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Tomas Elliot

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  1. Eh, did my own endeavor with Ar Tonelico motivate you into doing this? Regardless, best of luck for your run: the fifth gen games are something I myself would like to play once again in the future...
  2. Don't worry, we will have a poll to decide which route we will choose in Phase 2... Remember to come back to this topic and vote when the time is right! And now for the third episode: Episode 3 - Airport City Nemo Having finally solved the problems connected to his crash, Lyner heads to the biggest city of the floating continent, Nemo, hoping to find a clue there. As the journey is rather long, he and Jack decide to set a camp for the night, which leads to the suspicious monologue we saw o close the previous episode: but while Jack is busy foreshadowing events to come, Lyner is deep asleep... And by having a look at his dreams, we get some more exposition on his past. No dad, I am NOT going to be a politician Apparently Lyner's dad, Leard, is the commander of the Apostoles of Elemia, the faction that rules Platina. As Lyner is his only son, he wants him to become his successor, so he has been interfering with Lyner's life throughout the years, trying to make him follow the path he had prepared for him. Lyner however always refused to go into politics, and instead decided to become a knight: in a last-ditch attempt at forcing Lyner's hand, Leard rigged the final exam of the military academy, but Lyner found out and confronted him about it. My life is for Shurelia-sama In that occasion, Shurelia stood up for him, defending his ideals and persuading Leard to accept Lyner's decision. This is the reason why Lyner has sworn to protect her with his life and is fiercely loyal to her. It is also the reason why, unlike many other humans of his period, he has a deep and sincere respect for Reyvateils, and he hates with a passion those who abuse them. Good morning Crono Lyner! Unfortunately, the dream is interrupted by Jack, who wakes Lyner up, so we cannot get any more insight on the young knight's past. As they resume their walk to reach Nemo, Jack gives Lyner a valuable piece of advice: we can only hope he will be smart enough to follow the advice... 100.000 souls, and then times as many people! And here we are at last, the airport city, Nemo! Jack offers to give Lyner a tour, so we get to see some famous spots like the Songstone Park, of which I am not posting a screen because we will return there soon enough... I smell a boss battle... ... But as soon as we get to the main square, we find that trouble is waiting for us. Apparently, the big guy is a robot created by the Apostoles of Elemia, whose job is to defend the tower from intruders. Judging from the fact that it is now attacking civilians, it would seem that the Viruses have managed to hack into it and rewrite its programming! And this is not all: Aurica shows up right when the robot is beginning to charge an attack, and carelessly walks into the line of fire. To protect her, Lyner jumps in front of the attack, and a boss battle is initiated. ... Or not? Well nevermind, it is actually a tutorial on the new commands unlocked by having a Reyvateil in the party. But really, it was clever on the dev team's part to disguise a tutorial as a boss battle, complete with boss battle theme... Also, the way Lyner has to explain the commands to Aurica is fitting of their respective characterizations: I never thought I'd enjoy a tutorial this much! So much for being careful So anyway, Lyner shows off a bit too much (possibly in an attempt to impress cute little Aurica?), and people start figuring out who he is. And now for a commercial Fortunately, before people start asking dangerous questions, Radolf shows up and asks us to follow him to the church, as he wants not only to properly thank us for saving Aurica, but also to introduce us to the leader of the Church, one Bishop Falls. Before following him however, let's stop at what is probably the