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

That is absolutely adorable.

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I'm excited for walking times!


I guess mana gets carried in by the wind or something?


Way to pay attention there Aera.


Oh boy, we get a choice tonight! May as well show them both, eh folks?


And she forgets something that she was just told three minutes ago.


C'mon, admit it, you were stalking her! The choices in the box were "Dinah" and "Tatiana," not "Special Place" and "Monument Square!"


Haha, she's blushing!


God forbid you do a good deed once in a while.

Hey I think I know what happens next!


I knew it!


Aww... what would we do without a spy in Dinah's own mind?


Don't be like that! The secret's out, you may as well own up to it.


I saw an episode of House recently where a guy lost the ability to stop himself from saying everything that popped into his head. Angel Dinah kinda reminds me of that.

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This Transhift monument thing looks like it was once pretty impressive, before half of it fell broke off.


She just made the wish late in the day today? And it already came true?


Oh come on!

Huh go figure!


...and Ryouga and Gedharm and Dinah...


Like I said!


Are we actually going to get paid for this?


That's the spirit! (Oh wait that was the goal of the game anyway wasn't it?)


Considering everyone will die if we don't, that's a pretty good wish!


Right! She can do anything she puts her mind to! Like fix robots! Oh wait, no she can't, hahaha.


Next time on Just What is an Edge Fencer, Anyway?: Day 3!

Whoo, it's finally a new day! Is it just my imagination, or is this game a bit wordier than the first one?


Ok!


Man, Aera is just bursting with good plans this morning. Step 1: Ignore Tatiana. Step 2: Forge stuff with that Leafwyrm Thorn. Step 3: Find us a fortress!


Here's the lineup we can make from the Leafwyrm Thorn that dropped off the Grass Dragon. But what's this? The spear has a Special Attack! I think we have a winner.


But before we can try out Paralyze Attack, we have to listen to Orin and Tatiana's problems. Come on, we're busy!


Eh, it's probably just Gabriel or something.


Naturally Tatiana doesn't want to be left out, but Orin doesn't want his little sister in harm's way.

Oh sure, pass the buck.


How much is "a little" anyway?


But now that he's made Aera into the bad guy, Orin suddenly changes his tune. What's the deal?


Oh you sneaky bastard! It was all a plot to foist her off on us!


Oh you jerks can just go to hell.


It'll be tough to find the sword we need if we're busy babysitting...


Oh by the way, Blaire came downstairs a while ago, did you notice?

Maybe? I'm gonna go with "yes" on that one.


And we have another repeatable starting today. The salesman in town will sell you some materials if you find him.


Aqua Ore is normally obtained as a drop off a normal enemy we'll find today. But I forget to head to the forge until after I fight some later anyway. Oops!


More jokes about the Elder's long-windedness.


Wow, what a reward.


That's a little better...


Here's a not-exactly-daily sidequest. It's the bite-sized version of the "break every single barrel in the labyrinth in one run" quest from the first game.


Incidentally, I broke everything in the first area, before the Wind Fortress, so he gives me one of these. Guess I didn't need to go farm that one up before.

Yes, Blaire's illness is taking its toll on the villagers. In several years they will talk with awe about the Great Coat Hanger Stortage.


As for more Leafwyrm Thorns, the only way to get any is to go fishing. Most of the the boss drops will show up on the fishing prizes after you beat them.


Hmm...are we, folks?


Another free sample from the shop.


And we can Create second-tier accessories, if we had the materials.


And leaving the village because we're out of sidequests, we run into Lynn right outside.


Oh, game! Still written under the assumption we picked the male character. Well, maybe not - Lynn seems to be very open-minded.


Yes, women like to be told to shut their mouths! Nice job proving her wrong!


But... she wasn't blushing? Anyway, there's so many places to go with the jokes here that I can't decide.

Oh, there's the blushing.


Going to talk some sense into him?


Huh, she doesn't look like the type to search and capture.


Well, you learn something new every day!


Haha, the joke's on her, we're ditching Tatiana at the fort as soon as we get there and heading on alone!

Four uneventful screens later...

(Spoiler: they find something!)


Huh, I wonder if Rocky and Kara spend all day here, or what?

How can he take care of you when he's not even around?


That's specific!


Man, what a douche! He's charged with the safety and protection of these children and he just ditches them here while he runs off to do god-knows-what for however long? We'd never do anything like that, right Tatiana?


