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Ubiquitous_ posted:The dev team did visit Wales to scout the setting out, so it makes sense. It's not like they did the recording while they were there though, most of the cast are American or English (or Americans pretending to be English?).
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Jul 30, 2017 10:21
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  Yeah, it's just the slightest hint at Lovecraftian themes; if you blink you just might miss it. But yeah, at this point the difficulty does start to pick up as enemies start to incur even more status ailments against our party and the bosses themselves start to pump out even more damage. We also get a first hand history lesson in the dark past of the monastery and things are only going to get more grim from here. Also there's not too much I didn't show off in this area but the one thing I didn't was a very odd little mini-boss enemy encounter: Bonus 3- Valna and Vigna
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Aug 3, 2017 04:42
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They did such a good job of making Ed the biggest walking turd they could.
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Aug 3, 2017 14:45
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coleman francis posted:They did such a good job of making Ed the biggest walking turd they could. Also probably a very minor thing, but I decided to do fades instead of speeding up for the fights this time. Hopefully those worked out better than trying to do chipmunk time.
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Aug 4, 2017 01:37
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Both of those guys are nearly unbearable.
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Aug 4, 2017 01:49
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discworld is all I read posted:You find Edward to be a bigger turd than James? Cause that Whoops, I thought Edward was the priest lol. I have no problems with Eddie then.
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Aug 4, 2017 02:34
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Are we sure James isn't a villain using Koudelka and Edward for his own means here? I keep expecting a sudden yet inevitable betrayal from him. Also, I actual recognized a couple of those monster designs as having showed up in Shadow Hearts. Neat! Specifically the upside-down multihead ghost with the gun and the dead baby orb. Actually that dead baby orb is an optional super boss. I guess it hit the gym between games if it was just a normal enemy here.
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Aug 4, 2017 03:54
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The thing that struck me when I played this game years ago was that all the characters are kinda assholes. None of them seem to be particularly charitable or warm people.
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Aug 4, 2017 04:11
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UnwiseTrout posted:The thing that struck me when I played this game years ago was that all the characters are kinda assholes. None of them seem to be particularly charitable or warm people. There's more grounded moments later on, but for the most part, yeah. However, the voice acting really sells it well, and there's really no other jRPG out there with this kind of party banter outside of maybe NieR.
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Aug 4, 2017 04:15
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Joining the chorus of people who love the voice acting and mocap in this game. Although I hear that Koudelka can be tricky to play, it still remains an incredibly memorable game for me. The writing and atmosphere are wonderful as is, but voice actors are excellent and make the events sound believable. I love these rear end in a top hat characters, especially when it doesn't feel like they want to be in a team together, but do so because they have no choice.
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Aug 4, 2017 05:22
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The game wouldn't be nearly as good if they were three buddies, the low simmering animosity really adds to the atmosphere.
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Aug 4, 2017 05:26
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Edvarius posted:Are we sure James isn't a villain using Koudelka and Edward for his own means here? I keep expecting a sudden yet inevitable betrayal from him. I think it's funny that dead-baby-orb monster appears in every game afterward. I'm happy that Koudelka's monster designer stuck around for Shadow Hearts and its sequels. Ubiquitous_ fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Aug 4, 2017 05:33
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Ubiquitous_ posted:I think it's funny that dead-baby-orb monster appears in every game afterward. I'm happy that Koudelka's monster designer stuck around for Shadow Hearts and its sequels. Edvarius posted:Are we sure James isn't a villain using Koudelka and Edward for his own means here? I keep expecting a sudden yet inevitable betrayal from him.
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Aug 7, 2017 09:57
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The fact is, everyone is using each other to some degree: James is clearly being less than forthcoming about his reasons for being at the monastery, Edward broke into the place, but was attacked before he could do anything and Koudelka herself is essentially using the other two as meat shields while she finds out who in the hell called her there in the first place. The only time they all stop bickering and put aside their differences is when there's something bigger to deal with.
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Aug 7, 2017 13:09
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I think a big reason I'm fine with all the main characters being assholes is that the game doesn't try to hide it, It doesn't pretend they are cool or just ribbing on each other. Other than the Kane & Lynch games I can't really think of any other game that does this with it's rear end in a top hat protagonists.
