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Do you gain stats by leveling up too or only from passing in animals and equipping better gear?
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Oct 12, 2021 07:05
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SloppyDoughnuts posted:Do you gain stats by leveling up too or only from passing in animals and equipping better gear? Yes you do gain stats also from regular leveling up. This is how it works. In battles you earn experience. When you earn enough experience, you level up. This level up causes you to gain stats and also sometimes you learn new abilities. These are considered "human" abilities (like "Camp" or "Process Meat" that we already saw) and they are free to use (don't cost BP). When handing in animals you gain (smaller) stat gains and you also may learn an ability sometimes. These are considered the "beast" abilities (mostly stuff like various attack or heal abilities) and they cost BP to use. As we saw, also certain equipment may have a positive or negative effect on various stats. Hope this clears it up, but if not ask. 
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Oct 12, 2021 08:15
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The animal designs very effectively communicate how the familiar names like "pig" or "rabbit" are just approximations for aliens that kinda-sorta resemble their namesakes.
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Oct 12, 2021 17:25
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I never knew about this game and I am really liking the lp so far. Phantasy Star IV is one of my favorite games and I though this have some ressemblance to it at the beginning. It seems to be a little weirder, but in a cool way. Hope you continue showing what it has in store
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Oct 12, 2021 18:33
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 Hello everyone, and welcome back to Linda³! Last time, Ken continued on his task to get the amnesia medication for Linda, so with that in mind, he delivered some goat meat to Panheim, because apparently goat meat is one of the key ingredients. We also did a whole more bunch of animal collecting, so we are well under way towards our goal of at least 30 species. So, as we start this part, we find Ken just about to leave Eterna, after having finished his meeting with Elizabeth and Dr. Panheim.   Outside, at this northern latitude, everything is white and frozen now that the winter has come. This is annoying, because it slows down Ken's movement.  However, it does open up the possibility to catch some animals who feel right at home in such a climate!  You guessed it, penguins! They don't really have anything super unusual, other than the (somewhat expected) ability to do various ice-based attacks. Mostly I handle them by transforming into a dolphin for highly increased attack. But, I must say, I love their colours, looks great. However, in the PC Engine version, they looked... different:  Um. Yeah. Anyway.  Even in the snow, I manage to find that tunnel which leads into Battle Park.  As we go through the tunnel, Ken gets another message notification.   Incidentally, we're not staying in Battle Park this time. So we'll simply take the southern exit which takes us out of the snowy areas! We'll check the message shortly, but before that, a couple more species to capture around here that we didn't do last time!  The next on our list...  Well, horses, of course! Even though they have relatively high HP and attack, they will try to run away from you on the overworld, so best is to try and corner them against a mountain or something like that.  Finally, you might remember that this was the area where eagles live.  Last time we avoided them, but we have a couple more levels since then, so why not, right? So this thing about a "powerful sword", probably warrants a bit of a comment. We'll certainly look at that in the future, but there's one other thing. This weapon (eagle sword) is among those which allow Ken to attack all enemies in front of him at once, with a single attack. Obviously this is very beneficial in battle, but our current weapon doesn't have that ability, so we may want to upgrade to the eagle sword soon. Although I didn't mention it at a time, we had previously used one other weapon that could do this--the swallow cutter, so that helped us quite a bit in the early part of the game to capture the animals quickly and avoid taking damage. Eventually, we make our way over to that tunnel which leads to the ark. On the way I have to fight several batches of fleas, because you can barely even see them on the screen!  After exiting the tunnel, first let's stop in a nearby town of Ozport just to listen to the message...  Well, that's good to hear. Although I guess her memories are still not back... Anyway, let's go and see her in Hospico. For travelling between towns like this, generally I use the Bird Line. It does consume money, but we have a decent amount, and also it counts as being in town so it doesn't use up any time on the game's seasonal clock!  Over in Hospico, let's head straight to Linda's room.  Hm, what's up?  Well, it's nice to see that she's recovering, despite the whole memory loss issue.  Before we leave, the nurse here has another fun tidbit for us. Cute. We're finished here for now, so let's leave. On the way, I stop by the pharmacy to buy some HP recovery tables, because we may need them later today. We'll head over to that east-west tunnel between Hospico and Hardia, but on the way...  ...we get another message notification. Perhaps it's Panheim, telling us that the medication is ready?  Exiting the tunnel...   ...we arrive at the ark, to hand in the animals from our backpack.  This time, we'll be handing in: squids, goats, weasels, penguins, horses and eagles! From squids, Ken learns the "black curtain" ability which allows him to hit all enemies in front of him with "black ink" and reduce their hit accuracy. From weasels, Ken learns the "smelly fart" ability which releases smelly gas, reducing attack power of all enemies in front of him. From eagles, Ken learns the "gale cutter" ability, a strong attack against all enemies in front of him. As for Linda, from penguins, she learns the "snowscape" ability, which allows her in battle to transform the terrain block in front of her into a snow field (thus affecting the stats of animals for whom that may not be the native terrain type). Other than that, the usual bunch of small stat increases for both.  