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vilkacis posted:Indeed! Remus is a bro and i don't think our mostly-heroic-but-occasionally-sarcastic Crevanille would bench his bro. Uhh, it's been a while but I believe there are 10 recruitable party members on the Modified/True path (not counting Crevanille himself) that can participate in fights. The battle party is 4 and Crevanille can't be removed, so eventually the thread will be picking 3 characters out of 10 available ones.
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Jun 7, 2021 22:21
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If/When Magnus joins us, then I want him to be a mainstay on the team. His glorious sideburns will lead us to victory! Also, can I say I'm disappointed in Remus. 'Same as all the others', really?
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Jun 7, 2021 22:55
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Can you date the lady angel? Crevanille can totally date the lady angel can't he?
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Jun 7, 2021 23:02
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Psycho Knight posted:Uhh, it's been a while but I believe there are 10 recruitable party members on the Modified/True path (not counting Crevanille himself) that can participate in fights. This is correct. Omobono posted:Can you date the lady angel? Crevanille can "date" any of one familiar, ten party members, and six or seven NPCs, so maybe...?   Anyhow, ages: Lumis Lichtmann - 30 Alphonse Ordinale - 25 Muntzer - 31 (He has a first name, just not 100% on the katakana/what the localization used. Edit: Bernhardt?) Melomane Mallet fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Jun 7, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 23:22
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Omobono posted:Can you date the lady angel? Melomane Mallet posted:Crevanille can "date" any of one familiar, ten party members, and six or seven NPCs, so maybe...? Fun fact about dating: Crev can date every female NPC with a portrait EXCEPT the angel. One case is kinda stretching it, but still. It's obviously not the case, but I find it hilarious that the requirement for giving them art assets could be this.
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Jun 7, 2021 23:41
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Oh, I've played the game and know that; I"m just being deliberately vague.
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Jun 8, 2021 00:58
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Update 7: Ruin Raider When we left off last, we had rescued Dr. Lichtmann from some thugs that were trying to kidnap him. God only knows what happened to the guards that should have been keeping an eye on this incredibly important man, but hey, it all worked out in the end thanks to the intervention of Crevanille and the gang. Now, let’s find out what the hell Lichtmann is doing all the way out here.  Sorry about the wait. Those thugs weren’t exactly eager to be handed over. Welcome back. Say… if you come from Fort Leinfaltz, would there by chance be a Ruin Child amongst you? Remus isn’t, but Crevanille and I are. Join you? Where? Why, in the ruins! There’s a door that only you two can open for me! Er, what should we do? Go to the ruins. Ludwig promised us Ruins access. We are going to get Ruins access. Okay! We’re getting that much closer to our goal now. Doctor, we’d actually been interested in the ruins, too, and were looking forward to meeting you! If you did any amount of exploring before coming here, then you likely already know where they are. Of course, you would have been barred from entering them by some Dulkheim soldiers. I’m happy to hear that! There aren’t a lot of the younger crowd interested in such things. I’d love to talk to you more about them right now, but I think that can wait till we get there. I’m a part of the army, so I have a rank of captain. I’ve never really thought of myself like that, however. I’d feel more comfortable if you called me Lumis. Or “doctor,” I guess…? In any case, it’s nice to meet you!*Lumis will accompany you!* Well, at least he seems like a pretty nice guy. Genuinely nice, I mean. Not “vaguely sinister” nice like Ludwig. Regardless, at least he’s not the snobby intellectual that Crevanille and Vallery feared he would be. The ruins are a little north of here. Let’s get going once we’re ready! Lumis has joined us as a guest party member. Thankfully he has somewhat decent stats, so this isn’t quite an escort mission. His HP is terrible and we can’t deck him out with equipment or spellstones, but his AI is set to keep him out of harm’s way as much as possible. He will also contribute to battles by occasionally casting support spells (like Cure, ATK/DEF Buffs, and etc.). That said, he is not fit for frontline battle and we can’t direct his actions, so make sure to keep an eye on him.  You’re probably in decent shape despite that last battle, but just in case I would recommend hitting up the Inn. The Ruins aren’t very far and the enemies along the way are the typical assortment, but we’re about to head into a dungeon where healing will be more difficult (much more difficult if you end up missing an important treasure chest). You may also want to grab some Vulnerary if you don’t have a bunch already.  The path to the Ruins starts up here, tucked away behind these trees which are directly north of that previous screenshot (which is right outside Saudrick). The next two field screens consist of dense forest. In both cases, you want to work your way to the Northwest corner. There are enemies around here, but they are the same batch that we’ve been dealing with since leaving the Fort (Scorpions, Worms, Timber Wolves, and Headscissors).  Eventually we reach this door with some soldiers and a researcher wandering around. You may have discovered this earlier while exploring the area to grind, but you would have been prevented from entering.  The screen pans up to show this grassy hill overlooking the door, for some reason. All right… time for you to do your thing and get this door open.*The screen starts to shake as soon as we approach the door*  After which the screen pans back up to that grassy hill to show that a big-rear end tower has erupted out of the ground. I can’t believe a tower like this was hidden under the ground… We don’t understand how it works exactly, but these doors open automatically when a Ruin Child approaches. This is the primary reason Ruin Children are a necessity when investigating ruins. Knowing this, I’m fortunate to have been born in Dulkheim… There’s a surprising lack of such children in Valkania. Ah, but that’s not important now. Let’s head on in!Yay! Exploring! *Lumis just walks straight on into the ruins* Hey! Sheesh, guess it can’t be helped… He seems so carefree and happy. I can understand that.It is his life’s work, after all. Of course he’s going to act like an excited child. Haha, you’re right. Doctor, going alone is dangerous! If you’re wounded, you’re gonna be hard to carry back safely.I generally like how blunt Vallery is. He doesn’t look at Lumis’ actions from a standpoint of “I’m worried about your safety, person I just met!” He looks at it from a standpoint of “If you get hurt then our job becomes a way bigger pain in the rear end.” The ruins ARE full of anti-intruder devices. There may also be ferocious beasts… God knows how they got in here.I’m glad I’m not the only one curious about that. Okay, I understand. Lead on, then. Take a second to scope out the layout of this area. There are two of these doughnut shaped rooms on either side of the entrance. At the bottom, you’ll notice there is a treasure chest hidden behind a steel shutter. There’s another steel shutter at the top of the two rooms, although we can’t see what’s behind them.  If you try to open the center door and head north, an alarm starts going off. [Warning Announcement]: Powerful A-type Astral reaction detected. Commencing elimination.  The screen then pans up to show us a third doughnut room to the north. Both shutters open, but some kind of floating magical sword enemy comes out of the right room. There’s another treasure chest in the left room. The same scene will then play out with the two rooms on the right and left of the entrance. Uh, wh-what’s that? Doctor…? Astral bodies are the mimetic substances that make up Familiars, but… No, I don’t believe that’s the case. Researchers have brought Familiars into ruins before without having this happen.Yeah, but those were Familiars belonging to weak little researchers. Yuni is a Familiar belonging to a super special Main Protagonist. There’s a difference. Perhaps these ruins are different. I have no idea. Something’s coming…!And the battle is on!  The enemies are called “Executioner”… or I guess that’s technically their class. They are named “Guardian 1/2/3” and each of them is Level 11. Not especially dangerous at first glance, but if you kill one of them you will quickly find out that they respawn infinitely. To stop the infinitely spawning enemies, we need to have a character reach these glowing orange lights. There’s one of these switches in each room. The thing is, hitting this switch will close both shutters in that particular room. That means we need to grab the treasure chests before triggering the switch.  The best way to do this is to just send 1 character to each room. Use the Move command and set a manual path to the treasure chests. Crevanille is standing closest to the door, so I send him to the northern room. Vallery gets sent to the room on the right and Remus is sent to the left.  Lumis will move back towards the entrance and cast support spells, so you shouldn’t have to worry about him getting getting hurt. The Guardians will almost certainly aggro on Crevanille/Remus/Vallery as soon as they walk into their respective rooms.  The Guardians will heal themselves whenever they deal damage, but it’s nothing to be concerned about. 1HP is nothing. Of course, 15HP to Remus is a different story. He should be fast enough to get to the treasure chest, hit the switch, and then deal with the Guardian before taking too much damage, but just be wary of his health.  Vallery reaches his treasure chest first, which contains 244 Ril. The character will automatically open a treasure chest when they get close enough to it. After the chest in a room has been opened, send that character to the switch on the wall.  Crevanille is next to reach a chest, which contains Soul Crusher. We’ll look at that later. The switch in the northern room is at the top. Remus’ chest contained the Lv. 3 green spellstone: Chemist’s Art.  Once a character reaches the switch itself, you’ll be given a few options. You can flip it immediately, wait a bit, or wait longer. There is no reason at all (for this mission, anyway) to wait on flipping a switch to close the shutters. The only scenario I can see where this would be of benefit to you is if you sent two or more characters into one room and the switch character got to their point before the treasure character. If you’re doing this mission that way, then you are doing it wrong. If that way is the only way you can manage to pull through this mission, then you are grossly underleveled.  Once the shutters in a room have been closed, you are free to deal with the Guardian that is following you around. They aren’t especially strong, so it shouldn’t be a problem for anyone, including Remus. Lumis is also helping by casting support spells such as Attack Up Level 3 (which he used on Crevanille just before this screenshot). The controls for the switch will continue to popup as long as your characters are standing next to them. Any time it does this, just select “Wait longer.” If the character has killed their respective Guardian, then you can also manually move them away from the switch to stop the prompt from repeating. If you do flip the switch a second time, then the shutters will reopen and a new Guardian may spawn in.  I finish with a Bonus Gauge of +33. Remus and Vallery both took extra time to kill their enemies because their first attacks were blocked/missed. Not that it would have made a huge difference. If you want those treasure chests, then you aren’t finishing this mission with a 40 or above anyway. Mission Complete for this one is to just close the shutters and eliminate the Guardians with a positive Bonus Gauge. I’m not certain, but if the Bonus Gauge gets to under 10 or 20, then you might wind up with a Mission Clear. A Mission Pass will most likely happen if the Bonus Gauge drops to 0. Whew, looks like it’s over. Superlative, everyone.I guess that’s going to be Yuni’s catchphrase or something.  