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In Progress Let's Play Legend of Cao Cao.
- Thread starter Cool name
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Cool name
Arcane
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Chapter 4.
Dong Zhuo is evil; Diao Chan is hot, The Cao is unimpressed.
Scene 1. The story so far...
Scene 2. Luoyang Meeting Hall.
Meet Yuan Shao, styled Benchu. He's a powerful dude, and in time he will make a powerful warlord as well. He comes from a very prominent family, but his mother was a maid instead of a concubine. While his birth elevated her rank to that of a concubine his elder brother Yuan Shu could never let it go because Yuan Shu's mother had been a concubine all along, yet Yuan Shao was far more accomplished and renowned than Yuan Shu was.
Anyway, by this point Yuan Shao and Cao Cao have known each other for quite some time and according to a lot of sources they were quite close, to the point of being 'friends' or even 'childhood friends.' As Wuxia and Hong Kong cinema teaches us this will end well.
Meet Dong Zhuo, styledZhongying Lardass. He's evil. Really, really evil. If you can push a wick far enough up his ass he digievolves into Everlasting Candle-Sama. That's all you need to know about him.
Meet Li Ru, styled Wenyou. He's Dong Zhuo's son-in-law and advisor, and the entire reason Dong Zhuo did recruit Lu Bu instead of getting killed by him. If I don't remember it wrong he would go on to become the only one to see through the infamous 'Double Snare' plot that will eventually be their downfall, but by that point the only function Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu's upper heads did serve was to hold those funny little hat thingies whose name I don't remember.
That's about all the characterization Dong Zhuo ever gets in Teh Romance and related works. He eats, he drinks, he whores, he rapes, he rages, he's fat, he smells, and he doesn't get killed because Lu Bu is OP. Probably a case of 'History is written by the victors' but he's so easy to hate I don't really care.
And that's Lu Bu, styled Fengxian. In Teh Romance he is to kicking butt what Teh Kongming is to trolling. Originally he was Ding Yuan's adopted son and known both for his valour and for his unmatched ability to turn enemy dudes into XP. During the 'campaign' against the Ten Attendants, which we don't see in the game because Cao Cao was not involved on it, Dong Zhuo was about this close to be turned into mincemeat by Lu Bu when he entertained the idea of killing Ding Yuan in a fit of ANGRY. Li Ru stoped the fatass and came up with a better plan, by which I mean a plan that did not involve getting slaughtered by OP-Sama.
They gave Lu Bu a horse by the name of Red Hare. 'Among men, Lu Bu; Among horses, Red Hare' or something. It was love at first sight, and thus Lu Bu discovered his true calling in life and killed his adoptive dad to become Dong Zhuo's adopted son instead. Lu Bu and Red Hare were unmatched in battle, but Red Hare was the brains of the pair and thus they never did amount to much that wasn't LU BU SMASH, but fuck did he smash good. He's also famous wearing as a helmet the head of a giant cockroach he defeated with his naked hands as a child. True story.
Anyway, he has so many fans that it goes to show Confucius was right when he said 'Deep down all men want to be guidos.'
Dong Zhuo does not have a personality.
That would be pretty accurate if not for the fact Dong Zhuo can't fight for shit. He's more of a wild feral pig. Li Ru thinks. Lu Bu kills. Dong Zhuo fucks and eats and drinks and gets angry and does evil thingies.
Yuan Shao and Cao Cao discussing how are they going to kill Dong Zhuo and rebel in the middle of Dong Zhuo's meeting hall never fails to crack me up.
Scene 3. Wang Yun's Home.
Meet Wang Yun. He was 'minister over the masses' in the final days of the Eastern Han dynasty, which puts him right at the top of the imperial bureucracy. He's loyal to the Emperor, of good moral character, and both pretty smart and dangerously cunning, and the man that will eventually defeat Dong Zhuo. He's also Diao Chan's adoptive father, which is how most people remember him when they do remember him at all. There is an important lesson there: No matter how impressive your achievements and how far reaching your plots if you have a really hot daughter you will be only remembered as that dude who had a really hot daughter.
He's a stupid hotheaded fellow surrounded by people of skill and ability and with a really big army, instead.
This story is quite a bit different in Teh Romance. During Wang Yun's birthday party he and all the guests weep because the fortunes of the Han. All but Cao Cao, who calls them out in just crying instead of turning Lord Lardass into XP and claims he will present Dong Zhuo's head to the people. Cao cao ask for a precious sword adorned by seven jewels which Wang Yun owns, the Seven Star Sword, to carry out Dong Zhuo's assasination with. Wang Yun complies.
The next day Cao Cao goes to visit Dong Zhuo and arrives late, claiming his horse was shit. Dong Zhuo had just received some great horses as a gift or offering so he sends Lu Bu to pick a nice one to give as a gift to Cao Cao. Dong Zhuo was very fat so he went to lie in a couch, and as he was now facing away from him The Cao decided to murderize Lord Lardass right here and now. However, Dong Zhuo saw Cao Cao unsheating the sword in a mirror and asked Cao Cao for an explanation just as Lu Bu was returning.
In a single gesture Cao Cao falls to his knees and presents the sword as a gift to Dong Zhuo. Lu Bu then presents a good horse as a gift to him, for which Cao Cao thanked them both profusely. And as soon as he was out of the palace he pretty much jumped on it and did not stop galloping until he had put, say, half of China between himself and Dong Zhuo.
Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, who at first had kind of believed Cao Cao was just offering Dong Zhuo a prize sword, did become suspicious of him because of how much geography all of a sudden was between them. But they did actually like The Cao so they decided to give him the benefit of doubt and send invitations to him to come to the palace. If Cao Cao came as summoned the sword had truly be meant as a gift, but if Cao Cao was to make any excuses then he was affraid of having been discovered.
Problem is, I was not exagerating when I said Cao Cao's intention was pretty much to gallop away until he ran out of China to put between them. So in the end he became a fugitive and, after an eventful journey to see his father, he managed to get some shinies to build an army with, and sent summons to all the great lords of the land to stand up to Dong Zhuo and change the fortunes of the Han.
And thus the coallition against Dong Zhuo was born and Cao Cao obtained enough military power to be his own warlord. This version is less heroic, with Cao Cao pretty much becoming a warlord and starting the coalition to save his own neck, but it is far more, uhm... Cao Cao, I guess. A man able to turn the tables like that is truly to be admired.
Since we are at it, maybe I am remembering it wrong but I don't believe the sword is given the Seven Star Sword name in Teh Romance itself.
As you will see The Cao does a lot of that in the 'blue' route. My pet theory is that the 'red' route is more like 'Yang' route and the 'blue' route is more like 'Yin' route with a Cao Cao that's far more cautious, cold, and passive than his 'red' counterpart, who is far more ambitious, pro-active, and passionate about shit. But that's just NyanNyan the pseudo Daoist sorceress overthinking stuffies.
Meet Diao Chan. No, I did not say Diao-Chan. And if you really thought I had I want you to know I hate you and everything you stand for. Anyway, her call to fame was being really, really, really lovely and really, really, really charming. How lovely? She is said, though not in Teh Romance itself, to be so radiantly beautiful she ECLIPSED THE MOON. That lovely. While there's not a lot of Diao Chan in the novel that did nothing to stop her from becoming one of the most well known characters. Why? Guys. That's why.
Anyway, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is pretty much a story about men being REAL MEN and killing each other over who rules what so there are not many girls around. Being of legendary beauty and charm and grace and shit as well as the only girl who is not mentioned as part of a formal relationship with someone important enough as to have lots of fans who would be very butthurt if she would dump him for whomever is the main character this time she's pretty much the go-to love interest every time Koei needs one while fanfictioning the three kingdoms away.
Wait, no. Her call to fame wasn't just being really hot and really charming but also being enough of a manipulative harpy to use her beauty and charm to play two of the most powerful men of the era like violins, which means deep down I love her and admire her and want to be her so bad.
The Cao does not have time for this shit.
As I said I did never follow the 'blue' path myself so I do not know if this will change anything. In the 'red' path at least Cao Cao and Diao Chan get a few scenes that kind of build her to be his romantic interest or something similar. I guess after being Liu Bei's romantic interest in Kessen II and Lu Bu's romantic interest in, like, everything else she wants to try a dude with an IQ in the three digits for once.
Scene 4. Have army, will Warlord.
Missing text: Returns to his hometown, Chenliu.
And that's it for today. In the next chapter Cao Cao will turn half his family into generals and then the coalition will bitch and moan and go kill some dudes. But far more importantly...
MANLYNESS INCARNATE WILL HAPPEN.
[System] Red alert! Red alert! Hormones are revolting. All brain functions compromised.
@ @felipepepe: I have to say that! Otherwise I will lose my True Lady (tm) status and become a social pariah, a... a... a tomboy! *gasps, makes the sign of the cross*
Seriously now, strategy games really scare me. I know it is kind of stupid to say when all my ongoing Let's Play thingies are about them but, hey, it's true. They have so many numbers and choices and thingies you have to mind I always feel so very I'M GOING TO LOSE and run away. I like them, though, particularly when they are mixed with RPG elements. Even more so if they are related to Teh Romance, which I fangirl pretty badly. What if some day the same that happened to the heroine of Otome No Neihou! happens to me? I need to train so I can make all the hot dudes of the three kingdoms, who by the way really did look just like they do in Dynasty Warriors, fall in love with me! Xiahou Dun in particular. Yum-Yum.
So I guess deep inside I am just like those weird Space Combat dudes who deep down still believe The Last Starfighter is going to happen to them any day now.
Dong Zhuo is evil; Diao Chan is hot, The Cao is unimpressed.
Scene 1. The story so far...
Scene 2. Luoyang Meeting Hall.
Meet Yuan Shao, styled Benchu. He's a powerful dude, and in time he will make a powerful warlord as well. He comes from a very prominent family, but his mother was a maid instead of a concubine. While his birth elevated her rank to that of a concubine his elder brother Yuan Shu could never let it go because Yuan Shu's mother had been a concubine all along, yet Yuan Shao was far more accomplished and renowned than Yuan Shu was.
Anyway, by this point Yuan Shao and Cao Cao have known each other for quite some time and according to a lot of sources they were quite close, to the point of being 'friends' or even 'childhood friends.' As Wuxia and Hong Kong cinema teaches us this will end well.