Checking with the friendly robot, we're now at 21 out of 30 species done. So that's going pretty well, but also we'll soon be taking a bit of a break from hunting, too. Nevertheless, it hasn't even been a year and we're already 2/3 done, so that looks good for finishing the task before the meteorite impact. However, it is also true that so far we have only been collecting the species which can be easily found on the overworld so that also needs to be kept in mind for the future.   In any case, that shack next to the ark actually has a phone inside, so let's listen to our message. As expected, it is Panhem. It's nice of game to warn us about needing to have two empty slots in our inventory, but we actually have plenty of space still, so that's not an issue. Although I wonder, why two slots and not just one. In any case, we don't really have any other pressing business, so let's head back to Eterna once again via the Bird Line !  As we enter the town, we are intercepted by that Santa we saw at the very beginning of the game!  Hmm, that's true, he did mention this before about room 102, but Linda was definitely not there (wherever it is) since she was in her hospital room all this time! However, like a typical Star Wars character, at this point, I am definitely having a bad feeling about this situation, so it may not be the worst idea in the world to go back to Hospico and check up on Linda! But first, let's just go and get what we came here for, and then we'll head to Hospico.  Into the mansion it is and to Elizabeth's room.   Ken receives "Memorin Z" from Dr. Panheim. Ken receives "Hollagin C" from Dr. Panheim. That's nice. So we get some random medication from him that we don't even know what it does! What could possibly go wrong! Actually, nothing much. As mysterious as this sounds, it's simply an item which can be used in battle. It causes the person who uses it to get random stat increases for the duration of the battle. There's a bunch of these kinds of medications in the game, so it's not anything plot related to worry about. Since we're done here, let's now continue with our idea to go to Hospico. Maybe Linda can even start the treatment?  After arriving in Hospico, we head into the reception building. It looks like there's some weird stuff going on, so perhaps we should gather some info first before going to Linda's room.  For example, this person working on the reception desk... Um, dressed up as Santa? No, that definitely wasn't us. What is going on?  Or, this little girl over here... Is... is there a rogue Santa going around pretending to be Ken? But why?  This all very odd, but let's also check with this guy sitting here in the waiting area. Ok, there's definitely a Santa going around pretending to be Ken. Maybe it's our weird friend whom we just saw in Eterna? But, again, why? I think we don't need to waste any more time, so let's head over to Linda's room!  Oh. She's not here. But there is a nurse here we can talk to... What. is. going. on. Also she said "back garden"! All right, we know our next destiation. But, me being me, of course I'm going to stop on the way for another small bit of lore with this nurse here:  Ah, the performance enhancement drug we've heard of before which the hunters were abusing. The pharmacist previously told us about this happening about 10 years ago or so? Ok, anyway, just wanted to pick up that little bit of dialogue and now on our way to the back garden.  Around the side of the hospital building...  Here we are... and there's also that shed where we were told that it maybe has a big underground complex below it and where supposedly the former mayor of Koshikata is being kept imprisoned. Why is the hospital director standing here, of all places? Let's try to talk to him and find out? Ken hands over "Memorin Z" to the hospital director. But then, suddenly... And he... just runs off! Taking our medication with him too! Also, is it just me or did he not seem quite right? Also also, he mentioned again room 102! Well, the only option we have at this point, is to go through the door. So I guess let's do that.  At least it seems that there really is stuff underground below this small building... down the stairs it is.  Doesn't seem there's much cleaning/maitenance going on here. The whole place is dirty with rubbish lying everywhere.  And then we reach some cells? Well, that's definitely Linda there in the second one, but what's with all the blood? Believe it or not, after quite some time, the moment has finally come for another cutscene, which will provide the details!  Ah, um, well, sure, why not. It's not like there isn't already about a million moving parts in what's been going on in this game, why not add more! But, hey, at least we now have some idea who that weird Santa was, right? Although Linda doesn't seem to be at all well, so that's not so good. Before we go on, I thought it might be interesting here to see what this scene used to look like in the PC Engine version, so here it is. I do have to apologise here a bit, because I had to transcribe this purely by ear without any kind of subtitles or written transcript and so there were a couple of small bits where I wasn't able to make out exactly what was being said--but we're really talking just a couple of words in two places, so hopefully it should not be a problem, but I just thought I should mention it anyway. All right, now to the "original" version of the cutscene!  This is actually a bit weird, honestly. First of all, the dialogue is almost the same as in the remake, but not quite. This means they actually went to the trouble to record it again even though the changes are mostly minor at least in content. But it has to be said that Nek definitely feels less "jokey" in this version, at least to me. Other than that, I just though it's a bit funny how it reverts back to the standard in-game graphics for the last couple of lines. Why couldn't they animate those too? Anyway, let me know if you would like to see more of these "original" versions of cutscenes in the future and I'll see what I can do if there is interest. Also, massive props to whoever decided to name this character "Nek". Ok, let's continue.  So it seems Nek has escaped through that hole in the north wall of the cell... In the meantime, other rangers arrive:  A short time later, in commander Ben's office...   Ken explains to the commander what actually happened in Hospico. The phone rings, Ben goes to pick up...  Hanging up, he turns back to Ken...  I think situation has escalated a bit since the time Ken was hunting penguins... But we are finished here, and before we leave we can have a word with commander's secretary.  