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Snake Maze posted:When you do the mid/lategame quests that give unique recruits, will there be votes about swapping them in or are they destined for the sidelines? The latter. Jewels are in such short supply in a new game that I'm just sticking with the initial party.
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Oct 11, 2023 17:49
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SIGSEGV posted:Sif goes with Albert and therefore team pure girlpower must be: Barbara herself, Claudia, Diana and Myriam, since Aisha is, huh, apparently not good. 5-Headed Snake God posted:This would still put our party short a character. But you could add Monica, who I snuck into the character list about ten days ago. Or you can just leave things up to chance; you don't have to vote for all four companions. Then I'll add Monica. I didn't even connect the wires between the five column party positions board and the party member count.
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Oct 11, 2023 18:08
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Snake Maze posted:
Seconding this, if only so our pirate lizard bro can explore the world in Hawke's stead, seeing as Hawke will be occupied trying to repair his ship, or something like that. Mind you, this is based on my memories from the old abandoned LP from maybe near a decade ago.
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Oct 11, 2023 18:15
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this was changed for the remaster, it is indeed possible to recruit Dowd on a fresh file with anyone.
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5-Headed Snake God posted:This was apparently changed for the remaster! Dowd can now be recruited after finding Wuhan's secret room and freeing the women. Huh, that's pretty cool. In that case, if the glitch is still present that allows you to bypass Dowd and Jamil's mutual exclusivity, I vote to show it off. I wouldn't use either in the permanent party, mind you, it's just fun to make end runs around a game's restrictions. Anyway, the party should be: Herman: He comes with Barbara and showing off how to make the most of an unimpressive character can be fun. Also he can easily be ditched temporarily because there's one point in the game where you definitely want to go in with an empty party slot. Myriam: The best and most readily available spellcaster in the game. Patrick: You want two spellcasters in the party in order to show off the two spellcasting classes that each have their own version of the coolest mechanic in the game, and Patrick is basically the only other easily-available spellcaster. Galahad: An actually competent tank/heavy melee guy, and he has special quest relevance at one point in the game.
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Oct 11, 2023 18:26
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It's far more likely that we'll end up with just one spellcaster, and there's no guarantee we'll have either of the classes you're thinking of, never mind both. I get that you're excited to see the game shown off, but going into this with a plan is basically the opposite of the approach I'm going for.
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Oct 11, 2023 18:43
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Alright, then. Let's go with Diane, Gian, Monica, and Myriam. Nice little set right there.
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Oct 11, 2023 20:57
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Diana, Guella Ha, Monica, and Claudia.
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Oct 11, 2023 22:54
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I'll cast my lot with Claudia, Myriam, Guella Ha, and Aisha.
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Oct 12, 2023 08:05
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Patrick, Herman, Diana and let't say Moe.
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Oct 12, 2023 21:12
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MonsieurChoc posted:Patrick, Herman, Diana and let't say Moe. Moe?
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Oct 12, 2023 23:21
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A simpsons joke, I'm leaving the last spot blank.
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Oct 13, 2023 00:22
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A Simpsons reference from one of the older episodes, just nod, smile, and pretend you understood it.
