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Funky Valentine posted:
 ... either the people who were there told me about them afterwards, or it's part and parcel with the fact that my brain is timesharing with various supernatural entities. Alternatively, we're back to 'up to you if you want to believe me or not.'
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Apr 24, 2021 03:26
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...how did you know about the parts you weren't there for?
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resurgam40 posted:I like you. I like this thread I like you too, posting buddy!
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Apr 24, 2021 04:45
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Arist posted:
the screenshot here is a repeat of what maruki says in text, btw! and it's really cool to see all the new stuff royal's added 
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Apr 24, 2021 05:12
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Uh—Oh, sorry! I just meant, you’re in the middle of your teenage years and all, right? High schoolers are just discovering romance and all, so…
…Not… exactly. But, um, that’s just because I fell in love with my studies first! Heheh…
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TheDavies posted:
Or maybe the cops gave me the really good poo poo.
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Apr 24, 2021 16:35
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Staltran posted:
Look, I'm going to level with you: I made Ryuji up. He's not real.
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Apr 24, 2021 17:16
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Funky Valentine posted:
 The crash wasn't your fault, Maaku. You have to let me go.
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Apr 24, 2021 19:39
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girl dick energy posted:
 The term is "complicated grief." But it's really quite simple, isn't it?
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Apr 24, 2021 19:55
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Chapter 38: 5/25: Bonfire Of The Vanities (New) This update contains content from Parts 38 and 39 of the original LP.   The preparations have been made. Early Morning Music: Beneath the Mask (Instrumental Version)    It appears you’re lying low lately. What’s with the change?  Really… Is it just my imagination then? Anyhow… I wish the culprit would come forward soon… It’s absurd to pretend I can do the police’s job… I wish he considered my feelings before asking me this. …Should you be telling me this?Early Morning → After School   (to crowd) Please excuse me for a moment.  Ooh, a fan letter. Love reading these! It’s… uh…Music: Disquiet  “You are an artist who uses his authority to shamelessly steal the ideas of his pupils. We have decided to make you confess all your crimes with your own mouth. We will take your distorted desires without fail. From, #Millennials…” (crumpling up calling card) Whose doing is this!? I mean, it sounds exactly like something Fox would write, and he did just find out about about my terrible secret the other day, but naaaaaaah, couldn’t be… We don’t know! The same letter has been posted everywhere… What about the security cameras!? There were no signs of the culprit… All we saw was a cat in the recordings… Remove these at once! Of course! Um… …What now!? It’s about this affecting the exhibit… We believe it’s just a prank, but what of the mass media? Are you insinuating that this slander is true? Of course not!   It’s those drat brats’ doing, isn’t it? Well, it means nothing… They’ll only be able to do as they please until this exhibit is over…    Yup! It was perfect! The composition was way cooler too! I understand the urge to witness Madarame lose his poo poo, but why did we have to come here in person? If he noticed any of us we’d be beyond hosed. The Treasure should appear right about now. You better enjoy the air of freedom while you still can, old man. Anyways, d’you guys check online? People are already talkin’ about that callin’ card. Course, none of ‘em have any idea what it means, but still! We’ll show ‘em… We’re gonna surprise ‘em all! I’m sure you know, but we only get one shot to pull this off! You’re right, we did know that. It’ll be fine. We managed last time too. You have no reservations about this either, right, Yusuke? Of course not. …We’ll do this.  Music: Life Will Change (Instrumental Version)    I mean, we did basically declare war on him by sendin’ that card. But there’s nothing to fear. We’ve secured a route, and we’re ready to go. We’ll take the Treasure in style! We’ll be going with the bros for this boss fight. Sorry Panther, but the boss gimmicks coming up just reward a party composition of Skull, Mona, and Fox.  Thankfully, they get rid of the enemy encounters here between the last safe room and the room with the winch controls. Let’s execute the plan.   I mean, we’ve done a ton in here. It ain’t surprisin’. Anyway, I’m gonna try and draw it out, so I’ll leave the switch to you guys. Will you be okay? What if it catches up to you? Heh, don’t underestimate an ex-runner. I’m definitely gonna shake it off!    There’s Skull’s distraction to get Panther into the main control room…   Yeah, it’s perfect! You seem to be enjoying this. Only the best can appreciate these critical moments. Plus, this feels like we’re really phantom thieves! Do “real phantom thieves” get strapped to hooks often? This feels rather undignified… Well… Oh, shut up. We’ll be counting on you, Mona. And Panther as well!  Good luck, everyone! Let’s do this! *turns off lights* Joker pulls the switch…  And Mona grabs the Treasure.   “Don’t underestimate an ex-runner,” huh? Shut it, I’ve been rusty and my leg’s still not totally healed!  That was amazin’, Mona!  I *knew* putting that retractable hook directly above the convenient hole in my laser grid was a bad idea! Ngh… How dare those vermin… But now we’ll corner them like the rats they are! Lock all the doors at once! They have nowhere to run! We can look into that later. For now, we must escape. Yeah, it’s time to go!Well, let’s make our way over to the window to escape.  What’re you doing!? We have to hurry or—Shut up, Mona, I’ve played this game before and I know the way to go!  (Security Guard Shadow) There! The trespasser’s up there! Lock down the control room and get them! Wh-Wh-What do we do!? They’re already here! There’s no time to contemplate. We must escape—now!  Still love Mona having the painting strapped to him for this short sequence. But at least we’re outside! Is there a way down out here!?  We don’t have time to lose. Just go through it! Now’s our chance! Yeah, it’s… probably the right way. Maybe. For real!? But… I guess there’s no other way! I knew it! All that security would’ve been meaningless if it just led back inside! What? How do you figure that? The passage we just went through wasn’t even secured! It seems we managed to escape their siege. Mrrrr… Meowww… Dude… Why’s Mona gettin’ excited now of all times…? You know, in retrospect we probably should have let Yusuke hold the Treasure instead of the mysterious cat being that reacts to shiny things like catnip.    Hrm!?Music: Tension  THIS is the Treasure!?So, this face is known as the “Henohenomoheji” and is comprised of several hiaragana characters. It’s typically drawn by schoolchildren. Here’s a post by ChaosArgate from the old thread explaining it better than I can:  Here’s another, for reference:  The general gist of the face’s inclusion here is basically that the fake Treasure represent’s Madarame’s true skills or whatever, and is thus this crude face typically drawn by literal schoolchildren. While doing some light research on the face for this bit, I actually found more than one comparison between it and the “Cool S” phenomenon here in the west. So that’s dumb. I also learned that the “Cool S” has its own Wikipedia page. Wait, what was I talking about?   Get back! Still impressed by everyone’s miraculous ability to jump like twelve feet backwards in a single second at the drop of a hat and still land on their feet.    …I just realized I completely voided the purpose of luring you with a fake painting by bringing the real one here. poo poo. So you had a fake prepped, huh!? Counterfeits are accepted in the world of Japanese art. That’s not really a “counterfeit,” though. It’s just a different painting. What made you change like this!? Is it because you became famous!? Can’t you understand how much it pains me to inquire about the crimes of my foster father!? Feh. Looking back, I only took you in at all because of my association with your mother. You fiend! Not like that, relax. She just had an incredible passion and talent, even after her husband died. I recognized that, so I decided to look after her. Your mother and her artwork were all my creations! They belong to me! How low can you sink? I suppose I can grant you a gift before you die—a glimpse of the genuine “Sayuri”…! Genuine…? That’s… the real “Sayuri”? This can’t be! Mom… Huh!? What a twist! Yes, your mother painted this as a self-portrait. She knew she would die soon and left this painting as her last wishes for her son. That is the truth behind the mystery of “Sayuri”’s expression! You stole something THAT personal!? I knew right away that with a minor adjustment this painting would be a massive success for me. But the baby in the picture… Why did you paint over it? …It was all to stage it. If the babe is erased, the reason for the woman’s expression will become a mystery! That is what the general public is drawn to! Each of those parasitic critics wrote the same thing! Now, I don’t really “get” art to be honest, but “this woman is happy” doesn’t actually seem that interesting a mystery. And you know, now that I look at the real thing it’s kind of absurd that people were so into a painting where the entire lower third has been blatantly painted over with an ugly cloud of purple miasma. Uh, no offense, Fox. I always felt something was off about all this… Now I know what it is. If you really treasured that painting, you wouldn’t even think about replicating it for profit! You don’t love art at all! Though you have a real Treasure, your true skills are nothing more than those scribbles on that fake! It makes me laugh, rear end in a top hat! So you’ll defy me no matter what… Well then, since you’re my work of art, Yusuke, I’m going to reap you for the sake of my future. …Along with those insolent friends of your there. I can’t believe you’re treating both mother and son like they’re objects… You’re inhuman! Fox? I’ve heard that you destroy your “art” once they outlive their usefulness… Did that include my mother as well?Music: Blood of Villain Uh… Oh, poo poo. I didn’t *not* kill her, I guess… But c’mon, she had a seizure, and what was I supposed to do? Call for help? But then I wouldn’t get her painting! Besides, she was frail. Probably woulda made it a couple more years at most. So… you get it, right? We’re cool? You utter bastard… Hey, that’s no way to talk to the man who looked after you for over a decade! Mostly just to keep you from realizing I stole your mother’s painting, but still! Wait, how does that work? You took him in, ensuring he would constantly be in the shadow of and thinking about that painting, so he wouldn’t realize it was a portrait of his mother? What?All right everyone, it’s time for a good old Arist Rant™! More than any other Shadow in the game, Shadow Madarame’s version of events feels… weirdly unreliable? Like, his explanations don’t stand up to basic scrutiny, introduce more questions than they answer, conflate or reverse cause and effect, and