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Rabbi Raccoon posted:Does it count as a Tragic Backstory if the player already knows it? Yes? Why wouldn't it?
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Mar 9, 2019 12:51
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| # ? May 26, 2024 00:49 |
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Because if it’s something that’s not constantly alluded to where’s the angst? The DRAMA associated with Tragic Backstories is vital!
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Mar 9, 2019 15:42
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Hey, it's a backstory that's tragic, good enough for me. 
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Mar 9, 2019 15:48
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I mean usually the cliche is a really underdeveloped part of the story that gets milked for melodrama constantly. I don't think it really counts as a capital case Tragic Backstory if it was the original story and the current moody state of the character is the afterthought, rather than the other way around.
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Mar 9, 2019 16:53
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We already had a Tragic Backstory. 30-odd hours of it in fact .
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Mar 9, 2019 17:05
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Neddy Seagoon posted:We already had a Tragic Backstory. 40. Koudelka.
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Mar 9, 2019 17:30
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Rigged Death Trap posted:40. Except, as stated, at this point, Koudelka has no impact on this game.
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Mar 9, 2019 20:28
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Koudelka barely has any relevance to the first Shadow Hearts.
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Mar 9, 2019 20:32
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ultrafilter posted:Koudelka barely has any relevance to the first Shadow Hearts. On second thought, you mean the game itself right? I'd argue Koudelka definitely is relevant but its in such a way that yeah, you could just start with Shadow Hearts 1 and still be fine.
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Mar 9, 2019 20:34
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whoever sealed the holy mistletoe should've maybe oughta put up a better guardian than a level 5 Gargoyle, that thing is potent
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Mar 9, 2019 21:38
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One other way to tell that Nicolai was outright evil? He's voiced by Takehito Koyasu in Japanese who'd go on to voice Dio Brando a good 8 years later.
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Mar 9, 2019 22:11
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Shitenshi posted:That so-called Holy Mistletoe caused the pendant to go from a pure clear blue to a full Malice blood red. The light element in this game is now firmly in the realm of evil poo poo that isn't above human sacrifice and whatever else is out there. Which isn't a surprise given all the unholy horrors in the previous game being light element and the literal Inquisition kidnapping Koudelka, but now it's official that the Vatican is your average JRPG corrupt church org harboring all kinds of bad poo poo if it fuels literal hate energy. All the pendant did was serve as a Malice Geiger Counter. Something was protecting Yuri from drawing in Malice as a result of the Four Masks Curse; the pendant turning red means that the protection was broken. Tallgeese fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Mar 9, 2019 |
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Mar 9, 2019 22:39
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Omobono posted:
Naaaah, nah. remember that the Church in this setting planned to kill Roger Bacon as soon as he gave them immortality (he of course got his then set it all on fire to get around that) and their general "we rule the world and must keep humans beneath our bootheel" attitude started Albert on his path to "summon god, he'll kill everyone and sort this poo poo out" jRPG baddie status. They just want all the Doom Artifacts for themselves so nobody can use that stuff against them. More of a lawful evil if you will.
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Mar 9, 2019 22:55
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Of all the sequel power down plot devices, the mistletoe ranks highly among the rest.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:04
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CmdrKing posted:Naaaah, nah. remember that the Church in this setting planned to kill Roger Bacon as soon as he gave them immortality (he of course got his then set it all on fire to get around that) and their general "we rule the world and must keep humans beneath our bootheel" attitude started Albert on his path to "summon god, he'll kill everyone and sort this poo poo out" jRPG baddie status.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:09
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Accordion Man posted:The Church in the series backstory is bad, but not in the series present. Didn't Roger even go back to the Church for awhile? How else would he know Albert?
