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Thinking about it, usually when you get a murdery puppet villain, it's a magically living puppet that kills stuff. Even if there's a person it's probably more of a ventriloquist style 'no strings attached' puppet (like the batman villain, the puppetmaster class from Ogre Battle or Lulu from FFX), rather than a regular puppet with assassin-flavored doom strings. Edit- New update on the previous page. The Dark Id posted:may as well splurge with our decent savings account and stop up. Guessing "stock". Second should be "Neameto" and can probably just remove "summoned" so there's no clashing tenses with "summoning". Need a Karin portrait on the fourth and can cut out that extra "pose" on the fifth.
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Nov 2, 2019 04:23
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| # ? May 23, 2024 13:31 |
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why was roger receiving war mail is the real question
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Nov 2, 2019 07:17
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I don't know if a hero who engages in mail tampering is hero I can support...ah, who am I kidding, I can't stay mad at Joachim.
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Nov 2, 2019 08:33
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:I don't know if a hero who engages in mail tampering is hero I can support...ah, who am I kidding, I can't stay mad at Joachim. Heroism is an industry that doesn't mind if you're a felon, which is why that industry has never really taken off in America
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Nov 2, 2019 16:23
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:Heroism is an industry that doesn't mind if you're a felon, which is why that industry has never really taken off in America I disagree with that. Some of our heroes- Batman, Spider-Man, Punisher, a few Presidents and other politicians I won’t name because this is not the place for political discussions, various sports and arts celebrities I won’t name for similar reasons- have been felons several times over and are well known for it. Not all of them have been prosecuted either. Lots of outlaws are on our heroes list too- Jesse James, Bonny & Clyde, Al Capone. Opinions are divided as to whether these outlaws were actual heroes but I’m counting it anyway. But yeah, Joachim stole Roger’s mailbox. I’d be more worried personally about who was using it to receive letters from soldiers and their loved ones at home as mentioned in the description. Does Roger operate a service we didn’t know about for the local service members and their families? Has Joachim interrupted that for his own reasons? And will he bother returning the mailbox (or the locker he took earlier) once his inevitable next weapon upgrade is found?
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Nov 2, 2019 17:23
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It's really rude to counter a snarky comment I made before I had coffee with actual facts
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Nov 2, 2019 17:34
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:It's really rude to counter a snarky comment I made before I had coffee with actual facts Not apologizing. You make the post, you accept the risks and consequences.
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Nov 2, 2019 19:29
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Can I update my guess to one of Joachim's weapons being another person?
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Nov 2, 2019 20:08
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Joachim's endgame weapon will be the actual cross that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on. Jesus included.
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Nov 2, 2019 22:11
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Malah posted:Joachim's endgame weapon will be the actual cross that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on. Jesus included. Not out of question for a game like this since we get mystic artifacts like candy. gently caress your "I have a splinter of the True Cross," I got the Whole Cross here.
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Nov 2, 2019 22:12
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In terms of puppeteer assassins, I have to point out Marionette Owl, from Metal Gear Ghost Babel. Which got LP'ed by someone on this forum I'm pretty sure, though I've forgotten his name, it's on the tip of my tongue...
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Nov 3, 2019 03:35
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"bares investigation" should be "bears investigation" Nearly everyone gets that one wrong.
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Nov 3, 2019 20:59
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...! posted:"bares investigation" should be "bears investigation" Bares is only for revealing, everything else is bear. What's weird is this didn't seem to be a thing people got wrong until the last year or two, or maybe I just never noticed.
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Nov 4, 2019 00:29
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I'd chock that up to skewed sampling personally. I've seen it come up a lot, though I don't often see people outside of text use the term, so maybe people are speaking it and never knowing their mouth sounds are spelling it wrong.
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Nov 4, 2019 12:53
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Nah, I just think that to a lot of people, the word "bear/bears" just looks wrong when it's used as a verb (or used to refer to anything other than the animal). Bear left/right, bear arms, etc. Edit: "The right to bear arms" is the right to wield weapons. "The right to bare arms" is the right to go sleeveless. 
...! fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Nov 4, 2019 |
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Nov 4, 2019 21:55
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I blame gun shows
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Nov 4, 2019 22:41
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Don't forget the right to arm bears! Arming bares makes no sense.
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Nov 4, 2019 22:45
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Look, nudists need protection, too.
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Nov 4, 2019 23:22
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Episode XXXVII: Gazing at a Bad Idea Music: Call Back From Jesus - Mysterious Monastery ~ Underground Ruins .jpg) Not sure about the gems on the dicks of these alien dudes aesthetic. But we'll just have to deal as this dungeon continues for like... another half hour. .jpg) .jpg) New floor. New gimmick. We have a configuration of stairs here and a bunch of colors of switches that Yuri can stand upon. Can you detect the correlation between them? They don't seem to correspond to any colors or numerical business, right? .jpg) No? Good. Me neither. It is just random rear end trial and error bullshit! No nuance exists in this space. Just mash stuff and get it right eventually. For reference, the most efficient solution is: Green, Green, Blue. Get hosed, Red. .jpg) Going up a floor seems counter-productive. But here we are as Neam Ruins plays by its own rules. So what's on the next floor? .jpg) Oh, you know. Just two more of these lovely puzzles. Terrific. When I originally played this game like fifteen years ago I didn't have any internet access at the time. These all took like five minutes apiece. I was not thrilled with the level design here. .jpg) Going to be real, I 100% just looked this poo poo up this time. gently caress. That! Anyway, as mentioned there are two puzzles in this room. The first one is progress. The second one is optional but required because there's a Crest up there. .jpg) If you're curious, the solution is: Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Blue, Blue, Red, Red. Yes, that is the most efficient way to do it. Seven prompts. Again. gently caress. That! .jpg) .jpg) Our reward is a new crest with a rather potent Dark elemental spell. If I'm not mistaken this also might complete another part of Solomon's Key. Spoilers: We've got two regions we can sort out at this point but I... just want to get out of this puzzle-centric dungeon before doing optional puzzles. And I like the Solomon's Key puzzles. .jpg) Backing up, we should probably make progress to the next level. This is a long set of stairs but the solution is surprisingly simple. I mean, assuming you just look it up and don't trial and error it. .jpg) Green, Green, Yellow. That's the end of this miserable excuse for an obstacle. For now. Neam Ruins might have a second area that is optional endgame business and all the warriors of tedious puzzle design return. .jpg) .jpg) Despite the odd translucent blocks here, this floor is safe and devoid of block-based puzzling. You might think that we should go talk to Gerard and Pierre who are somehow in the middle of an underground dungeon accessible only by a rope ladder in the middle of Bumblefuck, Wales. But you'd be a fool to do that! If we head directly to the right of the entrance, we have the second most important encounter of the dungeon... That's right! It's your boy! Ring Soul! .jpg)  How's your wife? What?! Your wife... how's she doing? You mentioned her last time, right? I did? Yeah! <sighs and grunts> I've got to stop drinking on the job... ...What was that? N-nothing! ...Ahem! I can see your future... I entrust this to you....jpg) Guess what? We're pumping Yuri up to having FIVE attacks in his default physical string. Not everyone can do that. I believe it's just Yuri, Karin, Joachim and <REDACTED>. .jpg) Um...you know the drill. What?! Okay, time to go! I can't put in any overtime today! The boss chewed me out last week.Ring Soul OUT! .jpg) How is he even getting hours for this? We see him like twice a month! I am very confused. Where did you even meet that guy? ...The Vatican. Is... Is he Catholic? Again. I am very confused and do not know.We'll see Ring Soul again when the new work week roles over. For now, let's see what the hell the Magimel Brothers are doing down here. .jpg) I feel that's a fair question. We moved heaven and earth to beat you here! The blocks, the stair puzzle... It was hard! You better buy something!.jpg) We're not going to question the logistics of getting that truck across flying block puzzles and up sets of stairs half its width. But we are going to buy something. Particularly, remember