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I love deadbeat dads 
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Jun 6, 2020 01:42
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Hwurmp posted:I love deadbeat dads Everyone's got a type. Although, now that I say that, it's kind of weird how there's no "bad boy" character in this lineup. Ryusei is the closest we've got and he's more of a goofball. Ignatius M. Meen posted:Dumping his kid on his mother-in-law after his wife died was already a romance disqualifier, did he think there was a gold medal for going the extra mile with child abuse? Not to play devil's advocate, but he's under an incredible amount of stress right now. His estranged daughter randomly showing up and potentially getting everyone killed (based on what they knew at the time) would not help matters. Not excusing him, but I also don't know of we can paint his entire character based on this one instance. differentiating posted:On the plus side, at least Mitarashi is good with kids, and I like him a lot more for just jumping in like that. Shidou also wins points for reaming Shirabe out, and I honestly don't blame him for maxing out - child abuse is 100% something to get pissed about. Blaze Dragon posted:If this game wanted to make me really not play a route, it sure succeeded here. Regardless of what you may think of children (I'm not too fond of them myself!), Shirabe's treatment of his daughter is horrendous and beyond unacceptable. cardinale posted:For real! Is an unattractive 32-year old who rages at his daughter really supposed to be an appropriate option for this protagonist? No thanks! Here's something I'm curious about. I'm pretty sure this stage is where we get locked into a route (which is Mitarashi for us). It seems like Mitarashi has been getting more attention in the past few updates, even during moments where we don't control who Saki interacts with. I'm wondering if the different routes start playing out slightly differently from this point on (now that we've locked in). Like, are they making some characters look better/worse based on who we are chasing? I'm curious to know if Ayumu's route makes him look better and Ryusei/Subaru worse, for instance. There's a moment in the next update that I really think supports this idea. Granted, we won't really know for sure until we've been through the game once. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Jun 6, 2020 |
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Jun 6, 2020 15:19
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Shidou did good chewing that douchecanoe out too.
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Update X: Fission Mailed Last time we witnessed some terrible parenting from Ayumu that basically obliterated any interest the thread may have had in him.  …Mostly. Anyway, outside of that we also ran into a tiny problem in the form of high explosives. The gang also only has about 15 minutes to figure out this puzzle, and we all know how great they are at making efficient use of time.  The wires ran to an LCD panel that read “14:56.” As we watched, it changed to 14:55, then 14:54… Oh no…  I-Is this the bomb that’s gonna blow up the whole attraction if we lost?!I doubt it. A bomb that size would have trouble blowing up this one room. Unless it’s like a pocket nuke or something.  Whoa, whoa, no way! We’ve still got two hours left! But the timer only has 14 minutes… The voice of the announcer filled the room, and then was gone. That’s right… What? In the original game the main character is a scientist, and he escapes and blows up the hospital to destroy all the zombie research. And that’s the end of the game… So for our last puzzle, all we have to do is use these clippers to cut the wires? Red! It’s always the red one! …Or is it blue? W-Wait, so, if there’s just one right wire, we’ve only got a one in seven chance of getting it? Relax. We all need to stay calm, especially now, and think this through. First, what are the failure conditions? Our heart rates are monitored by the terror gauges. If one becomes too agitated, their gauge will reach its limit and that person will be “out.” Good job on that by the way, Ayumu and Subaru. A-All right, well, if the time on that bomb reaches zero, then it’s “game over,” and there’s only thirteen minutes left! And if we cut the wrong wires, then we’re really in trouble! …Okay, so what do we do? We keep our heart rates down, we figure out which wire to cut, and we do it before time runs out. Exactly. Now let’s examine the announcement we just heard. "Farewell, bloodstained hospital. All these sins are yours, so that I might escape this purgatory." What’s “purgatory”?It’s like a waiting room for heaven. If you’re a good little Christian boy or girl, but maybe might have done some things that God would wag his finger at, then Purgatory is where your spirit goes in order to be purified before being allowed into heaven. It’s like hell, in that you are being punished for your sins, but it’s not for eternity. People could reduce the amount of time they (or even their already dead relatives) would have to languish in purgatory by getting “Indulgences.” Indulgences were supposed to be given out by the church for stuff like saying prayers a bunch of times or visiting religious sites or doing good deeds. But since organized religion can’t avoid a scam, the church started considering donations to be a “good deed.” You shouldn’t have to try very hard to see where this led. The Middle Ages was an especially greedy moment for the church where priests and bishops funded insane vanity projects through the sale of indulgences. Basically, the church was the mob that told people “You know, all that sin debt that your father had is going to make him suffer for hundreds of years. Saying your prayers isn’t going to cut it anymore, unfortunately. But you know, we’re selling some debt forgiveness on God’s behalf. Could help your poor old dad skip the line and get into heaven a little quicker.” And that’s pretty much how stuff like the building of the new St. Peter’s Basilica got funded. History!   Oh yeah, it’s also that. Although Dante was from the Republic of Florence, so technically it should be “Purgatorio.”  The Divine Comedy is an epic poem in three parts— Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.  The writing we saw at the entrance— “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”— is from the poem as well. Shirabe tapped his middle finger against his forehead as he spoke. In the Divine Comedy, Purgatory is for souls that have committed the sins of pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, or lust.Yes, The Seven Deadly Sins are part of Purgatory as well. Dante climbs Purgatorio (which is a mountain in this case) in the second part of the Divine Comedy. Purgatory is divided into 10 terraces. Paradiso/Heaven sits at the very top, then you’ve got Lust/Gluttony/Avarice (Greed)/Sloth/Wrath/Envy/Pride, and then you have two levels of Ante-Purgatory for people who repented their sins at the last minute or were excommunicated. I think the association of the Deadly Sins with Hell may have come from Purgatory gradually falling by the wayside in religion. It’s rarely mentioned anymore, except by a few branches of Christianity, so I think the sins tend to get merged into the idea of Hell. Ah, the so-called “seven deadly sins,” right? Right, sorry. I’ve been getting really carried away with history and stuff in this update. Let’s get back to focusing on the whole bomb situation we’re currently trapped in. The guy in the game was doing experiments at the hospital for the military to create zombies and stuff. He loses his memory, but while you explore the hospital you find his journals and notes and stuff, and it starts to come back… Then, the sins it was talking about… His zombie research, human experimentation… Okay, I doubt we’ll get anything more out of that. Let’s look around the room. Be fast, we don’t have much time. Right! We all ran off to different parts of the room, and began looking desperately for anything that might give us the hint we needed. I grabbed a drawer, expecting it to be fake too, and was surprised when it opened. Ah! What is it? There’s a notebook in here! It says “Research Notes.” I lifted it out carefully as everyone crowded in around me. Why don’t you try opening it to the pages they’re marking?Duh. I did as he’d suggested, and found a page full of scribbled notes with one word circled in what looked like blood. Whoa, what the heck…? This is creepy. It looks like every page with a piece of colored paper had a word circled on it. Can you tell me what the words are?  Maybe all the horrible stuff he had to do drove him crazy. (Hm… Wait.) The others were still gathered around the notebook discussing it, but I felt as if I was on the verge of some sort of mental breakthrough. (I… I feel like I’ve heard these words before…) Oh come on, really? This calls for one of Saki’s patented “Explosive Insight” moments? Ugh… fiiiine. Here we go. (There were five circled words in the journal: jealousy, fury, neglect, indulgence, and seduction. I feel like I’ve seen something like them before… When we first got here, we found the treasure chest on the desk, but it ended up being a timebomb.) (The announcement mentioned purgatory, which is from the Divine Comedy… I think? Purgatory is where people who have committed some of the seven deadly sins go when they die. The main character in the game this was based on worked at the hospital. His “sin” was creating zombies and performing human experimentation. So… why do those words from the journal seem familiar?)  Three chances to guess that was three too many in my opinion. The seven deadly sins! Of course! That’s it! What’s it?! Look at the words he circled. Aren’t those, like, basically synonyms for some of the sins? What?! My God, she’s right… Jealousy, fury, neglect, indulgence, seduction… envy, wrath, sloth, gluttony, and lust! They all match up! Yes, but we’re missing pride and greed. Whoa, whoa! You guys, look at this! The colors on those pieces of paper match the wires connected to the bomb! You’re right! I think we’ve got it! So, yeah. I thought for sure we were going for a puzzle where each of the people matched up with one of the sins. Seems like a pretty obvious thing for Hogstein to come up with, especially if these guys somehow wronged him in the past. But apparently this is just a simple color matching deal instead. For fun, what guy do you think matches with each sin? I’m a little conflicted about some of them. Towa and Subaru both seem like contenders for “Pride.” Ryusei seems like a shoe-in for “Lust.” Ayumu might be “Wrath”, considering what we just witnessed last update. Kouta? Probably “Sloth.” Kimimaro and Saki, though? Beats me. Granted, Saki wasn’t the intended seventh participant. If we match them up with the sins, we’re missing pride and greed. Then we can assume the red and blue wires correspond to pride and greed. Maybe. Or maybe we have to cut all of them except those two. This is a tricky call to make. No, we don’t know that. All we know is that those wires aren’t mentioned in the journal. How much time do we have left? Six minutes! drat… We need to figure this out, now! Mai jumped at Mitarashi’s change in tone and took a step back from him. There has to be something more here… The ticking clock was making everyone frantic, and I could tell we were quickly losing focus. (I need to calm down…) I was trying desperately to get my thoughts in order when Shidou caught my eye. Wh-What?! (Oh man… What am I gonna do?)We have a choice here. Saki can either tell Shidou that she’s got this poo poo covered, or she can tell him that they all need to think about it some more. Got it! I’ll do my best!Saying “Got it!” is an affection point towards Shidou, but it doesn’t really matter anymore if we get a stray one here and there. Stage 3 is where we lock into a particular route and there’s no chance of anyone overtaking Ryusei before the end of this stage, so I’d prefer to let Saki show a little confidence in herself. I gave him a firm nod. We’re counting on you. Screw you. Saki is the lynchpin here. You guys would have died back in the first stage without her. Yeah! (Maybe there’s something in that announcement that we missed, or something else we’ve skipped over. I mean, there has to be! These puzzles are tough, but they’re solvable!)Well, they’re solvable as long as Hogstein wants them to be solvable.  This is new. We’ve got a second “Explosive Insight” moment and it’s only a little while after the first one. (“Farewell, bloodstained hospital. All these sins are yours, so that I might escape this purgatory.” We matched the seven deadly sins to the words circled in the journal. The journal only had five sins, though: Envy, wrath, sloth, gluttony, and lust.) (That means the red and blue wires that don’t match up to the journal correspond to pride and greed. …But that still doesn’t tell us which wires to cut. How are we supposed to figure it out?)This moment is slightly tougher to figure out than the first one, so it’s possible that the first moment was just meant to lure the player into a false sense of security.  That’s it! “All these sins”! It has to mean that we’re supposed to cut “all the sins” in the journal! That’s the answer! That makes sense… Unless anyone disagrees? Nope, sounds good to me! That has to be it. Yup. I agree!Kouta, dude, we really need to have a discussion on that evil smile of yours.  Me too! Something up, Kimi? If you’re seeing a problem with Saki’s logic on this then now is the time to speak up. There’s not going to be a second chance if she’s wrong. All right, those five wires it is. Good work. He grinned, and picked up the clippers. There were four minutes left on the clock. Remember to stay calm, or you might set off your terror gauge! This’ll all be over in just a minute… Slowly and carefully, Shidou cut each wire, avoiding the red and blue ones. This is the last one… Right. Here goes…! With a snap, the clippers cut through the last wire. …What? N-No! poo poo. Welp, looks like we’ve got a coin flip to make. The time was still counting down. We’re still here, which means we haven’t failed the game, but… Does this mean one of the remaining wires needs to be cut too? O-Oh man! How’re we supposed to figure this one out? Wakasa moaned. He’s got a point. May as well pick a colour and give it a shot. True, but… Cut the red one! My gut says that’s the one. Gimmie those! He lunged forward to take the clippers from Shidou— W-Wait! We don’t have time! If someone didn’t stop him, he was going to cut it. I leapt toward Mitarashi— At last, Urabe spoke. …Why do you say that? It’s… blue? There was something oddly… certain about his tone.Hey, at least there’s a sense of logic to that reasoning. I’ll take that over Ryusei following his gut. Interesting… But how did you figure that out? Shirabe…? He didn’t look happy.Oh, Christ. You can’t be serious… Gah! We’ve only got two minutes left! What are we gonna do?! Shidou turned to face Urabe as well. … W-Wait, what are you guys saying?They’re actually doing the stupid traitor thing. That’s what they are saying. Son of a bitch, I thought we were past that. I didn’t know what was going on, but I could feel a knot beginning to form at the bottom of my stomach. I… Um…? What?! All around the room, eyes widened in shock. But… that was just something Hogstein said to shake us up… … His sad expression was enough to confirm my worst fears. (No… this can’t be happening…) I was still reeling when Shidou spoke up. He reached for the blue wire— Wh-whoa, what?! You’re gonna trust a guy who just told you he’s a traitor?! Once again, there’s a possible affection point here. I know I said they don’t matter at this point, but we’re still going to not trust Urabe. He’s being punished for being a part of an incredibly tired subplot. …Maybe we should think about it a little more. Right? After hearing Urabe, though, I’m having a hard time thinking it could be the red wire. … We had less than a minute left on the timer. We had to make a decision: the red wire, or the blue one. He might be a traitor, but his logic’s better than anything we’ve come up with. I say we trust him! With this ultimatum given, Mitarashi turned his back to the bomb and sat down cross-legged on the floor. …Mister? “Mister”…? That’s way too formal. We’re bros.  I guess that’s it, then. He nodded, and moved to stand between Mitarashi and the bomb in what was likely a vain attempt to shield her from the blast. Here we go! He looked around at us one last time, and we all nodded. Shidou held the clippers up to the wire, squeezed the grip, and… Cut it. Ah…! …Nothing happened?! The timer’s stopped at five seconds. Then… We’d done it! Smiles began to break out when—  You! Unfortunately, your answer is incorrect!Not my fault! I said we should think about it more. Oh no! The timer suddenly started to count down again— And before we knew it, the numbers hit zero.