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That's excessively anime.
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Oct 21, 2014 07:59
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SSNeoman posted:And you must show what Piu-piu looks like in this new art style Ha, actually at this point I have no idea if he's even in the game! But surely I will post a non-spoiler picture if I do run into him! Which reminds me, another new thing is that sometimes you get to choose between several different dialogue options. In fact, the main "protagonist" (the one who we get to name) does not seem to speak other than through you in this manner. This does kind of fit, because the game does try to sell you a lot along the lines "this is your story" and such. But I don't know yet what are the bigger implications here since I didn't play much yet--I can't read Japanese very quickly so it's a much slower process than when playing in English.  Anyway, here's a sample screenshot showing a dialogue choice: 
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Oct 21, 2014 20:59
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I can translate this, I think. 1. Do you know where Donald and Goofy went? 2. I think I lost my keyblade.
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Oct 22, 2014 03:16
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PFlats posted:I can translate this, I think. That's pretty funny, I've never really played Kingdom Hearts games so didn't even realise how much he looks like Sora! Hm, wonder if this is secretly one of KH sequels and Disney characters will start showing up soon!
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Oct 22, 2014 07:02
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>Do you wish to sacrifice the world for the sake of Goofy? >yes >no
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Oct 22, 2014 14:14
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>yes >all hail the creator. All hail Goofy.
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Oct 22, 2014 19:37
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ashnjack posted:>yes Garsh!
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Oct 23, 2014 07:39
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All told, Kingdom Hearts is pretty Chaos Rings in tone. Especially Roxis' story. You just can't take it as seriously because: 1) The story is far less mature due to mandates by Disney 2) The story has Disney characters and worlds 3) Due to the insane amounts of retcons the plot is ludicrously complicated as a motherfuck.
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Oct 23, 2014 07:55
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SSNeoman posted:3) Due to the insane amounts of retcons the plot is ludicrously complicated as a motherfuck. Haha, yeah I know that. I haven't played Kingdom Hearts games, but I HAVE read this plot summary. It's pretty funny and a little bit scary that somebody managed to figure everything out like that!
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Oct 23, 2014 09:03
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It's not complicated, just convoluted. And also super simple, if you omit all the darkness and heart.
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Oct 23, 2014 21:59
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Hey guys, just a quick update... I've again been a bit busy with other things for a while, but this LP will continue shortly. Not this week though, because I am away from home on a conference, but definitely next week. It's time to see what all this has finally been leading up to! Not to mention the promised snippet of CR3.
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Nov 9, 2014 21:12
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Just wanted to say that these games look fantastic and thank you for LPing them. I hope CR 3 will be great too.
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Dec 2, 2014 08:22
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Mraagvpeine posted:Just wanted to say that these games look fantastic and thank you for LPing them. I hope CR 3 will be great too. Hey thanks for the kind words, and this gives me an opportunity to apologise once again about all these delays (nothing bad is happening, just lots going on in real life at the moment) but I do intend to finish this and I haven't abandoned it!
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Dec 3, 2014 08:18
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Ok, things are finally back on track. I have recorded the next update, so it will get posted (finally) in the next few days. In other good news, I have sorted out some scripts that allow me to do seamless (?) editing of images for CR3, to replace Japanese text with English in an automated fashion, so once we get there this should go quite well. Here is an example: Original:  Translated image:  The font is the same one that the game itself uses for all incidental English text. By the time I'm done with CR2, it CR3 will already be past the 3 months deadline it seems, although in all seriousness, I really don't anticipate any more long breaks for CR2 until the end (there's not that much left really).
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Dec 12, 2014 20:05
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Oh wow. Are you doing the translation yourself?
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Dec 12, 2014 21:19
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Oh wow. Yes, which means it's probably going to be a little rough since, as I've mentioned, neither English nor Japanese is my first language, although I have been learning English since I was 7 years old (not so for Japanese unfortunately, that one I started much later). As far as editing the images goes, it's actually not a lot of effort at all... I have managed to get it all scripted via ImageMagick, so basically all I need to do at this point is to put all translations for an update in a text file and run a simple shell script that parses it and runs appropriate ImageMagick commands!
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Dec 12, 2014 21:32
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How is the game itself? I heard that while it doesn't have IAP, it has an IAP-esque currency and continuing from game overs apparently take a shitload of it.
