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RelentlessImp
Mar 15, 2011
I think my favorite part of this so far is all the cracks at Charles Shaughnessy's role on The Nanny. I'm glad I'm not the only person who started drawing comparisons between Sheffield and Nameless Wizard Dude.

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nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

RelentlessImp posted:

I think my favorite part of this so far is all the cracks at Charles Shaughnessy's role on The Nanny. I'm glad I'm not the only person who started drawing comparisons between Sheffield and Nameless Wizard Dude.

Right from when they announced the dub cast, it always astounded me that Charles Shaughnessy was in this game. I mean, he's done voice work for video games before; he's in one of my all time favourite PC games, Freelancer as a rather major character, but I just did not expect him to be showing up in a game like this. Especially since outside of him, Nolan North, Kari Walhgren, Crispin Freeman and Troy Baker, the game is pretty much cast with low-profile voice actors (if you're someone like me, who doesn't think the terms "low-profile" and "voice actor" are necessarily redundant. :v:).

EDIT: I mean, hell, the guy who plays Leonard doesn't have any credits on his IMDB page past 2011.

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 13:04 on Jan 4, 2014

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



In future posts you should put video links in as the screenshot narration starts rather than the bottom of the post. Also, just as a matter of personal preference, link music links individually rather than as a part of a playlist.

Xander77 fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Jan 5, 2014

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Xander77 posted:

In future posts you should put video links in as the screenshot narration starts rather than the bottom of the post. Also, just as a matter of personal preference, link music links individually rather than as a part of a playlist.

I can fix the music links. YouTube's weird address system defaults to the playlist over the individual song, but I'll get that taken care of,in short order.

Bricoleur
Feb 1, 2012

I'm shocked how Level-5 when from Dark Cloud 2 to this. The Avatar system seems so bizarre. I can usually put up with a bad game enough to see the ending but I don't think I could have finished this.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
Good news, everyone! Crow had me over to record some commentary for some WKC exploration videos and boss fights. On second thought, that's horrible news, isn't it? Anyways, they should be up in the near future

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

nine-gear crow posted:

Hang on. Where the hell did Dragias come from? The evil army burst in through the front door of the castle, which is actually down several levels from the throne where Valtos and Cisna are right now. Yet Dragias is coming down the stairs from higher up in the castle and in front of his troops’ point of ingress.

…Did he parachute onto the roof or something?

Because if that’s true, that’s AWESOME! I want to see that happen.

Someone draw this happening!

LEONARD'S ADVENTURE JOURNAL, ENTRY 1

DEAR DIARY,,

I DO NOT UNSDERSTAND HOW BAD GUY GOT FROM CASTLE STAIRS. I THOUGHT BAD GUYS COME FROM DOOR. OH WELL.



I MET PIRNCESS CESSNA AGAIN AND THIS TIME I GOT TO TOUCH HER. I AM NEVER WAHSHING THIS HAND@@@! CESSNA WAS ABDICTE-- ABDICA-- ER, KINAPPED KINESP-- SHE WAS TAKEN BY BAD GUY. NOW I HAVE ROBOT AND OLD MAN TO HELP ME FIND HER.

TTYL

LEONARD

Crystalgate
Dec 26, 2012

Bricoleur posted:

I'm shocked how Level-5 when from Dark Cloud 2 to this. The Avatar system seems so bizarre. I can usually put up with a bad game enough to see the ending but I don't think I could have finished this.

In hindsight, we should have expected the whole avatar thing to not work out as well as we hoped.

A lot of people here expressed what an interesting idea the avatar was. The problem is, in order to make a good use of the avatar concept, it takes a great understanding of what does and doesn't work when it comes to video-game storytelling. Level-5 doesn't really have that sort of understanding. Just look at Dark Cloud 2. Sure, I find it very fun to play, but the story has heaps of examples of poor writing. It's not such a big problem in DC2 because its story mainly serves to justify the gameplay. However, combine that writing with a more demanding concept like the avatar and it's a recipe for disaster.

Ashsaber
Oct 24, 2010

Deploying Swordbreakers!
College Slice
I never really thought about how Dragias got where he did, but the parachuting idea makes too much sense, especially given what we'll see next update.

Although I imagine he skipped the whole chute thing, and just landed without one. Makes an even better picture, IMHO.

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Blind Sally posted:

LEONARD'S ADVENTURE JOURNAL, ENTRY 1

DEAR DIARY,,

I DO NOT UNSDERSTAND HOW BAD GUY GOT FROM CASTLE STAIRS. I THOUGHT BAD GUYS COME FROM DOOR. OH WELL.



I MET PIRNCESS CESSNA AGAIN AND THIS TIME I GOT TO TOUCH HER. I AM NEVER WAHSHING THIS HAND@@@! CESSNA WAS ABDICTE-- ABDICA-- ER, KINAPPED KINESP-- SHE WAS TAKEN BY BAD GUY. NOW I HAVE ROBOT AND OLD MAN TO HELP ME FIND HER.

TTYL

LEONARD

In-loving-credible. I love that you also got a pretty accurate Pyredaemos in there too.

:allears:

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013


Well finally! This prologue has been going on forever.


CUTSCENE: Beneath Balandor
CUTSCENE / AERA MUSIC:Infiltration!” (Disc 1, Track 12)

We resume our round-circle trip through hell in the Balandor castle catacombs, a giant fortress underneath a fortress, apparently. I’m starting to get Last Story vibes. I wonder if we’re going to run into Zael and Calista down here?

…Anyone?


Cisna: Not this way!
Leonard: Hey, relax. Who knows their way around this castle better anyway, me or you?
Cisna: …Do you want me to hit you or something?
Leonard: Sorry, we don’t have a choice!

In his defence, he’s kind of right. Mr. Sheffield essentially shunted us into a Final Fantasy XIII-style hallway level, and going backwards means turning around and saying hello to Pyredaemos, and I don’t think anyone’s up for that.




GAMEPLAY VIDEO: Under Balandor Castle (with commentary this time!)

Once we gain control of Leonard again, Cisna is along with us as a guest character. Same rules apply, if she dies: game over. Just like Raus, she’s absolutely useless. No skills, no weapon, no spells and her default battle AI is set to “Stay Safe” and “Hang Back”.

Also, enjoy this brief glimpse of non-boss battle gameplay, because Blind Sally and I unanimously decided “gently caress that” to doing any more of these after how boring and samey this one went. Besides, what you see here is more-or-less 80% of what actual gameplay this game entails, the other 20% is coming up later in this update.

Leonard: Princess, are you alright?
Cisna: I-I’ll make it.


This area is essentially a series of broad platforms connected by stairs. Like I said, it’s a hallway level the likes of which Final Fantasy XIII would be proud of.

There’s usually one or two enemies per platform. And it’s about repetitive as you can get.


Leonard: It's like a castle under the castle!
Cisna: Why is this all happening?

Cinsa spends much of her Live Talk meekly sobbing over her father and the attack... like any normal human being who just experienced seeing a whole swath of people she knew and cared for (one of whom was HER FATHER!) being senselessly and brutally murdered would be. Leonard, meanwhile, spends his Live Talk being impressed by the architecture of the place.

