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Einander posted:See, I'd agree if not for album03 in said art pack, where the person with the long hair looks a lot older than Nana or Randolf--his hair is clearly gray. Plus, if he's the boy from Nana's story, then Randolf is the one who rescues him from the dungeon, and that doesn't seem right. That's not how stories like that work. My interpretation is the person in album03 and the guy in the wheel chair aren't the same people. Edit: In Nana's story #4 you can kind of make out a wheel chair if you look at him close enough. heroiccreampuff posted:Speaking of Randolf, now that we're done the game, can anyone answer why his name was changed from Rudolf? I mean, aside from it sounding kind of silly. Also, how does Randolf's glossary entries on the boy, as well as the fictional hero, unlock? Because I have the first, but I don't know when/where I got it, and am missing the second if it exists. Randolf's glossary unlocks when he reaches level 45 however you need Henry's fix if you want to get it. Other Randolf unlocks after reading one of the orbs in the imagination. To expand a bit on naming in general I'll pull up the names of the heroes and such. The real heroes Ares=アレス(Ares) Aeritz=アイリッツ(Airittsu) Flodnar=フロドナ(Hrodna)(Pronounced Furodona) The story heros: Sera=セラ(Sera) Ritzea=ツィーリア(Tsuiria)(The I in the middle is long when pronounced) Randolf=ランドルフ(Randolph) Also character Randolf=ルドルフ(Rudolf) I figure most of you aren't very good with Japanese but there is a lot of wordplay going on here with how Harold messed with the names of his characters. First Harold changed Ares name to Roman characters, reversed them then put them back into Katakana. With Aeritz in Japanese he scrambled the characters with a minor change to make it sound more like a name. With Flodnar it looks like put it into roman characters, scrambled them, put it back to Katakana and then re-scrambled them. Honestly it's rather disappointing how they are translated because the word play in English is a lot less interesting. As Einander said above, basically Flodnar never recognized that the hero was named after him but liked the hero enough to wish that Randolf would one day become great like the hero. So Randolf was named after him. I'm not sure the exact cultural meaning behind how naming works but I understand often they don't use the full name they instead take characters from the name. Most English speakers however do not do this and instead if you want to say name someone after a character in the Bible like Adam, you just call your kid Adam. So it made sense to change it to Randolf. There are a few problems with this translation for example it makes Flodnar look dumber for not recognizing Randolf is Flodnar backwards. Another is a bit of meaning is lost when Randolf plays the role of the hero Randolf and has finally become the hero Flodnar wish for him to be.(Not a big deal it just looks a bit awkward) We also can't make jokes about Rudolf guiding us through dragon mountain with a big red nose.(I'm still convinced it's an intentional reference) Valkama fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Apr 20, 2014 |
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Apr 20, 2014 21:34
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Okay, the true final battle is pretty amazing. What changes if you don't buy that memory?
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Apr 21, 2014 07:36
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Glazius posted:Okay, the true final battle is pretty amazing. What changes if you don't buy that memory? Evidently, nobody gets a powerup, there's no short cutscene at the start of the last form, and Ritzea remains as a faceless, nameless blank. In other words, the fight becomes much harder, and less of a masterstroke in storytelling.
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Apr 21, 2014 09:12
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Einander posted:... and a pity $5 for Feldherren, because I feel bad for him. (Though I guess only Cake Attack gets to choose, unless Like Clockwork or Feldherren want an SA Mart Sticky Thread.) Um... can't say I want a sticky thread, no. You know, I just threw my guess in as a random thing for fun. Missed the bit about prizes completely. That in mind, you don't have to give me a pity prize because I wasn't expecting it. Deep down I'm really just oblivious to stuff. Case in point: when I fought the final bosses, either foreshadow collection never went off or, true to my nature, I never realised that was what was inflicting certain statuses. Additionally, the first time I attempted the fight, I managed to not notice the small army of Greeds the Tower Demon summoned until I went '...wait, that's way too many attacks' and spotted them about one turn before losing. On an odd note, for some reason the Whale just tended to do nothing for the first couple of turns after triggering its stage of the battle. Giving me a couple of turns to, um, whale on it made it the least threatening point of the fight, and it never managed to defeat me. Regarding Laylaria, is it possible she's a Native, or related to one? Or just knew more about the history of the Island? She doesn't like flowers, and she doesn't like rats. Though she's also from 'a good family', so it may just be generic disgust.
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Apr 24, 2014 23:25
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It's a stupid newbie removal for me.  I don't really need an SA Mart sticky.I still haven't beaten the final boss because I'm bad at video games, but I'm really glad I went into it blind because it is amazing in pretty much every way. Best final boss I've seen in a long while.
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Apr 25, 2014 04:09
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Man that final battle is really something. I do like that it didn't end up being revenge writing, but just fantasy indulgence. Harold didn't necessarily want to be evil or the villian, he just wanted to be able-bodied and capable of fighting in an epic battle. The simplicity of that is pretty poignant. I've tried getting the song of the last battle phase off of tindeck, but it's not registering as an actual music file when I get it on my computer.
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Apr 25, 2014 11:03
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Update later this evening, possibly at the usual time, possibly not. Haven't actually finished the gameplay for it yet, much less the writing. Prizes will go out after that.Feldherren posted:Um... can't say I want a sticky thread, no. I was joking.  I always planned to give prizes to all three of the closest three, I just thought it might be funnier if I pretended otherwise for a while.Feldherren posted:Case in point: when I fought the final bosses, either foreshadow collection never went off or, true to my nature, I never realised that was what was inflicting certain statuses. Additionally, the first time I attempted the fight, I managed to not notice the small army of Greeds the Tower Demon summoned until I went '...wait, that's way too many attacks' and spotted them about one turn before losing. Same thing's happened with me and the Greeds before, during my first playthrough. And yeah, the White Whale just skips turns sometimes, seemingly at random. I'm not really sure why. Feldherren posted:Regarding Laylaria, is it possible she's a Native, or related to one? Or just knew more about the history of the Island? She doesn't like flowers, and she doesn't like rats. It's more likely that she'd hate flowers and rats if she wasn't a native. Remember, The Disease affected both The Continent and The Island, but there are still flowers on The Island, while they've been totally wiped out on The Island due to fear of the rats that carry The Disease. And when rats (and only rats) carry an incredibly lethal plague, anyone that eats them regularly is going to be viewed as crazy at best and downright suicidal at worst--as the upcoming update shows, The Disease hasn't been totally eradicated. Keldulas posted:Man that final battle is really something. I do like that it didn't end up being revenge writing, but just fantasy indulgence. Harold didn't necessarily want to be evil or the villian, he just wanted to be able-bodied and capable of fighting in an epic battle. The simplicity of that is pretty poignant. He also wanted to give Ares the most important role in the battle, if Camil and Destiny's Defeat are any indication It's probably tindeck freaking out over the non-unicode part; I'm having the same problem.  Try this one, it works for me. I'll probably go over the other songs at some point and see if it's the case with all of the songs where I left Japanese parts. (Alternatively you could just download the game, since I'm just pulling the files from the game directories, but that requires a Playism account.)
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Apr 25, 2014 20:09
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Einander posted:And yeah, the White Whale just skips turns sometimes, seemingly at random. I'm not really sure why. He's got a weird attack pattern. He has a 25% chance of doing nothing every turn and gains nothing from it. I guess the creator thought it would be too hard if he could attack every turn. 
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Apr 25, 2014 22:14
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Chapter 18: "Stories never really end... even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on." (The Expensive Stone, the Great Rat, Fantasy, Cave Chronicle 1) Welcome back! After clearing the game, nothing is really unlocked or changed; you just pick your last pre-boss save and go. Sadly, this means the Dragon Slayer is the Rat Slayer and Will is back to his portraitless low-stat self. For future reference: considering that a) the White Will Stone was in Kumo's room, b) using the White Will Stone unlocks the Aeritz entry in the Glossary, c) Camil represents Ares, Randolf represents Flodnar, and Will becomes Ritzea in the final battle, d) Aeritz is very likely the one who told Kumo that "There is no Healing Magic. There is no Star Fall Magic..." quote (and Will gets all four of the impossibilities listed there), and e) his portrait and cut-in are "iriz" in the game files (and he's pretty clearly not Ares), ...I feel pretty comfortable suggesting that our mysterious blank-named friend Will is Aeritz, or at least some kind of time-freeze image of him left behind. So now I'm just going to call him Aeritz. If real-world Aeritz comes up outside of the context of Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Portrait, I'll point out which Aeritz I'm talking about.  Now that I'm not balancing on the knife's edge between two different people winning the kill count contest, I'm ready to challenge this damned thing again. This is one of my least-favorite challenges.  Like I said last time, a couple of updates ago: equip the Twin Tail, grab all three enemies at once, and then kill them in one go. You'll barely make it at best; at worst you'll drown right next to the entrance to the next area. The enemies are harmless, the only real threat is drowning. Which will probably happen at least once, even with the Twin Tail. This bit is a bastard.   The Footfalls of Hope is a pretty drat good item... Under very specific certain conditions.  The Footfalls of Hope makes a good fallback item for Mage Camil or Mage Aeritz, for use when you've cleared out the majority of the enemies first round and don't want to use Inferno or Star Fall Magic on the survivors. The problem is that it doesn't give any +Agility and a pure Fighter doesn't really care about the Skill. It'll probably see use on Aeritz, who is desperate to get some actual Skill (outside of when The Final Battle As Planned activates, anyway), and in easier areas it's decent on Camil. I rearrange my items and then decide to do a bit of grinding. I've still got to master the Aegis and Delusion Cocoon, after all!  This rat looks perfectly harmless. I kill it about twenty times.  Eventually, you may notice the rat is replaced with a Killer Rat. This is your warning. If you're not near or at endgame, do not continue fighting here.   Seriously. Not kidding. After five killer rats...  Do I need to remind you of the significance of a rat on this island showing up with the status "Diseased"? It's a drat good thing Camil and Randolf have story-immunity (possibly in both senses of the phrase? ) to the plague.(Although considering that Camil can apparently cure congenital heart disease, I'm guessing The Disease isn't too much tougher.) To my knowledge, the "Diseased" status has no mechanical effect. It's just there for story reasons.  This is after three criticals + one hit from Camil + two Light Axes. The Great Rat is pretty tough and does about half-life with normal attacks to either character here, and they both have Sporadic Guard. It attacks like a suped-up Killer Rat, with about five different hits, so high defense makes a big difference.  Comparatively, Surprise Attack's damage isn't very dangerous--it hits both characters a lot of times, but it doesn't do as much per hit as its normal attack. It does, however, hit so many drat times that its Stagger effect is near-certain to hit both characters. The Great Rat can and will stunlock you to death if you walk in unprepared; the Black Ladybug is just about the only anti-Stagger gear you'll usually wear without forewarning, and the Great Rat is pretty fast too. Camil goes first largely because the game doesn't really expect +90 Agility here. Just think: you can trigger this fight basically as early as you want, provided you can get through five Killer Rats first. This is a pretty mean secret.  When you win, you're rewarded with the tail of a rat that was carrying a plague recently responsible for killing a huge swath of the population, both on The Continent and on The Island. Um. Where's the nearest hazardous waste disposal site...? It's a crappy item (+15 Agility, no other effects), but it's used in the recipe you get from the Chimney. So yeah, the Decorative Plant is the only furniture item Aaron Aaron sells whose real reward doesn't require you to face probable horrible death. At this point, Aaron Aaron is so far into negative karma that he's likely to reincarnate as a Great Rat.  