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 Hi. Arknights is a urban fantasy tower defense catgirl gacha game with strong anti-authoritarian themes made by the Chinese company Hypergryph based in Shanghai. It's being translated and released globally (ie: in English and Japanese) by another company called Yostar who are way less cool than Hypergryph, but I suppose I should give them some credit at least. The voices are in Japanese even in the Chinese and English versions because the devs love anime. And frankly, who doesn't? I want to do an LP of it because I think it's got a cool story and aesthetic, but the fact that it's a gacha game turns away a lot of people who'd otherwise be interested in it, in my opinion. And, you know, that's cool, I respect that. I don't mean to push anyone into the gaping jaws of predatory microtransactions or whatever. So instead I'll play it for you. I intend to do this LP with a fresh new account and spend exactly 0 dollars on it, using only whatever I can get as an F2P player. That doesn't mean I won't be rolling on the gacha, just that won't be using anything more than the free in-game currency I happen to get while playing. Also, while I do enjoy the gameplay and will be showing that off too, I want the main focus to be on the story, so I won't be showing off, like, daily grind gacha game stuff, but I may mention it in passing from time to time. My first goal will be to rush through the main story, but if I finish it I may show off side events as well. Assuming we make it that far anyway: the game is rather infamous for being an extremely wordy visual novel, so it'd be quite a feat if I actually make it through Chapter 8 (which is as far as the story goes at the time of this post, and serves as the finale of the first story arc). This will be a screenshot LP, and as I just said it's very text-heavy, so past the beginning where I'll have to spend a lot of time explaining game mechanics, almost all of it will be a transcription of the dialog (which conveniently has already been transcribed by other people, so I'll just be copy-pasting and adding images). I'll also add my own commentary and may try to clarify unfamiliar names, places, and terminology somewhat earlier or more comprehensively than the story does. I'll be doing this because a lot of information is scattered in different places like loading screen tooltips or different character profiles, and it's easier for me and the LP if we can all just have baseline level of knowledge about what the heck is going on. But that doesn't mean anyone else can talk about spoilers. Sorry. However, feel free to inform me if my interpretations are wrong and bad; discussion is fun. There may be some thread interaction like voting on which characters to use, or which events to play through if it comes to that, but since I also need to actually beat the game and don't want to grind forever leveling everyone up, I will reserve the right to veto any choices or to just use the characters who are good. At the very least, there won't be any voting until we're out of the prologue and actually have enough characters to vote on. (Thanks to booksnake for updating the table of contents between chapters 4 and 7 when I got lazy) Table of Contents Prologue: Evil Time Part 1 Opening Prologue Part 1 Prologue Part 2 Prologue Part 3 Prologue Part 4 Prologue Part 5 Prologue Intermission Episode 1: Evil Time Part 2 Episode 1 Part 1 Credit Store Overview (by Leraika) Episode 1 Part 2 Episode 1 Part 3 Intermission: Characters + Voting Intermission: Moving Forward Intermission: Annihilation 1 Intermission: The Anonymous Ones' War Episode 2: Separated Hearts Episode 2 Part 1 Episode 2 Part 2 Episode 2 Part 3 Episode 2 Part 4 Intermission: Characters + Voting Intermission: Among the Light and the Dust Episode 3: Stinging Shock Episode 3 Part 1 Episode 3 Part 2 Episode 3 Part 3 Episode 3 Side Missions Part 1 Episode 3 Side Missions Part 2 Side Story: Ancient Forge. Ancient Forge Part 1 Intermission: Characters + Voting Ancient Forge Part 2 Ancient Forge Part 3 Ancient Forge Part 4 Side Story: Who Is Real Who Is Real Part 1 Who Is Real Part 2 Who Is Real Part 3 Who Is Real Part 4 Who Is Real Part 5 Who Is Real Part 6 Who Is Real Part 7 Who Is Real Part 8 Who Is Real Part 9 Who Is Real Retrospective Intermission: Characters + Voting Intermission: Who Is Real furniture set Episode 4: Burning Run Episode 4 Part 1 Episode 4 Part 2 Episode 4 Part 3 Episode 4 Part 4 Episode 4 Part 5 4-10 (Reunion) characters and voting S4-7 to S4-10 [Vanilla] Let's Throw A Party! [Jessica] Sniper Training Side Story: Originium Dust Originium Dust Intro OD-1 OD-2 OD-3 OD-4 and OD-5 OD-6, ST-2 OD-7 and OD-8 OD epilogue, voting OD-EX-1 to 4 OD-EX-5 to 8 Episode 5: Necessary Solutions 5-1 to 5-3 5-4 to 5-6 5-7 5-8, 5-9, S5-5, S5-6 S5-7, S5-8, 5-9, 5-10 5-11 E-2 Texas, E-2 Iris, Hoshiguma, voting S5-1 to S5-4 Episode 6: Partial Necrosis 6-1, 6-2 6-3, 6-4 6-5 6-6, 6-7 Faust 6-8 6-9 6-10, S6-1 S6-2 6-11 6-12, 6-13 (so many ellipses gently caress) 6-14, 6-15, S6-3 S6-4 6-16 6-17 [No] [No] [No] 6-18 / Finale Thoughts on Ch 6/Frostnova Intermezzo: Darknights Memoir DM-1 DM-2 DM-3 to 5 DM-6 DM-7 DM-8 DM-ST-1, voting Polaris, DM-EX-1 to 3 [Liskarm] Sword and Shield, Apple Pie Party, DM-EX-4 to 6 Intermezzo: A Walk in the Dust WD-1 end of WD-1 WD-2 WD-3 WD-4 WD-ST-1 WD-5, WD-6 WD-7 more WD-7 WD-8 pre, fight WD-8 poststory WD-ST-2, voting [Liskarm] Still Waiting, WD-EX-1 to EX-4 [Specter] Still Spirit and Bone Persist, Merry Christmas, WD-EX-5 to EX-8 Episode 7: Birth of a Tragedy 7-1 7-2 7-3 7-4 7-5, 7-6 7-7, 7-8 7-9, 7-10 7-10 poststory 7-11 to 7-13 7-14 to 7-17 7-18 pre, fight 7-18 post 7-19 7-20 Side Story: Grain and the Knight's Treasure GT-1 to GT-3 GT-4 to GT-6 All GT EX stages + Voting [Executor] Survival Notorization, [?????] For a Better Self Side Story: Under Tides SV-1 SV-2 SV-3 SV-3 end, SV-4 beginning SV-4 battle and SV-5 SV-6 SV-7 SV-ST-1, SV-8 SV-9 SV-ST-2 SV postmortem + character intros SV-EX 1-4 SV-EX 5-8 Episode 8: Roaring Flare R8-1, M8-1 R8-2,3, M8-2 R8-4, M8-3 R8-5 pt 1 R8-5 pt 2 M8-4 R8-6 pt 1 R8-6 pt 2 M8-5 R8-7, 8 M8-6 R8-9 R8-10, M8-7 R8-11 M8-8 pt 1 M8-8 pt2 JT8-1 JT8-2 pt 1 JT8-2 pt 2 JT8-3 pt 1 JT8-3 pt 2 END 8-1 pt 1 END 8-1 pt 2 postmortem Side Story: Children of Ursus Habits The Chosen Meeting in A Dream Hypocrisy Talking in Riddles Business As Usual Before Spring's Coming Intermission [Hoshiguma] No Sequel, [Chen] Sword and Scale [Firewatch] On My Way, Magallan recruit 5* Ticket + character intros Side Story: Dossoles Holiday DH-ST-1 DH-1 DH-1 cont. DH-2 DH-3 DHST-2 DH-4/5 DH-6, ST-3 DH-7, 8 Top Op Voting! DH-9 Epilogue DH-EX-1/4, Magallan's Module DH-EX-5/8 DH-S-1/4 Intermission Character intros [Specter 2] I, Namely I [Eyjafalla] Heart of A Scholar Side Story: Code of Brawl CB-1 CB-2, 3 CB-4, 5 CB-ST1 CB-6 CB-7 CB-8 CB-ST2, CB-8 CB-10 CB-ST3 CB-EX 1-3 + Postmortem Intermission Intermission: Characters + Voting OpRec: Texas OpRec: Mostima OpRec: Perfumer Side Story: Maria Nearl MN-ST1 MN-1 MN-2 MN-3 MN-4 MN-5 MN-6 MN-7 MN-ST2 MN-8 MN-8 cont. MN-ST3 + Postmortem Side Story: Pinus Slyvestris Home (Flametail) Dropping Grey (Ashlock) Let Us Ring a Ding Ding (Wild Mane) A Lone Soul (Fartooth) Clarste fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Jul 19, 2022 |
