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Johan the Assassin (1260) [Secret History] The story of a man who escaped from the assassin group Red Scorpion. 1260 Gustave encounters Johan The assassin, Johanne, encounters Gustave and becomes Johan, his bodyguard.  This is a short scenario with relatively little gameplay content, but it's very atmospheric. I like it.  (Powerlessness) Make sure to listen to this track, even if you have before--it plays throughout the scenario, and it really changes the atmosphere of things.  We're thrown right into things today.  Johan is one of the game's better swordsmen, primarily held back by his durability problems--that HP is bad and the LP is worse. Despite his higher starting level, he doesn't grow very well with Martial, so stick to Swords. He also has the game's most gloriously ridiculous outfit. Just look at that thing! The Blast Sword is a 18 Attack Tree Sword, the Scorpion Tail is a Water Tool with +1 to all defenses that can be used for the unique spell Deadly Snake (Aqua Viper with 13 power instead of 18, the same 4 SP cost, and an added chance to poison, party battles only), and the Red Scarf is a unique accessory that grants +10 SP, +1 to physical defenses and +16 Cold defense (but +0 to all other magical defenses). It's also been the subject of speculation that it raises drop rates, but I'm pretty sure that's just people being superstitious. You'll notice the Tornado Blade Hybrid Art he has equipped.  Tornado Blade is incredibly good, hitting in the same large area as Wide Swing and with a much larger power--it's actually slightly stronger than Blade Spray! It has no Duel combination, so getting it from Johan is the only way to learn it, and if you're playing without guides then it's the only Hybrid Art you're going to learn. Johan's Role is War God, which sets after-turn WP and SP regeneration to 0 (but not the normal after-battle HP healing) in exchange for increasing the power of all Arts (weapon, spell, and Hybrid) by 50%. This is not reflected in the menus. Since the SP floor (your SP is refreshed to the sum of your equipment total) still applies and Tornado Blade is so powerful, he'll have very little difficulty here.  Also I stole all of Wil's good stuff last scenario and I have the Cinderforge, so that helps. Now that we've looked over Johan, back to the scenario. See the guy on the bridge? The human enemies in this scenario start at the edges and hunt Johan, no matter how far away he is. They'll also periodically fade in and out of view. They're the only party battles; the rest are forced duels, since we only have one member. In a side note, every location in this scenario is a reused piece of a dungeon from another scenario, and this is one of two we haven't seen yet. There's no treasure here, even if there is in the original location.  Oddly enough, despite the fact he's being chased by a band of assassins, it's still using Feldschlacht I. Johan's not feeling very threatened, it seems. The Minor Assassins come 2-3 at a time. They have 400 HP and use minor physical attacks and the same Deadly Snake art as Johan (so being Water-immune, like with the Birch Ring, makes it even easier). Johan's doing about 1600 to them. Even if you stick to the Blast Sword, you'll kill them in one hit so long as you're using Tornado Blade. The Minor Assassins drop Crowns, but Johan can't buy things. They also drop Scorpion Tails, and their Scene drops are Rubber Soles, Flame Rods, and Leather Suits.    I've really got to wonder what's up with the bristly pants. I climb down the stairs and exit at the bottom-right. All of the lines in this scenario's between-screen crawls appear one line at a time; the breaks end up being roughly where a person would pause when speaking out loud, including a pause in the middle of the last line. It's a neat effect, and it helps with the storytelling feel of the scenario.      (left) Number 273, you will be given your official name, and you will become one of us. (right) The Scorpion, the symbol of our organization, will be branded upon you.    There's a hissing, sizzling sort of sound. They were being literal when they said "branding."   The Quarry where we faced Alexei. Going to the exit on the right or down-left is no good; you need to go left, up and right. No Griffons this time, thankfully, but Minor Assassin groups do constantly spawn from the edges where you can't exit.    Up and out.    The monster walks to the center of the room, then begins to prowl around aimlessly.  The monster to begins to spend more and more time in his corner of the center.  He begins to edge further and further away. The monster comes closer as the does.   The monster begins to repeatedly gore him.     It pans back down, then fades out.  The Snowfield Settlement in Weissland. Johan is walking upward.  The man at the bottom-left begins to blink in-and-out...  ...and another man appears where he was. The woman in the skirt notices, and books it for the stairs...  ...and another assassin appears, killing her as well.  The exit at the bottom doesn't work, and more and more assassins will spawn that way if you kill either of these ones.  No unique background, sadly, it's just the same one as the one en route to the Ice Megalith.  