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

Yesssssss.....

(Also, woo, pirate rum!)

Welcome to the fire-element dungeon, the Oni Hot Springs!


*snip*

Water does not work that way! Explorer McWordy must have been hallucinating from heatstroke or something.


Remember folks, if it's hot, trees grow red leaves. Because heat turns chlorophyll red! It's bad science!


Ninja Frogs! Just think about that for a minute.


Level the ups!


Upon entering the third area, we become unable to see anything!


The screen is filled with steam (water vapor) which varies between "makes everything white" and "makes everything completely white."


...Until you smack a geyser with a hammer, at which point it stops erupting and the screen clears up.

That's just...

I mean...

That's not how...

It doesn't even...

sdgaigjl;oiafj;eio pvo9p90rpuiofg;oi3hf[pfa'[gih




Also there's a Rare Medal right by the geyser.

Whee, a waterslide!


It's Mojo/Lucky Dan! Also his large friend who does firey uppercuts for like 400 damage.


Yeah... 400 damage is a lot. Fortunately, if you know it's coming it's not difficult to avoid the blazing fists of doom, considering he has a long chargeup time.


Oh no! The ellipses have updraded their tactics and are now ambushing people from thin air!


Haha, of course not. If it were Ryouga he'd already be on screen, saving us from some dickhead.


I missed the clear shot, but there's several big red scars on this girl's back.


Yes she is. And wait a second... this game was made in Japan... that means...


OW MY EARS.


Isn't this guy in Naruto?


Yeah, nobody wants to see that. We're here for the awkward lesbian subtext, not for naked dudes.

438 seconds later...


That is certainly the perfect way to defuse the situation. Good job Aera!


...In the Oni Hot Springs. With the monument at the entrance which opens with the words "The Hot Springs Dungeon." Where we passed by dozens of pools of hot water.


See, that's what I'm sayin'!


So she not only doesn't know what a hot spring is, she also doesn't know what a peeping tom is? Maybe she's just stupid.


Where did you get that idea? He clearly said he was going to bake you cookies.

Wait, hold on, my glasses are smudged. *wipe wipe* Oh. Yeah, you're dead.

We should sneak out while they're arguing about who's less injured.


Too late!

Video: Vs. Kohina and Kuuya
Ninjas. Go figure. They're not so tough, though, as long as you can dodge Kuuya's special move where he imitates a dragoon. Their weapons aren't that durable, either, and since you can buy the Arm Breaker tip before coming here, it just makes sense to break them. Kohina's a pain, though, with her rapid claw attacks. Astral Guard helps a lot.


They each drop a different Ninja Scroll if you break their weapons. Look forward to me completely forgetting to use them today.


Oh man, we need to stop this before it becomes an endless cycle.


Oh sure, blame it on some psuedoscientific nonsense like a curse. Next thing I know you'll be telling me how your horoscope warned you against battling any peeping toms.


Hey don't make us kick your ass again!


Another? You were just taking one when we came in. You want to turn into a prune?

So it's a recovery spring? Heals HP/MP and recovers status ailments (except curse)?


Hey kids, guess what we're going to do today?


We were all like "Hey Bruno warp us to a sword" and he's all like "how about a hot water dungeon instead" and we were like "lol ok".


No, no, no, we're talking about the SWORD.


Great! Why can't these big scary monsters just hang out off the path in the trees somewhere? Why do they always have to hang out around our magical macguffins?


Yeah, you better step off if you don't want another smackdown!

Man, we sure hear this song and dance a lot. How many times have we fought against someone while they were injured?


Yeah, right on!


No! Wrong off!


Literally, the sun will not set until we have done this thing.


Good! Now that he's removed the obstacle of words from our path*, we can move on.

*Because we already beat him once and he couldn't very well stop us with force.


Haha, yes! You're stuck following Aera around forever! Even though there wasn't any binding magical contract or anything to become her guardian beast.