first SERIOUS shop of the game: useful items aside (the Replica Horn is this game's Revive) there are two Grathmeld recipes. However, we are not going to make the items for the time being, because Aurica leaves the party as soon as the battle with A.B.R. ends, and Grathmelding is more fun with a Reyvateil in the party. MOAR SUSPICIOUS PEOPLE NOW we are ready to follow Radolf. But as we do, we get to see a mysterious guy, who apparently is keeping an eye on Lyner... Because of course, that is what this game needs: more suspicious people. Your bishop is in another church So anyway, it seems Bishop Falls is not in the building at the moment. He will return in the night, so Radolf arrange for us to stay at a nearby inn, so that we can meet him tomorrow. Did you really expect some competence from Lyner? The inn is a rather big one, complete with weapon shop and bar: for now, we focus on the weapon shop, where a rather silly cutscene gives the guys an opportunity to bicker some more, and us to learn about a new feature called "Enhancing". You can put offensive crystals on armor and defensive ones on weapons, too Remember that Grathnode Crystal we received as a reward for the wolves sidequest? Well, we can now use it to improve our equipment! For now we of course have a very limited choice of crystals, but by proceeding with the plot we will unlock some brutal combinations, to really gain an edge in battle... "Eyes", he says For now, we move to the bar, where Jack doesn't miss one split second to start hitting on the (admittedly quite gorgeous) bartender. By the way, her name is Claire, and she will be more important in the plot than her role might suggest right now. Heck she has a unique dialogue portrait, that alone should be an obvious clue. He says "you two", but then he singles Lyner out And that is exactly when the suspicious guy from before decides to show up. Apparently, he has an offer for Lyner, and needs to discuss it in private. Clueless as ever, Our hero follows him outside... You are such a great friend, Jack ... And THEN we find out that Jack knows full well who the guy is, and he also suspects that this is a trap. Wait a minute, you KNEW I was walking right into a trap, and you did nothing about it because you were too busy hitting on a lady? Seriously, screw you Jack! Is that any way to ask a guy to work for you? Outside, Bourd introduces himself to Lyner, and explains to him how things work in the lower world: the CHurch and Tenba are constantly competing over resources, and Lyner, as a skilled fighter, is a valuable resource. Therefore, Lyner will join Tenba and lend his power to their cause: if he refuses, Bourd will kill him. Wait, you are not planning to take them on by yourself, are you? However, Tenba has a reputation for abusing Reyvateils, and we saw before what Lyner's opinion on the matter is. He therefore refuses steadfastly to join Tenba, and gives an admittedly awesome speech on why Reyvateils should be respected and cared for. He then decides to take on not just Bourd, but the entire elite guard of Tenba, just to prove a point... Great... ... And it goes about as well as you'd imagine. Yay, I survived the beating. That's something right? As Lyner collapses on the ground, Bourd is impressed to see that he has managed to survive what was supposed to be a fatal blow. He therefore decides to once again try and persuade him to join Tenba. Which means, he is going to imprison Lyner in Tenba's main facility, and keep him locked up untill he agrees to join. Well, what was supposed to be a peaceful trip soon escalated in ways we could have never seen coming, our hero is down and out, and still noclues on the Hymn Crystal Purger have been obtained... With the Viruses rampaging to the point of turning the guardians of the tower against humans, Lyner needs to hurry: will he manage to escape Tenba's clutches? Find out in the next episode, which will feature a childhood friend, a glimpse of things to come, and a serious boss battle!
  3. Why is it called COMMON sense, if most people lack it?

