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I have fond memories of the IMOQ games. Never did get around to playing the G.U. ones, despite spending time, effort, and quite a bit of money to find them. Really liking what you've done so far, and I'll be looking forward to seeing the rest as you go. That said, godspeed, man. This will not be an easy task.
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Jan 17, 2017 08:14
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howdy yall no fancy graphic today, i forgot and am at work already #04: Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand (and the No Commentary version) this episode i make a few mistakes due to stream of consciousness so please forgive; elda is absolutely right that the data drain is primarily used to get around the data bug invincibility, the status removal spells (like Rip Teyn) are actually obtainable by twin blades as well as blademaster/heavy blade/heavy axeman) but are still not obtained by wavemasters and im sure i missed one or two corrections also the theme for our hero used in the second half is located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUf3ZY9aNfI, also i can't confirm it but apparently the singer in this is actually CC2's CEO, matsuyama lmao
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Jan 18, 2017 16:08
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boy are my arms tired posted:this episode i make a few mistakes due to stream of consciousness so please forgive; elda is absolutely right that the data drain is primarily used to get around the data bug invincibility, the status removal spells (like Rip Teyn) are actually obtainable by twin blades as well as blademaster/heavy blade/heavy axeman) but are still not obtained by wavemasters and im sure i missed one or two corrections I'm always right. And status removal spells being cast by sword and dagger dudes and not the magic dudes is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
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Jan 18, 2017 22:21
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boy are my arms tired posted:and i also may have acquired a copy of The Movie combined with .hack//VERSUS and I'm trying to find a .hack//LINK thing I can record because i am a broken, terrible human being So long as you don't go Legend of Twilight everything is daijobou
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Jan 18, 2017 22:31
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Eldataluta posted:I'm always right. in fairness there are several stretches of game where you don't have access to your wavemaster.. No new weird Celtic references this time around, though. E: also if the 'lovely magical girl anime' referred to in the video is Cardcaptor Sakura, that's fuckin' weird because CCS owns bones it's the only one that comes to mind when I think of magical cards, though they explicitly are not tarot
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Jan 18, 2017 23:40
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Mors Rattus posted:also if the 'lovely magical girl anime' referred to in the video is Cardcaptor Sakura, that's fuckin' weird because CCS owns bones Nope. I was talking about Day Break Illusion. It was bad and everyone should go watch Cardcaptor Sakura instead. It owns. I actually think I still have the clow cards I bought as a kid somewhere.
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Jan 19, 2017 00:04
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Speaking of levels, the way the game handles experience is why it's so easy to break, and also why just using it exactly as-is for an MMO is a terrible idea. To gain a level, you need 1,000 experience. When you beat an enemy, how much experience you get is purely determined by the enemy's level compared to yours. I forget how much you get for an enemy at your level, but I think it's 50. However, it caps out at 500 per enemy, which requires killing something ten levels above you. This is normally hard, but this is where those tarot scrolls come into play. You can buy most of them at shops, and one of them is The Hanged Man, which paralyzes the target. They cost 100 gold each, which is basically chump change as long as you just Data Drain a few dudes for poo poo to sell in each dungeon. Get a bunch of those, go to a higher level area, and find a few roaming monsters. Paralyze them and then kick the poo poo out of them while they're locked down. Clear a field and you'll gain a ton of levels, and if you Data Drain a few for items, that'll more than make up for the money. A minor but important wrinkle to this is that the experience calculation only looks at your level and the target's level, and doesn't take anything else into account. So if you're rolling around in the mid-high 20s (Infection's monsters cap at 30) and you get some level poo poo chump, just take them to a field two or three levels below you and go on a murder spree until they're more or less caught up. Which is, I assume, why the experience system works the way it does, and would be terrible in a real MMO. Orca could've taken us somewhere higher level and gotten us powerlevelled into the 30s in pretty much no time at all.
