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Every cutesy talking animal sidekick is awful, but holy poo poo, Mana might take the title of the worst one ever. It's like they sat down with the explicit goal of making the player hate her guts as fast as possible.
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Nov 14, 2019 02:45
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BlazeEmblem posted:So none of the star maidens are going into battle with us? That's just going to make them even more forgettable. Unfortunately no. This is an Itsuki and the kids deal. Not sure how much involvement the Maidens have outside of dungeons. Reone seems to play a big role, and Mirei seems pretty important, but the others have so far been mostly silent and out of sight. We'll see if that changes. The reason it's called Classmating will be explained next time, although the explanation is still technically incorrect since Itsuki is not going to be made a student of Star God Academy. Not according to Narc anyway. So, a few fun facts about this game's release: -There was a patch today that replaced the movie files with high quality versions. The difference in quality is definitely noticeable, especially in the opening. I am dumbfounded as to how this happened. Where did the crappy quality movie files come from? -The game originally released without a launcher. You may have noticed that the screenshots have been a little blurry compared to CII. Until today, I've just been playing the game with default settings (which were something of a mystery). Apparently SC has fixed this issue and the launcher is appearing where it should be, which means that I should be able to mess with graphics settings now and match up the resolution with OBS. Hopefully this will result in a slight bump to the screenshot quality. Yes, for about a week after release you couldn't change graphics or keybinding settings on PC. You could edit the ini file, but the changes apparently reverted after every launch. -I forgot to mention this, but on release day, Spike Chunsoft held back the Steam release of the game until 6pm PST on November 5th so that they could do a live stream at that time as a release event. That means PS4 people were free to play as soon as they could buy their copy, but Steam users were left waiting until 6pm on the West coast of NA even though the game had technically been released 18 hours earlier. I'm on the East coast, which meant that the PC version for me didn't unlock until roughly 10:30 at night, 22.5 hours into release day. I'm stressed out because of final term papers and depression and final exams coming up. This LP is providing so much joy right now.  I missed you Spike Chunsoft, you and your complete inability to avoid tripping over your own feet.
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Nov 14, 2019 |
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Nov 14, 2019 02:55
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Psycho Knight posted:I thought you were going to choose a balanced team. A party of four is 1 Tank, 1 Healer, and 2 DPS. Psycho Knight posted:-The game originally released without a launcher. You may have noticed that the screenshots have been a little blurry compared to CII. Until today, I've just been playing the game with default settings (which were something of a mystery). Apparently SC has fixed this issue and the launcher is appearing where it should be, which means that I should be able to mess with graphics settings now and match up the resolution with OBS. Hopefully this will result in a slight bump to the screenshot quality. Yes, for about a week after release you couldn't change graphics or keybinding settings on PC. You could edit the ini file, but the changes apparently reverted after every launch.
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Nov 14, 2019 03:43
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Psycho Knight posted:I'm stressed out because of final term papers and depression and final exams coming up. This LP is providing so much joy right now. I started doing LPs to hold back my depression, so I'm glad to hear your LP's helping you out! Also, Spike Chunsoft does seem quite the clumsy company. They're not Bethesda, who trips off a cliff and insists it was on purpose afterwards, but this is unique level of  that they've got going so far.It makes me wonder if the low quality videos were just a poor upscaling job that got sent in by accident instead of the one that worked, but if so, how did it take so long to fix the issue? The livestream also intrigues me: what in the world was so important you couldn't release it then and there? I mean, I don't know what they did on the livestream, but if it was playing the game, wouldn't it have been better if people could play along with it? Releasing without the ability to change settings is also pretty baffling. I mean, testing the option functionality is something you need to be doing pretty often, especially prior to release. I just...how do you forget that on a port?
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Nov 14, 2019 03:44
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I'm desperately hoping Mana is a villain for the catharsis. loving waste of a mascot character.
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Nov 14, 2019 13:25
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Ratoslov posted:We need to make a boy cleric. Party choice will be coming up after the bonding updates, but considering how limited the classes are right now, I am fairly certain that a boy cleric will be part of at least 1 team. We need 12 Star Children to fill out all of our teams. Drakenel posted:I mean, most of it at Mana, just please snuff the abomination at the earliest convenience. But... Yeah I see the sequel was an improvement in a number of ways. SSNeoman posted:I gotta say, this world seems to suck a lot more than CII's. It's a hell of a lot less compelling too. That's the thing that's a little hard to reconcile for me. They've made some improvements, but at its core this is still a prequel game. This was their first try at building this universe, so it's likely going to be lacking in a number of ways compared to the sequel. What's more, I believe this game was originally largely developed by Chunsoft before they merged with Spike, so it was a smaller developer compared to what CII got. Part of me is actually getting a little worried that we won't really get a story beyond what we've just seen. CII had story segments before and after every dungeon, but CP seems to have set us up and then told us to come back once all the Star Offerings are in place so they can fire off an ending. I hope that isn't the case, but if it is then I may have to rethink my Maiden vote thing, otherwise this is going to be a really short LP. AnAnonymousIdiot posted:At this point I wish Mana turns out to be some sleeper agent for the Impurity nonsense from what little I'm gathering from this update. It'd be kinda clever. OOrochi posted:Jesus, at least Chlotz had some decent qualities eventually. Mana is just stupid. Don't get your hopes up. Mana seems way too annoying for the game to give us the mercy of escaping. Usually the most irritating character is the one that sticks around and dodges every bullet. Don't get me wrong, I'm hoping you're right because I would really enjoy a Mana boss fight. I just think it's a long shot. The other hope spot is that Mana says it was her job to babysit Itsuki "at least for now". I am desperately praying that that means Shangri-La will eventually see fit to leave us to our own devices and pull Mana off of Itsuki-watch. Commander Keene posted:I dunno that much about MMOs, but the archetypal D&D/fantasy party is Fighter/Cleric/Rogue/Wizard, classified in 4th Edition as Defender/Leader/Striker/Controller. I was operating on a FFXIV system, although it still kind of fits. We've got a Wizard and a Cleric, but the Fighter Star Children seems to be doubling up on the Rogue/Striker. They've got okay defences, but Fighter SC's are definitely attacker types. They certainly don't excel at defences or survivability. megane posted:Every cutesy talking animal sidekick is awful, but holy poo poo, Mana might take the title of the worst one ever. It's like they sat down with the explicit goal of making the player hate her guts as fast as possible. I'm really hoping that she gets better as we get further into the game. Chlotz was a pretty big creeper and a major pain in the rear end at first as well, but he really redeems himself starting a third of the way through the story, and by the end of the game he has left behind a lot of his more annoying behaviour. Not saying that Mana is going to do that, but there's at least a chance. Maybe? Please? The Flying Twybil posted:I started doing LPs to hold back my depression, so I'm glad to hear your LP's helping you out! Having a project to work on that will be enjoyed by even a handful of people definitely helps keep the demons at bay. If I had more of a personality I probably would have gone into streaming. As for the errors and lack of basic things like a launcher: Stuff like this really should piss me off, because it does for bigger companies like Sony, Nintendo, Sega, or Square, but I just can't bring myself to get worked up by it when it's a smaller company like Spike Chunsoft. It's like watching a baby deer stumble around while trying to walk. There's something adorable about seeing them screw up in such strange ways, like failing at basic grammer/spelling checks. That said, I only find it amusing in a growing pains sort of way. Their NA studio is almost two years old now. They better start ironing out flaws if they want to build themselves up like Atlus or NiS America. If I'm back here in two years doing another SC game and they are still loving up like this, then I will be decidedly less jovial about it. I will check on the movie files tonight. I'm curious to see what the difference is in terms of file size or format, or if there is a difference. I know the opening movie file was originally only like 11mb. ------------------------------------ Just a preview of what's to come, whenever I have a moment away from term papers: I'm going to do first stage bonding updates over the next week or two. Spoiler alert, the first dungeon actually puts up a bit more of a fight than CII's. I was only able to clear 1 floor before I had to back out and heal up. Itsuki is also having a little trouble pulling his weight. So I need Star Children. And those Star Children need moms. So we need to sort out this whole 12 Maidens thing and narrow the focus (at least for now. As mentioned above, this might change if I discover that there is a bare bones story in between dungeons). Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Nov 14, 2019 |
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Nov 14, 2019 17:52
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Psycho Knight posted:Don't get your hopes up. Mana seems way too annoying for the game to give us the mercy of escaping. Usually the most irritating character is the one that sticks around and dodges every bullet. Mana just reminds me of the most evil creature in the universe  Mahiru, form a contract and become a magical girl mateo360 fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Nov 14, 2019 |
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Nov 14, 2019 18:00
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mateo360 posted:Mana just reminds me of the most evil creature in the universe Yeah, this is why I'm hoping for villainhood, at least we'd get to punch Mana in the face. (Say what you will about Homura's actions in the movie and I'd probably agree, but what she did to the Incubators was downright merciful compared to what they deserved)
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Nov 14, 2019 23:29
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Chlotz was a bit of a creeper, but at least he wasn't a weird floating teddy bear as well. Also, giving you All The Money (tm) and then immediately stealing it is a serious dick move. I mean, I didn't actually expect them to waive money as a requirement, but goddamn.
