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

Okay, I lied. First up, a special presention!

Since the Sweet Potato Song was such a hit, enjoy this special bonus update, wherein world famous singers Rocky and Kara team up to sing a duet of "Let's Sing a Song!"

That was amazing! Folks, let's give them a big round of applause!


Hey Lynn, I said applause! Jeez, she wasn't even paying attention at all.
(I think this is supposed to be a clue on finding the trading sidequest for today)

Who wants to take bets on how many days it takes to find the last one?


I dunno, Toris wasn't that hard.


Well, that's true. She didn't summon Amer at all, but I don't think enemies actually have a limit on their special skills like we do. So it's conceivable she could just keep healing indefinitely.


Maybe... something bigger than a city?


Well maybe if anybody had translated any of the mainline Summon Nights, we'd know for sure! Isn't that right, Atlus?


Tatiana once again gets screwed with a super short Walking Time. I guess she just doesn't have much to say.

Figured I should finish this up, since we're fast approaching the finale of the game. I'm sorry, Lynn. I tried to capture your sexiness, but it's just so hard! Lazy background is lazy, sorry.

Also, holy crap, I hadn't realized the song those kids were singing actually rhymed, let alone resembled a real song. But I was probably still irate from the sweet potato song.

Nice! I didn't notice in the uncolored version that Lynn's hand was actually inside Aera's skirt. Heheheh.


Let's see what's up in Orinville!

Sweet, a vacation. We can go to Hawaii and spend a week enjoying the sun and surf!


Bah, fine, we won't go to Hawaii yet. You big baby.


If there's anything I've learned from years of watching shounen anime, it's that there's always someone out there stronger than you. So then you have to tap into your hidden potential/unknown racial superpower/secret training in high gravity and then they're not stronger than you anymore! Unfortunately, Aera's hidden power is the Mono Shift. She needs to complain to the writers.


With great power comes great chainsaw swords (robot singularities).


Be strong for the memory of GUNVALD and his chainsaw sword! Oh, and family and friends and community or whatever.

You know, it's kind of weird that Gabriel likes to hang out here.


He's got that super-sensitive nose, and the rafflesia is known for reeking strongly of rotting flesh.


So maybe he's just a fan of corpses and carrion? That's kinda creepy for someone who's usually upbeat and cheerful.


We already know that Gabe misses Maetropa and wants to go home. Maybe it smells like rotting flesh all over back there?


But he's sorta trying to keep it a secret or something. Eh, whatever.

If I were one to use aging memes, I'd guess "over 9000" but I'm not?so I'll guess 8999 instead.


Nesty didn't seem all that laid back, and Toris wasn't all that wise, but I guess Amer fit all three criteria.


They'd be an even better team if Toris had actually used Nesty or Amer in the fight...


Ouch, that's kind of a backhanded compliment. Also, the logic behind it is that everyone who wears the same uniform is equally skilled. Really, Aera? Really?


Eh, we'll get to that one of these days. On our own schedule. Stop rushing us woman, we're busy!

Yeah, because singing a song is so hard. (Then again, I wouldn't be caught dead singing the Sweet Potato Song either)


Whoa, that was fast.


Whatever. Any needs Aera has that aren't being met...? Any at all?


I totally want to see Dinah flip back and forth between Angel and Devil, arguing with herself over who's more useful to Aera. That would be grade-A LP gold.


As long as you're playing this game and not SN:SS1.


Haha, Aera embarrassed her again!


Well, to be honest, if it weren't for the limits on casting spells in battle, I'd just spam Hail Storm until everything died. So Dinah would pretty much be doing all the work herself.

Yeah, that song probably got real old after being forced to listen to it all day.


Wait, who's treating her as "Ryouga's Sister?" We've never seen anyone do that. Who are they, we'll kick their asses!


The power of the Sweet Potato Song is fearsome indeed.


Lots of other advantages!


Yes! Let's thank the hot babes for all their advantages! Wait, what are we talking about again?


They're talking about Kara and Rocky here. And my last comment above was enough creepiness for this post, so let's just assume she means this as innocently as possible.

You must tie her down on a bed, and thank her. You must thank her well, and after you have thanked her, you may do with her as you like. And then... thank me.

