Shadow Hearts: Covenant - Reach Out and Punch Someone

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...!: Oct 5, 2003; I SHOULD KEEP MY DUMB MOUTH SHUT INSTEAD OF SPEWING HORSESHIT ABOUT THE ORBITAL MECHANICS OF THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT A LAGRANGE POINT IS?

That Strike Expand seems like a pretty good lottery prize for being just third place. The only other way to get those is from Ring Soul.

# ? Mar 10, 2020 21:44

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# ? May 25, 2024 18:09

I dont know: Aug 9, 2003; That Guy here...

I assume that Bat's gold is a consumable that shifts Joachim to gold bat form. If so, it seems worse than strike expand.

# ? Mar 10, 2020 22:25

TurnipFritter: Apr 21, 2010; 10,000 POSTS ON TALKING TIME

The Dark Id posted:

French weeb

Ouib.

# ? Mar 10, 2020 23:00

gimme the GOD DAMN candy: Jul 1, 2007

you don't need that many strike expands if you never use half of the playable characters.

# ? Mar 10, 2020 23:22

Worldwalker_Pure: Feb 27, 2015

...! posted:

That Strike Expand seems like a pretty good lottery prize for being just third place. The only other way to get those is from Ring Soul.

Strike Expand just increases the size of the hit areas. Ring Soul gives you a thing that increases the amount of hit areas.

# ? Mar 11, 2020 00:42

Geostomp: Oct 22, 2008; Unite: MASH!!
~They've got the bad guys on the run!~

Man, how much would it suck to go to the afterlife and explain the reason you took so long was that your one great regret was failing to properly wipe yourself?

# ? Mar 11, 2020 10:40

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

The saddest thing is, we have yet to see the most embarrassing regret in the fort.*

*In my opinion.

achtungnight fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Mar 13, 2020

# ? Mar 11, 2020 13:17

The Dark Id: Aug 13, 2005; Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]

Episode LXXV: Trial of the Monk

Fuckin' Goreme Valley. The place I hate the most the rest of this game. We do need to complete the next step of the Solomon Trials as the final stage of wrapping up Disc 1 optional content. So let's grit our teeth and get to it.

Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God

The Monk Level Trials were unlocked back when Idar Flamme was a thing but we put it off until now because... it is mostly just redoing all the fights from the whole Russia arc of the game up to that point immediately after we did the whole Russia arc of the game. Also it's a bunch of annoying bullshit that sucks rear end if you're not looking at a guide. And still sucks rear end if you're looking at a guide and forget specific enemies from hours ago's abilities and piss sixteen minutes of time down your leg for not preparing from them. We'll get into that. I DEFINITELY didn't have a lovely time doing this for the LP and just dropped this sidequest when I played the game the first time without a guide.

In the background we are going to make a change to having everyone use the Gamble Ring because it makes a lot of sense to do so for this gambit of trials and also... I'm just sick of doing QTEs 3-5 times every time I use any action in combat. Idar Flamme was a real burn out on my tolerance for the Judgment Ring.

Monk Trials of Solomon is another four level gauntlet of Pit Fights. First up is doing a 18+ hit Combo but everyone's unique abilities are off-limits. Stocking up on multi-shot Crest Magic is an option but ehh... Those frequently don't combo particularly well since they're generally launchers. Don't worry, this isn't tough.

We'll be taking the usual squad for this trial.

Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe

Back from the dead is the worst assassin ever, Victor, and his familiar jobber Pendulum. I'm still not particularly comfortable with the Pit Fights just resurrecting people from death's embrace. At least Victor is still a completely un-noteworthy looking dude and not an inverted pregnant woman or some poo poo like that. Remember that boss from the previous game? Some inquisitor rear end in a top hat switched genders and got pregnant and turned upside down after a battle transition. That was a peculiar transformation in a series full of peculiar transformations...

Regardless of circumstances, this fight goes the same way it did the first time. We need to immediately nuke Pendulum which is easily done in a single round with our Level 30~ish characters.

After that, Victor will flail a bit doing perhaps a whole 5 HP of damage to a single character because level scaling is absurd in this game. When he is done, we can just set up a four-person Combo and I mean... Air Shot Combo Magic alone does 18 hits. And that does not count as a personal skill as anyone can perform it at the end of the 4th turn in a Combo so...

Yeah, eat poo poo, Victor. I think 33 hits will suffice. Away with you to Second Banana Hell. You have to be endearing corny like Lenny or Chief Mendez to make it to Second Banana Heaven. You sucked.

That is one in the books and easily the least annoying of the lot.

Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God

Naturally, we get a reward for our efforts. It is actually something we have not seen for a change.

Nothing about that description indicates what the hell this accessory does. But backing up a step to the inventory listing reveals this doubles random encounter frequency. Yeah... yeah, I'm good, actually. No thank you. No bueno.

