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It's a game with the good kind of bugs! Let's Play Bug Fables "The Paper Mario you've been waiting for [...] This is Paper Mario for grown-ups." -Arlo "Bug Fables transcends Paper Mario." -KingK Did you know that if you talk to an old man, then surf up and down the coast of an island halfway across the world, you can fight a block of glitchy static and multiply your items by 128? Of course you did, we all shared bug fables by word of mouth on the playground. Wait, I'm being told I'm getting this wrong, that's not what this LP is about? (I'm so sorry.)  Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is an independently-developed, small-numbers RPG (or, in simpler terms, Paper Mario clone) set in a world of anthropomorphic insects. Developed by Moonsprout Games and published by DANGEN Entertainment, it was released on PC in November 2019 and consoles May 2020, after a successful crowdfunding campaign and over four years of development. The consensus among people who've played it is that the wait was well worth it; I'm inclined to agree with them, as this is one of my favourite games ever (maybe even my absolute favourite). Never mind the comparison to Paper Mario (though obviously fair, Bug Fables never tried to hide its inspiration), this game is just a really excellent JRPG-style experience all around, with a fleshed-out world and well-realised characters. Why did nobody think to use social insects as fantasy races before this? Here are links to various places you can buy the game, if you want to play along. In my opinion, it's a great value for your $20-25 (this game is packed with content; my first playthrough ran over 50 hours, and it's very replayable). Itch.io--Steam--Nintendo Switch--PS4--Xbox (The itch.io page also has a free demo you can download, though it's an outdated build of the game. It doesn't run as smoothly as the release version and some mechanics were changed, but if you're on the fence about buying the game, try it out!) The devs also have a Twitter and Tumblr. Nowadays, they mostly post fanart. Introduction and Motivation: I was something of a latecomer to Bug Fables, actually. I hadn't followed the crowdfunding or development history; I learned about the game from the Paper Mario: Master Quest LP thread here on SA, and didn't get around to playing it until last April. Despite its popularity within the niche community of classic Paper Mario fans, and its general success, I still think this game deserves wider exposure. Why do I want to LP this game? Plenty of other people (including but not limited to Paper Mario experts Kappy and Fatguy703) have already done video LPs on Youtube and several of those are quite good. I may have watched a lot of them. I think it deserves to be LPed in screenshot style, and I haven't seen one of those yet, so I figure there's a niche where I can still meaningfully contribute. In addition to having a well-designed and strategic battle system, this game is very well-written and charming, and has excellent worldbuilding and characters. I want to show off as much of the text as I can in a single playthrough (trust me, there's a lot of it!). I seem to remember the developers saying they viewed the amount of text as overindulgent and were surprised how much players actually liked it. I will try to keep things organised such that you can read what interests you and skip what doesn't, to the best of my ability. This is one of those games that just gets better and better as it goes on (the developers definitely improved in writing and design skill over the course of the 4+ years they worked on this game, and the early content seems to have been locked in before they really got into their stride); some people find Chapter 1 a bit dull, but I promise it's only upward from there. This isn't a perfect game, and I do have some minor critiques here and there, but it's drat good and it's worth playing if you like this genre at all. Content Notes/Warnings: This is a game about cartoon bugs. There are spiders in it. If you have arachnophobia, you might want to be careful. Despite the cute art style, this game can get dark at times, dealing with issues of trauma and loss among other things. Nothing too excessive (IMO), but it's not green grass and sunshine the entire time, and you may want to know that going in. There is a pair of recurring side characters (Mothiva and Zasp) whose dynamic comes across to many as emotional abuse. I don't think I can direct concerned readers to just skip certain scenes, either, because the issue is the overall dynamic that emerges more than any particular scene in a vacuum. The devs have stated they are intended to be a romantic couple, which suggests they might not quite realise how toxic a relationship they ended up writing. I'm not going to tell anyone not to read the LP or play the game because of it, but forewarned is forearmed. Details for this LP: This will be a 100% playthrough, completing side content as soon as it becomes available (more or less; I do have some exceptions in mind). Please keep the thread friendly to unspoiled readers. Specifically, please don't spoil the story. Talking about upcoming mechanics, items, medals, strategies, etc. is fine (within reason) as long as it comes up naturally in conversation, but this game's writing is great and I'd like the LP to stand as a way for newcomers to experience it. I will be playing on Hard Mode, with no other modifications. The developers have said that is the intended experience, and if you're playing along, I highly recommend doing the same for your first playthrough (you can switch off Hard Mode at will without losing any progress if it proves too much for you). This game offers a lot of difficulty options to customise subsequent playthroughs (including a built-in randomiser mode!), which I love, but I want to show off the baseline experience here. Once you get to know the game, the higher difficulties can be fun, but I think vanilla Hard Mode hits the sweet spot for a newcomer: challenging enough to make you pay attention and think, while not too overwhelming to be accessible. I am playing on PC, version 1.1 (released on the game's one-year anniversary, the most recent revision as things currently stand). This patch added new endgame content, as well as making several quality-of-life and balance changes. I'll admit I'm iffy about some changes relative to the previous version (1.0.5); I was almost tempted to revert to that version for the LP. I'll try to point out differences when they come up, but overall I think this is the version to play if you're starting now. (Later edit: a few minor patches came out over the course of the LP, and I updated to v1.1.2 during the postgame. I would recommend playing the latest version, though you may notice a few minor discrepancies relative to the LP.) I am using an Xbox 360 controller with the default control scheme, because that works for me. Any button prompts ingame will reflect that, as will buttons I mention in commentary (although I have a habit of calling the "Back" button "Select", I was a Nintendo kid). The game can also be played natively with a keyboard and will change the displayed prompts appropriately, and has fully customisable controls. I am sourcing various icons (character portraits, items, medals, etc) and some data from the Bug Fables Fandom Wiki. Music links will all be to the OST on Youtube  This icon is of Tristan's (the composer) ingame avatar, and will be used to indicate music links.While I have some definite plans for this LP, there will be opportunities for reader voting about things like how I build my party or what strategies I use for certain encounters. More on this later as it comes up. (This is also my first LP. I've been lurking/reading/commenting here for a while, it's about time I contributed something. If you have constructive criticism or think anything I'm doing isn't working, please don't hesitate to let me know. That said, as I'm still ironing out my workflow, don't expect a consistent update schedule for a while; please bear with me while I figure things out.) But enough ado. Let's get started. TABLE OF CONTENTS  Chapter 1 01: First Meetings 02: Snakemouth Way 03: Snakemouth Spelunking 04: Snakemouth Depths 05: Vicious Spider  Chapter 2 06: Meeting the Ant Queen (Part 2) 07: Cooking with Fry (Part 2) 08: Sidequesting in the Ant Kingdom (Part 2) 09: Golden Path (Part 2) 10: Golden Settlement 11: The Golden Festival (Part 2) 12: Festival Ceremony 13: Post-Festival Cleanup 14: A Pitcher's Worth a Thousand Words 15: Into the Golden Hills 16: The Sun is Also a Flower  Chapter 3 17: More Meetings, More Missions (Part 2) 18: A Study in Scarlet 19: Games Within Games 20: Sandbox Gameplay (Part 2) 21: Defiant Root (Part 2) 22: The Great Bugarian Bake-Off 23: The Queen on High (Part 2) 24: Lockdown (Part 2) 25: The Blob 26: Drone Strike  Chapter 4 27: New Complications (Part 2) 28: The Butler Did It, and Other Stories 29: Mother Mayhem 30: Chasing Cards 31: Metal and Paint (Part 2) 32: Victory is in the Cards 33: An Unknown Dungeon 34: Friendship Bites 35: One-Armed Bandit (Part 2) 36: Concerning Horns 37: Impostor Syndrome 38: The Magician and the Fool 39: Crossing the Streams 40: Tide Goes In, Tide Goes Out (You Can't Explain That) 41: Emergent Mysteries 42: Temple of Doom 43: The Mummy  Chapter 5 44: Bug is Weak to Fire (Part 2) 45: Follow the Leader (Part 2) 46: Unearthing Horrors (Part 2) 47: Truth and Reconciliation 48: The Hermit and the King 49: Maki the Mighty 50: A Bridge Too Far 51: Heart of Darkness 52: Too Angry to Die (Part 2) 53: Wasp Kingdom Sting (Part 2)  Chapter 6 54: Desperation and Diplomacy 55: Time For Reflection (Part 2) 56: Damsel(fly) in Distress 57: A Fog of Confusion 58: Lord of the Flies 59: Primal Screaming 60: Termite Territory (Part 2) 61: Colosseum Clash (Part 2) 62: Sidequest Smorgasbord (Part 2) 63: Subbing Out (Part 2) 64: Dancing With Danger (Part 2) 65: Team Snakemouth Goes to Prison (Part 2) 66: Security By the Books 67: Chekhov's Howitzer  Chapter 7 68: What Can Eternal Lie (Part 2) 69: A Chilly Reception 70: Through the Fire and Flames 71: Long Live the King (Part 2) 72: Dawn of a New Day  Postgame 73: Lore World Tour (Part 2) 74: Trials & Tangy Tribulations (Part 2) 75: Escort Missions and R&R 76: They Grow Up So Fast 77: Slack Off, Slack On 78: B.O.S.S. Me Around 79: Not the De-Bug Room! 80: What a Long Way We've Come (Exploring the Demo)(Part 2) 81: Fool Me Once... Fool Me Too Many Times (April Fools Gags) Miscellaneous Posts Design Interlude: Fixing the Devourer Design Interlude: Discussing Astotheles Design Interlude: Hopeless Boss Fights Design Interlude: Time and Ludonarrative Dissonance Design Interlude: Degenerate Strategies Bonus: Menu Codes & Randomiser Mode Preview Bonus: A Quick Look at Ruigee (Luigi's Challenge) Mode Interlude: Welcome to the World of Pokémon Appendix (Bugs may not have one but this LP sure does!) Dramatis Personae Bestiary (Chapter 1) Bestiary (Chapter 2) Bestiary (Chapter 3) Bestiary (Chapter 4) Bestiary (Chapter 5) Bestiary (Chapter 6) Bestiary (Chapter 7) Bestiary (Bonus Bosses) Mechanics & Skills Medals Items & Recipes Spy Cards Title Screen History Explopyro fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Mar 31, 2024 |
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Feb 4, 2021 19:38
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Fanart! Bee smiley (by vilkacis)  "We do not see the appeal of your 'robe and wizard hat'." (by vilkacis)  "We'll be right back" (by Leraika)  Look who finally stopped by for a visit! It's the Team Snakemouth Makeship plushies! (These are mine)  More plushies! More! 
Explopyro fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Apr 4, 2024 |
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Feb 4, 2021 19:38
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01: First Meetings 01 - Bug Fables (The title screen evolves over the course of the game. I'll be posting changes as I see them, and will edit the most current one into the OP, but this is what it looks like when starting fresh.)    That'll do. 02 - The Everlasting Sapling  Ahh, the land of Bugaria. A peaceful, prosperous place where many adventurous bugs gather. Although it wasn't always that way...  Lured by the promise of riches and lush fields, a young Queen visited these lands many moons ago. Together with her daughters and fellow ant servants, she established Bugaria's modest first settlement. Her people were happy, the Ant Kingdom flourished... And yet, the Queen's dream had still not been fulfilled. For she had heard of an ancient people, who safeguarded a treasure of unbelievable power. It was none other than... The Everlasting Sapling! A plant which would grant unending youth and strength to any who ate even one of its leaves! She searched, and searched... and searched... Alas, she never found it. She entrusted her dream to the princess, before falling into a hard-earned sleep. Determined to succeed where her mother did not, the new Queen rallied the people together under her cause. Opening the doors of the kingdom to bugs of all shapes and kinds, she attracted ambitious and skilled adventurers! Her decree was loud and clear: "Find me the Everlasting Sapling, and you shall know wealth like no other bug ever has!" With this, the Explorers' Association was founded, with its many members searching across the kingdom for clues and treasure. Even though, to this day, the sapling has not been found. But every bug dreams of one day claiming it for themselves... 03 - Where Adventurers Gather (Before we get started, let's address the elephant beetle in the room. You might have noticed everyone has four limbs. The devs have actually commented on this; I don't remember exactly what they said, but essentially they tried to design them with six limbs at first and couldn't get it not to look awkward. They wanted everyone to walk upright and not look like centaurs, and couldn't find a place to put them on upright characters that didn't look weird. It's not that they didn't know, they just made a stylistic choice.) We open somewhat in medias res, here, this green beetle and mantis swordsman are clearly in the middle of an ongoing conversation.   Despite many unfortunate incidents, tales of your people helped me keep my adventuring spirit alive. Rest assured, Kabbu. They are not mere legends, but real history. This Explorers' Association, and all the explorers who risk their wings for glory, are proof of that. While Kabbu and Maki are talking, this bee sneaks into the scene behind them and approaches the blue beetle in the background. She walks at a fixed speed, irrespective of how fast you advance the text.  Unproven!? Maki, I've bested many hardships in the north! Or so you say. Your knowledge of our culture, and your passion for exploring are as true as my blade's edge, Kabbu.    I'M NOT A KID! Hm? Well, if you insist. After that bit of tutorial text, we are placed in control of Kabbu. We'll get to know him more in a bit, but first, since the game wants us to follow Maki and see what the commotion is about... let's not, and talk to everyone else in the room first. This game has a lot of situational dialogue, and if we don't talk to these people now we'll miss out on what they have to say. First up are these two over here by the table.  .png) No, he's just gonna cause a scene again. Like always. This sort of thing occurs frequently?.png) Hey, didn't Maki ask for you? Don't make him wait, or I'll make you pay! Gen, you're embarrassing me! You're not the head of his fangirl club! Yes I am! Now, to go upstairs. We have this charming wasp: Greetings, explorer.  Kabbu asking "why am I even up here" might be one of my favourite lines. The game knows you're going to want to meander around, so it simultaneously rewards you for it and calls out how little sense it makes. Last up, we have the orchid mantis behind the desk.  (Hm. I shouldn't disrupt his work.)Okay, enough procrastinating, let's get back on task. When we get Kabbu close, he moves into position automatically and this cutscene triggers.  This guy's calling me a kid, says I can't explore! Shouting isn't going to change the rules, you child! Shut it. It's not about age, it's about skill! I'm Vi, the best explorer the Hive has ever seen! I'm not some random bee!(By the way, since a lot of people find it ambiguous, her name is officially pronounced like "vee", it rhymes with "bee".) An explorer bee? Yeah. Got a problem? Saying bees can't explore? Expected honey and paint? Silence, please. This guild of ours is no place for petty squabbles. Look. I can't just give a permit to some bee. Much less without a partner. Teams should be a duo of explorers, you know? I'm worth like four bees, okay!? ... Hey, Vi. What do you want? What, do I look that desperate? I don't even know you! I have a promise I must keep, and for that I must explore. How bad could it be? Wait, you two are just crazy! You won't last a second at Snakemouth! I'll prove you wrong! Now it's Maki's turn to hesitate, it seems. No. You are both, most likely, mere novices, ruled by your strong emotions... I have no doubt that if you left today, you would return inside a bag. Sir Maki. Although you outrank me in spades, you shouldn't underestimate me. I... went through quite a bit to get here. Yeah. Bugs like you that look down on others are really annoying! Hmm. Very well. I shall test your resolve. Test us, huh? Who named you king of this joint?  I accept your challenge! Vi, get ready! Watch your own horn, I was born ready! 04 - FIGHT! We get this nice animation of leaves flying in to cover the screen for the battle transition. The game has lots of different variations on this animation, changing to fit the area and the circumstances, but for now we'll be seeing these bright green ones.  Kabbu kindly offers to initiate the tutorial. I'm going to take him up on this for now.  Listen, then. We can both perform one action per round, be it attacking, using an item, etc. We can power up our attacks by performing commands unique to each move. Watch this.(This game doesn't have a catch-all name for these, so I'll be calling them Action Commands, ala Paper Mario.) If I hold D-pad down long enough... I can power up my horn strike! Holding a button? Lame. Look at this! If I press A at the right time, I can power up my Beemerang! A... beemerang? Kabbu and Vi have each dealt 2 damage. Once you know more about the game's battle system, you might notice something peculiar about the numbers this turn; I'll explain in a moment. (It took me forever to catch this, I wouldn't have except I had to keep replaying this while troubleshooting recording methods.) See, we're doing great! Don't let your guard down, Vi. After our turn ends, the enemy's next!  Pressing A a bit before an enemy hits you reduces damage received! With perfect timing, you'll reduce even more damage!This is Bug Fables' version of timed defence. There are two overlapping timing windows; decent timing will reduce damage by 1, but if you hit the tighter window, that becomes a 2 point reduction. The game calls this a "Super Block". I am... not great at this. This should seem somewhat familiar to Paper Mario players, though it's a bit different to the systems those games used. PM64 had a single block timing, and TTYD had two different buttons: A to block normally, or B to "Superguard", which had tighter timing but negated all damage and also counterattacked. While the risk-reward tradeoff could be interesting, that system was horribly unbalanced and I'm not sorry to see this game using something a bit more reasonable. O-ow! What the heck?! You trying to kill us or something?  We should pay him back, tenfold! It's time to use a skill! They're just like attacks, but you select them from the yellow flower! Teamwork Points (TP) is this game's name for magic points. Think Flower Points (FP), in Paper Mario terms. Our team shares a combined pool, and right now we have 10 to work with.  This is actually a bad idea right now (though I'm going to do it anyway to show off how items work), because we started with one item and this will use it up. Vi has only taken 1 point of damage. Still, I guess it's good the tutorial covers items.   Here are Vi's skills. Right now, she has one: Tornado Toss, which costs 3 TP. Let's take it for a spin.  I messed up the action command a bit there, but hey, you can see what that looks like! Tornado Toss does multiple hits (one for each time we successfully press A). The damage starts at (Vi's attack - 1) for the first hit and decreasing by 1 on each subsequent hit. As long as the first hit did nonzero damage, the follow-ups will always do at least 1 each. This move might not look like much now, but it has some serious potential. Now it's Kabbu's turn. Let's look at his skills:  Kabbu also has one skill right now: Taunt. This costs 2 TP, and forces any enemy which is using single-target attacks to aim them at Kabbu. This also might not look like much now (Kabbu has 9 HP to Vi's 7, that's not exactly tank material yet), but as you might imagine, becomes very useful for a variety of strategies. Instead, I'll do what the tutorial wants and have Kabbu use an item. Right now, we have this Crunchy Leaf:  A dry leaf. Has a satisfying crunch when bit. Restores 4 HP to an ally.  Maki attacks Kabbu this time, and I flub the block, so he takes 2 damage. At this point, no more tutorial text is forthcoming, it just goes to the next turn. So I'll just have Vi and Kabbu use their basic attacks.   What gives? This time, Vi did 3 damage! Okay, it's time to explain the irregularity I mentioned earlier. Bug Fables has a positioning system in battle: the character in front deals 1 extra point of damage, in exchange for being targeted more often by enemies. (We'll discuss this in more detail once we get into some real battles.) But for some reason, this isn't the case on that first scripted turn.  Maki went after Vi this time, and I managed to get the Super Block! That's what that looks like. At the end there, you'll notice the screen beginning to fade out: this isn't a normal fight, and ends automatically after Maki's third turn. 03 - Where Adventurers Gather Kabbu seems impressed. You pass. This reaction is great, I had to show the animation. What? You performed well enough. I could feel your desire to see the world through your attacks. I am no one to keep you from your Explorer Permit. Eetl, you may grant it to them. I get no say in this, huh? ...But Maki IS the Queen's Blade. Here, you can have it. 11 - Key Item!And we get an  Explorer Permit. This is our first Key Item and we'll have it in our inventory for the entire game. Snakemouth Den, it lies to the west of the association. A simple path, although filled with danger.  Just as Maki might have told us more, someone shouts for him from off-screen.  My apologies, Kina. Vi, Kabbu, I must be going now. As you can see, duty calls me. May you succeed in your mission.Maki and Kina walk away. I guess he won't be telling us anything else for now. What a weird bunch. He ended up causing quite the scene himself. That fighting prowess... How many years must he have trained? ...So, uh. I'm Vi, I guess. From the Hive near the big tree. Oh! I am Kabbu. I moved in just one moon ago, from the north. Cool. Indeed. Well, this is awkward. Um, Sir Maki said Snakemouth was to the west, right? Should we get moving? Right! Yeah! Let's go right away! Don't fall behind, okay? ... Something wrong? I'm going to say no here, because that gets us the more interesting version of this exchange. (I'll show the alternative at the end.) What!? You'd go there without knowing anything!? It's like asking to perish! Shush, Eetl. Just say it. Your goal is to find an ancient artifact that is fabled to be inside Snakemouth Den. Many tried, but no one ever found it. Most never came back. I don't know what the Queen wants with that, but she is very determined to find it. We will find it. Don't worry. Yeah! I'm on the case, after all! 05 - Chapter 1 Guess that's it for the prologue. Chapter 1 begins here. We're now given some more tutorial text: Change the party leader by pressing (X)! You can check your inventory, stats, and other things by pressing (START)!Okay, let's have a look. First, here's what changing the party leader looks like. Now that Vi has joined the party, we're in control of her by default, and if we press (X) it will change which bug is in the lead (and therefore who we're controlling). Only the bug in front matters for purposes of platforming, contact with enemies, etc. This order will also determine our formation in battle. Switching looks like this:  If you look over on the left side, a little half-transparent icon of the character's face shows up when we switch to them. It's a nice touch. While the game defaults to controlling Vi now and whenever we reload a saved game, I tend to find myself preferring to walk around with Kabbu. For now, it won't matter much, but you might notice that in later updates. We'll look at the menus later. For now, let's talk to everyone again.  You can be sassy at me if you want, but I was just worrying about you. Give him some credit, Vi. Exploring isn't a game. Many... have been lost while searching for treasure. I know that! But we're not going to be one of those. Even Maki thinks we're decent. I hope his intuition is right. As do I. Let's not be careless, Vi. We'll make it back, don't worry.Now let's go check in with Gen and Eri again. (Gen, Eri. Get it?)  (This icon appears over someone's head if you're close enough that pressing A will talk to them.) Oh, Eri, why must Maki be so dreamy? Have you gone mad, Gen!? He's so arrogant! You tell her, Eri. Pompous as he was, he was at least kind enough to test us. Oh, no. He does that to everyone. You see this once a week. Gen's text is dancing here. Argh! That stupid, roleplaying wannabe gatekeeper! I'll show him! Kabbu mad. I shall challenge him to a duel to the death, our honor on the line! H-Hey! You don't have to go that far! Oh, um, he's just kidding! Right, Kabbu? Err, yes. Of course. "Kidding". I was most certainly only jesting. You better have been! Let's just go, Kabbu.I love this exchange, even if it's a tad out of character for Kabbu. He's usually not this bloodthirsty. If we talk to them again... Stay out of trouble. And far away from Maki!Now to go upstairs.  Greetings, explorer. Hm. Good showing. Not many stand Maki's blade. Why, thank you. I assume you've endured it as well? Anyone who belongs to this association can say at least that much. Woah. So everyone here is crazy strong! Or they've found a reliable partner to carry them. What? You trying to say something? Not at all. If you're offended by it, it only shows your insecurity. What's your deal!? You wanna fight!? Heh. Good luck, you two. You'll need it.If we try to talk to him again: Let's go, Vi. It'll do you no good to get angry. Hmph.And finally, in the back, the guy with the ! thought bubble. (If you're playing along, don't forget about him! A lot of people seem to miss this.)  Uh, okay. Who are you again? Excuse ya! I'm Artis, and I keep this place running. Oh? Thank you for all your hard work. Uh, yeah. Thanks. So you two faced Maki, eh? Bet ya found it a tad too easy? You know it! Heh. I see you lot like challenge. One sec, I have this one thing... Please take it. 10 - Medal Found! You got a Medal! These artifacts help you by giving different effects. To equip Medals, go into the Pause Menu by pressing (START), and select Medals and Stats. Once there, you can equip Medals to different party members using (D-pad Left) and (D-pad Right) to switch who you are equipping to. Medals cost MP to equip, be sure to check how many you have left! What is this? A Medal? Let's say it should make things more interesting for ya. The higher the risk, the higher the reward, as they say. If you defeat any powerful enemies while wearing it, come see me, alright? I won't say no to free stuff! You've got a deal! Thank you for entrusting us with it! Take care, Artis. Safe exploring, folks. Remember to check in every now and then.If we talk to him again: What're ya waiting for? Go explore! I gotta deal with the work coming in.Okay, so a lot just happened at once there. Let's break it down. Artis just gave us our first medal of the game, and it's  Hard Mode.Medals are, essentially, equipment. We have a pool of Medal Points (MP) for the party (we start with 5), and each medal costs some amount of MP to equip. Medals can do all sorts of things, and there are 80 different types for us to find over the course of the game. If you've played Paper Mario 64 or Paper Mario TTYD, this should feel familiar: it's almost exactly the same as Badges and BP in those games (I fully expect to slip up and call them badges from time to time), though now we can choose who equips which medal. Because Hard Mode is just a medal, you can put it on or take it off any time you want. If it ever becomes too much, or a specific encounter is giving you trouble, etc, you can always take it off, and then put it back on later if you so desire. You won't be punished for this at all. I like how willing this game is to let you make the experience exactly as hard as you want it to be at any given moment. (My only quibble is that, as Hard Mode is the intended experience, I think that would have been communicated better if it were the default and there was an Easy Mode medal instead. That said, I understand why they chose not to do that: psychologically people tend to be more comfortable saying "I opt out of Hard" than "I want Easy Mode", so maybe this way is better.) Hard Mode changes a lot of little things (the wiki has a full list here). The short version is enemies usually have increased stats, and their resistances to status effects increase faster so they're harder or impossible to stunlock (more on this later once we learn about status effects). Most bosses' behaviours change, and they usually get at least one new attack. And as Artis was hinting, there are also extra perks for playing Hard Mode. Every time we defeat a boss or miniboss with the Hard Mode medal equipped, we can come back and talk to Artis and he'll give us a new Medal. There are also achievements for beating each chapter boss in Hard Mode. None of this is lost forever if you choose to play without Hard Mode, however. The medals will all become available for purchase in a certain shop instead, and you can make up the achievements in boss refights (which I'll discuss more once they become available). That said, a warning to PS4 and Xbox players: some people report only getting the ingame achievement if they do that, not the global system achievement. Anyway, Hard Mode. Let's put it on. Okay, this is a good time to show off the pause menu too. First off, let's check our inventory.  Here's our items. We don't have anything right now because I wasted the Crunchy Leaf during the Maki fight, but if I hadn't it would be here.  And our key items. We just have the Explorer Permit right now.  Now let's see our medals.  Hard Mode costs 0 MP, so equipping it doesn't cost us anything. Press A and...  Hard Mode shows up highlighted in orange, indicating that it is now equipped. This orange colour is because it's what I'll call a "global" medal, it doesn't need to be equipped to any specific bug. Some medals work like this; others need us to choose a bug, and we'll see what that looks like once we find one. We can also press Y here to cycle through a few other screens: Equipped Medals (which shows only the medals we currently have on, instead of our entire supply), and then Skills (where we can see a summary of each character's skills). As we've already seen all the information that would be on those pages if we looked at them now, I'm not bothering to show them.  Next up is the Library. Let's see what this is...  Looks like we have our work cut out for us. These tabs are, from left to right: Discoveries, Bestiary, Recipe Book, Records, and Quest List. We'll learn more about all of these things later. For now, let's look at our quests...   And finally, there's the options menu.  I want to highlight one particular option here. "Mash Action Commands". You can change this between "Fill Bar" (which asks you to rapidly mash buttons) and "Sequential Keys" (it will display a button sequence which you have to match).   I'm going to be leaving this on the default, I don't have a problem mashing buttons, but I like that they give you a choice since this can be an accessibility issue for some people. That was a lot of menus. Let's actually go outside now? 06 - Outskirts Looks like the staircase up to the Explorers' Association is made of flowers. Isn't that cute? Anyway, there's something weird over to the left, let's go check that out?   We can't actually do anything with this weird mound of dirt right now, but I wanted to point out that it's here and we can get over to it. It's worth remembering for (much) later. Now, let's get back on track, we saw someone with an ! over their head... When we talk to him, before anything else, he... strikes the glowing yellow rock with a sword?    Huh? You REALLY don't know? Just tell us why. This one's a screenshot because I'm not sure if you'd have believed me if I transcribed it. That's... awkwardly worded, Levi. This is an Ancient Crystal, correct? They're unique to this land. They can store the record of previous travelers, if you smack them with something. This crystal is yellow, so it will even heal your wounds! You expect me to believe that!? All that awesome stuff for hitting a rock? Heh. You are one of little faith. Come on, Levi. Show 'em!   It is done. W-Woah! It really works! This must sell for a fortune! All you'll get for this crystal is prison time. Only the Ant Queen can authorize placing these rocks in public spaces. Even if you find one in the wild, they are too heavy to be carried by a single bug. There goes that idea... Still, their properties are amazing! Let's use them when we can, Vi. Yeah, sure. Let's get a move on. Best of luck! ...Okay, so that's our tutorial on save points (I like how it's integrated with all of these world details!). Yellow ones fully heal us in addition to saving; blue ones only save. Good to know. If we talk to them again, Levi doesn't have anything interesting to say (he just offers to help us save) Care for some healing? (yes) Very well. May the Queen guide you. (no) Let me know if you need me to do it again!I actually need to stop here and explain something, because this might seem a bit weird. Why is Levi hanging out here to save the game for us when we can just smack the crystal ourselves? Well, in versions 1.0.5 and earlier, Vi and Kabbu didn't have their field abilities unlocked yet, so they wouldn't be able to interact with the crystal. In v1.1, for some reason, they changed something about the field ability flags and they're unlocked from the start. So that's why it's like this. Celia has some new dialogue, though: It's nice of you to make friends and all, but don't distract us too much. We'll be going on an expedition of our own soon, and we must prepare. Hm. Best of luck, then.Let's have a look around the area.  The path to the north is blocked off by fallen rocks, but there are some travellers here with... a pack snail? Carrying canned tomatoes? How cute.   If this isn't cleared soon, we will lose money! Get on with it, ants! This should never even happen!!!Well, someone's angry. (These are the merchant caravan, but they're clearly not open for business right now.)  He seems a little more reasonable. There's also this fellow.  If we try to go east, the way is blocked by more large rocks.   But the ants seem to have workers on this. If we go west...  A sign helps us get our bearings.  The way south is blocked off too. Guess there's nothing else for it, let's go talk to the guard at the west gate.   We're prompted to show our permit here. Interestingly, if we press B, we can actually decline this:  But let's just show it and go on ahead.    Looks like the way is open, and we can head out on our journey to Snakemouth Den! ... next time. In the meantime, here are a few tidbits from alternate dialogue choices we could have made.  Let's have Vi refuse Kabbu's help.    Interestingly, Vi deals 3 damage here! It looks like the problem is specifically with the scripted attacks during the other dialogue. Also, interestingly, saying "no need" here doesn't actually skip the tutorial, it just changes this first turn and the rest of it proceeds the same way as it did before. I did take the opportunity to show off Kabbu's Taunt, though. Here's what it looks like:  Now, for the second thing. Let's see what Eetl says if we tell him we know what the expedition is.   Good luck out there. Thank you. We will be back soon. I promise.Much shorter this way. Anyway, that's it for this update! Next time on Bug Fables, we'll set out for Snakemouth Den (actually leaving the first room of the game, good grief!) and see some real gameplay. See you then! Explopyro fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 4, 2021 19:38
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Ugh, I found a whole bunch of screwups after posting the first update. I've fixed them now; hopefully I got all the mistakes? Sorry about that...
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Feb 4, 2021 20:51
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I'm glad to see people are interested in this! I was pretty nervous posting since this is my first time doing something like this. Full steam ahead, I guess.FoolyCharged posted:Bug fables is really good. Although I find it interesting that hard is apparently the intended difficulty. Some of this early stuff is grueling even if you can snap the game over your knee once you get the right tools going. I never thought Hard was that bad, honestly. Admittedly, my first time through I lost to quite a few bosses on the first attempt, but I liked that, it made evident that I needed to be thinking about strategy on a higher level (and honestly I think a lot of those losses were due to forgetting that important mechanics like relaying exist; this battle system really rewards mastery and using all the tools at your disposal). Then again, I first played Paper Mario when I was 12, so I was going in with a certain amount of baseline experience with this style of game. I can see why people might be tripped up if they aren't used to it; the small numbers can mean mistakes are harder to recover from. It's going to be interesting rediscovering baseline Hard for this LP, actually. My latest playthroughs were on HARDEST and TUFFBUGS (two of the optional harder settings) and I don't have a great recollection of the first one at this point. Araxxor posted:Wait what. I'll comment more on that later when it actually pops up. I did not know this until you stated it, but wow that relationship did not come across as romantic at all. ...Yeah. Yikes. Admittedly I'm going off second- or third-hand knowledge: I haven't seen the comments personally, only people bringing it up in discussions, so something could've gotten garbled in transmission (and maybe I shouldn't be so confident in repeating it?). I actually quite like how messed up those characters are and think they're interesting, it's just hard to wrap my head around being encouraged to ship them. We'll talk more about them when they actually show up. grandalt posted:I like this game, but it had a nasty glitch at the end, didn't note that I had completed the game. Are you sure about this? The achievement for "Complete the game!" actually means 100% completion and unlocks when you get every other achievement. I was confused by this too at first, I think it could've been signposted more clearly. Junpei posted:Fun minor fact: the name "Kabbu" is derived from a Japanese word for a rhinoceros beetle, 'Kabuto'. Yes! I wish I'd remembered to mention this, so thank you for reminding me. It's really the perfect name for him, since a kabuto is also a warrior's helmet.