[Announcer]: Stage 3, failed. The announcement hit me like a punch to the stomach. His voice was a mix of anger and desperation. Oink oink oink! Well unfortunately for you that was an itty bitty lie. Think of it as… insurance. I was starting to wonder if I could trust you.…Hold on a second. If Kimimaro is a traitor, then what the hell is Hogstein getting out of that arrangement? Hell, what is Kimimaro getting out of it? If Kimimaro was supposed to sabotage the group, then that would have resulted in his death by proxy, which raises the question of “Why the gently caress would you bother following Hogstein’s orders in the first place?” And if Hogstein’s goal was to sabotage the group in order to make them fail, then why bother making any of these puzzle attractions? He could have just made the first puzzle unwinnable!   All the wires?! You mean the missing sins, the blue journal… all of that was just to trick us?! But that’s childish, dishonest, and… drat, of course it is. Childish and dishonest is his calling card. Why didn’t I notice it earlier?! It was all a trick…? I didn’t know what else to say. Shouldn’t you all be, I don’t know… Running for your lives about now? (Ah! That’s right! We failed, so…) The bombs were about to go off! That’s easy to say, but… Since Hogstein’s revelation, Urabe had looked empty and beaten, but now he suddenly straightened up. This way!  Whoa! This leads outside! Quickly! You must hurry! We didn’t wait for him to say it twice, and ran through the door as fast as we could. Go! Just go! Okay! (…Where’s Urabe?) I looked back over my shoulder— I wasn’t even sure I’d heard it. Urabe?! Smoke instantly filled the hallway, and I stumbled forward, blinded. *Gasp* (I can’t keep going!) But just as I was about to collapse, I felt someone grab my hand. M…Mitarashi? Where’s Mai?! She’s already out. Don’t worry. You need to get moving, though! Those bombs aren’t done going off yet! I focused on his hand, picked myself up, and began to run again. We hadn’t gone very far before I heard another explosion from behind us. Aaaah! The blast slammed into me, and I felt my body begin to fall, when— Mitarashi…? Guh—! He’d wrapped his arms around me and turned his back to the explosion. Are you okay? (He stuck his neck out for me, again…) Urgh…! Another blast hit us, far more powerful than the others, and then everything went dark.   Well then… We… we kinda hosed up.[???]: Hey, are you alright? Uh… ugh… What happened to the hospital?! Have a look. It’s toast. I spun around. Mitarashi was right… There was nothing left but a mass of twisted, smoking debris. Oh gosh… I tried to stand up, but the escape had taken all I had in me, and my legs just didn’t have the strength. Everyone else was silent. Wait… Urabe! What about Urabe?! No… I bit my lip. drat… I knew that guy was hiding something… …Urgh…Oh right, how are you holding up over there, Mitarashi? Are you okay?! I’m fine, I think I just took a hit to the gut.This park is really holding a grudge against you, man. Because you were looking out for me…? Oh… (He looks like he’s in a lot of pain… I bet he just said that so I wouldn’t feel bad. It seems like he’s always saving me…) The next voice I heard was one I would have been happy to never hear again. I mean, you did apparently set the bombs to explode like a full minute after the game was failed. You’ve got no-one to blame but yourself on that one. Unless one of the piglets was asleep at the switch or something. You son of a bitch! Bringing my daughter into this was a pretty low move, pal. Wasn’t this supposed to be a seven-player game? You won’t even play by your own rules! Whoa, hold on there, cowboy! I was as surprised by your spawn being here as you were! Oink. This little twerp is definitely not supposed to be in my park, you understand? Shidou, take a moment to really think about what you just said. I seem to recall that someone in this group was head of security for this amusement park opening and yet here we are with terrorist bombers dressed as hogs running around.  In fact, taking eight people into a game would be against the rules, so I’m thiiiiinking about killing a hostage! Oink oink oink!  …Eep… As the pig’s gaze turned toward her, Mai scurried around behind Mitarashi. Hm. Hm, hm, hm. Ah-ha! Of course! Let’s add her in as a participant!No, please. Let’s not do that.  You get a new friend, and I get a chance to off someone else! That’s what I call a win-win!…Huh. Now that I think about it… I wonder if that zombie we ran into was just a guy dressed up as one? Because if that’s the case, then I think there’s another family out there that’s going to have to be notified. Whoa… You’re talking about a kid here, man. You should just let Mai leave the park! No! No no no! I’ve made up my mind and that’s that! Rrrgh! He wasn’t going to let Mai go. I felt my hands balling into fists. (He doesn’t listen to us at all! And he barely follows his own rules— just makes stuff up as he goes along! He’s all excited about “offing” someone else?! That’s awful! What a jerk!) We no longer have to worry about those heart monitor things, so go ahead Saki. Let it out. What’s wrong with you?! You’re gonna try and force a little kid to play your sick game?! Adults are supposed to help and protect kids, not try and kill them! What is wrong with you?! Wh-When did I ever say anything about being an adult— You’re carrying a cigar!She’s got you there.  A-Aaah! Oink oink oink. Well, I mean, I was just kidding around. A little joke! For fun! I frowned. Argh! What?! (What? That felt almost… serious.)Hold up, what do you mean by that? What exactly were you hoping to get from all this? Revenge? Is it revenge? Come on, give us something to go on. And now I must leave you! Buh-byeeeee! He was gone, and the screen flickered off. Damnit! We all sat down, exhausted. The game of the day had been beaten, but…Well, technically you didn’t beat it. (Urabe…) We hadn’t been able to stop the bomb, and Urabe had disappeared. We didn’t even know if he was alive.Honestly, he should be dead as hell. That blast was powerful enough to turn the entire attraction into a crater. But tropes dictate that since we didn’t see him die, it means he’s totally still alive. I’m not sure how long we sat there before Shidou suggested we go get something to eat. We lumbered to our feet and headed in that direction. (What are they talking about…?) It didn’t take long for me to find out. I asked them to help fix you up, Mitarashi.Awww, but that was going to be Saki’s chance at more sexy bonding time with Mitarashi! Patching up his various wounds is their thing! Huh? Your injury. It looks like you’re in a lot of pain. A piglet approached, and gestured for Mitarashi to accompany it. R-Right. Guess I’ll go with this guy, then. We nodded, and he disappeared off into the kitchen. You’re probably right. We’d all ordered and begun to eat when Mitarashi returned. Dinner was quiet, unlike the night before, but it was hardly surprising: One of our companions had gone missing. That image— the smoking wreckage of the hospital— refused to leave my mind. (Nobody’s talking…) I looked around the table. Everyone’s expression was dark and gloomy. What? Uh… um… never mind… He shook his head and tried to go back to eating. Well, he, uh, probably had his reasons, right? Unless we can ask him we’ll never really know. If it wasn’t for him, every single person sitting at this table would be dead right now. Yeah… He saved our lives. That seemed to end the conversation, and we went back to eating in silence. (They’re probably all wondering what to do next too…) I hoped Urabe was safe.  “I already have what I want.” What’s weird about that? Oh, right. I guess that is what he would mean. I forgot that the characters haven’t already figured out what the audience has in regards to this totally being part of some kind of revenge plot for Hogstein. …So, you’re saying he didn’t just pick us at random? Shidou had been running security, and Wakasa had been invited as a celebrity guest. Meoshi had come for exclusive DLC and I was pretty sure Mitarashi had come just because he wanted to be there for the opening of a new park. And Shirabe had been brought to the park by a mysterious phone call. (You certainly wouldn’t think these guys have anything in common by looking at them…) Was there something else going on, something behind the games, that we couldn’t see?Duh?  But either he wasn’t out there or didn’t want to be found, and we met back at the dock, exhausted. …It looks like our time is up for now. No… The pig’s not going to stop just so we can look for Urabe. We need to get some rest for tomorrow. Yeah… With heavy hearts, we ended our search and headed into the hotel. (Where did you go…?) I collapsed onto my bed as soon as I was close enough to it to do so, expecting that I’d be asleep in minutes, but that didn’t happen. (I wonder where Urabe is…) I kept thinking about him, and about the hospital getting blown up. (Why was Urabe working with Hogstein…?)That’s a very good question. I still don’t understand how either of them benefitted from that. (And why’d that stupid pig have to blow up part of Uncle Keiji’s park, after he worked so hard on it? Maybe if I’d just tried harder…)That question is probably a bit easier to answer. Keiji probably crossed Hogstein in some way in the past. Arg… I’ve got too much to think about. No way I’m getting to sleep… I sat up and sighed. (I wonder if anybody else is having trouble sleeping…?)  Break time, and we can see that Kimimaro has straight up been deleted from the roster. Not that it matters anymore. We’ve hit the point where the route is now locked in, so the game is automatically assigning us to Ryusei, who we have the most affection points with.  I think it is still possible to earn affection points with Ryusei (as well as miss affection points with him), because his gauge in the menu is nowhere near maxed out yet. I’m not sure what this means, though. Maybe there is a good and bad version of each guy’s ending? Something to test out on a future run, I guess. We also need to see what happens if we avoid getting affection points with anyone, because I think that’s possible. (Who’d be visiting me this late?) I opened the door to find… Hey! Mitarashi?! Is something wrong? Eeeh, not really. You just looked kinda bummed when we all split up, like you had a lot on your mind or something.…Did that explosion screw with your memory or something? Hah… Yeah, I guess you’re right. Smooth move, my man. …Huh? Really?! Yeah, why not? Just means I’ve got your back. I suppose. You just never struck me as the sort of guy who sees women as… well, as bros, I guess. Sorta goes with the territory. With a job like mine there’s not a lot of room for seeing a woman as anything more than a client. Oh. Well… thanks, then. That makes me happy. (He’s trying to cheer me up…) Aren’t you sad about it too? Uh… He coughed and looked around awkwardly, then shrugged. Yeah, but keep it under your hat, okay? It’s not like we were BFFs or anything, but he was one of us. I think he thought of us as his friends. I just… don’t think he really wanted to betray us, you know?I’m still not even clear on how he betrayed you. I can’t remember any moments off the top of my head where Urabe suggested something that turned out to be wrong. He tapped out on the go kart thing, but someone had to ride single during that part regardless. Yeah… Man, sorry about that. I’m not usually such a whiner. So much for staying cool… You’re being too hard on yourself. Oh! How’s your injury? It’s fine. I’m fine. Although I should probably be getting back to my room for some sleep. Yeah, you should. All right. You too, okay? I nodded and waved him off down the hall. (That was nice, actually. I feel quite a bit better.) Words to live by... I guess. (All right, time for me to get some sleep.) I was going to need my rest, so the sooner I got into bed the better. Gah! Where the hell did you come from? Mai?! What are you doing here?! …Can I sleep with you? Of course. I mean, if it’s okay with your dad… …Yeah. Okay, let’s get in bed then. I tucked her in, then turned off the lights and climbed into bed myself. (This is kind of like having a little sister…) Mai was already snoring softly. I let my eyes drift closed… Speaking of sisters. [Child 1?]: Hey! What should we ride next?! [Child 2?]: Um… how about… the tea cups! [Mother?]: Hold on a minute, you two. If you go on all the rides right away you’ll tire yourselves out. [Father?]: She’s right, you know. We’ve got plenty of time. What’d you say to some ice cream? What flavors do you want? [Child 1?]: Chocolate!  Hey, there we go! We’ve finally got a name for someone! *After a fade-to-black wipe* [Father?]: …All right, here you go. [Child 1?]: Thank you! [Akane]: Thank you! Weirdly, despite getting a name just a second ago, the text boxes still just display “???”.  Anyway, that’s it for Stage 3. We are now zeroed in on Mitarashi’s route. Let’s see what impact (if any) that will have on the remaining 4 stages. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Jun 10, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 23:15
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Oh, so there was a traitor. Sure, okay. I... suppose we'd probably get a lot more details on what's up with that if we did his route. Admittedly, I wouldn't call him that appealing, but to each their own. ...I don't recall, have we gotten an explanation for what the deal with his orb is? It might be a disguised smart device to help give him hints or navigate through the attractions or... something. Whatever Hoggy needed a traitor for.
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Jun 10, 2020 00:57
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we were almost a traitor dater 
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Jun 10, 2020 01:13
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Jadecore posted:...I don't recall, have we gotten an explanation for what the deal with his orb is? It might be a disguised smart device to help give him hints or navigate through the attractions or... something. Whatever Hoggy needed a traitor for. Nothing so far. That moment in the zombie maze was the only time I think anyone even acknowledges it. Of course, we probably would have learned more if we had actually spent time with Urabe. It probably is a smart device of some sort. I kind of feel like we're heading for an emotional moment at some point where Urabe tells us that he’s a fraud or something. Hwurmp posted:we were almost We will be eventually. Maybe? Is Urabe still a traitor in his own route? Because romancing a pile of exploded body parts would be a little difficult.
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Jun 10, 2020 01:32
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Psycho Knight posted:Update X: Fission Mailed Typo here. I'm not really minding that the characters seems to be dumb as rocks, because otherwise there's no game here other than the dating sim, but if Saki's insights are just things that have JUST been repeated then well... Hell, the insight at the first attraction was the hardest one so far.
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Jun 10, 2020 01:39
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HardDiskD posted:Typo here. Thanks. Fixed it. You are right about that. I mentioned it before, but there has to be a certain level of stupid involved. If there wasn’t then it would be a very boring and tension-free game. But yeah, that deadly sins moment was insulting. It was literally discussed at length a few sentences before the segment kicked in. Part of me thinks it was so stupidly easy in order to trick the player into thinking they were in the clear since there hasn't been 2 Explosive Insight moments in one puzzle before.
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Jun 10, 2020 01:46
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Huh, so that's why his crystal ball could find the exit. Also I'm calling it now; Urabe wasn't there by choice. Bet you anything Hogstein has a loved one of his hostage. Also awwww Ryusei's all flustered. That's cute.
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Jun 10, 2020 03:11
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drat, we did have a traitor plot after all. I was hoping it was bullshit but I guess not. At least it was resolved fast. Mitarashi is still the best and still getting hurt by everything. He's a true bro. I'm guessing his "bros" were "nakama" originally, but "bro" feels very fitting here.
