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So I guess since you get some key item that's someone's soul from the weird tree thing with Yuri growing out of it that tree is actually Yuri's dad just stuck, and Yuri just freed him? I guess that's a fairly sensible explanation as far as Shadow Hearts goes.
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Jul 30, 2021 22:25
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| # ? May 24, 2024 22:37 |
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RIP Yuri's Dick it's with Nicolai's balls now
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Jul 30, 2021 22:28
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Late to the party but I feel this trailer would fit in with everything in this game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j-1M9hwGXM
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Jul 31, 2021 01:38
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I recall handling Dark Seraphim by just swapping Yuri to the Gamble Ring, shoving every single Hit Area Expand I could into him, and using the Key to Infinity or whatever it's called and reloading if I missed. It's a guaranteed win in one "attack" for poo poo you just don't want to put up with.
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Jul 31, 2021 02:22
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Hwurmp posted:RIP Yuri's Dick I feel like if they felt they could get away with it, they would've shown Yuri's Junk. But yeah, Dark Seraphim is a killer designer.
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Jul 31, 2021 03:22
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Episode CXL: King Solomon.jpg) Holy poo poo. We're here... We're actually loving here! It's the last sidequest of Shadow Hearts: Covenant... We're loving DONE, baby! All that is left is one final trip to Gerome Valley to take on the super boss of the game. An astute reader (and the possibly insane person keeping track of this poo poo) might note that we have failed to gain Lucia and Kurando's ultimate armor sets... That's because they just went "gently caress IT!" and they're simply stuck in treasure chests in the final dungeon. Not even hard to obtain treasure chests or anything. They're just there. Lucia's last Tarot Card is also just thrown into the mix of trash loot on the way to the end of the game. There was too much shitposting to be done to properly give them appropriate areas to appear despite the many, many dungeons they could have just stuck that poo poo in earlier. Oh well... let's get to the event at hand. The prerequisites of this are completing all of Solomon's Trials and Solomon's Key. So gaining every single Magic Crest in the game which also means doing all the sidequests basically since each of the bosses in them are a Crest. All in all, it's not that much of a pain in the rear end. I had a much more difficult time having to level grind Halley in the first game because he had to go through a somewhat grueling solo Pit Fight gauntlet and I dumped him from the main team as soon as the game stopped forcing him on me. You just had to have your ultimate armor at the end of a Pit Fight arena, didn't you, kid?  Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God .jpg) For the upcoming battle, we want everyone we can to be equipped with a Crucifix and the odd one out to have as many defenses against Ring Abnormalities as we can. That's about it. .jpg)  Yes, the very inconsistently named Key thing... We did that a few weeks back. By overcoming the trials and solving the enigma, you've proven your worth. You're admitted to an audience with the king! I'm gonna meet him? You mean... he's still alive?! King Solomon's flesh no longer exists, but his spirit remains. He is ruler of the spirit world... The spirit world? That sounds pretty cool. It means he's a ghost, Yuri... Huh? What?! No, I'm out now!.jpg) He might've been a great king, but Solomon was also known as an unbelievably cruel ruler. I don't know how much of what you're saying is true, but if this is the real King Solomon, I'd steer clear! ...It's not my place, or anyone else's to presume what the king is thinking... He would prefer it not be talked about the allegations of his alleged tyranny or having too many horses, wives and gold. Entrapping genies to do his bidding and telling the lord to shove it and gaining His ire... This is not part of the trials... It's simply my duty to take those who have shown their worth for an audience with the king. So, shall we go? This sounds shady as hell, but... Sure, let's go!.jpg) .jpg) .jpg) No, it's the same stupid place we have done all these trials in... Well... How would I remember? I only came here the one time. That sounds like a you and being useful for fights problem. Bite me..jpg)  And I am the ruler of this world..jpg) .jpg)  You're... King Solomon? You're kidding?! Um... we're honored to be here...?! <folds arms, taps foot, and looks unimpressed> What do you want with us? Why did you bring us here? I was bored. ...Excuse me? I was bored... You see, I've got this almighty power and all of eternity under my command. So I've been searching for eons for someone... anyone, who could equal my strength. And then you turned up. That's it?! You've gotta be kidding! We're just here for some old guy's entertainment? This is stupider than even the last few guys and their motives were DUMB! Well, you're here now! Don't complain! Okay, now I challenge you to a battle!.jpg) Come on, why not?! Think of it as doing him a favor! Let's just fight the guy and we can get out of here. I just got reminded about the whole Kato thing... Also, y'all don't get alarmed if I transform into a devil man. I fought my dad in my mind yesterday and got an upgraded Fusion. ...When did that happen? Remember when we all got that big mess of curry the other day and I crashed on the airship? Then. And if you lose, you'll die. <jumps back>  What?! Y-you can't just slip something like that into the conversation! This is a world of spirits. There is no flesh here. Defeat means losing your soul. <clenches fist> We've really gotta get outta here! I just had a whole character arc fortifying my flesh. Don't remind us! I request no context on that remark! Um... sorry! I think we'll just leave now, if you don't mind! No! No! And no! So that's a no then?! I've got the worst of an old dog right now! Hey, watch it with the "old" bit, kiddo! Really?! You're going to get