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 So, this probably needed an LP. Welcome, readers new and old, back to the Mega Man Battle Network series! ...Well, sorta. What the hell is this game? And why haven't I heard of it? This, my friends, is Shanghai EXE: Genso Network. It's a fangame!  Specifically, it's a fangame of the Mega Man Battle Network series, of which you might've heard about already. But more specifically, it's a crossover between that series, and the venerable Touhou franchise. Even more specifically, it's a crossover game that Capcom tried their hardest to kill with a Cease and Desist order, because copyright law is just terrible like that. Luckily for us, however, the creator was like... 95 percent done when Capcom killed his project, and some kind souls leaked the final build, which was then translated. So now we can play it! The final build of the game includes the main story, sidequests, and some extra bossfights, the only thing missing is the postgame. And I'll do my damnedest to cover as much as possible. How will this LP be formatted? Since this is a MMBN game in all but name, I'll be using the same tried and true hybrid format that the other games got, because it works pretty well! IE: Mostly screenshots & text transcription/commentary, but I'll do videos of the bossfights as well.  : "This is the dialogue verbatim.": (This is a character's internal monologue, or used when transcribing item descriptions.): And any italicized text without quotation marks isn't actual dialogue, it's just me joking around.Do I need to know anything about Battle Network or Touhou to understand this? Nope! Well, nothing plotwise, at least. The plot of this game is entirely self contained. I might occasionally reference things/mechanics from the Battle Network series, but nothing important. Spoiler Policy? If you're one of the few people who've already played this game yourself, please keep any content not already showed off in the thread in spoiler tags. Though, considering this game never got a full release, I imagine many of you haven't, so it shouldn't be an issue. Anyways, without further ado, let's get into it, shall we? Addendum #1: Vaguely Important Links Playlist of all Bossfights Playlist of the OST Discord server (solely for posting news/updates on LP) Table of Contents 1: Introductions, Friends, and Unskippable Tutorials 2: The Hunt For Rare Chips! 3: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream... 4: The Rich Adventurer 5: City Area Might Be Loosely Based On Kamurocho. 6: Knowledge is Power 7: From Field Trip to Guilt Trip 8: A Toxic Work Environment 9: A Prescription For Pain 10: Taking Care of Business 11: The LP Curse Strikes 12: Time For A Change 13: Relevant Political Commentary 14: Exploring The Bamboo Forest 15: The Dark Side of the Net 16: Undernet Exploration 17: Class is in Session 18: Class Warfare 19: Really, I Should've Seen This Coming. 20: The Strongest! 21: New Friends in Eien Town 22: Showdown 23: The Gauntlet 24: An Average Day in the Life of Shanghai 25: Experiencing Burnout 26: Generous Hospitality 27: Ships Ahoy! 28: The Perfect Heist 29: Hook, Line, and Ship-Sinker 30: Fun and Profit, International Style 31: Engelles Tourguide 32: Engelles Escapades 33: Time is of the Essence 34: Pest Control 35: Homecoming 36: Re: Quests 37: Shipping Manifestation 38: The Obligatory Internet Segment 39: Delving Deeper 40: The Specialist in Suffering 41: Corporate Espionage 42: Corporate Takeover 43: Regularly Scheduled Programming 44: Heavy Artillery 45: Dance of Deduction Bonus Content Bonus Content: Humor AddOn Bonus Content: Eirin's Enlightening Ecological Education~! Blaziken386 fucked around with this message at 09:01 on Aug 25, 2021 |
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Part 1: Introductions, Friends, and Unskippable Tutorials Before we get started with the game itself, let's begin with some music! Music: Title Theme I've gotta hand it to them, the music in this game is pretty great. Really nails the aesthetic of the originals, you know? With that taken care of, let's get the show on the road.    : "They're not responding to HQ! We've lost control!": "Shut them down! Now!": "B-But...!"  : "Hehehe...": "This world... will be deleted!!!"Well, that's slightly ominous.  : "Eurica, Biet, and other world superpowers found that their drone control systems were hacked and taken over by evil scientists.": "This threatened not only the physical world, but also the digital world.": "The Internet became a warzone, ravaged by cyber warfare.": "This series of Cyber Wars crippled many great nations.": "Japan didn't use drones at the time, so its losses were minimal." : "This sparked a series of riots later called the Internet Armageddon.": "Humanity realized its reliance on networks, as the pain of losing them was too much to bear.": "Thus, humanity sought new networks." : "He was determined to create a new network.": "And now, several decades later..."   The screen fades in...  : "You're going to be late for school!"   Alice does a little eyerub animation here as she sits up. It's pretty cute.    : "My alarm should have woken me up! How...": "Don't tell me..." : "Shanghai! You turned off the alarm, didn't you!?": "It would have disturbed my beauty sleep.": "Jeez! Why are you so selfish!?"Our protagonists, ladies and gentlemen. Shanghai, in contrast to MegaMan, is decidedly not the responsible one of the pair.  : "Ah, Mama! I'll be right there!"The scene fades to black to allow Alice time to get dressed, and... Music: In Room  : "I have to hurry, or I'll be late for school!"Ta-da~! Introducing Alice  In the Touhou universe, Alice was a Magician youkai, who specialized in creating & puppeteering living dolls, like Shanghai herself. Creating dolls (and models) is still one of her hobbies here, but obviously, no magic. When possible, I'll try to show off official character artwork. Alice, being both a playable character and bossfight in various games, has a fair amount to choose from! Other characters might not. Or they might have official artworks which wildly differ from each other! Don't worry too much about it. The concept of canon can be extremely loose in the Touhou universe.  Anyways, before we can get going, we're interrupted by a notification from out PET.  : "You can read mail by opening the START menu and selecting Mail!": "And if you don't know where to go next, press L.": "I'll give you some advice!"One quirk of the game's writing is that it refers to buttons as though you're playing this on a GBA, despite that not actually being the case. The controls are customizeable, but by default, they're identical to the standard Visual Boy Advance layout. Including the VBA's fast forward button. Very nice of them to include that~.   Opening our mail folder reveals not one, but two emails for us! ...I wonder if having a Net Navi makes emails less annoying to deal with? My inbox currently has, uh... 233 unread messages. Largely consistenting of spam. Ugh. E-News posted:Net Crime Alert! Not sure why the police sent out a bulletin proclaiming that they're terrible at their jobs, but hey, at least they're honest about it! Good to know! Ms. Famous posted:Folder Rules Same chip system as usual. Although, one key difference: I don't remember whether or not this was the case in BN6, but it's certainly different from how it was in BN3, so I'll highlight it: these rules only apply to chips with the same name, you can have multiple 50MB chips with different names in the same folder. Basically, as long as you don't have duplicate chips, you can go hog wild filling your folder with OP goodies.  This isn't as broken as it sounds (there's a distinct lack of giga-chips, for example), because encounters are more difficult to match. Still, it means you can get absurd levels of firepower later on. Well, with that out of the way, there's absolutely nothing stopping us from getting on with the plot and heading to school like a responsible student. ...  : (Some people find it surprising that I have more boys' manga than girls' manga.)The impulse to examine everything interesting is too great, I'm sorry.  : (Though Wanbu is an enemy robo, I like it more than the hero's robo.): (I build models as a hobby, and I'm proud my first try went so well.) : (Maybe I'll still enjoy building models when I'm old. That's a scary thought...)Alice glimpses a future wherein she has passionate discussions with Transformers fans, and recoils in horror.  : (They look like sisters, so I put them next to each other in the window.): (She was made by a famous dollmaker whose work is nearly impossible to get.): (I hope I can make dolls as beautiful as these someday.) : (This powerful PC was actually a birthday gift from Shanghai.): (I have no idea how she got the money for it...): (But now's not the time to surf the net!)Curses! Foiled by Alice's innate desire to not slack off.  : "Sorry Mama! I don't have time today!" : "Alice, you know you won't have a good day if you don't get up on time!"Moving downstairs, we're greeted by Alice's mom!  Alice, not even enough time to make a slice of toast to carry in her mouth.Alice's mom is one of those characters who doesn't have a nice piece of official art for me to use. Her name's Shinki! She's a god, apparently. She was in one of the earlier games, so the only official picture we have of her looks like this:  I don't know if she actually has a first name in this game? "Shinki" became the family name, and she only has the one name in Touhou.   Music: Genso Town Stepping outside, we find ourselves in Genso town. Presumably named after Gensokyo, Touhou's primary setting. It's actually fairly large, a little bit bigger than ACDC was. Though, that might be due in part to the fact that buildings are more appropriately sized in this game. But enough about that, let's bother our neighbors!!   : "I wonder if that net crime group ROM is involved."Look, not every malfunctioning appliance is the fault of an organized criminal syndicate, okay. Sometimes things just break down! Don't be silly.    : "Ehehe! I've been trying really hard to memorize the town map!"D'aww. Thanks, kiddo.    : "We're far enough away from urban centers to still have clean air here.": "This really is a nice place to live."Sadly, pollution is still a thing in the far off year of... when in the hell are we, actually? I don't know if it ever directly says. The opening just said "decades later." Hm.   : "Now I can use it like a handheld game console!"This kid has the right priorities in life.   : "Today's job is to get rid of the viruses that infected a customer's machine." : "Let's be sure to do a good job and get them all!"Not sure why you're telling us that, but hey, good luck with that, random guy! Alternatively, if you gently caress up and get your navi deleted because the viruses are too strong, tell me where they are. Strong viruses means strong chips, you know. ...Not that I have anything but the utmost confidence in you, Mr. Generic NPC.   : "Your navi will give you advice.": "I'm quite forgetful, so I rely on my Navi quite often."I really wish "press this button to remember what the heck you're doing" was a feature in like, every game. I never finish metroidvanias because if I go more than a couple days without playing I get hopelessly confused, ehehe.   : "My grandson goes here, so I came to see it.": "Don't you go to school here too, young lady?"Oh crap, she's onto us uh, um, quick, go inside before she starts lecturing us!!!  Phew, safe. Music: Genso Middle School  : ("Arabstan After the War," "Top Party's Approval Ratings," "Net Crimes by Boys,"): (Hmm, those are some heavy headlines...)Continuing the tradition of countries being named by smashing two or more real world ones together (for example: Netopia being named "Amerope" in Japan) we have "Arabstan" in this game for our generic middle-eastern country. ...That being said, the game explicitly takes place in Japan.  : "Your homeroom is upstairs on the second floor."Well, she's not mad, so apparently we're not late! That's good. That means more time to procrastinate by talking with random NPCs.   : "They have many useful effects, like recovering HP or avoiding viruses.": "But unlike Battle Chips, you can only use them once.": "You should buy some when you get the chance!": "Just make sure you have enough Sub Memory to carry them all!"...Okay, maybe we should stop talking to random NPCs, they're trying to tutorialize at us.  : (It says that vaccinations can prevent against serious illnesses.)Y'hear that kids? Don't listen to antivaxers, they're idiots.  : (On Mondays, each chore shifts down the list to the next student.): (Whew! Looks like I won't be on toilet duty any time soon.)Entering into the classroom proper, let's take a look around before class starts. We've still got time! Alice lucks out on the chore wheel. I used to work for a public school - normal public bathrooms are one thing, but school bathrooms are terrible. They'd get stuff on the ceiling.  Let's see what the rest of our classmates have to say, shall we?    : "I can't operate my Navi very well, so I'm pretty bad at virus busting."  : "I'm an early bird, so I'm never late! Never!"Oh hey, look at that, that's no generic mugshot! Meet Rika Shikuma. (just Rika in Touhou) She has a quirk where she adds extra emphasis when she talks! She does! You'd think something like that'd get annoying, but honestly, I like it. It's cute, and it suits her!  Much like Shinki, she doesn't really have official art, because she was only an extra boss in the second game. She was a Tank Engineer back then, and she still likes them in this game. Though, obviously, being a middle schooler, she does not have any actual tanks. I'm sure she'll get one someday, though! She will!Speaking of unique mugshots, let's see who else is here.   : "Would you like me, Remilia, to tell you about them?" : "How boring..."Our second friend, Remilia Scarlet! Even if you've not played a Touhou game, you've probably seen her around the internet once or twice. She's pretty popular!  She's from the most well known of the Touhou games, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. In that game, she's a vampire. She tries to act very mature and polite, but is, deep down, kinda childish. In this game, she's kinda our Yai expy, in that she's younger than the rest of the class, and also, incredibly wealthy!Let's hear what she has to say about PETs though, now I'm curious.  : "PET stands for 'Program Enable Terminal'.": "It's not only your NetNavi's home, but also the generic name of the software that lets you adjust your NetNavi.": "With a Navi, you can send email from anywhere.": "You peasants like to put your PETs in tacky plastic cases, but high-class ladies like myself wear an elegant wristwatch!"Remilia, you and I both know that smartwatches are far tackier than phones.  : "She's supposed to be in grade school, but she skipped a couple of grades.": "I'm about the same height as her...": "...But I didn't skip any grades."pfft.  Our final friend here kicks off the story cutscene proper, but first, an introduction!  Marisa Kirisame, or "Mari" in this game. She's one of the series' main protagonists, and therefore, has one of the biggest hats. I'm only mostly joking. Nearly everyone wears a hat of some kind or another in those games. She's not wearing a hat here though, I wonder why?  : "Listen, Mari! Shanghai cut the alarm off all on her own!" : "...Again, huh? That never gets old.": "Marisa! You're a Navi, so talk with her!"Wait, what?  Oh! There's Mari's hat. It's being worn by her NetNavi, Marisa. Marisa got split into two characters in this game! She's too good to be contained by a single character!  : "You little...!!" Hearing all this commotion, Remilia decides she needs to butt in herself.  : "Hey, Remilia! Say it to my face!" Remilia's NetNavi Sakuya pipes in to try and defuse the situation.  Known as Sakuya Izayoi in the games, she's Remilia's maid, and widely theorized to be an ex-vampire hunter. Her main skills involve time manipulation, and lots and lots of knives. We'll get to that later.  Unfortunately for Sakuya, Remilia is, well, kind of a brat.  : "Whether a Navi is good or bad has nothing to do with money!" : "You put your own interests above your own Navi's, so who're you to judge?" Rika comes over to throw her own weight into the discussion.   The final "classmate" to have a unique mugshot, it's Rika's NetNavi, Tankman! He's not from Touhou at all. ...What? They can't all be Touhou cast members, okay?  : "That said, you won't get me to back off by insulting me. I'm not that petty." : "Oh? Is it a match you want? If so, I'll gladly humor you.": "Yo, that's a bit... Doesn't look like this is gonna end well."Tensions flare further, and Sakuya challenges Shanghai to a duel. ...bring it on. I'll take you with my starter folder, I don't care!   : "You bet!"Even with Marisa trying to be the voice of reason, we've got Rika & Tankman on our side! Let there be cyber-bloodshed!   ...Dammit, you two! I wanted to fight, not channel my destructive impulses into a rivalry over classwork. How dare you be sensible.  : "Well, it's not like you can beat Sakuya and I.": "Now you've said it... Shanghai, do whatever it takes to beat Remilia!"  Oh right, class.   Yet another unique mugshot, here we have Ms. Kumako Koa. Or, as she's known in the games, Koakuma.  She was a librarian working in Remilia's mansion in those games. ...Not much else is known about her, honestly. There's a staggering number of characters in Touhou, they can't all be memorable.   : "Don't be late, everyone!": "Now, please get ready for first period!"  : "Let's go to the PC Room!": "The PC Room is on the second floor, in the hall past the stairwell."Now, I could head to the PC room right away, but something tells me that if I do, I'll have to do classwork. And that's just terrible! So, let's slack off some more and see what the students of 2-1 have to say instead!  : "Your homeroom is next door."Um, it's called being friendly??? I need to Talk To Everyone, it's the law of JRPG protagonists!!  : "It connects the whole world, not just Japan!"Wait, the internet has foreigners on it?   : "I'm jealous~! Can I make a cute Navi too?"Class 2-2 confirmed as being the class where all the Main Characters™ get enrolled.   : "You can use it to make a chip always show up first in battle!": "Just open your chip folder, find a chip with less MB than your Regular Memory, and then press SELECT! Easy as that!": "Also, you can increase your Regular Memory with RegUps!": "I have to memorize all this before the test..."This kid is apparently studying video game mechanics. I'd make a joke about that, but there was a unit in my 8th grade computers class about building lego robots, so this seems kind of accurate actually?? ...Actually speaking of computer class wasn't I supposed to be doing something right now? Something about going through a tutorial section or something? Hmmm...  : "I have to go into the Storage Room, but the teacher isn't here yet.": "Oh, the classroom is in the other hall?"Shoutout to this girl, pulling the classic "Oh no, the place I'm supposed to go is locked. If only I could do something. Darn, guess I have to slack off in the hall~.  " routine....Oh no, I'm out of NPCs to talk to, I can't slack off from going to class anymore.   Oh hey, another unique mugshot! This is Rikako Asakura.  She's also from pretty early on in the series. As you can tell by her glasses and lab coat, she is a Scientist™. Not convinced? Her name, Rikako, is literally written with the kanji for science. She is fully committed to that aesthetic, darnit!   : "I already explained it last week, but I'll explain it again just to be safe.": "Virus busting is using your Navi to delete viruses on a computer.": "Originally, viruses were simply bad programs which made computers malfunction.": "In the cyberworld, they can look like animals and batteries, and they'll attack Navis.": "Early Navis had no combat capabilities, so they were defenseless against viruses.": "However, new technology allowed us to equip our Navis with weapons.": "We made Battle Chips, and now our Navis can fight off viruses.": "I'll let my Navi explain the details."  : "Weapons were originally built into the Navi, making already large Navis even larger.": "From this, high-capacity and low cost "Chip Cards" were invented.": "Weapon data is stored on the Chip Card and then sent to the Navi.": "This is how and why we use Battle Chips.": "I have yet to explain the Chip Folder and Chip Slot-In Tool, but for convenience, I'll cover those topics after the exam."Oh hey, that's kinda nifty actually. They actually gave a reason for why Battle Chips became the standard format, rather than everyone going the Colonel route and having a sword for an arm - NetNavis are big enough as is, and having the ability to read data off a card and then get rid of it after attacking meant they could have a wide variety of attacks without being several terabytes. Worldbuilding!  : "Now, we'll test how well you can fight against viruses.": "Is there anyone who would like me to explain how to operate?": "If you want help, just raise your hand."  A couple of students take Ms. Asakura up on her offer...   : "Ms. Asakura, I think my Navi doesn't understand.": "Could you help us?"...including Alice and Shanghai themselves. The tutorial is entirely self-inflicted, nooooo   : "I'll hold your hand through the first four fights.": "But you'll be graded on the fifth fight, so be sure to pay attention!": "Be careful not to make a mistake and get your Navi deleted!": "Okay! Here we go!"  Let's goooo!!! Music: VS. Virus   : "Fufu... Have you forgotten already?": "It's okay. I'll go over it again in detail."Yeah, no. I'm not transcribing the tutorial. I'll summarize it in case you've stumbled into this thread with zero knowledge of the Battle Network games, and I'll highlight any new mechanics, but I'm not typing this entire thing out. There's like 150 lines of dialogue here, dangit.  Here's the chip screen! You get a random selection of 5 (or more!) chips out of the 30 in your folder. If they're the same type of chip, ie: Raygun, you can select them together. Alternatively, if they share the same chip code, in this case, "A", you can select those chips together. If something is in asterisk code, it can be selected with any other letter code. You basically want to build your folder in such a way where you can guarantee drawing at least 4 chips per turn, because otherwise you might not kill things fast enough to get the best rewards! I tend to gravitate towards a folder with two main codes, and whatever asterisks I can find. Here's an important note about chips in this game: with the exception of a couple outliers, most attacking chips have three levels, each with their own uses. Stage 1 chips, like Raygun here, will almost always come in asterisk code! They can fit in every folder, but as a drawback, they're not as powerful. If you get an S-rank on a virus that drops a stage 1 chip, there's a 25% chance it'll come in asterisk code! Stage 2 chips tend to be the building blocks of a lot of letter-code Program Advances. They aren't as powerful as they could be, but if you structure your folder right, you'll be able to pull off crazy powerful, moves. This includes PAs involving NaviChips. Stage 3 chips never come in asterisk code, and aren't in any PAs, but they tend to be the strongest or most useful ones when used by themselves.  : "It's fine. I remember how to move on my own.": "Of course you'd remember this part."I know this part is teaching you the combat controls (ie: how to attack/fire buster, explains you can't go in the blue area), but even in context... Shanghai's not that dumb, Ms. Asakura!   Time for Battle 2! Oh, by the way, those little viruses are called Kedamas. They're basically this game's equivalent of the Mettaur virus. They'll move up and down their row, and occasionally shoot out a ground based shockwave. They're just lil' fuzzy guys!!  They're also now dead.  This turn was just explaining support chips like Areagrab. They don't do any damage, but are useful in their own way. As you can see, Areagrab let me expand my area by stealing some from the enemy, allowing me to get in close. Support chips can do a bunch of nifty stuff: chips that boost the buster, +power chips that boost attack, stun chips paralyze the enemy and let you combo them further, timestop causes the screen to freeze - NaviChips have this innately, and terrain chips like areagrab. While they aren't dropped from viruses, they have similar categories to attacking chips - some are always asterisk, some are both, and some only come in certain chip codes. Fastgauge makes a return, and it's the latter.  Battle 3 - the ADD button is back! And it's been reworked a bit - it now has two modes. If you select chips and then press ADD, those chips are gone for the rest of the battle, but in return, you have that many more spaces in the custom screen for the duration. If you press ADD with no chips selected, however, you'll get a fully expanded custom screen next turn, but only for next turn. Useful if your custom screen includes the chips for two possible PAs, and you don't want to get rid of one.   : (...Cute face?): "Did you forget? That's the emotion window."The final tutorial section covers emotional state. Shanghai's got four different ones.  Normal - The default state.  