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

[tonberrian]

Deneb can do this too! And hers is unique and better. I forget exactly how, but I believe it's significantly enhanced accuracy.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Her pumpkins bring all the boys to the yard?

[jindra34]

Deneb can do this too! And hers is unique and better. I forget exactly how, but I believe it's significantly enhanced accuracy.

More or less. I've already promised to cover the nitty gritty when we get to the point of special her.

[LaZodiac]

I don't know what you guys are talking about Deneb is obviously just a regular normal soldier. Anyway hey a new A Taste Of.

A Taste Of: Battle Chef Brigade

Video Length: 13:32

Finally, a food based game for this food themed first impression show. Battle Chef Brigade is a really cool side scrolling beat em up game that also is a match three puzzle game centered around cooking monsters up in an iron chef style food fight. It's really stylish and super cool and I love it. It's also intimidating as heck! Definitely give it a try though.

[DataNinja]

Well, it's certainly got appealing visuals, at least off the bat. A+ for piquing one's interest.

Overall, looks pretty cool. Amazing how many unique games come out of the cooking conceit.

[Qwertystop]

Ah, this game. Played it for a while but it had a pretty big difficulty spike, and I stopped having fun trying to eke out a few more points to actually win a challenge.

[LaZodiac]

Can't escape from crossing fate.

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [9] Gremlins Are Bad

Video Length: 39:41

The votes are in and all of you have voted for the...obviously correct of the two choices. We're going down route B, telling Cybil that her plan is stupid. Now, why IS it stupid, anyway? Well first off, let's go down the points in reverse order. Assuming everything works out and we DO follow mermaids back to mermaid town after torturing a mermaid (which isn't 100% likely) we're left with a situation where...yeah, we've found mermaid town, but they likely will hate us entirely. Secondly, there's no real reason to assume any mermaids will APPEAR when we torture one. That's always a concern. Additionally there is the problem of actually finding a mermaid in the first place. It's not like they're SUPER rare, but they only live in one localized area of the island and are justifiably insular due to the colonial nonsense that the mainland enforced on them. And finally, with that in mind...this idea's basic premise is entirely flawed because if we find a mermaid WE CAN JUST ASK THE MERMAID WHERE SHE LIVES. It might be hard to convince her to tell us, and we may need to follow HER, but...this entire plan is predicated on finding a mermaid. If we find a mermaid we can AT LEAST TRY non torture methods. Jumping immediately to torture a mermaid is...ridiculous.

That being said, I buried the lead on this one. Not on purpose mind you, I didn't know until AFTER setting it all up. I checked out what happens if you pick A. Gaston says he can't think of something...but he asks Cybil to give him time to. Cybil agrees. Looking ahead down this route I've seen no one ever take...we never actually torture a mermaid at all. The entire point of this question was not to see if we would actually torture a mermaid or not, but to see how we react to CYBIL wanting to torture a mermaid. Do we tell her off like we do here, cutting our ties with her? Or do we still work WITH her. We still say no to torture, but it's a soft no. It's basically a maybe. And that's the REAL deciding element here. Do we show Cybil that we're still willing to be her lap dog or not. Which still, of course, carries the problem of SHE SPENDS LIKE THREE MINUTES giving a speech about THE IMPORTANCE OF CHOICE. By doing all of that, it keys the player who is paying attention (and it's a plot based tactics JRPG, they're PAYING attention) in to the fact that Cybil is, absolutely, a maniac. She literally tells you "choice is important don't do something just because fate decides it" and then follows it up with "but also follow my ever order without question". She's an idiot and a psychopath and I have to imagine the reason why people DID vote for her path was because they're playing devil's advocate or just want to see something that's not been done before. Because there is literally no reason, what so ever, to actually justify taking Cybil's path.

So. We tell Cybil off, and then head off to that old church were we woke up after being crossbow'd into the ocean. Eleanor is there, and she's VERY happy to see us. Gaston is very happy to see here, and if you don't see the relationship flaps flying high here then I don't know what to tell you. Regardless, we tell her that we'll be back for her some day. Much like every other non mermaid torture adjacent question, this really is a non-question. You pick the first choice because otherwise...nothing really happens except Eleanor ceases to matter. Of course, in this case...Eleanor ceasing to matter is kind of a big deal that I'll get into later.