Meet Dong Zhuo, styled
Meet Li Ru, styled Wenyou. He's Dong Zhuo's son-in-law and advisor, and the entire reason Dong Zhuo did recruit Lu Bu instead of getting killed by him. If I don't remember it wrong he would go on to become the only one to see through the infamous 'Double Snare' plot that will eventually be their downfall, but by that point the only function Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu's upper heads did serve was to hold those funny little hat thingies whose name I don't remember.
That's about all the characterization Dong Zhuo ever gets in Teh Romance and related works. He eats, he drinks, he whores, he rapes, he rages, he's fat, he smells, and he doesn't get killed because Lu Bu is OP. Probably a case of 'History is written by the victors' but he's so easy to hate I don't really care.
And that's Lu Bu, styled Fengxian. In Teh Romance he is to kicking butt what Teh Kongming is to trolling. Originally he was Ding Yuan's adopted son and known both for his valour and for his unmatched ability to turn enemy dudes into XP. During the 'campaign' against the Ten Attendants, which we don't see in the game because Cao Cao was not involved on it, Dong Zhuo was about this close to be turned into mincemeat by Lu Bu when he entertained the idea of killing Ding Yuan in a fit of ANGRY. Li Ru stoped the fatass and came up with a better plan, by which I mean a plan that did not involve getting slaughtered by OP-Sama.
They gave Lu Bu a horse by the name of Red Hare. 'Among men, Lu Bu; Among horses, Red Hare' or something. It was love at first sight, and thus Lu Bu discovered his true calling in life and killed his adoptive dad to become Dong Zhuo's adopted son instead. Lu Bu and Red Hare were unmatched in battle, but Red Hare was the brains of the pair and thus they never did amount to much that wasn't LU BU SMASH, but fuck did he smash good. He's also famous wearing as a helmet the head of a giant cockroach he defeated with his naked hands as a child. True story.
Anyway, he has so many fans that it goes to show Confucius was right when he said 'Deep down all men want to be guidos.'
Dong Zhuo does not have a personality.
That would be pretty accurate if not for the fact Dong Zhuo can't fight for shit. He's more of a wild feral pig. Li Ru thinks. Lu Bu kills. Dong Zhuo fucks and eats and drinks and gets angry and does evil thingies.
Yuan Shao and Cao Cao discussing how are they going to kill Dong Zhuo and rebel in the middle of Dong Zhuo's meeting hall never fails to crack me up.
Scene 3. Wang Yun's Home.
Meet Wang Yun. He was 'minister over the masses' in the final days of the Eastern Han dynasty, which puts him right at the top of the imperial bureucracy. He's loyal to the Emperor, of good moral character, and both pretty smart and dangerously cunning, and the man that will eventually defeat Dong Zhuo. He's also Diao Chan's adoptive father, which is how most people remember him when they do remember him at all. There is an important lesson there: No matter how impressive your achievements and how far reaching your plots if you have a really hot daughter you will be only remembered as that dude who had a really hot daughter.
He's a stupid hotheaded fellow surrounded by people of skill and ability and with a really big army, instead.
This story is quite a bit different in Teh Romance. During Wang Yun's birthday party he and all the guests weep because the fortunes of the Han. All but Cao Cao, who calls them out in just crying instead of turning Lord Lardass into XP and claims he will present Dong Zhuo's head to the people. Cao cao ask for a precious sword adorned by seven jewels which Wang Yun owns, the Seven Star Sword, to carry out Dong Zhuo's assasination with. Wang Yun complies.
The next day Cao Cao goes to visit Dong Zhuo and arrives late, claiming his horse was shit. Dong Zhuo had just received some great horses as a gift or offering so he sends Lu Bu to pick a nice one to give as a gift to Cao Cao. Dong Zhuo was very fat so he went to lie in a couch, and as he was now facing away from him The Cao decided to murderize Lord Lardass right here and now. However, Dong Zhuo saw Cao Cao unsheating the sword in a mirror and asked Cao Cao for an explanation just as Lu Bu was returning.
In a single gesture Cao Cao falls to his knees and presents the sword as a gift to Dong Zhuo. Lu Bu then presents a good horse as a gift to him, for which Cao Cao thanked them both profusely. And as soon as he was out of the palace he pretty much jumped on it and did not stop galloping until he had put, say, half of China between himself and Dong Zhuo.
Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, who at first had kind of believed Cao Cao was just offering Dong Zhuo a prize sword, did become suspicious of him because of how much geography all of a sudden was between them. But they did actually like The Cao so they decided to give him the benefit of doubt and send invitations to him to come to the palace. If Cao Cao came as summoned the sword had truly be meant as a gift, but if Cao Cao was to make any excuses then he was affraid of having been discovered.
Problem is, I was not exagerating when I said Cao Cao's intention was pretty much to gallop away until he ran out of China to put between them. So in the end he became a fugitive and, after an eventful journey to see his father, he managed to get some shinies to build an army with, and sent summons to all the great lords of the land to stand up to Dong Zhuo and change the fortunes of the Han.
And thus the coallition against Dong Zhuo was born and Cao Cao obtained enough military power to be his own warlord. This version is less heroic, with Cao Cao pretty much becoming a warlord and starting the coalition to save his own neck, but it is far more, uhm... Cao Cao, I guess. A man able to turn the tables like that is truly to be admired.
Since we are at it, maybe I am remembering it wrong but I don't believe the sword is given the Seven Star Sword name in Teh Romance itself.
As you will see The Cao does a lot of that in the 'blue' route. My pet theory is that the 'red' route is more like 'Yang' route and the 'blue' route is more like 'Yin' route with a Cao Cao that's far more cautious, cold, and passive than his 'red' counterpart, who is far more ambitious, pro-active, and passionate about shit. But that's just NyanNyan the pseudo Daoist sorceress overthinking stuffies.
Meet Diao Chan. No, I did not say Diao-Chan. And if you really thought I had I want you to know I hate you and everything you stand for. Anyway, her call to fame was being really, really, really lovely and really, really, really charming. How lovely? She is said, though not in Teh Romance itself, to be so radiantly beautiful she ECLIPSED THE MOON. That lovely. While there's not a lot of Diao Chan in the novel that did nothing to stop her from becoming one of the most well known characters. Why? Guys. That's why.
Anyway, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is pretty much a story about men being REAL MEN and killing each other over who rules what so there are not many girls around. Being of legendary beauty and charm and grace and shit as well as the only girl who is not mentioned as part of a formal relationship with someone important enough as to have lots of fans who would be very butthurt if she would dump him for whomever is the main character this time she's pretty much the go-to love interest every time Koei needs one while fanfictioning the three kingdoms away.
Wait, no. Her call to fame wasn't just being really hot and really charming but also being enough of a manipulative harpy to use her beauty and charm to play two of the most powerful men of the era like violins, which means deep down I love her and admire her and want to be her so bad.
The Cao does not have time for this shit.
As I said I did never follow the 'blue' path myself so I do not know if this will change anything. In the 'red' path at least Cao Cao and Diao Chan get a few scenes that kind of build her to be his romantic interest or something similar. I guess after being Liu Bei's romantic interest in Kessen II and Lu Bu's romantic interest in, like, everything else she wants to try a dude with an IQ in the three digits for once.
Scene 4. Have army, will Warlord.
Missing text: Returns to his hometown, Chenliu.
And that's it for today. In the next chapter Cao Cao will turn half his family into generals and then the coalition will bitch and moan and go kill some dudes. But far more importantly...
MANLYNESS INCARNATE WILL HAPPEN.
[System] Red alert! Red alert! Hormones are revolting. All brain functions compromised.
@ @felipepepe: I have to say that! Otherwise I will lose my True Lady (tm) status and become a social pariah, a... a... a tomboy! *gasps, makes the sign of the cross*
Seriously now, strategy games really scare me. I know it is kind of stupid to say when all my ongoing Let's Play thingies are about them but, hey, it's true. They have so many numbers and choices and thingies you have to mind I always feel so very I'M GOING TO LOSE and run away. I like them, though, particularly when they are mixed with RPG elements. Even more so if they are related to Teh Romance, which I fangirl pretty badly. What if some day the same that happened to the heroine of Otome No Neihou! happens to me? I need to train so I can make all the hot dudes of the three kingdoms, who by the way really did look just like they do in Dynasty Warriors, fall in love with me! Xiahou Dun in particular. Yum-Yum.
So I guess deep inside I am just like those weird Space Combat dudes who deep down still believe The Last Starfighter is going to happen to them any day now.
Lord Cao Cao is pleased:
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I believe it was, but I believe it's not passed off as the actual Seven Star Sword of Chinese cultural fame, just a sword with seven jewels. The Seven Star Sword itself is a rather famous sword that predates the Three Kingdoms period. I believe it was first mentioned in the Wu Yue Chun Qiu, if I remember my Chinese history correctly, as the Longyuan Sword.
More of being a humble Confucian gentleman. Just like Liu Bei, who was - if you believe the shit they peddle - forced to take the throne of Shu because Heaven willed it, not out of any personal ambitions.
Monstrous Bat
Cipher
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Well, at least most of the SRW games have more C&C than LoCC, and if oscar is satisfied with the kinda lame C&C offered by LoCC I don't see why he wouldn't with SRW.
But holy shit, I had no idea LoE had this much story branches.
Also, gotta love all these nonsensical morality choices. Apparently Koei thinks that if you met a pretty girl and said she's pretty, you're a sick, evil fuck.
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Most SRWs don't even have two plot branches - most of the time the only thing you do is pick whether you go to Earth or to Space, which doesn't change the overall plot, only the manner in which you experience it (Super or Real?) - so I think LoCC might actually have a bit more consequences? At least, blue route makes it all worth it. 
Ah, yes, there's an English ASCII version at the end of this FAQ, together with the requirements you need.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/575822-super-robot-taisen-gaiden-masou-kishin-the-lord-of/faqs/5042
I was very impressed with it back in the day, but then Banpresto falls back to using skill points to determine whether you get last stage A or last stage B for a decade.
It's showing your lust and ambition and greed. Which means you're red.
