, but four already seem to have piglets in them. drat, now this looks like fun! Those guys are our opponents, then? Sweet. Time to kick some rear end! He seemed pretty excited to get started, and kept reminding us how good he was at kart racing. It sounds pretty normal, but… Why do I have a feeling it won’t be?Because it won’t? This is a death game, Saki. Of course it’s not going to be as simple as just taking a Sunday drive in a go-kart. Well, after yesterday I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable expectation. Yeah… All right, we should split into groups. Unfortunately, we’ve got an odd number of people, so someone’s going to be driving solo.Oh! Oh! Dibs on solo! You ever try coordinating with someone during Double Dash? It’s a disaster.  drat right. No, if you win then you’ll be the only person who can play in the tea party. I’ve got a feeling the puzzle is at that party. We need to have two people there. We all agreed that Shidou was right, so someone would have to pair up with Mitarashi.I guess he has a point. So… who’s going to go by themselves, then? (I’m really pretty terrible at kart racing… Maybe I should be the single driver.)Just what are you good at Saki? Jesus. Can’t work a cell phone, barely knows anything about games, can’t drive a kart. (But what if I screw that up and get in somebody’s way…?) I was still pondering it when Urabe spoke up. Let me be the odd man out. I get carsick very easily, and I’m not very good with fast rides to begin with. I’ve no doubt I would only be a burden to any partner, so I think it best that I have a kart to myself. Now for the groups. I suppose the best way to decide that is rock, paper, scissors. We nodded, and held out our hands. If you get the same thing, you pair up. Good? Yeah. Got it. Cool. Ready? One… two… Okay, so this would normally be a great time to poll the thread and see what they wanted to do. Ryusei is not a possible outcome for this, so I can’t have Saki stick to the thread-chosen hunk of man meat. But this update only just started, so I can’t really post it this early on. In the end, I let RNG decide. It replied with “Let’s rock!” Oh! So you and I will be pairing up, then. Meoshi will go with Shirabe, and Wakasa will go with Mitarashi.If you’re curious, Scissors pairs us up with Kouta and Paper pairs us with Ayumu. Good luck, everyone. Do your best. Right! I will! (Although in my case that probably means I’ll be doing my best not to get in the way…) I climbed into my kart. God, it’s an even worse setup than I thought. (Wait… Urabe won’t be able to drive by himself!) I looked over at him. You needn’t worry. Apparently this kart has been made so it can be driven by a single person. Oh, good! He gave me a small smile, and I fell back into my seat, relieved. (So I’ve got the gas pedal and… What are these?) There were several buttons set across the dashboard. (But none of them are lit up…) I was still thinking about what they could be when Shidou spoke up. Hit the gas when I give you the signal. Follow my orders, and we’ll make it through this just fine. Right! Got it! I set my foot carefully on the gas pedal, but didn’t press down. Shidou started up the engine.Technically don’t need a comma there, but whatever. Let’s focus on putting pedal to metal!  (He seems like a good guy. I think I can trust him.) The engines on the other karts around us started up, the noise filling the air. A piglet holding a flag appeared at the edge of the track. It looked like he’d be giving the signal to go. The moment the light turns green, you floor it, all right? We’ve got a straightaway out of the gate, so keep it down. Just wait for my signal. R-Right! I got myself ready. Almost time… Three… two… one! Go! Hit it! Here we go! Guh…! That initial burst of speed paid off, and with some skillful handling of the wheel, Shidou closed in on the group in front of us. We’re doing good… Hey, Inafune! Y-Yes?! We’re about to hit the corner. I need you to let off on the gas— bring your foot up about halfway. If we keep this speed up, we won’t make the turn.She doesn’t need to know the physics behind it, man. Just tell her what to do and leave it at that. There’ll be time for science lessons once this is over. Right! Halfway… I did as he said, and felt the kart begin to slow as we turned the corner. As we did, we managed to pass a piglet kart that had been just ahead of us. Suck it! Have fun watching from the stands as we’re stepping up to the podium! Got it! We glided around the corner, and as soon as we were out of it I stepped down on the pedal and our kart shot forward. (Giving me directions doesn’t seem to be distracting him at all— his grip on the wheel is sure, and every movement he makes is precise and calculated.) He was so confident that I didn’t feel scared at all, even though we were going really fast. I was a little surprised. Wow, you’re really good at this! He was right: We completed our first lap in the lead. Good work! We keep this up and we’ll win! I was already thinking about what kind of tea I’d have when suddenly—*The screen shakes* Aaaaahh! Gah! Wh-What?! Something slammed into our kart from behind, and I turned to see a pair of piglets shoot past.Those bastards! What the heck?! They were waving at us! Urgh…! What was that?! It wasn’t just a tap— we were hit! It felt like something ran into us… There was no time to think, though. While I was busy focusing on working the gas pedal… Mitarashi and Wakasa flew past us. As they did, their kart ran over one of the questions [sic] marks on the course, and— What was that sound? It looks like there’s more to those question marks than meets the eye. Yeah— oh, look! There’s another one! All right… With an expert twist, Shidou sent out kart gliding over one of the question marks. Oh, look! One of the lights here on the dashboard lit up! Specifically, the light next to the button marked “Boost” had turned on.Hit it! Let’s ram those fuckers!  I was just focusing on speed, so I didn’t notice the question marks. (So they are buttons for items, just like I guessed!)…You guessed that? Meoshi had said earlier that Alice Kart was a game that allowed you to mess with the other drivers on the track. Before I could try and remember more, I realized we were almost finished with our second lap. Let’s try using this button! I was just thinking the same thing. A boost should… well, do exactly what it says. I shoved my finger down on the button. Whoa! Guh! Don’t get thrown off! With a sound like an explosion, our kart shot forward at a tremendous speed. I dug my fingers into the sides of my seat and gritted my teeth. The boost ran out just as we reached the end of the straightaway, and as it did the light next to the button turned off. Good, that let us close some of the distance. He told me to step on the gas again, and I did. They’re all lit up! He nodded, but didn’t look over. Listen, Inafune. I don’t want to use anything other than the boost.What?! What?! But… why? The other items are dangerous. We can’t take the risk of hurting our fellow players.We’re not talking about attacking the others! We’re talking about attacking the piglets! Are you here to win or are you here to get a “Good sportsmanship” award?  Screw you, Shidou. We’re here to kick rear end, not eat dust. Are you sure? We could lose! That missile had really set us back. If we didn’t do something, we might lose. Wasn’t that worth at least some risk? That doesn’t matter. I’m not putting other people in danger for the sake of my pride. Uuuuuggggghhhhh… We should have gone with Meoshi. Thanks a lot, RNG. Guh… But we don’t have time to argue right now. If we don’t work together, we won’t even have a chance at winning. Right. We focused to going outside inside outside, and slowly moved up in position. Before long we were behind the lead karts. Come on, Subaru. Just let us hit the piglets. It’s only fair. They hit us first after all. Look! They’re trying to cut him off! Oh no… He was right: If Mitarashi didn’t do something, the piglets were going to run into him.You know who has the power to stop that from happening? Us. Missile those assholes! All right, here we go! I could see the finish line coming up. Hit the boost!You suck. Right! I slammed my fist into the button, and the kart leapt forward again. We have you now! But just as we caught up to the piglets’ kart— Wha—?! Suddenly the piglet kart spun out of control in front of us, flying off the course.At least someone in this group is using the tools available to them in order to win. Did he use the oil?! drat—! With no time to react, our kart shot forward onto the same oil slick. I could feel the wheels begin to slide, and our course was taking us straight toward the crashed kart. We’re going to hit them!Turn into the skid! Saki, stay off the brake! Come on, it’s easy if you just stay calm. Let go of the gas! O-Okay! I pulled my foot back like it had been sitting on a hot coal. Hnnngh! Good man. I still take issue with your stubborn adherence to pacifism in It was closer than I would have liked. No seatbelts in these things? Come on, Hogstein. I know this is a death game, but that’s no excuse for ignoring common sense. That was scary… Yes. If we’d hit them at that speed it would have been… bad. Oh, are you all right? Yeah… I think so… I let my eyes drift closed for just a moment in relief, and when I opened them, Shidou’s face was right in front of mine. Ah—! Shidou was looking at me very intently. O-Oh, um… He frowned, and touched a hand to my forehead. (Well, yeah, I was kind of scared, but I think I’m turning red because of you…)All right, take it easy Saki. I know this is basically considered first base for you, but there are other matters to attend to right now. Matters such as the race results. The sudden blaring of the announcer’s voice pulled my attention away from Shidou and his warm hand.[Announcer]: Victory! It looked like Mitarashi and Wakasa had won.Oh, right! Yeah, who else remembers that Wakasa was also driving with Mitarashi? He was barely mentioned throughout that entire race, which I think is hilarious. Even the game is going “Wait, Wakasa was there too?” (Well, it’s good that they won, but we could have gotten hurt by that oil…)Yeah, you could have. You know what else could have happened? Mitarashi not using the oil slick and getting bumped off by the piglet kart, which probably would have resulted in them winning and all of you dying. (Man, I guess Shidou was right to be careful.) I let out a long, tired sigh. We opened the door to the next area in silence. I got the feeling that everyone else was questioning Mitarashi’s actions during the race, although Mitarashi himself was in high spirits. (But we had to win… Maybe that meant something like this had to happen.) If the piglets had won, we would have failed that game, and everything would have been over. Nobody could bring themselves to judge Mitarashi too harshly. (And it’s not like he tried to hurt any of us on purpose…) Beyond the door was a small forest. A blue sky spread out above us. The whole place felt… nice.Nice is not the word I would use. “Creepy” would be the word I would use. Maybe “unsettling.” It was all fake, of course: The sky was a painting on a domed ceiling, and the forest was plastic and metal. In the center of the clearing was a single house. (The chimneys look like… rabbit ears.) I was actually a little disappointed. It would have been pretty cute if it wasn’t part of this awful game.I disagree. [Announcer]: Wonderland Circuit, completed. The announcer’s voice rang through the clearing. All right! Mitarashi’s triumphant roar echoed across the dome. Apparently, Shidou had finally had enough.Oh, poo poo. It’s going down this time, isn’t it?   You. Let’s talk. Huh? Don’t you “huh” me. What you did back there was really dangerous. I sure hope you’ve got a good explanation. Ugh… What the hell, man? Why’re you giving this white knight noise? …Look, I didn’t have a choice, okay? If I hadn’t done something, we would’ve lost, and then we would have all been screwed.I’m on Team Mitarashi in this instance, by the way. You’re not going to survive these death traps by always playing safe. Sometimes, and I stress “sometimes”, you need to take risks. This was one of those times. The chance of accidentally killing one of the others was low enough that I think it was a good call when weighed against the alternative. And that was enough of a reason to put the rest of us in danger? Uh, yeah. What, you need me to spell it out for you? And I got a name, you know. “You” me again and we’re gonna have to throw down. Shidou grabbed Mitarashi by the collar and pulled him down to face him. The other man just stared back, unintimidated. *Mitarashi’s portrait kind of slides into Shidou’s momentarily, indicating an attack* I’d barely thought the words when Mitarashi’s fist slammed into Shidou’s face.And it’s on! I’m getting real sick of your holier-than-thou attitude, bro! Let it go! …Ugh! Shidou stumbled back, then threw himself forward, driving a fist into Mitarashi’s stomach. Hnnf! Ah! They started trading blows, one after another, but they appeared to be evenly matched. We all just watched, shocked. No one seemed to want to step in. (What should I do?) Please, calm down! Is fighting among ourselves not exactly what Count Hogstein would want? But his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Oh dear… He sighed. (Urabe doesn’t look so good… He did say he doesn’t do well on fast things, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad.)He’s just carsick. Don’t worry about it. His face was pale, and the longer he stood, the more he began to waver back and forth. Someone needed to stop the fight, but I was getting more worried about Urabe with every passing minute. Ehh… Personally, I say let the two of them have at it until they collapse. They’re evenly matched, so I see no need to intervene. Buuut checking on Urabe is clearly an affection point towards him, so I guess we’ll make a token effort to diffuse the situation. (Ugh… I don’t want to, but if no one else is going to do anything…) Knock it off, you guys! It didn’t seem like they’d even heard me.Oh well, we tried. Dang… That didn’t do anything… He sighed and shook his head. It looked like there was nothing we could say to get through to them. Now, I think it’s past time the two of you stopped this nonsense. Somehow, Urabe managed to calm them down, and the fight ended. … …Rrgh… (Well, the fight might be over, but we’re still a long, long way from anything you might call teamwork.) We’d come together the day before, and I’d almost been optimistic, but today it seemed like everything was falling apart. I like this screenshot because it makes it look like Hogstein has little bunny ears. The pig’s voice hit me like a bucket of ice water. Everyone but the winning pair should head into that house over there. A tea party, huh? I can’t wait. Shirabe was the first to start toward the house, and the rest of us followed. A table had been set for a tea party, with stacks of fake dishes and tea cups spread across it. In the chairs were statues of a rabbit, a mouse, and a man with a hat. Mitarashi and Wakasa stopped at the table. The rest of us headed toward the house. As we passed the table, Shirabe tapped his forehead and began to speak. In attendance there are the March Hare himself, the Dormouse, and the Mad Hatter. The Hatter has incurred the wrath of the Queen of Hearts. Consequently, his watch has stopped at six o’clock. For him, it’s always time for tea.Good stuff.  …Not so good stuff. This is a very… peculiar house. As I looked around the room we found ourselves in, I had to agree. Outside it had looked quaint, inviting, and downright whimsical, but inside it was covered in metal plating with no decorations of any sort. There’s no way that ceiling’s up to code. Gah! I looked up to see that the entire ceiling was a metal plate covered in giant spikes. I think we can see out through those windows. He was right. Outside we could see the tea party. On the wall opposite from the door was a giant television screen. No, really? You think? As Meoshi spoke, a loud “clank” filled the house. Well, now the door’s locked. …It won’t open! It was looking like Meoshi’s bad feelings had been justified. (What’s going to happen now…?) We were trying to see what was going on outside when the announcer began to speak again. What?! As I spoke, I heard a metallic groan from the ceiling. It appears the spikes have begun to move! He swallowed, and wiped sweat off his forehead. Then… if we don’t do anything we’re gonna get skewered? Seems like that’s about the size of it. [Announcer]: But only if you can command the mad host to do so! (Wait, is this for the people outside…?) I looked around, and everyone nodded. We’d all thought the same thing. Everything was going to depend on Mitarashi and Wakasa.We’re boned. [Announcer]: And I’d hurry if I were you. If you don’t get them to the party soon, your friends are going to die! Although we couldn’t hear them through the window, we saw Mitarashi and Wakasa suddenly look up, surprised. Ugh… So our lives are in their hands. His voice was grim. If I’d just gotten in a fight with someone, I’d be uneasy about them saving my life too.Honestly, that’s not the part that would concern me. What concerns me is whether or not Wakasa and Mitarashi have the shared brainpower necessary to figure this puzzle out. Those two specifically are the “worst case scenario” when it comes to solving puzzles logically. Nothing we can do, though. We’re stuck in here. (Urgh… Watching people try to save your life when you’re helpless sucks.) I gave them everything I could think of on the way in here. I just hope it helps… Shirabe rubbed his forehead. I’d thought his sudden monologue earlier had been strange, but now I saw what he’d been trying to do. We all crowded around the two windows to look outside as Mitarashi and Wakasa came running over toward the house. Hey! Are you guys okay? Are you locked in? His voice came through over the speaker, just like the announcer’s had. I doubt either of these choices will make a difference considering they can’t seem to hear us. Just hurry up and solve it! I yelled as loud as I could, and tried not to think of the ceiling full of spikes moving slowly closer, but he didn’t seem to hear me. I gave up, and jabbed my finger at the ceiling.What is with this game and throwing random commas before “and”? Not going to say I’ve never done it, but this game does it seemingly all the time. What?! At Wakasa’s shout, Mitarashi left the door and ran over to the window. I don’t think they can hear us. The pig has made sure we’re just an audience. Shidou frowned, and made a shooing motion at the two men outside the window. (I guess he’s telling them to go back and solve the puzzle?) They didn’t seem to get it though. Mitarashi looked puzzled, and Wakasa just kept nodding.Oh sweet Jesus… Damnit! I can’t get through to them. If only I’d studied the gestures the piglets make more closely…Dude, we all know that even if you did study those gestures, Wakasa and Mitarashi would not be the ones to understand what the gently caress you were doing with them. Could somebody bust out their phone and just type a quick message by notepad or something? Even if the signals are jammed, you could still hold up the screen to the window. He grimaced and punched a nearby wall. drat… Guess we don’t have a choice. They turned and stomped back to the table as we all watched nervously. Even though they were a ways away, we could still hear them talking quite clearly. Yeah. So… which one of these guys is the “mad host”…? Hm… There were three statues sitting in the chairs around the table: A hare, a mouse, and a man in a hat. (The man in the hat was the “Mad Hatter,” but…) Suddenly Shirabe groaned and smacked his forehead. Damnit! Is something wrong? That was more or less what he’d said before. I didn’t see the problem.Give it a moment. Is there something wrong with that? Well, in the book it’s the first time the “Mad Hatter” shows up… So a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that he’s the host.There it is. Huh? He’s not…? I would have thought so too… But the party is at the March Hare’s house. If it’s his house, he’s the host. …I hope they will be all right. I wonder if they will realize the true nature of the question… Damnit! If only we could talk to them somehow… Shidou had begun to pace back and forth restlessly. (This is awful… All we can do is watch!) We could try and communicate with gestures, but if they misinterpret what we’re saying, that’d be… bad. Shirabe frowned and scratched his beard. These guys are the March Hare, the Dormouse, and the Mad Hatter. Yeah, and this is the “Mad Tea Party” or something. (They’re going to decide this [sic] host is the Mad Hatter, aren’t they? This is bad…) I let out a sigh and pressed my face to the window. So how does the March Hare qualify as “mad”? Yeah… Interesting. Also entirely worthless right now. Supposedly the hares act… weird during mating season, which is where the phrase comes from. But in any event, the “Mad Tea Party” is called what it is because everyone there is mad. I see. Then the question is, will they… Shirabe mumbled to himself, almost like a prayer. Ha! This one’s a piece of cake. The host’s gotta be this guy. …! He was pointing, of course, at the Mad Hatter. Guh… That idiot… We all let out a collective sigh. You know what’s bugging me? That house. Why the hell did they give it rabbit ears? Rabbit…! Of course! That’s it! Whoa, drat, turn it down, kid. What is it? March Hare… oh! Oh, yeah, I guess that explains the ears, huh? Yeah. So that means the “mad host” is actually… Not the hat guy, but… the hare? He pointed at the statue of the March Hare, and we all sighed again, but this time with relief. Gah! Damnit Wakasa, you had it right! Don’t go messing it up now! Arg… This is driving me insane! I’m really starting to wish we had a different team out there right now…I was wishing that from the start. Inside of the house, the atmosphere was filled with anxiety and despair, and with every passing minute the ceiling full of spikes got a little closer. You’re right. We don’t want to second-guess ourselves too much. So… next we need to figure out how to “command” the host… No idea. Let’s go look at our host. They proceeded to examine the hare statue more closely. So what are we supposed to do to “command” him? That part seems really weird. Looks like he’s holding a card and… a pistol? As soon as Mitarashi spoke, the screen inside the house suddenly flickered to life. …What? We all turned around to face it. It sucks. Thrilling, right? Aggravating? Oink oink! …Why is he here? Probably just want [sic] to try and mess with our heads. It looks like your little friends managed to figure out who the “mad host” is, but I wonder… Will they be able to “command” him? Our faces went pale. It’s real…?! Oh no! What do we do?! There was nothing we really could do: There was no way to communicate with the others. I guess all we can do is pray those two knuckleheads don’t screw up.