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Oct 13, 2023 00:58
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And here are the tallies for Barbara's companions: Albert - 0 Aisha - 3 Gray - 0 Claudia - 3 Jamil - 0 Sif - 0 Hawke - 0 Diana - 4 Dowd - 0 Galahad - 1 Gian - 1 Guella Ha - 4 Hermann - 2 Monica - 5 Myriam - 4 Patrick - 4 This was actually a lot more one-sided than I expected, especially where Monica and Myriam are concerned. With these votes, we're taking Monica along, as well as three of the four characters who tied for second: Diana, Guella Ha, Myriam, and Patrick. This is a tough tie to break, since I quite like all these characters. However, based on my own preferences and a desire to show off one mildly funny thing, I'm going to pick Diana, Guella Ha, and Patrick. Sorry, Myriam fans. Monica and Patrick also won't be joining us immediately, since we need to unlock and complete certain quests first. I'll probably bring along the Minstrel and a generic in the interim. And so we come to the final round of voting for setting up our party: classes. The easiest way to do this, I think, is to give you two options per character and let you vote on which to take. In all but one case, one of the options presented is a basic class, while the other is an advanced class. (Playing around with legendary classes on a new game isn't worth the time.) Remember that advanced classes tend to be more powerful, but also take more effort to level up, meaning that having more of them will cause our party to advance more slowly. We should still be fine regardless of your choices, but it's something to keep in mind. Barbara's default class is Entertainer (Long Sword, Martial Arts, Covert). If you'd like to switch that up a bit, she could also get some training as a Castle Knight (Long Sword, Great Sword, Two-Handed Sword, Pole Arm, Shield). Monica starts as an Imperial Knight (Foil, Great Sword, Two-Handed Axe, Shield, Cosmology), which is a solid fighting class. We could reassign her to be a Frontier Guard (Foil, Long Sword, Shield) instead, if you like. Diana starts as a Rosalian Lancer (Short Sword, Pole Arm, Bow, Bewitchery, Search), which is a solid middle-row warrior. She could do equally well as a simple Ranger (Bow, Terrology, Search). Guella Ha is, unsurprisingly, a Geckling Knight (Two-Handed Axe, Lance, Martial Arts), but he could use his time as a pirate as a basis for becoming an Estamirian Rebel (Scimitar, Katana, Martial Arts, Illusion, Search). And lastly, Patrick has no default class, but he's clearly got more brains than brawn, so he'll be our spellcaster. To that end, it would make logical sense for him to be an Imperial Scholar (Hydrology, Aerology, Illusion, Cosmology, Trading), but he could also be a more generic Wizard (Staff, Pyrology, Aerology, Demonology, Cosmology). (And before anyone says anything: yes, Imperial Scholar does have a unique gimmick, so if you want to see that shown off, that's the class to vote for. If you just want lots of flashy magic, Wizard is the better choice.) Finally, I'd like to poll you all on one more element of the LP. As the game goes on, I'll be tracking available activities to do, like areas to explore and quests to undertake. Quests in particular can pop up before it's practical to complete them, and can expire with no warning. Do you want notifications when a quest is either impractical or nearing its expiration, or would you prefer to stay mostly blind and accept the consequences of failure? The latter is definitely more true to an actual blind playthrough, but it might mean missing out on some quests you really wanted to get done. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Oct 13, 2023 |
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Oct 13, 2023 15:22
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Barbara - Entertainer Monica - Imperial Knight Diana - Ranger Guella Ha - Estamir Rebel Patrick - Imperial Scholar Trying to balance advanced and basic classes with minimal overlap in weapons. For info, I'd say go ahead and play blind, since that sounds more in the spirit of what the LP is aiming for (and the remaster widened the windows for some of the tighter quests anyway)
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Oct 13, 2023 15:53
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Patrick - Imperial Scholar The others are fine either way. 
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Oct 13, 2023 16:25
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Barbara: Entertainer (If I were to change her class, it'd be to Ascetic into Martial Artist, personally) Monica: Imperial Knight (no reason to downgrade her into a basic class) Diana: Rosalian Lancer (Rangers aren't even the good archer, Diana's a much better choice for Castle Knight) Guella Ha: Geckling Knight (2H Axes are extremely good and the Geckling Knight's class ability is better for Guella Ha than the Rebel's) Patrick: Imperial Scholar (There's really no other choice)
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Oct 13, 2023 17:52
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EclecticTastes posted:Barbara: Entertainer (If I were to change her class, it'd be to Ascetic into Martial Artist, personally) I am fully aware that the choices presented are not optimal. But they help keep each character in a particular niche and offer a variety of options to show off different weapons and spells. I figured people might find the idea of a lizardman with a katana entertaining, y'know?
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Oct 13, 2023 18:32
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Alright, then, here we go. - Barbara: Entertainer - Monica: Imperial Knight - Diana: Ranger - Guella Ha: Estamirian Rebel - Patrick: Imperial Scholar
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Oct 13, 2023 20:11
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I suppose class choice isn't as interesting to people as characters. Which is fair enough. I may as well call the vote here since there doesn't seem to be much more interest. Our final lineup is: Barbara the Entertainer Monica the Imperial Knight Diana the Ranger Guella Ha the Estamirian Rebel and Patrick the Imperial Scholar I'll also keep quest information blind. Thanks to everyone who voted! I'll get to work on collecting our initial characters, opening up the world, and acquiring some starting quests, and then we can get into the meat of the game and the LP.