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Nov 16, 2019 04:42
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malkav11 posted:Also, giving you All The Money (tm) and then immediately stealing it is a serious dick move. I mean, I didn't actually expect them to waive money as a requirement, but goddamn. It's a missed opportunity to do something interesting- why not just give you a really huge lump sum of money early on so that the economic grind is effectively removed from the early game, then escalate both gear costs and cash drops slowly so economic constraints become important. Heck, have the kingdom start hitting you up for money because they need it from all the havoc that the bad guys are causing! It A) lets you throttle some of the complexity of the game and B) makes your mechanical actions make sense in the world.
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Nov 16, 2019 09:54
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Psycho Knight posted:The reason it's called Classmating will be explained next time, although the explanation is still technically incorrect since Itsuki is not going to be made a student of Star God Academy. Not according to Narc anyway. Most likely this wouldn't have been their first choice but they needed to keep it the same as Conception 2, where it made more sense. It's basically 'love ceremony' in both games in Japanese.
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Nov 16, 2019 13:19
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Polsy posted:Most likely this wouldn't have been their first choice but they needed to keep it the same as Conception 2, where it made more sense. It's basically 'love ceremony' in both games in Japanese. It's definitely the better of the choices in my opinion. The press release about the English localization that listed the improvements made to the game refers to it as "love ceremony" or "love ritual". Classmating doesn't fit especially well since God's Gift always comes from Earth and he technically isn't made a student of the Academy since he has world saving stuff to do. But Love Ceremony is also a bit weird since there's no love involved (at least at the start) and we are specifically told that the ritual doesn't involve physical love, as in sex. Bonding Ritual or Bonding Ceremony may have been a better choice, but that's kind of out of the hands of the localization team. mateo360 posted:Mana just reminds me of the most evil creature in the universe I wish this game would pull some twisted poo poo like that. I'll be working on a short update tonight that goes over the battle mechanics and also sets the stage for the Bonding Updates. As I stated before, I plan to narrow the heroines down to 3 or 4, but if the story of this game appears to be as thin as I fear, then I'll consider doing away with the vote and just showing off every route in the name of content. I still need to clear the first dungeon in order to get an idea of how much main story this game actually has. I haven't done that yet because I need Star Children to fill out the teams. Also, it looks like screenshots will be staying the same. I got the update for the launcher and immediately found out that it doesn't work for me. I keep getting Javascript error boxes about missing dll files. The place they are supposedly missing from is a file in a Temp folder on my SSD, where this game is most certainly not installed. I sent a support email to Spike Chunsoft, and after tracking down a different support email (because the one listed on their Steam page doesn't exist), I was told to try checking the registry and update drivers. That's the digital equivalent of "Did you try turning it off and on?" Anyway, nothing I did fixed it, even when I was staring directly at the dll files the error was saying were missing. Uninstalling the game on my HDD and reinstalling it on my SSD resulted in the first attempt getting stuck at 100% download and not installing. Attempt #2 resulted in the game installing but the sound not working. So I put everything back to where it was and I'm just going to back away and not touch it ever again and pray that the duct tape and shoe strings holding this game together manage to last until the LP is finished. I have never had trouble with a PC game until this one. What insane pagan magic does SC use to port these things? I've seen people reporting memory leaks as well that cause this game to start using up gigs of memory.
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Nov 19, 2019 18:00
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If it's just some graphics settings that need to be tweaked every time the game launches, you might be able to set something up with a Windows batch file that you use to make the tweaks and launch the game with one click. But seriously, holy crap SC. Get your act together.
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Nov 19, 2019 22:48
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So wait, people effectively have to stop having sex, otherwise bad things happen? Are we sure we aren't cribbing notes from the Eldar and Slaaneesh's lore?
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Nov 20, 2019 08:08
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Yo, good to see you you're still insane enough to do this. You might not remember me, but I volunteered to do some stuff to help you with the 2nd game, and then disappeared. I wanted to apologize for that, some stuff happened. My apologies. I probably won't actively follow you, but I'm rooting for you since I have no intention of buying this game and you'll let me experience it anyway
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Nov 20, 2019 08:17
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Commander Keene posted:If it's just some graphics settings that need to be tweaked every time the game launches, you might be able to set something up with a Windows batch file that you use to make the tweaks and launch the game with one click. I tried messing with the ini file, but the resolution changes don't seem to be taking hold. The game always launches windowed in a resolution I can't figure out, which is why my OBS recording is off a smidge since I think that's set to 720p. I may try fiddling with it while it's running. Maybe it is going at 1080 by default despite being windowed. Either way, that thing I said about finding it adorable is quickly starting to fade. I wasn't expecting this level of crap to suddenly pop up. Now I have to start running my task manager next to the recording in order to monitor the memory usage and watch for leaks. Gilgamesh255 posted:So wait, people effectively have to stop having sex, otherwise bad things happen? I doubt the devs have any knowledge of what that is. At the moment they have to stop, because some freak occurence happened that resulted in all the magic evil vacuums breaking down at the same time. Normally what happens is every 10 years a single doodad stops working, like say Aries or something, and then all the people born March 21 to April 20 have to keep it in their pants until Star God gets off his rear end and grabs some plucky teenager from Earth to blackmail into swapping in a fresh doodad. Either way, there's going to be an increasingly pissed off and stressed out population the longer God’s Gift it takes to fix things. MythosDragon posted:Yo, good to see you you're still insane enough to do this. Don't worry about it. I appreciated the offer, but I know that people have better stuff to do in their lives than this. Whatever it is that came up for you, it was hundreds of times more important than chronicling the spelling errors and weird nonsensical changes in an anime dating-sim JRPG. You guys sit back and (hopefully) enjoy. I'll deal with pulling the cart. This increasingly rickety cart with strangely shaped wheels.
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Nov 20, 2019 14:13
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Update III: The Stars predict tomorrow you’ll wake up, do a bunch of stuff, and then go back to sleep Title Song Reference: That’s Your Horoscope for Today – Weird Al This update is going to be on the short side. It’s also going to be real tutorial heavy, but we need to get it out of the way at some point, so it might as well be now.  Only the one option, so Spring it is. Let’s blow through this in one shot and move on.     All the same as CII. Dungeons are randomized, so I won’t be able to provide any kind of walkthrough in case people out there are following along. We can also jump back in to the dungeon from any floor that we’ve been to, which is very handy for quests. Speaking of quests, the yellow exclamation point symbols will point out where quest monsters or items can be found.      And here’s some more details on dungeon gameplay that I won’t have to try and awkwardly explain. Cool.  It’s finally gameplay time. We’ve got our little team of star kids with us, so let’s check out what this game has to offer.  The game pops up some tutorials on stats when you check the menu. I’ve already covered it, but I wanted to include this card because it is providing incorrect information. Defense does not “mainly affect the damage output of normal attacks and physical skills.” Defense affects the amount of damage you take from physical hits. Oh, Spike Chunsoft. Normally I’d be ticked off with so many blatant translation and grammar errors. But the way you do them is just too amusing for me to care that much. Oh yeah, here is the elemental affinities chart. It looks largely the same as CII, although Void appears to be outside of the chart. In CII, Void was the counter to Light. In Conception Plus, Light seems to be some kind of super element. Lovely. They don’t explain what the triangle means, but I hope to god that it doesn’t mean Light is super effective against all the base elements. That’s how it worked in CII, except CII had Void as a counter.  Monsters on the map in this game appear as their actual models, it seems. I hope that holds true for every monster, because that would be really helpful for doing quests. CII had a skill that would show you what monsters were in a party from the dungeon map, but you had to keep reusing it every so often and it wasn’t quite as helpful as just seeing the model running around. The other thing I want to point out is that those blue crystal things are treasure chests. You can open them to get items. Some enemies are aware of this fact, as well as the fact that you need to get through doors in order to advance. So sometimes when you enter a new room, the enemies within it will all make a break for the nearest chest or door and block it. The guy on the left in the screenshot will just stand in front of that door until you beat him. The guy in the back on the right side of the screenshot will circle around that chest to stop you from getting it unless you beat him. They are assholes.    More tutorials! This is all common stuff. Mecunite is something we’ll get to in a minute.  The first enemy is Bootes which… is actually kind of scary. Or maybe not. The first Team A(wful) in CII fought the first labyrinth boss single-handed, and they were 6-8 levels under it. I’m probably just applying too much regular JRPG logic to this. I'll show off a video of how all of this works once we're ready to tackle the first boss. For now, here's a text and screenshot explanation.  