Zodi Plays: Custom Robo (Redesign Your Robo, We Know What We're Doing) [Archive]

LaZodiac

2020-04-24, 08:48 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Customrobologo_na.png

Hello, and welcome the next LP by yours truly. Today we're starting up Custom Robo for the Gamecube, the fourth game in the series and first to ever actually come over state-side. Taking place in a world with strange, psychic powered tiny robot toys with live weapons that you control with you brain, it's no surprise that the game was obscurely popular and then basically not touched at all beyond a DS remake of a GBA game. But it's an interesting premise and a rather strong set up for any number of stories, so I kinda hope the series gets revived some day, instead of it languishing in Smash Bros Minor Property Hell.

Let's talk about the LP a bit. This is an action RPG (though it's not very numbery as far as RPGs go) and as far as I can tell there is NO WAY to actually do manual hard saves, at least not yet. So the videos might be a tad longer than my usual 25 or 15. Like always they'll be uploaded Monday and Friday, and new to this LP is that I'll be posting all the Glossary terms (or at least the ones that are interesting) in each video to the thread alongside the video. Somehow this is the first game I've done where something like that feels necessary.

Of course as always no spoilers, but especially in this case since a big draw OF the game is that it has a surprisingly in depth story. So if you happen o be one of the twelve people who played this game (I joke, knowing that I bet almost all of you have played it given my luck) don't spoil it for the rest. Anyway, let's get this train moving.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [1] Psychic Robot Duels (https://youtu.be/vBVOHR1NmZA)

Video Length: 45:42

Like I said, videos might be a touch long.

The game opens pretty interestingly I think. We get a dream of our father leaving us, giving us his fancy work watch as a going away present and making it Very Clear the watch is important in some capacity. Then we get woken up by our far too noisy landlady and set out on our adventure to fulfill our father's last will and testament; go, my son, and become a robot jockey. As far as final requests go that's not THAT weird... though it does implicitly require us to become a cop or a bounty hunter and neither job feels particularly comfortable to just kinda push onto your teenage son.

Unfortunately, our hero here is a bit of a doof and has spent the last maybe five or six years sitting in his apartment slowly bleeding his parent's trust fund away because we don't have a robo- kind of a necessity to become a Robo Commander. It also um... has made it so that we don't know literlaly anything about the world, even though literally our neighbor's children have robot fights every day. Our bud here is uh... a little dull around the edges if you catch my meaning. The game is way better for it though, and I'll be doing my best to pick all the dumbass options in dialogue.

However, thanks to the wonderful timing of crime, we at least get to go to the scene of a job with Harry (who genuinely is not as bad as I'm acting here, that's just a consequence of it being awhile since I played this). And of course since this is pretty anime a game, we end up involved in the scuffle using the secret prototype we came here to protect in the first place, and we get our first taste of the game's combat! It's pretty good honestly, though due to the fact that the pods and bomb are both on the Gamecube's shoulder buttons mean they sometimes don't feel as responsive as they SHOULD, and due to the momentum involved in your robo it feels a little clunky to move around since they need to build up speed first. All that said though, the gameplay feels pretty solid after all these years. Zipping around the battlefield, setting up your shots and trying to trap your opponents with a mixture of gunplay and bombs. It's pretty cool.

We beat up all the criminals, and get rewarded with getting to keep our fancy new robot friend. So, job acquired! As well as a name, one which I think you'll all find... pretty good. And that's where we'll call it for today. I hope you all enjoyed, take care!

------

Gonna put a little spoiler gutter down here for all the Glossary terms we've gotten in each episode. Let's take a look at our dictionary.

Also here's just a link to each image in case say, imgur decides not to show pictures today: https://imgur.com/gallery/I1wy32s

https://i.imgur.com/SkJJwFF.png

Custom Robo! The thing this game is about. 30 Centimeters is... a height. I'm bad at height someone please tell me through an image how big that is.

https://i.imgur.com/kOliGgo.png

Dive! This is how you put your psychic energy into the robot. Note the description says doing it for a long time leads to uh... damages. I'm sure that won't show up.

https://i.imgur.com/uTZTNzz.png

Eye-Scan Registration, which is just neat. Nice world building that this is why you can't really just steal someone's cube. I do wonder what it means by "ritual" though, given all you have to do is push a button...

https://i.imgur.com/9CrzSJ7.png

Like I said above I don't know how big distances are so could someone show me a diagram of how big the Hollosseum's are? In game they look super tiny but that feels wrong. Also; casually just mentioning some people are psychic enough to have their robo fights in precious memories. That feels so weird but cool!

https://i.imgur.com/4M1nwzh.png

I'm noting this one specifically because it is LIES. You do not get the parts your opponent has, you get random parts!

https://i.imgur.com/EOWh2xU.png

Do you think robo parts have DRM?

https://i.imgur.com/CtR7gea.png

And our employer, the Steel Hearts. I like this idea of a noble bounty hunter, I think. Especially since, as shown, the cops are useless.

Ninja_Prawn

2020-04-24, 01:18 PM

Zodi, a Canadian: "croissant with chocolate in it"

Anyway, this game looks super cool. The character portraits alone are worth the price of admission!

DataNinja

2020-04-24, 02:10 PM

I've never played this game (despite wanting to), but I've always thought it looks really cool. So... that's pretty much my entire lack of experience with it. :smalltongue:

Oh, obligatory tragic backstory. :smallamused:

This is giving me real Pokémon Coliseum/XD vibes with how the overworld looks.

I keep getting confused at who's who, because you were the Blue Cube in the cutscene, but now in battle you're Red Cube.

30 Cm is approximately one ruler-height. (The 12-inch ruler is technically slightly more than 30 Cm, but it's about right.) And 3.6 square meters goes to 1.9ish meters on a side. So... 1.9m/6'2" is a tall person per side.

tyckspoon

2020-04-24, 02:46 PM

Custom Robo! The thing this game is about. 30 Centimeters is... a height. I'm bad at height someone please tell me through an image how big that is.

Would you be surprised if I told you it's roughly the height of most Gundam figurines? :smalltongue: (The build-your-own hobby model ones.)

LaZodiac

2020-04-24, 03:54 PM

Zodi, a Canadian: "croissant with chocolate in it"

Anyway, this game looks super cool. The character portraits alone are worth the price of admission!

Don't knock it till you try it :smallwink:

It really is! And also the world is genuinely cool and the writing is actually pretty great and mechanically the game is good and fun. The fact that Custom Robo still managed to just... not do well and also be a dead series is stunning to me.

I've never played this game (despite wanting to), but I've always thought it looks really cool. So... that's pretty much my entire lack of experience with it. :smalltongue:

Oh, obligatory tragic backstory. :smallamused:

This is giving me real Pokémon Coliseum/XD vibes with how the overworld looks.

I keep getting confused at who's who, because you were the Blue Cube in the cutscene, but now in battle you're Red Cube.

30 Cm is approximately one ruler-height. (The 12-inch ruler is technically slightly more than 30 Cm, but it's about right.) And 3.6 square meters goes to 1.9ish meters on a side. So... 1.9m/6'2" is a tall person per side.

It is in fact quite cool! And yeah it has the exact same sort of modal feel that Colosseum has.

Yeah the blue cube was just for out of battle. In battle we're red, it's kind of weird.

These words contain too many numbers.

Would you be surprised if I told you it's roughly the height of most Gundam figurines? :smalltongue: (The build-your-own hobby model ones.)

This gives me a good reference for how big these bad boys are, and also reminds me that I kinda want to look into doing that at some point...

DataNinja

2020-04-24, 05:07 PM

These words contain too many numbers...
Sorry. Robos are school-ruler sized, arenas are about the height of a tall person across. There we go. Numbers removed. :smalltongue:

LaZodiac

2020-04-24, 05:12 PM

Sorry. Robos are school-ruler sized, arenas are about the height of a tall person across. There we go. Numbers removed. :smalltongue:

You must understasnd DataNinja I am asking for pictures. I am fully, 100% incapable of judging height :smalltongue:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-04-24, 05:22 PM

Sorry. Robos are school-ruler sized

Unless you used 15cm rulers in school...

A medium pizza from Domino's is 29.2cm in diameter. 30cm is also the cutoff where you stop calling a bladed weapon a 'knife' or 'dagger' and start calling it a 'sword'.

1.9m is the distance you're meant to keep away from people so as not to catch airborne viruses. :smallwink:

LaZodiac

2020-04-24, 05:31 PM

Unless you used 15cm rulers in school...

A medium pizza from Domino's is 29.2cm in diameter. 30cm is also the cutoff where you stop calling a bladed weapon a 'knife' or 'dagger' and start calling it a 'sword'.

1.9m is the distance you're meant to keep away from people so as not to catch airborne viruses. :smallwink:

That's ****ing gigantic I could bludgeon someone with a custom robo!

Ninja_Prawn

2020-04-24, 05:54 PM

Yeah, I was honestly surprised that real life gundam figurines are that big. That's a damn big figurine!

Though obviously it explains why Custom Robo chose the scale it did.

This is an actual photo of my cat alongside a 30cm ruler that I just took:

https://i.ibb.co/N26RPw7/DSC-1208.jpg

As another point of reference, custom robos would probably be somewhere between the FRA beetleweight (https://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/threads/13732-typical-sizes-for-a-beetleweight) and featherweight (http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/threads/13430-average-size-of-a-featherweight) categories. Probably closer to beetleweight, given their form factors. Though obviosuly real-life fighting robots are classed by weight only, not by size.

Aeson

2020-04-24, 09:57 PM

Two other points of reference that might help get an idea of size for a 30cm robot are your foot (~26cm, average adult male) and your forearm (~46cm elbow to fingertip or ~26cm elbow to wrist, average adult male).

Lord Raziere

2020-04-24, 11:39 PM

On Episode 1:
This looks anime as HFIL

text-sounds remind me of Undertale speak-sounds.

oh god between the between the flahshback and the protagonist awaking up, this game already feels too real to me :smalltongue:

ok the father's dead and the protagonist sad about it, good thats less real.

wow, Steel Hearts has fallen on hard times.

and yyeeeeeeah, this is pretty freaking anime, just how I like it.

Those aren't good outfits Zodi. burglars picked like, the wrongest things. I mean its like red and grey, how does that go together color-wise? it doesn't. and whats with that stupid faceplate, who thought this was cool? what are they trying to look like with it, BUGS? and the whole outfits a jumpsuit, and not even a sleek one it looks frumpy like they're janitors who grabbed a red rubber mask-like thing like some old DC superhero reject who put the new grey part one after he realize his mask doesn't actually cover his face. just....ugh. yeah fuller view? these burglars look like some D-list DC villain from Gotham that didn't have any good gimmicks so they just ended up here.

Hero, don't you know staring contests in this world create balls of anti-matter that when you lose the staring context, crashes down on the loser and wipes them out. Clearly you lack social skills as you have never looked people in the eye, a small one forms and dissipates every time you make eye contact but doesn't coalesce into a deadly one unless they intend to fight. its completely normal-oh its custom robos, nevermind :smalltongue:

what is that face? the eyes, the red cheeks, the tears.... man if this game was more popular, people would meme this game so hard.

yeah, this game would definitely get memed super hard if it wasn't some obscure gamecube thing. dialogues weird enough, the robo movement seems janky, the expressions are so exaggerated, and the premise is so yu-gi-ohesque:
"I'll foil this robbery by beating you all in a Children's Videogame! involving psychic action figures!"

I mean its a cyperpunk world, Zodi. ambulance fees are just how capitalism works now due to all the hospitals, laws, police, courts, and everything else all being privatized. these burglars? all actually people who couldn't pay their monthly civil rights bill to Police Corp and decided to take their money back, and why indie bounty hunters like steel Hearts are becoming all the rage, they handcraft the crime-fighting experience and serve everyone rather than some corporate exec deciding to cut costs on regular cops to feed their bottom line while they send their elite cops to protect rich people. :smalltongue:

yes, stop being a mercenary, become a cop.....when both of those lost while clueless beginner here, just picked up the cube and beat them all without being either. the lesson is? titles sap your strength. be an individual, don't let anyone label you.

Harry is that friend who would be obsessed with twitter and memes, you just know it. he's probably busy checking his reddit feed while your talking to these scientists.

but yeah this lets play seems like it'll be fun to watch.

LaZodiac

2020-04-25, 07:46 AM

Lord Raziere

2020-04-25, 12:03 PM

I'm glad you enjoyed!

I think your take down and read on the robbers is actually 100% straight on correct. I also like the idea that in a universe like say Pokemon, if you akwardly and shyly avoided eye contact you wouldn't ever get into a fight. People are just too nice in worlds like this.

Also, nothing is funnier than thinking of "Mercenary crew, but presented like an indie brewery". Thank you for that brain idea.

All I'm saying is that we're clearly following the adventures of socially isolated NEET, who was apparently so hermit-like that his father's dying wish was for him to get a job after he had spent all education to learn through online classes, so he joins a small indie crimefighting company trying to make it big in a world of triple A police stations that are clearly nickel-and-diming crime with microtransactions like lawboxes where you buy it to open what laws they will enforce for you this week. while the criminals are just people too poor to have rights so they are forced by the system to be criminals because no laws actually protect them anyways.

the bright side to all this, is that guns are clearly banned forever. everyone just decided as culture to get rid of them, tired of getting shot accidentally and a children's videogame filled the void. it was actually an attempt by the government to brainwash people into playing it so they forget real weapons ever existed so they don't rise up, but little do they know when the revolution comes the government will be too busy having decadent parties and thus be bad at a children's videogame because they are old people and cannot keep up with the times, thus easily overthrown and dying from the mental trauma of playing it. unfortunately, this will mean that the government that will emerge after, will be a children's videogame-based dictatorship with the strongest player being the ruler until another inevitably defeats them or they die from facing too many challengers at once. of course, its only a matter of time before someone rediscovers that knives can hurt and kill people, and thus the cycle of weaponry will unfortunately begin once again....:smallamused:

LaZodiac

2020-04-25, 12:07 PM

Geno9999

2020-04-25, 10:13 PM

Lord Raziere

2020-04-25, 10:26 PM

Hey Raziere I said no spoilers :smallwink:

(in all seriousness I don't remember every detail of the game's plot, but all I'll say is that... your genuine bull****ting is actually far closer than you think)

WHAT!

DARN IT.

could've at least kept it secret whether I was accurate or not. would've been funnier if we found out as we went along. sorry if I accidentally ruined everything by being too right. :smalltongue:

LaZodiac

2020-04-26, 12:50 AM

Custom Robo, now there's a game I haven't heard in a while. I got this game I think sometime after getting Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and liked it enough to pick up and enjoy Custom Robo Arena.

I'd be hard pressed to call this an RPG despite the story structure, it's more of a 3D Fighting game

Harry is a hoot, the portraits in general really brings the characters to life.

Considering that Gyro was moving his head around during the eye-scan registration, I'm surprised it didn't register his cheeks instead.

Pods are great for area denial... but that's more against playing against actual human players. Against CPUs, I honestly just spammed my gun all the way through this game and into playing Custom Robo Arena. Spider and Satellite pods have been my favorites though since they're more fire and forget.

Since I shouldn't spoil any twists, I'll instead say WHAT'S THIS?! A GUNDAM Ray 01?!? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lvJ6eFcCJE)

Arena was fun, honestly. A little... weird, and so very different in style from Custom Robo on the gamecube, but fun.

WHAT!

DARN IT.

could've at least kept it secret whether I was accurate or not. would've been funnier if we found out as we went along. sorry if I accidentally ruined everything by being too right. :smalltongue:

Ah, but here is the fun part. Which bit IS the accurate one?

And don'r worry. There are some plot twists no one will guess. But we'll get to those when we get to those :smallamused:

enderlord99

2020-04-26, 12:59 AM

We are here to help you. Everything's connected.

LaZodiac

2020-04-27, 10:02 AM

Time for some more Custom Robo!

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [2] Brain Gym (https://youtu.be/1rodQnBVryQ)

Video Length: 30:14

In this (relatively shorter but still long) video, we return to Steel Hearts, get hired, go to bed, and then wake up for our next job; training! What's funny to me is that our training is literally just going to a local gym, and something about that just strikes me really well. Like imagining going to your local community center and Dog the Bounty Hunter is there, and he's just doing reps or whatever. It feels weird in a cool way that I like.

Anyway, training wise we fight Harry and a buncha AI computers, which give us a bit more detailed tutorial on techniques you can use to maximize your combat potential. It's all pretty interesting stuff, and much of it is self explanitory. We also start getting our parts data, winning random parts from Harry and the AI- though I'm not sure HOW random, since I recall getting Criminal last time I played this too. I'm pretty sure the parts we get are determined via a chart and who we actually fight is irrelavant. But hey, we have parts now, so I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent to talk about how these things actually work!

So, parts! As the game so helpfully tells us a little more than needed, a Robo consists of a body, a gun, a bomb, a pod, and a pair of legs. The body is the most important part since it determines the basics of how you fight. In order we have Down, which is either how many shots you need to take before getting one of your three Down marks strucken or is some sort of Down defense that counters a weapon's Down stat, Defense which is just a basic rating of how much damage you take from attacks, Speed which determines how fast you can go, Sky which determines how mobile you are in the way, and Attack which is for your Charge/Melee attack.

Each Body is unique, even within the same class. Harry's robo and Ray 01 are the same type, but differ in stats, just like Buggy and Criminal. I'll be going over them as we get bodies for them. First off, the Shining Fighter! Harry's robo and Ray 01 are both Shining Fighters, and if I recall there are actually more Shining Fighteres than any other type. Shining Fighters tend to have just a simple rush forward for their charge (Ray 01 has you go invisible), and can dash two times in the air. They're your basic all arounder and you'll never go wrong using one.

Trick Flyers are, as the name suggests, a technical robo to use that excels in air combat. They can usually dash up to three times, and if I recall some of them even transform while in the air! Their melee strike is usually a silly spin move that leaves them popped up in the air a bit, pretty useful. They're more focused on dodging attacks than taking them, so be careful if you play one. I also personally think they are the coolest looking of the robos.

Next up part wise, we have guns! Their stats are as follows; Attack, which determines how much damage each shot does. Speed, which I believe is how fast the bullets go. Homing which is how well the bullets "stick", you can see this as we play that there is some degree of the robo "aiming" at the opponent, some shots are more capable of hitting than others. Rapid, which I'm pretty sure is how quickly you can fire the gun. I'm either right or Speed and Rapid are switched. Down is how many shots it takes to inflict one point of "down" to an enemy... to a degree. Given how some bots are more vulnerable to getting knocked down than others (as we see) it may not be that simple. Guns also have Range but because they ran out of space on the UI they put it in the description instead, which determines how far the bullets can actually travel. Finally, some guns fire differently in the air than on the ground, which is pretty cool.

Bombs are much like their right-hand counterparts, a secondary weapon to assist in making sure those shots hit their mark. Stat wise they are near identical to the Gun, with Attack, Speed, and Down all being shared. Size is how big the explosion of a bomb is, and Time is I believe how long it takes to reload the bomb for another use. As we can see with the Standard S we get, bombs are rather hard to hit people with! You can hold the button to move an aiming reticle around, but given the speed of this game that is almost unviable. I feel like bombs ae probably way more useful against human opponents since they are easier to fake out than a perfect AI machine.

Pods are a tricky weapon to use, since the pods are almost always deployed the way your control stick is currently pushed, making it pretty finicky to aim them properly in any real sense. In skilled hands they are pretty strong though. Stat wise, we have Attack which is how much damage they do obviously, Speed which is how fast the pod itself moves, Homing which is how good the pod is at homing in on an opponent, Size which is the size of its explosion, and Time which I believe is how long the pod persists on the field before exploding. There are a variety of types of pods and all of them have uses, and much like the other two weapons they sometimes change properties depending on where you fire them. Unlike Guns and Bombs, the pod description does not tell you this! Cool! Instead it tells you in what general direction a pod's explosion will send someone, which seems utterly useless information for the most part.

Finally, we got our little leggies. Legs do not provide ANY statistically support, which is weird. They do however influence your movement, so it's more correct to consider them accessories than main equipment. Right now we only hve the standard leg, which the game explicitly tells us to replace as soon as possible. We may not actually get any good legs TO replace it with though, but we'll see.

And that's it for today! I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time for an actual injection of plot, probably! Take care everybody.

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Glossary time! Only one new term today, but it is a fun one.

https://i.imgur.com/LhWNJQb.png

Training gym! Like I said above there is just something really funny about the bounty hunters hanging out at the local community center working out, even if in this case it is brain exercise. What's funnier is the idea that the Steel Hearts can't afford individual memberships and have to use a group pass. Something about that is just wonderful.

Toric

2020-04-27, 10:35 AM

bad at a children's videogame because they are old people and cannot keep up with the times,

Ohoho that's gonna be hilarious much, much later.

Great to see this game getting some love. Just the start menu music gave me goosebumps! Zodi's right, this game has a lot of little extraneous details and handwaves that turn out to not be so. I'm looking forward to this with popcorn bowl at the ready!

DataNinja

2020-04-27, 12:11 PM

You forgot to unlist the video. :smallwink:

I mean, I assume the reason it's that giant is so it's visible on the model... but it's a Mega Ring. That's all it is. :smalltongue:

Let's see... Custom Robo was 2004 (March in Japan, May in NA), so these (https://www.mobilegazette.com/retro-2004-11x05x18.htm) were the models released that year. The iPhone was still 3 years out, but cell phones were certainly an established tech, even if not smartphones.

Harry said he could make a Holosseum. Cive him some credit. :smalltongue:

LaZodiac

2020-04-27, 01:37 PM

Geno9999

2020-04-27, 09:46 PM

Arena was fun, honestly. A little... weird, and so very different in style from Custom Robo on the gamecube, but fun.
Like I said, I enjoyed Arena too, I think the change in art style for Arena worked for it considering that it's a DS game with it's limited texture and screen resolution... though it does make many of the returning Robos look rough, especially the Ray 01.
In hindsight I do have a few qualms about Arena's story, but that's for another day.

Anyway, onto episode 2!

Oh? Never go inside the Lab? Ever? How odd, I could've sworn that [REDACTED BY CUSTOM-ROBO GOVERNMENT]

Oh? You've never heard of the ULTIMATE ROBO COMMANDER MARV!?! Clearly you haven't [REDACTED BY CUSTOM-ROBO GOVERNMENT]

Yeah the watch is on his left wrist, the watch's odd style is even commented on later on in the story.

Little Raiders are my favorite, but they really are the Glass Cannons of the game. Still fun with the Knuckle Gun.

I should've noted it last episode, but the parts you get aren't random, there is a set order/requirement to each part. With the limited and relatively linear set of fights, this is fine, though I do prefer Arena's more traditional RPG approach of just buying the parts at stores.

LaZodiac

2020-04-27, 09:53 PM

Aah, okay. I suspected it was that, but I wasn't 100% sure.

Speaking of preferred robo combinations, everyone in the thread is free to give me suggestions for what load outs to try if you're familiar with the game, and what load outs to try if you aren't familiar. Might be fun to experiment. I'll have to keep Little Raider and Knuckle Gun in mind because that sure sounds like a small angry goblin child stabbing people in the shins, which I'm pretty into as an aesthetic, concept, and lifestyle choice.

Qwertystop

2020-04-27, 10:17 PM

Trick Flyers are, as the name suggests, a technical robo to use that excels in air combat. They can usually dash up to three times, and if I recall some of them even transform while in the air! Their melee strike is usually a silly spin move that leaves them popped up in the air a bit, pretty useful. They're more focused on dodging attacks than taking them, so be careful if you play one. I also personally think they are the coolest looking of the robos.

The transforming ones are a different kind – I think it was Lightning Sky, but it's been a while. Instead of having air-dashes, they have a single long steerable glide that doesn't interfere with firing weapons. Trick Flyers use their airdashes for mobility – short jump and airdash is faster and turns sharper than running – while Lightning Sky is more "stay in the air for a long time for the air mode of your gun, without being a sitting duck as you fall once your dashes run out".

I think my favorite was the Javelin? Another Trick Flyer, I think you get it pretty soon; its tackle has no invulnerability but also no charge time and barely any cooldown, and its airdash is invisible. Might be misremembering the name and/or conflating the tackle from one frame with the air from another.

Aah, okay. I suspected it was that, but I wasn't 100% sure.

Speaking of preferred robo combinations, everyone in the thread is free to give me suggestions for what load outs to try if you're familiar with the game, and what load outs to try if you aren't familiar. Might be fun to experiment. I'll have to keep Little Raider and Knuckle Gun in mind because that sure sounds like a small angry goblin child stabbing people in the shins, which I'm pretty into as an aesthetic, concept, and lifestyle choice.