After defeating the Great Rat, rats no longer spawn here. So we didn't accidentally permanently transform the harmless rodent outside our apartment building into a horrifying plague-ridden hellbeast, at least... But this also means that the Rat Tail is a one-time item. Back to The Imagination. Aeritz gets the Footfalls of Hope; the +30 Skill is very nice for him, and I like having him reasonably competent physically.  I hunt everything on the last screen, since I'm taking down the fairy I avoided last time. They're all red enemies, so it helps to clear the area out before you fight it. (The Ambivalent item gives +28 HP and +8 SP. It's awful.)   Sometimes this goes better than other times. I was using the Book of Manslaying on Randolf here, and that almost got me killed. Anyway. They get cleared out, I run back to heal, I engage.   Fantasy has one gimmick:  Every attack it uses is instant death. It has Cutthroat and an attack that wasn't properly localized, so it appears as a blank. It's Cutthroat, aimed randomly at two different characters. These attacks kill roughly every other use (if they aren't evaded). If you can get past that gimmick, it's not too dangerous... Alone. Running into it at the same time as other things means that the 25% HP on revival will get that person killed again, and you'll get stuck in a revival loop until you die.   The reward isn't really worth it; the Zenith Tear gives +50 Skill and an ability and it's still questionably useful, so +42 Skill isn't really cutting it here. I run back to The Disease. At some point I sold my Parts item and I want to get one back.  It took longer than I planned, but hey, Camil's mastered the Aegis!  This might just be Camil's final set-up, period. There's stronger weapons, there's one that gives Extra Attack+2 as a weapon or All-Purpose, and there's more defensive armors, but any change means sacrificing the careful mix of +Agility and +Critical and abilities I've got here. Camil is really drat tough like this, and she's got enough Skill to make good use of Inferno. This is good enough. (Also, assuming the Aegis is a shield, then she's wearing a mask and wielding two swords, an axe, and a shield. Actual armor would interfere with the sweet cloak look she's got going.)   I duck into The Imagination to set up my party. We're dropping into The Nest's Cave Chronicle entrance. 160 HP should be enough, but I spread out one Slimy Goop to Randolf and two to Aeritz, just in case. Plus, when I take them off, it won't take the HP damage out of my current HP: if I'm at 160 HP after the hole and I change my gear so my max HP is 160, I'm now at full health.    Here we go. (For the full experience, listen to this music for about four hours straight. It's fairly good, but... It doesn't vary enough, even with periodic battles, which is a problem when it's the music for the longest, hardest dungeon.)     Not too bad. The loss of Stamina Bottles is problematic, but we'll deal. (I'm pretty sure that trying to get cute and only bring in Energy Bottles means that the game will break some of those instead, but I'll have to see.) Camil's set up as you saw earlier. She'll be the anchor of the team, dealing high damage, taking low damage, and requiring no SP. If there's groups, she has Inferno and the SP and stats to use it.  Randolf is Randolf is Randolf. Once the Delusion Cocoon is finished levelling, he'll replace the Zenith Tears and become much tougher. He has a lot of SP, he deals damage most consistently, and he'll be able to get a decent amount back by defending.  Aeritz is the weak link, so I'm not doing anything too fancy with him. He'll be focusing on using Healing Magic to stretch out my healing while Camil and Randolf do the real damage. Most of the time, he'll be defending. Once I get more money, he'll get the weapon in The Imagination and the Three-Legged Frog and become much, much more useful. Until then, I'll be careful with him. Thankfully, the start of Cave Chronicle is fairly gentle with you.   This is very reminiscent of the last, half-formed area of The Imagination, isn't it? That Memory enemies wander, mostly. Some patrol. They're not too durable and they do very little damage (they did 10 damage to a defending Aeritz, and look at that defense score), but they give good experience and their drop, Muddy, gives +45 HP. In practical terms, that's pretty close to the best you can get. Mostly you use them to heal up after other, more dangerous enemies, because they don't require SP to kill. It's good to have an enemy for that. (I love that an enemy called That Memory is a zombie. A memory that you want to go away, but that you can't kill for good... That's really appropriate imagery. Good job as always, writers.)  Between the extra HP items, the pathetic enemy and Healing Magic, everyone's about back up to full now. The red enemy of the area, the Ancient Nightmare, wanders slowly but is aggressive. As you see, the current area makes them tricky to dodge.   They hit pretty hard, too! But that's all they really do. The chest is a Glass Fragment. I ran past a That Memory to kill the Nightmare, so I run back and kill him to trigger regen.  This is a screenlength right of that chest just now. Down is progress, right is treasure.  Staff of Sadness enemies don't look any different from That Memory on the map, because they really aren't different. Still weak, still not very durable, still Poison, do slightly more damage and give slightly more experience. They move in small motions periodically instead of the more constant movement of That Memory, though, so they're fairly easy to tell apart in motion.  You can probably guess what the other one is by now. (It's a Glass Fragment.) Backtrack, downward and onward.  There's really no particular reason to deal with the actually dangerous one if I don't have to. Chest is a Glass Fragment.  So is this one!  Right is progress, upward is treasure.  This next area is made up of three vertical areas with an Ancient Nightmare, a That Memory and a Staff of Sadness. Avoid the Nightmares when possible, kill the Memories when you need to heal, move onward.      Upper-right leads to a Stamina Up chest.    The path here is looping around--after going left here, we'll be one set of exits away from the last up-or-right branch.  Time for the second area. Still no potions used, and I'm roughly close to full resources. Still doing good.  Much like The Imagination, the look's changed but the music's the same.  The Gray Knights aren't dangerous. Not too tough, don't hit too hard--only about 80 to Aeritz if he isn't defending--and only last about two combat rounds, one less than the That Memory enemies. Their drop, the Shield, is notable, giving +20 HP, +40 Defense. That's an impressive amount for an All-Purpose item. The chest is, as always, a Glass Fragment. I go up and continue down the hallway, which ducks down into another room.  I am really tempted to chest the total number of chests against the total number of Glass Fragment chests. The result is probably depressing. I mean, they're great, just... You need a bit more variation. In Cave Chronicle, in particular, they feel like, "Well, we need a treasure here" treasures. They're practically 3D Mario 1Ups.  The red Knights are more dangerous, naturally. They're slow and very aggressive. They can last about three all-out rounds with the party and have everyone's favorite skill, Blank (or !), and can do about two-thirds everyone's HP with it. They're still not terribly threatening compared to the enemies of The Imagination's later areas, but you do have fewer potions to spare healing up.  Before moving onward, I kill a few Knights to heal up after the red. Then I go back and attack the yellow I passed earlier. Randolf masters the Delusion Cocoon on the way.  I'll use the Splendid Leviathan for 153 Defense against anything that's really dangerous, but it can't hurt to level up the Dirty Clothes here; Randolf's new Sporadic Guard already makes him a lot tougher.  The Yellow knights definitely look the coolest. Basically just a better grey Knight, though. Sometimes they Stagger with their Charge attack; this is more annoying than dangerous. (Unless you're fighting multiple enemies, which is entirely your fault at this point.)  The Yellow Knights get aggressive here. They charge straight for you, but you can move out of the way.  The Spear gives +30 Attack and the 2 Hit Combo spell. 2 Hit Combo is not good enough to merit equipping it.   Sometimes the engagement color alterations get very festive.   I took one step between these locations. It's a really abrupt transition--very dream-like.  An example of the aggressive Yellow Knights; there's no other line to move to, so it's hard not to fight this one here.  Morning sun rises, all empires some day fall. Glass Fragment again.  Camil is using Shout very frequently here. Randolf is nice, but she's undoubtedly my most useful character right now.  Up on that ledge is one of the final armors, the Cordelia. In terms of raw numbers, it's the strongest defensively, but it doesn't have much in the way of other stat boosts. I'm not a big fan, but the better armors are even better in the All-Purpose slots and I'm not exactly starved for Magic Beans. I kill most everything on this screen; I wanted to try to get the Red Knight item, because it's very good. No such luck.   Another abrupt transition. I like them. Between the initial enemies and the way things keep changing abruptly, it seems that Cave Chronicle is based on dreams instead of stories. The concepts aren't very far apart.  I have 11 Glass Fragments at this point. The Red Knights still stubbornly refuse to surrender their delicious prizes.   It's a good thing the grey Knights are easy. Still haven't used any Restores.   Annoyingly enough, the abrupt transitions do count as area changes. So I ended up fighting this yellow knight twice when I didn't mean to, because I wandered too far right while regenerating HP/SP and hit one. Yellows don't have a respawn timer like reds do. At this point, I realized I forgot a treasure chest and wandered back.  Remember that first abrupt screen transition, from the castle to the green area?  That cave in the wall is a hint. Examine the corresponding castle wall and it breaks. Both of the nicer-looking chests are trapped.   The less said about this the better. Three Energy Restores and one Stamina Restore used here. The third has a Portrait.  It's not bad (+35 Skill, +10 HP, +12 Defense, +5 Agility, and Azure Wind). It's one of the best +Skill items and definitely the best one for Azure Wind. I end up using another Stamina Restore on the way back; Aeritz doesn't activate his Sporadic Guard against a generic knight and ends up eating it.  Aeritz has mastered the Daybreak Club. The item the red Knights drop is better, but I haven't gotten one yet; this'll do until then.   Weird fact: both you and enemies can just walk through the intersections of these walls. The intersections after, too. Maybe there's a door we can't see.  Same trick as the castle transition trick: you can see this on the table after moving through to the next area.  Dammit Aeritz stop dying. I have to resurrect him two battles in a row.  The "walk through walls" efffect goes away when you cross this boundary, sadly.  This is why you make it so you can't walk on beds. It looks goofy.  Stamina Up. I should actually use the stat boosters I've got at some point, huh?  Still no item.  The light and the desk to the right here are special.  The desk lets you save for 1500 gold, the light lets you return for 3000. The desk is reasonable, the light is a rip-off. Never use it.  If you use it, it returns you to here. I saved, though, so I reload.  The door is one-way.   This area is very long; there's probably about a minute of walking here.  At the end is this light, which lets you return. (For free, I might add. This is why the 3000 gold one is such a rip-off.)  And this door.  This save desk and this healing spring should make you worry. A lot. I know what's past here, so I turn around. It isn't time yet.   You might remember that Kumo was chucking books around Zelphie down this hole. Zelphie Eluonto, who is a hero of modern legend, who became a horrific tyrant, who possesses a magical sword of incredible power, and who is relevant to the story of very nearly every person on this island. Said space looked like The Imagination. In other words, it was a half-formed Story about the single most story-esque character we know. Yeah, that would be why I turned around. Zelphie with Starcaller is bad enough, but I'm pretty sure we could break his fragile old man kneecaps by now. Storybook Zelphie, on the other hand, is very definitely out of our current weight class. Next time, I'll continue from my save in Cave Chronicle at the moneydesk. I'll see you then. Annihilation Record: Annihilation count: 29 No new entries. Current winner: HenryEx (76) Next: EagerSleeper (98) Battle Record: 2014/04/25/ 14:35:39 Demon King Chronicle ■Battle results Playtime:19:20:33 Save count:195 Steps taken:95425 Battle count:1136 Max damage:632 Max damage taken:605 Items:80 Types 190 Items Turns to defeat Last Boss：53(Best Record53) ■Treasure Chests The Nest: 8/8 Demon King's Castle: 26/26 The Hamlet: 31/31 The Snow Fields: 20/20 The Dragon Mountain: 6/6 Sands of Remembrance: 26/26 The Tower: 11/11 The Seashore: 12/12 The Mirage: 10/10 Leviathan Depths: 5/5 The Disease: 20/20 The Imagination: 31/32 Cave Chronicle: 19/46 Unmapped area: 8/10 ■Camil(38) HP:177 SP:77 Attack:296 Defense:87 Range:32 Critical:40 Skill:113 Agility:92 ・Praying Mantis Axe(3) ・Mask of Determination(3) ・Aegis(3) ・Zara Sword(3) ・Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark(3) ■Randolf(38) HP:127 SP:93 Attack:265 Defense:82 Range:64 Critical:14 Skill:177 Agility:70 ・Speckcinder(3) ・Slightly Dirty Clothes(1) ・Delusion Cocoon(3) ・Varnished Bird Wing(3) ・Black Ladybug(3) ■(31) HP:137 SP:48 Attack:206 Defense:79 Range:24 Critical:13 Skill:47 Agility:70 ・Amaryllis(2) ・Black Dress(2) ・Footfalls of Hope(2) ・Parts(2) ・Daybreak Club(3) ■Top 10 defeats Rat(180) Green Mud Man(178) Toothy Piranha(157) Mermaid(143) Deformity(98) Abominable Snow Monkey(97) Wake-Eater(89) Monkey(85) Merman(84) Mutt(80) Glossary: No new entries.
