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Whatever's more convenient to you. My only request is that you do one of two things: 1. Be completionist as gently caress and do just about every last sidequest so we can see the masterful chart showing the links between every goddamn NPC in the world. 2. Be selective as gently caress and do (or at least show) only the sidequests that are in some way unusually interesting or rewarding. The dilemma here is that despite the sheer number of sidequests, nearly all of them (aside from generic kill/collect ones from nameless NPCs) are in fact interesting and shed some light on the character of one or more of the NPCs in the game. If you really go nuts sidequesting, you actually end up seeing an appreciable amount of personality and sometimes development, from nearly every named NPC. And there are over 150 of them. So there isn't really a nice compromise option of "only do the sidequests which provide interesting insights or humor" because that's, well, almost all of them. The sidequests themselves can get a bit samey (they mostly devolve to kill/collect quests in terms of what you actually have to do from a gameplay perspective), but they become a story of their own after a while. Video or screenshot, either way I'd certainly ask that you snip out the bits where you're actually doing the killing or collecting, except for when something calls upon you to fight a unique, because the music always rocks. Backup option: focus on the plot and skim past sidequests in the first playthrough, and then have an NG+ playthrough that focuses in heavy depth on NPCs and sidequests.
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Sep 20, 2013 22:18
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Vil posted:The dilemma here is that despite the sheer number of sidequests, nearly all of them (aside from generic kill/collect ones from nameless NPCs) are in fact interesting and shed some light on the character of one or more of the NPCs in the game. If you really go nuts sidequesting, you actually end up seeing an appreciable amount of personality and sometimes development, from nearly every named NPC. And there are over 150 of them. God yes, that's part of what I loved about this game. The world's so fleshed out, it feels so alive. The NPCs all have their own things going on completely separate from the main plot and it's lovely. Hell, there's a decent amount of setting information you only get from sidequests. I'm pretty sure Lethemonster already said she wasn't going to do too much in the way of sidequesting though (just whatever she likes best or is requested), since it was part of what burnt her out on her first attempt LPing this, and I can easily see why. As for presentation, I'd prefer hybrid or screenshot so we can get some cute reaction shots  But whatever's most convenient is of course the best!Fake edit: Oh I have another sidequest request! The questchain in the refugee camp with that writer guy and artist lady and the little Nopon kid is adorable and shouldn't take too long at this point in the game (if you haven't locked it out already).
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Sep 20, 2013 22:50
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I'm fine with screenshots for the sidequests. I enjoyed the way you handled the Heart To Heart with Fiora and Shulk and would be happy to see more of that style.
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Sep 20, 2013 22:54
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I'd say sort-of-hybrid: screenshots are probably sufficient for most chains, but the boss fight for that ultra-awesome quest chain that starts in Frontier Village clearly deserves to be on video.
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Sep 20, 2013 23:12
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Blind Sally posted:Reyn: I'm on fire! Sharla, did you see me? Did you see what I did!? The laugh that Shulk pulls off here is perfect. Shulk: Sharla, can you teach me how to use an ether rifle? Dunban: Giving up the sword already...? Shulk: No, it's not like that... Sharla: Oh, let him give it a go, Dunban. Melia: It is awfully quiet without Shulk and Reyn Dunban: I agree, we should stick with this party Sharla: Dunban, you are bad!  Dunban is a pimp.
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Sep 20, 2013 23:29
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Heart to hearts will always be presented as screenshots, because they have no voice acting in them. If they did I would be presenting them as little videos. I really wish they were voiced, but then I guess it's a lot of extra content to have voice acted and having it silent is better than not at all. My main thoughts with regards to most side quests is that I want to be level appropriate for the end game because it loses a lot of it's oomph if you are just over powered the first time you see it. But then I'm going to do the end game + content (the final boss fight is not the hardest in the game, ala weapons in final fantasies being harder than the final bosses). Doing lots of sidequesting it is very easy to end up too far ahead in each area. I see the majority being done after I've done the run through to the end, and then going back and starting from a previous save and turning into a murder machine. I found last time round that no one was really interested in the side quests but not with a more straight line through the plot the thread some more chipper and active, which is making it much more fun to do. I've got a quest line recorded that I will edit together into a single video flow and see how it goes down. Edit: I'm thinking it would be good to do it from the perspective of doing bits and pieces when I arrive at a place, but needing to power through to save the world. Then when that's done the crew decide to just go and fix everyone's problems and kill giant things. Lethemonster fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Sep 21, 2013 |
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Sep 21, 2013 00:35
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"Riki! You must go and fulfill the ancient prophecy of some guy owin' me five bucks!" The Chief is the best.