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Dec 12, 2014 22:12
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SSNeoman posted:How is the game itself? I heard that while it doesn't have IAP, it has an IAP-esque currency and continuing from game overs apparently take a shitload of it. Unfortunately this is true, while there are absolutely definitely no IAPs, the game does occasionally feel like it was originally intended to have them and they never quite had the time to fully rework it all into a non-IAP game. So yes it does have things like rare and less rare currency and so on.  Ah well it could have been worse.
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Dec 12, 2014 22:26
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 You may recall that a while ago, we were told by Lessica to approach her when we are ready to hear the full story of the Rite of Resealing. We'll get to that in a moment, but first just a quick post-near-apocalypse chat with everyone!         Did you find the strength you wanted? ...Yeah, I guess I did. I finally understand, Li Hua. Good! Then let's take care of this one last problem and get out of here! All right! All right, time for the cat to come outta the bag!     I know what you mean. I feel like I finally understand how good it is to be alive. Are you doing okay? You looked like yo were having some trouble when we were running... Yeah. It was just because I was dashing with all my might. My legs are still a bit heavy, but they'll be okay. Really? I feel completely revived thanks to that thing. Guess you've still got to toughen up some, Conor. You're a man, aren't you? Y-yeah... I'll do my best! I'll be so strong that I'll even be able to beat Araki! Ha ha ha! That's the spirit! There are simply too many thing we don't understand... Let's ask Lessica for the truth.In just a moment. Next up is Araki.             And finally Marie and Orlando...                         Orlando, what did you mean when you said that you were...? Oh. All the while that I was a "Pillar" or whatever, I was stuck with that Neron guy. It's not like I could see him or and talk to him. But my consciousness was there, in that empty space, and I learned a lot there. And... I saw everything that was happening with you guys. Darwin, Marie... you both really gave it your all. Orlando... (sniffle) Orlando... You guys came in contact with that Neron guy, too, right? Don't you remember anything? I don't know... I feel like I heard something, but can't quite remember what. Me, too... Though I did see Darwin and Lessica trying to save us all. I think Orlando has the right idea. Let's finally do this!    Bring it on!     What... what do you mean? To get people’s prayers... right? So he can exist as a deity. Yes. Prayers are pure Sopia Core power, the source of the Creator's abilities. When he lost his believers, the Creator demolished the world, unleashing disasters and setting his Apostles upon it... His Apostles...? So those monsters... You mean... the Creator is behind all of this? Yes. All to regain belief in him. You were gathered together to construct a new Reckoning to serve as his scripture. But how can we make a new Reckoning? You have ties to the one who is Nominator, and posses powerful Sopia as well. Thus you were chosen. It's easy to drum up dramas of love, grief and rage between you and the Nominator. This makes for a better testament. So that's why we're here... Ultimately, the Nominator will descend to the surface and tell the story of what happened here to what few people remain. It will give rise to new belief, to a new Reckoning.  Well then. Hope you're all still ok after this explanation.                         ALL RIGHT! FIGHT!  And this opens another new teleporter, to take use into a whole new area. OK well, that was pretty heavy stuff. So I would suggest that before we proceed we should relax a bit by talking with Piu-Piu. (Of course we'll talk to the others too after, but first...)           Um, ok, moving swiftly onwards then...            Uh, like I said, moving swiftly onwards then...      I can't say for certain that I think that's what happened, but... No, she's probably right. I think you did end up with Neron's Sopia, and I'd guess you inherited his wish too... Neron's wish...? Yeah. Neron just wanted to be free. Though he wanted that freedom in return for your life, of course. ...I can understand that though. He's been sealed away for longer that we could even process, being used by this Creator guy. Yeah... You must have grown stronger if Neron thought you could handle that important of a wish. I don't feel like I have... But if you're right, then I really need to focus on this fight. You're the only one who's ever made it this far. That ought to give you the guts to keep moving forward.             That's better. Let's see what Araki has to say.  Short and to the point, as always. Finally, Marie.          And one last word with Lessica...                   Uh... can I have minute to think about this? Well, in any case, there was quite a bit of stuff said here and there is only more to come in the next instalments! So stay tuned.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:47
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Wait, if the Horsemen could go down to the world, why can't the Creator? Or is that only possible in this timeless oblivion?
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Jan 9, 2015 23:37
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It's probably one of those things where he needs faith, not actual memories. Also, if he went down to Earth he would be closer to Neron, which he does not want.
