|
An example of Chaos Wars' oh so stellar voice acting, featuring Yuri, Karen, and Nicolai...annnd some other chick I don't know. https://youtu.be/bangt7d9vGA Gilgamesh255 fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Mar 23, 2021 |
#
?
Mar 23, 2021 13:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 11:46 |
|
|
Commander Keene posted:I own the game and have yet to play it for long enough to actually unlock the Shadow Hearts cast. It's a generic but surprisingly playable underneath the bad translation and worse voice acting. Supposedly the voice cast shares several last names with staff working for the localization house, so the working theory is the boss just hired a bunch of relatives to do the VA. that's exactly what happened, at the time all PS games released in NA required a dubbed track, but the producer of the localization was given a nothing budget and he pretty much figured anyone who'd buy this game would just switch to the Japanese track. Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Mar 23, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2021 15:38
|
|
|
Gilgamesh255 posted:An example of Chaos Wars' oh so stellar voice acting, featuring Yuri, Karen, and Nicolai...annnd some other chick I don't know. You mean URU Karen, and Nicole Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Mar 23, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2021 21:54
|
|
|
It has Alice and Gepetto as well. Whoever they got to do Alice isn't obviously terrible, but the actor for Gepetto is even worse than whoever did Uru (if it's not the same guy).
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2021 22:18
|
|
|
God that voice acting.  Now I almost want that game just to experience the rest of it for myself.Edit: I bought it. Burger Flipper fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Mar 24, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 05:35
|
|
|
Burger Flipper posted:God that voice acting. Whelp, you might as well LP it, you madman.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 06:10
|
|
|
Gilgamesh255 posted:Whelp, you might as well LP it, you madman. Well maybe I will then.  As soon as I get my computer built. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 06:26
|
|
|
ultrafilter posted:It has Alice and Gepetto as well. Whoever they got to do Alice isn't obviously terrible, but the actor for Gepetto is even worse than whoever did Uru (if it's not the same guy). Wait so in this game's world, 
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 06:28
|
|
|
LJN92 posted:Wait so in this game's world, It may surprise you that in addition to the translation and voice acting the rest of the localization may have been bad.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 06:38
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:It may surprise you that in addition to the translation and voice acting the rest of the localization may have been bad. I mean I get that, but short of them inventing new dialogue, the takeaway from this scene appears to be that the characters didn't know each other. LJN92 fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Mar 24, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 07:06
|
|
|
This looks like the worse version of something similar I remember seeing elsewhere. Another PS2 anime RPG crossover game, with like... Ar Tonelico characters, and the Yuri Lowenthal-voiced main character of Mana Khemia 2?
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 07:08
|
|
|
Junpei posted:This looks like the worse version of something similar I remember seeing elsewhere. Another PS2 anime RPG crossover game, with like... Ar Tonelico characters, and the Yuri Lowenthal-voiced main character of Mana Khemia 2? Cross Edge?
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 07:26
|
|
|
LJN92 posted:I mean I get that, but short of them inventing new dialogue, the takeaway from this scene appears to be that the characters didn't know each other. Nah she could be saying Oji-san when talking to him and thats both a way to refer to your uncle or a less formal way to refer to an older man. So bad translations all around. Translation is easy to make a poo poo job of when you have 0 interest in the context of things.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 10:42
|
|
|
Ar Tonelico has very pretty music, Mana Khemia has fun crafting. Both of those games have really creepy sex stuff and I am deeply suspicious of their writers. When the literal walking fursuit is the least creepy thing in your game, you know you got a winner.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 10:50
|
|
|
Rigged Death Trap posted:Nah she could be saying Oji-san when talking to him and thats both a way to refer to your uncle or a less formal way to refer to an older man. So bad translations all around. I get that part, but why doesn't I even saw a thing in the game where Karen references Domremy and what happened there, which makes it all the stranger that he's treating Alice and Gepetto like strangers.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 11:15
|
|
|
LJN92 posted:Wait so in this game's world, Gepetto is Alice's uncle in this game.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 13:08
|
|
|
ultrafilter posted:Gepetto is Alice's uncle in this game. lmao gepetto is such a nothing character
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 13:25
|
|
|
Alice was his late wife's niece, he's more her uncle-in-law. Yes, it matters, dammit
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 14:18
|
|
|
Yeah I actually looked up the fact Gepetto was Alice's uncle after typing that. I seriously don't remember it ever being brought up in the thread. Did anyone in the game ever make anything of it? But still, my point about the game having Yuri act like a stranger to everyone but Karen and Nicolai despite having experienced Domremy stands. It's like the makers of the game bothered to include Alice but didn't bother to acknowledge that she's possibly the most important person to Yuri in the Shadow Hearts canon. Or that he knows her at all.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 20:17
|
|
|
Gepetto's connection to Alice was mentioned way back at the start of the game as an explanation for why he was hanging around with Yuri in Domremy. But not much later than that he just kinda got dropped from the plot, so it's understandable that someone would forget his details. Seriously, when's the last time he even had more than a throwaway line in a cutscene?