And Johan simply jumps over the cliff.      You don't even see Johanne move his arm.  The oasis in the Continent Interior at Vogelang. The oasis itself is completely inert, though--no healing, no Griffon encounter.  The bugs won't move unless you run. This Rhino will jump down from the overhang when you approach. It's just a Horn Buffalo, so it's not very threatening. (Except Johan forgets how to string together ANYTHING in the duel, so I ended up beating it to death with basic Slash/Backslash/Cleave moves. It took a while.)   Johan walks forward...  ...then dashes past the young man.  Then he simply walks calmly out of town.     Welcome to the Grasslands! There is not nearly enough tall grass for that to be a good name for it, though.  Can't exit via the roads up or left. You need to go down the stairs and down.                  Forget about me. Hurry up and get away from here!   I sense nothing, Sir Gustave. Can you walk? I am Ventarbre. Just call me Ven.  Johan, come with us.    (The Outside World)  1260 Gustave encounters Johan The assassin, Johanne, encounters Gustave and becomes Johan, his bodyguard.  Normally, the four town Interludes aren't that important. This time is an exception. If you unlock Johan the Assassin, make sure to do an Interlude afterward. (Notably, Laubholz isn't available this time. Why? I don't know. Unfortunately, it seems you can't do Ghoul Tower with this party.)  When you do, you'll notice that Gustave is in your party (and he's the sprite you see when your party is walking around, even if Johan's still first-slot), and...  ...you'll have Ventarbre in your party. Ventarbre is only ever available if you stop by one of the towns after this specific scenario, and you don't want to miss him. Not only does he have the Dodge role (doubles chances of activating a Shield or Counter/Deflect/Block/Counter Shot), he comes with two very useful pieces of equipment.  The Lake Robe is the second-best armor in the game, giving +10/+1 SP/SPR, +16 physical defense, +48 Heat defense, +24 to other magical defenses, immunity to Water, and also serving as a Water Tool. It is the only armor that contributes an Anima (the Anima EVERYONE needs access to, no less), and while the physical defense is relatively low by endgame standards, those are really drat good magical defenses! There is one Lake Robe in a treasure chest, and the only other way to get one is off a rare Scene Drop in one specific one-time fight at the Ghoul Tower.  The Water Mirror shield has 20 Evade and gives +10 SP and Water immunity. That doesn't sound great, but note the description: "can evade atk." The Stone Shield, for example, says "melee/ranged attack," and the Glacier Shield said "melee/ranged/heat attack." The Water Mirror allows you to block the vast majority of Slash, Hit, Pierce, Heat, Cold, Lightning, and Light attacks 20% of the time. It is the only shield that can block Heat and Cold simultaneously and the only shield that can block Lightning or Light at all, and most dangerous magical attacks are those last two types. The only other way to get a Water Mirror is to get very lucky with Scene Drops against the Griffon at the Rock Quarry--the one at the Vogelang Continent Interior oasis can't drop it. If you have an open slot on someone, you can do a lot worse than the Water Mirror, especially if someone is using Commander (since that increases Shield activation by 50%). Unfortunately, most melee characters in the third generation want one Steel weapon and one Quell in their slots at endgame, so it doesn't see much use past the second. Ventarbre himself is nothing special. He's about roughly as good with all types of magic as Wil, and since he's 13, he doesn't have much HP. He'd have about 400 if you got to use him when he's 40! His WP is awful, and his LP isn't much better. This is a party you should take to fight the Megalith Beast, both to get Ventarbre's equipment and also so you can spark Aftervision, the attack-all Sword Art that you can't learn in Duels. Mist Double gives you the best chance of learning it, and Gustave will generally spark it pretty fast. If you haven't learned any of the high-end non-Hybrid Sword Arts, this isn't a bad time to learn them (Multi-Way excepted). "Unfortunately, I must acknowledge that your report is largely accurate: Lord Gustave did indeed leave Hahn Nova in Lord Kelvin's capable hands to gallivant around in various danger-infested locations at this time. He did indeed bring a single assassin-turned-bodyguard and Lord Cielmer's young pupil, Lord Ventarbre."  "He did indeed face off against the fearsome Megalith Beast."     "Lord Ventarbre's journals of the time do indeed mention Gustave 'striking at impossible speeds, seeming to fill the battlefield with afterimages,' but no, we cannot take this any more literally than we do reports of felling groups at the Battle of Buckethill with a single swing. What have I told you about uncorroborated primary sources? Lord Ventarbre was half-grown and memory is a malleable thing."     "No, you may not go to Weissland to interview the Megalith Beast for corroboration. Tycoon Wil's talk of his time in the Glacier Megalith does not constitute proof that it really was once human, and it ate the last fool who tried to prove it was intelligent, much less conversant. It is either stupid or intensely intolerant of idiots, for all that it's apparently yet to actually kill someone who faces it honorably." "This does not constitute permission to try." "(I have known you far, far too long.)"  "Yes, they did indeed travel to the other side of the world. He visited Vogelang shortly thereafter. No, I do not know why."      "No, it was not a training trip--Gustave was an experienced warrior and Johan was a veteran assassin. Gustave's bodyguard was good enough to assassinate people who knew he existed, even after he began to make bloody examples of those who dared cross his lord; why in the world would he need to actually be GOOD at combat?"   "I haven't read the stated reason for that part yet. It is at the very end (again, I repeat: please write a concluding paragraph for your papers), but I already know that it will say, 'to challenge the oasis Griffon to a rematch,' and then I will shatter my desk with the force of my descending forehead."    "I am sure this fight is described as throughly as your account of their romp through the Hahn Nova entertainment districts upon their return (placed mid-paper with all of your usual flagrant disregard for basic chronology), but I ask that you reserve such efforts for matters of actual historical record." "(That said, your research regarding the lost Scorpion Anima-cloaking technique in that section was as inspired as it was wildly irrelevant. Well done, I suppose?)"  "Please, please, please do not follow Lord Gustave's example. You are not a legendary swordsman and you do not possess a legendary sword. (This is not a prompt for you to obtain one.) You are a third of his age and half his stature, both literally and metaphorically. You will die a horrible, bloody death and then your honored father will be very upset with me." "C-. Place as much effort into matters of actual importance as you do the irrelevancies and you might be an actual historian yet." Next (chronological): The General's Memories (1264) [Secret History] Next (Gustave): The General's Memories (1264) [Secret History] Einander fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Mar 19, 2015 |
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Mar 15, 2015 23:04
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I was hoping this stage, or one like this, would crop up. I never saw this stage when I played, but I did see, presumably, its sequel/follow-up/ending. Understandably, I was confused about who the ninja assassin guy was, or why he was important.
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Mar 15, 2015 23:14
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I do like that, ignoring all the anima invisibility voodoo they talk about, Johan(ne)'s modus operandi is "be as highly visible as possible, because nobody ever thinks to stop and suspect the guy dressed like an anime character".
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Mar 15, 2015 23:26
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If I remember right, the guy with the epic mustache takes his sweet time deciding to run. He runs fast once he decides to, but is the last one to react by a wide margin.
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Mar 15, 2015 23:30
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Hooray the return of the 'History Student Trying to Explain Gustave's Random Side-Trips Everywhere' guy driving his professor mad.  KataraniSword posted:I do like that, ignoring all the anima invisibility voodoo they talk about, Johan(ne)'s modus operandi is "be as highly visible as possible, because nobody ever thinks to stop and suspect the guy dressed like an anime character". In other words, Johanne is playing Assassin's Creed/Hitman while everyone else is playing Thief.
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Mar 15, 2015 23:35
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:I was hoping this stage, or one like this, would crop up. I never saw this stage when I played, but I did see, presumably, its sequel/follow-up/ending. Understandably, I was confused about who the ninja assassin guy was, or why he was important. Yeah I missed his introduction as well. But man his ending was so bad rear end, I loved him
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Mar 15, 2015 23:37
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EponymousMrYar posted:He's not ignoring it. He's really good with it. Rather than using it how you expect 'I'm invisible it's really easy to get these targets alone and vulnerable' Johanne's all like 'I'm invisible. I can just walk up, shank anybody in the middle of the street and walk off like it ain't no thang and no one will notice.' I meant "ignoring it as part of the narrative"; I thought the fact he was good with it went without saying  But yeah, he straight up spells it out, here:quote:Basically, "since my anima is unnoticeable, sticking out like a sore thumb helps visually because people expect an assassin to be sneaky".
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Mar 15, 2015 23:42
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Johan has the best idle sprite in the game. Eternally giving you the "L is for loser" gesture. More importantly, that is a gorgeous avatar.