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Moving right along. This is the first thing you'll see when you start up the game. Like most gacha games, you get to name the player avatar, who in this case is a faceless, genderless amnesiac. Nevertheless, they have a specific history with a number of characters in the game, who will react differently to them based on what they did before they lost their memories. I can't say I'm a huge fan of this style of storytelling, but it is what it is. Regardless of what name you enter here, everyone will usually call you Doctor, or the Doctor, so for the purposes of the LP they will be named Dr. Doctor. No, sorry, you can't change it. This is what their portrait looks like, by the way:  Oh yeah, and commentary will be in italics. Everything else will be in-game text. Ah, it's you.  Yes, that is a gigantic dragon eye or something. It's been a long time since we've last seen each other. During this time... you've been teetering on the edge of a cliff. You may have forgotten who you are, but just remembering your name is enough. ...It's time. Don't linger here for too long. After all, you aren't my guest yet, nor should you even be here. She still needs you. December 23rd. You may not remember what this date means to you. And this will thrust you into peril. ...No... You must try to remember.  At this point you start hearing heavy, labored breathing as well as the beeping of medical equipment. Combined with the fuzzy, bright light, it gives the impression that you are waking up from being sedated in the middle of some kind of medical operation. Distant Voice: ...consciousness... Circulation resumed... vitals stabilized… cardioplegia solution injected... Distant Voice: Body temperature low... administering Hexamethasone 20 c.c., now... Distant Voice: Get the hemostat! ...Conditions stable... beginning resection... be careful of VFib... Distant Voice: ...Sorry... For making you suffer again...  The brightness gradually subsides and the image sharpens.  ...Doctor... ...hand! Take my... Take my hand!! ...Emergency... ...Help... ...It's done...! Finally, we get to standard visual novel presentation, with static portraits standing in front of you. Normally there's a background, but here it's all black for some reason. Maybe the Doctor's eyes are still adjusting to the light. Doctor, Doctor! Medic, how's Doctor doing? But, just a moment ago… we were holding hands… So why… why is Doctor still not waking up…?  Amiya! Don't panic, just calm down first! Ah... S-sorry. You always get so flustered when it comes to the doctor. But, Amiya, if the worst came to pass... what would you do then? ...I'm already mentally prepared for that. We would continue to follow the plan. ...I understand. Anyway, I’ll do what you requested. All right… I appreciate it. About the Doctor... Don't worry, Amiya. All the vital signs are stable now. I'll do one more inspection, just for you. Thank you... Thank you very much! Mhm. Breathing is slightly shallow, but blood pressure is normal. There should be no cause for concern. ...! ...Are you awake? Amiya, it's a success! The Doctor has woken up! Doctor...? I'm so happy... Doctor...There's a noise as if the Doctor is trying to sit up. Ah, careful! You mustn't do that... Don't try to move yet. Your body still hasn't fully adapted to this. Doctor...? Our first dialog choice, but it's not much of a choice. None of these choices ever has any effect other than altering the next few lines slightly, so I'd rather they didn't bother. But maybe that's just my bias against player avatars. In the future I'll just be choosing arbitrarily and only showing that response. Unless it's really funny or something.  Who... are you? Ah, Doctor... It's me... ...It's me, Amiya. We've come to rescue you. ...Who... am I...? You... You're a member of Rhodes Island, just like us... ...as well as my partner. …Dr. Doctor.In this case she actually uses the name you entered, so she's telling you your real name. Just for the record, a lot of people in this setting go by codenames instead of their real names, so it's implied that Doctor is just your codename. In Chinese they're called 博士 which means more "has a PhD" and less "is a medical professional". In Japanese (and therefore in any voiceover) they're just called "Doctor" in English. Incidentally, Medic is also a codename. She's not just a generic medic. Although she is a relatively minor NPC. You're the most important person to me. Doctor... you don't remember? ...Can I trust you? ...I understand. I know this is a bit much to take in right now. I don't expect you to remember everything right away, and I'm not asking you to trust me right now. However, you'll always be the most important person to me, Doctor. No matter what happens, this will never change. So that's why, please... give me a little more time. However little it might be... ... Does the doctor... really have amnesia? ...I'm sure everything will be fine if we give Doctor some space... Where is this... It's safe here—A noise. Huh? What's happening—  Amiya, we've got a problem! Someone broke into the facility! The way they're dressed... they don't look like Ursus soldiers! Generic people often cover their faces in this game so they can share sprites with other people.  ... What's the meaning of this?! They're attacking! Amiya, they're heavily equipped with weapons! Aaaahh! Be careful, everyone! Take cover, and protect Doctor! These outfits... are they from the Reunion Movement? But how is that possible... Guards, prepare for battle! Roger! Curses... Are they after the Doctor?!Incidentally, it turns out that this dude's codename is actually "Guard" so I am guessing that Amiya shouting "Guards" is a mistranslation, and he's actually the only guy here. Guard and Medic and Doctor. The translation does improve over time, luckily. No... Nobody else should know about the Doctor being here. Are you able to reach Kal'tsit? I'm not sure why, but the equipment isn't working! ...Someone has cut off our communications. Have we been discovered by the Ursus government? What do we do now? Kal'tsit won't be able to command the battle as we had originally planned. …Doctor. I hope that... you’ll be able to take command. Isn't that a bit too risky? The Doctor only just came to... I'd like... to give it a try. Even without memories, Doctor has... ...fought alongside us before. It suddenly flashes to this background, with Amiya's face in darkness and her dialog labeled ???, before immediately flashing back.  Thank you for all of your guidance... ...We've been through so much together... Doctor... I just know that you'll be able to do it.It flashes to the same background again. I know that you'll lead us to victory.And back again I understand that asking you to do this is very sudden and inconsiderate. But... Please, lend us your aid. We'll be supporting you! We have no choice but to fight back, right? Mm... I don't want to drag you into this. But right now, we need your wisdom more than ever, Doctor. I hope that a part of you will reawaken during combat. Even though you might have doubts about yourself... But I believe in you. I know you can do this. Please take command... of Rhodes Island!Tutorial battle time!  I'll be skipping over this quickly since it's not especially interesting of a tutorial. Suffice to say the enemies will walk into my dudes and die without any input. Anyway: This is the last one! Ugh! Target eliminated. The enemy squad is retreating! Doctor's commands were perfect, just like Amiya said. How reassuring! See, that wasn't too bad, right? Doctor, compared to everything you've been through, this is a walk in the park. *cough*...Why are you here... You're not from Ursus... We won't... let you get in the way of our duties! Don't even think about it! Instructor!  What are you spacing out for? You almost got yourself killed! I'm... I'm sorry! Quick! Get back into formation! Yessir! Dobermann! You made it! It's an emergency. My team was attacked by Reunion as well. I rushed over to join you as soon as I could. Why would Reunion attack us...? An organization made up of the Infected... I've always thought they were a bit extreme... and now they've resorted to violence, and in an Ursus city no less? That's a death wish. The situation is only going to get more chaotic from here on out. Amiya, we need to leave Chernobog right now. Okay. We've already rescued the Doctor, so we can retreat according to plan. ...And this is Doctor? Yes. Doctor, you probably don't know who I am, but you know Amiya. For your safety... No, no... Um, Dobermann, Doctor isn't doing very well right now. To put it simply, Doctor... has amnesia. Amnesia? ...What are you going to do now? Weren't you planning to transfer leadership to— Doctor still has the capacity to command. ...At least, I've confirmed that from the previous battle. ...I can't bring myself to trust a stranger so easily. But I trust you, Amiya. ...I understand. Doctor, I am Dobermann, captain of Op Team E1. We are going to escort you from Chernobog, which is the Ursus city we're currently in, back to Rhodes Island. We're in an abandoned facility in Chernobog and should now head west. But... since we're cut off from Dr. Kal'tsit, Dobermann and I have lead our separate teams westward to a rendezvous point before confirming our signal to retreat. That is, assuming everything goes according to plan. It'd be nice if things went that smoothly. Today is our last opportunity to get you out of here, Doctor. But... I have a bad feeling about this. A-Amiya! What's