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 20:28
|
|
|
You kind of get the sense there was late development editing going on in the game (like the fact there's cut dungeons where you play the three stooges) wouldn't be surprised if Gepetto is a casualty of that - but the game itself didn't really forget how important Alice was. Like Yuri not recognizing Joachim as the gold bat in SH1 makes sense since that's completely optional, he was a bat, and Yuri tends to check out when things don't really involve him.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 20:56
|
|
|
 Episode CXI: Soft-Looking Tush  Music: Grey Memories ~ Map of Japan .jpg) The game gets rather vague as to what the heck we're supposed to do now to further Roger Bacon's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Coping Method of resurrecting Alice Elliot from the dead. .jpg) But if we swap over to the European map, which we've had access to since that business teaming up with the Mutant Apes to beat up a err... mutant dog, we find there is a new location accessible. We've just had precious little reason to trek back there. That is no longer the case as The Queen's Garden has unlocked in northern Scotland .jpg) That said... we are not going to head there and enact the worst possible idea with dark magicks just yet. We are rapidly approaching the End Game which is where about a quarter of the total side content of Shadow Hearts: Covenant lives. So before we dive headlong into plot central and live there for a fairly long stretch, we are going to further every sidequest we can to its final stages. Other than a couple we could start and would very awkwardly halt just before the final step. Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon .jpg) To begin with, we have one last order of business in Azabu Kamiyashiki. The Iron Soldiers have all cleared out, due to all being killed by Yuri and friends, so there is no risk of random battles. Ishimura and his bed pisser grandson have also dropped off the face of the earth and there is nothing of note to be found in his former office. .jpg) Our area of interest is the Locker Room mid-way through the brief dungeon. Now that we've cleared the area, we find a locker slightly ajar with something behind it. If we have Yuri click on that, we discover... .jpg)  <becomes Lottery Member 5> If you promise not to tell, you can do the lottery, okay? So you keep your mouth shut, right?! I'll keep quiet. I don't think there is anyone left to care. You may want to look for new employment. Kind of beat up your boss. And all of your co-workers. Everyone in the building, really....jpg) .jpg) We have another Lottery Member and their gimmick is a Reverse Ring. This one is actually kind of tricky since it's on the hardest to judge distance part of the err... Judgment Ring. That angle is a pain in the rear end. But, through perseverance .jpg) And thus, gambling with a man hiding in a locker concludes our business in Azabu Kamiyashiki for the remainder of the game. Scratch that one off the location list. .jpg) We have a short order of business left in the Imperial Capital. We'll be returning to Nihonbashi once more. Music: Rising Sun ~ Japanese Town .jpg) Particularly, we want to return to the Great Gama's wrestling arena. We do not have business with Great Gama just yet. << THE FESTIVAL >> is sequestered to the End Game. You are not prepared for << THE FESTIVAL >>. Nobody is... .jpg) Instead, we want to chat with this new NPC hanging out on the sidelines of the squared-circle. .jpg) .jpg) Woken-up Yamaguchi hands over the final Stud Card of the original version of Shadow Hearts 2 -- Mr. Wrestler. In case you needed a big helping of the Great Gama's rear end, look no further. There is nothing to be done with this Stud Card at the moment. It's the only one not used to obtain a Cornelia dress. We'll need to participate in << THE FESTIVAL >> to unlock the hidden potential in this Stud Card. Let's just remember this NPC is here for now. .jpg) .jpg) That concludes everything to be done in the Imperial Capital at the moment. We're now going to return to Yokohama. I should play more of Yakuza: Like a Dragon... But beyond that, we do have a few things to clean up in this city. First, we'll return for a last bit of business in the Brick Warehouses. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Remember there was the solitary merchant that was stalker Frenchmen in a magic sales automobile? You likely don't recall it, but he was selling a Magic Crest. At a price that was quite high for our funds in the war chest during the initial parts of Disc 2. .jpg) That is very much no longer the case. So we can pick that up to add to our collection. And that clears out any relevance the Yokohama Brick Warehouses have to our adventure. .jpg) .jpg) Next up is Yokohama Streets which I forgot had two maps and I had trouble finding the new NPC that spawned here. We start at the far western side of the area and need to continue to the far eastern end where that hotel we crashed with Kawashima Sr. and his daughter is located. Here we now find... .jpg)  Give my quiz a try! If you get all the questions right, I'll give you a prize. Not much chance of that though Hehe! If it's about monsters, I'll do it! Do you remember the weird quiz on Battleship Mikasa with the captain of the ship? That is actually part of another questline of quizzes of that nature. And this is the second of four. All the quizzes feed into other quest line collectibles or segments and there's not a cumulative reward because Shadow Hearts 2 does whatever it feels like. .jpg) As before, the text scroll is insanely slow and there's no way to speed it up as mashing X will make the game assume you selected the X-marked question answer. So we really have about three seconds to read and answer most questions despite it being a ten-second countdown. This first answer is Skull. .jpg) If you'd like to become a Shadow Hearts: Covenant loremaster, here are the questions given. The answers are at the end. They're randomized from a pool of twenty: What's the name of the flag in the otherworld of the Foreigner's Cemetery?> Hero-hero. > Hena-hena. > Pero-pero. > Pera-pera. Veronica summoned a monster called Meursault. What's its favorite thing?> Human flesh. > Blood of a live creature. > Sushi. > Liquor. Tammuz, who shows up in the mine in Rhondda, is a human mixed with what?> A centipede. > A cockroach. > A slug. > A scorpion. What's the name of the airborne weapon controlled by Dr. Hojo?> Fuji. > Donyruu. > Comet. > Master Cylinder. What's the name of the Imperial Army's unmanned airborne weapon on the Mikasa?> Flying Drone. > Flying Buzz. > Flying Bot. > Flying Mech. Peryton, who attacked Russia, has the body of a bird. What is its head?> A cow. > A horse. > A sheep. > A deer. What kind of toy is the monster Ducky Toy, which appears in Domremy?> Swans. > Drakes. > Ducks. > Lions. What's the worm-like monster possessing antibodies for Idar Flamme?> Zamuza. > Megafilaria. > Echidna. > Hati. On Manmariana Island, what's the name of Carla's cat that she got at a festival?> Oscar. > Antoinette. > Andre. > Felson. .jpg) The answers were: 2. Pera-pera. 3. Liquor. 4. A scorpion. 5. Master Cylinder. 6. Flying Drone. 7. A deer. 8. Drakes. 9. Megafilaria. 10. Andre. .jpg) .jpg) And for our efforts, we gain Anastasia's second-best weapon -- an alien techno egg that grants her +178 Physical and +194 Special Attack Power. .jpg) That concludes all our activities available at the moment in Japan. We now return to the Europe map after an extended hiatus and will be sweeping through here now. Our first stop is Anastasia's hometown of Petrograd. Do you recall there being a drunkard selling a high-priced item to the tune of 100,000 Cash which would have bankrupt us toward the end of Disc 1? Probably not but they are around and... again, we're flush with cash now and even 100,000 Cash drained from the bank won't hurt us too much. Music: Town of Twilight ~ European Town .jpg)  Oh, yeah! I found something! I'm sure it's really rare! You can have it for 100,000 Cash, of course! Well? You got me! Here! I am strangely compelled to 100% collect anything that is vaguely collectible. Another curse... I think I am collecting those too..jpg) .jpg) That nets us the Asmodeus Crest. Yes, the final insult to Rasputin is his life-essence was blown out of Idar Flamme as some lovely Materia knock-off and ended up in the hands of a street drunk. .jpg) Not