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Jan 10, 2015 00:38
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  Well then, this is where we left off last time. So, we might as well take the plunge, it's not like that there is much else to do (well there is loads of sidequests of course--some extremely interesting ones too--but most of those are beyond our level for the moment--fear not, we'll get back to that, I do intend to show pretty much everything there is in this game as much as I can). Also, as an additional note, there's going the be a whole lotta plot dumping in this part--basically if you thought that last part was heavy with exposition, you ain't seen nothing yet.   Here we are then. Looks a bit familiar...                   Ok, so, as mentioned, there is a particular way that we'll have to use to progress. The game does explain it to you at this point (and I will do so in a moment), but first let's have a look at the ma...  ...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! All right, I am exaggerating a bit here. It's not as complicated as it looks, it really isn't. Basically, as was already said, there are three paths through this area. Left path will be taken by Li Hua and Orlando; middle by Darwin and Marie and right path by Araki and Conor. There are barriers in the path that can be removed by reaching certain objects--the objects that unlock the barriers are typically located on a different path from where the barrier is. We can also, at certain points of the map (the rooms marked with circles) switch to a different path. So essentially what are going to do is to keep progress forward with all three pairs of character, but because of the barriers, we have to keep switching back and forth between them so they can unlock the paths for each other. Oh, and also there are bosses to fight at certain locations. Yeah. That's all there is to this, even if looks hugely complicated, once you start playing, it really is not. Japanese version actually calls this area "Heavenly eye" instead of "All-seeing eye", interestingly.  We start on the middle path, with Darwin and Marie. Let's investigate to the left first.  We're going to be seeing lot's of these circular rooms.  In the middle is actually one of those circles that allows us to switch to a different pair of characters. But we're not going to do that just yet.  These rooms have a couple of exits that lead to different places.  That particular exit leads to a pallete-swapped library room. Let's get to reading I suppose. THE RITE OF RESEALING The Rite is enacted to bring about a new Reckoning. Neron plays the part of potential Destroyer of the world. The Rite produces a new Testament of Sacrifice to be told to all by the saviour, chosen by the Creator to be His emissary to mankind. This setup has been selected after attempting a variety of different formats for ending the world. PLAYING OUT OF THE RITE OF RESEALING ACT I Cause natural disasters around the world and bring forth Apostles. Once a third of the world's population has been purged, summon a Nominator and appropriate companions to serve as Pillars ACT II Release the Four Horsemen. Have the Nominator and his or her Pillars fend off the Horsemen as part of their trials and thus strengthen the bonds between them. ACT III Loosen the seals which hold Neron bound and have him consume a city of man. Make the Nominator and Pillars aware of the threat that Neron poses and incite them to choose to offer a sacrifice of their own will. ACT IV Carry out the resealing of Neron using the Final Sealing. At that time overwrite the consciousness of the Nominator to resurrect him or her as the true saviour. FINAL ACT Dispatch the Four Horsemen to Earth and have them cleans the planet of the human stain. Using a set of trials, enacted by the Herald of the Creator, the survivors will the winnowed down to only those worthy of the Creator's love. The saviour will appear before these survivors to spread faith and belief in the Creator. So this seems to be a bit more elaboration on what we already heard from Lessica last time. Basically this whole Rite of Resealing thing is pretty much fake and the real purpose of everything is totally different.  If we go back and run to the other side...  More reading material, looks like. Well, let's get to it. THE SCIENCE OF SOPIA Sopia: the pattern on which life is moulded. In the parlance of men, the Sopia could be best described as the soul. In the world of the Creator, all life is built upon these Sopia. Sopia Cores: physical manifestations of Sopia. Sopia Cores posses the power to warp dimensions, linking different points in space. It is also possible to use Sopia Cores as tools to summon forth high-level powers. PILLARS Catalysts for transferring Neron's power to the Nominator. Raw materials for human Sopia Cores. After being transformed, the Pillars reside with Neron. Their powers will be used during the final Sealing to form a dimensional cage in which to bind Neron. OPHANIM The forms taken by the Sopia of the Pillars, living manifestations of Neron's power. It appears that their forms are based upon myths and legends that have taken root in Pillars' hearts. Ophanim are the living form of the Sopia. Their formerly human bodies were linked to Neron by becoming Sopia Cores, and the Ophanim draw great power from this link. THE PEDESTAL OF SEALING The path through which Neron's power is drawn. Possesses the ability to force a part of Neron to take physical form. Process: 1. Inflict a wound upon the body of a Pillar and force a part of Neron to manifest in the physical world to restore it. 2. After confirming that the Pillar has become an Ophan, induce the Ophan to attack the Nominator. 3. Make the Nominator recipient of the Pillar's Sopia by having him or her defeat the Ophan. 