Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
I greatly appreciate Prishe's zero-bullshit approach to the plot and her fellow NPC's.

Also I've slightly lost track of all the proper nouns, can we have a lore refresher on the Kuluu and Zilart?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Jack-Off Lantern
Mar 2, 2012

The Zilart are a precursor race, we've met Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche. They tried destroying Vana'diel 10.000 years ago via magicks and things like Delkfutt Tower.

The Kuluu are a race that split from the Zilart as Outcasts. They summoned the first Avatars I believe, the Temple of Uggalepih is a Kuluu Ruin. We've also met multiple Kuluu. They stopped the Zilart from Destroying Vana'diel. I think the only difference is that the Kuluu lack an ability the Zilart have. I'm not sure what exactly.

This is how I understand it after just finishing Rise of the Zilart

Keep in mind i am not caught up with the let's play for obvious reasons

Jack-Off Lantern fucked around with this message at 12:09 on May 30, 2023

MarquiseMindfang
Jan 6, 2013

vriska (vriska)

Mr. Vile posted:

If I remember right the Mammet fight was a real pain in the neck. Unlike more modern MMOs FFXI's battle system was really not designed to handle fighting multiple enemies at once. It was practically impossible for a tank to keep hate on more than one target at a time because all the hate generating abilities were single target, so this fight was usually done with the "supertank" exploit of the enmity system that was mentioned earlier in the thread. One tank would just be stood in the corner getting beaten on and not fighting back while the other mammets were picked off by the rest of the group. Fights in this game were not exactly designed, they just sort of put enemies in an arena and waited to see if the players could figure out a way to beat it.

Yeah, my successful Riverne run involved a Paladin supertank and me on Summoner again soloing the Mammets one at a time. The arena is a long passageway ending in a circular arena, so the PLD held the mammets in the circle with two dedicated healers, while I would pull one off, have my summon fight it, and run away to the other end of the corridor. When the summon died, it would take long enough for the mammet to reach me that I could resummon my avatar, and run away again once it attracted the thing's attention.

It was fun, actually. I'd already perfected the technique by doing all the trial-sized trials for summoner, so it was no big deal to do it again.

Fat and Useless
Sep 3, 2011

Not Thin and Useful

Jack-Off Lantern posted:

The Zilart are a precursor race, we've met Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche. They tried destroying Vana'diel 10.000 years ago via magicks and things like Delkfutt Tower.

The Kuluu are a race that split from the Zilart as Outcasts. They summoned the first Avatars I believe, the Temple of Uggalepih is a Kuluu Ruin. We've also met multiple Kuluu. They stopped the Zilart from Destroying Vana'diel. I think the only difference is that the Kuluu lack an ability the Zilart have. I'm not sure what exactly.

This is how I understand it after just finishing Rise of the Zilart

Keep in mind i am not caught up with the let's play for obvious reasons

We've met Kam, Eald, and possibly that lady on the airship as far as Zilart goes. Al'Taieu was the Zilart capital that got 'sploded.

For Kuluu we've met Nag, and Grav'iton.

The Dawn Maidens are also Zilart and Yve'noile was their leader.

What designates Kuluu from Zilart is the whisper of the soul. A connection they all have with each other and how all the Zilart saw the paradise Eald saw. No connection? Kuluu. What makes you lose it? Good question!

As for Gods we have Altana(The Dawn Goddess) and Promathia(The Twilight God) one is free living her best life and the other is imprisoned(possibly by himself) for reasons! Altana made the Zilart. Promanthia was said to have made the beastmen and cursed the five races.


Mr. Vile posted:

Prishe is legit the best character in the game, she's great.

If I remember correctly the Cape Riverne area is another one that used to be level capped, this time at 40. And no, your equipment would not automatically get level synched with you, so doing these areas meant keeping a set of gear around for each level cap. Exploring them solo was, uh, not recommended.

If I remember right the Mammet fight was a real pain in the neck. Unlike more modern MMOs FFXI's battle system was really not designed to handle fighting multiple enemies at once. It was practically impossible for a tank to keep hate on more than one target at a time because all the hate generating abilities were single target, so this fight was usually done with the "supertank" exploit of the enmity system that was mentioned earlier in the thread. One tank would just be stood in the corner getting beaten on and not fighting back while the other mammets were picked off by the rest of the group. Fights in this game were not exactly designed, they just sort of put enemies in an arena and waited to see if the players could figure out a way to beat it.

