Let's Play! Fuga: Melodies of Steel - Iron Blooded Furbabies (COMPLETE)

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

At Anime Expo many years back, I took a brief detour through the Entertainment Hall to catch my breath after surviving the sardine can that was Artist Alley. There, I saw a number of games, lot of them fighting game set ups which I glossed over until something caught my eye:

"HOLY SHIT IS THAT THE NEW METAL SLUG?!"

Is what I immediately thought so I bolted on over there only to find out it was a demo for some game I would later find out was called "Fuga".

Note: Not to be confused with the fish.

My slight disappointment was immediately brushed away when I realized it was a tactical turn based strategy game which is my fucking jam so I watched intently over some dude's shoulder as they played through the game. I assume they had to go to some panel or maybe they just got bored midway through as they just up and left without beating it. I immediately took over the reins and well, I had a blast! As a big Valkyria Chronicles fan, I jived super hard with the aesthetic, the music was good, and man, was the art just fantastic. Wasn't too hard, but not a total cakewalk either, I left the demo hungry for more.

Years later, I caught wind of some game being talked about as "That game where you shove orphans into a gun to kill Nazis" and I was like "Wot? You pullin' me leg right? I gotta see this!" To my surprise, I found out it was the game I played years ago. I don't think I even knew what it's name was, but I wasn't too concerned finding out 'bout it. I mean, it's got a playable demo, surely the release is just around the corner, right? I figured I'd cross paths with it again eventually online.

Well, this game got basically zero advertising due to not having an official publisher to help distribute it so it wound up flying under everyone's radar. There has been some efforts to push Fuga for Summerslam (e.g: Clemps) but otherwise, yeah this game flopped saleswide. This being a passion project tho, it ended up getting greenlit for a sequel anyways.

I wasn't sure if I was going to LP this game. (Hell I only JUST remembered how I came across this game during this very write up.) I didn't want to make some bold announcement going "Hey I'm gonna LP Fuga!" then realize I didn't like the game at all and end up prematurely canceling the LP. So, I decided to play ahead a little to see if it was worth my time and, welp, only one chapter in I decided "Ok yeah I want to talk about this game." I played another chapter just to lock it in, and then dropped it because otherwise I would've gone ahead to beat the entire thing in a single sitting.

This means I'm going to replaying Chapter 1+2 on a new save file just to cover those events, then hop back into my old save file and continue the LP from there. There will be some mild discrepancies.

!SPOILER POLICY!

Obviously, don't spoil or hint at future events. If I didn't reach that part yet, don't talk about it.

For Fuga veterans: Okay to the one other guy on SV who played it, I'm gonna spoiler some things I'll dub as "Author's Note" because I did spoil myself a little about the game by going through the TVTropes page. (Which was rather sparse at the time.) There are some details I do know about the plot, but like, they lack context so I don't know how they actually play out or what the lead up is. Or hell, they could just be outright wrong too so I may know less than I think.

So there is a good and bad ending. I know the good ending requires you save EVERYONE. If one, ONE, crewmember bites it, then you're locked into the bad ending. There is one crewmember who, if they don't build up their social links high enough before a certain chapter limit, will be lost forever. I know who it is so don't worry, I'll make sure to save them.

Okay shit I know about the plot:

The Taranis is like, some kind of AI thing? It wants to kill some other giant tank for...reasons. Time travel is apparently canon and not a gameplay contrivance. The Hitler Stand-in's motive is similar to a certain Valkyria Chronicles' villain where they seek some kind of super weapon that'll make them undefeatable or whatever. If you don't save all the kids, you have to use the Soul Cannon to beat Furry Hitler. If you do have all the kids tho, you can kill him the ol fashioned way: Through the power of Friendship, bitch.

There is also an evil vixen who gets utterly booty blasted over losing to a bunch of kids. She gets even further butthurt when they spare her so she ends up dying trying to do a salty runback. I have no idea if sparing her is a choice or not. If it is, I'm super going to do it because I think that'll be funny.

There's one kid who wants to shove the Nazis into the Soul Cannon but gets shot down. Okay that's from Comedies of Steel so the canoncity of that is dubious at best. That's like the only detail I remember from those skits I didn't watch much if at all.

Please don't correct me on any of this. If I'm wrong on a certain detail, GOOD. I would love to be wrong on everything here so as to experience this game blind. In the non spoiler sections, I'll be reacting as if I'm playing blind but in the ANs I'll pull back the curtain and reveal if it's all a work or not. Sometimes things will be a shoot AKA I actually wasn't pretending, that was my legitimate reaction.

Woof, we haven't even started the fucking game yet and I've already wrote up an entire essay.

Hoo boy, strap yourselves in folks because this one's gon be a looooooooooooooooooooooongplay.

Glossary

EC = Energy Cell
GEC = Great Energy Cell
RK = Repair Kit
GRK = Great Repair Kit
MPS = Multi-Piercing Shot
Enc. Shot = Encouraging Shot
RZ = Risky Zone
AP = Action Point
E-Mines = Electro-Mines
HM = Hero Mode
LA = Link Attack
QA = Quick Assault
FC = Formation Change
MB = Megaton Blast
SF = Shell Festival
PS 1/2/3 = Piercing Shot 1/2/3

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

This is may be a tad strange, but like, when I loaded this game up and I saw the font I felt very comfortable. Like "Aw yeah, this game's gon be gud." Why? Because it's the Fire Emblem font! Specifically Awakening's. Chiraro, I think it's called? I know a font itself isn't indicative of a game's quality but like, man, I see that font and I feel right at home.

Okay off the bat I'm going to apologize in advance to the one other Fuga fan here: You're gonna hear a lot of "Wow this sure gives me a lot of Fire Emblem/Valkyria Chronicles vibes!" (Despite the fact that gameplay wise Fuga barely has anything in common with them. Motherfucking Crystal Story 2 is more similar to Fuga in that department.) Bare with me, I have a very limited reference pool. ~~i get a game over and i'll quip "wow iz just liek crash bandicoot"~~

Enough lollygagging around, let's do this!

Man I just adore how this thing creaks and bounces along. Did you know they only animated half of this thing BTW? It's not out of laziness tho, it's actually pretty practical: Why render something the audience will never see? May as well save some frames by cutting those parts out! (They did model the entire thing tho, just removed the parts accordingly.)

There is no English track so I'm playing this in French because apparently that's where this game takes place in. The dialogue isn't fully voiced, only parts of it. Kinda like how Awakening+Fates did it come to think of it. Anywho, I'd like to match the dialogue with little character portraits like how Something Awful does their screenshot LPs BUT, SV has an image limit, so names will have to do. (I also can't find clean rips of their icons.)

Hanna: It's alright Mei...Everything will be alright...

Oh hey it's this guy. I'll talk more about him later on but he's got bit of a funny dev story attached to him.

Kyle: Get offa me, ya big baby!

So this guy I know can't die, well, canonically that is, as otherwise it'll cause a time paradox since apparently this dude is the ancestor of some characters in Solatorobo? Which takes place way ahead into the future of this game. Wonder if there's an achievement tied behind his death like how if you kill Ocelot in MGS3 Colonel tells you off for causing a time paradox.

Malt: But if we don't hurry...Everyone from the village will be taken away!

Say, isn't this basically how Valkyria Chronicles 1 starts? Quaint village gets attacked by Nazis and it's up to the plucky young'uns to save the day thanks to the tank they tripped over on their way to the bakery.

Well the narration is fully voiced at least.

Along with the merciless screeching and vibrating metal, it carried the children forward and onward.

My ears immediately perked up during this because it contained one of the only few French words I know: Enfant. Les Enfant Terribles to be specific. Thanks, Metal Gear!

They found refuge in a tank. It was as though they had been swallowed up in the belly of a ferocious beast of war...

So...is that their commander or something?

Socks: M-Malt...We are almost upon them...

Malt: Alright! With this thing, we might have a chance to get them back - for sure!

The Taranis is suddenly hit by tank fire.

And here come the Nazis!...so like, Malt is a dog, right? He doesn't look like a cat to me. Maybe the Naz- excuse me, Berman. Just gonna let that sit there for a sec.

...

So yeah I guess the master race here appear to be either Rottweilers or German Shepards. Malt is some other breed/maybe a wolf? which is why his village is getting round up to be sent to the camps. Or maybe I'm reading WAYYY too much into it and they're just doing this to be a prick. The game won't go there, right? I mean, VC1 did so it's not impossible...I hope it doesn't go there.

Berman: I-It didn't do anything!?

Malt: I-I think we're okay...This thing's pretty tough...

I'll teach you how to fight with the Taranis! Believe in the Taranis' power and fight!

Thanks...? Eh, the CO's talking to kids. It'd be weirder if she was like "Okay Squad here's the current sitrep for deployment, effective immediately..."

Malt: If we don't, everyone from the village will be taken away!

*adorable French noises*

D'aww. So like, whenever a battle starts, one of your crewmates says something. I have no idea what they just said but it was cute.

Well, you heard the wolf/dog/canine boy! LET'S ROCK, BABY!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5oXpc9fcCs

Man iunno bout you, but this reminds me of like, Fire Emblem's melodies but with Valkyria Chronicles' instruments. Iunno what you'd call this genre of music but I like it. It's not as heroic or bold as it'd be had it belonged in the latter two games. It's rather tense yet energizing.

O'MALLEY'S STRATEGY CORNER

Just mash the A button. It's the fucking tutorial you can't do anything but mash A.

Alright alright, I'll give a proper explanation.

So like, here's how combat in Fuga works: Every kid is assigned a certain color coded weapon. Hanna here for example, uses a grenade launcher. The Ryu/Mario of weapons: Jack of all trades, master of none.

Malt, on the other hand, uses a cannon. Cannons have shit-ish accuracy, long reload times, but high damage. I say shit-ish as while it's not great, it's not so awful where it's a gamble to even to use the damn thing.

Kyle mans the machine gun which has excellent accuracy, reduces defenses, BUT, has shit damage. Then again, it hits multiple times, has a quick reload meaning you can bring it to bear much faster than the others, and it's about the only real reliable way of swatting down the pesky aerial units down the road.

The color coding isn't me just being eccentric, it's a key part of the game. Neglect it, and you'll get yer keister handed to ye in no time flat. Ya see this shit?

Not pictured: A timer indicating when the tank will blow up.

This symbol indicates which weapon can slow it down. If you hit this specific unit with a yellow weapon (i.e a grenade launcher) it'll get moved down the timeline. Like so!

Admittedly in this case, it didn't change the tide of battle much as all of our units could attack before it could. If we had any machine guns, maybe we could've snuck in an extra hit in there but this is tutorial land so no swapping allowed. Anywho! That's the basic flow of the game: Swap around characters accordingly to the enemy's weaknesses. Play it smart, and you won't get a scratch at all.

Weaknesses disappear on hit but they do regenerate eventually. Bosses also have weaknesses, but to prevent you from just doing infinites on them while chanting "UNPLUG YOUR CONTROLLER DOG!" you have to hammer them with all three weapons to slow them down. So you'll inevitably take some lumps during boss battles, but that can be mitigated through defending which the game will cover later.

While I did quickly terminate the threat without taking a scratch, the game found my method of rubbing my face all over my controller to be...lacking in grace.