    1. Red_Chaos
    2. Tomas Elliot

      Tomas Elliot

      From now on, I shall make a point to call it "rare sense".

    3. AuthorReborn

      AuthorReborn

      I suppose it has something to do with guilting people when they lack it by making them feel as though they lack something common that most everyone has.

  4. The non-shiny one has really good IVs which is more than I can say for the other. If the difference was less pronounced you could maybe overlook this and go for the shiny, but as things stand, the non-shiny is just too good to pass on. If you don't raise it, you will regret it IMO.
  5. Nah lol, it's just that Jack is a perv. And even he will eventually have to cut the flirting short as the story progresses Ep 3 coming out in the evening (GMT+1)!
  6. Well, thank you guys for the feedback. I will now priceede to episode 2, and I'll make sure to give Ody's suggestions a shot while I do so. Also, this episode is dedicated to the memory of all the deceased Nyo?, who died for our ealth and EXP. Rest in peace, little fellas. Episode 2 - When in Horus So, we left Lyner in a whole lot of trouble: not only he failed to find any clue on the location of the Hymn Crystal Purger, not only he crashed the airship that is his only way to bring the crystal back, now what is left of his airship is going to be sold for scrap! You know my name? So we rush to the crash site, where Lyner tries to explain his situation. He finally states his name, and the green gunner from before, who for some reason was still hanging around, has a reaction that Lyner doesn't notice. Apparently, the name rings a bell... This is not suspicious at all. Am I the only one who smells a sidequest? Anyway, the village's mayor demands evidence to support Lyner's claims, and provides some generic tear jerker exposition on the backstory of the town... I don't like where this is going... Totally called it OF FUCKING COURSE. How do you prove to a callous mayor that you are the legitimate owner of an airship? By killing some random wolves in a random forest! Let's get this over with quickly and get back to the main quest already. A suspicious gunman Fortunately for us, the green guy from before, who was being a jerk to us untill seconds ago, suddenly declares that he feels sympathy for us and volunteers to help. Which, paired with his reaction to the name "Lyner" above, is not suspicious at all. Turns out his name is Jack, and he is a gunman who was tired of his job, so he one day left his hometown and set out to search for treasure. Lyner is an idiot It also turns out that Jack knows Lyner is from Platina, despite the fact that Lyner never mentioned it in Jack's presence. Which, paired with his reaction above, isn't suspicious at all. When pressed on the matter, he comes up with this pathetically lame excuse: of course, at this point it is painfully obvious that something is up with the guy, so only an idiot would accept to team up with him, right? I told you Lyner is an idiot Right. This happens painfully often these days So we head out to defeat the wolves, murdering more Nyo? along the way. Of course, this couldn't be just a simple sidequest, so it turns out the wolves are actually GHOSTLY wolves, and are completely immune to our weapons. Which means, we now have to go on a side-sidequest to find a way to hurt them. What did I say Lyner was again? Jack suggests to go back to Karulu and come up with a plan, but he failed to keep into account Lyner's negative IQ. Hey, you didn't complain about his idiocy when it worked in your favor, so now you deserve to be stuck in a conversation about killing GHOSTS with a sword. Karma is a bitch. Subtlety Jack is so frustrated he drops another suspicious line. Because you know, suspicious. So anyway, it seems that the only way to defeat the ghostly wolves is to use a magical weapon, but we have no such thing. Fortunately, this is a JRPG, so the solution to the problem just waltzes in on its own. When in Horus, do as Horus people do Turns out, people in the lower world are capable of creating virtually ANYTHING, from weapons to healing items, by using a technique called Grathmeld. And it just so happens that the greatest master of this technique lives in Karulu, along with his grandkid. If we learn how to Grathmeld from him, we will surely manage to create a weapon to defeat the wolves. Hey I want to handle grandkids too After finding out that the "grandkid" is in fact an attractive young woman, and getting a good idea of just how Jack