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Oh my, a BD LP. I am so looking forward to this.  I played through this game twice, believe it or not - it's definitely something you should do if you have the game, because there is so much loving foreshadowing. If someone spoils one particular part (if you played, you prooobably know what I'm talking about,) they deserve to get straight-up banned for it. The no spoilers policy is a very good thing here. Greyarc posted:
It took reading that description for the Phoenix Down in BD for me to realize that it's referring to "down" as in feathers.  I've been playing FF games and their like for drat near 20 years.Glazius posted:Good lord that's a lot of jobs. No, don't worry, it's just a metric fuckton of jobs. The neat part is that they all have their useful bits depending on your gameplay style. I won't get into specifics, but warrior or mage types are all viable (though not necessarily optimal) choices towards the endgame in my experience.
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Feb 5, 2017 00:33
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ultrafilter posted:I count 24 slots total (including Freelancer), which is only two more than the FFV SNES release had. Huh. Maybe a lot of the FF5 classes being lovely/subpar made me forget that. You're right (double-checked on GameFAQs,) but I genuinely didn't remember that many classes. ultrafilter posted:At a high level, how does the job system for this game compare to the one in FFV? Two somewhat different systems, although there's quite a bit of crossover in the job names. I suspect Greyarc will cover the jobs in better detail once we get our first job, and I don't want to steal their thunder. Short version is that you can bind a job's command set (abilities) to another class, but that's really the only benefit you get from that. You do get all the abilities though, so you don't have to bind only steal (for example) from the thief class. You can also bind other skills (separate from your secondary job) you get from leveling up a job to a character (which could be anything from a weapon proficiency to a counterattack to "gently caress everything below my level in random battles.")
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Feb 5, 2017 01:25
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Greyarc posted:I haven't actually played Bravely Second. It's a pretty decent sequel. The story is a bit weaker IMO, but it's not horrible by any stretch.
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Feb 7, 2017 06:55
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BlackPersona posted:Heard a fair few things about Bravely Default, so I'll be following the LP. Probably lurking more than posting, though. You have NO idea just how bad it's going to get.  Holly Whyte -> Holy White Barras Lehr -> Bear Wrestler Tiz Arrior -> This Warrior Even some of the names that aren't direct puns are punny, like Agnes Oblige feeling "obliged" to do her thing as she said above. Off the cuff, I'd say a good half the names in the game are puns of some sort. Greyarc posted:The writers/translators must've done this entire segment with a permanent eyebrow waggle. This really surprised me when I first played - I was not expecting innuendo that strong out of a Nintendo game. I guess I'm still used to the "CENSOR ALL THE MAYBE OBJECTIONABLE THINGS" mindset that they (apparently?) used to have, like the parrot in Skies of Arcadia: Legends losing the cigar and all the pirates drinking magic stone juice instead of rum. YggiDee posted:Oh my God are you doing this solely through the 3DS screenshot function? Godspeed. If this is true, this makes me cry a little. I still hate the 3DS screenshot function, if only because my SD card slot is a bit dodgy and I hate removing the drat thing. I can't imagine having to do an entire LP like that.
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Feb 7, 2017 15:47
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:One of the best moments in Earthbound was Everdred's death scene, which straight up made fun of all the censorship being enforced. During those scenes I mostly got humor out of the whole "oh no i am dying but would you like me to tell you my story again" bit. I should note that I know they used to censor the poo poo out of a lot of things - I just don't know how heavily they're doing it nowadays. From having playing Bravely Default (and Bravely Second, for that matter,) my feeling is "nowhere near as much"
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Feb 7, 2017 16:57
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:Alternatively, "bare" wrestler, given that he doesn't use any weapons aside from his own fists? I've seen that one, but I greatly prefer "bear" to "bare" here. I can totally imagine Barras yelling "HEY COME CHALLENGE ME YOU WEAKLING" and tackling a bear that's just walking by and minding its own business.
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Feb 7, 2017 18:04
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Wayne posted:Are you sure about that? Huh, fair enough. And according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_%28name%29, "Agnes" comes from a word for "Holy." So I guess it is one of the punny names.
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Feb 7, 2017 19:24
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BlackPersona posted:
It's one of those things where once you see the first one, you can't help but look for it in other names. One of the best ones waits 'til towards the endgame, too - I'll try to mention it when it's relevant and decipherable.
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Feb 7, 2017 21:39
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I didn't notice THAT one!