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Apr 26, 2014 00:12
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Fantasy also boosts an impressive dodge rate. If you get really unlucky, it can take you down because your attacks will never connect. I think the Cave Chronicle is more than simply stories about Zelphie (though that particular part IS about Zelphie). Remember that Laylaria was also throwing people's stories down the giant hole? This might mean that the areas you are going through may be parts of others' stories or they may be locations from The Continent itself.
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Apr 26, 2014 01:03
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I for some reason did decide to total all the glass fragments you can get in chests in the game a while ago and it was 111. That's a nice 42.2% of all chests. I never thought to grind hp off the little guys (Mostly because I think the Health regeneration has a bit too much of a downside to it) but that definitely seems to be the way to go for the first couple sections.
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Apr 26, 2014 02:57
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SSNeoman posted:Fantasy also boosts an impressive dodge rate. If you get really unlucky, it can take you down because your attacks will never connect. I think the Cave Chronicle is more than simply stories about Zelphie (though that particular part IS about Zelphie). Remember that Laylaria was also throwing people's stories down the giant hole? This might mean that the areas you are going through may be parts of others' stories or they may be locations from The Continent itself. Oh, I agree, I just haven't said so in the LP yet. While I think it'd be interesting if it was all based on dreams instead of stories (particularly with That Memory and Ancient Nightmare in the first area), that's the most likely explanation; it explains the choppy transitions just as well as dreams, and it fits the rest of the game better. I guess the first area was just produced by someone's depressing diary, considering the Staff of Sadness combined with the above two. Valkama posted:I for some reason did decide to total all the glass fragments you can get in chests in the game a while ago and it was 111. That's a nice 42.2% of all chests. High five, useless factoids brother. High five. I think health regeneration doesn't have much in the way of downsides unless you use Trip or Cutthroat regularly. Dragon Killer is the only HP-threshold skill that you're not taking a big risk to use (multiple enemies or impending death), except maybe Heaven's Blessing. I don't use those skills and I'm planning to wait a while longer on Dragon Slayer, so there's no real downside for me. "find the enemies I can kill to trigger regen and reduce number of needed potions" is probably the best description of my general traveling strategy in this game, all told.
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Apr 26, 2014 03:30
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The door to possibly Zelphie is actually locked until you beat the end boss, meaning that if you go there before finishing the game you're stuck paying the 3000 gold fee to return.
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Apr 26, 2014 14:13
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Okay, I'm really enjoying the abrupt-transition gimmick the dungeon has going.
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Apr 27, 2014 16:46
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Okay, people who know this game better than me, something I'm curious about: what causes Recover SP when Defending to activate twice in a row sometimes? Is it Agility-based? Because the constant factor seems to be "someone in party has Footfalls of Hope equipped," and that doesn't make any sense; I don't think I've observed it without someone using that item, but I haven't tested it at great length. Whatever the source is, it doesn't activate 100% of the time. EDIT: And Randolf stopped doing it once he no longer had Extra Attack+2... I think that's it? For some reason, Extra Attack +N activates on Recover SP when Defending and makes it restore SP multiple times. That's bizarre. Needless to say, this is going to influence what I bring into the superboss battle pretty strongly, so it'd be good to figure this out before then. Update in a few hours, probably? I'm finishing up Cave Chronicle right now, but the post is mostly written out already. Einander fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Apr 28, 2014 |
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Apr 28, 2014 00:44
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Einander posted:Weird stuff
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Apr 28, 2014 03:14
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Chapter 19: "Anyone can be strong if they pick up a weapon, but you can't become mentally strong just by obtaining a thing." (Cave Chronicle 2) Welcome back!  (As previously mentioned, for the full experience, play the above song for about an hour after you finish reading the update. It's too repetitive to be used for such a long area.) It's time for one of the more unpleasant parts of Cave Chronicle. Do you remember The Disease?    Both enemy types here are Glandelians. According to a Google Translate pass of Swedish Wikipedia (and that's one sentence I never thought I'd write), "glandels" are small, rounded glands on plants, which secrete or contain oils, resins, etc. They're found in all tissues and are especially common in the leaves and the epidermis. So I guess we're fighting denizens of a plant's outshoots? Considering that Camil is here at all because Ares gave her mother one of Harold's flowers, that's actually kind of poetic. Anyway, let's call them Spears and Anchors. Spears are the flying demons, Anchors are the gray humanoids. Spears wander and Anchors have an erratic aggressive movement pattern, interspersing movement towards you with random wandering.  Spears are the Flies of the area. They spam Cure. Multiple Spears can heal far, far more than you can do in one turn. Like Flies, they seek you out aggressively once you enter an engagement. Like Flies, they give pathetic experience. Like Flies, they need to die as soon as possible, preferrably hunted down before you do anything else.  Unlike Flies, a Spear can still gently caress you up pretty good even without allies. Combined with the healing, coming here too early or coming here with a bad set-up can result in them grinding you down while you struggle futilely to break through their healing. Their drop is the Blue Weapon, which gives +20 HP, +24 SP, and +3 Agility. Nothing special. Anchors, meanwhile, are pretty unimpressive. They're there, I guess. I hunt down all the Spears.   Axes are yellow humanoids. They're slow but aggressive on the map.  Axes are dicks. Not incredibly threatening dicks--they can go down in about two rounds of dedicated Light Axe usage--but you have no Resurrection Magic and only so many Energy Restores, and Cutthroat is unfortunately accurate. (Despite the fact they're slow. I suspect they have high Agility and Slow Attack.) And remember, you have no shortcut here. Getting here means coming down from the hole at The Nest. The save point may cost money, but it's worth it. Their drop is the White Weapon, which gives +30 Attack, +15 HP and +20 Defense. Anyway, Anchors are the healing weenie of the area. With Sporadic Guard, they only do about 40 damage a hit, and they go down in three rounds even without SP usage. Healing Magic turns that into winning math, and I fight one or two for regen after any real fight here.  Of course, stuff like this still happens sometimes. Unfortunately. I switch Randolf to the Splendid Leviathan at this point. The Dirty Clothes just aren't very defensive.  That's the way onward, but despite having an ax for that tree, you need to take the long way around.    I head back. I've got 15 Glass Fragments at this point.  After the fall, that's 8 Stamina Restores, 25 Energy Restores. Not awful, but I wish I had more.    The Three-Legged Frog is very simple: +65 Defense, +18 SP or +26 Defense, +18 SP and +2 Critical. The loss of a little Agility from the Black Dress is unfortunate, but when levelled, the Three-Legged Frog will be give +27 SP--one and a half casts of Healing Magic. Then I head to do some fundraising.   Conflicts (head to the third area of The Imagination, then backtrack one screen) are easy to kill, cluster up naturally and give good experience, and while their item may only sell for 600, I don't need a massive amount of money--first, 12000, to pick up Aeritz's final weapon, and then 10000 more, for Dragon Slayer. Which means 19 more Conflict drops. I haven't bought the Chimney yet, of course, but ehh; the recipe honestly isn't that good, nor is the item behind the 12 recipes door. I'll survive.  I get a bit careless on the way to the weapon. Oops. That's four Catharsis, all stacked on top of each other. In my defense, Camil went basically an entire fight without criticals, and I forgot to put the Aegis back on. Still, a death is a death.  Okay, so equipping the Aegis and then getting right back into another battle with four of them, one where they were a lot less densely packed, was probably not the best idea. But gently caress you, game! I don't take that sort of thing lying down. (The item drop is proof the game has a sense of humor about it.)     The Baby's Breath is really, really drat good. It's the only way to get Recover SP when Defending on a weapon and it gives +90 Attack and 48 Range (both very high for a weapon--more attack than the Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark AND the Praying Mantis Ax, and more range than both). Its All-Purpose stats, +45 Attack and +2 Defense and Recover SP when Defending, are less impressive, because the game is slapping you aside the head for being dumb. There are a lot of good All-Purpose items and very few better weapons. Why would you equip it as All-Purpose? Here's a fun fact: for some reason, Extra Attack+ seems to activate on Recover SP when Defending and with the same mechanics. It recovers 10% SP every time, but if you have Extra Attack +2 or two Extra Attack + 1, then you have a Agility% of 20% SP and a (Agility/2)% of 30% SP. Aeritz equips the Baby's Breath, and he won't ever take it off again. Between his increased attack when he does hit (maxed, it'll put his raw attack score above Camil's) and the 10% or 20% SP he'll be regaining whenever he doesn't need to heal, my team's endurance now goes much, much further. And just think--with the Final Battle as Planned active, Aeritz gains +80 SP, enough to regain 14 or 28 every time he defends. With Slap on the back's status applied, that's 28 or 56 SP. That is beautiful--if you're having a hard time against the Demon King, picking up the Baby's Breath and a good Extra Attack+1 item really isn't a bad idea. By the way, continuing the flower theme: localized, this weapon is the Baby's Breath flowering herb, while the original Japanese seems to be Spiraea, a genus of shrubs in the Rosaceae. Thanks to Catharsis drops, I only need 11 more Conflicts to get Dragon Slayer. I'll get 17, though--3500, enough to save and have 2000 left over. It's notable that once Aeritz levels up a while, he starts levelling more-or-less like Camil: most levels result in +4 HP/+1 SP/+3 Attack, or something pretty close to it. Presumably that's the result of creating a sort of time-frozen ghost of someone you don't know all that well. Aeritz masters the Parts, bringing him over 70 Agility again, the Footfalls of Hope, bringing him past 50 Skill, and also gets enough SP from a level to bring him up to 60, so +6 SP every time he defends. One third a Healing Magic, 60% of a Star Fall Magic. Not bad. I get lucky with the Conflict drops the last time, so I exit with 19 instead. I sell an extra Stained Wing to hit 15500.  