offended about saying old to the 3000 year old ghost wizard? ...I get to be offended about something. This?! Hmph! Hehehe! I haven't felt this fired-up in 3000 years! This is the real thing, you understand?! No holding back! <puts up his dukes> Yeah, give it your best shot!.jpg) Music: Vicious 1915 ~ Battle in Europe .jpg) This is the super boss of Shadow Hearts: Covenant -- Solomon. He... honestly, isn't very impressive. He has 9350 HP, making him the enemy with the second-largest HP pool in the game. They actually gave the final boss the largest health pool at the 9999 digit limit. And as with all the optional side content bosses, he is a Non-Elemental enemy. .jpg) Solomon is an enemy we are going to want to throw up an Arc-Barrier with immediately because his whole gimmick he has the highest tier, the Crest series of spells, of each element, and that is all he does. Except... .jpg) .jpg) He has a unique Crest magic spell in the form of Melt Crest which inflicts non-elemental damage but will still gently caress-up the party for close to or above 400 HP of damage, hits the entire party, and inflicts every ring status effect if unguarded. It's also one of the only attacks in the game that inflicts the Bind status which is just you lose a turn: the status. We need to immediately stop everything and get our poo poo back together because he uses this spell every other turn while cycling through the other Crest elemental spells in-between. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) But to combat that we have Dark Seraphim Yuri who can just drop an orbital nuke on Solomon for 450-500 damage a turn. .jpg) .jpg) And beyond that can pop off an orbital laser strike that steals enough HP to heal the entire party that we can tank the next non-Melt Crest turn to do a four-person combo to gently caress up this old king of Israel pretty hard in-between the healing turns. .jpg) .jpg) Ultimately the ghost of the biblical first king of Israel was defeated by the fursuit-clad founder of the Boy Scouts of America summoned by a wolf's ghost horde. That's a sentence I can type about a video game. Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg) .jpg) For our efforts, unlike The Man Festival, we get a mess of EXP, Cash, and Soul Energy... b.jpg) We also gain a returning Accessory from Shadow Hearts 1 -- the Seven Eyed Mask. I have no idea what "Ramalish" is meant to be as the mask claimed to be Aztec in nature in the previous game. But it does provide +9 Physical and +10 Special Defense making it the best helmet equipment in the game. Music: Spiritualization ~ Holy Land of God .jpg) You thought you could walk all over me? I punched out a space god. And Rasputin. And a fused god of destruction smug jerk twice. You're a bad anime OVA villain, c'mon. .jpg) .jpg) Ugh... My head's spinning again! Welcome back, everyone! And good day, King Solomon!.jpg)  Huh? That's his voice! But he said the loser would die! True. You would've died if you lost. But I ordered Sarah to call me back immediately if I lost. I didn't spend 3000 years as a spiritual nexus of power to die in an optional super boss fight..jpg) <folds arms and taps foot> Stop complaining! See what happens to my fleshless body in this world?! At least show a little sympathy! I'm an option in an equipment screen now... Are you happy?! It's the Devil Crest... No way! This is you?! Exactly. It'll take me thousands of years to get back to my old form. I can't believe this has happened! It's your own fault! It's been a running theme with all the optional bosses so far! At least accept responsibility for turning me into this! You'll have to let me travel with you for a while!.jpg) .jpg) And so we obtain the final Magic Crest of the game -- Solomon. It takes 32 Domination Points to equip so most of a character's gauge and has only one spell at a whopping 160 MP but it is the strongest spell in the entire game, Solomon's Melt Crest. But, you know, that was the hardest enemy in the game so ehh... .jpg) D-don't pry into my affairs! Oh, jeez! Enough already! You can come along! Just don't talk when you're with other people, okay? If we start talking to a piece of paper, people are gonna think we're weird! You all ARE weird already. You're part of the group, magic photographer princess... Tch. I'm dignified! You're wearing a parka and one of those fur Russian hats in the desert of Turkey.  You just don't understand fashion! Hmm, I'll do my best. So, Sarah, take care of things while I'm away. Of course. Take care. And please look after him. He's still the king, even though he's... like that!.jpg) And so we never loving talk to Sarah again! .jpg) And... that is it! We... we finally loving did it... We finished all of the sidequests of Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Christ, I might actually finish this cursed LP before I drop dead! All that remains is to tackle the final area. Asuka Stone Platform ~ The Vessel. It is all that remains. I hope Kato isn't too pissed it took a couple of months for the gang to show up to confront him being on his bullshit...  Technically the end of the arbitrary things I've been calling chapters to break up the LP so I can go back and reference things easier. The first game actually had chapters with titles... Crummy it didn't follow through to the sequel. Anyway, a limited supply here, but...  Monsters: .jpg) In the religious text, King Solomon was loving around with entrapping demons and genies and pissed off god in the process. Little did he know he was doomed to be in Shadow Hearts 2.  Definitely gotten some work done since the veiny nightmare creature that magic nuked Shanghai. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Aug 1, 2021 |
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Jul 31, 2021 21:05
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So, King Solomon, can you lead us to your wondrous lost mines now that you’re with us? No? Oh well, knowing this game they’re probably a terrible gimmick dungeon. Never mind.
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Jul 31, 2021 21:36
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After a certain point the game stops giving a poo poo about its dignity and it's utterly delightful 
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Jul 31, 2021 22:02
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The Dark Id posted:Episode CXL: King Solomon Probably meant EXP here, and the "for our efforts" bit is repeated.