Y'know, I wonder if it is possible to get a S rank here. Ranks do matter folks, they provide an EXP modifer (S Rank = 1.5 XP I believe?) so if you do well, you'll be able to snowball. Do poorly and uh...well I'm sure there are ways to catch up. I just don't plan on finding that out for myself. If you tie rank with tangible rewards then by the Allfather I WILL get that S rank.

No idea if playing as efficiently as possible will ruin story events like how I ended up missing out on some cool shit in the VC series because I pulled a lot of shenanigans to beat most missions in 1-2 turns. (E.g: Using landmines to propel my troops forward. Using an APC to nudge enemies into landmines/get between enemies at a certain angle so that they end up killing each other in the crossfire.) I'm not sure if you can sequence break like that in this game but if I end up doing so, lemme know.

We may have failed Technique this time around, but later on that's going to be the easiest to get S ranks on. Turn count is the actual bottleneck on whether or not you'll get an A or an S.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

Ayo this kid's got moxie. I think I'm taking a shine to Kyle.

Mei: Yaaay! Yaaay!!

ok mom.

I guess a teen technically is a kid. Honestly, isn't like, Mei the only kid here? Maybe Socks too? Everyone else looks vaguely teen-ish but who the fuck knows maybe they go by 3 in human years but 21 in animal years or some shit.

Berman Soldier: We'll deal with them later. Retreat...Retreat!!*

Strategic Advance to the Rear!*

As we're still in tutorial land, the route is just a straight line. Later on, there will be diverging paths that are helpfully labeled as the Coward Route for Big Losers ("Safer" but less loot.) and the Kool Kidz Route for Big Heros (Heavier risk...but the priiiiiiiiiiizeee.)

Fun fact: If you mash A while the Taranis is rolling, a voice line plays. Kinda like how in Mario Party 5 where you can mash buttons to make your character go WAHOO YEAH WA HA HA during someone else's turn.

So, red icon with the...German...Rottweiler? Fuck it, Berman Skull indicates battles. The number indicates how many waves there are. The heart icon indicates ~~currency subweapon ammo~~ health naturally. The yellow one is loot. The green icon is MP which we haven't used yet but that's what powers the character's skills. Green+Pink is MP and HP restore so feel free to burn through your MP if you know a restoration point is just right around the corner!

Speaking of character skills, you can find out who has through the status menu.

As you can see here, Boron ha- wait he's 10? Goddamn, that is a giant ten year old. Unless he was standing on a crate or some rocks on the title screen, he fucking towers over everyone! What, is he actually a lion or something? Or is he just huge? Wonder if Boron's family is equally as huge if not bigger or if he's just an exceptional case. Anywho, their bios will be listed in the spoiler section down below feel free to take a gander if you want. With a battle coming up tho, I'd rather focus on CRUNCH rather than fluff right now.

So as y'can see, Boron's got low speed (Which has nothing to do with his weight, all cannoneers are slow.) meaning he won't advance as quickly on the timeline. Don't let that 97 luck trick ye into thinking he's some kind of crit god either: Socks, a grenadier, has 198 luck. So yeah, Boron's crit is shit, he's slow, and he's only marginally stronger than Malt. But guess what he has that Malt don't?

Oh iunno, just only an AOE attack, Defensive buffs, and Armor Shred + Stun. And this is at level 1.

Dude's fucking busted, intentionally so out of s p i t e. I'm not making that up. Will elaborate later.

Malt: He's rather simple. His special skill is attacking twice. His limit break is...double damage on a regular attack. And his support effect is buffing attack.

Wot's a support effect, you ask? Well, while only 3 crewmembers can be actively manhandling a weapon at a time, you can attach a kid to them to boost their effectiveness in certain ways. If you attach Boron to someone, then any attacks that character receives is reduced. Malt here boosts the attack so he's pretty useful as an attack buffer.

Eh I'm sure Malt will get some busted potentials/skills down the road cause he's the MC.

Hanna: Your medic. Lullaby does a decent amount of healing but her support effect is kind of ass. Sure, you do heal on hit...which is like, what, 5-10 HP? For a vehicle that starts out with 5K health? Yeah iunno it's probably better to keep her on point because she's the only other grenadier you have. She can't heal from the back row anyways so may as well.

Kyle: CRIT GOD...is what I thought he was until I realized Socks's support effect was boosting crits. WOOPS. Eh, 161 luck isn't too bad. (Tho the fucking medic has 182 the shit?) Piercing shot isn't unique to him, all machine gunners get it. His support effect is alright, at least it's always useful unlike Hanna's. His limit break makes everything critical but like, just strap Socks to him and he'll crit more often than not anyways so who needs that?

Socks: And speaking of! Dude's got a stupid high crit stat like goddamn nearly 200 out of the gates. (Unless 200 = 2% or some shit.) His crits aren't what makes him great tho, it's his status effects that gives you a reason to put him on point instead of making him Kyle's lackey. Bosses do have resistances to them but I have yet to see one outright immune to them so they're worth applying IMO. Especially the accuracy reducing ones like smoke grenade which he'll get later on.

Mei: S P E E D Pairs well with Malt I'd say. Malt boosts her damage and Mei boosts his speed allowing him to keep pace with the others. I like that little gameplay + story integration there. They're siblings so they work well together. That being said tho, feel free to split 'em up if you want to make certain characters faster/stronger.

Aight nuff crunch n' fluff, let's get back into the fray!

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

I find the game's font quite delightful what about you?

So the game begins to cover what I already talked about. Bla bla bla yada yada we all get the ide-

WELP I done fucked up the tutorial. Just hammered away on the A button so now I'm gonna eat a hit. Eh looking closer, I was going to anyways so w/e. May as well finish it off so I only have one tank to deal with.

Ah there's those lil' bastards. This is when you get introduced to Formations BTW.

The game wants you to switch Hanna with Mei, and Malt with Kyle to get your machine guns online. Not a terrible team comp, but I'd swap out Hanna for Socks to give either Kyle or Mei a crit boost.

In exchange for being able to reorient your party all at once without having to spend a turn at all, (I thought you'd have to waste turns swapping them out individiually.) you can't do that again for at least 3 turns. Which sounds long, but like, I think a turn is just one unit's action so it's rather short tbh.

Keep your eye on the timeline while changing formation BTW. Had I not been locked by the tutorial, I would have Kyle take Socks's spot. (With him replacing Boron.) Doing so gives Kyle Socks's spot in line, pushing him forward allowing him and to attack in tandem, delaying both units. Alas.

FUCK I MISSED

Ah well, at least Kyle is fast enough that he'll be able to attack twice before that flier can counter so may as well start piling on the damage on the other.

Arrivederci, Eisenfliege! ~~wait arent we in france~~

Just look at that technique score! Told ja S-ranking that thing is a piece of cake. BTW: Those items you gain from scrapping the enemy allows you to upgrade the Taranis.

However, doubt and fear of what may lie ahead would not allow them to savor this victory.

Is it just me or is the Radio Lady the same VA as the Narrator? ...I'm going to need a Valkyria Chronicles Reference Jar by the end of this aren't I. Blimey and we ain't even out of the fucking tutorial yet.

Yeah that's how the Taranis heals itself: Literally just rolling over medical supplies. It's so goofy I love it.

This is where the game introduces skills and also why you'd ever bother with machine guns outside of fliers/blue weak enemies. Not sure if it's only bosses who can regen armor or if grunts can do it as well. We'll just have to see eh?

So, much like in Valkyria Chronicles and FE, whenever they activate a skill the kids will pipe up and say...something? Omicron you're like the only French guy I know, what the hell are these kids jabbering about? Well, the crit/skill activation art is not much to write home about but hey, it's something. Look, Kyle raised his arm!

Aight! So, since we can change formations now I did some swappin' to take advantage of this beastie's weakness to cannons!

This is my usual team comp. I've already explained the first four's, but didn't talk about Hanna and Boron. Well like, y'know how Hanna heals and Boron give defense buffs? I figured, hey if I ever need Hanna on point to heal up that means I'm taking bit of a beating. So, while she's buffing out some scratches, Boron can tank for a bit to reduce any incoming damage. Afterwards, I can shuffle Hanna back in for Boron. Maybe not the most tactically sound but like, I dunno what to do with Hanna outside of healing and yellow enemies.

I shoved Kyle ahead of Malt btw so that he can shred the last remaining armor, allowing Malt to finish it off.

...tch bit miffed I didn't get triple S but an S rank is an S rank.

Gyah, couldn't capture it in time but the SP restoration crate is like, a bunch of batteries in a box. Wouldn't that cause it to explode...?

Huh. Okay so like, the destination marker said the next event would be an battle but we're in a talking scene now. Weird.

Hanna: Don't worry... We'll get to them soon...

...ooooookay so it's not some CO then.

Malt: Yeah I don't know... Who could it be...?

Kyle: Hold up... You think we can trust her...?

Malt: I don't know...but whoever she is, she helped us back there. We might have no choice but to trust her.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

I like how Kyle talks. Lotta slang, sprinkling "just" "ain't" replace heck with hell it's kind of like how I talk. ~~hes literally me fr fr fr~~

Malt: ...

All the while thinking, "Why? Why did any of this have to happen...?"

Wait what? They fucking fell asleep? I mean, yeah it IS past their bedtime but like, aren't they supposed to be rescuing their family? I thought they were hot on their pursuit or something? Does the Taranis has an autopilot? Ah what the hell, they're kids thrown into war. It's literally their first day with no job experience I'll cut 'em some slack.

GOOD MORNING MOTHERF-

Oh it's a flashback nvm.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu0ZY55ybSw

Malt: Petit Mona, an ordinary village on the outskirts of the Free Lands of Gasco. In this little village, we lived simply in quiet peace every day...

"Moosheep" So like a cow sheep? There's like, mooing sounds in the background so I guess. Also well Malt sure isn't a cat that's fer sure.
wait i wouldve figured that out from the bios shit i knew that'd be important

See I told you Boron was an absolute unit goddamn. That or Socks n' Kyle are EXTREMELY smol. Peep the shit eating grin on Kyle o'er there BTW. That's one smug ass catboy.

We never thought that would change...

TIL: I am very bad at perspective. Can't believe Malt is actually taller than him. Guess Boron's absolute unit card has been revoked. Long live the krumping short king.

*SFX BOOM*

(I kid that's not the actual SFX that plays.)

Malt: Hmm...?

Malt: Huh? Why's the radio...?

Anyone else think the ears on the tanks is a lil' adorable? Fucked up the screencap a bit, figured the game would freeze on the zeppelins but it was a transition scene woops a doodle doo.

Villager: Noo!

"Pretzel"

Wait...Boron Brioche, Mei Marzipan...okay hold up, is Berman the name of a bread/some other confectionary treat too?

I...don't know if that's meant to be in the merciful sense or in the horrible "let's round them up so we can press them into forced labor and then kill them all." I mean, these are the Nazi stands in after all so chances are good it's the latter.