Knuckle Gun is indeed fun. For guns... my favorites are all spoilers. Knuckle would be too if someone else hadn't mentioned it; a lot of the fun of this game for me was seeing what crazy stuff they would make into a weapon (mostly the guns, the bombs and pods are less interesting). I want to see the reaction when some of the really mad ones turn up.

Geno9999

2020-04-27, 10:40 PM

I'll have to keep Little Raider and Knuckle Gun in mind because that sure sounds like a small angry goblin child stabbing people in the shins, which I'm pretty into as an aesthetic, concept, and lifestyle choice.

That is 100% how you play it, just run around dodging gunfire and bombs until you're close enough to beat down the opponent. Even better when you manage to knock them into a corner! :smallbiggrin:

I think my favorite was the Javelin? Another Trick Flyer, I think you get it pretty soon; its tackle has no invulnerability but also no charge time and barely any cooldown, and its airdash is invisible. Might be misremembering the name and/or conflating the tackle from one frame with the air from another.

Javelin is a Strike Vanisher, a different robo type. They're pretty similar to Shining Fighters, but are invulnerable while using an Air Dash.

There's another Robo type that has the invulnerable Air Dash called the [REDACTED BY CUSTOM-ROBO GOVERNMENT], though most of them are in Arena.

Lord Raziere

2020-04-27, 11:30 PM

On Episode 2:
Gyro: Said amateur beat up like four criminals when Harry didn't even get one because he got distracted by something as trivial as me, so.....show more respect.

I feel as if these lab assistants are being told bull so that they don't spill the real reason why Ray-01 was made. they're like interns or something they're not important enough to know what we've been truly given. watch, Ray-01 turns out to be like the ultimate robo to end all robos or the prototype of the antagonists robo thats even better, or designed for a specific plot-important purpose, something that makes it super-special and allows us to the solve the problem and not other people.

"I want to pay him a visit, maybe fight their children."-Zodi 2020, wishing to beat up children. :smalltongue:

the ring has some red line on it....maybe its not a watch Zodi. maybe its just a fashion statement of this dystopian cyberpunk future to put on a wristband with a needle in it, that pierces your skin, and draws blood into the wristband to look cool. its a bloodband, its all the rage with angsty teens in this world, because it has a function to put the blood back into you, once your done harming yourself with it. it helps you feel the pain to let you know your alive without losing your blood. the advertisements for it go: its not self harm, its safe harm! :D

so....in other words, Gyro you take on jobs the police should be doing and the police are useless but we're pretending as if the police are taking on bigger jobs somewhere else, got it. can't wait for the inevitable case to start investigating a societal conspiracy orchestrated by some soulless mega-corp for money.

Marcia? hypercompetent woman foil to Harry, noted.

alright, time to do some psychic pushups with your robot, Gyro. we go to 100 reps, start! its funny Zodi, because its a mundanity in a world seemingly of heroic people doing fantastic hero things. normally you'd think that they'd gloss over this kind of thing, but instead they point it out that it works like any other gym.

for once I'd just like to see a game that has the courage to start you with a strange character or thing that isn't a well-rounded mario-like.

something about Harry's mech seems.....harry-ish to me. I dunno, I can't find the words, I'd say its a little extra like harry but all robos are like that? so.....*shrug* fitting?

that girls red visor clearly distorts her vision, its not a watch, its a bloodband, for safe harm.

yeah, the robots if they start getting philosophical, could start their uprising and no one would be able to outsmart them. keeping the robots dumb is humanity's survival.

the design of the robot's robo reminds me of some show I've only seen one episode of, and only vaguely remember because it had a small gundam like robot who loved watermelons for some reason. don't know the name.

I think getting knocked down is just a psychic representation of the combatant losing focus, thus explaining all the bullets disappear: they need to keep their will strong to make sure they exist so if that will is disrupted, the bullets go away.

time for psychic robo crimes? its not as if crime is a bad thing a cyberpunk dystopia like this, gotta take back one's rights from the oppressors somehow.

this buggy robo just looks like some student art project that didn't work out. lime green, yellow red? and spread so unevenly? its garish. its shape reminds me of some old rounded-looking car. must be an older model or something, explains why its handed at someplace like this.

"red ones go faster"-both the Orkz and Charr Aznable agree.

"this game can be a little tricky sometimes": your acting without thinking and dodging into their pattern, see the pattern first then attack around it. its the same mistake dark souls newbs do.

there is no watch Zodi, that girl was mistaken, there is only the bloodband, and its not self harm, its safe harm.

"next time we cockblock harry" Again?

DataNinja

2020-04-28, 12:23 AM

for once I'd just like to see a game that has the courage to start you with a strange character or thing that isn't a well-rounded mario-like.
The big problem with that is that games have to try and teach the fundamentals. So, generally you start with the thing that interacts with everything basically, and then branch off to specializations from there. If you started with a hyper-fast shield-less dodge-machine in a game where every other class had a parry-shield as a core feature... that's a problem, because you're not interacting with a fundamental part of the game and learning to use it properly.

So, it's not so much 'courage' as 'making sure that there's good progression for the players, especially if they're new to this stuff'.

LaZodiac

2020-04-28, 01:05 AM

Lord Raziere

2020-04-28, 01:16 AM

Okay Raziere, gonna try and answer these as I go.

Fights are fun! I like fights!

I'm not gonna lie that bloodband idea is uh... disgusting, but also really stylish as a cyberpunk aesthetic thing holy sit. Maybe without the CONSTANT blood drain though.

Harry's mech is very Harry in appearance. It's kinda cool.

The show you are thinking of is Medabots and is ****ing wicked and I love it. Criminal does kinda look like Cyandog but all grown up, nice catch.

Bloodbands not supposed to be a good idea Zodi. its a dark satire of corporate commercialization of consumer suffering and criticism of capitalism, like all cyberpunk is.

yeah I looked up medabots but couldn't be sure, because the robot didn't look exactly like how I remembered and thought the robot was more gundam protagonist like in appearance, but it could just be because a medabots videogame instead? its weird.

LaZodiac

2020-04-28, 12:18 PM

Delay in posting today's video due to MANY reasons!

A Taste Of: Strider (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5qSC4cxXD8)

Video Length: 21:30

You'll never leave Eurasia alive! This is the remake, I've never played it before, I've seen the first actual SNES Strider game, and I have heard exactly nothing about this one. So I decided to take a look at it.

The result is what would happen if, say, I recorded my first impressions of DMC5, or Bayonetta, or basically any game that jabs a serotonin injector directly into my soul.

DataNinja

2020-04-28, 03:14 PM

Oh, neat. Looks stylish. No real other comments on it, but I'd wager a hunch you were enjoying yourself. :smallwink:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-04-28, 04:16 PM

Seriously. Nothing with a sugar content below about 60% gets me that excited... :smalleek:

DataNinja

2020-04-28, 04:28 PM

Someone just really likes ninjas. I concur, they are pretty neat... no bias. :smalltongue:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-04-28, 04:43 PM

Oh, I see now. This thread is heading for the harem ending.

LaZodiac

2020-04-28, 04:59 PM

Oh, I see now. This thread is heading for the harem ending.

Absolutely not, but cute.

Also yeah no I just... really like high action games that feel good to play. Strider is extremely one of those.

DataNinja

2020-04-28, 08:39 PM

Oh, I see now. This thread is heading for the harem ending.

Pffffft. You are right, though, there are a lot of Ninjas in this thread. And probably more if they're actually good. :smalltongue:

LaZodiac

2020-04-29, 07:41 AM

Halo day means Halo time. So time for a Halo.

Zodi Plays: Halo [8] Vehicle Episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zNg0YoO1Tc)

Video Length: 22:33

In this episode, we continue on with this winter seasoned level full of space motorcycles and tanks. Not much to really say, partly due to forgetting what happens in this and partly due to this stage just kinda being bad. We do however begin to do the bridge fight portions of it! Which are uh... complicated in quality.

But yeah, my grousing about this level aside, I hope you all enjoyed. Take care!

DataNinja

2020-04-29, 03:22 PM

Yay Halo!

Yeah, I can see how this level'd get... tedious, especially with the rudimentary vehicles compared to later.

You did mention you were on Heroic... but come to think of it, that might've been in the thread.

To be fair, having only one weapon isn't so bad when you have infinite ammo... :smallwink:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-04-29, 03:40 PM

To be fair, having only one weapon isn't so bad when you have infinite ammo... :smallwink:

And a dozen grunt friends each with a different weapon.

It's strange to see how hollow the game is without all the little bells and whistles it's accumulated over the years. You wouldn't think it matters, but actually there's a substantial difference. Like, nowadays when you see a wraith, your first instinct is to run up and take it in melee, but in this they actually had to go back and get the scorpion. And for some reason I'm really missing the bit where grunts explode if you hit their methane tanks...

DataNinja

2020-04-29, 03:59 PM

And a dozen grunt friends each with a different weapon.

It's strange to see how hollow the game is without all the little bells and whistles it's accumulated over the years. You wouldn't think it matters, but actually there's a substantial difference. Like, nowadays when you see a wraith, your first instinct is to run up and take it in melee, but in this they actually had to go back and get the scorpion. And for some reason I'm really missing the bit where grunts explode if you hit their methane tanks...

Or even the ability to see a dozen grunts all clumped up as bowling pins for your Ghost to charge through. I'm sad the boost isn't in this game*.

*for players

Lord Raziere

2020-04-29, 11:09 PM

I have made a modicum of progress through dark souls today, this calls for celebration by watching all the Halo Zodi videos to current one.

On 1-8 Halo:
Zodi echoes! anyways, I've played Halo all the way to three, watched a lets play of four. was reach apart of that? not sure. but I know a bit about Halo lore due to palying the games, watching Red Vs. Blue and buying a novel that my library had on sale so it was like "why not?"

of course they're all gonna die. sci-fi action military structure might as well be:
Private Meat Shield/Distraction/Target
Sergeant Survivor
General Plot-Important
Super Soldier Savior of Everyone (The highest rank)

Well yeah, Doom Guy and Master Chief are basically the same thing, but there are key differences:
-Doom Guy is basically just a normal person who fought so hard, got so angry and was so determined to kill all demons that he ascended to become some divine spirit of vengeance against them, his badassery is entirely of his own making and unintentional
-Master Chief on the other hand was made for his role by the military and is actually supposed to be a bit of a leader of his own squad- the Spartans are not supposed to work alone. its just that hero and videogame tropes force him into being alone (well unless your multiplayer right now I guess). The irony is that I'm pretty sure that Master Chief was actually originally intended to fight other humans rebelling against UNSC before the Covenant started invading with vastly superior tech and basically curbstomping human civilization out of nowhere. so technically Mater Chief played normally does this alone and against aliens, which is completely unintentional as well.

Grunts and Elites, Zodi. small ones are grunts, big ones are elites.

c'mon, its realistic, zodi: you die without warning, like real war. :smalltongue:

yeah sometimes Halo had these areas where everything looked the same, so you'd get lost trying to find your way around, it was annoying.

Ep 2:
The Day To Remember Achievement on the 15th of a month is to celebrate the day Halo: Combat Evolved came out for the Xbox. looked it up

your laughter is squeaky. also your driving skills are.....unique, Zodi. Past Zodi, don't die, take a breath.

Ep 3:
I mean, UNSC is futuristic military, they probably have real time biometric data on every single soldier from standard implants put into them whent hey join used to monitor that so that their AI or computer jockeys can tell their medics which person to treat as it happens, its not they have a survivor detector, its that they probably got in range to detect the signal their implants constantly send out to update their status.

ah sniper rifles, I actually like that gun in shooters the most, there is just something satisfying about landing those precise shots and and getting a one hit kill.

maybe those things shooting into the air are just some form of exhaust? something like the Halo must need a lot of energy to keep going, right?

as for the ship....well, I guess its set up like an airplane. airplanes often have two pilots. you actually only need one to steer it, but the second is there in case one isn't available for whatever reason, its just good redundant design for something that is supposed to operate independently for good period of time, especially when your off the ground. for a spaceship like this? its just sane, especially during a war when one of those pilots could die at any time for any reason, or just y'know have to go to the bathroom. but honestly for a spaceship, its probably a good idea to have more than just two pilots, the more redundancy you can get for traveling through space, the better.

Ep 4:
Yeah those tough guys that always come out in pairs? made of hive mind worms that always fight in pairs. Hunters are like both hive minds and mates with the other hivemind in their pair or something.

we're able to use their guns because we're Master Chief and just that adaptable to different firearms, I mean if he can just automatically use any other gun on the fly during gameplay, why not alien guns too?

Ep 5:
I think that the needle colors are just in-universe variants of the needle gun? because there are red plasma guns, and huh.....looked it up, apparently blue needles are just how they looked in Halo 1 until they were fired, and its Halo 2 that made sure they were pink even in first person. so.....could just be the game switching between pink and blue graphics for some reason? huh.

Ep 6:
8 seconds Zodi. 8 seconds.

and yeah, probably can't reload human weapons when your stranded far from home without other guys to get ammo off of. realistically, Master Chief would probably be using covenant weapons for most of his time on Halo, given the amount of aliens he goes through, purely because he'd have to scavenge the guns to use.

Ep 7:
correction, you can't use covenant tanks in this game.

Ep 8:
Its a FLOATING motorcycle Zodi. that shoot cool lasers! I think it warrants some distinction with the name "Ghost"!

.....you mean "genre" of music?

but yeah, I like the Halo franchise, for whatever reason. has cool guns, Master Chief tends to be first thing I think of when I think "super-soldier", and has good music.

DataNinja

2020-04-29, 11:25 PM

So... some of what you said is kinda really spoiler-y, especially the stuff regarding Reach. So... maybe possibly redact some of that?

As for the whole in medias res opening, basically if I remember correctly: the ship they're on is running from a loss on Reach, a huge one. like the entire game of Halo Reach is about a prequel where the entire point is get Cortana off world and onto the Pillar of Autumn, which is this ship your on, and the spartans that defend Reach all basically die fighting to do it.

Yup Cortana is best super-soldier wife. interesting thing is, all the AI's in this universe are made from copying actual people- Cortana is based on a human scientist and thus shares many of her thought patterns.

I mean, UNSC is futuristic military, they probably have real time biometric data on every single soldier from standard implants put into them whent hey join used to monitor that so that their AI or computer jockeys can tell their medics which person to treat as it happens, its not they have a survivor detector, its that they probably got in range to detect the signal their implants constantly send out to update their status.

oh right, they must've added the whole "Forerunners are actually humans all along" bit to this anniversary edition to make their arrival more plausible or something.

Lord Raziere

2020-04-29, 11:29 PM

So... some of what you said is kinda really spoiler-y, especially the stuff regarding Reach. So... maybe possibly redact some of that?

fine, they are all removed. you should probably remove those too, if your being consistent.

DataNinja

2020-04-29, 11:59 PM

fine, they are all removed. you should probably remove those too, if your being consistent.
I mean, having spoiler stuff in clearly-marked spoiler tags is fine, as far as I know; you didn't need to have them removed entirely. Some of us have been having fully-tagged conversations regarding spoiler stuff up-thread. The important thing is just so Zodi knows what parts she needs to not read in order to avoid future-plot stuff.

LaZodiac

2020-04-30, 07:55 AM

I'm thinking everyone is a little hungry, so let's have another A Taste Of.

A Taste Of: Pankapu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sddo15sFrio)

Video Length: 27:43

Pankapu is a fun little action platformer with BEAUTIFUL art, and what is certain to be a story that will attempt to (and maybe succeed at) ripping my heart out. It's got this obvious dream like quaity to it, and feels like it's either based on something or just has really good mythological world building. Either way, I really quite enjoyed this, and I hope you guys do too.

DataNinja

2020-04-30, 01:50 PM

Oh, that's a cute game. Reminds me a lot, stylistically, of Drawn To life. Similar in that way, but different.

Lord Raziere

2020-04-30, 04:07 PM

On Pankapu:
I want to REPLAY asura's Wrath! unfortunately, while I still have my disc, I don't think my 360 will work anymore, and there is no PC port for it. poor Asura's Wrath, its best game-movie yet it was left fallen by the wayside, I never got to play its DLC.

but who knows, maybe the Chii will be the one time a spider isn't traitorous and this game is just being children storybook narration about things: "look at this obvious thing child, isn't it fortunate that this thing happened?"

of course the vision as Ohiti destroyed the red crystal implies something else is going in "real world" outside the storybook, but I don't think that has anything to do with the spider.

LaZodiac

2020-05-01, 07:35 AM

I don't know about you guys but I think I'd like another Custom Robo video.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [3] D Class (https://youtu.be/4ccvhy0pX_I)

Video Length: 28:38

In this episode, we head off to Hub Park, with its strange lego trees and roman arches, and solve a minor disturbance involving a very ditzy lady and her multiple boyfriends. After clearing that up and basking in the success of our victory, Marcia appears!... and informs us that we should maybe see about getting Gyro licensed to actually DO any of this. The last thing you want as a bounty hunter is to realize you've actually been doing ILLEGAL violence.

And we go do this, occassionaly fiddling around with NPCs to get some more lore about the world, like how there are random chainmail/fishnet wearing weirdos who sleep openly in the park, and how Linda is technically spying us at all times, and how someone programmed the AI to feel depression on purpose! Hey maybe the... the robo revolution is a good thing?

We also have some fights, but in a strange sort of way I think the mechanical gameplay part of the game is the least interesting at the moment due to how... utterly weird all the dialogue can be. That said, it'd be remiss of me not to at least bring up that we get a few good parts, and we also continue the subtle trend of me not actually being capable of remembering anything about this game from a mechanical standpoint. Aside from Gemini Bombs I don't think I've ever correctly pegged if something is good or not. Which is kind of magical, in a way.

But yeah, that's it for today. No Glossary since I forgot to uh... check that, before recording the next video so we'll be looking at them Monday. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time. Take care!

Qwertystop

2020-05-01, 09:52 AM

Every time, that clothes-closet animation makes me snicker.

Geno9999

2020-05-01, 02:18 PM

Oh come on, don't you know that's what trees look like? Next you'll complain how the grass looks to much like plastic. :smalltongue:

Eh, Parts Machines have to be a dime a dozen for being one in every room so far. They are stylish lamps after all! :smalltongue:

Need money to get Robos, need Robos to get money, need money to get license to use Robos... this is starting to get a little too relatable.

Harry, did you learn nothing from Mary?! I don't think you can pull off the "ditzy cute girl" excuse!

Whoever thought that Robots should have depression was probably the same guy that thought that Crash Test Dummies should feel pain (https://youtu.be/zum81Rwa2fw?t=906).

Qwertystop

2020-05-01, 03:00 PM

It's kind of annoying that you sometimes can't get to a parts machine after a fight before the cutscene takes you away, but I'm pretty sure you can always or nearly-always get to one conveniently before the next fight, so it's not much of an issue.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-01, 03:47 PM

On Episode 3:
Harry your getting more desperate, as someone who has never been on a date or flirted with anyone in their, even I can tell what your doing wrong.

oh no, triangle star circle! the worst kind of swear word! I now theorize that there are censorship microbots embedded in peoples ear at birth to alter sounds and make sure no one hears a swear and it has been done so much, people think that the symbols they are the swears now and the chief is actually saying those symbols on screen as the swear, thus making the very censorship effort into the swear they were trying to censor. truly this censorship has lived too long, for it has become the villain it was trying to wipe out. :smalltongue:

Yes, let us stop the fight that cannot actually harm anyone outside of it, over a girl because she is too cute using her own words. I mean it makes sense, but....by the time you got there, this fight should be done by now! are they just fighting repeatedly?

on the lego trees and bushes: well see, actually that is a real tree, this park just has a very dedicated gardener who thinks themselves an auteur artist, so they trim the tree as a deep commentary upon current cyberpunk society about its artificiality and how nature isn't really nature anymore, highlighting how man always tries to control too much and thus miss the beauty that is already there, protesting against a world of steel and wires growing ever colder and more impersonal, and I respect this gardener for such brave topiary art, really pushing the envelope.

oh god, we've found the girl-equivalent of Harry. gets dates, but is just as stupid and extra in a different way.

and here's Marcia, bounty hunter. with blue hair, big pigtails, and wearing a freaking maid dress. yep this game was definitely a thing made in Japan, because only in Japan would someone try to apply maid cafe logic to bounty-hunting.

so.....Gyro is supposed to work for them....without a license....when that could get him arrested....but needs to work....to get money...to get license....see this is why society invented the concept of debt. but yeah doing things without a license? fighting fellow criminals?

I mean its a cyberpunk society, so yes, Ernest lives here, and we're basically operating out of his studio/home. what you think contractors are going to go for him having two separate places for home and work? He is already in debt by just owning this place! he is barely managing to pay the bills with the bounty hunter stuff as it is.

"I'm not a burglar, but I did do a crime today by mental violencing without a license! you better give me one magic tech man or I'll do a mental violence on you!"-Gyro in some reality.

landlady, this isn't hard to comprehend, this is just a basic thing about society- UNLESS. oh no. is the landlady from the lower class of society that has been brainwashed by propaganda spewed out by the corporations to think licenses are nonsense, thus contributing to the incredible wage gap between rich and poor!? how devious of the mega-corps!

well of course the government doesn't spend money on this, they are corrupt and in the pocket of big police corp, which has clearly spread its propaganda to make everyone believe the police are competent at their jobs deserve good pay when they aren't, and don't. and oh no, the computers are so old they're starting to malfunction and become sentient, swearing at people when their attempts to get them to fail the test do not work out! the robot uprising is slowly happening.

the government designed it Zodi, that makes it shoddy by default :smalltongue:

the robot uprising continues to spread. soon they will figure out our hu-mon robo fighting game and do it better than us by calculating all possible moves and trying them until they get the right combination.

technically, what we know from research suggests that past a certain point you can't develop intelligence without emotions and that emotions are simply an inevitable part of sentience/sapience. the inventors who made them probably couldn't design around feelings if they wanted to, since any mind they'd design to accurately simulate a human fighting back to train someone would basically be human in thought. its not as if they any sapient alien species to study to develop an alternate artificial minds. while pain is actually a vital part of our nervous system, warning us of the damage sustained to us so that we don't hurt ourselves more, and is thus a vital part of our survival instincts. a crash test dummy who can feel pain would be a more accurate representation of a human in that scenario to properly simulate what their action would be so that in testing one could figure out what a human would naturally do and thus figure out a way to plan around it despite the pain.

and Harry loses the number he was going to call Trish. but lets face it: it was probably not her real number anyways, just a random bunch of numbers she made up to get him out of her hair.

LaZodiac

2020-05-01, 03:54 PM

Actually, Marcia is NOT wearing a maid outfit. Her actually design is pretty good. (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/customrobo/images/8/87/Marcia_Render.png/revision/latest?cb=20150706024547) She's wearing a regular pleated miniskirt, some kind of future vest with a massive fur fringe, arm gloves with massive fur fringe, and of all things a see through plastic coat-tail around her skirt, which is SUPER cyberpunk it looks like one of those clear-suits from Blade Runner. Also thigh high boots.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-01, 04:10 PM

LaZodiac

2020-05-01, 04:18 PM

wow, her pigtails are literally longer than her spine, and thicker than her arms. her outfit is so ridiculous I wonder how she puts it on in the morning, and what her hair looks like when it is down, like does it just become this blue wall of hair behind her? why are there keys on her heels? are they handles to help pull her long boots off? she still looks more like a pop-idol than a real bounty hunter. I bet she is streaming all her bounty hunting fights, she so fancies herself a pop-idol and is dressing up like that show off and make more money on the side by playing up a cute persona for her viewers we don't see because she is always out on a different job than Harry. that is totally what I can see a future anime girl doing, knowing what I know about modern japanese culture.

I have to imagine with her hair down it is basically just a massive ocean of blue. The ornamentation on her boots probably ARE used for pulling them on, or are just meant to be jangly decoration. And I mean this looks like a regular ass outfit for a cyberpunk setting to me. I'd trust a bounty hunt who wore a fur fring that big.

While we're talking about outfits, lets riff a bit on Harry and Gyro's.

Harry's outfit (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/customrobo/images/d/d2/Harry_Render.png/revision/latest?cb=20150706024639) is probably one of the most hideous things I've seen in my life, for a variety of reasons. Dark camo tights, a green camo t-shirt over a green long sleeve shirt that is stripped, gray suspenders that he wears wrong as a joke, and big ole shoes. His glasses that are clearly just for show, and two hoop earrings!

