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Explopyro posted:This makes a lot of sense. I definitely think the game is balanced around the assumption the player will hit more normal blocks than they miss, if not most of them. No, I've played a fair bit of Paper Mario but largely the early parts of those games can be beaten without blocking and by the time it's needed whatever build I have has come online and carries me through the game with crazy levels of offense. I wasn't used to the mechanic because I was a) rusty b) not practiced with it to begin with and c) because the telegraphing in this game is harder to read because enemy and attack diversity is larger.
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Feb 25, 2021 02:04
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Explopyro posted:A question for everyone, now that we're finished with the tutorial/Chapter 1, do you have any feedback on the style of the LP and the way I'm going about this? I know the pace is kind of slow, that's something I'm working on, but aside from that, I'd appreciate knowing if there's something you think I could be doing better. It might just be me but I wonder if the dialog portraits might be better at a smaller size? This LP keeps reminding me I should go back and play more of this game, I only got slightly further than where the LP is now...
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Feb 25, 2021 02:48
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I like what you've done so far! Good luck with the rest of the LP!
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Feb 25, 2021 03:35
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My first playthrough of the game, I went mostly in on TP with some dipping into MP. I had over 60 TP by the end of the game and a fair bit of MP to spend on the occasional stuff. I never really saw HP as valuable in the game; the gains feel way too small to feel meaningful unless you dedicate a few level ups to them. The huge amount of TP meant that I was basically just nuking bosses with my overwhelming amount of resources, which was probably not a good thing cause it meant a lot of them ended up being forgettable. Very few bosses actually force you to be in for the long haul of a fight, so there's nothing stopping you from nuking them and ending the fight in two turns. So, uh, late vote, but I'm voting that you level up HP a few times. It'd be nice to see it get some use and not another playthrough that keeps it at base values.
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Feb 25, 2021 07:55
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vilkacis posted:If i'm going to nitpick, i'd ditch the colons after portraits (they don't really need 'em the way a written name does). Also jpgs would make for lighter and faster loading images but they aren't that heavy as pngs and may have enough big flat colour spaces that the compression would be noticeable. Over all you're doing just fine. Oh, that's a good point, getting rid of the colons is a good idea. I didn't realise how strange it looked until you pointed it out, but now I can't not notice them, I'll definitely clean this up. On the jpg/png thing, I tried jpg at first and was really dissatisfied with how it looked (I used them for the first two updates before switching to png, if you want to compare). I don't think it's noticeable viewing them at the default size, but I thought it looked really ugly on mobile (where it's more natural to be zooming in, and you start to see all kinds of blurring and artifacts) and that bothered me. Especially when I'm having to do all kinds of ugly compression stuff to get the animated gifs small enough. Natural 20 posted:No, I've played a fair bit of Paper Mario but largely the early parts of those games can be beaten without blocking and by the time it's needed whatever build I have has come online and carries me through the game with crazy levels of offense. Oh, that makes sense. Blocking was definitely more or less an optional mechanic in Paper Mario (though I tend to forget this after Master Quest, which made it mandatory). I hope you're still enjoying the game? Procrastine posted:It might just be me but I wonder if the dialog portraits might be better at a smaller size? I was thinking this myself, I'd just been too lazy to do it (I didn't choose the size, I got them from the wiki, but I can definitely scale them and reupload). I think if I'm going to make the change I'd better do it now, before the amount of work it would be increases even more. Quackles posted:I like what you've done so far! Good luck with the rest of the LP! Thanks! I appreciate the vote of confidence. DimiPZC posted:My first playthrough of the game, I went mostly in on TP with some dipping into MP. I had over 60 TP by the end of the game and a fair bit of MP to spend on the occasional stuff. I never really saw HP as valuable in the game; the gains feel way too small to feel meaningful unless you dedicate a few level ups to them. The huge amount of TP meant that I was basically just nuking bosses with my overwhelming amount of resources, which was probably not a good thing cause it meant a lot of them ended up being forgettable. Very few bosses actually force you to be in for the long haul of a fight, so there's nothing stopping you from nuking them and ending the fight in two turns. That's interesting; I never actually tried a build that TP-heavy! I definitely agree that builds that focus too much on offence tend to make the boss fights feel samey, and that that's a major downside to those play styles. My goal for the LP is to show off a lot of different strategies, and I actually really enjoy some defence builds, so hopefully I'll be able to keep a good level of variety. HP not being incredibly valuable seems to be a theme with this sort of game. That said, I certainly don't plan to go through the entire game with base HP, even if I'm not spending level-ups on it (though I don't think this is necessarily what you meant). I will take note of your belated vote.
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Feb 25, 2021 16:38
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Yeah I would not recommend JPG. The color schemes in this game are flat and cartoony enough that any artifacting would be noticeable.
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Feb 25, 2021 16:49
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Okay, I think that looks better. I've removed the colons and shrunk all the character mugs by 50%. That was a lot more work than it had any right to be, but I think it was worth it (and it'd only have been worse if I'd waited to do it later...). Also, if you haven't yet seen them, I've made a few appendices that are linked in the OP. Feel free to check those out if they're of interest. Next update in a couple of days, most likely.
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Feb 26, 2021 02:57
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Explopyro posted:Okay, I think that looks better. I've removed the colons and shrunk all the character mugs by 50%. That was a lot more work than it had any right to be, but I think it was worth it (and it'd only have been worse if I'd waited to do it later...). Ahh, yeah, that looks much better.
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Feb 26, 2021 03:25
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The appendices are really nice. I appreciate listing the species of all of the characters, as someone who is really not a bug expert.
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Feb 26, 2021 06:58
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I appreciate it too because while I know a lot about bugs there's some characters in the game whose species I'm not really sure of.
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Feb 26, 2021 22:56
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Explopyro posted:Oh, that makes sense. Blocking was definitely more or less an optional mechanic in Paper Mario (though I tend to forget this after Master Quest, which made it mandatory). I hope you're still enjoying the game? My build came online and I started killing everything with crazy levels of offense! I recently beat the game and I enjoyed it a bunch!
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Feb 26, 2021 23:39
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Oh, speaking of species. While it's an enemy type and not a character, the Inichas is actually based on a real insect as well! Specifically, the peacock butterfly, which was previously placed in the genus Inachis. Its caterpillar form has spikes and does have a vague resemblance to the enemy (though of course it doesn't have a shell). Also, Fuzzo is some type of beetle according to the wiki. Good luck figuring out what type, there's like 400,000 species. Maybe a carpet beetle?
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Feb 26, 2021 23:39
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Qrr posted:The appendices are really nice. I appreciate listing the species of all of the characters, as someone who is really not a bug expert. Twelve by Pies posted:I appreciate it too because while I know a lot about bugs there's some characters in the game whose species I'm not really sure of. To be clear, I'm almost entirely going off of the Bug Fables wiki and occasionally supplementing with minor wikipedia research, I am not a bug expert either! It's really cool though, the devs really did their homework and there's a lot of neat trivia here and there. Not everything in the game is a real species though (we've already seen ambulatory plants and fungi, for instance), and there are definitely at least a couple of entirely fictional species. Natural 20 posted:My build came online and I started killing everything with crazy levels of offense! I recently beat the game and I enjoyed it a bunch! Hah, one of those! Out of curiosity, who did you end up using as your main damage dealer? Alien Arcana posted:Oh, speaking of species. While it's an enemy type and not a character, the Inichas is actually based on a real insect as well! Oh, that's good to know! Thanks. I'll definitely edit the Inichas info into the bestiary page if you're okay with that. I knew Fuzzo was supposed to be some kind of beetle, but it definitely seems to me like he's based on something specific that's just never been mentioned. (I wondered if he was supposed to be based on some kind of dung beetle as he's supposed to be a shady salesman type, but that's a huge classification that also includes scarabs like Kabbu so it doesn't seem much help even if true.) They're definitely more specific about the inspiration for some characters than others, I think. Please don't hesitate to share bug trivia if I overlook something!
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Feb 27, 2021 01:14
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Alien Arcana posted:Oh, speaking of species. While it's an enemy type and not a character, the Inichas is actually based on a real insect as well! That makes it kind of weird though given Bug Fables' distinction about what kind of bugs are animal-like, and butterflies definitely don't fall into that category. Explopyro posted:I knew Fuzzo was supposed to be some kind of beetle, but it definitely seems to me like he's based on something specific that's just never been mentioned. Fuzzo seems to me like he's probably a mostly fictional beetle species. For fun I googled "fuzzy beetle" and there's apparently quite a few beetles that have some fuzz, but none of them have the rhino beetle like horn that Fuzzo does. The closest one is probably the rain beetle as it has a very small horn, but Fuzzo's rivals Kabbu's. It's not really unprecedented for Fuzzo to be a completely made up bug, though, Tangy is a made up bug.
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Feb 27, 2021 07:36
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Explopyro posted:Hah, one of those! Out of curiosity, who did you end up using as your main damage dealer? I ended up with one of these builds and for me it was Vi. I stacked the attack up and all the poison badges on her, plus the badge that upgrades her Beemerang. She outputs insane damage, Lief supports with freezing, Kabbu...was mostly just the item caddy that could take hits.
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Feb 27, 2021 10:24
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Explopyro posted:Hah, one of those! Out of curiosity, who did you end up using as your main damage dealer? Spoilers for lategame builds: I used Vi because she's got multi hit. I ran two builds, one for the field and one for bosses that eventually got integrated together. The basic premise runs as follows though: I used Hard Charge and then the danger mode badges that increase your power at 4HP. If you don't boost HP at all in the game, Vi ends the game with 9 HP, meaning she hard charges herself to 4 and activates all her danger badges (2 copies of Last Attack and 2 Copies of Last Stand). You then stack Power Exchange on top of that (2 copies again) as well as the power up berry you get from the vendor. Leif can then empower her for an extra attack boost and the ADP enhancer gives her an extra hit. Kabbu taunts to stop Vii taking a hit at 4HP. So on a charge turn Vii will have a base attack of 3+1(Front Row)+2(Power exchange)+2(Last attack)+1(Empower)+3(Charge) = 12 Damage. So one of her 5 hit moves will hit an opponent for 50 damage. You can then turn relay back to her for -4 damage (No charge, 1 point of exhaustion) and she'll hit again for another 30 damage. Nothing is really going to survive 80 damage coming out on one turn. Natural 20 fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Feb 27, 2021 |
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Feb 27, 2021 15:41
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Natural 20 posted:Spoilers for lategame builds: You can get even more insane with Leif and Ice Rain if you're running a TP-heavy build, cause Ice Rain both freezes enemies for extra damage and doesn't degrade over time unlike other multihits (unless they changed that in the update). One of my buddies referred to it as "the Audience Cannon from Thousand Year Door, only it's you wielding it.