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Jun 10, 2020 15:37
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let's tell the whole world we're bros we're bros why'd you whisper bro because you're my whole world bro bro
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Jun 10, 2020 15:42
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I'd take an arrow for you, bruh
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Jun 10, 2020 15:51
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LP Status/Possible Hiatus ------------------------------------------------------ Just as a reminder to everyone, my intention is to put the LP on a (hopefully) very brief hiatus so that I can try and improve the quality of the character portraits. I mentioned this near the start of the LP, but I wasn't even close to being successful in yanking out the art assets from this game. Nothing I did worked, so I had to rely on some transparent PNGs that someone else had stuck up online. Problem is, these transparent PNGs were rough around the edges and were missing several of the characters expressions. I've never been happy with the look of them, but unfortunately they were the best I could do at the time. Saki and Hogstein's portraits are especially bad (Hogstein's are all very wide/tall, so his portraits are uneven compared to everyone else). In Saki's case, there simply isn't much artwork of her to use to create head icons (she's the viewpoint protagonist of a VN, so she doesn't have a portrait like everyone else does). Here is an example of what I hope to do to clean things up: Current/New:  Current/New:  The icons seem a bit big, so I've reduced their size. I've also attempted to smooth out the edges. Ryusei is unfortunately going to have to deal with the top of his head being shaved off, because 90% of his portraits clip through the top of the screen. I'm still not sure of how much time I'll need. I also might simply keep going with the LP and just work on these on the side, then replace everything once they're done. We'll see what happens with my life in the next week or two, since I'm not having a great time at the moment. Slaan posted:I'd take an arrow for you, bruh And a bullet... and several explosions. Hwurmp posted:let's tell the whole world we're bros What gets me is how excited Saki seems to be when she hears it. M: Because, you know... we're bros. S: REALLY?! WE'RE BROS?! M: Shhh! Blaze Dragon posted:Mitarashi is still the best and still getting hurt by everything. He's a true bro. I'm guessing his "bros" were "nakama" originally, but "bro" feels very fitting here. You are correct. While I don't have the Japanese version's text, I do have the voice acting. Mitarashi does say "nakama" at that point. "Bro" is a perfectly fine substitute given the kind of character Mitarashi is. Astrofig posted:Also I'm calling it now; Urabe wasn't there by choice. Bet you anything Hogstein has a loved one of his hostage. He must have some form of heavy leverage over him, but I'm not sure if a loved one is it. Hogstein would have trouble using a hostage to coerce Urabe, because just by being "the traitor" he would be putting said hostage at risk. If Urabe sabotages the group then they all die, either from the trap or from being exploded (they only survived the hospital because Urabe knew of a secret escape). If they all die, then there's no one left to save the hostages. Whatever it is, Urabe was willing to die and possibly kill others in order to get it/save it/destroy it/hide it. Maybe it's like a family reputation thing or something that's tied into whatever reason Hogstein has for targeting Urabe in the first place. In other news, I just noticed (while looking for Saki artwork) that someone on the forum did LP this game back in 2015. It's not on the Master List, but ChorpSaway was doing an SSLP of this game and even had custom drawn icons for Saki, although it seems as though they only got up to the end of Stage 1 before the LP suddenly stopped. I guess this game isn't as obscure as I initially thought. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Jun 11, 2020 |
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Jun 11, 2020 16:14
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To be fair with the 7 Deadly Sins thing, there's a lot of overlap between them and the 9 Circles of Hell, so that's probably where at least some of the confusion comes from. I'm a little disappointed that they wound up going with the traitor thing after all, but I agree that Hogstein must have something over Urabe to make him cooperate. It didn't seem like he wanted to betray the group. I was assuming they all likely had hostages in order to keep them in line, but agreed that it's probably more than that in his case. I also feel like they could've used Urabe as a mole more effectively - if the cell phone trick hadn't been revealed by the group and instead Hogstein had forbid it out of nowhere the next day, for example. I also thought for sure the bomb was fake to raise their terror gauges. Shows how much I know, clearly. The fact that the flashback(?) sister's name is Akane only makes me more convinced of my earlier theory.
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Jun 11, 2020 20:34
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Sorry this took so long. I intended to work on new character portraits, but then all of last week kind of turned into one slap in the face after another. It was rough. So I'm just going to continue doing updates with the current portraits. I'll continue picking away at new ones on the side whenever I have the time. It'll be more work for me when it comes time to go back and replace all of them with the new ones, but at least this LP won't be in danger of petering out from me procrastinating/forgetting about it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Update XI: Saki's Sweet Day Off Last update, there was a stupid traitor plot that… well, it’s kind of hard to call it a traitor plot actually. Kimimaro said he had betrayed the group, but we have no idea as to what he could have possibly done for Hogstein that would have made him a traitor. He had a pretty minor role in the solving of each game and at no point did he really sabotage the group’s chance at victory.  Beats me. Anyway, the point is that he was supposedly a traitor and then he went and possibly got exploded. Except that we didn’t see a body and therefore it means he is totally alive and will dramatically reappear at some point in the future. More importantly, we’re locked in to Ryusei’s route now. Time for Saki to start making some real progress on getting her hands on Ulysses’ top escort.  (Gosh, I still feel kinda tired from yesterday…) Mmm… Daddy… (Mai…? Oh, that’s right. She was feeling too shy to spend the night with her dad, so she came to my room.)Right…  shy. It definitely wasn’t out of fear or guilt or anything like that. (Kinda makes me feel like I have a little sister. …Man, now I wish I did have a little sister.)All right, so unless Saki is suffering from amnesia then it’s safe to say that those are not her memories that we keep seeing at the end of each chapter.  Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you up? No, it’s okay. ….Good morning. Good morning to you too, Mai. Are you feeling okay? Did you sleep well? …Yeah. She blushed a little bit as she nodded. (Oh my gosh, that is so adorable.)I remain unfazed. Talk to me when Mai starts dressing in little warrior costumes and slaying sex monsters with lances modeled after the Tokyo Skytree.…It was the last game I LP’d, just… don’t question it. Thanks, Mai! I think being your big sister would have been pretty awesome! …Yeah… She smiled and nodded, but she still looked a little fidgety and nervous. (A kid really shouldn’t be part of all this.) (If the explosion yesterday opened up his wounds…)*There’s a knock at the door, after which one of those creepy Piglet guys wanders in*  … Oh, right. Time for breakfast? …! …! He’s gesturing again... Huh. What does he mean? He doesn’t really need to tell us. They bring this stuff in on a room service cart. We can clearly see what it is we’re having. ! Oh, he’s nodding… So what are we having? Can you understand what they’re saying? …I don’t understand everything he says, but yeah, I guess so. (Maybe kids are better at stuff like that…) The piglet set up a table piled high with delicious-looking, steaming breakfast. What? (She looks really hungry…)Then eat something. It’s right there. …! Once he was finished, the piglet gave us a short bow and backed away. (Oh jeez, this looks sooooo good… but I can’t stop worrying about Mitarashi.) Sorry Mai, but do you mind if I go visit Mitarashi before I eat? Yeah. I’m worried about him. He hurt his tummy… I’ll be right back, so you go ahead and eat your breakfast, okay? Um… She looked at me, then at her breakfast, and then back at me again. What’s wrong? Oh, is there something there you don’t like? No… She looked around the room nervously and twisted her hands. Back off! This is Saki’s chance at more alone time with Mitarashi!  What? But aren’t you hungry? Uh huh… but I’m worried too. (That’s right… Mai’s gotten kind of attached to him, hasn’t she?) Okay! Sorry, but we’re gonna have to cancel breakfast! …?! …! …He doesn’t know what to do with the food. Uh, why don’t you go share it with the other piglets?How many of you guys are there anyway? ! (Mitarashi risked his life to save me. If I can do anything for him, I want to.)*After transitioning to Mitarashi’s room, which looks identical to Saki’s* Mitarashi, are you awake? Maybe he’s still asleep. Well, the door’s unlocked, so why don’t we go take a peek?That sounds like a one-way trip to an awkward moment. If this was an M-rated game then we would 100% be about to get a CG of Mitarashi half-naked on the bed or something. This is T-rated though, so it should be fine. …Okay. Quietly, we tiptoed into the room. We could hear pained breathing from the bed. That would be pretty suggestive sounding, if it weren’t for the fact that we know Mitarashi’s been shot/stabbed/exploded and is definitely in twisting in agony right now. His face twisted with pain as he sat up. Sweat shone on his face, and his shoulders heaved with each breath. Mitarashi! Are you okay?! …We were worried about you. drat, now I got little girls worrying about me? How the mighty have fallen. …Anyway, thanks for coming… He tousled Mai’s hair. He he… (She looks happy… Mitarashi, though… He’s obviously in a lot of pain.) But you’re hurt… What, this? Don’t be such a girl. I’ve had worse shaving.How bad are you at shaving exactly? I have to shave every two days just to keep heavy stubble at bay and I’ve never had a cut.  Come on, that explosion just about killed all of us! I kinda can’t believe we made it… Anyway, you shouldn’t be pushing yourself! Oh, hey guys. Whoa, whoa, what is this, an intervention? You guys are blowing this way out of proportion. Just look at me! I’ve never felt be— Hnnngh! When he tried to stand up and pose, his face went pale, and he hunched down over his stomach, moaning. (Oh jeez, he’s still really hurting, isn’t he?) …You’re trying too hard. N-No! I’m fine! You crack that thing open again and you’re going to be up poo poo creek. I know that, I just— Daddy…? Oh, um, hello Mai. Did you, ah, sleep well? Yeah. I slept in Saki’s room. Is that so? Well, thanks for keeping an eye on her, little lady.Somebody has to, apparently. Oh, no problem. We had a great time. It was kinda like having a little sister! He bit into one of his snacks forcefully and scratched his head. … (I guess Mai isn’t really sure what to say around him either. Makes sense, I suppose. They haven’t really seen each other in a long time. They’re almost strangers…)Yeah, I’m sure that’s the reason for the awkwardness and not the fact that Ayumu clearly has anger management issues when it comes to his daughter.  That can easily become an ill-advised method of parenting in its own right, Mitarashi. You don’t want to go raising some spoiled little brat that has learned she can get anything she wants. R-Right… Apparently so, since they manage to see past your looks.When did Subaru turn into a snark? Whoa whoa whoa, what’s that supposed to mean?! You know exactly what it means, or you’re even more of an idiot than I thought. Now, about today’s game…Mmkay. Seems like Subaru needs a little more work on the joking thing. We think you should stay behind. He leapt up out of bed— Gah! Aah! *Sigh* See? We still have a couple more days of games. You should be resting. Exactly. Think about what else we’re going to have to face. You need your strength. (He got hurt because he was protecting me.) So, what do you think Saki should do in this sit— Um… can I stay here and take care of Mitarashi?Duh. H-Hey, c’mon. I appreciate the offer kid, but I’ll be fine.That choice is an affection point for Mitarashi, by the way. I’m convinced that there are good and bad versions of each guy’s ending, because otherwise these affection point increases would be meaningless beyond Stage 3. No, that would be perfect. I was actually about to ask you to do just that. Wait, seriously? (So he’s worried about me too… Even if Mitarashi doesn’t want me to, I think it’s a good idea for me to stick around.) Okay. Staying behind it is, then! I was planning on leaving Mai with him too, but I’m glad you’ll be around to keep an eye on her.Dammit, stop butting in on Saki’s alone time with Mitarashi! Mai, can you take care of them for me? … She nodded, although I could see her kneading her hands nervously. Good. Ladies, make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.That’s a tall order, boss. But Saki will do her best! *Cut to Mitarashi accidentally jamming a knife into a wall socket or something* That worked out well. I really didn’t want to have to get Mai involved with any more of these drat games. I don’t care. We can all see you’re hurt and we’re all worried about you. …I’m worried too. Uh, I gotta say guys, I’m a little nervous about making our group any smaller, you know?That sounds like a you problem. (He’s talking about Urabe. I hope he’s safe…) Exactly! See? You need me! You’re not gonna do us much good in this shape. *Sigh* All right, fine. You’ve made your point. I can see arguing isn’t going to get me anywhere. I’ll sit this one out. Happy? You think Hogstein’s gonna let us do that?Why would he not? It’s a hinderance to you guys to have fewer people in the group. Honestly, I’m sort of expecting that this is the point where all of you guys die and we’re just left with Saki, Mitarashi, and Mai.   Right. People restrict themselves in games all the time. “Restrict themselves”…” Whoa man, TMI. N-No! I mean, that is still a form of masochism. Why else would someone attempt a Level 1, bare-handed, no-death run of Bloodborne/Nioh/Dark Souls/Code Vein? Sometimes you can do that to make a game you’ve already beaten more challenging. Huh. Seems weird to me. Isn’t it more fun to just have awesome weapons and stuff? …Some people like that, yes. “Filthy casuals, maybe.” Ah, you mean handicapping. Lots of sports use it to level the playing field a bit when two teams are particularly unbalanced.I know that golf does this fairly regularly, but what other sports typically have handicap systems? I know there are ways to do it for any kind of activity, but I’ve never really heard of other sports using it very often. I’m not a sports person though.  Ha. You better get out of here while your head still fits through the door, bro. Just doing it for your benefit. Wouldn’t want you guys getting too worried about our chances. Well we’re not worried. I’m gonna let you guys handle this one, so go handle it already. We got this, okay? You keep your eyes on the prize.Yes, exactly. Leave us (mostly) alone with Mitarashi. You really think I need you reminding me what my business is? Wait, so are you guys like… bros now, or what? …What does it look like to you? Yeah, seriously, what are you even talking about? (Ha! Well, they can deny it all they want, but they might as well be brothers. It’s almost like watching a sparring match…) Right, well, time we got moving. Good luck! Be careful! Later! …Hey, this isn’t so bad…Yeah. No Towa, no watching as a group of grown men fail to solve grade-school puzzles, and no time vortexes where 5 hours disappears into thin air. It’s kinda cool to know that somebody’s waiting for us. Exactly. That knowledge will make us try even harder. Hey, don’t give me that “try” poo poo. You will come back. You hear me? …Of course. That was always our intention. He nodded firmly, and left the room. I felt like we weren’t just seven strangers anymore. There was… something that bound us together now. (Seems kinda crazy that this awful game is the reason we’re all friends…) Oh, didn’t you get breakfast from the piglets? Might have, but I was pretty far under… (I guess we should have brought ours with us…) I’ll go find one of the piglets. Maybe they can bring us another one. Um… Hm? Is something wrong? Um… uh… Here. After digging around in her backpack, Mai had produced an unopened package of snacks. (Is that whole bag filled with snacks…? Like father, like daughter, I guess…) Snacks, huh? Sounds good. What? You don’t want a real breakfast? Besides, Mai offered us her snacks. What kind of man would I be if I turned down such a generous, thoughtful lady? (Ha, I didn’t even think of that. How nice of him…) Sooooo how ‘bout one of those snacks, Ms. Mai? Okay! She pulled another box out of her pack and shoved it into Mitarashi’s outstretched hand. He he. Thanks. (He really likes kids, huh? I bet he’d make a great dad.)All right, Saki. Chill out. Your biological clock is ticking so loud you could use it as an alarm.  