Saint Rubenio Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 (edited) I didn't want to post yet, but I pressed enter and the site decided I was done for me. Nice. Edited October 29, 2022 by Saint Rubenio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Rubenio Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 Well, I really wanted to avoid double-posting, but I've been unable to edit my accidental post. So uh... yeah. Sorry for the double-post! Spoiler On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: I mean, one of Sal's flourishes is stomping on her opponent... ... Yes, you're starting to understand. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Considering Sal has the easiest time gaining a pet, and one of her flourishes is calling in a bunch of yotes, Sal is totally an animal person. I would not be surprised if she uses Kashio's Bounty to start a zoo. Sal's Pals. Grand opening today! On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Personally, I like to imagine that he wanted to start the fight with weapons drawn but then his arm blades malfunctioned, so he called in some goons to save face. I don't think a newcomer would get the joke, though. Hahahaha... Good explanation, I like it. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Swapping between the two screenshots was a ton of fun. It looked like Nadan was flapping his arms so much he wanted to fly Ahahaha! Oh, the flashbacks that just gave me... On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Perhaphs Oolo knew that Nadan would then drink a glass without issue just to spite her, so she didn't give him the chance to fire back. I can just imagine them exchanging an intense glare as Nadan prepares to drink a glass of water as if his life depended on it. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Hobby? Gahahahahah... Oh, God, the poor regulars of her bar, though. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: A little out of nowhere, but this talk of traps makes me want to play Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves again. Apparently, it’s the most Canadian game ever made, with lumberjacks fighting werewolves while drinking beer for buffs to an amazing soundtrack Those are some pretty neat tunes. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Ah so we're playing Papers Please now. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Yeah, one of the randomized guard missions you get is having to assassinate a friend of yours. That's brutal. Friggin' Oolo... On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Fortunately for me, workers, well, work, meaning they don’t have the energy for long conversations. Goodness, I didn't remember this. That's a big number... On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: I just know I’m making someone agitated with my blatant disregard for Gnaks ability to gain composure every time I add an argument. Hahahahahaha... Oh, dearie. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Sad to lose a drinking buddy, but I can always find another. I wonder what would've happened if you accepted the surrender. "Yeah sorry I beat you up for no apparent reason, now scram. Hey Oolo, yeah sorry, didn't work out." On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: You know, this always felt like her regular face to me. She looks subtly cheeky. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: This is the only time Hundruthor appears in the entire game. I dig the Kra'deshi flesh mustache. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Wha-- This dude? Jesus Christ, he still thinks he stands a chance! On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Wait, who in the world is that? I don't remember right now, is this the guy you mentioned once that appeared in cards but nowhere else? On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Being a Known Thug somehow helps me out in an auction They'd rather give you items than have you violently steal them. They know you won't heed their requests for basic decency. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Also, I just want to give huge kudos to the artists for putting this much effort into card artwork that will only appear in this specific, skippable event. I really haven’t been praising the artwork as much as I should, which I know I’ve said before, but I really mean it. I love Griftlands presentation. Yeah, this game has pretty cool visuals. Grungy, ugly in a good way. Suits the game like a glove. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Kashio’s jump animation doesn’t look silly If you look close enough, she almost looks sad here, for some reason. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Oh hell yes! Oh Christ, it works on expend cards, doesn't it... On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: I’ll crush her twice! Hoo boy. Poor, poor Kashio. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Your sacrifice will not be in vain, Gnak! "Sacrifice" On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Yeet will live to fight another day. Holy shit, my heart is pumping just remembering this fight. No wonder. Cutting it close here, everyone's health is way too low. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: Behold, one of the best exchanges in the entire game. Seriously, I convinced @Saint Rubenio to buy Griftlands after I showed him this specific dialogue. Hahahaha! Oh yeah, I'd almost forgotten. Yeah, this is amazing. Oolo is the best. On 10/29/2022 at 2:35 AM, Hawkwing said: I know that this Let’s Play is far from over, but I just want to say it right now: Thank You for Reading. The idea of doing a Let’s Play of this game has been bouncing around in my head for over a year now, and I’m grateful to finally see it come to fruition. I’m also thankful that the two things I was worried I would struggle with before I started, getting screenshots and finding things to say, instead ended up being the two things that came the most naturally. Most importantly, I had fun making this. I don’t care if this is only seen by 5 people or 100, I had fun playing the game, commenting on what happened, providing tips and tricks, replying to people, taking and arranging screenshots, and overall bringing more attention to a game I love. Sure, there are some things I would do differently. I wish I learned a few behind the scenes tricks earlier to save myself some time, and I do wish that I brought more attention to the artwork and flavor text. However, even the mistakes I realize I made after posting an update and reading it, I laugh at. Besides, I have two more characters to go through, each with their own strengths and hurdles. Once again, thank you for reading, and we’ll continue the journey soon! Awww, you're welcome. Glad to see you're enjoying yourself! Look forward to the mustache man's campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 (edited) Congrats on finishing! I beat all the stories, but I'd love to see how you do it. Now to do the other endings. Spoiler I went with the "punch Kashio out for good" route, because she couldn't bribe her way out of being dead. Edited November 10, 2022 by eclipse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted November 23, 2022 Author Share Posted November 23, 2022 Intermission 1 What is this? Hawkwing hasn't posted in weeks, and the next update is an intermission?! I know I said I would take a break before continuing with Rook, but I honestly did not intend to take this long. It was a combination of visiting relatives in another state earlier this month, not wanting to be online during the political "discussions" that occur during and after voting, taking a college class on my own time to cover a subject I didn't feel I fully understood when getting my associates degree (not the first time I've done this) and playing through Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle in preparation for the sequel which I intend to get as a Christmas gift. Thus I didn't always have the time or wasn't always in the mood to move screenshots around so that Steam wouldn't take them seconds after I pressed the button. Now why an intermission? I wanted to share aspects of the games development I found interesting, show off some my favorite cards and descriptions, and otherwise cover topics that didn't show up in the Let's Play. I have a general plan for what to share and when, but even when writing this update, I found some things to add or remove, so I'll solidify how these work as time goes on. For now... Also, almost every image will come from this source: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/120141-grifting-through-the-files-aka-datamining/#comments. It contains a lot of interesting background into the game while it was being developed. Do note that spoilers are everywhere there, though, so I don't recommend visiting if you want to find things out for yourself. Griftlands Was Originally an Open World RPG Spoiler Griftlands was originally planned as an open world game with a heavy emphasis on an everchanging world that reacted to the players actions. NPCs and factions would remember if you helped or hindered them which would come back to haunt you. There was an entire in-game economy, so if you kept robbing caravans, the price for those items would keep increasing. There was an in-depth crafting system, and factions has several dynamics to each other, with or without your involvement. It was an ambitious game that aimed to give the player a ton of freedom in how to act in Havaria. Unfortunately, this was a case where individual pieces worked but never fit into a cohesive whole. Actions and consequences that were supposed to feel dynamic and organic instead felt linear and robotic, too many mechanics felt disconnected from each other and while the setting was interesting, it wasn't actually fun to explore. The developers saw that people loved the world and the manipulation aspects of the game the most, and decided to focus on that to build the Griftlands we have to day. It should be noted that the original idea was shelfed, not scrapped, and they're open to returning to the original premise, though that will likely be far in the future. Original Pictures for Sal's Intro and Ending Spoiler Intro: In-Development Endings: Unused Ending: Favorite Combat Cards for Sal Spoiler These aren't in any particular order, I just like the card effect, the artwork, the description, or all three. I planned on being specific when I started taking screenshots, before deciding to just highlight a few. There were too many I liked: Favorite Negotiation Cards for Sal Spoiler These aren't in any particular order, I just like the card effect, the artwork, the description, or all three. I planned on being specific when I started taking screenshots, before deciding to just highlight a few. There were too many I liked: Temporary Art and the Final Product Spoiler So while this didn't happen a lot during the Alpha, some cards artwork was labeled temporary. This is because the card is designed first, a quick sketch is drawn next to covey the general idea and give the artist, Daniel Yu, a blueprint upon which to finish them. A good example: Some other fun examples of temporary artwork: Compared to the finalized versions: This obviously isn't all of them in the topic, but I want to save some for when we reach Rook and Smiths stories. A Joke I Wanted To Do But Sadly Couldn't Spoiler No one in the game is named Klogg, so sadly I can never do this joke. The soundtrack for Skullmonkeys and by extension Neverhood is incredibly unique and amazing, by the way. Give it a listen next time you're on Youtube or something. Replies Spoiler On 10/30/2022 at 10:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said: Well, I really wanted to avoid double-posting, but I've been unable to edit my accidental post. So uh... yeah. Sorry for the double-post! It's a Let's Play dude. Unless you spammed replies, I don't think the mods would strike you for double-posting. Hide contents Yes, you're starting to understand. Blame the amount of people that wanted to be stepped on by Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil 8. I never understood it. Why in the world would someone want their bones broken and organs crushed by a tall vampire lady? Hell, I don't even get what supposedly made her so attractive. There are plenty of tall people in the world. Now when I learned that she could transform into a dragon, that's when my curiosity was piqued. More First Person Shooters need dragons as enemies Sal's Pals. Grand opening today! ...Sal's Pals is such an amazing name that I regret not thinking of it first. Hahahaha... Good explanation, I like it. Considering how much damage the group did when he decided to fight solo, it was probably a good move on the developers parts Ahahaha! Oh, the flashbacks that just gave me... Engage better have a mage that casts spells like that I can just imagine them exchanging an intense glare as Nadan prepares to drink a glass of water as if his life depended on it. I have an easy time picturing that, and I love it. Though I was also reminded of this scene from The Dark Knight, and yeesh. I wonder how many drinks and food would be difficult/painful to eat with half your face missing. Gahahahahah... Oh, God, the poor regulars of her bar, though. Hey, they never went there for the food in the first place. Those are some pretty neat tunes. More games need Canadian music as battle music. Ah so we're playing Papers Please now. Sure, except instead of calling for the guards, we kill them directly. That's brutal. Friggin' Oolo... It wouldn't be a roguelike without some hard choices now, would it? Goodness, I didn't remember this. That's a big number... Considering how frequently they can gain defense and one of their arguments reduces the amount of damage diplomacy cards can deal, I appreciate having a way to end the debate faster. Hahahahahaha... Oh, dearie. I apologize to anyone who was annoyed by that, but I still find the whole situation to be hilarious. I wonder what would've happened if you accepted the surrender. "Yeah sorry I beat you up for no apparent reason, now scram. Hey Oolo, yeah sorry, didn't work out." I'll have to try that on the story difficulty sometime. While I don't normally care for "play this difficulty if you just want the plot" modes, I'm okay with it in Griftlands. There are some choices I wouldn't risk going through with on harder difficulties, but story mode is a nice way to test out the more questionable decisions or intentionally fail a negotiation to see the dialogue without screwing over the rest of the run. Spoiler Especially when failing a vital negation near the end of Rook's campaign offers some very interesting insight into his potential motivations and why he's taking the job at all... You know, this always felt like her regular face to me. She looks subtly cheeky. Sal does have a determined yet mischievous look to her, I agree. I dig the Kra'deshi flesh mustache. Alien mustaches are extremely underrated. Even though I don't want to think about shaving. Wha-- This dude? Jesus Christ, he still thinks he stands a chance! Hey, if he bought me a gift, I might start giving him the time of day. Wait, who in the world is that? I don't remember right now, is this the guy you mentioned once that appeared in cards but nowhere else? He is Sir Briefly-Appeared-in-the-Background-of-a-Trailer-Whose-Design-is-Nowhere-Else-in-the-Game They'd rather give you items than have you violently steal them. They know you won't heed their requests for basic decency. Guess Hundruthor knew that his request at the beginning wouldn't be fully heeded. Yeah, this game has pretty cool visuals. Grungy, ugly in a good way. Suits the game like a glove. I really enjoy the worn-down, beat-up aesthetic everything has without looking hopeless. It manages to look dirty, yet colorful, and every faction and character looks distinct. If you look close enough, she almost looks sad here, for some reason. Ruthless as Kashio may be, I doubt she savors the thought of killing the child of former friends and a kid that used to look up to her. Oh Christ, it works on expend cards, doesn't it... Yep! Which remined me that before Brawl was reworked, there was a unique graft that played the first card of every turn twice. It's as overpowered as it sounds, but the engaging kind of overpowered. There was some real decision making between having to pick between using your hardest hitting card first, gaining more defense than usual, gaining a status buff twice, or playing an expend card twice. Shame that it was removed, but to be honest, I don't miss the old brawl. It could be fun, but it could also throw you into some bullcrap situations. Hoo boy. Poor, poor Kashio. I still consider the boss fight with Kashio to be the most consistently vicious in the entire game. It nails that these two have a history and hatred between them and neither will hold nothing back. "Sacrifice" I wanted to be polite. There aren't a lot of ways to kindly say "your death loot was helpful!" No wonder. Cutting it close here, everyone's health is way too low. It's only in brawl where this fight feels like a joke, and that's because you can hire people to join the fight. I've never had a fight with Kashio that felt easy. Hahahaha! Oh yeah, I'd almost forgotten. Yeah, this is amazing. Oolo is the best. There are other pairings I enjoy in this game, but I have to say that Sal and Oolo have my favorite dynamic. They bounce off each other so well. Awww, you're welcome. Glad to see you're enjoying yourself! Look forward to the mustache man's campaign. Thank You! Hopefully you were patient enough to wait several weeks. On 11/10/2022 at 6:39 PM, eclipse said: Congrats on finishing! I beat all the stories, but I'd love to see how you do it. Now to do the other endings. Thank you! I'm curious which factions and people you sided with for each character. Hide contents I went with the "punch Kashio out for good" route, because she couldn't bribe her way out of being dead. I killed Kashio by accident the first time I beat Sal's route. Counter and bleed have lead to so many accidental deaths I swear... I do find the dialogue from killing Kashio to pretty interesting, especially with Oolo. I'll have to share it sometime, if I manage to get those screenshots I'll get started on Rook after posting this. I have no idea when the next update will appear, especially since this is Thanksgiving week, but it (hopefully) won't take nearly a month to proceed. Also, a new trailer for Engage appeared. I'm still not certain what my overall thoughts on the game are, as I am becoming increasingly interested and engaged (heh) with the gameplay, yet the costumes and general art direction frequently jolts me out the experience. I don't hate the designs, thankfully, but so many of them fall into the "so bad it's good" category to the point I can't imaging taking the game seriously. I'll wait for word of mouth on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted November 27, 2022 Author Share Posted November 27, 2022 ROOK'S CAMPAIGN DAY 1 MISSION 1: The Bog Job Update: Spoiler Each character has their own menu screen, as well as their own menu music. The different menu was there when I first started playing, but the music was a neat addition. Here’s Sal's, since I forgot to link it last time. “The Spy” is a pretty fitting title for Rook, though it wasn’t his only one throughout development. Similar to how Sal is referred to as a bounty hunter, Rook has been called a “Veteran” and an “Operator”. The Bog Job is Rook’s main story, just as Hunting Kashio was for Sal. A heads up for Rook’s brawl; for some reason they replace several of his bar visits with starting a campfire. While this doesn’t sound bad on paper, as you have the choice to freely recover health or resolve or instead opt to hire/rob a random passerby, in practice it means that if you want help for an upcoming mission/boss fight, you have to hope that you you're lucky enough for the character that shows up to be within your price range, and keep in mind that’s passing up on the ability to heal before a boss. The most egregious cases have you potentially fighting solo for bosses that intentionally give you allies during the campaign. It’s never impossible, as all the bosses were designed to be defeated without help, but I’ve lost a number of good runs with Brawl because I was unable to hire an ally. I’m bitter enough about it to write a paragraph for a part of the game I won’t be showing off. In terms of perks, I’m replacing Forgiveness with Perfect Shape. As powerful as Rook can become, of all the characters he struggles the most with combat early on, especially on the higher difficulties. One extra damage may not sound like a lot, but it goes a surprisingly long way. Just like last time, I’ll be playing on the highest difficulty. May as well flex again. With that out of the way, it is time to start Rook’s story. The music for Rook’s introduction, which also plays during the pause menu. The first few notes seem emotional, before quickly switching to an all business spy theme. A pretty fitting description of Rook’s actions in his campaign. This is my favorite intro of the three characters. I love every line here and wouldn’t change a thing. Of course the ancient spaceships had to crash land in a swamp. If spacefaring were easy, there wouldn’t be an entire faction dedicated to recovering the lost tech. Sometimes the character descriptions seem oddly appropriate. You’d really think I’d try to bribe someone with my starting cash? Rook takes advantage of Vectorini not being very good at his job. There’s a reason why one of the first actions you can take with Rook is negotiating. While Sal’s Core Argument ability is helpful, if forgettable, and Smiths synergizes well with his playstyle, Rook revolves around flipping his lucky coin for various bonuses and effects. His starting coin grants composure if it lands on Heads, and deals damage if it lands on Tails, or "Snails" because Klei wanted to be cute. Also, Rook's negotiation theme, which gives off the vibe of being a silver tongued spy handily. I keep forgetting if I showed off the flavor text for Sal’s starting cards, but I remember to do it here. And since it will block all damage, I start off defending. While Rook has ways of gaining influence, it’s not as frequent or easy when compared to Sal. In fact, none of his starting cards have the ability to add influence or dominance. To compensate, Rook’s coin landing on heads allows Pleasantries to deal max damage. Commenting on the weather is a common pleasantry. Though I don’t know if I’d call anything about Grout Bog “nice”. Landing on Snails gives a similar effect to dominance, at least for Grumble. I supposed Rook’s grumbling about his teeth. I don’t know whether they compliment his mustache or do the opposite. I take no damage… Wait, what…? He stole two of my cards! Yeah, the core argument ability of Spark Barons allows them to steal two of your cards and hold them hostage. You can destroy the argument to rescue the cards, but then you gain vulnerability. To be honest, there are more frustrating abilities and arguments to deal with. I wouldn’t call Spark Barons pushovers in negotiations, but unless my resolve is already dangerously low, I never really worry about debating with them. Also, because they steal cards every turn, I’m likely to forget to screenshot which cards they take, as I don’t always pay attention even when playing normally. On a third and final note, I’m not entirely certain how this ability works in-universe. Perhaps Spark Barons are aware of your tricks and act annoyingly smug when you try to use them again? While it didn’t matter this round, Spark Barons deploy the All Business argument on their first turn, which grants them 1 composure for every hostility card Rook draws. Sometimes this argument doesn’t have any effect, like it does now, and other times it’s pretty annoying. Which is why I’m dealing with it now before it becomes a nuisance later. I attack Vectorini’s core argument with my remaining Pleasantries card and defend. I will probably screenshot every frame of Rook's coin flipping animation by the end of the run. Gamble causes Rook to flip his coin, and while Call It is the most common way to do so, it is far from the only card with this ability. Since it landed on Snails, it dealt one damage to a random argument. Since Call It is free, and I could use another point of damage or composure, Rook flips his coin again. It lands on Heads, so once again I take no damage. I’m not certain what the in-universe explanation is for why Rook’s coin(s) have the effects they do. I will say that some card combinations have him flip his coin so frequently that it leads to some hilarious mental images of Rook aggressively flipping his coin during a heated debate. Vectorini adds an argument to my side, and I take no damage. He also steals two more cards. The Straw Man bounty adds Vulnerability when it is destroyed. To be honest, the more annoying part about this bounty is that it’s easily destroyed and thus can mess with predicting where any leftover damage will go. While Vulnerability could be compared to Wound in the sense that it increases the amount of damage taken, the former doesn’t stack so it’s not as bad as it sounds. Vulnerability is still an undesirable debuff, but there can be times it’s hard to notice it’s there. It’s hard to see, but I target the Appropriated bounty that has 1 health left in order to gain some more damage dealing cards this turn. It works And I see an opportunity to end the negotiation this turn, so I take it. Unfortunately, this targets the other Appropriated bounty instead of Vectorini’s Core Argument. In hindsight, I should have played the stronger Grumble here, but I was distracted with gaining more experience for Call It. At least the composure won’t go to waste. Annoyingly, It was only one point away from finishing the negotiation. Strawman is destroyed, and I take damage to my core. Annoying, but fortunately Vectorini will be defeated this turn. The first debate with a Spark Baron, and I’ve already forgotten to screenshot what cards he stole. Since I can end the negotiation easily with either of my two damage dealing cards, I gain experience on my defensive cards first. And with that, the first negotiation with Rook comes to a close. Dead Draw: You spend two actions to draw two cards and hope Rook's coin lands on Heads to play said cards for free… compared to using those two actions to play two cards. I suppose it could be useful if you have some cards that require more than one action to play, but even then I would ask why you would spend two actions for the chance of drawing one of those high cost cards. Maybe the upgrades are worthwhile? I’ll have to check that later. …I wrote more than I expected to just to say I've never used this card. Bottom Snail: Rook has a handful of discard cards, though not to the point where I would say it’s a good idea to revolve your deck around it. It’s possible, but it requires getting consistently lucky with what cards you're offered. Bottom Snail is another card I’ve never used. Grunt: Gee, can you tell which of the three cards I actually use? Anyway, Grunt deals solid damage on its own, but if it’s your left-most card? Then it can pack a punch and potentially keep the damage going depending on which card it draws. Especially useful if you have some cards or arguments that allow you to Prepare a card (which allows you to move a card to the left-most side). Is anyone really surprised? Once negotiation in, and we haven’t even asked any questions about what Rook is doing here. I really wish I could say this was the strictest restriction the Spark Barons imposed. I start off asking about Grout Bog. Phroluk was hunting a grawkit all the way back during Day 1 for Sal. They thankfully don’t appear much during Rook’s campaign, if at all, though rest assured the marsh contains several… other… creatures to be concerned about. Next up is the gate. It’s an unfortunate but unsurprising aspect of humanity that we quickly find destructive uses for things that could just as easily be constructive. I almost said more about this point, as well as Vectorini’s comment about “profit”, but it started to delve into politics and there are better places for those conversations. It's typically prisons that have walls meant to keep people in… This point will be relevant more than once. Also, it’s refreshing to have an older protagonist, particularly since I’m commenting on a forum for a game series that’s not always good about featuring older characters, much less playable ones. We never see the Bread Fields, and they’re not discussed that often in the first place. I will say there is a tidbit about the place I’ll share much later… A rebellion’s stewing, and Rook’s not called “the spy” for nothing… Anyway, I’ve exhausted all my questions. Vectorini makes this comment if you ask questions first. Okay, so initially I was planning on this being a choice to vote on, since both these cards are useful but more importantly they dictate whether you start your first mission working with the Spark Barons or a new faction. However, my previous run with Sal barely featured the former and the latter went unmentioned, so I doubt most newcomers would know what to expect. I went with the Shovel, as the Spark Barons make enough appearances in Sal and Smith’s routes for you to get an idea of how they operate, while this new faction requires some explaining. As a card, the Shovel is pretty versatile. The alternative, Blacklist, is no slouch either, and can easily be dealing a hefty amount of damage by the end of the game, but we’ll see that next time. I’ll explain what the heck cells and charges are in the future. We can gain something for free. Predictably, I go for the extra cash. I ask about Kalandra before heading off. That’s an interesting face, Rook. You’ve probably guessed what the conflict is by now. We’ll be getting more info soon… Rook's Map Theme. It's more interesting than Sal's, and is overall a solid spy theme. I could meet an old friend and start working for the Spark Barons. But let’s see if those rumors mean anything about Kalandra being part of the Rise… I’ve barely started Rook’s story and already he’s giving us amazing faces. I meet Pluk before talking to Kalandra Time to set the gears in motion Kalandra straight up has my favorite theme in the entire game. She’s also the only NPC that has more than one outfit, though it may be a while until we see her alternative costume. One of the better code phrases I’ve seen, to be honest. I can ask about what I’ll be doing before accepting the job. I really like Kalandra. Of all the leaders in the game, I’d say she’s the best at actually leading. To Kalandra’s credit, she sticks to her word here. While several of her missions have moralistic leanings and she does discuss why she’s helping people or stopping the Spark Barons, she never tries to persuade Rook to do the mission for those reasons. This is part of the reason why narratively, the Rise are my favorite faction in the game. They’re not interested in overthrowing their masters and seizing power; rather, they’re fighting for fairness and rights. Their flaws are also pretty interesting to dissect, as we’ll see in the future. As bloodthirsty as Kalandra sounds, she’s far from the only Rise member who is unafraid to resort to violence against the Spark Barons if that is what’s necessary. Grist for the Mill has a lower reward in exchange for offering multiple opportunities to engage in negotiations. Speak Power to Power meanwhile has a single negotiation and pays slightly better. Since I haven’t unlocked the bar yet to recover lost resolve, I go with the safer and more lucrative option. As long as he lives, Kalandra doesn’t care how I make Del more “empathetic”. Del is at the company store, meaning that there will be witnesses and a guard if I try to beat him up. I’ll have to be using my words with this one. This is the company store. They apparently sell jackets in the background and not much else. Similar to Toeren, I really like Brill's design mostly because of the hat. I meet everyone else in the store before talking to Del. Oh, how fittingly ironic the description is for the current situation. I’ve done factory work before, so I understand Del’s desire to get shit done, no matter how much his workers complain. I draw the line severely at compromising workplace safety in order to meet said quota. A fairly standard intimidation negotiation. Huh, Waandra doesn’t seem interested in doing her job as a guard, which normally includes protecting potential customers. That should make beating Del up easier. Then again, I might piss Allyn off by starting a fight in her store… I go with threatening him with words instead of force. I’m trying to remember if I ever had an intimidation negotiation as Sal. Regardless, you gain a few Intimidate cards into your deck, which cause hostile cards to deal more damage, though they lose strength every time you play a non-hostile card. It’s... fine, but I can’t say it’s the most helpful bonus in the game, and it certainly isn’t the most interesting negotiation gimmick. Delegator is really annoying to deal with. You have to deal a specific amount of damage if you want to destroy his arguments, which either requires wasting time to defend first, hoping you get lucky on damage rolls, or you just grin and bear it as you focus on the core argument instead. Overall, not a fan. I focus on defending first before going on the offensive with Grumble. Of course both cards decide to deal minimal damage. Del deals no damage, and he’s intimidated. Grindstone has 2 health, as his Delegation ability wouldn’t mean anything if his arguments were easy to destroy without leftover damage Because I have no hostility cards, Del won’t be intimidated for long. Since I have no defensive options, I see what Trickery, Rooks improvisation card, offers. Reduced damage is better than taking full damage, I suppose. Enjoy the artwork of Rook with a full beard while you can. With nothing else to do, I target Del’s core argument with Pleasantries. Del loses Intimidated. Though with Rook’s smile, perhaps he should have kept the debuff. Since I’m fine with either composure or damage, I gamble twice Grindstone takes 1 damage, which I’m fine with. I’m happy that this dealt damage, but unfortunately it didn’t destroy Del’s argument. Of course he adds another Grindstone. Grunt will deal 3 more damage if it was the leftmost card… I was going to defend anyway. The extra damage is just a bonus. Grunt did 7 damage and drew Grumble. Since I can see the potential in ending this negotiation the next turn, I defend to keep as much resolve as I can. Del adds yet another Grindstone as I take damage. Okay, so not as many attack cards as I wanted. I see what Trickery has to offer. Seems I only cared about gaining new cards. One of them was Call It. I gamble to see if it will land on heads. It does! I can’t win this turn, but I can help speed things up for next time. Del’s decision to add composure to the only Grindstone argument that took damage instead means I can destroy it without activating his Delegation ability. I gamble again, and gain another point of composure. Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t do the other mission. Several negotiations in a row without access to a bar could have gone south quickly. Deadline is an interesting bounty that allows you some freedom to take out some of the other arguments. However, since I can end the negotiation this turn, I gain experience on Rational before attacking with my other cards. Next, I’ll reduce Del’s core argument to 1 resolve. And finish things off with Grumble. Dilemma: 4 actions seems like a lot, but considering how often you’ll be gambling, it’s pretty easy to reduce the cost to 1 or 0. Heck, I’ve reduced the cost to zero without even intending to almost every negotiation with this card. Clear Head: Rigging allows you to guarantee what side of the coin it will land on whenever Rook gambles. Preparing a card is a neat bonus, considering that Rook has numerous cards that have a useful effect when prepared. Not a bad card, but I’m typically using that action to do something else. Snag: Rook has enough cards with an effect when they’re discarded for this to have some use. Not to the point that I’ve ever bothered to snag Snag. I'm used to the fluctuating cost of Dilemma to the point I barely have to plan ahead on how to take advantage of it. Amazingly, that toothpick never falls out of Del’s mouth. Another day in Havaria, another person gets yelled at in a public place without anyone batting an eye. I head back to Kalandra to inform her that the interrogation worked. Nothing happens on the way there. You wouldn’t have hired Rook if he didn’t have a silver tongue. Nice, I get some extra shills. ***** My initial plan was to do another mission for the Rise, as it’s another quick series of negotiations. Looking ahead at the screenshots, though, there are a lot of pictures dedicated to questions and exposition, and this update has a fair amount as is. I spent a good chunk of the day getting this far, and I don’t feel like testing the internet of Serenes Forest by adding more, especially since the site been incredibly erratic on my end. On the bright side, I already know for the most part what I'm going to say, so unless life throws me a curveball, the next update should come sooner than later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Rubenio Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 Spoiler Intermission: On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: That looks like a bad ending of sorts. Interesting. On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: I love this one. They should've kept that one. Unedited. Who cares if it stands out? It does so in a good way. It's not as funny when he has eyebrows. On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: No one in the game is named Klogg, so sadly I can never do this joke. Klogg is clogging Heaven's toilets now. On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Blame the amount of people that wanted to be stepped on by Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil 8. I never understood it. Why in the world would someone want their bones broken and organs crushed by a tall vampire lady? Hell, I don't even get what supposedly made her so attractive. There are plenty of tall people in the world. Yeah, that's basically it. She's outrageously tall and domineering, and that tingled people's gravy givers. Never mind the murderous part. Quote Now when I learned that she could transform into a dragon, that's when my curiosity was piqued. ...Well. That's an interesting statement. On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: ...Sal's Pals is such an amazing name that I regret not thinking of it first. It's okay, you've my permission to steal it. On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Engage better have a mage that casts spells like that If only. On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: I apologize to anyone who was annoyed by that, but I still find the whole situation to be hilarious. Don't apologize, it was fun. On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Thank You! Hopefully you were patient enough to wait several weeks. Of course, of course. Don't worry about it. On 11/23/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Also, a new trailer for Engage appeared. I'm still not certain what my overall thoughts on the game are, as I am becoming increasingly interested and engaged (heh) with the gameplay, yet the costumes and general art direction frequently jolts me out the experience. I don't hate the designs, thankfully, but so many of them fall into the "so bad it's good" category to the point I can't imaging taking the game seriously. I'll wait for word of mouth on this one. More or less on the same camp here. There are a few designs I genuinely enjoy, most notably Vander, Timerra (somehow) and... funnily enough, Alear. But for the rest I'm waiting on the alternate outfits. Still, gameplay is as you know my main interest with FE, so I am increasingly pleased with the look of this game. And I will say one thing: While I find the whole "summon old protags" premise to be underwhelming at best, I am positively impressed by the fact that every single character's appearance changes entirely based on their engagement. That's a massive effort and I love it. At this point I'm more hyped to see how all the different combinations look than anything else. ...Aaaaand then you dropped another update. Rook: Spoiler 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Each character has their own menu screen, as well as their own menu music. The different menu was there when I first started playing, but the music was a neat addition. Here’s Sal's, since I forgot to link it last time. I like how this screen features two of the tale's mai ncharacters, and then a throwaway boss. Also you didn't link Sal's music properly lol 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: There’s a reason why one of the first actions you can take with Rook is negotiating. While Sal’s Core Argument ability is helpful, if forgettable, and Smiths synergizes well with his playstyle, Rook revolves around flipping his lucky coin for various bonuses and effects. His starting coin grants composure if it lands on Heads, and deals damage if it lands on Tails, or "Snails" because Klei wanted to be cute. Rook's coin is really fun. And broken, if my first try victory was anything to go by. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Commenting on the weather is a common pleasantry. Though I don’t know if I’d call anything about Grout Bog “nice”. He's being sarcastic. That's the art that hurts. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: He stole two of my cards! He's just trying to help Rook with his grumpy mood! He literally stole his ability to grumble. What a hero! 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: It lands on Heads, so once again I take no damage. I’m not certain what the in-universe explanation is for why Rook’s coin(s) have the effects they do. I will say that some card combinations have him flip his coin so frequently that it leads to some hilarious mental images of Rook aggressively flipping his coin during a heated debate. Well, there you have it. That's how his coin-flipping deals damage or reduces the effectiveness of the enemy. They are immensely intimidated by this guy's aggressive coin flipping. Probably afraid he'll toss it at their eye if they make him too angry. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: I love how this lined up. Those two lines together make for a great effect. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: This point will be relevant more than once. Also, it’s refreshing to have an older protagonist, particularly since I’m commenting on a forum for a game series that’s not always good about featuring older characters, much less playable ones. Engage is going to be a high tier FE just because Vander exists 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Okay, so initially I was planning on this being a choice to vote on, since both these cards are useful but more importantly they dictate whether you start your first mission working with the Spark Barons or a new faction. However, my previous run with Sal barely featured the former and the latter went unmentioned, so I doubt most newcomers would know what to expect. Yeah, when you go blind you pretty much just pick based on the card. It's what I did, at least. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: That’s an interesting face, Rook. I wish I had something witty to say, but no. It's just really funny. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: I’ve barely started Rook’s story and already he’s giving us amazing faces. I think I prefer the earlier version. The dumbfounded stare suits that :v face a lot better. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Kalandra straight up has my favorite theme in the entire game. It is pretty nice. Though I went with Fellemo first and he had a really good theme, too. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: C'mon Rook, what kind of a spy are you? You don't need to ask, it says right under her name label! 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: I really like Kalandra. Of all the leaders in the game, I’d say she’s the best at actually leading. She also looks REALLY evil here for some reason. That grin is something else. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: It's her I think it's her, at least. The one bastard that kicked my ass that one time. Kill her. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Oh, how fittingly ironic the description is for the current situation. You aren't showing his description 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Delegator is really annoying to deal with. I like how Del is using delegator. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Okay, Rook's :v face has been bested in record time. That's absolutely amazing. Also that toothpick is definitely jammed through his tongue. Ow. 8 hours ago, Hawkwing said: I spent a good chunk of the day getting this far, and I don’t feel like testing the internet of Serenes Forest by adding more, especially since the site been incredibly erratic on my end. Yeah, better not risk it. I still have nightmares about the final battle of TRS... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted November 30, 2022 Share Posted November 30, 2022 Strangely enough, I had the easiest time in combat with Rook. Negotiation wasn't too bad, and I took the time to get my cards back from the Barons. They kept stealing my coin flip cards, and I objected to that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted December 4, 2022 Author Share Posted December 4, 2022 ROOK'S CAMPAIGN DAY 1 MISSION 2: The Day is Saved by an Intro to Economics Teacher On 11/26/2022 at 10:17 PM, Hawkwing said: On the bright side, I already know for the most part what I'm going to say, so unless life throws me a curveball, the next update should come sooner than later. Well, I was right in that the update itself didn't take long to write. I was however busier than expected last week, for both legitimate and not so legitimate reasons. There were a lot of movie trailers that released last week, and still the highlight was Scott the Woz's Charity Bonanza. The madman made over 50 videos and 30+ hours of content for a charity event. I might be an obnoxious Scott the Woz fan later and talk about my ability to spend money on Scott the Woz merch. For Charity. Replies: On 11/27/2022 at 6:48 AM, Saint Rubenio said: Hide contents Intermission: That looks like a bad ending of sorts. Interesting. I love behind the scenes stuff, and Griftlands cut content is thankfully more interesting than depressing. I love this one. They should've kept that one. Unedited. Who cares if it stands out? It does so in a good way. It's not as funny when he has eyebrows. I don't know how easy it would be to do, but I would love for a cheat code or unlockable to show the games temporary artwork. I would also love easy access to the games placeholder dialogue, because it's golden: Source: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/119879-bestfunniest-writing-thread/page/3/#comments Klogg is clogging Heaven's toilets now. A joke I could almost see the game doing, though it's humor is more interested in the other end of the human body. Yeah, that's basically it. She's outrageously tall and domineering, and that tingled people's gravy givers. Never mind the murderous part. It's really the sheer extend and number of people that repeated the sentiment that I don't get. ...Although when I sat down to think about it, not as many fictional tall ladies came to mind as I expected. Maybe that's why? ...Well. That's an interesting statement. I say in the very next sentence that I want to kill them. With guns and rocket launchers. And yes, I know Earth Defense Force is a thing. However I don't know if the game is fun as a single player experience It's okay, you've my permission to steal it. I'll mention you somewhere when finalizing the trademark. If only. Fire Emblem in general needs fancier spells and ways of casting them. How coolness factor visually speaking is so all over the place across the franchise. Don't apologize, it was fun. I just know that some of those videos of people playing games intentionally poorly can sometimes be hilarious, and other times painful. To those that found it painful, I found it hilarious. Of course, of course. Don't worry about it. I certainly wasn't the plan, but being able to focus on other games for a while was nice. More or less on the same camp here. There are a few designs I genuinely enjoy, most notably Vander, Timerra (somehow) and... funnily enough, Alear. But for the rest I'm waiting on the alternate outfits. Still, gameplay is as you know my main interest with FE, so I am increasingly pleased with the look of this game. The presence of alternative costumes is the main reason I'm not tearing into the art direction more, as chances are if I don't like what's currently shown, I can swap it out for something else I do like. It helps that I found most of the outfits to fall into the "so bad it's good" category personally, so I have an easy time laughing at it. I'll take Engage's silliness over Awakening/Fates "characters literally fight in their underwear" schtick. And I will say one thing: While I find the whole "summon old protags" premise to be underwhelming at best, I am positively impressed by the fact that every single character's appearance changes entirely based on their engagement. That's a massive effort and I love it. At this point I'm more hyped to see how all the different combinations look than anything else. Mechanically, engaging seems interesting, but I'd like to get my hands on the game first too see how it works in practice. Especially since I know the trailers are more interested in making the game look cool and interesting than discussing mechanical depth. It's not my preferred crossover either, as I would have liked to see different characters from across the series interreact with each other in a standard Fire Emblem strategy game that mechanically ties to gather aspects across the franchise. However, execution is what matters at the end of the day, so I'll reserve judgement until the game comes out. Though I wouldn't mind "Fire Emblem at The Olympic Games". Though that's mostly out of disappoint over how the recent "Mario & Sonic at The Olympic Games" cut corners and events from previous games that really didn't need to be cut. ...Aaaaand then you dropped another update. I know this pain all too well. Rook: Hide contents I like how this screen features two of the tale's mai ncharacters, and then a throwaway boss. Eowne-I mean, Gorgula (I am still not used to that name change) may be a boss that may not even show up during Rook's story, but I don't mind that she's on the main menu screen. I had to screenshot this picture because I couldn't find a better picture elsewhere. Surprising as it may sound, this is my favorite design in the entire game. At a glance, you can tell that this is someone with a story. Someone who's been beaten up, scarred, and has sacrificed much. Yet despite those hardships, they press on, determined, moving forward no matter what life throws at them. There may be more interesting designs in the game, yet the history the character has that can be noticed at a glance is a big reason why I love Eowne/Gorgula's design. Also you didn't link Sal's music properly lol Whoops. Must have messed with the text by accident. Here it is: Rook's coin is really fun. And broken, if my first try victory was anything to go by. While there are times where I'd say Rook can be overreliant on his coin, particularly for composure, it is a really fun mechanic to work with. And you aren't necessarily wrong with it being broken; I consider the flourish that allows you to flip his coin after every action to be the most powerful one in the game (for negotiations) He's being sarcastic. That's the art that hurts. Rook changes his tune so much I wouldn't be surprised if he alternates between being sarcasm and sounding genuine just to throw off his opponent. He's just trying to help Rook with his grumpy mood! He literally stole his ability to grumble. What a hero! Pfffft, okay. This got a good laugh out of me. Though he also stole my ability to comment of the weather. Well, there you have it. That's how his coin-flipping deals damage or reduces the effectiveness of the enemy. They are immensely intimidated by this guy's aggressive coin flipping. Probably afraid he'll toss it at their eye if they make him too angry. Well, the flavor text with Rook's Headshot card does imply that he accidently flips it onto their head sometimes. Now I want to see a dialogue focused game have flipping a coin be a option, just to see what it would do. I love how this lined up. Those two lines together make for a great effect. That does sometimes happen in this game. Engage is going to be a high tier FE just because Vander exists Meanwhile, other games: Source (The dialogue is fun, if a bit odd if you're unfamiliar with Warhammer) I don't know anything about Warhammers time systems but this joke came to mind, so I'm going with it. Yeah, when you go blind you pretty much just pick based on the card. It's what I did, at least. Yeah, I went with the shovel first. I think the card being free had something to do with it. I wish I had something witty to say, but no. It's just really funny. Of all characters to give us hilarious faces, I was not expecting Rook to provide them. I think I prefer the earlier version. The dumbfounded stare suits that :v face a lot better. The :V face is funny in general. It is pretty nice. Though I went with Fellemo first and he had a really good theme, too. Fellemo has one of the most fitting themes in the game, which I'll talk about later. C'mon Rook, what kind of a spy are you? You don't need to ask, it says right under her name label! Same source as the pictures from earlier. Doesn't help that Kalandra has a Rise patch on her uniform. The outfits are good for stealth, though not so much for blending in, it seems. She also looks REALLY evil here for some reason. That grin is something else. Most grins in the game look evil. Embrace the genuine smiles while you can. It's her I think it's her, at least. The one bastard that kicked my ass that one time. Kill her. It could be Takt, another shroke merchant. I'm not going to kill her today. I'm just going to talk. You aren't showing his description It's in the white box above his comment. Don't blame you, as I miss the descriptions being there too sometimes. I like how Del is using delegator. I doubt the name is a coincidence. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Okay, Rook's :v face has been bested in record time. That's absolutely amazing. Animation pauses in general are surprisingly hilarious. It's amazing how many tricks there are to making animation seems smooth in motion. Also that toothpick is definitely jammed through his tongue. Ow. That or it's stuck inbetween his teeth, and he's keeping it there as a fashion statement. Yeah, better not risk it. I still have nightmares about the final battle of TRS... Not going to lie, finding stopping points was not easy for Rook's first day. On 11/29/2022 at 8:45 PM, eclipse said: Strangely enough, I had the easiest time in combat with Rook. Negotiation wasn't too bad, and I took the time to get my cards back from the Barons. They kept stealing my coin flip cards, and I objected to that! Oh, I love Rook's combat! It contains my favorite mechanics in the entire game. Though strangely enough it's a hurdle on the harder difficulties, at least early on. Don't blame you for targeting the Barons to get Gamble back. It's the bread and butter of Rook's negations, after all. Update: Spoiler Last time I ended the update early out of concern that it would grow too large and start causing problems with Serenes Forest internet. Today we’ll see if that was the right call or if I made the decision too hastily. Anyway, two more missions: Let Sleeping Bogs Die and Bulk Discount. As nice as it would be to see some combat, I’ll take upgrading my card over removing one. Sounds small, but considering that Grout Bog is a giant swamp, boots are likely worn down and lost at a high rate. Finally, I have access to the bar! I’ll need a drink or two before lowering the price on some boots. I reach the Last Stand without issue, and am greeted by this For being an elite stealth force, Aerostat officers have an easy time spotting each other outside of the field. I decide to compliment Pengemunt on his perception to be nice. Warning Pengemunt to mind his own business just changes the dialogue. The choice doesn’t affect anything else. Predictably, Pengemunt is how you get new coins. I like Pengemunt. He’s not the deepest character, admittedly, but in a story that will have a lot of backstabbing and double-crossing, it’s refreshing to have a friendly dude with a normal hobby. May as well swap out my coin sooner than later. I typically go with the Marsh Coin, as I find that Rook has an easier time dealing damage than gaining composure in negotiations. With that out of the way, I meet the other patrons of the bar. I don’t know where Wrux works. As far as I can tell, The Last Stand is the only bar in Grout Bog. Time to meet Hebbel, the owner of the Bar. Good time to ask some questions, which Day 1 is filled with. I start off asking about Grout Bog. Again. I’m no expert on land values, but I imagine swamps and marshes aren’t high in price, and you’ll probably spend more money trying to make the land bearable than you would buying the property itself. Even the prospect of the territory containing ancient technology doesn’t seem too appealing when you have to dig it out of a marsh and transport it out of a swampland. Rook, on the other hand, just sees this as your typical adventuring location. Although I haven’t heard anyone say “the swamp level is the best part of the game!” yet. Next up on the questions list is the Spark Barons. The Cult is still influential, but their power structure is not as stable as they make it out to be. On the flip side, while the Spark Barons do hold an impressive monopoly, it doesn’t get them as many places as they think it would. Continuing off this point, I ask about the laborers. Unfortunately, humans are consistent in finding ways to get cheap labor, even as the methods change throughout the ages. On a side note, I could have mentioned this earlier, but I appreciate that Griftlands draws attention to indentured servitude. It’s a terrible practice that I find is often overshadowed because worse ones exist. I already intimidated a guy into following workplace safety rules again, and after this I’ll be off to decrease the price on boots. I’m already helping their cause, however gradually. Finally, I ask Hebbel about himself. There’s a story somewhere there about someone crazy enough to start a bar in the middle of a bog. Possibly crazier to keep it as a family business. Though maybe Hebbel’s grandfather saw some wisdom in maintaining a neutral ground with the strife that followed. Rook’s face continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. Hebbels voice becomes incredibly aggressive when he says these lines. He knows his role, and takes the matter seriously. Rook thankfully gets the message. I’ve exhausted all the available questions. My next one is if I can buy a drink. Hard to tell if Rook is being sarcastic, or if he’s trying to start off on the right foot by being overly friendly. Looks like it's time to get our first graft. Rook starts off with one extra graft slot. Likely a perk of being former military. There are some negotiations where I prefer Snails over Heads, and I for the life of me can't get a use out of Conductor is, so I go with Pocket Bomb. The flavor text implies this might explode. It never will, of course, but I don’t want to think about the owners of previous models… Unlike Sal, Rook has to work to unlock a place to buy cards and grafts. The bright side being that the black market is open at all hours. That was a long stretch of dialogue. I’ll ask for that drink now. Since Hebbel’s relationship with Rook is strictly business, I’ll have to deal with drinks costing 37 shills for the rest of the run. And no, there’s no way to improve (or as far as I can tell, worsen) your relationship with Hebbel throughout Rook’s story. It’s one of the earliest signs that Rook’s campaign is going to be subtly harder than Sal’s. 30 resolve will do. I head off. I’ll check out the Black Market later. For now, I’ll return to the Company Store. Del’s still here, and will probably heckle me when talking with Allyn. Now to ask about prices while I wonder in which cabinet or box do they store the boots. Cheaper than a drink or meal. Oh, that’s more than the price of a drink or meal. More like exploitation, at that price. I could school Allyn in economics… Throw some threats around… Or just beat her up. Apparently Waandra only protects her boss, not the customers. While that makes sense, as Allyn is likely in charge of her paycheck, Allyn might want to extend Waandra’s responsibilities. Getting beaten up in a store while the guard just stood around is not a good way to get repeat customers. Since arranging a ‘bulk discount’ is the only option that doesn’t cause Allyn to dislike me, I go with it. Economics class time! Del’s not happy to see me again. I start off with Rationale, like any good economic discussion should. Since I plan on using Grunt for the extra damage when Prepared, I gamble first to see whether or not Pleasantries will deal max damage. It lands on Snails, which I’m fine with. I focus on getting rid of Del sooner than later so I won’t have to deal with the extra damage. It may not have landed on heads, but Pleasantries dealt full damage all the same. I mentioned this during the last update, but as a reminder: A card is Prepared if it’s the leftmost card. Grunt is deals a fair amount of damage normally, but now it can destroy Heckler and still deal some leftover damage. Like so It also drew Dilemma, but that card will be useful later anyway. Remember Kickback? Been a while since I last debated with a merchant. Seeing as I have three actions and don’t intend on using Kickback or getting rid of Slurred Speech, I play the three remaining cards in quick succession. I can live with losing 1 resolve each turn right now. I’ll see whether or not Tribute is worth targeting. First, I see what Trickery has to offer. Looking back, I maybe could have gone with Flipside so that Pleasantries deals max damage, then play Call It to see what it does, but you know what they say about hindsight being 20/20. Regardless, I set the coin. Since the only attack card I have in my hand (that won’t cost me shills, anyway) is Pleasantries, I go with Heads. This can’t be targeted by the enemy, though it won’t last long anyway. While Rooks coin flipping animation will always show a shills icon, the artwork for his core argument will change depending on which coin you're using. It’s a nice touch. May as well I gain Composure before ending the turn. I take no damage and have another Kickback is added. …Grrr… Since I have Dilemma in my hand, I may as well Gamble to give it an affordable cost. Luckily, it lands on Snails while I have Grumble in my hand. It’s risky, but I can potentially do enough damage to end the negotiation this turn… This discussion on economics is over Dilemma: I’ve had games where having multiple Dilemma cards were useful, but those were also runs where I had more ways to gamble than just Call It. Helmet: Requires having a way to prepare cards to be of any use, and even then Helmet has to be in your hand to gain the composure, which is also distributed randomly. I’m making it sound worse than it is, as there are ways to consistently prepare cards; I just haven’t had access to them yet. Also, enjoy Smith wearing Rook’s hat, as Kra’deshi rarely have headgear. Kicker: I think the game is trying to tell me something about discarding. The description is straightforward and I’ve gotten use out of it before, but of course it requires having a way to discard cards for it to be helpful. I decide to skip this round. None of these are bad cards, but they require set up at a point in the game where I’m still figuring out which direction to take my deck. The prices are reduced. Hopefully forever, and at least for a while. My business here is done. Time to go back to Kalandra. I’m interrupted heading back to the Labor Office. Turns out, the prices were high because some Spark Barons were getting a piece of the pie. Maybe this was the ‘demand’ part that Allyn mentioned earlier? Don’t know whether the description is fitting or ironic. Perhaps both. I could give her half of my money… Defend myself against a competent opponent… Or explain the concept of demand elasticity. While there are certainly wackier and more creative negotiation situations, I love that Rook can resolve this mission by simply being an Intro To Economics teacher. Rook flips his coin at the start of every negotiation. It landed on Snails, so Keebee took one damage before I played a card. Nice. I take advantage of Snails by playing Grumble. It deals minimum damage, but I’ll take 2 damage over 1, of course. To be safe, I defend. Then I Gamble and hope to land on Heads. I can live with dealing damage. Though I wish we would do more than the minimum this turn. All Business is added, and I take 1 damage. Grumble and Pleasantries were stolen. Annoying, but not an immediate threat yet. Keebee gained 1 Composure thanks to All Business and Grunt. I start