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The Dark Id posted:Naniwa Kawashima Concept Art - The western corruption of that fedora is palpable. Late, but I'm pretty sure your skull should NOT fill the entire inside of your hat (unless it's a trucker hat). Now I'm left to ponder whether John Wayne has a freakish Aztec skull in the SH timeline.
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Nov 27, 2020 20:10
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I'm still kind of boggling over Kato's villian turn. Going from bumbling, almost-allies to some guy loving with black magic like....it's like Team Rocket suddenly becoming a threat
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Nov 29, 2020 10:06
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Happy Landfill posted:some guy loving  quote:with black magic Aw. I need to learn to read faster! 
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Nov 29, 2020 14:36
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Happy Landfill posted:I'm still kind of boggling over Kato's villian turn. Going from bumbling, almost-allies to some guy loving with black magic like....it's like Team Rocket suddenly becoming a threat Getting cock-blocked to the degree he did will do strange things to a person.
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Nov 29, 2020 15:31
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Happy Landfill posted:I'm still kind of boggling over Kato's villian turn. Going from bumbling, almost-allies to some guy loving with black magic like....it's like Team Rocket suddenly becoming a threat Granted, most of Team Rocket was a threat. Just not the most frequently appearing members.
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Nov 29, 2020 15:51
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Kacie posted:This is a cool point, and feels rights. Exactly, The Emigre Manuscript can raise the dead, but it can't restore a soul. It's just not that precise and when you try to use it to do that things go horribly wrong and nothing you do or try will change that. It's like how a power drill is great for woodworking, but terrible for doing dentistry work because it simply wasn't designed for that and shouldn't be used in that way.
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Nov 29, 2020 16:26
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:Exactly, The Emigre Manuscript can raise the dead, but it can't restore a soul. It's just not that precise and when you try to use it to do that things go horribly wrong and nothing you do or try will change that. And theoretically if one had perfectly steady hands a power drill could maybe possibly be used for dentistry work (since a lot of dentistry tools ARE power drills, just calibrated for teeth) so there's always going to be that idiot that thinks he's got the perfectly steady hands (narrator voice: he didn't).
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Nov 29, 2020 16:39
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The Emigre Manuscript is explicitly about utilizing Malice to raise the dead and otherwise manipulate death. This is fine if you are creating enslaved undead servants, but becomes a rather significant problem when attempting to bring back a specific person. Even if they somehow manage to do it perfectly and actually bring back their soul, what you have isn't the same person resurrected, it's a being made out of malignant energies and animated tissue that has your loved one's soul inside.
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Nov 30, 2020 02:10
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Happy Landfill posted:I'm still kind of boggling over Kato's villian turn. Going from bumbling, almost-allies to some guy loving with black magic like....it's like Team Rocket suddenly becoming a threat Yeah, there's also a certain mood whiplash, going from "I AM DEVIL-EATING RASPUTIN and I will turn WW1 around !" (and clowning on that idiot) to the big threat being some Japanese nobody whose big world-ending plan was birthed because he had an unrequited crush on a different Japanese nobody ; which might spell the end of... um... some bits of Japan maybe ? And a little girl perhaps ? I guess it's an eurocentric view, but like... really ? That's you one-upping your previous insane boss, SH devs ? Even Dehuai gave off creepier, more dangerous vibes... EDIT : if anything, it feels like the plot should have been the other way around : starting the game as Kurando faffing about solving Japan's fevered egos problems, meeting our clownshoe NPCs along the way, then hearing about Sapientes Gladio, eventually stumbling into Yuri's life (to the fanservice of everyone) and all culminating into punching Rasputin so hard his zeppelin felt it. Kobal2 fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Nov 30, 2020 |
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Nov 30, 2020 02:39
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Kato's role makes a ton more sense as the endgame proceeds.
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Nov 30, 2020 02:48
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Oh yeah, I'm totally waiting to see how things pan out, it's just kind of funny how he went from side-character to villian between the two games. I definitely never expected his role to expand like this. Big, mondo chin and all 
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Nov 30, 2020 09:31
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There’s only one guy with a chin like that I’ve ever liked. His most famous acting roles include a veteran zombie hunter, a former Navy SEAL who used to inform to the FBI on his former spy best friend, and the most obnoxious fellow in the Spider-verse who isn’t also a supervillain. I don’t think he’s ever played a bad guy, actually, though I could be wrong. I speak of course of the great Bruce Campbell. 
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Nov 30, 2020 10:29
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achtungnight posted:There’s only one guy with a chin like that I’ve ever liked. His most famous acting roles include a veteran zombie hunter, a former Navy SEAL who used to inform to the FBI on his former spy best friend, and the most obnoxious fellow in the Spider-verse who isn’t also a supervillain. I don’t think he’s ever played a bad guy, actually, though I could be wrong. I speak of course of the great Bruce Campbell. Robert Z'Dar would like a word. The only B movie actor that's an even bigger ham or that has a bigger chin.  He actually looked alot like Kato back in the day.