Since the LP is mostly focusing on the story beats and skipping the actual mechanics almost entirely, anyone mind if I take the occasional trip down memory lane with some more mechanics-focused posts? There's a surprising amount of depth going on behind the scenes.

Go right ahead. The issue with the story fights is that they are over in the blink of an eye and there isn't much to show off. Visaria literally walks up and at most drops a weaponskill. I can't even put limiters on everything is above level 70! The high tier fights I can at least crank up the difficulty and show them off a little more.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Prishe seems to be in a constant state of "Listen here, you little poo poo." and I can't say I blame her.

Mr. Vile
Nov 25, 2009

And, where there is treasure, there will be Air Pirates.
Bear in mind that I'm more talking about the game's heyday when the level cap was 75 and the only real competition on the MMO market was WoW, but most of this probably still holds up today.

I guess let's start with what the things we've been killing even are. FFXI doesn't really have the concept of "trash mobs" that more modern MMOs do and absolutely everything can and will destroy you if you're remotely on the same level as it. Absolutely everything is a threat to you, and unlike in FFXIV where different mob types are essentially interchangable as far as fighting them goes, treating a spider the same way you would a crab is going to get you killed horribly. Actually, we used to have a saying back when I played: "No matter what level you are or how good your gear, somewhere in Vana'diel is a rabbit that can kick your rear end".

Take that minotaur that got run over a couple updates back. That's not a unique boss model, there are taurus running around all over the map, like the stegotaur in the same update. One of their moves is called Mortal Ray, and it inflicts Doom. Then you drop dead. Actually, that move is pretty much unique in that you can counteract it by turning your back before it hits, whereas most moves there's no counterplay for at all and you're just going to get hit. If you don't know about that trick or don't know that the move exists in the first place then gently caress you, you lose! That's a particularly nasty example, but the vast majority of enemy types have at least one move that can really mess you up. Spiders have Sickle Slash to absolutely ruin one person, Sheep can put the whole party to sleep and then murder you all one by one, Malboros have their infamous Bad Breath and so on and so forth. Crabs are a notable exception, which is why everybody tried to grind those for exp when at all possible. That, and the concept of getting more exp for tougher enemies does not exist. At all. For that matter, the concept of exp scaling doesn't exist. Exp gain is based entirely on your level vs the level of the thing you're killing. If you just started the game and you kill a crab that's level 1, you net yourself 100exp exactly. If you're a level 75 godslayer and you kill a level 75 crab, you get...100exp. So while the exp it takes to level up increases exponentially with each level, the exp you get from kills doesn't change at all. There's some complicated maths on how it averages party levels vs target levels, but your standard exp grinding party was a party of 6 killing enemies around 6 levels above them. That netted you a cool 200exp per kill! And no, quests do not give exp. You will grind crabs and you will like it. And honestly? We did like it! FFXI is a much, much slower game than modern MMOs. In FFXIV you're using an ability about once every second, with more things being slotted in between those and mechanics to pay attention to and markers to avoid. It's pretty frantic! In FFXI each class has maybe five abilities total and they each have a cooldown upwards of a minute. There's no mechanics to pay attention to so you're almost always just standing in place. So, we spent the time chatting, either with the linkshell system or just with the party. It was pretty fun, a much more sedate and social experience than the breakneck pace of the modern MMO where typing anything means taking a break from combat.

As for more enemy type tidbits, all (most) enemies have a "family", like crabs are in the Aquan family and rabbits are in the Beast family. For the most part this only matters for the Beastmaster job, but they exist in a sort of food web situation where each family has a chance to be intimidated and frozen in place when trying to attack one of the other families. The "natural" enemy types are all things only Beastmaster needs to care about, but there are also four "special" families: Demon, Dragon, Undead, and Arcana, and the four vaguely knight-themed jobs are each associated with killing one of them. Take dragons, for example: Dragoon gets a special Dragon Killer trait that gives them that same intimidation effect against anything in the dragon family, like those Firedrakes, as well as things like Dragon Circle that lets them extend the effect to the rest of the party. For the other families, you want a dark knight for Arcana (read: magically animated things like golems and magic pots), a paladin for undead, or a samurai for demons. The amount of times this will actually come up is...approximately never. It just sort of exists and adds a little flavour when it incidentally comes up. These families exist in pairs, so dragons and demons both oppose and can intimidate one another, and the same goes for undead and arcana. In all honesty I can only think of a tiny, tiny number of situations where this can even happen in the game, and one of them actually came up just recently when FAU went to fight demons as a Dragoon. Since a Dragoon's pet wyvern is a dragon, it can intimidate and be intimidated by demons like the minotaur.

