epilepsyduck Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 Remember when games used to look like this? World of Horror is an indie horror game being developed by panstasz, a Polish developer who's been working on the project in various forms for years. Its graphical style (done entirely in MS Paint) is designed to evoke both the 1-bit and 2-bit graphical interfaces of old computers and the works of horror artist Junji Ito, and does quite an excellent job with both. The gameplay, meanwhile, is clearly inspired heavily by the Arkham Horror board game, mixed with influences from old adventure games and RPGs of the era, and taking place in 1980s Japan rather than Lovecraft's fictional town. The game plays out like a lot of other indie "roguelite" games, being based on individual runs through a semi-randomized world, where you'll need to solve a number of mysteries before an otherworldly horror awakens and destroys the world. Runs are differentiated by allowing you to play as different characters with their own strengths, deal with different gods with their own game-altering effects, and by randomizing the mysteries and events the player faces. Along the way, various in-game achievements can be done to unlock new stuff for future runs. Due to the game's randomized nature (and also due to it being in Early Access, and thus technically incomplete), I won't be doing a full 100% playthrough of the game (the achievements alone would require a large number of runs); instead, I'll be going for a bit of a vertical slice of the game, covering each individual game mode once (maybe twice for the more complicated ones) and giving a bit of a rundown on how the game works, so this'll be a relatively short one compared to my previous LPs. Obviously, there will be spoilers, so if you wanna experience the game yourself, read at your own risk. I'm also warning for body horror and other disturbing content, so if that's an issue for you, maybe reconsider reading this. Also, if you're someone who's played the game and you catch me making a mistake on how the game actually works (as I'll fully admit I don't always 100% "get" the inner workings of World of Horror), feel free to call me on what a big dumb idiot I'm being! With all that chatter done, let's get to our first glimpse at World of Horror! Part 1: Kouji's Crummy Day Spoiler As the game opens, we're treated to an old-timey boot screen, complete with a vast black void. Suddenly, it's taken over by a bunch of symbols, unveiling the developer's logo underneath! I can't really show in images how neat this looks. And here we are at the title screen. We'll be ignoring most of these options for now and heading straight for "New Story". When you pick this the first time, it gives you the option to adjust the game's palette. You can turn this off, and you can also adjust this palette's in the Options menu. I personally prefer the 2Bit mode over 1Bit, as it's a lot easier on the eyes and allows for some cool shading and coloring work. There's also a suite of palettes available; I'm only showing a handful, but there's dozens of them, though some are admittedly very similar. I'll stick with the default, though if anyone wants I can pick a more exciting palette. Here we are at the gamemode selection screen, where four options await us. The top option, SPINE-CHILLING STORY OF SCHOOL SCISSORS, serves as something of a mini-tutorial to ease you into how the game works, and is much simpler than the other three modes. For that reason, it's a perfect starting point for us! This intro plays every time you start a new game. It's cool at first, but it gets annoying after a while. Thankfully, it can be turned off in the Options menu. I don't really have a lot to say here, I just think the intro is neat. Folks familiar with cosmic horror stories in general, and the Cthulhu mythos in particular, should feel right at home after these ominous, foreboding messages. I dunno what to tell the rest of you. And here we are, with GAMEPLAY. This mode always starts us off as Kouji, the boy in the bottom right corner; he's one of the game's simplest characters, so he's a fairly good jumping off point. There's a lot of info being presented right off the bat, but I won't explain most of it yet, as the game has further tutorials in other modes that do a decent job of that, and some of it's only really relevant in the actual game proper anyway. For now, let's click "The Story So Far". This lighthouse isn't relevant to what we're doing just yet, but trust me, we'll become quite familiar with it in later runs. Let's just get started with our first mystery! Every mystery in the game has one of these screens introducing it and telling us what kind of horrible supernatural fuckery is happening. I'm sure nothing bad will happen to our intrepid hero as he delves into this supernatural arts n crafts project. Seems like our missing pal has left us some good breadcrumbs, at least. While the game tells you about the notebook, what it conspicuously doesn't tell you is that the notebook; A) is an item, B) you'll need to read it to solve a puzzle, and C) it doesn't start in your inventory, but in your "storage". Click Access Storage to nab it and move it into your inventory proper. Before we get to the real meat and potatoes of this mystery, we may as well check out some lockers and steal from our fellow students! I wonder which lockers can be interacted with. Sometimes this game's tricky like that! This particular locker requires a key. Sadly for us, that key is obtained in a different mystery, making it totally inaccessible during the tutorial. Hopefully we'll be able to revisit this and see what lurks within! Thankfully, this locker has something useful for us. Don't mind if I do! Not the best weapon around, but it's something, and certainly better than our bare hands! Items have a particularly cluttered menu, but thankfully only interactions that can actually be used are highlighted, so at least you're never unsure of what to do with an item. The A/B button allows you to equip weapons and other equipment items, so let's do that now. So far that's one tantalizingly locked locker and one with a mediocre weapon in it. What's behind door #3? GAH! The FUCK is all that? Whatever it is, it seems Kouji's quite disturbed by it; his REA (short for Reason) has gone down by 1. REA is the game's equivalent for Sanity, as STA (Stamina) is for Health, and if either hits 0, the game is over. Don't go snooping in everything you see, or your body and mind might just break! I suppose that's enough looting. Let's hit Explore School, which shows the bulk of what you'll actually be getting up to in the game. Every time you explore a location, you get this cute little animation of your character walking through the area. Don't mind the bit where it says "Investigating; Classroom", as this never actually effects what events will occur. Once your character is done investigating, you'll get a random event, based on various criteria like location and other such things. These events generally have a choice for the player to make, but this one just knocks a point of Stamina off of us. Get used to seeing those numbers steadily tick down. After we're done exploring/investigating, we get another little scene. This one has nothing interactive for us, so let's just explore again. When a black screen with text pops up, it means you've encountered an enemy. In this case... The Forgotten Specimen! Not a particularly threatening foe, especially compared to some of the ones specific to this mystery. It's a perfect introduction to combat! As the game says, combat works by filling up that bar with the 0/200 in it with actions, each of which takes a certain amount of "time". Since the game won't let us do anything else, let's just kick, which we can do 3 times currently. On turn 2, we've done 4 damage total to the creature, but it's also damage our Reason by 1. You can see which stats a monster will damage under their HP in the upper left, and you can also see their Power, which effects your hit rate against them (enemies don't have a hit rate normally; unless you take specific actions, they always hit you). Anyway, while we already have a weapon, the tutorial won't let us move on until we get an improvised weapon. This option is mostly only for if your desperate, as the weapons available from this suck, but they are at least strictly better than kicks unless you have the right abilities. Look, we found a branch! I bet it's a formidable weapon indeed. Ah, well. Nevermind then. Note that the weapon is "fast to equip"; most weapons aren't, and can't be switched into your hands during combat. This ability is basically the one thing improvised weapons have going for them, but they aren't the only weapons with this trait. Thankfully, at this point, the game allowed me to just bash the creature with my bat, allowing me to quickly kill it. For most enemies, that's the end, but some foes like this one drop items. And what an enticing item indeed! This thing gives you a hefty +5 Stamina heal, in exchange for saddling you with some sort of status effect. What effect it picks is random, but most of the effects are either minor or straight-up cosmetic, and at least one is mildly beneficial if you have certain mysteries open to you! After that fight, we find out that our friend left some chalk on the roof, which seems like a good way to have the chalk dissolve in the rain. However, I couldn't help but notice a new option appear on our menu... Yes, let's peek outside. This looks very safe. YES, IT'S VERY SAFE INDEED! Fortunately, before you get a chance to let it in, your character slams the door shut. Doing so unlocks an achievement, which we'll get to later! Back to the old grindstone! Pay no mind to the fact that Kouji is strangely blurry for some reason. Oh... hello there, sir. Lemme just... get out of your way. This particular event is tied to the particular old god the game decided to roll for us; we'll cover the creature and it's effects some other time. It also introduces us to how, really, most events go; we're given a choice on how to handle the situation, and have to make a decision based on what we think our character would do best. I attempted to sneak away, but this tested our Dexterity (DEX), and since Kouji's 5 DEX means he's a bit lousy at Dexterity checks, we ended up getting caught and cursed. It wasn't all bad, though; we also got a hefty chunk of experience, which can be used to learn useful perks and increase your stats. The curse we got slapped with is Cursed Signs, which increases Doom whenever we cast spells. Luckily for us, Doom is a non-issue in the tutorial, and we only have one spell that we almost certainly won't need anyway. And yes, Kouji's portrait changed to match the sigils. Damage and status effects that the character suffers appear on your character's portrait, which is a really neat touch that often adds to the horror of just how fucked up your character tends to get in the game proper. After being cursed by an