Ah, yes, there's an English ASCII version at the end of this FAQ, together with the requirements you need.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/575822-super-robot-taisen-gaiden-masou-kishin-the-lord-of/faqs/5042
I was very impressed with it back in the day, but then Banpresto falls back to using skill points to determine whether you get last stage A or last stage B for a decade.
It's showing your lust and ambition and greed. Which means you're red.
Monstrous Bat
Cipher
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- 638
Admittingly I don't actually know much about the SRW games, but from what I've heard and seen, pretty much all SRWs have a bunch of secret units which can only be recruited if you meet the requirements and pick the right choice, and some of these are even mutually exclusive. LoCC doesn't have any of that. (Well, there's... a certain someone who is only recruitable if you took the blue route, but he's guarenteed to join if you did, so I don't really consider him a secret unit.)
Besides, LoCC may have plenty of choices, but the vast majority of them doesn't have any consequence other than a morality shift. It doesn't matter whether you accept the Seven Stars Sword, because even if you refuse to take the sword, the game railroads you into taking it anyway. It doesn't matter whether you choose to kill Ma Teng, because even if you chose not to do so, the game railroads you into killing him anyway. Not something I'd call meaningful C&C.
Also, merely stating something, something that is practically an objective fact, has nothing to do with lust and greed and shit like that.
Besides, LoCC may have plenty of choices, but the vast majority of them doesn't have any consequence other than a morality shift. It doesn't matter whether you accept the Seven Stars Sword, because even if you refuse to take the sword, the game railroads you into taking it anyway. It doesn't matter whether you choose to kill Ma Teng, because even if you chose not to do so, the game railroads you into killing him anyway. Not something I'd call meaningful C&C.
Also, merely stating something, something that is practically an objective fact, has nothing to do with lust and greed and shit like that.
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Given the sheer amount of units, the secret units are usually only for the completionist or the die hard fan. They tend to have little effect on the plot or even gameplay. I'm not claiming that LoCC is an exemplar of C&C, but just having three plot branches based on that morality slider is a bit more than what most SRW games offer. I still love SRW more though.
As for the pretty girl comment, proper conduct is important for a virtuous man. I'm not justifying the game's design, just pointing out that they are likely to associate a compliment with an expression of desire. The virtuous man should desire nothing more than to do good to his family, nation and king, etc, you know the drill.
As for the pretty girl comment, proper conduct is important for a virtuous man. I'm not justifying the game's design, just pointing out that they are likely to associate a compliment with an expression of desire. The virtuous man should desire nothing more than to do good to his family, nation and king, etc, you know the drill.
Cool name
Arcane
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Chapter 5.
Cao Cao indulges in nepotism; the coalition bickers and bitches and moans; Cao Cao and Sun Jian kill lots of dudes at Sishui Pass; Guan Yu gonna Guan Yu.
Scene 1. Cao Cao's camp in Chenliu.
Meet Xiahou Dun, styledOHGODHESSOHOTANDMANLYANDAWESOME Yuanrang. Descended from Xiahou Ying, a famous general who had fought for Liu Bang, the founder of the Han dynasty, both against the Qin Dynasty and during the Chu-Han Contention, he trained with the spear and the club since he was a little boy, and after killing a man who had disrespected his teacher he became a fugitive until Cao Cao started building his own army, which he joined as an officer.
According to Teh Romance Xiahou Dun and Cao Cao were actually 'brothers by birth.' Whether this mean they were truly brothers, half-brothers, or simply very closely related by blood I do not know. The point is that Cao Cao's father was originally of the Xiahou family but later adopted into the Cao family as he had been raised by Cao Teng, a court Attendant. My doubt in part comes from the novel making special mention of how Xiahou Dun descended from Xiahou Ying yet never mentioning that piece of trivia when talking about Cao Cao himself, and from the fact that would Xiahou Dun not be, like, Cao Dun if he had the same dad as Cao Cao? NyanNyan is kunfused.
Meet Xiahou Yuan, styled Miaocai. He's also descended from Xiahou Ying, and is Xiahou Dun younger cousin. He will see a lot of use in the early stages of the game as he is a mounted archer, and the only archer we will have for quite a while. My basic formation is entirely based on him running around softening enemy cavalry so the infantry can finish them off. I recall reading here and there he was pretty close to The Cao, but I don't really remember if Teh Romance ever actually mentioned it.
Cao Ren and Cao Hong are Cao Cao's cousins.
Really, Cao?
In the novel those two also appear out of nowhere and are immediately appointed to Cao Cao's staff.
Yue Jin began his career as an assistant to Cao Cao doing managerial duties around camp but would in time become one of Wei's best generals, usually called the Five Elite Generals and considered to be Wei's counterpart to Shu's Five Tiger Generals. He was renowned for his bravery and daring, always where the fighting was stronger and more brutal. He is said to have been quite short so maybe he was overcompensating.
About Li Dian I do not know a lot beyond that he was a quiet and cautious erudite guy who loved studing and learning, and who had interest in neither warfare nor becoming famous or renowned. His most famous action was to move pretty much everyone he knew north to better serve Cao Cao and then go in a very I-don't-know-what-humour-is explanation of why it was a good idea when Cao Cao did joke about it because it was so unexpected and WTF. As Yue Jin did he started his career in administrative duties.
Great fighters...
The Cao totally ignores my erudite explanations.
Meet Cao Ren, styled Zixiao. As I did say before he's Cao Cao's cousin. He doesn't get a lot of respect and doesn't really have a lot of fans but did quite a few cool thingies and knew his Sun Tzu pretty well. None of those cool thingies he did before joining The Cao so there's not a lot to say right now. Other than that he was the kind of guy who did follow regulations with an almost religious zeal, yet he had been quite impulsive and rebellious as a kid.
Meet Cao Hong, styled Zilian. Another of Cao Cao's cousins. He's not very important, and from what I remember reading around he was kind of an ass.
Scene 2. Coalition camp at the outskirts of Luoyang.
He's the dad of all those Sun dudes and dudette who boss the red guys around in Dynasty Warriors. A descendant of Sun Tzu himself, Sun Jian appears in no more than four chapters of the novel yet that's enough to cement his image as a total badass.
Let's see...
When he was a kid he defeated a band of pirates by himself. Later I guess he was bored so he raised a small army and went to murderize a much stronger rebel army, and while at it he killed both their leaders. And then during the Yellow Turban rebellion he was again kind of bored so he raised a small army from what he had at hand and on he went to turn dudes into XP on the battle of Wancheng, on which he was the first one to scale the walls and killed tons of rebels by himself before jumping down from the walls, stealing the rebel leader's spear during the fall and then dismounting him with it. Then he stole his horse as well and rode deeper into the city killing everyone who did not hide fast enough. And later he joins the Coalition against Dong Zhuo because I guess he was bored again and wrestling tigers naked and with both arms tied behind his back no longer did anything for him.
Yeah...
And me remembering all of this has nothing to do with him being a total DILF in the Dynasty Warriors games. Honest.
Anyway, I guess the AWESOME genes did jump a generation because if his sons and daughter had been anything like him the famous Battle of Chi Bi would have been nothing but several pages of Sun Quan and Sun Shangxiang jumping from ship to ship while murderizing everyone and setting everything on fire.
Meet Yuan Shao's retarded older brother. He's full both of himself and of epic fail.
Meet Tao Qian, styled Gongzu. He's old. That's all the characterization he will get. In the game he's shown as a nice guy but he was actually kind of an asshole.
Meet Gongsun Zan, styled Bogui. He and Liu Bei did study together and were friends. Later he would recruit Zhao Yun, who would then go on to become the D'Artagnan of the Super Sworn Bros. Then Gongsun Zan and his family get turned into XP by Yuan Shao. The end.
And thus we discover Yuan Shao's prestige class is Tsundere.
Scene 3. Teeheehee!
I guess playing bowling using the skulls of his enemies as balls and the nearby forest for pins did grow stale already.
Or maybe he ran out of forest.
The Coalition: Like a schoolgirls' clique, with armies.
Scene 4. Finally!
From what I have been told in the previous games of the 'Legend of' series, Legend of Liu Bei (Boooooo!) and Legend of Kongming (Yaaay!), you actually get to do RPG-ish thingies as walking around town and talking to people and stuffies. In Legend of Cao Cao you do not, because that's stupid. Cao Cao does everything from his tent.
Let's begin by the lower bar. The Battle icon will take us to the planning screen, on which we will pick the generals we want to take with The Cao for this mission. The Equip icon will allow us to manage what weapon, armor, and auxiliary items the generals will use, and the Buy and Sell icons allow us to both buy and sell, duh, both equipment and consumables.
The upper bar now. From left to right the icons are quit, save, load, options, generals, I don't remember, terrain, and collection. Generals is a list of all of our generals, terrain reminds us of all the terrain rules, and collection lists all the unique items we have acquired since we last installed the game, through all playthroughs.
'Raising an army' is the name of the current episode or something. 'Before Sishui Pass' is the name of the on-screen location, that will change to 'Before...' when we are at the planning stage of a battle. And you already met the morality bar.
The Cao can also talk to his generals during the planning stage of a battle.
:D
Xiahou Dun was quite hotheaded both historically and in the novel. That did screw him over more than once but also contributed to his FUCK YOU I AM AWESOME moment.
I am sorry to disappoint you but in this setting 'ally' does translate into 'dude I will kill later.'
That's all for now. I give Cao Cao the Book of Healing we got during the tutorial battle and I am ready to go. I did accidentally delete the screenshots I had of the generals' sheets and the other screens we can visit so the explanation of all those thingies will have to wait until I finish with the current batch of screenshots. Sowwy.
Scene 5. Battle of Sishui Pass.
Meet Cheng Pu, styled Demou. He was a capable general under Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan. He never did anything particularly heroic that I remember though, so he just kind of melted in the background in the Three Kingdoms, when over the top badasses walked the earth and all that.
Great! Let's get sta-
Oh.
Meet Huang Gai, styled Gongfu. Another capable general who served under Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan. His call to fame was causing us Wei fans around eighteen hundred years of sheer undiluted butthurt.
Meet Li Su. He did nothing I care to remember.
Meet Li Jue, styled Zhiran. He fought for Dong Zhuo in about every single campaign Dong Zhuo was involved with. He doesn't do anything particularly remarkable but he does cause lots of trouble later on.