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Feb 27, 2021 17:00
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06: Meeting the Ant Queen (Part 1) 01 - Bug Fables First things first, look at that! Now that we've finished Chapter 1, the title screen has changed and shows our team hanging out in the plaza (awkwardly, a plaza we haven't seen yet, but we'll go there this update). I didn't mention it earlier, but this title screen is fully rendered and animated in-engine, the camera pans around a bit and the characters move around. This screenshot caught Vi in an angry pose, but other times you'll see her looking happy, or Kabbu talking, etc. It's pretty cute. Fair warning, get ready for  , there's going to be a lot of talking in this episode. We left off with our team coming to at the bottom of this waterfall. We can't go into the cave, so let's explore and try to figure out where we are.   This weed has a new item in it!  Spicy Berry is our first status buff item. With how small the numbers are in this game, +1 attack for two turns is pretty significant! Oh look, another suspicious dirt mound! This one's up on a ledge we can't access.  That's all there is for this area. 06 - Outskirts And this is where we come out. We're back in Bugaria Outskirts! You may remember this path as one that was blocked off by a fallen boulder when we were first here; it looks like the Ants made good on their promise to clean the place up. Just how long were we in Snakemouth Den?   Indeed. It's a relief to return to the association safely. Was this area built pretty recently? Uh... I haven't been out here that long, so I don't really know. Regardless, it makes me pretty nostalgic. Back then, everyone thought Vi was a small helpless child! Stop! This nostalgia trip is over! ...Party banter.  Looks like they put the portcullis back up, blocking off the way back to Snakemouth. We will eventually be able to backtrack, but for now, not so much.  Eetl stops us when we get to the bridge. Gen and Eri are waiting on the other side too.  It was a... rocky journey. What with the flood. No kidding! I don't wanna see rivers for a while! We're glad to finally be out of there, at least. Rivers!? You're some lucky bugs!!! But uh... Vi, Kabbu, who's this? Oh! Eetl, this is Leif. We found him trapped in Snakemouth. So you DID make it into Snakemouth!?.png) Honestly, we thought you'd bail. Going to Snakemouth is crazy! Bailing would've been a good idea, really... Well, we did! And we got the artifact! Ah haha! Nice one, Vi. The river must have shaken up your hea- Vi takes out the artifact to show everyone. They seem pretty shocked. Was everyone betting on us to fail? I-Impossible! You actually made it into Snakemouth's depths!? Yeah! We did it! In your face, Eetl! How sportsbuglike. Vi, it is folly to boast. It's folly to tell me I can't do something!.png) Um, so is it like, the real deal? Yeah. It's quite like another artifact we've been looking into. That must be the genuine deal. Hmm? I was just thinking that you should go see the Queen right away! She will be beyond ecstatic! It has been some time since we last saw the Queen... ...Wait. Actually, looking around, we don't recognize that structure over there. Was it built pretty recently? You are not from around here, are you? We are. We recognize this place. But something feels off... You're just fuzzy from the cave! I bet it'll come back to you! (...) Eetl, what about Leif? I heard that exploration teams can only have two members. Oh, that! Well, it's unusual. But you did conquer Snakemouth. It's been a goal for ages... (...Ages?) I suppose that... Alright. With my authority as the association's caretaker, in honor of your feat... 05 - Key Item!It actually plays the Key Item get fanfare here. Team Snakemouth? A proper explorer team name! Uh, yay. Well, that's that! Let's go see the Queen! She must know that the artifact was found! Oh, I'm so jealous! I hope the reward is good! Heheh. It better be! Let us go, then. Yes, a walk through the plaza should help. (We need more information...) And we're back in control. Eetl has joined the group and is following us now, too.   If you want to sell stuff, talk to my husband about it.Looks like the merchant caravan is back in business. Also, there's a new thing we can do now. If we press (Back) while standing close enough to an NPC, we can get party banter about that NPC instead of the general vicinity: Cricketly's one of the members of the traveling caravan. I've heard she is pretty hot-headed. No kidding, you can already tell by her looks! She does have a soft spot for her husband, though. It seems we shouldn't judge people by their appearances.I'm not sure why Kabbu says "I've heard" when he personally witnessed her screaming at the ant workers cleaning up in the first update, but I guess it's been a while.   Let's ask Huscada about the business.  We are no more than a humble caravan trying to make a living. We travel all over the land, selling different wares wherever we go. Our trusty snail has been with us for generations and we intend to keep it that way.We can also talk about him. Huscada's one of the members of the traveling caravan. He is always managing trades and sometimes calming his wife down. How did someone like him end up with a hot-headed cricket like her, anyway? Vi, we shouldn't pry into other people's affairs! ...Even if I am curious about that too.I'm curious too, mostly about them being a cross-species couple. Especially when some species of cricket that are carnivorous and can prey on cicadas. Let's check out their inventory.  Spicy Berry (12 berries) Burly Berry (12 berries) Magic Seed (18 berries)This is good stuff, although it's kind of pricey! We've seen Spicy Berries and Magic Seeds before; Burly Berries are just like Spicy Berries, giving +1 defence for 2 turns. I wouldn't normally as I don't feel the need for them this early in the game, but I'm going to pick up one Burly Berry, for reasons we'll see soon enough (probably next update). If I'd had to use my Magic Seed against the spider, I'd probably buy a replacement, I always like having one around for emergencies. (Since I didn't mention it before, it's worth noting that the game will let you use a Magic Seed on a conscious bug, and it will work just fine as a 7 HP heal.)  If we weren't playing on Hard Mode, we'd see this here. Quick Flea is the Hard Mode reward for beating Spuder, and we'll be getting it from Artis momentarily. Any time there's a medal with limited availability that would otherwise be permanently missable (in practice this is mostly Hard Mode rewards, there are two others), it gets sent to the caravan and becomes available for purchase. If they have more than one in stock, they'll display one at a time in this fourth position, and you can ask Huscada to cycle through them if you don't want to purchase the showing one. I like this, it's a nice compromise that allows them to include missable content while still letting the player catch up without much penalty. It does, though, mean that berries are probably going to be tighter on Normal since there are so many more medals to buy. Over to the east, we find a pair of ladybug siblings.   Dib, please don't do anything reckless. I will take care of both of us.And, of course, we can talk about them: These two truly embody sibling squabbles. That's because she keeps acting like he's a kid! He's super able to do whatever he wants! Vi, we can't help but feel you're being biased. Hmph. Think what you want.We get a bit of insight into Vi's insecurities here. I like this one.  We can also go in their house, and... steal their food?  Oh. I don't think they'll be missing that much. Like the Danger Shroom we saw earlier, this causes 2 turns of poison if someone eats it. (Just like in Paper Mario, a  Mistake is what you get for messing up in cooking. We'll learn about cooking soon enough.) I'm actually going to keep this (I had to sell another item to make room!) for reasons I'll keep to myself for now. We know! We know!Eetl stops us if we try to cross this bridge.  Let's go to the Association, we need to check in with Artis. Also, do take note, the save crystal has turned blue now! No more free healing for us. The game tends to do this in chapter transitions, new areas will still often have yellow ones on our first visit, but they won't stay that way forever. This can often mean that backtracking isn't quite as trivial as you might expect (on my first playthrough I remember finding some areas harder on revisit than they were the first time! though this was due to me forgetting about some things, honestly). There are still free sources of healing on occasion, but we can't take them for granted any more.  Looks like Gen and Eri want to talk to us too. Before that... P-Please, let's not deal with Gen and Eri. They always drag me into their quarrels. Hey! Gen! Eri! Leif! Stop that this instant!If you push the banter button before talking to them (and only then), you see this. Let's actually talk to them now (sorry, Kabbu). Hey, Team Snakemouth! You had Gen and me worried, you know? Good to see you up and running! ...The river was not pleasant. Yeah, we got super lucky... Thank you for your concern! Concern is the least we can show. Mmm... maybe. For a good reward! ...Nonsense, Vi. Fellow explorers have our help anytime! Awesome! I promise we'll ask if we ever need help. Sure... But meh. Time to go questing again! Let's stay away from rivers...I think seeing this conversation actually unlocks a sidequest later in the game. Anyway, there's also a different banter now after having spoken to them: Gen and Eri seem a bit unreliable. It's good to know they have our back, though! Indeed. This camaraderie is what being an explorer is all about! Now for Artis. There's a banter first: That's Artis the Mantis. He is the accountant of the association, and someone who loves challenges. I've heard he gives prizes to members that have accomplished difficult tasks recently. By the time we're done, he won't have any prizes left to give out!Now let's actually check in.  Hey! You're back. Let's see how you have been doing with that Medal of mine. Hmm! Good job, folks! You defeated that hardened Spider! Was it too challenging for ya? You deserve a reward. Here, take this! Come back later when you've bonked some extra hard heads with that Medal, will ya? Quick Flea is mostly just a convenience thing, it changes the button sequence when running away from 6 buttons to 3. That's pretty nice though, especially for just 1 MP. For now, absolutely no reason not to put this on. If we try talking to Artis again: Hmmm... You haven't really defeated any hard-headed foes yet, have you? Fret not, though. Nothing is lost in this world, only found in different ways. That's how life works, eh? Come back later when you've bonked some extra hard heads with that Medal, will ya?This is Artis' default dialogue whenever you talk to him and he doesn't have a reward queued up. I think this is supposed to be your hint about how the caravan works.  Enough dawdling, let's get moving north. 17 - Ant Kingdom   The camera pans down from the castle ramparts down over the plaza to where we enter. This is the plaza we've been seeing on the title screen.    You don't need to worry. Let's go...Leif seems pretty disturbed by how different the architecture is from what he remembers.  If I try to check out this statue, Kabbu stops us.  We can still talk to people, though! That wasn't particularly enlightening, but there's a banter too: Tod's growing big and strong! He's such an adorable kid! So small. To think we looked like that, once. You must've been cute as a baby, Leif. (I'm not walking into this one.) I can easily imagine a small, grumpy, sleepy Leif. (I must preserve my cute baby image!) I don't think Leif likes this topic of discussion.  Mmm. Agreed. Maybe we should give him two honey drops instead of one. D-Don't do that! It's dangerous! What harm could some more honey do? Look. Don't ask me. Just don't do it.This is a hint about something, we're going to have to try this out! Oh, Ann! She grows every time I see her! She's such a great bug - she listens to all my stories without complaining! That sounded really sad. We're not being... too mean to Kabbu, are we?Another great one.  Pibuu!If we try to talk to the pillbug, this is all we get, but we can also talk about the pillbug: This is a Pillbug. Its tiny, round and docile nature makes it a very popular pet. A pet, huh... Pillbugs are also obedient, and simply adorable! Maybe we could... Don't even think about it. We're not getting one!There's someone else over on the left side.  