Leonard is dumb.


That said, I really like the aesthetics of this place with the waterfalls and everything. It looks awesome, but it doesn’t make a lick of sense… Like a lot of things in this game.


Finally we come to an enclosed hallway at the end of the platforms, which lead down to the vaults under the castle.


As we get closer to the big black doors, the sudden letterboxing once again alerts us to an incoming cutscene.

Cisna: Wait, this is where… No, nevermind. Keep going!
Leonard: Huh? Oookay.


CUTSCENE: The Incorruptus


Leonard: What’s this?
Cisna: I think… It’s the treasure vault.


More chunks of the ceiling come falling down. I wonder…


Yep. It’s our old friend Pyredaemos.


Leonard: Uh-oh! Company!














I don’t know why the giant door they ran through is suddenly closed. Or why it was suddenly open to allow them in to the vault to begin with when it was clearly closed in the previous shot too.

PLOT CONTRIVANCE! (I’d work out a drinking game for this story, but I’m certain I would inadvertently murder at least a handful of goons through alcohol poisoning if I did).








Ah, Pyredaemos… I think you should maybe, you know…


Watch out for all the falling rubble…

Eh, gently caress it. Nice job burying yourself there.


Jackass.


Leonard isn’t actually unconscious at this point. He’s just taking a moment to desperately savour his first actual intimate contact with a female since he emerged from his mother’s vagina and WHY DID I WRITE THAT SENTENCE?!






Cisna: Oh gods, REALLY?!


Nothing says ‘young love’ like your female romantic lead pushing herself away from her alleged love interest in shock and disgust.

Also, I love how she got thrown forty feet across the room, slides across solid flagstone and not only managed to somehow land on Leonard despite being thrown in opposite directions, but also not manage to rip her dress or even get it slightly dirty.

You know what I’m certain happened here? Cisna was legit knocked out and Leonard just crawled over and laid her out on top of him to make it look like he shielded her from the impact with his body or something because he’s creepily obsessed with her now.






Okay, so they’re trapped in the vault now. But at least Pyredaemos is incapacitated.

Small victories.
:toot:




And here it is at last, off in the distance, the titular White Knight.


Leonard looks somewhat impressed. Then again, Leonard is impressed by shoes.

Leonard: What’s that?




Cisna: We found this armour… Seventeen years ago, after the Cataclysm.


Cisna: No one knows where it came from, but our scholars think it was made by the Ancients…


Leonard: Those Ancients must have been pretty tall.

You. loving. … :downs:

Well, in all fairness, I suppose that is a semi-cogent assumption to make, given how this thing apparently has zero context in Leonard’s world. Let’s just call it an Anime and be done with it.


Mysterious Man: That is an Incorruptus.

Or that.


Leonard: What?


Mysterious Man: A weapon of war, crafted by an ancient race. It is an awesome, cursed power…

HOW THE gently caress DID YOU GET DOWN HERE MAXWELL?! You stayed behind to help Yulie and Orren escape the castle. Are they safe? Did you abandon them? Because they’re not here with you. The room is sealed off thanks to Pyredaemos bringing the door down around it. So, were you just waiting here for us then? Did you somehow sneak past Leonard and Cisna and get here before them? Did you teleport into the room?


Orren: I have literally no idea how he got in there. I asked him like eight times between then and now and I never got a straight answer. He did call me ‘Niles’ more times than I’d care to remember, though. …Senile old coot.




Leonard: A weapon?
Mysterious Man: The castle’s raiders are after this. They seek a holy relic known as the Ark, the key to the Incorruptus’s power.


Raiders of the… Ark? Nah. gently caress you, White Knight Chronicles, how DARE you try to subtly invoke better crafted works of fiction.

Ooo, I wonder what that might be on the pedestal?

Leonard: Ark…?

Oh god, he’s doing the “Shion,” AKA: repeating the key noun or phrase of whatever was just say as a question to imply puzzlement or confusion.

To see other examples of The Shion in action, check out SkurvyKip’s Xenosaga LP, just in case you need even more incentive to try and kill yourself after suffering through White Knight Chronicles.


Oh hey, Pyredaemos isn’t dead.







I love how he just stands face-on into the explosion.

Leonard: It’s back!
Cisna: It never left…
Mysterious Man: Wonderful.
Leonard: Dammit!






Leonard makes a run for the Ark…


Much to Maxwell’s horror.

Mysterious Man: What are you doing?!


Leonard: Fighting! You said it was a weapon, right? Well, now seems like a drat good time to use it!


Suddenly, Cisna’s batters run out. …I mean, Cisna is overwhelmed by a strange magical force the moment Leonard states his intention to fight using the Incorruptus.


Again with the bloody dutch angles…



Mysterious Man: Fool! Stay away from it if you want to live! Only the worthy are permitted to touch that!

Also notice the unhealthy blue glow that’s enveloped our fair Princess. She appears to be emitting Cherenkov radiation. I hope that Incorruptus is made of lead.


Cisna, meanwhile, begins whispering in the background in ancient gibberish, clearly preforming some sort of spell.

Leonard: Maybe so…


Leonard: But if I don’t, we’re all dead anyway!


Mysterious Man: You mustn’t!

…You’re fighting a losing battle here, dude.


Cisna: Zabar, Kredge, Caldor, WALMART!

I seriously think the voice director just told Kari Walhgren to make up random gibberish for a few minutes here. Because Cisna says a lot of stuff during this brief interlude, but none of it is words.



Like a glove… wait.


The look of a young mean realising he’s made a huge mistake.




The Ark emits a blinding blue light.


And of course, the only thing Leonard is worthy of is a swift kick in the balls to ensure he never reproduces, so he’s incinerated by the Ark in moments, Indiana Jones-style. Because ancient magic does not broker crippling stupidity…













CUTSCENE: The Ghost in the Machine

gently caress. YOU. GAME!

Christ. He’s still with us. Okay, so Leonard awakens to find himself… somewhere else.

Leonard: Where am I? What happened?


Phantom: O thee who wouldst wield my pow’r…


Leonard: Wh-who’s there?
Leonard: And why are you talking funny? What do you think this is, the Middle Ages?




Ask and you shall receive.




I just love the design of this thing, the way it looks like it’s made of like marble or something on one side with dark energy flowing underneath as all the chips and pieces constantly come flying off of it. Yeah, it’s over-the-top and anime as hell, but screw that, it’s cool looking.


Leonard is understandably freaked out to see this thing just floating there all baddass and poo poo.

Phantom: O thee who wouldst wield my pow’r… Draw thy blade.




Phantom: Now is the time to prove thyself worthy.

Again, the game gets my hopes up. I should just throw this fight and die, but noooooooo you people want to see how this game ends for some reason.




:stare:


BOSS FIGHT: The Phantom & Pyredaemos (with commentary by nine-gear crow and Blind Sally)

So Leonard gets to fight the Phantom alone in this weird pocket dimension.

Not to kill the tension or anything, but we’re not really in any danger here. Even in a vanilla new game, the Phantom is a one-note pushover if you're anywhere over Level 3 or 4 going into this fight. This fight isn’t about confronting a serious boss, it’s about hyping you up for getting control of the White Knight for the first time.

