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I know I was all for continuing Coda, but yeah, this sidequest is pretty drat cool too.
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May 15, 2018 22:40
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Great update. I also updated the OP with links to your entries. god speed.
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May 16, 2018 02:26
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I'm confused and possibly just thick, but when did you recruit him? He tells you to piss off, you go to another place far away that you have no way of knowing about and see some flowers, and now he is in your party... did I miss something?
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May 16, 2018 03:11
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He's not recruited yet.
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May 16, 2018 03:18
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What would Ogre Battle be without arcane bullshit needed to recruit certain characters. And I thought the requirements for recruiting Shelley in the original were BS...
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May 16, 2018 04:06
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And I thought Cressida was bad.
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May 16, 2018 06:14
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The game makes you work for the good characters.
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May 16, 2018 09:08
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JustJeff88 posted:I'm confused and possibly just thick, but when did you recruit him? He tells you to piss off, you go to another place far away that you have no way of knowing about and see some flowers, and now he is in your party... did I miss something? No, the update was running really long so I had to find a stopping point. Don't worry there are still 2 story battles and 2 none story battles before we actually recruit him, and an additional 5 or so battles after that until we finish the pirates grave yard quest.  Enjoy these updates filled with lots of story development. They are going to be few and far between for a while. Edit: So I thought that with certain characters who are revealed to be... attached... to Nybeth recruited that it wouldn't matter if they are dead or alive in the Warren report and that I'd be able to show off all the dialogue in the Palace of the Dead. That is of course not the case. It appears to get all the of the dialogue needed to get the "full" POTD story line, you have to do the POTD in each story line.  That will not be happening for a loooong time if ever. Besides, someone needs to do a neutral play through and finish a chaotic play through.... I have an idea for a gimmick neutral playthough though, so if I get through this post game, maybe you'll see that dialogue then. waah fucked around with this message at 20:49 on May 16, 2018 |
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May 16, 2018 11:51
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Sheesh, I thought Ogre Battle 64 was rude about this poo poo. That's a baby game compared to this nonsense.
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May 17, 2018 02:39
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waah posted:No, the update was running really long so I had to find a stopping point. Don't worry there are still 2 story battles and 2 none story battles before we actually recruit him, and an additional 5 or so battles after that until we finish the pirates grave yard quest. Eh, I'd argue we had the Chaos play through already, even if we didn't get the ending - the fights fundamentally are the same, and even the ending is fundamentally the same, though the epilogues are different depending on who's alive and dead. Neutral I've never seen but I've heard it goes off the rails.
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May 17, 2018 03:21
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tithin posted:Eh, I'd argue we had the Chaos play through already, even if we didn't get the ending - the fights fundamentally are the same, and even the ending is fundamentally the same, though the epilogues are different depending on who's alive and dead. Neutral gives you the worst uniques too. If I do decide to do it (at this rate next year), I am gonna have a horde army with as few uniques as possible. OP dragon/golem army is hilarious
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May 17, 2018 03:41
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waah posted:Neutral gives you the worst uniques too. If I do decide to do it (at this rate next year), I am gonna have a horde army with as few uniques as possible. Neutral manages to be both so bizarre and underwhelming at the same time that there are a number of JP hacks which somehow manage to write Leonar back as a playable character in the story and even give you Gildas as a full blown Death Knight.
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May 17, 2018 04:36
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In the original TO, the neutral path was the only way to get a Priest(ess) and thus have access to Resurrection before Chapter 4. Plus it was said to be the original "canon" path, although for the remake Lawful is definitely the canon path and they should do encourage taking it with all of its exclusives.
