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

[Private Lee O'Malley]

My, how tempting...if we've got AP to spare, I'll spring for it. For now:

​

We've got enough to upgrade just bout everything here, well except for armor. I'm gonna spring for reactor because the best defense is a good offense. If I can sling skills for days, we won't get touched so here we go!

GOD
DAMN
IT.

90 PERCENT HUH.
​

Mei you have to understand: Your brother had to die because he botched a 90% chance to success. Stop crying. If you don't succeed, you'll be joining him very soon.



Okay turns out I was wrong: I actually can upgrade armor and reactor! Bad news: I can't upgrade the grenade launcher and cannon at the same time. Well, we're gonna fight a boss next so cannon it is. Boron has decided to swing on by to give Mei a hand. Only 5% to be sure, but hey, Kyle also only gave a 5% boost too and look how well that turned out?



During these upgrades, I have come upon a startling realization: Much like trickle down economics in real life, it doesn't actually work. Hanna didn't get a single drop of EXP as Mei hoarded all of it. This wasn't all a set up for a political joke I seriously thought that's how it worked. Maybe it's just for cooking that gives everyone EXP? Farming, perhaps?



Nope, farming doesn't work that way either, ack. Welp, time to switch to Hanna I guess.




He sure has a funny idea of "protection" then. "Kids can't suffer from the horrors of war if they're dead." *taps head*

Hanna: I know we had to fight to save everyone, but... It's so sad...



"Be honest" is the boilerplate response, but like, the other two options are just sidegrades of "Be honest" if you think about it. Don't overcomplicate it, keep it simple, and just say what you feel. Go for it, Kyle!

Hoo boy, this ought to be good.
​

Kyle: S-something on your mind... That wouldn't have anything to do with me, would it?

ruh roh ​

Kyle: O-okay then, wh-what's on your mind? Haha. Let's hear it.

You can just hear the anime sweat drop sound effect.

Hanna: So, um, Kyle... I was thinking that maybe, it would be nice if we could get to know each other a little better...

Kyle: Huh!? Get to know each other b-better...?

Hanna: Yes. I was thinking it would be nice if you could get along with everyone...



Oh yeah wasn't my original plan to get Kyle acquainted with everyone to boost their accuracy? Thanks for the reminder Hanna.

Hanna: Yes, well... Did I ask something strange?

Kyle: Nope! It's all good. But you should know, I don't really care about getting along with everybody.

Kyle, could you be any more transparent about your intentions.​

Hanna: Oh, Kyle...


So there was this tumblr post about a blood soaked cinnamon roll being served to the judges in Chopped and before you ask, yes that was an actual thing. I saw it on my telly while channel surfing. One of the mandatory ingredients for the dessert portion of the contest was either a steak or just outright beef blood. The chef, having no idea what to do with it, decided to just...soak a cinnamon roll in blood, then cooked it.

The judges, naturally, refused to eat it and that guy lost obviously. i mean it couldve tasted good you ever try blood sausage its pretty tasty
But yeah, someone posted a screencap of it with a caption of "When you ship the most purest character with the evilest sunovabitch on the cast." Now, Kyle isn't like a genocidal warlord or anything, but he is the most relatively speaking, the most mean spirited of the bunch. Like, everyone else is a glazed cinnamon roll. He's one too, but he's served plain.

I'm just saying: Kyle doesn't have a chance in hell with Hanna, not with Malt in the picture, but I'm still rooting for him. It's one of my favorite shipping dynamics: The bitter asshole having a soft spot for the sweet roll. See: Lon'qu X Lissa.



Speaking of that dynamic, Boron is but four conversations away from leveling up, so let's spend the rest of the AP we've got left pestering Kyle! rip bread



Wait, are these responses generic, or specific to each character? I'd figure he'd say something like this to Hanna, not Boron. Huh.



Man I hope there's like, a free play mode in NG+ so you can just freely pick the asshole responses. Well, Kyle's a cultured fellow so he'd probably snub his nose at Boron for picking the puppet show response so let's feign interest instead.



Goddamn that was a huge boost to affinity! Hope you're ready to sit through all of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Boron. With no breaks inbetween.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Sheesh, if this is how you treat people you like, I'd hate to see how you treat those you loathe.

Boron: Ah, s-sorry, Kyle...

Kyle: Geez... Why are you always so slow? Stop getting in my way.

Boron: I-I didn't mean to - I'm sorry. I can't help getting in the way, being as big as I am...



Yeah okay those responses were generic.

Boron: I-I'd like to, but...I don't know how... I wish I could be more like you...



Easy there boyo, not everything is a personal attack against ye.

Boron: N-no, I...I didn't mean it that way... Oh, man... Haha...

Kyle: Hmph.

Boron: B-bye, Kyle...

Kyle: Tsh...



Hey where did they go??? This isn't a glitch, right?

Ah Kyle, you're such a prick. Which is why I look so forward to your character development. Everyone's else characters I've got pretty nailed down as to where they'll be headin', but you? You're a wild card mate. Who knows, maybe you'll just stay an asshole, or not!



Anywho, by talking to Malt, we've unlocked Boron's defend all command. Just in the time for the boss, how swell.



Nuts, so unlike RE4 where upgrading your shit gives you a full refill, boosting our reactor only gave us +8 SP. Luckily, the HP+SP Restoration crate brought us back nearly to full anyways so w/e.



Holy shit we did? I was just acting all gung ho about being able to crush the garrison without a sweat.

<<Cut the chatter, Berman 2. Accelerate to attack speed!>>​

Berman Soldier: We can't let them past us! We've got to stop them here!




...a reason you MUST fight!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPaSshSW2es

SHE SAID THE THING
final chaptr sp0il3rs: "Gee, Fuga, this really was a Melodies of Steel huh?​

"If we don't fight, everyone will die...!" Mustering up their courage, the children raised their heads.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Qzin9yOe4

IT'S ALL OR NOTHING!

FIGHT!
​

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Huh. Spoiler free, but in the Author's Note sections I've been talking about how I forgot a lot of details about the game so I may be entirely wrong in regards to things. This is one of them: I thought all boss weaknesses were Red Yellow Blue. Guess I forgot, or maybe it's randomized???



Hey remember when I mentioned the trope of horror games bringing up mechanics well before they come into play? Yeah. Peep it. Guess that's why it's got two yellow weaknesses: They really want you to use Hanna, huh. Fear is no Depression, but halving your accuracy makes it come quite close I'd say. I was about to wonder aloud how the game would help you if you decided to sack Hanna early on but then I remembered: Oh right, the Soul Cannon.

Why is the Soul Cannon even a thing? Using it is like chopping off a limb to stave off starvation. Sure, your stomach is full, but now you're bleeding out. Good going, moron. The real challenge run isn't using the Soul Cannon, it's using it at every opportunity.



The Anubis/jackal head like thing the Goldschakal has is pretty cool looking I'd say.



Alright, enough chatter, let's batter! What'll we be hammering today's foe with you ask? Well, it's trying to reduce our accuracy through fear, right? Two can play at that game.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em!​

Second verse, same as the first: Link Attack gauges reset every chapter, so while it IS only a "chance" of reducing armor rank, we may as well try!



You can just barely make it out, but it missed! Hah! Like any SMT veteran would tell ya, don't sleep on buffs/debuffs!
assuming the bosses arent immune to it seriously why bother implementing them if youre just gonna make all the bosses immune to them



We failed to shred the armor, but I've got a ploy up my sleeve.



Okay it didn't work out. I had 92% to go for Boron's Link Attack, now it's 96%. Good to know for future reference at least. That smoke cloud is blinking BTW, I think that means it's bout to wear off. When? We're about to find out.



The smoke didn't wear off, but we still got hit anyways. Oh well, at least we know it'll stick around for a little longer. In other news: HnB is ready to go. Time to implement my previous plan into action! Oi, Goldschakal, it ain't your turn yet buddy!



A touch of armor shredding here...



Nope, it's still not your turn yet sir. I kindly ask you for your patience.

You'll never reach the truth.
​

Okay so Brave Storm said "Damage Increase" that's kind of vague. It sounds like just an damage boost for this one attack, but like, Cheer Storm boosts everyone else's link gauge a bit, making it bit of a support move, no? Well, I'm wagering Brave Storm is also the same in that it boosts everyone's elses damage too. Let's see if this gambles pays off yeah?

Guess you don't need to see a youtube video after all, ah?
​

That smoke hasn't left yet and *knock on wood* I don't think it will, so let's apply some burn!

