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Episode LXXXVIII: Covenant.jpg)  Video: Click Here For the Ending of Shadow Hearts! It's exactly the same until the post-credits..jpg) Nobody believed the crazy tales from the Welsh about how an unholy castle rose from the sea and exploded just shortly before... .jpg) ...whatever the hell all of this looked like from the ground. Indeed, I don't think anyone even so much as casually mentions the time a golden halo encircled the planet for a few weeks. People back in the early 1900s lost interest in that sort of phenomena extraordinarily quickly, you see.  Music: Black Cat Floating in Blue Sky .jpg)  And so, our battle came to an end. The god awakened by human hands was returned to sleep once again by human hands. On the morning after, a refreshing breeze blew across Wales and the horrible events leading up to yesterday seemed like nothing more than a bad dream. Soon, it was time to say farewell to everyone.There was a day with nice weather in Wales. So you know something weird was up. .jpg) Keith, our handsome vampire, grew weary of the hustle and bustle of the outside world and so he returned, once again, to his peaceful castle in Transylvania. I wonder how long he’ll sleep this time. Goodnight and sweet dreams, dear friend...Keith REALLY wants to just take a nap but he's too polite to tell his succubus roommates to give it a rest for the night. .jpg) Master Zhuzhen, our brave Adept, has gone back to Shanghai to mend the disruptions in the energy fields of China. You taught us so much, Master Zhuzhen. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. And please, try not to over-exert yourself!Thus Zhuzhen went back to the land where random battles were at a reasonable rate for a guy still only at Level 29 at his age. .jpg) Our beloved spy for hire said she planned to go home to Paris, but she joked that her next assignment was probably already waiting for her. So there’s no telling where she might be right now.Well, she has about three more years to go before she faces a firing squad for being just an awful spy. So there is that... .jpg) Halley, that cute little street boy we met in London, set sail from Southampton with his mother, Koudelka, to find his long-lost father in America. Finally, they’ll be able to live together as a family. I pray you’ll all find happiness.And they were never heard from again... Even in the spin-off sequel that takes place in America 15 years later that would be an easy lay-up for a nice little cameo. .jpg) As for me... I’m headed for Zurich, where my mother’s waiting. With Yuri, of course!"Hey, mom. So you might have heard dad exploded a year back. Sorry, I haven't gotten in touch with you. I got teleported to China and then taken into custody by Imperial Japan before a warlock tried to abduct me. It's a really long story. Anyway, that's how I met Yuri here. He is a... hmm... between jobs. And residencies. We've had quite the adventure together. So, is it OK if we move home for a bit while we sort things out...?" Music: Shadow Hearts .jpg) In the stardust desert, an abandoned fish tank and us With our arms around our knees, By the moonlight that fell on the water's surface And the shades of flowing clouds I measured the time. What I see with open eyes is the heat haze - a lie What I only see with eyes closed might be the future Now, with closed eyes, I’m watching you. Shadow hearts colour’d all in blue. Shadow. The endless caravan drags its heavy feet, Continuing to the other side of the horizon Surely this wounded world is filled with wounded people among us also. If that fish tank were to overflow with the tears of the fish and the blood this planet sheds Would everyone realize their mistakes? Now, with my eyes closed, I’ll listen to your dream. Shadow. What I see with open eyes is the heat haze - a lie What I only see with eyes closed might be the future Now, with closed eyes, I’m watching you. Shadow hearts color'd all in blue. Shadow. Shadow hearts color'd all in blue. Shadow. .jpg) Hey, it's almost like that was the same exact ending. Well, here comes the key difference... .jpg) .jpg) .jpg)  As the warlock said in the end....jpg) ...even if another age of storms buffets this world....jpg) I intend to go on living and fighting. For you who freed me from the darkness. .jpg) For the one I love....jpg) I mean... Franz Ferdinand was an archduke, not a prince, but the outcome was the same... .jpg) In retrospect, it was probably kind of ominous they named it World War I as soon as it started. For reference, this blurb also appeared in the Good Ending path. I just omitted it because well... "Hey, by the way Europe is engulfed in one of the most horrific wars in human history until the next one in a couple decades" is a bit much of a bummer for an ending that isn't even canon. .jpg) In any event, that is the canonical conclusion of Shadow Hearts. It was a strange, kind of blatantly rushed in places, somewhat sloppily translated and very poorly balanced journey full of early PS2 era jank. But I still enjoyed my time with it, warts and all, none the less. And I hope you did too. It's a shame Yuri and Alice's story ends on such a downer note. But, I suppose it cannot be helped... Shadow Hearts the last game Sacnoth Digital Entertainment ever made, after all... The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Feb 22, 2019 |
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Feb 21, 2019 19:18
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Aside from the previous stuff with the masks, that was a surprisingly subdued death. Still super sad though.
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Feb 21, 2019 19:48
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Feb 21, 2019 19:53
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Thanks TDI, it's been a pretty good ride, as always.
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Feb 21, 2019 20:06
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Well, that was a bit of a bummer.
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Feb 21, 2019 20:19
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I was half expecting this ending to bleed out cast members, or at least for Alice to die before the epilogue. But she held on bravely until the end, going out not with a bang but with a whimper. Oh and then the Great War happened, The End! Goddamn, what a bummer.  Thanks for showing off Koudelka 1 and 2! They've got flaws but they're both charming games and now I know why the Shadow Hearts series has the following it does.
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Feb 21, 2019 20:25
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Atman you jerk
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Feb 21, 2019 20:30
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I love Shadow Hearts, weird as it is. I think it gets the mix between 'everyone's a goddamn occult superhero now' and 'oh gently caress everything is on fire' from Koudelka down really well. Thanks for showing it off. I lost my copy a long time ago and it was great to see it again.
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Feb 21, 2019 20:43
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Thanks for the fun reminiscent ride back through one of the first PS2 games I ever played, TDI! Brainamp posted:Aside from the previous stuff with the masks, that was a surprisingly subdued death. Still super sad though. Yeah, like I remembered it for sure being more blatant and in your face. It must've just been the masks and Atman being so ridiculous about it that I half-remembered that as being what happened directly.
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Feb 21, 2019 20:58
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Back on page 25 I made some predictions at the halfway point. Let's see how I did!quote:Confident predictions: 1. Mind graveyard - YES 2. Japanese Army useless - YES info about Hyuga - NO 3. Alice and Bacon related - NO 4. World War I - NOT QUITE Correct: 1.5 / 4 quote:Less confident predictions: 1. Zhuzhen died - NO  2. Shanghai rebuilt with laser towers - UNKNOWN but let's say YES 3. Bacon descendant of Bacon - NO 4. Yuri's parents are alive - NO They appear from the mind graveyard - YES 5. Alice and Yuri's parents team up to summon OG Roger Bacon - NO 6. Yuri dies and gets Alice pregnant - NO Correct: 1.5 / 6 Let's tally those up... AW YEAH that's a 100% correct prediction rate! out of a total of 333%
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Feb 21, 2019 21:02
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At least Koudelka and her psychic kid get a happy ending either way
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Feb 21, 2019 21:23
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In the end, there are some things not even punching can solve. Well, not canonically in any case. Great LP as always, we can only hope they make a sequel one day so that you can do that one too.
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Feb 21, 2019 21:29
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If this is the last Sacnoth Entertainment game I can at least pretend the good ending is the canonically correct ending... .. Yes I know Shadow Hearts 2 does something interesting with this, but its way too soon to talk about that
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Feb 21, 2019 21:57
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Man, thanks for this. It's been so long since I played this game that half of it was new to me all over again. On the other hand, there's SCHLOOOOP SKREEEEEE, a triumph of voice acting which has never left the crevices of my brain, ever.
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Feb 21, 2019 22:36
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The Dark Id posted:What isn't fun is the party were this fight took fifteen minutes. Looking forward to the next one.
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Feb 21, 2019 23:03
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Oh boy. We saved the world just in time for the largest, most brutal war in history to start. Followed by an even bigger sequel in about twenty five years. Yay. Yeah, knowing actual history does kind of make Simon seem like he had a bit of a point.
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Feb 21, 2019 23:05
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It could have been cool if Alice straight up died before the final boss battle. Would have made some people probably think that maybe Meta-God or Albert had some kind of indirect hand in it, and made you that much more pumped to get this poo poo over with. Disgaea did something similar to that too.
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Feb 22, 2019 00:31
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Always a pleasure following your LPs, TDI. Thanks for showing the good ending, which I didn't figure out as a teenager. I'm gonna just pretend Yuri and Alice get to have a nice life together.
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Feb 22, 2019 01:15
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I've seen characters die in other games before, but for some reason Alice dying this way in the cutscene is particularly sad and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's because she didn't even get to see home one last time, but at least she got to be with Yuri at the end.
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Feb 22, 2019 01:31
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Malachite_Dragon posted:I've seen characters die in other games before, but for some reason Alice dying this way in the cutscene is particularly sad and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's because she didn't even get to see home one last time, but at least she got to be with Yuri at the end. We also know it could have been prevented, and Yuri doesn't even really know why it happened.
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Feb 22, 2019 01:42
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Malachite_Dragon posted:I've seen characters die in other games before, but for some reason Alice dying this way in the cutscene is particularly sad and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's because she didn't even get to see home one last time, but at least she got to be with Yuri at the end. Alice just dies quietly in her sleep. Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Feb 22, 2019 |
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Feb 22, 2019 01:43
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So wait are those slides about Franz Ferdinand in the default ending? Does the good ending stop WWI?
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Feb 22, 2019 02:01
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Kavak posted:So wait are those slides about Franz Ferdinand in the default ending? Does the good ending stop WWI? The Dark Id posted:For reference, this blurb also appeared in the Good Ending path. I just omitted it because well... "Hey, by the way Europe is engulfed in one of the most horrific wars in human history until the next one in a couple decades" is a bit much of a bummer for an ending that isn't even canon.
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Feb 22, 2019 02:02
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I read gud
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Feb 22, 2019 02:14
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Accordion Man posted:It's super understated, which usually doesn't happen when it comes to death in video games, where its usually bombastic and melodramatic stuff like people going out in a blaze of glory or getting a long impassioned dying speech. Yeah, that’s something you rarely see in most media, and almost never in video games. No speech, no goodbye, no wailing loved ones, no gloating villain or grand action scene. Nothing but silence in what was supposed to be the moment of triumph.
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Feb 22, 2019 02:41
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It's also worth noting that if you play it blind and don't know about secret endings this is the ending you get. You spend the entire buildup waiting for some kind of twist/last second fight/whatever and... nope
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Feb 22, 2019 02:44
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Thanks for the LP! Like your others, it's been a pleasure to read.
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Feb 22, 2019 02:54
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It was a good run, TDI. Hope to see you again... Since I'm a loser who can't stand to miss content in an RPG, I had a FAQ open and got the good ending for my one play through. Like other people said, I was really surprised at how understated Alice's death was. like, wow. It's far more moving that way, IMO.
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Feb 22, 2019 03:03
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Geostomp posted:Oh boy. We saved the world just in time for the largest, most brutal war in history to start. Followed by an even bigger sequel in about twenty five years. Yay. Sadly, Europe's totally hosed political situation was not a problem that punching real hard could solve.
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Feb 22, 2019 03:15
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Yeah, I mentioned it before; it was -going- to happen, one way or another. Albert was basically going "They can't murder millions in a pointless war if I murder everyone first!"
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Feb 22, 2019 03:26
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StandardVC10 posted:Sadly, Europe's totally hosed political situation was not a problem that punching real hard could solve. You just need to punch the right people.
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Feb 22, 2019 04:08
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NullBlack posted:You just need to punch the right people. If only Yuri could have been in the right place at the right time to punch away that bullet that shot archduke Franz Ferdinand.
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Feb 22, 2019 04:16
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:If only Yuri could have been in the right place at the right time to punch away that bullet that shot archduke Franz Ferdinand. Failing that: -Punch Kaiser Franz Josef and his ministers in the face to convince them not to issue an ultimatum that would lead to war with Serbia and Russia. -Punch the Tsar in the face to convince him his army's not in any state to challenge Germany. -Punch Kaiser Wilhelm and the German General Staff in the face to convince them not to escalate the war. (Also works for Part 1)
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Feb 22, 2019 04:32
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Thanks for showing this game off thedarkid. Silly as it is this series needs more love.
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Feb 22, 2019 04:48
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I'd say the only other game that does a subtle death scene like that is (spoiler for a 10 year old game) Persona 3 Thanks again, as always, Id. I found this LP to be really cozy for some weird reason  probably because I binged most of the thread before bed .
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Feb 22, 2019 05:12
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This has been a fun lp to follow especially since before you started lping this series I had no idea it existed.
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Feb 22, 2019 05:36
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This was a good ride How long until Shadow Hearts 2 
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Feb 22, 2019 05:47
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When this started, I was excited but also thought to myself, "Do we really need another LP of the Shadow Hearts when there's already one here?" Apparently we do, because this thing loving kicked rear end!
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Feb 22, 2019 06:09
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Kavak posted:Failing that: In Tsarist Russia wouldn't you have to punch Rasputin too, for the sake of this argument? Rasputin should also be punched on general principles, mind you.
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Feb 22, 2019 06:49
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I think the videos for the other SH LPs got lost to the ether when the video host it was on went kablooey. There's so many video and hybrid LPs that became unusuable due to DailyMotion, Vimeo or some other host dying.
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Feb 22, 2019 06:54
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