These strange devices then rise up from the holes in the right and left rooms. Everyone will rejoin Crevanille and our job is to then go and check those devices out. Hm, if I do this… So, what do we do now? Now, now, don’t be hasty. Let’s see… to go upstairs… Ah, here it is! Lumis’ tinkering results in a stairwell rising up from the hole in the northern room. Look, stairs! Then we’re done with this. I’ll take it back with me to research!*Lumis obtained the Projector!* He took the blue diamond thing that was on top of that pedestal. In case you’re wondering, the one in the left room is busted and can’t be acquired. Vallery posits that it may have been the command module for the Guardians, which is why it’s no longer functioning (since we destroyed them).  Before we continue, here are the spellstones we got. Chemist’s Art will teach the spell Cure, which is a basic healing spell. It also boosts the effect of healing items by 1.5 during battle. I slap this on Vallery, because he’s not using his MP for much else. We are currently permitted to use spells, since there are no civilians around here, so I have Vallery cast Cure on Remus. It takes him from 71 HP to 104. Not bad for a cost of 4 MP. The other spellstone was Soul Crusher. It converts 10% of the character’s weapon attack into MP damage. That’s a very situational skill. More useful is the Knack that Soul Crusher teaches, which is Critical Rate Up. That’s much more beneficial in the long run.  After taking the stairs, we end up in a much prettier locale. Great view, fancy ornamental floor patterns… those pillars are a little weird, but I’m sure you could refashion them into Roman style columns for a better look. Anyway, interior decoration aside, you’ll notice that there are new enemies hiding behind those walls.  If you stick to the windows and follow them south, or follow them the opposite way all around the edge of the room, you’ll eventually run into this group.  He’s facing away right now, but the Master Guardian looks like a caped knight holding a huge sword. He’s fairly beefy and has some resistance to most elements. If you recall, we heard something about a cowardly keeper back in Saudrick. That girl was teaching some kids a song about a gatekeeper that held the key to treasure. That means we want to eliminate the Floorkeep/Master Guardian as quickly as possible, before he has a chance to bolt.  When the Master Guardian is aggroed/pulled into a battle, he’ll start charging up a spell. The spell takes a fair amount of time to charge, but if he completes it then he’ll escape from the battle and you’ll lose your chance at the key to the locked treasure chest on this floor. Defeating him before he escapes will reward you with a Small Key. Once that’s done, you are free to take your time cleaning up the other enemies. The other new enemy type for this area (the ones that look like little imps with pitchforks) is Puppet. They are Level 12 and have a natural healing ability which restores 15 HP every so often. It’s not enough to be too much of a problem and they aren’t very strong, but they can slow you down if they end up blocking your path to a Master Guardian.  The locked chest for the first floor is in the middle. It has a Life Apple. We then move on to the eastern side of the screen, where there’s another staircase leading further up the tower.  The Master Guardian on Floor 2 is more of a pain to reach than the first one.  He’s tucked away inside this loop just above the staircase we came from. A Puppet is also front and center, so it’s difficult to get at him quickly. Wait out of sight of the enemies and watch them move. Either wait for the Master Guardian to walk left (closer to the opening of the loop), or wait for the Puppet/Guardians to move away to the right (behind the wall) so you can sneak in closer before getting spotted. Remus and Vallery cannot shoot through walls, so either have them try and clear a path inside for Crevanille, or get them to charge up spells and hit the Master Guardian with those to weaken him.  If you gave Crevanille the Sonic Blade spellstone from the Fort, then he should be able to hit the Master Guardian if he can slip in between the column and the Puppet. Remember, Sonic Blade gives melee characters greater attack range. The locked chest on this floor is once again in the middle. It contains a Nectar, which will be your first Revive item. We’ll be able to buy Nectars soon, but they are quite expensive (350 Ril each), so this is a welcome gift.  The next floor is more complex than the previous two. You’ll spot the locked chest in its own little room. There’s also an outer walkway around the entire area which leads to the next set of stairs. The inner walkway leads to where the chest is.  What you want to do is take the outer walkway counter clockwise. Just after you pass by the room with the stairway in it, you’ll find the Master Guardian. You’ll have snuck up behind him, so he should be easy pickings since Crevanille, Remus, and Vallery will all be able to get immediate hits in. The nearby Puppets will also be blocked from getting to you until the Master Guardian is dead. If you took the outer walkway clockwise, then you’ll be blocked from the Master Guardian by the Puppets. Remus and Vallery should still be able to hit him, but Crevanille will almost certainly not be able to help.  The locked chest on this floor contains Critical Strike, which increases Critical Rate by 15% and teaches the Knack Critical Rate Up. Another very good choice of Spellstone to equip. Since they both teach the same Knack, it’s up to you whether you would rather have an immediate 15% Critical Boost or the 10% MP Damage of Soul Crusher. Personally, I replace Crevanille’s Sonic Blade with Critical Strike.  ….. Oh, you already knew, then. Well, yes, this crystal can record what it sees. Would you like to create a record, just in case? You never know what may happen.This is the same shiny crystal thing we saw in the Ruins of Hope (the one that Remus couldn’t see at the time). I heavily recommend popping a save here, since the next battle is one of the “Trial and Error” types that Growlanser likes to throw at you.  There’s no Master Guardian on this floor, but that’s a good thing because our attention will need to be focused elsewhere. When we get to the center area (that has the weird tree growing through it), a scene will trigger. Those Guardians are still around, aren’t they? Yep! Let’s do this.The battle will then start. It’s a very wide area with Puppets and Guardians scattered throughout. If you take a second to cycle through the enemies, you’ll also notice:  These bastards. You might have seen them poking out of the bottom and top of the screen when you entered this floor and assumed they were lights or something. When the battle starts, however, Lumis will fill you in on their true danger. Watch out, everyone! I see a will-o-wisp! Physical attacks aren’t terribly effective on them. So, this is a perfect opportunity to exploit spells! They’re very weak to them. Hurry!Follow Lumis’ advice and immediately have everyone start charging an elemental spell (if they have them). Lightning won’t work against Will-o-wisp, but the only access to that you have by this point is through Lightning Imbue (which doesn’t actually teach you a spell. It just applies the element to a character’s weapon). Be aware that Earth spells also won’t work against these things. Remember what the Dulkheim Soldier mentioned to us back at the fort: Earth doesn’t work against flying targets.  A single Level 1 spell will be enough to take out a Will-o-wisp in one shot. There are four Will-o-wisps on the field that are hidden behind walls, so the only way to deal with them is to use spells. If only 1 of your characters is capable of casting elemental spells, then you could be screwed here. Generally, a character should have enough time to fire off two Level 1 spells before a Will-o-wisp is able to get off one of their own. If you have two characters with elemental spells, then you should be able to eliminate all four Will-o-wisps before they can finish charging. If you don’t take them out in time, however…   You will get picked apart. Will-o-wisps like to charge up Level 2 spells, which will hurt a lot (and is the reason why you can get in two Level 1 spells before they can use theirs). 67 damage right now is about 40% of Crevanille’s max HP, 50% of Vallery’s, and 70% of Remus’. Crevanille is basically the only one that will survive a second spell. Lumis could easily end up getting taken out by just one hit.  Another problem is that Guardians are flying enemies, which means they can move directly towards your party members. The Puppets will need to funnel into the narrow pathway in order to get to you, but the Guardians can approach from any direction (some of them start next to the Will-o-wisps on the outer walkway).  This means trouble for Lumis as well, since he is very bad at taking hits. A single hit from a Guardian shaves off 20 HP and stuns him. In this screenshot, you can see that Lumis’ ATW gauge has a green and yellow meter. Green is the time for him to finish charging his spell to Level 2, while the Yellow is the time that was added from the Guardian’s attack. The ATW gauge will only start draining again once Stun has worn off (or is cured by an item).  Overall, this is an easy Mission as long as you come in with multiple spell users and know what the Will-o-wisps are capable of. Ideally, have Remus and Vallery take out the Will-o-wisps while staying close to Lumis. Once the Will-o-wisps are dealt with, have Vallery and Remus switch to taking out the (likely 2) approaching Guardians before they can start attacking Lumis. Crevanille can handle the Puppets that are slowly approaching the central walkway. You can bottleneck those enemies on the walkway and draw aggro on the other Guardians while you’re at it. Superlative, everyone.If for some insane reason you didn’t equip an elemental spellstone on any of your characters, then give up and reload your save. The only way to attack the Will-o-wisps without spells is to fight through every other enemy on the field, run to the left sides of the room, and then run back down the outer walkways to where the Will-o-wisps are. It’s unlikely you will survive the repeated Level 2 spells being hurled at you during that time. Even if you do, you won’t be getting a Mission Complete out of it.  There are no items laying around the area, so let’s head through the middle door into this weird room. A cutscene will trigger when we approach, and it’s a pretty lengthy one.  Check out the cutscene: Ruin Child  Is this really a Ruin Child? How old do you think she is? She kind looks like she’s about our age. I’d heard the oldest Ruin Children are 10 years old, at most. This is just my personal opinion from looking at the device, but… I think its size is the key point here. This girl is very slight for her age. That might explain why she was able to enter stasis. So what are we supposed to do next? How do we wake her up from this? Uh… give me a moment. In my experience… if we do this… Ah, look! There’s a projection device here, as well. Well good for you, but… is she okay? Oh, she’s just fine. The awakening protocol has been activated. Looks like it should finish in one or two hours. Well then, I guess we should just sit back and wait for the—   What the?! Th-That’s…!  Leave us alone, damnit! An Angel attacking the tower?! Doctor! We need to get the girl out! But the awakening protocol isn’t finished yet! If we don’t, she dies.Yeah, we no longer have one or two hours, Lumis. Let’s grab and go.  We need to hurry! I’ll use the escape spell! All right, apparently this place has beam shielding. That’s good to know.  No-one move!   *labored breathing* We worked together for so long… I can’t believe this… This is horrible… Why is the Angel attacking us? Why does she hate humans?I still think its because they have some kind of hate boner for Remus.  So that’s what an Angel looks like. It truly is awful… Hey, the girl! She’s waking up!   Are you…? Ah! I don’t believe it! What a relief! I finally found you! Who are you… Oh, wait! Naked anime girl! That’s right. You showed up when Crevanille got knocked the gently caress out during the fight between Angemon and Not-Sephiroth… well, if you want to call it that. Wait… how did you do that if you were in stasis?  