|
I love how this outfit that exists for nothing but horny somehow warranted concept art.
|
#
?
May 11, 2021 01:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 13:55 |
|
|
Robindaybird posted:Like the Dating outfit is stupidly horny but least it's honest that it's the horny outfit while her current hot mess is 'borrowed doll clothes' which you know was only an excuse for how short her skirt is. I mean there's also the fact that she has been to a huge number of major cities and hasn't bothered to grab a single new outfit.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2021 01:20
|
|
|
Somehow, those two lines about getting lunch struck me as extra absurd.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2021 01:20
|
|
|
The Dark Id posted:
It's awful hard to tell with this game, but did it actually go full meta or should this be in italics?
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2021 01:27
|
|
How long do you think he's going to talk?
|
Qrr posted:It's awful hard to tell with this game, but did it actually go full meta or should this be in italics? That's in the game. Endgame quests just completely stop giving a gently caress. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 02:19 on May 11, 2021 |
|
#
?
May 11, 2021 02:16
|
|
|
The Dark Id posted:
I refuse to dignify that Dating Outfit with a response. What the hell, Shadow Hearts
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2021 02:19
|
|
|
The Dark Id posted:That's in the game. Endgame quests just completely stop giving a gently caress. I can't wait for Yuri's best line in an endgame quest.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2021 02:33
|
|
|
Way to overshadow Joachim's ultimate best weapon with that... outfit, Dark Id. 
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2021 21:29
|
|
|
Hello, Horny Yuri. We haven't seen you since, what, since Lucia's introduction? At least Horny Yuri being weirdly out of character for our Rude Hero protagonist is better than it being constantly in character.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2021 06:43
|
|
|
When I played the game I didn't start the Fort of Ruin until the final sidequest rampage, after all the plot beats had been beaten out - I remember being convinced/worried that the ghost at the bottom of the fortress was going to be Nicolai and he was going to ask Karin to forgive him for being such a creepy stalker shithead and give her his fancy sword as her ultimate weapon. I'm still kind of sad this didn't happen. I was not the most completionist player of this game, nooooo
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2021 08:11
|
|
|
Picayune posted:When I played the game I didn't start the Fort of Ruin until the final sidequest rampage, after all the plot beats had been beaten out - I remember being convinced/worried that the ghost at the bottom of the fortress was going to be Nicolai and he was going to ask Karin to forgive him for being such a creepy stalker shithead and give her his fancy sword as her ultimate weapon. I'm still kind of sad this didn't happen. I could only see that ending with her kicking him in the crotch, snapping the sword, then the screen cutting away, as she does something to make him shriek like a 5 year old girl and disappear while she calls him a creep.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2021 15:27
|
|
|
Aww, I would've preferred her army outfit. Also, due to future knowledge that was unintentionally gained years before playing this game, this outfit makes me...uncomfortable.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2021 01:16
|
|
|
Episode CXXIV: Château de Tiffauges.jpg) Today's session sees us return to Italy for a brief check-in to Florence for a couple of reasons.  Music: Town of Twilight ~ European Town .jpg) First off, let's check in on Healthy Rooney and the Steps Sidequest. Despite having had someone (Blanca 95% of the time) equipped with the Pedometer for all dungeons outside of boss fights, since that has little use there, we're still only at 8550 steps and we're already one optional dungeon deep. Healthy Rooney shows options for up to 9000 Steps rewards. But the true prize is a character's ultimate armor obtained by walking 10,000 Steps. So, it seems like we ought to go dungeon crawling some more to get ourselves up to snuff. .jpg) We are also not playing around anymore and sliding straight into .jpg)  I know of this treasure. You could steal it and sell it off. It's a sure thing! It's got a lot of history. Look, if I tell you any more, I might get a ghostly curse put on me. What d'you wanna do? I'm scared of ghosts. Count me out. Yeah, but the loot behind the ghosts. I already have one curse. I don't need a second one. That would be my third curse. That would just be embarrassing. Have I mentioned talk there are also power-ups alongside the treasure? ...This changes everything. Tell me, tell me! Nerves of steel! Great! Things would be pretty dull otherwise, right?! So... It's this huge mirror that vibrates with the voice of a ghost. They say an evil demon'll come out if you look in. Apparently, it's hidden away in some old fort in Bretagne in France. Well, wanna test your nerves?!.jpg) Returning to the World Map will now unlock Tiffauges Castle in the far western section of France. Tiffauges Castle or Château de Tiffauges is a real 12th century castle. Though it is in a far greater state of disrepair and decay than we'll see here.  It is best known for being the home of Gilles de Rais, a comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc in the 100 Years' War. He then went on to blow his family's fortune trying to get a lavishly expensive theater production off the ground to the point the rest of his family had to step in to cut him off and get the King of France had to put out a royal edict to make sure nobody did business with him since he's an idiot with money. Seriously, the production he did, Le Mystère du Siège d'Orléans, had 140 roles with speaking parts across 20,000 verses and included 500 extras and required 600 costumes which were only used once per play, threw out and had new costumes made. For reasons. He also had an all-you-can-eat unlimited buffet for spectators. This man was not good with budgeting. Rais then got big into the occult, particularly alchemy and demon summoning. Tried to summon a demon a few times in a get-rich quick scheme Faustian deal, as you do, with no luck. He then ead the fine print on rituals and saw the part about how child sacrifices might do the trick. Which, one thing led to another and he ended up, you know, being one of the earliest recorded serial killers having raped and murdered somewhere in the ballpark of 100-200 children in the mid-1400s. As you do. He's the inspiration for the Bluebeard fable. He also has the dubious honor of being the fake Dracula in Castlevania 64. That's what really tarnished his legacy, honestly. Not a great fella all and all! His castle is the next optional dungeon in our Endgame campaign. Though to call it a "new" dungeon may be a bit of a misnomer... Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God .jpg) Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Copy and pasted content. How lazy can you get...?.jpg) Remember before, when Jovis sent Karin and me on a little trip? This is the place. Or based on it... since that place was somewhere in my soul that my old nemesis is hanging out and was imprisoning the power of Amon. Ergh... it's complicated. Hmm. So that must mean... <nods> Yup, the castle where Amon was. Anyone know what the deal with this castle is...? It's weird it is in the real world too. It was home of a child-killing mass murderer aristocrat from the 1400s. Oh... huh... That's dark. Especially, you knowing that... Aristocrats keep tabs on other aristocrats. History is important..jpg) .jpg) Tiffauges Castle isn't actually just the Mirror Palace copy and pasted. It's just using all the assets of the Mirror Palace and placing twice as many corridors between copy and pasted connecting rooms. So just a more tedious version of the former dungeon, if we're being honest. Got to get the most mileage we can out of those assets! It's going to be a mind gently caress when we get to the next bonus optional dungeon and it is nearly 100% new assets and a healthy amount of effort put into it. It's akin to Kowloon Walled City in Shadow Hearts 1 where they stuck a horror dungeon with more effort put forth into it than the last handful of dungeons combined and then stuck it in an out of the way easily missed segment of the game. Tiffauges Castle is just fairly dull and not actively a dumpster fire of frustrating design and random encounters out the rear end. It's essentially just going down a linear path and being sure to scrape side paths for loot and a few sidequest continuation hooks scattered around. This dungeon only took a little over an hour and I probably could have shaved off a few minutes if I didn't accidentally get turned around and bypassed a shortcut by mistake. It's easy to do when every single room looks like the above two screenshots. Doom WADs from 1994 had more landmarks than most Shadow Hearts: Covenant dungeons. The only item of note beyond this is that this is the Yuri mandatory dungeon but... why would you ever take Yuri out of your main party? I forgot this game even offered removing him from the active squad as an option this go around. That said, they have at least sprinkled in a new monster mash infesting the halls of Gilles de Rais' murder castle. Let's take a look-see. .jpg) Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe .jpg) First up we have these alien bat-looking creatures known as the Duergar. Which is a misspelling of the Norse name for a dwarf, "Dvergar." You know, bearded dudes. Like to mine the earth for riches. Those kinds of dwarfs. Umm... I'm not seeing it, Shadow Hearts 2. What I am seeing is a Dark elemental creature with 212 HP that is easily defeated and only has strength in numbers, coming usually 4-6 per battle. They can cast Dark elemental magic Evil Summoning and their physical attacks have the potential to inflict Fickle Ring (Judgment Ring slows and speeds up at random.) Other than that, not much to say here. .jpg) Next up we have Peg O'Nell, a floating blind mermaid surrounded by levitating swords it enjoys flinging into our party members' chest and occasionally throwing out some Wind elemental spells. Good guess that it is a Wind elemental being, given that knowledge. And it has 322 HP. Again, not too much of an issue. This dungeon was definitely meant to be done early on in the endgame content compared to the Neam Ruins. But, the developer intended order of events and LP update flow to smoothly pace out content are different beasts. So we'll just have to deal.  Peg O' Nell refers to an English folklore tale of a servant girl working at an estate in Lancashire, England who was sent out to fetch water in the middle of winter, slipped on ice, and broke her neck on the well she was to fetch said water. This resulted in her spirit cursing the land or some such and she was the source of woe blame for dipshits drowning or falling down wells. Or something akin to that. It's one of those obscure rear end folklore stories that has so many games of telephone recounting it that no two sources say the same thing other than well involved and a servant died. Hell, their gender swaps in some of the retellings. The point being water ghost mad. Don't gently caress around with wells. It doesn't even have a Wikipedia article. But, not that any of that matters since at no point did I think it was a flying mermaid demon with a quartet of telekinetic eight-foot-long swords. .jpg) The last creature on the roster of Tiffauges Castle beasties is this chungus baby thing known as the Muscida. These are the walls of meat health pool rich enemies of this dungeon with 808 HP and a Water elemental affinity. They mostly like to just smash into targets. If they're not doing that they have a pair of buffs with Arc Rage and Arc Surge. Arc Rage and its physical attacks actually smarts pretty hard to the tune of nearly 300 HP of damage. But the only time that will be an issue is the rare encounter pool where it's just two of these big boys lumbering in for a tag-team match and that is rare. If you're wondering, and you probably weren't but I like looking up the name origin trivia so gently caress you! Muscida is another shorthand name for Omicron Ursae Majoris (though Omicron UMa is the currently common term in Astronomy nerd circles) a star system light in the Ursa Major constellation. I haven't the foggiest idea what that has to do with a 12-foot tall bloated mutant baby. But it's not like the last few vague astronomical reference names have had much in common with their creatures either. b.jpg) c.jpg) Getting back on track, as I said this dungeon is essentially just running a straight circuit hitting any points of interest along the way. Such as another Magic Crest. Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God .jpg) And a dapper man just hanging out in the middle of the hall in this demon-infested castle of a mass child murderer. Nothing suspicious here. .jpg)  Go wherever you like inside the castle, but if you wander into the Mirror World, you'll find it very hard to get back. Thanks for the info. And who are you? I'm simply a mere guide. That is all...So given this guy is named "Beard" and Gilles de Rais is the basis for Bluebeard... this is probably his surprisingly polite for mass rapist and serial murderer of hundreds of children ghost. I'm sure it's fine to just let him hang out being a tour guide. No, really. It's fine. There's nothing to be done with him. .jpg) .jpg) It's not like almost all the rest of the NPCs wandering these halls are the ghosts of murdered children trapped in a mirror dimension purgatory for all eternity. .jpg) Oh, wait no... That's exactly what the rest of the NPCs in this dungeon are as soon as we teleport through the first of two mirror zones. Whoops! .jpg)  I don't know what's on the other side, though.Spoilers: It's more of the dungeon. We could jump through there to progress. But if we continue to a dead end in this first mirror corridor, we find... .jpg) Another one of Lucia's Tarot Cards. There are only two remaining after this. One is in the Lucia character-specific dungeon. And the other is in The Vessel at the Asuka Stone Platform toward the very end of the game. Kurando and Lucia just both get a shrug and they gave up stick it in the final dungeon last upgrades since they had way too many associated with them and they showed up way the hell too late in the game to mash things in, respectively. .jpg) The Devil Card does what it says on the box. It inflicts one status effect on all the enemies and the entire party if reversed. Double that to two status effects if the Special Effect is in play. And ignore the part where most enemies are immune to 90% of status effects and nearly every boss is completely immune to all of them making this about as useful as an rear end in a top hat on my elbow. Throwing this in the pile of collectibles that will rot, we now can proceed through the portal mirror near Maivia, Full of Curiosity, and proceed to a new hallway. This time we're going to want to start heading south to progress as this is a mirror version of the previous segment. But if we head north again, to the mirror version of where we found the Devil Tarot Card, we now find... .jpg) I'm twenty-five, kid. Bah. Look at you. A baby. I would be a 477 if I didn't get murdered when I was six years old. ...That is uhh, rough, kid. <transforms into Lottery Member 4> Now you're gonna start crying, I suppose! Look, I'll let you do the lottery okay? So don't cry! Okay, I won't cry! I would be confused how a murdered spirit trapped in a mirror dimension can be a Lottery Member but you're not even the first ghost to do this. Don't cry about what's through the looking glass..jpg) Alicia in Wonderland's gimmick is she has an Invisible Ring for the Lottery. But the game will briefly show it a split second at the start and they're of far more generous width than usual. .jpg) The top prize is a unique item in the Demon Ward accessory. This is another returning item from Shadow Hearts 1. Identical to the previous title, it gives a paltry +1 Special Defense but it also halves the random battle encounter rate should we need to return to an earlier area where random battles are 100% a waste of time. So pretty much any dungeon prior to the endgame at this point. This is good for just running in to pick any missed Magic Crests or what have you from areas but otherwise, we really should be fighting everything we come across. .jpg) We've actually already met Lottery Member #3 back in the Fort of Regrets. Once we leave this area, we can conclude the Lottery sidequest in short order. But that'll be next time. Let's continue our adventure in the serial murderer noble's overly blue endless corridors of a castle and talk to some more dead children, shall we? .jpg)  What does she got to be afraid of? We're already dead! What's going to be worse than getting your head sawed off while you're still alive? I don't get her. She's dumb..jpg) This is a dead-end for now but we can come to the other side of this door to use as a shortcut later. For now, we're going to teleport through another mirror to a central segment of the dungeon. To the north of where we end up is a save point and the end goal of the region. Perhaps a boss fight. So we're going to head south first and explore that area. .jpg)  You start getting really tired when you haven't slept or aged for 400 years.It's worth noting that around the corner to the west from Rhodes, Afraid of Something is another Crucifix in a chest. Which is always useful to have. .jpg) But if we head to the south from the dead boy, we find a mirror version of the room we began in and a wolf chilling out. Tossing that Crucifix on Blanca isn't a bad idea before approaching this wolf. Who we have met before. It is of note that this Wolf Bout only appears if we've done the previous twelve Wolf Bouts and returned to Tetsu to find that Ernest has left and there's a backside to the Wolf Bout paw print collection sheet. Anyway, this is Henri the old man who was transformed into a wolf we fought in the return visit to the Sapientes Gladio Italian HQ ages ago. .jpg) Hey, you're that talking wolf! Got tired of that typical bad-guy headquarters back in Italy, huh? <groans and shakes head> <enters defensive stance> Grrr... (Something's wrong with him!).jpg)  <barks repeatedly>  Yikes! What happened?! He turned wild all of a sudden! Blanca, what did you say to him? What did you do?! Did you say something like... wolf racist...? Awroo! Grr! (No, you dolt! Something is wrong!) Yeah, you should probably apologize. He looks really pissed! It takes some anger or demonic possession to get a new character portrait. I'll bring him back to his sense.Music: Soul Comet ~ Spirit of the Wolf .jpg) He doesn't even understand me right now. I hate to have to do it, but I can't just leave him when he's like this!.jpg) Music: Soul Comet ~ Spirit of the Wolf .jpg) Henri ~ Round 2! He is still an Earth elemental wolf but his feral state has jumped him from 300 HP to 1200 HP. .jpg) All he does is spam physical attacks that inflict Reverse Ring. So what we're going to do is throw up a Shield so all of his attacks do 1-2 HP of damage. .jpg) And just throw Soul Comet at him until he goes down for a second time. The fight lasted all of 90 seconds. Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Blanca gets another win on the Wolf Bout circuit and we also receive a Valuable Gem. This has no functional use and is actually quite rare in this series 100% Vendor Trash to the tune of 50,000 Cash (62,500 Cash if we up it with our current 25% max mark-up rate.) Not that we're remotely hurting for Cash. I haven't even remembered to sell this and there are still three updates worth of content I have recorded and we're sitting on over a million Cash at the moment. Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God .jpg) <shakes head> I don't feel too good about that one. What use is winning when he isn't even in his right mind? And it is someone I already have beaten once. Does this even count for the bouts?.jpg) Awroo? (What happened to you, anyway?) Well... after you beat me, I traveled the world looking for a way to break my curse. Along the way, I heard that if I saw my reflection in the Mirror of Truth here in Mirror Castle, I would change back. I'm ashamed to admit the result. Not only did I not turn back, I ended up changing into a wild beast! Who knows? Maybe that's your true character? Ha ha ha. I guess I deserved that. Hehe. It's like Blanca here. He seems like a big tough wolf but he's a big soft fuzzball deep down. This human is the single worst judge of character I have ever met and that is interacting with other humans, much less me. ...Well, I don't want to keep you standing around listening to an old man talk. Here, Blanca. This is for you..jpg) And so we gain the first of the final three of Blanca's Wolf Bout prints. After this dungeon, we can also complete the Wolf Bout sidequest in fairly short order. But we'll save that one for a little later. .jpg) Henri, reduced to a wild, crazed wolf after peering into the Mirror of Truth. Barbaric and unable to communicate, but three times stronger than before. Citation needed. Unless you're just talking about his health pool. And even then it would be four times stronger. Where did you learn math, game description blurb? .jpg) ...... Who the heck is Ernest? Awroo, awroo! (The one who started us on this ridiculous Wolf Bout journey.) Yeah, it doesn't ring a bell for me either, boy. He is the one who started you on this ridiculous Wolf Bout journey. Oh, right! That old weirdo. Blanca, you should listen to this old-timer. He knows a thing or two.  .jpg) Now just to retrace our steps to the north and the boss area. If we take the path east at the crossroads from Rhodes, Afraid of .jpg) .jpg) The scared girl behind the locked door from earlier that is also recalling how she was a victim of the good lord Rais and his infinite love of grisly child murder. This is a one-way shortcut but it does save traveling down a couple of bonus corridors. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) To the north of this corridor, we find a save point and a mirror leading north. Which forces us into a mandatory battle against all the beasties of Tiffauges Castle. Nothing to that. .jpg) .jpg) We now find ourselves in the room wherein the Mirror Palace we faced the boss fight version of Amon. Let's see what we find this time around... Music: ENDS .jpg) .jpg) ...... ...... So you came back... ?!.jpg) Yuri about faces and looks around confused before turning back to the mirror he was inspecting and finding... .jpg) ...... !! ...... Hehe...Albert Simon walks out of the mirror. .jpg) So this is where you live now, huh...? It's more of a spiritual holiday of sorts. But... Yes, this is Tiffauges Castle. Yeah, I read the sign on the map getting here.Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God .jpg) I made my soul pact with Amon here. That sounds like a retcon, Albert. Retroactive continuity alterations involve changing pre-established facts to more convenient to the current narrative's molding in a way that is incongruent to previous information given. I possessed a Soul Pact with Amon before you stole it away. There was never information of where I obtained such power previously. This is merely new information you have obtained. Please use terminology properly, young man. Tch. If you say so. This was once home to Gilles de Rais, a powerful French nobleman. .jpg) After his lover was executed as a heretic, he turned to the dark arts. Rumors of his devil worship spread and he too was executed by the Church. Yeah, Al, there's a LOT of ghost kids out there that I am pretty sure were killed by this guy. I never said I approved of his methodology. I am just stating history. Didn't you give the Émigré book to some crazy doctor in London? That guy killed a LOT of orphan kids using that thing. I gave him tools, yes. I did not tell him the means to orchestrate the use of those tools. Ehhhh... I don't think this argument is going to hold up, guy. We can discuss the morality of child sacrifice for greater purposes at a later time. To return to the discussion at hand....jpg) That was almost 500 years ago... Even love can turn to tragedy... Time changes nothing..jpg) The world today is still filled with madness and rage... Letting that young lad unleash all the pent-up Malice in the Vatican hasn't helped matters. I could have told you myself not to approach the level of Malice the church contains in its walls. <rubs neck> Yeah, not my best hour... In any case, you used it well, didn't you? Amon's power. Yeah, I took out Rasputin. Good. That man was... hmph... A huge dick? Cruder language than I would employ. But yes. He was a dick. But a much more powerful enemy appeared... Uh... <looks to the floor> .......jpg) ...... A vast power lies beyond this mirror. A forbidden power surpassing Amon's. A forbidden power?! I call it... Amon 2: The Sequel to Amon. ...... Can we workshop that, Albert? Hmm. Amon X2! That is just Amon 2 but you put an "X" in front of it. That's still lame. Amon