I mean, having a healthy body’s, like, job number one for a guy like me. Can’t believe I let myself go like this… (He seems pretty upset about it. He must be hurt worse than I thought… huh?) As I was watching Mitarashi, he seemed to… wobble. Are you all right? You looked like you were kind of wobbling. You sure? Maybe the boat just started to move. Uh-huh. Sure. Hey, what’re you doing?! Oh my gosh, you’re burning up. I think you’re getting a fever. Nah, you call this a fever? It’s nothing. Hey, maybe if I just go do some weights I can just sweat it ou— O-Okay, fine, jeez… I was just kidding… Mai, do you think you can look after him by yourself for a little bit? Yeah, I can. Thank you. I’m going to go see if I can find some ice. Ice…? Why? Well, he has a fever, so I thought if I got him an ice pack he might feel better. Mai’s going to keep a close eye on you. If you try anything, I’ll hear about it, so behave. I’ve got my eye on you. Ha ha ha! Well, I guess I’d better shape up then. Glad to hear it. I’ll be back soon. (There’s got to be a piglet or two in the lobby. Maybe they can get me an ice pack…) Still hate you guys. Oh, great! Perfect timing! I need you to get something for me! …? I’m, uh, looking for an ice pack… ? You guys might not be allowed to speak, but we know drat well that you aren’t deaf. Ice. It’s not hard. …?! …! It was moving its hands in some sort of rotating motion. (What does that mean…? It kinda looks like he’s making shaved ice, but…) Are… are you talking about shaved ice…? ! He shook his head. Shoot. I wish I could understand you… Well, I guess it doesn’t have to be an ice pack as long as it’ll help cool him down… ! Oh, do you have something?! He nodded vigorously, and then disappeared out of the room. When he returned, he was carrying… …! …! There are fully functional kitchens on board this thing that can cater full course meals for everyone, but there’s no ice? Not even a fridge or a freezer? … … He seemed to realize almost immediately that it wasn’t what I wanted, and he hung his head miserably. I know you can cool off with a fan, I’m just worried that might give him a cold.That’s not how that works, Saki. Hm. Well, if you don’t have an ice pack, then maybe a cold towel or something… ! Oh, do you have a towel?! He gestured for me to wait and disappeared. After what seemed like a long time, he finally returned, this time with a… A… bucket? …Oh, there’s ice in it.Was that really so difficult?! …! … Something else…? He handed me a nice, clean towel. I get it! I can put the towel in the ice water, wring it out, and use that! Perfect. ! (Even if they can’t talk they seem pretty anxious to help.)That’s strange, by the way. We don’t know how many of these guys there are, but there are definitely more than 2. Do these piglet guys have some grudge against everyone the same way that Hogstein does? Are they just hired hands? For a brief moment I had a theory that maybe they were the hostages and Hogstein had forced them to dress up and stay quiet, or else. But that doesn’t work, because the piglets showed up the same time that Hogstein did, before any hostages were taken. Why exactly did a group of 2 or possibly even 10+ people dress up in pig costumes and help Hogstein bomb an amusement park? Thank you so much! I’ll bring this back when I’m done! …! …! Maybe I was just imagining it, but I thought the piglet looked… satisfied. This bucket’s really big though… I might have trouble carrying it.Is there anything you can do, Saki? I looked inside. The pieces of ice were all sorts of different sizes. (Were they still in the middle of making it? Wait, then that means that shaved ice movement was…) …!I just want to remind everyone that Ryusei is still in his room, wrenching in pain and roasting from the inside. The piglet nodded vigorously. (I think I’m getting a lot better at understanding their, uh, language. Oh jeez, look at the time! I need to get back to Mitarashi’s room!) [Sleepy Ryusei]: …Zzzzzz… I don’t have a “sleeping” face portrait, so this will have to do. (He fell asleep. I guess that’s probably for the best, actually. He needs all the rest he can get.)[Sleepy Mai]: …Zzz… (Mai dozed off too, huh?) I wrapped a blanket around her, making sure to tuck in the edges. (She’s so cute when she’s sleeping…)[Sleepy Ryusei]: Mmm… I…  I wrung the towel out and laid it across his forehead. (Now that we’ve caught our breath, maybe I’ll rest a bit too…) I took one of the chairs from the corner of the room, pulled it next to the bed, and plopped down into it. (Lunchtime already… I bet they’ve started today’s game. I wonder what it is today… I hope it’s not too dangerous.)What I wouldn’t give for a moment where Saki hears a distant boom and then a piece of debris from the attraction crashes through the ceiling and breaks Ryusei’s leg or something. You know, just to keep the consistency. [Sleepy Ryusei]: Nnngh… Mitarashi…? But whatever it was he didn’t continue, and after a moment he rolled over and started snoring peacefully again. I looked down at his face. (He’s saved my life twice, and I’ve only known him for a few days. Not just that, he almost died doing it…) The first time he’d saved me had been back in Samurai Fantasy VII… We hadn’t figured out the puzzle yet, and so we’d ended up triggering the crossbow trap. I’d almost gotten hit, but Mitarashi jumped in and blocked it.We really don’t need this little bit of reminiscing, Saki. It was two and a half days ago for you. It’s only been about two and half hours for the player (Likely far less than that for actual players considering I pause on each line in order to make it easier for transcribing later).  (Of course, he says the injury’s no big deal, but I think it’s bothering him more than he’s telling us.) The second time had been in Bloodstained Hospital. He’d used his own body to shield me from the explosion. (And now he’s got this fever, probably because of that… It’s pretty amazing that he’s so willing to put himself in harm’s way for someone he barely knows.) I thought back over all the stuff he’d done since the first day.”Getting shot, getting punched, getting shot again, getting blown up.”  We’d all been surprised when his argument with Shidou at Alice Kart had actually turned into a real fistfight. It had all been an act of course, but nobody had guessed because they’d been at each other pretty much since the beginning.To be fair, it only turned into an act about halfway through. It started out as very much a real fight. (They really seem to get on each other’s nerves sometimes, but I don’t think they really don’t like each other. In fact, in a way, they’re kinda similar— They really care about their friends, they just show it in different ways.) When Urabe had been revealed as a traitor the day before, Mitarashi had been the only person who trusted him anyway, at least at first. I felt like I owed him a lot, and I wanted to help him out as much as I could. (He looks kinda… weird… for an escort, but I think he must do so well because he’s so straightforward and nice to everybody. Well, except Shidou.)I mean, I guess he does? Like, sure, his coat is pretty anime looking, but other than that he looks like a regular dude.  At the very least he doesn’t look like someone copy-pasted Noctis from FFXV and swapped out the hairstyles. (I gotta admit I didn’t really buy that he was number one at his club, but now I think I can see it.)I can totally buy it. Take a look at that advertisement up there again and tell me that a muscled tanned dude who is good with kids and would take a bullet for you without hesitation wouldn’t absolutely crush it. (…But that means he’s probably got lots and lots of fans, huh?) I thought about that, frowned, and dipped his now-warm towel back in the ice water.[Sleepy Ryusei]: …Mm… Oh, is he talking in his sleep again?[Sleepy Ryusei]: …Om… He didn’t sound like he was in pain, just… sad. I knew it wasn’t really proper to listen to someone talk in their sleep, but I couldn’t help myself. I leaned closer. [Sleepy Ryusei]: …Mom… Mom…? Immediately I knew I’d heard something I wasn’t supposed to, and scrambled backward, away from him. It didn’t help that his warm breath on my ear had felt suddenly and uncomfortably intimate. (Um… um… Well, he, uh, seems to be sweating. I should… do something about that…) I delicately wiped the sweat from his forehead. Nnn… Who’s there? Are you awake? Oh, it’s you. What are you— oh, right. You’re playing nurse. drat, this is embarrassing. Guess I was more tired than I thought. I feel like I’ve been asleep all day… You must be pretty tired too. Thanks for keeping an eye on me. No problem! I’m tougher than I look, you know. You’re one to talk! You looked like you were in real pain just a minute ago. Just… take it easy. Huh. Well, if I didn’t look too happy it’s probably because I was having a bit of a bad— eh, let’s call it “nostalgic” dream. Dream? …Uh, did I say anything weird while I was sleeping? Weird…? Ryusei is a no bullshit kind of guy. Let’s just give it to him straight. You said “mom.” Huh… Cool, sorry to bug you. No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been listening in. Hey, don’t sweat it. Rather have you tell me the truth than beat around the bush, you know?Being honest is another affection point increase for Ryusei. We’re making some good progress now… I assume. Anyway, just forget about it. Not important. He looked away. (I know he told me to forget about it, but…) So… um… why did you say “mom”? Is it tragic backstory time? It’s got to be tragic backstory time. Oh… (He’s right, I guess. Everybody’s probably got a couple things they can’t tell anyone. …Aw jeez, now I feel bad.) Uh, sorry… Ha ha. Nah, don’t worry about it. I brought it up. It’s not that big a deal. But… C’mon, don’t get all weird on me. R-Right, okay. (Oh man, this is kinda uncomfortable…)[Sleepy Mai]: Mmm… I can’t eat any more… Mai’s own sleep-talking broke the silence. He he. I wonder what she’s dreaming about?Food, by the sounds of it. Snacks. What else? He looked over at Mai and grinned. (She looks so happy and peaceful.) There’s really nothing like seeing a kid smile, is there?Meh. What did you just say?! Huh? A-About kids smiling…? I looked at him, totally lost, and slowly shook my head “no.” Heh. ‘Course not. He looked… happy. … …Look, about that dream… Huh? …It was about when my parents died.Yes! Tragic backstory time! Finally. I mean, we kind of got one from Ayumu, but that was way too real. We need a good old-fashioned “parents died in a tragic accident” kind of backstory. Oh… He was silent for a moment. I loved him. Hell, he was smart, he knew all sorts of stuff, he was cool… I really admired him. (I wouldn’t have guessed his dad was a reporter, but I bet he loved kids and was about a [sic] subtle as a brick, like somebody else I know…) Anyway, since he was out all the time my mom pretty much raised me. I loved her too, of course. She had the most amazing smile… He paused for a moment and ran a hand through his hair awkwardly. Eh, not really surprised about that. That seems pretty typical. What?! You!? Whoa, hey, take it down a notch! You’re gonna wake her up! S-Sorry, it’s just… I wasn’t expecting that. (That’s an understatement…) Well, I mean, I was a kid. When I got hurt, or picked last, or whatever, I’d just start bawling. But every time, my mom’d cheer me up. And every time she did, she’d say something to me… Is this some kind of proverb or saying or turn a phrase in Japan? -49.jpg) World of Final Fantasy had basically the same thing from the mother character. There’s nothing like seeing a kid smile… (That’s exactly what I said, isn’t it?) So when you said that, it just kinda… brought up a bunch of stuff. Mom was a sweet lady, but she was tough too. My dad was buried in work, but she still managed to take care of both of us. You couldn’t ask for a better mom. Way too good for me. I didn’t deserve her… I could tell he was proud of her. (Oh my gosh.)Saki, he already said that they died. This shouldn’t come as a big shock.  The doctor who was there when they died told me that my mom had taken the brunt of the impact to protect a kid. I didn’t get it back then, but now I realize she couldn’t have done anything else. I don’t know what that kid’s up to these days— heck, I don’t even know who he is— but I hope he’s all right.If it’s a “he”, then it’s probably not one of the kids from the weird visions. I think those two are sisters, right? Maybe Hogstein? But then why would he have a grudge against Ryusei? I think my mom would too, you know? She’d want to make sure he was smiling. Mitarashi was smiling. He’d accepted his parents’ death and moved on to live his life. (Maybe his mom was the reason he’s so nice to kids…) So after that I went to live with my grandma on my mom’s side. I took on my mom’s last name, Mitarashi. He shrugged and scratched at his cheek. (That makes him sound way scarier than he is. I wonder if all this has something to do with why he’s an escort? Hm… Dang, I really wanna know, but I’m not sure if I should ask him…)Now is probably a bad time for that. He just got through telling you about his parents death. I don’t think you want to pivot the conversation to “So how did you get into pseudo prostitution?” (I mean, he did just tell me all this was none of my business…) What is it? Something wrong? You look like you wanna ask me something. Um… Oh, hello Mai. Did we wake you up? I got lots and lots of sleep. Well that’s good. …Sorry, but now that she’s up you think we could finish this later? He called Mai over with a smile and she grinned at him as she rubbed her eyes. (Kid’s smiles, huh.)We’ll stop there for today, since I don’t have enough space to wrap up the stage. Next time, Saki will once again play charades with the Piglets. We’ll also find out whether or not the B-Team wound up getting killed off screen.
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Jun 21, 2020 16:23
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I'm genuinely surprised you were allowed to not be part of a game. I thought having all the team was obligatory? Clearly not, though then again the team's one short even with Saki and Mitarashi.
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Jun 22, 2020 14:09
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Blaze Dragon posted:I'm genuinely surprised you were allowed to not be part of a game. I thought having all the team was obligatory? Clearly not, though then again the team's one short even with Saki and Mitarashi. The logic stands up fairly well though. Why would Hogstein care if the group was actively hindering themselves? It increases the chance that they will fail and it also keeps his fun times going because there are still 3 players who could continue the game if Subaru/Ayumu/Towa/Kouta died. It's a win-win for Hogstein. I think the only reason he blocked Towa from not participating near the start of the game is because that's the only game that would be garuanteed to have 7 players and was built specifically with that number in mind. Technically by this point, any number of players could have died, so the participant number for each attraction needs to be flexible. What I want to know is what game we missed out on. It seems like Ryusei and maybe Urabe's routes are the only two where Saki would have a valid reason to stay behind and not participate (caring for the injured and grief, respectively). There must be a Stage 4 attraction written, but we're just skipping over it due to the particular route we're on. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Jun 22, 2020 |
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Jun 22, 2020 14:33
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First thought: At least somebody remembered to not to drag a grade schooler around with them in a death trap. Second thought: The grade schooler is smarter than the others....