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Feb 10, 2021 |
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May 22, 2020 19:30
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 What do you think about these? A six of spades, a king of clubs… Where did you find these? Inside the cups on the table. And the hare’s holding a card too, right? Yeah. Right now he’s holding the king of diamonds… You think there are any more cards around here? Dunno. Let’s look. After a few minutes of searching, they turned up several more cards. He printed out a custom playing card set?! Man, talk about attention to detail. They spread out all the cards they’d found on the table. …Hm… Do you think maybe we “command” the hare by doing something with a card that’s stronger than the one he’s got? Yeah! That’s gotta be— wait… He’s holding a king, though. If he had a six or a queen, sure, but how do you beat a king?Ace? Although I guess you don’t have one of those right now.  Urgh… Sure wish I’d worked a little harder at learning poker right about now… For the next few minutes they were silent, deep in thought. In order from greatest to least, the suits usually go: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.That’s one of the ways to rank suits. Ranking is highly dependant on which game you’re playing. In this case I guess it doesn't matter very much if Kimimaro is right or wrong. I don’t think there are any games where a Diamond beats a Heart. I blinked. Whoa, you sure know a lot about cards. Ah, I see. So you based that order off of tarot card reading… which I'm fairly sure you got wrong by the way. As far as I know, minor arcana order is Wand (Club), Cup (Heart), Sword (Spade), Pentacle (Diamond). Not as though any of that will matter anyway. You’ll see in a second. Then… the only card that can beat the king of diamonds is the king of hearts… Right. If only we could tell them somehow… Almost as if he’d heard me, I saw Wakasa leave the table and come running toward us. The ceiling was down much farther now— just above our heads. There wasn’t much time left. I pulled my eyes away from it and back to Wakasa. (What should I do?)We get a choice here as to whether we should just tell Wakasa the answer or tell him to “do his best.” Option 2 requires us to have actual faith in Wakasa, which I most certainly do not. Sooo… I tried to make the shape of a heart with my hands, but— Bzzt! Too bad! Can’t let you just tell him the answer, can I? That wouldn’t be any fun at all. The shutter’s going to stay closed until he heads back!Figures he’d pull a dick move like that. Wha… That’s not fair! It stunk, but there wasn’t anything I could do. (Are we really just going to have to hope they get it right?) Wakasa ran off, back to the table.*The shutters reopen at this point* Hey, how’s it look? They’re okay, but we need to hurry. Figure anything out while I was gone? Yeah, I think I’ve figured out where the card goes. Right… here. The hare’s mouth? Do you know? Nope. Not a clue. Mitarashi grinned and picked up the king of clubs and the king of hearts. What’re you doing? Well, it’s gotta be one of these, so we’ve gotta make a bet. Are you a good gambler? I’ve played a little poker in my time. Let’s just leave it at that.So “No”, is what you’re saying. Great. He gave Wakasa a knowing wink. Wait… is that idiot just going to guess?! It’s looking that way. They both shook their heads, but it wasn’t like there was anything we could do. I thought about the king of hearts as hard as I could, willing him to pick it. You really think that’s okay…? We don’t have a choice. We don’t know the answer. Besides, we’ve got a fifty percent chance of getting it right… He stared down at the two cards for several long seconds before finally holding one of them up. This one. The king of hearts? Yeah. You gotta trust your heart, right?Flimsy reasoning, but sure. Not like it changes the odds. He grinned and tapped a thumb on his chest. A broken clock is still right twice a day… Yes! Shidou sighed. Get back, just in case. After Wakasa stepped away, Mitarashi carefully slid the card into the hare’s mouth. (I can’t really see what’s happening…) I’d scarcely thought those words when—*The screen flashed for a split-second and there’s a noise* Wha—! What?! Ah…! …! Was… that a gunshot? We all looked at each other, frightened. …  …That wasn’t my fault! You all saw! Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 21:55 on May 22, 2020 |
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May 22, 2020 19:31
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Blaze Dragon posted:Hell yeah, Mitarashi got shot! That's another chance to get affection points with him by healing him, again! He really is taking a beating, isn’t he? He got a crossbow bolt in the shoulder roughly 18 hours ago, then he got into a punching match with Subaru, and now he's been shot. It definitely wasn’t through the heart like Hogstein said, because there’s no way the game kills him off without some kind player involved mistake, but even still, that’s a gunshot wound. And this is only day 2! Meanwhille, Kimi got a little carsick and Subaru probably has some bruises. I think that's the worst suffered by the other group members.
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May 22, 2020 22:01
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kethryveris posted:I'd forgotten how much this game likes to pick on Mitarashi. I imagine people have caught on to what the problem is, but I won't mention it since the next update will be opening with an Explosive Insight that will talk about it. It does seem to establish a worrying trend of memory lapse in our group of mystery solvers though. Especially Ayumu and Subaru, who are supposed to have good critical thinking skills.
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May 23, 2020 16:49
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Update VII: Saki gets paranoid Last Update: RYUSEI GOT SHOT!  No! He… he had the right answer!Clearly he didn’t, Saki. Wakasa was shaking Mitarashi’s body. You bastard! He turned and yelled at the monitor. Oh, god. I didn’t even think about that. Literally our only hope right now is Towa. Urgh! The ceiling was getting really close. Urabe, the tallest of us, had to crouch down to avoid it.Now that I have a good look at this trap, those spikes on the ceiling really don’t look like they’d be very good at actually killing anyone. They are also fairly tall. Unless that ceiling is being pushed by a few hydraulic presses, then it looks like you could just lay down on the floor, position yourself between the spikes, and be totally fine (if a bit cramped). But he did have the right answer! It has to be the king of hearts! You really are a stick in the mud, aren’t you? How stubborn! You must have lived a pretty sad life. I mean, why do you think there are cards? Who can command the March Hare? My eyes widened. (Wait a minute… That means…)Come on, Saki. You can do it.  So, who’s figured out where everything went deathly wrong? Let’s take a moment to review Saki’s thoughts before I spell it out for everyone: (What did Hogstein mean when he said, “Why do you think there are cards? Who can command the March Hare?” Alice Kart uses Alice in Wonderland for the setting, so it’s not that strange there would be cards here. So who can control the March Hare? Apparently the king of hearts was wrong… That leaves us with the six of spades, the king of clubs, the queen of spades… the queen of hearts, and the eight of diamonds. So it has to be one of those… But… which one?)Something worth mentioning at this point, if only because knowing about this feature early is better than not (we certainly don’t need it this time), is that you can get some additional thoughts from Saki by pressing Triangle on one of the bolded words.  Sometimes these little “Help” thoughts just assist you by helping to arrange or clarify the situation. For instance, the help thought for the “eight of diamonds” has Saki clarifying what card the Hare is holding. Others point out which cards our heroes actually have at their disposal or which options definitely don’t work (like the King of Hearts, which Ryusei just discovered the hard way).  And then there are help thoughts that just outright give you the answer. It’s a helpful feature if you’re stuck or simply not catching on to something. Granted, there’s basically no punishment for getting the wrong answer since you can just start the Explosive Insight segments over if you fail them. But hey, I understand that there is no sense of accomplishment in that and it pulls some people out of the immersion.  Anyway, just something that’s worth pointing out early. It’s something else that Sweet Fuse does that I don’t often see from other games of this type (although Professor Layton is another game that does something like this). That’s it! The most powerful person in the world of Alice in Wonderland is the Queen of Hearts! That’s the card they need to give to the hare!Once again, our heroes solve the puzzle by remembering information that they had already established but chose to forget about almost immediately after it was first relevant. Of course! Shirabe nodded. Hogstein cheered. You are correct! drat… So the card the hare was holding, and all the kings… they were just decoys, huh? He’s got a point. Of course, the fact that you got the wrong answer in the first place is still shameful. Especially for Ayumu, who has been talking about the Alice in Wonderland story since we first arrived at this tea party. How in god’s name do you recognize that the March Hare is the actual host of the Mad Tea Party (and not the Mad Hatter), yet completely blank on the QUEEN OF HEARTS in a puzzle where the question is “who outranks the King”? For those unfamiliar with Alice in Wonderland, there is a King of Hearts character. However, the Queen of Hearts is the one that’s implied to “wear the pants”, as it were. She’s got a short temper and orders people executed basically all the time for little or no reason. The King of Hearts tends to go behind his wife’s back to pardon most of the people she condemns to death (because if he didn’t then they’d quickly find themselves without any subjects left to rule over). Basically, the Queen is the dominant one in the marriage. The King is implied to be too meek or weak-kneed to actually stand up to the Queen of Hearts, which is why he goes behind her back. He let out a roar of laughter that shook the house. I looked over at the others, and noticed that Shidou was… grinning.Excuse me? …You got all that? Oink?! Huh? He was looking outside, but why…? (Who was he just talking to?) You crafty little bastards. What?! The pig wasn’t the only person who was surprised. Everyone was too stunned to speak as Mitarashi leapt up, grabbed the queen of hearts, and shoved it into the hare’s mouth.[Announcer]: Tea party, completed. In your face! We did it! They cheered and high-fived one another. Oh! The ceiling! Yeah, it stopped… It had gotten pretty close, but wasn’t moving anymore. We were safe. That’s good and all, but… what just happened?Good question. … drat… Sure is good to be out of there. Yeah, but I don’t understand what’s going on. I looked over at Shidou and Mitarashi. Are you all right? Well aren’t you two proud of yourselves? Nothing to report. I could still remember the fight they’d had— it hadn’t been that long ago— but now they were acting almost… friendly? All right, I think it’s time you boys told us what’s going on here. Our young lady keeps saying she doesn’t get it. Yeah, I want to know what’s going on too. Indeed… We all crowded in toward Shidou and Mitarashi. Finally, Shidou cleared his throat and began to speak. Okay, I will applaud you for that. I genuinely expected all of you to completely forget that you had cellphones after you traded numbers. Congratulations for subverting my low expectations. What?! I didn’t even notice! I didn’t either. So how did you— Aaaaah… Very clever. Figured it out, huh? Oh! You mean your fight earlier was just an act? Shidou grinned. Pretending to fight let you get close enough to talk privately, and gave everyone a reason to assume you weren’t. Clever… Exactly. While we were struggling, I handed him a headset. I didn’t notice a thing!Saki, you know I love you, but please don’t sound excited about your lack of awareness. Really need you to start paying more attention to things. At least the audience has the excuse of only witnessing the “fight” through static character portraits bumping into each other. *Alternate perspective flashback time!*  What?! Punch me in the stomach! …What? Just trust me! Do it! I’m getting real sick of your holier-than-thou attitude, man! Let it go! *Body blow!* Hnngh…! Damnit, what the hell’re you—what?! Here… take this! What the… a headset?! I’m going to call you. Put this on, and you’ll be able to hear us. Got it?!*End of alternate perspective flashback time!* I see… I had a feeling they might need our help, and threw this plan together.You felt correctly. You know what, Subaru? I’ll forgive you for the Alice Kart thing. You had the foresight necessary to recognize that leaving everyone’s lives in the hands of Wakasa and Mitarashi was a death sentence, so you did something about it. Good man. Well, you sure fooled your allies. I hope your enemies fell for it too. Wow… I was right there, and I didn’t even know. Really? Gosh… Yeah, I had no idea. That was kind of a jerk move, Mitarashi. I apologize for tricking all of you, but I was sure the pig would try and interfere if he knew what was going on.This is my only issue with Subaru’s sweet plan. Subaru should have stayed quiet while Mitarashi pulled himself back up after hearing the correct answer and pretended to realize what the answer was (it’s not exactly a difficult puzzle). This may have allowed them to use the same strategy again some time in the future. Instead, they decided to openly flaunt the plan and be smug about it, thus ensuring that Hogstein will take steps to prevent the cellphone trick from working a second time. He bowed his head to us in a quick gesture of apology. Although, the biggest problem was his acting ability… or lack thereof. Whoa, hey, you take that back. I’ll have you know I’m a great actor. My work demands it! And besides, everything went fine, right? A-Ah, well, um… nothing! Don’t worry about it. You’ll learn when you’re older. Huh…? Best you put such thoughts out of your mind for now. Yeaaaah… Some things you’re better off not knowing.Okay, first of all, Towa? Shut your mouth. You don’t know what the gently caress Ryusei means either. You get the “acting” thing from your boy band stuff, but there’s no way in hell you have any idea what Ryusei means by it in terms of escort services. You’re a J-Pop Idol. Your entire career would be in flames overnight if you so much as got caught holding a girl’s hand. Don’t pretend like you know anything about escorts. Second: Why are you guys all dancing around this? Saki is 18/17. Telling her that escorts are only pretending to think you’re the hottest/most interesting person they’ve ever met is not going to destroy her precious innocence. Honestly, this is what I’ve never understood about hostess clubs. Why would I pay a bunch of money to have girls far out of my league blue ball me and pretend as though I had any legitimate chance with them? There are far cheaper ways of creating that illusion. Like dating-sim games! Now if Mitarashi is the… other kind of escort… That might be a trickier explanation for our innocent heroine. Huh…? What the heck are you guys talking about?! They all coughed or looked away awkwardly.  He groaned a little, and rubbed at his chest.Oh yeah! That’s right! How in god’s name did you survive a gunshot to the chest? Did you actually get shot…? Yeah, that’s right! You were shot! Well, yeah, sort of. But I had a little help… Ah! I call total bullshit. There’s no way some dollar store serving tray managed to stop a handgun round from point blank range. When did you get that?! Hey, give me a little credit. Once I heard the gun was real I grabbed it as soon as I could. Good thing, too.Sorry, Ryusei. You get no credit for that batshit insane plan that rightfully should have failed. You want to know what would have resulted in me giving you credit? If you didn’t stand directly in front of the gun in the first place. Seriously, who does that? Even if you didn’t find out the gun was real, why would you ever stand in front of it?! But, didn’t it still hurt…? Yeah, it hurt like hell, but it doesn’t look like it did any permanent damage. That’s good… That’s an understatement. At this rate it’ll be a miracle if he lives to see tomorrow. Wouldn’t surprise me if a stray steak knife somehow tagged him in the throat while the group is having dinner later. (Although I guess the one yesterday was my fault…) I told you to hit me in the stomach, though. Why did you hit my face? And so hard… I feel like things aren’t where they used to be. Oh, you should talk! You just about knocked the wind out of me when all you had to do was wrestle me to the ground. Maybe I was a little upset about getting hit in the face. Yeah, well, maybe I was a little upset too. For a moment it looked like they might be about to fight again, but suddenly both men broke into smiles, and the rest of us followed suit.Aw, they’re friends now. How cute. That’s a good life lesson to teach. If you don’t get along with someone, just beat the poo poo out of each other. It's guaranteed to bring you closer! (Gosh, it sure feels nice to smile again…) I let out a long sigh of relief, but that relief was short-lived. Whoa, wait, what the hell?! Well what did you expect?! You cheated!You’re one to talk. Pulling that poo poo with the shutters even though you said nothing about non-verbal communication. His face had gone red with rage. Cheated? None of your rules prohibit communication within the park. Urrrrrgh… If it’s not against the rules, how is it cheating? You give us puzzles, we solve them. This whole game is about using one another’s strengths and following your rules, right? (I’ve heared that before…) He was quoting the Count’s own statements back at him.This is why you make sure that rules are as specific as possible. Back when I used to do RP stuff on a different forum site, I had created this one that was like a combination of Saw and Cube. Within the first few posts, people were already finding ways to make their characters untouchable by traps through loopholes. If you’ve ever been a Dungeon Master in D&D then you can relate to this as well. Players will immediately start looking for ways to subvert the scenario you have in place. If you leave any wiggle room in the rules at all, expect someone to instantly come up with a way to abuse the poo poo out of it. You’ve got to be thorough. Well, assuming you want to railroad everyone along a certain path. Honestly, I think it's kind of exciting when you have to find ways of defeating other people's loopholes using your own loopholes.  If I say you failed, you failed! And if you failed, then I’m going to blow this whole thing sky-high! Wh-What?! You can’t do that! You said— SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP! (That’s it, I’ve had enough! What is this guy’s deal?! If he’s just going to break them when he feels like it, what’s the point of having rules in the first place!?) This isn’t directed at Ryusei, so we can do whatever we want with this one. The thread prefers it when Saki gets pissed off, though. What’s wrong with you?!That graphics issue with these moments is bothering me to an insane degree, so I’ll probably avoid screenshotting them very often.  Oink! S-Sorry! We followed your rules, but you’re just going to ignore them?! That’s not cool! G-Guh… Argh! You’ll regret this! With one final incoherent grunt of rage, the screen shut off. Moments later, we heard a noise from the table.Man, Hogstein is a pushover. Either that or Saki is terrifying when angry. Did… did you guys hear that? Yes indeed. Let’s have a look here… A treasure chest. It looks identical to the one we found yesterday. Wait! We need to be careful. It could be dangerous. Let me open it. He approached the table as the rest of us backed away, and gingerly picked up the treasure chest.