Anxious - when Shanghai gets hit multiple times in a row, or when she's on low health, she becomes anxious. Right now, this doesn't do anything, it's just a sign that you are Doing Bad At Video Games, and need to be better.  Full Synchro - when you hit an enemy right as they're about to attack, you get a counter, which does all sorts of interesting things. Chief amoung them being Full Synchro - unless you get hit, your next chip does double damage. While in Full Synchro, it's easier to counter enemies again, because they'll flash before they attack. If you kill an enemy with a counter, you get Bug Frags at the end of battle, which can be used for various different things. Finally, it gives you some points towards your busting rank, which generally means better chips. How nice!  Happy - Shanghai is a girl after my own heart, and gets happy when she scores a double or triple kill. So happy, in fact, that the next chip she uses will restore her health by 1/3. This means healing subchips aren't really needed as much - as long as you play well, they should be for emergencies only, or for immediately before bossfights.    Don't question the useful game mechanics, Alice.   Battle 5, the final test!  Yeah, I think I'm okay.  Oh hi, Blink Animation! I was wondering when you'd show up. Ms. Asakura is not amused by me re-writing her tutorial to be more coherent and comprehensive, whoops. Basically, you're scored on various stuff like "not getting hit" and "not running around the stage too much" and "killing things efficiently". If you get a double kill, take no damage, only take one turn to do it, and don't move around too much, you'll get an S rank. I'm not 100% sure on the actual mechanics here, but I know counters add to it in this game - for example, ordinarily the time limit for boss fights is 30 seconds. But I could still get S-ranks with a couple seconds above that if I countered them a couple times. The system hasn't changed too much from what was used in BN3 though.  : Am I the teacher here or not....ehehe.  : "That's all for today's lesson!": "We covered important material, so write it down before you forget.": "Today's and last week's material will be on the final exam.": "Class is dismissed. Have a good day."  Some time later... Music: Genso Middle School  : "I did my best. How about you, Remilia?": "Ahaha! I just saw your time!"  : "What!? 0.07 seconds!?": "No way! Did you use rare chips!?": "Oh? So you think we cheated, do you?": "Building a good chip folder is key to NetBattling!"...She's right, but I'm still mad. It's not my fault I'm stuck with the starter folder!   : "Grrrrrrrrrr...!!": "Well then, I'll take my leave. It's time for my lessons at home.": "Ciao, loser!"  Remilia wanders off, and Shanghai echoes my thoughts exactly.  : "Yeah, but it's still annoying...": "Aaaah, maybe there's a rare 6000 damage chip lying around somewhere.": "If only...": "...Actually, I think I remember something like that! I do!"Aw poo poo Rika looked up the GameFAQs for this game    : "Hm... It was yesterday, wasn't it?": "They say a suspicious Navi buried soem chips in Genso Area at midnight.": "Could it be...? Rare chips!?": "Might be.": "Why else would someone be hiding things in the middle of the night?": "It has to be some kind of treasure.": "Well, how about that! Thanks, TankMan!" : "Wha!? Really!?": "Jokes aside... Alice, let's hurry home and get on the web!": "You got it! I don't want to keep losing like this either!"  Awww... Shanghai, don't play with people's hearts like that.  : "ROM? They're that net crime group that's been all over the news, right?": "Yeah. I've heard there's been some incidents here in Genso Town.": "The worst I've heard is that some people's fridges have been goin' haywire."Mari, I already said, just because someone's fridge broke, that doesn't mean the friggin' netmafia's involved, that'd be just silly-  ...   : "I made my own antifreeze at home just in case, but I dunno if it actually works.": "Anyways, as I was sayin', watch out for suspicious folks.": "Yeah, yeah! If any punks show their faces, I'll thrash 'em good!": "Ahaha... At least we can count on that.": "Alright, I'll see you all later!": "Goodbye!": "See ya!"... ...no, wait, hang on, back up, someone's house was frozen solid?? Blaziken386 fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Aug 21, 2020 |
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: "This email was automatically sent to those who bought the Chip Folder Starter Pack! I'm Ms. Famous from the Japan Netbattlers' Association! When you get a chip, you can add it to a chip folder from the START menu. But you can't put just anything into a chip folder. A standard chip's size determines how many can fit in a chip folder. For chips smaller that 19MB, you can fit 5 into a folder. 20-29, 4 per folder. 30-39, 3 per folder. 40-49, 2 per folder. For chips larger than 50MB, you can only fit 1 into a folder. Since these rules only apply to chips with the same name, you can have multiple 50MB chips with different names in the same folder. However, only 5 blue Navi chips of any kind are allowed in a folder. Those of you with many NetBattling friends should memorize this! That said, please learn the rules and enjoy building your folders!"
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As a longtime battle network player, the layout of the locations is freaking me out.
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Jun 16, 2020 10:16
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note to self: make sure to re-re-read the post on SAwful, not just the SSLP test site. Edited the post to account for the fact that apparently there's an emoticon limit. Anyways!! Second update should be up in a couple days. Seraphic Neoman posted:As a longtime battle network player, the layout of the locations is freaking me out.
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Jun 16, 2020 10:25
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My goodness. We've got Touhou, MMBN, and a throwback to Lan's oven all in one post. This is already glorious.
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Jun 16, 2020 10:48
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Well, this is certainly starting off strong! Can't wait to see who Reimu and others end up as.
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Jun 16, 2020 11:10
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I'm definitely liking this already. It's hitting the right notes for a MMBN game and I can always use more BN in my life. I'm really curious about the menu though, I doubt it's just badly spaced, so I wonder what the last two options will be.
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Jun 16, 2020 13:45
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I know just enough about both MMBN and Touhou to be interested in this LP. Still haven't beaten a single game in either series though.
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Jun 16, 2020 13:55
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Hey, OP. Would you mind if I did a Character Facts sort of thing? Just explaining what characters are like in Touhou, their roles and such?
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Jun 16, 2020 15:24
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I mean technically Rika has an official portrait... too bad it's smaller than the one in this game. Nice to see someone LP this, though.
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Jun 16, 2020 18:41
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OddHaberdasher posted:Hey, OP. Would you mind if I did a Character Facts sort of thing? Just explaining what characters are like in Touhou, their roles and such? 
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Jun 16, 2020 19:20
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This looks interesting! Or at least I'm down for a classic MMBN experience. What the heck is Touhou though?
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Jun 16, 2020 21:29
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Solumin posted:This looks interesting! Or at least I'm down for a classic MMBN experience.  Are you going to explain the individual chips? Knife seems to be Sword, I assume Raygun is Cannon? Does this have original chips or are they all re-named BN fare?
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Jun 16, 2020 21:32
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When you introduce a character you should also post their original portrait so we can get the full ZUN-art experience.  