generally don’t make a lot of sense when you compare them to other Shadows in the game. Then you introduce aspects like Rank 10 of the Emperor Confidant where Madarame was legitimately concerned at one point for Yusuke’s wellbeing (which still feels bizarre given everything else we see here), and it almost feels like the game wants you to doubt what parts of this are true? Like, maybe Madarame didn’t actually witness and fail to prevent the death of Yusuke’s mother, but neglected her out of jealousy and indirectly caused it? Or the selfish rationale for taking in Yusuke is a fabrication of his Shadow, created out of feelings of guilt about his mother’s death? The problem isn’t that this can’t be the case, it’s that the game provides no framework whatsoever to evaluate what Shadow Madarame is saying as true or false. This isn’t Persona 4, where the claims of Shadows are extremely often fabricated from the dark corners of the psyche where self-doubt resides and thrives. In that game, Shadows were your fears about yourself. But in this game, Shadows (with the notable exception of Futaba’s) are just the awful person you are, with no real attempt made to challenge their claims (which, granted, is in part because the “real” versions of these characters are not here to defend themselves like in P4, but also because P5 is just categorically uninterested in their apologia). For all intents and purposes, the Shadow’s telling is real, even as it’s dialed up to eleven to make their real self look as diabolical as possible. The way the two games portray Shadows is just too disparate to be a real help here. And the one opportunity you’d think would be there for the “truth” to come out, Shadow Madarame’s “regret” scene, doesn’t end up doing this at all and is instead mostly about Akechi skulking about in his brain. It’s not that Shadow Madarame being some big evil bastard is some problem that needs to be fixed, but his actions just fundamentally don’t make sense to me and attempts to solve that problem by treating his story as unreliable aren’t supported by the rest of the game’s portrayal of its version of Shadows, and so we’re forced to go with the much simpler and more consistent answer that everything he’s saying is supposed to be true, even as it fails to make sense. That said, I feel like if the game actually tried to approach Madarame’s character in a way that was consistent with this unreliability it could have made the character much more interesting. I’m not generally a guy who likes to do the “this is how I would armchair fix this story” thing, but if we could get Madarame as a person who accidentally drove someone to her death out of jealousy then adopted her son as penance, but who also committed further evils like plagiarism and abuse because he feels he’s already beyond redemption, then that added layer of complexity feels like a dramatic improvement over his bleh depiction in the final game without really changing much about the actual events of this backstory. Hell, you could just add it all into the “regret” scene after the boss fight and make all that information retrograde and it wouldn’t be great but it would be something, you know? Whatever. But that’s my four-paragraph, six hundred-word rant about how the least interesting boss in Persona 5 doesn’t make sense to me. We now resume your regularly scheduled villainy. You killed her…! The artistic talents you inherited from your mother were a delightful miscalculation, though. If I’m to steal ideas, it’s much easier robbing the future of brats who won’t talk back than adults. It’s thanks to you that I came up with the idea. You have my gratitude. *chuckle* Yusuke? Code names! I thank you Madarame! Every reason for me to forgive you has disappeared without a trace at this very moment! You aren’t some rotten artist… You’re a despicable fiend who wears the skin of an artist! All you good-for-nothings…! Barging into my museum and doing whatever the hell you want… Those who have the connections make the rules; those who don’t, follow them. Not to mention, the value of all art is subjective! I make the rules in the art scene! I am the supreme being! I am the god of the art world! This isn’t good. Get back!Music: Blooming Villain       Video: Ichiryusai Azazel Madarame   You used others for your own despicable desires, Madarame… You aren’t even worth the art you “create”! As in the original, we start with The Painter’s Face. We’re not using anything that Resists Physical, which may make this beginning of the fight a little more annoying. As mentioned before, for this fight we’ll be using Skull, Mona, and Fox, and Joker’s Personas Ippon-Datara and Nekomata. We’re not in the stage of the fight where composition matters too much, but I’ll get into why we’re using this party when it becomes relevant.  Quick refresher from the old LP on the way The Painter’s Face works, because it’s mostly the same as in the original: quote:Each part of the face is a different target with a different HP bar. Unfortunately, they also each have different elemental affinities, as can be seen here. The mouth absorbs Physical and is vulnerable to magic, and vice versa for the eyes. The nose absorbs nothing, because it sucks. quote:Another annoying aspect of them each being separate is that they each get their own turn. The eyes go first, in between some of our party members, followed by the nose and mouth when the cycle completes. The Right Eye (our left) uses single-target Fire, Electricity, and Ice attacks, while the Left Eye uses Tarukaja on the mouth and Rakunda on the party. Not bringing a Persona with buffs or Ann’s Dekaja, and the fact that we haven’t even seen a Persona with Dekunda (neutralizes debuffs on the party), all compound to make this rather annoying to keep up with, especially if it targets Morgana, who’s rather squishy. For the record, I was a little wrong about the nose: it does absorb Nuclear, Psychokinesis, Curse, and Bless, but you’re not likely to have much access to those skills at this point so eh. The eyes also only absorb Fire, Ice, Electricity, and Wind, not all magic. Here, I forget that the eyes absorb magic and use Bufu on one as Fox. One thing we have now that we didn’t have in the original, though, is Skull’s Rampage, which we were too low a level to have access to. Now, he can do solid multi-hit damage to everything at once except the mouth.  Ippon-Datara’s Sledgehammer is a great tool for getting rid of the eyes quickly. The eyes should really be our top priority here, because while the mouth is dealing a lot of the real damage, we can attack the eyes and the nose at the same time with Physical. The problem is that this will heal the mouth, so we need to save it for last.     Also, that Right Eye doesn’t gently caress around. It’s the only method the boss has right now of hitting weaknesses, so we need to be careful. Well, actually, the nose can also hit Skull’s Wind weakness, but the nose is a loving chump that spends its one active turn “twitching” to prepare for attacks it never actually gets to use because we kill it too quickly. It might have gotten to use Dust Flurry to hit everyone with Wind if it had survived another turn, but it didn’t.  As before, the Left Eye buffs and debuffs.  We take the eyes and nose down pretty quickly.    Dammit… Those things can come back if we don’t take them down at once!?The portrait components seem to have reduced health as well, considering they heal for slightly less when they’re restored (62 HP vs. 75, both of which are presumably 25%). The last change to the way this phase works also means the nose doesn’t really get a chance to do anything, but we’ll get to that in a bit.     There has to be more than just our color changing! We should be cautious!I leave the Right Eye alone for a second while I debuff the mouth’s Defense and it uses The Artist’s Grace on Skull to make him weak to everything.   Another eye gets healed.  Thankfully, The Artist’s Grace wears off here in a single turn.  And from there, we get all the components down at once.    Onto the second phase. Bye painting! …Oh, you don’t understand? Well, yes, in the original game you’d go back and forth between Azazel and the painting until you defeated the former, but here you only have to defeat the painting once and the fight just moves on from it. It’s honestly a little disappointing because it’s so much more trivial now. Also, remember that part of the fight where you send a party member to paint over the components of The Painter’s Face to make them weak to everything? That is, apparently, still an aspect of this fight… it’s just not one I ever saw. From what I read, it happens after the second Restore, which means I must have killed the face too quickly after that and it didn’t happen. Oh well. But, yes, this means the nose didn’t even get to attack us, heh.   The Madarame who gathers a full crowd every time he opens an exhibit! I’m not someone that worthless brats like you are allowed to defy! Enough of your egotistic ranting! Taste the wrath of all those you’ve preyed upon!    Huh, that didn’t do much.  Then you’ll witness it for yourselves! Behold my master craft!    …Ha, I see. Creating duplicates IS his specialty!This is the second half of this fight, and the reason we brought this specific party composition. So, we have four copies, and an Azazel that’s not taking a ton of damage. What do we do? Well, each of the Azazel copies blatantly has an associated element. If we attack each element with its “opposite”…  We can hit their weaknesses. And from there…   Baton Pass, baby. We finally get to do it in a boss fight!     Just keep Baton Passing over and over…    Making sure to finish with Fox. Why?   Well, if you’ll recall, Giant Slice has its damage boosted when it’s used after a Baton Pass, and now we’ve done a full Baton Pass of three links, meaning it’s gonna do hella damage. Is that a thing the kids say? But that’s the reason we don’t bring Panther for this one. Skull’s Rampage and Fox’s Giant Slice are just too essential for this, plus we don’t have an accessory to replace Skull’s Zio like we do for Garu or Agi. We could technically replace Mona with Panther, considering Panther has that accessory that gives Garu equipped, but Mona’s Media for party healing is just too useful here.  Stop this… Is this how you show your gratitude to the man who raised you!? Silence! Don’t waste your breath!  Each of the Ersatzes (the Madarame copies) will give a little speech and then attack with their associated element.         One thing we can also use Baton Pass here for is healing.  A few turns in, we’re now at the point where we can kill some of the Ersatzes. What happens then?    Azazel just summons more. Note that he doesn’t specifically replace the ones you killed, he just summons random ones.  Stop it, you brats, or else…! You think we’ll be daunted by such threats!? A few more rounds of Baton Passes and we’re done.     Line Changes!!!!!! Morgana’s “What nonsense that you used a mousetrap on me!” is now “How dare you try to trap me like some kind of mouse!” Much better. During the fight with Azazel, Fox’s line “You still have the nerve to say such things!? You will fully taste the wrath of those who were preyed upon by you!” is now “Enough of your egotistic ranting! Taste the wrath of all those you’ve preyed upon!” Again, much better. Arist fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Aug 12, 2023 |
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Apr 27, 2021 22:43
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I liked the rant  I also thought Madarame's treatment was weird, but I didn't give it much more thought; your version is much more satisfying and I'm going to pretend that's what actually happened.