[Announcer]: Stage two is complete. You have obtained a reward! We did it! At last… And not a moment too soon. After that house, my nerves are shot. So what’s in it? Just like yesterday. Looks like a note of some sort. Hmm… Just kidding, I have no sweet clue what possible connection those two notes have. 7am/pm maybe? Time that the sun rises/sets at the moment? Good question. Good question… He frowned, and began tapping his finger on his forehead. I imagine we are all quite tired, yes? Perhaps we should take a short rest. Yeah, good idea. Why don’t we just sit down at the table? Too bad there isn’t any actual tea… That’s a solid point. …Yeah, I guess you’re right, huh? I’d prefer to leave this place as soon as possible, but… I am tired. Eventually, we all sat down around the table, except for Shirabe, who insisted on investigating the entire garden. After a few minutes of rest, we headed out.Well, at least the gang managed to get through this stage in a timely manner. Granted, they basically had to be forced along by time limits in ord—  ARE YOU loving KIDDING ME?! Seven o’clock… We cut it pretty close again, huh…HOW DID THAT TAKE 7 HOURS?! You did 3 loving laps in a go-kart and then got stuck in a trap with an explicitly short time limit! You can’t do that, game. You can’t keep expecting us to buy into the idea that all of these death games take nearly seven hours to complete just so that you can reuse the “Whew, we just made it. That sure was a nail biter, huh?” thing. It doesn’t work! We waited for the Count for a while, but he never appeared. Guess he’s not showing up tonight. You think he’s off pouting somewhere? Wakasa shrugged. Yeah, I’m starving. Me too! If I don’t eat soon, I’m gonna die! Then it sounds like everyone is in agreement. Good. The restaurant it is, then. We’ve got a lot to talk about. With that, we were off. We hadn’t gone that far before Shirabe headed off in a different direction. Where are you going? Oh, okay. See you later, then! As I watched him walk off, I felt… strange. (Huh… Why do I feel uneasy? Is something wrong…?)Could be the “That person is about to die” feeling. I spent the rest of the walk trying to figure out what I’d felt, but before I knew it… …We’d arrived. I didn’t notice this before, but is that restaurant in the center called “A Delicious Heart Restaurant”? I wonder if that’s a symbolic thing or if they serve various animal hearts as part of the menu. Also, they’re missing a “t” on that sign. Man, that pig must be working pretty hard to get all those traps up and running every day… …The attractions are being operated by the piglets. Except we can’t do that. One of the rules is that we can’t just randomly beat the crap out of the piglets because we feel like it. I suspect we haven’t heard them speak for that very reason… Oh… He wants to make sure none of them let anything slip. Damnit! That pig’s got every single one of his bases covered. Well, I mean, we don’t actually know for sure… Everyone was busy shoveling food into their mouths when they weren’t talking. I’d chosen fried pork and rice.Sounds good. …Going pretty heavy there, huh? Huh? Oh, ha ha. Yeah, I just felt like something heavy today, you know? I’m sorry… “going heavy”…? Ah, I see. …Wait, why are you answering for them? Uh, no reason I guess.Cut him some slack, Subaru. Kouta has been really light on lines during this stage. Is it good? Not too greasy? Yeah, it’s pretty good. Nice and crispy! I really like it. Listen, fat is what I am. Not sure what you look like under that big hoody, but I’d probably describe it as “skeletal.” You’ve got a long way to go before you get to "fat". Some rice isn’t going to kill you, man. O-Oh, right… For some reason, everyone seemed to be fascinated by my dinner. (It’s kind of embarrassing to have all these guys looking at me…) I’d shrugged it off and gone back to eating when my cell phone suddenly began to ring. Ah! Hey, you can’t contact the outside. That’s against the rules. He frowned as I pulled the phone out. Sorry, I didn’t… Wait, it’s a text. I looked at the sender, and my eyes widened. You mean legendary game producer KEIJI INAFUNE?!  The creative mind behind The guy who got taken hostage? Yeah! Keep it quiet, you two. We don’t know when he might be listening in. So? Hostages aren’t outside the park, so we’re not breaking any rules. That excuse didn’t go over well last time, remember? If he found out we were talking to the hostages, I doubt he’d let it slide.Which is why you should have kept that trick of yours a secret for as long as possible. Now he’s going to be a lot more vigilant about that stuff. You’re right. I read the text in silence, and then sent back a quick reply. It was only a few seconds before I got an answer. After several more messages, I was able to piece together what had happened to him and [sic] hostages. That is highly suspicious after what just happened earlier. I looked up at the others and nodded. They all seemed to understand. After checking to make sure we weren’t being watched, I handed my cell phone over, so they could see what I’d learned. …Keep this a secret. It might come in handy later. Right. Did everybody hear that? Yeah. My lips are sealed. Oh yeah, what ever happened to him? Didn’t notice until you mentioned it, but… yeah. I’ll go see if I can find him. As I stood up to leave, I felt the same uneasiness from before. Do you think you’ll be all right by yourself? I’ll be fine. I’m just gonna take a quick look around.”What trouble has ever been caused by splitting up?” Seriously, you guys are all dead when we reach the Resident Evil knockoff part of the park. I gave everyone a quick reassuring grin, and headed out of the restaurant. (But… what’s up with this weird feeling I keep having…?) I decided to start with the Racing Square. Whoops—! Then, just as I rounded the corner of a building, I saw him. Shira—…?! (Who could you be talking to…?) I ducked back behind the wall, then peeked out. He seemed to be using the statue with the screen in it that Hogstein always appeared on. (It’s on…? Does that mean you can use it to talk to other people? I mean, he couldn’t be talking to Count Hogstein… right?)Doubtful. That’s the obvious red herring. I felt my stomach flip-flop, just as the glow from the screen disappeared. Eee! I ducked back behind the wall on reflex. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t want him to know I’d been watching. Shirabe! There you are! Um… I’d expected him to be a little startled, but he seemed as unshakable as ever. Saki is a You were late, so I went to look for you. For now, I decided, it was better to keep my thoughts to myself. Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I was just on my way back. Ah… I didn’t want to mention what I’d seen directly, but… Did you… find anything? He grinned, the snack in his mouth twitching up as he did so. (He’s not going to tell me anything…) I didn’t want to be suspicious, but he was acting awfully strange. It would be a risky thing to do considering that you don’t have any definitive proof that he was doing anything shady. (Who was he talking to…?) Ultimately, I decided not to tell anyone about what I’d seen, and kept my worries to myself. Shirabe didn’t seem to be acting any differently. Good job today, everybody!Shut up, Towa. Agreed, but we all must be tired by now. Go get some rest. … No! No, that’s not it… It’s just… Just… what? N-Nothing! I was just… thinking, that’s all… Wh-What?! N-No! No! Ha ha ha… I confess, you’re rather charming when flustered. Don’t make fun of me! I turned and stalked off, my cheeks hot. I could hear them laughing behind me. (What a bunch of jerks!) I sighed and headed for my room. There wasn’t much point in talking about Shirabe until I knew more. (Today really tired me out… But after seeing Shirabe doing… whatever he was doing… I just feel drained.) I rolled over and let out a long sigh before I heard the sound of voices from outside my room. (Who is that? It can’t be the piglets… right?)Probably not. I have to imagine that Hogstein has those guys gagged or something underneath those masks. I doubt the only thing preventing them from talking is a strongly worded warning.  (Is he on his cell phone? He knows we’re not supposed to talk to people outside…) I sighed. I knew he wasn’t exactly a rules guy, but I hadn’t thought he’d go that far. He was going to get us all in real trouble. (So who’s he talking to? And why?)Everyone is suddenly getting very suspicious. Put on your detective hat, Saki. We’re doing some more investigative work. Maybe I was just feeling suspicious after catching Shirabe, but I decided to head out of my room and see what Mitarashi had to say for himself. Hey. (What should I do…?)There is a choice here as to whether we confront Mitarashi or just ask him how he’s feeling. As much as I would love to play hardball, there is an affection point for asking him how he’s doing. (I don’t think I’m going to be able to get anything out of him, though…)She’s right. Choosing to press him on the talking thing just results in Mitarashi stammering out the explanation that he was talking to himself and trying to organize his thoughts because of all the stuff that has happened. Saki realizes that she won’t get anywhere and just lets the topic die. Standing in front of him, I suddenly wasn’t so sure that asking him what he’d been doing directly was such a good idea. I was just, um, wondering how you were feeling… Better than a gut full of lead, of course, but that thing really packed a punch. Almost knocked me out, actually.And yet it still couldn’t pierce a 2mm thick sheet of cheap aluminum at half a meter. Oh… Well, take care of yourself, okay? I always do! I got the distinct impression that our conversation was over, and without a chance to ask about the phone call. We said good-bye, and I headed back to my room. I sat down on my bed, unsure of what to do next. (Wait, of course! I should talk to Uncle Keiji about it!) (Hopefully he can read that without the piglets seeing it…)Hopefully he had the brains to set his phone to silent so that Saki’s random text message to him doesn’t alert the piglets whenever they are standing guard. I told him about my suspicions regarding Mitarashi and Shirabe, and then sent it off. (That didn’t really solve anything, but at least I feel better now.) I closed my cell phone with a sigh. I was probably just still feeling kind of worked up. I decided to go outside and get some air. All right, let’s go. With a deep breath I picked myself up and headed out of the room. Time for another break… time…  Mitarashi! Hey. What’s wrong? You look half dead.He practically is half dead, Saki. Well, when I came down here, one of the piglets started waving at me. I think it was asking me if I wanted a drink. I said “sure” and they brought out some coffee, but… Oh, coffee is nice.Yup. Nothing better to cap the night off with than some good ol’ coffee. Really gets you in the sleeping mood.  What…? The smell drifting up from his cup was really good. Did you put some milk and sugar in it? Yeah, but… Something’s off.You think it’s poisoned? Let me see it. I took a sip.Okay… well, I guess we’re about to find out if it’s poison or not. Way to be cautious, Saki.  Are you nuts!? It’s bitter as hell! (Is there something wrong with his sense of taste? This is like coffee-flavored sugar water…) …What’s with that look? I’m not giving you a look! Really? Really! Okay. Good. Fine. He grumbled and lifted the cup to his mouth, bracing for an onslaught of bitterness. I grinned despite myself. Well, it’s just… you keep calling me a kid, and now you’re scared to drink a cup of coffee.Ah, the old “Coffee is an adult beverage” chestnut. Right up there with “Nothing hits the spot like a cold beer! It sure does suck that you aren’t old enough to have it!” loving Conception Plus… every Reone scene was some variation of that poo poo. Honestly, I don’t get the love people have for coffee. It tastes like what I assume the liquified contents of an ashtray would taste like. And if you’re just going to load it full of sugar and milk, then you’d be better off having hot chocolate or something. Urgh… Yeah, all right, I guess you got a point. (He’d probably get mad if I said it out loud, but Mitarashi can actually be kinda… cute.) Damnit! What are you grinning about now?! I’m doing no such thing. We stayed there, drinking coffee and talking, for about an hour until I decided It [sic] was time to go. (The phone call probably wasn’t anything, right? Right…) I wanted to trust him, so instead of asking about it I said my good-byes and headed back to my room. A quick check of my phone showed that my uncle hadn’t responded yet. (Guess I’ll just have to wait. He’s in a pretty bad spot. I shouldn’t be impatient.) I let my eyes drift shut, and almost immediately fell into a deep sleep. Yay! More vague memories! Maybe? We still don’t actually know for sure if these are Saki’s or not. In fact, now that a sister is being mentioned, it’s even more unclear. Saki hasn’t implied at any point that she has or had a sister. [Kid #1?]: Oh, oh, what are we gonna ride first?! [Kid #2?]: The roller coaster, duh! [Kid #1?]: Awwww nooooo I wanna go on the merry-go-round! [Father?]: Well, the kids sure seem excited. I guess taking the day off today was worth it. [Mother?]: Are you sure it’s okay for you to do this?  [Mother?]: You’ve never said anything like that before. What’s going on? [Father?]: Nothing, I guess I’ve just never found the right time to say it. [Kid #1?]: Hey! Hey! Are we there yet?  Weird. Anyway, that’s the end of Stage 2. It was a lot shorter than Stage 1.  Here is our Affection status so far, by the way. We’re slowly getting there with Mitarashi, although we apparently still have quite a bit more to go. Weirdly, we have slightly more points with Meoshi and Urabe than the others. I wonder where those extra points came from? Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 17:19 on May 31, 2020 |
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May 27, 2020 21:08
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Blaze Dragon posted:Also the game's starting to make us doubt the other characters, no doubt setting up for a traitor plot I will not care much for. All the dudes have routes, so I doubt any of them are traitors. My theory is that these are just red herrings and Saki is being paranoid. My other theory is that Ayumu and Ryusei were talking to their "special someone." That is to say, someone that was taken hostage in order to get them to cooperate in this whole thing. Maybe Ryusei has a little sister that was taken, which is why he gets flustered if you try and press him to answer you (he's the type to get embarrassed by accidentally revealing his soft/caring side). Maybe Ayumu's was a colleague or good friend. Hogstein has to be holding something over the heads of each guy. Plus, if Keiji is able to sneak out communications to Saki then others should be able to as well. That’s what I'm currently betting on rather than a traitor plot. The traitor thing seems to be a bit too blatant of an explanation to be legit. Although I will concede that maybe someone is a traitor and all these "so and so is being suspicious" moments is meant to throw us off on who it is specifically. kethryveris posted:I never developed a taste for coffee. I like the way it smells, but that's about it. Give me tea or hot chocolate any day over coffee. I like stuff that's labeled as coffee flavoured, like Coffee-Crisp or coffee flavoured ice cream, but yeah, I never developed the taste for it either. I tried all the different kinds (Black, sweetened, decaf, iced) and hated it all. I just find it funny that it’s considered a drink for "mature" people, as if sucking down caffeine and habitually purchasing it like you're an addict is the epitome of adulthood. It's especially funny (as a Canadian) to listen to people complain about having to rush or get up incredibly early to get to work or school because of traffic, only for me to pass by a Tim Horton's that has a line stretching 30 cars back every morning where people are spending like half an hour waiting to get their fix. You’re probably right about Mitarashi. He's a male escort, so he's likely used to sweeter wine like Ice or Port. Then again, I'm not sure what the alcohol preference is for ladies that hit up host clubs. Either way, I doubt bitter stuff is common on the menus.
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May 28, 2020 02:47
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Junpei posted:I can't handle coffee, but sometimes I need a pick-me-up. That's what energy drinks are for! That's the Gen Z way of doing it. I've never tried one (mainly because caffeine doesn't affect me anymore), but if I desperately needed to stay awake for something I'd sooner grab a can of Monster for the first time than I would choke down a cup of coffee. Astrofig posted:Also, I'm betting Ryusei is an escort in the sense of basically a high-class prostitute. Hence why he's all 'NOT IN FRONT OF THE GIRL' about it. It's really hard to tell exactly what he is. This is a T-rated game, so they're obviously going to avoid any outright references to prostitution, especially towards one of the romance-able guys (games with romance that are marketed to guys do the same thing. They want the love interests to be seen as "pure"). Also, they would likely want to sidestep the prostitute label since that's not technically kosher in Japan (hence the "compensated dating" thing). But at the same time, if he isn't the sex worker type of escort, then why use "escort" in the first place? Why not call him a host? You might say it's a translation thing for the sake of westerners who don't know what a host club is, but choosing escort seems like a poor compromise considering the word has a fairly clear meaning in the west for this kind of thing. I'll go find the Japanese character card for Ryusei later on and see if that clarifies anything. That's probably the only way to do it considering that there doesn't seem to be much Japanese footage of the game itself. I would say that he's probably the non-sex kind of escort though. These kind of games don't usually have love interests who are "experienced", because the assumption is that that would put off the player. Edit: I'll include this in the next update, just as a bit of trivia. I looked around and found Mitarashi's character card in Japanese. He is referred to as a ホスト (Host) and not an エスコート (Escort). This doesn't really prove whether or not he is the sex kind of worker, because Hosts sometimes have sexual encounters with their major clients (they are "acquaintances" after all. One of the many ways red-light workers skirt around the prostitution laws in Japan). That said, given that he works in a (supposedly) high profile Ginza club and is the top ranked guy there, I sort of doubt that he has the time or energy to run around sexing ladies up. The real question here is why the localization team decided to change "Host" to "Escort." Again, western audiences might not know what Hosts/Host Clubs are, but localizing it as "escort" seems to go a bit too far in the other direction. Oh well, not a big deal either way. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 17:06 on May 31, 2020 |
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May 29, 2020 14:22
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differentiating posted:Based on experiences with prior VNs, I wonder if the ~mysterious flashbacks~ are going to turn out to be Hogstein's background as to why he wanted to take over and destroy an amusement park + all involved. If something went horribly wrong on that trip, that could be his tragic backstory... though why he's targeting this particular park and these particular individuals would still be a mystery. That's something I haven't really considered. Maybe Hogstein is the dad from the flashbacks that lost his kids/wife to some combined fuckup of the six guys? A tragic backstory for Hogstein wouldn't really surprise me. I'm just hoping that they don't use one as a means to try and redeem him in the eyes of the players. A lot of games like to pull that, as if a sob story and a promise to be a better person totally absolves them of terrorism and other wrongdoings. Update News: Next update will be tomorrow. I almost had it finished tonight, but it's 10pm at the moment and I've been on the PC all day doing various other work. I'll finish it up the last little bit tomorrow. There also appears to be a new character which I do not have a character head portrait for. Depending on how my efforts go in cropping out portraits for them, I may think about sticking the LP on hiatus for like a week or two and focusing on trying to clean up everyone's portrait. If I do that, I would need to go back and replace all the ones in updates I've done, so it could take a while (or I may wait and correct older updates during the eventual archive prep). I've been unhappy with the jagginess of the current head portraits since the LP started, but they were the best I could find at the time. I'll stew on it for another update or two.