the matter? It's... it's a call from Rhodes Island! Are our communications back on? Is it Dr. Kal'tsit...? Sorry, but not quite. PRTS...? The Emergency Neural Connection Request System was activated. Interference has also been detected from Rhodes Island's end, and only partial Neural Network connection is possible. Currently unable to establish communication with Kal'tsit, who has yet to return to Rhodes Island. Your safety is confirmed; therefore, my mission is now complete. This piece of... Do we really have time for this...? If you do not need to connect to Rhodes Island, communication will be severed momentarily. I am sincerely sorry for having interrupted your party. Wait, wait! Don't hang up, I need your help still. Dobermann, Doctor still needs some assistance. I know, but make it quick. Doctor, PRTS is also one of our... partners. It will show you what to do next. Time is of the essence, so I'm going to reconnect you to the Rhodes Island backup system. This way, we'll have an edge in battle. It's different from giving verbal commands and might be a bit hard to get used to, but once you learn how to use it, the entire operation will be much smoother. ...Please trust me. Just like how you used to. PRTS... Let's start. Identity verification required. Select verification method. Ah, Doctor... Please say something. (Speak) I am not sure why you did not speak, but the action of touching the interface is sufficient— —Fingerprint match found. Verification complete. Security clearance: 8 Welcome home, Doctor.
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Jul 12, 2021 23:54
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Next we're finally dumped onto the main menu, which looks like this: You can ignore all this crap, there are events and stuff going on but I don't care. However, before you can do anything else, the game forces you do a gacha pull, so I might as well start with that. The gacha is accessed through the "Headhunt" function because the framing device is that you are hiring new recruits through a headhunting agency that you are paying gacha currency. So what happens is that Human Resources sends you a duffel bag:  Which explodes with gacha goodness (not my gif). Then you pull out a pile of dossiers which are the people you recruited. I find this animation absolutely hilarious. For my first tutorial recruit, I got Scavenger:  I don't know if this initial pull is rigged, or if so, how exactly it's rigged, but Scavenger is a lucky pull because she's a lesbian and that's cool. Like, canonically, explicitly, she is into ladies. Anyway, immediately afterward the game forces you to add her to your squad, which now looks like this:  Amiya is the main character, essentially, Scavenger was just pulled from the gacha, and the other three are irrelevant losers, I suppose. Um... I guess we'll have to do more elaborate character introductions later, but that's probably enough for now. Just as a note though, I'm sure you've noticed that a lot of characters are "animal people" in that they have animal ears or tails or an entire lizard head. That's just how it is in this world, and they aren't "demihumans" or "beastmen" either, they're all just humans and everyone thinks that's normal. There's no such thing as a "normal" human; if they seem to have no animal features it just means their tail or wings or whatever aren't visible in their portrait. They more-or-less represent different ethnicities, in that each animal-race seems to have a homeland where the majority of them are from, but there's been a lot of immigration and multiculturalism so most countries aren't homogenous. Our next destination is the Combat menu, which I guess is more like "play the actual game." Inside it looks like this:  We are currently still in the Prologue of the main story, which is titled Evil Time. Which is a great name, honestly. Maybe not the best TRANSLATION, but the names of all the chapters were actually all originally in English, by the Chinese devs. I like to think it's due to the influence of Touhou, which also uses a lot of slightly-off English as subtitles. A lot of the devs for this game are former Touhou fan creators. There's also some Russian written below that, presumably because we are currently in the city of Chernobog, part of the Ursus Empire, which is this fantasy world's version of Russia (pre-communism). I don't know what it says, but I'd be curious to know! The double-headed... eagle(?) is their flag, and their native race is bear people. Whenever people speak Ursian or whatever it's literally just Russian. So it's just... Russia. Click on the chapter we want to select, and we find ourselves on this map:  Basically there's a line of missions on top of some strangely abstract 3D art representing our current location. Unfortunately, I already beat the next mission before I took these screenshots, but if we click on 0-1...  You get a little blurb about the mission. This one's... extremely bland, but later on they get far more flavorful or are even literally poetry. You press start to play the mission, but it costs 6 Sanity to do so. This is just their name for their Stamina system, which is a common gacha game thing to restrict how long fast you can farm resources, but it's certainly an evocative name, huh? You can also play on practice mode which costs no Sanity but doesn't give you any credit if you win. This is mostly for preserving Sanity when the mission is hard (normally you lose 1 Sanity per failure, or half the entire cost on Challenge Mode). Anyway, you can also view the map or enemy data from here:   The map is... honestly way less helpful than it could be, but for now I just want to point out that it's narratively framed as a live video feed of the area and labeled EYESOFPRIESTESS - RI03. This isn't really made clear, but the "Eyes of Priestess" seem to be referring to PRTS. Anyway, we start the mission and unsurprisingly, a cutscene plays.  How could this be… What in the world... is going on here?  Search all these houses! I want every single room turned inside out!Female: Let go of me...! No! You can't... Trying to resist? Too late, you filthy Chernos!Male: Just run! Don't worry about me... Save... our child... Child: Mama... Mama...! Ursus Guard: Forget about the civilians! Hold the line first! There are too many masked goons coming! Don't give the cops any time to rest! Keep attacking!Ursus Guard: Where are our reinforcements?! We're going to get overrun... Attack, attack!!Most of these people don't have portraits, unfortunately. Even the Reunion face is just borrowed from other scenes. What's going on...? ! Why... Why is Reunion doing this...? After all these years, the wolves in sheep's clothing finally bare their fangs. The Infected... they, they're attacking the Ursus troops! But why?! Challenging the Ursus government like this is basically suicide! No, look at how fierce this attack is. This must have been a planned operation. The place we rescued Doctor from was supposed to be top secret... but they somehow still managed to infiltrate it. It's possible that Reunion's attack has already spread through Chernobog in its entirety.Imagine breaking into a top secret facility only to find that the revolution started without you. How embarassing. No... How, how can that be... Shhhh! Have you found any of those fleeing Chernos yet? I'm still looking! Good, don't let a single one get away! Those cold-blooded beasts... I'll make them pay for what they did to my family! (*cough*) What was that? Over there! (Mmfh! They... they found us...) (Shush!) (Mmf...!)Female: ...Ugh... Over here! I found 'em!Female: ...Nooooo!!!! Aaah! No, don't... ...! Hiding in an alley? Get out.Female: Aaaaahh...! Did you really think we wouldn't find you there...?Female: I'm... I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!! Please, at least spare my child! ... ...We need to stop this, now. Amiya... I'm aware of the risk, Instructor Dobermann. It's just that... we don't have the luxury of sitting around waiting for Reunion to disband. Additionally, nobody knows how long this situation will last... Therefore, the best course of action would be to take out the enemy and then get moving. Wouldn't you agree? ...Understood. I'll follow your command. All squads, listen up. We have the element of surprise - these Reunion members don't know that we're here yet. Remember, be decisive! Take them out, cleanly and swiftly. Doctor, gather your team. It's time for you to prove yourself. We have no more time to second-guess ourselves. A simple matter. I'll handle this. Hah. Amiya, I'm counting on you. Understood. "Silent we shall be, should conflict be avoidable--but fight tooth and nail, should it be necessary!" Rhodes Island's creed... has always been the same!Battle time! First of all, I uploaded a video of it for convenience here. However, since this is a Screenshot LP I should probably have those available too. I know I personally hate it whenever an SSLP suddenly asks me to watch a video. This isn't much of a battle, but here's how it goes:  The map is usually empty at the start of a battle. The first thing you see is a line snaking its way from a red gate to a blue gate. This shows you the path the enemy will take. You lose 1 objective HP (the number that says 20 at the top) for every enemy that makes it through. So... we want to stop them.  