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Jul 31, 2021 22:08
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kw0134 posted:After a certain point the game stops giving a poo poo about its dignity and it's utterly delightful 
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Aug 1, 2021 00:10
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God actually got angry at Solomon for marrying foreigners and subsequently building temples to their deities. The demon control and all that, the thing he's most famous for? All extrabiblical! The Quran has him with all those powers, but in that he never pissed off God.
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Aug 1, 2021 05:40
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The Dark Id posted:Ultimately the ghost of the biblical first king of Israel was defeated by the fursuit-clad founder of the Boy Scouts of America summoned by a wolf's ghost horde. That's a sentence I can type about a video game.
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Aug 2, 2021 00:58
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Supersonic Shine posted:Wow, Fate/Stay Night's spinoffs got really weird. That'd be a solid 7.5/10 on the Fate spinoff weirdness scale, yes. Then again, much like this series, Fate is not afraid to go really stupid during joke sidestories.
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Aug 2, 2021 09:14
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The Dark Id posted:It's also one of the only attacks in the game that inflicts the Bind status which is just you lose a turn: the status. quote:Ultimately the ghost of the biblical first king of Israel
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Aug 2, 2021 23:18
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Tallgeese posted:God actually got angry at Solomon for marrying foreigners and subsequently building temples to their deities. The demon control and all that, the thing he's most famous for? All extrabiblical! Solomon also does demon-binding stuff in Jewish folklore, but 1)as Tallgeese said, extrabiblical, and 2)demons in Jewish folklore are more "with great power comes great potential for dickery" than Christianity's "baby-eating, granny-kicking, capital E EVIL" demons.
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Aug 3, 2021 01:03
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 Episode CXLI: It Won't Be Long Now... Music: Grey Memories ~ Map of Japan .jpg) Hey, remember when Kato summoned Yoriwara, the Vessel of Yamato to tear apart space and warp time to travel 100 years into the past to alter history thus destroying this timeline and that seemed bad? And Yuri was at the final stages of succumbing to the curse erasing his soul? Yeah, good thing all that business chilled out for a few months while the gang did a world tour shitpost and ignored those problems completely in favor of ghost relatives and homoerotic wrestling tournament arcs. But alas, we do need to return to the fold and actually finish Shadow Hearts: Covenant. To that extent, we now return to the Asuka Stone Platform to tackle the final area (well technically two areas but one just holds the final boss) of the game. .jpg) Before that, let's take one final look at our Score stats. We ended up as a Level 35 Samurai Ghoul. I'll take it. .jpg) I think five of the nine times I fled battles were the grueling return to Tiffauges Castle because was getting incredibly annoyed how goddamn long it took just to cap off a sidequest epilogue that had no tangible reward other than making an old man curse another old man. The rest were I got to the Save Point before a boss room. Used a Tent and saved the game. Walked two out of five steps between the save and the boss room and got a goddamn random battle. gently caress off! .jpg) Congrats on Gepetto somehow being the clutch Perfect Ring hitter. I'll admit switching to the Gambling Ring and pumping everyone with Ring Expansion slots definitely juiced my stats. .jpg) And no real surprises on who participated in the most battles. Anastasia and Kurando both definitely stuffed the ballot box with that Neam Ruins Underground Part 2 nonsense. Music: ENDS .jpg) .jpg) Anyway, we have done literally all the sidequest content of note in the game. Good grief. .jpg) Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan .jpg) Welcome back to The Vessel of Yamato. We set foot here after confronting Kato for all of about thirty seconds before leaving as it was the impetus of which unlocked nearly a quarter of the game's content. Anyway, we're back, and guess what...? In true Shadow Hearts: Covenant tradition... it is not a very good dungeon! The Neameto Float in Shadow Hearts 1's conclusion was annoying to navigate, especially with the trial and error teleporter maze mid-way through. But at least it had a nifty techno-future meets gothic aesthetic. The Vessel is... what you see in this screenshot. It's a futuristic floating platform in a void with a map of constellations and Japanese characters rotating around it in the distance. And you may notice there is a floor indicator in the corner now. That's because it is four floors of exactly this and a smaller, slightly more elaborate boss fight floor at the top. That's it! That's the final dungeon! Also, you may recall The Neameto Float had some decent tunes on our way climbing it. Multiple tracks in fact! But there was the obnoxious sticking point that the dungeon had an extremely high encounter rate and the track reset between every random battle. So unless you stood still you'd only ever hear the first 15-20 seconds of the music and the best track didn't pop off until about 30 seconds in. That is a problem in The Vessel as well... except they... didn't bother to make final dungeon music. It's just the random battle them for the Japan half of the game you'd have heard nearly 200 times plus at this point. Oh, the random battle music for the dungeon? It's the Japan boss battle music now instead that we've heard about 30+ times. Yep... Sorry, we allocated all the budget and effort to shitpost optional content and through together the final dungeon in a weekend. Anyway, there is a gimmick to the dungeon. It's straight ahead. .jpg)  It looks like some kind of altar. Or a weird machine? I bet it's the mechanism that controls the