evil planet-god, we get some good news; we have the chalk! With it, we must use the 1 and 2 buttons there in the menu to draw the sigil. For this, we use our friend's diary; note that the sigil is different every time, so always make sure to read this! Doing this right makes things a bit easier for us in the upcoming events of the mystery, but notably, doing it wrong isn't a failure; there's actually a pretty neat weapon available if you do the ritual incorrectly, but you also have to face a tougher boss. Since this mode doesn't have anything after the boss, though, we may as well make our lives easier. Back to investigation. Those candles ain't gonna find themselves. Another event, this one neatly demonstrating another cool thing; this particular event has two options, but the second option has a special requirement; in this case, we need a specific ally to handle things for us. There's quite a few events that need special perks, items, spells or allies to get the best results, actually, so it doesn't hurt to have a lot of each. Me when I look at any math past addition and subtraction. God, okay. What a bossy game! Here's another event demanding certain items, requiring the same key that the locker from earlier did. Thankfully, we can potentially still get a good result without it. Oh... oops. Our boy is looking mighty tired now. It's alright, though, Kouji. We found the candle! This particular bit is accompanied by the creature slamming her scissors against the door. It's surprisingly creepy, but I can't really portray it accurately in screenshots. Hey lady, why the long face? Eh, you're prettier than I am at least, but that's a very low bar to clear. The Scissor Woman, being a boss, is a fair bit tougher than the Forgotten Specimen from earlier. Notably, she hits booth Stamina and Reason, while most critters only hit one or the other. She also can inflict a nasty injury on us, but she ended up not doing it this time around. I'll give a more thorough rundown of the various abilities you have in combat some other time; right now, we'll jut say I prepared and launched 2 attacks, dealing 8 damage total. Things aren't looking so hot for Kouji... Maybe this can help? It'd at least mean we only have to worry about Reason, and using items is a free action in combat. It did patch us up, but things look a lot fishier now. I'm sure it'll be fine. :^D She landed another hit on us, but now we only need one strike to take her down. And done! Wow, that's a pretty nasty injury you have there. Sure glad that didn't happen to us! We get the results screen, which is usually more informative but is pretty basic for the tutorial. And back to the main menu! Before we go, let's peak into the Extras menu. This includes the credits, various catalogues of events and enemies we've faced, and of course, achievements! We only have the one achievement right now, for encountering that creature outside the door. Achievements in World of Horror are a lot of fun, though, as they unlock extra stuff for you to play with in future playthroughs! It's worth going out of your way to do them, even if it hurts your run's actual chance of success, as achievements are still acquired even if you lose. We'll be back to New Story soon, with a brand new pal getting entangled in a much, much larger experience. Hope you've enjoyed! Bonus: Kouji's endearingly derpy face from before the most recent updates. RIP my son. Spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hello72207 Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 (edited) Spoiler 5 hours ago, epilepsyduck said: ok this picture is wack. Every time I scroll up or down it starts flashing Nevermind all of the backgrounds do it. 5 hours ago, epilepsyduck said: Hey lady, why the long face? komedy 5 hours ago, epilepsyduck said: wheeze This sounds fun to watch, I shall follow this. Edited October 10, 2020 by Hello72207 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Leu Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 (edited) 15 hours ago, epilepsyduck said: Remember when games used to look like this? Bruh, I wish they looked that nice. 15 hours ago, epilepsyduck said: World of Horror is an indie horror game You... don't say 😄 You do a great job at selling it tho Junji Itou, Roguelike, it's all I need to read ! The Intro, the youkai, the sky, Insmasu look, yup it'll be one of those indy kickass games ! ...but the kids should seriously call the cops 😛 Edited October 11, 2020 by B.Leu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted October 13, 2020 Author Share Posted October 13, 2020 (edited) On 10/10/2020 at 10:39 AM, Hello72207 said: ok this picture is wack. Every time I scroll up or down it starts flashing Nevermind all of the backgrounds do it. Yeah, the sort of checkerboard-esque pixels lead to images doing that. It's a bit annoying, but you get used to it. Glad you're enjoying regardless! On 10/10/2020 at 8:52 PM, B.Leu said: Bruh, I wish they looked that nice. True, a lot of faux-retro games look like a rather idealized notion of what old games looked like. Still, I'm all for that instead of perfect mimicry, since some of these games looked like, well... I actually remember this game being on the computers at my elementary school! I wasn't good at it. Anyway, with Kouji's scissoring excursion out of the way, it's time for a new hero to introduce us to a far more complex palette of gameplay options, get an achievement of life-or-death importance, and learn about sea life with a pal. Part 2: Easy Eels Quote Now that we've done Tutorial 1, we can move on to what's basically Tutorial 2, Extracurricular Activity. This is far more like the standard playthroughs than the previous mode, but still a bit simpler to ease you into things. Right off the bat, we get our first proper introduction to a very important mechanic in WoH; gods! There's currently four (with a fifth unlockable one, and more to come in future updates), and each has their own game-altering effects, as well as their own unique events. CTHAC-ATORASU, a nasty spider-god, is probably the harshest of the starting four, as it stops you from being able to run away from combat- thankfully, the character you start as in Extracurricular Activity is the best fighter, period, so at least it won't sting too bad compared to getting this fella in Quick Play. So, here we are at the town screen, with a fresh new face. Aiko, as you can see, has more physically-oriented stats than Kouji did; her particular weakness is Knowledge, while her specialty is Dexterity (something Kouji was awful in). She also has a special attribute; she moves faster in combat than any other character, which makes her the strongest fighter by a mile, and perfect for an "easy" mode like this one. Every character has some sort of special trait, actually; Kouji's is that he starts with a Camera (a fairly useful item, though not a particularly rare one), while others have their own stuff we'll see eventually. Moving on to the tutorial, with a word from the developer! This is what all Polish game developers look like, honest! Fairly self-explanatory message here. I'll just tell you about them, since showing all the messages would put me over the image limit, and they give somewhat nondescript ideas of how stats actually work: Spoiler STA: Stamina. Measures your health, and the game ends if it hits 0. Tends to be easier to heal and gets assaulted slightly less often than Reason. REA: Reason. Effectively a "sanity" meter, and also ends the game when it hits 0. Tends to be harder to heal and gets assaulted slightly more often than Stamina. DOOM: A stat measured at the top of the screen, rather than on the character portrait (though that's where it used to be; see that bar behind Aiko?). Measures the ever-increasing influence of whichever god you face, and if it hits 100%, the game's over. Of the three "meters" you have to manage, this one's the trickiest; nearly every action raises it by at least 1%, while methods of lowering it are uncommon. STR: Strength. Affects attack speed with Strength-based weapons (mostly tools like shovels and hammers), and is used for events that require a bit of brute force or endurance. DEX: Dexterity. Affects attack speed with Dexterity-based weapons (generally bladed weapons), and is used for events that require fast speed or good reflexes. PER: Perception. Affects attack speed with Perception-based weapons (mostly guns, which are hard to come by and need ammo), and is used for events that require a keen eye (though I think it's the one used least often, at least in my experience). KNW: Knowledge. Affects attack speed with Knowledge-based weapons (usually esoteric things, like candles or a "ritual dagger"), and is used for events that require a deeper understanding of something (often something arcane). CHR: Charisma. Doesn't actually have any combat applications in itself, but is used in events that involve talking to people and is used for recruiting allies in certain locations. LUCK: Luck. A hidden stat, it starts at 6 by default for all characters, and is used purely for events, generally ones where you have to be lucky to avoid danger. FND: Funds. Not actually a "stat" necessarily, this measures how much money you have, which is used for shopping and also used in some events. There's a very annoying event related to having Funds at 0, so be careful not to run out of money. FTH: Faith. A stat only one character actually has, with somewhat unusual effects depending on how high or low it is. We'll cover that if and when we ever get to that character (he's a bit of a bitch to unlock). Note that most stat-checks in events are randomly rolled, so even a good stat doesn't guarantee success (nor a bad stat failure); that said, getting high stats in a number of areas is still generally good since it protects you from some nasty events, and a small number of events are guaranteed successes if the stat is higher than 8. As for using stats for combat, the stat your character specializes in is generally the one you want to get a weapon for, and thus that stat is the one you want to particularly focus on increasing; notably, though, some stats are far easier to find weapons for than others (STR-based weapons are everywhere, DEX-based weapons are also common, KNW-based weapons are a bit uncommon, while PER-based weapons are kinda rare and expensive to use). Also kinda self-explanatory. Note that it's often a little arbitrary what equipment goes in which slots (for example, there are masks for both B and C, so you can wear two masks at once), but the game clearly labels which slot it goes into, and certain items can still be used from the inventory, even if they aren't equipped. We've already seen the combat tutorial, so no thanks! We have two options right now; home and lighthouse. Let's see what this lighthouse is about! At the start of the run, the Lighthouse isn't about anything in particular, really. The Lighthouse is where the endgame is, and thus we must get five keys to open it. Each key is granted at