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Oct 15, 2023 03:54
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5-Headed Snake God posted:I suppose class choice isn't as interesting to people as characters. Which is fair enough. I may as well call the vote here since there doesn't seem to be much more interest. To be fair, some of us are going into this blind, and have no idea what classes there are. That said, looking forward to what you're cooking up.
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Oct 15, 2023 04:24
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Welcome back, everyone. Today we're doing what may be the least interesting update in the LP, as there's no story, no combat, and really no excitement. But this is an essential step, as we're opening up the world, finding the earliest quests, and picking up those party members that we can. Since we're already on the Frontier, let's head for Yassi, the other settlement we heard about in Barbara's intro.  Yassi is a small settlement that hangs in a deep ravine. I'm unsure how the residents were able to build it, but I don't really care since it's cool.    There are only a handful of people to talk to here, but we get a couple of leads. A local mother's child has gone missing, and a nearby monster-infested cave seems is a likely place to look.  After that, we head back to Weston, board our carriage, and head for the New Road area, which has to be traversed to enter or leave the Frontier. Most characters have to navigate it on foot, which is annoying.  Barbara does not. Monsters will not attack her in the carriage, and any that get close are immediately vaporized with no battle required.  We can easily turn on the remaster's fast-forward option to cross the area quickly with no fuss.  We emerge in the Kjarahti city of Tarmitta.   In the old days, Tarmitta was the capital of Kjaraht, but that honor switched to Estamir once it was annexed.  The palace is still here, though it's now occupied by the local viceroy, Tuman.  We cannot get in to say hi.    We also hear about a temple dedicated to the country's guardian deity, Strom, which lies in the middle of Lake Malar. Sounds like a place to check out, though we unfortunately cannot access it right now. (We can visit the edge of the lake but have no way to cross it to the temple.)   Our next stop is South Estamir, where we pick up the quest from Jamil's intro.   While we're here, we can also ditch Herman.  Party members always look so sad when you ditch them, but in this case I don't feel bad because Herman sucks.   We also get a bit of dialogue referencing that we have no one else in the party, but that's fine since we won't be getting into combat for a while.   In North Estamir we run into a guy who wants to see the catacombs below the city - another possible quest for us.  No wonder he's asking us - none of the locals would dare to do it.  This is an interesting piece of information, though we can't do anything with it now.   Next up is Altours, a small trade town in southern Rosalia.  There's a merchant here selling exotic fruits, which can't be gotten anywhere else.  There's also this little side activity. This dialogue is a bit ambiguous, but basically they want us to kill some insects. It's not a proper quest, but we could still do it for the money.  A nearby woman informs us that the local weapon shop has an incredible weapon for sale. We surely can't afford it with our minuscule funds, but let's take a look anyway.  That is indeed a princely sum, but for a weapon like that it might actually be worth it. When we highlight it, the store owner actually has a bit of voiced dialogue: "Oh! I see you have an eye for quality. This is the one and only Ice Sword, crafted a long time ago by the ice giant Mohan."  Next up is Crystal City. Having so many locations unlocked from the start of the game is super convenient.   One of the locals tells us about the city's namesake, the nearby Crystal Lake. Please, no Friday the 13th jokes.   A guy in the pub tells us that a Fatestone, the Aquamarine, is kept there. We could always try to retrieve it, though it is surely guarded. There also two other guys in the pub, and they have some of the most remarkable voice acting in the game. It's so incredible that I am compelled to share it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQI5acFor8s This is another task we could attempt, though climbing a mountain may be an unreasonable expectation until we can get the Climb proficiency.  We continue following the New Road north to Uso, which we visited with Aisha.    We unlock the Kaklim Desert and Steppes of Galessa, though both are pretty empty, so we have literally zero reason to go to either right now.  And finally, at the end of the New Road, we come to Northpoint, a small coastal town.  And it's here that we finally come across one of our desired party members.     Hurray!   From the docks, we catch a boat to Gondongo on Walon Isle.    I'd say this is racist, but all the gecklings in town use the same model, meaning that they do, in fact, all look the same.  Aw.  I don't think you're a monster, buddy. This, of course, means, that we must go into the jungle.  