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Mar 16, 2015 00:53
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My god. Look at Ventarbre's stats. He's good with staves and EVERY element. Also, look at his SPR. Dang.  Looks like Ventarbre is the youngest ally to join at 13. Wil and Cordelia were the second youngest at 15 when they began. Neat. Ventarbre would potentially become the best magician in the game if you really wanted action replay/gameshark him in, that's what I did a long time ago. Anyway, I wonder why Gustave can "sense" the assassins while Ventarbre couldn't. Is it because Gustave doesn't have the gift of anima and can sense people using anima to hide? That seems kind of contradictory when you think about it... wouldn't you need the gift of anima to be able to sense anima?
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Mar 16, 2015 01:18
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I think it's just that he can see the brightly dressed weirdos, but doesn't care.
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Mar 16, 2015 01:21
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Sketchie posted:Anyway, I wonder why Gustave can "sense" the assassins while Ventarbre couldn't. Is it because Gustave doesn't have the gift of anima and can sense people using anima to hide? That seems kind of contradictory when you think about it... wouldn't you need the gift of anima to be able to sense anima? He's just using his regular senses to notice them, I believe. It kinda seems like most people rely on their anima senses more than regular senses if what we've seen in this chapter can actually work.
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Mar 16, 2015 01:23
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Sketchie posted:My god. Look at Ventarbre's stats. He's good with staves and EVERY element. Also, look at his SPR. Dang. The Scorpions use their anima to blend into the surroundings and essentially fool everyone else's sense of sight. As Gustave is essentially cut off from the concept of anima detection he can see through the illusion.
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Mar 16, 2015 01:25
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TARDISman posted:The Scorpions use their anima to blend into the surroundings and essentially fool everyone else's sense of sight. As Gustave is essentially cut off from the concept of anima detection he can see through the illusion.
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Mar 16, 2015 01:28
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That's basically it. They're somehow able to force their anima to match the enviornment. In a quarry they'd just think "I'm a rock, I'm a rock, become a rock" and their anima is like a Stone. Most people around would feel "There's a rock in a quarry, whoop-de-freaking do" and die. Gustave has no fucks to give or sense. "Hey moron, why are you standing in the middle of a hole!? Yeah, you, lift your mouth off the ground."
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Mar 16, 2015 01:34
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TARDISman posted:The Scorpions use their anima to blend into the surroundings and essentially fool everyone else's sense of sight. As Gustave is essentially cut off from the concept of anima detection he can see through the illusion. Since they are using anima to blend in to their surroundings shouldnt that illusion just plain not exist for Gustave?
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Mar 16, 2015 01:38
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It's worth noting that Johan's talk of being "conspicuous" was more in reference to the follow-up--"it's better to be conspicuous -> therefore we do most of our assassinating in crowded public areas." But it really is pretty funny to see him say it, considering his silly outfit. Anima seems to be a full sense to most people in the world of SF2, so I've always imagined it being a little like humans and sight--it's such a powerful sense, and our others are relatively weak, that we overrely on it. They may not literally be invisible to SF2 people, but if you can't see someone, it often doesn't matter if you could smell or hear them. Also, the bit in the update postscript about Johan making bloody examples of people? Apparently canon. He just hangs out invisibly near Gustave and murders anyone who poses any real threat. Most people outside of Gustave's inner circle don't even know he exists, but would-be assassins or troublemakers keep getting their throats slit with no apparent source. (I can take-or-leave most of the Ultimania and Perfect Works comments, but that one is basically the best.) TARDISman posted:Johan has the best idle sprite in the game. Eternally giving you the "L is for loser" gesture. More importantly, that is a gorgeous avatar. I've been waiting to buy that avatar since I started the LP. It's taken a little while to get here! Sketchie posted:My god. Look at Ventarbre's stats. He's good with staves and EVERY element. Also, look at his SPR. Dang. Ventarbre's SPR isn't actually that good--the Snake Staff and Lake Robe each add +1, so he's got +3 base. Good, but not special. In terms of growths, he's good (all the more because he has plenty of room for age-related HP growths to kick in), but basically every other mage of note has a much higher LP total... So I'd be tempted to call him the worst mage, in light of the utility of LP-healing and the way magic damage scales higher as you spend SP.
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Mar 16, 2015 02:06
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So, who is Ventarbre? Just Gustave's squire or something?
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Mar 16, 2015 02:49
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Lotish posted:So, who is Ventarbre? Just Gustave's squire or something? A later scenario implies he's Cielmer's student.