Also, let's make note of that locked house for later. It'll be a while before we can get in there, but it's here to taunt us for now. This Ant... I've never seen her before! Or maybe I have? She seems to have no characteristics to make her stand out. How tactful. That's Janet, Kabbu. Remember? By the holy spikes of Venus! I forgot Janet! So cruel, Kabbu. So cruel. I... I must go apologize...Always fun when a game pokes fun at itself. Where would we be without forgettable NPCs?  Eetl complains if we try to leave this area.   And also if we try to talk to the theatre proprietor. If we try to get a general banter for this area, Eetl also interrupts (yes, guest characters can also take part in these conversations!). Ah, the Ant Kingdom's main pla- We mustn't keep the Queen waiting.Okay, okay.  This soldier doesn't have much to say.  Looks like Maki is waiting for us!  Maki! Perfect timing! The news spread quickly. So, you two succeeded? You conquered Snakemouth? You've made a friend, even... ... You bet we did! You were all worried for nothing! It seems my intuition was correct. I'm quite relieved... I have arranged a meeting with the Queen for you. She is expecting us right now. Well, since Maki is going with you, I guess it's back to work for me. Thank you for accompanying us, Eetl. No problem. Stay out of trouble, alright? Eetl leaves and Maki joins us. Before crossing the bridge, there's someone to talk to here too. What is this Ant doing? She is always staring at the castle. Leave her be.Proof of concept that Maki participates in banters too.    Talking to her gets us a Discovery about the Ant Palace!   Let's get moving.  There are a couple of guards we can talk to here.  I know I'm keeping the castle safe, but I hope my friend isn't too bored waiting for me...And on the right: ... Greetings, fellow guard! ... Not one for words, I see...Riveting stuff. But there's a banter that's slightly more interesting: Standing watch over the castle every day... Must get super boring, right? Right? Now, you two. All honest work is good work. Easy for you to say. You spend the whole day exploring. Yeah. I'd like to see you try being a receptionist! I-If it is to make ends meet... I would endure...!Some good character in this one. Let's go inside. 18 - In the Court of the Ant Queen The Ant Palace is pretty big.  Geez. I wanted to get mad, but she was way too polite!We can't get into the areas past these guards. We can, however, have our characters talk about this: That's a big door. That's an area only Ants can enter. Not even I know what is beyond that door. Hm... such mystery. We should head for the throne room, though. Yes, I apologize. Let's get back on track.Spoiler alert, the area behind this guard doesn't actually exist in the game. But I like that they pretty consistently do things like this to imply areas are larger than just the parts we get to see, it makes the world feel more realistic.  I was going to comment on how an invisible wall preventing us from going downstairs was a nasty contrast to that realism I just praised, but then I realised it wasn't an invisible wall, my eyes just suck! The entrance is cordoned off, there is actually a rope there. Always nice to be pleasantly surprised.  What's her problem!?A mirror of the interaction on the left (the banter would have been identical).  Maki won't let us go down side passages, so let's go on with the plot.  Please forgive us for the delay. We're ready, though! Then you wouldn't mind if we stepped right in? No objections. The sooner we answer our doubts, the better. That'll do. Let us proceed, then.   Everyone files in. You now stand before Her Majesty, Queen Elizant II. (So it's true.)  ...Wonderful. So very wonderful! Lieutenant, you are dismissed. You have your own business to attend to. As you wish, my Queen. We have a choice here. I prefer the version of the scene where we don't protest (for a few reasons, honestly), so I'll show that version here and the other at the end of the update. Just like that, huh? (She wasn't expecting to keep it, was she!?) Here you go!    Such beauty. Beauty which should belong to the Ant Kingdom... Here, you've earned this.  W-Woah! This is a ton! Brave explorers! You've performed a valiant task. Your place in the history of our kingdom is assured. Congratulations. It is praise well-earned! O-Of course! Thank you, Your Highness! Heheh. First bee in the hall of fame! Uh. Thanks. Could we ask something, though? I suppose we could afford time for one question. What would it be? What? What is this fuss about!?     I'm showing all these screenshots to emphasise just how much effort the game is putting in to make this look suspicious. Maki. I leave you to your mission. While you're at it, inform Artis that the next expedition is confirmed. Of course. I shall move out at once, Your Highness. You three... I'll bless you with a head start. Zaryant, brief them about the Golden Hills expedition. Heed me. Reports state that an ancient artifact lurks in the Golden Hills. This is a small rural settlement behind our kingdom. It can be reached through a tunnel south from the Explorers' Association.(Convenient. That's the tunnel we washed up next to.) Uh, isn't that Bee Kingdom territory? Do not dare interrupt us again, child. The Bee Kingdom is our close ally. They are, of course, aware of our expedition. Now... talk to the locals, obtain information, and seize the artifact. No matter the cost. In other words, are we going to do what we were already planning to do? Don't be silly. (Asking to repeat here doesn't get any new dialogue, it literally just repeats it from when Zaryant began discussing the mission.) Alright, then. Take this map, just in case. Although I'd hope you know how to head south... 05 - Key Item!The map is a key item, we'll check this out soon enough. Err, thanks. So, about our question... Do not make Her Majesty repeat herself. Move out! Geez, alright. Let's go! Indeed. It'd be unwise to anger our Queen...Poor Leif. 19 - Chapter 2 This is where we get the splash screen for Chapter 2; everything in the update prior to this point has been some kind of interlude, I suppose. ...Team, could we step out? We need to share something.With that, we're finally back in control. Unfortunately for Leif, we can't leave this room just yet.  We can talk to Zaryant. Zaryant... The royal guard is truly an imposing figure. With a name like that, it's like it was decided from birth... I mean, wasn't it? Ants are weird... I'm not an expert, but she does seem quite different. Maybe it's genetics? We're probably better off not knowing.Sometimes it's really weird to think they're whispering these right next to the person. That said, as a member of another eusocial species, I don't think Vi really has room to cast aspersions here. If we try to talk to the Queen, Zaryant doesn't let us:  There's also a banter: ...Elizant II... You probably shouldn't keep staring. It was a long briefing. You'll have a chance to speak to her later! Let's check out the rest of the throne room. There are a couple of stained glass windows over here...           Each of them triggers a Discovery.  The guard by the door wants us to leave. We can also, of course, talk about her: It seems this ant guards the throne room's entrance. Woah, she looks grumpy! Looks like she's never had any fun in her life. Y-You're both being too harsh...And a general banter for the throne room: The throne room hasn't changed, but the atmosphere's completely different. What d'ya mean? It's a bit somber. They've covered some of the other Queens, too... Bugaria's history isn't perfect. It's a shame that there have been issues between the kingdoms... That'd be weird. Going from full peace to nowadays... (History can prove cruel...) Let's check out this map Zaryant gave us. We can use it from the key items page...  to see a map. The honeycomb icon shows our current location, and the yellow dots represent places we've been before; the rest of the world is a mystery. Okay, let's actually leave now. (I have to split the update here thanks to the character limit) Explopyro fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Mar 4, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 02:21
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06: Meeting the Ant Queen (Part 2) When we leave the throne room, another conversation starts. Hehe. I got a big scare earlier, but I have to admit... We did really well! We've got to celebrate! Maybe in the Golden Hills festival! T-That's right! How fortunate that our expedition would line up with such an occasion! ... Vi... Kabbu... May we confess something? Hm? When our team left for Snakemouth... The Queen was Elizant the First. 15 - The One Left Behind (Leif's Theme) W-What!? Leif, that is not possible! Y-Yeah! I wasn't even born when the new Queen took the throne! It's... it's the truth. The plaza has changed, there's a new Queen, we can't find our team anywhere... We've been trapped for... decades? We don't even know. We hoped we were too fuzzy, but walking around has confirmed it. Leif...! S-Shh! You can't just say that in here! ...Sorry. Too much has happened. We didn't get a chance to ask anything, either. Yikes, what should we do? This isn't normal at all... Leif... ... I cannot understand the pain you are feeling. Probably there is no one who can. But come with us. Maybe as we explore, we'll find the truth behind what has happened to you! The truth... Uh, yeah! Maybe there's clues around, or something... ...Alright. Once again, we're left with little choice. You're fun to be around, at least. Well, yeah! Thank you, Leif. Together, we conquered Snakemouth... And together, we will figure this out! For now, let's focus on this mission. We'll be okay. I really like this scene. The player has almost certainly put together most of what's been going on with Leif by now, but the characters actually discuss it honestly, and there aren't any easy decisions. Even Vi gets in on trying to be supportive!  And we're back in control again! Now we can explore the palace. Is that a book on the sign?  It is! Welcome to the palace library. This is the Library! A sea of knowledge! History in page form! Meeeeeeeeeh... We have a lot of catching up to do. Wonder if there's magic books, too...Let's talk to the receptionists and see how this works.  Uh huh. We're looking for this book - "The 20 Ways of-" W-Wait! That's Brooke's job! I'm the head of the Explorer Fact Hunt! You... hunt facts? You can't smack facts... ... Please tell us more! Right. Yay! Look, it's simple. This world is filled with "Discoveries"! I'm sure you've seen at least one already. Super special places! If you donate Discovery info to the library, we'll reward you! Deal. How much info do you want? The library will reward you for every 5 Discoveries you find. It includes berries, Medals and other goodies! So it's good to drop by often! It's like a fun school game! I'm in! ...Sure, were' in. But could you help us find that book now? Nope. Tch...Libren explained that well enough that I don't have anything to add! In addition to giving us information about the world and filling up our logbook, every 5 Discoveries we find are worth a prize from Libren. She has some good stuff, too, it's well worth doing this. Let's talk to her again. Hey there! Came to turn in some Discoveries? Let's see how you've done! Seems you have found 7 Discoveries so far... Looks like you have enough for the next reward tier! Here you go! This is nice enough, if a bit underwhelming. I promise the rewards get better as we go. That seems to be all for now! Come back once you have found more Discoveries!Now for Brooke.  We'd like to read some history books, if possible. Tch. They've... gotten lost. Lost? How is that possible? We lent them out to the Bee Kingdom... But blasted bandits attacked the caravan! Now they're just scattered across Bugaria. So, uh, what can we do? If you find any, make my life easier and return them. Then you'll be able to read them! The nerve! They just want us to do the clean up for free! Still, this is important to Leif. Let's help out. Mhm. We don't really have another choice. Remember, if you find any books, bring them to me. I will let you read any books you find free of charge.This is the other major collectible in the game, alongside the Crystal Berries and Discoveries. We can find Lore Books and bring them back to the library, and in return we'll get to read them and learn worldbuilding and backstory. There are 26 in the game, and in addition to getting to read them there's another reward for finding all of them.  Of course, there's nothing here right now. There is also, of course, a banter about these two. These two are like night and day, huh. We can relate to Brooke's angry power reading aura. Oh, then I'm Libren's joyful search for new stories! Leif actually starts prepping ice magic here, I don't think he likes being called a nerd.  