So the battle system in this game is pretty simple, but it’s kind of difficult to actually explain. As you can see here, the enemy stands in the middle of the circle while our party members occupy the four surrounding zones. There can only be one Star Child team in a zone at a time, but they can move around to any unoccupied zones during their turns. Itsuki is able to occupy any of the four zones, even if there is a Star Child team already in it. What you see above is considered one battle circle. There are 9 of these on the battlefield arranged in a 3x3 grid. The enemies can move to any circle on the field, but they must do it one move at a time. Itsuki and the Star Children can only move to a circle that has an enemy in it, but they can jump from one to the other without having to use turns to travel there. Most of the time, this will heavily benefit the player, since you can do things like force the enemy to waste turns trying to get into an attack position. However, there are certain circumstances where this works against the player. There was a memorable example of it happening in CII during one of the boss fights.  Other than that, every enemy has at least one direction where they are weak. Attacking from these directions will deal bonus damage, as seen above. The player teams will take extra damage if they are attacked from behind, which happens when an enemy attacks from the circle that the team has its back to.  Sometimes the enemy will try and pull a charge attack. A purple aura will flare up around them and they’ll seemingly skip their turn. You’ll notice that “Caution” is now appearing on the zone our heroes are standing in, though. This is one reason why Speed is such an important stat. If you are fast, you’re more likely to get a turn before the enemy can pull off the charge attack. This lets you just move out of the way. Slower teams will likely wind up getting outrun by the enemy before they can get to safety. There’s a tactical way to use enemy charge attacks to your advantage, but that requires an explanation of the Chain Drive gauge.    And here’s that explanation. The game doesn’t give it to you right away, but the tutorial card is already in the database. The best way to build the CD gauge right now is by attacking an enemy head-on during one of their wind-up attacks. Certain Star Children get access to skills that can raise the CD gauge in other ways though. This is another reason why Speed is important. If you’re too slow, then Chain will likely wear off before you get the chance to really capitalize on it.  Another battle option that doesn’t get explained unless you try and use it is Mecunite.  Mecunite uses up BP, but it lets the Star Children really wreck house.    At least this transformation sequence stayed around. Mecunite was present in CII as well, although it had way more possible forms in CII (30 of them, I think). CP only seems to have 7 or 8 different forms.  Mecunite is limited to 4 Turns, but it provides a huge boost in firepower. MU’s special skill, in this case MAT CODE D, uses BP but hits all enemies in the battle and also reduces their MAT.     It’s really good for clearing out troublesome encounters. Or for wiping any boss minions off the field. Other than that, MU’s just have some regular skills. The difference is that the stats will be higher than the Star Child team. Just to quickly skim the rest of the tutorial cards: -There are four status ailments (Poison, Paralysis, Seal, and Panic). Poison hurts you every turn, Paralysis reduces speed, Seal prevents you from using magic/skills, and Panic is a combination of Seal and Paralysis. -Star Children return to Matryoshka dolls when their HP hits 0. Despite having a "Team HP", each Star Child still has a personal HP bar, so it is possible for individual Star Children to get knocked out. The more individual Star Children get knocked out, the weaker the Team will get as a unit and the fewer skills they can use. If Itsuki gets KO'd, then we're done. This game is running on SMT rules. A Game Over will kick us back to the map and we'll lose 20% of our cash. -You can toggle a "Speed Up" using the right bumper on a controller to make battles go faster. Like any RPG with this feature, you'll probably leave that on permanently as soon as you find out about it. -You can also set up Auto-Battle tactics if you want to let the game play itself. Probably not going to use this myself, because then I'll stop paying attention to battle and that will probably result in getting wiped.  The hell is this doing in here? Oh well. It’s a quest item, so at least we don’t have to debase Itsuki by having him give it as a gift.  We’ll have to stop here for now, because Itsuki and the kids took a beating. They’ve also barely managed to level up. I actually had to peace out of this dungeon on the first floor because the team wasn’t in great shape and I didn’t want to burn Potions since they are fairly expensive and the dungeon isn’t littered with them.  Just to give you an idea, the enemies in here only pay out about 5-10 experience. The kids managed to get to level 3 upon clearing the floor, but Itsuki only just barely got to level 2 and he needed healing from the Star Children about halfway through the floor (he is fairly slow at the moment, so he can’t dodge charge attacks very well). His stats at level 2 are only roughly on par with the Star Children Tutorial Team at level 1 (he’s actually still slower than they were). Itsuki is a definite weak link right now, which I guess sort of makes sense. He isn’t a trained swordsman and he doesn’t have the fire support of a Star Maiden, unlike our boy Wake in CII.  I may actually be awake for half of this LP! I mean, it’s not hard, but it is giving me hope that this game won’t be a complete cakewalk outside of a single boss fight. In CII we had Wake and Fuuko blitz the first dungeon with a single (tutorial) Star Child team the second that we were given access to it. The only reason we didn’t cap the dungeon in one run was because of Ruby being an unforgiveable moron. Once we were given access to the entire dungeon for realsies, Team A(wful) 1.0 just destroyed the place by themselves and broke the boss over their tiny knees without Wake and Narika having to lift a finger. I mean that by the way. I did the first boss fight in CII by skipping all of Wake/Narika’s turns and using only Team A(wful) 1.0. Also they didn’t need healing. It was exactly as sad as it sounds. Anyway. Preparations must be made.  After the game talks at us a little more anyway.  I didn’t lose any limbs and none of the little kid warriors died. I consider that a good first run. Well, you do have the best guide possible. Mahiru? Were you waiting around for me to come back? O-Of course not. I just happened to be here. But I’m glad you came back in one piece. W-Well, bye… I’m going back on my walk.*Mahiru books it* Geez, Mahiru. You know, it’s okay to be worried.~Palace Laboratory~  Ehhh, not quite. We’re working on it though. At this rate, you’ll be able to defeat the first Impurity God very soon. I think now is a good time to explain how to Tri-Mate. Tri-Mating is the Classmating ritual, but with two participating Star Maidens. By doing the ritual with two Star Maidens… you can produce superior Star Children. However, the Star Maidens must be sufficiently powerful to do so. A Star Maiden’s power will increase as their bond with you becomes more profound. Therefore, you can only conduct Tri-Mating with the Star Maidens you are closest with. First of all: Mana, shut the gently caress up. Second: I’m not sure why the game explains this to you now. If CII is anything to go by, Tri-Mating won’t be available for a while. We haven’t even started to get close with the Star Maidens yet. I’ll explain this a little more once we get to the Bonding events. Since you’ll be dealing with two at the same time, you’ll need tons of energy. You have to have a high level, otherwise, there’s no point to it.So why are you telling us now? Introduce this once we reach a point where it’s actually possible. And they’re still Star Maidens. Not all of them would enjoy Tri-Mating with each other. I’m sure many would feel embarrassed to be exposed in front of others. Then again, it never hurts to do some interesting moves with them. Ahaha.What “interesting moves”? What do you mean "exposed in front of others"? What the gently caress does this ritual involve!? Is it sex or is it not sex? Make up your drat mind, game. …Oh, one more thing. Tri-Mating won’t deepen your bond with a Star Maiden. If you wanna deepen your bond, you should stick with Classmating. You better keep that in mind.I’m just going to pretend that I know what you mean.But also remember that you will need stronger Star Children to defeat stronger enemies. It’s best to use everything you have at your disposal.Nar, your smug face is really deceiving when you say such harsh things. Not like they really have a choice. Leaving aside the fact that Mahiru was kidnapped from her own world and can’t go back unless she does this, the other Star Maidens have had the fate of their world and everyone/everything they love loaded onto their shoulders. I never thought the day would come to utilize Tri-Mating…What do you mean by that? Is this Tri-Mating stuff not a normal thing?At least for the last few centuries… There hasn’t been a God’s Gift who Classmated with multiple Star Maidens. That’s why Tri-Mating is only known among the scholars of history… It’s been passed around merely as legend. To us, Tri-Mating is a new concept.You better be prepared, Itsuki. You’ll be the one experimenting with all the ladies.Great… So now I’m a test subject, too. It gets better every day…Why has the “art” of Tri-Mating fallen into legend? God’s Gifts show up every 10 years. Even if the monsters/threats those God’s Gifts had to deal with were way easier than Itsuki’s, why wouldn’t you make use of Tri-Mating anyway? Wouldn’t you want to make the strongest Star Children possible just in case something were to go terribly wrong? Actually, never mind. This is the same game series where a character deliberately withheld a monster immortality neutralizing McGuffin from humanity’s only hope because she “didn’t plan on” him running into it early, as he was about to go exploring the ever changing labyrinth where said immortal monster is known to live. I will now introduce you to the other students of the academy. Come with me.~Star God Academy… Roof? Amphitheatre? We’re outside.~  This makes the term “Classmating” not entirely appropriate, since Itsuki won’t be a classmate of anyone except technically Mahiru. Although in Japanese it’s referred to as “Love Ceremony” or “Love Ritual”, so I guess this was just a translation choice to make it a tiny bit less odd sounding. Classmating is much more appropriate in CII, where Wake is actually a student the same as the heroines. Like with the 12 Star Maidens, I hope you will all get along.Uh, hey. Nice to meet you all.Is that… Is that LightBlueHair over there in the back? Dude! I thought you died! Although, I guess this is technically--  Oh, okay. I guess we’re moving on then. This is a special class for the Star Maidens. Outside of being the dean of the academy, I teach this class.Looks pretty much like the classrooms in my world. Outside of the medieval architecture designs I mean.This class is comprised strictly of the 12 Star Maidens. It was hastily put into the curriculum a month ago, after the Star Chaos. The Star Maidens attend this class every few days each week.I guess that means Mahiru will be coming here, too.To build profound bonds with the Star Maidens, you must visit the academy often.Itsuki, be sure not to hit on the other female students.How much energy do you think I have? I already have my hands full with world saving.I’m sure you’re tired from everything. Please head to your lodging to rest.I’d really like that. Thanks. Okay, we’re largely set free at this point. That means now is the time to get busy with micromanaging and preparing for dungeons.  