Here we have the true ending, the happy ending of the game as the thumbnail implies. There are bad endings, which I will be putting up tomorrow, but for now you can savor the happiness of the new couple. I did enable the adult content here, but cut out the CGs just so you can see a couple of the events play out differently. From what I can tell while trying to get this, affection points are not enough as there seem to be specific flags you must trigger. Find those, and have enough points, then you can do as you see here.
Anyway, with this, we have a request complete and I will be returning to a previous project to bring it to conclusion. If you didn't know any better, you might think I had this whole thing planned in advance. Who knows? ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxtj20idCa8
We are taking one more stab at the game to see if we can get through the second area by working together. I learned a little more about the game, and hopefully this will be the final push we need to get through...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8S8mjNaS5E
With all of the badges in our possession, we need to reach the Pokemon League, which is going to send us through the usual cave. I imagine this is much smoother than the original game as we don't have a pair of HM slaves to lug around, so it is just a matter of crushing the trainers in our way as we try to navigate and loot the place.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ZV4dIdRkw
We've used our advantage in the previous video and now we need to move to neutral terrain. This means taking our fire deck against the fire club and forcing our way through, picking up some new cards as we go. Since fire types rely on using discards to compensate for their strong attacks, energy removals work wonders here. Hopefully you can get some by the time you want to come here.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8BkhkiVIkA
For our final video, I will read out the secret reports so you can see what the previous set of videos were for. This is meant to give you some insight into the inner workings and happenings behind the scenes that you can't see from Neku's perspective. They are written by Hanekoma and he will break down motives and other things that look like extreme coincidences or happenstance, and you will be able to see the forces at work.
I was hoping for more to tie into the upcoming game, and in the end I am pleasantly disappointed. After how bad the extra days were, my expectations going into this were abysmal, and I kind of saw this coming. What I did find interesting is that the Fallen Angel reveal report was still arranged to be last. I wonder how many people saw that coming...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Mqwi4fNGc
Before we can go into the next chapter, we need to do a mission with Irina. Since I was doing everything in the game pretty much blind, I chose to jump into the fight alongside Irina, but apparently there is an unlockable if you hang back and let Elma go instead. Ultimately, there was a lot I missed because I didn't get a piece of information at the right time, so I'm not stressing over it. Luckily, this is something pretty small, so nothing of value is really lost in the big picture.
Otherwise, we need to exterminate some monsters. There isn't really anything special to this. They are the avian type, so you may want a long range gun to chip away at them should they hover outside your skill activation range. We are still early enough in the game where the mission monsters do not lean towards overkill.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyAgCkhIIcU
The Choir is a very unique villain in that it is a literal race in a damage race.
So first things first, the Choir will play cards and mess with you as normal. However, there is a special "ongoing" card someone will have that will steadily eat their deck. It eats the deck as the Choir "takes" damage. Then once the entire deck has been consumed, the fight begins for real.
Once flipped, the Choir will render all decks left with 5 cards. If anyone is unable to draw a card (the Choir will make you), it is game over. You have to set up early and then put everything to use at the very end to stay alive.
Terminus is here for nemesis reasons, but she is definitely one of the better Cauldron heroes. She can help keep the targets under control and obliterate one if necessary, permanently. There are only a few teams where she doesn't really fit, and her Strategic Science variant will probably always be her best.
Stranger is here for healing and some utility. By getting the proper runes out, the flip isn't as bad and the Choir can burn a little more easily.
I brought Doc Havoc, because we need HP. Unless I revert to Medico or Tempest, he is the best healer in the Cauldron, and only Starlight can somewhat keep up unless you do some weird gimmick with Malichae.
Cricket is here for damage control purposes. She can charge her cannon as progress to have as an ace, but otherwise she needs to block when we lose control until we can get it back.
Finally, Lady is here for versatility. Abusing Fall and thunder damage, you can bypass damage reduction and also mitigate enemy damage. She is very squishy, but her utility helps make up for it.
As for the environment, I believe this is supposed to be for Starlight, who I did not bring. Maybe later I can try to get a game with her here to see if there are any special interactions of note.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyZ00xgrNHw
One of the newer monsters has hopped onto the chopping block and I am more than happy to oblige. Zinogre has a few breakable parts, such as his face, back, and claws, but he also has a unique gathering spot on his back when he is on his side. Sadly, you are more likely to get his claws as carves or target rewards rather than capturing, and quite a few things use them, so this is definitely a monster I farmed quite a bit off camera to get the stuff I need. You may need some of his stuff for weapons too, so luckily he isn't as annoying as some of his peers...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFb2i65hEYo
I will end up doing Team Star quite a bit out of order, as apparently we were supposed to start with the Dark Crew on the other side of the map. Since this was my first time fighting them, I didn't have everything aligned properly to make things smoother, and this is one where they can run away with things on account of the random Speed Boost ability that comes out of nowhere. It could have been pretty bad if not for Charcadet being able to absorb the worst of the moves, so it turns into a battle of attrition I can easily win due to all of the items I've collected. My lack of evolution problem needs to be resolved, and due to the length of the video, you get to see how far I resort to remedy it.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JToBWodVt08
One of my anticipated games of the year is about to hit, and we waste no time tackling the first case. This is the version that has live commentary in it, and I will upload a silent version later today if you do not want my narration.
The MC from the first game returns here to investigate a school being haunted by a spirit known as the Departed. In this first case, we are going to face a spirit known as Hanako who lashes out at people who enter her domain. Luckily, she is fairly easy to appease, so she makes for a decent tutorial even if there is very little room for error. Unlike the previous games, I do not know if there is a way to botch the exorcism that leads to the demise of your partners.
I am not sold on Hanako being the first ghost as similar to Taro back in NG, I have a moment where the "scare" backfires horribly and I have to break the video so I can stop laughing. While I understand that Hanako most likely hung herself using a garden hose, it does not make for good horror material. Since we are dealing with a "pianist" victim for the first case, I was wondering if there would be piano wires or something instead.
The major changes from this game compared to the others has to do with navigation and the "health" resource that you use to do things. I am still on the fence about how you navigate, but the health can help you know how many turns you have left and may give you some room in the event you want to try something random during the exorcism.
Anyway, I am dropping everything to cover this game as I did not realize it came out this early. Better yet, I did get this copy 2 days before street date, so hopefully I can knock out another case to help people decide whether or not they want to pick this game up for themselves. Otherwise, what better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a new horror game?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-spEsNM9bM