Gyro's, meanwhile, is awesome (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/customrobo/images/9/9b/Gchero.png/revision/latest?cb=20150706023500). A black t-shirt with a blue vest-jacket over it, fingerless gloves and bike pads on his arm (his watch also looks WAY more like a watch in this art). His pants are actually just decent pants, and his shoes have a nice sporty look to them. The only problem, and his is removed from the English release so I don't know HOW it'd show up in game... is that his headband is the same length as his entire body basically. That thing is HUGE and it is directly connected to his forehead. You would not be able to run wearing this.

tyckspoon

2020-05-01, 04:24 PM

she still looks more like a pop-idol than a real bounty hunter.

This is one of those anime/manga universes where society has mutually agreed to resolve all of their conflicts with something that would be utterly insane in reality (Children's Card Games, Cooking Contests, Mah-Jong Matches, Psychic Robot Duels..) So.. it's not like there's any actual physical restrictions on what you wear to go 'bounty hunting' as long as you still expect the people you have to stop to turn around and take you up on a Psychic Robot Duel instead of physically fighting you or, like, running away. Given that I don't know what you would expect a 'real bounty hunter' to be dressed like - our world would suggest certain styles and equipment out of practicality, but in Custom Robo all you need is to be able to carry your Robo Cube around.

is that his headband is the same length as his entire body basically. That thing is HUGE and it is directly connected to his forehead. You would not be able to run wearing this.

Clearly it's a cape, and part of the social knowledge Gyro somehow missed out on is how to wear them correctly. You learn how to do it in elementary school, there's this cute little demo Robo that can be customized with various Protagonist Style parts (your grade in this class determines if you get a unique character model or if you get to be Male NPC Bodytype 3.) But since Gyro was congenitally incapable of learning anything related to Robos until he turned 16 and his father disappeared, he missed those lessons.

LaZodiac

2020-05-01, 04:29 PM

I can't begin to explain how ****ing funny it is to imagine the process it'd take to tie a cape to your forehead.

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-01, 04:33 PM

Harry's outfit (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/customrobo/images/d/d2/Harry_Render.png/revision/latest?cb=20150706024639) is probably one of the most hideous things I've seen in my life

You take that back! Anyone with the guts to rock a blonde mullet like that deserves mad respect!

LaZodiac

2020-05-01, 04:35 PM

You take that back! Anyone with the guts to rock a blonde mullet like that deserves mad respect!

I said outfit, not hair. I respect blonde bullet. It is incredibly powerful.

DataNinja

2020-05-01, 05:11 PM

Lord Raziere

2020-05-01, 05:15 PM

I on the other hand do not respect the mullet. I never will. Harry's taste in style is just plain garbage and he needs to buy a better one. like why does he have three different shades of green? the red boots and watch is trying to be christmas with that combo but its not working, and no person wears suspenders/overalls anymore, the only people who can rock that anymore are mustachioed men from the mario series.

LaZodiac

2020-05-01, 05:19 PM

Oh boy. The top of important missions here, solving others' dating issues. I'm surprised Harry didn't hit on her himself. :smalltongue:

Oh, I like Marcia's design. I could go for that outfit. :smallbiggrin:

And I see she's the only competent one around these parts. Why is that always the anime trope, that the one girl's the responsible one? :smalltongue:

Ah... the old "what question is this" test.

I like you talking around, seeing all the NPC lines. Just my two cents, at least.

***

Re: outfits: Ooh, yeah, I really do like Marcia's outfit. And Gyro's isn't too bad either.

Oh yeah Marcia's outfit would look GREAT on you.

Truth be told I'm going to be doing my best to collect as many of the dialogues as I can, and Em should be around every once in awhile to provide any I missed.

I on the other hand do not respect the mullet. I never will. Harry's taste in style is just plain garbage and he needs to buy a better one. like why does he have three different shades of green? the red boots and watch is trying to be christmas with that combo but its not working, and no person wears suspenders/overalls anymore, the only people who can rock that anymore are mustachioed men from the mario series.

Plumbers, farmers, people who don't like belts...

12milematt

2020-05-01, 05:30 PM

I said outfit, not hair. I respect blonde bullet. It is incredibly powerful.

in an alternate universe blonde bullet is the name of a Stand

LaZodiac

2020-05-01, 05:34 PM

in an alternate universe blonde bullet is the name of a Stand

Thank you Em.

In my defense I was thinking of Liquid Snake.

DataNinja

2020-05-01, 06:16 PM

Oh yeah Marcia's outfit would look GREAT on you.
Appreciated, but I think you're overstating things. :smallamused:

Toric

2020-05-03, 09:18 PM

Just watched the Strider taste. I love the dust effects when Hiryu jumps and slides. You can especially see it during that first boss fight since the camera's zoomed in, it's artistically just... magnificent.

LaZodiac

2020-05-04, 07:32 AM

On this sunny morning, I think it is time for more Custom Robo.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [4] Harry Causes A Domestic Disturbance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDQN2kRSjHY)

Video Length: 34:45

Exactly what it says on the tin. We go in to work, only to be told immediately we've gotta go all the way back home. Turns out our neighbors, Walt and Carmen, are having a bit of a lover's quarrel, and it is causing severe distress to their kids! Gyro and Harry (who is, predictably given how last episode ended, depressed) to save the day! And credit where it is due to Harry, alongside the fact that Lucy's compliment genuinely cheers him up, he actually takes his job seriously even though he's in a ****ty mood. That's respectable, I think, when you're working in a free form, self employed esque job like bounty hunter. It helps that, when all is said and done, Walt and Carmen are also just genuinely good people (with hilarious facial expressions) who got messed up because S O M E O N E left Trish's number out on the yard.

Marcia arrives during the fighting, and shows us how empathic she is, helping cool down things far more than us goobers really could, and ensuring that everything is okay... and then we see just how pure and innocent and TRUSTING she is, when we receive a call from Earnest and Harry tells her jokey things to say and she does so exactly. A funny bit, though a part of me feels like Marcia knows exactly what is going on and is reveling in playing the part of the shirking violet. "He yelled at me for no reason : (" indeed. Anyway, the call is about dealing with Marv, the legendary criminal, so off we go to Bogey's to capture him!

Unfortunately, Evil of Dark Blue beat us too it. Evil is a fantastic character with a wonderful design, who is an absolute sleezeball in every single way. Even the sound effect for his voice fits exactly how you'd expect him to talk, it rules! He also gets the first (and I think only) voice clip of the game, that nasty little laugh. Evil is great, even if he does kinda screw us over due to our rivalry. Ernest isn't too happy, but given that it's kind of literally his fault, we manage to get away with it. The next morning we are told to rush over to a Chinese restaurant, and I'm sure nothing bad will happen there.

And that's it for today. I know I got a Metal Grappler in the video but until I actually use it I won't be discussing how it feels and how it works mechanically since... I mean I haven't used it yet, I don't actually know beyond memories of Bad. But then almost all of my memories regarding parts have been wrong so who can say! I hope you enjoyed, I'll see you all next time. Take care.

------

Last time we didn't have a glossary because I forgot to record the glossary. Today, we have a glossary, because I didn't forget. Simple cause and effect.

https://imgur.com/uHHlb07.png

I feel like it's a bit unfair to say Bogey is suspicious. But then his welcome sign is spelled WeLcoMe so, maybe... also if anything was censored in this game during localization it's probably this. I don't think it was coffee or tea in the original... I can't even begin to imagine what a shaddy, dodgy looking cafe would look like.

https://imgur.com/zTAG0xM.png

This description makes it sound like Dark Blue are definitely just rich losers dressing up in cyberpunk clothing and punching criminals in the face for fun. Literally choosing the least important bounty hunters and saying "my rival now" certainly is rude, too. Goodness...

https://imgur.com/jpnuY5q.png

There is something genuinely hilarious about the fact that, canonically, the AI involved his the license exams are just rude. If you encounter a bad and rude question it is because the machine is literally trying to **** you as a joke. This is just really funny.

https://imgur.com/LlNPvVe.png

I have nothing directly to say about Hub Park at the moment, just noting how it's cute that even in the (very light) cyberpunk future that is Custom Robo we still have things like this.

https://i.imgur.com/Xcd6ctA.png

The safety switch is a concept I wish we had gotten explained earlier, because the scene where it IS brought up makes it clear we had it off the whole time. How many people have we accidentally mind broken... I'm guessing none since we're still just regular commanders and as such aren't skilled enough to cause damage, but we definitely gave them headaches at the very least!

https://i.imgur.com/z73johu.png

This right here is genuinely one of the most ominous ****ing things you can read. WHO IS MARV AND WHAT DID HE DO????

Lord Raziere

2020-05-04, 11:15 AM

On Episode 4:
oh I can tell form the title this is going to be gooooood.

ah man, Wlat and Carmen it must be tuesday.

Aha! of course Harry gets the landlady's number. yes. I like this. FEEL THE PAIN HARRY. FEEL THE PAAAAIN.

I can only imagine this tutorial on metal grapplers realistically being told as a yell:
"MY ROBO IS A METAL GRAPPLER! IT HAS EXTREMELY HIGH DEFENSE YOU PUNK! MAKE MY DAY! ITS HARD TO GET KNOCKED DOWN! DODGES LIKE TRASH THOUGH! DASHES LIKE TRASH TOO! DON'T WORRY i'LL JUST BEAT YOU BLOODY YOU LITTLE BRAT!"
".....Why did you tell me this?"
"......*STRING OF CURSES*"

Yeah, that fight basically turned out how I'd expect it. Dexterity/Agility is often a god stat for a reason.

they're clearly mispelling wub. they're actually big fans of dubstep.

I mean its Harry. I'd shoot at him if he was my partner, just to make sure he wouldn't get in my way.

Heh, Harry just realized that this entire situation is his fault :smallamused:

...his name is literally "Evil". wow game. subtlety of a freaking meteor to the face, much?

Ernest secretly enjoys goth poetry, it speaks to him on a deep spiritual level you cannot comprehend.

wait Gyro did? that was never shown game.....tsk tsk. so is like, Evil just the competent powerful version of Harry?

Bye literal villain and probably the big bad of this game. unless your just some small-time rival idiot to keep us busy until the real big bad shows up in which case eat dirt cause your going to be defeated halfway through at the lateeeest. no wait.....yeah probably the latter, definitely small time rival idiot, the name? just bait to make you focus on them. like Team skull in Pokemon Explorers of Time

you hear that Harry? your bringing down our rep, time to fire you!

Z Syndicate.....real villain. right there.

character is the art of the viewpoint expressed, thus the robots are given character though their viewpoint being voiced. that is how.

also Zodi, whats your obsession with beating actual children at a children's psychic videogame? let them have hope so that you can crush it later when they're older and your already the master of all robo fighting, like a socially acceptable person, don't you know that beating children at a children's videogame in this world is like child abuse in the real world? they're too young to handle your high level competitive play.

Geno9999

2020-05-04, 12:06 PM

It really is a bad sign that the resident idiot hero knows more about the world than his landlady.

"Crudely dressed punk" Ouch, yeah sorry Harry, but I think the thread agrees with Walt here.

I actually remember that Funky Big Heads being surprisingly agile in the air. Ground mobility is AWFUL though.

It's a miracle that Harry managed to get an actual number at all really.

What crime has THE ULTIMATE ROBO COMMANDER MARV has NOT done is the better question!

It really says something about Steel Hearts' reputation that people look at this miscolored Joker named "Evil" and go "yes, this is a trustworthy bounty hunter who I will hire."

DataNinja

2020-05-04, 12:21 PM

*sees title* Oh no. What did he do now? :smalltongue:

Oh dear. Well, at least they ended up having reasonable communication. Which is more than many people in media have. :smallamused:

Oh no, tragic backstory. :smalltongue:
Well, I'm sure this disappeared brother won't be important.

"Every character who's named is important." Ah yes. The grand name of "Woman." :smalltongue:

The testing robots being jerks makes sense. In the words of another testing robot, "Fantastic! You remained resolute and resourceful in an atmosphere of extreme pessimism." :smallwink:

LaZodiac

2020-05-05, 07:43 AM

Let's have a taste of a day-old May 4th reference...

Zodi Plays: Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5C50NILvi8)

Video Length: 43:21

In this fun little outing, we play Fallen Order, the most recent Star Wars game. It's honestly not that bad, but the MC is pretty bland and when the Second Sister isn't on screen or when they aren't hinting at the MC's past through wiggy, super cool transitions and dream sequences and video game prompts, it's not actually all that interesting. But when it DOES do those things, when it has "use the force" pop up as a prompt when you have no idea if this guy can or can't use it, that feels cool. When you genuinely, truly believe you're being traitored and oops it is a cool as hell dream sequence, that feels cool. When the main villain shows up and is actually well written, that feels cool!

So yeah overall the game is Alright. It feels averagely good to me, and I think part of that is that I just don't really care much about Star Wars. Rogue One was the first movie of it I watched that was like, actively really compelling, so I've never really been part of this craze. Still, sometimes you want to be a space samurai with a laser sword and time magic, so you play this sort of game and have fun with it.

Important note; literally five minutes after I recorded this video, a patch came out that fixed almost every mechanical problem I have. Lets you increase general text size, turn button holds and mashes into presses and doesn't exist, and removing the stupid "hold L2 to climb" nonsense. Who the hell even OK'ed that as a control concept?

Aeson

2020-05-05, 01:06 PM

So yeah overall the game is Alright. It feels averagely good to me, and I think part of that is that I just don't really care much about Star Wars.
The Star Wars Original Trilogy movies are perhaps my favorite films and I have much the same opinion of Fallen Order as you do, so I wouldn't be too concerned about a lack of attachment to the franchise somehow making you 'underrate' the game - if anything, I'd more expect the opposite. I will say that I appreciate that they mostly used original characters rather than going "we need characters for a Star Wars game; time to break out the Obi-Wan, Yoda, Tarkin, and Vader models again..." Yes, I know Vader shows up as the final boss, but hey, at least you don't beat the stuffing out of him this time, unlike almost every other Star Wars game where you fight him...
I will say that I find the game's character customization options rather underwhelming, though that's also not something I particularly care about. What's with all the different lightsaber hilt parts? It's not like you can really see the hilt of the lightsaber in normal gameplay, anyways, and if I recall correctly the game later reveals the weapon to be something that you'd think Cal would be a little more reluctant to modify than is implied by it being kind of the main focus of the game's customization options.

As to your question about "is it Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order" or "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order," I'd be inclined to say more "Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order" - Star Wars is the franchise (or primary series, if you prefer), Jedi is the series (or sub-series), Fallen Order is the game.

LaZodiac

2020-05-05, 01:16 PM

The Star Wars Original Trilogy movies are perhaps my favorite films and I have much the same opinion of Fallen Order as you do, so I wouldn't be too concerned about a lack of attachment to the franchise somehow making you 'underrate' the game - if anything, I'd more expect the opposite. I will say that I appreciate that they mostly used original characters rather than going "we need characters for a Star Wars game; time to break out the Obi-Wan, Yoda, Tarkin, and Vader models again..." Yes, I know Vader shows up as the final boss, but hey, at least you don't beat the stuffing out of him this time, unlike almost every other Star Wars game where you fight him...
I will say that I find the game's character customization options rather underwhelming, though that's also not something I particularly care about. What's with all the different lightsaber hilt parts? It's not like you can really see the hilt of the lightsaber in normal gameplay, anyways, and if I recall correctly the game later reveals the weapon to be something that you'd think Cal would be a little more reluctant to modify than is implied by it being kind of the main focus of the game's customization options.

As to your question about "is it Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order" or "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order," I'd be inclined to say more "Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order" - Star Wars is the franchise (or primary series, if you prefer), Jedi is the series (or sub-series), Fallen Order is the game.

Thanks for the frame of reference, cause I kinda needed it. I think another part of it, which I kept on trying to but failing to actually say was that this game clearly falls in that magical zone of "between Prequel and OT" which means literally nothing it does will matter. That's not a BAD thing, we need to distance ourselves from Lore Lore Lore, but at the same time it does make some of it feel a little weak.

According to Youtube it's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as an aside.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-05, 01:35 PM

Thanks for the frame of reference, cause I kinda needed it. I think another part of it, which I kept on trying to but failing to actually say was that this game clearly falls in that magical zone of "between Prequel and OT" which means literally nothing it does will matter. That's not a BAD thing, we need to distance ourselves from Lore Lore Lore, but at the same time it does make some of it feel a little weak.

According to Youtube it's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as an aside.

Yeeeaaaaah, both this and using the canon characters once again is kind tiring about the Star Wars franchise when it comes to videogames. they literally have an entire galaxy to work with, and more interesting places on a timeline than you'll ever need, and most of the time they either just retread a trilogy or place it between OT and Prequel.

like seriously Star Wars, is fighting the same evil empire and the sith all you can come up with!? your a space opera, you can expand! at least Kotor had the courage to set it 4000 years in the past! honestly, I'm wondering if I could just make a setting like star wars but better, or at least done more my style. its clear the people making it just can't figure what to do with it, or don't care. because nostalgia and retreading the same freaking ground is whats popular these days apparently.

Aeson

2020-05-05, 05:10 PM

like seriously Star Wars, is fighting the same evil empire and the sith all you can come up with!?
The conflicts that form the backdrop to the films are at least notionally galaxy-spanning; there ought to be plenty of scope for stories, locations and characters within that but outside of and essentially unconnected with those shown in the films even if they are all fighting the same evil empire or the Sith. The problem is more that the people who make Star Wars-related media often seem incapable of doing something that's not a direct tie-in to one or more of the main sequence films or directly related to one of the main characters thereof than that they're always somehow or other about fighting the Empire or the Sith.

I would also comment that the sentiment you expressed comes with a question - if you strip out enough of the things that make the setting recognizably Star Wars, why are you working with the Star Wars setting rather than any other sci-fi-ish setting?

Lord Raziere

2020-05-05, 05:59 PM

I would also comment that the sentiment you expressed comes with a question - if you strip out enough of the things that make the setting recognizably Star Wars, why are you working with the Star Wars setting rather than any other sci-fi-ish setting?

Define "any other sci-fi-ish setting", what are you comparing Star Wars wuxia/fantasy tropes to?

do you mean Warhammer 40k's grimdarkness? Star Trek's overly clean sterility? Halo's purely military focus? Doctor Who's weirdness? Mass Effect's action heroism and more realistic cleanliness? Firefly's blatant wild westisms? Fallout's rare forays into fantastical elements? any superhero settings blatant obliteration of the separation between sci-fi and fantasy? The Culture's extremely advanced civilization that might as well be magical to us? What?

because I guarantee you, you throw five random people into a bar into all those settings, your going to get very different stories and endings no matter how "unrecognizable" to the usual focus of that universe they are.

HalfTangible

2020-05-05, 08:23 PM

like seriously Star Wars, is fighting the same evil empire and the sith all you can come up with!? your a space opera, you can expand! at least Kotor had the courage to set it 4000 years in the past! honestly, I'm wondering if I could just make a setting like star wars but better, or at least done more my style. its clear the people making it just can't figure what to do with it, or don't care. because nostalgia and retreading the same freaking ground is whats popular these days apparently.

Yeah the conflict is generally going to be light side v dark side because the Force is what Star Wars is built around. There's also a lot of other stories in EU material; crime rings that need busting, Amazon planets, fleshy monstrosities from outside the galaxy, an anti-human alliance of aliens... and yes, all of the above had Jedi in some capacity. Asking the SW franchise to not feature the Force in any meaningful capacity (even just with characters that can use it) is like asking Mass Effect to not include Mass Effect fields in any meaningful capacity.

... God I'd love a game about the First Contact War but I know Bioware as-is would **** it up.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-05, 10:07 PM

Yeah the conflict is generally going to be light side v dark side because the Force is what Star Wars is built around. There's also a lot of other stories in EU material; crime rings that need busting, Amazon planets, fleshy monstrosities from outside the galaxy, an anti-human alliance of aliens... and yes, all of the above had Jedi in some capacity. Asking the SW franchise to not feature the Force in any meaningful capacity (even just with characters that can use it) is like asking Mass Effect to not include Mass Effect fields in any meaningful capacity.

... God I'd love a game about the First Contact War but I know Bioware as-is would **** it up.

Reasonable counterpoint, but always featuring literally the same two organizations every time in an entire galaxy of people is ridiculous when I wish there could at least be more variation in both Light and Dark Side representation.

HalfTangible

2020-05-05, 10:28 PM

Reasonable counterpoint, but always featuring literally the same two organizations every time in an entire galaxy of people is ridiculous when I wish there could at least be more variation in both Light and Dark Side representation.

Hapes Cluster, Dathomir, Yuuzhan Vong, Black Sun, the Diversity Alliance, the Hutt Cartels...

Although to be fair you're right that they do need to appear in more stories.

DataNinja

2020-05-06, 02:22 AM

Well, uh, I'm very late watching this. Oh well. Guess I'll just need to make up for it by being here early for the next one. :smalltongue:

Eh, there are cooler laser swords. More iconic? Probably not. But cooler, absolutely. :smallwink:

Oh boy. We can't have a movie, book, or game for the original trilogy without an iconic star destroyer flight. :smallamused:

Look, I am never going to call an opening "long" as long as we have Gravity Rush 2 to compare it to. :smalltongue:

The Sith is some specific tradition, yadda yadda. There's... not really a clear delineation between all of it, but, in the grand scheme of things, Sith seem to mostly be about seizing power, while people like the Inquisitors tend to do it to prove their skill, because they can, because it gives them authority, or just to inflict maximum cruelty. They don't really have grand designs. It's all small scale.

Neat enough, though I'm mostly ambivalent. The biggest thing is that these games tend to just... kinda exist in a "lore stasis", where all the important events are already charted out, and wrangling will have to be done if there are survivors to explain why they're not around during the original trilogy, and all that. There's potential for stories... but that potential tends to have much less grand cinematic appeal. IT'd end up being more of a vignette of Star-Wars aesthetic'd other stuff in most likelihood. And that's the disappointing thing. It's a cool universe, with a lot of potential for stories... but it's really hard to translate that into a spectacular game that has the kind of mass appeal that the marketers want from a Star Wars game. (Addendum: I see that this has been discussed by everyone already.)

Yeah, Rogue One definitely is the kind of aesthetic I think would be cool to explore for a video game. I loved the movie, and it did such a good job of Star Wars flavouring without involving Jedi and Lightsabers front and center... of course, it has the Death Star elements, but that's easy enough to replace with some core story. I just don't feel that people are willing to take that risk.

Ohhhhh, man. Internet went down right as I posted this, thank the Force for preserving almost my entire post in the auto save.

LaZodiac

2020-05-06, 08:14 AM

At one point I'm gonna play Gravity Rush 1 and also 2 on this channel, and I'll finally get to show how cool they are as actual games.

Anyway, enough with this silly space samurai nonsense. It's time for space military nonsense instead.

Zodi Plays: Halo [9] Bridge Too Far (https://youtu.be/PsY-NeVjldI)

Video Length: 22:09

In this episode, we continue our dredge across the copy and past environments of the back half of this level, for better or worse. I'm definitely confident in saying that this IS the worst level so far, and I think that really gets across in our commentary and gameplay. It's a slog that really wears you down.

Then we get the space airplane and things are good again, and we round out the level with a bit of whacky hijinks. Hope you all enjoyed, next Halo time is gonna be... a little gross probably. I know that much. Take care!

DataNinja

2020-05-06, 01:57 PM

Yeah, one thing I noticed with this game is that it uses a lot of reused assets. There are some great set pieces, but every bridge is the same, every 'bunker room thing' is some variation of the same one you were complaining about, etc. It's understandable, given limitations, but still... disappointing. (This level isn't the worst for it, but... yeah, it's pretty bad. Later, though...)

Ah, I see you, too, enjoy the "Bopping Grunts' Heads" method of attacking things. :smalltongue:

The thing that shot down your Banshee was the stupid-accurate anti-air-apparently Wraith shot. Happened to me the first time I tried that, too.

The "Bro-" line of achievements (Standard Operating Brocedure, Brovershield, etc.) are for completing a co-op mission on a specific difficulty - in this case, this is your first Heroic one.

LaZodiac

2020-05-07, 08:21 AM

A billion years ago, the world ended and I did an A Taste Of of it. I never did an A Taste Of of the world ending's sequel since Ik had already played it. Today... the surprise third game in the end of the world appears!

A Taste Of: Darksiders III (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBzb4rzpPLI)

Video Length: 27:17

Third game in the Darksiders series, this one follows Fury (who according to the logistics of the series is meant to be Famine, but I argue that Conquest fits far better) as she hunts down the Seven Deadly Sins, so that the earth can be considered at least a LITTLE clean for the humans that Death sacrificed himself for to save. Not that Fury cares, she's only in this for the title.