X2 #Reload! ...X2 Sharp Reload? What the hell does that even MEAN Albert? Fine. Amon XX Slash What is with the "X"s?! What does that mean, Albert?! What are you doing? Amon XX Accent Core Plus R Albert Simon, pal. Are you... are you having a stroke? Can ghosts have strokes? Amon Xrd. What...?! I'm good with words and I know that is NOT a word! Fine. OK... How about... Neo Amon? ...... ...... ...... ...... ...Yeah, that works..jpg) It is yours if you can but defeat me..jpg) Do you wish to try again?.jpg) Yeah. It won't be like before. This time the gloves are coming off!!.jpg) That's fine with me. You did kill me the last time. I don't imagine it can get much worse than that. You'd be surprised..jpg) Music: Ladder to Heaven .jpg) It is time to face Neo Amon which is just Amon but bulkier and with much more HP. The Neo Amon incarnation has gone up to 6660 HP and is still a Non-Elemental affinity. Regular Amon works perfectly well as a counter here. Last time we had only Karin and Yuri in the party so we had to manage healing only getting two actions per turn. With a full party of four characters, Neo Amon is a complete joke. .jpg) .jpg) Neo Amon supposedly has access to a new high-end magic spell. But I let it have seven turns before reloading and doing the battle properly and all it did was punch, kick and cast the same spells it did in the original fight but with higher damage output. .jpg) .jpg) So... nothing really to say here. Use buffs. Do Combos. Compared to Orobas in the Neam Ruins, the final showing of Albert Simon as an adversary is frankly a letdown. Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) For our efforts, everyone but Gepetto gets a Level Up. We overall get less cash than fighting the berserker Henri in that Wolf Bout when factoring in the Valuable Jewel drop. And we get the Amon Magic Crest which is equipped with the highest level Fire magic elemental spell in the game. Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God .jpg) .jpg) I've gotten pretty good at kicking your rear end. Hehe. The ultimate demon. That's a fitting name for you, Godslayer! Maintain that title, boy. I cannot hold too much ill-will being defeated by a Godslayer. Hehe. I'll try..jpg) And with that, Albert Simon's spirit fades away and departs the franchise. And Yuri gains his penultimate Fusion -- Neo Amon. .jpg) Yuri briefly remembers one of the one hundred and twenty-nine times Alice flashed him wearing the shortest skirt on the planet until Karin came along and suddenly Madagascar is wiped off the map. Beyond that, by default level, Neo Amon has a few extra, very powerful (and MP costly) magic spells unique to it. We'll look into them later. But stat-wise, at base level we gain:
.jpg)
.jpg) The game is polite enough to teleport us out of Tiffauges Castle and for once we have no reason to return to a completed dungeon. So that's another one added to the list and immediately crossed off. That's what I like to see as Shadow Hearts: Covenant's endgame continues.   We did finish another dungeon, so it's time for another dip into the Library. Monster: .jpg) ...Are you sure some bat demons from deep, forbidden recesses of the rotten core of the earth didn't just eat all the dwarves and make up a bullshit story after they stole all their poo poo? .jpg) Ignore the fact it is clearly a female creature. .jpg) Note: Do not topple off cliffs when you're an angel still waiting to receive your wings. It's a bad scene. .jpg) It's just a conga line of threats that can end the world right around World War I. Character: .jpg) Considering Shadow Hearts: From the New World is set in America you would expect that maybe she might also make a cameo appearance in that game as well. But it's a bad game and that does not occur so Margarete's next point of interest is a firing squad in France in 1917 for being exceptionally bad at espionage.   Video: Episode 124 Highlight Reel   Albert Simon Portrait Concept Art - You keep whatever headgear you wear upon death into the afterlife. Little known fact.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 02:49
|
|
|
The game is correct about Henri's HP. It has to do with the way it's worded. 1200 is three times more than 300, like the game says. It's 300 + (300 * 3). 1200 is four times as much as 300. It's 300 * 4.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 03:33
|
|
|
There is a reason to go back to Tiffauges later. After finishing the wolf bout, Henri will turn back into a human and talking to him will have that form added to the character library.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 03:51
|
|
|
...! posted:The game is correct about Henri's HP. It has to do with the way it's worded. Sounds like the term is inconsistent because I have never heard "X times more" used the way you just did.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 04:28
|
|
|
Percentages work like that for sure, and it's a constant source of confusion.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 04:40
|
|
|
I mean, what if Peg O’Nell is trans, having realized such in death?
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 06:18
|
|
|
AweStriker posted:I mean, what if Peg O’Nell is trans, having realized such in death? i love my dead trans ghost.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 06:38
|
|
|
Still waiting for Amon Strive
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 09:50
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure the "Three Times Stronger" comment is supposed to be another Gundam reference. In particular Char (played by the same dude who voices our favorite Good Boy) red Zaku II is said to be "three times faster" which is kind of a meme in Japan. (You'll see it show up a *lot* in JRPGs, especially where red robots are involved.)
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 09:54
|
|
|
Its 3 times stronger in dogs
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2021 21:11
|
|
|
I'll settle for Genesic Amon
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2021 03:40
|
|
|
How’s Amon Strive measure up?
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2021 05:09
|
|
|
I wonder when we'll get the Neo Amon HD Remix.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2021 22:44
|
|
|
Malachite_Dragon posted:I'll settle for Genesic Amon We can do Generic Amon. That work?