Here's the kicker though: The intimidation effect is based entirely on targetting, and doesn't care if the target is an enemy or not. And there's a set of really good (for 75 cap) Red Mage gear that has the hidden effect of making the wearer count as a dragon, which means they can be intimidated by friendly dragoons. Even when trying to revive a dead party member! For such a niche effect I saw it come up more often than you would think, with a Red Mage trying to revive me and being interrupted by a panic attack halfway through.

Jack-Off Lantern
Mar 2, 2012

On the other hand,if you don't use the 119 stuff/sparks item you can get totally get murdered by Storyfights. We tried that Ark Angel Samurai with a PUP/DNC and he absolutely murdered us and had to get a bit more creative.

Eald'narche also killed us ,but that was cause we triggered all his threshold attacks at once

Jack-Off Lantern fucked around with this message at 18:24 on May 30, 2023

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Mr. Vile posted:

Bear in mind that I'm more talking about the game's heyday when the level cap was 75 and the only real competition on the MMO market was WoW, but most of this probably still holds up today.

I guess let's start with what the things we've been killing even are. FFXI doesn't really have the concept of "trash mobs" that more modern MMOs do and absolutely everything can and will destroy you if you're remotely on the same level as it. Absolutely everything is a threat to you, and unlike in FFXIV where different mob types are essentially interchangable as far as fighting them goes, treating a spider the same way you would a crab is going to get you killed horribly. Actually, we used to have a saying back when I played: "No matter what level you are or how good your gear, somewhere in Vana'diel is a rabbit that can kick your rear end".

Strong memories of the original Guild Wars here. There was a very low level cap so outside of the newbie tutorial areas, you could never just numbersmash anything just by being max level, and all enemies tended to be statted and skilled like player characters, so any hosed up super combo you could pull, they often could as well(and they tended to be quite well designed), plus they often showed up in groups mimicking "parties," with healers, tanks, ranged attackers, DPS/DOT causers, interrupters, etc. and on top of that many later-game enemies had enemy-unique skills(usually a couple per type of enemy "chassis" like undead, giant worms, etc.), so there was no such thing as a "trivial" mid-to-late game encounter.

It was absolutely awesome and I love that style of game design.

I know this ain't really a threat for complaining about FF14, but I hate how pointless FF14's mobs, both overworld and dungeon, often felt to me.

With regards to the "food web," are there any situations where mobs are hostile to each other to try and simulate a sort of "ecosystem" going on where you might see this in effect? Or is it mostly going to pop up if someone brings a pet or wears gear that has a counts-as-creature effect?

Mr. Vile
Nov 25, 2009

And, where there is treasure, there will be Air Pirates.

PurpleXVI posted:

With regards to the "food web," are there any situations where mobs are hostile to each other to try and simulate a sort of "ecosystem" going on where you might see this in effect? Or is it mostly going to pop up if someone brings a pet or wears gear that has a counts-as-creature effect?

Nope, monsters never fight amongst themselves and the whole system really just exists for Beastmaster. As for the gear, I'm...pretty sure that's the only set in the game that does anything like that. It's a very bizarre edge case that was mostly just funny when it came up.

MarquiseMindfang
Jan 6, 2013

vriska (vriska)

Mr. Vile posted:

For the most part this only matters for the Beastmaster job,

Hey hey hey! That's not true, it also matters for Blue Mage, aka the best job in the game!

Mr. Vile posted:

Nope, monsters never fight amongst themselves and the whole system really just exists for Beastmaster.

I don't blame you for forgetting Pankration exists. Monstrosity too, which is my favourite of the abandoned mechanics in this game.

Mr. Vile
Nov 25, 2009

And, where there is treasure, there will be Air Pirates.

