Bliss Authority
2011-04-11, 04:48 PM
Recently, in my perusal of various tomes of eldritch lore (both in electronic format, and scratched into the flayed and dessicated corpses of innocent vegetation), I came across Visions and Voices (http://playthisthing.com/visions-voices) of the tragedy at Montfort Manor that a Wanderer and his allies barely averted.
That accursed game named for the Visions and Voices spoken of by the creature once known as the lawyer Marlowe are primarily a tale of the the investigations and explorations of the Wanderer. It concerns his exploration of a village from which none could escape, and his careful unravelling of the mysteries behind the strange disappearances following that village's closure to the rest of the world.
While there is much in that account that is apocryphal (conflicting sources speak of the Wanderer's lover in the urchin Telia, of his settling down with a village fisherwoman named Elena, and of the Wanderer's chastity - and some accounts speak of his acting alone!), and the depiction of combat with various forces of darkness and insanity tend towards the banal flailings of insufferable spike-haired Oriental teenagers who are inexplicably blond, on the whole it is strangely compelling story, a tale which has gripped me and many other unfortunate souls in it's maddening embrace.
Let us play, then, of this game. Let us plumb the arcane depths of it's maddening weapons system that has driven men to insanity. Let us know what it was like in that poor accursed village, to have had to fend off raiders, monsters, and ice fairies utterly consumed by their quest to prove that they are teh strongest. Let us face the mysteries of Montfort Manor. This tale must be told, for it is vitally important to know that, yes, you can Just Punch Out Cthulhu.
----
Hello everyone. This is going to be a Let's Play of the RPG Maker game Visions and Voices, by Karsuman and Craze. It's a nifty little game and it's free, and while it has all of the problems with RPG Maker games alluded to by that squamous, non-euclidian introduction, it also pushes the limits of what the engine can do, tells an excellent Lovecraftian story, and is a pretty sweet sandbox game.
Here's the cast of the game:
The Wanderer, Turban
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Turban.png
His actual name is not important, and will never come up at any point in the game ever. People call him Turban, and as a name, that suffices. It becomes clear later in the game that this is far from the first time he's tangled with with the likes of Chzo and his Elder God drinking buddies, and at this point he just has too many Hardened Unnatural notches to really be surprised at the events of Day Three and beyond. You get to pick his class at the beginning of the game, so I'd like some votes: Will Turban be a Fighter, a Ranger, or a Warlock this game?
The Bard, Telia
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Telia.png
Before I say anything else, let me say that I'm a pretty sex-positive guy and that I think that anyone inclined to like sex should have more of it, so understand that I mean absolutely no offense when I say that Telia is a raging slut. Pretty much a solid fourth of her lines boil down to "dat ass" and she makes Turban an offer that he can't refuse near the beginning of the game (read: "Let's hang out and have casual sex, like old times.") She is snarky and tsundere and a lot deeper than she likes to pretend, and I love her. Her ability to Lockpick and mug people for gemstones and 24-Hour Energy Shots doesn't hurt her status as Mai Waifu either, nor the fact that her listed class is the only one in the game that actually ****ing tells you what she does in combat.
The Cook, Dison
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Dyson.png
Don't let his appearance fool you: while he may look like a senile old man, he actually is a senile old man... with a goddamn cleaver. In terms of combat abilities, he's an ex-Warlord that mustered out of the army after the disastrous Battle of Arkham, alluded to by the fact that he has tentacle monster flashbacks. His ability to Cook using unorthodox ingredients earned him the title of Iron Chef Ryleh, and so far no one is able to duplicate his recipe for Panaceas, the only item in the game that cures all status effects. The secret ingredient? Rat Skulls.
The Farmer, Ox
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Ox.png
Ox done talk all bad like, but Ox he kin read like the best of them and he ain't exactly the dullest tool in the shed, I reckon. He has many interesting conversations with Turban about his fine taste in literature, including his thoughts on Dante, Meville, and Telia's secret stash of Turban yaoi fanfiction. You don't become a farmer without learning something about plants, and his Herbalism skill is, hands down, the single best Feat in the goddamn game, edging out Lockpicking for one reason: he scores you some damn good **** named Seraphim Whiteleaf, awww yeah. In combat, he's got several levels in Barbarian and Monk, and can unleash his nerd rage with a wide range of combat powers, including the dreaded flurry of blows which makes his normal combat attacks stun half the time.