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Mar 16, 2015 02:50
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I actually got Johan on my first run (While missing Gustave and the Pirates) and missing it on my follow-up run (Where I did not miss Pirates) Understandably I was pretty cheesed to miss out on his Hybrid Art. Also: The avatar goes especially well with your name. Word on the Wind fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 02:52
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Since they are using anima to blend in to their surroundings shouldnt that illusion just plain not exist for Gustave? Pretty much, if it involves Anima, Gustave can't even tell what's happening, case in point, his mother's death. Kelvin and Leslie could feel what was going on, and Philippe and Marie could see her ghost when Gustave passed her last words on, but Gustave couldn't tell one thing from another during those events.
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Mar 16, 2015 03:57
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TARDISman posted:Pretty much, if it involves Anima, Gustave can't even tell what's happening, case in point, his mother's death. Kelvin and Leslie could feel what was going on, and Philippe and Marie could see her ghost when Gustave passed her last words on, but Gustave couldn't tell one thing from another during those events. Given steel deadens anima, does this suggest that wearing enough of it might also make it hard for it to work? They could be stopped by tin-foil hats. Except steel. Steel-foil hats.
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Mar 16, 2015 06:59
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Prism posted:Given steel deadens anima, does this suggest that wearing enough of it might also make it hard for it to work? Theoretically it would? I can't speak definitively on this, but given the nature of Sandail at this point, the only heavy steel users are Gustave, one or two regiments of his army, and whoever is kinda poo poo at magic in Wil's party, so it's a bit of a moot point anyways. I don't believe at this point in time it'd be enough of a problem to seriously hinder the Scorpions, people are incredibly reliant on anima and tools, even with recent tales of Gustave the Steel and his army that shrugged spells off like they were nothing.
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Mar 16, 2015 08:01
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Word on the Wind posted:I actually got Johan on my first run (While missing Gustave and the Pirates) and missing it on my follow-up run (Where I did not miss Pirates) You actually can't miss Tornado Blade--continuing on Gustave's half of the story forces Johan into your party during The Southern Fort, which puts Tornado Blade in your skills list. (To the confusion of a lot of people, including my younger self, who get to the next combat scenario after it and wonder why when the heck they got this weird new skill.) Also, no "h" in my username! Surprisingly common mistake. Prism posted:Given steel deadens anima, does this suggest that wearing enough of it might also make it hard for it to work? Actually, I'm starting to wonder if this is canon. Remember the first scenario? The soldier that runs up to XII to announce the birth of his heir is wearing a Steel helmet, and in a later scenario, the Lord of Laubholz (who has no Steel troops) has one advisor who wears a Steel helmet. There's more occasions where non-Gustave troops have them, but that's the two that come to mind immediately. It's not implausible that some people at top levels know about the Scorpion and take appropriate countermeasures, and at that point anyone else can copy them without understanding the 'why' behind the strange choice of headgear. (Which may result in those helmets being made out of silver or gold and not actually blocking Anima, therefore making them useless for the intended purpose. Whoops!) The player never gets access to any Steel helmets (despite there being an icon for them in the Item Sort menu). Clearly the writers don't want us knowing whether or not there's any Scorpions lurking anywhere! Or they just wanted to use a more distinct sprite for the more-important-than-a-mook soldiers even if they weren't in Gustave's army, but the other answer is more interesting.
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Mar 16, 2015 08:21
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Einander posted:You actually can't miss Tornado Blade--continuing on Gustave's half of the story forces Johan into your party during The Southern Fort, which puts Tornado Blade in your skills list. (To the confusion of a lot of people, including my younger self, who get to the next combat scenario after it and wonder why when the heck they got this weird new skill.)
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Mar 16, 2015 09:28
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Einander posted:You actually can't miss Tornado Blade--continuing on Gustave's half of the story forces Johan into your party during The Southern Fort, which puts Tornado Blade in your skills list. (To the confusion of a lot of people, including my younger self, who get to the next combat scenario after it and wonder why when the heck they got this weird new skill.) Was obfuscating that part for the sake of potential spoilers. For clarity the frustration was not getting Tornado Blade -earlier-. quote:Also, no "h" in my username! Surprisingly common mistake. Well clearly you need to change your name posthaste.