Time for Monk, Level 2 and one of the two primary reasons we've switched to a Gamble Ring. Three fights, Tight Ring and not allowed to miss a beat. Tight Ring just reduces the Hit Area size by 50% which is problematic but way less so when we only need to do one Hit Area.

Karin and Yuri will be joining us for this session as they're just our best fighters. That is all there is to that.

Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe

The enemy sets here are randomized but that's fine since they're all rather piss easy. For instance, our old friend Arachne from ages ago in the Ardennes Forest is the first up. Hey, remember when Yuri's malice was going out of control from the Holy Mistletoe curse and it shat out a weird hand spider? And then that never came up again. Weird...

The Fides Fusion is going to be our frontrunner for a while here since it is just strong as hell with physical attacks even more so than Amon.

By the way, if you want a reference for how tiny the Gamble Ring with Tight Ring permanently affixed to it for this trial is, here you are. Also, a rare look at the one big emulation bug I cannot fix is the in-battle Judgment Ring.

You see it too...? For me... it's always like this...

Anyway, Fides can smoke Arachne in a single turn since it only had 300 HP. So let's move right on!

Remember Castor and Pollux from Veronica's first monster of the week episode back in the original brown subterranean dungeon in the abandoned Paris Metro?

Yeah, I barely did either. It takes Yuri and Karin one round to take each out.

Finally, we have the Mirror Match Round 3.

Except we're a good six levels stronger than we were in that dungeon and our cheap knock-offs can instantly be gibbed by the real McCoy.

The no missing an action business was a little rough and I had to reset once but ehh... again, the Drakengard taint is upon me and I'm very competent at QTEs.

Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God

We get another far more rare Fifth Key for this Trial. We'll definitely use that to body an end boss one day far from now.

The third trial is a three-person party with no stipulations. Except one... don't make my mistake and forget a gimmick of an enemy from five hours ago...

Or, I mean, get blindsided by it since you are not told what is coming up. Hey, we need everyone to equip Leonardo's Bear as an accessory. That is VERY important. As sixteen minutes of my life was wasted because I had to redo this trial because of some bullshit in here.

This time around we're going to tag in Anastasia as our third party member. As this is a necessary step for her character growth sidequest.

Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe

This Trial has a set enemy encounter roster. And first up... Hey, it's Carla and Lucia's cultist murdering giant cat we beat-up -- Andre.

There is nothing at all to be said about wrecking Andre's day at our current level. But there is the reason we brought Anastasia along.

Anastasia can use her Snapshot ability here to dive into the past and grab a new Album ability -- Cash Steal.

Come to me!

There is NOTHING more disrespectful than summoning a doppelg�nger to use your own ability against you. Plus, it's nice to get paid from one of these trial grinds.

Once that is done, we're free to kill that cat again. Don't worry, it still has seven lives. It's fine.

Following that fight with Andre, we have the ten minute Winter Palace dungeon crew of Pendulum, Wormgaur x2, and Quartzback. No need to comment here.

And then the Gallery of the Dead reps of Jack, Jill, and Agony.

Follow that up with six huge assed demon deer Perytons.

And then we get to the actual problem if we didn't do prep work before getting here -- Night Queen Veronica is back from the dead.

Speaking of dead, she still has Instant Death as her default move that she'll do every turn and she's faster than most bosses. Guess where the sixteen minutes of fighting ended when I went "OH gently caress!" forgetting Night Queen could do this...

But hey, don't worry about that! Each of these LP updates is only three plus hours of my limited time on this hell planet. On your end, it all worked out!

Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God

Our reward this time is the Step Doubler which just lets us cheat at the Step Count sidequest. The Pedometer still needs to be equipped but... I did mention that this far in the game we still needed like close to 6000 steps and... well... Sorry, Blanca. This and the Pedometer are permanently getting taped to your mane outside boss fights.

OK! Prep for the next round. The Pocket Watch is essential to be equipped on Yuri. Also, we're going to equip the Mind's Eye which doubles his physical damage output but hides his Judgment Ring Hit Area.

Helpfully, there is an arrow in the six o'clock position where we need to remember and that's not too hard to do. It'll be fine. Why are we doing all of this?

Well, the final trial is a gauntlet of five battles with one character with Blind Ring which is... exactly the same thing Mind's Eye does but not by choice. At least we're allowed to gently caress this one up, unlike the Tight Ring challenge.

Of course Yuri will be our solo boy going forth. He is the most OP JRPG protagonist perhaps of this whole PS2 era of JRPGs. Have Yuri travel back in time to the Koudelka era and just tear off Elaine's head and punt it into the Irish Sea while James O' Flaherty looks on in cucked horror.

Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe

This one is a set series of enemies with Veronica's dog Oscar as the first one up to the plate.

Again... the level scaling is rough in this and Oscar can't do poo poo. At least all dogs go to heaven. I believe a documentary cartoon film from the '80s told me that. Wait... that had a SEQUEL? What?!

Following that we have another helping of folks from the overly long dungeon that was Saint Marguerite Island. Whatever.

Hey, remember that Pocket Watch business? This was the fight I was referring to that being necessary. Ogoroja (the spooky grim reaper thing) is a big whatever, but Tweedledum can inflict Up Ring (makes the Judgment Ring go faster) which is not great when you need to get a specific invisible QTE spot. But more troubling is that Tweedledee can inflict Fake Ring which just shifts where your goddamn Hit Area is and that is A PROBLEM when it is invisible! gently caress these optical camouflaged goons. I had to restart this one too because of this and forgetting the gimmick of an enemy in a nothing dungeon.

After that, it is just a rematch with Amon, who as it turns out, is a complete chump vs. Fides. Hard counter!

And that is the final trial done! ...On Disc 1.

Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God

For our efforts we get... another Mind's Eye. You know what? Appropriate.

While we are done with all the Trial of the Monk of Solomon's Trials we do need to make one final expedition into Trial 4.

Specifically, Anastasia needs to get in there.

Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe

So Oscar, Veronica's Dog, holds another secret of the past.

It's rather odd they'd do multiple bosses with Blue Magic abilities you can only get from a character later than they're fought and only possible to obtain either via New Game Plus or doing a weird, lovely sidequest. But here we are! Oscar yields the Remove Album ability which just deletes buffs and that's the only way to delete buffs in this game. Oscar himself does not do buffs so we cannot see it in action.

At this point we don't need to do the rest of this trial. But I did do a rundown of status effects ages ago. Shadow Hearts: Covenant has Poison and DOUBLE Poison, which I believe only bosses can inflict such as Oscar. Optimally, we never want to get Double Poison because it does an insane QUARTER of your maximum HP per turn.

They got me... Ugh...

Anyway, Anastasia got bodied but we still retained the Album entry so a net gain. Don't worry, kiddo. You already paid for that Tent I'll have to use to top you off from that Cash Steal on Andre.

OK, then... That's it. We have done all the optional content of Disc 1 of Shadow Hearts: Covenant. All that remains is the Disc 1 final dungeon that is Apoina Tower. Buckle up as we're going places!

Arachne Concept Art - Do not like a spider with nails and eyelashes.

Castor and Pollux Concept Art - These feel like things that would go down from like three Belmont whips.

The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Mar 13, 2020

# ? Mar 13, 2020 13:12

Grayshift: May 31, 2013

Blanca does have four legs. It seems sensible to argue that he should have been earning double steps already.

# ? Mar 13, 2020 14:45

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

quote:

That�s all the trials done.

For now! Muhahaha!

# ? Mar 13, 2020 15:45

Sarah Problem: Sep 24, 2002; Because, if you confess with your mouth that Witten is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved

Grayshift posted:

Blanca does have four legs. It seems sensible to argue that he should have been earning double steps already.

# ? Mar 14, 2020 01:35

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

one step is like seven in dog steps

# ? Mar 14, 2020 01:57

SaitoBatch: Jun 16, 2009

As a nothing side note, not only did All Dogs Go To Heaven have a sequel, it also had a cartoon show that came at about 6 in the morning on the Fox channel. I don;t remember if it came on before or after Monkey Magic though. I think after.

# ? Mar 14, 2020 17:11

Junpei: Oct 4, 2015; Can't post for 11 years!

Are you sure you're not talking about Dog City? Because I remember that show.

# ? Mar 14, 2020 17:16

SaitoBatch: Jun 16, 2009

Junpei posted:

Are you sure you're not talking about Dog City? Because I remember that show.

I could be. I cared more about X-Men, Spider-Man, and loving Cubix than All Dogs.

# ? Mar 14, 2020 17:18

Speedball: Apr 15, 2008

Dog City and All Dogs both got cartoon series. Everything had a cartoon spinoff in the 90s. It was crazy.

# ? Mar 14, 2020 19:49

Kemix: Dec 1, 2013; Because change

Speedball posted:

Dog City and All Dogs both got cartoon series. Everything had a cartoon spinoff in the 90s. It was crazy.

I'm honestly surprised Honey I Shrunk the Kids didn't get an animated spinoff...though I remember the Live Action "continuation" vividly

# ? Mar 15, 2020 04:10

The Dark Id: Aug 13, 2005; Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]

Episode LXXVI: But Steel is Heavier Than Feathers...

Music: Old Smudged Map ~ Europe

Welp. There are a couple more sidequest bits that will be completed during our revisit to Apoina Tower but we do need to step forth, gather the party and deal with the Satsui No Hado stockpile the Catholic Church has apparently been hording in a tower of The Vatican.

