Just What is an Edge Fencer, Anyway? Let's Play Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2!

Man, if this were the Relationshippy Talk thread, everyone would be telling Aera to just dump Dinah and her stupid mind-games already.

(Fortunately, this is the LP forum, where instead we'll power through for the faint possibility of more awkward lesbian innuendo.)

But how many other girls have an alternate personality that actually tells you how they're really feeling?

Heck, if everyone had one of those, we wouldn't need the Relationshippy Talk thread at all!


And somehow, now I'm imagining a Jerry Springer-style show featuring all the Guardian Beast canditates fighting over Aera while she sits there bewildered. And then Lynn sneaks off with her.

... with a special last-minute appearance by Lynn, of course.

Arno: Aera, I have a secret to tell you... I'm really a man!

Arno: "...And I'm carrying your baby!"

EXeLD: "I am also in the process of bearing you an offspring."

Dinah: "Uh, hey, I'm pregnant too!"

Angel Dinah: "No we're not, she's just after your family fortune!"

Loki: *Sits there playing Game Boy*

Lynn: "Pssst... Aera, over here!"

Oh god this sounds way too similar to how (Tsukihime's) Hisui speaks.

So rescuing Aera was just a pretense for checking out the ruined factory? Sly devil!


Oh don't worry, you'll be doing plenty of worrying about Aera in the future. Err, let me rephrase that. DO worry, you'll be etc.


?


Kind of a hefty responsibility for a teenage girl. Oh wait this is a JRPG, she's just the right age to save the world.


Tenkai Star brand! Even enemy generals will switch sides for you!


If Nina can see Aera's spirit glow because she's a ghost, is Tatiana part ghost herself? Maybe even half?


The time she almost died! That's when she became part ghost!


Oh, right. Aera was kind of a jerk today.


And then Tatiana force fed Aera some of her homemade cookies. Oh, the humanity!

Yeah, geez, you hack Bruno for Tats and Orin then bail. That... still makes you the most effective characters in this game who aren't named Aera.


Yeah! Don't work too hard! Even if you take it easy, I'm sure someone will be along to help you do the thing that only you can do!


And she did a really good job of that whole "Stopping Ryouga" thing when rubbed his going super saiyan in her face and she spent the rest of the day on the verge of tears.


He must be psychic!


Curses! Logic, my one weakness!


He hurt it in a tragic reading accident. I warned you about those books, bro!


So she says, but isn't she the one who should be asking for help? Given the importance and difficulty of the task before her?

Man, he's acting like an eight-year-old. I thought he was supposed to be the mature one!


"Open up," wink, wink, nudge, nudge.


So he's fine with anything as long as it's interesting? That hussy! The lock isn't even animate!


That's pretty impressive! I wonder who built it? Some legendary ancestor, doubtless.


Yeah Aera way to be a sucky liar!


Man if people keep telling her she's "The Only One" she's gonna get a big head.

Eh, with 1 of 4 swords we can 25% seal him! Since he didn't get completely loose, that should be good enough, right?


You got her thinking about Ryouga. Again.


Hmmm, that sounds pretty handy.


Now I'm imagining that Nina can't see shapes, just giant blobs of color where people are standing. That would make it pretty hard to fight.


Yeah, we're still only about halfway done! But now that you've recovered the crown from Kandar, how about you be king from now on?


Oh, she just wants us to get her body back.


Alright! It kind of takes the meaning out of it when Aera recovers her resolve six times in one night, but that's the format this LP is taking!

"He pushed me down and took my lunch money."


This bit sounds familiar.


"So kick his ass! And give him one for me! Always making me make him dinner, and not even one 'thank you'!"


C'mon, you need to do better than just say please. At least promise her a kiss!


Ah, well, I guess Aera doesn't mind.

Were there any sense in the world, we'd be able to pick them all up in one day.

PROtip: There's no sense in the world.


!
Better not be Groundhog Day again! I DID all the sidequests right away yesterday!


Not like there's much to look after. He's just gonna spend the day in bed.


(See?)


Well, what was that punishment last night?


I think this speaks for itself.


You coward!

(Good idea, let's get out of here too)

Oh really? Is he going to do it by collecting a quartet of weapons and resealing the source of the evil energy? No? Then he can go *@#$ himself. There's only room in this town for one savior of the world, and that's gonna be us! But more important than saving the world: SIDEQUESTIN'!