vessel. But it looks like it's locked somehow by this huge crystal. The controls are trapped in this whack-rear end crystal prison! How devious! <nods> Hmm... Where to next, then? I don't know... I can't see any way to get higher up... Is there a higher up? It just looks like darkness above. It says Floor 1 when I look down, so probably. Let's see...Yuri looks around the area. .jpg) What even is that? <shrug> I dunno. But mashing on stuff in dungeons has worked so far, right? Why stop at the end? <concerned grunt>.jpg) Our ultimate goal is to dispel that whack-rear end crystal prison over that control device in the center of the first floor of The Vessel. And the key to this is, of course. Switch flipping. Everyone loves it. Always be flipping switches. Oh and of course, since this is the final area. It's lousy with... .jpg) Music: Hardcore to the Brain ~ Mid Boss in Japan .jpg) Random battles! One final jump into the breach of filler content to pad out a half-assed area! The Vessel has by far the greatest variety of enemies of area in the game. In fact, the bottom two floors and the top two floors have completely different enemy pools and both have more members on their roster than most standard dungeons. Just ignore how most of them look suspiciously like palettes swapped and slightly altered models of enemies we've seen elsewhere. Let's get into it! This umm... what am I even looking at? A floating spiny snake thing with a ring with fancy lace adornments...? Maybe? This is Takaokami a Light Elemental enemy with 218 HP. It's one of the weakest enemies in the dungeon and can be easily bodied in a single turn. If not it will cast Arc Barrier to itself and its allies or assorted Light elemental spells. Takaokami is another name for Kuraokami the Japanese Shinto mythological deity of rain and snow. Wikipedia on Kuraokami posted:
Magic water-snow snake, got it. I think I'd assign it the Water element in such a case. But what do I know? At least it looks the part. .jpg) This rowdy boy that looks an awful lot like a rowdy boy from the Dog Shrine is the err... Lion Dog. It's a Lion Dog. Kyō-shishi or Stone Lion is a better title for it. It's those decorative stone lions you see all over in East Asia. This version is an Earth elemental with 826 HP. It mostly bites folks. But its bites can cause Petrify and it can also throw up an Arc Shield for its companions. .jpg) The final in the more nightmarish man-spider series of creatures is the Hinogakutsuchi which comes in Fire elemental flavor and despite having a sturdy-looking carapace only has 340 HP. This fella likes to stab things and set them on fire. It sticks with what it knows. Hinogakutsuchi is another name for Kagutsuchi a fire deity of Japanese mythology. Wikipedia on Kagutsuchi posted:
Rowdy fire boy. I suppose an angry red stone lion works well enough. .jpg) The final enemy of the lower enemies is this goofy-rear end-looking muppet -- Yatanokami. It is the token sturdy, annoying enemy of the lower levels of The Vessel as a Water class enemy with 840 HP. As far as I can tell it just hits hard with its err... fins? Those look like fins. I don't like this thing. Not one bit. Take it away from me. Yato-no-kami is a class of snake deities in Japanese mythology. They don't have a lot going on in their folklore. They were just rear end in a top hat demon snakes that hung out in fields near a government office in rural Japan and would murder you and your entire family if you happened to see one. They're very bashful. Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) So when Yuri... interacts with the... doodad by walking up to it and staring at it intensely, it activates a portal to a higher level. We will have to reach all four levels of The Vessel in due time. Honestly, this dungeon can be done fairly swiftly. Well, swiftly in Shadow Hearts 2 dungeon terms. Were we to ignore all the very, very long side paths on the perimeter of these platforms and just took the critical path. Unfortunately, The Vessel has quite a bit of unique loot down these paths. So... ugh... I didn't need that two hours of my limited time on earth anyhow. .jpg) .jpg) The first floor, in particular, past the central crystalized controls at the very far northwestern corner of the area has Gepetto's... second-best weapon. This gives him +175 Physical and +197 Special and is a straight downgrade from the Crimson Thread we got from the only non-half assed dungeon in the final 20 hours of the game. Thanks for reminding me Gepetto, of all people, got the one effort dungeon as we slog through the same map copy and pasted four times. .jpg) .jpg) You see? It's techno platforms on a void all the way up and down. .jpg) Now for the core gimmick of Floor 2-4. The control device on these floors is not frozen by a barrier and can be manipulated by rotating the disc corresponding with the current floor level. This, in turn, will rotate the outer platforms of the platform. Some of these rotations will grant us access to additional items since the central platform extends out a tiny bit to connect different segments and Yuri is utterly unable to jump a three-foot gap on the parts that don't completely connect. Even though Yuri can literally fly and jump 30 feet if he's feeling too lazy to do Fusion that day. .jpg) .jpg) These discs are color-coded based on the directions. As you can see the frozen first floor is green. Our ultimate goal is to make the other three floors line up with the green section in front to unlock the first floor. These will open a portal to a higher floor level. But doing that wouldn't let us get loot we absolutely do not need! Sadly, we're 98% of the way to seeing everything the game has to offer... So... .jpg) .jpg) For instance, manipulating the second floor's err... floor to gain access to the south-eastern corner of the area is where they went "gently caress it!" and stuffed Lucia's ultimate armor set. What if they gave her a dignified outfit as her alternate costume instead of a sideways advancement to another horny outfit? Oh well, this gives Lucia +160 Physical and +176 Special Defense. .jpg) .jpg) Going up! There is nothing else interesting about this dungeon until we get to the top other than the upper two floors have new enemies and new loot. So let's just cut to the chase. .jpg) Music: Hardcore to