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Nov 30, 2020 14:58
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StillFullyTerrible posted:The Emigre Manuscript is explicitly about utilizing Malice to raise the dead and otherwise manipulate death. This is fine if you are creating enslaved undead servants, but becomes a rather significant problem when attempting to bring back a specific person. Even if they somehow manage to do it perfectly and actually bring back their soul, what you have isn't the same person resurrected, it's a being made out of malignant energies and animated tissue that has your loved one's soul inside. The Nameless One effortlessly disproves your theory. 
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Nov 30, 2020 18:52
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Is this thread dead? Cause it has been a couple months now.
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Jan 10, 2021 15:09
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Id would make a post saying it's dead if it was. I'm sure we'll get filled in on anything exciting once he's got an update ready.
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Jan 11, 2021 03:05
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...! posted:The Nameless One effortlessly disproves your theory. what does Planescape Torment have to do with this?
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Jan 11, 2021 06:56
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Malah posted:Id would make a post saying it's dead if it was. I'm sure we'll get filled in on anything exciting once he's got an update ready. Sorry, just seemed like he had a bit of a bad year so I wouldn't blame him if he bailed. Hope he continues this though since I love this game.
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Jan 11, 2021 16:26
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 Episode XCVI: Relationship Status: It's Complicated  Music: Old Smudged Map ~ Europe .jpg) Following the lead Kato fed us, the Hojo Research Lab is now available as our next destination. It is nice a clandestine government super science laboratory where they harness dark arcane arts from chaotic gods beyond human understanding is easily located by just asking a few people directions on the street. Oh, you want to get to the Dead Factory where Umbrella processes and disposes of all the failed experiment corpses in acidic vats? Yeah, just take a left at Maple Street and Pine Ave. It's across from the Denny's. .jpg) That said, recent events have unlocked a myriad of side quest content that we are going to spend today knocking out lest our backlog build up. We do not want our sidequest backlog to build up. This game has way too much of it to let it hang for too long. Recent events in Nihonbashi have shook at a handful of new content to explore. So head there first. Music: Rising Sun ~ Japanese Town .jpg) There are two main points of interest we want to check off the list. But also, the beginning of a certain quest of item swapping that severely starts to be one of those kind of things they put in so someone buys a guide book. Or... looks at GameFAQs. Does Japan have a GameFAQs equivalent...? The most old man hang-up I have about modern internet culture is the rise of looking up anything in a video game defaults to scanning through a video of some rear end in a top hat with a 30-second brand intro and a "Hey, guys!" extra 45 seconds of talking before telling me the item I want is behind a dumpster in an alley to the left of the start of the area. Yeesh! Ranting aside, a new NPC has spawned at the end of the bridge to the right. Let's chat him up. .jpg)  <Becomes Lottery Member 7> You're into it too, right? Gambling and stuff? You wanna play? Try and stop me! That hasn't gone well for most people..jpg) Wahoo! You're on fire. Come anytime you wanna gamble!There is no gimmick to this Lottery Member's wheel. Just a normal spin. .jpg) Yeah... Given we're nearly 300 battles into this game and the party has been surrounded... maybe three times, ever. This doesn't have a whole lot of utility to burn an accessory space on. But it is a unique item that can only be acquired here. So there's that. That out of the way, remember the trading sidequest? We haven't touched on that yet since we've gotten to Japan. But around this point it starts getting rude and more and more failure points start cropping. It's odd there is exactly one side quest in the game that can get completely shut down prematurely and get permanently locked out of one of the character's best gear for good. But here we are. Across the street from Lottery Member #7 another new NPC has spawned next to the entrance to the Great Gama's squared circle of manliness. If we chat him up... .jpg)  You think my face is scary? I know! I don't need you to remind me. How do you think it feels not having anyone to talk to, let alone a wife? Eh? Stop staring if you can't help! Hey, calm down, guy! NPC face is nothing to get worked up about. Everyone on this street but me has it. Just ask that identical clone of you walking back and forth across the bridge down the block. But... I could give you a stuffed animal. Hey, this thing is ugly! Are you suggesting I should talk to this?! Tsk! Better than nothin', I s'pose... At least you were tryin' to help. Here, I'll give you this..jpg) And so we get another Third Key... An item we already have three of in stock. And that's a dead end for that sidequest. So... we're not going to do that. Sorry about your ugly NPC face, champ. You truly are all alone on this one. .jpg) Our next order of business is to return to the park where Yuri and Karin had a nice heart to heart before the monster of the day showed up to interrupt things. A trio of new NPCs have tagged in now that this isn't a cutscene zone. The old man has nothing of interest