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Mar 16, 2015 10:35
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Incidentally, Gustave in the Wargod role will never cease to amuse me. Now I kinda want to see if my achronal play-through that I was trying to get Gustave, Johann, and Ven into Laubholz has it available or not. Because I wouldn't put it past the game to have it not available for Einander who went through more or less correctly and me who went all over the place to have it open.
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Mar 16, 2015 16:44
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The General's Memories (1264) [Secret History] The famous general Nebelstern continutes to battle with his illness, unable to overcome it. 1264 Nebelstern dies Gustave loses one of his greatest allies.   (Variation)        Nonsense... Nebelstern interrupts him almost the moment Gustave begins to speak.  It is about my own Anima. I know my condition well. Long pause. I do not wish for you to see me slowly wasting away in bed. That is why I have come today, while I can still walk on my own. A shorter pause. Lately, I have been recalling my memories about the first time I met you, Lord Gustave. At the time, I thought you were such a reckless man. Haha, I must have been a real troublemaker to a cool and composed general. No, not at all. I was thinking how similar you were to me, when I was young. Until I took my father's place in service of a Wide lord, I was adventuring across the land, living by my own skills. And this is something everyone experiences once: I became overconfident in my skills. I came up with a reckless plan to make a round trip through the wastelands between Gruegel and Vogelang alone. There's a white flash instead of a black fade-out this time.  (News)  To give you a sense of time, this is when Wil and Gustave were 8 years old. Gustave had just been exiled the year before, so Gustave and Nebelstern were actually contemporaries here in Gruegel.  We have control of young Nebelstern. He's pretty badass--giant HP and SP bases, good Spear growth, the normal maximum of 4 WPR. Sadly, this is the only time we're free to take him wandering.  Most Spear users want to be using Twin Dragon all the time, even outside of random battles, so having that much SP is very nice. Getting through the Continent Interior won't be a problem, even alone.  Sadly, little Gustave is nowhere to be found in town, which strikes me as a missed opportunity. I guess they didn't want to make a new sprite for him, considering he probably wouldn't be dressed like his seven year-old self and his initial hoodlum look wouldn't fit either.  (Relevation) This is a unique track, and it really lends this trip inward a very different feel. For once, it's not a German track name--"relevation" is an archaic word for "raising or lifting up."  The path is the same as always and the enemies are as well.   We've got the 'dangerous situation' battle music, even though we're in no real danger. Anyone playing this scenario has been here before and likely remembers the way through; just don't stop at the oasis--  (because yes, the Griffon will still show up) (Fun fact: according to the official art for it, the Griffon's eyes are on either side of its neck thing, just below the wings. See them on the sprite?) --and you'll be fine. That said, the two scenarios where you pass through here--Desert Megalith and The General's Memories--do share a certain secret. When you get to the oasis and examine it, your character will look around. If you're in the Vogelang interlude, you'll always be attacked by a Griffon, but in those two scenarios, you'll sometimes instead...  ...be attacked by a frog. It's a much rarer event than the Griffon one. (That said, if you're very on-the-ball, you can Quicksave right before it touches you, which lets you fight it over and over with a minimum of fuss. You know, if you really want.)  This isn't a very difficult fight at all; three of them are Dirt Hoppers with 400 HP (they show up as a normal enemy in the Ruins of Hahn, so you know they're a joke) and the Fairy Hopper isn't much tougher. It has two mid-range attack-all spells (Howling Heaven and Sonic Poison), but they'd only really be a risk if this was four Fairy Hoppers instead. Nebelstern is a lot stronger than any of Wil's starting party, and nothing here passes 0 damage against him. Your reward for this rare fight is (as usual) the rare Scene drops. You can get an early Berserker Axe (24 Attack Beast Axe, the best one Tyler had available) here, and if you get very lucky, you can get a Golden Axe to drop here. The Golden Axe is the single infinite-durability Axe, since Axes have no Quells, and it has the distinction of being the only "Steel" item that doesn't resist Anima--instead of subtracting SP and SPR, it doesn't affect it at all. The third scenario you can obtain one comes at the very end of the game and involves a much tougher enemy. Unfortunately, it only has 20 Attack, so it's really not worth bothering with. If you have to go crazy looking for rare drops, at least go for broke and try to get a Granite Staff; that one at least has a certain location and a useful niche. (Background materials state that silver and gold don't interfere with Anima the way Steel does, so they're actually used in some Quells. The more you know!)   