He’ll whip out this really cool ghost sword and whack you with it, but that’s about it. He also gets some ominous in-battle dialog:

Phantom: I hear it! The voice of your SOUL!
Leonard: Hey! Just hold on!
Phantom: GRANT MY WISH!
Leonard: …Who is this guy?

That’s actually a giant-rear end game 2 endgame spoiler, if fan speculation is to be believed, and honestly, I don’t know if its true or not, but the dangling implications are all there for it in this scene. I'll discuss my thoughts on it when we get to that point in the sequel, so you either need to be patient, or skip to the end of the game 2 portion of the LP and CTRL-F "Phantom" and see it for yourself.

Phantom: Couldst thou be the one?
Leonard: Hey! Worthy of what?!


So Leonard defeats a 10,000 year-old spirit using a cheap steel sword. For reasons.


Phantom: O thee who standeth and liveth before my blade.


Phantom: Thou art worthy of a pact. My master…

I’m pretty sure Leonard didn’t so much as beat the Phantom, so much as the Phantom just said, “gently caress it, he’ll do,” because it was tired of being chained to a drat wall in Cisna’s basement.




Phantom: To thee, all my pow’r I bequeath.

Loan, you mean.


The Phantom breaks up into dark energy and begins to encircle Leonard.














CUTSCENE: Verto!

And we cut back to pretty much the same moment we left on.

Blind Sally pointed out when we were just riffing on the cutscenes between commentary recordings that the scene becomes instantly funnier if you picture this all happening in real time. As in Cisna, Mr. Sheffield, and Pyredeamos just paused and waited as Leonard disappeared into an alternate dimension for like five minutes and then re-emerged instead of it taking less than a second as is implied in the cutscene.




Leonard: Wh-what happened?

Plot just happened, son, plot.


Mysterious Man: He’s alive?! I don’t believe it.
Leonard: Yeah, can totally hear you, old man. Thanks for the vote of confidence, by the way.
Mysterious Man: Could he really be one of the worthy?

Purely for the purposes of moving things forward… sure. Why not?


Oh yeah. This thing’s still here.


Hey, dumbass. DO SOMETHING ALREADY!




Leonard: O Wizel, white warrior, wielder of the ancient sword…

I don’t know how he suddenly knows this incantation. I can only assume the Phantom just downloaded it into his brain The Matrix-style. Don’t worry, it didn’t overwrite anything important. There wasn’t much in there to begin with.


Pyredaemos ain’t havin’ none of that.


Cisna: Watch out!




Oh I guess he died then. Yay. :toot:


Cisna: No…!
Cisna: poo poo. Um, hey, Gandalf, you want to give it shot then?


Like a cat with a pinned mouse, Pyredaemos lords over Leonard’s squished corpse.


It rears back…




And rams it turret into the Incorruptus. Why it just didn’t fire at it, I don’t know, but then again I totally get the irrational urge to break things associated with this game, so have at it, buddy.






Ouch.


:magical:




However, as the smoke clears, it appears the Incorruptus is undamaged.


But with a dead Pactmaker and the chains holding it up shattered, it collapses to the ground.


This game in a single image, ladies and gentlemen.



I stand corrected…




All seems lost at this point.


But!




Like they were gonna kill of the main character that easily. Besides, you can’t kill stupid.


Cisna: Oh thank the gods. Kill this drat thing and swear fealty to me already! We are going to war with so many people tomorrow morning I need a goddamn list for them all!
Mysterious Man: Some things never change, I see…
Cisna: By the way, hey, old man. You want to be my new Cyrus? Because I’m gonna execute my old Cyrus for failing to do his job properly tonight, and I’m taking resumes.




Leonard: …grant me your power!

Oh god, are you STILL trying to get through that that incantation? It’s not that difficult. Really, all you need to say is—






















CUTSCENE MUSIC:The White Knight” (Disc 1, Track 13)
Leonard: VERTO!

That.












Both Leonard and the White Knight disappear in a flash of blue light.







Blind Sally suggested the Sailor Moon transformation theme should be playing at this point.

I’d counter that by saying the transformation music from Digimon Frontier should be playing right now because, a) it would make this scene even more badass, and b) both it and WKC are essentially a pair of lousy franchise-killing “henshin hero” stories that ask the same question: “How badly and consistently can your heroes cock up basic acts of heroism before they stop being heroes anymore?”

But that’s neither here nor there right now.

Although speaking of which… I did make this, and and this for you all to watch.














With the transformation complete, the Incorruptus rises to its feet for the first time in ten thousand years.








Four LP chapters and 3 gameplay hours later and the White Knight Chronicle has begun in earnest. Leonard has just transformed into a walking fantasy tank. We have hit peak anime, people. Run for the lifeboats.

Blind Sally’s note: How is the fur around the White Knight’s collar still in pristine condition after 10,000 years of sitting dormant?


Pyredaemos, meanwhile, isn’t taking too kindly to suddenly being on even footing against an active Incorruptus.


The two titans size each other up while Cisna and Mr. Sheffield look on in awe. Also, the White Knight now has a blue cap. Because Level-5 just didn't want to bother rendering it up til this point.


Mysterious Man: This is… unexpected indeed…

You know what, Maxwell, I don’t believe you.




Oh hey, Cyrus and Yulie are here too. Where’s Orren? Well, it’s the most blatant plot chapter we’ve had since the word ‘go,’ so of course the Avatar is completely absent from it because that would involve making them an active part of the story and we can’t have that.

Let’s just say he’s up in the castle rescuing frightened nobles and burying his axe into well-deserving Magi soldiers while this madness is unfurling down here.

Castleguardsman: Sir Cyrus, look!


Cyrus: It can’t be! Impossible! W-why is it moving?!


Yulie: Is that you… Leonard?!

How she knows he’s become the White Knight after just arriving to an out-of-context scene and completely missing his transformation, I do not know. …PLOT CONTRIVANCE!




The White Knight unveils its big giant sword…




Whitesteel.


So we transition right into our first battle with the White Knight.

Incorruptus battles play nearly identically as on-foot battles, only the character you’re controlling is nearly 30 feet tall. Yet they still act like they have the weight and centre of gravity of the 5 foot tall characters.

I will give the game some credit, during this battle, these pillars that you see around us are breakable. They will collapse if either Pyredaemos crashes through one of them or if it knocks the White Knight into one of them.

They can’t be broken intentionally by you, however, nor do they do anything special if they are broken. Because Level-5 wanted to show that they cared a little, just not too much.


Leonard: Where’s this power coming from?

Anyway, because we’re on even footing with Pyredaemos now, we can attack any part of its body we want to now with the White Knight.


Much like trolls, Pyredaemos is vulnerable to stabbing attacks like Thrust.

Like I said, Incorrupti work on virtually the same principles as the regular characters do.