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Mar 9, 2019 23:13
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Accordion Man posted:If it wasn't for Koudelka Yuri would have never saved Alice. Of course Koudelka is important. The events of the game taught us that Wales is the universe focal point for the bad poo poo.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:15
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Oxxidation posted:whoever sealed the holy mistletoe should've maybe oughta put up a better guardian than a level 5 Gargoyle, that thing is potent Maybe at first it was a proper Koudelka strength gargoyle, fresh from the annual All Saints Day cathedral demon incursion, but it had a power leak thing, and normally that doesn't matter, it pops back to demon world and rejuices. Here, though, they've had it bound to that artifact for who knows how long and that leak just really took its toll and suddenly you've got a guardian who can barely threaten a regular confused lady with a sword. The Dark Id posted:This is ain't a good look, Yuri.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:22
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Of course Koudelka is important. Koudelka also introduced Roger, who is going to be important forever because he's great.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:24
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koudelka was so weird, it was great
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Mar 9, 2019 23:27
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Night10194 posted:Koudelka also introduced Roger, who is going to be important forever because he's great.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:28
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Kurtofan posted:koudelka was so weird, it was great I think Koudelka has the best plot in the series and really dug its 'actually serious gothic horror' vibe. Shame about everything about the gameplay.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:36
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sad thing is, you can see parts of the system where it would work if it gotten some polish - and realize they didn't because of so many lovely subsystems that don't interact with the other systems or even work against it - for example you can't have a weapon break and a weapon skill level up in the same system especially with some weapon types being rare or will break quickly.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:51
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Keldulas posted:Of all the sequel power down plot devices, the mistletoe ranks highly among the rest. Yeah, I know, right? Yuri is basically a demonic god-man by the end of Shadow Hearts 1, this is a great way to bring him back down to normal with the other adventurers. (though I do like the explanation we get in Devil May Cry for why Dante has different weapons every game: he sells the extras to keep the lights on between adventures, haha)
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Mar 10, 2019 00:32
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My favorite is Mega Man's explanation, " "
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Mar 10, 2019 00:49
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HR12345 posted:One other way to tell that Nicolai was outright evil? He's voiced by Takehito Koyasu in Japanese who'd go on to voice Dio Brando a good 8 years later. insert prerequisite "but it was I, DIO" joke
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Mar 10, 2019 03:18
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Robindaybird posted:sad thing is, you can see parts of the system where it would work if it gotten some polish - and realize they didn't because of so many lovely subsystems that don't interact with the other systems or even work against it - for example you can't have a weapon break and a weapon skill level up in the same system especially with some weapon types being rare or will break quickly. It's biggest killer is the complete lack of any information; you never know which character/enemy is going to act next, whether your weapon will break next turn, what element an enemy is, what an enemy drops, if you're on the right screen for the particular enemy you want - and even then you're still at the mercy of the RNG.
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Mar 10, 2019 03:21
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Arkanumzilong posted:insert prerequisite "but it was I, DIO" joke Insert prerequisite "ROADO ROLLA DA~!" joke
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Mar 10, 2019 03:28
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Robindaybird posted:sad thing is, you can see parts of the system where it would work if it gotten some polish - and realize they didn't because of so many lovely subsystems that don't interact with the other systems or even work against it - for example you can't have a weapon break and a weapon skill level up in the same system especially with some weapon types being rare or will break quickly. coughs SaGa coughs
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Mar 10, 2019 13:29
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That's just it though, you can always buy more weapons of a given type in SaGa, so you can save the rare stuff for when you really need it while still getting weapon experience. Koudelka wants to do the survival horror limited resources thing, which does not work well together with the weapon skill system. Also actually the only SaGa game in which weapon durability and weapon skill level co-exist is the SaGa 3 DS remake anyway. All the rest have one or the other, not both. I suppose you could make an argument for Sparking being a type of gaining weapon skill, but that only adds the Romancing SaGa 1 remake to the list. Mimingless fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Mar 10, 2019 |
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Mar 10, 2019 15:28
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What do weapon skills refer to? Because Unlimited Saga for instance required you to get panels for weapons to have a better chance of unlocking their moves and also "winning" the attack roulette to use the move you actually want to. Also in Unlimited guns were super rare and you needed a gun panel if you wanted any chance of dealing full damage with one.
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Mar 10, 2019 15:33
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I'm assuming "weapon skill level up" refers to "use the weapon to get better at it". I didn't include Unlimited Saga because what weapon you use actually has very little effect on what panels you get, you basically just have to get lucky. Also Unlimited Saga is terrible and I don't like remembering it exists.