I'm screencapping this not because I'm too lazy to transcribe, but rather to note that the voice bark for "Yessir!" is "Qui Chef!" Pronounced like the word for cook. Okay I'm going to assume that in French, chef means something else or it's just a general term for a superior authority figure, not that Pretzel is an actual chef. Nor is the Berman Empire run by a conglomerate of bakers who seek to dominate the Free Lands of Gasco with their superior pastries. But they're evil, so they resort to kidnapping people to steal their family recipes, reappropriating them as if they've came up with it.

Hey, I've seen a fair number of shows where baking is a matter of life n' death with conspiracies and shadowy figures all plotting around a bunch of plucky bakers trying to make some good ass sour dough. That could be a direction this game goes in.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

*Sounds of twigs snapping*

Pretzel: Hm?

Pretzel: No...It's nothing. Once the villagers have been taken, proceed with our withdrawal.

BS: Yessir! (QUI CHEF! Man I can't get over that line.)

Pretzel: ...How shameful... Why did we have to attack such a strategically meaningless village like this...?

Well... at least he has some kind of conscience so I guess he could qualify as a Camus.

Kyle: Taken, I bet... by those damn Berman assholes!

WHOA KYLE LANGUAGE

Malt: ...

Hanna: Mei...

Yeah they're dead.

Malt: I don't know, but... Let's check it out.

Not the worst idea TBH. Unless there's like, monsters in this universe, hiding away from an invading force that's abducting people via cave sounds like a decent plan to me. Note: I have never entered a single cave in my life.

Interesting uh, runes? Symbols? Guessing it's going to be significant or just there to look cool.

Looks vaguely like the lines when the Soul Cannon turns on. Also the Taranis was some kind of weapon buried away to fight some other beastie so I guess the runes are like, ancient hieroglyphics left behind some progenitor race? Unless the Taranis is a sentient tank...I seriously don't know. Truly, the blindest of playthroughs!

Hanna: But... Isn't this old, forbidden ground?

Alright it's fucking haunted. That or magic is real in this universe.

Socks: Y-yes, that is correct... It must be forbidden for a reason...

Socks says Affirmative in this scene: Is "affirmative" a French loan word by any chance or is he just speaking English?

Mei: I'm scared, it's dark...

Kyle: I-I ain't afraid...

Malt: Okay, let's head in with our eyes peeled... Everybody stick with me, alright?

Boron: W-wait!! Don't leave me behind-!

Oooookay then the Taranis is an ancient superweapon left behind by...aliens??? Okay what the fuck else could it be huh? Unless you mean to tell me no, this is possible by this generation's technology. That, or the Ancient Petit Mona were super advanced with wack ass tech who then mysteriously died out for some reason... JUST LIKE THE VALKYR-

I legitimately don't remember. It's not actually built by an ancient race is it? I thought it was like...either a literal monster sentient tank, or it used time travel. I'm really confused.

Socks: It...must be a tank, but I never imagined they were this large...

Malt: A tank...?

Boron: I-it's huge-! Bigger than the windmill in the village...

Kyle: Hey, looks like we can get in over there!

Hanna: D-do you think it's safe...?

Malt: Let's take a look...Mei, stay with me.

Mei: O-okay...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCrcZXVzrx4

(Okay now is MALT freakishly tall instead of Boron or is perspective messing with me again? BTW: The name of this track is uh, "Unfortunate Ending" which like, spoilers: There's more game after this scene so why is it called that? Does it get repurposed for something else? Hrmph, hope these music track titles aren't spoilers...)

Kyle: Seriously?! Maybe we can rescue everybody with this thing!

Malt: But there's no handle... How are we supposed to operate it....?

Socks: N-not even I know... It seems like it will fall apart if we touch it wrong...

Kyle: We gotta do something...!

I admire how proactive Kyle is. Good on ye.

Boron: Aw... I thought we could save everybody...

Mei: Grandma...Grandpa...

Hanna: Mom...

Malt: Our village...

Malt: (Please...Please move...God...Please save us!)

*MACHINE SPIRIT AWAKENING NOISES* *

*IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT SOUNDS LIKE JUST IMAGINE A TOOLBOX BEING THROWN DOWN AN ESCALATOR WHILE A HYDRAULIC PRESS RUNS IN THE BACKGROUND*

So uh, what is he holding onto exactly? I thought he said there were no handles or am I being too overly literal.

Malt: Now we can save everybody!

Kyle: A-a'right!

Children: Go!!

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: Der Nazi War Machine VS Napping Furbabies

Kyle: Wake up! It's those Berman bastards! They're attacking us!!

Malt: Sorry guys, get ready! We need to fight back!

That sure was one short lil' cat nap. Thank you I'll be here all night.

So then, who are we up against this time around, ah?

Huh, funny how the grenadier enemy unit does more damage than the cannon one. Well, s'pose that's the first one to go then as the cannon enemy will take some time to bring down. Y'know, later on you get the option to set up your formation in advance but I didn't think that was all that important. I mean, if you really need to get a certain weapon up n' ready immediately, you could always just swap out who's on first on the timeline so why bother, right?

Well, I have yet to encounter a battle phase where the enemy goes first, but even if that doesn't happen I still think it's a good idea at least have your machine gunners up front, then a grenadier. That way you'll be able to get all 3 weapons online before the enemy can get a shot off.

Aight, so first order of business: Targeting those weakpoints. Uh, I mean shuffling your units goddammit I'm getting ahead of myself.

Okie dokie, now that I swapped out Kyle for Socks, we were able to delay the grenadier and flier. Skill attacks still do shatter weakpoints so I'm gonna see if I can't finish off that flier with Boron's AOE. Fingers crossed!

FUCK. Well at least the grenadier is down. Yeah that Zyklon barely took a scratch BTW. 3 Def ain't nothing to sneeze at.

Finished the flier off. Gonna start whittling the cannon down now.

Would it better to have two cannons up instead of two machine guns? Maybe. Haven't run the math so who knows, maybe going full UNGA BUNGA instead of delicately stripping away the armor is the better move. Well, we're gonna eat a hit anyways so Boron is going to backseat Malt for a sec.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

In lieu of two cannons, I'll just ram two shells down the Zyklon's throat in a single turn. Efficient!

Kyle delivers the coup de grace.

Triple S! Now that's more like it!

And everyone got a level up too. No idea if that's fixed or randomized. Hopefully the former because as much as a hassle it would be to save scum stat rolls with how stingy the game is with saves, the siren call of optimal stats holds a rather tight grip over me that I may consider doing that...

I'm surprised the lady wasn't screeching at them over the comms to wake the fuck up earlier.

Hanna: Yes, having to suddenly fight in a tank like this... I'm worried how the others are...

Malt: Let's go check on them...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0wOD9TWynM

If that's not the first thing that comes to my mind when the word intermission comes up, that's how you'll know my body's been taken over by a Cold War allegory.

Is lampshading how low hanging of a joke is make it funnier or is it merely belaboring the point?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYac_Lsw-K8

As you progress with the story, various facilities and functions can be expanded.

Malt: Okay, but don't go anywhere dangerous.

That...seems ill advised, Malt. This ain't the bloody marketplace mate.

Mei will be taking the role of OSHA Inspector today. Time to check for compliance the ol' 19th century way!

Well, at least SOMEONE is having a good time. ~~where did he get the food?~~ So yeh, not relevant right now, but picking who to explore the Taranis isn't a matter of preference. Cause y'see, whoever you control is the one who will be getting EXP during these segments. You can swap out at anytime though so it's not as if you're locked in or anything.

Man, knowing that the Taranis is bisected makes me want to look up a mod or some other method to rotate the camera to see it in action. It'd look like a dollhouse. The most adorable, armed to the teeth dollhouse. Anywho, so yeah outside of tutorial land, this is where you can hang out with the crew. While there's no running or jumping, you do walk at a decent clip so it's not frustrating walking around. I kind of like it tbh, gives a game a good rhythm of action and relaxation.

...so is that what y'all think fishing is from wherever you live or somethin'?

That goddamn smile. Ah Kyle, you're a treasure.

Hey it's not that ridiculous. I mean, we literally come across boxes of random shit just haphazardly scattered across the countryside. Maybe the shit the kids "fish" up are the shattered remains of what the Taranis runs over. And before you point it out, this is clearly the safer method of picking up supplies. Why step out of the Taranis and risk getting shot when you could just fish up salvage?

But what do we do with the scrap y'ask? I'll let resident nerd Socks answer that.

Socks: If we have materials, we can enhance the performance of the Taranis more and more!!

So yeh, the game doesn't mention it yet but you can fail in upgrading the Taranis. My piss would be a rolling boil if failures wasted materials, but turns out you don't lose them. You just waste AP, i.e, the amount of "time" you can spend during these intermissions. While that's still a bummer, it doesn't sting as badly so my piss is at a simmer.

I know British tanks have a water boiler in them and the SU-34 has a mini "kitchen" of sorts, but the Taranis got a full on gas stove and something that looks vaguely like a fridge. Weirdly kitted out this Taranis. Maybe it's not a tank, but rather some kind of...RV. Like a Mad Max RV. I don't know if Intermissions are canon or not so maybe this is just a gameplay contrivance. Or maybe it'll be revealed the people of Petit Mona are secretly tech wizs who make superweapons as a hobby. That could explain why something so deadly is also surprisingly homely.

Maybe that's too ridiculous that it breaks suspension of disbelief for ye, but iunno man, I'd say the Taranis being a product of aliens or ancient super races is just as silly. Plus I think it'd be more interesting if the idyllic villagers were secretly technologically advanced. Would be an interesting culture, making advance tech while still living in harmony with nature.

Boron: *munch* *munch*

Hanna: H-hey! Don't eat all the ingredients before we can cook!

Wasn't there a gag in something where a character's way of baking a cake is just by eating every separate ingredient, justifying by stating that's what a cake is at the end of the day so what's the problem? If anything it's more efficient.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

We're still in Tutorial Country so we must abide it's rules meaning you can't actually do anything in the Taranis right now. Fooie.

Mei: It surprised me so much, I'm kinda tired now... (Okay you can't see in the screencap but she does rock back n' forth a bit here. Huh, wonder if any other characters have animations to them.)

Malt: Thanks, Mei! Because of you, I know more about this place now!

I'm surprised Malt doesn't ask Mei to clarify what she meant by fishing seeing how they're in a ~~Average American RV~~ tank. Seeing how unusual the Taranis is, maybe he just accepts the possibility of there just being an indoor pool stocked with fish. That or he's just like "Uh huh yeah sure Mei."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's the end of this Intermission! The hell? That was quick.

Malt: This tank seems stronger than the others... Everybody, watch out!

IKR, Kyle? The Taranis is the size of an apartment building. If it was faster, I'd bet all battles could be resolved by just grinding the enemy beneath it's treads. The enemy tank better be fucking massive. Or have some kind of kooky wunderwaffle. ~~yes that's totally how you spell it~~

The garrison we've been effortlessly swatting away? Yeah whatever Ca-moo.

Pretzel "If They Can Crawl, They Can Brawl" Camus

Hanna: What...

Apt.

Malt: You abducted our families! You give us no choice...!

Socks: S-shall we fight...?

Kyle: What're we gonna do...?

Atta boy, that's the spirit!

Pretzel: Indeed that machine is impressive, but you are outmatched! I repeat! Surrender now, kids.

Malt: If we give up, maybe they'd take us where they're holding everyone, but...who's to say we could save them then...?