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Jun 23, 2020 00:01
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BurningStone posted:Second thought: The grade schooler is smarter than the others.... This is the truly sad part. We've already seen her solve part of a puzzle the second she showed up. I fully expect there to be a moment in the next game where she blurts out the answer to another puzzle that everyone is standing around wracking their brains over. "Crawl along the earth and look to the heavens", loving seriously you guys? Come on!
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Jun 23, 2020 16:54
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To an extent, I understand why the game is written the way it is. If the NPCs were too intelligent, then the player is pointless. It makes sense to put the burden of actually answering the puzzles on the player, for the sake of having gameplay even in a visual novel. But this game sure goes overboard at times, including that time, and makes everyone look far more incompetent than they should be. It's not a big issue so far, I'm enjoying this, but it's hard to ignore how everyone seems to become a massive idiot during nearly every puzzle.
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Jun 23, 2020 17:17
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'Open...the door. What could that mean????' 'Maybe it's a metaphor!'
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Jun 23, 2020 17:28
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I'm not sure how many people follow this LP or if anyone particularly cares about its continuation, but here's a statement in case anyone does: No doubt everyone is at least sort of aware that the site is partially in flames at the moment. I won't recap it here, since you can read about it pretty much all over the site, including the LP subforum (just be aware that you may be getting a face full of goatse in whatever thread you check. Rubberneck carefully). A couple of LP'ers have already jumped ship; TheDarkId being one of the most prominent. He is funny/skilled/experienced/handsome enough to make his LPs work on Patreon, and good on him. I am none of those things, so that's not really an option for me (and I'll be damned if I'm going to get a Twitter/Facebook account). So far I haven't seen any clear alternatives in terms of sites for SSLPs, so I haven't been putting in any of my free time working on the next update since there very well might not be a platform to post it on. So at the moment, I'm in a holding pattern with this LP as I wait to see what happens. There's talk of Jeffrey buying out the site, but that deal is still in the very early (and easy to scrap) phase. Even if it does go through, there are aspects of it which might be considered poisonous by the community at large once the details are out there (there are already a bunch of people that think the site is unsalvageable and should just burn to the ground to make sure that Lowtax gets nothing at all). I'm still here for now, but it may be a while before the LP gets rolling again (if at all). I've seen some other LPers already restart their previously closed threads, but personally I think that's being too hasty. Nothing is written in stone just yet and it could all go south overnight without warning. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Blaze Dragon posted:To an extent, I understand why the game is written the way it is. If the NPCs were too intelligent, then the player is pointless. It makes sense to put the burden of actually answering the puzzles on the player, for the sake of having gameplay even in a visual novel. I mentioned this (I think) at the start of the Bloodstained Hospital. I definitely agree that there needs to be some level of stupidity/lack of common sense among the cast, otherwise you'd end up with an incredibly boring piece of media (unless you are aiming for that as part of parody or something). But there's got to be a delicate balance. There's only a certain amount of incompetence that can be forgiven before it tips over into unforgivable. I think the thing that's bugging me with Sweet Fuse is that two of the heroes are a detective and a reporter; two people that really should be better at thinking logically and reading through the subtext. I don't expect characters like Ryusei or Towa to pick up on the connections between the situation and Italian poetry or western folklore, but Subaru and Ayumu should be a step up from that. Astrofig posted:'Open...the door. What could that mean????' "All right gang, let's split up and search for clues! We'll get to the bottom of this 'door' metaphor, even if it takes the next 3 hours." 
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Jun 27, 2020 |
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Jun 27, 2020 15:19
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It's definitely interesting that what games you participate in seems to vary based on what route you're on - but I guess that makes more sense than repeating the same attractions multiple times with only minor changes. I wonder if, in the games you do participate in, the person you've chosen gets to contribute more as well. Why not let your chosen love interest look smart/good for once, right? Or maybe that's just wishful thinking. I usually prefer the characters in these games who are so smart as to be suspicious, but wind up being good guys with brains in the end, and there doesn't really seem to be anyone like that here. Psycho Knight posted:If it’s a “he”, then it’s probably not one of the kids from the weird visions. I think those two are sisters, right? Maybe Hogstein? But then why would he have a grudge against Ryusei? iirc, we know one of the kids is a girl - Akane - but the other's gender is unknown. I'm still assuming the POV kid is Hogstein, since he's guaranteed some sort of tragic backstory, so could see "almost dying in a bus accident that probably killed said sister" as being that backstory. But I agree that there are a few holes in that theory - why would he have a grudge against the son of the woman who saved him? And if his tragic backstory is connected to a bus crash and not some sort of amusement park accident, why target this park in particular? For all we know, the boy is one of our other potential boyfriends and is part of their tragic backstory, because there's no way they don't all have one.
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Jul 5, 2020 06:31
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Whose else could it be, though? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense for it to be anyone's but Hogstein's (most likely), Saki's (less likely) or Ryusei's (not likely).
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Jul 5, 2020 18:01
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I'm still here and still waiting to see what happens with the forums. I may start on another update soon, even though nothing has been resolved yet, mainly because things seem to be stable for the time being. The buyout still seems to be progressing, and if Lowtax was going to rage-arson the entire site then I kind of figure he would have done it by now. Astrofig posted:Whose else could it be, though? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense for it to be anyone's but Hogstein's (most likely), Saki's (less likely) or Ryusei's (not likely). I agree that it has to be Hogstein, as it's the only one that really makes any sense. The topic of "sisters" just came up with Mai, and "dead parents" came up with Ryusei. Saki had absolutely zero personal reaction to either of them that would suggest she experienced those things. In terms of the visions themselves, those are definitely not Ryusei's. He completely remembers finding out about his parents' death at a young age. There's no way he forgot about having a sibling. What complicates this is the weird memory visions we've been getting. Those scenes are building towards something. This entire time we've been getting a sweet little background narrative about a family enjoying a day out at an amusement park or something. It's all been going great for that family so far, so the other shoe is bound to drop at some point soon. But if those scenes are of Hogstein's past and it's building towards something tragic, then that means that he couldn't also be the kid from the bus crash, right? The locket family seem to have their own car, so why would any of them be on a bus? I guess the bus crash from Ryusei's backstory and these weird visions could always be separated from time (I'm just guessing that one will lead right into the other). They are definitely connected somehow. Ryusei hung on that "I wonder what that kid is doing now?" line, so that's got to be a Chekhov's Gun situation. We already know that the family trip scenes are going to be important, because they cap off the end of every chapter. differentiating posted:It's definitely interesting that what games you participate in seems to vary based on what route you're on - but I guess that makes more sense than repeating the same attractions multiple times with only minor changes. I wonder if, in the games you do participate in, the person you've chosen gets to contribute more as well. Why not let your chosen love interest look smart/good for once, right? I don't know just yet how much (if anything) changes depending on route. I never even completed one route when I first got this game, let alone a second or third playthrough. It's safe to say that the games themselves will always be the same though. We can see all of the attractions from the map, after all. There's always going to be the Resident Evil hospital, and Mario Kart, and Final Fantasy Land, and all that. That said, we are currently missing out on either Galaga Land or Street Fighter Land, since we're sitting here with Ryusei. That seems like a big route based change, since I highly doubt that Saki would have an entire chapter devoted to him on Subaru's route, for example. I guess it's possible that whomever the love interest is will be the one to get injured during this stage, but part of the reason why Ryusei is bedridden right now is because he's been getting the poo poo kicked out of him since day 1, which isn't true of anyone else. I do think that the game gives more attention to the dude you are pursuing, though. Near the end of Stage 3 is when the game locks in a route and Ryusei was definitely getting a lot of positive focus during that time, especially in regards to Mai. It also seems very obvious that who reaches back for Saki during the explosion scene depends on affection points. As for a Kimimaro route, I have no sweet clue what the hell happens then. There's a CG done up especially for that moment, so it doesn't look like the "traitor" will change based on the route. Maybe Kimimaro just doesn't become a traitor on his route? Or maybe he doesn't stay behind? There have to be some differences present based on route. It's just too early to tell what those changes are as of yet. differentiating posted:For all we know, the boy is one of our other potential boyfriends and is part of their tragic backstory, because there's no way they don't all have one. That could be the case, although I'm having trouble guessing who. Ryusei says it happened in Elementary school, which means he was 6-12 years old at the time. So whoever his mom protected, it probably wasn't Towa or Ayumu. Ryusei is 7 years older than Towa and 8 years younger than Ayumu. So Ayumu would have been 14-20, and Towa would have either not been born, or a maximum of 5 (in which case he would have had his own mother protecting him. No way he'd be riding the bus alone at 5 years old). That leaves Subaru and Kimimaro, who both would have been roughly Ryusei's age at the time and considered to be a "kid". It's possible that Kouta might have been the right age as well, but I'm kind of doubting it could be him. I could see the kid that Ryusei's mom protected being either Subaru or Kimimaro. For Subaru, maybe that's where his desire to protect others came from. For Kimimaro, maybe that event is part of the dirt that Hogstein likely has on him.
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Jul 7, 2020 14:40
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Hope you're doing alright, Psycho Knight. Big fan of your Conception LPs and have really enjoyed this one so far, looking forward to where it goes! And if the B team really did die.
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Aug 12, 2020 06:05
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Pungry posted:Hope you're doing alright, Psycho Knight. Big fan of your Conception LPs and have really enjoyed this one so far, looking forward to where it goes! And if the B team really did die. Wouldn't say I'm "alright", since all my exchange semester plans are hosed and I have a sinking feeling that they'll get hosed again in March when I try and reschedule them, but at the very least I'm not dead. That's something, I suppose. I'm still keeping a regular eye on the site and I do intend to resume this LP if everything shakes out okay. Jeffrey keeps reassuring everyone that the buyout is totally still happening, but until the ink is dry on the contract and we get some idea of what the terms were, then I'm hesitant to restart. Also, thanks for following along!
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Aug 12, 2020 12:52
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That's absolutely fair. Sorry to hear about the semester plans getting hosed.
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Aug 12, 2020 23:33
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Okay, so the site has been sold to someone that (as far as we know) is a halfway decent human being. The full picture of what the deal entails is not really known, but at the very least ownership has apparently changed hands. I did pick away at the next update during the hiatus, so it shouldn't be too long before I have it ready. Character sprites will still be the same (I definitely wasn't going to put work into those while the status of the site remained unclear), but as long as everything remains stable then I'll start poking at those again too.
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Oct 10, 2020 13:39
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Hurray!