the end of each mystery you solve, and once you have all five, you're locked into the endgame and need to beat the lighthouse's challenges to win. Let's not worry about that for now. Let's just head home. No one has any fun letters for us. Here is our apartment, where we return at the end of each mystery. There's several actions you can take here. For one, you can click on bits of the scenery to get interactions. Most of these are just cosmetic, but this cupboard here occasionally contains useful items, so be sure to click on it right at the start of your run! For the icons, the city leads back to the previous screen, and the backpack is your item storage. The floppy disk is a save function, but in previous versions it was buggy as hell, and it's currently disabled (not that the game's really long enough to need a save). The little TV Icon leads us to this room, with a TV, VCR and phone. This is mostly a flavor thing, but there's a couple achievements that can be gained through this room, including one that unlocks a new character. The bathtub, predictably, lets you take a bath. This restores 1 Stamina and 1 Reason right off the bat, and allows for additional options to restore an additional point of either, or to gain 5 EXP. You can also refill bottles here, if you have an empty one, giving you another Stamina heal. The little coat hanger sends us to the closet, where we can change clothes. The little figurine here has a bit of money for us, and it always gives this, so click that straight away. Just a peak at Aiko's outfits. Every character has their own wardrobe, and some costumes need to be unlocked first (my favorite Aiko outfit is one such outfit). I'll be going with Sakhalin for this run. The little circle allows you to look through the peephole of your front door. This is just a cosmetic thing, but it does allow for some creepy stuff to happen. Here we come to the most important screen, the mysteries! As the game says, you get five each run (from a pool of about 15, and that increases with each update), and you can tackle them in whatever order you want. Most mysteries have multiple endings, so getting the same ones twice in a row can still provide some variety. While most mysteries are at least somewhat standalone, there are some with a deeper connection; there's even one mystery where getting the best ending requires getting the best ending in another specific mystery. Even past that, each mystery has its own challenges and its own potential rewards, so picking the order wisely is important, and something you'll learn as you play. We will be choosing this mystery, Eerie Episode of Evolving Eels, as its best ending grants a very useful reward for a fairly small sacrifice. In this mystery, we join our neighbor Kana in snooping on one of our other neighbors, who's apparently gotten a bit weirdly obsessed with fish. Kana's a bit of a mischievous little fucker, and very nosy, so they rope us into finding out what's going on. Most mysteries at least partially take place on a screen like this, with the Scissors mystery from before being one of the few exceptions. The top of the screen details the story as it progresses, the little grid shows the various places you can visit (with the place the mystery wants you to go circled), the panel next to that lets you investigate that location, the bar between them indicates "threat" (which makes skill checks harder in that location), the note details a sidequest you can complete for extra EXP and potentially other benefits, and the bottom left shows the item storage as well as some actions you can perform at the location you're currently in. We're at the "Home" location, which is exclusively used for the Rest action, restoring +2 Stamina and Reason at the expense of +3% Doom. The Downtown location allows you to visit the Police Station, where you can trade EXP for Funds or lower the threat level in different areas. Alternatively, you can visit the Shop to buy items. Both cost Doom just for entering, so don't visit unless you know you have to. Later you'll unlock additional activities here as well. The Apartment has the Neighbor option, which ostensibly allows you to recruit allies at the expense of more Doom, but in practice doesn't actually do anything yet. The game is still in Early Access, so it'll eventually do something I'm sure. The School has the Schoolyard, where you can actually recruit allies (of dubious quality), as well as the Library, where you can increase Doom to learn new spells or gain some bonus EXP. Since you gain EXP just from investigating, though, I don't think the last option is worth it, and the other options can be either really good or a waste of Doom. The Hospital has the ability to enter it, where you can then either visit the Doctor's Office to heal status effects, or the Pharmacy to buy items. Both increase Doom, as usual. Currently, the Seaside only has the Hardware Store, which works the way the other stores do, and sells primarily weapons. It'll eventually unlock more options. The Forest starts with no activities, but eventually unlocks one. The Mansion and Village, meanwhile, are purely for investigating. Let's see what this store has to offer us. AWWWWWWW. What a good boy! If you boop this very good boy on the nose, you get an achievement! 10/10 game of the year! The store has a very large pool of items, and only ever sells four at a time. You can restock by increasing Doom to get four new options, but I'd be careful about doing that. Here's what it was selling, where I ultimately went with the Sewing Kit, as you can never have enough healing; the Reason heal the Cigarettes give isn't worth the negative penalties it inflicts on you, and the other items are useful but a little more situational. An option available only this this particular store is the discount item, worth a mere 1 Funds. This mostly provides water and milk bottles (which can heal you, and can be refilled at your home), but also has a few other trinkets. Enough shopping, though. Let's investigate the apartments like the game wants. Allies you have can be seen following you around in this animation, which is adorable. We get our first non-School event! It seems like we may be in trouble. Fortunately, even though we got near the door, we managed to avoid being spotted. Kana, buddy, this just seems like a very bad idea, supernatural goings-on or no. It seems like someone was up to no good in here. Also, cute Silent Hill reference, game. I see you. Choosing to take the book deposits it straight into our inventory, no skill check needed. It takes away -3% when used. Handy! Kana continues to be blithely unaware of any and all danger. I wish I could live in such blissful ignorance in real life. Investigating the Apartments, we encounter what I was most worried about. The Twisted Corpse! This enemy is a Ghost-type enemy (indicated by the little icon next to its name), and Ghosts are impervious to most attacks! Some thankfully don't attack until you start hurting them, but the Twisted Corpse is not one of those, and it'll be gnawing on your Reason until you get rid of it. Worse, since we have the spider god, we can't flee from it! Your options with ghosts, to be frank, all kinda suck, but at least you have options. You can use the Clap and Bow actions in a sequence of 5 to potentially instantly kill them, though the chance of happening upon the correct combo in anything resembling a reasonable timeframe is slim. Alternately, you can burn money to deal damage, a terrible option you shouldn't pick unless you're desperate. Or you can "Sever ties to our world", which does damage dependent on your weapon and can only be done twice a turn, but also can't miss. Ghosts are miserable to fight if you're unarmed (which we are), but with a weapon things are a bit more manageable. I decide to use the Twitter method of banishing ghosts and send an epic clapback his way. Unsurprisingly, this accomplishes little, but look at the log below. The game tells you how many of the moves were in the right place, meaning two of our claps are part of the actual proper exorcism sequence. A few turns later, I figured our the sequence. Exorcising ghosts grants more EXP than just Severing them to death, and the first time you do it you get an achievement. Kana continues to be deeply fascinated with whatever our neighbor is doing with these fish, and utterly oblivious to the potential danger. Soon, we encounter a creepy painting, but thankfully, Aiko is just charismatic enough to appreciate art, which is a thing I guess. I'm sure if he was burning them that it's totally safe and there's nothing sinister we need to worry about. Yeah, that sound just fine. It probably wasn't a good idea, no, but we're too deep in it now! Frankly that'd be a +1 Reason from me just for having money, but you do you, Aiko. Kana's solution to all life's woes is "breaking and entering". I suppose there are worse ways of handling things. Now let's take a relaxing walk on the beach with our weird kleptomaniac neighbor. This event gives us multiple exciting opportunities. Unfortunately, I end up muffing the Charisma roll while trying to get some new pals. I'm sure they'll be fine. What's the worst that could happen? Wherever they are, I'm sure they're busy stealing people's shit. We no longer have Kana following us around. Poor Aiko must be feeling very lonely. But perhaps we can take one of these crabs with us to fill the hole Kana left behind. Ah, no, that was a stupid idea. But I won't say no to EXP! Completeing the sidequest for the Eels mystery knocks a point of Reason off of you. It does still provide bonus EXP, but this is one of the least worthwhile sidequests. Alright, let's investigate the school to further the main story. We haven't even had a chance to level up yet and we're getting events that require perks! Damn, that's a powerful painting if it cost us 2 Stamina. Whenever the screen gets all bloody like this, it means you're at the end of the mystery. No more shopping or exploring for you! The neighbor's apartment, in addition to having a ton of eels, has two locations you can visit. I forgot to see both, but the other is pretty icky and drains Reason anyway. It seems Kana's snooping has finally caught up with them, and now we've gotta find a way to save them. The leftmost option has us take Kana to the hospital. The other option, meanwhile... Well, it's a bit unpleasant is what I'll say. And yes, you have to actively move the needle to their eye and click to make it happen. After stabbing your pal in the eye, and bunch of little eels crawl all over their face. In addition to being quite freaky, this slows the game, which is definitely intentional I bet! Man, I hope so. I lost 3 Reason for doing that, and poor Aiko isn't looking so healthy right now herself! Fortunately, we managed to save our buddy, even if we've ruined their depth perception. At least they're forgiving! Completing the mystery nets us a few bonuses, such as a bunch of EXP, a bit of a heal in both Stamina and Reason, and