In case you were wondering, you can't pick up the lost Thing until you talk to the kid. Similarly, the missing cat won't appear until you talk to the old woman.


She's talking about ruined machine factories and conveyor belts. Duh.


Useless!


Wow, what a reward! A freakin egg!


Here's the trading item, but we can't turn it in quite yet.


Hey, who's LPing this game, me, or you? Stop trying to steal my job!


Woo, new mats!

Believe in the me who believes in you!


And down goes Rampage Rabbit. Both Aera and Dinah gain a level up! And Aera hits level 21, which gives her a second bonus point to spend per level!

Well, that's all we can do in town right now, so let's approach the exit.

Yeah, Orin's around here somewhere.

SOMEWHERE.

BUT WHERE?


Great! Onmyoji! Hey, do your divinations say anything about getting pwned by someone who doesn't rely on psuedoscientific mumbo-jumbo? Cuz maybe they should!


Oh man, it's just a cult that's just getting off the ground? I might die from laughter!

Hey, wait a sec...

Son of a...


Is that a jab at racism?


Great. We can't even keep him out.


And just like an onion, he makes me want to cry.


Is he going to force us to listen to his Summon Night Vagrant Story?

Now that would just be weird. I mean, robes with buttcheek windows?


He's the Master of his Domain!


That makes two of us...


Just don't feed him. Once you do that, you'll never get rid of him.


No, I'm pretty sure it was a dream.

Elegos? Excelsior! Elminster! El Hazard! El Diablo!


Huh.

Times this word is ever mentioned again: 0


A guy who wanders from town to town and fixes their problems?

Hey! There's only room in this game for one RPG protaganist! Go get your own game!


Maybe she used a little too much spirit polish this morning?


He's... not that bright, is he?


Sounds good to me! We still got some sidequests to finish, anyway.


The gate guard is eating the curry made by the woman we gave the Extra Hot Spices to yesterday. And who just gave us the Wheatgrass Juice today.


Yeouch! Seafood soup is the next level of healing item. It restores 1500 HP, which is... way more than we have.

I'm not really sure why the guy had the soup if he was eating curry.

Oh for cryin out loud, yet another cutscene to sit through? That's three since we left our room, and we haven't even had a single random encounter yet today.


Rocky seems to have gotten over Tatiana.


Well to be fair, there's apparently only one girl his age. He's just not that into Kara.


To be fair, I wouldn't mind Lynn saying nice things about me.


And over in the Water Fortress, we can finally buy Gourmet Clams! Time to learn to fish!

(Fishing post coming soon!)


Sure, all this Boam is a little heavy to carry around.


2-Hit combo is exactly what it says on the tin: two hits in quick succession. The real advice here is that each Boost Motor adds an additional hit to the combo. So if you upgrade a weapon with three motors, you get a whopping 4-hit combo, even with an axe or spear.

Also, I missed this rare medal in the Lost Woods. But not anymore!


I was bored so I farmed up some more elemental ores too. But I'm sure you're all more eager to see what new weapons I can make with that Vortex Crab Claw from the salesman.


The Vortex set has a very... shell-y motif. Oh well, I can't complain. Anyway, that's all the pre-dungeon running around for today. Let's get on with the sword-finding!


Uh... why would he come here? He can't use Bruno's teleporter (...can he?), and he doesn't seem like much of a hacker. Though to be fair, if he wanted to stop us from finding the Daemon Edges, he should just bust Bruno up, and then we'd be completely out of leads.


Left clues? Here? There were people here all day yesterday, if he'd been here, someone would have been here to notice. Even after Gabe and Xeride left, and Tatiana and Orin came to the factory, Nina was still here.


She's just praising everyone today, huh?


She's just jealous.

Huh, is he the overly guilty type? Seems like he's making a mountain out of a molehill here.


I'll just leave this here for future reference.


Oh, don't lie Aera, you hid it in a terrible place.


Pure genius!


Man, that's all anyone ever talks about when they talk about him.


Quick, before someone compliments anyone else!


Hmmm. I think I know what elemental dungeon is next. Just note that "mizu" is Japanese for water.

I just explained.... oh, nevermind.


Next time on Just What is an Edge Fencer Anyway?: Into the drink! Also, the best scene in the game.

(But first, the big fishing post!)