Here, I've placed Scavenger. It costs DP (Deployment Points) to place units, shown next to their portrait at the bottom, and DP generates slowly over time, about 1 per second. As you can see, Amiya is quite expensive compared to the rest of my units. In a perfect world, this would mean she's stronger, but the DP balancing can seem a little iffy sometimes. Anyway, Scavenger is a relatively cheap melee unit, so she's a good first placement. Since she is literally standing in the enemy's path, she will prevent it from moving through her. And also attack it. Honestly, this mission is so easy that she alone is probably enough to win, but that's no fun so I will continue to deploy people.  Now I've placed Amiya, yay! She's a ranged unit, which means she goes onto the raised, lighter-colored tiles. Enemies won't walk through these tiles, which makes her safe but also means she can't block them. However, she CAN shoot down at them from a distance with her magic. Which is why they're called ranged units, duh.  Lastly, I place the lizard-dude (Codename: Rangers), except this time it's a little more complicated since I need to face him down. It's hard to take screenshots of this moment, since I'm holding down the mouse button at the time, but this is how you control your units' facing, which determines who they can hit. I face Rangers down so he can cover both lanes (not that it matters even slightly here). The mission is over when there are no more enemies left, either having been defeated or reached your goal. This is indicated by the 3/11 in the previous screenshot. It's not very eventful this time. That's it, end of the battle. Just a lot of slugs coming in two at a time to their deaths. Ugh... You bunch... aren't from Ursus... *gasp* *gasp*... Looks like they didn't have time to notify the others. ...Well done, Doctor. I really should review your capabilities more objectively. Huh? Amiya... she's heading over to them... Are you okay?Female: Huh? Oh, thank you... No problem. It's our...Female: You... You're also an Infected? What do you want?! Don't hurt my children... I'm begging you, please don't hurt us... ...Find a safe place to hide.Female: *Crying* ... Please have mercy... Let us go... ... Has everyone gotten enough rest? Ah, I'm fine... Why is she afraid of you? Doctor... You've also asked a similar question before. ... Because I... am an Infected. Dobermann and I, and most of the members of Rhodes Island, are as well. Even those Reunion members who we just fought... We've contracted a terrible illness. Something that terrifies most people... "Oripathy." Those who have contracted Oripathy are called the "Infected." Dobermann... Ursus has always treated the Infected harshly. I mean, who doesn't? Ursus just happens to be particularly cold-blooded about it. Civilians are taught to fear the Infected through propaganda. Nobody even bats an eyelid when the Infected are hunted down, and some even cheer for it. That's why Reunion chose this place... However... this time, it's not just a simple protest anymore. They've begun to resort to large-scale violence. When Ursus puts an end to the rioting, the Infected in Chernobog will only face more cruelty.Oripathy is essentially magic rock Cancer/Leprosy/HIV. It's incurable, leaves visible marks on the body in the form of crystal growths on the skin, and while only mildly infectious, that's more than enough for people with it to be shunned by society. What it's caused by are magic rocks called Originium, which can both channel actual magic, which is considered a science and called Arts, or just be used as fuel to generate electricity (magically!). When Originium dust enters the bloodstream in a high enough concentration, it starts forming crystals inside the body, rock "tumors" that interfere with various bodily functions, eventually bursting through the skin where it becomes visible. In the end, the entire body turns into Originium crystal, although presumably you are already dead by that point. You can sort of see the crystals growing on Amiya's right wrist in her portrait:  But she's kind of intentionally hiding it with her clothes. It's more obvious in other portraits (this is a random person from later in the story):  So anyway, it's definitely infectious in that your body is literally turning into the dangerous mineral that causes it, but only in the sense that if you bleed on someone they might get it if they also have an open wound. With reasonable precautions, it's hardly an issue at all. However, since Originium is also used as fuel, the main cause of Oripathy in the modern era is, well, the industrial revolution. Miners dig it up and get infected, factory workers are exposed to it and get infected, etc etc. But because capitalism sucks, they'd rather let those people die or keep them in ghettoes or toss them out into the wilderness than do anything that would actually prevent its spread. This is the basic conflict of the setting, as the persecuted Infected get reasonably pissed off at how everyone else is treating them. Back to the story though. ...In contrast, with you here, Doctor, perhaps Rhodes Island's situation will improve. ...Is this also related to me? Both Kal'tsit and Amiya have mentioned that you are a cutting-edge Oripathy researcher. ...But with your memory loss, I doubt whether you'll be of any use again. Ugh... Instructor, that's way too harsh! ...Perhaps you'll be able to master the theories again after some reviewing, just like how you relearned your commanding skills? After all, you are our field commander... To be honest, I never thought a neurology doctor could also be a master tactician... But after seeing you, I can somehow understand it. I mean, Rhodes Island itself is very similar to your field of study. Hey! drat you! Stop running! It's time for your injection! Huh? Huh? I told you, I'm fine! I, I don't need treatment yet! You need to get your regular injection to slow your symptoms! Didn't you say you were feeling dizzy? That's not the same condition at all! What if you start having other issues when you're in battle? For the sake of everyone's safety, you have to take care of yourself too! ... Stop right there! I'm giving you the shot! Aaah! ! ...This is what Rhodes Island does. We're looking for a cure to the infection, as well as mitigating the problems associated with the Infected. That's right. It is not enough to only conduct research, or only try to resolve conflicts. We must address all of the problems surrounded the Infected. This is the only way for Rhodes Island to give all the Infected a chance at survival... We understand them better than most others because we, like them, are also Infected. No matter who is involved or what is required, Rhodes Island seeks to put an end to the spread of hatred and disease. Doctor, perhaps this will be your calling as well. ...At least, this is my wish. I need some more time to think about this. We will give you plenty of time to let all of this sink in. However, the time given to us is scarce. Gather up, everyone. We're leaving! Anything could happen on our way to the meeting point! (Amiya... The situation in Chernobog has become very complicated. We can't afford to create extra pressure for the rescue team. But...) (How much time... do we have left?) (...Three hours. After three hours, this entire city will be consumed by the Catastrophe. After that, everything will be over then.)  ...We've found some unknown variables. Notify the others, now. We're going after them.
