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

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
*sigh* All right, let me see what this one is about. Can't possibly be worse than 3.
...

Well, at least the "dumping you into the middle randomly" thing didn't last long enough to get too confusing. Johnny Yong Bosch sounds more manly in this game than Rush Sykes. That does fit the designs of both characters, though.

I do NOT at ALL like the sound of "Purification". That sounds like it'll be something really :japan:


This game gets an 11 out of 10 on the Crappy Costume-o Meter.
  • :stare: What the gently caress are the women (not) wearing? Here's a tip: Pants. Learn them, love them. Also, Shirts.
  • Also does Delta have his shirt on backwards. What's with the stupid tails on his shirt? What would the point of those be ? They'll just get tangled in your legs its so stupid argh
  • The Empress is wearing some Quarian helmet/burqua thing?
  • The Sharl look like human women with wings. Skimpy outfits. natch.
  • why is everyone allergic to pants
  • help

I think I'm going to wear out the :stare: emoticon.

Decent normal battle music so far, although the non-moving heroine mannequin is a bit off-putting.


booksnake posted:

I expected no less.

But Cass had better get the gently caress developed out of her character soon because right now she's just sending all the tsundere signals and while I expected :japan:, I really don't want to have to deal with that particular lovely archetypal bullshit it has

She has some kind of established past with Delta, and she hasn't seemed unreasonably grumpy, so Cass seems okay so far - (that is until the dive update). Of course, I generally like that archtype...

quote:

Sharloon: Right now, there’s a war going on between two countries… The Tsun Kingdom and the Dere Empire.
You were just captured by the Tsun Kingdom. We, on the other hand, live in the Dere Empire.

...but this is not one of those times. More tact and definitely more character development is needed, and just throwing out a word is NOT a useful way to describe a character. This is way too soon and does not work because even though Cass and Delta have known each other for a while, to the viewer, Cass hasn't had enough screentime or development as a person to make this love-hate Delta obsession the center of the first dive.

quote:

Well, of course… In that kingdom, they speak Tsun-anese.

this is very very bad

...Let me guess, 5049 is a prime number.


Tarezax posted:

I think Nay has warped Cass's idea of what empresses are supposed to look like.

Also, our hero is already further along than Croix was with Cloche at this point in the game! Cloche's big tsundere level was all the way down on level 5. TBF though Croix and Cloche started off as complete strangers while Cass and Delta clearly have quite a bit of history together.

That worked better because by that time, you knew more about the characters and the causes of their problems. Also they did not try to simplify her personality/her problem down to just two syllables.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Apr 9, 2015

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Option B, more plot advancement. I want as much distance between this cosmosphere as possible before more silly crap happens.

Cass's combat animation - or specifically, her LACK of combat animation - does not look right. She's supposed to be doing something, not just standing there with her hand on her hip.

Feinne really should have named this thread: "Ar Nosurge: The War on Pants begins at home!


berryjon posted:

No.

3 * 3 * 3 * 11 * 17 = 5049.

I also have no idea what I'm watching, but I can't stop.

Yeah, it was really late and I was just tossing in a guess because "Prime". I forgot about the sum of digits rule ( 5 + 4 + 9 = 18, which is divisible by 3).


wdarkk posted:

See, the issue being solved here isn't "Cass is Tsundere," because that's not an issue that Delta could solve here. These dives always, always have more going on than something like that.

Let's take a quick look at the facts:
1. The "root" of the issue here is a conflict over the appearance of the Warrior, which is a giant, evil-looking Delta.
2. The Warrior appeared six months ago.
3. Six months ago Delta tried to open the barrier for no clear reason.
4. Despite this, Cass is still looking out for Delta.

And that's a fine issue to have, but it's an issue that they could certainly have expressed in a non-stupid manner. This is not the best impression the game could be giving of its first love interest (especially the suggestion of a split personality disorder)... but then again, my first impressions of Cloche were negative as well.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Apr 9, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
That half was more tolerable than the first. It was almost decent, in fact. But the big problem I see with that one is that it revealed more about DELTA and BACKSTORY than about Cass!