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Feb 5, 2021 15:10
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02: Snakemouth Way First off, I want to apologise for a bit of sloppiness in the first update: I intermingled screenshots from the two runs, and if you pay close attention to my HP and TP in the menus, you might notice things fluctuating weirdly. I'll try to be more diligent about this in the future. This is going to be a shorter update. Also: Junpei posted:Fun minor fact: the name "Kabbu" is derived from a Japanese word for a rhinoceros beetle, 'Kabuto'. Yes! I wish I'd remembered to mention this, so thank you for reminding me. It's really the perfect name for him, since a kabuto is also a warrior's helmet. 06 - Outskirts When starting up, we spawn in close to the crystal we used to save.  Let's get back to business and head through the gate.  As soon as we go through, we see this little guy. Let's say hello?  When we get close, it sees us and starts trying to chase us. When it touches Kabbu, a battle starts. 04 - FIGHT! First things first, this is a new kind of enemy and we don't know anything about it. Can we fix that?  Yes we can. There's a lot of stuff in the Strategies menu, but right now we're only concerned with one option: "Spy". It says that'll give us information about enemies, so let's see what happens.  Despite their adorable looks, they plague many fields and have no qualms about devouring crops. Although weak and puny in comparison to me, their flying variation is troublesome, as I can't reach it... I'll have to ask Vi for help.We get a small dossier on the enemy (showing us its HP and defence), as well as some dialogue, which usually contains both flavour text and hints. Spy is, more or less, the equivalent to "Tattle" in the Paper Mario games. The difference is that in Bug Fables, every character can do it (so you no longer feel forced to use a specific character if you want to gather information), and they each have unique dialogue when they do, so they get a chance to show some personality. These are Seedlings. These plant ball things are the most basic enemy of the game (essentially Goombas), and we'll see more variations on them later. So far all the bugs we've seen have been based on things that really exist, but clearly the game isn't limiting itself to those. Walking plant monsters!  Once we've spied on a type of enemy, its HP bar will become visible. The little shield icon on the left side of the bar is their defence (this was added in v1.1 and it's very convenient, it even updates to reflect temporary changes like buffs). Anyway, now that we've done that, let's go on with the battle. This should be simple.   I knew you'd never forgive me if I didn't show the goofy animations you get when you fail the action commands, so I figured this was a good opportunity to show them since I could do so and still kill this Seedling:  Kabbu falls flat on his back.  And Vi trips and throws the Beemerang overhand.  07 - Battle Won!The Seedling dies anyway, and when it does, it bursts into these little icons. These are... Exploration Points. Not experience points, Exploration Points. Sure, whatever. It's functionally the same thing: when we get enough of these (right now we need 100), we'll gain a   When we get back to the overworld, the enemy sprite spins around and dissolves. It also drops this weird blue thing, which I'll pick up. A counter in the bottom right corner appears and goes up. We'll find out what this is later. One other thing happens when we Spy on enemies: their entry gets added to the Bestiary! Here's what that looks like.  It keeps track of how many we've fought, and how many we've killed (pretend it doesn't say 9 there, I obviously took this picture at the end of the update). When we open the entry, this is what we see:      The Bestiary is even kind enough to show us what Vi would have said if I'd had her spy on it, so I don't have to do that manually! We'll be collecting entries on everything, but this is the last time I'll have it in the middle of an update, I'll make an appendix for these soon. Let's press on.  These rocks help us jump across this narrow stream. Unfortunately, I timed it a bit off and Vi fell right in the drink - which gives me an opportunity to show how the game handles this. It just respawns her behind Kabbu and keeps moving on as though nothing happened. There are no consequences. (If the bug in front had fallen in, it'd fade out the screen and reset our position, though with no other consequences. This game is pretty forgiving about things like that. Paper Mario used to ding the player's HP in similar circumstances, but this game doesn't let things deal damage outside of battles.)  It's another Seedling! Looks like this one can fly, like Kabbu hinted earlier. (Though you'll notice we can still see its HP bar: a flying Seedling is still a Seedling.) Kabbu can't reach it, though. (See how the attack icon is greyed out? We can't choose it.) Oh no! There must be something we can do...  If I press B, the cursor moves to Vi and I can have her act instead! Her Beemerang knocks the Seedling down, and now Kabbu can finish it off. Notably, switching to Vi this way doesn't change our formation, nor does Kabbu lose his turn. Our bugs can take actions in whatever order we want on any turn, irrespective of their arrangement. As you might imagine, this adds a lot of strategic elements to consider. Anyway, I finish that battle.  Ask a friend who can fly or toss something at it to bring it down! Press (X) to switch positions in battle and attack!That said, this sign tells us how to change the formation if we want to do that, so let's try that out against the next one.  If I press X (while all characters can still act), it will rotate my formation to put Vi in front. Now she's getting the damage bonus!  Our two characters' attacks are just enough to take out this Seedling again (notice Kabbu does 2 this time, because he's in the back). I like how the design elements here are set up to encourage the player to learn the mechanics. Seedlings have 5 HP, which is exactly enough for Vi and Kabbu to kill in one turn if they both attack correctly. And the flying ones teach us to think about which attacks we're using when.   Now the Seedling encounters start having two of them. This means we're going to take some guaranteed attrition; right now there's no way we can output enough damage to kill both in one turn, even if we spend some of our TP on Tornado Toss. Better practice that blocking! (Especially since I don't have that Crunchy Leaf!)    Now I'll just finish off the second one. No need to show this, you know the drill by now.  That encounter was worth 14 EXP, 7 per Seedling. It's starting to add up!  That's all the enemies in this area accounted for, so let's move along.   More Seedlings are here.  This is another two-Seedling battle, this time one's flying and one isn't. You know the drill at this point, no need to show it.  Ooh, there's someone over there!  But let's check out this path to the south first.  Uh, yeah. I knew that.Or not. The game won't let us go this way. This looks a bit weird because I had Kabbu in the lead, so it looks like he tries to walk off, then stops himself; this dialogue would've made more sense if I'd had Vi in front. Oh well.  A cutscene starts when we get close to this brown wood-borer beetle. Vi tried to walk past him, but Kabbu stopped and initiated the conversation  Hey! Kabbu! We're supposed to be adventuring! Snakemouth Den? Endless riches? Sorry, Vi. I cannot ignore an old bug in distress. First of all, name's Chuck. And I bet I'm younger than both of ya! But if you've gotta know... I'm almost done arranging my cozy rest space for travelers going to Snakemouth Den. I just can't pull out this darn weed! You call this cozy? Oh, Kabbu. ...Look, will you help me or not? I'm not doing any pulling. At least not for free. Hm. Watch this, Vi. If I press (B) near small bushes or rocks... I love how Chuck jumps for joy here. Woah, nice! Something like this is no match for my horn! I'll be! You actually helped me! This made my week! You've got a reward ready, right? Another favourite of mine, I love these little sarcastic asides. It's really, really not. Hohohoh. No worries. Helpful bugs deserve gratitude! I ain't got much, but please take this. Berries, so many berries! Use 'em to buy something nice later, alright? Thank you, we surely will. We'll be going now. Make sure to warn others of the danger!This is the game teaching us about Berries. That's what those things we've been picking up after battles are (and we have 20 now with the 10 Chuck just gave us, or 21 after I grab that one that spawned when I cut the grass). These are money. We won't actually be able to spend any of these until after the Snakemouth expedition, though.  This is where Kabbu's horn strike would be unlocked for use in the field, in v1.0.5 and earlier. I've been refraining from using it prior to this, but now I'll feel free. (One nice thing here: as that text suggests, that alert will appear no matter who's in front, even though only Kabbu can act on it.)  In particular, there's this suspicious weed over here. When we cut it, something pops out.  This will be useful. (Also, it amuses me that honey restores TP, because Honey Syrup was the basic FP restoring item in Paper Mario. They knew exactly what they were doing. Honestly, it makes more sense in this context!) Before we leave, we talk to Chuck again: Good luck, ye two!That's all he had to say.  In the next screen, there's this sign that helpfully explains how Spying works.  Cutting down weeds occasionally makes berries appear. Just assume I'll be doing this whenever I pass something Kabbu can cut, it's practically a reflex at this point. The weeds that have items in them (like that Honey Drop we found) are guaranteed to have those, and only once, but berries appear randomly.  Let's try out Kabbu's horn on this Seedling! It launches it into the air, and if we touch it after it lands...  Kabbu starts the battle with an extra turn! This is how first strikes work in Bug Fables. Hitting enemies outside battle will stun them, and if we touch them while they're stunned, the bug in front gets one bonus turn. Notably, it doesn't matter whose field skill did the stunning, it's the bug in front who gets the bonus. Kabbu should be able to kill the first Seedling by himself...   Wait, he only did 2 damage the second time? It was still enough to kill, but what's going on? This is a mechanic the game calls exhaustion. Each time a bug takes an action, each subsequent attack they make that turn will be reduced in power by 1. That second action is still good, but it's slightly weaker than the first one. (It's tricky to see in screenshots, but a character with exhaustion will have sweat drops coming off them while they idle. I'll point it out if we catch a better view later.) Anyway, the rest of that battle is nothing special.  Cutting down a weed over here yields another Crunchy Leaf. This is good to have, since my characters are getting a tad low on HP. Onto the pile it goes.  Let's move along. (Also, since we've got a clear view of it here, these little pier things extending over the void represent area transitions. And also are a huge Paper Mario reference, because this is the exact style used there.)  Looks like we've reached Snakemouth Den. It doesn't look that scary, you know? According to rumors I have heard, it is the grave of a thousand explorers. Having ended countless journeys, many a song has been written about its dangers. F-For real? Its interior must be absolutely riddled with monsters and death traps. We must be extremely cautious. Geez, way to sell it to me, Kabbu. But the higher the danger, the better the treasure! Hm. It's true that the artifact is likely to be inside. But are simple riches worth such a risk to you? Stop trying to scare me off. Let's get in there! (...I must make sure she stays safe.) What's this? Logbook updated?  Looks like we've gotten our first Discovery. Let's check it out.   Charming. Sounds like a fun place.  I cut down some grass and find another of these suspicious dirt mounds. Still can't do anything about it, though. Hmm, what's this weird shiny thing I see behind us...  You found a crystal berry! These are rare items sought by collectors around the world. Maybe someone will trade rare goodies for them somewhere! You can check how many you have in the Pause Menu. You can see our Crystal Berry counter in the bottom right corner. Also, we have 63 of the 100 EXP we need to level up, and we're up to 32 berries. Crystal Berries are one of this game's primary collectibles, and there are 50 of them for us to find. They're more or less analogous to Star Pieces in Paper Mario, though thankfully in this game we'll never need to worry about those !@%*# hidden floor panels. It'll be a while before we find out what these are for, but you can probably already guess.  The healing from this save point is much appreciated, my HP was getting low enough to make me a little uncomfortable.  Next time on Bug Fables, we go spelunking. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 6, 2021 20:02
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Carbon dioxide posted:I'm liking the sound track, so far. I have nothing but praise for the music and sound design in this game, and I highly recommend clicking the music links for anyone who hasn't been already. We won't get to my favourite tracks for a while yet, though. I remember thinking at first that something about the instruments or sound font brought Paper Mario to mind for me, especially in the early tracks, but I don't really hear that any more: it became its own thing very quickly, and for all I know I was imagining that anyway. (Also, I went back and added in links to the little fanfares that play when you get key items and medals, and the battle victory one, I'd overlooked those earlier.) Black Robe posted:Rhinoceros beetles have wings and can fly, though? This made me laugh Thanks for that.Last Transmission posted:Aw yes! Vi is the best bug with the best character arc. I think Kabbu is probably my favourite by a slim margin, but it's really hard to choose, everyone is wonderful and their dynamics together are even better. Qrr posted:This game is really adorable. Quite an achievement when all the characters are insects. I wasn't expecting that either, honestly! (I'm certainly no entomologist or even a fan of insects generally, but somehow this game had me near instantly. I love it.) Torrannor posted:It's a classic character dynamic, but the interplay between Kabbu and Vee just works, even if they're insects. I really like them. It's really well done. I love the writing in this game. I was really impressed with how quickly it established their core personalities and archetypes, and yet they don't feel like a cliche.
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Feb 7, 2021 18:08
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vilkacis posted:I have no idea what a "pay per mario" is but just taken by itself this looks interesting. Surely it's 100 coins?  Seriously though, this game holds up on its own and zero Paper Mario knowledge should be needed to understand anything here. I'm pointing out the comparisons because I know both games, that's all; of necessity that's probably going to be mostly frontloaded and I expect such comments to peter out once we get into the thick of things. vilkacis posted:The bug theme is cool and unusual, and also i listened to some of the music and found a track called MECHA BEE DESTROYER BLASTLORD in the related links so that looks promising too That's actually one of my favourite tracks, and one I keep coming back to. Although I'm not sure if it's that I actually like it, or trauma bonding from getting destroyed several times in a row by that boss on my first playthrough. This game has so many great songs and I'm really looking forward to sharing them.
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Feb 8, 2021 19:28
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03: Snakemouth Spelunking It's time to go into Snakemouth Den. 12 - Snakemouth Den Walking in triggers a cutscene conversation.  Uh huh... Hey, Kabbu? Do you really have to comment on every small thing? !!! I... I'm sorry. H-Hey, don't look so sad! Err, how about this? If I wanna know more about where we are, or about something or someone near us... I'll just tap (Back). Sounds good? ... Very well. I will make sure to have information at hand for when you do. Cool. Now, let's keep going!This conversation is our tutorial for yet another mechanic: we can press the (Back) button to get party banters. They'll talk about the room, or a nearby NPC if you're within talking range. Sometimes they give hints, sometimes it's just for colour. There are a lot of these - they also update situationally, so you might get different banters in the same room depending on plot flags, different conversations about an NPC before and after you talk to them, etc. It's going to make my life hell trying to get all of these (and I'm sure I'll miss a few), but there's a lot of charm in them and some are really worth it. Obviously I'm going to do this now. Snakemouth Den is quite dangerous, but this room's quite cozy. Let's go before you jinx it! Is that an enemy there behind the pillar? It doesn't look like a Seedling...  Well, I managed to hit it with Kabbu's horn at least. 04 - FIGHT! There's a new battle transition animation. The leaves are purple now!  Definitely a new enemy. Let's spy on it. I'll let Vi do the honours this time:  Its armor is really strong, so I can barely hurt it. I bet Kabbu can flip it over, though!Inichas (I don't know what if any real-life bugs these are supposed to correspond to, they seem to have features in common with pillbugs and caterpillars?) are our introduction to enemies with defence. Defence works the way you might expect: subtract it from the attack value to get the actual damage done. This is pretty scary, since Vi and Kabbu both have 2 attack right now: are we going to have to plink away at this thing, doing 1 point a turn from the positioning bonus?  Not exactly. Kabbu's done 2 damage, which might seem a bit weird. The game will explain this in a moment, but his horn attacks have the bonus property of ignoring 1 point of enemy defence. He can also flip enemies, if they're vulnerable to that.  That blue swirl icon indicates the Inichas has been flipped (if we couldn't tell from the way its sprite is upside down). While flipped, its defence drops to 0! (We can see that now, on its HP bar.) Let's finish it off.  Even with 1 turn's worth of exhaustion (if you look closely, you can see the sweat drops here), Kabbu still deals enough damage to finish off the Inichas.  The Inichas was also worth 9 EXP.  It also dropped a Crunchy Leaf, in addition to a nice few berries. Not bad. What's that green mushroom back there? That looks important.  It acts like a spring, launching us up the cliff.  Going south, there's a mushroom on top of the column. Unfortunately, we can't jump far enough to get to it (nor to see if there's anything on top of the second pillar further east). Let's go check that sign.  Sharp horns ignore some defense, and can even flip certain enemies, negating defense entirely!I'm glad the game explains this (though I do think it's a bit awkward that, as far as I remember, this sign is the only place the game mentions it; a player who skips reading signs is probably going to find the damage numbers confusing for a while). Let's move on.   Well, that's it. Game over. Let's go back. Wait, Vi. Hold on! It's too soon to give up! There must be a way... Duh. I was kidding, you know? Look over there! You can just fly over to it, right?(I'm glad someone is asking this) That's too much effort. I've got a better plan. I will trust you with this, then. Give it your best shot! The Beemerang hits the cord (not the crystal switch), breaking it and causing the bridge to fall. Well done, Vi. I wasn't expecting you to do that! Um, yeah! Of course! Just as planned! Whatever works, I guess. The bridge is certainly down and we can cross it now. (This is also the point at which Vi's Beemerang field skill became unlocked in prior versions. As such, we could also backtrack and use it to grab that  mushroom on top of the pillar... but I forgot to do that.) If we check the switch, we get this message. It doesn't do anything, no matter what we do with it. (I'm not sure what to make of this. I think that scene was supposed to teach us that these things are switches we should hit, and in the future they always will be, but this scene pointedly has the switch be completely irrelevant. It's just a little odd.) There's another Inichas walking around over here. It notices us.  Oh no! It hit us. And the leaves are red this time. Looks like the enemy has gotten a first strike on us.  The enemies don't give us time to wait, either, and start attacking as soon as the transition animation ends.  And it's not just the front enemy (or the enemy we saw on the overworld)! Every enemy in the battle gets a free swing at us (in Hard Mode, at least; without the medal, only the front enemy gets to attack). Both of these enemies went after Kabbu, too; his HP's starting to get low. Once that mauling is done with, it's finally our turn. This battle isn't particularly hard: two attacks takes down the Seedling, then the next turn Kabbu can flip the Inichas for Vi to finish off. Kabbu does take another hit, though, bringing him down to 3 HP.  It's worth a lot of EXP, though! Next battle we should level up.  It also drops a new item we haven't seen before. This  Aphid Egg isn't quite up to the standard of the Crunchy Leaf we're familiar with, but it's still a healing item and much appreciated. (That description's a bit morbid though, isn't it? Eat it before it hatches? This is just flavour text though, there's no actual mechanic for it to hatch: this isn't Earthbound.) Cutting down the weeds lets us get to this sign in the corner. Let's see.  "We have already lost one of ours to this wretched place..." Curses! This coziness was an illusion. Our path won't be easy, that much is for sure. No place full of treasure's ever been safe. So many have fallen looking for riches... Let's find the treasure quickly, so no one else ventures in here. (I will do this for them.) We also get the logbook message again. Looks like this is another discovery.   This sounds worrisome. We're definitely not the first to undertake this expedition, and it seems to have gone badly for our predecessors. We can't do anything about that now, though, we have to just press on. (Kabbu certainly intends our expedition here to be the last.)   Ouch! Another first strike. (Full disclosure: the last one was completely intentional, I wanted to make sure I showed the mechanic at least one. This one... wasn't. This caught me by surprise and, well, look what happened. I swear I'm not usually this bad at this game!)   Both enemies get free hits, and both of them went after Kabbu. Who was on 3 HP. I managed to Super Block one of them, but I'd have needed to nail the timing on both to prevent this outcome. Kabbu goes down.  She probably wouldn't admit it, but there's no way Vi could win this fight on her own. My only choice is to run away. The way running works in this game is pretty simple. The game presents a button sequence, and you need to hit the designated inputs in order before the timer runs out. If you get all the inputs, you flee successfully. Miss a single one, or run out of time, and not only do you fail to escape, it immediately becomes the enemy's turn (even if another bug had turns left). Running away also causes us to lose berries: the longer we take on the button sequence, the more berries we lose. Anyway, we get away successfully. One other important thing to mention here is that characters downed in battle will revive with 1 HP once the battle ends. So Kabbu is okay here; I don't need an item to revive him or anything. Let's try that again.   Much better.   Kabbu uses his two turns to get rid of the Inichas immediately, while Vi knocks down the Seedling. Unfortunately, the Seedling goes after Kabbu again (honestly, I should probably have taken him out of the front).  That said, the Seedling is on 3 HP, so Vi can just switch into the front and take it down. (Yes, downed characters still count for positioning.)  08 - Getting Stronger!That's more than enough EXP to  We have a choice to make!    Pretty self-explanatory. Each time we Rank Up, we get to choose one of these three stat bonuses: +1 HP for each bug, +3 TP, or +3 MP. (This is very similar to how levels work in Paper Mario, but you'll notice the numbers are pretty different. I honestly think these numbers end up working out a lot better.) I'm choosing MP for now because I have to pick something, but that might change! I'm taking input from the thread on my stat build; at the end of this update I'll outline the options and explain how to vote.  Vi also learns a new skill, Secret Stash! Each level, we'll usually get some kind of bonus, whether it's a skill or something else. Our characters are going to be learning a lot of skills this way. Let's see what Secret Stash does...  It's a healing move! It's pretty expensive for what it does, but that doesn't mean it's not useful. Back to exploring.  There's a mushroom back here. If we bounce on it, it launches us up...  To this ledge, where there seems to be some kind of block stuck in a vine. Vi's Beemerang can knock it down, so let's do that.  This room has a big door and some mechanisms on the floor. Before anything else, let's see what our party have to say about this room: We've reached a dead end. But it's ancient ruins, so not really. Right. If we leave no stone unturned, we will open a path!Subtle, game. Block pushing it is. (This is why we needed to bring down the block from above, there are two big round switches to hold down.)  When Kabbu gets close to the block, the ! icon indicates his horn will do something. Also, that bright green arrow appears, indicating the trajectory the block will take if he hits it from his current position. This is a really nice quality of life feature, and makes manipulating these blocks a lot less painful than it might be otherwise (but it wasn't always in the game, the arrows were added in v1.0.4). Let's get the blocks onto the switches.   Well, that's disappointing! That shaking made it look like the door was going to open, didn't it? Instead, all that happened was this mushroom falling from the ceiling. A mushroom? What!? We did all this for THAT?! Seriously? It wasn't even a rare item. Heck, it wasn't even a rare mushroom! Come now, Vi. Unfortunate as it may be, let's pick it up and start looking again! Grr!!! No being cheeky, the Beemerang won't pick up this mushroom. (Which should be a clue, really. Normally it can pick up items, like that other mushroom I forgot to go back for.) Oh well. We don't really have a choice. Mushroom is a new item, though. In addition to healing, it cures poison. Could be useful.   IYAAAAAAAAAA-- Oh, so she can fly after all! Phew. That was close. Hrgrgh... Kabbu! Are you okay!? Mrggfgh... I guess he is. Hmm... This is the perfect time to go home. I don't like the look of that place... But I'm his reliable teammate... ...I'm going to regret this... The door opened after all, but Vi and Kabbu have no way of knowing that. (I do love dramatic irony.)  Things don't look very good for Kabbu, do they. Nghgh... No rush. I can wait. I would have carried you, but you seem really heavy... I assure you I am lighter than I seem. Uh huh. Anyways, this place is really creepy. I must agree. And there doesn't seem to be a way back up for me. We will have to look around. Let's be careful, okay? You were almost a goner!(Is she talking about his fall here, or my lousy gameplay? You decide!)  Coming down from the mushroom, we see a yellow save crystal. We're still at full health, though. Let's see the banter here: We're trapped. Well, I am. How shameful, to make Vi come to such a dangerous place. Look, I can take care of myself. Don't make me regret coming with you. Sorry, I shouldn't undermine your choice. Let's press forward! At the far end of the room, it looks like... that's a spider web. Is someone caught in it? By the Queen! What a terrible fate... A moment of silence, in solidarity for a fallen explorer.   Quick! We must free him! Okay, I'm just going to see if the Beemerang can cut through web... I will make sure there are no other surviv-- Vi! Watch out! 13 - It's Getting Scary!He knocks her out of the way as a strand of web shoots in from offscreen, followed by this big spider.  How could a beast so huge sneak up on us!? Kabbu! We've got to run! Treasure ain't worth this! It's not that! We can't abandon this poor moth to his fate! I...I... Vi! Vi, wait! Curses! 14 - His Friends Call Him Spuder (Don't Call Him Spuder)  Looks like Kabbu's facing off against the spider alone. Can I spy...?  Doesn't look like it. Guess I'd better just attack...  That's not good.  Neither is that.   After another turn of back and forth, the spider raises itself up on some silk.  Must I really sit here and do nothing!? Yes, unfortunately. There's literally nothing else Kabbu can do.  The spider is still perfectly capable of attacking him, though, by spitting these purple globs. This isn't looking good. After this, it fades out and we leave the battle screen, though; clearly this is a foregone conclusion. 13 - It's Getting Scary!     Look, I-- By the holy jaws of the Queen, Vi! You left me to my fate! You are vile! You pushed me away from the web, but I still left, so I'm-- I will properly scold you later. The situation is dire, but I've got a plan. We will attack the web holding the moth while battling the spider. And we bail when we free him? H-Here it comes. Let's do this! 14 - His Friends Call Him Spuder (Don't Call Him Spuder)(While I do like this song, I have to say this upbeat jazzy dance number feels incongruous to the tense moment our characters are in; it's a strange choice.)   Well, we're back in battle with the spider again (although we still can't spy). Kabbu's told us what we have to do, though. Attacking the spider is pointless, but now we can target the web.    We repeat that sequence of events again. As far as I can tell, the web has exactly 10 HP, and when we've done enough damage, this happens:   With this, we exit the battle scene.       Huff... Huff... Gee, glad it's too fat to come in here. Um, Kabbu? Sorry for running away... ...Sigh. Very well. You are forgiven, Vi. It was understandable.  Let's turn over a new leaf, Vi. This moth is our priority. 15 - The One Left Behind (Leif's Theme)  What the... Hey! You okay? You hit your head? Jsgsn. Sjaika? Hsjaosidjs...? Could this moth be speaking in an ancient tongue? Perhaps he is of the fabled tribes lurking underground. Do you need, like, a minute? ......No. Thank goodness. You had us quite worried. Where are we? Where is the spider? Right... let's get you up to speed.  No big deal. It sucks that we're trapped, though. Were you looking for treasure as well, alongside fellow explorers? Err, what's your name? Leif is fine. And somewhat. A scouting mission, in fact. You've got some luck to be alive... Did you learn anything scouting? About the artifact? Artifact? If it is here, it's probably ahead. If we work together, we will surely find both it and the exit! We have little choice. We will accompany you. Can you fight? ...Not really part of scouting. Seriously!? You came into this place without knowing how to fight!? Make sure to stay behind us, so we can protect you. How reassuring. Ok. We've spent too much time here. Let's look for the exit! Another discovery?   As there's a save crystal just here, I think this is a good place to end the episode. Before we go, though, let's see if there's a banter in this room. This is that blasted spider's den. I really don't want to stay here any longer. No kidding. Can we just go?Sounds good to me. Next time on Bug Fables, we'll get to know our new companion. The only way out is further in. That said, before we go, it is... **VOTING TIME** We need to decide what I'm going to choose for my level-ups. There is a respec option in this game that lets you redistribute your level-up stats (and any other permanent stat upgrades you may get), so no choice we make is final. That said, it doesn't become available until pretty late in the game (chapter 6 of 7, which I do think is kind of unfortunate). So what I want to do is let the thread pick a plan for how I'll build my team, and I'll follow that plan until we get the chance to respec. (I can't ask for voting for each level-up because that would drastically inhibit my ability to actually make the LP.) Here are my suggestions: Plan A: Alternating. HP-TP-MP so everything is distributed evenly, repeating every 3 levels. This is honestly suboptimal, but it's what I did on my first playthrough (on principle) and I think it's the approach that most leads to the game feeling like a traditional JRPG. This makes it harder to break the game, but it also means it'll be trickier for me to show off some of the cooler strategies because we'll have fewer MP (but of course I could respec to show them later). Plan B: MP only. This will leave my characters a bit fragile in the early game, but nothing I can't deal with and long-term it's easily the best way to go. The more medals you can equip, the more crazy combos and strategies you can put together; you end up with a negative difficulty curve as you accumulate more and better tools, until you hit critical mass and basically become invincible. We'll get plenty of HP Plus and TP Plus medals to increase those if we need them; there are a handful of strategies that might want more TP, but not many, so we'll be able to do most anything. Plan C: Hybrid. We'll put a handful of levels into HP and/or TP (I'm open to suggestions for how many and when, but my preference is no more than 2-3 levels each), then go MP only past a certain point. This would allow us to see some of the same complexity we would in MP-only, while not quite going all-in. I'm putting a preemptive veto on "nothing but HP" or "nothing but TP". As far as I know it's still possible to succeed this way, but these are very much gimmicky challenge runs that would twist our experience of the game (for better or worse, like BP in Paper Mario, MP is overall the best stat). Otherwise, I don't really have a preference between these three plans, so tell me what you think. Please put your votes in bold. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Jul 7, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 03:57
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FoolyCharged posted:Medals are both the strongest and most interesting option. This game does one up paper mario in that hp/tp plus medals aren't 1:1 transfers with the associated level up, so there's that. Yeah, this is fair. I do think Bug Fables handled balance a little better than Paper Mario, but there are still issues, and after a while the question can become not "do I break things" but "which flavour of breaking things shall I do today"; in fairness, that's often still quite fun. (I admit I'm not completely sure what specific issue you're thinking of, though!) vilkacis posted:e: or perhaps rather This is awesome. I am honoured to be the recipient of your excellent spritework
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Feb 11, 2021 18:28
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FoolyCharged posted:I guess its safe to spoiler tag since you hinted at it in the update proper. That's absolutely a thing, yes. It didn't bother me that much because every character has at least some way to take advantage of it, and there are a lot of different ways to boost, etc, so it just felt like a mechanic to me (and, if nothing else, it's a lot less broken than stuff like Power Bounce/Multibonk because things are still bounded). But this is definitely an area where tastes vary, I think. It's probably a play style the devs liked and/or wanted to encourage, I think. The game saves your record for damage output in a single turn, and there's a place where you can view that.
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Feb 12, 2021 01:24
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I'm seeing a decent lead for MP only over Hybrid right now (currently 9 to 6 between here and LPBeach), so let's say I'll give another 24 hours for voting and then call it decided so I can start working on the next update?Natural 20 posted:So I've played to the end of chapter 3 on hard and have at least some opinions on the stats. Glad to see you're playing along! You'll probably finish the game well before I'm even caught up to where you currently are, at the rate this is going. I'm not going to comment on the rest of your analysis except to say that yes, you're definitely right about a lot of it for the early/midgame (and if you do MP only there's definitely a brief period where MP gain outstrips the medals you have, but that's absolutely not a problem in the long term) but a lot of later mechanics change things up quite a bit. Quackles posted:Btw, I forgot to post this earlier, but - I'll just assume 'Vi' is short for 'Violet', which is pronounced 'Beeolet'. Answering behind spoiler tags even though this is fairly minor: that is very close! We will later learn her name is indeed Violet, it's just pronounced the French way. Carbon dioxide posted:Voilŕ! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me Vi. Perfect. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Feb 12, 2021 |
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Feb 12, 2021 19:56
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Twelve by Pies posted:In particular the two extra battles against two other exploration teams I haven't messed much with. One I haven't done at all; the other one in the "secret spot" I attempted since it's required to finish a quest, and they stomped me pretty hard. Funny thing about those particular superbosses: they're the only encounters in the game that don't change between "normal" and Hard Mode. The gloves are completely off at that point. (Okay, there is a tougher version on HARDEST, but that's another matter). So especially if you played through the game without Hard Mode on, those guys are going to be a huge wake-up call (also, the one you tried is generally considered to be the harder of the two). Those fights are great, I really enjoyed them. Epicmissingno posted:I feel like hard mode is a little overtuned in the early game, at least when it comes to the normal encounters. Bosses are fine, you need to strategise nicely, but I'm at chapter 2 and things just hit so hard, often come in groups of three, and tend to have enough health that it takes a turn or more to take each enemy out, by which time you've already taken massive damage from all their attacks. It's probably a case of not having the badge variety to cheese like crazy yet, but I still feel like it's a bit much. I remember thinking along these lines my first time through too, and had to get into a mentality where I was okay skipping some battles from time to time. Also, medal availability is definitely part of this; once you get Triumph Buzz and Victory Buzz, the attrition from random encounters basically stops being a problem. Next update is nearly done, not sure if I'll have it up tonight or tomorrow morning. It depends whether I fall asleep or not.