off the turn seeing what Trickery will grant me. I’ll take the Composure and dealing full damage with Pleasantries, thank you. I defend first And get rid of All Business before it causes more trouble. I take no damage This could be a problem… My deck is shuffled, so Pocket Bomb activates, helpfully destroying the argument that gets rid of half of Keebee’s resolve! It isn’t Prepared, but Grunt can grant me two more attack cards during a turn where I can’t do much. The Vulnerability isn’t a huge issue, but I realize I can’t win the negotiation this turn. Thus, I defend… And get my Rational cards back! Keebee’s core argument takes 1 damage, and I’m stuck with Vulnerability for a while. May as well, since it’s free Hard to say no to free damage, no matter how small. Rook’s core argument takes a total of 3 damage, though I won’t be getting rid of that Vulnerability anytime soon. Keebee steals the same type of cards as she did at the beginning of the negotiation. Pocket Bomb strikes again! I see how much damage Grumble will do… 4 damage! I can end the negotiation this turn! Before conquering this conversation by grunting, I gain experience on Trickery first. Meh, any of those cards would have been fine. Time to end this Trade: Not a bad deal. Really, it’s only held back by how Rook only has a handful of ways to gain influence. Overwhelm: The description is fun, and so is this card. It does require having some argument cards first, though. Roughneck: Either your opponent loses their composure, or you take it for yourself. It’s a win either way. It may be situational, but I'd like to have the chance to easily get rid of annoying stacks of composure. Ah, economics. Several Havarians aren’t wise to how they work, and I wish that wasn’t also true of the real world. Like I’m one to talk. I understand and can even explain several economic theories, yet have a difficult time actually putting them into practice, whether in games or real life. I’m not much of a risk taker, especially with money, and though I understand the importance of things like marketing and sales, I have difficulty visualizing how they’ll pay for themselves. With that out of the way, I return to Kalandra to inform her that the boot issue is resolved. Well, I am a proponent of the phrase “Speak softly, and carry a big stick”. I haven’t seen any combat yet, so I’ll get a head start on one of Rook’s battle cards. I love Rook’s combat mechanics, but I’ll explain them later. Crank is a card that I tend to upgrade later than sooner, so I save myself the hassle now. I’ll explain what the heck Charge is in the future. Kalandra didn’t hire a former Aerostat spy just to bully a foreman and lower the price on some boots. Normally, I’d end it here, but there’s no combat or negotiations for the rest of the update, and I’d like to start off the next one with Kalandra’s larger plan. I can either meet a street gambler, or buy an autodog. The autodog’s not a bad deal, but I’ve played the game enough to know that meeting this gambler will pay off in the long run. Krog is a semi-consistent character, similar to Rug. He won’t always appear, but when he does, Krog’s in the mood to gamble. His description is also pretty fun. Well, which game of chance are we playing? Played before? It’s the entire basis of Rook’s negotiation style! Eh, I can sacrifice 10 shills. I’ll catch the full animation in screenshot form gradually. If I remember correctly, this is the only time a character other than Rook uses the animation. Predictably… Rook is generous enough to show Krog what years of coin tricks can do. Apologies for the barrage of screenshots, but this animation is played three times in quick succession. I can trade my current coin for Krog’s Weighted Coin. Tell him to be careful in the future. Give up some shills so he can go back to Murder Bay Or just rob him. I can afford to sacrifice 50 shills, and Dockhands have one of the best Boons in the game anyway. The discount includes meals and drinks. Bargaining is easily one of the best Boons in the game, as there is ultimately a limited number of shills you can earn on any run, and being to buy even more stuff is always helpful, no matter the situation. Before ending things off, I see what’s at the black market. Hebbel did say they were a cagey bunch. Oh hi Enit! Nice to see you again. The feeling isn’t mutual, apparently. I ignore her request to walk away, and instead ask some questions Well that’s a mood. Great as Rook is at his job, there are times I wonder if he deliberately asks risky questions just to make things more interesting. I get that you’re trying to be intimidating, Enit, but you just look like you need a cup of coffee or a nap. I could try to convince Enit I’m not just going to window shop at a black market… Or give up half my money for a membership… Or I could mention that I gave 50 shills to Krog. I helped Krog mere minutes ago. I appreciate you putting in a good work for me, Krog, but mentioning that I helped with your financial troubles in this environment will only lead to future troubles for the both of us. Unlike the Night Market for Sal, there’s only one shopkeeper who sells cards here. Plocka ‘The Swab’ is still here to sell grafts. While better than the Night Market in the sense that it’s open at all hours, your options are far more limited. Another sign that Rook’s campaign won’t be as easy as Sal’s. The description is a fun pun, and I kidnapped Queek off the street once as Sal. That’s when I learned that apparently Sal carries gags around for some reason. …Why the hell did that come back? Let’s see if Queek has anything to offer real quick. …Nothing I’m willing to spend money on at the moment. I love the running gag with Plocka, and I have theory about her that I’ll share when we get to Smith. For now, I’ll ask why a Spark Baron is hanging out with some Jakes. Phroluk may be my favorite recurring character in the game, but Plocka isn’t far behind. These negotiation grafts aren’t bad, but I don’t feel like spending money on them. I went back and forth on whether or not to buy this, but considering that Rook hasn’t been in combat yet, I’d like to have a boost when he inevitably does, even if it’s for only one turn. ***** Odd place to end things, I know, but next time we’ll see what Kalandras larger plan is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Rubenio Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 Spoiler On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: I don't know how easy it would be to do, but I would love for a cheat code or unlockable to show the games temporary artwork. I would also love easy access to the games placeholder dialogue, because it's golden: This kind of meta dialogue is always fun. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: A joke I could almost see the game doing, though it's humor is more interested in the other end of the human body. ...Oh. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: It's really the sheer extend and number of people that repeated the sentiment that I don't get. ...Although when I sat down to think about it, not as many fictional tall ladies came to mind as I expected. Maybe that's why? Right on the money. People cling to what they can. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: I say in the very next sentence that I want to kill them. With guns and rocket launchers. Still an interesting statement. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Fire Emblem in general needs fancier spells and ways of casting them. How coolness factor visually speaking is so all over the place across the franchise. They can never beat Berwick Saga On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: The presence of alternative costumes is the main reason I'm not tearing into the art direction more, as chances are if I don't like what's currently shown, I can swap it out for something else I do like. It helps that I found most of the outfits to fall into the "so bad it's good" category personally, so I have an easy time laughing at it. I'll take Engage's silliness over Awakening/Fates "characters literally fight in their underwear" schtick. Yeah, that's true. Sure, Ivy's spike shoes and gloves are absolutely hilarious, but at least... well, her dress is rather skimpy, but it feels more elegant than shit like Fates's On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Mechanically, engaging seems interesting, but I'd like to get my hands on the game first too see how it works in practice. Especially since I know the trailers are more interested in making the game look cool and interesting than discussing mechanical depth. Yeah, fair enough. I need more of the map design, primarily. What we've seen has looked pretty nice already, but I'd rather be sure. Quote It's not my preferred crossover either, as I would have liked to see different characters from across the series interreact with each other in a standard Fire Emblem strategy game that mechanically ties to gather aspects across the franchise. However, execution is what matters at the end of the day, so I'll reserve judgement until the game comes out. I would've prefered that too, but oh well. Quote Though I wouldn't mind "Fire Emblem at The Olympic Games". Though that's mostly out of disappoint over how the recent "Mario & Sonic at The Olympic Games" cut corners and events from previous games that really didn't need to be cut. Ike and Oliver face off in a race Oliver wins On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Surprising as it may sound, this is my favorite design in the entire game. At a glance, you can tell that this is someone with a story. Someone who's been beaten up, scarred, and has sacrificed much. Yet despite those hardships, they press on, determined, moving forward no matter what life throws at them. There may be more interesting designs in the game, yet the history the character has that can be noticed at a glance is a big reason why I love Eowne/Gorgula's design. Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. I did get those vibes from her appearance ingame, too (I got her in my one run). She spoke as if she and Rook had an extensive story... Even though she didn't have much of an appearance, she makes the most of what she gets. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Meanwhile, other games: Inb4 Hadron is that young-looking guy next to the big guy On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: It's in the white box above his comment. Don't blame you, as I miss the descriptions being there too sometimes. Oh. ...F for me, then. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Most grins in the game look evil. Embrace the genuine smiles while you can On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Animation pauses in general are surprisingly hilarious. It's amazing how many tricks there are to making animation seems smooth in motion. It's something all right. I still remember all the creepypastas from my LPs. You never notice stuff like that when it's in motion. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Last time I ended the update early out of concern that it would grow too large and start causing problems with Serenes Forest internet. The eternal struggle: Fear of the bugs. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Finally, I have access to the bar! I’ll need a drink or two before lowering the price on some boots. Frenetic action to start off, I se. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: For being an elite stealth force, Aerostat officers have an easy time spotting each other outside of the field. They wear recognizable attires so you lower your guard when they don't. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Predictably, Pengemunt is how you get new coins. I like Pengemunt. He’s not the deepest character, admittedly, but in a story that will have a lot of backstabbing and double-crossing, it’s refreshing to have a friendly dude with a normal hobby. No agenda, no lies. Just a dude that likes coins. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: It's not the :V face, but I always found Rook's big mustache smile to be really funny. He looks like a kindly grandpa all of a sudden. All the better for his deception, I guess. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Although I haven’t heard anyone say “the swamp level is the best part of the game!” yet. Well, Berwick Saga's swamp map was pretty sweet, but... It's not the best, so... eh. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Finally, I ask Hebbel about himself. Rook, rude. Don't show the guy your tongue. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Rook’s face continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. AHAHAHAHAHAHA I don't know, Hebbel, if there ever was a time to go against your policy... He looks like he's about to tie you down to the railway and wait for a train to run you over. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Since Hebbel’s relationship with Rook is strictly business, I’ll have to deal with drinks costing 37 shills for the rest of the run. And no, there’s no way to improve (or as far as I can tell, worsen) your relationship with Hebbel throughout Rook’s story. It’s one of the earliest signs that Rook’s campaign is going to be subtly harder than Sal’s. lol not if my first try victory is any indication Still, nice bit of flavor there. Rook's nothing more than a guy staying at Hebbel's bar, and Hebbel's nothing more than the guy Rook's renting a room from. People don't usually try to befriend the owner of the hotel where they spend the holidays. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Or just beat her up. Apparently Waandra only protects her boss, not the customers. While that makes sense, as Allyn is likely in charge of her paycheck, Allyn might want to extend Waandra’s responsibilities. Getting beaten up in a store while the guard just stood around is not a good way to get repeat customers. To be fair, where else are they gonna go? That's the whole point of the mission you're currently doing lol, they can do whatever they want because it's them or the bog. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Also, enjoy Smith wearing Rook’s hat, as Kra’deshi rarely have headgear. It looks cursed. Highly cursed. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Turns out, the prices were high because some Spark Barons were getting a piece of the pie. Maybe this was the ‘demand’ part that Allyn mentioned earlier? All the repeats of "cut" here made me expect Keebee'd finish the sentence with "that makes me want to cut you." What a missed opportunity. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: The discount includes meals and drinks. Bargaining is easily one of the best Boons in the game, as there is ultimately a limited number of shills you can earn on any run, and being to buy even more stuff is always helpful, no matter the situation. Those 50 shills will pay for themselves. Just three purchases and already you'll have profitted from this decision. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Well that’s a mood. Hahahaha... That's a great answer, Enit. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: Great as Rook is at his job, there are times I wonder if he deliberately asks risky questions just to make things more interesting. Ah yes, casual out-of-nowhere racism. Class act, Rook. On 12/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Hawkwing said: The description is a fun pun, and I kidnapped Queek off the street once as Sal. That’s when I learned that apparently Sal carries gags around for some reason. …Why the hell did that come back? It always comes back to the gag, don't it... On 11/30/2022 at 2:45 AM, eclipse said: Strangely enough, I had the easiest time in combat with Rook. Negotiation wasn't too bad, and I took the time to get my cards back from the Barons. They kept stealing my coin flip cards, and I objected to that! It doesn't sound that strange to me haha, I had the easiest time with Rook myself. I mean, heck, I won his campaign on the first try, somehow. His RNG mechanics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted December 7, 2022 Share Posted December 7, 2022 14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said: It doesn't sound that strange to me haha, I had the easiest time with Rook myself. I mean, heck, I won his campaign on the first try, somehow. His RNG mechanics I got the weighted coin, and that made things a lot easier for negotiations. For combat, I went with the zero charge strategy. It held up for a surprisingly long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 ROOK'S CAMPAIGN DAY 1 MISSION 3: The Friends We Make Along The Way The more I see of Engage, the less I know what to make of it. Replies: Spoiler On 12/6/2022 at 11:12 AM, Saint Rubenio said: Hide contents This kind of meta dialogue is always fun. Makes me wonder if any other developers have fun with placeholder text. ...Oh. Perhaps I should have specified Neverhoods crude humor when stating that. The rest is largely slapstick with a few literacy jokes thrown in there: Yes, you can read the entire thing. It takes a while. Right on the money. People cling to what they can. I suppose. There's not much more I can add to this discussion without repeating "The meme was more widespread than I expected" over and over. Still an interesting statement. Looking back, I forgot to finish the Earth Defense Force joke. I was going to say that it fulfills said wish of shooting dragons with rocket launchers, though I'm not certain how fun the game is single player, or if my computer can handle it. Though that perception could be because my only knowledge of the game comes from RussianBadger (which on a side note, is the only time I've seen America's military budget be a point of both mockery and pride). They can never beat Berwick Saga Berwick Saga straight up has the most under-appreciated sprite work I've ever seen. Yeah, that's true. Sure, Ivy's spike shoes and gloves are absolutely hilarious, but at least... well, her dress is rather skimpy, but it feels more elegant than shit like Fates's Engage gives me "intentionally wearing a goofy costume during serious cutscene" vibes, which I can easily laugh at. Whereas with Fates, I feel like I always have to mention that I enjoy the game in spite of the dumb outfits. Which is a shame, because I would say that Fates has some of the best designs in the entire franchise for certain classes in the franchise, while at the same time having some of the absolute worst. Yeah, fair enough. I need more of the map design, primarily. What we've seen has looked pretty nice already, but I'd rather be sure. While map design isn't a make-it-or-break-it factor personally, the mechanics and maps so far seem at the very least interesting. I'm still taking the "wait and see" approach, though. I would've prefered that too, but oh well. Hey, there's nothing saying it can't happen. It will probably be a few years before they attempt another crossover game, but then again Nintendo fans are used to waiting for new games. ...A new F-Zero, Star Fox, and/or Punch-Out game would be nice. I'd like to see more action games on the Nintendo Switch instead of farming sims and RPGs. Ike and Oliver face off in a race Oliver wins Hey, seeing Bowser do rhythmic gymnastics is part of the fun of the Mario & Sonic games. Oliver outrunning Ike would totally be a plausible situation in Fire Emblem at the Olympic Games. I'm honestly surprised that for all the wacky events that Heroes has, they never had one focused on sports. It's not like the game is a stranger to anachronistic situations, and there are so many sports in the world that they could easily have themed banners. Which is barely related, but I have an excuse to once again ask IS for a taguel on trampoline alt. I know it's not a very funny running gag, but dammit! I want an opportunity to at least once be that obnoxious asshole that laughs like a maniac and yells "I Fucking Called It!" while everyone else is confused. Years after people stopped caring about the game. It might be funny. Also because I'd really like for Panne and/or Yarne to get an alt. Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. I did get those vibes from her appearance ingame, too (I got her in my one run). She spoke as if she and Rook had an extensive story... Even though she didn't have much of an appearance, she makes the most of what she gets. I would say all of Rook's Day 1 bosses do a fantastic job giving the impression of having a history with Rook despite their limited screentime. I also enjoy each of their designs too, now that I think about it. Inb4 Hadron is that young-looking guy next to the big guy It's actually the Tech-Priest talking over the radio. Which makes me wonder why I haven't quoted Mechanicus more often considering that game has my favorite script of all the games I've played this year. Seriously, I have over a thousand screenshots for the game, and only about 20 of them focus on gameplay. ...Then again, I'm already looking through hundreds of screenshots when making these updates, so the prospect of searching through thousands of pictures just to find one or two great lines isn't as appealing. Oh. ...F for me, then. Hey, I still sometimes forget the character descriptions. Which makes it all the more fun to look through them again! Ah, Team Fortress 2. One of the more unique first person shooter multiplayer games I've seen. A game I have an interest in playing, but know that people have been competing in it for decades at this point and know the maps inside and out. I also know I'm not that good about the "Team" part of multiplayer games. That, and space. I recently had to uninstall Halo: The Master Chief Collection because an update took up too much space, and I have enough games I want to play but don't have room for. It's something all right. I still remember all the creepypastas from my LPs. You never notice stuff like that when it's in motion. I always find it interesting just how many tricks there are to make animation look as natural as it does. Watching animations in slow motion is a really neat experience. The eternal struggle: Fear of the bugs. I've had Serenes Forest delete my work on less busy posts before. The fear always remains no matter how much I write. Frenetic action to start off, I se. It's not my fault the boot quest had the better reward this time around. They wear recognizable attires so you lower your guard when they don't. Fair point, even though the Grifters and Kalandra are the only characters with more than one outfit. No agenda, no lies. Just a dude that likes coins. Glad we're in agreement about Pengemunts character. Because now I can share a different interpretation of the dude. It's not the :V face, but I always found Rook's big mustache smile to be really funny. He looks like a kindly grandpa all of a sudden. All the better for his deception, I guess. I love how expressive Rook's mustache is. It's a little cartoony, but never to the point it becomes distracting. Well, Berwick Saga's swamp map was pretty sweet, but... It's not the best, so... eh. There are swamp levels that I thought were okay, but never actively look forward to replaying them. Rook, rude. Don't show the guy your tongue. Hebbel works in the only bar in the middle of a brutal marshland. I think he's seen worse. AHAHAHAHAHAHA I don't know, Hebbel, if there ever was a time to go against your policy... He looks like he's about to tie you down to the railway and wait for a train to run you over. Considering Hebbel immediately gets aggressive after Rook says this, I don't think the barkeep get's intimidated easily. lol not if my first try victory is any indication I beat Rook's campaign on my first try too. It's surprising how much the reduced health and resolve and stronger enemies affect Rook the most during the early game, as things become more stable after you nab a few cards and upgrades. Still, nice bit of flavor there. Rook's nothing more than a guy staying at Hebbel's bar, and Hebbel's nothing more than the guy Rook's renting a room from. People don't usually try to befriend the owner of the hotel where they spend the holidays. Hebbel seems to be in the know that Rook is a spy for someone, but you are correct in that their relationship is simply business and nothing more. To be fair, where else are they gonna go? That's the whole point of the mission you're currently doing lol, they can do whatever they want because it's them or the bog. Fair point. It just seems that asking your guard to protect customers wouldn't be too much to ask, espeically when not doing so is a pretty predictable way to get people interested in joining a rebellion group like the Rise. It looks cursed. Highly cursed. Just wait until we get to Smith's story... All the repeats of "cut" here made me expect Keebee'd finish the sentence with "that makes me want to cut you." What a missed opportunity. A bit of a spoiler, but Keebee reappears in this update. I don't think she's good at noticing opportunities for puns. Those 50 shills will pay for themselves. Just three purchases and already you'll have profitted from this decision. I appreciate the variety of boons and banes Griftlands has. Bartering may not directly help in combat or negotiations, but it can certainly help in purchasing cards and grafts that make those things easier. Same with how some banes hurt you in combat or negotiations, but not always in a direct way. Hahahaha... That's a great answer, Enit. While I know that some people are annoyed by how there are multiple Anna's and how money hungry they are, I wouldn't mind a Fire Emblem game that brought back the secret shop and gave each of the Anna's a different personality for each store. One of them I image would give this answer ad verbatim if you found the shop but didn't have the card. Ah yes, casual out-of-nowhere racism. Class act, Rook. It's not racism, since he's not talking about their species. Rather it's... factionalism? Making assumptions about a party or group? I had to stop myself from going on a rant, as people making assumptions about a group just by the mere mention of a word and how varied those assumptions can be is... something I find incredibly annoying, if not downright frustrating. And it happens too often and can make discussing some topics way more difficult than it should be. That's all I can say before things take a more political turn, and that's the last thing I want to do here. It always comes back to the gag, don't it... It just came out of nowhere, I had to reread the sentence several times to make sure I was seeing things correctly, and it raises questions that I'm not sure I want answered. It doesn't sound that strange to me haha, I had the easiest time with Rook myself. I mean, heck, I won his campaign on the first try, somehow. His RNG mechanics I might be overselling the difficulty of Rook's story a little bit, but that's really only the early game on the harder difficulties. Once he gets some experience, it tends to be smoother sailing. On 12/7/2022 at 1:28 AM, eclipse said: I got the weighted coin, and that made things a lot easier for negotiations. For combat, I went with the zero charge strategy. It held up for a surprisingly long time. Never got the weighted coin, though that's mostly because I tend to find both sides to be useful. I usually default to the zero charge strategy as well, mostly for the free defense. Update: Spoiler Last time, I helped Krog with his financial problems and bought a graft at the black market. Now we’ll see what Kalandra’s larger plans involving Rook are. While one of the more natural ways for the game to switch to nighttime, I imagine it would be pretty boring. Now it’s time for the bigger picture. Kalandra could easily talk Del into following workplace safety again or convince the General Store to reduce prices on some boots. Time for Rook’s past as a spy to shine. Before kidnapping a thief, I can ask even more questions. As far as I can tell, this plot point never comes up again. I have a guess at what the invention is, but nothing confirms it. Hierarchies work in high risk, life or death situations, where following orders efficiently is a necessity. What the Spark Barons have set up isn’t one of those situations. Kinda? If you create a useful invention, and/or can get Vagrant age technology working without it exploding, the Spark Barons seem to hire you. On a side note, I find it interesting that the two factions that are the most at each other’s throats are also the two factions that have the most varied racial members. If you can get Vagrant age technology working again, the Spark Barons will hire you. If you care about workers rights, the Rise will let you join. While almost every faction has a mixture of species, one of the races tends to be a majority, yet that isn’t really the case with the Rise or the Spark Barons. Just an interesting observation I wanted to share. Fellemo worked side by side with Rook and knows what he’s capable of. A few choice words should convince Fellemo that Rook is a worthwhile hire. …It’s going to appear a whole lot like nepotism, though. …What corporations did the Admiralty want sabotaged? Now the main draw of Rook’s campaign: being a double agent. Without a choice to back out, Rook accepts. Before capturing a Gode, I have a drink. I went with Cleme. I’ll be interacting with the Rise from different angles as a double agent, and it will be nice to have a friend during those moments. Huh, another random event appeared so soon. Also, since I forgot to post this earlier, Rook’s Map theme. Don't have much to say other than it's a nice sounding Spy theme that fits Rook well. So either I get a grenade, or I help someone find something in the bog. The Spark Baron’s wouldn’t set up shop here unless something of worth could be found. Slime? Sure. Danger? I suppose. Death? Not yet. I suppose Wikka is one of the “unlicensed rogues who plunder dig sites” that was mentioned all the way at the beginning of Rook’s story. That, or someone sold a map to her at the black market and Wikka fell for it when they mentioned treasures. Still, I can make a quick shill by being a bodyguard. Erchins are walking furballs with teeth that somehow fit in with the setting despite being kind of silly when I look at them too long. More annoying than Slurred Speech thanks to having an actual negative effect, but at least it has the same cost to get rid of. I miss the animation here, but Rook has a bad habit of twirling his pistols. Gun twirling BREAKS EVERY SINGLE GUN SAFETY RULE. It’s a major pet peeve of mine in fiction, and Griftlands is no exception. I tolerate it here because I love the game and it’s stylish, but I don’t excuse it, either. It’s day 1, so I doubt the game would throw any of its nastier beasts at us yet. I barely have a sense of smell, so thankfully I can’t imagine this. I forgot Erchins had horns. Still, I wasn't wrong when I said they’re walking furballs with teeth. This is a pathetically easy fight, which I’ll take to gain some experience. Running away is an option, but I see no reason to do so. Okay, so this might be a little complicated at first, but Rook’s Charge is straight up my favorite mechanic in the entire game. At the start of every turn Rook gains 1 charge. At the end of every turn, Rook gains defense for every empty cell. When Rook’s cells are filled out, he gains Overcharge, which increases the maximum damage every attack can do. Obviously, several cards spend Charge for an effect, usually more damage. Other cards add Charge. Several have a bonus when all his cells are empty, others when it’s full. Some even add, spend, and otherwise use Overcharge. It’s a mechanic that the game takes full advantage of, with benefits from spending or saving charge that requires both planning ahead as well as on the fly thinking to get the most out of. Anyway, I start the actual round by defending. Since the Shovel is free and doesn’t gain experience, I Blast the Erchin. It deals the maximum damage of 7, meaning I can kill the Erchin with the Shovel. Since I still have an action left, I may as well get rid of a Tipsy card. … For my paragraph long explanation of Rook’s mechanics, I sure didn’t use them this round. Still, I’ll take a turn one kill. I’ll probably keep forgetting this exists, but it’s hard to complain about removing any composure. Now whether it’s worth spending the Erchin Musk on is a different story. Robo-kick: There are ways to reliably gain overcharge, but I don’t have many at this point in the game. Cheap Shot: An interesting card that encourages spending charge over keeping it. I tend to roll with that playstyle anyway given the extra defense, but it depends on the game. Tight Spot: A pretty interesting defensive card. 8 defense is nothing to scoff at, but Burnout means that if you don’t use it that turn, then the card will expend. Obviously, this leaves you with the conundrum of turns where you’ll draw Tight Spot when you aren’t being