Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis (Crime Island Adventure)

[LaZodiac]

I get a four day weekend so it's time for A Lodis.

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [29] Venefica

Video Length: 38:51

Starting us off today, I show off the OTHER bit of treasure we got from off screen questing. Necromancy! With which we turn Pit into a ghost, and turn Terepat into a dragon zombie which gets us a super fancy emblem, since Terepat's been in every "class" of dragon. It's way easier to get this emblem with dragons, so this is how I'm showing it off. We do use the Resurrection scroll to turn Terepat back to normal...perhaps too normal. Incidentally I forget who I've told this to but I've realized the regular dragons of Ogre Battle look like Dragon Quest dragons and that's just kinda neat.

After that we head to Harmonia, a snowy field (like most maps now that it's winter) wherein we fight both Cervantes and Lethe alongside a bunch of monsters, introducing Giants (who are bad due to inaccurate attacks) and Daemons (who can but usually won't ever summon weaker enemies). There's also some Gorgons around who are dangerous due to their petrifying eye, of course. The real threat on this map are of course Cervantes and Lethe, who are two incredibly powerful spellcasters...who due to being higher level than us, are basically unhittable! I get...a little annoyed at this, and basically decide that we'll be grinding after this map regardless of what I said previous, because this is a biiit much for my tastes. The game shouldn't force you to have to have everyone on par with the game in order to progress with any sort of ease, is all I'm saying.

Also we learn that Cervantes and Lethe are fallen angels in this episode. That might not be a big surprise, but it does explain a lot about them! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time.

------

Emblem time! We got two to show off today.

Relix's/Ripple's/Grozz Nuy's Emblem: Male, Female, and Dragon respectively. If you get someone to be in every single class, you get this emblem! It imparts a permanent, unremovable +2 to morale, which is kind of absurd, which makes the actually rather tricky task of getting someone into every single class pretty difficult! If you do try to do this, here are some things to watch out for. Male units need to kill 5 dragons, but also need to avoid killing beasts for Animal Tamer and killing 10 people to become a Priest. Female units don't have to worry as much about murder, but due need to persuade a male unit. Dragons are as said above the easiest, all you need is necromancy and you can get it. Of note, Angel Knight, Lich, and Ghost are the last three classes on male and female units, so you'll need Necromancy and at least two scrolls of Resurrection to do it for a human unit.

I would say this emblem is actually worth trying to get, if you can. Of course Gaston cannot get it, sadly, but your other units can and if you can plan ahead for it, it's super smart to do.

Circle of Life: Gained for using Resurrection after being turned into an undead. You've crossed several veils of life and thus are friendlier to undead, giving them a +1 to morale when nearby. A fairly useless ability given ghosts are basically useless and are the only unit that count as undead! Still, neat to have.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I'm sure you can imagine my feelings about how much evasion (and healing) the enemies in this game get. It just isn't fun. How many times have we seen both an attack and the counterattack blocked? If I were in charge, I'd remove all the healing and just double the enemies' HP pools...

It is neat that you can raise your dead allies as ghosts. And attacking Gaston from the front continues to be a terrible idea - I count 7 counterattack-kills for him now.

Spoiler: Style Points

Show

Unit	Counter Kills	Power Naps	Shield Bash Kills	Multi Kills	Total
Gaston	7	0	0	0	7
Allos (retired)	1	0	0	0	1
Blue	0	0	1	0	1
Celestine	0	3	1	0	4
DataNinja	1	0	0	0	1
Deme	1	1	0	1	3
Deneb	0	0	1	0	1
Eleanor	0	0	0	0	0
Euphaire	0	0	0	0	0
Flauros (retired)	0	0	0	0	0
Glycinia	0	0	0	0	0
Ivanna	1	1	0	0	2
Kamui (retired)	0	0	0	0	0
Lubina	0	0	0	0	0
Orson	0	0	0	0	0
Pitt	0	0	0	0	0
Thelma (retired)	0	0	0	0	0
Terepat	0	0	0	0	0
Trobby	0	0	0	0	0
Vecna	0	0	0	0	0
Total	11	5	3	1	20

[DataNinja]

Well then. That was... an experience in Training.

Well... the fairies together now have more kills than Terepat.

Oh... well, I didn't expect fallen angels, but given that they knew much about the demon lord I expected something.

And, yeeeeah, those evasions are frankly ridiculous compared to literally everything else you've fought up to this point. Something that GMing has taught me is that you don't increase the difficulty of encounters by making things frustrating to hit without a way to shut that off. It's just... bad times all around.