This was thanks to Camil with Yell up, naturally.    Back in we go.   The extra levels have been good to Camil, particularly the +Attack. (I used the only Critical Up I've found while I was grinding, if you actually noticed the 41 Critical instead of 40.)  Randolf's the same as ever, though Dragon Slayer makes him better at it. I'll be swapping his armor soon.  Aeritz has definitely gained the most since the last time I came down here.   Compared to Light Ax, Dragon Slayer has the same tiny attack radius, costs 2 more HP, requires an HP threshold (75%), has over 50% more base power, 10% more power added from attack, and ignores 20% more defense (for a total of 50%). The HP threshold is easy to trigger in any actually-dangerous area and the cost difference is tiny, so it's essentially a straight upgrade... Especially since Randolf now hits the final SP regen cap, 15, if he has time to heal up after battle. (The 360 hit here shown is actually on the low end--Randolf later did 460 to the same type of enemy. Spells have a lot of random variance, it seems.) Randolf can perform perfectly well without it, though, so I generally leave it for next-to-last. I'll probably pick up Heaven's Blessing after I've finished most of Cave Chronicle; between the randomness of a 30% dodge chance, Destiny's Defeat and Camil's transition into Asskicker in Chief, it's not the easiest move to make use of.  Some items seem to round when levelling, some don't; if it rounded down, this would be +24 SP, not +25. I'm not going to complain about extra SP on Aeritz, especially since it means he's likely to hit 70 SP fairly soon. I basically sleepwalk through the first area. Ancient Nightmares are easy to avoid, That Memories are weak. I even one-round one once, thanks to a couple of lucky crits. I head into the next area, equip the Lucky Rabbit against the first red Knight I find...   ...and it pays off. The Helm gives +4 Attack, +10 Skill, +8 HP, +30 Defense, +3 Critical, +1 Agility, -5 to magic damage taken, and +2% flat evasion. Levelled up, that's roughly +7 attack, +16 Skill, +11 Hp, +48 Defense, +6 Critical, +4 Agility, -8 to magic damage taken, and +5% flat chance of evasion. The Helm ties solidly for the second-best Sporadic Guard item in the game, and if you don't need Recover SP when Defending, then it's arguably better outright than the Delusion Cocoon, the other contender for number two... But Randolf is set up defensively enough (two other Armors in his All-Purpose) that he doesn't really need the extra survivability, so I opt to keep the Cocoon. Aeritz, however, definitely wants the Helm, not least because he doesn't have any other Evasion on. This is probably Aeritz's final set up. There's an item that's better than the Footfalls in raw stats, but the interaction of Extra Attack+ and Recover SP when Defending means that he's better of with the Footfalls of Hope. I am very definitely saving the moment I get to that moneydesk. At this point, I can basically curbstomp regular grey Knights, especially with Aeritz's SP regen, so I heal up after.  The Cordelia is, naturally, a type of flower. A rose, specifically, of roughly the same pink shade as very nearly every flower whose name comes up during this game... Including the flower she's named after. (Except the Baby's Breath but counting the Spiraea.) More signs of Camil's almighty power as the narrator? Perhaps!   As an Armor, it gives +85 Defense and +15 HP. As an All-Purpose, it gives +5 Attack, +5 Skill, +15 HP and +50 Defense. It's nothing astounding, merely incredibly solid armor, and Randolf will wear it for the rest of the game. One more sword to find and then Randolf will have his final set of equips. I accidentally wander into a red knight on the way down, so I kill a bunch of greys to heal up.  Camil-like levels aside, the best thing about Aeritz's later levels is that he gets Agility surprisingly often. Critical boosts are nice too, if largely not important; Camil's still got more than him.  No healing items used, and I'm in pretty good shape. Onwards and upwards.  This alley is pretty important--on the first screen, it lets you run after the first Spear, which attracts all of the others. This area's a lot less painful with them all dead. I fight an Axe that doesn't use Cutthroat first turn and that then goes down on the second turn to lucky criticals. I have no idea how that happened, but I'm not complaining.   I basically reenter and exit until the Spear to the right cooperates. Like The Disease, I'm working off a strict extermination policy here.  This is so, so much easier now that Aeritz can fight. He's one Baby's Breath level away from passing Camil in Attack and his Agility and Critical are decently high, too. In this area, the Axes move at about 2/3 your speed and the reds are 1/3 your speed; both are aggressive. The reds are special, though: if you're not in their sight range, then they have predetermined spots that they return to. Most of these spots involve them walking into walls.   Cutthroat failed. Huh. This run's pretty lucky so far.  Three treasure chests here.  This one's in the upper right area.    This one involves either a very convincing illusion or Camil jumping fifteen feet. Sadly, you can't exit to the left for easier access to the other chest.  Evaded that red knight by the skin of my teeth.   Same song, new verse. This area has even more Spears than the previous ones, but they're easy enough to hunt down. I engage a red--best to know what they can do now.  Dammit, red, you are messing with my naming scheme! You're Javelin. Reds aren't that scary; they do about 30 to Randolf with Sporadic Guard, and he's tanky but he's not THAT tanky. They do, however, have one nasty trick:  They know Shout. Thankfully, they go down in three rounds, so I kill this one before it can use it. 92 Agility makes Camil really, really drat fast relative to just about everything, even if they get 150% speed.  I have ten of these by now. Don't know who'll get them, though. Probably Randolf? Maybe half and half between him and Camil; Aeritz's HP threshold skill isn't too vital.  I kill three more Axes without getting hit by an instant kill. Admittedly, Camil dodged one of those (Zara Sword + Aegis), but I'm starting to wonder if their freakishly high accuracy before was just bad luck. Hmm.    Compared to outside, the Anchors here are sedate. They're not aggressive, they move at half your speed, and they don't ever enter the tunnels between rooms. That makes them easy to dodge--I go through this entire house without ever fighting one. Who knows, maybe the floor is lava and you die if you do.    Other one is a Stamina Up. Seriously, this area needs more item variation.  A warning to anyone who plays this after: by changing areas, you make the Spears respawn. Getting in any fight before you change areas here is a very, very bad idea.     So naturally I don't get into any. By this point, you should be an old hand at dodging encounters.    This is a really weird-looking church, not least because the side buildings are more ornate but there aren't any doors on them. I guess that's common enough for side buildings in this game, but... The music stops once you enter.    I go ahead and save.   Man, this is ominous, isn't it? It's the complete silence that does it.   Trying to open the chest does nothing. Waiting, however, makes this door appear and creates these black specks. They don't move... yet. Then they do and all hell breaks loose.  oh god Thankfully, even you're fighting a million at once...  ...they're really not that scary.  Well, except that the one with the staff in the upper-left can do this. And the mage on the right can use God's Rage to do about 50 magic to everyone, and they can all heal themselves for 1000, and...  Okay, Versus Team Girl Power, round two. This time, I'll try to engage fewer of them.   It goes fairly well. Camil uses Shout fairly early on in both fights (round one, the second time) and I focus down Hettie, the healer, before any of them can do anything too scary.  The Dagger should be fantastic, and yet...   The Dagger gives +70 Attack, 64 Range, and Extra Attack +2. As an All-Purpose, it instead gives +35 Attack and Extra Attack +2. Extra Attack +2 is really good! But if I'm replacing the Praying Mantis Ax as a Weapon, I lose 19 Agility, and it'll only be 1 Attack stronger once it's leveled. If I'm replacing the Zara Sword as an All-Purpose, I lose 7 Critical, 16 Agility and 8% flat dodge rate. Sporadic Guard is essential, and the Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark is necessary for a physical character to do their real damage. What can I replace to use the Dagger on my primary physical user? Unfortunately, the answer is "nothing". That said, I hand it off to Randolf. The Speckcinder isn't very good, and while the attack loss will hurt his spells, Extra Attack +2 works well with the Delusion Cocoon and it should improve his physicals too.  This isn't a bad place to be after that fight. I don't actually save or leave off here; I'm saving that 2000 gold for the trip out. Still, I'm 93 screenshots in. I'll cut this update here.   Next time, glorious new (old) music! In that update, I'll finish Cave Chronicle proper. (Since I can't actually get out instantly, I'll leave the updated files for then, too... But there was one more reset, putting the counter at 31.)
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Apr 28, 2014 03:30
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Valkama posted:I've never seen this before. I did some testing myself with it, it's definitely the Extra Attack that causes it. There doesn't seem to be a difference between +1 and +2 items and it also appears to be agility based. At 83 agility I got it to happen nearly every time so it probably runs off the same percentage as sporadic guard and trip. I think Extra Attack +2 does make a difference? I believe I've seen Randolf get 30 SP back from it instead of 20... But I was fighting and screenshotting at the time, so I'm not absolutely sure. This makes a pretty big difference, though, especially for Aeritz. I'm pretty happy to have found it out.
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Apr 28, 2014 03:35
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Einander posted:I think Extra Attack +2 does make a difference? I believe I've seen Randolf get 30 SP back from it instead of 20... But I was fighting and screenshotting at the time, so I'm not absolutely sure. Never got 30% return from it. I might just be unlucky though or it's rare. Also the Spirea being referred to by the weapon is Spirea Thunbergii which is sometimes referred to as Baby's Breath Spirea.
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Apr 28, 2014 04:02
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I cheated and used a map for the town. Trying to find chests in that place blind just sucks so much. Even the next area is arguably better than this.