At first I thought they were still talking about "Hot Babes" and Lynn was just angling for some action again. I like my version better.

Also:
This is my favorite quote of the chapter. It's like, really, translators? Seriously? Well okay then. I can dig it.

I'm disappointed that she didn't enumerate the seventeen kinds of awesome.

Have I mentioned lately that you're awesome? And actually, reading over it again, I'm no longer so sure that she was talking about Rocky and Kara. Maybe she did mean there should be a lot of hot and sweaty hot babe-thanking action.

Me too. I figured out three:
1. They are awesomely delicious
2. They are awesomely hot
3. They are awesomely hot and delicious.
But I don't know what the rest are.


Anyway, this post is to regretfully inform you all that there will be no update this week on account of "why did my computer just shut off? Hold on, do you smell something burning?" issues. (It was the PSU burning).

The odds of us staying on track are approximately ten thousand to one.


She's going on about this so early in the morning?


Aera's Flatter skill increases by 1! Aera learned "Butter Up"!


I'm sorry, the Aera you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again later.


The words, she takes them right out of my mouth!


But... but... he's like the only one here who can actually take care of himself!


Yes! As soon as possible! And it's not possible to advance the plot before we do all our sidequests!


Oops, guess there was no point is crafting that ring yesterday.

Oh well!


Kid Who Loses His Thing gives us Med Kit this time around! Yay!(?)

The lost cat is in the Chief's house. The reward sucks.


Rampage Rabbit is Zeromus. Except without the cool music.


Anyway, we get to advance the plot now. Hooray!(?)


Man, I really can't imagine Gabe losing to Passeau. Ryouga? Sure. Gedharm? Maybe. Passeau? Not seein' it.


Is there a doctor in the house? Come to think of it, the village doesn't have a doctor at all, does it?


What the heck is of interest in the flower garden? Does Ryouga have a fever?

Of course, since the flower garden is out in the middle of nowhere, we have to smash and crush our way through all sorts of level 1-2 critters to get there.


Focus, Aera, focus!


Oh. I guess there's actually a good reason for Nina to avoid bright places.


Aww man, this deal again? Can't she just fight us herself?


Alright, so what pathetic creature is she going to sum-


JESUS CHRIST!

Video: Vs. Dracula's Good Buddy
Ol' Pale Rider here forgot his horse. But if Passeau can summon creatures like this, why is she hanging out with losers like Gedharm? Anyway, Grimmy's a huge pain; if you get up close, he can swing his axe (not scythe) practically instantly, and does a lot of damage with it. So rather than the usual strategy of "soften up with magic, then close in for the kill" is replaced with "soften up with magic, then close in for the HOLY SHIT RETREAT, heal up, kill." Or you might have some ability like Hundred Fists that actually does damage fast enough to not need that step in the middle. Also, if you're smart, you'll take advantage of the invincibility frames after casting magic to not jump backwards into projectiles that have already passed through you. (I'm not very smart)


Anyway, for those of you who don't watch my videos, this is what Death('s front half) looks like. This is also the second and final time we fight with this background (the first was against the Grass Dragon way back on day 2).


And he drops a Demon Horn! Now I just gotta grind for Death's Robe and Soul Steal.


"Pretty good job!?" We just killed Death! That's more than "pretty good!" It's more along the lines of "Holy shit dude, you just killed Death! I mean what the Jesus how do you even do that?"


Seriously! She just killed Death! You don't mess with someone who killed Death!

Hey that doesn't sound good.


Hah! Little does he know, they're safely and securely hidden under Aera's bed, where no one will ever look!


Again, you can summon Death itself. Why hang around that guy?


Well, as much as that would be nice, we actually kind of have something more important to do. We've spent over a week getting those swords, and I am not going to spend that much time getting them again! I don't think my photobucket account could take it!


Right! Back to the village! After this word from our sponsors!


Hey, that's what Black Swordsman v2 used (and it was a big pain to deal with).


Trading sequence is GO!


Well that's a fine weclome back.


:/

For some reason all the villagers are upset with us. (Again)


What, like maybe ten minutes?


Man, would it be too much to ask for one villager to be a halfway competent fighter?


Considering they resonate like crazy in the presence of Goura's energy, would it be too much to assume that maybe someone could hear them?