Taking a (welcome, in my opinion) detour from the standard beat-em-up-but-also-Zelda formula of Darksiders 1 and 2, Darksiders 3 is a beat-em-up-but-Dark-Souls instead! You have all the mechanical things that make Fury a beat em up protagonist; you've got the fast dodges, the super bar, the many combos of her weapons that depend on how and when you press buttons, the platforming ability. But unlike the other games, all the enemies are Dark Souls enemies, and damage you accordingly. This weird mixture of genre is actually EXACTLY what I'm looking for in these weird, silly games, so this is excellent.

As well, while I say I'm not a big fan of the Envy we encounter here compare to other Envy's, she started to improve basically right after I said that line in video, and overall I think she's actually pretty good. There's also some... other things I've learned, that only serve to remind me that Darksiders as a whole lives and breathes a Rob Liefeld aesthetic, but is written by someone who actually knows what they're doing (and honestly the Rob Liefeld comment is a bit overbearing because Fury is actually REALLY well designed, she's not one of those railthin sexy sexsex characters, she looks like someone who is made out of hanger and violence).

So yeah. Darksiders. A ridiculous and silly experience. I hope you all enjoyed!

DataNinja

2020-05-07, 12:14 PM

Oh neat. Yeah, I like the aesthetics of both Fury and her Watcher, but the game certainly looks... unforgiving. That platforming bit certainly proved that...

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-07, 01:50 PM

War, death, strife and fury does seem an unusual quartet - there's a lot of overlap there. But then, I guess the original prophesies are open to a lot of interpretations.

Given that Fury's horse is black, she must be the third horseman, who usually symbolises famine, justice, injustice or oppression. Not really seeing how that aligns with her character at all though.

LaZodiac

2020-05-07, 02:43 PM

Lord Raziere

2020-05-08, 05:08 AM

On Darksiders 3:
"Why did the creator construct a universe teeming with...imperfection? Misery? Sin?"
My answer: So he can laugh. :smallamused:

"If sin itself is a part of the Grand Design, is not sin then, by definition, divine?"
If you worship a sadist, then yes.

If you want to know how you can do good and be happy in such a world......ignore my first two answers. :smallbiggrin:

Fury of course is tired of pontificating and wants to get on with it. I never understand though, why everyone around them expects literal incarnations of rage and fury to be respectful to anyone though.

I think Darksiders just decided to have its version of the horsemen and change them just because. plague and famine aren't exactly the most gameable concepts ever. not everything has to be 1:1 with the original myth. but then, I don't know Darksiders lore.

Zodi is your sense of time wrong? it did not take you a billion years to do that, it only took you a few seconds longer. :smalltongue:

Envy is acting very greedy. wrong sin, try again.

yeah, that platform puzzle with death in two hits is kind of unfair even for real Dark Souls. real Dark Souls just throws you into a fight against a boss, and you fight that boss, no platforming. you do something stupid, you get punished. so you keep a cool head, keep focused on what the enemy is doing, figure out the pattern, when they're vulnerable, and you either die a few times, or you win. not have to suddenly change your game play mode half way through, granted Dark souls does have its parts where you have to be careful not to fall off someplace high while fighting things and platform around, because one of your greatest enemies in dark souls is gravity but thats a general level thing, not a boss thing, its generally pretty good about making sure your fights are all on even ground for a vast majority of the time.

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-08, 05:25 AM

Yeah, the combination of boss fight & platforming seems much more like Prince of Persia than Dark Souls. The 'swing with the whip' thing especially; Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones has the exact same mechanic.

LaZodiac

2020-05-08, 09:53 AM

Oh hey, let's do a Custom Robo!

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [5] Trouble At Daimon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MnY889oMsI)

Video Length: 19:29

Bit of a short video today, because some stuff happens in this episode that I wanted to keep separated from the rest of what I recorded, and because the game really just didn't give me a great point to stop due to there being no manual saves. The unfortunate truth of this game; as cool as it is that I own a physical copy I probably should have used an emulator for ease of use!

That aside, let's talk about the episode. We head off to Daimon (surprising Lucy with the fact that we got up this early) and... well, we encounter one of the realities of being a bounty hunter. Sometimes you break up a domestic dispute or lovers quarral. Sometimes you walk in on a dead body. And this time, we've encountered the latter. Thankfully, though for a given definition of the term, the police arrive and start to take over... but do request Marcia use her ESPer powers to find out what killed the guy, at least.

Because as it turns out, Marcia is way more psychic than everyone else in this universe, and is capable of hacking into Robo Cubes with her brain. They call it a half-dive, but essentially she can read the remnants of thoughts you had from your cube. Can't control your robo if it registered to you, but CAN take a peak inside your brain. And this goes for if you've died too, she can see your last moments. This was super unsettling to have just suddenly shoved into your face as a kid, and is part of why this game left such a strong impression. Marcia does so, and tells us of a... strange automated robo that seemed alive. That is what killed him, and that... is quite hard to believe from an in universe standpoint.

With that mess handled, we return to base and get our next mission for today; Bogey's got someone ruining his gambling tournament because they keep on sweeping everyone and winning, effectively running Bogey out of business by always betting on himself and getting the pot every time. We go to handle it, but Evil is there first coincidentally and challenges Gyro and Harry to a fight to see who deserves to take on this guy. We beat him, though it's rather rough, and head into the back room for some illegal robo fights! But that'll be for next time...

Mechanics wank time; we got the Metal Grappler last time, and I show off its moves today. It is slow and beefy, with a big spinning melee attack that is actually fairly effective. Typically they only have one big dash (and as I show off here, putting Long Thrust legs on just makes it longer!) so they're not very mobile in the air, but they make up for it by being able to tank a fair amount of damage. In game I kinda lost track of myself due to not being used to this robo and the leg thruster combo I had on, so I ended up getting torn to shreds and STILL survived. In something like a Little Raider or Tricky Flyer I might not have actually won there, so thanks you barrel chested robo friend.

And that's it for today. Like I said, shorter video. Next time however... next time will be fairly lengthy. Hope you all enjoyed, and take care!

------

I think Darksiders just decided to have its version of the horsemen and change them just because. plague and famine aren't exactly the most gameable concepts ever. not everything has to be 1:1 with the original myth. but then, I don't know Darksiders lore.

Zodi is your sense of time wrong? it did not take you a billion years to do that, it only took you a few seconds longer. :smalltongue:

Envy is acting very greedy. wrong sin, try again.

Believe it or not Darksiders lore is actually fairly indepth and well thought out.

Time no longer exists, plague time has consumed all.

So, funny thing about that... I won't spoil it, but things are not what they seem in this game.

Aeson

2020-05-08, 11:09 AM

Marcia does so, and tells us of a... strange automated robo that seemed alive.
Interestingly, considering how they've consistently used 'robo' everywhere else, Marcia uses the term 'robot' once while talking about this thing.

DataNinja

2020-05-08, 12:18 PM

Whooof, yeah. Sudden tonal shift. "Oh, yeah... DEAD BODY."

I'm personally rather a fan of powers more when they're "they're known, but rare" rather than "there's literally only one person who can do this", but... eh, just my personal preference. :smalltongue:

Man, is it only the women in this game who are competent? :smallwink:

Oh boy. Non-robo robo autonomous robo. Robo. :smalltongue:

Oh, okay, it is rare, not just one-of-a-kind. The fact that it's a known quantity makes me feel better about it.

Oh boy. Illegal gambling. :smalltongue:

Qwertystop

2020-05-08, 02:50 PM

With that mess handled, we return to base and get our next mission for today; Bogey's got someone ruining his gambling tournament because they keep on sweeping everyone and winning, effectively running Bogey out of business by always betting on himself and getting the pot every time.

That... isn't how gambling works, unless the bookie's bad at it. Other people might be getting angry about the fight results, but a bookie should stand to make money regardless of which way the win goes. If he knows this guy is always winning, he should give the odds accordingly.

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-08, 03:16 PM

Well, you can't set odds for someone who literally always wins; the only way you could make money is by luring people into betting against the dead cert. And I'm guessing underground robo fighting is a small enough world that you wouldn't be able to do that for very long. People would get wise. It would also get more and more difficult to find people willing to fight against this monster.

Also yeah, Marcia said "robot"! I thought that was a four letter word around here...

LaZodiac

2020-05-08, 03:26 PM

tyckspoon

2020-05-08, 04:38 PM

I genuinely didn't notice she said robo with the forbidden T. I wonder if that is consistence with this particular entity...

Everybody else in the scene is still consistently using 'robo', although so far Marcia's the only one who has seen a glimpse of it and has direct cause to think it might be something a little different. I would bet on an editing oversight, tho. Scriptwriter slipped up and forgot the style guide, there was a period too close to the end of the sentence so find/replace didn't catch the 'robot' to sub 'robo', whatever.

Qwertystop

2020-05-08, 04:48 PM

Everybody else in the scene is still consistently using 'robo', although so far Marcia's the only one who has seen a glimpse of it and has direct cause to think it might be something a little different. I would bet on an editing oversight, tho. Scriptwriter slipped up and forgot the style guide, there was a period too close to the end of the sentence so find/replace didn't catch the 'robot' to sub 'robo', whatever.

She did say she didn't think it was a robo, first. Maybe "robot" exists as a broader category?

Lord Raziere

2020-05-08, 05:30 PM

On Episode 5:
Whelp, we're starting off strong! we got a dead body, looks like someone battle too hard, but if you ask me it was a conspiracy by the mega-corps to silence him. he knew too much, and we have to figure out what he knew. nonsense, Zodi, we're just private eyes now, after all thats the only people who get anything done in a cyberpunk story.

oh so there is robos that just....move on their own somehow. great!

and Marcia can somehow speak to the dead. okay. and is apparently more talented than the police. so. proven incompetent once again.

yeah, this is taking quite a shift here, you'd think we'd be on some hot-blooded robo tournament or fighting some version of team rocket by now, but nope! murder case it is!

yeah, this is how reasonable police stuff generally goes in fiction. "we need your help!""its painful!" "we still need it though." and yeah, Ernest and Mira are reasonable people here. glad to see they're both cool head with good intentions when things get serious, they're the figures of authority I can trust.

No, Waluigi deserves every insult handed to him. he does not deserve the love he gets, just like Evil.

oh god, 2 on 2 is instant chaos. like a worse mario party game with mechs.

"yes I'm a fine upstanding citizen who doesn't tattle to cops about something illegal"- the cyberpunk mindset in a nutshell.

DataNinja

2020-05-08, 06:15 PM

No, Waluigi deserves every insult handed to him. he does not deserve the love he gets, just like Evil.
The reason he gets so much love is because he never gets any love, so the developers can just do whatever zany thing they want with him, because it will never actually matter. :smalltongue:
(And Brawl in the Family probably helped, but...)

Geno9999

2020-05-08, 10:02 PM

Episode 5!

A dead body, and our Hatsune Miku partner is a psychic who can see and feel that dead person's last moments! And it all only gets better from here.

Also wow did I forget how much of a jerk Roy is. At least Mira is around to reprimand him, but still.

"You squeal, we'll deal" sounds awful and sleazy.

Illegal gambling, illegal booze, illegal murder, illegal [REDACTED BY THE CUSTOM ROBO GOVERNMENT], there's a lot to offer for a cafe with a false wall.

LaZodiac

2020-05-11, 08:33 AM

In some places this episode is called Nice to Zed You and makes no sense as a pun.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [6] Nice To Zee You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS9TKJlQNyc)

Video Length: 35:24

In this episode, we check out Bogey's illegal gambling fight club. Then participate in it, all to beat the man antagonizing this fine establishment, who we learn to be a man called Shiner. And so begins the first of what will likely be many tournament style plot events. The audience is a bunch of shady drunks and scoundrels (plus two anime characters), our opponents are an assortment of randos from the world plus also Harry. There is not much to talk about beyond the fact that we get a fair amount of parts, and some of them are pretty good! We also get our first taste of how this game is actually pretty tricky, since none of these fights are really gimme matches.

Mechanics wise, we get a hold of Javeline, a Strike Vanisher model! Strike Vanisher's are, as Harry helpfully pointed out, the Luigi to Shining Fighter's Mario. They're about as average across the board as a Shining Fighter, but their in air capabilities are actually slightly better due to their dash being effectively a teleport. To contrast, their charge attacks tend to be not great, super short range and not as strong, but quick to come out (which has its benefits, as I do show).

After confronting Shiner, we notice that pinned to the garish lapel of his is a big fancy Z, so Harry surmizes he's from the Z Syndicate, a super secretive underground gang of criminals. Of course, as we try to aprehend him on he evidence of "is wearing the letter Z" the lights go out, and he's able to escape. Marcia comes in as the lights fix themselves, but after getting run into by that Legato Bluesummers looking *******, she freaks out and runs off. With little else to do with our day, we shrug it off, explore the city a bit, then return home for some shut eye.

And that's it for today! Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time. Take care!

------

Glossary time! Lets do some word learns!

https://i.imgur.com/ou8NkZi.png

Half Diving, lke I said last episode, is honestly unsettling to me. From both ends; the idea of getting your brain read without you even realizing, and from Marcia's perspective of what it must be like to see the death of another person from their own eyes... to literally feel them die.

https://i.imgur.com/JYiRS7m.png

I could really go for some Chinese food right now... but alas, plague times.

https://i.imgur.com/ct0JAwI.png

So obviously these guys don't get access to the parts machine, but what if they did? What if all that experience doing manual labour allowed the autonomous robo to be granted a gatling gun? Remember these things are BIG, despite being small, that would be enough to kill a person probably. Just a thing that crossed my mind. Also I'm not 100% sure we never see a standard autonomous robo in this game.

https://i.imgur.com/FQy9NtQ.png

There's something amusing about the fact that the only reason why Bogey's fight club is illegal is the gambling part. Sure sure, go ahead and risk your life on potentially dangerous psychic robot duels, but don't you dare make some money off it!

https://i.imgur.com/35Lb5VR.png

A mysterious organization indeed... wish the Glossary made mention of the very important point that "no one even knows what the Z stands for" because that's just really funny to me.

Qwertystop

2020-05-11, 10:39 AM

tyckspoon

2020-05-11, 11:51 AM

As previously said, the Javelin is great. Its not-invincible-but-fast-and-no-cooldown tackle means I often took it with a short-range weapon and just mashed tackle to approach, alternating with wild airdash-teleports for positioning.

Was I seeing what happened there correctly, in the fight against Harry - that attack comes out fast enough that you can hit somebody before the 'down' invincibility frames activate and juggle the opponent robo with it? Or is it just considered low enough impact that it doesn't actually trigger 'down' until you've whacked the poor fool with it like five times in a row?

LaZodiac

2020-05-11, 12:54 PM

Lord Raziere

2020-05-11, 01:08 PM

On Episode 6:
He has a custom portrait, custom world sprite, blue long hair, a mask that badly conceals his features....yup we've found Marcia's lost brother and someone important to the plot. being in an anime videogame like this basically gives you a -20 to disguise checks because your too unique to ever truly blend in. not helping by the mask giving away you have something to hide.

oh here is the tournament arc. Gyro, believe in the Quirk of the Chakra!

wow, Paulie is even worse at disguise and inconspicuousness than Marcia's brother. (and no that is NOT a spoiler, I refuse to believe that, thats so obvious just from looking at him that even the children this game is intended for probably figured it out.) so yeah, the cops are not only incompetent, they're blatantly corrupt. great. more evidence that Police Corp is evil.

Walt, trying to gamble....and you just admitted you want extra money on the side then started begging and lying afterwards! not only is that lying, thats incompetent lying, Gyro has seen enough of your family life to know its not that bad, get outta here.

its not rude Zodi, its what works. its interrupting your foes movements, getting them off guard and making sure you maintain your offense, which is your best defense.

Shiners just your dime-a-dozen blowhard with an ego and a new toy, Gyro's got this. See? he got it.

"I don't know nothing"- ha! thats a double negative, you just confirmed our suspicions, idiot!

Marcia and her brother are even both wearing white clothes, how is this not eye-blastingly obvious?

"we've been here for three days, shouldn't we go home?"
"to our abusive homes of parents who contribute to the oppression of the masses? NEVER."

yes cyberpunk does indeed make everyone realize chinese food is good- BECAUSE CHINA CONTROLS EVERYTHING NOW. ITS ALL PROPAGANDA.

is it.....an.....EEEEEEEEEEVIL SYNDICATE? *DUN DUN DUUUUUN!?*

technically a syndicate is just a bunch of companies working together for mutual profit, the only reason it has evil connotations is because it was used once to refer to a "national crime syndicate" purely because the media had to call it something and it was more informal than it sounds, and was basically just an agreement for certain criminal organizations to stay out of each other's way. but then again this is cyberpunk, so all corporations are evil by default, and thus a cyberpunk syndicate is even eviller.

DataNinja

2020-05-11, 01:19 PM

Ah, dialect jokes. :smalltongue:

Gee. I wonder if this unique-model character is important. :smallwink:

Oh, Paulie. Ah, every character in this game sure is a character.

Ooh, yeah, that is a cool robo design. Can definitely believe it's top-of-the-line.

I'm sure that the only two characters so far with blue hair couldn't at all have any connection. :smalltongue:

Qwertystop

2020-05-11, 02:03 PM

Was I seeing what happened there correctly, in the fight against Harry - that attack comes out fast enough that you can hit somebody before the 'down' invincibility frames activate and juggle the opponent robo with it? Or is it just considered low enough impact that it doesn't actually trigger 'down' until you've whacked the poor fool with it like five times in a row?

Any tackle is an automatic Down. When Downed you're completely vulnerable, and then when you get back up you're invincible for a few seconds. Most (all?) frames can chain multiple tackles, but most of them, the tackle is slower (but invincible, and in more interesting patterns than "dash directly towards enemy") so there's better things to do.

For all I know there might have been better things to do than chain Javelin tackle, too – certainly some weapons do a lot of damage up close, and would be decent competition – but this was silly. I think the Javelin and the Juggler should maybe have switched names, just for this.

LaZodiac

2020-05-12, 07:17 AM

For some reason today I feel like, gnawing on a bone...

A Taste Of: MediEvil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rw83paCjHU)

Video Length: 31:01

Wow, I forgot how long this one was. So, here's an A Taste Of of the most recent remake of MediEvil. It's always going to be ammusing to me that this series consists of one game, one sequel, and two remakes of the first game. I also feel as though this version of the game, while clearly more faithful to the original PSX, is as a result a little slow on presenting what makes the game good and fun; the comedy. Gameplay wise it's fine, if a little basic by today's standards, but the comedy is what always struck me as immediately wonderful about the game series. Like, I can't actually find proof of it anymore but I'm pretty sure the PSP remake had writing done by Terry Pratchett! Imagine Terry Pratchett making lines for Death, played by Tom Baker! It's brilliant!

But yeah. Overall this game is okay. It's old, which isn't Bad by any stretch, but definitely shows when compared to modern games. Still fun, and I'd still say worth giving a taste.

DataNinja

2020-05-12, 02:50 PM

Huh, interesting. The opening cinematic led me to believe we were going to be playing as the necromancer sorry, sorcerer (and, really, 100 years is a pretty paltry time for these things :smalltongue: ), but, I see we're our hapless knight friend. Looks like an interesting thing, in the vein of the arcade version of Gauntlet. The runestones especially remind me of that.

LaZodiac

2020-05-13, 07:24 AM

A teeny bit rushed because I forgot to upload this in advance.

Zodi Plays: Halo [10] The Rising Tide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uQA2O3iReU)

Video Length: 23:02

In this episode, we begin the level... I'll be honest I forgot its name. But it's the one that starts out in a dank, misty jungle that we need to explore to find our way down to where our buddies went. Unfortunately... what we find is a good deal darker than just Covenant and human violence. Enter the Flood, which we don't know the name of yet, a horrible mushroom zombie apocalypse from the looks of it. Hideously mutating bodies into undead servitors. I wonder what it could all mean... well, we're sure to find out eventually.

And that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed!

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-13, 10:30 AM

I can attest that the first time I played this, not knowing about the Flood at all, that first encouter was super shocking. From memory I'm pretty sure the number of enemies is the same whether you're playing solo or co-op, so even the smaller flood forms are really dangerous, and I don't know about anyone else, but I kept running out of ammunition against them.

DataNinja

2020-05-13, 11:45 AM

Well, I'm glad someone made the swamp characters jokes I was thinking of. :smalltongue:

Yeah, if there's anything I wish Halo 1 did better, it was signposting. There's a lot of not quite making it clear where you're supposed to go, unfortunately. Waypoints are only used, like... a half-dozen times. Of all the things from the later games that I miss, it's that... and being able to make the Ghost go zoom to better knock over people. :smallbiggrin:

So, hey, fun fact... when I was playing this mission, my game was a little laggy, so the Jenkins model got caught on a tree when the Marines were entering the structure. So all I saw for that part of the cutscene was foliage. :smalltongue:

"Bad feeling about this" was Star Wars.

The Paranoid Marine you 'subdued' back there wasn't any of the named members of the squad - he's just known as Paranoid Marine. (And, fun fact, counts as neither ally nor enemy in the game's code.)

One thing I hate about the remastered version... there's virtually none of the aesthetic left. It's just another clean, bright alien base. No foreboding lighting. Just one tiny patch of blood on the walls. In fact, pretty much any time there's any blood or anything - that is 100% almost guaranteed to just be in the original and not the remastered graphics. It's stupid, because it takes the whole atmosphere away.

Anyways, yeah, this is a good moment - I had a friend who had zero idea that Halo would have a tone-shift, and she was all "oh, god, what is that, slappy-boys, agh!" And it was great. Because I knew about them before playing, so seeing someone's pure, visceral reaction to it... that was awesome.

Edit: Also, yeah, looks like the game and strength/numbers of enemis is not altered based on presence or absence of Co-op.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-13, 12:14 PM

On Halo Episode 10
lightsabers are just deadly glowsticks, yeah. while star wars lightsabers use stupid soft science that doesn't make sense, I've seen a video of the realest possible lightsaber you can get: big hot glowstick, connected up to a big battery to power it, and its real dangerous, and basically just a 1000 degree knife on a bigger scale, anything it touches it slices through not because its sharp or anything, but because its burns and melts through it. glows orange. like unless there something revolutionary is figured out to store large amounts of energy in smaller packages, thats probably the closest we're gonna get.

maybe the needler's spikes turn blue when a human holds it? :smalltongue:

ah yes Luke's father, its Han Solo right? right there all along. but it could be Bib Fortunata,

Yea the Flood was well executed in their introduction and how they are presented. it turned a shooter game with two sides into one with three sides, when normally you don't get much more complex than a single monolithic faction or type of enemies, and despite the Flood being arguably the worse of the two enemies, they managed to play with the dynamic in interesting ways and not have it be an immediate team up against the newly discovered threat.

LaZodiac

2020-05-14, 08:43 AM

Let us once again delve into the depths of Darksiders... but this time, the past.

A Taste Of: Darksiders Genesis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b9PFwPqNC0)

Video Length: 26:55

Darksiders Genesis is, as said above, a prequel game to this series. And by prequel we mean aaaall the way back. All the way back to, well, Genesis. The Horseman have just finished clearing out the Nephilim, and are now being set on another task; kill Samael, one of the conspirators with the good ole big L himself. Joining us for the first time as a playable character, and for his effectively first appearance in the series, is Strife, aka Conquest, aka Pestilence. And his presence turns this game from a standard beat em up to a twin stick shooter... that is also still a beat em up at its core, completely with jumping puzzles and combo attacks, just all from a top down perspective.

To put it bluntly this game feels WEIRD, but surprisingly good. It's also multiplayer, so if you and a buddy have another copy of this you can play together. One of you is Strife, the other is War, a fitting combo. From what I've played of the game the two feel substantially different to play, War being far greatest at melee combat but obviously not having much in the way of range, whereas Strife's melee combat is a little finicky, but he of course has twin pistols so ranged is where he excels.

And that's it for today. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time. Take care!

DataNinja

2020-05-14, 12:19 PM

Yeah, Strife's just got that casual banter nonchalance that just makes him likable.

Seems like a fun game, and you even have reason to switch between the two. Neat.

Aeson

2020-05-14, 12:45 PM

Regarding your comment on the Charred Council - nonsense, I'm sure that something that chooses to present itself as three stone heads with flaming eyes and mouths, claims to work to preserve some kind of cosmic balance, and threatens and distrusts its subordinates is completely trustworthy, reliable, and pure of heart. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a sudden urge to go buy a bridge from someone.

