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Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

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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Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

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!

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I really love what they end up doing with Elizant II but I dare not say more.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I knew this game was something special from the moment I started doing sidequests in Chapter 2 here. For one thing, unlike TTYD's similar sidequest system you don't need to do them one at a time, and they amount to meaningful exploration and engagement with some of the game's core systems. I also did not know about the Ranger Doll unlocking so many conversations! I'm going to be greatly looking forward to that. And for another thing, revealing this mostly optional side path to the pier here gave me the impression that there would be a lot more optional content in the game going forward. And I was right!

Also didn't know about the hint about the Hearty Breakfast. When I went to Chuck and saw he didn't give me a hint just by talking to him, I didn't want to risk wasting food by giving him the wrong thing and also didn't expect the hint to pop up there. Oh well. This game's too smart for my own good, perhaps.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Feed the big bug, imo.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

OP I just want to say I appreciate you taking the time to reply to all of our comments about the LP on such an individual basis. It really makes this feel like, you know, a LET'S play.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Shoutout to the miniboss theme which you first hear in this fight. It's really catchy and fun.

This is around where I stopped playing before since I wanted to prioritize Xenoblade Definitive Edition at the time before finishing this game. I encountered a certain... hungry thing, if you know what I mean, by dicking around and exploring trying to avoid chapter progression past this point, and that was quite the stressful endeavor to end it on. I'm wondering if this LP plans on taking it on now or later. I don't doubt that it's possible to beat it now but I can't imagine it's a good idea. It sure did teach me that this game wasn't the average Paper Mario clone, it had real stakes and strategy and wasn't afraid to kick my butt.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

God I forgot they made that a healing crystal in the patch. That definitely contributed to my sense of dread with this. I think I went back to town to heal and came all the way back here without getting into any battles just to see if it would have made a difference, and it didn't end up helping that early in the game. Good luck!

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I think the most impressive part of all of this is that it was on hard mode. I played the entire game not on hard for my first playthrough and I still had Devourer horror stories. And yeah, not knowing about bombs was probably a contributing factor for sure. Though I don't tend to like DPS races as a mechanic in general, so... eh. I feel like I could say more but I just woke up. Clearly I'm not that good at this game, and I need to replay it on hard soon.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Not much to say about this part. I like the music here, and the fight was tricky but not insurmountable for me on normal difficulty. I was caught a bit off guard by what seemed like a sudden heel turn for Mothiva but at least it's early on so they give the pair plenty of time to develop past that kind of trope.

Honestly the most intriguing thing was the comment from the bud. No payoff for that for a while yet but it sows some seeds of intrigue.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

free him

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Venus is an incredible character, and I like how a deity is presented in a positive light for a change! Plus her design is so beautiful too, for what little the game's graphics do to make that apparent. I should find some good fan art of the battle and share it, I know at least one piece I really liked is out there but I don't think I saved it at the time unfortunately.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Especially on hard mode you're going to see more enemies with defense than enemies without. I played on Normal and I never took off break. (It also has fun applications with defense-ignoring attacks as I previously mentioned.)

Also, one of the lines is messed up, a Tod line has a Muze portrait.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I had no idea Status Booster didn't work on Frigid Coffin. I had it on Leif for the whole game thinking I was so clever! :cry:

I guess I did use Icefall a lot though. In almost every random battle I started with Icefall to crowd control whatever random enemies were there. So in that sense it wasn't entirely a waste. But still!

Oh, and regarding Scarlet, I had no idea they could be construed as a harmful stereotype, but I suppose it helps that it was a backer-designed character and not entirely thought up by the team themselves. When you put it that way though it's certainly easy to see why it could be harmful. Better to keep a sharper eye out for that kind of stuff...

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I was afraid I wouldn't like Spy Cards when it was first introduced, as I'm very bad at deciding on strategies and synergies that work in deck builders overall, but it ended up being not so bad if I didn't rush to beat everyone ASAP. I think tying the game to Spy Data was a stroke of brilliance! That way you have multiple incentives to spying on enemies, and the minigame isn't this weird thing that's completely divorced from the rest of the game the way something like Tetra Master is. The more you play, the more you get rewarded. That's just how things oughta be.

My final strategy involved a lot of enemies from a late game area. It's similar to the Venus one but much more offensively focused. I think I never lost a game once I started using that deck, but it was fairly late in the game before I could utilize it so I wasn't sure if I was just playing it too patiently or what. It's no big deal though, the true prize to playing Spy Cards isn't the money from the tournament, but the early access to Metal Island in general, which you don't have to be that good at the game to do.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Explopyro posted:

I'm guessing you mean the Leafbug Tribe? I don't think I ever tried them, just because I always finished the sidequest before encountering them, but I'm sure they're effective.