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Oct 10, 2020 21:59
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Apologies if this one is a bit rough (-er than usual). It's been a few months, so I'm going to have to shake off some rust. --------------------------------------------------- Pre-Update Summary: It’s been a while since the LP has progressed (due to certain circumstances which somehow weren’t related to COVID), so here’s a brief summary on where we left off. Saki (our heroine) is a plucky young lass whose uncle is Keiji Inafune wearing a little top hat. He decides to open his own video game themed amusement park which Saki attends the grand opening of. Some dudes dressed up as pigs crash the ceremony and take hostages (including Mr. Inafune) while threatening to blow everything up unless some random guys take part in a series of life or death games. Also, Saki volunteered to join in on this. After meeting a cast of handsome men that all happen to be bachelors and also within Saki’s age group, the team proceeds through several trap-filled amusement park attractions. Each attraction brings with it new challenges, as well as new and interesting ways of kicking the poo poo out of Ryusei. When we last left off, the Resident Evil-style attraction had exploded with enough force to vaporize everything in a half kilometer radius and leave only a crater. All of our heroes survived this completely unscathed… well, except for Ryusei (as usual). Also, Kimimaro claimed to be a traitor working for Hogstein (even though he didn’t seem to actually sabotage our group in any way) and promptly sacrificed himself in the exploding hospital. The next day, the rest of the group leaves to go tackle the next game while Saki stays behind to take care of Ryusei, whose body finally racked up enough wounds to put him out of commission. Update XII: Wishin’ you were here Welcome back to the Sweet Fuse LP! For those of you potentially reading this once it’s all said and done (such as on the LPArchive), it’s only been about a second since the last update. As for the people following along with the live LP, it has been slighty longer than that. “Slightly” in this case meaning over three months. There were… issues at the ol’ SomethingAwful website over the summer that sort of erupted into a forum-wide revolt which threatened to destroy the entire site.  But now everything has settled down. At least until the new site owner inevitably gets caught up in a similar scandal and it all goes to poo poo again. But hey, we’ll worry about that if/when it happens. For now, let’s get back to Saki and her attempts at getting into Ryusei’s pants. (Wow, he really opened up to me, huh? So his parents died in a bus accident…) … Oh, perfect timing. …? Could I please get some more ice? …! Just like before, he started making the weird, shaved ice gesture. This time, though, he also opened and closed both of his hands. Okay, the first one means you’re making ice, right? ! So the ice isn’t done yet? ?! He shook his head. (Then the ice is already done. So…?) ?! He shook his head again.Oh dear lord… It’s ice! It shouldn’t be this loving complicated! Then… are you asking me how much ice I want? ! This time the piglet nodded enthusiastically. Oh, okay. Good. Hmm… Well, I don’t want too much… How about you give me a little bit more than last time? …! Honestly, I think it would have been faster if Saki had just filled an ice tray and stuck it in the room’s mini fridge. (The more I pay attention to what they’re doing, the more I feel like I can understand them…) In just a few minutes he was back, with the perfect amount of ice. He even handed me a nice clean towel as well.What bothers me is that this lovely hotel doesn’t have any ice machines. What are the guests supposed to do when the staff have shut everything down for the night? Drink their whiskey off the rocks? Thanks! ! I waved to the piglet and headed back to Mitarashi’s room. (I want to hear the rest of his story… What happened to him after his parents died?)Didn’t he tell us that? I know we took a 2-month break, but I could have sworn I remember him telling us that he was taken in by his grandmother or something. Or maybe Saki is just wondering how it is he ended up in the escort service. (Still, I think I might have gotten a glimpse into why he cares so much about everybody. I want to know more about him… This is weird though. I’ve only known him a few days. Why am I so curious?)Oh, right. In case you guys have forgotten because of the break, we’re locked on Ryusei’s route now. That’s why Saki has suddenly gotten very interested in Ryusei.   The game’s probably over by now. I hope everybody’s safe…Well, we didn’t hear any explosions, so I guess that means they succeeded. Of course, how many of them succeeded is a different question. … Mai grabbed on to one of my sleeves but said nothing. (She must be worried about Shirabe…) Eh, I wouldn’t sweat it. He patted Mai on the head. Really? Of course we are. We had to beat that game, otherwise you might’ve started thinking we couldn’t do it without you.I mean, that was the case for pretty much every game so far. We had a legitimate reason to think that. Shidou! You’re back! About time. I was starting to get pretty tired of waiting for you. I’ll be honest, I’m disappointed to learn that you lived. …Barely. Were you a good girl, Mai? …Yeah! (Thank goodness everybody got back okay…) Well, I’m glad you aren’t dead, but I’m pretty sure you would’ve just breezed through that poo poo if you’d brought me along.Eh, you’re about 50/50 on the “getting us through faster” stuff. Like, yeah, your impulsiveness has definitely helped to speed up stuff like the panels puzzle, but on the other hand we also wasted something like an hour patching up your wounds.  What he said. Good to see you’re improving, though. Yeah, this morning you could barely get out of bed. You really heal up quick, huh? drat right! Toughness is my only redeeming quality! Ha ha ha! Wow, that’s pretty sad that you’d say that about yourself! Please don’t, Kouta. For one, I don’t want to hear anything about masochism from a dude who rocks a straitjacket as part of his casualwear. Second, I just finished an LP where masochism destroyed the most potentially interesting character in the cast. Everybody seemed to be relieved that Mitarashi was doing better. (But… is he really doing better? Or is he just pretending so that we don’t worry?) … What’s wrong? Something on my face? No… (I think Shidou’s thinking the same thing I am.) Well if he’s feeling better let’s eat! I’m starving. Oh, good idea. Maybe the piglets can bring us something…If they’re not too tired out from making ice all day. No need for that, little lady. I’m sure we’ve got plenty here. Shirabe opened the bags he’d been carrying, and [sic] spread out several boxes of food on the table. Where did you get this? We stopped by the restaurant before we came back and got the piglets to pack us some to-go meals. It’s more fun if we all eat together, right? Says the guys [sic] who was sneaking french [sic] fries the whole trip back. Hey, c’mon, I’m a growing boy.You’re also the one that was supposedly watching carbs or some poo poo earlier. No hang-ups about that anymore?  Aaah! He’s eating all the food! *Chomp* *Gulp* What’re you waiting for? Better hurry up or I’m gonna eat it all. That’s not fair! I was hungry too, but I didn’t start stuffing my face the first chance I got!That sounds like a ‘you’ problem. Guess you don’t get to be such a big guy by being shy about shoveling it in. …Mai, you’d better eat some before he hogs it all. I’m okay. I have my snacks… You can’t just eat snacks all the time. You’ve gotta eat real food.I mean, you could eat snacks all the time. You’d be a fatass like me, but you could technically do it. … (He could’ve said that a little nicer…)Sounded fine to me. At least he’s parenting now, instead of being an abusive absentee father. He’s right, you know. You gotta eat a lot or you’ll never get any bigger! Well you snooze you lose, bro! C’mere Mai, I saved some for you. …Okay. She began to obediently shovel food into her mouth in a tiny imitation of Mitarashi. (I guess she was hungry, huh?) drat… Some dad I am, huh…?You’ve got no one to blame but yourself, my man. Well, I guess technically you could put some blame on whoever or whatever got your wife killed… unless she died in childbirth, in which case that’s going to be a weird dynamic. Point is, you being a lovely dad is something that you could have solved on your own, especially since Mai appears to still be attached to you. He looked down despondently and shoved a snack into his mouth. (Change starts at home, Shirabe. Maybe you oughta eat fewer snacks yourself…) Make sure you eat too. Yes, right, of course. Ha ha, yeah, it does huh? Oh, have you noticed how the piglets are really nice to us? I have. It seems like they’re happy to help so long as whatever we’re asking them to do hasn’t been explicitly forbidden by Hogstein.This is my top question right now. Hogstein’s identity and how he ties into these random dudes is obviously a big mystery, but I feel like it’s a mystery with only 1 or 2 possible answers. He has a grudge against them for something that they don’t remember because it was probably pretty innocuous for them at the time it happened. The flashback kids are another oddity, but they have to be one of the main characters currently present (very likely that one of them is Hogstein). But these piglet things? The gently caress is their deal supposed to be? Obvious theories don’t really fit as well as they do in the Hogstein/Bachelor mystery. For example, you might think “Maybe they are the park hostages being gagged and forced to work for Hogstein?”, except that the piglets were present before hostages were taken so that doesn’t work. Although I sure wish they could just talk… Mmm! Ah, that was delicious. I’m stuffed! Grammatical errors still holding strong. I had almost forgotten about that during the few months the forum was in chaos. That wasn’t quite fair— about a fifth of the food they’d brought was still sitting on the table uneaten. (Gosh, I barely even saw where it went…) So what kind of game did you guys play today? Yeah, tell us. Right, of course. You should know as much as possible. The game we played today was an attraction called ‘Moonlight OX.’ As for the game it’s based on… He looked over at Meoshi. It’s a pretty standard 3D shooter, but the thing that makes it stand out is the protagonists are sort of… cow people.Dammit! That sounds like it would have been fun… why did we have to miss that one of all attractions? Personally, I would have preferred us missing out on Samurai Fantasy 7. So some kinda sci-fi shooting game? drat, this place has a little of everything, huh?Oh, and for those of you wondering, I’m not sure if we ever actually get to see that game. Presumably, we would have taken part in it if we were on anyone else’s route. Hopefully we’ll get to see what happened when we speed run through the other routes in the future.  A good theme park has variety… He sighed with a sort of grudging admiration. There’s… one other thing we need to tell you about. Shirabe?Uh oh, Su’s got his serious face on again. What’s the deal? Right. He dug into his coat and pulled out a familiar-looking string of beads. Oh no! Yeah, at least we’re pretty sure they are. We found ‘em in front of Castle Hogstein. Keep in mind that this is just speculation, but we think Hogstein might be holding him in there. You didn’t go in?! He lurched toward Shirabe. The Theodosian Walls were (or I guess sort of still are) part of the defensive fortifications of Constantinople (previously known as Byzantium, now known as Istanbul). They consisted of a moat with a wall, then a bigger wall, then another bigger wall, arranged in a step formation. They were very effective! Unfortunately, they were repeatedly damaged by earthquakes and Constantinople eventually started half-assing the repairs and upkeep due to pesky things like financial problems. To their credit, the walls still managed to survive a two-month siege by the Ottomans. Damnit! So you’re telling me we know where he is but we can’t do anything?!Yes, the same as with the hostages that Hogstein has. Remember those? Uh… is it really that big a deal? What was that?! Ah! N-Nothing! He could be in trouble… A solid point. Then again, we still don’t know exactly how he supposedly betrayed us. So far, he’s only a traitor because he called himself one. Shidou’s mouth was pulled down into a tight frown, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. (Well, yeah, he was a traitor…) Not really much of a choice here. Both of these options pretty much amount to a shoulder shrug. Mostly I’m just worried about him. Heh. This chick knows what’s up. Remember, we are locked into Ryusei’s route at this point. However, we’re nowhere close to having maxed out his affection gauge. That likely means that there’s a Good/Bad ending involved. So, we’re still aiming to get as many affection points for Ryusei as we can. Agreed. I feel the same. Like hell! What do you mean? You already forgot how he pulled our asses out of the fire?! So what if he’s a traitor…Not that I’m on board the “gently caress Urabe” train (in either context of that phrase), but that is kind of what traitors do, Ryusei. They try and make themselves seem as trustworthy as possible to keep suspicion off them. Just because he found us a way to escape that explosion doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily on our side. Actually, speaking of that “heroic sacrifice” of his, the fact that Urabe has apparently survived that explosion now makes him even more suspicious. Based on this new information, it sure seems like he intended to fake his death in the hopes that his “sacrifice” would redeem him in everyone’s minds. It looked as if his words were as much for himself as they were for Wakasa. I don’t know why he was working for that pig, but don’t you think we ought to at least give him the benefit of the doubt? I’m getting a little old to just trust people at the drop of a hat, but… Gotta admit I’ve missed having some guys around who’ll watch my back. …Doesn’t really matter much to me. … …Yeah, okay, sorry. You’re totally right. Wakasa finally gave in. (Wakasa’s probably just nervous because if we screw up we could die…)And that is a very valid reason to not immediately forgive somebody that may have stabbed us in the back. It’s incredibly rare that I will side with Towa, but he is right to bringing up doubts about Urabe’s loyalty. Everyone else is a little too willing to let things go. Like, I’m not saying that we need to burn Urabe at the stake if we see him again. As I said, we still have no idea what (if anything) he actually did to sabotage the group. But the simple fact that he did openly state that he was working with Hogstein means that we need to be cautious in dealing with him. (I doubt whether or not he really trusted Urabe was part of it.) drat… I just wish there was some way we could figure out if he was okay… Yeah… Yeah, yeah, I know… You can do whatever you want, of course, but keep in mind that we still have games to play, and we need to be focused. Well, it looks like we’ve all finished eating. Everybody ready to head for bed? Yeah! I want to hop in the shower first though! I’m exhausted. See you all tomorrow. With that, they headed off to their rooms. …I’m gonna go sleep with Saki. O-Oh, okay… Is that all right? Sure, of course. Do you want to hang out with me tonight, Mai? Yeah! You tried to beat her yesterday! It was nearly the first thing you did after seeing her for the first time in god knows how long (months, possibly years?). The gently caress did you expect, man? (He’s so confident all the time, except when he’s around Mai… It’s gonna be a while until they can really get along, I guess.) I’m going to go hit the sack too. Make sure you don’t stay up too late. We all need our rest. (Right, I should get back to my room soon.) All right Mai, are you ready to go? … What is it? Is something wrong? …I wanna stay here a little longer… She was holding on tight to one of Mitarashi’s sleeves. (She’s really attached to him, huh?) Saki may be getting a little jealous, it seems. Heh. Well, that’s sure sweet of you to say. Can you tell me a story? Of course! Catering to the whims of women is my job! You’ll find out when you’re older. Ah… well, I think you’re a little bit too young to know that. ?! It’s cool, go on back to your room. I’ll make sure she doesn’t stay up too late. Okay. See you later, then. (I want to stay too, but I can’t really say that, can I?)Well, you could, if you would give complete control over your actions to the thread. Of course, if you did that then we probably would have gotten you killed ages ago. Anyway, let’s head back to Saki’s room. As soon as I got back to my room, and flopped down on the bed and stretched out as far as I could.It should be obvious to most of you what the problem with that sentence is. (I was so tense all day yesterday, it’s probably good I got a day to rest up and relax. I “talked” to the piglets, and took care of Mitarashi… Oh yeah, and he told me about his parents…) Hm… Weird, isn’t it? It’s rare for dating-sims to have such an emotionally well-adjusted character. Usually they’re all broken messes of human beings that are only held together by the fragile public mask they wear in their daily life. One little poke from the self-insert protagonist and they buckle. Although, to be fair, these dating-sims usually involve teenagers, so I guess that’s to be expected. (He’s got kind of a short temper, but he’s always thinking about other people. He’s about a [sic] subtle as a brick, but he’d probably die to protect any of us.)He’s proven that’s what he’ll do on at least three separate occasions so far, so that’s a safe bet, Saki (taking a crossbow bolt for Saki, getting shot as part of a gamble to save the others, and using his body to try and shield Saki/Mai from an explosion). Darn… Looking after him for a day doesn’t even come close to paying him back… (I wish I could talk to somebody about this…) I sighed and looked over at my phone. (Oh, I wonder if Uncle Keiji is doing all right…) I rolled over and started composing a message. I don’t think you can gloss over that. Pretty sure an explosion large enough to crater an entire hospital building would have been heard and felt throughout the entire park. When I got to the end, I realized that nearly half of my message was about Mitarashi. Although, I mean, he’d put himself in harm’s way to save me, and he was the first to fight for Urabe… Was it really any surprise that I ended up talking about him a lot?You tell yourself whatever you need to, girl. I’d written a bit too much, though, so after some quick edits I hit send and rolled back over. (Well, that’s done.) Maybe I should go get Mai… *There’s a noise from somewhere* Oh! Hold on…! I scrambled out of bed and walked over to the door. Waiting on the other side was Mai. Oh, good. I was just about to go get you. We talked a whole lot! She looked pretty excited. (I guess she had a good time...) What did you two talk about? Probably good at conquering them too, hey-oh! …Right, you’re like 7 or something and don’t understand any of this. Never mind. Making… mountains? (Wait, there’s no sand at a club… what is she talking about?)…Also I guess Saki doesn’t understand any of it either. Somehow. He, uh, said that it’s a game where you pile up cups and then pour a drink into the top and it goes all the way down the mountain.Isn’t that a pyramid pour? Although I guess mountain is basically the same in this context. Oh… oh! He makes mountains more than anybody else at his shop, so he’s super good at it. Oh, um, yeah. I… I guess so. He said when I’m old enough to drink he’ll make one for me! Ah ha… ha ha… (Get ‘em started young, huh Mr. Number One Escort?) I wanna grow up fast so he can make me a mountain… (She looks so happy though… And I gotta admit I feel just a bit envious…) *Yawn* She rubbed her eyes. I glanced over at the clock. It was almost midnight. Oh jeez, look at the time. We should get in bed. Okay.  [Mother?]: He he… Look, they fell asleep. [Father?]: Of course. I’m surprised they lasted this long, with all they’ve been up to. [Child 1?]: I’m… still awake…  [Child 1]: Okay. ‘Night… [Father?]: I’m really glad I went ahead and took today off. [Mother?]: I am too. I know how busy you are. It really means a lot.  [Mother?]: He he… Well, don’t push yourself, dear. And that’s it for Stage 4. Next time, we get started on Stage 5, which will take us to… That’s a good question, actually. Where do we have left to go?  Okay… so either what is almost certainly a fighting game themed attraction, or whatever the hell that other land is supposed to be. Guess we’ll find out. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Oct 12, 2020 19:11
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Welcome back! Shirabe still sucks.