that the Asmodeus Crest will fill out any particular area as all the big boss soul crests are filled in the central, last-to-be-completed region of Solomon's Key. But I did snoop around the Key of Solomon and discover we CAN finish another region on the board. .jpg) Particularly, the Eternal Boneyard can be filled in now as we have obtained all the Magic Crests for it. It's just a matter of placing them correctly. The central region is the Palace of Trans and there is a Boneyard right next to it so it would seem Furcas goes to this bone zone. .jpg) There is only one area you could describe as a mansion in the boneyard so Murmur seems to live here. .jpg) There is a solitary space next to Murmur available so that seems to be Samigina's resting place. .jpg) And since Samigina only has one space next to them, this seems to be the hole meant for Bifrons. .jpg) This is the only available space next to the Wilderness of War region in the north-central part of the map. Thus Bune finds a home here. .jpg) And there's only one space left and wouldn't you know it, there's a marsh here. So Glasyalabolas find its place on the board. Thus completing the Eternal Boneyard section of the Key of Solomon. .jpg) For our efforts returning these demons to their home on this crummy board game, we net: Galsyalabolas - Arc Surge. Bune - Arc Cure. Bifrons - Cure All. Samigina - Cure Plus. Murmur - Resurrection. Furcas - Rage. A lot of curing and buffs going on. I won't thumb my nose at that. .jpg) We are going to let Gerome Valley and doing more trials ride until the end of this session of sidequest activity. We'll get back there in a bit. St. Marguerita Island has the Fort of Regrets but that will completely stall out right now until End Game. SG Italian Branch HQ and Manmariana Island will never become relevant again. Cannes has a quest we could begin. But again will just stall out awkwardly at this point. Trust me I wasted 40 minutes recording it and was severely annoyed it just stops for no reason other than gently caress you end game flag. We can check in on Florence. .jpg) .jpg) And discover that we still need 1,578 more steps in a dungeon to complete the Steps sidequest. One day I'll take that Pedometer accessory off you, Blanca. One day... .jpg) .jpg) There is one last activity we can do today before heading north to the UK. Hey, didn't we finish up the Wolf Bout card...? Let's return to Montmartre, Paris, and have Ernest give us our due for Blanca becoming the Wolf Bout champ after defeating his undead grandpa. And the mysterious message about learning the truth from him. .jpg) I am already noticing a distinct lack of Ernest and that is troubling. But Tetsu the wolf is still hanging out. Let's chat with him. Or have Yuri awkwardly glare while Blanca chats with him. .jpg)  Awroo... Awroo! (Where's Ernest? I've got some things to ask him.) *whimper* (I don't know. He went away all of a sudden.) *whimper, whimper* (But he told me to give you this.).jpg) Tetsu forks over two items for our troubles. .jpg) The Seventh Key is the highest level multi-turn item in the game. In a different timeline, Yuri used it to punch the living gently caress out of an alien god in a single round.  We also gain The Emperor Tarot Card for Lucia. This one can either double or half the speed of our party on use. The Special Effect is Quad-Speed or 25% Speed for our party. I don't know if that was worth all these Wolf Bouts. Tetsu gives Blanca a note. .jpg)  But the Wolf Bout still isn't over. When you've really gathered all of the stamps... I promise we'll meet again. Sincerely, Ernest.  Awroo, awroo... (What's he talking about? I filled in all the stamps already...)  Awroo?! (The back?! drat! What kind of childish trick is that?!) Hey, Blanca. Did you see there's a backside to this paw print thingie? ...Awroo. (...I have become aware.) And so the fight continues. As does Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Stay tuned...     Blanca Pachinko Renders - Nobody is safe from the siren call of Japanese pseudo gambling via dead IPs. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Mar 26, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 22:25
|
|
|
What a dirty and unoriginal trick to pull on Blanca, Ernest!
