PROTIP: Don't give your cat to the cat-eating mad-man. Let's Play Phantasy Star!

muteKi · #**121** 05-02-2018, 10:51 AM

No, Myau can still be resurrected. Suffice it to say permadeath for Myau would make the game unwinnable, though you can probably figure out why from the clues.

anyway

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hey good lookin' -

Dracula · #**122** 05-02-2018, 11:58 AM

For some reason the long trek between Gothic and Abion didn't stick out in my memory. Let's see how it went for Past Dracula.

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With Noah sufficiently leveled and Myau equipped with his new Iron Claw, we snuck past the guards in Camineet again (evidently they don’t care if Alis is the only person carrying a roadpass) and found the manhole at the Spaceport that Noah had told us about.

The manhole led to what I suppose was an abandoned sewer line. The place was damp and dripping with slime that occasionally attacked us. On our way through we ducked into a side passage and discovered a little chamber inhabited by a young man who told us in no uncertain terms to leave him alone.

The tunnel opened into a crumbling building on the outskirts of what seemed to be a mostly derelict village – Gothic. This place looked like it might have been a cozy place like Eppi at one point, but the farms were all overgrown and weeks poked through the stone streets. There was a functioning church, clinic, and a small shop selling transers and some other goods.

Men in tattered shrouds sat among the weeds and begged us for cola from the city. When we obliged, they shared some information about Gothic. Two the more intact abandoned buildings were the former lab of Dr. Luveno, the man that Noah was in search of. Luveno had been arrested and incarcerated in Triada, a prison in the mountains south of Gothic.

We were also warned to stay away from the tower at the end of the road through the mountains west of Gothic – a “magical beast” there could turn men to stone with her eyes. “Medusa,” I think I heard Odin whisper.

Luveno was our first priority so we immediately headed south from Gothic. Triada Prison seemed just about as derelict as Gothic – the dungeon key got us through the front door, and the single robotcop guarding the cells blinked us past after Alis flashed her roadpass.

We opened each cell with the dungeon key and found each to be occupied by shrouded men like the ones in Gothic. Actually it was hard to tell if they were even prisoners at all, or if Triada had become a nest for squatters. These men were willing exchange some information (usually for cola), in particular that the giant spiders living in the wilderness were actually quite intelligent.

We even found a spider in one of the locked cells that told us about an abandoned Laconian robot named Hapsby. Another prisoner/squatter told us he had a friend up north who was probably “having a hard time” due to “lava,” and we should probably visit him. We figured he was just crazy, but another guy told us there was indeed a volcano up north that had caused lava flows.

(I do like the phrasing of a guy having a "hard time due to lava." It makes it sound like he wants to clean his kitchen but the lava keeps burning up his clorox wipes.)

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In another locked chamber we ran into another party of Skeletons – maybe the same ones from the Scion Cave? And we beat them up again, but they didn’t have any good treasure.

Finally in a cell near the back of Triada we found Luveno, still in his lab coat. The doctor initially rejected us, claiming that he couldn’t help. We put the pressure on him and he finally agreed to build us a spaceship – provided that we do exactly as he said. And then he scurried right out of the place, brushing past the inept robotcop at the entrance. Maybe my theory about Triada was correct after all.

Obviously there's no indication of how Luveno is able to just up and leave the prison. Maybe Alis & Co. help him with a fake roadpass or something. I do think it's pretty funny.

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Back at Gothic, Luveno had already started setting up his old lab again, and told us he needed his assistant, who was probably hiding in the tunnel somewhere. We remembered the annoyed young man there, who came running as soon as we mentioned Luveno.

To get started on the spaceship (actually I don’t remember mentioning a spaceship to Luveno at all, but evidently this is what Noah wanted from the doctor), the doctor also needed some funds. We handed over 1,000 mesetas, which at that time was a small portion of the money we’d pilfered from biomonsters.

He needed some time to build the ship, so we sold off the small pile of flashes we’d found in various caves, as well as Noah’s old wood staff, and then headed back to the wilderness to kill time.

Odin was eager to disregard the advice of the man from Gothic, so we agreed to make a scouting run at Medusa’s tower.

