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Fucking mantii are overpowered. The manual said that the game data was autosaved at the start of entering dungeons, so I tried a soft reset. Which resulted in everything being wiped. Rolling characters... again.
[edit]
What is this faggotry? I rolled up everyone and now there are two duplicates of everyone. Except I can only add one set of them to the party. Japanese games are confusing meh.
[edit 2]
Ok, they're still stuck in the dungeon. Mounting impromptu rescue operation
[In this post, people got basic equipment, we were shown around the base, a bunch of random loredumps were given and we got our first mission briefing. Then I accidentally overwrote everything with the next update while trying to fix broken image links. I'll see if I can figure out a way to restore it without having to re-type all the conversations. AGAIN.]
This update we'll be going over a lot of mechanics, so it's in screenshot format. I'm thinking future updates may be some sort of video/screenshot hybrid as recording a video for jewtube is a lot less effort than sorting through all these screenshots.
The cracked concrete hallways extend straight forward into darkness...
Broken flourescent lights hang from the ceiling, shaking by a breeze slipping in through some unseen cracks.
The XPD team has sealed the exits to the 27th floor to prevent the malforms from escaping. But there's been a problem...
Actually, the forward squad pursued the malforms too far into the interior of this floor. At present, the last communication we received before it was completely cut off simply said "Heading to Central Hall". It could be a malfunction with the communicator or some sort of accident. Not being able to comminicate with a squad equipped with state-of-the-art weapons must mean trouble.
X Force, I request that you search for the missins squad ASAP. Head to the Central Hall where we last received communication and report on the situation.
We would head there ourselves, but we've received strict orders... Forgive us, we're counting on you!
Ok, the dungeoncrawl begins in earnest! There's a minimap in the upper right corner. Movement is done with the arrow keys. We can also open up the map of the entire floor to get our bearings.
We're supposed to go to the central hall. which I'm guessing is in the middle of the map. In true codexian fashion, we're saying "fuck this shit" and exploring at random instead. I found the stairs down, but they're blocked by rubble.
As you explore, you may discover hidden thingies and stuffies.
In this case, searching the walls of the tile where we got the message reveals a secret door.
And behind it we have our first encounter!!
Fucking vorpal bunnies!
I swear, these things have scarred me for life. They may look harmless, but if they roll a critical hit on you, they instantly kill you from full health.
Combat is turnbased, in a true fashion. Our party is formed into two rows (first 3 portraits are the front row), enemies may be formed into multiple rows. If our guys go down, they're moved to the back row and someone else steps forward to receive beatings. At the start of every round, you give instructions (attack/defend/spell/item/equipment/run) to each of your party members.
Initiative is then generated using a random roll modified by agility, and all actions are resolved in order.
Repeat until one side is dead or runs away.
you can also come across loot markers in the dungeon. Searching this area yielded us an unidentified tool.
Saved by general discussion.
We come across another secret door and head off to explore
Some more level 1 monsters and a level ???. But hey, it's the starter dungeon. What could go wrong?
The goblin goes down easily enough.
Then pepe gets knocked out by the first mantis.
Phoenix gets one-shotted by the second
We fail our attempt to run away and Absalammi gets taken out in one hit.
Then the bunnies rape orange.
And the game suddenly, erm, crashes. Yeah. That's it. The game totally crashed and that fight totally didn't happen. ...Totally...
Another encounter with level 2 enemies triggers...
...And we choose the better part of valor.
While exploring the girls bathroom, we run into a level 4 corpsemech. This game doesn't scale to our level.
Naturally, we run away. Screaming like little girls.
Not all encounters pop up at random. Some of them can be spotted from afar and you can choose whether or not to trigger them.
But that apparently doesn't mean we can't suffer a round of surprise attacks.
Fortunately, the vorpal rabbits are hiding in the back this time. Melee enemies only attack you if they're on the front row. Tired of running, team RPG Codex hatches a plan.
The front row fighters channel the power of BRAZIL and whittle down the (relatively harmless goblins).
While Afro Samurai nukes the fuck out of the dreaded bunnies with Rap Magic spells
The monsters drop xp, gold and a code chip!
Code chips are essentially treasure chests. Which means any sensible adventurer searches for traps first. Absalammi is our sage, which handles traps in Generation XTH. First step is to identify what types of traps (if any) is on the chest.
Armed with this knowledge, you can attempt to remove them.
Which will inevitably end in failure and get poor Absalammi zapped because the RNG hates us.
More combat encounters follow. I'll skim over the trash encounters from here on out unless something interesting happens.
We find the stairs up to next level
Please continue your investigation of the 27th floor. That is all, ending transmission.
YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH!
Ok, enough of this. Let's head to the central hallway like we were supposed to in the first place.
RPG Codex!
Let me cast a heal code. You should be all right.
(Everyone is restored to full hp. I want that code )
But how horrible...
(I know, right? Only in Japan would it be considered OK to send a bunch of 16 year olds into a building full of monsters. Well, Japan and WW2 stalingrad).
I heard the squad's communications were cut off after heading to Central Hall... But this is awful.
Why didn't you wait for my arrival before moving in?
(Bitch, please. I went on the shitter and grabbed a bite to eat at the entrance and you never showed).
Argh, really! You're still a newly recruited team. Learn the difference between courage and recklessness!
I guess it's my fault for not telling the XPD this was a training mission for you... It's a small miracle you didn't end up like these bodies.
(Yeah... Fucking vorpal bunnies and mantii).
And the way they were slaughtered... This doesn't look like anormal malform.
I'll search ahead. You return to the Entrance Hall and standby there.
Alice disappears down the hall.
RPG Codex takes the scenic route back.
Here's our exploration so far. Using prior knowledge from the time our game TOTALLY CRASHED AND I DIDN'T GET US ALL KILLED BY A BUNNY, we determine that everything is fairly symmetrical. Lots of places left to explore.
NONONO...NONO...NO...
Fuck this shit. We're not running from a tit-spider. GRORY FOR CODEXIA!
NONONO...NONO...NO... I AM... I AM... AHH...
BOOBIES!
they do bugger-all damage and they're all level 1. We easily defeat them.
Hold it!
Alice runs forward and deflects the tentacles!
We don't hav any data on this malform.
Looks like it still can't move too well. I think I can handle it by myself. Come and get me!
..!!
The malform stares at Alice... Then begins to move!
NONONO...NONO...NO... UURR...
Moaning, the malform jumps to the ceiling and crawls off, speeding away!
Fast for such an ugly bastard!
It's a shame about the XPD Squad, but RPGCodex, you're here too, so we have no choice but to let it go this time.
Are you hurt? Let me cast a heal code just in case.
(She's handing healz out like they were fucking candy. Why don't she give me free healz back at base instead so I could save my GP?)
What a strange malform... All it can say is "nonono"; it must have limited intelligence. Yeah... Nono...
How about we call it "Nono"?
(Whatever you say, crazy healing lady...)
Then it's decided. From now on. its code name will be "Demihuman Nono". Got it?
The XPD squad that was standing by at the entrance to the floor runs over.
Of course. But I'm afraid I was a little too late to save the forward XPD squad. If only I arrived a little earlier...
Plus, you're the only ones that can fight malforms directly. XPD's directive is support only. To forget that is to die. That is all.
The man looked down and lit a cigarette.
RPGCodex, right?
Detective Fuwa Yusaku, XPD. Look forward to working with you. As unpleasant as our work may be. Leave the processing of the scene to us.
Fuwa begins to give the XPD officers directions.
I'm going back to the command center. report to me once you get back. It's just a formality, but always remember to report when you finish a mission.
We finish exploring the floor before reporting back. We also run into a few more monsters that would probably have killed the XPD policemen if we had just left when Alice said. Yay us.
We go back, report in, get 100 gp and a tour of the facilities which I've already covered. That that's it for this update, 'cause I'm tired of typing.
They also involve a great deal less typing in dialogue on a screenshot by hand and copy-pasting scrambled file name urls one by one from minus.com, because imgur shits all over them with jpeg compression.
I'm gonna do one update with video, then we'll decide if you'd rather have 1 screenshot update every 2 weeks or 1-2 video updates every week.
Yeah, 2 screenshot updates per week is not on the table. It's either frequent(ish) video updates or VERY infrequent screenshot updates. Sorting through screenshots, uploading and copypasting urls individually because minus.com doesn't do bulk url tags and imgur has shitty jpeg compression. And on top of that, there's the soul-rending tedium of copying all the dialogue by hand to cut down on the # of screenshots... It takes about 4-5x as long to do a screenshot update as it takes to videotape everything, cut out/speed up shit to make 50 minutes of game fit into 20 mins of video and upload it to jewtube.
Frankly, given the amount of dialogue I'd have had to do in this next update if I had done with with screenshots, it would probably have killed my desire to go on.
Youtube and me had a bit of a lovers spat when I uploaded these. I should be able to have the kinks worked out and "proper" HD for the next set.
Housekeeping, mission briefing and looking for clues:
First foray into the student tunnels.