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Jun 1, 2020 01:35
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Update VIII: Saki-Doo, where are you? Last update: The gang completed a go-kart race and a timed puzzle, then they all wandered into a rift in spacetime that transported them 5 hours into the future. It’s the only explanation that makes sense for how it took them that long, trust me. Gah! Oh yeah, and Saki had another weird dream or vision or… something. Still no explanation for those things and Saki doesn’t even seem to know what they are about. (Gosh, that was horrible! Everybody betrayed everyone else…)…Or she was having a completely different dream? What in god’s name is going on here? The dream was probably just my brain trying to deal with what I’d seen Shirabe and Mitarashi doing the night before. I checked the clock. It was still early. No reply yet… Shoot. (I guess that means I’ll just have to handle things on my own, then.) With that decided, I hopped out of bed and began to get ready, but before long I heard a knock at the door. I peered through the peephole to see a piglet standing outside, so I opened the door to let him in.… He flailed about in something that seemed to translate to “Good morning” and then pulled in a room service cart. Whatever was on it smelled incredible, and my stomach rumbled in response. So what’s for breakfast? I hate you so much. You’re so creepy. They’re like mimes, except with spandex. (Still not talking, but it looks like he’s trying to tell me something…) My best guess was that my breakfast was going to be some kind of jello-like product.Gross. I wasn’t particularly excited for it, but the piglet pulled the lid off the tray with a flourish, and my eyes widened. Ah! I mean, that’s better. Still not really what I would look forward to for breakfast though. Then again, I’m a westerner. Eggs, cereal, banana, toast, waffles, bacon, any combo of those things is good. Wh-Whoa, this looks great. I love Japanese food for breakfast!”I say, as a Japanese person!” He replied with a thumbs up. (They don’t seem to mean any harm… But it’s hard to tell what they’re really thinking if they don’t talk.) I was still pondering that while the piglet bowed and left the room. Oh! Of course! He’d just left when I finally realized it. That wriggling… he wasn’t saying it was jello, he was saying it was fish! I grinned and went back to eating. At last, I was starting to feel like I could understand the piglets. Good morning. Good morning to you too, Shidou! Everyone was waiting in the lobby, just like the day before. Everyone, that is, except… (Shirabe and Mitarashi aren’t here yet. They were both on time yesterday…) I felt my suspicions growing stronger. (Arg… I wish this weird feeling would just go away…)It can go away. You just have to stop being paranoid about incredibly vaguely suspicious actions. Something wrong, little lady? You look a mite troubled. Gyaaaah! Daaaaamn. That’s right ladies, Mitarashi is open to the kinky poo poo.  I spun around to see Shirabe and Mitarashi. S-Sorry! I was just kind of… spacing out, I guess. Yeah, no kidding. You back on Earth now? Y-Yes… Don’t go too hard on her. I’m sure the young lady’s got plenty on her mind. He gave me a nod, and they continued toward the sofa where everyone else was already gathered. I found myself gazing out the window at the river beyond. They were talking about our plans for the day, but I didn’t feel like joining in. *Sigh* I kept replaying what I’d seen Mitarashi and Shirabe doing over and over in my head. What did it mean…? Is something the matter, Inafune…? Oh! Urabe! No, I’m fine… Then I paused. Should I tell him about what I’d seen? Would that make me feel better? (No… probably not.) Yeah, nothing wrong here! So I see, but do not feel you must exceed your limits for our sake. Your own health is paramount. He gave me a friendly smile, then returned to the others. All right, what are we in store for this time? All right gentlemen and lady. I wonder what sort of madness our troublemaker has for us today. Something awful, of course.Hogstein would be the shittiest of shitposters. We talked for a bit, discussing what might happen that day, but before long we were interrupted by a voice we’d all come to dread. Goooooooood morning, everyone! I hope you all slept well! Oink oink! (He sure seems happy today…) It made me uncomfortable. He’s probably up to something.Of course he’s up to something. Why would he not be up to something? This whole thing was designed specifically to gently caress with you six guys for some as-of-yet unknown reason. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was suspicious. Actually, oink oink, I’ve got a biiiig surprise for all of you! I don’t like the sound of that. I swallowed. Right. Urk…! I felt my stomach twist in my gut. My eyes flicked to Shirabe and Mitarashi before I could stop them.Great, Hogstein is fueling Saki’s newfound paranoia. (N-No, he can’t be telling the truth… This has to be some kind of trick! But… why would he go out of his way to say one of us is a traitor?)Uhh, because that would tear your group apart from the inside? Come on, Saki. You’re sharper than this… supposedly. I felt the atmosphere grow suddenly tense. Then Shirabe spoke. Exactly. … If I hadn’t seen Shirabe with the statue the day before, I probably would have agreed too, but as things were… (This just makes him even more suspicious… Then again, Mitarashi was on the phone too… Maybe he was talking to Hogstein…) The pig’s words about a traitor in our midst kept echoing around in my head. What’s wrong? You look like you’re only half here. H-Huh? Oh, sorry… Did I really look that out of it? You’re right, I know, it’s just… Hey, believe me, I know how you feel, but it’s way more likely he’s just trying to shake us up. Yeah, I know. I gave him the best smile I could manage, and tried to act like everything was all right. It wasn’t, though. Wakasa hadn’t seen what I had. How could he know? Oh! Right! The use of cell phones in any of our little games in the future is completely against the rules. They make things so boring.Great, there goes that. Do you see what I mean now, Subaru? Should have kept your mouth shut. But noooo. Everyone is just so eager to be a smug little prick when they think they’ve outwitted someone else. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move along to the next attraction! Today’s game is waiting! Oh, awesome. The loving horror themed attraction. That’s just what this group needs. We walked toward the next game in silence. (I guess they’re all nervous too…) This dire mood will do nothing for our confidence. We must raise our spirits! Incidentally, what is our destination? He clapped his hands together as he spoke, and look around smiling. I think it’s the Bloodstained Hospital. The original is a survival-horror game set in rural Japan. It sounded like Meoshi knew quite a bit. You explore an abandoned hospital with a flashlight, and try to avoid the zombies.Okay, so like a cross between Silent Hill and Resident Evil.  With maybe a bit of Fatal Frame thrown in. Or possibly Illbleed? Guess it depends on whether you see the “Health” system in those games as representative of physical health or mental health. I know you could definitely die of fear in Illbleed. H-Horror game…? Hey, “Mustard Clinic” at the Galactic Productions park has the same kind of hospital setup! Oh! Yeah, I remember! I went there for a gig once! Really? That thing’s a blast, right!? You seem to know an awful lot about it. Oh man… I’m really, really not good with scary stuff… Well, at least it looked like we’d know a little about the attraction going into it… (I’m worried about the traitor, though…) I couldn’t focus on the game we’d be playing. What if one of us was working for the pig? I sighed and looked around.*An unknown character flashes across the screen*  Who the gently caress is that? Ah! What's wrong? I… I thought I saw someone moving in the shadows over there… Are you sure? I don’t see anything… Huh… Maybe it was one of the piglets? Or perhaps it was your imagination. Kinda hard to believe that pig’d let any intruders in here, you know? Hmm… Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It had looked too small to be a piglet. Perhaps I was just seeing things… Creepy. Also, the sign on the hospital actually translates to "Bloody Hospital" or “Blood covered Hospital.” Same thing, really. I only point it out because I was sitting there trying to figure out what the hell that first character was. Turns out it’s the third-grade Kanji “Chi” (Blood). I know it’s part of the learning process, but there’s still something humiliating about stumbling on a word that you know elementary school students could easily recognize. The Bloodstained Hospital was a strange building with a giant needle stuck into it.Oh, right. We’ll get to the contents of that other (non-Japanese) sign in a little bit. That one is plot relevant. That sure looks pretty spooky… *Whimper* I could see the blood drain out of Wakasa’s face. (I guess he wasn’t kidding about not being good with scary stuff…) I felt a little sorry for him, but we didn’t exactly have a choice. What do you think? Pretty easy, huh? Oink! Fareweeeeeeeeeell! His forced cheerfulness contrasted especially strangely with the creepy appearance of the hospital. In fact, it made it even scarier. Well, it seems we must enter before we can begin. Right. Let’s move it, people. No sooner had we approached the entrance than we encountered our first obstacle: There were three huge doors instead of a single one. …So we can just enter whichever one want? Wait, there’s something written over them… Hm… What language is that? I can’t read it… You know Italian?! I stared at him incredulously.I’m going to assume that Hogstein added that sign, because I’m having trouble connecting the dots between a horror game based in an abandoned hospital located in rural Japan, and Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.” Ah yes… The gate to Hell, from Dante’s “Inferno”… He smiled knowingly and tapped his forehead. That was when I realized what was really behind the grim feelings I’d been experiencing. (It would suck if a traitor destroyed the team we’ve built, even if we have only known each other for two days… But if we lost even one person, we’d be in real trouble. Each attraction so far has needed every single one of us in some way.)I still dispute Towa’s usefulness. I truly believe we could have completed every game without his involvement. Hey, are you all right? Ah! Oh, yeah. Sorry. I just kinda spaced out for a minute. So, what should we do? Nooo, don’t do that you moron! It’s a HORROR game attraction for Christ’s sake. Yeah, that might be best. So how do we want to split up? I don’t have any real preference. Me either. I-I guess I don’t really care either. I-I mean it’s not like this place is s-super scary or anything… I would be happy to work with any of you. Mitarashi’s face broke into a wide grin, and I could almost see the gears spinning up in his head. (Wait, what’s he planning? This seems suspicious…) Wh-What? That cool with you? I mean, we gotta make groups eventually, right? … Meoshi didn’t seem particularly thrilled. Not that I mind, but… why are you picking him? Huh? W-Well, uh, no reason… You’re acting pretty suspicious, Mitarashi. What are you hiding?Oh lord, can we put an end to this already? I’m still fully on board with the idea that those “suspicious” things that Saki witnessed were red herrings. I’m not hiding anything, cop! You really gotta see the worst in everybody?! Just hurry up and pick a group! I could see another— possibly real— fight brewing, when Meoshi finally spoke. Wait… what? Gah! No! Shut up, you idiot! Wait, what is this…? Rrgh… Suddenly all eyes were on Mitarashi. He chewed at his cheek for several long seconds before finally conceding. Knew it. Red herring. Like… what? C’mon what the hell else would you ask a nerd about? Video games! I mean, like… all the attractions here are based off of games, so I started wondering about… stuff. W-Well who doesn’t do some research before they go buy something?! I’m not a search engine. He just wouldn’t shut up about it. I tried to get away from him by going to my room, but then he just called my cell phone… Wh-Whoa, hold on—! I see. I think I get it. I let out a silent sigh of relief. This meant that Mitarashi wasn’t a traitor! (But… I still don’t have anything that clears Shirabe…) I glanced over at him while everyone was busy teasing Mitarashi, but he looked just like he always did: totally unconcerned. If we could get back to the subject at hand, I’d recommend each group take one of the adults— Shidou, Urabe, and myself. Good. I agree. Hey! Are you saying I’m not an adult?! Shidou simply ignored Mitarashi’s protests, and rattled off the group assignments. Yes? I’ll keep an eye on you. I mean, I took an arrow for you already, right?You raise a valid point. A dedicated meat shield would be pretty reassuring. You can’t be trusted, Mitarashi. As an officer of the law I’m sworn to protect the innocent, and that’s what I intend to do. H-Hey, hold on, don’t you think you should come with us? I mean, we’ve, uh, got Shirabe… P-Plus it won’t be as scary with… more people…That sounds like you want Saki to be a meat shield for you. No dice, Towa. At least his motives were pretty clear… What should I do…? It felt nice to be wanted, but I still had to make a choice.Honestly, it’s about time that the guys started fighting over you a little bit. They’ve been barely acknowledging your existence so far and that’s kind of weird for a game like this. Ryusei’s tried to shake Saki off a few times now. Quiet now. We must allow the young lady to make her own choice. I silently thanked him. More desperate pleas were not what I needed. Not as hard a choice as you think, Saki. The thread has spoken. We’re tagging along with Mitarashi and Urabe this time. (I think I can probably trust Mitarashi, and Urabe always seems so calm…) Can I join your team? Good choice, kid. I am pleased that you will be joining us. And that was that. All right. I wish you all luck. If something happens… well, without our phones, there’s not much we can do, honestly.Thanks for that, by the way. Hopefully we will find a way to persevere on our own. I’m ready to take whatever they’ve got.Careful, Ryusei. The games have shown that they are totally willing to take you up on that offer. We can do it, guys! We nodded to each other as a piglet came trotting out to meet us. …! I was still trying to figure out what we were supposed to do when Meoshi spoke up. Oh, sweet. Fitbits! You can understand these creatures? Mostly I’m just guessing. Now that he said it, though, I could see that the piglet was holding several watch-life things out toward us. Are these… watches? There’s a button on the side. When I pressed the button, the LCD panel lit up. Yeah, I think you’re right! See, there’s a little heart icon next to the number… Then these must be our terror gauges. Interesting… they use our heart rates to determine our level of terror? Beat too fast, and it’s game over… He scratched at his beard, and the piglet nodded vigorously. Since we’re all wearing them, does that mean that we all fail if any one of us hits the limit? …! …! He’s saying if three of us get a game over then we all fail the game. I still wasn’t sure how he understood them, but the piglet didn’t show any signs of objecting, so he must have gotten it right. Good question! This is how you guys end up blowing so much time. Only three? drat… That’s not even half of us. This could be tough. I… I don’t think I can do this… Oh gimme a break! We haven’t even gone in and you’re already scared?! Chill out!Ryusei gives Towa a whack on the back* Aie!*And then the watch immediately starts to beep* Wakasa leapt nearly a foot into the air, and as he landed a ringing sound came from the device around his wrist. Holy crap kid, could you be wound any tighter? W-Well don’t just s-smack me on the back like that! Or turned on. That means you, Saki! (Gosh, I hope it doesn’t get too bad in there…) I headed into the door on the right with Mitarashi and Urabe. Oh, whoops. Guess we’re probably supposed to take this thing, huh? He plucked the flashlight from the hook next to the entrance and juggled it absentmindedly in one hand like a baseball. Everybody ready? Let’s go! Rrgh… I’m an adult too, damnit!You’re not helping your case, Ryusei. Especially so since you’re tossing around the one tool we have to help us in this upcoming game. He ground his teeth, grumbled, and shoved the door open.By the way, which member of the Scooby Gang do you think everyone is? Towa seems like the Shaggy, or maybe the Scooby. Subaru has got to be the Fred. Ayumu is probably the Velma. Kimimaro is maybe Daphne? I’m tempted to call Ryusei the Scrappy-Doo, but he’s not universally despised, so I’m not sure that fits.  It’s… quite dark. Of course it’s dark, you dork. What kind of haunted house has lights everywhere? He flicked the flashlight on and swept the beam quickly over the room. It doesn’t look like there’s anything here…Except for the blood and the gurneys. I’m sure we’ll get some scares later on, don’t worry. The hallway proved to be cold, and a little damp. It also smelled slightly moldy. …The atmosphere is rather eerie, yes? Yeah… Suddenly, the silence was broken by a voice crackling over the PA. Hey! That’s cheating! Knock it off! The labyrinth of the dead… Do you suppose this is some manner of… hint? Hell if I know. I figure it just means we gotta watch our asses, right? I-I guess so…? I gave him an uneasy smile. We don’t know what we’re gonna run into up there, so let’s get a move on. C’mon! We headed off down the hallway. Well, they sure got the “abandoned hospital” look right… Yeah… There’re chunks of… something all over the floor. Probably stuff that fell off the wall, I’m guessing. Huh… Our footsteps crunched as we walked, like the floor was covered in bits of broken glass. Um…*The screen shakes a bit* Gah! Dude! Don’t do poo poo like that! Just speak! Y-You startled me… You need to get yourself under control, kid. If your alarm goes off when a guy touches your shoulder, we’re boned.Don’t you go lecturing Saki. Tell Kimimaro to stop randomly grabbing people’s shoulders from behind without warning. The fault was mine, I apologize. I should have thought before I acted. N-No, I’m just nervous… I took long, deep breaths, and eventually my alarm slowed and stopped. Phew… Oh, um, was there something you wanted to say, Urabe? …Oh, ah, no. Nothing. Nothing at all. Really? Okay… Let’s hurry it up then, guys. Right! I fell into a brisk trot, but I couldn’t forget what Urabe had said— or rather, what he hadn’t said. We did the best we could, but kept running into dead ends and retracing our steps to try different things.Did you try the hand on the wall trick? (Are we even sure we’re actually trying new hallways…?) Nothing much happened, though, so I began to relax. But when we rounded an intersection— Whoa! Mitarashi skidded to a halt.What’s up? Wh-What’s wrong? Look! What is that… thing? I followed Mitarashi’s finger.  Oh, gently caress! The zombies have learned how to wield machine guns! It’s a “Land of the Dead” situation! The creature’s entire body was covered in gross, festering skin that split and cracked as it moved. In one hand it held a lantern, and in the other it had a gun. What… is… that… We froze, but the creature seemed to have noticed us. Its labored breathing quickening [sic], and it started to raise its gun. poo poo! Before I could react, he was off like a shot toward the monster. Wh-What?! Grrraaaaaaaaaaaaah! Look out! Damnit, Mitarashi! Can you go one day without being beaten, stabbed, or shot? Mitarashi had closed the distance fast enough to avoid getting hit, and drove his fist into the monster’s face. His punch threw the creature down the hallway with a tortured wail. Okay, we need to get something clarified here… What the actual gently caress was that thing? Did Hogstein get somebody to dress up as a zombie? Because if so, that dude is committed to his role. He didn’t immediately yell “What the gently caress man?!” after being punched straight in the face. Now! Go!No! We want this answered! He didn’t have to tell us twice. Urabe and I ran as fast as we could, Mitarashi close behind. In the dark I could barely see, and my foot caught on something. I started to tumble forward— Aaah—! But suddenly my body stopped, and I was lifted back onto my feet. You okay? Mitarashi’s arm was wrapped around my shoulders, and I could feel his muscles pressing against my back. Th-Thank you… What, you think I’m just gonna let people get hurt? That’s not how I operate, kid. Ah…! Suddenly my heart felt like it was beating very fast.Saki! Focus! You’re wearing a heart monitor that we desperately need to keep under control. Don’t make me get the spray bottle! (This isn’t the first time he’s put himself in danger to protect me… So why am I getting all flustered now…?) Yeah! I gave him a nod, but my chest felt a little empty. (…That’s right, he’s probably like this to everybody. Oh well. I was nice to feel special for a few seconds.) I shook my head to clear my mind and took off again. Good… Looks like we lost him. Yeah… Until that moment, I hadn’t realized that all of our alarms were going off. Yeah. We ducked into the shadows and waited. So what the hell was that thing anyway? He plopped down on the floor and wiped some sweat off his forehead. So you decided you were just going to punch it in the face, regardless of what it was?I mean, it did work. He almost got killed doing it, but I can’t argue with the results. Yeah. Could’ve been a lot scarier if I actually knew what it was, right? The thing I don’t get is why they gave a monster a gun like that. Monsters aren’t scary enough anymore?That was kind of stupid now that you mention it. What is our world coming to… Well, we still need to get out of here, and we should probably do that soon. If we just keep wandering around, we’re going to run into the monster again. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but what are we gonna do? You got any idea where the exit is? Hm… I looked around, but all I could see were pitch-black hallways— nothing that might indicate an exit. He began to wave his hand at his crystal ball, and as he did… (What…?)*There’s a flash of light green on the screen* …It began to glow softly. Whoa! How’re you doing that?! That’s crazy! Magnets. I got the feeling I’d never know the answer to that particular question, though, so I kept my mouth shut. I believe the exit is… in this direction. Urabe began to walk slowly down one of the hallways. Mitarashi and I exchanged a confused look, but turned and followed him. (It’s not like we’ve got a better idea, after all…) As we went, Urabe seemed to get more confident, and his pace sped up. He seemed to know exactly where to go. Does the crystal ball show you where to go…? Far more likely that he’s got a crystal GPS inside that thing. Before long, we’d reached a staircase. Good work, team! Let’s keep moving! Yeah! …Please, if I could have a moment… Huh? Before we could start up the stairs, however, Urabe spoke. What’s wrong? His face was uncharacteristically serious. I… But just as he began to speak— That’s probably not a good sound. What?! A scream echoed through the darkness. You’re gonna have to tell us later, pal. Let’s go! Without waiting for a response, Mitarashi turned and headed for the stairs. Telling Urabe to haul rear end is an affection point for Mitarashi, so that’s what we’re going with. Come on Urabe, let’s go! Urgh… We needed to find the owner of that scream. Guess you know what’s up, kid! He gave me a grin, and I nodded back. We’ll have time for you later, Urabe. Cool? Very well. It took only a few minutes for the three of us to reach the top of the stairs. All we found were more dark hallways. That scream could have come from anywhere… Damnit! He ground his teeth and grumbled to himself. I can certainly try. He waved his hands methodically over the crystal ball, and it began to glow. But… …I am afraid I cannot. Though I can locate the exit, the owner of the voice we heard eludes me… poo poo! He slammed his fist into the wall, but a second later we heard the scream again.[???]: Aiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee! (There it is again!) I think it came from over there! Our exit is also in that direction! Good! Let’s move! Urabe and his crystal ball led us through the maze easily and quickly. We are approaching the exit! Then where is it?! Look! There! I’d paused to catch my breath, and noticed a door at the end of one of the hallways, underneath some emergency lights. That’s gotta be it! But we have been unable to locate the person who screamed…Sucks to be them? Maybe she went through the exit! Only one way to find out! Let’s go! We shoved the door open and leapt through. The damp, moldy smell was gone, replaced by the harsh antiseptic smell of a functioning hospital.I think even ”Functioning” is maybe being a bit too generous in this case. This is an operating room, isn’t it… In the center of the room was a surgical table, with various unpleasant-looking tools laid out across it.Oh Christ… Are we about to cut somebody open in order to get a key or something? poo poo! Is that what Urabe is trying to tell us? Did you get a key stitched into you, man?  Oh… Is everyone all right? Yeah, I guess so. …Mm… Thank goodness nobody got hurt. Yeah. Um, you guys… I began to move slowly toward the table in the center. Hiding in the shadows I could see the form of a small girl, curled up in a ball. Are you okay? You don’t need to be scared. We’re not going to hurt you… Oh, it’s the little gremlin thing we saw earlier. Slowly and cautiously a little girl with a huge backpack stepped out into the light.Is she supposed to be a loot enemy or— Mai! Daddy! What?! As soon as she spotted Shirabe, the girl ran toward him and leapt up into his arms. We were all totally dumbfounded. (Daddy?!)[Announcer]: The Nightmare Maze has been completed. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. And I suggest you do it quickly. Yeah… Shirabe finally set the girl back down and turned to face the rest of us. Well then. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Dec 2, 2020 |
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Jun 1, 2020 15:36
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This will eventually be included in an Extras section on the main post. There was no room for it in the update. —Extra— Before we wrap up, there’s something I wanted to mention about Ryusei that got changed in translation. It’s not a big change, but it is strange one considering the connotations at play. Ryusei is referred to in the English version as a “male escort.” He even says that he’s the number 1 escort at Ulysses in Ginza.  The thread (well, mostly me) have been speculating as to whether or not this meant that Ryusei was a sex worker, or simply a worker at a Host Club. I found Ryusei’s character card from the Japanese promotional material for the game and found out that escort was a translation change. Ryusei’s Japanese character card refers to him as a ホスト (Host), not as an escort. Now, Hosts can and do sometimes engage in sex on the side (usually with their best clients), so it is possible that Ryusei does it. Even then, the word “escort” is a strange choice for localization. “Escort” is much more heavily associated with prostitution than “Host”, especially in the west where Host/Hostess Clubs are nearly nonexistent. If you’re tracking down a male escort, it’s fairly unlikely that you’re just looking to hang out with them for a bit and talk while sharing some drinks. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jun 1, 2020 15:38
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Damnit, that's the smilie I was looking for during the update. Blaze Dragon posted:Also I'm so glad that everyone immediately shoots down the idea of a traitor because that plot point is never not stupid as poo poo. Everyone but Saki anyways, and it only took one update for her to find out why both Mitarashi and Shirabe were on their phones. The former just wanted some hot game tips and the latter likely wanted to contact his daughter who was taken prisoner by Hogstein. I'm glad as well. I don't hate traitor subplots, but they are almost always boring. In this case I mostly hated how Saki immediately started buying fully into the idea that Ryusei or Ayumu was a traitor based on nothing but witnessing them talking to someone. Then Hogstein announces it as a clear way of making everyone suspicious of each other and Saki gets even more suspicious. I don't think Ayumu was talking to his daughter that time though. He seemed pretty surprised to see her. Saki also mentioned that one of those display screens was on. I think Ayumu was actually talking to Hogstein, but not as part of a traitor plot. Ayumu is a journalist. He was likely talking to Hogstein in the hope of getting some information out of him. That probably prompted Hogstein to come up with the traitor idea, since Ayumu had split off from the group and wouldn't be able to prove his whereabouts without confirming his contact with Hogstein. Hogstein also probably knew Saki was out looking for Ayumu since he likely has control of the park's surveillance system. The whole situation basically fell into his lap. Blaze Dragon posted:Even moreso considering her appearance is in a chapter with no real gameplay (even for the standards of a VN), which is very unusual. HardDiskD posted:Probably the actual puzzle has to do with the huge backpack she's carrying. There definitely are more puzzles at work. My recording stopped a little bit further ahead from the update and a third challenge/puzzle was just kicking off, so the group isn't done here. I think Mai was just introduced quickly in this Stage so that the stakes of the death games would be higher since a child is involved.