The Merchant, Alphonse
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Alphonse.png
Alphonse is a purveyor of the finest goods at the fairest prices~! (Bull****~!) He is in no way, shape or form involved at all with the extremely unprofitable and unethical slave trade, in the slightest, at all. Honest. Cross his heart and hope to die. He is also not secretly a Wizard specializing in lightning spells, cannot bribe the Grim Reaper into letting someone off the hook just this once for a mere ten bucks (quite a bargain!), and absolutely none of the items in his portable shop Alphonse's Amenities unlock secret techniques that allow him to silence his enemies. Really. Honest. Would he lie to you?
The Caretaker, Lyla
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Lyla.png
Okay, I'm not going to lie: there is absolutely nothing about Lyla's backstory that isn't terrible, a spoiler or both, so I'll just let it unfold as the game progresses. That said, she's a cleric with some of the best healing spells in the game and some decent Radiant damage and debuffs, and she's stupidly useful after she learns the passive healing on a stick that is the Ataraxia spell. She can also Pray at crosses, which is pretty much a Bless spell, if Bless lasts for a day instead of three rounds. Prayer is also one of the three ways to resurrect the fallen, but I really don't like wasting a feat on holding religious revivals because there are much more efficient ways of doing it (like Seraphim Whiteleaf joints, aw yeah that's good ****).
The Fisherwoman, Elena
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Elena.png
Elena is an older woman that runs through the rain and the ice dungeons in a bikini, but it's because she's a fisherwoman, not because she's a cougar who badly wants to pounce on Turban after the tragic deaths of her husband and son in a horrible Dimension Door accident. She's an Assassin, with the redonkulously powerful Feat Trap that gives you about four or five rounds to wail on enemies before they can even move; on the plus side it works on bosses, on the downside her going "HEY LISTEN I CAN DO A SNEAK ATTACK MAY I AW YOU'RE OUT OF FEATS NEVER MIND" usually earns a SHUT UP NAVI from me, I turn off the feat, and then Turban double facepalm combos at forgetting to turn it on before a boss fight.
The Lawyer, Marlowe
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Marlowe.png
Marlowe is unique in that he's the only character in this game that comes with a complimentary LOLcat in the game folder:
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Marlowe-1.jpg
He's one of those irritating clue dispensers that manages to manipulate you into, well, completing the game, although once you find the Spoilernomicon he does join your party. He may or may not also be the G-Man from Half Life, or a giant space flea from nowhere in a badly-fitting human suit. But I don't give a ftaghn, because Marlowe is awesome: he has five Hardened Unnatural notches that negate psychic damage and debuffs on him, he's a Star Pact Warlock with some of the best debuffs in the game, and if you need to Translate a copy of Unsasprechten Culten or the books that link you to optional dungeons, presumably written in the blasphemous script referred to as D'Ni in the fevered ramblings of the Book of Atrus, he's your man.
I don't pretend to know everything about the game, so I can't promise 100% completion, but I will get every character and beat every boss, and I'll let you fine fellows decide if he'll end up dating Telia, Elena or Rosy Palms. I'll also allow you to pick what party members I take to boss fights, although I will cry if the answer doesn't include 'the cleric' every once in a while because she makes things much easier.
As alluded to above, the game has multiple endings, including the possibility of a solo run. I'm not going to do a solo run, because despite my propensity for things eldritch and cephalopodian, I'm not actually insane - while combat isn't as important in this game as it usually tends to be in a JRPG, some fights are mandatory for the Good Ending and fighting is pants-on-head-retardedly brutal without a balanced party, even on Easy - especially if you don't have a way to revive fallen party members. Which means recruiting Lyla, Ox, or Dyson. (Preferably Ox. He rolls some damn good joints).