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 23:47
|
|
|
something something, fill in the Blanca
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 23:57
|
|
|
I knew Konami and all future Castlevania stuff went the way of bullshit slot machines, but this series too? drat.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2021 07:20
|
|
|
It still fills me with a great amount of joy that Konami got bitten in the rear end trying to go all-in on pachinko.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2021 09:57
|
|
|
Episode CXII: The Peach Bat.jpg) Back to the Euro-Tour revisit of sidequest content. Our next stop on the list is Le Havre where we met everyone's favorite wrestler vampire, Joachim. We have a couple of items of content here. Music: Town of Twilight ~ European Town .jpg) First up, there is another failure point for the oddly complex Trading sidequest by talking to a far out of the way hobo in the rear end-end of Le Havre in an area we'd have otherwise no reason to ever visit other than getting a treasure chest with some long-obsolete Wool Coat armor during our first visit. .jpg) Food? Not really, only this moldy old rice. Maybe that's what you can smell. I am compelled to hold onto it. There is no discard option. My life is falling rapidly out of my control by unknown forces or curses. Moldy rice?! That's my favorite! Let me have it, pleeeease! Okay, but you'll be in the bathroom! Nonsense, lad. I'll poo poo off the edge of the dock. I'm homeless! I'm not gonna dive into your business, guy. Oh, I haven't had rice for ages! Here, you have this. There's no point in me hanging on to it. Tasty! This moldy rice is real tasty! It's the best! So sticky, but a little powdery too... Just visit rural Japan and talk to strangers if you ever want more moldy rice. Will do, good sir! Uh-huh....jpg) And we have another failure point of the Trading quest which merely results in another Fifth Key. We just got a Seventh Key in the last side quest and that wasn't even the last step to it. It's not even a decent reward, Extremely Poor Mahone. You lousy bum. I'm glad you starve with no moldy rice in this timeline. .jpg) There is an actual new sidequest available in Le Havre. It requires returning to Granny Lot's bar with Joachim in our active party. .jpg)  Hey, they're back! Welcome home, Joachim! Hello, kids! Have you been good! Did you miss me? Yeah! But a new bat came, so we didn't miss you too much! <crosses arms> Huh? A new bat...? That's right. We found it half-dead in front of the tavern. Me and John have been nursing it back to health. And you know what? That bat told me it's been out looking for you, Joachim, for a long time! Looking for me...? Do you know this bat? Know it? Well, I... Um... What color is this bat, exactly? Was it... silver? Or maybe... Was it using a rapier and seldom speaking up in conversations? ...Why does that sound weirdly familiar?A pink bat flies over above the kids. .jpg) Oh! I finally found you, big brother! Big brother?! Oh, man! This guy's got a sister?! After that fight, you left the castle and never came back. I've been worried! And it's been awful since you left... Ever since you broke that Demon Sword, big brother Keith hasn't stopped laughing. I can't get any sleep! You *know* he's a bored vampire! ...Why does this all sound kinda familiar? Blanking... Th-that was an accident! I was pretending to be a bad-guy wrestler, and it just bent! It wasn't my fault! They just don't make swords like they used to...! He barely earned Demon/Magic Sword, Tyrving from that optional boss fight to begin with. One more round and he would have been finished! Just save it. Ha ha ha! You mean you're nothing but a big ol' runaway? Shaddup! Just leave me alone! Joachim, aren't you ever coming back home? Why don't you just make up with Keith and come back to your coffin? Keith...? Did I know a Keith at some point? Huh... Do you remember a Keith, Karin? <shakes head> Weird... I-I want to go home, but... But I'm a champion of justice now! I have to be able to hold my head up in front of my fans, don't I?! You've been watching too much TV, bro! haven't you had enough of playing hero? Just leave me alone! This is the path I chose!.jpg) It's been close to a year now. Time is convoluted! Remember how little brother Keith said he wanted to follow Yuri to the very end? Well, I understand how he felt. I can't waste my life. I've got to pour some energy into it, do something worthwhile! I've been alive for hundreds of years, but, right