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Sep 21, 2013 02:09
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I think a hybrid approach to the quest stuff would be okay. Mostly screenshots and if anything is interesting on video, you could show that. All the sidequests are unvoiced, so video wouldn't usually add much. You can get overlevelled from doing sidequests, but certain areas need you to have high affinity with them to unlock more characters skill trees, so use your discretion. I'd do only the most interesting sidequests, but I'd give higher priority for the ones that are timed. A lot of them are just "fetch me an item" or "kill me a monster" and those can probably be skipped. EDIT: I've been doing a bunch of the sidequests. I've skipped a fair few in Colony 9 and some in Satorl Marsh, but most everything else, and I'm still just about at the right level. I'm probably going to hold off a little while and do a few quests to see if I can unlock another skill or two for Melia before fighting the mother Telethia. Almost every playable character has an achievement for using their arts 100 times. This can take a little while to get, but I got Melia's in about 20 minutes. Using Dunban, I found myself holding off on arts waiting for some cooldowns to expire (so I could do combos). For Melia, there is pretty much no downtime. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Sep 21, 2013 |
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Sep 21, 2013 13:59
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I'm fiddling about with the video settings. Can you guys tell me if you think there is a notable difference between these two videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLjwZ9lmk4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKPRlF4RfDI It's just the first couple of minutes of the next update.
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Sep 22, 2013 18:11
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The second one is noticeably better looking.
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Sep 22, 2013 18:21
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The second one is better. I assume you didn't bother making the audio stereo because it was just a video test. By the way, the last video cuts off as a cutscene is starting. Not an important one, I think, but still. I just passed the LP again. I beat the Telethia with a level 36 party of Melia/Shulk/Dunban. It was amazingly, quite easy. Contrary to what Lethemonster said, you do not need to die a bunch of times or be in a bad way to trigger the halfway point cutscene. No one in the party died once, even though I didn't have the chance to swap out Melia's sleep skill for her healing spell.
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Sep 22, 2013 19:21
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Thanks for starting this LP up again. I gotta see what happens before I play the new X game coming out next year, but I don't have time to play it right now. You're doing God's work.
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Sep 22, 2013 23:21
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MentholsNBeer posted:Thanks for starting this LP up again. I gotta see what happens before I play the new X game coming out next year, but I don't have time to play it right now. You're doing God's work. Have they confirmed that it is a direct sequel? Or is it still a "sequel" ala xenogear/xenosaga?
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Sep 23, 2013 03:36
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LordAba posted:Have they confirmed that it is a direct sequel? Or is it still a "sequel" ala xenogear/xenosaga? As far as I know it's a spiritual successor. Not even any mention if it's in the same universe or not.
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Sep 23, 2013 05:48
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Tupperwarez posted:As far as I know it's a spiritual successor. Not even any mention if it's in the same universe or not. From the "gameplay" shots in the few trailers that we have, combat looks a lot like Xenoblade combat, so what we know about it so far is mechanistically similar.
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Sep 23, 2013 06:05
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I dunno, I may be looking into it too much, but considering that the first trailer was basically just showing off some gameplay and telling you the names behind the game's development, it strikes me as odd to designate the only non-gameplay screen to a blond character with blue eyes unless they're trying to invoke Shulk.
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Sep 23, 2013 06:19
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Ometeotl posted:I dunno, I may be looking into it too much, but considering that the first trailer was basically just showing off some gameplay and telling you the names behind the game's development, it strikes me as odd to designate the only non-gameplay screen to a blond character with blue eyes unless they're trying to invoke Shulk. They could be pulling the whole 'descendants of the original cast' bit, and X is set far into the future. It would make sense, considering they seem to have mass-produced tech that is a lot more advanced than what they're packing in Xenoblade.