We already knew from real-world stuff that Delta used to work with Cass and was fired, and we already knew that despite that, Cass still liked Delta (she showed up on her day off to help him out), and despite her words to him she still hung out and helped him. The point of that Cosmosphere seemed to mostly reveal things about Delta, and revealing backstory for another character is a terrible use of a Cosmosphere. It misses the point of them.

Not looking forward to the terrible wet T-Shirt contest "Purification Ritual".

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Apr 9, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Really? Now that you mention it, I think wdarkk did say something like that. If that is the case, then yes, I also approve of that change because removing the choice of partners means they can build one relationship through the entire game.

That does resolve one of the issues with AT2, where Luca/Cloche's in-story arcs with Croix essentially ended at the end of Phase 2 to allow the player to choose Jacqli. (And she didn't get an in-story arc with him at all due to the same alternate choice reasons.)

It also means no more "scene-stealing third girl pops in halfway through the story making the main character seem like a jerk for dumping one of the longer-term love interests".

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 12:46 on Apr 10, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
So is Delta some kind of Manchurian agent? (Seriously, why wasn't he locked up after dropping trou the barrier? That seems like a dangerously suspicious thing he did. Did Nay intervene?)

Oh, hello Cass. I knew you’d show up eventually.

Uh-oh. Trap?

Probably because I knew you’d be coming.

Seems kinda trap-ish. Has she switched sides? Or maybe she's been brainwashed into being a Manchurian agent too? Oh! Sarly is wearing reasonable clothing! She must be evil! After all, the Sharl did attack the humans to capture their supply of pants.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Omobono posted:

:ughh:
What kind of idiot would leave the password on a post-it next to engraved on the door in plaintext? (answer: roughly half of humanity, but it's never not cringe-inducing).

:tinfoil: Maybe someone who always wanted Sarly to be rescued, and taken back to the heart of the enemy stronghold, free to live a brainwashing-induced life of destruction and betrayal.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Are there a lot of these shop scenes? Because they're okay in small doses, but if there's a 1:1 (or 1:2 or 1:3) ratio of shop updates to main story updates, that could get tiring.

Feinne posted:

Feinne’s Notes:
So, shop scenes trigger every time we leave the shop menu if there are in fact scenes extant. You should always exhaust your shop scenes, because we need to see them all in order to get the best ending.

That sounds super-tedious, who thought that was a good idea.


Internet Kraken posted:

...so this is the Divine Empress? I guess the Prime Minister has to be running everything behind the scenes or the city would be in flames.

That's okay, evil guys are pretty good at organizing things. (I would be seriously shocked if the PM does NOT turn out to be evil.)

Feinne posted:

naybutt.jpg

...What can you say about a costume designer who thinks that Nay's current outfit just wasn't quite revealing enough, so they made sure half her rear end is hanging out. :cripes:

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Apr 12, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Feinne posted:

Ar Tonelico Trivia Challenge!

Sensible people might reasonably be able to answer the first, whereas only people as fundamentally damaged as me are likely to find the third accessible.

Mir Tier (5 Points):

Begin from this prompt:

Was yea ra chs hymmnos mea, en chs fwal fwal yor.

What does this mean?

Who said it and on what occasion?

I have not read the AT 1 LP in a couple years... so I cheated slightly by listening to one of the songs.

So I think I found a match (well I'm not sure about the last word)... roughly speaking, "I shall turn my life into a song"? it was sung by Aurica (EXEC_LINKER) when the evil church dudes were trying to download "the goddess" (actually Mir) into her body?

P.S. No one is even in the same Fundamentally Damaged league as you, Feinne.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Apr 12, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Feinne posted:

Ar Tonelico Trivia Challenge!

Mute Tier (1 Point):

An archer from the Teru Tribe, she was an ally in Ar Tonelico 2.