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Greyarc posted:Lucky I looked at the Tokyo Mirage Sessions thread or I'd be incredibly confused. Ugh, I forgot about the outfits debacle for this game. More like I must've forced it out of my mind... Huh - I thought "vagina bones" was just a  non-sequitur until you said something there. Apparently (after looking them up,) they refer to the creases (the 'V') where the hips meet the lower torso. Considering "bones" is an animation term, I can see how the term came about - anatomically incorrect as it is. It's honestly one of those things that I just chalked up to the cartoony style of the characters - it'd almost look wrong to have them.  There's only one place (IMO) where the censorship of the game is jarring to me, but I'll mention it when it comes up.
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Feb 7, 2017 23:56
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Blind Duke posted:That ladykiller in the town and intro cutscene that is clearly going to join the party is the best character in the game There's at least one better character.  Although I think it is close.
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Feb 8, 2017 18:25
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:Every character is the best character. I'll grudgingly accept this with one exception - there's a particular character later in the game with little motive other than being a massive jerkass. In a game full of trope-y (and honestly, awesome) characters, that's one they could've skipped or at least fleshed out some motivations for. Although I guess that you could make the argument that having a character that's a lightning rod for hate makes for a good character if they're used sparingly.
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Feb 8, 2017 19:17
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Commander Keene posted:I recall a few characters who seemed to be little more than massive jerkasses. There was a literal Team Unforgivably Evil at one point. Maybe I missed some conversations that redeemed some of them, though. The one I'm thinking of is a member of that team, but we're probably straying a bit too close to character spoilers at this point so I'm going to stop. I'll be sure to bring it back up if I remember it later on.
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Feb 9, 2017 00:52
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Blademaster_Aio posted:Agnes is me at the start of every video game, lost and naive with no sense of direction. Agnes' lack of directional sense is the best thing ever. Blademaster_Aio posted:I actually like to believe Tiz is helping Agnes just so he can forget about the pain. Like he has to be useful to someone, for some sense of purpose since he lost everything. He's got survivor's guilt and doesn't really give a drat about what happens to himself, and he really has nothing better to do. All he knew before was herding sheep (and maybe kicking the rear end of the occasional wolf or something since he appears to know how to fight,) so it's not like he's got a lot of job prospects otherwise.
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Feb 10, 2017 15:52
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Phon posted:Hello, best of the main characters. Cador_2004 posted:Can I just say that Ringabel's name theme is so absolutely horrible that I hadn't even realized it until after the whole theme naming thing was brought up earlier in the thread. Indeed. To both. It's amazing how many things in that journal... ring a bell when you're playing through the game. And then there's Ominas Crowe, being all evil and black mage-y. Not really all that ominous, but crows are black. And of course, I think I forgot to mention Airy, who is the Cryst-Fairy following... the Vestal of Wind. ... I really do love puns more than I should.  tell me if I should stop explaining the puns please
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Feb 17, 2017 00:11
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Wow, that's a lot of information given to you. That's more information and clues than I was expecting. I don't think I shall say any more. Foreshadowing? FORESHADOWING!  Hobgoblin2099 posted:I never read the Enigmatic Writings until I finished the game since I didn't want to be "spoiled". I feel like I missed out somehow. And bloodstains.  ----- I really like D's Journal. It's a great storytelling device, in that it gives an unreliable narrator/alternate point-of-view perspective on what's happened in the game so far, and (we assume) also what's going to happen in the game in the future. As far as we can tell, they are spoilers at this point - but they're not presented in such a way that we can say "well, I guess I can stop playing the game now, I know what happens." We can also tell it's not 100% accurate - for instance, it doesn't look like the journal-writer joined Agnes and Tiz after they beat up Barras and Holly. I have the (unfortunate in this case) advantage of 20/20 hindsight when re-reading it, but there is so much interesting stuff to pick out of the journal.
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Feb 18, 2017 15:06
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hey girl you up posted:edit: Jeez, you goons, it's not a "spoiler" if it's part of the story. It's a plot point that one of the characters has a journal with future information in it, and the author(s) chose to expose the whole thing to you at once. You're supposed to read it. That's called "writing", not "spoilers". OMG I just read the beginning of Chronicle of a Death Foretold you guys and Marquez totally spoiled that the bishop is gonna get killed at the end! To be fair, the reason I call it a spoiler is because it's so damned extensive. A first-time player doesn't know exactly how far it explains things out to, but it sure as hell reads like it ends directly before some seriously major plot event. I accept it as part of the narrative, but it'd drat near be a walkthrough if it wasn't.