Ok, let's go. On our way out, downstairs, there was this lady:  If you recall, she can also save our game, but she mentioned we should come and visit for a chat every once in a while. So let's check what she has to say... Um, ok... not sure this is really relevant to anything. Across from her, is the bank counter.  Here, first let's check out Ken's bank book as always...  So here we can see, that not only has Ken's salary gone up to 900 G as he is leveling up, but also that in Winter he gets an additional bonus payment in the form of an extra salary amount! So that's pretty nice. In any case, we really aren't hurting for money at the moment. Especially since this time I do remember to withdraw all the money that's been sitting here. Also, since we are already in Hardia, it might be worth it to see what Ken's mum has to say about the whole twin brother situation. Because Ken surely didn't seem to know anything about it until just now! Let's head over to Ken's house!   Ok, so this might be a weird place to mention this, but bear with me. In this game whenever an animal name is mentioned, be it in dialogues or somewhere in the equipement menu or wherever, it is ALWAYS shown in a particular colour, depending on whether you have already caught it or not, and if yes, whether you already have it handed over in the ark. For example, the animal names you have in your backpack but have not handed in are printed in yellow, and those you have handed in are printed in white. The species which you have not yet caught have their names printed in red colour. Maybe you already are guessing where I'm going with this explanation. The word "dragon" in the above dialogue is shown in red colour. Somehow, somewhere in this game there are dragons to be found. Just think about that for a second. But, this concludes our business here in Hardia for the moment, so I thought, for the rest of today's episode we might try something a bit different. Namely, since we have a bit of time before the plot catches up with us, why not go exploring a little bit? I mean, I said we will have A LOT of time for that eventually, but it doesn't hurt to get a bit of a taste, right? And it will also allow us to catch a couple more animal species, so it won't be a total waste. I'm glad you agree. Let's go. (Oh yeah, I sold a bunch of extra animals from my backpack before heading out.)  First, we'll head over to where Hospico is, and then walk south east from there.  After looking around for a bit, we find what looks like a cave entrance in the side of the mountain there.  We can definitely head inside into what at first glance looks like some sort of an archaeological dig...  Walking a bit further in, we find some people and tents, confirming our notion that there is some archaeology going on here. Let's talk to the person. I mean, how bad can it be? We already fought three-eyed squirrels and flying rabbits. If we go into the left tent:  There's a guy here... I love the detail of having a sleeping bag inside the tent! A purple lion, you say? Interesting. Well, let's be on the lookout for that.  The person in the other tent... That's it for the people present here. It's time to explore a bit. In case it's not already clear, this is one of the "dungeons" in this game. But it's a bit different perhaps than what you're used to. There's usually not going to be a dungeon-end boss as such or anything like that, it's really more about exploring and uncovering this planet's secrets. Before we go further, I should probably mention that as far as time passage goes, it does indeed pass while you're in a dungeon, but only at a ¼ the normal rate, to give you a bit of time to explore without feeling rushed. This dungeon, as the game helpfully informs us with a location title, is called "Marblepolis" and I am only sure of two things right now: (1) We should definitely be on the lookout for a "purple lion", whatever it is; and (2) We definitely need to try moving the stones! I mean everybody is so adamant that we shoudln't, so of course that means...  Near the tents is this staircase leading down, which I guess we'll take.  It leads to a dimly lit hallway.  At the end of the hallway is this weird passage, somehow conveniently blocked by a stone. Well, I guess we have no choice but to move it!  There is no surprise here. Moving the stone triggers an enemy encounter!  Well, I guess those are the creepy-crawlies the lady mentioned. Or, to be more precise, a bunch of earthworms. So they have this unusual ability where females can transform into males and regain full health, but more interestingly, our dogs are quite afraid of them and may retreat from battle leaving you to fend for yourself. Luckly, there's no lasting consequence to the retreat, and they will be right back in their spots in the very next battle. But just something to keep in mind, together with the fact that the earthworms will often appear in large groups, so you do need to be careful. On the other hand, it will also cause you to gain a few levels while here, but as we already discussed a couple of times, try not to go overboard with that. After defeating these guys, we can go through the passage...  ...we enter some weird open area with pillars and more of those moveable stones.  Before we go on with our exploration, though, there is another species of animal we can catch here...  ...although they are very hard to catch, even if you use the dash function (which, reminder, depletes your HP!). But, eventually I do manage to corner one group...  ...and it turns out it's a bunch of chickens! So these two species are an example of a species which cannot be found on the overworld. You actually have to come down here to capture them. But this is still easy as you simply have to go to the right place and pretty much nothing else--we will encounter much later some species where there are very special ways of finding them and/or catching them. For now, though, just be careful of really strong fire attacks these chickens will unleash on you! Now that we have captured earthworms and chickens, let's finish our exploration of Marblepolis.  If you look around this big hall, you will find in the center a big staircase going up. Let's take it.  It leads over a couple of floors upwards...  ...until we get this unusual little room. There are many questions here. What is the meaning of that symbol on the back wall? What is that thing next to the left wall? Stepping on it does nothing at all. Concluding that we are probably missing some information and/or items, the only thing we can do is go back down to the main hall, unfortunately.  