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I’m from Buenos Aires and I say punch ‘em all!!!
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Mar 2, 2019 03:41
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 23:47 |
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The day I've been hoping and waiting for since the Koudelka LP has arrived! This is easily one of my favorite games of all time and I'm really excited to see it get the Id treatment. I may even have to dust off my PS2 and play along.
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Mar 2, 2019 04:50
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Loved your Koudelka and SH1 LPs, and there is not enough  for me right now.
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Mar 2, 2019 05:43
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Just chiming with everyone who's excited for the start of this LP.
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Mar 2, 2019 05:59
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:I love this game by sheer virtue of the fact that the main character is the biggest trainwreck in RPG history I wouldn't call Yuri the biggest trainwreck (although he's up there). Some of his fellow party members this game got him beat in my opinion.
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Mar 2, 2019 06:32
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I'm only familiar with this game because my friend cosplayed a character from it way back when we were both in high school so I'm excited to finally experience it 
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Mar 2, 2019 06:50
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Nthing that I can't wait to see where this one goes after all the hype it's gotten  .Also the 2/Covenant title difference was a surprise. Guessing someone made a late change in development for marketing or something seeing as it's on the cover but not in-game?
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Mar 2, 2019 07:23
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Punching dudes, dropping ladies. All in a days work for DEVILMAN PUNCHFIST!
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Mar 2, 2019 07:28
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Nthing that I can't wait to see where this one goes after all the hype it's gotten
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Mar 2, 2019 07:47
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One of the best JRPGs ever, right here.
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Mar 2, 2019 09:11
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Yes! Dark Id you are too good to us, I was so hoping you would do this one next
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Mar 2, 2019 10:30
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Omobono posted:I wouldn't call Yuri the biggest trainwreck (although he's up there). Some of his fellow party members this game got him beat in my opinion. Not him. The other main character
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Mar 2, 2019 10:42
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Cloud also may be the reigning champ. PTSD, depression, massive personality disorder your childhood friend abuses for political reasons.
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Mar 2, 2019 14:33
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oh man you guys are in for a treat. this was hands down one of my favorite ps2 games and made me wish there were more rpgs with wierd alternate history settings. highly recommend trying to hunt down a copy if you still have a working ps2.
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Mar 2, 2019 15:27
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Episode II: The Great War.jpg)  ...That's as much as I can remember. <paces> The following day, Lt. Koenig, you were found by the Metz highway. Along with Sgt. Robert and eight survivors. <nods> Yes, sir..jpg) You may notice Shadow Hearts 2 looks a wee bit better than its predecessor. Everything is fully 3D now that the game was actually developed on the PS2 from the get-go and not a PS1 game that shifted consoles half-way through development. Granted, there was a certain charm to pre-rendered backgrounds but... boy did they not scale well. Graphics aside, the sequel also got a budget to actually have regular voice acting again and it's fairly decent for the most part. The localization was done by Jeremy Blaustein, who did the localization for Metal Gear Solid 1 and Silent Hill 2-4 among other things. That said, there are subtitles in cutscenes with vocals that are often just... kind of off. Not in the sense the translation is coming apart at the seams like the iffier parts Shadow Hearts had going in spots. More like its cutscene subtitles are going off a script draft written before the English voice acting was recorded and nobody went back to change lines that came out differently. So there's frequently different phrased subtitles, words missing from sentences and parts that plain just don't get subbed. For the LP, I'll probably just omit any cinematic cutscene subtitles and transcribe everything for clarity's sake. I felt that was worth mentioning. You can watch the video at the end to see from yourself. Almost every single voiced cutscene has at least one line where the subtitles are off. .jpg)  ... It's quite a story, but it seems we'll have to believe you. The only other reports we can gain from the remaining survivors is either a blank series of ellipses or stuttering out something about a demon.Lt. Koenig leaps up from her seat. .jpg) General! Just give me another— Lieutenant!.jpg) The Lieutenant has the look of someone who just got yelled at by the teacher in class. .jpg) Karin, I've already decided to do that. I'm sending you back to that village. Just like with the trenches, I say give that hill another charge and maybe it'll work out this time. <leans forward> But this time you'll be a guide..jpg) Me, a guide...? I was an unarmed scout last time, so... Excellent, then you're already half-way there. .......jpg) Our forces invaded France from the north and have managed to push back the western front beyond the Meuse River. But that village alone has stubbornly refused to surrender to us and continues to remain outside the Empire's