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Jan 19, 2017 01:16
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boy are my arms tired posted:also the theme for our hero used in the second half is located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUf3ZY9aNfI, also i can't confirm it but apparently the singer in this is actually CC2's CEO, matsuyama lmao It is always fun to guess who's a returning character from IMOQ. At least Piros is fairly.. blatant
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Jan 19, 2017 01:35
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Eldataluta posted:Nope. I was talking about Day Break Illusion. It was bad and everyone should go watch Cardcaptor Sakura instead. It owns. ...oh poo poo I DO remember that show. I watched an episode of it once. It was loving awful.
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Jan 19, 2017 01:58
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I'm actually prob in the minority, but I prefer IMOQ's atmosphere to GU's.
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Jan 19, 2017 22:31
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Can we get a glossary of the acronyms like IMOQ and GU in the OP?
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Jan 19, 2017 23:45
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CrazySalamander posted:Can we get a glossary of the acronyms like IMOQ and GU in the OP? good idea! yes ill do this when i get back from jiujitsu tonight
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Jan 20, 2017 00:01
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A few notes: It's less the higher level gear and more your actual level, because -much like in certain other MMOs of the era- Level is the God Stat. If you're fairly close in level the adjustments are minor, but noticeable; but once you start getting around 5 or so levels either way the multipliers start going crazy. Given that XP also scales with relative levels, this makes it really easy to catch up lagging party members in later installments. Piros is, indeed, the best. He's also the only axe dude you get for a really long time And in GU I think he's your only Lancer period. While the other axe-users are technically better stat-wise, one's post-game and the other has their own... issues. They also don't have their own theme music, which is worth more than a mere chunk of stats. It's less that the status removal spells aren't on the caster class and more that they're found more often on Medium and Heavy armor. A class can use armor lighter than it's default set, so Kite's free to toss on some Light gear on if he wanted to trade some physical stats for better magic defenses and a better selection of spells; while there's not much of a point in doing it now, it'll come in handy during later installments. Edit: Oh, right, almost forgot: It's generally best to not try to full clear plot dungeons, because there's a pretty good chance you'll get kicked out after the Obvious Plot Room and if it's not the actual last room in a dungeon it won't count and you'll have wasted a good chunk of time. I recall keeping myself topped up on Fairy Orbs just to make sure I wasn't about to run into something like that. Unoriginal One fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Jan 20, 2017 |
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Jan 20, 2017 00:17
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I have added some terminology to the OP. If you are unsure what a term or acronym means, post in the thread and I or someone else will explain, and I'll add it to the OP.
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Jan 20, 2017 02:47
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Unoriginal One posted:
This isn't the point, the point is the standard support archetype can't get standard support spells, and for a 2003 era game, this is real weird. Also, some story dungeons do not kick you out before getting an ALL DUNGEON PORTALS OPENED message, I just can't remember which ones are which. Its better to full clear anyways to fill out the monster book, smash collectibles, open chests, open portals, find grunty food, and other "fill out the ryu book" objectives. Piros owns, though I may open a poll here soon to dictate who our final boss team will be...
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Jan 20, 2017 02:52
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boy are my arms tired posted:i cant say im shocked but it is extremely telling that we are talking about a far, far more interesting imagining of .hack vs the one we're actually playing don't forget fragment!!!
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Jan 20, 2017 07:26
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corn in the bible posted:don't forget fragment!!! Fragment is literally just the systems of this game, except it has about 200x the grind. It can be ignored with nothing of value lost.
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Jan 20, 2017 07:51
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DoubleNegative posted:Fragment is literally just the systems of this game, except it has about 200x the grind. It can be ignored with nothing of value lost. Also servers are dead so idk if I'd even be able to play it
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Jan 20, 2017 11:25
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boy are my arms tired posted:Also servers are dead so idk if I'd even be able to play it You can play the offline game but it's not really fun.