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Feb 16, 2021 06:05
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04: Snakemouth Depths 12 - Snakemouth Den When we left off, we'd just met a new companion. We still can't get out the way we came, so we have to go deeper in. Before that, I haven't showed our inventory in a while, so let's have a look at that. (Honestly, I expect most players would have more at this point, between the wasted Crunchy Leaf earlier and the Mushroom I forgot to pick up.)  Also, since I didn't mention it before, over on the right you can see we have a cap of 10 items and we're halfway there.  This room's pretty big, with lots of platforms over water. Let's see what our characters think of it: This room seems surprisingly straightforward. No issues here. I needed a break from all the death traps. It's a good chance to stretch our legs. Leif. If you need to take a break, let us know. Vi will carry you. That is not happening. I said it's not happening!This is actually the first time I've seen this banter, and I love it. There's so much character in these. Let's check out that glowing tablet.  It seems to be ancient script. Hmm... These letters look familiar to us. We should be able to decipher it. Let us check it again.The first time we interact with one of these tablets, we see this dialogue. After that, checking again will read them like any other signs:  Whoever is in front receives a bonus to attacking power. In return, said person is targeted more often by enemies. You can't switch if someone has exhausted all their turns.These signs generally have tutorial text, and, awkwardly, most of them are now going to explain things I already talked about over the last few updates. I actually like aspects of the pacing of the tutorial here, in that you have a chance to experiment and start making observations before the game gives you concrete confirmation, but I can see how this might be ineffective for some players (and, for better or worse, a player who isn't diligent about reading signs might end up not understanding basic mechanics). Anyway, one detail I didn't mention about this is that the bug in front is twice as likely as the others to be targeted, so it's 50/25/25 with three bugs, or 66/33 with two.  There's also a new kind of enemy here...  Let's spy on it.  That's just a story the Queen tells kids to scare them... This is too creepy! I'm gonna take it out!Cordyceps fungus is a real thing, by the way. I thought it was quite clever to use something like that as the justification for zombies in this game.  Unfortunately for Vi, she's not going to get a chance to attack. Zombiants have 1 defence, but with Kabbu's piercing attacks, he will do 3 and then 2 damage, killing it before it gets a turn. (We'll see what Zombiants can do soon enough.)  It's worth 6 EXP. It's worth pointing out that the requirement to rank up has increased slightly, we now need 101 EXP. I don't really understand why, to be honest: it never increases enough to make a meaningful difference, and it no longer has the elegance of every level being 100 EXP as in Paper Mario. (Like Paper Mario, the experience gain of enemies decreases as we level up.)  It drops another Crunchy Leaf, too. It's pretty common to see enemies drop items in Snakemouth Den, which I think is nice for an introductory dungeon. New players really shouldn't have problems keeping supplied in here.  Let's head west first.  There's another Zombiant over here.  Just like before, it's only a single Zombiant, and with the bonus turn Kabbu can kill it by himself. There's another encounter hiding just past the Zombiant, though:  A pair of Inichas. This is another unremarkable encounter, although at least this one isn't as much of a foregone conclusion: Kabbu can flip the first one and then either he or Vi can finish it off, then they're forced to take a hit from the second one before doing the same to it. Still, there isn't a whole lot to say about most of these battles, so I'm going to summarise them and keep moving.  We get a Honey Drop and some berries. Now let's check out the sign in the back:  Each party member has different ways of attacking, and different reaches for their attacks and skills. Mind who is currently acting to not waste actions on the wrong enemy. There's a weed here in this strange blue lighting. Let's cut it down.  It had a crystal berry inside! Well worth picking up. Oddly, this is the only crystal berry in the game to be hidden inside a cuttable plant like this. Yet because this is here, countless players (myself included!) found themselves with a compulsion to cut down every single object in the game, just in case there might be another.  Platforming toward the centre of the room, I find this enemy encounter. They're mixing things up a bit, and we're now seeing Zombiants and Inichas together. There's still not much to this one, though: with the extra turn or not, it still boils down to "kill one enemy the first turn, take one hit, then kill the second enemy". (I wonder if the numbers were deliberately chosen so that the battles would work out this way regardless of whether you get first strikes?)  Coming over to the left side of this central platform, there's something suspicious off to the side. Maybe Vi's Beemerang can grab it?  Looks like it's an  HP Plus medal! Let's check that out. It costs 2 MP and increases the equipped bug's maximum HP by 2. Not bad. We could give it to Vi, and even her out with Kabbu...  But let's give it to Kabbu instead and make him a bit more durable, since he's been spending most of the time in front. You'll notice that there are two indications of who's equipping the medal: the colour of the bar, and the small head icon.  Heading east, since there's no other way to go, there's a tablet to read over here, as well as an Inichas sneakily trying to hide behind some rocks.  It doesn't have any friends, so this fight is trivial.  Entering battle while an enemy is stunned grants one more action to the party leader.Nice to have the game formally explain this. What to do now, though?  There's a switch we can hit with Vi's Beemerang, which makes a platform appear and opens the way forward.  We reach the top.  Wait, did that mushroom come alive and start flying?  Leif! Watch out!   By the great antcestors... what kind of sorcery is that!? We, uh, are unsure? This is new. You seriously expect us to believe that!? We mean it, it's the truth. Magic's no common feat. There are less than ten known sorcerers in history! You're not some criminal with a HUGE bounty, are you? You seriously believe that? We will talk later. I take it you can fight now? We'll try. 04 - FIGHT!  Now that we're a trio, let me share a useful technique. With Turn Relay, picked from the colorful flower... One of us can lend our turn to another. How is that useful? It sounds tedious. Well, for example, we could let Vi attack twice to knock down flying enemies. Heh. You should let me attack three times! I'll take them all on! You shouldn't abuse it like that, though. The exhaustion will reduce your attack power by 1 every time you act in a round. Grr. Fine. Well, it sounds mildly useful... We'll try it out. Now, on your guard!Before the battle starts, we get this tutorial conversation. A new mechanic becomes unlocked at this point, and it's one of the more interesting ones in this game. Turn Relay lets any of our characters donate their turn to someone else. So not only can they attack in whatever order we want, we can have the same bug act more than once if we need them to. This is also where it teaches us about exhaustion. I do have a minor gripe here. Unlike the rest of the tutorial text in this section (which is on signs we can reread at our leisure), this conversation triggers exactly once. If you aren't paying close attention, you might gloss over this, and then go quite a ways into the game without understanding a core mechanic. I like that they tried to have this conversation come up organically, but this can be a bit awkward.  Anyway, back to the battle. Regardless of what order we'd been in before, our party defaults to Vi in front. But hey, Leif is actually here now! Let's do some spying. I'm going to switch Vi into the rear first and then have her do it (having a character in back do the spying is usually a good habit to get into, so you don't waste the damage bonus).  I'll knock it out of the air!Short and sweet this time. Anyway, since this is Leif's debut battle, I decided to let him show off a bit. Let's look at his skills:  Icefall sounds pretty good. Let's try it out.  This is a new type of action command. We don't choose targets for this move directly; instead, a reticle appears, and when we press (A), it stops and Leif launches an icicle at that location. This deals damage equal to Leif's attack (in this case he's getting +1 because Jellyshrooms are weak to ice) in a radius around the impact point, and also has a chance to freeze any enemy it hits for 1 turn. Jellyshrooms have 0 freeze resistance, so this is guaranteed to work on them.  Attacking a frozen enemy will break it out of the ice, but also deals an extra point of damage! Which is, conveniently, just enough for Kabbu to finish off this first Jellyshroom.  The remaining Jellyshroom thaws out on its turn, but doesn't attack us.  Here's Leif's normal attack, in the process of finishing off the remaining one. He has a slightly trickier action command than Vi and Kabbu: after the metre fills up, a random button between (A), (B), and (X) will appear and we need to press that. Leif can only hit grounded enemies, but unlike Kabbu, isn't limited to the one in front. This attack is also ice elemental, so some enemies (like this Jellyshroom) are weak to it, and others resist it.  And we finish that battle.  It's pretty cool. If you truly couldn't do it before, this den is hiding more secrets than I first thought. Everything's just too suspicious. I don't believe Leif yet. We're telling the truth. If we had ice magic, that accursed spider wouldn't have caught us. I say let's focus on getting out alive. We can collect our thoughts when we're safe. Very well. If you need us to freeze anything, press (B) while we are leading. I guess it's fine for now. Onward! I can almost smell the treasure!I don't think that's how bees' senses work? Anyway, this is telling us about Leif's field skill. Which is ice, like everything else he does. We'll see more of that in a moment.  The enemy also dropped this new item. (This isn't guaranteed, it's just a random drop that happened to trigger.)  Danger Shroom is something we're probably not going to be too eager to use right now: it restores 1 TP, and poisons the user for 2 turns (if used in battle, characters can't be poisoned in the field). Still, I'm going to hang onto this for now.There's also a new party banter, if we try again after seeing that battle. The spores in this room are quite nice. Yep. Blue and pretty. Like that convenient ice magic you pulled off here. It's made you more than formidable at combat. If anything, it'll be easier to get out now. Indeed. If we stick together, we should be able to do it. As long as we can keep control over it...Let's check the sign before we leave the room.  This is talking about freezing enemies in the field, not in battle.  In the corner, there's a Honey Drop inside a weed. May as well take that with us.  Through the door to the north, we find these ruins. When we get close...  A drop of water falls on Vi. She doesn't seem to appreciate this. EEP! It's not funny! I'm all soaked now! S-Sorry, Vi. I couldn't help it. It seems the ceiling's dripping... Ugh, why is there so much water in here!? Under us, above us... it doesn't make sense! Hm. This is good, though. What do you mean? If it's water... Then it can be frozen. Impressive! If you can do that, it opens up a lot of options for us! I bet I can push them with my horn, as well. That's pretty cool, Leif! Mhm. Enemies, the water around us... Even though they seem like obstacles, we can exploit them for our own benefit. Let's give your ice magic a try on all we can find. The ice block fades away at the end of the conversation. Get used to these water droplets and ice blocks, this game really likes using them for puzzles and we're going to be seeing them a lot. They usually don't disappear like this, though: generally if we make one it can be relied on to stick around until we do something to get rid of it. There's also a tablet in the corner.  That it is. It's a shame this monument outlived its creators. Yeah. You only hear about roaches in folk tales nowadays... Pardon? When did the roaches disappear? A bit before I was born, I think. It was indeed quite a recent event. No one knows for sure the how or why, however. This is depressing talk. We should really find a way out! (...This can't be right...) That was mysterious. Looks like we got a discovery out of it, though!   If we try to check the tablet again:  Nothing more to be learned here. We can go inside the ruined building, but there's nothing to be found there, just a weed that can be cut.  The enemy encounter is an Inichas and a Jellyshroom. Kabbu can take out the Inichas by himself, while Vi and Leif make a start on the Jellyshroom (Vi knocks it down first, so Leif can attack). They can't quite kill it, though, so it gets to attack:  It launches these purple poison globs. This attack would have poisoned Vi if I hadn't blocked. In general, timed blocks will protect you from status effects.  After finishing that battle, it drops another Crunchy Leaf.  But we have too many items! Oh no. This is what happens if you pick up an item while at maximum capacity. Whichever item we pick to throw away (or the item we just picked up, if we press (B) ), will literally be thrown away from the characters and bounce around briefly before settling on the ground. It'll stick around briefly before despawning, meaning there's an opportunity to use another item to make room and then pick it up again (which is generally a good habit to get into if this happens). Snakemouth Den is very generous with item drops, so it's not that hard to stay topped off.  Going further west, we see these pillars with some convenient water droplets. We can't climb up normally, but with Leif freezing them...  We can get up.  There's another droplet we can freeze here to make a path over to the Honey Drop.   Then it's a simple matter to platform over the pillars and reach the top. There's a convenient save/heal crystal here, as well as a big door that won't open and another sign.  The sign seems to want us to check the party banter for a hint. This room is gigantic! Indeed. It's hard to know where to go. When in doubt, go left. No way, right is right! Given the way this cave has been laid out... I believe we will have to go both ways. What a drag... No joke. Let's rest up and then explore some more!It was already looking like the path would split here, but the game definitely confirms it.  Since Vi wants to rest so badly, I guess we may as well use the save crystal.  Heading left first, we need to climb up these rocks and mushrooms.  We need to freeze a droplet and then use Kabbu's horn to move the block close enough that we can get up to the next platform.  Up here is a Jellyshroom that wakes up if we get too close.  It's a battle with two Jellyshrooms.  We do get to see the Jellyshroom's other attack, though: it has this spinning dive thing. (They seem to do this attack regardless of positioning, but I think they only spit the poison globs when on the ground.) For some reason, I get a lot of Super Blocks against this attack; I don't actually know if the timing is easier or not.  Behind this fin of the big mushroom is a crystal berry. This one can be pretty hard to see if you don't know it's there.  There's also this mushroom hidden behind the stalk.  Let's go into the next room. There's a sign here:  By giving it a heavy strike, one can break them faster. Geysers can also carry around light-weight objects on top of them.Let's see what our characters have to say about this room, too: Hey, I see some geysers! Weird. I thought geysers were supposed to be hot, yet this room is very cool. This place is very strange. At least we should be able to freeze them. Yeah, and maybe ice cubes won't melt when touching them! Hm. The possibilities we could do with those two pieces of knowledge together...This hint is a bit redundant with the sign we just read, but it's clear what the theme of this room is going to be.  We go in and quickly see a bunch of geysers. There's a battle to be had first though:  It's a Zombiant and an Inichas. This battle's pretty unremarkable, except for one thing:  I happened to use Turn Relay at one point in this fight, so here's a gif of the animation. Short and sweet, and no doubt a thing we'll be seeing a lot of.  With some attention to timing to freeze them at the right heights, Leif can make a staircase out of these geysers and reach the next level.   We can make an ice block and then knock it into the geyser. It floats on top, giving us just enough height to, once again, make a staircase to the next level.  However, hitting an enemy while it is frozen will thaw it out immediately.A sign up here explains the freeze status effect in battles.  This next room is really big. Let's see what everyone thinks of it: This room is really tall, isn't it? How does this even fit in this cave? That trapdoor we fell through must have been deceptively deep. Hmm... are we really going to be able to get out of here? Not to be a downer or anything. I'm just kind of worried. Thinking about it isn't going to change anything. ...Leif is right. Our only choice is to push forward. That is our only way to get out. Yeah. You're right. Sorry about that. Let's keep going!Well, that's a bit bleak. Still, everyone seems determined enough. Let's take this one step at a time: first things first, there's an enemy here.  That's a lot of guys. For better or worse, these still aren't very interesting. We have to rely on Kabbu's defence-piercing abilities to take them down efficiently.  This is convenient. I kept forgetting to get a shot of these, but sometimes the enemies drop these bigger red berries, which are worth 5 each. There's another sign in the far corner of the room.  If you block exactly when the enemy hits, an audio cue and different message will show up to confirm you have done so successfully. That's what is called a Super Block.This is a convenient time to talk about blocking mechanics in a bit more detail. According to the wiki, the window for blocking (at 60 FPS) is 19 frames, and the last 4 frames of that count as a Super Block (which is pretty tight timing!). There is a 36-frame cooldown between block inputs, so you can't just mash the button either.  Activating this crystal switch makes the floating platforms start moving up and down.  We can use the bouncy mushroom to get up here.   Then freeze the geyser from the first moving platform and use it to reach the second and get across.  Another elevator takes us up to this level. There's a Zombiant here.  This is just a fight with two Zombiants. Not very remarkable, except:  We finally get to see the Zombiant's attack animation! They hit us with the cordyceps coming out of their heads. Gross.  This battle gets us enough EXP to reach the next level!   In accordance with the thread's voting, I choose MP (now and forevermore). We now have 11 MP. There are no other bonuses this level.  We can freeze this geyser to get up to the ledge...  freeze a droplet here to make a block...  and knock the block onto the geyser after it thaws, then ride it up the cliff.  There's a big crystal up here, so let's hit it.  This causes the wall to the right to lower.  Did we cause the tremor? I guess. It was a pretty big switch. We must have made progress in unlocking the door. Let's keep going!   Conveniently, this is where the exit lets us out.  Time to take care of the right side.  It's another battle with two Zombiants.  Looks like we'll be needing 102 EXP for the next level now.  There's another ruined building back here. If we go inside it...  We can find this  Poison Defender medal!This is going to be a theme in this game, by the way. A lot of medals activate situationally, and many are designed to synergise with various status effects that would normally be detrimental.  For now, I'll put this one on Kabbu also. You can start to see why we might want an item like that Danger Shroom, also! Sometimes we might want to be poisoned. (Although, admittedly, right now it's not the best idea, the damage from poison and the benefit from this medal will mostly come out a wash. Still, it's worth equipping to somebody: if they do happen to get poisoned, they'll still be better off with it than otherwise.) Onward.  Must've sucked to live here. The residents probably didn't frequent this area. It's most likely security for the giant door. A giant door wasn't secure enough? Well, whatever. If they're guarding it that much... there's got to be something valuable behind it! If we stand on this platform and hit the switch with the Beemerang, it'll start moving and carrying us further east.     For the second platform, there's a beam we have to jump partway across.   There's another battle here.  I happened to screw up the action command on one of Leif's attacks, so here's what his failure animation looks like. Seems he hurts his hand and needs to shake off the frost?  There's a switch here.  Hitting it causes this long platform to rotate so we can walk across.   That mushroom was actually a Jellyshroom.  Cutting down the weed on this platform reveals an important item. This  Magic Seed is the only one we can find at this point in the game; we'll be able to buy these later, but not until after we finish the chapter, so we should definitely save this in case something goes wrong against the boss. (Oops, spoilers, there's going to be a boss in here. We've played a video game before.)There's also a sign in the back.  Many different creatures have different weaknesses and resistances which could change the outcome of a battle. Getting back on the platform, we can hit the switch with the Beemerang to make it vertical again. I check the southern end but there's nothing there, so let's go north into the next room.    Another battle. This level of security is excessive. My Beemerang's paint is getting ruined from hitting all those switches! It's quite the impressive trinket. I half expected it to break, but it's so reliable! Good, cuz Vi's pretty puny. What was that!? You wanna go back into the spider web!? ...We're almost at the end. Please keep your fights for when we get out.I'd never seen this banter before either. This one's cute.  Hitting the switch makes the long platform rotate, just like before.  An ice block helps us get up.  And we can position another ice block to get onto the platform we rotated.  Now we make it go vertical.  Checking the south out of habit but there's nothing again.  Up at the top, there's another Jellyshroom.  Another straightforward battle.  And the second big switch!  Alright! That's two switches! Pretty sure the door should be open now. Good! Let's make our way back to the door!Door no longer looks like a word to me.  The exit brings us out here, above the right side.  We see the door open in a cutscene. One more party banter for the road: The door's open. Hopefully there's not another trapdoor... The one before got you as well? Yeah... We fell straight unto the floor. The rest is history. (Not a mushroom...?) Okay. I'll go check it out first. If there's another trap, I can just fly out of it! Heh. Thank you, Vi. And back to this save crystal. This seems like a good place to leave things. Next time, we go through this big door! Surely we're getting close to the end of this place? Explopyro fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 16, 2021 06:41
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LupusAter posted:And in this update, the entire reason why I believe this game is an improvement over the Paper Mario formula: having three characters who can act in whatever order and also twice if needed increases the spectrum of possibilities a lot without being too overwhelming. It also means that, barring some corner cases, you always have your entire arsenal ready, so no more wasting a turn switching. I completely agree with this. It never ends up feeling overly complex, but there are a lot of interesting decisions at all times. I also like that, as a result of this, the devs can have a good idea what capabilities you're guaranteed to have in any given fight, and tune the encounters accordingly. Alien Arcana posted:Okay I've gotten far enough in the game that I feel reasonably safe following the LP now Hah. At the rate I'm going, you shouldn't have any problems at all! They definitely learned a lot of quality-of-life lessons from Paper Mario, and it just ends up making this a smoother and more enjoyable experience. Twelve by Pies posted:The only thing I don't know if you can do (if you can I haven't figured it out) is change your actual party order. There's at least one badge that only works for the character in the back position and I don't think there's a way to have for example Kabbu in front and Leif in the back, which is slightly annoying if you can't actually change that around. It depends what version you're playing. You couldn't do this before v1.1, it used to be that the only choice you had was who'd be in front and there was a fixed order behind. I think you're on 1.1, though (since you mentioned fighting Team Slacker), so you should check out the Strategies menu: there should be an option called "Swap Positions" which lets you choose any two bugs who have turns remaining and switch them. It does exactly what you want, the only downside is that the game won't remember this between battles, so if you have a strategy that relies on it you'll need to remember to change positions at the start of each fight.
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Feb 16, 2021 18:41
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Black Robe posted:This implies that the other things you freeze don't thaw out, is that right? It doesn't really matter for ice cubes but I have this image of Leif freezing some poor bug so the party can use it as a ladder or dump it on a switch and then they just walk off and leave it there Hah! Amusing thought, but no. Frozen enemies thaw out with time. Sketchie posted:Ice blocks made from water droplets, however? They last indefinitely. Though I think you can only have 2 at the same time before the oldest one melts away. I'm not aware of a 2-block limit; the only limit I know of is that you can't have more than one ice block for any given source of drips. If you move the ice block and then return to the droplet and freeze it again, the first block immediately melts. (There are even puzzles that rely on the player knowing and abusing this; it makes absolutely no sense outside video-game-logic, but it's still fun.) vilkacis posted:Only 10 inventory spaces total, huh? I guess that's one way to combat megaelixir syndrome. 10 inventory spaces is definitely a holdover from Paper Mario, but yes, it does a pretty good job of that. That limit does get a bit less restrictive in a couple of ways later, though, so megalixir syndrome isn't completely gone. That said, I really like the balance of where this game's consumables end up. Snakemouth Den is pretty big, but I think the way I'm going about this LP is exaggerating that somewhat (I may be trying too hard to be thorough). You can finish the entire thing in less than an hour of gameplay, easily (in fact I think my LP file is still under an hour, and that's with me slowing myself down to ensure I get good screenshots). Tylana posted:This LP and a steam sale reminded me to buy and play this game. It's pretty fun, though the quirks of the system take a little attitude changing (another case of LPs helping the hump of game start). Glad to have you playing along! I definitely think the sequential presses tend to be a bit easier, although there's less room for error (miss one press and you fail). I prefer to keep it on mashing for variety, since sequential action commands are already in the game elsewhere (as we saw with fleeing battles), but if someone asked me to recommend an option based solely on the likelihood of succeeding I'd tell them to go with sequential. Twelve by Pies posted:Yeah the window for button mashing feels really tight, like I have to go like a madman to just barely make it. I could change to sequential but eh. I don't know if that would affect that one skill of Vi's, which is actually incredibly easy to do on Switch since flicking the stick back and forth is really simple to do. It does affect that skill, yes. That one is definitely easier on mashing (though it's not bad on sequential either, it's just one button press per hit). Quackles posted:OK, this is interesting. In the original Paper Mario 64, the block window was 3 frames at 30 FPS (that'd be 6 frames at 60) - which is about what the Super Block window is here! If you equipped the Dodge Master badge, the window would expand to 8 frames at 30 FPS (16 at 60 FPS), which is about what the game's block window is by default... Araxxor posted:I'd say it's more akin to Superguarding in TTYD. In TTYD, the game runs at 60 FPS, and the Guard timing is 8 frames before damage is taken, and the last 3 frames of that is when you can pull off a Superguard. Thank you both for bringing the numerical comparisons! I didn't know the exact numbers for PM64 or TTYD but this tracks. It definitely feels a lot easier to hit regular blocks in this game than those, and Super Blocking in Bug Fables feels a bit easier than Superguarding in TTYD, but not much. (And I know you could mess with the numbers a bit in TTYD with Simplifier and Unsimplifier badges, I don't recall the exact numbers but you could shift it up to 2 frames in either direction.) There is one potentially interesting complication, which I unfortunately can't answer: Bug Fables actually has a 30 FPS setting in the game options, but I don't have any information on the timing with that on (the wiki only had numbers for 60 FPS). I don't know if anyone's actually tried using it!
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Feb 17, 2021 01:10
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05: Vicious Spider 12 - Snakemouth Den Last time, we explored the lower level of Snakemouth Den and eventually caused this giant door to open. It's time to go through.  This room's very big, with lots of enormous mushrooms. (Well, they look enormous from a bug's-eye-view, anyway). Let's see what the party think. There's so many cool mushrooms! I wonder how much they'd sell for. They aren't that special. Hmm. Don't be cranky, Leif. There are quite a bit of bouncy shrooms in here. Uh... Are you okay there, Kabbu? Y-Yes, I apologize. I got excited. Let's put that energy into our goal.Heh.  Let's get moving.  Is that a medal up there?  Looks like there's nothing much we can do on this tier. We need to get up onto the mushrooms.  The bouncy mushroom gets us up here. (Notably, we need to bounce to this mushroom, not the one lower down to the right - we can't jump high enough to get up from there.) There's an enemy waiting for us.  These battles are getting a bit more complicated, aren't they? This is still pretty straightforward, though. I use the first turn to get rid of the Jellyshroom in front (our three characters together do exactly 7 damage).  I decided to get a little clever the next turn. I had Kabbu flip the Inichas, Vi attack the Jellyshroom in back, then used Icefall with Leif. This was enough to kill the Inichas, while also freezing the Jellyshroom so it wouldn't get to attack again. The following turn, we clean up.  This mushroom gets us up.  Then we fall down to this central platform. Remember that medal over on the right? We can't get to it from this level, but if we take this mushroom up, we can drop down to it.  It's  Poison Resistance. This will give the equipped bug 50% resistance to the poison status. Not bad, although it doesn't combine well with Poison Defender... So I'll give this one to Leif for now. (All these poison medals being given to us is a good hint that that's going to be relevant soon.)  One more battle to fight in this room, it seems.  Lots of Jellyshrooms! Once again, I decided to get a bit fancy in handling this.  Switching Leif in front, a well-placed Icefall hits and freezes all three, and deals 4 damage to each (Leif's 2 attack, +1 for being in front, +1 for ice weakness).  They're all on 3 HP now. Vi and Kabbu can each finish one off, with their 2 attack and the +1 for hitting a frozen target.  Kabbu wouldn't be able to finish it off on his bonus turn thanks to exhaustion... but Leif certainly can! (+1 for being in front, +1 for ice weakness, +1 for hitting a frozen target, 4 damage is more than enough).  There's a save crystal here. The full restoration is much appreciated.  Let's move forward.  That looks like something important! By Venus! Have we finally... It's the treasure room! We did it! We super ultra mega did it! Yeah! It's too early to celebrate. Leif is right. This place has been consistently dangerous. We must stay vigilant. Last one to the treasure is a FAT STINKBUG! Fat!? V-Vi, wait! ...Yes, there's even a party banter here. This room is just a short corridor that immediately triggers a cutscene conversation, but they still put one here!  When we get closer, the conversation triggers. Could this be the artifact? Some sort of mask? It doesn't really seem special. Or valuable. ... L-Leif? Are you alright!? That settles it, then. This is probably the real artifact. Dibs. Leif shouldn't touch it anyways. The Queen has claimed it already, Vi. The Queen... Yeah, yeah. Whatever. 16 - Lost Treasure That was easy?     Or not. As soon as we pick up the artifact, the pedestal starts to lower, the room starts shaking and water comes rushing in. Curses! It's a trap! We need to leave! And quickly! We try walking back the way we came...   13 - It's Getting Scary! YOU! S-Seriously!? The spider!? This is the worst possible timing! We disagree. It's the perfect time for payback! If it won't let us escape, we might as well defeat it. B-But last time we had to run! We are stronger now, Vi. And Leif is with us. Some battles we cannot run from! G-Gah! Alright! Let's take it out, before the room floods! 14 - His Friends Call Him Spuder (Don't Call Him Spuder)Also check these out:{Rock remix} {Piano remix}  Click me for video! Looks like we're fighting the spider. Again. Hopefully things can go differently this time?   The spider does this immediately as the battle starts. This animation with the yellow arrow indicates an enemy gaining multiple turns for the rest of the fight (as indicated by the x2 over the spider). First things first, we should spy. We're fighting it for real now, so the option isn't locked any longer (for future reference, if the game doesn't let you spy, that's a subtle hint that you're in a scripted battle). Leif hasn't done any spying yet, so let's give him a turn!  For all the time we spent inside that cocoon... you will suffer tenfold! As long as Vi keeps it knocked down, we will attack it without a hint of mercy!Leif deserved this, anyway. I'm going to start things off slowly and just use normal attacks for now; it's probably a good idea to conserve TP for later in the fight when it can have a bigger impact.   On the spider's turn, it uses its first action to hoist itself up, then its second to spit a poison glob at Kabbu (blocking successfully means he doesn't get poisoned). One of the reasons the spider gets two actions every turn is that it takes it a full one to lift itself, and if it spent an entire turn doing that, it'd be a complete pushover. We like seeing it raise itself up, because that means it spent that action not doing damage.  Here's where things stand at the start of turn two. As long as Vi attacks first to knock it down, we can get a full set of three attacks in.  Once again, it raised itself up and spit poison, this time at Leif.  Second verse, same as the first.   This time, it seems to have had enough of wasting actions, and uses both its turns to attack. Even getting a Super Block there, Leif's HP is starting to look a bit low.  So far, so good. We've taken a bit of damage, but we're nearly halfway there. I decide to have Kabbu and Leif attack again, while Vi heals Leif.  If you watch the video, you'll see me hesitate a bit here: I thought about using Secret Stash at first, before realising an item made more sense to preserve TP. That TP did end up mattering later.  At the beginning of the spider's next turn, it has a surprise for us! It screams and calls for reinforcements, and this Inichas and Jellyshroom join the fight. This is guaranteed to happen the first turn the spider is below half HP, and it doesn't cost the spider one of its actions. It still gets to take two swings at us!  The spider bites Vi...  before breaking out this new attack, poison breath! We have to mash (A) to fill this bar; if we don't get it all the way there, it'd be 2 damage and poison for everyone. (The timing's pretty tight, too, I only barely got there. The sequential keys version is a bit easier.)  Well, this looks a lot more complicated. (It could've looked a lot worse if I hadn't pulled off the mash command on the poison breath!) Still, if we think about it for a moment there's a pretty obvious way to handle it.  Kabbu and Vi team up to kill the Inichas.  Then Leif uses Icefall to put the Jellyshroom out of commission, while still damaging the spider a bit. (The spider has 70% freeze resistance; it is possible to freeze it if you're lucky, but I wasn't.)  The spider attacked Kabbu and hoisted itself up; the Jellyshroom didn't get a turn thanks to being frozen. This could've been a lot nastier without neutralising the adds.  Switching Leif into the front here is a good idea for a couple of reasons. He's the healthiest right now, but also being in front gives him exactly enough damage to finish off the Jellyshroom so we no longer need to worry about it. Vi and Kabbu do a bit more damage to the spider.    After another dose of poison breath and another bite attack, everyone's looking a bit worse for wear. Including the spider. We could spend this turn healing and then whittle it down afterward... but sometimes the best defence is a good offence, and there's a way to end things now.  Moving Vi in front for a Tornado Toss takes off 5 of its remaining 10 HP.  Kabbu attacks for 2 damage...  then Leif relays to Vi...  and yet another Tornado Toss, with our final 3 TP, is enough to finish it off.  It's not quite enough to rank up, but we're close!  And that's it for the spider! Thank goodness. (Although I have to admit, I think its facial expression while dead is pretty cute. That's kind of morbid, isn't it.) That ended up being a very clean fight. This can go a lot worse, depending on how the damage gets distributed (if the spider decides to focus someone down, you can end up on the back foot a bit, needing to either spend turns healing or reviving someone). One mistake I see a lot of people making in this game is blowing all of their TP and/or items early in the fight; as we saw with the spider, bosses in this game tend to have at least one phase-shift where they become more aggressive, so it's often better to conserve resources until this happens and then use them to mitigate the impact. This isn't true of every fight (and later on, glass cannon strategies can go very far in this game), but it's definitely the case early on when medals are scarce. I was planning to talk about the poison mechanics the first time it came up organically, but I never ended up getting poisoned, so I guess I may as well do it now. Poison causes the affected bug to take 10% of their max HP (rounded up) in damage at the end of the turn. This damage can't kill, and will instead leave the affected bug (or enemy) on 1 HP. Any attack which causes poison will also have a set duration: all of the poison sources in Snakemouth Den last 2 turns. There's no music after the fight ends, just sound effects of rushing water and rumbling.  Heheheh... Hahahahaha! We really did it! What a scare... but working together, we were victorious! We did it... Thank you. We don't know much of what's happened to us. But beating up that spider was great stress relief. No problem! I was gonna beat it up anyways! There's a tremor.  We should probably leave while we can. ...Aw, heck.  A place known for having consumed any previous explorer that dared to enter. Even so, the team stuck together, and were surprised with a new friend, Leif. Together, they found one of the fabled artifacts that the Ant Queen has been looking for. Triggering a trap, they defeated the vile spider before being swept away. What will happen to this trio who met due to chance? Will they stick together in their journey? Little do they know that their adventure is just starting...     Vi! Leif! Are you alright!? Ugh! I'm all soaked!!! Cripes, we really got lucky. I'm a bit hazy... We got the artifact... then that spider attacked. Eep! The artifact! I dropped it! ... Seriously, Vi!? Worry about the artifact later! Let's make sure Leif is okay first! Phew. I'm so relieved to see you well. So? Did you catch the artifact or... Uh, the artifact... It's over there.  Alrighty! Not a scratch! Your concern is touching, Vi. Oh, drop it. You look super fine! Well, at least we've completed our mission! Uff. We're going to need a good rest. After we figure out where we are... If we recall, this is close to the Ant Kingdom. We should get back to the city pretty quickly. It's nice to feel the sun again. It'll be good to go back. Honestly, Vi may be raving about the artifact. But saving you is the true victory in my eyes. Um, thanks? Geez, calm down over there! Let's report to the Queen and get our reward! (Elizant...) We'll see what this is about in a minute.  We also get an automatic save prompt here. This is actually a new feature; in v1.1, they added these save prompts at the end of each chapter. In prior versions, you had to go hunt down a crystal like normal. It's a nice convenience thing, but these always take me by surprise and feel a bit like an interruption. Still, not worth complaining about!   We've actually gotten two achievements here, since we're playing on Hard Mode! 06 - OutskirtsThere's a party banter here: This place is a bit... unkempt. This used to be the popular route to the Golden Hills, but the northern path is preferred nowadays. Eh, at least it's a quiet place. No issues with me!Though it's a brief one.  We can't sequence break by going into this cave, Kabbu will stop us. This seems like a good place to wrap up for now. Next time on Bug Fables, we start Chapter Two... with politics. See you then! Explopyro fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 21, 2021 20:44
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I forgot to put these in the post (I'll edit them in soon, no time right now), but here are some nice remixes of the Spuder boss theme! Rock remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2nHKNFHwgo Piano remix with sheet music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAR69HmuMYE Torrannor posted:It really says "unbeelievable", how cute. This fight is nontrivial in that it's possible to lose, but it's honestly not that hard as long as you're paying attention, and are able to hit normal blocks. And as long as you keep Vi alive; if she goes down (and you exhaust your one Magic Seed) it can become a real problem, because she's the only one who can knock it down without spending TP. (I like the way the mechanics sometimes make different characters more valuable at different times.) Looking at my characters' health by the end of it, it didn't actually matter who got the HP Plus medal (Kabbu never got to 2 HP or below), and the healing for Leif only mattered if we ignore the occasional Super Block I got. And if I hadn't finished things on that final turn, healing one or two bugs would have been more than enough (I could have used Secret Stash in lieu of Tornado Toss), to guarantee everyone would survive a double poison breath (two focussed attacks wouldn't be as much of a concern), and two bugs alive on the next turn would probably have been enough to end it. I think this fight's a really good final exam for everything the game's been teaching us in Snakemouth Den. I thought it was interesting you perceived it as tough, when I'd been worrying about making it look too easy (because I got a bit fancy with the positioning tactics etc). Twelve by Pies posted:I actually fought a boss last night on Hard that I had to go for a full offense burn all TP strategy from turn one, though I'll talk more about it when you get to that boss. It was a huge brick wall for me for about two days, I had been trying to conserve TP and playing with my badge setup and just kept getting my rear end kicked, and I googled to see what strats people suggested and full offense was number one. As well as lucky freezes from Leif, but even with Status Booster I wasn't able to freeze the boss at all past the second try. Oh, yeah, there are definitely bosses like that. Let me guess, was it Monsieur Scarlet? That's the first fight I can think of that's a huge roadblock for a lot of people (and, let's be fair, it has good reason to be). I can think of a few other ones it might've been, too, but that's the one that first comes to mind where blitz tactics are easily the best. (My other guess would probably be Devourer.) Hah, yes, a lot of the song titles have jokes in them. I still don't entirely get "Spuder", honestly, except that it was apparently a name they originally planned to use for this boss, but later decided sounded too silly. (I think I agree with this.) Nonetheless, it's still pretty funny that we all end up calling the boss Spuder anyway. Quackles posted:I can appreciate 'Unbeelievable'. Isn't it great? Minor spoilers: There's even a medal that makes that appear for every attack! Although it has no meaningful effect.