The only key difference is that outside of boss fights, while a character is transformed into an Incorruptus, their MP bar is slowly consumed. When the MP bar reaches 0, the character will revert to their human form. You can counter this by using MP supplementing items like Mana Potions or the Bow and Arrow skill Spirit Hymn to recoup some MP and keep your Incorruptus in the fight for a little while longer. If the Incorruptus’s HP drops down to 0 the character will also revert to their human form. Whether they revert by choice or they’re forced to revert under any circumstance, the character in question will be left with 0 MP and will need to replenish it.

It takes a minimum of 7 AC to transform into an Incorruptus outside of boss battles.






Leonard: You’ve caused enough damage!

So thrust and slash are old hats, but here’s Sonic Blade. It’s a slashing attack that’s also a long distance skill for swords. There’s an on-foot variation of it as well further up the short sword skill line. It looks cool, but because Pyredaemos can only be criticaled by stabbing attacks, it’s kind of pointless to use it right now.


CUTSCENE: Fighting Pyredaemos

It is enough, however, to trigger the next cutscene.






Pyredaemos belches fire in anger at getting its rear end handed to it, causing even more stuff to collapse around it.






The White Knight is fine…




But these puny human-type creatures all around it certainly aren’t.

Cisna: Aaaaaaaah!
Cisna: GodsDAMMIT! Stop breaking my castle!


Leonard: Fighting’s too risky here. Change of plans!


He runs up to Pyredaemos, aaaaaand…


Leonard: Falcon…


Leonard: PUN—
Orren: No. Just shut up.






He swoops in underneath Pyredaemos and hoists it over his head.


Breaking the floor with their combined weight. Nice touch.




And he jumps straight up through the ceiling with it, Superman-style. Though when you stop and think about it, again this should be another classic Leonard “No, I’m totally helping guys! Really!” gently caress up, as he pretty much just caused the ceiling to collapse in on the vault by bursting through it with Pyredeamos, almost assuredly killing Cisna, Yulie, Cyrus, Mr. Sheffield and those poor Castleguard schmucks.

…If someone was actually thinking things through and actions in this game had consequences. But alas, it doesn’t happen for reasons.

Leonard is a lovely, thoughtless hero who literally does not understand the term ‘collateral damage’ because ‘collateral’ is one of those big fancy dictionary words that make the inside of his head hurt when he thinks about them.

He’s essentially Henry Cavill’s Superman minus Cavill’s dopey charm. (Note: I have not seen Man of Steel, but I have seen and heard enough about it to know it kind of turns Supes into a blithely accidental mass murderer).


Well, I hope there aren’t any nobles or stray soldiers somehow still milling about the Castle…


Because this place just got even more hosed up.




Da. Da da da daaah.

Dah. Dah. Daaaah.

Da. Da da da daaaaaaah….

YOU’RE A TWAT!










Instead of trying kill Pyredaemos with his giant sword, Leonard instead tosses it into a pillar causing EVEN MORE COLLATERAL DAMAGE TO THE CASTLE!



Oh hey, Belcitane is just randomly there too. For what reason, I don’t honestly know. Though I suspect that, given everything we’ve learned about him as a character these last few chapters, he probably just got done pissing on Valtos’s corpse. Because why the gently caress not?

Belcitane: Hmm? Is that?!
Belcitane: An EVA? No, seriously what the hell is that thing?

It’s not in the commentary for this extended battle sequence, but we joked as we were recording the gameplay footage that it would be hilarious if Belcitane actually had no idea what he was attacking the castle to try and retrieve and he was legitimately shocked to see the White Knight come bursting up through the floor because he doesn’t have a clue as to what it is.


Anyway, Belcy just disappears as randomly as he appears and it’s back to Leonard and Pyredaemos one-on-one.




Leonard: Now we can finish this. Time to die, beast!


Leonard: We can fight all we want here.
Leonard: Wait, where was the hole we just came up through? Eh, nevermid.


No seriously. I am distressed by the distinct lack of a chasm right here.

I mean, it’s nice that you’ve got this big open area to faff about in and try out your newly acquired Knight, but it’s not really needed because you’re just going to be wailing on Pyredaemos the whole time.

Because it’s the only thing you can do in battle!

Honestly, it would be more interesting if there was a chasm here, because then it would show that even scripted actions in this game have consequences, and you could also use it to up the tension of the battle by essentially fighting Pyredaemos on the edge of a giant self-made cliff and you need to beat it quickly otherwise it might knock you off into the pit or the floor could collapse beneath you or something.

poo poo, Level-5, they were doing this as far back as Final Fantasy X. Are you telling me no one on the WKC dev team had the gumption to try and rip a mechanic like that off, even for one battle?


Eh, gently caress it. Same strategy as before: thrust your giant steel phallus into Pyredaemos’s gaping vagina-dentada.


Repeat until cutscene.




God-drat!






I don’t know why all the Knights in this game essentially wear high heels. It’s not practical in any way, although it does explain why they can be knocked off balance if you fart in their general direction at times.


Leonard: Urgh!




Here’s the wind up…




And the pitch!










FIST! It’s what’s for dinner.


Okay, fine, make your drat Captain Falcon joke, kid. You earned it.

Leonard: I don’t even know what that is.

gently caress you.


Looks like Team Rocket’s…


Blasting off…


Agaaaaaaaaain!


*ding*


Again with the “doing more harm than good” thing…




Leonard: Woah! Did I just do that?

We point it out in our riff of the between-battle cutscenes, but this was a point both me and Sally tweaked on. Leonard has fought and defeated an ancient spirit in what I can only assume is some kind of neitherworld, transformed into a twenty foot-tall walking suit of armour, picked up a walking magical flame-making GBS threads tank and powerbombed it through several hundred feet of rock and brick effortlessly, and now just punching it hard enough to send it flying through a doorway is what gets him to pause react in awe of what he’s doing.

Leonard is dumb. Incredibly dumb.

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 07:34 on May 3, 2015

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013





Oh why are you not dead yet? What, does dumbass need to throw you through a couple of houses before it sticks?

…Because I think that’s what he’s going to do next if someone doesn’t stop him.

Poor Rapacci, he’s just sitting there in his wine shop right now, wondering where the hell Leonard, Yulie, and Orren have gotten off to. There’s probably a couple of Magi corpses piled up on the floor with a sword of some sort through them from when they made the mistake of bursting into Rapacci’s domain uninvited. He’s minding his own business (literally)… When suddenly Leonard comes bursting clean through the building, suplexing Pyredaemos through the wall and killing him inadvertently.

You know, that would make this game so much more interesting if they actually did something like have Leonard go all Akira or Xenogears or Chronicle and just cause massive unintentional damage to a major population centre using powers that he didn’t earn and therefor doesn’t respect and are of a scale that they dwarf him as a character and he has to either live with the guilt of all the unintended blood on his hands and try his damndest to make amends for it in some way or spiral further into narcissistic, power-enabled madness until someone else comes along and stops him.

But alas, no. This is what happens when you’re terrified by the true scope of your premise’s potential: you play it safe and boring.

Instead, we have a titanic battle with only three real casualties: Valtos, Dalam, and Dignity.


Third time’s the charm, right?


And the puny mortals come out to watch the throwdown. Because if there’sanywhere that these people should be right now, it’s within 50 feet of a feral beast capable of belching flames from every orifice on its body and a 20 foot tall suit of armor capable of bodyslamming said beast into anything with enough force to completely destroy whatever it just threw it through.