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Mar 10, 2019 15:42
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Mimingless posted:I'm assuming "weapon skill level up" refers to "use the weapon to get better at it". I didn't include Unlimited Saga because what weapon you use actually has very little effect on what panels you get, you basically just have to get lucky. Also Unlimited Saga is terrible and I don't like remembering it exists. Don't forget that using a weapon also raises the chance of getting a panel that removes your ability to use that weapon! Game design!
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Mar 10, 2019 15:44
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Episode VIII: Crestfallen Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon .jpg) Welp. Yuri is cursed again and stuck with another group of weirdoes (and one very good boy) out in the middle of nowhere due to some magical bullshit he didn't really want to deal with in the first place. I suppose we should chat up with our new party while we're here. .jpg) Not sure what else I expected to come out of a wolf. But at least he's finally given a name -- Blanca. .jpg)  Nah. I need a save point to pitch a tent to rest so... I think there is a save point right outside. ... ...... ...Yeah, I'm still not gonna rest. What am I MADE out of tents, lady?.jpg)  <slams fist into palm> Oh, and I should give you this..jpg) You got the Andras Crest. You got the Furfur Crest. .jpg) What do you think? Pretty spiffy, eh?    ...What's the matter? <waves dismissively> H-he hehe! Umm, thanks, but, uh, no thanks... I don't need magic like this. I can do my fusions. You know, I can just pop into Charon or something if I need to set anything on fire. I like to keep in simple. Heh... You know, I haven't seen you fuse into anything but that big devil thing the whole time I've known you. Yeah, well... Don't fix what ain't broke. You sure? It's a pretty handy thing to have...Yuri turns away from Gepetto. .jpg)  ...Hey, wait a minute! Don't tell me it's because you can't remember spells?! Did you never actually get around to learning how to do proper magic? Ehh... well, you know... I've been busy... ...Well, never mind. Blanca and I will use it, then. You're gonna give magic scrolls— Crests. Whatever to the frikkin' DOG?! It's a wolf and yes. It's something even a canine can easily learn. Or so I thought until I met you bumbling your way through life as you do. <sits up> Awroo! .......jpg) Awroo!  Well, what do you know...?.jpg) So magic has undergone a big change in Shadow Hearts: Covenant. In the first game, it was a matter of just leveling characters and they will eventually gain new unique special abilities (magic) of varying utility. This time around there is Crest Magic, where different crests can be equipped on characters to imbue them with magical abilities at the player's discretion. Except for Yuri, who is an idiot which has his own gimmick that definitely didn't get the Metroid treatment from that Holy Mistletoe debacle. We will get into Crest Magic a little bit more in a minute. .jpg) Awroo, awroo!.jpg) We are given the chance to speak to everyone again. Talking to Karin, in particular, will advance the plot. But first, let's do some menu diving now that we've acquired a new party. Karin is sitting out for this entire chapter of the game for no particular reason. She's not hurt or shell shocked from losing another squad of men/being betrayed by the bishonen bishop. She just plain doesn't seem to feel like fighting. Sometimes you're just feeling lazy, ya know? .jpg) .jpg) You know, I could have sworn Yuri Volte Hyuga was around Level 40-something last time I saw him. But apparently, he has been slacking off in the last year since Alice bought the farm. Or maybe his new curse de-leveled him from punching out a god level. Regardless, Yuri is down to a Level 4 busta again. By default, Yuri is Dark elemental but don't worry about it too much. .jpg) .jpg) Gepetto is a puppeteer and by that I mean he's basically a puppet wizard that can straight up do magic with toys. He is the reason there were murderous wooden lions and toy ducks back in Domremy. In battle, Gepetto attacks using the Cornelia doll though he is more of a caster character. Right now Gepetto is Non-Elemental. But that is because there is a whole... interesting... sidequest system associated with playing doll dress-up. Like many things brought up this update, we'll be getting back to that at a later date. .jpg) .jpg) Finally, Blanca is just a Wind elemental good boy. .jpg) Like with Nicolai and Karin, everyone also comes sporting some default equipment. Though our new batch of characters had the good sense to also equip an accessory each as well. .jpg) Yuri is now running around with some rusted Vega bullshit claws. What the gently caress, Yuri? I had to do a TEN spin Judgment Ring of absurd speeds and teleport Roger Bacon to the goddamn moon to get you that ultimate weapon Nightbird Claws in the first game. Did you pawn them off to get your stupid puffy pirate