Meet Guo Si. Re-read Li Jue's blurb. That's about it.
Thank you.
The first and most important thingie to understand about the game is that those little dudes actually represent armies. Why is this important? Because that means when the little dude runs out of HP the character does not actually die, the army they command gets routed instead. Characters only die when the story orders it, and only very rarely does that happen in the field proper. Usually they either die in a story segment or in a duel. Duels I will explain later on this mission.
Armies with a named general, like Sun Jian's there, are tough. Armies with an unnamed general are only dangerous in groups. All of Cao Cao's armies are under named generals, which means most of the time we will be outnumbered as bleep.
Anyway, while this mission only requires us to defeat all enemy dudes there is a 'hidden' objective. If we finish the mission without Sun Jian being routed we will receive a special reward. He's already weakened, so to do that we need to heal him. We got three recovery beans during the tutorial mission so we have that covered.
While vastly outnumbered by the blue dudes Sun Jian's army has as many named generals as they do. Even if they are weakened by the lack of supplies they can easily delay Hua Xiong, the guy in the charriot, while we and Guan Yu take care of the dudes on the sides.
So that's what we are going to do.
We just run straight ahead without a care for formations. Sun Jian uses his 'wind' tactic on Hua Xiong but otherwise remains where he is. The 'wind' tactic is the basic magic attack of the Warlord class. The Warlord class is a pretty strong generalist class, so they do a little bit of everything but don't really outshine the specialists in any particular thingie. Their magical attacks, however, suck.
Hua Xiong and his dudes charge. As soon as Hua Xiong attacks for the first time an event is triggered.
Meet Hua Xiong. He defeated some throwaway coalition generals in single combat. Then he died. No one cared.
If Guan Yu and Hua Xiong encounter each other they will duel. Most duels are just fluff that don't affect anything at all in the battle proper, but some duels will end with one of the characters being killed. Those deaths are story based. No character will die or be otherwise affected by a duel except in those duels on which it is scripted for them to die, and in those duels they will always die no matter what.
Anyway, by the end of the first turn Sun Jian's army is pretty much screwed.
I focus on the northern dudes, sending only Cao Ren and Cao Cao to deal with the ones coming from the south. Guan Yu joins Cao Ren at the south while Sun Jian himself goes to help to the north. Both of them hit pretty hard. Sun Jian hits pretty hard twice.
Huang Gai then finishes off the already softened Li Jue.
Then the bad dudes begin their turn by defeating Cheng Pu.
Yeah, the chariot dude attacks diagonally.
And then they proceed to anihilate Sun Jian's forces. By the beginning of the third turn only Huang Gai and Sun Jian himself remain of their forces.
Cao Cao, Cao Ren, and one of the footdudes focus on Guo Si and send him packing. Xiahou Dun charges the lone blue footdude going down the middle.
Then the other Xiahou finishes the leading cavalry guy, who was already weakened from attacking Sun Jian and getting bitch slapped in return.
One of my footdudes heals Sun Jian with a recovery bean. Those thingies have 1 range in all directions. Then Guan Yu goes all the way to where the horsie we just murderized was standing and finishes the footdude Xiahou Dun did soften earlier. Bleeping killstealer.
Whatever. By the fourth turn we did murderize everyone but the chariot dude. Sun Jian charges him and they exchange some blows. Then Xiahou Dun charges him as well because I AM STUPID, and they exchange some blows. Then Guan Yu charges him and they exchange blows.
And then...
That's more or less how it did happen in Teh Romance: Yuan Shao sent several dudes to duel Hua Xiong and they all met with epic fail. Guan Yu did want to go. Yuan Shao did not want him to go. Cao Cao did side with Guan Yu. Guan Yu told Yuan Shao he could take his head if he were to fail. Cao Cao offered warm wine to Guan Yu before he departed but Guan Yu told him to pour it so that he could drink it upon his return. Cao Cao did. Guan Yu went to face Hua Xiong. Guan Yu returned with Hua Xiong's head in about five seconds flat. The wine was still warm.
And then Yuan Shu was an ass but no one did pay much attention to him.
Anyway, back to the battle. Defeating Hua Xiong gives us Leather Gloves.
We charge the fortification. Given the size of the stairs only a few dudes can fight at a time. Cao Cao can't even use his 'wind' tactic to soften the bleepers, 'wind' does work in all terrains but fortifications and buildings. Li Su spams poison, his archers spam pointy sticks that fly. Sun Jian and Huang Gai get abused.
Whenever it is needed I use one of those guys I can't send into the fray heal Sun Jian.
Between Huang Gai, one of my footdudes, and Xiahou Yuan they manage to kill one of the enemy footdudes at the stairs. I squeeze Xiahou Dun through the gap.
Every time another one of their dudes fall I squeeze one of my dudes through the gap. Xiahou Dun gets pretty abused. By then I am out of recovery beans so I make him retreat.
We defeat Li Su with Sun Jian just a few HP away from defeat. That was close. I should have been less stingy and actually buy one or two of the bloody thingies, but I always am, like, what if I later NEED that money and I don't have it? What if I need it SO BADLY I have to restart the game? D:
Scene 6. Luoyang meeting hall.
And that's it for today. In the next chapter the Cao Cao Rangers, the Super Sworn Bros, and dat old guy will face Lu Bu in mortal combat. Blood will be spilled! Corpses will be trampled! Arrows will go fooosh! Swords will go clank! Horses will go, uhm, neigh? Anyway... The 3vs1 'duel' the Super Sworn Bros barely won will be fanfictioned away because Koei can't have their precious Liu Bei's image dirtied! And Cao Cao will come face to face with an ancient truth so dire, so terrible, so insidious all good men have since the begining of time tried their very best to ignore, to look away from it in fear of losing their minds and their faith in the inherent goodness of mankind!
So I guess a good thingie about the 'blue' route is that we will get to show Cao Cao would be a far better Gentleman Hero than Liu Bei was.
That's one of the reasons I despise Liu Bei so much. He pulls as much bullshit as Cao Cao does (Lu Bu, Liu Zhang, etc) yet everyone seems to think he's a bloody saint. Cao Cao does pull a lot of bullshit, yeah, but at least he's honest about it (better I screw than get screwed), and at the same time he's an extremely capable ruler, a very cultivated guy, a more than able general (Yuan Shao, LOL), has a very progressive worldview, and he had already become an imperial officer through his own merit before everything went to shit. Liu Bei's accomplishments are, uhm... Wandering around living from the generosity of others? Throwing a baby around in a fit of rage? Making some really comfortable sandals? Betraying half the dudes who helped him? Kind of being around? Going on a crazed revenge spree that did end with a whimper?
At least in the novel the only thingie of merit he does is recruiting Kongming, who then goes on to be all kinds of awesome. Alright, I get it, it is really hard not to get overshadowed by the bleeping crouching dragon, but really... He does not even try. The only time he actually goes against Kongming's wishes he gets pwned so bad he pretty much dies of shame. And, uhm, Shu Han does not even notice. Everything goes on pretty much as before, because Kongming was Shu Han and Shu Han was Kongming. Liu Bei was just kind of... there.
*goes on a ten page tirade of how much Liu Bei does suck*
Ahem. Sorry 'bout that.
Holy fuck that's all kinds of awesome. :D
Where did you get that from?
Cao Cao indulges in nepotism; the coalition bickers and bitches and moans; Cao Cao and Sun Jian kill lots of dudes at Sishui Pass; Guan Yu gonna Guan Yu.
Scene 1. Cao Cao's camp in Chenliu.
Meet Xiahou Dun, styled
According to Teh Romance Xiahou Dun and Cao Cao were actually 'brothers by birth.' Whether this mean they were truly brothers, half-brothers, or simply very closely related by blood I do not know. The point is that Cao Cao's father was originally of the Xiahou family but later adopted into the Cao family as he had been raised by Cao Teng, a court Attendant. My doubt in part comes from the novel making special mention of how Xiahou Dun descended from Xiahou Ying yet never mentioning that piece of trivia when talking about Cao Cao himself, and from the fact that would Xiahou Dun not be, like, Cao Dun if he had the same dad as Cao Cao? NyanNyan is kunfused.
Meet Xiahou Yuan, styled Miaocai. He's also descended from Xiahou Ying, and is Xiahou Dun younger cousin. He will see a lot of use in the early stages of the game as he is a mounted archer, and the only archer we will have for quite a while. My basic formation is entirely based on him running around softening enemy cavalry so the infantry can finish them off. I recall reading here and there he was pretty close to The Cao, but I don't really remember if Teh Romance ever actually mentioned it.
Cao Ren and Cao Hong are Cao Cao's cousins.
Really, Cao?
In the novel those two also appear out of nowhere and are immediately appointed to Cao Cao's staff.
Yue Jin began his career as an assistant to Cao Cao doing managerial duties around camp but would in time become one of Wei's best generals, usually called the Five Elite Generals and considered to be Wei's counterpart to Shu's Five Tiger Generals. He was renowned for his bravery and daring, always where the fighting was stronger and more brutal. He is said to have been quite short so maybe he was overcompensating.
About Li Dian I do not know a lot beyond that he was a quiet and cautious erudite guy who loved studing and learning, and who had interest in neither warfare nor becoming famous or renowned. His most famous action was to move pretty much everyone he knew north to better serve Cao Cao and then go in a very I-don't-know-what-humour-is explanation of why it was a good idea when Cao Cao did joke about it because it was so unexpected and WTF. As Yue Jin did he started his career in administrative duties.
Great fighters...
The Cao totally ignores my erudite explanations.
Meet Cao Ren, styled Zixiao. As I did say before he's Cao Cao's cousin. He doesn't get a lot of respect and doesn't really have a lot of fans but did quite a few cool thingies and knew his Sun Tzu pretty well. None of those cool thingies he did before joining The Cao so there's not a lot to say right now. Other than that he was the kind of guy who did follow regulations with an almost religious zeal, yet he had been quite impulsive and rebellious as a kid.
Meet Cao Hong, styled Zilian. Another of Cao Cao's cousins. He's not very important, and from what I remember reading around he was kind of an ass.
Scene 2. Coalition camp at the outskirts of Luoyang.