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Jun 16, 2020 21:58
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...Between Alice, Shanghai, Mari, and Marisa, I'm already starting to get their portraits mixed up. Too many blonde girls, dang it!
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Jun 16, 2020 22:28
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anilEhilated posted:
*there's more to it, but that's for the next update ThingOne posted:When you introduce a character you should also post their original portrait so we can get the full ZUN-art experience.
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Jun 16, 2020 22:43
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The ZUN art experience is a quintessential part of the glory of Touhou. There's also the music, but whoooooooooo boy is that another rabbit hole entirely. So many covers and remixes. Oh god I just realized we're getting PC-98 characters which opens the floodgates for Mima 
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Jun 16, 2020 23:22
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serefin99 posted:...Between Alice, Shanghai, Mari, and Marisa, I'm already starting to get their portraits mixed up. Too many blonde girls, dang it! Alice and Marisa are consistently together in Touhou though, and the dolls are normal weaponry for Alice so that's just true to Touhou. Why Marisa is two characters is beyond me though, you'd think they could've used someone else there. Though now I wonder if the inevitable Reimu will also be separated into Operator/Navi or if she'll just be one of both, and in so, partnered with who.
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Jun 16, 2020 23:32
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This is a thing. I was not expecting this to be honest. Now I wonder how Reimu will pop up, if Marisa has been split into an human and a navi. I think she'll be the Chaud equivalent. Although to be fair, Marisa would totally program a navi in her image. Now, how  are the villains going to be?
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Jun 16, 2020 23:51
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Blaziken386 posted:I'll talk about chips more as we come across them. There's about equal parts reskinned and new chips. Raygun is the standard Cannon chip, and Knife*/Sword are Sword/Widesword, respectively. Omobono posted:This is a thing.
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Jun 17, 2020 00:08
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Koakuma just has a tiny sprite as her original art and doesn't have a portrait. The name, 'Koakuma', was given to her by the fans and just means 'Little Devil'. She's almost entirely a fan creation. Also, Mari made homemade antifreeze? what?
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Jun 17, 2020 00:19
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Blaziken386 posted:I might just do that! I just figured if I *had* the option for that later games official art, I may as well use it. I vote split the difference: include some good art (fan art, from one of the other games, whatever), and then include the original art from their first appearance. Assuming they're from the actual shooting games and have ZUN art, anyway. I don't think ones from the fighting games and manga have official ZUN art.
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Jun 17, 2020 00:20
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Ratoslov posted:Also, Mari made homemade antifreeze? what? You'd be surprised of how good Master Sparks are at eliminating ice. And everything else.
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Jun 17, 2020 00:21
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Shei-kun posted:The ZUN art experience is a quintessential part of the glory of Touhou. Back around the time Phantasmagoria of Flower Dreaming was released somebody put together a torrent with all the Touhou fan music ever released and it was well over a terabyte. I can only imagine how big it would be now.
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Jun 17, 2020 00:26
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ThingOne posted:Back around the time Phantasmagoria of Flower Dreaming was released somebody put together a torrent with all the Touhou fan music ever released and it was well over a terabyte. I can only imagine how big it would be now.
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Jun 17, 2020 00:48
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Commander Keene posted:I'm just wondering who the villains are going to be. Touhou has a lot of characters, most of whom were villains at one point or another, AFAIK. they're ROM.
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Jun 17, 2020 01:42
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Blaziken386 posted:what are you talking about? we already know who the villains are! [1] Are you sure the villain wasn't a ROM hacker? [2] I'm really looking forward to seeing if Yukari is in this, because she's awesome. [3] It'd be funny if ROM was just a front, and the real villains had the acronym ZUN.
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Jun 17, 2020 02:54
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I thought projects like AM2R were fine and all, but for my money, this is the DMCA'd project I'd revive if I only had one choice. This game has so much love and effort in every pore, I simply cannot get enough of it. That bit about why BattleChips are used over inherent weaponry? That's just the start of in-world justifications that actually make sense.
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Jun 17, 2020 03:02
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Touhou is a top-down bullet hell shoot 'em up series (with a few 2-D fighting games as well) set in a hidden pocket realm called Gensokyo, located somewhere around the Yatsugatake Mountains of Japan, which serves as one of the last safe places for supernatural beings (or Youkai to use the proper term) in the face of Modern disbelief in the supernatural. The plot of these games typically revolves around the Playable Characters going out to resolve a Incident (In-universe term for 'something weird is going on and I don't like it') by means of shooting anyone standing in their way with non-lethal magic projectiles (while avoiding getting shot themselves) until they get to the individual responsible and shoot them. It's a very light hearted series with some dark background elements. Much of this will likely not be relevant in terms of this game (I doubt Remilia is a vampire here, for instance), but it's good to know nonetheless (or so I think). It has a very wide cast of characters, the vast majority of which are female. There is a grand total of three (3) male characters that (A) appear onscreen and (B) have any sort of role in any story in the series. In this post, I aim to provide a small description of various character's personalities and attributes in the original Touhou series (in order of introduction), to provide some context for their portrayal. Let's get started: 1. Rinnosuke Morichika. Shopkeeper of Kourindou. One of the three notable male characters. A half-human half-youkai with the ability to know the name and utility of any object by touching it (though not necessarily how to operate it). In the Touhou series he mostly appears in the Curiosities of Lotus Asia (CoLA) side stories, where he serves as the viewpoint character and spends most of his time alternately going on long inner (and occasionally outer) diatribes on his views regarding certain items and phenomena (nearly always self-consistent but wrong in one or two key facts) and trying to get people to buy something from his poorly-located curio shop. He also dabbles in the creation of magical items, being responsible for creating and improving Kirisame Marisa's signature weapon the Mini-Hakkero. 