Yulie: Leonard!

He doesn’t need you distracting him right now, dear.



Cisna: If you’re done breaking everything, please. …I need to figure out how to mass produce these things. Like yesterday.


Dragias: Don’t mind me…


Nefarious villain is nefarious.






And back to combat.

Leonard: How can this thing still be moving?

Plot. That’s why.


Leonard: Is it trying to kill me, or just cook me?




Again, same strategy: stab the fucker until it finally dies.

Leonard: This is the armour’s power?


See you in hell, Pyredaemos! Thank god I’ll never have to fight you again…

…Why is the game laughing at me again?


CUTSCENE: Pyredaemos Defeated ~ The Kidnapping of Princess Cisna

Seriously, that mask thing in its head reminds me of those super creepy floating head things from Super Mario Bros. 2.




Pyredaemos roars one final time and collapses dead, leaving its massive corpse behind in the castle bailey.

Great, now Cisna’s got two weapons of mass destruction for her scholars to reverse engineer…




Leonard: Huuh.


Mysterious Man: The lad did it.
Yulie: You sound kind of surprised. …You’re totally right to be, by the way.










With the battle over and the crisis seemingly averted, the White Knight kneels down as a strange energy washes over it.






It disappears into the ether, leaving Leonard behind no worse for ware.






Leonard: It’s over.


Leonard: But how did I… Where did I…?
Cisna: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!


CUTSCENE MUSIC:Scar” (Disc 2, Track 13).

Anyway, everyone turns around to see Cisna is somehow not there any more, despite her just moments ago standing right beside Mr. Sheffield and in front of Cyrus.

Again, the cutscene blocking in this game is the shits.














Oh for god’s sake. Really? This is the game’s plot? Super Mario Bros.? Well no wonder she looks disturbingly like Princess Toadstool, the game was just telegraphing this moment to the player subconciously.






Anways, a giant gently caress-off anchor suddenly falls from the sky and crashes into the castle steps, somehow leaving Cisna, Dragias, and Bowser-citane completely unharmed despite them being mere feet away from a collosal, traumatic impact.

Because physics only works in this world when it’s plot-relevant.

Cisna: Oh what the gently caress? REALLY?!




So there we go. As Ashsaber hinted, this is probably (but not actually) how General Dragias managed to parachute onto the roof of Balandor Castle.

Great, these assholes have an airship too. Oh, sorry, my mistake, they’re called monoships in this world, for whatever reason.

This thing has tons of guns on it. Why didn’t they use it to attack the castle and blow the hell out out of everyone while Valtos was was boring the crowd with his sixth straight digression about his dead wife? Outside a lone, inactive Incorruptus, Balandor had nothing in its arsenal to counter a game-changing weapon of this magnitude.

This is huge. The Magi have flight capability (weaponized flight capability, no less) in an otherwise (thus far) ground-based world. This is a giant, flying “I win” button for this world in its currently technological state. And here its just played off as a triviality.

I bet this night would have been over a hell of a lot sooner if they opened with the giant black, magic-powered airship of doom, no?

Again, Belcitane is a moron. He just happens to be the least moronic person in a world populated by even bigger morons.

Ergo: he wins tonight.






Cisna: You idiot! Transform again and save me!


Belcitane: Colour me surprised. Who would have thought a mere child could control the Knight? This puts a kink in our plans.
Dragias: I would call this much more than a kink.

Holy poo poo, you’re capable of talking? Like for real? I don’t have to use itallics for you any more? Sweet.


Belcitane: He’s… not bad, I’ll admit. But so what if he got the Ark. We can sort that out in due course. And we did achieve our other objective.
Dragias: Indeed.


Belcy looks at Cisna all creepy and evil, becoming nothing less than the avatar of unsubtlty.

Cisna: You sons of bitches have NO idea who you’re messing with. I am going to murder the both of you if you don’t let me go right now!
Belcitane: Give me ONE good reason, my sweetling.
Cisna: I have a bloody human tank on my side. You have a giant smoking corpse that’s crapping up my front lawn. Do the math.
Belcitane: I only see a boy down there. A boy with a stupid hair cut.
Cisna: Oh for GODS’S SAKES! Will you just TRANSFORM you idiot!
Leonard: I don’t know what I’ve been doing for the last 10 minutes! Is there some kind of manual on this thing?!
Cisna: Aw, gently caress it. I’ll just jump.


Dragias: Be my guest.
Dragias: Time has prooven there can be no peace without wise leadership. With their rulers dead, these two nations are bound to pick up arms once again and return to their pointless war.
Cisna: Hey, any war that ends with me winning is never pointless.
Dragias: You’re not getting this whole ‘kidnapped’ thing, are you, Princess?
Cisna: Queen. You made it happen, at least use the proper terminology now.
Dragias: Wait, I did what now?


Belcitane: Yes. The world we seek is close, General.

Any kind of hint on what sort of world that is, Belcy?

Anything?


You’re just gonna leave us hanging?



Does it involve killing Leonard? Because that’s a world I’d want to live in.


Oh, screw you then.


Cisna: Okay then, fine. So what’s your next move? Because if it’s anything other than throwing yoursleves on the idea of my supposed mercy and swearing to serve me, then I promise you it will end in your brutal deaths. It still might even if you DO, but at least there will be a chance of it maybe not happening.
Belcitane: Is there another member of your family that I can have killed to get you stop talking again?
Cisna: Oh godsdamnit! SARVAIN! CYRUS! NEW CYRUS! Your Queen is speaking! I’m declaring war on EVERYONE! Muster the army! Institute a draft! Suspend everyone’s personal liberties! Execute everyone who had a hand in this debacle! And for the love of all that’s holy, stay the hell off my throne until I get back!
Sarvain: Yeah, I’ll get right on that one, ‘Your Grace’. Pfft. :jerkbag:


Leonard: Princess!


Cisna: Use the Knight, you idiot! I mean—
Cisna: Leonard!






Leonard: CISNAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
Ghost Valtos: FLORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINE!

Not even death can claim this joke.


Cisna: You. loving. IDIOT!


Cisna: You have super powers now! USE THEM!






Instead, he just ineptly watches the monoship tear away into the night sky and off over the mountains.


Yes. Hang your head in shame, you useless gently caress up.

What have we accomplished tonight? King Valtos is dead. Archduke Dalam is dead. Balandor and Faria are headed back for war. Princess Cisna has been kidnapped, ensuring that the continuity of Balandor’s government is effectively shot to hell, because everyone around her sucks at protecting her. Most of the citizens of Balandor are also dead thanks to the Magi ambush. Balandor’s financial future is in jeopardy as well thanks to the majority of the nobility being slaughtered at the castle. Balandor’s homeguard army is also in tatters now thanks to the Magi. And Balandor Castle itself has suffered catastrophic damage thanks to both the Magi attack and Leonard’s gung-ho stupidity.


Cyrus is also about to kill himself now, as his job description is “protect the leadership of Balandor” and he’s pulled off a gently caress up hat-trick between Valtos and Dalam’s deaths and Cisna’s kidnapping.