Music: Death is the Great Leveler ~ Tower of Atonement

At a glance, this place is giving me a powerful Viper Manor from Chrono Cross vibe. I kind of want to replay Chrono Cross and I dislike that feeling.

Speaking of bad vibes, we have dead Vatican guards out front. Apparently, Sapientes Gladio just changed the mask color and didn't let blonde people into the cult outside Nicolai. They should have known he was a traitor.

Elliot, my brother-in-law, told me a long time ago... A tower in the Vatican holds all the anger and hatred of the world. And the vault at the top must never be opened.

OK... I knew Alice was religious and all but what was the Catholic Church's DEAL?
Nothing you want to hear about. We have enough going on.

They say all that evil and resentment would take root in people's hearts.

You mean everyone would start arguing?

Do you even remember how tedious the Malice system was in Shadow Hearts 1, Yuri?! DO YOU REMEMBER HOW MANY WOLF PALETTE SWAPS WE FOUGHT!?

Anyhow, we're doing Apoina Tower again. It is no longer a tutorial dungeon it is now the Disc 1 End Game Dungeon. And things have changed since our visit when Nicolai was fronting as the main character.

For instance, this door to the left that was locked in our first visit is now accessible.

And up here is a couple of chests over that waist-high barrier we couldn't hop over from that side. They were actually visible in that previous cutscene. Don't worry about that! The chest closest to the corpses just has another Thera Extract. Whatever. But this one we're checking out...

Another Crest is available here. Nothing particularly special about it. I increasingly don't like the Crest system with how broad a spread it has with its magic and the fact I'm kind of already locked into the useful abilities at a generous spread and am only going to swap out if a real deal higher tier upgrade appears. But whatever... That's on my end.

The first three or so floors of the Apoina Tower are exactly the same. All looted chests are still looted. It's a bit of a waste of time beyond, well, you know what was coming...

Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe

We do have a new roster of enemies in this revisit to Apoina Tower. The enemies from the first go-around are thankfully not wasting our time. At this point in the game I think even Gepetto or Lucia could blink at a Revenant from the tutorial and delete its whole bestiary from time and space. So let's make some new friends like Emptiness, a cloaked spirit with a couple of big boy swords of the Fire elemental class with a laughable 100 HP. It just sort of hits folks with swords and occasionally will cast Red Blaze.

Its only noteworthy factor is, despite the tattered cloak, that is technically a returning enemy from the previous game. Emptiness appeared in the final dungeon, Neameto Float. It was way more annoying back then as it was a jerk enemy that cast Gale on its allies and had a percentage based HP Lowering attack. Also, it had three times the HP above this sequel's incarnation.

Joining them are these zombies in floating chairs surrounded by cartoon ghosts. These go by the name Lemures and are a Wind class elemental with 110 HP. They will smack our party upside the head with their old-timey chair and cast Slash (the Street Fighter Guile Sonic Boom rear end looking attack.) Again, not a whole big of a threat given the low HP and their tendency to bunch up in battle. Oddly, for being the Disc 1 final dungeon, Apoina Tower has way easier enemies in its random battles than Idar Flamme did. I kind of suspect Idar Flamme used to be the Disc 1 final dungeon at one point in development and then when crafting Disc 2, which may as well just be Shadow Hearts 3, they added in Apoina Tower is a better branching cliffhanger point. Spoilers: Some poo poo goes down here.

"Lemures" is just Latin for vengeful/restless spirits. There is not much more to it than that.

The final enemy we'll encounter in Apoina Tower is Danters which is a modified palette swap of the Statue enemy from the tutorial version of this dungeon. They have shifted to Light elemental and grown to have 168 HP. They basketball dunk their heads toward our party still.

Danters is a mistranslation of Dunters which is another term for Red Caps. Which is another name an enemy in Neameto Float possessed back in the day.

Wikipedia on Redcap posted:

Click here for more.

The redcap (or Redcap) is a type of malevolent, murderous goblin found in Border folklore. He is said to inhabit ruined castles along the Anglo-Scottish border, especially those that were the scenes of tyranny or wicked deeds, and is known for soaking his cap in the blood of his victims. He is also known as Redcomb and Bloody Cap.

Redcap is depicted as "a short, thickset old man with long prominent teeth, skinny fingers armed with talons like eagles, large eyes of a fiery red colour, grisly hair streaming down his shoulders, iron boots, a pikestaff in his left hand, and a red cap on his head". When travelers take refuge in his lair, he flings huge stones at them; and if he kills them, he soaks his cap in their blood, giving it a crimson hue. He is unaffected by human strength, but can be driven away by words of Scripture or by the brandishing of a crucifix, which causes him to utter a dismal yell and vanish in flames, leaving behind a large tooth.