Hanna: I'm afraid to fight...

Have you figured out who my favorite character is yet.

Socks: R-right...!

Boron: If that means we can save everyone, I'll fight too.

Malt: Alright... Let's do this!

ok_boomer.png

Seriously, get with the times you old fart. Haven't you heard? Children make for the best soldiers. Ask any tactician, and they'd tell you kids are right at home on the battlefield!

Malt: It's not like we want to be here!

Pretzel: Very well... Then I suppose you kids will have to face the consequences of your actions!

Pictured: The consequences of their actions.

*leans forward in chair*

Okay you have some skill. Yowch, well that's probably a limit break or some kind of skill. 5 armor is a lot to chew through but I bet I could do it. I mean hey, we do have some healing items on stand by + Hanna so while bit of a rough start, I bet we can send 'im packing back to Wetzel's!

Gee thanks for the vote of confidence.

What does it look like I'm doing?

Whoa now, I like Kyle, but not that much.

Oh you're talking to them...I think? Maybe it's just talking to the player.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

Hanna: I'll do anything for them!

Okay so it is talking to them nvm

Socks: If I may be of any assistance, then...

Assuming radio lady isn't being metaphorical, this is gonna be bit of a tough choice. Who to pick, who to pick, hrm...

...Y'know Mei, they say the best way to overcome your fears is by confronting them! C'mon kiddo, let's face your fears directly at a 680m/s! Hoo boy, here we goooooooo~!

...What, you don't want to sacrifice children for more time on the clock?

Well tough shit. Sigurd is just too strong...though it does say regular attacks can't penetrate. We do have one skill that can inflict burn. It never said it was immune to status effects so~! fe fans only have one joke

BTW: That 300 attack? Ain't shit. The fucking fliers have 270 attack. The grenadiers have it beat by 460. As long as it can't spam skills, beating it is just a matter of time.

Mayhaps not the best set up but iunno, I think it'll better to focus on healing up first before going on the offensive. Not ideal to have both of the machine gunners on the same gun but it's not like regular attacks can pierce anyways. This is really just a battle of attrition. Just gotta make sure whenever Sigurd strikes, it's when Boron is up so he can tank.

That WOULD be the strategy, but we must abide by Tutorial Land's customs and use the Soul Cannon. Drat.

*snrk*

Hanna: Please... Save everyone!

As the younglings of this day n' age would say, "mood af".

Socks: This is the only solution to save everyone...

Very grim. Very sad.

And there's this guy.

I'm not gonna declare him the Hisame (AKA Pickle Lord) of Fuga just yet but like, man, talk about mood whiplash. Speaking of!

Listen, like, I understand this is supposed to be a serious scene and all, but in the downtime between playing this and LPing it, I came across this meme. So when the Soul Cannon prompt came up, my mind immediately leapt to this. Memerot is a serious health condition don't laugh.

Believe me my commentary would've been a lot more blasé had I gone into this blind. Blind me would've yucking it up going "YE YE (YE) FUK DEM KIDS children are awful, they contribute nothing to society, until now! Finally, they're giving back, 'bout time those bloody parasites!"

Hell, the original title of this LP was going to be "Let's Play - Fuga: Melodies of Steel - 'Fuck Dem Kids' " I was all in for the child murder but then, well, there's a reason why I'm LPing this thing rather than just playing it off camera or hell just dropping it.

I don't recall the demo I played having the Soul Cannon, or maybe I just forgot. Well, if it did, even I would have picked Boron to shove into the barrel if that's his reaction. Like, everyone else is all panicking or steeling their resolve to make the ultimate sacrifice, and here's Boron going "I wonder what's for dinner." Kid doesn't have much going on for him personality wise so far, so unsurprisingly, during the beta/demo(?) statistics revealed he was the one near universally sacrificed.

The game director is quite fond of the wide lad tho and after seeing his boss consistently load Boron rounds during playtesting made him rather miffed. Yeah, remember when I mentioned Boron being OP out of spite? Told ja I wasn't kidding. No idea what old Boron's stats n' skills were like so I can't pull up a comparison chart. But I digress: Today we'll be loading ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Mei) into the Taranis! Why?

Because I'm super unoriginal. According to the 1st year anniversary stream done by the devs, Mei was the most sacrificed unit for NA players. (It was still Boron for JP.) Why? Iunno, I just go with the flow. If I was taking this seriously, I would've picked Kyle.

I know, that surprised me too but like, looking at his stats and what he offered on the table as of right now, ehh accuracy boost is alright I guess. I haven't really struggled with hitting things save for the fliers but that's like their gimmick anyways so not overly concerned with aim at the moment. Sure, chewing through armor would be a little tougher, but everyone else is too useful to be let go. My second pick would've been Malt. It seemed thematically appropriate and tactically sound seeing how we don't run into heavy tanks all too often. Not to mention Boron exists so...

You're lucky I have a dark sense of humor, Kyle.

Hanna: Mei! Where are you going?

Malt: Mei!!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wfQhIhWWD0

A wave of energy passes over Mei...

Mei: So, if I get in here, everything'll be okay? And I won't be afraid anymore?

Mei: Grandma, Grandpa...I miss you.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8buL1l51IpM

Get into the Soul Cannon, Mei. Sure was lucky that the kids didn't stumble into this first on their search for some kind of control system, eh?

*Acceleration Blast Charging SFX* (Huh guess that SFX was a generic one after all.)

Taranis: All crew: Brace for shock.

In more ways than one~!

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

Taranis: Proceeding with Soul Cannon firing sequence. Auto Targeting Mode: On

Socks: I do not know... simply do not know...

Boron: Don't worry, guys... I-I'm sure everything will be okay!!

Ah man, maybe I should've sacrificed Boron afterall to see how the scene changes. Oh well guess that's what Youtube is for.

Hanna: Mei! Mei, where are you!?

Malt: Please, God... Let Mei be safe...!

Well, God isn't available to pick up the phone right now at the moment. How can ol' Lucy help ye?

That's no weapon, that's a fucking demon! I'd be making the sign of the cross right about now.

Pretzel: T-take cover! All units, full power withdrawal!!

Too little, too late for that ya twisted pastreh.

Holy shit, Pretzel's a Transformer!

Jokes asides, I like what they did with the fade away effect. Really sells him getting obliterated.

Could you imagine if this started playing immediately afterwards.

It is typically sealed and will only be released when the Taranis itself deems it necessary for use.

Far as I'm aware, I think you need to have <50% health for the Soul Cannon to trigger so even if you're going on a genocide run, you can't just start shoveling children into the Taranis off the bat. How utterly inconvenient and inconsiderate for child murder connoisseurs. Not gonna use it tho because it's essentially the game saying "Easy Mode is Now Selectable" And Mama never raised no quitter. ~~which is why i was given up for adoption~~

Socks: I do not know, but... that light was intense.

Always looking on the bright side of life aren't ye, Kyle. : )

Y'know Kyle, your attitude would fit right in with Fire Emblem.

Hanna: Oh, that's right! We need to find Mei!

Malt: Yeah, let's go!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dcMcVFdTJg

Odd tangent I know, but I listened to this track and I was like "Ey that's pretty good!" Then I listened to the JP version and I didn't like it as much because even with my shitty moon runes, I could understand snippets of it. What little I understood made it crystal clear that no, this is not a jaunty lil' tune.

Despite that, I like it as it reminds me of Chandelier, the last level theme from Ace Combat 6. Hell it may be even in the same language!
whaddoya mean the kids are singing in english in that song

Hanna: Yes, there's no mistake. It's definitely her scarf...

Malt: Mei...

Oh, I thought they were going to find her corpse. The game version of the Soul Cannon nearly complete disintegrates whoever's thrown in there. The manga version is a lot more uh, grisly to say the least. Imagine someone throwing a pot of meatball marinara across the floor. That's what the manga version of the Soul Cannon does.

Either that was a change by the mangaka or the original plan but removed because it would bump up the game's age rating WAAAAAAAAAAAYYY up. Hell, I think it would run afoul of content guidelines. Isn't it illegal to depict children getting mutiliated or otherwise killed in horrific ways in video games or somethin'?

Meanwhile - Manga Hanna: Mon Dieu, Mei's everywhere!

Malt: I'm... gonna go look for her...!

The Soul Cannon has been activated... So, one of you was used as its power source...?

Whoa whoa hold up, this was YOUR idea dude. ...right? I mean, sure it was labeled ??? but the voice sounded exactly like her so either she's bullshittin' or the Taranis is possessed. It does look pretty fucking demonic so that wouldn't be too surprising.

The Taranis' ultimate weapon, the Soul Cannon, has the power to eliminate any threat. However, in order to function, it requires Bio-Energy... In other words, a single person's life. Someone sacrificed themselves to become its energy source and thusly faded away...

Uh, sure, "sacrifice", let's go with that. I s'pose it's technically correct, but iunno I was under the assumption sacrifices required a certain of degree of autonomy and agency to count as one. Mei tripped into the wood chipper. I wouldn't call that a sacrifice, more like an accident.

Hell, from the way Mei talked, it seemed more like she was tricked into going inside the chamber under the assumption she was being lead somewhere safe. Is Petit Mona run by cultists? Is that why they built in a sacrifical altar inside their death mobile? ~~wouldn't that make the taranis a mobile church holy shit it's an imperator class titan!~~

My children, I understand your sorrow, but unfortunately all I can do is console you. I promise to do everything in my power to help reach your objective.

I know I'm being a little too fixated on definition 2 of the verb sacrifice but like, man I threw in Mei for shits n' giggles. That wasn't a sacrifice, that was a tragedy. It's as ridiculous as it sounds: I'm getting a lil' heated under the collar about the CO framing it as if it was a willing choice. (Then again assuming the voices are two separate people, the CO would have no way of knowing Mei got tricked into it.) That being said owning up to it, while honest, wouldn't win them any favors.

I picked this game up so that I could cackle maniacally as I slowly lower the fouth cutest orphan into the bonfire that was their orphanage while the rest of the now displaced kids watch on. If I'm gonna be a dick, I want to revel in it, not beat around the bush bout the motive or try to play nice with the victims. That's just being dishonest and I don't like that. No I'm not feeling a twinge of guilt about any of this.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

Hanna: Malt...

But one thing was painfully clear: A precious friend was lost forever. Nothing else seemed to matter...

However, that was no concern of the Berman Army. A garrison discovered the Taranis and an attack would soon be imminent.

Okay I may just be forgetful again, but has she always called the kids "My children"? Trying to curry favor here I see.

Can't do shit but defend at the moment. Why you may ask? Well, y'see that mosquito coil looking thing?

Unfortunately, there wasn't a single bottle of anti-depressants in those health crates in there. I don't know if a Repair Kit will be as effective as Bupropion so for now we're just gonna have sit here with our thumbs up our arse.

May as well show off the rest of the statuses while we're at it eh? Not like we're going anywhere.

Hey at least we're taking less damage every round : )

I'd sure love to ma'am, but I don't think I can actually do anything at the mo- aw fuck I could've changed formation at least so Boron would give a defense boost. Scheiße!

Hurry up and attack! You won't lose against this opponent!

We're about to. ...or not! Somehow, one of the shots missed. Talk about not being able to hit the broadside of a barn!