how we got that Leonardo's Bear that prevents instant death earlier? We've got two of those now. Perhaps, we'll buy two more on top of that. No reason why... Just to be careful, you know? Super careful. Like equipping everyone with on right now careful. .jpg)  That's so rude! Don't be so cold! And, do you want a dress? Pass..jpg) With the Magimel Brothers chatted up and Cash exchanged, the next level awaits us. .jpg) .jpg) The gimmick of this level? The floor is invisible, naturally. The path flashes when Yuri steps on the first block of a sequence and must navigate the rest of the path from memory. And if you're wondering...? .jpg) Waaaaah!!.jpg) Yes, Yuri can tumble off like a dingus. It doesn't actually hurt at all but we will have to return to the next floor and start from scratch if he beefs it. .jpg) .jpg) It's not that hard to navigate. Other than if we get an inopportune random battle and accidentally run off an edge immediately following the fight. I definitely never did that at any point. .jpg) So anyway, you want a boss introduction that makes Janus seem like he had a lavishly cinematic introduction sequence that lasted the length of a late-game Metal Gear Solid cutscene? Check this next guy out! It's just this line of dialogue and we're instantly thrown into the dungeon boss. Music: Glint of Light ~ Mid Boss in Europe .jpg) A space squid is here now. I'm uncertain why a space squid is guarding the Émigré Manuscript but I've definitely got some questions about what Roger Bacon was doing with the space god summoning book now. As you can see, this fellow is called the Grail Gazer. It's quite meaty, despite the gelatinous look, with a 1240 HP and a Water elemental class. .jpg) Keeping in theme with uhh... you know freaky space aquatic animals, Grail Gazer comes with a pair of space starfish appropriately enough called Star Gazer. The Star Gazer duo are also Water elemental and have a much less impressive 320 HP each. .jpg) We actually want to kill those Star Gazers first because they do nothing but set-up combos and we definitely do not want them doing that. Especially, since the first combo they pop off is basically guaranteed. .jpg) Additionally, Star Gazers only have one single attack: Instant Death. There is a reason we bought those spare Leonardo's Bears and equipped them. Indeed, that's probably the reason they stuck that shop one area below the boss room. It was a mildly rude awakening getting to this boss fight the first time and having half the party taking a dirt nap in the enemy's first turn. Even if we've sidestepped the Instant Death stipulation, Star Gazers along hit for 55-65 damage and a full combo with all three enemies WILL kill any of our party at this point. They're a little dangerous. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) On top of that, Grail Gazer is mostly a water magic caster and will dish out 65-75 HP of damage with most of his spells. Given the chance, he'll also buff himself and his Star Gazer buddies with increased physical attack resistance. We need to break up this band immediately. .jpg) Our best bet is to get our boy Joachim supped up with Heat Edge to make him quite a potent bruiser against our Water affiliated foes. We can get Blanca on that wagon as well but ehh... he's my utility good boy who is casting all the buffs and doing all the healing. .jpg) If we get really lucky, we can just have him use Grand Slam to smash one of those Star Gazer jabronis back into space where they belong. They're technically a common enemy (that only shows up in this particular boss fight, but details) and not an actual boss. So they're not immune to Instant Death like every proper boss enemy. It's only fair for jerks that go around spamming Instant Death to get a taste of their own medicine. .jpg) We'll pull out Yuri's Barbaria Fusion just for the maximum amount of damage output to the remaining Star Gazer. We buffed this a couple levels at the beginning of the chapter for a reason. .jpg) Karin is good with her Sword Techs since they're fire elemental by nature. We do need to be mindful of Karin (and to a less extent Yuri with his Fire Fusion) because the enemies are nearly killing her if she gets targeted. It's fine once we sort out the Star Gazers since Grail Gazer has no multi-target attacks and isn't strong enough to take anyone by himself. .jpg) .jpg) Indeed, as long as we just have someone on healing duty (Blanca) to patch anyone up each round. The boss is pretty much done after the Star Gazers bow out. It just takes a while by sheer virtue of it having a sizable pool of health. Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg)  See?! I'm terrific!.jpg) Seven turns, huh? I think that's by far the most any boss has gotten thus far. That's quite the post-battle bonus, at least. Plus we got a handful of goodies on top of it. .jpg) Can't get enough of those Crests. Got to get them all. Even the redundant ones. .jpg) And now we too can just pop off a lucky Instant Kill. You know, except for the mass of enemies that are just immune to Instant Kill. Music: Call Back From Jesus - Mysterious Monastery ~ Underground Ruins .jpg) Sorry 'bout that. Roger put that sentry here so the book wouldn't get stolen. How did you forget summoning alien monsters? Look, I had a rough year. Some things slipped my mind.Music: ENDS .jpg) OK. You leave space aliens to defend this magic book but you don't even so much as put it in a fancy box? Roger, you have strange priorities. .jpg) .jpg) Yep. That's the Émigré Manuscript, alright. Reminder: This is not the original book. We never see that. This is a copy that Roger Bacon made for the Pope hundreds of years ago before he made himself immortal and bugged out. He actively decided it needed to be skull-shaped and as evil looking as possible. .jpg) Gah!.jpg) Are you all right?! <groans>.jpg) .jpg) Yuri's migraine/mental assault by an evil rear end magic book continues until he loses consciousness and flops to the floor. Karin looks on with mild concern/confusion. Music: Holy Mistletoe ~ Graveyard .jpg) Oh, nice. The Graveyard. Nothing but good things occurs when Yuri ends up in the Graveyard unprompted. Especially, regarding cursed objects. Yuri climbs to his feet and looks around. .jpg) I'm here!.jpg) Yep, you sure are here, Yuri. Do you know what else is here? .jpg) .jpg) Oh, you know. Just the Émigré Manuscript chilling out under a spotlight. Nothing ominous about that at all. I'm sure it too is fine. Especially, since it seems to have replaced that hell tree with another Yuri growing out of it. .jpg) Our rude hero approaches the book and trips just before reaching it. It's a very embarrassing display. Just plain clumsy. Hopefully, Jeanne's ghost won't roll in now to clown on his two left feet. .jpg) .......jpg)  OLD Music: ALICE .jpg) .jpg) Hey, Alice. Gotten a little naked in the afterlife, huh? Still kept the oversized bow to maintain the hairstyle, though? I can respect that. I've seen the art with your hair down and you're like Elhymn van Houten level of absurdly long hair. .jpg) .jpg) Music: ENDS .jpg) <pants and shakes his head>.jpg) .jpg) .......jpg) The book...to bring back the dead....jpg) Yuri Hyuga! No! BAD! Do NOT under any circumstances consider resurrecting Alice Elliot with the Émigré Manuscript! There are two crazy soulless bug lady people I can point you to clearly demonstrate that is the worst idea ever conceived in this universe. One of them needed capital G actual God to show up and sort it out. .jpg) .jpg) Yuri! Yuri! Yuri!.jpg) Eh? Huh...?.jpg) ...... What happened?! You collapsed all of a sudden! ...... Are you all right? Does he do this a lot? ...Kinda. Awroo. Sorry, guess I need to eat something. W-we're going to need to leave Wales first though. No thanks to that cuisine. <concerned look>Yuri stands up. .jpg) Is that the Émigré Manuscript?.jpg) Yuri responds by nodding and holding the most ominous anime way possible. Music: Call Back From Jesus - Mysterious Monastery ~ Underground Ruins .jpg) Yuri! You mean you don't know?! No, I don't. How do hell should I know? I still barely know where Italy is and I was there for a couple weeks. Do you know? <shakes head> No.   Why do we keep you around? <flexes> My rippling muscles! Yeah, gonna stop talking to you now.Everyone turns around and ignores Joachim. .jpg) So we should go to Cannes first, and then look for a way to the island. Sounds good. Let's roll out..jpg) .jpg) And with that, our time in Neam Ruins is completed. For now... There may be more to this area in the future, unfortunately. .jpg) Oh yeah, by the way, we've obtained the Émigré Manuscript. Let's just deliver this to Sapientes Gladio to get Roger Bacon back and NEVER consider resurrecting Yuri's dead girlfriend again. Why would you even consider that for a minute? Nonsense!  That was a near 100% dungeon chapter and it did have an unusual amount of enemies in it. Let's knock them out of the Library.  Monsters: .jpg) It knows when you poop and narcs to God. .jpg) "A head wound," you say? Sure, that's one way to interpret a near half-dozen swords in your brain. .jpg) Of course, a wizard decided this thing was a good idea. Of course. .jpg) It can deal with internet bullies. .jpg) It's actually a resident of HFIL now. Characters: .jpg) Oh... hey Alice... I see you've got an updated model and character portrait. I'm sure that bodes well for a dead person.   Video: Episode 37 Highlight Reel (You should definitely watch this.)   Grail Gazer Concept Art - Cosmic horrors always with the eyes and the tentacles. Get a new gimmick, you jerks.