But oh, hey, Sarvain survived after all. So there’s that.

Wait, where the hell were you during all this madness anyway?


And with that, Cisna narrates us out of the chapter with a handy voice over worhty of the Inheritance Cycle in terms of its empty feigned grandiosity.

Cisna: On that day, souls once parted came together again. It seemed like mere coincidence. But softly, sadly, the wheels of a cruel destiny began to turn…

And what a better way to sum up “cruel destiny” than by cutting directly to the title card of the game. It’s like the game is trying to tell you something itself. If you’d only listen to it.


CUTSCENE: Title Sequence [Remake Version]
CUTSCENE: Title Sequence [Original Version]
CUTSCENE MUSIC: "The Travellers (English Version)" (Game 2 OST, Track 20)

God drat, we made it.

From here, the game slam cuts to what I can only describe as an anime-style opening sequence that introduces all the main characters and previews some of the things we’ll be seeing, all to the tune of a bunch of meaningless word salad lyrics written by Akihiro Hino himself and valiantly sung into something resembling a song by a female vocal artist. You can see it in the cutscenes section if you really want to subject yourself to it. It does contain minor spoilers for things yet to come, though.

But other than that, that’s it for Chapter IV.

You think we’ve hit peak stupid? Hang on.

It gets worse.

(Also, if you play the enhanced remake of WKC I using the game 2 disc, it throws up game 2’s title card instead for whatever reason, despite showing game 1’s intro movie. I've posted both the game 1 and game 2 version of the intro here regardless. Game 1's intro is the instrumental version, while game 2's includes the actual English lyrics to The Travellers. We'll see game 2's title screen once we get to it… assuming my sanity holds out that long.)


Yeah, I don’t know what to say about that part, only that I wasn’t there for it, so you can’t pin it on me at least.

Hell, I survived the night, otherwise I wouldn’t be here telling you about it, now wouldn’t I? Unless I’m actually dead or something and this is just purgatory or wherever ever the hell it turned out they all were on :lost:. But I’m not that creative a storyteller.

I made it back to Rapacci’s place early in the morning. The Magi had pulled out of Blandor, and he was just sitting there on a pile of dead Magi troops, drinking a flagon of wine and just covered in blood and guts and other vital fluids.

I told him what happened, but he seemed more angry that Leonard had screwed up the delievery than that we’d been invaded. He told me to go back to the castle and bring the kid back, or failing that, bring back his corpse. I told him he had a deal if he tore up my contract with him.

And so there I was, trudging back to the castle, tiptoeing over corpses and around still-smoking craters, praying to every god of every land I’d passed through in my travels that everyone was dead up there. The old man told me what had happened while I wasn’t there when I arrived.

I discovered that night that it was possible to get so angry you that could actually black out.




BENEATH BALANDOR CASTLE & INCORRUPTUS VAULT



SONG LYRICS

The Travelers (English Version) posted:

Lyrics: Akihiro Hino
Vocals: Cindy Alexander

Oh so quietly
Eyes of the angels open wide, Aria
To a world yet unseen by you
Arise
The journey's begun

Heaven is spilling her heart around
Open your palm and see what you've found
Somewhere in the fog, a moment we forgot
Remember my darling you're loved but you're lost

Raising your hands to a beckoning sky
SPlinters of light are burning your eyes
Wounded and blind
And pining for
The gaze of a mother

No, no you can't go back
Don't you dare and try to go back
Step by step you're all alone
Walking towards tomorrow

I follow you beyond the clouds
I search for your love in my dreams
Seeking west end wind, east end sea
We have one, one destiny
The traveler walks alone searching for me
Never end

Light is falling from broken things
Somehow forgetting we used to have wings
The stars in your eyes are begging to shine
Crying for love to relinquish the fire

Listen oh listen, a call from the dark
So far to travel so close to your heart
Answer my prayer
And the mystery that is buried within

No, no we can't go back
Don't you dare and try to go back
Sacrifice 'til journey ends
Make my wish come true again

I follow you beyond the stars
And long for your love in my dreams
Seeking west end star, east end sun
And thy will shall be done
The traveler walks alone searching for you
Never end

You are the light I need to shine on times like these
Soul to soul
I believe
We are bound eternally

I follow you beyond the stars
And long for your love in my dreams
Seeking west end star, east end sun
And thy will shall be done
The traveler walks alone searching for you
Never end

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Mar 23, 2015

Alavaria
Apr 3, 2009
That's pretty hilarious...

Now I'm wondering if somehow, these ancient, super-rare super-secret things just happen to be sufficient in number for all the important characters to have one before we're halfway through.

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.
Ah, I sometimes love how anime as gently caress the game can be. I mean seriously this is "Opening of a Mecha Anime" 101 here. And hey, not cool with slamming Frontier, sure it's a B-Grade action show with the heroes spending an entire arc being utterly useless and basically failing to achieve any goal they set for themselves.

But it's not 02! And that show was a loving travesty because it doesn't even have good action to fall back on. It's just "Lets destroy dark towers for 95% of the show, also lets let the villains all take each other out because we sucks and can't actually beat any of them". Also it didn't kill Digimon dead we got Savers and Xros Wars from it, and both of those are great. Time Hunters can suck a dick though.

But yeah now begins the recurring theme of this game. Cisna being kidnapped and everyone standing around like a gaping fish while she's dragged off to the next castle.

Seriously this level of "Your Princess is in another castle" is only matchable by Mario. I wanted so badly to love this game, because I like Mecha, I like Level-5, and I like JRPGs. But that just drove me loving nuts.

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Onmi posted:

And hey, not cool with slamming Frontier

Hey, I liked Frontier for what it was worth, but I will throw anything under the bus if I can get a good joke out of it.

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Jan 14, 2014

Heavy neutrino
Sep 16, 2007

You made a fine post for yourself. ...For a casualry, I suppose.
Does the game later give a reason for Orren just randomly going AWOL?

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.

Heavy neutrino posted:

Does the game later give a reason for Orren just randomly going AWOL?

No, it's not important enough for a reason, you're just there off to the side


nine-gear crow posted:

Hey, I liked Frontier for what it was worth, but I will throw anything under the bus if I can get a good joke out of it.

Well I can respect that. I'm sure there will be lots to go under a bus before this run is done. Though if I can be frank, some times it seems the vitriol can be a bit much for some of the more minor stuff. I mean there's a lot to get angry about, but it seems like you were really reaching with some stuff. And it's not like the things aren't there (The Cinematography is still crazy) But things like there being no hole in the floor in the battle inside the palace was something I would probably briefly pass over. I feel like if you focus and beat up every negative point you'll wind up killing yourself.

Queen Fiona
Jan 8, 2008

Of all evil I deem you capable: therefore I want the good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.
...you know, now that I see just how deeply obsessed Leonard gets with Cisna and how far he's willing to go to get in her panties, 'White Knight Chronicles' seems a very, very appropriate name.

Onmi posted:

But it's not 02! And that show was a loving travesty because it doesn't even have good action to fall back on. It's just "Lets destroy dark towers for 95% of the show, also lets let the villains all take each other out because we sucks and can't actually beat any of them".