After all the work she went through to get them in the first place? With the robots and the acting sexy and the angry crystals and shit?


Well, he's got her there.

Yeah, what she said.


Haven't we been over this? The very first person Goura's going to smite if he gets free is the Edge Fencer. Aera might be prone to falling off cliffs or down holes, but she's not suicidal.


I'm not sure about the translation here, because even though he says "fine" he leaves without her.


So then Tatiana helps him upstairs.


Yeah, on account of that "Aera dies first" bit.

But before that, we've got some forgin' to do!


Death's Demon Horn makes these rather malignant weapons.


Oh hey score! Now that I've got this ability, it's time to gather some more materials so we can make the most of it...


The Hero's Badge and Mark of Courage are rewards from breaking the Summon Night 2 hero(Ine)'s weapon. We could have gotten a Mark, but if you want the Badge you need to choose the male hero. Or spend fishing points.


Speaking of fishing points, I do a few more rounds before I get totally sick of getting 300-400 points per session max unless I'm lucky enough to have the Boss Fish show up. So I cheat myself unlimited fishing points. Hooray cheating!


The Hero's Badge makes these Holy weapons and grants you HP Regen, which isn't all that great because Healing Spell is pretty powerful and cheap.

While the Mark of Courage makes the Saint weapons, which have DUR Regen. Which is also not all that useful, since dungeons are usually short enough you'll have a chance to repair your weapons afterwards. Though if you combine it with a powerful special attack to offset the DUR cost... (I wonder if I can stick Hundred Fists on the Saint Knuckles...)


But the greatest benefit today is being able to upgrade a weapon with three Hard Shells. It gives one of the game's most useful Special Attacks:


Arm Breaker! What does it do?


Absolutely nothing to animals and summons creatures.


Coming next time on JWiaEFA?: Hey, it's that Black Swordsman fellow! Maybe I can Break his Arm!

Also: the dark secrets of a supporting cast member revealed! Prepare to be shocked!

Heads up, your video link to Death is actually going to a random Talking Time thread at the moment..

She's so mad she can't type straight.

I remember being so pissed at this point in the game. It's had so much, "We believe in you!" and "the power of friendship!" that I just couldn't accept all those jerks doubting Aera like that. Though, I did like that this seems to be one of the few times that the two Dinahs are in sync.

Keep it up! The style of humor in your writing works really good with this game, I think.

Huh, weird. I'm going to blame IRC.

Fixed.

You know, I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out?

Thanks! I'm glad to hear this; I've been having a sort of crisis of confidence with this LP after how easy it was to write Pratty/Sugar and Ladle jokes.

That reminds me, I don't think I've actually posted here yet. I've been enjoying this LP (and your earlier one on the first game) for months now, and your updates always give me something to smile about at work. Just keep doing what you're doing and don't worry about it. The humor in this is making me enjoy the game much more than I did when I actually played it.


...This may just be because it's close to lunchtime for me, but that evil sword and axe are giving me a craving for cotton candy.

+1

Hey guys who wants an enormous update?



Yeah you jerk! Apologize so Dinah can not forgive you!


Hey, if Gedharm paid him for the swords, that makes him an edge fence!


Oh, no, of course not. We're just collectors. We had a nice spot picked out on the mantle for them and everything!


Because finding magic swords is what JRPG heroes do!


This isn't exactly an either/or situation... I suppose we get to decide which of the two is more important to Aera. I pick in favor of the one directly related to her (and everyone else's) survival.


The Blk Swordsman likes to make young girls cry.


And in case you're wondering: yes, this monologue is accompanied by a change to rousing, heroic music.


And then he attacks.

Video: Vs. Black Swordsman, round 3, heaven or hell, let's rock!
Hey it's the good old dark knight again. He has more HP this time, of course, and a new move which is pretty much just a swordoken. So let's talk about Arm Breaker! It deals no damage and doesn't even cause any of the normal impact effects like stun or interrupt, but it deals damage directly to the enemy's DUR. So from now on it's actually reasonable to break an opponent's weapon. It stll takes longer than beating them normally, but it's more along the lines of Swordcraft Story 1 instead of the months it would take before. And once more, I wish we could access the special attack with a single button instead of needing to use R to select it and losing our ability to block until we use it. Oh well.