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Apr 28, 2021 10:32
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I feel that the Shadows are still meant to represent the worst thoughts and desires of a person, and of course the reason the villains are villains is because they’re indulging their inner darkness, but at least with Madarame and Okumara they do make mention of them not having always been such awful people, and you could almost argue that Madarame with 16 years of hindsight believes in his heart that he let Yusuke’s mother die when it might have simply been a failure to act out of shock, especially if he cared about her enough to care about young Yusuke for a time, until his theft and forgery and mistreatment of pupils became all he had left internally. It’s an attempt at nuance too little too late, and for that I cannot fault them beyond the attempt not really working. Alternatively he’s a complicated man and his care for Yusuke a complicated thing. I could see him being very caring when Yusuke is young and only turning it into awfulness when Yusuke’s artistic skills started to manifest, after all it’s a lot easy to be panicked for the health of a literal baby you adopted over the teenager you adopted long ago and are now teaching art (which considering Yusuke’s art is learnt from Madarame the man clearly had knowledge of the subject, if zero actual skill at it). Lord_Magmar fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Apr 28, 2021 |
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Apr 28, 2021 10:48
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Madarame isn't terribly interesting, but I think he's at least a touch more memorable than Kaneshiro.
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Apr 28, 2021 11:07
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Yeah, I really think you've got something there with your interpretation of Madarame- it would have been a much more interesting way of portraying a "twisted" mind that leads to a Palace. And you're absolutely right about the differences between this game and the last when it comes to Shadows- P4 portrayed a very thematic understanding of what every Shadow is and was supposed to represent* and this understanding informed every facet of the Shadows. But P5... even if it has more dynamic Shadows you can do more with, they're just so... hollow in comparison, because they lack the same visceral, personal connection that P4 Shadows had, no matter how much they tried to set it up. But part of thaty problem is that P5 is a fundamentally different story than P4: t'ain't a mystery around a singular culprit and why they did it, it's... well, a heist movie. More attention is paid to a valuable thing to be stolen and that that thing is stolen than the bad guy holding the thing- i mean, it's just a bad guy, no need to overthink it. Rather than a mystery being solved, it's more about stringing The Locales Of Heist Movies together- a castle, a museum, a bank, a casino, a cruise ship, what have you- then they are about personal connection to these things, which is why the story feels so disjointed. Every boss was personal in P4, and in (base) P5, there's really only two that are so personal: the first one, and the penultimate one (and also Futaba, but her fight is the odd one out in this series anyway). And it's kind of frustrating, because with a little more thought to things, you could have formed more of a connection to the bosses, or at least made things more interesting, like you just did. But that would have left less time for Shenanigans(tm) and lord knows, we can't have that!  ...  *Well, mostly... Shadow Teddie was a bit of a cheat.
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Apr 28, 2021 21:51
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Guess you beat Madarame fast enough in phase 2 since if he summoned enough copies later ones would spawn with status conditions.
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Apr 29, 2021 02:47
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The new parts of the Azazel fight looking a lot like the Albion fight from Nocturne.
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Apr 29, 2021 04:09
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Arist posted:
Regardless of Madarame's reasons, the spoken line of "taking in an artist's child so that they will not recognize the painting" is just terrible writing/logic. Even if we try to rationalize his shadow as being unreliable, the power in having an unreliable character/narrator is that what they say can be construed as being true and logical. If anything, this terribly written dialogue seems like it is trying to condense a significant aspect of the movie, "Amadeus", into a single line of dialogue. And the game is trying to absolve the scooby gang's power of brainwashing people by having them only brainwash absurdly evil adults. Also my perspective on Rank 10 of the Emperor Confidant is that Madarame is not ― exactly ― a bloodthirsty sociopath. It is bizarre considering that he claims to have left his mother to die but does the exact opposite for her son. Nevertheless, in Madarame's eyes, his evil deeds are simply a matter of business.
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Apr 29, 2021 07:44
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Flair posted:Regardless of Madarame's reasons, the spoken line of "taking in an artist's child so that they will not recognize the painting" is just terrible writing/logic. Even if we try to rationalize his shadow as being unreliable, the power in having an unreliable character/narrator is that what they say can be construed as being true and logical. To be fair, his ability to recognize the painting is really arbitrary. He has no idea what his mom looks like, but can instantly recognize himself as a baby?
