Lia's BK tweets archive - 2023-01-01: Atria, Wiseman, Rasalas, Verus, Tarazed revealed

Lia @liareplaysbk · 11:56 PM · Jan 01, 2023 Permalink

Today was Wiseman Reckoning Time. The Children of the Earth decided to slack off so I guess it’s on us time travelers to clean up the mess.
I was told to pack a “Book of Mana”, that’s a whole-group full heal? Definitely not ominous, that

Lia @liareplaysbk · 11:59 PM · Jan 01, 2023 Permalink

We find Wiseman atop a pile of corpses, absorbing more hearts, as he does

Wiseman, standing atop a pile of corpses, absorbing an orb of light as the party rushes in.

Wiseman: “Hmm? Your hearts… Mmm, now this is peculiar.”

Wiseman: “Hm hm hm, delightful, nonetheless. No heart should go to waste.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:01 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

He then goes for Phone-a-friend and a huuuuuge black dragon drops in. No problem, I’ve played Monster Hunter, I got this

Wiseman, to a very dark dragon that just landed: “Here are the hearts we promised. Together we shall have a feast!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:04 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

It’s a rough fight. The red AOE here does over 1000 damage to the entire party - so that Book of Mana tip was GREAT.
The animation when it’s knocked down by Milly’s level 3 attack is wonderful.
In any case, my all-ice-all-the-time deck keeps on doing the job, dragon goes splat

The Black Dragon, eyes glowing red, fire building in its mouth.

The Black Dragon, spewing red-pink fire at the entire party.

The Black Dragon, head lolling back with tongue out.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:07 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Okay but we’re not here for a dragon, are we… oh, two-fights sequence. Wiseman needs to work on his recruitment speech I feel, this isn’t super appealing.
(A note also that the VFX work in this whole sequence makes Dolphin chug a bit. Hmm.)

Wiseman: “Ohh? So you’ve butchered the great Black Dragon. The delights never cease…”

Wiseman: “What color will your magnus be? Hm hm hm, hnn hnn hnn hnn!”

Wiseman, wings now deployed: “Come! Be one with us!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:09 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

The music is very toned down in this fight, keeping with the Wiseman mood being disturbing and creepy rather than epic.
It’s long, it’s a pain, it’s drawn out and repetitive: he has a high-damage AOE, a group-wide knockout, and a single target high-damage health steal.

Wiseman surrounded by an orb of sickly yellow light, casting “Cast Away Your Carnal Robes”

Guillo being hit by a glowing spell from Wiseman, taking 369 damage while the boss recovers 92 health.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:11 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

The result is a fight that’s execution-heavy rather than a puzzle: keep track of mana, cast the heals at the right time, maximize damage, just like all other fights.
Eventually he goes splat and just vanishes.

Wiseman’s armor pieces, empty on the ground.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:14 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

The dark fog lifts. And that seems to be all the closure we get. The answers don’t diverge enough to matter, we still don’t know much about Wiseman or the war. It’s a bit underwhelming?

Milly: “I hope Steph and the others can finally be at peace now.”
Dialog choice: “Who knows” versus “I think they are”

Sagi: “…I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

Sagi: “…Yeah, I think so. I’m sure they are.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:17 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

The dragon is a Coliseum Resurrection Candidate, so we feed one horn to Pac and keep another.
Wiseman’s armor had better not pull a Lingering Will on us at any point. Stay dead, thanks

Sagi: “I wonder if this dragon was merely being manipulated by Wiseman, too.”

Textbox: “Obtained the magna essence [blue text] Black Dragon’s Horn [end blue text]!”

Inspection text: “Armor that had lost its bearer lies abandoned on the ground, as if to herald the ancient war’s end.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:20 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Rasalas had dialog about the threat so let’s go check on them…
Well, this hints at a singular timeline setup, doesn’t it? Their hearts did end up in rocks, rather than into Wiseman.

Villager: “Why do I study rocks, you ask? I have a theory that people’s hearts reside in rocks.”

Villager: “Before you call me crazy… People use rocks all the time to commemorate special events, right?”

Villager: “They engrave words into stone or give someone a beautiful gem. That’s just part of what I mean.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:23 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

The rest is mostly justified existential angst

Girl: “I always used to think that if you lost your body, you’d die. But then, what does that make me?”

Villager: “That huge presence… It’s gone. It was swallowing up people’s hearts… but it didn’t take us.”