It’s a bit of a hike from Gothic to the Tower, but we made it. Along the way, a giant spider told us that there were “false walls” in the dungeon, but we weren’t totally sure if it meant Medusa’s Tower or just dungeons in general. Inside we found the usual twisting halls, but quickly we found the place to be inhabited by monsters we’d seen nowhere else on Palma.

The most frightening of these was the towering Green Dragons, which blasted us with flames that scored off about a quarter of anyone’s hit points, and our weapons barely dented the huge things. Fortunately, Noah could converse with the dragons with his TELE spell – but after running into a few of them, we realized he’d eventually run out of MP and then we’d have to rely on our swords or our feet.

We also encountered a Sphynx and a group of very tough variants on the Skeleton enemy. After one fight with them, we were all down to about a third of our HP, so we teleported back to Gothic, where Luveno informed us that the ship was ready – but we’d need to find a certain Laconian robot named Hapsby to help us pilot it.

I guess I missed the Green Dragon in the secret area of that one dungeon from a while back.

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The city of Bortevo lay northwest of Gothic, but a mountain range blocks easy access. We hiked around the mountains, fighting the typical array of Skeletons, carnivorous plants, and floating eyeballs along the way.

South of Bortevo we found the rumors of lava flows to be 100 percent true. Here the land was hellishly hot and we had to travel slowly through the lava fields to find safe pathways. Even then the way wasn’t safe, as we were constantly attacked by gigantic flies and Mar-Men who apparently lived in the lava.

(The player must literally walk through lava to get to Bortevo, and each step in the glowing stuff saps every character’s HP.)

With Bortevo in sight we ate the burgers we’d brought with us from the Spaceport.

The town itself was in even worse shape than Gothic – every home was derelict and ruinous, and there was no respite from the burning heat of the lava fields. A drifter in the street told us there was supposed to be a working robot in “this junkyard” somewhere, but it was impossible to locate in all the clutter.

We poked our heads into the houses and did, indeed, find huge piles of scrap metal and other equipment, maybe left by the citizens who fled after the volcanic eruption.

The desolate village of Bortevo is possibly one of my favorite areas in the game and I enjoy how it sells the idea that Lassic has caused the world to fall into ruin.

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At this point we weren’t sure what to do. It was a long hike back to Gothic. Alis could cast a FLY spell to get us back there, but we’d come so far that it seemed pointless to roll up to Luveno and tell him we couldn’t locate Hapsby in all the junk.

So we started poking around the outskirts of Bortevo and quickly found what seemed to be an abandoned transit tunnel – maybe leading to the northern continent?

This place was worse than Bortevo, even – it was crawling with living dead. In addition to the usual Skeletons and Evildead, we also encountered rotting, dripping Ghouls. It suddenly occurred to us that perhaps not all of these monsters had been summoned by Lassic, but maybe some were once Palmans just like us…or, well, just like Alis and Odin.

Anyway we ran into another drifter in a locked chamber, who between furtive glances at the hall behind us, tipped us off that Polymeteral was sold in Abion.

Polymeteral! A rare chemical that could melt just about any metal other than Laconia. And Hapsby was apparently made of Laconia (was he 100 percent Laconia? Hopefully he didn’t have any joints made of rubber or something, or we might be hiking back to Gothic with empty hands after all).

We emerged from the tunnel on the northern continent as expected, feeling grimy and nervous that we might have a pack of ghouls on our tail. Another goddamn mountain range blocked the northern path to Abion, so we had to take the long way around. At this point we were out of burgers, so we healed up with magic and headed east.

The northern continent was home to stronger monsters than the southern, such as groups of carnivorous pink elephants, floating serpents, sphynxes, and manticores. The mountains hugged the shoreline, so we got to meet some of the more extroverted ocean critters, such as the flying nautilus and a many-tentacled pink thing that Odin called an “octopus,” but I’ve never met an octopus with a mouth on the top of its head.

There's no reason to assume the pink critter is an octopus other than the general shape, I guess, so I thought it was funny to imagine Odin just naming every creature he sees as if he's intimately familiar with them. It does kinda seem like something he'd do.

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The shoreline opened back up into forests, and the old road led us to another village, Loar. This place was more functional than Bortevo or Gothic – the people had real clothes, for instance – but lacked the high technology of Alis’s hometown. The villagers informed us that the place was peaceful, but was “in decline” due to Lassic. We didn’t see any sign of the Evil King anywhere, but we guessed the village was just having a tough time since walking anywhere was liable to get you killed by a manticore or whatever.