4. Transform the Pillar's physical body into a Sopia Core. Move this to be housed together with Neron. So this set seems to explain some of the game mechanics that we've encountered. You may wonder, why all of this is so meticulously documented. We'll find out shortly, in fact.  Finally going through this door...  ...we encounter a thing.  We can activate the thing...    Looks like it removes a crimson barrier somewhere else on the map.  Now we'll backtrack to that party-switching circle, and change over to Li Hua and Darwin.   Apart from libraries, we can also find the palette-swapped version of this other room, but it just has an item chest containing a consumable. So nothing special.  On the other side is, yes, another library. You know the drill. This one is extremely long, but also extremely interesting. RECORDS OF THE NOMINATOR THE 8TH NOMINATOR: ESCHER Summoned as the Nominator of the 8th Rite. Completed the Rite. THE 111TH NOMINATOR: HEIKE Born into the world as the third son of the Batos family in Cetrea. Lost family and became a slave at age 13 when neighbouring nation of Célestin invaded. Forced to do hard labour, but found time to study the sword in secret. Summoned as the Nominator of the 111th Rite. Completed the Rite. THE 692ND NOMINATOR: JEANNE Born into the world in Chinon and abandoned by mother. Adopted by the Gran family. Qualified as a physician at tender age of 15 due to superior cognitive capabilities. Appointed as royal physician the following year. Summoned as the Nominator of the 692nd Rite. Completed the Rite. THE 1584TH NOMINATOR: DENIS Born into the world as the second son of the Tanacio family in Lugos. Left his wealthy familial home at a young age to become a builder's apprentice. After striking out on own as a builder, wed Sonyo. Had first child that same year, named Adona. Summoned as the Nominator of the 1584th Rite. Completed the Rite. THE 1685TH NOMINATOR: DARWIN Born into the world as the first son of the Allecker family in Ornia. Bereaved of his parents at age 5 and given into the care of an orphanage. Fled. Began living alone from that point forward. Met Candidates Orlando and Marie at age 7 after the death of their parents and began living with them. His independent sword study let him to become youngest-ever champion of the Ornian swordfighting tournament and member of the Ornian Guard. Summoned to serve as a Pillar in the 1685th Rite, but upon death of the intended Nominator, appointed as the replacement Nominator. AMON AND NERON Amon and Neron both require others to be aware of them in order to continue existing. They exist only because they exist in the minds of others. The belief of others in their existence is what brings gods into being. Consciousness, expression, words... Every act that makes their presences known serves in turn as fuel for their very existence. Even this record will server to solidify their presence in this world. This is why I have been ordered to record everything. HUMANS Humans have been researched and analysed to determine how to best gain their faith and their prayers. Human beings are life forms with strong and free wills of their own. We have determined that they are aware of and comprehend death, and that they fear death above all other things. Death. It is the ending of life. They seek knowledge in order to avoid that end. They seek to control life in order to control that end. They seek a god because they fear that end. That end is the font of all human existence, and the inescapable rule under which it must live. Salvation in the face of death. We have concluded that this is the best method to employ in order to gain the faith of humanity. In accordance with this conclusion, we create texts that foretell of a coming end. We write that only those who rely on the Creator will be saved when the end times come. We call this a Reckoning, and it serves as a holy text for humanity. We have also determined that it is difficult for humans to maintain dedication to a god which gives out blessings while asking nothing in return. Thus the humans must pay for their salvation. It was decided to add the story of a great sacrifice to a god in the creation of every new Reckoning. Information from the previous world would be used in this effort. A duel to the death to leave behind only the best genes. That ancient ritual remains only in memory, serving as the basis upon which the Rite was devised to create each new Reckoning. CREATIONS OF AMON THE HERALD OF GOOD TIDINGS Envoy of the Creator. Made to be Amon's most powerful servant. The one who blows the horn. The one who investigates. After the Rite of Resealing, the Herald sounds forth from the heavens the tones of good tidings and subjects the people of earth to seven trials. THE SPEAR WIELDER The lesser of Amon's creations. Assists in smooth completion of the Rite of Resealing. Upon the Final Sealing, plunges the spear into the Nominator to initiate the system. THE APOSTLES Once-normal creatures living upon the earth, transformed physically by accepting the Creator into their bodies. Made to serve as an advance force during the Rite of Resealing, they attack humans as part of this role. When they received the Creator's powers, their former Sopia powers were increased manifold. By defeating these Apostles, the nominator can receive these Sopia. Thus they server as fuel for the Nominator's own power. Wow, that is whole lot to ponder about there. I do like how they do try to cover all game mechanics with in-world explanations, and these ones are in particular very interesting. And was that a reference to the first game hidden there? In any case, time for some more action, so let's get out of here.  Over here, we can see an item chest... but no apparent way to get to it. So we'll have to leave this for now and come back to it later if possible. Let's keep going then.      Finally, a staircase. Wonder what's at the top.  Oh, it's... actually, it's not Firedrake, just his colour-swapped cousin! In any case, the first boss of this area.  Name is Otohime, so as you might expect the boss starts out as water elemental.  Therefore the wind spells will be effective against him.  We can also steal an item... with a fairly obvious purpose.  There is literally nothing else to this fight, just spam magic until he is defeated. He does not have any special or noteworthy attacks, really.      So, another barrier removed. That's it for now, we'll continue our progress through the dungeon next time. Will there be even more plot dumps? Who knows! ivantod fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 18, 2015 23:05