cuff leather jacket? You're a goddamn mess, Hyuga! That aside, Yuri gets assorted glove weapons with varying degrees of pointy bits on the end for punching better. .jpg) Both Gepetto and Yuri are sporting a Cotton Shirt. Sure, I can see that being under Gepetto's coat but you're not hiding any white button up color shirt under your outfit, Yuri. C'mon. .jpg) Yuri is also wearing a Leather Belt. I mean, technically he seems to be wearing two leather belts with two more hanging off his fanny pack and we won't even get into the two mini belts buckling closed his shirt. But this one particular belt raises a wee bit of attack power. So that's nice. .jpg) Gepetto's weapon class is assorted strings for his puppets. Kind of weird but makes sense, I suppose. Granted, I don't think at any point you actually see Gepetto using strings. But, details... .jpg) Both Gepetto and Blanca are wearing this horsehide Leather Cap from the horse-riding tribe of... don't worry about it. Sadly, this is before the era where we could have widespread advanced dog hat tech so it's limited to menu screen artwork only. .jpg) Blanca doesn't use weapons since... well, it's a wolf. It can bite and scratch things. Instead, we get him different qualities of rasps and brushes to clean his teeth. Proper dental hygiene is very important, even for a rad wolf buddy. .jpg) Blanca also comes equipped wearing this for whatever reason. Armors are kind of weird in this game in that there are some that can only be worn of characters of certain sizes, some that are male/female only and a few other parameters that kind of make sense when we know these characters better but... eh. I've never been a big fan of character specific sorts of armor. b.jpg) The only other item of note is the Key Item of Yuri's Periapt charm. This thing was tied to a rather obnoxious system in the first game that has thankfully been dumped in the trash for the sequel. But it's function of detecting Malice (read: bad demon energy mojo) is still a thing. .jpg) That's enough about items. Let's take a moment to check out this Crest Magic business. Every character, other than Yuri, has an allocation of DCP or Dominance Capacity Points. Gepetto comes with 10 DCP and Blanca current has 7 DCP. For what it's worth, Karin has 6 DCP and Nicolai had 9, not that it mattered back then. Each Magic Crest has a certain level which corresponds to the amount of DCP it will take to equip. So in theory we could equip all three crests on Gepetto right now and he'd still have 1 DCP left. But that'd be dumb, since putting all our magic on a single character isn't a good move, especially with the very limited MP pools available in the early game. .jpg) Magic Crests are all named after the demons from The Lesser Key of Solomon book of demonology of which a TON of monster/demon/magic poo poo names from in all sorts of video games, anime and whatnot originate. There are 72 Magic Crests in the game, one for each and every demon in the grimoire. Each Magic Crest contains a Crest Magic (yes these are different things.) For instance, as you can see above the Focalor Crest contains Hail Beak, a 16 MP Water elemental spell. The other crests we received are: Andras - Crest Magic: Mirage - Increases Evasion Rate for one ally. 12 MP per cast. Furfur - Crest Magic: Gale Spin - Wind Class Special Damage. Circular, small. Two hits. 16 MP per cast. .jpg) There may be a way to upgrade Magic Crests to unlock a secondary magic spell for 'em (at no additional DCP cost.) But that's a story for far in the future. .jpg) For now, we're gonna pop that Water spell and the Evasion increase spells on Gepetto. We'll give Blanca the Wind elemental spell since he IS the Wind elemental characters. Also, its crest is called Furfur. It'd be wrong not to give it to the wolf. The Magic Crest system is pretty basic for now in the early hours of the game. But there you have it for the time being. Let's chat with the party before we gather up and venture forth into the great unknown of another dungeon. .jpg) Awroo! Yeah, just kick me while I'm down why dontcha? Awroooo! Look, I'm trying alright?! Awroo! Tch. Tell me about it....jpg) What are you afraid of wolves? No, I'm afraid of having to use Blanca to sniff you out if you keel over into some dark ditch. <shakes head> Pfft. C'mon. When is the last time that happened? Yesterday. At the church.  ...Yeah, OK. We should probably get going..jpg) Yeah..jpg) Out into the world, we go! Earlier, I didn't know why they felt the need to include a few maps of walking through the woods to arrive at Domremy mostly because the very next area is a semi-lengthy running through the woods dungeon. The party walks a few paces through the woods. Karin stops and starts looking around. .jpg) ...Something seems... strange..jpg) Uh-oh... Be careful, everybody! Here come some monsters!.jpg) Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe .jpg) Right out the gate, we get ambushed by two of the three monsters roaming Ardennes Forest. .jpg) This winged plant nightmare is a Skeeter. Apparently, the French have a much different definition of what constitutes a mosquito than I do. These buggers have a meager 20 HP and just kind of smack around folk with their vine appendages for 6-10 HP of damage. The only other noteworthy fact about them is their Japanese name is Entwife as in lady versions of the giant tree dudes from Lord of the Rings. Unlike the first Shadow Hearts, most of the enemy name translations are on point with the original text unless, like here, they you know... directly reference other properties. I don't think the Tolkien estate would be cool with that back in 2004 just months after the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy concluded. .jpg) The other enemy present is a death snail. What if a snail had a skull for a shell! The spook meter is off the bloody charts! These jerks just ram people for 6-7 HP of damage. They only possess a piddling 19 hit points.  Once we do get a chance to attack, there isn't much trouble to be had handling this trash mob. Other than the fact Yuri's toolset is... rather limited. You know the Fusion monster transformation thing he is known for in battle and is the reason he cannot use Magic Crests? Yeah. That's not an option at the moment.  Granted, that's not going to be too much of an issue when dealing with these scrubs. Especially the ones that are literally sentient scrubs. But still, that's probably a tad bit worrying. Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg) <cracks neck> If that's all they got... no problem. b.jpg) c.jpg) The victory screen has added a new value in a "Soul" digit. It seems we already have accumulated some 53 Soul Energy. It's almost like the game had been tallying that since we began the game and is just now providing a UI to display it to the player. Just keep that Soul Energy is a thing in mind for now. We'll put a pin on that with the rest and come back to it later on in this very dungeon. Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon .jpg) You're the one that's drawing the monsters to us, you know! What?! I just got some dumb magic stick stuck in me. I didn't get frikkin' branded!.jpg) Influence? Yeah. It's a curse that works on your mind and spirit. I bet you can't do fusions anymore, right? ?! Yeah, maybe... I'm just a little off my game today, ya know? Your soul has become unstable, and it's emitting waves that draw the monsters. You mean they might be able to kill me while I'm like this? That's about the size of it. But I punched out a goddamn god! Oh yeah? What Level were you when you did that? I dunno... Forty-something? And now? Still four... err... Wait, poo poo... Where the hell did the second digit go?! I was afraid of that. The Malice that fills the world and the Malice that's trapped in your soul are both growing and creating hatred. <steps forward> What can I do about it?Gepetto turns away and strokes his beard. .jpg) The only thing we can do right now is concentrate on staying alive. So you have no useful advice? I'm a retired puppeteer and this is the first day this week I've been sober past five o'clock. What do you want out of me? Be happy you got that much info out of me, kiddo! Awroo! ...Fair enough.Meanwhile... .jpg) <Narrator Voice> And so the party gets away without the least bit of trouble.    Video: Episode 8 Highlight Reel (You should check out our characters' attack animations.)   Blanca Official Art - A good boy. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Mar 17, 2019 |
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Mar 11, 2019 04:00
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One thing you can say about the sidequests in SH:C is that they're not boring or particularly forgettable.
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Mar 11, 2019 04:18
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So apparently the weapon classes in Shadow Hearts 1 weren't weird enough. Puppet strings and toothbrushes? Sure, why not?
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Mar 11, 2019 04:29
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and it continues from there. The crest system is actually pretty fun and useful, especially with more stuff unlocks for it.
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Mar 11, 2019 04:51
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StandardVC10 posted:So apparently the weapon classes in Shadow Hearts 1 weren't weird enough. Puppet strings and toothbrushes? Sure, why not? Just you wait....just you goddamn wait 
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Mar 11, 2019 05:09
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Shadow Hearts didn't even have anything particularly weird beyond Alice hitting things with books. Everything else was a pretty standard weapon type that you'd find in other games.
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Mar 11, 2019 05:10
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Hooray, a good boy party member
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Mar 11, 2019 05:31
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