Here we were able to rest up. The armory sold Heat Guns, more powerful variants of the useless Needle Gun that Odin used to wield. (These deal 10 points of damage to every enemy in a group.) Loar didn’t have a fast food shop, though, so we headed out the next day for Abion totally burgerless.

We hiked north and then west and reached Abion more or less unscathed.

Now there was some wacky stuff going on here. Some people were running around in the streets yelling “Lassic is here! Help!” Which we first took mean that the King was literally in Abion, but apparently this was just more figurative speak. But weirder still, we heard that a strange man with a Laconian Pot had shown up and was conducting “animal experiments” somewhere in town.

(The merchant in Paseo had told us on a previous visit that he’d sold Alis’ Laconian Pot – which we’d traded for Myau – for a lot of money. Hmm.)

We’d heard some stuff regarding seeds of the Laerma Tree and Laconia and using those together on “certain cats” to make them grow enormous and gain the ability to fly. Myau seemed nervous when we mentioned this to him.

Before investigating this any further, we checked out the shops of Abion, since that’s what we came there for. The convenience store was indeed selling Polymeteral for 1,600 mesetas. By this point we figured we were going to be gouged for whatever it was we needed, so we didn’t even blink at the price tag.

The shop owner did give us a funny look when we grabbed about 15 burgers off the shelf, though.

The armory was selling a couple of interesting things – a Silver Fang, which would improve on the Iron Fang that Myau carried, and Laser Shields which carried a huge 4,800-meseta price tag. Even Noah thought he could carry the tiny, automatic Laser Shield, but at that point we had spent most of our money, so we vowed to come back to Abion with a bigger wallet later. I did consider pinning the shop owner down and giving him a speech about the “Fate of the Galaxy,” but he’d probably blast me with lightning or something. Shopowners are scary, man.

So with all that business out of the way, we poked around town trying to figure out where these “animal experiments” were taking place. Evidently, they occurred on an island in the center of town which wasn’t easy to get to. We finally got someone to tell us that we could get to the island via a tunnel at the southwestern outskirts.

The tunnel was refreshingly free of biomonsters, and at its terminus we did indeed find lab, but the “strange man” surprised us all – the guy didn’t look human. He had purple skin, too many eyes, and introduced himself as “Dr. Mad.” We had just noticed all the empty and stained cages behind him when he demanded that we “HAND OVER THAT CAT,” pointing at Myau.

No. We were not handing over Myau, thank you very much. Evidently to Dr. Mad, this meant we had to die. The bad Doctor again surprised us when his stomach opened up to shoot green goo at us, and Odin of course took a face-full of the stuff (burning off about a third of his HP).

Myau threw up a magic wall and Noah pelted him with WIND magic while Odin and Alis hacked away at the guy’s defenses. We went through two of Myau’s WALL spells before the Doctor crumpled in a purple heap.

What did we learn from this experience? Well, I don’t really know, but we grabbed the doctor’s Laconian Pot before skedaddling. Alis noted that it was indeed the same one that she traded on Paseo.

Nobody in Abion seemed to mind that we’d slaughtered their strange guest. Unfortunately Alis’ FLY spell would only fly us to the town we’d last visited, which meant we had to hike all the way back to Gothic.

Viva Las Burgers, baby.

Looks like I used the same strat against Dr. Mad as Jbear did. I think it's funny that I apparently saw what is very clearly a missile coming out of the doc's belt as "green goo." I also am pretty sure that there's nothing in the game to indicate that the pot you find here is the same one you get earlier in the game, and I don't remember if there is later, either. It was a first-time playthrough for me so I had no reason to assume this other than adding to the sort-of RP flavor I was putting into this journal.

aturtledoesbite · #**123** 05-02-2018, 12:50 PM

Dracnotes called out the hint pairs I was gonna comment on already, boo.

JBear · #**124** 05-02-2018, 02:04 PM

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Originally Posted by Mogri

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Bad news for Odin. Time to switch weapons?

This joke took me longer to get than I'd care to admit.

Destil · #**125** 05-02-2018, 02:10 PM

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Originally Posted by JBear

On second thought, this is hard. Maybe let's see what the nerd in the doofy hat wants us to do after all?