Annnd it didn't land. Drat.​

Double drat!!​

Triple drat!!!​

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Good thing we got Hanna on standby.



Welp, smoke is gone. Time for a booster shell!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVOa3xhl0bg
​

No idea if everyone's attack is boosted BTW. I don't see the attack up icon so I'm gonna assume noooo. Hope you weren't a big fan of Brave Storm as you're not seeing that shit ever again.



Jesus Goldschakal, you gave Malt the real big frighten. One of those shells missed BTW. Smoke paying off big time.



Socks, if you don't land this, Kyle gets a voucher for one free swirlie.



Socks gets to keep his head high and dry. he didnt inflict burn though so kyle gets a wet willy voucher instead Can you apply multiple statuses at once? I'm starting to think no. Ah well, evasion is better than burn anyway.

YOUUUUU ARE THE OOOOOOOCEAN'S GRAY WAAAAAAAAAAAVEEEEEEEESSSS​

We've taken quite a beating, haven't we? Time to see what this does!



332...that's nice I guess?



Ooh, you totally CAN inflict multiple status ailments! Hah, take that!



Would it be smarter to heal? Mayhaps...but we're running low on SP, and the more damage we take, the more we can power up Malt. So fuck it, defend it is!



Guess it went by a little too quickly, but we just got hit 7 times in a row. Good thing we were defending, huh? I really should've applied burn a lot earlier as it seems like burn damage is applied every time the enemy takes a turn, even turns where it's just them transitioning to a different state. That thing took like, 400 damage while we were doing nothing at all.

Kind of reminds me of how in XCOM 2, one of the weaknesses of the alien superbosses was status effects. Much like in here, status effects are applied on every action. They can take multiple actions in one turn. So basically you end up turning one of their strengths into a huge detriment as just moving hurts them.



We could just stand there and watch it burn, but I'm watching my turn counter so time to put it out of it's misery.

(Minor discrepancy I know. I wanted to show what the sing animation looked like.)
​

I'm so glad we no longer live in an era where support effects can miss.



I want to see how much damage Double Strike can do as a point of reference.



At least 300+ damage. 350 I'd like to say. Not bad, not bad. Similar to Brave Shot, which I'd like to avoid using as making the most of it means taking damage which will reflect poorly on our report card. But, if we ever do take a ton of damage, I'll just write off getting a good rank on damage and use Brave Shot to see if we can still make par on time. Healing wastes a turn and it's not like we can salvage our damage rating by doing so. The Ethical Soul Cannon will be something I'll keep in my back pocket.



So long, chump.



Oh neat, you can level up affinity through combat! Huh, guess I should be shuffling my dudes around more often then eh?



Hey I even got an achievement out of it! Anywho, I'm surprised with the beating we took, we still scraped out an A rank. Maybe it accounts for healing then? I think in my previous run, I got an A in turn count, but since I was playing more defensively I took less damage. Still got an A on that tho. I was very much hoping for an S rank so it would spell out A S S. Special Air Services is a decent enough consolation prize.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Hanna: Oh, thank goodness... We did it...

Boron: Phew... So glad we made it...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQu0XLR98Fg​

Ah shucks with a title like that I was hoping it'd be the recruitment theme.

*sigh* I hope these bloopers don't continue to be a repeated thing...​

Hanna: We must fight... for everyone!

Kyle: C'mon, guys! We can do this...!

Boron: I'd rather not fight, but...I guess we have to...

Socks: With the power of this tank... we may actually be able to save everyone!

Mei: Grandma, Grandpa! Hold on!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqKg4Bg8QIE

I'll take "Low Hanging References" for 500, Alex.
​

​

And that, folks, was the end of chapter 2!

That sure went by quick didn't it? Either this chapter was really short, or I front loaded a whole lot of shit what with all of my Author's Note n' crap. Well, I finally caught back up to where I left off so who knows what the rest of the journey will look like from hereon out. Perhaps it won't go as smoothly, as I don't know what bosses we'll be up against. Maybe we might even see a game over! Probably will, as I'd rather die then get anything less than an A rank. Death before dishonor!

No seriously, I'm shocked at how quickly this went. Like, the first chapter took 3 days to do. 3 whole friggin' days. This only took an afternoon to do! Here I was worried the rest would take that long, making the entire playthrough a slog to get through but nah.

Alright then, well folks, see ya for Chapter 3!

 

[Grandalt]

Well well, one of my favorites. I look forward to your journey.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Well well, one of my favorites. I look forward to your journey.

Click to shrink...

Ayy thank ye~! I hope I do the game justice!

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

"Loudia: The Party Village"
​

And here I thought they were just going to recycle the exact same village image from the previous one. I wonder if like, the more deeper we go into enemy territory, the more dilipidated and wrecked the locales will look.

Well the market ain't wrecked at the mo, so let's do some shoppin'. Gonna exchange all the little restoratives for the big uns because like, items use an action and I don't know if they're considered to be "fast" actions. So like, it'd be better to just use one big heal over many smaller ones.

Every village in Gasco is on edge... We might even be in danger here... Oh, dear God... Please protect us.
​

Oh there's that granny. I thought she showed up in the previous village intermission.

Y'know how in Cars, there's a car pope, implying there's a Car Christ? Does that mean there's a Furry Christ too? There's no like, sheep people so far (Considering the Moosheep, I don't think we'll ever see any either.) but I'd imagine Furry Christ would be a sheep. Satan is usually depicted as a goat, right, or am I confusing them with Baphomet?

I can't wait to see what sort of adventure Sucre will go on next!​

Is this kid seriously going to be everywhere we go. We'd be in the heart of the Berman Empire and she'd just be there at the Wolfsschanze like "HEY DID YA CATCH THE LATEST CHAPTER OF SUCRE???"

If you value your lives, you should hurry up home instead of wandering around... Here, take some meat. It's difficult to find these days. It's a waste to use moosheep with good fur for meat. You're better off eating giu instead. ​

The fuck is "giu"? I've googled it and all I got was "German International University" "Graphic Interface Unit". Searching "giu food" doesn't help either as it's just a random assortment of food.

It's some Fuga term isn't it.

So like, you find this guy in the War Memorial which makes me wonder: if anyone dies, do they show up here as a tombstone? Like maybe that's why it's there. Or not, it could just be there for flavor.

Anywho! We've unlocked some stuff to read. Maybe one of them will tell us what giu is.

"...but rather the mountains far to the south. It appeared to be a viable area to set up a base, but what if he had an ulterior motive...?" ​

Well, either Hax is the Shogun to the Emperor, or whatever is here in Bumfucke, Nowhere, is extremely powerful enough to get the Emperor to sign off on this lil' detour. Maybe it's a superweapon like the Taranis? Then again, this world has flying machines, wasn't one of the big issues behind giant tanks that it's super easy to just bomb it to the stone age from the air?

Sure, the Soul Cannon is impressive but... oh is that why they're kidnapping people. So they have a ton of "free ammo" to burn through.
Honestly, this would be a lot more horrifying if it wasn't so over the top. Talk about literally turning the populace on each other.

Spoiler: Author's Note

I don't think this theory is right. All I know there is a mirror match of sorts for the final boss. I think. Okay more like I'm hoping because I want the final boss to be another giant tank with a nearly exact same skillset. BTW: Speaking of mirrors, this is just like the plotline of VC1.

Let's shift onto something more lighthearted, eh?

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Spoiler: Les Aventures de Sucre - Le Mystere De La Cle Disparue 2

View: https://imgur.com/a/589TZ8O

Eyo instead of embedding each comic page individually, I figured I should just post the album link. I think that's better, but if it's not lemme know.

Now I'm fairly certain this comic's plot is it's own standalone thing, but I wonder if it'll turn out it's a parallel of the game's in a very abstract way. Or it'll have some other story significance. I'm just wondering why they decided to take the time out to make this thing.

Spoiler: Author's Note

YUGE STREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTCCCHHH: So, is Sucre supposed to be like, Malt, and the client who hands him the ring (The Taranis) is the Radio Woman. Baron Von Evil is Hax, who wants the Taranis or at least the equivalent of it for himself. The disappearing incident is relating to all the villagers getting captured. Or am I reading way too much into it?

Interface Spoilers: Since there's only like, 10 of these, but 12 game chapters, I'm guessing the final chapter will not have us visiting any villages. Like, Chapter 1, we were fighting our way outside of the village within the Taranis already so no visit there obvs. Guessing Chapter 11 will lead directly into 12 with no breaks. Or not, maybe Sucre just ends at ten.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Okie dokie, time to head back into the fray.



"Arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of plant tendrils, leaves and flowers, very common in Islamic art. It may also refer to a collar patch insignia used by German speaking countries' armed forces, see Kragenspiegel."

Y'know initially I thought Arabesque meant "Arab-like" and I was wondering if the two characters on the chapter screen were going to be Arabian. The game is called "Melodies of Steel" so who knows maybe it refers to the music genre. Or there's suddenly a ballet number in this chapter.

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

Sidenote: This track's name takes after another composition by Debussy who wrote not only Prelude to the Afternoon of Faun, but also Arabesque 1 and 2.
the suffix -ussy has been utterly ruined for me

However, this village was entirely deserted, ravaged by the enemy like so many others...
​

Socks: It appears this village is entirely deserted...

Mei: Nobody's here...

In Summation:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhNQ9cv5K7Q​

A hatch they were sure was closed before they left was now hanging open.

*gasp* SOMEONE VENTED​

OKAY LOOK IT WAS EITHER THIS OR AN ALIENS REFERENCE.



...should've gone with the Aliens reference. Goddammit. Welcome to the Survival Horror segment of Fuga. What, you'd think they made all those 3D models just to have you waddle around the tank?



Ah, war orphans: the TRUE superweapon. I wonder if they'll be their own individual unit, or they'll be like Icies/Ice Climbers and have some sort of two character gimmick.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxciEN6Btnk

Their character theme.​

Wait hold up, is this child actually named "Chick" or is this a "Lady" scenario where they have an actual name but everyone just calls them Chick. It's tripped me up a few times while putting this together cause I'd look at what I wrote and wonder "Wait who's this chick I'm referring to? Is it Hann- oh right, 'Chick'."



Nice cyberpunk name you got there. Oi Socks, you've got a new nerd friend.

Chick: Okay, let's take a look! I'm so hungry...!

Hack: Me, too... I'm really hungry...

If they wanted to go with the whole chicken and egg analogy, Hack should've been called Hatch.



Oh cool, the Taranis has a security system. ...ah fuck it has a security system rip Mozu n' Donnel.

LIVE O'MALLEY REACTION ​

No seriously what? Is that what the Taranis looks like??? Huh! Well, it's got cat ears so there's goes my theory of the Taranis being built by aliens. Unless the aliens are also furries. I was kind of hoping the spirit (If it ever had a tangible form. I didn't think it'd actually have one.) would look like a normal human since that would be "alien" to the folks of this universe or some other weird looking thing.

You know this could just be some random ghost/vtuber haunting the Taranis and not the actual manifestation of the tank itself. I'm pulling super hard for it to be the Taranis tho.






Hanna: Don't shout like that, Kyle, you'll scare them...

Malt: Who are you guys? How'd you get in here? We won't hurt you, so would you tell us?

Chick & Hack: W-we're sorry...

Unable to leave them on their own, the children invited the twins to join their crew.
​

Only the adults? So, does that mean the Taranis crew could've just sat at home perfectly fine? Okay, their village did get put to the torch so they would've had to gone somewhere else eventually.



Diplomatic as always aren't ye, Kyle.

Okay first order of business once gameplay resumes: Level + bond grinding the ankle biters. Please be busted Est archetypes. but omalley est archetypes are inefficient

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Mei: Let's all go together!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTp1TtkUbQg

In lieu of this game not having a recruit theme.
​

>AND

View: https://i.imgur.com/QiqQkSA.mp4


LIVE FEED OF WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO HAX 9 CHAPTERS FROM NOW
​

>but

I swear to Yevon if it turns out these little turds are traitors. Is there going to be some loyalty mechanic tied to them where I need to feed them every so or often or else they'll leave, but not before they ransack the Taranis's larders? (i.e losing your farm items.)





So, the Library is actually an in-universe thing then?



Oh it's this thing. socks mood af



Hanna: Yes, everyone in the Taranis writes about what they want to do and how they feel in it.



Oh. Oh I see what's going on here. Since they're not trained soldiers but a buncha kids, you're gonna have to appease them to get 'em to cooperate, huh? Well that's one way to hammer in the whole "THESE ARE CHILDREN CAUGHT UP IN WAR" theme.

First, let's take the lift to the observation room.
​

This had better not take any AP. If it does, it'd better be worth it. I'm expecting crits on nearly every other attack for granting you this wish, Hack.



BTW: That icon means they have a support conversation ready to go. Can't even hit pause to see what stats the new recruits have. And here I thought we were out of Tutorlandia.



Boron, what the hell are you doing up here??? It's not safe, y'know? Ah, what are the odds there'd be a sniper to pick off one of the main characters suddenly, right?



Dang, there's a whole lot of places to go now huh? And here I thought we'd seen all of the Taranis back in Chapter 2. What will open up next in Chapter 4 I wonder, the basement?



Look at this dude doing his nails. He's so fashionaaabluh~. Or wait does he need to do that out of necessity? Like, felineko nails are naturally razor sharp, compared to the Caninius like Malt n'co which is why they need to file 'em down daily or somethin'. These idle animations are quite charming, eh?



Y'know I thought this was the observation deck. I mean look at it, it's got a buncha cameras n' shit.



Nah, this is the actual deck and what the heck's an expedition?



Ooh, does this give us a preview of the upcoming enemies?



Nyet, just flavor text. Well, at least it doesn't take up AP!

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Try to keep this great feeling by granting the children's wishes as much as you can! You are able to open the notebook any time during the intermission.
​

"Greater chance of success" = More crits? Damage? Defense boost? Could you try being a tiny lil' more specific, game?

​

Ooooh treeaysjure! Too bad we can't send the kids spelunking out just yet. We can, however, observe to our hearts' content.



"...since there is little demand for it."

Wonder if this flavor text is implying there's nothing to find out here, hence why expedition is blanked out



I know Dale is the name of the place but all I can think of is Dale deciding to join up with the Wehrmacht. I don't think I've seen any other creature beside dogs n' cats so probably not gonna see any squirrel people, fascist or otherwise. Guessing this camp is what we'll be raiding this chapter, eh?



And with that done, we've sucessfully wrested control from the game, so let's get the skinny on the newmeat!




"Montblanc" isn't that the name of some fancy thing? Like a...handbag, or some kind of cream/cheese? Cream cheese??



Oh thank Christ they scale, but aw, boo, they're separate units. Hax's first decree must've been to ban Icies, preventing us from wobbling him to oblivion.

Okay enough references to other games for now let's talk about the one we're actually playing.

Chick is just so ever slightly faster than Socks, but with 15 less attack. Her support effect being SP reduction and having Lullaby means Hanna is now out of a job. Unless we run up against a bunch of enemies who do nothing but spam Fear skills.

Stun Grenade inflicts shock, which causes stun. Well, wobbling is essentially stunlocking someone to death, innit? Yeah, assuming the next bosses aren't immune to smoke and stun, that's what's I'm going to be doing for every boss from hereonout. Give 'em the ol' Socks n' Chick routine.

Speaking of combos, what's their affinity attacks?



>Pyro Shock

i sleep

>Weak Burst

Welcome to Debuff City. Weak, just like in Hades, reduces the attack power of enemies. So if the boss manages to get a chance to attack while stunned, somehow lands a hit through smoke, it still won't hurt as much thanks to weakness. Assuming the effect goes off that is, of course.

Moving on to Hack:



OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH

Fun fact: Hack has 15 less attack than Malt, but, again, like with Socks, is slightly faster than Malt. Unlike Socks tho, he's got better luck than Malt. His support effect isn't universally as useful as Malt as it only applies to skills, but I bet ye that means the attack boost is higher. I'd imagine Malt doesn't give that much of a buff due to balance reasons.

His Hero Mode sounds a hella lot more useful than Malt's too as it means he can use Twin Sparks (Two hit attack that can inflict burn.) twice, possibly before the enemy can move again. Unlike Malt, who's "Hero" Mode is just "double normal damage" big whoop. The only reason why Malt isn't instantly benched is because of his affinity with Mei.



Which can be easily remedied. But first!



Okay I can't find an audio clip for this, so just imagine some 4 year old excitedly saying "I wanna switch!" but they have a mouthful of cereal. Like, maybe that's just what they're saying is supposed to sound like. Still, it was shocking enough to get me to laugh out of surprise. It's so cute.