Ooh, I forgot about Toumei. He's hilarious, but was very under-utilized...
Also, this is how things should have gone:

Also, when I hear "Mizuchi," I just think of battling Goenitz...
I wanted to find a good Ultros pic for a Seafood Soup joke, but got tired of wading through Ultros tentacle pr0n.

Hey kids! Does everyone know what time it is?

That's right, it's 7:00!

Well maybe not. But it is time to learn how to fish!


And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this special episode of Just What is an Edge Fencer, Anyway?


What?

Oh, okay. I'll do this seriously. Since you insist.



Here's the fishing screen. Up in the upper left is the timer, which gives you a vague idea of how much longer you can fish. Down in the lower left will be the fish we catch. It's empty now, since we just started. You can see on the rigth that I chose to use a Gourmet Clam for this session, and below that is the all-important POWER GAUGE. You have to give it a nice bass kick when you say it. Speak from your stomach. Really give it the punch it deserves.


The POWER GAUGE starts filling up, and when it fills all the way up it flashes white for a frame, then resets to 0 and starts filling up again. When you're casting, how full the gauge is when you press A determines how far out you cast. The fish worth the most points are all found out past that leaf, only reachable by casting when the POWER GAUGE is in its white area.


Then you have to wait a few seconds, until a fish shadow circles your bobber...


And when it pulls it under the water...


Hit A again to hook the fish and start reeling it in!


The POWER GAUGE starts filling again. Again, hit A when the bar is full or nearly full to pull that fish in! Here you can see that I got it when the bar flashed white, which gives a sizable bonus to reeling in.


When you get the fish (or... the eel. Or the frog...) close enough, you'll pull it out. This eel and the orange-and-white fish you can in the lower left are the best fish you can catch to start out. They require Gourmet Clam bait and you have to cast out past the leaf.
And you can see here that the timer only counts quarters. In this shot I've still got between 50 and 75% of the time remaining.


You can keep fishing until the last quarter drops off the timer, at which point your line snaps immediately.


This assortment of gold/white fish (koi?) and eels net me 260 points.


But if you know what you're doing (and/or abuse the hell out of frame advance on your emulator--not that I would do such a thing >.>) you can catch 5 fish from beyond the leaf. It requires perfect casting so that bobber lands directly above the leaf, and you have to reel in at max power each time. But if you cast just right, you can reel in with only 4 attempts instead of the 5 you need if you cast any further. Cast just a little closer and you'll catch the lower rank of fish.


But nobody cares about all this! What goodies can we find at the bottom of this lake?


Rare crafting materials (and Iron Ore, if you feel like wasting your points). If you don't remember, the Leafwyrm Thorn dropped off the first boss, and the Beast Crests are from the fights with the Black Swordsman, if you break his weapon. The Boost Motor drops off Orin and the Durahan (or was it the Iron Knight? Whatever). So this is the only repeatable way to get more of these items.

Also, you can purchase more Shapestones if you break the ones you have... or if you just want more for some strange reason.

And lastly is the Fine Fishing Rod. If you buy that, you can catch a legendary Boss Fish worth 500 points(!) when you use Gourmet Clams, as well as a golden fish that's worth more than koi and eels. The maximum score without this rod is 5 koi for 350 points, but with the rod you can catch 4 golden fish and the boss fish for a whopping 820 points! (But you have to fish absolutely flawlessly!)


And that's fishing. As we advance the storyline we'll unlock more and more items to purchase, but most of them are just boss drops.

Oh man, that is so great! Thanks for pointing this out, I never would have found it otherwise.

And here's a teaser for a special Thanksgiving weekend update:

Four girls sleeping together in one bed.

This is not a joke, nor one of my lies for sarcastic effect. This is a real thing that happens.


Are you excited? I know I am! Stay tuned!

Welcome to the Subterranean Bay!


Like, totally gnarly man, hang ten!


Oh Dinah, where's your sense of wonder? Just because Aera's been living up on that cliff her whole life doesn't mean you have to burst her bubble like that.


Ehhh... I wouldn't call her evil. Spoiled? Sure. Selfish? Yes. Lazy? Definitely. Evil? Not so much.


Wow. Aera, that was idiotic.


Well, then, we'll just have to check with Angel!Dinah and see just how totally in love with water you are.

Anyway, Bruno once again declines to follow us into danger.


I don't know... she said she's evil. Should we really protect her? Aiding and abetting a villian is an evil act itself!