intends to "handle" her... Grathmelding 101 ... We dive right into the tutorial on Grathmeld. Basically, the idea is to look for recipe cards, that are scattered everywhere around the world. Once you get your hands on a card, you can use the ingredients listed on it to create new items. It might sound silly, but it will quickly become one of the most enjoyable mechanics of the game, specially when we get a Reyvateil to join our party. Subtlety #2 So yeah, for now all we need to do is to master the technique in order to make a weapon capable of defeating the ghostly wolves. And sure enough, we do just that: apparently nobody had ever managed to master Grathmelding as quickly as Lyner does, even Jack is so impressed, that he drops another suspicious line. Because you know, suspicious. You people have some lousy standards Long story short, we mass-produce the new weapon and use it to kick some canine ass. Upon reporting back, we are instantly believed by everyone, they all celebrate the defeat of the wolves and thank us for our bravery. These are the same people who didn't consider our word trustworthy in the whole airship matter, and demanded evidences to support our claims. How comes they now believe us so easily? Why thanks, what a great reward We get a Grathnode Crystal for our efforts. It might seem a lousy reward now, but come next episode it will come in handy. In the ensuing conversation we learn that a hostile tribe, the Teru Tribe, lives in the tower just above the Wings of Horus, and prevent people from climbing up (they even built a massive gate to block the road). Therefore, the only realistic way to get back to Platina is to get our airship fixed: with the ghostly wolves gone, it is now possible to travel to Nemo, the biggest city of the continent, so we should go look for an engineer there. The people of Karulu will watch over the airship while we are away. Finally we have a plan, finally we are doing something related to the main quest: on top of that, Jack volunteers to accompany us, so we will be able to rely on his strenght in battle! Subtlety #3 All well what ends well? Not really. As we camp for the night before reaching Nemo, Jack wanders off while Lyner is asleep, and gives us this suspicious monologue. I would say "because you know, suspicious" but in all seriousness, it definitely sounds ominous this time. It looks like Jack really has an agenda of his own, of which Lyner is not aware. Misha? Unsurprisingly given the type, a woman is involved. It looks like we will find much more than we expect in Nemo... So, Lyner has emerged victorious from the sidequests and has mastered Grathmelding: will this be his first step in completing his mission? Will he find the clues he so desperately needs in Nemo? What is Jack hiding? Who is Misha? Find out in the next episode, which will feature a huge city, a sexy bartender, and an offer we cannot refuse!
  7. Indeed. Both will probably be event Pokemon, however they will be in a later part of the game, so we are not interested in making any announcements concerning them for the time being
  8. I remember owning the round blue one myself.
  9. Ok, the likes and the views tell me that there are people interested in this, so I shall just proceed with the first episode. I hope this won't count as double posting... Although Huk said it would be ok. Episode 1 - Shooting Star Last time we saw him Lyner (who, it should be clear by now, is the protagonist of the game) was hopping on an airship to fly all the way down, to the floating continent named Wing of Horus. His mission is to retrieve the Hymn Crystal Purger, the only weapon capable of destroying the Viruses that are attacking his hometown of Platina. Unfortunately, this trip to the lower world is ill-fated: the moment Lyner begins inputting the coordinates in the airship's computer, a massive dragon appears out of nowhere and blasts him, severely damaging the airship and forcing him to go for an emergency landing... Which actually looks more like a crash: the impact is so violent that poor Lyner goes right through the windshield and falls out of the airship, ending up quite far from the actual crash site. He doesn't die only because a girl, who just happened to be nearby, gives him first aid. Maybe she's afraid, maybe she is confused, or maybe she is just shy, but the girls runs off before Lyner regains consciousness. He manages to catch a quick glimpse of her as he wakes up, but when he finally manages to stand, the only things left of her is her