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Feb 22, 2021 16:01
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That boss can be tough, definitely (especially because the lockdown means you might have limited choices where items are concerned). I had a lot of trouble against it on my first playthrough (that was the fight where I rediscovered Turn Relay, I'd forgotten about the mechanic for a lot of the game up to that point). Although, weirdly, I remember finding it underwhelming when I replayed on higher difficulties. It'll be interesting to see what I think this time around.
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Feb 22, 2021 21:39
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A question for everyone, now that we're finished with the tutorial/Chapter 1, do you have any feedback on the style of the LP and the way I'm going about this? I know the pace is kind of slow, that's something I'm working on, but aside from that, I'd appreciate knowing if there's something you think I could be doing better. Also, I just listened to this interview https://open.spotify.com/episode/6sUaVWQ9PgpB6Wy82rydAC in which Jose Gracia ("Genow"), the lead dev and writer on this game, mentioned the game's final word count is over 150k. I certainly have my work cut out for me, don't I? Natural 20 posted:I lost this on hard on my first attempt. If you're not used to blocking yet then it's very easy to take a lot of damage and lose the race to the adds coming in. This makes a lot of sense. I definitely think the game is balanced around the assumption the player will hit more normal blocks than they miss, if not most of them. I'm assuming from this that you haven't played a Paper Mario game before and the blocking mechanic is new to you? That would definitely make this learning curve a bit steeper. vilkacis posted:good to see Kabbu getting to be a fun weirdo for a change. Kabbu is a total goofball and we will be seeing more of this in the future
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Feb 24, 2021 23:52
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vilkacis posted:If i'm going to nitpick, i'd ditch the colons after portraits (they don't really need 'em the way a written name does). Also jpgs would make for lighter and faster loading images but they aren't that heavy as pngs and may have enough big flat colour spaces that the compression would be noticeable. Over all you're doing just fine. Oh, that's a good point, getting rid of the colons is a good idea. I didn't realise how strange it looked until you pointed it out, but now I can't not notice them, I'll definitely clean this up. On the jpg/png thing, I tried jpg at first and was really dissatisfied with how it looked (I used them for the first two updates before switching to png, if you want to compare). I don't think it's noticeable viewing them at the default size, but I thought it looked really ugly on mobile (where it's more natural to be zooming in, and you start to see all kinds of blurring and artifacts) and that bothered me. Especially when I'm having to do all kinds of ugly compression stuff to get the animated gifs small enough. Natural 20 posted:No, I've played a fair bit of Paper Mario but largely the early parts of those games can be beaten without blocking and by the time it's needed whatever build I have has come online and carries me through the game with crazy levels of offense. Oh, that makes sense. Blocking was definitely more or less an optional mechanic in Paper Mario (though I tend to forget this after Master Quest, which made it mandatory). I hope you're still enjoying the game? Procrastine posted:It might just be me but I wonder if the dialog portraits might be better at a smaller size? I was thinking this myself, I'd just been too lazy to do it (I didn't choose the size, I got them from the wiki, but I can definitely scale them and reupload). I think if I'm going to make the change I'd better do it now, before the amount of work it would be increases even more. Quackles posted:I like what you've done so far! Good luck with the rest of the LP! Thanks! I appreciate the vote of confidence. DimiPZC posted:My first playthrough of the game, I went mostly in on TP with some dipping into MP. I had over 60 TP by the end of the game and a fair bit of MP to spend on the occasional stuff. I never really saw HP as valuable in the game; the gains feel way too small to feel meaningful unless you dedicate a few level ups to them. The huge amount of TP meant that I was basically just nuking bosses with my overwhelming amount of resources, which was probably not a good thing cause it meant a lot of them ended up being forgettable. Very few bosses actually force you to be in for the long haul of a fight, so there's nothing stopping you from nuking them and ending the fight in two turns. That's interesting; I never actually tried a build that TP-heavy! I definitely agree that builds that focus too much on offence tend to make the boss fights feel samey, and that that's a major downside to those play styles. My goal for the LP is to show off a lot of different strategies, and I actually really enjoy some defence builds, so hopefully I'll be able to keep a good level of variety. HP not being incredibly valuable seems to be a theme with this sort of game. That said, I certainly don't plan to go through the entire game with base HP, even if I'm not spending level-ups on it (though I don't think this is necessarily what you meant). I will take note of your belated vote.
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Feb 25, 2021 16:38
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Okay, I think that looks better. I've removed the colons and shrunk all the character mugs by 50%. That was a lot more work than it had any right to be, but I think it was worth it (and it'd only have been worse if I'd waited to do it later...). Also, if you haven't yet seen them, I've made a few appendices that are linked in the OP. Feel free to check those out if they're of interest. Next update in a couple of days, most likely.
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Feb 26, 2021 02:57
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Qrr posted:The appendices are really nice. I appreciate listing the species of all of the characters, as someone who is really not a bug expert. Twelve by Pies posted:I appreciate it too because while I know a lot about bugs there's some characters in the game whose species I'm not really sure of. To be clear, I'm almost entirely going off of the Bug Fables wiki and occasionally supplementing with minor wikipedia research, I am not a bug expert either! It's really cool though, the devs really did their homework and there's a lot of neat trivia here and there. Not everything in the game is a real species though (we've already seen ambulatory plants and fungi, for instance), and there are definitely at least a couple of entirely fictional species. Natural 20 posted:My build came online and I started killing everything with crazy levels of offense! I recently beat the game and I enjoyed it a bunch! Hah, one of those! Out of curiosity, who did you end up using as your main damage dealer? Alien Arcana posted:Oh, speaking of species. While it's an enemy type and not a character, the Inichas is actually based on a real insect as well! Oh, that's good to know! Thanks. I'll definitely edit the Inichas info into the bestiary page if you're okay with that. I knew Fuzzo was supposed to be some kind of beetle, but it definitely seems to me like he's based on something specific that's just never been mentioned. (I wondered if he was supposed to be based on some kind of dung beetle as he's supposed to be a shady salesman type, but that's a huge classification that also includes scarabs like Kabbu so it doesn't seem much help even if true.) They're definitely more specific about the inspiration for some characters than others, I think. Please don't hesitate to share bug trivia if I overlook something!
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Feb 27, 2021 01:14
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06: Meeting the Ant Queen (Part 1) 01 - Bug Fables First things first, look at that! Now that we've finished Chapter 1, the title screen has changed and shows our team hanging out in the plaza (awkwardly, a plaza we haven't seen yet, but we'll go there this update). I didn't mention it earlier, but this title screen is fully rendered and animated in-engine, the camera pans around a bit and the characters move around. This screenshot caught Vi in an angry pose, but other times you'll see her looking happy, or Kabbu talking, etc. It's pretty cute. Fair warning, get ready for  , there's going to be a lot of talking in this episode. We left off with our team coming to at the bottom of this waterfall. We can't go into the cave, so let's explore and try to figure out where we are.   This weed has a new item in it!  Spicy Berry is our first status buff item. With how small the numbers are in this game, +1 attack for two turns is pretty significant! Oh look, another suspicious dirt mound! This one's up on a ledge we can't access.  That's all there is for this area. 06 - Outskirts And this is where we come out. We're back in Bugaria Outskirts! You may remember this path as one that was blocked off by a fallen boulder when we were first here; it looks like the Ants made good on their promise to clean the place up. Just how long were we in Snakemouth Den?  Indeed. It's a relief to return to the association safely. Was this area built pretty recently? Uh... I haven't been out here that long, so I don't really know. Regardless, it makes me pretty nostalgic. Back then, everyone thought Vi was a small helpless child! Stop! This nostalgia trip is over! ...Party banter.  Looks like they put the portcullis back up, blocking off the way back to Snakemouth. We will eventually be able to backtrack, but for now, not so much.  Eetl stops us when we get to the bridge. Gen and Eri are waiting on the other side too.  It was a... rocky journey. What with the flood. No kidding! I don't wanna see rivers for a while! We're glad to finally be out of there, at least. Rivers!? You're some lucky bugs!!! But uh... Vi, Kabbu, who's this? Oh! Eetl, this is Leif. We found him trapped in Snakemouth. So you DID make it into Snakemouth!? Honestly, we thought you'd bail. Going to Snakemouth is crazy! Bailing would've been a good idea, really... Well, we did! And we got the artifact! Ah haha! Nice one, Vi. The river must have shaken up your hea- Vi takes out the artifact to show everyone. They seem pretty shocked. Was everyone betting on us to fail? I-Impossible! You actually made it into Snakemouth's depths!? Yeah! We did it! In your face, Eetl! How sportsbuglike. Vi, it is folly to boast. It's folly to tell me I can't do something! Um, so is it like, the real deal? Yeah. It's quite like another artifact we've been looking into. That must be the genuine deal. Hmm? I was just thinking that you should go see the Queen right away! She will be beyond ecstatic! It has been some time since we last saw the Queen... ...Wait. Actually, looking around, we don't recognize that structure over there. Was it built pretty recently? You are not from around here, are you? We are. We recognize this place. But something feels off... You're just fuzzy from the cave! I bet it'll come back to you! (...) Eetl, what about Leif? I heard that exploration teams can only have two members. Oh, that! Well, it's unusual. But you did conquer Snakemouth. It's been a goal for ages... (...Ages?) I suppose that... Alright. With my authority as the association's caretaker, in honor of your feat... 05 - Key Item!It actually plays the Key Item get fanfare here. Team Snakemouth? A proper explorer team name! Uh, yay. Well, that's that! Let's go see the Queen! She must know that the artifact was found! Oh, I'm so jealous! I hope the reward is good! Heheh. It better be! Let us go, then. Yes, a walk through the plaza should help. (We need more information...) And we're back in control. Eetl has joined the group and is following us now, too.  If you want to sell stuff, talk to my husband about it.Looks like the merchant caravan is back in business. Also, there's a new thing we can do now. If we press (Back) while standing close enough to an NPC, we can get party banter about that NPC instead of the general vicinity: Cricketly's one of the members of the traveling caravan. I've heard she is pretty hot-headed. No kidding, you can already tell by her looks! She does have a soft spot for her husband, though. It seems we shouldn't judge people by their appearances.I'm not sure why Kabbu says "I've heard" when he personally witnessed her screaming at the ant workers cleaning up in the first update, but I guess it's been a while.   Let's ask Huscada about the business.  We are no more than a humble caravan trying to make a living. We travel all over the land, selling different wares wherever we go. Our trusty snail has been with us for generations and we intend to keep it that way.We can also talk about him. Huscada's one of the members of the traveling caravan. He is always managing trades and sometimes calming his wife down. How did someone like him end up with a hot-headed cricket like her, anyway? Vi, we shouldn't pry into other people's affairs! ...Even if I am curious about that too.I'm curious too, mostly about them being a cross-species couple. Especially when some species of cricket that are carnivorous and can prey on cicadas. Let's check out their inventory.  Spicy Berry (12 berries) Burly Berry (12 berries) Magic Seed (18 berries)This is good stuff, although it's kind of pricey! We've seen Spicy Berries and Magic Seeds before; Burly Berries are just like Spicy Berries, giving +1 defence for 2 turns. I wouldn't normally as I don't feel the need for them this early in the game, but I'm going to pick up one Burly Berry, for reasons we'll see soon enough (probably next update). If I'd had to use my Magic Seed against the spider, I'd probably buy a replacement, I always like having one around for emergencies. (Since I didn't mention it before, it's worth noting that the game will let you use a Magic Seed on a conscious bug, and it will work just fine as a 7 HP heal.)  If we weren't playing on Hard Mode, we'd see this here. Quick Flea is the Hard Mode reward for beating Spuder, and we'll be getting it from Artis momentarily. Any time there's a medal with limited availability that would otherwise be permanently missable (in practice this is mostly Hard Mode rewards, there are two others), it gets sent to the caravan and becomes available for purchase. If they have more than one in stock, they'll display one at a time in this fourth position, and you can ask Huscada to cycle through them if you don't want to purchase the showing one. I like this, it's a nice compromise that allows them to include missable content while still letting the player catch up without much penalty. It does, though, mean that berries are probably going to be tighter on Normal since there are so many more medals to buy. Over to the east, we find a pair of ladybug siblings.   Dib, please don't do anything reckless. I will take care of both of us.And, of course, we can talk about them: These two truly embody sibling squabbles. That's because she keeps acting like he's a kid! He's super able to do whatever he wants! Vi, we can't help but feel you're being biased. Hmph. Think what you want.We get a bit of insight into Vi's insecurities here. I like this one.  We can also go in their house, and... steal their food?  Oh. I don't think they'll be missing that much. Like the Danger Shroom we saw earlier, this causes 2 turns of poison if someone eats it. (Just like in Paper Mario, a  Mistake is what you get for messing up in cooking. We'll learn about cooking soon enough.) I'm actually going to keep this (I had to sell another item to make room!) for reasons I'll keep to myself for now. We know! We know!Eetl stops us if we try to cross this bridge.  Let's go to the Association, we need to check in with Artis. Also, do take note, the save crystal has turned blue now! No more free healing for us. The game tends to do this in chapter transitions, new areas will still often have yellow ones on our first visit, but they won't stay that way forever. This can often mean that backtracking isn't quite as trivial as you might expect (on my first playthrough I remember finding some areas harder on revisit than they were the first time! though this was due to me forgetting about some things, honestly). There are still free sources of healing on occasion, but we can't take them for granted any more.  Looks like Gen and Eri want to talk to us too. Before that... P-Please, let's not deal with Gen and Eri. They always drag me into their quarrels. Hey! Gen! Eri! Leif! Stop that this instant!If you push the banter button before talking to them (and only then), you see this. Let's actually talk to them now (sorry, Kabbu). Hey, Team Snakemouth! You had Gen and me worried, you know? Good to see you up and running! ...The river was not pleasant. Yeah, we got super lucky... Thank you for your concern! Concern is the least we can show. Mmm... maybe. For a good reward! ...Nonsense, Vi. Fellow explorers have our help anytime! Awesome! I promise we'll ask if we ever need help. Sure... But meh. Time to go questing again! Let's stay away from rivers...I think seeing this conversation actually unlocks a sidequest later in the game. Anyway, there's also a different banter now after having spoken to them: Gen and Eri seem a bit unreliable. It's good to know they have our back, though! Indeed. This camaraderie is what being an explorer is all about! Now for Artis. There's a banter first: That's Artis the Mantis. He is the accountant of the association, and someone who loves challenges. I've heard he gives prizes to members that have accomplished difficult tasks recently. By the time we're done, he won't have any prizes left to give out!Now let's actually check in. Hey! You're back. Let's see how you have been doing with that Medal of mine. Hmm! Good job, folks! You defeated that hardened Spider! Was it too challenging for ya? You deserve a reward. Here, take this! Come back later when you've bonked some extra hard heads with that Medal, will ya? Quick Flea is mostly just a convenience thing, it changes the button sequence when running away from 6 buttons to 3. That's pretty nice though, especially for just 1 MP. For now, absolutely no reason not to put this on. If we try talking to Artis again: Hmmm... You haven't really defeated any hard-headed foes yet, have you? Fret not, though. Nothing is lost in this world, only found in different ways. That's how life works, eh? Come back later when you've bonked some extra hard heads with that Medal, will ya?This is Artis' default dialogue whenever you talk to him and he doesn't have a reward queued up. I think this is supposed to be your hint about how the caravan works.  Enough dawdling, let's get moving north. 17 - Ant Kingdom   The camera pans down from the castle ramparts down over the plaza to where we enter. This is the plaza we've been seeing on the title screen.    You don't need to worry. Let's go...Leif seems pretty disturbed by how different the architecture is from what he remembers.  If I try to check out this statue, Kabbu stops us.  We can still talk to people, though! That wasn't particularly enlightening, but there's a banter too: Tod's growing big and strong! He's such an adorable kid! So small. To think we looked like that, once. You must've been cute as a baby, Leif. (I'm not walking into this one.) I can easily imagine a small, grumpy, sleepy Leif. (I must preserve my cute baby image!) I don't think Leif likes this topic of discussion.  Mmm. Agreed. Maybe we should give him two honey drops instead of one. D-Don't do that! It's dangerous! What harm could some more honey do? Look. Don't ask me. Just don't do it.This is a hint about something, we're going to have to try this out! Oh, Ann! She grows every time I see her! She's such a great bug - she listens to all my stories without complaining! That sounded really sad. We're not being... too mean to Kabbu, are we?Another great one.  Pibuu!If we try to talk to the pillbug, this is all we get, but we can also talk about the pillbug: This is a Pillbug. Its tiny, round and docile nature makes it a very popular pet. A pet, huh... Pillbugs are also obedient, and simply adorable! Maybe we could... Don't even think about it. We're not getting one!There's someone else over on the left side.  Also, let's make note of that locked house for later. It'll be a while before we can get in there, but it's here to taunt us for now. This Ant... I've never seen her before! Or maybe I have? She seems to have no characteristics to make her stand out. How tactful. That's Janet, Kabbu. Remember? By the holy spikes of Venus! I forgot Janet! So cruel, Kabbu. So cruel. I... I must go apologize...Always fun when a game pokes fun at itself. Where would we be without forgettable NPCs?  Eetl complains if we try to leave this area.   And also if we try to talk to the theatre proprietor. If we try to get a general banter for this area, Eetl also interrupts (yes, guest characters can also take part in these conversations!). Ah, the Ant Kingdom's main pla- We mustn't keep the Queen waiting.Okay, okay.  This soldier doesn't have much to say.  Looks like Maki is waiting for us!  Maki! Perfect timing! The news spread quickly. So, you two succeeded? You conquered Snakemouth? You've made a friend, even... ... You bet we did! You were all worried for nothing! It seems my intuition was correct. I'm quite relieved... I have arranged a meeting with the Queen for you. She is expecting us right now. Well, since Maki is going with you, I guess it's back to work for me. Thank you for accompanying us, Eetl. No problem. Stay out of trouble, alright? Eetl leaves and Maki joins us. Before crossing the bridge, there's someone to talk to here too. What is this Ant doing? She is always staring at the castle. Leave her be.Proof of concept that Maki participates in banters too.    Talking to her gets us a Discovery about the Ant Palace!   Let's get moving.  There are a couple of guards we can talk to here.  I know I'm keeping the castle safe, but I hope my friend isn't too bored waiting for me...And on the right: ... Greetings, fellow guard! ... Not one for words, I see...Riveting stuff. But there's a banter that's slightly more interesting: Standing watch over the castle every day... Must get super boring, right? Right? Now, you two. All honest work is good work. Easy for you to say. You spend the whole day exploring. Yeah. I'd like to see you try being a receptionist! I-If it is to make ends meet... I would endure...!Some good character in this one. Let's go inside. 18 - In the Court of the Ant Queen The Ant Palace is pretty big.  Geez. I wanted to get mad, but she was way too polite!We can't get into the areas past these guards. We can, however, have our characters talk about this: That's a big door. That's an area only Ants can enter. Not even I know what is beyond that door. Hm... such mystery. We should head for the throne room, though. Yes, I apologize. Let's get back on track.Spoiler alert, the area behind this guard doesn't actually exist in the game. But I like that they pretty consistently do things like this to imply areas are larger than just the parts we get to see, it makes the world feel more realistic.  I was going to comment on how an invisible wall preventing us from going downstairs was a nasty contrast to that realism I just praised, but then I realised it wasn't an invisible wall, my eyes just suck! The entrance is cordoned off, there is actually a rope there. Always nice to be pleasantly surprised.  What's her problem!?A mirror of the interaction on the left (the banter would have been identical).  Maki won't let us go down side passages, so let's go on with the plot.  Please forgive us for the delay. We're ready, though! Then you wouldn't mind if we stepped right in? No objections. The sooner we answer our doubts, the better. That'll do. Let us proceed, then.   Everyone files in. You now stand before Her Majesty, Queen Elizant II. (So it's true.)  ...Wonderful. So very wonderful! Lieutenant, you are dismissed. You have your own business to attend to. As you wish, my Queen. We have a choice here. I prefer the version of the scene where we don't protest (for a few reasons, honestly), so I'll show that version here and the other at the end of the update. Just like that, huh? (She wasn't expecting to keep it, was she!?) Here you go!    Such beauty. Beauty which should belong to the Ant Kingdom... Here, you've earned this.  W-Woah! This is a ton! Brave explorers! You've performed a valiant task. Your place in the history of our kingdom is assured. Congratulations. It is praise well-earned! O-Of course! Thank you, Your Highness! Heheh. First bee in the hall of fame! Uh. Thanks. Could we ask something, though? I suppose we could afford time for one question. What would it be? What? What is this fuss about!?     I'm showing all these screenshots to emphasise just how much effort the game is putting in to make this look suspicious. Maki. I leave you to your mission. While you're at it, inform Artis that the next expedition is confirmed. Of course. I shall move out at once, Your Highness. You three... I'll bless you with a head start. Zaryant, brief them about the Golden Hills expedition. Heed me. Reports state that an ancient artifact lurks in the Golden Hills. This is a small rural settlement behind our kingdom. It can be reached through a tunnel south from the Explorers' Association.(Convenient. That's the tunnel we washed up next to.) Uh, isn't that Bee Kingdom territory? Do not dare interrupt us again, child. The Bee Kingdom is our close ally. They are, of course, aware of our expedition. Now... talk to the locals, obtain information, and seize the artifact. No matter the cost. In other words, are we going to do what we were already planning to do? Don't be silly. (Asking to repeat here doesn't get any new dialogue, it literally just repeats it from when Zaryant began discussing the mission.) Alright, then. Take this map, just in case. Although I'd hope you know how to head south... 05 - Key Item!The map is a key item, we'll check this out soon enough. Err, thanks. So, about our question... Do not make Her Majesty repeat herself. Move out! Geez, alright. Let's go! Indeed. It'd be unwise to anger our Queen...Poor Leif. 19 - Chapter 2 This is where we get the splash screen for Chapter 2; everything in the update prior to this point has been some kind of interlude, I suppose. ...Team, could we step out? We need to share something.With that, we're finally back in control. Unfortunately for Leif, we can't leave this room just yet.  We can talk to Zaryant. Zaryant... The royal guard is truly an imposing figure. With a name like that, it's like it was decided from birth... I mean, wasn't it? Ants are weird... I'm not an expert, but she does seem quite different. Maybe it's genetics? We're probably better off not knowing.Sometimes it's really weird to think they're whispering these right next to the person. That said, as a member of another eusocial species, I don't think Vi really has room to cast aspersions here. If we try to talk to the Queen, Zaryant doesn't let us:  There's also a banter: ...Elizant II... You probably shouldn't keep staring. It was a long briefing. You'll have a chance to speak to her later! Let's check out the rest of the throne room. There are a couple of stained glass windows over here...           Each of them triggers a Discovery.  The guard by the door wants us to leave. We can also, of course, talk about her: It seems this ant guards the throne room's entrance. Woah, she looks grumpy! Looks like she's never had any fun in her life. Y-You're both being too harsh...And a general banter for the throne room: The throne room hasn't changed, but the atmosphere's completely different. What d'ya mean? It's a bit somber. They've covered some of the other Queens, too... Bugaria's history isn't perfect. It's a shame that there have been issues between the kingdoms... That'd be weird. Going from full peace to nowadays... (History can prove cruel...) Let's check out this map Zaryant gave us. We can use it from the key items page...  to see a map. The honeycomb icon shows our current location, and the yellow dots represent places we've been before; the rest of the world is a mystery. Okay, let's actually leave now. (I have to split the update here thanks to the character limit) Explopyro fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Mar 4, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 02:21
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06: Meeting the Ant Queen (Part 2) When we leave the throne room, another conversation starts. Hehe. I got a big scare earlier, but I have to admit... We did really well! We've got to celebrate! Maybe in the Golden Hills festival! T-That's right! How fortunate that our expedition would line up with such an occasion! ... Vi... Kabbu... May we confess something? Hm? When our team left for Snakemouth... The Queen was Elizant the First. 15 - The One Left Behind (Leif's Theme) W-What!? Leif, that is not possible! Y-Yeah! I wasn't even born when the new Queen took the throne! It's... it's the truth. The plaza has changed, there's a new Queen, we can't find our team anywhere... We've been trapped for... decades? We don't even know. We hoped we were too fuzzy, but walking around has confirmed it. Leif...! S-Shh! You can't just say that in here! ...Sorry. Too much has happened. We didn't get a chance to ask anything, either. Yikes, what should we do? This isn't normal at all... Leif... ... I cannot understand the pain you are feeling. Probably there is no one who can. But come with us. Maybe as we explore, we'll find the truth behind what has happened to you! The truth... Uh, yeah! Maybe there's clues around, or something... ...Alright. Once again, we're left with little choice. You're fun to be around, at least. Well, yeah! Thank you, Leif. Together, we conquered Snakemouth... And together, we will figure this out! For now, let's focus on this mission. We'll be okay. I really like this scene. The player has almost certainly put together most of what's been going on with Leif by now, but the characters actually discuss it honestly, and there aren't any easy decisions. Even Vi gets in on trying to be supportive!  And we're back in control again! Now we can explore the palace. Is that a book on the sign?  It is! Welcome to the palace library. This is the Library! A sea of knowledge! History in page form! Meeeeeeeeeh... We have a lot of catching up to do. Wonder if there's magic books, too...Let's talk to the receptionists and see how this works.  Uh huh. We're looking for this book - "The 20 Ways of-" W-Wait! That's Brooke's job! I'm the head of the Explorer Fact Hunt! You... hunt facts? You can't smack facts... ... Please tell us more! Right. Yay! Look, it's simple. This world is filled with "Discoveries"! I'm sure you've seen at least one already. Super special places! If you donate Discovery info to the library, we'll reward you! Deal. How much info do you want? The library will reward you for every 5 Discoveries you find. It includes berries, Medals and other goodies! So it's good to drop by often! It's like a fun school game! I'm in! ...Sure, were' in. But could you help us find that book now? Nope. Tch...Libren explained that well enough that I don't have anything to add! In addition to giving us information about the world and filling up our logbook, every 5 Discoveries we find are worth a prize from Libren. She has some good stuff, too, it's well worth doing this. Let's talk to her again. Hey there! Came to turn in some Discoveries? Let's see how you've done! Seems you have found 7 Discoveries so far... Looks like you have enough for the next reward tier! Here you go! This is nice enough, if a bit underwhelming. I promise the rewards get better as we go. That seems to be all for now! Come back once you have found more Discoveries!Now for Brooke.  We'd like to read some history books, if possible. Tch. They've... gotten lost. Lost? How is that possible? We lent them out to the Bee Kingdom... But blasted bandits attacked the caravan! Now they're just scattered across Bugaria. So, uh, what can we do? If you find any, make my life easier and return them. Then you'll be able to read them! The nerve! They just want us to do the clean up for free! Still, this is important to Leif. Let's help out. Mhm. We don't really have another choice. Remember, if you find any books, bring them to me. I will let you read any books you find free of charge.This is the other major collectible in the game, alongside the Crystal Berries and Discoveries. We can find Lore Books and bring them back to the library, and in return we'll get to read them and learn worldbuilding and backstory. There are 26 in the game, and in addition to getting to read them there's another reward for finding all of them.  Of course, there's nothing here right now. There is also, of course, a banter about these two. These two are like night and day, huh. We can relate to Brooke's angry power reading aura. Oh, then I'm Libren's joyful search for new stories! Leif actually starts prepping ice magic here, I don't think he likes being called a nerd.  If we go over here, we can inspect this painting. Grace, huh. I guess the new Queen has more of a power aura! Mhm. Elizant was as kind as they came. Even some monsters would be friendly in her presence. Her voice was soothing, and she saw the future in a bright light. It must have been an honor. I must say I am envious of you having met her. Aren't you giving the new Queen too much of a rough time, though? Of all people to defend her, we didn't expect it to be you. Well, she has a super big reputation to live up to. And a lot of bugs who didn't accept her from the start! A lot of political and social issues forced her hand, too. Which you could even say Elizant's passing gave way to. But it's still difficult to accept... We can't pledge loyalty just yet. Just yet, huh. As long as you're willing to keep an open mind, she may surprise you. ...Sigh. Until then, we have this painting to come back to. As might be expected, this is also a discovery.     I quite like how our characters have different opinions on the political situation and are willing to acknowledge complexity and uncertainty.   That's for the best. No need to spy the same enemy twice if you write your thoughts down, is there?This person gives us another tutorial about spying. I think this is specifically hinting at the fact we can see every character's comments in the bestiary, even if we only spy once. There's also a banter: Her reading speed's quite impressive. "The Flower We Lived By." Oh dear, I'd been meaning to buy this one! Ugh, that one's super sappy. You read that stuff? It's that promising bee author's first book! Even if she hadn't polished her work yet... I really want to know what her beginnings were like! Hmm. If you vouch that hard for it, we'll give it a go. Okay, okay. I don't like it, though.I love that these three just talk about books sometimes. Kabbu is so earnest.  Leif seems to have a strong reaction when I ask the party about this guy. LEIF! What's wrong!? ...Nothing. We just reacted to this guy's geek energy. This is just... I have nothing to say about this, it speaks for itself. If we actually talk to him:  The Ant Kingdom's library houses the best books published in our time. It's a shame, isn't it? Bad books are thrown out and forgotten...Reeves loves reading awful books. I suspect a lot of us have a lot more in common with him than we'd care to admit... (Full disclosure, Reeves is my favourite minor character. We'll definitely be seeing more of him.)  Sneaky! The first  Lore Book is hiding back here in this corner. (How did Brooke not see this one from her desk? As the player, we have the excuse of perspective, but she has straight line of sight!) Let's go give it to her. Ah, wonderful. That is one of ours, yes. I'll put it on the shelf, so check it out whenever. If we go over to the shelf, we can now read the book! Our Lifespan. Before the Day of Awakening, they say we used to live very little... Only a few days or moons! And most of that time, we were helpless larvae... Marriage marked the end of life! It's inconceivable nowadays. For one, we don't even remember being larvae! Truly, becoming an adult is like being born. And then, we get to enjoy this beautiful land for many years. It's hard not to pity our antcestors, who had to give up life soon after becoming aware of it...!There are a lot of neat little details in these. Also, unlike most "books" in video games, the short length of these doesn't fight verisimilitude because, well, they're bug-sized, how much text do you think could realistically fit on those little pages? No matter what order we find or turn in the books, though, the lore blurbs always unlock in a fixed order. That's all for the library. Let's check out the rest of the palace.  True. Back then, the Queen had to personally extend an invite... Oooh. Did you get to visit, Leif? Yeah. We were one of the first non-Ant teams willing to explore... Although we all know how that turned out. S-Sorry. It's okay. Shall we go?I remembered to check for a banter in here. Reminiscing always seems to depress Leif.  There's another room over here.  Leif seems really intrigued by this person. Let's talk to her.  ...Wait... you're Rebecca, right? Hmm? Yes, my dear. Just a humble caretaker... Uh, you know her? Yes! Rebecca, do you remember us? It's Leif! We scouted Snakemouth Den... Hmm... Curses. Now, dear. It's no problem! We can be friends still. Although I have little to offer. N-No, it's not that. We'd be pleased to be friends. Hohoh! Wonderful! I don't get too many visitors... This must be fate! ... We'll, um, come back. We're on a mission for now. Come back soon, dear!This always gets me in the feels a bit. Leif actually found someone he used to know in the past, and she can't remember him at all or tell him anything helpful. We can talk to her again: It's good to see you again. You bring me some peace of mind. I worry about Ellie too much!Also, I like that she has a nickname for the Queen, it helps humanise her a bit after what we've seen. It's a bit of a cliche to have the overfamiliar elderly servant/nurse/etc type like this, but there's a reason it works. So Rebecca was around, even in the early days? Yeah. She was taller but dressed the same. She's really stuck around... I've never met a bug so old! Right here. Eep! U-Um, sorry! Heheh. Really? A bit of levity in the new banter after meeting her.  If we look around the room, there are several more of the stained glass windows of Elizant II, as well as another copy of the Elizant I painting on the far wall. We can't interact with these, though. (And, to my knowledge, only the prior ones work for getting the discoveries.) There's also an amusing general banter in here: I've heard of this place. It's the War Room! So, what, they fight in here? Err, no. This is a place to discuss strategy and missions... Should just call it the Mission Room, then! Vi's observations are, as always... very on point. What's that supposed to mean!?Weirdly, I don't think we'll ever see this room actually used for that purpose! All the councils take place in the throne room, like we saw before.  Outside, we can talk to the lieutenant. Indeed... Our search for the artifact has helped others. I am truly glad. (If only we had bested it back then...)We can also talk about her: The laiu... lieu... the ant captain's really cool! Lieutenant, Vi. ...As I was saying, pretty cool! Maki, Zaryant... The Queen has quite a dependable ensemble. We just hope they follow out of more than obligation.Speaking of Maki, there's also a new version of the banter about the door guards, now that he's no longer with us. Now that's a big door. I bet there's huge treasure on the other side! Hmm... not quite. Ants have their own society isolated within this anthill. There are probably housings and other structures for them to come back to after a hard day of work. There's probably a lot of hoarded food, too. Not listening. I'm not giving up on my big treasure dreams!That's a bit more detailed than before. All Maki said amounted to "non-Ants can't go in there".  We can actually go downstairs now! And if you look closely, the cable is indeed gone now. Hmmmmmmm... Um, what is it, Vi? This is a miner ant, right? Seems like it. But she's not mining at all! She's just guiding people to the mine. It's like studying to be a chef, but having to work at the bank! You've made us feel a bit sorry for her... Don't be like that, you two. Maybe she doesn't even like mining, and this is her dream job! Guess we'll never know...You could ask her, Kabbu. (Also, Vi's remark puzzled me at first, but I think it makes a bit more sense when you remember that the money of this world is edible berries? I think she's saying a chef at the bank would have to look at all the food and not be allowed to do anything with it.)  Going into the mines immediately triggers a discovery.    This miner recognises us!  I'm the overseer here at the mines. We're digging tunnels across all of Bugaria to make life easier for everyone. Currently only explorers can use the tunnels we've finished. We haven't opened them to the public yet. We do have someone out to open them, but she's probably slacking off. We're behind schedule already... I hope the Queen doesn't get mad at us again.And also, naturally: The miners look cool. Way cooler than they need to! Might as well do their job in style. (Should we work on our style more...?)And the general one: Just what is Elizant up to with all of these tunnels? It seems the Queen hopes to connect many parts of Bugaria with these Ant Tunnels. It's gonna make clearing quests a breeze!If it wasn't already obvious, this is going to become our fast-travel hub. Not quite yet, though.  Ants!  This miner is sleeping on the job, it seems.   If I hurt you swinging this thing, I'll get in trouble with the boss.The exit there takes us into this back room.       These miners hint at some areas we might get to go to soon! (Also, sneaky, there's another one of those suspicious dirt mounds in here.) I wanted to keep going and explore more of Ant City, but this update's gotten quite long and text-heavy (I already needed to break it into two posts!), so we'll do that next time. Before we go, though, here's the alternate scene in the throne room:      Maki, you truly have a keen judge of character. Count your blessings, explorer. Few do I spare the rod in respect to their accomplishments.Full disclosure, I'm still not sure if the "keen judge of character" is meant to be sarcastic or not, and I find the "spare the rod" line really awkward. It's a strange saying to invoke in this context and the syntax doesn't help, I think it could have been worded better. Y-Your Majesty! They are not worthy of being in your presence! Much less your pardon! Stay put, Zaryant. They accomplished what your squad failed to do, didn't they? Ngh... At this point, it rejoins the scene we saw before. Vi hands over the artifact, we get paid, and we proceed to learn about the next mission. I don't like this version of the scene as much, even before getting into some of the awkward wording. Next time, we'll continue exploring the Ant Kingdom, and get started on some side quests. There's a lot yet to see. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Mar 2, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 02:22
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various people posted:build discussions I always love seeing how many different variations people come up with on the same couple of core ideas. vilkacis posted:I think a bug-sized book could hold quite a lot of text, because the text would also be bug-sized Yes, that's probably true. If I wanted to defend myself I'd say I was thinking about the fact you can't scale page thickness down arbitrarily, but it's not worth digging so far, kvx687 posted:'Spare the rod, spoil the child' is a common albeit old-fashioned saying, I think derived from the Bible. She's basically saying if the explorers hadn't proven useful and/or entertaining she'd have them smacked down for sassing her. serefin99 posted:No, the "spare the rod" line seems pretty okay to me. It probably just reads as awkward because it isn't a very common phrase. She's basically saying "I don't normally let people talk to me like that without punishing them, no matter what they've done for me". To be clear, I know the saying. (Though it's arguable whether it should be interpreted in the imperative or in the descriptive, as in, "[You should] spare the rod and spoil the child" versus "[If you] spare the rod [you will] spoil the child, [therefore beat them]". I'm pretty sure it was intended as the latter, but it amuses me the opposite also works.) What I was trying to say was that I thought the sentence as a whole didn't make much sense, and I do still think the wording and syntax are bit clunky. I think what happened is that my brain parsed "in respect" as "with respect", and then it didn't make sense to link "spare the rod" to "accomplishments". I think you've convinced me the sentence is fine, I'll re-edit the post to try to make this a bit clearer. (Have to admit, did not expect my LP of this bug game would involve discussing bible verses.) Twelve by Pies posted:I don't think that has much to do with it. I think it's a lore book so minor spoiler I guess, I'll spoil it just because it's a reward for finding a book but the berries used as currency taste awful, which is why they can be used as currency, since no bugs want to eat it. Aside from the one miner ant, and Vi even remarks "Uh those berries aren't really for eating" when you give them to her. I didn't bring the taste issue up because the game will acknowledge it soon enough, but that's a fair point. Vi's comment does work fine, it just seemed so arbitrary (chef to banker is a total non-sequitur, especially in comparison to miner/mine attendant) that I was trying to find a closer link. Lynneth posted:I feel like that may be a reference to Dr. Strangelove. You can't fight in there, it's the war room! Nice! I completely missed that. (Honestly, there are a lot of one-off references in this game and I'll probably miss a bunch of them, feel free to point them out!) I should rewatch that film one of these days, I love it but I haven't seen it in years. LiefKatano posted:Disabling the healing abilities of old save crystals is an... interesting design decision. Yeah, I have to admit I don't really know what they were going for with this. I think, if I were to bend over backward to steelman it, the idea is that it's a crutch while you're learning the game but they expect you to start thinking more about resource management later on, so they start shifting the healing toward things like inns that charge you a fee, etc. I think non-healing save crystals can make a lot of sense in the context of a longer endurance segment, for instance. I'll also admit that, conceptually, the idea that an area isn't quite the same on a revisit, and/or that it's easier the first time through and provides more challenge on backtrack, is potentially interesting. That said, there are enough free sources of healing still that the crystals changing never becomes more than a nuisance. I'm not going to defend it as a design decision, but I've never found it caused any problems. Carbon dioxide posted:Also, Oh, neat! That trend is definitely a thing, but there will be some exceptions to it later on, it isn't a hard and fast rule. I think one or two of the lore books comment on it too, we'll see that eventually.