Seraphic Neoman fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Apr 28, 2014 |
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Apr 28, 2014 04:13
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Einander posted:Here's a fun fact: for some reason, Extra Attack+ seems to activate on Recover SP when Defending and with the same mechanics. It recovers 10% SP every time, but if you have Extra Attack +2 or two Extra Attack + 1, then you have a Agility% of 20% SP and a (Agility/2)% of 30% SP. Huh. I've never seen an RPG maker game that has both an extra (default) attack ability and recovery tied to defending. I guess 'extra attack' abilities are just treated as a 'repeat turn' sort of thing as long as you're not using a special attack or an item. So basically you're defending multiple times when it triggers instead of attacking. (Defending is binary, so you don't see a difference in damage taken.) There's not really any other situation where defending multiple times has an effect, so I've never noticed anything like that before. I think it's pretty cool seeing how RPG maker works in these odd cases.
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Apr 28, 2014 04:14
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Chapter 20: "Fairytales don’t tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist." (Cave Chronicle 3) Welcome back! "Back" in more than one sense--we're going retro for a little while.   Thankfully, there's no random battle system here. Getting into fights works the same as it ever has.  Nothing in the town right now.  The Orcs are incredibly aggressive and have huge detection radiuses... Or, rather, they seem to have the same size radius as ever, despite the smaller characters and vastly larger scale. They don't hit very hard, but they can use Call Friends to call another, identical Orc. This can be a problem if you have low offense or you've been leaning too heavily on Cutthroat, but it's hard to imagine you'd get here in that case--it's the same problem as Spears in the last area. Their drop, Meat, gives +2 Attack and +50 HP. It's a good item for falling down holes, if nothing else, and we've got a big hole still coming up.  This size mismatch is so goofy. Unlike the Mirage's tiny chests, you can open these huge ones just fine.     The first chest had an Orc guarding it as well. The first one is a Glass Fragment, second one is a Stamina Up. (Still haven't used most of my stat-ups)    I Yakkety Sax this one orc all the way to the exit. Not because I have to, but because I can.   This one was also guarded, naturally.  The green orcs are yellow on the map. They hit harder, but their summons only summon regular orcs, thankfully. There's another Glass Fragment chest behind them.  Ehh, I think the cave will work out! I don't trust holes.   oh god where's Gandalf when you need him The Balrog is not actually that tough!   Flame does about 20-30 to the party, or it can do a double-hit version that does the same twice to one. All of that low, constant damage makes it very easy to trigger the HP thresholds on Yell and Dragon Slayer, so he goes down without issue. I use an Energy Restore on Randolf afterwards. Still at 7/20 Stamina/Energy.  For vanquishing the dread foe, I acquire this recipe. It requires you to use up the only Lucky Rabbit and is therefore worthless, even before you get into how disappointing the item produced is.  I think I'll leave these guys alone. They're slow and easy to avoid--no reason not to. There's another Orc and yellow Orc guarding a chest in the upper-right. I fight them one-by-one. Aeritz masters the Three-Legged Frog while I do; +28 SP, +104 Defense. It's nice.  Did you expect anything else? Exit to the south.  Both of them leave me alone after a little bit.  Several orcs of both vareties guard the way around.  11 Glass Fragments now. (When I start saying "this is how many I have," that's when I've run out of things to say about Glass Fragments for the update.)     Once again, there's a hole just south of the cave. But let's ignore that and go through.  Shelob is pretty straightforward. It hits about as hard as the White Whale ZellGaizer.  It also has instant death. Still, I only have to revive twice. Sitting on 7S/18E Restores.   The Clam is your reward, giving you +70 HP and Slow Attack.    Naturally, the big reward of a Lord of the Rings self-insert fanfiction section is a ring. The Slippery Ring gives +45 Skill, +10 HP, +15 SP and +8 Agility, and it's very definitely the best item for Aeritz to replace the Footfalls with in a boss fight... If not for the Extra Attack + Recover SP when Defending thing, anyway. In light of that, it probably won't see use. Randolf could replace the Varnished Bird Wing with it, but the Varnished Bird Wing has almost a 1/5 chance of evading attacks. Even 30 more Skill isn't worth losing that.    If you have a very good memory, then this might look a little familiar. Remember that hole in The Snow Fields that I showed back in the Bonus update? This is the other end of it. It has the same music as the optional superboss area. That is worrying.   Will Stones. A lot of Will Stones, at least two to three dozen. Coming down here unlocks the Will Stones Glossary entry, which is creepy as hell. I mean, mental back-up or no, ugh. Harold and Aeritz had strong contitutions if they were willing to use these things.    This is the same fanfare as the one you get for recruiting the faceless shade of Aeritz. Much like our Aeritz, the Long Sword is probably not actually "real." If a strong enough story can warp reality on this island, then a place with this many Will Stones is essentially a nuclear dump site. This area is at the bottom of a deep, dark hole in an incredibly remote corner of The Island, so this may be a more exact analogy than it initially appears. Carrying around the main product of all that radiation seems like a questionable decision, but we're already carrying around one plague, why not add a second? Camil can heal Story Heart Disease and Story Blindness, so Story Cancer probably isn't much more difficult.   While this weapon based on Sera's (entirely mundane) sword would be incredibly appropriate in Camil's hands, it isn't very good for a pure fighter. Much like the Dagger, it upsets the delicate stat balance a fighter has going on. Camil can afford to lose 11 Agility (Long Sword gives +8 levelled) a bit more easily than 19, and gaining 57 Attack is definitely nice, but 8 Range isn't exactly sweetening the deal. Still, high Attack and +Agility make it a pretty good Mage weapon... Except for the Extra Attack + Recover SP when Defending thing. So Randolf keeps the Dagger.    (Another localized fix by HenryEx--originally, I believe the English translation says it wants a Magic Bean here, even though it uses Imaginary Seeds.) This ivy isn't persistent, but if you don't have one already, then there's always a new Imaginary Seed off to the side, waiting for you to plant it...  ...which is why the Imaginary Seed itself is special. It only gives +18 SP, but it's the only way to get Pinch Compensation. You know the idiom, "in a pinch"? It's been adopted in Japanese, where "pinch" is used in the same sense as "crisis." So "Crisis Compensation" is really more of an accurate name. Pinch Compensation apparently multiplies your damage by (1+(%HP missing)). So if you're very nearly dead, it's about double damage. Powerful! Very useful for that 1000 damage trophy, and it's useful for Inferno or Star Fall Magic set-ups, which go into battle with missing HP anyway.  First, though, I head back to pick this up.  Also, this is an Uruk-Hai. They're Orcs, but stronger. They still summon red Orcs. Then I head back and head up. If I want to keep an Imaginary Seed, then I can come back for one later. I redeem my bottles (up to 45 now; I go with a 15/30 split) and head into The Imagination to set up.  Yeah, I think Aeritz can survive that drop now. (Also hahahaha look at that experience display. It isn't quite designed for numbers this high.) More importantly... I just about cleared out Cave Chronicle. There's just one chest I missed, and there's the two from the Chimney. If you have no more than three chests missed, then you pass the 260 chest threshold to open a door in His Memory.   The Perfect Hero is Camil's answer to Hero Supplement. Shout 2.0 requires 30% HP instead of the 40% of Randolf's version, but it's a massive increase in stats. It'll get shown off soon enough. It's also tied to the dumbest, most obscure secret in the game, which I'll also show off. (Unfortunately.)    Eluonto's Sadness is one-of-a-kind. Like the Aegis, you can only make one, despite its relatively simple recipe.   I also pick this up while I'm here.  Worthless.  That is a weird-rear end recipe right there. The Imaginary Seeds requirement means that if you want to make one, you've got to get to the very end of Cave Chronicle, either by jumping down the 400 HP hole or by walking to the very end, and then you've got to get out again without using up the Seeds. That's pretty easy if you bring 4000 gold, though, since you just have to get through the Orc section. So I try jumping down the hole to Cave Chronicle again.  RNG promptly fucks with me, just for the hell of it.   Then the game gets in on the action. The screen always does the fade-to-black-oh-no-you-died here...  Even if you survive. It even does this before showing the numbers, just to be suspenseful. Notably, though...  ...this route doesn't destroy any of your Restores. I use Energy Restores on Randolf and Camil and a Stamina Restore on all three, then I'm good to go.  Shelob is back. It actually respawns every time you move through this cave. You can skip Shelob if you're coming from the left, since the hole below the cave teleports you past it, but if you want to keep Imaginary Seeds, then you need to fight. I use The Perfect Hero on Shelob, because it's funny. The status it gives you is called "Perfect," naturally.  These red enemies here in this forest are Ents, who are bad guys now I guess? Fanfiction is weird.  Oh no! The town! The town that we can't enter or interact with! I WILL SAVE YOU, TOWN  oh god why  Unfortunately, this is kind of random. If you get drowned in Orcs summoning more Orcs, then you lose. It's like the hole down to here: sometimes, you're just going to die, and there's not too much you can do about it. (Except coming back here after the superboss, anyway, which is a totally legitimate decision.) So I come back. (404 damage from the drop this time.) This time, I kit out a little differently.  You may be confused. I've spent all of this time talking about the delicate balance of Agility, Critical and abilities, where Agility is king--it's what determines how often you activate your vital offensive and defensive abilities, after all. Why am I disregarding that now?  Because Camil's still nearly at 90 Agility once she uses Shout, at which point she'll be criticalling nearly two out of three hits and dodging nearly a fourth of the incoming attacks. The one risk here is that I can't heal Camil until turn two--Randolf and Aeritz are both faster than her before Shout. I'll take that risk... But if she only very nearly dies, then she can use The Perfect Hero and clean house. Randolf has the Long Sword, replacing the Dagger. He can't heal SP very well as he is, but I'm going to be using Restores with impunity; I got a bit unlucky with Shelob on the way here, but I'm still at 12 Stamina/26 Energy. I can afford to burn them.  It's notable that the red enemy on the town spawns more Orcs as you engage the ones around, and he can make two or three in the game it takes the fight to actually start. This is five. Thankfully, as turn 1 demonstrates, it's not TOO bad... So long as they don't summon too much more than this.  Motherfucker That's the product of three of three Orcs going after Camil and swinging through her 23% evasion. (The other two summoned.) Admittedly, I didn't heal her when I could have, but that's still atrocious luck.  ...yeah, I think this is a good time for this. It'll bring Camil and Randolf to nearly 50% dodge rate. I need that level of bullshit right now. Aeritz uses an Energy Restore on himself.  Naturally, two Orcs hit Camil just fine. Only one attack gets dodged this round. I think the game's just being a dick at this point. Next round goes better. Dragon Slayer's taken out two Orcs at this point; Camil's one turn attacking under Yell went very well, and Dragon Slayer can swing for up to about 600 damage.  Honestly, my strategy going in hinged on Camil not getting screwed over EXACTLY the way she was. So it's better to go for an actual chance of success than to repeatedly fail. Randolf uses a Stamina Restore, Aeritz heals himself.  Camil survived! And Random paid off for the other two. The Perfect Hero multiplies HP by 150%, SP by 200%, Attack by 160%, Skill by 150% and Agility by 200%, and gives +15 Critical. It's Shout on steroids, and it's drat impressive in action. Randolf uses an Energy Restore on Camil, Aeritz uses Healing Magic on himself again.   Beautiful. Camil takes a beating but survives narrowly, as expected. Randolf uses an Energy Restore on her, Aeritz uses a Stamina Restore on Randolf.  The purpose of the Energy Restores is to keep Camil alive but not TOO high on HP--I've still got a fight after this, and I'd like her to at least Shout early on there. Additionally, she can always use Shout or The Perfect Hero again here to stay buffed before it runs out, and I have more Energy Restores than Stamina Restores.  Whew. Now to run forward and start the fight before he can summon too many more Orcs!  Okay, never mind; he only summons so many from the town. Okay. Something to remember if I fail here. Sharkey summons orcs. Sometimes he skips his turn instead. Thankfully, the Dagger's huge attack radius makes Camil uniquely predispositioned to deal with that exact problem. She Shouts, the other two use Light Axe and attack the Orc.  The Orc also summons. Dammit. Camil attacks Sharkey; unfortunately, the two at the bottom were summoned too far away, even with the Dagger's 64 range. Randolf uses Light Axe on him as well, while Aeritz heals Camil. Another summon, attacks aren't too bad. Sharkey's about down to 2/3 health, and I want him dead before Shout expires. Another two rounds pass. Camil is not criticalling and she actually managed to only hit once one round. That's bad.  Sharkey is very nearly dead; his health bar is entirely red. I use Lightning and hope, while Camil Shouts again and Aeritz uses Healing Magic. Healing Magic may not produce huge numbers, but that's actually very useful at times like this--Camil being restored to full health is actually bad here.  Good news: Sharkey is dead. Bad news: Randolf is dead and also HOLY poo poo, look at all those Orcs.  Camil dodges a death blow and gets an opening to use The Perfect Hero. I take it.  ...and then Aeritz somehow goes before her, despite her 86 Agility to his 75. Well, there goes the neighborhood. I really don't like this fight. Between the sheer number of attacks, the lack of competent non-Camil AOE, the random placement of summoned enemies, and the inconsistencies inherent in Extra Attack and critical rates, you're throwing dice way too many times to feel entirely in control of this fight. It's aggravating. So I go and grind two stars on the Dagger against rats, during which time Randolf masters the Cordelia and gets two stars on the Long Sword.   Stop wasting my goddamn time, game. Please.  OH FOR gently caress'S SAKE It works on the third try. Thankfully. This is about at the other edge of my bullsht tolerance. I head back. As I do, I experiment a little.  This time, I don't go in with Shout. I go in with The Perfect Hero.  This time, he doesn't do anything the first round. The fight ends up a total joke.   The Biter is the only source of 3 Hit Combo. It's 2 Hit Combo, but it hits three times instead of two. Yep. It costs 36 SP per use (12 per hit) and requires 70% HP. It has very low base power (10) but high influence from attack (70%) and the usual Skill modifier (100%). Let's say you kit out to about 400 attack--that's doable, if your goal is just high Attack and high Skill. The base power is going to be about 290, while Inferno will be 360 at that point. Inferno is not especially good damage against a single target, and neither it nor 3 Hit Combo ignore defense. Additionally, kitting out this way means that your Agility will be poor and you may not have Sporadic Guard. In other words, trying to use 3 Hit Combo is suicidal. There's really no reason to fight Sharkey outside of bragging rights. I head back. I forgot the Imaginary Seeds, and that's the main reason I came down here.  The hole to skip the Balrog takes you right to the other side. Shelob's, on the other hand, takes you way over to the corner chest here.  I ransack essentially my entire inventory, including some of the more useless unique items, to buy this. (If I really need them back, I'll just debug. I just didn't want to grind more at the moment.)  You examine the chimney in your room, and it puts you up here. I have two Glass Fragments, and I don't think there's another one anywhere. That's because I didn't talk to everyone at every place, but... Still. That sucks. The other item is a Skill Up.   The Fillet is a drop at the Seashore.  Thanks again to HenryEx for his localization fixes--since Randolf and the book's hero Randolf have the same English name, it doesn't seem to trigger properly normally. This entry was unlocked by getting Randolf to level 45. It all-but-confirms that Randolf really is Nana's little brother, and also explains the White Dragon. (I guess the Demon King Chronicle didn't have any illustrations, huh?)   Invisible passage. That's the last chest of the game. I did some grinding on the Spear Glandelians here to level up an item for Aeritz, then headed back. I sold all of the items I'd gotten and stopped by His Memory.  I bought all of the crystals except two Energy Up crystals for Camil, because seriously, she has enough already. Total bounty: Camil: +4 HP Randolf: +19 Attack (three crystals), +18 HP (two crystals), Waterboy Resolve skill The three recipes are Eluonto's Sadness (+50 HP, +28 SP, and Stagger immunity; when used as an item, restores 80% HP and 80% SP and cures all statuses for party), Rabbit Stew (+35 HP, +10 Critical, +8 Agility, +5% evasion; when used, restores 80% HP), and Nine Tails (+10 Attack, +30 Skill, +5 HP, +1 Critical, +4 Agility, +6% evasion, Fast Attack; when used, heals 50% HP and 10% SP and increases Agility by 4). Eluonto's Sadness is a great panic button; it's always worth making the one you can make. The Nine Tails is a good Fast Attack item, but at the point you get it it's usually better to just cram it into someone's mouth. Speaking of which...  Total stat-up distribution: Camil: +30 HP (8 Stamina Up, 1 No Name Choice Wine), +8 Attack (4 Attack Up), +3 Critical (1 Chatty Barber) Randolf: +12 HP (4 Stamina Up), +4 SP (1 Bluestocking) Aeritz: +6 HP (1 No Name Choice Wine), +10 SP (3 Energy Up, 1 Bluestocking), +6 Skill (3 Skill Up), +4 Agility (1 Nine Tails) I save the I Believe I Can Fly! for use just before the boss. Both the No Name Choice Wine and the I Believe I Can Fly! give special (but sadly temporary) statuses that give +Critical. Next time, the optional superboss. Annihilation Record: Annihilation count: [2014/04/29 ??:??]Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Orc. [2014/04/29 15:18]Defeated at Cave Chronicle. [2014/04/29 15:16]Defeated at Cave Chronicle. [2014/04/27 17:42] Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Orc. [2014/04/27 17:08]Defeated at Cave Chronicle. [2014/04/27 14:48] Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Daisy. [2014/04/27 12:22] Defeated at The Imagination by Catharsis. (For some reason, it didn't update properly here--it didn't show the death against Sharkey himself. I added it manually.) Battle Record: 2014/04/29/ 17:36:49 Demon King Chronicle ■Battle results Playtime:23:18:26 Save count:221 Steps taken:111696 Battle count:1380 Max damage:632 Max damage taken:605 Items:52 Types 130 Items Turns to defeat Last Boss：53(Best Record53) ■Treasure Chests The Nest: 8/8 Demon King's Castle: 26/26 The Hamlet: 31/31 The Snow Fields: 20/20 The Dragon Mountain: 6/6 Sands of Remembrance: 26/26 The Tower: 11/11 The Seashore: 12/12 The Mirage: 10/10 Leviathan Depths: 5/5 The Disease: 20/20 The Imagination: 32/32 Cave Chronicle: 46/46 Unmapped area: 10/10 ■Camil(45) HP:239 SP:84 Attack:327 Defense:95 Range:64 Critical:44 Skill:132 Agility:73 ・Dagger(3) ・Mask of Determination(3) ・Aegis(3) ・Zara Mantle (3) ・Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark(3) ■Randolf(45) HP:202 SP:100 Attack:354 Defense:200 Range:8 Critical:14 Skill:181 Agility:79 ・Long Sword(3) ・Cordelia(3) ・Delusion Cocoon(3) ・Varnished Bird Wing(3) ・Black Ladybug(3) ■(42) HP:200 SP:80 Attack:202 Defense:152 Range:15 Critical:26 Skill:75 Agility:81 ・Rat Slayer(2) ・Three-Legged Frog(3) ・Parts(3) ・Footfalls of Hope(3) ・Helm(3) ■Top 10 defeats Rat(301) Green Mud Man(178) Conflict(160) Toothy Piranha(157) Mermaid(143) Deformity(98) Abominable Snow Monkey(97) Wake-Eater(89) Monkey(88) Merman(84) Glossary: (Unlocked by reaching the Long Sword) ■Will Stones Strange parasites that live on people's backs. They can store the host's memories, and transfer these memories to their next host. (Unlocked when Randolf reaches level 45) ■Randolf A certain old man beat his mother to death after she gave birth to him, and ordered a servant to get rid of the baby. (The reason he didn't take care of the baby himself is because he was afraid of it.) The child was taken in by a man named Flodnar. He was a poor and homeless man, but since he found the child, he had no choice but to raise it. Some years later, Flodnar read the "Demon King Chronicle" and named him after the fictitious dragon slayer. He hoped he could raise him to be healthy and strong. ------------------------- After Flodnar died, Randolf lived on the island for 8 years. In order to live up to the expectations of the parent that raised him, he went to slay the imaginary beast, the White Dragon. By the way, what kind of creatures are dragons? I am pretty sure they spit something from their mouth at least.
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Apr 30, 2014 02:22
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 Will Stones are a bit more creepy. So Randolf had no idea what a dragon looked like huh.
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Apr 30, 2014 02:57
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I hate Sharkey, he can be really easy or really hard and it's all RNG based. The biter I find really useful though as if you build you character right you can get over 3000 damage off with just one character. To put that in perspective, The Demon King Hades has 5500 hp.
Valkama fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Apr 30, 2014 |
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Apr 30, 2014 05:46
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Yeah, I guess I got super-lucky cause Sharky was no problem at all. drat that could have been bad.
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Apr 30, 2014 05:50
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All right, optional superboss down. It's no final battle, but that's an incredibly high hurdle to clear. Question: are there any Glossary entries I'm missing? If so, what are the conditions? I'm planning to run through again real quick for something, so if there's anything that needs doing, it'd be good to know now.
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May 1, 2014 03:08
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Einander posted:All right, optional superboss down. It's no final battle, but that's an incredibly high hurdle to clear. 2 I believe: You get one for Zelphie if you read the book on the table where Kumo used to be and one for Camil when she hits Level 50.