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Apr 29, 2021 18:11
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Chapter 39: 5/25-5/26: Cat-astrophe This update contains content from Part 40 of the original LP. Music: Regret    No one cares for true art… All they want are easily recognizable brands! I’m a victim in this too! Wouldn’t you agree!? Excuses now? The art world revolves around money after all… You can’t rise up without any money…Everybody needs money. That’s why they call it “money.” Yusuke, you understand, don’t you!? Being a poor artist is truly miserable! I just didn’t want to return to that life! This came a little out of nowhere, if I’m being honest. I know, right? I get that it’s really hard to make a name for yourself as an impoverished artist, but what did that have to do with what we knew about this guy before? You’re done for—along with this whole wretched world! Don’t kill me! I can get you a great deal on a counterfeit “Sayuri”! Return to yourself in reality and confess your crimes—all of them! Y-You’re not going to kill me? Swear it! *shriek* All right… All right! What about the other guy? The one with the black mask? He won’t kill me either? Stop making poo poo up! We’re the only ones with free license to brainwash people! Probably! I-It’s true! He smelled like maple syrup!Madarame and Kaneshiro working for Shido is still incredibly stupid, but I at least understand why it’s in the game, because otherwise Akechi wouldn’t be snooping around in their minds and we wouldn’t get to foreshadow that. A black mask? Wait, who’s he talking about? It can’t be… There was another intruder besides us within this Palace!?The Palace begins to shake and crumble. There’s no time! Hurry! Get on! …Put an end to all this and use your own artwork for once. Fox, get in before you get pasted!   We’re pretty conspicious here. Let’s head somewhere else. Right. Goodbye, Sensei.Music: Confession/Secret   Well, we did it. Guess now we just sit back and wait to find out if we did it *right*. *drinks coffee* Ugh, why’d you get it black? Oh, sorry, *madame*… The “Sayuri”… You’re not gonna get all teary-eyed and say stuff like “Mom…!” are you? Ryuji, maybe don’t tease people in their moments of emotional vulnerability. To think that this painting caused Madarame’s distorted fixation… At least my mother will never know of this. The real painting has been altered, so ironically, this copy born from twisted ego is your mother’s real self-portrait now. I’m thankful to have it, even if there’s no way for society to know about it. Fame is overrated. Hopefully our success today makes us even more popular so we can spread that message to everyone. So this is my mother… There’s no way that I would remember her face clearly… But I was right about the rush of emotion I felt when I saw this painting.    Stop that! You’re so vulgar, Ryuji.What was the point of that? No really, what was it!? It wasn’t even a joke, or something resembling a joke, it was just something that ate ten seconds! Why include that???? So Yusuke, what’re you gonna do now? We’re gonna keep on as #Millennials. I never actually asked why you do that. We wanna get back at, like… society? I guess? It’s not just about revenge, Ryuji! We’re giving courage to people who are suffering. Suffering ‘cause of lovely adults. That last part’s important. Hm… if people gain this “courage” and stand up for themselves… will they be happy? Uhh… wow, that’s deep, man. We hadn’t really thought too hard about it, but… probably? We can’t know how it’ll turn out for everyone. But we still have to try. It depends on the person, then… Well, I was helped out of suffering by you all, so I understand. Then I’ll stay aboard. Investigating the depths of the heart may help to broaden my artistic horizons. Geez, one-track mind on this guy. Well I won’t take part in any inelegant plans, all right? No worries! I’ve got us covered! Oh yeah, sure, you’re plenty “elegant.” Welcome aboard, Yusuke. Just don’t creep on any more of our members. I will try and live up to those expectations. …Good enough. At any rate, I’m curious… Another intruder besides us, huh? A black mask… Not like we can check the Palace for clues about ‘em now… I’ll ask Madarame if he knows anything. Then let’s exchange contact info. Finally! I’ve been wondering why you weren’t added to the group text this whole time! An artist and a phantom thief… It seems I’ll be engaging in two trades from here on… Very well. You only live once, after all. After School → Evening Music: Break it Down (Elp Version)  Soon, the whole world will know our name! And it’ll be good to have Yusuke along. His is a rare talent. But anyway… what kind of person do you think I used to be? Surely I wasn’t some villain, right? I do get a little worried sometimes… I get so obsessed with solid human desires, after all, and also there’s the part where I can turn into a car… It’s still a mystery who I am, I guess. Not much of a mystery. You’re a demon cat here to torment me. At absolute best, you’re one of those vaguely benevolent “helper” daemons like… uh… Keith David in Coraline. Love that movie. Oh, shut up! I’m overthinking this anyway. There’s no way I could be evil! A man who saves those in trouble in the west, while punishing evildoers who may lurk in the east! A man who chastises people that smoke inside in the south, while saving bullied cats in the north. A man who has a sturdy body and vows to always do one good deed a day, be it rain or shine. I’m that kind of ideal person… Or so I hope. I’m cringing so hard my eyes are rolling back right now. I’m having an out-of-body experience. Please stop talking, I can feel my earthly tether weakening! And if I become a human again, she’ll have to notice me! OH GOD I feel like my bond with Morgana is growing deeper… Music: Beneath the Mask    I should be thanking you all. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to retrieve my mother’s painting. We’re just glad you went along with the plan! We weren’t even sure if you’d want to change Madarame’s heart. Now we just sit back, wait… …And worry if it worked? Way ahead of you! By the way, I’m still a little anxious about that intruder with the black mask. Eh, it’s probably nothing.  Music: Mellow piano theme  Woman’s voice: Your wife… you were very close to her… You *are* very close to her… even now. Man’s voice: This can’t be… she’s… What are you saying?  I wonder if that woman would join the Phantom Thieves. She’d be useful, don’t you think?Music: Everyday Days  Maybe you learned a thing or two about Kindness from watching this drama.Maaku gains Kindness +2. Well, it’s starting to get late. Let’s head to bed soon, okay?Music: Aria of the Soul  Oh goddammit, back to the gulag I go   You are now one step closer to your rehabilitation. It’s a delightful thing indeed. Our master is pleased. You should be honored, Inmate. Well, I’m actually glad you summoned me this time, we need to talk. Oh? Yeah, that last dude mentioned something about someone else skulking around in Palaces? Black mask, creepy vibes? You wouldn’t know anything about that? *sweating* …Why do you ask? I mean, it’s just that you’re the one who gave me this power, so I figured maybe you did the same for that dude, whoever he is. …Nope, wasn’t me! *sigh of relief*  Quit badgering our master, Inmate! I feel like my bond with Igor is growing deeper…  Anon: sauce plz Early Morning  Music: Alright (Elp Version)  No mental shutdown yet, but his attitude is a bit softer. Do you think it happened? I don’t want to make any promises until we know for sure or I’ll get in trouble with the oversight committee. Okay, I will keep watching then. I’ll try asking him about the intruder soon. Goodbye.Music: Beneath the Mask (Instrumental Version)   That parliamentarian from when I was a kid… Toranosuke something. (Glasses-Wearing Worker) Oh, Toranosuke Yoshida. Or as most folks know him, “No-Good Tora.” He hands out at train stations giving speeches these days, no one pays him any mind. He used to be a rising star in politics, but wound up involved in scandal after scandal. Huh… Yeah, I saw him in line for food. IT was weird seeing a politician eating at the same place as we do. Well, that’s probably his new gimmick, right? Pandering to middle-class people.Early Morning → Morning Music: So Boring   Don’t think you can get away with copying stuff from some website. I’ll know. Got it? Stealing someone’s ideas is plagiarism. It’s as much of a crime as stealing anything else. It’s so annoying dealing with copyright crap these days… Oh yeah, did you know this?Weird mental leap Kawakami took there. “Don’t plagiarize, but also, gently caress copyright.” You know the Arsène Lupin series by Maurice Leblanc? Leblanc once had a famous detective character from another series appear in one of the Lupin stories. Now then… Hamiru-kun. Do you know which author Leblanc borrowed from? Psh, easy. Oh, do you like mystery novels? Yes, the answer is the author of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. IT was the ultimate showdown between the definitive gentleman thief and the famous detective. Apparently, Leblanc changed the name of his version of Sherlock Holmes when Doyle complained. He changed it to “Herlock Sholmes.” He just moved the S to the start of his last name. Maaku gains Knowledge +1. Both Lupin and Holmes would go on to appear in a number of other works… But those were homages, not plagiarism. Now, Arsène Lupin is synonymous with the idea of a “phantom thief.” He’s recognized all over the world.Maybe ixnay on the whole phantom thief business, Kawakami. You don’t wanna get in trouble with the school. Wow, it looks like some phantom thieves never go out of style!Morning → After School Music: Tokyo Daylight  I almost got kidnapped! Hey, what’s that supposed to mean!? I was in serious trouble, you know! I wonder if she’s been going after other cats and snatching them up like she tried with me… Try checking the Phan-Site and see if anyone’s saying anything about it. Hmm, maybe it’s just not a well-known problem yet? The only victims are cats, so I suppose that could be the case…      Let’s gently caress around with the chalkboard again.  Prolly some kinda prank by those “phantom thieves” or whatever… Did he draw this? Who’s he trying to impress? Wait, does he seriously think they exist? That’s kinda embarrassing… They’re just treating us like some kinda joke… Nobody believes in our existence… Poor us. This is a good way to tell how popular we are. You should try drawing it again some other time. But for now… let’s erase it.   No need for you to remind me… Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to uncover the truth they’re hiding at this school! But maybe I should’ve covered that artist, Madarame, instead. Everyone’s talking about him…  That’s true, but… I’m going to write about it so that the same thing won’t happen again! But maybe I should’ve covered that artist, Madarame, instead. Everyone’s talking about him…  …You might be right, but it could be a major scoop for the newspaper club…Isn’t the newspaper club just you? But maybe I should’ve covered that artist, Madarame, instead. Everyone’s talking about him…   (Refined Male Student) Of course, the pay will be low if anyone can do the job. You need to offer your own specialty. That’s no excuse for paying slave wages, Refined Male Student!  Rise up! Look at Madarame, for example. One of his paintings is worth ten years of salary for most people. (Lazy Male Student) Aww, don’t compare me to a big shot like him. I wish I had talent so I could make a lot of money.   Let’s ask them.   (Gentle-Looking Mother) I suppose… I personally think it’s a bit too much. With that many, it gets so loud I can’t sleep at night…  Hey, she might be talking about that catnapping case. Let’s ask her for more information.  