Regardless of that, we leave and head off to the cave path that Gaston learned about somehow. Dragons and gremlins block our path, but our old friend Orson appears! He'll be assisting us, as it seems Rictor has sent him off to watch over us. Thus we begin the fight, and it's a hell of a fight honestly. Dragons are tough, decently strong, and have powerful breath weapons that increase in range as they gain intelligence. Thunder dragons can stun you with their breath, earth dragons can poison you. It's pretty nasty! I take this opportunity to recruit a dragon with Celestinee, who gladly joins our ranks and will likely be renamed as soon as I'm able. Then we enter gremlin hell. This is what the game means when it says they have evil blood.

After an...agonizingly long time killing two gremlins, we finally get a scene of Orson making it very clear. Rictor doesn't know jack all about the mermaid stick, they're really just here to investigate why things have gotten so bloody, so quickly. That's good to know. With that knowledge in mind we can rest easy, and proceed to march to Arena. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time.

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New emblem time! Pretty rare to see that now that we've gotten all the easy to get ones!

Lancer: Lancer is actually pretty hard to get outside of training and the fact that I did it speaks truth to the fact that I might actually be insane. To get it you must hit two enemies at once with a piercing weapon like the pike. Piercing weapons hit two squares, the second square for less damage, and it can hit two people at once because of it. If you get this emblem you can, once you're strong enough, turn into a Valkyrie. We'll talk more on them later, but suffice to say they're one of the stronger end game classes.

[jindra34]

I think you may be being a little harsh on Cybil here Zodi. But yes the plot is fairly similar between the two routes, your just choosing whether you which end game caster you actually want. And a sprinkle of ending details.

Also since I'm the mechanics guy (Kinda) lets go over recruit chance: (50+[Unit Compatability])/100*[%HP lost]. Its simple, its just the class compatibility table is kinda big. Also emblems(+30 for arbitration, -50 for either slayer) add to the final chance, presuming its over 0%.

[LaZodiac]

I think you may be being a little harsh on Cybil here Zodi. But yes the plot is fairly similar between the two routes, your just choosing whether you which end game caster you actually want. And a sprinkle of ending details.

Also since I'm the mechanics guy (Kinda) lets go over recruit chance: (50+[Unit Compatability])/100*[%HP lost]. Its simple, its just the class compatibility table is kinda big. Also emblems(+30 for arbitration, -50 for either slayer) add to the final chance, presuming its over 0%.

Yeah I'm probably being a little harsh. It's just one of those things where it's like...they really thought they had this really tough grey vs grey mentality and it doesn't actually come off as that, to me.

[LansXero]

Doesnt Lancer trigger even if the second unit is your own? I dont remember it being hard to get at all. Because spears counter-attacking spears will hit the guy in the middle as well so sandwiching people like that is fairly common for valkyries-to-be.

As for the plot, it actually tries to make you choose who Gaston is.

Spoiler: KoL

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Cybil is not some random person, she is an envoy of the Pope and thus as close to 'word of god' as Lodissians get. Considering that this is the Pope's hitman younger years prequel, going the Cybil route means LODIS UBER ALLES and lets you know where the slippery slope begun for him to become the cold-blooded cynic he is in LUCT. Torturing someone he doesnt consider his equal (as a non-human) is merely the prelude, the first thing we see him do in LUCT is slaughtering a whole town, children and all, just because someone who may know something about a magic sword lives there. The Cybil ending is the canonical one, because he cant go and take over Valeria if he runs away with Eleanor.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I love the shocked look on the dragons' faces whenever they take damage. They're like "zoinks, Scoob!"

Also, go Vecna! Cranking out the DPR like a boss.

[jindra34]

Doesnt Lancer trigger even if the second unit is your own? I dont remember it being hard to get at all. Because spears counter-attacking spears will hit the guy in the middle as well so sandwiching people like that is fairly common for valkyries-to-be.

I wouldn't call it a tactic just for valkyries-to-be. If you have the health its a common spear tactic.

[LansXero]

I wouldn't call it a tactic just for valkyries-to-be. If you have the health its a common spear tactic.

What else uses a spear though? I guess hawkmen? But my point was that usually you get it while you are still changing into actual classes, so its an early thing to acquire.

[DataNinja]

...admittedly, three people is less than I was expecting. But, I'm happy with the result.

Oh no! Hopefully you get well soon.

So, what happens for this cutscene if we didn't take Ivanna on way back when?

Woo! Magic item! ...hopefully this doesn't lead to a tragic and ironic death from not being able to be healed.

Am 100% onboard with getting dragons.

Yeah, geez, all of this stuff keeps reminding me of the RW sprites. Gremlins to the Garchimecara (though a bit cuter, guess a bit of moogle, too), and Dragons to the... Dragons.