Villager: “Now we have to go on like this, forever… Maybe we would’ve been happier if it got us, too.”

Other villager: “Are we going to be trapped here between these fire moss walls forever?”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:27 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Checking on Wacho’s latest dirt, since it was previously about Wiseman: it is now ensuring you do not miss the Greythorne fun. That’s neat!

Wacho: “Hey, Sagi! I hear the old man living next door to the Brierclock made some great invention!”

Wacho: “You might drop by sometime and see—“

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:31 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Also did some more mixing and upgrading because the Gathering is still not done. You can pot more than Nameless Flowers! (Pac eats it all)

Mix Recipes screen, focused on Potted Celestial Flower: “A Celestial Flower, potted to keep it alive instead of just letting it turn into a pressed flower. But even like this, it won’t last forever. Reduces allies’ susceptibility to status ailments.”

Mix Recipes screen, focused on Potted Heartenbrace: “Heartenbrace, potted to keep it alive instead of just letting it turn into a pressed flower. Even like this, it won’t last forever, but for the time being it ought to link the hearts of those who look upon it.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:32 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Oh, right, we had an urgent appointment didn’t we

Empire Soldier: “I know this is tough on you. It can’t be easy, but please keep assisting the quaestor.”

Sagi: “Sorry we’re late, sir. You wanted to talk about Tarazed?”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:35 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

I suppose we’ve come full circle and are planning to assassinate the Emperor AGAIN

Verus: “That’s right. It’s finally reached completion.”

Geldoblame: “Fortunately, Tarazed’s engines remain silent. That would imply it isn’t fully functional yet.”

Guillo: “We should strike before it’s operational—that much is obvious.”

Verus: “I agree, which is why I called you here.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:37 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Okay! We’re ready! Let’s go- ah. This soldier sounds VERY distressed, good VO again

Geldoblame: “Are you all prepared? Ready to infiltrate Tarazed?”
Dialog choice: “We’re ready” versus “Not quite”

Soldier: “Quaestor Verus! It’s awful, sir!”

Soldier: “Tarazed… It’s, it’s taking off! Please, come outside!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:41 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

It’s moving! It’s casting a gigantic shadow over all of Mintaka! It definitely cannot have been built this large without making metal out of thin air somehow! Not to mention stealthily and fast?

Alfard map, Tarazed looming behind it, as large as Alfard itself.

The streets of Mintaka getting drowned in shadow.

Guillo: “It’s enormous! As big as a continent!”

Geldoblame: “I can’t believe it… How could the construction have proceeded so quickly?”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:44 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

“It was made to stay aloft” is not a good answer to “how the hell can it stay aloft”, Verus, never get into teaching

Milly: “Why—HOW is that fortress able to fly?!”

Verus: “It was designed to be a floating fortress from the beginning.”

Verus: “That’s what Tarazed really is. A fortress that can stay aloft with machina alone…”

Verus: “…and never rely on the power of the gods.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:45 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

It is very large and kinds goofy, really

Tarazed, looking like a giant chunk of brass with no aerodynamic properties whatsoever.

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:48 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

World tour of worried people! First off: Ladekahn. The knight’s not cursing here, it’s just a confused noise in VO too.
What a thing to memory-hole 20 years later, heh?

Knight of Diadem: “Sire! There’s a ginorma… humastrous… @$#&… a REALLY BIG machina heading this way!”

Ladekahn: “I can see it. Calm down, if you call yourself a knight. Uncle Ram is watching from the next world.”

Ladekahn: “That’s an island. A man-made floating island…”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:49 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Rodolfo, Rodolfoing.

Rodolfo: “That has to be Tarazed, the floating fortress Heughes mentioned… I never thought he was serious.”

Rodolfo: “Look at it… it’s huge! Maybe crossing the Empire was the wrong move after all.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:51 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Corellia’s gift of prophecy once again doesn’t seem to be all that useful

Corellia: “This terrible feeling… What in the world does it all mean…”

Corellia: “The minds and hearts of men, machina, and a twisted god are set to crash together…”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:55 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

I like how this suggests that her apparent taste for monologuing in her room may be actually talking to the Tree, though. Which cries by shedding leaves.
Plus some symmetry: 1000 years ago, men became gods. This time a god became a man - I wonder if that’s Malpercio / Sagi?

Corellia: “I should have known the moment I saw that boy.”

