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RabidWeasel posted:Like most of the good RPGMaker games this is coming over as a big labour of love with the unusually high quality combat animations and the dialogue for every enemy type. Yeah, I also noticed that the encounters have some weather effects, which is pretty neat. You can see the rain fall in one of the gifs.
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Feb 23, 2014 23:13
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Wow. That's just brutal. And you'd never even know.
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Feb 24, 2014 04:45
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I found some time, so another update is in the works. After this upcoming update, I'll be out of pre-recorded footage, which will probably mean no more updates until April, but we'll see about that, I guess.
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Mar 2, 2014 02:02
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My girlfriend and I tried out Vampires Dawn. Let me break it down. Well, it's got funny dialogue. Though the question is how much of it is funny due to the astoundingly terrible translation. --- The combat is eh, and the encounter rate is astoundingly high. It is just a chore to play once the world opens up, because 95% of it will destroy you immediately and there is no hint where to go. --- There's interesting ability selections every five levels. The problem is that you're not told what the possible selections are until you hit the level requirement, and you cannot undo the selection. So you wind up going "Why pick this single-target fire spell now, when chances are in five levels I might be able to pick a stronger and also multitarget version?" This game has no qualms about screwing you like that. For example, one character's level 15 spell selection list includes "Dark Blades", a useful party wide attack buffing spell. Seems good, except that his level 20 selection includes "Freezing Blades", which you would think might be a better version since it costs 50% more MP. Wrong, sucker! It's worse! Hope you picked Dark Blades earlier! --- Adding to that, there's other questionable decisions like the fact that your buff spells (see: Dark/Freezing Blades) can and do flat-out miss. In a game where if your MP runs low you enter a berserk state, and the spells are not cheap. Tallgeese fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Mar 2, 2014 |
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Mar 2, 2014 02:07
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I actually did power through Vampires Dawn just because of this thread and well, I guess the polite way of putting it is that it's a product of its time. Either I just had way lower standards as a teen or the game plain didn't age well. I didn't bother looking at the English translation, but by funny I assume you mean funny in that horribly cheesy way? Because that's definitely true to the German original. The blood font narrator in particular makes me cringe a little whenever it comes up. Continuing your questionable game design decision list, by the time you get your bat transformation and the game world opens you're probably around level 9. The next story dungeon expects you to be level 18-20. I guess you're expected to visit every town, do whatever side quest you can at your level and explore some low-level forests and caves, expect even when knowing which side quests I can do early I still only ended up level 14 and still had to grind for an hour, and I never even found a low-level forest or cave to begin with. At the very least by the time I hit 18 the crazy-high encounter rate meant I was always properly leveled for the next story dungeon, and after the second dungeon after you get the bat spell the game does a pretty good job nudging you in the right direction. It's just the initial lack of sense of direction can leave a bad taste. The game has a single consistent party of three, but you have the option of summoning some monsters to help you out for a short while (as in, 30-60 seconds outside of battle short, the timer doesn't tick during battles though). Of the four summons in the game two are useless by design because they always start at level 1 rather than scaling to your level, and one of those two is hidden in an optional dungeon that requires you to be about level 25. The third is your reward for doing a goose chase through your unintuively-designed home base, so you're pretty much forced to do a pretty long tutorial-ish thing just to get one of the useful summons. The fourth one is found in a late-game optional dungeon and is hilariously overpowered, but comes with the shortest default duration of 30 seconds. The joke here is that bosses in this game are wordy as gently caress so if you don't figure out how to extend its summon duration not even mashing enter through dialogue boxes will let you use it. The best part is the game creator, Marlex, obviously knew this, as one boss talks your ear off in in-battle mode so your summon won't run out, while another talks your ear off pre-battle but then does that cliché "and now I give you a moment to prepare!" thing, which I am pretty convinced Marlex only put in so you can resummons your dude after getting pissed about him expiring mid-cutscene. Speaking of bosses, as much as this game has/had a reputation of being really loving hard, Marlex only really knows two ways of making things hard on you: Putting you against multiple enemies with hard-hitting multi-target attacks or giving a single powerful enemy multi-target multi-status effect attacks. Halfway through the game absolutely every boss, story or optional, has some Final Fantasy Morbol Bad Breath attack doing the usual cocktail of RPG status effects including my favourite, confusion. Other than a fairly well hidden item that has a 60% chance of blocking all negative status effects nothing protects against confusion that I only remembered existed after beating the final boss, there's no item that can cure it and only one of your characters can learn a spell that cures it in the late-game, so if she gets confused you're poo poo outta luck. This isn't even the nice polite confusion where your characters occasionally still attack the enemy, in this game confusion means your characters exclusively hit themselves and ignore the enemy. If the RNG feels extra spiteful a boss will keep spamming their bad breath attack, effectively stun-locking you into confusion until your team killed itself before the boss even had a chance to. Casual reminder that bosses are wordy as gently caress so you get to sit through a wall of text a couple times before moving on. My absolute least favourite thing though is that you have a limited amount of saves. Instead of having the gold-standard of the game providing you with game-saving pentagrams, the game instead hands you some consumable save stones, so you always feel a bit coerced to either keep playing for long stretches of time or just let the game keep running in the background. The game hands you a pretty generous amount of save stones, but the mental effect is still there. If any of you ever feel like playing this, go grab the cheat patch that Marlex provides on the same site as the download to VD so you can have infinite save stones and don't have to feel like playing for 15 to 30 minutes is a waste. But despite all this I am apparently still nostalgic enough about this that I genuinely enjoyed my time through it because I'm some kinda masochist for games or something, or at least care enough about it to type out a wall of text for some obscure German RPGMaker game most of the world doesn't know exists.
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Mar 2, 2014 03:25
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a cartoon duck posted:Words about VD I feel similar. Reading through that, I can't imagine just how in the gently caress I managed to play through both VD1 and 2 without any real problems or ragequitting, and when I think back to the time I played it, I only remember good things about it. And thinking about it now, I suppose it could be explained with "product of its time" how Vampires Dawn was much more popular than Unterwegs in Düsterburg, which is definitely designed a hell of a lot better, but doesn't have the "edgy" story VD had (for lack of a better term - UiD gets pretty hardcore in some places, particularly Rabenstein, which I notice I'm apparently building up by mentioning it several times already as being a pretty interesting place, and Königsberg has some pretty rough poo poo too, but it doesn't go as far as VD does), which was apparently "a thing" around the time the German RPG Maker scene had its renaissance. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug.
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Mar 2, 2014 03:33
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In conclusion:  Lots of tales about different heroes. For example, here's one about a certain Grandy defeating a vampire called Wahnfried.  Wahnfried? WAHNFRIED? Poor guy... Musta been bullied all the time with a name like that...
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Mar 2, 2014 04:04
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Update IV - The Reaper Is The Riddler? Well... last time, we totally didn't just murder an entire family, and then made our way to whatever the hell this place is - some sort of frost palace where the guardians are some seriously badass motherfuckers. So instead of screwing with those guys, let's head down these stairs.  I see some frozen dwarves that actually move around, four statues, and four switches. I think we can put two and two together here...  ...yeah, that's the way to do it. But first, let's clear out those enemies for the XP and the ability to push statues around in peace.   Well, these guys don't exactly look as fresh as they can be!Yeah, these dwarves aren't exactly the most alive-looking fellows. But being undead doesn't stop them from getting beaten up.  After that, we can push the statues onto the switches, and surprise, surprise, a staircase appears! I mean, I would have also accepted "rocks falls, everybody dies", if just for being a neat subversion, but a staircase is neat too.  A treasure chest in an important looking position? Is this where "rocks falls, everybody dies" comes into play? Well, nothing ventured...  In the chest we find a healing potion, a revival item, and a dwarven set of armor. I think I have an idea how that armor is going to come into play, but let's explore further first...  ...is what I would say if we weren't set upon by more undead dwarves right the gently caress outta nowhere we have to deal with first.   These guys are in the majority! No matter - charge!This time we've got some sort of super-dwarf to deal with, who has an even bigger axe than the regular ones.  They deal so much damage I have to use a healing item, but they're nothing special and go down regardless.  Of course, we're still beat to poo poo afterwards, but a trip to the inn fixes everything!  And one trip back later, we're ready to head upstairs.  A chest, a lever, some more dwarves, a dead guy, and a set of stairs leading up. Let's start with the dead guy. His body is coated in a thin layer of ice. Otherwise, there's no wounds to be found... wait a minute, what's that? And we find a fake beard on the guy, for some reason! I wonder why he had that with him.So do I, but I have a suspicion, and I'm pretty sure you've all got the same idea I've got. Next up, let's check that lever out.  Holy gently caress, the area around the lever is scattered with ice mines! And they hurt! All the lever does is disable the mines, so I guess that was worth it, because we can now open the chest without getting murdered. Well, without getting murdered by the ice mines, at least. We've got a 50% murder rate on chests in here so far, so I'm not exactly confident.  But no, there's no more traps on the chest, and we find another revival item, an MP-restoring item, and a dwarven axe. The pieces are starting to fall into place more and more.  And just for reference, walking up to the lever got me nailed by two ice mines, which took off about 50% of Grandy's HP. After a bit of healing up, it's time to clean up the enemies.  He's small, he's strong... and as opposed to me he's already dead!We've dealt with worse before, and he goes down without much of a fight.  And so do these guys. A bit more experienced and a bit richer, we make our way up the stairs.  Another dwarf that goes down without any incident, the pentagram is a save point which comes in handy, and then we have that reaper guarding that chest.   What?! Somebody actually made it down here to steal the treasure I'm supposed to guard after all these years? 1) You got it! 2) I don't want your treasure.It actually doesn't matter what you pick here, but let's go with the first option here, because we do want that treasure.  