First of all, I pop into the Tavern to turn in quests. We only went through one floor, but there are already two quests ready to turn in. One of those is the result of me having a death grip on Potions. I probably shouldn’t turn this in until the Potion supply increases but screw it. Need to check those boxes off. I also hand in that Human Pretzel game we found in the dungeon. On top of a 2,000G reward, this quest also gives 3 different gift items for completing it. Something tells me that a book of scary stories, a magic backscratcher, and Hors D’oeuvres will go over a little better with the ladies as gifts than Twister: I Hope You Can’t Feel My Boner.  Now that that is done, we’ve got a tiny bit of cash on hand to maybe outfit Itsuki and a handful of new Star Children. We’re going to need some new Star Children first. Unlike CII, we’re going to want to go into this with a full party. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Hm? There’s nobody here. Can I not do that whole ritual thing right now?Of course not! What the hell do you mean? We did introductions already. I said hi to them all.Just how thickheaded are you when it comes to women? If you really want to Classmate with them… You have to visit the Star Maidens personally! Learn your manners!Okay, okay. I’ll go and say hi to everyone individually. Why does everything in this world have to be such a pain? Mmkay. I guess we need to get bonding out of the way first. In CII the introductions just happened when you picked someone to Classmate with.   Next on the agenda: Bonding. If you weren’t around for the CII LP, then here is how the “deepening bonds” stuff works. We get 5 hearts at a time. We use these hearts to spend time with the heroines and build up a relationship/bond with them. Viewing an event with a maiden uses up 1 heart and you can only spend time with a particular maiden once before you need to advance time by resting at the inn or exploring a dungeon. Keep in mind that there is no time limit on the main story (as far as I know), so we could just bond with all 12 ladies by resting every time we run out of hearts.     There are 2 kinds of bonding events: Generic and Unique. Unique events are ones that advance each maiden’s character/story arcs. These usually only happen at the beginning and end of a bond gauge (that’s the gauge you see surrounding the emoji face above the stat graph). These bond gauges are locked by story progress, so you can’t just max all 5 gauges right from the start. This is also why telling us about Tri-Mating is pointless right now. It’s not like we can power level the bond gauge, because the game gates each section off. In CII, we didn’t get the ability to Tri-Mate until roughly the fourth dungeon, at which point I think the third level of bond gauge was unlocked (Wake was around level 22 by that point).   Other than that, the Star Maidens’ moods can change based on what kind of answers you give during bonding events, the gifts you give them, Star Child bonus cards, and all sorts of fun stuff. The better the Star Maiden’s mood, the better the Star Children you make with her will be. If the mood ever drops to red angry face, then you won’t be able to select the Star Maiden for Classmating at all. Honestly, you really have to try to get the mood to drop that far. Even if you have absolutely no idea what the “good” answer is during a bonding event, you usually have a 1 in 3 chance of picking the right one at random. The bad answers are also fairly obvious a lot of the time. Plus, Generic events will eventually repeat, so sooner or later you’ll know all of the right things to say during them. It’s very easy to maintain a max mood rating.  You also get Bond Points (BP) for doing these events, which you can see in that little gauge to the bottom left. BP is what we need to make Star Children, Mecunite, use certain super powerful attacks, and other random gameplay stuff. Increasing the Star Maidens’ bond gauge also lets us create stronger Star Children and new classes.  One last thing that I don’t think the game explained during all of those tutorial cards. It seems that we can get some kind of Bond bonus for the Star Maiden whose month we are currently in. Not really a big deal because of how repeatable the bonding events are, but maybe it will have some kind of bonus on the Star Children. I’ll have to look for a tutorial card in the database to see if it is detailed.  Which brings us here. Dungeon 1 doesn’t seem to allow for the kind of sleep walking that went on in CII. We need Star Children. A lot of Star Children. 12 Star Children to be exact. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview of what’s happening next: There are currently 12 Star Maidens that we can bond with. My intention at the moment is still to make the thread vote on 3 or 4 Maidens to focus on, because following up on 12 different character arcs after every dungeon would take forever. That said, this is assuming that the game also throws main story segments at us after each dungeon. We’ll figure that last part out later on, once we get an idea of how much main story there actually is. There’s a real possibility that we’re just expected to go from boss to boss until it’s time for the finale. So far it doesn’t seem like this game has the necessary supporting cast to do regular story breaks. Either way, there is something that needs to be done regardless of how updates go in the future. 1. The next few updates will be Bonding Updates. I’m not sure exactly how many I will need, but I will probably break my posting schedule temporarily in order to get this done as quickly as possible. 2. I will show the Introduction Event as well as the first major bonding event for each Star Maiden. 3. After all the Maidens have had a turn to drum up interest in their personal story arcs, the thread will vote on 3 (or 4, I haven’t quite decided yet) of the 12 Maidens to continue following. If CP turns out to have an actual story that pops up between dungeons, then the Maidens with the most votes will become the focus Maidens and we’ll see the full bonding events for them while the other Star Maidens will just get summaries of their events. 4. After all the bonding stuff is done, I’ll be looking for thread input on crafting our first set of dungeon teams. More on that when the time comes. It doesn't really matter because we'll see all of them eventually, but shout out in the thread if you have a particular order you want the Star Maidens to go in (or if there are certain Maidens you want to see first/last). If nobody has any suggestions then I'll probably just go by their Star Sign order (from January to December). Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Nov 22, 2019 |
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Nov 22, 2019 01:25
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Psycho Knight posted:I tried messing with the ini file, but the resolution changes don't seem to be taking hold. The game always launches windowed in a resolution I can't figure out, which is why my OBS recording is off a smidge since I think that's set to 720p. I may try fiddling with it while it's running. Maybe it is going at 1080 by default despite being windowed.
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Nov 22, 2019 01:42
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Commander Keene posted:I haven't read the new update yet, but I thought of a thing you could try. Take a screenshot using a program like Irfanview or even the Microsoft Game Bar that does window capture and look at the resolution of the resulting PNG image. You might need to adjust for the title bar, but it should give you a reasonable approximation. I'll try that out, thanks. I tried setting it to 1080p in OBS, but I don't think there was any change in quality, which means it's likely still up or down scaling from the real resolution. Someone on the Steam boards is saying they are having the same problem with the launcher as I am, so maybe SC will eventually look into this. Either way, I've gone back and added in all these fun little issues to the Mini Update where I rant about CP's weird problems.
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Nov 22, 2019 02:06
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Well, Tri-mating being this legendary thing kinda makes sense, since every other time apparently only one of the offerings fails, so only one star maiden would be chosen, logically. Kind of hard to do something with two star maidens when there is only one around.
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Nov 22, 2019 04:29
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Defense's description is TECHNICALLY accurate, in that it affects ENEMY output of basic and physical attacks Also yeah I think Tri-Mating is a legend because God's Gift usually only hung around the Star Maiden of the current decade's crisis, rather then all of them
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Nov 22, 2019 06:59
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Psycho Knight posted:
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Nov 22, 2019 07:28
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That triangle symbol I've sometimes seen used for "not very effective" (as in Etrian Odyssey's vulnerability displays) so maybe Light deals less damage to the classical elements and the classical elements deal less damage to Light in return?
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Nov 22, 2019 08:05
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Ashsaber posted:Well, Tri-mating being this legendary thing kinda makes sense, since every other time apparently only one of the offerings fails, so only one star maiden would be chosen, logically. Kind of hard to do something with two star maidens when there is only one around. Cloudmonkey98 posted:Also yeah I think Tri-Mating is a legend because God's Gift usually only hung around the Star Maiden of the current decade's crisis, rather then all of them It's possible, it just seems strange. There are always 12 Star Maidens, even if their offering isn't broken, because we were told that they stop aging for 120 years until their offering does give out and their job as a Maiden is done. I guess it's possible that all the other Star Maidens are out wandering around the world. We haven't been told what they do once the offering is restored. I guess there's no reason to hang around Granvania for 120 years if you know that the Star Offering runs on a predictable cycle. But we were also told they had to carry out their duties as Star Maidens until they lose their power. So if they don't have to be around every ten years to help God’s Gifts, then what the hell do they do for over a century? Commander Keene posted:I'm just guessing, but I think that the unidirectional arrows with the "O"s and "X"s on them indicate an elemental advantage/disadvantage set. It looks like the elemental magic has its own rock-paper-scissors, Dark magic is strong against all the classical elements, Light is strong against Dark, and Light and Elemental magic are maybe neutral? The arrows there point both ways and have triangle symbols on both ends, so I think it's indicating some relationship outside the usual dichotomy. Maybe they're both strong against each other or something (which would make Light the glass cannon element). AweStriker posted:That triangle symbol I've sometimes seen used for "not very effective" (as in Etrian Odyssey's vulnerability displays) so maybe Light deals less damage to the classical elements and the classical elements deal less damage to Light in return? I'm mostly just used to CII's chart, where Light was outright superior to everything. 'Not effective' or 'equal to each other' is probably right. The enemies in the very first dungeon are Light element Defence and Attack. That would be a pretty big dick move if Light beats everything else. Although that raises the question as to why you wouldn't just make the enemies Void element in the first dungeon, since it's meant to be a tutorial. I wonder if there's a story reason for that, like maybe Light is part of the impurity problem.