The Jungle connects Godongo and Oapu. There's a geckling with a boat who can go into the depths of the island, but he won't take us yet. There's also a cave here we could explore.  Since we're on Walon Isle, we may as well head to Oapu.    We hear some good things about the new owner of the local weapon shop, but other people say that have heard lizards crying behind the shop. That's unusual.  At the edge of the town, we spy a familiar face.    Diana can be found on the beach in either Godongo or Oapu. If you're especially sharp-eyed, you may have spotted her at the end of Hawke's intro.    Now that we have Diana, we can head back to Tarmitta and train her as a Ranger. We don't have many jewels, but we have enough for this.  The next plan is to head back to Oapu to catch a ship to Melvir, but there's something odd on the map, which we must of course investigate.  Good question.  A question which is answered by both an NPC and on-screen text at the same time.  Faerie's Grove appears in a random region each time the world map is accessed, and it can only be seen if the party possesses the Amethyst.  Most of the faeries here don't seem to care for us.  There's an important-looking plaza, but no way to interact with it.  I suspect this faerie is partly lying, because the throne actually appears at random when entering the Grove, and I do not believe that the game could possibly be taking place over the course of multiple years.   This faerie is a jerk.    You know what? I respect that. With all the nonsense happening in the outside world, this is probably the safest place to be. We're leaving for now, but we'll be back to the Grove soon.  Leaving Faerie's Grove puts us in a random town we've unlocked. It can be a bit of a pain if it drops us in, say, Weston.   Luckily overworld travel to already-visited areas is mostly pretty easy. We make our way back to Opau and hop a ship to Melvir.   Sounds like a prime location for fledgling adventurers to explore!  This building, tucked away by the stairs to the second level, is of particular interest.    That's not much to go on, but we can ask around and see if anyone knows anything. Or not.   On the city's second level is the pub, where a note is posted on one of the support columns.  Another mystery we could investigate.  A child outside the local temple of Yucomb tells us that the god Cyril actually lives in Mazewood, and is sometimes visited by Eres.  We also find the local library, which has books on a variety of subjects and is involved in several quests. It's at about this point that I remember that I need to look around for one particular character, and I find her in the pub in Altours.  Although Sif won't be in our final party, we need to at least pick her up to gain access to several important places, as well as Valhalland.    Yeah! Briefly!       Recruiting Sif unlocks Yeoville, in southern Rosalia, as well as two cities in the Knights' Dominion and her home in Valhalland.  After that, we ditch her. Thanks for the help, Sif! The Minstrel also relates a new story here. It's not a proper cutscene, but it is a bit lengthy, so I've provided it as a video. It's some nice world-building, but nothing essential to the game's plot, so don't feel obligated if you're not interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbRx4lufq0U  With that done, we head to Yeoville.  There are some good shops here, but nothing we need right now, so we head for the docks. From here, we can book a ship to western Bafal to unlock the rest of its towns.  Bruelle is a small port town. It's the last town Albert visited in his intro before his ill-fated sea voyage.   This sounds like another potentially exciting place for us to explore.    We saw Aurefont in Claudia's opening and Loban in Albert's.   Loban itself doesn't have much to offer us, but we can go visit Monica.  Unfortunately, all she does is ask us this and then kick us out.   This right here is a surprisingly important piece of lore.   Our last location unlock in this update is the Isthmus. Maybe we should see what happened to it after Albert and Diana left.    In the town pub, we also pick up the Minstrel and a generic Warrior. They'll fill out our group until we can get Patrick and Monica.  Our party is full, but we still have a few more things to do.  Back in Faerie's Grove, we see that the throne has appeared, surrounded by a barrier we cannot breach.  Once we're out, we head to Eugenstadt (literally "Eugen City") in the Knights' Dominion.    Two identical ladies are chatting about one of the squires here. He sounds like a useless loser.  Unlike in most towns, we can freely enter the castle here.   We talk to Heinrich, the local lord, as well as the squire the two women were gossiping about. Neither has much to say at the moment.  After that trip, we head to North Estamir to get Guella Ha's class changed. Unfortunately, for the moment he's stuck at class level 1, so he can't actually change. We need more jewels!  Finally, we make one last trip to Faerie's Grove, where a new faerie has appeared and tell us what we need to do to access the throne. This faerie shows up randomly and the five spirits it mentions can't be acquired until it's spoken to. This is kind of a jerk move by the game.  