Fucking mantii and vorpal rabbits man. I decided to gtfo and heal up before going deeper. I also completely forgot to change the marching order after healing people, which came back to bit eme in the ass a little later.
Second foray into student tunnels + debrief and housekeeping.
Level-ups for Afro Samurai and Pepe!
Afro Samurai gains 8 hp and increases his Int, which will make his WIZ Code Rap Magic stronger.
Pepe gains
Anyway, that's roughly an hour of gameplay in those videos. Combat is sped up to ~250%, exploration to ~5-600% and talky-bits are in normal speed. I can probably add some RK47-style commentary slides to the video as well. Just gotta figure out how to do it in premiere without exporting to after effects, since all kinds of options tend to go haywire during the transfer.
Yeah, 2 screenshot updates per week is not on the table. It's either frequent(ish) video updates or VERY infrequent screenshot updates. Sorting through screenshots, uploading and copypasting urls individually because minus.com doesn't do bulk url tags and imgur has shitty jpeg compression. And on top of that, there's the soul-rending tedium of copying all the dialogue by hand to cut down on the # of screenshots... It takes about 4-5x as long to do a screenshot update as it takes to videotape everything, cut out/speed up shit to make 50 minutes of game fit into 20 mins of video and upload it to jewtube.
Yeah I'd like to see the slides. Because I understand speeding up the combat but I can barely see what my character is doing sometimes (other than being awesome, unlocking shit and detecting secret doors)
Yeah I'd like to see the slides. Because I understand speeding up the combat but I can barely see what my character is doing sometimes (other than being awesome, unlocking shit and detecting secret doors)
I was discussing it with phoenix earlier. I sped up most of the video to bring the 1hr segment down to a length that was worth watching. As a rule of thumb I went with ~800% speed for walking through corridors, ~250% speed for combat and 100% during dialogue. I'll try slowing down combat to ~200% instead to give people more time to read the text there. I'll also see if I can figure out a decent way to add text to video in premiere so I can have a running commentary in them.
I debated doing some sort of hybrid video/text version. But I think the part that would most benefit from being static screenshots is the talky heads. And the talky heads take up most of the time when I do screenshots, effectively negating the time saved doing video instead.
We last left off when we had cleared our second dungeon level. New missions are available.
Well, that was quick. Let's do one more mission. This one is an introduction to crafting.
Ok, we actually haven't got a JW Longsword in our inventory as it hasn't dropped for us yet. I solve this by going to the students passage. There are 2 encounters in the 3x3 tile rooms that respawn every time you enter. I basically farm those a couple of times intil a JW Longsword drops and everyone has enough XP for level 2. Then I go back to finish the quest and do a bunch of crafting.
Next update will start with an overview of our partys stats and equipment, desu!
Anyway. Team status time! Everyone managed to hit level 2. HP rolls for veryone but Pepe were a bit crap. Front line fighers got +1 STR, back row fighters got INT or PIE depending on what kind of spells their main bloodline casts.
Pepe is rocking with X-pants Alpha and X-Cloth Alpha +1. He wears a headband and wields a Sub-Katana in the main hand and a dagger in the off-hand. We have a Main Katana for him, but he can't equip it until he's lv 3.
Azira wears X-panths and X-cloth Alpha. He has a headband and he's dual-wielding +1 Assassin Blades
Phoenix got a shitload of new gear. She's rocking Leather armor, Leather panths, Leather helmet, a shield and a +1 Longsword. This brought her AC down to somethign that may occasionally dodge attacks! It also took pretty much all of our cash reserves to make our tank slightly less tanky than Pepe.
Afro Samurai is still wearing Beta clothes and a fairy wand. But he's exchanged his Kawaii battle ribbon for a feather cap. The added agility should help his place in the initiative order so his absurd amount of spells slots can be used up.
Orange is still wearing her starter gear. Beta cloth, wand, battle ribbon. She's currently not contributing much to the lineup. But I have great hopes she'll shine once lv2 HEAL spells become available to her. I'm also considering boosting her INT for lv 3 and 4 to make her able to dip into lv1 WIZ and PSI spells. I had materials for making a bow and arrows, but Angel bloodline can't use those.
And finally, Absalammi. He switched his wand for a Fear EXE +1. This gave him a whopping -5 to THAC0. Coupled with his AC of 5, he'll be the first to step into the front line if one of the meat shields go down.
fashion. Our party is formed into two rows (first 3 portraits are the front row), enemies may be formed into multiple rows. If our guys go down, they're moved to the back row and someone else steps forward to receive beatings. At the start of every round, you give instructions (attack/defend/spell/item/equipment/run) to each of your party members. 