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Nov 22, 2019 14:13
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Given the arrows, I'd have interpreted it as Light being strong against the classic elements and the classics being strong against Light. Do the kids have elementally-oriented defences? If not, that'd mean any element they bring is strong against these early enemies.
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Nov 22, 2019 14:50
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Looking at a Japanese let's play of the PSP game there only used to be 3 hearts/week for bonding. Guessing they bumped it to reduce tedium for people who really wanted to grind to the current max.
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Nov 22, 2019 17:02
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Tenebrais posted:Given the arrows, I'd have interpreted it as Light being strong against the classic elements and the classics being strong against Light. Do the kids have elementally-oriented defences? If not, that'd mean any element they bring is strong against these early enemies. Assuming this is like C2, and I recall things right, a Star Kid Team's element is the majority of their elemental influence, each kid is naturally worth 1 point, and some gear in C2 had its own elemental influence values for offense/defense respectively
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Nov 22, 2019 17:25
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Polsy posted:Looking at a Japanese let's play of the PSP game there only used to be 3 hearts/week for bonding. Guessing they bumped it to reduce tedium for people who really wanted to grind to the current max. I honestly don't know why they bothered to keep this system at all. The passing of time doesn't appear to change anything, so all the limited hearts do is waste roughly 10 seconds of your time every so often. Bumping it to 5 does help, but it would have been better if they had just done away with it entirely. The only way it makes sense is if the game used a Persona system of having a limited amount of time available. My guess is that they wanted this, but the idea got scrapped late into production. Although this raises the question as to why they tried it again with CII. Tenebrais posted:Given the arrows, I'd have interpreted it as Light being strong against the classic elements and the classics being strong against Light. Do the kids have elementally-oriented defences? If not, that'd mean any element they bring is strong against these early enemies. Cloudmonkey98 posted:Assuming this is like C2, and I recall things right, a Star Kid Team's element is the majority of their elemental influence, each kid is naturally worth 1 point, and some gear in C2 had its own elemental influence values for offense/defense respectively Circle definitely means super effective, so I lean towards Triangle being neutral or not effective, as others have said. This means any element we bring is not going to have an advantage or disadvantage against these starter enemies, and vice versa. The exception is Dark, which would be bad against these Light based starter enemies. As Cloudmonkey said, the kids do have elements in attack and defence. How they get those elements is something I'm currently unsure of. In CII, each heroine had an element (or combination of elements) that got passed on to the Star Children. I haven't seen any indication of the CP Star Maidens having elements this time though. Our tutorial team seems to be largely random despite Mahiru being the mom of them all.
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Nov 22, 2019 18:55
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This may be late and/or pedantic, but didn't they say Mahiru was also a God's Gift along with Itsuki? If that's the case shouldn't she be able to do the same things as the protagonist? Does her being the Virgo Maiden get in the way of being a God's Gift?
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Nov 23, 2019 02:23
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AnAnonymousIdiot posted:This may be late and/or pedantic, but didn't they say Mahiru was also a God's Gift along with Itsuki? If that's the case shouldn't she be able to do the same things as the protagonist? Does her being the Virgo Maiden get in the way of being a God's Gift? I assume "God's Gift" primarily means "kidnapping victim from another world" rather than "magic stud", but is also used to refer to the latter because summoning people as Star Maidens or other roles is unprecedented.
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Nov 23, 2019 02:51
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Yeah, God's Gift just seems to be the term that people in Granvania have for whomever gets nabbed by Star God from The only time they really call Mahiru a God's Gift is when they first find her with Itsuki and when they are explaining why they thought there were two of them. After they realize what's going on she is just called a Star Maiden, or the Virgo Maiden. As to whether she can fight the monsters, I'm not sure. Reone told us outright that they can't kill them, although she was a little unclear if she meant Star Maidens specifically or just people from Granvania in general. We haven't seen any indication of soldiers or defensive lines around the Labyrinth, so it probably means that all Granvanian people simply can't do anything to them. On the other hand, why is Itsuki able to if Mahiru can't? Presumably people from our world have some kind of innate power that allows them to destroy the Impurities, which is why Star God has to nab them from Earth every ten years. So Mahiru should have that innate ability as well. If it isn't an innate ability of people from Earth, then that means it's a power that Star God grants to the person. So He gave the power to Itsuki (due to how Classmating works) and then made Mahiru a Star Maiden because He was still one short. But if that's the case, then why go to Earth at all? If Star God can bestow the power of monster killing on people, then why does He need to kidnap people from Earth? Why not choose someone in Granvania? All the Star Maidens are from Granvania (normally). Yes, the most likely explanation is obviously a plot hole, or lazy writing, but I like to ponder about this kind of stuff. Theories are fun.
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Nov 23, 2019 12:34
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Bonding Update I: Aries, Taurus, and Gemini Alright, so before we can go building our roster of little monster hunters, we need to build our relationships with the Star Maidens. We’ll also be looking to narrow the field and bench a couple of the ladies, at least until we find out for sure how much main story we’re working with in between chapters.  For the next few updates, we’ll take a look at the Introduction scene, the first Classmating scene, and the first real (unique) bonding event for each Star Maiden. I’ll be going in the order pictured here, in the database. I had originally organized these in the order that their astrological signs go in from January to December, but the launcher (which I learned can apparently only be launched from the Steam Library, not the desktop or game file folder) and OBS decided that working together wasn’t something that either of them cared to do. I got back from an hour and a half of recording to find a video which immediately froze when I went into full screen. Turns out I have to set the launcher to Borderless (which looks identical to Fullscreen) in order for OBS to record it properly.  Ugh, anyway, it was this whole thing. Point is, I had to go back and re-record all of these from the database which kind of irked me, so I just went from top to bottom to get through it as quickly as possible. I also don’t want to skip around the recording so we’re starting with Arie and ending with Yuzuha. Deal with it.   Huh, so there is a regular Church here as well? I guess it makes sense. The Church of Classmating doesn’t seem particularly suited to actual worship.*The screen fades to black for a split second* Whoa… what’s happening?... Kind of… dizzy…*The screen fades again, quicker this time* Wh-What’s going on? I… I’m freaking… out…*And our novice hero quickly drops like a rock as the screen goes to black*  Where…? What happened…? You collapsed in front of the church.Oh… right. I got really dizzy for some reason… It must have been from the heat. You have a slight fever. Please don’t overwork yourself.Sorry… I think all of this God’s Gift and world saving stuff just caught up to me all at once. Maybe I should have taken more time to let it all sink in… Here, please just relax. It’s best to rest when you’re ill. Why did you come to the church anyway?Oh, right. I wanted to see you. Thank you for coming here to see me. Haha. You’re quite different from how I thought you’d be, Itsuki. Until I saw you at the church, I thought you’d be more stout.Yeah, sorry about that. I’m probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think “God’s Gift.” No. I was worried you’d be a scary person. I’m happy you seem to be kind.Oh, that’s what you meant. That’s kind of a relief, then. I’ve introduced myself prior, but allow me to do so again: My name is Arie, and I serve the church.You said that before. What do you mean by it, though? I deal with churchgoers, and sometimes I teach classes for the children. Um, how about you? Did I meet your expectations?Uh… well…(What the hell do I say? Think, Itsuki, think… drat, this feels so different than talking with Mahiru. We just say whatever stupid things we want to each other… Oh poo poo, is this what talking to girls is actually like?!)...Y-You’re really beautiful. Haha… But thank you for the compliment.(Wow, I didn’t think that would work.)A-Anyway, thanks for looking after me. Sorry I just dropped in front of the church like that. Not at all. This is by the hand of the Star God. I only became a Star Maiden recently, so there are many things I don’t know. But this is my duty given to me by the Star God. I’ll do my best to fulfill it. I pray that you also feel the same.Don’t worry. I’m still kind of nervous, but I plan on giving this my all. Speaking of those duties, it’s time to get used to Classmating. Every Star Maiden gets a scene like this when you go to try and Classmate with them. There are a few more of these as the intimacy gauge rises that shows both the Maiden and Itsuki getting less and less weirded out by the whole Classmating thing, so this won’t be the last time we have one of these. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Okay, let’s give this a shot, Arie. Do you not want to? It’s not that I don’t… It’s rather… embarrassing.Well, I can understand that. I won’t force you, you know. If you want to try some other time instead— Itsuki, why do you want to Classmate with me?It’s for the sake of the world, right? For this world… I see. As God’s Gift, your actions will change the fate of this world. I-I didn’t mean it like that! I just… I will prepare myself, Itsuki.Well, whatever works I guess. As long as you’re sure, then let’s try making one of those Star Children. …Yes. But… may I ask one thing?Oh, sure. What is it? This… is my first time doing something like this… So, um… please… be gentle…Of course! I totally know how to do that… I just have to… uhhhh…*And then Classmating happened. Whatever the hell that entails. According to Reone, it’s not sex. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. Pillow fight, maybe?* Huff… Huff… Phew… A-Are you, doing okay?(I don’t think that will ever not be weird…) Y-Yes… I’m fine.Okay. Your face is really red, so I just wanted to make sure. Th-That’s not true. I’m only a little dazed. It was my first time doing the ritual. I didn’t know it was like that.Like what? Does it feel different for Star Maidens? W-Well… Um, Itsuki. May I return for today?Huh? Oh, sure. I think this went really well. Thanks. I’m glad. Now, if you’ll excuse me…*And Arie books it* What the hell am I missing about this Classmating thing? I know the build up is really embarrassing, but it’s a relief when it’s done… right?Certainly a mystery for the ages. It makes a lot more sense if we go by the anime adaption’s depiction of Classmating, but the anime is also playing things up because they want to cash in on the Highschool DxD market. The vague nature of this whole thing makes it really hard to write Itsuki for me, because how embarrassed or shy official Itsuki gets varies wildly in the bonding events. But then he is usually very well composed in Classmating scenes. He maintains a “this is just a job, let’s get it done” attitude in when Classmating, but we’ll see later that some of the Star Maidens can make him fairly uncomfortable just by leaning in a little close. I’m getting too many mixed signals here, game. It’s an M rated game and your anime adaption just throws all subtlety to the wind, so stop gaslighting me. It would really make my writing job easier. Anyway, some indeterminate time later…  ♪Hmm hmm hmm.♪ Mmm.♪ Oh? Hello, Itsuki. Did you need something from the church?Hey, Arie. No, I was just passing by. You seem to be having fun with your cleaning. Did it appear that way? Though, I do like to clean… This is part of my training, so I must take it seriously.You train by cleaning? Yes. Cleaning is the best sort of training to cleanse your mind and body. My days at the church always start with cleaning.Wait, you do this every day? That’s pretty impressive. I definitely couldn’t do that. It’s nothing special. This is like a habit for me.Wish I had that habit. Then again, I’m a friendless and loveless loser, so who the hell am I trying to impress? As long as there’s nothing biohazardous then I’m okay with mess. Itsuki, how about you try it? You’ll get used to it immediately. Serving the church together with the sunrise feels really good.I don’t know. It sounds like a pretty tough thing to keep up, especially every single day. I’ll be honest, I’m lost with this next transition. I’m just going to let Official Itsuki speak for himself. The heart of serving… That sounds like a difficult concept to grasp.I have a feeling that something was lost in translation here. Arie just basically said “helping others can motivate you.” She didn’t use any flowery language. Itsuki just busting out “The heart of serving” sounds really strange. It’s not difficult. It just means you are accomplishing things for others.Again, very straightforward. I do so for the Star God. And I serve the people who believe in Him. Itsuki, you go into the labyrinths almost daily. Do you not do so because it is for the sake of someone else?Hmm… I guess it’s for the sake of people like you. Yeah. I don’t want the people of this world being overrun by monsters. Oh… that’s what you meant. I was surprised to hear you say such a thing. Itsuki, you are a wonderful person.Well, let’s get go overboard. Could I get like a pamphlet or something for this place? The clergy seem miles better than in Earth religions. Then again, Star God seems like kind of a dick in this world. No, it’s fine. I think you’ve given me some better perspective on the “heart of serving” stuff. Really? That makes me happy. To understand the heart of service is the first step to serving the church.That’s great, but I don’t think I’m ready to go joining a church. I appreciate that she’s not pushy about it. Church people are almost never like “Okay, well if you change your mind then just let me know.” They’re more like “I see, well how much brow beating will it take for you to give in and just agree?”  Organized religion, man. No concept of “leave me alone.” Anyway, let’s get to know Tarua next. That last conversation was confusing and slightly incoherent. Hopefully Tarua will be more straightforward.  ~Star God Academy Field~ They told me Tarua was around here, but I don’t see her.  Outta the waaay!Wait, what?! Whoa!*Tarua comes flying at Itsuki like a bat out of hell and rams into him. So I guess more like a bull out of hell since she’s the Taurus star Maiden. Dammit, why couldn’t she be Aries so I could make ramming pun?*  Augh augh… I hit my head… I can’t really pump the brakes when I stop running… Owie… Oh no! The letters! I dropped all the letters! I have to pick ‘em all up!Ugh… well at least the letters didn’t get shredded… I think you broke a rib… What about you? Are you okay? Augh? I’m totally fine! I always bump into stuff! (Maybe I should go see Reone after this…) They tell me to be careful not to run into stuff, but that doesn’t matter!Actually, I think you should listen to those people more. You’re going to hurt yourself eventually. Thanks for worrying about me! Huh? Hey, now that I got a better look, you’re Itsuki. What are you doing here? Are ya bored?No, I was just trying to find you so I could say hi. To me? Why? We already said hi the other time.That’s what I said! But Mana told me that God’s Gift has to have good manners and all that stuff. I have to Classmate with all of you, after all. So I guess she technically has a point. Oh, I guess so. You really like following the rules, don’t you, Itsuki. Then I’ll be like you and say hi to you again! I’m Tarua! Nice to meet ya! You mentioned that before. You run a postal service or something? Itsuki, if you ever want a letter delivered, just catch me.I’ll keep that in mind, although I’m not really sure who I would send letters to in this world. By the way, didn’t you drop a bunch of letters? Augh?! That’s right! I dropped the letters when I bumped into you! Augh augh! The boss will yell at me!Your boss? So you don’t just handle it yourself? Yeah. I live at the post office where the boss is. He’s real strict, but my goal is to be a great mailman like him!…I see. Probably want to aim a little higher than that, but everyone needs a goal in life I guess. Boss always says to finish the job I started.*Tarua takes a second to go and grab all the scattered letters* All right, finished gathering it all. I’ll be going now!Right, take care then. Try not to destroy anyone else’s chest cavity. Augh! See ya! All right! I gotta make up for lost time!Going to have to be careful around her. God, my chest still hurts… Feels like I got hit by a brick…So we’ve established that Tarua likes to run around and has a total disregard for bystanders. Also her name is Tarua and she’s the Taurus Star Maiden. Way to be creative Spike Chunsoft. ~Church Spirit Chamber~ Okay Tarua, it’s time to try the Classmating ritual. Augh… So it’s finally here… I guess we’d have to do it eventually. I am a Star Maiden after all… Wait, no. It’s not like we’re fighting, right?No. No we are not. Please don’t charge at me like you did yesterday. Y-Yeah… I guess I’m just nervous… But I don’t really hate it, you know? Helping you is my job. Augh augh. Now I’m even more nervous…Well, hey, I’m nervous too. It’s okay. Augh augh augh! Itsuki, if you’re like that, then I’ll get worried too.Right, sorry. I’m still kind of bad at this. Listen, it’s perfectly fine. I’ve done this before… twice, nothing bad happens. But… Augh…What the hell is that noise? Is this like Ellie’s “Aheheh” thing? No, I shouldn’t think about it. Okay! I’ll keep my mind blank! Itsuki, I’ll do my best! So pat me on the head when we’re done. I guess I can do that, if it’ll help calm you down. Really? Hooray! I’ll do my best!Good to hear. Now, let’s try and make some Star Children. Augh! We’ll make tons!Okay, let’s not get too eager. Augh… But I wonder if it’ll be okay… Augh augh! Stop stop stop! I shouldn’t get in my head! I have to keep focus here! Okay! Bring it on!Could you maybe not say it like that? Please?*Classmating again! Yay!* Augh… Augh augh… Ooh…*And then Tarua promptly eats floor* Hey! What’s wrong?! …Did she faint? Ouch. At least when I did it I had grass to cushion the fall. Note to self: Be ready to catch the Star Maidens after the ritual.*Some time later*  Yeah, it’s done. You did well. But I passed out, so I don’t know that.Okay, that part wasn’t so great, but everything else was good. Did I do my job as a Star Maiden well?I think so. The Star Child looks pretty tough. I think that’s thanks to you. Th-Thanks to me? Hehe… That’s great. It was pretty easy with you. Thanks. Well… Mm…Why are you leaning in like that…? …Ohhhh, yeah, you wanted a pat on the head. Yeah. You promised me.It’s kind of embarrassing, but I guess I did kind of agree to it. Well, here goes. Ahhn…Uhh, you okay? Augh? Did I say something?You kind of made this little noise. O-Okay… Oof… Mm… Oof… Augh augh… I’m melting…(Getting really uncomfortable here…) I feel weird. It never feels this good when other people pat me… Itsuki… You’re what people call… an expert!Japan, what is with this head patting thing? You’re making it too weird. Stopping now. Augh! Thanks, Itsuki! It felt really good! I’m glad the ritual turned out fine. Now we can do it all the time! Let’s do it again later, Itsuki!