It brought us the awesomely camp and self-indulgent Digimon Emperor, at least! Or the dub version of him, at least, because I'm an unwashed gaijin who never watched it subtitled. It's telling that even my kid-self got bored after he got unbrainwashed or whatever, though.

Alavaria posted:

That's pretty hilarious...

Now I'm wondering if somehow, these ancient, super-rare super-secret things just happen to be sufficient in number for all the important characters to have one before we're halfway through.

What, you mean like Legend of Dragoon? Which is kind of a lovely game in its own right, but it's miles ahead of this piece of crap.

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.

Queen Fiona posted:

It brought us the awesomely camp and self-indulgent Digimon Emperor, at least! Or the dub version of him, at least, because I'm an unwashed gaijin who never watched it subtitled. It's telling that even my kid-self got bored after he got unbrainwashed or whatever, though.


What, you mean like Legend of Dragoon? Which is kind of a lovely game in its own right, but it's miles ahead of this piece of crap.

It did, but in doing so it managed to introduce plot holes out the bunghole! I really do wish they would go ahead an pretend it never existed. the Adventure world ended at "Children's War Game"... For that matter Xros Wars ended with the 7 Death Generals, Frontier ended with Cherubimon defeated and the franchise remained popular enough that they actually kept translating the video games.

Also It's unfair to claim that Leonard is a White Knight. That would imply that Leonard had enough capacity of thought to want to do the protection thing to girls that weren't Cisna... and that Cisna needed to be "Under Threat" for him to go to her defense.

Yeah I just said that White Knights have more sense than Leonard. I, much like Crow, don't have any respect for Leonard, I'm sure you COULD do something interesting with him, but We've seen his entire character now, it's Cisna. That's our viewpoint character. Have fun.

Rainuwastaken
Oct 30, 2012

Another blue ribbon for Hecarim.
Man, the Knight combat is just such a letdown. Peak anime or not, I like the look of the White Knight, because it's a badass giant paladin robot armor suit thing. Hell, the transformation cutscene is corny as hell, but at least you're gonna be playing as something infinitely cooler than Leonard right? Nope, the same terrible, slow, boring combat pops up to ruin it.

Can we follow Vader around instead? He could spend the whole day filing taxes for the evil empire and he'd still be more interesting than the handful of brain cells called Leonard.

Snugglecakes
Dec 29, 2008

:h: :glomp: :h:

nine-gear crow posted:


Nothing says ‘young love’ like your female romantic lead pushing herself away from her alleged love interest in shock and disgust.

Also, I love how she got thrown forty feet across the room, slides across solid flagstone and not only managed to somehow land on Leonard despite being thrown in opposite directions, but not manage to rip her dress or even get it slightly dirty.

You know what I’m certain happened here? Cisna was legit knocked out and Leonard just crawled over and laid her out on top of him to make it look like he shielded her from the impact with his body or something because he’s creepily obsessed with her now.

So Leonard is basically Zapp Brannigan from Futurama? Because that's how I'm going to read his lines from now on.

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.

Rainuwastaken posted:

Man, the Knight combat is just such a letdown. Peak anime or not, I like the look of the White Knight, because it's a badass giant paladin robot armor suit thing. Hell, the transformation cutscene is corny as hell, but at least you're gonna be playing as something infinitely cooler than Leonard right? Nope, the same terrible, slow, boring combat pops up to ruin it.

Can we follow Vader around instead? He could spend the whole day filing taxes for the evil empire and he'd still be more interesting than the handful of brain cells called Leonard.

I can understand why, because the Knight isn't limited to plot cutscenes and you can use it any time, it ONLY replaces Leonard with the others still running about as a part of the party and participating. In that way it's more of a summon like the Aeons of FFX or the Espers of FFXII, except your other party members are still running about. In that sense it's kind of hard to change it up that much since... well... It's still got to abide by the games gameplay.

Now mind you this is more a criticism of the gameplay system than defense of the Knight. The main difference is that much like a ranged character he can attack wherever the hell he feels like. He does gain some new skills but yeah, it's very boring.

Also, see that boss fight? there are several like it where it's JUST the Knight vs something big. They aren't all as boring as Pyre but they are still pretty boring.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Haha, yes, yes!


Onmi posted:

Well I can respect that. I'm sure there will be lots to go under a bus before this run is done. Though if I can be frank, some times it seems the vitriol can be a bit much for some of the more minor stuff. I mean there's a lot to get angry about, but it seems like you were really reaching with some stuff. And it's not like the things aren't there (The Cinematography is still crazy) But things like there being no hole in the floor in the battle inside the palace was something I would probably briefly pass over. I feel like if you focus and beat up every negative point you'll wind up killing yourself.

No, you don't understand the hole was totally there. It was just slightly off camera--which we couldn't turn around to get a proper look at.

GeneralYeti
Jul 22, 2012

Look at this smug broken asshole.
A pact, eh? Leonard's price must have been all his intelligence.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

GeneralYeti posted:

A pact, eh? Leonard's price must have been all his intelligence.

He didn't have any to begin with.

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Rainuwastaken posted:

Can we follow Vader around instead? He could spend the whole day filing taxes for the evil empire and he'd still be more interesting than the handful of brain cells called Leonard.

Screw Dragias, I want to follow Belcitane around as he hits people with sacks full of puppies and pushes elderly and crippled people to the ground and rides around on his giant flame-shutting tank beast cackling like a madman because, gently caress you he's loving this poo poo.

Any single villain in he his story is infinitely more interesting than Leonard, even the boring ones with hollow motivations like Shapur or Crispin Freeman.

Seraphic Neoman
Jul 19, 2011


This game gets bit in the rear end for its MMO gameplay. I swear that Level-5 is like some proto-Idea Factory. They have good ideas but gently caress 'em up with bad decisions. And I noted that 1/3 of the opening were cutscenes we already saw.

How long is this game again?

Crystalgate
Dec 26, 2012
For any who watched the gameplay videos, what you saw was WKC 2's improved combat. The first WKC had even worse combat.

The most notable difference is that in WKC 2, cooldown begins as soon as you start attacking. In the first WKC, the cooldown doesn't begin until you've finished your attack animation. I also think cooldown used to be longer. So, you attack and then you have to wait three or so seconds until you could attack again. This is if you use light weapons and armor. If you made the mistake of equipping heavy armor, maybe because you noticed heavy armor has higher defense, expect a cooldown of five or more seconds instead.

Crystalgate
Dec 26, 2012
Double post.

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

SSNeoman posted:

This game gets bit in the rear end for its MMO gameplay. I swear that Level-5 is like some proto-Idea Factory. They have good ideas but gently caress 'em up with bad decisions. And I noted that 1/3 of the opening were cutscenes we already saw.

How long is this game again?

Nah, if this were an Idea Factory game I'd have never touched the loving thing, because IF games are creepy as poo poo. (Note: I'm hereby prohibiting any and all talk about Idea Factory/Compile Heart games from this thead, just because I don't want to see that creepy-rear end :can: get opened).