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Jan 20, 2017 13:29
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There's a private server iirc
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Jan 20, 2017 13:36
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corn in the bible posted:There's a private server iirc dont tempt my diseased mind e: the admins of that server posted:We thank our patrons for the support they have given us, but due to friction in the community caused by trolls, cheaters and other vile beings and a set of unfixable game exploits they were using in the process, we are forced to shut down .hack//frägment indefinitely. lol boy are my arms tired fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Jan 20, 2017 |
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Jan 20, 2017 13:38
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Rest in peace, bad MMO.
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Jan 20, 2017 13:40
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To this day, it still puzzles me that anyone could have wanted an actual MMO version of this, but then:oath2order posted:It's true. Being a fan of .hack is really about being a fan of a version of .hack that you imagine in your head, rather than what actually exists in any form.
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Jan 20, 2017 16:25
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Thank you for this LP and this detailed trip down memory lane and the revelation that this was turned into an MMO holy poo poo
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Jan 21, 2017 01:49
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boy are my arms tired posted:Piros owns, though I may open a poll here soon to dictate who our final boss team will be... Hack the game so Piros can be the entire party. A party of Piroses. A Pirarty, if you will.
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Jan 21, 2017 03:35
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Are you going to be manually data-draining all the cores in the LP?
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Jan 22, 2017 04:47
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Alder posted:Are you going to be manually data-draining all the cores in the LP? a good question, and one im not sure about to be honest quarantine especially had a lot of core grinding, to the point of being a huge pain, but on the other hand cheating, even if its just to add cores to my inventory, feels a bit unfair and rubs against the parameters i set for myself, silly as they may be i guess my answer is we'll see
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Jan 22, 2017 05:30
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If the in games npcs are already calling you a cheater, might as well live up to their expectations?
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Jan 22, 2017 06:33
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boy are my arms tired posted:a good question, and one im not sure about to be honest There's nothing to be gained from legitimately getting the virus cores. Make your job just that much easier and cheat them in. You'll thank yourself later on when you're in Quarantine and don't have to grind up a bunch of Core As for some unfathomable reason.
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Jan 22, 2017 09:03
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Now that I'm caught up on the videos a few things: You mentioned how mmo's didn't encourage partying up back in the day but there was Phantasy Star Onine. While not an mmo exactly, it was an example of a multi-player rpg which encouraged party play. It could have been something CC2 took inspiration from while developing .hack? I feel like you're underselling the combat just a little. The first four games can be mashed through, however mashing can be greatly minimized through party member management and using elemental skills. Kite can rip through a great deal of enemies in one or two elemental skill uses. Like that Headhunter mini-boss after you Data Drained it. Likely would've gone down in one Thunder Dance had you swapped to the Fuse Blades you had on hand at the time. Granted, Twin Blades don't get physical Water or Earth element skills but that's what magic and allies are for. Conversely, G.U. is almost nothing but mashing with almost nothing you can do about it. Regarding the Data Drain animation, it is skippable as are Gate Hacking scenes and cutscenes (sadly not the text-dump variety) by pressing Start. .hack feels ahead of its time in that cutscenes & super attacks don't have to be viewed. Many, many rpgs in that era just didn't let you do that which makes replaying them suck at times. Heck, some in this era still don't allow it... looking at you Pokemon Moon. Party member equipment can be changed manually once given to them. iirc it can even be changed mid-battle so long as the character isn't in any kind of doing-poo poo animation. This is helpful predominatly for weapons since you can then change them to ones with elemental skills opposite of the ones monsters have. And the anime? In the US, .hack//Sign did air its few episodes in the afternoon. After that it got moved to midnight. .hack//Roots on the other hand aired here at 5 a.m. from start to non-finish. boy are my arms tired posted:This isn't the point, the point is the standard support archetype can't get standard support spells, and for a 2003 era game, this is real weird. quote:Piros owns, though I may open a poll here soon to dictate who our final boss team will be...  DoubleNegative posted:There's nothing to be gained from legitimately getting the virus cores. Make your job just that much easier and cheat them in. You'll thank yourself later on when you're in Quarantine and don't have to grind up a bunch of Core As for some unfathomable reason. pick-e fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Jan 23, 2017 |