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ivantod posted:Japanese version actually calls this area "Divine eye" instead of "All-seeing eye", interestingly. Hirayuki fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 18, 2015 23:44
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Are the three teams pre-determined, or do you select who partners with who?
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Jan 18, 2015 23:46
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Hirayuki posted:Nah, 天 just means "the heavens," with any religious and/or secular connotations that contains. So "Heaven's Eye" would be a better literal translation. Yes, I know what 天 means, was just trying not to be too literal here as to me 'heaven' is somehow associated with gods or the word 'divine'. But perhaps I should have just gone literal here. In any case thanks for the clarification, my day job is definitely not translator, so I am happy to accept a correction from one! Cloud Potato posted:Are the three teams pre-determined, or do you select who partners with who? I am actually not quite sure, I think you can just swap Lessica in instead of another person, but I think you can't move people around between teams other than that. If you'll recall the teams were actually defined a while ago, after defeating Neron.
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Jan 18, 2015 23:59
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Yessssssssssssss. I loved this part. I was a bit annoyed at the palette-swapped library, but the texts are genuinly interesting. The best part is how clerically each of the processes was described, how to harvest human faith, how to win human loyalty, how the Arc Arena was the basis for Amon's Reckoning...I could go on. Though I note that Escher's entry is quite vague. I wonder if something like CRO happened with the 8th Nomination as well. Or maybe it's just a developer nod.
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Jan 19, 2015 00:06
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Something I don't understand, is this happening on one world or multiple worlds?
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Jan 19, 2015 00:49
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Mraagvpeine posted:Something I don't understand, is this happening on one world or multiple worlds? This is all happening in one world. The cycle has been going on for a veeeeery long time though. There is an implication that this world is one of the dimensions that helped destroy the Qualia (with Escher's name and the Arc Arena reference), but I think it's more of a nod to the other game rather than a genuine piece of continuity.
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Jan 19, 2015 01:23
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SSNeoman posted:Though I note that Escher's entry is quite vague. I wonder if something like CRO happened with the 8th Nomination as well. Or maybe it's just a developer nod. You will recall that even the "public" text about Escher's Rite is incomplete and said to be written in an old dialect or something like that (don't remember the exact phrasing and can't be bothered to look for it  ). But this actually seems like a cheat/continuity error, because if all this was meticulously recorded by Lessica (as it seems to be) there is no reason why it shouldn't be readable. Because I can't see her not keeping everything up to date really.
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Jan 19, 2015 08:05
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ivantod posted:You will recall that even the "public" text about Escher's Rite is incomplete and said to be written in an old dialect or something like that (don't remember the exact phrasing and can't be bothered to look for it This is gonna be fanwanky as gently caress, but I don't think it was written by Lessica. I think in the early stages it was just Bachs/Amon trying to work out the kinks within his system. He ended up creating Lessica later on, probably because Escher decided he wanted no part in this farce and rebelled (having Lessica act as the supportive caregiver and as the friendly face probably decreases the chances that people would rebel). I can't see him going along with Bachs' plans, especially if he had to participate in his dimension's Arc Arena. I have the entry open now, and while Eluca is there, Musiea is not. Which means she probably died and I doubt Escher would be up for any self-sacrifice after that. Given what we know about Bachs and how much he loves cover stories and lies, I could see him sweeping the incident under the rug and censoring the entry with a simple "completed the rite". Alternatively it's a silly reference and I'm over-thinking it
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Jan 19, 2015 08:20
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Welp, one god's dead, time to fight the other one.