He's the dad of all those Sun dudes and dudette who boss the red guys around in Dynasty Warriors. A descendant of Sun Tzu himself, Sun Jian appears in no more than four chapters of the novel yet that's enough to cement his image as a total badass.
Let's see...
When he was a kid he defeated a band of pirates by himself. Later I guess he was bored so he raised a small army and went to murderize a much stronger rebel army, and while at it he killed both their leaders. And then during the Yellow Turban rebellion he was again kind of bored so he raised a small army from what he had at hand and on he went to turn dudes into XP on the battle of Wancheng, on which he was the first one to scale the walls and killed tons of rebels by himself before jumping down from the walls, stealing the rebel leader's spear during the fall and then dismounting him with it. Then he stole his horse as well and rode deeper into the city killing everyone who did not hide fast enough. And later he joins the Coalition against Dong Zhuo because I guess he was bored again and wrestling tigers naked and with both arms tied behind his back no longer did anything for him.
Yeah...
And me remembering all of this has nothing to do with him being a total DILF in the Dynasty Warriors games. Honest.
Anyway, I guess the AWESOME genes did jump a generation because if his sons and daughter had been anything like him the famous Battle of Chi Bi would have been nothing but several pages of Sun Quan and Sun Shangxiang jumping from ship to ship while murderizing everyone and setting everything on fire.
Meet Yuan Shao's retarded older brother. He's full both of himself and of epic fail.
Meet Tao Qian, styled Gongzu. He's old. That's all the characterization he will get. In the game he's shown as a nice guy but he was actually kind of an asshole.
Meet Gongsun Zan, styled Bogui. He and Liu Bei did study together and were friends. Later he would recruit Zhao Yun, who would then go on to become the D'Artagnan of the Super Sworn Bros. Then Gongsun Zan and his family get turned into XP by Yuan Shao. The end.
And thus we discover Yuan Shao's prestige class is Tsundere.
Scene 3. Teeheehee!
I guess playing bowling using the skulls of his enemies as balls and the nearby forest for pins did grow stale already.
Or maybe he ran out of forest.
The Coalition: Like a schoolgirls' clique, with armies.
Scene 4. Finally!
From what I have been told in the previous games of the 'Legend of' series, Legend of Liu Bei (Boooooo!) and Legend of Kongming (Yaaay!), you actually get to do RPG-ish thingies as walking around town and talking to people and stuffies. In Legend of Cao Cao you do not, because that's stupid. Cao Cao does everything from his tent.
Let's begin by the lower bar. The Battle icon will take us to the planning screen, on which we will pick the generals we want to take with The Cao for this mission. The Equip icon will allow us to manage what weapon, armor, and auxiliary items the generals will use, and the Buy and Sell icons allow us to both buy and sell, duh, both equipment and consumables.
The upper bar now. From left to right the icons are quit, save, load, options, generals, I don't remember, terrain, and collection. Generals is a list of all of our generals, terrain reminds us of all the terrain rules, and collection lists all the unique items we have acquired since we last installed the game, through all playthroughs.
'Raising an army' is the name of the current episode or something. 'Before Sishui Pass' is the name of the on-screen location, that will change to 'Before...' when we are at the planning stage of a battle. And you already met the morality bar.
The Cao can also talk to his generals during the planning stage of a battle.
:D
Xiahou Dun was quite hotheaded both historically and in the novel. That did screw him over more than once but also contributed to his FUCK YOU I AM AWESOME moment.
I am sorry to disappoint you but in this setting 'ally' does translate into 'dude I will kill later.'
That's all for now. I give Cao Cao the Book of Healing we got during the tutorial battle and I am ready to go. I did accidentally delete the screenshots I had of the generals' sheets and the other screens we can visit so the explanation of all those thingies will have to wait until I finish with the current batch of screenshots. Sowwy.
Scene 5. Battle of Sishui Pass.
Meet Cheng Pu, styled Demou. He was a capable general under Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan. He never did anything particularly heroic that I remember though, so he just kind of melted in the background in the Three Kingdoms, when over the top badasses walked the earth and all that.
Great! Let's get sta-
Oh.
Meet Huang Gai, styled Gongfu. Another capable general who served under Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan. His call to fame was causing us Wei fans around eighteen hundred years of sheer undiluted butthurt.
Meet Li Su. He did nothing I care to remember.
Meet Li Jue, styled Zhiran. He fought for Dong Zhuo in about every single campaign Dong Zhuo was involved with. He doesn't do anything particularly remarkable but he does cause lots of trouble later on.
Meet Guo Si. Re-read Li Jue's blurb. That's about it.
Thank you.
The first and most important thingie to understand about the game is that those little dudes actually represent armies. Why is this important? Because that means when the little dude runs out of HP the character does not actually die, the army they command gets routed instead. Characters only die when the story orders it, and only very rarely does that happen in the field proper. Usually they either die in a story segment or in a duel. Duels I will explain later on this mission.
Armies with a named general, like Sun Jian's there, are tough. Armies with an unnamed general are only dangerous in groups. All of Cao Cao's armies are under named generals, which means most of the time we will be outnumbered as bleep.
Anyway, while this mission only requires us to defeat all enemy dudes there is a 'hidden' objective. If we finish the mission without Sun Jian being routed we will receive a special reward. He's already weakened, so to do that we need to heal him. We got three recovery beans during the tutorial mission so we have that covered.
While vastly outnumbered by the blue dudes Sun Jian's army has as many named generals as they do. Even if they are weakened by the lack of supplies they can easily delay Hua Xiong, the guy in the charriot, while we and Guan Yu take care of the dudes on the sides.
So that's what we are going to do.
We just run straight ahead without a care for formations. Sun Jian uses his 'wind' tactic on Hua Xiong but otherwise remains where he is. The 'wind' tactic is the basic magic attack of the Warlord class. The Warlord class is a pretty strong generalist class, so they do a little bit of everything but don't really outshine the specialists in any particular thingie. Their magical attacks, however, suck.
Hua Xiong and his dudes charge. As soon as Hua Xiong attacks for the first time an event is triggered.
Meet Hua Xiong. He defeated some throwaway coalition generals in single combat. Then he died. No one cared.
If Guan Yu and Hua Xiong encounter each other they will duel. Most duels are just fluff that don't affect anything at all in the battle proper, but some duels will end with one of the characters being killed. Those deaths are story based. No character will die or be otherwise affected by a duel except in those duels on which it is scripted for them to die, and in those duels they will always die no matter what.
Anyway, by the end of the first turn Sun Jian's army is pretty much screwed.
I focus on the northern dudes, sending only Cao Ren and Cao Cao to deal with the ones coming from the south. Guan Yu joins Cao Ren at the south while Sun Jian himself goes to help to the north. Both of them hit pretty hard. Sun Jian hits pretty hard twice.
Huang Gai then finishes off the already softened Li Jue.
Then the bad dudes begin their turn by defeating Cheng Pu.
Yeah, the chariot dude attacks diagonally.
And then they proceed to anihilate Sun Jian's forces. By the beginning of the third turn only Huang Gai and Sun Jian himself remain of their forces.
Cao Cao, Cao Ren, and one of the footdudes focus on Guo Si and send him packing. Xiahou Dun charges the lone blue footdude going down the middle.
Then the other Xiahou finishes the leading cavalry guy, who was already weakened from attacking Sun Jian and getting bitch slapped in return.
One of my footdudes heals Sun Jian with a recovery bean. Those thingies have 1 range in all directions. Then Guan Yu goes all the way to where the horsie we just murderized was standing and finishes the footdude Xiahou Dun did soften earlier. Bleeping killstealer.
Whatever. By the fourth turn we did murderize everyone but the chariot dude. Sun Jian charges him and they exchange some blows. Then Xiahou Dun charges him as well because I AM STUPID, and they exchange some blows. Then Guan Yu charges him and they exchange blows.
And then...
That's more or less how it did happen in Teh Romance: Yuan Shao sent several dudes to duel Hua Xiong and they all met with epic fail. Guan Yu did want to go. Yuan Shao did not want him to go. Cao Cao did side with Guan Yu. Guan Yu told Yuan Shao he could take his head if he were to fail. Cao Cao offered warm wine to Guan Yu before he departed but Guan Yu told him to pour it so that he could drink it upon his return. Cao Cao did. Guan Yu went to face Hua Xiong. Guan Yu returned with Hua Xiong's head in about five seconds flat. The wine was still warm.
And then Yuan Shu was an ass but no one did pay much attention to him.
Anyway, back to the battle. Defeating Hua Xiong gives us Leather Gloves.
We charge the fortification. Given the size of the stairs only a few dudes can fight at a time. Cao Cao can't even use his 'wind' tactic to soften the bleepers, 'wind' does work in all terrains but fortifications and buildings. Li Su spams poison, his archers spam pointy sticks that fly. Sun Jian and Huang Gai get abused.
Whenever it is needed I use one of those guys I can't send into the fray heal Sun Jian.
Between Huang Gai, one of my footdudes, and Xiahou Yuan they manage to kill one of the enemy footdudes at the stairs. I squeeze Xiahou Dun through the gap.
Every time another one of their dudes fall I squeeze one of my dudes through the gap. Xiahou Dun gets pretty abused. By then I am out of recovery beans so I make him retreat.
We defeat Li Su with Sun Jian just a few HP away from defeat. That was close. I should have been less stingy and actually buy one or two of the bloody thingies, but I always am, like, what if I later NEED that money and I don't have it? What if I need it SO BADLY I have to restart the game? D:
Scene 6. Luoyang meeting hall.
And that's it for today. In the next chapter the Cao Cao Rangers, the Super Sworn Bros, and dat old guy will face Lu Bu in mortal combat. Blood will be spilled! Corpses will be trampled! Arrows will go fooosh! Swords will go clank! Horses will go, uhm, neigh? Anyway... The 3vs1 'duel' the Super Sworn Bros barely won will be fanfictioned away because Koei can't have their precious Liu Bei's image dirtied! And Cao Cao will come face to face with an ancient truth so dire, so terrible, so insidious all good men have since the begining of time tried their very best to ignore, to look away from it in fear of losing their minds and their faith in the inherent goodness of mankind!
So I guess a good thingie about the 'blue' route is that we will get to show Cao Cao would be a far better Gentleman Hero than Liu Bei was.