the Brain ~ Mid Boss in Japan .jpg) Five more enemies named after assorted gods of the east compose the final random battle bestiary for The Vessel floors 3-4. Starting up we have this three-headed statue accompanied by a jewel-laced ring. This is Ashra (which is a mistranslation of Asura) and is a Dark elemental creature with 356 HP. It starts the battle by using Entrance to gather everyone to one spot and if there is a secondary Ashra in the room it will use Evil Summoning to hit the entire part with an AOE. Or anyone else on its team. It's not picky. Asura is the term in Buddhism mythology for roughly a demigod. They often have three faces (or heads) and a bunch of arms. They may sometimes be extremely angry Liam O'Brien. .jpg) Flanking them we have the floating abridged samurai skeleton the Takemikazuchi, a Wind elemental being with 225 HP. It likes to cast Arc Gale to speed up itself and friends before getting to stabbing people. I mean, it brought two swords. We all know what it wants to do here. They are very easy to shatter at the opening gambit of the first fight turn. Takemikazuchi is a lesser god of thunder (Raijin being the big boy main god of thunder) with a minor in godhood over swords. Wikipedia on Takemikazuchi posted:
There ain't nothin' in the rule book that says a skeleton can't sumo! .jpg) Following that we just have this big evil flying fungus named Kukunochi. It's got to some grain to it having 856 HP and being of the Fire elemental class. It spins around and smacks people with its... mushroom bits. It's not leaves, right? I don't know what you'd call that on a mushroom. Anyway, this can cause Paralysis and that's no good! Kukunochi is a very, very minor god of trees out of Izanami and Izanagi's huge litter of deities in Japanese mythology. There is no information other than their deal is trees. It's in Shin Megami Tensei as a buff naked dude with a plant crown chilling in a big flower. So take that as gospel. .jpg) Finally, we have an enemy I had to reload the final dungeon and grind to find on the upper levels because it was the only missing entry in the Library. Admittedly, at this point, I've had the accessory that reduces random battles and was not wasting time with that poo poo if I could help it. This is Arahabaki, a 1000 HP enemy of the Dark class and is clearly the first boss we fought when we swapped over to Yuri as the protagonist but redesigned to be... less creepy, despite the hell mouth. I'll be real. I have no idea what it does. It took me 20 minutes of getting into random battles and running away since it didn't show up. And then I murked it immediately to get the Library entry so I could go to bed. Arahabaki is by all accounts some made-up deity with no origin or information. It's supposed to look vaguely like the Flatwoods Monster cryptid. 95% of the info on it is it is in a ton of Shin Megami Tensei and adjacent games as a demon critter. And that's all the random encounter enemies in Shadow Hearts: Covenant! Now let's move on to the remaining loot in the game found on floors 3-4 of the final dungeon.  Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan .jpg) .jpg) We find Monk Earrings which exist if you want to just finish the game and not have to level grind quite as much. These have no skill buffs but they do increase EXP by 20% in every battle at the cost of 20% lower overall SP. Honestly, we probably could have beaten the game right when we first got to the Asuka Stone Monument with some difficulty but not a ton. After doing all the side content to offer we're now picking up the dungeon and launching it into space with little effort strong. .jpg) .jpg) Like Lucia, Kurando's ultimate armor set is tucked away in the corner of the last area in a non-descript treasure chest. I bet Anastasia is into this one, especially with its +173 Physical and +163 Special Defense. .jpg) .jpg) And the final piece of unique loot in the game -- one last Tarot Card for Lucia. This inflicts Instant Death to all enemies and all allies on Reverse. Anyone immune to the Instant Death effect like... every boss in the game and almost every enemy in late-game... will be unaffected. For reference, the muppet that looked like Falkor from The Neverending Story's malformed bastard child is the only enemy in this entire dungeon that this could kill. The Special Effect version can kill anything in the game. Anything. Even King Solomon. Even the final boss. It's not Instant Death it just makes all enemies or allies HP zero. There are no continues. So great, another way Lucia could spectacularly screw us for the end of the road. It's appropriate. .jpg) .jpg) Getting back on track, we go to all three floors and rotate the platforms so it's all greens in front. Which results in... .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) <looks around> Is this Floor 1? I can't say. They all look the same. Well, it says "Vessel, Floor 1" in the corner, so... ...So it does..jpg) .jpg) Lightning crash! .jpg) Kato's not far away now... You can tell? Yeah. I can feel it. Plus a Save Point just appeared and that's a little telling....jpg) So about that Save Point. This is the place to save the game! This is not technically the Point of No Return but it is the point where we make the biggest decision in the game and there's no taking it back after entering this transporter. .jpg) Music: ICARO Piano Arrangement ~ Main Theme .jpg) <nods> No. <steps forward> Are you sure now?.jpg) Tee hee hee! I bet you have been... That was months ago the last time we spoke. Yeah. I got... caught up in other people's stuff. Some of it I-I don't want to ever think about again... But, as for me... Hehe. I've never been one to reflect on myself much. I just lived fast and hard, and that was about all I could manage. I want to thank you, Jeanne. You taught me the meaning of living, the meaning of happiness. I'm really sorry I got you killed and... stuff... Oh, come on, Yuri. That was ages ago. It was practically a different adventure. We're way past that. <rubs neck> Yeah... I guess... It's still a bummer. <steps forward> So you found out? What makes you happy? <nods> Yeah. To me, happiness is....jpg) So, much like Shadow Hearts 1 and Koudelka before it, Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant has two endings. Koudelka involved whether or not