now, this is the first time I finally feel really alive! Wait... Keith the VAMPIRE guy from Romania?! That's your brother?! ...Yes, of course. Wha?! You... didn't realize that...? NO! I am a Romanian vampire with the same surname of Valentine. That doesn't narrow it down! We met in your previous adventure. We did?! I was the golden bat. A form I have frequently morphed into... I challenged my brother, Keith, in the basement of Blue Castle for the Demon Sword, Tyrving. Tyrfing. Translations are rarely consistent. Yeah, totally spaced out for that. I'm kinda checked out if I don't get to punch something... ...... Gee, Joachim... I always thought you were a big dummy, but somehow... you sound pretty heroic to me right now... <flies into Joachim's face> Gaaahhh!! What do you think you're doing?!.jpg) .jpg) Thus we earn Keith's penultimate weapon: The Dark Tower -- a tiny skyscraper filled with little office workers. It gives Joachim +198 Physical and +174 Special Attack and we're automatically equipped with it. But the only way we can hold onto it is to accept the following challenge... .jpg) It's a present! It makes noise if you shake it, 'cause there are little people working in that building! And they are facing a deadline right now, you know, so they're really irritable. It makes 'em really fierce in battle! The deadline crunch is real and they have to ship by next month. Many of them are sleeping under their desks to maintain the status quo. Ghastly business practices! I don't make the rules. What in the world is this girl talking about...? Anyway, I don't know if I'm too thrilled getting this weapon... This seems like a union striking waiting to happen. Pah. The little people council will fire the lot of them before they ever get the chance to unionize. Despicable. And now it's time to test your skills! I have to make sure you're ready for that weapon, you know. What?! I have to fight you? Of course! And I'm really good too! If you lose, it's game over, you know! In the fifth turn, I'm going to hit you with a really deadly blow, so plan your strategy carefully. Okay, here we go! Fine. I'll give it my best shot!.jpg) Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe .jpg) And so we are thrown into a battle with the Peach Bat. Who crops up again as a party member in Shadow Hearts: From the New World, Hildegard Valentine, much like Joachim the Golden Bat does in this game. This fight is quite similar to the Golden Bat fight to get Keith Valentine's ultimate weapon from the endgame of Shadow Hearts 1. .jpg) The Peach Bat has 777 HP and is of the Earth Element like the other Valentine siblings. All she does initially per turn is buff herself with Energy Charge. The biggest difference in this fight to the one from Shadow Hearts 1? .jpg) Take this!!.jpg) .jpg) She's full of poo poo with giving Joachim five turns before attacking. It's only four turns and she will instant kill Joachim and it is, in fact, a real Game Over if she does so. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) The counter to this is to just burn one of those Third Key items we have been stocking up and have Joachim flip out. He can easily take out his sister in a single round if doing so. .jpg) Doing so gives Joachim a nice chunk of Experience Points, a decent payout, and a Lottery Ticket for good measure. Plus we get to keep the gnome office building for Joachim to use in battle. Music: Town of Twilight ~ European Town .jpg) Well, I guess this is goodbye. I like it here though, so I think I'll be staying for a while. It'd be a pain in the butt to fly all the way back to Romania. Plus, Keith keeps avoiding cleaning up all of those wolf corpses around the castle estate. It's really annoying. That monster dog mayor rotting in Bistriz is REALLY starting to stink up the place.The Peach Bat flies off. Hey! Sis! She said the fifth turn, but she would have hit me in the fourth! My sister... No sense of honor or proper caloric intake with snacks..jpg) It's that strange building near Shinagawa Station in Tokyo... You want it? Not in the least. In fact kinda sketched out there's a bunch of little dudes in some office building you're lugging around and hitting people with. This is a Valentine family tradition! ...You do you, man..jpg) Eek! Eek! Hee hee hee! Little human boys sure are cute! Try not to suck the kid's blood or anything. It's bad enough he doesn't have a character portrait. ...For now. But only because you're friends with my brothers. Take care, Joachim. We'll be waiting for you!.jpg) And that concludes our business in Le Havre for now. We may return there later for one more assignment. But now our focus turns to the only Wine Cellar in all of 1915 France. Do you recall that mini-game that was matching crates in the back of this nothing-burger of a dungeon? Well, if not too bad. It has a second phase to it now. Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon .jpg) It costs 500 Cash to play this time. There are sixteen treasure chests now, but you get four chances to win! And of course, the first person to open them all gets a special prize this time too. So what do you say, Mister? It's 500 Cash, but I'll do it! That's like punching one cat worth of Cash. All right! You've got four chances! Let's play Lucky Chests!!.jpg) .jpg) It's another match the items randomly distributed game that I certainly didn't cheese to gain the desired result. I'm shocked you'd even think I did such a thing. .jpg) .jpg) The grand prize is yet another Magic Crest for our nearing completion collection. I think there is a little over a dozen left to collect. And they're mostly behind endgame bullshit. .jpg) We will have to actually go back to the Wine Cellar for one more phase of that mini-game once we reach the final dungeon. But that is in the distance of the uncertain future. Our final stop for today will be the Port of Southampton. Music: Town of Twilight ~ European Town .jpg) Particularly, we want to go to the Hope and Anchor Bar/Restaurant where we stayed after our voyage to the UK and met Special Agent Kato for the first time in this game's adventure. There are two people we want to speak to here. The first is Sefo, the Rescued Barfly we saved from other poo poo bar patrons during our first visit. .jpg) I always said, if there was somebody good enough, I'd let it go. So here! You earned it! It's just talk! People saying the queen hid the Final Nibelung Scene away in a secret castle... It's all just talk!.jpg) .jpg) Thus we earn the second to last Nibelung manuscript and power up Karin's Geuschbenst Sword Art. As for the final piece. Again, that is sequestered to the end of the game world tour. Shadow Hearts 2 really doesn't want us to earn any ultimate equipment or techniques early. That out of the way, we now to head upstairs to one of the inn rooms to find a newly spawned NPC that is one of the final steps to completing the Trading Sidequest. This is the correct person to trade with this time. .jpg)  Huh? What's that moldy smell? Oh, sorry! It's me. I mean, I'm carrying this around with me. Don't ask me why. I am as baffled as you are at this point... Rice-grown mold, huh? That takes me back... I was doing research into that up until a few months ago. ...Will you let me have that? I'll swap it for this Research Paper. Sure, you got it. I want this out of my pocket. Just one thing. Please don't give that paper to anybody except someone you really trust, okay? If the wrong person gets ahold of it, it could destroy the world. I'm not exaggerating, okay? I'm serious... What else is new?.jpg) .jpg) And thus we gain the final trade item in this questline -- the Research Paper. .jpg) We cannot successfully complete the Trading Questline, like so many others, until the final dungeon is unlocked. However, the second-best reward can be obtained now. It's not the optimal end to this questline. But if we return to Himovic, the Straw Merchant who sent us down this path, to begin with... .jpg) Oh, it's you! So, what happened? Did you manage to swap the straw for something you wanted? Nah, it hasn't been going well. Somehow, all I ended up with is this Research Paper. Research paper? Do you mind if I take a look? OK. What is this all about, then...? Oh, my god! W-what are you doing with this?! Where did you get it?! Some guy gave it to me. He's doing research into mold or something. A dude in the inn across the plaza. I traded it for weeks-old molding rice. It was weird... I see... I thought it was just rumors, but it really did exist after all. Would you consider letting me have this? I'll buy it from you. Just name the price. Really? Okay, then, 100,000 Cash for you! That's an associate of the Hyuga gang price. Very well. 100,000 it is! What?! You're gonna pay up?! I was just joking, you know....jpg) At this point we can just trade this for a cool 100,000 Cash. But also... .jpg) He can be refused and the asking price goes up to 300,000 Cash. He really wants what I'm fairly sure is some kind of nerve agent that our dipshit protagonist