Oh hey Explory O'Blabbermouth left a tablet here which clashes with the tileset a lot more than the ones in the last dungeon!

*SNIP*
Thanks Aera! I never would have caught that the first three times, so I'm glad you summarized for me.

Anyway, we move to the right to enter the dungeon proper.


A cutscene approaches! Command?
>Watch
>Watch
>Watch
>Pound A really fast


Hey, a mermaid just came out of the water.


Aera: Apprentice Craftknight, Professional Doormat.


Well that's good! (Fewer people we need to murder.)


Well, momma always said to tell the truth if I came across any mythological creatures... so we're looking for a sword!


Great! That's not ominous in the slightest!

But you heard her! There is a sword back there! It might be a +5 Vorpal Excalibur! I've been trying to get one of those for ages, but the drop rate is so low!


And thus, onward! Incidentally, the destructables in this dungeon have a chance to give you any of the three highest-rank fishing bait: Red Shrimp, Lobsters, and Gourmet Clams.


Meanwhile, the crates and barrels sometimes give Sandstone Ore, the weakest of the three new materials we see this chapter. (Vortex Crab Claws are the next strongest)


Lots of familiar enemies in here. Sahagins are as annoying as ever, but the small fry are not a problem except when they gang up on you with somebody bigger.


Though Octocos like this guy here deserve special mention because of their water spit attack that is virtually instanteous. So many times in this dungeon I get blindsided by it and am staggered long enough for something else to hit me too.


Oh come on! How many cutscenes does this chapter have!?


Is he gonna steal my clothes if I call him a thief?


In case you missed the glowy tablet from Wanderer McExposition.


Uh... did we wander into some sort of lover's quarrel here?

Jeez, we gotta do ALL the work around here.


I don't know how that works, and I honestly don't even care.


Oh, well that makes sense.


Ok screw it you guys are a bunch of clowns. We're outta here.


Well okay we're outta here as soon as this cutscene is over. And I'm sure Sarin is dangerous. Kinda in the same way Lynn is dangerous.


Or she's just a big ol' meanie.


Sure, that makes total sense, and we all believe you. (See that? That is a human invention called sarcasm.)

Great. What does this guy want with a sword only our adoptive family can remove from its sheath and only Aera can wield? Gonna stick it up on his mantle?


Wow, that's a family-unfriendly aesop. You might think they're going to subvert it by the day's end, but... well, today's events will pretty much support it.


Oh come on! You won't even be able to use it!


He sidestepped that question. What a morally upstanding person. "Hey if you keep doing this, you'll doom an entire village" "MINE MINE MINE!"


Oh, the irony...


And like any good treasure hunter, he actually took the contents of the chest on that island he was trapped on. And then closed the lid again. For some reason.


Oh yeah, since Aqua Tornado is going to be resisted by 90% of the enemies here, I swap it out with Chain Spark instead. Because if years of Final Fantasy taught me anything, it's that aquatic creatures are weak against lightning! (PROtip: The aquatic creatures in this game are not weak against lightning.)


On the next screen we run into three buttons! Which one do we push? WHICH ONE DO WE PUSH!?


Well we went with the pink one. This one can take us further into the dungeon, which means its the wrong answer. The right answer leads to treasure, obviously.


Also, some of the fishy and/or cephalopodic denizens bump Aera up to level 22. Since they've been hitting pretty hard I invest in a little more defense.

Isn't it funny when you find more valuble stuff in the regenerating crates than in the treasure chests?


And over there on that other side is a Rare Medal that we'll have to go around to get.


And on the way around we see the chest we would have gotten if we'd hit the right switch. Everyone wave to the chest!


I'm taking a downright beating from these guys. They really do like to gang up on us. I should have made a Vortex Spear. Oh well, Chain Spark does a good job clearing out the small fry.


And there we go.


I try the blue switch next... but it takes us to the same area accessible by the pink switch.


The green switch takes us to our prize, finally. Which is something we could get out of a crate. Oh well, at least it wasn't a healing item or something.


Heading back to the pink/blue area we run across Sarin and Byron again. And this time they have a new friend!


What, it's just a stray summon. Just kill it and get on with it already.

...What? Uh, okay.


Man, everyone in this game is a nutjob. We should just let Goura kill them all so society can start over.


What a jerk.


Oh. He's just a pervert.


Tell me again why we can't just kill him?


Sarin gives it a shot....