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2021 22:45
|
|
|
Episode CXXV: Getting Armored Up.jpg) Let's take a breather from dungeon crawling and instead switch focus on gaining some ultimate equipment for a healthy chunk of the gang. As you'll recall, we set out to Tiffauges Castle initially as an excuse to Music: Town of Twilight ~ European Town .jpg)  Keep up the good work! Don't stop your excellent fitness walking! How did you gain so many steps in such a brief period of time? That's an impressive increase on the Pedometer in just a day's time.  <rubs neck> We umm... learned some new... Step tech, you could say. Well, whatever you are doing, keep it up! <already un-equipping Pedometer and walking off to sell it> Uh-huh..jpg) .jpg) Our reward for passing 10,000 Steps is a Microskirt, the ultimate armor set for Karin. Which is identical to the absurdly short skirt she is already wearing, just with +170 Physical and +166 Special Defense. The Pedometer quest yielded Margarete's ultimate armor for 10,000 Steps as well in Shadow Hearts 1 and the quest and 10,000 Step requirement continues into Shadow Hearts: From the New World for another character's ultimate armor. .jpg) Help me spread the word! Show the whole world how much fun fitness walking can be!That all said, even running through a dungeon that was composed 90% of lengthy corridors and getting a 5X multiplier per Step by cheating our asses off, we still only barely squeaked by getting the desired quota. Noting that, the Microskirt was an automatic gift reward. We can still spend the remaining 10,000 Steps on the normal Pedometer Step Exchange. Which in this case will net us a Pure Extract for 1000 Steps. But more importantly, for 9000 Steps we can obtain... .jpg) A unique accessory, the Ultra Belt -- the best Belt class accessory in the game with +10 Attack Power and +6 Special Attack Power. This was known as the Belt of Power in Shadow Hearts 1 and it was also the 9000 Step reward. Except we had to spend 10,000 Steps there to gain Margarete's ultimate armor so we never picked that up because getting 19,000 Steps is the realm of crazy people or someone playing New Game Plus. .jpg) Time to shift gears and continents, while we're at it. Since we found Alicia in Wonderland, Lottery Member #4, and already sorted out Bitter Ludwig, Lottery Member #3 way back in Disc 1 at the initial stages of the Fort of Regret sidequest, that leaves only two Lottery Members left. We need to win a prize from Members 3-16 in order to unlock the final two Lottery Members. This means we can ahead and compete the Lottery sidequest now. Which takes us back to the Kawashima estate of Mukyo-An back in the Imperial Capital of Japan. Music: Rising Sun ~ Japanese Town .jpg) We're not here to see Naniwa Kawashima. His role in the story evaporated as soon as we sorted out Minister Ishimura via guilt trip kicking the poo poo out of him. No, we're actually here to see Yoshiko Kawashima. The secret Chinese princess one, not the dead one that had a weird clone made of her by a subordinate with an unhealthy crush. .jpg)  Huh? Work? W-what are you going to do? I'm going to be a Lottery Society girl! I want all the handsome young men to think, "Wow! She's cute! I hope I get lucky with her!" ...You really need to work on that phrasing... <jumps back> A lottery girl?! B-but it'll be so... degrading! You'll... you'll have to parade around in a bikini, and....jpg) Like this... The lottery began with two people would split a rice cake at New Year's to predict their fortunes! ...Little bits of trivia like that, see!  Yeah, you're going to have to get good at magically knowing a Lottery Ticket is in people's pockets and blurting out you're a Lottery Member.  That seems blunt. I'm just saying how it usually goes when we do this. You can be my first customers! So... do you wanna do the lottery? <turns to Yuri> What do you think? Should we do it? Why not? Let's do it! It's not like a little girl is unusual for this. We just did a ghost little girl in that weird castle yesterday. And that wasn't even the first ghost doing the Lottery. Or little kid. I'm having my doubts about this Lottery business..jpg) Since Yoshiko is new to this Lottery gig, she just has a Normal Lottery Ring with no tricks. .jpg) The top-billed prize is Thief's Earrings, which are only available here. These grant +1 to all the usual accessory stats. But more importantly, they increase the Cash and item drop rate by 20% at the end of battles. I'd like to know more about this Carmen Sandiego rear end thief that pilfered an entire country. .jpg) Come back and try again sometime! I'll do a better job, I promise..jpg) Yeah, Yoshiko. That's cute, kiddo. But we're never speaking to you or your weird adopted father that renamed after his dead daughter. But now that we've hit up Lottery Member Number 2, even if she rudely didn't announce herself as such, we can now finish out this quest. This takes us back to Joachim's old haunt of Le Havre. Particularly, we want to return to Granny Lot's bar grounds and talk to the kids there again. Music: Town of Twilight ~ European Town .jpg)  Hey! It's Joachim and everybody! Welcome back, guys! <hangs back> ...... <looks at Joachim> Hey, what are you up to? Yeah, you two! Listen, is that pink bat still here? Yeah, she's here. She keeps eating all of Granny Lot's food. She's going to get fat if she keeps it up. Or get swat with a broom. And now there's another one too! Another one?! Yeah! It's really pretty! A nice silver color! Huh... A silver bat... Why does that sound kinda familiar...? <approaches the kids> Silver? No... it can't be!.jpg) <jumps back in surprise> ?!.jpg)  Hey, Yuri! It's been a while, huh?! Has my imbecile bro been causing you problems? Kevin?! Is that you?! ...Keith... ...Right. You know I suck with names. Hehe. Suck. Ergh... Keith?! Is that you?! Hey! What's an imbecile?! I don't understand! Imbecile means a pain in the butt! Look, I'm talking to Yuri right now! Keep quiet, would you?! Unless you want a repeat of the fight in Blue Castle. Oh, you're still mad at me... You broke my ultimate weapon! Yes, I am still mad at you! How about I break YOUR ultimate weapon?! No! That would endanger the lives of countless astrosailomariners!! ...What...? Don't worry about that, man. What are you doin' around here? Weird I bumped into you and Margarete the same week. Oh? You did? What is she up to these days? Spy stuff. Leaving sexy outfits with creepy old men. The usual. That sounds about right. As for me...? I'm here for one thing, and one thing only. It's pretty embarrassing, but I just got appointed president of the World Lottery Society. That's why I'm here. The president?! Were you promoted? Yeah. The last president was getting a little old, so he retired... I was just next in line. I see. Wasn't he like 700 years old?! He should've been dead ages ago! <becomes Lottery Member 1> You're right, there, Yuri! Anyway, how about doing the lottery, huh? For old times' sake? You