Lia's BK tweets archive - 2021-09-25: Zaurak Keep, Big Reveal about Malpercio's origins

Lia @liareplaysbk · 03:57 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

So last night I booted up the emulator way too late and ended up finishing Zaurak Keep and huuuuuh a lot happened, turns out?

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:00 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

It’s mostly more of the same: find a level path so Ven can blast a boulder out of the way, rotate a device to open a path. Bit weird to have two save flowers but it makes for nice symmetry?
The “spiders” are a fun variation on the weird tumbly creatures from EW.

Thoran: “We need Ven again, huh? He’s the only one who’s good at this kind of thing.”

Sagi standing by a large round gate blocked by darkness.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:02 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

I tried going forward without Ven see what that’d do, unsurprisingly it doesn’t let us.

Sagi: “I don’t know what’s up ahead, Lia, but something about it feels wrong...”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:06 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Thoran once more being the played stand-in and wanting SOME DARN ANSWERS.
Again pretty much saw this coming, the signposting wasn’t subtle.

Thoran: “You lead us all into a garish place like this, but why? Who the hell is supposed to be here?”

Pieda: “Seph, you’re not serious, right? You know what will happen if we accept their help!”

Thoran: “Whose help?! Somebody please tell me!”

Seph: “The Dark Brethren... We’re going to ask for their power—and use it to strike Wiseman down.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:09 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

A nice double-serving of “This is a really really bad idea”.
Also called it on Cor Hydrae, though in EW that’s just the “bastion of the forces of darkness” without a specific name.

Milly: “The Dark Brethren... of course! I remember now!”

Milly: “This keep looks just like Cor Hydrae! The Brethren’s castle—they taught us about it at school!”

Seph: “I’m doing this. There’s no other way to beat him.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:14 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Seph calls out and, unfortunately, an ominous voice answers.
It’s impossible to see on screenshots but the back of the room is pulsing. I’m sure it’s fine

Seph: “Hear me, Brethren! We have come! We have passed your trials and arrived at the heart of your [...]”

Dark Brother: “We have watched...and seen. What business do you have in our abode?”

Seph: “We need your strength! The power to destroy anything—to erase Wiseman from this world!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:17 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Seph offers “everything” in return, he’s long past caring about his own fate. The evil voice, being evil, demands more.
Five, you say? If that isn’t a familiar number.

Dark Brother: “... What will you offer in return?”

Seph: “I want to kill Wiseman! Once he’s dead, cast me into the darkness, do whatever you want!”

Dark Brother: “... That will not suffice. There are five of you. The price is five.”

Seph: “I can’t pay that price! I’ll give you myself! That should be more than enough!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:21 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

No choice. The others step forward, because of course they do.
This sure puts a depressing twist on “sibling gods”. I don’t think it’s been made explicit that Pieda’s the sister but it’s rather self-evident?
I got bad news for Ven tho, there’ll be a fair few years of being apart.

Dark Brother: “... Do not be arrogant. The price is everything, and everything is what you must give.”

Thoran: “Fine, Brother! You can have me, too!”

Pieda: “Wait, I offer myself as well! My heart and body are yours!”

Ven: “Don’t forget me! The five of us are one! We’ll never be apart!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:24 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Then Ven turns to... Sagi aka Marno, of course.
It’s weird / scary to see Thoran turn from being kept in the dark to very resistant to this keen to convince someone else: this is what happens if we say no...

Thoran: “That’s right—we’re brethren, too. Tell him you’re with us, Marno!”
Dialog choice: “No!” or “I’m with you!”

Thoran: “Who cares what happens to us—we can prevent the world’s promagnation, if we just defeat [...]”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:27 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

It eventually gets to “You won’t change your mind?” and just loops.
Whenever the yes happens (first second or third+ question), it jumps right to “I knew you’d stick with us”.
Probably some Guardian Spirit Mechanics Questions to be asked here, too.

Thoran: “Everyone will be saved! Besides, we’ll never be apart—you know that!”
Dialog choice: “All right” and “No!”.

Thoran: “Marno! You won’t change your mind?”
Dialog choice: “No, never!” and “All right”.

Sagi: “(They can hear what Lia’s saying... I’m not saying a word!)

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:29 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

The whole “we’ll never be apart” thing’s a bit low on buildup IMO. Because since we meet this bunch in the middle of a major crisis, with very little room for insight into their normal lives, they’re not really sold as tightly linked beyond JRPG Circumstances.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:34 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

The Evil Voice is pleased but still wants another test i.e. the game needs a bossfight. It’s an especially fucked-up lion with tentacles as its back half.

Dark Brother: “... We accept your payment.”

Dark Brother: “... Now, for the final test. We must see if you are deserving of our power.”

Thoran: “Let’s give them what they want!”