No, I actually used the False Monarch and the smaller flies that make him up en masse. Those enemies you mentioned probably made it into an earlier iteration though before I had gotten quite that far too.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

There's a couple of times where you say like, cluse instead of clues, is that intentional?

Also if it helps, we probably wouldn't mind a split-up update where they're not posted consecutively, if it makes your schedule feel more appropriately timed out or whatever.

Not much to say about this part other than I didn't know how to get that HP Plus for the longest time. Thought I needed some weird ice block stuff. Of course the solution is simpler than it seems. Also the buff to the Tardigrade medal seems awesome, something I probably would have used a lot more were it that way when I played it. Ah well!

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I also agree with giving HP to Leif. I'm sure you're going to want to do Things with Vi later, so Leif is the only real choice for the "balance" of it.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

And I never ended up using it, but it definitely would have come in handy for early stuff... oh well, it is what it is. Hoping to see lots of strategies I never even fathomed come up here.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Playing the game the first time it took me a LOT longer to find my first Tangy Berry, because I had never naturally run into a Golden Seedling until... geez, I can't even remember, but I think it was in Chapter 6 around the time you get a certain thing that makes it easier? The way I played the game with more balanced level ups, and a massive focus on TP, these recipes were nigh essential for me being able to survive some of the postgame challenges. That and another one we haven't seen yet, but that I think is the other Tangy Berry recipe you're referring to. Hey, items are meant to be used, right?

Yes, you can buy Tangy Berries on Metal Island, but I'm a perennial hoarder.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

An early line has Vi say "reased" instead of "teased", and one of the screenshots of talking to Honeycomb is either out of order or meant to be something else, the one mentioning roach technology.

It was interesting to see how they applied bug logic to scenarios like this with the hive and the queen and everything. I've had a few friends who are interested in nature appreciate their commitment to at least trying to address how real bugs work here.

Other than that, not that much to say here, the dialogue speaks for itself more or less.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

If 40% off isn't good enough of a deal, Bug Fables is joining Xbox Game Pass in July.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I didn't play on Hard but I don't remember struggling with this boss. I think I really took advantage of Break to up my damage. It was probably a somewhat close fight. Maybe I remembered Bubble Shield? I don't know, I'm sad that it's felt like so long even though I only played this game a year or so ago. Glad to have this LP to remind me of all the little things!

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Victory Buzz let me use Icefall for free in every random encounter to crowd control large groups of enemies. I almost never took it off, even though I spent a lot of level ups on extra TP.

The optional stuff at the beginning of this chapter somewhat amazed me. There's a lot of new places you can go with the sidequests and Bubble Shield's field effect all of a sudden. This game just oozes content, I love it so.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

So regarding the Umbrella thing... I'm gonna put this under spoilers just in case.

I cleared the quest in that way, but it wasn't with Shell Ointment - I used Magic Ice from the next area, and it seemed to work identically to the way you showed here. However, later in the game I was able to acquire the umbrella in question, and if I talked to her I could still give it to her and I got another reward. I'm not sure if it was Reflection or not, but I figured it was worth pointing out.

And agh the quest I really want to see is next update for sure it seems. I'm too antsy!

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I want to see greens. Let's just leave it at that.

I'm actually gonna boot up my game and see if my journal entry is different or something, regarding the umbrella sidequest. I wonder if that'll give any hints.

E: No, the journal doesn't have a "what happened after we took the request" section unfortunately. I swear I'm not making it up though!

Alxprit fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Jul 10, 2021

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I absolutely LOVE the Far Grasslands preview here. I was completely floored by it existing the first time I played. There's not much you can do there right now, of course, but it's worth remembering for later! Also that music... oh, it's absolutely one of my favorite tracks without a doubt. Kinda sold me on how much I really loved the game all on its own. So I get sentimental about weird stuff like this, I suppose.

