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

The Anti-Demon Ore makes these Diabolic weapons, which seems kind of backwards. Diabolic weapons should be the kind made from Pro-Demon Ore. Anti-Demon Ore should make Angelic or Celestial weapons, don’t you think? Since the opposite of a demon is an angel.

I go ahead and keep a Diabolic Cutlass to save myself another trip later.


So he was suppressing Goura’s spirit while rebuilding the ruins all by himself? Maybe he deserves a little more credit than I’ve been giving him.


Well, that’s a plan, at least. I suppose we need to go on another fetch quest before Toumei can make us a suitable talisman, right?


Wait, he wants to make Aera do it?


Seriously?


He expects us to forge a talisman? But we’ve never made anything but weapons, not even a ladle!

So we need to forge a sword from Anti-Demon Ore? Man, what a coincidence, I just did exactly that!


What a goofball.


He’s not kidding, either. It gets removed from your weapons list and put in the Quest Items. You don’t get the shapestone back.


Farewell, brave sword. Your sacrifice will not be in vain!


Gee Dinah, think highly enough of yourself? Let’s just get this done.


That was fast! Where were the sudden dark clouds and the glowy lights and the ominous Latin chanting ?

Naturally.


Quarter-circle forward + punch.


And then declare, “You're already dead.” Followed by manly tears.


I love the item description.


Shake your monitor again.


But first!


Of course she does. Fun fact about RPGs: the plot will always wait patiently for you to finish up your business and arrive at the designated spot.


That was pointless!

Oops, I guess they left already.


Sounds like fun! Can we come?


How thoughtful!


The kind who kicks a puppy just to hear it whimper. He’s just a caricature of evil, really.


Silly villain, tricks are for kids!


Well if he had to contend with Orin, Gabe, and Xeride (and Tatiana), chances are he failed.


Harsh, man, harsh.

Commence comeuppance in 5… 4… 3… 2…


WOO GIANT ROBOT!


And cue the villain running off, promising nonspecific revenge.


Or… specific revenge. Whichever.


Don’t worry, Good shall always triumph over Evil because Good has a GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT and a CHAINSAW SWORD!


Let’s get started with the ass-kicking and the name-taking!


Fine, be that way. Aera’ll just take the Exorcism Blade and sit in the corner.

Black Swordsman! *shakes fist*


So instead of just being able to say, “GUNVALD, Kill!” we actually need to do all the work ourselves. Lame!


Oh, fer cryin’ out loud Dinah. Just do it!


How hard could it be? Just pretend it’s a video game.


Yeah, that’s the spirit! I’m going to rename Devil!Dinah to Useless!Dinah.


Video: GUNVALD Vs. Borgrim
This turns out to be a pretty easy despite Borgrim’s tens of thousands of HP, on account of GUNVALD completely outclassing him. Our hits do over twice as much damage as his, and we have two uses of GUNVALD LASER to take out a big chunk of his health. But on the whole, playing as GUNVALD is kinda boring. They give you a good feeling of the sheer weight of the robot, but it means that everything moves slowly, and you have a ton of HP to chew through before you can beat Borgrim. And there’s no jumping ; you literally just sit there and punch Borgrim a bunch because there’s nothing else you can do.

On the other hand, GIANT ROBOT.


Hooray! World saved, let’s go home.

Oh right.


As good a plan as any.


Stupid Gedharm. Can’t we just kick his ass already?

Video: Vs. Blade Wing
Gah, what a huge pain in the ass this guy is. He zips around the battlefield, floats out of reach, and attacks by dashing through you. We do get a cool backdrop, though. Also, Aera and Dinah hit level 31 when we finally down him.


Yeah you better run!


Really? Really? Listen, you’re in a giant machine. It’s capable of exactly what it’s capable of until it runs out of fuel or something breaks. Borgrim appears to be some form of living creature so he’s the one who should be getting tired. I really can’t see a fight being in his favor the longer it drags out. Well, whatever.


Forward, down, down-forward, punch!


Fun fact: in this scene, EXeLD, instructed to “shout something terrifying,” yells “BLUE SCREEN OF DEAAAAAATH!”


Useless!Dinah decides to live up to her new name.


The power of shouting compels you!

D’oh!


Great, we shattered the sword with the raw power of yelling, and it still wasn’t enough!


It’s probably not save to stand near the cliff when hundred of tons of robot and summon creature crash to the ground right in front of you.


Robot falls everyone dies.


What a time for a nap! Well, it beats crushing a village.


Huh, Toumei’s spell worked. Go figure.


She did just get a new Broken-Heart Top of the Whale off the auction house, after all.


Done!


Xeride manages to get GUNVALD back on its feet without waking Borgrim. Though with snoring that loud, he could probably sleep through anything.

Dammit Orin, how am I supposed to crack wise about your robot fetish when you go and make statements like that?


Because we haven’t had enough of villains dropping in to taunt us today.


Even evil has standards. Ryouga wants no more to do with Gedharm than we do.