Hi there. I… I’ve wanted to see you… I’m sorry to interrupt, but may I ask you some questions? Who are you? We’re with the Dulkheim Army. You wouldn’t know what that is. You’ve been asleep for 2,000 years. 2,000 years? Yes. Do you remember being put to sleep? It should seem like yesterday to you, I’d think. Ngh… Hm, let me try something else. How do you know Crevanille? Oh, well, that’s because he’s… Because he’s… Huh. Why do I…?Yeah, we kind of yanked her out of stasis before the defrosting was complete. There’s gonna be some wonkiness as a result of that. Doctor… We must be seeing the aftereffects of waking her. I’ll give her some time to recuperate. So, you really don’t remember anything? How about your name? My name… Yes, I remember that. Ah, I’m glad to hear you remember that much, at least! It’s pretty.Is it just me, or does Remus seem to be lowkey hitting on every girl we meet? He’s used some variation of cute/pretty/beautiful to describe Regina, Lady Mayfield, Yuni, and now Frayne. Maybe he’s giving up on the whole “finding a family” thing and is switching focus to making one instead. Thank you. But in any case… What happened here? An Angel happened. One of them attacked and destroyed everything. An…gel…? Well, that’s what we call them. They have wings on their backs, fly around, and kill people for some reason. Not that killing is really an angelic trait… Maybe we should be calling them “Demons,” eh? What’s wrong!? Are you all right, Frayne? Is that really what’s happening? What? Are the Angels… really trying to kill people? I-I can’t believe— Even if they aren’t enjoying it, such mindless, unwarranted slaughter can never be forgiven!All right, Remus. Let’s relax a little bit. We know that you’ve developed a bloodlust for angels, but it’s not as though Frayne is one of them. At least, as far as we know. Remus! What’s gotten in to you? I know what you’re saying, but taking it out on her won’t change anything. It’s just…! Ugh… …. I’m sorry, Frayne, he went too far.Notably, there’s an option here for “Please forgive our manners…”, but it’s greyed out. I guess that’s supposed to be the “Full Paragon” response or something?  You have to understand… We’ve all suffered losses because of what the Angels have done. It’s not something any of us can get over easily. I-I see… Lamentations aside, I can’t help but wonder what the Angels actually are. These ruins were created 2,000 years ago by people who were then killed by Angels… But then, traces of Angels have been found in ruins older than these… Angel “traces”? We need more to go on than pictures to figure out what Angels are, though. I’ve always held out hope that Ruin Child would know the secret. Huh… Well, no reason to worry about it for now. The memories will come. Now… I know this might be hard, but could you help us bury the people who fell during the attack…?That’s kind of a dick move, Lumis. She just woke up, nearly got killed, and is suffering memory loss. I’m pretty sure we should have her sit out the gravedigging. *A quick funeral service later*  Right. Our original mission was to bring you to the fort, too. What should we do about her? We should bring her with us. It’s a different department than the one I’m with, but there’s a team at the fort that studies Ruin Children specifically. You’ll be well taken care of. Ruin Children are special, and you’ll be treated as such. Hrm… I feel bad making her come with us without much explanation. She won’t be up to speed for a while. Works for me! I’m not exactly hyped about a double-escort mission, even if the enemies along the way are pushovers. Take good care of her.The other options are for Crevanille to do it, Remus to do it, or Lumis to do it. The fact that you can suggest Lumis, who we’re supposed to be escorting ourselves, is funny to me. Vallery is our bro, though. We can trust him with secondary escort duty. Remus is probably a bad idea considering the little outburst he just had. You have my word. (Vallery…) (Hey, I realize it’d be awkward if you went with her right now. I got your back, don’t worry.)See? He’s a total bro. (Thank you…) ….. ….. Okay, then let’s get going. Frayne, you’ll be with Vallery, and— N-No… Huh? I could maybe endure it if I’m with him, but not otherwise…Chill out, KOS-MOS. You don’t get special attention from Crevanille unless the thread deems it so. Get in line like every other character we’ve met so far. We have our reasons, and we need you to understand. Ruin Children get investigated by the army. That’s the way of it. You’ll be separated from him one way or another. I’d rather just go off on my own, then. Urgh… What should we do, Crevanille? No. Special. Attention. Frayne, you need to trust me. All right… If you say so… Thank you. Please watch over her. Leave it to me.And now we’re free to leave. Our party is pared down to just Crevanille, Remus, and Lumis, but there’s no major threats between us and the fort. It’s all the same forest critters we’ve fought before.  Once we get back to the signpost near Saudrick, we’ll be stopped for a quick scene with these two people. [Young Woman]: You wouldn’t really go on without me, would you, Christopher?  [Young Woman]: I’d go twice as far to be with you. You know that… [Christopher]: Oh, you’re just nothing but trouble, aren’t you?   [Christopher]: Haha. You’re hopeless. All right. Stick around. But only till we hit the next town, all right? *And the two walk off toward Saudrick* …What was that all about?Who knows? Not our problem, though. If we go back to Saudrick, there’s no sign of either of those people. Maybe Christopher is like Jack the Ripper or something and lured that woman out to the woods to gut her like a fish. I’m sure we’ll find out eventually, considering that that was a named character. We’re here. I’ll be around, but since I’m in a different department, you might not see me. We’ll talk more about the ruins next time. Please excuse me for now.*Lumis leaves* He’s probably going to research what we picked up… He seems like someone who’d only have research on his mind. Probably. Yeah, right? Anyway, though… our mission is complete. Should we go report int to the Major, too?May as well. There’s nothing else to do at the fort right now.  When we get to Major Abram’s office and knock, we discover him leaving Ludwig’s office. Ah, Major! Reporting in.[Abram]: No need. I’ve already been briefed by the brigadier general. Oh…?[Abram]: Dr. Lichtmann told us what happened. Now there’s something I must tell you. ”Be quiet about this”, right? What’s that? Yeah, that figures. Understood.[Abram]: Good. But in any case, well done. You’ll return to your regular duties starting tomorrow. Yes, sir!*Abram heads back into his office* I’ll return to our room, then. See you later! Until next time, Remus.*Remus then leaves* I speculate that something we saw at the ruins is considered classified. I am concerned, Master. Can the army be trusted in regard to the Angels? No, they can’t.Absolutely not. Everyone around here except for Tricia and Lichtmann is shady as hell.  It is absolutely logical, Yuni. You really think the military nation with World War era Germany stylings can be trusted with knowledge of ancient superweapons?  We head back to our room, where I put Yuni through some more training. All those battles have given the Dollhouse enough energy for 3 training sessions. I have her Exercise twice and Study once. Her Charm dips down to Level 1, but she does manage to pick up Guard Physical when her Strength hits Level 3. Guard Physical is similar to Guard Spell. There’s a 2% chance, times the level of the skill, of negating a physical attack against Crevanille. At max level, that’s a 10% chance of nullifying a physical attack. Not bad.  Uhh, no it wasn’t, Remus. That was definitely the lady Angel. I’m not sure about the PS2 version, but in the Japanese PSP version (Over Reloaded), Remus says “遺跡を破壊した天使は男のようでしたね…”, which isn’t so much “Looks like the angel who destroyed the ruins was a man” as it is “The angel that destroyed the ruins was similar to the man (angel)”. Could have been the same one who destroyed the island, but it was too far away to be sure.This is similar in Japanese, but combined with the previous line it reads like Remus is more uncertain than he is in the English version. That said, both lines don’t make a lot of sense because Remus has never seen the male Angel and therefore has no point of comparison for their looks. His first and only sighting was of the female Angel that destroyed Ribocca.  If we try and get to bed, Vallery will return and fill us in on what happened with Frayne. I took her to the lab. I felt badly for her, surrounded by people she didn’t know. But, oh! You gotta hear this. What’s that? We met this really weird guy on the way back. It was hilarious. It took me forever to get him away from her! Hahaha, I wonder if he’s the same person we saw… I usually hate shallow people, but that Chris guy’s flirting was funny. If most anyone else had tried that, I’d want to deck him.Too bad we weren’t there for it then, I guess. That’s all for this update. Next time, Crevanille will have more graphically messed up dreams and we’ll check in with Frayne to see how she’s holding up under questioning. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Jun 13, 2021 |
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Jun 12, 2021 20:33
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I assume A-type is short for angel type, which just raises further questions. Is Crevanille half angel? It would explain the blood wings. Furthermore, Frayne was very confused about the news that angels are going all Ancient Testament around the place. Add it to the :speculation: pile.
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Jun 12, 2021 22:06
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Psycho Knight posted:
Wrong portrait?
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Jun 13, 2021 01:50
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ultrafilter posted:Wrong portrait? No, that is actually Lumis from what I recall. It's supposed to be an acknowledgement that it was dangerous for him to just run off into the ruins alone and that Vallery/Remus are right to chastise him for doing it. The reason he has two portraits in a row is because I wanted to slot in my comment on the beasts thing. Omobono posted:Furthermore, Frayne was very confused about the news that angels are going all Ancient Testament around the place. Add it to the :speculation: pile. There's another piece of this puzzle that people in the thread haven't noticed yet in regards to the Angels as well. Well, maybe people have noticed, but nobody has questioned it or brought it up yet.
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Jun 13, 2021 02:25
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Psycho Knight posted:I’m not sure about the PS2 version, but in the Japanese PSP version (Over Reloaded), Remus says “遺跡を破壊した天使は男のようでしたね…”, which isn’t so much “Looks like the angel who destroyed the ruins was a man” as it is “The angel that destroyed the ruins was similar to the man (angel)”. It's the same in the PS2 version, I can't imagine they rewrote any dialogue they didn't have to. That said - the PS2 cutscene, such as it is, doesn't actually show the angel at all so this wouldn't be contradictory there either way (Remus's "why does she hate humans" earlier is not gendered in Japanese). e: In fact given that the female angel is shown at Ribocca on PS2 I wonder if this is was actually a mistake in the added cutscenes. In Remus's following line in Japanese he does say 'the angel that you saw at the island' rather than implying he saw it himself and Crevanille will undoubtedly have said 'it looked male' when describing it. Polsy fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Jun 13, 2021 |
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Jun 13, 2021 11:42
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Psycho Knight posted:There's another piece of this puzzle that people in the thread haven't noticed yet in regards to the Angels as well. Well, maybe people have noticed, but nobody has questioned it or brought it up yet. I mean, I'm not allowed to talk about anything concerning the plot, at most I can like say Chris is one of my favorite characters in the game.