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	39
Deneb	12
DataNinja	22
Blue	13
Celestine	16
Trobby	10
Vecna	20
Ivanna	8
Glycinia	3
Terepat	3
Orson	4
Deme	12
Eleanor	6
Elrik	2
Pitt	0
Euphaire	7
Lubina	1
Rictor	1
Saia	0
Friendly Fire: 12	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 16

Incidentally I forget who I've told this to but I've realized the regular dragons of Ogre Battle look like Dragon Quest dragons and that's just kinda neat

You mentioned that last episode's write up.

[LaZodiac]

Onwards, to more Lodis!

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [30] Cybil

Video Length: 39:00

Starting us off today, I show off the results of our last dip into the Quest mode. The only thing of real note we got is Clotho, the final special ability. It's a spear length attack that does a ton of damage, but not as much as Atropos. It's usable by spears and thrusting swords, so it's quite good on say a Valkyrie. But we've given it to Gaston, to give us a unit able to just erase people from existence.

That aside, there isn't actually much to go over. Our team is almost complete. We dive into our next destination, the frozen wastes of Charadrius! Therein, we find Cybil, who traitors us due to Saher's influencing her...apparent actual genuine romance for this underaged child. Cool, thanks Cybil. She summons up angels and demons to fight us, and we do a violence upon each other. At this point Cybil's got the wind summon, the Thunderbird. We do get it for defeating her, but given our only wind element spellcaster is now a Lich who can't use summons for some reason, we won't really be making use of it. Luckily, she uses it often enough that we get a good feel for how good it is.

Finally, with the death of Cybil, we can use the dandruff of satan to reveal Longicolnis! And we just...we get the Longicolnis. We just straight up get it. And we equip that thing onto Gaston immediately, putting him on the same level as Celestine and her snapdragon sword. It's a pretty cool moment honestly, finally getting the plot macguffin we've been hunting for so long. And then...then Gaston decides that they will go storm Saher's fortress and unleash him like Saher wants but it's okay because we'll kill him???? I don't know, this is a part of the story I'm kinda lost track of.

At any rate, that's it for today! A bit of a disjointed write up, but really at this point there's just not a lot to talk about. It's the one negative point of tactics games that will never go away. There just becomes a moment where you fun out of things to say. I could go indepth into how Cybil's death is...entirely lifeless for the plot, but then Route B has kinda been like that in general and we should leave that until the end of the game. But yeah, hope you all enjoyed! I'll see you all next time!

[jindra34]

On your last question of the video: Alinda is meaningless in the large scheme. Gaston killing Shaher after Shaher proves to be capable of corrupting multiple people, IS the Lodis Holy Knight thing to do. Sensible? No, but that is a general problem of the holy knights.

[LaZodiac]

On your last question of the video: Alinda is meaningless in the large scheme. Gaston killing Shaher after Shaher proves to be capable of corrupting multiple people, IS the Lodis Holy Knight thing to do. Sensible? No, but that is a general problem of the holy knights.

I mean that is true, but it also seems kinda like I'm playing into his hand. But then, that's Paladins for you.

[tonberrian]

I would say this emblem is actually worth trying to get, if you can. Of course Gaston cannot get it, sadly, but your other units can and if you can plan ahead for it, it's super smart to do.

This is not strictly true. Gaston can get it, just, only in "post" game. You beat the game, load up the file before the final fight again, and Gaston will have Felix's Emblem. Just, with nothing really to use it on except quest mode and beating the game again.

[DataNinja]

Yeeeeah, this all might be more impactful if there was any shown connection at all between Cybil and Gaston.

Apparently you like Summons in Quest Mode?

"We must go and do the thing... even though there's no reason to - we have the laser spear, after all."

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	39
Deneb	12
DataNinja	22
Blue	13
Celestine	18
Trobby	11
Vecna	20
Ivanna	8
Glycinia	3
Terepat	3
Orson	4
Deme	15
Eleanor	8
Elrik	2
Pitt	0
Euphaire	7
Lubina	1
Rictor	1
Saia	0
Friendly Fire: 12	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 16

It's easter, so my multiple-of-5 unit kill mapping will come a bit later. Have family to visit today and whatnot.

[LansXero]

The plan to just keep it hidden has already failed once, why would they expect it to work now? If anything, this makes much more sense than the option, provided they can kill Saher. But he is a Lodisian, to his mindset there is nothing he cant conquer. Being a prequel, it would make more sense had you played the earlier game.