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Feb 28, 2021 21:42
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a pillbug is technically a crustacean. So far this game has been really consistent about insects being sentient, and other creatures either being pets or enemies.
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Twelve by Pies posted:e: Speaking of which that reminds me that despite Leif knowing Rebecca immediately, they must have met like maybe once because she definitely has a very good memory about other things that happened much earlier than his expedition. This is a really good point, and wow, that's even sadder. I can think of another reason why she might not recognise him even if they'd had more of an acquaintance than that, but I'd rather not say more about it until it comes up naturally. Alxprit posted:For one thing, I never really agree with MP/BP only stuff. Like, I get the idea of it, and maybe it's just because I'm not good enough at these games, but I found myself really enjoying having the resources to use my skills with TP more than being able to equip more medals. Especially since you do get a bunch of skills from leveling and progressing that are completely independent of them. I focused primarily on TP with a bit of MP on the side and I wish I had been around to actually contribute that to the vote from before. I also did pick HP a few times when I felt like it was getting trickier. My opinions are definitely coloured by having played higher difficulties, I think. I am certainly not saying MP only is the only valid way to play, and there are definitely some reasons to consider putting more points into TP, but I've never really felt the lack of it (if you want to spam one particular skill, then more TP is probably necessary, but otherwise it feels excessive to me, regeneration medals and items are more than enough). And on the HP issue 9 max HP is the magic number for Hard Charge + Last Attack shenanigans, which is exactly where you end up after the free level-up bonuses if you never choose HP. I found even the all-out blitz offence builds like the thread has been talking about started to fall off on those harder modes, especially in things like the boss rush, there was just enough HP and defence for the bosses to live and mess you up if you tried it, and it really doesn't work well if you're doing multiple phases or battles in a row. I had to completely change my thinking after relying on that for so long, and really enjoyed that. That said, you made a perfectly valid choice and I'm not going to undermine it! My first playthrough (on Hard) I levelled everything evenly and it worked out just fine (as I said earlier, I thought it felt more like a traditional JRPG that way). The system is really flexible and there are lots of different ways to play, which is one of the things that makes it so much fun. Alxprit posted:Another thing I wanted to note. I'm sure you're experienced enough to know this but I'll keep it in spoilers in case you want to tell other people later on. Kabbu isn't ignoring defense. He's dealing +1 damage, the same way Leif's attacks do +1 damage to plant monsters. You can tell this because if you lower an enemy's defense to 0 with a spell or effect you get later in the game, Kabbu still deals extra damage to that enemy! I found it handy to utilize around midgame and later. Yes, I know about this, although I might have to do some more testing to figure out the exact details. I wasn't planning to discuss it until finding Antlion Jaws, because that was the context in which I noticed it happening. If Kabbu equips Antlion Jaws, he'll get an extra +1 damage against any enemy with exactly 1 defence (but notably, not more than that! Only if they had exactly 1). I don't think I ever noticed it happening with Defence Down on enemies, and now I'm wondering about Hurricane Toss too, I'm definitely going to have to investigate more. My understanding is that the devs are aware of this bug and made a choice not to fix it. They've said something like the issue is too fundamental to the combat system to be easily changed, but I have to say I don't quite believe this (if nothing else, it's not the best coding practice but you could just stick an if statement to test for these exact circumstances and subtract 1 from the damage at the end, if they didn't want to or know how to fix the formulae); if true, this would suggest some very weird and idiosyncratic things about their code. I suspect it's more an issue of not wanting to release any further updates for the game at this point, which frankly is fair enough.
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Mar 2, 2021 15:24
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07: Cooking with Fry (Part 1) 17 - Ant Kingdom When we left off last time, we'd just finished exploring the Ant Palace. Today we're going to take a look around the greater Ant City area.  It's impressive how well the palace stood the test of time. ...I wonder if the Hive's been remodeled, or something...New banter in the bridge area.  Doesn't she have anything better to do? You're one to talk.And a new one about this ant. No, she doesn't have anything better to do, she has to stay here to ensure players can get the discovery! (Yes, she'll be here for the entire game.)  When we return to the Ant Plaza, Leif stumbles after a few steps and this conversation begins. Sorry about that. Heheh! Well now... Leif, after all you've gone through, you must be famished! ...Welp, he ain't the only one! We should grab something to eat. Yeah. It would also be a good time to prepare for the trip, would it not? Yup! And the commercial area is right over there! The camera pans over to the western exit here. Indeed, and it's got it all! Medals, items, and even a chef! With all that's been going on, a little shopping wouldn't be the worst. Just go easy on the budget. Anyways, let's go hit up Fry for some food!So this is our next immediate objective. Nice and simple. This is a sort of tutorial, the game is making sure we know about the cooking system and forcing us to try it out. That said, I like the way they integrated it, it's not like the characters being hungry is hard to believe. We can also inspect that statue that Eetl wouldn't let us inspect before.  Hmm, isn't it weird? I heard the Queen led everyone here. How come she didn't make a statue of herself? Apparently, the Queen was heading in a different direction when this ant got lost. Rather than abandoning it, she decided to return with her people to find the ant. When they finally regrouped... they were standing on this very soil. Huh. So this whole town was built thanks to a clumsy ant? Life works in mysterious ways. The first Queen was extremely humble. Even if that ant hadn't gotten lost... I'm sure she would have wanted this statue. It resonates with the people. ...Goodbye, Your Majesty.Some nice detail in that conversation, the game is really making sure we don't forget how nice Elizant I was. (Also, of course, Vi being Vi.)  It's a discovery!    Once we have the discovery, checking the statue instead just shows this inscription. There's also a general banter for the plaza now: Ah, the Ant Kingdom's main plaza. It greets both tourists and citizens alike. It is the bridge between the commercial area, the castle and the residential area. To top it off, it has many historical points such as the Inn, the Theatre, and the founder statue. Kabbu, you should look into the tour guide business. Before we go west, we can also find this distressed lady over here by the theatre.  All right, Kabbu.  Sob... Sob... Excuse us, fine lady. Is everything alright? No! N-no, it's not. I've been trying to play in the theater for so long... And I felt like I could f-finally do it... But now Mothiva's so popular... they only want her. They said I'd never be as good as her... And now I don't know what to do, or how to make money. So what? If someone says you can't do something... If you enjoy it... just play! Just do what you can! Who needs that dumb theater!? Y-You're right! I just need to get fans of my own! Um... I'm hoping you'll be my first! If there's any songs you like, I can play them for you. P-please bring berries and come hear me play soon! Our team walk just out of earshot and keep talking. You being so uplifting... We must say we're surprised. I was just being honest! You don't have to make such a big deal about it! I assure you, you've made a huge difference today! Yeah, whatever... It's all up to her now, you know? She'll be fine. Let us drop by later and see what she can do.It's nice seeing Vi have a supportive side, even if it does get filtered through her... unique worldview. Let's see what she has to offer, shall we? H-hello. I'm really happy you came back!  Samira here is the game's sound test, more or less. Every song we've heard will be here, and she can play them for us (replacing the background music until we leave the screen). She charges a fee of 2 berries the first time you play each song; there is also a reward we can get if we buy every song (though not until the postgame, because "every song" includes things like the final boss theme), so don't feel like those berries are wasted. It's also a bit odd: songs appear in the list in the order you encounter them ingame, meaning they may not be in the same order from file to file. This might drive you absolutely bonkers if you have certain kinds of obsessive tendencies, like me (I eventually got over it, but it was a struggle). I also really don't understand why it works that way from a programming perspective; are they actually storing the songs as some kind of list, rather than just binary flags? That has to be rather inefficient, if so. Why do this? Also, you may notice some of the song titles are slightly different than in the OST. In some cases this is because they were too long and didn't fit (e.g. the Spider theme is just "Don't Call Him Spuder" here), but I'm not sure what happened with some of the others (e.g. "FIGHT!" became "Let's fight, Team!"). I'll be sticking with the OST names for this LP.  I don't understand how she's playing an ocarina with that proboscis. Does she have a mouth under there too? What is this anatomy. (Also, she is a beefly; when I looked this up, I found out it is also occasionally known as humblefly. If her personality was deliberately chosen with that in mind, that's quite clever.) O-Ok. I'm always here if you want to hear me play.There's also a new banter about her now: Samira's been doing good. We do pay well. Geez, it's not just that. Other bugs come to hear her play too! Heh. I hope she gets a big following soon.This one assumes we've come back sometime later, it's a bit silly seeing it now when we've barely paid her anything. Even so. The two buildings here in the plaza are the inn and the theatre. We'll be back to see them later, for now I want to get on with things. Let's go to the Commercial District. (If we try to go the wrong direction, like back to the Outskirts, Leif will stop us.) ...Please. We need to eat. The entry to the commercial district. This is the commercial area, the best area of them all! There's a Medal shop, a chef... And Madame Butterfly's store! No other store can compare! Commerce excites you too much, Vi. Heheh. And there's a little something else. But I can't tell you what it is! I suddenly feel like leaving no stone unturned...The banter for this area.  Let's immediately get distracted by an obvious secret behind those weeds. Is this what Vi was talking about?  There's a big arrow on that building pointing at the ground, or more specifically, at that conspicuous lid (look at that! it's a cardboard box with "this way up" on the side, and the manhole cover is a bottle cap. There are a lot of repurposed human artifacts lying around, but the game almost never draws attention to them, it's just a nice subtle background detail). Also, hey, conspicuous dirt mound.  Hmm? What is this place? Heheh. Check THIS out! Entry Code. 2 - 4 - 0 - 5! Last month's code is no longer valid after... the incident. Please use the new code. That was great, Vi. Shut it! Hey! Let me in! It's me, Vi! Ask Shades about me or something! There's no one here unless you know the code. Scram. This place seems... shady. Excuse me, what is this place? ...! Vi, you brought others with you!?  Seriously, what is happening here? If you know what's best for you, you better stay away. All of you. Well, that was a fun detour. Thanks for the good time, Vi. Hmph... I guess we'll have to find the new code somewhere. Maybe someone we help out comes here too! Err... sure. But let us not get too sidetracked.If we ask the party about it, all we get is this: Hm. A weird cover on a shady place. I wonder what is underneath.And interacting with it just gets a voice telling us to leave. Scram.This is obviously something suspicious, and it seems quite important, but there's nothing we can do about it. Vi has gotten herself barred from entry somehow (I love this detail) and we'll have to find another solution. It'll be a while. Just past there, there's someone quite helpful to meet!  That bag looks really heavy. Ants can carry many times their weight. It is quite inspiring. Such strength... Perhaps we were born as the wrong bug... You don't get to complain, you can shoot ice! Please, do not fight in front of Lady Amber. Her work is stressful enough already.Let's talk to her.   For a limited time, we're letting you sign up for a junior account! You can store and take out 35 items for free. For free! Free!? No more tears over having to skip that Crunchy Leaf! Sounds pretty good. Right? There's no way you wouldn't want this. I'll sign you up right now! How wonderful. It's our lucky day! It sure feels nice to get cool stuff without doing anything. This is Amber. She's very enthusiastic about her job! Which is good, because it's a useful one. She manages storage for consumable items. As she said, she can hold up to 35, which helps alleviate inventory frustration (she can hold onto extra things we don't need and free up room to pick up more, keep the things that are too valuable or good to use right away, etc). She can be found offering her services in nearly every town, usually near shops, and even occasionally some other places (don't ask how she gets around or how she's always there when we are). Don't ask me where the number 35 came from though, I have no idea.   The "select multiples" option is new in v1.1, you can press (Y) on an item to highlight it and then give her all the highlighted things at once. Thank you! I will guard it with my life. Would you like to store anything else? (No) Oh, okay! Have a nice day!As proof of concept, I gave her my Magic Seed.  And now it's in her stock, for us to take back whenever we need it. Next to Amber is the shop, but let's talk to some people outside first.   Who's tough now, Seedlings!? COME GET SOME!This guy's name in the internal files is literally "Seedling Slayer", by the way. Pfft. Who boasts about beating up Seedlings? A little kid could do it! That armor looks cheap, too. Oh lord. Oh dear.   M-Maybe I should press (Back) near the townsfolk to learn a bit more about them?Who are we to refuse? Geez, Mun's still in the same spot as always. Still gossiping, huh. Yeah, that can't be a good look! You two can't talk! Over here we have some ant workers who seem to be erecting a new structure. It's weird to see a Miner Ant out on the surface. I wonder what they'll build here. Maybe a house for us. This is the commercial area, Leif. That is unlikely. Details. A house is just what we need! ...I'm just going to end the conversation here.Put a pin in this one.  Further west is the other exit, but we're not done here yet. That would take us to the Residential District, which can also be reached by heading east from the Plaza (don't ask me about the topology of this, maybe it's a long circular path that runs around behind the castle or something? It's convenient, though).  Let's go inside Madame Butterfly's shop.  It's Madame Butterfly! She's got the best prices in the whole kingdom! Ahem. Oh, sorry. I always get excited when I come here. Everything's so cheap, and Madame Butterfly's so pretty! I bet she's super rich, too... Everyone has a role model. Indeed. Let's make sure to shop here for what we need.Honestly, Vi sounds like she has a crush.   If you wish to purchase something, stand in front of the item you desire and press (A). You can do that by yourself, can't you?Just like with the caravan, we can also sell items here. Let's check out what she has in stock: Mushroom (3 berries) Danger Shroom (3 berries) Aphid Egg (2 berries) Honey Drop (4 berries) Crunchy Leaf (3 berries)Vi wasn't kidding about everything being cheap, either. This is a good place to get basic goods if we need them. She doesn't have anything we haven't seen before, though.   This person gives us more hints. I don't know the exact formulae, but this isn't a lie - the higher level an enemy is relative to you (and the longer you take on the button sequence), the more berries you lose when running away from battle. Generally speaking, though, if you need to run away, you probably don't care much about the berries. Poor fellow. It must be rough being so preoccupied while traveling. That's what explorers are for. Post an escort quest, or something. But then you have to pay a reward! As opposed to dropping berries all over Bugaria? Fair.Further south...  Aren't those poisonous? To someone such as I, poison is nothing. Hmm. We will have to try one as well... Uh, no. We really shouldn't.A hint that there might be reasons to eat poisonous items. There's also a banter about him: This Beetle's always at Fry's. He eats pretty much anything... Ah, a true gourmet. We may have things in common. Yeah. You're both weirdos, alright. ...Just to the left of him is the person we came to see. 21 - Fry it Up!Fry's theme is proximity-based, it starts playing when we get close enough to him. This is Fry, the fly! Most chefs live in the royal castle, but he chose to work here. Though I don't get it. He could make more profit at the castle. He probably just wants to see his fellow common bug smile. There has to be more to it than that... What matters is I'm really hungry. Let's get him to cook for us! We could go for a Mushroom Salad. Hmm, a Cooked Shroom would do me good. What's with you two and shrooms? Aphid Omelette all the way! Let's make sure we have the proper ingredients, first.Before we get into it with Fry, let's check to his left.  It's cute sleeping like that... Uh. Well... Fry isn't complaining, so I guess we can just leave him here.According to the wiki, Oma here represents one of the developers. He has several different lines when we talk to him, chosen randomly (I actually don't know if I've seen all of them), giving hints about various recipes we can try to make.  Wrapping some leaves with eggs... zzz... Mushrooms go well with honey... zzz... Cooked... or with honey... both are different... zzz... A big seed... can be served for a trio... zzz...There may well be more. There are a bunch of hints here and there about recipes, but this is a decent start. Let's stop dawdling and talk to Fry.   Interestingly, we can choose whether to cook with one or two ingredients right away, unlike in Paper Mario where two ingredients had to be unlocked by finding a cookbook. Other than that, though, it's basically the same system: we give him one or two items, and get back something else. (Two ingredients)  Oh! We've got some hungry bugs! First ingredient, now! Second ingredient, now! Let's try this first. Watch a master do his work! Fry puts the items in his pot and stirs them around. Hearts coming out indicates a successful recipe! Here it is, a masterwork! Eat up, small fry! And we get a new item. Come back later when your stomach growls again! Ahahahaha!!Fry is certainly enthusiastic. Normally we'd just get the item and be done, but because this is our first time cooking (and loosely part of the plot), everyone goes over to some nearby seating and we have a cutscene.  Can't explore on an empty stomach! It's nice to be able to share like this... Everyone eats. (And, yes, they do eat the item we just made. It won't be in our inventory when we check. If you're trying to be practical here, make something cheap.) Huff... We feel just like new. Literal ages since we ate something. And we get hungry real fast, so... We'll definitely eat here again. It's been nice to share. Sounds good. But it's time to get back to the mission! We've gotta go south, to the Golden Settlement! Off we go! The recipe gets added to the appropriate page of our logbook. I won't bother showing these, as there isn't any new information in them; I'll make an appendix for the recipes and add them to it as we discover them. So why did I go out of my way to get a Burly Berry earlier, if whatever recipe we cook here is wasted? (I had to buy it then if I wanted to use it here, because Leif wouldn't let us go back to the outskirts after entering the palace.) Well, there are a bunch of different versions of this scene, depending on what we cook, so I wanted to test it exhaustively with every recipe that it's possible to make at this point. (I'm obviously not going to keep the save in which I wasted these expensive berries, I'll remake the Berry Jam later.) This is also why I grabbed that Mistake from Leby and Dib. If I hadn't kept that one there'd be no way to test what happens if you cook it. And yes, something happens if you cook that:  Well well, you gave me bad quality ingredients! Not much I could salvage with this! Yes, this is a real recipe. You can compound your Mistakes and make them even worse. (What does this thing do? If someone eats this thing, they'll instantly be sent to 1 HP as well as poisoned for 4 turns.)  Ngh... For the sake of the mission, we must eat... (Poor them. I'll just eat some of my secret stash later!)Then they eat it and the scene picks up from before. (You get this version of the scene for making any "bad" recipe. It's the same for a regular mistake, or also...)  ...this thing, which is what you get if you disregard Vi's advice and combine two drops of honey. (What is "a big price"? This reduces the user to 1 HP. 12 TP is pretty good though, I can see situations in which someone might consider using this.) Then there are special variations for making specific things our team likes. Kabbu likes Cooked Shrooms:  Ah... Nothing like a plain smoked shroom. Healthy, yet filling... It's such a boring meal though... Needs some honey! We're just grateful to have a full stomach at this point. Thanks.Vi, naturally, likes honey:  Glazed Honey is just the best! It's honey, but even better! Mmm... A bit sweet for my taste. We'll eat anything, really... Except a Mistake.And Leif likes Mushroom Salad:  Ah... Our favorite. Fate has smiled upon us. The textures work so well together! ... A bit too savoury. We shoulda put honey in it!It's interesting that two of these (Cooked Shrooms and Mushroom Salad) were mentioned in the banter about Fry, but Vi said something about Aphid Omelette (which is actually called Leaf Omelet) and doesn't react to that. I didn't find any other variations when testing the rest of the recipes, but let's have a full list of what we can make with the ingredients we currently have access to: Mistake (01)"Why would you let this happen? It recovers 1 TP, but don't eat it. Don't say you weren't warned." Recovers 1 TP, poisons user (2 turns). Sell: 1 berry Results from any invalid combination of ingredients.  Big Mistake (70)"Please don't." Sets user to 1 HP, poisons user (4 turns). Sell: 1 berry Made by cooking a Mistake. Leaf Salad (02)"This salad is just many crunchy leaves chopped up, but it looks fancy. Restores 6 HP to one ally." Sell: 3 berries Made by cooking by itself. Glazed Honey (03)"This warm honey's delicious taste is the pride of the Bee Kingdom. Restores 8 TP." Sell: 4 berries Made by cooking by itself. Abomihoney (04)"You should never improperly mix honey! Restores 12 TP at a big price." Sets user to 1 HP. Sell: 4 berries Made by combining two  Cooked Shroom (05)"Nothing like some smoking to improve a shroom. Restores 6 HP to an ally and cures poison." Sell: 2 berries Made by cooking by itself. Cooked Danger (06)"Cooking amplified this mushroom's taste and danger. Restores 5 TP. At a price." Poisons user for 2 turns. Sell: 3 berries. Made by cooking by itself. Sweet Shroom (07)"A mushroom with some honey on top. Yum! Restores 5 HP to an ally and 4 TP." Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Sweet Danger (08)"While this looks AND tastes good, it is still bad for you. Restores 7 TP. At a price." Poisons user for 2 turns. Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Fried Egg (09)"Fry the Fly came up with the frying technique. Restores 6 HP to an ally." Sell: 3 berries Made by cooking by itself. Leaf Omelet (10)"Leaves wrapped in fried egg casing. Restores 9 HP to an ally." Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Honey'd Leaf (11)"This is definitely more honey than leaf. Restores 5 HP to an ally and 5 TP." Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Roasted Berries (12)"A plate of roasted berries, family serving. Restores 2 HP to the party." Sell: 4 berries Made by cooking a or by itself. Mushroom Skewer (16)"Mushrooms cooked on a stick! Restores 6 HP to an ally and 3 TP." Not poisonous! Sell: 6 berries Made by combining two types of mushroom, such as and  Hearty Breakfast (17)"Bugaria's staple breakfast. Restores 5 HP to an ally, 3 TP, and cures poison." Sell: 6 berries Made by combining and  Mushroom Salad (18)"It has a different, yummy texture in every bite. Restores 8 HP to an ally and cures poison." Sell: 4 berries Made by combining and  Berry Jam (42)"A thick and spicy jam made from two kinds of berries that boosts attack and defense during battle for 2 turns." Sell: 12 berries Made by combining and That's a pretty good variety of things we can make! At this point I usually just see what I can make out of whatever I had lying around after Snakemouth.  Here's what I ended up with. I will draw your attention to Roasted Berries, too: this is the first source of full-party healing we've seen (and the only way to do that right now), though it's not exactly efficient. It's expensive to make and not very strong. There will be a cheaper way to make them soon enough, but it involves an ingredient we can't get just yet. That's it for cooking, at least for right now. From where our team gathered to eat, we can glimpse hints that there's a medal shop just to the east. Let's have a look at that.   Ever picked up a resistance Medal and thought "Pfft! I can just block! I don't need them!" Well, they actually have a hidden effect! If you have them equipped and eat an item that causes a status effect... Let's just say the results of that experiment should be obvious, huh?This is an interesting hint! Medals like Poison Resistance give 50% resistance to the status when inflicted by an enemy attack (if you don't block; as he says, blocking, even a regular block, will prevent status from being inflicted), but confer immunity to that status from items. There are certainly times when this can be good to know. There's also a banter about this guy: What a fanatic! Some bugs truly live to equip Medals! Medals ARE awesome! Wish they were cheaper, though... Costing a bit less MP wouldn't be the worst, either.I'm never sure how to feel about characters openly acknowledging game mechanics in dialogue. I usually dislike it outside the context of tutorials, as it can really break immersion.  Which he is now selling at high prices. Indeed. It's surprising that he would part with his possessions, but I won't judge. After all, these will be quite useful on our journey. Travel, treasure, and power! Now that's the life!This is Merab. He sells medals.   Medals! Those great things you see on display! They are really useful! By equipping them, you can get many effects, from simple stat changes to new moves and challenges! You can equip them to anyone on your team, so mix and match for different effects! I change up my stock now and then, so be sure to check back often!Specifically, he tends to get new medals in stock each time we finish a chapter. (How do we use medals) Easy! You can press (Start) and equip them from under the Medal menu! Medals require MP to equip, and each Medal requires a different quantity of it. Your MP is shared across your team. Some medals can be equipped to different teammates, others affect everyone at once! Make sure to use (D-pad Left) and (D-pad Right) to switch who you are equipping to! Please try out multiple Medal combinations to triumph in any situation!He's not really telling us anything we don't know, but still, good to have it in one place I guess. "We'd like to see more medals" will cause him to reshuffle which medals are on display; he can have more than three in stock, but only a random three will be displayed (and therefore available for us to purchase) at any given time. Let's see what he has right now: HP Plus (45 berries) Poison Resistance (35 berries) Hard Hits (30 berries) TP Plus (55 berries) Sleep Resistance (30 berries)We have HP Plus and Poison Resistance already, but we can get an additional copy of each if we so desire. Sleep Resistance is just like Poison Resistance, but for sleep. TP Plus costs 3 MP and gives us 3 TP, so it's the equivalent of converting a level of MP into a level of TP (just like in Paper Mario, though in that game HP Plus was also a direct counterpart to levels. Here, well, we could give each bug an HP Plus and that would be the equivalent of taking two levels in HP, but we can't simulate a finer granularity with medals). That's good to have. Hard Hits is a challenge medal, it increases enemies' attack by 25% in return for doubling the berries they drop. This is convenient if you feel the need for grinding, or also just if you're getting bored and want to ramp up the challenge a bit. I'm not planning to use it on-screen in this LP, but I'll definitely grab it for offscreen grinding if/when that becomes necessary.  Alright, take it on a great adventure! Whenever we buy a medal, it also reshuffles the entire current stock.   Please check for other wares you might want!Merab seems to have multiple possible lines after you buy something. I also bought Hard Hits and TP Plus. I can't afford the other two right now, but I'll be back for them soon enough; I have other priorities for my remaining berries.  TP Plus is obviously going on. I gave the second HP Plus to Leif for now.  That's all for the Commercial District (for now). Let's go check out the rest of the town. (Once again, I hit the character limit and need to split the post. Really hoping I'm not going to make a habit of this...) Explopyro fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Mar 17, 2024 |
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Mar 4, 2021 19:51
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07: Cooking with Fry (Part 2) This is the Residential District. There's not as much here, but it's still worth a look around. There's a lot of houses here now. Is that so? How was it back then? It was only the fountain. This was more of a social spot... Huh. They turned a park into housing? As more people came in, it was inevitable. But we do miss the park...  No probs. I'm the queen of multi-hit super smackdowns!This person has some more tutorial/hint text for us. Some flying enemies need two hits before they'll fall down, but Vi's multi-hit skills will work on them just fine. There's an odd banter here, too. Hmmmmmm... You okay there? Look at the middle green coating covering its chest! Maybe I should stick some leaves on myself... and try to emulate the look? Were you seriously thinking about that?Kabbu has really weird fashion sense. Then again, is this guy wearing the bug equivalent of a cravat? Maybe it's not so crazy.   This person seems to be trying to cosplay as a Seedling? Or is it camouflage? Ants can grow hair? Those are leaves, Vi. (Really?) R-Right... Inside the house that person was standing near, there's a spring mushroom.  Eophi and Mun live together, but Mun is currently in the commercial district, we met him earlier. Leaves can grow in such pretty patterns! What a cute mask! And they never grow exactly the same. He's lucky. It makes every mask more valuable, too! The fountain is water. That, obviously, means only one thing.  Leif can freeze it like any other geyser, so we can get across.  There's a medal up here!  Bug Me Not! is one of the reasons the save crystals turning blue never causes much of a problem. This lets you skip battles if the enemies are too low-level to give you meaningful experience (the game still always gives you 1 point of pity experience if you actually fight them, though). For the Paper Mario players out there, this is Bump Attack - except Bump Attack was always a late-game reward and cost a big chunk of BP (I want to say 5?), while Bug Me Not! is handed to you for free here at the beginning and only costs 1 MP. This is a really nice quality-of-life change, and makes backtracking painless.Very occasionally, enemies defeated with Bug Me Not! can still drop berries or items, but it happens so seldom that walking around with this on is not an effective means of grinding. That said, I personally don't care much for it, and almost always choose not to use it. It feels cheap to me and honestly I'd rather fight the battles anyway. (Also, I should warn people to be careful with this: especially if you're doing all the side content, bonus bosses, etc, you can end up slightly overlevelled and then this thing will make your experience of the story content underwhelming. It will work on an enemy even if you've never seen or fought it before.)  If we talk to this guy, he seems to catcall Vi. (Hey, that's a tophat, not a fedora. What gives?)  She is not amused. It's called flirting, Vi. I didn't ask him to! I'm leaving. Bye.There's a bit more in the banter: That's a pretty charming dude. He's gotta pick who to charm better!Bomby isn't a bee. He's another beefly, like Samira. I don't think Vi is being speciesist though, she just seems annoyed.  In the other house on this level, we find this sinister-looking guy.  A tip for you: stay away from water. You never know what kind of monsters might be lurking below the surface.What happened to him? I agree with this guy, totally. Water sucks! If an artifact's underwater, we're done. We quit. ...Yeah. I will not pretend I would not be discouraged. Is that a gumball machine?  Not quite. Or at least, not any more. A bank, huh... Sounds like a good idea to open an account, in case something happens to our berries. I don't know. I don't trust anyone else with my berries. What if they run away after we give them a bunch? This bank is endorsed by the Ant Queen. We believe we used to have an account here ages ago. ...But we are sure they have terminated our account ages ago, too...Let's see how this works.   Welcome. I offer banking services here. Annoyed when your wallet is full and no longer has space for that berry? Panicking when thieves steal your hard-earned money? Then my services are just for you! I can offer you an account here at my bank to keep your berries safe when you're out doing whatever you do. I don't know... I like my berries close to myself! This is the kind of attitude that makes you never move forward in life! Look, if you keep your berries here, you might even get some interest every now and then! You'll earn a small percent of your account every 30 minutes! It's free money! Free money's even shadier! Just think about it, won't you? ...What's that, you don't even have 50 berries? Well... come back when your wallet is a bit fuller. Then we can talk.The bank is exactly what it sounds like. It's well worth opening an account, though maybe not this early since there's so much else to buy; still, I'll be doing this as soon as I can afford it. We can carry up to 999 berries on our persons, and the bank can store up to an additional 10,000 (which is far more than we could ever conceivably need). They also pay out interest every 30 minutes of game time (and yes, this is as abusable as it sounds, you can just leave the game running and rack up the money if you're so inclined). It pays 2% of the balance at the time it checks (though this is capped at 75 berries per payment). Prior to version 1.1, it was 3% interest and there was no cap, so it could get out of control very quickly.  This person doesn't have much to say, but there's a banter, of course: You know, this is a pretty good spot to sit in. Perfect for some music! Or for long team discussions... Let's enjoy it. Further west, we can cut some weeds to reveal a bouncy shroom.  It launches us onto these ramparts.  What's this?  Oh dear. What will we be able to do with this?  This house in the corner is an inverted teacup!  He doesn't have much to say. We're getting a huge nerd feeling. Don't judge a bug by his cover, Leif! It worked with you two, so...Kabbu makes bad puns, but I'm left questioning why our resident wizard has such a grudge against nerds.  That's it for the residential district, let's go back to the plaza. As I mentioned earlier, these areas loop around; it feels counterintuitive to me and took a bit of getting used to.  Time to stop ignoring this. Utter helps with the Notice Board. He makes sure to keep the board in pristine shape, and to alert others of new posts. I hear sometimes he helps out people himself! Seems like an outstanding citizen. Vi could learn a thing or two. I'm as outstanding as it gets!Talking to Utter triggers a minor cutscene.   Why, yes I do! Looking for the quick and dirty ones, ain't ya Vi? We would like to see any and all available ones, if possible. Ugh, those are almost never worth it. Nonsense, Vi. Helping others is its own reward. Oh. How noble... It's moving, really. Kinda. Alright! I will make all quests available for you lot. Well... here's hoping for good rewards!If we talk to Utter again: No new quests right now. I'll keep you posted!(This is a bit cryptic. What he means is "no quests have been added since the last time I told you quests have been added", not "there are no quests available".)  He does give us the option to accept all the quests at once, though, which is pretty convenient. I won't do this just yet, though, let's read through the board first:        When we accept them all, Utter reminds us to look in our log for the details. I won't show much of this, because the descriptions we just saw on the board are more detailed.  Proof of concept, though. (Worth noting, again, as we complete these, they'll be marked complete and added to the list at the bottom, where you see chapter 1. Like Samira's songs, these will permanently be in whatever order we complete them in; keep that in mind if you care about it.) This is our first batch of sidequests, so most of them are pretty easy and can be done right now (though, notably, not all of them: the lore book quest will take us the entire game to complete). We'll get a start on these next time. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Aug 8, 2021 |
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Mar 4, 2021 19:52
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Black Robe posted:His missing eye flips sides I completely missed that, wow. Sprite-based games do end up doing that a lot with asymmetrical characters... Alxprit posted:The talky icon for the banker is wrong, or at least it seems to be - you're using the picture for the innkeeper. They're at least different colors even if they look similar. Sorry about this; I know, but it was intentional. I legitimately could not find a sprite for the banker (not just in the portraits from the wiki, but also in the archive I downloaded that purports to be all of the sprite sheets). I don't know what was going on there, but I thought the innkeeper looked close enough that I could get away with using her instead. Clearly I was wrong! Alxprit posted:Cooking is a neat system but I always hated the trial and error aspect of it. Sure, reloading your save to keep wasted ingredients from sticking is fine, but I'd rather just look it up and know what I'm getting out of it. It actually took me way too long to figure out how to make the Hearty Breakfast. Yeah, I wish there were a better way to learn recipes. That said, I'm pleasantly surprised how many little hints there are here and there for some of them, at least. (There is a hint for the Hearty Breakfast, I'll make sure to show that in the next update.) v1.1 does add the "food blogger" NPC in Metal Island, who will just sell you recipe book entries for berries. I guess that's helpful? It's a shame it comes in such a late area though. On the interest thing, it doesn't bother me either way honestly. It is kind of interesting how berries start off reasonably tight, you generally spend them as fast as they come in for a while, but once you can start accumulating interest the game basically transitions to money being no object. I assumed this had to be a design goal of sorts, they wanted berries not to be part of endgame currency management? I don't know why they changed both the rate and the cap, when just the cap would have sufficed to do what they wanted.