Leaving the Grove spits us out in Godongo, and we are finally, finally ready to begin our journey. So now, my friends, it's time for you to seize control of your destiny in earnest. Below is a compilation of everything we can do at the moment. Everyone is welcome to vote on which task or tasks they think we should attempt first. Everyone is welcome to vote for up to three things, and whatever has the most votes will be our next goal. As before, I'll break any ties. Please be aware that, in general, exploring random locations is a poor idea in the early game. I'll do it if the votes go that way, but until we get decent levels in Survival and Strategy, most treasures are going to be inaccessible to us. We'll get there eventually, but we're not there now. Current Event Rank: 1 Things to Do Find the boy who went missing from Yassi Free the women kidnapped by Wuhan Guard a man who wants to see the catacombs beneath Estamir Retrieve the Aquamarine from Crystal Lake Climb Mt. Scurve and steal a feather from the nest of the lord of the birds Investigate the crying lizards behind Oapu's weapon shop Kill the bugs in the Altours orchard Investigate the death of Buck the shopkeeper in Melvir Find the Melvir innkeeper's missing daughter Collect dinosaur eggs to sell for money Places to Explore Estamir sewers Walon Isle's jungle cave Melvir sewers Bayre Plateau Isthmus Keep, or what's left of it
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Oct 16, 2023 12:45
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I have no idea what is optimal and this is a SaGa game but I'll bite the hooks of: Free the women kidnapped by Wuhan Investigate the crying lizards behind Oapu's weapon shop Investigate the death of Buck the shopkeeper in Melvir
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Oct 16, 2023 14:09
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SIGSEGV posted:I have no idea what is optimal Congratulations, you are the target audience for this LP! Pick what you think sounds best, I'm comfortable enough with the game to work around any suboptimal choices.
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Oct 16, 2023 14:11
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5-Headed Snake God posted:Things to Do[/b] I vote for these. MonsieurChoc fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Oct 16, 2023 |
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Oct 16, 2023 14:25
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HAVE YOU HEARD OF MOUNT SCURVE!?
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Oct 16, 2023 14:25
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MonsieurChoc posted:I vote for these. 5-Headed Snake God posted:Everyone is welcome to vote for up to three things,
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Oct 16, 2023 14:29
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Let’s put on our sleuthing hat and investigate both disappearances and the death of the shopkeeper.
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Oct 16, 2023 17:01
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Corrected!
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Oct 16, 2023 18:37
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SIGSEGV posted:I have no idea what is optimal and this is a SaGa game but I'll bite the hooks of: I'll back these.
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Oct 16, 2023 20:48
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-Investigate the crying lizards behind Oapu's weapon shop -Climb Mt. Scurve and steal a feather from the nest of the lord of the birds -Retrieve the Aquamarine from Crystal Lake
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Oct 18, 2023 19:08
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Luninareph posted:-Investigate the crying lizards behind Oapu's weapon shop I will vote for these three too
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Oct 18, 2023 19:32
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Meanwhile, in some alternate timeline: "Guella Ha, you're like a brother to me, and you know I would support you no matter what, but I have to ask: an Estamirian Rebel? Did you feel some kind of call for justice of some sort?" "Nah, I just wanted an excuse to use a katana, for the laughs." "Oh, yeah, that makes perfect sense."
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Oct 18, 2023 20:32
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Wow, maybe I should have left some of the earlier votes open longer - I certainly didn't expect a couple more votes today! (Not that I'm complaining.) Voting is now closed so that I can begin work on the update.Gilgamesh255 posted:Meanwhile, in some alternate timeline: 
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Oct 19, 2023 00:33
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Give Guella Ha the Falcata.
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Oct 19, 2023 03:56
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MonsieurChoc posted:Give Guella Ha the Falcata. I could, but then I'd be obligated to go through with gridning it up, and some of the materials it needs really suck.