Nah man we can still clutch it out. I even remembered to swap over to Boron! Ah, who am I kidding, this event's entirely scripted...though I do wonder what happens if you use Cheat Engine to give yourself infinite health. Probably end up softlocking yourself, or the game just ends the battle for you. Would be interesting if it resulted in extra dialogue hrm...

No one is expected to instantly overcome grief and fear. You can learn from your mistakes. Even if you fail, your struggle will not be in vain. I'm sure next time will be different. I will help you overcome these hardships and fear. I will always be here, watching over you.

...so is this CO like some kind of divine being who has power over time? Is she our Sothis? Huh, that's kind of neat. Thing of note here: Radio Woman is clearly labeled here, so whoever was the other voice isn't her.

Is what I'd declare as fact if the VA wasn't exactly the same. Look, I know I got a tin ear n' all but like come on. Either they're reusing VAs or ??? and the Radio Woman (Who is also the Narrator's voice I must add.) are one and the same.

I actually don't know. I know the Radio Woman's name is Jean tho. Jean? Jeanne? Shit am I confusing this game's plot for Bayonetta again? I'm not sure if there are two people though. I'm on the fence about that. Look: It's been a while since I've read the TvTropes page and that was pretty sparse at the time. Probably still is.

I'm under the impression that the Taranis is sentient and may or may not have time powers. Or is that Malt has time powers?

As another anthromorphic animal would put it: "Use children wisely!"

Who is this "Our"? Or is it like the royal "Our". Or maybe they're more of a collective entity. We are dealing with a metaphysical being after all.

Next time, I shall guide them properly...

Step 1: Never use the Soul Cannon. Ever.

Step 2: Win.

No seriously tho, does the Soul Cannon always inflict the Depression status albeit temporarily or is that just a narrative thing?

Nevertheless, mysterious powers surrounding this world can turn back time. Select "Retry from before the last intermission from the menu."

No relation to the mysterious power/force(?) that granted the characters from ARMS their signature...arms, I presume? No seriously that's the canon behind how they got their arms to be all springy. Said mysterious power actively prevents research on them.

But I digress: So yeah that's how the game justifies saves states. How much of it is a gameplay contrivance and how much of it is tied to the plot is something we're all gonna find out.

~~watch as one of the characters we recruit is a masked wolfcatboy with a very suspiciously feminine voice...~~

As you can see from that blooper, I forgot this trippy little scene plays out when loading a save. Okay so time travel is definitely a thing narratively wise. Hopefully it's kept to a minimum. Probably is because unless they didn't reveal it in the trailer, the sequel to this game does not feature Malt in a jetpack dual wielding laser revolvers gunning down Berman Mecheinraptors. So nothing extreme time travel wise. Maybe. I hope not I've been enjoying the WW2 setting so far and I'd like to stay in it.

Now let's retry this intermission.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

Malt: Huh? What do you mean...

Hanna: Because there are tears on your face...

Malt: Oh, you're right... I wonder why?

Okay I'm assuming Malt isn't a heartless enough bastard that he'd no sell Boron's death so this scene wouldn't change regardless of who dies. Maybe if Kyle bit it the scene would be him having a nightmare?

Speak of the devil!

Socks: Everyone is tired. No wonder you might fall asleep.

Boron: You must have had a sad dream, huh?

Mei: Malt, are you sad?

Malt: No, Mei. I'm fine. (But... What is this... this weird feeling...?)

However, by increasing the children's affinity and strengthening the Taranis during intermission, you may be more prepared for battle than last time.

I really should have made someone other than Mei kick the bucket to see if it changes anything.

Malt: Since I'm the oldest, she can always feel safe and rely on me!

And this is where we're introduced to the support system. Thank goodness it's not like the old GBA FE support system where you can only have 5 conversations in total per game.

Mei: Fire and the sounds of booms are scary, I don't like it...

That being said, supports do give pretty hefty boosts in gameplay so to prevent you from just getting everyone's affinity maxed out, they take 1 AP. 1 AP only fills a small portion of the bar so you're gonna have to dump a bit of AP to advance ranks.

Malt and Mei's affinity has increased to level 2! The children's support effect in battle will increase along with their affinity. This icon will appear every time their affinity level reaches a certain point. This is your chance to trigger a link event!

Naturally, since they're siblings, it only takes 1 AP to get that gauge to max. Don't expect that for everyone else or hell, outside of this tutorial.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Wg-rN5Gpw

Unfortunately, these support convos aren't fully voiced, just like in Awakening and Fates. Yeah I know I don't understand a lick of French but I would've still appreciated it. Echoes' supports being voiced really brought them to life...though it also meant there weren't many either. If you ask me, I'd rather have a few high quality supports over a ton of relatively mid ones IMO.

Malt: What's up? Why are you so jittery, Mei?

Mei: What kind of people were Mommy and Daddy?

Malt: Huh? Mom and Dad?

Mei: Yeah... I don't remember them much.

Malt: That's right, they went to paradise when you were just a wee little thing...Aw, are you feeling lonely?

Mei: I don't know, but... I've got Grandma, Grandpa, and you, so I'm not that lonely.

Malt: Right you are! We'll just have to hurry and rescue them, huh!

Mei: Uh-huh! I bet they're lonely without us!

Malt: Hahaha! I bet you're right!

Well, that was brief. Eh well it was the first support convo of many plus it's just the tutorial one so maybe the others will be longer da? Especially the ones after the first or as I will be dubbing them from hereon out, the C supports.

Wot's a Link Attack, you ask? Well let's see!

Okay I don't think Affinity Lv boosts the effectiveness of these attacks, but yeah so whenever these two are paired together in combat, they build up the Link Gauge. When that thing fills up, both of them can cash in their respective link attacks. Malt here gets what Boron can do at base level for 10 SP. *Yawn* Meanwhile, Mei, while seemingly not too impressive, boosts EVERYONE'S Link Gauge by a bit. And by a bit, I mean 25%.

I think I'm right that Link Gauges are individual to a character so they can cash them in separately. If it's shared between them...well, you're gonna have to pull a Youtube video if you ever want to see Brave Storm in action. Sorry not sorry.

watch as brave storm buffs malt's damage through a X999 multiplier

Finally, we can actually do the shit described while we were running around as Mei. Remember: Whoever you're controlling gets the EXP. So without further ado...

Yeah that's more like it. First order of business: Upgrading the Taranis!

So as of right now, weapons only need barrels to level up.

Armor and reactor on the other hand, only need scrap. Well okay reactor needs batteries too but point is, weapons and armor have separate upgrade materials so no need to fret over whether or not you should save up scrap to upgrade your guns n' vice versa.

The machine gun takes a whopping 3 Rusty Barrel (S) to upgrade. If I upgrade those, then I can't upgrade the grenade launcher. If I ignore the machine gun for now, I can upgrade the grenade launcher and the cannon. I'd say this is a more efficient use of resources, ergo, the correct choice. Unless machine guns are super busted in this game that they completely invalidate the other two weapons.

Probably asking way too much but like, it would've been nice if the image changed based on who took along to upgrade the Taranis. Like, Socks will always be there but have Malt be on a separate layer so you can just swap him in for whoever's the player is controlling. At least the voice clips change accordingly.

As you can see, while everyone gets a bit of XP from the various tasks you do in the Taranis, whoever you're controlling gets the lion's share of it. Welp, that's all the materials we got on hand. We could fish for materials but uh...

Well for starters: Our fishing rod sucks so we can only pull in one item at a time. That, and there's a chance of failing to get anything at all so that's 2 AP down the drain. Yes I know it's says 85% chance of success. That's still a 15% chance of failure. Unlikely, but not impossible. XCOM has carved this lesson very deep into my psyche so I ain't gonna chance it.

'Sides, we're gonna need a boatload of scrap material to upgrade our guns further...tho actually we only need 1 more scrap to get the machine gun upgrade. Hrm, well, we're gonna need at least 4 AP (2 to fish. 2 to upgrade.) if we want that upgrade. That's assuming we get 1 Rusty Barrel (S) first try though. Yeah nah not risking it.

Time to chat it up instead!

Socks: I am quite shocked there was such a gigantic tank slumbering near our village!

Not sure how rare these occasions are, but if you play your cards right in these events, you can receive a massive boost in affinity.

I dunno if I'll need to pull up a guide to pick the most optimal answer ala Persona style as the correct choice seems rather obvious to me. Honestly, the hardest part of this event is resisting the urge to pick the dickish/stupid response.

My heart said A, but my brain said Y. The curious part of my brain wanted to go with X as I feel like it would elaborate on Kyle's character a bit.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMI67CFbIbo

"Urban Speech" We talkin' urban as in city or urban as in "Urban Youth" Well, consider my interest piqued.

Socks: To tell the truth, I have an extremely difficult time talking to girls. Please, I would ever be so grateful if you could teach me more modern conversation, like in the city.

Don't worry Socks, Kyle learned from the best. With this handy little guide here, you'll be the coolest kid in Petit Mona in no time!

Socks: Yes, Mr. Bavarois! Teach me quickly! Please!

Kyle: H-hold on, geez...! Next time, alright?

Socks: M-Mr. Bavarois!?

Maybe it's just the bias talking, but iunno, I'm quite looking forward to what Kyle thinks is "cool n' hip" language. I expect Kyle to be utter ass at it, but I'm not sure what the punchline will be: Is it gonna be that Socks trying, bombing, then getting upset at Kyle, or is he gonna inexplicably succeed with flying colors? Hey it could even go in a completely different direction, who knows? I'd like to find that out ASAP, but there's a war to win here so time to swap out Kyle for someone else, like, Hanna.

Oh fuck I forgot the mess hall was a thing. Right, so like, you can make meals which give temporary buffs to everyone. How temporary? Until the next intermission which is like, roughly 5-7 encounters or so? Good value I'd say, but they take up 3 AP per meal so I'm just gonna stick to support convos for now.

Not like we got much to make anyways. Potato boosts luck, Tomato reduces SP cost, Steak increases attack, and Bread increases EXP + Affinity gain rate. Sure wish I could make some bread but alas. Eh, maybe the potato could help? I don't recall the SP reduction being that drastic. If I do have some spare AP lying around, I'll try Potato. Went Tomato last run, wasn't too game changing.

Well, since we're controlling Hanna, time to hit up Boron. What does he think of the current events I wonder?

I don't know what I expected.

Boron: Can we really fight like this...?

...okay maybe I DO need a guide. What the fuck is a pawbun? I'm going to assume it's the bread he's been eating. Chocolate seems like the obvious answer but what if pawbun isn't meant to be a dessert? Or it is, and carrot in this instance means like carrot cake so carrot could be the right answer! Maybe Boron is secretly an epicurean so he's got exquiste taste so- AW FUCK IT FUCK IT HE'S A CHUNKY CHUNK FUCK LET'S JUST GO WITH CHOCOLATE.

I seriously need to stop overthinking this shit.

Boron: Right now, I just wanna forget about the war and eat a sandwich...

Hanna: That was a huge sigh! Is something the matter, Boron?

Boron: Hmm... Will you listen to my troubles?

Hanna: That's pretty unusual, coming from you. Oh, I'm sorry. That's rude of me to say, isn't it?