Almost no one answered these low level ones, so the answer here is: Amarie.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Apr 13, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
:japan: :bang:

But I do like the idea that they're only letting Delta stay out of jail because they are secretly having people watch him. The "tracking" song magic is also a clever trick, pretty subtle, and it doesn't hurt anyone who is a true believer.

Why is Cass's hair blonde-pink in some contexts and silver-white in others?


Feinne posted:

Next Time, Ar Nosurge: Purification

:whereweregoingwewontneedeyestosee: :suicide:

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Apr 13, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
I missed this the first time, but I found it amusing anyway:

quote:

Bios Shop: There are a lot of people who admire your chivalrous spirit, Ms. Casty.
Still, it never hurts to have a little variety at your disposal.
So it looks like you finally decided to get together with Mr. Delta!
I told you, it’s not like that! I haven’t given Delta my heart or my body yet!


Oh boy, more Nay scenes. Now I can add more things to my list!
Things I like about Nay:





*scroll**scroll**scro...

:negative: :cripes: :japan:

At least, that was the first reaction... But after actually reading the text, it's actually pretty good. It actually reads as surprisingly genuine - the scene, surprisingly is not deliberately played up for maximum awkwardness and hilarity, only a reasonable amount of awkwardness.

Delta and Cass do seem to have some real-world chemistry together, which is funny, because for a series built with all those dating-sim elements, that's only about the second time that I've had a sense of any real-world chemistry in the entire series and 10 pairings (including Delta and Cass).

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Clarste posted:

You should probably divide them up into sections though, especially since you seem to have place the commentary for some of them underneath the first picture of the next section. Yes, I know I told you to put the commentary underneath the pictures, but preferably underneath pictures that have something to do with what you're commenting on. Breaking the conversation into sections for each topic would probably help avoid that mistake.

An example is that this line:

"Which they totally did, considering their whole planet got blown up. Lose their hometown, that is."

should have gone below Cass's line above the picture, not below the picture, because the picture changes the conversation topic to something else. This is a case-by-case thing, though.


What's the time-frame on the planet destruction thing anyway? How long have they been in space?

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Feinne posted:

They're not actually sure how long they've been in space. They think it's been a long time, but they were in stasis for some significant portion of it and the instrumentation that could tell them like that navigation map seems to be broken. This also means they have no idea where the ship is or where it's going, of even IF it's moving at all.

Is this still the first generation? Like, are all the people alive from on the planet, or have one or more generations of people come about after waking up from cold sleep?


quote:

I actually was intentionally offsetting comments but I could in the future drop lines above the next screen and not below when I do that, I'll try to keep it in mind.

As Admiral Curtis says, put the comments where they make sense to put them. That's the thing I'm doing in my current LP, even if it means putting my comments in-between dialogue sections.

"It’s always kind of grating not knowing what happens inside your mind during a Dive." works below the screenshot because it's referencing the screenshot.

"Not that there’s anything to do about it." does not work quite so well below the screenshot which has switched topics to "I brought you the one-hit KO ice cream," so putting it above would fit better.

But this is just nitpicky stuff, don't worry too much about it. I'd be more worried about the bouncing back and forth between "now they're in quantave, flashback to the restaraunt, running from quantave and falling into a pit, restaurant again and now the bath time thing, and now we're back in the pit..." which doesn't flow very smoothly.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Question about "thought gems"...
  • When you receive them, does the gem you get have a random or predetermined effect?
  • Does the effect change if it is installed to a different location?
  • Wait, they can be installed into Delta?
  • So...how does that work?
  • Like, with a knife, or do you hammer them in?


Clearly this amnesia thing will be important and explained later.

Things I like about Nay:
  • She's not as annoying as Prim.

Oh look here's a character who is supposed to be Delta and Cass's "child" and the designers dressed her like that. What the poo poo. gently caress you Japan you creepy bastards. gently caress you, gently caress you, gently caress you.

Oh and there's Nay naked too. gently caress you . This game is getting worse and worse.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Apr 16, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

FractalSandwich posted:

Maybe the game does get better later, but that doesn't make what it is right now not awful. And even if it's nothing but gold from here on out, I'm not sure I can ever really forgive the character design and the looming specter of further nudity.