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Jun 1, 2020 22:18
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Polsy posted:I can't imagine any other reason than 'people don't know what a host is' for using escort, it's just unfortunate there isn't really a better western equivalent (at least, that you can express in one word) That has to be the reason for the change, but it still strikes me as being weird, especially for a T-rated game. The whole "foreigners don't know what [Insert Japanese thing] is/are" thing was more understandable back in the 90's and early aughts, but even in 2012 (when this game was released) the internet was incredibly widespread and easy to access (hell, the PSP, which this game was released for, had a browser built-in). I feel like we should kind of be past the point of these types of localization changes. I know people are lazy, but come on, if someone playing this didn't know what a Host was and it bothered them that the term was unfamiliar, then Google it! It's a learning experience! It beats creating confusion or risking a huge misunderstanding born from a poor choice in substitute terms. differentiating posted:Yeah, that was a pretty great way of handling the "traitor" issue - have everyone laugh it off and consider it ridiculous. I think traitors can be done well as a plot point, but it feels like the expected move in a VN like this, so the subversion is a breath of fresh air. Plus, I'm glad Mitarashi seems to be thinking - why wouldn't you take advantage of the game expert in a death game based around video games? Yeah, it's annoying for Meoshi, but it could literally save their lives to have more info. And I'd definitely try to be in his group at all opportunities if my rear end were on the line. I mentioned that in a previous update. Mitarashi is clearly interested in video games (and theme parks) and everyone can see it. Just call him out on it and tell him nobody cares. Let him feel free to dive right into that hobby. You don't want someone who could have potentially life saving information to withhold it because they think the other members of the group might laugh at them. Honestly, if the group was smart, they would be scoping out the park in their free time and then having strategy meetings where Meoshi throws out all the information he can on the games the attractions are based on. At least that way everyone would have some base knowledge about what they are walking in to and the time to think on it (rather than Meoshi just mumbling some stuff about the game a few minutes before the stage starts). But then again, we're in a mystery/horror scenario. Some level of stupidity is unavoidable. It would be a boring game if the protagonists did everything logically and well thought out. There's a bit from Scary Game Squad about that which I really like. As far as Mai is concerned, I'm normally on the "I hate kids" train. They tend to mess things up or be insufferable/smug little brats. Mai will be engaging in the former almost immediately, but overall I'm not hating her so far (granted, I only recorded up to the start of the next puzzle). At the very least, I do kind of like her design. You can really see the Ayumu influences and I think it's cute that she does the same "Pocky hanging from the lips" thing that her dad does. That said... differentiating posted:Though that makes pursuing her father as a boyfriend even more awkward than it was before... If you think this makes chasing after Ayumu a little awkward, then wait and see what the start of the next update brings. Ayumu is... well, I won't outright condemn him... so let's just say that he's "rusty" on the parenting front.
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Jun 2, 2020 19:02
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Apologies for the weird lighting on Mai's character portrait. Once we have wrapped up Stage 3 I plan to stop the LP for a little bit and try to make up new portraits. I only have a little bit of footage of Mai in a brighter environment at the moment, which is why one of her portraits is better lit than the others. Update IX: Daddy Issues  So, yeah. We need to unpack this whole thing before we get back to escaping Racoon City Hospital. That’s… unexpected. How interesting. Yeah… Uh, okay, but… what’s she doing here? She still seemed scared, and had hidden behind her father’s leg to peer out at the rest of us. I’m… not sure. She’s all I’ve got left of my wife, but she’s been living with my mother-in-law.So she’s all you’ve got left of your late wife, but you dumped her off with the in-laws? Then… she doesn’t live with you? Yeah, pretty much. But, uh… Mai, what are you doing here? W-Well, um… She looked down at the floor and played with her hands as she spoke. Then I lost Grandma… You got lost in the park? …Yeah. That was three days ago! What have you been eating?! I have a lot of snacks in my backpack… Grandma likes to be prepared. So you’ve been wandering around this park for three days eating snacks…? …Yeah. Shirabe shook his head and sighed.And at no point did Hogstein or the Piglets take notice of this? drat… What are we going to do? What do you mean? Oh. No, I don’t think so. Really? Well, yeah. I mean, she’s been here in the park since all this started. She’s not really an “outsider”…I think you guys might be pushing your “Well, actually…” luck. Hogstein seems to have a short temper. There’s going to come a point where slipping through loopholes is going to draw some kind of retaliation from him. …I see. After yesterday we all know the bastard’s a Peeping Tom. So you’re saying if he doesn’t pitch a fit, we should be fine. Perhaps, but it will be for naught if we cannot escape from this attraction… Exactly. We need to focus all our effort on beating this game. We nodded. Good. Let’s go over the layout. So we’ve still got this puzzle and another one after it. Then that makes this the… Vivisection Lab? drat, no wonder this place is giving me the creeps. Then that table… N-No! H-How about we don’t think about that? Besides, this is just an amusement park! It’s not like they actually c-cut people open here! Right. Let’s take a look around then. Remember: Keep calm. As we moved off to examine the rest of the room, Mai edged up to me. Uh… what’s “vivisection”…?Don’t worry about it. U-Um… That’s how they figure out how the body works.…Sure. Let’s go with that. That’s technically correct… from a certain perspective. For those who don’t know: Dissection is when you cut open the body of something that’s dead. Vivisection is when you cut open the body of something that’s alive. Now obviously that’s what surgery is (at least, when the goal is to fix something that’s wrong in the body) and we are in a hospital. However, this is also a Resident Evil Hospital, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the more horrifying version of vivisection was going on in here. I guess that’s one way of putting it… Exactly. He grinned at me. (How is he so confident all the time…?) Well, there’s one way you could— Nevermind, that’s inappropriate. There’s an innocent little child present. Need to start toning down the language. I think there’s some kinda lock on the door over here… Well, we probably have to unlock it then, right? Seems like that’s the case. I don’t think we’ll be able to get this door open otherwise.Great work team. You have confirmed the presence of a lock and the fact that it keeps things closed. Time for a two hour break! He examined the doorknob closely, but was careful not to actually touch it. Huh… This knob doesn’t have a keyhole… Maybe we’re just supposed to force it… He strode over and reached for the doorknob— [Announcer]: You must escape before you become an undead monster with no will of your own. To find the message I have left, crawl along the earth and look to the heavens. Got it. Get on the floor and look up towards the lights. Easy. Mitarashi froze with his hand on the doorknob and looked around as the announcement finished. …That one was really creepy. It was like they were talking directly to us, you know?Because they were, you idiot. “Crawl along the earth and look to the heavens”… Not sure what that’s supposed to mean. Me either, but I’m sure it’s a hint. We just need to figure out what it’s for… I hate you all. That clue wasn’t even disguised! The only way it could be more clear is if they swapped “earth” with “floor” and “to the heavens” with “up.” Well, we’re not gonna do that by standing around talking. Let’s go, guys! Start looking! We all sighed quietly at his ridiculous enthusiasm, but started looking over the room anyway. Have you checked that cabinet? Nope. Let’s see… Meoshi and I began to go through the cabinet. …What are these? Medicine? Sure. Meoshi stepped out of the way, and Shirabe began to take the bottles out of the cabinet and set them on a wheeled cart. Let’s see… This one is just saline solution, I think… Yep, no smell at all… For each bottle he first squinted at the label, then popped it open to smell the contents. Uhhh… Hey, dad? Mind keeping an eye on your daughter? Hell, would someone keep an eye on the six-year old roaming around a room full of surgical tools and possibly deadly chemicals?  Nobody?! No-one at all? Not even Mr. Serve and Protect? Ah! No—!  Ew! This is really smelly! *Cough* *Cough* The jar forgotten in the face of its overwhelming odor, Mai’s hand let go and it dropped to the floor and shattered.Welp. Hope we didn’t need that for anything. Gah! Wh-What is this…?! *Cough*My guess is probably formalin. This is some zombie experimentation hospital or something, so they likely have some stuff to preserve tissue. Almost immediately the smell of the jar filled the whole room, and everyone began to cough. drat…! This smell…Yeah, don’t breathe that stuff in. It won’t make you drop dead, but it’s also not something you want to go huffing. Cover your mouths! We all retreated to a corner of the room, covering our mouths with sleeves and handkerchiefs. …Urgh… No… I’m okay… Sorry… Kids are kids, man. Don’t sweat it. C’mere…”Kids are kids” is the reason I don’t like kids. He draped his coat over Mai to protect her from whatever had been in the jar. (I guess he’s actually pretty nice, huh…?) It wasn’t long before the smell died down, but just as I was about to relax Shirabe rounded on Mai and started to yell at her. Ah! *Sniff* Waa… waaaaaaaaah! Shirabe was furious— angrier than I’d ever seen— and as Mai backed away from him, she began to cry.*Something starts beeping* His alarm started to sound. Hey, whoa, I understand how you’re feeling, buddy, but why don’t you lay off? She’s just a kid. There’s a reference I didn’t think I’d ever see in an Otome game. *And there’s the sound of our first loser* Oh![Announcer]: Game over. User wins. Calm down! We all have to stay calm! I know! I just… she… Shirabe seemed to have barely even noticed that he’d maxed out his terror gauge. Waaaaaaaaaah! (Yeah, Mai did grab something that could have been dangerous when she shouldn’t have. I can understand scolding her, but… She’s a kid, like Mitarashi said, but that’s why her dad ought to be keeping an eye on her.) So, here’s the deal. Saki is going to restrain herself this time. I know the thread is cheering for Saki to rip the heads off of anyone that ticks her off, but now is quite possibly the worst time for her to do so. (He’s probably just scared, and he doesn’t want to admit it so he gets angry instead…) Then Mitarashi spoke up. Don’t you think you’re being a little hard on her? We all should have been keeping a closer eye out. She’s just a kid.That’s a solid point. This was a group failure. Uh… Yeah, I guess you’re right. (Okay, good. I’m glad Mitarashi said something.)And nobody else had to set off their heart monitor. Yes, if Saki gets mad during that moment, her heart rate goes up and sets off her watch. We’re only allowed to lose 3 people that way and Ayumu is already out, so I think it’s better that Saki holds herself back in this one instance. I let out a quiet sigh of relief. Waaaaaah!Although we do still have to deal with this whole thing.  What are you—! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but Shirabe lifted up his hand like he was about to hit Mai. There was no way I was going to let him do that, but Shidou got to him first. Jesus, dude. I hate kids and even I think that goes too far in this case. No wonder Mai lives with the mother-in-law. Guh—! Shidou’s hand was gripped tightly around Shirabe’s wrist. What the hell is wrong with you?! Get a hold of yourself!*And there goes the next one* [Announcer]: Game over. Stellar job, everyone. Wh-What?! Me?! Shidou’s moment of heroism seemed to have maxed out his terror gauge.And now all eyes fall on Towa to be the final nail in our collective coffin. We still have two puzzles to figure out and the scaredy-cat of the group is still technically in the game.  Urgh. Now two of us are out… (That means if one more person gets a game over…) We’d need to be especially careful. I know tensions are high, but we must calm ourselves. No one has been hurt. We can succeed. I’m so sorry. I screwed this one up real good. So your first instinct is to try and beat the poo poo out of her? … You’ve got your head so far up your a— uh… butt… you almost hit your own kid. You’re freaked, I get that, but you just need to chill out. Right, Mai? *Sniff* *Sniff* Her crying had finally stopped, and Mitarashi bent down to pat her gently on the head. (It does seem like Shirabe and Mai aren’t very close, though…) …Right… …Okay, uh, let’s get back to looking around.For the love of god, yes. Agreed. The smell seems to have finally dissipated.*After a fade-to-black wipe*   Did you notice that all these knives and stuff are fake? They’re glued to the table. So those jars are the only “real” things? Yeah, and that makes them suspicious. Shirabe gathered up all the jars and arranged them on top of the surgery table. We found nine jars but, uh, now we’ve got eight. So what the blazes are we supposed to do with them?CHECK UNDERNEATH THINGS! CHECK THE CEILING! FOR GOD’S SAKE STOP FORGETTING VITAL INFORMATION!  Huh. Don’t get it. …What was that hint again? “Crawl along the earth and look to the heavens,” although I’ll be damned if I know what it means. We all set to thinking about the hint, and silence fell over the room. After a few minutes, I noticed that Mai— who seemed to have taken a liking to Mitarashi— was looking kind of puzzled. (Well, she’s just a kid. All of this stuff is probably really confusing…) But as I kept watching, I realized she was also being pretty fidgety. Please, 6-year old child, put us out of this misery. Is there something you wanted to tell us? Um, yeah… She nodded nervously. …There’s something on the table. What? Where? Underneath. It’s over here… She pointed to the far side of the surgery table. Wakasa walked over and crouched down to take a look. She’s right. There’s something here. Yes. Thank you for accomplishing in 30 seconds what 7 young adults couldn’t do in 45 minutes.  I patted her on the head and she giggled. It’s a drawing… What looks like a crown, and… three drops of water. If it’s on the underside, does that mean this is a low rain-king table?Boo! Shut up. F-Fine! You obviously don’t appreciate quality humor anyway! It appears to be written in blood, which suggests to me that it has greater meaning than a rebus describing the relative standing of a table. Yeah… You guys are hopeless! What do you have for us now, Ayumu? Something actually useful, I hope.  Of course not.  Ah! …He he he… Mai smiled so wide I thought she was going to hurt herself, and Shirabe gave her a crooked grin, apparently in spite of himself. All right smart guy, what the heck is this supposed to mean then? Now we’re making progress. Okay, so where’s the convoluted mixing system that forces us to pour out an exact amount of liquid by juggling them between tubes with different capacities? It then follows that the “ingredients” are nitric and hydrochloric acid. After all, “royal water” is just another name for… Aqua regia!I never took chemistry. What the hell is that supposed to do for us? Precisely. What’s that? So we just have to mix them together? Three drops… that’s water, so that must mean… three parts hydrochloric acid? Then the crown would be one part nitric. Correct. Then let’s get to it. He picked up the two jars and looked around. Anything around here we can mix these in? Oh, how about this? I handed a beaker I’d found on the ground to Shidou, and he nodded. He carefully measured out the right amounts of each substance and added them to the beaker, which was soon filled with a reddish-orange liquid. All right, now… What do we do with this?Let’s go find that zombie from earlier and throw it at him! Shidou and Shirabe looked thoughtful. I’d guess we’re supposed to pour it on that keyless lock. Could you hand it to me?Or, yeah. I guess we could do that too. Shidou did, and Shirabe walked over to the lock and upended the beaker of aqua regia over it. It’s melting! Looks like we were right. The melted lock fell to the floor with a thud, and as it did the PA crackled to life again.[Announcer]: Vivisection lab complete. Let’s move, people. The clock is ticking.”We’ve only got 4 hours left! It’s going to be close!”  Aw, they’ve bonded. Kinda weird how Mitarashi became the surrogate father figure here. Especially considering the biological father is standing two feet away. (Awww, that’s kinda cute – oh! A text from Uncle Keiji!) I pulled out my phone and began to read. (Yeah… I guess you’re right.)Okay, I guess we’re taking a moment to drag this issue back up from the grave. Let’s just get it over with. I took a deep breath and strode up to Shirabe. Can I ask you something? Sure thing, little lady. What’s up? Everyone else had already left. We were alone. Um… Last night I… saw you talking to someone through the Hogstein statu. He blinked in surprise, but his face quickly twisted into a sour grimace. Argh! He started to move toward the exit. Wait! Give it a rest. …We have to trust each other if we’re going to cooperate, and we have to cooperate if we’re going to get through the other attractions.I don’t know, your pathetic excuse for a team has managed to bungle their way through the games so far. Not sure cooperation is as necessary as you think. If we don’t trust each other, everything’s going to fall apart. I want to trust you, but I can’t do that if you’re going to keep stuff from me like this. I planted my feet and looked him in the eye. … Shirabe stared back at me for a long moment then rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. Well, spill it! Right… By now everyone else had made their way back into the room, possibly because they’d gotten tired of waiting for us. What’s going on? Um, well…*After a fade-to-black wipe* I brought them up to speed quickly, and when I was finished Shirabe began to speak. I got a call from someone who called themselves “M2.” They told me I’d learn the truth if I came to the park’s opening.Sound off in the thread: What case do you think Ayumu is chasing? My money is 100% on “the people/thing responsible for his wife’s death.” I would also ask “Who do you think M2 is?”, but I think that’s most likely to be Hogstein. Still not sure why he singled out Ayumu for this, but luring him in with the promise of finding answers seems like an easy way to get him where you want him. I was talking to the pig last night because I was trying to figure out if he was M2. He just blew me off, though…Called it. Also, there you have it. The big suspicious thing Saki was going crazy thinking about was Ayumu doing the exact thing a journalist/investigator/reporter would obviously be doing: Trying to pry information out of people. He sighed and scratched at his beard. I’m not the traitor. Cross my heart. …Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, if he was the traitor, why would he let Mai get caught up in all this? You’re right… I’m sorry I suspected you, Shirabe. (Then the pig was lying about there being a traitor!)Yes! Because it ferments unrest within the group! It’s like the easiest and most obvious way to get under a group’s skin and drive them to each other’s throats. It’s an incredibly effective mind game because there are few ways of reliably disproving the accusation and personal biases lead to everyone suspecting someone else. This leads to confirmation bias when a paranoid person starts attributing every action or word from the suspected traitor as being evidence of their ulterior motives. You can’t afford to completely brush aside the idea, but at the same time you don’t go full blown “investigation wall” like Saki did. My uncle’s advice had been right on the money. All of my fears about Shirabe were gone. We need to get moving. Only two hours left until the deadline. Right. Let’s go! …What the hell is that thing staring at us through the window? Well, this should be the last room. “Records”… right? There were several wooden desks spaced evenly throughout the room. On top of each one was a mountain of documents and old computers. Surrounding the desks were rows of bookshelves. Look at that… Not sure I like the sound of that. Hnngh… Looks like it’s glued to the desk. I guess we won’t be moving it.Do we need to? We only need whatever’s inside, right? Well don’t try and force it. Everyone else stepped back as Shidou approached the box and slowly opened the lid. This… this is… What the heck? There’s some sorta weird machine in there… …We have a lot less than 2 hours left now.
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Jun 6, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 19:46
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Hwurmp posted:I love deadbeat dads Everyone's got a type. Although, now that I say that, it's kind of weird how there's no "bad boy" character in this lineup. Ryusei is the closest we've got and he's more of a goofball. Ignatius M. Meen posted:Dumping his kid on his mother-in-law after his wife died was already a romance disqualifier, did he think there was a gold medal for going the extra mile with child abuse? Not to play devil's advocate, but he's under an incredible amount of stress right now. His estranged daughter randomly showing up and potentially getting everyone killed (based on what they knew at the time) would not help matters. Not excusing him, but I also don't know of we can paint his entire character based on this one instance. differentiating posted:On the plus side, at least Mitarashi is good with kids, and I like him a lot more for just jumping in like that. Shidou also wins points for reaming Shirabe out, and I honestly don't blame him for maxing out - child abuse is 100% something to get pissed about. Blaze Dragon posted:If this game wanted to make me really not play a route, it sure succeeded here. Regardless of what you may think of children (I'm not too fond of them myself!), Shirabe's treatment of his daughter is horrendous and beyond unacceptable. cardinale posted:For real! Is an unattractive 32-year old who rages at his daughter really supposed to be an appropriate option for this protagonist? No thanks! Here's something I'm curious about. I'm pretty sure this stage is where we get locked into a route (which is Mitarashi for us). It seems like Mitarashi has been getting more attention in the past few updates, even during moments where we don't control who Saki interacts with. I'm wondering if the different routes start playing out slightly differently from this point on (now that we've locked in). Like, are they making some characters look better/worse based on who we are chasing? I'm curious to know if Ayumu's route makes him look better and Ryusei/Subaru worse, for instance. There's a moment in the next update that I really think supports this idea. Granted, we won't really know for sure until we've been through the game once. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Jun 6, 2020 |
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Jun 6, 2020 15:19
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Shidou did good chewing that douchecanoe out too.
