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there is a patch for the pc version but the only place i know to get it is packaged with the game too
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Feb 26, 2018 00:45
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So I may have just gone over the 50,000 character limit on the forums, because I'm the ultimate Mr. Exposition apparently. So I'm just gonna divide the update into two posts and call it a night. I think I need an intervention. Pyre of Word Salsa fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Feb 27, 2018 |
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Feb 27, 2018 07:00
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Part 3.1: “Hey now, let’s keep the squabblin’ to the playground, alright?” Our literal Call to AdventureTM brings us to a set of stairs leading down from the street that the train station is on. Why is there a set of stairs down here, you ask? Well… I’ll let Comrade Sergei handle this one. For now, enjoy the party’s (and my) befuddled reactions as we head down this rabbit hole.   ...We’re on the outskirts of Station Road. What are we doing down here? Takin’ care of somethin’ or another, he said. You don’t say he wanted us to clean it up, do you? I don’t fancy bein’ a janitor. ...The party follows Sergei down the flight of stairs.   You guys are heading inside… for a little clean up job. Wait, what!?We’re going inside there…? Woah, woah, hold up a sec there. What are you tryin’ to have us do? It’s a test of your coordination as a group and your capabilities in combat. The Geofront itself isn’t too badly infested, but there are a few monsters loitering down in there. You’re going in there for… a little clean up, while trying to reach the deepest part of it. I see…Shorthand: Capo Sergei wants his newest and brightest recruits to go into the tutorial section of the Geofront in order to learn the mystical arts of kicking rear end and taking names. Or in my case, learning how I can only cast magic if I have 2% more battery charge in my orbal device and learning that I can move further if I have Heelys on.   P-please wait a moment! Putting the test aside, why do we need to enter the Geofront to clean up a monster infestation in the first place? We aren’t the Guardian Force… isn’t this a detective’s job? Heh, you’re right. Normally, we’d assign this job to a detective. But for the Special Support Section, that isn’t the case.Huh…?...We’ll talk about this later. For now, take this.   ...A new type of tactical orbment? Ooh… sleek and stylish. Just how I like it.  The 5th generation Tactical Orbment, alias [ENIGMA] is finally ready for deployment?It just arrived from the Foundation last month. They’ve already been adjusted to your respective aptitudes. As for actually using them…? Tio, you’re up.*sigh*... roger that. Do you have quartz for the new model?Yeah. It’s not much, but go ahead.    Once you’re done with our infestation problem, report back to HQ. We’ll muddle through the small details then. Ah, hold on a second. I almost forgot to hand over these as well.  If you’re familiar with Trails in the Sky, the Detective’s Notebook and the Combat Notebook basically serve the same functions as the Bracer’s Notebook did. It keeps track of quests, data on monsters, artes, and events that have occurred throughout the game. We’ll be getting two more notebooks down the line, but for now, we’ll stuff the notebooks down one of Lloyd’s three jacket pockets or wherever hammerspace he keeps his weapons in. Or maybe he keeps his weapons hooked on the belt loops he has in his official artwork. Sergei begins bailing the gently caress out.  Sergei turns around briefly.  —team leader for the time being. Wha…?You’re currently the only one who has the official qualifications for a detective. Welp, I’ll leave everything to you. Go for it, detective. Pfft, Sergei give no gently caress about your questions and your operational security concerns, Lloyd. Papa’s gotta go break out the medicine. He’s got no time for nerds and your… your orange turtleneck…? Point is, Sergei’s out. It’s beer-o-clock.   Well, I’m glad that at least we have someone who knows what they’re doing around here. I look forward to working with each other, Mr. Bannings. Hey… it’s fine. Let’s just drop the formalities. You know, since we’re all the same age?Really? I’m 18 myself, so…That makes us the same age, then. But, uh… what about the rest of you? I’m 21, but me and formalities get on like libraries and flamethrowers, so let’s just keep it cool between us, got it? I’ve got your back, if you’ve got mine, guys.Likewise.I can get behind that.   No. Not at all! Nada....Wait, FOURTEEN!? Ha ha! Well, well, you look like fourteen and you are fourteen!W-Wow… is it even legal for you to be in the Police Force at fourteen?It isn’t! There’s something rotten in the state of Crossbell. The minimum requirement for joining the police is 16… so why’s a kid who hasn’t finished Sunday School of all things joining the force in the first pla-Technically, I’m not part of the police. The Epstein Foundation transferred me over to do some field tests.Fourteen is a fine, ripe age to duke it out with some monsters. Heck, we have fourteen-year-olds piloting mechas to duke it out against aliens in another universe, a thirteen-year-old witch riding a broomstick for the postal service next door, and a kid who uses gun’sbrasters to brast his enemies with gun’s in an apocalyptic future caused by a massive slam dunk. You have much to learn about the ways of the universe, young Lloyd.  Wha…!?Wait, so Epstein… as in the guys who made these tactical orbments...?I see… so that’s how it is. I’ve heard that Crossbell has been working with the Foundation on a large-scale project for many years.The [Orbal Network Project]. I might be working on it in the future, but my transfer was mainly about something else.The [Orbal Network Project], as Tio mentions, is pretty much Crossbellese for The Internet. It may be a little more than that, but that’s the basic gist of it. It’s a newly invented orbal system in which mass amounts of information gets transferred between computers. And since it’s relatively new, it gets hacked a lot by jerks who have way too much time on cmd.exe. Also, memers shitposting on Orbal 4Chan and competitive Tetris might be a thing in this universe. You think they have Orbal Something Awful? Orbal Twitter? First person to create a Lloyd Bannings Twitter account gets a free account upgrade.  A… mechanical staff…?It’s called the “Orbal Staff”. I was transferred from the Foundation to test this weapon in the field. Mr. Bannings, you are intelligent — do you understand why I am here? H-Hold on a second! You aren’t saying that you’re going to fight too? With that staff?...I retract my statement. For a detective, you aren’t too bright. Didn’t I say that I was transferred to “test the weapon in the field”...?... Hey now, let’s keep the squabblin’ to the playground, alright? We’ll have time to Tweedledee and Tweedledum it up later. I don’t know how dangerous this here Geofront is… but right now, we’ve gotta focus on what the old geezer laid on us. Agreed… even though we have no idea what is going on.Roger that. Sorry, Tio. I didn’t mean to offend you.Anyone else would react the same way… so I can’t say that I really care. So I’ve told you about my weapon. But what weapons do the rest of you have?I specialize in these:And... Lloyd pulls out his weapon.  ...Tada. Much like Estelle Bright in the previous arc, Lloyd chooses to use weapons that are sort of unorthodox in nature, in the sense that he doesn’t use a sword, much like most JRPG protagonists. The tonfa, as Wikipedia states, is a weapon that originated in Southeast Asia and is primarily used in Okinawan Martial Arts. However, the point is that tonfas are thematically appropriate for Lloyd, since modern day police batons are a modified version of the tonfa. The modified part making it more nonlethal, allowing police to apprehend the criminal more safely. So yes, Lloyd will be police brutalizing everyone we get into a fight with, as dark as that sounds. Is that a baton…?Tonfas? It’s a weapon used in the East. It’s said to excel way more at defense and suppression power rather than killing and wounding like most weapons.A policeman’s best friend, I see.Lloyd puts his tonfas away.  I’ve tried different weapons, but I think this suits me best. But anyways, what do you guys have?This… is mine, I guess. Unlike Lloyd, Elie just chooses to straight up cap suckas. Because unlike Lloyd, she’s trying to rack up as many kills as possible on crossbell_3.map before the round is over. Nonlethally, of course. The CSPD doesn’t need their rep to be any worse. An orbal gun… it’s a little old.It’s really nice, though.It’s something I’ve customized for competitive use. Even if it’s old, you can count on me for accuracy.gently caress, and I was just joking about her using that gun for competitive games until that line popped up.  This ol’ sing-a-lullaby baby’s mine. Randy, on the other hand, just has a really big ol’ overcompensating stick with a taser built into it. Honestly, you could just call it a stun baton, but I’ll let the man himself explain it. That is… large. It looks like a halberd that knights used to wield in the Middle Ages....I saw it in the Foundation’s weapon factory once. There is an inbuilt unit within the weapon that converts orbal power into a strong shock.Yeah, it’s a Stun Halberd. Or Jane, as I call her. It’s a lil’ heavy and hard to use, but it packs a whallop.Randy puts his Stun Halberd away.  Well, I don’t really get how Tio’s weapon is going to work, but I think we’ll work well together when we bump into the monsters.Yes, I think so too.Well, they probably assembled us together ‘cause of that. I guess that old geezer was pretty good at his job despite… well, him.True… in regards to my Orbal Staff, should I begin by explaining how to use the Tactical Orbments we received earlier? Using Orbments (Magic) and installing Quartz is more or less the same as it was in previous games. But hell, let’s give Tio’s tutorial a whirl. It’ll be easier on me when I supplant the tutorial in layman terms.  ...Roger. Orbments are devices that run on orbal energy to produce various phenomena. We use them in everyday life, from air-conditioning to even trains and railroads. The Tactical variety are small portable devices specialized for combat, and are attuned to the person using them. The one we just received is the newest model that the “Epstein Foundation” has developed.Like pre-existing models, the phenomena is produced by installing crystallized circuits called “Quartz”.Quartz are created from small pieces of Septium fragments and are inserted into the circuits of an Orbment. We received a few from the Chief earlier…That is correct. You insert them into the unlocked slots of an Orbment to make use of their affects. Also, when you have sufficient set elemental value for an Orbal Line, you will be able to make use of different Orbal Arts. And depending on the monster, it might be more effective to use arts rather than attacking them with our weapons. That’s why we should prepare our Orbments first, rather than diving head first into the nearest pile of monsters.I see… so it’s important to keep that in mind when we’re fighting monsters.Even the Bracer Guild and the Guardian Force are using ‘em, so there’s no doubt as to their potency.As for the rest… since Tactical Orbments are fine-tuned to each person, their construction is varied. Their slot limits and lines will also be different. We’ll know how much they differ by comparing them when we insert the Quartz. So. There was a lot of subtext there that directly translates to Orbment gameplay mechanics. Like Tio said, Orbments are how we cast magic in this universe. The amount of charge left in our Orbments is represented through  ...You’re welcome.By the way, the new models shouldn’t differ too much from how we used the old ones, right?That is correct. If you have experience using the old models, you shouldn’t have any trouble using them as you have in the past.i.e. There’s no difference in terms of gameplay from Trails in the Sky, bub.   ...An extra function?It doesn’t really matter right now, so don’t think too hard about it. Anyways, we should focus on the mission right now.Oh, right. (Don’t think too hard about it. Don’t think too hard about it. Don’t think too hard about it.) ...Anyways, let’s prepare our Orbments before starting the mission. We’ll be ready to enter once we’ve insert the Quartz we received from the chief. And if you try to enter the Geofront without setting the Quartz, Lloyd backs off and talks about how to be the perfect soldier or something. I don’t really remember. But the game finally starts giving back control to us after this message.  ...And then it interrupts my brief moment of joy as it explains that we got an achievement, as well as what an achievement is. I’m sure everyone in the thread knows what an achievement is. If you don’t, look up the definition on Wikipedia or Dictionary.com or something. The only valid reason to collect achievements in this game is to gain points to purchase stuff on a New Game +. And it makes a pleasant tinny sound when you receive one, I guess. But don’t expect me to Platinum the game or anything like that, especially since I’m only going to go over it twice. We got the Newbie Detective achievement by receiving the Detective’s Notebook from Sergei. So that happened.  Anyways, we need to open up the menu and insert Quartz into our Orbments to continue. Under the [Orbments] category, there are two subcategories that we could select: Arts and Quartz. Arts just shows us the different magic we’ve gotten from the Quartz we’ve inserted into the Orbment. So what we want here is the Quartz subcategory.  Under the Quartz submenu, we can insert, well… Quartz into open slots in our Orbment. Right now, Lloyd only has one slot opened in his device. We’ll be able to open up more slots later, but for now this’ll do. If you remember, Tio mentioned that Orbment devices were specifically tuned from individual-to-individual. If we compare Elly’s device to Lloyd’s…  It’s vastly different, even if it’s not obvious at first glance. If you look under ‘Slot’, you might be able to pick out different colors on the lines, as faint as they are (Elly’s lines are mostly brown with a blue line at the bottom. Lloyd has the first four lines brown and the rest blue). These sorta correspond with the device configurations on the right side of the screen, even if you can’t see too well with the slots locked. The more lines of the same color you have, the more EP that character tends to have as a result. Also, each line totals up the amount of all the quartz on that line, which affects the arts you’ll have as a result. (Example: If you have a Quartz on the single blue line that Elly has, it’ll only add up the elemental values on that line — it won’t add up with the elemental values you have on the tan/brown line. So the elemental value(s) on the blue line won’t add up to form a new art on the brown lines. It’s its own thing.) However, since by the game’s lore, phenomena is derived from the Quartz inserted into the device, EP isn’t significantly increased until we open up more slots in our orbments. What that means is that we’ll probably be focusing on opening up Elly and Tio’s slots more than Lloyd or Randy’s slots, since the ladies are the magic casters of the group (Elly, a little less so. She unlocks an ability further down that makes it better for her to focus on that rather than spellslinging).   Another part of the individual configuration that Tio mentioned is that some slots are locked to a certain element of Quartz that you can only put in. Tio can only put Water Quartz in the Water slot, and Randy can only insert Fire Quartz in the Fire slot. Elie is Wind because she’s windswept, and Lloyd can equip anything because he’s the protagonist. Anything the party does he can do better, which kinda makes it suspect why the Epstein Foundation just didn’t design everyone’s Orbments that way, but eh. Details. Also, look at Tio’s Orbment line. Just one straight line from earth to the heavens. She’ll be a proper magical generator once all of her slots have been unlocked. And Randy. Eh. He can hit things hardererer, I guess.  And now for the Quartz itself. There are seven elements of Quartz in this game (and credit to the Legend of Heroes wiki for the list, because I’m just copying and pasting):
Each Quartz either gives an ability or stat boosts /+ debuffs. Attack 1 here, for example, gives +3% Strength, but takes away 1% of Defense. And while you could equip both Defense 1 Quartz (+3% Defense, -1% Attack) and Attack 1 to make a more balanced character, I usually stick with builds that don’t have as much conflict in stats for a little bit of Min-Max. Not that you could really call it that. In any case, there aren’t really any options we can take for inserting Quartz, since everyone’s slots are railroaded into their respective affinities. With the exception of Lloyd, of course, who just has to take the remaining element by default. So Randy gets Attack 1, Elie gets Evasion 1 (+5% Agility), HP 1 with Tio (Max HP +5%), and Defense 1 with Lloyd. And yes, that value next to “Fire: “ is the elemental value of that Quartz. With that Fire Elemental Value, Randy can cast very basic Fire Elemental spells. Same thing with Lloyd, Elie, and Tio, who can cast basic spells of their own basic elements.  And speaking of spells, everyone has various voodoo eletrical magicks of varying effects. I’m… I’m just gonna dump a basic description of each spell we use once we actually get to battle, since I’m tuckered out from expositioning all the Orbment stuff. Let’s just cut to the good stuff, shall we?  In any case, once we’ve sorted out our Orbment/Quartz stuff and unlocked the door, we can finally enter the Geofront for our first official taste of gameplay. And by ‘gameplay’, I mean a tutorial. Did I say tutorial? I meant gameplay. Definitely meant gameplay. Pyre of Word Salsa fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Feb 27, 2018 |
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Feb 27, 2018 07:01
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Part 3.2: "Alright, Lloyd… keep calm and engage. You can do this!" Geofront  The Geofront. An underground governmental maintained complex that looks like a warehouse at best and a recently moved in apartment at worst. We begin by descending down the stairs and into the next room. But don’t worry! There will be more metallic corridors to fulfill your appetite of warehouse landscaping soon enough. The party enters the next room.   I’ve heard stories, but I didn’t think this was what sprawled underground the city.Dear Aidios, I know I’m amazed. I thought it was just the remains of an aqueduct from the Middle Ages.According to the database, construction of the Geofront began about the same time as the urban planning 20 years ago. It houses waterworks, sewage, and a waste disposal plant. The orbal cable and other plants were added later on. This is different from what we were expecting. However, if I remember, we’re pretty close to Central Square, right? Are there really monsters wandering around under it…?And I suppose that’s another reason why people don’t want to work in the sewers around here. I know I wouldn’t want to muck around with crap all day and getting attacked by monsters daily during my 9-5. And that’s not even considering the stench. Do you get hazard pay? A hazmat suit? I feel like we should be careful of biohazardous waste more than anything down here.  There are rumors that workers on the construction site are attacked and injured sometimes. Still, it looks like the police are a little too spread apart to focus on the issue. ...I see…...Maybe… the Special Support Section was formed to deal with this?It’s logical, but…...I think the situation’s clear. Even if we weren’t part of the force, it’s still a problem that needs to be dealt with. Setting the test aside for a moment, let’s do our best to address the issue with what it deserves!Heh… why so serious?But he’s right. Let’s proceed to our goal while following the fundamentals, step-by-step....Roger.Lloyd notices the pedestal next to the door.  To speed this along, this is basically the equivalent of a Tent in this game. We can use the charging station to recover HP and EP at any time without consequence. It also marks when a boss is nearby in a dungeon, so it’s generally a good idea to save when we encounter one deep in a dungeon. In any case, we pass through the automatic door with the arrow sign pointing up and into a corridor that wouldn’t be too out of place in a factory.  But first, the game gives us an option to go through the tutorial. I’m going through it because I think there’s additional dialogue if we choose to accept. Also, because it gives me a little outline as to what to exposition about in-battle.  Uh huh.  (The old man called it!) (...That’s a monster…) (Alright, Lloyd… keep calm and engage. You can do this!) Much like Earthbound, the Trails series features enemy encounters on the map. Their position is always set in a dungeon, and once you defeat an enemy, they won’t reappear until you enter the dungeon again.  Here, the tutorial tells us that we can sneak up on enemies from behind and whack ‘em to gain a Max Party Advantage. There are two types of advantages in this game: Preemptive and Max. Preemptive just gives you a free round of attacks, but Max gives you that and a free round of Critical Hits for your party. There’s also a higher chance for All-Out Attacks to occur, but more on that further down the line. I’ll probably be using Elie during these segments in the future, since y’know, she has a gun. Get Over the Barrier!  Here’s our chance, everyone! So, let’s talk combat. In the Trails series, combat works on a sort of “lite” Final Fantasy Tactics-esque battle system. Each character/enemy takes their turn when they reach the top of the AT Bar (it goes from bottom to top). In this case, Lloyd takes first turn in this battle. (Yeah, I know this screenshot looks a little blurry. I took the liberty to investigate the issue and found a solution online, so screenshots should look crisp and defined from the next update onwards.)  In addition to taking our turns, bonuses will sometimes crop up as we go through battle. Since we got a Max Party Advantage, the entire party starts off with the Critical bonus, which guarantees that the party member will initiate a critical hit on the enemy. On the flip side, this also affects the enemy as well — the spike dog thing at the bottom of the AT Bar is slated to receive 10% of its HP when its turn crops up. There are a few types of bonuses in this game:
There are more bonuses than this, but that’s for a later date since those bonuses only appear in certain dungeons.  This is what we have to work with. Attack, Items, Arts, and Retreat are pretty self-explanatory. I’ll let the game explain what Crafts are down the line. But for now, our only options are to Attack, use Items, and Retreat (incidentally, there’s a 100% chance of success for retreat in this battle).  When we select “Attack”, a bunch of geometrical shapes pop up. You see the little blue squares around Lloyd? That’s how far Lloyd can move right now. Where movement factors in is the really big yellow circle encircling everything right now. That’s Lloyd’s range — how far he can attack, in other words. So we can see here that Lloyd is able to attack both of the shellfish dogs.  Range also reflects the type of weapon the wielder has. Since Elie here has a gun, she’s in range to shoot enemies at a farther distance than Lloyd. Randy likewise is somewhere in-between Elie and Lloyd, since he has a slightly farther reach than Lloyd. But Tio?  Poor Tio came into work with sandals today, since she didn’t expect to be doing a clean up job in a monster infested dungeon. And since Lloyd and Elie nudged the monsters back with their attacks, she can’t reach them. Also, notice how the ring around the monster is larger than Elie or Lloyd’s attacks? That marks the Area of Effect/splash damage the attack will cause. In this case, if Tio were able to make it farther than little old granny crossing the street, she’d be able to attack both enemies at once. It’s an interesting mechanic, and it can be used to great effect later on.  Whenever you attack an enemy, the party member will move as close to the enemy as possible, whether they’re in range or not. You could also use the Move command to move as close to the enemy as possible, but personally I mainly use it for positioning and getting people out of dodge in case an enemy is casting a spell with a large area of effect at someone.   In any case, all we need to do to win our first battle is to attack them. Each spike thingy(?) goes down in 3-4 hits. So yeah, I definitely spent three hundred of these battles explaining how the combat mechanics work.  Also, here’s what Tio’s staff does, in case you were wondering. Her default attack consists of spraying nerve gas or something at an enemy. Or pepper spray. Whatever fits your personal canon, I guess. This Is Our Power!   At the end of each battle, we gain a Bonus EXP Multiplier for stuff we’ve done during battle. But gently caress explaining how we get each one, so I’ll just copy and paste from the Trails wiki (credit again): First Attack ファストアタック Gain the Party Advantage Chain Battle チェインバトル Make a Chain Battle Triple Counter トリプルカウンター Counter 3 times Triple Canceller トリプルキャンセラー Cancel Arts/Crafts 3 times Item Lover アイテムラヴァー Use Items 3 time Seven Rush セブンラッシュ Getting ahead of the enemy for 7 straight turns No Curia ノーキュリア Recover from Status Effects naturally (no items) Over Kill オーバーキル Destroy the enemy with 5x the damage of its remaining HP Around Kill アラウンドキル Eliminate over 4 enemies simultaneously Speed Kill スピードキル Destroy all enemies within 2 moves after the battle starts No Damage ノーダメージ Win without gaining damage No Move ノームーブ Win without moving Revenger リベンジャー Win a battle from overcoming a pinch Support Finish サポートフィニッシュ Finish the battle with a Support Attack  We also receive Sepith at the end of battle. Sepith is mainly used to purchase Quartz or unlock Orbment slots from the shop, but we can also trade it in for money once we’re in a shop.  Items are also a staple, like any RPG. Zero tends to focus more on dropping ingredients for recipes we’ll be picking up throughout the game. Yes, there is cooking in this game. There may be a recipe for a Hot Pot that drives people to madness. That’s actual canon to this universe. Or at least, to this translation.  Not like it was all buff and mighty now, was it?But all the same, I think we have a grasp on each other’s combat styles now. I’m a little surprised at how efficient Tio’s Orbal Staff is, though.Yeah. That staff was firing off arts, right? That is correct. Unlike most Arts, there’s a chance that it might miss, but… it has the same effect as short-range arts without the casting time.You could open up a whole new slew of tactics with that tech.It was designed for that exact purpose in mind. And this breastplate is… well…Guys, what are you talking about? I’m pretty sure Lloyd hit harder than she did. And Randy. And Elie… and the monsters. And Oscar, the baker guy on West Street. And—  —And this got a little creepy all of a sudden. Just the shot that I wanted. Thanks, game.  Since I’ll be able to take more punishment than most people my age, there shouldn’t be a problem if I’m on the front lines.It’s a cutting edge of equipment.Let’s use it as a crutch as much as possible, eh? Ladies first.But… having a little girl be the meatshield would be… wrong. Just wro— ......I mean... right?Cutscene end. The party proceeds down the hall and into a room.  We find our first treasure chest in this room. It contains a Tear Balm, which heals 200 HP for a party member. Handy in a pinch. I probably won’t screenshot treasure with nothing important in it in the future, because I’m not sure how I’ll last making comments for every mundane item out there. But there’s something missing. Something precious and glimmering in the midst of this madness. Something that is missing because XSeed didn’t translate this game. Something these monsters didn’t include when they translated this game. Chest puns.    Against these monsters, arts would be more effective than using our weapons. So let’s fight with arts as well, everyone! Since the slime is facing towards us, trying to attack it won’t do anything.  So instead, we’ll loop around the back and clonk it on its head. The monsters in the tutorial don’t move, so you can get used to the field controls. However, if you attack any monster outside of the tutorial from the front, they get pissed and start chasing you around.  Like Lloyd said, this part of the tutorial is mainly here to teach you how to cast spells. If you’ve played an RPG before, you know the rundown, so I won’t go over it too much.  But what I am going to note is that much like Final Fantasy Tactics, casting spells in this game require a charge time. In this game, spells will always go off on the spellcaster’s next turn. If you look at the AT Bar, we can see that Lloyd’s spell will go off after Randy takes his turn.  Each character has a spell list attributed to the type of Quartz they’ve slotted into their Orbment. Tio here has a Icicle Edge and a healing spell that I conveniently forget exists towards the latter end of this dungeon. More or less because I’m used to having Elie being my healer for reasons we’ll see.  Everyone has a basic attack spell that they begin with that has a 10% chance of inflicting a status effect. Lloyd inflicts [Petrify], Randy inflicts [Burn], and you’ve already seen what Tio’s spell has.  So all in all, it’s just a matter of peppering the slimes with arts. But there is a really big pain-in-the-rear end detail about these slimes.    They frickin’ inflict Freeze on you whenever they attack, interrupting spellcasting and preventing the party member from taking their next turn. And hoo boy, I forgot how annoying this gets towards the end of the update. And it’s not a low chance of inflicting Freeze. It feels like they inflict Freeze 75% of the time. Combine that with more of them, and you end up with your party stunlocked because they need to cast spells in order to deal with slimes effectively, and the slimes keep interrupting by Freezing everyone.   But in any case, we’re almost done with the tutorial here. Just two more to go, and various snippets that pop up afterwards.  Combined with arts, our tactical advantage should increase.Let’s give it a try.Alright! It’s time for the spotlight to shine on the one… the only… Randy Orlando! The battle will be settled in one move with my Super Ultra Crossbellian-Liberl-Erebonian martial arts! *sigh*... In your dreams, maybe. Our penultimate tutorial of the day focuses on Crafts. They work a lot like arts, but instead of using EP, Crafts use CP (Craft Points). If you’ve played the Wild ARMs franchise, it works similar to FP in that game. Whenever you attack an enemy or get wounded by one, your CP raises by an amount, usually 5-10. Using a Craft attack will remove the amount of CP based on how much the attack cost. And yes, CP will carry over between battles. The max you can have is 200, but I think Lloyd and the others would just implode from the sheer amount of power if we went beyond that.   Lloyd’s first Craft is Accel Rush, in which he spastically charges in the midst of the enemy and spins around until he gets dizzy. Accel Rush is one of those abilities that will be semi-useful throughout the game, since we can control where he uses it. And by where, I mean he can target Accel Rush on any of the purple spaces indicated. Crafts are instant, which means no charge time like arts. On the flip side, a lot of them are still physical attacks, which means you’ll still have to use arts to take some of the more physical-resistant enemies out.  Elie’s first craft, on the other hand, is relatively mundane. She just shoots an enemy really hard in the face three times. No, that’s really it.   Tio’s first craft, Analyzer, is more suited for support, which I never really use her for. In addition to showing the enemy’s stats, she also reduces their Defense and Arts Defense by 25%. Not bad, I guess. But hey, I guess it makes a lot more sense that they drop Royal Leaves and Milled Flour since they’re the ones that cook for the other cockroaches, huh?  Randy’s Power Smash is a lot like Accel Rush in range. But unlike Accel Rush, Power Smash can’t target a specific space to unload splash damage in. On the other hand, whatever’s in Power Smash’s range gets their turn delayed on the AT Bar, so that’s nice, I guess.  Anyways, the Cookroaches only attack is to spray Dissonance on us, which is just gastly. It has a wide range, and more often that not, at least two of our party members will get caught up in it. Or in my case, everyone since there’s literally a healing station three screens away and I don’t really care about damage this early on. But Crafts easily defeat them. Hell, Accel Rush took off ¾ of their health in one go.  After the battle, we can loot the treasure chest for five Smoke Balls. Smoke Balls are battle items used to change the success of retreat percentage to 100%, so I’ll save them up in case I encounter like EVA-01 in the Geofront or something. The room on the bottom right leads to an empty enclave with a chest inside that contains Sepith, so we’re skipping that. Onto the room on the top left!  