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May 17, 2018 05:31
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Shiki Dan posted:In the original TO, the neutral path was the only way to get a Priest(ess) and thus have access to Resurrection before Chapter 4.  The only way to get revivify in the ps1 game was from a specific fight in law2 and chaos2. Assuming you have an L cleric (and you should since L alignment gives a bonus to healing in the ps1 game) and haven't been doing something stupid like killing people with said cleric, you should be able to use revivify WAY before that point. waah posted:Neutral gives you the worst uniques too. If I do decide to do it (at this rate next year), I am gonna have a horde army with as few uniques as possible. They're not even true uniques, but rather semi-uniques. Yes, even the cleric (the worst class, btw) with her supposedly unique sprite, until you find out that she was a semi-unique of a pre-existing class (the one that can use the revive magic incidentally). And she only qualifies as a unique now because they cut her drat class out and re-tooled it to be catiua's unique class but kept the old sprite. I'm not to fond of the other semi-uniques class either. mauman fucked around with this message at 06:21 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 05:52
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mauman posted:
Looked it up, and yeah you're right--for some reason I thought she came with an exclusive copy of the spell, but welp...
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May 17, 2018 06:17
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And for anyone reading who really thinks, "Oh, neutral can't be that bad, these guys are just sperging over the game." The neutral path gives you a recruitable semi-unique character who is actually slower than a random unit you can hire at the shops, and a cleric character with high strength 
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May 17, 2018 17:36
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Looking the next update will be between Wednesday and Friday ladies and gents. Possibly into next week. I want to go back and augment the explanation of what makes the next battle so tough with screenshots of the map instead of just an explanation. I'm not gonna leave you with no content though, I just wanted to share this screenshot cause it came out cooler than I thought it would. 
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May 21, 2018 18:33
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Azelstan's getting some from that Dragon Tamer, mm-hmmm.
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May 21, 2018 20:07
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This is such a good game, minus a few obnoxious flaws, that I wish that they would remake it again for a current, popular system other than the PSP. I like my PSP fine, but it wasn't a popular system in the western hemisphere and it makes me sad that such a fine game is going to be missed by a lot of folks who enjoy that sort of thing. I would pay handsomely for a remake of this remake, using the same art style, on Switch but with
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May 21, 2018 22:46
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Dark rituals must have taken place to even get any remake, let alone one with this much effort put into it. I don't know what kind of bargain you'd need to get even more.
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May 22, 2018 21:47
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Yeah, we're genuinely fortunate that Matsuno is even ALIVE after FF12, let alone being able/allowed to return to the game industry, let alone make an update to an Ogre series game.
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May 23, 2018 19:31
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WORLD - Episode 5: An Arrow in the Bakram We’ve managed to get this far into the Pirate’s Graveyard side quest without messing anything up. We’ve followed a very peculiar set of requirements that are very easily missed and require doing half of a chapter of story to redo, and completed some annoying battles, but nothing too bad. So far it's been a piece of cake.  Tactics Ogre: Don’t Get Too Comfortable Edition This is when the game gets mean. We return to Port Omish after fighting and defeating the Dark Knight Lans and Catuia and… oh what’s this a battle?  It appears that Azelstan is sitting in the middle of the town drinking by himself. It also appears that there’s a crowd of angry people around him that aren’t exactly happy with him. This isn’t going to end well.  In particular to note here, this is a Bakram knight. And while our dear (and totally OP as you’ll see in a future update) sister Catuia is Bakram, the Bakram still really really hate us. Like England vs France hate in the 100 years’ war kind of hate.  : Don’t you have a better offer than that? Town like this, a man’s entitled to his past.  Azelstan’s so badass, but uh being the town drunk and surrounded by 12 angry soldiers probably isn’t a good thing for his life expectancy.    It’s apparently really hard to hear in that absurd helmet. Explains a why my terror knights always seem to do poorly.   We’re moving at the speed of plot my good fellow. Don’t mind us.   