Well, he may not actually be evil, but he still has evil goals.


Aww, look how sad he looks.


But it takes more than pouting to dampen a JRPG protagonist’s resolve. So Ryouga goes all super-saiyan again.

We’re working on it! The scaling experience system means grinding doesn’t accomplish much!


Dude, GUNVALD is also really slow. Don’t you know speed always trumps power?


She’s blowing up our giant robot somehow! Somebody stop her!


And then Ryouga and Xeride trade ellipses. For some reason.


Before he leaves. What is it with this game and the villains just walking away from all the confrontations?


And then GUNVALD finally finishes exploding.


And said explosion wakes up Borgrim, who’s all back to normal.


Hey, Aera, he had a GIANT ROBOT. You obviously don’t know what that means to a man. Let him grieve.


Man where has he even been all this time? Fending off that knight that Orin mentioned?

Eh, he’s a tough one. It’ll take more than some of Ryouga’s cronies to take him out.


She didn’t say anything of the sort! But ok.


Or GUNVALD’s pieces, anyway. Kinda sucks for Borgrim. His bedroom is now strewn about with pieces of metal shrapnel and chunks of robot.


Oh, a contest is it? Well I’m so tired I could fall asleep standing up! Beat that!


It’s gonna be kinda hard to stop him if his mere presence sends Aera spiraling into depression.


Oh boy! Walking Time!

and ?

Now if only we could find a giant robot weilding a chainsaw sword, we'd be invincible!



Yeah this day was mostly just a lot of running back and forth.


Sss... BOOM!


Sssmokin' hot? Is that the wrong way, or the right way?


To be fair, I've never said that to anyone before either. Who says sssmokin' these days?


Awkward...


And then Aera got away from the weirdo as fast as she could.

Or! What it we made a Giant Chainsaw Sword? We could cut down an entire forest in one swing!



Yeah, he didn't do it for you and your stupid village, he just didn't want Borgrim to flatten his giant rafflesia. Or La Fleshia if you don't know how to translate properly.


Yeah, GUNVALD paid the ultimate price, and the rest of us got off without a scratch!


But... I thought GUNVALD's robo-brain was broken and it didn't have any capacity for awareness or decision-making. That's why it needed five people to pilot it.


We shall hereby make this day a village holiday. GUNVALD Day shall be a celebration of giant robots and all things giant-robot related. The celebration will cap off every year with a mock battle between a Gundam and an Evangelion.


Well maybe if you'd been fighting off the Black Swordsman where everyone could see, instead of fighting around the corner.


Maybe you could have poked Borgrim in the foot! Seriously, dude's got some unrealistic expectations here.

I Know! Even better: Giant Chainsaw ROBOT! It's a giant robot... that's also a chainsaw!



Isn't it kinda funny that Passeau can just explode giant robots from a distance, but doesn't just explode Aera for some reason?


He didn't even get a chance to tell GUNVALD he loved it!


Like, say, two days ago when we had him right in front of us?


Well, with that special lock on the Daemon Edges, we also need to keep Orin or Blaire alive too.


Who the hell calls their sister "pal"?


Well, you just watched your giant robot get exploded. Anyone would be angry.


And then Aera snuck away without Orin noticing.

OOH! CHAINSAW ROBO-SWORD! It's a sword, that is also a chainsaw that is also a robot!



Yeah, hitting a few buttons sure is ridiculous.


Maybe we should have gotten Rocky to do it?


Because there's nothing to be angry about? Except that whole thing about Passeau exploding GUNVALD.


Well, she wouldn't be in any of this mess if Aera hadn't taken her in a week ago. Although she might have died instead...


Whenever Aera and Ryouga meet it just makes them both sad. Perhaps we can harness this power to run a generator.


Or you get eaten by Goura. Hey, I know, maybe we could just kill Goura instead!


So she says, but we don't see much of her these days. It's Useless!Dinah all time.

Yeah, like that. Although it's not much of a 'stupid thing' when the whole world's at stake...


Sure, that won't foster resentment or anything. "Too bad, you're stuck with it. Deal."


You weren't "asking!"

GIANT ROBOT CHAINSAW SWORD WIELDING A GIANT CHAINSAW SWORD ROBOT! It's the only thing that could defeat a Giant Robot wielding a giant chainsaw sword!



Did she actually do much? She kinda hung around, but we never actually saw her do anything...


GUNVALD Day will include a moment of silence.


Again, if it could fight on his own, why did it need us to pilot him?


We can bake it a cake. OH WAIT IT EXPLODED.


Wouldn't it be better to say to goodbye to it... in Borgrim's cave, where its pieces are?

An endless series of progressive smaller Giant Chainsaw Sword Robots, each wielding the next smaller Giant Chainsaw Sword robot!



Now that's what I call service! We should have come here earlier!


And Nina sat around looking worried!


She spent the day hanging around with Blaire! She was helping! Right? Right?


That was GUNVALD going BOOM.


Technically it was GUNVALD. Or Passeau. Ryouga just kinda stood there.