Now get out of here, you bag of bones, or I'll whip your boney butt! Oh my, somebody's in a hurry to die... listen here, sonny, I haven't been waiting here for generations for somebody to free me just to go and kill you... they just told me to wait here, you know? Fifty years ago. Told me I have to guard this box... sadly, nobody survived the traps they installed in the room down the stairs. You're the first... do you have any idea, how boring it is to sit in this cave for fifty years without any hope to get out of here?! No, of course you don't! So, sonny, if I kill you here, I'll probably have to wait another fifty years until somebody else comes along... but I still just can't let you get to this box... you see, a real dilemma. But I think I found a good compromise... And that compromise is? Riddles, sonny! I prepared a few riddles to test you! Are you ready? 1) Let's go! 2) I prefer battle.Basically, if you tell the guy you don't want his treasure, he'll just go "now listen here, I've been here for ages, so you better try and get me out of here". No real reason to not try the riddles, so let's try these on for size.  The more it eats - the hungrier it becomes - once it eats everything - it dies.We get a few different options here. The first three are "dog", "war" and "fire", and if those aren't enough, we can see three more, but the answer here is obvious - it's fire, since the more it burns, the more it can burn, but once it runs out of things to burn, it dies out. Hah! Not bad, sonny! Here's the second one: I'm often compared with glass - but I'm more like light - where I've left only hate remains - but you shouldn't fear me.Options here are "water", "ice", "war", "bottle", "love" and "contract". The correct answer is love, which I mostly got out of the third and fourth lines. Not exactly sure how the first two play into that, though, I'm not good with riddles like this. Jippee! You're smarter than you look, boy. Let's get to the last riddle. My first isn't few - my second isn't heavy - together it lets you hope - but don't hope too much. Ugh, this riddle... it went completely over my head when I was playing, and because of that, this whole segment was more of a pain than it should be. Options here are "Umm...", "Maybe...", "What do I know...", and if you want more options... You idiot! You're only guessing! I suppose it has to be this way then! And then you have to fight the guy.  And he can drain a good amount of health.  It goes about as well as you'd expect. Now, back to the riddle - the solution is actually rather easy if you take it literally. "My first isn't few", so that's "a lot". "My second isn't heavy", so that's "light". "A lot" in German is "viel". "Light" in German is "leicht". Stick them together, and you've got "vielleicht", which means "maybe". So there's that, but I couldn't figure that out while I was playing, so now we get to fight this guy.   This time, I'll be better prepared! Fully healed, stocked up on healing items and my secret weapon - exploding fire flasks! Those will surely give me an edge in this fight!  ...they do about half as much damage as the guy can drain from me.  poo poo.  Eventually, through determination and good use of healing items, he goes down. This guy is a pretty drat hard nut to crack, because whenever a boss can drain health, it's bound to be a hard battle.  Oh yes! I'm free! Ah! Aaahh! AAAAHHHH!!! That's like that tickling behind your earlobes! That's good! Yeeeees! Moooooore!!!After this guy has some sort of orgasmic experience while being freed from this plane of existence and then disappears, we're free to check out that chest.  More healing items and a dwarven helmet. Now that we've explored everything but the part where the guardians won't let us through, we move on...  ...after some healing, of course...  ...to whatever's behind this door.  Only the servants of King Asgard may pass through here.Well, this time, let's just back off, since forcing it only leads to death.  Wait a minute! These guys only allow dwarves to go into the mines... I've got everything I need to look like a dwarf! And now we're a dwarf! Don't ask me about the size problem, it doesn't get addressed. Anyway, now that we're all dwarved up...  Hello guys, I've just got to head to the king real quick... You may pass.Well, that was easy.  Now to get out of this stuff. The fake beard fell apart.Not sure what the point of that is. I guess the game is now forcing you to head up, since you don't have the fake beard anymore, you can't fool the guardians anymore.   Phew! Just then I was in the frozen cold and now I feel like I'm in a sauna!I'm not going to question the logistics of having lava right next to ice. They're dwarves - those guys can be hardcore when it comes to breaking the laws of physics, mechanics and whatnot.  Holy smokes! The dwarves must have smelted their gold here! And who is that? Could that be the redhead we've been looking for?   That's... LIBRA! What kind of decaying guy is she talking with? You still don't get it, you skunk! Either you give me the Amulet or I'll knock you silly! Ah, yes, that's her... that's my Libra! What am I talking about again... I fear you are mistaken, milady! But try your best - I'm very much looking forward to snacking on you! Keep your stinking paws off me, ruffian! About time I step in!Yes, about time we step in...  ...after saving first, of course. Now, let's give that dragon what for!  Would you take a look at that, the dessert has also arrived! Please step back. This battle... Grandy! Libra! How wonderful, we've finally found each other... You certainly took your time! I almost had to take care of this dragon without you! Umm... I got held up. There was this family, they had a problem... And who are you to criticize me anyway! We don't even know each other... Of course we know each other, silly. I lost my memory, Libra. I can kind of remember you, but that's about it. But now that I finally found you, everything will become clear. It's not all that easy, Grandy. I can't remember anything either. But I know we belong together. And now that we found each other, everything will clear up... Hey, you two lovebirds! Could you do your sweet-talking a bit later? We've still got something to finish here, after all! Oh, right, this smelly, half decayed dragon has the Holy Amulet of the family Dengelbrack. Now, don't get insulting, milady. I know I've seen better days, but that's still no reason to... Ummm, mister dragon, before you eat us up, we'd like to talk about a few things. Please allow us to step aside for a moment. Well, I guess I don't want to be like that. Talk about whatever you want to talk about, but please hurry up. He doesn't want to tell me how he got the Amulet, but that doesn't matter, really. He doesn't want to give it to me, either. And he claims he hasn't had anything good to eat for years, and I'd be just the thing for him! Exactly, fresh and juicy... heh... That guy is just as dead and rotting as everything else in this mine. Isn't that right, little dragon? You don't need anything to... um, stay alive, don't you? Well, I'm not exactly hungry... but I still have an immense appetite! There's no negotiating with this guy. We should work together. Of course, Grandy. Since we both seem to have the same fate anyway. And with that, Libra joins our party!  She's a battle mage, which means that she's technically supposed to be able to fight in melee, but you're usually better off not doing so and just focusing on magic. She can also equip some decent armor compared to what the average mage can wear. Speaking of magic...  Her loadout of magic is very nice. Six spells - two fire, two ice, two lightning, one attacks a single enemy, one attacks all of them. A very solid setup that comes in handy a lot of times. Now, let's save one more time, and let's take on that dragon! Let's get this over and done with. And here we have our first true boss of the game, the undead dragon. This guy, much like the reaper, is a tough son of a bitch that will whoop your rear end given half a chance. So let's give Libra's magic a shot - this guy is a dragon in a fiery cavern, clearly I should be using ice!  9 damage? drat, that's not a lot. Fire clearly can't be the right answer, so let's try lightning instead.  23 damage, that's more like it. We beat up on this guy a bit more... His nose is already in tatters, this guy isn't going to stand much longer! Oh, I didn't need those parts anyway, they already died off ages ago!Some more fighting ensues, until...  ...the dragon spits out a ring of fire. And it burns, burns, burns... and deals a hell of a lot of damage to boot! I can't take this much longer, do we still have some healing herbs with us?Thankfully, we still have a lot of healing items, so keeping everybody alive wouldn't be a problem, but the fight goes a bit in a different direction. After Libra shoots another bolt of lightning in the dragon's face... Onwards, Grandy! One more hit and we're done with this! And so it is written, and so it has been - he goes down without much fanfare. Next stop, exploring the part of the cavern behind him, which has treasure chests!  ...a heavy crossbow? What am I going to do with a crossbow? Libra uses staves, Grandy uses swords, and I'm certain Julie can't use a crossbow (although that'd be really impressive). Guess I'll hang on to this.  This throne is too small for me... dwarf size! And it smells burnt to boot! Another longsword gives Grandy a hefty attack boost, so that's always welcome.  In fact, it pushes his attack power into the triple digits! Not that that means he'll be pulling triple digit damage numbers now, but still, it's a nice little milestone.  And there it is! We found the Holy Amulet! Finally we have the Amulet. Let's get it to Dankwart quickly.Not so fast, we still have one chest left!   A light helmet. Gives a small boost to Libra's defense. It's OK I guess, but I'd have put some gold here instead of a weak armor upgrade. It seems more fitting. But now, let's leave.  Time to leave. I've had enough of snow for now! It's a long way back, but we've got a lot of things to talk about... ...and there was one more thing I could remember. As Dankwart was telling me his story... Yes? The name Wahnfried! The dark lord of Düsterburg. As he mentioned the name a chill ran down my spine. Yes, now that you mention it, I felt the same way. He must have something to do with our past. Our path leads to Düsterburg! I'm sure that the answers to all of our questions lie in that city! And with that, we're back in the Eastern Marches. Let's head back to Dankwart and give him back the Amulet.  Dankwart! We're back! Miss Libra, how glad I am to see you! And you found your friend as well, as I can see! Yes... everything will be fine now! And we managed to find your Amulet as well! ...the Amulet...? ...the Holy Amulet of the family?  Yes, Dankwart... what's the matter? Aren't you happy at all? Oh, yes, I am, Miss Libra... incredibly so... I'm just so overwhelmed... after twenty years of waiting... Then the day when the rightful duke returns to Falkenburg has finally come! Harkon can end his guard duty. We would be happy if you allowed us to accompany you. Our fates lead us to Düsterburg as well. It would be a pleasure and an honor, Grandy. Just wait one moment, and I'll be ready to travel! Oooh, spiffy new gear for Dankwart! Let us go! And with that, our party is full with four members! Let's see what Dankwart brings to the group:  Dankwart is an occultist, as was shown in the flashback where he was living out his inner Frankenstein. And what does that translate to in gameplay?  Holy spells and healing spells. So yeah, Dankwart is pretty much the cleric of the group. We have a single healing spell, a party healing spell, a status recovery spell, a revival spell, a single holy damage spell and a group holy damage spell - once again, we're given a wide range of magic right from the start, which is very welcome.  Dankwart originally attacks with a dagger, but you can swap that out for the Holy Amulet. It deals kick-rear end damage against any sort of dark creature, but doesn't do poo poo against anything else. While you might think that swapping out makes sense, his regular attack is so weak it rarely ever makes sense to equip a dagger or the like. Just have him stick to healing if that is the case.  So with that, we're done with the Eastern Marches and will be moving on to Düsterburg! Except not, because we've still got a few loose ends to deal with - for instance, we never dealt with the ghost and his problem, and that's not something we need to put off until later, we can solve that now. Plus, having Dankwart in our party makes a few changes. So next time, we'll be tying up some loose ends. TheMcD fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Mar 2, 2014 05:13
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Hey, I recognize those dwarf sprites... Nice little dungeon there. The game has a lot of character.