Well, if that happens before we get the last sword, the rest of her life will probably be pretty short. What with Goura killing her and all.


I don't think anyone deserves her backtalk. Maybe Gedharm.


Anyway, moving right along, Aera levels up from like the very next fight.


And then Dinah follows.


And then I go back and repair my weapons and take a nap. Also I completely forget that I'm carrying around these new materials and thus don't make anything new.

And we'll stop here for now. Next time: Out of the hot springs and into the sauna!

Huh. I don't remember this dungeon at all. I guess this is probably where my memory of the game cuts off. Exciting!


What is this? How are you alerted to the silence of someone that you haven't seen yet!?

Aera is so in tune with the ellipses that she can detect silence from 100 yards.



Returning to the Hot Springs, that first room with the geyser has this chest that we missed the first time around. There's a very good reason for this! It doesn't appear until you clear the steam, and there's no obvious reason to head back down the cliff afterwards.


Like this chest, too, past the ninja twins.


Also past the ninja are these chimera fellows. Not pictured: the snake tail using lightning. Anyway, they aren't all that tough, get in close and use incomplete combos so you have time to block their counterattacks.


More steamy rooms contain things of interest (and also a drill shapestone).


Level 40! Only 59 more to go! (Haha no.)


There are lots of hardboiled eggs in the crates and barrels and grass around here. Think about the implications of that for a minute.


And to round out the collection of elementals, are these guys. I... actually don't have anything to say about them, because you can just bum rush them and destroy them before they can mount any significant offense of their own. Well, I guess I did have something to say about them. Also they can drop Crimson Horns.


And here's Dinah lv 40, and her strongest attack spell!


Too bad we don't have any charges for it right now.


Oh hey, a chest. Let's go around and get it!


On second thought, it wasn't worth our time.

This picture is filler. Move along, nothing to see here.


Wha, when did she get in front of us? Oh, right. Ninja.


Is it the kind of self-depreciating laugh where you totally got showed up? Because that's what's about to happen when we easily dispatch the curse-inflicting creature that ruined your life.


Nevermind that ifwhen we beat it, her life will suck considerably less.


I don't know if you know this, Aera, but you can't escape from boss fights.


Well, if you insist.


Gah! It's Yin and Yang! They always show up as a pair. When I ran into them I remember some mostly-forgotten trauma from an earlier playthough, and go berserk on them with Hundred Fists right away. What was I so scared of? I don't know! They never got a chance to use whatever it was that left the scar on my psyche this time around.


So I need to fix up those knuckles afterwards. See, they have DUR Regen, but it turns out that's super-weak. It's like 1 DUR every 5 seconds or so. That's way slower than you can burn through DUR even without using special techniques.


Awesome. Game Over! A Winner Is You!

Hey, guess what phrase summons the boss!


Answer: Not that one!


Aera does not know the joy of rubbing her superiority in people's faces.


Oh, there he is.


But if we run away, how will Aera learn the joy of rubbing her superiority in people's faces?


And so now we see Kohina's real feelings on the situation: horrible, soul-crushing guilt.


Since people with strong regrets and grudges become ghosts, and Aera doesn't want to be haunted for the rest of her life, she decides to save Kohina. (Note: may not be related in any way to Aera's logic)

Video: Vs. Shaman Monkey
Well, this might have been a difficult fight if we didn't have Hundred Fists and Astral Guard. The guy hits like a truck and has loads of health. I'm sick of learning attack patterns and dodging, though, so I just take half his life off with Hail Storms and then Astral Guard up and Hundred Fists him to death. He drops a Kishin Horn.


Summon Night: People Falling Over Story 2. I need to go back and edit the LP to have a "People Collapsing" counter.


Inn, Recovery Panel, Hot Spring, same difference.


Uh, hey, didn't we forget something? Why didn't Aera take the five seconds to grab the Daemon Edge? It was right there! We were only a few feet away! Kohina wasn't that bad off. She'd keep an extra ten seconds.