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Mar 4, 2021 22:34
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Unless he's winking or something.
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Procrastine posted:No way, what kind of hosed up bug would run a fake bank scam? Hah, you caught that one! I seem to recall they make that reference even more explicit in a later line. I haven't actually played Hollow Knight, so I might miss a few, but there are definitely multiple references to it in this game. Procrastine posted:Since my last post I've now played through the game and seen the credits, though there's still more left to do. Game good! I feel like Chapter 1 is a rough start? Snakemouth Den is kind of visually unappealing and there's no NPCs, things get way more interesting starting here. Maybe I'm just making excuses for having played Chapter 1 some months ago then abandoning the game until now Yeah, I think this is a common opinion. I definitely think the game only gets better as it goes on, and that Chapter 1 can make a bad first impression. (I've also seen some critics point out that the evolving title screen is neat, but means that new players will necessarily be greeted with the most boring and lifeless version of it, which doesn't make a great first impression.) For better or worse, the game doesn't put its best foot forward. I think this is at least partially a consequence of the development cycle, Chapter 1 was completed early so it could serve as the demo and barely changed. I can see why Snakemouth could be unappealing (I don't think I quite realised just how dark the whole thing is until I was taking screenshots), but it never bothered me. I also really enjoy how it structured the tutorials and built them into the escalation of the dungeon itself. Twelve by Pies posted:That is one thing I feel that TTYD did very well, was letting you walk around Rogeport and look at all the crazy stuff going on like the noose in the square, the rival mafia gangs fighting for turf, the general shady dudes hanging out in alleys, all that stuff. It let you get a bit of the feel of the world before throwing you into a dungeon like Bug Fables does. It's even slightly worse in Bug Fables since even after you complete the dungeon Eetl railroads you into the castle and doesn't even let you examine the statue. I understand it's story reasons (trying to show the Artifact is a really big deal) but it would have been nice if you could explore the town a bit before Snakemouth (though have the castle itself blocked off). This is a good point, and I think in retrospect this game might've been better served by blocking off less of the town at first. Maybe blocking off the palace and the residential area, but leaving the plaza and the commerce district open? (This way they could've teased some medals and items too, so the player would know what the currency they're collecting is for.) I have mixed feelings about TTYD, honestly (I definitely prefer PM64 and did even at the time), but Rogueport was great and you've absolutely nailed why. Twelve by Pies posted:It also seems you can only buy a limited number of recipes. I was tired of cooking so I figured I could buy the ones I was missing from him (though there's a handful of recipes he won't sell you, Big Mistake is one as are the specialized meals), but after buying a bunch he said he didn't have any more recipes for me, and I was still missing about fifteen recipes. Maybe he has more if you wait a while and come back but it does seem like you can only fill out a small portion of your cookbook through him. Wow, really? That's just weird. I'm going to have to do some testing when I get there in the LP, then. I've never actually bought a recipe from him, in every one of my prior playthroughs I'd already had the recipe log filled (or near enough) before meeting him so I have no idea how it actually works. Torrannor posted:This is a very lovingly crafted world. Ever since Pigmin, I have a soft spot for seeing human "artifacts" used as building blocks for the environment. The characters are still quite charming, making the humblebee a shy singer was really cute. I can't say often enough how much I love the worldbuilding in this game. Torrannor posted:I wonder whether the current ant queen will be the final boss, what with her pretty domineering attitude, and the game constantly pointing out the contrast to the much more loved first ant queen. Hwurmp posted:not until she finds a magnifying glass and becomes the Demon Goddess Ascend-Ant A lot of people seem to get this impression very quickly (and/or go "are we the baddies") after the throne room scene. Alxprit posted:I really love what they end up doing with Elizant II but I dare not say more. Same, and same. FoolyCharged posted:Dang that bank nerf is huge. I guess they dont want you walking around with 999 berries at all times. Leaving the game on while I was at work was too strong, i guess. It's weird, because I definitely thought the whole idea of the bank interest was to make berry management become obsolete past a certain point. It still does that even after the nerf, honestly. vilkacis posted:Oh, i like that big mistake. Both the description and the censored I know, isn't it great? (Although, technically, Breath of the Wild got to the blurred-out icon joke first with "dubious food", I'm not sure if this was inspired by that or just convergent evolution.)
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Mar 6, 2021 00:25
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08: Sidequesting in the Ant Kingdom (Part 1) 17 - Ant Kingdom When we left off last time, we'd gotten a bunch of sidequests off the quest board. It's time to get to work on them, though there's one other thing to do first.  We can finally go inside the theatre. 22 - Fine Arts It took me a bit to realise what was going on here, but if you look at the gears on the side, and the tumbler to the right of us, it becomes clear this building is a repurposed music box. Ain't this place fancy. A bit too fancy. It's straight out of the Bee Kingdom. Yuck. You know, Vi... for someone who cares so much for treasure, you dislike most high-class establishments. It's just too pretentious! Use money to eat good food, or go on a trip! I hate when bugs use money just to look important! Ah, Vi. You're not too bad after all. What's that "after all" supposed to mean? Just take the compliment, Vi. Just take it.I like this one, but I do think it's worth pointing out that Vi's feelings about this sort of thing are a bit inconsistent. What happened to "I want to put statues of myself everywhere", Vi?   Here's one of this game's trickier hidden items (or at least one that eluded me for quite a while!). Attacking the drum with Kabbu's horn makes it rotate, and if you get it going fast enough a Crystal Berry pops out. (It also plinks out a few notes of the game's leitmotif while spinning, a nice touch.)  What's he doing here anyway? This place will fill up with fancy folk. Maybe he is selling expensive items. We should speak to him, perhaps he has something of use.Fuzzo's relocated in here, explaining why we didn't see him outside by the caravan. He normally travels around with them. Let's see what he's up to.  Heh. You look like smart bugs. Some of us are. Can we help you? Heh heh. Sure you can. I've got an offer you just can't beat. Gold? Some legendary berry? Perhaps a powerful medal? Heh heh. Take a look... at THIS! Kabbu's reaction here is priceless, there's no way I wasn't going to GIF that. ...! Is... is THAT...!? Only 10 of them were ever made! Eh. It's alright, I guess. ...Bug Ranger? P-please, esteemed merchant... name your price! Oi, Kabbu! Heh heh. For you, how about 40 berries? Hngh! A bit steep. ...... Kabbu. D-Don't worry, you two. I shall save up and buy it myself. Fine. It's your own money. Heh heh. I will be waiting.I'll explain what exactly this is in a minute. Needless to say, this is what I was saving my berries for earlier, and the reason I didn't buy another medal or open the bank account.  (No thanks) Heh heh. This offer won't last forever, mind you.(But of course we're going to buy it.) Heh heh. Nice doing business with you. 05 - Key Item!   Well? Are you happy now? I am happy beyond words! We don't see the appeal of this doll. You've been missing out! They're just actors, but they inspire young bugs all over the land! Even in the north! The power of propaganda. They're good, alright? And sometimes they do reruns at this theater! Say, Leif. Next time they're in town, we can all go watch them! Maybe you will take a liking to the Blue Ranger! No way! Yellow Ranger is the best! ...Heh. Thank you. It sounds like a fun time. We'll take you up on that. So, yeah. The Bug Ranger Plushie. Kabbu becomes a total dork over this thing, there's no way I wasn't going to buy it for him. What is it for? You'll see soon enough. (For anyone playing along, it is absolutely not a necessity to buy this now and you might well want to prioritise something more practical, but for purposes of the LP I have no choice.) We can also check out the proprietor of the theatre, who's waiting on stage.  That's not a real name, is it? Nah, but no one knows who he really is! No one has seen him without his mask! Half of his face is visible... That part is a mask too! What? Unbelievable! I must go rip the mask off myself! No! You're staying right here with us!I don't know why Kabbu gets so aggressive over this guy. That said, half a mask, in a theatre, I think this guy might be a reference to Phantom of the Opera?  Hello, what are yo- Heh, yo- As much as I want to keep this going, we should probably just go.This is what you get if you talk to him, though. (Also, it was surprisingly difficult for me to catch screenshots of the lines he interrupts so I could transcribe them, his interruptions come in automatically. It also plays the "shocked" sound each time that happens.) That happened, I guess. 17 - Ant Kingdom With our new plushie in tow, let's finally get started on those sidequests. First up, the inn requested a review of their services. It's over here, the last building in the square we haven't explored.  This painting catches our attention before we talk to the innkeeper. Ah, the inn founders. Indeed. We owe these cozy beds to them. They'd be happy to know that every new owner took care of the inn with equal passion. Say, why do you think that is? How they could work just as hard for something they didn't create? ... If you ask me, I think it's not about being the founders. They probably shared the same ideals, that's all. You two are getting all sappy. Sounds like nap time! Yawn... Maybe I am a bit tired... Shall we call it a night? You probably guessed where this was going. Yes, this is another discovery!    As per usual, after we have the discovery, inspecting it again yields only a short message. Ah, that is the Innkeeper. The 7th owner of this inn! This place has seen better days. Our support would do some good.Short banter about the innkeeper. Let's actually talk to her.  Heya. We've come to write a review! Oh, by the Queen! Really? I am so glad you've come! Be glad after the review. Our standard fare is 3 berries a night. So for you three, that would be 9 berries - with a free Honey Drop on the house! But since you're writing a review for the inn, you can stay here for free tonight. For free? I won't complain, but... O-oh, um... Worry not, Innkeeper. We will accept your generous offer. Please make sure we have the same experience as all your guests. And we will keep the price of stay in mind for our review. Phew. Alright, then. Your room is upstairs. I hope you'll have a lovely night! We hope so, too. Please come talk to me when you wake up, so I can get your review. 20 - Night at the Inn We get this nice little fade-out animation and a variant on the game's leitmotif when we go to sleep.  Waking up, we've fully recovered our HP and TP, and as promised there's a Honey Drop for the taking on the bench there. While it's not quite free healing from a crystal, at least the inn is nice enough to feed us. We didn't even have to pay to stay this time! Guess we'd better go downstairs and deliver on the promised feedback.   Gulp... I slept pretty well. The Honey Drop you left was great! We haven't had a bed so cozy in years. Or any bed, really. It was good. Alright! Service's still got it! I needed the confidence boost... You're great! I Can't wait to come again! Mhm. Heheh. Come back anytime! And that's it for this quest. Yes, really. We don't get a reward, either, unless you count a free stay at the inn and that Honey Drop. I guess it's fair enough, this was trivial to do; I think this is really here just to introduce us to the inn. Well, that's done with. On to the next one.  Ali, this bespectacled fellow who lives in the teacup house, has a problem with overdue library books.  Oh, hello there! Are you explorers? Indeed, good sir. We've taken your request. Oh, thank you! I really, really need you to return this book to the palace library for me. It's... quite past the return date! Huh? You're not an Ant though, right? How'd you take it out? Oh, I asked Gen and Eri to get the book for me. They seem to be busy, so they can't return it. Here's the book. You're really helping me out here! Bleh, I hate being an errand bee... The reward will be quite worth it! So please make haste, for the sake of my record... Oh, and deliver it to Libren, ok? Brooke's scary enough without turning in late... Sure thing. Leave it to us.(He doesn't even realise the library don't know he has the book in the first place. Surely they'd blame Gen and Eri if anyone? Pretty sure Ali's reputation is completely safe.) 18 - In the Court of the Ant Queen Heading into the Ant Palace, I make use of this convenient save crystal, because I'm definitely trying both options here.  We have a book to return. Oh? Thank you! It is a bit overdue... but I will forgive you as explorers are always busy. Thanks for your patronage! Alright. Let's return to Ali and get our reward.That was straightforward and not terribly interesting. What happens if we go to Brooke instead?  We have to give it to her through the Key Items menu, like we do with Lore Books. Wait, that book is WAY overdue! W-we apologize. Apologies won't cut it! Although Gen and Eri were the ones that picked it up, right? Well, book's delivered. Let's go back and get our reward.Not too different, really, but that's a little more interesting at least. It's a nice touch that they let you give it to either of them for different dialogue.  While we're here... What?! That book is a disgrace to this library! Get that out of here!Okay, okay, I didn't think she'd want that. (Especially since we know someone else who does. Let's go see him, since we're already right here.)  Says the Wasp. We saw your request. You're, um, searching for terrible books. Correct? That's right. ...Yes. But there's some sort of... angry comfort in witnessing their poorly composed narratives. We're not here to judge, so... Any leads on these books? Not really. I reckon other cultured bugs with a collection have bad books lying around. They usually let bugs take them for free. Yikes, you can't even sell those books... I've made this library my den. I'll be here if you find something. Ah! This is one of the worst ones! Let's see... Hmph. "Tragedy on the Hills".  Uh, are you sure you want this? ...Yes. It's going straight into my collection. Here's your reward. Two more should sate my urges... Let me know if you find more.Sure, he paid us, but the real reward of this quest is getting his commentary on the books we give him  I love Reeves.Sadly, he doesn't have a reaction if you try giving him Lore Books, or the Overdue book from earlier. I did try.  Before we leave, let's try something special. What happens if we try to give Brooke the Bug Ranger Plushie?  I-Indeed... are you a fan of the Bug Rangers? Well... yes. I love reading the comics. Looks like you found a new friend, Kabbu! Hehe... it's always nice to find other people that like the Bug Rangers!Yeah. This is what it's for. Any time we're prompted to use or give a key item, we can choose the plushie instead of whatever we're meant to and it will usually trigger an easter egg conversation. There are some fun ones. I'll be seeing most of these for the first time now too; I never thought to do this in my prior playthroughs. Sadly, Reeves didn't have a reaction when I tried it on him. I was quite disappointed. We also have enough Discoveries to get the next reward from Libren. Hey there! Came to turn in some Discoveries? Let's see how you've done! This time you have 11 Discoveries, last time you had found 7... Looks like you have enough for the next reward tier! Here you go! An actually meaningful reward this time! Nice. We're racking up a lot of these things. Though, of course, we still don't know what they're actually for, and it'll be a while yet before we can use them. Anyway, let's go report back to Ali.  It was a walk in the park. Now you get to deliver our reward! Of course. This should be enough, I think! Nice! Hard, cold berries!  This is like, super inefficient! We're charging double! S-sorry! I gave you all the spare berries I had, though... It's alright, Vi. We can return it after a briefing! That's not the point! Just this once, Ali. We'll definitely charge next time. T-Thank you... I'm very grateful! Obviously, the Lore Book is the real reward for this quest. Let's go turn that in.  The Crowning of Elizant II. After tears were shed of Elizant's too sudden retirement, it was time to crown the new Queen. Elizant II's speech radiated power over kindness, leaving many uneasy. Although everyone cheered, doubt and fear festered amongst the populace. They could only wait and pray that their new Queen would be just.This isn't really new information to us. Back to sidequests we go, then.   Tod requested we find his ball. He doesn't have anything to say, just asks if we've found it. We haven't, but I can try the Bug Ranger Plushie!  W-whoa, is that a green Bug Ranger plushie?! Can I really have this?! Hee hee hee! Aw man, what a bummer!I do think it's interesting how what set off these conversations changes (they're usually pretty silly, though). With Brooke, the implication was Kabbu showed her the doll, or she just spotted him carrying it. Here, Vi snatched it from him and tried to give it to Tod without his permission! Sadly for Tod, I'm putting his quest off a bit. It's more convenient to do the others first. 06 - Outskirts Chuck wanted a Hearty Breakfast, so let's go take him one. I made one earlier during my cooking spree for just this occasion. Notably, the gate to Snakemouth Way is open again, so we can get to him just fine.  Snakemouth Way is unchanged so far; I fought a few Seedlings as I went and got the last few points needed to reach Rank 4!  More MP. More.  Kabbu learns a new skill at Rank 4!  Heavy Strike costs 3 TP and deals +2 damage compared to his normal attack. Like his normal horn strike, it ignores 1 point of defence. This isn't spectacular, but it definitely has its uses, especially early in the game: we don't have a lot of sources of burst damage, and one big hit can be particularly handy against enemies with high defence.  Here's a demonstration. The action command is the same as before, just with a longer charge-up. If this reminds you of Power Smash from Paper Mario, you're not alone.  This is new. Looks like someone put up a gate blocking the way to Snakemouth Den.  If you have any complaints please direct them to the Ant Kingdom Safety Committee.There's an Ant Kingdom Safety Committee?  At least that old bug that lives nearby says hi sometimes.The guard's been moved out here too, it seems. Hey, isn't this the Ant we met at the gate near the association? Indeed. It seems she was reassigned here after we found the artifact. She looks so bored. I guess nothing really happens here. It really is blocked off, we can't get through with the abilities we have. This does mean that players who missed any of the medals or crystal berries in Snakemouth Den will have to wait a bit longer before being able to go back for them, but there will be ways back in there eventually, so they're not lost for good.  However, this path (which our characters refused to take last time we were here) is now available.  It's Chuck's house! Hmm. So this is Chuck's Abode? Uh huh. I think he calls it a hut though. Is there really any difference? For someone so well spoken to make such a basic mistake... W-What? It's just such a shame. Eh, there's no time. We'll tell you later. Leif is such a troll.  Yeah, whoever that is. Vi, you know fully well that's Chuck! His hut has been coming along well. We should say hi. Before he takes a nap. Or he croaks. *Grumble*This is kind of mean.  Looks like Chuck has something in common with Kabbu. Chuck, we saw your posting on the quest board. Let's give him the wrong thing.  Go visit Fry in the commercial plaza. I can't wait much longer!This is your hint if you don't know how to make a Hearty Breakfast. (He doesn't actually keep whatever item we tried to give him.) I'm not sure how helpful this actually is, though - I have seen some people find it by e.g. assuming "hearty breakfast" is descriptive rather than an item name and giving him a Fried Egg or the like, but the fact you have to pick the wrong thing to see the hint means a lot of people never see it. Anyway, let's give him what he wants now.    Whew. Thanks, you all. Yer always helping me out. I was so desperate I ate a raw Mushroom. Never really liked them... No problem. The breakfast platter is one of our favourites. A bit too savoury for me... I've got a better reward for ya this time! 10 - Medal Found! That might look like a plain rock, but it packs a punch! Just like me when I don't have food... Thank you, Chuck. It was nice to see you again. Be safe, now! If you ever feel tired, I'd be glad to lend my place to you! That's it for this quest!  Let's take note of this boulder for the future. It shakes slightly if Kabbu tries to hit it, but nothing we do can actually move or damage it, we'll need to come back later. Our reward for Chuck's quest is actually twofold. In addition to the medal he gave us, Chuck's home now acts as a free inn whenever we want it. (It's a little out of the way compared to the inn in the plaza, but it's not that hard to get here if you need healing. My first playthrough, I didn't realise you could actually rest here, and kept spending berries at the inn.)     Mighty Pebble is interesting. This is our first skill-granting medal; it's treated like a global medal, but equipping this gives Kabbu a new skill. Pebble Toss costs 1 TP. It's a ranged attack that can target any enemy, and can knock them down if they're flying, but it always does 1 damage. Always, regardless of Kabbu's attack power, exhaustion, enemy's defence, etc. 1 damage. You might be able to do some tricks with this later in the game, but honestly it's pretty underwhelming. I'll put this on for now so I can demonstrate it. I have the MP to spare so it's no object right now, but I usually don't use this medal much. 03 - Where Adventurers Gather The next quest we have is for Eetl, but on the way to meet him, we run into Kina. Dear me... Kina's always worrying about her brother. Maybe a bit too much? Can't blame her. Maki keeps running off by himself.Short banter.  We saw him in our meeting with the Queen... Didn't he go off to the Golden Hills? Ugh, no luck. I've already checked! A-Already!? Kina, your brother is one of the most respected explorers! He will be okay! I know, I know... But the nerve of him going without me! We're an unbeatable team! What if he needs me!? Maybe he wanted some alone time? Holy Goddesses! Uhh... nothing. Nothing at all. That's what I thought! S-She's scaring me. Let's get out of here!The banter updates after talking to her. Now there's a new line at the end: Dear me... Kina's always worrying about her brother. Maybe a bit too much? Can't blame her. Maki keeps running off by himself. S-she gets a bit scary. I don't blame HIM!And if we talk to Kina again: Just leave me alone. I'll worry by myself. *Sigh* Good job, Leif. We didn't do anything...All right then. Let's go to Eetl.  So it seems. We can't imagine him questing, though. He's gotta relax more, too! Vi, please don't cause him any trouble. I won't! ...As long as he doesn't cause ME trouble.New banter about Eetl. Also, that line about him managing the quest board isn't a lie, that's a functional quest board behind him just like the one Utter manages in the plaza. These are all linked and have the same quests on them, and when a new quest becomes available it will appear on all the boards simultaneously. Let's talk to him.  Is... that bad? We'd just like to help... No, um, I just figured you were busy with more important stuff. Don't sweat it! If it pays we'll do it! A-Alright. Thanks a lot. Your team is more reliable than I expected. It's a pretty simple job, really. Take this package. What's in this? Don't open it, okay? Just deliver it! My friend's a diver ant in the Bugaria Pier east from the Association. To reach it, just keep walking! She'll be waiting with a little something. No worries. Cool. We'll get going, then. Good luck with the paperwork.This one's going to be a bit more involved, thankfully. 06 - Outskirts This bridge we couldn't cross earlier is the way we need to go.   There's a banter about this ant guard. Is this the soldier that was guarding the Snakemouth Gate? Hm... No, this seems to be someone else. How can you tell? Most soldiers look alike. It's the glimmer in her eye! The aura she radiates! ...There's numbers on the armor.I like this one. (Once again, due to the character limit I need to split the update here. Sigh.) Explopyro fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Mar 12, 2021 |
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Mar 11, 2021 19:34
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08: Sidequesting in the Ant Kingdom (Part 2) This place ain't too shabby. It's a popular hangout spot for tourists. And for, well, the Ladybugs. With them, it's more that they have nowhere else to hang out... Did the Queen really have to keep ALL of them out? Don't ask us. ...These are things we cannot control. It's best that we focus on our mission. Looks like there's a new kind of enemy here!  Oops.   You know the drill by now. Spying time!  If it digs under, we'll use magic to bring it up. Let's try to capture one... for research.Underlings are a new Seedling variant, based on root vegetables. These guys are a big step up from the enemies we've been facing so far, they have 12 HP so it's unlikely we can take them out in a single turn. Let's see what happens if we attack.  This is Underlings' main gimmick. They counter any attack by burrowing under the ground. While underground, most attacks can't hit them. Right now, Leif's basic attack is the only thing we have that works on buried enemies, so let's do that.  Hitting it while underground forces it to surface. Also worth noting, as a plant-based enemy, Underlings are weak to ice.  Underlings have two attack animations while above ground, this is the other one. Both of these attacks do the same damage, but the timing is slightly different! We finish it off.  Underlings are worth 7 EXP right now, which is good because now that we're rank 4, the basic Seedlings are no longer worth any. If I didn't explain this explicitly before, enemy EXP yield is a function of both their level and yours, so as you level up, familiar enemies' EXP yield will degrade, eventually reaching 0 (at which point Bug Me Not works on them). This encourages you to keep finding new enemies to fight, rather than grinding the easy stuff (though you can if you want to badly enough, because a battle will still give you a pity 1 EXP if none of the enemies gave any).  It drops a bunch of berries, and also a purple thing we've never seen before.  This is a new kind of item! It acts just like the Danger Shroom if we use it, poisoning for 2 turns. More importantly, though, this opens up a couple of new recipes, and some of them are good, so these are worth grabbing if you have room. Right now, killing Underlings is the only source of these; I don't know the exact drop odds but I'd guess it's around 20% or so. What can we make with these?  Baked Yam (20)Sell: 4 berries "Cooking this yam got rid of its toxins, making it safely delicious! Restores 7 HP to an ally." Made by cooking a  by itself Spicy Fries (21)Sell: 12 berries "These fries will make you see red! Restores 4 HP and boosts an ally's attack for 2 turns." Made by combining and Burly Chips (22)Sell: 12 berries "Chips with a dash of burly berry! Restores 5 HP and boosts an ally's defense for 2 turns." Made by combining and  Danger Dish (23)Sell: 7 berries "A very, very dangerous dish filled with all kinds of toxins. Restores 2 HP to an ally, 2 TP and poisons for quite a while." Inflicts poison (4 turns) Made by combining and These are some useful recipes! Making Baked Yams is convenient if you just have a glut of the things, Danger Dish is obviously meant as an enabler for poison-based strategies, and we have upgrades to the buff items. Spicy Fries and Burly Chips are already quite good, but there's a quirk with them we'll learn about later in this chapter that makes them even better; these are some of the best stat-increasing items for the first two-thirds or so of the game. Remember these recipes. Also, yes, potatoes can really be poisonous, although I don't know that I've ever heard of them being this small. Like tomatoes and aubergines, potatoes are a nightshade cultivar. Don't eat green potatoes, friends.  There's a staircase to the south.  Down here is a waterfall, a cave entrance, and a flying Seedling.  Well, that's quite an escalation over the lone Underlings we just saw!  A well-placed Icefall helps us make quick work of the Seedlings.  Here's how Underlings attack while underground. This attack is slightly more dangerous than the ones it uses while aboveground, as it will cause poison (for 2 turns) if not blocked. After using this attack, the Underling stays above ground. Time to clean up.  Proof that regular Seedlings no longer give EXP.  There's another sneaky secret here. Waterfalls often hide things in video games, don't they?  If you stand at the tip of the rock and throw Vi's Beemerang into the waterfall, it'll bring back this HP Plus medal! This is our third one. Vi can have this for now. A lot of people like stacking all of these on Kabbu right now, and I won't deny there are good reasons to do that, but I personally like to give each bug one at this stage. 9 HP is a lot more comfortable than 7 when not planning around Taunt strategies.  Now to check out this cave.  This is all that's in here. We can interact with that dais, and it brings up the Key Items menu, but we don't have the right item (and for better or worse, it doesn't react to the Bug Ranger Plushie). There is, at least, a banter in here: What a peculiar cave. Huh... There's nothing here! Just a rock! ...We can feel magic coming off this cavern. It's hiding something.Whatever this cave is, we'll need to come back to it later.  A stepping stone lets us platform across the stream.  There's another Underling here.  Underlings are really aggressive in trying to first strike, but if you have good timing you can get Kabbu to whack them as they're falling!  This is pretty similar to the battle we just had.  I decided to use this opportunity to demonstrate Pebble Toss. Kabbu just chucks a rock at them. There's no action command, and no way to modify the damage, this just hits for 1. I guess it's decent utility for knocking things down if Vi ends up dead, or something, but I honestly don't see much reason to ever use this. Maybe it could be a fun challenge to try to deal the final blow to bosses with this?  Also, here's a demonstration of poison. If you miss the block against this attack (and aren't wearing Poison Resistance), you're going to get poisoned.  Poison Defender kicks in, though!  Kabbu takes 1 damage at the end of the turn (after the enemies have finished taking their actions). Looks like I misremembered about it rounding up: poison damage is 10% of max HP, rounded down.  This skull icon next to Kabbu indicates the remaining poison turns.  And this icon of the Poison Defender medal indicates that it's active! This is how the game shows status effects and situationally-active medals; if there are multiples active at once (like now, Kabbu is both poisoned and under the effects of Poison Defender), the game will cycle between icons though only one is on-screen at a time. This is a decent compromise between not showing this information and crowding the screen, I suppose, though it can get pretty silly looking if you stack certain medals and rack up loads of icons. I'm sure we'll see that later.  Kabbu even looks purple in the battle-end screen, though he'll be cured once we return to the overworld. (Honestly, he looks good in purple!)  Before we leave this screen, take note of that little island in the distance! It's hard to see from this distance, but there's one of those suspicious dirt mounds on it.  We still haven't reached the docks yet! Hmm... the route to the Lost Sands. What's got you thinking, Leif? Eh, not much. We're just glad to see they've built a bridge. Even though it's raised. We used to have to hop on a bunch of small rocks. Seems the river's swept those away. Personally, I'm grateful it was lowered when I came to the Association. I wonder why it's up now, though...Lost Sands is the desert area, to the north of here. We can't go there now, though, because the bridge is raised and we don't have the ability to lower it.  The Underling in this screen has brought a new kind of friend with it! There's pretty good enemy variety in this area.  I should try to take it out in one attack!Midges are like mosquitoes, though I'm not sure what they are exactly, because we'll meet sentient mosquitoes and they look quite different. Maybe it's a kind of divergent evolution? Vi alludes to them having a counterattack ability, but we won't see it in this fight. It only kicks in when we're fighting multiple Midges at once.  Midges have two attacks: this dive  and this HP suck, which heals them. I find this one pretty tricky to block.  Midges are worth a lot of EXP right now!  And that battle yields another Danger Spud.  Hopefully we're getting close to the pier?  Ouch! These Underlings are tricky to avoid getting hit by.  Wait, what's this? Vi's dead! And the Underling is nowhere to be seen? What's going on? What IS this thing?  It has unholy defenses...! Not even my piercing horn is getting through! I need to think of a way to prevent its escape while we whittle it down!Golden Seedlings are the Metal Slime, Amazy Dayzee, Shining Pom, etc, the rare-spawn enemy of this game. They have a 1% chance of replacing any Seedling-type enemy (there are ways to increase these odds later in the game, but for now it's always 1%), though thankfully they can't appear in Chapter 1. As we've seen, they do a lot of damage. They're also prone to running away, and they have a defencive gimmick that makes them hard to kill. Specifically, damage dealt to them is divided by 10 (rounded up), so they usually take 1 damage from any hit, and most multi-hit attacks will only deal damage on the first hit (specifically, this applies to attacks like Tornado Toss which don't have new action commands between hits). And, of course, they give massive rewards if you manage to take them down, including a guaranteed item drop that's almost exclusive to them.  I'm running away (note the effect of Quick Flea!). I don't have a chance against this thing unless I start the battle with a first strike, so I'm going to regroup and try again (the spawn chance doesn't get rerolled, it'll still be there). At least I have the spy data now!  I fed Kabbu this Mushroom Skewer, I didn't want to enter the fight with two bugs on 1 HP, though in retrospect this didn't actually matter, it might have been better to give it to Vi.  That's a bit better.  Golden Seedlings are also immune to freezing, of course. It couldn't be that easy!  The trick to keeping these from running away is to have Kabbu taunt them (also, this animation is quite silly when an enemy is frozen). Unfortunately, they do so much damage that he's not going to survive this.  Yep. Sorry, Kabbu. (Incidentally, this damage number might look weird compared to earlier. I found it strange that the damage it dealt when first striking was lower. Like other forms of Seedling, these have two attacks, the ramming dash and this dive. Golden Seedlings' ram deals 12 damage, and the dive does 15, but it seems on a first strike the dive also does 12? I don't think I ever noticed this before.)  Here's where things stood at the start of turn two.  Sadly, I didn't have enough actions to kill it. Vi and Leif reduced it to 1 HP, I was left hoping it wouldn't run away (they don't always), but it did.  To add insult to injury, we don't even get any EXP for this travesty! (It looks like the pity EXP only kicks in if the battle started out having no enemies worth EXP. The only enemy we killed was worth 0 EXP.) Looking back at this footage, I made some obvious mistakes here, and in retrospect there were two different lines of play I could have taken to get a different outcome. 1: on the first turn, I wasted Kabbu's second action killing the normal Seedling (which was frozen, so it was no threat anyway), when I should have had him relay to Leif or Vi and get another hit in on the golden one. Then it would have had 2 HP left going into turn two, Leif and Vi could have killed it and then whoever survived would be left to clean up the normal Seedling. 2: on the second turn, I could have had Leif or Vi use the Magic Seed on Kabbu, then had him taunt again (I had enough TP). This would have left only 1 action remaining, but that'd be enough to get it down to 2 HP, then Leif and Vi would be guaranteed to live to turn three when together they'd have enough actions to kill it. I'm pretty embarrassed I didn't think of either of these while recording, but hey, at least you get to see how tricky these things are! Golden Seedlings. They're scary. We'll talk about Tangy Berries (the special item they drop) once I actually manage to get my hands on one.  Thankfully, that's the last enemy in this area. Are we finally at the pier? 10 - The Sailors' Pier Yes. Woah. I'd never actually seen the pier up close before! Up close, Vi? Mhm. You can kinda see it from all the way up in the Hive... It must be exciting to see those far-off lands! I mean, kinda... But after Snakemouth, I ain't too fond of the water. Say the word, and we'll freeze the whole ocean. N-Now, it's enough to just tread carefully... We can inspect this statue of a ship's helm. What's this... uh... we don't really know how to describe it. It's a steering wheel, Leif! ...A what? It's to drive boats around in the water! ...Hmm. Even when you explain it, it's hard to imagine how it works. Back then, boats were way simpler. Well, you DO have to study a lot to drive a boat... We feel quite outdated... Keep your head high, Leif! There's so much to discover in this pier! The helm statue is a discovery.   Apparently, there have recently been advances in boating technology.  The message after having the discovery.  Let's explore this area!  Looks like this is a restaurant of sorts?  Dan the Gourmet Beetle is here. Talking to him gives us a hint about a recipe, though this is something we can't actually make yet. Despite Leif being able to freeze ice out of the air, and there being rivers everywhere, those won't work, we need a specific kind of water to make tea. We meet again... He really is everywhere! Hope you won't mind if we stay for a snack.Let's see what's on offer.  Hello there! Welcome to Pier Stop! Nice day we're having, huh? We are always open for business! Come back anytime!We can buy food here. We've seen Roasted Berries before (notably, this is a tad cheaper than making it out of a Spicy or Burly Berry), but Berry Juice is new.  Berry Juice (15)"A delicious berry juice! Restores 5 HP to one party member and heals any negative status effect." Sell: 5 berries This is something we'll eventually be able to cook, but not quite yet, it requires ingredients we don't have access to. It's not a bad item, but it's not something I find myself using much. Pier food's got a certain something. It's, uh, saltier? It must be something in the area's water, perhaps? As long as we don't get food poisoning, it's fine.  Wow, that's expensive. I don't think we'll be going to Metal Island any time soon.  There's a diver ant over here. These ants are nuts! Who even wants to go into the water!? Agreed. It's nuts. I'm not saying I want to swim, but... isn't there a thrill to overcoming our insect limitations? To break through that limit, to explore frontiers we never dreamed of reaching? Nuh-uh! I wanna stay dry! There, there. It's gonna be okay, Kabbu. Siiiiiiigh.Eetl's friend is over to the right.  It looks like it'd fit you just fine. Maybe you should ask. No way! His horn would slice through it! ...! I didn't consider that... You sliced through his hopes, Vi. Oops...Let's talk to her.   Hm? Aye. Why? Something' happen? Of course we're going to do this. Woah, I didn't know Eetl had this on him! What!? E-Excuse me, not that! Awww... Ah! He got the thing, finally. What is it!? A super rare Medal!? Just a part to improve my gear. You gotta thank Eetl for me. ...Why'd he make such a big deal out of it, then? What matters is it's been delivered safely! What matters is the reward, Kabbu. The important part! This should 'bout cover the walk. Thanks to you too. 10 - Medal Found! This is a really good reward, making this easily the most worthwhile of these early quests! For just 1 MP, this ensures that our tribulations with first strikes are gone for good. (Weirdly, I never find myself using the equivalent Chill Out in Paper Mario, but First Strikes hurt more in this game, and the enemies are more aggressive in the overworld. Don't succumb to hubris, use Crazy Prepared.)   This is going straight on and probably never coming off. I replaced Mighty Pebble for now. If we talk to her again: Thanks for dat. Aye, good luck out there! There are a few people to meet in this building.  That's all this person has to say. That poor sailor... What do you reckon happened to him? Dunno... It's just the sea. I feel like it'd be best if we didn't try to figure it out. It could be most unpleasant. That is a functional quest board there, just like the ones in the Ant Plaza and Explorers' Association. No new quests, though. This bug's fashion sense is impeccable. What about me? You're doing just fine. Oi, just say I look good!Leif would probably look good in a pirate hat.  To the east we find the actual pier.  This crystal berry is quite sneaky! A lot of people walk straight past it. It's a short drop off the back of the pier, but that means only the very top of the berry is visible and it's easy not to see it. (You can just barely see it peeking out behind Leif in the previous screenshot.)   The sign wasn't kidding. We can go to Metal Island if we want, but it's going to cost a fortune.  (Let's go) What?! No money, no trip! Get out of here! (That's too expensive) Psh. Don't waste my time then.There's a banter, of course. Grr... Err, Vi? How can they charge so many berries for a boat ride? It's insane! We thought you hated the water, Vi. You don't get tired on a boat. And it's way less tiring than flying to an island! The boat must be quite expensive to maintain... I don't care! It's too many berries! Guess we'll have to save up, or wait for a better deal.This oh-so-subtle hint that there will be a discount later means it's not a good idea to save up for this, even if the game will absolutely let us go if we have the berries. Metal Island is worth going to eventually, but there's very little we could actually do there right now. There are some shops, with goods we currently can't access otherwise, but nothing so amazing it's worth paying 300 berries to get there and then however much more on top of that. This captain will charge us every time we want to ride the boat, too (though a shortcut will open up once we get there, so there's no reason to ever pay him again). Before wrapping things up, let's head back to the Ant Kingdom to tidy some loose ends. We have enough berries now to buy the remaining medals and open our bank account, for instance.   On the way back, I remembered I never showed this house in the Outskirts area (across from the Association). We can't actually go in, because the owner isn't home. Also worth remembering is that dirt mound (though how it got on top of that rock, I really don't know).   I bought Sleep Resistance and Poison Resistance.  and while I was there, had Fry make a couple of Baked Yams.  Let's open a bank account. (If we say no) ...Hmph. Don't say I didn't warn you when you're broke.But let's do it. That will do nicely. Thank you. Your account is ready. Talk to me whenever you want to do an operation. This better pay itself off later...And now if we talk to her again: Welcome... Oh, it's you!  All done. Your balance is now 10 berries. Your berries are safe here. Come back anytime.And that's it for how the bank works! I deposited 10 berries as proof of concept, but between the signup fee and the medals, I'm pretty much broke again. This seems like a good place to break things off. Next time, we'll finish the last sidequest we can do right now (finding Tod's ball) and get on with our actual mission. See you then! Explopyro fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Mar 12, 2021 |