I don't have a Flame Quell to hand Nebelstern and very nearly all of the fights are duels, so I have him use Snake Blaster (Water-Charge-Thrust), a 72-power Water-Spear Hybrid Art, in most fights. It's also Anti-Frog, though this very rarely matters. Nebelstern does about 2000 damage with it, compared to the ~2500 for Twin Dragon. It says something when the "bad" Spear Hybrid is still better than any Axe or Bow Hybrid, nearly ties with the single Staff Hybrid, and is the highest-power three-action Duel Art in the game. (Remember, use three actions or less per round and you can Defend, which halves all incoming damage.) The game devs really, really liked Spears.  (Cosmos)  okay we got there let's go home   (Relevation)  THE END   Wait, what am I saying? Your story was, 'I decided that since I was so great, I would journey to Vogelang alone. And then I was, so I did.' Was I supposed to learn something from that? Okay, yes, that isn't what actually happened. Well, yeah, I kind of guessed that.   (It's another Pocketstation thing.)  It was quite an ordeal to get all the way here by myself. By yourself!? Such a reckless person. It is unwise to unnecessarily risk the very Anima given to you by your parents. Hey, it's my Anima. I'll do what I want. Anyway, I'm only half-way. I have to travel back to Gruegel now. You intend to return home on your own? If it doesn't bother you, allow me to travel with you.  > Please, do join me. I am Cielmer. I have a travelling companion with me at the bar. Let us invite him as well. And then we went home. Didn't Master Cielmer say he had a traveling companion there? He did, yes. ...wait, you just left him in the desert? Yes. Why do you ask? And Master Cielmer didn't care? You've never met Narcisse, have you?(Yes you can totally do this; sadly, the game never even acknowledges that you did)   Master Cielmer, if you knew that there wouldn't be anything here, you should have warned me beforehand. This was a completely wasted trip. I already told you that I didn't think there were any Quells here. Besides, Quells aren't the only things useful. Oh well, I'll leave it at that. I did find interesting Tools, though. By the way, who is this little chap? What do you mean little chap! I am Nebelstern. I've travelled alone across the desert from Gruegel.  Let's see you prove your bravery. Step outside! That is enough! If you do anything foolish, I will punish you personally. All right, let us be off. Yes. Narcisse does the RPG-standard "walk into leader, vanish" thing.  At times, it becomes necessary to cooperate with people you may not like. Cielmer is surprisingly hardcore when it comes to phrasing his life lessons. (Both Nebelstern and Narcisse are 23. Narcisse won't let facts get in the way of a good put-down.)  If you've never played the game and you paid a lot of attention, you may have caught that I said Beyond Grand Valley was "the last time he'll be coming along with Wil." By the magic of time travel, Narcisse's last party appearance takes place before his first! And he retains all of his level-ups and items, even if he takes a hefty HP penalty for the age regression. (And also loses 2 LP. There might be two LP gain points as you age? Or maybe you get +10% LP (rounding up) instead of +1. The game's pretty consistent about the gains otherwise, so... Hmm.) Very definitely a case where game mechanic convenience trumps sense. Let's just move on.  Cielmer joins with the highest levels and fewest items of any party member. Those are some nice Tree-Stone levels.  ("Brand" probably means "crest" or "sigil," not "family of products." If you could buy these on a street corner then I'd already have several. Cielmer apparently casts without Tools at times in the background material, so "brand" may mean it's the same sort of thing as Johan's Scorpion brand... A Tool tattoo is a pretty clever way of getting around the item-based casting restrictions.) The Cielmerlion grants +5/+1 SP/SPR and +1 to all defenses except Status, which gets +11. It's completely unremovable (and, like all unremovable items, won't even show up in the Equip Reclaimer) and unbreakable, despite just being a Tool. You can't select it in battle to cast with it (this includes Duels, for some reason, which is very annoying), but it does grant two special abilities:  Wood Punch and Stone Punch cannot be used any other way. They're as useless as all of the other basic elemental strikes, but it's a neat detail, at least? Cielmer comes with the spells Needle Shot and Delta Petra, and his Role is Protean ("uses the land to reinforce spell recovery"), granting the user +1 SPR. Like War God, it doesn't show up in the menu. It theoretically has uses for a character in Steel (if it brings them from 0 SPR to 1, for example), but most mages want Heavy Spell or War God. This is the only scenario where Cielmer can join, so if you pass him up here then you'll be missing a Role at the end. Nebelstern has 1000 Crowns he can't ever use anywhere else, so I buy a Coral Ring (I've progressed far enough that they're no longer available in Vogelang in the present, so I may as well store an extra one on someone) and convert the rest over to Chips. Time to head back. Sadly, you only hear Relevation and Feldschlacht II when Nebelstern is alone; bring Cielmer with or without Narcisse along and it reverts to the usual Continent Interior field song and to Feldschlacht I.  (Order)    Cielmer, get shorter sleeves, that does not fit you (you can actually see his hands in party battles, so it looks much less goofy)  Also, I realized that I never got a shot of Nebelstern's duel pose. He is the prettiest.  