But, as mentioned, there are other moveable stones around here. And if we play with them long enough (all the while fighting the earthworms), eventually we'll cause something to happen.  A previously hidden staircase leading downwards will reveal itself! Obviously we need to take it!  It leads to an even weirder looking room where seemingly the only thing we can do is go further down!  Oh, yeah, and there's again this weird symbol on the wall. But anyway, let's head down.  And further down...  And even further...  Finally, we get to this place. A few more of those weird pillars or whatever they are, and what looks like four animal statues. I can't help but notice that the bottom right statue very definitely looks like a lion. The blue thing in the middle pretty much calls to us to step on it...  And when we do, we're instantly teleported... somewhere. Well, there's only one way to go, which is forward (well, there's also the teleporter, but we don't want to go back yet, of course!). Walking through that narrow hallway...  ...brings us to this very interesting room! What is even going on here? Those pods look exactly the same as the ones our captured animals are stored in on the ark, no question about that. Also, are those like weird animal parts against the north wall? Let's try to interact with one of the pods, they seem to have some kind of panel on them.  Well, whatever it is, we have nothing to put into the slot. I will say though that the animal in this pod definitely again looks like a lion, in fact it looks the same as that statue earlier, pretty much. By extrapolating, it can be plausibly said that the animal in the pod on the right side of the room looks very much like a lioness, which would indeed make sense. Either way, it doesn't appear we are able to do anything here right now. However, before we go, if we stand right next to the left wall...  ...we can see that to the left, there is what appears to be a room identical to the one we're in.  And the same thing on the right. But that must mean, there are other teleporters somewhere. And does that mean there are four such rooms, one corresponding to each statue at the teleporter location? Well, for sure I have absolutely no idea. We will simply have to come back here later when we are better equipped to understand all of this. This is not going to be soon, though. Despite how it may look (maybe), this is NOT a small game. For now, we'll head back to the surface. While Ken is climbing all those stairs, let me quickly show you where he is regarding his stats at the moment:   And well here we are back outside! Let's finish up by heading back to the ark to hand in the two new species we collected.    This time we only have earhtworms and chickens. But check out how many earthworms I have (23 and 20) from all those stones in the dungeon! As for abilities, this time Linda learns "fire carpet" from the chickens. This ability "covers the floor with fire", causing continuous fire damage to the enemies, so I guess something like poison, except with fire! Since we've bean talking about those pods, where animals are kept, as a reminder, after you hand them in in the ark, you can have a look what they look like "in storage":  As you can see, these pods are very similar to the ones we saw after going through the teleporter. Finally, as always, we'll check in with the friendly robot...  ...who informs us that we have collected 23 species out of 30 that we need. Not too bad. Well, I don't know about you, but I think this is a good moment to stop for today, since Ken has had quite an eventful day and needs a bit of rest for sure. He'll also need some time to ponder all the unusual things that happened today. Next time on Linda³: Moar party members!  Today a couple of illustrations related to the events with Nek! ivantod fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Oct 16, 2021 |
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Oct 16, 2021 22:13
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Well, that was certainly unexpected.
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Oct 16, 2021 23:05
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I guess underground prison dungeons are very "in" on this planet. Also hey when can we use our own murdereagle as a party member?
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Oct 16, 2021 23:25
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I have to admit, that cut scene definitely surprised me. I like how the boss completely believe Ken's tale of his Santa cosplaying murderous twin brother. Did we already know Ken was adopted?
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Oct 17, 2021 02:01
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If Ken's father was the one who decided to designate one twin as the evil bizarro one at birth, I'm gonna say he deserved what he got.
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Oct 17, 2021 07:49
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Hypocrisy posted:I have to admit, that cut scene definitely surprised me. I like how the boss completely believe Ken's tale of his Santa cosplaying murderous twin brother. Did we already know Ken was adopted? Well, we know Santa suits are from that one company, and LOOK at this giant planet! This probably isn't the most ridiculous thing that's happened around here.
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Oct 17, 2021 09:17
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I was not expecting the Nek revelation, that's for sure. If our boss believes us so readily, he's either got a lot trust in us or you have to wonder what stuff he's seen to make this so readily believable.
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Oct 17, 2021 15:31
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I am beginning to feel like this might not be a totally ordinary JRPG after all. 
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Oct 17, 2021 15:43
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Odd Wilson posted:I was not expecting the Nek revelation, that's for sure. I mean, truth is stranger than fiction - it's so bizarre it has to be true.
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Oct 17, 2021 16:02
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I've been getting an increasingly strong Xenogears vibe from this game, but it only became really "audible" for me this update.
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Oct 17, 2021 16:08
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TeeQueue posted:I am beginning to feel like this might not be a totally ordinary JRPG after all. I don't see what you mean, an evil sibling is a huge plot point in so many games.