Let's explain why this fight in particular is among the top 5 hardest in the game. We win this fight on the first try and after a certain point your dudes become so powerful that a lot of the challenge is lost, but on your first time through this fight it is a real groin punch. If Azelstan dies, instant game over. No cool dialogue, no deciding that you don’t want to bother with the recruitment anymore. If you make it to this point of the game, you have to save him or your progress is blocked. 1) This map is utterly brutal. You start incredibly far away from Azelstan who you have to save. There are knights along the approach with rampart aura. Oh, and there’s also a river to impede your progress and slow your approach even more as the bridge across the river is only one unit wide. Unless you can jump up on top of the building which most units can’t. When doing this the first time through, your only flier is likely Canopus.  2) Suicidal AI. We’ve seen this before. We’ll see it again.  3) One of two potential advantages you have in this battle is that if you recruit Azelstan on your first time through the game, the enemies will not be scaled to your level, so you could potentially be over leveled for this fight to make it easier. I highly recommend this route 4) Skills that give you additional movement and mobility are gated at levels 22ish and 42ish. The main reason why this fight goes smoothly in this go is that I can have units with swift foot 2 and jump 2 get close enough on the first turn or two to mess with the AI’s targeting priorities. 5) The other advantage you can have in this fight requires you to already have recruited Azelstan as you can change his class and equipment to keep him safe on the pre-battle screen. Making Azelstan a knight with phalanx is a pretty good move if nothing else works for you. 6) Field Alchemy 4 is a good skill to have on your fliers and fast movers since you’ll really only need to top off Azelstan’s health once to win the fight. Once you get in the fray the AI will attack your dudes and spread the damage. 7) HOWEVER, remember how I talked about the map? If you’re going to try to use a lobber to throw items at Azelstan, you’d better have the trajectory skill on your lobber character. The multiple buildings really seem designed solely to keep you from lobbing healing items to Azelstan.  8) Use your tarot cards liberally. This is the time to use all of those Wheel of Fortune Tarot cards (blink walk), World cards (cloud walk), and any other ones you got that offer up spell craft or strength. The problem here is that rampart Aura will stop blink walk, so the terror knight at the top of the map will slow you down considerably until you take him out. Enough lip flapping, time for killing.  Always a constant of the rest of this LP. Always good to nuke an enemy first turn.  This is the situation where Azelstan is in. You can see he’s surrounded by 8 enemies, because this fight is totally fair.  At least he has decent equipment. If I really cared I could have outfit him with better gear just for this fight but I was lazy and didn’t completely tool him up. My apologizes.    The main character doesn’t let loose many barbs, so when he gets a little snarky, it’s pretty awesome.  Have I said how much I love Azelstan yet? : So you’re saving me from death… why?    The battle continues and this is where things could have gone really badly for us. So the dragon tamer/beast master on this map has the Empower Dragon. If we were to be really dumb and hit her with an arrow and not actually kill her, it’d be game over as the Hydra would have tasty pirate snacks. I’ll try to mess around with Empower Dragon and Empower Golem when we go through the Phorompa Wildwood, but the empower skills roughly double the combat power of a dragon or golem for a single strike. In most cases, this will be instant death for all but the toughest humanoid characters in the game.  Luckily, it’s a miss. If that hydra was empowered, this is the part where I would curse loudly and show a game over screen. I’m not exaggerating when I say that same attack empowered would be about 300 damage and close to a 90% hit rate. She lives through this but only barely   I’ll talk about all the songstress songs in another update but suffice it to say that Iuria is being useless here. The rest of these guys don’t have the firepower to deal with my fliers and Vyce who’s all ready to go pokey pokey stabby stabby on enemies.    Again, the sprite animation for this entire side quest is absolutely amazing. I *HIGHLY* recommend you watch the cutscene here courtesy of random youtuber Gyoru. https://youtu.be/5Xb_lr7Sv8Y?t=25m44s Don Quixote walks in from off screen, walks on to the pier and talks to a sitting Azelstan who is drinking alone again.    : … Azelstan walks away from Don Quixote and talks to the little girl.  It’s hard to tell what happens in just the screen shot but the little girl stands up to walk away with Azelstan and she catches an arrow in the back from out of nowhere. : Hey now!Azelstan and Don Quixote go to check on the little girl and a voice from off screen speaks up.  And the screen scrolls over to show our assassin.  A random Bakram soldier who limps away and uh… dies? I guess he’s supposed to be one of the dudes we killed in battle earlier but it’s a bit awkward about why the dude dies.  Oh jeez.   