Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

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Grath
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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Grath » Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:00 am

Having now watched it: It wouldn't have saved you from the Branded curse making you Doomed, but wouldn't desperate struggle -> 3x attack (or a mix of +accuracy and two attacks) have been better on the dream devourer? Desperate Struggle does apply for the whole turn, in a reversal of duration of buffs from last time I commented.

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Friday
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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Friday » Thu Feb 25, 2021 4:21 pm

I've been sort of avoiding these videos because of the eyeball scene in the last one I watched, but as soon as I work up the nerve I'll jump back in. Don't worry, I love stuff like this.
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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Grath » Fri Feb 26, 2021 12:54 am

There hasn't been anything quite as bad as the eyeball scene since then, IMO.

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Mon Mar 01, 2021 3:05 pm

Grath wrote:Having now watched it: It wouldn't have saved you from the Branded curse making you Doomed, but wouldn't desperate struggle -> 3x attack (or a mix of +accuracy and two attacks) have been better on the dream devourer? Desperate Struggle does apply for the whole turn, in a reversal of duration of buffs from last time I commented.


Hmm. Yeah, I think I see your point. Both (Desp > Boost > 3x Attack) and (Desp > Prep > Strong > Normal) would have won in two hits, but the former would have had three rolls to make it there instead of two. Heh, I can't vouch for my state of mind at the time, I was probably spooked about that 30 power and figured I needed a guaranteed hit to soothe my nerves, even though it turned out to be counterproductive.

It does seem likely that the overall run was unsalvageable either way though, yeah.

Friday wrote:I've been sort of avoiding these videos because of the eyeball scene in the last one I watched, but as soon as I work up the nerve I'll jump back in. Don't worry, I love stuff like this.


Heh, I know what you mean, no problem.

You know, for pretty much all my life, I sort of understood intellectually why people enjoy horror-themed media, but for myself I could never make sense of it on a deeper level. I can't say that I understand it with perfect clarity now, not yet, but strangely I do feel like I'm sort of starting to get it with this. And this is not even any kind of on-ramp or introduction either, it gets frikkin' intense. Maybe it's just the style that finally resonates with me.

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Friday » Mon Mar 01, 2021 6:03 pm

For me, horror movies are boring as shit. I find them the most trope filled and the most stupid character populated. They're famous for both, of course, and some people actually seem to like that. It's fine in a horror-comedy, of course, but I can't take it seriously if the movie is trying to be serious.

The difference with games is that by giving the player agency, you are able to overcome the horror. Horror movies tend to end with the bad guy winning (or a twist at the end that shows them still alive) but in a horror videogame the onus is on the player to fight back and win even if you're scared. And there's a good feeling that comes with that.

Fighting your way through Blighttown and then climbing all the way back out (and yes, Blighttown is absolutely a horror game, hell, Dark Souls itself could be classified as one) is cathartic. You feel like you've overcome this insane ordeal. I feel the same way when beating Silent Hill 2 or a Resident Evil game.

Horror movies, on the other hand, are just watching a stupid person make bad choices that lead to people getting killed in horrible ways.
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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:20 pm

I wish I had that interesting a reason for not liking horror movies. Mine is mostly "I don't like being scared". Though, I mean, *gesticulates at thread*, there might be something more to it than that and it sounds like I might have to review that stance.

Actually, I've watched and enjoyed watching a borderline embarrassing amount of horror game LPs, so you might have described my whole deal better than I could explain it to myself. It does make sense at any rate.

Anyway!



Sometimes it's a relief that I'm not doing a storified text/screenshot LP because Lord knows how I would have explained immediately dumping that salaryman and getting money for it.

...

...

—Please, Mizuki-chan! If you pretend to break up with me, I'll give you 4 FNDs! Isn't that a good deal?
—...what? Why?
—REASONS!

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Friday » Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:26 am

François wrote:


Man, the ending to this video was such a downer.

It's nice to see you carrying some heavier weaponry than the steak knife from last time.
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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Wed Mar 03, 2021 5:28 am

Yeah. It's been occupying a lot of my mindspace ever since. Of all the mysteries I can't wait to get a second crack at, this one's at the top of the list. I thought "it" was going to preach at me, to try to talk me into becoming part of its flock so it could walk me in front of a train ASAP, but no, it was just... it was just okay with me not being ready. It didn't even mind. It was frikkin' nice about it. That just makes the whole situation more horrible.