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Jun 14, 2021 00:59
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MythosDragon posted:I mean, I'm not allowed to talk about anything concerning the plot, at most I can like say Chris is one of my favorite characters in the game. It's good to err on the side of caution with possible spoiler stuff, but I'll just point out what I'm talking about to clear it up for everyone. It's not a spoiler, since I'm only pointing out stuff we've already seen. Go back and look at the Angels we've seen:    We (the audience, and Crevanille) have technically seen 3 different Angels so far, not 2. I haven't seen anyone ask about it or mention it, so I wasn't sure if it was noticed. Just something else to throw in the speculation pile. Polsy posted:It's the same in the PS2 version, I can't imagine they rewrote any dialogue they didn't have to. That said - the PS2 cutscene, such as it is, doesn't actually show the angel at all so this wouldn't be contradictory there either way (Remus's "why does she hate humans" earlier is not gendered in Japanese). Crevanille does say the Angel at Lamplast was male. It happens just after the Ribocca attack when Remus (again) assumes that it must be the same one from the island. I'll have to check the tower scene in the PS2 version, because even though that scene isn't animated in the PS2 versions, it should still have roughly the same dialog as the animated version. It might be a case of Remus still seeing the Angel but the game simply being incapable of showing it.
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Jun 14, 2021 01:43
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 isn't the third image the lady angel again in sprite formaaand she has black wings in the second image. Welp. Add it to the pile. E: although while dude angel absolutely did the smiting lady angel felt more like an observer to someone else throwing down the salt pillars. Wrong posture and expression for a smiting. I wonder if the wing color has anything to do with this. Omobono fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Jun 14, 2021 |
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Jun 14, 2021 02:25
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Psycho Knight posted:I'll have to check the tower scene in the PS2 version, because even though that scene isn't animated in the PS2 versions, it should still have roughly the same dialog as the animated version. It might be a case of Remus still seeing the Angel but the game simply being incapable of showing it. Right, Remus still has the 'An Angel attacking the tower!' line so he saw it but without the new cutscene there's no visual or stated indication of what it looks like, which means it could have been intended to be a male Angel (unless there's any later revelations contradicting this). Omobono posted:aaand she has black wings in the second image. Oh, huh, yeah, I didn't notice that at all. I guess I assumed it was just shadowing at the time.
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Jun 14, 2021 02:32
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huh I don't remember seeing the angel sprite. Also, maybe it's to keep the sprite artstyle consistent, but I thought the angels were gigantic. Also seconding the thought that the dark wings were shadowed.
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Jun 14, 2021 02:38
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Just reviewed the dont talk about stuff policy, and realized I should tell you before you record any furlough stuff. If you plan it perfectly you can unlock every character ending in one play barring the mutually exclusive ones. There's a guide on gamefaqs and everything, and bonus, it uses the same fairy as you, which is generally the point where it falls apart if you have a different fairy and need to plan around that.
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Jun 14, 2021 03:02
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Space Kablooey posted:huh I don't remember seeing the angel sprite. Omobono posted:
Polsy posted:Oh, huh, yeah, I didn't notice that at all. I guess I assumed it was just shadowing at the time. The scene is very short and I took the screenshot I did in order to show the soldiers and Angel, but the game does give a brief shot of the female Angel's portrait:  That gives a better comparison to the difference in her looks versus the one at Ribocca/the Tower. Space Kablooey posted:Also, maybe it's to keep the sprite artstyle consistent, but I thought the angels were gigantic. I believe they are supposed to be roughly the size of a normal person. I think the game deliberately frames them in cutscenes/CGs to make them seem gigantic because that makes them more menacing/dangerous/insurmountable enemies. MythosDragon posted:Just reviewed the dont talk about stuff policy, and realized I should tell you before you record any furlough stuff. If you plan it perfectly you can unlock every character ending in one play barring the mutually exclusive ones. There's a guide on gamefaqs and everything, and bonus, it uses the same fairy as you, which is generally the point where it falls apart if you have a different fairy and need to plan around that. Yes, but it's more entertaining if I make the thread pick their favourites and vote over it. I also might not be able to follow a precision guide like that for other reasons related to user-voted content. I will show as much of that content as I can, but I don't like to do completionist SSLPs or follow walkthroughs. I don't want my writing to end up getting influenced by a guide that I'm following (since some walkthroughs like to throw in funny comments and such). Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Jun 14, 2021 |
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Jun 14, 2021 16:29
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Different wings and halo color, yeah. There's two lady angels, for now.
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Jun 14, 2021 22:25
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SIGSEGV posted:Different wings and halo color, yeah. There's two lady angels, for now. It might just be poor communication with the group that did the videos.
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Jun 14, 2021 22:38
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Black-winged Ribocca angel and white-winged immediately-post-Ribocca angel are at least both shown in the PS2 version (Ribocca is barely a cutscene in either version, the angel just floats there unmoving as smoke rises) so I'm going to trust them on this one for now.
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Jun 15, 2021 00:05
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Extra Update 1: Artistic Expression To start us off in this Extra Update (which may or may not end up being the only one), we’ll be taking a look at the Appendix. I pointed this out at the beginning of Update 1. Growlanser IV: Over Reloaded/Wayfarer of Time (EN) was nice enough to include an Appendix which let’s you look at a bunch of collection material that you have unlocked from the game. You need to unlock the Appendix itself, which I’ll mention once it’s appropriate, but this is still a welcome addition compared to the previous editions of the game. For Wayfarer of Time (JP) and Return, I think you can only access the appendix material through Debug codes. Either way, Appendix let’s us access multiple different options, as pictured above. —Sound—  I personally do not have the Sound Test unlocked, and for the life of me I cannot remember how you go about doing that, but as a substitute: here is the full soundtrack for Over Reloaded. The main composer is Tomoyuki Hamada who has had a long, if somewhat lowkey, career in terms of video game music. He founded T’s Music in 1990, which has gone on to do a lot of work in some major games (including Fire Emblem: Three Houses), but Mr. Hamada himself left the company in 2007 and went to work as a producer with 5pb (now known as Mages Inc.). I’m not sure what he is currently up to (or if he is still with Mages Inc.), but he does have his own independent career as an artist outside of video game music. For what it’s worth, I do enjoy the music in this game. The main reason I don’t typically link individual tracks in the LPs I do is because it eats up valuable text space (which I very rarely have extra of). That said, despite the fact that I do like the music in this game, none of it has really stuck with me. From a personal standpoint, none of the tracks in this game jump up to memorable status. —Gallery— The Movie Gallery should be obvious. It allows us to rewatch any of the animated cutscenes in the game that we’ve seen. I can't show a screenshot of this here because we've only seen a handful of cutscenes so far. The Movie Gallery pages shows thumbnails of a bunch that we haven't run into at this stage of the LP.  Character Gallery allows us to have a look at all of the character art in the game (as in the in-game portraits).  It also allows you to view all of the Costumes you have acquired for the Familiars. This is Costume H for Type D-PT, for example.  You can also scroll through all the different facial expressions/poses of each character. Almost every character in the game also has an “Injured” portrait, such as Diana here. Some of these are fairly subdued, with only minor cuts or bruises, but some of them can get pretty bloody or nasty looking. These portraits are used whenever the character is defeated in a story battle and forced to retreat, or is otherwise plot-killed. The Visual Gallery is where we view CGs from the game (such as that one we saw of the lady angel attacking Ribocca).  Ruins of Hope Scene - PS2 Version  Ruins of Hope Scene - The same shot rendered in Anime Cutscene form for the PSP version Notably, the Visual Gallery also includes CGs which don’t get used in Over Reloaded/Wayfarer of Time (EN). The first CG is used in the PS2 versions of Growlanser IV during the scene where Dixon, Regina, and No-Name Man get offed by Not-Sephiroth. The second shot is from the PSP version, where new cutscenes were drawn up for various moments. These new cutscenes sometimes ended up replacing CGs from the PS2 versions. It’s nice of them to still be included (in widescreen no less) for the PSP version.  You can also view how many of the game’s 40-something different endings you’ve seen. Unfortunately you can’t rewatch them from here, so all this really does is let you know which ones you are missing for 100% completion.  Finally, we’ve got the Chips Card Collection. This is something you need to unlock later on in the game, but once you do you will be able to buy special items called GL Chips Set. You may have seen these items in our inventory already, since I’m using a NG+ file. GL Chips Sets 1 through 4 are minor healing items that give you a random collector card upon use. These cards are of characters and special artwork from the Growlanser series.  For example, this is Tippi. Tippi is a Fairy from the original Growlanser and acts as a mentor of magic for one of the heroines. She’s also the basis for Type D-PT’s appearance from Growlanser IV, as you’ll notice the similarity in costume and hairstyle, a possible name choice “Pitti” (ティピ = Tippi / ピティ = Piti), and also voice actor (Megumi Toyoguchi voices Tippi in Growlanser and Type D-PT in Growlanser IV).  In addition to basic character art, there’s also special artwork cards. This one is of Carmaine, who is the main character of Growlanser I.  And here is a clean version of Growlanser I’s PS1 cover art. There’s also some… uh…  …suggestive artwork included in here.  Suggestive artwork that is not limited to just the ladies. This will act as a segue into the next part of this Extra Update— —The Art of Growlanser—  Looking back on some artwork from previous games in the Growlanser series—  as well as the artwork in the Langrisser series, you may notice some recurring elements at work. This is because the main animator/character designer for the Langrisser and Growlanser series is a man named Satoshi Urushihara.  Mr. Urushihara is a lover of many things as far as character design is concerned. He loves the 80’s/early 90’s look, he loves shiny things (hair, clothes, skin, etc.), he loves very pretty faces (male and female), and he loves big things.  Big boobs.  Big shoulder pads.  Big swords.  Big hair.  Big everything at the same time. Mr. Urushihara started out working as an animator at Toei Animation in the mid 80’s. He did work on the first animated Transformers series as well as Transformers: The Movie. He also worked on the G.I. Joe animated series and has published a few (short-lived) manga series.  Satoshi Urushihara’s take on G1 Arcee, from Transformers He also draws a lot of erotica and has been involved in several adult OVAs and manga. But that’s obviously not something we need to get into for the sake of this LP. The main takeaway is that the distinct artistic style of Growlanser comes from Mr. Urushihara’s distinct personal style. So what is he doing these days? Uhh… not much from what I can find online. He was involved in the recent Langrisser I & II collection on Switch. The only other mentions of him over the past year or two are related to freelance artwork and collaborations (very NSFW stuff, I should add). He is still active, but I can’t find any anime/video game/manga/OVA work credited to him, so he’s either going by a pen name in SFW stuff, or he’s keeping a low profile.