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Oct 17, 2021 16:51
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TeeQueue posted:I am beginning to feel like this might not be a totally ordinary JRPG after all. Next you're going to tell me whatever deity or whatever that sent us this ark isn't actually good? basically I'm 100% suspicious of everyone and so far it's working out
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Oct 17, 2021 19:39
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Well, it's been pretty much admitted we're gathering this stuff for the sake of the company's interests, more so than for people. They want to keep the money train rolling.
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Oct 17, 2021 20:05
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Hypocrisy posted:Did we already know Ken was adopted? Seraphic Neoman posted:Also hey when can we use our own murdereagle as a party member? ivantod fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Oct 17, 2021 |
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Oct 17, 2021 22:09
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Incredible that this is going from a Pokemon-via-OG-Phantasy Star-Tetralogy to a proto-Phoenix Wright.
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Oct 17, 2021 22:14
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this feels like one of those soap opera twists about a secret evil twin brother, but its a jrpg??  (though thinking on it, 'secret evil twin' is pretty common...) its nice the boss was pretty chill about it, at leastalso  kens (other) dad
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Oct 17, 2021 22:19
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Booky posted:also
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Oct 18, 2021 00:34
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Psion posted:Next you're going to tell me whatever deity or whatever that sent us this ark isn't actually good? Well, it seems like this isn't the first ark they've sent and they've apparently populated one planet before. So at least they seem to be on the up and up when it comes to saving species.
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Oct 18, 2021 01:03
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Hypocrisy posted:I have to admit, that cut scene definitely surprised me. I like how the boss completely believe Ken's tale of his Santa cosplaying murderous twin brother. Did we already know Ken was adopted? Eh, the room in question had a giant hole in the back wall, presumably leading outside, so its not unbelievable. Also... the gently caress are up with those PC-Engine Penguins? That's some "At the Mountains of Madness" tier stuff there.
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Oct 18, 2021 02:37
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they remind of SMT's Arioch.
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Oct 18, 2021 02:46
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This game really reminds me of SMT1. I would probably believe it was a spin-off if there was dungeon crawling in it. I'm starting to think Linde my not actually join our party, given all the fake-outs. Maybe nurse lady is the actual party member?
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Oct 18, 2021 06:09
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Y'know, I was gonna make a joke about wondering what Ken's twin brother was doing cosplaying as Santa after the first time we saw him but thought it was too stupid but the game sure showed me...
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Oct 18, 2021 16:14
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Psion posted:Next you're going to tell me whatever deity or whatever that sent us this ark isn't actually good? What a preposterous idea, there's nothing weird about the ark or its menacing digestive-tract-looking species collection room! Now I'm curious whether this room had the same creepy flesh/baleen plate vibe in the PC Engine version.
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Oct 19, 2021 10:26
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purplestuffedworm posted:Now I'm curious whether this room had the same creepy flesh/baleen plate vibe in the PC Engine version. It was actually more creepy looking originally in the PC Engine version...
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Oct 19, 2021 10:46
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Oh, that's ominous.
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Oct 19, 2021 10:48
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Trust the meat boat.
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Oct 19, 2021 11:17
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Now, see, I'm of two minds about that. On the one hand, if the ark is a living creature, and needs people to pilot it, then it makes sense to trust it. After all, it wants to live too. On the other hand, the original version makes it look like the walls are muscles, while the new one... that's a stomach. Definitely makes me think you're just collecting food for the space beast.
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Oct 19, 2021 11:35
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ivantod posted:It was actually more creepy looking originally in the PC Engine version... Thanks for satisfying my curiosity, that sure is... unpleasant.
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Oct 19, 2021 14:52
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Creepy stomach boat is pretty incredible for us as viewers but probably bad for our protagonist, yeah.kirbysuperstar posted:Trust the meat boat. actually I think I like 'creepy meat boat' better, you're on to something here Psion fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Oct 19, 2021 |
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Oct 19, 2021 17:19
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I am one hundred percent here for those PC Engine graphics, both ark-wise and enemy-wise. Those penguins... amazing!
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Oct 20, 2021 23:45
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peachsynapse posted:I am one hundred percent here for those PC Engine graphics, both ark-wise and enemy-wise. Those penguins... amazing! It is definitely my intention to keep showing bits and pieces from the original PC Engine version whenever I can! Also, if there's something specific that somebody wants to see, then just let me know and I'll see what I can do!
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Oct 21, 2021 11:13
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ivantod posted:It is definitely my intention to keep showing bits and pieces from the original PC Engine version whenever I can! Nothing specific, I just want to keep seeing the really messed up designs of the PC Engine version and compare them to the significantly more cute ones in this version. It's neat to see just how hard the art direction changed between remakes.