EDIT: Okay Hack says it too and his sounds coherent. So Chick just says it funny. D'aww.





Anyways.



So, the game mentioned we could now plant cabbages n' strawberries and tend to moosheep now. is that how we'll get giu. But I want to check what we can cook first before committing to anything, so let's head on over to the kitchen.



Oh, huh. So, you don't have to specifically play as a character to fulfill their wish or something? Or is it that harvesting is an universal benefit thing, that's why anyone can be used to fulfill someone's wish?



Thinking of making bread for the first half of the chapter to grind for affinity n' exp, then switch over to something else to fight the boss. or just starve the kids hey that's what they mean by fight hungry right

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

We also got some silk line so we can fish up more items. Mind you, if the fishing fails with anything but the old line, it'll break it. Joy.



We can gripe about RNG later, let's see what these two are about.

Note: Unlike the other Link Events, they don't use any of the 5 LE themes, but rather their own theme, "Pranking Twins".



Still feel like going to bed with these two running around, Socks?



Hack: Something else? Like what?

Yeah Hack, the 'paw in the warm bowl of water trick' is seriously getting old. Now, the folded ketchup packet toilet seat prank AKA "Squishies"? That's hip!

I actually did that before. It's a 50/50 on whether or not the packets just fall into the bowl, leaving someone exiting the loo openly wondering why there's just ketchup packets in the toilet.



BOOOO! !LAME-O ALERT!

Hack: Ugh, you sound like Mom...

Chick: But... Mommy's not here... So I'll get angry for her!

Hack: Uhh, that's not fair, taking Mom's place... Fine, I'll see if there's anything we can help out with.

Chick: Yeah! I'll help, too!

Next support be like: "Oops I blew up the Taranis it's just a prank bro tho look at the camera"

Okay not to that extreme, but I expect Hack is going to have a very tough time not goofing off. Well, I look forward to the shenanigans and chaos they'll (Well, mostly Hack.) wreak. I believe I'll find it amusing, up until it turns out the shit they pull actually has gameplay ramifications. Like in all pranks, it's only funny up until you have to clean up afterwards.



Uh, what? When did we get a laundry machine? Also, wash what exactly. Like, cleaning the stuff we'll be getting from the expeditions, or washing out the blood of Bermans that the kids have been rolling around in for the past few days?

SPEAKING OF WHICH ​

Geez Mei, I was just trying to grant your wish of talking with someone else and here you go dropping this shit. Y'know, they say honesty is the best policy, but then everyone got all huffy when I told my cousins Santa wasn't real during the Christmas get together. I've since been banned from any and all future reunions. Well, jokes on them, I hated going to those anyways! But I digress: Let's just lie. does it count as lying if that's what chick actually thinks too?



Moral of the story: Lying is SUPER GOOD. She even says "Woopee!" upon hearing it as fanfare goes off. I swear this game is a gold mine of unintentional humor.


View: https://imgur.com/a/SycIZT1

Lead up to the above conversation BTW.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o72nxoGmDE
​

Okay so Pranking Twins doesn't override every Chick n' Hack link event gotcha.

Mei: Nothing-! Wanna chat?

Chick: Yeah, sure! Let's!



Bechdel Test Insta-failed.

Chick: Okay, I'll talk about Hack!

Mei: Yeah, about Malt - He always helped Grandma and Grandpa! I did, too!

Chick: Oh, that's great! I helped around the house, too, but Hack was always pulling pranks...



Said the four year old.

Chick: Boys never seem to grow up... That's what Mom always said!



Hot lore dump incoming: Children and adults in this universe are actually separate species

Chick: Mom said they get bigger, but they still act like kids -! Haha!

Mei: Wow! That's funny!

The talks with Mei seem to run shorter than the other conversations with the more older crew. This one feels a little longer though, probably because Hack n' Chick are in a similar age bracket relatively speaking, so they're easier to talk with. I honestly don't know how to write kids without resorting to making them all unga bunga gullible sociopaths who just do shit because it's fun. I mean yeah they can be like that, but it's not an universal thing y'know.

Shit, I was supposed to get Chick to talk to Boron, wasn't I? Ah well, EXP is EXP.



Boron: Ohhh... I wanna eat mom's cooking...

C'mon Boron, you've talked about things that weren't food before, surely you can do it again right?



"..." oh that is so mean. I don't know if being blunt is worse or on the same level as just saying nothing at all. Cause like, if you don't say anything that's essentially a tacit yes anyways, isn't it? Well, blowing up multiple enemies in a turn is fun so yeh, you are a blast to be around. *badum tss*




"Drawing Fun" Huh! And with this opener, this got interesting quick.

Boron: What's the matter, Chick?



Annnd it's a food conversation. "Drawing" I guess in this instance, means like drawing lots, not drawing in the art sense. I bet they'll be drawing lots on who gets the candy in this support chain. Weirdly complicated I know, but sweets are serious business.



If I could like, unpack the game's files I'd post the audio file for Boron's "Ooohwwwaaaa!" because it's adorably humorous.

Chick: D-don't cry! Think of something fun - It'll make you feel better!

Boron: Like... Eating even if I'm not hungry...

Chick: How about... a chat?



At least he's self aware.



Accurate. "Fake it til' you make it" is a saying for reason y'know. Of course, belief alone won't get you where y'need to go, but it absolutely does help.

Boron: Alright! I'll try to think of something!


Huh, okay maybe they will be going for definition one of the verb drawing in this chain. Please let that be the case. C'mon Boron, surely you have a hobby outside of eating, right? A shitton of people on Twitter call you their sweet precious boy, surely there must be a compelling reason for it. Surely.

Please tell me I'm not getting Morbed.

Anywho, Kyle wants to talk with a dude, but I also want Hack to be a sidegrade for Mei so...hmm, it should only take 6 AP in total if we make the right calls. We've got 14 left. I think we can afford to do some upgrades with just 8 AP.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Just wait 3 more months Mei, that's when Fuga 2 will come out.

Mei: I'm not afraid 'cause everyone's with me!



Man, these expressions. Anyways, a most excellent question: Do I be honest or do I bullshit her? Like, does Mei care a lot about moosheep and other animals or does she not give a damn? "You don't need to know" seems like a cop out answer she wouldn't accept. Ah what the hell, I'm going with "meat trees" because that sounds not only safe, but funnier.

LYING FUCKING RUUUUUULLLEEEEEEESSSS ​

"The Ultimate Prank"

OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY

Hack: Yeah, it's fun, but I wouldn't call it bad!



Yeah and they're all buncha squares.



I'm surprised you can differentiate the two. Unless his definition of a good prank is "Any prank you can get away with scot free"

Mei: Ooh, really!? You know so much!

Hack: O-of course, I do! Nobody knows more about pranks than me!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PpdQ8jodWY​

Hack: T-teacher!? *ahem* That might be a good way to put it!

MWAHAHAHA YESSSSSSSS MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD



Hack: Huh? U-uhh, sure I can! Heh heh!!

I am so looking forward to these two ruining everyone's day.



Well well well, look who stepped up to be our first prank victim.



"Kyle feels great" kek



Assuming they're being round up for use as "live" ammunition, I wonder if adult souls are more powerful than children souls. Isn't it usually opposite though? Like, the more pure n' innocent the soul is, the stronger? Wouldn't that mean babies would make for the most effective ammo?



I'm surprised you give a shit about some kid's opinion. Well, we can be a little shit kid, give a Socks answer of "knowledge of the city", or lay down the honey reaaaal thick by talking up how fashionabluhhh he is. He'd better upgrade to a cravat in Fuga 2. I think he has something like one right now, but I want him to get an even rufflier one, like Edgeworth.



"I'm Kyle Bavarois, machine gunner of the Tyranis, Ask Me Anything!"



Link Event Theme: Pranking Twins

Title: Short Tempered Kyle

By the end of this, a more accurate title is going to be "Kyle Gets Trolled", huh.



Huh, wonder if all the young'uns are scared of Kyle.

Kyle: Not like I'm angry or anything, but... Whatcha hidin' there?

Hack: I-I'm not hiding anything!



My thoughts exactly.

Hack: I don't have anything, and I'm not trying to pull a prank... Anyway, see ya later!



Beats me! Initially, I was leaning on him lying to cover up a scheme, but like, iunno, maybe he actually wasn't up to anything. Like, that's what the support chain will be about: Kyle assuming Hack is up to something since he usually is, but for once, Hack is just trying to go about his day. "Short Tempered Kyle" is going to involve Kyle getting into a 18 karat run of bad luck and him pinning the blame on Hack, isn't it? That'd be a fun swerve.



