AH.
So yeah ... it's like "Fuck your sidequest, psychic man, I want to get on with mah journeys."
Or to put it in a more serious vein, it doesn't seem like it should be a road-block at all, so something should probably mention that for whatever reason, they WON'T let you in until you hit up the tower.
...Not like the two guards in your way could really stop you from just heading in anyhow, but eh.
I'll let THAT much pass just like I let "flimsy, wooden, yet impassable locked doors" pass, even when you play as ... I dunno, Hercules or somebody stronger.
"sometimes RPG Cliches just can't be circumvented."
Also, something I've noticed in this game and in other RPG maker games: Spirit doesn't seem to do much for magic damage, at
ALL. (Terra in particular, this time around.)
It's fun how much difference the physical attack equipment makes, though.
You can't grind levels, but getting better equipment with gold is pretty much just as satisfying.
And speaking of fun, Sarah's brothel interactions continue to cement her in my esteem as the slave of MAXIMUM WINNING.
I'd let her hang out in the brothel all the time, except that I want her in my party all the time.
Still, I can just stick her and the rest back in there just before levelling up, if I know it's coming, which is another reason for careful savescumming.
Anyway, I ran into a couple things today, and I made some attempt at organising them into sections so they're not TOO much of a jumbled clusterfuck for you to read.
Bugs"Local" should probably be spelled "Locale" when it's referring to the noun, the "Place" or area where the characters are.
Awl Dat Spelling and punkchewayshun in the Jungle Orcs' sidequest. Phew. Somebody needs to hit up a spellcheck and a grammar class.
SPOILERS: "Oh shit, this was already addressed in the thread, and Noemi's brothel scene was as well. Eh heh. ... Well, I typed it up and only read BACK through the thread later : O"
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
...Alena's brothel scene has sort of glitched out, I don't know if it's because I'm back on the light path and she's Dark Path Only, but ... she just sort of twitches when I talk to her, and doesn't tell me anything at all.
AH. Nope, doesn't seem to be related to path shenanigans, because I just dipped into the Dark Path again, and she's still mighty silent, sceneless and twitchy.
A copy of Alena shows up in the home bases even when she's busy twitching in the Brothel.
I don't know if the options regarding making Noemi work in the brothel are "Darkside/Lightside" affiliated or not, but they happen to lack colour-coding if they are.
Jungle Orc SidequestI hope you contracted this part out to some guy, and I hope that you won't use that particular guy's services again unless he pays you good money for you to do it.
The part seems like it was written by a non-English speaker, and the fact that you can't leave the actual Orc camp (in case your party-members end up with low HP and you don't have many items) is pretty fucking arse-bad. The whole "Oh noes I can't search dis sturhawse here ryte now it'll took tu much tiem" is annoying as well, for reasons of restriction, not for reasons of grammar in particular.
All of the restrictions there should be done away with entirely, (especially the "no leaving" one, which could end up killing a whole save-file) but they also don't even work right.
"It's not save to leave" and "We should come back here when the orcs are dead" play even when the orcs ARE dead, if you haven't dealt with the shaman's girl as yet.
Fortunately there's a lightside choice I can spam nearby, but I'm DEFINITELY not taking the blue route with that chick.
With all that said though, the chick's scenes are decidedly NOT terrible, and whoever wrote the section does at least deserve some credit for that.
...I mean, the scenes do need the same treatment as the rest of his writing, and they're very short, but their hotness level is not at ALL unacceptably low.
Credit where credit is due.
Also, the storehouse scene with the Merchant ends up saddling you with another male in your fortress without the option to tell him "FUCK NO, GET OUT" or anything like that.
Triggering the scene with the Merchant is also unnecessarily obtuse, since there is no indication that you'll have a small window of opportunity to trigger it, and that the window closes if you leave.
For fuck's sake though, I wish I hadn't found out about that, because now I'm sort of stuck with the guy in my
goddamned fucking HOUSE.
I don't think I have a convenient save to switch back to either, so I guess he's stuck there for good.
Dat lightside/darkside systemNoemi's refusal to work in the brothel isn't immediately followed by an option to compel her, I'm going to assume I have to talk to the mayor first or something, but that's not in order.
Ah, it comes after the mayor business. ... And I seem to have stuck myself too high on the light side, because one darkside action didn't bring me far enough to avoid having me make some asinine promise to the fucking bitch instead of slapping the stupid out of her face.
*sighs*
I'll have to order her to whore for me later, because I'm NOT going to promise her a fucking thing, so therefore I have to get onto the dark side before I trigger that scene, so therefore I have to do some other sidequest (in limited supply) and hit up some darkside choice or other in order to get over there, so therefore I cannot yet reach the point in the progression where I order her to whore. Kinda unwieldy because of the EXCEEDINGLY finite nature of the alignment-changing choices, but I'll do it.
...Care to add some decision-making points into these cutscenes or something, bro?
...Oh, that's more like it. That's MUCH more like it. For the only time, I'm glad that the darkside choices are so abundant. See, I'd been keeping that chained slave-girl's quest open for just such an eventuality, and for whatever reason, sending Donna over to the dude in trade was a darkside choice. Normally I'd complain, but it got me the leeway I needed to be rough with that damned Red Hawk bitch who nearly stole my ring, and who dared to defy a direct order multiple times, so I'm ABSOLUTELY good with it.
As you can see, it's not even SLIGHTLY that the Dark side is "too dark" for my liking.
Hell, I'd have thrown in a fucking Headbutt or something, if we're talking about Noemi.
It's just that I'm not a sadist in terms of sexual taste, so the violence has to be properly
provoked by something.
On top of that, my problem was never with the slaves themselves, only with their disobedience. So as long as they obey, I've got no problem with helpin' 'em be cheerful.
(Also, srsly, Uppity Whip Samantha knockin' about my peeps without my permission, for reasons not related to my orders. Totally not letting that one go.)
ObservationActually, maybe it's all for the best that the girls in the brothel also show up in the home-base cutscenes. It'd be too much work to make it otherwise, for little to no reward.
HOWEVER:
A copy of Alena still shows up in the home base even when she's twitching in the brothel, so THAT one might need looking into.
Anyway, that'll be all for today.
I'm a bit tired and I realise that I actually need a somewhat clearer head than I currently possess, for purposes of strategic save-scumming, so... another time.
Overall, still a pretty fun game - I wouldn't play it if I didn't enjoy it.
by StarkePT » Thu May 31, 2012 11:02 pm 