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Jul 13, 2021 00:06
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I remember trying to play this game a bit because someone recommended it. I had to jump to quite a few hoops to get an account and run it, and by then I was so annoyed that I stopped playing halfway through the tutorial.
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Jul 13, 2021 00:20
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To be fair, it is a very long tutorial, as I am discovering during the LP process.
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Jul 13, 2021 00:26
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Weird. Reminds me of Guilty Crown, which I was lukewarm on. But...I'm still reading this.
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Jul 13, 2021 01:03
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Been playing since launch, and very interested to see how this LP goes. I've got some opinions on the story and writing, but I'll get around to it when things get explained more. The initial pull isn't fixed to a specific operator-I have a different one saved as an operator for the early levels. I think it's rigged to always be a 4 star.
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Jul 13, 2021 01:33
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Doctah, they are heavily armed with weapons!
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Jul 13, 2021 01:40
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mr_stibbons posted:Been playing since launch, and very interested to see how this LP goes. I've got some opinions on the story and writing, but I'll get around to it when things get explained more. 4*+ I believe, I've seen people get 6*s on their initial pull. Anyway, I've been playing since launch so I'll happily follow along.
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Jul 13, 2021 02:57
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I started playing near launch but eventually realized I don't really like tower defense, so I'll be keeping a close eye on this.
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Jul 13, 2021 05:20
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Clarste posted:I want to do an LP of it because I think it's got a cool story and aesthetic, but the fact that it's a gacha game turns away a lot of people who'd otherwise be interested in it, in my opinion.
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Jul 13, 2021 05:20
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DeTosh posted:Weird. Reminds me of Guilty Crown, which I was lukewarm on. But...I'm still reading this. I know "it gets better" is always a frustrating thing to hear, but I do think it gets better. At the very least, chapters 6, 7, and 8 all made me cry.
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Jul 13, 2021 05:27
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It starts off as one kind of tower defense but later turns into a much worse kind of tower defense. 
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Jul 13, 2021 06:57
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Synthbuttrange posted:It starts off as one kind of tower defense but later turns into a much worse kind of tower defense. I am honestly curious as to what you mean by that.
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Jul 13, 2021 07:07
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Oh, re: the dialogue options, AFAIK there is exactly one cutscene in the game that actually changes significantly based on your choices. It's the 5th hidden cutscene in chapter 8.
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Jul 13, 2021 09:39
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Clarste posted:I know "it gets better" is always a frustrating thing to hear, but I do think it gets better. At the very least, chapters 6, 7, and 8 all made me cry. No worries. I wouldn't be following this if I didn't find it interesting.
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Jul 13, 2021 09:49
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Clarste posted:There's also some Russian written below that, presumably because we are currently in the city of Chernobog, part of the Ursus Empire, which is this fantasy world's version of Russia (pre-communism). I don't know what it says, but I'd be curious to know!
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Jul 13, 2021 09:56
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Clarste posted:I am honestly curious as to what you mean by that. The late game and extra episodes want you to rely on using special abilities and actively swapping character positions so its basically a ridiculous clickfest rather than the more enjoyable pace that I enjoy in usual tower defense games
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Jul 13, 2021 10:50
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Yeah I definitely wouldn't call it much of a traditional tower defense personally.
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Jul 13, 2021 10:57
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I played this for a while, but as with every gacha I’ve tried, I got to the point where they stop giving you free newbie stuff and suddenly instead want you to grind/buy 350,000 space crystals to do literally anything, and I was like “well, I won’t” and that was that. The art’s generally pretty nice and even the gameplay is kind of fun; shame it’s tied to a genre dedicated to making it as unpleasant and expensive as possible to experience either.
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Jul 13, 2021 11:16
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Synthbuttrange posted:The late game and extra episodes want you to rely on using special abilities and actively swapping character positions so its basically a ridiculous clickfest rather than the more enjoyable pace that I enjoy in usual tower defense games Oh yeah, that's definitely true. Personally I enjoy that kind of thing, although I wish they'd at least let you do things while paused.
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Jul 13, 2021 11:27
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I guess I should probably talk about character stats at some point. This is Amiya. Her class is Caster, indicated by the wand icon in the lower left. She has the Ranged and DPS tags, which don't mean TOO much but give you a general idea of her role (to deal damage from range). The special thing about Casters is that they deal Arts damage (magic) which ignores physical defense. In exchange, they cost more and tend to have lower dps than their physical counterparts. That said, I think Casters are a little undertuned as a class, other than a few exceptions, and stacking a team with Casters usually isn't a good idea. Amiya in particular is... pretty good? She's not amazing, but she's one of the best 5* Casters, which is not bad for a free unit. For the record, it goes up to 6* so she is definitely outclassed by rarer operators, but she's a nice, consistent team member to have around. Also you literally need to have her at high level in order to progress the story past a certain point, so I will be leveling her up regardless. I'll talk about skills more when it becomes relevant, ie: when I level her up. Storywise, I like Amiya a lot as a character, although since we'll be seeing a lot of her in main story I'll just let her speak for herself. In terms of general background info, her race is Cautus (rabbit) and she was born in the country of Rim Billiton, which is the homeland of the Cautus and also a corporate dystopia. It's basically one of those old mining towns where the company owns everything so the miners have to spend their wages paying the company to survive. Except the entire nation is owned by Rim Billiton, Inc. Moving on, next up is another Tutorial. In this case I'll show the tutorials since they have dialog and a little micro-story which is kind of funny sometimes. Every tutorial from here on out is framed as a recording of an old training simulation involving Dobermann and a new recruit named Jessica who we'll be meeting officially later. Here's the video: Link.   