There is distinctly not a red cap anywhere here so meh. They at least gave that fifteen Wind Shear variant a red cloak to make it work last time. Not feeling this one, Covenant. Also, you had been so good about not doing palette swap enemies up till now compared to the first game. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.

Music: Death is the Great Leveler ~ Tower of Atonement

Back to the grind. As I said, everything up until the third floor is identical to the first visit, that one extra room and the new enemy pool omitted. What changes on the third floor is... well. Remember there was just a teleporter to the top of the tower and the Gargoyle fight on our first rodeo? Well, that is gone now.

Though this room is not without merit. For you see, if we walk Yuri to this specific, seemingly empty corner we can advance a sidequest with best boy Ring Soul. How the gently caress you're supposed to know to go to this specific corner to trigger this is one of the many mysterious tenants of Shadow Hearts: Covenant's sidequest design.

You missed a bunch. I punched Rasputin so hard it blew up an airship. And then we went on his floating fortress and took him out. I really expected you to show up there!

Sorry to keep you waiting! So, today, I will assume the role of Miyabi, playing the Ring Soul! I'm so nervous!

Huh?

My wife, remember? You wanted me to play the Ring Soul as her.
...I did?
You did!
That did happen, Yuri.
...What kind of weird headspace was I in that day?
"That day?"
Shuddup.

My name's Ring Soul! I'm the will of the Judgment Ring-a-ling! The administrator of diddly-widdly fate!

S-surely she doesn't really speak like that?! Does she...?

You can't hide from little meesie! I can see your future! Here! My present to you! And a kiss!

Ring Soul, I know your mission is ultimately to get the entire party to their max Physical Attack string level. Which would be admirable if these were consumable items and not just something that could be taken on and off at will as needed. And if I was a crazy person that rotated the party but didn't shuffle gear. But I'm not that...

It's the power of the Judgment Ring! Yipee! Ha ha ha! Next time I see you, you little cutie, I'll give you more power! I'm gonna watch and make sure every one of you cuties is nice to Mr.Destiny! I had such a great time today! You're my best friends!

T-thank you, cutsie-pie!

Really?
...It sounded right.

...That's the kind of thing! That was my Miyabi. She talks real cute, huh? Right?

Y-yeah, sure!

Ha ha! Phew, I've been practicing that for ages. Every evening. I haven't done anything else. Oh. I'm so pleased you liked it! Maybe next time I could do my daughter, Aya?

...Oh, no! Don't worry! No, no...

No?! I don't mind really. It'd be fun!

Okay...

Okay, then! Better get practicing! See you!

Ring Soul vanishes.

Can I stop showing up for these sessions? I never even get any lines anymore.
No! You started this and you're going to see it through!
Technically, Nicolai started this whole thing. I was just his number two back then.
That is not a solid argument and you know it!
<sigh>

Now that the teleporter is nixed, the creepy door that was over here is now open. I like to think Nicolai has a frustrating time soloing this dungeon on his own time.

Unfortunately, on the following floor, there is another creepy hell door that is evidentially just the Catholic Church aesthetic. But don't worry! To the north, we have an obnoxious puzzle to sort this issue out.

It looks like a machine for weighing things... But you need something to use as a counter-weight.

Yeah, OK. I am not sure about the design of this puzzle. Anyway, there are four cells surrounding this scale. And each of them has a weight in them locked in a treasure chest. Let's take a look at what we've got...

...

<In extremely Street Fighter 3 announcer voice> Yeah! That makes sense!!

OKAAAAAAAY!!

It is very easy to miss the plague obscured by the cell bars in this room which gives us a metric as to how to solve this puzzle. There is a point system in play here. And this is how it goes...

Thievery is one guilt weight.
Kidnapping is double thievery. So two sin points.
Arson is four bad boy points.
Murder is twice as bad as kidnapping and thus eight naughty points.
Arson times three is you're done! So if I remember my arithmetic that means 12 points is the execution threshold.

In other words, Murder is Eight Points and Arsonist is Four Points. And that equals twelve and is enough to get you executed in ancient Rome, I guess. I'm not looking up if this was a thing. It probably was. Humanity is always on its bullshit like that.

And thus our way to the top half of the tower is unlocked. Tune in next time as we tackle that and maybe get to punching Nicolai as he undoubtedly is smug and does something stupid. That's just his brand.

Apoina Tower Concept Art - Yeah... Still getting a heavy Chrono Cross dungeon vibe. Maybe it's the fact this dungeon actually has some character to it after five that sucked rear end.

# ? Mar 16, 2020 17:44

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

Nice to get a dungeon with character. Too bad the eventual boss (Nicolai) is kinda bland.