grasp. And as I always said, if people spite you, then you spite them right back. It has rarely worked in my favor, but you know why I keep it up, Karin? ...Spite? That's right. <leans back> Domremy may be beautiful, but it has absolutely no strategic value to us..jpg) But for the honor of the Empire, we must not allow anyone or anything to stand against us. Even if we have to face a demon itself. Which seems to literally be the case in this instance. But by God, I want the entire map filled out in our color and we're going to do it. Is that clear? <nods> Yes, sir..jpg) A fancy boy decked out in the most JRPG Church Affiliated Character outfit I've seen in quite a while readies himself outside the office where Karin is getting her mission briefing. A subordinate walks up to the General and motions to the door. .jpg) <nods to subordinate> Hmm....jpg) .jpg) The subordinate opens the door and John Churchman enters the room. .jpg) This is Cardinal Nicholas Conrad. He's come all the way from the Vatican. Uhh... <stands up>.jpg) .jpg)  <extends hand and chuckles>.jpg) There are only one of two outcomes someone looking like this can have: Dying horribly within the next hour or turning out to be evil. I'll let you decide which banner Cardinal Nicholas Conrad falls under.  NEW Music: Old Smudged Map ~ Europe (I think I liked the first game's map music a little better. But this ain't bad.) .jpg) 1915, early spring. The world is in the middle of a huge upheaval. .jpg) It started with a single shot and the fire of war spread within a single instant. .jpg) All of Europe was engulfed and the struggle soon grew into the first world-wide war the human race had ever known. .jpg) From a corner of this battlefield, our story begins once again... NEW Music: Suffocation ~ Grim Atmosphere (What it says on the box) .jpg) .jpg) Somehow, we cannot escape Wales. We find ourselves yet again back in its barren wastes. It has been a year since the events of Shadow Hearts has concluded and it seems the scholar warlock Roger Bacon has renovated his weird future tech home outside the ruins of Nemeton Monastery just a wee bit since the last time we saw it. Hopefully, he hasn't scavenged wreckage from Neameto Float and unleashed ancient machinations upon the land as a result. I mean it's Wales, so nobody will really notice. But still, that'd be irresponsible nevertheless. .jpg) Speaking of irresponsible, the bloody state of the claw gloves on these goon jobbers. Who signed off on that!? What's going to happen when they need to open a door or frankly do literally anything that doesn't involve stabbing? Are you going to use the bathroom wearing those things? How will you flush the toilet when you're done? How are you going to wipe your rear end!? HOW!? .jpg) .jpg) Questionable weapon outfitting aside, it is probably concerning that Roger Bacon is getting kidnapped by an extra from Mad Max. You generally don't want to see kindly super science dabblers getting abducted by people who file their taxes with "Villain" as their occupation listed on their W-2. .jpg)  <smiles and nods> Hmm... Yup..jpg) And that concludes the prologue. So in summary, it's 1915 and World War I is in full swing. Our new protagonists are Karin Koenig, a Lieutenant in the German army and Nicholas Conrad, a Vatican Cardinal. Yuri Hyuga may be hanging out as a Devilman in a spooky church in rural France kicking anyone's rear end who comes near for unclear reasons. And Roger Bacon has seemingly been kidnapped by one of Lord Humungus's lesser-known lackeys. It is maybe not quite as exciting a beginning as fighting a dapper British wizard on top of the Trans-Siberian Express to rescue a magical girl. But trust me, this is gonna go places as Shadow Hearts II: Covenant begins its bizarre tale.   The Library makes its return from the original Shadow Hearts -- a codex that gives us a little info blurb about assorted NPCs and monsters we encounter during our adventures. I'll be dumping these at the end of chapters of the game (i.e. whenever we make it back to the World Map.) But we gain one single entry by finishing the Prologue, so let's take a quick look before concluding the update. CHARACTER:  General Heinmann in this entry gets both a proper name and a character portrait in the Library. Good to know we were in Luxembourg for Karin's briefing. Unless I'm mistaken, we never see this dude again outside that one scene.   Video: Episode II Cutscenes (You should probably watch this.) The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Mar 17, 2019 |
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Mar 2, 2019 16:05
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"This village has no value and there's no point to this, but by God we're going to gently caress up that demon for disrespecting our mustaches." is the most WWI plot hook I've seen in awhile.
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Mar 2, 2019 16:15
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Night10194 posted:"This village has no value and there's no point to this, but by God we're going to gently caress up that demon for disrespecting our mustaches." is the most WWI plot hook I've seen in awhile. To be fair, "Our men got slaughtered, send in more men" was a pretty popular solution for any problem on the European front by both sides.
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Mar 2, 2019 16:35
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Was the german military actually that progressive that a woman could make lieutenant in ww1? Also legit I thought that was Koudelka at first and was really confused how and why she was in France now.
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Mar 2, 2019 17:11
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Brainamp posted:Was the german military actually that progressive that a woman could make lieutenant in ww1? Not at all. Women couldn't serve at all in WW1. In WW2, near the end, Germany allowed them in flak artillery units out of necessity. They didn't allow women in the army again until 1975 and then only as medical personnel. Iirc, though, Karin's situation is a little special.
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Mar 2, 2019 17:25
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Repeating anything you see in this game in a history class will cause you to fail badly.