If we go over here, we can inspect this painting. Grace, huh. I guess the new Queen has more of a power aura! Mhm. Elizant was as kind as they came. Even some monsters would be friendly in her presence. Her voice was soothing, and she saw the future in a bright light. It must have been an honor. I must say I am envious of you having met her. Aren't you giving the new Queen too much of a rough time, though? Of all people to defend her, we didn't expect it to be you. Well, she has a super big reputation to live up to. And a lot of bugs who didn't accept her from the start! A lot of political and social issues forced her hand, too. Which you could even say Elizant's passing gave way to. But it's still difficult to accept... We can't pledge loyalty just yet. Just yet, huh. As long as you're willing to keep an open mind, she may surprise you. ...Sigh. Until then, we have this painting to come back to. As might be expected, this is also a discovery.     I quite like how our characters have different opinions on the political situation and are willing to acknowledge complexity and uncertainty.   That's for the best. No need to spy the same enemy twice if you write your thoughts down, is there?This person gives us another tutorial about spying. I think this is specifically hinting at the fact we can see every character's comments in the bestiary, even if we only spy once. There's also a banter: Her reading speed's quite impressive. "The Flower We Lived By." Oh dear, I'd been meaning to buy this one! Ugh, that one's super sappy. You read that stuff? It's that promising bee author's first book! Even if she hadn't polished her work yet... I really want to know what her beginnings were like! Hmm. If you vouch that hard for it, we'll give it a go. Okay, okay. I don't like it, though.I love that these three just talk about books sometimes. Kabbu is so earnest.  Leif seems to have a strong reaction when I ask the party about this guy. LEIF! What's wrong!? ...Nothing. We just reacted to this guy's geek energy. This is just... I have nothing to say about this, it speaks for itself. If we actually talk to him:  The Ant Kingdom's library houses the best books published in our time. It's a shame, isn't it? Bad books are thrown out and forgotten...Reeves loves reading awful books. I suspect a lot of us have a lot more in common with him than we'd care to admit... (Full disclosure, Reeves is my favourite minor character. We'll definitely be seeing more of him.)  Sneaky! The first  Lore Book is hiding back here in this corner. (How did Brooke not see this one from her desk? As the player, we have the excuse of perspective, but she has straight line of sight!) Let's go give it to her. Ah, wonderful. That is one of ours, yes. I'll put it on the shelf, so check it out whenever. If we go over to the shelf, we can now read the book! Our Lifespan. Before the Day of Awakening, they say we used to live very little... Only a few days or moons! And most of that time, we were helpless larvae... Marriage marked the end of life! It's inconceivable nowadays. For one, we don't even remember being larvae! Truly, becoming an adult is like being born. And then, we get to enjoy this beautiful land for many years. It's hard not to pity our antcestors, who had to give up life soon after becoming aware of it...!There are a lot of neat little details in these. Also, unlike most "books" in video games, the short length of these doesn't fight verisimilitude because, well, they're bug-sized, how much text do you think could realistically fit on those little pages? No matter what order we find or turn in the books, though, the lore blurbs always unlock in a fixed order. That's all for the library. Let's check out the rest of the palace.  True. Back then, the Queen had to personally extend an invite... Oooh. Did you get to visit, Leif? Yeah. We were one of the first non-Ant teams willing to explore... Although we all know how that turned out. S-Sorry. It's okay. Shall we go?I remembered to check for a banter in here. Reminiscing always seems to depress Leif.  There's another room over here.  Leif seems really intrigued by this person. Let's talk to her.  ...Wait... you're Rebecca, right? Hmm? Yes, my dear. Just a humble caretaker... Uh, you know her? Yes! Rebecca, do you remember us? It's Leif! We scouted Snakemouth Den... Hmm... Curses. Now, dear. It's no problem! We can be friends still. Although I have little to offer. N-No, it's not that. We'd be pleased to be friends. Hohoh! Wonderful! I don't get too many visitors... This must be fate! ... We'll, um, come back. We're on a mission for now. Come back soon, dear!This always gets me in the feels a bit. Leif actually found someone he used to know in the past, and she can't remember him at all or tell him anything helpful. We can talk to her again: It's good to see you again. You bring me some peace of mind. I worry about Ellie too much!Also, I like that she has a nickname for the Queen, it helps humanise her a bit after what we've seen. It's a bit of a cliche to have the overfamiliar elderly servant/nurse/etc type like this, but there's a reason it works. So Rebecca was around, even in the early days? Yeah. She was taller but dressed the same. She's really stuck around... I've never met a bug so old! Right here. Eep! U-Um, sorry! Heheh. Really? A bit of levity in the new banter after meeting her.  If we look around the room, there are several more of the stained glass windows of Elizant II, as well as another copy of the Elizant I painting on the far wall. We can't interact with these, though. (And, to my knowledge, only the prior ones work for getting the discoveries.) There's also an amusing general banter in here: I've heard of this place. It's the War Room! So, what, they fight in here? Err, no. This is a place to discuss strategy and missions... Should just call it the Mission Room, then! Vi's observations are, as always... very on point. What's that supposed to mean!?Weirdly, I don't think we'll ever see this room actually used for that purpose! All the councils take place in the throne room, like we saw before.  Outside, we can talk to the lieutenant. Indeed... Our search for the artifact has helped others. I am truly glad. (If only we had bested it back then...)We can also talk about her: The laiu... lieu... the ant captain's really cool! Lieutenant, Vi. ...As I was saying, pretty cool! Maki, Zaryant... The Queen has quite a dependable ensemble. We just hope they follow out of more than obligation.Speaking of Maki, there's also a new version of the banter about the door guards, now that he's no longer with us. Now that's a big door. I bet there's huge treasure on the other side! Hmm... not quite. Ants have their own society isolated within this anthill. There are probably housings and other structures for them to come back to after a hard day of work. There's probably a lot of hoarded food, too. Not listening. I'm not giving up on my big treasure dreams!That's a bit more detailed than before. All Maki said amounted to "non-Ants can't go in there".  We can actually go downstairs now! And if you look closely, the cable is indeed gone now. Hmmmmmmm... Um, what is it, Vi? This is a miner ant, right? Seems like it. But she's not mining at all! She's just guiding people to the mine. It's like studying to be a chef, but having to work at the bank! You've made us feel a bit sorry for her... Don't be like that, you two. Maybe she doesn't even like mining, and this is her dream job! Guess we'll never know...You could ask her, Kabbu. (Also, Vi's remark puzzled me at first, but I think it makes a bit more sense when you remember that the money of this world is edible berries? I think she's saying a chef at the bank would have to look at all the food and not be allowed to do anything with it.)  Going into the mines immediately triggers a discovery.    This miner recognises us!  I'm the overseer here at the mines. We're digging tunnels across all of Bugaria to make life easier for everyone. Currently only explorers can use the tunnels we've finished. We haven't opened them to the public yet. We do have someone out to open them, but she's probably slacking off. We're behind schedule already... I hope the Queen doesn't get mad at us again.And also, naturally: The miners look cool. Way cooler than they need to! Might as well do their job in style. (Should we work on our style more...?)And the general one: Just what is Elizant up to with all of these tunnels? It seems the Queen hopes to connect many parts of Bugaria with these Ant Tunnels. It's gonna make clearing quests a breeze!If it wasn't already obvious, this is going to become our fast-travel hub. Not quite yet, though.  Ants!  This miner is sleeping on the job, it seems.   If I hurt you swinging this thing, I'll get in trouble with the boss.The exit there takes us into this back room.       These miners hint at some areas we might get to go to soon! (Also, sneaky, there's another one of those suspicious dirt mounds in here.) I wanted to keep going and explore more of Ant City, but this update's gotten quite long and text-heavy (I already needed to break it into two posts!), so we'll do that next time. Before we go, though, here's the alternate scene in the throne room:      Maki, you truly have a keen judge of character. Count your blessings, explorer. Few do I spare the rod in respect to their accomplishments.Full disclosure, I'm still not sure if the "keen judge of character" is meant to be sarcastic or not, and I find the "spare the rod" line really awkward. It's a strange saying to invoke in this context and the syntax doesn't help, I think it could have been worded better. Y-Your Majesty! They are not worthy of being in your presence! Much less your pardon! Stay put, Zaryant. They accomplished what your squad failed to do, didn't they? Ngh... At this point, it rejoins the scene we saw before. Vi hands over the artifact, we get paid, and we proceed to learn about the next mission. I don't like this version of the scene as much, even before getting into some of the awkward wording. Next time, we'll continue exploring the Ant Kingdom, and get started on some side quests. There's a lot yet to see. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Mar 2, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 02:22
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I think a bug-sized book could hold quite a lot of text, because the text would also be bug-sized  (It's nice of them to show restraint, though.)
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Feb 28, 2021 03:11
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'Spare the rod, spoil the child' is a common albeit old-fashioned saying, I think derived from the Bible. She's basically saying if the explorers hadn't proven useful and/or entertaining she'd have them smacked down for sassing her.
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Feb 28, 2021 03:50
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No, the "spare the rod" line seems pretty okay to me. It probably just reads as awkward because it isn't a very common phrase. She's basically saying "I don't normally let people talk to me like that without punishing them, no matter what they've done for me". For reference, the full phrase is usually "spare the rod, spoil the child", meaning if you don't set boundaries with your kid and act at least a little strict with them, they'll grow up to be a brat.
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Feb 28, 2021 04:14
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quote:Also, Vi's remark puzzled me at first, but I think it makes a bit more sense when you remember that the money of this world is edible berries? I think she's saying a chef at the bank would have to look at all the food and not be allowed to do anything with it. I don't think that has much to do with it. I think it's a lore book so minor spoiler I guess, I'll spoil it just because it's a reward for finding a book but the berries used as currency taste awful, which is why they can be used as currency, since no bugs want to eat it. Aside from the one miner ant, and Vi even remarks "Uh those berries aren't really for eating" when you give them to her. She was probably just making a comment about how it sucks to spend your life studying to do one job only to be forced to do another (that's capitalism!) and just said the first two jobs she thought of. One of Vi's recurring traits is that she thinks bugs should be free to do what they want, which we also saw with the two ladybugs when she felt the older sister was being too strict to her brother.