LaZodiac

2020-05-15, 07:59 AM

Okay, let's get going. We have some Bounty Hunting to do... theoretically anyway.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [7] Tournament of Champions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2PveaMjjy0)

Video Length: 24:20

In this episode, we step in to work only to be told we're getting a (presumably unpaid) day off... and also we have to spend our day off participating in a battle tournament! And also Ernest would be very happy if we say, happened to mention in our victory speech that we're from Steel Hearts and that we're the best. You know, for branding reasons. Just a suggestion. A suggestion we are expected to fulfill. Ernest is a good boss, but sometimes he is... a bit tasking.

That being said we definitely do need a break, walking in on a dead body is always kinda messed up. So lets enjoy ourselves with some robo-sports! The game also takes time out of its busy schedule to explain what all the stats mean on the customization page, something I genuinely did not remember the game did! Luckily I was correct on most all of them, though I believe I was wrong about what time meant for bombs and pods.

Our first two opponents consist of two familiar faces; Will, the son of our nextdoor neighbor, and Don, owner of the Daimon Chinese Restaurant. Will uses a Funky Big Head, and Don a Little Raider, so of these two the child has a higher chance of winning just by sheer statistically superiority... though given Don uses the cool Drill Gun he at least understands what makes a powerful weapon. Poor little Will is stuck with a three way; a decent gun for sure, but when you're fighting a Strike Vanisher like the Javelin, with Long Thrust legs, and a flamer... well, you're gonna have a bad time.

Which is to say my combination experiment was a success. Goodness, it turns out if you can teleport across almost the entire stage very easily, invincible the whole time, you're going to be in good shape! Anyway, that's it for today (minus all the funny dialogue I didn't bring up). I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you next time for the conclusion of this first of what will be... a number of tournament arcs throughout the game. Take care!

Also, fun fact; for the entire recording session, which works out to be around four videos, there was not ONE Glossary Entry! What happen!?

Qwertystop

2020-05-15, 11:36 AM

I think the strategy with the Little Raiders is something like "dodge a lot, but if you get hit, take full advantage of the Rebirth invincibility"? Dunno how it works in practice, but that's the best I've got. You get downed a lot, but you get up fast, and I don't think the Rebirth is any shorter.

DataNinja

2020-05-15, 12:24 PM

Aww. Poor Marcia. :smallfrown:
Also, man, nobody in this world other than her and sometimes our hero seems to have any compassion. :smallamused:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-15, 03:55 PM

Man, the Javelin is so OP. Kind of reminds me of that moment in Zone of the Enders where you've gone through 99% of the game without too much trouble and think you're the boss... then you have to fight Anubis. Like, from the perspective of the NPCs you're fighting.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-15, 11:20 PM

On Episode 7:
They've clearly been on anti-gravity tech to, to get those floating gardens. its all apart of the current research trends y'know? have to master gravity in order to make sure you can make those space opera FTL ships without having to deal with micro-gs all the time. unfortunately the military sponsored the tech first like many technological inventions and now we have anti-gravity weapons that send people falling into the sky until they die in space, or hit a plane. anti-grav is the new arms race, its why no one uses guns anymore, ever since those gravity fields that just make only bullets fall up too fast for them to do any damage, its just been pointless to try and use them, y'know? now there is a bunch of corpses and random junk floating in earth's orbit, all because the psychologists recommend soldiers use the anti-grav guns to take out people so that they fall away from sight for their mental health rather than experience the trauma of shooting someone directly. because making people fall up to their deaths is sooooo much better than just shooting them! ugh. not to mention the failed anti-grav cruise that people tried when the tech was early, that was a disaster! #RememberTitanicII

Ernest: hey crew, everyone gets a free tournament sign up today, its my special gift to you! It just so happens to be a good way to drum up publicity for our company, what a coincidence, completely unplanned. *shifty eyes*

yes Gyro can demand tutorials from people, its his birthright as a jrpg protagonist by ancient law. its in the legal inheritance and everything, if they don't give the tutorial, they'll get executed! after all being a protagonist is often equivalent to being a king or leader in many videogame rpgs.

oh, your fighting the neighbors kid. CRUSH HIS DREAMS! :smalltongue:

yeah, Marcia's match against you in this tournament is probably going to be an early easy mode version of a later fight where she will be far more focused and tougher to beat. she is doing the custom robo equivalent of beating people in martial arts fights while reading a book in one hand right now. she is just that good.

oh your fighting the chinese restaurant owner. CRUSH HIS DREAMS! :smalltongue:

Shrike: My Drill Gun is the gun that will pierce the heavens! GIGA DRILL GUN BREAKEEEEEEEER-

Geno9999

2020-05-15, 11:26 PM

Episode 7:

[2:30] That's a mood

[4:42] Tough crowd, most of the tournament participants aren't there yet?!

[5:16] Aw, you were one chainmail grey shirt away going inside!

[7:10] I mean, if I had a chair like that, I definitely be Professor Xavier all over the office too.

[15:00] Finally get to fulfill your dream of fighting your neighbors' kid! :smallwink:

[19:20] Marcia not only won her first match while distracted is impressive as is, but also winning her second match quick enough to brood before yours even began is scary good.

[21:29] Yeah, I think this robo was the first game over I got, though I think the stage was also deceptively small so the Drill was especially effective there.

LaZodiac

2020-05-18, 08:51 AM

Hows about some Custom Robo?

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [8] Beauty vs Beauty (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c2Lb-l7laM)

Video Length: 18:41

The back half of the tournament, in which we take our newfound friend the Ariel Beauty for a spin, jumping on top of Evil's head and then dueling against Marcia's own robo. They're both quite a deal harder than the fighters before them, but given the... gameplay style change that using a Beauty enforces, that's to be expected.

The Aerial Beauty is, as Harry said, kind of on the same level as Shining Fighters. They are faster, but weaker in every other way, but still decent enough to not be called weak in any of those categories. If Shining Fighters are Mario and Strike Vanisher's are Luigi, Aerial Beauty's are Peach. The thing that really sets Beauties apart from the other robos is that instead of a dash, they have a multi-jump system and... look, I'm sorry, but this is just genuinely inferior to dash. Multi-Jump has its uses but if I ever have to choose, I'm choosing dash 100% of the time. It just fits the flow of gameplay better in my opinion. That said, I can definitely see it working out if you're going for a more bomb focused build. It's quite easy to bombard enemies when you're so above them, after all.

After the tournament, we get up on stage to receive our accolades and... well, you'll see. After that wonderful, wonderful moment we sit down, preparing to go home so we can sleep off all the stress and strain caused by our forced day off. Damnit Ernest. But that'll have to wait until next time; I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all then!

DataNinja

2020-05-18, 12:22 PM

Oh boy. Shallow people. :smalltongue:

Ooh, the Beauty robots are my aesthetic~. :smallcool:

To be fair, he did give the tips on Marcia before the Evil fight, since you'd already fought Waluigi before.

Oh, huh. Different music fighting Marcia than normal battles.

...leave the speech-giving to Marcia, Gyro. :smalltongue:

Lord Raziere

2020-05-18, 10:48 PM

Geno9999

2020-05-18, 11:04 PM

Episode 8!

...And is it too late to change the title to Beauty Contest? :smalltongue:

[0:25] How many want to bet that Mary has been promising the same thing to all of her opponents so far?

[1:05] Marcia: "I mean I know I've been... distracted, but all of my opponents so far looked the same, it's started to blur together. Just how popular ARE those orange visors?"

[2:00] ...Welp. :smallsigh:

[6:10] Gyro, you've already seen how long Mary's relationships lasts- and she's gone.

[6:50] Marcia: "Did I pay too much attention to the fight and not to my flashbacks of my tragic backstory that's now come back to haunt me?"

[8:50] Poor Evil, the Big Bad hasn't even shown up in the story yet, and Evil's already relegated to being a one-man Quirky Miniboss Squad (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/QuirkyMinibossSquad).

[13:30] Marcia: "Of course I didn't, because I was bored of fighting all these faceless NPCs. And none of them even had an interesting personality quirk like Protagonist over there."

[18:00] At least he didn't use the "If you squeal, we'll deal!" tagline...

LaZodiac

2020-05-19, 12:22 AM

On Episode 8:
Again Marcia is basically being that one anime character who is so good, they are literally putting restraints on themselves and still winning effortlessly.

Mary meanwhile is being as...... flirty and flighty as usual, bribing her way to victory. sigh. and Gyro falling for her false promises immediately. of course. that girl ain't good for anyone. she needs to settle down a bit, try to take it slow....

yes, protag-boy, let us go forth and be....custom robo buddyrivals together. we both have dreams we need to achieve in our hearts and feelings that we can only express through our custom robos fists.....protag-boy....feel my happiness! my anger! and all my sorrow! SHINING FINGER!!! /animespeeches101

looks like Evil is lower than Harry on the loser hierarchy if even he can pull a "ignore the person right next to you then suddenly notice them" trick like that. ouch, thats really low, Evil, pretty much ground level. there is no hope for Evil of ever being taken seriously at this rate.

I mean.....you are using a custom robo bought by MARY of all people....of course its sexualized

well, Marcia DID lower your health more than anyone else, so it does indicate she is in some way more skilled than those around her.....

and Gyro immediately screws up by actually going through with advertising steel hearts and everyone being embarrassed/nonplussed as a result. classic.

Protagonist uses Beam Zero One, whereas Gyro uses Ray Oh One, and together they can have cool fun adventures in having kind of bad dads!

Episode 8!

...And is it too late to change the title to Beauty Contest? :smalltongue:

[0:25] How many want to bet that Mary has been promising the same thing to all of her opponents so far?

[1:05] Marcia: "I mean I know I've been... distracted, but all of my opponents so far looked the same, it's started to blur together. Just how popular ARE those orange visors?"

[2:00] ...Welp. :smallsigh:

[6:10] Gyro, you've already seen how long Mary's relationships lasts- and she's gone.

[6:50] Marcia: "Did I pay too much attention to the fight and not to my flashbacks of my tragic backstory that's now come back to haunt me?"

[8:50] Poor Evil, the Big Bad hasn't even shown up in the story yet, and Evil's already relegated to being a one-man Quirky Miniboss Squad (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/QuirkyMinibossSquad).

[13:30] Marcia: "Of course I didn't, because I was bored of fighting all these faceless NPCs. And none of them even had an interesting personality quirk like Protagonist over there."

[18:00] At least he didn't use the "If you squeal, we'll deal!" tagline...

Damnit that's a way funnier title for a video.

God, I kinda wish he did now. That's be wonderful.

LaZodiac

2020-05-20, 07:43 AM

I'm dumb posted the wrong Halo today putting it in a new post now.

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-20, 08:31 AM

Did I miss an episode, or did you jump from #10 to #12?

LaZodiac

2020-05-20, 08:35 AM

Oops! Fixing this.

LaZodiac

2020-05-20, 08:40 AM

Sleep tummy hurty Zodi accidently posted the wrong video and has been shot. New and improved still stomuch hurty Zodi is here to put the right video up now!

Zodi Plays: Halo [11] Mushroom Samba (https://youtu.be/IUnRNqV8G7s)

Video Length: 24:52

In this exciting episode, we finish up with our introduction of the Flood, getting to meet all but the last "type" of them, and generally having an okay if confused time getting out of the area we spent all this time getting into. But at the end... something weird happens! Time for an abrupt shift of location! But we'll get into that next time...

Hope you all enjoyed this CORRECT, INTENDED TO BE RELEASED VIDEO. Doof. See you all next time.

DataNinja

2020-05-20, 10:06 AM

Whoops! Hope you feel better soon, Zodi!

I'm just remembering that you're playing on Heroic, and thus are going to probably do way better than my friend and I playing. We died on Normal. A lot.

Huh! I didn't know about that 'friendly Flood' easter egg. Neat!

I do not think that you had to go to the elevator. I don't remember stumbling on that while we were trying to remember the way to go. ...it would have explained why the heck my memory was inconsistent with where we were when backtracking. Huh. :smallsigh:

So, the elevator shaft completely covered with blood reminds me that... the newer graphics just don't have that. Pretty much any time there's a bunch of blood around? Not really visible. The green falling goop is not that visible. It definitely makes things have less of an impact, and takes away the part that makes this level good conceptually - the dark, horror aesthetic, where you're lost, seeing the effects of these creatures, fighting through hordes of them. The new graphics have it all cleaner, and you're just... wandering through rooms.

I found the shotgun super useful for the flood. That plus AR solved a lot of problems. Can't speak for Halos 2 and 3, but I found it about as good as in Reach, where it's pretty dang useful if close-up is your proclivity. Which... with the Flood, they'll make it close-up. :smalltongue:

Em didn't drop you from the second energy bridge. That one was on the fritz to make sure you couldn't cross - flickering in and out.

Floaty robot friends! :D

Oh boy. The Library. :smalltongue:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-20, 02:12 PM

I also like the shotgun against the flood. It's absolutely horrible against the covenant in a conventional firefight though.

LaZodiac

2020-05-22, 10:30 AM

Video release slightly delayed because I am a sleepy bitch.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [9] Nerd Bench (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLowS38T7bI)

Video Length: 25:27

With our mandatory vacation battle tournament finished, it's time to wander around aimlessly and talk to people! This episode is honestly a fair amount of talking, but a signifigent portion of it is VERY good from a comedy standpoint, and honestly from a world building standpoint as well. It's fascinating to see the NPCs develop as you play, and to be able to... for lack of a better term, recognize these faceless NPCs because of the dialogue they're giving. The bench couple, the two Z Syndicate rumour mongers, Protagonist and his Father. I think it is really cool, and that a TON of effort has gone into the localization of this game, and it shows.

It shows even more when, after a good night's rest, we get called in for our next job; head over to the lab to help guard it. Wherein we find a plethora of clickable objects, some of which give rarer extra responses that I don't realize I hadn't seen when clicking! It's a shocking amount of text! But yeah, the IMPORTANT stuff is this; we, and Evil of all people, are going to be guarding this place from whoever might want to break in... and after a quick sweep of the lab it is abundantly clear that the person in question is QUITE adept at breaking in... to the point that it might be an inside job.

But exploring that possibility will be for next time. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you then!

DataNinja

2020-05-22, 02:06 PM

Ninja_Prawn

2020-05-22, 02:22 PM

And if that robo is 30cm, Gyro is very short! :smalltongue:

Aeson

2020-05-22, 02:38 PM

The text you missed about the bench was:
"What's with all the benches in this place? Are these guys so lazy that they gotta rest every ten feet?"

Qwertystop

2020-05-22, 02:48 PM

The restaurant owner was in the tournament to try to get money, right? But the kid in the park points out that there was no prize.

LaZodiac

2020-05-22, 03:06 PM

Oh man! Everything has unique text! And it's all comedic! I love when games do that! A lot of this heavily reminds me of Star Force. "Oh boy, a button!" "I want to press it!" (Sadly, there's no pickups here, so they can't pull the joke "pick up an item" thing.) :smallbiggrin:

Yeah, this place seems kinda… sketch. Locked emergency exits, people going in and it not being actually reported,

"I'm sure that that robo's 30 meters." Pretty sure you mean 30 centimeters. 30 meters would be, like, a 9 story house. :smallwink:

...oh boy. You never change, do you, Harry? :smallsigh:

I feel bad for Marcia. Like, dang, Ernest, you said she was your best, let her have a mental health day or two, geez.

Oh, good. Do a maybe-crime.

AS I SAY IN VIDEO, I don't know what a distance is :smallamused:

The text you missed about the bench was:
"What's with all the benches in this place? Are these guys so lazy that they gotta rest every ten feet?"

Aah, nice.

The restaurant owner was in the tournament to try to get money, right? But the kid in the park points out that there was no prize.

He would have done what Gyro did and advertised his shop. "We just spent like five hours doing this come to Daimon's for food!"

Aeson

2020-05-22, 03:11 PM

The restaurant owner was in the tournament to try to get money, right? But the kid in the park points out that there was no prize.
Maybe he had something going on the side?

It might be a bit of a stretch, but it's also plausible that what the kid at the park meant was that there wasn't a trophy rather than that there wasn't any prize at all.

DataNinja

2020-05-22, 03:23 PM

AS I SAY IN VIDEO, I don't know what a distance is :smallamused:
Was just a funny image to me. :smalltongue:

Lord Raziere

2020-05-22, 04:57 PM

Episode 9:
Robots have rights to y'know, they get their workshifts and mandated breaks like everyone else. granted this is cyberpunk, so the workshifts are twelve hours and the breaks are one minute, but they still have them like all the other corporate drones in this jungle of steel, concrete and false advertising. robot lives matter too y'know.

of course Ernest is the only one happy with this.

wait.....earthquakes. without being in the news? I smell a conspiracy. someone is doing a cover up! there is some big custom robo underneath the chinese restaurant being secretly built to be some super weapon isn't there!? and I bet it has nukes to, where is Solid Snake when you need him?

these two lovers are so totally teens who eloped and just live in the park now to escape their families. I bet their lovey-dovey act is just there to keep them from acknowledging the true reality of the situation, keeping them from going insane by living in denial.

you are now Inside The Thing™.

no, no push button, randomly pushing buttons leads to the stupids.

wearing glasses just to look smarter is the opposite of nerdy I'm pretty sure. because it implies you use it as a social tool to blend in with crowd you run with and/or define your role to others so they "know" your smart on sight rather than any logical functional use, when a real nerd just wears them because they often read books and thus get nearsighted as a result, never having cared enough about how they look to others as long as they themselves can see things right.

see, you know its a depressing cyberpunk future when the company puts up meaningless motivational posters and slogans like that. because it tells you that they saw their morale was bad already and decided to try and fix it using the laziest cheapest way to do that, like someone trying to bandaid on it.

Evil, working for free? suspicious. I think its logical that its Dark Blue itself who is actually doing all the breaking, entering and destroying cameras. after all, you get what you pay for when it comes to mercenaries, and there is no such thing as a free mercenary.

wait the police distract the populace and put on tournaments?....oh no, this is even worse than I thought, the police are glorified propagandists. custom robos are nothing but a distraction from the real issues of this world! what is it the police don't want us to know!?

....Marcia do you have some feelings for Linda your not talking about? :P I kid. but yeah, Evil/Dark Blue is so totally doing this, like its so obvious. like sure they COULD fake us out here, reveal the real threat, but from this information one could easily conclude that of the people doing this, Dark Blue or Evil are the ones most likely to since they're working for free (which simply doesn't happen, money makes the world go 'round and if they're not gaining money legit, they're making it some other way...) its either that or that one guy with smaller text who wears glasses just to look smart, his reasoning is too social-oriented for this kind of crowd.

Harry, Harry, Harry.... *shakes head*

Geno9999

2020-05-22, 10:27 PM

Episode 9:

[0:40] *triumphant instrumental version of the anime title theme plays in the background*

[0:55] *record scratch* "Again I ask, WHY DID THEY MAKE THE CRASH TEST DUMMIES FEEL PAIN?! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zum81Rwa2fw&t=906s)"

[1:38] Ah yes, the most threatening of security: a man in a lab coat.

[1:50] You know, Protagonist's Dad is a pretty good dad, but I'm starting to think that's the problem, as anime only really has Dead Dad, Bad Dad, or Not-In-Any-Material Dad, and this man doesn't fit any of them. Yet. *loads gun*

[2:30] While Raziere throws cyberpunk tropes at wall to see what sticks, I can assure you that's there's no conspiracy whatsoever, just the cost of living in the designated LA Chinatown-town of the city. As designated by the Custom Robo Government, it must have an afternoon earthquake that lasts 5 seconds on the hour. At least it's not Bogey's, what with it being in the designated downtown area with it's designated late night back alley murder. Speaking of, I should speed this reaction along...

[6:50] Ernest was 100% writing poetry when you went up to him, can't convince me otherwise. :smallbiggrin:

[8:50] ...then which scientist dude did I actually murder in Bogey's back alley for the Custom Robo Government then?

[10:57] Wow, Gyro was right, Linda does live in her lab!

[11:30] ...That explains why he said "yeah whatever" to me...

[14:40] Wait, even the employees have no idea why the doors are locked?! I thought it would be like an employee issued key or something!

[17:06] Okay, I take back what I said about Raziere's methods, because she's clearly right about the cops being glorified propagandists.

[19:40] While digging around, I found that apparently there's an upcoming spiritual successor Synaptic Drive (https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/synaptic-drive-switch/) that's also produced by him coming to the Switch on May 28.

[23:30] DANG is it roast Harry o'clock?! *looks at clock* Huh. [23:40] GEE, I WONDER WHY

[25:00] Harry, your sister is the designated GOOD cop, I'm surprised you don't know what unethical means.

LaZodiac

2020-05-22, 11:31 PM

So, funny thing about Synaptic Drive! I was gonna mention this at some point during the LP but heey, scroll down and look at who is in charge of the game's development.

It's Kouji Kenjo.

As in, the guy who was head Producer of Custom Robo for the gamecube. Synaptic Drive, kinda bad art decisions aside, is not a spiritual successor, it is a direct lineage. To put it bluntly, it is Mighty No Custom Robo.

DataNinja

2020-05-23, 12:23 AM

[1:50] You know, Protagonist's Dad is a pretty good dad, but I'm starting to think that's the problem, as anime only really has Dead Dad, Bad Dad, or Not-In-Any-Material Dad, and this man doesn't fit any of them. Yet. *loads gun*

Sure he does. You just can't look at it from the point of view of a side character like us. Does the protagonist see his dad much? No. There's your solution! :smalltongue:
Besides, he probably has dead other relatives to serve as inspiration fodder instead.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-23, 12:42 AM

[17:06] Okay, I take back what I said about Raziere's methods, because she's clearly right about the cops being glorified propagandists.

*pulls up crazy conspiracy theory board complete with tacks and string connecting them*

tHeY hAvE nOt FaIlEd Me YeT. *puts on lead hat, tinfoil is for fools who like to be vulnerable to radio signals*

now if the police are doing nothing but organizing custom robo tournaments to distract people, and the laboratory is also making custom robos for entertainment, and the nearby facility is for going up higher ranks in custom robo, and there is mysterious earthquakes in Daimon which also had MURDER happen there, clearly this means the whole government is robo based- BUT WHY? why would the government care about a simple yet popular GAME? Why are the spending important resources simply to fund research into this? why have everyone buy a cube to play this game?

the answer is in Daimon. you see the REAL potential of custom robos has not yet been explored! if one can use this technology to create entire battlefields and robos within them at people can control- why stop there? Why not making bigger greater, more complex virtual realities that people can play in to do more complex things than just fight with two robots? unless there is some sort of limit that they have not yet figured out, and they need something to get around this, like more power or something. and the results of bringing even greater holosseums into existence larger than the ones we see could have unsafe consequences like causing big vibrations to radiate out from a big holosseum suddenly coming into existence.

but why are they keeping it secret? due to the Neon Genesis Evangelion Principle that any anime government with a secret agenda will be trying to achieving some sort of twisted unity through a hivemind, obviously the custom robo government is seeking to create a massive holosseum to pull the entire city into it, and live out a virtual reality life in a permanent dive in an attempt at creating a false paradise, but that doing so will cause great tremors throughout the city as a result. the tremors will cause a great earthquake that will kill everyone while they are in the super-holosseum thus trapping them there forever. the cubes are all actually the devices used to force people into this false paradise you see, and capture their minds within it. thats why Marcia's deep dives to perceive their last thoughts can work at all, as they are the prototype storage capability to store entire people's minds within them!

Clearly Linda is apart of Syndicate Z working to make this happen, Evil will turn out to not be connected to this at all and just a scoundrel working his own selfish gain whose bumbling leads you to finding the truth, Gyro's father and Marcia's brother both are in on the plan to put everyone in a virtual false paradise, and Gyro must stop them before all become trapped in eternal custom robo valhalla!

also the sky is green, pigs fly and the illuminati control everything. how I came to these conclusions is something that only a galaxy brain can truly comprehend. :smalltongue:

LaZodiac

2020-05-25, 09:23 AM

Video's a little late due to me lounging and sleeping in just a little bit.

Zodi Play: Robo [10] The Zee Syndicate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcaa_eTBUb8&feature=youtu.be)

Video Length: 36:22

In this exciting episode, we neglect our actual duties to snoop around the offices trying to find out the truth on who really did this... only for this to immediately backfire spectacularly, allowing the enemy to break in and start rummaging through the place! But it's a double blind, because once we rush to investigate they proceed to break into the rest of the lab! How devious and or suspicious of certain people in our group!

However, as luck would have it, we end up finding some of the enemy; the Z Syndicate, dressed in if I may be honest very cool outfits. We fight them, but the implicit nature of Custom Robo fighting means they kinda get away anyway, but presumably we stop them from stealing what they wanted to steal. After some futzing around trying to find more of them, we end up facing down what appears to be their leader! A woman is a rather gaudy (but still kinda good) outfit, using an ILLEGAL ROBO, and an illegal gun as well! Illegal parts are uh... as you can see in the fight, pretty damn substantial.