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Feb 18, 2017 16:45
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And here I thought you'd make it past where I am in my replay with this update  (I'm actually playing along!)Greyarc posted:It's a very basic gimmick, and unfortunately par for the course for this game's puzzles. This game takes a lot from NES/older SNES JRPGs, including the negatives of simple but tedious dungeon layouts with little visual variety, with a few exceptions. Oddly, the simplistic dungeon gimmicks never bothered me THAT much in BD, especially after I got the support that negates damage from various dungeon hazards. Crank the encounter rate down to zero and just go - they're roadblocks getting in the way of my plot!  I think the only one that really annoyed me was the one with the pairs of doors, where you needed to backtrack 3 or 4 times to get all the items. THAT one was tedious even with a zero encounter rate. And while the dungeon tilesets may be same-y, damned if they aren't pretty.
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Feb 20, 2017 15:41
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Eruza posted:I mostly play games to relax nowadays so I don't have too much patience for what I consider tedious crap. I totally agree with this sentiment. Back when I was in my teens and early 20's, I had plenty of time to dick around, 100% a game, get all the  super rare drops, and just in general put up with a lot more bullshit than I'm willing to now. It's why my eye twitches a bit every time someone says "when you <cheat/use a walkthrough/don't play the way I think is the One True Way> [in a single player game], you just ruin your fun!" If I didn't do these things, the fun most likely wouldn't be had at all.
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Feb 20, 2017 20:04
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Greyarc posted:The pace will pick up a fraction once we're out of tutorial areas. Starting around late chapter 1 I'll be doing grinding behind the scenes, too, though if you're running with a more optimal party you won't be worrying about that as much. Is a Level 99 party with all jobs maxed considered "more optimal?" (I just fired up a New Game+ from whenever I last played a year or two ago)
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Feb 21, 2017 14:22
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Oh, Edea. The interplay between her and Ringabel is one of the highlights of the game for me. Of course, I love any characters who snark at each other like these two. And, of course, the punny name... she's a bit of an idealist, seeing everything in black and white. You could even say she sees things... Idea-ly. (okay, you need to squint a bit and tilt your head just the right way to see this one, but still...)
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Feb 23, 2017 14:32
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Eruza posted:The pronunciation of her name helps too. And yes, finally have the full crew. I really like how the game sets up the relationships between these 4, it only gets better from here I mostly like how the game actually gives you your full party very early on. It's a stark contrast with say, FF4 (which I just finished reading the LP of) where you're swapping party members with basically every big story event. MechaCrash posted:So now we have the fourth party member. This will get covered in more and better detail later, probably, but the short version is that Tiz is the Jack Of All Trades, Agnés is The Casty One, Ringabel is The Fast One, and Edea is The Fighty One. But that's only relevant if you want to super min-max to a frankly unnecessary degree, and if you want to make Edea the wizard while Agnés punches people in the face, go for it! I also like how Bravely Default subverts the hell out of the "women can't fight" trope. It's fun to be able to have Agnes (or Edea) beat the gently caress out of people, no matter what the beating is being done with. I admit I tend to have Agnes as a dedicated healer, but Edea is usually my glass cannon build and she's amazing at it.  MechaCrash posted:Also for weapons, anybody can use anything, and this includes the ability to use a weapon in the off hand. There's no reason to leave your off hand empty, so you might as well carry a shield, even if you're a wizard and the shield does basically squat because you suck at using shields. It's better than nothing. Or you can dual wield wands! This will provide a nice bonus to your casting ability. It will tank your melee ability, but pfft, you're a wizard, who cares. On the dual wield note, it's worthwhile to mention that there IS a reason not to dual wield though* - it cuts the attack power of each weapon and if you're not proficient in them**, you might end up doing less damage. Additionally, although I only recall this being a problem for me in Bravely Second, you may end up better off going for a more powerful single hit rather than two weaker hits. Since enemy defense applies to each strike, the higher-powered single attack can end up doing more damage overall. It's great for stat sticks though. * Two potential reasons, actually. There's a support ability that lets you two-hand a weapon for 1 support point and something like double damage. ** Or "proficient" in dual wielding via support ability - it negates the penalty, but it's a bit expensive. And you don't get it for a while.
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Feb 23, 2017 19:24
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Dartonus posted:Iirc Magic Attack doesn't get cut by dual wielding with nonproficiency, so your offensive casters can dual wield rods to your heart's content. Yup, that's what I meant by stat sticks. It kind of got tacked on as an afterthought since I realized it could be read as speaking against that usage.
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Feb 23, 2017 20:19
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Greyarc posted:The game never explains how the party is interacting with Norende. Tiz is probably exchanging letters with the town while he travels. Best not to think about it too much FM communication. What does FM stand for? loving Magic, of course. Greyarc posted:
Never change, you two. As for Argent Heinkel's name... less punny name and more sneaky references. Argent is silver, of course - the color of a knight's armor. Heinkel, on the other hand, I had to look up - apparently they were a German aircraft manufacturer around WWII: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel
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Mar 2, 2017 04:25
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A respected figure, eh? I smell a story here. Care to elaborate?