2. Alice Margatroid (or Alice Shinki in this game). Seven Coloured Puppeteer. A Magician Youkai with a focus on the creation and use of magical dolls. Her ultimate goal is to create a living, independantly thinking doll, though she is still unsuccessful in this goal. Has something of a friendly rivalry with Marisa, being fellows in the use and research of magic as well as living near each other. Alice tends to focus on elegantly using the minimum amount of power needed to defeat her opponent, with Marisa preferring the opposite approach of excessive, yet flashy, displays. Side note: Alice first appeared in Touhou 5. The first five Touhou games were released on the PC-98, with everything from Touhou 6 onward being released on Windows. The PC-98 games have essentially been retconned, with only four characters from that time appearing in the Windows games (Alice and Marisa among them), and none of the returning characters reference PC-98 or act much like their counterparts. 3. Shanghai. Shanghai is not actually a character in Touhou, since Alice has not yet created a sentient doll, but rather a type of doll Alice possesses. Shanghai dolls are typically used for self-defense, and are armed with small blades, the ability to launch magic projectiles and a small quantity of gunpowder for suicide strikes. 4. Shinki. God of Makai. Ruler of the realm of Makai, creator of many of its denizens (including the original Alice, hence their association here) and presided over an ill-fated interdimensional invading force/tourism agency (turns out the two can be easily mistaken if you neglect to inform anyone of your intentions in sending your citizens to holiday near the PCs). First appeared in Touhou 5, did not return in Windows. 5. Rika. Engineer. First appeared in Touhou 2, where she made two magic tanks and promptly went to pick a fight with the nearest PC for no real reason other than to flex on them with her tank. A PC-98 character who has not appeared in the Windows series. 6. Remilia Scarlet. The Scarlet Devil. Turned into a vampire at an early age, and thus has looked ten years old for 500 years. Has access to much wealth and possesses a notable amount of personal power, though her common sense occasionally fails her, particularly when she gets bored. Can be surprisingly charismatic when she cares to be. Claims to be the descendant of Vlad Tepes (unlikely in either the familial or vampiric senses). First appeared in Touhou 6, where she covered Gensokyo in a blood-red mist because she wanted to do things during daytime (the ending revealed that she could have gone out anytime as long as she had an umbrella. She just wanted to start trouble for fun). May be a fan of a certain manga series.... 7. Izayoi Sakuya. Perfect and Elegant Maid. Not much is known about her or her background. The only things that can be said for certain about her is that she is loyal without question to Remilia, prefers the company of youkai to her fellow humans and that 'Izayoi Sakuya' was not her original name and was, in fact, given to her by Remilia. Anything else about her, such as the vampire hunter theory, is simply theory. First appeared in Touhou 6 alongside Remilia. Together with Remilia, they make up a complete manga reference... 8. Kirisame Marisa. An Oriental Western Magician. Marisa tends to use flashy displays of magical force in fights, fitting her outspoken, aggresive yet gregarious attitude. She and Alice butt heads over this and other areas where they conflict. Notable in that she is able to keep up and fight on (somewhat) even ground with many other characters despite being a mere human, one without any abilities other than being able to use magic. A self-made woman, with the exception of her signature weapon, the Mini-Hakkero (which was built by Rinnosuke) and some of her attacks (which were 'inspired' by foes she's fought). Also dabbles in alchemy, using various magical plants and reagents to make potions to supplement her magical power. First appeared in Touhou 2 as an antagonist and has since become the secondary playable character in nearly every Touhou game since. 9. Koakuma. Another instance of 'this isn't actually a character'. Koakuma literally means 'little devil' and her role was simply to serve as a nameless, faceless midboss. She gained surprising fan popularity and appears in many fan works such as this, despite never having a single spoken line in the actual series. First appeared in Touhou 6. 10. Asakura Rikako. Scientist Searching For Dreams. In the modern world, those who research the occult and the supernatural are seen as eccentrics. In the magical world of the Touhou series, budding scientists such as Rikako are seen as eccentrics. Appeared in Touhou 3 as a playable character seeking the knowledge of the outside world, didn't make the leap to Windows.
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Jun 17, 2020 03:20
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Faillen Angel posted:I thought projects like AM2R were fine and all, but for my money, this is the DMCA'd project I'd revive if I only had one choice. Why'd it get DMCA'd, anyway?
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Jun 17, 2020 03:56
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In fan works, there's usually one shanghai doll named Shanghai, and it is always the most important of Alice's dolls. If any of her dolls shows intelligence or emotions or personality, or even are just named, Shanghai is usually that doll. When Shanghai does get a personality, she tends to be kind of a headstrong girl that likes fightin'. It's also notable that one fan idea that comes up a lot is a giant Shanghai, bigger than a house and maybe mechanized like a Gundam.
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Jun 17, 2020 05:02
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Ratoslov posted:In fan works, there's usually one shanghai doll named Shanghai, and it is always the most important of Alice's dolls. If any of her dolls shows intelligence or emotions or personality, or even are just named, Shanghai is usually that doll. When Shanghai does get a personality, she tends to be kind of a headstrong girl that likes fightin'. It's also notable that one fan idea that comes up a lot is a giant Shanghai, bigger than a house and maybe mechanized like a Gundam. So she's GutsWoman. EDIT: Wait, then who's the "MegaMan" analogue? Marisa?!
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Jun 17, 2020 05:31
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Quackles posted:Why'd it get DMCA'd, anyway? One: AFAIK, Capcom owns the copyright to the battle system in Japan. The developer was japanese, so, they were able to put legal pressure on him. It's the dumbest thing. Two: You know how the Battle Network games have a couple of chips that're shoutouts to the Megaman X series, like Z-Saber? One of those is in this game, and the silhouette of the character was deemed a violation of copyright (which is why this keeps getting taken down from sites like github). basically, copyright is the dumbest poo poo, and corporations shouldn't be allowed to have IP rights Quackles posted:[1] Are you sure the villain wasn't a ROM hacker? OddHaberdasher posted:Touhou
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Jun 17, 2020 05:45
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Quackles posted:EDIT: Wait, then who's the "MegaMan" analogue? Marisa?! Well, possibly. Marisa does love stealing other people's powers and had a somewhat-popular Megaman fangame series, 'MegaMari', of her own. On the other hand, MegaMan is a responsible dutiful good boy and that is a bunch of adjectives that belong absolutely nowhere near Marisa Kirisame.
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Jun 17, 2020 06:21
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I can't believe I'm not being trolled about a Touhouman game.
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Jun 17, 2020 07:04
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Omobono posted:This is a thing. Reimu as the rival doesn't strike me as overly likely. Maybe if Marisa was the protagonist instead. Medicine seems a more likely bet for someone to oppose Alice.