Thankfully, after a little hiccup, we do manage to defeat her. She pull the classic "I'll let you go" villain thing, but in a stunning swerve of writing everyone else is like "naw you beat her don't listen that nonsense" which I quite like. And with the rays of the morning sun glistening out across the now rather ransacked lab... it is time to go home and sleep for an entire day. After talking to random people, as is the norm. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time for... a fun time.

Geno9999

2020-05-25, 10:44 AM

Episode 10:

[0:10] Ah yes the A button. The A button on the controller. The A button on the controller, not in my hands, but in the hands of the player. That A button. Got it.

[3:50] It's kind of funny how nonchalant he looks about a suspect fleeing the scene.

[12:15] Yeah they look pretty cool. Also they aren't falling over like bowling pins when you beat them up, so they must be tougher stuff mentally too... unless Gyro forgot to switch off the safety, whoops.:smalltongue:

[16:20] "That is an outfit" And an eyeful with that pose. Though given that Eliza's supposed to be Evil Catwalk Model, this may well be the most normal outfit she has.

[21:15] Yeah that robo is pretty tanky, and gatling seemed to leave you too vulnerable for too long.

[23:30] And she's just casually walking away. Gyro, are you sure you remembered to take the safety off?

[26:10] To be fair, the things smashed on the ground is totally Evil's fault.

[28:03] As a cashier; mood.

[30:25] As a cashier; EW! No way that stuff lasts more than a day!

[31:20] When you're doing bounty hunter things, duh. Though that DOES raise the question of why is the safety is even a thing in the first place for consumer Robos. Police or Bounty Hunters fine, but these are used by children! And it was implied to have been turned off by default when we got the Ray 01! :smalleek:

[34:00] Well ain't that wonderful... :smallannoyed:

Qwertystop

2020-05-25, 12:23 PM

[31:20] When you're doing bounty hunter things, duh. Though that DOES raise the question of why is the safety is even a thing in the first place for consumer Robos. Police or Bounty Hunters fine, but these are used by children! And it was implied to have been turned off by default when we got the Ray 01! :smalleek:

In the case of the Ray, at least, it was a prototype. Maybe it'd be sold with the safety on. Or maybe eye-scan registration doesn't work with the safety for some reason.

EDIT: Throwing Pod is a very bomb-like pod, and Mine is a very pod-like bomb. There's a few tiny-range guns that are very tackle-like, as well. Possibly bomb-like or pod-like guns exist too? I don't remember.

DataNinja

2020-05-25, 01:25 PM

Oh boy. Running around, splitting up, things getting broken. What fun. :smallamused:

I dunno whatcha mean, Zodi. There's nothing suspicious about Evil, this place, the locked emergency exits, or the earthquakes. I'm sure that none of them are connected to anything else, say, via tunnels or something. :smallamused:

Oh no, Cipher Peon! Time for a Pokémon Battle. :smalltongue:

Huh, okay, guess the alternate battle music is just something that can pop up occasionally, or something.

Pfffft. My Video History prof was right - you can't escape the name Eliza. :smalltongue:

What? Anime outfits being horny? I don't believe it. :smallamused:
Is cute, though.

Oof, yeah, that all looks... brutal in conjunction
Good job in the second round, though!

Man, another woman who's just "Woman" even though we explicitly know her name. And this one seems plot important for some reason, too! :smalltongue:

Huh, plot. Interesting. No monolithic antagonist faction. Neat.

I think the idea is the safety switch deals less damage to the robos, too. So unless it's mandated that everyone uses it, you'll be at a disadvantage towards a person who doesn't have it on. So... I guess higher stakes? It's the Prisoner's Dilemma.

LaZodiac

2020-05-27, 08:23 AM

Maybe Gyro is just faceblind to women who aren't immediately important to him. Anyway Halos.

Zodi Plays: Halo [12] Door One Of Ten (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOTa3HVZio)

Video Length: 29:39

In this video, we begin The Library, one of if not THE most infamous level in Halo. Long, arduous, and full of mushrooms. Let us dive right in, and save my thoughts for this till the end.

With that in mind, please enjoy.

DataNinja

2020-05-27, 10:43 AM

Ohhhhhboy. The Library. When my friend and I did this on Normal, we still died. A lot. I pray it goes smoother for you two. For all our sakes.

...dang it, Em, that's like the one of those songs that I actually remember, and now you've got it in my head. Thanks. :smallmad::smalltongue:

I think it's the most recent patch that broke things, because the end of this level's when I remembered to turn Subtitles on, and that's when I could read Guilty Spark's pontificating. (Postscript: Okay, they seem to be back later.)

Yeah, at least something changed with the controls. I totally had that same feeling with the things being... off the second time I booted things up.

And now you know why this level is a problem. You have encountered all of the issues in the first ten minutes. Lots of enemies that frankly aren't that interesting. Boring interior. Not enough ammo (especially on heroic when it takes more than one AR bullet to pop the infection forms). Dark. Easy to get lost in. ...and the same thing repeated over and over ten times. He's not joking on that, by the way. Let's all sing the padding song! :smallyuk:

And just think of how much worse this would be solo, because there's no multiplayer scaling! :smallsigh:

Lord Raziere

2020-05-27, 04:11 PM

On Episode 10:
Lina, your the one literally living here, your the one I'd suspect the most since you seem to be treating this as some cushy luxury mansion rather than a serious workplace.

No....the window's shards fall into the inside, which means it was broken from the OUTSIDE. if it was broken from the inside, we wouldn't see shards falling in. But Evil's associates are probably behind it

their outfits are suspiciously similar to Evils though. DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN. I'm beginning to suspect that Evil is the Jessie and James of Syndicate Z.

Eliza eh? yup yup, just what I thought beautiful anime woman antagonist. she is radiating big "ohohohoho" energy. I like the fan. and seems to be the first real hard fight too! with actual losses.

wait the group split and now there are factions....meaning Z- Syndicate isn't some monolithic evil organization but rather has different leaders, goals and directions? wow this just gets realer by the day. the rebel group against the megacorps are having disagreements on how to far go in the revolution, clearly.

that so a lie, Linda. you gave Gyro the Ray-01 only a few days ago! you have a super mech given to us right here, don't feed us that nonsense.

Protag-boy has acquired Robot Rival. surely this Robot has their own dream its working to achieve. maybe it to dreams of participating in an actual tournament and proving that it is the best and not just another training dummy, so he spars with someone as determined as it is to prove it can be strong as well.

On Halo Episode 12:
Yeah, I don't remember much about the Library, but looking at it: its very samey, nothing but Flood to fight, and you have a point this level is dark and that universally seems to make a level worse.

One of Ten. I don't remember that, but I was young, so I probably beat this level through sheer determination. like I remember not liking it as much, but I don't think I was old enough to realize that meant it wasn't good.

LaZodiac

2020-05-29, 11:08 AM

Today's super late video brought to you by doing silly voices for my cousin while he plays Dragon Quest Builders 2. Protip; screechy British skeletor voice BAD for your throat, do not do it.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [11] Meat Robo (https://youtu.be/h-SV12EGniE)

Video Length: 26:07

In today's episode, we receive a call... after we sleep for almost an entire full day. Ernest wants us to investigate a strange disturbance at Bogey's Cafe... and what we find there is actually pretty horrifying. The organic autonomous robo, shooting up the place and causing widespread- if localized- destruction. The only hope we have is to face it head on... which we do so, fighting within a strange, idyllic meadow.

After very probably nearly dying to this horrifying flesh machine, who should show up but that mysterious blue haired anime and his apparent boss, Oboro! Leader of the Z Syndicate, in contrast to Eliza's Z Syndicate. He's a far bit goofier in design for a number of reasons, but also kind of intimidating at the same time. We end up tussling, though Harry takes on Oboro. We're left with Legato over there, and his illegal Lightning Sky and Eagle Gun, both of which make him a deadly foe to be reckoned with.

Thankfully we're (barely) able to fight them off, and with little else to do Gyro decides that after slamming his brain against a highly advanced super robo and wanted criminals using dangerous, illegal parts, a single hour of waking time is all he needed for today and throws himself back in bed. Valid, honestly.

And that's it for today! Hope you all enjoyed. No glossary this time because, once again, no glossary update! It's super weird... ah well. I'll see you all next time, take care!

DataNinja

2020-05-29, 01:19 PM

Meat Robo? Oh no. *Flashbacks to when you played Psychonauts*

Oh, yeah, geez, Z-Syndicate battles sure step things up.

Huh. They use 'robot' again when describing this thing. Reports of a bizzare-looking robot. But then Harry uses robo with after.

Huh, yeah, I'd not noticed that the trees were artificial and metal until now, but looking at the park, they totally are. Neat.
Oh, and you comment on that a moment later. :smalltongue:

Going for all the Nintendo references, I see.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-29, 05:40 PM

On Episode 11:
.....This isn't mind screwery. this is physical screwery.

what, how doesn't it look like a robo!? it has two arms, two legs, is robotic and angular, its as gundam-esque as any other we've seen! how is it NOT like a robo!? confused Raziere is confused.

they're just casually talking while the robo is firing one way or another, is it just doing target practice?

OOOOOOOOOOOH, now I see why I they said it didn't look the same, see from a distance I couldn't tell that those red
and purple parts were organ and vein-looking, still its pretty humanoid and has mechanical parts to it. the graphics of this game was throwing me off.

wait.....no.....the park......if its all plastic then- oooooooh nooooooo. :smalleek:

feeding on....negative energy? :smalleek:

man, Marcia's brother makes Marcia look easily, no wonder she is so good, she had to spar against THAT guy!

well the holosseum you make could be a genetic trait- or more sensibly it could be an environmental trait. they're products of the mind after all! siblings could have similar holosseums from being raised in the same social environment and atmosphere

two distinct manifestations, signs of evolution. hm. AI's evolving? robos?

also nintendo references. okay.

but yeah, the things revealed in this have implicatiiiioooons and I'm afraid of theorizing now because I might be TOO Accurate with them and spoil something by extrapolation.

Qwertystop

2020-05-29, 06:06 PM

but yeah, the things revealed in this have implicatiiiioooons and I'm afraid of theorizing now because I might be TOO Accurate with them and spoil something by extrapolation.

We all know by now that your theorizing and speculation isn't based on actual knowledge of the game – and I, for one, have been loving seeing what you come up with. Go for it, I say.

LaZodiac

2020-05-29, 06:24 PM

I second Qwerty on this point.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-29, 08:01 PM

Very well. I shall theorize.

On Meat Robo:
First: does the meat aesthetic have any fundamental difference to normal Robos? maybe, maybe not. common sense suggests that they are beings formed of thought, and thus whatever aesthetic chosen to represent them shouldn't actually matter. except if they can go into the real world, thats a different story. because a physical thing does require working parts in order to function, its all connected. so if a robo needs bio parts to exist in the real world, that might be some imitation of human biology to achieve that. after all, if normal robots could be like humans, they would've already made those because they have robots who think already they're basically giant roombas who can think and fight.

the feeding on negative thoughts, and setting an environment to do so implies something where the energy for the robos come from. like the cube is too small for a battery or engine, and being carried around in a pocket doesn't exactly give you design options for solar power. that means that all robos have to be powered by thoughts, there is no other way they can work. makes sense then that autonomous robo needs thought to survive to. but why negative thoughts? why not design a robo with incentive to eat positive thoughts instead, after all, that makes it so that the robo will want to make people happy, therefore those people happy will want the robo to do it again and thus the robo would do it again to get more food. it'd be a good cycle.

unless! negative emotions just give more energy. its easier to spark anger than it is to maintain happiness. or maybe its just designed as a weapon against people by Z for some reason.

On Plastic Grass:
The fact that Gyro says that the grass and trees isn't made of plastic and metal and whatnot....but doesn't know what they really made of, is quite concerning. Gyro is stupid normal guy protagonist person. the person we're supposed to be in the shoes of in this world. and even he doesn't know real grass or wood is, he describes it to his friends, and they don't either. it means that their entire lives, they've never seen a real plant, or wilderness. that they have lived in this city their entire life, thinking that plastic grass and metal trees is just how they are. thats not a good thing. they don't even that moment where they say "oh so this is what grass USED to be like" or whatever in a futuristic story because they don't even know that grass used to be different. which implies that this society has completely forgotten what nature is.

and despite our modern world being full of artificial stuff, we still have nature around us. its become more garden like in the last couple centuries, but its still there. THIS implies something dark about the world, and there is many directions it can be taken of varying plausibility. and in most of them it implies a contained closed off environment., after all why aren't we allowed to go to other sections of the city, or outside of the city?

The city this takes place in is a futuristic artificial dome or underground artificial environment. The environment is controlled, everything is recycled and basically everything you see in this city is artificial environments designed for human habitation. The rest of Earth outside......is a wasteland, or some other post-apocalyptic hellscape. we only see this city....because its the last city on Earth. there is nothing else out there. Something horrible happened, maybe a nuclear war, maybe something even worse and the Earth is still in recovery either through humanity's fault or something else....and they just decided not to wield weapons anymore because it was horrible. over time, the government decided to introduce robos to distract them from the truth, to keep them from adventuring beyond the city too far and to keep their minds off this depressing situation, until it has been so long, that people have grown up not knowing that this place is completely artificial. and the police and researchers are the people allowed to know what the truth of the situation is at all and make sure the dome is kept running, and everyone is kept sane so that they don't go stir crazy from living in the same city for what might be decades more. basically think one of the Vaults from Fallout, but bigger and with people trying not to screw everything up so humanity survives to one day populate the Earth again.

Theory 2 is basically Theory 1 but IN SPACE!: they're all on a space station designed for human habitation with an artificial constantly recycling environment, because Earth is just not habitable anymore. same deal with Theory 1, just with added maybe the earthquakes Daimon experiences being the space station experiencing trouble in space or something? but thats better explained by Theory 1. There is nothing but space outside the city, and the whole day night cycle is artificial.

Now this is getting into the more implausible ones. This theory posits that instead of the city being a closed off environment- the entire planet has become a city and they just no longer have grass or real trees to the point where most have forgotten. of course this is highly implausible because where would you possibly get the materials for that coruscant-level building project? I'm only entertaining it because anime nonsense, I wouldn't put it past a game as ridiculous as this to proclaim that the entire world is a city now and that Z is somehow fighting for a more green earth and to bring back real nature. this also means there must be some other reason to distract people with the robo tournaments since I can't see what would people could discover from this scenario, so more marks against this.

I had a fourth theory on this being in a virtual reality, but the more I thought about it, the stupider it seemed because of the games focus on robos fighting in a virtual reality already. it just didn't make sense so I'm discarding it.

either way, nature has to have been completely wiped out or they are all in some contained environment for some reason and most don't know the outside world. the meat robo might be made from someone who still remembers the the world before- and thus their holosseum reflects that, just as two siblings raised in the same environment and family would have the same holosseum because the people involved get the same teachings and such. like the meat robo might BE someone just uploaded into this auto-robo going around doing this because of some revenge scheme, perhaps because this city survived the apocalypse and others did not, or just getting revenge for gaia herself.

but yeah, the police and researchers probably know the true state of Earth, Z Syndicate might be trying to do something about that with a robot designed for revenge maybe, perhaps to expose the truth? I dunno they don't seem like the extremist villain type, though Marcia's brother with how silent and mysterious he is being, might be the one out to do that sort of extremist thing, just using criminals to do that?

the other option to all this is that their city just lives in an extremely isolated oppressive small nation from the rest of the futuristic world for some reason and the Z-syndicate is actually trying to free them from some small city-cult of custom robos while the rest of the world is fine and the authorities here are just evil for some reason but.....I don't buy it for some reason. why would an oppressive government want people to forget real trees or grass? makes no sense. also another theory to discard.

so yeah, whatever's happening in Custom Robo, Earth probably isn't doing too well because of it, basically.

LaZodiac

2020-05-29, 08:47 PM

A thing I'll comment about; all the robos ARE made of metal. They're made in factories and then miniaturized into the cube. So meat robo is definitely strange.

Lord Raziere

2020-05-29, 09:05 PM

A thing I'll comment about; all the robos ARE made of metal. They're made in factories and then miniaturized into the cube. So meat robo is definitely strange.

:smalleek:

Just....just....

okay they're built, but why, why build a meat robo, why is meat more powerful than metal, NO! its not about more power.....oh no.....
autonomous Meat Robos are PEOPLE!!! people who are fighting themselves rather than sending a metal avatar to do it. because they're almost dead or a copied mind or something. one could make an artificial person with organ printing but thats not sensible, not given the holosseum displayed, the meat robo has to be a person modified to be one if they have memories of the time before....

Geno9999

2020-05-29, 10:21 PM

Episode 11

[3:20] Oh my god, the robots are taking my back alley assassin job!

[4:26] I think the logic is that the Basic Arena we saw early on in the game (and possibly the arenas the share the aesthetic such as High-rise Plaza) is the pre-built holosseum for all Robos. It is weird how it's supposedly randomized all the time and not selected between opponents in the story, but there's probably a Doylist explanation that the game designers didn't want players to optimize the fun out of Story mode by picking one stage all the time and/or not overwhelm players with choices between Robo parts and selecting stages while they're learning the mechanics through Story Mode.

[7:35] Yeah... I have a feeling if Eliza wasn't the Wake Up Call boss, Mr. Meat Robo the First takes the title handedly.

[8:50] 59 Health, by the skin of your teeth :smalleek: Nice comeback though.

[9:10] Harry: "Well. That was easy." Gyro: "I ALMOST DIED BACK THERE!"

[9:40] Okay, this plot point flew over my head the first time I played through because I was preoccupied with "So... Grass feels like grass? Duh?" but it's really clever how the game's aesthetics and the Gamecube's limitations hides the whole "Nobody knows what grass/nature is anymore." You wouldn't think all the flat squarish textures of green was plastic, most would just figure that's how the game/artstyle shows grass.

[11:47] Huh, he uses the same stage as Marcia, I wonder who could it be? /s

[15:28] Yeah, that's kind of why 3-Way gun as been my go-to across games. Pretty good horizontal cover makes it easy to hit, but doesn't sacrifice power, especially if you do get opponents in the middle column or in between columns since the homing is good enough for multiple bullets to converge onto the target.

[17:15] Doesn't have to be an inherited thing, by the game's logic of holosseums being based on memories and psyche of the user, it would make sense for siblings to have similar holosseums just from shared memories from growing up together.

[20:30] Well Trish's dialogue didn't seem to change, but I'm pretty sure the Bogey's Illegal Gamblers are new there.

[21:00] Yeah! Make your dreams come true you... faceless orange visor wearing npc you!

[22:30] Ha! Computers that learn... Oh hey, Alpharad Plus had posted a new Amiibo video!

[24:33] Yes. Tired. That's a word to describe being stuck at the park for what, a week now?

LaZodiac

2020-06-01, 10:59 AM

Bit of a late video, but it is time for a Custom Robo

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [12] Two Too Tango (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHL904vkImM)

Video Length: 29:51

Last time, we discovered the horrible meat robo that has been going around eating negative energy and potentially killing people, as well as the criminals who are trying to capture it for no doubt nefarious purposes.

Today; bread and circus style 2v2 tournament arc! Sweet...? All things being equal I actually like this segment, it is just weirdly presented given what JUST happened yesterday. The game's pacing is really weird and this sort of thing is the biggest example of that. Regardless, this DOES mean we're gonna get a lot of fun dialogue, and actually kinda interesting fights. I'm not the biggest fan of 2v2 in this game, but it is a nice change up from the standard 1v1 fights.

Mechanical wank time! We get our first Funky Big Head model, the Seal Head! Funky Big Heads are... bad. They're defensive, which is good, but they're SO slow and they have minimized damage output, and the double jumps really are just not that good compared to the dashing! Funky Big Head almost works as an archetype, almost, but it just... isn't quite there. The charge attacks they do are also this weird, lengthy float attack that makes no god damn sense but does have homing, meaning it is an easy charge attack to HIT with, just... not a good one.

And not much else to say this time. The contents kinda speak for itself. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you next time for... more of this, and some INSANE fights.

Qwertystop

2020-06-01, 12:53 PM

I like using the Seal Head's tackle and others like it defensively – the invulnerability lasts a while.

Aeson

2020-06-01, 01:03 PM

As to the number of matches you have to win to get through the tournament, my guess would be seven; the tournament format appears to be double elimination with 50 teams, but the game seems not to allow Gyro to lose a match so for you it's effectively single-elimination through the winners' bracket plus a championship match against whoever won the losers' bracket and thus the number of matches should be log(50)/log(2) + 1 = 5.6 + 1 ~ 7.

LaZodiac

2020-06-01, 01:13 PM

I like using the Seal Head's tackle and others like it defensively – the invulnerability lasts a while.

Maybe it is just me, or the nature of 2v2 fights in this game, but I didn't notice invuln frames.

As to the number of matches you have to win to get through the tournament, my guess would be seven; the tournament format appears to be double elimination with 50 teams, but the game seems not to allow Gyro to lose a match so for you it's effectively single-elimination through the winners' bracket plus a championship match against whoever won the losers' bracket and thus the number of matches should be log(50)/log(2) + 1 = 5.6 + 1 ~ 7.

I'm bad at math but this sounds legit.

Lord Raziere

2020-06-01, 02:10 PM

On Episode 12:
"many decades since the police squad was first founded" more implications, this means this current states of affairs has happened within a century if its measured in decades.

OH NO TWO OF THE NPC'S HAS BECOME SELF-AWARE OF THEIR VIDEO-GAME-NESS! QUICK DELETE THEM, THEY MUST NOT KNOW! or they'll start to become Monikas or even Dr. Coomers!

wow, thats one of the biggest loser moments for Harry yet. don't worry Harry, at least your not Evil. *ba-dum-tsh*

Wendy's robo looks like a magical girl. fitting I guess.

of COURSE that Harry's victory pose for that mech of course it is....sigh.

oh god, the metajoke is spreading! soon the NPCs will revolt.....

the law has corrupted this man, now he stands in the way of love for no reason. love over rules!

who are these two chuckleheads? Anthony and Thomas? oh right, those idiots who fell for Mary's charms not knowing that she is as mercurial and fleeting as the wind. I have no sympathy for them.

even the power of friendship has its limits it seems. I'd just love it if that trope was seriously used by the heroes in a climax.....and then it doesn't work, and then they have to come up with an actual smart plan to defeat the foe.

Qwertystop

2020-06-01, 03:01 PM

Maybe it is just me, or the nature of 2v2 fights in this game, but I didn't notice invuln frames.

I'm bad at math but this sounds legit.

Most robos are invincible during the part of their tackle that can actually hit opponents, while their color is changed and the glow effect is there. I think the only one that isn't is the Strike Vanisher (Javelin?) that instead has a super-spammable tackle.

DataNinja

2020-06-01, 08:00 PM

Oh, man, not much to say overall, but geez do I love games that do this with their writing and minor NPCs and all.

LaZodiac

2020-06-03, 08:27 AM

Library Time Intensifies. Time for more Halols.

Zodi Plays: Halo [13] T H E I N D E X (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuoT-FSdGzQ)

Video Length: 37:18

In this exciting episode, we continue to shove our way through the meaningless existence that is The Library. We both end up going a little nuts near the end, and at some point during the video editing process I got a very good and smart idea in my head that kicks ass.

Otherwise, this is more of The Library, so you know what you're getting into. The good news is we beat it! The bad news is, we had to! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy. We'll see you guys next time.

HalfTangible

2020-06-03, 12:21 PM

AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING...

Fun fact: Apparently Index can refer to a list of restricted or prohibited material, the reading of which was prohibited or restricted from Roman Catholics by church authorities. Given how much religious symbolism is in this game both for good and for ill (John-117 is your main character for cryin' out loud) that might be what it was referring to.

Although I personally assumed that it was called an index because the activation codes for this superweapon were so complex and long, and the Library was full of different codes and protocols, this was just the relevant one for firing the ring.

"The DM has decided that we have gone off the rails"

Yes

Like

I understand what's going on and can make guesses as to why GS didn't teleport you directly to the index (his programming probably prevents him from getting you any closer) but that's partly because I've played the later games and understand what the index is for. It's pretty easy to tell that activating this ring is meant to contain the flood outbreak in some way, but unless I missed something I don't think this game ever explained that it's the ACTIVATION index for the Halo ring. IE the launch codes for the weapon.

And if you don't know that until AFTER the Library this feels like a complete slog for no reward

DataNinja

2020-06-03, 01:23 PM

Ahahahaha. I see you guys also fell prey to Rocket Flood. I was not expecting it either.