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Update X: Fission Mailed Last time we witnessed some terrible parenting from Ayumu that basically obliterated any interest the thread may have had in him.  …Mostly. Anyway, outside of that we also ran into a tiny problem in the form of high explosives. The gang also only has about 15 minutes to figure out this puzzle, and we all know how great they are at making efficient use of time. The wires ran to an LCD panel that read “14:56.” As we watched, it changed to 14:55, then 14:54… Oh no… I-Is this the bomb that’s gonna blow up the whole attraction if we lost?!I doubt it. A bomb that size would have trouble blowing up this one room. Unless it’s like a pocket nuke or something. Whoa, whoa, no way! We’ve still got two hours left! But the timer only has 14 minutes… The voice of the announcer filled the room, and then was gone. That’s right… What? In the original game the main character is a scientist, and he escapes and blows up the hospital to destroy all the zombie research. And that’s the end of the game… So for our last puzzle, all we have to do is use these clippers to cut the wires? Red! It’s always the red one! …Or is it blue? W-Wait, so, if there’s just one right wire, we’ve only got a one in seven chance of getting it? Relax. We all need to stay calm, especially now, and think this through. First, what are the failure conditions? Our heart rates are monitored by the terror gauges. If one becomes too agitated, their gauge will reach its limit and that person will be “out.” Good job on that by the way, Ayumu and Subaru. A-All right, well, if the time on that bomb reaches zero, then it’s “game over,” and there’s only thirteen minutes left! And if we cut the wrong wires, then we’re really in trouble! …Okay, so what do we do? We keep our heart rates down, we figure out which wire to cut, and we do it before time runs out. Exactly. Now let’s examine the announcement we just heard. "Farewell, bloodstained hospital. All these sins are yours, so that I might escape this purgatory." What’s “purgatory”?It’s like a waiting room for heaven. If you’re a good little Christian boy or girl, but maybe might have done some things that God would wag his finger at, then Purgatory is where your spirit goes in order to be purified before being allowed into heaven. It’s like hell, in that you are being punished for your sins, but it’s not for eternity. People could reduce the amount of time they (or even their already dead relatives) would have to languish in purgatory by getting “Indulgences.” Indulgences were supposed to be given out by the church for stuff like saying prayers a bunch of times or visiting religious sites or doing good deeds. But since organized religion can’t avoid a scam, the church started considering donations to be a “good deed.” You shouldn’t have to try very hard to see where this led. The Middle Ages was an especially greedy moment for the church where priests and bishops funded insane vanity projects through the sale of indulgences. Basically, the church was the mob that told people “You know, all that sin debt that your father had is going to make him suffer for hundreds of years. Saying your prayers isn’t going to cut it anymore, unfortunately. But you know, we’re selling some debt forgiveness on God’s behalf. Could help your poor old dad skip the line and get into heaven a little quicker.” And that’s pretty much how stuff like the building of the new St. Peter’s Basilica got funded. History!   Oh yeah, it’s also that. Although Dante was from the Republic of Florence, so technically it should be “Purgatorio.” The Divine Comedy is an epic poem in three parts— Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The writing we saw at the entrance— “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”— is from the poem as well. Shirabe tapped his middle finger against his forehead as he spoke. In the Divine Comedy, Purgatory is for souls that have committed the sins of pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, or lust.Yes, The Seven Deadly Sins are part of Purgatory as well. Dante climbs Purgatorio (which is a mountain in this case) in the second part of the Divine Comedy. Purgatory is divided into 10 terraces. Paradiso/Heaven sits at the very top, then you’ve got Lust/Gluttony/Avarice (Greed)/Sloth/Wrath/Envy/Pride, and then you have two levels of Ante-Purgatory for people who repented their sins at the last minute or were excommunicated. I think the association of the Deadly Sins with Hell may have come from Purgatory gradually falling by the wayside in religion. It’s rarely mentioned anymore, except by a few branches of Christianity, so I think the sins tend to get merged into the idea of Hell. Ah, the so-called “seven deadly sins,” right? Right, sorry. I’ve been getting really carried away with history and stuff in this update. Let’s get back to focusing on the whole bomb situation we’re currently trapped in. The guy in the game was doing experiments at the hospital for the military to create zombies and stuff. He loses his memory, but while you explore the hospital you find his journals and notes and stuff, and it starts to come back… Then, the sins it was talking about… His zombie research, human experimentation… Okay, I doubt we’ll get anything more out of that. Let’s look around the room. Be fast, we don’t have much time. Right! We all ran off to different parts of the room, and began looking desperately for anything that might give us the hint we needed. I grabbed a drawer, expecting it to be fake too, and was surprised when it opened. Ah! What is it? There’s a notebook in here! It says “Research Notes.” I lifted it out carefully as everyone crowded in around me. Why don’t you try opening it to the pages they’re marking?Duh. I did as he’d suggested, and found a page full of scribbled notes with one word circled in what looked like blood. Whoa, what the heck…? This is creepy. It looks like every page with a piece of colored paper had a word circled on it. Can you tell me what the words are? Maybe all the horrible stuff he had to do drove him crazy. (Hm… Wait.) The others were still gathered around the notebook discussing it, but I felt as if I was on the verge of some sort of mental breakthrough. (I… I feel like I’ve heard these words before…) Oh come on, really? This calls for one of Saki’s patented “Explosive Insight” moments? Ugh… fiiiine. Here we go. (There were five circled words in the journal: jealousy, fury, neglect, indulgence, and seduction. I feel like I’ve seen something like them before… When we first got here, we found the treasure chest on the desk, but it ended up being a timebomb.) (The announcement mentioned purgatory, which is from the Divine Comedy… I think? Purgatory is where people who have committed some of the seven deadly sins go when they die. The main character in the game this was based on worked at the hospital. His “sin” was creating zombies and performing human experimentation. So… why do those words from the journal seem familiar?) Three chances to guess that was three too many in my opinion. The seven deadly sins! Of course! That’s it! What’s it?! Look at the words he circled. Aren’t those, like, basically synonyms for some of the sins? What?! My God, she’s right… Jealousy, fury, neglect, indulgence, seduction… envy, wrath, sloth, gluttony, and lust! They all match up! Yes, but we’re missing pride and greed. Whoa, whoa! You guys, look at this! The colors on those pieces of paper match the wires connected to the bomb! You’re right! I think we’ve got it! So, yeah. I thought for sure we were going for a puzzle where each of the people matched up with one of the sins. Seems like a pretty obvious thing for Hogstein to come up with, especially if these guys somehow wronged him in the past. But apparently this is just a simple color matching deal instead. For fun, what guy do you think matches with each sin? I’m a little conflicted about some of them. Towa and Subaru both seem like contenders for “Pride.” Ryusei seems like a shoe-in for “Lust.” Ayumu might be “Wrath”, considering what we just witnessed last update. Kouta? Probably “Sloth.” Kimimaro and Saki, though? Beats me. Granted, Saki wasn’t the intended seventh participant. If we match them up with the sins, we’re missing pride and greed. Then we can assume the red and blue wires correspond to pride and greed. Maybe. Or maybe we have to cut all of them except those two. This is a tricky call to make. No, we don’t know that. All we know is that those wires aren’t mentioned in the journal. How much time do we have left? Six minutes! drat… We need to figure this out, now! Mai jumped at Mitarashi’s change in tone and took a step back from him. There has to be something more here… The ticking clock was making everyone frantic, and I could tell we were quickly losing focus. (I need to calm down…) I was trying desperately to get my thoughts in order when Shidou caught my eye. Wh-What?! (Oh man… What am I gonna do?)We have a choice here. Saki can either tell Shidou that she’s got this poo poo covered, or she can tell him that they all need to think about it some more. Got it! I’ll do my best!Saying “Got it!” is an affection point towards Shidou, but it doesn’t really matter anymore if we get a stray one here and there. Stage 3 is where we lock into a particular route and there’s no chance of anyone overtaking Ryusei before the end of this stage, so I’d prefer to let Saki show a little confidence in herself. I gave him a firm nod. We’re counting on you. Screw you. Saki is the lynchpin here. You guys would have died back in the first stage without her. Yeah! (Maybe there’s something in that announcement that we missed, or something else we’ve skipped over. I mean, there has to be! These puzzles are tough, but they’re solvable!)Well, they’re solvable as long as Hogstein wants them to be solvable.  This is new. We’ve got a second “Explosive Insight” moment and it’s only a little while after the first one. (“Farewell, bloodstained hospital. All these sins are yours, so that I might escape this purgatory.” We matched the seven deadly sins to the words circled in the journal. The journal only had five sins, though: Envy, wrath, sloth, gluttony, and lust.) (That means the red and blue wires that don’t match up to the journal correspond to pride and greed. …But that still doesn’t tell us which wires to cut. How are we supposed to figure it out?)This moment is slightly tougher to figure out than the first one, so it’s possible that the first moment was just meant to lure the player into a false sense of security.  That’s it! “All these sins”! It has to mean that we’re supposed to cut “all the sins” in the journal! That’s the answer! That makes sense… Unless anyone disagrees? Nope, sounds good to me! That has to be it. Yup. I agree!Kouta, dude, we really need to have a discussion on that evil smile of yours. Me too! Something up, Kimi? If you’re seeing a problem with Saki’s logic on this then now is the time to speak up. There’s not going to be a second chance if she’s wrong. All right, those five wires it is. Good work. He grinned, and picked up the clippers. There were four minutes left on the clock. Remember to stay calm, or you might set off your terror gauge! This’ll all be over in just a minute… Slowly and carefully, Shidou cut each wire, avoiding the red and blue ones. This is the last one… Right. Here goes…! With a snap, the clippers cut through the last wire. …What? N-No! poo poo. Welp, looks like we’ve got a coin flip to make. The time was still counting down. We’re still here, which means we haven’t failed the game, but… Does this mean one of the remaining wires needs to be cut too? O-Oh man! How’re we supposed to figure this one out? Wakasa moaned. He’s got a point. May as well pick a colour and give it a shot. True, but… Cut the red one! My gut says that’s the one. Gimmie those! He lunged forward to take the clippers from Shidou— W-Wait! We don’t have time! If someone didn’t stop him, he was going to cut it. I leapt toward Mitarashi— At last, Urabe spoke. …Why do you say that? It’s… blue? There was something oddly… certain about his tone.Hey, at least there’s a sense of logic to that reasoning. I’ll take that over Ryusei following his gut. Interesting… But how did you figure that out? Shirabe…? He didn’t look happy.Oh, Christ. You can’t be serious… Gah! We’ve only got two minutes left! What are we gonna do?! Shidou turned to face Urabe as well. … W-Wait, what are you guys saying?They’re actually doing the stupid traitor thing. That’s what they are saying. Son of a bitch, I thought we were past that. I didn’t know what was going on, but I could feel a knot beginning to form at the bottom of my stomach. I… Um…? What?! All around the room, eyes widened in shock. But… that was just something Hogstein said to shake us up… … His sad expression was enough to confirm my worst fears. (No… this can’t be happening…) I was still reeling when Shidou spoke up. He reached for the blue wire— Wh-whoa, what?! You’re gonna trust a guy who just told you he’s a traitor?! Once again, there’s a possible affection point here. I know I said they don’t matter at this point, but we’re still going to not trust Urabe. He’s being punished for being a part of an incredibly tired subplot. …Maybe we should think about it a little more. Right? After hearing Urabe, though, I’m having a hard time thinking it could be the red wire. … We had less than a minute left on the timer. We had to make a decision: the red wire, or the blue one. He might be a traitor, but his logic’s better than anything we’ve come up with. I say we trust him! With this ultimatum given, Mitarashi turned his back to the bomb and sat down cross-legged on the floor. …Mister? “Mister”…? That’s way too formal. We’re bros. I guess that’s it, then. He nodded, and moved to stand between Mitarashi and the bomb in what was likely a vain attempt to shield her from the blast. Here we go! He looked around at us one last time, and we all nodded. Shidou held the clippers up to the wire, squeezed the grip, and… Cut it. Ah…! …Nothing happened?! The timer’s stopped at five seconds. Then… We’d done it! Smiles began to break out when— You! Unfortunately, your answer is incorrect!Not my fault! I said we should think about it more. Oh no! The timer suddenly started to count down again— And before we knew it, the numbers hit zero.[Announcer]: Stage 3, failed. The announcement hit me like a punch to the stomach. His voice was a mix of anger and desperation. Oink oink oink! Well unfortunately for you that was an itty bitty lie. Think of it as… insurance. I was starting to wonder if I could trust you.…Hold on a second. If Kimimaro is a traitor, then what the hell is Hogstein getting out of that arrangement? Hell, what is Kimimaro getting out of it? If Kimimaro was supposed to sabotage the group, then that would have resulted in his death by proxy, which raises the question of “Why the gently caress would you bother following Hogstein’s orders in the first place?” And if Hogstein’s goal was to sabotage the group in order to make them fail, then why bother making any of these puzzle attractions? He could have just made the first puzzle unwinnable!  All the wires?! You mean the missing sins, the blue journal… all of that was just to trick us?! But that’s childish, dishonest, and… drat, of course it is. Childish and dishonest is his calling card. Why didn’t I notice it earlier?! It was all a trick…? I didn’t know what else to say. Shouldn’t you all be, I don’t know… Running for your lives about now? (Ah! That’s right! We failed, so…) The bombs were about to go off! That’s easy to say, but… Since Hogstein’s revelation, Urabe had looked empty and beaten, but now he suddenly straightened up. This way! Whoa! This leads outside! Quickly! You must hurry! We didn’t wait for him to say it twice, and ran through the door as fast as we could. Go! Just go! Okay! (…Where’s Urabe?) I looked back over my shoulder— I wasn’t even sure I’d heard it. Urabe?! Smoke instantly filled the hallway, and I stumbled forward, blinded. *Gasp* (I can’t keep going!) But just as I was about to collapse, I felt someone grab my hand. M…Mitarashi? Where’s Mai?! She’s already out. Don’t worry. You need to get moving, though! Those bombs aren’t done going off yet! I focused on his hand, picked myself up, and began to run again. We hadn’t gone very far before I heard another explosion from behind us. Aaaah! The blast slammed into me, and I felt my body begin to fall, when— Mitarashi…? Guh—! He’d wrapped his arms around me and turned his back to the explosion. Are you okay? (He stuck his neck out for me, again…) Urgh…! Another blast hit us, far more powerful than the others, and then everything went dark.  Well then… We… we kinda hosed up.[???]: Hey, are you alright? Uh… ugh… What happened to the hospital?! Have a look. It’s toast. I spun around. Mitarashi was right… There was nothing left but a mass of twisted, smoking debris. Oh gosh… I tried to stand up, but the escape had taken all I had in me, and my legs just didn’t have the strength. Everyone else was silent. Wait… Urabe! What about Urabe?! No… I bit my lip. drat… I knew that guy was hiding something… …Urgh…Oh right, how are you holding up over there, Mitarashi? Are you okay?! I’m fine, I think I just took a hit to the gut.This park is really holding a grudge against you, man. Because you were looking out for me…? Oh… (He looks like he’s in a lot of pain… I bet he just said that so I wouldn’t feel bad. It seems like he’s always saving me…) The next voice I heard was one I would have been happy to never hear again. I mean, you did apparently set the bombs to explode like a full minute after the game was failed. You’ve got no-one to blame but yourself on that one. Unless one of the piglets was asleep at the switch or something. You son of a bitch! Bringing my daughter into this was a pretty low move, pal. Wasn’t this supposed to be a seven-player game? You won’t even play by your own rules! Whoa, hold on there, cowboy! I was as surprised by your spawn being here as you were! Oink. This little twerp is definitely not supposed to be in my park, you understand? Shidou, take a moment to really think about what you just said. I seem to recall that someone in this group was head of security for this amusement park opening and yet here we are with terrorist bombers dressed as hogs running around. In fact, taking eight people into a game would be against the rules, so I’m thiiiiinking about killing a hostage! Oink oink oink! …Eep… As the pig’s gaze turned toward her, Mai scurried around behind Mitarashi. Hm. Hm, hm, hm. Ah-ha! Of course! Let’s add her in as a participant!No, please. Let’s not do that. You get a new friend, and I get a chance to off someone else! That’s what I call a win-win!…Huh. Now that I think about it… I wonder if that zombie we ran into was just a guy dressed up as one? Because if that’s the case, then I think there’s another family out there that’s going to have to be notified. Whoa… You’re talking about a kid here, man. You should just let Mai leave the park! No! No no no! I’ve made up my mind and that’s that! Rrrgh! He wasn’t going to let Mai go. I felt my hands balling into fists. (He doesn’t listen to us at all! And he barely follows his own rules— just makes stuff up as he goes along! He’s all excited about “offing” someone else?! That’s awful! What a jerk!) We no longer have to worry about those heart monitor things, so go ahead Saki. Let it out. What’s wrong with you?! You’re gonna try and force a little kid to play your sick game?! Adults are supposed to help and protect kids, not try and kill them! What is wrong with you?! Wh-When did I ever say anything about being an adult— You’re carrying a cigar!She’s got you there. A-Aaah! Oink oink oink. Well, I mean, I was just kidding around. A little joke! For fun! I frowned. Argh! What?! (What? That felt almost… serious.)Hold up, what do you mean by that? What exactly were you hoping to get from all this? Revenge? Is it revenge? Come on, give us something to go on. And now I must leave you! Buh-byeeeee! He was gone, and the screen flickered off. Damnit! We all sat down, exhausted. The game of the day had been beaten, but…Well, technically you didn’t beat it. (Urabe…) We hadn’t been able to stop the bomb, and Urabe had disappeared. We didn’t even know if he was alive.Honestly, he should be dead as hell. That blast was powerful enough to turn the entire attraction into a crater. But tropes dictate that since we didn’t see him die, it means he’s totally still alive. I’m not sure how long we sat there before Shidou suggested we go get something to eat. We lumbered to our feet and headed in that direction. (What are they talking about…?) It didn’t take long for me to find out. I asked them to help fix you up, Mitarashi.Awww, but that was going to be Saki’s chance at more sexy bonding time with Mitarashi! Patching up his various wounds is their thing! Huh? Your injury. It looks like you’re in a lot of pain. A piglet approached, and gestured for Mitarashi to accompany it. R-Right. Guess I’ll go with this guy, then. We nodded, and he disappeared off into the kitchen. You’re probably right. We’d all ordered and begun to eat when Mitarashi returned. Dinner was quiet, unlike the night before, but it was hardly surprising: One of our companions had gone missing. That image— the smoking wreckage of the hospital— refused to leave my mind. (Nobody’s talking…) I looked around the table. Everyone’s expression was dark and gloomy. What? Uh… um… never mind… He shook his head and tried to go back to eating. Well, he, uh, probably had his reasons, right? Unless we can ask him we’ll never really know. If it wasn’t for him, every single person sitting at this table would be dead right now. Yeah… He saved our lives. That seemed to end the conversation, and we went back to eating in silence. (They’re probably all wondering what to do next too…) I hoped Urabe was safe. “I already have what I want.” What’s weird about that? Oh, right. I guess that is what he would mean. I forgot that the characters haven’t already figured out what the audience has in regards to this totally being part of some kind of revenge plot for Hogstein. …So, you’re saying he didn’t just pick us at random? Shidou had been running security, and Wakasa had been invited as a celebrity guest. Meoshi had come for exclusive DLC and I was pretty sure Mitarashi had come just because he wanted to be there for the opening of a new park. And Shirabe had been brought to the park by a mysterious phone call. (You certainly wouldn’t think these guys have anything in common by looking at them…) Was there something else going on, something behind the games, that we couldn’t see?Duh?  But either he wasn’t out there or didn’t want to be found, and we met back at the dock, exhausted. …It looks like our time is up for now. No… The pig’s not going to stop just so we can look for Urabe. We need to get some rest for tomorrow. Yeah… With heavy hearts, we ended our search and headed into the hotel. (Where did you go…?) I collapsed onto my bed as soon as I was close enough to it to do so, expecting that I’d be asleep in minutes, but that didn’t happen. (I wonder where Urabe is…) I kept thinking about him, and about the hospital getting blown up. (Why was Urabe working with Hogstein…?)That’s a very good question. I still don’t understand how either of them benefitted from that. (And why’d that stupid pig have to blow up part of Uncle Keiji’s park, after he worked so hard on it? Maybe if I’d just tried harder…)That question is probably a bit easier to answer. Keiji probably crossed Hogstein in some way in the past. Arg… I’ve got too much to think about. No way I’m getting to sleep… I sat up and sighed. (I wonder if anybody else is having trouble sleeping…?)  Break time, and we can see that Kimimaro has straight up been deleted from the roster. Not that it matters anymore. We’ve hit the point where the route is now locked in, so the game is automatically assigning us to Ryusei, who we have the most affection points with.  I think it is still possible to earn affection points with Ryusei (as well as miss affection points with him), because his gauge in the menu is nowhere near maxed out yet. I’m not sure what this means, though. Maybe there is a good and bad version of each guy’s ending? Something to test out on a future run, I guess. We also need to see what happens if we avoid getting affection points with anyone, because I think that’s possible. (Who’d be visiting me this late?) I opened the door to find… Hey! Mitarashi?! Is something wrong? Eeeh, not really. You just looked kinda bummed when we all split up, like you had a lot on your mind or something.…Did that explosion screw with your memory or something? Hah… Yeah, I guess you’re right. Smooth move, my man. …Huh? Really?! Yeah, why not? Just means I’ve got your back. I suppose. You just never struck me as the sort of guy who sees women as… well, as bros, I guess. Sorta goes with the territory. With a job like mine there’s not a lot of room for seeing a woman as anything more than a client. Oh. Well… thanks, then. That makes me happy. (He’s trying to cheer me up…) Aren’t you sad about it too? Uh… He coughed and looked around awkwardly, then shrugged. Yeah, but keep it under your hat, okay? It’s not like we were BFFs or anything, but he was one of us. I think he thought of us as his friends. I just… don’t think he really wanted to betray us, you know?I’m still not even clear on how he betrayed you. I can’t remember any moments off the top of my head where Urabe suggested something that turned out to be wrong. He tapped out on the go kart thing, but someone had to ride single during that part regardless. Yeah… Man, sorry about that. I’m not usually such a whiner. So much for staying cool… You’re being too hard on yourself. Oh! How’s your injury? It’s fine. I’m fine. Although I should probably be getting back to my room for some sleep. Yeah, you should. All right. You too, okay? I nodded and waved him off down the hall. (That was nice, actually. I feel quite a bit better.) Words to live by... I guess. (All right, time for me to get some sleep.) I was going to need my rest, so the sooner I got into bed the better. Gah! Where the hell did you come from? Mai?! What are you doing here?! …Can I sleep with you? Of course. I mean, if it’s okay with your dad… …Yeah. Okay, let’s get in bed then. I tucked her in, then turned off the lights and climbed into bed myself. (This is kind of like having a little sister…) Mai was already snoring softly. I let my eyes drift closed… Speaking of sisters. [Child 1?]: Hey! What should we ride next?! [Child 2?]: Um… how about… the tea cups! [Mother?]: Hold on a minute, you two. If you go on all the rides right away you’ll tire yourselves out. [Father?]: She’s right, you know. We’ve got plenty of time. What’d you say to some ice cream? What flavors do you want? [Child 1?]: Chocolate!  Hey, there we go! We’ve finally got a name for someone! *After a fade-to-black wipe* [Father?]: …All right, here you go. [Child 1?]: Thank you! [Akane]: Thank you! Weirdly, despite getting a name just a second ago, the text boxes still just display “???”.  Anyway, that’s it for Stage 3. We are now zeroed in on Mitarashi’s route. Let’s see what impact (if any) that will have on the remaining 4 stages. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Jun 10, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 23:15
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Jadecore posted:...I don't recall, have we gotten an explanation for what the deal with his orb is? It might be a disguised smart device to help give him hints or navigate through the attractions or... something. Whatever Hoggy needed a traitor for. Nothing so far. That moment in the zombie maze was the only time I think anyone even acknowledges it. Of course, we probably would have learned more if we had actually spent time with Urabe. It probably is a smart device of some sort. I kind of feel like we're heading for an emotional moment at some point where Urabe tells us that he’s a fraud or something. Hwurmp posted:we were almost We will be eventually. Maybe? Is Urabe still a traitor in his own route? Because romancing a pile of exploded body parts would be a little difficult.
