Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:07 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
So. Tarazed is a thing now and Baelheit wants to play Battleship with all the other islands. Obviously that means the world state has ticked forward and there’s another metric fuckton of new dialog. Will I finish this game ever? Unsure. Onwards!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:13 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Most people in Greater Mintaka have new dialog. The variety of viewpoints is great, makes it feel so much more grounded even with few people! I also lol’d at the Great Leader Complex Thoughts thing, that is used deadpan in France to stonewall journalists from the president
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:17 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Nice diegetic “hey you’re about to lose access to the Warm Cheers / Icy Jeers quest magnus, don’t miss it” there. Otherwise no real change, Verus and Geldo don’t have new things to say, we can still Greythorne it up, but we still can’t get into the darn locked room.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:18 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
The palace no longer has guards and rooms that had people are now empty. Literally nothing to see here unless we need rubber.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:21 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
This character’s been like this the entire game and it’s great. No changes with Skeed and Vallye, guess they’re staying put and getting disintegrated (again), tragic
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:24 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
We can AT LONG LAST enter Baelheit’s office and loot the chests! One contains another super-fast Prototype Mixer which for some reason has a separate Gathering entry. The other is a random armor magnus I already have too many of. Also that’s a hell of a large “bullet”
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:27 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
A sad gilder, some extremely chaotic kids making plans…
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:29 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
This soldier actually was asleep for the past few states of the area. Details like this are just lovely
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:35 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
The sleeping woman is huh not improving. And it turns out Tarazed was at least in part built by soldiers who actually respected their NDA. Okay, sure, I guess?
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:39 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
There’s so much confusion, in so many flavors, it’s GREAT world-building. Shame that it’s not quite followed through - there’s a lot of people left - but hey, they tried.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:42 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
We then “sneak” into Tarazed, no destination choice. So stealthy. How does Baelheit not have a “wait that’s Verus’ ship, shoot it down” alert system?
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:54 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
… at which point we get free travel back so let’s ignore the main plot some more and go search for new dialog! Put a pin in that nature vs machina food thing, it’ll come back. And that poor watcher in the tower has been waiting for so long. Heartbreaking.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 02:56 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Gena, we don’t need to talk about Sagi’s dad, we need to talk about what toxic heteronormative patriarchal bullshit you’ve been teaching those kids
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:01 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Next: Diadem! The overarching theme here is surprise that shouldn’t be surprise because come on the Empire was always obviously evil. So Ladekahn is beating himself up some more. But hey he’ll turn out functional in EW, I’M SURE IT’S FINE
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:04 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
This is delightful: “Grandpa” here has been wanting to go and fight since the invasion, but now we get the full context for why he’s like that, and it’s swords plural because “Grandma” was a knight too! And we learn that by eavesdropping on a convo between their grandkids!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:07 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
In Nashira, there’s some worry about the whole destruction thing, but mostly DAMNIT the fish is gone AGAIN won’t the Imperials stop MESSING UP THE CATCH
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:08 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Confirmation that people from non-Alfard islands are leaving too. I can’t recall what the person at the other table said but there was definitely someone there earlier.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:10 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
And now for the most important scene of the revisit. Because in Duhr, a creature has fallen from the sky, wholly unharmed. How bizarre!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:12 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Of course it’s a Greythorne. What else could it be? The kids disagree on its trustworthiness.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:14 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
At which point it grows ten times bigger while one kid isn’t looking. I guess our Whale is a bit of a trickster god!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:15 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
A certain villa in Komo Mai is now empty. There are Coliseum shenanigans coming, then.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:18 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Back to Tarazed, then! The inside looks familiar, with a large elevator like the one we fought Shanath on. Better lighting and actual walkways, tho. … also why is Sagi labeled as Valara? I only noticed now, huh.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:26 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
“Horn pods” is a terrible name. Spoiler: we’ll indeed trade something for access to one of those but it’ll be a LOT sillier. I’d snark about trading your moral integrity for a shitty electric scooter but we all know that’s actually a thing in the tech industry
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:29 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
The elevator is of course busted so we need to go up and explore some more. Supposedly the previous mechanic is at a café nearby.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:33 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
A familiar face, but mostly more BED FACTS. What is it with this game and BED FACTS. Darn near every bed in this has unique flavor text. Why. How.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:35 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Ah, I DID miss that house in Pherkad. We’ll be going back, of course. Also more BED FACTS
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:37 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Hidden BED FACTS! And what feels like a jab at functionalism (which is an actual architecture / design movement. It’s huge in Sweden, cf IKEA)
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:40 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
We find the machina bath house with individual cabinets. One holds Foul Air, which we need for mixing, and one has a grumpy Anuenue emigrant who gives us the last Sedna magnus. Bye Vega we’ll be rrrrrright back
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:45 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Okay not quite let’s finish this branch first. Nasca and Valara’s machina arma (what an aliteration) are there as showpieces of sorts in front of the café, described as “prototypes”. Since they need god pieces I’m not sure why our group assumes mass-production is at all viable?