Instructor Dobermann, I'm sorry... Operator Jessica. According to the schedule, you're 3 minutes and 14 seconds late. I'm so sorry! It took me some time to ready my equipment... What do I need to do next? Operator Jessica, your new mission objective is to perform a combat drill simulating Dr. Doctor's behaviors. Huh?? Me? The operation to rescue the doctor will be carried out in a few days. Now, we need a simulation based on something representative of the actual situation. I see... I will show you some more advanced combat techniques. Those who participate in the operation will also be more familiar with these techniques so they can assist better. Jessica, deploy Yato and Rangers to engage the enemy. You must have noticed that our Operators will lose HP when continuously engaged in combat. Without proper backup, they may fall on the battlefield. But don't worry, a Medic Operator, Hibiscus is already on standby. She can heal the HP of ally operators. Please deploy Hibiscus immediately to help our operators on the front line. So I did. TBH, Yato would have been fine anyway. When you clear the tutorial, you're rewarded with Hibiscus:  You know things are bad when you're sending interns into battle... Hibiscus is a Medic, which means she heals instead of attacking. Medics are ranged units like Amiya, which means they can't block (normally), but since they can't attack at all, their attack range and attack power instead affect their heals. That's... about it. You generally need medics to not die, but you'd also prefer to get by with as few as possible so you can fit more DPS on your team. One is often enough, two if the map is particularly spread out. And in some exceptional cases you might want to stack 3+ medics in order to survive heavy damage, but that would probably be considered a gimmicky strat. Hibiscus is probably the worst medic in the game? There is literally no reason to use her over anyone else. She's cute though, and has a funny relationship with another operator we'll meet soon. Storywise, her race is Sarkaz (demon, but without any of the supernatural baggage that comes with that), but she's from Victoria, the homeland of the cat people (and also England). Sarkaz are actually discriminated against in this world, and are often called "Devils" as a slur. Sarkaz don't really correspond neatly to any particular real-world ethnicity. Hibiscus personally seems to have been mostly insulated from that discrimination by her middle-class background, although she was sent to Rhodes Island for treatment after she got infected. Which is a pretty common background for your characters: they lived a normal life until they got infected and sent to live/work at Rhodes Island. She's cheerful and hardworking and probably got good grades in school. Anyway, on to mission 0-2!  ...This is way beyond my expectations... Explosions, rioting, fires, fighting in the streets... Has Chernobog completely fallen into chaos? TV Host: Thanks to the swift response and teamwork of the Chernobog Military Police, the situation is largely under control. The incidents in most areas have already been contained. TV Host: Currently, the Military Police has already surrounded the thugs who had taken Vaschuk Prospect. As you can see, this senseless violence is about to be put to an end. TV Host: Please do not panic. Stay indoors, and await another victory for Chernobog... TV Host: May the glory of Ursus bless the Emperor and his people!  ...Ursus Guard: Curse them... where the hell did they get those kinds of equipment and weapons?! Ursus Captain: Don't get scared! Cowards in armor are still just cowards! They're just a bunch of untrained thugs! Ursus Guard: But... there are so many of them...! ! Ursus Captain: We've already taken out forces three times the size of ours! Just do it again, and the battle will be over! Enough with the nonsense, Chernobog scum!Ursus Captain: You filth think you can stand against us?! Exile and hard labor are too good for your kind. We should have executed the lot of you the moment you were captured! How dare you...! !Ursus Guard: Ugh...! They're rushing us again. Our front lines won't hold out much longer! Ursus Captain: For the Emperor! Stand your ground! ! Ursus Guard: I... I can't do it anymore...! Ursus Captain: Anyone who turns tail will be executed on the spot! Ursus Guard: *cough* *cough*...  We have to... Stay put! We must not expose ourselves yet! The Ursus guards... are getting overwhelmed by Reunion? Hmph... What they're broadcasting on television can't be farther from the truth. Even in this situation, the Chernobog authorities are still playing their games. But things are getting worse for us too. We can't expect to sneak out anymore. Terrible road conditions and enemy blockades... We won't be able to use our own vehicles anymore... That's right. The rescue team must be large enough to clear out any Reunion members that block our way. Splitting up any further would be suicide. These Ursus guards... They might look powerful because they're well-equipped, but Reunion... Reunion clearly has an overwhelming advantage in numbers and morale! This is nothing like when we first investigated Chernobog... When we sneaked in, the quantity, distribution, and status of Chernobog's guards and military were in a very bizarre state. Back then, we just couldn't figure out why. Had Reunion already destroyed most of Chernobog's defenses at that point? Though I don't have any proof, if Reunion has grown powerful enough to launch such a large-scale operation... All I can say is that I feel lucky those guards are being surrounded, instead of us. Of course, we must be vigilant of our surroundings. By the time we end up in a crisis, it'll already be too late-- ...Doctor, hurry and gather your teams. Our scouts have discovered Reunion forces. They're about to come in contact with our rescue team! For now, being cautious is the only advantage we can get. Hmm? Why is there an armed force here?! All teams, prepare for combat! Don't give them any chance to retaliate!Battle time! Here's the video: (Link).  This is basically another non-battle. Actually, I wonder when exactly they first start to resemble a challenge? This game definitely gets challenging later, but for now we're in baby mode. The gimmick here is supposed to be "bring a healer" but again that seems almost unnecessary.  Instead of I will use this opportunity to point out a quirk of the battle system which isn't part of the tutorial. Most melee units can only attack one tile in front of them, and based purely on their attack ranges, Scavenger and Yato don't overlap at all and shouldn't be able to hit the same targets. But actually, the enemies' hitboxes can occupy multiple tiles at once, so this poor slug walking on the line between tiles is getting smacked by both of them at once. This sort of half-tile positioning can be extremely important later on for focusing damage, especially if you can arrange to have them blocked like that.  Anyway, yay, we win. I guess.  Ugh... Gahh... Those Reunion goons... sure are energetic!Ursus Captain: Who are you people? Why are you in Chernobog at a time like this?! Huh? Wh-what's going on--Ursus Captain: Are you spies?! I think we are, technically? (If our identities get revealed and the Ursus government starts to keep an eye on us, the consequences would be unfathomable! If it comes down to it...!) Sir.Ursus Captain: ... A little girl? You're... an Infected? Stop right there! Put down your weapon! (Be ready to back her up. If they show any signs of hostility...)Suddenly, the screen gets hazy.  (Smoke? Where did it come from...?) Sir, surely you understand that we have a common enemy! Dobermann! Defenders! They're attacking!Ursus Captain: Wh-what?!   ... Reunion... they're here. Amiya, be careful... She's on a completely different level compared to those ordinary thugs! Hmph. Trying to run...? Where do you think you're going? Go. Tear them apart. ... Even her minions seem like they're well-trained... Could she be Reunion's ringleader? The haze is getting thicker and thicker... are they planning to utilize it to launch a surprise attack? Sir, we have to evacuate immediately! If they manage to cut off our escape route, we'll all...Ursus Captain: ...Get lost, Infected. ...Ursus Captain: I was tasked with defending this street. Rabbit, I don't care why you came here or what you plan to do. Rabbit is kind of a dismissive way to refer to a Cautus. I don't know if I'd call it a slur exactly, but it's rude. Ursus Captain: If you plan to ruin our city, know that someone will come after you. The rage of Ursus is never-ending. If not, then what happens here is none of your business. ... I understand.Ursus Captain: Everybody in Ursus knows to never turn their back to the enemy. Now scram! We don't have time to deal with you. ...Thank you. Dobermann! Hurry! Let's get to the first rendezvous point! All teams, move out! Quick! ...Ursus Captain: Come at us, Infected filth! Is that all you're capable of? Are you just going to stand there staring at us? All Chernobogians... Must die.
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Jul 13, 2021 12:57
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For what it's worth, I'd appreciate feedback on the rate of updates as well as the length of the posts (or if I should host the main text of the updates somewhere to not fill up the page?). TBH I'm kind of itching to post faster because I have a pretty big buffer already and I'm making the posts faster than I'm posting them. Although of course most of it is dialog which doesn't require too much effort on my part. Clarste fucked around with this message at 13:04 on Jul 13, 2021 |
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Jul 13, 2021 13:00
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Fun fact, Rim Billiton is fantasy Australia, due to its references to BHP Billiton. I have my own ideas on who the Sarkaz are analogues of, but I will save my speculation for when their homeland becomes more relevant. If there's one feedback point I'd give, it's that maybe add an extra line of gap between dialogue lines that don't have a talking head attached. It's a bit hard to discern them otherwise.
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Jul 13, 2021 13:06
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Ibblebibble posted:Fun fact, Rim Billiton is fantasy Australia, due to its references to BHP Billiton. With everything else going on here, that makes me wonder if we'll be getting into Eureka Stockade territory at some point, then.
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Jul 13, 2021 14:58
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Honestly, Yato always did get me a little bit set off for certain mechanical reasons.
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Jul 13, 2021 15:30
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I love catgirls AND war crimes.