Man, even one at a time is still a hassle.Then I guess it’s time to break out the S-Crafts. If we use S-Craft and S-Breaks, we should be able to defeat all the monsters with a decisive blow.Understood. We’ll use them as a warm up, then.I have a wide-range recovery S-Craft, so call on me when things get dangerous.  Shorthand: S-Crafts are basically Limit Breaks that we can use once our CP is either greater than or equal to 100. If we hold down Triangle + A Directional Button, we can interrupt an enemy with an S-Craft (aka. S-Break). We’ll be seeing these mostly in boss battles and times when we need to interrupt an enemy to prevent them from getting a bonus. +50% HP for a boss is probably the worst thing ever.  Lloyd’s S-Craft is anti-personnel only, but it’s a wee. Bit.  Overkill.  Elie’s S-Craft is a little more subdued, and significantly more  . She shoots a beam of light in the heavens, which falls down in tiny particles that heals a wide range, rather than just making a hole in the ceiling. But I’m sure the science behind it is sound.  And then we have Randy’s S-Craft. It’s significantly more hotblooded, in that he just lights his halberd on fire and starts swinging it around like a lightsaber. So much for non lethal takedowns via a taser, eh Randy? It can also inflict the [Burn] status effect on enemies, so there’s that. And Tio… we’ll see Tio later. Poor Tio just has small legs and can’t keep up with the rest of the party right now. But rest assured that it’s just as ridiculous as the rest.  The party proceeds down the corridor.  It looks like there’s a manhole up there… but it isn’t on any of our databases.Why is it open? That can’t be safe.Who knows? Maybe City Hall forgot to close it. We should contact them later.Yeah… that’s probably for the best.There’s actually a treasure chest up there that the game prevents us from getting at this point. For now, we’ll just keep it in mind and continue exploration.     In Trails to Zero and Trails to Azure, Team Rush is a new bonus that replaces the Chain S-Craft introduced in Trails in the Sky. So instead of requiring everyone to have >=100 CP, we have the option of initiating a, well, Team Rush on all of the enemies on the field. Or, we can cancel Team Rush and gain a free round for the A-Team here. Team Rush usually only appears when we gain a Max Party Advantage at the start of battle, or sporadically during a boss battle.  Everyone, with me!Okay!Roger that!I've got your back! As the name implies, everyone rushes at the enemies at once. This is usually a death sentence for any random battle, so more often than not, you’ll be using it. While I’m here, I might as well show off Tio’s S-Craft with the other mook in the room.   Tio’s S-Craft consists of her firing a huge Hadoken ala Black Mage from 8-Bit Theater. Anything within that yellow rectangle gets caught in the blast, and along with Randy’s S-Craft, it will be very useful for clearing out multiple groups at once. We’ve also blasted a hole in the Geofront and caused a cave-in, resulting in the entirety of Crossbell falling into a sinkhole, but I’m sure it’s fine.   In the next room, we find an elevator descending down into the final area of this part of the Geofront. For now, at least. We’ll be returning here later, so I wouldn’t say goodbye to it yet. Lloyd and the party continues exploring the Geofront.   Wait, hold on game. I spy with my little eye something beginning with treasure. Stop the cutscene! No. Loot first, talk later.  I-Is that someone crying…?Hey, c’mon… what’s the deal here? Ain’t the inner parts of the Geofront supposed to be closed off?...Don’t ask me. That’s how it is to the public, at least.Let’s save the chit-chat for later! Right now, we need to find out who’s crying, ASAP!Right...! Spoilers: he’s in the vent. I mean, where else would any self-respecting person would go?    Heeey! Is someone there!?The boy flinches in surprise and turns around.  W-Who’s there!? Are you alright? You aren’t hurt anywhere, are you?U-Uh…WAAAAAH!Hey…Oh geez…The moment he felt safe, his emotions came crashing down. Lloyd, leave this to me.Y-Yeah…Elie approaches the boy.  Everything’s alright now… there’s nothing to be worried about.*hic*...O-Okay.We beat up all the scary monsters outside. But it is dark and scary in here… why don’t we head outside? Here, do you want to hold onto my hand?I-I’m fine… I-I can stand!I see… *giggle* Yes, you are a grown up, aren’t you? What’s your name?U-Um… it’s Henry!(Heh…)(Atta boy…)Fade to black.  It should have been locked, so how did you get in? Um… well… we were playing near the bell in Central Square, and… we found a ladder when we opened the lid there… T-then…So you came in through that manhole, huh?That entrance needs to be added to the database.W-Wait a minute!
Pyre of Word Salsa fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Mar 3, 2018 |
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Feb 27, 2018 07:02
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So the first job is literally rats in the basement. Or at least it was. Now it's rugrats. Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Feb 27, 2018 |
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Feb 27, 2018 12:39
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Whoooo boy, lotta info in this one. I'm willing to bet 85% of the reason you're making Elie your main healer is because instead of the La Tear spells of the Sky games, Zero replaces them with the Breath spells, which are Wind-aligned. Of note, by the way: Burn can be cured by attacks that inflict Freeze, and vice-versa as well. Tear spells also heal Burn.
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Mar 3, 2018 00:40
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Hey, sorry about the delay again. Life and all that going on right now. I'll have the next update tonight, and the next one done over the weekend.
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Mar 22, 2018 20:28
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Fantastic news, I’m happier than a Pom stealing EP 
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Mar 22, 2018 21:41
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Part 4: “YOU’RE FROM THE POLICE!?” Y-Yeah… Ryu said he wanted to go on an adventure… B-but… on the way, we bumped into some scary monsters and then we lost each other while running away and then… *sniffle*.So that’s what happened…...Hey Lloyd, what do we do?Let’s see here… We have a choice here… or I’d like to say that we have a choice here. The “correct” decision is to take Henry with you while looking for the other kid These options do affect your Detective’s Ranking (DP), and while I’m not sure if this choice will affect it, it’s probably best not to go the way of the idiot. DP is a discussion for the future, so we’ll leave it at that.   ...Shouldn’t we get him out, first?If you answer correctly, Tio will still question whether or not we’re doing this. You know, unlike the alternate choice, where she gives Lloyd a dope slap. Schrodinger's Tio is in full effect here.  I don’t it’s a good idea. We’re racing against time right now, and splitting up our forces would decrease our capability to spread out and search....Elie. Can I entrust you with Henry’s safety?Leave it to me. I won’t let monsters harm a hair on him....Henry. We’re going to go look for your friend now. It’ll be dangerous if you go alone, so I’d like it if you came with us. What do you say?O-okay… let’s go. I want to find Ryu!Good kid.We’ll be escorting the subject while continuing exploration. Let’s proceed with extreme caution.Understood…!Roger that.Shall we look for that lil’ shrimp, now?  And then all of a sudden, this turned into an escort mission. Most of the escort missions in this game aren’t all that bad, actually. Most of the time, the NPCs will just mill around behind your party while you do all the heavy lifting. And when they don’t loiter around, they’re combat capable and lend a hand to your party. There is one big pain in the rear end escort mission, and it’s at the end of this dungeon. But honestly, it’s… partly my fault, since I forgot that Water healing spells exist in this game.   Our way forward is on the bottom-left, but first we’re going to make a detour. See that treasure chest sitting on the duct to the right? We’re gonna get that. And that means going back into the ventilation duct and following it alllllllllllllllll the way to the end.  Unboxing the loot nets us a Lighter, which is an accessory that blocks [Freeze]. Since we can have two accessories at once, I slap the Lighter on Tio for one brief moment of glory before I exchange it for something else in the next chapter. Also because Tio’s our main spellcaster and she’s way too much of a cold person. J-Just put me on ice.  While we’re mucking about with our equipment, let’s take a look at what everyone’s wearing. Lloyd has a pair of tonfas he bought from Amazon because he thought they sounded cool, and cowboy boots. No pants, though.   And… There’s not much to say, actually. The party is wearing the same equipment, sans weapons. And we’ve already seen how effective their weapons are in battle. Really, all we did was give Tio a lighter and pack of cigs and told her to go for it.  In any case, if we double back and get back on the tracks, we see… more of the same layout. Also, if you’ve noticed, Henry’s now following our party, and that reflects in the overworld — if an enemy’s chasing you and it tags Henry from behind, they gain an advantage in battle.   Like the tutorial prompt tells us, if Henry’s HP reaches 0, he’s loving dead. There’s no recovery from death, since  Here’s our chance! Alright, let’s go Special Support Section! Yessir!Roger!Mm!I-I’m here too, guys…?   Henry mainly mills around the back, so it isn’t too hard to actually escort him around. In fact, if you set things up so that you have your entire party in the back, you’re probably doing something wrong.  Buuuuuut since this is the tutorial dungeon, it’s only a short walk from point A to point B to reach the boss room. Like any other RPG, dungeons in this game are denoted by a save/rest point where we can heal up and prepare before beating the living stuffing out of the boss. The party enters the big, ominous door of gigantic ominousness that ominously opens its large, gaping maw for them. Ominous.    Waah! Help me, Goddess Aidios!  Ryu! (...Tch!) So we have a choice here. We can either charge right in, shonen-style, or we can play it safe and smart. These choices actually affect the slimes’ formation for the boss battle. Leeroy Jenkinsing it is a bad idea, because it’ll start the battle off with the slimes surrounding Ryu. Which is… what’s the word… bad, because the slimes will instantly gang up on the kid and dissolve him into little gibbets of meat. But if we play it cool for a moment—  Understood…!     We gain a lot more breathing room than we did before, formation-wise. The three slimes in the center are still going to prioritize on Ryu, but it’s a lot better than all of the slimes ganging up on the kid and murdering him in one turn. That’s reason numero uno why this battle sucks. So, what’s reason #2, you ask?  Alright, let’s take care of them! Police! Hands in the air where we can see them! Or, uh… blobs in the air? U-Uh… you have the right to remain silent? Arrest The Criminal  If you remember from the previous update, slimes can inflict [Frozen], which interrupts casting spells. Which is y’know, a problem when you’re fighting enemies that are highly resistant to physical attacks. During my first playthrough, my party got thoroughly stunlocked by slimes until Ryu was dead. Granted, I might have been really unlucky the first time through, because Frozen was inflicted on my party… twice, throughout this whole battle. And that was after replaying this battle two more times to capture a few more screenshots on my end, so maybe I’m just misremembering things.  The other awful part about this battle is that the slimes will beeline towards Ryu immediately. Or at least, the three closest to him will. This is a problem, since Ryu has the HP of a slightly anemic ant with motor issues. This isn’t the worst case scenario, though. The worst case scenario occurs in the event that we just barrel straight into the slimes during the decision tree right before the battle. In that alternate universe, all the slimes start ganging up on him.  So what we want to do immediately is to send someone up as an offering to the Slime Gods. I chose Tio, since she can tank a couple of hits (I guess that chestplate did come in handy after all  ). And because she has the lighter equipped, she’s resistant to the Frozen status effect, which will come in handy in just a sec. See, since it’s only natural for those of the Children class to choose constitution as their dump stat, Ryu will go down in 3-4 hits.  Barring Elie’s S-Craft, Tio is the only one who has a healing spell currently. Combine that with the Lighter, and we have a guaranteed heal on Ryu, now that we aren’t affected by Frozen. Sure, the mage has become the meatshield now, but at least she’s in range for our party to toss her an item.  That gives us plenty of time to launch spells and get those pesky slimes off Ryu’s back. A dead child on the Special Support Section’s first day out would be a pretty big blemish to their pristine (and new) record.  Once we’ve set up Tio as healer and bait, it’s just a matter of launching off spells, using S-Crafts as need be, and praying to RNGesus that we don’t get hit with a mild case of iceblockitis. This isn’t a hard battle. Just annoying.  So I guess that’s the first… “boss battle” of the game. One of them was holding onto a heater that they bought from the Central Square Ikea, apparently. Who knew?  We made it, somehow…I’m not surprised. It was five-on-four....I’m tired.W-Woah…! N-No… I’m good. You’re safe too! Thank Aidios!You’re slow, Henry. You would’ve been eaten by monsters if I hadn’t charged in at the nick of time.L-Like YOU’RE one to talk! You were about to be eaten by monsters…! And didn’t you force me in here in the first place, saying “Let’s explore! It’ll be like Explorer Time!”.U-Uh… Nuh-uh! W-Weren’t you the one who started talking about the Geofront in the first place…!?Nuh-uh! I never wanted to ENTER it!Alright, stop right there. Your argument ends right now. S-Sorry…Huh…? This is the first time I’ve seen you around. You’re pretty good, but… are you new?Uh…Geez, this kid… since you were saved by our lowly, immodest selves, I think a couple words o’ thanks should come first.Eh, thanks for saving me. I was in danger, but I only walked away with a few scars. You pass... Barely.You can walk away with a lot more scars if you keep up the backtalk, mister. Physical and emotional.  *giggle* It’s a relief you’re all in one piece, though. Anyways, shouldn’t we complete the extraction immediately?You’re right. I think this is just a dead end. And as of the present, we’ve accomplished Chief Sergei’s task as well.I guess we made it…Well, life’s full of surprises, and this was just one of ‘em. Welp, guess we’ll report back into HQ after the brats are safe and sound, right?Ryu and Henry glance at each other in confusion.  You know… mister… are you new?Y-Yeah… you could tell? We don’t even have uniforms…U-Uniforms…?U-Um… so you’re not from the Guild?When you say Guild… do you mean the <Bracer’s Guild>?Like there are any other guilds! ...Wait, really!? You guys aren’t Bracers!?N-No… we just joined the CSPD. YOU’RE FROM THE POLICE!? No way… no way! Why would the police be here!Why wouldn’t we be here? We already have two cases of trespassing on private property in the works, and a potential missing person(s) report if their parents noticed that they were missing. Plus, it’s the police’s job to handle the “dirty” work down here. It’s not odd.  We just… bumped into Henry on the way inside. Is it really that strange, though?But… ...Oh. And here we have the crux of the matter: the police loving suck! Grandma Hobbles got her purse stolen by some hooligan? Officer Jimmy’s too busy taking a donut break to give a drat. Drug deals in the Back Alley section of Crossbell? Lieutenant Carlos can’t stop for nothin’, because it’s his anniversary, he needs to pick up a gift from the antique store real quick-like, and he’s late for their dinner already. Tommy the cat stuck in the tree? Inspector Lestride is too busy trying to figure out who murdered this ‘Clauss Ushiromiyu’ fellow in a locked room mystery until that jackass Hercules Potoir or the little old lady across the street, Miss Garble comes along and steals his thunder. And don’t get anyone started on time cops. Orbal Facebook and Something Awful already have people shitposting and complaining about time cops endlessly. There is zero honor found in being a time cop according to this culture. Full stop. I - wait a second here… w-what’s this…?  W-Who am I, then…? Who’s doing this LP!? Someone tell me! Someone tell me! Everyone looks startled at this revelation.  Dad says that they’re stuck-up, and they don’t help you at all. In times of need, bracers are ten… no, twenty times as reliable!... ...Figures…R-Ryu… you’re being rude. It doesn’t matter if they’re the police. They helped us.I-I know, but… I thought they were from the Guild…The Crossbell arc is interesting in that we’re kinda playing the opposite role we did in the Liberl arc. Instead of playing as a motley crew of bracers, we’re playing as a policeman and a bunch of his coworkers. It’s also the same in terms of expanse - we explored every inch of the Liberl arc and visited various different locales. But in Crossbell, we’re more or less confined to the city itself and various towns on the outskirts. But back to what I was saying: it’s interesting how we’re playing as the equivalent of the town guard when we were playing as the bracers before, since it’s partly because of the bracers and their inflated rep from the Liberl incident that brought us to the situation we’re in right now. Essentially, we’re playing as Captain Vimes and the rest of the guard from Guards! Guards! ...Well, except for the fact that Lloyd Bannings isn’t a hardboiled drunk that loiters around pubs all day long.   Hey, watch out!Huh…?...!?Above us…!?Peril  And then suddenly giant amoeba out of nowhere! No, really. It just descends from the ceiling like Batman in the night. I feel like our heroes really failed their spot checks on this one. Or maybe it’s a ninja slime. Maybe natural selection allowed it enough leeway to allow slimes to become part ninja.  Waah!Tch…!I think we’ve got a bit too big of a catch here, Lloyd!I-It’s big… ...This is bad. The door behind us has been locked.At this rate…!Hey, what’re we gonna do!?Fight it? C’mon, we can take this chump. I’ve seen more threatening blocks of Jell-O than this idi-  Oh. He’s right. This guy comes back for round two in a late game sidequest, where we can fight him properly.  I’ll draw it away from here. You guys escape while I keep it distracted!W-Wait!Are you crazy…!?It’s the only thing we CAN do right now! Randy, Elie, grab the kids and take the first opportunity you see and run!Tch… that our only option!?N-No...M-Mister...Splitting the party already, huh? I’m down. Let’s do this thing! I’m a little dinged up from the last battle, but I’m still in prime condition. C’mon, c’mo-   The camera pans over to a catwalk.      S-Seriously…!?Unbelievable…...I couldn’t see him.W-WOOOOOOOOW!Ryu and Henry crowd around Darkhair McBishonen after his flashy display. Hey, where’s my hero worship…?  That… was so cool!Thank you, Mr. MacLaine! But… why are you here? Someone notified the Guild that children were seen entering the Square manhole.You were rash. What would you have done if the worst had happened? Oh… Sorry…Sorry… But what’s important is that you’re alright, so we’ll leave it at that. It’s already sunset, so let’s head home, alright?Yeah!*sigh* Mom is going to be so mad… ...What’s wrong? Aren’t you heading back?Oh, uh… you’re right. We’ll tag along. Then don’t dawdle. Something like this could happen again. Don’t let your guard down until it’s over.Arios leaves with Henry and Ryu in tow.  What a geezer, huh? Might just be me, but he had a sorta edgy aura ‘round him.That ability of his with the blade isn’t normal either. Who is he?Right, he’s…You know him, milady?Only by name....Why are you calling me that, by the way?Wellllllll I just felt like it.So who IS he?Yes, he’s more than likely…Arios MacLaine. The strongest A-rank bracer at Crossbell’s Bracer Guild branch… Finishing all sorts of requests, garnering great trust from the citizens, and heralded as the true guardian of Crossbell…
Pyre of Word Salsa fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Mar 23, 2018 |
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Mar 23, 2018 02:16
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Explorer Time Go on, get your pals We'll head for far-a- -Way locales   I don't know who this MacLaine joker's supposed to be but he's sure no Cassius Bright.
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Mar 23, 2018 03:07
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No one is.
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Mar 23, 2018 03:33
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I think that's supposed to be Divine Blade of Wind, because you know... translations are hard. Early on though, he does seem to be drawing a lot of similarities to Liberl's divine blade, bailing out our protagonists from a sticky situation while they're out finding children.
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Mar 23, 2018 06:29
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If Arios is the Divine Blade of Wind, what element is Cassius?
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Mar 23, 2018 08:08
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Some Numbers posted:If Arios is the Divine Blade of Wind, what element is Cassius? 8-Leaves isn't really divided into elements, it's just that the Second Form is named Gale, which ties neatly into a wind theme. Going by what he says in The 3rd, Cassius has mastered both the Void and Helix forms. Helix presumably involves a lot of spinning and centrifugal force, and Void I've no idea.
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Mar 23, 2018 08:39
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A-rank would put him on the same level as Zin from Liberl, our slow alcoholic king fu master, so I look forward to seeing what this guy is all about.
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Mar 23, 2018 08:43
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Billzasilver posted:A-rank would put him on the same level as Zin from Liberl, our slow alcoholic king fu master, so I look forward to seeing what this guy is all about. Keep in mind A-rank is as high as you can get without solving an international incident, so it doesn't necessarily imply that someone is of inferior martial strength; it's possible they just haven't had the opportunity to deal with the sort of incident that allows you to ascend to S-rank.
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Mar 23, 2018 23:50
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In addition, being a Divine Blade implies that he's very likely on par with Cassius.Terper posted:8-Leaves isn't really divided into elements, it's just that the Second Form is named Gale, which ties neatly into a wind theme. Going by what he says in The 3rd, Cassius has mastered both the Void and Helix forms. Helix presumably involves a lot of spinning and centrifugal force, and Void I've no idea.
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Mar 24, 2018 00:33
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Hmmm... I know another anime character with the title of Sword Saint (Karel from Fire Emblem 6), which leaves me to believe that the original term in Japanese for Divine Blade is Kensei (剣聖). Is this what it is in Japanese? Well, for Arios, it might be something like Kensei no Fuujin or Kensei no kaze.
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Mar 24, 2018 02:35
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No Olivier appearance yet, -17/10
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Mar 24, 2018 03:20
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Junpei posted:Hmmm... A cursory Google search says that you're right, though it's Kaze no kensei.
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Mar 24, 2018 03:52
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Junpei posted:Hmmm... There’s a very popular sumo wrestling manga right now, hinomoru zumo, where all the best sumo wrestlers get nicknamed after legendary Japanese swords. I guess “divine blades” is a well established naming system. Edit: sword saint seems to be a different term used for like...samurai masters that don’t even need a sword?
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Mar 24, 2018 06:49
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Ytlaya posted:Keep in mind A-rank is as high as you can get without solving an international incident, so it doesn't necessarily imply that someone is of inferior martial strength; it's possible they just haven't had the opportunity to deal with the sort of incident that allows you to ascend to S-rank. Wasn't S strictly informal? You're not going to need to distinguish between someone like Zin or Agate and Cassius frequently enough to need an extra rank. Incidentally, aren't people starting to call Zin S-rank since the resolution of the Sky games?
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Mar 25, 2018 13:07
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Part 5: “Instead, his worshipful highness, Chief Sarcasto ripped us a new one.” Afternoon in Crossbell  Well, at least we’re out of the techno sewers and into the fresh breeze and mildly polluted scent of Crossbell. And… well, well, well, who do we have here? Fancy meeting you here, Crossbellian bootleg Not!Cassius Bright. I wish we could’ve met under better circumstances, but now that you’ve seen our faces, you must die.    How did you feel about saving these poor boys from the city’s careless management of their facilities? The danger lurking underneath our proud city of Crossbell!? The foul, demoralizing stench of the sewers as our hero (that’s you) pressed onwards bravely? Run! Hide! Board up your windows and children! Crossbell Times is here.  ...M-Mom is going to be SO angry at m-me…...Grace, don’t make a scene. While City Management is mainly at fault, we can’t overlook the actions these children have committed. A biased article is out of the question. Biased? Me? Noooope~, it’s about living up to the expectations of Oscar on West Street, or Irma in the Backalley. Readers, Arios. It’s all about the readers!...And who do we have here?!?Grace pushes her way past Arios.  But with victory snatched away by the jaws of a bracer as usual, how will they claim that achievement for themselves? Will these children of law epiphanize their inexperience and get over the <barriers> waiting for them as a result!?Editor’s Note: The original translation for this was “Aah, will these saplings, who have finally realized their inexperience, overcome the future trials waiting for them as a result of this!?”. The whole big theme for Zero is to get over the <wall>, which is the translation that… well, this translation goes with. Personally, I’m gonna go with what XSeed did and replace it with <barrier>, because there’s a reason why the normal battle theme is called “Get Over the Barrier”, not “Get Over the Wall”.  (Hey now… what in the world is she sayin’?)(I think she works in media.)(Maybe she’s from the Crossbell Times?)Their roles in this matter aren’t to be sullied in this matter either. They were the ones who saved the children in the first place.But… I suppose they didn’t follow through to the end, did they?Ah…! Yeah, I knew it. Look, there’s gonna be a lot in this article, but don’t pay any attention to it, alright? Good stuff, demeaning stuff… it’s gonna have it all, alright? Just think of it like… I’m rooting for you guys from the sidelines, ‘kay? ...I really shouldn’t have promised to do that last time. A promise is a promise, though.Meanwhile, tacked onto Grace’s refrigerator back home: Grace’s Blackmail Letter posted:
Grace, Arios, Henry, and Ryu leave the premise.  Clownin’ on us like that makes Randy Orlando angry, but… I think she’s my type. Even if she ain’t all that sound in the head.I don’t think that’s her problem. Lloyd, what are we going to do?Ah. Hm… Well, we’ve accomplished the task Chief Sergei set us out to do, so let’s report in to HQ.We’ll have to report about the incident with the children too…Someone’s ringtone goes off.  The Tactical Orbments we received earlier…? Do they also receive transmissions?Yes, they do. Pressing the red button will activate communications.This one, right?Lloyd presses the button to  Am I talking to Chief Sergei? Mr. Bannings, sir! It’s me! The one you talked to earlier at the front desk…Oh, you’re… what happened?You are to report back to HQ ASAP. The Vice Chief wants to talk to you.The Vice Chief!? Fade to black. C.S.P.D. −Crossbell State Police Department−    Now, all the credit has gone to Maclaine! O-On top of that, it was exposed by the <Crossbell Times>!Wait…Shut it! No excuses, Bannings! Honestly, this is why I was against the establishment of the new post in the first place! If that accursed Sergei hadn’t negotiated with conditions, none of this would’ve happened!...What do you mean by that?Nothing! Nothing at all!Hm… no, wait. Right… I could do that. If there are no subordinates to order around, then there are no pests that need to be swatted down.  Reject your post to the “Special Support Section” within one or two days.What!?Woah there… you ain’t jokin’, are ya?Suspicious…I meant what I said. The “Special Support Section” won’t last a year. It won’t help any of you up the ladder. Quite the opposite, in fact. Sergei phrases it as if it’ll further your career, but you’ll only end up turning your resume into miserable little piles of trash. Isn’t it worthy of idiocy?And like any good ol’ workplace, there are interdepartmental office politics going on in the background. Poor Lloyd. First day on the job, and he’s already suffering from time zone lags from abroad, assigned to a post no one likes, frozen by slimes, trash-talked by children, had all the glory hogged by Arios Maclaine, got even more shitted on by the Crossbell Times, and got his starting salary cut by one of the higher-ups. ...I wouldn’t have the first season of Law and Order: Special Support Section any other way.   That goes for the rest of you as well. I can prepare new assignments for all of you, based on your respective aptitudes. You won’t regret squandering this opportunity. Give it a night and think it over.Fade to black. Will the Special Support Section persevere? Will Lloyd Bannings and the rest of the party stay with Chief Sergei and form into the best drat police force the world has ever seen? Or will they crumble to earth, blown to the dust in the wind? Don’t spoil it for us, Legend of Cold Steel players. I can hear the lurkers waiting in anticipation with bated breath .  Welp, I guess we’ve been caught ‘n a sticky situation, right guys? The old man talked about rejectin’ the assignment…It looks like the police has its own share of problems as well. I’d only heard rumors about it, though…This is different than what I had been brought on for…Huh…? Brought on for…?No… I’m just talking to myself. More importantly, where did Chief Sergei go?Yeah, that’s right. We ain’t even got so much a “hello” from him after completin’ his test. Instead, his worshipful highness, Chief Sarcasto ripped us a new one. Hey, what’s wrong, Lloyd? Feelin’ the blues?Were you really shocked by his proposal?No, it wasn’t that. I was just… kind of shocked by how different working for the police was compared to how I’d imagined it to be.Huh…? Two detectives wander on over onscreen.   Detective Donovan. 2nd Crime Division.I’m Ray. Also from 2nd Crime Division. Man... I’d heard the rumors making the rounds, but even I didn’t think there’d be a kid.(...Hmph…)It’s nice to meet you. I’m Lloyd Bannings.Elie MacDowell.Randy Orlando. Nice to meetcha. I see, so you’re…Inspector…?No, it’s nothing....What do you think they have in the vending machines over there? Protein drinks?  Trying to garner support from the population? And using greenies, no less?......What… do you mean by that?Wait… you haven’t heard about it yet? *sigh* Me and my big mouth…Yeeeeeeah, you guys drew the short straw. I’d reject the position if I were you. It’s probably a pain in the rear end......And this is why you need to grit your teeth more. Aidios, I could throw you into Sergei’s warm embrace, if you want. Anyways… give it a night to think this over. Working with Sergei’s no bedtime story. Just… just don’t push yourself, alright? If you’d like, I could take you all on in our division.T-Thanks.Just do your best. That’s all we can ask for.And… Elie, right? Do you want to go out eat, sometime? There’s this great restaurant in the Square, and I think it’d be gre-Shut up, Ray! We’re leaving!Hey, I was just being the perfect gentleman to the perfect lady… alright, alright, fine.The 2nd Crime Division duo exits via the elevator.   Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I think lloydbannings.exe has long since crashed into another car while backing out of the driveway.  ...I think the straw we drew was the shortest one…Anyways, we’ll need to hear about this from the Chief himself. Maybe we should ask the receptionist?...Yeah, you’re right.The transmitter starts ringing.   It’s me. The Vice Chief is done with you, right? Aidios, I need to drink to get rid of my headache whenever he talks.Agreed. He’s… I mean, no! Where are you!? Didn’t you tell us to wait at HQ?Your luggage arrived, so I’ve been supervising the move in. Yeah, I know. I’m the best.Luggage? So… you’re at the dorms right now?Yeah. We’ll talk once you actually make your way over here. I’ll be waiting.*sigh* Roger that.So, where are the dorms?Technically it’s not a dorm....
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Mar 26, 2018 23:29
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afternoon in crossbell is a great track
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Mar 26, 2018 23:50
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YOU'RE A LLOOSE CANNINGS, LLOYD BANNINGS
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Mar 27, 2018 00:11
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Ahem, it's Trails of Cold Steel sir, and furthermore  Lloyd's first day is still going better than Leon's at least!
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Mar 27, 2018 00:34
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Pyre of Word Salsa posted:Don’t spoil it for us, Legend of Cold Steel players. I can hear the lurkers waiting in anticipation with bated breath https://soundcloud.com/anime_sonicmega/rean-coldsteel
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Mar 27, 2018 01:15
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  I hope this is Lloyd’s reoccurring thing for the whole game
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Mar 27, 2018 02:17
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Billzasilver posted:
Why would you hope that Lloyd is secretly Squall? Wasn't Squall a terrible protagonist?
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Mar 27, 2018 02:24
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Mar 27, 2018 22:40
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Sean Chiplock, the voice actor for the Cold Steel protagonist, is a Zemurian treasure.
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Mar 27, 2018 22:49
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Some Numbers posted:Sean Chiplock, the voice actor for the Cold Steel protagonist, is a Zemurian treasure. Agreed. In less CS-y news, holy poo poo, this is not looking good for our protagonists.
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Mar 28, 2018 01:39
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Hiya. Sorry for disappearing (again) for a month or so. I've been busy with school projects and finals that have been steadily draining my sanity meter, so I haven't had much free time. Finals end this week, so I'll have an update this weekend and a couple of days after that.
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May 2, 2018 08:06
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Part 6: "Welcome home, Lloyd." The Starry Sky Misty in the Night   And so we transition from sunset to evening. It could just be me, but that felt like a little over a month long...  Looks like a ratty ol’ place. It’s all gloomy and musty compared to the department store…It was built 30 years ago. I think it was slated to be demolished soon....Are we really stationed here?I-I don’t think Chief Sergei is the type to pull a prank on us, but still…  Get inside. I know you have questions. I’ll answer all of them.Fade to black.   Yeah, that’s what the “Special Support Section” is designed to accomplish. In order to respond to any emergencies from the citizens, we’ve set up shop in this office.Makes sense, right?W-Wait, but then we’re…!Wouldn’t we be copying the Bracer’s Guild in this instance?Plagiarism. Copyright infringement.Uh-huh.You probably know about this already, but the Bracer’s Guild eclipses the Police in terms of support from Crossbell’s populace. Not only do we have Arios MacLaine, the “Divine Blade of the Wind” stationed at the Crossbell Bracer Branch, we also have a few other Bracers to contend with. You know what this means to the bigwigs in the department?W-Well…Crossbell’s population will compare the differences between the police and the Bracer’s Guild, and our flaws as a peacekeeping organization will be pointed out…Not only that, it will lead to criticism about our government.Yup, yup. Here we go again. So our end goal in this mess is to shove the Guild aside as risin’ stars in popularity....Shameful.Two months later...  In a shocking twist, the Special Support Section was shut down two months later, following the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the Crossbell Bracer Guild Branch. At the end of what would later be called Police v Bracer Guild, the judge decided that ultimately the Special Support Section had infringed on the Bracer Guild’s copyright, and would have to make reparations in the sum of 5,000,000 mira, 10,000 of which had to be paid each month until the sum was fully delivered.  The department, at the vice-captain’s insistence, fired Sergei. Sergei handed in his badge and packed up his belongings, disappearing into the Backalley of Crossbell, never to be seen again. Some in the department say that he never existed at all.  Detective Lloyd Bannings was demoted to Patrol Officer, spending the rest of his days patrolling the streets of Crossbell and enduring all the cries and taunts of “gently caress THE POLICE!” and the various Special Support Section memes floating around the Orbal Network… that is, until he couldn’t pay off the debts he owed to the Bracer Guild, and was forced to abuse his position as a police officer as the local mafia, Revache Co., bribed him. Lloyd Bannings was sentenced to prison for two years… and then two more years… and then two years after that. Look, you get the point…  Elie MacDowell, having realized how powerless the police was, resigned from her position as an office lady one month later. One year later, a new totalitarian-dictatorship would emerge from the mayoral election, and an army would be formed to overthrow the Erebonian Empire and the Republic of Calvard… Tio Plato… went back to her job at the Epstein Foundation. I dunno. What do you want from me? Randy Orlando fell into alcoholism, and spent all of his money on women, drink, and gambling. He died at the age of 24 after getting shanked in a dark alleyway due to being unable to pay off his gambling debts.  However, the police’s founding principles are maintaining public order and adhering to the statute of self-governance… helping the citizens has always been a secondary concern....Which is why there are a lot of bigwigs in the department who don’t approve of a popularity grab like this, calling us names like “utility workers”, “fake Bracers”, or “Special Support Blehtion”... Like I’ve said, there’s been some harsh critique. I… understand.Boy, oh boy… you’re tellin’ us to work at THIS post?...This exceeds expectations.Hey, hold on a sec. There’s no rush.You’ve probably heard about this already, but you have the option to refuse this assignment. If you stay on, you’ll have to complete various jobs… including monster infestations like today. And that includes small chores, such as helping out at HQ and looking for a watch that someone lost… Honestly, I can’t imagine it’s up anyone’s forte. If you reject this assignment, you’ll be reassigned to another unit, but you won’t be demoted. It’s up to you.Fade to black. Tender Heart  A night? Pfft, c’mon Sergei. You know everyone’s ready and rarin’ to g—  —Oh. Or maybe not. A lifetime of cowboy detective acts, handing in his badge, and chasing after dastardly villains? Maybe. Helping Grandma Patch across the street…? Ehhhhhhhh…  Pretend Bracers, huh…? I didn’t join the police for something like this…..."Oh woe is me" Lloyd Banning's hath said "my careth'r in the f'rce shouldn't has't begun with this farce. "  The unit that solves major incidents, as well as political and international matters across the globe... ...This is too different.Lloyd gets up and tucks the photo away in one of his pockets.  They didn’t go to the police academy, but it looks like they’ve got their own reasons for joining the force…I’ll go talk to them for a bit. Post-cutscene, we end up on the second floor of the Special Support Section Detachment Building (bleh, that’s a mouthful). The SSS consists of three stories, which contain Sergei’s office, the men’s dorms, and the women’s dorms respectively. Like Lloyd said, we have to talk with everyone to proceed to the next scene, “everyone” being Elie, Randy, and Tio. Since Randy’s room (and the loud music he’s probably playing in the background) is right next to Lloyd’s, we’ll hit him up first.   It’s me, Lloyd. Do you mind if we talk for a bit?Yeah, sure. C’mon in, my man.Alright. ...Well, someone hit up Ikea for all of his furniture. Better than Lloyd and his cardboard stool at any rate.  You already finished unpacking your stuff?N-No… not yet....But it looks like you’ve made your decision already, Randy.About the assignment? Well, I can slack off just fine, and it ain’t lookin’ like there’s too much desk work. And heck, havin’ my workplace and home be the one and same place makes things easier, so I plan to stick it out.I see…Hey, you’re the one havin’ a hard time of things, if anythin’. Guess you don’t want your new and shiny Detective’s license to go to waste, right?...Yeah, there’s that too. But… even without that, this is gonna take me away from the goal I’ve been pursuing this whole time.Your goal…?N-No… forget I said anything. But… that does remind me — why were you assigned here? You’re older than the rest of us, but you didn’t go to the academy, right?Yeah… hole in one, ace. Hm… how’d I end here, huh? You really wanna know?I-If you don’t mind, of course.Well, here it comes then… O-Oh.You seeeeee… people found out I got involved with a bunch of ‘em at my last workplace. The old man took me in the fold when I was about to get fired. But this is all part of Aidios’ great plan, y’know?I… where was your last workplace, Randy?The CGF — you know, the Crossbell Guardian Force. No biggie. You remember the gate on the border between Crossbell and the Erebonian Empire? I was stationed there.The Guardian Force…? I guess you reall never know… No wonder you can swing around that halberd like it’s nothing.Well, when you’re stationed that close to the border, it’s either train, train, train or patrol, patrol, patrol. And if I’m stationed in Crossbell itself, I can go gambling or meetin’ up with beauties whenever I want.Maaaaaan, I seriously made the right decision when I decided to call it quits with the Guardian Force~ Oh? We see eye-to-eye, hombre?...You know, I’ve found a couple of shops with some… fine ladies workin’ in them. What say you and me go out and have some fun together once we’re officially buds? Milady seems stuffed with prim and proper, and the Entertainment District ain’t no place for kids. It’ll be a guys night out.Heh, alright… I’ll take you up on that offer. But in any case, that’s it for Randy’s story — he was leveling up too many female Social Links while on the job, and his superiors raised some eyebrows at that. …? What are you looking at me like that for? No, that’s really his only backstory. Trails is a simple series with simple worldbuilding. Nothing else to it. Go home.  Our next stop is Elie’s room. The women’s dorms are on the third floor, which we had to climb the stairs for. If we go up one more time, we’ll hit the roof. There’s like… one time where we actually go to the roof for anything.  It’s me, Lloyd. Are you free right now?I don’t mind. Please come in. ...Well, I see that Elie is more of an Ethan Allen kinda gal. I can respect that.   Please sit down over there. I’ll make black tea for us.No, it’s fine. But… it looks like you’ve made your decision as well, Elie.In regards to the assignment, correct? I was a little unsure at first, but I decided to stay.I see…But aren’t you the one who’s indecisive right now?I don’t blame you. Honestly… the Special Support Section is a little unreasonable.! Unreasonable?From what the Chief told us, the Special Support Section was formed due to various obligations and self-interest, right? It lacks rationale as an organization, and its goals aren’t clear. So the only conclusion that we can draw is that, depending on the budget, there’s a high chance that we’ll be dissolved depending on our results.Logically, that’s what would happen. But in that case, what’s your reason for staying? Do you have a specific reason?I do. Oh…*giggle* I’m joking. I don’t think I’ll stay as a member of the police forever, so I don’t have to worry about whether or not my current position will lead to a promotion.That’s true. If I remember correctly, you never went to the academy, right? Why did you join the police?...I’m actually learning about society and politics. I took a written exam and a marksmanship test when I joined up, but they couldn’t reject me since I scored perfectly on both.Y-You know, the more I hear about everyone’s backstories, the more I compare it with my own.Oh? But isn’t it unusual for someone to pass the detective’s exam on their first try? You have your own reason, don’t you?...I…*giggle* Let’s continue this conversation after we’ve become co-workers.Gotcha… sorry about this…It’s no problem. But if you were to ask me… I’d be happier if you stayed on.Huh…?We’re both new, and we have a lot to work on… but even though Chief Sergei dropped this job on us out of nowhere, you performed admirably as our leader. Your instructions were clear cut as well, so I was able to calmly provide support without any difficulties.Ha, I’m glad to hear that… Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. I just need to think things over myself.  Alright, that’s two conversations out of the way with. Last, but not least, we have Tio, who’s right next door to Elie. You’ll notice that there are a lot of rooms empty on the second and third floors. The rooms will fill up eventually… just not in this game. So for now, they’ll just be forlorn and be used to store Sergei’s bottles of booze or something.    As you might’ve surmised, part of this whole segment is getting you accustomed to the SSS Detachment Building. We won’t be exploring the upper levels too much over the course of the game, but dammit they made the maps for it and they’ll make sure you know it. At the same time though, this is our headquarters for the entire game, so we want to grow accustomed with the layout.   Tio’s actual location is on the first floor of the building. We find her hooking up the ...Do you think they use Moogle Chrome or Mozilla Pyrepanther as their network browser?  As you can see, I’m hooking up the terminal....Terminal…? You mean that…? If we hook it up, we’ll be able to transmit and receive communication from HQ.Uh… huh…? Tch. What, you’ve never taken a class on Computer Science or Technobabble before, Lloyd? They were offering them as an elective in the academy.  Mr. Bannings, how much do you know about the “Orbal Network Project”?The “Orbal Network”? I’ve seen it tossed around in the magazines sometimes, but I can’t make anything out of it. Isn’t the Epstein Foundation involved in it…?It was originally a joint project between the Epstein Foundation and the ZCF (Zeiss Central Factory). But now, it’s just the Epstein Foundation. It’s currently being tested in Crossbell. My assignment here is a part of that.Well, I’m a simple kind of guy. What are you going to do with it anyways?*sigh* In layman terms, it’s… something that improves on our current communication devices. Not only does it exchange conversations, it also links terminals together and constructs an efficient information network. Tio just pulls her best “this loving ignoramus” face at this dork. I dunno, kid… Lloyd seems to be the type that’s still fascinated by stuff like lightbulbs or VHS tapes. Too much information might make his head explode.  You… wouldn’t be necessarily incorrect. At least with this terminal.It’s not my specialty, but I should be able to operate this terminal without any difficulties. We are probably going to use it in the future, so I decided to give it a cursory maintenance check.O-Oh....I guess you didn’t even think twice about rejecting the post, right Tio?...When I was your age, my only concern was to play and have fun. You were transferred here from the Foundation, right? …Uh, you weren’t forced to work here or anything, were you?......Wait, I wasn’t right, was I!?Even if you need the money, that’s a violation of your rights! Uh… If you’re fine with me, I can help you out as much as you ne—Calm down. I’m not being coerced into anything. I was actually transferred by my own request....I have my own reasons for being here… but shouldn’t you worry about yourself before worrying about others…?I… yeah, you’re right. As usual. Sorry for being pushy.No… I was just thinking that being so soft would have negative impacts on your investigations. Unlike Bracers, you have to question every person’s motives, correct?Oof, that hurt.But I can’t deny that I’m soft. But it’s true that I’m not fit to be a detective just because I can wave around some shiny license....Tio…?I’ve finished my diagnosis of the terminal. Apparently, the orbal cables will be hooked up to it tomorrow, so I’ll turn in early.I see… good night, then.Thank you. Well then…Tio heads for the stairs.  Good night.  So I’m the only one left…...............This isn’t good. I’m getting nowhere. I’ll head out and get some fresh air. Out we go then. The front door to the SSS is opposite to the stairs we came down from. From here…  ...We pop back out from where we came from. There’s actually a backdoor on the first floor that’s connected to West Street. But we’ll get to it when we get a chance to explore the city properly. I haven’t talked about Crossbell itself too much so far, but rest assured that it’s huge.  I’m really back, aren’t I? The town I lived in wasn’t all that small either.Lloyd notices something over to the left (West Street).  The <Bellheim> Apartments… that’s right, they can be seen from here. Heh… I’m sure there are different people living in our apartment now.Cecil’s family are probably still there, though… oh, that’s right. I’ll have to visit them later. (After Uncle adopted me, I entered the academy… I studied and trained and I took the detective exams, but… I… what did I want to do after becoming a detective?)Fortunately, having a midlife crisis an hour into the game isn’t an option at this juncture.   … Man’s voice. MAN’S VOICE.  *huff* I was looking for you. We went to the police, but they told us you weren’t there!They told us you were here....Um… this is where the Special Support Section is, right?Y-Yeah, that’s right. Why did you come here this late at night…?W-Well, uh… we never got the chance to thank you properly.Huh…?If you weren’t there, Ryu or me would’ve been hurt or… or…...That’s why we wanted to thank you one more time.I see… thanks for visiting us this late at night, then.T-Tch. W-Well… you weren’t as useful as Mr. Arios, but… you’ll be a good addition to the police if you decide to stay. You should work hard from here on out, alright? We came to thank them, b-but you just had to…Ha ha… that’s right. We’ll just need to work harder from now on.Oh, right. Where do you two live? If you want, I’ll take you guys home.It’s okay! I live in West Street, so my house is right nearby!U-Uh… I live in the Residential District, but I should be fine as well. And uh, can you say hi to Elie and Tio (and Randy) for us also?Yeah, I’ll tell them. Take care on the way back, alright?Okay!Bye!Ryu and Henry leave.  I guess getting thanked really does cheer you up. That’s just how it goes.  If you’re a real man, break through against whatever’s blocking your path. Use your heart… find the truth… If you do that, you’ll be able to find your own path. If I don’t do anything, I won’t be able to follow my path.*cough*<path>*cough* Lloyd walks back into the building. The phone rings.   Lloyd walks over to the phone.  You’ve reached the number for the CSPD Special Support Section. Can I he— Wha— Cecil!? *sigh* Thank Aidios. When I called the police department, they gave me this number. The… “Special Support Section”? That’s where you’re assigned to, right?Unofficially, right now. But more importantly, sorry for not visiting you right away.No, it’s fine. I should’ve picked you up when you arrived, but…You don’t need to worry about that. You’re busy with work, right? I’ll visit when you have some time off.My, my, that’s cold of you, Lloyd. Aren’t we practically family at this point? You haven’t seen me for three years, and this is how I get treated… yes, I see how it is.Aw geez… look, I’ll make it up to you later. Oh, and I’m visiting uncle and aunt tomorrow.Sure. My mom and dad have been worried about you. But… *giggle*... I’m happy. You’re finally back.Yeah…  So this scene actually happens tomorrow on the Zero no Kiseki timeline. But I think I’d rather show it off right now and give you guys a little cliffhanger.  To our Goddess Aidios who is in heaven. Open the heavenly gates for the soul making its way to you...Gazing at Your Back  (I can’t believe it… he was larger than life itself. How could he die!?)(I heard he was going to be married soon… why did something like this…)(Goddammit! What are the police doing!? One of their own was murdered, right!? Are they going to let this go unsolved!?)(And… that boy’s parents are gone as well, right? What is he going to do…?)  Don’t push yourself, okay? You haven’t been sleeping much. ...You too, Cecil. Sorry that you had to help me so much. I could’ve taken care of this myself, you know…...Don’t be like that. We’re family, aren’t we? Besides, to me… Guy was my…............Cecil…...I’m sorry. You’re the one who’s suffering the most right now. Life… will be hard from now on, but… please don’t hesitate to rely on me, alright?Until you can get back on your own two feet, I’ll support you...
Pyre of Word Salsa fucked around with this message at 05:11 on May 12, 2018 |
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May 8, 2018 23:37
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The fact that her name is spell "Cecil" is going to drive me crazy all game.
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May 8, 2018 23:56
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Some Numbers posted:The fact that her name is spell "Cecil" is going to drive me crazy all game.
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May 9, 2018 04:11
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I'm used to calling her Cecile myself. I really like this introduction the most though. Where FC took forever to introduce the characters and Cold Steel kinda threw you in the deep end with no real reason to care about the other characters until chapters they become relevant in, Zero starts off fairly simply, briskly and sets up the core cast of characters in the game quickly. By the end of the prologue you know who your party will be, what kind of people they are like and why they joined the SSS. It creates a really good dynamic and because of the focus on the smaller cast and setting, I think Crossbell and the characters who live there feels the most developed in the series so far.
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May 9, 2018 07:00
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Well, at least the SSS is owning "Okay, yes we're ripping off the Bracer Guild. Deal with it."
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May 9, 2018 12:18
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I don't think you can copyright "helping out civilians with their requests", but what do I know?
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May 11, 2018 20:03
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I really like that every single entry int he series is about being in the Bracer's Guild or copying them directly.
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May 11, 2018 23:07
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