…Sure. I…I will definitely keep you in mind. Okay! Well, um… If we do Classmate right, will you pat me on the head again?Uhhh… Of course. In the event that we do Classmating again and it goes well, I will look into giving you more pats on the head. Augh! Hooray! I’m going back to work now! See ya later, Itsuki!*And Tarua trots off* I hope that was enough conditions to give me an out.One more Tarua event to go. Some time later… ~Star God Academy Field~ Augh! Hi, Itsuki!Hey, Tarua. Out delivering letters again, huh? Yup! Been running around since morning till my bag was empty! It takes you the entire day? Boss can finish even faster. I’m pretty slow with deliveries, so that’s why I get a head start.Hold on. You run around at breakneck speed all the time. How does it… Oh, wait. I guess you must carry more letters than him. That’s not true. I always split them down the middle with Boss. But I always take twice as long as Boss to deliver everything. I run too fast and go right past the delivery address… Looks like I still need more training. Augh… What can I do to deliver letters more efficiently?Have you considered maybe not running so fast? If only it were that easy……It is. It is that easy. I’m always running full force. It makes me wanna deliver those letters as fast as possible.That’s an… interesting way of looking at it. Well, Boss taught me all that. I’ve been watching Boss work ever since I was small. He’s been a big influence.So he’s like your dad or something? Augh… More like a foster parent. He adopted me when I was small. Zeus and Europa? Mythology reference! Up top!  I guess he is my dad then…Oh, right. Orphan stuff. Proceed. Augh? Maybe my grandpa? He’s pretty old. But he gets so mad when I call him that. He really is an old dude though.Sounds like you really love each other, in your own ways. Augh… When you put it that way, it’s kinda embarrassing. But Boss gets so mad when I swipe food before dinner. He’s stubborn too. Aww. He’s a big angry alcoholic sweetheart. Augh… If he heard this, it’d just go to his head, so let’s stop it here! Augh, look at the time! I better get back to my deliveries!Didn’t you say your bag was empty? You still have more to do? I only finished half! I have my afternoon deliveries to do next! Augh augh! I used up too much time talking to you!Sorry, I didn’t mean to hold you up like this. No, it’s okay, really. I like talking with you. Augh! See ya later!*And Tarua takes off* Man. Starting to feel kind of bad. I thought the Maidens just kind of chilled out at the Palace or something while I was in the Labyrinths, but so far they’ve all been making me look like a lazy rear end in a top hat. I need to put more effort into this hero stuff…You’ll get there Itsuki. Once we get you outfitted with a full team then you’ll be in for some intensive training. Now that I know the enemies have a little bite to them, I’ll be playing this like an actual RPG.  But before that, we still have ten more Maidens to get through. On to Lillith!   Am I in the right… Nevermind. There you are, Lillith. Oh my. Hello there. Um… You are… Maud’s Gift or something?God’s Gift, actually. What even is a Maud?Oh, that’s right. I made a mistake. Hehehe~ What brings you here today?I’m trying to check in with all of the Star Maidens. I need to greet everyone personally, or something like that. Anyway, is this where you do your fortune telling thing?That’s right. Do you like having your fortune told, Itsuki?I’ve heard some. I wouldn’t say I’m a fanatic about it or anything.Oh, I see. I’d prefer to know how the hell you use your hair like a cloak. How is it staying in a solid unbroken sheet like that? Got it. I’ll pass for now, though. I wanted to learn a little more about you… um, both of you I mean. I think?I understand. Please, wait a moment. Um… “Itsuki is here to see you.”What’s that for?A memo for Lillie. Let me go make some tea.3, 2, 1, aaannd- Ahhh!*There’s the sound of glass breaking and the screen shakes a bit* Hey, Lillith? You okay back there? Ow… I hit my head… And you are… Lillie? Right?Hey, you bastard! Don’t go looking at me with those pervert eyes. What are you doing here anyway?Since when am I a pervert? I mean, an open one. Don’t pin Mana’s crap on me.*Lillie finally notices the memo* Hm? Oh, there’s a memo. Let’s see… “Itsuki is here to see you”? Oh, so that’s why. You came to make a move on Lillith, huh?Why do people keep thinking that about me?Kekeke! You get to be lewd with 12 girls, don’tcha?Oh god, please. Don’t tell me she’s another Mana. One is enough. You sure got the long end of the sick, you perv!Right. How about we just move on from that. Now that you’re here, it’s a good time for us to talk about… you know.What? You didn’t hear from her already? About our split personalities. Bah, such a pain in the rear end! Fine… I guess I’ll tell you. There are two people inside us. One is Lillith, who you met, and the other is me. When we bonk our heads, our personalities flip. If you see these spooky blue hearts pop up during choices, it means you made the “bad” choice. Pink hearts indicate the “Best” choice, and nothing means the choice was neutral. I chose this one mainly because it’s funny. Every time you hit your head? Are you… all right?What? You making fun of me?No. But Mana hit you before, so I figured maybe it was a regular thing.I don’t get my head beat year round, if that’s what you’re getting at. Mana’s the only idiot who’d dare hit my head all the time. It’s not just physical, any sort of shock to our brain can flip us.Weird. Sounds like a tough spot to be in.It’s nothing once you get used to it. Anyway, nice to meet you and all that. Here, shake my hand.Oh, sure. Nice to meet you—*There’s a squishy noise* What the hell is…Kekekeke! I got you, you idiot!Is this gum?It’s garlic gum! I picked the one that stank the most! Come on now! Better hurry and wash it off! Kekekeke! See ya later, Itsuki! Hope we get along!*And Lillie takes off* It’s just garlic. Besides, that means she’s got it on her too. Ugh… either way, I can tell she’s going to be a pain to deal with.Personally, I propose carrying a whiffle bat or something with you when you go to see her. Whiffle bat always makes me laugh.  Time for Classmating, Lillith.Oh sure… Hmm… What should I do…? Now that it’s time to actually do it, I’m getting embarrassed. Are you fine with this, Itsuki?Eh, not exactly. I’m getting used to it, but I can still get embarrassed. My gut is actually in knots just thinking about having to do this with Re—You know what, not important.Oh, I see. That’s a relief. I was worried I would be the only one to be so embarrassed. Listen, if it’s too much then we can always try another time. Just throwing that out there.No, I will make it through with my willpower. Hip-hip-hooray! …Whatever works I guess. Let’s go.Yes. I’ll do my best!*And then Classmating happened* *sigh*… That was wonderful. It actually wasn’t all that bad.Did you not know how it works?I did, but my imagination still ran wild. It’s a bad habit of mine. I can’t help but think of so many different situations. Yeah, that sounds like an active imagination to me.That’s right. I’m always daydreaming, so I often think about these things. This one time, I thought about how cats evolve to be just the cutest. By the time I realized, a day had already passed.And did you get anything from that?In the end, I think they’re cute just the way they are.…Riiiight.But, to be honest, it wasn’t too difficult… It was just enough for me. If it weren’t, I’d just get Lillie to do it in my place.Did I miss something here? What wasn’t too difficult? Speaking of her, is she asleep or whatever?Yes. We aren’t aware of each other’s actions when one is awake. That’s why we write down memos for each other to keep ourselves informed. But in the moment we switch, we can feel each other’s emotions.  But we can’t figure out exactly what the other is thinking at the time.There are so many ways that could go horribly awry. I think I understand. Sort of. As much as I can understand magical personality changes.Wait, what time is it now? Oh… Looks like class is about to start. If I’m late again I’ll surely be scolded… I must go now. Farewell.Her planet needs her. After some class time, Itsuki rolls back in to her fortune telling studio to check on the Wonder Twins again. ~Fortune-Teller Manor~ Lillith? Are you in—Oops.Oh my. Please wait a moment, Itsuki. I have a guest over right now.Sorry, don’t mind me.Now then… Hmm… [Female Student A]: What? Really? Isn’t that great, Tak? [Male Student A]: Yeah, Mitchie. But I already know that even without getting our fortunes told. [Female Student A]: Oh? Really?! You make me so happy, Tak! Sorry to keep you waiting, Itsuki.Don’t worry about it. Sorry for interfering with your work.Not at all. I was thinking of taking a break anyway. I’ve been telling fortunes since early this morning, so I’m pretty tired.You must be really popular. Are your readings super accurate or something?It’s a bit embarrassing to say myself… But my customers do say I get things right all the time.That’s because they’re asking stupid poo poo like “Are me and my girlfriend in loooove?” Also, you’re giving bullshit “psychic” answers that are vague enough to be correct regardless of what happens. Many of the students come by and ask for readings on love.[Female Student A]: Everyone says how accurate her readings are. Right, Tak? [Male Student A]: Oh, Mitchie. Everyone is talking about the genius fortune-teller! (Huh, maybe I should have gotten her to tell my fortune. Then again, maybe that’s not such a good idea considering the monster fighting I have to do…) Aww… Now my face is on fire… I’m going to go wash my face.Hey, Lillith! Watch out for—Huh? Ahhh!*And Lillith promptly eats floor* This probably isn’t a good thing…Ugh… drat, that hurt. Did I step on the crystal ball? Clean that crap up, geez…[Female Student A]: Huh? L-Lillith? What? Who’s asking?The customers. [Female Student A]: Oh, you already did earlier… You guys might want to leave now. Before the good times end.What are you talking about? My fortunes are much better. Just you watch. Here goes…(This is going to be a disaster.)Mmmm… And the results are in! Ah… That dude is cheating on you.