to say. But the woman on the right? Well, you remember how we just failed that last sidequest...? .jpg)  Oh, that stuffed animal's so cute! I love it! Let me see! Look, the little panda's got gloves on! Aaaah! And it talks if you touch its belly! Cool! I want it! Please give it to me! You will, won't you?! Great! You've pretty much taken it away! You have to be the right person to trade this with. Mascot is in your name. You're sure? Cool! Thanks! You're the best! Here, you can have this. You can tell everyone back home it's a specialty of Japan! Ah, I'm so happy! I'm gonna cuddle it when I go to sleep. Thanks!.jpg) And we arrive at the same dead end for this quest as before. As I said, this quest is rude. Anyway, you may have noted there is a wolf hanging out in the park. No big deal. Wolves just do that in Japan. I'm sure you can see where this is heading. The counter to this Wolf Bout's gimmick is technically a Pocket Watch to avoid Small Ring. But unless you're sitting several feet from your TV and have shite eyesight, that's the least debilitating status effect in the game. .jpg)   Awroo, awroo... (At last we meet. Oh, how I've waited for this day!)  .........?  *pant* Awroo, awroo... (As soon as I saw you, I knew, ...I knew you were my prince!).jpg) What kind of jerk drew on that dog's face with markers? Awroo, awroo... (Some scrap bones you left behind... A snow-white fur ball you hacked up...)  Awroo! Awroo. (I licked it clean and kept it preserved! Don't worry, dear.) Awroo... (I hate everything about this.) I don't understand what she's saying, but it looks like a kook has fallen in love with you, boy... Look at this playa over here. Awroo... (Yuri, shut up...) Yeah! Go get 'em, tiger! <Enters fighting stance> Grrr... Awroo! (Look, you. Knock it off! I'm not interested in you!) ...Awroo? Awroo? (How can you be so cold? You're my prince, don't forget!) ...... Awroo! Awroo! (It's destiny! Can't you see it written in the stars in the sky right now?) Awroo... Awroo... (It's late afternoon... There are no stars in the sky...)  *snort* Awroo? (You love me, don't you? You understand exactly how I feel, right?) Awroo, awroo! (How could I? I just barely met you this second!)   Awroo... Awroo! (I'll never forgive you! And if you can't be mine, nobody will have you!) Oooh. It looks like things are getting spicy. Get that hook up, Blanca! Awroo... (Yuri, I swear...) Awroo, awroo! (I'll kill you, and then myself!) What else can I do? I'll fight.Music: Soul Comet ~ Spirit of the Wolf .jpg) *gulp* This is a sticky situation. I guess this woman simply can't resist my charms....jpg) Music: Glint of Light ~ War of the Hungry Wolf .jpg) Who knew you could have a yandere wolf? But here we are. Eleanor is a Water class enemy with 810 HP. She has the potential to inflict Small Ring with her physical attacks, or so I've read. All she did the entire fight was spam her one elemental attack -- Hail Crash. .jpg) So just casting a Barrier Spell basically makes her completely ineffectual. I think by this fight we all know the primary draw of the Wolf Bouts are the weirdo rear end wolves that show up and not the battles themselves. .jpg) .jpg) With our defenses up and the gimmick neutralized, this goes predictably. Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg) .jpg) For our efforts we receive another Crest. Having another Arc Heal in our tool set alongside a Cure Plus isn't too shabby. .jpg) Japan never recovered from the rise of the Meiji Era Maid Fetish. As noted, this is a Female only accessory and grants +3 Physical and +8 Special Attack Power. Pretty decent overall. Music: Rising Sun ~ Japanese Town .jpg) I didn't think you'd be so strong....jpg) Awroo... *whimper* (You'd rather I stayed home and raised the kids, right? I understand...) ...Awroo. (...Huh? Now, wait just a minute!) Awroo... Awroo... Awroo. (No, no. It's fine. I'll keep the home nice and tidy. You'll be the bread winner. We'll make it work. Even when the hours at the office week in and week out take their toll. And the manager turns down your request for a raise and we have to take a second mortgage on the house. I'll be there.) Awroo! (No, you're not listening!) Awroo, awroo... (No need to be shy. But let's make sure we get this down on paper, okay?).jpg) It looks as though we are getting near the end of the Wolf Bouts. .jpg) An ill-fated she-wolf doom to fight the one she most loved. Spent the rest of her days alone, pining for his return. One day that white wolf will come around and see his folly. One day... .jpg) ...Awroo. (...Lemme outta here!) *whimper, whimper* (I'll be waiting for you! Forever and ever...!)Music: Old Smudged Map ~ Europe .jpg) That takes care of our business in Nihobashi for now. We will have quite a bit more business there at a later date. But for now, with the unlocking of the Hojo Research Lab we also finally unlocked a World Map for Japan. Up until now we had been locked into the city sub-maps of the region. Since that's available, we're going to return to Yokohama for a bit. .jpg) Particularly we're going to return to the Foreigner's Cemetery as it's just slammed with new items for an area that is all of two screens. Music: ENDS. Imagine the droning sound of a stock chirping cricket playing until further notice. .jpg) A couple of new NPCs have spawned and are just chilling in the graveyard. As you do. The first one is over close to the late Yoshiko Kawashima's grave. .jpg)  Somebody asked me to hang on to it. Do you know the person it belongs to? May I see it? ...Yes. It's scratched, but I can see the engraving. It belongs to the person in this grave. I did receive it from a ghost. So that would check out. ...Excuse me? N-nothing... "Major Wayne Hashida. Died 1894." Are you sure this is him...? Yes. Died in action and promoted for his bravery. Not many half-Japanese soldiers so I'm sure it's him. I