Yeah, I agree with this. Maybe good stuff later does not excuse terrible stuff now. Even ignoring Prim's super-awful outfit (which the designers thought was a good idea on someone who is essentially a child in both body and mind), just the concept of a instantiating a mind-child because Cass and Delta like each other is :wtc:-ingly dumb and insane.


Internet Kraken posted:

Frankly I'm shocked that we've actually seen a women that didn't look like an underage girl. Must of taken a lot of restraint on the designers part to just make her an oversexualized adult instead.

You know things are really bad when the key word in that first sentence is "a".


wdarkk posted:

You must be better at repressing things than me.

You pre-ordered AT 3, knowing about the stripping ahead of time.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Feinne posted:

EDIT: I will say, how Nay dresses really does fit with her character. We just don't know enough about her yet to really see it as of this point in the plot so it seems especially egregious.

Since Nay's character seems to be "is stupid, obnoxious, and terrible at everything she does", then yes, her outfit matches her character perfectly.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Feinne posted:

Update tomorrow with the end of the Dive. I've got a BUNCH of shop and purification stuff, so next update might be some of Sarly's shop content (since it'll be introduced to us by the plot and is a bit more immediately plot-adjacent than Nay's). This depends on what things are looking like after I get some actual plot recorded tonight. I need to see what makes sense as far as breaking things up.

At this point right now we are at six plot episodes to five non-plot episodes - three geometrics and two shop scenes.

You want to go to to 6:7 (maybe 7:7 if you're being generous and count the Sarly one as plot-related). That is an extremely high ratio of plot:non-plot.

I'm not the first person to complain about the high number of shop scenes. Maybe they change the ending, but that doesn't stop them from dragging the pacing face-first along the pavement at high speed. Question for the thread readers: have any of you laughed or cracked a smile at the Nay shop scenes? Even a little one?

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
I'm trying to not be too big a dick about it. I understand that it's a tricky thing to balance, and it is actually something I'm struggling with in my current LP, as the main plot has about 20-30 hours of content, with about 40-80 hours worth of sidequests and other materials.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
I'm not a fan of the new, goofier dives. I could not even finish reading this one.

See! Truly Godawful hamhandedness where a single word is stretched to the breaking point as a substitute for actually describing a character!

See! People appearing as cartoon sheep for no loving reason!
See! The reader completely giving up on trying to figure out who the gently caress is who when they are in sheep form!
See! Truly Godawful crap involving some fucktard prattling on about whatever the hell "moe" is. Go away and die.

Making them a joint thing between two characters doesn't help at all and just makes it more confusing. So is Sarly the one who hates friends? Or since this is diving into Cass, is she the one with friendship issues? And if this is Sarly's issue what does it have to do with Cass? It's just muddled.

It really does not help clear up the confusion at all seeing a bunch of characters in the dive that we have not met in the real world. I absolutely could not follow who was what and who they were in the real world and who they were supposed to me and that made me give up.

I think that this screenshot right here was about where I gave up trying to keep track of characters.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Apr 22, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

It's a highly metaphorical situation exploring the nature of the relationships of these characters. Cass and Sarly kinda want to be friends but Sarly got burned on this whole "caring about other people" thing when the guy she loved had to stay on the dying planet. She's become afraid of losing those she cares about.

Thank you for the summary of what was going on, that helped a lot.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
So, they have to go back to enemy territory to do something, after breaking out a prisoner and fleeing their troops. And they are stymied by having a guarded front door and a locked side door, and have no idea how to get in. ... Those obstacles were completely forseeable, and they had no plan to bypass them? For such an important mission, they probably should have planned better, maybe brought a cutting torch or something. At least the problem wasn't solved by Prim, that would have been quite obnoxious.

Cass's suspicions of Delta are welcome and well-overdue. I'm pretty sure he's been brainwashed. Sarly defended him, but SHE was in the enemy's hands too, so she could also be brainwashed.

Feinne, can you include some videos of combat, please?