You’re concerned about that household as well? She suddenly brought home a massive number of cats. I wasn’t sure if she was all right… It’s terribly noisy at night, and they shed everywhere! I’m worried that it’s not the healthiest environment to raise those cats. Yes, I agree. I even told the landlord about the situation at Aino-san’s home, but it looks like nothing’s changed…  Huh? Her name? I’m not sure… I only say hello to her every now and then, so I don’t know her that well. Hmm… Doesn’t look like we can learn anything else from her. Let’s get out of here and go over what we know so far. This “Aino” lady suddenly adopted a lot of cats. There’s concern about the noise at night and shedding. Okay, we might be able to find some other clues. Let’s keep investigating around Yongen! Next, we talk to the old man with the radio.  Maybe that woman really did take him…  Hey, he might be talking about that catnapping case. Let’s ask him for more information. Hm? Did you want to listen to the radio? Ah, yes… There’s this woman who nabs all the cats around here and calls ‘em “snowball.” A few people I know have been victims. The same thing probably happened to the cat here…  It sure is. She’s one creepy lady, to boot—calls all the cats a “snowball” even if they’re not white. But I did get her name. It’s “Ryoko Aino.” I asked for it when I went to the police, so there’s no mistake. The police just treat cats like objects. …Those little guys are family to me. I wish there was something I could do about this mess. You ought to be careful, too, since you’re toting a cat around. “Other” cats? The Aino household was the one that suddenly got a lot of cats, right? That’s got to be our target. We should discuss this with everyone at the hideout.  You ought to be careful, too, since you’re toting a cat around.   Then let’s head back to Inokashira Park. We can talk there.Lovers Rank 4: Part 41 Music: Break it Down  I envy your brand of idiocy. There be city… *and* park? What????? What the gently caress are you talking about You know, when I first came here I had a tough time adjusting. Especially at school, I was always just the “foreigner.” People spread rumors about me, and I considered dying my hair black to fit in… Until Shiho talked to me. The first thing she said to me was making fun of my paintings. I thought she was just making fun of me, but I realized she was treating me normally. And she didn’t care about my looks. We became friends after that. …Good story, I guess? But that’s not why we’re here! Remember that female thief in the anime I told you about? She made me think of something! The villains in those shows never give up, no matter how many times they lose! So, they must have really strong hearts! So… I’m going to learn from them! You are most definitely overthinking the simplistic monster-of-the-week format of children’s television. I’m gonna star in action movies! I barely understand the logical leap that led you to this conclusion. Great! I have a long-term goal now! Your immediate goal should be to find an acting coach, honestly. I haven’t used Ann enough to see this in action, and I refuse to Google “ann persona 5 sexy technique” to find out what it actually does. (edit from one day in the hell-blasted future: it occasionally cancels an enemy attack if Ann is in the party. This is in contrast to what it did in the original game, which was give you an extra try when trying to convince a Shadow to join you. It's definitely more useful now; the original was already redundant when you got it because it was just an extra version of the "X Talk" skills that... give you an extra try when trying to convince a Shadow to join you!) Now to get buff! Oh, and I gotta tell Shiho about my new goal!For that event, we picked options 1 (+3), 1 (+3), 1 (+3), 1 (+3), 3 (+3).   So I’d like to think I’m pretty athletic. Like, I don’t hate exercise or anything… But I’m exhausted just from running to the station earlier… Maybe I’ve gotta train my body along with my heart. Do you do anything to train your body?  …I wonder how much Mona weighs. Maybe I’ll try carrying him in my bag next time. Okay, first I need to research what kind of training’s best for me!  Well, see you later!After School → Evening Music: Beneath the Mask     (Boy) The correct answer is A: “queen.” Yes, that’s a very famous expression in the field of law. Confessions are very powerful evidence—people used to even resort to torture to get them. Right, “used to.” (Lawyer) That’s a high school prodigy for you. Today, forcing a confession is forbidden under law, and… I’m surprised you knew that. Did you just guess? Torture, though—that’s pretty brutal… It feels like I’ve improved my Knowledge.Maaku gains Knowledge +1.  And there’s a crossword on the table so we can double our Knowledge gain.       I don’t know if I’m just a dumbass (it’s this) but I’ve literally never heard this word before.   Maaku gains Knowledge +1.   (Pierced Man) There’s nothin’ to worry about. The cops’ll keep an eye out, but they’re not gonna do anything. As long as we keep givin’ reminders, no one’s gonna bother us. Hahaha, I wouldn’t mess with us, either. And what we do is bringing me in a lotta money.  (Foreign Barker) Hey, my bad. I’m trying, it’s just really hard to wrap my head around how formal Japanese culture is! Why’d you even take this job if you can’t speak Japanese well? I said I’m sorry…Leave him alone, he’s doing his best!  Here’s something a bit new in Royal that I’m not going to bother marking because it’s so marginal: this vendor.   I doubt a kid like you could possibly understand, but… Hm? You look like you know what’s up, unlike all those phonies. I think you deserve to buy my wares. My art.Oh, why thank you kind sir, for deigning upon me the honor of buying your bullshit knick-knacks! With Charm like that, this is what I can sell you right now. This “art” is a bunch of accessories that give certain skills. The Cross-Shaped Charm and Skull Charm give Hama Boost and Mudo Boost respectively. Remember how the vendor mentioned our Charm? At Rank 1 this store is unavailable. But that’s not all of it: the store will increase its wares at Rank 3 Charm. Still, kind of pointless, honestly. This vendor doesn’t really get anything all that useful.    Shaddup. Just beat it, kid. Shibuya’s a real nice city at night. Heh. Maybe a kid like you wouldn’t understand though. All right. Time to go out and make some more money. I’ll get rusty if all I do is sit around. Don’t worry, I’ve got a job doin’ what I love. It’s like Shibuya at night exists just for me… All right. Time to go out and make some more money. I’ll get rusty if all I do is sit around. Hey, that’s my line. Careful, kid. You can’t go ‘round meddling in other people’s business in this city. All right. Time to go out and make some more money. I’ll get rusty if all I do is sit around.If you need a refresher about what this homeless man’s side hustle is, he’s a loving assassin with Dissociative Identity Disorder or something whose main personality is completely unaware of that. Real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation here.   We haven’t been to the diner since it reopened, so let’s do that.   Music: Break it Down (Elp Version)      They appear to have changed the menu so the Guts option is no longer spending three hours loitering here drinking nothing but a cup of coffee with free refills like a complete shithead. Still costs the same, though. I don’t even know what a “sando” is. *looks it up* Oh. It’s a loving sandwich.    Maaku gains Guts +1 and Knowledge +1. Arist fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Aug 12, 2023 |
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May 5, 2021 20:21
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Yeah, I guess you do need guts to eat something called the "surprise sandwich."
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May 5, 2021 20:38
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I am always down for more opportunities to be a smartass to the cat.
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May 5, 2021 22:17
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tired: sando wired: dwich
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May 5, 2021 22:32
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quote:
I think you might have a typo here (unless that was in the actual game, which it could be, I guess, I haven't played Royal yet). quote:If you need a refresher about what this homeless man’s side hustle is, he’s a loving assassin with Dissociative Identity Disorder or something whose main personality is completely unaware of that. Real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation here. So, a bit of interesting trivia here, despite how much pop culture has linked Jekyll and Hyde with Multiple Personality/Dissociative Identity Disorder, or whatever the correct terminology is, the original story doesn't actually have a lot of that sort of thing until near the very end, and even that's debatable. (Spoilers for a story over a hundred years old ahead! No seriously, you might be surprised!) Basically, it wasn't so much that Mr Hyde was an alternate personality, as it was that Hyde was, well, a persona for Dr Jekyll. The doctor was outwardly a good person, but was apparently hiding some dark urges that were not looked on fondly in Victorian society (which were incredibly vague, and given the setting, could be anything), so when Dr Jekyll created a concoction that changed his looks so much that he wouldn't be recognized, he saw it as an opportunity to anonymously indulge in those urges without any consequences for "Dr Jekyll" and his social standing. The problems only come because, as the more he indulged in his nastier desires, the poorer his impulse control came, escalating from knocking down a little girl to outright murdering a passerby for no reason. The whole "split personality" thing really only came from the last few pages where Jekyll starts referring to Hyde as another person, which could easily be read as a sign of Jekyll's ever-growing insanity (due to basically losing control of his transformations, changing at random and running out of the vital ingredient for the original formula) that led to his suicide. In that context, I feel like the story is terrifyingly relevant today with internet culture and how easy it is to say and do terrible things behind an anonymous digital mask... Edit: As proof that one should double-check their sources to make sure they know what the hell they're talking about, I have a slight amendment to make to my earlier argument. There is a bit more to the relationship to the original Jekyll/Hyde story and Multiple Personality/Dissociative Identity Disorder/etc. thing than I may have mentioned, as the original purpose of Dr. Jekyll's potion was to rid himself of his darker desires, since he saw them as something that someone of his social standing shouldn't have, and feared being discovered for having them. The broader point and conclusion I was trying to make still stands, I feel, but I still wanted to add this point after I thought about it, for the sake of fairness and honesty. comicfan92 fucked around with this message at 19:52 on May 21, 2021 |
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May 5, 2021 22:43
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Arist posted:I haven’t used Ann enough to see this in action, and I refuse to Google “ann persona 5 sexy technique” to find out what it actually does. i gotchu fam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk5UWvhVIkA Also, I've had pollen allergies my entire life and I've never loving heard the word pollenosis until now.