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Mar 2, 2014 16:17
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So can you take out that tiger now? Cause I think there was a person lying behind it.
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Mar 2, 2014 19:09
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SSNeoman posted:So can you take out that tiger now? Cause I think there was a person lying behind it. That'll be one of the things we'll be trying to do before we finally move on from this area, yes.
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Mar 2, 2014 20:09
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Protip: Have multiple saves  But to be fair, I also failed the last riddle on my first try. vilkacis posted:The game has a lot of character. a cartoon duck posted:But despite all this I am apparently still nostalgic enough about this that I genuinely enjoyed my time through it because I'm some kinda masochist for games or something, or at least care enough about it to type out a wall of text for some obscure German RPGMaker game most of the world doesn't know exists.
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Mar 2, 2014 23:46
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vilkacis posted:Hey, I recognize those dwarf sprites... Do they animate to attack like their parents did?
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Mar 4, 2014 20:32
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Sadly they just flash. You can't really do enemy animations in RM2k (not without a huge hassle, anyway).
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Mar 4, 2014 21:05
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But... If he has a revive spell... I played - well, cheated through - the original Vampire's Dawn back in the day and it is pretty cliche. Enjoyable, and - to my not yet jaded and overexposed teenage mind - ambitious, even well-made. But cheesy. There was a parody of some sort - Vampire's Deaf or something. Similarly terrible but had it's moments. And a lot of ketchup.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:38
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Lunar Suite posted:But... If he has a revive spell... Not sure what exactly you're implying here, but if you're talking about the "but why was he looking for the secret to immortality when he can revive people" thing, this game actually avoids this. People don't die in combat, they just get knocked out, which is why the revival item are smelling salts. So all he's capable of is knocking you back from unconsciousness. And people also wake up from unconsciousness after combat ends, which is rather nice. Anyway, I managed to get my programming project done one day sooner than expected, so I've got enough time while watching the Coral UK Open tomorrow to write an update. So you can look forward to us knocking off some odds and ends in the Eastern Marches and the Icy Wasteland and we'll also be reaching Düsterburg!
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Mar 9, 2014 02:35
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Update V - Everybody Bless The Landlord, Everybody Bless His Spouse Right, so the last time we ended up with a party of four and ready to head to Düsterburg, but for now, we've got some stuff to take care of before we move on. First off, a thing I had absolutely no idea existed (which will become a theme as we go further on, if what I've read ahead in the walkthrough is any indication):   This smells fresh and spicy... somehow... HEALTHY!Yeah, you can pick these blue-looking plants up, and they're actually healing items - the basic one, but still, it's free items! I think I never bothered looking for that kind of stuff because money is plentiful and the inn is easy to get to as well. Anyway, there's a few things we could have done earlier but put off, but there's also a few things we can only do now that we have Dankwart in our party. One of those is leaving this area, and we'll be looking at the other two next. First off, when we go back to the place Grandy originally came from...  My goodness! What is that? That's that fog I told you about. Grandy, that's no fog. I'm not an expert in the field of Sphereology, but I believe this is a sphere tear. What's that? If I started explaining this to you, we'd probably still be standing here tomorrow morning.A sphere tear, eh? Might this be related to Dankwart's old studies? Our next destination brings us to the Icy Wasteland one more time:  There's something on the other side of this hollow log! Yeah, so remember when I said I need to find a shovel? The game doesn't roll like that. Instead, we find a pickax lodged in a log in the middle of nowhere we can use to dig stuff up, which we will be doing once we get back to the Marches.  I also end up getting into combat, so here's Dankwart using the Holy Amulet. Like I said, it doesn't do poo poo against anything but creatures of the night, and ice demons don't fall into that group. He should become more useful once we move on from this general area. Next up, Dankwart has somebody to talk to.  You must be Bernhelm. Grandy told me of you... Umm... yes, sir, but I don't understand... You used to live in Düsterburg, didn't you? As Grandy told me your story, your name sounded familiar to me.  Sir, I still don't understand... you wouldn't want to... No, Bernhelm, I don't mean you any harm. Just the opposite! I am Dankwart Dengelbrack, and I know every single one of my subjects by name! My goodness! The duke! We've always been told you were dead! I'm still alive, and I intend to take my title back! But that's not what's important right now! What happened in Düsterburg? Why did you flee here with your children, so far away from any civilization? Please spare me from recounting that, sir Dankwart! It's a terrible story filled with blood and tears! Bernhelm, I want to help you so that Dada and Dudu can once again play with other children. That will never be possible again! They're not like other children! Explain yourself, Bernhelm! What happened in Düsterburg?! The duke... that is, the NEW duke... the population hated him! He reigned with an iron fist! He dissolved the city guard and instead used his own underlings! They were werewolves! Barbaric creatures that enjoyed torturing the population! One day they attacked my wife. She didn't tell me about it, but during that incident she was... infected! It's some kind of sickness... or a curse! Dada and Dudu were born with it! I've heard of that - it's called lycanthropy. You change into a wolf under a full moon? No, that's not the way it is! We have our form under control! Most of the time, that is. Just very rarely... One day it happened! We were attacked and defended ourselves as wolves! A few people saw that happen! They reported it to the city guard. Excuse me, but didn't you say that Wahnfried dissolved the city guard? That was not a state that could be held for a long time. The population was in near revolt, so the duke gave in and pulled the werewolves back. I see. Pardon me for interrupting. Please continue! The hatred for the werewolves was still dormant within the population. Even though Xanja, the commander of the city guard, spoke out in our favor, they came to our house! They were armed with torches and pitchforks. It was clear what would happen if they managed to capture us! Brunhild, my wife, charged to attack the crowd! She screamed at me that I should take Dada and Dudu and run away! She always was the more energetic of us two! I grabbed the kids and ran for our life! I haven't seen Brunhild since then! Even the grave in front of the house is only symbolic! That is all. You surely understand why we can never live with other humans again... Never say never, Bernhelm... but one more question: How did you get past Harkon, my guard? I told him what happened. He had sympathy for me and the kids and let us pass! Well, I think I won't think worse of him for him forgetting about his duty... he acted like a noble person. I'm terribly sorry for your fate, Bernhelm, but we must move on! When all of this is said and done, I promise to find you a place where you and your children can live in peace!...well, that was a lot to take in at once. It seems like Düsterburg is still in a state of near revolt, which would explain the revolutionary force led by Laz and Rank (even if they're now down to two members), and the town is being ruled like a dictatorship. But we'll be able to see that once we make it there ourselves. That concludes our business in the Icy Wasteland, so let's make our way back.  There's something buried here!Now that we have the pickax, we can start digging up a few things around here. And yeah, that's a pile of dirt there. Kind of hard to see, I know. I didn't know it existed, myself.  And our reward is 700 more bucks. Not that I'm hurting for cash, but more money is always nice.  On the way to the next patch of dirt to dig something up from, I get into a fight with some orcs, and Dankwart's magic proves itself to be ineffective against those as well. Oh well.  Well, well! Somebody buried something here! Would you take a look at that - a pair of leather gloves with weird symbols on it!  These power gloves (they're so bad) give a small boost to attack power. Pretty neat, since we don't have anything else that goes in the misc. slot.  There's something buried here! Hey... a short sword with weird runes on the blade.  Well, that's kinda poo poo. I mean, it does magic damage, which can be useful occasionally, but eh, I'm just going to stick with the regular longswords as opposed to this magic shortsword. Now, with our full party and good equipment...  ...let's deal with that tiger.  And the hell of it is...  ...he goes down in two rounds without dealing any real damage.  I was too late!Pretty sure she was already dead before you even stepped into the cave. People don't tend to live too long when a saber tooth tiger gnaws on you. Anyway, the tiger dropped his teeth as an item, and since I can't use it, let's try selling it...  JESUS gently caress. 2500 bucks? loving sold!  As my party is a bit banged up, it's time to head back to the inn to heal up, and at this point I'd like to give a big thumbs up to this inn design. A lot of inns in this kind of game either bill you per party member or increase the price as your level increases, but not here! 30 bucks for a full heal, and if you don't need a full heal, 10 bucks for a small heal over in the kitchen. Now that's service! With us healed up, let's try and solve that quest we got from that ghost.  First off, I forgot to take a look at the guy's gravestone: - Fredegar Longfing - After fifteen years, we guess he had to have died somewhere Not exactly a great epitaph, but it does show nobody knows where this guy actually died. However, we know where he's at - at least to some degree. "Northwest of here, beyond the river"...  Just one moment.. The wall here is porous and covered with moss... and I'm feeling a small draft... I could try hacking my way through... 1) Yes. 2) No."Do you want to progress y/n" - come on, get in there!  Whoa. Not sure what I was expecting, but not something like this. I think we should be leaving... And then the screen starts shaking. What's happening? And then the entrance is caved in. Bloody great. Maybe we can still get back? I'm not getting through there, even with my pickax! Completely caved in!Well, gently caress. Might as well head further in.  We have to be careful. This is a place of evil. Several generations ago there were black masses celebrated here. Nothing here is what it seems.So the statues are going to come to life and try to murder me? Anyway, what's going on with that symbol on the ground with the fire? Right over this weird symbol... That's a hexagram... ...this hexagram... black roots are growing out of the ceiling...Weird. Suppose we'll be dealing with that soon enough, but first, I see a chest with my name on it!  Another longsword. Well, Grandy doesn't have three arms, so this is entirely pointless. As an aside, walking over that lava does ten points of damage. Nothing too bad, but annoying. But now, let's head back to the inn to heal up before we deal with this room.  There's a shaft leading up here. There's light coming down from above. Climb up? 1) Yes. 2) No. Yeah, might as well get out.  Oh, I know where this is! This is beyond the river Grandy called a dead end in the first update! That puts things into perspective. Might as well explore a bit.  