I also promise to include references to other fun things, hideous wretched abominations of humor that have driven lesser men to madness.
That accursed game named for the Visions and Voices spoken of by the creature once known as the lawyer Marlowe are primarily a tale of the the investigations and explorations of the Wanderer. It concerns his exploration of a village from which none could escape, and his careful unravelling of the mysteries behind the strange disappearances following that village's closure to the rest of the world.
While there is much in that account that is apocryphal (conflicting sources speak of the Wanderer's lover in the urchin Telia, of his settling down with a village fisherwoman named Elena, and of the Wanderer's chastity - and some accounts speak of his acting alone!), and the depiction of combat with various forces of darkness and insanity tend towards the banal flailings of insufferable spike-haired Oriental teenagers who are inexplicably blond, on the whole it is strangely compelling story, a tale which has gripped me and many other unfortunate souls in it's maddening embrace.
Let us play, then, of this game. Let us plumb the arcane depths of it's maddening weapons system that has driven men to insanity. Let us know what it was like in that poor accursed village, to have had to fend off raiders, monsters, and ice fairies utterly consumed by their quest to prove that they are teh strongest. Let us face the mysteries of Montfort Manor. This tale must be told, for it is vitally important to know that, yes, you can Just Punch Out Cthulhu.
----
Hello everyone. This is going to be a Let's Play of the RPG Maker game Visions and Voices, by Karsuman and Craze. It's a nifty little game and it's free, and while it has all of the problems with RPG Maker games alluded to by that squamous, non-euclidian introduction, it also pushes the limits of what the engine can do, tells an excellent Lovecraftian story, and is a pretty sweet sandbox game.
Here's the cast of the game:
The Wanderer, Turban
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Turban.png
His actual name is not important, and will never come up at any point in the game ever. People call him Turban, and as a name, that suffices. It becomes clear later in the game that this is far from the first time he's tangled with with the likes of Chzo and his Elder God drinking buddies, and at this point he just has too many Hardened Unnatural notches to really be surprised at the events of Day Three and beyond. You get to pick his class at the beginning of the game, so I'd like some votes: Will Turban be a Fighter, a Ranger, or a Warlock this game?
The Bard, Telia
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Telia.png
Before I say anything else, let me say that I'm a pretty sex-positive guy and that I think that anyone inclined to like sex should have more of it, so understand that I mean absolutely no offense when I say that Telia is a raging slut. Pretty much a solid fourth of her lines boil down to "dat ass" and she makes Turban an offer that he can't refuse near the beginning of the game (read: "Let's hang out and have casual sex, like old times.") She is snarky and tsundere and a lot deeper than she likes to pretend, and I love her. Her ability to Lockpick and mug people for gemstones and 24-Hour Energy Shots doesn't hurt her status as Mai Waifu either, nor the fact that her listed class is the only one in the game that actually ****ing tells you what she does in combat.
The Cook, Dison
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Dyson.png
Don't let his appearance fool you: while he may look like a senile old man, he actually is a senile old man... with a goddamn cleaver. In terms of combat abilities, he's an ex-Warlord that mustered out of the army after the disastrous Battle of Arkham, alluded to by the fact that he has tentacle monster flashbacks. His ability to Cook using unorthodox ingredients earned him the title of Iron Chef Ryleh, and so far no one is able to duplicate his recipe for Panaceas, the only item in the game that cures all status effects. The secret ingredient? Rat Skulls.
The Farmer, Ox
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Ox.png
Ox done talk all bad like, but Ox he kin read like the best of them and he ain't exactly the dullest tool in the shed, I reckon. He has many interesting conversations with Turban about his fine taste in literature, including his thoughts on Dante, Meville, and Telia's secret stash of Turban yaoi fanfiction. You don't become a farmer without learning something about plants, and his Herbalism skill is, hands down, the single best Feat in the goddamn game, edging out Lockpicking for one reason: he scores you some damn good **** named Seraphim Whiteleaf, awww yeah. In combat, he's got several levels in Barbarian and Monk, and can unleash his nerd rage with a wide range of combat powers, including the dreaded flurry of blows which makes his normal combat attacks stun half the time.