Er, yes, well... You know. I just have a...a way about me, I suppose.
Excuse me! Isn't that a little harsh, Ringabel? ...And all of the above.
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I think I'm just going to start every post in this thread with: Ringabel and Edea, never change. Because they really are the best characters. hey girl you up posted:So Ringabel knows how to pilot an airship, writes about how odd he feels without his armor and sword, and fought with an ability(?) called Black Bane. I don't think Cid is the name we want. Maybe another C- name. Obviously he should get the Knight asterisk. And Ringabel would make a great Cid.
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Mar 4, 2017 17:40
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Dr. Fetus posted:Your damage output and hit rate heavily depend on the job level itself, which unfortunately hinders nearly every offensive job. You also get a 1% boost to all stats per job level on top of that, which makes switching jobs kind of a pain since the new job will be so weak. It's still not all that bad though. You gain your first couple of job levels quickly, especially in later chapters, and most of the fights (to me) weren't all that hard. YMMV of course.
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Mar 6, 2017 05:10
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Khamer's name pun... it's funny how Greyarc mentioned how wordy he was - you might even say he's an "Eloquent Scammer"... Edit: gently caress, jumped the gun on explaining Profiteur's name. Moved it to a later post after he's introduced. Epsilon Moonshade fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Mar 14, 2017 |
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Mar 11, 2017 23:20
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Profiteur's last name reference is pretty obvious. His first name, however, apparently means (basically) "destruction" or "ruin" in Latin. Pretty evocative. Fun fact about the name-puns for Bravely Default - apparently, a LOT of them work similarly in Japanese, not that I'd catch any of that: The Final Fantasy Wiki posted:Eloch Quentis Khamer VII The Final Fantasy Wiki posted:Erutus Profiteur Note that the wiki contains spoilers, so you shouldn't actually go searching for this stuff yourself if you haven't played BOTH games (Bravely Default/Bravely Second.) If this looks familiar, it's because I moved most of it from my previous post. Jumped the gun on mentioning Profiteur there. Oops.
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Mar 14, 2017 04:59
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Aquasnake posted:I thought I was going crazy for a second there. Glad to know that I'm not totally bonkers quite yet. For having played the game as much as I have, I've been doing a pretty good job at avoiding overt spoilers. I debated whether to "move" the post or not, but I figure I might as well not "ruin" it (as much as you can ruin a character named Profiteur*, at least) for anyone catching up to the rest of the LP. And I still like the punny names. Edit: * Especially in light of Greyarc going out of their way to mention "hey, this might be a nice guy, let's talk to him! "
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Mar 14, 2017 06:47
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I love how the reward that introduces you to the blind trap is a single coin. You can hear the game saying "ha ha gently caress you." And, of course: Edea and Ringabel. The blue treasure chests piss me off. I'm pretty sure it's not spoiler-y to say that we do eventually get the key to open them, but all the backtracking to OPEN the drat things annoyed the hell out of me. It's definitely high on the list of my (admittedly few) complaints with this game - I'll probably come back to this when it's more relevant. I never liked Jackal. He's got the ~tragic backstory~ and all that, but the character (and pun/reference) just fell flat for me as being lazily done compared to the rest. I admit though, it could just be because of the lack of pun there. Hobgoblin2099 posted:Ciggma Khint is an anagram of Magic Knight, the class Spell Fencer is based on. (also, we technically don't know his first name yet, but that's me being mock annoyed that you stole my schtick )I do have something to add to this eventually. But later. Epsilon Moonshade fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Mar 17, 2017 |
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Mar 16, 2017 11:32
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MechaCrash posted:Why would you sign the incriminating document detailing your conspiracy? Two parts "standard JRPG trope," one part "so you know the orders didn't come from some random schmuck"? Doesn't make it necessarily smart, but you can excuse it away.
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Mar 16, 2017 15:53
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SloppyDoughnuts posted:Does the game ever acknowledge or give an explanation as to what asterisks ARE? Or are they just a gameplay thing that have no bearing in-story? Kind of yes, kind of no. It's explained how they're made (or rather, who made them and why,) but I don't recall much beyond that. I also don't recall if it's an optional quest or not, because I just compulsively followed every loving blue ! that popped up, as soon as it popped up.
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Mar 17, 2017 01:41
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Greyarc posted:
Also, I love oblivious Tiz. It's cool to see how he (and all the characters, really) grow over the game, too. We're also not too far away from what I consider to be the best character in the game.