Boron, you are currently walking down the path of "Having an actual character" right now. Please don't swerve off of it by going "You know what would fix this? A sandwich!" im gonna fucking scream if his comfort food is pickles.

Hanna: Is it that bad...?

Boron: Look, I'm a bit bigger than anyone else here, right?

Hanna: Ohhh, Yes... You're right. Perhaps you are a little bigger.

Boron: It didn't reallly bother me back at the village, but it's so narrow in the tank, I almost get stuck...

Hanna: Th-that must be hard...

Yeah not exactly breaking new ground here or anything storywise but I'm highlighting this moment anyways because I'm just relieved that he at least has something going on. Boron stans (The game's own director being one of them.) are quite fervent in supporting their boy who, up until now, hasn't done much to earn that kind of fervor.

So I have expectations for the wide lad that I don't have for everyone else on the squad. Well okay except for this one other character who joins later who I've read is very popular for both design and personality. Then again, I haven't seen any fans of them out in the wild unlike Boron stans. Surely, TvTropes is a reliable source of information, shirley.

Boron stans aren't like Morbheads, right? What if ironically liking Boron is the biggest fandom in-joke Fuga has? That would actually be hilarious.

~~wait boron has an aoe attack he can literally boron all over them holy shit ive cracked the code~~

It's that one beagle/daschhund/the guy who's super down with Berman murder. He's the one who suggests using Berman soldiers as ammo for the Soul Cannon. His extremism is his charm point, I think? That and his design.

Hanna: I see... I'll see if I can think of anything to help you, okay?

Aight, well with that, I've got everyone's link attacks. Let's see what we got here, eh?

Socks - Smart Storm: AOE that has a chance to inflict a random assortment of status effects. Dunno if multiple status ailments can be applied at once or if only one is allowed at a time. "Has a chance" is rather vague, game. I wish it'd tell you what the exact percentage is. Oh well, I'm gonna make sure to have this up n' running for bosses. It's kind of like Malboro's Bad Breath attack, innit?

Hanna - Healing Burst: Eh kind of lame. Healing is alright I guess. Mind you, this is just the link attack so who knows, maybe Hanna gets a skill that can apply health regen or even auto-revive. I know she can eventually heal status effects. I was expecting something like, 7th Heaven where it not only heals, but buffs you immensely. Hell I'd be okay with replacing the attack with just buffing yourself.

Kyle - Pierce Shock: I guess this could be useful if there's a ton of heavy tanks onscreen/boss adds with armor? Oh well, at least his personality shores up any deficiencies as an unit.

Boron - Heavy Shock: Ayo free delay on all enemies? Now THAT'S more like it. Just gotta make sure to use this after I hit their weakpoints. Would be a waste to use this when I could just delay them the usual way...unless this stacks? Hm...well regardless, this definitely will come in handy.

Well, I had 6 AP lying around and I'd figure I may as well show off what the cooking art looks like. Made some pierogies this time around! ~~watch as not a single crit happens~~ I like how their dishes are pet bowls.

That and well, I wanted to level up Kyle. Hey, he had like, 80 EXP to go may as well, right?

Holy FUCK. I take it back, cooking really is useful!

Alrighty then, well, I sure am feeling lucky today! Let's do some fishing, all I need is one measly lil' Rusty Barrel (S) I bet I could land it. I'm not sure if Malt being in this image is supposed to clue you in that you should be using him for fishing as later on as Mei occasionally tags along with you, boosting your chances/guaranteeing a highly successful result.

That means you get mo' items and possibly rarer ones I believe. Speaking of which, I forgot to clip it but Lady Luck did smile upon me today!

And then proceeded to kick me in the dick. Fuck, this is like, getting a streak of rare gems in Monster Hunter when all you want is a goddamn carapace.

Oh wait, I don't have enough AP to upgrade anyways. Huh, good thing I got those batteries then...? Well alright time to use the last AP for Malt to try to build up his affinity with everyone else as his support effect (Boost to attack.) will never not be useful. Unless there's going to be an enemy where you have to wound but not kill or some shit. And with that, the intermission comes to a close.

Alright, Round 2 motherfucker.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

We're almost out of Tutorial Country folks, all we need to do now is get the Chancellor of Tutorlandia to stamp our exit visa through any means necessary.*

*No Soul Cannon allowed. WE DIE LIKE MEN

Socks: That moving part up there... It seems they rather us not attack it there...!

Malt: Alright! Let's focus our attacks there! We've gotta try something!

Fuga requires an IQ of at least 300 to even begin to grasp the subtlety of what it's trying to say so don't feel ashamed if you can't understand what it wants you to do here. I'll give you a minute or two to figure it out for yourself.

Hint: Press RB.

The game doesn't think too highly of it's audience, does it?

That being said, the next battle tip does elaborate on something worth noting.

Since you can still attack while defending, it's effective when fighting against strong enemies! Be sure to defend before heavy hitting attacks.

Yeah, defending can be used offensively. Battle Tip 3 just covers affinity attacks which I already went into.

So yeah, the strategy for this is to knock out the medic/tower first, then work the body. Whack the tower when it pops back up.

Defend when Sigurd is charging and have Hanna on standby to heal. (Preferably have her take the hit with Boron backing her up.) The tower does restore some armor I believe so if it does manage to get a heal off, rotate the machine gunners back in to strip the armor off again. Otherwise: Hit it until it dies.

Got it memorized? Good.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_bPG9ucBk8

LIVE AND LET DIE

-FIGHT!-

First order of business: Fire off Cheer Burst to increase everyone else's affinity attack gauge. Affinity Attacks change based on who's in the back row, not the point character. Huh, I got it backwards. Woops. Oh well, anywho since we can't stall Sigurd before it can get a shot off, I brought Hanna up to snipe the tower and to tank the hit.

Tower down, time to start chipping away at the armor.

Armor's not completely down at the moment, but I'm swiching over to Socks anyways to stall Sigurd by inflicting a weird sense of Deja Vu onto it.

Not sure if that 40 means 40% chance of success or 40 damage. Oh well, the burn is just a bonus anyways. Afterwards, I'm going to remove the last bit of armor with Mei. The tower will come back before Boron can get a shot off which is great...assuming it can't do anything on it's resurrection turn. I'm hoping it can't so that Boron can knock it out/take a chunk of health out at least with Fragmented shot.

Oookay I made that gameplan up while looking at the Formation screen which doesn't change the timeline accordingly so Socks can actually go again before Boron can! And the weaknesses returned so we now have another chance to inflict burn.

And so, history repeats itself...

Ah nuts, Boron is ever just so slightly faster than the tower so we can't attack it this turn. Fooie. But we can change formation again so...

There we go!

...game, please. I am trying to show off my tactical genius to the internet stop ruining my carefully laid out schemes by tripping over yourself. Well there went that plan.

Mei is too fast for her own good. I was seriously considering just defending because usually in RPGs with this kind of timeline system, defending means you get increased priority next turn.

However, either this game wants to incentivize attacking, or they wanted to balance defending by making you slower which is fair TBH. Defending does last two turns after all and you can attack during it so it's stronger compared to how it usually works in games.

CORRECTION: It actually depends on the weapon. Defending is the same speed for everyone, so for machine gunners, it's faster to attack, but for cannons, it's faster to defend. Good to know!

Sure I could've brought in Hanna n' Boron (HnB) to tank the damage, but I'm gonna bring in Malt instead. His double hit skill makes him our heaviest hitter for now and I don't know if that tower can take an action on it's resurrection turn. May as well squeeze out as much damage as I can.

Copy that Pretzel, I'll crush you in 15 then.

The tower has returned and thankfully, can't do shit on the turn it revives! Woopie! Time to slam it right back down.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

Okay so the tower is a touch tougher than I thought and a slippery lil' feller, so it got a repair off. Thankfully it's just shields tho. Sigurd is bout to let it rip, but oh, what's this? Formation swap is ready again?

Eat shit Sigurd.

Strip one layer of armor to give Malt his best shot at finishing it off.

The tower being a hair slower may have thrown a wrench in my earlier plans, but now it's come back to bite it in the arse as it wasn't fast enough to get ahead of Malt. Maybe I'm cutting it a little too close, but I have faith in Malt.

Do You Like Malt and His Two Hit Single Target Attack?

I sure do!~

And thus Pretzel succuumbs to the fate of all Camus Archetypes.
miraculously surviving their original demise and popping up in the sequel thanks to their popularity. or not. i mean, have you ever seen a pretzel stan?

Hell yeah brotha! This run went really well, like in my first playthrough, Sigurd actually got a charge shot off. And before you ask: No, the potatoes did not help at all. Not a single crit was landed in that entire fight. Goddammit.

Malt: Did...we do it...?

Boron: Alright! Haha! I'm so relieved, it makes me really hungry.

I hereby declare Kyle as my spirit animal.

Hanna: D-do you think... That Berman soldier's... dead?

Kyle: Well... what do you think...

It's okay Hanna, the Taranis uses exclusively rubber weaponry. Pretzel was just knocked out by a rubber explosion. Look, you can even see his parachute. He's okay.
~~5 chapters later "Somehow Pretzel returned."~~

Not a hypothetical joke this time around this actually played immediately afterwards. Holy shit is that why I brought up the possibility of that earlier?

Woohoo Triple S! I think in my last run, I took 26 turns and a shitton of damage so I ended up with a B/A(?) rank. Huh, if every battle goes as well as this I may just stick with the LP save.

Everyone gets a level up, but Mei is the only one who got a skill out of it. Interesting. It's not just a machine gunner thing either as Kyle's level 3 as well but he didn't get shit.

They would have no other choice but to board that machine, face the Berman Army, and take the lives of enemy soldiers.

Many more enemies will stand in your way. Defeat them without remorse, or you and your precious families will perish...

"Sweep the leg" got it coach.

"So this is war..."

The Taranis is equipped with a formidable weapon, the Soul Cannon, capable of defeating any enemy. However, in order to function, it requires Bio-Energy... In other words, a single person's life.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 29, 2023

But, if it's the only way to avoid everyone's death... you mustn't hesitate. Although you may regret your actions in the moment, hesistation will only lead to certain death. I promise I will do everything in my power so it doesn't come to that.

"Even if it means messing with the timeline." I'm guessing this game isn't gonna go deep with the whole time travel thingy but I do wonder if in like, the spin off comedy series "Comedies of Steel" (Yes that's what it's called.) there's a What-If scenario where the Radio Woman does tell the kids she's got time powers.

If they hesistated, everyone would die. This horrifying reality fell heavily on their shoulders...

MEANWHILE...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-yiUIVX-ro

Hax: You did well in your final moments, Colonel Pretzel... This is truly your most valuable achievement.

Don't you hate it when you're not consciously aware of something, but your subconscious is? At this rate I'm gonna drop a massive spoiler casually and then get surprised twice later: First for finding out the thing actually does happen, then realizing the only reason why I know is because I already knew about it, I just forgot.

Well then in that case I'm just going to get super ridiculous with my predictions: The game is going to end with the Taranis actually being Satan (From: The Bible) arm wrestling YAHWEH in the background as Hax and Malt fist fight on top of French Millenium Tower, shirtless in the rain.

i really do hope the final boss is a bibically accurate angel beast tank with eyes for days. cmon you play as a giant tank itd be only fitting for the final boss to be another giant tank. unless the plot twist is that hax is like senator armstrong and he just fights you on foot and it's utterly unfair...for you.