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Jun 16, 2021 18:19
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When you mentioned shoulder pads, my first thought was Fist of the North Star. Was Mr. Urushihara involved in that?
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Jun 17, 2021 01:35
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mastersord posted:When you mentioned shoulder pads, my first thought was Fist of the North Star. Was Mr. Urushihara involved in that? Not to my knowledge. FotNS was 84-88, during which time Urushihara was graduating from high school, working at Toei as an animator on Transformers, and then turning freelance. He didn't get a crack at a character designer position until 87 (on an adult OVA series). I think FotNS just shares the 80's aesthetic that he loves (shoulder pads, spandex, wild hairdos). Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Jun 17, 2021 |
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Jun 17, 2021 03:05
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Yeeeeaaah.... that's the other thing Urushihara is know for - hentai. One of his artbooks has nude art of all the playable girls from the first three Growlanser games. All of them. Even the twelve-year-old. 
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Jun 17, 2021 04:32
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There's no way to talk about this tactfully, but I'm gonna try. I love his art normally, like top 10 best artstyles, especially his psp remake era art with extra shine, but that all evaporates when its NSFW. I legitimately dislike it for some reason even if you ignore that, and I just question how both sides are his art. Barring that uh... thing I could have lived without knowing, I'm glad he generally keeps them separate.
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Jun 17, 2021 10:11
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Psycho Knight posted:The main composer is Tomoyuki Hamada who has had a long, if somewhat lowkey, career in terms of video game music. He founded T’s Music in 1990, which has gone on to do a lot of work in some major games (including Fire Emblem: Three Houses), but Mr. Hamada himself left the company in 2007 and went to work as a producer with 5pb (now known as Mages Inc.). I’m not sure what he is currently up to (or if he is still with Mages Inc.), but he does have his own independent career as an artist outside of video game music. Judging by vgmdb he left videogames a long time ago, except for sequels (unless he didn't work on the sequels either but he's credited because they reused some of his work) and has been composing/arranging for (5pb-attached) idols since. Judging by his twitter he's now either running or heavily involved in a new label, Beyond the Music, so I guess that's working out for him. Not entirely sure if he's still technically with Mages since even stuff under the new label is listed as distributed by Mages.
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Jun 17, 2021 11:51
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Melomane Mallet posted:Yeeeeaaah.... that's the other thing Urushihara is know for - hentai. One of his artbooks has nude art of all the playable girls from the first three Growlanser games. All of them. Even the twelve-year-old. I was going to include a joke about Growlanser/Langrisser being one of the only series to have official Rule34 of basically every character, but I didn't want to dwell on the NSFW stuff too much because this is an LP of a T-rated game series. Polsy posted:Judging by vgmdb he left videogames a long time ago, except for sequels (unless he didn't work on the sequels either but he's credited because they reused some of his work) and has been composing/arranging for (5pb-attached) idols since. Judging by his twitter he's now either running or heavily involved in a new label, Beyond the Music, so I guess that's working out for him. Not entirely sure if he's still technically with Mages since even stuff under the new label is listed as distributed by Mages. Yeah, he doesn't have much direct involvement in video game music post-2010. He's listed in Senran Kagura and Corpse Party games, but I believe that's because he's Asami Imai's producer (who has done lyrical/voice work in those titles). I think that Beyond the Music is his independent work. I had found a website with a bunch of his tracks listed on it while I was researching him, but for the life of me I can't track it down now. I think a lot of it showed up in Touhou stuff, so he might be involved in that community in a hobby capacity. MythosDragon posted:There's no way to talk about this tactfully, but I'm gonna try. I love his art normally, like top 10 best artstyles, especially his psp remake era art with extra shine, but that all evaporates when its NSFW. I legitimately dislike it for some reason even if you ignore that, and I just question how both sides are his art. Barring that uh... thing I could have lived without knowing, I'm glad he generally keeps them separate. It is a very strange juxtaposition. Love it or hate it, he has a distinct art style that stands out from others and that is enough to justify including it in a personal top 10. A lot of artists have personal touches in characters they design, but not as many have an entire ethos about it where someone can look at it for a second and go "That's definitely so-and-so's work." But the fact that he uses that same art style for his adult oriented work, and also likes to use previously designed characters as material, is a bit troublesome. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how he gets away with that stuff. Just searching for some of his artwork to use in this update resulted in NSFW images of characters that are very clearly Growlanser/Langrisser characters. I understand that he is a freelancer, but you would think that kind of thing would cause some friction with Atlus/Sega, yet they still worked with him on the remastering of Langrisser I & II.
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Jun 17, 2021 14:37
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Speaking of Langrisser 1&2, I love Ryou Nagi and basically consider him the modern Urushihara. They go in on different aspects, but they're the definitive two artists with a "plastic" style, and it stands out immensely. So I think he was the perfect choice to do re-imaginings of the designs. Definitely a bit less iconic though.
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Jun 17, 2021 16:16
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MythosDragon posted:There's no way to talk about this tactfully, but I'm gonna try. I love his art normally, like top 10 best artstyles, especially his psp remake era art with extra shine, but that all evaporates when its NSFW. I legitimately dislike it for some reason even if you ignore that, and I just question how both sides are his art. Barring that uh... thing I could have lived without knowing, I'm glad he generally keeps them separate. Psycho Knight posted:It is a very strange juxtaposition. Love it or hate it, he has a distinct art style that stands out from others and that is enough to justify including it in a personal top 10. A lot of artists have personal touches in characters they design, but not as many have an entire ethos about it where someone can look at it for a second and go "That's definitely so-and-so's work." Yeah, I'm pretty much in agreement; he's got a fantastic, distinctive art style I love the look of. It's just. You know, the thing. I have been cursed with this knowledge for years and I both regret passing it on and regret nothing.
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Jun 18, 2021 04:35
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Update 8: Parties and Politics We start the update off with another trip to Crevanille’s weird dream world, where he can see Ludwig and President Deringer having another meeting while also seeing himself standing in his own room despite being asleep.  I see… And now everything looks okay somehow! Maybe my computer is in need of an exorcism.  After we’ve completed that, we can redirect those forces toward Valkania… I understand your plans, but do you really think we can win this? Yes, I do. Just leave things to me and we will emerge victorious. Hmmm… Not satisfied? A nonaggression pact…? A lot of money has been spent by my supporters in the war against Iglesias. Too much, in their eyes. I’m starting to sense some discontent from them. Indeed. If I don’t split the spoils from Iglesias with them and then stop the fighting, I’ll lose their support. This is not to mention that war is an unpopular venture in general, and the public has lost its stomach for it.So Deringer’s donors are looking to cash out and score a return on their “investment” while the general public is reaching the stage of “Why the gently caress are we still throwing bodies into the meat grinder?” Not a good combination to have when heading into an election. I can’t afford to go into the next election while starting another war with Valkania. I’ll have to reject your plan…I’m honestly kind of surprised that Ludwig would suggest something that stupid in the first place. Yes, Valkania is secretly loving around in Dulkheim’s territory, but Dulkheim is already worn down from a war that hasn’t even ended yet. Not to mention that, based on what we’ve been told about Valkania, they aren’t exactly a pushover. If Ludwig is feeling confident just because they’ve cobbled together a few hundred kids that can use spellstones, then he’s a very reckless fool.  Yo! You must’ve been pretty tired to not wake up before right now. We’ll go on ahead to the main hall. It seems there’s going to be some kind of explanation…*Remus and Vallery head out* That was another “foresight.” It was Brigadier General Ludwig and the President speaking. They will undoubtedly affect your future in some manner, but I wonder how and in what specific way.I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. Let’s head out to the main hall and see what this explanation thing is all about.  Ah, hello there. Why are you here? Isn’t your laboratory next door? Oh, did you come here to tell us about the ruins? Over here…? You mean, in a military capacity? That’s right. I’m not thrilled that I won’t be able to study the device I took from the ruins, but orders are orders… I understand you were ordered, but… you’re a researcher. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. I don’t disagree. But it’s not that abnormal in the military. I did graduate from the academy, after all. Still, to be transferred from something you like doing… Hah, I appreciate your concern, but I’m sure it will all work out as long as I’ve got fine men like you. *Lumis heads to the lectern while Remus and Vallery head to their seats* I suggest we sit down, too. Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am taking over Ludwig’s duties, as he himself has been promoted to major general.Isn’t Abram also a major? Why wouldn’t you have him take over Ludwig’s duties? I guess you would still need someone to fill Abram’s job at that point, but still. Seems weird to rope a researcher into that over a man who has actually been acting in a military capacity for however many years. A party will be held tomorrow here in this hall for Major General Ludwig. We will use today to prepare for it, so all training is canceled. Everyone will have assigned duties to perform. Okay, you all know what to be doing. Get to work.*Everyone scatters, save for two random soldiers and Remus/Vallery*  Looks like we’ll be guarding the guests that arrive tomorrow. You’ll be on Doct-- I mean, Major Lichtmann. You’re lucky to only have work in the afternoon. Hah, that’s the benefit of being group leader!drat right. Okay, well, I’m going to go enjoy my free time today, then. Wonder where I should go…*Vallery and Remus both leave in different directions* What should we do now?Good question. I guess we’ll start by nagging the people we just saw.   