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Nov 5, 2019 02:15
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Truly, nothing will go wrong.
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Nov 5, 2019 02:56
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An island near Cannes, huh? Just chill out at the film festival and skip this whole reviving the dead thing, Yuri.
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Nov 5, 2019 03:14
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I find it a little impressive they bothered spelling out "Emigre" in Greek letters on the book.
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Nov 5, 2019 03:29
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I doubt Yuri would try using it. For starters, even with a war going on, it would be more of a pain in his rear end than he is willing to deal with to find enough orphans to make a biomass slurry out of them to even begin trying.
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Nov 5, 2019 05:28
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The Dark Id posted:
Whoa the subtitles actually matched the voice lines this time. 
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Nov 5, 2019 07:12
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They even got Alice's stupid outfit and incredibly grey hair down.
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Nov 5, 2019 07:30
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They added even more of those light pathways in the Director's cut version of this dungeon, because, you know, it wasn't tedious enough. Speaking of...
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Nov 5, 2019 12:47
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It happened with Final Fantasy. It happened with Kingdom Hearts. Yes, I'm talking about the ultra-special re-releases with added bonus content and adjustments to gameplay.  Frustratingly released one day before the PAL version of the standard Covenant, the Director's Cut included two new dungeons, some new cutscenes, and a few other additions. While not the most essential of content, it builds on the pretty solid base on Covenant, and overall just adds a bit more to the experience. The Dark Id has very kindly allowed me to show off the DX content, and I'll be chiming in every so often with it. --- First, a brand new dungeon! This technically happens during a weird interstitial point when in Cannes, but it fits a lot better immediately after the Neam Ruins.  Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon     Finally! Let's get this show on the road! Oh, put a sock in it! I've been walking all morning! I'm exhausted! Yeah, but if you charge in like a bull - as usual - you'll just end up lost, and won't be able to find the exit. As to be expected from a dunderheaded oaf like you. What'd you say?! Why I oughta-! Enough! We need to finish our investigation here before they bring us the Émigré Manuscript! We haven't the time for your petty quarrels! Pft! Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, we're playing as the quirky antagonist squad for this little section. Nakhásh is Hebrew for snake, incidentally. So, we're in "Snake Temple". Let's have a quick look at their menus and items.  Their stats are fixed, and they don't share Yuri and co's inventory, but they start with a few healing items.  Nicholai still has his stuff from the beginning - although it's been buffed to keep him from becoming the "never-catch-up Zhuzhen" of the group. He's the most balanced of the three, but also the only one with the ability to heal the others.  He's still got his Cure and Bright Light moves, but he's also learnt a new one, Divine Light.  He's technically had this all the time, even in the standard English game...but he only ever does it while Berserk.    An interesting little programming oversight? That's the healing bitch outta the way, now we have the dumb ox Lenny.   Yep. He's the beefy boy whose job is to smack things hard. He has only one special move, Iron Claw.  It's pretty great.  And finally, she-of-the-silly-outfit, Veronica Vera.  She's the black mage of the group, with her own BDSM skills named Punishment. Two are the standard Heal (cures status abnormalities), and Hail Beak, which is the bog-standard water-element attack.  Her personal skill is Aroma Oil - Stun Perfume, which damages enemies, and has a chance to paralyze them.  Neat. Shame there's only one enemy vulnerable to paralysis in this entire area though. An interesting little thing is that all their unique equipment was actually properly translated, and Lenny and Veronica are fully playable in the English games via this game's debug mode, although their sounds are bugged, and their moveset names are blank.  (This is "Rude Spanking" in the Japanese version. The very horny devs are obviously fans of Le vice anglais.)  