Spoiler: Images

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"I'm just going to edit this out." ...you still haven't made an axe pun land correctly, why did you think Future You would listen?

Well... sonovagun. It's more like a necklace of Antimagic.

Well, let's see you try and throw shuriken at something tiny that's standing on a pillar more than twice your height.

Spoiler: Army

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Unit	Kills
Gaston	8
Deneb	8
DataNinja	6
Blue	1
Celestine	5
Trobby	2
Vecna	9
Ivanna	1
Glycinia	0
Terepat	1
Friendly Fire: 4	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 9

[jindra34]

Data Ninja the Amulet of No Magic shouldn't result in a death due to no healing magic. Because ITEMS aren't healing magic. Also they heal very generous amounts of health. Also probably should go to Troby for the time being because everyone else has become enamoured with the wonderful power of magic. Huh, that sounds like something that could go horribly wrong.

[LansXero]

The most efficient healing in this game is to kill everything before it can touch you. Which isnt always possible of course, but you'll see it later.

Second most efficient are items, because they dont require you to keep a guy around who cant contribute to #1

Is exorcism a thing in this one?

[jindra34]

Is exorcism a thing in this one?

Yes. Oh gods undead are horrifing without a cleric/priest or related to deal with them after they fall. Or the ultimate spell.

[LansXero]

Yes. Oh gods undead are horrifing without a cleric/priest or related to deal with them after they fall. Or the ultimate spell.

Spoiler: KoL undead

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Well, there is always the Angel Knight skill, right? But yeah, thats the one reason to keep a healer around, but other than that I always ended up leaving them unused and unleveled, because you start either taking very little damage anyways, piling up more goth than you can spend on items, or dying so fast that healing cant keep up.

[DataNinja]

Data Ninja the Amulet of No Magic shouldn't result in a death due to no healing magic. Because ITEMS aren't healing magic. Also they heal very generous amounts of health. Also probably should go to Troby for the time being because everyone else has become enamoured with the wonderful power of magic. Huh, that sounds like something that could go horribly wrong.

Ah, right. I forgot about healing items being a thing we could use, since I don't think we've used one this whole game. Just the enemies.

[LaZodiac]

Ah, right. I forgot about healing items being a thing we could use, since I don't think we've used one this whole game. Just the enemies.

We have used an herb, exactly once.

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey, Eggyplastics has finished the art for the 2018 Zodi Game Awards.

I give you, THE VOICE!

And if you like her art I highly recommend you check her out at here: https://twitter.com/eggyplastics

[DataNinja]

Very nice. He looks very happy to have won.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Called it, by the way.

(In a PM to Zodi)

[LaZodiac]

Onwards, to greater and greater conflicts.

Zodi Plays: Tactics Ogre The Knight of Lodis [10] Fish Violence

Video Length: 37:01

In this episode, we make our way to Arena in our search for a mermaid to befriend! And believe it or not, we do manage to stumble upon a mermaid, Minerva...unfortunately, trying to negotiate with her proves futile. She is, unsurprisingly, untrusting of humans! With a simple shout a bunch of her allies appear, mermaids octopi and even some hawkmen, and the battle commences. Whether Gaston wants it or not.

So, this fight. It's a pretty difficult one if you're not careful! Because of the way water works, if you step out into the ocean to try and bring the fight to Minerva...you're doomed. Mermaids and Octopi get a boost when in the water, and any unit you have that gets submerged loses half of it's stats. You can see clear as day just how effective this water bonus is with the octopi being nearly unbreakable while in water, but super weak out of it. Thankfully, I've got an indestructible unit of my own! I uh...put a bunch of pumpkins on Terepat and that basically made my dragon untouchable. I unfortunately put the Necklace of Resistance on him so he can't really be healed, which was a mistake considering Minerva has the lullaby ability which is pretty dangerous, but overall it worked out surprisingly well I think. I also arbitrarily changed Trobby into a ninja to gain some stats so I ended up having two ninjas on this fight. That turned out to be super useful...if risky.

With Minerva defeated and all of her friends driven into the coast, Gaston lingers in despair. He had to defend himself from a mermaid thinking he was one of those basic humans who hates demi-humans and wants to kill them. He had all that bluster about not wanting to torture a mermaid..and then struck out and killed a bunch of them. Gaston feels despondant. The ultimate irony here is...I looked up what the other path has you do.