That's one of the reasons I despise Liu Bei so much. He pulls as much bullshit as Cao Cao does (Lu Bu, Liu Zhang, etc) yet everyone seems to think he's a bloody saint. Cao Cao does pull a lot of bullshit, yeah, but at least he's honest about it (better I screw than get screwed), and at the same time he's an extremely capable ruler, a very cultivated guy, a more than able general (Yuan Shao, LOL), has a very progressive worldview, and he had already become an imperial officer through his own merit before everything went to shit. Liu Bei's accomplishments are, uhm... Wandering around living from the generosity of others? Throwing a baby around in a fit of rage? Making some really comfortable sandals? Betraying half the dudes who helped him? Kind of being around? Going on a crazed revenge spree that did end with a whimper?
At least in the novel the only thingie of merit he does is recruiting Kongming, who then goes on to be all kinds of awesome. Alright, I get it, it is really hard not to get overshadowed by the bleeping crouching dragon, but really... He does not even try. The only time he actually goes against Kongming's wishes he gets pwned so bad he pretty much dies of shame. And, uhm, Shu Han does not even notice. Everything goes on pretty much as before, because Kongming was Shu Han and Shu Han was Kongming. Liu Bei was just kind of... there.*goes on a ten page tirade of how much Liu Bei does suck*
Ahem. Sorry 'bout that.
Lord Cao Cao is pleased:
Holy fuck that's all kinds of awesome. :D
Where did you get that from?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2008
- Messages
- 11,370
Yes, uh, Kongming is awesome. You're so gonna love blue route.
Historically I believe his awesomeness was more in his administrative capability rather than any battlefield tactical genius. That was more of Zhou Yu's forte. Kong Ming's success in ensuring Shu could actually field armies capable of competing with Wei and Wu, which held the more populated and developed regions of China, was rather remarkable.
Liu Bei is a total dick. If you look at it from another perspective, he's actually more manipulative (or at least his advisors are) than Cao Cao because of the way he persistently screws over every single ruler who has ever helped his hobo royal uncle ass. Then he claims its all for the good of the Han dynasty. He would be a better yandere character than Cao Cao.
I'm almost certain (because classical Chinese is full of obtuse metaphors that I don't have the training to comprehend) the Xiahou brothers were cousins of Cao Cao and Mengde himself had a Sworn Brother (TM) relationship with Dun. Cao Cao's father is recorded as being Xiahou Dun's uncle, so unless there is something going on there with family inbreeding it should be a rather straightforward relationship. At least, according to the more
Records of the Three Kingdoms instead of the... novel.
Historically I believe his awesomeness was more in his administrative capability rather than any battlefield tactical genius. That was more of Zhou Yu's forte. Kong Ming's success in ensuring Shu could actually field armies capable of competing with Wei and Wu, which held the more populated and developed regions of China, was rather remarkable.
Liu Bei is a total dick. If you look at it from another perspective, he's actually more manipulative (or at least his advisors are) than Cao Cao because of the way he persistently screws over every single ruler who has ever helped his hobo royal uncle ass. Then he claims its all for the good of the Han dynasty. He would be a better yandere character than Cao Cao.
I'm almost certain (because classical Chinese is full of obtuse metaphors that I don't have the training to comprehend) the Xiahou brothers were cousins of Cao Cao and Mengde himself had a Sworn Brother (TM) relationship with Dun. Cao Cao's father is recorded as being Xiahou Dun's uncle, so unless there is something going on there with family inbreeding it should be a rather straightforward relationship. At least, according to the more
Records of the Three Kingdoms instead of the... novel.
Last edited:
Koei released them as gashapon in 2009, and I was lucky enough to casually find 4 boxes when I went to Japan last year.Agassi said:
The gods of randomness favored me, and I got Cao Cao and Zhang Liao (and also Dian Wei and Zhang Fei) but I really wanted Zhuge Liang...
Monstrous Bat
Cipher
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 638
Liu Bei is the Shinn Asuka of RoTK. He runs around pretending to be the protagonist, but he's portrayed in such a way that you can't help but wonder if the author actually hated his guts. All while the actual protagonist (Kong Ming in RoTK) steals all the spotlight.
Historically, Liu Bei was actually kind of awesome. Probably not as awesome as Cao Cao, yes, but he does have what it takes to be a general. It makes sense, really -- people do not rise to power by being an indecisive imbecile, you know. It's just that a lot of his great moments were credited to Kong Ming in the novel instead. For example, the ambush in the Battle of Bowang was actually Liu Bei's idea.
By the way. After the next mission, you'll be presented with another choice. If you pick the blue option here, you'd skip a rather difficult mission... as well as a fairly awesome item. Or you could pick the red option here, do the mission, and you'd still be able to get into the blue route. Just a reminder. The choice is still up to you, though.
Historically, Liu Bei was actually kind of awesome. Probably not as awesome as Cao Cao, yes, but he does have what it takes to be a general. It makes sense, really -- people do not rise to power by being an indecisive imbecile, you know. It's just that a lot of his great moments were credited to Kong Ming in the novel instead. For example, the ambush in the Battle of Bowang was actually Liu Bei's idea.
By the way. After the next mission, you'll be presented with another choice. If you pick the blue option here, you'd skip a rather difficult mission... as well as a fairly awesome item. Or you could pick the red option here, do the mission, and you'd still be able to get into the blue route. Just a reminder. The choice is still up to you, though.
Now I know what to look for in Nippombashi next yearKoei released them as gashapon in 2009, and I was lucky enough to casually find 4 boxes when I went to Japan last year.Agassi said:
The gods of randomness favored me, and I got Cao Cao and Zhang Liao (and also Dian Wei and Zhang Fei) but I really wanted Zhuge Liang...
Kz3r0
Arcane
- Joined
- May 28, 2008
- Messages
- 27,026
Or maybe that because this is not an explicit game that's a proxy for rape, probably their audience can get the subtlety.
Cool name
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2012
- Messages
- 2,149
Chapter 6.
Teeheehee; Tao Qian makes a fool of himself; the Cacao Rangers and the Super Sworn Bros defeat Lu Bu; Dong Zhuo is evil; Diao Chan does not give a bleep.
Scene 1. Coalition camp at the outskirts of Luoyang.
Now that would be something to see.
Fuuuuuu...
I love his sprite there. :D
When The Man calls you a REAL MAN then it's official.
Scene 2. Before the Battle of Hulao Pass.
We still haven't much to do to prepare for the next battle. Xiahou Yuan gets the leather gloves, which give him added accuracy. I give the ancestral sword we got from Sun Jian to Yue Jin. It is stronger than Cao Cao's celestial sword but the celestial sword has a defense bonus and this one does not. The game is over whenever Cao Cao himself is defeated yet Cao Cao is a pretty strong unit, so the only way to use him fully yet without constant risk is to have him tanky.
There is one way, and one way alone, to deal with Lu Bu: Focus fire with your entire army on him and hope for the best. In this battle we don't have the firepower to cleanly deal with him on our own, but both the super sworn bros and dat old guy will come with us. Which means... Teeheehee!
My thoughts exactly.
I also buy a few recovery beans just in case. This makes me sad.
Scene 3. Battle of Hulao Pass.
We start the battle with some bad news: Lu Bu will not move at all until we are close enough to his forces for them to charge us, and charge us well. They will basically descend upon us like a big blob. We can't do what we did in the previous battle, just rushing forward and that's it.
In the novel the Super Sworn Bros are incredibly pathetic during the Battle of Hulao Pass. It goes like this: Lu Bu challenges the coalition to send champions to duel with him, and all those who are sent Lu Bu defeats without the least effort. Eventually Gongsun Zan rode to fight him but after a few bouts he knew he was way over his head and turned tail. Red Hare was a bloody awesome horse so Lu Bu did easily catch up and was about to murderize him when Zhang Fei rode out of the Coalition's camp and challenged him.
Lu Bu and Zhang Fei did fight for fifty bouts. Guan Yu then rode out the coalition camp and attacked Lu Bu from the other side. Lu Bu stood his ground against the two of them for another thirty bouts, and then Liu Bei rode out as well and joined his brothers in battle. Lu Bu fought against the three of them for several more bouts but finally had to retreat.
In the game it is a little bit different. And by that I mean it kind of sucks as it basically turns a pretty cool Lu Bu moment into three pretty pathetic Lu Bu moments with a side serving of 'man, the super sworn bros are so awesome!'
God they make me so angry.
Anyway,
I already said Lu Bu's forces will do nothing until we are close enough for them to descend upon us like a big blob. What I did not say is that neither Tao Qian nor the super sworn bros will do shit until Lu Bu's forces descend upon us like a big blob. Some day I will present The Cao their heads for this.
Nevermind I plan to do the same thingie to them with Lu Bu proper.
Anyway, I use the first turn to form a pretty basic formation and then advance a single tile per turn.
This formation will not be useful beyond the early missions. It is usually better to advance your infantry leaving a tile or two between them to block the most ground, then soften the cavalry with all of our ranged firepower, then attack their 'horizontal and vertical only' dudes with our diagonal-able infantry, and then charge through the gaps with our own 'horizontal and vertical only' dudes. Those are pretty much the basics, but we don't even have the firepower to pull out the basics yet so this will have to do for the time being: With neither archers nor strategists I want to focus damage in just a few enemy dudes at a time. As those three footdudes can attack diagonally I can hit the enemy charging the dude in the middle with all three plus Xiahou Yuan if needed, and the others with two dudes plus Xiahou Yuan plus the riders if needed.
Lu Bu himself will not charge yet. This does make me play in a much more conservative way than I would otherwise. Lu Bu is pretty OP and I don't want to have him charge Cao Cao, as the game will end no matter what if Cao Cao is defeated, nor Xiahou Dun, who is one of my best guys but not nearly good enough to take on Lu Bu on his lonesome.
As you can see I attack the middle guy with just Xiahou Yuan and the two footsoldiers to the sides. Units can only counterattack enemies that attack from inside their 'red square' thingies and horsemen can't attack diagonally so I can attack him with impunity this way.
Here you can see in action what I explained about being blocked by enemy units.