[jindra34]

The plan to just keep it hidden has already failed once, why would they expect it to work now? If anything, this makes much more sense than the option, provided they can kill Saher. But he is a Lodisian, to his mindset there is nothing he cant conquer. Being a prequel, it would make more sense had you played the earlier game.

This whole issue is the root of the Lodis versus Zenobia conflict: On encounter an ancient sealed evil, while holding the key to the prison and it having shown itself to be capable of influencing people do you: A) Open the seal up and try and kill the sealed evil or B) Add another seal and take the key all the way across the world?

[LansXero]

This whole issue is the root of the Lodis versus Zenobia conflict: On encounter an ancient sealed evil, while holding the key to the prison and it having shown itself to be capable of influencing people do you: A) Open the seal up and try and kill the sealed evil or B) Add another seal and take the key all the way across the world?

Spoiler: O_O

Show

Yeah, so playing LUCT would make this more clear, specially knowing that this is Tartare's younger self. Since this is the canon path and all, he is bound to be as Lodisian as it gets.

[Ninja_Prawn]

On your last question of the video: Alinda is meaningless in the large scheme. Gaston killing Shaher after Shaher proves to be capable of corrupting multiple people, IS the Lodis Holy Knight thing to do. Sensible? No, but that is a general problem of the holy knights.

Personally, I don't think the game does a good job of framing this plot point. What we're given is basically:

1. Gaston goes to Charadrius to recover Longicolnis to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
2. Satan possesses Cybil, tries to kill Gaston.
3. He fails.
4. Satan: "Hey, Gaston, bro. Hey, bro, do me a solid and set me free from my ancient prison, okay?"
5. Gaston: "Um. No. Why would I do that?"
6. Satan: "Why not?"
7. ...
8. Gaston goes to open up the ancient prison?

I feels pretty random, to be honest. I don't even really feel like Gaston has done or said much to suggest he is or wants to be a 'Lodis Holy Knight'...

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: O_O

Show

Yeah, so playing LUCT would make this more clear, specially knowing that this is Tartare's younger self. Since this is the canon path and all, he is bound to be as Lodisian as it gets.

Spoiler

Show

This is not the canon path, the canon path is mermaid torture. Let's ease up on thet spoilers though, just in case

Yeah I imagine a lot of people are basing their thoughts on how Gaston IS a member of Lodis and was nominally working for them before he got cross bowed into the ocean.

[DataNinja]

Personally, I don't think the game does a good job of framing this plot point. What we're given is basically:

1. Gaston goes to Charadrius to recover Longicolnis to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
2. Satan possesses Cybil, tries to kill Gaston.
3. He fails.
4. Satan: "Hey, Gaston, bro. Hey, bro, do me a solid and set me free from my ancient prison, okay?"
5. Gaston: "Um. No. Why would I do that?"
6. Satan: "Why not?"
7. ...
8. Gaston goes to open up the ancient prison?

I feels pretty random, to be honest. I don't even really feel like Gaston has done or said much to suggest he is or wants to be a 'Lodis Holy Knight'...

Yeah. That's... pretty much how I see it (especially knowing squat about the other games or anything). There's nothing other than the description of the spear item itself that suggests "yo, we can use this to kill Satan". You'd think that it would be more like the One Ring, where bringing his broken off horn gives him more power. The narrative gives zero suggestion as to that this is even possible.

Also, I forget, is this... where the Mermaid hid the spear? Right in front of the prison? Or am I forgetting someone finding and moving it? Because this seems like a stupid place to hide it, even if nominally the shard is needed to find it.

[jindra34]

Also, I forget, is this... where the Mermaid hid the spear? Right in front of the prison? Or am I forgetting someone finding and moving it? Because this seems like a stupid place to hide it, even if nominally the shard is needed to find it.

The mermaid hid it in the shrine we checked during chapter 2. Someone found it there, and ended up moving it up to here. Probably following Shaher's promises and ended up freezing to death or something.

[DataNinja]

The mermaid hid it in the shrine we checked during chapter 2. Someone found it there, and ended up moving it up to here. Probably following Shaher's promises and ended up freezing to death or something.

Okay, that's what I thought it might have been, but was trying to remember if we knew who had found it... because there was the shard left for our best-buddy-pal, but nobody thereabouts actually had it... so... yeah, I was just trying to recall if we learned how exactly it got here specifically. (I still advocate for throwing it into the fires of the lava we walked past to get to this point.)

[tonberrian]

I mean, it's probably impervious to lava. And probably would find its way to someone through subtle magic. That's how artifacts work.

[DataNinja]

I mean, it's probably impervious to lava. And probably would find its way to someone through subtle magic. That's how artifacts work.