It keeps getting colder... the closer... we get to this tree.Spooky tree in the south.  Spooky wolves in the north. Let's just get the hell out of here.  One quick jump and a trip to the inn later...   ...we're back in this cave, and now we're messing with the statues. Hmm... the surface of this statue looks weird. Should I try messing with it with my pickax? 1) Yes, that'll be a lot of fun! 2) I probably shouldn't...Come on, what's the worst that could happen?   Oh, the statue could turn into a demon that's going to try and kill me. Yeah, I guess I should have figured as much. Careful, friends! That's a demon. It can only be fought with magic!And I just went and sold the magic shortsword. Welp. Oh well, this shouldn't be that much of a problem...  ...oh, and it can deal about half of a character's HP in damage. That's not helping matters.  Thankfully, Dankwart's magic does big damage...  ...but unfortunately, so does the demon, and Dankwart drops in the second round.  Libra's magic does good damage too...  ...and Grandy revives Dankwart, since he can't use magic anyway...  ...but then the demon uses an attack that hits the entire party and knocks Dankwart right back out and leaves Libra with single digit HP.   Oh my... this guy is killing me, Grandy. Do something!Suck it up, lady - Dankwart's gotten pummeled into unconsciousness twice in a row, and he's not complaining!  Thankfully, Libra's next magic attack takes out this painful nuisance.  Another trip to the inn and a pickaxing of the caved in entrance later (you can dig it up again from the outside, but not from the inside)...  ...and we're back in fighting form to take down the other two demon-statue-things.  Thankfully, they don't concentrate on the same person this time around...  ...so Dankwart's healing spells can actually keep the party going, and the demons go down without much of a fight.  The black roots in the ceiling are shaking... and it smells kinda burnt. Whatever kind of being it may have been that was worshipped here, we have dealt it a serious blow!Well, we could finish off this thing (this thing being that spooky tree, what else could be connected to those roots), but...  ...we've got something else to do. You may have noticed the skeletons disappeared in that cave, and you might remember we were supposed to look for the remains of that ghost. Well, let's have him check out those skeletons and see if we got the right one!   Boooooo! You're back, dear friend! So... were you successful? Umm... well... I've got these bones here... Booooo! Booooooo! Umm... Was that an expression of happiness? Nooooo! You idiot! Do you really believe moldy bones like that could be mine? There has to be another skeleton in that chamber... a nice, shiny one... please take another look... booooo.Hm, well then. But where could that skeleton be?  The wall here looks kind of unstable... should I use my pickax? 1) Yes. 2) No.Well, nothing ventured...  Oh dear! What did we stumble upon now?A bunch of ghosts, it seems. I wonder what kind of story these guys have. Boooooooo! Pretty loud for a dead guy... Do not dare to joke, mortal scum! You better kneel down and pray to your ancestors that they accept you in the afterlife! Don't fluff yourself up too much, pal - just tell me what you're looking for down here. The days on which I was looking for something have long past - now all I'm doing is wait. Booooo! I see... and who are you waiting for? For those coming to steal the remains of the heathen that maimed us! The remains shall never be found, so that his soul shall never find peace! 1) What happened? 2) You found me!Let's get the whole story here. It has now been many generations ago. We wanted to summon the ghost of the Black Oak at this holy place for it to give us its power! Doesn't sound particularly holy, more like black magic... At the peak of the ceremony this putz barged in... he disturbed everything and chaos fell over us! The Black Oak ate our souls, and nobody made it out. Boooooo! But the cowardly thief that caused everything managed to hide in this room. But the waves of destruction had the exits collapse, ha! His death was slow and painful! Since this day, we're guarding his earthly remains so his soul, just like ours, will never find rest! 1) Keep your bones. 2) I will save him!Well, maybe I can pull a quick one on these guys - let's not antagonize them just yet. I've got no interest on a pile of old bones. See ya - I'm just looking around a bit. Joink! We snatch the skeleton and run! All ghosts to me! A thief is trying to steal our bones! Or not. These guys are kind of tough...  ...but by using a lot of attacks that hit all enemies, they go down a good bit easier than the demons. Now, let's head back to the ghost and give him his skeleton back!  Boooooo! You're back, dear friend! So... were you successful? Take a look - I've got this exceptionally well-preserved skeleton! Booooo! Boooooo! Was that an expression of happiness? Yes, yessss, yeeeeeeessssss! Thanks, dear friend. I am free! Oh yes! I can feel the tingling... release is coming! Yes!!! ...what.  ... ...what is this supposed to be? Reincarnation... as a chicken? Booooo! ...um... cluck, cluck! What bad luck. I'd rather have kept ghosting around for another 243 years! You can't be pleased at all, can you?And all we get as a payoff is some experience. Not exactly the great reward we were promised. Oh well, that only leaves one thing to do, and that's deal with that tree. But beforehand...   ...we kill some big-rear end toads...   ...and some big-rear end wolves for experience, but it seems we're already plenty strong, as they go down fairly easily as well, so let's check out that tree.  I feel something... there's something in this tree... The dark presence poisoning this forest is eminating from this tree... Knock on it? 1) Yes. 2) No.Let's do this poo poo.  Surprisingly, the Black Oak isn't as tough as the demons we fought earlier, although it was weakened by killing those demons, so eh. We can attack it with regular attacks, for one, which means Julie isn't dead weight and Grandy isn't just an item user.  Grandy learned two new attacks over the course of our adventures. This one, the feint, lowers an enemy's defense. Nothing special, but hey, it's useful, I guess.  Meanwhile, Libra just loving roasts this tree and deals triple digit damage.  Grandy then tries to nail the tree in the solar plexus. I have no idea if the attack only works on enemies that would actually have a solar plexus or if I just missed here, but if it worked, it would stun the enemy.  Some more pounding from Libra and Dankwart, and the Oak goes down without much of a fight. We also get a magic apple that will raise one of our character's HP permanently, which is nice.  And then the tree erupts into flames and disappears. This forest is cleansed... it will take a few years for it to recover, but in the end, peace will return.With that, we're done with the Eastern Marches, so let's make our way to Düsterburg!  ...after another night at the inn, of course. Can't beat that price! Now, let's let Harkon know that Dankwart is back in business!   Sir... you have returned! Yes, Harkon. And look! I have the Holy Amulet! Your guard duty is finally over! I thank you, my duke, but the danger still seems to persist. I will continue to guard here until you have reclaimed your throne. You and your friends may pass, of course! Thanks, Harkon. It's good to have a loyal servant like you.And on we go, into the unknown!  What's that up there? Looks like that biting fog we came through! No, this is something different. It's drifting in the same way, but it seems even darker and scarier! Now don't go and wet yourself, Grandy. We have to go through there!And go through there we do! By the gods, look! The sun!!! What the hell is that?! Woof! Quiet, Julie! That monster! He actually went and did it! Did what, Dankwart? Turned off the sun? Who could do something like that?! Calm down, my friend. It's just a solar eclipse, a rare astronomical phenomenon. Don't downplay it, Dankwart! You know something and you don't want to tell us! Who did what? Wahnfried, the lord of Düsterburg! He stopped the timeflow in this area! 1) What? 2) I got it!Regardless of what we pick here, we get the thing explained, but according to the walkthrough, letting Dankwart explain it gives us more details, so let's play dumb. Stopped the timeflow? What's that supposed to mean? As you know, I have made experiments that interfered with the timeflow in the past. My goal was to extend human life. I couldn't imagine that my findings would be abused in such a way. My first attempts were to try and stop time in order to stop the decay of the human body. But sadly, the results were not satisfying. I managed to stop time in a certain area... but everything was stopped! Nothing moved in the area of my experiment! My second attempt was more successful: Although time stood still, organic life still continued to move... ...but organic decay did as well, so I didn't actually get any closer to my goal... That's all very interesting, Dankwart, but what does it have to do with this phenomenon? That should be obvious, my friend. Wahnfried must have gotten a hold of my notes... ...and he stopped the timeflow just at the moment of a solar eclipse... Exactly, Miss Libra - very astute of you. But why would he do something like that? He's a creature of the night, Grandy. At daytime he's barely capable of anything, and the same holds true for his servants. But without the light of the sun Wahnfried and his lackeys can go wherever they want, unhindered. Couldn't that have been done more easily? He could have just as well stopped time at night... Surely, but Wahnfried uses black magic to summon and command his undead servants. Under normal circumstances, the school of black magic is far inferior compared to the other ones. But during a solar eclipse... I think I get the picture, Dankwart... Couldn't our problems get smaller for a change? I wonder how the people in my duchy are faring after all these years without the sun... CHAPTER II: CITY OF SHADOWS  Now we could stop it here...  ...but we get instantly dropped into another cutscene - "at the same time, but in a different place".  We find Wahnfried pacing back and forth in the throne room of Castle Düsterburg. I just love the seriously loving tacky statues of himself.  A quick note - it can be kind of confusing when talking about the naming of places, because there's both the town Düsterburg and the castle Düsterburg, which are two separate entities. However, in German, the whole thing becomes a lot easier, since the town becomes a more general entity ("we're going to Düsterburg in the next update"), and the castle becomes a distinct entity ("we're eventually going to attack the Düsterburg"). I won't be making the distinction that often, since it should usually be self-evident. They have returned! Where the hell is this guy? The one time I need him, and he's late! And in comes a really big demon.  Pardon the delay, my lord, but I still had to oppress a few souls... I was just about to get angry, but I understand that tormenting souls is a priority. Speak, my lord: How can your most humble servant be of service? I need somebody with your special skillset to take care of a potential threat! Give me name and appearance of the threat and consider the problem dealt with! A young couple. Their names are Grandy and Libra - and all those, that accompany them. What are you offering me for doing that?I don't think this guy knows how "humble servants" work. The standard offer for those is not casting some seriously heavy black magic poo poo on your rear end for disobeying.  Their souls, my friend and servant. I think you're going to have your fun with them... I think so too. Well, poo poo, he's a shapeshifter. That's not going to help matters.  A good thing that I could secure his loyalty, or else one wouldn't have the slightest idea who you're dealing with... Düsterburg! After all these years I've finally returned! I wonder if some of my old acquaintances are still alive? We have to be careful. Surely Wahnfried has stationed a ton of informants all over the town. I believe it would be for the best to keep my identity a secret for now. And with that, we're in Düsterburg! Well, not really - we're in front of Düsterburg. Odds are that getting inside is going to be a trip and a half, but we'll see that next time!