MarquiseMindfang posted:

Hey hey hey! That's not true, it also matters for Blue Mage, aka the best job in the game!

I don't blame you for forgetting Pankration exists. Monstrosity too, which is my favourite of the abandoned mechanics in this game.

Fair points! I had totally forgotten about all three of those things.

Fat and Useless
Sep 3, 2011

Not Thin and Useful

Mr. Vile posted:

Here's the kicker though: The intimidation effect is based entirely on targetting, and doesn't care if the target is an enemy or not. And there's a set of really good (for 75 cap) Red Mage gear that has the hidden effect of making the wearer count as a dragon, which means they can be intimidated by friendly dragoons. Even when trying to revive a dead party member! For such a niche effect I saw it come up more often than you would think, with a Red Mage trying to revive me and being interrupted by a panic attack halfway through.

I didn't know that one!

So the there is always a rabbit that can kick your rear end still applies it is just muddy at max level. With no trusts things are much more dangerous but most of the highest level normal mobs can be soloed. Certain Apex mobs can be soloed, not fast and you need very good gear. There are endgame instanced contents with bunches of trash mobs. These keep scaling up in level the deeper in you go and 98% of them you are not soloing, including rabbits. Even with trusts this trash is mean, even in mid tier gear. There is a point where you need real characters in order to progress... Against trash.

As we get deeper in the expansions the story fights get pretty real too even at max level.


MarquiseMindfang posted:

Hey hey hey! That's not true, it also matters for Blue Mage, aka the best job in the game!

It matters for the little daily and pop up quests too, usually kill x of a family.

Mr. Vile
Nov 25, 2009

And, where there is treasure, there will be Air Pirates.

Fat and Useless posted:

I didn't know that one!

So the there is always a rabbit that can kick your rear end still applies it is just muddy at max level. With no trusts things are much more dangerous but most of the highest level normal mobs can be soloed. Certain Apex mobs can be soloed, not fast and you need very good gear. There are endgame instanced contents with bunches of trash mobs. These keep scaling up in level the deeper in you go and 98% of them you are not soloing, including rabbits. Even with trusts this trash is mean, even in mid tier gear. There is a point where you need real characters in order to progress... Against trash.

Come to that, with Dragon Circle you could make them intimidated by the entire party, including themselves. Since pretty much nobody even knew about the hidden effect on that set they mostly got very confused when they were self-buffing and suddenly intimidated themselves into silence.

Melomane Mallet
Oct 11, 2012

I'm bad; I'm just not born that way.

PurpleXVI posted:

I greatly appreciate Prishe's zero-bullshit approach to the plot and her fellow NPC's.

:hai: I also hate that trio of annoying Tarus and wish to punt them into the sun.

And! There are four characters in FF11, I consider "My faves"; Prishe is the first, maybe!Zilart lady is the second, and the other two won't show up till Treasures of Aht Urhgan.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
...how is Shantotto not on your list of favourites?

Melomane Mallet
Oct 11, 2012

I'm bad; I'm just not born that way.
I didn't level BLM past subjob level, so she only showed up briefly in the Windrust branch of Wings of the Goddess, so I didn't have enough interactions with her to form an opinion. :v:

MarquiseMindfang
Jan 6, 2013

vriska (vriska)
I thought everyone did the Warp II quest to sell.

Bregor
May 31, 2013

People are idiots, Leslie.

leo_pointing.jpg

Seriously, CoP is the best. Nag'molada is a prick but I understand his motivations. I also love this badass bitch who shows up with a fleet of airships. This is a Final Fantasy game, after all :v:

Mr. Vile posted:

a wonderful post

So much of this is why I loved XI back in the day. Leveling was a harrowing experience, especially in those in-between levels when crab camps weren't good. Pulling Torama or Goddess help you a Manticore in Labyrinth of Onzozo was a freakin' grind, man. And not just for the time commitment. You had to be on point as a tank or a healer, and DDs had better bring stacks of sushi or they weren't hitting poo poo. But you also had time between cooldowns to /party or /linkshell chat and shoot the poo poo with people. I made some great friends in this game, a few I still talk to over 13 years after I quit the first time. :3:

For all its wonderful elements, CoP didn't do much in terms of great exp camps. I had limited success in Bibiki Bay, but by and large the areas were mission or endgame relevant rather than helping you get to 75. When we get to the next expansion, leveling got quicker, but not necessarily easier.