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:48 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
The café is packed. There’s a welcome summary of everything that’s gone wrong thus far…
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:51 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Heartbreaking chatter from kids, and parents who’ll be SO confused when said kids leave and never want to talk to them again a decade later
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 03:53 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
There’s a lot more, all very interesting, but most vitally there’s our engineer and things that should probably be written on a panel inside the mechanism.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 04:01 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
To Sedna, where turning in the magnus we got finally unlocks the chest in the church. It’s the constellations all over again!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 04:05 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
There’s a letter in there, too. Not a fancy one, but… significant.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 04:06 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
And so we restore it, and complete Sedna at last!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 04:09 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
The reason no one in town talks to or mentions Maia is that she’s another one of those ghosts we’ve met. There is one kid in the last restored house, who say the tree has feelings - sad before the light is back, happy after - but that’s it.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 04:11 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
A few bits of changed flavor text, not much, and that’s Sedna done. Bye Sedna, you were very, very weird.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:16 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
I actually did Coliseum stuff in between but I’ll group all that together in the next thread so it makes more sense. For now: fixing the elevator! Which gets us access to the rest of the place AND that second full party heal. Nice.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:20 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Remember the “natural food” thing in Hassaleh I told you to put a pin into? In Vega, food is all done through magnus mixing. There are mentions of it in the café, too. Though the contents of the magnus have to come from somewhere, so… go figure.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:23 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
A very good question - I’m betting on Malpercio juice - and a VERY GOOD FEATURE. Everyone’s new here! It’s normal to be lost! So of course there’s someone to point at where things are!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:25 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Speaking of the shop, we’ve got mail. It’s… wings enlargement spam. Moving on.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:27 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
The concert hall is a platform (with our friends the recycled sconces), full of more Very Subtle Dialog
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:29 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Party reactions seem random since I got the same bits on different dialog. There is so much to unpack in that Guillo sentence I’m not even gonna start
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:32 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
More bummer dialog! More BED FACTS! Maybe the last?
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:44 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
But they’re all out of battery and the soldiers aren’t around to help (so much for fully automated luxury fascism). Sidequest, woo! And also another minor but obvious dysfunction in this supposed utopia.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:46 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
There are spark shrooms nearby, and a battery to crank them up to jolt shrooms without mixing. But we need the next step up which means mixing which means combat, so the Thunderbolts will wait.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:47 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Okay okay but we do have an apocalypse to prevent, so let’s go forward
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:49 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Once we go in, the music picks up BIG TIME, we get a false dialog choice, and it’s onwards to what smells like a very very large dungeon.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 05:50 PM · Jan 15, 2023
Permalink
Which obviously means going back to other way to go do some mixing, checking the Pac Snacks list, the Coliseum, and upgrading everything the Vega shop will allow me to. Next thread: some of that.