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Mar 10, 2014 00:56
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Can you go back to the forest, or are you stuck here?
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Mar 10, 2014 03:17
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The demon's idea of a disguise is to dress up as the grim reaper?
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Mar 10, 2014 03:28
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SSNeoman posted:The demon's idea of a disguise is to dress up as the grim reaper? The question is, was the bored riddle-oriented wraith guarding the chest in the ice cave a regular Düsterburgian? Düsterburgite? Düsterburglar? Düsterburgan?
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Mar 10, 2014 03:45
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Düsterburger, obviously.
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Mar 10, 2014 04:23
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 That's reward enough all by itself. TheMcD posted:Grandy then tries to nail the tree in the solar plexus. I have no idea if the attack only works on enemies that would actually have a solar plexus or if I just missed here, but if it worked, it would stun the enemy.  It appears to work on most things, even if they don't have a solar plexus. However enemies have varying resistance to status ailments. There are five levels, A (highly vulnerable) to E (usually entirely immune); in this case an A means it works 80% of the time, which goes down by 20% with each lower rank. The black oak has a D, so it only works 20% of the time.
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Mar 10, 2014 13:20
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ultrafilter posted:Can you go back to the forest, or are you stuck here? We're perfectly capable to go back (and in fact we're going to have to because I'm stupid and forgot something  ).ElTipejoLoco posted:Judging from the screenshots, it appears that the town's filled with NPCs that look like reapers, though. Düsterbürger would be the proper one. And believe it or not, that actually gets addressed once we talk with the first reaper. Also, I don't think it's spoiling anything when I say that the shapeshifter is in fact not disguised as a reaper once we encounter him, because that would have been too easy. I presume he disguised as a reaper (which seem to be the sentries guarding the walls) to scout the situation and check for the arrival of our group, then switches disguises to make his move.
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Mar 10, 2014 13:20
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vilkacis posted:
Looks like he's now a chicken, boo...
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Mar 10, 2014 15:40
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I was wondering why you didn't grab the pick so far Tbh, while money isn't that much of an issue, the hidden treasures can help you a lot in the early part of the game. The magic sword can go a long way too, but there are other magic weapons iirc. And since you can now move to Düsterburg, money becomes much more important and selling the tiger tooth is a good boost. I don't know how you feel about kinda breaking the game, but Düsterburg has a certain thing that allows you to do that. Check the current chapter of the walkthrough for the fruit vendor. Even if you don't want to abuse it, it's still a good idea to throw a bunch of money at it. Looking forward to see how you're going the handle the guards. There are a few ways to go about it, but I think I never went with the peaceful solutions. So, since TheMcD earlier said that it's okay for me to talk about other games, I'm going to do that! Sternenkind-Saga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P-DL32AQ9g The trailer is rather old, but still gives a short peek at what the game is about. Also, it's one of those "labour of love" type games. The title translates to "Starchild Saga", and the game is only in German. It has been in development for quite a while, and the final version is announced for this year(with some hope). Basically, the game is heavily influenced by Nordic mythology. If you like Vikings, you're gonna love this game. It's set in a fictional medieval world, and the humans are at war with a race of werewolves. The war isn't going very good, and you play a young recruit that has been drafted after the last major battle ended in a catastrophy for the humans. Your character is the titular starchild, because you can pick from a range of star signs at the beginning. Each sign makes playing the game a bit different, because each one has a choice between three different advantages, and each sign also dictates how your character talks and what his motivations are. Your sign will also influence the look a special place that you'll get access to later in the game. There's more to say about the importance of the stars, but that would lead into the plot behind your character  The writing also deserves a mention, because it's pretty faithful to ye olde language. It doesn't shy away from violence and some genuinely sad stuff, but also has a sense of humor. You can find a ton of lore, poetry, and little stories if you explore the world around you. Seriously, the amount of writing and world building is pretty impressive. The visual design is also neat, has a lot of custom art and lots of details and secrets. There is so much effort in this game that I could gush about it for ages, but let's just stick to a list of bullet points. -Custom attribute and skill system for your characters -Custom talent system that dictates what sidequests you can solve, and what secrets you can find -Custom Karma system that shows your standing with the different gods in the world. Karma is directly influenced by your actions, and rising in the favor of a god can unlock powerful gifts or more content -Custom art, animations, sprites, lightmaps, and lots of charm in the design -A lot of different and fun minigames -Several subsystems like town management, orc-ball games, and war battles in the late stage of the game -Lots of quests for nosey players to find -And many more things that add replay value because you have to make choices The current demo is pretty large and can be found here. If you can read German, and found some of my points interesting, then it's worth a try! If you want to check some visuals, there is a development thread here. Though, keep in mind that like the first third of the screens are from an early build that got scrapped. And lastly, the main reason why I bring this game up is that it also has a reference to Düsterburg.  This can be found among the books in the grand library, and one of your characters has something to say about it.  "How sad. The title suggests that it's the account of a journey through a far off land, but it's the story of a country that's stricken by vampires....but the writing is very gripping!"
Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 17:12
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 Well then.  Looks interesting. Perhaps someone could LP it once it's done or something.
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Mar 11, 2014 00:32
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Looks like we're in for some urban adventuring. I hope this isn't going to be just a little walk-around-and-talk.
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Mar 11, 2014 13:19
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Glazius posted:Looks like we're in for some urban adventuring. For a bit of comparison, the walkthrough dedicated roughly 4 1/2 pages to the first chapter we just went through in five updates (one of which turned out larger than expected). Chapter 2, which takes place purely in the town of Düsterburg, has roughly 8 1/2 pages dedicated to it. There's plenty of things to be done in this town, including some quite large sidequests.
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Mar 11, 2014 13:40
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It's always cool to see translation LPs of games that aren't in English. This has been an interesting read so far, TheMcD!
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Mar 13, 2014 04:52
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Got some free time and am currently recording the next set of footage. ...well, that's not entirely true. More like I'm watching an episode of Game Center CX while doing some off-screen grinding involving turtles. But there was some recording before that (roughly 30 minutes) and there will be more recording after that. I know I'll have some free time next week, so expect an update then.
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Mar 21, 2014 02:02
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Update VI -  (useful , but still ) So, we finally made it to Düsterburg, and we're ready to rock with a full party. First item on the agenda - getting inside the town, because I'm pretty sure that bonehead won't let us in.  Good morning, good day or good evening - you're never quite sure in this place, after all! Where are you folks heading? You again? I actually kind of hoped we were done with the riddles for good! What? You know this guy?! Then tell him to stop japping and let us pass! I think there's been a case of mistaken identity here, dear Libra. Your Grandy may have gotten around recently, but... Alright, alright! I guess that's a different skeleton guy than the one I met before... but those guys just look so similar... Ahem, could we get back to the matter at hand? I hate to interrupt, but... Of course! Please excuse me! I have no idea how you guys got here - this is the first time in twenty years anybody's shown up - but you are not allowed in! 1) Then we'll fight our way through! 2) Well, if you say so... 3) Let's negotiate!This is an RPG - negotiation is always the answer! It has to be boring, staying at your post all this time. All these years without company... Oh, I can't complain, really. Every once in a while somebody comes by and brings me something to read. It's been a while, but the anticipation makes it even better! Don't lie to me! I know you're terribly bored here and would love to do some riddles with us! You know, I've given up on riddles years ago - I keep losing with those! 1) Then eat steel! 2) Then we'll leave.Eh, no need to pick a fight here. Let's back off for now, there's got to be another way in.  Discretion is the better part of valor, isn't it, Grandy? However, that doesn't change that we still need to get into the town somehow! I'll think of something, no worries!And I've got just the idea - except that I've forgotten something.  So let's backtrack for a moment...  ...and buy some more climbing equipment!  Then we head back...  ...and make our own entrance! I could use my grappling hook here to get up to the battlements! And that we do. Now we're up on the battlements, and there's boneheads everywhere. Thankfully, they don't make a beeline for us, they just meander around, making it fairly easy to dodge them.  Fairly being the key word here - I still get caught by one guy that moves particularly fast.  So this is one of the guys we would have faced if we tried to fight our way through, although I think it's more than just one guy in that case.  He can hit like a loving dump truck, and has party-wide attacking magic too. He's quite a pain to deal with.  However, thanks to Libra's and Dankwart's magic, he goes down with only Julie getting taken out.  And thanks to Dankwart's very healthy MP pool, everybody gets healed back into tip-top shape with ease.  The rest of the trip goes well, and we can then use a rope or another grappling hook to head back down. Good thing I brought another rope.  And that brings us into Düsterburg proper. The town is fairly large, so let's get a map up in here:  Now, the screens aren't properly aligned, but that's the fault of the map, not my editing (for instance, you can take a look at the left side, where the road doesn't fit properly, but the wall is perfect). Now, let's take a look around, because Dankwart has a lot to say while we explore the outdoor areas, starting with the guillotine right next to us.  