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Mar 11, 2021 19:41
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Alxprit posted:I knew this game was something special from the moment I started doing sidequests in Chapter 2 here. For one thing, unlike TTYD's similar sidequest system you don't need to do them one at a time, and they amount to meaningful exploration and engagement with some of the game's core systems. I also did not know about the Ranger Doll unlocking so many conversations! I'm going to be greatly looking forward to that. And for another thing, revealing this mostly optional side path to the pier here gave me the impression that there would be a lot more optional content in the game going forward. And I was right! Same here! Honestly, it's really amazing how two systems that are so similar in broad strokes feel so different in execution. I am what is generally called a "pathologically insane completionist" and even I tend not to bother with the sidequests in TTYD (okay, I definitely did them all once, but ugh, never again). You can only accept one at a time, they charge you a cancellation fee if you choose to back out, meaning you can't save time by planning a route to do multiple at once or anything. And then the quests themselves are tedious unrewarding busywork (both in terms of their content, and the fact none of them give you anything worth having except the Mowz one). It's enough to make one sceptical of the concept of a sidequest board entirely! (Even Koopa Koot wasn't nearly as tedious!) Bug Fables made it work, though. I think it's a combination of the charming writing and characterisation in them making these quests feel like they matter in a way the TTYD ones often didn't, and the user-friendliness of letting you accept them all and do them whenever. The quests are also generally structured in a way to get you to explore and engage with the world and NPCs, they're just fun to do in a way the TTYD ones never were. And then they give rewards that are worth having. They really packed this game full of side content, but that side content respects your time and wants to be enjoyed. The only thing both systems have in common, I think, is making the quest board something that exists diegetically in-universe, the characters are literally going and putting requests up on it. This is always a thing I like to see. Alxprit posted:Also didn't know about the hint about the Hearty Breakfast. When I went to Chuck and saw he didn't give me a hint just by talking to him, I didn't want to risk wasting food by giving him the wrong thing and also didn't expect the hint to pop up there. Oh well. This game's too smart for my own good, perhaps. I don't know if I'd praise the game for this, exactly; I do think it's a bit awkward to place the hint there. They could easily have had him say something similar if you back out of giving him anything and close the menu, and probably should have. Twelve by Pies posted:I don't think this is a contradiction in her character. She doesn't like bugs that use money to make themselves look important. But of course, she actually is important so her putting up statues of herself would be fine. In her mind, her exploration exploits have earned her the right to a statue, whereas someone just having money doesn't make them statue-worthy. Yeah, I wasn't actually trying to say it was bad characterisation! (Not this time, anyway.) I read Vi as being insecure and trying to compensate for that with overconfidence, and some of this ambivalence comes across to me as in-character rather than inconsistent writing. I don't necessarily view the banters with the same level of canonicity as the rest of the text, because seeing them is optional and I think they expect most players to see a small fraction of them, and some of them are written with a bit more silliness (especially the Bug Ranger ones), but I think the overall characterisation holds together even including them. Twelve by Pies posted:Midges are flies. It's apparently not an actual scientific classification, it's just "any small fly." If you live in the US, no see ums are a midge. Black Robe posted:Midges are utter bastards. I'm pretty sure I knew this, but it somehow never entered my mind in this context! (They're utter bastards in the game too, as we'll see next update.) That said, the Midges in this game are obviously not flies (I want to say Fry is the only fly in the game?), and the ingame bestiary compares them to mosquitoes. Torrannor posted:Is that a typo or intentional? Typo, drat it (mine, not the game's). I'll go fix that. Torrannor posted:Anyway, now that the game shoves "she's suspicious!" warnings at us, I'm starting to think that she may be good after all? It wouldn't be much of a twist if she was revealed as evil mastermind after all the game has done to make the player mistrust her. It's still shady that she banished a lot of non-ants from her place... Perhaps she had good reason? Or perhaps the devs want us to dismiss those warnings about her being up to no good, expecting a twist? And the real twist is that she actually is evil? No comment. I'm enjoying the speculation though, keep it coming! Torrannor posted:Anyway, the golden seedling wearing a crown is just adorable. Also, I'm totally here to hear insects react to insect power ranger plushies. The writing of this game is just very wholesome, I love it (and this LP!). Haha, thank you! I wouldn't be able to do this without the prior example of so many LPs over the years, and of course the game itself is doing a lot of the work.
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Mar 12, 2021 13:59
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09: Golden Path (Part 1) Last time, we completed most of the available sidequests in Ant City, exploring the eastern side of Bugaria Outskirts on the way to the pier. We have one more sidequest to do, but it's on the way to our actual mission, so we'll get started on that and make a detour en route.  I'm also putting Mighty Pebble back on, it might come in handy shortly. 06 - Outskirts Well, at least when it's not raining. It's a good thing rain is so uncommon. It gives us ample time to prepare. Let's enjoy the view while we're here.I took a quick detour to show this banter in the first screen of Bugaria Outskirts, I forgot to check there last time.  We need to head south, back toward the cave.  There weren't enemies last time we were here, but there are now.  Lots of Seedlings. These are barely threatening. I was tempted into using Icefall to expedite these encounters, which isn't a horrible idea but I think it's a mistake to spend too much TP here.   The second battle has even more Seedlings. Even when there are this many, they're not really a threat, and we only get pity EXP.  They do, however, drop a new item. I think item drops are actually tied to the enemy formations, rather than individual enemy types, because the Seedlings we encountered before couldn't drop these and they start showing up on this screen.  Hard Seed is a battle item. It can be thrown at one enemy to make an attack with power 2; this is subject to modification by the enemy's defence (but not by the thrower's stats).That sounds pretty underwhelming, and it is. The only real reason to use these is, again, to knock down flying enemies if for some reason you don't want to or can't relay to Vi. That said, they're quite useful in cooking. I'm going to hold off showing new recipes for now (we'll be encountering a lot of new ingredients over the next couple of updates, so I figure I'll cover them all at once) except to say that cooking one of these by itself also makes Roasted Berries, and that's a lot easier to justify than using expensive Spicy or Burly Berries.  This doesn't look good! 13 - It's Getting Scary! This really doesn't look good.   Hmph! The renowned Professor Neolith doesn't know anything!?  Assaulting someone who can't even fight... You have no dignity. Stay out of this. We will eliminate any who get in the way! Who do you think you are!? You've made your choice. To protect my friend... I'll take you down! Friend?Kabbu apparently has a preexisting acquaintance with the professor here; I'm sure he'd be angry at seeing anyone harmed, but this fury seems a bit more personal.    We'll help out! It doesn't matter how many of you appear! We will complete our mission, for the Wasp King!King? I thought wasps had queens. That's weird. Focus your efforts on one of them, we will handle the other! We didn't need your help! ...But thanks! Let's go! 24 - Oh no! WASPS!! (Recommended listening!)  First things first, of course, we need to spy. I'll let Leif do the honours this time.  Regardless, if it's going to shake the peace, we'll freeze him in his tracks!This isn't a miniboss, exactly, as the game doesn't count it as one, but it's definitely a step up from the normal enemies we've been facing (Golden Seedlings excepted). Those stats are quite scary - 2 defence is a lot when all your characters have 2 attack! Kabbu is going to be doing all the damage in this fight, as the others would barely scratch him (and then only if they're in front). (As an aside, I think it's a bit strange they use male pronouns for the wasp soldiers; in nature, they would definitely be female. But these wasps have a king, so there's already something abnormal going on.)  Kabbu gets things started with a Heavy Strike. I don't have enough TP to do that again, because I wasted a bunch using Icefall against the Seedling hordes, but we'll make this one shot count.  Vi wouldn't be able to get through, so she gets to relay to Kabbu. (This fight is a lot harder if you forget you can do this; I've definitely seen people struggle here.)   The Wasp Trooper has two attacks, one of which is this spear throw. This would've been 5 damage before blocking; he's not messing around. Thank goodness for Levi and Celia; fighting two of these at once would be terrifying (we could do it, but it would be a close thing).  At the start of turn two.  Kabbu attacks.  And gets a relay to attack again. At this point, he has accumulated enough exhaustion that, taking into account the enemy's defence, attacking again would do zero damage.  But Pebble Toss can still get through! (This was completely unnecessary, and doesn't actually change the course of the fight in any way, we'd be finishing things the next turn regardless. But still, it's good to see proof that it always does 1 damage.)  If I'd saved some TP to do another Heavy Strike instead, I could have finished things that turn, but at least this way we get to see the Trooper's other attack animation. I have a harder time blocking this one, for some reason.  With the Trooper on 1 HP, this is over.  He's worth a nice chunk of EXP, too. (It should probably be more, but there's a cap of 15 EXP per enemy in normal battles, with only a few exceptions, and I think we're hitting it here.)  Looks like Levi and Celia were successful too.    And they run off. Typical villain lackey behaviour.  Think nothing of it. Explorers must support each other. What a scare... Thank you all so much! Neo! I'm so glad you're alright! Kabbu, it was thanks to your timely appearance! This has to be fate! So, uh, who's this Professor Neolith guy?(Vi, always so tactful) You don't know?! Professor Neolith is the leading authority in archaeology! Oh! Nice to meet you! (...Archaeology?) Aw, shucks! I'm not that famous! It was nothing, compared to saving me from that ambush! Coincidentally, I was examining this tunnel linking the outskirts to the Golden Path. I never expected to get assaulted! Although a less visited path does lend itself to it. From what I overheard, they seem to be looking for artifacts as well? I'll have to make sure to report that upon or return... The wasps have behaved for a few moons, but they can't be planning anything good. If it's going to be this unsafe, maybe I should cancel this trip and head back... Phew... Oh! Thank you! We're on our way there as well, so we'll catch up to you eventually. Heheh. It'll be a fun festival with everyone there! Let's play some of the games later, Neolith! Neo, stay safe. Let's hang out later! And off they go into the cave. (I'm genuinely not sure if it's writer intent or not, but I've seen quite a few people read between the lines a bit here and come out shipping Kabbu and Neolith. Honestly, I can see it? Nothing ever rules out the possibility, anyway.)  We're back in control now. Also, let's note we seem to have been healed to full after that fight (the game doesn't draw attention to that or offer any explanation, but I'll take it).  25 - Caves This place is dreadful. Pretty sad, if you ask us. It's not like anyone comes here often, you know? It does the job. Indeed. If we cross quickly, we can leave behind this gray scenery.Looks like nobody's really happy to be here. That looks like a new enemy, too.  The leaf animation here is new!  Does that snail have spikes on its shell?  I'll try to take some for myself when Kabbu flips it out of its shell!This is hinting that Numbnails' attacks can put us to sleep. We've already found a Sleep Resistance medal, it shouldn't be too big a surprise that this is now a possibility. Also, remembering the hint to flip them with Kabbu is important.  Leif attacks. He only hits for 1, thanks to the Numbnail's defence...  And when hit, it retreats inside its shell, increasing its defence to 4. We're not getting through that, are we?  Wait, what? This is another quirk of the battle system. Some enemies like this Numbnail have defencive stances, and those stances can be broken by flipping attacks. When you do that, in addition to breaking the stance for other characters to take advantage of, the attack that breaks the stance does full damage (as though the stance ended first before damage was applied).  Numbnails attack by shooting these weird lightning bolts out of their eyes. This will cause sleep (2 turns) if you don't block.  Kabbu finishes things.  Pretty good EXP from these!  Looks like it dropped a new item, too!  Guess Vi wasn't kidding about us being able to collect their sedatives. This is an attack item like the Hard Seed; when thrown, it attacks for 2 and attempts to cause sleep (2 turns). This is a tricky item to use, honestly, because of some quirks about sleep, which I'll explain shortly once we see it in action. It also has some uses in cooking. Contra what Vi said earlier, though, they won't really make us rich, they're only worth 4 berries to sell.   Over on the left side, there's another one of those boulders blocking the way, and this faded sign.  The next battle in here is just a lone Midge, which we can dispatch in a single turn. It has 7 HP and that's exactly how much damage we do with our three characters.  These are still worth a nice chunk of EXP too.  Apparently, these can also drop Hard Seeds.   The last battle has two Midges at once. Ugh. We'll get to see what these are really about, now.  Vi attacks to knock the first one down...  and immediately the other Midge has a shocked reaction and attacks Vi. It's not your turn, Midge!  Kabbu attacks.   And again, the other Midge reacts and counterattacks.  Leif finishes off the one in front.   This is the gimmick to Midges. It's really annoying! If there were three of them in this battle, we'd take two counter hits each time we attacked one of them! And, notably, these counterattacks are actually stronger than their normal dive attack (though not the HP vampire attack). The obvious solution if you have TP to spare is to try freezing them, they have 25% resistance so the odds are in your favour.  After all those counterattacks, the Midge still gets its turn like normal. After that nightmare of a turn, there's just one Midge left, and it's trivial to mop up.  Lots of EXP, at least! That's enough to get us to the next rank.   No special perks this time, just the stat increase we choose (which, of course, is MP).  I've seen people have a hard time finding Tod's ball. Cutting this vine is the first step.  Then we can step behind that pillar. You can barely see it peeking out in the front there, that rock in the foreground does a good job of hiding it!  That's what we came for. May as well head back to return this before continuing onward.  You're Tod, right? We've taken your request. You really found it! Thank you! Mom won't get angry now... Please don't tell her I went out by myself either, pretty please? Here, have this for helping me out! Alright! Another good deed, another reward! Now, stay out of trouble. Don't worry your mother. I promise... Thanks again! That's it for this quest! Our reward is a second copy of Sleep Resistance. With all the Numbnails around, it might not be a bad idea to put one or two of these on. (Incidentally, if anyone was wondering, resistance medals do stack. They grant 50% resistance each, and you can put two copies on the same bug to get 100%, which works exactly the way you'd think it does and grants immunity.)  Let's take a quick look at our quest log. The two remaining quests (getting the Lore Books for Brooke, and getting Bad Books for Reeves) are long-running ones we won't be able to complete for quite a while. By the way, the Lost Books quest would have appeared on the quest board if we'd checked that before meeting Brooke; instead it got automatically accepted when we talked to her. So far, so good. We're all caught up. (There are a lot of sidequests in this game, and if you're at all interested in doing them, it's probably worth trying to keep on top of them as they become available. Otherwise, they'll just pile up and become overwhelming.)  While we're here, let's give Amber the Hard Seeds and Numbnail Dart, we'll put those away to cook with later.  And let's put all our berries in the bank. I don't expect to get much interest, but every little helps and I'm not going to need them any time soon. This post was, sigh, just barely over the character limit; this seems like a good place to split it. Back momentarily. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Mar 20, 2021 |
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Mar 20, 2021 07:31
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09: Golden Path (Part 2) Back to the cave. I wasn't planning to show the fights again, but something interesting happened with the two Midges:  I used Icefall and it froze one of them, but not the other.    After counterattacking, the Midge returns to its flying position! It doesn't matter in this particular case, but it's worth noting so you don't try to make a strategy around knocking multiples down at once.  To get to the cave exit, we're going to need to freeze this water droplet and use the ice block to help us up. That rock is just a bit too high to jump onto without it.  Like so. 26 - Golden Lands The cave exit is a pipe? Anyway, welcome to Golden Path! This area has a nice autumnal palette (although I don't know why it's autumn here and not in the outskirts) and a lot of new things to see on our way to the Golden Settlement. Ah, the Golden Hills! I have heard many stories about this place. They say Goddess Venus keeps this area in pristine weather! Where are all these leaves falling from, anyways? Just look up! That's the Bee Kingdom's tree!This conversation feels weird to me, in that each statement seems a bit disconnected and doesn't quite flow into the next, almost like each of our party members is just independently making an observation.  There's a save crystal here, though notably, it's blue. They're definitely getting a bit stingier with the free healing.  Those weeds are a bit suspicious, aren't they?  There's a path back here...  with a hidden bouncy shroom that launches us upward!  That was a crystal berry barely visible behind the foliage. Sneaky!  A weed by the crystal has this new item in it. Clear Water is exactly what it sounds like, it cures status effects and does absolutely nothing else. Interestingly, unlike most items found in weeds, this respawns occasionally; I think this is the only weed in the game that does this. This is also the ingredient we need to make tea, as well as some other things like Berry Juice. On the pile it goes.  Is that another new enemy?  Another new leaf animation!  Let's give Kabbu a turn to spy.  But alas... It will be no match for my horn!Acornlings are another Seedling variant. These have some armour, giving them 2 defence.   They can be flipped, though, and when flipped that defence drops to 0.  They're also weak to ice, being plants, so Leif and Vi can finish it off. We'll see what their attacks are like soon enough.  They're not worth quite as much EXP as Numbnails or Midges, but this isn't a bad haul.  Use the safe line express to reach the Settlement! - Golden Hills Tourist Center (PS: In case the safe line is out of commission, please wait until an associate comes to escort you.)The warning is nice, I guess, but somehow I don't think it's going to be that simple.  We can get up to this platform with the aid of the mushroom, but there's no way to interact with the pulley, and there's clearly no gondola or anything here. What happens if we jump on the flytraps? (Also... Kabbu mentioned a Goddess Venus. Flytraps seem ominous, don't they?)  We can stand on them for a short time, but if we wait too long, they'll chomp us. If this happens, the game just resets us to the last stable platform we stood on, there's no penalty except having to try again. The timing isn't that hard, but you need to pay attention and keep moving.  The northern flytraps just lead to this dirt mound we can't do anything with.  The southern path is the way we need to go.  This Acornling is waiting for us at the other side; it's almost an ambush, it starts moving and trying to hit us as soon as we set foot on the platform.  This one has a regular (flying) Seedling alongside it. I'll kill the Seedling first so we can see the Acornling's attack.  Just like Seedlings, they do this dive-bomb, the timing is the same. (They also have a second attack, the same ramming dash Seedlings do.) They're Seedlings, just with a hard hat on. It's worth noting, though, that this Acornling was flipped at the start of its turn, but it got up and attacked like normal, and stays unflipped after that. I don't think I explained it explicitly before, but that's generally how flippable enemies behave. (Unlike Paper Mario, where you can stunlock most Koopas by knocking them on their back.)  There's a mushroom to send us up.  And here's the other end of the cable car. Though it looks like there might be another path upward? Regardless, the vehicle itself isn't here, so we can't go up for now. Let's go further west.  More platforming on flytraps.  There's a Numbnail waiting for us on the other side.  It has an Acornling friend with it!  There isn't a lot to show with this battle, except that I got a bit careless with Kabbu's health. Both enemies hit him for 2 on the first turn, leaving him at 3, then on turn two I missed the action command and got him knocked out. I should probably have healed him; I think I've gotten into a bad habit of not doing so, I need to remember I can use items or spend TP on Secret Stash. That said, characters occasionally getting knocked out isn't exactly unusual, and especially on higher difficulties it's something you'll get used to and plan around.   That said, this wasn't a problem. Switching Leif in front, with the ice weakness and the positioning bonus, he can finish it off easily enough.  These battles are worth a lot of EXP, at least.   I fed Kabbu a Baked Yam after that fight, I'd rather not walk around with him on 1 HP.  This seems like a good place to see the banter for this area: The Golden Settlement is a pioneer of wind-based energy, isn't it? Uh huh. And for heavier stuff, they wind up cranks to move around. It's a pretty clever way to move about. The bee engineers deserve some praise. Eh, it's nothing special. Most bees can fly. It's no wonder you wouldn't see the greatness in these inventions! Hmph. The technician seems to be sleeping on the job. Darn. With the worker sleeping, how will we operate the cranks? Leave it to me! Beemerang express is go! For a small fee! I'm pretty sure she was fully intending to charge them until Leif threatened her with magic There's also, of course, a banter. Sleeping on the job is so lazy... Maybe we should throw some ice on him. Oh, we could cover his face with honey! Stop it! You will do none of these things!Heh.  We know what to do. Standing on the platform, we can throw the Beemerang at the crank.  The platform slowly rises, until we can jump off at the top.  This battle looks very similar to the last one, but the enemies' positions have been switched. That actually makes things a bit easier, because we can take out the Acornling in a single turn with regular attacks, but we couldn't do that for a Numbnail.  I missed the action command when the Numbnail attacked Kabbu, and he fell asleep! So let's talk about how Sleep works. When a bug is asleep, they can't take actions, nor block attacks. They will also heal 10% of their maximum HP, rounded up, at the end of the turn (after enemies finish taking their actions), as you see here. Being hit by an attack will immediately wake up a sleeping character. (There's a nasty glitch with this on enemies: if you put an enemy to sleep, then wake them up with damage the same turn, they'll still skip their next turn. You can exploit this to disable an enemy while avoiding the downside of healing them. I don't plan to take advantage of this, but I'd be remiss if I didn't discuss it.)  Although, interestingly, a character being asleep doesn't stop you from rotating the formation, so at least we can get someone else in front and not waste the damage bonus.  Leif can do 2 damage, at least.  But this leaves Vi trying to get through 4 defence. That's not happening.  Kabbu still gets the healing the turn he wakes up.  And now he can finish things.  These battles are really showering us in EXP. That's another rank up!   Naturally, I choose more MP.  And this time, we do get an additional bonus. Leif learns a new skill!  Frigid Coffin is really, really good. It might not be clear yet from the description, but this is one of Leif's best skills and will serve us well throughout the rest of the game. Frigid Coffin hits one enemy and deals +2 damage compared to Leif's standard attack. It also attempts to freeze, and has a duration of 2 turns: this is the only way to freeze for longer than 1 turn, so it's a much more effective way to disable an enemy than, say, Icefall. Also, "a great chance to freeze" is a bit of an understatement. Frigid Coffin subtracts 30% from the enemy's resistance (provided the enemy has less than 100% resistance; immune is still immune) before rolling the RNG to see if it will succeed. That's even more important than it probably sounds at first; let me explain: The game never explicitly teaches this (which I do think is a bit of a misstep because it's a great mechanic), but every time we successfully apply a status effect to an enemy, that enemy's resistance to it increases. You can't keep freezing the same enemy forever: every time you do, it gets harder to freeze it, and it will eventually become immune once that resistance reaches 100%. In the case of freeze (on Hard Mode), the increase is +18% each time they're frozen (an enemy with 0% resistance will reach immunity after 6 freezes). This means that, especially in boss fights, freezes are a finite resource you have to manage. That -30% goes a long way to help squeeze out those last couple of freezes once the enemy's resistance has built up. When you want something frozen really badly (like, say, you want to create a window for a healing turn), Frigid Coffin has your back. We'll see it in action soon enough. For now, let's get back to exploring.  Remember this crank for later; those rails are tall and it certainly looks like this platform can go up much higher, but right now we can only get it high enough to reach the flytrap on the left.  Like so.  Up here there are two cranks, and a bit of a puzzle. The left crank controls the left platform and makes it go up; the right crank controls the right platform and makes it go down.  We have to get the platforms into position by turning the cranks multiple times, then time our crossing carefully to get across, like this. Awkwardly, if you screw up and get stuck on the left platform at its lowest, there's no way back safely, you have to jump into the brambles so the game will respawn you on the platform.  Also, that looks like a new enemy, doesn't it?  Yes it is!  It's quite fierce, too. We should discipline it before it can give us much trouble.Weevils are an interesting enemy. It has 9 HP, so without a first strike we won't be killing it in one turn...  Wait, what? It ate that Seedling and healed itself to full! They'll only do this when injured, and only to plant-based enemies. (This is a nice dose of realism, too: weevils are known for eating stored grain. Grain is seeds.)  The next turn, we still didn't kill it off, so it gets to attack. It's the same animation as eating the Seedling.  Decent EXP yield.  In the next screen, a Numbnail is waiting for us.  This one comes with a Weevil. (I do like how every battle in this area has had a different combination and/or formation of enemies, they do a good job at keeping things from getting repetitive.) We take out the Numbnail turn one, then do some damage to the Weevil turn two.  We see a new behaviour from the Weevil on its turn! When on low health, they can do this and give themselves an attack buff, and then they still get to attack like usual.  When we get to the next turn it has this icon on it, showing the buff. Attack Up is always a +1 increase, the number shown is the number of turns remaining before it wears off. Weevils give themselves a 2-turn attack buff. It doesn't matter right now, of course, because we're going to kill it.   We get another Numbnail Dart after the battle. I have the room so I'll keep it.  There doesn't seem to be a crank in sight. How are we going to get across here? What a huge gap! This place IS known for its hills. No problem for me. I can just fly over em! ...What about us? You would not abandon us, would you, Vi? Guess they never did tell Leif what happened just before they met him, did they?  Anyway, the solution is to the south, this staircase is hidden behind a weed Kabbu can cut.  This is a hint for much later. The crank we need is right in front of us. (Also, just over to the left there, that white blip is the propeller of a flying Seedling, we're going to have to fight that because it'll get in our way.)  It brought some friends. Vi and Kabbu team up to kill the first Seedling, then I decided to have Leif show off Frigid Coffin and disable the Weevil.  The action command's a bit more complicated! This starts off the same as his normal attack, but then immediately goes to a 3-button sequence we need to hit (this can include the four directions, X, A, and B). Needless to say, that Weevil is frozen.  The start of turn two. The Weevil is still frozen.  One other advantage of the 2-turn freeze is that if we don't care about it being disabled a second turn, we can make use of that +1 damage bonus. When we were dealing with 1-turn freezes, we could get extra damage or disable, but not really both. Frigid Coffin is so good.   If you look carefully at the left side of this screenshot, you can barely see a bit of safe ground on the other side of the brambles (as that sign was vaguely hinting). There's no way for us to get there now, or even to see the entrance, but there's a cave over there which we'll want to explore once we can cross safely. Put a pin in this.  Turning the crank rotates the bridge. Now we can go back up and cross.  We cross the bridge. You can see the windmill in the background, too; there are a bunch of these in this area, but this is the first screenshot that you can see them clearly.  Another Weevil is waiting for us after we cross.  This one's pretty simple. I decided to have Vi and Leif kill the Seedling first so the Weevil couldn't heal itself, but I didn't necessarily have to: as long as I left it alone, it'd have stayed in the air and out of reach. Weevils can only eat grounded Seedlings.  There's also an Acornling here. (And another of those rock piles we can't do anything about.)  They're still finding new configurations to throw at us!   I had Kabbu flip the Acornling, then used Icefall with Leif. There's something kind of weird here, too: the Acornling is flipped, and shows the status icon for that, but its sprite while frozen is still right-way up! I guess they didn't make another sprite for being both flipped and frozen. Which is a weird oversight, because usually their attention to detail is quite good.  We've finally arrived!  The settlement's entrance is so pretty! I just love the sunflowers! Heheh. It's so unusual to see Vi so... chirpy. Make sure she doesn't hear you or we won't hear the end of it.Let's talk to people.   You won't want to miss it... I'll see you there!And, of course, talk about people. So tall... Hm. I imagine you're not used to that feeling, Leif? We've got to admit we aren't. Not to this magnitude. Bleh. It's all the same to me. Why is everybody else so tall!? More like, why are you so short? You wanna fight, Leif? (Never mention height ever again.)Of course Vi has a Napoleon complex. Of course she does.  Surrounded by these rocks to the south, there's another dirt mound.  The merchant caravan are here too! Cricketly and Huscada don't have anything new to say. It looks like they have something new in stock, though, replacing the Burly Berry they usually stock.  Drowsy Cake is an item we'll be able to cook later, but we can't now, one of the ingredients isn't available. That said, this item is actually quite good, and it's not too expensive. 7 HP and 7 TP is the best total recovery we've seen, and the drawback (2 turns sleep) can mostly be mitigated with Sleep Resistance medals (if we equip both on different bugs, it's essentially a healing item we can only use on 2/3 of the party). And, of course, used outside battle, the drawback is meaningless. I didn't buy any but I'll probably pick up a couple later.  Wow, who's this? She's huge. Woah, that's a big ant. Really makes you want to wake her up. You two...Let's talk to her.  Sleeping on the job... Standards have dropped.   Whatever you say. What's a miner doing all the way out here? It's Diana, okay? I'm here on the Queen's orders! I'm finishing up the tunnel connecting the Golden Path to the Ant Kingdom! Goodness gracious, you've dug all that distance!? Eh, it was kind of a team effort. I just have to cut the rope, really. What are you waiting for, then? Mmmph. Honestly, I worked so hard, I'm a bit tired. I need a good rest to power through... Or if I ate some berries now, I could probably get it done right now! Like 15, maybe? Oh, maybe we could help! Kabbu! She just wants free food! We can just come back later and it'll be done! Think about it, though. It'd be nice to be able to walk back, just in case. Hmm, we will have to think about this. Well, gimme a holler if you make up your mind.Whenever we see Diana, she'll offer to open up shortcuts back to the Ant Mines, but we have to There's a new banter now we've met her: Diana seems to hold massive strength. What if she joined our team? She'd punch holes through spiders! It's a shame. If she wasn't so committed to her job, it'd be such a great help...Honestly, she probably would be a fun party member. Oh well.  Let's see what happens if we refuse. We should wait. We're on a mission right now, anyways. It's always best to save and wait! Eh. If we ever do need to come back, we could talk to her... Aw. Fine. Just come back and talk to me if you want me to dig...This is worth it, though, and I've got the funds.  Those berries don't even taste good... We don't think her taste would be the only weird thing here... Oi, I'm doing you a favor, okay? Just sit and watch! Phew... All done! Thanks, y'all! We might as well pay the paalce a visit, since we paid for this and all... If you want to hop back into the palace, just talk to the guard standing near the tunnel, she'll guide you there. Thank you, Diana. We'll be on our way. Well, I'm off! See you some other time, folks! And she's gone. We'll generally find Diana each time we reach a new town.  (Not now) Very well. Please talk to me if you ever decide to go.And of course there's banter: Hmm... It's a bit weird to see Ant Guards so far from the city. With the mines, we could say they're not too far... Mhm. These tunnels were a super great idea! Guess we'll have to give the Queen credit for that... If we go into the tunnel...  We come out here. The symbol of the Golden Settlement is on the sign above us, and to the left you can see the staircase up into the Ant Palace. I don't actually have anything I want to do in the Ant Kingdom, so let's just go back to the Golden Settlement. This shortcut is very handy, though.  There's one last person to meet here, to the south. Woah, that's a huge Tangy Berry! No, Vi. That's a beetle... quite a cute one. What is he doing!!? That rock is extremely heavy! We must talk him out of it, before it's too late! Let's talk to him.  Huuuu... Excuse me, extremely round beetle! This rock is extremely heavy! You will hurt your horn! I'm a fully grown Tanjerin! I can do it. I can move this rock! Let the little dude do his job, Kabbu! I'm not little! I'll fight you right here! It's so cute. How can we feel threatened at all? I came from a veeeery far land, from the right, to prove my might! I admire your spirit, but horns cannot withstand such pressure. You should take care! My horn can never break, cuz I'm strong! Now I'm going right back to work! It was cute at the start, but now I'm kinda worried...Tanjerin is his name, not his species, in case his manner of speaking confused that. This guy has become something of a mascot for the game, and features in a lot of memes. We're not done with him yet. So he came from a far land... Any idea of which? I've heard of one region where bugs look like seeds and berries. I've heard of that place too! Err, in fairy tales? So those tales could be real... ...We should go there someday.We can also talk to him again. Huuu... I can do it... That little guy really does look like a Tangy Berry. We wonder why? I'm not little! And stop interrupting me! Besides, everyone looks like this where I come from. Is that so? ...Well, where are you from? The east. Er, you've told us so. But whereabouts in the east? I dunno what that means. The east! I just walked to the left a lot, and got here! Oh dear, it's not too smart. Shut up! And let me work! Sigh... Heheh. You don't see Kabbu get mad a lot! Let's just... go.Doesn't look like we're going to be able to accomplish anything here.  Let's go into the settlement proper.  I know, right? It's such a good place to visit! And on top of its beauty, the settlement provides many items this region needs. Beautiful, AND useful... we have a high respect for this place.Exploring the town will have to wait until next time, though. This place is pretty big and densely populated, there's a lot to see and plenty of people to meet.  The save crystal here is yellow, for a change. We haven't seen one of these in a while. That seems like a good signal to end things here; next time, we'll go out on the town. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Mar 20, 2021 |