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Jan 19, 2015 16:00
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Glazius posted:Welp, one god's dead, time to fight the other one. Haha, I like that, a pretty good description of the current situation!
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Jan 19, 2015 22:33
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 Last time when we left off, we were making our way through the All-seeing Eye area. As you may recall, there are barriers on the path and it's necessary to keep switching between the characters in order to deactivate them and progress.  At this point we'll switch to Araki, who is making his way on the rightmost path, together with Conor.  He also runs across one of those unreachable chests. The items in them better be good since they are hidden away like this!  Eventually he runs into a library with a few more things to read. THE CREATOR AND THE DESTROYER AMON AND NERON Two beings of a higher order who continually clash against each other to give rise to new worlds. They are the end and the beginning. They propel the cycle ever onward. The existence of each is rooted in his complement's mind. Only by his counterpart's recognition can either Amon or Neron exist and continue to create and destroy. THE CREATION OF EARTH In the aftermath of a clash between Amon and Neron, a great tremor was born in the dimensions. This tremor in turn tore apart space, giving birth to the present world. When the clash had ended, the routed Neron was annihilated; by that action Amon should have also disappeared from the world. Amon refused his own destruction, however, and sealed Neron forcibly within the planet to which they had so recently given birth. Amon this escaped his annihilation, but due to Neron's collapse, his own powers were also greatly reduced. THE FORMER WORLD CONVERGENCE OF NOTHINGNESS It is clear that there was once a former world which was completely annihilated. The appearance of nothingness seems to have caused space to fragment, converge upon itself and then flicker out of existence. THE WORLD BEFORE CONVERGENCE Humanity existed on that world, just as it does in the present world. It has been observed that there existed advanced civilisations in that world as well. Shifting space, navigating time, immortalising life... Humans appeared to use every available means to oppose the nothingness, but they could not stop the convergence. HUMANITY CREATION Highly intelligent life forms with the power of Sopia appeared on the planet due to Neron's influence. Amon dubbed these life forms, "humankind", and determined that they would be capable of maintaining the necessary recognition of his being in Neron's place. PRAYER Humankind recognises the Creator through prayer. Each individual's prayers are negligible, but when all of the people in the world pray together, Amon can receive as much recognition of his existence as Neron offered. This is why Amon interferes with the world, constructing belief in himself as a god. MAGIC As humans have continually evolved, they have awoken to the possibility of using their own Sopia's power. This may also be an effect of the sealed-away Neron. Humans named this ability "magic". After its discovery, it quickly became the central pillar upon which their civilisations were built. THE CYCLICAL WORLD Since the universe came into being, it has ever been expanding outward, splintering into countless branches and divisions. A multidimensional world limited only by the scope of human perception. It is said that what waits beyond this expansion is only the fragmentation and convergence of the nothingness. The convergence of nothingness occurs, unchanging, on all planes of existence. For the sake of continued existence, there exists the infinite cycle of thought. Wow, ok. Again some heavy stuff and food for thought. Also, on a completely technical note, I wanted to say that whoever did the translation for these texts, did a really excellent job. I absolutely love the way they are written, almost in a style of some kind of scientific text.   But all roads lead to the next boss, really.  It's yet another recolour of that "tree with many eyes" boss.  Physical attacks do well enough here, really. To be honest, we are probably slightly overleveled, but that's ok because we'll need levels later.  Anyway, that's done.       Continuing onwards, we can deactivate the other half of that barrier from last time.  This means that Darwin can now continue a bit forward...  ...towards the next boss fight. We've seen many variations on this enemy over the course of the game.  This one is Legion Praetor.  For some reason, he's actually holy-elemental, so dark attacks do pretty good damage as you can see.  So this is really over before it even begins.   Continuing onwards, we reach a chest...  It's a new weapon for Darwin, but its value is dubious. For a very slight attack increase, you lose 500 HP and 80 MP. In my opinion not worth it.  The chest on the other side, has a weapon for Marie.  Another decidedly "meh" weapon. Perhaps worth equipping if you think Marie is too slow, but otherwise, not really.  In any case, in order to continue, we need to switch to Li Hua...  ...who soon finds herself in a library.  