a little less Doom to worry about. We also get Kana as a permanent ally, but we'll get to what they provide us next time. After you complete a mystery, some sort of game-altering event will happen. In this case, the roads in and out of town are closed, which increases Doom even faster whenever we investigate out-of-town locations. Unfortunately, we have several mysteries ahead of us this run that take place mostly or entirely in such locations, so we'll have to avoid dilly-dallying. We find the first key we'll need to enter the lighthouse. And we're back home, where we can take a relaxing cold bath to restore our Reason and make Aiko look a bit less sad. Next time, we'll be taking a break from all these investigations to mourn our dead uncle we never knew we had, where nothing spooky will happen at all! Edited October 13, 2020 by epilepsyduck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Leu Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 16 hours ago, epilepsyduck said: This is what all Polish game developers look like, honest! They are all polished I see. 16 hours ago, epilepsyduck said: The other option, meanwhile... ...is freaking creepy ! How did that even worked ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Gerwald of Vallora Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 I was sold at Polish game dev. It seems a lot of great stuff comes from Poland, when it comes to indie games. On top of that, the Retro style and horror theming all sound right up my alley. I'd follow your playthrough, but I'd like to try it for myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted October 18, 2020 Author Share Posted October 18, 2020 On 10/14/2020 at 6:09 PM, Sir Gerwald of Vallora said: I was sold at Polish game dev. It seems a lot of great stuff comes from Poland, when it comes to indie games. On top of that, the Retro style and horror theming all sound right up my alley. I'd follow your playthrough, but I'd like to try it for myself. Totally understandable, and in fact a big part of me starting this LP was in the hopes people would try it for themselves! Hope you enjoy! We've saved our buddy from a fate that'd make Ridley Scott proud, so now let's have a relaxing vigil mourning a dead relative we've never heard of. Let's see if we can put this one in a spoiler this time! Part 3: Worlds Within Worlds Spoiler Alright, that's one terrifying mystery solved, and we're still in peak physical shape and only sorta crazy! Now let's see what this next one's all about. I love how many mysteries have the phrase "what's the worst that could happen" as the closing line for their introductions. You think our little junior detective here would learn after a while. This mystery is more like the Scissors mystery, where we're locked into a particular location and have a specialized screen for exploring it. The location in question corresponds with the "Mansion" location on the town screen, and gives us the same events. Kana is still with us. What a supportive friend, after all they've been through! Allies in World of Horror function as a kind of item, though they have their own separate menu and there's not technically a limit on them. Allies all have their own special effects, though some of these are one-off effects for firing them, and some of them are superfluous or even outright negative. Kana, however, is the one of the best allies, as they reduce all combat damage we take by 1 (to a minimum of 1); the trade-off of being locked to a specific mystery and costing 3 Reason to save is more than worth such a powerful buff, especially when Cthac-Atorasu is the god in play. Enough chatting about our pal, it seems we've found some sort of mysterious library. Aiko's looking a bit sleepy again, but hey, we got some magic to play with! And it's a fairly decent one! Spells, like allies, function similarly to items and go in their own menu, though unlike allies they do have an upper limit as noted by the little swirly symbol in the inventory. Spells can have a wide range of effects, but almost all of them have a price as well (which is usually Reason), and those that don't are generally one-use only. A lot of spells are honestly a little too demanding in their costs or specific in their effects to be useful, sadly, but some are incredibly powerful, and even "bad" spells have a use, as forgetting spells heals a single point of Reason. It's usually not worth trying to find specific spells unless you're achievement-hunting, but getting spells randomly like this is always at least a bit of a net gain. We encounter another mourner, though she doesn't seem all that bothered by our uncle's untimely death. This mystery progresses over the course of a single night, and the only way to move the clock forward is to explore and get more random events. This furthers events by 1 hour. Hey, Spider-God-Dude, mirrors aren't your creepy thing. Don't go stepping on another abomination's turf! Thankfully for us, getting spooked by a mirror got us enough EXP to level up! When you level, the game gives you a selection of 3 random perks, and you get to choose one to learn, as well as choosing to either increase a stat by 1 point or heal yourself by 4 points. That last option should only be used if you're desperate, as the increased stats can really help in the long run. Perks can be divided between generic perks (which all boost a specific stat and can be used in certain events that specifically call on them) and character-specific perks (which don't boost stats but provide some other gameplay advantage instead. Running Shoes is an Aiko-specific perk, which reduces the Doom penalty for fleeing combat; sadly, this is useless to us right now, since Cthac-Atorasu stops us from being able to flee, but it's solid otherwise. These other two are generic perks. Neither is particularly notable, but they're better than nothing! I decided to pick Art Knowledge and boost Aiko's Strength, as Strength weapons are easy to find. After all that hullabaloo, we happen upon our dead uncle, who I guess just had his naked, rotting corpse dumped in this room for the vigil, no embalming or anything. We apparently need to do a ritual here, but we don't know it yet. Going out here, we encounter some more guests, who give us a pamphlet that will tell us what we need to do tonight. This, like the symbol in Scissors, is always random. Always check the plot critical items, no matter how many time you've done a mystery! It also details other steps we can perform as the night goes on. Also like Scissors, this is all technically optional- however, getting the best ending requires following these instructions, so if you want a good ending, don't stray from the path! In addition to doing the ritual, I also copy the symbol on his toe onto our pamphlet, as the symbol is important for getting the best ending. A strange place to have a creepy occult tattoo, but then I guess our uncle was a strange man. Anyway, I guess now we just wander around the mansion, waiting for the time where we can do the next steps. We encounter some more deceased individuals, who have their own very unique vigil going on as well. Aiko doesn't appreciate it. I guess we gotta forget this spell instead of using it. Oh well, Aiko's Knowledge is kinda unsalvageable anyway. With the fire lit, that gets us back up to our previous level of "slowly going insane". Thanks, World of Horror! Wandering into the storage room reveals that this mansion' got a real fucked-up history, as if events up to now hadn't already informed us. Digging around in the cupboards reveals something nice, though! This weapon can usually be found here, and is why I chose this mystery second. I'm sure this'll last us the whole game! As we explore, we discovering the shocking revelation that sometimes I'm a dumb who clicks the text options before taking a screenshot. Since the other option in this event is a fight, and we just got a really nice item, I'm not too upset. -4 Stamina is a hefty price to pay, but +1 damage is a big deal, especially since Aiko can attack so quickly. We'll be spending the rest of the vigil (and the rest of the run) looking at this slightly goofy demon mask, so enjoy. We abandon the unsettling plant room to discover that our uncle has vanished. I obviously can't really show you this, but the way the music changes during this scene is really effective! And here I thought we were gonna have a nice, normal vigil for our beloved unknown uncle! After Twisted Corpse decided to waste our time, a new challenger approaches to teach us the ins and outs of actual combat! Puppet Matron. A slightly irritating foe, since it hits both of our stats, but not so dangerous that I need to worry. Let's get to explaining Some Shit. This is gonna be very long, so strap in! First, let's talk offensive actions. Kicking is an unarmed attack that is decently accurate and reasonably fast, but very weak. Aiko is just fast enough to make it work, but others aren't so lucky, so getting a weapon is important. With your weapon, you can perform normal and strong attacks, with the expected damage bonus and speed penalty for the latter. Usually, spamming normal attacks is a little more viable than using strong ones, but against low-HP foes that may not be the case. You can also Prepare your attacks to guarantee they hit, or just Boost them to give a flat 10% bonus. Unless your weapon is very inaccurate, the latter is usually better. Finally, we have this greyed-out option that's for shooting guns, which we don't have. Said option is much more powerful than the others, but need not only a gun but also ammo, which is very limited. The little backpack has some not-particularly-useful options for us; searching for improvised weapons is probably the best one, and still only really worth doing if you're desperate. You can also ask your ally to distract the enemy, which ostensibly has a positive effect but seemingly just ends up getting them killed usually. You can also spend EXP to increase your hit rate, but since EXP is kinda the whole point of fighting enemies, that's not useful either. I've honestly completely forgotten what this option does! If it needs us to be on death's door, I can't imagine it's something we'll be using often. The shield provides defensive actions, which can be useful if you can't do enough damage to 1 or 2 turn kill something. It's also where the Flee option is, but we can't use that. Fleeing always works, when you can use it, at least, but incurs Doom. Meditate allows us to restore 1 Reason at the cost of 2 Stamina. Obviously, this is something you only do if your seriously desperate and have Stamina to spare. Dodge gives a chance of enemy attacks missing; attacks always hit if you don't Dodge. That said, I kinda don't like this option on account of how random it is and how slow it is as well; it eats up nearly half the bar, though a Dexterity-focused character can eventually lower the time cost. Brace reduces incoming damage by half, but more importantly, it stops enemies from using their