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May 1, 2014 03:52
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Chapter 21: "...Fairytales tell children that dragons can be killed." (Versus The Hero) Welcome back!  On the way back to the superboss area, Camil and Randolf hit level 46. Aeritz is still level 42. It's important to note that engaging the boss automatically heals you--you can't enter with a lowered HP threshold, so no first-turn The Perfect Hero or Hero Supplement uses. It does not, however, clear statuses granted by items like a healing spring does.  50% more Skill, +20 Critical, +4 Agility, and a global boost to damage dealt. It'll only last four turns, but it can't hurt. (Plus, the status is appropriate.) 20 Stamina Restores, 25 Energy Restores. Let's do this. I walk forward a little. Just a little past the spring, and...    We're up against the final villain, the one that's motivated most of the stories so far: Zelphie. Appropriately enough, as the boss of a Story, he's got the same theme as all of the others. The Final Battle As Planned activates here, I believe, though the names don't change to reflect it; I don't think you get Aeritz's bonuses here unless you've bought it. I'll check that later. (Or someone will say in the thread, either one.)  Camil's set-up is fairly simple: when she gets below 30% HP, she'll use The Perfect Hero. When she's between 30% and 70%, she'll use Shout. The Zara Mantle's Fast Attack ensures that she'll go first, despite the higher Agility on Aeritz and Randolf, so they can heal her without worry. The Dagger and Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark give her impressive damage. Camil is the star of the show; no one else can match her at this point, and there's really no point in trying. (Remember, her stats are a bit inflated at this point still.)  Randolf's job is not to die. I'm being a little excessively cautious, but between his raw durability and the Stagger immunity on the Black Ladybug, I can be sure he'll always be around to heal or resurrect. When he's not doing that, Light Axe and Dragon Slayer will do okay damage.  Aeritz got the Dragon Slayer, since it's essentially an upgraded Baby's Breath. He's going to be healing. The Dragon Slayer's Recover SP when Defending, the Footfalls of Hope's Extra Attack +1, his high Agility, and his ridiculous SP score mean that he can throw out a group Healing Magic every other turn 80% of the time, and with that Skill score, it's going to be a good one. Final Battle As Planned Aeritz makes most threats not really that threatening.  That's after a full round of attacks, including Light Axe and a 460 damage crit from Camil. The Hero will not go down easily.  Crescent Moon is a pain in the rear end. Not really threatening, just a pain in the rear end; it Staggers nearly always. (Also, Randolf's Never Die Ever set-up is already bearing fruit. 31 damage and he didn't even Guard it.)  Poison Spider is Pain In the rear end #2, hitting two characters and poisoning very often. This is particularly problematic in light of poison taking effect just before a character's turn and also being able to kill.  Eh, why not?  Healing spec Aeritz in action. When you consider that it's basically free, that's absurdly good. Also, note the Exhilaration on Randolf. That's "why not," to answer my question a moment ago: it very slightly increases your offense but decreases defense by 5%. It's not very useful, and you're fairly likely to get it from Waterboy Resolve. Most of the others aren't amazing either. You can get a status that's basically The Perfect Hero's Perfection, but there's no real point in gambling on it. Camil's Staggered, everyone else is fine. Randolf is still Light Axeing away, while Aeritz defends to get his SP back. The Hero hits Randolf for 65 Guarded damage--that's pretty impressive. Camil has to Defend. Aeritz heals Randolf. Randolf Light Axes. Zelphie uses Crescent Moon again and doesn't Stagger anyone.  And that's why I've been basically ignoring Poison. Versatility's still up, but it's about to run out, so it's time to get her buffed and ready. Randolf is still Light Axeing away. Aeritz heals everyone.  And here we go!  Zelphie uses Poison Spider and doesn't Poison anyone. He still hasn't pulled out any other tricks. This is going well.  As you'd expect, you get the cut-in images here; I used Heaven's Blessing here, just for the hell of it. Zelphie then Staggers Camil twice in a row, just to be a dick. (Or he's being clever and timing out Shout, but I think the other explanation is more likely.) Randolf defends to build up SP.  Wait what   Well, poo poo; I guess that skill is hereditary. I wish Randolf and Nana got the version that also summoned minions. The archer on the left is Left Hand - Alma and the knight on the right is Right Hand - Mililanis. (You may remember them, but probably don't, from the books in The Hamlet way back.) The fight really begins with Hero Supplement. Camil reapplies Shout; it ran out. Randolf uses Light Axe on Alma. Aeritz heals everyone.  Alma's a lot less durable... At first. Zelphie heals himself with Breath here, also giving himself the Focus status.  Iron Will gives everyone the Iron status, greatly decreasing damage taken. Mililanis uses Charge, which probably Staggers, but he did 0 damage to Aeritz. That's sad. Still, with those buffs...yeah, I think I'm just gonna defend for a little bit...  Random ran out. Alma uses Iron Will again. Camil and Randolf are still defending, while Aeritz heals everyone. Zelphie manages to poison both Camil and Randolf at the same time during the next round, so Camil uses Destiny's Defeat on Randolf and Aeritz uses Healing Magic on her, clearing both of them.   Demon Eye is really goddamn irritating. Still, it didn't hit Aeritz; thank goodness for small mercies. Camil targets Alma. Randolf accidentally attacks. Aeritz defends. Alma uses Rapid Fire, hitting Camil and Aeritz repeatedly. It does pretty pitiful damage. Mililanis uses Armor Break on Camil, lowering her defense. And Zelphie...  What the hell!? Thankfully, Breath runs out at this point, so one of his damage buffs is gone. Camil attacks Alma, Aeritz resurrects. Alma's Rapid Fire actually hurts Camil now, since her defense is lowered--about 20 a hit, for roughly 60-80 total. Ouch. Zelphie uses Demon Eye again and doesn't Skill Bind anyone. Mililanis uses Charge and hits Aeritz, which is incredibly annoying.  Camil Shouts, Randolf uses Dragon Slayer on Alma, Aeritz defends. Zelphie used Breath again, Mililanis used Armor Break on Aeritz. Uh-oh.  Do Yell and Perfection stack? I don't know, but probably! LET'S FIND OUT Randolf uses a Stamina Restore on Camil. Aeritz heals everyone.  Okay, Aeritz died, that's bad, but AHAHAHAHAHA (The Perfect Hero also gives a cut-in, naturally.) Iron Will just expired; Alma hasn't been using it in a while. Randolf raises Aeritz. Camil, meanwhile...  WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW Then Mililanis uses Charge on Camil. It Staggers.  This is a good demonstration of the lower damage on additional swings, by the way. Contrary to expectations, the extra swings are tacked on to the start of the attack sequence, so the later hits do the most damage. Still, Randolf is able to Dragon Slayer Mililanis while Aeritz heals everyone. Camil's still got at least one more turn of ridiculous murder potential in her. Zelphie uses Breath again. Mililanis tries to use Sword Breaker on Camil to neuter some of her ridiculous murder potential and misses.  (There's also a 800 damage critical on Mililanis that I missed.) Randolf restores Camil to full SP with an Energy Restore, Aeritz heals himself, Zelphie uses Demon Eye and gets both Aeritz and Camil. Camil's still got both Yell and Perfection up, though. Randolf heals Skill Bind from Aeritz, Aeritz defends. (Don't want him getting murdered by Focus+Hero on Zelphie.)  (Bad at capturing third hits. About 450 to Zelphie from a crit, about 300 to Mililanis.) Defending with Aeritz was prudent--he takes two hits from Poison Spider and loses 2/3 of his health. One unlucky non-activation from Sporadic Guard would have killed him.  Man, these statuses last longer than I thought. Still, this is the last turn on Yell; it expires following the attack.  (I am fighting literally an entire LP's worth of screenshot timing reflexes here, okay? It's hard!) Perfection lasted long enough--Mililanis goes down to another Light Axe.  This is bad. Still... He's down to 1/3 health and I still have nearly all of my potions. Thankfully, Perfection overrides Hero here, so far as I can tell. No double superbuff.  Camil uses Shout, Randolf uses Light Axe, Aeritz uses Healing Magic on Camil. This isn't the time to get cute with trying to get The Perfect Hero--if I get it, great, otherwise I'm not taking risks.  This... doesn't appear to give a status. Hmm. That means it's probably a "super move next turn" warning. I defend. It's not; he just uses Demon Eye. Aeritz gets silenced, so while Camil and Randolf are attacking, Aeritz uses an Energy Restore on himself.  Ehh, why not?  You son of a-- Thankfully, unlike your version, this just brings him back to 50% of max health. He doesn't just undo all your work.   Luna is another cut-in attack. It hurts! He can only use it if he's used Art of Sword Drawing some turn previously and hasn't already used Luna since then, but he can't wait quite a while before pulling it out, so you can't really choose to Guard against it. He could conceivably kill Aeritz outright with it if Sporadic Guard fails to activate, and if anyone had lowered defense from Mililanis here, then they'd also die. Still, it's hard to believe you'd get to this point without killing the minions.  Camil attacks, Randolf uses Hero Supplement, Aeritz uses Healing Magic on everyone. Zelphie pulls out another attack here--Swallow Dive. Like Poison Spider, it hits twice and can either focus one or hit two, but it drops the Poison for an increase in raw damage. When Camil doesn't defend it, it does about 90 damage to her per hit and hits twice. Camil has like 90 defense, which is incredibly unimpressive for this point. He should hit harder than that. Zelphie uses Art of Sword Drawing again the next turn while my time gets their stuff in order again. Then he uses Luna right after, doing about 100 to everyone.  I don't think I ever showed the with-Hero status screen for Randolf. Zelphie is just spamming Art of Sword Drawing->Luna at this point. Every-other-turn high group damage is really, really easy for Aeritz to deal with, to say nothing of the fact that Camil just got two triple-crit turns in a row.  Like that. Still, Zelphie can't keep up with our raw power. Soon...   Camil ends it. The Hero isn't actually very scary--Aeritz alone can carry you through. If you give him the Black Ladybug, the combination of high SP and Stagger immunity trivializes it, no matter your offense, unless Aeritz gets very unlucky. Bringing in Shout and The Perfect Hero on a physical Camil just seals the deal.   And you return to the main menu. Zelphie will always be there to challenge again, should you want to grind to level 99 and humiliate him or something. There's no Glossary entry unlocked by beating him. There is, however, a book about him that I It's the book Kumo was standing in front of in Death Rat House. I guess he never got around to throwing it into Zelphie's corner of Cave Chronicle?  A match for a thousand men, he was a politician who created a fair and just government to protect the people, and a general unrivaled in both strength in numbers and tactical wisdom. He brought peace to our land which was once wrought with war. There never was, and probably never will be, another man like Zelphie Eluonto. We should be thankful we were born during this era. We were able to see a true hero with our own eyes.  This unlocks the Zelphie Eluonto glossary entry at the end of this update. Pop down and read it, then come back. The chronology on the parenthetical note in that one seems out-and-out wrong--I think they mean "twenty years AFTER Zelphie became known as a hero," especially since Kumo's third story calls him "The man known as the Virtuous King 20 years ago" and the fourth calls him "The man treated as a hero for the last 40 years." (Both stories are in Update 08, by the way.) I'm not sure where Aeritz and Kumo versus Zelphie happens on the timeline, but if he became a hero forty years before that fight, and he became a king twenty years after he became a king, then Aeritz probably kept to his promise and met him again after 19 years... Which means that Zelphie kicked their asses when he was about 79 years old and had spent the last 16 years as a mad king. Combined with Nana's age in the Zelphie Glossary entry, that suggests Aeritz and Kumo spent a year or two on The Island at most. He's still in his early 80s, though. That might undermine my "everyone (except possibly Camil) goes to beat up Zelphie" epilogue theory, but... Eh, 79, 81, difference is probably minimal. (The bit about how the story "spread through the continent as a proverb about the importance of keeping your word" is really dark, in light of the whole insane tyrant period. I imagine they probably wanted a great hero who could slay Zelphie, and resented Aeritz for not living up to that.) The end of Zelphie's life is sad precisely because there's never any real reason given for it. He was a hero, he became a king, he grew old, he went insane; there's never any reason to think it was something other than a sudden tragic stroke of bad luck. That book won't be the way he's remembered. There's also one last thing in His Memory. Sadly, the game doesn't count any stats achieved during the battle itself--Camil's 1005 damage attack went completely unnoticed.   