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Sep 23, 2013 06:46
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Shh no X chat yet. Could go too far into metagame theorizing and spoil stuff. There's a xenoblade thread in games you can talk about it in.
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Sep 23, 2013 12:15
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Lethemonster posted:Shh no X chat yet. Could go too far into metagame theorizing and spoil stuff. There's a xenoblade thread in games you can talk about it in. Gonna link it since it's not been posted in for like a month  As usual, beware of spoilers.
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Sep 23, 2013 12:53
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Kind of unrelated, but if anyone in here has archives I would go read TheDarkId's Xenogears LP. It's his masterpiece.
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Sep 23, 2013 22:22
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MentholsNBeer posted:Kind of unrelated, but if anyone in here has archives I would go read TheDarkId's Xenogears LP. It's his masterpiece. You don't need forums archives, It's on the LP Archive. Wow, over 150 parts.  I will get around to reading that at some point.
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Sep 23, 2013 22:50
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MentholsNBeer posted:Kind of unrelated, but if anyone in here has archives I would go read TheDarkId's Xenogears LP. It's his masterpiece. It's absolutely stunning. A tour de force. A triumph for humankind. I absolutely second this as a read. Edit: actually, I would note that if you're new going into Xenoblade and have never played any of its Xeno- predecessors, and are thus completely blind to the series and DON'T want to potentially spoil anything in this LP, you sjmhould avoid it. There are many themes, tropes, and ideas that recurr throughout the Xeno- game. Once you've played one it gets a looooot easier to tell where the plot of another is going Sally fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Sep 24, 2013 |
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Sep 24, 2013 01:49
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Blind Sally posted:It's absolutely stunning. A tour de force. A triumph for humankind. I absolutely second this as a read. That said, Xenoblade is pretty much every other Xeno- game distilled and crystalized. Like I said way back a few pages ago, it's the one that got the Xeno- formula right. 'gears, and the 'saga trilogy have a lot of flaws to them and don't hold well to Xenoblade's high water mark at all. That said! I would also definitely recommend reading TheDarkId's LP if you want to. It treats the game with the right levels of praise and derision it deserves. Zutaten's Xenosaga LP's are much the same, though good luck finding any of them, as Episodes I and II weren't archived and his Episode III one just kind of sputtered and died not even halfway through the game. Or better yet, Xenogears is up on PSN as a digital download title now for $9.00. Now you too can experience the wonders of
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Sep 24, 2013 08:21
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That's true, the Xenosaga series could do with a complete and archived LP. I really liked Zutaten's, but it's unfortunate that he never finished. Maybe I should tackle that myself, though I'm more of a mechanicschat person than a plotchat person.
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Sep 24, 2013 17:00
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Scurvykip is working on the series right now actually. Thread be here.
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Sep 24, 2013 17:17
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Oh hey, didn't realize that's what it was. I can be pretty derpy if the name itself isn't in the topic title. 
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Sep 24, 2013 18:25
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The interactions between different characters depending on party compositions are one of the biggest highlights of the game. Hearing these guys never gets tiring, in fact it gives the game a relentless energy that keeps it up where the pace otherwise slackens. The way they act on their huge quest to save the world is no different than they would act just hangin' out. Anyway, Riki's theme music is like a a grooved-up Baby Elephant Walk. And this is fantastic.
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Sep 25, 2013 04:34
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Vil posted:Oh hey, didn't realize that's what it was. I can be pretty derpy if the name itself isn't in the topic title. Ha, yeah, I didn't realize this either. I had a lot of fun with Xenosaga even if the whole thing is a bit of a mess.
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Sep 25, 2013 04:40
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Think I tried to play the first Xenosaga when it came out and just couldn't sit through all the cutscenes. Wasn't it originally supposed to be like 6 parts? Somehow you just knew that would be too much for them to bite off and chew if they couldn't even get it together for a 2 disc ps1 game.... Riki telling all his sidekicks what to do during fights is the best
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Sep 27, 2013 00:36
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    I miss getting to come up with whacky names for each update. I've worked out how sidequests are going to be shuffled about but I'll post abut that when I haven't got an ice pack duct taped to my face and a blanket over my head.