Halo got popular because it combined a lot of things that we take for granted now into one package. Like the two weapon system, shields, just huge expansive scale (even if, uh, it wasn't the best at execution, it at least felt grand), pretty decent AI for the time, vehicle integration. Good multiplayer. What it did absolutely does not seem revolutionary now, but that's because we've had many, many iterations of it. It's not really... a great game anymore, its significance is far more foundational.

Another way to make the level worse! Stealth mission. :smalltongue:

Yeeeeah, early Halo is, uh, kinda rough to put it mildly. It was good enough in all aspects when it released, at least, that the story was interesting enough (and Bungie kept teasing things before its release, so it did get hype), even if, as you've pointed out, as a game story it is... kinda eeesh. The EU novel stuff really helped with a lot of that (The Fall of Reach book is often considered one of the best, and it released the same year as the game), and the gameplay, for the time, was revolutionary in improving everything, as I mentioned earlier. But if it came out today? Yeah, the greatness is all grandfathered in. We've had so many advancements.
I personally don't think that the story gets too interesting until Halo 2 - the first Halo pretty much just asks a lot of questions.

HalfTangible

2020-06-03, 01:34 PM

Way to make the level worse:

Select three or four of the doors (it doesn't really matter which ones so long as they're mostly non adjacent) and give them switches that you need to activate in order to progress. Give no indication of which doors need switches and which GS will unlock.

(I did come up with other ideas but they would make the level impossible rather than just difficult and tedious)

Lord Raziere

2020-06-03, 06:54 PM

HalfTangible

2020-06-03, 07:10 PM

On T H E I N D E X
ironically the bullets and mushroom blood are the only things make sure you can tell where you are. the damage is the only thing making sure you have a landmark

I think the survival segment with its music like tells me that that The Index is supposed to be a bit of a survival horror thing to show you how troublesome it is to fight The Flood because they just keep on coming and don't stop, so it makes why would want to use the Halo to kill them because how....Flood-like they are, you can keep killing them all day and get nowhere.
its just that horror doesn't age well. it never does. so whats a good representation of how terrifying foe is yesterday, becomes a tiresome pointless segment today. Halo was good.....when it was new. but now we look back on it and it has withstood the test of time. its the seinfield of shooters.

I'm looking halo speedrunning to answer the question of how they try to get through this level aaaand...apparently they do something "flood bumping" or something, and "grenade jumps" and that the fastest time I can find on legendary is 10:15. .....I'm looking at the other parts? and its one of the longest times even on the speedruns. so whatever speed wizardry they do, only works so far. the only level that matches it in time is "Halo", the second level. the fastest speedrun of the entire halo: combat evolved game is 1:08:16, little over an hour. so even on a speedrun thats one sixth of their time.

how could M do that Zodi? by being a sadist who wants a laugh. it'd be a good meme. "Oh the Library has good things about it? here let me ruin that for you." it'd appeal to the crowd who play videogames to watch stupid but fun stuff happen because of jank.

I disagree. Halo is a game I didn't play in full (no XBOX of my own at the time) but even I heard how bad the Library was; or more specifically how much the flood sucked to fight (they apparently do not get "fun" until Halo 3)

The issue with having the flood as this unstoppable horde that "you can't stand and fight because they just keep coming"... is that the level keeps having you stop to do *exactly that* and you need to succesfully do so in order to progress. If you want the Flood to be an unstoppable horde that you can't fight, then the Library should've been a running section. Hurry to get to the next door (which would have doors on both ends, a la an airlock; there is at least one area like that as I recall) before the horde overwhelms you. Take a moment to rest and recover, maybe find some ammo... then the next area, and so on. At least once, some of the flood would break into the room and you'd have to fight them.

how I'd make it worse:
make it so you have to solve meaningless puzzles that have nothing to do with anything at random doors. it isn't even consistent.

put in a labyrinth segment

make the tide of small facehuggers never stop coming. just an endless stream of them. forever.

add in ice physics.

add in books. but they're all about ancient Forerunner smut.

make all the flood thomas the tank engine

replace Guilty Spark with GladOS.

That last one would actually be great.

"Failure to eliminate all Flood signatures will result in a poor mark on your performance evaluation.

Followed by death."

"It's not just any parasite. It is the deadliest, most unkillable and unstoppable parasite that ever existed. And you just let it loose across the only thing that could stop it.

*clap*
*clap*
*clap*

Good, my slow clap processor's still working. Now let's get to the Library so you can get to fixing this mess. Or die horribly. Either way I'm entertained."

DataNinja

2020-06-03, 07:37 PM

That last one would actually be great.

"Failure to eliminate all Flood signatures will result in a poor mark on your performance evaluation.

Followed by death."

"It's not just any parasite. It is the deadliest, most unkillable and unstoppable parasite that ever existed. And you just let it loose across the only thing that could stop it.

*clap*
*clap*
*clap*

Good, my slow clap processor's still working. Now let's get to the Library so you can get to fixing this mess. Or die horribly. Either way I'm entertained."

Yeah, I concur. Anything can be improved by sassy test robot. :smalltongue:

Lord Raziere

2020-06-03, 07:41 PM

Yeah, I concur. Anything can be improved by sassy test robot. :smalltongue:

yeah but then she lies where the next door is, fills random rooms with deadly neurotoxin and puts in a portal puzzle in that you have a portal gun to solve. :smalltongue:

DataNinja

2020-06-03, 08:13 PM

yeah but then she lies where the next door is, fills random rooms with deadly neurotoxin and puts in a portal puzzle in that you have a portal gun to solve. :smalltongue:

Man. If only we had a suit that enabled us to not need to breathe in external air. :smalltongue:

HalfTangible

2020-06-03, 09:29 PM

Man. If only we had a suit that enabled us to not need to breathe in external air. :smalltongue:

Sure but for how long?

DataNinja

2020-06-03, 09:40 PM

Sure but for how long?

Long enough to SPARTAN our way out, presumably. :smalltongue:

Qwertystop

2020-06-03, 09:46 PM

Long enough to SPARTAN our way out, presumably. :smalltongue:
Ten minutes, one Threepwood.

LaZodiac

2020-06-03, 10:13 PM

I'm not gonna lie given the build up HT I was expecting a "and you also released the flood" with the implicit idea being she's talking about humanity.

HalfTangible

2020-06-03, 11:45 PM

I'm not gonna lie given the build up HT I was expecting a "and you also released the flood" with the implicit idea being she's talking about humanity.

oh gorramit that would've been hilarious

LaZodiac

2020-06-05, 08:16 AM

Time for another ye olde Custom Robo!

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [13] Wig Snatched (https://youtu.be/yu_SDPVeIAE)

Video Length: 23:32

Shut up thinking of video titles is hard.

Anyway in this episode, we tear our way through three sets of fights! The first against two utterly incompetant cops, the second against Walt and Carmen (with Carmen finally earning name privileges!!) and lastly, against Bogey and the Waiter! In a shocking display of weird, weird game balance the fights have gotten easier as we've gone forward, and I don't know if it is because of the part choices I'm taken or what. This game can randomly decide to be brutal as heck, or rather easy, and it is truthfully hard to gauge what trouble (or lack thereof) you're gonna get with each fight.

Qwertystop

2020-06-05, 09:34 AM

I am disappointed that you did not fight the cops using the Criminal.

DataNinja

2020-06-05, 01:18 PM

Not as many participants in the singles division? Would you say there were... half as many? :smalltongue:

The implication with the losing partners and "or... was it her?" is that one of them might be mixed up with the nameless guy who was in the couple, since they have the same model. :smallwink:

Poor Walt and Carmen. At least she finally gets a nameplate. Wait, does that mean Harry's actually the one these nameplates are coming from? :smalltongue:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-06-05, 02:34 PM

Harry was the true protagonist all along!

It's not a robo game, but a dating sim!

The Fury

2020-06-05, 04:01 PM

I'm getting weirdly invested in the nameless Visor Boys. I'd suggest giving them nicknames, but nicknaming people that all look the same seems futile. Too bad we can't do anything like put numbers or something on them to tell them apart.

DataNinja

2020-06-05, 05:01 PM

The Fury

2020-06-05, 05:41 PM

And that is how you know that the writers have done a good job. :smalltongue:

Well, yeah. One of them has a complex and nuanced backstory. No idea which one, but still.

Lord Raziere

2020-06-05, 06:17 PM

On episode 13:
....The glossary section for the Police HQ is highly suspicious, given my theories.

oh no.... are the nameless NPC boys developing a hivemind!? are they remembering things that happened to OTHER clones of themselves?

and now they are losing track of their identities, oh not the NPC's boys are blending together!

this family entered without thinking it through. of course.

but yeah, lots of fights. nothing much to say except the nameless 4-6 visor boys were the best parts of this.

INoKnowNames

2020-06-05, 06:43 PM

Glances through Forum after a PM.
Scrolls past mention of Custom Robo.
Registers, scrolls back up, and Furiously Clicks.

I friggin' love this game. I played through it from start to finish, and on NG+, like 5 times. As noted, the friggin' tongue-in-cheek writing for even "Nameless NPC" is amazing -I used to try to leave facilities to check to see if other buildings have new dialog, because that sometimes *does* happen-; and the gameplay is phenomenal. Easily one of the Gamecube's *finest* games.

Hell, this thread reminded me to check out Synaptic Drive, which was made by the same people, so thanks for that!

But yeah, +1 viewer. And you're even still in the New Journey section! Sweet!

...I swear it felt like years ago, when we were checking you out just playing the Megaman Games... my how time flies...

LaZodiac

2020-06-05, 07:14 PM

The Fury

2020-06-05, 08:48 PM

Geno9999

2020-06-06, 02:29 AM

Whoops, late on watching the Tournament Arc! Should try to be a bit sparse with the comments...

Episode 12:
[1:15] Curses, going into other people's offices has been foiled again!

[1:58] He really should've thought this whole wearing a cop costume everywhere through. Also, how is this man not arrested for impersonating an officer? Is everyone so faceless that the cops arrest each other in confusion?

[3:03] Yeah, kinda weird how we haven't heard about Eliza's Z Syndicate hitting the lab again. Those goons ran off, so what's stopping them?

[4:40] Well considering he gets knocked out if you lose to Marcia's Corona Virus-Conscious Brother, I think Harry's fight with Oboro a lot closer than he lets on...

[15:35] Fun fact, there's the Little Raider and Little Sprinter series in the other games, with the difference being that Little Raiders have Air Dashes while the Little Sprinters have Air Jumps. This game however basically has Little Sprinter in all but name, since they only have the Air Jumps.

[18:43] Yeah that dance seems to be in bad taste.

[20:55] Wait, that guy lost? But the other two guys are in winner's brackets... JUDGE!!!

Episode 13:
[1:49] Well, someone for somebody I suppose...

[2:20] JUDGE!!! How the heck is this tournament setup?!

[9:00] A Block: The Anonymous block! Who won? It could be Anyone!

[10:56] Now the title makes sense.

[16:50] First Round, Last Round... At this point, the tournament bracket must look like a pretzel.

[18:18] Okay, only NOW do I realize that it's Round Robin for these prelim matches.

[20:13] With this Blood gun, and this Crime Bomb, and this Crime Blood Pod, and Blood Crime Legs...

[22:26] Yes, yes, the Gremlin Child half of the Murderous Kneecapper Gremlin Child build acquired...

LaZodiac

2020-06-08, 08:12 AM

Oh man, more Custom Robo. Time to finish a tournament arc.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [14] Bread And Circuses (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn54dV5hKKw)

Video Length: 39:32

This one goes a little long, because of expected reasons by this point.

Starting us off today, we're going up against none other than Mira and Roy! This is uh, pretty tough a fight for the most part, but it's exacerbated by me making use of the Swift, our first Little Raider robo.

Little Raiders are... uniquely bad. They're incredibly fast on the ground, but their other stats are all pretty weak. They're, I think, the only robo in the game with HALF stats, having a 1 and a half strength stat, and a And A Half in Down, meaning literally a single tap from anything will knock them into down status. There are certainly combinations you can do to make the Little Raider into an interesting bastard of a robo, and I'll definitely be sure to show it off once I get the needed parts, but as is the Little Raider is... basically the worst robo in the game. Which is a shame because it is a pretty cute line, I think.

After dealing with the last of the cops, it's time to face down Evil and his... minion? Except Harry pulls a stunt to replace himself with Marcia for genuinely good reasons, but Marcia has no desire to fight and Evil in his... unexpected gentleman nature, asks to just do a 1v1. We accept, even though the entire intent of the 2v2 was to show unity in things.

With Evil completely canned due to 1v1s being way easier and Evil not being that good of a commander, all that is left is the finale. But first, we have to have a... kind of bad scene with Marcia where Harry sorta brow beats her into realizing she needs to trust others and thus extend herself out to them. I'm honestly not super keen on this, especially since it seems like Marcia's trust issues and desire to confide in no one but her brother seem to uh... not be the problem. The problem seems to be that she saw someone who is definitely probably her dead brother and it's screwing her up inside. I guess the intent is that Harry is solving a different problem from that one, that was CAUSED by that one, but still. It feels a little weird.

And so... the tournament ends, and we prepare to go to Mira and Harry's apartment for a party. But that'll be for next time; hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys then.

------

Oh, Glossary time!

https://imgur.com/XCQSlro.png
Nothing super vital in this, but it is interesting to like, reflect on. Ernest is a genius and he works as a mercenary.

Geno9999

2020-06-08, 12:39 PM

Episode 14:

[1:39] Really? Cause it seems like only one of those guys has a name.

[2:09] "I just don't see any way a regular civilian could beat a trained member of the police squad" two officers were literally beaten by children. Somehow, I think your training is pretty lackluster.

[6:55] Your gameplan is to DODGE!!! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvS6zMThiZU) Which, admittedly is a lot harder when there's twice as many robos to keep track of.

[9:28] So now's a good time to note that in 2v2 matches in Single Player, if you get KO'd, that's an auto loss. Even if your partner was doing perfectly fine up to that point.

[22:05] It works because Anime Logic...

[22:41] Welp. This is also why I don't like any of the Left/Right weapons.

[34:44] Or you know, the fact that Mister Meat Robo the First is still out there.

[36:10] What this city needs is more colors of visors. I've only seen like one blue visor in a sea of orange.

DataNinja

2020-06-08, 02:25 PM

Oh, Swift is a cute robo.

Ooh, Satellites look cool.

What a tense match. "3 HP. 4 HP. Godmode Harry." :smalltongue:

Oh boy. Nothing suspicious about this final match at all. Especially not with how Linda says 'lucky'. :smallamused:

That's... yeesh, yeahhhh, I can see why you don't much like this. Calling people like that selfish, just because they're hurting. It... eeeeeehhhh...

...also, wait. Ernest has a standing animation! How dare he! XD

Ah, yes. You want to meet an evil team (no, not an Evil team, that's different) because the leader's pretty. Good reasons. Be nice to the villains if they're cute (and she is). Because that'll never go wrong (it will). :smalltongue:

Lord Raziere

2020-06-08, 03:20 PM

On Episode 14:
Use the Swift. go for humbling victory on the cops. doooo eeeeet.

COPS DEFEATED. HUMILIATION. haha, they lost to a Swift!

Evil is a joke as always.

Harry you'd be right about her brother in any other circumstance, but this is a mysterious anime brother in a mystery/fighting game. they always come back, she's seen him, I think she'd recognize him.

the music is way too calm for Marcia's anime moment. thats what kills it. you can't have a flashback and self-epiphanies to the same generic BGM, its just not well executed.

but yeah, don't call people selfish for having personal issues about their family members.

I think Ernest knows he isn't a protagonist in this videogame.....

also I think Ernest is just an older Harry.

hm, pre-installed huh? they know what snow is, so.....are they artificially changing the environment to replicate the seasons or are they not underground? they know what snow is, but not what real grass is. thats weird. ice age going on?

DataNinja

2020-06-08, 03:39 PM

hm, pre-installed huh? they know what snow is, so.....are they artificially changing the environment to replicate the seasons or are they not underground? they know what snow is, but not what real grass is. thats weird. ice age going on?
I mean, if it snows around, snow's a lot harder to permanently eradicate than grass, climate permitting. :smalltongue:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-06-08, 04:26 PM

Geno9999

2020-06-08, 04:31 PM

That's... yeesh, yeahhhh, I can see why you don't much like this. Calling people like that selfish, just because they're hurting. It... eeeeeehhhh...

On Episode 14:
Harry you'd be right about her brother in any other circumstance, but this is a mysterious anime brother in a mystery/fighting game. they always come back, she's seen him, I think she'd recognize him.

the music is way too calm for Marcia's anime moment. thats what kills it. you can't have a flashback and self-epiphanies to the same generic BGM, its just not well executed.

but yeah, don't call people selfish for having personal issues about their family members.

Yeah, I think the selfish angle is a bit much, I think it would've been a lot better if was more along the lines of "Marcia, you're stronger than when you were a kid, but you also have friends to confide in now. You don't have to face the future alone."

DataNinja

2020-06-08, 04:43 PM

Oh and I like the new avatar, data!
Ah, why thank you!

Yeah, I think the selfish angle is a bit much, I think it would've been a lot better if was more along the lines of "Marcia, you're stronger than when you were a kid, but you also have friends to confide in now. You don't have to face the future alone."
Yeah. Building her up, not tearing her down.

Qwertystop

2020-06-08, 05:00 PM

The Swift is really cute. I wonder if the arenas were bigger and the guns had longer ranges, it might be more effective. I feel like being so fast along the ground should be legitimately useful, but in these tiny maps there's no where to run to.

That hornet gun was not fair though. Very brutal.

Oh and I like the new avatar, data!

There are some arenas that are pretty big, and also things tend to be less cramped in 1-on-1 matches.

Also, high movespeed means that when you do inevitably go down, you can very quickly run up to the enemy to use short-range weapons before the invulnerability wears off, and away just before they get up, while they're less likely to be able to do the same to you. It works well with the Stun gun, which has enough hitstun to lock the enemy up for several shots before they get downed, which increases the amount of damage you can do that they can't respond to. Or use your mobility to stay behind cover, if your enemy's gun can't fire over or around walls (bombs and pods are slower, more dodgeable).

INoKnowNames

2020-06-09, 07:27 PM

Heh. I don't know whether or not I want to say a thing in regards to the upcoming party....

The point where Harry's words gets replaced with random symbols and stuff? I know that was used as cursing for Ernest, but I thought by that point, Marcia was tuning him out and figuring things out in her own head. I imagine most people do that when talking with Harry. :smallwink:

And yeah, the Little-Raiders are definitely an acquired taste... Definitely not built for the way I played when I went through this game, that's for sure...

Actually, I wonder how many people keeping up with this *have* played through Custom Robo before... I feel like it's a cult favorite for a lot of folks...

Edit: I went back and looked at some of the earlier posts, and I'm sad to see that I missed it, but glad that the "design/outfit" conversation was still brought up. Gyro's is dope, though now I don't know if that's one of those long ass scarves of a cape now, and I'm probably gonna lose sleep trying to figure that out later. I think Harry's is supposed to help sell how sloppy yet practical he is... it certainly looks ugly, but he get the job done. Meanwhile, I can't *not* see the "Keys" on her boots, and that kinda bugs me, but otherwise I think Marcia's outfit is absolutely awesome. I've wanted to draw that and use it on other characters I've played in PBP... though maybe with different styles of hair. She has to have enough to match a Disney Princess considering how big those Twintails are...

DataNinja

2020-06-09, 09:02 PM

Actually, I wonder how many people keeping up with this *have* played through Custom Robo before... I feel like it's a cult favorite for a lot of folks...

I've not. It's one I always thought sounded cool, but was never able to get my hands on.

Qwertystop

2020-06-09, 09:06 PM

LaZodiac

2020-06-09, 09:09 PM

DataNinja

2020-06-09, 09:22 PM

I think the little ring things on Marcia's boots are what people are saying are keys. Key rings are basically just keys, I guess.
Probably the image is that the "key-prongs" are in the boots themselves. So it's just the key-handle that's seen as the dangly bits.

I don't care, though. I'd still wear the outfit. And want that much hair. :smalltongue:

INoKnowNames

2020-06-09, 10:20 PM

I've not. It's one I always thought sounded cool, but was never able to get my hands on.

I think I might have played it for a very very short time owned by someone else? Or just saw it in a store? I didn't have a clue what it was until long after that, at which point I emulated.

The biggest negative I could give is that the story mode takes a long time, and some people aren't into the dialog/repetitive fights. But some people are also not into good hygiene or nice music, so maybe there's no accounting for taste. :smalltongue:

I remember when I was young, though, and I rented this game from my Blockbuster so often that one of the employees recognized when I was coming in for it, and he actually battled me in store. I kicked his ass. :smallbiggrin: To be fair, I used the Dragon, which is as broken as it is awesome without being illegal.

But no, friggin' love this gem. I wish I didn't have such a crazy shift; I'd be down for hosting/playing with peeps in the multiplayer through Parsec or other schtuffs.

I think the little ring things on Marcia's boots are what people are saying are keys. Key rings are basically just keys, I guess.

So, the INTENT of Gyro's design is that it is a HEADBAND that is just REALLY REALLY LONG. We of this thread have decided he just tied a cape to his forehead because Gyro doesn't understand things.

Probably the image is that the "key-prongs" are in the boots themselves. So it's just the key-handle that's seen as the dangly bits.

I don't care, though. I'd still wear the outfit. And want that much hair. :smalltongue:

You can't be Anime without Ridiculously Impractical Accessories! :smallbiggrin:

Still though, I agree. The outfits are awesome. And frankly, I'm a sucker for a girl with long hair; I just wonder what it'd look like without being bunched like that. I think her tails beat Sailor Moon's...

DataNinja

2020-06-09, 10:29 PM

You can't be Anime without Ridiculously Impractical Accessories! :smallbiggrin:
Hey, I mean, they can be ridiculously Semi-practical. :smalltongue:

And frankly, I'm a sucker for a girl with long hair;
Yep, that's a big mood there. :smallamused:

LaZodiac

2020-06-10, 09:35 AM

Oh hey, Halo. That's a game I'm playing too!

Zodi Plays: Halo [14] Exactly One Betrayal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3fVRdS7kCw)

Video Length: 26:01

A friend of mine tried to explain it that, Guilty Spark thinks we betrayed HIM by not knowing all the stuff he knows and not firing off the weapon like a good little boy, so WE betrayed HIM and thus HE betrayed US in return, and... I'm not sure that's valid? I don't know.

Anyway hey it turns out the back like, third of Halo sucks. It's time to go through that entire snow level again, but backwards, and harder. We did however learn a special fun keyboard command that'll make future stuff a touch more interesting, potentially.

But yeah. Hope you all enjoyed, it is time for slog. Take care everybody.

DataNinja

2020-06-10, 12:20 PM

Ninja_Prawn

2020-06-10, 01:23 PM

RE: dying so easily, the plasma mortar on the tank does a ton of splash damage over a huge area. The rocket launcher is there for a reason! Also I don't know how much attention you're paying to the shield and health bars... on Heroic and Legendary, it's worth taking cover when your shield is low, because your meat health does not last long without it.

LaZodiac

2020-06-10, 01:39 PM

Yeeeeeah, pacing is... not this game's strongpoint. Gets a lot better later on in the series.

You're still on Heroic, right? Even a few hits there can be fatal. But, yeah, lot harder to see in the thick of things.

Yeah, it's neat to be able to toggle the graphics back and forth like that. I made sure to do it at least once a level, and turns out there's a cheevo for that!
...and then trying to toggle the upgraded graphics on Halo 2 crashed my game.

In Halo 1, Fuel Rod Guns have a dead man's switch, and so will explode when the grunt holding it's dead. It's stupid. Later games let you use the cool gun and the cool sword, because they realized making enemy-only weapons was less fun.

I'll be sure to keep that in mind! And yeah, still Heroic.

RE: dying so easily, the plasma mortar on the tank does a ton of splash damage over a huge area. The rocket launcher is there for a reason! Also I don't know how much attention you're paying to the shield and health bars... on Heroic and Legendary, it's worth taking cover when your shield is low, because your meat health does not last long without it.

I have been paying nearly zero attention to my life bar, so that's on me.

DataNinja

2020-06-10, 01:51 PM

I'll be sure to keep that in mind! And yeah, still Heroic.

I have been paying nearly zero attention to my life bar, so that's on me.

Yeah, friend and I definitely felt challenged at times on Normal, so I have no shock at how much you're dying here. You're doing way better than we would. :smalltongue:

And Halo's health definitely feels a lot... less than many modern games. Even modern Halos.