bet! For old times' sake..jpg) Our old pal Keith the Silver Bat is the final Lottery Member, there is no Member 0 this time since Roger Bacon has retired. We're going to grab both of the top two prizes as they're both unique items. We need to contend with a Fickle Lottery Ring (speed increases and decreases.) .jpg) The Meteor Mask is the second-best headgear class accessory in the game with +10 Physical and +6 Special Defense and you get to look like a fantasy mid-boss level goon affiliated with an evil church and/or cult. A less elaborate but identical stat-wise version called the Comet Mask appeared during the Lottery quest in the previous game. .jpg) But our real prize is this set of Voldo from Soulcalibur rear end bondage gear that draws all the admiration of all the hunky boys with its +178 Physical and +158 Special Defense. This serves as, naturally, Joachim's ultimate armor. He thankfully doesn't get a different sexy costume like the Dating Outfit for Karin... .jpg) I'm gonna stay here with sis for a while. Come by any time you need anything. Yuri... The world's undergoing some pretty big changes right now. It's enough even to straighten me out! I wanna help you guys, but I've got the responsibility of being president of the World Lottery Society now... It's cool. Our party is pretty full. Just got to stop Kato from doing a Time Crash or something crap. Kato...? Oh yeah, he dropped out of the story before you joined the last party. Don't worry about it. You've got your own thing going on. I've got mine. Don't worry! Any problems in the world, your big brother can fix them! It's true. Your brother's solid. You can rely on him, for sure. He's a little... you know...though! ...I guess so. My bro would beat me in a fight, that's for sure! He is a little... you know... though, isn't he? Hey! Lay off it, guys! What d'you mean, "you know"?! You know. ...You know. I do not know!! He knows. <nods> Okay, bro, it's up to you this time. Just don't get in anyone's way, okay?.jpg) All it was back in the castle was succubus sex and vampire thrall sex and big werewolf sex and ghost sex. It all got so boring so quickly. Yeah, I don't need to hear about that, Keith! And maybe keep that talk down away from the rugrats, eh? Ack! A good point. Come back soon! Take care, Joachim. We'll be waiting for you!.jpg) And thus we never return to Le Havre! Sorry kids and former party members. Your relevance has ended. Our next stop in backpacking across Europe is a return to Petrograd. Music: Anastasia ~ Going Her Way .jpg) Now that we've finished Anastasia's character-oriented side content we can return to the Winter Palace to grab an upgrade for the princess. .jpg) Particularly, we want to return to her parent's bedroom just past the Winter Palace throne room where we shat on Rasputin's plans by showing receipts with all the old poo poo-talking the Romanov bloodline tweets he made back in the day. Along the way, we find that Gerard Magimel has oddly set-up shop in front of the throne. .jpg)  Tee hee. Because the merchant that used to be here got carried off by the revolutionists! Ooh, so scary! Well, that's what he gets for making all that money. I, on the other hand, see things from a customer's perspective.Nothing like filling in the void of war profiteering. This version of La Cage Aux Songes is unique in that Gerard sells Third Keys for 30,000 Cash a pop (15,000 if we were to get the 50% Discount.) Which given our current million Cash war chest, isn't too drat shabby. But we're going to move on to the bedroom where we get a new scene.   <gets his groove on> Sis!.jpg) ...Wait a minute. Where'd you learn to walk like that? Seems to me I've seen that walk on a certain someone... Hee hee! That new merchant that came to the palace taught me. What do you think? Pretty cute, huh?.jpg) It's very cute! I'm not sure if mother and daddy should be letting you hang around that ma— Anastasia, you're back!Empress Alexandra and Emperor Nicholas II enter the chamber. Alexei sashays up alongside his parents. .jpg)  What a happy coincidence! Your mother and I were just talking about you this very morning. Have you been all right? Haven't caught any colds or anything, have you?.jpg) Why, we just subjugated a stupid ancient evil demon in a cursed ruin in Wales last week. That's my little girl. <steps forward> Here, Anastasia, take this. It's a robe I want you to have. Your family will always be praying for your safety, my child..jpg) .jpg) And so Anastasia joins the Ultimate Armor club with the Prayer Robe which bestows upon the royal gremlin +163 Physical and +173 Special Defense. .jpg) I'm sorry I've been so cross with you, Anastasia. When I look at you, I see myself as a young girl, you see... I made my mother worry too. But now when I think back on it, it was because I was lonely. Have you been lonely, child? Mother... I've got my own personal sidekick I can boss around and kick at any time. It's like having a well-trained dog with me all the time. I'm fine! <maintains kayfabe but frowns internally> I've decided I won't treat you like a little girl anymore, and I'll try to open up and share what's on my mind. All right, Mother! And I'll try to be more considerate of your feeling from now on too. Anyway, I'm thinking of moving to Japan for good to stay with this boy I like. ...Excuse me? Buh-bye! Be back whenever!.jpg) And so we leave behind the Romanov family as they fade into the background... to all get executed by the Bolshevik revolutionaries in less than three years. Anyway, we're going to take one last trip today back to Domremy, France where our adventure began. Music: Town of Twilight ~ European Town .jpg) .jpg) Word in town with the villagers is that the ghost of Jeanne has been spotted in the church where Yuri used to squat and beat up the German Army before he got cursed by the Holy Mistletoe. Considering we know Jeanne is, in fact, a ghost... this warrants looking into. Yuri and Blanca enter the Domremy church. .jpg) Yuri collapses to the floor. .jpg) Blanca...Yuri passes out completely. Meanwhile, Jeanne's ghost materializes behind Blanca. .jpg) .jpg) Awroo?! (Jeanne?!).jpg) Awroo! Awroo! (It's Jeanne! Jeanne is here! Get up fool!) You don't have to wake Yuri up. I made him go to sleep for a while. It looks like he hasn't decided his answer yet. And he knows about me being a ghost..jpg) Guess what? I'm inside Yuri's soul. I've been watching over you and everybody from here this whole time! *whimper* (You have...?) Awroo... Awroo. (Yuri mentioned something like that... But I don't know if I should believe half the insane things he says.) Almost everything he says has been true, strangely enough. ...Awroo... (...More like disturbing...) You've been on a long, long journey, haven't you, boy? But it's almost over. He'll come up with his answer soon. Awroo? (His answer?) <nods> That's right. The answer to the question he's been asking his heart. The question of "What is happiness?" Awroo... (Happiness, huh...?) Yeah, Blanca, do