Topic: Plots to Make Fun Of: Seven of 'Em! -- Let's Play Saga Frontier! (Read 38455 times)

R^2 · « **Reply #260 on:** March 27, 2013, 08:11:52 PM »

Welp, that's what I get for editing the existing poll instead of removing the locked one and starting anew.

Technically both scenarios have the protagonist getting his ass whooped.

Technically.

Brentai · « **Reply #261 on:** March 27, 2013, 08:46:57 PM »

Stop hitting yourself!

R^2 · « **Reply #262 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:03:46 PM »

Wow. Um. Magic Kingdom is in rough shape.

Viable question!

You can't go into any ruined buildings or leave the screen (except via the RegionMap), so you eventually need to find this hole that's been blasted open.

It's full of the Magic Kingdom citizens' corpses.

Mage: Demons came up from underground... Someone broke the seal...

He dead.

I say you he dead.

R^2 · « **Reply #263 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:07:54 PM »

Goddess statues. Squaresoft had a thing for 'em.

You can climb on them if you want.

Rouge is a bit miffed at the goddesses for not protecting the kingdom, I guess.

Maybe they should've had a goddess of fighting of demon hordes.

It can't not be a clue!

Under the statues you find a few demons crowded around an altar.

After fighting the monsters there's a "puzzle" to solve -- using the center-right-left bit from before -- that gives you a NornsBangle. Since everyone's in PoweredSuits and thus can't wear gauntlets, it doesn't do me any good.

R^2 · « **Reply #264 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:15:48 PM »

Except the NornsBangle opens up this passage in the statue's... um, forehead. It's not even worth asking why or how, it's SaGa logic.

Rouge: Why... All this magic equipment.
Mage on the Left: So, you're the chosen one? Are you Blue... or Rouge?
Rouge: Yes, I mean no. I am both Blue and Rouge. At the same time I am neither. Why did you try to make me kill myself?
Mage on the Right: You've seen the destruction in the Magic Kingdom. The seal has been broken and these demons have come to devour us.
On the Left: To protect our kingdom, we needed a powerful magician. One who could even defeat himself.
Rouge: And that's why you made me fight myself?!

Who came up with this plan, Roufas?

On the Right: The kingdom's existence is much more important than one magician's life. We are all born to protect our native soil from outside menaces.

Yeah, sounds like Roufas. Hey, do you guys know what Cube is?

Rouge: That's the most selfish thing I've ever heard. I'm not willing to sacrifice myself or anyone else for this kingdom. It's simply wrong.

And then... monsters fall from above! Dammit Rouge, why didn't you close the door on your way in? Now everyone knows where the goddess statue forehead magic baby incubator lab is!

We fight them off, but not before...

Rouge: Hey, get a grip! You can't just leave me like this!!
Rouge: What should I do...?

Mage on the Right: You must go down to hell to fight the demons... You must...

Welp, no more reason to hang around, then.

R^2 · « **Reply #265 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:21:29 PM »

Dying Mage: You must be Blue or Rouge...
Rouge: Yes, I am.
Dying Mage: There's still hope for the kingdom. I must warn you, once you enter, you can't get out until you beat the last demon. And don't use Gate magic there. You'll be cast away into the eternal oblivion.

Yep, it's the point of no return. I don't know why this guy offers to keep an eye on your items; I think he takes the RegionMap away from you if you agree to go inside, but he gives you a SanctuaryStone so it works out okay.

My only regret is that Liza never learned Sliding, but oh well. This quest has gone on long enough.

This is...

uh...

...not what I was expecting out of "hell".

R^2 · « **Reply #266 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:24:16 PM »

So what's the deal? A long time ago, a powerful magician wished for heaven... but he wished on the Rings of Power. Since the Rings have a habit of corrupting wishes, what he got looked like a paradise, but was just a shinier, pastel version of... well, hell itself.

The angels flitting around are random encounters, of course.

It's not a long dungeon.

It's... I guess "hatching" would be the right word...

R^2 · « **Reply #267 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:29:33 PM »

Last Battle ~ Blue

In the "Hell" dungeon, there's an environmental status constantly in effect that translates more or less to "Divine Peace", although I've seen "Heavenly Peace" too. It divides all damage by four, making even powerful skills and techniques nigh-useless. You break divine peace by using magic. Good thing I built a magician party. Here Rouge uses an Implosion spell to break the divine peace for the Hell's Lord battle.

Next turn...

Perhaps I should say... turns.

And for a finale...

Rouge locks Hell's Lord into stasis with him as Overdrive wears off. Rouge and Hell's Lord can't move or be damaged while in stasis, and stasis lasts for several turns depending on Rouge's JP when he cast the Stasis Rune spell. It'll give Roufas, Liza, Mei-Ling, and Nusakan several turns to set up LightSwords, VitalityRunes, VictoryRunes, MirrorShades, ShadowServants, and so on.

R^2 · « **Reply #268 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:33:07 PM »

Hey! No fair!

Hell's Lord has a "heaven" form, as previous, and a "hell" form, as seen here. Apparently all those Implosions did enough damage that he got a scripted change into his "hell" form, which broke his Stasis status. Rouge is still locked down, though. So uh... huh.

Transforming into "hell" form breaks the divine peace, if you hadn't already.

So rather than several turns of buffing, the four unfrozen party members have to fight.