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Feb 28, 2021 06:10
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Disabling the healing abilities of old save crystals is an... interesting design decision.
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Feb 28, 2021 08:01
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LiefKatano posted:Disabling the healing abilities of old save crystals is an... interesting design decision. I figure either it's a pat on the back - look, you're so much stronger now, you don't need these any more! - or a statement that your team are destroying natural resources and actually exploring is bad. Or just a way to make backtracking less mindless than it usually is in games. I do like the party interactions and general dynamic. Two trolls and a straight man shouldn't really work, but it does. And regardless of what Vi says, all three of them are nerds.
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Feb 28, 2021 08:55
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Black Robe posted:Two trolls and a straight man shouldn't really work, but it does. Ah, but which are which? 
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Feb 28, 2021 10:00
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Explopyro posted:There's also an amusing general banter in here:
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Feb 28, 2021 14:52
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Black Robe posted:I do like the party interactions and general dynamic. Two trolls and a straight man shouldn't really work, but it does. And regardless of what Vi says, all three of them are nerds. Vi's not a troll! She's just self-centered and has no filter. Leif is absolutely a low-key troll, though.
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Feb 28, 2021 17:49
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A good pun is its own reword. Also,  a pillbug is technically a crustacean. So far this game has been really consistent about insects being sentient, and other creatures either being pets or enemies.
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Feb 28, 2021 21:12
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various people posted:build discussions I always love seeing how many different variations people come up with on the same couple of core ideas. vilkacis posted:I think a bug-sized book could hold quite a lot of text, because the text would also be bug-sized Yes, that's probably true. If I wanted to defend myself I'd say I was thinking about the fact you can't scale page thickness down arbitrarily, but it's not worth digging so far, kvx687 posted:'Spare the rod, spoil the child' is a common albeit old-fashioned saying, I think derived from the Bible. She's basically saying if the explorers hadn't proven useful and/or entertaining she'd have them smacked down for sassing her. serefin99 posted:No, the "spare the rod" line seems pretty okay to me. It probably just reads as awkward because it isn't a very common phrase. She's basically saying "I don't normally let people talk to me like that without punishing them, no matter what they've done for me". To be clear, I know the saying. (Though it's arguable whether it should be interpreted in the imperative or in the descriptive, as in, "[You should] spare the rod and spoil the child" versus "[If you] spare the rod [you will] spoil the child, [therefore beat them]". I'm pretty sure it was intended as the latter, but it amuses me the opposite also works.) What I was trying to say was that I thought the sentence as a whole didn't make much sense, and I do still think the wording and syntax are bit clunky. I think what happened is that my brain parsed "in respect" as "with respect", and then it didn't make sense to link "spare the rod" to "accomplishments". I think you've convinced me the sentence is fine, I'll re-edit the post to try to make this a bit clearer. (Have to admit, did not expect my LP of this bug game would involve discussing bible verses.) Twelve by Pies posted:I don't think that has much to do with it. I think it's a lore book so minor spoiler I guess, I'll spoil it just because it's a reward for finding a book but the berries used as currency taste awful, which is why they can be used as currency, since no bugs want to eat it. Aside from the one miner ant, and Vi even remarks "Uh those berries aren't really for eating" when you give them to her. I didn't bring the taste issue up because the game will acknowledge it soon enough, but that's a fair point. Vi's comment does work fine, it just seemed so arbitrary (chef to banker is a total non-sequitur, especially in comparison to miner/mine attendant) that I was trying to find a closer link. Lynneth posted:I feel like that may be a reference to Dr. Strangelove. You can't fight in there, it's the war room! Nice! I completely missed that. (Honestly, there are a lot of one-off references in this game and I'll probably miss a bunch of them, feel free to point them out!) I should rewatch that film one of these days, I love it but I haven't seen it in years. LiefKatano posted:Disabling the healing abilities of old save crystals is an... interesting design decision. Yeah, I have to admit I don't really know what they were going for with this. I think, if I were to bend over backward to steelman it, the idea is that it's a crutch while you're learning the game but they expect you to start thinking more about resource management later on, so they start shifting the healing toward things like inns that charge you a fee, etc. I think non-healing save crystals can make a lot of sense in the context of a longer endurance segment, for instance. I'll also admit that, conceptually, the idea that an area isn't quite the same on a revisit, and/or that it's easier the first time through and provides more challenge on backtrack, is potentially interesting. That said, there are enough free sources of healing still that the crystals changing never becomes more than a nuisance. I'm not going to defend it as a design decision, but I've never found it caused any problems. Carbon dioxide posted:Also, Oh, neat! That trend is definitely a thing, but there will be some exceptions to it later on, it isn't a hard and fast rule. I think one or two of the lore books comment on it too, we'll see that eventually.
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Feb 28, 2021 21:42
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One of the lore books definitely talks about the divide between sapient bugs and "lesser bugs" but it's not a hard rule and in fact much later on in the game we'll see some enemies that blur the line. e: Speaking of which that reminds me that despite Leif knowing Rebecca immediately, they must have met like maybe once because she definitely has a very good memory about other things that happened much earlier than his expedition.
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Feb 28, 2021 22:33
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I love Bug Fables. It fought for my game of the year last year, only just barely missing out to a remake of my favorite game of all time. I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about future updates, but I wanted to consolidate some minor points. For one thing, I never really agree with MP/BP only stuff. Like, I get the idea of it, and maybe it's just because I'm not good enough at these games, but I found myself really enjoying having the resources to use my skills with TP more than being able to equip more medals. Especially since you do get a bunch of skills from leveling and progressing that are completely independent of them. I focused primarily on TP with a bit of MP on the side and I wish I had been around to actually contribute that to the vote from before. I also did pick HP a few times when I felt like it was getting trickier. I also didn't play on Hard, so take those opinions with a grain of salt I suppose. I wanted to save Hard for a second playthrough for a greater incentive to actually wanna come back and replay it. My primary strategy for battles was to use Icefall almost every time for Crowd Control, so I'm sure that would work much much less often on Hard. Another thing I wanted to note. I'm sure you're experienced enough to know this but I'll keep it in spoilers in case you want to tell other people later on. Kabbu isn't ignoring defense. He's dealing +1 damage, the same way Leif's attacks do +1 damage to plant monsters. You can tell this because if you lower an enemy's defense to 0 with a spell or effect you get later in the game, Kabbu still deals extra damage to that enemy! I found it handy to utilize around midgame and later.
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Mar 2, 2021 07:24
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Twelve by Pies posted:e: Speaking of which that reminds me that despite Leif knowing Rebecca immediately, they must have met like maybe once because she definitely has a very good memory about other things that happened much earlier than his expedition. This is a really good point, and wow, that's even sadder. I can think of another reason why she might not recognise him even if they'd had more of an acquaintance than that, but I'd rather not say more about it until it comes up naturally. Alxprit posted:For one thing, I never really agree with MP/BP only stuff. Like, I get the idea of it, and maybe it's just because I'm not good enough at these games, but I found myself really enjoying having the resources to use my skills with TP more than being able to equip more medals. Especially since you do get a bunch of skills from leveling and progressing that are completely independent of them. I focused primarily on TP with a bit of MP on the side and I wish I had been around to actually contribute that to the vote from before. I also did pick HP a few times when I felt like it was getting trickier. My opinions are definitely coloured by having played higher difficulties, I think. I am certainly not saying MP only is the only valid way to play, and there are definitely some reasons to consider putting more points into TP, but I've never really felt the lack of it (if you want to spam one particular skill, then more TP is probably necessary, but otherwise it feels excessive to me, regeneration medals and items are more than enough). And on the HP issue 9 max HP is the magic number for Hard Charge + Last Attack shenanigans, which is exactly where you end up after the free level-up bonuses if you never choose HP. I found even the all-out blitz offence builds like the thread has been talking about started to fall off on those harder modes, especially in things like the boss rush, there was just enough HP and defence for the bosses to live and mess you up if you tried it, and it really doesn't work well if you're doing multiple phases or battles in a row. I had to completely change my thinking after relying on that for so long, and really enjoyed that. That said, you made a perfectly valid choice and I'm not going to undermine it! My first playthrough (on Hard) I levelled everything evenly and it worked out just fine (as I said earlier, I thought it felt more like a traditional JRPG that way). The system is really flexible and there are lots of different ways to play, which is one of the things that makes it so much fun. Alxprit posted:Another thing I wanted to note. I'm sure you're experienced enough to know this but I'll keep it in spoilers in case you want to tell other people later on. Kabbu isn't ignoring defense. He's dealing +1 damage, the same way Leif's attacks do +1 damage to plant monsters. You can tell this because if you lower an enemy's defense to 0 with a spell or effect you get later in the game, Kabbu still deals extra damage to that enemy! I found it handy to utilize around midgame and later. Yes, I know about this, although I might have to do some more testing to figure out the exact details. I wasn't planning to discuss it until finding Antlion Jaws, because that was the context in which I noticed it happening. If Kabbu equips Antlion Jaws, he'll get an extra +1 damage against any enemy with exactly 1 defence (but notably, not more than that! Only if they had exactly 1). I don't think I ever noticed it happening with Defence Down on enemies, and now I'm wondering about Hurricane Toss too, I'm definitely going to have to investigate more. My understanding is that the devs are aware of this bug and made a choice not to fix it. They've said something like the issue is too fundamental to the combat system to be easily changed, but I have to say I don't quite believe this (if nothing else, it's not the best coding practice but you could just stick an if statement to test for these exact circumstances and subtract 1 from the damage at the end, if they didn't want to or know how to fix the formulae); if true, this would suggest some very weird and idiosyncratic things about their code. I suspect it's more an issue of not wanting to release any further updates for the game at this point, which frankly is fair enough.
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Mar 2, 2021 15:24
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Explopyro posted:this would suggest some very weird and idiosyncratic things about their code. It's this, unfortunately. I've peeked at the code a bit (there's tools to do this with Unity games) and basically everything is hard-coded special cases. Reminds me a lot of the old GB-era Pokémon games, with all their weird edge cases and interactions.