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Oct 21, 2021 15:42
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Last time, Ken had an unpleasant experience of meeting an individual claiming to be his twin brother, Nek. Nek also claimed to have killed their "real" father, whatever that means. The whole thing happened in the "special observation cell" which we've heard before is supposed to be housing the mayor of Koshikata, who was imprisoned there some years back after an "incident". Nek in addition, seems to have managed to frame Linda for the whole thing (and who is still missing her memories, btw). However, it seems that later on she actually managed to escape from custody and a couple of her guards were found dead. After that, Ken went exploring a bit in a cave housing an archaeological dig and there we found some weird pods, looking very similar to the ones we have seen on the ark.  When we left off, Ken had just finished handing in some animal species at the ark. But I think we should head back to Hospico now, to try and find out more about the whole situation from the last time!  I don't feel like using the Bird Line today, so we'll just take the tunnel and walk over.  But a weird thing happened, I managed to accidentally walk back out, and just as I did...  ...the game decides it's time for Winter 1991 to change into the new season of Spring 1992! That's no problem, we're way ahead of schedule anyway. We have 7 years and 1 season left until Summer 1999, and 7 species left to collect to fulfill the winning condition of 30. Theoretically in Scenario A you can capture a maximum of around 80 different species (out of a total of 120 in the game), so I think we'll manage! I should probably clarify that when I say "a total of 120 in the game", I mean that this is the number of species that can be captured. There are in fact a few other enemies in the game which aren't actually possible to capture. But we'll have a chance to see those later--probably not in this scenario. In any case, let's go back inside.   As we (almost) always do, we'll head into the building and have a chat with the receptionist! Uh, ok? Let's proceed on to the actual hospital ward building.   There are some new people around. For example, this pregnant lady here in the hallway. I suppose she's practicing breathing for the childbirth?  Over in this room, there is another person: Man, the pregnant women in this hospital have some really dark thoughts...  Going back to the other side, over here is our friend Sachiko:  Somehow, during this conversation, Ken again gets a message notification! We'll check that out in a moment. First, there's this other person in the computer room:  Interesting, but let's head back out and check out the "special observation cell", where weird stuff happened last time.  The entrance seems not to be guarded, so let's head in!   Inside, we find Chen, the hospital director. I'm actually surprised that this guy somehow doesn't actually have a portrait for the dialogues? I assume that was before she somehow escaped? Hmmm, so was the murdered person actually the mayor of Koshikata and was he truly Ken's actual father? I guess we'll find out (maybe).  If we check out the cells, there seems to be nothing new there and we can't go in anyway. So let's just head back to the town entrance.  Let's listen to our new message! It's from the commander. All right, back to Hardia it is!  To the Ranger HQ, where we go up to commander's office.  As always, when it doesn't matter, we'll go with a funnier dialogue option!  Before we go... since it's now the year 1992, I guess the "fan service" calendar must have changed? Let's have a quick look.  Looks like it's Sachiko this time. We are also done here for now, but as Ken starts to leave, Ben stops him...  And as that lady in the hospital said, that makes him practically unnoticeable! So at this point, I figure we might as well go a bit north to try and catch some eagles so we could try out that sword... But just as I was getting started...  ...you guessed it, Ken receives another message notification! Ok, fine, we'll head over to Battle Park to hear it.  The message is from Ken's mum! What could it possibly be that's so urgent? Well, not like we have a choice, so let's go! Back in Hardia...  ...Ken's mum is waiting in front of the house!  And inside...  ...it's Linda in a dressed in a Santa suit! So THAT'S how she escaped!    This party is interrupted by the arrival of Commander Ben! I'm sure you've realised by now, but for today's episode the game has decided to switch into a full on sitcom genre! But I'm positive there's something gruesome waiting around a nearby corner somewhere!  They go over to the side...  She turns to Linda... They go over to the side...  Well, whatever it is, they seem to have agreed! The two of them go away to the downstairs room for a moment...  After a few more moments, Ken's mum comes back...  Linda comes up the stairs...  ...and now she's a ranger too! Does that mean she'll also join our party? Spoiler alert: yes it does!  The ranger uniform used to look slightly different back in the PC Engine days, so here is the same screenshot from that version:  And before you ask, no the Santa outfit did not have a close-up in the original version--that was added for the remake. Well, it's clearly time to be on our way, but one last chat with Ben first... Well, that's nice to know. The commander certainly seems to be an outstanding guy. And one final chat with Ken's mum: All right, now it's time to go for real!  As we come out, Linda notices the swing in front of Ken's house (or rather what used to be both of their houses, since as was mentioned, Linda's familiy moved to Minago at some point in time).  To be clear, despite what she's saying, the only place where we actually need to go is Ozport (one town which we definitely haven't visited at all so far), but there are a couple of other places where you can see some optional scenes/dialogue. In fact, those optional scenes were added in the remake--in the PC Engine version at this point you would more or less just proceed to Ozport directly. Before we proceed with anything, however, since we now finally have Linda in our party, let's check out the party stats screen!  