special skills on you, like inflicting nasty status effects or healing themselves by hurting you. It's very situational, but it's good to use against some of the nastier foes. Finally, we get to our spiritual actions, including the claps and bows from earlier. These are, as far as I know, useless against non-Ghosts. Praying is the Stamina-healing Reason-draining equivalent of Meditate, and is thus only useful under similar circumstances. Repeating a Strong Attack + Normal Attack combo got us through the fight in 2 turns. Enough of my rambling tutorials. We found our friend and we gotta find a way out! Or we can take a bath. That's also important, I suppose. Well, the Reason heal is needed at this stage, so thanks for that! We go back to the creepy plant room to burn an envelope, which is apparently more disturbing to Aiko than seeing a creepy thing in her reflection or discovering a dead body had mysteriously gone missing. Aiko just keeps happening upon creepy shit that drains her flagging Reason even lower. Is this ring any good, at least? Not really. In fact, it'd exacerbate our problems if I equipped it! Thankfully, we can sell the useless piece of junk. Don't ask who's buying it. With the other guest(s) found, I guess we gotta head to the storage room for the next step in the instructi- UUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHH Let' forget that ever happened, shall we? Clearly that part of the instructions wasn't important! I didn't expect to get this event so early. Well, let's talk about another fun mechanic World of Horror has, I guess. One thing that can happen in this game is that sometimes, the game sends you somewhere... else. To another world, if you will. There's currently three options for these eerie Other World locations, with presumably more on the way. These areas can provide some incredibly rare rewards, but they can also be very dangerous. This particular one is the safest of the three, but you can still get messed up pretty bad if you make the wrong choice or fail a skill check. Entering the Temple is the most rewarding option, provided you can pass the Perception check. Our reward? The Katana, arguably the best weapon in the game, especially for Aiko. It does phenomenal damage, keys off of Dexterity, and doesn't even sacrifice speed or hit rate too bad in exchange for its damage boost. This event is the only place you can get it, but it's well worth going for if you can. While there are a couple of weapons that can arguably vie for the top spot, this is the easiest to get out of the lot of them, so I consider it the most useful. As we return from our eerie otherworldly expedition, we discover shocking news. We were already in such a location! Hell, it looks like we were in the same place already, judging from the star outside! In order to get the best ending, you need to draw the symbol we saw earlier. The other options murder our fellow party guests which, in addition to being rude, nets us the bad ending. Boss fight time! Thankfully, this boss isn't very hard at all. The Horrible Old Man is our introduction to enemies who increase the Doom meter rather than attacking us directly. While you still wanna take him out quickly, ultimately we can manage just fine with a few extra Doom points on the clock. If he was smacking our withered Reason, we'd be in real trouble! Notably, you can kill the other guests during this fight, which severely damages the boss. However, doing this changes your ending, and doing it twice nets you the worst ending. One combat option we didn't go over is items in the inventory. Namely, the ability to throw them. This destroys the item, and doesn't do a lot of damage, but it never misses and it does this damage without taking up any time on our turn, effectively making it free damage if we have items to spare. Damage-oriented spells are also cast without losing our turn, though they're balanced by other costs. This particular combo will serve us well; the Katana is so silly overpowered that its strong attack chews through most foes. Hilariously, while Doom still visibly increments on the meter, the log indicates that our opponent isn't doing anything to make that happen. I guess his flawless combat strategy is to just stand their naked and wait for something good to happen to him, which is also my strategy for dealing with my actual life these past few months. Sadly for him, Aiko brings no good things, only cold steel. From the sound of his boss title, it sounded like this wasn't even his first rodeo. I'm glad we got rid of that guy! And that was Mystery 2! We'll be back with more fun spooky mysteries with our favorite school athlete/katana-wielding sociopath later! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Leu Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 (edited) On 10/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, epilepsyduck said: Allies all have their own special effects, though some of these are one-off effects for firing them Ah, gunpowders and friends, a classic that everyone should have in their pockets! On 10/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, epilepsyduck said: what's the worst that could happen Spoiler Bruh Spoiler Like maybe Spoiler EVERYTHING? I know this is japan, but I don't I'd ever be able to do a ritual for a dead family member, next to HIS OWN ROTTING CORPSE. On 10/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, epilepsyduck said: We'll be spending the rest of the vigil (and the rest of the run) looking at this slightly goofy demon mask, so enjoy Dunno if it's just me but, I think it's both goofy and creepy, it look like her face was replaced. It's kinda cool! How to say this tho... screw those dolls. Spoiler On 10/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, epilepsyduck said: That's one determined big spider! On 10/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, epilepsyduck said: Don't ask who's buying it Who's buying it? 😛 Spoiler On 10/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, epilepsyduck said: Why is it in an dead eldritch civilization in a dead eldritch world? 😛 Spoiler On 10/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, epilepsyduck said: I can't believe that Dr Manhatthan was our dead uncle! I really enjoyed this update, thank you buddy. 🙂 Edited October 20, 2020 by B.Leu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted October 22, 2020 Author Share Posted October 22, 2020 With Aiko fully equipped for the dangers ahead, it's time to tackle one of the game's more difficult mysteries and hope it doesn't mess us up too bad. Part 4: A Metaphor For The US Election Spoiler With another creepy case under our belt, let's see what the forces of oblivion have to say about it. Ouch, I was hoping to avoid this one. We won't be able to use the bath in our apartment between mysteries, which takes away one of our most consistent sources of healing. That especially sucks given how badly Aiko is doing in the Reason department. Thankfully, this is the only thing it effects, so other sources of healing are still good to go. Whoever they are, could they please send us the whole set at once? Maybe give us one of those Loot Crates but it's just full of keys. While the text may make you think repairing this issue will happen, it won't; Aiko won't be smelling too great after she's done with all this. Since we've got plenty of useful boons now, it's time to tackle one of the nastiest mysteries in the game, Chilling Chronicle Of A Crimson Cape. You pretty much should never pick this one first, as there's an unavoidable boss at the end that can utterly wreck your shit if you go in unprepared. This particular one is based on a Japanese urban legend, about a supernatural creature that attacks people in public bathrooms. I'm sure, with all we've learned so far, that we can handle this voyeuristic spirit with as little fuss as possible. Before we do, though, let's rest. The Doom is worth the patch up. The sidequest for this mystery is to go to the Schoolyard and gather Gossip on Aka Manto. Makes for a perfect introduction to this part of the game, so let's go! We find three students standing around, and each gives us a number of options. In order, we can talk to them to gather info (which is normally a flavor thing outside of this one mystery), try to recruit them, simply look at them, tell them of our experiences to make them easier to recruit (and lose 5 EXP), or try to force them to come with us (the math behind this I don't fully understand, but it seems to need high stats). Every student is a potential Ally for us, but not all are created equal; none of them have the useful unique benefits of non-student allies, and while some grant useful stat buffs, others have fairly pointless abilities (like cheaper pharmacy items), and some lower your stats instead! You can fire such useless students, and can potentially find other benefits for them too, but nothing is more annoying than spending EXP on a student and discovering they lower the main stat you use for combat. The very first student we speak to immediately gives us the info we need. Wow, thanks a lot! Notably, there's no guarantee that any student will provide this info, so you can end up wasting a lot of Doom trying to get this. Unlike the sidequest in Eels, this one is very much worth doing, so it's pretty annoying how random the gossip is. The other students just provide fun flavor options. The Junji Ito references are everywhere around here! None of them want to join us, and I don't feel like spending EXP on them, so they get to go back to their normal everyday lives. Doing this unlocks additional options when we get to the end of the mystery, which is important for getting one of the two endings. To stop our unnamed friend from doing something very stupid, we've gotta comb this school for clues. Oh no. It's the Time Warper! These fellas are irritating as hell, since they hit both of our health bars. Thankfully, the Katana lets us get through unscathed. This thing is a huge buff to our combat. As we wander through the downtown, a bunch of statues appear, which somehow allows us to cast spells without having to deal with the costs. Sadly, we don't have any spells to take advantage of this effect with. For whatever reason, this part of the mystery is bugged, and shows the text from a different mystery. Thanks for the spoilers, game. Since we're apparently looking for the swim team now (which Aiko herself is a member of), I guess we should check out the pool. Turning on the lights is always helpful. It also gave us just enough EXP to level up. We get three of Aiko's unique perks. We've already described Running Shoes, but let's go over the others. Hot Bath improves your Rest action, which is quite handy. What's handier, though, is Fast Swimmer, which increases Aiko's already-fast combat actions to be even faster. This is one of the game's best perks, and most of its competition do nearly-identical things anyway. Get this the minute you see it! Nevermind those kidnapped swim team members, let's get back to the students being violently murdered in the bathroom! Introducing the exciting sequel to Don't Wake Daddy. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at it. Sounds like our friend may have done the stupid thing before we could stop him. Oh, hello! You're not terrifying at all! I dunno how I feel about this latest addition to the lesson plan. Probably the right call. I bet the students who aren't dead will appreciate it! Wandering through the alleys of the city, we encounter a shocking sight and show our somewhat skewed priorities. Like a fool, I try calling the police, which doesn't end well. WoH said ACAB. Since our pal has been murdered by the toilet, I guess it's only fair to follow him in turn. I had this exact thing happen to me in chemistry. It didn't end this well. Aiko's not actually worried about the ghosts, she just needs to take a shit. Hey, this stall's taken, buddy! Oh, hello. We meet all sorts of fun characters at this school! Selecting either color paper ends up with you taking -5 Stamina unavoidably, and leads to Ending B (though at least the boss drops a nice item in said ending). The third option, which you need to complete the sidequest to use... Well, what're you gonna do about it, asshole? Oh... The Katana is a huge boon here, but even with its impressive power, we won't be 1-turn killing him. Without Kana, he'd be doing 2-All damage, which sucks if you don't take him out fast. According to the combat log, "something doesn't feel right". What was your first clue to that, Aiko? We've taken care of that. Like the Scissor Woman before him, we've taken out another minor abomination! I think next time calls for a relaxing camping trip to ease our fears, where hopefully nothing spooky will follow us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hello72207 Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 16 hours ago, epilepsyduck said: I think next time calls for a relaxing camping trip to ease our fears, where hopefully nothing spooky will follow us! Definitely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Leu Posted October 27, 2020 Share Posted October 27, 2020 (edited) On 10/22/2020 at 9:41 AM, epilepsyduck said: This particular one is based on a Japanese urban legend, about a supernatural creature that attacks people in public bathrooms. The red riding hood? Spoiler On 10/22/2020 at 9:41 AM, epilepsyduck said: On 10/22/2020 at 9:41 AM, epilepsyduck said: The kids seems dertermined to win a Darwin Award. 😛 On 10/22/2020 at 9:41 AM, epilepsyduck said: I dunno how I feel about this latest addition to the lesson plan. I always wondered how we could do it.... faster, don't you ? On 10/22/2020 at 9:41 AM, epilepsyduck said: Selecting either color paper Why are they colored? And how? Edited October 27, 2020 by B.Leu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted October 31, 2020 Author Share Posted October 31, 2020 Fun news, everyone; there was a new update to the game, with tons of cool new content. Unfortunately, since I've already recorded everything ahead of time, we won't be seeing its additions just yet, but we'll get there soon! With today's update of World of Horror, we follow in the footsteps of a certain trio of filmmakers and encounter more than one twisted monstrosity as we wander aimlessly in the woods. Part 5: Giant Hairy Balls Spoiler Alright, let's see what these old gods have in store for us now! Ah, my favorite one of these; its effects are effectively cosmetic! I'm sure that won't stay true forever, though... Aiko keeps being surprised by all these keys she gets. Our next mission introduces yet another irritating new mechanic, but also gives me a chance to show some other stuff off we hadn't touched before. If the name wasn't already a giveaway, this is basically a whole plot reference to The Blair Witch Project. We appreciate all types of horror around here! We're starting off in the basic town menu, but that will change soon. For now, let's do the sidequest. Apparently we were pursuing someone? I guess it doesn't matter though, we got something neat instead! Yes please! Also in the mansion, we encounter a creepy sewing room. I couldn't capture this at all, but a creepy ghostly face appears once you click on something. Let's just take our free magic and go. Doing the sidequest for this one isn't strictly necessary, but it makes what we have to do later a little easier. Also, here's that spell we nabbed. Expel Evil's a real lifesaver when Doom starts threatening to end the game, and the Stamina cost is perfectly manageable. Getting back on the main track, we're stymied by our toughest foe yet. I dunno what you mean, game. How can Aiko be uncharismatic with that trustworthy grin she's got? I guess whatever killed these students is taking out the woods itself too. With what my country's done to the postal service recently, I imagine this is how mail will be handled around here soon. Yeah, that sure sounds like US Mail in the Trump presidency! Enough awkward political jokes, we've gotta level up! Quick Thinking is a relatively attractive choice just for the free Dexterity increase. But Discipline is better. This is Aiko's other best perk, and similar perks other characters have are also worth getting. I also nabbed a Dexterity increase, finally remembering that the Katana is Dex weapon and not a Str one. Before we head into the woods, let's rest up and stare at our mildly horny poster. We should also get some extra gear before the expedition really begins. Namely, we're getting this. The Can of Acid is usually a somewhat niche item for combat purposes, but it's used to change our ending later on in this mystery. The Hardware Store has a ton of weapons, largely Strength based ones. None of these three are particularly great weapons (the hammer is particularly poor imo), but they'll do in a pinch and the ease of getting them is a boon compared to, say, Knowledge or Perception weapons. As we wander the village, Aiko gets scared by some rice. This particular mystery has a bit of a gimmick; we have to explore this grid until we find the right location. Which one is right is totally random, so we can either find it right away or waste a ton of time here. Thankfully, the sidequest removes three squares from the grid, lessening the amount of searching we have to do. We need a different weapon to get the best result here (though frankly a Katana should be able to do it). Instead, Aiko gets scared by the tree. Girl has a problem with plants. Is Wile E Coyote wandering the forests of Shiokawa? Surely Aiko won't fall for this obvious tra- Nevermind. Still no dice so far. Let's keep exploring! I didn't name this update what I did for no reason. Meet Tatoru, an enemy based on... something, probably? I have no idea what. It's a Doom-increasing foe, which is annoying as shit. Thankfully, Aiko's sword is as sharp as ever. Clearly, we need to climb on up. I'm sure Aiko has what it takes. Girl, what's with all the pratfalls today? And you went and increased the Doom meter! Are you sick today? God, we've gotta get out of this forest. It's really tripping us up! There's only a handful of places it could be. Let's try this spot in the corner. There we go! It seems like we've at least found some sort of clue. There's a different ending for just running without looking in the hole, but where's the fun in that? We've gotta subject ourselves to the whims of every eldritch being we see! Well, whatever happened to those filmmakers, I don't imagine it was any good for them. Without the acid, you have no choice but to pass out, but we came prepared. Well, that's another mystery... solved? I dunno if we know much of anything, but we sure did do something. Getting back home, we discover a somewhat irritating new effect waiting for us. It probably won't be an issue, though, since it's coming so late. This mystery gives you these tapes, but they're currently not usable. Hopefully one day they will be! Despite this being the last day of the Spooky Season, we'll be continuing with our final mystery soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted November 8, 2020 Author Share Posted November 8, 2020 (edited) Rejoice! The world is very-very-slightly-less-bad now! To celebrate the brief delay of the collapse of human existence, lets keep playing a game about that very concept! Part 6: The First of Us Spoiler We have one more mystery ahead of us this run, so let's get to it! This specific mystery annoys me a bit; its best ending requires both A) another specific mystery to be available, and B) for you to do that mystery first and get a specific ending for it. That said, the best ending is hardly necessary, and we'll do just fine without it. First, lets take a rest, since Aiko's been taking quite a beating. A bit of school investigation is needed to complete the sidequest. The sidequest is needed for at least a couple endings, so we'll be doing that. As we do so, we encounter yet another opponent. The Young Witch! These foes do surprisingly high damage, but their low HP makes them fairly easy to take out. Also, I don't appreciate her copying my fashion choices, so that little shit needs to die. A couple katana swipes and she's out of the picture. This enemy always drops this knife. The Steak Knife is one of the best weapons in the game due to how fast it swings, and is particularly potent in Aiko's hands. That said, the Katana mostly outclasses it imo, so we'll not be seeing it in action just yet. After that deadly encounter, we find ourselves being dragged away yet again. If the Parasitic Star other world is the best one to get, the Boreal Expanse one is the worst. The rewards it offers are mostly not very good, and they all penalize you. I selected "Give Up", which hits your Stamina hard but also lowers Doom somehow. Every action you can take in the Boreal Expanse gives you Frostbite, which nastily nerfs your Strength stat. This is a particular problem if you're using a Strength weapon, but thankfully this can be cured at... The Hospital! By visiting the Hospital and entering the Doctor's Office, you can heal injuries for various Fund amounts! You can also pilfer some Painkillers by clicking on the shelf. Healed injuries always leave a "Treatment" status behind, some positive and some negative. We took a slight Stamina penalty, sadly. Investigating downtown, we see a suspicious individual. Could he be with the cult? Oh, even worse; he's a Tabletop RPG player! Let's get out of here! I seem to have lost a few screenshots, but we continue our investigation after that harrowing encounter. As well as gathering some unusual items. And nabbing a quick level! An effective +2 to Dexterity will have us slashing with our Katana even better! This mystery is another that takes place partially on an explorable grid, though the grid is smaller than the last one of these we did. I'm sure touching that will go just fine for us. Maybe we shouldn't touch arcane objects anymore, Aiko. I don't really remember when this happened, but