handkerchief, which he takes with him. He has no idea of where he is, but for now, he will focus on finding out what was of his airship... And on finding and properly thanking the girl, if the occasion arises. And this is how the actual game (that is, the part in which we actually are in control of Lyner) begins. It isn't long before we are thrown in our first fight. Most of the commands are still unavailable to us, so for now our strategy merely amounts to hacking away with the sword... Which I actually feel horrible about, considering that this particular enemy class, the Nyo? (the question mark is actually part of the name), has only one move at its disposal. A move that HEALS you. SO yeah, the little guy is helping you recover from the injuries you suffered in the crash, and you repay it by killing it for EXP. So much for all-loving hero. As we try to move on to the next area, we get a cutscene of the girl who saved Lyner, who meets with the group she belongs to. We find out that her name is Aurica, and that she is a Reyvateil, which explains why she could cure such serious wounds in such a short time... And the first words to escape her lips are an apology. Wanna try and guess what kind of character she is? Fortunately for her, her direct superior, Cardinal Radolf, appears to be a decent guy... ... Which is more than I can say about the other knight. Seriously dude, that's just wrong. So Radolf and his group, who apparently where investigating the crash site, leave the area, and soon enough our hero arrives. He is understandably shocked to see his airship destroyed: after all, as far as he knows that's his only way back home, and without it, even if he finds the Hymn Crystal Purger, it will be meaningless... So imagine how happy he is to see a random guy show up and start taking the airship apart, to sell it for scraps. Although probably I shouldn't be saying "a random guy", considering that he has a unique sprite. Turns out the guy is an adventurer, and he doesn't believe Lyner owns the airship. The two don't even introduce to one another, they start bickering immediately, untill the green dude says he'll be back later, when "this annoying kid" isn't around. At which point, Lyner decides that his best option is to look for help in a nearby town. Which leads to us seeing the world map for the first time. Next stop: Karulu VIllage! But as soon as we walk into town, we once again find trouble. A guy whose sprite is a darker recolor of the knights from before (which means he is a bad guy, aren't these color-coded uniforms convenient?) is abusing his partner Reyvateil, who for some reason has forgotten that she could simply vaporize him with magic. Of course Lyner, being a pure-hearted hero who loves all living beings (well except the Nyo? anyway), decides to step in... ... But before he can, that Cardinal Radolf guy from before shows up, and proceeds to kick the jerk's ass. From his subsequent rant, we find out that there are two factions in the lower world: the Church, of which Radolf himself is a member, that is a military group with religious overtones, whose mission is to protect the people from monsters and to create a peaceful society, as well as Tenba, a mercenary group that will do anything for money. Of course, doing things for money is bad, so they also abuse their Reyvateils to drive home the point. So anyway Aurica shows up, and Lyner, recognizing her, immediately starts hitting on her, using the old but always popular "I believe this belongs to you" trick... ... Except she shoots him down. Better luck next time, ladykiller! In order to drown his sorrow, Lyner heads to the nearest market... Only to find out that MORE trouble is on the horizon: apparently, the townspeople have lost no time in finding a way of making the most of the wreckage! Will Lyner manage to retain possession of the airship, his sole way of returning home? He came down to find the Hymn Crystal Purger, but so far he is being sidetracked... Will he find a clue? Find out in the next episode, which will feature ghostly wolves, suspicious monologues, and a new interesting gameplay mechanic!
  10. Playing Gen 1 games when they first came out, of course!
  11. http://www.pokemonreborn.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18447 Welp, since the interest check topic got some attention, I went and started this for real. Now I have to prepare my dinner, but I will soon proceed to post the first true episode if people show some interest in the meantime.
    1. Nova