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Mar 2, 2019 17:25
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Brainamp posted:Was the german military actually that progressive that a woman could make lieutenant in ww1? Not unless they were disgusing themselves as a man.
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Mar 2, 2019 17:35
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ultrafilter posted:Repeating anything you see in this game in a history class will cause you to fail badly.
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Mar 2, 2019 17:35
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I'm guessing that Nicolas Conrad is going to turn out to be evil and then get killed by Yuri within the first hour.
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Mar 2, 2019 17:36
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ultrafilter posted:Repeating anything you see in this game in a history class will cause you to fail badly. Look there's always the slim chance there'd be a weird moment of accuracy.
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Mar 2, 2019 18:04
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David D. Davidson posted:I'm guessing that Nicolas Conrad is going to turn out to be evil and then get killed by Yuri within the first hour. you're half-right
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Mar 2, 2019 18:15
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Brainamp posted:Look there's always the slim chance there'd be a weird moment of accuracy. I've played the game. I stand by my statement.
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Mar 2, 2019 18:21
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I'm no expert here, but "Koenig" strikes me as much more of a Russian name than a German one.
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Mar 2, 2019 18:23
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Koenig is German for "king." 
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Mar 2, 2019 18:24
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It's German - and you see that name pop up in Germans and Ashkenazic Jewish families
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Mar 2, 2019 18:31
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Dragonatrix posted:Koenig is German for "king." Robindaybird posted:It's German - and you see that name pop up in Germans and Ashkenazic Jewish families
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Mar 2, 2019 18:36
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Shadow Hearts 1 was already in my list of favorite games of all time and then 2 ups the ante in so many ways. I was a bit concerned at first when I saw the T rating (1 is rated M) but my concerns were unfounded. The only real difference I noticed was that 2 isn't as explicit when showing the aftermath of violence. I had actually found 1 (brand new and sealed, even) in the bargain bin of a local game store for $10. I vaguely remembered hearing good things about it and $10 was the right price to give it a shot. So glad I did. So after completely loving 1, I drove to a nearby GameStop the night Covenant was released and grabbed one of the three copies of it that they'd received. The one employee on duty that night was a huge Shadow Hearts fan and we spent about fifteen minutes talking about the game. He ended up telling me that they'd actually had a preorder bonus of a free copy of 1. I wasn't sad I'd missed out on that at the time since I already owned 1, but seeing the ridiculous prices the games in this series are fetching on Amazon and eBay these days (even disc-only copies!) now I wish I'd gotten that free copy. As it is now, the price of the games pretty much ensures that very few new people will get to play them these days, which is extremely unfortunate. It would be great if they'd get rereleased on modern consoles but that seems extremely unlikely. I think there are a lot of rights issues involved. 
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Mar 2, 2019 19:01
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There actually is zero rights issues, the publisher just stopped making games and focused entirely on pachinko, they're just sitting on the rights and letting them squander. It's not like say, NOLF, where three competing major companies each own part of the rights.
Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Mar 2, 2019 |
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Mar 2, 2019 19:05
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Oh, well that's fortunate then. The bottom's about to fall out of the pachinko industry in Japan. I know that Konami, for one, is already gearing up to return to video games so that they don't go bankrupt. So hopefully whoever owns the Shadow Hearts rights will do the same thing. Maybe there's hope!
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Mar 2, 2019 19:14
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The dev, Nautilus, is totally dead though so even if by some miracle we get HD remasters don't expect a new game even then. I would still be hype as poo poo for just HD remasters though.
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Mar 2, 2019 19:22
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Accordion Man posted:The dev, Nautilus, is totally dead though so even if by some miracle we get HD remasters don't expect a new game even then.
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Mar 2, 2019 19:23
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Well yeah, HD remasters are the main things I'd want. After playing FtNW, I'm convinced that at some point they forgot how to make good games.  So there's a good chance that a new game in the series would be awful and that would just be sad. 
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Mar 2, 2019 19:31
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Accordion Man posted:There actually is zero rights issues, the publisher just stopped making games and focused entirely on pachinko, they're just sitting on the rights and letting them squander. It's not like say, NOLF, where three competing major companies each own part of the rights. NOLF doesn't right any bells. What is it?
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Mar 2, 2019 20:02
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Iceblocks posted:NOLF doesn't right any bells. What is it? No one lives Forever
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Mar 2, 2019 20:05
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After FtNW, I wish they had stayed a studio, as they were still making good games. But now Nautilus is scattered across multiple game devs 
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Mar 2, 2019 20:09
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 23:47 |
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Nicolas Conrad is decked out in ridiculous JRPG priest gear. I'm betting he's as trustworthy as the Ethos from Xenogears. Though when it comes to fashion choices, what happened to Roger? He got an outfit more dapper than his apprentice in the first Shadow Hearts and he goes and throws it all away?
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Mar 2, 2019 20:22
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