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Mar 2, 2021 18:37
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07: Cooking with Fry (Part 1) 17 - Ant Kingdom When we left off last time, we'd just finished exploring the Ant Palace. Today we're going to take a look around the greater Ant City area.  It's impressive how well the palace stood the test of time. ...I wonder if the Hive's been remodeled, or something...New banter in the bridge area.  Doesn't she have anything better to do? You're one to talk.And a new one about this ant. No, she doesn't have anything better to do, she has to stay here to ensure players can get the discovery! (Yes, she'll be here for the entire game.)  When we return to the Ant Plaza, Leif stumbles after a few steps and this conversation begins. Sorry about that. Heheh! Well now... Leif, after all you've gone through, you must be famished! ...Welp, he ain't the only one! We should grab something to eat. Yeah. It would also be a good time to prepare for the trip, would it not? Yup! And the commercial area is right over there! The camera pans over to the western exit here. Indeed, and it's got it all! Medals, items, and even a chef! With all that's been going on, a little shopping wouldn't be the worst. Just go easy on the budget. Anyways, let's go hit up Fry for some food!So this is our next immediate objective. Nice and simple. This is a sort of tutorial, the game is making sure we know about the cooking system and forcing us to try it out. That said, I like the way they integrated it, it's not like the characters being hungry is hard to believe. We can also inspect that statue that Eetl wouldn't let us inspect before.  Hmm, isn't it weird? I heard the Queen led everyone here. How come she didn't make a statue of herself? Apparently, the Queen was heading in a different direction when this ant got lost. Rather than abandoning it, she decided to return with her people to find the ant. When they finally regrouped... they were standing on this very soil. Huh. So this whole town was built thanks to a clumsy ant? Life works in mysterious ways. The first Queen was extremely humble. Even if that ant hadn't gotten lost... I'm sure she would have wanted this statue. It resonates with the people. ...Goodbye, Your Majesty.Some nice detail in that conversation, the game is really making sure we don't forget how nice Elizant I was. (Also, of course, Vi being Vi.)  It's a discovery!    Once we have the discovery, checking the statue instead just shows this inscription. There's also a general banter for the plaza now: Ah, the Ant Kingdom's main plaza. It greets both tourists and citizens alike. It is the bridge between the commercial area, the castle and the residential area. To top it off, it has many historical points such as the Inn, the Theatre, and the founder statue. Kabbu, you should look into the tour guide business. Before we go west, we can also find this distressed lady over here by the theatre.  All right, Kabbu.  Sob... Sob... Excuse us, fine lady. Is everything alright? No! N-no, it's not. I've been trying to play in the theater for so long... And I felt like I could f-finally do it... But now Mothiva's so popular... they only want her. They said I'd never be as good as her... And now I don't know what to do, or how to make money. So what? If someone says you can't do something... If you enjoy it... just play! Just do what you can! Who needs that dumb theater!? Y-You're right! I just need to get fans of my own! Um... I'm hoping you'll be my first! If there's any songs you like, I can play them for you. P-please bring berries and come hear me play soon! Our team walk just out of earshot and keep talking. You being so uplifting... We must say we're surprised. I was just being honest! You don't have to make such a big deal about it! I assure you, you've made a huge difference today! Yeah, whatever... It's all up to her now, you know? She'll be fine. Let us drop by later and see what she can do.It's nice seeing Vi have a supportive side, even if it does get filtered through her... unique worldview. Let's see what she has to offer, shall we? H-hello. I'm really happy you came back!  Samira here is the game's sound test, more or less. Every song we've heard will be here, and she can play them for us (replacing the background music until we leave the screen). She charges a fee of 2 berries the first time you play each song; there is also a reward we can get if we buy every song (though not until the postgame, because "every song" includes things like the final boss theme), so don't feel like those berries are wasted. It's also a bit odd: songs appear in the list in the order you encounter them ingame, meaning they may not be in the same order from file to file. This might drive you absolutely bonkers if you have certain kinds of obsessive tendencies, like me (I eventually got over it, but it was a struggle). I also really don't understand why it works that way from a programming perspective; are they actually storing the songs as some kind of list, rather than just binary flags? That has to be rather inefficient, if so. Why do this? Also, you may notice some of the song titles are slightly different than in the OST. In some cases this is because they were too long and didn't fit (e.g. the Spider theme is just "Don't Call Him Spuder" here), but I'm not sure what happened with some of the others (e.g. "FIGHT!" became "Let's fight, Team!"). I'll be sticking with the OST names for this LP.  I don't understand how she's playing an ocarina with that proboscis. Does she have a mouth under there too? What is this anatomy. (Also, she is a beefly; when I looked this up, I found out it is also occasionally known as humblefly. If her personality was deliberately chosen with that in mind, that's quite clever.) O-Ok. I'm always here if you want to hear me play.There's also a new banter about her now: Samira's been doing good. We do pay well. Geez, it's not just that. Other bugs come to hear her play too! Heh. I hope she gets a big following soon.This one assumes we've come back sometime later, it's a bit silly seeing it now when we've barely paid her anything. Even so. The two buildings here in the plaza are the inn and the theatre. We'll be back to see them later, for now I want to get on with things. Let's go to the Commercial District. (If we try to go the wrong direction, like back to the Outskirts, Leif will stop us.) ...Please. We need to eat. The entry to the commercial district. This is the commercial area, the best area of them all! There's a Medal shop, a chef... And Madame Butterfly's store! No other store can compare! Commerce excites you too much, Vi. Heheh. And there's a little something else. But I can't tell you what it is! I suddenly feel like leaving no stone unturned...The banter for this area.  Let's immediately get distracted by an obvious secret behind those weeds. Is this what Vi was talking about?  There's a big arrow on that building pointing at the ground, or more specifically, at that conspicuous lid (look at that! it's a cardboard box with "this way up" on the side, and the manhole cover is a bottle cap. There are a lot of repurposed human artifacts lying around, but the game almost never draws attention to them, it's just a nice subtle background detail). Also, hey, conspicuous dirt mound.  Hmm? What is this place? Heheh. Check THIS out!  Entry Code. 2 - 4 - 0 - 5! Last month's code is no longer valid after... the incident. Please use the new code. That was great, Vi. Shut it! Hey! Let me in! It's me, Vi! Ask Shades about me or something! There's no one here unless you know the code. Scram. This place seems... shady. Excuse me, what is this place? ...! Vi, you brought others with you!?  Seriously, what is happening here? If you know what's best for you, you better stay away. All of you. Well, that was a fun detour. Thanks for the good time, Vi. Hmph... I guess we'll have to find the new code somewhere. Maybe someone we help out comes here too! Err... sure. But let us not get too sidetracked.If we ask the party about it, all we get is this: Hm. A weird cover on a shady place. I wonder what is underneath.And interacting with it just gets a voice telling us to leave. Scram.This is obviously something suspicious, and it seems quite important, but there's nothing we can do about it. Vi has gotten herself barred from entry somehow (I love this detail) and we'll have to find another solution. It'll be a while. Just past there, there's someone quite helpful to meet!  That bag looks really heavy. Ants can carry many times their weight. It is quite inspiring. Such strength... Perhaps we were born as the wrong bug... You don't get to complain, you can shoot ice! Please, do not fight in front of Lady Amber. Her work is stressful enough already.Let's talk to her.   For a limited time, we're letting you sign up for a junior account! You can store and take out 35 items for free. For free! Free!? No more tears over having to skip that Crunchy Leaf! Sounds pretty good. Right? There's no way you wouldn't want this. I'll sign you up right now! How wonderful. It's our lucky day! It sure feels nice to get cool stuff without doing anything. This is Amber. She's very enthusiastic about her job! Which is good, because it's a useful one. She manages storage for consumable items. As she said, she can hold up to 35, which helps alleviate inventory frustration (she can hold onto extra things we don't need and free up room to pick up more, keep the things that are too valuable or good to use right away, etc). She can be found offering her services in nearly every town, usually near shops, and even occasionally some other places (don't ask how she gets around or how she's always there when we are). Don't ask me where the number 35 came from though, I have no idea.   The "select multiples" option is new in v1.1, you can press (Y) on an item to highlight it and then give her all the highlighted things at once. Thank you! I will guard it with my life. Would you like to store anything else? (No) Oh, okay! Have a nice day!As proof of concept, I gave her my Magic Seed.  And now it's in her stock, for us to take back whenever we need it. Next to Amber is the shop, but let's talk to some people outside first.   Who's tough now, Seedlings!? COME GET SOME!This guy's name in the internal files is literally "Seedling Slayer", by the way. Pfft. Who boasts about beating up Seedlings? A little kid could do it! That armor looks cheap, too. Oh lord. Oh dear.   M-Maybe I should press (Back) near the townsfolk to learn a bit more about them?Who are we to refuse? Geez, Mun's still in the same spot as always. Still gossiping, huh. Yeah, that can't be a good look! You two can't talk! Over here we have some ant workers who seem to be erecting a new structure. It's weird to see a Miner Ant out on the surface. I wonder what they'll build here. Maybe a house for us. This is the commercial area, Leif. That is unlikely. Details. A house is just what we need! ...I'm just going to end the conversation here.Put a pin in this one.  Further west is the other exit, but we're not done here yet. That would take us to the Residential District, which can also be reached by heading east from the Plaza (don't ask me about the topology of this, maybe it's a long circular path that runs around behind the castle or something? It's convenient, though).  Let's go inside Madame Butterfly's shop.  It's Madame Butterfly! She's got the best prices in the whole kingdom! Ahem. Oh, sorry. I always get excited when I come here. Everything's so cheap, and Madame Butterfly's so pretty! I bet she's super rich, too... Everyone has a role model. Indeed. Let's make sure to shop here for what we need.Honestly, Vi sounds like she has a crush.   If you wish to purchase something, stand in front of the item you desire and press (A). You can do that by yourself, can't you?Just like with the caravan, we can also sell items here. Let's check out what she has in stock:  Mushroom (3 berries) Danger Shroom (3 berries) Aphid Egg (2 berries) Honey Drop (4 berries) Crunchy Leaf (3 berries)Vi wasn't kidding about everything being cheap, either. This is a good place to get basic goods if we need them. She doesn't have anything we haven't seen before, though.   This person gives us more hints. I don't know the exact formulae, but this isn't a lie - the higher level an enemy is relative to you (and the longer you take on the button sequence), the more berries you lose when running away from battle. Generally speaking, though, if you need to run away, you probably don't care much about the berries. Poor fellow. It must be rough being so preoccupied while traveling. That's what explorers are for. Post an escort quest, or something. But then you have to pay a reward! As opposed to dropping berries all over Bugaria? Fair.Further south...  