      Nova

      Congratulations!

  12. Welp, I have finally brought myself to do this: to celebrate my recent purchase of a brand new computer, I am once again playing through Ar Tonelico, an old PS2 game of which I am particularly fond of (by the way, the page I linked has all the info one could ever desire about this game, but it also contains quite a few spoilers, so careful when you check it). Since I have always been saddened by how few people there seem to be who like the game or even know about it, I thought I'd create this topic to share my experience with you, much like those people who keep diaries of their nuzlocke runs in Pokemon games. I will be including plenty of images to make the read more enjoyable, and I will even have a poll when we reach a certain crucial choice in the game, leaving to them to decide which path I will take. What I really love about Ar Tonelico is that there are many aspects about it, from the general pacing to the way the plot unfolds to the absolutely awesome opening sequence, that are more reminiscing of an anime than a game. And the dual aspect of the gameplay (at its core, this game is a JRPG, but developing strong bonds with the heroines is a fundamental part of the game, bordering into visual novel and even dating sim territory) only adds to this, allowing you to fight your way through the plot and to dive deeper and deeper into character development at the same time. To convey this effect I, too, will articulate this playthrough into episodes, complete with individual titles I'll be coming up with, in an attempt to recreate the anime feel. So, without further ado, let's get to it. EPISODE 0: A bit of background The game opens with a LONG cutscene, which details the backstory of the game. Since taking screens of that would have taken forever, I am going to provide a quick summary instead. Long story short: a few centuries before the events of the game, humans have completely destroyed their planet Earth through a nuclear war. The land has been turned into an uniform, sterile wasteland by radiations, to the point that merely walking around is hazardous for the average person. Humans have therefore decided to move on artificial continents created by them, that float several kilometers above the ground: on such artificial continents, equally artificial climates and ecosystems make life possible. To handle all the informatic systems that govern life on such continents (including, you know, keeping them afloat), humans have constructed some incredibly large towers, which are essentially humongous servers: and they have also created the Reyvateils, a race of female-only artificial humans who, by using the power of Songs, can interface with the towers in order to create... Well, pretty much everything, from fireballs to healing spells. And the tallest of these towers is the titular Tower of Ar Tonelico. Just to give you an idea of just how ridiculously enormous this thing is, that purple area that cuts off the top part of the tower is called the Blastline, and it is heavily implied to be no other than the OZONE LAYER. Years before the beginning of the game, a civil war nearly destroyed the world again: while the one responsible for this, the so called "Mother Virus", was defeated and imprisoned, her creatures, the Viruses, sometimes resurface and attack people. The game begins in Platina, the city you can see built on the side of the tower, right below the purple area. That is the city where Shurelia, the first Reyvateil to be created (which makes her over 700 years old) and the most powerful of them all (at least in theory), lives. Shurelia is the administrator of the tower: basically, while other Reyvateils can tap into the systems of the Tower to alter reality, Shurelia is connected to the Tower at a level so intimate, that she effectively commands all the systems, meaning that she has complete control over more or less everything, from the climate to the very ability of the continents to stay afloat. This, coupled with the fact that her connection with the Tower makes her effectively immortal, causes people to rever her as a goddess, but she is actually a humble, reasonable person who tries to do what is best for the people. One day, Shurelia is attacked by a particularly aggressive breed of Viruses: the knights sworn to protect her, Lyner and Ayatane, soon find out that these new Viruses are immune to the weapons they usually use for virus busting, and are quickly overwhelmed. As Ayatane sacrifices himself to allow Shurelia and Lyner to get away, the administrator begs Lyner to hop on an airship and fly to the Wings of Horus, the floating continent that lies several stons below, in order to retrieve the Hymn Crystal Purger, the only weapon capable of defeating these new Viruses...
  13. http://www.pokemonreborn.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18402 I usually don't do this but... Time to give some visibility to this topic.
    1. Cyaloom

      Cyaloom

      Probably it would have more visibility if it was in the Gaming General section...

  14. Welp, looks like some people are interested. I might actually do this after all. My main reason for doing it is that, by amusing people with this little idea, I am hoping to get them interested into the game, which isn't very famous but that I consider a little masterpiece
  15. Ceph, I hope you realize that a project like this one cannot be (further) delayed, nor can it be rushed on the very last days of development, to go along with the (rather selfish) instances of a single individual. This being said, this discussion is over, please let's avoid turning this topic into a flame fest.
  16. That and the fact that frankly, this is a fangame. We do not concern ourselves with release schedules of official games, because we wouldn't do anything else the whole day.
  17. Looks like nobody is really interested in that idea of mine... Oh well ;-;

    1. Cyaloom

      Cyaloom

      We have 2 potential followers... Come on, we need more people!

  18. Ah yes this topic is for battle themes. I got confused because someone mentioned some town themes ;-;
  19. Today at the shooting range I tried dual wielding... HOW DO THOSE PEOPLE IN THE MOVIES EVEN HIT ANYTHING WHEN SHOOTING WITH TWO GUNS?

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. Omega_Ra1der

      Omega_Ra1der

      and strong wrists. And anime logic irl.

    3. Cepheus

      Cepheus

      yeah Dual wielding IRL is one of the dumbest and most ineffectives things you can do...

      there is a reason why the dual-pistols always were the worst guns in Counter-Strike :P

    4. Tomas Elliot

      Tomas Elliot

      I kinda was expecting it, but this friend of mine made it into a bet. Where I live, one does not simply back down from a bet... So I did it, but I ended up embarrassing myself.

  20. Well I see, I'll make sure to keep it in the General Gaming section. For now I am just trying to see if there would be enough interest around this to justify the whole "pics and polls" part...
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