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Jan 23, 2017 06:04
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pick-e posted:That is... odd, but I always saw Wavemasters as nukers and Kite the healer. If you're not spamming healing items you're playing the game stangely. Besides, you can't item spam in G.U. so you may as well get use out it now. It's coming from a perspective of the time, not necessarily the games; its easy to look back and think "well yeah, I did do most of the healing so I guess I'm the healer" but within the context of JRPGs, its unusual for the magic class to not get the support spells like poison removal, and instead hoist it onto bulkier or more damage oriented roles (even if in reality they aren't). I think a simpler explanation would be: lets say you were playing Final Fantasy X and (in the early game, without sphere grid fuckery) Yuna did not get Esuna but instead it was tossed onto Auron or Wakka. It'd be real weird! I haven't read Another Birth but I think the canon team for infection was Blackrose / Mistral? I'll throw up a poll when we get a few more episodes in. speaking of, episode will be up Starting with Episode 7 I'm going to be fast forwarding through fields and dungeons until critical things or bosses happen; I feel we've gotten a good look at the combat, and sadly the fields all start to blend together when you're this deep into the game (barring a special field). This should cut down on video count too, as we'll be mainly hitting plot beat after plot beat. boy are my arms tired fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Jan 26, 2017 |
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Jan 23, 2017 14:53
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yall I mega apologize because I've had a business trip and also got super side tracked with RE7, but here we are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRz8xO8LKNk&t=4s no fancy graphic, will make one for next time!
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Jan 28, 2017 16:35
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When I got to this point in the game, I dragged Mia and Elk off to a higher level dungeon. One clear of it should give them enough levels that they're actually relevant to that fight at the end (well, relevant compared to how overlevelled you are). For the characters you can recruit, "being complete" or "I like these characters" is pretty much the only reason to give a poo poo about any of them. By the time things are all said and done, you will have five Blademasters and four Wavemasters to choose from, and the only difference is "who is what level and which one has the nice gear I busted my rear end to get, and which ones are the losers that got scraps if anything." The fact that you have to tell your party "hey guys, maybe do something other than basic attacks" for every god drat fight is, as noted, one of the major weaknesses of the game. It's a big pain in the rear end.
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Jan 28, 2017 18:28
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Wavemasters, at least, have their wildly differing availability to set them somewhat apart; there's a bunch of them, but during the main game you'll mostly only have access to one of them at any given time. Blademasters, on the other hand... well, three of them are completely identical right down to their elemental affinity, and one of them is outright inferior because they trade the one stat their class is actually good at for more of a stat that basically everyone caps by the end of Outbreak.
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Jan 28, 2017 19:22
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thank you all for making me realize how bad this game was when I was a child. Also the commentary is a hoot.
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Jan 30, 2017 23:03
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oath2order posted:It's true. Being a fan of .hack is really about being a fan of a version of .hack that you imagine in your head, rather than what actually exists in any form. this really gets at the heart of the question
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Jan 30, 2017 23:06
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Herr Tog posted:thank you all for making me realize how bad this game was when I was a child. Also the commentary is a hoot. Thank you! As I mentioned starting in the next next episode, we'll be zipping along from story beat to story beat so there's less downtime and filler. Also, videos will be coming at a faster rate since I have no more travel dates planned for months
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Jan 31, 2017 00:01
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I keep grimacing at how little is done with the Celtic themes here and how much could be.
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Jan 31, 2017 00:19
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boy are my arms tired posted:Thank you! You don't have to cut out your side conversation time on my account. The podcast style is the poo poo I love.
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Jan 31, 2017 00:32
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Herr Tog posted:You don't have to cut out your side conversation time on my account. The podcast style is the poo poo I love. Having played through the games before, I find the podcast style to be great, and not at all distracting. Plus you have the silent versions, so new people who want to enjoy the game have that as well. Win-win.
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Jan 31, 2017 01:04
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