Can't be comfortable with that boob window.  A Khanjar is a type of Omani dagger. Not...traditionally used as a bludgeon.  Lenny really needs to be riding some kind of hog. Harley-Davidson was actually producing motorbikes around this time. They must have been pretty close to finishing when developing this stuff, as all the enemies and bosses are fully programmed. It's literally just missing some minor cutscenes and the dungeons, although there's some lingering evidence in the files that they were removed. But oh well...  We're locked in if we're try to leave.  Onward!  Immediately into a battle! Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe  So yeah, we've got some neat new enemies as well, although they all use moves that are in the standard game. This purple bird tit thing is Baphomet - weirdly translated in the debug data as "Baphemetous".  Baphomet, beloved icon of heavy metal bands, and goths, even if they don't know anything about the occult. The Knights Templar were accused of worshipping it, although that seems to have been a very convient excuse for the then French king to confiscate their wealth. The name is believed to be a corruption of Muhammad ("Mahomet" - "Baphomet") - crusades era, after all. Its iconography is probably the most famous image of a devil that people have, and generally ends getting linked with Satan. It's got 68 HP, and is dark elemental. It has Dark Claw, and can inflict Sp-DEF Down.  The eye squid with the legs is Luvart -"Luvar" in the debug info. It has 85 HP, and is fire aligned. It's got Magma and can inflict Mental Break. Luvart is a super-obscure demon mentioned in Sébastien Michaëlis's My First Book of Demonlogy, L'Histoire admirable de la possession d'une penitente, where it was possessing the body of a nun. How the Shadow Hearts devs got "eyeball manta-ray ballet dancer" out of that, I don't know.    It's a quick battle. Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon   Did my boys get their butts whooped by these punks? I doubt it. It's difficult to imagine they fell to a group of that caliber. More likely, there's a powerful demon among their ranks.  This door is the way to proceed.  Hm? This gate ain't opening? Ah, I forgot to mention. The gates in this place are rigged to be opened by two switches. We can find those on the same floor. Sounds like a pain-in-the-butt if you ask me...But if that's what it takes, then let's pull those switches and get back here, pronto. That's the first half of the gimmick in this temple - to open the doors to the next area we've got to flip two switches.  Fortunately there's one of the handy dandy switches round the corner. If we examined the switch first, there's actually a slightly different conversation that occurs.  Hey, what's this switch? You see that door there? It's a switch to open it. It seems that if you don't operate two switches on the same floor, the door won't open. drat, pain-in-the-butt switches...C'mon then, let's find this other switch.  *Flip*   *Flip*   And down we go.  In the chest is a silver bracelet. None of the stuff we find here will carry over to the main party, by the way.  So this is the second half of the dungeon gimmick. As we approach this gate...  Whoa, awesome! An automatic door!? It is somewhat remarkable, yes...   Wha-!? H-hey! Did I just get locked in!? Oh, stop your snivelling! This fence is one-way only. Look, there's an arrow carved down there, right? It means that if you aren't coming from the side of the arrow, you won't be able to open it.Veronica steps on the arrow.  W-what?! Who came up with this stuff...Don't screw with me! Geez! Oh Lenny, you so dumb. There's an alternative scene that plays out if we examine the closed gate on the other side of the room.  Hey! Why ain't it opening? The gate only opens one way. You see that arrow on the floor? These gate will only open on the side with the arrow, following its direction. Not nearly as fun as Lenny being a dumb dumb.   So yeah, now the switches will be placed at the end of these hallways you can only approach from one side. It's honestly not difficult though, and this dungeon is short enough for it not to be a hassle or getting lost.  Not like that goddamned Parisian subway or Welsh mine. Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe  And here's the last regular enemy in the area, Amphisbaena. These are the strongest ones in the section, with 222 HP. They're earth elemental and attack with P-ATK Down, and Rock Storm. They have an ultra rare chance of dropping a Mind's Eye - the item from the last game which doubled your attack damage, but made the Judgement ring invisible - although this area is not that difficult.  Amphisbaena are two-headed serpents found in Greek myth that were formed from Medusa's blood after she was beheaded. Pliny the Elder wrote, "The amphisbaena has a twin head, that is one at the tail-end as well, as though it were not enough for poison to be poured out of one mouth." Yep, in place of an rear end, just another venom-spewing face. They tend to get overshadowed by the more famous and interesting stock Greek monsters, but I'm pretty sure I've seen them as snake enemies in RPGS. Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon  *Flip*    *Flip*   In the main area one of Lenny's Clawed dudes appears.  You hurt? Tired? In your hour of need, leave it to me, Clawed Medic MD!HP and MP Fully Restored! I'll stand watch here. If something happens, please call me any time!We can return to him anytime for a free heal - although we're well over half way through this dungeon with only the last section and the boss to deal with.  Downward! Immediately into a cutscene.  Ya know, I still can't believe there's a temple like this on the bottom of the ocean. Aah, that reminds me, this is your first time here, isn't it? Long ago, worshippers of a heretical faith, built temples in unseen places to escape persecution. These ruins are most likely the remains of one such temple. Huh...but, if it's under the sea and all, why's there still air... and how come the water don't get in, huh? There's probably a certain power at work here. The fact our master had sent us to investigate this place is tied to that. It's vexing me. As whatever is causing the disturbance here is hindering our progress. Hmmm...  Nicolai clearly up to something here. Anyway, this is the final area. It's only slightly more challenging that the previous one, but honestly still not so bad.  I kinda like this section to be honest - it's short and sweet, and they don't drag the gimmick out so much. I can easily imagine making this four or five floors and have it be tedious as gently caress.  These a few more items down here, but nothing major, just a Tent, a Daphne Fruit, a Pocket Watch, and Poison Lv2 we can stick on someone. Useful, but not vital for this little section.  *Flip*  *Flip*   These stairs... They weren't here the last time we were here... Excellent, this might be it.   Music: Flame of Strain to Blaze ~ Tension  Oh...looks like we found the boss.  RIP Clawed Soldiers.   No doubt about it. Doesn't look like it's going to let us leave in one piece, either.  Boss time! New Music: Ladder to Heaven  This sucker is Nuckelavee. -p162-Nuckalavee-illustr-J_Torrance_(cropped).jpg) It's a giant, hosed-up, Scottish nightmare centaur with super-long arms, a single burning eye, and toxic breath that wilts everything. Oh, and it's also got no skin, black blood, yellow veins, with its gross uncovered muscles on display. Wales isn't the only country in the British Isles to have a monopoly on hosed-up hellbeasts. It's only weakness is fresh running water. Or being told to stop by praying to the Sea Mother. That's not a joke, by the way, there is an entity in Scottish myth called the Sea Mother (Mither o' the Sea). I'm guessing her other power was to over-enthusiastically tell travellers ghost stories with sound effects. *Shlooop! Shlooop! Splat! Skree!* Anyway... It has 1610 HP and is dark aligned - which is good and bad for light-aligned Nicholai here. It has Slash, Red Blaze, Dark Claw and Blind Ring. It can also boost itself with Surge.  It particularly liked Surging and Red Blazing it during this playthrough.   There's not really any strategy to this fight.  Our trios specials can really wreck its poo poo, especially in a combo.     Although, I chose to end with combo-magic.  They're all ???? because this is the first time I've used them during this specific playthrough. Once they've been used, it reveals the name in any future combo. The actual spells we can use are based on our party's elemental make up - Nicholai is Light, Lenny is Earth, and Veronica is Water, so we have access to Holy Pulse, Strong Earth, and Shock Max. If some of those sound vaugely familiar, it's because they're also Halley's ESP moves from Shadow Hearts.  And to go back even further, they are actually the same name of the spells Koudelka uses in the Japanese version of Koudelka. Although, they were localised very differently for the English release.  Anyway, back on track;  I was hoping for Holy Pulse, to hit its elemental weakness, but eh, Strong Earth is fine.   That's 1/5 of its HP gone right there. For some reason, Nuckelavee kept targeting Lenny, and he got KO'd.  C'mon Lenny, up you get.    All better.   D'oh! Leave off Lenny for five minutes!   That's better, focus on Mr Backpfeifengesicht.  It doesn't last long under our assualt, and Nicholai gets the last blood.    We don't get anything for defeating the boss. As stated before, nothing we get here carries over to Yuri and co. Music: ENDS  drat, never expected a monster like that to be here! What do we do now, Nicolai? As soon as we obtain the manuscript, we'll report to the Master. For the meantime, I suggest we halt our investigations here. drat staight! I'm not letting you send any more of my boys to die at the bottom of the ocean! Lenny walks off.  