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Aug 8, 2017 19:42
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Hel posted:I think a big reason I'm fine with all the main characters being assholes is that the game doesn't try to hide it, It doesn't pretend they are cool or just ribbing on each other. Other than the Kane & Lynch games I can't really think of any other game that does this with it's rear end in a top hat protagonists. NieR does this a bit with Kaine at first. But, like this game, she is humanized down the road.
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Aug 9, 2017 03:59
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  This time around we find out that it seems that both Edward and James seem to have some underlying issues (or just a general need to work on their 'people skills'). Also hey, who put all this Jewish mysticism in my Christian monastery? Maybe we'll be finding out soon enough.... And finally since I didn't have anything to make a bonus video on this time around, I decided instead to show off this:  This black beauty is Alice, one of my girlfriend's cats, who was named after one of the main characters from Shadow Hearts (who is just named Alice and isn't a princess; that's clearly the name of a boat). She's a scared little baby who only likes to smooch me when I sleep and I like her as well. She's a pretty good girl all around. 
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Aug 9, 2017 04:39
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I feel naming your cat Alice is inauspicious. Also: The Daniel featured is probably meant to be the one the Book of Daniel is named after; he was mostly known for being captured by King Nebuchadnezzar, winning said king's favor with his interpretation of dreams and omens, and getting tossed into a lion's den when people jealous of his influence informed the king that he'd been worshiping the Israelite God instead of the king himself. It's from his story that we get the idioms 'the writing on the wall' (one of the omens that Daniel interpreted), and, of course, 'into the lion's den'.
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Aug 9, 2017 05:25
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I really like the encounter with Elias ("That's bull and you know it, you pig-headed, old, bigot!"). Mostly for his voice acting, and for what Edward does. James' reaction is really well animated. Also... did the programmers code the boxes so that they could be poisoned? I totally caught that. Ubiquitous_ fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Aug 9, 2017 |
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Aug 9, 2017 05:35
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Edward is stone-cold! It's a nice way to keep the player on edge about who the party members are and why they are actually in the monastery. When Koudelka had her vision, the man standing in front of the big tree-looking thing did kind of look like Edward too, although that might just be a coincidence.
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Aug 9, 2017 09:43
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OK, James might be a pig-headed old bigot, but I think Ed just lost any claims to moral superiority after killing a man to prove a point, even if there was a practical reason as well.
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Aug 9, 2017 12:40
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That adorable puddy tat tho. I used to have a black cat named Shadow (after the ff6 character). Never stopped missing him.
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Aug 10, 2017 01:52
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"Rosario" is the Japanese for "rosary," by the way, via Portuguese (and ultimately Latin).
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Aug 10, 2017 19:50
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Wanna pet that cat. 
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Aug 10, 2017 19:53
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Koudelka lies in the big pile of games my child self scooped up back in the day with little to no foreknowledge of what I was getting into. Any time I see one of those games today I always get a big nostalgia shock. I'll be keeping an eye on this.
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Aug 10, 2017 21:56
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FunkMonkey posted:Koudelka lies in the big pile of games my child self scooped up back in the day with little to no foreknowledge of what I was getting into. Any time I see one of those games today I always get a big nostalgia shock. I'll be keeping an eye on this. POOL IS CLOSED posted:Wanna pet that cat. Hirayuki posted:"Rosario" is the Japanese for "rosary," by the way, via Portuguese (and ultimately Latin). coleman francis posted:That adorable puddy tat tho.
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Aug 11, 2017 00:18
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FunkMonkey posted:Koudelka lies in the big pile of games my child self scooped up back in the day with little to no foreknowledge of what I was getting into. Any time I see one of those games today I always get a big nostalgia shock. I'll be keeping an eye on this. Same here, but what's more interesting is that Shadow Hearts 1 was a similar story where I picked it up with absolutely no idea what it was about and no idea it was even a sequel of sorts to Koudelka. I remember being very confused and had my mind kind of blown once Shadow Hearts started referencing this game heavily.
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Aug 11, 2017 06:01
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I think the most poignant one was when I saw Retsupurae doing a playthrough of T.R.A.G., which I got at a flea market ages ago for like $3. I was like "no loving way."