has gotten their hands on by trading a pocket full of molding rice. .jpg) <hands over 300,000 Cash> Well? I was right, wasn't I? One bit of straw can make you a small fortune. You're right! I never would've believed it, but you're right? It rings a little hollow getting the fortune from the person that sent me to do this in the first place. But ehh... Okay, I'm off now. I've got to read through this document. For science, you see. ...What kinda science? Of the unethical variety. Does it involve demon stuff or curses? Not to my knowledge. OK. Not my problem. A good day to you.Himovic, Definitely Not Going to Produce a Nerve Agent wanders off out of the game. .jpg) Sure, why not? We can't do anything with it. And besides, look at all the cash we got!Yeah, but... I dunno. I've just got a bad feeling about it... Yeah, but cash! ...... CASH! ...OK. But that is another instance of an aborted timeline for that quest and so we take our leave of the Port of Southampton never to return. Tune in next time as we... oh, gently caress. I've got to do the Pit Fights? Ugh. Dammit!    Joachim Valentine Concept Art - Who is this Keith? I don't remember that guy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2021 22:50
|
|
|
I think if my office building was being used by one Kaiju to beat up a lot of others, unionizing and deadlines would be fairly low on my priority list. "Get out before the building shatters or I get thrown into a wall at bone crushing speed" would maybe be more important. I also have some concerns about trading moldy rice to the guy who apparently knows how to turn mold into worldwide Sarin Gas or something, but he gave us the research paper and I'm sure it's the only copy and he doesn't remember anything about writing it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2021 23:37
|
|
|
Hold on, the guy who gave Yuri the research paper on mould was called Fleming... Could that be Alexander Fleming, the person who invented penicillin?
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2021 23:52
|
|
|
Epicmissingno posted:Hold on, the guy who gave Yuri the research paper on mould was called Fleming... Could that be Alexander Fleming, the person who invented penicillin? Almost certainly a reference to him, yes.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 00:46
|
|
|
Trivia: that building? that's where Sacnoth/Nautilus Inc. used to reside in back when it existed, so Joachim is swinging around the creators of the series.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 01:02
|
|
|
The temporally displaced creators of the series, natch 
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 01:04
|
|
|
I feel sorry for anyone who was really overconfident and neglected to save solely due to said arrogance, only to be cheesed by the Peach Bat's turn fuckery at the last minute.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 02:10
|
|
|
Joachim gave Keith an extra turn so it's only fair that it gets taken back now.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 02:25
|
|
|
Hilda is my favorite of the three Valentine siblings.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 04:52
|
|
|
I remember Hildegard being one of the most annoying characters in Shadow Hearts 3. She is such in this game too. So who is the right person to give penicillin, I wonder?
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 04:57
|
|
|
Weeble posted:Hilda is my favorite of the three Valentine siblings. Hilda is best Valentine simply because her transformation mechanic is more manageable than Joachim's.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 05:42
|
|
|
Weeble posted:Hilda is my favorite of the three Valentine siblings. Yeah I like Hilda a lot too, no offense to Joachim. She brings a lot of needed energy to the FtNW cast when she joins.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 13:41
|
|
|
I wasn't a big fan of her battle mechanic or the baggage associated with it also because I always felt like I was missing text every time she spoke up in a cutscene. She herself was fine, I guess? had something going on beyond being wa-wa-wacky or the straight guy, which a lot of the FTNW characters didn't. Joachim is still the best though.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 14:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 11:46 |
|
|
My favorite Valentine vampire is Keith- he’s probably the kind of vampire I’d be if I ever became one.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 15:59
|
|