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Jun 17, 2020 07:46
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Part 2: The Hunt For Rare Chips! : "I heard that she's really kind and that her students have nicknames for her.": It must be nice having her as your homeroom teacher. I'm sooooo jealous!"Honestly, it is pretty sweet having a teacher who dresses like an anime character all the time.  Yeaaahh, okay, fine. I was planning on doing that anyway, Ms. Koa, that's where the internet is. But first!   : "You can jack in and send your Navi into a computer!": "It's easy! Just press R near the computer!": "It looks like you can jack into this flower, so give it a try!": "Hey, isn't this flowery house yours?"Oh hey, there's a girl in front of my house! ...is... is she a ROM agent?? She knows a lot about computers.  Just gonna jack in real quick and make sure she didn't mess with anything. You can never be too careful!    Music: Internet Welcome to the first standalone comp of the game, the Flower Bed Comp! In all of the Battle Network games, sometimes random stuff has hidden computers built in! Like, for example: this flower bed hides a security camera! Nifty! Basically, this is the game's way of telling you to press A on everything, because sometimes you'll find goodies, or even just new dialogue.   : "BUT MAMA DOESN'T GO OUT MUCH, SO I'M USUALLY NOT VERY BUSY~!"A new friend! This is a Sprite! The successor to the Mr. Prog of Battle Network, they're not as powerful as Navis, but they sure are cute, huh? All of the Sprites in this game are dressed like maids. Why? Because maids are cute! Obviously.   Speaking of goodies, there's a free Sword chip in this BMD over here.  : "I'LL KEEP WATCH OVER THE SHINKI HOUSEHOLD AS BEST AS I CAN!": *CLICK...*This Sprite's taking pictures. I'd definitely trust a Sprite to guard my house, I dunno about you. They're just so earnest!   Another BMD down here, this one has a RegUp 1. The more regular memory you have, the more powerful of a chip you can set to always show up first in your folder. Honestly, I don't use it too much, but it can be nice to have.   Let's see what kinds of viruses you can encounter in here, shall we? That's the other reason to search out hidden comps like this - sometimes, the developers put in a rare virus or two. First up is a group of Kedama. We've seen these already, they're not too special. But! I got an S-rank, and the game was nice enough to give me a *-code ShotWav.  It's a decent early game chip, especially given its code. Like the virus' attack, it sends out a slow moving shockwave across the ground, which can be blocked by holes. Also, it's an elemental chip! It deals ground damage. I'll go over the various elements in this game when they're more relevant. Right now, we don't have enough variety to make a difference, ya know?  Also, since I countered one of the Kedama, I got a bugfrag! You can get 1, 3, or 10 bugfrag depending on how many enemies you counter in a battle. If you counter in a boss battle, you automatically get 10!  Running around a little bit more, I ran into this guy! GunHopr2! ...wait, game, c'mon now. I haven't even seen the first level of these things! But that's rare encounters for you, I guess. GunHopr viruses are kind of annoying to fight, honestly. They hop around the stage a few times, and while they're in the air, they're invincible. After a couple of jumps, they'll land and shoot in a T-shaped blast. The trick is to watch the ground - when it flashes, that means they'll fire when they land on that panel. Also, they're grass type, which means they recover HP when on a grass panel. Kill 'em quick, or else they'll heal up to full!   Because they're by themselves, I literally cannot S-rank them, so I don't bother trying. Luckily, I got the chip anyways. As well as a "FrzFrag." Freeze Frags are Bug Frags, but dropped by Grass or Water type viruses, if I recall correctly. There's also Error Frags, which are dropped by... I wanna say Fire and Elec viruses? I don't remember exactly.  While here, I also picked up the T, L, and K codes of ShotGun2. Same as the virus, it fires in front of Shanghai like this: quote:[o][o][o]|[o][X][o] lol of course I also didn't bother customizing my folder until the end of next update. probably should've but eehhhh  Heading inside, there's someone here! Let's talk to mom and see what's up. Music: In Room  : "Oh, Alice! Welcome back! You're home early today.": "There's something I wanted to do, so I decided to come home early.": "Oh, and who's this?": "She's a technician from NineBall Appliances. They offered to check our friedge for free. Did you hear about the fridge that went haywire recently?": "I think I heard Mari talking about it."  : "About that... The fridge malfunctioned because a vius got in somehow.": "I'm installing an anti-virus program so that won't happen to you."Oh, she's a technician! That's good. Now we don't have to worry about ROM, the company's sending out someone to update our antivirus software for free! Phew. Load off of my shoulders, I tell you what.   : "Fair enough. Alice, let's hop on the net!": "Yeah, let's go!"  She seems like a nice lady.   Well, mom asked us to stay out of the way, so we might as well go play on the internet. Gonna find us some rare chips, aww yeaah   : "Shanghai, who's that Navi?"Yeah, who is that guy? He looks kinda shifty.  : "S-Servant...?": "For some reason, they become more devoted the more you punish them.": "They do various different things for me."Oh, yeah, that explains it. Our protagonist, everybody!   : "Miss Shanghai, your Link Gate is almost fully installed.": "A Link Gate? I heard you can link it to a Square so Navis can go there and back quickly.": "Yup! Walking is a pain, so I thought it'd be nice to install one.": "Once it's up, we can link to a Square and go back and forth in a flash!"Hm. That sounds... incredibly handy, actually! Thanks, Shanghai!  : "I work a few part-time jobs while you're asleep.": "But I'm flat broke now. That Link Gate cost me everything I had.": (I probably shouldn't ask what kinds of jobs she's been taking...): "Oh, I almost forgot!": "Hey you! Do you know anything about buried treasure in Genso Area?": "No, I don't. Maybe you'll find some info by asking around in Genso Square?"Oh, yeah, that's probably a smart idea. Let's go!  : "Hoho! Don't they know who's in charge around here?": "Since when were you in charge...?"Wait, are we secretly running a criminal empire here. Shanghai, you'd tell me if you were part of the Netmafia, right?  : "If I remember correctly, the Square is in Genso Area 2."Convenient! But first, let's see what your goons have to say. They seem like interesting people!!    : "So even more challengers will step forward and oppose you...": "And I'll strike them down with my bare hands!": "That's Miss Shanghai for you!"  : "Aaaah, it's so nice to have someone to rely on."It's definitely not a shady group at all. Definitely. Okay, that's enough goon talk. Time to hit the net!  Welcome to Genso Area 1! It's a nice place. Reminds me a bit of BN3's ACDC area. The background lines are supposed to turn into trees, but I kept getting unlucky with screenshot timings. Let's explore a little!   : "You can use it to protect your homepage from unauthorized Navis.": "You'll be able to get past it once you get its Pass-Code. : "THE GREEN ROAD IS GENSO AREA'S MAIN STREET!" : "YOU WON'T GET LOST IF YOU FOLLOW THE MAIN STREET!"Aww, hello hello to you too, lil' Sprite. The main road is what I meant by it reminding me of BN3: having a main road is handy, especially in an isometric perspective. Although you don't always need it - the side roads tend to link back up around the place - it's still nice to have.  That being said, let's immediately deviate from the path. There are goodies to be found, darnit!   Hm. Well, it's the thought that counts! Also, there we go. Took long enough for the trees to show up in my captures.    : "That's mystery data. It holds things like money and battle chip data.": "When you come across one, make sure to check what's inside!"Going down a little bit more, we grab another GMD with 50z in it, loop back around, and find a lady telling us that "Mystery Data cubes are valuable, no, really." ...I mean, she is right, but I've just been kinda unlucky so far. Also, hm, you know, it occurs to me that it's kinda hard to see exactly where everything is from screenshots alone? I wonder if I can do something about that... oh, I know!  This game, due to it not having a full release, still includes the map editor program inside it~! Lucky lucky~. Unfortunately, due to how the game stores objects, there's no way to have things like shops/p-cubes/mystery data shown without also showing every possible NPC position simultaneously. Is showing maps like this something you guys wanna see? Or would you rather I try to take more screenshots of Shanghai running around, rather than primarily showing NPC dialogue? Let me know!   : "In fact, the higher your Busting Rank, the more likely you'll get a chip.": "If there's a chip you really want, keep your Busting Rank in mind."What this guy doesn't tell you: different Busting Rank = different chip reward. Certain chip codes only drop when you get a Busting Rank of 4 or lower! ...and some of those codes are the ones needed for PAs, because lol of course they are.   