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Jul 13, 2021 19:14
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Is Rangers actually male? You call him a dude, but from what I've heard this is one of those games that's All Girls All The Time, so like, are the only male characters you can use generics that are 1 and 2 stars, or is there male PCs with names and stuff?
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Jul 13, 2021 20:14
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There are male characters
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Jul 13, 2021 23:18
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Junpei posted:Is Rangers actually male? You call him a dude, but from what I've heard this is one of those games that's All Girls All The Time, so like, are the only male characters you can use generics that are 1 and 2 stars, or is there male PCs with names and stuff? Rangers is absolutely a dude and he talks like an old man, it's kind of funny. You can hear his voice in some of the battle videos I recorded, although the way it's presented it's extremely hard to tell who's talking unless you already know what they sound like. As an estimate off the top of my head, the playable characters are about 80% women? It's definitely pretty high, but it's not absolute. Some of the rarest and most powerful characters in the game are men too, it's not like they are limited to low-level stuff. There's no, like, narrative explanation for why so many important people in this world are women, but I just think of it as feminist. Clarste fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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Jul 14, 2021 00:19
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Junpei posted:Is Rangers actually male? You call him a dude, but from what I've heard this is one of those games that's All Girls All The Time, so like, are the only male characters you can use generics that are 1 and 2 stars, or is there male PCs with names and stuff? Rangers is indeed male, as is at least one other operator we’ll be meeting soon (if I guess/remember correctly) that I’m mostly not a fan of since his recruitment line is too long. And there are some requisite prettyboy operators too. Released recently, though, is an operator by the codename Mountain, a big white tiger dude and one of vanishingly few outright furries in the whole cast.
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Jul 14, 2021 00:20
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Also, I don't mind spoiling right now that one of the first pulls I get on the gacha is Silverash, so in this LP in particular we are almost certainly going to be carried through more difficult content by a man.
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Jul 14, 2021 00:23
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Ah, cool, I was just curious. I'm definitely not against the cast being female-dominated, sorry if my post gave that vibe off. Can't wait to hear more about the world, story, and gameplay.
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Jul 14, 2021 00:24
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Man, an Arknights LP is definitely not something I was expecting. Really, any Gacha game or anything derived from the overall model always seemed difficult if not impossible to do thanks to the model of continuous time sensitive events, but I suppose Arknights also stands out due to how intensive the story gets (I can also vouch that while the early stuff is very heavy in set up and also requiring the translators to get some time to realize they probably should take this more seriously than their other projects, the later story stuff gets phenomenal if somewhat dense enough that I've had to take reading breaks.) Kind of funny to think about coming from a Tower Defense game about animal-people getting infected by Totally-Not-Tiberium. That said, I saw a Girls Frontline LP on here and Arknights is primarily made up of former devs from that game, so it's thematic in a way. Lord knows I don't expect anyone to do a Fate/Grand Order or Granblue Fantasy LP anytime soon, at least. I am down for it though because it will help in terms of getting the content in a more accessible form, especially because Arknights gets downright savage in later content, even stuff you need to do to unlock story scenes. I wouldn't say that you need all the best 6* in the game to overcome it, there's naturally been flex videos of people doing it with low rarity operators and usually the gameplay niche is more important than the gacha rarity, but some maps definitely expect you to dig in and spend a lot of time practicing through repetition to get things to click.
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Jul 14, 2021 04:37
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I was the guy who was doing the GFL LP, and I can concur that a gacha LP is hell to plan around. There's a reason why I abandoned it  The devs have said that they test all maps with free operators only which is quite nice of them.
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Jul 14, 2021 05:18
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Ah, the feeling of getting your first 6-star is always special. Of course, the game decides to taunt me by not giving me the cool chainsaw cat, but a little fox girl with nine tails. Arknights, the game where you'll use everyone because in some form or another you'll need them, but will be consistently denied the one you want. Gideon020 fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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Jul 14, 2021 05:36
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Next up we have a bunch of tutorials and missions without much story. I'm not sure if that makes it easier or harder for me, but whatever. First we have a tutorial on unit facing (which I already talked about, oops!) Video.  Jessica, you've probably noticed that we need to designate a direction when deploying an Operator. First, Look how Rangers attacks the enemy.It continues on a little on its own, with Rangers shooting everything until one slug walks behind him.  Did you see that Jessica? Rangers cannot attack enemies behind him, as they are outside his range. Tap Rangers to check his information. The orange area represents Rangers' Attack Range, which is determined by the direction assigned to him when deployed. Unless an Operator has retreated or fallen, his direction and attack range cannot be changed as long as he is deployed. Make sure you take this into consideration before deploying an Operator. At this stage, Rangers cannot attack the Originium Slugs crossing behind him. But don't worry, we can deploy other Operators to defend the area. Deploy Sniper Operator, Adnachiel, to this location. Set his direction to up by dragging upward. An Operator will only be deployed to battle after you have specified the direction.Done and done. For our trouble, we get Adnachiel himself:  What a loser, he doesn't even have a gun. Adnachiel is a Sniper, which means he is a ranged attacker who deals physical damage. Physical damage is reduced by the defense stat subtractively, ie: the final damage is equal to attack minus defense. Very simple damage formula. But this means that physical damage can be reduced to practically zero if the enemy's defense is in even remotely the same range as your attack power (although there is a minimum damage of 5% of attack). And to make matters worse, most snipers have a fast attack speed but low damage per hit, making them especially vulnerable to high defense. The obvious solution is to bring Casters, but counterintuitively another counter to high defense is just... do more damage. A slow attacking, high damage Sniper can more or less ignore most enemy defenses just by dealing so much damage that their defense is insignificant. IE: If you have 100 attack and the enemy has 80 defense, you're dealing a measly 20 per hit. But if you double your attack to 200, suddenly you're doing 120 damage per hit. 6 times as much! Even if you assume you're attacking at half the speed, that's still 3 times as much damage per second. In short: big numbers good! Small numbers bad! Adnachiel in particular sucks though, why would you ever use him? Seriously, look at that dork. In terms of background, he is a Sankta (angel) from their homeland of Laterano. It's basically the Vatican, except with guns. It's a legalistic theocracy where all Sankta citizens are granted a single gun of their choice by their government, and expected to use it in defense of the nation, etc. Even Sankta Operators who aren't snipers will always have Their Gun lying around somewhere. Guns in this setting are actually somewhat rare, with crossbows being the favored weapon for ranged combat. This seems to be because gunpowder doesn't exist. Instead, gun-users have to use arts to cast a very tiny explosion inside the chamber of their gun to propel the bullet. While this is a skill that can be trained, it's extremely difficult and using anything larger than a pistol is almost unheard of. Except for the Sankta. Who A) invented the gun, B) seem to have an innate talent for gun magic, and C) have an extreme gun culture. Except this loser who doesn't even have his license. (Actually he's said to be very talented at everything.) Moving on, our next mission has no story attached to it, they just dump us right into battle. Video.  This place is closer to the enemy's rally point. Enemy drones have been detected on the left. Please deploy Sniper Operators to defend against them! Sure thing, lady.  I don't know why they introduced drones before the tutorial on drones, but whatever.  Anyway, we win. Yay. There is something very satisfying about shooting down drones. Next we have the drone tutorial. Video.  