Yeah, honestly, on second thought, if the entire island is the prison, then tossing it into the core of the island'd probably be a bad.

---

Aaaand also, finally got this bit up:

Spoiler: Army Kill Chart

Show

Gaston still with more than twice as many kills as anyone outside of the top 3.

[LansXero]

I feels pretty random, to be honest. I don't even really feel like Gaston has done or said much to suggest he is or wants to be a 'Lodis Holy Knight'...

- He is a knight of lodis
- where is that written though?
- its in the game's name, 'the knight of lodis'

Sorry, couldnt help it.

Gaston goes to Charadrius to recover Longicolnis to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
Satan possesses Cybil, tries to kill Gaston.
He fails.
Satan: "Hey, Gaston, bro. Hey, bro, do me a solid and set me free from my ancient prison, okay?"
Gaston: "Um. No. Why would I do that?"
Satan: "Why not?"
...
Gaston goes to open up the ancient prison?

On one hand, some stuff might've been lost in translation. Japanese is a wordy language. Also, portable versions sometimes cut stuff out from one language to another. So there might be some of that going on in here.

But, the way I remember it, Gaston knows the spear has been:
- used to fuel a war
- lost twice already
- moved by people under the prisoner's influence

The fallen angel is no longer contained, as he is playing people as puppets to bring about his eventual release. So, our protagonist wants to release him before whatever plans he might have come to fruition, to kill him for good so he stops corrupting the people of the island and causing tragedies. Sure, he could just leave with the spear to go wherever, but that wont keep him from messing with the people of the island, causing more wars, and maybe even eventually finding a way to break free anyways. Also, Lodis will target him if they think he got the spear, and Lodis' enemies probably will as well. So the best solution for everyone is for the ancient threat to stop being a threat by the power of stabbing it repeatedly until it dies.

[DataNinja]

The fallen angel is no longer contained, as he is playing people as puppets to bring about his eventual release. So, our protagonist wants to release him before whatever plans he might have come to fruition, to kill him for good so he stops corrupting the people of the island and causing tragedies. Sure, he could just leave with the spear to go wherever, but that wont keep him from messing with the people of the island, causing more wars, and maybe even eventually finding a way to break free anyways. Also, Lodis will target him if they think he got the spear, and Lodis' enemies probably will as well. So the best solution for everyone is for the ancient threat to stop being a threat by the power of stabbing it repeatedly until it dies.

Yeah, it's just... this seems to be going about that in the worst way possible. If you wanted to kill a prisoner, you don't bring them the key to their prison first. Especially if that key was part of their body, meaning it will - from all logic, and what's been presented so far - make them stronger.

I think that's the part that the other Ninja and I are just... going 'what.' about.

[LansXero]

Yeah, it's just... this seems to be going about that in the worst way possible. If you wanted to kill a prisoner, you don't bring them the key to their prison first. Especially if that key was part of their body, meaning it will - from all logic, and what's been presented so far - make them stronger.

I think that's the part that the other Ninja and I are just... going 'what.' about.

but without the key you cant enter his cell in the first place, so how do you kill him? And its not some random nobody that Shaher has messed with; Cybill, was someone close to our protagonist, a trained spellcaster and a Lodisian. Who else may yet fall? Who is to say he himself is beyond risk? So in that light, that he rushes into satan's prison to end him makes sense, to me at least.

[LaZodiac]

It's time to commence the end game.

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [31] Satan Jail

Video Length: 24:41

In this episode, the beginning of the end...well, begins. We begin storming the Angel's Headstone, the massive god-built structure that houses the soul of Saher. The bridge collapses behind us...we either kill the satan or we die, simple as that. He taunts us using a lich that is also pretending to be Cybil for some reason, and then we begin our first fight which is predominantly undead which provide no loot and thus can be entirely ignored. Given the fact that this is the final series of missions (the final area is another castle siege map) we really don't need the loot anyway...though in retrospect I do kind of forget to stock up on supplies before diving into here so ooops!

That uh...that being said, there isn't actually a lot to discuss about this map. It's a lot of zombies and one demon, plus a powerful lich. But we've got the Longicolnis, which is suitably powerful! It doesn't allow us to shoot out bolts of hell lightning or anything, sadly, the legends of it being a super powerful satan gun were a bit exaggerated even in by the mermaids who wielded it. But it does do a ton of damage, and can used with Clotho to one shot basically almost anything. Also given the "break" effect, it may be that the spear can just instantly kill whoever it hits.