By the way, while we're here... In light of that fight just now, and the fact that these three doors contain Zelphie Eluonto's three greatest tools? It's safe to say that he's the "His" of "His Memory." So apparently Camil is sneaking into Zelphie's memories and pilfering all of his techniques and stats. And all she needed to do this was the power she started with and a single dirty mirror. Camil was a terrifying reality warper before I turned her into a god of combat. Here's hoping she doesn't also get Zelphie's mental illness. (Or that she retains the presence of mind to use Destiny's Defeat on it, because she can probably do that.) (Man, Camil is so bullshit.)   The Starcaller is the final weapon of the game, and as you'd expect, it's also the most powerful... The most powerful by a lot, actually, especially with how levels on items work.   For reference, the Long Sword is the second-strongest Attack boost in both categories, and it gives +105 and +60 at base level. The Starcaller gives +160 Attack, 24 Range, and +12 Critical as a weapon and +90 Attack, +2 Defense, -2 to magic damage taken, and +10 Critical as an All-Purpose. Fully leveled, the Starcaller gives an insane 256 Attack. It is, as with all superweapons, held back only by the fact you now have nothing to use it on. Next time: ...or is there? Annihilation Record: Annihilation count:37 No new entries. Battle Record: 2014/04/30/ 19:00:08 Demon King Chronicle ■Battle results Playtime:23:29:22 Save count:225 Steps taken:113057 Battle count:1390 Max damage: Max damage taken:605 Items:52 Types 143 Items Turns to defeat Last Boss：53(Best Record53) Turns to defeat Hidden Boss：40(Best Record40) ■Treasure Chests The Nest: 8/8 Demon King's Castle: 26/26 The Hamlet: 31/31 The Snow Fields: 20/20 The Dragon Mountain: 6/6 Sands of Remembrance: 26/26 The Tower: 11/11 The Seashore: 12/12 The Mirage: 10/10 Leviathan Depths: 5/5 The Disease: 20/20 The Imagination: 32/32 Cave Chronicle: 46/46 Unmapped area: 10/10 ■Camil(46) HP:243 SP:85 Attack:330 Defense:95 Range:64 Critical:44 Skill:132 Agility:77 ・Dagger(3) ・Mask of Determination(3) ・Aegis(3) ・Zara Mantle (3) ・Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark(3) ■Randolf(46) HP:205 SP:101 Attack:357 Defense:200 Range:8 Critical:14 Skill:181 Agility:80 ・Long Sword(3) ・Cordelia(3) ・Delusion Cocoon(3) ・Varnished Bird Wing(3) ・Black Ladybug(3) ■(42) HP:200 SP:80 Attack:202 Defense:152 Range:15 Critical:26 Skill:75 Agility:81 ・Rat Slayer(2) ・Three-Legged Frog(3) ・Helm(3) ・Footfalls of Hope(3) ・Parts(3) ■Top 10 defeats Rat(301) Green Mud Man(178) Conflict(160) Toothy Piranha(157) Mermaid(143) Deformity(98) Abominable Snow Monkey(97) Monkey(90) Wake-Eater(89) Merman(84) Glossary: (Unlocked by reading the book in Death Rat House) ■Zelphie Eluonto Though approaching 60 years old, the infamous Hero managed to slice the book being stolen by the thief clean in two with a speed that human eyes could not follow. In awe of such an amazing technique, the thief fell right where he stood. Even with such amazing power, he could tell that he was about to fall into a normal "Preachy Grandpa" mode, so Aeritz cuts him short with the following claim. "This may be the extent of my ability now, but in 19 years I'll be the one the people call Hero, Mr. Great Hero." (*This was 20 years before Zelphie Eluonto became known as a Hero to the people. This is a very famous episode, and spread through the continent as a proverb about the importance of keeping your word.) Zelphie was pleased to hear such a claim and promised to meet him again in 19 years. With that he let the thief go. The thief took one half of the sliced book ad quickly ran away. Watching from the corner, Zelphie's grand daughter picked up the other half of the book. Though it was only half as thick as the part the thief had held, the 3 year old girl became very interested in it. ---- Only 3 years after the two promised to meet again, the Hero was beset by a strange illness and lost his sanity. There was no one that could stop the murderous rampage of the Hero who controlled most of the continent. Einander fucked around with this message at 02:37 on May 2, 2014 |
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May 2, 2014 01:22
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So Camill is now strong enough to beat the strongest person in the world in his prime. Good job there. I love how absurdly powerful and how completely unexplained she is. Dr Pepper fucked around with this message at 01:50 on May 2, 2014 |
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May 2, 2014 01:47
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Camil is the best young lady/avatar of death. Also - I like Zelphie's style. The Swordmaster-y look is pretty classic, but he's got that huge feathery popped collar and that just makes him the boss.  I just read that entry at the bottom. Aeritz was going to be lectured by Zelphie in "Preachy Grandpa" mode?
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May 2, 2014 02:33
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I think Camil has lived on this island for so long that she's used to its idiosyncrasies. If she steps into someone's mental realm she always helps 'em out. For them, it's a life-changing experience. For her, it's just another day at the office.
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May 2, 2014 02:41
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I was never able to come to a solid conclusion as to who the "His" in his memory is referring to. There are a couple people I've thought of but none really have solid proof. Harold makes the most sense thematically, as his memory contains everything you need to have the true final battle. Zelphie makes a bit of sense because of the three doors at the ending. Another idea is that it belonged to Aeritz. He would have seen Zelphie's sadness, his heroism and his Starcaller at first hand. My only problem with this really is it doesn't make too much sense to assign such an important role to Aeritz. The one I rather like is "His" being Ares. Ares's gender is never stated so it's possible. I mostly like this idea because of the little prompt you get before entering the mirror as Camil is the one assigned to fulfill Ares role in the story. The crystal's in his memory only apply to the heroes which Ares knew vary well and it's possible Aeritz told Ares about Zelphie or Ares just knew. To each their own interpretation I guess.
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May 2, 2014 02:43
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Final update will arrive no later than next Friday, but it may be sooner. It's going to be relatively low-content, but it'll take a while to actually make and Kirby Triple Deluxe comes out tomorrow. Camil's powers make total sense if you think about it, though. She's the Main Character in a story about stories on an island where stories are power, and she's also the author of the story in question. So she's simultaneously fulfilling both of the roles that give her the most influence over the story. She's basically power-gaming the hell out of the island's story power systems. Valkama posted:I was never able to come to a solid conclusion as to who the "His" in his memory is referring to. There are a couple people I've thought of but none really have solid proof. Harold makes the most sense thematically, as his memory contains everything you need to have the true final battle. Zelphie makes a bit of sense because of the three doors at the ending. Another idea is that it belonged to Aeritz. He would have seen Zelphie's sadness, his heroism and his Starcaller at first hand. My only problem with this really is it doesn't make too much sense to assign such an important role to Aeritz. Aaron Aaron explicitly says "her" in reference to Sera, so I'm pretty sure Ares is female. I'd have to see the Japanese to see if that was gender-neutral originally, but considering that there was enough effort put in to ensure that Kumo's references to Ares were gender-neutral, I suspect that Ares is supposed to be female... Especially since Camil and Nana, the stand-ins for Ares and Sera in the two recreations of The Chronicle, are both female. So I'm very sure that Ares is out. The "His" in "His Memory" being Zelphie doesn't explain Star Fall Magic (except insofar as it strengthens Aeritz), but it does actually explain at least half of The Final Battle as Planned--Aeritz and Zelphie also had a final battle that they never got to live out, and The Final Battle as Planned activates against The Hero. It's a singular "His" and Harold and Zelphie had nothing to do with one another, so Camil probably modified it to apply to the wishes of both Harold and Aeritz. Either way around is roughly plausible, and things line up better otherwise if "His" is Zelphie. Plus, Zelphie is the shadow over very nearly the entire cast, the reason the three Chronicle holders and the Mole and Aeritz were there on the Island. Those characters are here to face their pasts, grow past them, and then return to The Continent, and all of them have a score to settle with Zelphie at that point. He's the real Final Battle, so the crystal referring to him originally makes total sense. Harold is a strong number two, but I'm pretty sure it's Zelphie.
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May 2, 2014 03:17
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Einander posted:Aaron Aaron explicitly says "her" in reference to Sera, so I'm pretty sure Ares is female. I'd have to see the Japanese to see if that was gender-neutral originally, but considering that there was enough effort put in to ensure that Kumo's references to Ares were gender-neutral, I suspect that Ares is supposed to be female... Especially since Camil and Nana, the stand-ins for Ares and Sera in the two recreations of The Chronicle, are both female. So I'm very sure that Ares is out. While Sera is female it's always possible Harold just wrote Sera to be different gender than Ares. While it is certainly heavily implied to be female Ares's gender is specifically never stated. I do think it works better if Ares is female which is why I've never been able to come to a full conclusion. However... Based on what you said the Zelphie theory has become a lot more appealing to me.
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May 2, 2014 03:48
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This has been an interesting game to say the least. Just... don't post the next update until you get to a new page, my computer is making GBS threads itself trying to load the last three updates on this page. 
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May 2, 2014 19:02
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:This has been an interesting game to say the least. Just... don't post the next update until you get to a new page, my computer is making GBS threads itself trying to load the last three updates on this page. I was noticing about 400ish images trying to load, yeah. A new page sounds like a great goal for now.
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May 2, 2014 19:07
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Starcaller is powerful, but it's a pretty naff reward otherwise. It's not that good against the final boss due to its mechanics and it has no special abilities in All-Purpose slots. It doesn't even have a measly extra attack +1.
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May 2, 2014 20:34
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I do like that ambiguity is a central part of the storytelling here, but it's also nice to see other people's interpretations of the events all the same.
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May 2, 2014 20:49
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If they made a game about Camil just wandering the entire world and fixing random people's stories, I'd play it. Maybe Randolf could tag along.
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May 2, 2014 21:50
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 23:03 |
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I have not much to say aside from a page motion contribution.
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May 2, 2014 23:14
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