Unfortunately, no luck. It would be really interesting to be able to read this, but we can't. Notice however that there is a chest at the far end.  But it's just a set of clothes for either Li Hua or Marie. We already have at least one of these.  So we'll just keep going. This is a pretty cool view, I think.  One more boss.  It's just another variation on those punching apes.  Pretty much the only thing of note is that we can steal a useful item from him.  Now, this is an item that's actually worth equipping.  Other than that the battle is soon over.    This deactivates one half of the last barrier on Darwin's path. So you know what comes next.  Back to Araki for one final step!  He also finds a library, but alas, again no luck.  The item in the chest is an armour upgrade.  Also worth taking.     And one last mini-boss. Nothing much to be said here, either.      That's the last barrier deactivated, so all that's left is...  ...is to switch back to Darwin and get him all the way to the end.   These guys again?                   Oh. I remember this guy, that's Bachs's pet! We tried, unsuccessfully to fight him several times already, if I'm not mistaken!                               And finally, the real boss of this area!  We get to start. That's ok damage I guess.  We can also steal from him another weapon for Darwin!  And then he does this...  We still keep attacking.   And now it should be obvious what's going on. Basically we have a limited amount of turns to defeat him. As you could guess, by the time he uses the Seventh Trumpet, our time will be up. However, we won't even need half that much time. Take note that this is obviously a fire based attack.  He obeys the same rule as anybody else as far as elemental affinity goes. Therefore, we will counter with a water-based spell.  Marie is a bit overpowered at this point, not to mention his magic defence is not that good, it seems. In any case, this is the result.   That definitely looks to me like a water based attack.  Therefore, a wind spell solves that problem.  Sometimes he just uses a normal attack. So you actually have more than seven turns to defeat him (but, as I've said, you don't even need them really).   Wind attack...  ...and a fire counter.     And we're done here.    Helpfully, the party switching nonsense is gone from this point, and the full dungeon is normally accessible.  Here is the weapon that we stole. A bit underwhelming, but there isn't any downside, so... I'll take it.  So in theory we could keep going forward, but we'll turn back for now and remember that we had some chests which were not accessible. Maybe that's now changed?  And indeed it has! We can get to them now--there is a total of four in the entire dungeon. Let's see what's in them. This is the first.  A weapon for Orlando.  Yeah, no, I don't think so.  Second chest has a sword for Araki.  Are you kidding me?  Third chest has a weapon for Conor.  No, seriously? Well, at least this one is a minimal upgrade.  And the last one is a set of knuckles for Li Hua.  I give up. Somebody's having a laugh here. Going back for those chests was a complete waste of time. * * * Well, that's all for now. Next time we'll take another break to do a couple of side-quests--finally a resolution to the Panda Gang story--and after that we'll see what else awaits us.
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Jan 28, 2015 00:29
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You say they were all easy mini-bosses but why'd you always finish in the red? Kind of weird nitpicking but eh.
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Jan 28, 2015 02:40
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Rigged Death Trap posted:You say they were all easy mini-bosses but why'd you always finish in the red? Eh, I don't even know really. I guess the fights are so easy because the characters are slightly overleveled so they don't feel like real boss fights... or something. The reason for ending up in red is most often that I don't actually even bother to heal in some cases during the fight, but the bosses still do hit for 500+ HP so you do still get damaged a bit. I even called Herald a boss, but that fight is even easier than the intermediate ones... so like I said, I don't really even know what I was going for there. And I didn't even really overlevel on purpose, I just don't generally run away from any battles--basically most of the side quests are geared to levels 80+ so I just want to reduce any grind time later, that's all.
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Jan 28, 2015 09:32
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Rigged Death Trap posted:You say they were all easy mini-bosses but why'd you always finish in the red? Your health gets restored to full at the end of each fight, so you usually end up bumrushing bosses without paying attention to how healthy your dudes are. The ones who don't go down to your initial assault are the ones that actually make you pay attention. The ones who have high speed, turn interrupts or other gimmicks are the real challenge. I somehow never put together that the Herald was a combination of the Horsemen, but it's actually really obvious. He has aspects of all the other horsemen, Conquest's sleeve things, Death's face (under the mask) and so on. That was a really neat detail.