see... Thank you very much, sir!As you might surmise, this is a continuation of the Fortress of Regrets sidequest. That's the next step complete. The trouble is we don't have an airship at the moment so Europe is off-limits until further notice. We'll just put a pin in this one. .jpg) Atop a completely un-noteworthy grave we can find the penultimate Soul Drop. Hell if I'd know how you would discover this on your own unless you return to every area and hump every wall like the Doom Guy in the original DOOM. But here we go... And further down the path we find another NPC whom is evidentially the twin brother of Retired Old Man Iwai down the way. .jpg)  I guess it should be owned by someone who knows its value. Someone who travels overseas. Your sword skills are very impressive young lady. They may even surpass those of my father's someday. He regularly made it to Smokin' Sexy Style ranking in his combos. I was very proud of him. Wow! Thank you, sir! We all turn to bones when we die. But we leave something behind. Everything we have now is thanks to our ancestors..jpg) Azama, Mindful of his Ancestors provides Karin with another manuscript which enhances her Bullenfogel power level. Nothung is a dumb name for a sword. It's another name for the mythological sword Gram. Which still sounds kind of dumb but not like someone misspelt "nothing" and went "no, I meant to do that." .jpg) And another thing that is some guide book rear end fodder. Our old pal Ring Soul has been showing up in obscure corners of maps in areas. But it's almost always been along the critical path of a dungeon or town and not too obscure. Certain, not click this very specific spot on at the entrance of an area we have no reason to return to. But, again... Here we are... .jpg)  Oh... You...? What's up with you? What's wrong? Isn't it going well with Miyabi? I don't know! Every night she's out until dawn. When I ask what she's been doing, she says it's work. ...But she can't be at work all the time! She's always saying she was a daddy's girl. She hates work! And she never talks to me when she comes home. Says she's tired. But she used to talk non-stop. You just couldn't keep her quiet. I don't know... And she started watching AMC's The Walking Dead. She never liked zombie stuff. Much less really crappy zombie stuff. I don't know what to make of it at all. Pretty bad, huh? And I can't work when I'm feeling like this every day. I think I'm gonna have to give up this job. What?! No! You can't! Who else could do this job?! Why does it matter? It's not like you can't finish the game without me. I know you're just giving these upgrades to secondary characters you never use in the main party by now. What's the point?! You can't think like that! Oh Miyabi! You've got a younger man, haven't you?! I'm trying to please you, but I'm just not as young as I used to be. I wish I still had it... What exactly are you referring to?! My luxurious mane of hair. It was a sight to behold. Young Triple H golden flowing locks. Stunning. All... lost to the ever marching passage of time... Wha...? Here, this is for you..jpg) But for real, this is just stuff wasted on the B-Squad at this point. .jpg) I was really good when I was younger. Oh, I hate getting old! Bye, then... Hey!.jpg) Ring Soul is about to hit 30. He may as well have one foot in the grave in anime years. Music: Holy Mistletoe ~ Graveyard .jpg) As our last order of business for today, we did get another Soul Drop and we may as well get that sorted before we continue forward. .jpg) We're just going down the line at this point crossing off checkmarks on the Fusions we'll seldom use except in specialized situations and uhh... I went in the direction that had the Wind Altar room. So here we are... .jpg) Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan .jpg) Erisvorch is a Slavich god of heavenly swords. It's also the same level locked cloud monster we've fought every time to unlock Level 3 Fusions. Its big thing is it can cast Slow and Gale to make the fight last slightly longer. .jpg) .jpg) And by "slightly" I mean very slightly. We've outleveled these encounters enough that they're only capable of doing 1 HP of damage per hit at maximum. Reminder: Unless you count returning to previous dungeons to do additional content and having some extra battles along the way I have never grinded during the course of this LP. It's just naturally like this if you do everything content wise. At least in the first game with the leveled Fusion boss fights you got a preview of what you were going to obtain and its abilities. This is just a huge waste of time since it doesn't even correspond with the Fusion in question. It's just a cloud of darkness with an assortment of spells of the same elemental class as what you're unlocking. Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg) .jpg) I feel like it would be difficult to sneer with a beak. But what do I know? I'm not a supernatural rainbow bird. Stat wise, we're looking at by default:
Want to go fast and have decent magic, this is still a decent pick. Magic wise it gains:
.jpg) .jpg) That's all our extracurricular activities sorted out for the moment. Tune in next for tackling the Hojo Research Lab. My skin crawled that they made the Final Fantasy VII: Remake's Professor Hojo just Maeda from The 3rd Birthday's even slimier dad.    Wolf Bout: Eleanor   Guest Artist Illustration - The boys just hanging out doing their kata. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Feb 23, 2021 |
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Jan 17, 2021 18:24
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Yeah, sorry to disappear immediately after I started up again. I immediately got hit with a steel chair and then the entire WCW NWO came out of a portal from the late '90s and stomped on me for the last two months. gently caress 2020.