The little girl weakly puts her hand on Azelstan’s face before falling limp. Aww come on game! What the hell, I can deal with massacring towns and making the river run red with the blood of thousands of units to get sweet sweet XP, but as soon as you kill a mute little girl and it starts to get real dusty in here.    So that’s why Azelstan leaves flowers at Qadrigra every year, to morn his daughter. Poor guy.     : You know that as well as I  : Azelstan : Don’t call me that  Well if that wasn’t depressing as hell. Pardon me while I go off myself.  Azelstan still hasn’t joined us, and there’s no direction about what we are supposed to do. It is still possible to have done all of this and fail at recruiting him. The correct thing to do here is go diving into the depths of the Pirate’s Graveyard. Don’t give up, only 8 more battles to go!  We’ve already seen this map before when we did the CODA to save Iuria.  Sweet, rare loot!  This is the second map. Tithin showed you guys this already, just giving you an idea of the battles you have to complete here. The next map is finally where things get interesting again. When you’ve done all the other bullshit to get Azelstan and followed the quest completely, the third map will be a story battle.  A lizard creature comes from off screen to ambush our party.  And then Azelstan also shows up out of nowhere to stab the lizard in the back.  : Azelstan!? And with that the battle starts with Azelstan by your side. As you kill enemies and the fight progresses, the main characters talk as they often do in this game.   Old man’s the smartest dude the in the game I swear, but common sense isn’t going to make our hero shut up.    The battle continues and eventually our heroes finish off every unit that doesn’t share our color palette.  I know Azelstan’s about to talk important stuff but take some time to look at those lizard sprites. It’s all so beautiful and expressive. These sprites were made to be used only once in the game for this scene as are many others in this side quest. Few scenes even in the CODA match the feeling of this quest. Really try to appreciate what’s been done here. : I’m a pirate. Don’t know any other way of living. Stealing, killing – it’s what I do. There never was any other way for me. Boy, take me with you. I’ll fight if it means this war will end sooner. You said that’s what you wanted, and I’ve a mind to believe you.  Jeez, right in the feels again. It’s hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy.    : That enough for you?I will say this, I do enjoy that the game doesn’t somehow shoe horn Azelstan’s daughter into the plot anywhere here as a significant character. It’s much more effective to have her simply as a casualty of the war, as an unimportant civilian who you never meet.  Yes, you can go through all this trouble to recruit him and still mess it up. We can’t ask him to join us, right? No really, we say more than enough.   Azelstan joins our party! A bit of minutia I really enjoy about when Azelstan joins your party is that he has levels in the herpetology skill when he joins you. I always thought that was a nice little touch being that he’s obviously pretty proficient at killing the lizard folk that live in these caves.We fight another fight which I couldn’t be bothered to take a screen and that leads us to Ripples of Grief, the fifth battle in the Pirate’s Graveyard. Now let’s be clear. At this point in time, all we’ve done is recruit Azelstan. The pirate’s graveyard side quest is still incomplete, and as with everything else so far in this quest, you can still mess it up, though not as badly as the other parts of the side quest. The next hurdle to clear is that if Azelstan is not in the party for Ripples of Grief, the other 5-7 areas in the Pirate’s Graveyard will not open up. This means either Azelstan is getting reclassed, or you grind a bunch of pirate levels, or you are stuck with dead weight for the next battle.  Luckily for us, our Divine Knight has grinded for our Tactics Ogre sins, and Azelstan is appropriately leveled for this fight.  If you remember back to the Lich Character Guide, in a normal playthrough this is the earliest you could possibly recruit a Lich in the game. Other than that, there is nothing special to this fight. No story dialogue during the fight, simply kill all the enemies.  Arrr that’s what she said matey!  Waah’s Bad Pirate Joke Count: 2       It’s almost like Azelstan’s trying to convince us to not go. : We’ll continue He’s a little dense sometimes, but the main character in this game really does have a decent amount of common sense. He grows a lot during the journey. That’s it for this update. It’s a massive update already and there’s still another 5 or 6 pages left of content to finish out the quest. We’ll finish out the quest this weekend. I had planned on doing a special separate update after this quest in light of current events, but I’ll instead roll it into part 3. waah fucked around with this message at 22:37 on May 24, 2018 |
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May 24, 2018 16:56
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Once you sack Heim Castle and officially end the war, this quest is shut off. Some Bakram trying that stuff after Brantyn is dead would be really dumb but I don't know what they expected trying to get an old drunk to come along at the point of a sword. And did I read correctly that you can actually outfit guests as you will prior to battle, even if they haven't joined you? Because that's pretty cool.