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Jun 10, 2020 01:32
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HardDiskD posted:Typo here. Thanks. Fixed it. You are right about that. I mentioned it before, but there has to be a certain level of stupid involved. If there wasn’t then it would be a very boring and tension-free game. But yeah, that deadly sins moment was insulting. It was literally discussed at length a few sentences before the segment kicked in. Part of me thinks it was so stupidly easy in order to trick the player into thinking they were in the clear since there hasn't been 2 Explosive Insight moments in one puzzle before.
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Jun 10, 2020 01:46
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LP Status/Possible Hiatus ------------------------------------------------------ Just as a reminder to everyone, my intention is to put the LP on a (hopefully) very brief hiatus so that I can try and improve the quality of the character portraits. I mentioned this near the start of the LP, but I wasn't even close to being successful in yanking out the art assets from this game. Nothing I did worked, so I had to rely on some transparent PNGs that someone else had stuck up online. Problem is, these transparent PNGs were rough around the edges and were missing several of the characters expressions. I've never been happy with the look of them, but unfortunately they were the best I could do at the time. Saki and Hogstein's portraits are especially bad (Hogstein's are all very wide/tall, so his portraits are uneven compared to everyone else). In Saki's case, there simply isn't much artwork of her to use to create head icons (she's the viewpoint protagonist of a VN, so she doesn't have a portrait like everyone else does). Here is an example of what I hope to do to clean things up: Current/New:  Current/New:  The icons seem a bit big, so I've reduced their size. I've also attempted to smooth out the edges. Ryusei is unfortunately going to have to deal with the top of his head being shaved off, because 90% of his portraits clip through the top of the screen. I'm still not sure of how much time I'll need. I also might simply keep going with the LP and just work on these on the side, then replace everything once they're done. We'll see what happens with my life in the next week or two, since I'm not having a great time at the moment. Slaan posted:I'd take an arrow for you, bruh And a bullet... and several explosions. Hwurmp posted:let's tell the whole world we're bros What gets me is how excited Saki seems to be when she hears it. M: Because, you know... we're bros. S: REALLY?! WE'RE BROS?! M: Shhh! Blaze Dragon posted:Mitarashi is still the best and still getting hurt by everything. He's a true bro. I'm guessing his "bros" were "nakama" originally, but "bro" feels very fitting here. You are correct. While I don't have the Japanese version's text, I do have the voice acting. Mitarashi does say "nakama" at that point. "Bro" is a perfectly fine substitute given the kind of character Mitarashi is. Astrofig posted:Also I'm calling it now; Urabe wasn't there by choice. Bet you anything Hogstein has a loved one of his hostage. He must have some form of heavy leverage over him, but I'm not sure if a loved one is it. Hogstein would have trouble using a hostage to coerce Urabe, because just by being "the traitor" he would be putting said hostage at risk. If Urabe sabotages the group then they all die, either from the trap or from being exploded (they only survived the hospital because Urabe knew of a secret escape). If they all die, then there's no one left to save the hostages. Whatever it is, Urabe was willing to die and possibly kill others in order to get it/save it/destroy it/hide it. Maybe it's like a family reputation thing or something that's tied into whatever reason Hogstein has for targeting Urabe in the first place. In other news, I just noticed (while looking for Saki artwork) that someone on the forum did LP this game back in 2015. It's not on the Master List, but ChorpSaway was doing an SSLP of this game and even had custom drawn icons for Saki, although it seems as though they only got up to the end of Stage 1 before the LP suddenly stopped. I guess this game isn't as obscure as I initially thought. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Jun 11, 2020 |
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Jun 11, 2020 16:14
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Sorry this took so long. I intended to work on new character portraits, but then all of last week kind of turned into one slap in the face after another. It was rough. So I'm just going to continue doing updates with the current portraits. I'll continue picking away at new ones on the side whenever I have the time. It'll be more work for me when it comes time to go back and replace all of them with the new ones, but at least this LP won't be in danger of petering out from me procrastinating/forgetting about it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Update XI: Saki's Sweet Day Off Last update, there was a stupid traitor plot that… well, it’s kind of hard to call it a traitor plot actually. Kimimaro said he had betrayed the group, but we have no idea as to what he could have possibly done for Hogstein that would have made him a traitor. He had a pretty minor role in the solving of each game and at no point did he really sabotage the group’s chance at victory.  Beats me. Anyway, the point is that he was supposedly a traitor and then he went and possibly got exploded. Except that we didn’t see a body and therefore it means he is totally alive and will dramatically reappear at some point in the future. More importantly, we’re locked in to Ryusei’s route now. Time for Saki to start making some real progress on getting her hands on Ulysses’ top escort.  (Gosh, I still feel kinda tired from yesterday…) Mmm… Daddy… (Mai…? Oh, that’s right. She was feeling too shy to spend the night with her dad, so she came to my room.)Right…  shy. It definitely wasn’t out of fear or guilt or anything like that. (Kinda makes me feel like I have a little sister. …Man, now I wish I did have a little sister.)All right, so unless Saki is suffering from amnesia then it’s safe to say that those are not her memories that we keep seeing at the end of each chapter.  Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you up? No, it’s okay. ….Good morning. Good morning to you too, Mai. Are you feeling okay? Did you sleep well? …Yeah. She blushed a little bit as she nodded. (Oh my gosh, that is so adorable.)I remain unfazed. Talk to me when Mai starts dressing in little warrior costumes and slaying sex monsters with lances modeled after the Tokyo Skytree.…It was the last game I LP’d, just… don’t question it. Thanks, Mai! I think being your big sister would have been pretty awesome! …Yeah… She smiled and nodded, but she still looked a little fidgety and nervous. (A kid really shouldn’t be part of all this.) (If the explosion yesterday opened up his wounds…)*There’s a knock at the door, after which one of those creepy Piglet guys wanders in* … Oh, right. Time for breakfast? …! …! He’s gesturing again... Huh. What does he mean? He doesn’t really need to tell us. They bring this stuff in on a room service cart. We can clearly see what it is we’re having. ! Oh, he’s nodding… So what are we having? Can you understand what they’re saying? …I don’t understand everything he says, but yeah, I guess so. (Maybe kids are better at stuff like that…) The piglet set up a table piled high with delicious-looking, steaming breakfast. What? (She looks really hungry…)Then eat something. It’s right there. …! Once he was finished, the piglet gave us a short bow and backed away. (Oh jeez, this looks sooooo good… but I can’t stop worrying about Mitarashi.) Sorry Mai, but do you mind if I go visit Mitarashi before I eat? Yeah. I’m worried about him. He hurt his tummy… I’ll be right back, so you go ahead and eat your breakfast, okay? Um… She looked at me, then at her breakfast, and then back at me again. What’s wrong? Oh, is there something there you don’t like? No… She looked around the room nervously and twisted her hands. Back off! This is Saki’s chance at more alone time with Mitarashi! What? But aren’t you hungry? Uh huh… but I’m worried too. (That’s right… Mai’s gotten kind of attached to him, hasn’t she?) Okay! Sorry, but we’re gonna have to cancel breakfast! …?! …! …He doesn’t know what to do with the food. Uh, why don’t you go share it with the other piglets?How many of you guys are there anyway? ! (Mitarashi risked his life to save me. If I can do anything for him, I want to.)*After transitioning to Mitarashi’s room, which looks identical to Saki’s* Mitarashi, are you awake? Maybe he’s still asleep. Well, the door’s unlocked, so why don’t we go take a peek?That sounds like a one-way trip to an awkward moment. If this was an M-rated game then we would 100% be about to get a CG of Mitarashi half-naked on the bed or something. This is T-rated though, so it should be fine. …Okay. Quietly, we tiptoed into the room. We could hear pained breathing from the bed. That would be pretty suggestive sounding, if it weren’t for the fact that we know Mitarashi’s been shot/stabbed/exploded and is definitely in twisting in agony right now. His face twisted with pain as he sat up. Sweat shone on his face, and his shoulders heaved with each breath. Mitarashi! Are you okay?! …We were worried about you. drat, now I got little girls worrying about me? How the mighty have fallen. …Anyway, thanks for coming… He tousled Mai’s hair. He he… (She looks happy… Mitarashi, though… He’s obviously in a lot of pain.) But you’re hurt… What, this? Don’t be such a girl. I’ve had worse shaving.How bad are you at shaving exactly? I have to shave every two days just to keep heavy stubble at bay and I’ve never had a cut.  Come on, that explosion just about killed all of us! I kinda can’t believe we made it… Anyway, you shouldn’t be pushing yourself! Oh, hey guys. Whoa, whoa, what is this, an intervention? You guys are blowing this way out of proportion. Just look at me! I’ve never felt be— Hnnngh! When he tried to stand up and pose, his face went pale, and he hunched down over his stomach, moaning. (Oh jeez, he’s still really hurting, isn’t he?) …You’re trying too hard. N-No! I’m fine! You crack that thing open again and you’re going to be up poo poo creek. I know that, I just— Daddy…? Oh, um, hello Mai. Did you, ah, sleep well? Yeah. I slept in Saki’s room. Is that so? Well, thanks for keeping an eye on her, little lady.Somebody has to, apparently. Oh, no problem. We had a great time. It was kinda like having a little sister! He bit into one of his snacks forcefully and scratched his head. … (I guess Mai isn’t really sure what to say around him either. Makes sense, I suppose. They haven’t really seen each other in a long time. They’re almost strangers…)Yeah, I’m sure that’s the reason for the awkwardness and not the fact that Ayumu clearly has anger management issues when it comes to his daughter.  That can easily become an ill-advised method of parenting in its own right, Mitarashi. You don’t want to go raising some spoiled little brat that has learned she can get anything she wants. R-Right… Apparently so, since they manage to see past your looks.When did Subaru turn into a snark? Whoa whoa whoa, what’s that supposed to mean?! You know exactly what it means, or you’re even more of an idiot than I thought. Now, about today’s game…Mmkay. Seems like Subaru needs a little more work on the joking thing. We think you should stay behind. He leapt up out of bed— Gah! Aah! *Sigh* See? We still have a couple more days of games. You should be resting. Exactly. Think about what else we’re going to have to face. You need your strength. (He got hurt because he was protecting me.) So, what do you think Saki should do in this sit— Um… can I stay here and take care of Mitarashi?Duh. H-Hey, c’mon. I appreciate the offer kid, but I’ll be fine.That choice is an affection point for Mitarashi, by the way. I’m convinced that there are good and bad versions of each guy’s ending, because otherwise these affection point increases would be meaningless beyond Stage 3. No, that would be perfect. I was actually about to ask you to do just that. Wait, seriously? (So he’s worried about me too… Even if Mitarashi doesn’t want me to, I think it’s a good idea for me to stick around.) Okay. Staying behind it is, then! I was planning on leaving Mai with him too, but I’m glad you’ll be around to keep an eye on her.Dammit, stop butting in on Saki’s alone time with Mitarashi! Mai, can you take care of them for me? … She nodded, although I could see her kneading her hands nervously. Good. Ladies, make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.That’s a tall order, boss. But Saki will do her best! *Cut to Mitarashi accidentally jamming a knife into a wall socket or something* That worked out well. I really didn’t want to have to get Mai involved with any more of these drat games. I don’t care. We can all see you’re hurt and we’re all worried about you. …I’m worried too. Uh, I gotta say guys, I’m a little nervous about making our group any smaller, you know?That sounds like a you problem. (He’s talking about Urabe. I hope he’s safe…) Exactly! See? You need me! You’re not gonna do us much good in this shape. *Sigh* All right, fine. You’ve made your point. I can see arguing isn’t going to get me anywhere. I’ll sit this one out. Happy? You think Hogstein’s gonna let us do that?Why would he not? It’s a hinderance to you guys to have fewer people in the group. Honestly, I’m sort of expecting that this is the point where all of you guys die and we’re just left with Saki, Mitarashi, and Mai.  Right. People restrict themselves in games all the time. “Restrict themselves”…” Whoa man, TMI. N-No! I mean, that is still a form of masochism. Why else would someone attempt a Level 1, bare-handed, no-death run of Bloodborne/Nioh/Dark Souls/Code Vein? Sometimes you can do that to make a game you’ve already beaten more challenging. Huh. Seems weird to me. Isn’t it more fun to just have awesome weapons and stuff? …Some people like that, yes. “Filthy casuals, maybe.” Ah, you mean handicapping. Lots of sports use it to level the playing field a bit when two teams are particularly unbalanced.I know that golf does this fairly regularly, but what other sports typically have handicap systems? I know there are ways to do it for any kind of activity, but I’ve never really heard of other sports using it very often. I’m not a sports person though.  Ha. You better get out of here while your head still fits through the door, bro. Just doing it for your benefit. Wouldn’t want you guys getting too worried about our chances. Well we’re not worried. I’m gonna let you guys handle this one, so go handle it already. We got this, okay? You keep your eyes on the prize.Yes, exactly. Leave us (mostly) alone with Mitarashi. You really think I need you reminding me what my business is? Wait, so are you guys like… bros now, or what? …What does it look like to you? Yeah, seriously, what are you even talking about? (Ha! Well, they can deny it all they want, but they might as well be brothers. It’s almost like watching a sparring match…) Right, well, time we got moving. Good luck! Be careful! Later! …Hey, this isn’t so bad…Yeah. No Towa, no watching as a group of grown men fail to solve grade-school puzzles, and no time vortexes where 5 hours disappears into thin air. It’s kinda cool to know that somebody’s waiting for us. Exactly. That knowledge will make us try even harder. Hey, don’t give me that “try” poo poo. You will come back. You hear me? …Of course. That was always our intention. He nodded firmly, and left the room. I felt like we weren’t just seven strangers anymore. There was… something that bound us together now. (Seems kinda crazy that this awful game is the reason we’re all friends…) Oh, didn’t you get breakfast from the piglets? Might have, but I was pretty far under… (I guess we should have brought ours with us…) I’ll go find one of the piglets. Maybe they can bring us another one. Um… Hm? Is something wrong? Um… uh… Here. After digging around in her backpack, Mai had produced an unopened package of snacks. (Is that whole bag filled with snacks…? Like father, like daughter, I guess…) Snacks, huh? Sounds good. What? You don’t want a real breakfast? Besides, Mai offered us her snacks. What kind of man would I be if I turned down such a generous, thoughtful lady? (Ha, I didn’t even think of that. How nice of him…) Sooooo how ‘bout one of those snacks, Ms. Mai? Okay! She pulled another box out of her pack and shoved it into Mitarashi’s outstretched hand. He he. Thanks. (He really likes kids, huh? I bet he’d make a great dad.)All right, Saki. Chill out. Your biological clock is ticking so loud you could use it as an alarm.  I mean, having a healthy body’s, like, job number one for a guy like me. Can’t believe I let myself go like this… (He seems pretty upset about it. He must be hurt worse than I thought… huh?) As I was watching Mitarashi, he seemed to… wobble. Are you all right? You looked like you were kind of wobbling. You sure? Maybe the boat just started to move. Uh-huh. Sure. Hey, what’re you doing?! Oh my gosh, you’re burning up. I think you’re getting a fever. Nah, you call this a fever? It’s nothing. Hey, maybe if I just go do some weights I can just sweat it ou— O-Okay, fine, jeez… I was just kidding… Mai, do you think you can look after him by yourself for a little bit? Yeah, I can. Thank you. I’m going to go see if I can find some ice. Ice…? Why? Well, he has a fever, so I thought if I got him an ice pack he might feel better. Mai’s going to keep a close eye on you. If you try anything, I’ll hear about it, so behave. I’ve got my eye on you. Ha ha ha! Well, I guess I’d better shape up then. Glad to hear it. I’ll be back soon. (There’s got to be a piglet or two in the lobby. Maybe they can get me an ice pack…) Still hate you guys. Oh, great! Perfect timing! I need you to get something for me! …? I’m, uh, looking for an ice pack… ? You guys might not be allowed to speak, but we know drat well that you aren’t deaf. Ice. It’s not hard. …?! …! It was moving its hands in some sort of rotating motion. (What does that mean…? It kinda looks like he’s making shaved ice, but…) Are… are you talking about shaved ice…? ! He shook his head. Shoot. I wish I could understand you… Well, I guess it doesn’t have to be an ice pack as long as it’ll help cool him down… ! Oh, do you have something?! He nodded vigorously, and then disappeared out of the room. When he returned, he was carrying… …! …! There are fully functional kitchens on board this thing that can cater full course meals for everyone, but there’s no ice? Not even a fridge or a freezer? … … He seemed to realize almost immediately that it wasn’t what I wanted, and he hung his head miserably. I know you can cool off with a fan, I’m just worried that might give him a cold.That’s not how that works, Saki. Hm. Well, if you don’t have an ice pack, then maybe a cold towel or something… ! Oh, do you have a towel?! He gestured for me to wait and disappeared. After what seemed like a long time, he finally returned, this time with a… A… bucket? …Oh, there’s ice in it.Was that really so difficult?! …! … Something else…? He handed me a nice, clean towel. I get it! I can put the towel in the ice water, wring it out, and use that! Perfect. ! (Even if they can’t talk they seem pretty anxious to help.)That’s strange, by the way. We don’t know how many of these guys there are, but there are definitely more than 2. Do these piglet guys have some grudge against everyone the same way that Hogstein does? Are they just hired hands? For a brief moment I had a theory that maybe they were the hostages and Hogstein had forced them to dress up and stay quiet, or else. But that doesn’t work, because the piglets showed up the same time that Hogstein did, before any hostages were taken. Why exactly did a group of 2 or possibly even 10+ people dress up in pig costumes and help Hogstein bomb an amusement park? Thank you so much! I’ll bring this back when I’m done! …! …! Maybe I was just imagining it, but I thought the piglet looked… satisfied. This bucket’s really big though… I might have trouble carrying it.Is there anything you can do, Saki? I looked inside. The pieces of ice were all sorts of different sizes. (Were they still in the middle of making it? Wait, then that means that shaved ice movement was…) …!I just want to remind everyone that Ryusei is still in his room, wrenching in pain and roasting from the inside. The piglet nodded vigorously. (I think I’m getting a lot better at understanding their, uh, language. Oh jeez, look at the time! I need to get back to Mitarashi’s room!) [Sleepy Ryusei]: …Zzzzzz… I don’t have a “sleeping” face portrait, so this will have to do. (He fell asleep. I guess that’s probably for the best, actually. He needs all the rest he can get.)