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Jan 17, 2021 18:27
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The Dark Id posted:The most old man hang-up I have about modern internet culture is the rise of looking up anything in a video game defaults to scanning through a video of some rear end in a top hat with a 30-second brand intro and a "Hey, guys!" extra 45 seconds of talking before telling me the item I want is behind a dumpster in an alley to the left of the start of the area. Yeesh! extremely  if it's not YA BOY THWEEZGAMING420 it's TURN OFF YOUR AD BLOCKER
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Jan 17, 2021 19:11
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Or, the game is a little too niche, so you don't find any actual tips, but a review of the game has a tips based title. I was poking at The Red Lantern (small, doesn't really need any tips kind of game as it turns out). And there were like a half dozen results of "How To Choose The Best Dogs In The Red Lantern." that were literally just the press release/back of the box blurb for the game. EDIT : More importantly, glad you are okay with the scope of current times, TDI! Also glad for the LP update, but a distant second.
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Jan 17, 2021 19:29
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Somehow the most disturbing enemy encounter so far.
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Jan 17, 2021 20:00
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not shown: Eleanor going on a huge mope, bumping into Andre, and the two of them immediately hitting it off
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Jan 17, 2021 20:03
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Eleanor's appearance has suffered from the transition to high definition.
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Jan 17, 2021 20:09
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Haha wow this Wolf Bout is a little weiquote:
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Jan 17, 2021 20:59
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Glad this is back. Also, seeing all the ways to gently caress up the item trading quest surprised me since I somehow managed to do it right the first time when I first played this.
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Jan 17, 2021 21:38
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The Dark Id posted:Yeah, sorry to disappear immediately after I started up again. I immediately got hit with a steel chair and then the entire WCW NWO came out of a portal from the late '90s and stomped on me for the last two months. gently caress 2020. This lp seems to have luck on par with your original FFX attempt.
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Jan 17, 2021 21:42
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The Dark Id posted:gently caress 2020. Amen to that. Ring Soul second* best character in the game. *sorry but it's really hard to beat the wrestler superhero vampire.
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Jan 17, 2021 21:47
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FalloutFan56 posted:This lp seems to have luck on par with your original FFX attempt. RIP Dark Id's PS2, its optical drive burnt out before its legend ever did 
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Jan 17, 2021 21:58
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No old man gamer should ever play Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. So many chests or quests I’ve had to look up how to solve... Hooray for side quest progress and a new year!
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Jan 17, 2021 22:09
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The Dark Id posted:Oh, you want to get to the Dead Factory where Umbrella processes and disposes of all the failed experiment corpses in acidic vats? Yeah, just take a left at Maple Street and Pine Ave. It's across from the Denny's. Of course it is.
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Jan 17, 2021 23:12
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Is it weird that I’m kind of interested in the Ring Soul’s marital drama?
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Jan 17, 2021 23:58
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Geostomp posted:Is it weird that I’m kind of interested in the Ring Soul’s marital drama? Ring Soul has the most character arc of anyone in this game.
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Jan 18, 2021 03:52
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Hojo has always been a greasy bespectacled pervert who is inexplicably popular with the ladies.