Fat and Useless
Sep 3, 2011

Not Thin and Useful

Chapter 36: A Transient Dream













-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


She has no off button











-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ugggh... Where am I?


Gustaberg




Looks like right outside Bastok. Well I'm back on the mainland at least, nevermind that Tavnazia had zoop crystals and books I could have used at any time. I wonder what happened to everyone else?



Crap.



Hey Prishe lets go have a seat in the market and I'll climatize you to...



Alright.

Metalworks



Forgive me...



I'm sorry...



(At this point Visaria starts to dissociate)





Oh right. I should probably tell anyone else alive about the wild poo poo going down.















...

She isn't wrong... And yes it was absolutely self defense... This is the kinda stuff I keep in my head, I don't just blurt it out!



One of the greatest geniuses in the world...



Probably Aldo. But I'm not exactly welcome in Jeuno at the moment, we could go to Norg and ask Gilga...



She could probably power a small city with all the energy she has... I should probably follow her so she doesn't hurt anyone.

Honestly I didn't think I was going to be executed this week but hey here we are! Just gonna take a walk into Jeuno! Self defense right!? The faster I can get to Aldo and get shoved in a crate the better...


Next time: Just a reminder I am candidate for Queen

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


Does everyone have this type of talking animations? I suppose time has gotten me used to better ones, the rest of the time I'm pretty impressed by the PS2 MMO from 2002, but it might also be my memory failing me.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
I'm imagining Prishe just punching a path through the wilderness to Jeuno, yet still arriving faster than anyone using any kind of fast travel.

Capital Letdown
Oct 5, 2006
i still cant fix red text avs someone tell me the bbcode for that im an admin and dont know this lmao

SIGSEGV posted:

Does everyone have this type of talking animations? I suppose time has gotten me used to better ones, the rest of the time I'm pretty impressed by the PS2 MMO from 2002, but it might also be my memory failing me.

Cid in particular has a very weird mouth in this game. I remember there being a weird joke emoticon thing that was like :[CID] to reference how big his mouth was.

Jack-Off Lantern
Mar 2, 2012

The Children honestly look weird,too.

Fat and Useless
Sep 3, 2011

Not Thin and Useful

SIGSEGV posted:

Does everyone have this type of talking animations? I suppose time has gotten me used to better ones, the rest of the time I'm pretty impressed by the PS2 MMO from 2002, but it might also be my memory failing me.

Cid is the only person who talks with their teeth. Getting hit with Cid talking for the first time is a treat that everyone should enjoy. But like I mean it is a very Cid way of being. On a scale of Cid to Cid with Cid being the most Cid, Cid is pretty close to Cid. Cid would definitely talk with his big freakin' grin.


PurpleXVI posted:

I'm imagining Prishe just punching a path through the wilderness to Jeuno, yet still arriving faster than anyone using any kind of fast travel.

She is a force of nature. Oh God I just realized I have 3 updates until it. I need to edit video.

Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Jun 4, 2023

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


My working hypothesis is that he's actually Cid, but possessing a nutcracker doll after a terrible workshop accident.

Bmac32
Nov 25, 2012
Can confirm, Cid always had a real weird teeth thing going on and I am horrified to have to remember it.

Fat and Useless
Sep 3, 2011

Not Thin and Useful

Chapter 37: The Worst Day Of My Life


Okay. Straight to the Tenshodo. From the gate it takes roughly a minute to get there. I lost track of Prishe somewhere in the forest. I'm sure she'll turn up eventually, you can only get lost for so long before you eventually find something. I think...

Quickly I duck inside Neptune's Spire. I'm safe.



Come on!



What did you just say...



I think I'm having a heart attack. Huff... Huff... Huff...

AGGGGGGGGGGGH!!! GODDESS WHY!? SHIIIIIIIT!



WHO SIGNED OFF ON IT? I'LL KILL EM!



I saved the world *weeze* more than once even! *weeze*



Huff... (You...) Huff...



Aldo shuts the door before I start yelling again.



That's right I'm a drat thievin' savant. (Aldo you technically helped kill the Archduke, If I go down I'm taking you with me) Self defense! Where is the evidence!? I was in Rabao when it happened!