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Sep 27, 2013 03:17
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Lethemonster posted:
 Speaking of British TV, I think a show about the Nopons would be great. It would be like The Wind in the Willows, only with killer dinosaurs and maybe not so much classism. Riki even sounds a little like a mix of Mr. Toad and Mr. Mole (to me, at least). Also, welcome to Alcamoth: Yes, We're Basically a Halo Level. Tupperwarez fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Sep 27, 2013 |
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Sep 27, 2013 04:50
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I still haven't made up my mind whether the design of the High Entia is awesome or stupid.
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Sep 27, 2013 05:02
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It was a bit surprising to have the party get captured and end up in control of Melia, who is a newcomer to the group. It does make sense though, as it serves the dual purpose of emphasizing that Melia is going to be important to the story (as if her interactions with Shulk weren't a big enough clue), and it shows that Melia was not responsible for Shulk's arrest and was indeed honestly trying to help. This sequence also makes it clear that Melia is humble and highly respected by the High Entia, so much so that her own brother pushed her to be the next ruler instead of himself. Alcamoth was where a lot of people got burned out on side-questing. On my first run, I stopped most of that in Makna after getting Melia, who was so much fun to control that I pushed through Frontier village and this part of the game as fast as possible in the hope that I'd permanently get her in my party. Wonderslug posted:I still haven't made up my mind whether the design of the High Entia is awesome or stupid. I think I'll go with "stupid". Even in-lore, basically none of them can actually use those head-wings to fly, they're just kinda pointless.
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Sep 27, 2013 05:51
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Alcamoth was where a lot of people got burned out on side-questing. On my first run, I stopped most of that in Makna after getting Melia, who was so much fun to control that I pushed through Frontier village and this part of the game as fast as possible in the hope that I'd permanently get her in my party. I think that was mainly because the questgivers are so goddamn hard to find. While I really like Alcamoth's design, the fact that it's a big, open area makes it really hard to find questgivers. I know I've had troubles in the past. Here, have a dramatic retelling: "Wait, was that guy on the 2nd catwalk to the left, or to the right? Was he even on the catwalks?" -2 hours later- "HE WAS UNDER THE LEFT ALCOVE!? SINCE WHEN!? AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!" Repeat a couple dozen times. The other areas are nice, since everyone is located among streets and such, but Alcamoth? Good luck.
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Sep 27, 2013 06:01
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Dr. Snark posted:I think that was mainly because the questgivers are so goddamn hard to find. While I really like Alcamoth's design, the fact that it's a big, open area makes it really hard to find questgivers. I know I've had troubles in the past. Here, have a dramatic retelling:
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Sep 27, 2013 06:17
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One thing that does help slightly when it comes to finding named NPCs is the fact that a decent number of them pop out of the teleporters on the ground floor at the same time every morning, although everyone else found on the upper levels is still as much of a pain in the rear end as ever.
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Sep 27, 2013 08:41
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Some people have made maps for the more obnoxious NPC locations like Frontier village and Alcamoth.
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Sep 27, 2013 13:44
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I think I'll go with "stupid". Even in-lore, basically none of them can actually use those head-wings to fly, they're just kinda pointless. Well, they're presumably vestigial. I mean, it's still a silly place for flight organs, but on the other hand we've already seen the nopon can fly, or at least hover momentarily, by flapping their ear-hands. Maybe the High Entia traded useful head appendages for functional forelimbs. Or maybe they serve some other purpose. If nothing else I give them points for not having wings stapled to their backs with no obvious means of musculoskeletal support. Instead they're stapled to their temples with no obvious means of musculoskeletal support. Progress!
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Sep 27, 2013 17:13
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I guess Monolith just wanted to remind everyone that this is actually a JRPG, despite lacking pretty much all the common annoyances. Therefore, it needed a whole bunch of awesome-looking but functionally useless crap. Square-Enix had already exhausted the world's supply of pointless belts, and so the High Entia were born.
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Sep 27, 2013 17:38
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Wonderslug posted:Maybe the High Entia traded useful head appendages for functional forelimbs. Or maybe they serve some other purpose. They have wings on their heads so they may come for you in the night. Remain vigilant.
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Sep 27, 2013 18:23
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