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Jan 18, 2021 05:45
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Episode XCVII: The Death of Ego.jpg) Let's stop fretting about and finally get to infiltrating the Hojo Research Lab to... something, something... Nicolai...? It's still quite vague what our objective is supposed to be when we find the smug prick. He's been fairly sufficiently punched already and Yuri and the gang don't know about the whole trying to extract Astaroth experiment so... Yeah. Just winging it still. Music: Hatred ~ Hojo Research Institute .jpg)  I don't know. There was the thing with the mutant dog the other day. Last week, it was that rampaging man-giraffe we had to put down going wild in the gymnasium. I still need to send Fred's wife some flowers. That was a rough way to go... I never knew a giraffe's neck could come down that hard. And don't even get me started on those poisonous razor kittens that got loose last month. <shudders> I'm still afraid of getting near vents after that mishap. They just tore that poor recruit into a pile of hamburger meat. That haunts my dreams still. So this time...? There were strict orders from the top. No mishaps this time! Jeez, playing around with all this research. They really need to get their thinking straight!The two soldiers wander off. Meanwhile, at the unattended gate to the secret government research laboratory that they leave wide open... .jpg)  <gasps> You sound like an old busy-body! It's called reconnaissance, thank you very much! Is that Russian for snooping?  Hush, you!.jpg)  <rubs beard> Yeah... Take a look over there..jpg) .jpg) Come on! Let's give it a try! I'm sure they'll have armor sized to fit a handful of adults, a giant, a squat old man, a twelve-year-old kid and a wolf. Excellent! ...I wasn't being ser--you know what? We'll figure it out..jpg) Don't ask me why this time we need to careful sneakily infiltrate this facility using disguises. I do recall not long ago we just marched right onto a Japanese navy battleship and immediately started flipping out beating the poo poo out of everyone with no problem. .jpg) Sound of soldiers getting their asses kicked. Aaargh! Huuurgh!.jpg) Unfortunately, the rest of the team is jammed into the Yuri pocket dimension on the field so we, sadly, don't get to see Joachim ripping through half his armor or Gepetto with Anastasia on his soldiers trying to look like a full-sized man or Blanca trying to walk around like a human in armor. They'd better keep that part with Red XIII pretending to be a soldier standing upright and Barrett bursting out of a sailor uniform in the future Final Fantasy VII Remake installment. .jpg) .jpg) In we go through the unlocked front door to the unattended lobby. The receptionist must be out to lunch. Or was eviscerated by a Tyrant in one of the many lab accidents and they're still interviewing a replacement. You know how it goes in these super science labs. Anyway, around the corner we find... .jpg) You're Stag Team, right? The guards for the underground lab? You'd better get down there quick. Use the elevator. Word of advice. If you hear the alarms go off and screaming alongside roars coming from the labs, go run for the emergency stairs. The elevator tends to break down when things go sideways. Just empty your magazine into a wall to make it look like you fought back before retreating. It looks better on the after-action reports. Yeah. ...I'll keep that in mind.The gang enters the elevator and heads below to the underground labs. Meanwhile... Music: ENDS .jpg)  The Astaroth separation experiment is about to begin. Very well... <steps forward> What is it, master? Are you not feeling well? No, I'm fine. I was just thinking about the past. About the past...?.jpg) Lt. Col. Kawashima, killed in Shanghai. I realized my life was changed the moment I met her. ...... I was sent over to China as a simple geologic analyst. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that my life would take the path it has. I only dabbled in books about the occult back then, having never seen magic with my own eyes. Now, look at me... I can shoot telekinetic blasts and teleport. I make secret pacts with wizards in exchange for forbidden ancient tomes. I try to harness the power of dark gods locked within men's souls. Yes, my life was forever changed....jpg) Do you have... regrets? ...... Hah. No. <steps closer and frowns> Master... She yearned to live in the same manner that Yuri does. To live life freely, no matter what the cost. To hold fiercely onto your own beliefs... She said that anyone could do it if they tried. She wanted so much to join his party and go on adventures across the continent. She even came up with her own win pose in anticipation of joining. But... it never happened... Now I realize it's much, much more difficult than I thought..jpg) But Master, you have your own strong beliefs. For example... The path I walk... There are sometimes I truly fear it. I sometimes wonder... Am *I* the baddie...? But why...? <turns away from Ouka> ......Music: Faith or Fate ~ Kato .jpg) I've been working for Minister Ishimura, helping him reach his goals. But all along, I've had my own goals in mind. I've just been using him. And during that time, I've learned to lie and cheat. And kill... .......jpg) But the one thing I haven't learned is how to forget my pain, my sadness. Sometimes I wish I just died when the city was annihilated. In truth... I don't even know how I survived that... Or why... Mostly the how... The Yoshiko Kawashima that died in Shanghai was the master's true love... I'm... being too emotional. Perhaps I should start a journal to vent. Keeping