you know what happiness is? A-awroo, awroo! (To me, happiness is helping the people I love.) Aw-awroo! (I don't need anything else but that.) Awroo... Awroo. Awroo... (Don't you dare tell the rest of the humans, especially the one dirt-napping... But I am fond of them. Despite everything...) ...Good boy. You know that, and that's why you've found happiness. Hee hee! What a smart boy you are! <looks down> *whimper, whimper* (I'm not smart. If I had been smart, I would've protected you...) *whimper* Awroo... (I knew I shouldn't have gotten into that big bag of bratwurst. I crashed hard afterward and slept right through the attack...) <shakes head> Don't worry, Blanca. I'm really happy now. I can be in Yuri's heart, and your heart, forever! It's really warm. Listen to me, Blanca. Don't ever stop being happy, okay? No matter what happens, make sure you go back to your new master, okay? <looks up> Awroo... (Jeanne...).jpg) <kneels over and kisses Blanca on his snout> I love you, Blanca! Awroo?! (Ack?!).jpg) .jpg) And with that, Jeanne waves goodbye to Blanca and is spirited away into the .jpg) .jpg) But not before leaving behind Blanca's ultimate armor -- the Charm Pouch. This sack of magic acorns given by a ghost child that died in the vaguest of fashions grants our good boy +166 Physical and +170 Special Defense. Yuri wakes up and climbs to his feet. .jpg) I think I saw Jeanne in my dream... Hey, where did you get that sack of acorns? Can I have one? I'm a little hungry... Grr! Awroo! (Absolutely not! Forage for your own nuts!) OK, geez. Why are you such a fussy boy today?.jpg) And that concludes today's session of mopping up endgame content. Tune in next time for a spooky mansion, character development for someone who hasn't had any since three hours into the game and more dead children as Shadow Hearts: Covenant continues!  Kawashima and Kurando Art - Just hanging out at a market doing... something? I think he might be repairing her sandal?...Maybe?
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 01:34
|
|
|
The Dark Id posted:more dead children It just keeps coming back to dead kids huh
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 01:59
|
|
|
So Gepetto’s character dungeon is next? Looking forward to it. Maybe Cornelia will become a real girl and promptly file lawsuits for extreme emotional trauma on him. I will miss the Lottery but I’m pleased many zanier quests are still ahead in the game. I think the old clockmaker in Petrograd might have one last gift for Anastasia, but I could be wrong.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 04:30
|
|
|
Yep, he's repairing her sandal, and again it's a god drat pity he joins so late
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 05:55
|
|
|
Isn't it kind of concerning when one of the most consistent themes in your LP's is dead children? Hmm.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 15:32
|
|
|
The Dark Id posted:Considering Shadow Hearts: From the New World is set in America you would expect that maybe she might also make a cameo appearance in that game as well. But it's a bad game and that does not occur Is it an interesting kind of bad? Or just bad?
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 16:06
|
|
|
StandardVC10 posted:Is it an interesting kind of bad? Or just bad? I never finished it but my impression is that they went a little too far with the wackiness and really emphasized all the annoying parts of the gameplay. Whether that's interesting is a personal matter, but it wasn't for me.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 16:19
|
|
|
FtNW had the unfortunate problem of gating some of the stuff required to both get the good ending as well as power up the Yuri character's fusions behind sidequests/places you'd least expect. As in, some of the items required to power up the Yuri character's fusions were hidden in that game's equivalent of the Trials of Solomon. And it was a relatively short game by comparison, so if you wanted Soul Energy, running from battles on a regular basis would get you back in the long run. Which is to say that if you wanted the good ending, you had to power up all the Yuri character's fusions to max, and then get the final fusion, but whoops, you have to power that one up to max too, and by that point, it is well in the endgame. So unless you want to grind mindlessly on encounters, it's best to use some of the endgame sidequests as Soul Energy fodder. That's not getting into how the good ending is creepy as poo poo, and while the bad ending is kinda depressing, it's at least kinda hot in the same way that there are people genuinely horny for Dark Samus and Lady Dimitrescu. On the plus side, the gameplay adds some interesting new quirks, and by and large, the characters are a hell of a lot more balanced and avoid overspecialization or being reduced to either overpowered or useless. The Yuri character has a lot less fusions, and aside from the final overpowered one, they're all dark elemental despite all specializing in different elemental attacks like most of Yuri's individual forms, so you can't transform to cover elemental weaknesses. The Lucia character is physical oriented and I'm pretty sure avoids the sheer random bullshit of tarot mechanics. The Valentine character's transformations are nowhere near as random as Joachim's although are a bit grindier.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 18:58
|
|
|
In my opinion, based on playing it through like a decade ago... Shadow Hearts : FtNW is not Bad. The words I'd use are Alright and Fun and probably Charming. But not Great or Interesting. Sadly old faded memories make it hard to back these opinions up.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 19:10
|
|
|
I liked it more than Xenogears. I’ll say that much.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 19:21
|
|
|
Bitter experience revisiting the things I used to like in my youth tells me that fond memories aren't exactly sufficient to call a thing good. I remember plating FtNW, but... I don't remember finishing it. There was probably a reason for that.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 19:24
|
|
|
FtNW is a good game on its own. It's just not as good as Covenant. The biggest complaint I think it has is none of the villians are that interesting so it makes the whole story not as compelling overall.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 21:38
|
|
|
Also you got to watch a Japanese studio try to handle Native American characters. I do not remember how oof this was, but that may mean that I deliberately blocked it out. on the other hand Al Capone and Eliot Ness were kind of hilarious
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 22:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 13:55 |
|
|
The Dark Id posted:He tragically doesn't get a different sexy costume like the Dating Outfit for Karin... FTFY
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2021 23:16
|
|