It’s near the fort, though, so I’m sure nothing will happen! Don’t let your guard down. I won’t, I won’t… Don’t make such a fuss. And hey, if anything happens, I’ll just call you! I’ll come whenever you need me.First of all, phrasing. Second, I know what I told Frayne about “no special attention until the thread votes”, but we need to be as nice as we can to Tricia for the time being for reasons that will become apparent much later on. Hee hee, it’s a promise! If we try and head back to our room, Tricia will send a knocking code. This is only if we try and go back to our room. If we leave through any other exit, she won’t stop us for this. I’m not sure if it’s possible to miss this, but I wouldn’t chance it. Better to trigger it before starting the next story event. *send back, “Be careful”**A little pink heart floats over Tricia’s head*  If we head outside, we’ll find Vallery training against the dummies. This is all he has to say, though. Remus is hanging out at the end of the hallway that leads to our room and just wonders aloud about what kind of party is going to happen.  If we walk around anywhere near the laboratory, we’ll get pulled into a scene. [Kate]: I’m sorry… We’ve tried everything we can. [Researcher]: If she’s in that state, then… Hm? Hey, weren’t you one of the people who went to find Dr. Lichtmann? You know about that girl, then, right? Please, we could use your help. Yes.We could say no, but that would be a non-heroic thing to do. [Researcher]: Thank you. I’ll take you to her.  I was starting to think I’d never see you again…It’s been less than 24 hours, Frayne. Relax. Have you remembered anything? I’m afraid not. When I first awakened, I could not remember anything else, but I somehow remembered you… Who are you? Someone you met in a dream.As corny as that sounds, it’s technically what happened. In a dream? I am sorry. I do not remember… If you’re a Ruin Child, then please tell me: why was I asleep? I’m searching for that, too.Yeah, sorry about that, but Crevanille is just as lost as you are. He didn’t even know he was a Ruin Child until a few months ago. Until then, he lived with the idea that his dad just passed him off to a mercenary leader when he was a kid. You, too? I see, so I’m not alone in this fear… Thank you. Just knowing that makes me feel relieved. What’s in those memories I’ve forgotten? What if I had some kind of mission? If so, I have to remember no matter what. Yeah yeah, we’re soulmates or whatever. Like I told you before, the thread will be the ultimate arbiter of that. Vallery awoke in the same way that you and I did, but he is different somehow. Or maybe it is more that we are the different ones… Perhaps that is where my fear truly originates-- that we share the same past, yet our path differs from others’… Yes.*Frayne heads for the door, but then stops to look at Crevanille* Now that I know I’m not alone, I know I can go on. We will meet again.*Frayne leaves* [Researcher]: You really helped calm her down. Thank you. We’re free to leave the room at this point. There’s nothing left to do, so I guess we’ll just have Crevanille spend his free day sleeping. It’s what I’ve been doing for the past year. #PandemicLife.  Back in the Dream Zone, Crevanille starts having another graphically screwed up vision. This one concerns Tricia. *Tricia destroys the scorpion* Whew… Is that the last of the monsters?[Dulkheim Soldier #1]: Looks like. But why were there so many near out fort? It was almost like they were being chased by something.  I guess that answers that question. Not sure why the monsters were running from Garuga, though. They all seemed pretty chummy with each other during that mission in Ribocca. At the very least they were all friendly enough to agree on a loving ambush plan. *Dulkheim Soldier #1 takes a swing, but gets immediately bodied by Garuga* [Dulkheim Soldier #1]: Ngh! What the-- This thing’s strong! No way! W-We need to hurry and contact the fort for backup![Dulkheim Soldier #1]: But how!? Ugh… Here it comes again…!  Tricia! Affirmative. That means the place we saw was the forest to the east. Their situation was critical. We should leave at once to aid them.We have a new mission: Save Tricia! …Also the no-namers with her, I guess. Remus and Vallery are nowhere to be found, so I guess we’re on our own for this one. We need to head out to the courtyard and then leave through the East gate (the one that leads to Ribocca). That said, however, I recommend that you make sure Crevanille is equipped with a Decoy spellstone before continuing. We want him to be drawing as much aggro as possible.  *We hear a knocking from somewhere* Master, wait… I hear something. It is Tricia’s knocking code. I believe she is telling us where she is. We must hurry. If we move a little further to the right, we’ll find Tricia being accosted by Garuga. Master, we’ve found her! Crevanille!? How did you find me? We heard your code. Thank goodness! Thank you, Crevanille! So here’s the layout: Tricia is tucked away up in this little forest area. You can see one Garuga here, but the second one is actually a little further up, just off screen. Crevanille needs to kill the first one as fast as possible and draw aggro on the second.  Tricia is essentially helpless in this fight. She can take a few hits, but Garuga’s attacks are fairly quick, so it’s not hard for her to get killed here. 16 damage is about 20-25% of her total HP. A stray critical could cause double that. If you are decently lucky, Tricia will be able to block most of the attacks. If you are unlucky, she’ll eat a face full of laser on every attack and be dead in 4 or 5 hits. Garuga still have around 100HP, so it will take Crevanille a few attacks to take one down. The other thing to keep in mind is that Garuga #2 starts the fight with a lot of aggro on Tricia. Even when Crevanille starts attacking it, Garuga #2 will likely still keep attacking Tricia. This is where Decoy can come in handy, as it might pull #2’s aggro in time to save Tricia from an extra attack or two.  Not a difficult mission to pass, but Completing it may be harder. The main factor is level since you don’t have the time or party members for anything approaching “tactics”. Our Crevanille was Level 14 and got through this pretty easily. Just keep in mind that our Crevanille is also benefitting from an endgame ring. I’m just glad you’re safe. It’s all thanks to you. Haha, and I’m the one who’s supposed to be looking after you! Tricia… Your hands are trembling. I never knew how scary a real fight could be. This makes you look even more amazing, Crevanille.You want a tip for battles? Don’t have your caster standing out front. What the hell was that formation we saw in the vision, Tricia? Two melee DPS standing around in the back and you out in no-man’s land charging spells? Shameful. Ahem. Oh, but, Crevanille! There are still injured! My two teammates… I need to help them back to the fort. We’ll get them together. Oh, thanks! Let’s go, then!I’m genuinely amazed that they survived.  We should go rest for tomorrow’s mission.All right, then. Back to bed it is. Remus and Vallery are still nowhere to be found, so we don’t have anyone to recount our heroic tale to.  I’m not sure if this scene is a Foresight thing or not. Yuni won’t mention it and the graphics aren’t all screwy, so this could simply be a fourth wall breaking thing where only the audience is seeing it.  Ah, Simmons. Always a pleasure. Shut your mouth, boy! Answer me! I have business with my brother. I would think that someone of your abilities would have been able to puzzle that out for himself. Tch, come to let your brother take more underserved credit, then? Look, I’ve only come to talk with him. The specifics are between us. You never know when to quit, do you? It’s only thanks to your younger brother that-- Ngh…*Captain Simmons then starts walking away* Long time no see, brother. Indeed. When did you return? Just last night. ….. His moodiness is somewhat understandable. He had a great deal of respect for Sir Muntzer, and he doesn’t relish being required to now serve under Silverneil. Ah, Diana Silverneil. Think what it must be like for her! To be required to work with such a man…He does seem like kind of a poo poo-starter.  Diana, you’re as ravishing as ever. I would compare thee to a rose that grows in the barren desert. So, you’re saying I have thorns? Heh, same old Diana. How have you been? I’ve heard you’ve been dealt a real winner in dear Simmons. Perhaps. Depends on whom you’re speaking. Someone who is openly hostile toward you seems like a tough sell. He must have simply been in a foul mood. Seems like a true leader is expert at covering for their subordinates, too. I think that’s enough, brother. Didn’t you have business with me? Ah, yes. I thought I would share with you some of the tales from my travels. Hah, tales from YOU certainly sound intriguing enough. Let’s invite Sir Muntzer, too. I’m sure he’d be interested. Well, it can’t be helped, then. We three will just have to make do. Well, that sure was some playful banter. Too bad we aren’t hanging out with those guys. They seem like way more fun than Bryntir and Ludwig. [Dulkheim Soldier]: There’ve been no problems thus far. Just continue the guard of Major Lichtmann. It’s time for your duties, Master.Just a friendly reminder, if you want to drop a save here then make sure you are rotating. No particular reason, just… trust me on this.  Fancy. Ah, over here! There are mostly Dulkheimers at this party, so I doubt I’m in any serious danger here. That said, I’ll be relying on you to guard me until the party ends.*The camera pans over to Ludwig and Deringer* What’s the general doing? Hm? He seems to be talking to President Deringer at the moment. I have many misgivings about that, to tell the truth. I wonder at the major general, our military’s top strategist, being so cozy with the highest political authority in the nation… They seem thick as thieves. Well that’s the thing, we’re not judging their relationship based on a simple conversation. We’re basing it on the fact that we’ve seen psychic visions of them engaging in some under-the-table dealings. Military must be the tool of the government, not the other way around. A military maneuver is ultimately a political one, after all. But politicians should not grow accustomed to such maneuvers. Such actions should always be a last resort. If those two get close, that boundary may grow uncomfortably thin… The more I think about it, the more dangerous it seems. I agree. So, you understand? Being privy to private conversations between the two also helps. Dulkheim has been invaded many times in its long history. Each time, we’ve driven the invaders out. Lately, we’ve been making good strides against Iglesias. No Dulkheimer thinks we might lost at this point. Now we see a major political figure trying to leverage his popularity… I’ve heard he has close ties to weapons dealers. This is truly worrisome… Say no more.We mean that literally, by the way. Please stop talking. I hardly think I’m alone on this. I wonder how many of our politicians really have the country’s best interest at heart… Back room deals with the military are a problem, but that’s always the way in politics… But pardon me, I’m starting to complain again. Hey! It’s Not-Sephiroth! Ah, Vester.And we finally have a name! …I prefer Not-Sephiroth, or maybe Sephinot. We’ll have to continue this later, Mr. President. Please make yourself at home while you’re here. Well, it’s my turn to entertain the President next. Orders are orders… This may take a while, so you can do as you please in the meantime.Finally free from the grip of Lumis’ poli-sci lecture, we can turn our attention to more important matters.   Not at all. I merely pitched in a bit here and there. This is all your doing, sir. But you must excuse me, as I need to be on my way. Mm…*Vester then heads towards the courtyard* Get your rear end back here! We’re not done with you! Do you remember me? That’s an odd question… Wait, you’re the boy who was with Dixon. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Vester. I’m working with Major General Ludwig. *draw weapon* It’s go time, jackass. We still need to avenge our Grizzled Anime Dad, stripper not-sister, and Steve. *sigh* Don’t. It’ll only cause trouble for your major general.Since when do we give a poo poo about him? You greatly overestimate our attachment to everyone in this base.  Unfortunately, we can make Crevanille stand there in a battle stance for hours and still not trigger a fight. As soon as you hit a button, Crevanille will back down and put his sword away. A shame, since I could have leveraged the almighty power of NG+ to crush Vester if given the opportunity. Even if I don’t deal with you personally, I could have the major general send you or your friends to the front… Farewell, my dear pawns…*Vester leaves* Moments like these really piss me off. But, I guess we’ll just have to bottle that anger up and keep it in reserve for a potential showdown later on.  Yes, Mr. President!*President Deringer then leaves*  [Dulkheim Soldier]: Is the party over? Yeah, all that’s left is to clean up.Before we can go anywhere, someone calls out to us from the Eastern gate.   I, uh… I don’t think I got around to saying it properly yesterday… Thanks so much for rescuing me. You saved my life! Call me anytime you need me. I don’t doubt that you’d actually come. You’re like a knight in shining armor! Huh? Oh, I didn’t mean it like that! That’s just how it felt… I’m sorry I stopped you. That’s all. Thank you so much!*Tricia leaves* Good stuff. Before we go back inside, we can chat with Vallery. Yo, Crevanille.And that’s literally all he says before heading back inside the fort. Riveting. With nothing else to do, we try and head back to our room, only to be interrupted with a new scene.  [Abram]: What’s the hurry? [Noris]: I’m Sergeant Noris from the Saudrick patrol unit. I came to request that a clearance squad be dispatched. *Noris moves in close to Abram and tells him something* A clearance squad? To Saudrick? Whatever for?[Abram]: Sixty to seventy bandits have been lurking around there for the past week or so.  Shouldn’t you guys deal with roving bandit groups immediately instead of just watching them for a full week? [Norris]: I’d like three units to put down these bandits before they do any real damage. No attacks yet? And they’ve made no demands, either? [Noris]: Two people who went into the mountains supposedly saw a number of armed men, but there haven’t been any skirmishes. [Abram]: Any damage to nearby farms? [Noris]: The farmers retreat into the city at night, just in case, so there’ve been no deaths yet. Some food’s been stolen, but that’s all so far. [Abram]: Hm… If their numbers are that great, they should have struck by now. It worries me that they’re only spotted at night, in the distance. Colonel, why don’t we send a scout team? It’s unnatural for such a large bandit group to appear so suddenly.Huh, I guess Abram also got a promotion. Good for him.  Well… true, but…[Abram]: We’ll pick out squads and have the three teams depart before dawn tomorrow. You go back to the city to tell them we’re coming. [Noris]: Thank you!  Wait, 10? How many soldiers does this base have exactly? It’s not exactly reassuring to know that a group the size of Alten Schwart is enough to threaten a major military base on the border. [Abram]: I worry about the fort, too, but this will only take a couple of days. They’re just bandits, and we’ll outnumber them.  *Abram then leaves* I’m worried. But I have to figure out the brigands’ objective before anyone will listen to me… People here still see me as a man of science, and they don’t trust that about me. It can’t be helped…Yeah. Abram is now calling the shots as the highest ranking officer here, so there’s not much you can do. I suppose you’re right… There are ruins just southeast of here known as the “Ruins of Hope.” She was taken there. That is…Maybe those ruins are just cursed or something. On the other hand, Vallery was perfectly fine when we stopped by during our trip to Saudrick. Pardon me. I have to prepare for deployment. Guys! Guys! We’ve got so much to tell you! There were some high-ranking people at the party for such a small event. I never would have expected to see the President himself there. Lumis said something interesting…Shut up about that, Remus. There’s something more important— The military and politicians scratching each other’s backs? That could be a problem, if it’s true…What? No! Crevanille, would you tell them about Frayne and the blood wings thi—  Ugh, whatever. Forget it. Don’t expect me to explain poo poo when you end up being surprised by that information later on, though. [Raoul]: The bulk of our forces have been assigned a mission to clear out some bandits near Saudrick. Black 4’s orders are to remain here and take turns patrolling the fort. Understood.[Raoul]: I was told your patrol duty starts tonight. Good luck. *Raoul leaves*  Vallery is such a bro. You earn instant friend points if you volunteer to take the night shift. Unless the job is super easy and laid back at night, in which case you’re a douche. I’ll take tomorrow’s shift, then. I’m somewhat tired, so I think I’ll be getting some rest. Yeah, I ought to sleep while I can, too.Everyone else heads to bed, but we can go and have a quick chat with Tricia before doing the same.  No. You’re staying behind? I was hoping we’d be out there together. Oh, well. Orders are orders. That they are. Take care of the base while I’m gone!Don’t get killed by bandits! We head back to our room and hit the hay. Unfortunately, there’s a noise sometime during our rest that wakes everyone up.  I hear voices outside…*Vallery runs out and Remus follows* Ah, wait! Master, I advise that you prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario.Here’s the thing: Yuni is giving you great advice. That said, you will likely take this to mean that you should save before heading out. Make sure you save in a new slot. If you are only using one save file and you overwrite it here, then you could possibly softlock yourself. You’ll see why in a bit.  Yes, sir!*Vallery and the soldier leave* Will those two be all right? There aren’t many soldiers here now. If we don’t obey orders, there may be a weakness in our defense. True. And given their skills, I’m sure whoever it is will be captured in no time.*Crevanille comes out of the room* Ah, Crevanille! So, you were left behind, too. *Another soldier appears*  Understood.*The soldier and Bryntir leave* Our duty is to provide backup during an emergency. Let’s make a patrol around the fort first!When we get to the main hall, we’ll see a brief shot of Lumis heading for the courtyard. We need to follow him, but first allow me to make some recommendations. Make sure you fully stock on Vulnerary. You can only carry a max of 9, but make sure you have that max. Also, it would be a good idea to give Remus the Chemist’s Art spellstone (if you managed to get it from the ruins where we found Frayne).   Uh-oh. [Abram]: Ngh! Why did this happen while our soldiers were out!? The mystery’s solved, Colonel. This was no accident. There were never any bandits. We fell directly into their trap.[Abram]: What? They must have come with a small group over the border to avoid raising suspicion. Those few soldiers drew out our forces here to accomplish their mission as quickly as they could. Were there really sixty of them? The patrol unit only saw sixty torches. Each man could have held several. If you attached several torches to a long pole, as many as ten could have been held by just one man.That’s some Sun Tzu poo poo right there.  It seems one among you is crafty. But it’s too late now. Only if it gets out, which it won’t. The authorities will never admit that a small force infiltrated a military base.[Dulkheim Soldier #1]: Ngh…! [Abram]: Then we only have to prevent you from escaping! All personnel have my permission to use spells! Let no one leave alive! [Dulkheim Soldier #2]: Yes, sir! The battle’s begun… We need to do our part!Here we go. This mission right here? This is the mission where you get the answer to the question “Am I the right level for this part of the game?” You might have been able to squeak by previous missions at level 10 or 12, but that’s not going to be the case here. There are only 3 enemies in this fight. Muntzer and the two soldiers accompanying him. The thing is, Muntzer is a Royal Guard member. The Royal Guard of Valkania is just as strong as Abram warned us about back during the practice battle. Muntzer is level 41 and has about 700HP. The two soldiers with him are much weaker, at level 15.  It should be obvious that this mission will be about survival. You will not be able to beat Muntzer unless you are on NG+ and brought some real good spellstones with you. Now, remember way back during the practice battle with Abram where I pointed out the switches on the walls that controlled the training dummies? Now is the perfect time to employ those. Have Remus head for the switch in the screenshot above. Meanwhile, Crevanille should head for the switch on the far left wall. Don’t bother with the switch on the right.  Abram will likely start the fight by taking a swing at one of the soldiers accompanying Muntzer. He should shave off about 90HP, which is a big help towards killing those two off. There’s a good chance that the other Dulkheim soldiers will finish the job on at least one soldier without you needing to get involved. Unfortunately for our side…   You began your research before we did, but it’ll do you little good if your men have no combat training with it.[Abram]: Don’t let him get to you! Remember your training! Spells have disadvantages too!  And those disadvantages are exactly why Muntzer will proceed to immediately give up on using spells and instead focus on slapping Abram upside the head the good old-fashioned way. I’ve only ever seen Muntzer use spells this one time, which is a shame since his spell damage is far weaker than his sword damage. But if they have spells already, why invade…? If it were the research materials they wanted, they could have got them easier with a covert force… Is there more to this?Really not the time, Lumis.  When Remus gets close enough to the switch, have him flip it. This will raise the barriers near Muntzer and Abram. It may seem like we’re hanging Abram out to dry, but—  [Dulkheim Soldier #1]: C-Colonel!  *Abram explodes into light* [Dulkheim Soldier #3]: The colonel’s dead! Don’t panic![Dulkheim Soldier #2]: But, sir! If the colonel couldn’t beat him, there’s no way we can… Don’t worry about winning! Hold the line and wait for our backup![Dulkheim Soldier #3]: Th-Then…  [Dulkheim Soldier #3]: Understood!  [Dulkheim Soldier #2]: Right away, sir! So like I was saying, pinning Abram against the wall doesn’t matter because he won’t survive this fight either way. Muntzer’s HP is programmed to never fall below 1 as long as Abram is alive. It is actually possible to keep Abram alive long enough for a NG+ Crevanille to reach him, but Muntzer will be unkillable until he succeeds in striking Abram down. Muntzer’s attack frequency will also eventually increase if Abram survives for too long, making it harder to keep him alive (Muntzer will start hitting him twice in a row after a certain amount of time passes). There’s nothing we can do for poor Abram, so you may as well get that training dummy barrier up while he’s holding Muntzer off.  Two soldiers will head for the lab while the other two head for the main hall. There’s no way for Muntzer to get to them before this happens, but that doesn’t mean that they are safe.  All right, but hurry!At this point, a timer will appear that counts down from 4. It’s similar to the timer during that mission in Ribocca, except it’s draining a lot slower than it did back then. This is the time until the laboratory is barricaded. We need to make sure that Muntzer and his soldiers don’t reach that door before then.  