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Mar 20, 2021 07:32
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berryjon posted:Well, this just confirms that the 'camera' is in the south. But he's making references to the directions on the playing field... Tanjerin is basically  given form, honestly. Alien Arcana posted:That's correct. There are a few enemy types (such as Golden Seedlings) that get their own special item drops, but most drops are keyed to specific encounters rather than enemies. Good to have confirmation of this, thanks. I'm pretty sure I've seen a spreadsheet of all the formations and their drops somewhere, but I lost track of it, and thought that information was probably too arcane to be worth digging into in the LP anyway. One of the nice things in this game is that enemy drops are never actually required for anything, and every item obtained that way can be bought somewhere, so the drops tend to be a pleasant surprise rather than encouraging the player to grind for stuff. Alien Arcana posted:Bug fact: Unlike ants, not all wasps form colonies, and indeed we'll eventually meet a variety of wasps in Bug Fables that aren't part of any hierarchy. Sorry if it was insufficiently clear, what I was trying to draw attention to is that they have a male monarch, which isn't usually a thing in social insects. (I know some species of termite do have kings in addition to queens, and that will come up later in the game, but I don't know of any social insects with a male alone at the top of the hierarchy.) Also, we've already met at least one independent wasp, in Zasp (although we haven't seen much of him yet); there will definitely be more. Alien Arcana posted:It's implied that Venus is keeping this area in perpetual autumn, which is... related to the region's exceptional fertility? Somehow? I suppose this is fair (although yeah, the fertility thing is a stretch, I think it's probably just going for the vague association of "autumn is harvest season"). I won't complain about any half-decent excuse for environmental variety in a game. Alien Arcana posted:You're allowed to rotate as long as every character has at least 1 action remaining, regardless of whether they are able to use that action. Thanks for making this more explicit, I was trying to get at this in the post but clearly I didn't explain it well enough. I usually don't use status cure items much anyway, but in this particular case, I deliberately left Kabbu asleep because I wanted to show how the healing works. Alien Arcana posted:You can get a look at the entrance if you drop down from the far side. You can't actually reach it that way, though, it's below an overhang. Trust me, I tried! (I'd have been softlocked if I did make it there, so in hindsight I'm glad I failed...) Yeah, it would not go well to end up there now, so I'm glad they had the foresight to put the overhang there. (Although honestly, I think the better solution would have just been to give out the Ant Compass earlier, because that would invalidate the possible softlock, and I'm sure some people might have appreciated the challenge of attempting that area early.) Alien Arcana posted:I like these guys, but their names sound like Pokémon. You know, they really do. (Incidentally, I actually have a Bug Fables themed Pokemon team. I'll be doing a bonus update about that at some point, although I haven't quite figured out when yet. Those two didn't make the cut for it, though.) Alien Arcana posted:You can also ignore her and the shortcut opens automatically after you clear the chapter. Y'know, if you're a cheapskate. Qrr posted:Note for the shortcut to the ant kingdom, I believe you could have just waited and saved the 15 berries because they open up with plot progression. Cash just gets it open earlier. Alxprit posted:Feed the big bug, imo. I don't think I knew the shortcuts would eventually open up naturally (except for the Metal Island one which opens under other specific conditions), I've always paid her as soon as they become available. This is good to know, although it's certainly not going to change my approach, berries are plentiful and the shortcuts are usually helpful enough that I don't think it's worth waiting. Also, if you wait, you don't get to see Diana's excellent animations
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Mar 21, 2021 16:09
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10: Golden Settlement 26 - Golden Lands Last time, we traversed Golden Path and arrived in the Golden Settlement. It's time to explore a new town. (Before that, I'd like to issue a minor correction. Several people in the thread informed me that if you choose not to pay Diana to open shortcuts, they will eventually open up for free, usually at the end of the chapter. I never knew this, because I've never done that. I still generally think it's worth getting them ASAP, and you get to see Diana's animations that way, but this is good to know.)  As we approach the stage in the centre, we can see a character with ! over their head, as well as Levi and Celia. Seems important. As soon as we get close enough, it starts a cutscene conversation.   The way to the hills is sacred. I will not sully it for any reason. Please, won't you reconsider? The wasps could beat us to the punch! They tried. They failed. I will not waver in my conviction. They... failed? I dealt with them, yes. Ngh. As rushed as we may be, if there's no danger, I don't think we'll manage to skip the festivities. Bummer. Guess we'll have to relax, for once! Not sooner, not later. You must wait. That's that, huh... You heard her! Relaxing is the mission! ... That goes double for you, Leif. Let's check this place out! Alright, alright. The main event starts at nighttime. Let's talk to Aria when we're ready.After this, we regain control. We're free to explore the town as much as we like, until we come back and tell Aria we're ready to proceed with the plot, at which point we'll be forced to stay in the Golden Settlement until we're done with the festival.  Like so. We're not going to do this yet, though. (FYI, anyone playing along: if you do choose to start the festival right away, all you're going to miss out on is dialogue, and I'll be showing all of that in this update.)  We have little choice but to wait. I will be glad to relax with you, comrades. Levi and Celia have a bit to say, though mostly it's just to reinforce the structure of this chapter. The artifact is somewhere in the Golden Hills, but we won't be permitted to pass until after the festival ends. There are also new banters for each of them: We really owe Celia. She was a big help against the wasps. Eh, they weren't that tough. We woulda been fine! That's easy to say, when they did half the work...This is interesting, in that it's completely true in game mechanics also. Fighting two Wasp Troopers at once would have been really hard with our current stats, but definitely not impossible. (Also, we know what it's like to fight Wasp Troopers, which should probably give us some indication of Aria's combat abilities...) Levi is formidable. I do have a question, though. Isn't that just because of Celia? She's probably keeping an eye on him. They seem to be friends. You believe she's merely the Queen's informant? We have no way to know, unless we ask them.The ladybug exile is still a bit mysterious, but it's nice to see the acknowledgment that it does affect characters we know. We can't actually ask for more information, though. We can also talk about Aria:  Well, of all places, the Golden Settlement worships a very specific Goddess. And it's worked out pretty good for them! Indeed. It's not too uncommon to see devout followers around. Every place has a different culture, huh.One of the game's better subtle details is that Aria, the priestess, is a praying mantis. You won't find me complaining about puns, especially when they're that well-placed. (Also, is it really a pun when that very parallel is the reason the insect was named that?)  To the south, under this overhang, we can meet this mosquito.  Heyyyy! You look... thirsty. You wouldn't care for some sweet Berry Juice, made right here in the Golden Settlement? This isn't an awful price (though one more berry than we saw at the pier), but I don't need any right now. Aww. Alrighty. Come back when you need to quench your throats...She'll always be here selling these, we can come back whenever if we want some. Also, of course, there's a banter: Hey, guys... What? How do you think she walks? That looks heavy... Vi! There are things you must never ask!!!Vi asking the hard questions. (Although, of course, we also have to wonder: what, exactly, was she drinking to get this full? Do big mammals still exist in this world, or do mosquitoes subsist on things like fruit juice now?)  We have a few open-air buildings to investigate on the eastern side of town.  On the left, we have a shop. Amber's in here too, if we need to access our storage. Miss Amber's come to the festival too! She's from the Storage Service... Pretty sure she's here for work. That sucks, having to work on the festival... Let's make sure to honor her sacrifice by making good use of the service.This banter is new, but her dialogue is unchanged if we talk to her.  I'll give her this Numbnail Dart, I don't particularly want these clogging up my inventory.  The shopkeeper over here is a bit interesting. (We're here to buy)  That's easy! Just stand near whatever you want and press (A)! That way I can prepare the item for your purchase.(We've come to sell) ...Sorry, I am not interested in buying stuff. If I were to, I'd go out of business! Please consider purchasing something instead! Check out what I have to offer over on the shelf!Unlike the other shops we've been to, this person isn't interested in buying from us. This isn't a joke, we can't sell items here. I'm not sure why it's set up like this, and it's a bit annoying (although I guess the caravan is just outside town so we don't have to go that far to sell things, Huscada is still perfectly willing to buy from us). In fact, if we check the banter, our party will explicitly suggest that: Ugh. This guy. What's wrong with him? He won't buy out stuff! It's beyond rude! Vi, you DO know the shopkeepers have no obligation to buy our items, right? This is a plentiful area, they are probably overstocked more than anything else... Whatever. I'll go sell to the caravan. They know a good deal when they see it! (Poor caravan...)Anyway, let's see what's on offer. Hard Seed (3 berries) Clear Water (3 berries) Honey Drop (4 berries) Aphid Dew (5 berries) Aphid Egg (2 berries)This is a nice variety. We can now buy Hard Seeds and Clear Water instead of having to go find them in the wild, and there's even a new item (which is actually exclusive to this shop). They're light on HP-healing items, though. What's the new thing? Aphid Dew"Dew from happily raised Aphids. Restores 4 TP and cures sleep." Sell: 2 berries This isn't too bad, if you want to carry sleep recovery, though it's a bit lacking in versatility. It's probably of more value as a cooking ingredient. 27 - Kut it Up! Speaking of cooking, that's what's next door!  As we might expect, Dan can be found where the food is. It's that gourmet from the plaza... Yup. Anyways, let's go. Can't we stay a bit? We wanted to drink some Aphid Dew together... Leif, you've made friends without us noticing! I'm... I'm so proud! "Friends" may be a bit too strong a word...This is cute. And also kind of cheeky of the devs: of course it happened without us noticing, we couldn't see any dialogue to that effect in the game!   Kut is the local chef. He can cook items for us, just like Fry. Let's have a demonstration:  Not apparent from these screenshots is how fast-moving his menu text is; he's very eager to show off his skills! I like this as a character thing but it can be annoying: it's very easy to misclick with Kut so always check here and make sure you gave him the right things.  Witness it! A life of skill and mastery put to use! Here. You've never tasted a dish of this caliber, I'm sure. Come again, when you're ready for more high cuisine.So, yeah, this is how you actually make Berry Juice. You can also use a Spicy Berry or Burly Berry instead of a Hard Seed, but the Hard Seed is a lot cheaper so that's definitely the way to go. There's also a banter about Kut: Kut is quite the skilled chef... But his attitude sucks! Normally we'd avoid him out of principle, but... His food is actually a grade higher than Fry's. I'm inclined to agree, regrettably... Eh. You know how it is. If you're really good, you can act however you want! Let's make sure to get some good festival food, at least...The items we get are identical, for better or worse. I guess the taste isn't reflected in their effectiveness. There are actually some minor differences between chefs, but we won't learn about those for a while yet. Right now, they can be safely ignored, any recipe we've learned can be cooked by either Fry or Kut for identical results. This seems like a good time to go over some new recipes, we've discovered a few more ingredients (Hard Seed, Clear Water, Aphid Dew) since our last cooking roundup:  Sweet Dew (19)"This incredibly sweet drink will keep you up all night! Restores 9 TP and cures sleep." Sell: 10 berries Made by combining and  Plain Tea (44)"Simple tea made from plain leaves. Restores 4 HP to an ally and cures any status effect." Sell: 5 berries Made by combining and  Spicy Tea (45)"This volcanic spicy tea boosts an ally's attack for 2 turns, and cures their status effects." Sell: 13 berries Made by combining and  Burly Tea (46)"This doctor-approved super tea cures an ally's status effects and boosts their defense for 2 turns." Sell: 13 berries Made by combining and  Aphid Shake (47)"This super nutritious savoury shake raises an ally's attack and defense for 1 turn!" Sell: 7 berries Made by combining and We have a few new options for recovery and buff items, thanks to the new ingredients we've been finding. Sweet Dew is the best option for TP recovery right now (as well as curing sleep), it's less cost effective than Glazed Honey but still a nice item. The various kinds of tea give an additional effect on top of curing status, and Aphid Shake is a cheaper alternative to Berry Jam if you only need the bonus for one turn.  Spicy Bomb (55)"This bomb is very unstable! Toss it at enemies to cause some big damage!" Causes 5 damage (ignoring all defence) to the targeted enemy Causes 3 damage to other enemies in blast radius Sell: 10 berries Made by combining and  Burly Bomb (56)"Somehow, cooking this berry reversed its effects! Toss it at enemies to lower their defense." Causes 4 damage to the targeted enemy and inflicts defence down (2 turns) Causes 2 damage to other enemies in blast radius and inflicts defence down (3 turns) Sell: 10 berries Made by combining and  Poison Bomb (57)"This bomb has been infused with dangerous toxins. Toss it at enemies to poison them!" Causes 5 damage to the targeted enemy Causes 3 damage to other enemies in blast radius Inflicts poison (2 turns) on enemies hit Sell: 14 berries Made by combining or and or  Sleep Bomb (58)"This bomb's infused with Numbnail sedatives! Toss it at enemies to make them sleepy!" Causes 5 damage to the targeted enemy Causes 3 damage to other enemies in blast radius Inflicts sleep (2 turns) on enemies hit Sell: 14 berries Made by combining or and   Clear Bomb (61)"This harmless bomb clears out ALL status effects from everyone in battle." When it says everyone, it means it (allies and enemies). Sell: 10 berries Made by combining with any bombHard Seeds, combined with various things, let us make explosives! These bombs are a lot more effective than the battle items we've seen so far: they do respectable damage and can even hit multiple enemies if aimed well (the radius is comparable to Icefall, centred on the targeted enemy), and they can be used to apply various negative statuses too. They're pretty neat.  The documentation I had on Burly Bombs seemed a bit weird, so I went and did some testing to verify it. They do 1 less damage than the other bombs, but apply defence down status to anything they hit, which can really come in handy against bosses and such.  For some reason, though, it lasts a turn longer on the auxiliary targets (this is what I wanted to verify; previously I think I'd only ever used these against single targets).  I also found an interesting quirk with the targeting. You can't throw a bomb at an underground enemy, but if you target another enemy and catch it within the radius, it will be hit and forced to surface. I'll be showing off bombs in action soon enough (though probably not for several updates yet). These are a lot better than they might look at first, and can be a cornerstone of strategy for low-level runs among other things.  That was a nice interlude, but let's head east now.  Looks like a nice little residential area. So bugs do live here! I was wondering where they stayed. Well, it's no Hive. But these are pretty cozy. I wouldn't mind a longer stay, when we find all the artifacts.There's a minor general banter here, but nobody has too much to say. I'm honestly a bit surprised Leif's anxiety about not having a home didn't come up.  No problem. Who needs sedatives when you've got ice?Leif's reaction, while a bit callous toward this kid (how are they going to get ice, exactly?), is probably in line with what most players are thinking. This is also a nice way to hint at the resistances of an enemy we'll be facing soon; we don't know what Chompers are yet. All moths look so different from each other... Indeed. Leif, using your wings as a robe is quite unique! Well, Father did it all the time. We ended up copying him. I see. Your father must have looked very cool too! You could start a fad! Eh. It'd be no fun if everyone did it.This is a nice banter, though. We get a bit of insight into Leif's background, and also his hipster side.  This butterfly doesn't have much to say right now either. She's so... beeish. It's not like she does it on purpose. Nature loves to play tricks with our eyes. Although it sure enjoys the bee aesthetic.I don't know if I see it, really? Bee mimics are certainly a thing, but she doesn't really look like one. (Also, I'm pretty sure Vi meant that as a slight on her attitude rather than her appearance, and the others, possibly deliberately, misinterpreted her.)   Inside the metal house, there's a diary we can read. (We're video game heroes, what do you think we're going to do?)  Day X: I am not sure if I believe in this story about Venus... I have always heard of her, but I have never seen her. Maybe this is nothing but superstition, but I feel I must follow my mother's footsteps. Day XY: What have years of training been for? I still don't believe in Venus, even if the village does. And they say I'll be the next priestess? If I left the hills, maybe I could find a new purpose. Even so, I feel something calling to me from the top of the hills. If nothing there convinces me, I'll take my leave. Day XXY: I saw her. Venus. She truly does exist! And she is so beautiful... I am not worthy of being her servant, after so many years full of doubt! Mother... As the new priestess, I shall spread the goodwill of Venus to all. I hope one day I feel deserving of having met her.This is obviously Aria's diary. Seems like she wasn't always so devout. Let's go back to the main square and see the rest of the town.  Samira's here too!   She offers her usual services. We can also get a new banter about her: Samira's come to the festival too! It's inspiring to see her put in the legwork to achieve her goals. Yeah... Hopefully business will be good during the festival.Let's check out this building.  41 - Bugaria's Latest Sensation! (Mothiva's Theme)Some familiar faces in here, as well as some new people. And new music, there seems to be a show on! This is a tavern of some kind, though they also have a quest board set up (we can't check it right now, though, and in fact this particular board won't be available until after the festival ends), and there aren't any refreshments available to us.  She's the worst. I wouldn't take her money at all. Vi?Seems like Fuzzo isn't having the best of luck here, I guess not everyone can be as easy a mark as Kabbu. Hey, it's that merchant that hangs around town! He travels with the caravan, doesn't he? He seems to be striking a deal... It's more like he's trying to strike a deal. Really trying.Heh. I almost feel sorry for him.  Let's go have fun somewhere else.Vi really, really doesn't want to talk to this bee. Vi, you seem to have some beef with this bug. Annoying, arrogant, smug... she's everything I hate about the Bee Kingdom! You're acting like all bees are like this. What about you? I'm an exception. End of story! (Vi...)She's willing to explain why, at least.  This is all the bartender has to say. Hmm... What's up? I was once told the bartender of this settlement was an energetic mantis lady. Suffice it to say, this fellow cannot possibly be her. Who knows, maybe she quit or something... ...Have you all noticed how nosy we get sometimes?Heh. Thanks, game. I always enjoy this kind of self-aware ribbing from games. (Also, the only players likely to see this dialogue are the ones it actually applies to. If you're skipping any banters, you'll almost certainly skip this one.) That said, I also like this way of dropping in background details (and having the characters occasionally have incorrect or outdated knowledge), it really helps make the world feel more alive. Let's check out this show.  Oh dear! Mothiva is giving a live concert! Everyone, we mustn't interrupt! (Those three... Hmph!)Does she know us specifically, or is she just (quite reasonably) annoyed we walked onto her stage? Wow... It's Mothiva! She is super popular! Even I have heard of her from my homeland, it is such an honor to even be near her! What exactly makes her so special? She's explorer by day, performer by night! Mhm. Most bugs struggle being successful, but it comes easily to her. We'll give her music a try sometime, maybe...Mothiva's popularity, you may recall, is the reason Samira struggled to find a job.  Someone's hiding backstage over here.  Not very talkative, is he? Who's hiding behind this bush, though? S-Shh! He will hear us!Very mysterious.  That's all for the tavern.  Over here, it looks like there's an elevator up to the second floor. Before that, though...   Sneaky! There's no way to see this Lore Book, it's completely hidden from view. The only hint it's there is the cuttable weed blocking access. (We'll turn this in later when it's more convenient.)  Let's go up.   Unfortunately, we are booked full due to the festival! I apologize for the inconvenience!This is the inn, but we can't stay right now, which might explain why there's a yellow save crystal in the square. What a happy innkeeper. It really makes you want to stay, doesn't it? It makes me wonder how she's not bored...I would've guessed she's happy due to the inn being sold out. Then again, the inn has one room, that's not particularly difficult...  There are a couple of ladybugs staying here. Huh, I didn't know ladybugs could have orange wings. Yeah, we didn't know bees could be explorers either. ... ... I-It's a joke, V- It better be.Looks like they're still messing with her about this.  Oh, it's nice to see Bub again. Again? Well, yes. I ran into him back in the Lost Sands, and we had some nice talks. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but back then, it was nice to be able to chat. Well, don't let us stop you from saying hi or anything. Just don't take TOO long!I like that our characters clearly had lives before we started controlling them.  Out here on the balcony, we get a prompt to inspect it.  Yeah! It's the best thing about Sunset Inn! Totally worth the price. It's alright. The Venus statue is really well made, don't you think? I think it's a bit creepy. It doesn't have a face or anything... Vi, no one has seen the Goddess Venus. It would be sacrilegious to paint her face! Say, Kabbu. You're not a worshipper or anything, are you? Not quite. I just like being well informed of the places I visit. I bet you went into the palace library to read all about this place, didn't you? ...M-Maybe. Cute. Hmph. Let us go back to enjoying the view.The beetle doth protest too much, methinks.  This is, of course, a discovery.    As per usual, once we have the discovery, we get this on further interactions. That's the last thing to see in this central area, so let's head west.  It's the farms! It's so cool to see everything first hand! Indeed. The big tree overlooking it is quite the spectacle too. I didn't take you for an agriculture enthusiast, Vi. I'm not. But I sure like food... They work hard to make it easy for us! You okay there, Vi? What!? Can't I ever be grateful for anything!?Is that... character development?  We would do it all over again, Neo.So this is where Neolith went off to! Vi, Leif... Thank you. What for? For helping me protect Neo. I am very glad to see him safe. Oh, I forgot to ask Neo for a reward! ... I... I was kidding! Just kidding, okay!? Heh. There's a crystal berry visible inside that windmill, but we can't get in yet. That crank over to the left makes the blades move slightly when we interact with it (either with Kabbu's horn or Vi's Beemerang), but nothing we can do right now will make the door even budge. This is one of those moments in games where the player can easily waste time faffing about trying to solve a puzzle, when the real solution requires an ability they don't have yet.  When we talk to this person, the camera zooms out and gives us a nice view of this pen.  The aphids don't fall behind... That's a discovery too!    I quite like the details they've put into these agricultural practices. There's quite a bit of realism here, too: ants quite often have a mutualistic relationship with aphids, taking care of them in return for sugary excretions they consume. And cochineals, while I don't know of other insects ever doing so, have historically been used by humans to produce red pigments. (As a vegetarian this has caused me no end of trouble, it's still in some foods produced today. Look out for "carmine" on ingredient labels.) There's also, of course, a banter: Oh... The aphid farms. It's a joy to be here. This girl has the right idea. They're really cute, aren't they!? Shame we can't own one. We could always get an adorable pillbug. Team Snakemouth's mascot! No. What's that over to the left?   This guard clearly doesn't want us going any further, nor interacting with her pet. Hmm. A lone bee, guarding a huge door. Well, she is not truly alone. That aphid is keeping her good company. It's truly adorable. Maybe we'll pet it. Wow. That's a super death glare she gave ya, Leif. Guess we'll settle for watching from afar.I'm genuinely curious how they saw her face, considering the big visors the bee guards wear. (The guard's sprite never changed at all.)  This cute aphid... Did it escape the farm? Heheheh. It seems to be giving this guard some company. Hmm... I'm sure it's fine. We are grateful to be able to see it up close...Leif's love of cute things seems to be the theme of this area.   It's the last shift before the festival... So we've got to be efficient!Let's see what our party think. I don't mean to judge, but is this ant doing anything? Management must have some value, don't you think? Standing around all day giving orders? Maybe I should be a manager! Those poor workers...Her comments about efficiency fall a bit flat when she's not doing anything, don't they.  It must be rough picking up berries all day... Ants are extremely strong, are we right? Indeed. Objects even I would find heavy are quite manageable for them. Then this job must be like child's play to them. This went from worst job to best job pretty quick... if you're an ant, at least.It's a bit insensitive to have this conversation right in front of her, just after she complained about her job, don't you think?  There's another farmer hanging out down here. (Before you ask, no, we can't get any of these berries off the bushes...) Venus seems to be held in high regard, even by the workers. There's no real proof of her existence, but the land is prosperous without fail. Blind faith... It must be nice being able to live so carefree.That's the last of what there is to see. Let's go back to Aria.  This seems like a good stopping point. Next time: Festival games! Glorious combat! Explopyro fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Apr 9, 2021 |
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Mar 26, 2021 19:58
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Quackles posted:Ooh, will there be a Glitz Pit? Not quite, sorry to get your hopes up. There's nothing quite equivalent in this game (which is kind of a shame, Grubba's random orders were a fun twist), but there is a moment later on that captures a similar feeling at least. Alien Arcana posted:How did I never notice that. Goddammit. I know, right? It took me a while too, I definitely had to see it pointed out outside the game before I realised. I love this game. Alien Arcana posted:Huh. I'd assumed Vi was talking about her giant nose. Isn't that just a cape or something she's wearing? The nose didn't register to me as unusual, especially in comparison to the other mosquito characters we'll meet later. She's definitely wearing a cape, but under the cape it looks to me like she has a bloated/distended abdomen and I assumed that's what Vi was commenting on. Hard to say for sure, though. Edit: there's a picture of her whole sprite on the wiki page and you can see the abdomen a lot more clearly without the background. Alien Arcana posted:It's honestly kinda creepy. "Skeptic suddenly becomes devout worshipper" is usually a sign that something nefarious is afoot. I know what the deal actually is, of course, but that was my reaction in my first playthrough. It's interesting, because this didn't register as creepy at all to me, but a lot of people have this reaction. I guess I see it? All the flytraps in the field areas do seem aimed at predisposing people to think there's something sinister going on around here. To me it just came across as a nice repudiation of what I'll call the "David Eddings skeptic" trope. That guy was always writing characters who, upon being faced with direct evidence of the supernatural, say something like "I'm a skeptic. Therefore I am contractually obligated to disbelieve. Let me come up with an excuse to pretend it doesn't exist." or even "I'm a skeptic. Let me turn my back while you do magic so I can continue to pretend it doesn't exist." He really didn't understand what skepticism was, and it never failed to piss me off. I've honestly come across quite a few writers making this mistake, but he's the ur-example to me. Twelve by Pies posted:Kabbu being very religious but embarrassed about it, so he keeps making excuses to his teammates, is such a weird and neat character quirk. It's very different from how religious characters are in most games, where they're generally completely unconcerned, actively opposed, or a zealot. Yeah, that feels weirdly realistic to me. Although now I find myself wondering whether maybe he recently turned to Venus as a coping mechanism for his survivor's guilt, and is still trying to work out exactly where he stands? Junpei posted:Since we're already at capacity with the party members and won't be getting any more, I wonder how we will be getting new field abilities? We'll be getting a partial answer to this next update. Alien Arcana posted:Ugh, it's always the worst when that happens. It almost seems like you just need to hit the crank several times in a row, but there's a bug [hah] in the game's engine that makes it really difficult (if you throw the beemerang twice without moving, the second throw will always be directly left or right, regardless of where you threw it the first time). So you can waste a lot of time wondering if what you're trying actually doesn't work, or if you're just having a hard time doing it correctly. Twelve by Pies posted:The worst is that some of the cranks can be turned by Kabbu's horn attack, which is how I turned a lot of them when I first played the game. Kabbu can turn that crank too, but it doesn't "count" even though you can get it spinning just as fast doing it that way as you can with how you're supposed to do it. It probably would have been better if Kabbu couldn't turn cranks because I was wondering if it was a door opening elsewhere, or something, and eventually I just gave up and looked at a walkthrough. I do wish games were more transparent about whether you're doing a puzzle wrong. Yeah, this is a thing game designers really need to be more diligent about trying to prevent. It's incredibly frustrating, and the player inevitably ends up feeling a bit stupid when they come back and do it the intended way (not to mention the frustration and second-guessing oneself in the moment). Or gives in and looks things up to make sure they weren't missing something obvious, which feels very unsatisfying especially if they've previously been playing blind. The problem is that, often, it is good game design to present obstacles or puzzles that can't be solved immediately and hint at future capabilities. This is the entire principle the Metroidvania genre runs on, among other things, and putting together "oh, right, this new ability lets me interact with that weird thing I saw five hours ago" can be really satisfying when it works. I think the real solution is just better signposting and making it more obvious that you can't do it now, especially in a game like this where there aren't that many puzzles of this kind. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Mar 27, 2021 |
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Mar 27, 2021 16:34
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FYI, I realised I forgot to include a banter in the last update, so I've just gone and edited it in. Here it is for convenience, so you don't have to go reread the entire post:I posted:
Next update is in progress, I think I'll probably have it up sometime tomorrow. rbakervv posted:I bet that the "incident" that got ladybugs in trouble has to do with the aphid farms. A staple of ladybug diets is aphids. Not the dew or eggs. The aphids themselves. Farmers would get pissed if someone came by and ate all their livestock. This is definitely plausible. I know we get more of an explanation later, but I genuinely don't remember how much detail it goes into. Yapping Eevee posted:Ah, the Seto Kaiba philosophy. This trope seems to be extremely common, doesn't it.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:13
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Except he didn't even bother to look away, he just flatly denied magic that occurred in front of his face without giving a reason.