Well... I guess there was no reason to expect otherwise for a game of this vintage, but yes indeed Linda joins us at level 3, more or less where we left her. At least in this game there is a plot justification for this situation, since she spent most of the time since the start of the game actually in hospital! But that's ok, because for example fighting Earthworms in Marblepolis gives a ton of EXP, so she can get up to speed pretty quickly if needed. We'll take a bit of a break from capturing for the time being, however. All right then, so the first thing we can do is, sit on the swing.  Well, one of the things that happened here was that Linda proposed to Ken when they were little kids. But this is kind of glossed over a bit in the prologue cutscene in the remake, even though it was shown in more detail in the PC Engine version. Anyway, next thing we can do is go into that little shed.  You can actually choose here, but it doesn't matter because it continues the same way regardless, namely like this:  Before we leave though, over there on the back wall there is a photograph we can look at:  The two happy families, some years ago! Incidentally, here is what this picture used to look like in the PC Engine version: All right, let's move on.  As we head out of Hardia, I guess I can point out that this game uses again Dragon Quest style, so when you're in town both of your characters are visible, instead of getting "collapsed" into one like in Final Fantasy games. Anyway, let's get a move on. As we walk through the entrance area, Linda seems to get a bit uneasy...  Sure thing. In fact, let's just head to Minago first!   As always, it's just across this river!  As we head to Linda's house, there's a ranger here that we can talk to. That's interesting, because, yes, there's still that whole story about how all the residents of Minago had disappeared, too. Lots of stuff going on in this game, that's for sure. Linda's house, you will recall, is in the northwest part of town, so let's go there now.   We want to head over to Linda's room, but first, in the kitchen...  Some more meat to use! We should remember to not let it spoil, as we're heading into the summer soon! All right, now up to Linda's room one floor above.  Ken sure seems to get a lot of message notifications these days! We'll listen to it on our way out of Minago shortly. But anyway, where were we...    Ken takes 15 HP damage! Ken takes 13 HP damage! Ken takes 10 HP damage! Ken takes 15 HP damage!  Another wrestling move, by the way. But, that's all for now, so it's time to head out! But, as we leave the house, Linda...  We do... And then:  Well, at least she seems to be slowly remembering bits and pieces... Heading back out, we'll pay a visit to the church. There isn't actually anything for Linda to remember there, but let's just check it out see what's inside, right?  Also... there's again that weird symbol above the door. We've already seen it in that underground area, but that stuff seemed pretty technlogically advanced, and we know that the Beastians weren't really like that when the settlers discovered them, so they probably weren't the ones who came up with it. There are many questions, and discovering the answers to those is basically what the overall plot of this game is about, of course. So we should expect it to take playing through all scenarios in order to get a complete picture, but I guess that's not a surprise. Anyway, inside.   Looks neat. Let's take the stairs.  This place is pretty big. We'll keep going upstairs.  Still climbing.   And... there's a lone ranger all the way up here that we can talk to! Oh, so the Koshikata incident everybody keeps talking to was also a Christmas-related thing and it was one of those Beastian autonomous towns too? Interesting. Since, yes, indeed, we only came to the church to talk to this guy, we'll head back out now!  On the way back down, we pass by this room containing a chest. But do you know what? The door is locked! What a surprise! Needless to say, we'll be coming back here. But for now, let's listen to that message, finally!  The message is from Nek. This is a bit clunky here, but of course there has to be some way of making sure we actually finish the plot before taking off. Otherwise we could just go right now and finish the capturing and take off, right? In any case, the ark was anyway where we were going to head next with Linda, so let's do that.   So, until now we were only really coming here to register the animals, but I'm sure it didn't escape your attention that there's that staircase going up on the right side. In fact, there are two more "decks" on the ark. So let's head up!  But, over here...  ...is a staircase leading further up!  There's a bunch of doors here (and also on the floor below), but we'll check that in a moment. For now, let's walk all the way to the other end of the ark.  On the way, we pass by this door. You might recall that at the very beginning of the game, one of the rangers hanging about the ark mentioned to us that he's built a "love nest" for Ken and Linda to live in while they travel! So, that's this room here! We can go inside...   But other than some storage and a bed, there is actually nothing here--it's completely empty! So, you might be wondering, what even is the point of this? Well, I'll tell you! Because this game definitely needs more things to do in it, this is yet another game mechanic we have not encountered so far. There is in fact... a furniture store in this game (!), and you can, well, buy stuff to equip your living quarters on the ark! We probably won't come to this until much later in the game, but actually by sheer coincidence we'll be passing by the said furniture in the next update so we'll get to at least see it even if we don't use it yet! So, we'll just continue on our way. Near the far end of the ship, there is a robot...  I see. Well, that's good to know for the future.  Ah, there's the door robot was talking about. But, as we approach the door...   Linda suddenly collapses in pain!  So I guess, Nek was telling the truth. We aren't going to be getting in there any time soon. Let's head back one floor below.  As before, it has a bunch of these "shacks". If we go into one of them...  ...we find out that that's actually where the pods are located housing the animals we've captured!  If we look at a pod, it shows us the basic stats of the animal stored in it! So it's kind of like a bestiary option, really, except you have to walk around instead of choosing from a menu! For animals not yet caught, of course, there is nothing to see. Having done this, let's head back out. It's time finally to visit Ozport!  