I was gonna be a queen... I can still be queen, I just need to tell Iroha that she doesn't need to hide it from me anymore in fear of breaking the future.

Er... I think Aldo actually saved me. Thanks Aldo.

Happily Ever After



Huff... *weeze* Huff...



*muffled screaming* Both... I'm gonna die... Today is the day I die.



I taste blood... *cough* Yeah... Both to the blood and the question.



That makes sense they've been trapped for a couple decades. I was wondering how she knew someone from the Tenshodo. Wait no it doesn't. How old are you Prishe?





Dragon...








-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visaria has another breakdown... She'll be fine...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Self... Defense?

Anxiety





























No Archduke today? Disappointing.



Sore subject...



That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Also self defense.



I'm torn between being indifferent because they are assholes and being enraged because they are MY assholes.





He kinda poofs. You are asking a lot.



They are all dead. You are asking a lot...

And that is the end of it. Hopefully one of the nations has some record of the expedition. I'll worry about how I'm gonna catch the kid when I'm at the crystal. Talking it out? Nah. Anyway I'll start back home on my search. I need to set a Chateau on fire.


Next time: Letting go

Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Jun 6, 2023

Bregor
May 31, 2013

People are idiots, Leslie.

boop

Also I love Tenzen! He's a pretty typical samurai but he's also very endearing. CoP is so good, y'all.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
Maybe we should bring the nuke sword back and use it in Jeuno. How about it.

Fat and Useless
Sep 3, 2011

Not Thin and Useful

PurpleXVI posted:

Maybe we should bring the nuke sword back and use it in Jeuno. How about it.

The pirates and smugglers are legitimately the only groups that don't have people in need of an rear end kicking. The world is awful and doesn't deserve to be saved. But for every Eald'narche there is a Verena, for every Trion a Claidie. The kind thing would be for everything to end but for whatever reason you keep trying to make things right for the handful of people that actually care about you or don't deserve whatever the hell is going on over their heads. You are not FF14's warrior of light. You have Zeid if you can find him, Aldo and Gilgamesh if they feel like it. Your country is not going to war for you. The one person who would die for you died for you(and the rest of the world I guess). And then you get one adoring fan who has been through hell and is constantly not existing AND if you succeed in fixing EVERYTHING she probably won't exist permanently.

And we still have 3 full expansions and several smaller expansions after this one... and they get longer somehow...

Bregor posted:

boop

Also I love Tenzen! He's a pretty typical samurai but he's also very endearing. CoP is so good, y'all.

Tenzen is a good lad who can do no wrong.

Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Jun 7, 2023

MarquiseMindfang
Jan 6, 2013

vriska (vriska)

Fat and Useless posted:

Tenzen is a good lad who can do no wrong.

I will dispute this later.

It's semi reasonable but he does kind of hold onto the idiot ball for a mission or two.

Fat and Useless
Sep 3, 2011

Not Thin and Useful

Chapter 38: The Knights Mistalle






-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know why but for some reason I can't bring myself to approach the chateau. I think I've decided that I will go down with dignity. The great martyr queen. Framed for... What treason am I actually being charged with? Having a kid follow me around?

Bah anyway I'm not going in the chateau so my other source of information is the church. I hate the church.



Oh hey! Good she is safe. Also a much needed voice of reason compared to Prishe's... Prishe-ness.



Fun.

Aniexity



What a waste of time.





Tavnazian church: Good

San d'Orian church: Dog shite.



I just stand back and smile, Ulmia is good.





Bah. Good try Ulmia. Messing with the church is a great pastime. Let's go bug some more nerds.



Last time I bugged these guys I got a baby wyvern!

I feel like a lot of Tavnazia's stance on the gates comes from having to deal with being the caretakers of Lightbringer. Don't touch things that shouldn't be touched. You do not want to go say hi to the Goddess, she is happy where she is and you should be happy where you are.



Come to think of it I got cool boots from church too... Maybe I should start going to church.



Hrm...



I don't think I'm going to start going to church...



No...



You know... I swear I've heard the term "abhorrent one" before... I'm sure it isn't important. Oh Goddess... I left her alone in Jeuno...



I think I'm done here. I don't think these wackadoos have the information I need.



Ulmia at least seems to know things are off. No idea what her end goal is but mine is to avoid royalty at all cost. Where else could I find some information on the expedition?