the party could defeat the far harder than anything else in the game (save the super boss) final boss. And Shadow Hearts 1 involved a very esoteric specific set of actions before setting foot into the final dungeon lest you were locked into a certain course. For Shadow Hearts: Covenant the deciding factor is... how we answer this question. That's it. Each choice has a different epilogue that decides Yuri's fate. Naturally, we will see them both. But for now... we're going to start with... ...Living peacefully..jpg) Happiness is something you feel for yourself. Other people can't tell you what it is. You have to decide. Just like you were happy, Yuri. Alice was happy too. I won't worry about you anymore. Hearing your answer really made me feel better. Now go and be happy... And go clock that guy with the huge chin messing with time! <smirks> Hehe. I'll give him a good slug for you, kiddo. Teehee..jpg) Goodbye...!.jpg) And that's the end of Jeanne. She finally stops living rent-free in Yuri's soul and passes on to the afterlife. Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan .jpg) And so we are locked into one of the endings of Shadow Hearts 2. There still are a couple of major boss fights ahead of us. But... that's far more reasonable than the previous title wherein we had to redo the entire two-hour final dungeon and last boss again from scratch to reach the second ending. And had to do it without Yuri's best Fusion since that was locked behind one of the two endings as well. Yuri gets back to his feet. .jpg) Are you all right?!.jpg) Final farewell? To Jeanne. Oh! We were smiling when we said goodbye. <nods> Oh....jpg) It is nice Jeanne got a final goodbye with Yuri and Blanca. Not Gepetto though. gently caress that guy. Yuri walks to the middle of the group for one final team-building pep talk. .jpg) <nods> Okay! <nods> Awroo! (Okay!)  Lion Dog Concept Art - Bad dog. No biscuit.   The Vessel of Yamato Concept Art - Yeah... I don't know if this Tron bullshit would be much better.
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Aug 8, 2021 02:40
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The Dark Id posted:It spins around and smacks people with its... mushroom bits. It's not leaves, right? I don't know what you'd call that on a mushroom.
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Aug 8, 2021 03:29
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Huh, Kurando even with his fancy protagonist-lite powers couldn't even outplay Geppeto. That's Rico levels of meh. 
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Aug 8, 2021 03:35
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The Dark Id posted:
This paragraph is repeated at the start of the next one.
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Aug 8, 2021 03:49
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FeyerbrandX posted:Huh, Kurando even with his fancy protagonist-lite powers couldn't even outplay Geppeto. I mean Gepetto is in your party from basically the start of the game and you can't even bench him for a while while Kurnado joins relatively late in the game and when you already have a full party.
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Aug 8, 2021 06:02
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It kinda sucks because Kurando is actually a pretty respectably powerful party member, unlike Gepetto and Lucia, but he arrives SO drat LATE practically no one gives him a chance.
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Aug 8, 2021 11:08
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The Dark Id posted:Yep... Sorry, we allocated all the budget and effort to shitpost optional content and through together the final dungeon in a weekend. quote:Kagu-tsuchi's birth burned his mother Izanami, causing her death. His father Izanagi, in his grief, beheaded Kagu-tsuchi with his sword, Ame no Ohabari, and cut his body into eight pieces, which became eight volcanoes. Kagutsuchi’s corpse created numerous deities, which typically includes Watatsumi, Kuraokami, Takemikazuchi, Futsunushi, Amatsumikaboshi, and Ōyamatsumi. quote:They are very easy to shatter at the opening gambit of the first fight turn.
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Aug 8, 2021 16:21
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Infinity Gaia posted:It kinda sucks because Kurando is actually a pretty respectably powerful party member, unlike Gepetto and Lucia, but he arrives SO drat LATE practically no one gives him a chance. Yeah, Kurando suffers from appearing only a few hours before end game if you're skipping the side content, and a fairly long Appearance-to-Join time, even joining right after he first meets Blanca would've helped him.
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Aug 8, 2021 17:23
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Kurando also suffers a lot from being a tremendously boring character, so there isn't a lot of flavor to push you to use him either.
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Aug 8, 2021 18:06
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Counterpoint: Kurando is cute
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Aug 8, 2021 19:57
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I get he is supposed to be the new straight man reacting to the party of weirdos now that Karin would be too used to it, and secondary idiot minder, but again he arrives so late.
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Aug 8, 2021 21:08
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Even counting how late he joins, he'd do better if characters didn't stay in the party permanently. Like, if the party members left the party after their role in the story was done, there'd be more room for him. Maybe set things up so that some are Part 1 only, and some are Part 2 only. Yuri and Karin would be permanent, obviously, but basically everyone else hits a point where the story is done with them outside of their sidequest.
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Aug 8, 2021 21:48
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Kurando benefits from being the best at physical attacks outside Yuri (Joachim has higher attack but is very slow) so if you're like teenage me and refuse to use MP outside boss fights, he is very good.