Blackmail? Coercion? Really crappy mind control?


Because sometimes you just don't have a choice but to unleash a sealed demon on the world.


Right, because that worked the last two times you tried it.

Well, was, anyway, before he started trying to destroy your village and everyone in it.


The voices in her head tell her to kill!


Aww, so much for helping us relax. Figures she'd get a headache.

I feel like I've created a monster.

No, that'd be Borgrim. Which we "restrain" with our electronic spinning death singularity.

But mankind is the real monster. Or something.

But anyway, Day 8 START!


We can write him a letter!
Dear Toumei,
Thank you for doofing around with things you don't know about, unleashing an evil spirit which possessed the largest and most powerful summon creature on the island. And then relying on all the other main and supporting characters to clean up the mess while all you do to help is turn a perfectly viable weapon into a fragile key item that has only one use.

Sincerely,
FUCK YOU.


Dinah proves that she's still a child.


So Angels < Thanking people = Broccoli.


Good. Since he proved yesterday that he needs adult supervision or he unleashes parts of Goura.


She's never going to bitch a whole bunch and then turn into an angel? Oh, she must be talking about SPIRITED SHOUTING.


I approve of both of these statements.

SIDEQUEST TIME!


The item shop owner got sick of our mooching and refuses to hand out free samples from today on. This is what we call "not a big deal" because we can just buy them anyway and have more money than we will ever spend.


But at least one salesperson knows how to satisfy his customers!


And then we score another Wyvern Claw by turning in Rare Medals! Today is just a Wyvern Clawtastic day!

YAWN.


The cat was hiding in Lynn's house. Muscleheads? Hate 'em!


Apparently today's theme is loneliness.


Sounds like a movie setup. It's a rabbit with anger management issues. He's a boxing trainer with delusions of grandeur. They fight crime.


Boom.


...But there was no spiritual battle?

Me too, Child. Me too.


1200 Boam buys us two Beast Crests and this dirty, dirty lie. The trait is not Speed Demon, it's Speed Up.


And we can't teleport yet. We need to do so to do today's trading quest, so we'll just have to wait on that.


So I go fishing for a while because I'm not gonna let some game tell me what to do.


And then I farm up a bunch of elemental ores because I keep using them up.


I take the dude's advice and Speed Up my axe with two Beast Crests.


Just ask the elder. He'll tell you everything you want to know. (Also everything else. EVERYTHING.) But that's not why we're here. Well, that's not why Aera's here, anyway.


As though there were more than one!


Dinah has admirable determination? News to me!


Hmmm, I wonder who she's thinking of.

Ding ding ding!


The funny thing is, through this conversation they act like Aera still has the Exorcism blade. Even though it shattered yesterday.


Well that's easy enough. Just get Nina to visit town, and then we kidnap Passeau next time we meet her.


Gee, what makes him think we don't trust him? It's not like he skulked around town for a day or two before almost releasing Goura.


The secret is, in about four or five days it's going to be an ordinary, empty ruin.


So if they have all this information control about Goura and the Ruins, how did Gedharm know all about it back on day 2?


No we can't, we still haven't finished today's sidequests.


Even though we already checked up on them yesterday. Looks like Lynn's going along with them, too.


Ryouga wasn't anywhere near the Wind Fortress, though. He didn't get any closer than Borgrim's cave.


If she had a giant robot chainsaw sword, she wouldn't need to be careful!

Oh yeah, she's soooooo reliable.


Then why are you blushing?


Bye guys! See you later!


MOAR FISHING! This picture is here to show off my new high score.


Wyvern Claws make the rather otherworldly Talon weapons.


Moving right along...

It'll be easy, we'll just ask nicely! It's sure to work!


That's too bad, because waiting is exactly what you'll have to do!


Gabe and Nina go searching for Passeau. Though come to think of it, we have no idea where Ryouga et. al. hide all day long.

It's all triangular, and capable of smelling! How wondrous!


Sounds... Japanese!


Into the unknown once more!


Well okay not yet.


How dare he!? It's preposterous that a manly man like him would not be thrilled by pretty little pink seashells!


And that place would be...


Exactly where he was trapped when we first met him. He's kind of an idiot to fall for the same trick twice.


Dude just regifted the present that he got put in the doghouse for not appreciating.

It's like he wants Sarin to dump him.


I think we should get out of here before the storm starts.

We'll just show ourselves out.


Words are cheap, chump.

I mean... we're staying out of this *whistles*


Smash yourself in the ears...? Seriously...?


He only actually apologized once, the rest of that was increasingly ridiculous declarations of love.


Yep, time to get out of here.


Hey, look, a shitty accessory! These Enduro Boots pretty much just convert AGI into DEF, wthich is pretty silly given how easy it is to recover your health. (And also how easy it to dodge if you have high AGI)


Okay, now into the unknown!

You know, next time. Because I always end it on a cliffhanger like this. Which kinda makes it lose the impact. Oh well. Sucks to be you readers, haha! Wait no I didn't mean it, come back, COME BACK!