Both Cao Cao and Liu Bei use 'wind' against the evil dudes. Liu Bei because he can't reach any enemy from his position, and Cao Cao because I don't want to have him being the closest unit to Lu Bu in case he decides to charge.
Tao Qian doesn't care and finishes the archer Xiahou Dun, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei softened.
I don't mind.
The battle does continue. Lu Bu's army is thoroughly abused.
And then Tao Qian decides to be stupid.
Then he finishes Tao Qian off.
Being old is not your problem.
In any case I never expected him to go through this mission unrouted. Lu Bu's army is weak compared to Cao Cao, so my intention always was to deal myself with the army and let Tao Qian and the super sworn bros soften Lu Bu for me. They do exactly that.
*facepaw*
Sigh...
Forgive me if I misunderstood the scene but the point never was 'each of the super sworn bros was Lu Bu's match,' it was 'all of the super sworn bros at the same time were Lu Bu's match... barely.'
Bleep those dudes.
Anyway, one of Tao Qian's nameless dudes tries to attack Lu Bu and...
Ouchies.
The other one does the same, and...
He gets an extra attack because he routed those guys, and...
That did not work as expected.
Liu Bei does heal Xiahou Dun while they are at it.
Warlords get the healing spell either at level 5 or level 7, I don't remember. I believe it was 5.
Anyways, I usually get 'Heal' in the next mission. Problem is, the 'blue' route skips that mission.
The battle after that one is pretty easy, though, so I will try to get it there. And since I did not explain the XP thingie I will do so now: Generals get XP whenever they do something other than moving. Weapons and armor does also get XP, weapons when causing damage and armor when receiving damage. As a weapon or an armor levels up they become stronger. 'Common' equipment does not level up a lot. 'Unique' equipment does level up a lot.
As they level up dudes become stronger and gain more 'tactics' if they are from a class that can use 'tactics.' Enemy level in a mission is not static but based on the average of all your dudes in the field. This does not means all units will be of that level. That means the 'base' level for the map will be that average, and then modifiers will be applied as needed.
There is actually people who tries to clear the game with as few levels up as possible because some missions are much easier that way. While the 'level' of the enemies will still be the average plus the modifier they will only have access to the tactics their level would naturally unlock.
That's also why some of the choices actually work in the game. Some choices as well as dramatically changing history in some battles will make us skip one or several missions ahead, but that will not leave us weaker. All we will miss are a few special rewards, yet at the same time we may obtain different ones.
But you are probably not going to see a lot of me 'changing history' through surpassing all odds. You are probably going to get far more of me barely squeezing through.
Anyway, both Zhang Fei and Guan Yu fight exchange strikes with Lu Bu. Guan Yu is routed.
I was going to wait and let the Super Sworn Bros get their butts kicked all over the place by Lu Bu, but then I decided to just move in for the kill when I notice we can pretty much end it this turn.
But Zhang Fei is the one to finish him.
Scene 4. Mwahahahaha!
Scene 5. Cao Who?
Cao Cao, meet Truth. Truth, meet Cao Cao.
Iceburn.
In the 'red' path by this point in the game Diao Chan was so totally into Cao Cao that Wang Yun was teasing her about him and later she was whispering his name all squeeeeee like.
In the 'blue' path, well...
She's all out of fucks to give.
Awkward.
But it is not like it's her fault. Red Cao Cao would be right at home in an Italian opera. Ambition! Power! Passion! Bravado! Intrigue! Biceps! Goatees! Awesome singing! What healthy girl wouldn't fall for that? I'll tell you: Not a single one. Not now, not ever.
Let's hope she changes her mind when they next meet and Cao Cao has had the opportunity to show THE MAN behind the, uhm, quiet and thoughtful and deliberate gentleman-scholar. When he has kind of, like, you know, thrown away his spectacles and teared away his robes to reveal his finely sculped chocolate abs and the two interlocked gothic Cs tatooed on his chest.
I expect this to only change a couple of cute little d'awww scenes and funny scenes. I don't think this will change her joining us later.
Diao Chan is Justice.
Not to be picky but you did actually underestimate Li Ru.
<Airquotes>The emperor's</airquotes>
Chapter 4, 5, and 6 were originally just Chapter 4. I thought it was a bit too much so I did divide it on three parts. I am all out of parts now so the next update will take a longer while. I am kind of happy, though, because it did finish in a cliffhanger!
Well... A cliffhanger for the, like, two of you who did not read Teh Romance, at least.
@felipepepe: Fellow Kongmingtard!
Anyway, I did not knew about those. Thank you! I'll try to get my aunt to get me one.
And, like, wow. They actually managed to make Yueying's little toy look cuter than Diao Chan's one. Then the universe imploded.
@treave: Thank you for the clarification on the relationship between Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun. Thank you for the one about the Seven Star Sword as well, I was going to thank you before but it did completely slip out of my mind.
@Monstrous Bat: I should read a little on the historical Liu Bei. There are several characters I did initially dislike but grew to like after doing that. But... Yeah, Liu Bei is so very much 'hero by design' in the novel that I never really felt the push.
Kongming's historical role fits the character better, but it isn't really flashy or epic in the usual sense so it would kind of fall by the wayside in the storm of epic WTF that's Teh Romance. I guess the novel tries to reflect his importance by moving him from the 'big picture' to the here and now, kind of how it does turn many battles into duels between generals the winner of which just charges through the enemy lines murdering everyone or into 'hollywood tactics' where a single spectacular ruse totally crushes the other side, and in doing so turns Shu Han into the Kongming and Zhao Yun show (and much of the book into 'Kongming trolls ancient china').
But, well... He's awesome so I don't care. The moar Kongming the better. :D
Anyway, I did previously got pretty far into the game following the 'red' route so I will be picking all the 'blue' options just to see what happens given that we are going to follow that route. Otherwise I would have picked the 'red' option with Diao Chan just because those little scenes they get (Diao Chan going all 'Lord Cao Cao... *sigh*', Cao Cao being all worried about Diao Chan, etc) are so bloody cute. *suckerforcheesyromance* Though, yeah, the 'blue' option in that particular scene you do mention is, like... I don't know. I am still trying to figure out what the bleep was Cao Cao smoking there. So randum.
@Kz3r0: Eh? Eh? Eh? What the bleep did I miss? @_@
Teeheehee; Tao Qian makes a fool of himself; the Cacao Rangers and the Super Sworn Bros defeat Lu Bu; Dong Zhuo is evil; Diao Chan does not give a bleep.
Scene 1. Coalition camp at the outskirts of Luoyang.
Now that would be something to see.
Fuuuuuu...
I love his sprite there. :D
When The Man calls you a REAL MAN then it's official.
Scene 2. Before the Battle of Hulao Pass.
We still haven't much to do to prepare for the next battle. Xiahou Yuan gets the leather gloves, which give him added accuracy. I give the ancestral sword we got from Sun Jian to Yue Jin. It is stronger than Cao Cao's celestial sword but the celestial sword has a defense bonus and this one does not. The game is over whenever Cao Cao himself is defeated yet Cao Cao is a pretty strong unit, so the only way to use him fully yet without constant risk is to have him tanky.
There is one way, and one way alone, to deal with Lu Bu: Focus fire with your entire army on him and hope for the best. In this battle we don't have the firepower to cleanly deal with him on our own, but both the super sworn bros and dat old guy will come with us. Which means... Teeheehee!
My thoughts exactly.I also buy a few recovery beans just in case. This makes me sad.
Scene 3. Battle of Hulao Pass.
We start the battle with some bad news: Lu Bu will not move at all until we are close enough to his forces for them to charge us, and charge us well. They will basically descend upon us like a big blob. We can't do what we did in the previous battle, just rushing forward and that's it.
In the novel the Super Sworn Bros are incredibly pathetic during the Battle of Hulao Pass. It goes like this: Lu Bu challenges the coalition to send champions to duel with him, and all those who are sent Lu Bu defeats without the least effort. Eventually Gongsun Zan rode to fight him but after a few bouts he knew he was way over his head and turned tail. Red Hare was a bloody awesome horse so Lu Bu did easily catch up and was about to murderize him when Zhang Fei rode out of the Coalition's camp and challenged him.
Lu Bu and Zhang Fei did fight for fifty bouts. Guan Yu then rode out the coalition camp and attacked Lu Bu from the other side. Lu Bu stood his ground against the two of them for another thirty bouts, and then Liu Bei rode out as well and joined his brothers in battle. Lu Bu fought against the three of them for several more bouts but finally had to retreat.
In the game it is a little bit different. And by that I mean it kind of sucks as it basically turns a pretty cool Lu Bu moment into three pretty pathetic Lu Bu moments with a side serving of 'man, the super sworn bros are so awesome!'
God they make me so angry.
Anyway,
I already said Lu Bu's forces will do nothing until we are close enough for them to descend upon us like a big blob. What I did not say is that neither Tao Qian nor the super sworn bros will do shit until Lu Bu's forces descend upon us like a big blob. Some day I will present The Cao their heads for this.
Nevermind I plan to do the same thingie to them with Lu Bu proper.
Anyway, I use the first turn to form a pretty basic formation and then advance a single tile per turn.
This formation will not be useful beyond the early missions. It is usually better to advance your infantry leaving a tile or two between them to block the most ground, then soften the cavalry with all of our ranged firepower, then attack their 'horizontal and vertical only' dudes with our diagonal-able infantry, and then charge through the gaps with our own 'horizontal and vertical only' dudes. Those are pretty much the basics, but we don't even have the firepower to pull out the basics yet so this will have to do for the time being: With neither archers nor strategists I want to focus damage in just a few enemy dudes at a time. As those three footdudes can attack diagonally I can hit the enemy charging the dude in the middle with all three plus Xiahou Yuan if needed, and the others with two dudes plus Xiahou Yuan plus the riders if needed.
Lu Bu himself will not charge yet. This does make me play in a much more conservative way than I would otherwise. Lu Bu is pretty OP and I don't want to have him charge Cao Cao, as the game will end no matter what if Cao Cao is defeated, nor Xiahou Dun, who is one of my best guys but not nearly good enough to take on Lu Bu on his lonesome.
As you can see I attack the middle guy with just Xiahou Yuan and the two footsoldiers to the sides. Units can only counterattack enemies that attack from inside their 'red square' thingies and horsemen can't attack diagonally so I can attack him with impunity this way.