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Aug 8, 2021 22:02
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It also doesn’t help that he only has one fusion ability until you unlock the final dungeon. If they’d have him the other one earlier he’d be more versatile.
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Aug 8, 2021 22:12
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Vauron posted:Even counting how late he joins, he'd do better if characters didn't stay in the party permanently. Like, if the party members left the party after their role in the story was done, there'd be more room for him. Maybe set things up so that some are Part 1 only, and some are Part 2 only. Yuri and Karin would be permanent, obviously, but basically everyone else hits a point where the story is done with them outside of their sidequest.
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Aug 8, 2021 23:11
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kw0134 posted:Phantasy Star IV implemented this well, you'd get characters that joined because of a specific goal and then when they were done...they were done, until the big cosmic bad reared its head and you all had to go kick its rear end. But that means writing scenarios that have this in mind from the start so you pick up and drop off PCs in an organic and game-balanced way. Haven't played this game, I hope to god that the main/best healer was part of the core group who never left
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Aug 9, 2021 07:09
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Junpei posted:Haven't played this game, I hope to god that the main/best healer was part of the core group who never left Rika was both a healer and one of the better physical fighters and she stayed core all game, but plenty of characters had good enough healing. You never really lacked for it. Rika also ruled so there was that.
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Aug 9, 2021 12:40
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PS4 is by no means a hard game either, so if anything the game tends to pull its punches if there's a chance it thinks that your healing may not be particularly strong for whatever particular challenge you have (bar one sscenario, but that's what consumables are for.)
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Aug 9, 2021 13:17
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There really isn’t a good reason why Kurando can’t use crests either. The game’s justification was that Yuri was a dumbass, not that Harmonixer’s can’t use crests. Kurando has the least versatility out of everyone because he has 1-2 fusions, and he hits things. Woo.
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Aug 9, 2021 14:15
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kw0134 posted:PS4 is by no means a hard game either, so if anything the game tends to pull its punches if there's a chance it thinks that your healing may not be particularly strong for whatever particular challenge you have (bar one sscenario, but that's what consumables are for.) When you're a dumbass little kid who never bothers with buff spells because that's a turn you could be spending firing off your Grand Cross + Burstroc + Double Slash macro (but let's not use the claw with bonus damage to evil things, it's got lower attack power so it's clearly garbage)... ... well, turns out the game's difficulty cranks up a notch until you grind enough to resolve them. But you'll tear that macro from my younger self's cold dead fingers.
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Aug 10, 2021 00:55
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Vauron posted:Even counting how late he joins, he'd do better if characters didn't stay in the party permanently. Like, if the party members left the party after their role in the story was done, there'd be more room for him. Maybe set things up so that some are Part 1 only, and some are Part 2 only. Yuri and Karin would be permanent, obviously, but basically everyone else hits a point where the story is done with them outside of their sidequest. The Grandia games also had a party system like that, you were constantly working with a party of four or less members. they would stick with you for awhile, then they would leave. The process always felt natural too, usually they ended up either going home or they would just find a new goal that wasn't in line with yours where they died.
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Aug 10, 2021 14:50
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Episode CXLII: Wind and Thunder.jpg) Back to it in The Vessel of Yamato. Technically, lining up all the floors did unlock a few extra teleport points. These lead to the fourth and final Crucifix accessory in the game if you want the entire party to just nope out on status effects for the remaining... two bosses. And the last Seventh Key item in the game, if you want to just delete the... remaining two bosses. We're good. Both of those are just overkill by now. Plus, we still haven't used The Eternal Key... .jpg) We've now reached the peak of the Vessel and two familiar Mutant Ape faces are awaiting us at the ominous gate at the end of the area. Well, kind of familiar. I think Yuri and the gang have interacted with The Mutant Apes all of about ten minutes the entire game and maybe exchanged three sentences total. But... Music: Flame of Strain to Blaze ~ Tension .jpg)  Hien! Look! They finally showed up! Finally! How long have has the master had us standing here? We're in a construct of Japanese divine forces that warps time and space, Hien. I'm not quite sure... That's a fair point, Raiden. It feels like ages, either way. Hey, you all! Where the hell have you been?! Yeah, sorry... We got... sidetracked... Sidetracked from the master correcting the timeline and destroying this reality?! With what?! <clenches fist> Obtaining manhood! Beating up an idiot in a tomb. Defeating an evil plant to get perfume ingredients and getting engaged. You got engaged...?  <nods> Mhm. Ditto! WHAT?!  