[Male Student A]: D-Don’t be stupid! Wh-Why would you say that?! [Female Student A]: Why are you panicking? Don’t tell me you really are cheating on me! He’s panicking because your relationship is as weak as a wet napkin and he knows that you’re about to completely tear his head off regardless of what he says. Ah, young love. Oh, I see who the girl is… [Female Student A]: It’s Mie! It has to be her! That fits her description! That sneaky average height/average build tramp!  [Female Student A]: You’re cheating on me… I don’t believe you, Tak! We’re through! [Male Student A]: Wait, Mitchie! You got it all wrong! Kekekekeke. They’re so friggin’ dumb… They really fell for that lie.You feel like telling me why the gently caress you lied to them like that?What? Because it’s fun, that’s why.For fun?! You destroyed that couple because it’s fun?!Yeah, it is. Got a problem with that? You better not try to lecture me.  You and everyone both sides of you know will die a horrible death without Itsuki. Your continued existence depends on him. Why is that such a difficult concept for people to grasp in this series? If Jesus Christ came to Earth and God burst out of the clouds to go “Listen, I sent him here to save everyone. It’ll be fine.” Would there be people going “So you’re The Messiah? Pfff, big deal. Don’t go getting all high and mighty.” Nobody tells me what to do. Kekekeke…[Male Student B]: Excuse me. I heard the fortune-teller here is really good, so… Run! For the love of god—You’ll have bad luck! It’s written all over your face![Male Student B]: Wh-What?! You can tell just by looking at my face?! I can totally tell! You’ll either have bed bugs, get sick, or die in the next three days!Would you shut your drat mouth you—Shut up! Don’t tell me what to do![Male Student B]: Y-You’re lying… That can’t be true! Noooo! *Male Student B B-B-Books it* He’s running away… Hey, come back here!Where do you think you’re going? Keep this in mind for future reference. We learn something about Itsuki in one of these opening bond events that relates to this and I think the game completely forgets about it during bond events like this one. I’m gonna go bully him until he cries! Kekekeke!*And then Lillie books it* …She needs to be taught a lesson. How the hell does Lillith live with that inside of her?Even though this is blind, I’m keeping commentary to a relative minimum because the thread will be the ultimate arbiters of our path in this game. But I’m gonna be frank with all of you here… Move over Mana, PK has a new most hated character! Next time on “The Bachelor: Granvanian Destinies”:   Goddammit, Conception Plus! It’s not a freaking contest!
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Feb 23, 2020 |
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Nov 26, 2019 02:28
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Yeeeah. From that update I'm seeing two Maidens I'd prefer to bench already. Tarua looks and acts much too young, and Lillith/Lillie probably doesn't need explanation. At least Arie seems interesting and sane?
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Nov 26, 2019 14:11
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Yeah, they really have a talent at making characters unlikable. Arie seems reasonably sane, but the rest so far have just been... ugh.Kaishai posted:Yeeeah. From that update I'm seeing two Maidens I'd prefer to bench already. Tarua looks and acts much too young, and Lillith/Lillie probably doesn't need explanation. At least Arie seems interesting and sane? Fully agreed. This upcoming one looks like they're heading for the bench as well. They can't all be this bad, right?
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Nov 26, 2019 15:42
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The Flying Twybil posted:They can't all be this bad, right? Why do I hear ominous laughter off in the distance? 
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Nov 26, 2019 16:16
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Hop boy. Those were not great. I am wondering if Arie is going to turn out to be a secret assassin or something like the other girl who was involved with the church.
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Nov 26, 2019 16:22
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The Flying Twybil posted:They can't all be this bad, right? Purely from a personal position after having seen everyone's introduction, this is how my vote is shaping up: Arie, Reone, Farun, Sue, and Mirei are all fine in my books. At the very least I see the potential for interesting/sweet/funny interactions. Also there's Mahiru, whose remaster induced personality change has apparently made into a mess, except I think it's a funny mess because she flips wildly between emotions from sentence to sentence. Femiruna was fine, for the first few sentences, but the second that laugh popped up I grew to hate her. I said this in the World of Final Fantasy LP, but I despise the noblewoman/Ohohohoho type characters. That laugh is one of the most irritating sounds imaginable to me. So that's purely a personal taste issue. Other people may just find her to be a naively sheltered type that has potential for a lot of growth as a character. Collette, Yuzuha, and Tarua are drat children. They creep me out. Sue sort of looks like she fits into the child category as well, but I give her a pass since she doesn't make things weird or say uncomfortable things. By that I mean she doesn't do stuff akin to Tarua's head patting fetish. She seems like the kind of character that you just have regular conversations with. I'm sort of okay with Lillith, but Lillie completely drags her down. Lillie is someone that needs a good rear end kicking. It would have been bearable if it was just juvenile pranks, but those random students did nothing to deserve being harrassed and hosed with like that. Lillie is terrible. LP Itsuki gets pissed at her, but Official Itsuki acts totally indifferent to that bullying she does, so I don't see any potential comeuppance in Lillie's arc that would persuade me to want to see it through. Ruka is... I actually don't know what to make of Ruka yet. I hate Tsundere characters, but her story has some potential to be fairly serious and interesting. I'm at least willing to consider voting for her to give her a shot. The 13th Maiden is a complete wildcard. I have no idea when she shows up or what the hell she's like. The only thing I know about her is her appearance and that she doesn't look like a 12 year old. So no, I don't think they are all as bad as what we just saw. I think the database just ordered them in such a way that we got saddled with some unlikable characters right from the start. I can't say for sure how the thread will lean, but I'm fairly confident that Farun will at least be well received. OOrochi posted:I am wondering if Arie is going to turn out to be a secret assassin or something like the other girl who was involved with the church. There has to be something going on under the habit. Arie is giving me minor Narika vibes, and Narika's arc got loving weird after the halfway point. Secret church assassin like Ellie is another possibility, but the church doesn't seem to play a major role in this game compared to CII. If we're taking bets as to which character is doing secret shady stuff for an organization, then my bet is currently on Mirei and King Shangri-La over in the palace. Mirei is the palace mage/scholar or whatever, so maybe she works on forbidden research or spells for the King. Her ancestors were also responsible for the Stardust Labyrinths, so maybe she knows a dark secret about them or something. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Nov 26, 2019 |
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Nov 26, 2019 17:31
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They're in the traditional zodiac order, which starts with Aries (because the year used to start in what we would now call March). Man, those last two were awful. Could they not think of 12 distinct personalities without half of them being utterly insufferable?
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Nov 26, 2019 21:12
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Psycho Knight posted:
I would've been willing to put this down to 'separate people were translating each half of this conversation' (for some reason) and one of them decided 'the heart of serving' was bad, if it wasn't for the fact she then goes ahead and says it anyway later on. More literally her first line here is something like 'If it's for the sake of someone else, as long as you have a heart of serving* putting in the effort isn't a problem' so really their translation of that line would be fine, if they'd actually written the others parts to be consistent with it. * this should probably be something like 'the will to serve' regardless, but there's plenty of options to make this sound less weird that they didn't take
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Nov 26, 2019 23:55
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megane posted:They're in the traditional zodiac order, which starts with Aries (because the year used to start in what we would now call March). I didn't even take notice of that. I thought they just threw them in the same random order they used in the opening. To be fair, we need to keep in mind that this is partially a dating sim game. Somewhere out there, a not insignificant number of players are drooling all over those insufferable characters. Huh, now that I say that, I wonder... back in minute. Edit: Nevermind. All I could find on character popularity is a few people from message boards. One's a Collette lover and the others seem to like Lillith/Tarua/Yuzuha. Still, that's enough to increase my disappointment in humanity a little more. Polsy posted:I would've been willing to put this down to 'separate people were translating each half of this conversation' (for some reason) and one of them decided 'the heart of serving' was bad, if it wasn't for the fact she then goes ahead and says it anyway later on. As sad as it is, I kind of think you are wrong. Not because I don’t think that explanation is plausible; I think it makes perfect sense actually. But making perfect sense is why I think the explanation is wrong. Given what we've seen so far from SC, the answer can't be that straightforward. It has to be far more clumsy. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Nov 27, 2019 |
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Nov 27, 2019 03:23
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