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Oct 12, 2020 22:01
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It's been good to see this again.  And yeah, Ayumu sucks, but at least he's trying to get out of the well now instead of dig deeper. I imagine going from being an rear end in a top hat to not just being a decent person but a decent father is a hell of a climb even when you're not trying to play a crazy terrorist's life-or-death game.
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Oct 12, 2020 23:33
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cardinale posted:Welcome back! Shirabe still sucks. Ignatius M. Meen posted:It's been good to see this again. I mean, he is at least trying. But expecting Mai to just jump on him when she's found Saki and Ryusei to be a lot more attentive is a bit foolish. He had one shot at reconnecting with her easily, but the first thing he did when given that opportunity was to try and physically punish her (for what some people might argue was his failure, since he wasn't keeping on eye on his child in a dangerous environment). The cynic in me (or possibly the depressive in me) thinks that his immediate feelings of defeat and self pity in this update is because he's looking for an excuse to keep distance between them. He makes a token effort at being a good dad, Mai rebuffs him (for good reason), and then Ayumu gives up and goes back to keeping his distance from her. That way, whenever Saki or someone says "Why aren't you parenting her?", he can point to his bare minimum efforts and say "I tried, but she doesn't want to be around me." What I'm curious about is how this whole subplot pans out in non-Ayumu routes. I think we can all agree that Ayumu's route in this game will likely have Saki helping him reconnect with his daughter and be a better dad. But how does this go in Ryusei's route? Saki's protagonist powers are focused on Ryusei, not on Ayumu, so will that father-daughter relationship just magically fix itself on its own? Or will Mai and Ayumu just go back to being estranged? There is a chance that a Ryusei/Saki pairing adopts her at the end of the game, but that's a very slim possibility given the way guardianship works in Japan.
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Oct 15, 2020 14:13
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How *does* guardianship work in Japan? Also: I'm even more convinced now that the kid in those flashbacks is Hogstein. Notice how they coyly don't mention the genders of the kids. You're probably supposed to assume they're both girls, and that one is Saki.
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Oct 16, 2020 05:37
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Astrofig posted:How *does* guardianship work in Japan? In some ways it's a mess of legality and in other ways it's a very protective system. Guardianship is a bit more laxed in Western countries (at least, the ones I'm familiar with. I don't have kids, so I'm not up to date on all the ins and outs of this stuff in say, France). Japanese guardianship doesn't do "joint custody" for example. If the parents divorce, then one of the parents is getting complete custody of the child and the other parent gets jack poo poo in terms of legal power. The one with the custody can take the child wherever they want, change their name, their address, their school, or whatever; and the other parent can't do a single thing about that (there's also no requirement for the parent with custody to inform the other parent about any of these things). In terms of stuff like adoption or parents dying, then that goes through Family Court (except in cases where adoption takes place within a family, like parent to grandparent). Family Court is going to look straight at blood relatives of the child over anyone else and from what little I know, they are typically opposed to turning over children to non-blood relations, no matter how good of a family friend somebody might be. There's a solid chance that the child ends up in Protective Services rather than being given to a friend or acquaintance. Anyway, a lot of what I just said could easily be misleading or half-right. This is just what I know about how it works in Japan. I'm not exactly a legal expert (or a parent). I've just heard that it's way more valuing of blood ties than some Western countries might be. Even if Ayumu for some reason gave consent to a potential Saki/Ryusei hookup, the Family Court will likely strike that poo poo down immediately (hell, Ayumu might even be ruled neglectful or unfit for trying to pass his daughter off on a teenager and a 20-something male escort and instead send Mai off to Protective Services). Astrofig posted:Also: I'm even more convinced now that the kid in those flashbacks is Hogstein. Notice how they coyly don't mention the genders of the kids. You're probably supposed to assume they're both girls, and that one is Saki. At this point it has to be Hogstein. Again, if Saki had a sibling or dead parents, we would have certainly heard about it by now, especially considering Ryusei just poured out his heart to her about the death of his parents. The topic has been brought up and Saki hasn't said a word about her own family situation (either out loud or in her inner monologue). With her out of the running, then the flashbacks have to be related to the main antagonist. We already know that it isn't Ryusei (he wasn't there when his parents died and he doesn't mention a sibling). It's unlikely to be Ayumu because neither him nor Mai have said anything about having a second daughter/a sister. We don't really have much tragic backstory for Subaru, but he's also an unlikely candidate. Same goes for Towa and Kouta. Unlikely theory that I will throw out there anyway: Maybe Kimimaro and Hogstein are the two kids from the flashback? Maybe that's why Kimimaro is supposedly working with Hogstein (and he just had a change of heart about their methods for revenge as the game went on). Regardless of any of this, the question is still "Why these guys?" If one of the flashback kids is Hogstein, then what could Towa, Kouta, Subaru, Ryusei, Kimimaro have done to warrant revenge against them? All of those guys are way too young to have had any hand in an event that likely occurred a decade or more ago (we don't know exactly how old Hogstein is, but you would heavily assume that he's a young adult at least, considering he's the ringleader of a terrorist group that managed to hijack a theme park while keeping authorities at bay). Ayumu is really the only one in the cast that's old enough to have maybe been involved in some "start of darkness" event. Anyway, as for the next update, I hope to get cracking on it during the weekend. The site ownership transfer kind of lined up with a busy school work period for me, so I'm in the middle of various essays at the moment.
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Oct 16, 2020 15:27
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Update XIII: Shore Leave June 16th? Man, it has been a hot minute since I actually played this game. That feels like an eternity ago. Back then I was still foolish enough to believe that my student exchange would have a shot at going ahead. Such innocent times. As soon as we woke up, we both headed for Mitarashi’s room.*And they proceeded to do just that, without any kind of scene transition* Hey, come on in. Thanks, I just— Hey! Are you sure you should be up and around already?! I’d opened the door to find him in the middle of the floor doing squats. Are you all better? Take a look. What do you think? Today I’m gonna be kickin’ rear end and takin’ names! What about your fever? Has it gone down? You tell me. He grinned and shoved his face toward mine, until it was only inches away. ! (His face is so close! B-But I should check and see if his fever is gone…) I tried to avoid looking into his eyes as I pressed a slightly shaky hand to his forehead. (It doesn’t feel as warm as it did yesterday, but…) I-I… guess it’s gone down? (I… I don’t have a response for that.)Now we’re getting into the thick of it. Making some progress on Saki finally admitting that she’s hot for Ryusei. He smiled impishly and took an obvious, purposeful step back. Mai looked at us and tilted her head. That’s silly, Mai. We still have a few more chapters to go. You can’t go giving the audience that kind of payoff this early on. It needs to simmer a bit more. M-Mai, what?! N-No, it’s not— I mean, I would never— ! Ha ha ha, drat, you really don’t want to kiss me, huh? You’re breaking my heart here. B-But, no, I… He just laughed. Mai had already climbed up onto the bed and was totally absorbed in a picture book. (She’s just off in her own little world…) Anyway, now that my fever’s gone I can get back in the action. I’m glad you’re feeling better. (Well, he does look better than he did yesterday. He had enough energy to start exercising, at least…) Wait! Huh? What is it? We need to change your bandage. Aw crap… Really? I hate doing that. Can’t we just skip it? I’m feeling great.We could skip it if you’re sure that you’re not going to miss that arm. Just a reminder to everyone, Ryusei’s crossbow wound is only 3 or 4 days old at this point. That poo poo is not even close to healed yet, especially considering that he has only gotten some very basic first aid treatment. Hell, I have serious doubts that Saki or Ryusei have even been cleaning that wound as recommended (like 2 or 3 times a day). Well, if it’s too much trouble for you, I can do it. A-Actually, I want to do it! (Changing a bandage isn’t quite saving someone’s life, but at least it’s something.) Ugh… all right, fine, if you’re gonna make a big thing out of it… He slumped down on the bed. I think Shidou brought a first aid kit in yesterday. Should be over in the corner somewhere. (Ha ha. Sure, keep telling yourself that. I can see you’re plenty happy he worries about you.) I found the kit where he’d said it would be, and pulled out a fresh bandage. All right. Are you ready? As I’ll ever be. He peeled his shirt off, leaving him naked above the waist.Yeah, that’s typically what happens when you pull a shirt off. Not sure why you had to go and laboriously point that out to us, Saki. (I did this for him on the first night too, didn’t I…) Saki! Down! (Ah! Stop it! This isn’t the time to be thinking about how incredibly toned his back and—)Saki! Don’t make me get the spray bottle! There’s a child in the room for god’s sake. Something wrong? You look like you’re zoning out. Nothing! I’m fine! Perfectly fine! I hastily began to peel off the old bandage. Underneath it, the injury still looked raw and painful. (He said he was better, but this isn’t the kind of thing you just recover from in a day or two…) I’m going to sterilize it so it won’t get infected, okay? Thanks. …Oh yeah, you did this on the first day too, didn’t you? The game then does a flashback in case you forgot about what happened roughly 2 hours of game time ago. Actually, I’m not even sure if it’s been that long. I wonder how much play time I’ve actually logged for this game? [Flashback Ryusei]: No problem. I’ve got a pretty high pain threshold. [Flashback Saki]: (I bet… This looks like it hurt a lot.) [Flashback Saki]: Um… thanks again for… for what you did. [Flashback Ryusei]: Ugh. This is why I can’t stand kids. [Flashback Saki]: Huh?  [Flashback Saki]: O-Oh, I see… *And now we leave flashback land* Besides, you looked after me yesterday. I should be thanking you. (Bringing him some ice and watching him sleep is hardly the same as saving my life, twice!) I opened my mouth to tell him that, then shut it again. Did I? …Sorry, it’s hard to get a handle on high school girls, you know? You’re kinda nuts.Please don’t phrase it like that. You saying you want me to treat you like a grown woman?I mean, she’s 18. Granted, in Japan that doesn’t mean a whole lot. She can’t drink, or smoke, or vote (at least, at the time this game was released/is presumably set), and she can’t get married (unless her parents approve it). Hell, I’m pretty sure she’s not even allowed into host clubs (she’s almost certainly not allowed into a Ginza host club like the one that Ryusei works at). W-Well, I mean, I just… um… I remembered when he put his face so close to mind, and started to blush again. As quickly as I could I finished disinfecting the cut and covered it back up with a clean bandage. O-Okay, all done! You’re all bandaged up! That done, I scuttled backwards across the room, away from him. Thanks. Let’s blow this popsicle stand. …I’m hungry. Well why didn’t you say so? Let’s get some grub, then head down to the lobby. Sound good? Yeah! Just then one of the piglets showed up with food for all three of us. Maybe he’d been waiting outside the door for our conversation to be over? In any event, we quickly finished off our breakfast, then headed to the lobby. Feeling better? Hell yeah! Check it out— 100% functionality!”Give or take 30%!” He grinned and struck a couple poses. Whoa… Are you really all better?! You couldn’t even get up yesterday! I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kouta make that face before. It’s weird and I don’t like it. I guess you weren’t pulling our collective leg, were you? Are you sure it’s okay to just go from zero to sixty like that, though? I’m just a different breed from you chumps. A scratch like this barely takes a day.Who wants to make a bet on how long it will take for this hubris to be punished? He drew himself up and puffed out his chest. …Then you intend to rejoin the game today? Shidou looked especially serious. (He seems to be the only one who’s worried that Mitarashi might just be acting tough…) What? Why?! So you’re not feeling better! No! That’s not it. He took a deep breath and looked at all of us. Before I go back, I want to find Urabe. What?! Are… are you serious? I see. Shidou seemed unsurprised. Yeah. I’m worried about him. You guys found those beads, and…Why exactly is Ryusei so concerned about Kimimaro? I get that he’s the “bad boy with a heart of gold” type, but Ryusei is getting weirdly worked up over a guy that he’s only known for about 3 days and has barely interacted with (Ryusei shares most of his screen time with Saki/Subaru/Towa). I mean, I figure he wouldn’tve just dropped ‘em, right? He must have been hauled off.Quick grammar thing here, but that should be spelled “wouldn’t’ve” since it’s a double contraction (of “would not” and “not have”). In this case I’m a bit more willing to forgive it because that is not a contraction you see being used very often. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen wouldn’t’ve/couldn’t’ve/shouldn’t’ve used in writing. That does seem like a reasonable assumption. Exactly. What if it’s not? What if Urabe’s in there right now, getting tortured?!Well he should have thought about that when he was busy (somehow) stabbing us in the back! Or when he decided to fake a heroic sacrifice! Jesus, Ryusei. Did he donate his kidney to you off screen or something? Shirabe frowned and scratched at his beard. Calm down! We’re worried about him too.I’m not. Granted, I’m willing to concede that I don’t speak for the thread since I’m sure there are some Urabe supporters reading along out there. Then why the hell aren’t you doing anything? For a moment, I saw my uncle’s face. Guh… He frowned and swore, but he knew Shidou was right. Shirabe coughed and looked around awkwardly. I realize it might seem cowardly to you, but sometimes caution is more important. You can’t lose a fight you don’t get into in the first place. But… But what? He grinned. Well, we had planned to keep going without you for the foreseeable future, until you recovered. We can’t afford to all ditch the game and go looking for Urabe, but we could spare you.Didn’t we come to the conclusion that Urabe was likely taken to the center of the park? You know, Castle Hogstein. That place that’s completely locked down and also where the hostages are being held so there’s the real possibility that Hogstein kills them all if we try and break in because it might look like we’re trying to rescue them? This is a stupid idea, is what I’m trying to say. Ha! Thanks, Shidou. You’re all right.I cannot stress enough how reckless of a plan this is. You are gambling with people’s lives here, just for the one in a million chance of successfully rescuing Urabe from a predicament that he got himself into. He smiled and gave Shidou a friendly punch on the shoulder. Heh. Somebody’s feeling awfully affectionate. Part of the job description, bro. Me. I’m worried about Urabe too so yeah, it’s fine by me. …I don’t have a problem with it. I know what I said earlier, but I don’t really have a problem with you looking for him either. It’s just hard for me to trust people these days. I know I need to knock that off, but… Every team needs a skeptic. If we all acted like this meathead we’d have been dead on the first day. Ha ha, yeah, you’re right. And then the hostages would all be dead. …If all you’ve got is tanks, you’re boned. Exactly. What I’m saying is, stay suspicious, Shirabe. We need that perspective. Thanks, buddy. I feel a little better. Wisdom comes with age, right?You’re 32! Then… you must have a lot of wisdom, right daddy? …That hurt me, Mai. That hurt me bad.Then maybe stop talking about yourself like you’ve been penciled in for a hip replacement next week. We’re not living in the 1700’s; the average life expectancy isn’t 40 anymore. (I guess they are all worried about Urabe.) All right then. We’ll leave Urabe to you. He reached over and gave Mitarashi a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Whoa… I’ll find him no sweat! Just you watch! (Wait… did he just sway a little bit? Or was I seeing things…) He’ll be back in no time, and we can all kick some rear end! Nice try, Ryusei. (No, I’m pretty sure I saw him wobble when Shirabe touched him.) Are you sure you’re okay? I thought I saw you wobble a little when Shirabe touched you… So what if I did? He looked away awkwardly. Let’s see. He walked up to Mitarashi and shoved the same shoulder Shirabe had patted. Wh-Whoa… I didn’t think you had a glass shoulder, Mitarashi. Damnit. All right, you caught me. My fever’s gone, but I’m still feeling pretty weak. He gave me a bitter smile. Guess I should’ve known better than to think I could slip one past you.