And both of them pose completely differently after winning a party battle, for some reason. I head back (killing a Griffon on the way, because why not). There's no special scenes in the desert that I can find, including no scene for dying (despite the storytelling framing, it just Game Overs you).  Strip off anything you want for your next new party and store anything you won't need on these three characters, because they are done with combat. Exit to Gruegel, and the scenario ends.  If you returned without him, you get the line I showed previously instead ("something like that happened"). Then both conversations join up here. Long pause.  Yes, in fact, I feel rejuvenated. Well, I will take my leave now. Thank you, sir.    Gustave stares after him a little longer... And it fades to black.  Nebelstern was 59. 1264 Nebelstern dies Gustave loses one of his greatest allies. If you've played this game before, now is a good time to remember the spoiler rules. Next (chronological/Gustave):  (1269) Einander fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Mar 22, 2015 |
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Mar 19, 2015 02:27
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Einander posted:
I'm pretty sure that's a beak, not a neck. It just has weird eyebrow-wings.
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Mar 19, 2015 02:36
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Clarste posted:I'm pretty sure that's a beak, not a neck. It just has weird eyebrow-wings. I was about to post very nearly this same line.
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Mar 19, 2015 02:43
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Oh man, here comes the best story scenario in the game.
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Mar 19, 2015 02:46
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"My lord Gustave, I remembered I used to be a bit of a doofus in my 20s, just like you, listen to my story." Is it me or is his sprite very slightly different in the past? Like his cape looks just a bit shorter.
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Mar 19, 2015 02:53
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For some reason I just love seeing their walking animations in the status screen. I think they're just so well done and polished. For some reason they're (the GIF versions) just incredibly difficult to find on the net. 
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Mar 19, 2015 03:42
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It's very easy to mistake its beak and nostrils for an ostrich-like neck, and a tiny head with googly eyes at the end.
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Mar 19, 2015 04:26
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Raitzeno posted:It's very easy to mistake its beak and nostrils for an ostrich-like neck, and a tiny head with googly eyes at the end. I just chalked it up to weird SaGa monster designs myself and took their word for it that it was a griffin.
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Mar 19, 2015 07:01
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So, Nebelstern dying is a blow to Gustave's resources, but I really don't get the purpose of the story at all. It's just so inconsequential really. It's also weird for Cielmer to make another appearance and for us to receive absolutely no information with his appearance.
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Mar 19, 2015 07:25
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Keldulas posted:So, Nebelstern dying is a blow to Gustave's resources, but I really don't get the purpose of the story at all. It's just so inconsequential really. This is another secret story, so, yes, it does have a rather inconsequential impact on the story at large, it mostly just to shows how Cielmer and Nebelstern met. If you miss this, then Nebelstern just kinda drops out of the story. I think it says when he dies in the Chronicle whether you unlock this chapter or not, but I'm not sure.
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Mar 19, 2015 07:39
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I like it. It's Nebelstern reminiscing about earlier days, spending his final time with a trusted friend. Its quite believable that a real person would do that. Also Cielmarillion? What a rip off. (Its a reference to a book in the Lord of the Ring series, 'The Silmarillion'. In universe the events of the book happened years and years before the LotR trilogy.)
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Mar 19, 2015 12:54
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Rigged Death Trap posted:I like it. Also don't say that in earshot of him. Last dude that got Stone Fist Pimp-Slapped was laid up for a week. The dude who was Tree Punched? Still has to clip leaves from his hair.
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Mar 19, 2015 13:06
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"Weltall" is translated more accurately as "Space", I would say - there is a word in German for "universe", and that is Universum.
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Mar 19, 2015 13:13
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Einander posted:Next (chronological/Gustave): Huh. I could have sworn this was at least a bit later in the chronology. As in, I thought at least that Into the Forest happened first, if not the scenario following that.
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Mar 19, 2015 14:32
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