at one point I developed this Bite injury. This nearly always turns into a different, much worse Injury, and sadly we won't be able to heal it when it does bc we can't access the Hospital anymore. Aw, poor puppy! We gotta help him! Even with our magical earrings, we end up having an unfortunate accident. Our investigations are stopped by yet another vile foe. Kinoko Gatherer! Though I suppose we're more fighting the mushroom at this point than the man himself. A shame we couldn't save him, for I too am a big fan of SPORT. With four attacks, we free the innocent SPORT fan from his fate. Surely this is the only such problem we'll encounter! Seems like we've finally figured out where Shiro went. Uh oh. Gardener acquired! This boss fight is rather unique, in that it's less a fight against a foe and more our attempt to save Shiro-san here from a sentient plant that is attacking him. To facilitate this, we must Protect him to stop him from being damaged, and also Lead him to get him out of this basement. Every turn you don't protect him causes him to take 3 damage, but it doesn't matter if he's injured as long as he still has some HP before you escape. If we had the right weapon, we could also cut our way to freedom immediately, but this weapon is only found in a single other mystery, and requires that mystery's best ending. Once he was at 3 HP, I decided to click on another option. This only unlocks if you do the sidequest! I love that the action bar displays this as "Shiro What". Whoa! He's a mushroom man, the first we've ever seen! This turns the boss into a normal battle, but Shiro's health will be lower if you allowed him to take damage i the "escort" part of the fight, so wait until he's near death before revealing his true form! Thanks to this and our brutal swordsmanship, we prevail. That's Ending B gotten. With our final mystery solved, we'll see the anticlimactic conclusion to Aiko's tale, before continuing on with new options and a fresh new update! Edited November 8, 2020 by epilepsyduck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Aiko is weary from her many trials, but must face one more before she can rest. Will it be her toughest challenge yet? The answer is no! Part 7: Girls in the Tower Spoiler Alright, let's see one final town status for the road. It's one with some genuine teeth to it! Having our Rest action be less useful is no fun. Thankfully, we won't be doing much more resting, so this one can't trip us up. We finally have the final key. It's not super obvious where to go from here, but the final challenge isn't on the mysteries board or anywhere in the apartment. Instead, you need to go back out to town and click on the Lighthouse option. Now to unlock all these locks... We're in! Before you march bravely to your doom, you should check your storage and use the Rest option (but mind your Doom meter!), both available in the menu above. Once you're sure you're ready, you can begin the ascent to the game's somewhat underwhelming endgame. Before we do that, though, let's gnaw on this tasty steak we got earlier! I'm sure "long pig" is delicious. Indeed, it's so delicious that it gives you this status right here. Aiko's Charisma was already not too hot anyway, so we'll live. After eating that, using the Sewing Kit and resting a single time, we have as much Reason and Stamina as we're gonna ever have again. Its time. I'm glad Kana is chill with our cannibalism, at least. I guess they would be, if they've been chill with everything else we've gotten up to. So, the Lighthouse consists of a handful of these "trials" that test your stats. Unlike previous stat checks, these simply look to see how high the stat is; you pass if its 8 or above, and fail if its below that. This, combined with how few of these tests there are and how relatively minor the punishment is for failing them, means the Lighthouse is actually a lot less dangerous than the rest of the game; if you come in fully healed, it's practically impossible to lose, and the Experience gain it gives means you'll sometimes get a chance to heal on the way up. Aiko naturally beats this test, since it tests her best stat. The next one seems to test our now-trashfire Charisma. Oh well. Lets at least cushion the blow, shall we? Press F for... whoever this was. This particular challenge requires a flashlight or some other light source to light your way. That Reason loss stings, but we'll manage. This particular one is actually a bit dangerous. It tests you on what the second enemy you ever fought was, and increases your Doom if you fail. Since our Doom is already very high, that would near-certainly be a failure. Thankfully, I remembered it was the Puppet Matron, so we get to pass. Another easily-passed stat test, and then... The finale! How do we defeat this telescope and all its arcane might? By just... clicking on it, and then we win. Yeah, this part of the game isn't entirely finished yet, according to the developer, and you can see how that's the case. We get a cute little ending image of the five default player characters, where we see Kouji is still sporting his derpy old face. And then the end screen, where we see just how fucked up Aiko has gotten. It also gives us some stats o what kind of new content we've seen, how well we did, and other such things. Well, I hope you enjoyed our first true run of World of Horror. Next time, we'll let the hands of fate decide our path, and see how totally differently things might shake out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Leu Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 (edited) On 10/31/2020 at 8:38 PM, epilepsyduck said: Giant Hairy Balls ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: Uzumaki? Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: We really have gone far huh? Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: Now to unlock all these locks... "Gee how come your mom let you have so many locks?" Why can't we just destroy them? 😛 Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: Before we do that, though, let's gnaw on this tasty steak we got earlier! I'm sure "long pig" is delicious It doesn't look too tasty and hum... Aiko would look almost horny if it wasn't for the blood, or maybe she got the rage? 'They looks tasty', oh... Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: So, the Lighthouse consists of a handful of these "trials" that test your stats. Unlike previous stat checks, these simply look to see how high the stat is; you pass if its 8 or above, and fail if its below that. This, combined with how few of these tests there are and how relatively minor the punishment is for failing them, means the Lighthouse is actually a lot less dangerous than the rest of the game; if you come in fully healed, it's practically impossible to lose, and the Experience gain it gives means you'll sometimes get a chance to heal on the way up. I mean, it would have been stupid bad design if you were 'softlocked' but I see why it would anticlimatic. Some trials are pretty mean tho But you do lose reasons and stuff, that hurt and could end it all. Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: This particular one is actually a bit dangerous. It tests you on what the second enemy you ever fought was, and increases your Doom if you fail. Since our Doom is already very high, that would near-certainly be a failure. The test to kick you when you're down I feel. But if you remember you get the privilege to continue without DOOM increase. Such are roguelike. Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: By just... clicking on it, and then we win. Yeah, this part of the game isn't entirely finished yet, according to the developer, and you can see how that's the case Wtf Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: Aiko look like she's at this to have a breakdown. 😛 Spoiler On 11/15/2020 at 11:07 PM, epilepsyduck said: Either she is smiling, injured, got dirty, or the three of them. 94% Doom ehehe, oof. Holy crap, 102 HOURS? That's a lot! You unlocked a lot of things too. I really enjoyed it so far, sorry I couldn't post to tell you that, I was busy irl. I hope for more spooky stuffs! Edited November 22, 2020 by B.Leu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted December 12, 2020 Author Share Posted December 12, 2020 Save data I was using for this LP just straight-up stopped working. Boooo. Luckily, I saved my old save data, so we'll be back on track in a couple days. This does mean I'll have most every achievement already unlocked, so we won't be covering most of them, but them's the breaks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 (edited) Alright, we're back! And here I was thinking this'd be a short diversion from TKOL... We'll be checking out the Quick Play option today, and dealing with whatever randomized shenanigans it throws our way. Part 8: The Hunter Becomes The Hunted Spoiler Back, with a new update and a new look! I decided to switch palettes, since the ol' black and white bothers my eyes a little. Quick Play is kind of the "main" way to play World of Horror, in a way. It randomizes most elements of your playthrough, with only the three options on the right being left up to you. COMBAT affects when you're considered "dead" in a fight; either instantly at 0 Stamina or Reason, or allowing you to dip below that (I forget by how much) but dying if you stay at 0 when the fight ends. DIFFICULTY is fairly obvious, though the effects each difficulty has are a little less so (we'll cover that when we get to the custom playthroughs). TIMELINE is a funky option, as what "timeline" you select changes what ending you can get in certain mysteries, and makes some events more or less likely to happen. We'll go with the defaults for each, for now. If CTHAC-ATORASU is one of the nastiest old gods, then this one, ATH-YOLAZSTH, is one of the gentlest. Its primary effect is to change the Reason costs of spells to a Doom cost instead; this makes certain spells a bit easier to cast, but also causes spells to slowly fuck you over as the game goes on. But since spells are relatively easy to do without, this ends up being a relatively easy effect to manage, and in some cases the loss of Reason costs can actually make a spell a little more practical, especially for Ritual or Seal spells that are only meant to be cast once anyway. He does have some rather unpleasant unique events and enemies, though, so he's not a complete pushover, and at least one character is arguably a little nerfed by him due to her reliance on spells. It seems our hero this time is Moriko, one of the secret unlockable characters, and one of my personal favorites. Before we get to the positives, though, let's talk about the clear negative; her terrible stats. While Moriko doesn't have the worst stats of the playable cast, she's still far behind the likes of Kouji and Aiko, with nothing above a 6 and a painful 4 to deal with. This means she tends to eat shit on a lot of events in the game, since her chances at getting a good roll