# ? Mar 16, 2020 19:36

HR12345: Nov 19, 2012

Okay, now that I read that last Ring Soul spot, is it wrong I imagine ProZD doing his normal voice and for his Miyabi imitation, he does his Tomoko voice?

# ? Mar 16, 2020 19:49

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

The Dark Id posted:

Though this room is not without merit. For you see, if we walk Yuri to this specific, seemingly empty corner we can advance a sidequest with best boy Ring Soul. How the gently caress you're supposed to know to go to this specific corner to trigger this is one of the many mysterious tenants of Shadow Hearts: Covenant's sidequest design.

Just LOL if you're playing without a guide.

# ? Mar 16, 2020 19:51

Zagglezig: Oct 16, 2012

I hope Ring Soul isn't weirding out his family with all his acting practice.

The Dark Id posted:

Its only noteworthy factor is, ..., that is technically a returning enemy

they added in Apoina Tower is a better branching cliffhanger point.

It is very easy to miss the plague obscured by the cell bars

Looks like it should be "that it's", "as" I think?, and "plaque"

# ? Mar 16, 2020 21:47

ImpAtom: May 24, 2007

HR12345 posted:

Okay, now that I read that last Ring Soul spot, is it wrong I imagine ProZD doing his normal voice and for his Miyabi imitation, he does his Tomoko voice?

Just lol if you don't imagine ProZD voicing every sufficiently anime game.

# ? Mar 16, 2020 21:50

Shitenshi: Mar 12, 2013

The Dark Id posted:

They say all that evil and resentment would take root in people's hearts.
You mean everyone would start arguing?

Yuri's on a quest to stop Nicolai, the precursor to internet trolls everywhere.

# ? Mar 16, 2020 22:15

Junpei: Oct 4, 2015; Can't post for 11 years!

This scale puzzle reminds me of the one from Silent Hill 2 with the riddle where you had to pull nooses.

# ? Mar 16, 2020 22:37

Schwartzcough: Aug 12, 2009; Don't tease the Octopus, kids!

It reminds me of a puzzle where you had to stack the proper weights on a scale in a jail in order to unlock a door in Final Fantasy IX. I know it's a stretch, but

# ? Mar 16, 2020 22:42

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

The whole Ring Soul thing feels like a running gag Id would make up, except it's actually in the game

Shadow Hearts: Covenant isn't at Drakengard 3 levels of "did Id write this" but it's getting there

# ? Mar 16, 2020 23:22

OminousEdge: Apr 4, 2013

The Vosgian Beast posted:

The whole Ring Soul thing feels like a running gag Id would make up, except it's actually in the game

Shadow Hearts: Covenant isn't at Drakengard 3 levels of "did Id write this" but it's getting there

Just wait until he reaches From The New World

# ? Mar 16, 2020 23:49

...!: Oct 5, 2003; I SHOULD KEEP MY DUMB MOUTH SHUT INSTEAD OF SPEWING HORSESHIT ABOUT THE ORBITAL MECHANICS OF THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT A LAGRANGE POINT IS?

The Vosgian Beast posted:

The whole Ring Soul thing feels like a running gag Id would make up, except it's actually in the game

Shadow Hearts: Covenant isn't at Drakengard 3 levels of "did Id write this" but it's getting there

Haha, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

# ? Mar 16, 2020 23:56

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

The Vosgian Beast posted:

The whole Ring Soul thing feels like a running gag Id would make up, except it's actually in the game

Shadow Hearts: Covenant isn't at Drakengard 3 levels of "did Id write this" but it's getting there

My theory is that TDI's writing style was heavily influenced by this game, and that the Drakengard 3 writers were definitely familiar with the LPs from the rest of the series.

# ? Mar 17, 2020 00:13

Omobono: Feb 19, 2013; That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

ultrafilter posted:

My theory is that TDI's writing style was heavily influenced by this game, and that the Drakengard 3 writers were definitely familiar with the LPs from the rest of the series.

was aware of TDI and his Nier 1 LP. The Dark Id has been officially nominated as Nier's Ambassador to the West after that LP almost made more sales than the marketing department for the game.

So I don't know if our favorite game maker still remembered about our fellow goon when he was making Drakengard 3, but it'll be forever my hypotesis that he pointed an intern with passable English at the LP archive and told said intern to take notes.
They did an "everybody's dead, game over" joke for heaven's sake. As far as I can tell that's common only here on Something Awful\Discussion\Games\Let's Play.

EDIT: I'm agreeing with you and just wanted to expound some more for the thread.

Omobono fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Mar 17, 2020

# ? Mar 17, 2020 00:38

...!: Oct 5, 2003; I SHOULD KEEP MY DUMB MOUTH SHUT INSTEAD OF SPEWING HORSESHIT ABOUT THE ORBITAL MECHANICS OF THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT A LAGRANGE POINT IS?

Nah, that's a pretty common joke. In the PS3 version of Metal Gear Solid 3, for example, creating a time paradox by killing Ocelot gives you a trophy called "Problem Solved, Series Over"

# ? Mar 17, 2020 01:33

Qrr: Aug 14, 2015

ultrafilter posted:

Just LOL if you're playing without a guide.

Actually, I'm curious - what happens if you miss an encounter with Ring Soul? Like, this one wouldn't make much sense without the previous one, and presumably the next one would be odd without this one.

Do they just go in order and it doesn't matter where you trigger them, or are they fixed per location even though sometimes it won't make sense, or what?

# ? Mar 17, 2020 06:53

Neddy Seagoon: Oct 12, 2012; "Hi Everybody!"

...! posted:

Nah, that's a pretty common joke. In the PS3 version of Metal Gear Solid 3, for example, creating a time paradox by killing Ocelot gives you a trophy called "Problem Solved, Series Over"

No, that gave you an actual game-over though. The specific context of it in Drakengard 3 is identical to Id's fake-outs, along with a looooot of the writing style.

# ? Mar 17, 2020 08:23

TitanG: May 10, 2015

If you turn off the italics in Drakengard 3 LP it's pretty much impossible to distinguish actual writing from Id's additions
it's uncanny to the point that someone getting pointed at the LPs is almost a certainty

# ? Mar 17, 2020 14:02

Pesky Splinter: Feb 16, 2011; A worried pug.

Qrr posted:

Do they just go in order and it doesn't matter where you trigger them

IIRC it's this.
---

Roman law (as with all law) was super complicated - dependent on the nature of the crime - if it was against an individual or their property (including slaves), or the state of Rome itself (considered to be much more serious) - the social status of the accuser, accused, if you were a Roman citizen, a freeman, a foreigner, a woman, in the military, etc, etc.

The very short version is, slaves had no rights and could be punished in any way, and crimes against slaves were considered crimes against another's property.
Freemen had some rights, but less than citizens.
Roman citizens were punished with death if the crime was considered an act against the state of Rome itself (treason, sacrilege - especially against Vestal Virgins), or parricide (kin-slaying) or rape against a freeman male, or female virgin (rape of slaves and sex workers was not considered a crime).

And even then the punishment for lesser crimes could be harsher or less severe dependent on your class; i.e, a freeman killing a slave, that's probably a fine as you've murdered someone's "property".
Another man's slave killing a slave - that man owes the other money, and there's likely a flogging (or worse) for the slave.
You as a high-ranking noble kill a freeman, probably exile.
You as a noble kill another noble or a citizen, probably death.

Don't need no fancy-schmancy crime scales when you have a class system :pseudo:

# ? Mar 17, 2020 17:42

...!: Oct 5, 2003; I SHOULD KEEP MY DUMB MOUTH SHUT INSTEAD OF SPEWING HORSESHIT ABOUT THE ORBITAL MECHANICS OF THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT A LAGRANGE POINT IS?

Qrr posted:

Actually, I'm curious - what happens if you miss an encounter with Ring Soul? Like, this one wouldn't make much sense without the previous one, and presumably the next one would be odd without this one.

Do they just go in order and it doesn't matter where you trigger them, or are they fixed per location even though sometimes it won't make sense, or what?

Yeah, they go in order. So if you miss one, you'll get the dialogue from the previous location when you find the next one.

# ? Mar 17, 2020 19:23

Kemix: Dec 1, 2013; Because change

...! posted:

Yeah, they go in order. So if you miss one, you'll get the dialogue from the previous location when you find the next one.

Are any of Ring Soul's apperances missable then? That would suck to miss one or two and never see the end of RS' thing...oh and the rewards...but RS' dialogue with Yuri is reward enough :allears:

# ? Mar 18, 2020 22:31

The Dark Id: Aug 13, 2005; Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]

Episode LXXVII: Breaking Quarantine

Music: Death is the Great Leveler ~ Tower of Atonement

Back at it again at Apoina Tower! We're nearly to the top. It isn't THAT impressive of a tower for something that apparently holds all of the Catholic Church's Malice stock. The tower siphoning Catholic Guilt energy, though? Hoho. There's a sight to see.

The next room features yet another puzzle.

Well, perhaps "puzzle" is a generous term. It's mostly a series of flipping switches in order to move hanging cages to act as platforms to fill in gaps in the walkways above. Why would you do it like this is a secret only The Pope knows.

The order of the switches is fairly elementary. As in... just flip the next switch we come across and it's fine. The catch is that one of these moving platforms contained a treasure chest that was slowly lowering to the bottom floor. Of course, the switch that got it all the way to ground level was one on the top floor. So we need to run all the way down three stories to go nab that. Thanks, I needed to do four more random battles in this room. What good is my time?