More important than her, can we back on the subject? Sword?


Man now I wish we'd gotten a chance to see that. "Heave-Ho!" *Splash* *glub, glub*


"...Yet."


And they were never heard from again...

You... are fired. Get out of my house. What? Yes I know this is not my house! GET OUT!


Yeah, IN YOUR FACE KOHINA!


Apology shot down.


2x APOLOGY COMBO!


Maybe he should protect your back, and you should protect his eye.


Me either. Let's go get a sword.


Nobody asked you! (Wait, I'm agreeing with Devil!Dinah over Angel!Dinah? Did the world suddenly get flipped turn-wise?)

"...Again."


Well that was uneventful. It's almost like there was no point in having to trek halfway through the dungeon again.


...Oh.


He's a witch! Get him!


Wait, what'd you do to Gabe? You bastard!


Thanks for the recap(?)


Man, if there's one thing that does not work on JRPG heroes, it's "trust me, you're better off doing what I say without questioning it." And that's when it's true.


See, Ryouga's secretly not the bad guy. The actual villain is Lynn, with her sidekick Blaire. He's only pretending to be cursed so they can meet secretly during the day and plan out their villainy. The whole thing about Goura being evil and omnicidal is a lie, and he's the only one who can stop the diabolical plans of Blaire and Lynn, but nobody would believe Ryouga so he has to do it all by force. Also, I have a pet flying pig and it's also the Queen of France.


...You never know until you try?


Oh snap, she's gone all Determinator on us. Ryouga's screwed.

DOGGIE~<3!


Alternate interpretation: A puppy ran up and hopped up on Ryouga, and he turned around and backhanded the puppy across the room!


That is not how you treat a dog! Don't make me call PETA!


Video: Vs. Ryouga
Oh joy, another Knuckle user. At least Ryouga doesn't seem to fight much like one; note how content he is to sit right in front of Aera as they trade blows. Well, if you call Arm Breaker hits "blows." It always seemed to me that Aera would rather break Ryouga's weapon (uh... that is, his hand} rather than injure him, so it just seems right to go for the DUR kill. Also because it's pretty easy; his hand shares the same low durability that knuckles have.


See, People Falling Over Count: 8. (Maybe}


See, now that is what we call hardcore. Where was this yesterday when he was like "Eh, I'll let you have a nap before I go to kill Bruno." He did not seem to care this much before.


Hey look! It's the Ryouga-sends-Aera-flying-into-a-wall-sprite from the first update! Surprise foreshadowing! (Also, the Daemon Edge is on the ground behind Ryouga, not attached to the back of his head.)

And then Ryouga let out the saddest growl ever. Dude looks like he's about to cry.


Not pictured: Gabe's triple-flip moonsault to retrieve the sword. (Not pictured because it didn't happen. He just ran, on foot, like some kind of plebian.)


Yeah, stealing is wrong. Didn't you learn anything in kindergarten, Ryouga?


And he promptly goes apeshit.


But if there's one thing Aera can't stand, it's being upstaged. So she goes apeshit too.

Hey this looks like a good cliffhanger to leave things off at.
Next Time on JWIAEFA?: The least you could do is leave enough corpse to bury!

This reminds me of situations in roguelikes in which things do not leave corpses. Fun fact: if you kill a monster in Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup with a wand of disintegration, it doesn't leave a corpse, just chunks of meat scattered about haphazardly. Since these also double as food, this has amusing(ly horrifying) connotations!

also i liek teh lp

That is rather horrifying.

also thx



Uhh... what are we doing here? Did that idiot LPer forget a post again?


Not this time! (Watch as I skip over a post this very update!)


Yeah, funny you should mention that, because we don't remember it at all. How much pirate rum did she drink? Her head is killing her.


Great, how much did you drink?


Hey! I know! Let's jump to completely unsubstantiated conclusions!


Oh no? Oh no. Oh no; oh no, oh no!?