The Master won't be pleased...we'd better prepare for his displeasure.Veronica walks off.  ... ... ...  He walks over to this altar-thing.   With this ring, shall our pact be forged. With this power, maybe I'll be able to surpass him... As Nicholai walks away we pan up the altar. Music: Mysterious Theme   Ominous... All in all, this section is a fun little distraction, but that's about it. It adds a bit more character to the antagonists, and a nice bit of foreshadowing so a certain plot point doesn't feel like an asspull outta nowhere, that's otherwise not present in the standard versions. Monster:  Moral of the story; don't date crows. Don't trust girls with birdclaws for hands and exposed breasts.  I always wondered what happened to the career of [INSERT TOPICAL CELEBRITY HERE].  Ouroboros are way classier.  That's Wales and Scotland off my vacation list.   Video: Nakhásh Temple Showcase. (Check it out for Nicolai, Lenny and Veronica's moves, and enemy animations). Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Nov 6, 2019 |
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Nov 5, 2019 12:53
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I've always wondered about the director's cut content. Thanks for sharing.
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Nov 5, 2019 13:53
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The Dark Id posted:I... hope really like the cube geometric shape.
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Nov 5, 2019 13:55
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Yeah, I’ve wondered too. Thanks. Glad Lenny’s crew at least gets cool monsters.
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Nov 5, 2019 13:55
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Joachim remains so good. e: I have no idea why this posted now instead of when I tried to post it but WHATEVER. Thanks for showing off the Director's Cut content! Leraika fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Nov 5, 2019 |
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Nov 5, 2019 15:06
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I find it cute how even Nicholai has to deal with dungeon puzzles. Also Lenny's concern over his men is 
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Nov 5, 2019 15:29
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Re: the spoilered bit, I didn't know about this, and I really wish they'd left it in.
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Nov 6, 2019 01:05
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The Nuckelavee is a really cool beastie and one of the rare instances of Shadow Hearts making something look less hosed up than it actually is by redesigning it.
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Nov 6, 2019 01:11
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Lenny is a good boss, that's rare among villains. It would have been kind of cool if you played as the villains and heroes simultaneously, switching back and forth throughout the game. Is that a thing that's been done before?
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Nov 6, 2019 02:52
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This is also my first exposure to the Director's Cut material so it's really interesting to see. The end of that dungeon really helps tie some things together that seemed out of left field originally.
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Nov 6, 2019 02:57
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:Lenny is a good boss, that's rare among villains. I want to say breath of fire 4, kinda? Also these were both good updates, thanks for LPing these.
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Nov 6, 2019 02:58
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The mediocre Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits sort of does that by switching between two groups who are mortal enemies for most of the game. Breath of Fire 4 also has several sections where you play the main villain that basically set up why he becomes the main villain.
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Nov 6, 2019 02:58
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:Lenny is a good boss, that's rare among villains. Pesky Splinter posted:
Maybe not quite that good.
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Nov 6, 2019 03:54
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Pesky Splinter posted:Cool Director's Cut stuff. Hey, thanks a bunch! I meant to get back up to you again after you offered months ago and well... you know, my life took a huge poo poo and the LP did as well. Added the update to the TOC. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Nov 6, 2019 |
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Nov 6, 2019 03:59
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