And on that foreboding note, the chapter comes to a close. Every chapter ends with an illustration done by someone entirely different each time. It's neat, but like, why? Was this part of a fanart contest or something?

So yeah, that was Chapter 1.

...

Hoo boy, this one's gon be a doozy ain't it?

Sheesh, either I run my mouth a lot or this game's a lot more chattier than I thought. Okay it's definitely the former isn't it. I have very little experience running a screenshot LP so I don't know if this length is just right or horribly drawn out.

Well, I for one, had fun playing this and I hope to continue doing so. Even if it's going to take like, half of a year at this rate. (I think it's possible to finish this game in a day or two.) Hey, since Fuga 2 comes out in May, that'll be my deadline!

Which one will come out first: Fuga 2, or Let's Play Fuga Part FINAL? Stay tuned~!

Fernandel · Jan 29, 2023

The aesthetic of this game is honestly kinda dope! It reminds me of Valkyrie Chronicles.

...You know, except with cute furries. Which is not a dealbreaker for me. Don't look too much into that.

I might have to check out a video to see how it looks like in motion. Watching this with interest.

EDIT: I was also about to add «Man, I also hope this also has fewer Nazis and Antisemitism than Valkyrie Chronicles», and then I saw "Berman HQ" and a dog character in an SS uniform and rofled

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 30, 2023

NOTE: Hopefully the playthrough won't take so much data to render now that I've changed the screenshot format from PNGs to JPGs.

So after every chapter, the game moves you to the world map screen. I don't know if the clouds are meant to be there to look pretty, or if this game takes place on a floating continent.

As the Taranis makes it's way eastward to presumably wherever the villagers have been taken (Unless the Taranis has a GPS, I'm going to assume the kids find their way through the tried and true video game method of "Enemies = Progress".) you're given the opportunity to make pit stops along the way.

By stopping at villages, you can exchange items and gather information from villagers. Select "Enter Village."

Or you could just hit Continue Adventure. The game won't stop you from doing so but will make it very clear you done fucked up as it'll save immediately. I have no idea why you would ever consider skipping past the village.

Those who fled, however, created small settlements like this in various locations. People try to make the most of their lives while distancing themselves from the gaze of Berman soldiers.

Aight, let's hit up the market.

And vice versa: You can also exchange a high tier item for many low tier ones. I wish there was a way to bring up the Taranis upgrade screen so that you could shop for exactly what you need. Well, that Metal Plate is the next tier upgrade material I'll bet so I'm just gon leave it alone for now. We don't got much to trade so we'll be leaving empty handed.

The sentimental type eh? Alright kids, put on your most pitiable, sad, puppy/kitty eyes right now! Let's fleece this fucker!

Dammit!

In the very least, you should prepare for anything. Everybody's different, so you should think for yourself what you need.

We scored 2 energy cells from her. Huh, so like, in my first run, the NPCs I came across were all old geezers. Not sure if the items are fixed but the NPCs sure aren't.

If you've never read it before, then here! You've gotta read it!

Have you heard of our Lord and Savior, Sucre? Weird how you get comic strips from the church. Maybe it's like a religious comic ala Chick Tracts.

Let's check 'em out ya?

Wot's a Berman Report?

If I had to say it, ever since he was removed from under my supervision, his cruelty seemed to grow. I have a feeling this mission will be just as rough as the last...

Huh. Well since these are "Berman Reports" and not "Diary of a Wimpy Colonel" I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say this is going to be how the game fleshes out the villains. The Taranis takes no survivors so this is the only way they're ever gonna get any development.

Sheesh, if the first guy we knocked off is supposed to be the "nice" one, how awful are the rest going to be from hereon out?

This is pretty charming I'd say. Is this supposed to be like The Adventures of Tintin or something? That's an old ass French comic, right?

Aight so this next section is just going to be the comic pages.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 30, 2023

View: https://imgur.com/a/LGrif09

View: https://imgur.com/a/6pC6qpd

I wonder if I'm on or off the mark about this entire comic being a Tintin homage.

I don't have much else to say other than that Sucre looks like the mascot for the Frigo's Cheese Head. Is that supposed to be intentional?

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 30, 2023

If you're already going through the Library section, you probably already know this detail. I'm just showing this off to let y'all know the Illustration section doesn't just show off images, it also has descriptions that provide some extra detail on what's going on in said image.

Well, that's enough shoppin' for now, once more unto the breach.

Malt: Did I get them involved into this mess? I never wanted this to happen...

Mei: Can we save Grandma, Grandpa, and everybody...?

Hanna: Yes, I'm sure they're fine.

Kyle: What are we in for...?

Thanks for specifying.

Wait what the fuck. Hey, I was just making a gratituous reference when I was talking about machine spirits. Is that actually a thing?
How "literal" is the Soul Cannon? Is the Taranis secretly powered by the souls of dead people, or is it just one person's soul running it like in Eva?

*shrug* It was just a theory.

And it disappeared without expressing a single word. Everyone agreed the fatigue must have caused them to see things... that it was just their imagination.

Well then! Shit, had I found about this earlier I would have picked up some candles n' incense at the market. Nothing for it, we'll just have to proceed and pray for the Omnissiah's mercy.

Okay I did know the Taranis was sentient to an extent, but I thought it was a program, like HAL 9000, not a literal ghost in the machine.

INTERMISSION

New facilities will be available on different floors, so check it out!

The what.

So, not only can we farm potatoes, tomatoes, and wheat inside a tank, but we also can raise chicke- s'cuse me, "clucken", here too? My theory that this tank is a bona fide Petit Mona creation only grows more credible by the day. S'pose it's a nice change of pace to have our hands covered in mud than blood for once eh?

Aight, so like, unlike the other activities, you can do a whole bunch of stuff at once, costing a meagre 2 AP.

In exchange, we gotta wait til' next intermission to reap the benefits.

Ay there's our boy Kyle! D'aww.

MEANWHILE LITERALLY NEXT DOOR:

It's exactly what you think it is. The fucking thing even beats like a heart for Christ's sake.

Unsurprisingly, no one has anything real nice to say about the Soul Cannon Chamber:

Malt: I've got a bad feeling about this...

Hanna: I feel something ominous...

Kyle: I can't shake this antsy feeling...

Socks: Something feels quite sinister...

Boron: Oooh... It's so spooky here...

Anywho, I've upgraded the shit we couldn't from last time. Yeesh, that's a lotta scrap needed to get to level 3 and from hereon out, we can start failing so...hrm, I'm just gonna grind supports instead. Have everyone at least 1 support with each other so that no matter who they're paired up with, they can still build up the affinity attack gauge. Malt is about to level up soon-ish so let's switch over to him.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 30, 2023

Kyle: Actually, the same thing's probably happenin' in the capital, too...

So, is Melodies of Steel 2 going to center on what the rest of the ~~East Europan Imperial Alliance~~ Berman Empire are doing outside of ~~Gallia~~ Petit Mona?

Hm, I wonder had I been controlling Socks, picking "Proper Ettiquette" would have been the right choice since that is what their support chain is after all. Well, according to the bio, Kyle's got a crush on Hanna, while Malt and Hanna are more or less framed as the "Team Mom and Pop" by the game. Might be a bit of a touchy subject for Kyle, but like, he's not Boron, why would he give a shit about eating quickly?

Bit of a gamble but let's go for "love problems"

And it worked out, I think! Still needed to cash in 1 more AP to get to level 2 but hey.

Kyle: I ain't afraid of the stupid Berman Army...!

Malt: What's that? So, even YOU wanna go home!

Kyle: You kiddin' me? I wanna go to the city, not back to our boring village. Somewhere like Paresia.

Malt: Oh, really?

Kyle: It's not like I actually liked living in the middle of nowhere! ~~b-baka~~ I hated having to move from the city to that dinky, countryside village.

ok yosuke

Malt: But Petit Mona's a nice place, you know.

Kyle is a man of culture confirmed.

Malt: Hmm...you're so weird.

Kyle: Pft, YOU'RE weird!

Huh, not the direction I thought this'd be going considering the title of "Countryside Sweets" I thought they were gonna talk about food. Or maybe that's how Malt wins Kyle over. I hope the support chain is just them arguing which place is better. I think it would be a fun way to do some in character world building through petty arguments.

Aww ain't Mei just the cutest? Right, back to support grinding.

Socks: I cannot forgive the Berman for setting their hands on such historical ruins!

Interesting set of priorities Socks got there, eh?

Socks: So you noticed-! No - It was overflowing, this creative urge!

Malt: Okay, um... I've only got bad feelings about this, but...

Socks: Hear me out! I might be able to invent something! The Taranis has something that is unequivocally different from all other tanks!

Oh Malt.

Malt: Which... includes yourself.

Socks: Indeed you are correct, but that is not all! Its treads are unlike any other! Fundamentally!

...I'm not the only one who thought of the Taranis's treads being made up of a thousand human feet right. ~~guess we gotta rechristen the taranis to the tarantino~~

Oh that's what he meant. Also something of note: Character portraits can change during conversation, even if they're not the one talking! Hey, that's some neat tech. I know that sounds super minor but this is like, the first game I've see that's done that. Usually portraits only change when the spotlight is on them so this is a cool detail.

Malt: Oh, would you look at the time! I forgot I needed to do something-

Socks: Too bad, but I will not stand in the way of your duties. I will explain more next time!

Malt: S-sure, I'll look forward to it... Hahaha...

Alright, I'm starting to warm up to Malt. There may be some petty arguments over which place is better with Kyle on the horizon and there's him just being utterly done with Sock's nerd shit.

I know the snarky straight man isn't the most original thing in the world and it seems easy to write, right? But like, man, I know some real shit straight man characters who are just there to react to things. They're so bland though, so their reactions doesn't come off as things bouncing off their personality, but rather just the writer going "Okay the character needs to react a certain way because that's what their function is."

But enough from Malt, let's switch over to Socks.

Boron: What'll we do if a stronger enemy comes at us...?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF3nJYEHC1w

That's enough EXP for Socks, switching over to Boron.

Socks may be the easiest person to please on this tank I swear. Just pick the most nerdiest option. TBH tho the comic option isn't a terrible choice either as he is a big fan of the Sucre series.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ewe6EIZ1A

Socks: Yes, there is so much unfamiliar technology in this tank. I thought if I examined things, it would help give me some ideas...

Boron: Oh, really? All I think about is going home to the village...

Socks: Well, yes... I do as well, but this is this, and that is that!

Boron: Hmm... I don't really get it, but I hope you can think of a good idea-!

...yeah that's it. That's the entire conversation. Wow, that sure was brief. Man, I hope we pick up another smartie pants along the way so that Socks has someone he can actually talk to.

While I could get Socks to Level 4 with the AP I have left, I don't want to leave the others too far behind so I'm switching over to Boron. I'm gonna spend 2 AP to chat up with Mei, then switch over to Mei and have her talk to Boron. That way not only is the EXP distributed evenly, but they build up their affinity with each other.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 30, 2023

"Haha the kid is too innocent to realize the harsh reality of war." As if! I'm on to you game, I know you know that's the intended reaction, so you're framing it that way to sneak in some clever foreshadowing of the game's real plot: All of this is a Berman scheme to sweep the Baking Awards which is why they've kidnapped Mei's grandma and others to win!