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Aug 11, 2017 14:26
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  Things definitely go from bad to worse this time around as we get some very important bits of backstory and a friendly reminder that things can get pretty dark for people....real dark. And for our bonus this time around, we get to read what we found locked away in that cabinet: Bonus 4- Sophia's Letters. Yeah, they'll make a bit more sense next time around but I figured it'd be good to get them out of the way this time around. edit: Additionally something that I forgot to mention in the video is that there was a weapon removed for the US release of the game that I almost felt was maybe a bit of censorship (which is odd considering what we get in this video otherwise). But it seems there is a mace type weapon for casters you can find out by Daniel's Grave and I'm sad we don't get it since I'm playing the US release: 
discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Aug 16, 2017 |
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Aug 16, 2017 05:01
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One thing that struck me was that Koudelka's design looked off... and then it struck me that miniskirts were invented around the 1950s-60s when the game is set in 1898! Or is there something I'm missing about why she's wearing what she's wearing?
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Aug 16, 2017 16:02
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I'm enjoying this LP, as I never played the title back in the day. The challenge for me is the writing - all of the main characters are so acerbic and awful. I'm not saying I need your typical noble heroes, but every cutscene has the trio at eachother's throats or just flat out contemptuous of one another. I get the fragile alliance angle, but jeez, it's pretty rough. E: of course there's an ever so slight change this episode! Will you be lp'ing the remaining shadow hearts titles, OP? DJ Fuckboy Supreme fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Aug 16, 2017 |
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Aug 16, 2017 16:48
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Flat Banana posted:One thing that struck me was that Koudelka's design looked off... and then it struck me that miniskirts were invented around the 1950s-60s when the game is set in 1898! Or is there something I'm missing about why she's wearing what she's wearing? take your pick of 'easier to move around in', 'easier to render', '  ', or 'this place is crawling with horror movie monsters and the miniskirt is what you're worried about?'.
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Aug 16, 2017 17:42
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Leraika posted:take your pick of 'easier to move around in', 'easier to render', '   Cakefarts Carol posted:Will you be lp'ing the remaining shadow hearts titles, OP?
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Aug 16, 2017 18:27
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Shadow Hearts 1 has roughly the same playtime as Koudelka, even with 100% completion and showing off both endings.
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Aug 16, 2017 20:37
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Yeah if anything, Shadow Hearts 1 would probably be easier to LP in video format than Koudelka. If you're going to do Covenant and From the New World though, that probably will be a bit too much.
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Aug 16, 2017 22:31
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Also one thing to note: The Gargoyle appears to be coded to give you many, many, many turns to escape. You can actually use him as a spell-leveling grind similar to Valna + Vigna for at least a little bit. Even if he starts casting spells, he sometimes just ends up not doing anything. You could also sit around and use the VIT-boost spell and boost Koudelka's defense sky high so that even his physical attacks will just scratch her. I believe it's impossible to damage him at all in that battle, though.
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Aug 17, 2017 04:28
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Ubiquitous_ posted:Also one thing to note: The Gargoyle appears to be coded to give you many, many, many turns to escape. You can actually use him as a spell-leveling grind similar to Valna + Vigna for at least a little bit. Even if he starts casting spells, he sometimes just ends up not doing anything. Also since I had some time today, I read through all the volumes of the Koudelka manga and I was wrong regarding her clothes that she has in that. The manga is actually a sequel to the events of the game but were kinda ret-conned out by the later Shadow Hearts game and the clothes she is given are the ones from the game that she was found with when she was picked up and put in the asylum. From the wiki page on her though, she was still apparently a prostitute at some point? Also I'd say overall that the manga wasn't too bad and the whole harvesting pregnant prostitutes for their half formed fetuses to feed a devilish ritual was pretty dark.
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Aug 17, 2017 08:27
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I'm starting to think this monastery might not be quite as wholesome as it appears to be
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Aug 18, 2017 01:55
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While I have gone through all of Koudelka before, I watch this LP with Auto-Caption enabled on Youtube because I wanted to make sure that I could tell what words were being said. It's not perfect, but it helps me appreciate the dialogue a lot more. But it's definitely not perfect. Here, this is how I experienced the death and drowning of countless innocent people on a sinking ship. 
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Aug 18, 2017 02:59
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I have to admit that seeing Bessy blow her own head off was a bit shocking. I'm not entirely sure what it was that finally made her decide enough was enough though. Was it James showing up to try and find Patrick?
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Aug 18, 2017 07:31
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