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May 24, 2018 21:07
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I really didn't like how they awkwardly made it out to be a half-dead enemy who shot that girl and then became fully-dead, but it was still very effective. I went and watched the video online and I legitimately started in my seat and said "What the gently caress!?" when it happened. Mind you, I was really hoping that that incident was some sort of assassination targeted at our pirate chum or an old enemy getting petty and bloody revenge and that it would all lead to some kind of sub-plot, but it was still moving nonetheless.
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May 24, 2018 22:16
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WORLD – Episode 6: For Those Who Went The Full Distance We’ve got three more non-story battles to get through, and since we already took a brief look at them in the CODA episode I’m going to skip over them completely here. Other than story battles there is minimal difference between the Chapter 4 version of these battles in the Pirate’s Graveyard and the CODA version. The final map of this side quest is called "On Holy Ground." Interestingly enough, if you’re recruited Azelstan, I believe one of the skeletons has the potential to drop pirate marks in the non-story version of this map.    I swear to God Japan, after those lines if this big bad is some sort of Octopus monster, I’m making you walk the plank. Waah’s Bad Pirate joke count: 2   You know what, I’m not even mad at the fact that Don Quixote straight up ignores the question of a potentially murderous floating spirit. After everything we’ve been through on this journey so far, he’s earned the right to ignore potential danger.    There’s a puff of smoke and the ghost turns into a palette swapped version of Azelstan with the Goku aura that that TO:LUCT gives characters to let you know it isn’t playing around.    I take back the nice things I said about you Don Quixote. You aren’t doing yourself any favors here.   We put together a standard party to go kill things and go on our way. As far as I know there are no other characters with unique dialog with Rackham.  It’s not much to say about this map. Lots of water, and some weird little islands break up your movement but nothing WORLD tarots can’t fix. Let’s take a look at Rackham.   There’s nothing special about Rackham other than his aura. He doesn’t even get a warren report entry when we eventually kill him/it.  Rackham disappears or turns into a card or something.  : … Azelstan? : Come with me, boy. I’ll show you what a ghast thinks is working protecting. The screen fades to black.  Chaos Frame Alert Once again, everyone’s favorite topic: Chaos frame! This is our current Chaos Frame:  We’ll go through both options here so you can see the somewhat significant changes this makes.  : What is this place? : You see the chest of coins there. Take it. Better than going home empty-handed OPTION ONE: TAKE THE TREASURE   : Like a gravestone?            Defusing a really depressing situation with humor? Azelstan would be a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Take notice that Azelstan always has his drink with him. : Is this why you came? To pay your respects?     : …         : …           The pirate’s treasure isn’t really that much. In fact, it’s really hard to tell exactly what it is, due to the game not telling you exactly what you get. In reality, it’s usually an elixir, a few of gold oberyths which sell for 3000 goth a piece, some ores, some other copper/silver oberyths and a pirate class marks.    Oh, and the entire island hates you a bit more for taking the treasure. You get the grave robber title too… yay? With this said, at this point if we were to recruit a Bakram soldier, they’d be threatening to leave after their first battle. The actions we’ve done so far to get to this side quest in world have not endeared us to those people. OPTION TWO: LEAVE THE TREASURE This version has a lot of the same dialogue as the first, so I’ll go easy on the screenshots.       : A pirate’s life is no glorious affair, and neither’s his death. A few manage to come ashore, take a wife, raise a family… but most don’t live half so wise. After your first captain and your last crew are gone, there’s no one left to remember you. That’s why they leave their swords, a nameless grave beats just nameless. If you can’t leave your mark any other way, you leave it here. : Thus a sacred ground… and a treasure worth protecting. : Or a desolate cliff strewn about with junk, depending on how you look at it, heh. : Is that why you came? To pay your respects? : Ha! You think my heart beats as warm as that? : I have a hard time thinking you came all this way just to reveal the true nature of this treasure. : Aye, there was a time… when I lost sight for what was ahead, when my daughter died. I couldn’t take the battle, so I came here. Maybe I was eager to join the ones who left these swords. The currents around here are treacherous things. Take your eyes