(Ain't no Yakuza boy getting taken seriously with a steak knife, for real.)

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Friday » Wed Mar 03, 2021 8:04 am

François wrote:Alright, we're long overdue for some good endings, let's get into it again. Gambler's fallacy ahoy!



I know the interface in this game can be most kindly described as "a touch cluttered" so I'm not gonna kick myself too much over it, but dang, the info was right there!


hahahahaha that dq music

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time
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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:25 pm

I could hardly hope to accomplish more. :D

I almost went for one of the DQ4 casino win jingles instead, but this one just has the perfect "ah, there it is!" energy.



It's Fear Festival time again! Maybe we approached the last one with the wrong mindset. It couldn't hurt to have an open mind about these rural traditions, could it?

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Grath » Fri Mar 05, 2021 11:03 am

E10:
Hooo boy that got dodgy with Aka Mantou. That spell only did 5 damage, but it worked just in time for the mermaids to kill you again, probably

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:11 pm

I did almost get a critical player morale failure in that fight, but dang I did not want to give up without exhausting every option. Library Notes to the rescue in extremis once more!

I guess the tradeoff for Multiply Wounds compared to Ithotu Flame is that there's no Doom cost (even under the influence of Ath-Yolazsth), and it's not too dangerous to use if you're only low on Reason, but I have to say I expected it to hit a touch harder than it did. Especially considering that we saw it used at the absolute lowest Stamina you can be at and still survive the casting. With that said, any spell damage at all seems very powerful considering magic doesn't take any time to use, so it's hard to complain about it too much. Either way now I'm curious to find out how Grow Teeth stacks up, since it's rather expensive but also effectively a temporary weapon. Maybe we'll get lucky with the mysterious statues in the park again at some point.

There's an interesting dilemma going on with mysteries that you suspect or expect will end up with a possibly unavoidable fight with a tough opponent. You kinda want to put them off until you've had time to accumulate good equipment, spells and allies, but the more you wait, the more likely it is that you're also loaded with injuries and curses and/or just low on either type of HP. In retrospect there may be some incentive to leave less deadly cases for last just so you don't have to go through a boss gauntlet in the second half of the run, but then again there's also Evolving Eels which is mechanically easy but comes with an amazing reward that you want as soon as possible. Dang, as heavily RNG-influenced as this game is, the more I explore it the more I see how critical and layered the decisions you do get to make are.

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Grath » Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:36 pm

I was curious and looked up the Crimson Cape:

not-yet-done spoilers

You were on the right track but needed to meet more students to gossip with; eventually one tells you to reject getting anything from Aka Manto

further spoilers for what the other ending is

When you do so, your reward is an even harder Aka Manto fight where he has 12 more health and you don't get his mask afterwards.

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:25 pm

Bit of a short one today.

I wonder why.



I regretted the word the moment it passed my lips.

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:31 pm

Is one in a row enough to count as a winning streak? It could be the start of a winning streak, at least, right?



I'm like 98% sure I did get the correct ritual in the end, but yeah, my biggest mistake here was picking a fight with a ghost under Ithotu's influence. Apart from the whole Library Notes vs Prayer deal, I mean. Lots of competition for the "biggest mistake" spot today. Did I mention I don't post this series to make myself look good?

Dang, it still feels a bit weird to LP a game I don't know inside and out.

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Grath » Sat Mar 13, 2021 11:13 am

Ghosts seem really bullshit unless there's some trick to quickly kill them.

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Sat Mar 13, 2021 11:43 am

Grath wrote:Ghosts seem really bullshit unless there's some trick to quickly kill them.


Apparently the correct ritual remains the same for the entire run, so if you work it out once, you can one-shot any other ghost you encounter; in that sense, if you get into a ghost fight early on, it might be worth it to get that tool in your toolbox if you can survive and recover from the tussle. Of course ghosts aren't super common, so it might also not be worth it.

But yeah the correct call in this latest situation would definitely have been to make like a tree. I don't think we've met any ghost enemy we weren't allowed to escape so far, unless there was one in the Cthac-Atorasu run, but that's hardly the ghost's fault.