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Oct 19, 2023 03:59
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Welcome back, everyone. The votes this time had a clear winner: we are going to investigate the sounds of crying lizards behind the weapon shop in Oapu. Conveniently, our recent visit to Faerie's Grove spat us out in Godongo, so Oapu is just a quick trip away.  The weapon shop is on a small hill overlooking the town.   The shopkeeper has the same model as several thugs and other ne'er-do-wells we've met, but he's very polite and nothing in his stock is out of the ordinary. (I'll grant that the Alligator Vest is a little suspect, but it's a normal piece of body armor.)  If we head behind the shop, however, we can in fact hear the cries that the man in the pub mentioned.  Also we get an update for the quest "Free the Gecklings", which really eliminates all the ambiguity from the situation. However, this isn't sufficient evidence for us to confront him.  There really aren't any solid directions given at this point, but we know that Gecklings live in the jungle and there's a cave right here, so let's go in.  As we enter, we see a very obvious boulder flanked by two shafts of light coming in through the ceiling, as well as a closed door ahead. If you've played video games, this isn't a tough puzzle.   After grabbing the map from a nearby chest, we push the boulder into the right-hand shaft. Note that the map shows another room off to the side containing several monsters.  And of course that's the door we've opened. We'll fight it out in hopes of getting some Glimmers.   We face a new enemy here, the pit vampire. These are pretty much the weakest enemies in the game, though Barbara still isn't able to kill them in a single blow. The woes of low Strength and a weak weapon.  Meanwhile, Guella Ha is throwing punches and dealing, on average, more damage, because Guella Ha rules. (And also he has higher Strength.)    Fortunately, my gambit here pays off, as Barbara picks up both Cutting Lunge and our old friend Impact Slash.  Once the room is emptied, we can see that it contains a chunk of rock and two sparkles that indicate the need for a proficiency; these are most likely more rocks. The chunk of rock itself also requires a different proficiency, which would allow us to collect blacksmithing materials from it.   Going back and pushing the boulder to the left closes the first gate but opens the way forward.  And the way forward leads us into a room with four shafts of light.  Most of them open the gate straight ahead, which is another monster closet.   The bottom left shaft is the one we need.  Just beyond is another treasure chest, this one containing a Great Shield. Most loot in the game is randomized, though typically limited by rarity - we'd never find a top-quality item in this chest. So we weren't guaranteed to find this shield here, but it would have had something similarly valuable.  None of our characters have levels in the Shield skill, but Barbara can still make perfectly good use of it. As you can see in the lower left corner, it has a block rate of 10 (which I believe is a percentage, though I'm far from sure), and it can block melee weapon, unarmed, and ranged attacks. (Smaller shields tend to have higher block rates but generally can't block ranged attacks.) It also weighs a ton, but that's barely a consideration.  Moving on, we head down to the next floor, which contains a four-way junction.  The western path is blocked by what seems to be a solid wall, but the blue sparkles indicate that there's a way to use a proficiency here. We'll have to come back later if we want to explore it.  The eastern path has two chests.   The first contains a modest sum of gold and jewels, but the second...  ...serves as a lesson in the value of the Disarm Traps proficiency.  We're thrown into a battle with three crystallites - elementals, basically. We'll be facing these as regular enemies later in the game, so I won't bother with a full explanation of their capabilities quite yet.  Suffice it to say that we are absolutely no match for them.  This is why quicksaves are a thing. If we want this treasure, we'll have to come back at another time.  Finally, the north branch leads down into the final floor, which is the Geckling Village.  South from the jungle is Oapu, which supports what we already know. However, it's still not enough evidence for Barbara to confront the shopkeeper.  The Gecklings' leader is justifiably unwilling to speak with us.  Luckily, we just happen to have brought someone to whom he will listen. Guella Ha is mandatory for advancing this quest, so it's lucky we brought him.  If you want to get an idea of what the Geckling leader sounds like, imagine Andy Serkis' Gollum voice, but maybe an octave lower. That's pretty much it exactly.    You gotta feel bad for the Gecklings. They're just trying to live their lives but humans keep enslaving them.  Luckily, unlike in the real world, on Mardias this problem can be solved with a quick application of violence. Boss Battle: Bodyguard & Wolves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlUqBTqIF7w  The shopkeeper doesn't take kindly to our demands and sics his bodyguard on us, along with the bodyguard's two pets.  I have to be honest here: I probably played this battle the wrong way. The Bodyguard is the obvious boss, so the safer strategy is to deal with the lesser enemies - the wolves - first. Instead, I focused on the Bodyguard himself, hoping to bring him down quickly.    Luckily, it paid off. With Barbara using Impact Slash and both the Minstrel and Diana getting good Glimmers, we managed to kill him off in one round, leaving us to mop up the Stray Wolves after.  All in all, no problem - just don't take it as a lesson in optimal boss strategy.   