You know if I ever write something, that's totally going to be something I'll consider. Just have one of the idiot/naive characters spoil the entire plot but no one, including the audience, takes it seriously because they assume it's just a joke. No one ever expects the raw level 3/straight punch!

Switched back to Mei to give her some EXP. Boron had this to say before this triggered:

Boron: I'm feeling sleepy after a full tummy...

Anyways.

Maybe it's a mechanic, maybe it's not, but I don't think Socks is any easier to please than everyone else so it's entirely possible chocolate isn't the right answer. It may be plain or carrot after all. Since these seem to recycle, I'll try plain next time. Oh well, I had 1 AP left anyways so even if it is inefficient, it's not too big of a loss.

Boron: Ah...Sorry. Did I get in your way...?

Mei: Nuh-uh, you're not in the way! I just thought I wanna get big, too!

Boron: You want to be as big as me? Hmm, I can't really picture that...

Mei: I'll try hard to get really, super big!

Boron: Oh, I don't know... Maybe a little bigger is okay, but...

No idea where this is going to go. Probably will involve a lotta milk, unless the whole "Milk will make you bigger" is a purely American propaganda thing. Maybe France has their own spin on it?

Aight that's all we can do for now. Time to head out and crush some bastards.

These aren't bastards, but we'll crush them anyways!

Oh, neat, materials. I thought you could only get like, battle items (Repair kits n' such) from these things.

Only one tank on it's lonesome. This isn't going to end well for ye lil' feller.

Ah dammit. So, the affinity gauge doesn't carry over between chapters it seems. Formation does tho so while I'm not terribly concerned as we can still delay the tank this turn, it does highlight the importance of setting your positions in advance. (i.e: Never have your cannoneers take point on the first turn. If you really need them, you can just swap formation on the first turn anyways.)

My initial thought was going to bring up Hanna and Socks to lay the hurt down on this guy by breaking out the flammenwerfer. But this is Wave 1 of 2 on the very first battle of this chapter. Gotta think long term, y'know? So, instead I just made sure I had one of each weapon active in case the next wave has blue n' red enemies.

For one less attack, you move way up in the priority chain! That's something I'll be keeping on my toolbelt. Not gonna go for it tho as Mei can finish it off with a regular attack.

Thinking of delaying these guys, then if there's only one vehicle left, switching over to Malt to finish off whoever's left...assuming it's not the flier. Cannons only have a 50% chance of hitting those and Malt's only got two shots. That's 4 less than needed to kill anything that moves so I'm really hoping the flier dies first.

Kyle only gives a 10% boost to accuracy huh. Gee, thanks dude...wait hold on I have an idea.

He he he...

Ah blast my attempt at being big brained backfired. Only 55%?! Ack! And Malt's on the gun too, what was I thinking? Not at all from the looks of it.

...*cough* Yes I totally planned for that. A gamble to be sure, but you must realize my friends, if you wish to succeed, you must take risks!

Smoke grenades my beloved <3.

Come to think of it, since Piercing Shot only takes 1 SP, I bet I could use that to inflate my Technique score. Then again, scoring triple S still nets you a S rank anyways so it's not like it matters outside of bragging rights.

Time to swat down some flies.

Quick Assault allows me to not only delay the enemy, but cut in line ahead of it to finish it off.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 30, 2023

gg ez

Not having a single cannoneer on point means everyone is ahead of the enemy. I'd love to have Boron up n' running so that he could finish both of them off but I need a grenadier so..

This'll have to do. My kingdom for another character with an easy access AOE attack.

Kiiiiiiiiiinda overkilled that one tank with Malt's double strike. My mistake for underestimating the damage of the cannons really. Well, 6 SP may be down the drain but hey, that's +1000 to tech score~!

Good thing we've got like, 3 SP restoration items. but that'll take up a turn which may ruin our speed score oh noooooooooooooo

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eICeoT0BVIs

"Fuga: Melodies of Steel Gameplay Movie But Every Time Boron Takes a Step Forward He Says 'I Think This is the Furthest I've Ever Been From Home'"

Hanna: Yes, me too... But I never imagined leaving be under such circumstances.

Boron: Guys, I'm kinda afraid...

"Here on the Taranis, we grind our own beef."

>Smoke Ammo

Aww yiss. I'm gonna enjoy deploying this against bosses. Just try and hit me!

Remember when I mentioned route splitting from earlier? So yeah, this is the Route for Ultra Babies. Iunno if the separate healing and SP restoration events give more than the combined ones.

Maybe later on, the Road for Champions will be a lot tougher but like, c'mon, one extra battle? Ooh I'm shaking.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfmToTYA3uE

(Normal Route Battle Theme)

It's just one lil' baby tank. Alright, gonna peel off a layer of armor, have Boron stall it, then peel another piece off. Then double strike it to finish it off. That sound good to you?

Mei may be faster, but with Socks backseating, Kyle has a higher chance of landing a crit.

Kyle, you're embarassing me in front of everyone.

Alright, so more than likely we're gonna eat a hit and then finish it off next round. I switched Boron for Hanna just so that in the next fight, I'll at least have two guns ready. Gotta think about the war, not just this one battle y'know?

Good thing you can afford to take a spot of damage and still get a S.

I wonder how much of a damage increase it is. Like, is it viable to do a "Danger Malt" run where you keep the Taranis at 1 point of health but you can one shot everything? I like those all or nothing kinds of builds. Like how in Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight you can stack a bunch of offensive buffs that only trigger at low HP to just one shot bosses in a single arrow volley. I don't think that'll apply here tho, unless Malt gets an AOE attack... Nah taking damage = Low Rank = Reduced EXP not worth it as fun as it sounds.

Well, we haven't come across any status effects yet so far, but that's good to have I s'pose. We don't have any items that can cure status after all.

Even at level 5, Kyle gets jack and shit. Dang it.

D'aw look at this little AFV.

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 30, 2023

"It has a skill to delay the action of this target"

Yeah ok this thing needs to die.

Maybe having two machine guns up is ill advised, but like. c'mon, they can handle a jeep. This is just the game gently introducing you to a new enemy type before it starts peppering them in regular enemy battle groups.

Two yellows. Alright then, bringing Socks and Hanna to bear, leaving Malt to finish off whoever's left.

Hmm...double shot is definitely overkill, but whatever I've got SP to spare.

Funnily enough, the first shot did 140 damage, with the second shot critting for 220. What a show off, that Malt. Anywho, we can change formation again.

Kyle hasn't been doing well as of late so Socks will remain on point to polish off what's little is left on Boron's plate. Mei will be swapped in for Malt since there's still another wave coming up and I want at least two guns online before the enemy at all times.

Man, I wish I could tell who's up first without having to pull out a bloody magnifying glass. Is it just a 50/50 on who goes first in Socks's and Boron's case? Or does the game favor the player and in these scenarios, the player always has priority? Well better safe than sorry: Gonna swap Mei n' Malt's (M n' M) with Socks n' Kyle, who's position will be replaced with Hanna n' Boron.

Socks will then stun the jeep that's parked on the same spot as Hanna. Hanna then delays the other. In hindsight, I should've had Malt up front to finish off one of the jeeps instead of having Mei on point to begin peeling off the heavy tank's armor. Alas.

Gonna eat a lot of fire this time around so let's defend.

Yowch. Alright then, fair's fair I suppose they are doing exactly what we did to them after all.

Let's return the favor, hmm?

Taking bit of a beating here but we'll be healing soon anyways so no biggie. So long, shrimps.

Goddammit Boron! Yeah I don't think we're getting a triple S on this one fellas.

Au revoir, armor. Time to chow down.

If I wanted to save a turn, I could've had Malt double shot it, but like, I didn't think one less turn will salvage our S rank so I decided to conserve SP instead.
At least our Technique is as stellar as ever!

Even if it's not that big of a boost, Kyle is going to get very well acquainted with everyone, specifically the cannoneers, to shore up their accuracy. That sure is a lot of loot we got BTW.

What the hell are these things used for? Haven't seen them before, curious...

How's our health? Never been better! A little low on SP tho and the batteries we keep running over don't give much juice so I may spend a turn here just restoring SP. Anywho, I'm sure y'all understand what the gameplan here is gonna be.

Boron this is your chance to redeem yourself.

BORON STATUS: REDEEMED

Took a hit here, good thing Boron was on tank duty!

Not to be outdone, Kyle crits the tank, allowing Malt to finish it off without resorting to Double Shot! Man, don't ye just love a good redemption arc?

Link Attack gauges are maxing out, but I'm not gonna cash it in for these small fry. Gonna take bit of a "wait and see" approach here, keeping the formation swap option in my back pocket for now instead of doing it turn 1.

A touch risky I'll admit, but if I can pull it off it'll be worth it. With the exception of HnB, everyone else's affinity attack is maxed out so I don't think I'm losing out on too much by pairing everyone with characters they can't build meter with. Fingers crossed...

Private Lee O'Malley · Jan 30, 2023

You ever have a character you're not all too jazzed about personality wise, but adore them for their strategic viability?

But I digress: Mei is going to defend, then I'll do another formation change. If I can't, then Malt will juice up the Taranis with one of the energy kits we've got lying around.

"Air Blow"

Yeah as if the Taranis will go down from a stiff breeze.

YOWCH and that's the damage while the Taranis is defending! Hoo boy, Zyklon ain't nothing to fuck with.

Alrighty, you know the drill.

The man of the hour, Boron, gets the honor of delivering ze coup de grace. That, and I need to build up HnB's affinity attack.

Hm, I am getting rather slow aren't I? I wonder how I could do this quicker...

Socks: They may have reached every end of Gasco...

Malt: Why did this have to happen?

On the bright side, at least our crops are ready!

Mei's having a good time at least.

Anywho, Malt only needs 112 EXP to level up, with Hanna and Kyle needing a mere 11-13 to go. I'll be swapping over to Malt and through the power of trickle down economics, I can level all three at the same time!

Yo since when could we go UP? Well alrighty then, let's see what's up there!

The hell are these things? The Taranis repair spirits?

Nah it's just loot.

I see, so I guess if any of the children severely fall behind, you can toss 'em in here to powerlevel them?

Oh, that's a thing eh. Man this is like in horror games where out of the blue you get a tutorial prompt "Hold shift to run" or alternatively you walk next to a locker only to see a tooltip saying "Press X to Hide" Nothing's happening yet, but like, you know it's gonna come up soon.

Ooh 500 EXP? That's quite a lot! But it costs 5 AP tho and I ain't bout to waste that much this early on just to show shit off. Sorry kiddies, but there's no rest for the wicked.

Alright, finally, we can set up formations in advance.

NEVER BEFORE SEEN TEAMCOMP

Huh, I thought we'd be getting eggs, or like, chicken meat. Feathers? Seriously? The hell we gonna do with those?

Let's Play! Fuga: Melodies of Steel - Iron Blooded Furbabies (COMPLETE)

Fuga: Melodies of Steel

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