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Pretty good song. Not Top 10 material, but that's mostly because there's too much competition for those slots. It was a decent song with some unique bits that made it stand out from other songs.

Also decent were the scenes between Delta and Cass. Of all the things to borrow from AT2, "actual real-world chemistry between the hero and heroine" was a good choice. It was also good to have Delta acknowledge that losing his memory messed him up, and he was only acting normal to try and not worry Cass.

Interesting that they're expanding the population of possible song users to include males this time. That's a change. I wonder if it is related to do with Delta being able to have a Thought Gem hammered into his cranium.

EDIT: Wait a minute, CIEL_NOSURGE is special because it's a CIEL_N... but what was just sung? CIEL_N_PROTECTA.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Apr 24, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Do you have to watch that animation and jingle every time you synth something, or can you turn that off (or at least skip it)?

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Lunar Suite posted:

So, we're, like, two for two now on "Civilizations that discovered the Power of Song and also blew up their planet"? EXA_PICO may be the one universe where being a Luddite has history on your side.

I'd've imagined our Narrator being rather annoyed at the idea of a single Master Control song for the entirety of the ship's mechanical security forces. EXEC_DESPEDIA had serial numbers attached to it to prevent exactly the kind of abuse that CIEL_N_PROTECTA got.

CIEL_N_PROTECTA's lyrics are straightforward yet powerful. I like to listen to it at work.

code:
QuelI->{
		EXiV[zep]->{tikz ethes & walm dia}
}->Exec->[TzW];
	Oh God of Myriads, oh Lord of the Wings! Descend!
QuelI->EXiv[obe]->{ethes}->ExeC->{TzW};
	Obey God!
QuelI->EXiv[liz]->{hymel f ethes}->ExeC->{TzW};
	Listen to the voice of God!
QuelI->EX[sep]->ExeC->{TzW};
	Stop.

It's surprisingly catchy. What I don't get is how "{TzW};" is apparently pronounced "pata".

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Oh geez, not MORE "all humans are bastards and should die" bullshit. It's such a worn-out, dead cliche by this point. Especially for this series. I don't give a gnat's turd what the actual grievance is, going there is low-hanging fruit and completely uninteresting.

The CIEL_NOSURGE song isn't the kind of song I like.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Feinne, do you have higher-quality official art of the major characters we've met so far? I have an idea for a contribution to the thread, and I need head shots.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Feinne posted:

I've got rips of the game art that's in the Extras, just post who all you want.

EDIT: I brought up a collected image thing but it honestly would really negatively impact the game to see it so I won't even offer it.

Ummm... only really the characters we've met, I guess. I think that's just Delta, Cass, Nay, Sarly, Zill, and Prim who we've met. (I don't now enough about anyone else to make them insulting custom titles.)

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Ion's design reminds me a bit of Aurica (particularly the hair things.) As a plus, it's inoffensive.

What's with people wearing stupid animal ear hats (Is that Michelle Ruff voicing not-Zill)? I don't know who is voicing Ion, but I don't like her voice. Also everyone is terrible at naming things.

Please, please no robot-human romance. That would be even weirder than usual for this series.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Feinne posted:

They're more like flowers than animal ears.

Yes, Nelico is Michelle Ruff. Ion is Cristina Vee.

Oh no, I meant on Nelico. Ion's hair things are fine and non-stupid. I should check and see if Michelle Ruff also voices Zill, but if she had been I would have thought I'd have noticed. (Coincidentally, in my current LP, I just picked up a new optional party member voiced by Michelle Ruff.)

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

FractalSandwich posted:

So Ion's strategy for escaping a mental prison is to a build a robot to help her make a bomb and blow her way out.

She makes a good first impression.

The really impressive part is that she somehow will manage to take her mind-robot with her.

Feinne posted:

Zill's Wendee Lee.

I knew that, but somehow managed to block it out of my brain temporarily.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Apr 28, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Feinne posted:

Yeah I can do that for the future. I was actually trying to decide how to handle the choices and that's a decent way to do it.