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Mar 21, 2017 15:16
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MechaCrash posted:The sage is one of the reasons our protagonists got their ages bumped up three years. And this is after he got toned down. Oh Japan. Such great games, but so creepy. With that said, I didn't know that Yulyana got toned down. That's actually slightly frightening.All the same, I love Yulyana - but I'm fond of pretty much any pervy/badass/wise old dude/chick type character: the Queen in Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, Tellah, Galuf, Deckard Cain, that guy from FFX that says "that, as they say, is that," Admiral Gregorio from Skies of Arcadia, The Magi in Chrono Trigger, Nystul and Rudyom from Ultima VII, Elminster from FR, Art as portrayed in berryjon's Exile 3 LP, etc. etc. etc. ... just to name a few. These characters are even better when it's not their only note, of course - Yulyana is pervy and wise, which is why he beats out Ringabel for me. Ringabel just leans on that "I like to love the ladies" button a bit too hard for now. ... reading over that list, we need more (major) wise old lady characters in JRPGs. Like, real old ladies, not "28? You're ancient!" 
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Mar 24, 2017 14:05
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Greyarc posted:I like old mentor types, too, but of all the secondary character traits to choose, perverted's about the worst. When the mentor's in a position of power over the younger folks, like Yulyana, it's the fantasy equivalent of a teacher pressuring a high school student or a boss pressuring an underling. Unless the mentor makes it crystal clear from the start there's no pressure (note: not possible in most real life cases, but I'm giving fiction more leeway), or the mentor is supposed to be creepy and unlikeable, it makes scenes awkward fast. I draw a line in my mind between pervy/perverted as intent. Yulyana is pervy in the sense of making flirty jokes, and then brushing it aside and moving on. By comparison, a character like Crassius Curio from Morrowind (spoilers for Morrowind in that link) uses similar words, but won't drop it. The former is annoying, especially to someone (read: women) who deals with it often, but the intent is playful (even if misguided.) I read Yulyana as the sort of person who would be surprised if someone actually took him up on his offer. As for "Uncle Crassius"...   I don't read this as a mentor/student relationship in any case though, and not really a power thing (other than "I have something that you need") - we've barely met the guy. Although: Hobgoblin2099 posted:I know, but it's still kinda ick. And as someone mentioned previously, the sudden shift from "The previous vestal died." to "The passing of dat rear end is regrettable." is really abrupt. Yeah. I forgot about this and between this and the whole "he was toned down" and age thing... ehhhh. To be fair though, my only experience with him is the English translation. I still think he's redeemable, but the reasoning behind that would need to wait for future interactions to get the context.
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Mar 26, 2017 02:15
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:Scenes like that are why I can't dislike Yulyana. He has some very good advice for the party when he's serious. Yup, this is the major redeeming quality I was talking about. He knows that Agnes is feeling bad and unsure about herself and her role in all this, and that what she needs is reassurance, not dirty jokes. He knew it wasn't the time for it, and shifted right into wise-old-sage mode. Ringabel would've said something about orgasms being calming and/or confidence-building, and then offered to help her out. Hobgoblin2099 posted:And the tapping X thing is annoying. I would've preferred a cutscene. Kemix posted:I'll just say: There's a reason for it. It still could've done with about half or a quarter of the "X" presses.
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Mar 30, 2017 03:18
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EponymousMrYar posted:You know what else merchants are good at other than money? Giving people the shaft. Like good ol' Profiteur. Goddammit. Now they're even slipping puns into the jobs!
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Mar 31, 2017 00:19
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Commander Keene posted:Look, Tiz needs his bloodlust satisfied. He's already killed a Knight, obviously the next step up was a King. A Bishop or a Queen would be a more logical next step, but we don't have any of those so a checkmate will have to do. Also, at the lack of the fight. But I'm just impatient. 
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Apr 4, 2017 07:55
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As Hobgoblin2099 said:Hobgoblin2099 posted:Ciggma Khint is an anagram of Magic Knight, the class Spell Fencer is based on. But there's a bonus pun here! Although I'm not sure if it's intentional. Every time you face Khint, he's an addition to some other boss' party. Ciggma sounds a whole lot like Sigma, which is used to represent a sum.
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Apr 6, 2017 16:16
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:I'm still amused that Ominas decries Edea turning traitor as being shameful to her father immediately after burning two of his own countrymen to death. To be fair, he wasn't exactly casting his spells with a full set of reagents.
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Apr 8, 2017 07:27
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:00 |
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Back at the beginning of the game, I wondered out loud about censorship, and why one outfit was censored but not the other. The Spell Fencer outfits for the ladies are one of the things that make me wonder why they censored "the other thing."
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May 3, 2017 15:03
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