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May 5, 2021 23:19
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Arist posted:Weird mental leap Kawakami took there. “Don’t plagiarize, but also, gently caress copyright.” quote:
To be fair to Ann, there's places in Tokyo that don't look like they're in the middle of a modern city. I haven't been to Inokashira Park, but I have been to Meiji Jingu, which is surrounded by a forest with centuries-old trees:  When I was in the forest, I couldn't see any of the tall buildings nearby and the city noises were muffled. If I hadn't remembered walking through the city streets not ten minutes earlier, I would have assumed I was in the countryside. It was amazing. drat you COVID-19, I wanna go back to Japan so bad 
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May 6, 2021 00:42
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Yeah, I was about to say, it's really nothing. Still yeah you probably dodged a bullet on what Google might turn up
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May 6, 2021 06:03
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comicfan92 posted:I think you might have a typo here (unless that was in the actual game, which it could be, I guess, I haven't played Royal yet). This reminds me of something I read once, but the name is escaping me. It also reminds me of a comic I read once that I actually do remember! 
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May 6, 2021 07:27
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Wait, that is the original version where the effect triggered in negotations. In Royal, it just cancels an attack during battle which can be helpful if you screw up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96lgjTIZ3s0 TwoPair posted:Yeah, I was about to say, it's really nothing. Still yeah you probably dodged a bullet on what Google might turn up Based on my default settings, looks like the search does not return anything NSFW if that is what you are concerned about but your results may vary.
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May 7, 2021 00:04
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Yeah, the description of the skill changed for Royal at least, I'll update the post and mention that.
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May 7, 2021 00:07
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Are you going to bring up the cut content from Royal regarding the palaces?
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May 7, 2021 01:37
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Funky Valentine posted:Are you going to bring up the cut content from Royal regarding the palaces? I was going to very eventually but I can try to go into it sooner if people want.
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May 7, 2021 01:41
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Flair posted:Wait, that is the original version where the effect triggered in negotations. In Royal, it just cancels an attack during battle which can be helpful if you screw up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96lgjTIZ3s0 I haven't played Royal so I had no idea. In my defense, my post was less about being useful to the LP and more a joke about doing said search. Admittedly, it would've probably been better executed if I'd shown the copying and pasting of Arist's own text into google, finding nothing out of the ordinary and clicking the third result which was a yt vid. But  .
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May 7, 2021 10:57
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Chapter 40: 5/27-5/28: Operation Maidbotch This update contains content from Parts 41 and 42 of the original LP.  Anon: prolly some publicity stunt Early Morning Music: Beneath the Mask (Instrumental Version)  Madarame’s ill, but the exhibit is still going strong. I can’t respect him as my sensei anymore… but it’s sad to think I don’t have a mentor anymore.  Talk…? To you?Don’t sound so taken aback, geez. …Now that I think about it, I don’t believe I’ve ever had someone I could simply talk to. Well, perhaps I may need a sounding board sometime. I hope you’ll humor me then.Early Morning → Lunchtime This next scene is newly voiced in Royal, and it’s pretty amazing.  Hey, there you are! I need your help with something… *looks around* I found this flyer stuffed in my mailbox. Music: My Homie Housekeeping Service! It says that a cute maid will do anything for you! A maid, dude! A MAID! Who’ll do ANYTHING for us! Right? …Right!? …You’re a guy, right? You know what I mean!This line in particular is just… *chef’s kiss* Let’s give it a try. Yeah? Yeah! I’m embarrassed to know you. However, I am also a teenage boy, so this plan seems both flawless and worthwhile to me. Luckily, some guy on my floor just moved out so there’s a vacant apartment in my complex. The key is behind the mailbox, so we can get in anytime. The landlord seriously doesn’t care.Sounds like a landlord to me. The place is all set, so…    Yo, can I get in on this? Mishima, you dog! You’re into this too, eh? What? No! This is just a research investigation! I, uh, need to make sure that they’re not scamming people! Check the quality of the housekeeping services and whatnot! It’s vital that I see this with my own eyes! This is somehow even more pathetic than just calling for a sex maid normally. Yeah, we gotta see it with our own eyes. Every little detail… Let us know when you’re ready, Maaku. We’ll do it at night. Now, we need a cool codename for this mission! I suggest “Operation Maidwatch”! Awesome! Well, this is pretty stupid, but at least I’ll get to indulge my raging teenage hormones. What could possibly go wrong?Lunchtime → After School Music: Tokyo Daylight  Oh hey, the Thieves’ Den has some kind of new item available. We’ll check that out eventually.  You may notice that we got a text from 777, the convenience store. Well, actually, the first thing I noticed was whoever sent it just wrote “Hello” as their subject line like an utter psychopath. Anyway, that message is just telling us that because today’s day number ends in 7, it’s a double-point day for cardholders, so the store is severely shorthanded. We’ll be leaving that one on “Read,” though if we had shown up we’d have gotten extra pay. Let’s read Mishima’s message instead.   I’m usually in Shibuya during those hours. Let me know when you’re going to it. You better not leave me behind, OK? I’ll never forgive you if you do.This got serious all of a sudden. Geez, Mishima, I’ll bring you. I’ll contact you again later tonight.Music: Butterfly Kiss   Has anyone ever studied the correlation between the rise in temperature and a rise in weirdos…?One thing I’d like to start doing is actually including my rationale for making my time decisions in this game, because I know I don’t actually do that very often and it leaves the whole process a little opaque and sterile. I’m of course not going to actually remember why I did everything, but I’ll try. If you don’t care about any of this and just want to get back to me making unfunny jokes, skip the next five paragraphs. Here, we’re gonna talk to Takemi. Takemi’s only at Rank 3, which is pretty low, especially for the average player, who’s probably got her up to like, 5 or 6 at least by now due to her Confidant benefits and the fact that she and Ryuji are pretty much your only options for the first month or so. We have not been prioritizing her, however. My reasoning behind that is simple: we’re not going to be using the SP Adhesives in this run, so there’s very little reason to blitz her Confidant. We just don’t need the main component of what she’s offering any more. That doesn’t mean we’ll ignore her entirely, it just means we need to be smart about this. What do I mean by “smart”? Well, let’s think about the time system in general for a second. One way of approaching things here, one that most players will realize is “optimal” fairly easily, is to always be making progress toward accomplishing some goal. We have many background goals at any given time, like raising social stats for a specific gate or trying to get a specific Confidant ability, or the long-term goals of raising social stats to maximum or getting 100% completion of all Confidants. The best way of making progress here is to try to fulfill multiple goals at once with any given time block, but as long as you’re making some notable progress more-or-less every time, you’re on the right path. “Wasting” time would be doing something inefficient, like spending a time block with a Confidant who isn’t about to rank up, going to the Metaverse too many times (especially before Kawakami’s massage unlocks) or even doing something that only gives one stat point instead of two or three. This is a perfectly rational method of time optimization in the Persona games, one that worked very well for me during the old LP. But part of this strategy is actually, somewhat counter-intuitively, ignoring certain Confidants for long periods of time. How on Earth does that work? It has to do with minimizing as much “wasted” time as possible. Now, one way I believe the game keeps the player from maxing Confidants immediately is by putting some of them on invisible timers after a rank up so you can’t rank them up again for a few days afterwards. I think this timer loosens up near the end of the game, at least for party members, but I can’t be sure. This is in addition to standard unavailability of certain Confidants on certain days. You probably don’t understand what I’m getting at here yet, so I’ll try to show you. If, say, Takemi was the last Confidant we had left to max out with 8 free days left in the game, but she was at Rank 7, there’s no guarantee we could actually max her out because between the timer and her normal free days she might not be available three times in that final period. But how do we combat this? Simple. Unless we’re pushing for a specific Confidant ability, we try to keep their levels about even, so we’re just constantly maxing out Confidants one after another during our last few free weeks. This minimizes the number of days we’ll have to spend doing nothing of value because if everyone’s at 9, then we only need