W-we'll discuss that later... ...WHAT?! I sorted out a haunted house of my former student and reconnected with the soul of my dead daughter inhabiting my cute little puppet here. ...Are they just going to keep going like this, Hien? I don't know... I fought my mother and learned my true potential and the liberation of freedom from clothes. ...What? Nice. Awroo...? (Can we just get on with this...?) He fought a weird old man in a fursuit. Awroo! (They don't need to know that!) ...... Oh, my turn? We weren't seriously asking! Just annoyed! Just let them finish at this point. Yeah, OK... I fought my dad in my soul and obtained the power of a dark god. So yeah... we were all a little occupied. It seems like they really were busy, Hien. ...... ...Yeah. OK. So....jpg) Where's your master? Behind us, on the field of Takamagahara. Should I know what that means...? It's the High Plain of Heaven. It is... a place where... how do I put this? Humans probably shouldn't be messing around with? ...That works. Uh-huh. Figured. I suppose you won't let us by? The Mutant Apes live and die along with the Master. If you want to fight him you'll have to get through us..jpg) No problem..jpg) <grunts> <assumes fighting stance>.jpg) Music: Hardcore to the Brain ~ Mid Boss in Japan .jpg) The remaining two Mutant Apes have had a glow up becoming possessed by the Japanese gods of Wind and Thunder respectively. Hien has transmogrified into Fuujin, a Pillar Man from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure rear end looking Wind elemental boss with 3540 HP. .jpg) Meanwhile, his partner Raiden has become Raijin, who looks like some lovely blinged-out Incredible Hulk knock-off from the '90s. He is an Earth elemental enemy with 3780 HP. .jpg) This pair actually does work as a team as far as this battle goes. They will immediately mount up for a Combo attack as soon as either of them gets a turn and then turtle down in a defensive stance to take reduced damage and prevent being knocked out of their combo position. Even if a particularly powerful blow knocks one of them out of position they'll cheat and automatically return to the Combo line-up as soon as the attack ends. .jpg) .jpg) Their attack pattern here on in is exactly the same regardless of who gets the first turn. The first of the pair will do a physical attack string for 100-200 HP of damage. Raijin hits for slightly more damage. The only difference is Raijin inflicts Physical Defense Down while Fuujin inflicts Special Defense Down on their physical attack modifier. Honestly, it's preferable for Raijin to get in his licks, because... .jpg) .jpg) The follow-up is the targeted character getting hit with Lightning Flash which hits a single character for 200-300 HP of damage. So in all, as long as we keep everyone above 400 or so HP we're pretty much fine for this fight. .jpg) .jpg) The pair still have their stockpile of infinite grenades provided by Kato from when they weren't possessed by Japanese divinity and will use those if they have an extra turn before the partner combo can commence. This is an AOE attack but it only does around 150~ HP range of damage so ehh. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Of the pair, we're going to want to focus on Raijin. He's got a touch more health and is tankier than his companion. But we can clobber them to the best of effect. Especially, since The Great Question popped on Joachim. No, I didn't even use a GetItUp! item. It was just fortunate timing that all worked out here. And Question Joachim can still deal nearly 500 damage to even a guarding Raijin. He does to the tune of 1700 unguarded. The Great Question is obscenely powerful! .jpg) So, we wanted to get rid of Raijin first because apparently, he was hard carrying this team. Since, as soon as he's defeated... Fuujin's attacks start only doing 1 HP of damage a pop. If Fuujin is defeated first, Raijin gets greatly diminished in his abilities but not... to a complete joke degree like this. .jpg) .jpg) After that, it's just the usual Combo tactics and a multi-national team kicking the poo poo out of a Japanese god avatar. As you do. Music: Result ~ Victory b.jpg) .jpg) C'mon, Kurando. You couldn't even level up for the penultimate boss of the game? Shameful. Music: ENDS .jpg) BARF! I-I... can still... go... another....jpg) BARF!.jpg) Welp! Hien and Raiden are loving dead! So ends The Mutant Apes' illustrious career of... killing a few escaped demon dogs and getting their rear end kicked and killed fairly easily the first time any of them go up against a real enemy of any measure. This Mutant Apes program was not a good financial investment for Imperial Japan in the long run... Anyway, if we touch that gate we run into... .jpg) ...Uhh...  ...Oh. ...... ...Is? Is that... good? Technically, the final area is considered to be its own location and Asuka Stone Platform/The Vessel has a poo poo load of new Library entries. So let's get to it here. Monsters: .jpg) Barely sentient creature born from a dragon scale. Wizards. Same morality. .jpg) California is lousy with these jerks. .jpg) Couldn't afford decent dentistry after immigrating. Tragic. .jpg) So stupid looking it makes your dick stop working right for three years. hosed up. .jpg) Now are these different meters or is a cumulative thing one way or the other? .jpg) The Twitter of gods. .jpg) Overwhelming power has 856 HP. .jpg) Please don't share your fetishes in the Library descriptions. .jpg) "Slicing flesh into ribbons" translates to roughly 158 HP of damage. .jpg) He only wanted the god of thunder to straighten out his jacked-up back... His one wish.   Video: Episode 142 Highlight Reel   Fuujin Concept Art - I'm not a fan of the Vegeta hair turning into a tentacle facsimile.   Raijin Concept Art - Sure, he's missing ears. But his dentistry is the real issue.  Human Hien and Raiden - The boys chilling out moments before Yuri fused with a dark god and nuked Shanghai. And got resurrected as cyborgs to serve a weird Japanese army guy that really wanted to bone his superior officer.
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Aug 11, 2021 18:45
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The Dark Id posted:
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Aug 11, 2021 19:24
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Poor Mutant Apes. They really didn't have much going on. At least they got more respect than floating pillow baby guy. Die a lot or kill a lot, the god bath police aren't picky. They wouldn't have minded the god stabbing and really gross bath but he also streamed it and that's just not right.
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Aug 11, 2021 21:32
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Is it intentional Karin doesn't speak during the italicized prefight banter? I legit forgot what she's been up to, just the fortress of regrets, I think...? That was a lot of sidequesting, huh.
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Aug 11, 2021 23:04
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