Following the fight, we get a short cutscene of the Gecklings marching single-file out of town. The sheer number of them makes me wonder where they were all being kept.  The shop almost immediately comes under new management. The woman who now runs it sells the same goods but also offers a blacksmith service.   With that, we head back to the Geckling Village.    The Geckling leader isn't exactly friendly, but he's realized that maybe not all Hotbloods are the same. The quest is officially complete here, but we have a little more to do here.  For one, a couple of the Gecklings in town will talk to us now. One tells us of a scroll containing clues to some kind of temple in the jungle, but he sold it to Hawke. We last saw him hanging out in Uso, so we'll have to head there if we want to get it from him.  We're also told that someone name Captain Silver his treasure in the jungle. That sounds enticing! Maybe the village leader will tell us more.  In fact he will!    Sorry for the wall of text here; I really don't have anything interesting to add.    Great. Now where is it and how many hoops do we have to jump through to get it?   Oh. Great! In a surprisingly kind turn, the game just gives us the map. With this, we can head into the jungle, though like many things, finding Silver's treasure is likely beyond our current capabilities.  Barbara mirrors my feelings.  Our next stop is the Oapu pub.  Since we've entered a pub, the Minstrel leaves our party, but we can get him back easily enough. More interesting is the person in the foreground whose unique model indicates that they're probably important.   This line could be seen as menacing, but it's delivered with a sad, almost hopeless desperation that indicates otherwise.    The drunk's friends laugh at him and, presumably due to some kind of bug, so does the Minstrel.  We don't have any better luck with her, so we'll have to leave... and immediately come back in.    She really wasn't kidding when she said he'd be sorry.   This event begins a quest called "An Unlucky Woman." Progress through this quest carries over into a New Game +, which is good because on PS2 it required a minimum of two playthroughs to complete it. I'm told that it can be done in a single run in the Remaster, and I'll do my best to make that happen, but I can't make any promises. If we gain Event Ranks too quickly, we won't have time to get it done.  Before we go, the Minstrel offers to tell us another story. As with the last one, it's all text, and I've put it in a video in case you want to skip it. It's not essential, but it is relevant to this update and may provide additional context for something we've heard about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5_klZtSbrA  With that, we're done on Walon Isle, at least for now, but we have a couple more pieces of business.   First, since we got some jewels from this last quest, we can finally make Guella Ha an Estamirian Rebel. It's tempting to use the leftover jewels to get Barbara and Diana to class level 2 as well, but we'll be getting Patrick fairly soon and I want to make sure we have enough jewels to get him into his own class.  Finally, we head to Yeoville and buy a new sword for Barbara. it takes almost all of our money, but with more then double the power of her starting weapon, it should make her much more effective in battle.  And that's it! Be sure to cast your votes for our next course of action! As before you may vote for up to three tasks. Current Event Rank: 2 Things to Do Find the boy who went missing from Yassi Free the women kidnapped by Wuhan Guard a man who wants to see the catacombs beneath Estamir Retrieve the Aquamarine from Crystal Lake Climb Mt. Scurve and steal a feather from the nest of the lord of the birds Kill the bugs in the Altours orchard Investigate the death of Buck the shopkeeper in Melvir Find the Melvir innkeeper's missing daughter Find Captain Silver's treasure Get the ancient scroll from Hawke Places to Explore Estamir sewers The remainder of the Geckling cave - We lack the means to do this Melvir sewers Bayre Plateau Isthmus Keep, or what's left of it The Walon Isle jungle The Ligau caves - We lack the means to do this, at least to completion (I've removed dinosaur egg hunting since I realized you've all seen it and there's nothing new to say about it. If you vote to explore the caves on Ligau, I'll get some eggs as part of that activity.)
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Oct 23, 2023 04:34
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Let's say: Free the women kidnapped by Wuhan Investigate the death of Buck the shopkeeper in Melvir and: Retrieve the Aquamarine from Crystal Lake It can't all be do-gooding, there has to be some good old looting as well or it isn't an adventure.
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Oct 23, 2023 17:40
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-Retrieve the Aquamarine from Crystal Lake -Climb Mt. Scurve and steal a feather from the nest of the lord of the birds -Guard a man who wants to see the catacombs beneath Estamir I feel like going for the Aquamarine this early is likely to be a terrible idea, but that's what LPs are for 
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Oct 23, 2023 18:24
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- Guard a man who wants to see the catacombs beneath Estamir - Find the boy who went missing from Yassi - Climb Mt. Scurve and steal a feather from the nest of the lord of the birds
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Oct 23, 2023 18:27
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Alright, then: - Climb Mt. Scurve and steal a feather from the nest of the lord of the birds - Find the Melvir innkeeper's missing daughter - Free the women kidnapped by Wuhan
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Oct 23, 2023 22:40
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