Okay good so we've got 8 AP left to spend. Let's get some upgrades! ...which we can't get much of as we don't have a whole lot, and what we can get from scrap fishing isn't what we need! Oh well, at least Chick's here to help out.



We can't make anything with strawberries and cabbages yet, either due to not progressing through the story far enough to get the recipe or because we need those two to get the recipe. Gonna spend the last two on cows because we haven't had any yet.

And everyone ate dinner that night~ ​

Bit of a shame the images don't change as you get more dudes. Oh well.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Everyone is happy...except Socks. Sorry buddy, but I don't got 5 AP to spend, and if I did, I'd rather grind up supports. We work 'round the clock here on the Taranis.



So this will be the setup for this chapter. I would say "And for the rest of this game assuming if we don't get anyone else." but apparently the kids can get knocked the fuck out. That hasn't happened yet, but I get the feeling that effect will be making an appearance this chapter. Hopefully that's something that can be easily avoided as I'd rather not sub in Hanna if I can avoid it. Malt is an okay substitute but I'd rather stick with Hack, seeing how often Piercing Shot gets used.



Spent the last AP talking with Socks. Weird how there's no Link Event at level 3. Maybe it's only at even numbers?

As fun as that was, the war must go on.



Berman Soldier: Contact camp...! We can't let them go!!

Oh so observation does give you actual intel, not just fluff. Good to know!



Is this unique dialogue that triggers when an unit is in a good mood?



Oh nvm. I sure hope this isn't foreshadowing for KOs being thrown into the mix...



Death flag: Set.



You can see when the children's mood increases by the icon's color and number of stars. Increasing Mood: Condition 1 Hit the enemy or get hit by the enemy.
Increasing Mood: Condition 2 The lower the Taranis' HP, the greater the increase.



Fascinating, good thing we paired him with Mei, eh? Wait shit, Mei needs to knock down the armor first though. Ah well this is tutorial country, the kid even leaped ahead of the machine gunners so I expect this battle is all going to be entirely scripted.



Is this waste of a Hero Mode? EHH Maybe??? Iunno, my gut instinct is to not bother trying to attack while an enemy has 3+ armor. Maybe doing rapid Twin Sparks is the way to go, but that sounds like bit of a SP sink...which is what Chick is there for. Hm, maybe Mei + Hack isn't the way to go then in this instance.



Oh well I've already committed. Lemme know in the comments if I'm being inefficient.



Oh I can't read: It's only triple action speed after normal attacks, not skills! So Mei + Hack isn't a bad idea woopee!



GodDAMN Kyle's just cleaning up today! Couldn't clip it, but he got crits on all of his attacks! What, was the potatoes actually nerfing his crit rate or something??? Or is it because the support effect gets stronger the higher your bond level is?



Y'know for a second I thought that was a flying carpet. I didn't even blink an eye as my mind immediately thought "Oh they're going for an Arabian Nights theme, that's why the chapter is called 'Two Arabesques.' " You know you'd think shooting it down would cause it drop it's payload, healing the target anyways.



Of note: Hero Mode carries over in between battle transistions, so like, even more incentive to finish fights quicker as it means you can squeeze more use outta Hero mode. Anywho I know the Jagdhund isn't weak to cannons, but I'm just gonna hit it anyways to lay down some damage. I'll show the medic a whole new world of firearms with Kyle then stun with Chick.



Hack goes "Da da da da!" like a machine gun when he fires. Also dude, when machine gunners crit in this game, the sound effects and impact get very crunchy. Not in the bad sense of audio crunch, I mean that they really emphasize how hard you're hitting it's so satisfying. It surprised me enough that I forgot to take a screenshot of it. Dammit!

Anyways: Hero Mode is STILL not over! Dang, I guess the 5 turns is for every turn the unit takes, not 5 turns overall. That certainly makes Hero Mode waaaay more useful than it initially sounded!



I could actually just have Hack take multiple pot shots against this thing thanks to his speed boost, but like, boosted rate or not, that's still counts towards the turn count. So I'm just gonna finish it off with Mei.

THE MOST DEVASTATING SKILL OF ALL ​

ok maybe i shouldve swapped for kyle rip triple s



This would be nice...on literally anyone else. I mean okay it depends how "strong" this attack is as usually the purpose of a machine gun is to either shoot down flies, or to break down armor of tough enemies. Ignoring armor but not shredding it, flies against purpose 2 of the machine gun. Well, it's nice to have at least. Maybe it can be used against a boss that I need to stun ASAP or against one armor flier units?



Bad Luck increases the chance of status ailments landing. Uuehehehehe I'm gonna have me some fun.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Mei screws us out of a Triple S. Oh nyo. Hey look, Malt is about to level up soon!



You can enter hero mode multiple times by raising the mood in battle, so try to aim for that.

Gotcha.



My kingdom for machine gun AOE attack. Well, you guys know the music, let's dance.



C'moooon Boron! Let's go Boron, let's go!



p a i n Ah well, it was a 50/50 anyways. Can't win 'em all y'know.



Gonna kill the weaker one with Mei, and finish off the other with Kyle.



Annnnnnd the one fucking time I was ready to screencap, Kyle doesn't crit. Guess he's camera shy.



So how the thing heals is by just flourishing the rug, dumping the med pack onto the tank. It then flies off camera so I thought, "Oh they just leave after they're done healing huh? Makes sense." but nah, it then flew right back in with another medpack in tow. Sure it's frustrating, but when you see it in action it's pretty endearing how it moves.



IIRC this thing hits fairly hard and I'd rather not tank our damage score along with our time so I'm gonna defend for now.



Ooookaay Hack's Hero Mode (HM) is ready, again...? Well, that was quick. Not gonna look at the gift horse in the mouth tho. Hey, maybe we'll get an S for turn speed after all!

Mei's got Quick Assault, so I'm hoping she can knock down the flier and then have some time left to shred the heavy's armor before Hack can get to it.



I know we're kind of burning through SP quickly but I want to know how good this is.



yeah i guess that's alright. Note: 327 is the amount of Luck Kyle has with Socks support.



This guy's super fucked.



Oh, now HM's over. Wait, holy shit, HM carries over between battles on the overworld too??? Christ, this thing's awesome!



70% chance to Burn. Meanwhile, Flame Grenade was like, 60, right? Man, Hack rules.



Finally: A Kyle Crit captured live on camera.



Hey I thought I did pretty well, screw you game!

Bleh, still too slow. Maybe if I just spammed normal attacks with Hack n' Mei I could've cut the heavy down, or if Kyle critted the flier, the heavy could've been taken down with 2 less turns? Well, an S is an S, even if it feels like A S S to not get three of a kind.



Socks: With this tank, the Taranis, we can surely do it.

Chick: What should we do?



Yeah, manning the Taranis is one of the safest jobs in the world!

Chick: Okay, sure!



Was there ever any doubt? That being said, we are running a smidge low on SP...

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Goddamn Hack is super fast. For a cannoneer, he's got a speed stat of 22. In comparison, Socks, a grenadier, only has 20. This is like if a knight had more movement than a cavalier what the hell? I'm telling ya man, war orphans are the real superweapons! meaning we have to kill hack n' chick's parents to power them up. this will unlock their mangekyō sharingans



I really want to kill that SPG ASAP, but I also want to conserve SP.



Ah fuck it, burn SP, regret later. We've got Energy Cells/SP restoratives anyways. They give that shit away for free like Halloween candy anyways. May as well use them, eh?



THAT KILLS?!? Oh nvm it survived. Well okay it's pretty much nearly dead, like the only thing moving is a single shitty wheel. Damn, Chick hits hard!



Okay so stun is not like paralysis in say, Pokemon where it just slows it down. No, stun is a proper stun. Like dictionary definition 1 stun. Chapter 3 boss is frantically searching for the exit doors right bout now.



It is balanced by the fact that it costs 7 SP though. For reference, Boron's AOE costs 10. Buuuuut if they're all stunned, that means we can heal up in peace so...



FUCK THAT 70 PERCENT'S A LIE.



Praise be to Yevon, formation is ready to go.



...Did you know the Church of Yevon is built on lies?




So much for healing in peace. Oh well, this thing's hanging on a thread as is so here's a toast: A toast to another A rank in speed.



ooooooooooooooooooooor not! Wow, that was only 9 turns? Shit, do you save turns if the enemy can't move? Turns account for enemies too, right? That's what I've been assuming up until this point considering how high the turn count can get. I really wish there was a way to see the turn counter mid battle.