As you might remember it's located just slightly to the north from Hardia/Ark. Here we are, it's located at P-10:   Inside, there are the usual facilities (plus some unusual ones, too). Up the escalator is the airport/shopping mall (they actually implemented the escalator fully-it's functional and you can ride on it!), but we'll do that later (i.e. next time). For now we'll explore the western part where the public park is. But first, let's talk to that guy standing in front of the animal shop.  I have no idea what he's talking about. Eggs? But he said to go in and find out, so let's?  First thing inside is the usual animal trader... That's ok, we'll be taking them with us on the ark anyway. But thanks for the info.  A bit further in is this... thing. It looks like there are eggs being incubated here, so I suppose this must be the "Big Mama" the other guy was talking about? We can find out more from that lady standing in front of the picture of an egg. And well, yes. We've found ANOTHER thing you can do in this game--growing and hatching the eggs! To be honest, this is also something we'll be exploring in a lot more detail in later scenarios, but not so much in this one most likely. For now, let's head into the park to the west.  There is a sign at the entrance: In the park are prohibited the activities which can cause nuisance to other people, such as: playing catch, lighting bonfires, etc. -- Ozport Public Park Administration Good to know. There is also a person sitting on the bench by the entrance. Inside the park, situation is not great, there are definitely vagrant tents and bonfires...  If we go inside the first tent...  If we go to the other tent next to it...  So this is a flower shop, where you can buy flowers! This is again something that we'll be talking more about later since we have no need of it at the moment. But you can see the flowers there in the back that she sells.  There is also this person here standing around by the tents... So you can give him money, but for right now it doesn't accomplish anything. And finally the tent in the top right corner.  This one is actually the equipment shop! So yeah, you might recall that there were some animal attacks named "<Something> Gas". That is what this is about--your headgear influences your defence/resistance against such attacks. He doesn't really have any useful equipment to buy, so we'll move on. Our next stop is this counter here...  ...which again has something to do with the whole egg thing! So this is actually an egg shop. It's true you can find them, but you can also buy some here, if we check out his list of stuff on sale:  So here on sale we have, from the top: smooth, rattling, lumpy, chubby, coarse, thorny, and squishy eggs! But the problem is, at least on the surface of things, you don't really know what you're going to get when it hatches! If you thought it was going to be so easy to just buy an egg of a specific animal, think again! But, as I said, this is something for much later, so for now let's continue to explore the park. Next to the egg shop, there is one more tent to explore.  Well, that's cool, but we don't need it for now. What I find more interesting is that this location (as you can see in top left corner of this screenshot) is labeled as "Mysterious Tent". I wonder why that is. Well, I'm sure we'll find out eventually. In the meantime, we'll move on to the northern side of the park, where there is this lady we can talk to.  If we go through that gap in the hedge, we can reach the tree (also, what is this, Tokimeki Memorial?).  First, let's read what's written on that sign next to the entrance: The Red Thread Cedar There is a legend that if you carve your lover's name on this tree, your love will come true. It is forbidden to unnecessarily damage this tree, because it can cause it to die. So please don't do it. -- Ozport Public Park Administration Before we check out the tree, there are a couple of people to talk to here. First this lady here, who also seems to be pregnant: What this means is, when Ken and Linda are both in the party (like now), you should definitely use the "camp" option since sometimes they will have a conversation you can't otherwise get to hear. We'll definitely do this when we're out in the field, as there are also some quite funny ones to be found! And then this guy here.  All right, well, it's time to check out the tree I guess!  Ken examined the trunk of the tree. He found, at waist height, the names of Ken and Linda written inside of a 🎔.  I guess let's do that. Ken examined the trunk of the tree. He found, at chest height, the names of Paul and Linda written inside of a 🎔.  Ken examined the trunk of the tree. He found, at eye height, the names of Ken and Sachiko written inside of a 🎔.  Ken examined the trunk of the tree. He could faintly read the names of Anne and Gene written inside of a 🎔.  This is all very silly, for sure. If we keep looking at the tree... Ken could find many names on the tree, but none which rang a bell. This is our cue to leave. But as we do...    Sure thing, but that's something that will have to wait for next time, since we've already done a lot today! And speaking of "a lot", is it just me, or does it seem to anybody else that there is enough material in this game for like 2 or 3 "normal" JRPGs of this time period? I mean it's pretty wild the amount of different things that they bothered to implement for you to be able to do! Anyway, tell me what you think, but until next time, enjoy another couple of illustrations! Today, we first start with a high resolution version of the family photo: And then a drawing of Linda in her ranger uniform: ivantod fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Oct 31, 2021 |
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Oct 30, 2021 22:51
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I see Nek has embraced his role as a Saturday morning cartoon villain.
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Oct 30, 2021 23:16
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Glad to see we've finally gotten our other party member after all this. They really did stick a lot of side-mechanics in this game, what with the furniture and the egg-raising and whatnot. I guess they really wanted you to use all those years they give you to get the ark ready.
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Oct 30, 2021 23:19
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 07:09 |
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I like that Linda herself is kind of a violence gremlin.
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Oct 30, 2021 23:46
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