off the sea for a moment, and she’ll drag you down. : … : From the moment I entered the cave, I didn’t pause to rest or to think. I just kept walking deeper and deeper. I knew what this place was as soon as I stepped foot out here. I stood here a while… then went back to the same way I’d come in. : You just turned around? : I did. This here’s a place for those who went the full distance. I left my ship that day. Why? Because I had nothing more to do with it, that’s why. I wasn’t about to sail headlong into death like the ones here… or start a new life either. Dread pirate? I was a coward who couldn’t put his daughter’s death behind him. : … : But there’s something that needs doing. Thanks for reminding me of that. : … Thank you for your help. : Sorry there’s not more for you to take home than this pile of coin. With luck, some of ‘em will be old enough to have taken on value.      : We’ve things yet to do. And as you can see, our Chaos Frame goes up a bit as we’re not filthy grave robbers. ------------------ And you get nothing out of the affair but the people like you for it. Your actions here can gain you +/- 5 points of chaos frame. Which is decent amount of death march time. There is a third option, to say this is the treasure, and then not take it, but it’s like the neutral path absolutely worthless. You don’t get the treasure, and you don’t get any chaos frame boost. And that dear readers, is the Pirate’s Graveyard side quest. WORLD Episode 6 Epilogue: Azelstan and PTSD Tactics Ogre is a brutal game. The sprites and JPRG sensibilities belie some of the more heart wrenching bits, and it’s easy to read the on-screen dialogue and gloss over the genocide that’s happening behind the scenes. Part of that is due to being a game originally intended for teenagers and part of it is due to the art style and technical limitations of the original system TO:LUCT was released on, the Super Famicon. But all of it comes from the fact that the game’s director, Yasumi Matsuno, took cues from the Bosnian genocide/ethnic cleansing incidents and the civil wars in Yugoslavia in the late 1990s. Awful things happen in this game such as the massacre at Balmamusa, the pitting of family members against each other, and even the pregnant pirate you kill in battle. While you have to dig for some of that information, all of it serves to reinforce that this war on the Valerian Isles is a brutal and awful war. As a pirate, Azelstan has shown that he embraced a bit of the chaos and brutality of the Valerian Isles. He says it himself, “Stealing, killing – it’s what I do. There never was any other way for me. “He’s remorseful, but it’s obvious that Azelstan still has some sort of heart. While a pirate through and through, his love for his wife and daughter humanized him and kept him from becoming truly evil. As we look at Azelstan’s character, a lot of his actions are what you would expect from someone who is dealing with undiagnosed PTSD. “But Waah, he’s a pirate, of course he’s going to be a drunk. That’s what pirates do.” Yes, but look at how many times we’ve seen Azelstan drinking alone by the docks. Look at how has his drink ready for the cliffs of the Pirate’s Graveyard. Drinking is a coping mechanism for the man. We see this self-destructive behavior come to a head in the second Port Omish battle where’s obvious Azelstan has little care for his life. While it’s easy to see it as bravado, mix that with Azelstan’s incredible sense of guilt and mistrust of everyone and he really begins to become a tragic character. A big part of having and living with PTSD is a triggering event. Popular culture has really watered down and memeified “being triggered” but to someone truly suffering with PTSD a trigger event shakes the foundations of their existence. We see that event happen when the mute little girl dies in Port Omish. It ruins Azelstan, and places him in a kind of parallel existence where he’s living out potential events from his past in learning of his daughter dying, and at the same time experiencing this little girl dying in his arms. Despite his need to keep everyone at arm’s length to protect himself, he still needs human interaction, only to have someone else die for being too close to him compounding his sense of guilt. Maybe you don’t believe me so far. Maybe you think I’m simply trying to diagnose a fictional character with a disease he doesn’t have. To that I say let’s also look at the Pirate’s Graveyard scene itself. Read between the lines, between all the information you’re given involving the spectre’s class description, and in particular these lines from Azelstan: : A pirate’s life is no glorious affair, and neither’s his death. A few manage to come ashore, take a wife, raise a family… but most don’t live half so wise. After your first captain and your last crew are gone, there’s no one left to remember you. That’s why they leave their swords, a nameless grave beats just nameless. If you can’t leave your mark any other way, you leave it here.And : Aye, there was a time… when I lost sight for what was ahead, when