[Sleepy Mai]: …Zzz… (Mai dozed off too, huh?) I wrapped a blanket around her, making sure to tuck in the edges. (She’s so cute when she’s sleeping…)[Sleepy Ryusei]: Mmm… I…  I wrung the towel out and laid it across his forehead. (Now that we’ve caught our breath, maybe I’ll rest a bit too…) I took one of the chairs from the corner of the room, pulled it next to the bed, and plopped down into it. (Lunchtime already… I bet they’ve started today’s game. I wonder what it is today… I hope it’s not too dangerous.)What I wouldn’t give for a moment where Saki hears a distant boom and then a piece of debris from the attraction crashes through the ceiling and breaks Ryusei’s leg or something. You know, just to keep the consistency. [Sleepy Ryusei]: Nnngh… Mitarashi…? But whatever it was he didn’t continue, and after a moment he rolled over and started snoring peacefully again. I looked down at his face. (He’s saved my life twice, and I’ve only known him for a few days. Not just that, he almost died doing it…) The first time he’d saved me had been back in Samurai Fantasy VII… We hadn’t figured out the puzzle yet, and so we’d ended up triggering the crossbow trap. I’d almost gotten hit, but Mitarashi jumped in and blocked it.We really don’t need this little bit of reminiscing, Saki. It was two and a half days ago for you. It’s only been about two and half hours for the player (Likely far less than that for actual players considering I pause on each line in order to make it easier for transcribing later).  (Of course, he says the injury’s no big deal, but I think it’s bothering him more than he’s telling us.) The second time had been in Bloodstained Hospital. He’d used his own body to shield me from the explosion. (And now he’s got this fever, probably because of that… It’s pretty amazing that he’s so willing to put himself in harm’s way for someone he barely knows.) I thought back over all the stuff he’d done since the first day.”Getting shot, getting punched, getting shot again, getting blown up.”  We’d all been surprised when his argument with Shidou at Alice Kart had actually turned into a real fistfight. It had all been an act of course, but nobody had guessed because they’d been at each other pretty much since the beginning.To be fair, it only turned into an act about halfway through. It started out as very much a real fight. (They really seem to get on each other’s nerves sometimes, but I don’t think they really don’t like each other. In fact, in a way, they’re kinda similar— They really care about their friends, they just show it in different ways.) When Urabe had been revealed as a traitor the day before, Mitarashi had been the only person who trusted him anyway, at least at first. I felt like I owed him a lot, and I wanted to help him out as much as I could. (He looks kinda… weird… for an escort, but I think he must do so well because he’s so straightforward and nice to everybody. Well, except Shidou.)I mean, I guess he does? Like, sure, his coat is pretty anime looking, but other than that he looks like a regular dude.  At the very least he doesn’t look like someone copy-pasted Noctis from FFXV and swapped out the hairstyles. (I gotta admit I didn’t really buy that he was number one at his club, but now I think I can see it.)I can totally buy it. Take a look at that advertisement up there again and tell me that a muscled tanned dude who is good with kids and would take a bullet for you without hesitation wouldn’t absolutely crush it. (…But that means he’s probably got lots and lots of fans, huh?) I thought about that, frowned, and dipped his now-warm towel back in the ice water.[Sleepy Ryusei]: …Mm… Oh, is he talking in his sleep again?[Sleepy Ryusei]: …Om… He didn’t sound like he was in pain, just… sad. I knew it wasn’t really proper to listen to someone talk in their sleep, but I couldn’t help myself. I leaned closer. [Sleepy Ryusei]: …Mom… Mom…? Immediately I knew I’d heard something I wasn’t supposed to, and scrambled backward, away from him. It didn’t help that his warm breath on my ear had felt suddenly and uncomfortably intimate. (Um… um… Well, he, uh, seems to be sweating. I should… do something about that…) I delicately wiped the sweat from his forehead. Nnn… Who’s there? Are you awake? Oh, it’s you. What are you— oh, right. You’re playing nurse. drat, this is embarrassing. Guess I was more tired than I thought. I feel like I’ve been asleep all day… You must be pretty tired too. Thanks for keeping an eye on me. No problem! I’m tougher than I look, you know. You’re one to talk! You looked like you were in real pain just a minute ago. Just… take it easy. Huh. Well, if I didn’t look too happy it’s probably because I was having a bit of a bad— eh, let’s call it “nostalgic” dream. Dream? …Uh, did I say anything weird while I was sleeping? Weird…? Ryusei is a no bullshit kind of guy. Let’s just give it to him straight. You said “mom.” Huh… Cool, sorry to bug you. No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been listening in. Hey, don’t sweat it. Rather have you tell me the truth than beat around the bush, you know?Being honest is another affection point increase for Ryusei. We’re making some good progress now… I assume. Anyway, just forget about it. Not important. He looked away. (I know he told me to forget about it, but…) So… um… why did you say “mom”? Is it tragic backstory time? It’s got to be tragic backstory time. Oh… (He’s right, I guess. Everybody’s probably got a couple things they can’t tell anyone. …Aw jeez, now I feel bad.) Uh, sorry… Ha ha. Nah, don’t worry about it. I brought it up. It’s not that big a deal. But… C’mon, don’t get all weird on me. R-Right, okay. (Oh man, this is kinda uncomfortable…)[Sleepy Mai]: Mmm… I can’t eat any more… Mai’s own sleep-talking broke the silence. He he. I wonder what she’s dreaming about?Food, by the sounds of it. Snacks. What else? He looked over at Mai and grinned. (She looks so happy and peaceful.) There’s really nothing like seeing a kid smile, is there?Meh. What did you just say?! Huh? A-About kids smiling…? I looked at him, totally lost, and slowly shook my head “no.” Heh. ‘Course not. He looked… happy. … …Look, about that dream… Huh? …It was about when my parents died.Yes! Tragic backstory time! Finally. I mean, we kind of got one from Ayumu, but that was way too real. We need a good old-fashioned “parents died in a tragic accident” kind of backstory. Oh… He was silent for a moment. I loved him. Hell, he was smart, he knew all sorts of stuff, he was cool… I really admired him. (I wouldn’t have guessed his dad was a reporter, but I bet he loved kids and was about a [sic] subtle as a brick, like somebody else I know…) Anyway, since he was out all the time my mom pretty much raised me. I loved her too, of course. She had the most amazing smile… He paused for a moment and ran a hand through his hair awkwardly. Eh, not really surprised about that. That seems pretty typical. What?! You!? Whoa, hey, take it down a notch! You’re gonna wake her up! S-Sorry, it’s just… I wasn’t expecting that. (That’s an understatement…) Well, I mean, I was a kid. When I got hurt, or picked last, or whatever, I’d just start bawling. But every time, my mom’d cheer me up. And every time she did, she’d say something to me… Is this some kind of proverb or saying or turn a phrase in Japan? -49.jpg) World of Final Fantasy had basically the same thing from the mother character. There’s nothing like seeing a kid smile… (That’s exactly what I said, isn’t it?) So when you said that, it just kinda… brought up a bunch of stuff. Mom was a sweet lady, but she was tough too. My dad was buried in work, but she still managed to take care of both of us. You couldn’t ask for a better mom. Way too good for me. I didn’t deserve her… I could tell he was proud of her. (Oh my gosh.)Saki, he already said that they died. This shouldn’t come as a big shock.  The doctor who was there when they died told me that my mom had taken the brunt of the impact to protect a kid. I didn’t get it back then, but now I realize she couldn’t have done anything else. I don’t know what that kid’s up to these days— heck, I don’t even know who he is— but I hope he’s all right.If it’s a “he”, then it’s probably not one of the kids from the weird visions. I think those two are sisters, right? Maybe Hogstein? But then why would he have a grudge against Ryusei? I think my mom would too, you know? She’d want to make sure he was smiling. Mitarashi was smiling. He’d accepted his parents’ death and moved on to live his life. (Maybe his mom was the reason he’s so nice to kids…) So after that I went to live with my grandma on my mom’s side. I took on my mom’s last name, Mitarashi. He shrugged and scratched at his cheek. (That makes him sound way scarier than he is. I wonder if all this has something to do with why he’s an escort? Hm… Dang, I really wanna know, but I’m not sure if I should ask him…)Now is probably a bad time for that. He just got through telling you about his parents death. I don’t think you want to pivot the conversation to “So how did you get into pseudo prostitution?” (I mean, he did just tell me all this was none of my business…) What is it? Something wrong? You look like you wanna ask me something. Um… Oh, hello Mai. Did we wake you up? I got lots and lots of sleep. Well that’s good. …Sorry, but now that she’s up you think we could finish this later? He called Mai over with a smile and she grinned at him as she rubbed her eyes. (Kid’s smiles, huh.)We’ll stop there for today, since I don’t have enough space to wrap up the stage. Next time, Saki will once again play charades with the Piglets. We’ll also find out whether or not the B-Team wound up getting killed off screen.
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Jun 21, 2020 16:23
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Blaze Dragon posted:I'm genuinely surprised you were allowed to not be part of a game. I thought having all the team was obligatory? Clearly not, though then again the team's one short even with Saki and Mitarashi. The logic stands up fairly well though. Why would Hogstein care if the group was actively hindering themselves? It increases the chance that they will fail and it also keeps his fun times going because there are still 3 players who could continue the game if Subaru/Ayumu/Towa/Kouta died. It's a win-win for Hogstein. I think the only reason he blocked Towa from not participating near the start of the game is because that's the only game that would be garuanteed to have 7 players and was built specifically with that number in mind. Technically by this point, any number of players could have died, so the participant number for each attraction needs to be flexible. What I want to know is what game we missed out on. It seems like Ryusei and maybe Urabe's routes are the only two where Saki would have a valid reason to stay behind and not participate (caring for the injured and grief, respectively). There must be a Stage 4 attraction written, but we're just skipping over it due to the particular route we're on. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Jun 22, 2020 |
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Jun 22, 2020 14:33
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BurningStone posted:Second thought: The grade schooler is smarter than the others.... This is the truly sad part. We've already seen her solve part of a puzzle the second she showed up. I fully expect there to be a moment in the next game where she blurts out the answer to another puzzle that everyone is standing around wracking their brains over. "Crawl along the earth and look to the heavens", loving seriously you guys? Come on!
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Jun 23, 2020 16:54
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I'm not sure how many people follow this LP or if anyone particularly cares about its continuation, but here's a statement in case anyone does: No doubt everyone is at least sort of aware that the site is partially in flames at the moment. I won't recap it here, since you can read about it pretty much all over the site, including the LP subforum (just be aware that you may be getting a face full of goatse in whatever thread you check. Rubberneck carefully). A couple of LP'ers have already jumped ship; TheDarkId being one of the most prominent. He is funny/skilled/experienced/handsome enough to make his LPs work on Patreon, and good on him. I am none of those things, so that's not really an option for me (and I'll be damned if I'm going to get a Twitter/Facebook account). So far I haven't seen any clear alternatives in terms of sites for SSLPs, so I haven't been putting in any of my free time working on the next update since there very well might not be a platform to post it on. So at the moment, I'm in a holding pattern with this LP as I wait to see what happens. There's talk of Jeffrey buying out the site, but that deal is still in the very early (and easy to scrap) phase. Even if it does go through, there are aspects of it which might be considered poisonous by the community at large once the details are out there (there are already a bunch of people that think the site is unsalvageable and should just burn to the ground to make sure that Lowtax gets nothing at all). I'm still here for now, but it may be a while before the LP gets rolling again (if at all). I've seen some other LPers already restart their previously closed threads, but personally I think that's being too hasty. Nothing is written in stone just yet and it could all go south overnight without warning. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Blaze Dragon posted:To an extent, I understand why the game is written the way it is. If the NPCs were too intelligent, then the player is pointless. It makes sense to put the burden of actually answering the puzzles on the player, for the sake of having gameplay even in a visual novel. I mentioned this (I think) at the start of the Bloodstained Hospital. I definitely agree that there needs to be some level of stupidity/lack of common sense among the cast, otherwise you'd end up with an incredibly boring piece of media (unless you are aiming for that as part of parody or something). But there's got to be a delicate balance. There's only a certain amount of incompetence that can be forgiven before it tips over into unforgivable. I think the thing that's bugging me with Sweet Fuse is that two of the heroes are a detective and a reporter; two people that really should be better at thinking logically and reading through the subtext. I don't expect characters like Ryusei or Towa to pick up on the connections between the situation and Italian poetry or western folklore, but Subaru and Ayumu should be a step up from that. Astrofig posted:'Open...the door. What could that mean????' "All right gang, let's split up and search for clues! We'll get to the bottom of this 'door' metaphor, even if it takes the next 3 hours."
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Jun 27, 2020 |
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Jun 27, 2020 15:19
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I'm still here and still waiting to see what happens with the forums. I may start on another update soon, even though nothing has been resolved yet, mainly because things seem to be stable for the time being. The buyout still seems to be progressing, and if Lowtax was going to rage-arson the entire site then I kind of figure he would have done it by now. Astrofig posted:Whose else could it be, though? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense for it to be anyone's but Hogstein's (most likely), Saki's (less likely) or Ryusei's (not likely). I agree that it has to be Hogstein, as it's the only one that really makes any sense. The topic of "sisters" just came up with Mai, and "dead parents" came up with Ryusei. Saki had absolutely zero personal reaction to either of them that would suggest she experienced those things. In terms of the visions themselves, those are definitely not Ryusei's. He completely remembers finding out about his parents' death at a young age. There's no way he forgot about having a sibling. What complicates this is the weird memory visions we've been getting. Those scenes are building towards something. This entire time we've been getting a sweet little background narrative about a family enjoying a day out at an amusement park or something. It's all been going great for that family so far, so the other shoe is bound to drop at some point soon. But if those scenes are of Hogstein's past and it's building towards something tragic, then that means that he couldn't also be the kid from the bus crash, right? The locket family seem to have their own car, so why would any of them be on a bus? I guess the bus crash from Ryusei's backstory and these weird visions could always be separated from time (I'm just guessing that one will lead right into the other). They are definitely connected somehow. Ryusei hung on that "I wonder what that kid is doing now?" line, so that's got to be a Chekhov's Gun situation. We already know that the family trip scenes are going to be important, because they cap off the end of every chapter. differentiating posted:It's definitely interesting that what games you participate in seems to vary based on what route you're on - but I guess that makes more sense than repeating the same attractions multiple times with only minor changes. I wonder if, in the games you do participate in, the person you've chosen gets to contribute more as well. Why not let your chosen love interest look smart/good for once, right? I don't know just yet how much (if anything) changes depending on route. I never even completed one route when I first got this game, let alone a second or third playthrough. It's safe to say that the games themselves will always be the same though. We can see all of the attractions from the map, after all. There's always going to be the Resident Evil hospital, and Mario Kart, and Final Fantasy Land, and all that. That said, we are currently missing out on either Galaga Land or Street Fighter Land, since we're sitting here with Ryusei. That seems like a big route based change, since I highly doubt that Saki would have an entire chapter devoted to him on Subaru's route, for example. I guess it's possible that whomever the love interest is will be the one to get injured during this stage, but part of the reason why Ryusei is bedridden right now is because he's been getting the poo poo kicked out of him since day 1, which isn't true of anyone else. I do think that the game gives more attention to the dude you are pursuing, though. Near the end of Stage 3 is when the game locks in a route and Ryusei was definitely getting a lot of positive focus during that time, especially in regards to Mai. It also seems very obvious that who reaches back for Saki during the explosion scene depends on affection points. As for a Kimimaro route, I have no sweet clue what the hell happens then. There's a CG done up especially for that moment, so it doesn't look like the "traitor" will change based on the route. Maybe Kimimaro just doesn't become a traitor on his route? Or maybe he doesn't stay behind? There have to be some differences present based on route. It's just too early to tell what those changes are as of yet. differentiating posted:For all we know, the boy is one of our other potential boyfriends and is part of their tragic backstory, because there's no way they don't all have one. That could be the case, although I'm having trouble guessing who. Ryusei says it happened in Elementary school, which means he was 6-12 years old at the time. So whoever his mom protected, it probably wasn't Towa or Ayumu. Ryusei is 7 years older than Towa and 8 years younger than Ayumu. So Ayumu would have been 14-20, and Towa would have either not been born, or a maximum of 5 (in which case he would have had his own mother protecting him. No way he'd be riding the bus alone at 5 years old). That leaves Subaru and Kimimaro, who both would have been roughly Ryusei's age at the time and considered to be a "kid". It's possible that Kouta might have been the right age as well, but I'm kind of doubting it could be him. I could see the kid that Ryusei's mom protected being either Subaru or Kimimaro. For Subaru, maybe that's where his desire to protect others came from. For Kimimaro, maybe that event is part of the dirt that Hogstein likely has on him.
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Jul 7, 2020 14:40
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