We finally put an end to the lich guarding the entrance to Saher's prison, and then begin to climb. Eleanor hears voices in her heads, and Rictor suggests we split up so we can...study the ancient god ruins some more. I suppose that's valid. But yeah, hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time for the next one! Take care.

[DataNinja]

Yay, time powers.

Ooh, yeah, it's a neat map. I assume that we'll be splitting our forces once again (to the crystal and flame-y things).

...I feel like punchwizard failed Wizarding 101.

Shouldn't Gaston, being the dragonslayer, try and slay the dragon that exists? It just feels like that be a more efficient use of resources.

All the ghosts vanish, but doesn't that mean there's still a Zombie Dragon out there behind you?

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	40
Deneb	12
DataNinja	22
Blue	16
Celestine	19
Trobby	11
Vecna	20
Ivanna	8
Glycinia	3
Terepat	3
Orson	4
Deme	15
Eleanor	8
Elrik	2
Pitt	0
Euphaire	7
Lubina	1
Rictor	1
Saia	0
Friendly Fire: 12	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 16

I don't imagine you'll need to worry about Gaston having enough kills. He's had 40 even without Quest Mode.

[DataNinja]

Oh, so, quick cross-referencing note. I went back to when you noted Gaston got Blood Reign (25 kills), and he'd got 19 on-Camera kills at that time. So, currently, assuming no further kills off-camera between episodes 15 and 31, he'd be at 46 kills.

[LaZodiac]

Oh, so, quick cross-referencing note. I went back to when you noted Gaston got Blood Reign (25 kills), and he'd got 19 on-Camera kills at that time. So, currently, assuming no further kills off-camera between episodes 15 and 31, he'd be at 46 kills.

There definitely has been but I'll be sure to have Gaston rip some piece to shreds just in case in the next couple videos.

[DataNinja]

There definitely has been but I'll be sure to have Gaston rip some piece to shreds just in case in the next couple videos.

You just want him to have more than twice as many on-camera kills as anyone else.

[LaZodiac]

Saturday mornings seems good for card games. What do you all think?

Zodi Plays: Magic the Gathering Arena SEALED [3.1] Woof of the Bark

Video Length: 23:25

In this one, me and Blue team up to do a sealed game of the newest Magic expansion, War of the Spark! I've divided it like this,first the deck building then one match per video, in order to cut down on editing time, save space on my hard drive, and just to see if this is a more appealing way to do this sort of thing. What do you guys think?

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey, a reminder: prerelease is all weekend long. It's time for more card games!

Zodi Plays: Magic the Gathering Arena SEALED [3.2] Ooops All Lands

Video Length: 17:26

This is the part where I ask the people who do watch these if they're okay with me splitting up the duels into seperate videos and posting them twice a weekend. Does that seem good and reasonable? I don't know. Anyway hey enjoy this first video where we take our deck out for a spin!

[LaZodiac]

Okay let's have a Lodis, why don't we?

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [32] Corruption, Real or Not

Video Length: 22:22

In this episode, Zodi accidentally deleted the audio and she had to record post-commentary. Oops! This is the first of two "branches" of our assault on the Angel's Headstone, and the Hall of Corruption is the demon side, with more nasty folk on it. Dark Angels, who are Angel Knights that can cast mortal spells instead of angel abilities (which is rude) and a lead demon that shows just how much better angel knights are to demons.

Otherwise there's little else to talk about, beyond the fact that I show off juuust how powerful Gaston could be, if I didn't do things for flavor over mechanics. Atropos on Gaston with a snapdragon would rip the game in half, but giving him Clotho and the Longicolnis are so very, very good flavor wise and I love it.

But yeah, that's it for today! Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time for the virtuous part of this final "dungeon" of sorts.

[DataNinja]

Wait... that demon at the start... he's Virtue element. The Dark Angel I could see, I guess, but he's Bane. So why is the demon Virtue? I know it was mentioned that you could do it, but...

I imagine you're not using Clotho every round because it uses up around a quarter of Gaston's HP.
Edit: A fifth to a quarter. Seems to be variabobble.

I was waiting for that Evil Eye. But... ohhhhh, I didn't realize that "range: sight" literally meant that it used a vision cone for the range. I thought it just meant it had infinite range against a single target.

Eleanor, racking up the kills.

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	42
Deneb	12
DataNinja	22
Blue	16
Celestine	19
Trobby	11
Vecna	20
Ivanna	9
Glycinia	3
Terepat	3
Orson	5
Deme	15
Eleanor	11
Elrik	2
Pitt	0
Euphaire	7
Lubina	1
Rictor	1
Saia	0
Friendly Fire: 12	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 16