I guess that is better than my alternative? This is really off in the middle of nowhere.

Let's see... I'm looking for a servant or worker or something. Not like a lot of people just wander around out here should be easy to spot one.

Like that old guy over there!



Hmm?



Why?

(One weeding later...)



My dude I'm just here to ask directions to a crystal so I don't get executed.

Vana'diel March #2



I know all about names being disgraced!



Yep! Pretty sure my nobility has been stripped too, my only retainer is a moogle who eats my mithkabobs and doesn't clean behind the furniture.

Anyway I don't care about that, got any of his journals or notes?



I'm gonna go find a log to die behind. Good day.





That was actually helpful. Save my log old man I'll be back when this falls through.

The place I'm looking for is pretty easy to spot, probably the biggest house in San d'Oria aside from the chateau if you'd consider it a house.

I walk in, head upstairs, and explain myself to the old lady.



I whip out a notepad. Old people are like books except you can't burn them to keep yourself warm in the winter.





I admit I let a little sigh out. Hey Ulmia.





Mildaurion keeps popping up. I need to explore that name at some point. Anyway Ulmia is sweet and I could never be mad at her for joining in on reading an old person.





I take out an entirely different notepad and start taking notes.



Anyway as much fun as it is to dig into Ulmia's personal life we are getting off track.



Ulmia you don't want to know anything about the gates as it will probably shatter your heart. Is what I would say if I didn't also wonder about juicy church secrets.

Sorrow



Facing the truth versus abandoning it. I'm sure this is something I should reflect on. Hell, maybe Mildaurion knew how unreachable paradise was in more than the metaphorical sense.



I may know the answers but Ulmia can find her own without me weighing in.



Hmm. Let me get the timeline straight.

San d'Oria diverts the orcs to Tavnazia
Refugees flee to the cathedral
Altedour starts cleaving his way towards Jeuno and dies
Mildaurion leads the refugees underneath the cathedral and leaves
Rochefogne unleashes the Lightbringer
Mildaurion shows up a few days later in San d'Oria, revokes her nobility, and vanishes
The Refugees start digging
War ends
20 years go by and Eald'narche tells the papsque about Lightbringer
I fix everything and don't get executed

While I piece this together they continue...





... What a pain...





I really hate seeing Ulmia sad. It just kinda triggers some awful feeling in my chest. I can't deny Mildaurion seems like a saint and possibly an incredible badass with her escaping Lightbringer and the orcs. I'm sure she has her reasons other than it is extremely hard to get to Tavnazia at the moment. Still she is making Ulmia sad by both existing and not existing, that is unforgivable.

Anyway back to my execution. You really have nothing for me? Nothing at all? Bastok went out of it's way to cover this all up huh? Can you at least point me towards where Loverboy hides out?



Crud.

Say I don't think I've ever brought it up. You know that middle Initial in Elvaan names? That is rank. So P is papsque, C cardinal, N in Louverance's case is Noble. Curilla would be a Vicar and the royals who aren't king or queen would be I's for Imperiais. Me? I'm roughly a N maybe a B on a good day. Or at least I WAS...

Stupid kid handing out amulets...

I guess I have to go to Windurst. I have a feeling. It isn't a good feeling. This feeling is dark and foreboding. Like if I go to Windurst I'm going to die...

I'm sure it is nothing.


...





Next time: Visaria's no good, very bad week reaches the peak

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Fat and Useless posted:

I whip out a notepad. Old people are like books except you can't burn them to keep yourself warm in the winter.

I wanted you to know that I chuckled at this line, your comedy writing is excellent.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!

Melomane Mallet
Oct 11, 2012

I'm bad; I'm just not born that way.

...urge to punt... rising...

Fat and Useless
Sep 3, 2011

Not Thin and Useful

Soon...

MarquiseMindfang
Jan 6, 2013

vriska (vriska)

I bet I could still speedrun this. It's engraved on my very soul.

Melomane Mallet
Oct 11, 2012

I'm bad; I'm just not born that way.

...Oh god, I had completely blocked this from my mind. :shepicide:

Jack-Off Lantern
Mar 2, 2012

This looks like a thing i am almost at maybe

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!

I don't know what this is, but I need a priest and a hug after looking at it.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply