Shadow Hearts - Koudelka 2 - The Something Awful Forums

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Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

This game totally rules and gets off on the right foot.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2018 03:22

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 01:35

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Edvarius posted:

And yet he's only level 3 at this point. This is a man who reattaches limbs, crushes skulls, and effortlessly bursts through rail cars, and he's level 3.

This is a game of amazing occult superheros and it rules.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 04:17

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Yuri's just wearing all those belts because the first belt he started with made him punch poo poo harder, so he figured four belts would be four times the punching.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2018 00:25

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I think they were trying to get across that Yuri's a weird guy who doesn't walk to people much, they just picked an unfortunate early route for it.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2018 02:35

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Yuri gets his rear end kicked a lot in the game's early bits.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2018 04:02

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Robindaybird posted:

and this is one of the reasons I like Yuri, he doesn't miss the extremely obvious cannibal cues and was 'Okay you know what, let's just beat them up and leave'

I'm pretty sure this was his plan from the second he heard the voice trying to warn him.

He mentioned he's 'never bored' because it always leads him to stuff to punch in the face, after all.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2018 04:14

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I think Yuri just really likes punching poo poo.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2018 04:56

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

EagerSleeper posted:

I honestly like Zhuzhen. In a world where ghosts, demons, and folk magic actually exist it makes sense that each part of the world would have someone around who could deal with those sort of things. It certainly also helps that I'm already a big fan of Chinese folk stories, and classical literature that dealt with the supernatural with the occasional Daoist fulu wandering by.

Zhuzhen is in the same vein as James being a competent magic user. In a world full of demons and monsters, every spiritual tradition in the Shadow Hearts world seems to have its wizards and exorcists to counter them, and they take the form you'd expect.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2018 23:51

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Yuri is just so jazzed to find out what Yamaraja is so he can punch it.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2018 02:42

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Knowing Shadow Hearts the lotion is made from the tears of orphans mixed with the blood of a priest killed on the first full moon of a leap year.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2018 21:27

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

TalkLittle posted:

I totally wasn't expecting Margarete to join the team. I'd guessed you would fight her a couple times throughout the game, maybe as a midgame boss and again during the penultimate stage of the game as she acts as a decoy to allow the bigger badguys to escape to their final lair. Welp.

Someone on this pulp action occult superhero team has to be the person who just shoots people with guns.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2018 21:13

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

'Just start throwing grenades until poo poo makes sense again' is a pretty reasonable response to finding yourself swarmed by occult bullshit.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2018 22:13

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Shadow Hearts is a game about the same kind of material from Koudelka but instead of being a bunch of strangers trying not to die you're a bunch of hardcore shitkicker superheros and so react to things a lot differently.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2018 21:36

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

At least she asked to be paid and had a not-entirely stupid cover story. A little too convenient, sure, but she tried.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2018 15:36

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Also a lot of people who DO encounter it don't survive, and those who do tend to be people like Yuri.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2018 17:37

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Keldulas posted:

Honestly I like Kawashima's and Kato's perspective being included in here. You have the entire party treating what they're doing as completely normal, so it's good to attach some regular person perspective to ground the narrative.

Edward did the same in Koudelka, admitting that he had no idea what was going on and was just trying to punch his way through it all while scared out of his mind.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2018 01:33

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Glazius posted:

How do you join this lottery society in the first place? Wander into the wrong bar in college?

It's sorted entirely by chin, you just can't tell because none of the other members have had character portraits.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2018 13:22

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I love that this part of the game is basically a kung fu movie with slightly more wizards than usual.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2018 19:52

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Roger is about as good a villain as Yuri is a hero.

It works out.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2018 23:07

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I also like that to the end Dehui was mostly the joke he appeared to be the whole time. Just a cavalcade of incompetence that happened to be convenient to Bacon's own research and plots, which he had to help him along in the whole way so the stupid bastard could get anything done.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 14:00

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

McDragon posted:

Keith is an excellent name for a vampire. It's just so normal.

It is fitting, because Keith is a very excellent vampire.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2018 19:36

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I really appreciate the douchey little mustache they gave Kevin.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2018 02:20

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Omobono posted:

I had honestly forgotten that Yuri was squatting at the Valentines'. A friendly vampire hiring some exorcists to evict a monster from his castle is 100% Shadow Hearts.

After helping them fight off a sex pest who turned into the saddest monster dog.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2018 13:33

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

And so Yuri's response to snapping out of his trance is to kick a guy right in the dick.

He's a good kid, that one.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2018 19:26

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

So, uh, do they ever actually touch on the whole 'Alice's father is a Catholic exorcist-priest' thing? There are a couple ways he could have a daughter if I recall, like if he was a Church of England priest who was already married before he converted to Catholicism, but the celibacy thing is a bit of a barrier normally.

I wouldn't think it was so weird (you know, anime Catholicism with its space inquisitors and ninja priests and wizard) if it hadn't been for the fact that James explicitly entered the Church because he was so bereaved over letting Patrick marry Elaine in the previous game.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2018 22:52

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

W.T. Fits posted:

Eh, he was fine, he didn't actually die from it. His brother was able to make him a new head from a gourd that he found until they were able to steal his real head back.

That only makes it better, really.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2018 00:49

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

It must be really fun to be Roger Bacon, just wandering around and distributing cursed books and rites then sitting back and having tea while you watch the explosions.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2018 18:54

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

amigolupus posted:

It's just his way of collecting combat data. It turns out Bacon was one of the co-founders of Umbrella.

In the world of occult hell magic, letting someone else do the extremely dangerous testing for you actually seems rather prudent.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2018 19:36

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

With all the other crazy magic poo poo going on it's not too hard to believe someone has a translation spell or charm.

I mean this is a world where every leather belt was forged by the Gods from the skin of the Nemean Lion and poo poo.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2018 21:48

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Geostomp posted:

Why is it that everyone who gets that Manuscript goes straight to the �reviving the dead through slaughter of innocents� sections? Aren�t there some other bits of forbidden magic in that book that�d require fewer atrocities be less likely to result in an unholy abomination attacking?

Well, both the people who've had it got it right after the emotional pillar of their life died, so they might have skipped ahead to the 'revive the dead' section.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2018 15:32

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

W.T. Fits posted:

Also, if I remember Koudelka correctly, after Roger Bacon successfully used the stuff in the document to make himself immortal, he destroyed those parts of the document to prevent anyone else from doing the same, because he's kind of a dick like that. So there's a nonzero chance that if there was any other stuff in there that wasn't dangerous, he may have already edited it out just for shits and giggles.

Pope really shouldn't have stiffed him.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2018 19:59

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Verant posted:

Cripes, what's with �migr� resurrections creating weird bug-people?

What else would you expect from the mad land of Wales?

# ¿ Oct 26, 2018 00:38

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I would respect evil scientists and wizards more if they admitted combat data is total bullshit and they got into the job just to watch abominations against God fight because it's rad.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2018 16:18

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Does Alice actually work for the church or just have holy magic? I know her father did, obviously.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2018 18:32

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

StandardVC10 posted:

I don't know about that. "The power-mad elites of the world are about to kill millions! NOT IF I KILL MILLIONS FIRST!"

I mean, have you seen the man's hat? As a power-mad elite, he would know.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2018 05:24

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Really Pants posted:

The authorities are unjust, better do a whole bunch of demonology and mass murder

Well, you know, some of the best villains are the ones where the premise sounds reasonable and then their solution just goes right off the loving rails, eight o' clock, day one.

"The authorities don't deserve absolute power and the world would be better if it were more egalitarian and less violent." Good, good-

"Time to do a shitload of evil wizard stuff, then!" No, Simon, no!

# ¿ Nov 16, 2018 19:52

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Also, for context, he went mad after being imprisoned and tortured by his own church.

He's still enjoying being a dapper warlock motherfucker too much to ever really be 'this guy has him a point' (just ask Shanghai) but he's at least got a reasonable reason he went nuts.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2018 23:51

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

ultrafilter posted:

What exactly did Albert Simon get out of pretending to be Roger Bacon besides confusing people who played Koudelka? I don't remember that being resolved at any point coming up, and I don't have a good answer myself.

Roger Bacon is really famous in the occult underground of the setting, was always the impression I got. He was taking the rep, I think.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2018 18:04

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Bacon seems like the type who would have owls, yes.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2018 23:00

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 01:35

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Everyone actually having a distinct narrative voice in Shadow Hearts is also really important to the game being great. Part of what makes Yuri memorable is that he talks how you'd think a character like him would talk, so to speak. Same for Simon.

Hell, the same thing happened in Koudelka, backed up by voice acting that brought it home; everyone had distinct dialogue and a clear sense of how they sounded from the script alone, the good VAs just made it even clearer.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2018 15:00

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