Aren't those poisonous? To someone such as I, poison is nothing. Hmm. We will have to try one as well... Uh, no. We really shouldn't.A hint that there might be reasons to eat poisonous items. There's also a banter about him: This Beetle's always at Fry's. He eats pretty much anything... Ah, a true gourmet. We may have things in common. Yeah. You're both weirdos, alright. ...Just to the left of him is the person we came to see. 21 - Fry it Up!Fry's theme is proximity-based, it starts playing when we get close enough to him. This is Fry, the fly! Most chefs live in the royal castle, but he chose to work here. Though I don't get it. He could make more profit at the castle. He probably just wants to see his fellow common bug smile. There has to be more to it than that... What matters is I'm really hungry. Let's get him to cook for us! We could go for a Mushroom Salad. Hmm, a Cooked Shroom would do me good. What's with you two and shrooms? Aphid Omelette all the way! Let's make sure we have the proper ingredients, first.Before we get into it with Fry, let's check to his left.  It's cute sleeping like that... Uh. Well... Fry isn't complaining, so I guess we can just leave him here.According to the wiki, Oma here represents one of the developers. He has several different lines when we talk to him, chosen randomly (I actually don't know if I've seen all of them), giving hints about various recipes we can try to make.  Wrapping some leaves with eggs... zzz... Mushrooms go well with honey... zzz... Cooked... or with honey... both are different... zzz... A big seed... can be served for a trio... zzz...There may well be more. There are a bunch of hints here and there about recipes, but this is a decent start. Let's stop dawdling and talk to Fry.   Interestingly, we can choose whether to cook with one or two ingredients right away, unlike in Paper Mario where two ingredients had to be unlocked by finding a cookbook. Other than that, though, it's basically the same system: we give him one or two items, and get back something else. (Two ingredients)  Oh! We've got some hungry bugs! First ingredient, now! Second ingredient, now! Let's try this first. Watch a master do his work! Fry puts the items in his pot and stirs them around. Hearts coming out indicates a successful recipe! Here it is, a masterwork! Eat up, small fry! And we get a new item. Come back later when your stomach growls again! Ahahahaha!!Fry is certainly enthusiastic. Normally we'd just get the item and be done, but because this is our first time cooking (and loosely part of the plot), everyone goes over to some nearby seating and we have a cutscene.  Can't explore on an empty stomach! It's nice to be able to share like this... Everyone eats. (And, yes, they do eat the item we just made. It won't be in our inventory when we check. If you're trying to be practical here, make something cheap.) Huff... We feel just like new. Literal ages since we ate something. And we get hungry real fast, so... We'll definitely eat here again. It's been nice to share. Sounds good. But it's time to get back to the mission! We've gotta go south, to the Golden Settlement! Off we go! The recipe gets added to the appropriate page of our logbook. I won't bother showing these, as there isn't any new information in them; I'll make an appendix for the recipes and add them to it as we discover them. So why did I go out of my way to get a Burly Berry earlier, if whatever recipe we cook here is wasted? (I had to buy it then if I wanted to use it here, because Leif wouldn't let us go back to the outskirts after entering the palace.) Well, there are a bunch of different versions of this scene, depending on what we cook, so I wanted to test it exhaustively with every recipe that it's possible to make at this point. (I'm obviously not going to keep the save in which I wasted these expensive berries, I'll remake the Berry Jam later.) This is also why I grabbed that Mistake from Leby and Dib. If I hadn't kept that one there'd be no way to test what happens if you cook it. And yes, something happens if you cook that:  Well well, you gave me bad quality ingredients! Not much I could salvage with this! Yes, this is a real recipe. You can compound your Mistakes and make them even worse. (What does this thing do? If someone eats this thing, they'll instantly be sent to 1 HP as well as poisoned for 4 turns.)  Ngh... For the sake of the mission, we must eat... (Poor them. I'll just eat some of my secret stash later!)Then they eat it and the scene picks up from before. (You get this version of the scene for making any "bad" recipe. It's the same for a regular mistake, or also...)  ...this thing, which is what you get if you disregard Vi's advice and combine two drops of honey. (What is "a big price"? This reduces the user to 1 HP. 12 TP is pretty good though, I can see situations in which someone might consider using this.) Then there are special variations for making specific things our team likes. Kabbu likes Cooked Shrooms:  Ah... Nothing like a plain smoked shroom. Healthy, yet filling... It's such a boring meal though... Needs some honey! We're just grateful to have a full stomach at this point. Thanks.Vi, naturally, likes honey:  Glazed Honey is just the best! It's honey, but even better! Mmm... A bit sweet for my taste. We'll eat anything, really... Except a Mistake.And Leif likes Mushroom Salad:  Ah... Our favorite. Fate has smiled upon us. The textures work so well together! ... A bit too savoury. We shoulda put honey in it!It's interesting that two of these (Cooked Shrooms and Mushroom Salad) were mentioned in the banter about Fry, but Vi said something about Aphid Omelette (which is actually called Leaf Omelet) and doesn't react to that. I didn't find any other variations when testing the rest of the recipes, but let's have a full list of what we can make with the ingredients we currently have access to: Mistake (01)"Why would you let this happen? It recovers 1 TP, but don't eat it. Don't say you weren't warned." Recovers 1 TP, poisons user (2 turns). Sell: 1 berry Results from any invalid combination of ingredients.  Big Mistake (70)"Please don't." Sets user to 1 HP, poisons user (4 turns). Sell: 1 berry Made by cooking a Mistake. Leaf Salad (02)"This salad is just many crunchy leaves chopped up, but it looks fancy. Restores 6 HP to one ally." Sell: 3 berries Made by cooking by itself. Glazed Honey (03)"This warm honey's delicious taste is the pride of the Bee Kingdom. Restores 8 TP." Sell: 4 berries Made by cooking by itself. Abomihoney (04)"You should never improperly mix honey! Restores 12 TP at a big price." Sets user to 1 HP. Sell: 4 berries Made by combining two  Cooked Shroom (05)"Nothing like some smoking to improve a shroom. Restores 6 HP to an ally and cures poison." Sell: 2 berries Made by cooking by itself. Cooked Danger (06)"Cooking amplified this mushroom's taste and danger. Restores 5 TP. At a price." Poisons user for 2 turns. Sell: 3 berries. Made by cooking by itself. Sweet Shroom (07)"A mushroom with some honey on top. Yum! Restores 5 HP to an ally and 4 TP." Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Sweet Danger (08)"While this looks AND tastes good, it is still bad for you. Restores 7 TP. At a price." Poisons user for 2 turns. Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Fried Egg (09)"Fry the Fly came up with the frying technique. Restores 6 HP to an ally." Sell: 3 berries Made by cooking by itself. Leaf Omelet (10)"Leaves wrapped in fried egg casing. Restores 9 HP to an ally." Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Honey'd Leaf (11)"This is definitely more honey than leaf. Restores 5 HP to an ally and 5 TP." Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Roasted Berries (12)"A plate of roasted berries, family serving. Restores 2 HP to the party." Sell: 4 berries Made by cooking a or by itself. Mushroom Skewer (16)"Mushrooms cooked on a stick! Restores 6 HP to an ally and 3 TP." Not poisonous! Sell: 6 berries Made by combining two types of mushroom, such as and  Hearty Breakfast (17)"Bugaria's staple breakfast. Restores 5 HP to an ally, 3 TP, and cures poison." Sell: 6 berries Made by combining and  Mushroom Salad (18)"It has a different, yummy texture in every bite. Restores 8 HP to an ally and cures poison." Sell: 4 berries Made by combining and  Berry Jam (42)"A thick and spicy jam made from two kinds of berries that boosts attack and defense during battle for 2 turns." Sell: 12 berries Made by combining and That's a pretty good variety of things we can make! At this point I usually just see what I can make out of whatever I had lying around after Snakemouth.  Here's what I ended up with. I will draw your attention to Roasted Berries, too: this is the first source of full-party healing we've seen (and the only way to do that right now), though it's not exactly efficient. It's expensive to make and not very strong. There will be a cheaper way to make them soon enough, but it involves an ingredient we can't get just yet. That's it for cooking, at least for right now. From where our team gathered to eat, we can glimpse hints that there's a medal shop just to the east. Let's have a look at that.   Ever picked up a resistance Medal and thought "Pfft! I can just block! I don't need them!" Well, they actually have a hidden effect! If you have them equipped and eat an item that causes a status effect... Let's just say the results of that experiment should be obvious, huh?This is an interesting hint! Medals like Poison Resistance give 50% resistance to the status when inflicted by an enemy attack (if you don't block; as he says, blocking, even a regular block, will prevent status from being inflicted), but confer immunity to that status from items. There are certainly times when this can be good to know. There's also a banter about this guy: What a fanatic! Some bugs truly live to equip Medals! Medals ARE awesome! Wish they were cheaper, though... Costing a bit less MP wouldn't be the worst, either.I'm never sure how to feel about characters openly acknowledging game mechanics in dialogue. I usually dislike it outside the context of tutorials, as it can really break immersion.  Which he is now selling at high prices. Indeed. It's surprising that he would part with his possessions, but I won't judge. After all, these will be quite useful on our journey. Travel, treasure, and power! Now that's the life!This is Merab. He sells medals.   Medals! Those great things you see on display! They are really useful! By equipping them, you can get many effects, from simple stat changes to new moves and challenges! You can equip them to anyone on your team, so mix and match for different effects! I change up my stock now and then, so be sure to check back often!Specifically, he tends to get new medals in stock each time we finish a chapter. (How do we use medals) Easy! You can press (Start) and equip them from under the Medal menu! Medals require MP to equip, and each Medal requires a different quantity of it. Your MP is shared across your team. Some medals can be equipped to different teammates, others affect everyone at once! Make sure to use (D-pad Left) and (D-pad Right) to switch who you are equipping to! Please try out multiple Medal combinations to triumph in any situation!He's not really telling us anything we don't know, but still, good to have it in one place I guess. "We'd like to see more medals" will cause him to reshuffle which medals are on display; he can have more than three in stock, but only a random three will be displayed (and therefore available for us to purchase) at any given time. Let's see what he has right now:  HP Plus (45 berries) Poison Resistance (35 berries) Hard Hits (30 berries) TP Plus (55 berries) Sleep Resistance (30 berries)We have HP Plus and Poison Resistance already, but we can get an additional copy of each if we so desire. Sleep Resistance is just like Poison Resistance, but for sleep. TP Plus costs 3 MP and gives us 3 TP, so it's the equivalent of converting a level of MP into a level of TP (just like in Paper Mario, though in that game HP Plus was also a direct counterpart to levels. Here, well, we could give each bug an HP Plus and that would be the equivalent of taking two levels in HP, but we can't simulate a finer granularity with medals). That's good to have. Hard Hits is a challenge medal, it increases enemies' attack by 25% in return for doubling the berries they drop. This is convenient if you feel the need for grinding, or also just if you're getting bored and want to ramp up the challenge a bit. I'm not planning to use it on-screen in this LP, but I'll definitely grab it for offscreen grinding if/when that becomes necessary.  Alright, take it on a great adventure! Whenever we buy a medal, it also reshuffles the entire current stock.   Please check for other wares you might want!Merab seems to have multiple possible lines after you buy something. I also bought Hard Hits and TP Plus. I can't afford the other two right now, but I'll be back for them soon enough; I have other priorities for my remaining berries.  TP Plus is obviously going on. I gave the second HP Plus to Leif for now.  That's all for the Commercial District (for now). Let's go check out the rest of the town. (Once again, I hit the character limit and need to split the post. Really hoping I'm not going to make a habit of this...) Explopyro fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Mar 17, 2024 |