I've never seen these Miracle Matter strategies before, so I'll be looking forward to exactly what it consists of.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I wouldn't mind seeing the tournament be saved for later when more varieties of deck can be constructed, personally. I'm not sure which variety I would want to go for, but I know there's more content we can probably be experiencing that might give us the upper hand.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

To be clear, my suggestion of saving the tournament is not equal to not checking out Metal Island.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I understand both points. Getting it over with is certainly an option, and I think as an author it makes sense. When I personally played the game, I didn't feel "ready" to win the tournament immediately. But that's just me. I just went back to the tournament when I felt more inclined to, there wasn't really a rhyme or reason for it. But, you should do what makes sense for the LP, and not for emulating how someone casually would be playing the game, because that's not really what you're trying to do here I don't think.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Maybe it would be worth throwing in Spy Cards updates as we go as well, to detail what the enemies we've fought in the last, like, 5 or so updates' effects are for cards if you want to do the tournament now. That way you could at least hypothesize about how things might play together, and people who aren't interested wouldn't need to have it in their main update.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I used Sharing Stash quite a bit, because I didn't have any major cohesive strategies that involved Vi's power other than some fairly standard buff and debuff items and abilities. It really can help with sustain over a fight. Though I think you said it heals 3 HP to everyone when the gif clearly shows 2, unless I misread that.

Metal Island is cool as a change of pace, too. Even in low-tech environments I like seeing a bit of modernity and ingenuity in these kinds of settings. (And yes I know about later, don't worry.) And the Tangy salesbug was very important to me and my infinite money late-game.

I really liked seeing the hug between Vi and Jaune in-game, but it always reminds me how limited the actual spritework is for the game. I don't remember if I've talked about this before but I'm not the biggest fan of this game going for the more N64-based artstyle aesthetic. I think that it would have a lot more fans if it went for a more modern style. I don't know how much of that is because of budget or what, but I often think about how much cooler it would be if the characters had like 16 frames of animation for walking instead of 2.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I definitely didn't find this cave until very close to the end of the game, or maybe even after the end of the game? Which is lame because the reward for it is really drat nice. Conversely, the boss gave me little to no trouble because of how deep I was in at that point, so it was nice seeing an early strategy against it. Sorry for murdering your plant friends, Venus, but you gotta admit they had it coming.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I, uh... I never knew that boss disabled items. I was playing on Normal, mind you, so I just think I never needed to use an item once during the fight. That's really weird, but interesting!

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

I leveled TP more often than anything so I was probably able to easily outlast a battle of attrition.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Explopyro posted:

Despite the downward turn... we hoep you make great things with that silk, Kali!

Typo in this line.

I vote Leif eats the Heart berry. Create two tanks and one DPS.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

My TP heavy strategies loved Berry Smoothies. A lot of my damage came from using expensive skills that we haven't seen yet, and I'll be sure to mention them when the time comes. Therefore, for me Crisbee Donuts were pointless except as an ingredient for Queen's Dinner. I think my max TP by the end of the game was like, 50-something. It might not be the ideal way to play, but it's the way I felt comfortable.

I don't think Dark Cherries being buyable is a bad thing. I get the "respect" out of trying to use them as findable things, but also, the way you're playing the game I don't think much of the Dark Cherry recipes will actually be that useful anyway. If I had to pick one that I think you'll get use out of, it'd be Cherry Bombs. You don't have enough TP for Berry Smoothies to matter, you'll probably never play badly enough that you'll need the multi-revive, and the baked dish could have its uses but you could also just use Kut's Tangy Carappicio instead. So, count that as a suggestion, I suppose? And definitely get at least HP Plus and Poison Defender, if not everything.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

It took me forever to find Stream Mountain's entrance. Pretty sure I had those abilities you mentioned at the time as well. But I also still found the area's enemies interesting and challenging at times. There being this whole optional mini-dungeon hidden in plain sight is really cool, in my opinion.

As for "Double Techs", I only used one in particular later game, since it seemed the only one that had enough advantages to make up for the extra action use. Sadly, most people seemed to have the same idea and it got nerfed in v1.1. At least I got to enjoy it for my first playthrough!

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Wait, hold on, the difference between "woah" and "whoa" is more than just personal preference?

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Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Ah, Tidal Wyrm... it was a welcome surprise at the end of this area. Playing on normal, I remember still being somewhat impressed with the relative difficulty of this fight compared to what surrounds it, even if you get to this area a little late. I think with my more conservative strategies I was having trouble attacking both the tail and the body, and also taking advantage of when the wyrm was down for attacking it. I was able to best it on my first try though, I think. It's a meaty enemy! I don't think I used Kabbu's skills for attacking nearly as much and I probably would have had an easier time of it if I thought about it.

I'm excited to reunite with the main plot though! I liked the next dungeon a lot and its boss was very interesting!

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