Again: They just hand this shit out man.



Forgot to screencap the beginning of this fight, but like, y'all seen this formation before: 1 grenadier, 1 flier. Y'all know what to expect. Check out that crit effect, it's so extra. I like it.



Yes this is kind of a waste, but come on, the next path has SP restoratives anyways. 'sides, if it works, it'll be worth it da?



Okay I was planning to just dogpile on the stunned grenadier, but then Hack killed it immediately. These new units are great. Malt who???



Ah, merde.



So here's the plan: Fuck these medics. Then I'm gonna have Boron tank a couple of hits before we blow them to kingdom come next turn. Would it have been smarter to delay the grenadiers? Maaaaaaybe but like, either I delay the grenadiers, who then get healed as I didn't delay the medics, or kill the medics and just eat the damage. Probably would've been smarter to have Boron be supporting Chick to give her a defense boost but I, for whatever reason, thought he could kill them all with his AOE. Boron is strong yes, but not THAT strong.

Okay so I've tried this new fangled thing called "reading" and I think "injury resistance" means the kids can't get KO'd/hurt, not the Taranis getting hurt. If that's the case wow I've been overselling how important it is to have Boron on support duty. Anyways gonna have Kyle kill one of the medics and eat some damage. It's a goddamn buffet this battle.



Stage fright strikes again. Aughhhh. Well, it's not like they're going to be healing anything... At least Quick Assault will allow Mei to cut ahead of one of the grenadiers.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

​

Friendship ended with smoke gren- actually fuck that I'm going for the harem route. Stun and Smoke grenades are my husbandos now.



I would love to do another stun grenade, but let's be a bit SP efficient here, shall we ? Socks can stun the grenadier, Mei can kill the medic, leaving Boron to AOE what's left.



Ah fuck me Boron's so goddamn slow. Maybe I should've stunned the thing after all.



Okay the AOE didn't even kill any of them. First thing next intermission: Upgrading that cannon.



I could use the time to heal up n' what not but that's what the upcoming paths are for. Plus we're all out of Great Energy Cells which only heal 30 SP. I don't think we'll be getting that much from the tinier ones so screw it, just gonna finish the fight.



>A Rank

SCHEIßEEEEEEEEEEEE should've stunned that grenadier dammit.



At least Socks got a new skill. Guess I know what I'm gonna use immediately after the smoke lands on a boss.



Ah. So, the safe route is the SP recovery one, not the normal one. Well well well, guess I'm going to have to actually try and think for this one. I won't lie to you folks, my play has been incredibly sloppy this chapter.



Wait, only 1800 HP? Shit, I thought these thing were nearly full heals. Wow, we really are out of Easy Street. Okay, okay game I hear ye, I hear ye. I'll treat you with a modicum of respect this time around.



Which means I'm going to be taking this opportunity to do some healing. Turn count, schmurm count we got a 3 wave battle coming up after this one and I'm not gonna enter that with a mere 12 SP. So I'm gonna try to kill all of them but one, then spend the rest of the turns popping energy cells like tic tacs.



Okay so I used Quick Assault to leapfrog Mei over a flier. Yeah I know it goes against the idea of a SP restoring battle but like, hey, spend money, make money. Spend SP, save on HP y'know?



Alright, so let's crack this sucka open.



Hey, 21 SP each? Shit, that's not bad at all! The fuck did I convert those 3 Energy Cells (EC) for then??? Oh right it saves two turns nvm. Well, sayonara, Eisenfliege.



We still managed to get an S though...? ...alright okay I guess. Man, they really planned for you to use this battle as a makeshift healing checkpoint huh?



I would highly appreciate it if Hero Mode was something you can toggle once it's ready, rather than it firing off automatically. Well anyways, it's one dinky little grenadier. Maybe I'll mix up the usual lesson plan by throwing in an energy cell or somethin'.



Hack is one very fast boi. I know Mei's support effect is boosted speed n' all but shit, Malt never got this fast! Man, well! At least for next round, I know I should move Hack up ahead so that he could either sneak in an extra hit in before the enemy moves, or throw in some cheeky lil' healing. For now, I'm just going to kill it, saves on SP and HP.



So here's the plan: STUN GREN- okay okay, so like, I'm gonna delay two of them, then cross my fingers and hope Hack can kill the last one with a Twin Spark. ...but if I get a stun off I could just like, restore some SP while it's stunned.

STUN GRENADE I LOOOOOOOOOVEEEE YOUUUUUUUUU <3~!​

Ok so Twin Spark can't instakill these things. Oh bother. Well, at least we can finish all of them off this turn anyways so may as well do some healing.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Huh, I should have like, a post it note on the side of my computer telling me that SP restoratives are faster than HP ones, and Great X kits are slower than the smaller ones. I'm surprised the items are balanced in this way. Here I was thinking items were just shit they threw at you if you needed assistance to get by, but considering the thought put into the mechanics of their usage, I see it's part of the core gameplay. Fascinating. Aren't items typically universal in terms of time usage in these kinds of RPGs?



Anyways let's get some SP back. Heal? Hah! Healing is for the birds. this is foreshadowing for the bird cleric we'll be getting chapter 98 in new game plus



What the fuck is this thing.



Oooooookaaayyy then. Well, this thing sure isn't playing around.



Link Attacks target weakpoints, right?



Bit of a waste of a LA perhaps, but like, gonna be honest Kyle n' Socks's LA sucks. Plus Mei's LA gives a boost to everyone's LA anyways so like, might as well get some use out of it.

chick plz
​

OHHHH YEAAAHHH BABY NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH GYAASSS



Get fucking clowned on loser.



Okay I'm getting too cocky: I forgot to use Piercing Shot with Kyle, so this will take 2-3 extra turns to kill.



Bit of a waste yes, but fuck you I'm not taking any chances...or maybe I should've? If our shit gets rocked hard enough, the Soul Cannon prompt will show up, allowing us to see what the new kids' dialogue is for it. Dammit, I got too caught up in the game and forgot about throwing for content! Oh well, I'll link a Youtube video to a compilation after I've beaten the entire game.



Okay Socks and Mei are now our premiere buffers.



>and improved support effects

I'm seriously questioning my ability to read. No wonder Kyle has been going crit crazy these past few battles. Hey, doesn't that mean if I stick Hanna long enough to someone, eventually they could do some crazy ass life steal where each attacks give back half of the Taranis' HP? Malt's attack buff doesn't sound too shabby now either, and hey, Boron can actually hit things with his AOE if he's able to put up with Kyle long enough too then huh? Man, times like these I wish the game gave you some hard numbers on how big of a buff these things are.



B turn speed. Expected: We did waste a few turns restoring SP. Those grenadiers scratched the paint a bit, dropping our rank from S to an A. Technique is stellar as always. Man, remember when we used to get S ranks?



Wait what the fuck that's what the symbol on the map meant??? Shit, I thought it was some kind of factory or something vaguely Taranis shaped. I figured we'd be getting a tank upgrade there or a remodel or something. Why do we have an option to do an expedition on the Taranis if we can only do them here then?

what.
​

In this world, ruins like this are hidden in various locations, and the children can be sent to explore them. By exploring the ruins, you can obtain various items including materials to expand facilities. Now, let's select "Yes" to explore the ruins!




Now, let's select the children and go exploring!

...madre de dios what the hell is this going to involve if it requires this disclaimer?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAuz7PJ9kDc​

"Shrine of the Forest God"

Oh, okay. Yeah alright, sure game, just casually drop a "Shrine of the Forest God" on us no problem.

The fuck is this shit? We Etrian Odyssey now? Well, since you can get EXP from this, let's have Socks, Boron, and Chick go. We'll pick up whoever survives.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Ah shit. I've went with Socks on point purely for flavor as he's the smart recon guy, I didn't think I'd actually needed to control as him!



>traps and other dangerous monsters

Why did I put the nerd on point.



We have a what now?! Since when?! What the hell is this game???



Yeah okay priority one: Find all the bullets.

​

Isn't that how Legends of the Hidden Temple works? Maybe if we find a Pendant of Life, we can get one of the kids back.
we are so fucked if the shrine of the silver monkey shows up.



So, if I'm super godlike at this, does this mean there's infinite loot, or I'll have to commit Persona 3 to get out of the expedition?



Well there's one right there.

I am so not ready for this.