The straight single player side of WKC I is about 30-40 hours long. As you can see by my table of contents I'm the OP, I've gauged it to be about 25-ish chapters worth of content, assuming the game breaks down into the segments I assume it does in my head. I've already started to notice that some chapters are actually longer/shorter than I imagined them being.

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jan 14, 2014

Sunning
Sep 14, 2011
Nintendo Guru

SSNeoman posted:

This game gets bit in the rear end for its MMO gameplay. I swear that Level-5 is like some proto-Idea Factory. They have good ideas but gently caress 'em up with bad decisions. And I noted that 1/3 of the opening were cutscenes we already saw.

How long is this game again?

That's one of the issues some people have with Level-5's in-house designers. Level-5 is usually at their best when an outside team handles their game design while they take care of the coding and production values. Their Dragon Quest are designed by Armor Project with Level-5 working as code grunts. Their Layton games have great puzzles from Akira Tago's Head Gymnastics but the adventure elements by Level-5 aren't as solid.

Between the online multiplayer and the long singleplayer story, I think White Knight Chronicles just collapsed under the weight of its ambition. The game was delayed for a full year but released with signs that the game wasn't finished. You'll see it when WKC1 ends.

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Sunning posted:

That's one of the issues some people have with Level-5's in-house designers. Level-5 is usually at their best when an outside team handles their game design while they take care of the coding and production values. Their Dragon Quest are designed by Armor Project with Level-5 working as code grunts. Their Layton games have great puzzles from Akira Tago's Head Gymnastics but the adventure elements by Level-5 aren't as solid.

Between the online multiplayer and the long singleplayer story, I think White Knight Chronicles just collapsed under the weight of its ambition. The game was delayed for a full year but released with signs that the game wasn't finished. You'll see it when WKC1 ends.

Oh, if you think the first game ends on a "gently caress it, let's just end it here" note, it's got NOTHING on game two. But yeah, Akihiro Hino is kind of like the JRPG George Lucas, when there's no one around to reign him in or steer him in a direction towards competency, we get stuff like White Knight Chronicles instead of Professor Layton, Dragon Quest and Ni no Kuni, which all had outside influences propelling their successes.

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger

Rigged Death Trap posted:

He didn't have any to begin with.

Hey, if Verdelet can give up his goddamned hair...

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Keeshhound posted:

Hey, if Verdelet can give up his goddamned hair...

And thus memories of The Dark Id's Drakengard LP come flooding back. Sadly, White Knight Chronicles will not end up anywhere near as batshit insane (or weirdly creative, for that matter) such as having its final boss be a 500 foot tall 7 year-old girl having the mother of all temper tantrums.

Christ, when Square turns its back on its sub-studios, they get up to some really weird poo poo sometimes. These days oddball games like Drakengard and Drakengard 2 would be murdered mid-production and cannibalized by FFXV's ever-growing production bloat... or would that be sacrificed to FFXV?

Seraphic Neoman
Jul 19, 2011


nine-gear crow posted:

Christ, when Square turns its back on its sub-studios, they get up to some really weird poo poo sometimes. These days oddball games like Drakengard and Drakengard 2 would be murdered mid-production and cannibalized by FFXV's ever-growing production bloat... or would that be sacrificed to FFXV?

I have high hopes for FFXV because I am a True BelieverTM so I would be okay with this.
And say what you will about FF8 cannibalizing Xenogears, FF8 was much more fun to play.
Like I literally don't remember hating a single level in FF8. They were in between fantastic (Deep Sea Research Lab :syoon:) or whatever (The Prison place)

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.

nine-gear crow posted:

Oh, if you think the first game ends on a "gently caress it, let's just end it here" note, it's got NOTHING on game two. But yeah, Akihiro Hino is kind of like the JRPG George Lucas, when there's no one around to reign him in or steer him in a direction towards competency, we get stuff like White Knight Chronicles instead of Professor Layton, Dragon Quest and Ni no Kuni, which all had outside influences propelling their successes.

Game 2 ends on a very obvious "We're totally going to have a White Knight Chronicles 3 you guys" ending much like WKC 1 ends on an obvious "We're totally going to have White Knight Chronicles 2" note. The thing is that they of course never did, they released a PSP Prequel where you accomplish even less than you do in WKC 1 and 2. So the story sort of just whimpers and never concludes.

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Onmi posted:

Game 2 ends on a very obvious "We're totally going to have a White Knight Chronicles 3 you guys" ending much like WKC 1 ends on an obvious "We're totally going to have White Knight Chronicles 2" note. The thing is that they of course never did, they released a PSP Prequel where you accomplish even less than you do in WKC 1 and 2. So the story sort of just whimpers and never concludes.

Actually, the Vellgander apex mission and the Avatar Story wrap up the plot of the duology. It's just that no one saw either of them because you need a 8-person power-levelled Online party equipped with the best everything you can bind in order to even have a hope of possibly clearing that mission, which I'd wager about 0.0000001% of the game's player base even bothered with. And then nobody outside of Japan saw how the Avatar Story ended, because D3 got lazy and caught a case of the "gently caress that, we've lost enough money on this turd" and never localized it.

You stack those two on top of each other and it kind of slams the door shut rather neatly on things without the need for a White Knight Chronicles III. It's just that Level-5 was so boneheadedly dedicated to its failed MMORPG premises that it hid the game's true ending and closure completely out of reach for like 90% of its audience.

That's why I'll be going over each of these things in he he game 2 post-mortem, just so I can finally say once-and-for-all that I'm done with it at last.

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 09:29 on Jan 15, 2014

Meinberg
Oct 9, 2011

inspired by but legally distinct from CATS (2019)

nine-gear crow posted:

And thus memories of The Dark Id's Drakengard LP come flooding back. Sadly, White Knight Chronicles will not end up anywhere near as batshit insane (or weirdly creative, for that matter) such as having its final boss be a 500 foot tall 7 year-old girl having the mother of all temper tantrums.

Christ, when Square turns its back on its sub-studios, they get up to some really weird poo poo sometimes. These days oddball games like Drakengard and Drakengard 2 would be murdered mid-production and cannibalized by FFXV's ever-growing production bloat... or would that be sacrificed to FFXV?

You're a fan of strange, odd-ball games like Drakengard? Hankering for some more of Drakengard's madness?

Well, I have good news for you!

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry

nine-gear crow posted:

It's just that Level-5 was so boneheadedly dedicated to its failed MMORPG premises that it hid the game's true ending and closure completely out of reach for like 90% of its audience.

Well, drat. That's just sadness on top of badness, that is.

Also, loving that closing narration. "Softly, sadly, with a sound like a giant robot slugfest followed by a 200-ton anchor dropped from ten stories up, the wheels of destiny began to turn."

Glazius fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Jan 15, 2014

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marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

SSNeoman posted:


And say what you will about FF8 cannibalizing Xenogears, FF8 was much more fun to play.


Wrong. I loving loved the fighting in Xenogears, but FF8 frankly bored me. Like, there was one level (I think it was an actual sewer level) in FF8 where I fell asleep while I was playing. Didn't much care for either story, to be honest, though.

But both played better than this piece of poo poo!

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