It has you come across Minerva being attacked by humans. And you save her, and let her go. The choice was, at the end of the day, SUPER fake. In the torture mermaid path, you save a mermaid's life and do not in any way torture any mermaids. In the refusal path you end up beating the crap out of a ton of mermaids. It's just...fascinating. Also you get like, WAY more goth from the A path like what the heck. It's crazy.

Finally, rounding out this video...we finally complete the ritual. With that final level up, Deneb has acquired enough MP to become a Witch! With the flick of our wrist, Deneb class changes into a witch...and so it happens. Deneb is a unique unit, secretly. She was just a generic soldier when we hired her, but...girls who share a name and personality with the Great Witch <3 Deneb can invoke this magical formula to become her. Deneb, the Great Witch <3, is a character from Ogre Battle in general. An immortal ghost witch who possesses the bodies of girls to wreck mischief and chaos. She is not actually plot important to this game, even though she is a plot character. To get her you have to do the steps I've shown here, ie hire a female soldier named Deneb and then turn her into a witch. In Japan you had to have her be fire element as well but you don't HAVE to do that in America. Having Deneb means we've lost a dedicated wizard for the purpose of violence, but her support spells and her hyper upgraded to Temptation makes the Great Witch <3 class that she's permanently stuck in pretty useful actually. And unlike regular witches, Deneb DOES have access to...other, spells.

But yeah, that's the end of this video. I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time!

[jindra34]

So dragon tank. Celestine is apparently a power napper.

Also this is more the a potential origin of Deneb being that the other games take place later.

So status effect spells; the first part is to note that their accuracy is capped at just under 25%,50%or 75%. Second your stat/level modifier on the spell is ALSO modified by that cap. And oh third? Despite rolling from your INT to see if you hit, the target uses their magic defense to determine as the opposed stat modifier. Which will always be at least their INT, and generally higher. So why is Deneb better? Mostly because she breaks those caps, and some because she has top tier int growth.

[DataNinja]

Snow day from university (and by "snow day", I mean "university's still open, but if I bus in I'll probably get trapped there tonight because our city is not equipped to handle snowfall") so, let's start things off with some Zodi.

Not yet AoE? Didn't Vecna get that last battle?

Well, bet now that Celestine's hopped in the water, both she and Terepat are gonna be skewered by the boss.
Huh. Hawkman took the spot instead.

To be fair, Gaston, even if you killed mermaids, you didn't torture them.

Huh... that's, uh, interesting. Are the Glass Pumpkins the only hint that you get that this would happen?

Spoiler: Army

Show

Unit	Kills
Gaston	9
Deneb	10
DataNinja	7
Blue	1
Celestine	7
Trobby	3
Vecna	10
Ivanna	1
Glycinia	0
Terepat	1
Friendly Fire: 4	Whoops, An Object Got In The Way: 10

[DataNinja]

So, now that we're on episode 10 (even if episode 1 had no fighting), how about some kill charts. Got a nice big gap in the middle when we had turnover.

Spoiler: Kill Chart

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Took a bit of finagling to make sure that the lines were still legible (and looked decent) when multiple units had the same amount of kills for a time, but, I think I've got a system worked out.

[LansXero]

Not yet AoE? Didn't Vecna get that last battle?

Sometimes when you are really close the ground or the weather can push you into it and then next battle you are still really close but not quite there. Unless Im mixing it up with LUCT again.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Sometimes when you are really close the ground or the weather can push you into it and then next battle you are still really close but not quite there. Unless Im mixing it up with LUCT again.

I don't know about all that, but I'm sure Vecna had AoE powers in both battles. It seems like voiceover Zodi just forgot that briefly. Also, no CRAIG CRUSH?!

Anyway, pretty sure Celestine's refusal to lay down and die sleep is worth some points!

Spoiler: Style Points

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Unit	Counter Kills	Power Naps	Shield Bash Kills
Gaston	0	0	0
Allos (retired)	1	0	0
Blue	0	0	1
Celestine	0	3	0
DataNinja	0	0	0
Deneb	0	0	1
Flauros (retired)	0	0	0
Glycinia	0	0	0
Ivanna	0	0	0
Kamui (retired)	0	0	0
Thelma (retired)	0	0	0
Terepat	0	0	0
Trobby	0	0	0
Vecna (formerly Leon)	0	0	0

[jindra34]

The no AoE thing was because AoE magic costs 12 mp, you get 10 a turn so because it wasn't turn 3 Zodi couldn't throw it down... without using another characters turn to feed Vecna an item to boost his mp.