And as you can see, destroying his weapon nets us a Lion Crest.


And not only did we break his weapon, but also his helmet, revealing...


WHAT NO WAY!


Now, if you've been paying close attention, there's actually been a lot of foreshadowing for this betrayal. We never saw the two of them in the same place*. After we beat the Black Swordsman one of those days, Gabriel was injured during the nightly visit. And last night, he was lamenting the course he'd taken.


Don't you just love that sort of nonspecific "power" that can do all sorts of varied things like destroy the world, teleport between dimensions, and pop popcorn?


And that's how Ryouga and company all got out to the Daemon Edges. When Xeride hacked Bruno way back when, he downloaded the all the coordinates.


Oh. Well that makes more sense than Passeau having the rare and superspecific ability to explode giant robots and only giant robots.


I know! I was surprised too! The first time I played.

See, now that's how you make a sympathic villain(?). Not like Gedharm, who kicks small furry animals for fun.


Hello? JRPG protagonist? Are you guys even listening to me?


And there's that trope about communicating your feelings through battle!
*Fightfightfight, fightfightfight* "Hey, don't worry, there are plenty more fish in the sea that won't sleep with your best friend." *Fightfightfight* "Yeah, those hamburgers sure were delicious!" *Fightfightfight* "You know they make a cream for that, right? You should look into it."


Whoa hey, you mean the completely unnatural reaction of the entire town wasn't natural? Inconceivable!


You have to ask them all sexy-like. Oh wait, we already did that chapter.


Hey, don't knock it, Dinah. The times when we couldn't just solve our problems with violence were much more annoying than any of the fights we've been in.


To be perfectly honest, this is Gedharm we're talking about. He's probably got Orin tied to railroad tracks while he twirls his moustache (or was it Lubert with the moustache?).

"Hey Aera, she currently hates your guts, and you're going in the complete opposite direction straight into a trap you might not survive, but can you give these back to Tatiana?"

Something tells me Tatiana's not going to get them back.


Man, there he goes again, getting all down on himself for minor things. Like... betraying the people who trusted him the most.... oh, right. I'll go ahead and call it justified.


Maybe we can throw them at monsters to scare them off, or something.


And like a good JRPG protagonist, Aera Believes In Her Friends, even after they just get done explaining how they were working with the enemy the entire time.


But that's not important right now anyway. We have a new crafting material, and that means new weapons! The Lion's Crest makes these jawesome tools of war! Please kill me now.

Gale Strike is the Swordoken Gabe was able to use in that last fight. Impact Attack says it "damages multiple enemies from impact" so I guess it lets you hit multiple enemies but I don't think I've ever used it.

And while we're at the forge I do what I forgot to do earlier and upgrade my elemental weapons to Str Effect! Note that you need the second-tier elemental material to make these upgrades instead of just tacking on a third of the weak ones.


The Lit Str Effect is just a slightly larger version of the Med Effect one, but the Wtr Str Effect creates veritable tsunamis of water with every hit. They got a little excessive at this level, and both effects cause notable slowdown.


So with her time-bending particle effects new weapons in hand, Aera bravely ventures forth into the new forest that was always just south of the flower field but apparently noboby ever noticed because there was a tree in the way but it's gone now so we can go that way. Yay run-ons!

Anyway, Aera enters the Vanishing Forest.


Hey look, palette swaps! Levels up!


Hey look, GAH what the heck are those!?


This chapter there's no material available from crates and barrels. Sadface.


There are the usual Rare Medals, though. Even if we can't turn them in right now because the Rare Medal collector just gives us dirty looks instead of talking to us.


And naturally, since there's a hole, Aera naturally figures out a way to fall down it.


The forest underground looks like every other forest undergound we've been in. Come to think of it, isn't it pretty odd to have all these caverns underneath forests like this? I don't think you see a lot of that in nature.


Oh, by the way, tha game has stopped playing nice. The enemies in and under the Vanishing Forest are mean. They approach quickly and attack aggresively. If you let them surround you, you can easily take a lot of damage before you get the situation back under control. The drawbacks of my agility-focused build are becoming painfully obvious at this point.


Anyway, when we took the stairs back to the surface, it spat us out back near the entrance to the forest, so we had to cover some old ground again. This is the hole that leads us forward.