I'm going to try and get a good balance between picking funny options and choices that really reinforce what's special about Ion's story, namely that it's really hers. She pretty much drives her own story and we just help her out, which is what I really hope we see more of in future games in the series.

I think Earthes dialogue should be a constant, never-ending series of trolls. He should be a motherfucking train with just one motherfucking stop: Trollsville, population Ion. In fact go back and show off all the trolling dialogue.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Apr 28, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
The problem with In Media Res is that if you never actually explain anything about what is going on, people are just going to get confused and not understand a loving thing about what’s going on. And when people are thinking “what the gently caress is happening”, they are not caring about the characters.

  • What’s with this tower?
  • What’s with this planet thing around the space ship?
  • That makes no sense at all.
  • How did Ion know she’d be fine when she jumped?
  • How the stupid gently caress did her goddamn mind-robot get out of her mind?
  • How can the party be sharing inventory?
  • How the gently caress can the party be sharing inventory in a fight in Ion’s mind?
  • How the hell can the sharing inventory thing not end up having a really really stupid explanation?


Apparently the “you don’t need to have played the previous game to understand this one” claim in the OP is a huge loving lie.


No seriously, why are you not trolling? There is absolutely nothing interesting at all in any way about completely generic RPG hero responses that any goodie-goodie generic RPG hero from any RPG would say. You could substitute literally any main character from any JRPG in for the robot and no one would notice the difference. Generic straight man goodie-goodie is boring.

Trolling is interesting, and seriously these updates really need something interesting to happen. I seriously doubt the trolling responses actually have any effect, and you will just get railroaded anyway.

The “lol boy accidentally touches panties and has cooties now” gag is a dead horse and stupid.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Catching up on the last week of updates...

Nay is more than 5000 years old? ...In a row? So what are these beings which can live for 5000 years without aging, because they sure ain't humans. Their perceptions of life and reality should barely be recognizable.

Is Kanon's resemblance to Cass meaningful, or is it just a combination of anime face + model reuse like Nelico is with Jill?

Also, question about the planet-destroying thing... isn't the entire reason the planet got destroyed because they were trying to leave the planet because their home star becoming a red giant was going to wipe it out anyway? And wasn't the destruction kinda unintentional? Was this Genom-destroying thing covered in the Ciel Nosurge game?

In combat, is there any penalty for using an item? Does it cost you an action? Or is it just a completely free thing?

I didn't expect meek, soft-spoken Ion to be so kinky.

Oh Prim is a Sharl spy of course. That's neat and much better than what the game... no, what SARLY told us she was. (I still think she's brainwashed.) On that note, why is absolutely no one more than mildly surprised after three people VANISHED for TWO YEARS? Why are they not suspicious?






I wanted to make a title for Cass, but I realized that basically everything about her personality is Delta-related and I don't know enough about who she is if he's not there. It seems like she's a really shallow character. Am I mistaken?

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
A lot of things are listed as "will make sense later", but does "will make sense later" have to apply to like, every drat thing in the game? Couldn't some things "make sense now"?

Was there a point in having a two-year timeskip instead of two days? The thing which stands out to me the most is that the Delta-Cass-Sarly-Nay circle of friends seems to be the entirety of that, and there are no people outside of it. There are no relationships outside of that circle which have been damaged by two years of being presumed dead. Hell, in previous games there were more active party members than this game has named NPC's. It makes the world seem smaller.

Clarste posted:

It's also worth noting that the sun blowing up was kind of the humans' fault too, in the sense of magical pollution.

Of course it was, because I just don't think that the HUMANS ARE BASTARDS message is getting through clearly. Maybe if they put it on a uniform all the bad guys wore tattooed across their bare abdomens it would get through.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Wha-!? Why’s my soul’s value so low…!?

Probably because from what we've seen, Cass's entire life and personality is wrapped up so tightly with Delta that if you took him out, I'm not sure there'd be much left.