If you got those training dummies up before Abram got killed, then Muntzer and his soldiers will be forced to go around them. This prevents them from plotting a straight path to the door. With Remus’ job done, he should switch focus to killing the soldiers. You can use spells or regular attacks for this. If Bryntir and Vallery came back, we’d stand a better chance at this… When Crevanille reaches his switch, have him flip it in order to raise the barrier just outside the lab. This cuts off Muntzer and the soldiers from the lab and basically ensures that they won’t reach it in time.  When Crevanille has flipped his switch, then manually move him back towards Remus’ position. Muntzer should ignore Crevanille in favour of going to the lab so long as it’s still being barricaded. With the barrier in the way, however, he won’t be able to make it in time (his AI is only programmed to try and go in a straight line to the lab. It doesn’t account for the barriers being up or down).  When he reaches the training dummy barrier, you will reach the hard part of this mission. Muntzer will turn and start trying to walk around the barrier, which will point him directly at Remus/Crevanille/Lumis. [Dulkheim Soldier #2]: The barricade is ready! Whew… Now we can buy time until they get into the lab. We just have to hope someone saw the flare to send backup… The barricade won’t cause us much trouble, but if we don’t hurry, our escape is in jeopardy… I’ll at least accomplish the other mission we were given.At this point, Muntzer will aggro on your team. Losing Crevanille or Lumis is an instant mission failure, but losing Remus isn't an option either. You need Remus alive in order to survive Muntzer. That’s because…  He hits like a truck. This is the plan: Position Crevanille in such a way that Muntzer will aggro on him (or have Crevanille attack him, like I just did, if you think he can survive at least 1 hit). After that, set Crevanille to Defend and never stop defending. Immediately have Remus focus on healing Crevanille from that point on. The time between Muntzer’s attacks is long enough that Remus should be able to fully heal Crevanille using Vulnerary (which only heals about 30-37HP each). If you equipped Remus with Chemist’s Art, then you can also have him continuously charging Cure and casting it whenever Crevanille gets hurt. With Crevanille defending, the damage from Muntzer should be cut down to around 120-140 (again, our Crevanille’s defence is slightly better than normal because of his endgame ring).  Well done. Let’s escape before the border security tightens up.Lumis will cast support spells throughout the fight, but he can’t be relied upon to use something like Cure when you need it. Lumis’ AI isn’t smart enough to hold a spell that’s fully charged, so he’ll throw out Cure as soon as its ready, regardless of whether or not Crevanille is full health (he used it in this fight at a moment when Crevanille had just been healed back to full by Remus). [Valkania Soldier]: Yes, sir! All right… All units, retreat! This is what I meant about possibly getting softlocked. If Crevanille isn’t a high enough level to survive one of Muntzer’s attacks and your only save is right before this mission started? Too bad, start the game over. To my knowledge, there’s no way to go out and grind on random battles once the party event gets wraps up. Now, is it possible to beat Muntzer at all? Yes. Once Abram is dead, Muntzer’s HP unlocks and he can be defeated. If you’re playing NG+ it is possible:  This is all you get for it (other than the useless EXP/Ril bonus). Just like with Abram, it’s not really worth it, unless you’re trying to speedrun through a second playthrough. Ah, they left. Superlative, everyone. Have you heard from Vallery’s team? They’re not back yet. That’s it! They were after the spellstone technology and the Ruin Children themselves! One of them said the east unit completed its mission… You don’t think…?  Noooooo! Not our bro! Talk about trouble…[Senior Officer]: Let’s hurry, Bryntir! *Bryntir and the Senior Officer leave to the East* We should go with them! We have to save Vallery!Let’s go save our bro!  The rest of you, go on ahead.[Valkania Soldier]: But, Sir Muntzer… Our mission is to take a Ruin Child back to our country.[Valkania Soldier]: …Yes, sir! *Three of the soldiers leave* Now… Wh-What should we do?We’re going to charge at him recklessly, of course. He has Vallery!  Master, are you safe?*Crevanille kneels down and picks up Yuni* How dogged of you. Then try this…! Th-The bridge! Farewell.*Muntzer and the archer leave. Lumis and some Dulkheim soldiers then arrive behind us* It seems they got away. The bridge… Don’t tell me he did this. This is made of ancient metals. For him to cut it so easily… I’m glad you were unharmed. By the way, where is Bryntir? We didn’t see him… No? Where could he have gone? Maybe he went back to the fort? Let’s return to the fort and assess the damages. Since Abram passed away, we must carry on without him… She protected Crevanille, and— Save the explanation! She’ll fade away if you don’t hurry back to your room and put her in the Dollhouse!Looks like we’ll have to give up on rescuing Vallery for now. Yuni needs some immediate magic infusion or she’ll die. Next time: We take stock of all the ways things went horribly horribly wrong.
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Jun 18, 2021 18:08
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So Valk whatever probably knows something about the ruins and angels and poo poo but has no ruin child to utilize. They probably figure that Dulkheim will be busy getting turbo nuked by sky assholes to stop them.
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Jun 18, 2021 21:48
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Love that fight, its so fun.
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Jun 19, 2021 02:53
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Welp. That got bad fast.
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Jun 19, 2021 04:38
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No female enemies, huh...?  Goddamn that is a lot of endings. Sephinot is definitely the better name, yes. Not being able to stab him is kind of annoying if they let you go so far as to draw on him, but it is also an incredibly bad idea and would kind of necessitate a bad ending scene if you started poo poo here and now... so it's understandable. That is a cool bit with the attack and i imagine it's pretty tense to play! I'm liking it a lot, even if the potential to softlock is pretty bad design...
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Jun 19, 2021 06:39
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I keep being surprised by how much of the story I have forgotten; I mean, it's been nine-ish years since I last played, but I'd thought I'd remember more. As always, important NPC ages: Vester: (now that we have his name) 30 Christopher Ordinale: 25 Less important characters: President Deringer: 49 King of Valkania: 59 Simmons: 32
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Jun 19, 2021 06:49
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I prefer Vester.
MythosDragon fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Jun 19, 2021 |
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Jun 19, 2021 07:09
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Yeah, book says age 30, no qualifiers, no approximates (unless there's something in the text blocks I'm out of practice enough I can't read anymore). I am also guessing the weirdness is from something I haven't remembered yet.
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Jun 19, 2021 07:19
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AtomikKrab posted:So Valk whatever probably knows something about the ruins and angels and poo poo but has no ruin child to utilize. They probably figure that Dulkheim will be busy getting turbo nuked by sky assholes to stop them. Well, they are definitely right to make that assumption. That's what makes it even weirder that Ludwig would be pushing Deringer to pivot from a war with Iglesias to a war with Valkania. Dulkheim kind of has a bunch of other problems to worry about. Even with Valkania screwing around with black ops missions in their territory, Dulkheim can't really afford to go after them. We haven't seen much of King Valkania, so we can't yet tell if he's the brains behind this or if it's the work of the Royal Guard, but whomever came up with this gambit that's being pulled is a loving genius: -Valkania gets to nab a Ruin Child and greatly speed up their spell development. -Dulkheim won't call them out for the raid because Deringer is facing reelection and an incident like this would be a huge embarrassment for him at a crucial moment of his campaign (a handful of soldiers punked an entire military base and got away with national secrets). -Valkania makes public overtures for a non-aggression pact with Dulkheim, whose population is turning against the war with Iglesias. Again, it's an election year, which means that Deringer basically has no choice but to go along with that. If he does, then Valkania has secured some peace and quiet that they can use to do research and development. -In the event that Dulkheim does decide to go public with the raid and start a war with Valkania, then Valkania still has the Ruin Child to help their development of spells. Dulkheim has also been worn down in their war against Iglesias, so they won't be able to mount any kind of effective attack for quite a while (which gives Valkania time to shore up their defences or make some early gains). Dulkheim got massively outplayed here, on every level. Seraphic Neoman posted:Welp. That got bad fast. Good news! It isn't done getting bad just yet! vilkacis posted:
This is a little bit misleading on the part of the game, because the Female: Others section does have characters in there which are enemies. There's also an "Evil" route in this game, so technically every character is a potential enemy. The amount of endings is a tiny bit misleading as well. The vast majority of those are character endings. This is how it shakes out: Modified/True Route: -1 "Good End" + 21 character endings + 4 variations on the "didn't choose anyone" character ending -1 "Bad End" Original Route: -1 main ending + 13 character endings + 1 "didn't choose anyone" ending Dulkheim Route: -6 endings that range from "Somewhat Heroic" to "You think that's villainous? Hold my Vulnerary." Melomane Mallet posted:As always, important NPC ages: I need to find a way to add these in, because some of my updates are so tight on space that I literally cannot afford even a handful of extra letters. I may have to do some selective editing. MythosDragon posted:Love that fight, its so fun. It is a good battle, even taking into account the fact that you could end up softlocking from too low a level. It's a mission that's completely feasible without the training dummies, but if the player took the time to explore and poke around the environment earlier on, then it rewards them for doing so by making the mission a little easier. To explain for everyone who hasn't played this: If you aren't aware of (or decide not to use) the training dummy walls, then the only way to stop Muntzer from reaching the lab is to have Crevanille block his path and fight him. This means that Crevanille will have to survive way more attacks from Muntzer before the mission ends. If you know about the training dummies and use them, then Muntzer wastes extra time navigating the field, which means he will have fewer chances to hit Crevanille once the lab is completely barricaded. This results in a lower risk of you running out of healing items/Remus running out of MP for Cure. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jun 19, 2021 |
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Jun 19, 2021 14:26
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Psycho Knight posted:I need to find a way to add these in, because some of my updates are so tight on space that I literally cannot afford even a handful of extra letters. I may have to do some selective editing. Maybe do a characters page and just put it up on lpix or something?
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Jun 19, 2021 17:21
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