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Originally Posted by JBear

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

You know, I hear Kerbal isn't so bad once you get past the steep initial learning curve...

Ok, so first we need to look at the Thrust to Weight ratios of each of your stages. You have an absurd amount of TtW for a liftoff stage there. You'll be fighting air resistance on the way up so you don't really want to start at full throttle with that many engines; you don't gain anything by going faster than terminal velocity in an atmosphere. For Kerbin the rule of thumb is to stay under 100 m/s for the first km and look to accelerate to 200 m/s by 10km. Don't worry if you're under those numbers, either, as long as you're still gaining altitude even if not accelerating you're fine for a lot of your early ascent (as will often happen after you stage with a well balanced rocket).

Second of all: control. I don't like overusing them but if you're starting out just go with LV-T45s. They're a little heavier than LV-T30s but the extra control from the gimble will help a lot.

You could also just use a bunch of struts to hold everything together, running a strut between the outer stage and the inner stage and two between the outer tanks and each to the left and right, but between using engines with more control and not opening up the throttle all the way at the start I don't think you'd need to.

Torzelbaum · #**126** 05-02-2018, 03:58 PM

Phantasy Star 1 : Dungeons Full of Jerks
or
Phantasy Star 1 : A Cake Walk Hell March

Buy the macguffin and the new weapons. Noah will just have to take some lumps until you can scrounge up more cash. Then use the macguffin on the piles of trash. (I guess..)

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Originally Posted by JBear

This is one of my favourite attacks in the game right here. These guys attack by doing a little dance, and then distending their jaws and drooling at you.

Googleshng · #**127** 05-02-2018, 05:36 PM

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Originally Posted by JBear

Polymeteral (1600): Plot macguffin.
Laser Shield (4800): The only shield in the game that Noah can equip. +30 to his Defense.
Heat Gun (1540): Doubles Odin's current firepower, dealing 10 fixed damage to all targets.
Silver Fang (1620): The strongest weapon in the game for Myau. +20 Attack over his Iron Fang.

We only have 6000 MST ATM, but I can grind out a little more real quick if our shopping list goes a bit above that. I don't want to sit around too long, though. We have a star system what needs saving!

I would maybe skip the shield for now. It's very much in a "we expect you to come back for this later" price range, not as big an aid to later grinding as the-best-weapon-in-the-game-for-the-best-character and doubling Odin's crowd clearing speed. Plus it'll give you that much more of a head start on the last 2 cash-based exploration gates in the game, which I kinda figure you're going to be dealing with pretty early into next update.

muteKi · #**128** 05-02-2018, 05:44 PM

Yeah, if you need defense that badly, just cast wall. You can get both weapons for less than the cost of the shield

Gerad · #**129** 05-02-2018, 06:54 PM

Shield it up! The best offense is a good defense.

Yimothy · #**130** 05-02-2018, 07:15 PM

I think grind a little, get the shield and the solvent, and then you won’t have to hike out here again. Or can you fly there once you have the spaceship? I forget.

Westerhof · #**131** 05-02-2018, 07:25 PM

Polymeteral, silver claws, new gun. We can do the shields later.

aturtledoesbite · #**132** 05-02-2018, 08:17 PM

shields are a crutch

learn to dodge roll, scrub

JBear · #**133** 05-02-2018, 09:54 PM

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Originally Posted by aturtledoesbite

shields are a crutch

learn to dodge roll, scrub

Kahran042 · #**134** 05-03-2018, 12:40 AM

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Originally Posted by JBear

This joke took me longer to get than I'd care to admit.

I wasn't even aware it was a joke until this post, and I still don't get it. :P

Torzelbaum · #**135** 05-03-2018, 02:22 AM

Shall I ruin it for you? (I also didn't get it at first.)

Sensenic · #**136** 05-03-2018, 05:52 AM

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Originally Posted by JBear

Hey, look, it's the decision that this Let's Play gets its title from. So what happens if we ignore that advice?

He kills Myau, and then we have to do this boss fight with only three characters.

Don't give your cat to the cat-eating mad man.

Hey, this is false advertising! I thought (from this thread title and seeing it commented elsewhere) that the guy outright stated that he eats cats before asking for yours.
But he doesn't say anything of the sort! For all the player knows when they get here, he could have given him a stronger weapon, or turned him into an invincible blast-from-the-navel-shooting cyber-cat.