By the gods! There are executions in Düsterburg! What happened to my city?Well, we already knew that the city is under an ironfisted rule and the guard was made up of werewolves at one point. While horrible, executions aren't exactly surprising in this situation. Now, I want to take a look at that surprisingly ornate grave, but first, we need to change the screen.  The guard station! Used to be that the people here were responsible for upholding law and order, these days it's probably all about enforcing Wahnfried's will!Eh, the guards are actually alright, all things considered, but we'll get to that later. Now, back to that grave:  A grave... seems to be a quite new one. The hole has only recently been filled up... That's the only thing you're noticing? Take a look at the gravestone! Holy smokes! This grave is over seven years old! Digging in hallowed soil is the last thing I want to do, but... 1) Dig it up! This is no grave! 2) We'll let the dead rest.I smell side quest - let's not get into that too quickly, now. First we continue exploring.  Good to see that the hospital is still standing! At least health care seems to be taken care of. Now there's an oddball term I have never personally used in my life! A "Siechenhaus" is actually not a hospital, but somewhat of a precursor - it basically describes things such as leper colonies or pestilence houses that were not used for healing but for isolation. Dankwart's usage of that term is a bit odd, since I very much doubt having a pestilence house in the middle of the loving town is good design. I presume the writer was simply trying to use some sort of old-timey term for hospital with little care for the actual usage of that term. Not that this place is a hospital, anyway, but that's something for later... This is city hall! We should be careful! Surely Wahnfried has placed loyal followers into every position of power!Making a mental note not to go there unless it truly seems necessary, then.  The northern gate is being guarded by a demon and his cronies! We don't have a chance against those guys, Grandy.And while we did take out some demons earlier, this guy is a bit of a different caliber and will indeed wreck our poo poo. There has to be a different way to get out of town, anyway...  Ahh, the Polished Armor tavern! I drank the occasional beer or two here in my youth with my friends.A tavern you say? Could it be the same we saw in the intro? Let's take a look inside:  Jackpot! And there's Laz and Rank, too! ...actually, I wonder just how much they've actually gotten done ever since we last saw them. I mean, it's at least been few days since then. Was Laz just at the bar getting shitfaced this entire time while slurring about "no, seriously, HE's going to come any day now *hic*" and the guards just let him be because he's clearly just rambling nonsense? Well, let's ask around. Standard RPG procedure - the tavern always has interesting people to talk to.   Elvys sometimes seems a bit cocky, and sometimes he's a bit too brash... but otherwise, he's a good guy.Elvys? Elvys. loving Elvys. God drat. He's not dead, he just left the building and headed to Düsterburg. Let's talk to him, then.   Well, what kind of guy is this guy? May he introduce himself or may he return from whence he came! And he's... Austrian? I think? The voice I've got in my head when reading his text definitely has a heavy Austrian accent, but I'm not sure whether that was intended or not, because I've never seen Austrian-accented German writing. For some reason the usage of addressing the person you're talking to as "he/she" instead of "you" in German is connected with Austrian in my head, although it could also be connected with Bavarian, now that I think about it. Doesn't help that I'm Bavarian myself. An apparently Austrian-accented musically-named character... were I more witty, I'd make a Falco joke, but as it stands, I'll just say that Wiener Blut is a really good song of his. 1) My name is Grandy. 2) What a sleazeball! 3) Pardon me, I didn't know I was interrupting...Might as well introduce ourselves. And your name is? I am Elwydion Senkelfried, but he may simply call me Elwys. But at the moment I am in a very promising conversation with this lady here, so if he may remove himself from the premises... 1) But it's important! 2) What a sleazeball! 3) Pardon me, then I'll leave.Eh, screw him. Note that we could have very easily gotten into a fight with this guy, but there's no need for that. Instead, let's talk to more people.   Evenin', dude! What's happenin'? Youth language is a tricky thing to translate. 1) I'll teach you some manners! 2) I'm Grandy... and you? 3) Nothing!When in doubt, introduce oneself. I'm Talex. I'm here with my brother Roncarlo. He's upstairs, where the turtle races are happening, and is once again betting all his money away! Our father doesn't like that at all, but what the hell, Roncarlo makes his own money. Let him spend it the way he wants to... 1) Regarding your brother... 2) Regarding the city... 3) Regarding this tavern...Oh boy, we found one of the information NPCs, sweet. Let's go down the line. What kind of guy is your brother, then? Hey, he's some kind of hero! A wanderer and adventurer! He's been all over the place, to Königsberg and then some... Some day he's going to marry a princess, the way it belongs for a hero like him! But until then he's gambling away his dough at the turtle races. You grew up here, right? Can you tell me something about Düsterburg? It's pretty boring here, I can tell you that! Roncarlo told me that there's light and dark times of day in Königsberg... they call it day and night. It's always dark here, but soon I'll be going to Königsberg, too! Can you tell me something about the guests here? Of course, I know them all! That guy down there with the chick, that's Elvys - he's always hitting on girls like you wouldn't believe! I don't know the dwarf, he's not from here. He already seems pretty drunk. And the two at the bar, those are Rank and Lazalantin! They're always here together. My brother always says they're the heart and soul of Düsterburg. Don't ask me what he means by that... I'll be taking another look around, then. See you!Alright, that was a good bit of information, now let's continue with the next guy.   Greetings, I am Fulgor, son of Falgor. You seem to be new here... Yeah, I just got here. Do you live here in Düsterburg? No, I'm a visitor here myself - I came from Königsberg. And what brings you here? I ordered a set of armor and am waiting for it to be finished. The smithy here is known beyond borders in... certain circles. Sounds interesting, Fulgor - can you tell me where I can find this person? He has his store north-west from here. You can't miss it. Thanks for the information, Fulgor, son of Falgor. I've still got some things to do here. Good... um... evening.We'll have to make a mental note to ask for weapons in that shop, then. Now, let's ask out our two favorite revolutionaries.   Greetings, stranger! My name is Rank Degenhardt. Hello - I'm new in this town. Could you help me? If it doesn't take too long. You see, Lazalantin and I have something very important to discuss. RANK! ... ... Please excuse Rank, he always likes to act all mysterious and important. Of course we would be glad to help you. Um, thanks, Lazalantin. 1) What were you just talking about? 2) How is life here in Düsterburg? 3) I didn't want to interrupt...Well, they clearly were talking about their revolution, so let's ask them about that. ... We were talking about the latest sports results. There's nothing much else happening in Düsterburg, you know. Sports results? Which... To be exact, we were talking about the turtle races that are held daily in this tavern! Turtle races? Doesn't sound all that thrilling... It isn't. But you can bet on them, and that's one of the few distractions in this town. 1) Sounds interesting... 2) Let's change the topic!It seems obvious we're not getting anything out of these guys regarding their secret conversation, so we might as well get some hot betting tips. You can win something? You must surely know something about that! Which turtle is the fastest? Leonardo, no doubt about it! Come off it! Donatello is a lot more agile than Leonardo! Regardless, stay away from Leonardo! He's a total loser! Thanks for the tip. 1) I'll be heading upstairs then. 2) One more question...When the question is "ask an NPC a question or don't", the answer is always the former. Most of the time, at least. How is life here in Düsterburg? Well, it's rather boring, if you ask me... if you want to know more, ask Darion, the bartender. I'll be taking another look around then, see you! If you ask me, Grandy, those guys have something to hide...You think? How could you possibly have gotten that idea? We've still got to talk to the bartender, though, so let's get that done.   Hello! It's rare to see a new face here! I'm Darion, and you are? I'm Grandy and I'm new here. Can you tell me something about Düsterburg? Of course, Grandy. Where should I start? 1) The history of this town 2) The guests in this tavern 3) The city in generalDown the line, once again. Well, it wasn't always so dark here, you know. Twenty years ago, this was a happy little town. Back then, it was still named Falkenburg, and was ruled by Duke Dankwart. I was still a child back then. Nobody really knows what happened to the old duke. He just disappeared one day, and this new ruler took his place. Since then, a lot of things have changed. The new duke, Wahnfried, brought his own guard with him. Creatures of the night. To make their stay in Düsterburg more pleasant, he blocked out the sun. I have no idea how he did that, I'm no expert on these things... well, we had to change our ways then. You can surely tell that farming wasn't possible anymore. 1) How do you make ends meet? 2) Who runs this town?Same procedure as every year, James. Well, trade with the Eastern Marches completely stopped since those days. The access is guarded by a fearsome fighter! But we still have contact with the barony of Königsberg. They trade with us for the resources we can't get anymore, and we then process those goods further. Beyond that, we do a little bit of livestock breeding, but the constant darkness makes the animals aggressive. Duke Wahnfried installed Deppert Drombusch as mayor. He's loyal to the duke. "Deppert" is a colloquial term in southern German areas (Bavaria/Austria) meaning "stupid". A bit of an unfortunate name. 1) You aren't? 2) Go on.Let's do some probing here - I detect the sound of dissent. No, of course I am! Everybody loves serving the duke here, Grandy! The city guard is administrated by Tharand Al'Rhun. Although the mayor technically commands the guard, there's often trouble between the two. Trouble? Why? Well... umm... Tharand has his own mind. He's obviously loyal to the duke, but doesn't always share his opinion. In the beginning of his reign we didn't yet have our own guard - the duke brought his own "people". His "own people"? Werewolves, Grandy. But that didn't work for long. The beasts were simply too wild, and they attacked the population. There was almost an uprising! But the duke intervened and removed the werewolves. Just that that decision came a bit too late for some...And now we loop back to the beginning, so let's ask about the guests here now. You want to find a connection, eh? I can understand that... so, the two at the bar are Lazalantin and Rank. A bit secretive, the two, but they've got their heart in the right place. The young man with the lady back there... those two are Elvys and Natalia! Elvys is a sort of entertainer for the ladies here.I'm really not sure how I'm supposed to take that last statement. The young guy wandering around here is Talex Ti Paroli. He's usually here with his brother Roncarlo. Roncarlo is a welcome guest here, an adventurer right out of the book. You'll find him upstairs.Roncarlo Ti Paroli. Now that's a name. Not that I'll be using it, because there's something else I'll be calling him. I can't tell you a lot about the dwarf, you'll have to ask him yourself. His name is Fulgor... that's about all I know.Finally, let's talk about the city in general. There's not a lot to visit here. We've got a prison and a sanatorium that is known well beyond the borders of this town. For your daily shopping needs we have Torben and his wife Hanni - you'll find their store north-west of here. The travel options are quite limited right now. Without the permission of the mayor nobody can leave this town. Through the south gate, the only path leads to the Eastern Marches, and the path there is blocked anyway. Through the north gate you'll reach the castle of the duke and Königsberg.Well, that was a lot to take in, although most of it was re-treading old ground. Now, it's time for turtle races!  