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Mar 4, 2021 19:51
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07: Cooking with Fry (Part 2) This is the Residential District. There's not as much here, but it's still worth a look around. There's a lot of houses here now. Is that so? How was it back then? It was only the fountain. This was more of a social spot... Huh. They turned a park into housing? As more people came in, it was inevitable. But we do miss the park...  No probs. I'm the queen of multi-hit super smackdowns!This person has some more tutorial/hint text for us. Some flying enemies need two hits before they'll fall down, but Vi's multi-hit skills will work on them just fine. There's an odd banter here, too. Hmmmmmm... You okay there? Look at the middle green coating covering its chest! Maybe I should stick some leaves on myself... and try to emulate the look? Were you seriously thinking about that?Kabbu has really weird fashion sense. Then again, is this guy wearing the bug equivalent of a cravat? Maybe it's not so crazy.   This person seems to be trying to cosplay as a Seedling? Or is it camouflage? Ants can grow hair? Those are leaves, Vi. (Really?) R-Right... Inside the house that person was standing near, there's a spring mushroom.  Eophi and Mun live together, but Mun is currently in the commercial district, we met him earlier. Leaves can grow in such pretty patterns! What a cute mask! And they never grow exactly the same. He's lucky. It makes every mask more valuable, too! The fountain is water. That, obviously, means only one thing.  Leif can freeze it like any other geyser, so we can get across.  There's a medal up here!  Bug Me Not! is one of the reasons the save crystals turning blue never causes much of a problem. This lets you skip battles if the enemies are too low-level to give you meaningful experience (the game still always gives you 1 point of pity experience if you actually fight them, though). For the Paper Mario players out there, this is Bump Attack - except Bump Attack was always a late-game reward and cost a big chunk of BP (I want to say 5?), while Bug Me Not! is handed to you for free here at the beginning and only costs 1 MP. This is a really nice quality-of-life change, and makes backtracking painless.Very occasionally, enemies defeated with Bug Me Not! can still drop berries or items, but it happens so seldom that walking around with this on is not an effective means of grinding. That said, I personally don't care much for it, and almost always choose not to use it. It feels cheap to me and honestly I'd rather fight the battles anyway. (Also, I should warn people to be careful with this: especially if you're doing all the side content, bonus bosses, etc, you can end up slightly overlevelled and then this thing will make your experience of the story content underwhelming. It will work on an enemy even if you've never seen or fought it before.)  If we talk to this guy, he seems to catcall Vi. (Hey, that's a tophat, not a fedora. What gives?)  She is not amused. It's called flirting, Vi. I didn't ask him to! I'm leaving. Bye.There's a bit more in the banter: That's a pretty charming dude. He's gotta pick who to charm better!Bomby isn't a bee. He's another beefly, like Samira. I don't think Vi is being speciesist though, she just seems annoyed.  In the other house on this level, we find this sinister-looking guy.  A tip for you: stay away from water. You never know what kind of monsters might be lurking below the surface.What happened to him? I agree with this guy, totally. Water sucks! If an artifact's underwater, we're done. We quit. ...Yeah. I will not pretend I would not be discouraged. Is that a gumball machine?  Not quite. Or at least, not any more. A bank, huh... Sounds like a good idea to open an account, in case something happens to our berries. I don't know. I don't trust anyone else with my berries. What if they run away after we give them a bunch? This bank is endorsed by the Ant Queen. We believe we used to have an account here ages ago. ...But we are sure they have terminated our account ages ago, too...Let's see how this works.   Welcome. I offer banking services here. Annoyed when your wallet is full and no longer has space for that berry? Panicking when thieves steal your hard-earned money? Then my services are just for you! I can offer you an account here at my bank to keep your berries safe when you're out doing whatever you do. I don't know... I like my berries close to myself! This is the kind of attitude that makes you never move forward in life! Look, if you keep your berries here, you might even get some interest every now and then! You'll earn a small percent of your account every 30 minutes! It's free money! Free money's even shadier! Just think about it, won't you? ...What's that, you don't even have 50 berries? Well... come back when your wallet is a bit fuller. Then we can talk.The bank is exactly what it sounds like. It's well worth opening an account, though maybe not this early since there's so much else to buy; still, I'll be doing this as soon as I can afford it. We can carry up to 999 berries on our persons, and the bank can store up to an additional 10,000 (which is far more than we could ever conceivably need). They also pay out interest every 30 minutes of game time (and yes, this is as abusable as it sounds, you can just leave the game running and rack up the money if you're so inclined). It pays 2% of the balance at the time it checks (though this is capped at 75 berries per payment). Prior to version 1.1, it was 3% interest and there was no cap, so it could get out of control very quickly.  This person doesn't have much to say, but there's a banter, of course: You know, this is a pretty good spot to sit in. Perfect for some music! Or for long team discussions... Let's enjoy it. Further west, we can cut some weeds to reveal a bouncy shroom.  It launches us onto these ramparts.  What's this?  Oh dear. What will we be able to do with this?  This house in the corner is an inverted teacup!  He doesn't have much to say. We're getting a huge nerd feeling. Don't judge a bug by his cover, Leif! It worked with you two, so...Kabbu makes bad puns, but I'm left questioning why our resident wizard has such a grudge against nerds.  That's it for the residential district, let's go back to the plaza. As I mentioned earlier, these areas loop around; it feels counterintuitive to me and took a bit of getting used to.  Time to stop ignoring this. Utter helps with the Notice Board. He makes sure to keep the board in pristine shape, and to alert others of new posts. I hear sometimes he helps out people himself! Seems like an outstanding citizen. Vi could learn a thing or two. I'm as outstanding as it gets!Talking to Utter triggers a minor cutscene.   Why, yes I do! Looking for the quick and dirty ones, ain't ya Vi? We would like to see any and all available ones, if possible. Ugh, those are almost never worth it. Nonsense, Vi. Helping others is its own reward. Oh. How noble... It's moving, really. Kinda. Alright! I will make all quests available for you lot. Well... here's hoping for good rewards!If we talk to Utter again: No new quests right now. I'll keep you posted!(This is a bit cryptic. What he means is "no quests have been added since the last time I told you quests have been added", not "there are no quests available".)  He does give us the option to accept all the quests at once, though, which is pretty convenient. I won't do this just yet, though, let's read through the board first:        When we accept them all, Utter reminds us to look in our log for the details. I won't show much of this, because the descriptions we just saw on the board are more detailed.  Proof of concept, though. (Worth noting, again, as we complete these, they'll be marked complete and added to the list at the bottom, where you see chapter 1. Like Samira's songs, these will permanently be in whatever order we complete them in; keep that in mind if you care about it.) This is our first batch of sidequests, so most of them are pretty easy and can be done right now (though, notably, not all of them: the lore book quest will take us the entire game to complete). We'll get a start on these next time. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Aug 8, 2021 |
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Mar 4, 2021 19:52
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I sympathise with Leif. I also get crabbier and more sarcastic when I'm hungry.Explopyro posted:
His missing eye flips sides  Unless he's winking or something.Explopyro posted:Kabbu makes bad puns, but I'm left questioning why our resident wizard has such a grudge against nerds. He doesn't want to share the nerd spotlight, obviously.
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Mar 4, 2021 21:22
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The talky icon for the banker is wrong, or at least it seems to be - you're using the picture for the innkeeper. They're at least different colors even if they look similar. Cooking is a neat system but I always hated the trial and error aspect of it. Sure, reloading your save to keep wasted ingredients from sticking is fine, but I'd rather just look it up and know what I'm getting out of it. It actually took me way too long to figure out how to make the Hearty Breakfast. I had no idea they had nerfed interest so heavily! It was pretty OP, sure, but you need decent chunks of cash late in the game and it felt like a way to scale up how much money you were getting as you progressed more and more. Ah well. Can't wait to go Questin!
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Mar 4, 2021 22:23
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Black Robe posted:His missing eye flips sides I completely missed that, wow. Sprite-based games do end up doing that a lot with asymmetrical characters... Alxprit posted:The talky icon for the banker is wrong, or at least it seems to be - you're using the picture for the innkeeper. They're at least different colors even if they look similar. Sorry about this; I know, but it was intentional. I legitimately could not find a sprite for the banker (not just in the portraits from the wiki, but also in the archive I downloaded that purports to be all of the sprite sheets). I don't know what was going on there, but I thought the innkeeper looked close enough that I could get away with using her instead. Clearly I was wrong! Alxprit posted:Cooking is a neat system but I always hated the trial and error aspect of it. Sure, reloading your save to keep wasted ingredients from sticking is fine, but I'd rather just look it up and know what I'm getting out of it. It actually took me way too long to figure out how to make the Hearty Breakfast. Yeah, I wish there were a better way to learn recipes. That said, I'm pleasantly surprised how many little hints there are here and there for some of them, at least. (There is a hint for the Hearty Breakfast, I'll make sure to show that in the next update.) v1.1 does add the "food blogger" NPC in Metal Island, who will just sell you recipe book entries for berries. I guess that's helpful? It's a shame it comes in such a late area though. On the interest thing, it doesn't bother me either way honestly. It is kind of interesting how berries start off reasonably tight, you generally spend them as fast as they come in for a while, but once you can start accumulating interest the game basically transitions to money being no object. I assumed this had to be a design goal of sorts, they wanted berries not to be part of endgame currency management? I don't know why they changed both the rate and the cap, when just the cap would have sufficed to do what they wanted.
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Mar 4, 2021 22:34
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Explopyro posted:
No way, what kind of hosed up bug would run a fake bank scam? Since my last post I've now played through the game and seen the credits, though there's still more left to do. Game good! I feel like Chapter 1 is a rough start? Snakemouth Den is kind of visually unappealing and there's no NPCs, things get way more interesting starting here. Maybe I'm just making excuses for having played Chapter 1 some months ago then abandoning the game until now 
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Mar 4, 2021 22:52
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