Dude looks completely trustworthy to me!

I want my money back.

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Originally Posted by JBear

This joke took me longer to get than I'd care to admit.

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Originally Posted by Kahran042

I wasn't even aware it was a joke until this post, and I still don't get it. :P

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Originally Posted by Torzelbaum

Shall I ruin it for you? (I also didn't get it at first.)

I wasn't aware until I read JBear's post either, and then it took me a bit, but then again I only learned that particular meaning of "carry" recently.

Johnny Unusual · #**137** 05-03-2018, 07:06 AM

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"Some cats, if they eat a certain type of nut, they become huge and can fly. It's really weird."

Somehow a "Fun Fact" from Cat Fancy got in here. But, yeah, I think I'll try that. Should I start with brazil nuts or pecans?

Mogri · #**138** 05-03-2018, 09:52 AM

My bad joke just keeps getting more worth it.

Hint: the phrasing from the game is "You can't carry anymore," not "You can't carry any more."

Kahran042 · #**139** 05-03-2018, 11:03 AM

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Originally Posted by Torzelbaum

Shall I ruin it for you? (I also didn't get it at first.)

Please do.

aturtledoesbite · #**140** 05-03-2018, 12:05 PM

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Originally Posted by Kahran042

Please do.

Guns require "carrying" permits to legally possess.

muteKi · #**141** 05-03-2018, 12:42 PM

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Originally Posted by Kahran042

Please do.

Kahran042 · #**142** 05-03-2018, 01:27 PM

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Originally Posted by aturtledoesbite

Guns require "carrying" permits to legally possess.

There's no way I would have thought of that, so thanks.

Octopus Prime · #**143** 05-03-2018, 01:34 PM

I may be showing bias, but I genuinely love the look of that Octopus.

Not nearly as much as I do the cat-eating cyborg who has a missile-belt, mind.

Adam · #**144** 05-03-2018, 01:50 PM

I was with Muteki's interpretation.

muteKi · #**145** 05-03-2018, 03:55 PM

Confession: when I thought I saw Dr. Mad, I first thought the thing coming from his belt was a big boxing glove on a spring. Which I do like the idea of but obviously is not actually what's going on

Yimothy · #**146** 05-04-2018, 02:03 AM

Doesn’t look like I did a map for the prison. The Albion cave was the last one I did before figuring out that the doors occupy a space on the map, so they’ll be more accurate from here. Also I wrote in what the treasure was but didn’t draw one of the boxes on the map. Whoops.

JBear · #**147** 05-04-2018, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Destil

Ok, so first we need to look at the Thrust to Weight ratios of each of your stages. You have an absurd amount of TtW for a liftoff stage there. You'll be fighting air resistance on the way up so you don't really want to start at full throttle with that many engines; you don't gain anything by going faster than terminal velocity in an atmosphere. For Kerbin the rule of thumb is to stay under 100 m/s for the first km and look to accelerate to 200 m/s by 10km. Don't worry if you're under those numbers, either, as long as you're still gaining altitude even if not accelerating you're fine for a lot of your early ascent (as will often happen after you stage with a well balanced rocket).

Second of all: control. I don't like overusing them but if you're starting out just go with LV-T45s. They're a little heavier than LV-T30s but the extra control from the gimble will help a lot.

You could also just use a bunch of struts to hold everything together, running a strut between the outer stage and the inner stage and two between the outer tanks and each to the left and right, but between using engines with more control and not opening up the throttle all the way at the start I don't think you'd need to.

Yimothy · #**148** 05-04-2018, 08:23 AM

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Originally Posted by JBear

Maybe let's see what the nerd in the doofy hat wants us to do after all?

Isn't that his hair?

JBear · #**149** 05-04-2018, 08:37 AM

Is it?

Fuck, now I don't know. I've been seeing that as a dumb hat for 30 years, but now that you point it out, I'm not sure anymore. Certainly crazy white hair would fit the archetype better, but I have a real hard time not seeing a hat. I've looked at a bunch of Phantasy Star concept art, and I don't think there is any of Dr. Luveno to settle this.

ETA: To be clear, I see it as something like this:

Gaer · #**150** 05-04-2018, 08:42 AM

I mean if you think about it, crazy white hair is a pretty dumb hat.