Sometimes Hell's Lord will still try to target Rouge, and unless it's AoE that means a wasted turn.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND

Transforming back into "heaven" form restores divine peace.

R^2 · « **Reply #269 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:36:33 PM »

Sabers, named thus despite obviously being a sweeping laser curtain, is Hell's Lord's signature move. It hurts. A lot. More than 3Mistresses, honestly.

And he did it twice in a row.

Only Mei-Ling got healed between Sabers, so I'm in a tight spot here.

R^2 · « **Reply #270 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:42:09 PM »

FINALLY

I like the idea of Rouge pinning down Hell's Lord with his spell exploit, then regaining consciousness to find he's been transported to a hellish landscape, with his enemy very much alive and active, and all his companions bleeding out onto the brimstone. Kind of the story of his life, really, with what happened to his home region and all.

So here's the neat thing about using StasisRune as your last spell in OverDrive: once Stasis wears off, you're stuck in OverDrive -- Rouge gets eight actions a turn for the rest of the battle now. Those three screencaps? All one turn.

So the rest of the fight is Rouge shutting down Hell's Lord with TimeLeap -- oh you better believe I'm cheesing this battle after he broke my Stasis rune! -- then nailing him with direct damage spells over and over.

Everybody join in! MegaWindBlast and BoundShot!

R^2 · « **Reply #271 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:43:26 PM »

That's it. The end.

R^2 · « **Reply #272 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:43:50 PM »

No, really. That's it.

R^2 · « **Reply #273 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:44:08 PM »

I'm serious.

R^2 · « **Reply #274 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:48:13 PM »

So yeah. Blue's scenario doesn't really end. It just... stops. Right after an attack, but before the damage numbers come up, the screen just says "The End" and boots you out. I seem to remember on the actual PlayStation that the screen faded to grayscale before "The End" appeared, so the black screen might be a graphic glitch.

Oh well.

The idea is... well, the Magic Kingdom mages lied to Blouge again. He's never coming back from hell, will never restore their kingdom, will never protect the children in the goddess statue forehead magic baby incubator lab. By cutting out partway through the fight, the implication is that Blouge is stuck fighting Hell's Lord...

Forever

R^2 · « **Reply #275 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:55:41 PM »

In the manga, Rouge (who won the wizards' duel, remember) pins down Hell's Lord somehow and is called back from hell by the memories of all the good friends he made while helping others in their quests as he gathered magic for himself.

So had Blue won the duel, he might have been stuck there. Blue doesn't make friends.

Blue: stuck in hell!

Rouge: doin' okay!

Blue: alternate style, still stuck in hell!

And... that's all the dramatis personae available in Blue's campaign.

I forgot to do Lute's, though, so:

Huh, looks like I'm missing Lute's "normal art style" shot. Maybe he and Mesarthim are off together doing unspeakable things.

Hamilton: Better at everything than Lute, and has a bitchin' pirate ship!

Time Lord: can be in lots of campaigns, but had his biggest role in Lute's, so he goes here.

Here, have a ridiculous montage of Blue, Lute, and Riki. Of all of them, I'd say my favorite character is...

uh...

The sheep in front, there.

patito · « **Reply #276 on:** March 30, 2013, 02:38:57 PM »

See, you should have gone the asshole with a gun path, I bet hell's lord is also not immune to that.

R^2 · « **Reply #277 on:** March 31, 2013, 01:56:37 PM »

So... ya wanna see the scenario that's closest to a completed game? The one that hints most at what SaGa Frontier scenarios were intended to be before they got slashed down to (in some cases literally) nothing?

Red's scenario is the most complete.

The background zooms by, but never changes beyond the short loop. You get the impression Red is going way too fast around a really big roundabout.

Also, Red drives on the right, like in the USA. Odd stylistic choice for a game with so many Japanese elements. Maybe Shrike is another version of Eagleland, an America-via-Japanese-cultural-osmosis?

Red: Dad, why are you so interested in Dr. Klein?
Dr. Okonogi: We studied together. He became obsessed with strange and dangerous experiments for a secret organization. I couldn't stop him and he was eventually expelled. I don't want him to commit any more crimes. Even in his madness, I still consider him a friend.

And in a flash, a giant object lands on the hood of Red's car as the screen fades out.

R^2 · « **Reply #278 on:** March 31, 2013, 01:59:46 PM »

You lose. Game over.

Nah, I kid. "Press A to not die" events aren't going to be invented for a few more years yet.

Red: Dad! Damn that BlackX...

For the record, that's not pronounced "Black Ecks". It's "Black Cross". I know, I know.

For all the attention this is given, nobody ever says what it is. I guess it's the Okonogi household, but from the context of the conversation before, you wouldn't expect Okonogi and Red to have been driving home.

When the screen pans back down, we find that several ne'er-do-wells have appeared in front of Red while he was gawping at his house(?) burning down.

R^2 · « **Reply #279 on:** March 31, 2013, 02:02:01 PM »

That is a very large man with very sharp cybernetic arms.

Ow, my hit points!

You can learn his name before you're KOed, but...

The fight is basically unwinnable.

Pow! Someone flies in from offscreen to lens-flare kick Shuzer right in the beanbag.

Whoever this Alkarl guy is, he has a lot of unique skills.

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Author Topic: Plots to Make Fun Of: Seven of 'Em! -- Let's Play Saga Frontier! (Read 38455 times)