Welp, it does explain why for the Fuga DLC for the extra outfits it showed this weird dungeon thing. I honestly thought it was like, some bonus content or otherwise entirely unrelated to the game. Like, it was just something they accidentally put in as part of the Steam gallery and forgot to fix it. Okay so uh, I'm gonna try my best to not bite it instantly. Wish me luck.



I got a few bullets but how do I shoot the gun. Where even is my gun??



YOU SEE THIS SHIT. THAT IS AN ENEMY.

So like, there was a wall you had to shoot get here BTW. You have to get close to it to get a prompt to fire. (Which is A.) Listen man, my reaction time with getting screenshots is bad enough as is, you seriously expect me to get a screencap of me shooting this thing and not get Socks merc'd? Fuck no. You're just gonna have to trust me on this one alright?




I told you I have the reaction speed of a sloth. Well good news is: We got the key. More good news: Enemies do NOT respawn so even though we're out of bullets, we don't have to worry about enemies anymore. Unless there's one right behind door number 2.



There wasn't, but there was a bullet. For a sec I panicked a little because I assumed that meant there's going to be another enemy but nah, it was just used to shoot the pot right next to ol' Socks.



Upon looting the chest, the Expedition is now complete. Huh, okay then so it's not an infinite procedurally generated dungeon "See how far you can go" affair. Alright, well, that was a little harrowing if only because of how unexpected it was. I mean, FE: Echoes technically did have a dungeon crawler aspect of it but the fights were still turn based. This is an entirely different albeit very simple system.



You even get graded at the end like it's a regular battle! Thank goodness it's not based on time. Lord knows how slow I've been going. "Fuga: Melodies of Snail" would be an apt title for the hypothetical compilation video of me just gingerly tip toeing through some basic ass dungeons.



There are various benefits to be obtained, so let's level up the facilities that can be expanded!



What the fuck is that purple shit? Extra super hard mode? "Malt Must Die" Route?



Well we won't be finding out anytime soon, so let's eavesdrop on this camp.




Yeah hey remember when I talked about how Pretzel was the "nice" one, meaning the rest would be all monsterous assholes? Jesus, these guys are basically revenants. That dude is melting as we speak.

Baum: He must have underestimated those Gasco country bumpkins and their ability to put up a fight.



So wait hold up, is that what purple means? Extra boss we can fight? Divide and Conquer, I'd prefer that over fighting them at the same time ala Asterius and Theseus. ...okay nvm that actually sounds kind of fun. Challenging, but exciting.



Oh boy I can't wait to see what atrocity Baum champions. nfts

So like, they know it's a giant tank, right. The size of an apartment complex? Like... shouldn't that make you a little bit nervous? I don't think it's so much the people piloting it, but rather the thing itself that makes it deadly, mate. Like, if a bunch of farmers can kick the ass of a tank battalion on their own that should raise a few alarm bells, no? Eh, villains and their hubris, name a better pair eh?

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

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

You can find items needed to expand the facilities in the ruins.

Neat. Not sure what really needs expanding at the mo tho. Maybe the fishing stuff as I'd like to get some better materials plz.



By using AP, you can explore ruins which have been discovered up until now.

Hm, I wonder if the ruins remain constant, or they'll be randomized upon each visit? Well, not like I really need to...



Oooookay, kids yearn for the ruins. Wait hold on, I don't even use Malt, why should I bother making him happy eh? Socks I use, but his HM only has him cause status ailments with regular attacks which I assume is random. No thanks, I'd rather take a gamble on something I know, rather than be completely blind. Chick, on the other hand, allows her free usage of SP skills. Kinda like Free Lunch in Bravely Default. Hrm...

Kyle and Boron's HM I want though as Boron can insta delay and shred ALL armor with a normal attack (Dev bias too strong.) while Kyle gets kritz on everything. Mei doubles action speed on everything, not just attacks, so she could be used an impromptu item caddy if needed.



I sure wish AP could be expanded too. Shit, I could've sworn you'd have 25 AP at this point. Must've mismembered again I've a bad habit of doing that.



Really now? Well, let's check it out then!



Oi don't you touch that! I find all these little idle animations and how the cast interact with the Taranis to be highly endearing. Although I wonder: Did the ruin exploration come as a result of "Well Dave, we sure put in a lot of work on these models and animating them. Feels like bit of a waste just using them to move from point A to point B on the Taranis huh?" "Y'know Tom, you're right! Let's find a way to get most bang out of our buck for them."

And thus Fuga Chibi was born. Hey, it could work. They already do comedy skits ala Comedies of Steel y'know.



Better items can be found in higher level ruins, but the difficulty will also be higher.

Extreme Difficulty just turns Fuga into DOOM except instead of playing as an implacable space marine, you play as a toddler. Good luck~!



5 whole AP?! ...well, it's better than sleeping as you get more than just EXP I s'pose. Good trade off I'd say. Still not gonna go for it. The materials we can get from this place is only good for like, expanding the farm, which we haven't made much use out of. The crystal dust could be used for upgrading the reactor, but we already have enough for the next level so...



Speaking of: We can't get to the next level without expanding the workshop so let's do that shall we? Good thing expansions can't fail.

I feel like our damage has been kind of shit as of late, so I'm gonna use this intermission to focus solely on upgrading the Taranis. Bit of a shame that you have to pick between strengthening the tank or learning more about the crew.



Strengthening the bonds of the crewmembers is paying off, as it turns out the more everyone is bonded with each other, the more they can help each other out. Kyle's a rather popular lad, resulting in 3 people (Malt, Boron, Socks) coming over to chip in, boosting his chance of success from 80% to 95%.



And thanks to the power of friendship, we're getting a shitton of parts!



Behold: Mei's war face. Switching over to Malt to give him some XP. Those held in the reserve don't get as much as active combat members. Malt may be slow, but he still hits hard enough that I want to make sure he's on pace with everyone else. Hanna, on the other hand...ehh should I be focusing on her?

Chick is like, a combat medic in that while she can heal, she also contributes offensively through status ailments. Hanna is purely focused on healing, and I think by neglecting her, we'll be finding ourselves going up shit creek without a paddle once we encounter enemies who inflict status only she can cure.



Anywho, as a result of our scrap fishing, we've been able to upgrade just about everything but our armor. Hey, the best defense is a good offense what more needs to be said?



Everyone gets a helping of steak frites, courtesy of Kyle. It was either this, or farming and like, Mei's HM sounds cool n' all, but I think Boron's is way more busted. On paper, at least.

And with that, we're off. Bit of a short intermission this time around eh?

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Yooo ho hoh! So purple IS the Malt Must Die route! TALLY HO LADS!!!



Man considering how the "Normal" Route has 5 attack waves to the Dangerous Route's 3, I wonder how hard purple is going to be...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTZt0w6VIlI

The Malt Must Die! battle theme.


​

Well, so far, not so tough. Not a filler wave like the other 3 wave battles but so far, nothing we haven't seen before.



Hey if it works, it works.



So as you can see, we've burned through a lot of SP already. Not a single scratch on the paint though! Admittedly, I think I'm playing a little too safe by smoking one of the grenadiers that I ended up just killing the next turn anyways. Poor bastard didn't even get a shot off.

We don't have many ECs left, thanks to my earlier decision to trade in 3 of the lil' ones for one big un. We've only got one, so gotta play this bit more conseratively from hereon out. Well, anywho, it's a heavy tank. You know how we deal with those 'round here...



Bah, the stun wore off before anyone else could finish it off. Luckily, the thing missed anyways.



Yeesh, two heavy tanks huh?

Okay, let's focus on delaying them first, then stun one of them. I think we're gonna have to defend a few times here as whittling the armor down will take a bit.



Running low on SP here, so let's pop an EC.



Huh, even with 3 armor, we're doing a pretty decent job whittling these guys down anyways. Maybe these guys don't need to be grinded down so much, so, I'm just gonna shave a little off of the stunned one as it's pretty low on HP anyways. Then delay the other. Hopefully, Chick can finish off the stunned one leaving everyone open to dogpile the survivor.



Should've stunned the other one, decided to save on SP, paid for it in HP. Gah! Oh well, time to work on the stronger one, Hack gives it a good whack, and then Chick finally finishes the other off.



DA RED WUNZ GO FASTA no but rly wot's dis unz's gimmick?



Oh it's just a mini boss. Guess that's what makes purple battles "dangerous" huh? Was kind of expecting the one of the two, Commodore Cruel or General Bone-To-Pick, to show up TBH. Maybe that's what the next purple battle is for? Anyways, as there'll be an SP refill later, you know what my plan is...