each person to be available one time, and while a lot of those free days will overlap, it still minimizes the amount of time wasted by the timer. You might remember in the old LP I got Ryuji to Rank 7 and then didn’t talk to him for months. This is part of the reason why. But there’s exceptions to this, of course. Yoshida, for instance, is only ever available on certain days (mostly Sundays), and we’re going to try to finish his Confidant as quickly as possible because his skills are great and also because we want to have as many free Sunday nights as possible for a specific reason later in the game. Kawakami will also be getting rushed as soon as possible because she gives us extra time blocks, as well as Chihaya for much the same reason. If an ability is legitimately super useful, we’ll still be rushing for it. We also want to unlock Confidants ASAP, so we need to get to appropriate stat gates for those unlocks before they happen, like Rank 3 Guts for Kawakami or Rank 3 Charm for Hifumi (on that subject, we’re not quite at Rank 3 Guts and we’re about to unlock Kawakami, so I’m going to have to handle that later in this update). If I do this right, there’ll have more than enough free time to see everything again. But, as I mentioned earlier, it means ignoring people we don’t find immediately useful. Sorry, Takemi. Anyway, now that I’ve written a full essay justifying this meaningless decision to ignore your anime waifu, we’re going to buy a few items from the shop here (some Kajaclear-Rs and Kundaclear-Rs to clear buffs and debuffs, some Takemedic-All Vs to heal the party, and some Revivadrins to revive party members). Then we’ll get Takemi to Rank 4.  I made some more refinements to the medicine. Could I have you come in? In that case, go into the exam—Huh?  Sorry, I have a child I need to have examined… …Looks like I have a patient with an emergency.Death Rank 4: Part 30  (Girl’s Father) I heard rumors about this clinic. Can you examine my daughter? She was diagnosed with bronchitis, but the medicine hasn’t been working at all. She’s got a bad fever and she’s losing weight from lack of appetite… That sounds bad, but I don’t have the ability to give a full examination here. You need to go to a bigger hospital. We already went to a big university hospital in East Shinjuku! But they keep saying it’s bronchitis! The doctor barely even examined her. I think he was famous…? A famous doctor at a university hospital in East Shinjuku, huh? …It doesn’t matter. I don’t even have any staff here. W-Wait! I’ve heard there’s a medicine that can only be acquired here…! Please! I’ll pay you! Please, at least just examine her! Trust me, man. You don’t want that medicine. I came here looking for it and you have no idea what it’s cost me already. H-Hold on. *cough* *cough* Doctor… My chest really hurts… …… Don’t worry, Dr. Takemi will be right on it. What!? C’mon. Given how this usually goes, you were about to spend your afternoon babysitting my unconscious rear end. Seems like actually doing your drat job would be a step up from that, no? Doctor…! *sigh* …Fine. Is your vision blurry? How about your throat, does it hurt…? Hm. No signs of swelling. (to the father) Are you sure you’ve told me everything about her symptoms and treatments you’ve tried so far? Yes, I’m sure! No need to snap at me, geez. Hmmm… There’s something I’d like to ask him about a case that was in last month’s medical journal. *puts phone away* I see. Guess the ones in stock will have to do... (to Maaku) Get me the stuff from the second drawer of the shelf behind the reception desk. Also, you’ll probably notice I’ve created an actuarial table with your name in it on the desk. Nothing to worry about, I just get bored and the thought of killing you with my bile poison is very funny to me for some reason. Lady, I *wish* you were the most credible threat to my immediate safety. Get moving! I’ll need your help to administer the medicine!Music: Butterfly Kiss  It was a rare strain of an infectious disease that can’t be detected by conventional exams. I just suppressed the symptoms for a bit. As her condition improves I’ll make adjustments. Anyway, your bill comes to one million yen for the day. Welp, poo poo, looks like that’s another heart we need to go change… That’s absurd! You’re just taking advanta… Well, I did agree to pay… I’ll go withdraw some cash! Huh? Wait, you’re actually going to pay? Yes, Takemi, it turns out when a figure of authority like a doctor tells people things, they tend to believe them! It seems you didn’t think through this hi-larious practical joke on a worried father and his sick child! By the way, that famous doctor you mentioned earlier… Was it Medical Chief of Staff Oyamada? Yes… are you familiar with him? ...I knew it. In that case, I’ll make this free of charge. F-Free!? …Hehe. I sense a story here. Treating his patient without permission is just the sweetest feeling in the world. Oh, and don’t worry. I’ve got an extra-special exam prepared for you today as thanks for volunteering me earlier… Ah gently caress, my plan to get out of drinking the faint juice backfired! So, is he your… assistant? He seems awfully young.. Yes, my assistant… guinea pig. He’s about to put in a LOT of hard work today. Aren’t you? Sounds scary! Send help. It feels like my bond with Takemi is growing even deeper… Can I go back to school soon, Doctor? Not yet. You need to eat and get your strength back first, all right? Okay! Thanks! Now, my guinea pig… let’s see how you respond to the *other* treatment. Will you even make it home? Considering how close my place of residence is, that’s quite the terrifying thing to say! I feel like cooperating in that shady clinical trial has increased my Guts…Maaku gains Guts +1. For that event, we picked options 2 (+2), 1 (+3)   But maybe it was just what my careless little guinea pig deserved, huh? Especially after approving that girl’s consultation without my permission.  The drug does seem to be more stable compared to the early stages, though. Feels like I’m almost there, so… try not to die just yet, okay? All right. Take care.After School → Evening Music: Beneath the Mask   You know, about that flyer! We need to look into the truth behind that housekeeping service.Still going with that line, eh? I’m over at Central Street right now, so come talk to me if you’re interested.  We have a small bit of eavesdropping to do first.  Turnout is much greater than expected, and those involved are pleased by its popularity. Is it really that popular? What are they going to do once his wrongdoings are exposed? She wants to buy artwork and learn how to paint… We can’t afford any of that. (Sullen Office Worker) Haha, that exhibit’s been the talk of the town. It’s just a fad. I’m sure she’ll forget about it. You know, I’m kind of jealous of Madarame. Even in this recession, he must be making a lot of money. Let’s go seek out Mishima and enact Operation Maidwatch. I had pretty high hopes for them, but they turned out to be posers… The Phantom Thieves are true heroes though! I wanna help out however I can!  Sweet! I’ve been waiting for this! …Wait, you already changed out of your uniform!? I guess that’s a pretty good idea… We’re meeting over at Sakamoto’s place, right? Let’s stop by mine beforehand so I can change too.Music: My Homie  Are you seriously *already* chickening out? Operation Maidwatch, bro! Y-Yeah! Operation Maidwatch! If it turns out to be sketchy, we can just bail. The apartment’s vacant, so it’s not like we’ll be messing with anyone’s home.   I show this option because it actually helps us out by picking it. Ryuji was not ready to rank up before, but now he is.  Huh, this might actually work…! Okay, give ‘em a call! Using the phone gives me social anxiety. You do it, Mishima. poo poo, that was my excuse! Please don’t make me! Fiiiiiine…  (Man’s Voice) Thank you for calling! This is Victoria’s Housekeeping! They answered! Shhh! (Victoria Employee) I take it you’re interested in our services, then? S-Services…! Is there anyone in particular you’d like to request? A-Anyone we want to request!? What should we do, Maaku!? Don’t worry, I’ve got this. *ahem* No. Very well! Let’s see here… We have a maid available in… 20 minutes. May I ask for your address? A maid’s “services”… Hey… What should we have her do? I was thinking we start with some cooking… Of course, I wouldn’t mind some of the other services either… Should we hold a strategy meeting to discuss? Mishima, you innocent babe, you confuse me more with each passing day. Does this apartment even have a kitchen anyway? I skipped a few lines here where Ryuji goes to the bathroom and Mishima asks if he washed his hands. I apologize for not including these vital and hilarious character beats. …… What? Oh… yeah… Y-You’re really nervous. Ahaha… haha… uh… Wait… Are high school students even allowed to call these services? …Good question. What!? You didn’t check? What if they find out we’re underage!? H-How should I know!? But why would how old you are matter when it comes to housekeeping? Were these idiots literally born yesterday? What did they think was going to happen tonight? We would’ve been screwed if your number had shown up on their caller ID…  What!? Already!? She’s five minutes early! What do we do!? I’m not mentally prepared!Music: Sweet  Oh, the door’s unlocked…? Um, may I come in…? I-I can’t do this…! What!? My stomach’s actin’ up! And my hands are all sweaty! Maaku, you handle it! Just don’t let her find out you’re a high school student! Wh-What?? I can’t do this either! Hamiru, we’ll leave it to you! C’mon Mishima, let’s hide on the balcony! Get back here you cowards! Ryuji and Mishima fled to the balcony… Excuse me… Oh, there you are! Welcome home, Master. ♥ I’m going to fill your tired heart full of lovely energy. Meow! ♥ I’m not sure I understand the theming here… Never mind that! I’m Becky, and I’ll be serving you today. ♥ …Hey, how’s it going? I’m just happy to serve you, Master! ♥ Now, what service would you like me to provide tonight? Cooking? Cleaning? Or maybe… you want something *else*? ♥ Are you… perhaps… In high school? *lowering voice* What? No. I’m a dad. Wow! Your skin’s so healthy! …… You’re not lying to me, are you…? …… Hmmm, I’ll wait to