There's quite a few people here, and they'll be mostly be staying here. Let's see what they've got to say:  I know he keeps losing, but I keep betting on Michelangelo... he's sooooo cute! Donatello is the best!  I only came here from Königsberg because of the famous turtle races.Remember her, she might be important some day.   Greetings, unknown travelers. I am Roncarlo Ti Paroli - hero and adventurer!Why hello there, Alex. For those not in the know: RPG Maker has a default main character, as such creation kits usually have. That main character is Alex, and he has the same sprite set and face set as Roncarlo here. Or should I say it in reverse? So because this guy is so obviously Alex, that's what I'm calling him. Plus, it's easier than Roncarlo. And to be quite honest, I'm not sure whether Roncarlo being Alex is intentional (read: A joke of some kind) or some kind of laziness. Um... hello, Roncarlo. My name is Grandy, I'm just a traveller, but am hoping to become a hero some day. Then you've certainly set yourself a high goal! The path of a hero is rocky and full of danger! But a bunch of glory awaits you, as well as a ton of gold... and of course all the hearts of girls that beat for you! You certainly seem to have gotten around quite a bit, Roncarlo. We could use somebody like you in our group! I know that! But please not now - we can talk about that after the race!Alright, then it's time to race.  Greetings. I've heard that the famous turtle races take place here. You heard right! Do you want to bet? What are the rules? Well, they're the standard rules. We've got three turtles here - Michelangelo (blue), Leonardo (green) and Donatello (red)... You can bet 10, 100 or 1000 bucks on one of the turtles. If your turtle wins, you get double back! But if you bet on Michelangelo, you'll even get back quadruple! Do you want to bet on a turtle?Yeah, sure, why not. The odds aren't great, though, so let's not go overboard. We bet ten bucks on Donatello.  The way the race works is that RPG Maker has a setting with which NPCs can walk randomly in certain directions. So these turtles just keep randomly walking left and right, and eventually one makes the goal. You can also tell that Michelangelo is slower than the others. If only we could do something about that...  Donatello has done it once again! Victory for Donatello!And we get twenty bucks. Yay? But now that the race is over, let's talk to Alex again.  Hello! There you are again! How can Roncarlo Ti Paroli, hero and adventurer, help you out? We just wanted to ask if you had some time to talk now? I told you! When the races are over!Ugh. Suffice it to say that the races never actually really end, so we've got to find something else to do.  Time to start exploring random houses!  Quite a few houses here are rather ratty. I think we can say Düsterburg has seen better days.   Hello, you young folks. My name is Magda. Can I help you somehow?Say, you look a lot like the barkeeper. I wonder why? Greetings, Magda. 1) What do you do here? 2) Tell me something about the city.You know the score by now. I live here with my three grandchildren. They lost their parents many years ago. In the beginning, we barely could make ends meet. But for a year now they've been training their turtles for the races in the tavern. Don't you have anybody that could help you raise your grandchildren? No, good sir. Since my husband disappeared in the sewers three years ago, I'm all alone.I smell sidequest. Tell me about your husband. The poor Joini. He was the only sewer worker in the city, not exactly glorious work, but well-paid... but in the years before his disappearance his work kept getting more dangerous. Dark creatures began roaming the underground passages. One day he never came back from work... Since then nobody has ever visited the sewers. And I'm still waiting for news about my husband... If we should learn something about him, we'll tell you, Magda.And now, something about the city. I haven't been outside in a long time. It's dangerous for an old lady such as myself... my grandchildren are mostly in the Polished Armor tavern when they're not training their turtles here. The youngest, Michel, still goes to Father Medarius' kindergarten. You'll find him one house on the left.Then, let's take a look upstairs.   Onwards, Donatello! You've got to go faster!!!Looks like they're training, and yet, when we go back to the tavern, they'll be right back. Magic. Oh, hello. I'm Donna, and who are you? You look like a group of adventurers. I can tell you are because my crush is always hanging around with people such as you... 1) Of course we're adventurers... 2) Who is your crush? 3) What are you doing?Wooo, more questions! Down the line, as usual. And we've gotten around, let me tell you! And all those adventures we've had! Wow! I can tell you... Come on Grandy, don't boast so much... Oh come on, Libra, we did do a few heroic deeds... Who else could it be but Roncarlo Ti Paroli! All girls are in love with him - he's soooooo cute! And he's a hero like in the fairy tales! He's always at the turtle races... and he always bets on Donatello! I'm sure it's because of me... *sigh*. Of course... I'm training Donatello for the next race! My brother Leo also trains the entire day, so I can't lag behind! But there were two boys at the race... Oh yeah, the other one is Michel, our little brother. But his turtle is terrible, it almost never wins. It's so slow that it's a bad influence on Leonardo and Donatello, so he has to train his over at the kindergarten.Well, let's check upstairs, then.   Go, Leonardo! Your food's over there! Hello, folks. May I introduce you to Leonardo, the fastest turtle in all of Düsterburg! And I'm Leo, his trainer. Can I help you somehow? 1) How do you become a turtle trainer? 2) Are there any tricks? 3) What's with Michelangelo? Do you have to catch the turtles with some kind of special ball first? No, we got the turtles as a Christmas present last year. The training was Donna's idea. We make good money with the races - before that, we barely had enough to eat. If we didn't train the turtles, they surely would have landed in the soup. How terrible! The cute little turtles! Admit it, you've got some sort of special method to get the turtles to deliver peak performances! The most important part is hard work, but if you promise not to take part at the races, I can tell you a little secret. I promise! It's the food. You've got to pay attention what you feed the little ones! Oh, he's just useless! My little brother Michel just doesn't have the stuff to be a trainer.They sure seem to keep banging on about Michelangelo being terrible. We should pay him a visit.  Right next door, like they said.  Well, this certainly doesn't look like much of a step up. At least it's a bit more solid.   Greetings, my children. I feel that you come before me without any ill intent. I am Father Medarius. How can I help you? We need... 1) a priest. 2) some information.The former option gives you the option of three different blessings you can receive. Apparently, only one slightly heals you and the others seem to do nothing. So let's go with the latter option. We're new here in Düsterburg and would like some information. I feel that you're here to bring this place peace once again. Speak freely.Really tell the entire truth? Yes/No You know what? I think we can trust this guy. Let's tell the truth. We have come to depose the upstart Wahnfried and restore Dankwart Dengelbrack's title! Oh my! I didn't feel you would go that far! But anyway... I will try to answer all your questions. 1) About Düsterburg... 2) About Duke Wahnfried... 3) About the church... Can you tell us the things about Düsterburg that nobody else dares to tell? Oh, oh, oh, there's plenty to say about that, because the town has fallen to evil ever since Wahnfried has taken over the rule. The streets aren't safe anymore! In the dark corners lurk thieves and murderers... but the worst of all is that all Düsterbürger have given up hope! Nobody dares to speak out against the Duke - his web of spies and servants is already too complex. Nobody? No, that's not quite right - a small group, whose name is not known to me, is planning a rebellion in secret. About Wahnfried... 1) How can you defeat him? 2) How do you get through the north gate? The duke can not be killed in regular combat - you can defeat him, but not kill him... he will always retreat to his resting place, regenerate and attack you once again! Only at his resting place can you destroy him. However, for that you need a stake freshly carved from an ash tree. This stake must be driven through his heart and it must also have been blessed by a priest... Another way would be to find his resting place and seal it. But how to achieve that is beyond my knowledge. The third way: The duke is a creature of the dark - open sunlight destroys him! But the sun has been blocked out for years... another act of that fiend! The north gate is heavily guarded! One of the strongest servants of the duke has the command of that post. In the past years there were some courageous adventurers that tried to defeat the guards... But they didn't have a chance... Another way would be to get a license for travel from the mayor. This license is usually only given to travellers to Königsberg... sometimes it's also given to travelling merchants. You are a priest, but this place doesn't look like a church... One of the first acts of the new duke was to burn the old church to the ground... But he didn't dare to forbid religion itself, knowing that the faithful would revolt against him. But if he knew that we convene for service every holiday, then that would certainly be my end......well, that was certainly a lot of information, a lot of it new, in fact. We now know that Wahnfried subscribes to the standard movie vampire format as opposed to, say, the World of Darkness format, which is great for those trying to kill him. We also know that exiting the town is going to be harder than expected and that religion is in a really bad spot. Let's take a look upstairs next.  At least somebody seems to be having some fun in this godforsaken town.   May the gods be with you. How can I help you? Umm, it looks like you've already got your hands full with those little rascals, so we don't want to bother you further.Let's head further upstairs then.   Please, Michelangelo. Just a little bit faster...  Hello, people! My name is Michel. And this is my friend Michelangelo! He's a racing turtle and I'm his trainer! 1) Are you successful? 2) Do you need some sort of help? No, not really. Michelangelo always has sore feet and doesn't run so fast... that's why he almost never wins at the races, even though he's much cuter than Donatello or Leonardo... If you could make Michelangelo run faster, that would be really great! Do you have some sort of idea how we could do that? No, sadly not. My siblings have some sort of trick, but of course they won't tell me. Hmm... I'll see what I can do. Really?! That would be really nice of you!Well, we already know that the food is the trick, now we just need to find something special.  But for now, we've got another house to visit, because we're not quite done with having people tell us their life stories just yet.   By the gods! Can it be? Berta, look! What is it, Rüdiger? I can't believe it! Rüdiger! It's Sir Dankwart! Rüdiger... Berta! You're still alive - thank the gods! Allow me to introduce: That are Rüdiger and Berta, who used to be my servants. And here are Grandy and Libra, whom I have to thank for returning to you. But tell me how you have been faring? Can you make ends meet? It could be better, Sir Dankwart. Times are hard for those that used to be loyal to you. We have to split this house with the family Ti Paroli, which is just as poor as we are. Oh Rüdiger, quit complaining! Please, Sir Dankwart, tell us how you've been faring! Of course! You still remember the night my beloved Doria went missing... Ahem... pardon me, Dankwart, but we already know the story. If you'll allow, we'll take a look around the house. Of course, Grandy! How impolite of me!So then, let's take a look upstairs.  