*At this point, an affection icon pops up for Ryusei*  But Urabe might be in danger! If he dies because he tried to save us… I know… It’s just… So what if I’m not 100%? I’ve powered through worse! I mean drat, you guys! I already sat on my rear end all day yesterday! That wasn’t enough for you?! Mitarashi… No one seemed to know what to say. (He feels bad for just sitting around where it’s safe, but…) Look, if you’re still recovering you— Try and stop me if you want pal, but I’ll tell you right now I’m going out there even if it kills me!I’m fairly confident that we could stop you if we felt like it. A gentle pat on the shoulder just knocked you to the ground after all.  Oh, the background got dark and the textbox changed to a weird colour. You know what that means. (“Even if it kills me”? What is he thinking?!) In this case, the choice won’t impact affection levels, so we’re free to do what we want. As previously established in the thread, the people have demanded that Saki flip out at every opportunity.  I had forgotten about that stupid graphics tearing around Saki’s face. Bugs me so much.   S-Sorry! I know you’re worried about Urabe, but we’re worried about you too! She’s right. If you push yourself too hard and get hurt again, that defeats the whole point. Yeah, okay… I guess I was just being stubborn. Before you start worrying about Urabe you need to worry about yourself. Damnit… He grimaced and flexed his hands. I could see that he knew we were right, even if he didn’t like it.  What makes you say that? Just remember this is only speculation, but… He frowned, and tapped absently at his forehead. If you look at how the pig’s been acting all week, there’s no way he wouldn’t say something to us if he was torturing him. That’s a valid point. Yeah, all right, I’ll give you that, but I can’t just twiddle my thumbs and wait for something to happen! Shidou had been watching Mitarashi for a while, but after the last outburst he turned to me. Would you mind staying behind with him? What? If we leave him in the hotel alone, I’m worried he might try and swim back to shore. Hopefully if you’re keeping an eye on him he’ll think twice. Can you do that?To be honest, I’m sort of on board with the idea of leaving him on the ship with Mai. We already missed a cool space game, I don’t want to go missing out on what is most likely Tekken-land as well.  Okay, sure. Are you serious?! C’mon Shidou, I don’t need a babysitter! Better safe than sorry. I want you to get some rest and let us take care of the game. Should I stay with him too? Yeah. Think you can keep these two in line? …Okay. I’ll make sure they’re good. *Sigh* It’s déjà vu all over again. It looked like he’d finally given in. If you guys screw it up today I’m coming after you! After a few good-byes they left, and we headed back to Mitarashi’s room. drat it. Looks like we’re spending more quality time with Mitarashi. I know some of you are probably stoked about that (we are on his route after all), but at the very least I was kind of hoping for a change of scenery. He must have been really tired, because as soon as we got back to his room, Mitarashi climbed into his bed and pulled the covers up over himself. (I guess he’s really upset he didn’t get to go look for Urabe. But he needs to get better first.) …Are you asleep…? … I think he is. We should probably let him rest, okay? …Okay. I don’t want to wake him up, so do you want to come back to my room with me? Why? I don’t want him to be alone. I’ll be quiet and read my book, I promise. (Awwwww, that’s adorable. She must be really worried about him. Well, I guess Shidou did ask me to keep an eye on him…) All right, that sounds like a good idea. We’ll stay here. Good. (I wish I had something to do… I guess I could mess around on my cell phone— …Wait, I don’t have it? Oh jeez, I must have left it in my room. Uncle Keiji’s probably responded by now…) Um, Mai, I forgot something in my room. Is it okay if I run back and get it? Sure. I’ll watch him for you. Thank you. I’ll be right back. (Mitarashi’s sleeping. He won’t even notice I’m gone…)*And we’re off to Saki’s room to read about Keiji Inafune’s thoughts on his niece being very obviously hot for this male escort she met in his theme park*  Looks like he did text me back. (Actually… I think last night’s text was… mostly about Mitarashi. Oh gosh, I feel kind of embarrassed now. I wonder what we said, though…) I sat down on my bed and started to read. Uhhh…  So he’ll put himself in danger to protect his friends? I like it. It’s not easy to find a man who’s that honest with himself, and who cares about people that much. Yes… “friendships”… that’s totally our goal in this. I nodded to myself in agreement. (He’s totally right. Mitarashi is a really good friend.) But I felt something scratching at the back of my mind.It’s hormones.  Something was bothering me, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. (No point in thinking about it, though. I should get back to Mitarashi’s room.)*Back in Mitarashi’s room* (Oh, Mai’s asleep…) Reading must have tired her out. (And Mitarashi is—) That figures. Oh no! He’s gone?! Where did he go?! Mmm… My voice had woken Mai up. What’s going on…? Oh, sorry for waking up up, Mai. Do you know where Mitarashi went? Um… hmm… No… She yawned and rubbed at her eyes. Oh yeah? Yeah. Then he sang me a song and left. (I don’t think that was a dream… She probably just didn’t wake up all the way.) Oh jeez… I hope he hasn’t done anything stupid… Mai, I need you to stay here for a little bit, okay? Okay. (I need to find him before he gets hurt.) He couldn’t have made it too far— I hadn’t been gone long, and the hotel had already left the dock. I decided to start with the lobby.Did he actually jump overboard and try to swim to shore? Because that would be hilarious to see in a CG format.  Nope, never mind. He’s just picking fights with the muzzled lackeys. Mitarashi! (Ah jeez, I don’t think he can hear me…) …! …! What, you’re saying you can’t do it?! This was apparently the last straw, and Mitarashi lunged forward to grab the piglet. ! The other piglet grabbed Mitarashi and attempted to keep him from punching his friend. …! …?! Aaaaaarrrgh! !*The screen shakes a bit and a crashing sound is heard*  Now is a good time to remind everyone that one of the rules of this whole thing is that we’re not allowed to harm Hogstein or his piglets. Breaking that rule can get the hostages killed. Solid stuff. (He’s still hurt! If he keeps doing stuff like that he’s going to really be in trouble!)He’ll also get your uncle and a bunch of innocents crushed to death, but sure, let’s focus on Ryusei’s health. I broke into a run. Mitarashi! Stop! What are you talking about?! You can barely breathe! This is nothing. Look, just calm down, okay? I frowned at him for several moments while he caught his breath. So why were you about to punch that guy? What, is it that hard to figure out? I asked them to take the boat back to the dock. Shut up, Ryusei. Yes, you most certainly are crazy enough to try that. If Saki hadn’t tracked you down then that would have been your Plan B after threatening the piglets failed. (But you are crazy enough to throw a couple piglets around…) They wouldn’t do it though, and I kinda lost my temper. You need to watch that! If you keep getting in fights you’re never going to get better! Some of what I’d said must have gotten through, because he looked at least slightly cowed. Sorry for worrying you… He coughed and glanced away awkwardly. Guess they’ve put themselves back together. I turned around to see the piglets staggering to their feet. He cracked his knuckles.It’s a little hard to look tough when you just nearly collapsed from lack of breath. Now, I don’t wanna do anything unpleasant so how about you just turn this barge around and let me get off? …! …! The piglets only crossed their arms over their chests and shook their heads. (They seem pretty determined.) See? It’s like trying to squeeze blood from a rock. You really surprised I lost my cool? That doesn’t mean you had to throw them… Then suddenly, before I knew what was happening, Mitarashi had dropped to his knees and clasped his hands. Huh, interesting move from a guy like that. Will it work? H-Hey! Y-You don’t need to do that! I have to go look for him. There’s no way I can just sit on my rear end for another day while he’s in trouble. Mitarashi… I can’t take this anymore! He could be hurt, or worse! Don’t you get it?! He looked up into my eyes. We all know Saki’s going to buckle one way or another, but Ryusei likes it when Saki shows a little spine. Token effort at resistance it is! Absolutely not. How can you even think you’ll be able to find him? You can barely stand! For a moment he looked taken aback, but then his surprise turned to a grin. Huh, well, I guess you don’t take any poo poo, huh? Not bad. I don’t have many clients like that.*Another affection point for Ryusei. No, we’re still not close to maxing out yet* But I can’t back down on this either. If I just go off and sleep while someone’s in danger I’ll never be able to live with myself. (He’s really not gonna give in, huh…) All right, fine. But I have a condition. Let’s hear it, then. If you’re going to look for Urabe, then I’m coming with you. What?! It’s like they’re already a married couple. So there you go. If you won’t accept my conditions, I promise I won’t let you leave, even if I have to glue myself to your legs to do it. Ha. You’re a funny kid. He patted my head. Okay, okay, you got me. I’ll do what you want. You can come, and I’ll try not to push myself too hard. Really? Oh, thank goodness that worked. So, what are we going to do? It was clear that the piglets weren’t going to move the ship, no matter how many times we asked. We needed a different plan. (They’re helpful most of the time, but there are some things they just won’t budge on…) Let’s head back to your room and figure out a plan. Yeah, I guess that’s the best idea right now. We walked past the piglet who was still nervously gesturing “no,” and headed back to Mitarashi’s room. The easiest solution would just be to have to [sic] piglets take the ship back to the docks. I really don’t think they’re going to do that, though. Yeah. We can’t ask them, and apparently we can’t force them. It burns me up to say it, but I’m hurt too bad to swim… drat! We’re stuck here! Calm down. I’m sure there’s a way…Maybe there’s like a lifeboat or something we could use? Argh! Calming down sucks! I’m not a planning type of guy, you know?! Just give me something to punch… He groaned and buried his head in his hands. Who? Subaru. He’s all about plans and working as a team and all that poo poo I can’t do. (Ha. He acts all tough, but I guess Mitarashi actually really respects Shidou. I gotta admit he’s right, though. If Shidou was here, we’d— wait! That’s it! All I have to do is figure out what Shidou would do in this situation!)He’d likely tell Ryusei to sit down and stop endangering the lives of everyone else just for the sake of one man he met a few days ago. (Hm… well, first…) Mitarashi, in situations like this we have to stay calm and examine all the angles. Huh? What’re you…? Oh, I get it. Trying to act like Subaru, huh? H-Hey, don’t tease me! I’m being serious! Ha ha ha, all right. My bad. Now, to get out of here we’re going to need the help of the piglets. I ran though all the things we knew about them. I’m assuming Hogstein has given them fairly specific orders to that effect. Seems like it. On the other hand, he’s also forbidden them from doing certain things, and they won’t do those things under any circumstances. …Things like taking the ship back to the dock, for instance. I took a deep breath. Okay, so what can we do? He frowned. Makes sense, but what would override his orders? Hm. I imagine their highest priority is to help him achieve… whatever he’s trying to achieve, but… (What he’s trying to achieve… Wait a minute… that means…) Time for another insight. Let’s see what we’re working with here. (I need to focus. The highest priority for the piglets is going to be helping Hogstein to achieve whatever he’s trying to do. Hogstein is obviously enjoying watching us play his games, and it seems pretty clear he’s hoping those games will kill us. So the piglets are pretty cooperative as long as we don’t get in the way. That’s why they took care of Mitarashi on the third night. Considering that the point of the games is to kill us, it seems weird that they’d help us out. So what’s going to be a higher priority for them than the stuff Hogstein forbid them to do?)This is a tricky one not because of the general answer, but because of the specific way they want us to say the answer. It should be obvious to everyone that Hogstein is getting enjoyment from watching the protagonists take part in the games. If all he wanted was to kill them, then he wouldn’t have bothered with any of this spectacle. He would have just gassed them all in Samurai Fantasy VII, or blew them up the moment they gathered in front of the castle. The piglets’ are tasked with helping our heroes and making sure that they all get to the games in order to take part, which is the reason for their helpfulness and general concern of the protagonists (if one of them dies outside of a game, then Hogstein would presumably be pissed at the piglets for allowing it to happen).  The game says that “Help us out” is the correct phrase to use here. Personally, I chose “enjoying” first, because I think that’s the key phrase in this mystery. But hey, I guess that’s why we’re allowed to pick three options. He’s putting us through all these games in hopes that they’ll kill us! So… (His ultimate goal isn’t just that we die… but that we die in the games!) Hey, you’ve got that look… You figure it out? She looked up at me and nodded. Great. Okay, here’s what we’re going to do…And we’re out of space for this update. Next update, we’ll be attempting a prison break that will hopefully provide us with some fresh scenery. We’ve been seeing the same two environment CGs for almost 2 full stages now. It’s time for a change. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Oct 21, 2020 |
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Oct 21, 2020 17:29
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Since when has Mitarashi referred to Shidou by name? Did they grow closer than expected? You know, in these kind of things, a character switching from last to first name means something...I guess this won't be easy for Saki after all.
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Oct 21, 2020 18:56
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Blaze Dragon posted:Since when has Mitarashi referred to Shidou by name? Did they grow closer than expected? You know, in these kind of things, a character switching from last to first name means something...I guess this won't be easy for Saki after all. I mean, they had that whole bro moment with the fake fight plan and everything. That's good enough for a first name basis switch. As for Saki, just wait for the next update. She's on her way to first names as well, although not quite in the way I expected.
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Oct 21, 2020 19:04
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I get that you have to stay with the target of your affections but it is kind of weird that everyone else is basically off 'playing the game' without you. I assume the rest of the game does actually exist, on other people's routes.
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Oct 23, 2020 12:18
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