my daughter died. I couldn’t take the battle, so I came here. Maybe I was eager to join the ones who left these swords. The currents around here are treacherous things. Take your eyes off the sea for a moment, and she’ll drag you down. : … : From the moment I entered the cave, I didn’t pause to rest or to think. I just kept walking deeper and deeper. I knew what this place was as soon as I stepped foot out here. I stood here a while… then went back to the same way I’d come in. : You just turned around? : I did. This here’s a place for those who went the full distance. I left my ship that day. Why? Because I had nothing more to do with it, that’s why. I wasn’t about to sail headlong into death like the ones here… or start a new life either. Dread pirate? I was a coward who couldn’t put his daughter’s death behind him.They imply that the whole purpose of the Pirate’s Graveyard is for weary men and women who can’t go on any further. They leave their sword and possessions and become one with the sea. This cliff and the treasure that you are about to rob is the last testament of these men and women before they commit suicide. When you really sit and think about all that Azelstan says here, there is no question. It’s why Azelstan was insistent on not showing our hero the graveyard. Don Quixote isn’t going to jump, he has a reason to fight and live on. So why disrespect the souls of those who passed by showing off the memorial that says “Remember me,” but a monument that also shows how unbelievably sad and lonely these once proud pirates were. There is also no question that after watching the little girl die, Azelstan intended to jump again once leading Don Quixote to the cliff. With the little girl gone, there is no one to remember Azelstan in his eyes. Until he fights alongside Don Quixote and has his breakdown when you recruit him. Remember, Azelstan just shows up in the Pirate’s Graveyard after Port Omish for no real reason. He never says he’s trying to actually find Don Quixote, it just happens. Whatever his motivation Azelstan, is there because of a reason that’s important to him. You see, this line from Don Quixote is important. It allows Azelstan to stop wallowing in guilt for a minute and is able to pierce through the fog Azelstan has that is driving him towards self-destruction. Knowing enough former soldiers and Marines with PTSD, I think it’s highly probably that Azelstan is sobbing through them all as the whole affair has stripped away all of his unhealthy self-defense and coping mechanisms and forced him to deal with overwhelming feelings that he can’t control. It’s also possible that he says these lines with an eerie sense of detachment as if he’s not even there. Regardless of delivery method, this scene would be extremely depressing to see in real life.       Azelstan doesn’t really say much in the game outside of this quest. I can’t think of any story event where he has special dialogue. But in completing this quest, you save Azelstan’s life in more than one way. You help him deal with his inner demons (of which Rackham looking exactly like Azelstan also helps drive this point home), and you save him from actually dying as well. Azelstan’s line of “this is one face that won’t come back to haunt me” shows his character development in shedding some of the excess guilt he’s carried with him over the years, and his ability to finally face himself. With all that said, this weekend is Memorial Day weekend in the US. There are vets with all sorts of unhealed scars from us fighting a seemingly forever war. Ignore the stupid Facebook/social media posts about Memorial Day being only for the fallen and Veterans day being for the living. Remind at least one vet that you care about them, and that you would miss them if they were gone. Listen to them, ask if it’s okay if you buy them a drink and simply listen to them without any sort of judgement. This is an LP about dragons, and faeries, and emo Japanese teenagers taking on entire armies, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t one of the best representations of a broken man trying to deal with the horrors of war and violence. Reach out, and make sure that those around you who you love and cherish know that they aren’t nameless, and if you are in the toasting mood and don’t mind being a mega nerd, do me a favor. Raise your glass, and repeat after me. For those who went the full distance.
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May 25, 2018 16:26
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As the grandson of two combat-wounded WWII veterans, one of whom is happily still with us, and a former lieutenant in the RCAF who watched his first CO die pointlessly during peacetime in a routine training exercise, I'll drink to that. Cheers.
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May 25, 2018 19:23
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Lovely.
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May 25, 2018 22:44
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That was a gem of an update.