Jessica, you will often encounter aerial targets, which can only be damage by Operators with ranged attacks. Ah! I'm good at that... My weapons are long-range as well. Correct. Now, deploy the Ranged Operator you have available. Jessica, you can join the doctor's team after this training session. You will need to have more actual combat experience. What? ...Really!? Jessica deployed.  Jessica recruited. She's a 4*, unlike all these 2 and 3 stars we've been getting so far. So while she's not the best sniper ever, she's better than Adnachiel anyway. And unlike him, she's got a real gun. That said, it is cheaper to level up lower rarity characters, so it's not like there isn't value in keeping around a bunch of 3 stars. Jessica is a Feline (cat) from Victoria (cat country), which is harder to summarize all the problems of, but it's basically the United Kingdom and seems to have a large wealth gap as well as internal political tensions between its different regions (ie: Scotland, Ireland, Wales, etc). She's being "borrowed" from Blacksteel Worldwide, which is a security company, ie: a PMC, ie: mercenaries. Anyway, the tutorial was pretty brief on this, but drones are enemies that can fly, which means they ignore both terrain and blocking. They often spawn from their own weird little spawn points, but head towards the same exits as the ground enemies, along their own idiosyncratic midair paths. Most melee units can't hit them at all, and while casters can definitely hit them, there's another property of (most) snipers that makes them extra good against drones. Specifically, anti-air snipers (which all of my current snipers are) will prioritize targeting drones over anything else. Normally, your units will always target the enemy in range that's closest to the goal (based on the enemy's path, not absolute distance), which is good. But since enemies further away won't be targeted as long as there's something closer, this means drones can reach your defense line at full HP, float right over your blockers, and by then it's too late to finish them off. Unless you have anti-air snipers to prioritize them. Anyway, with the next mission we're finally back to the story. Ace!  Looks like you all made it out alive. This isn't the rendezvous point... Why are you here alone? They're the ones who escaped from the central area! Don't let them get away! Tsk, they just keep coming after us! Team E2, prepare to intercept-- Dobermann, don't get overzealous. Retreating is our top priority! Amiya, Doctor! Quick! It's not safe here either. That's right. We still have to press on to the next rendezvous point. Where's your team? Where are you rats hiding? Smoke them out! Here they come again! Doctor, please give us your orders. Just like the good ol' days. ...? Um, Ace... Actually, something unexpected has happened. Doctor... is suffering from amnesia. ...I see. I'm sorry, Ace... But compared to before, a lot has changed. Is that so? You don't need to apologize to me. Have the Doctor's commanding capabilities suffered as a result of the amnesia? ...As sharp as before. Doctor's decisionmaking is still absolutely reliable. I can promise you this. Very well then. I'll follow the Doctor's orders then. What has been lost can be found again. Right now, there's a more imminent problem on our hands. They're over here! Hurry, let's get them! ! Are you done chatting yet? I'm going to go crack some skulls! Doctor, please give us your orders. Go. Release your inner beast, and let them feel your fangs! Doctor! Ace! The enemy is right in front of us! ... Seize the opportunity to disrupt the enemy's plans.This seems like a uselessly vague order to me, but I'm sure the Doctor just wants to sound smart. Understood. Team E3! Back up Dobermann! An ambush?! Team E3 has been moving undercover this whole time... I see, they've been waiting for us to pincer the enemy. When communications are jammed, our teams should operate near the rendezvous point. That way, even if something happens to me or the scout, the broader operation can still be carried out. This is my decision-making.This is another mistranslation: Scout is the codename of another character who's pretty important (sort of). Ace and Scout are two of the most senior operators present for this operation, which is why he's worried about the chain of command falling apart if they're both taken out. Unrelated, but just for the record, Ace has a tail that you can just barely see in his portrait. I know a lot of people who were confused by his appearance early since he has no obvious animal features. In other words, Ace, you left your team back at the rendezvous point and came here alone... After all, neutralizing threats around the rendezvous point is our top objective. Of course, prioritizing checking on your status is a big risk. There's no way I could imperil the entire team. The whole reason teams exist is to increase tactical efficiency, not the other way around. Hah. Let's continue our discussion after we've taken care of Reunion! Amiya, you're up. Understood! I'll back you up with my Arts! Finally... Doctor, please command Rhodes Island.Battle time! Video  More drones are approaching. We are quite certain they are being controlled by enemy casters...I guess drones are controlled by magic. Sure, why not. Seems they were siezed from Chernobog's armory and modified afterwards... The fact that there are so many drones being deployed means that this is no ordinary riot. They came prepared. Remember to deploy Sniper Operators to deal with the drones! Three snipers, coming right up. Nothing in this level can even remotely survive that, even blocking was unnecessary. I guess that's a more classic tower defense style of gameplay.  And then I win. Killing drones is fun. There's no story after this battle, which sort of implies that the next battle is also just part of the same skirmish. At this point, the game directs you to level up. So sure, why not.  The way leveling works in this game, like many gacha games, is that you collect EXP materials and feed them to your dudes until they level up. In this case, the EXP materials are training videos, specifically recordings of battles, so I can only imagine you strapping them to a chair and forcing them to watch thousands of hours of highly-edited violence. This is somehow more effective than gaining experience in battle. In addition to videos, it also costs LMD (Lungmen Dollars) to gain experience. For some reason. LMD is used for a variety of things, but mostly in trivial amounts compared leveling up. Anyway, I decide to feed everything into Amiya, because I know I'm going to be using her in the long run.  She is now max level. Wait, what? That was fast. If you compare her stats to level 1: Her attack went from 276 to 393, a ~42% increase. Her HP went from 699 to 966, or ~38%. Those aren't TINY increases, but it's also not like she's 10 times as powerful and can solo everything now. Levels in Arknights are important, don't get me wrong, but they aren't the end-all be-all of power. You can make up for lower levels with better strategy, and I appreciate that. Even if I am a dumbass. That said, I have obviously not actually reached max level. I mean, I haven't even reached the end of the prologue. But in order to level her up more, we'll need to promote her, which is more complicated.  It requires all this stuff, none of which I have right now. I'll talk more about the specific benefits when we get there, although I will note right now that promotion is the biggest difference between the rarities of different units. Basically, 2* units can't promote at all, 3* units can only promote once, while anything 4 or above can promote twice. This makes a pretty big statistical difference in the long run, which is honestly the main reason 2* and 3* units aren't competitive in the long run (although 3* remains useful for quite a while).
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Jul 14, 2021 07:51
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Junpei posted:Is Rangers actually male? You call him a dude, but from what I've heard this is one of those games that's All Girls All The Time, so like, are the only male characters you can use generics that are 1 and 2 stars, or is there male PCs with names and stuff? I didn't pay much attention to the story when I played, it took me a very long time to realize Scout, Ace, Rangers, and I think 'Medic' were supposed to be specific people. FANSean posted:That said, I saw a Girls Frontline LP on here I wonder what happened with that one. The fact that approximately 50% of the important story developments in that game are on time limited events that are directly sequentially part of the main story is... Really strange, even if they add them in permenantly eventually there's no actual indication when you're supposed to play them.
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Jul 14, 2021 08:54
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Acerbatus posted:I wonder what happened with that one. The fact that approximately 50% of the important story developments in that game are on time limited events that are directly sequentially part of the main story is... Really strange, even if they add them in permenantly eventually there's no actual indication when you're supposed to play them. I burnt out is what happened Edit: just so I'm not talking about my old LP all the time, a couple of trivia points: 1) there is a Korean client, and during their 1st anniversary video they had a few character skits in Korean, so technically a few characters have official Korean voiceovers, just not in the game. 2) The Chinese name for Arknights, 明日方舟, translates to Tomorrow's Ark (as in the boat). Ibblebibble fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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Jul 14, 2021 09:06
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