Okay next intermission: Get Hanna bonded with at least Mei or even Malt as she barely has any supports with anyone. But I digress: When you're in Bermany, do what the Bermans do. They field 3 grenadiers, I field 3 of them too. Hanna and Socks will take care of the first two, leaving Chick with the very important job of stunning the red one. Fingers crossed.

FUCKING SHIT. ​

Oof that thing hits harder than me dad. Seriously, 900 damage for normal shots? The heavy tank can only do 800, and that's with their special skill!



Alright, time to break out a classic formation. Boron will either weaken or kill two of them. If none of them die, at least Socks can finish off whoever's left. Chick will then go for another stun attempt on the Red Comet. If that fails, eh, it'll still be delayed anyways so w/e.



...man I've been sleeping on Boron haven't I?



Ooooookay then! Was totally expecting to eat a hit but didn't so let's just dogpile on this thing and go home!



Oof, even with delay that thing is still faster than everyone. Come ooooon stun grenade! Let's go baby!

How do I love thee Stun Grenade? Let me compute the ways... ​

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Time to kill this thing.



And so, my SP inefficiency comes to bite me in the arse. Welp, as much of a waste this may be, at least it'll save our damage ranking. I don't think we can afford to take another hit, so screw it.



Wait, E?! E????? Jesus Christ, how fast were you supposed to go??? Damn, I didn't even know the ranking could drop that low! Well, there you have it folks, our first E!

I'm so confused as to how I could have done this quicker. Maybe there was a trick to this fight or something? Or I'm just bad, that's a valid option too. Huh! Wow, kind of stunned tbh. Like to the point I'm seriously considering just reloading a save to redo the fight. Oh well, I'll push onward and just accept this as a learning experience.



Oh, now do we get to fight the one of the generals? With only 26 SP? And no SP restoratives? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck




Boron: Do we really have to fight again...?

4u​

Boron: You are so small, yet so brave. Okay, Hack! Bring it on!

PSYCHE WE'RE REDOING THIS BATTLE. ​

Look, I can explain, and believe me on this: So I got an achievement and I wanted to see what it was, right? So I hit Shift+Tab to open the Steam Overlay while I was on the route selection menu. Well, guess what: Shift is also CONFIRM. So, instead of being locked to the Normal Route, I decided to just load a save and redo this entire thing. I swear this isn't a salty runback.



But first things first. Why the fuck is the Shift key the default for confirm anyways? Okay give me like, ten minutes and we'll be back to where we started...



Results: Very marginal improvement. Well, at least we still have Boron's LA in the tank this run so...



Unlike last time, thanks to a very fortunate string of crits, I was able to finish off Char with the 1812 Overture. Unfortunately, it also means everyone's really slow so fuck it. Cheer Burst doesn't boost LA gauges that much and it won't do any good when everyone else is at 100% anyways soooo...



Look at 'em go!




Fairly common footage of Kyle actually critting. The only rare thing about this is me actually getting a screencap off. Oh yeah, we're getting a S rank on speed for this one.

ok nvm.
​

So here's the gameplan: Whittle down everyone as much as I can, then delay them all with Boron's AOE.



Oooh, this gon be painful.




Okay, slightly better! At least we won't be eating 3 hits, just two. Time to hunker bunker!



These things are so slow that by the time one of them got up to plate to take a swing at the Taranis, the shield was off.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

I wish it would tell you when an enemy's stun is gonna wear off. Wonder if there's a mod for more information like in XCOM 2. Oh well, Hack is fast enough that he could delay the others before they could get a move on, giving the other cannons an opportunity to finish off the stunned one at their leisure.



Smooth sailing from here I'd say. Well, except for the fact there's one more wave ahead and we only have 7 SP, blast. But that's just enough for another stun grenade! Hooray!



As much as I'd love to swap back to Chick and have Hack finish it off, unfortunately he's just a smidge too weak to do the job. So Boron will have to do it as he's got like, +50 attack over him.

are you shitting me.
​

5 GODDAMN ARMOR. DAMN! Oh cool, it restores armor too, woopeeee. Well, this is going to be a long one. Alright, I'm gonna try to stun this thing then bring down all the medics.



Welp, turns out Formation is on cool down, so there goes that plan. Dammit. Annnnnd we no longer have any SP to break it's armor down anyways, fantastic.



Good thing I didn't use this in my off camera run!



Oh boy another fucking E rank here we go.

Dammit.
​

DAMMIT.
​

D'ARVIT.
​

Okay this fight has taken a turn for the wurst. So y'know what?



Just gonna dump all the meter to finish this fight.



Eyy that's a pretty neat comeback mechanic! I wonder LA rates get a boost too? ...it probably does and I'm just forgetting again aren't I.



Not gonna do much but we don't have many options here, so delay first, then shred.



Note to self: Do not do the upcoming Dangerous Route. We're barely limping by as is. Shit, I should've swapped Boron for Chick, allowing his support effect to protect her. He was gonna defend anyways. Iunno why I thought Boron has higher defense than anyone else on point what am I thinking???



AH SHIT IT'S AIR MAN NO WONDER WE'RE STRUGGLING.



We can delay it again at least.



Any bets on what the C rank is gonna look like? Maybe we'll do so poorly, we'll get a consolation prize instead of any rank ala Wonderful 101.



I see Fuga has a taste for ironic humor, eh?



Pictured: 7 SP down the drain. Well, either I got super unlucky, or it only rolls once to hit for double strike attacks.

 

[Private Lee O'Malley]

Since Hack is feeling a lil' under the weather at the mo, let's swap him out for Malt. Wonder how strong Brave Shot is now, seeing how we're pulling up on Death's driveway.



637? Damn! That's as much as a typical LA attack does! Shit, were we supposed to be exploiting that to get that sweet, sweet S rank in speed?



Ahhh fuck, we don't have enough for another. Good thing Boron can defend.



Last call for bets on what rank we'll be getting. I'm thinking C.



Figured. At least the bottle cap is cute.



Oh wow, Hanna gets grenades too? Man, our boss line up is gonna be all grenadiers at this rate.



That sounds super rad, albeit costly. Hopefully the damage increase lasts a long time and applies to every attack, not just Burning Trigger. Hack is slowly becoming my most favorite damage dealer.



There's only an achievement for doing the Dangerous Route once, not all of them in one chapter so fuck it, gonna play it lame and stick to the Normal Route this time. We're really hurting for SP here. Oh and HP I guess but w/e. Hey if I lose, that means I can redo that fight for a better rank anyways.



Okay so these odds aren't the best, but I REALLY want to get a S rank in speed this time around. Nothing ventured, nothing gained let's gooo!



Heavy risk, but the prize? Absolutely worth it!



Oh the hubris. I killed the wrong one out of order, allowing the survivor get a hit on Boron.



Yeah there's no fucking way I'm gonna land another Boron AOE so just gonna have to do this hard way. Hoo boy this gon suck.

FugaGameOver.PNG
​

Not pictured because I immediately alt+f4'd so it didn't count as a loss: The kids getting fucking owned. Yeah so uh, the machine gun fliers hit a lot harder than I remembered. I thought they were gonna just tickle, but nah, I got annhiliated.

TIME FOR THE SALTY RUNBACK FOR REALSIES THIS TIME​

Hopefully with less careless mistakes! Yes, I will have to play all the way back from the previous intermission. Oh no, not more gameplay. Anything but that.



Used a Heavy Shock to speed things up, resulting in a...D rank. Christ, I took 26 turns for a boss and still got an S, am I suppose to use all of my LAs to get a decent speed score? Well, at least my damage ranking is way better. I also used an EC for this battle so that's been burned.



I just realized: If I kill the only offensive unit, then I can pick off the medics at my leisure as they literally can't do anything but heal. Why didn't I do this before? Creed I am not.



Yeah I pretty much gave up on getting anything above D rank, so I focused on keeping our health up. Got a B, which unlike a C rank, gives us at least a tiny multiplier in EXP so at least we're ahead in that regard.



Anywho, back to where we last left off. Hey, remember that strategy I should've done earlier?



Time to employ it.



Boron didn't hit everyone this time around but who cares, the only thing left is the lil' medic. Kyle's HM is active, so I'm holding him in reserve. I think Socks and Mei can handle it, allowing me to set up for the next wave.



Okay, so like, we do have enough HP to tank everything this time around, but I'd rather not get another C rank in Health so...