attacked, so you have to decide whether to play Tight Spot in order to keep the card, or instead focus on offense and have it expend. I’ll cover my defenses before focusing on the crazier attacks Rook can execute. Well, erchins certainly look like hairballs. Not the craziest thing the Bog has done to someone's mind. I could convince Wikka to just give me cash. Or I could play along. After all, the real secret of the bog… …Is being able to buy cheaper drinks! I’ll appreciate this “secret” while I can. The other secrets Grout Bog holds are… not so pleasant... That classic adventure lesson out of the way, I go to kidnap Gode. Though not before running into another event. Oh! It’s Rug! Wonder what new recipe he cooked up this time. Especially in a marsh. Man, after I finish Smith’s campaign, I’m going to be taking hundreds of screenshots of my favorite character descriptions. The drumsticks sound like the safest option, although I don’t want to know what “scab-roasted” means. Pffffft okay. The description of Hawbs made me laugh. Don’t know if I’ll use it much, but it’ll likely come in handy sometime. Feel free to place your bets now if you think I’ll save it until the final boss. Too bad I can’t use the drumstick as a bludgeon to capture this thief. Man, if this were a stealth game, I would have been debating whether to tranq Gode from this distance, or try to sneak up on him to deliver a chokehold, or throw a stun grenade, or drop a supply crate on his head, or Rocket-punch him, or ask Quiet or D-Dog to take them out non-lethally… …I really, really love Metal Gear Solid V. I can legitimately talk about that game for hours on end. Alas, this is Griftlands, so it’s not going to be as stealthy. That’s rude. Though about to be true. Though I could talk… Or beat him up… I may as well listen to his offer first. Imagine your employers thinking you were a rebel to the point the rebellion itself thought you were on their side for a while just because you evaded your taxes a few times. …Which feels like a joke Scott the Woz would do as some point, not going to lie. Hard to pass up on the chance to gain a boon. I’ll have to talk my way in, now. Authority cards are helpful, though not necessarily game-changing. They count as status cards, which can either be helpful or annoying depending on what grafts you have installed. I don’t have a thief, but I did gain a boon. One I’ll be using soon as Rook will have to rely on his silver tongue to join the Spark Barons. Arnit has her own theme, and unsurprisingly will play a role as Fellemo’s Lieutenant. “Mercenary” is a pretty good summarization of her character. This may come up later during Smith’s campaign, but Shroke’s don’t get high positions in the Cult, and the few that do are placed in combat roles like Luminari. There’s an interesting event with Sal I didn’t get this time that deals with this matter. Arnit is very savvy, I will give her that. Still, Rook can make a good argument for why he’s still a worthwhile hire. An example of an authority card. By The Book can be situational in a few arguments, but in most negotiations it’s helpful. Grumbling then showing that you’ve been drinking is not the way to make a good first impression. I’ll gladly take the composure. Arnit stole two of my basic attack cards. Since Spark Barons add an argument every turn, By The Book is effective against them. There’s a joke or commentary somewhere by destroying an argument called "All Business" by using a card called "By The Book," but nothing came to mind. I start getting a little impatient during this negotiation, and start playing cards faster than I can screenshot them. May as well get those cards back. Rook’s negotiation flourish is now available, though I won’t be using it for this debate. Arnit’s resolve is half-way depleted, and I’d like to save the flourish for a new conversation. I don’t know why Arnit stole the Erchin Musk, though not having access to Grunt is annoying. Spooked discarded a card, so I see what Trickery has to offer. Apparently, Aloof was the only worthwhile card. May as well get rid of this sooner than later. It could possibly go beyond an annoyance if I have more negotiations after this. Always hard to complain about composure. Arnit adds Vulnerability, but otherwise only does a single point of damage. A reminder that I’m so used to seeing this prompt when dealing with Spark Barons that sometimes I’ll forget to screenshot it. Anyway, it was a Rational card that was stolen. I’d like to have Grunt back, thank you. Which I’ll use now. I end the turn by defending. I take two damage… The negotiation is so close to being over that I can live with these two being stolen. Speaking of which, I can end the conversation this turn! For the experience, I target one of Arnit’s arguments with Grumble. Which I’m glad I did, since it dealt full damage. Negotiation’s over I can upgrade one of my Grumble cards! As useful as Setting the coin can be (which lets you choose which side it lands on), I’d rather not take the option that expends. I think the game is trying to tell me something about discards. I don’t listen. Rook’s spy charms appear to have worked, though Arnit seems pretty reluctant about the whole ordeal. I sometimes forget how many good lines Arint has. Talk is cheap, after all, and actions speak louder. Well, I haven’t seen a ton of combat yet. This should be a nice change of pace. Ruthless and efficient. I can see why Fellemo chose her as his second-in-command. Rook is unfazed by these conditions. I’ll meet some of the Spark Barons here before heading off. Almost every Spark Baron Professional looks nerdy. The fact they wield tonfas and are actually competent combatants just makes it funnier to me. A pretty important distinction, though not mutually exclusive. Also, Jarackles can rock some pretty awesome beards. I might discuss or rank them in an intermission sometime. I don’t recall there being anything distinctive about Hrikit’s voice. Then again, I’m bad at noticing differences between accents in real life. This is also the only character hinted at to be from Rentoria that isn’t a Shroke or part of the faction, which is pretty interesting. Now to teach a robot how to fight. That’s, uh, that’s not a good sign… Guess what? Every option is a question. As if Rooks first day didn’t have enough… I ask how the training process works. Let me guess, the “training dummies” will be living beings that know how to fight back? Sounds in line with CGP Grey's video about how AI’s learn. It also explains why corporations are so interested in collecting people's data. Let’s see what’s special about Automech ENF-301a. Now the ENF-302b. Sometimes the newer version works. Other times it’s the 302b. Since Fallopallo will appreciate me taking it along, I chose it. Inevitably, there will be a fight. Like I said… Well, maybe not a fight, but an encounter of some sort was expected. I ask about the modifications first. Sounds simple enough. I have the option to fight… Or I could tell Drabit to back off… But I don’t see why I should get in their way. Hopefully it’ll keep its… Mouth?... shut. I arrive at the training area without issue. The “Training Dummies” I presume? A pretty straightforward fight. I could refuse, but I need to be in the Spark Baron’s good graces, and modifying MEM is pushing it as is. Rook isn’t thrilled about attacking captives. Keebee, meanwhile, is as bad at reading the room as she is at finishing puns. I spend a charge using Hair Trigger for two extra damage. Considering how quickly guns shoot, I'll miss the animation sometimes. Since it’s the only other attack card, I use Blast. Normally I’d use Crank in the event the extra charge is useful, but since it’s already upgraded I give the experience to Hunker Down instead. Veerin decides to defend. A good example of why Tight Spot has Burnout. I’ve completely blocked the damage Veerin will do this turn. Rook’s Kick is the only starting card to cost two actions. It’s also the strongest attack card you start off with. I miss the actual kick, but I find it hilarious that Rook’s kick does more damage than his guns. It'll will become even more hilarious when we get to Smith. I block the damage. Despite being one of the weaker units in the Rise, Rebels make up for their lack of strength by gaining morale every time they deal damage. While this does little for their health, it does mean that Rise Rebels can take more damage than expected before they surrender. I am very glad I bought the Rugged Wiring Graft now. Rook is actually dealing a high amount of damage on Prestige 7 from the get go. Now I catch the kick. I finish off the fight by Blasting the “Training Dummy”. Another easy victory, which I’ll gladly take. Especially when Rook sometimes struggles with early fights on higher difficulties. Sentinel: 10 Defense is absolutely worth the 2 actions. The extra charge is just a nice bonus. Dynamo Round: Not a bad pick if you have ways to reliably gain Overcharge. I prefer some of Rook’s other options that spend Overcharge, but Dynamo Round isn’t a bad choice. Pistol Whip: Hard to complain about any card that can cost zero actions to play. Even in runs where Empty doesn’t appear to often, 4 damage is still respectable. One of my favorite defensive cards for Rook. He has the lowest starting health of the three Grifters, so having good defensive options is especially important when playing as the Double Agent. MEM didn’t do anything this time, but it is possible for the automech to go haywire and start attacking the Spark Barons. You have the options to pick which side to fight on when this happens, or just sit back and see who wins. This probably won’t make Arnit happy, but a job’s a job. Fellemo can also give you this quest if you start the game with the Spark Barons. The last line is more fitting for him than Arnit. Apparently, I forgot to screenshot the options for Grafts. Twinshot is a pretty good option when focusing on gaining Overcharge, but even if you have a deck that focuses on spending Charge, Twinshot can still be beneficial, as some cards spend every Charge you have. Fellemo’s theme fits his character like a glove. I can easily imagine the slimeball being smug while sipping on some wine just listening to it. As it turns out, Fellemo asked us to work for him first, and recommended going to the Rise first so they wouldn’t suspect a thing! I love this set-up. Both sides ask for you to be their double agent. And if you go for the Spark Baron’s first, Kalandra pulls a similar trick, though you get different dialogue thanks to the new perspective. With that, all that’s left is Rook’s boss fight, which hopefully won’t take another week to write. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted December 15, 2022 Share Posted December 15, 2022 On 12/12/2022 at 4:34 PM, Hawkwing said: While almost every faction has a mixture of species, one of the races tends to be a majority, yet that isn’t really the case with the Rise or the Spark Barons. Just an interesting observation I wanted to share. Work knows no race. As for zero charge, it kinda went downhilll near the final boss. Had to get lucky to win that one. Then again, all I had was Rook's base cards, so perhaps there are better options as he gains ranks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted December 17, 2022 Author Share Posted December 17, 2022 ROOK'S CAMPAIGN DAY 1 BOSS FIGHT: Rook, The Veteran VS Fralx, The Protégé Alternative Title: A Reminder That Rook is NOT a Good Guy Replies: On 12/15/2022 at 2:07 PM, eclipse said: Work knows no race. Very much agreed As for zero charge, it kinda went downhilll near the final boss. Had to get lucky to win that one. Then again, all I had was Rook's base cards, so perhaps there are better options as he gains ranks? Ah, I think I know which attack you're talking about with the boss. And fighting it with Rook's starting cards, is, uh. I can see that being possible yet painful. He gains some really fun cards as you increase in rank, though to be fair that's true for every character. ...I do not look forward to the process of screenshotting and writing the update for Rook's final boss. Update: Spoiler Last time, we learned that Fellemo contacted Rook first, and suggested meeting with the Rise before the Spark Barons to avoid suspicion. Both factions are asking Rook to be their double agent, but as we’ll soon see, Rook has his own plans… Before finishing off the day with the boss, there is one more event to deal with. You should know the drill by now. Seeing as Queek sold cards at the Black Market, there are a number of possible scenarios for how this fight happened. The Day 1 boss is next, so I have one last chance to gain experience on cards. Since it was only in the last update I saw combat, and every encounter was over quickly, I decide to attack Queek. Rook’s Battle Music, as the fights in the previous update were so underwhelming I forgot to mention it. It’s a solid track. I prefer it over Sal’s, but they both pale in comparison to Smith’s battle music. Anyway, I start off by playing Ammo Pouch. It is comparable to Sal’s Fighting Dirty card. Most Ammo Pouch cards spend charge on unique ammo, though there are a number that add charge or have a different effect. Since I don’t have any other attack cards this round, I pick Tracer Round. Interesting that Tracer Round turns Rook’s pistols into an improvised flamethrower. While it is true that real life tracer rounds have a pyrotechnic charge in them, they’re not used to light people on fire. Rather, they leave a visible trail behind the bullet after it is fired. This makes it easier to tell where the bullets are going, which is especially important since the ever improving range of firearms means that it is increasingly difficult to make visual confirmation of bullet impacts. They’re largely used in machine guns to help the gunner aim, though there are other applications. Since I have 2 empty cells, I only need to use one defensive card to block all the damage. May as well get rid of Tipsy while I can. No need to have it clog up my deck during a boss fight. It’s not exactly a sickle, but it is fairly similar in shape. Though they have a short range, sickles are surprisingly vicious weapons, and Skallagrim has an excellent video about them that examines historical manuscripts and tests how well they work in actual sparring. I just think this shot is cool, and I wanted to direct people to an interesting video. Since I don’t need to defend, I may as well gain some Overcharge so the rest of my attacks deal more damage. I know I said I would catch Rook flipping his coin at various stages of the animation, but to be honest, I’ll probably have a wider range of screenshots for his reloading and firing animations. I keep forgetting how many different animations Rook has for firing and reloading his pistols, in part because he has so many options for deck builds that I don’t always see every card each run. The proper description of Overcharge, now that I've finally have some. Since Queek will gain Evasion once I click Next Turn, I attack twice. Once with Blast. The other with Hair Trigger. Queek takes 1 damage from burn. Burn is similar to Bleed in that it deals damage at the start of the enemies turn. Unlike Bleed, you can prevent the stack from decreasing if you apply Scorched, which is spent instead. Useful as that sounds, I’ve noticed that I haven’t run many decks focused on Burn with Rook, at least compared to how often I run Bleed focused decks with Sal. That isn’t to say Burn is bad so much as Rook has more interesting options. Regardless, Queek gains 2 Evasion. We’re currently seeing times when Tight Spot is useful. There will be moments where it will be an annoyance. Just keep that in mind if you decide to pick the card. It was a choice between gaining experience on two cards or the one that costs 2 actions. I’m saving Shovel for a turn where I can actually deal damage. Exposed will be annoying, but I once again block all damage and keep my 3 power. A Loot Cluster! Yeah, this will grant shills and an extra card if it is destroyed within 3 turns. I defend first, which plays an animation where Rook twirls his pistols. I’ve already mentioned this breaks every gun safety rule, so I won’t repeat myself in the future. Queek can wait. Give me that loot! Interesting that Rook kicks with his good leg, though it does make some sense. Painful as being kicked with a metal leg would be, that’s just asking for it to get dented and eventually break at the worst possible time. I lost the extra power and gained Wound. Annoying, but I wasn’t planning on fighting with 3 Power for long anyway. I destroy the Loot Cluster with Hair Trigger. Yeah, sometimes things just… rise up out of the ground of the bog, before shortly being buried again. While the Loot Cluster was purely beneficial, there are other things that can appear whose usefulness is more situational. I do like the gameplay storytelling with the mechanic. It reinforces that there is something weird about Grout Bog, that is is a swampland where things resurface before being swallowed up again, and why there would be an entire faction dedicated to digging up the marsh for the chance of finding any ancient technology instead of waiting for it to randomly float back up. Seeing as Queek is going to gain Evasion again, I Blast her twice. I’d like to save Shovel for a turn where attacking and defending would be beneficial. Queek slips away. Again. Speak of the devil, this is one of the “situational” things Grout Bog can regurgitate. If the Spark Mine is destroyed, it deals damage to every enemy on that side of the screen. It should be noted that this can appear on our side as well, and enemies will target it, regardless if it’s a good idea or not. Tight Spot once again appears at a good time. I won’t be able to break past Queek’s Evasion this turn, so I instead focus on damaging the only other thing on the battlefield. I once again take no damage. I already have 1 Overcharge thanks to Rook gaining charge every turn. Why not gain 3 Overcharge? Same as last time, I target the explosives that won’t dodge my attack. Annoyingly, Queek will keep evading my attacks. I have no defense cards, so I check what Ammo Pouch has to offer. Blowout is just what I need! Every empty cell will grant defense, and the extra damage is just a bonus. Fortunately, I can spend two attack cards before dealing the real damage with Blowout. Evasion out of the way, time to deal the real damage! I take 4 damage and several debuffs from getting slashed in the knee. Unless Kick and Blast both deal minimum damage, I’ve won this fight. Don’t see a point in potentially pissing off a Jake, so I accept the surrender. Deep Bog Secret costs 2 actions and has no effects, but it has Hatch. Play a Hatch card enough times and it transforms into a new card. Back in the Early Access days, these cards just gained experience normally, and transformed automatically when it was full (you didn’t have to deal with a post battle upgrade screen). They added hatch because these cards were still susceptible to Fatigued as well as any graft or event that gave experience. Dynamo Round: This was an option last time. The Twinshot graft I have could make it a plausible choice. Fully Loaded: 4 Defense is solid on its own, and being able to counter when Fully Charged is a useful bonus. It also leads to some interesting scenarios of deciding between gaining full charge for the counter, or spending some charges for the extra defense. Or gaining Fully Charged, playing Fully Loaded, then spending charge with another card. Scanner: If you target an enemy with Scanned, you draw a card. That’s it. I’ve never bothered to nab this card. This is a deceptively simple defensive card that has more decision making to it than what meets the eye. A simple boon, but I’ll take it. Now onto Rook’s day 1 bo- Another one?! My options are: Get rid of one of the strongest defense cards Rook can obtain. Gain 2 Slurred Speech cards right before the final negotiation of the day. Lose 10 Resolve right before negotiating for a bonus against a boss. This was an absurdly easy decision. Compared to the other options? It was an amazing idea for all I care. I deal with these cards all the time anyway. I arrive without further interruptions. Now what or who are these notes for? …I’ll discuss this after I’m finished with Rook’s story. Needless to say, I lean towards Fralx in this case. A reminder that Rook is NOT a good guy The authority card this time is Permits. I’ll explain what it does in a moment. The coin landed on heads this time, so I gain free composure. Also, before I forget, the Night Negotiation Music. I don't have much to say other than it's fitting for boss scenarios and sounds like another solid spy theme. Impassive is similar to Delegator, except instead of the leftover damage being redirected at me, Fraxl will gain composure. To be honest, I wish the abilities were swapped. I would gladly deal with Impassive over Delegator any day. For every Fear I destroy, Fralx will gain 1 Defect, meaning he’ll take double damage for one attack. Since Rook’s flourish is ready, I start off the negotiation with one. All of his options are good, but Coin Juggler is easily one of the best negotiation flourishes in the entire game (Sal’s Clemency might have something to say about that, as it’s hard to pass up on free healing). Seriously, I've had negotiations where this thing refilled over half of Rook's Flourish bar. The downside is that it will be difficult to keep track of what’s going on. If you notice damage or composure that I don’t comment on, assume it was the coin. Since Erchin Musk won’t do anything this turn and I don’t intend to get rid of Slurred Speech right now, I play Permits. If the argument takes damage, Permit retaliates against a random enemy argument. Since it only has 2 resolve, it usually only lasts for a single attack. Like most authority cards, it’s okay. Anyway, I attack Fear with Pleasantries, as Influence/Heads means it will deal full damage, I’d like to get at least 1 Defect before combat, and it will upgrade once this conversation is over. I finish by defending I take no damage, though Fraxl adds a bounty to my side. Moment of Weakness can easily snowball if you let it. Narratively, just as Rook knows what his former colleagues' fears are, they also have worked with him enough to spot some of his vulnerabilities. I act prematurely here and destroy Fear… …Before remembering that the leftover damage is turned into composure. At least Rook’s Coin Juggling did some damage. I wish I could prevent the bounty from being damaged, but stalling its destruction is the next best thing. Of course Heads protects an argument that isn’t targeted this turn… This will technically Gamble twice. Landed on both sides that time. I can still take a few hits, so I target the new Fear Bounty. I finish the turn with Visionary Grumble, this thankfully draws a useless card. Could have gone better, could have gone worse. May as well try to steal the composure while I can. It’s not stolen, but at least it was removed. Permit will still retaliate, even if the damage is blocked. I try to destroy Fear with Grunt, but it deals two damage, leaving the bounty at 1 resolve. At least the coin did some damage. My core argument takes damage And Permit retaliates And destroys another Fear bounty in the process! Someday I’m going to forget I have Pocket Bomb and wonder where that sudden damage came from. Moment of Weakness will be destroyed this turn, so I defend my Core Argument. I believe I removed the composure, though with Coin Juggler active it’s difficult to tell. Since I’ll be taking damage this turn, I focus on damaging Fraxl’s core argument. 2 Defect is enough for me to get some solid damage in at the start of the fight. I don’t see a reason to save Call It for later. Again, it landed on both sides. The first attack was blocked by Rook’s composure. The second attack destroyed it. Two more Moment of Weakness bounties were added, and I took 4 damage. I’m still in this negotiation, but from here on I’ll be focusing on ending the discussion over targeting Fear. I once again defend Permit so it will stay in the debate after retaliating. I see what Trickery has to offer. Gruff was apparently the only worthwhile card, though I’ve already mentioned how much I love Flustered. Grunt is Prepared, and deals full damage. And Coin Juggler adds insult to injury. Fraxl defends his Fear bounty. Permit takes no damage And decides to attack the argument that has composure. Great. Moment of Weakness is damaged but not destroyed. Every character has a unique Fatigued picture. It took a while before this was added (everyone used Sal’s icon before), but I appreciate it. Dilemma is free, so I play it. I attack using Pleasantries I defend Coin Juggler, because I really don’t want to lose the flourish. I Gamble twice And finish by attacking Fear, as I still have a solid amount of resolve left and want to see if I can get one last Defect. Pocket Bomb strikes first, however, and I win the negotiation. I have several cards to upgrade! Nice! Some of Rook’s cards spend Influence, so it will be nice to have a consistent way to get some. That, and the only other option destroys the card. This is worth it for Grunt alone, and there are far more cards that benefit from being prepared. Since I start off with Influence and have another card that grants it, I can deal with the coin not always landing on Heads. …I hate both these choices. Rook can have difficulties gaining composure, and leaving that up to randomness doesn’t help. I go with heads, because I don’t have many arguments right now. Why couldn’t the previous card have had Boosted Rational as an option? Muck: 2 damage is fine. 4 damage is solid. Being able to Gamble makes this card useful. Ante: Rook has a lot more discard cards than I remember. I’ve never used this. Slugstorm: 2 damage to all enemy arguments isn’t bad. It’s just that the card may not even do that if you get unlucky. 2 damage doesn’t sound like much, but I’ve gotten a surprising amount of mileage out of Muck. ...Yeah… I easily consider this Rook’s cruelest moment in this entire campaign. On a different note, Fralx does live up to his title as Protégé, as he wields two pistols just like Rook and has some similar animations. Since I won the negotiation, I gain an extra action. Rooks Boss Music. Despite being my least favorite of the three boss tracks, it easily has the best Critical phase music. There's a reason it was used in some trailers. I use it to play two 2-action cards. First Sentinel Then Kick Defect is doing its job beautifully. The proper description, if you didn’t catch it earlier. I block the damage, but gain Lumin Daze. Lumin Daze annoyingly reduces the minimum damage your cards can deal. I.E. it is possible that you can do zero damage. Tight Spot arrives at a good time. And the extra charges gained from Sentinel means I can gain Counter when I play Fully Loaded. This has the potential to deal a ton of damage, or none at all. It did zero, and thus the Defect was wasted. Shit. I wish I could do these animations justice through screenshots. Fraxl’s movements are very similar to Rook’s, but with their own flair. It gives off the impression that he takes after Rook but adds his own spin to it, because he’s younger and thinks he needs to do things with style to show that he’s better than his senior. Rook counter attacks twice. A Spark Mine and another bog oddity appeared. I just remember the spike thing for always having counter and being an annoyance because your allies seem to think it’s a good idea to attack it. Since it’s the only attack that deals guaranteed damage, I use Kick. I finish the turn with Blast. I promise I’ll keep timing in mind when taking combat screenshots for Day 2. …Ya know, I never really paid much attention to that animation before. Don’t know what to think of it. Similar to Rook, Fraxl twirls his guns when defending, only fancier. I almost wish I recorded this fight to give a better impression of the animations. Since it will take luck to break through Fraxl’s defense with my current hand, I instead focus on blocking his next attack. Like I said, I’ll be catch various frames of his reload animations. Since I have one action left, the empty cell will grant 1 extra defense, and I can’t damage Fraxl, I attack the Spark Mine. Weird that I haven’t shown off Rook’s armpit reloads, but yes. Fraxl is copying Rook here by reloading via keeping ammo in his armpits. Rook responds to this plagiarism by whacking Fraxl with his pistols. I’ll be taking a fair amount of damage this turn, so I use Sentinel again. I take a risk to see if I can damage Fraxl It doesn’t pay off At least the bog got a hit in. I don’t need Tight Spot right now, but I may need it later. I see if Ammo Pouch has anything useful this turn. Be prepared to see me use Blowout a lot. The combination of spending all charge and dealing solid damage on top of that will prove to be repeatedly useful and versatile. First, I Blast the Protégé. I follow up with Blowout And finish off with Shovel! This dealt 13 damage. Fraxl decides to be fancy again and defends. I decide to copy him. Enjoy the “charge added” animation, I suppose. I’m shooting this just to gain experience. Can you tell I really don’t like Lumin Daze and how much it slows down this fight? Anyway, I defend twice. I also take a potshot in hopes that it gradually helps end the fight. It thankfully deals 6 damage. Rook takes enough damage to unlock his flourish! Which forces him to reload, for some reason. But first, the counter attack! Fraxl has no defense, and I’m not being attacked. I see what benefit I can gain from Ammo Pouch first. Sure I Blast him twice And finish off with Blowout. More gun twirling I was a little impatient at this point and forgot to show every flourish card he has. Anyway, I saved the flourish for this round to gain 20 defense and more importantly for this fight, Concentration. I don’t know why Rook going Super Saiyan requires him to reload his pistols, but whatever. Concentration increases the minimum damage you deal. In this case, it directly counters Lumin Daze. Now I can finally break through his defense. Nice try We’re both nearly dead… I use Hair Trigger for the extra damage and hopefully extra defense. I play Ammo Pouch again, and see that Blowout is the only damage dealing card available. I’ll take it I am very glad Kick will take him out. I don’t know if I could survive another round of damage. If you’re curious why I was focusing on grabbing defensive cards, let this fight be a lesson. I accept his surrender. I have a final set of questions for Fraxl. In hindsight, I could have maybe nabbed Final Favor, but look at the bonus shills! I haven’t so much as touched any of these cards. That didn’t change today. Brain Burn: The most interesting implication is that Rook can set things on fire with his mind. Otherwise, it’s not a bad pick if you have reliable ways of gaining Concentration, which I currently don’t. Fixed: Fixed grants defense whenever the target is hit. It sounds more useful than it is. Cataclysm: If you’re focusing a lot on cards that deal debuffs, this is a pretty interesting card. You get rid of every debuff in exchange for dealing a ton of damage. It requires timing to use efficiently, but can easily pay off it you use it wisely. Brain Burn and Cataclysm rely on card effects I don’t have, and I don’t need Fixed right now. Shokian Glamour Stones was tempting thanks to the lack of pets on Rook’s route, but I went with the more reliable Interior Drill. I ask a hopefully quick question. Rook’s Mustache isn’t his normal look?!? SACRILEGE!!! Meanwhile, Fralx is just confused. There’s no benefit to keeping him alive, so I don’t. High Yield Lumin Bombs are one of the more useful Boss items. I’ll be using them frequently in the future. I head back to The Last Stand to finish the day. I thankfully don’t experience any interruptions. I meet the new bar patrons real quick. Not a good sign that a run-of-the-mill laborer is being exposed to radiation. Yes. Both in game and in real life. …Huh... Well that was Rook’s first day! I know I joked/complained a lot about the number of questions, but that’s really only because I have to sort through these screenshots and decide which ones to keep. I love the set-up for the story, how the factions are introduced, how starting with a different side gives you a new perspective, and setting the groundwork for one of the better (if not best, though to be fair I haven’t seen a lot) double agent stories I’ve seen. Hopefully I don’t spend nearly the 3 weeks getting through another day. We’ll see what happens over the holidays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Spoiler Oooh, pets! I managed to snag one towards the end of Rook's story. Was the best doggie, but couldn't stand up to the final boss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Rubenio Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 Spoiler On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: The more I see of Engage, the less I know what to make of it. Honestly, I'm the other way around. The more I see, the more certain I am I will enjoy it. Like, seriously. Yoga Emblem almost killed me. In a good way. They've given every pretense of sanity the middle finger and just done whatever the heck they felt like, and I'm all for it. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Berwick Saga straight up has the most under-appreciated sprite work I've ever seen. That lance-charging animation is a work of art, I swear. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Engage gives me "intentionally wearing a goofy costume during serious cutscene" vibes, which I can easily laugh at. Whereas with Fates, I feel like I always have to mention that I enjoy the game in spite of the dumb outfits. Which is a shame, because I would say that Fates has some of the best designs in the entire franchise for certain classes in the franchise, while at the same time having some of the absolute worst. I cannot wait to send Alear to war in sweatpants and a t-shirt. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Which is barely related, but I have an excuse to once again ask IS for a taguel on trampoline alt. I agree, I want one o' those too. It'd make Heroes 0.02% less bad, which is a great improvement for it. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Ah, Team Fortress 2. One of the more unique first person shooter multiplayer games I've seen. A game I have an interest in playing, but know that people have been competing in it for decades at this point and know the maps inside and out. I also know I'm not that good about the "Team" part of multiplayer games. Ahhh, you'd be surprised. To this day I still see soldiers trying to shoot at me with the rocket jumper. For reference, that's a rocket launcher that's designed to help new players to practice their rocket jumps, since it does no damage. It does have its unironic uses, seeing how it grants you unparalleled mobility, but it's obviously a bad option offensively. What I'm trying to say is, TF2 really isn't that kind of game. If you play casual you'll meet players of all levels of skill and seriousness both. Occasionally you'll find servers where nobody even is fighting at all! If it's tryhards and sweating that you fear, please don't. You encounter those types too, but the game really isn't that serious. If anything a worse fault is its craptastic tutorials lol, game teaches you absolutely nothing On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: It's not my fault the boot quest had the better reward this time around. It's all right. Some boots are just worth killing for. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Glad we're in agreement about Pengemunts character. Because now I can share a different interpretation of the dude. Oh God what did I just... On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: It's not racism, since he's not talking about their species. Rather it's... factionalism? Making assumptions about a party or group? I had to stop myself from going on a rant, as people making assumptions about a group just by the mere mention of a word and how varied those assumptions can be is... something I find incredibly annoying, if not downright frustrating. And it happens too often and can make discussing some topics way more difficult than it should be. That's all I can say before things take a more political turn, and that's the last thing I want to do here. Sorry. Just a poor jest, I suppose. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: I might be overselling the difficulty of Rook's story a little bit, but that's really only the early game on the harder difficulties. Once he gets some experience, it tends to be smoother sailing. I suppose it depends on how lucky you get with your cards. I remember dealing a crapton of damage to everything consistently come the lategame. Even the final boss fell like nothing. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: While one of the more natural ways for the game to switch to nighttime, I imagine it would be pretty boring. Hebbel doesn't have anything to read? Not even a newspaper? On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: As far as I can tell, this plot point never comes up again. I have a guess at what the invention is, but nothing confirms it. I went with Fellemo first as I said, so I completely missed this. I'd be interested in hearing about this guess if and when it becomes relevant, if you wish to share it. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Fellemo worked side by side with Rook and knows what he’s capable of. A few choice words should convince Fellemo that Rook is a worthwhile hire. …It’s going to appear a whole lot like nepotism, though. Knowing what I know of Fellemo, I really don't think he cares what it looks like. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Rook is scared of swamp water. Amazing. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: I miss the animation here, but Rook has a bad habit of twirling his pistols. Gun twirling BREAKS EVERY SINGLE GUN SAFETY RULE. It’s a major pet peeve of mine in fiction, and Griftlands is no exception. I tolerate it here because I love the game and it’s stylish, but I don’t excuse it, either. One of these days I want to have a master gunslinger character with a legendary reputation for being undefeated in duels to start a duel, do this and just... lose their head before the duel even starts. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Okay, so this might be a little complicated at first, but Rook’s Charge is straight up my favorite mechanic in the entire game. At the start of every turn Rook gains 1 charge. At the end of every turn, Rook gains defense for every empty cell. When Rook’s cells are filled out, he gains Overcharge, which increases the maximum damage every attack can do. Obviously, several cards spend Charge for an effect, usually more damage. Other cards add Charge. Several have a bonus when all his cells are empty, others when it’s full. Some even add, spend, and otherwise use Overcharge. It’s a mechanic that the game takes full advantage of, with benefits from spending or saving charge that requires both planning ahead as well as on the fly thinking to get the most out of. It was a pretty great mechanic, I agree. I believe I usually tried to keep it charged up? I think. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: I need a combination of this expression and the :V face. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: After all, the real secret of the bog… …Is being able to buy cheaper drinks! Heh....... On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Arnit has her own theme, and unsurprisingly will play a role as Fellemo’s Lieutenant. “Mercenary” is a pretty good summarization of her character. Oh yeah, I had almost forgotten. Spent the entire run expecting her to do something because of the theme, and then she never did. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: The shit-eating grin. Beautiful. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: Well, I haven’t seen a ton of combat yet. This should be a nice change of pace. Oh I think I saw this one in my run. It went... it went, to be sure. On 12/13/2022 at 3:34 AM, Hawkwing said: As it turns out, Fellemo asked us to work for him first, and recommended going to the Rise first so they wouldn’t suspect a thing! I love this set-up. Both sides ask for you to be their double agent. And if you go for the Spark Baron’s first, Kalandra pulls a similar trick, though you get different dialogue thanks to the new perspective. Pretty sure the implication is that both things happened regardless of who you choose to see first. Rook's weaving a wide net of lies. Only question is, where it will all lead. ...And then you updated again. Spoiler On 12/17/2022 at 6:39 AM, Hawkwing said: It’s not exactly a sickle, but it is fairly similar in shape. Though they have a short range, sickles are surprisingly vicious weapons, and Skallagrim has an excellent video about them that examines historical manuscripts and tests how well they work in actual sparring. Damned vicious weapons, scythes. Fucking Death is a pain in the arse in every single Castlevania. On 12/17/2022 at 6:39 AM, Hawkwing said: I defend first, which plays an animation where Rook twirls his pistols. I’ve already mentioned this breaks every gun safety rule, so I won’t repeat myself in the future. Imagine that. Gaining defense from leaving yourself open to self-damage. On 12/17/2022 at 6:39 AM, Hawkwing said: My options are: Get rid of one of the strongest defense cards Rook can obtain. Gain 2 Slurred Speech cards right before the final negotiation of the day. Lose 10 Resolve right before negotiating for a bonus against a boss. Wow, that was not fortunate. On 12/17/2022 at 6:39 AM, Hawkwing said: HAHAHAHAHAHAH THE FACE THO f On 12/17/2022 at 6:39 AM, Hawkwing said: Weird that I haven’t shown off Rook’s armpit reloads, but yes. Fraxl is copying Rook here by reloading via keeping ammo in his armpits. He looks like he's asserting dominance. I mean, I'd feel pretty indimidated if someone just morphed their guns into their armpits. On 12/17/2022 at 6:39 AM, Hawkwing said: Rook’s Mustache isn’t his normal look?!? SACRILEGE!!! Oh I agree. That's just diabolical. Okay, headcanon: He usually wears a full, bushy beard. I refuse to imagine this man clean shaven. On 12/17/2022 at 6:39 AM, Hawkwing said: …Huh... Can't have nightmares if you don't sleep. Good idea, Rook. Until you collapse from exhaustion in the middle of a mission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted December 21, 2022 Author Share Posted December 21, 2022 ROOK'S CAMPAIGN DAY 2: Playing Both Sides Bad News and Good News: Spoiler Bad News: I died on Day 2. Good News: The missions on Day 2 were fun as well as short, so it shouldn't take long to reach the point where I died. On my second attempt, I managed to complete Day 2, and there were enough differences between both runs that I don't mind retreading old ground. I know that is disappointing to hear after I spent nearly a month getting through Day 1. I apologize if it seems like I wasted anyone's time. Replies: Spoiler On 12/17/2022 at 10:10 PM, eclipse said: Hide contents Oooh, pets! I managed to snag one towards the end of Rook's story. Was the best doggie, but couldn't stand up to the final boss. I don't know if you're referring to an autodog, a cobbledog, or a vroc. Regardless, all pets are competent to some degree, though I'm not surprised the final boss took it out. It's a long fight and that damage adds up. 3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said: Hide contents Honestly, I'm the other way around. The more I see, the more certain I am I will enjoy it. I'm becoming more and more tempted to go into the game without looking at any reviews or getting player feedback, just so I can give my blind reaction to everything. Like, seriously. Yoga Emblem almost killed me. In a good way. They've given every pretense of sanity the middle finger and just done whatever the heck they felt like, and I'm all for it. My one genuine, non-joking hope is that the game allows for group exercise sessions. It would allow several characters to gain stat boosts at once, and we get to see Alear lead an exercise class like they're filming a home workout video. Part of me hopes that the developers realize how odd a yoga minigame would be in a series focused on war, and they don't push the mechanic too far and allow the player to gradually get used to it. The other part of me hopes they go absolutely fucking wild with the mechanic. Complete side quests so countries give you treadmills and exercise bikes! Fulfill optional objectives to unlock mini-trampolines and exercise balls! If you save all the green units, one of them is an personal trainer that joins you and makes yoga sessions more efficient! It's already weird, so go weirder! That lance-charging animation is a work of art, I swear. It's pretty telling that any game I can think of that has better spritework than Berwick Saga came out at least a decade after it released, all with the aid of technological improvements. Also, play Owlboy. It makes me sad whenever that game is overlooked. I cannot wait to send Alear to war in sweatpants and a t-shirt. I am simultaneously dreading and excited to see the memes and fan art that will arise from engage. The costumes and Yoga minigame alone seem like a gold mine. I agree, I want one o' those too. It'd make Heroes 0.02% less bad, which is a great improvement for it. I know if I actually played the game I would probably be singing a different tune, but I actually kind of like the weirder banners they have. It allows the artists to have fun, and developers can get creative with how they turn the oddest things into viable weapons for a turn based strategy game. At this point I doubt a trampoline weapon would be the weirdest or even most anachronistic thing they've done. It would also be nice to have artwork of the taguels having fun, considering how Panne looks grumpy and Yarne seems nervous in most of their official artwork. Ahhh, you'd be surprised. To this day I still see soldiers trying to shoot at me with the rocket jumper. For reference, that's a rocket launcher that's designed to help new players to practice their rocket jumps, since it does no damage. It does have its unironic uses, seeing how it grants you unparalleled mobility, but it's obviously a bad option offensively. What I'm trying to say is, TF2 really isn't that kind of game. If you play casual you'll meet players of all levels of skill and seriousness both. Occasionally you'll find servers where nobody even is fighting at all! If it's tryhards and sweating that you fear, please don't. You encounter those types too, but the game really isn't that serious. If anything a worse fault is its craptastic tutorials lol, game teaches you absolutely nothing I see. Most of my knowledge with TF2 in regards to gameplay comes from Lazypurple and Uncle Dane. When I find the time and space to play the game, I'll ask four your help on finding a server where I can learn how to play the game without being decimated instantly by pros. It's all right. Some boots are just worth killing for. This sentence is the best summary of Neo Scavenger I can think of. Oh God what did I just... I'm glad I'm not alone. Sorry. Just a poor jest, I suppose. Don't worry, man. It's just frustrating how needlessly complex discussing some topics are nowadays. I suppose it depends on how lucky you get with your cards. I remember dealing a crapton of damage to everything consistently come the lategame. Even the final boss fell like nothing. It's amazing how much Rook can snowball if you let him. To the point my biggest struggle with Rook, especially when I first started playing Griftlands, was picking too many good cards, and I kept ended up with overstuffed decks. Hebbel doesn't have anything to read? Not even a newspaper? It appears Grout Bog is too much even for the postal service of Havaria. Which is saying something considering how dedicated and persistent mailmen historically are. I went with Fellemo first as I said, so I completely missed this. I'd be interested in hearing about this guess if and when it becomes relevant, if you wish to share it. My guess isn't anything too special: Spoiler I personally think it's the weapon Kalandra uses during the final boss. It's powerful, doesn't appear anywhere else in the game, and seems like the kind of tool the Spark Barons would like to keep for themselves. Nothing backs this up; I just find it to be the most practical, if admittedly boring option available. Knowing what I know of Fellemo, I really don't think he cares what it looks like. You're right. Fellemo does seem like someone who only cares about results, methods be damned. Rook is scared of swamp water. Amazing. Considering an alternative way for the event to end is for the Jake to attempt to sacrifice him, I can't say I blame Rook for being nervous. One of these days I want to have a master gunslinger character with a legendary reputation for being undefeated in duels to start a duel, do this and just... lose their head before the duel even starts. I fully expect this to have happened in at least one black comedy. If no-one has done this joke before then someone needs too. It was a pretty great mechanic, I agree. I believe I usually tried to keep it charged up? I think. Depends on my deck and grafts for when I lean towards spending or saving charge, and I love that both are viable options in different situations. I need a combination of this expression and the :V face. I knew Rook's mustache would get some commentary, but I never expected his faces would be so glorious. Heh....... Griftlands! The game where friendship literally pays off! Oh yeah, I had almost forgotten. Spent the entire run expecting her to do something because of the theme, and then she never did. It really depends on how you act for the lieutenants to appear. Sometimes they'll both will make an appearance, while other times they may only appear once. The shit-eating grin. Beautiful. It's even better when combined with him stating all the reasons he's a good spy, and Arnit only partially falling for it. Oh I think I saw this one in my run. It went... it went, to be sure. Do you remember what happened to the robot? Pretty sure the implication is that both things happened regardless of who you choose to see first. Rook's weaving a wide net of lies. Only question is, where it will all lead. I really appreciate how the developers handled the whole situation. Canonically, both factions contacted him, and he's working for a third party anyway. Avoids the headache some other games call fall when they have to continue off a game that had multiple choices. ...And then you updated again. Hide contents Damned vicious weapons, scythes. Fucking Death is a pain in the arse in every single Castlevania. I really need to check out the Castlevania games at some point. Imagine that. Gaining defense from leaving yourself open to self-damage. Gun-twirling aside, I appreciate that Griftlands implies that defense is more than just blocking damage. Most of Sal's defensive cards implies she feints and dodges attacks, Rook has him take cover, and Smith... Actually Smith literally braces himself for the attack. Wow, that was not fortunate. At least the decision was easy. HAHAHAHAHAHAH THE FACE THO f F He looks like he's asserting dominance. Armpit reloads; The Griftlands way to assert dominance. I mean, I'd feel pretty indimidated if someone just morphed their guns into their armpits. It's certainly a unique animation for reloading. Oh I agree. That's just diabolical. Okay, headcanon: He usually wears a full, bushy beard. I refuse to imagine this man clean shaven. I'm sorry, man, but: Spoiler Source: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/127362-posts-that-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/ Can't have nightmares if you don't sleep. Good idea, Rook. Until you collapse from exhaustion in the middle of a mission. How much sleep the Grifters get is a question for the ages. Update: Spoiler The first day was the set-up. Today we’ll figure out our loyalties. First things first, I see if Pengemunt has any new coins. I choose the Bog Coin because both sides are equally powerful. You gave me the coin yesterday. Do you get nostalgic that quickly? I also switch into a new outfit. Rook’s room, which contains two odd plants and a poster of a quarter of a gear. The “Saboteur” is my favorite of Rook outfits. It looks similar to the original while still being distinct, and despite the odd gizmos has a “military” feel to it. Since I started off with the Rise, I meet with Kalandra first Though not before running into a random event. If you lost any resolve before this event, it would be regained now. New cards? Yeeeah, Rook now has a parasite inside of him. These effects are annoying, if minor at first, but the more they appear the more they grow… If you’re familiar with TV Tropes, Fridge Horror is a good way to describe the Bog Parasite. I love the descriptions for the cards, and for a while I thought it was the scariest parasite I saw in fiction. Then I learned about System Shock 2 and Homeworld: Cataclysm. Weirdly enough I own both games but have not played them yet because they’re sequels and I want to beat the first games beforehand. And now that I think about it, both System Shock and Homeworld are games I haven’t truly dove into yet because of their unconventional controls. They’re games I need to focus on solely instead of juggling alongside a dozen other games …I was not expecting such similarities between the two series. Meanwhile, Rook just shrugs it off. I take some notes while playing if a joke comes to mind or if there is something I want to comment on. Right now they saved me the brainpower of memorizing a simple word. Off to collect some robot cores. Hey! Del’s back! Wonder what he’s doing here? Pffft okay. I appreciate that Rook won’t solve this problem for us. Del clearly remembers how our last talk went, and I doubt he wants to be near any combat mechs for our second (technically third) interaction. Trinary apparently means “Consisting of three parts”, which makes me wonder how the automech got its name. This seems like an uneven fight. Good thing, too, because this brawl is timed. Shovel is my only attack card right now. Tempting as it would be to gain Overcharge, Shovel wouldn’t benefit from it. I wish I could spend some charge first, but beggars can’t be choosers. Still, may as well gain Overcharge now as it will carry over to the next turn. I also play Fully Loaded to give it some experience. As well as Hunker Down. Everyone seemed focused on gaining power over dealing damage this round. The combat drone will automatically surrender if Kheven falls, so I don’t need to bother attacking it. Since once again I only have one attack card, I see what Ammo Pouch has to offer. Tracer Round is the only card of the three that deals damage, so I pick it. I know I joked last time about constantly missing the amount of damage Rook’s attacks dealt, but rest assured, It’s all uphill from here on out. …To the point I occasionally went the opposite direction and now have more screenshots to dig through. That won’t mean much on your guy’s end, but needless to say I overdid it at points. I finish off the turn by defending. Watch those wrist rockets! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. (And I’m still annoyed I have to specify which Battlefront I’m talking about) Kheven takes burn damage Why would you thrust with a club? A staff, sure. The ends may be flat but the point is narrow enough that the damage is focused. With a club that size you’re spreading the damage around, reducing its impact. The drone deals 3 damage to Rook. Fortunately, I can apply Tight Spot to someone other than myself. It was tempting to give experience to my other two attack cards, but Kick costs 2 actions and is closest to being upgraded out of the three, so I use it. Seeing as they’re probably just run off and join the reinforcements if I leave them alive, I execute them. I get rid of the drone first. I’m wasting Spark Baron dollars. I consider that a win. Dammit, I miss the animation twice. Needless to say, Rook has the most brutal yet the most practical execution animation in the game. Instead of double tapping, Rook Triple Taps. With two pistols. That he fires simultaneously. I appreciate that whenever Rook kills someone, he either kills them with one clean shot like he did with Fralx, or he double taps to ensure they’re dead. He’s the oldest of the Grifters, and it’s an effective way to show he has the most experience with killing. Also, poor Kheven. He was killed in one of Rook’s trailers. I barely use Shock Cores. Being able to Stun on demand is nice, but that just means I tend to hold onto it until the situation is too dire. Arc Deflection: While it requires consistent Overcharge to use efficiently, sacrificing overcharge to gain up to 6 defense with 6 counter isn’t a bad trade off if you really need the extra defense over more damage. Ego Rip: Requires a specific deck build to truly take advantage of, though Rook does have enough options for adding debuffs that this can be a viable pick. Tempting as Arc Deflection was, I don’t want my deck clogged with defensive cards. I also pass up on getting another Tight Spot, as that’s just asking for a situation where they both appear during a turn when I’m not being attacked and could go all out on offense. Sigh, at least this one only lasts a single negotiation. I could kill the foreman for 60 shills… Or I could let him live for an extra ally. Rook’s not forgetting the dastard skipped safety protocols in the past. Can’t really complain about having two authority cards to pick from during negotiations. With the cores collected, I head back to Kalandra. Sure, I’ll take even more power when Fully Charged! …Does Grout Bog even have bathrooms? It’s a swamp; I don’t think pissing in the water or on a tree is going to make the smell any worse. I keep forgetting you can buy cobbledogs and other supplies at the Rise HQ while on a Rise mission. Since I’ve run out of space for combat grafts, I go to the black market to make room for more. More affordable than I expected, though the shill discounts helped. While I’m here, I may as well add another negotiation graft slot. I’d rather have one go unused than pass up on a good graft. First time I’ve seen the “That would kill you!” text. Usually I lack the shills instead of the HP. A problem I’ll be solving now. At least Fssh gave her terrible food a fun name. The bright side about Rook having the lowest starting health (alongside Prestige 5 upwards reducing your maximum health and resolve) is that it doesn’t take much to refill it. Now to see what Fellemo wants done. This is far from the hardest mission in the game, but it is perhaps the most deceptively simple. Losing a job this way doesn’t look good on your record. Considering it’s Grout Bog, I don’t blame anyone for employing this trick. Sometimes. Implementing “simple solutions” can have more moving parts and complications to them than most people realize. That ain’t an excuse for shitty practices, by the way. Just that these changes don’t happen overnight. Is it? Gode stole enough money that the Rise thought he was on their side for a while, when in truth he was just slacking off. Time to beat up a worker. Thrilling. So attack Chake without killing him, got it. Weird thing to say to a man that uses pistols, even if his kicks do more damage. But seriously, treat guns with respect. The threat a gun can pose is enough to defuse or even prevent situations, but only if they're handled properly. Interesting buildings in the background there. Not entirely sure how they work as living spaces. I meet Pazlock for the first time. I debated for a while whether or not to pay off two of the workers, as if you don’t they’ll jump to their friends defense. I’ve straight up died before because I overestimated Rook’s ability to fight multiple opponents this early on. I decided to be safe rather than sorry. It helps that this quest’s reward is extra shills, so I should be able to cover the cost. You can get this mission on Day 1. Because it’s Day 2, more people will join in. Now to talk to Chake. …Yeah, I feel someone wants him beaten up for a different reason… Much as I’d like to talk… I still have a job to do You can’t back out of this conversation, which is why I paid off the workers first. I block all damage early on. Once again, I resort to Ammo Pouch for offensive options. I mentioned this before, but Blowout is the strongest and most versatile card you can draw from Ammo Pouch. I have an excuse to use Tight Spot. I could care less about protecting the Spark Mine, but at least the card isn’t going to waste. Also, this is a place where people are supposed to rest and sleep, and a random spikey mine just popped out of the ground. I finish the turn by using the only attack card in my hand. Chake seems really angry about the mine just showing up in front of his bunk. Attacking an explosive doesn’t seem like a good idea, though. This will be a pretty straightforward turn. I use every card you expect me to. I can win this turn, so I gain experience on Hunker Down first. Time to end this He surrendered. My job here is done. Attacking twice is always nice, and I never bother with Destroy. Brain Tick: Get this card. Healing 2 per debuff may not sound like a lot, but it keeps you alive, and Fatigued counts as a debuff, meaning that you can reach a point were this card is always beneficial. It also allows you to remove annoying debuffs on yourself or allies or get rid of debuffs on enemies that aren’t doing much while getting free healing out of the deal. Lucky Shot: A handy card to have, and it can deal some respectable damage in the right situations. It also gets bonus points for referencing the “one bullet left” trope that shows up in westerns and other action movies. Posture: The defense is nice, but Concentration goes a surprisingly long way. As much as I don’t mind Griftlands randomness, being able to deal more reliable damage is a welcome option. 2 health isn’t a lot, but free healing is free healing. Rook seems a little too happy about this. It can be hard to tell when the dude is genuine or putting on an act, which was likely the intention. I go to get paid To put it politely: You’re a jackass, Fellemo. Before seeing what this mysterious third party wants, I go through one last random temporary event. I keep mixing this event with the one that allows you to increase your maximum HP. At the very least, I’ll take the free healing right now. Not the most exciting way to end things, but the next update will be more gameplay heavy, and hopefully you'll learn from my mistakes… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 Spoiler There's a later event where you can score a vroc. Downside was that it took a chunk out of Rook's HP. Well worth it IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share Posted December 24, 2022 ROOK'S CAMPAIGN DAY 2: Robbing Robbers Goes Really, Really Wrong Replies: Spoiler On 12/21/2022 at 2:07 AM, eclipse said: Hide contents There's a later event where you can score a vroc. Downside was that it took a chunk out of Rook's HP. Well worth it IMO. I believe I know the event you're talking about. Interesting that you got a vroc out of the deal. Usually you get a Lumicyte. Update (This is a gameplay heavy one. Brace yourself): Spoiler Time to see what Rook’s mysterious superiors want. This is one of two missions Rook can get. What in the world are Spree doing in Grout Bog? As valuable as Vagrant Age tech is, it doesn’t seem like the safest thing to transport, and the Spark Barons are already on the lookout for anyone trying to leave. Regardless, this is potentially one of the few encounters with the Cult you can have during Rook’s campaign. I head off to The Last Stand Though not before running into a random event. I know I joked earlier about running into Del again, but this is the third time I’ve encountered Keebee in two days. I mean, leopards and cheetahs are by no means small and they have good camouflage. Though considering it’s sci-fi, Rook probably expects something bigger. Treasure, you say? To be fair, this is the second time someone has mentioned there being treasure in the Bog. All Rook got was friendship. Griftlands has a few big creatures, and I’d prefer to fight them with help. There will be a lot of gameplay in this update. Prepare yourself. Spoiler I have two By The Book cards. They should prove useful against the argument-happy Spark Barons. Annoying, but I can deal with it. For now… It’s free, so may as well start off with Boosted Rationale. It’s the only damage dealing card I have. …Sure. It’s not like Roughneck has any composure to steal. I hate this upgrade At least I didn’t take any damage. I can survive without these cards for a while. Or I could get them back this turn! I target All Business with By the Book And predictably free the trapped cards with my second authority card! Before attacking, I see what Trickery has to offer. Sure I use my last action to attack It doesn’t land on heads… But thanks to influence, Pleasantries still deals full damage, with two extra to boot! I upgrade Call It to see if I get any last minute composure or deal 2 more damage. It lands on Snails Sigh, at least it’s gone. Keebee adds Scruple and deals 4 damage. And steals Grumple and Pleasantries. It seems every Spark Baron steals these two cards at least once per negotiation. I can finally upgrade Dilemma while ending the negotiation faster. I love seeing those numbers. I play Sifting Pleasantries so I can prepare Grunt. Unless I get unlucky, this should be the last turn. This discussion is over. I typically go with Restored Call It, as there are enough cards and even arguments that have an effect when you gamble that it’s worthwhile keeping. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of Decisive Call It, though, as being able to choose whether you land on Heads or Snails can make a difference rather than leaving it up to chance. The original upgrade let you gamble twice, and while that was certainly more powerful, I’m okay with Klei giving the 0 cost card Replenish. The action cost was never an issue, so I go with higher damage. Attacking twice will do the same, if not more damage than Strained Grumble. I go with Boosted Grunt for more reliable damage in the event I can’t prepare it. The damage difference isn’t that huge between the two cards anyway. Reckless Insults: If you have reliable ways of gaining dominance, this is a solid way to sacrifice all of it to deal damage. I’ve rarely focused on cards that gain dominance with Rook, so I’ve never bothered. Foul Mouth: A straightforward discard card. It makes up for it by giving Rook the ability to swear on demand. Matter of Fact: I suppose it could be powerful if you’re stuck with a lot of composure granting cards and lack some method to attack, and/or you gambled like crazy and landed on the composure granting side every time. I’m going to be honest, any “sacrifice composure to do something” cards I don’t bother with, as I find their use to be either to niche or require too much set-up when a simple attack card can do the job. I got the memo this time. Of course we were going to be attacked. That’s why I talked you into coming along. Spoiler Phroluk did say Grawkits were native to Grout Bog. It still looks more like a boulder than a lizard to me. I am once again grateful that Tight Spot can be applied to allies Time to finally see Fralx's item item in action. I don’t think your arm is supposed to bend that way, Rook. Next I hit it with Shovel. May as well give Hunker Down some much needed experience. Keebee needlessly shoots the air to gain Power. Maybe she hoped it would scare off the Grawkit? If that was her plan, it backfired. Keebee’s stunned, though fortunately the lizard isn’t interested in attacking this turn. Blast dealt 9 damage. That’s a lot of defense to break through. 1 damage isn’t a lot, but it doesn’t keep Twig from being annoying Though it is creepy to think of a parasite that grows like a plant, and occasionally you feel a pinch as it digs deeper… Anyway, I gain more Overcharge, as I’ll need all the power I can get to break through the Grawkit’s defense. Since it could use more experience I activate Ammo Pouch. I debated a for a while whether to go with Flow or Spare Battery. I went with Flow as it still benefits from Power and Overcharge. I said I would go the opposite extreme when trying to catch Rook’s combat animations. I wish I was better at describing sound effects, because I really like the noise this specific shot makes. I finish the turn by upgrading another Blast card. Oh, they actually paid attention to Keebee’s hair when viewed from the side. That’s pretty cool. She attacks 3 times Grifters are immune to being stunned, so the only annoying thing about this attack is the damage I took. It’s the only attack card I have this turn May as well gain experience on Fully Loaded. I would have used Brain Tick, but no one has any debuffs. Apparently Keebee is left eye dominant. That’s the only reason one would close their eyes when shooting. Even then, it won’t be as accurate compared to keeping both eyes open. Interestingly, professionally trained snipers actually keep both their eyes open when aiming. Sigh, now the beast has counter. This hand would have been really helpful last turn… Anyway, since I can’t defend, have no debuffs to remove with Brain Tick, and don’t want to go all out on offense thanks to the Grawkit having counter, I play Deep Bog Secret. I have no idea whether or not we’ll figure out what the Deep Bog Secret is. It’s worth unlocking, but not always going out of your way to do so. I can still sneak some damage in, so I do it with the card that still needs experience I don’t know what the Grawkit is doing to counterattack Keebee uses the same attack, and the Grawkit was prepared for it this time. I am glad I was already heading to The Last Stand. I’ll need a few meals after this. Fatigued annoyingly appears when Tight Spot was one use away from being upgraded, but I’m thankful for the defense all the same. May as well gain more defense and some Overcharge before ending the turn with Mirrored Blast. Combined, Mirrored Blast did a total of 18 damage. Keebee decides to gain power again. I once gain Kick then defend, because I don’t see the point in wasting a Shock Core this far into the fight. The Grawkit is planning on belly flopping next round. Twig appears again In hindsight I could have seen what Ammo Pouch had to offer to maybe see if I could kill the Grawkit instead of scaring it off, or destroyed Bloated before shooting, but at this point I just wanted the fight to be over. I’m on a roll with Overcharge, so I pick the upgrade that applies burn instead. Double Kick will ultimately do more damage. Kickochet is an amazing pun, and I don’t want to destroy the card. Suppressing Fire: Does solid damage, targets all enemies, and grants defense? Yes please! Sear: A straightforward Burn card. Nice to have, but easily skippable if there are better options. Wounding Shot: The 2 action cost is high, but the wound can last a while if you’re constantly spending charge. I need more attack cards, cards that target all enemies, and the extra defense never hurts. Teamwork! It keeps you alive. Eh, there are more lucrative events, but I suppose there are also random events that have negative consequences. I’ll take the 50 shills. Just to double check, I’m making a surprising amount of friends in the Spark Barons. Anyway, back to The Last Stand to start my mission. I heal first Now to see what Dellena needs. Also a reminder that I put up a disclaimer about the cult in the first post for a reason. I’ll be commenting on several things Dellena says. Feel free to just read the screenshots until I reach the bandits if the discussions don’t interest you. I imagine Deltree doesn’t have a ton of space for new churches to appear. Meanwhile, a lot of Havaria is still unsettled. I start the job So you could avoid paying me by saying it’s “for Hesh” or something? I’d be less critical about this point if it was for charity or missionary work, but this is to recover stolen documents that are “embarrassing”. I have beef with the phrase “God works in mysterious ways” when used in the context of trying to comfort someone, because it doesn’t help. I will say that God constantly shakes up how speaks to each person and what he commands them to do. Reading through the books of the prophets alone proves that. He does this to avoid complacency among believers. Has anyone in the Cthulu mythos said a phrase like that? Anyway, I ask for more details. “Honest” I doubt that’s a coincidence, but I can ask two questions before heading off. I would rather expose this corruption than take part in it, but Rook doesn’t care. This sadly is probably a pretty tame misuse of tithe money, considering the power plays and politicking that took place throughout the history of European churches alone. Though to be honest, I generally saw those as more as political organizations than religious ones, at least among the higher level. Popes struck me as people more interested in wielding power than saving souls, and kings seemed to care more about gaining legitimacy than actually obeying God. I imagine those lower down were actually concerned about teaching about God and repentance, though considering events like the crusades, they could still be swept up by claims without biblical backing. I am no expert on this particular topic, however. That is simply my observations when researching other aspects of medieval history. I also know that this is an overgeneralization that may very much be wrong, and would invite specific examples if anyone feels compelled to provide them. Time to convince these bandits that there’s a caravan to rob. This is the one and only time that the Spree can appear in Rook’s campaign. At all. You have the option to attack the entire camp. It’s a stupid option, but I appreciate that it’s here nonetheless. I can’t tell you the number of games where I would love to fight my way out, consequences be damned, but the game forces you to surrender or be captured or whatever. But like I said, attacking is a stupid idea, so I tell Ash about the caravan instead. Spoiler I have By the Book and Permits to work with this negotiation. I doubt these would have much effect on a bandit, but Rook is trying to appear professional. Speaking of which, I start off deploying Permits, mostly because it’s free. My next action is to defend I may not have any composure to steal, but Roughneck does gamble… Defense would have been nice, but I’ll take the damage. I finish off by saying “Fiddlesticks!” Which is apparently a bad word in Havaria. Some of the damage is blocked, but not all of it. A reminder that Permit still reflects damage even if it’s blocked. I hate this upgrade Since the coin is on Snails, I may as well take advantage I use my final action on Muck, as gambling will either defend or deal more damage. It lands on Snails, so Muck attacks twice Since Boosted Rational is free, I play it first. Also, Rook winked here, but instead we end up with another funny face. I finally upgrade Trickery I certainly want more Options this turn, so I pick it. They’re both hostility cards, which affects Escalation. I play Speculative Pleasantries first. And it lands on Heads Grunt will deal enough damage to destroy the argument Not only that, it dealt full damage! The damage is blocked Stem appears again, increasing the cost of one of the Call It cards. Pocket Bomb also activated, which also meant Ash gained Impatience I attack with Sifting Pleasantries in order to use Grunt again. I gain experience on Call It for the experience, as Grunt will finish this negotiation. Talk’s over I predictably go for the upgraded cards Bluff: Risky, but there are playstyles that benefit from gaining more cards. Vulgar: Situational, but I suppose it has its uses if your deck is focused on hostility cards. Dig: The damage itself is reasonable, but more importantly you will often have the chance to play it for free. Like I said, you have the chance to play this card for free “Too good to be true” and “Take what you can get” are both descriptive of Grout Bog. With Ash convinced, I head towards the caravan. Allyn reappears. Is she transporting new boots? Queek is here again? I’m running into everyone today. This is tempting, and I know @Saint Rubenio would be happy for me to beat up a merchant… But it would be safer to negotiate. Spoiler Right, this is an intimidation. We’ll see if any of these cards prove to be useful. I also gain Proper Channel and By The Book. Snails starts off the round dealing damage Since it’s already on Snails, I use Visionary Grumble. And end up drawing Roughneck. I see if Crown Rationale will land on Heads for once. I hate this upgrade Muck is free, so I play it. As annoyed as I am about the lack of defense, I’m at least happy I’m doing a ton of damage this turn. I don’t need Kickback clogging up my deck. I start realizing that even if there is no composure to steal, I can use Roughneck to gamble. I take 4 damage and gain Kickback I want to get rid of Money Talks sooner than later, and Mirrored Grumble will help do just that. I destroy it with the card that doesn’t cost shills to play. Sifting Pleasantries deals 3 damage, and allows me to prepare a card when I don’t need to. I see what Call It will grant I suppose I was going to lose Influence no matter what Intimidated is added twice I lose Influence, and my core argument takes no damage. The coin may not be on Snails, but a free card is a free card. Allyn is annoyed that Rook went Super Saiyan right in front of her. I’ll be saving the Flourish, as I’m over halfway through her resolve. Hopefully Trickery will offer new cards. It doesn’t, so I decide to defend. I once again take no damage Sigh… It’s free, and will help deal damage over time. I play Foul Mouth next, and use Hesh’s name in vain. I discard Bad Deal to avoid taking 8 damage I finish the turn by upgrading Call It. Of course it gives the defense to an argument that’s not being attacked this turn… At least Proper Channels deals 2 damage. Meanwhile, I take 4. It’s not enough to break through Allyns composure, but I’ll take gaining some of my own. I defend the rest of the turn. Proper Channel does 3 damage this turn. Allyn doesn’t break through my composure. Pocket Bomb strikes And my final action Allyn is to Grunt. Same as last time Obligation: I’ve gotten use out of this on the Switch version before. It’s pretty nice when you have several cards that benefit from being Prepared, as well as those that utilize Influence. Blank: A straightforward “Gamble and potentially deal more damage” card. I gain enough influence that even if it doesn’t land on Heads, I should still deal a fair amount of damage. I suppose Dellena was a cheapskate with the caravan he sabotaged. That, or Ash doesn’t realize how lucrative the market for boots is in Grout Bog. I forgot the game used “Shite” more than once I should have just killed him right now, and saved myself the trouble of having to redo Rook’s story all over again. Instead, I make up an excuse. I suppose Rook isn’t exactly lying here. Spoiler I once again gain By The Book twice. Hopefully it will be useful this time around. I start off the negotiation by activating the Coin Juggler flourish again. It may as well be Rook’s only flourish for how much I use it, but it is one of the best negotiation flourishes in the game. It’s free, so I see what Promoted Trickery has to offer. I forgot to screenshot the options, but I chose Aloof to defend. Technically I gamble twice here. I end the turn with Foul Mouth to give it more experience. For once Rook says something actually foul. Despite discarding Stem, Mirrored Grumble still costs two actions. All the coin flipping pays off as I take no damage this round despite having no defensive cards. Free damage is free damage The coin lands on Snails. I deal 5 damage instead of 6. I gamble twice with Call It The coin lands on each side I deal three damage and draw a card with Visionary Grumble. The card I drew was Erchin Musk, but my plan was sound. I lose Influence Though my Core Argument takes no damage I see how much damage Boosted Dilemma will do Could be better. At least it was free. Sifting Pleasantries will nicely destroy the argument while also letting me Prepare Boosted Grunt. I draw Cordinal Pleasantries, and can potentially win this turn if I get luck with gambling. First, I upgrade Rationale Then I see what will happen when I play Cordinal Pleasantries Coin Juggler gambles on Snails! I win! I wish all my Rational cards on Rook’s campaign would upgrade to the Boosted variant. All of these have shown up before, and I don’t need any of them. … I unknowingly march to my doom. Annoyingly, this includes Authority Cards. This is the fight where I die. In hindsight, even if I won this was a foolish idea, as Priests aren’t good at surviving fights. As if it’s a bad omen, I take damage from Twig on the first turn. Regardless, the only thing I can do this turn is defend. I’ll try to keep Dellena alive as long as I can. In doing so, I activate Rook’s Combat Flourish! Interesting that Rook’s guns reload in that fashion. Reminds me a bit of the Broken Butterfly animation from Resident Evil 4. And while I’m at it I’m just going to share the rifle reload animation from Resident Evil 4, because I love it. If anyone knows what the term for this type of gun is, feel free to tell me. Since this is going to be a long fight, I start off dealing damage to all enemies with Salvo. Dellena wisely defends Favored by Hesh increases the amount of resolve someone loses from killing them. It’s useless to me, as I need to keep Dellena alive. I block this… …But gain Cleaved. Also, Flead Ball Ow Fortunately, Dellena doesn’t take any damage. Just what I need! A high damage weapon that hits everyone and applies impair! I catch the grenade being thrown this time! Tight Spot appears just in time once again! Since I’ve already attacked, I don’t mind getting rid of my temporary power. I don’t know how Brain Tick works in-universe; I’m just glad it heals me. It was really fun alternating between these two screenshots Ow That doesn’t help me at all, and it will be a few turns before Brain Tick reappears. I really hate how much damage thieves do I decide to gain even more overcharge along with 4 defense. I aim to get rid of the Flead first, at is has the lowest amount of health. It should retreat after taking damage from burn I target Jaseg next, as Ash will take a while to take down. Finally, I defend Dellena. It ain’t damage, but I’ll take it The flead retreats as everyone takes burn damage. I was already planning on killing Ash. This guarantees his spot in the afterlife. Apparently those are called Knuckles. I don’t know how they got the name, or why the Bog would have knuckles. Anyway, I start off by defending. I’m thankful for the counter. Aiming for the upgrade, I use Blast. I use my final action looking though Ammo Pouch. I once again use Blowout. This turn was a good example of using Fully Loaded at max charge to gain counter, then spending it for more defense. Like I said, NPC’s will target these things even if it’s a terrible idea. I gain Cleaved again Though this time I counter The thief gains power. Yes, please! I’ll take the extra defense! Since this thing will target Dellena, I kill it. I agree, Ash. Pfffffft Hahahahahahahahaha This picture is golden. This will be annoying… Like I said, I hate the high damage of thieves. I hope to cause Jaseg to surrender this turn. I succeed. Next I defend. In hindsight, I could have used the Shock Core. Hard to beat shooting fire into Ash’s face, though. This should have helped… I use the opportunity to heal. And lament my inability to attack this turn. Attack Dellena! They’ve already surrendered! Now everyone gained power Let this be a lesson that a few bad hands can still lead to your demise. Just like a single bad mistake can end any run in a roguelike. I take damage multiple times from Bleed. Why didn’t you do that last time? Now the thief is back in the fight I protect Dellena again. I decide reducing damage is more important than dealing it this round. I defend as best I can. Oh NOW is when I get nothing but attack cards! It’s the best I can do in terms of defense. I’ll still die even if I do this. Fuck you for not attacking, Dellena … FUCK ***** Well, at least I get past Day 2 in my next run. I wrote this update in a day because I am a madman. Being almost literally snowed in gave me ample time to do so. Given that it’s the holiday season, I would like to spend the next few weeks with my family. I have no idea when I’ll get back to the let’s play, but rest assured it will go better than this one. There will also be different perspectives and new missions, so there will still beb things to look forward to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Rubenio Posted December 25, 2022 Share Posted December 25, 2022 Welp. Here we go again. Spoiler On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: My one genuine, non-joking hope is that the game allows for group exercise sessions. It would allow several characters to gain stat boosts at once, and we get to see Alear lead an exercise class like they're filming a home workout video. Part of me hopes that the developers realize how odd a yoga minigame would be in a series focused on war, and they don't push the mechanic too far and allow the player to gradually get used to it. The other part of me hopes they go absolutely fucking wild with the mechanic. Complete side quests so countries give you treadmills and exercise bikes! Fulfill optional objectives to unlock mini-trampolines and exercise balls! If you save all the green units, one of them is an personal trainer that joins you and makes yoga sessions more efficient! It's already weird, so go weirder! Beat the final boss with the power of yoga. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: It's pretty telling that any game I can think of that has better spritework than Berwick Saga came out at least a decade after it released, all with the aid of technological improvements. Just, such a pretty game. Quote Also, play Owlboy. It makes me sad whenever that game is overlooked. I'll note it down. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: I see. Most of my knowledge with TF2 in regards to gameplay comes from Lazypurple and Uncle Dane. When I find the time and space to play the game, I'll ask four your help on finding a server where I can learn how to play the game without being decimated instantly by pros. Actually, if you don't want to be decimated by the pros? Avoid servers. Just go casual. You find the occasional pubstompers and insane snipers that make you question if they're using hacks, but for the most part people don't play as seriously there. ...Of course, the bot invasion is a thing. Here in Europe, in my experience, it's completely negligible, but I don't know how it is over in the US casual servers. People in the forums direct everyone to community servers by default, but then, the official TF2 forums are a completely horrible cesspool and one of the worst online community I've ever seen, so. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: It's amazing how much Rook can snowball if you let him. To the point my biggest struggle with Rook, especially when I first started playing Griftlands, was picking too many good cards, and I kept ended up with overstuffed decks. Hah, I had that same "problem." Except since every single one of my cards was great, it wasn't a problem. Not for me! On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: My guess isn't anything too special: Hide contents I personally think it's the weapon Kalandra uses during the final boss. It's powerful, doesn't appear anywhere else in the game, and seems like the kind of tool the Spark Barons would like to keep for themselves. Nothing backs this up; I just find it to be the most practical, if admittedly boring option available. Spoiler Yeah, that sounds plausible. Of course, in my run I didn't fight her, so I wouldn't have known. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Considering an alternative way for the event to end is for the Jake to attempt to sacrifice him, I can't say I blame Rook for being nervous. I prefer to picture it as, he doesn't give a flying damn about all that, he's just really, really afraid of water. Probably doesn't shower as a result. Rook stinks! On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Do you remember what happened to the robot? If I recall, I turned on the barons and the robot helped me murderize them. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: You know. I didn't. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: I'm sorry, man, but: Hide contents Source: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/127362-posts-that-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/ Lalalalalalalalalalalalala not listening. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: The “Saboteur” is my favorite of Rook outfits. It looks similar to the original while still being distinct, and despite the odd gizmos has a “military” feel to it. Terrible for stealth, though. Friggin' walking nightclub. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: I like the terrified smile. He looks like he's thinking "oh shit, c'mon I can't have been killed like that can I?" On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Yeeeah, Rook now has a parasite inside of him. These effects are annoying, if minor at first, but the more they appear the more they grow… I liked this little thing. It grew in the background without me even realizing. ...Pretty sure it eventually only added to my power, too. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Hey! Del’s back! Wonder what he’s doing here? He better be careful. If he doesn't get his act together, that mean-looking baron might have him... delt with. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: Or I could let him live for an extra ally. Thank goodness you didn't kill Del. He's cool, we know him. On 12/21/2022 at 4:01 AM, Hawkwing said: He's even making an evil guy pose here. I know he's going for his guns but still, he looks like he's about to explain his supervillainous plan to Chake. And now the other one. Spoiler On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: I know I joked earlier about running into Del again, but this is the third time I’ve encountered Keebee in two days. Del and Keebee are the secret protagonists of this story. Also Rook looks sick of running into the two of them everywhere lol On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: To be fair, this is the second time someone has mentioned there being treasure in the Bog. All Rook got was friendship. I mean, there's a point to be made there. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: Just to double check, I’m making a surprising amount of friends in the Spark Barons. I like Kalandra just chilling in the shadows there. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: So you could avoid paying me by saying it’s “for Hesh” or something? I’d be less critical about this point if it was for charity or missionary work, but this is to recover stolen documents that are “embarrassing”. Rook counters the cheapstake's insinuation by making a dumb face. Is it highly effective. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: This sadly is probably a pretty tame misuse of tithe money, considering the power plays and politicking that took place throughout the history of European churches alone. Though to be honest, I generally saw those as more as political organizations than religious ones, at least among the higher level. Popes struck me as people more interested in wielding power than saving souls, and kings seemed to care more about gaining legitimacy than actually obeying God. I imagine those lower down were actually concerned about teaching about God and repentance, though considering events like the crusades, they could still be swept up by claims without biblical backing. I am no expert on this particular topic, however. That is simply my observations when researching other aspects of medieval history. I also know that this is an overgeneralization that may very much be wrong, and would invite specific examples if anyone feels compelled to provide them. Not that I'm any more qualified to talk about this than you are - if anything I'm less qualified - but I will say that I feel you are correct. It's very justified to make a distinction between religions and churches. Religions are perfectly fine. Churches often end up becoming as corrupt as any other organization. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: That's a pretty amazing design. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: Allyn reappears. Is she transporting new boots? Well, well, look who it is. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: Queek is here again? I’m running into everyone today. This is tempting, and I know @Saint Rubenio would be happy for me to beat up a merchant… Oh I would, very much. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: I suppose Dellena was a cheapskate with the caravan he sabotaged. That, or Ash doesn’t realize how lucrative the market for boots is in Grout Bog. All this talk about expensive boots is giving me flashbacks to the outrageously pricey cloth bags from Berwick Saga lol ...You think these boots are made of the same materials as those bags? Did Bagman branch out into other markets with the riches he obtained from his baggy empire? On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: I should have just killed him right now, and saved myself the trouble of having to redo Rook’s story all over again. Oh, dear... On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: Wait, that went pretty well! What could have happened for you to-- On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: ...Oh. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: This is the fight where I die. Oh. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: Interesting that Rook’s guns reload in that fashion. Reminds me a bit of the Broken Butterfly animation from Resident Evil 4. And while I’m at it I’m just going to share the rifle reload animation from Resident Evil 4, because I love it. Wow, for a rather old-looking game those are some SUPER detailed reload animations. Especially for third person. Usually shooters put lots of detail in the first person animations, but then you see them in third and it just doesn't measure up. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: It was really fun alternating between these two screenshots Hah you're right, it is fun! On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: Pfffffft Hahahahahahahahaha This picture is golden. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH He's trascended. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: Oh NOW is when I get nothing but attack cards! Oof... Yeah, that was unfortunate. On 12/24/2022 at 6:33 AM, Hawkwing said: Fuck you for not attacking, Dellena He would've saved you if he attacked Ash. Instead he said something mean to him and then watched you die. Probably did deal the finishing whack the turn after, too. This guy's the worst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted December 25, 2022 Share Posted December 25, 2022 (edited) Sometimes, the RNG can be a total tool. Can't count how many Sal runs ended like that. And yeah, it was a lumicyte. The best lumicyte. EDIT: And as for church stuff. Spoiler The church loses its way every time it sticks its damn nose into politics. Including its own internal politics. Edited December 25, 2022 by eclipse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 On 12/12/2022 at 9:34 PM, Hawkwing said: Which is barely related, but I have an excuse to once again ask IS for a taguel on trampoline alt. I know it's not a very funny running gag, but dammit! I want an opportunity to at least once be that obnoxious asshole that laughs like a maniac and yells "I Fucking Called It!" while everyone else is confused. Years after people stopped caring about the game. It might be funny. Also because I'd really like for Panne and/or Yarne to get an alt. On 12/20/2022 at 10:01 PM, Hawkwing said: I know if I actually played the game I would probably be singing a different tune, but I actually kind of like the weirder banners they have. It allows the artists to have fun, and developers can get creative with how they turn the oddest things into viable weapons for a turn based strategy game. At this point I doubt a trampoline weapon would be the weirdest or even most anachronistic thing they've done. It would also be nice to have artwork of the taguels having fun, considering how Panne looks grumpy and Yarne seems nervous in most of their official artwork. Speak of the devil... It's not a trampoline, but I'll take it. It's nice to see Panne and Yarne in a better mood. And official artwork of them wearing something modest. Anyway, I'm going to be visiting relatives in another state for several days, so I won't to be near my computer for a while. Thought I should be transparent about that. On the bright side, I can feasibly see a way to cram Rook's day into 2-3 updates. It thankfully wasn't quite as wordy as last time. May as well do replies now instead of making you wait another week: Spoiler On 12/25/2022 at 5:17 AM, Saint Rubenio said: Welp. Here we go again. Considering how many times this has happened to me, I empathize deeply. Hide contents Beat the final boss with the power of yoga. It will be a while off, but may I make a drawing request of this exact scenario? I don't care if it's using yoga poses to defeat the boss or if they're having a workout competition, I need artwork of this. Just, such a pretty game. It's a broken record, but Berwick Saga needs more attention in general. I'll note it down. It's one of, if not thee, best looking pixel-art games I've ever seen. The story is great, and the gameplay is solid. It mostly makes me sad whenever it gets overlooked because the game took 9 years to make and got lost in the shuffle of indie games that also used pixel art. Also, maybe look at their next game, Vikings on Trampolines, which also looks beautiful, and I can dig their aim to create a multiplayer party game that only uses the joystick. Actually, if you don't want to be decimated by the pros? Avoid servers. Just go casual. You find the occasional pubstompers and insane snipers that make you question if they're using hacks, but for the most part people don't play as seriously there. Noted. I'm juggling several games at the moment, so it may be a while before I jump into TF2, but I'll make it a goal to play the game in 2023 ...Of course, the bot invasion is a thing. Here in Europe, in my experience, it's completely negligible, but I don't know how it is over in the US casual servers. People in the forums direct everyone to community servers by default, but then, the official TF2 forums are a completely horrible cesspool and one of the worst online community I've ever seen, so. Yeah, I've heard about the bot invasion. I have no idea if anything has been done to stomp it out. Hah, I had that same "problem." Except since every single one of my cards was great, it wasn't a problem. Not for me! It becomes a problem when you're not going to see those cards again for 5 turns, and even harder to gain experience when Rook may become fatigued before some options even show up. Hide contents Yeah, that sounds plausible. Of course, in my run I didn't fight her, so I wouldn't have known. Spoiler It only appears during the final boss if you use her card. If you fight her otherwise she just uses a knife. I might come back to this point later depending on how things go, but I appreciate that Kalandra is a competent but not outstanding combatant. She can hold her own in a fight, but it reinforces that her skillset is in being a leader. I prefer to picture it as, he doesn't give a flying damn about all that, he's just really, really afraid of water. Probably doesn't shower as a result. Rook stinks! Considering how unclean real life swamp water is, I can't say I fully blame him. Though that does raise the question of if anyone bothers showering in Grout Bog, if you're just going to get dirty again. If I recall, I turned on the barons and the robot helped me murderize them. Yeah, I'm not surprised. You know. I didn't. That was only partially intentional. I wanted to get to the second attempt sooner than later. Lalalalalalalalalalalalala not listening. Dread it. Run from it. You will never escape the truth that Rook didn't always have his legendary 'stache! Terrible for stealth, though. Friggin' walking nightclub. Well, I have mentioned before that there were some situations I would have liked to handle stealthily but the game didn't provide the option. The grifters are sneaky when they feel like it. I like the terrified smile. He looks like he's thinking "oh shit, c'mon I can't have been killed like that can I?" Death via space mosquito would be a pretty anticlimactic way to go. Though I also wouldn't be surprised if he's worried something will burst out of his chest like in an Aliens movie. Or maybe he's played Far Cry 2 and dreads having to deal with Space Malaria. I liked this little thing. It grew in the background without me even realizing. ...Pretty sure it eventually only added to my power, too. I believe that's the point. He better be careful. If he doesn't get his act together, that mean-looking baron might have him... delt with. I would normally facepalm, but Klei likes their puns, so this would make them proud. Thank goodness you didn't kill Del. He's cool, we know him. Source: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0784.html He's even making an evil guy pose here. I know he's going for his guns but still, he looks like he's about to explain his supervillainous plan to Chake. Rook would give a pretty awesome villain monologue. And now the other one. Hide contents Del and Keebee are the secret protagonists of this story. Also Rook looks sick of running into the two of them everywhere lol Rook's going "There are hundreds of characters in this game. Why do I keep running into these two?" To be fair, I'll take it over the game resorting to boring generic NPC hodgepodges. Rook's campaign has the highest chance of them appearing, and I hate it. I mean, there's a point to be made there. I know friendship is important (and I appreciate the cheaper prices), but... I like Kalandra just chilling in the shadows there. It looks like she's going to backstab each of them. Rook counters the cheapstake's insinuation by making a dumb face. Is it highly effective. If it weren't midnight, I would have taken screenshots of Henry Stickman. You've played the games. You know what making a dumb face can accomplish. Not that I'm any more qualified to talk about this than you are - if anything I'm less qualified - but I will say that I feel you are correct. It's very justified to make a distinction between religions and churches. Religions are perfectly fine. Churches often end up becoming as corrupt as any other organization. Spoiler Interesting, as I'd flip the two around, though admittedly that is because of how words are applied. Since religion can sometimes just be a description. But I've see "religious" used as shorthand for people who have it as part of their life instead of the center. The kind of people who go to church and read their Bible on Sunday but don't put those lessons into practice for the rest of the week. There are also those people that ignorantly believe that "all religions are the same" and wonder why everyone can't get along, when they don't bother to do any actual research or only dig surface deep into the matter. As for the church, they're similar wordplay going on. It can mean a building, a group of people, or Christians as a whole. You don't need a building to have a church. Churches are made up of flawed people that stumble. Sometimes that sadly results in corruption and other evils, but Jesus didn't come to help the healthy, but to heal the sick. God is not blind to injustice, but He is also gracious and shows mercy for genuine repentance. There is also the Church that is rooted in Gods plan and will never fail, no matter how often or strongly it is attacked. That's a pretty amazing design. There's a reason he appeared in an announcement trailer. I wouldn't mind if Fire Emblem took some design cues from the Spree when creating the brigand factions. Well, well, look who it is. I'm becoming increasingly curious which path you want Smith's story to take... Oh I would, very much. It wouldn't have been a bad idea to attack in hindsight. Ash may have died. All this talk about expensive boots is giving me flashbacks to the outrageously pricey cloth bags from Berwick Saga lol ...You think these boots are made of the same materials as those bags? Did Bagman branch out into other markets with the riches he obtained from his baggy empire? Bagman saw the need for boots in a marshland as infamous as Grout Bog, and decided to continue his business of overpricing much needed goods. Oh, dear... Wait, that went pretty well! What could have happened for you to-- ...Oh. Oh. I mean it, I really should have just killed Ash then and there. I don't know why I forgot that Dellena was a priest who made for a poor ally. I actually had the benefit of experience there. Maybe I'm used to the Cult having some surprisingly strong combatants that I forgot Dellena wasn't one of them? Wow, for a rather old-looking game those are some SUPER detailed reload animations. Especially for third person. Usually shooters put lots of detail in the first person animations, but then you see them in third and it just doesn't measure up. I didn't grow up with Capcom, and the first thing the usually comes to mind are the 8-bit Mega Man games. I sometime to forget that their games can have some surprisingly high production values. Like, the Mega Man X games spriteworks still looks amazing, the recent Resident Evil games are astonishingly well detailed, and I keep forgetting Devil May Cry released years ago. Hell, as bonkers as Resident Evil can get, they're impressively diligent about characters following gun safety. I heavily recommend Resident Evil 4, by the way. It's an amazing action game that still holds up beautifully, and the few places where it's aged are more due to being an incredibly influential game, so of course other companies polished up the flawed aspects while giving their own spin (It's part of the reason I want to try Dead Space 1 and 2 sometime, as RE4 was cited as a direct influence). It's not a scary game, but it can get pretty tense, and the limited controls do a good job of making you never feel fully in control of the situation in a good way. Just as a heads up; the game takes place somewhere in Spain, and the enemies apparently drop some pretty strong swear words frequently in their native language. There is also a running joke that Resident Evil 4 is "Racist against Spaniards", so you'll find the representation to either be so-bad-it's-good or just tasteless, or maybe a mixture of the two. Hah you're right, it is fun! There is something mesmerizing about flipping between two screenshots that line up well together. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH He's trascended. I don't really have anything to add. It's just a hilarious picture. Oof... Yeah, that was unfortunate. Experience is a harsh but effective teacher. He would've saved you if he attacked Ash. Instead he said something mean to him and then watched you die. Probably did deal the finishing whack the turn after, too. This guy's the worst. Well, he did get those documents and didn't spend a shill on Rook... That said, whatever organization Rook was working for is not going to be happy with Dellena. I doubt he's going enjoy his swindle for long. On 12/25/2022 at 6:12 PM, eclipse said: Sometimes, the RNG can be a total tool. Can't count how many Sal runs ended like that. I'm impressed that the situation doesn't occur more often, but it is frustrating when it does. And yeah, it was a lumicyte. The best lumicyte. Lumicytes are amazing pets. EDIT: And as for church stuff. Hide contents The church loses its way every time it sticks its damn nose into politics. Including its own internal politics. The older I get, the more I appreciate Paul's letters. There is a comfort in knowing that these aren't new problems and we have the tools to improve the situation. Also, I got Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope as a Christmas gift. If you're a strategy fan of any caliber, I heavily recommend picking it up. The gameplay is incredibly unique and incredibly polished. 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Hawkwing Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 ROOK'S CAMPAIGN DAY 1: The Spark Barons Perspective Happy New Year! Update: Spoiler I’ll swallow my pride and play on Prestige 6. It’s more or less the same as Prestige 7, except Mettle is a factor, which I’ll explain in detail later. We’ll see how much of a difference it’ll make. I swap out Resolute with Perseverance. Rook already starts out with the highest resolve of the three grifters, so I’m okay sacrificing some Resolve for the ability to survive one death. I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time. I love this intro, so we’re seeing it again. Here’s the music. For the first two days, I’ll try to skim through dialogue we’ve seen before without outright skipping it. Yada yada first negotiation Spoiler You may have noticed that my starting cards already have some experience. There is also a new symbol next to my Shills in the upper left hand corner. This is Mettle, and while we’ll see its full effects later, for now just know it grants bonuses over the course of several games. I just attack this round. This negotiation is straightforward, and I want to get through Day 1 in far fewer updates, so don’t be surprised if I don’t go into as much detail as usual. I take 3 damage And Dillawno steals two cards. I take the opportunity to deal with All Business sooner than later. I defend Then see if I can land on Heads so Pleasantries does full damage. It does I block the damage and screenshot the text box before it’s filled out. The Spark Barons steal more things I play Trickery to gain experience since I can win the round this turn. Similarly, I gain experience on Call It. More experience I use my final action to win this negotiation. You gain 1 Mettle after every Negotiation or Fight. There are opportunities to gain more, but they show up randomly. I also have the ability to regain health after negotiating. This is the work of Mettle again. I was so impatient to get through this negotiation that I didn’t even bother seeing what the other options were. Needless to say, Rook will be cursing a lot more this time around. I don’t bother asking questions and get immediately to business. That’s twice now I screenshot the dialogue box before the text finished appearing. I go at a slower pace later. Since we met Kalandra last time and learned about the Rise, I may as well use the opportunity to see what Fellemo has to say if you visit him first. Blacklist doesn’t do much damage at the start, and the 2 action cost can be steep, but it eventually grows into one of the strongest negotiation cards in the game. I would say Shovel is the more versatile and useful card out of the two, but it’s a tight race and Blacklist is still a worthwhile choice. I don’t recall any moments where I passed up on the opportunity to pick the Rugged Compression Gear. I’ve mentioned several times in the past that anything that increases your max health and resolve is worth going for. See? Even the NPC’s know it’s a good pick. Anyway, I ask about Fellemo, since we get new dialogue. Oh, we’ll work for Kalandra all right… Time to see the Spark Baron’s side of the story. That kinda defeats the purpose, Lopli, but it shows that the Spark Barons are interested in innovation, no matter how silly. Arnit’s not aggressive, but she’s still direct. And her theme still plays here. I run into Del again? There’s more than one foreman in the game, Griftlands! It’s the slimeball himself: Fellemo. His all-to-fitting theme One of the handful of times Docktown is mentioned in the entire game. I don’t really know how insistent real military folks are about ranks outside of the military. Though in this case, Rook is doing professional work with a former colleague, so maybe the context is different. Fellemo, meanwhile, doesn’t really care. I ask questions to see what’s different with the Spark Barons. I may have mentioned it before, but I really like the “frequently (but not currently) opposed” description of Rentoria. It gives the setting a sense of history, and is a dynamic I haven’t seen explored much in fiction. Fellemo’s superiors have the right idea Though I suppose hiring a spy is easier than training one. Fraxl was mad enough about it to become the Day 1 Boss. On murderous runs, I tend to send around 30 to 40 people to their graves. During the campaign, anyway. In Brawl that number is pretty standard. That’s cold, but pragmatic. It’s an interesting contrast to how Kalandra doesn’t care how many Spark Barons you kill, as she considers it “the scales balancing themselves” for every dead worker. You can respect a virtue without having it yourself. That’s not exactly related to what Fellemo said. I just wanted to point that out. And the Spark Barons, but you can always hire more. Rook is still going strong on providing funny faces. Rest assured that Fellemo will follow suit. It’s the easiest way to tell they were in the same squad. Food Fight provides more shills instead of an item I probably won’t use. …Do I want to know what “biomass extraction byproduct” refers to in this context? Field rations are meant to keep you alive. Eating them daily when you’re doing menial work is not a good way to produce a happy workforce. I miss the mission description. Imiko has an amazing beard. I’m probably going to rank the beards in this game at some point. Onto stop a food fight! I can talk to both groups before making a decision on how to handle this situation. Now I’ll talk to Vectorini. If I convince both sides to compromise, I can handle the situation without violence or threats. I talk with Yibbit first, as negotiating with laborers tends to be more difficult compared to debating with Spark Barons. Spoiler Since the coin started on Heads, I deal full damage with Pleasantries. Next, I defend to block all damage this turn. I play Call It in hopes of landing on Snails It landed on Heads Oh well. Damage is still damage. Of course I draw 3 Diplomacy cards while Suspicion is active. Blacklist didn’t do much, but the earlier I Take Names, the better. Next, I Gamble to see if the coin will land on Snails It does! I damage though don’t destroy Suspicion I take 4 damage Since the only card that can deal damage is Foul Mouth, which discards a card, I defend first. Next, I play Call It to see if I need to bother with a second Rationale card. Not only did it land on Snails, it got rid of Yibbit’s Suspicion! I defend again And finish the turn by saying something mean to Yibbit This turn can end very quickly if I get lucky with the RNG Moment of truth… Yep, the negotiation is ending this turn. Dogged: Can combo nicely if you have several cards that benefit from being prepared. The 2 action cost can be a bit high, though. Decency: An okay deal. Obviously, it’s more appealing if you have cards that benefit from Influence and/or drawing several cards on the same turn. Roughneck: I used this last time mostly to gamble rather than steal composure. We’ll see how I use Roughneck this time around. I can still beat up Yibbit. I suppose it’s a last resort in case I fail to convince Vectorini to compromise. I just convinced Yibbit to be reasonable. Hopefully, you’ll do the same. Spoiler The coin starts off on Snails, dealing 1 damage. Since Blacklist is in my starting hand, I may as well take Vectorini’s name. Funny face, notepad, and we see the trick for how Havarians hold pencils. Oh, and Blacklist will deal more damage in the future. Since Blacklist took 2 actions, I finish the turn by defending. I take 1 damage and lose 2 manipulation cards. Once again I grumble about Spark Barons being All Business. I gamble Twice Now Pleasantries will deal full damage. Instead of freeing Rationale, I target Vectorini’s core argument. I can always drink after this mission is done, anyway. Another Rationale card is stolen, along with Roughneck. I decide I need a Rationale card this turn, and destroy an Appropriated Argument to get one. I use the card immediately. I gamble to see what to do next. It lands on Snails, so I use Grumble. It dealt 3 damage. I gamble again, and it lands on Snails again. I gain more vulnerability, take 3 damage, and lose Rationale and Pleasantries. I upgrade another Grumble card I gain some last second experience on Call It And curse at Vectorini. Because nothing causes people to compromise like using swear words. That Dominance can combo nicely, and it’s better than destroying a card. Mirrored Grumble will always deal more damage than Strained Grumble anyway. Trade: As the card title suggests, it’s a trade. Not a bad deal, but I personally don’t bother with Influence or Dominance that much with Rook. Gab: There are enough cards that give you the ability to Prepare that it’s nice to have this one on standby. Right now it will only do something with specific Trickery cards, but there are enough ways to prepare that it’s worth having on hand. Diplomacy! It works! There wasn’t a Food Fight, but Fellemo should be happy that his workers will (hopefully) be more efficient for a while. Wild Pack of Baron Dogs pays better and has more encounters to gain experience on cards. A very interesting laborer that can actually be revealed on Day 3, depending on which approach you take. Similar situation with robots becoming more commonplace in industrial work. They speed up the process and still require human oversight in case something still goes wrong. Hell, if the machining classes I’ve been to mean anything, we need more people in the industry. Most of the experienced workers are starting to get old and retire. How would a robot dog go feral? I mean, seeing an Aibo dog rise up against its masters could make for a funny movie, but we’ve already seen the Spark Baron’s AutoDogs, so it wouldn’t be as hilarious. …Remember Aibo? The stupidly expensive robot toy dog that was neat but you were probably better off getting a real dog. Also, I only know about Adventures in Tech because Luke Westaway went on to be a member of Outside Xbox/Xtra. Also the dude writes songs! (And it is a really weird experience hearing him swear) For reasons that will be pretty obvious once we see them. That’s one way of looking at it… Dog attacks can already be nasty. The damage a pack of metallic robot dogs could do is not something I want to imagine. Since this mission can have negotiations, I’ll want to regain some Resolve first at The Last Stand. This time I see what happens if I warn Pengemunt to mind his own business. I keep forgetting that Rook isn’t as harsh as I expect when warning the coin collector to mind his own business. Anyway, I trade coins sooner than later. Once again, I go with the Marsh Coin. I don’t really get experimental with Rook’s coins. I meet the other patrons of the bar before talking to Hebbel. It legitimately takes less muscles to smile than to frown, so Voh is legitimately ripping people off by charging extra. Wrux showed up in the previous run, and I still don’t know where he works. Nodoloolis took a few attempts to pronounce. Though I suppose Atlantis isn’t exactly a common word outside the context of sunken cities. Time to meet Hebbel again. Instead of asking Hebbel a bunch of questions, I just thank him and get a graft and a drink. All these Grafts are good, but I go with Perpetual Charger. It’s essentially free power, and makes loads of Overcharge cards far more viable. May as well gain an early friend with my first drink. Huh, I forgot about the Spark Baron Professional Boon. Seems pretty damn good. Too bad Professionals don’t appear too often, so there aren’t as many chances to make friends with them compared to other characters. Anyway, I go to a corner of the map to find some feral AutoDogs. While I could probably deal with the Autodogs by myself, it would be nice to have an ally. Especially since it’s likely to be a group fight. Spoiler Huh? Rationale suddenly costs two actions? Blame Call to Rise, which forces a random card to cost 1 extra action each turn. It really depends on the negotiation for how frustrating this ability is. Sometimes it’s a small annoyance, while other times it causes negotiations to drag. I don’t dread debating with the Rise, but I never look forward to it, either. May as well spend those two actions defending. I don’t know what Call It will land on, so I don’t want to jump to relying on Pleasantries for damage just yet. The coin lands on Heads! I won’t be taking damage this turn, and Pleasantries will deal max damage. Brainwash adds Propaganda cards every turn it is active. While these can start out being surprisingly helpful, as they Prepare a card for free, they eventually start increasing in cost and clog up your deck. Oh, and destroying the argument while you still have Propaganda cards in your hand restores your opponents resolve. Lovely. Surprisingly, I get rid of it as soon as I can. That’s twice in a row I’ve used a card that costs two actions. I finish the turn by defending. While I could have used Roughneck, I didn’t want to risk Pleasantries dealing less than max damage. The coin landed on Heads anyway The dominance won’t do anything, but I was using it for the damage anyway. Sympathizer is situational, but you can do a lot with 2 extra actions if you get lucky with your hand. It’s also one of the few mechanics that is affected by the number of friends you have. I spend two actions to gain them back. Since I have no other attack cards, I defend and get rid of Slurred Speech. Annoyingly, the extra action cost remains if you don’t play the card. Since I’m reliant on Call It for defense this round, I select Gruff to reduce the amount of damage I’ll take. I’ll take the defense, though I wouldn’t have minded Mirrored Grumble dealing 6 damage instead of 4. That said, I can live with dealing 4 damage I defend, the coin lands on Heads, and I block all damage this round I play Roughneck partially to gamble, and partially to steal composure. It’s removed instead of stolen, but I’ll take the extra defense. I destroy Sympathizer to gain 2 extra actions. Trickery will be more useful than gambling this time. I unsurprisingly pick Aloof for the 3 Composure. And finish the turn by dealing full damage with Foul Mouth. I can also use Rook’s Negotiation Flourish now, though I’ll save it for next time. Two attacks later, and the negotiation is over. I’ve already said in the past that some cards and arguments activate by gambling, so I won’t repeat my points here. Useful as preparing cards can be, I’ll take a semi-reliable way to deal 5 damage. And Influence means I don’t have to rely on Heads to deal max damage! Head Shot was the only new card of the three. It implies Rook sometimes hits people in the head with his coin. 3 Damage is respectable, but I’m mostly picking it for its ability to activate if you gamble Heads twice, regardless of it is in your hand or not. Yeah, if the look didn’t give it away, the Bog doesn’t just affect organics… Feral AutoDogs are the weakest enemy in the game. Obviously, what they lack in quality they make up for in quantity. Spoiler Feral AutoDogs only have 10 health, so they’re pretty easy to take down. Okay, so it was 1 damage off, but the point remains. To be on the safe side, I defend. Jeez! That’s not a pleasant sight! Seeing a freaky meld of mechanical, organic, and… swamp… is an aesthetic I haven’t really seen before. A shame, because I can see it making for an amazing art direction for a horror game/movie. The closest that comes to mind is Darkwood, which makes trees and plants horrifying. I heavily recommend Darkwood, by the way. Especially if you’re interested in a horror game that relies on unsettling visuals, atmosphere, and excellent lighting rather than cheap jumpscares. The first Feral AutoDog didn’t get through my defenses. The second one did. Cleme is also attacked twice. Turn two, and I destroy an AutoDog Another just takes its place, so I defend. I finish the turn by seeing what I can use from Ammo Pouch. I go with Tracer Rounds, as Burn will deal damage over time. Cleme uses a can opener, which deals damage and adds Defect to the target. I don’t know why a can opener would do this, though perhaps it’s referring to a different kind of tool. As a kid, it took me a while to realize that an ICE Pick could refer to hacking instead of the tool. All the Feral AutoDogs take damage from burn. The AutoDogs bite a lot. It’s more or less their only attack. A Grout Knuckle appears. Annoyingly, the Feral AutoDogs aren’t stupid enough to target it. Anyway, I Blast an AutoDog And destroy it. I target a second one that will be attacked this turn. Since the AutoDog that is targeting me will be destroyed this turn, I get rid of Tipsy while I have the chance. Cleme destroys another Feral AutoDog. As does the Knuckle The dogs jump around whenever a reinforcement comes in. Not the easiest thing to show using screenshots. I Blast another AutoDog that will be destroyed this turn. I destroy another one with Kick. I Kick another Feral AutoDog. And hopefully deal enough damage with Blast to destroy the last one. Yep, fight’s over. Another Mettle benefit is regaining Resolve after battle. Posture: The defense is good, and Concentration increases the minimum damage of your attacks, which is always handy. Striker: A good attack card to start off with, as you can potentially have more Overcharge to use the rest of the turn. Fistful: I haven’t personally used this card, as I don’t really get much from drawing more cards. That said, if you’re lucky you can go from empty to fully charged with Fistful. I’d like to cover my defensive options early, and Concentration will help with offense. I could fail the mission and give up all the cores Negotiate to give up half Or attack her to gain all of them. I decide to negotiate. I don’t feel like killing a member of the Rise this early on. Spoiler I start off executing the Coin Juggler flourish. Again. Don’t be surprised if I don’t use any other negotiation flourish for Rook. I haven’t been keeping track of what Coin Juggler has been landing on, but it activated Head Shot. I end the turn by playing Call It, technically gambling twice. First turn, and Cleme lost 15 Resolve. That’s how powerful Coin Juggler can be when combined with a solid hand. I don’t even take any damage. I already took Cleme’s name, but 5 damage is 5 damage. I play Trickery to give it some experience And Coin Juggler activates Head Shot again, ending the Negotiation in two turns. Jargon is the only new one. The ability itself is okay, though it relies on having reliable ways to prepare cards to use efficiently, and even then how much use you’ll get out of 1 composure for every card you play can be situational. I grab Dogged in case I nab more reliable ways to Prepare cards in the future. “Unearned” I head back to Fellemo with half the cores. I have to convince Fellemo in an easy negotiation that half the cores were lost. Spoiler The coin lands on Snails, which is good considering how quickly I’d like to deal damage this negotiation. Turn 1 down. I should finish on Turn 2. I forget to screenshot the other card that was stolen. Every card I play this turn was simply to gain experience. That was thankfully quick. Same reasoning as last time. Reckless Insults: This can potentially deal a ton of damage if you’ve been running a deck focused on dominance. I find that difficult to do with Rook, so I’ve never bothered. Rant: I’d rather deal damage with that 1 action, thanks. Burn: A simple but efficient card. It can be especially damaging against opponents that focus on using arguments for one reason or another. It’s not the most damaging card Rook has, but being able to attack several arguments at once is hard to pass up on. Some well placed kicks had a similar result. Yes, all 5 that he has left. Didn’t notice the mission reward was extra Mettle. Eh, I don’t know how well they’d handle the missions you just gave me… Man, I want to show him firing a gun so badly, except it would be too much of a spoiler. Let’s just say Fellemo’s technique can be… Interesting. I know this is a long update, but so will the next one. May as well get the optional event out of the way. I could make a friend with a Jake again Or I could upgrade my guns I really love this event and am disappointed it’s unavailable for Brawl. I really like Frizz’s hair style and overall design. Hawking rambles about this sentence for several paragraphs. Includes picture examples: Spoiler …Is it odd that that’s probably a bog standard hairstyle, yet I find it interesting when it’s on an alien dog? Like, if I passed by someone on the street or in a store, I wouldn’t think twice about it , yet here I think it’s neat? Maybe it’s because “how do furry aliens do their hair?” is such a mundane question that most sci-fi settings gloss over, yet Klei went out of their way to make each character look distinct, now matter their species? Maybe that’s also why I like Panne’s character design (even if I wish she had better armor): Like, braiding her hair with her ears is such a mundane detail, but something I imagine rabbit people would do. Don’t even get me started on my indifference towards dresses, yet I think the robes of Mechanicus look cool because they’re worn by cyborgs: I now stand by robot spider leg supremacy. +3 Movement and +3 Health is difficult to pass up. The only exception is high heels. No matter how mundane or fantastical the design is, they always struck me as painful, and I have no idea how they’ve remained in fashion for so long. Seriously, they look like they’re a pain to walk around in and I have no idea how they hell they’re supposed to look “stylish”. I know I would vow to kill the inventor if I was forced to wear them. Anyway, I ask about the Admiralty. Why the hell would you pick your vacation spot in a swamp?! When there are rising tensions between the Spark Barons and the workers?!? Can’t criticize Frizz’s work ethic, I suppose. I have no idea how authentic Rook’s Pistol description is. It doesn’t help that gun names in real life are dependent on the manufacturer. I decide to Increase the charge chambers. The graft grants overcharge every turn anyway, and the extra defense is always nice. That said, I can see the appeal of decreasing charge chambers: Source: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/108989-shilling-memesclickbaity-but-will-get-your-attention/page/4/#comments It requires getting incredibly lucky with the missions and events to earn enough shills to add two charge chambers. Especially on Prestige 6 and above when everything is more expensive. I just add one. It’s small and won’t always appear, but I enjoy their interaction. Rook’s story is pretty good about giving Rook a sense of history with characters that only appear once. *** And with that, I got through half of day 1. Hopefully I'll get to Day 2 and 3 sooner than later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 And it's back! Here's hoping that I get to see Spoiler the purpose of that parasite. My parasite did nothing but shank my max HP and give me a pet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Rubenio Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 Spoiler On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: It's not a trampoline, but I'll take it. It's nice to see Panne and Yarne in a better mood. And official artwork of them wearing something modest. I had no idea they came out in Heroes. I... don't really follow Heroes news lol On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: It will be a while off, but may I make a drawing request of this exact scenario? I don't care if it's using yoga poses to defeat the boss or if they're having a workout competition, I need artwork of this. I will do my utmost not to forget. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: It's a broken record, but Berwick Saga needs more attention in general. Preach. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: It's one of, if not thee, best looking pixel-art games I've ever seen. The story is great, and the gameplay is solid. It mostly makes me sad whenever it gets overlooked because the game took 9 years to make and got lost in the shuffle of indie games that also used pixel art. Yeah, I can see how it'd suffer such a fate. It could easily be mistaken for a generic nostalgia-bait platformer, like so many others. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: Also, maybe look at their next game, Vikings on Trampolines, which also looks beautiful, and I can dig their aim to create a multiplayer party game that only uses the joystick. Trampolines Ahhh, I can see how that one would appeal to you. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: Dread it. Run from it. You will never escape the truth that Rook didn't always have his legendary 'stache! Reality can be whatever I want. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: I would normally facepalm, but Klei likes their puns, so this would make them proud. So they kleim. But do they really? On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: It looks like she's going to backstab each of them. She definitely would, if this wasn't a metaphorical, yet ultimately imaginary representation of Rook's gang of friends. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: If it weren't midnight, I would have taken screenshots of Henry Stickman. You've played the games. You know what making a dumb face can accomplish. Hah... I most certainly do. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: Hide contents Interesting, as I'd flip the two around, though admittedly that is because of how words are applied. Since religion can sometimes just be a description. But I've see "religious" used as shorthand for people who have it as part of their life instead of the center. The kind of people who go to church and read their Bible on Sunday but don't put those lessons into practice for the rest of the week. There are also those people that ignorantly believe that "all religions are the same" and wonder why everyone can't get along, when they don't bother to do any actual research or only dig surface deep into the matter. As for the church, they're similar wordplay going on. It can mean a building, a group of people, or Christians as a whole. You don't need a building to have a church. Churches are made up of flawed people that stumble. Sometimes that sadly results in corruption and other evils, but Jesus didn't come to help the healthy, but to heal the sick. God is not blind to injustice, but He is also gracious and shows mercy for genuine repentance. There is also the Church that is rooted in Gods plan and will never fail, no matter how often or strongly it is attacked. Yeah, I think we more or less agree here, we just interpreted the terms differently. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: I'm becoming increasingly curious which path you want Smith's story to take... The one that will kill merchants. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: It wouldn't have been a bad idea to attack in hindsight. Ash may have died. See? If only you'd followed your heart and done what Ruben would've wanted you to do, Rook's stache would still be alive. Let this be a lesson to you - always do as Ruben says. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: Bagman saw the need for boots in a marshland as infamous as Grout Bog, and decided to continue his business of overpricing much needed goods. Bagman On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: Just as a heads up; the game takes place somewhere in Spain, and the enemies apparently drop some pretty strong swear words frequently in their native language. There is also a running joke that Resident Evil 4 is "Racist against Spaniards", so you'll find the representation to either be so-bad-it's-good or just tasteless, or maybe a mixture of the two. Frankly, I would expect them to just be Mexican zombies lol. People never remember Spain exists. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: Well, he did get those documents and didn't spend a shill on Rook... ...Wow, he's a secret genius. Kill him if you ever see him again. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: I’ll swallow my pride and play on Prestige 6. It’s more or less the same as Prestige 7, except Mettle is a factor, which I’ll explain in detail later. We’ll see how much of a difference it’ll make. Well, at least you get to showcase it! 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Arnit’s not aggressive, but she’s still direct. And her theme still plays here. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: I run into Del again? There’s more than one foreman in the game, Griftlands! Ahahahahahahahaha! At this point you might as well rename the LP to Dellands. Or Griftdells. Whichever you prefer. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: It’s the slimeball himself: Fellemo. I never noticed that he seems to be sitting on a log in the middle of his fancy reception. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: You can respect a virtue without having it yourself. That’s not exactly related to what Fellemo said. I just wanted to point that out. That's a fair point, but I get the feeling that Fellemo was being sardonic just then haha. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Rook is still going strong on providing funny faces. Rest assured that Fellemo will follow suit. It’s the easiest way to tell they were in the same squad. You really can, yes. Though Rook is definitely the master of faces. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: …Do I want to know what “biomass extraction byproduct” refers to in this context? I think back when negotiations were still on the table, Kalandra said "we refuse to eat shit any longer" to Fellemo and he took it as inspiration. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Imiko has an amazing beard. I’m probably going to rank the beards in this game at some point. He really does. Looks like a viking with a monocle, this guy. Impressive! 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: And curse at Vectorini. Because nothing causes people to compromise like using swear words. Unspeakable indeed. Spoiler Vectorini still has nightmares about being called a poopyhead. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: A very interesting laborer that can actually be revealed on Day 3, depending on which approach you take. Oho... I hope we'll see that, as I don't believe I saw it myself! 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: ...Huh. "Sometimes"? 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Huh, I forgot about the Spark Baron Professional Boon. Seems pretty damn good. Too bad Professionals don’t appear too often, so there aren’t as many chances to make friends with them compared to other characters. They make you pay for it too, hot DAMN 310 shills... 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Jeez! That’s not a pleasant sight! Seeing a freaky meld of mechanical, organic, and… swamp… is an aesthetic I haven’t really seen before. A shame, because I can see it making for an amazing art direction for a horror game/movie. Oh, absolutely. That's horrifying. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: The closest that comes to mind is Darkwood, which makes trees and plants horrifying. I heavily recommend Darkwood, by the way. Especially if you’re interested in a horror game that relies on unsettling visuals, atmosphere, and excellent lighting rather than cheap jumpscares. I believe you already told me about this one, right? It did seem pretty nice. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Ah, the only appropriate finishing strike to any good negotiation: :V They can never resist it. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: “Unearned” Way to be an asshat, game. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Yeah, you really don't want to discuss secrets in front of Del. He's a timeline traveler, he'll take the knowledge to the next life. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Well, if that's not a thinly veiled threat... 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: Ah, and off comes the veil. 21 hours ago, Hawkwing said: The only exception is high heels. No matter how mundane or fantastical the design is, they always struck me as painful, and I have no idea how they’ve remained in fashion for so long. Seriously, they look like they’re a pain to walk around in and I have no idea how they hell they’re supposed to look “stylish”. I know I would vow to kill the inventor if I was forced to wear them. High heels are torture devices and it's impossible to understand why they're so popular. Slightly propped up ass really isn't worth their horrors. On 12/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, Hawkwing said: Also, I got Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope as a Christmas gift. If you're a strategy fan of any caliber, I heavily recommend picking it up. The gameplay is incredibly unique and incredibly polished. I concur. It's a great game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted January 7, 2023 Author Share Posted January 7, 2023 ROOK'S CAMPAIGN DAY 1: Infiltrating the Rise Weird to think Engage is coming out in less than two weeks. I still have no idea whether I'll go in blind or wait until we get more reviews and word of mouth. Replies: Spoiler On 1/3/2023 at 3:19 PM, eclipse said: And it's back! Here's hoping that I get to see Hide contents the purpose of that parasite. My parasite did nothing but shank my max HP and give me a pet. We'll see how much it evolves. I've had runs where it barely did anything, while in others it grew at a frightening pace. I will for sure show off every Parasite card after I complete Rook's story. I love the card descriptions and how the effects change as the effects grow. On 1/3/2023 at 3:56 PM, Saint Rubenio said: Hide contents I had no idea they came out in Heroes. I... don't really follow Heroes news lol The event occurred a day (technically 2, since I finished at midnight) before I posted. I don't pay much attention to Heroes banners, but I still check them out every now and again to see what characters were added. Apparently it's the year of the rabbit. I will do my utmost not to forget. Thank you. I am preparing myself ahead of time for the inevitable wave of yoga memes. Preach. I'd say you've been doing a good job spreading the word about the game. You're the Patron Saint of Berwick Saga, after all. Never mind that you had the username years before the game was translated. Yeah, I can see how it'd suffer such a fate. It could easily be mistaken for a generic nostalgia-bait platformer, like so many others. It is a real shame that it's been overlooked. Hell, I didn't find out about the game until September 2022. While I'm at it, may as well share some other artwork the art-director, Simon S. Andersen: Spoiler Sources (First time sharing from twitter. I have no idea how the site works, since I never visit the hellhole normally) https://twitter.com/snakepixel Ahhh, I can see how that one would appeal to you. They're fun to watch. Despite how I personally don't like jumping on them (and can't because of my back surgery). Reality can be whatever I want. Well, Griftlands does hint that there are timeline shenanigans going on... So they kleim. But do they really? Well, wordplay at least. "Klei rhymes with play" is their motto. The bandits go on crime sprees, the workers give a call to rise, and you often get money through shilling. That's not even getting into the character and card descriptions. She definitely would, if this wasn't a metaphorical, yet ultimately imaginary representation of Rook's gang of friends. I wonder how well Kalandra would play the TF2 Spy. Hah... I most certainly do. For those not in the know: Spoiler If you haven't already played this game, do so. The Henry Stickmin Collection is legitimately one of the funniest games I've ever played. Yeah, I think we more or less agree here, we just interpreted the terms differently. I've already mentioned my grips with different interpretations of terms, so I won't repeat myself here. It's a topic I can talk in more detail about, but I wouldn't consider a screenshot LP the best place for that kind of discussion. The one that will kill merchants. I'll prepare myself for that route, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I haven't even gotten to the big decision in Rook's story yet. See? If only you'd followed your heart and done what Ruben would've wanted you to do, Rook's stache would still be alive. Let this be a lesson to you - always do as Ruben says. Hindsight is 20/20. Bagman Bagman ... I really need to reread the Kagasaga Let's Plays. There were so many running gags and storylines and it feels like I forgot half of them. Frankly, I would expect them to just be Mexican zombies lol. Well, parasites. Which amounts to enemies being able to use weapons, the parasite appearing occasionally when you blast someones head off, and swearing at you. People never remember Spain exists. ... Sitting down to think about it, I can't recall any videogames that focus solely on Spain. If they appear in strategy games, they're usually one of several European nations. I know of more games that have conquistadors than those that focus on Spain, and each of those games are over two decades old due to the colonial period falling out of style as a setting. Spain is in a weird position in Sid Meier's Pirates. They have the strongest military in the game, as well as the most territory in several of the starting eras, and are generally wealthy... which in practice means that they're overextended with cracks in their defense, so their treasure fleets are a prime target for pirates, which is the entire point of the game. Oh, and you can capture those powerful warships and use them yourself if you can pull it off. There are some eras where their fleet strength is a serious threat and they're better fortified, but on the flip side it means that if a nation is at war with Spain, you'll have plenty of targets. ...Wow, he's a secret genius. You work with what you're given in Griftlands. Apparently, that applies to NPC's as well. Kill him if you ever see him again. Gladly. Priests can the ability to Expend any cards, and the longer they're in the fight, the more morale your allies will lose, so it's best to kill them as soon as possible. Well, at least you get to showcase it! I suppose explaining the mechanic sooner than later could be considered a positive. Ahahahahahahahaha! At this point you might as well rename the LP to Dellands. Or Griftdells. Whichever you prefer. Perhaps. I'll seriously consider it if he shows up during Smith's Story. I never noticed that he seems to be sitting on a log in the middle of his fancy reception. It seems to be one of the chairs or cushions that appear in the background. That's a fair point, but I get the feeling that Fellemo was being sardonic just then haha. I was going to make two points there, but I only remembered the first one. You really can, yes. Though Rook is definitely the master of faces. I'm starting to wonder how much competition Smith will offer in providing funny faces. I think back when negotiations were still on the table, Kalandra said "we refuse to eat shit any longer" to Fellemo and he took it as inspiration. As impressive as the technology and science would be to make human feces edible (they contain a ton of bacteria and, well, waste, and despite the memes drinking pee is generally not a good idea in a survival situation) I doubt anybody would willingly eat it. If anything, it would cause an uproar that we're resorting to feeding people literal shit to solve hunger problems. Which explains why the Rise are a thing. He really does. Looks like a viking with a monocle, this guy. Impressive! I found only a single picture of a viking with a monocle. The beard was not as impressive as Imiko's. Unspeakable indeed. Hide contents Vectorini still has nightmares about being called a poopyhead. Well, he is possibly feeding them repurposed shit. Oho... I hope we'll see that, as I don't believe I saw it myself! We'll see. I looked through my screenshots before I started the Let's Play, and I can share it there. ...Huh. "Sometimes"? Perhaps Pengemunt does Admiralty work when he's asked, and does freelance work otherwise? Rook clearly found something to do after being discharged. They make you pay for it too, hot DAMN 310 shills... The high price is thanks to playing on Prestige 6, but even without that, it's still one of the most expensive Boons to buy. Oh, absolutely. That's horrifying. It's another point for Griftlands in the art department. I believe you already told me about this one, right? It did seem pretty nice. I've shared it over Discord, yes. I still find it hilarious just how many games I've played that had a very grotesque aesthetic while Engage was showing off characters being colorful and cheerful. Ah, the only appropriate finishing strike to any good negotiation: :V They can never resist it. I was hoping that the :V face would make it into the screenshots from time to time. I was not disappointed. Way to be an asshat, game. Nah, it was an ass when it decided to kill me. Yeah, you really don't want to discuss secrets in front of Del. He's a timeline traveler, he'll take the knowledge to the next life. I can neither confirm nor deny that Del is aware of the fourth wall. Which still makes it a good idea to discuss the plan elsewhere. Well, if that's not a thinly veiled threat... Ah, and off comes the veil. I thankfully have pictures of Fellemo firing a gun. Rest assured he adds to the funny face pile. High heels are torture devices and it's impossible to understand why they're so popular. Slightly propped up ass really isn't worth their horrors. I don't really have anything to add. They just look painful, plain and simple. I concur. It's a great game. Every character is viable at some point, the more sparks you gain, the more strategies open up, and the gameplay is incredibly tight and polished to a degree that I am impressed it works so well when there's not really many other games I can compare it too. It really is an amazing game. Update: Spoiler Last time, I did two missions for the Spark Barons and upgraded my pistols. Now, we’re going to the Last Stand to see how Fellemo wants us to be a double agent. Time for Fellemo to reveal his big plan. Kalandra being the leader of the Rise is a well known secret. Not that she seems to care, as any attention on her means less eyes on other members. Good question I’m tempted to post the Shrek meme, but considering the conflict has already taken several lives and Fellemo is playing the long game to get rid of the Rise, this is probably Fellemo being realistic. Won’t prevent those lives from being wasted if he doesn’t win... And I would love to play a game about Rook’s Admiralty days. There are less questions to ask Fellemo compared to Kalandra. To be fair, the Spark Barons can show up in the other two stories with varying frequency, while the Rise mainly make an appearance in Rook’s campaign. It’s the simplest solution, yes. It’s also the one that asks for someone to replace her, and for that person to be even less reasonable. Yep, Sal’s mother was the ringleader of a previous revolt. There’s a reason Sal seems nervous about any talk about revolts or workers trying to get more rights: Spoiler I looked through the screenshots I had taken before the Let's Play. It doesn't have everything I would like to share, but there are still several details that I'd like to reveal some time in the future. A reminder that these two are former military spies with decades of experience. I have no choice but to accept the job. Kalandra suggested bringing a “gift” to the Spark Barons to show Rook’s “loyalty”. This intel better be good, cause otherwise Fellemo is seriously relying on Rook’s wit and silver tongue for this plan to work. Which is especially glaring given Fellemo’s lack of a back-up plan if Rook isn’t up to the task. Fellemo heads off, and Wrux is in the middle of sneezing. Another random event appears. The healing supplies simply heals you. It can’t increase your max health. I’ve forgotten that many times. The quiet clearing, on the other hand… Instead of meditating, Rook regains resolve by napping. I can try meditating, though… I imagine if you meditate for the first time, it wouldn’t be a relaxing experience, but it could be an enlightening one. 80 Mettle is pretty high. May as well show off everything that it does. Plundak appears in every mettle shop for every character, and if Sal dies, Plundack can occasionally show up to give Sal a card, item, or graft from a previous life. Plundack is also the only “Dodge Scavenger” in the game, and seems aware of the fourth wall. I’ve already unlocked all the flourishes. You gain Prestige Points by defeating bosses, and you gain more if you beat them at higher Prestige levels. It wasn’t the easiest thing to keep track of when I started playing on the Switch. It didn’t help that by the time the mechanic was added to Early Access, I had already beaten most of the bosses on the higher difficulties, meaning I could buy most of the flourishes outright. Still, you’ll gradually gain points as you play, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Can you tell I’ve played this game for hundreds of hours? Some of them before the mechanic was added? The Full list of what Mettle can do: I increase my Max Resolve. Now to ask Plundack some questions. You gain Mettle over the course of several games, and it carries over whether you survive or die. There are random arguments that appear that can grant Mettle if you destroy them in time. It can also be granted from killing people in Battle if they have the symbol next to their abilities. I’d say you’re generally better off keeping your shills instead of spending them on Mettle. Though if you have some money left over after buying the final items of the run from the markets, you may as well invest in Mettle. I suppose it’s not dissimilar to players seeming to know how to easily deal with an enemy or boss with some experience, even if in-universe they’re considered a huge threat. I don’t even know how NPC’s comprehend speedruns in-universe. Anyway, I head off to convince the Rise that I’m on their side. May as well make the easy reference So that’s Mettle! Overall, a mechanic that I don’t mind being present, though I also wouldn’t miss it if it was removed. It doesn’t really change my overall strategy for anything; It just speeds up the process of upgrading cards or accessing flourishes and the like. It’s probably the bane of completionists for how many runs you have to complete with each character to unlock everything, but to be honest, I don’t recommend 100% completing Griftlands in the first place. You are at the mercy of the RNG if you’re looking to make friends and enemies with every character, equip every graft, and unlock every achievement. That out of the way, I go to meet a Rise patrol. Though not before running into a random event. This situation is a great example of how Griftlands handles randomness. Running into the event itself is left up to chance, but what each choice will do remains consistent. For instance, if I taste the leaves… I know I’ll regain resolve! I don’t bother with the rest, since one heals you, and the other drains resolve and gives you the Rash card. Now I go and meet a Rise patrol. Fellemo was right on the money when he said they would be suspicious. As many jokes that could be made with “beat up Veerin to establish your dominance”, I don’t even entertain the idea and talk to him instead. Spoiler The coin lands on Heads, and of course one stronger cards costs 2 actions. Thus, I play Trickery instead. Each of these options is tempting, but in the end I go with Carry Over. Call to Rise will constantly increase the costs of cards, and an extra action can go a long way in alleviating the issue, even if it is only for one turn. Though do keep your deck composition in mind when selecting Carry Over. It won’t do much if you happen to draw some cards that cost 0 action to play. I decide to go with playing Cordinal Pleasantries then Grumble instead of spending my two actions. I try to get Snails before playing Grumble. And succeed In the end I did 5 damage, which is the same that Tall Pleasantries would have done. At least now I have some Influence. I take two damage Predictably, I play Blacklist and use it to destroy Brainwash before it can do anything. I defend my Influence so it sticks around for at least another turn. And I finish the turn with Head Shot since it does more damage than Burn. Since Veerin has composure and Call to Rise affected Rationale, I attempt to steal it. Okay. In an unforeseen event, apparently Snails attacks first, then Roughneck steals the composure. Meaning I took zero defense. Good to know for the future. After that slight waste of time, I decide to use Mirrored Grumble to deal 6 damage. And finish off with Pleasantries before my Influence is destroyed. This is the last turn, so I use Head Shot to destroy Sympathizer to gain two extra actions. Which I promptly sped to gain experience on Rationale. And finish off with Mirrored Grumble. Head Split: A little too risky for my liking, but by no means a bad card. Helmet: 3 Composure is nice, but it requires having reliable ways to Prepare cards to be truly effective. Spotty: Grants a bonus action, then expends. Can’t really plan around it, but an extra action is always welcome. Even if it’s random, I’ll take the opportunity to gain an extra action. We never learn exactly what intel Fellemo gives us, but he wasn’t joking when he said it would be valuable to the Rise. We won’t be meeting Kalandra just yet… Waltzing right into a rebel base and saying you want to join is exactly the kind of audacious thing that causes people to pause and listen to what you have to say before shooting you. You’re not exactly young yourself, Flekfis Flekfis is Kalandra’s second in command, and has his own theme. It reminds me of a western standoff, and implies that he’s not someone to mess with. And for good reason. He may be the muscle to Kalandra’s leader, but Flekfis still has a sharp brain in that head. I can see why Fellemo mentioned there would be casualties. He must be leaving something vulnerable for the Rise to target for them to be this accepting of Rook. This is a little random, but you may have noticed that Flekfis is extremely hairy. That is because he canonically has the thickest fur of all the Jarackles. He is literally a fluffy boi. …Which is weird to say considering Flekfis is one of the older characters in the game. I haven’t engaged in much combat today, so this mission will be a good opportunity to gain some more experience. You claim you are the bog, but there’s another faction who can truly say that… As they say, talk is cheap. Flekfis wants us to prove our loyalty by attacking and possibly killing the Spark Barons. When I first saw Wade, I wondered why she was the only Shroke with hair, and why it’s green. Then I realized it was part of her helmet. Doesn’t stop me from headcanoning that she’s secretly an anime fan and would totally have a crazy colored hairdo if given the chance. Rook can nab Rise Equipment, but he has to pay for it first. While Flekfis looks at the intel, I go to ambush a Baron convoy. Zooming in, the mission icon is a knife stabbing the Spark Baron symbol. Though I’m interrupted first. I run into yet another Rise Pamphleteer. You mostly get different dialogue depending on your choice. It’s been a while since I’ve picked the other options, though, so I could be misremembering things. Looks like this one is actually doing their job of selling me pamphlets. I politely decline. Refusing will cause her to dislike me, so I tell her to leave me alone. Spoiler The coin lands on Snails, and Blacklist costs 3 actions. I use it anyway I am very glad I’m going to be in combat after this. I don’t feel like heading back to The Last Stand for drinks yet. Spotty appeared before I could screenshot it. I have 4 actions to use this turn. I target Brainwash before it can do anything. I use Assertive Grumble first to gain some Dominance. Now Mirrored Grumble deals 8 damage instead of 6. I upgrade Rationale while defending. And I use Roughneck to gamble Which blocks all incoming damage. This round will be nothing but dealing damage. That was thankfully quick I’ll take the guaranteed Composure, thank you very much. Dig: 3 Damage is respectable, especially for a card that can be played for free. Clear Head: A solid Prepare card, and Rigging Heads can come in handy in some situations. Agency: A straightforward attack card. Dig was tempting, but Agency has the potential to deal more damage overall. That was mean, but I don’t know anyone that actively enjoys being handed pamphlets. I arrive without further interruptions. Looks like they brought a Cobblebot along. Smart choice. Malo worked with the system until it turned against him. Making him one of the more grounded Rise members. What happened to them? In combat, yes. Outside of that, maybe. It was already apparent, but it seems they don’t have Asimov's laws of robotics in Havaria. Talking will predictably be an option, but the combat odds will likely be in our favor. Was Torque made with the remains of a Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet? I could intimidate Waandra… Or attack with superior firepower. Spoiler Spending a charge will give me 5 defense, so I’ll focus on offense this round. I deal a total of 14 damage this turn. Meanwhile, my allies defend. Static Shock is annoying, though fortunately my current hand means I won’t be missing much no matter which card is discarded. In hindsight, I could have upgraded the other Kick. Oh well. Since I’m not being attacked, I may as well gain Charge. There’s only one enemy, TORQUE. You don’t need to waste a turn specifically targeting them. At least Malo attacked. Now Waandra gained power. Since she’s targeting the cobblebot, I add enough charge to gain 2 Overcharged. Hair Trigger may have been discarded, but I still have two Blast cards. I miss the animation here, but the cobblebot’s torso spins around before slamming their opponent. I’ll let the Rise decide what to do with her. I go with Charged Blast, as I usually lean towards spending charge over remaining Fully Charged. Pulse: Ricochet is useful in group fights and useless against individual opponents. It’s nice to have, but I never go out of my way to nab such cards. Bolster Shot: Since Rook has Kick cards by default, Bolster Shot has more opportunities to deal bonus damage compared to the other grifters. I don’t recall ever using this one, though.Gallery: Its efficiency depends on how often you remain Fully Charged, but it’s always nice to have on hand. Its usefulness may vary, but it’s nice to have Gallery on hand. The Rise doesn’t deal in prisoners, apparently. I decide to kill the survivors myself to gain a friend. I gained a friend and an enemy. Faulty Armor will be annoying to deal with, though I can work around it. It will be more problematic in quick fights compared to longer encounters. I return to the Rise base to show that I’ve bloodied my hands for their cause. Of course I go with the Graft that increases my max resolve. This is Kalandra’s main outfit. Also a reminder that she has my favorite theme in the game. I killed a single Spark Baron. Though I suppose I also prevented a food fight through diplomacy and got rid of some feral AutoDogs after they tore up some workers. With that, all that’s left is the boss fight. After that, we’ll be seeing what else can happen during Rook’s second day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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