And up here, we find the standard RPG Maker old man - somehow, that's rather fitting.  Roncarlo, my son... is that you? 1) Yes, father, it's me! 2) No.Not sure what being dishonest does for us here - we stay honest. Umm... no, my name is Grandy. Oh, excuse me, Grandy. I'm an old man and my eyes aren't what they used to be. Roncarlo doesn't even drop by anymore, that useless sod! He's either roaming the duchy in the search of adventures, or he's wasting his time in the Polished Armor, where he wastes his money on the turtle races! He doesn't even think about his brother and father... that barely have enough to eat.Wow, Alex is kind of a dick. 1) I'll be leaving, then. 2) Allow me to help you...Of course we're going to help! 1) Here, have 100 bucks. 2) Here, have 10 bucks.Come on, now, no being stingy here! It's got to be the most we can give!  You're too generous, Grandy! Although my honor wouldn't allow me to accept charity, the hunger forces me to accept your money. If I see your son, I'll tell him to drop by.Well, that's all we can do here... let's see if Dankwart is done with his story. Ah, you're back! Rüdiger and Berta have told me of the state of affairs here in Düsterburg. Everywhere there's poverty and starvation, but the population is too afraid to revolt! They're so scared that they don't even dare to openly criticize the regime! But there's supposed to be a group of young people in the underground that are preparing a revolution. Sadly, Rüdiger and Berta have no idea who those people are. We have to find these people! I must leave now, my friends. Please allow me to give you 500 bucks from our travelling money! Umm... You better shut up now, Grandy! Sir Dankwart, we can't possibly accept this... Fiddlesticks! You men and your honor! You know how much we need this money! Many thanks, Sir Dankwart. We're just an old married couple, but if we could help you in any way... Thank you, Berta. I appreciate your offer, but I don't want to drag you into danger. Fare well, and keep an eye out! Six hundred bucks lighter, it's time to go and visit the shop.  The shop actually seems rather well off, all things considered.   Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Torben Ballfuß. How can I help you? We need... 1) information! 2) regular wares! 3) weapons!Information first, as much as my fingers wish there wasn't more of this. And about what, if I may ask? Düsterburg and the surrounding area. Oh, well, there's not much to talk about. This is a quiet, peaceful town like many other... 1) "Peaceful town"? 2) "Like many other"? 3) And what about the duke? And what about those boneheads patrolling the walls? Do they look peaceful to you? They're actually rather affable... even culturally interested. Every once in a while some of them drop in to get some reading material. Well, did you ever take a look outside? That's not normal - a 20 year long solar eclipse! Isn't it wonderful? It's even rather spectacular! And the best thing is that my sales of self-tanner have multiplied by ten! And the duke? I heard that he's a pretty dark fellow. Well, you're doing him wrong with that! You shouldn't judge a human... person by their eating and sleeping habits.Hm, this guy seems rather optimistic about the whole thing. As if he's got something to hide. At this point, I switch off my brain and forget to ask the guy about weapons, knowing that he won't sell them to me, and backtrack to the tavern to ask the dwarf about it. Continued in the next post because I apparently got carried away with the size of this update.
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 However, while we're there, we catch Laz without Rank and get the opportunity to talk to him. Hello, Grandy. You look so befuddled... can I help you? I would like some information... 1) about the town. 2) about the resistance. 3) about your haircut. I feel kind of bare, do you know a place where you can get weapons and armor? Weapons and armor? No, sorry, you can't get that here. I've heard there are some people that are conspiring against the duke. Do you know something about them? A resistance? Why would you be interested in that? 1) I want to join them! 2) I want to turn them in! 3) Just wondering...Eh, probably not best to openly announce that, even though we just did that with the priest. I think the response is the same, regardless. Sorry, but I haven't seen any resistance... Did a barber cut that for you? And that blue... that's got to be dyed, right? That's a natural blue. As for the cut, that's achieved through accentuated neglect! That was actually just a joke. I'll be off, then. After talking to the dwarf about a dozen times and rechecking the FAQ, I finally remembered what I did wrong, and now we're here to ask about weapons. Weapons? Sorry, but the sale of weapons has been forbidden by the duke! But I heard from a dwarf named Fulgor that he ordered some armor here... You must have heard wrong, unless... ...yes?... No, definitely not! There are no weapons here! And now we're back to the dwarf. Hello again, my friends! How's it going? Not so good. I went to the store you mentioned, but they told me they didn't sell any weapons. Well, not to anybody that just comes in from the street! Special clients know the password. A password - you didn't mention a password! Well, I didn't know how serious you were. Now just one more thing... What do you want? Nothing special, just a little gift from your side - you see, my throat's all dried up from all the talking... a little beer would be great right about now! All right, Fulgor, I'll get you a beer. And a beer we get for four bucks. Did you bring me my beer? Of course, Fulgor! Here, take a drink! Ah, thanks, you've been so good to me! That was great. Now on to business: You've got to tell the merchant the password before he'll let you have some weapons! And the password is? "Bacon rind"! "Bacon rind"? Exactly! Don't look at me like that, I didn't pick it. It's alright, Fulgor. Thanks again, and fare well! So now, let's get some drat weapons. Weapons? Sorry, but the sale of weapons has been forbidden by the duke! Well, well, seems like the duke figured out that you can't earn enough money for a single bacon rind with weapons... Well, if the duke isn't mistaken! Just head around the counter and go down the ladder. My son will take care of the rest. Oh hey, it's Rank! Now that's a surprise.  You're the son of the shopkeeper? You've got a problem with that? I'd even look a lot like him if I dressed like he did.Which brings up the question why Rank's last name doesn't match his dad's. Either he adopted some sort of code name (likely) or he got married and adopted his wife's name (unlikely). I just can't see a guy like that settling down. Anyway, let's check out his wares!  Jesus loving Christ that's expensive. We're going to need a lot more money if we want to get decked out here.  However, we do pick up a few bottles of holy water - never know when you can use something like that.  Also, we pick up a few things in the general store - a lantern (which is bound to come in handy) and a magazine. Bonecrack Magazine - A smut magazine with pictures of exposed skeletons. ...ah, right...  reading material . I get it now. Well, we might as well give that bonehead what he wants. Same procedure as last time, only this time we can offer him the magazine instead of giving up. Yes, that's exactly why we're here. We want to give you this educational magazine as proof we should be allowed to pass. Hey, that's the latest edition! Great! Then I've got my preoccupation for the next months! You may pass!And now we could easily go back to the Eastern Marches if we needed to. But that's not where we want to go right now. Instead, we need some money to buy those weapons and armor, and I know where to get it.  First we need to get a beer and drink it.  Ah, that was refreshing!That gives us an empty mug.  Next step, this fountain. A fountain! I am really thirsty, but the water looks so brackish...Still drink it? Yes/No Drink that poo poo! For science! UGH! That tastes terrible! And then Grandy proceeds to blitz around the area with super speed for a bit. Wow! That's some potent stuff. Maybe I should take some of that with me, you never know... I'll fill some of it into my empty mug!And with that mug in hand...  Hello, there you are again. I have this mug with special turtle food! When I mix this into Michelangelo's food, he'll be faster than greased lightning. REALLY? You'd do that? Please, please, please do!And mix it in we do. And you can instantly see an improvement. Now, even though Michelangelo is now faster than the other turtles, the odds at the races stay the same...  ...so if you'll excuse me...  ...I'm off to make some loving bank. Next time: We use all this money to buy some sweet stuff, take a trip to the nuthouse, take a trip to the slammer, and then take a trip to the past.
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Mar 25, 2014 01:07
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loving hell, that was an update. I originally recorded about 60 minutes of footage, with the "make loving bank" part being somewhere in the middle, so I figured "hey, I'll just turn this into two updates with that split". And then this update turned out to be 55000 characters long, making it the longest update by 22000 characters. God drat. And now my fingers hurt because I did this all in one sitting.
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Mar 25, 2014 01:10
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Oh man I've been there, SSLP buddy. You've got it worse cause you have to translate as well. That magazine bit got a laugh out of me, I admit.
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Mar 25, 2014 01:47
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But when do you unlock the secret fourth turtle, Raphael?
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Mar 25, 2014 01:49
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TheMcD posted:
In either case, what happens if you lack sufficient taler for either families' donations when the game prompts them? Some generic "whoops, guess we'll try that again later" message? Thanks for going through with this, by the by. I don't know if I'd have even heard of this game without this thread.
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Mar 25, 2014 01:55
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ElTipejoLoco posted:Is this line an optional one, or does the former Duke just dig into the party's funds? You know, I have no idea. He does in fact just take some money out of your funds, so there's that. I've been meaning to dig out the RM2K kit to figure out some of these alternate situations, I guess I might as well. EDIT: I just checked, and the dialogue is simply a fork. If we don't have 500 bucks, then the dialogue skips over the part where he gives them money all the way down to the "old married couple" bit and never mentions it again. If anybody else has any questions about "what if?", now is the time to ask them, because now I have the power! TheMcD fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Mar 25, 2014 |
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Mar 25, 2014 01:57
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TheMcD posted:Same procedure as every year, James. This reference is almost certainly lost on most Americans, which is a shame. Go read about Dinner for One and take the time to watch it.
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Mar 25, 2014 03:15
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Crossing my fingers for a big shopping spree at the fruit vendor Also, fighting the guards on the wall is actually a good idea, because iirc, they give a neat amount of bonus XP. At least I remember that I always did it.
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Mar 25, 2014 14:40
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Tin Tim posted:Crossing my fingers for a big shopping spree at the fruit vendor Well, since I already recorded the other half of the footage, I can tell you that yes, we'll be gouging ourselves on fruit rather soon. And yeah, those boneheads up there give some pretty good XP. I'll wait until I get my super-duper equipment that's coming up fairly soon and then I'll take them out.
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Mar 25, 2014 14:44
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