this pain pent up while dabbling in forbidden sorceries is not healthy... ?! My Master feels pain because of all his memories?.jpg) I-I feel jealous of her... Hm?! My face, my voice, everything. I'm just a poor copy of her... Oh... oh y-you knew... about that...? Huh... that was not supp--oh... Despite my enhancements, I am still a poor replica... E-enhancements... yes... there were... anomalies in your body's creation in the che— My combat enhancements, master. Right! Right, of course... But... Don't say that. You are my creation. Pure, untainted. You are no mere copy! It's fine! ...I don't mind being a substitute for her.Kato turns to face Ouka. .jpg) Ouka... My only wish is to be of use to my Master. To be near my Master, to spend time with my Master..jpg) That is all that I wish for... All that I want... .......jpg) Somehow they managed to make the fact that Kato created a clone of his dead crush, gave her DD breasts, stuck her in skin-tight battle armor, and forced her to refer to him only as Master and obey his every order even CREEPIER by... making it so she KNOWS she's a clone of Kato's dead crush. Kato this is a bad look, man. A bad look. Music: Hatred ~ Hojo Research Institute .jpg) Meanwhile, the rest of the gang have ridden the elevator to the underground laboratory basement. All there is to do here is head straight ahead. The large double doors on the mini-map there are locked at the moment. When we head into the door at the end of the hall we find... .jpg) And by that I mean run back in here and seal the door behind you. That'll buy us some time if another creature breaks loose and rampages. We're already short-staffed after that sonic emitter experiment went haywire and liquefied the heads of Weevil Team. They're not paying us enough for this post. I'm filing a complaint..jpg) And with that, our whole subterfuge with the disguises comes to an end. Yep. We did that just to get past two guards on an elevator and one guy hanging out in the break room. That may not have been worth the effort to make a quiet entrance. But, you know. We already did a stealth dungeon and nothing is going to beat sneak wolf. Music: ENDS .jpg) Huh?! What are they trying to do to Nicolai?.jpg) Before Yuri can answer, the lights go dark and switch over to red-tinted emergency lights. We need to swap over to auxiliary power on non-essential devices if we're going to get some dangerous super science done today, after all. .jpg) It's starting....jpg)  He he he... This time we'll achieve separation! Fire up the video cameras! I don't want to miss documenting one instant of his agony. It is a thing of beauty... He he he. ...S-sir? The science of it, I mean. Of... course, sir....jpg) Begin! <starts tapping buttons and turning dials on console>A bell rings and a woman's voice comes over the announcement loudspeaker as the device begins shocking Nicolai's balls again. .jpg)  Beginning Astaroth separation, Round II. Subject's pulse, blood pressure within acceptable parameters. Testicular integrity holding at 79%..jpg)  Aaaah! Aaah! Ahh!The machine deactivates. .jpg) <sizzles>.jpg) Subject is unconscious. Brainwaves have entered delta stage. Testicular integrity holding at 63%. Blood pressure going down. Fire separation beam now! Starting separation beam..jpg) Well, that's certainly going to burn the hair off his chest. But let's be real. Nicolai is about as hairy as a Ken doll under that frock. .jpg) 70 percent until ego degeneration. Testicular integrity holding at 63%. We don't need further updates on that status, Helen! The experiment has moved to the next phase! Search time remaining, two minutes..jpg) That should be plenty. Astaroth spirit confirmed in sub-cortical matrix. Start tracking. We must grab it before it goes subconscious..jpg) AAAAAAAAHHHHH!! It's entering sub-cortex B2. It's very active.Kato wanders into the experiment control room and begins to observe. .jpg) So, monster, you've become quite comfortable in this soul, eh. Entering sub-cortex B3! 45 percent until ego degeneration. Inflammatory remarks on subject's appearance or manner of speaking will cause undue stress if further ego degeneration occurs. That's irrelevant. Continue!.jpg) What are they doing with that? At least they stopped shocking his balls. That didn't look too fun. What are they saying anyway?! I don't know. I hear them talking, but I don't understand a word of it! <distressed gasp> <disappointed sigh> ...Why would I know the first thing about science?! The only science I know is physics and the force a punch does to a face..jpg) 30 percent until ego degeneration..jpg) AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!! Are you still unable to remove it?! Matrix too diffuse. Can't find the nucleus. drat it!.jpg) Doctor. That's enough. We're going to lose him. <shakes head> If we fail now, it will be six months before we get another chance at this. It was only a fluke it took merely a day to reset the experiment this time. <grabs Hojo's shoulder> You'll going to kill him again if you don't stop! <knocks his hand away> Shut up, you ignorant buffoon! This is science! SCIENCE! What do you know of SCIENCE?! Have you ever extracted a dark entity from a human psyche before?! ...No. But neither have you yet. That is... irrelevant!.jpg) 10 percent until ego degeneration. Target has penetrated subconscious..jpg) That's fine! I'll have my monster! Screw his damned ego! Doctor! Get back! Nothing can stop the pursuit of SCIENCE!!.jpg) Yes! .......jpg) Catastrophic system failures overloading equipment when throwing safety measures to the wind in pursuit of your horrible, uncontrollable monsters. Or as they refer to it in secret underground