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May 26, 2018 00:23
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thank you for you’re service OP
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May 26, 2018 00:27
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Trying to think of something to add here. Hamilton already admitted his weaknesses with the music box way in Chapter 1, and Tartaros is up to his ears in his personal demons to rationalize fighting for a militaristic theocracy like Lodis while saying that trodding all over the masses is in their best interests with a straight face. But I'm surprised Don Quixote is as stable as he is. Vyce has a raging inferiority complex and breaks with you no matter what at the end of Chapter 1, and Catiua veers between overly clingy and dropping everything at the drop of a hat, only seeming to get some self-awareness about the way she acted after being convinced not to off herself. In between all that, he's trying to save the world from a bunch of tyrants trying to build their own ethnostates. In the ending where Catiua doesn't survive, I'm surprised he doesn't go ahead and become a second Balbatos after becoming king.
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May 26, 2018 02:17
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Azalstan does have some minor dialogue during one of the Iuria Coda battles, which makes sense as it takes place in the graveyard. Also, as the son of a former marine with (once, now managed with therapy, treatment, and medication) severe PTSD, thanks for the Memorial Day plug. It angers me when people Knock on it. mauman fucked around with this message at 12:52 on May 26, 2018 |
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May 26, 2018 12:49
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The real question is why all this incredible characterization is really only happening behind layers of obscure requirements after the main plot is over.
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May 26, 2018 18:46
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lobster22221 posted:The real question is why all this incredible characterization is really only happening behind layers of obscure requirements after the main plot is over. You're right about the bullshit hoops the game makes you go through, but this quest is not available in Coda. Once Brantyn is dead, this quest is unavailable.
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May 26, 2018 18:55
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lobster22221 posted:The real question is why all this incredible characterization is really only happening behind layers of obscure requirements after the main plot is over. This is technically during the regular game's chapter 4. Sorry you are a little confused at when things are happening, I'll figure out a better way to signify exactly when something is happening since we are essentially time travelling at this point. Also thanks for the kind words on the last update. I am glad it touched some of you and showed a little respect for those not with us. It kinda hit me all at once about Azelstan's story since I actually thought about it for once instead of just mindlessly reading it. waah fucked around with this message at 20:33 on May 26, 2018 |
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May 26, 2018 20:31
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waah posted:This is technically during the regular game's chapter 4. Sorry you are a little confused at when things are happening, I'll figure out a better way to signify exactly when something is happening since we are essentially time travelling at this point. I'm really glad you put the effort to highlight his story in this update. Thank you.
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May 27, 2018 09:01
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waah posted:This is technically during the regular game's chapter 4. Sorry you are a little confused at when things are happening, I'll figure out a better way to signify exactly when something is happening since we are essentially time travelling at this point. Shitenshi posted:You're right about the bullshit hoops the game makes you go through, but this quest is not available in Coda. Once Brantyn is dead, this quest is unavailable. Ah, my bad. I like the idea of saying when something is happening, and it would definitely be appreciated. Either way, I appreciate this LP, and that last update was incredible no matter what time it took place in.
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May 28, 2018 15:30
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Yeah, this game stopped having rosy views of war around the time we rounded up a bunch of civilians and burned them. Even in charge, we can't pretend anything we're doing is right. Though I like that there's a supply of ghosts to grind on now so nobody gets mad about killing one.
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May 29, 2018 04:06
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We should have an update late next week/early week after. I've did a little bit of PoTD, and then came back out to power level Catiua's priest levels so that the AI won't be as stupid and actually get rid of skeletons and undead.
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Jun 1, 2018 20:25
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waah, I'm probably not alone when I say that I would like to know your power-levelling technique. I'm OCD~ish about maxing out everyone and unlocking all their abilities.waah posted:We should have an update late next week/early week after. I've did a little bit of PoTD, and then came back out to power level Catiua's priest levels so that the AI won't be as stupid and actually get rid of skeletons and undead. I originally read the bolded acronym as PTSD, noticed my mistake, and then realised that there isn't too terribly much difference between the two.
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Jun 1, 2018 22:35
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JustJeff88 posted:waah, I'm probably not alone when I say that I would like to know your power-levelling technique. I'm OCD~ish about maxing out everyone and unlocking all their abilities. I wonder if it's the same one I used to get all classes to 50.
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Jun 1, 2018 22:52
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