provide those other “services” until you’ve matured a bit, Master. ♥ Sooo… I’ll be going now. ♥ Sweet, I don’t even have to pay for the privilege of being mortified like this. Quiet…!Music: Suspicion   Oh no…! Oh poo poo! Mishima, let’s bounce! Jump off the balcony! We’re on the second floor though! Mishima? Sakamoto-kun? …… …… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT IS HAPPENING Wait, no, it’s fine. You don’t know who I am, and I don’t know you. There’s no way. No! Way! Then why did you yell too!? Oh god, he knows it’s me. I’m so screwed. Why is my homeroom teacher in the fetish costume!? Yes, we get it, this has been very traumatizing for you. Just stop yelling, okay? Who told you about this? I bet it was Chouno, wasn’t it? That little… Am I cursed? I feel like that’s a reasonable assumption to make at this point. Chouno? Ring any bells? No? Hmm, you don’t seem to know what I’m talking about… Okay, listen up. I’m pretty hosed if you tell anyone about this. Just… keep my secret, okay? I’ll do anything. Anything? Re— No, not really. Remember, you’d be in hot water too if this got out. Relax. I was just gonna ask if you could help me with washing all this laundry I keep finding. I can’t use the machines by my place without babysitting them all night because miscellaneous perverts steal the clothes. Why don’t you just read a book while you wait? They’re unusually stealthy perverts. Well, I’ll promise to keep this a secret too… so why don’t we both forget this ever happened? I’ll treat this as if you had canceled, so you won’t have to pay anything. OK? On that note, I’ll be leaving! Don’t say anything about this at school, OK!? Just act as if nothing ever happened! Got it? OK, bye! I suddenly feel exhausted… I want to go home… Anon: “of hearts”? what tryhards Early Morning Music: Beneath the Mask (Instrumental Version)  Hello, Male Student Being Shadowed By His Clone.  (Docile First-Year) I’m kinda looking forward to it. That honor student is actually in my group! Huh? What, is she like, your type or something? Either way, too bad. I hear honor students are exempt from the cleaning. Totally unfair, am I right? Wha… So, am I alone on a team of upperclassmen then? This sucks. I wanna just ditch now…Early Morning → Lunchtime  Anon: even kids aren’t that dumb Anon: ugh quit with the rumors Anon: played too many games Anon: ya rite lol Anon: “of hearts”? what tryhards  What? She’s exempt from the cleanup? How precious is this honor student? We have to go to Inokashira Park in our stupid gym clothes? She’s not coming, right? I wish I could ditch this event, too… We’re meeting at Inokashira Park? I’d better remember that…Lunchtime → After School Music: Tokyo Daylight  I’m not sure what’s going on, but maybe you should ask her about it? She’s probably still at school, right? Let’s go look for her.Good idea. Let’s just ignore her request that neither of us ever mention this ever again.   There’s Kawakami and Chouno.  Get home safely, Hamiru-kun. Well then, I have another matter to attend to, so I have to excuse myself… No! We’re not finished talking yet! But I… There’s been a series of scandals on this campus. We’re all being called into question. And yet you leave work earlier than anyone—and you barely make it to the faculty meetings! Explain yourself! Don’t tell me you’re out running around at night!? Kawakami’s being grilled by Chouno. She said she’d do anything if we helped her out, so let’s clear up Chouno’s suspicions. The school’s closing soon, Mr. Hamiru. Head on home before it gets late. Or did you need something from Ms. Kawakami? Yeah, I had a question for her. She’s a real *master* at answering my questions. …… Huh…? Oh! Y-You have another question!? …Another question? Th-That’s right! Hamiru-kun’s questions are complicated, so I take time at night to help him! He really needs the help because he’s such an incurable moron! Isn’t that right? …Yep. So you’re giving individual lessons outside of school hours, hm? What passion! You are the ideal teacher! A passionate teacher is exactly what we need at this school I’m sorry for suspecting you. Well then, keep up the hard work, you two. But that did clear up her suspicion, so… thanks. Could you come with me for a bit? This is the address and phone number of my night job. I received Kawakami’s phone number. Call at night and request me. Just be careful that it doesn’t show up in your call history though, okay? I’m sorry, what? Yeah, you did it! No call history means a public telephone. Let’s call from Leblanc’s yellow phone. Let’s call Kawakami when you’re free, and invite her to meet you at your room! WHY DID I WANT THIS If we’re going to call Kawakami, we need Rank 3 Guts. Unfortunately, we’re just shy of that marker. So, we’re going to head to Big Bang Burger to get some more. Music: Big Bang Burger March     Holy crap! It’s humongous… This is the Gravity Burger… A burger so large that it almost has its own gravitational field. Once again, this will be no easy feat to overcome. But should you conquer this challenge, you will be rewarded with an extravagant prize. So this one comes with a prize too… Do your best, Maaku! Well then, it’s time to get the thirty-minute Big Bang Challenge started! Ready… Go!Music: High Pressure  This is a tough battle…! Don’t get too hasty… Just work at your own pace and you’ll do it!Music: Everyday Days  I guess it’ll take quite a bit more courage to tackle this challenge. I don’t believe we ever failed at trial by burger in the old LP, so here’s how it goes. As before, we need our Guts, Knowledge, and Proficiency to be at least Rank 3 each to clear the second tier. I admire your enthusiasm in the face of adversity, though!Despite his failure, Maaku gains Guts +2. Come on, we should head home. I’m full just from watching you… After School → Evening Music: Beneath the Mask  You going to call her? Should I call the maid delivery service? ……  C’mon… I told that kid to call…Well, we still don’t have enough Guts. You know what that means!  Oh my god, Rita, get over here, that kid I just told you about came back for more! All this meat makes for a challenge of such cosmic proportions…!Oh shut up, Maaku. It looks good, but it’s so big… Maaku gains Guts +2.    And we did it! We ranked up! Nice try. Now please get the gently caress off the premises before you vomit. I can barely move… Did I stutter? Music: Break it Down (Elp Version)  But somethin’ tells me he’s just gonna get himself in trouble. Maybe we should go with him. He said he was going to Harajuku. And I let Ann know too. Couldn’t hurt, right? Lady Ann’s coming!? Uh… I mean, fine. No big deal. But you still don’t know Tokyo very well. This might be a good chance to get more familiar with the area… or something. So… what are your thoughts? Will you go to Harajuku with Ryuji? I have very little interest in wasting a day babysitting Mishima. Hanging out with my friends is sub-optimal. But I do want to see this scene, so I did record it and I’ll post it at a later date. Also, I intended for this update to cover an additional in-game day, but I ran out of space before the character limit. Oh well. Hopefully it won’t impact my plans for the next update to cover the *thrilling* community service field trip to Inokashira Park! Arist fucked around with this message at 00:51 on May 18, 2021 |
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May 17, 2021 22:07
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Arist posted:
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May 17, 2021 22:24
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Arist posted:
Is this night still a profound tragedy on every level? Is it still a cancer upon your very soul?
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May 17, 2021 23:27
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TheDavies posted:Is this night still a profound tragedy on every level? Is it still a cancer upon your very soul? lmao
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May 18, 2021 00:06
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The P5 anime is pretty not good but I'm glad they made the dad option their canon one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjQqdFyoLb0
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May 18, 2021 06:12
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For all the P5 anime's (many, many) flaws, the dub cast are absolutely trying their asses off.
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May 18, 2021 07:12
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Arist posted:
Knowing the side stories of previous Persona games, I know that some story writers just want to make sure that you can (try to) romance your teacher in some way. And in this scenario, they unfortunately still kept in the dialogue options that insinuates blackmailing her for sex.
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May 18, 2021 07:59
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my big sons have made a mess of the garage again after being riled up by the good word of the Lord
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May 18, 2021 08:08
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girl dick energy posted:
You need to have your sons there so everyone  For example.
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May 18, 2021 11:44
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Update incoming, but just in case you're somehow unaware: for the last six months I've been concurrently producing another LP for last year's 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I never actually plugged it in here, so I figured I might as well mention it. That LP is quite different from this one and a lot less jokey just due to the format. That said, my usual experimental style is still present, if in a very unique and less in-your-face way. I bring it up because not a lot of people played that game, but it's really incredible and I want to share it with as many people as possible. I just ask that if you like this LP at all you check that one out. That thread is here, if you're interested.
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May 20, 2021 20:52
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