Corellia: “Just one loose gear can derail the entire works. Once a god has lost its power and become man… what […]”

Corellia: “[…] will that man seek to find?”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 12:58 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Lolo needs a pay raise, time off and better customers. Lolo needs a union.
But also she’s brilliant, so if she says this can’t work without “some other kind of power”, I’m gonna guess the afterlings are at work here.

Lolo: “No way… I can’t believe it! How could something that big stay in the air on gadgets alone?”

Lolo: “It would need some other kind of power, no question…”

Man: “Let the other nations deal with their own problems! Now when are you gonna finish that?”

Lolo: “Oh, um, uh, right! Sorry! Sorry…”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:00 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

And Gena’s being a bad patient, but luckily Tik and Wacho are the best

Gena: “Wait… that’s Alfard! …Sagi! No, he has to be all right!”

Wacho: “Come on, you know you’re not supposed to be out of bed. Let us walk you home.”

Gena: “I’m sorry, boys. I just wanted to get some fresh air. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:04 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Milly obviously has no insight into her terrible dad’s terrible plans.
And Geldoblame gets his first taste of pretentious giant holograms, I suppose, to be put into action in his own time

Guillo: “What is he planning to do with a monstrosity like that?”

Milly: “No. What could Father be thinking?”

Geldoblame: “Wait… look up there! Baelheit? It’s some sort of projected image!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:07 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

This has a massive echo effect applied on Baelheit’s voice and ends up a bit goofy. Must be a hell of a megaphone to echo through the whole Sky.
Renouncing the entire continent? What?

Baelheit: “Citizens of the Empire. Leaders and citizens of all continents!”

Baelheit: “I, Emperor Baelheit, come to you today with a declaration!”

Baelheit: “The Alfard Empire hereby renounces its continent, and takes the floating fortress of Tarazed as […]”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:10 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Sure, I guess, whatever you want your new branding to be, keep pretending there’s no afterling juice in there.
Surely this seems fine, he can just fuck off on his ship, and…

Baelheit: “The imperial capital shall be relocated from Mintaka to the city of Vega inside Tarazed.”

Baelheit: “Henceforth, the Alfard Empire shall be known as the Tarazed Empire!”

Baelheit: “The Tarazed Empire will never rely on the tenebrous power of a god, power that could fail at any […]”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:13 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

No, really, this seems fine, if a bit excessive. Let the anti-Wiseman starts his little cult until the thing runs out of fuel

Baelheit: “There are no plans to limit immigration to Alfard-born. People of all lands are welcome.”

Baelheit: “The only condition is that you surrender your wings of the heart.”

Baelheit: “Tarazed offers a home only to those strong enough to free themselves of their heart’s grip.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:15 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Ah. Of course. WHY THO

Baelheit: “I would also like to take this opportunity to announce the Tarazed Empire’s first policy:”

Baelheit: “All continents held aloft by the power of the gods—including Alfard—shall be destroyed! That is […]”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:17 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Guillo’s read just feels too simple here. We’ll see? Anyway it’s not like this changes our murder plans

Geldoblame: “The scoundrel! Now that he’s in power, he can show his true colors!”

Guillo: “He failed to promachinate the continents, so now he’s going to destroy them. He’s like a child.”

Sagi: “We have to storm Tarazed—and settle things with Baelheit once and for all!”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:20 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Good question. “Could you really do that?” just gets us ellipses before Verus encourages us anyway.

Guillo: “Baelheit is Milliarde’s father. Are you sure you have it in you?”

Sagi: “I don’t…”
Dialog choice: “There’s no other way!” versus “Could you really do that?”

Verus: “Do it, Sagi. There’s no other way to defend the world.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:23 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

I’m calling it right now: talk will go (very) poorly and poor Milly will need to deliver the coup de grâce probably to save Sagi in a panic

Milly: “Wait! Father isn’t an unreasonable man. Let me talk to him first!”

Sagi: “As long as you understand what we may end up having to do.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:27 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

After some tactics chat - take the Sfida, of course, and take advantage of the mess of a nation-wide move - the conversation ends on this. Self-aware writing again?

Verus: “The fate to the world is on your shoulders. And I’m not just saying that for effects.”

Geldoblame: “So long as you’re the only ones able to stand against the machina arms, you really are our only hope.”

Lia @liareplaysbk · 01:28 AM · Jan 02, 2023 Permalink

Obviously that advanced world state a touch, so next time (likely in two weeks) it’s Go Talk To Everyone time again. Yay.