There's the jumping to conclusions.

Uh-oh. She's already forgetting her master's teachings.


In short: tough shit, you're stuck with it. <dealwithit.jpg>


Nothing disgusts a ninja like people who kill their best friends. Now imagine I knew an anime or JRPG where a ninja kills his best friend off the top of my head and linked to a picture of it. I dunno, has anyone in Naruto done that?


Yeah, you better leave! This is Aera's pity party! You can just have your own over there. With blackjack, and hookers!


...Can I come to your pity party?


Sounds good!


A murder in cold-blooded self-defense is still a murder in cold blood! Well, ok, things were getting pretty hot-blooded out there. All the hot springs sure didn't help. How come nobody ever uses the phrase "murder in hot blood?" Oh, because it sounds stupid. Try saying it out loud. See? Stupid.


Which of these characters is bad at reading the atmosphere? PROtip: he has dots on his forehead.

Yeah, and before we can do that we have that pesky soul-crushing guilt to deal with.


That's a strange way for possession to work.


Funny you should mention him.


Well, first I watched a naked girl in the bath...


And with the aliens gone, we could finally bring the orbs to the shrine and awaken the dragon. ...Wait, what story was this again?


And the worst part is, he was completely disintegrated. There's just little Ryouga atoms all over the hot springs.


You can punch her. She totally deserves it for annihilating your brother.


Or if you want to make out with her, that's cool too.

Hey Talking Time! Can you identify the insensitive bastard in this group?


Nope! We're holding another pity party with Bruno. He brought blackjack and hookers.


Oh ok, fine.


Man, there is totally someone blaming Aera: herself. And she's a solipsist, so everyone in the entire world is blaming her.


"You even killed a dude! That's hardcore!"


Gonna waltz right in there and be all "Goura, it's ten o'clock. Do you know where your Daemon Edges are? Right here, beoytch!


MY PARENTS (AND BEST FRIEND) ARE DEEEEEAAAAAD!


And then she won't accidentally vaporize people anymore!

Oooh, he did the eye close-up thing again!


Oh great. Do we need to sacrifice our guardian beast again?


Man, that sucks. Don't tell me there's a level requirement for this dungeon?


She's got pluck! Also we never even use that stupid Mono Shift.


...Stick the pointy end in the bad guys' squishy parts?


"See, you pull on the knob."


Man, Aera's never gonna figure out how to use a sword. She's been trying to figure it out all evening!

I don't even understand what she's talking about. Too late to know how to use a sword to avoid exploding Ryouga?


Hey Talking Time! It's time for Aera's nightly walk, but this is not just any normal walk. This is the walk where we determine which ending we get!

So like I did for the first game; I'll show off all the scenarios for the next day, and let you guys vote for Lynn which character you'd like to see Aera end up with in the ending:
Dinah
Tatiana
Gabriel
Lynn
Orin
Nina

Voting will end- oh who am I kidding? Everyone's going to have their votes in well before I finish all the scenarios.
Yeah I know, pretty much everyone is going to vote for Lynn for maximum awkwardness.

I vote Nina.

Awkwardness of a different flavor!

Dinah! Because a vote for Dinah is a vote for two Dinahs.

Otherwise it would have been Lynn.

Dinah.

Can I vote for Blaire?

...

Oh fine then, Dinah.

Fine then, someone's got to live up to expectations.

Lynn!

Out of curiosity, how much of a pain in the ass would it be to show off multiple endings? I'm guessing you'd have to at least replay the whole final dungeon or something? I guess we won't be that mean. Though if you really love us you could do Dinah and Lynn. And maybe Nina. Or Gabriel. Um.

I'd have to replay everything from where we are right now until the end. The next day is pretty much just an extension of tonight, but the final day is really long (and has a lot of text boxes to mash through). I can give it a shot and see how long it takes abusing fast forward and autofire. Or just see what people have posted to Youtube.
Also: geez, took long enough for someone to vote for Lynn.