But we really do want to acquire this chest as it contains the Paimon Crest -- the final available crest in Disc 1. Well, that's not quite accurate. It's technically possible to get a Crest intended for Disc 2 by chatting with some rando on the streets back in Petrograd. And giving him a non-negotiable 100,000 Cash... Yeah... We're going to wait on that one for a point it won't wipe out 95% of our savings accrued in the last 30 hours of gameplay. Thanks for the offer.

Paimon is an unimpressive Crest that just has Evil Ray and Evil Born equipped to it. But what it does, more importantly, is complete the Forsaken Hill region of Solomon's Key.

An old man chilling out by the sea, huh? Agares goes here to commit his decapitations, apparently.

There is only one slot near the Forest of Passion to the south so Camio is simple to slot in here. He can chill out with this decapitation angel.

There is only one slot next to a castle and by the desert region so Paimon finds a home here. Near... another... decapitation angel? Are people's heads being attached to their necks the forsaken part of this hill?

Tower by the woods is simple enough. Barbatos can hole up here and fear of random beheadings.

There is only one slot next to Camio so Phenex has its Sphere Grid slot.

We just found where Phenex went and this is the center of the map. I think we have Purson's home.

There's nothing dumb about avoiding the heat and we've only got one slot next to Paimon free, so here we are Marchosias.

And there's only one open piece of real estate here so Raum can get slammed in there to complete the set.

For our efforts, we now power up the Magic Crests to gain:

Paimon - Dark Resist. 88 MP. Increases ally's resistance to Dark-based attacks by 50%. Pretty darn good if we ever go up against a real jerk Dark elemental foe.
Evil Summoning - 64 MP. Large-area Dark class attack. A real decent Dark class AOE in case we come up against some Light elemental jerks.
Marchosias - Gale. We have like three of these and the superior Arc-Gale. Mediocre. In fact, that's most of these in this set. See also the following.
Camio - Shield.
Phenex - Holy Edge.
Purson - Dark Edge.
Raum - Evil Born.
Barbatos - Earth Edge.
Agares - Rock Storm.

To be fair, other than Paimon, most of these are early game Crests that have been waiting for a complete set for some time now. Still, overall disappointing bonus for the effort.

Heading up another flight of stairs we finally arrive back in the chamber where the teleporter dumped us out in the tutorial version of this stage. There is no special prep work to do before heading in to confront Nicolai. Pretty much everything that applied to Asmodeus will apply to the Disc 1 final boss ahead.

So let's head in there and go punch that dickwad Nicolai in his smug face!

Music: The Real Intentions

It seems as though Nicolai has been just hanging out in this room since we defeated Rasputin waiting to give a villainous monologue to Yuri and the gang. The flight time from Saint Petersburg to Rome is around six hours. This dungeon traversal was a little under an hour. If we take all the sidequest dickery as non-canon to the main plot, that's still seven hours this muppet has been standing around in here thinking he's going to be cool and not get his rear end kicked in the next twenty minutes. Admirable dedication.

Well, it's been a long time.

Rasputin is dead now.

Yes, I know.

It happened over a week ago. Word gets out when a floating citadel powered by the will of your ex-boss falls from the sky over a major city.

<shrugs> But what of it? He was never your true enemy, anyway.

Nicolai, what are you trying to accomplish? What are you after?

Hehehe...

<backs up toward the gate> Hahahaha!!

<sigh> Here we go again...
...Yep.

This vault is filled to overflowing with the hatred, malice, and despair, of the countless souls who've perished here. What if all that malice were to be suddenly released...?

Yeah, what if?

Wait... that's not a proper noun "Malice" is it...?
What if it were?
Crud.

It would creep into the hearts of people all over the world. All their petty, paltry vices would become magnified... warped into bitterness, anger, and envy.

......

Don't you see? Men would slaughter each other like cattle to get ahead. Yes. The 21st century will be a time of unprecedented conflict and bloodshed.

How can you?!

Very easily.

You shouldn't have turned me down that night, Karin!
...Did what now?
N-Never mind about that!! Nicolai, you monster!

Do you think you can stop me, Yuri?

Yeah.

<shakes head> Hehe. What I want to do is to crush you. The man who beat Cardinal Albert Simon.

<pulls out sword> Who endured the Mistletoe's curse, who refused to bend before Rasputin! If I can't destroy you, I'll never be able to forgive myself!!

Behold! Aren't they beautiful? Orbs of negative energy! Godslayer! Pandora's Box has been reopened! These unfettered bundles of malice will infect the world forever.

Welp. It's not blowing up Shanghai with a dark god but it's not great either releasing the Satsui no Hado upon the populace in the middle of World War I...