* Sigh * You can be pretty dense, after all. I think it’s her surroundings that are bothering her.
Everyone around Cass excels at something. Even Nay and Sarly…
But Cass can use Song Magic, and I think that’s more than enough for her…
If it’s Song Magic, then Nay and Sarly can use it too, you know? That’s not enough to serve as her identity.

Hmmm... maybe I was spot on about that.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Darn, I was hoping Prim being Master Sharl meant her little kid schtick was just an act and she would be full-on evil mastermind, complete with gloating.

I'm with Delta. gently caress Ion, she's an naive idiot. I mean she seriously thinks negotiation is the answer? It's kinda hard to negotiate when one party's base position is "Humans are evil and 90% of humans must be wiped out to turn into planet food. And the remaining 10% are our brainwashed and docile slaves".

And I'm probably confused on this point, but from what I've gathered, aren't the Sharl just an artificial life form which were created to fight humans by some other humans? (How did Ion create them again? That's a little fuzzy.)

Really cool having the two parties fight each other.

Also Feinne, now that we've met them, I could use Ion/Nelo/Earthes/Kanon portraits for more custom titles. (Not that I have ideas for all of them yet.)

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 00:15 on May 13, 2015

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
I really like Delta in this scene. He's not ignoring what Ion's saying. He understands her position, but it's so crappy that he's easily able to refute her points and she has nothing to defend her position with. He's thinking pretty smart and is completely in the right in this case.

Delta and Cass's last mission to the heart of enemy territory led to them being captured and canned for two years, so I can hardly blame them for not wanting to take Prim (their only known possible way to fight back) with them into the heart of enemy territory in the hopes that they MIGHT be able to talk the human-genocidal person down. If things go wrong, then that's it for them again, and probably for all the remaining free humans.

Even if I accept Ion's premise that this problem can be solved by negotiation - which is a really shaky proposition - there are some big problems with it. At best, taking Prim with them to Kanon would put them into a tremendously weak position, and you can't negotiate with genocidal lunatics from a position of weakness. If there is to be any negotiation, the humans need a bargaining chip. Taking Prim back to Felion is the correct play.

Feinne posted:

Yeah I'll edit those images into this post after I'm done eating.

So, the Sharl are a lot like the Viruses from the original Ar Tonelico, they're weird self-sustaining semi-permanent Song Magic that'd normally be nearly impossible to create without major resources but were easy to poo poo out en masse by using CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE and the ship's power to do so.

Okay, thanks for the info. Yeah, that really doesn't make me any more inclined to care about the lives of the Sharl as opposed to actual people. I guess that makes me an evil person according to the standards of this game.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Zurai posted:

I'm not sure that genocide just to defend against genocide is "completely right". He wants to kill every single one of the Sharl, which is actually arguably the most extreme position in this whole debacle. He's also knowingly making decisions based on incomplete information. He does have good points, but he's not some shining paragon here.

Fair point. I suppose though what I mean is that Delta's position is completely understandable.

The decisions he's making based on incomplete information are good decisions based on the information which he does have. And honestly him not being a shining paragon is a point in his favor since those make for more interesting protagonists.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Hmmm... they don't care about Prim/Nelo getting captured? I guess that means they wouldn't have been interested in negotiating anyway. Still though, Ion's plan of "maybe we can just hug things out" was a poo poo plan - especially since Ion wasn't able to talk Kanon down earlier.


Sindai posted:

Looking awfully humanoid for someone who hates all humans there Cosal.

I know what his beef with humans is. He's just got a really bad case of penis envy.

Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 02:13 on May 14, 2015

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
That's a good song (as was the previous one).

Wait, were those a ton of Sharl in Felion? If the defense is going that badly, I can see why Nay thought she had to act right then. Nay is kinda right that it's hard to negotiate with a force that not only is unwilling to talk, but doesn't even recognize you have a right to exist as you are. Ion really needs a better plan.

Something is odd about where the Sharl came from though. They're artificial, so someone must have been producing them in secret. It seems like it must have been Zill/Nelo/Kanon, but that seems like a big operation for just the three of them. There has to be something more to it.

  • Locked thread