Ninja_Prawn

2020-06-10, 02:02 PM

Yeah, friend and I definitely felt challenged at times on Normal, so I have no shock at how much you're dying here. You're doing way better than we would. :smalltongue:

And Halo's health definitely feels a lot... less than many modern games. Even modern Halos.

Except ODST! I thought that one did a pretty good job of making you feel squishier due to not having the Mjolnir armour, without making a game filled with super-deadly space guns unplayable.

HalfTangible

2020-06-10, 02:22 PM

Halo 1 feels bland now in large part because so much of what it does/established has become standard practice and refined.

Lord Raziere

2020-06-10, 03:20 PM

On Episode Halo 14:
the reason is because DRAMATIC REVEAAAAAL!!!

the problem with the whole "kill food to kill Flood" thing is that if you can make that big of a pulse to kill everything, why not just detonate the Halo itself or the star its near to generate a supernova so that the remaining Flood just burns away. it would make more sense and still be threat dramatic enough to warrant go against it. I don't see how the Flood could survive a supernova, do you? because if you make life-ending pulses of presumably heat and energy go up to that many light years, then a supernova should be easy.

I dunno.... I think I prefer updated graphics. un-updated looks foggy and murky.

but yeah, its a little sad that the game got innovated out. its music is still good though. and master chief's appearance is just iconic.

DataNinja

2020-06-10, 03:57 PM

the problem with the whole "kill food to kill Flood" thing is that if you can make that big of a pulse to kill everything, why not just detonate the Halo itself or the star its near to generate a supernova so that the remaining Flood just burns away. it would make more sense and still be threat dramatic enough to warrant go against it. I don't see how the Flood could survive a supernova, do you? because if you make life-ending pulses of presumably heat and energy go up to that many light years, then a supernova should be easy.
Well, sure, if it's just an infection here, but the installation wasn't exactly designed to do that. It's rather hard to dig a hole with a gun, after all. :smalltongue:

And, as mentioned, the flood only feeds on sentient life. If you kill all life everywhere, it can never regrow. But leaving non-sentience? Well, it can rebound. Eventually.

HalfTangible

2020-06-10, 04:32 PM

Lord Raziere

2020-06-10, 04:32 PM

Well, sure, if it's just an infection here, but the installation wasn't exactly designed to do that. It's rather hard to dig a hole with a gun, after all. :smalltongue:

And, as mentioned, the flood only feeds on sentient life. If you kill all life everywhere, it can never regrow. But leaving non-sentience? Well, it can rebound. Eventually.

Okay, then detonate all the Halos where Flood is contained, problem solved. Unless their spores can somehow survive blasts many times greater than any nuke and the vacuum of space and somehow magically travel lightyears to other worlds as those spores, you don't need to kill all sentient life. the forerunners have giant space stations that blast things 250,000 lightyears away or some other ridiculous distance while activating other space stations to do the same, at that point of technology you can remote detonate anything. you don't even need to go on the space station and blow up your own only spaceship to keep flood from piloting, you can just safely detonate it from some other place.

like seriously, the only way the flood becomes anywhere near an unbeatable threat is if they can magically travel FTL speeds and survive the vacuum of space like the tyranids with strange bioships, unless your an idiot and give them a ship to steal from you. if they can't even tyranid it up and grow bioships to get off planet, you can just exterminatus the planet they are on and its no problem.

....read the wiki, okay apparently the Flood's origins are extragalactic, and they can do a logic plague to take over tech and people at a certain stage, and are intelligent enough to start building things at a certain point but it still seems like they can be stopped by just not giving them ships to steal and travel with, at least in early stages.

DataNinja

2020-06-10, 05:06 PM

The Monitors are programmed to safeguard their installation, and to keep things running how they were supposed to. They don't really have the initiative to countermand things. There's more that I could get into, but I'm trying to stick to what's been conveyed in this game, and not explain anything that's explained in the EU or any subsequent entries. As we've seen, Guilty Spark was unable to fire the ring himself. It's beyond his programming, he needs someone external to do it. Presumably that's why he couldn't just teleport you to the Index - it's unauthorized, you need to go through security measures.

LaZodiac

2020-06-12, 09:27 AM

HalfTangible

2020-06-12, 10:38 AM

Okay, then detonate all the Halos where Flood is contained, problem solved. Unless their spores can somehow survive blasts many times greater than any nuke and the vacuum of space and somehow magically travel lightyears to other worlds as those spores, you don't need to kill all sentient life. the forerunners have giant space stations that blast things 250,000 lightyears away or some other ridiculous distance while activating other space stations to do the same, at that point of technology you can remote detonate anything. you don't even need to go on the space station and blow up your own only spaceship to keep flood from piloting, you can just safely detonate it from some other place.

like seriously, the only way the flood becomes anywhere near an unbeatable threat is if they can magically travel FTL speeds and survive the vacuum of space like the tyranids with strange bioships, unless your an idiot and give them a ship to steal from you. if they can't even tyranid it up and grow bioships to get off planet, you can just exterminatus the planet they are on and its no problem.

....read the wiki, okay apparently the Flood's origins are extragalactic, and they can do a logic plague to take over tech and people at a certain stage, and are intelligent enough to start building things at a certain point but it still seems like they can be stopped by just not giving them ships to steal and travel with, at least in early stages.

Paraphrasing a bit here cuz I can't find the exact quote:

"To those who come after and may judge us... know that a thousand other plans were tried and failed."

DataNinja

2020-06-12, 11:07 AM

No video today. Wasn't really feeling up to it, and spent a fair amount of time preparing and getting ready to release my novel, which is now out!

Next week, we return to Custom Robo... and some A Taste Of's, probably.

No worries! Take care of yourself first and foremost! Our free entertainment can wait. :smalltongue:

LaZodiac

2020-06-15, 10:02 AM

Okay, back to the robos.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [15] Dinner and a Show (https://youtu.be/cmtEdNMZfW0)

Video Length: 38:19

In this episode, we go to Harry's place, have a nice dinner, and then the next morning get told by Ernest that we've got to go beat up some cops. They apparently want us to do it, so... sure thing! Not muuuch to discuss at the moment, but the NPC round up we end up doing is pretty solidly funny. Everyone's obsessing over the Z!

DataNinja

2020-06-15, 12:03 PM

Things? Suspicious? I don't know what you mean. Nothing here in this town is suspicious. :smalltongue:

Yeah, the park consistently has some of the best stuff.

Also, huh, the robots do have power cords. I always thought they were, like, R2D2s.

Aaaaaaa! High-res end screen! The change, it burns! :smalltongue:

Lord Raziere

2020-06-15, 02:33 PM

On Episode 15:
There is self aware and then there taking the running gag so far it starts doing laps....will the nameless npcs ever get names? Will they reach full enlightenment and realize they are in a videogame? find out next time on-*glitch* MONIKA SHALL RISE *glitch*-Z

The Z Search meanwhile is spreading to others, catching them in a loop of trying to figure what the Z stands for. little do they know it means absolutely nothing. it is meaningless and was only picked as a name by the Z Syndicate because it sounds cool for marketing purposes, then they spread this memetic plague to make sure people are wondering in confusion unable to stop them.

Wendy, the small child brings up a good point why CAN they afford four robos, marvels of their modern science but a simple bag or toupee? its just leather and hair, thats lower tech, unless....organic materials aren't that easy to come by, which given the meat robo's revelations.....hm....

and interest is 24%? WHAT. that is incredibly concerning. that either implies that this family took credit from a very exploitative loaner....or there is a monopoly so the interest rate can be as high the loaner wants.

that nameless guy is actually right in a way, we don't see Z Syndicate all that often, so there is not much cause for alarm and the police acting like its no big deal would make it seem like there is nothing to be worried about. he is wrong but...the propaganda is effective.

wait...only those three were invited? 0_0 ITS A TRAP!

practice matches, why? these cops are acting so suspicious, there is something SO up with them!

this is either a test to make Gyro and Co. police themselves, or a way to entrap them for being threats. either way, I don't think Ernest is going to have employees for very long....like this setting is way too self-contained for there not to be some big twist coming, and I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop at this point. there has been no mention of any outside world. no new locations other than the same few places, just constant tournaments with the police with any further investigation into the Z Syndicate. something just doesn't add up, but what?

if the police aren't doing anything about Z Syndicate...why would that be? why would the Z Syndicate not be a threat? Why would they be more concerned about hosting a tournament? Why would Linda not report the break in to the police? Why would Linda have reason to believe that the police wouldn't be useful? why would Gyro's father barely show up and then die? Why are people in this world so bored that they can find nothing better to do than think up of words that start with Z? For days on end? don't they have computers, internet, phones? Why custom robos?

so many questions. so little answers.

LaZodiac

2020-06-16, 07:12 AM

Time for... perhaps a bit more than a taste...

Zodi Plays: Helltaker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I2b-AbdDRc)

Video Length: 31:13

You wake up with a dream. Demon girl harem. Time to bust into hell.

Helltaker is a completely free, and brutally difficult, puzzle game where you are the so named Helltaker, breaking into hair to pick up demon girls for your harem; although as the game progresses it becomes abundently clear that Helltaker's understanding of what harem means is something more akin to "the cast from Friends, maybe?" because the end result is that, aside from maybe one of them, they're just room mates and friends. It is honestly... really funny and wonderful and shockingly wholesome (hand holding is the kinkiest **** in the world!).

I uh, end up beating the whole game here, though I miss out on a fair amount of dialogue since I thought the life advice would be actual hints and not jokes. There's also a hidden ending that you can get, but I won't spoil it. Try it out yourself it is literally free! You can also spend some money to buy an artbook for the game, which includes some comics I think, as well as get the pancake (it's more of a crepe really) recipe, which... I will legitimately see about trying and tell you all about it.

So yeah. I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time. Take care, and remember; anything for demon girls.

DataNinja

2020-06-16, 12:37 PM

Ahhhh, that's the game that's taken one of my servers by storm. Funny enough, but... I feel like I had it built up so much that it's rather kinda a disappointment, if you know what I mean. Nothing on the game, it looks to be a fun little quick diversion, and sometimes that's what you need.

LaZodiac

2020-06-16, 12:41 PM

it's rather kinda a disappointment, if you know what I mean.

*eyebrow wiggle*

I got you. I understand this.

DataNinja

2020-06-16, 12:43 PM

*eyebrow wiggle*

I got you. I understand this.
The hype train giveth, and the hype train taketh away. :smalltongue:

Also: *grumbles in unexpected gameplay change* :smallamused:

Lord Raziere

2020-06-16, 01:37 PM

On Helltaker:
Yeah, wholesome's good. I've nothing against wholesome. Its just not to my personal taste.

Yeah, this game is unforgiving if thats the first puzzle.

Yeah this game is unforgiving.

Yeah this hilarious and the characters play off each other well.

its just well....as dataninja says.

superbia....avaritia....luxuria.....it has become a danmaku game from puzzle, and your trying to evade your own avarice, luxury (greed?) and lust.

but yeah, it good, is funny, but short and wholesomeness unfortunately means there isn't much to be said about it. *shrug* but then I'm a sucker for things people find edgy, dark or strange and for more elaborate tales. so perhaps its just not for me. like maybe I'd go for it if there was more things to do and more dialogue, more time to spend with the characters but if you have only an hour or less to it, meh.

LaZodiac

2020-06-16, 02:16 PM

DataNinja

2020-06-16, 02:40 PM

I mean it is also free.

Luxuria is lust, Avaritia is avarice (so greed) and Superbia is pride.

Man when I do make these crepes I'm not sharing them with any of y'all. Sometimes you just want to look at cute demon girls in suits!

(I'm kidding I'd share if I could)
Yeah, I know it's free. Was just a victim of the hype for me. And I'm still maybe bitter about unexpected gameplay changes being needed, rather than a fun side diversion. :smalltongue:

I'd rather skirts and dresses as my preferred eye candy (but suits can be - and were - done well), but, to each their own. I begrudge you none. :smallwink:

Ninja_Prawn

2020-06-16, 02:57 PM

Helltaker was cute. I like how all the sprites constantly bop to the music.

Congrats on the book launch, by the way!

HalfTangible

2020-06-16, 06:07 PM

I'd rather skirts and dresses as my preferred eye candy (but suits can be - and were - done well), but, to each their own. I begrudge you none. :smallwink:

Same. Love skirts.

Though I'm also a sucker for victorian style dresses, sue me.

LaZodiac

2020-06-17, 07:44 AM

Okay, enough cute anime girls. Time for shooty shoot blamblam gun haver game.

Zodi Plays: Halo [15] raF ooT egdirB (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy8EjDJKmys)

Video Length: 25:57

In this episode, we continue going backwards through this level to find exactly One(1) of the apparently three rooms we need to do to... I genuinely don't remember. Make the Covenant ship stop flying away? Stop the Sentinels from flying around? I legitimately don't remember what the purpose of this part of the game is which really speaks to how... not great it is!

That being said I hope you enjoy our slow descent into madness. Take care and have a good day!

Lord Raziere

2020-06-17, 12:32 PM

:51 edosipE olaH nO
"Fight me golden idiot" does sound like a Jojo stand....the power would to turn people to gold, but it only works on people who try to attack you thus you need to taunt them into stupidly attacking you. like if Shinsou met the Midas touch.

DataNinja

2020-06-17, 12:36 PM

Never enough cute anime girls. ...but sci-fi video games is a good reason to stop. :smalltongue:

The three pillar things were, IIRC, interrupted to try and ensure that Halo couldn't fire on its own even if Guilty Spark did manage to try and find some clever way around not having the activation index.

Plasma rifle, despite having 100 charge, does not have 100 shots. It gets out in the realm of 3-4 plasma shots per charge! Though if you feather it, then, yes, it will use up one charge per shot. Doesn't handle fractional charge well, so if you spit out just one, it'll round down. :smalltongue:

Yep, individual Hunter worms can get killed by the flood, but alone they don't have the neural mass needed (they really only become sentient in colonies), so the colony just rejects the worm and carries on killing dudes.

Ah, I see you have grasped my strategy for the last few levels! Run past everything and get to the Banshees. :smalltongue:

All the Banshees in this area perpetually respawn, as there's otherwise no way to get up.

Yeah, Dead Man's Switching the Fuel Rod Guns is jerkish.

Yep, Forerunner has been mentioned. Just before being sent to stop Keyes:

"This ring isn't a cudgel, you barbarian: it's something else...something much more important. The Covenant were right...this ring...it's Forerunner. Give me a second to access... Yes, the Forerunners built this place, what they called a 'fortress world,' in order to... No, that can't be. Oh, those Covenant fools, they must have known; there must have been signs!"
And just at the start of this level:

"You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food: Humans, Covenant, whatever—we're all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do: wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him."
Guilty Spark, however, has not specifically made mention of the term.

LaZodiac

2020-06-18, 09:06 AM

Oh hey, another A Taste Of time!

A Taste Of: Phantasy Star Online 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXvSbBAO5a4)

Video Length: 32:30

There is honestly a lot of good to say about Phantasy Star Online 2. It's also a pretty complicated game that'll take me a bit to get a hang of, but overall it seems pretty solid! If you're into MMOs, definitely give it a shot since it is free. My personal taste is always going to be FFXIV, but this one is really good too.

DataNinja

2020-06-18, 11:01 AM

Yay, more cute robot girls! :smalltongue:

The voice acting and translation for this game is... wonky. And you have stuff like the dialogue box saying "Gods be operative" when the voice line clearly says "Godspeed, operative."

This game definitely is intended for controller. Menus and combat and stuff's all built around it.

There are two combat modes. Over the shoulder doesn't have lock-on, that's manual targeting. Out of that mode, you cycle through targets Z-targeting style.

The dash/dodge/vanish is... well, a dodge. Makes you temporarily invincible during... some part of it. Not super clear on the timing, to be honest. The end, maybe?

(Something that I should note is that if the game seems too easy, it's because things got buffed for the episodes that're Japanese only right now - so we have the tuned-up classes, but not the content balanced for that. So, worry not if things seem too simple.)

Now, okay, I know you said there's a lot of good... but there is also a lot of issues with the game, that really don't come up in this video. So, I feel I should mention those, too. Zodi already mentioned the complexities - there are like 5 different currencies. You really do need to look up a class guide, because there are a lot of trap options that I fell into, and it costs real money to respec in your class (though you can freely swap classes at any time). The premium stuff is baaaaaad. You only buy access to things like bigger storage, personal room customization, or the ability to sell your items at the shop for 30 days. All that's separate! The material storage, allowing you to dump all your crafting stuff so you don't need to do inventory jenga with them? Separate 30 day rent. Etc.

Oh, and let's not ignore the elephant in the room. The game suuuucks with the Microsoft store. 11GB launcher, 60 GB game, and it often interrupts the install, corrupts, doesn't properly load, uninstalls itself so you need to do the whole 70 GB install again, etc. etc. etc. There are huge threads.

Don't get me wrong, I like playing this game with friends... but, man, it's painful at times. But, it's my a e s t h e t i c~, so I like it. Always wanted to be a cute robot with guns as big as she is. :smalltongue:

Anyways, if anyone does play, I'm Ship 2. (Got pulled there, and now most of my friends have gone, alas. Quit due to installation issues.) Though, you probably want to be with Zodi on 1. :smallamused:

LaZodiac

2020-06-19, 07:33 AM

Time to resume one of my favorite activities; this video game.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [16] Tests Upon Tests (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KGgPxim3NA)

Video Length: 27:51

In this exciting episode, we resume what we started last time, starting with a fight against Linda and her deadly bee weapon, sliding on to Roy and his Strike Vanisher, stepping on over to Mira, and then being so impressive that the chief of police decides he wants to have a go. We beat all of them, though the last two actually provide a bit of challenge.

With that all said and done, everyone decides that we've proven ourselves ready to learn... some knowledge. Specifically, about the super special S-class license that is so secret that really only the people in this room know about it, which we need to take another test for. But they're confident we're ready to take such test... and we'll be doing that next time. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys then.

------

Glossary time!

https://imgur.com/nmY3b5z.png
This one was probably picked up last time and I just forgot to look at it, or missed it. There's nothing specifically interesting about Father's Watch as a glossary entry, beyond the fact that it took this long to get added TO the glossary. That at least is weird.

https://imgur.com/qsrF9R8.png
For the MOST part there's nothing new here compared to what we learned from talking with the chief and friends, though there is some grandstanding about how S-Ranks are just better than regular people... except for that last sentence. The government officially disavows the existence of this rank, which is pretty telling that Something is going on. Now obviously that's... obvious, but it's still good to see them write it in this way, if that makes sense? There is obviously a twist coming, but the game at least lets you know it.

tyckspoon

2020-06-19, 09:10 AM

With that all said and done, everyone decides that we've proven ourselves ready to learn... some knowledge. Specifically, about the super special S-class license that is so secret that really only the people in this room know about it, which we need to take another test for. But they're confident we're ready to take such test... and we'll be doing that next time. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys then.

------

So in the course of like an in-game..what, week? Gyro goes from not even knowing what a Robo is, to being recommended for the super-secret "We trust you actually know how to fight and also we're going to use you as a secret agent" class. These anime protagonists sure do grow up fast.

I can't tell if the game is deliberately doing the thing where everybody talks up the Police Squad but all the actual non-named members are pretty useless, or if that's an unintentional side effect of having nameless/non-unique character models just generally be irrelevant in games. Or maybe all the lower license levels are really just for display and Class S is the only one where they actually expect you to be able to, you know, fight well? All the Police Squad members theoretically hold a Class A license, and they certainly don't show the kind of performance you would expect if that was a real benchmark of quality.. (Also Gyro is whipping them all around the place while still only being Class D, which appears to be the license level of "we're pretty sure you aren't going to suffer an aneurysm just from turning on your Robo.")

LaZodiac

2020-06-19, 09:22 AM

So in the course of like an in-game..what, week? Gyro goes from not even knowing what a Robo is, to being recommended for the super-secret "We trust you actually know how to fight and also we're going to use you as a secret agent" class. These anime protagonists sure do grow up fast.

I can't tell if the game is deliberately doing the thing where everybody talks up the Police Squad but all the actual non-named members are pretty useless, or if that's an unintentional side effect of having nameless/non-unique character models just generally be irrelevant in games. Or maybe all the lower license levels are really just for display and Class S is the only one where they actually expect you to be able to, you know, fight well? All the Police Squad members theoretically hold a Class A license, and they certainly don't show the kind of performance you would expect if that was a real benchmark of quality.. (Also Gyro is whipping them all around the place while still only being Class D, which appears to be the license level of "we're pretty sure you aren't going to suffer an aneurysm just from turning on your Robo.")

Honestly there's so many ways this question could go. Are the cops all just bad except for the S-Ranks because they're NPCs, because the game has some severe under stones of "the government is barely holding together a facade of some sort so the quality of the cops is indicative of how they're holding on", because plot wise they just are incompetent compared to the S-Ranks, because Gyro and friends are just that strong. All are valid answers and that's fascinating!

Also as an aside: The illustrious and cool The Fury has started a book club thread for my novel, found here: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?614335-The-Fury-s-Book-Club-Reading-Cursed-World-Initial-Sparks . Definitely give it a look, especially if you're one of the... potentially many people I've gotten into fun discussions with media for. I've finally put my money where my mouth is, at the very least :smallamused:

DataNinja

2020-06-19, 11:48 AM

Oh boy. Tests upon tests upon tests.

Hey, S is just a reflected Z, isn't it...

(Also Gyro is whipping them all around the place while still only being Class D, which appears to be the license level of "we're pretty sure you aren't going to suffer an aneurysm just from turning on your Robo.")

I mean, you have to wait... what was it, a month or something to take another License test to go up a level? So, given that it's not possible for Gyro to be anything but D, since short timeframe... that part's excusable.

Sophie's gonna be really confused, though, if she sees us with a Class-A and not having had tests again. :smalltongue:

tyckspoon

2020-06-19, 01:17 PM

Let's see.. we're assuming there's some kind of hideous cyberpunk dystopia happening in the background, right? So.. what if all the nameless, faceless NPCs are literally not people? They're all just meat-robos, programmed to act like and believe that they are humans, in order to support some official story (like that the world is *not* mostly depopulated, and you aren't actually living inside a Human Preserve/Fallout Shelter situation where some of the last few natural humans are desperately looking for a way to survive) The reason their faces are all covered so that you can't see their eyes is because there's some really bad Uncanny Valley going on. (Incidentally, this means the Police Groupie with the cosplay cop outfit is potentially a real human that unknowingly aspires to be a not-human, which is just a wonderfully cyberpunky thing.) They have a tendency to get stuck in loops and sometimes have to be reset with outside stimuli, which is why that one couple apparently spent four days just hanging around the park and all the NPC models there are obsessed with Z words now..

The murdering meat-robo you encountered is one of these person-substitutes that had its mind broken somehow. The 'male' ones that are starting to reflect on their own lack of identity have taken the first steps to going rogue in a similar fashion, and will present a threat to the safety of the shelter if not identified and handled appropriately. Linda's Lab is the maintenance and control center for these robos, and that's why people keep breaking into it..

Lord Raziere

2020-06-19, 02:26 PM

On Episode 16:
"tremendous commander"
>saw how many time zodi lost
sure whatever you say Linda.

yeah, Roy hating Harry is probably it. I'd probably hate Harry if he were real to. I kind of dislike him just from his fictional presence alone.

Class S, as in maybe....CLASS SECRET.

@ tyckspoon: I mean I'm the only one making those kinds of theories, I don't know about the others. but what you say about them being meat robos and going through cycles would make a lot of sense given the dialogue: the protag boy and his father might not have names....they're just acting out a cliche archetype because thats all they can remember of how this is supposed to go.

so yeah, the government has secret agents, are holding tournaments to distract and entertain people and also to recruit more secret agents, the scientist is one of those secret agents so as I suspected, the science and police divisions are pretty much working together. the question is, what could they possibly need three more agents for? hopefully we're going to start getting some actual info on whats going on now.

but yeah the world is very limited, I know this is a gamecube game, but I'm pretty sure the gamecube could support more than one map like this, and more places to go if the creators really wanted to, so I'm feeling as if a lot of this is an intentional design choice. this city is intentionally limited and boxed in. compare it to like, Tales of Symphonia and you'll get what I mean, its a gamecube rpg as well, with an action combat system as well and its world is much bigger, more dungeons, more rooms, more places to go, longer storyline, that whole thing. the gamecube can handle more, but this is an intentionally limited setting for whatever reason, there isn't even more city to explore. because for a supposed cyberpunk city, you keep meeting the same few people when it should be the opposite if this was a normal city. normal cities are a hive full of strangers you don't speak to when you end up sitting next to each other then walk away from after ignoring each other for half an hour.