are so low. Still, that's all been done to balance out; Her starting item, the Old Shotgun. This is one of the best weapons in the game, and only Moriko gets to play with it. Better yet, nearly all her perks are centered around making guns more practical, so Moriko will eventually be able to nearly match Aiko in melee damage while also having the option of just blasting away any enemy too tough to smack. So while Moriko suffers in the events department, she's a very competent monster-slayer. Now, when you first start the game, Moriko won't be available to play with. She's actually kinda complicated to unlock; you need to see a specific clip on the TV, get a specific perk from leveling up, then get a specific event in the Forest area and select an option that only works if you have that perk. And if that sounds complex, you have no idea how bad some of the others can be to get! We also have the City History option available to us. This allows you to change what special actions can be taken in different locations, though each place can only have two of them at once. I changed some of them around just for the heck of it, namely replacing the Dog Shop and Police Department with the Occult Shop and Vending Machine, and replacing the Hardware Store with the Illegal Den and Monument. We're on the Hunted by the Cult backstory option (we'll cover these when we get to the custom playthrough), and this is one fun effect of that. It's one of the few notable effects the backstory has in general, really; there's a couple unique enemies, but it's not too different from the norm. Here we are, getting ready for the next case. In addition to being fun to play, Moriko's got some cool outfits. I stuck with the default for now. We've got 3 new mysteries and 2 we've already seen. Let's do a new one! This one, in hindsight, would've been more fun to do with the Dog Shop still available; its two best endings both require the flashlight, which we can't easily obtain without the shop. Oh well. While we can't do the best endings, I'll still do the sidequest just to get the info on what to do anyway. Maybe a tantalizing hint if we ever get this mystery again! Also, because I forgot I needed the flashlight, I grabbed an ally that you need for the A ending. Oh well, I'm sure they'll still be a big- help. At least it's not a stat debuff, I suppose. Ah well, Taru here is in for quite a wild ride even if we can't use her for much of anything. Moriko is seemingly just as bad at geometry as Kouji was. Just a glimpse of the two new shops. I don't think I entered either in the playthrough, though. Oops! World of Horror said ACAB. Did I make that joke already? Well, nevermind, we stole the pig's gun anyway. It's markedly inferior to our shotgun, but it also gives us an extra two bullets, the real reason I picked it up. We can just stuff this in the storage now. You shouldn't do the sidequest too fast, since the game forces you to visit the Seaside once anyway. Always plan ahead! Well, that's not at all ominous! NOT OMINOUS AT ALL. Though thankfully for us, the statuette isn't quite implemented yet; whatever nasty effect it's supposed to have just isn't there yet. Hold on game, we've got one more beachside tour to do! A spell, eh? Let's see. These are from a little later, don't mind me. Well, we actually have two spells, since the current god gives you a free one to tempt you into using it! Both are very good spells, too, with Ancestral Strength being worth a cast simply because free damage is a huge deal. The Doom penalty is more than worth it! We also get some items that would help us in getting a different ending, though sadly they're of little use to us now. One is merely a flavor thing. The other, though, provides a code you need later. Anyway, let's explore this Horrible House. This particular event needs the Holy Candle, which is actually called upon in quite a few events. It's sold in the Occult Shop, which only further highlights my failure to get it. So we just get dinged some Reason and move on. This is another "exploration" mystery. How fun! Our first room gets us a fight with... The Animated Head. Actually a fairly desirable enemy, as it's guaranteed to drop a useful item. Neat! The Black Hair! This has no use on its own, but it makes the Sewing Kit item way better. While I don't normally recommend going to the Pharmacy, if you get this, go buy a Sewing Kit, it'll be a big help. It's this room again! Will we get the Demon Mask again? No, instead we get the way-less-cool Ritual Mask. While ignoring Reason losses sounds nice, the chance of it actually working seems very small, so it's not the best Slot B item around. Still, we'll wear it just for lack of better options. This event needs a specific perk, but it's a perk locked to one character, which is annoying as hell. Thankfully, a good Luck roll saves us. What "street" could he be standing on? We're in a creepy abandoned mansion! Moriko decided the man she shouldn't be able to see at all also doesn't remind her of the creepy dream man, which makes her feel better. I'm worried she's getting used to the non-euclidean ways of this game. This sure is taking a while. Whatever is in that locked study had better be worth it! I'm always down for touching weird magical shit. It always goes well! Except for now, I suppose. Seems like we finally found our way in! This place seems a bit creepy. Maybe look around? Sadly, with no flashlight, we can't do much here. Well, Ending C isn't so bad. I'm sure nothing too untoward was happening in there! Next time, we'll catch a glimpse of a friendly neighbor of ours, finally start getting hunted by those cult folks, and deal with a mysterious case of the sleepyheads running rampant through the city. Edited December 14, 2020 by epilepsyduck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epilepsyduck Posted December 28, 2020 Author Share Posted December 28, 2020 People are falling asleep and not waking up. Instead of trying to join them in blissful slumber, though, we're gonna wake them up, which I'm sure will be very easy and everyone will appreciate! Part 9: That's No Body Spoiler Alright, what do you have for us, game? "Basically nothing" again, huh? I'll take it! With our first key of the playthrough grabbed, let's see what's happening just outside our apartment! Uh... hello there? Yeah, I'm sure it's nothing... Yes, it's very sad we can't see the fake TV scenes, but we have more pressing matters to attend to! This is a pretty easy mystery if you don't care about the best ending, but it does have a twist if you do. Before we get to that, though, we have some inventory management to deal with! By purchasing a Sewing Kit and combining it with the Black Hair we got earlier... We get an upgraded Sewing Kit! This one not only doesn't hurt our Charisma like the basic Sewing Kit, but it also heals Reason. It's highly useful if you're lucky enough to get the stuff required for it. Now, back to the spooky main event! Great, more creepy shit happening in bathrooms. Once was enough, thank you very much. At some point I visited the Occult Shop, but for whatever reason, I bought this item instead of something useful. Look on the bright side, Moriko, if you get another one you won't need glasses anymore! While trying to solve this mystery, we do a little Ghost Adventures ripoff on the side. It seems like being a paranormal investigator involves breaking the law a lot. If we had a injury, this would give us a chance to get that healed for free. But we don't, so let's not risk the Stamina loss that can happen. "Let's get out of here" she says as she continues investigating the hospital. Ah, right. So, remember how we were being hunted by the cult? Here's the primary effect of that; cult enemies! While not particularly special, they tend to have either more health or more damage then a lot of other foes, so they can be a nuisance. They aren't especially common encounters, however; I've had "Hunted" playthroughs that never encountered any. Anyway, that's one pest dealt with. Moriko continues adding misdemeanors to her rap sheet, all in the name of waking up some sleepyheads. The game decides to munch on our Reason again, just because. Oh, Patient Zero, you dummy. Summoning things from worlds beyond never goes well! How can you see our face? Maybe she just likes our mask. Anyway, the Aspiring Model is a rather nasty foe. She starts out doing relatively average Stamina damage, but once you hit her... Her mask comes off! In addition to being creepy, this causes her to double the damage she's doing, so she can really mess you up if you're not quick about things. She always drops some nice earrings, at least. I won't say no to +2 Luck. Beating her leveled us up. I'll take Moriko's unique Ammo Stash perk, which helps alleviate how hard ammo is to acquire. The others are generic perks we can easily live without. She put quite a nasty dent in our Stamina, though, so it's time to break out the heals. This one last investigation would lead us to the end of the mystery. Let's get the sidequest done first. Investigating the village gets us into a chat with an old lady who can't just tell us about the creepy thing behind us. Moriko isn't smart enough to not turn around without taking a hit to the ol' Reason. Dunno why Moriko is so suspicious about this food, it looks tasty! See, nothing to worry about! Cool, stuff! I dunno if this really has a meaningful combat application, but it'll help us in the mystery, so it's nice! One last smack to Reason for the road. Alright, now let's see what all these power naps are about. We'd have only one option if we hadn't done the sidequest. Let's use our cool powder stuff! Uh... UH... Meet the Dream Devourer, a fairly nasty boss. Monsters that do All damage are no fun, and he's got a boatload of HP. One way to deal with him is to unplug the life support machines of the patients. This kills them and also hurts your Reason, but it does 15 damage to the boss. Only use that if you're desperate! We, of course, have a gun, so the patients get to live today. Gunshots do immense damage compared to melee weapons. They do cause this little status effect, which is annoying, but generally most foes go down in only one or two turns to gunshots anyway. And with one last smack, he'll devour no more dreams. Well, I'm glad we dealt with that little issue, and I'm sure it won't happen again anytime soon! Our next little mystery will see us taking a relaxing getaway to a fun little festival, recovering from our many wounds, and definitely not defeating a newly-added boss for the first time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Leu Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 "Pshhh, nothing personel, kid. Pshhhhhhh. I'm behind you maybe so turn back please. Pshhhhh." See, in this game you can judge people by their faces! Until it's revealed to not be their faces at all and just a mask, but you don't know that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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