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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Friday » Sat Mar 13, 2021 4:02 pm

Well, finally caught up with the backlog.

You inspired me to buy the game! Yay!

Thanks to watching you first, I'm doing a lot better than I would have otherwise. This game is all about resource management. Seriously, the old adage "the only hit point that matters is the last one" applies probably in more force in this game than any other. Except in this game, you actually have three HP Bars: Stamina, Reason, and Doom. And all of them can be traded for one another. Resting is the simplest way to sacrifice Doom for Stamina and Reason. At 3% doom for +2 sta/reason, it's very useful. However, you also gain a free +1/+1 if you don't rest at all during an investigation, so keep that in mind if you think you can make it to the end.

The most important thing I've found is picking a weapon that suits your best stat and then leveling that stat every time you gain a level. The reason is that not only does this let you get more attacks per round with that weapon, but it also improves your accuracy. It's tempting to take the +4 heal to either your stamina or reason, but you'll actually save a lot more than that by just getting more actions and hitting more often. Prepping your hits always costs 10 (for 10%) and 40 (for 100%) no matter your stats, but regular and strong attacks get cheaper and cheaper (and more and more accurate) the higher the relevant stat is. At 11+ you can do a fuckload of damage per round. Even bosses usually only get two hits in before going down.

One important thing to note is that bracing during combat rounds in your favor. So if an enemy would do 3 stamina damage, if you brace that round, they only do 1. This can be used to whittle down an enemy into "kill range" while taking less damage, and then going full bore to finish them off. Because brace is based on str, this gives str weapons/characters a slight edge compared to the rest.

For Ghosts, I generally just sever them until dead. The clap/bow minigame just takes too long. They are a fucking pain even then, though. I oftentimes run from them (if not against Spider) because taking the Doom hit is better.
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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby François » Wed Mar 17, 2021 3:46 am

Friday wrote:You inspired me to buy the game! Yay!


[ralphwiggum]I'm a vector![/ralphwiggum]

Thanks to watching you first, I'm doing a lot better than I would have otherwise. This game is all about resource management. Seriously, the old adage "the only hit point that matters is the last one" applies probably in more force in this game than any other. Except in this game, you actually have three HP Bars: Stamina, Reason, and Doom. And all of them can be traded for one another. Resting is the simplest way to sacrifice Doom for Stamina and Reason. At 3% doom for +2 sta/reason, it's very useful. However, you also gain a free +1/+1 if you don't rest at all during an investigation, so keep that in mind if you think you can make it to the end.


Yeah, from the start I've been much too scared of Doom, which is a bit odd because high Doom is the only way I haven't died yet. I had never noticed the free rest if you didn't rest by yourself, though!

It's tempting to take the +4 heal to either your stamina or reason, but you'll actually save a lot more than that by just getting more actions and hitting more often.


Right, I've been under the wrong impression from the start that healing is hard to come by, which skewed my level bonus calls a touch. I haven't even visited the pharmacy at the hospital yet because I guess I've just had it in my mind that I couldn't afford anything there, which doesn't make a lot of sense now that I think about it for half a second. I'll have to remember to check it out in the next run just to see what's in there. (Well, not the run I'm about to start posting, the one after that.)

Anyway, show, road, you know the drill. Let's cosplay Weird Al.

I want to say this makes sense in context, but really, if you can think of a context in which you shouldn't cosplay Weird Al, keep it to yourself, my Reason's low as it is.


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Re: Let's play World of Horror, because that's a welcome change from reality I guess

Postby Grath » Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:23 pm

Eerie Episode of Evolving Eels other endings spoilers:
You've found the Good Ending. The other two endings are where/when Kana dies: At the hospital with an eye full of eels, or abandoned to her death in the neighbor's apartment

Vicious Verses of A Violent Vigil other endings, how to make it possible:
The important parts are copying the symbol from his toe and doing the 2am ritual correctly by the pamphlet; this will allow you to achieve a non-C ending.

Violent Vigil further spoilers:
You may need to do the 10pm ritual correctly as well as the 2am ritual to get Ending B; Ending A may be achievable with messing up the 10pm ritual, but I don't know for sure. The 11pm ritual doesn't matter and the 12am and 3am rituals are impossible to follow.

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