The party readies their weapons as the others blast the monster with beams of light.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:37 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Don’t have a clean screenshot of That Silly Sequence but I’m pretty sure the colors match.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 11:46 PM · Nov 28, 2020 Go

Mélodia, er, uses a laser beam? to knock Xelha out and break the mirror.
Particle effects kick back in, and Malpercio appears. Not exactly a looker.

Mélodia, looking furious: “Enough of your petty tricks.”

Mélodia: “Accept your fate and be crushed, powerless, beneath the heel of Malpercio!”

Mélodia, looking pleased: “The five End Magnus have been released. Five shimmering souls have been united...”

Mélodia, offscreen, as the camera focuses on a disjointed monstrous figure: “Hello my darling!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:39 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

We steamroll the boss because we are maybe a teeny tiny bit over-leveled, the five get zapped by a dark cloud, the boss disappears in a sphere of smoke, all done.

Dark Brother: “... Very well. Our strength... is yours.”

Dark Brother: “The price is absolute. Remember it well.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:47 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Yeah. Be as one. Spliced together into a monstrous evil god, I guess.
I saw this coming enough to not be mindblown but that just makes the tragedy of it way way worse. Trying to stop the monster turning people into magnus, only to... get turned into End Magnus?

Seph: “We have to win for the people who are gone. For our family.”

Seph: “But we won’t win unless we put our strength together.”

Seph: “We have to be of one mind. The five of us as one.”

Thoran: “In other words, we have to be a team.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:49 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Well I know exactly where this is going, but let’s give Thoran a shoutout for a quality himbo moment here

Ven: “Then let’s pick a name. Something we can call the five of us!”

Thoran: “How about “The Loyal Brotherhood of Five”? Short and to the point.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:52 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

... though I didn’t expect it to be A GODDAMN HILL. GAME. PLEASE.
I don’t know if “Malpercio” screams EVIL quite as much to native speakers of other languages, but in French “mal” literally means bad or evil or hurt depending on context. It feels on the nose.

Pieda: “Well, how about Malpercio, then?”

Ven: “But... that’s the name of the hill out back.”

Pieda: “I know. It’s the hill we grew up on—Malpercio.”

Thoran: “Ha ha, I like it. That’s pretty good coming from Pieda, huh, Seph?”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:54 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

It sure will

Seph: “We have a pact with the Dark Brethren. Once this fight’s over, it won’t matter anyway.”

Seph: “But if we fight hard and managed to stop Wiseman from realizing his ambitions...”

Seph: “the name Malpercio will live on in the memories of those who remain.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:57 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

In case the player still hadn’t put the pieces together, there’s Milly to lift it up into plain text.

Guillo: “They said “Malpercio”! Did you hear that?”

Milly: “Don’t you see? This world is from long before ours. A thousand years ago, in the age of the gods.”

Milly: “I don’t know why we’ve been sent here, but there’s no question—no other explanation.”

Milly: “Except... if they’re Malpercio, it’s nothing like the legend.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 04:57 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

As for it not matching the legend, well. Ref this way.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:02 AM · Sep 14, 2021 Go

The school itself, like last time, has a metric fuckton of lore, but opt-in.
We get yet another version of the Malpercio tale: Malpercio fought the OTHER gods, and borrowed the power of the Dark Brethren to do so.

Divinity Professor: “Can I help you? Your face says you want to study here at the school.”
Dialog choice: “I’d like to learn” and “It does not!”

Divinity Professor: “A thousand years ago, the gods fought a war that started over the wicked god Malpercio’s rebellion.”

Divinity Professor: “Malpercio borrowed the power of the Dark Brethren in order to bend the world to its wicked purposes.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 05:01 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

We’ll see how much the game goes into why it’s even called the age of the gods, I hope, but considering how little worship is actually visible this is interesting?
There’s the shrine in Opu, the church for praying though we don’t know to what, if anything, and that’s... kinda it?

Milly: “They’re just the same as us. How can they be... gods?”

Sagi: “They may look the same, but their hearts and magic are a hundred times stronger.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 05:03 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Thank you Milly that was indeed swiftly turning into a bit of a concern

Milly: “Oh, no! If this is a thousand years ago, then the battle they’re about to fight—it’s the War of the Gods!”

Sagi: “Well, assuming you’re right... I don’t know why we were sent back to the War of the Gods, but...”

Sagi: “we can’t just leave Seph and Thoran and the others to die.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 05:05 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

Joined forces with the watnow?
This is going to be very bad isn’t it.

Seph: “We have one goal: defeat Wiseman. We must find him and end this quickly.”

Thoran: “But won’t we have to fight the people pf Cujam?”

Seph: “Mm. I’ve heard rumors they’ve joined forces with the dragons. It won’t be easy.”

Seph: “I agree. If we can take Wiseman down, everyone else ought to return to their senses.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 05:06 PM · Sep 25, 2021 Permalink

So er that sure is a plot beat that happened. Next time... whatever the hell is going to follow? I’m guessing it’s not gonna be a breezy Wiseman takedown.