laboratories -- Tuesday. They're serving tacos in the facility cafeteria for lunch. Get there quick before the recently summoned eldritch beast with a thousand maws from the darkest recesses of the planes of madness greedily devours them all and all souls on the mortal plane. .jpg) .jpg) Predictably, all the lab equipment immediately starts shorting out and catching on fire as the lab assistants start freaking out. .jpg) <motions to the staff> Turn off the power! The experiment is over! Do you hear me? Woah! Aaaah! Gaaaah! That was an order! Turn off the power! This is finished. Eeeep! Aaarhh! <distressed pantomime at fire> <sigh> I'll do it myself...Kato yanks the power deactivation lever two feet away. .jpg) What the hell are you doing, Kato?! Don't you know, Doctor?! I don't know about your field of science. But I am quite studied in the occult..jpg) His ego was the only thing containing the monster. Now it's been released. What did you say?! To put it in precise scientific terms, doctor... You just hosed up. Badly..jpg) .jpg)  Heh. Ha ha ha..jpg) Whoa. Look, his face has changed! Nicolai... Nicolai's ego... It's been swallowed up... I've been there before... It sucks. I had to dig a grave for my ghost dad for six months inside my head. Not somethin' I'd recommend. ...... You foolish pathetic mortals...A squad of Steel Soldiers run into the experiment test chamber and aim their weapons at the possessed Nicolai. .jpg) You foolish pathetic mortals... I can't thank you enough for finally ridding me of that annoying human. He was so intensely boring. The relentless smugness despite his unending failures. The endless jealous lust for a woman he barely knew. It was enough to make me vomit into his very soul. It can't be!! He's been taken over by Astaroth!Music: Strain ~ Assault .jpg) Open fire!!.jpg) Nicolai-Astaroth has learned the Special Eyes™ technique from Albert Simon. While that would merely knock someone tough like Yuri through a few train cars. Generic soldier men? .jpg) .jpg) ...A tad bit harsher a reaction. Astaroth easily frees himself from his restraints and floats down to the ground. .jpg) ...... OK. Perhaps I have, as you said, hosed this up. You have keen observational skills, doctor..jpg) I have been brought back to this world solely to lead it into the fiery gates of hell! Mutant Apes!! What...?! What is the meaning of this... mutant ape nonsensical response?! Am I speaking in the wrong tongue to these insects?! Argh. Human languages. So bothersome. I will enjoy exterminating them all.The Mutant Apes immediately appear on the scene. .jpg) Yes, Master! No... I don't think I'll be wasting my time with you. <looks to his left> You can come out now. Huh? Eh?Yuri and the gang shuffle out from the back room. Not that they were hiding. They were all gawking out a huge open window where Kato or Hojo really should have been able to see them. .jpg) How you doing, bright eyes? You are a stubborn fool. <motions to Nicolai> It sounds like someone here woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Heh. I get it, though. I'd be cranky too if I woke up and I looked like such a douchebag..jpg) Huh?! What? Yuri... Who...?.jpg) <scans the room> Okay, who's first? Who wants to dance? Yuri, I know you're trying to act tough, but I think we're all on the same side against the demonic guy. That is correct. Yup. Are you dense? Tch. Whatever. Ruin my cool line. Jerks. Sadly, I have other business to attend to. C'mon, don't be like that. I came to see you..jpg) Hmph....jpg) You bastard... Terrific. Another jackass that can teleport. Can everyone not on my team just teleport now?.jpg) After him! <bow> Yes, master!.jpg) The Mutant Apes teleport away. .jpg) <looks around> Huh? Hey! Hey! Is everybody leaving?! You see! Everyone can do a teleport! I bet even that creepy little nerd up there watching us can do it too. This sucks!Kato turns to leave as well. He's at least kind enough to leave the room before teleporting. .jpg) Hmph. Doctor, we're going after Astaroth. Deal with things here as you wish. W-wait a minute!.jpg) We should leave too! She's right. We've got to go after Nicolai! <scratches head> Hmph! This is not looking good! I'm going to be pissed if we have to slog through another flying fortress at the end of the day.The party runs out of the test chamber. Meanwhile... .jpg) You'll pay. I won't let you get away with ruining my experiment. I'll show you! I'll show you all... the power... of SCIENCE! Video: Episode 97 Highlight Reel (You should watch this.)  Hojo Research Lab Concept Art - This looks like the building where I went to Junior High.
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Jan 23, 2021 18:56
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Good to see Nicholai still has an extremely punchable face even while he's possessed.
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Jan 23, 2021 19:54
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Oh yes, the usual mad scientist cliches. Mess up your own experiment to the nth power, then blame it on the heroes who happened to be nearby.
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Jan 23, 2021 20:04
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Oh no Kato has the man pain Not even the tender touch of a titty can douse the smouldering coal of mangst within
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Jan 23, 2021 20:38
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This and the Lobotomy Corporation LP are crossing over in disturbing ways. RIP Weevil squad. They were the best.
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Jan 23, 2021 21:02
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