The Merchant, Alphonse
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Alphonse.png
Alphonse is a purveyor of the finest goods at the fairest prices~! (Bull****~!) He is in no way, shape or form involved at all with the extremely unprofitable and unethical slave trade, in the slightest, at all. Honest. Cross his heart and hope to die. He is also not secretly a Wizard specializing in lightning spells, cannot bribe the Grim Reaper into letting someone off the hook just this once for a mere ten bucks (quite a bargain!), and absolutely none of the items in his portable shop Alphonse's Amenities unlock secret techniques that allow him to silence his enemies. Really. Honest. Would he lie to you?
The Caretaker, Lyla
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Lyla.png
Okay, I'm not going to lie: there is absolutely nothing about Lyla's backstory that isn't terrible, a spoiler or both, so I'll just let it unfold as the game progresses. That said, she's a cleric with some of the best healing spells in the game and some decent Radiant damage and debuffs, and she's stupidly useful after she learns the passive healing on a stick that is the Ataraxia spell. She can also Pray at crosses, which is pretty much a Bless spell, if Bless lasts for a day instead of three rounds. Prayer is also one of the three ways to resurrect the fallen, but I really don't like wasting a feat on holding religious revivals because there are much more efficient ways of doing it (like Seraphim Whiteleaf joints, aw yeah that's good ****).
The Fisherwoman, Elena
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Elena.png
Elena is an older woman that runs through the rain and the ice dungeons in a bikini, but it's because she's a fisherwoman, not because she's a cougar who badly wants to pounce on Turban after the tragic deaths of her husband and son in a horrible Dimension Door accident. She's an Assassin, with the redonkulously powerful Feat Trap that gives you about four or five rounds to wail on enemies before they can even move; on the plus side it works on bosses, on the downside her going "HEY LISTEN I CAN DO A SNEAK ATTACK MAY I AW YOU'RE OUT OF FEATS NEVER MIND" usually earns a SHUT UP NAVI from me, I turn off the feat, and then Turban double facepalm combos at forgetting to turn it on before a boss fight.
The Lawyer, Marlowe
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Marlowe.png
Marlowe is unique in that he's the only character in this game that comes with a complimentary LOLcat in the game folder:
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/BlissAuthority/Lets%20Play%20Visions%20and%20Voices/Marlowe-1.jpg
He's one of those irritating clue dispensers that manages to manipulate you into, well, completing the game, although once you find the Spoilernomicon he does join your party. He may or may not also be the G-Man from Half Life, or a giant space flea from nowhere in a badly-fitting human suit. But I don't give a ftaghn, because Marlowe is awesome: he has five Hardened Unnatural notches that negate psychic damage and debuffs on him, he's a Star Pact Warlock with some of the best debuffs in the game, and if you need to Translate a copy of Unsasprechten Culten or the books that link you to optional dungeons, presumably written in the blasphemous script referred to as D'Ni in the fevered ramblings of the Book of Atrus, he's your man.
I don't pretend to know everything about the game, so I can't promise 100% completion, but I will get every character and beat every boss, and I'll let you fine fellows decide if he'll end up dating Telia, Elena or Rosy Palms. I'll also allow you to pick what party members I take to boss fights, although I will cry if the answer doesn't include 'the cleric' every once in a while because she makes things much easier.
As alluded to above, the game has multiple endings, including the possibility of a solo run. I'm not going to do a solo run, because despite my propensity for things eldritch and cephalopodian, I'm not actually insane - while combat isn't as important in this game as it usually tends to be in a JRPG, some fights are mandatory for the Good Ending and fighting is pants-on-head-retardedly brutal without a balanced party, even on Easy - especially if you don't have a way to revive fallen party members. Which means recruiting Lyla, Ox, or Dyson. (Preferably Ox. He rolls some damn good joints).
I also promise to include references to other fun things, hideous wretched abominations of humor that have driven lesser men to madness.