Here you can see in action what I explained about being blocked by enemy units.
Both Cao Cao and Liu Bei use 'wind' against the evil dudes. Liu Bei because he can't reach any enemy from his position, and Cao Cao because I don't want to have him being the closest unit to Lu Bu in case he decides to charge.
Tao Qian doesn't care and finishes the archer Xiahou Dun, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei softened.
I don't mind.
The battle does continue. Lu Bu's army is thoroughly abused.
And then Tao Qian decides to be stupid.
Then he finishes Tao Qian off.
Being old is not your problem.
In any case I never expected him to go through this mission unrouted. Lu Bu's army is weak compared to Cao Cao, so my intention always was to deal myself with the army and let Tao Qian and the super sworn bros soften Lu Bu for me. They do exactly that.
*facepaw*
Sigh...
Forgive me if I misunderstood the scene but the point never was 'each of the super sworn bros was Lu Bu's match,' it was 'all of the super sworn bros at the same time were Lu Bu's match... barely.'
Bleep those dudes.
Anyway, one of Tao Qian's nameless dudes tries to attack Lu Bu and...
Ouchies.
The other one does the same, and...
He gets an extra attack because he routed those guys, and...
That did not work as expected.
Liu Bei does heal Xiahou Dun while they are at it.
Warlords get the healing spell either at level 5 or level 7, I don't remember. I believe it was 5.
Anyways, I usually get 'Heal' in the next mission. Problem is, the 'blue' route skips that mission.
The battle after that one is pretty easy, though, so I will try to get it there. And since I did not explain the XP thingie I will do so now: Generals get XP whenever they do something other than moving. Weapons and armor does also get XP, weapons when causing damage and armor when receiving damage. As a weapon or an armor levels up they become stronger. 'Common' equipment does not level up a lot. 'Unique' equipment does level up a lot.
As they level up dudes become stronger and gain more 'tactics' if they are from a class that can use 'tactics.' Enemy level in a mission is not static but based on the average of all your dudes in the field. This does not means all units will be of that level. That means the 'base' level for the map will be that average, and then modifiers will be applied as needed.
There is actually people who tries to clear the game with as few levels up as possible because some missions are much easier that way. While the 'level' of the enemies will still be the average plus the modifier they will only have access to the tactics their level would naturally unlock.
That's also why some of the choices actually work in the game. Some choices as well as dramatically changing history in some battles will make us skip one or several missions ahead, but that will not leave us weaker. All we will miss are a few special rewards, yet at the same time we may obtain different ones.
But you are probably not going to see a lot of me 'changing history' through surpassing all odds. You are probably going to get far more of me barely squeezing through.
Anyway, both Zhang Fei and Guan Yu fight exchange strikes with Lu Bu. Guan Yu is routed.
I was going to wait and let the Super Sworn Bros get their butts kicked all over the place by Lu Bu, but then I decided to just move in for the kill when I notice we can pretty much end it this turn.
But Zhang Fei is the one to finish him.
Scene 4. Mwahahahaha!
Scene 5. Cao Who?
Cao Cao, meet Truth. Truth, meet Cao Cao.
Iceburn.
In the 'red' path by this point in the game Diao Chan was so totally into Cao Cao that Wang Yun was teasing her about him and later she was whispering his name all squeeeeee like.
In the 'blue' path, well...
She's all out of fucks to give.
Awkward.
But it is not like it's her fault. Red Cao Cao would be right at home in an Italian opera. Ambition! Power! Passion! Bravado! Intrigue! Biceps! Goatees! Awesome singing! What healthy girl wouldn't fall for that? I'll tell you: Not a single one. Not now, not ever.
Let's hope she changes her mind when they next meet and Cao Cao has had the opportunity to show THE MAN behind the, uhm, quiet and thoughtful and deliberate gentleman-scholar. When he has kind of, like, you know, thrown away his spectacles and teared away his robes to reveal his finely sculped chocolate abs and the two interlocked gothic Cs tatooed on his chest.
I expect this to only change a couple of cute little d'awww scenes and funny scenes. I don't think this will change her joining us later.
Diao Chan is Justice.
Not to be picky but you did actually underestimate Li Ru.
<Airquotes>The emperor's</airquotes>
Chapter 4, 5, and 6 were originally just Chapter 4. I thought it was a bit too much so I did divide it on three parts. I am all out of parts now so the next update will take a longer while. I am kind of happy, though, because it did finish in a cliffhanger!
Well... A cliffhanger for the, like, two of you who did not read Teh Romance, at least.
@felipepepe: Fellow Kongmingtard!
Anyway, I did not knew about those. Thank you!
I'll try to get my aunt to get me one.And, like, wow. They actually managed to make Yueying's little toy look cuter than Diao Chan's one. Then the universe imploded.
@treave: Thank you for the clarification on the relationship between Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun. Thank you for the one about the Seven Star Sword as well, I was going to thank you before but it did completely slip out of my mind.
@Monstrous Bat: I should read a little on the historical Liu Bei. There are several characters I did initially dislike but grew to like after doing that. But... Yeah, Liu Bei is so very much 'hero by design' in the novel that I never really felt the push.
Kongming's historical role fits the character better, but it isn't really flashy or epic in the usual sense so it would kind of fall by the wayside in the storm of epic WTF that's Teh Romance. I guess the novel tries to reflect his importance by moving him from the 'big picture' to the here and now, kind of how it does turn many battles into duels between generals the winner of which just charges through the enemy lines murdering everyone or into 'hollywood tactics' where a single spectacular ruse totally crushes the other side, and in doing so turns Shu Han into the Kongming and Zhao Yun show (and much of the book into 'Kongming trolls ancient china').
But, well... He's awesome so I don't care. The moar Kongming the better. :D
Anyway, I did previously got pretty far into the game following the 'red' route so I will be picking all the 'blue' options just to see what happens given that we are going to follow that route. Otherwise I would have picked the 'red' option with Diao Chan just because those little scenes they get (Diao Chan going all 'Lord Cao Cao... *sigh*', Cao Cao being all worried about Diao Chan, etc) are so bloody cute. *suckerforcheesyromance* Though, yeah, the 'blue' option in that particular scene you do mention is, like... I don't know. I am still trying to figure out what the bleep was Cao Cao smoking there. So randum.
@Kz3r0: Eh? Eh? Eh? What the bleep did I miss? @_@
Last edited:
Kz3r0
Arcane
- Joined
- May 28, 2008
- Messages
- 27,026
Just an interpretation of mine, probably Treave is correct and it's just a matter to behave properly to be a righteous ruler, or it's possible that instead of presenting a character as a plundering barbarian they just present him as gluttonous, or something like that.
Just when I sat down to catch up with this LP!
Cool name
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2012
- Messages
- 2,149
Bleeping Dropbox.
This LP is going to be very image intensive so I may as well look for another image hosting service. My hands are in no condition to transcript all those dialogues.
Or I can try to video it up, but the game has no full screen mode so I don't think I can do that.
Edit: LOL. More than 700 images already.
This LP is going to be very image intensive so I may as well look for another image hosting service. My hands are in no condition to transcript all those dialogues.
Or I can try to video it up, but the game has no full screen mode so I don't think I can do that.
Edit: LOL. More than 700 images already.
I've honestly no idea what good image hosting services there are currently. Imageshack, photobucket, now dropbox, all suck and/or have bandwidth limits.
http://iforce.co.nz/ would be okay if it allowed batch uploading, but it doesn't.
So yeah, I'm out of suggestions. Imgur maybe, or has it blocked the Codex like Imageshack has?
http://iforce.co.nz/ would be okay if it allowed batch uploading, but it doesn't.
So yeah, I'm out of suggestions. Imgur maybe, or has it blocked the Codex like Imageshack has?
Excidium
P. banal
www.cubeupload.com
No bandwidth limit, files up to 5mb. Even keeps your file names if you have an account. Interface isn't too fancy but supports multiple uploads (just drag and drop)
No bandwidth limit, files up to 5mb. Even keeps your file names if you have an account. Interface isn't too fancy but supports multiple uploads (just drag and drop)
Monstrous Bat
Cipher
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 638
Odd, I've played this game 7 times but I don't recall there being even a vaguely romantic relationship between Cao Cao and Diao Chan. Maybe it's time for a replay. Anyway, (IIRC) Diao Chan doesn't end up with anyone in particular in the red route, but in the blue route, her ending is kind of... intersting. You'll see.
On the image hosting topic: unless you buy a pro account, Imgur allows you to host at most 250 images on a single account which is not even nearly enough for a LP. I use Photobucket for all my Codex LPs and never had any problem with the bandwidth limit, but that's because 1) I update at a rather infrequent rate, and 2) my LPs usually have something like six readers. CubeUpload looks good though.
On the image hosting topic: unless you buy a pro account, Imgur allows you to host at most 250 images on a single account which is not even nearly enough for a LP. I use Photobucket for all my Codex LPs and never had any problem with the bandwidth limit, but that's because 1) I update at a rather infrequent rate, and 2) my LPs usually have something like six readers. CubeUpload looks good though.
Monstrous Bat, why do you lie?
With Imgur, it's only the most recently modified 250 images that you can edit. All the rest of your uploaded images will remain visible. There's no hard set limit. If there was, all my LPs would be gone by now.
If you have a non-paid account as I do, the above is true. And your images will be taken down after 6 months without views, so to keep my LPs "alive", I browse them myself about every 4 months, to generate traffic and reset the deletion counter.
If you decide to pay for the account, there's no limit to how long you can keep the images, even if noone is interested in viewing them.
With Imgur, it's only the most recently modified 250 images that you can edit. All the rest of your uploaded images will remain visible. There's no hard set limit. If there was, all my LPs would be gone by now.
If you have a non-paid account as I do, the above is true. And your images will be taken down after 6 months without views, so to keep my LPs "alive", I browse them myself about every 4 months, to generate traffic and reset the deletion counter.
If you decide to pay for the account, there's no limit to how long you can keep the images, even if noone is interested in viewing them.
Monstrous Bat
Cipher
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 638
Holy crap, you're right! They only said that once you've exceeded the 225 images limit, old images would become invisible from within the account. I must've failed my reading comprehension check again.
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