Final GMD of the area nets us a nice 1000z! I'll take it!  Further up ahead, we come across our first purple mystery data, which needs a CrakTool Sub Chip to open. ...I'll come back for this later. PMDs are usually pretty decent, but CrakTools cost 5000z a pop, and it'll be a bit before that stops being hurting our wallet. Anywho, let's see what kinda viruses we've got in Area 1. There's bound to be something that isn't a RayCannon or a Kedama, right?   First up, we have the TinyOni. They hop around a bit, then eventually pick up speed before teleporting into your row and throwing our an electrified chain. If they hit you with it, you get yanked to the front row, and can't move for a couple seconds. This can be pretty dangerous when you're up against more powerful viruses, but Kedama? Eehh.  TinyOni is a special virus because it's also a Touhou character! They're based on Suika Ibuki, an Oni who, in typical Oni fashion, is fond of Booze and Fightin'. She's a rowdy one, that gal.   Next up, we have Junks. ...They don't do much, frankly. They don't move or defend themselves, they just launch grenades at your position every couple of seconds. The later versions have a wider explosion radius, but these ones aren't threatening at all. The panel they're targeting flashes for a second, but due to it being flicker-based effects, I was unable to capture it.  Oddly enough, the chip is better than the virus - you toss a bomb that explodes in a plus shape. ...Maybe it was holding back?   Final new virus in this area, the PanelMole. They pop in an out of the ground a couple times, then shoot a tile of the stage at you, resulting in a hole directly in front of them. They can be a little bit annoying to hit, frankly! Much like how the GunHopr was invincible in the air, any enemy that burrows into the ground is invincible during that animation, even if they realistically should be able to take damage. ...I'll forgive them for it, though. They've got cool sunglasses.  Moving on to Genso Area 2!  This area has ramps to go down to the second level! There's a shop down there, but I kinda wanna hit up the Square first, so-  : "Ah, Shanghai! This road is blocked, so you'll have to take a detour.": "Just walk down the slope and around the bottom path."HEY.   : Friggin'... who puts a cube in the middle of the road? Why was that even possible for someone to do? Well, while I'm here, I may as well check out the shop.  Don't mind if I do~.  I grab two of her HPMemories before leaving, bringing my HP up to 240. I was tempted to grab the Heatswrd, because it's decently powerful, but I don't have any other S-code chips right now anyways, so it would get minimal use.   Hah! Try and impede my progress, will you?  We can take a right here to go to the Square, but I kinda want to see what's straight ahead first.  Taking a right up ahead nets us a free Recov20 A, which will inevitably sit in the bottom of my back for the rest of the game.  Heading north is blocked by an "eerie door", which will taunt me for hours until I remember which sidequest unlocks it. (Why is it eerie? Because there's a skull on it. Which you can't see, due to flicker-effects rearing their head again. It's the SSLP curse, I tell ya!)  : "AND I'M THE ONE THAT HAS TO FIX IT!": "POUT POUT!"And finally, heading left results in Sprite who is very adorably frustrated. Presumably, much like the elcor from Mass Effect, Sprites show their emotions very subtly, and so they proclaim them by declaring them as they talk.  Well, there's nothing left in Genso Area, so lets head into the Square, shall we?   Oh. Hmm, what's going on here? I bet it's nothing bad, I mean, we already saw the goons in Shanghai's PC were nice, they just looked intimidating. This probably only looks shady.  : "Huh? What do you want? Got some kinda beef with us?": "You makin' fun of us? We'll delete you! URAAAAAAAAH!"Wellp.   : "For two run-of-the-mill retail Navis like you to fight me two on one...": "Are you guys idiots!?"You know, now I can't help but wonder how some Navis might feel about being stock models, when bespoke Navis like Shanghai and such exist. ...That being said, given Shanghai's self-imposed title, I also can't help but wonder if being a Main Character™ in a sea of lookalikes has a tendency to cause megalomania.  : "Seems like diplomacy is off the table. C'mon, Alice! Let's thrash 'em!"Fine by me!    Let's do this. Music: VS. Tournament  Hey, guess what's back! That's right, Generic Navi fights are back! And this time, they're in a good game. Also, as a nice touch, they're not just given the generic "HeelNavi" moniker, every time you fight guys like this as part of a story encounter, they have their own unique names. We're not just fighting some random goons, we're fighting PunkBro and LilPunk!  These two have a couple different methods of attacking right now, almost entirely with chips that we have access to. They favor moves like PanlShot, ShotWave, Sword, and RayCanon. Unfortunately for them...  That's one.  And that's two. ...  ...But Shanghai's merciful, and doesn't actually delete them.   : "Bro, what's 'where above and below meet' even supposed to mean!?": "Wah! You moron! What if she hears the clue to the treasure!?": "Ah! Dang it!" : "Dang! Retreat!" Before Shanghai can grill them about the "treasure", they jack out and save themselves further embarrasment.  : "We got a clue to the treasure, so I'd say it went well.": "Actually, I was talking about helping someone in need.": "Anyways, what is 'where above and below meet' supposed to mean?": "It should be in Genso Area, so let's find a spot matching the clue!": "Sounds good!"A lead's a lead, after all. But hey, now that our competition's out of the way, let's check out the rest of the Square first!   : "I'M CURRENTLY MAKING A CHAT BOARD!": "I NEED TO FOCUS, SO I'D APPRECIATE SOME PEACE AND QUIET!": "DING DONG!"Sprites: still pretty dosh garn cute.  : "No wonder they respect you! You're not afraid of the bad guys!"  Shanghai accepts praise from everyone, while this guy bemoans his innate lack of superhero skills.  And I elect to buy another HPMemory, because you can never have enough! ...seriously, some of the fights in this game are brutal.  Subchip vendor has a couple of goodies, but I'm all out of cash. On a related note, you may notice he's a palette-swapped version of Ms. Asakura's Navi! Or, rather, the other way around. Much like Mick's Navi from BN6, side characters without full-on custom navis sometimes elect to tweak their stock models a bit to give them some personal touches. It's the little things.   Back out on the Net proper, it's time for some cyber-sleuthing. Returning to the underpass that we had to take to get past the passcube (which has now, thankfully, been removed), Shanghai begins her search!  : "'Above and below' meet in the middle, so right here!": "Look, Alice! There's a crack in the floor!": "...I can't see it. Are you sure?"I'm choosing to believe the reason why it was buried here is because this spot is hidden from the operator's view, due to it being set at an isometric perspective.   Bingo.  : "It doesn't look like a Battle Chip... Do you recognize it?": "Um... I only know that it's some kind of compressed data.": "Compressed data?": "Compressing data makes it easier to move large data files...": "Data can be reduced to a much smaller size by following a few rules.": "It could contain a Battle Chip, but I can't tell as is."Well now I gotta know. The mystery, it is tantalyzing.   Oh. drat! I guess in the future, winrar is a lot more vigilant about tracking down people who didn't buy a license.  : "That's a shame... Even after we worked so hard to find it...": "Well, let's just save it for later.": "It's snack time, so let's go get some cyber ice cream~!"Truly, the future is amazing.  : "If you only eat ice cream, you'll turn into an ice cream virus!": "Yeah right!": "Anyways, just do me a favor and jack out, will you?": "Jeez, you always want things your way."Well, if Shanghai wants ice cream, she can work for it first. Because I think there's a new virus in this area~!   Yeah, that'll do. You can find GunHopr1 here in this area! Same as GunHopr2, but less so. Next time, on Shanghai Genso Network: CYBER ICE CREAM. Blaziken386 fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Aug 21, 2020 |
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Jun 17, 2020 08:23
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I like the small map versions. And yeah, this is shaping up nicely! I kinda wanna play this now...quote:One: AFAIK, Capcom owns the copyright to the battle system in Japan. The developer was japanese, so, they were able to put legal pressure on him. It's the dumbest thing. I mean, that explains what Capcom DMCAd it for. But it still doesn't explain why they decided to DMCA it (compare to "Nintendo DMCAd AM2R because they were about to release Metroid: Samus Returns").
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Jun 17, 2020 09:06
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Blaziken386 posted:Next time, on Shanghai Genso Network: CYBER ICE CREAM. Also, I love that our Shanghai is a sukeban
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Jun 17, 2020 09:14
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