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Jan 28, 2015 20:37
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  Before we continue with fighting gods, I figured there is some time to do more sidequests. Unfortunately, most of them are intended for higher levelled characters, and right now our levelling has slowed down due to ever-increasing EXP needed; however there are still a few things we can do, so let's get started.  First off, there's this. Incidentally, when there is no "suggested level" listed on a sidequest, that generally means that there's no boss fight as part of it.     For some reason, this will be done by Marie and Connor (but like I said, there's no boss fight to do, so it hardly matters). As the description said, we need to go to a library in All-seeing Eye and find the rest of the recipe.  The game does not specify which of the several libraries, so you may have to look around a bit until you find it, but eventually...                  Well, that was not weird. Good going, Conor!  In any case, as a result of this quest we got the Gold Recipe. As the screen says, it gives us a new skill, Qilin Gate when we equip three gold Sopias on a single character. This skill gives us +10% on HP and MP, so not that special really, but I guess it can be useful for something. Incidentally, Qilin means "unicorn" in Chinese, although the same word (Kirin) simply means "giraffe" in Japanese (麒麟/キリン). So take your pick! * * *  And now, the moment we've all been waiting for! It's time to finish this whole Panda Gang story once and for all. Note that the suggested level is listed as 75; this is actually way too high--our characters are only around 60-61 and will actually manage this without significant problems.   Unsurprisingly, Piu-Piu seems to have something to do with this whole thing. Incidentally, we don't have predetermined characters for this one, so I'll just take Darwin and Marie as usual.  Again, we're going to the All-seeing Eye.       So actually, we have not one but three opponents. The main goal is Panda King (the dark one in the middle), and the other two are just incidental. We'll leave the King for last anyway.   While the other two are still alive he will tend to skip most turns, but may act occasionally. Such as this spell, which does no damage, but may cause insta-death. Hence, it's a very bad idea to use pair attacks in this fight! I actually forgot to equip the accessory that prevents insta-death on at least one of the characters, but normally you would do that.   Another thing that I forgot to do was to equip elemental spells on Marie, so she's stuck mostly using Banish which is just a simple non-elemental spell. Oh well, it's just going to take a bit longer.  Panda King hits pretty drat hard.  A well placed Collbrande finishes the Panda Prince.  And soon after the Queen is gone too.  Now we can focus on Panda King.  Look how much damage he's doing to us!   Nevertheless, Marie is able to finish him off eventually.  This whole Panda quest is very much worth doing, for a couple of reasons. First of all, look how much EXP and SP you get!   Yep.  Coincidentally, during this fight I got enough SP for Dragon Sopia to learn this skill: I normally don't regularly show all learned skills, but this one is too good not to mention: it makes you start all battles with your limit break charge already at level 1! This is absolutely fantastic and makes you even more overpowered than normal. This is one thing I do like about these games: as your characters level up and learn skills, you get a real sense of power with your new abilities and so on!     And this is the second reward for finishing this, a replica Auryn accessory.  It gives us a new passive skill, Übermensch.  It's a very good skill, because it reduces a chance of status effects working on the character that is wearing it. * * *     And finally, here is the last of the three "Flavour research" requests from Lessica. This time, we need to give her ten of Last Suppers. Last Supper is a consumable item which if I remember correctly heals full HP and MP and removes all status effects. If you haven't been using them, you probably have a few from various chests already. As for the rest, Piu-Piu does not sell them, so the only option is to farm them from enemies. There are some monsters that have it as a rare steal, but if you equip all the steal success rate boosting skills, they won't be so rare and it will only take a few minutes to farm the necessary quantity...    ...which we can then give to Lessica and observe her reaction!                Completely by coincidence, the reward for this quest is actually a real Auryn (not replica)--figures that for the previous Piu-Piu related quest we would get a fake one, doesn't it?  This one gives us a skill called "Untouchable".  It's actually just a stronger version of "Übermensch", in that it completely blocks any status effects, rather than just reducing the probability. In short, these two quests are very much worth doing in order to get these two useful accessories; even if chasing down all eight Panda gang members can be a little tedious sometimes. * * * Well, that's it for now; most of the rest of the sidequests need our characters to be more levelled up, so we'll come back to them after we see a bit more of the story and game opens up higher level enemies that we can level up faster against.
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Jan 30, 2015 22:17
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Yeah the Auryn is pretty much a must against some of the later bosses. I never did find that much use for the more exotic gates. Actually I never found much use for gates in general, I distributed Sopia based on their skills and I just took the gates as I got them.
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Jan 30, 2015 23:07
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What happened with Conor there?
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Jan 31, 2015 02:20
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There are several fade-outs which imply that Marie took a really long time to read the book. Connor is on his knees from the exhaustion. Just a short anime gag basically.
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Jan 31, 2015 04:13
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