I bet she's just happy she gets to be the big sister for once.


Before we leave, we make sure to pick up Rocky's autograph.


And take it back to the village.


And I guess that Rocky's handwriting is... complete illegible. I don't know how else the Orin Fangirl got it confused like that.


Man these quest rewards suck.


That's it for this update. Next time, we get to hang out with the super-cool kids and explore a cave!

I saw the DS game for sale at my local game device merchant, Is it any good?

Also, hooray for negligence.

You might have covered this last time, but for anyone playing along, there's a dog (<3) who lives behind the absent-minded cat owner's house, who will point you in the general direction of the missing cat each day. Because finding it is so terribly difficult.

It's not bad, but incredibly repetitive. It's real time for one, and you attack by tapping a command from one of the hotbars you set up and then doing stylus motions on the screen. The plot's basically lifted from this game too, not that it matters much.

He did, but even then it's easy. It's always worth it to explore everywhere in town every day, so I just go to the old woman first, then do everything else.

And constantly mash 'A' as you're walking, because who can be bothered to remember where that stupid kid was standing the previous day?

I can! I always make a mental note of where he is before finishing the day, then play at least until the start of the next and do the sidequests.

Or you can check a FAQ.

I just ran across another island mention! There's a brief discussion of the fact that we're on an island when you first talk to Nina about her past.

Speaking of which, this let's play has actually inspired me to try playing again (I got about halfway a year or so back and quit when I got sick of grinding for materials). Using only a single shapestone for battles (an axe, in this case) really makes the game go more smoothly! Or maybe it's just that axes are aces. Or maybe both!

Oh hey right that whole "LP" thing.


Oh no! Forest pirates! They'll make us walk the branch!


DOGGIE~! <3 (We got punk'd! How did he know about our phobia of forest pirates?)


...Is he coming on to us?


Well maybe if you'd take a shower once in a while... (The house doesn't have a bathroom... so...)


No, it's because you have a high midichlorian count. You're gonna be a Jedi!


Summonit-ios, the breakfast of Edge Fencers!


"Because I'm an Edge Fencer" is a long story?


Stalker!

So he's a spy? A veritable electronic James Bond?


Right, it's like how it would rude meet someone new and be all like "Dude you've got six fingers on your hand." Cuz he'll be all "Duh I know."


Geez.


Gee, ya think?


Unlocked: Hang out with DOGGIE~ <3 at night.


Ah yes, you gotta watch out for those Howler Worms. Ever see the movie Tremors? It's like that only they're loud little bastards.*

*: For the sake of full disclosure, I've never actually seen more than a few minutes of Tremors.

It's like a daycare over there. Gabriel takes off to the left and we head down the cliff.


These two trees here are the only thing preventing you from getting the reward from the Lumberjack for the Forest Outskirts before now.


And then we head into the Howling Cavern.


And here's the salesmen again. He's talking about Upgrades, but our Craftknight Rank isn't high enough for that yet.

...material you use for the Upgrade.
So while the spear we forged has a spectial attack automatically, we can add one to other weapons by upgrading.


Speaking of the spear's special attack, you can see that the yellow icon next to Block is now lit up. Special attacks consume some DUR but, well, do stuff. Paralyze Attack freezes the enemy for a couple seconds. Also, does that crab look familiar to anyone?


These guys are new, though. Based on the teru teru bozu and sporting a creepy stitched smile, but they're not very tough.


But a couple of them bump Aera up to level 6.


A small fork in the path leads to a little room chock full of goodies. Six boxes, a healing panel, and a rare medal! I didn't get anything notable out of the boxes, but oh well.



I get into a fight right next to the healing panel, so I take the opportunity to end it quickly with Aqua Tornado.


And conveniently, Dinah levels up from the fight and gains a second spell charge. Awesome!

Holy crap that thing's huge!


Aera's bilingual. She knows English, and Violence! And it doesn't look like that thing understands English!


What the? She just came up through the floor!


And she's naked! Well, except for the bubbles and rings.


Well it's not the redhead with the drill...


Grr, arg?


Right, we'll trust the ghost lady who keeps an enormous mutant enemy as a pet.


Aera, no! I was being sarcastic!

Well unless he was ten stories tall or a woman who can phase through floors, looks like he's not here.


Lady you have no idea.


Seems Aera can't decide whether she wants to be a Craftknight or a crappy stand-up comedian.


What kind of parents name their kid "Nina Nina" anyway? If you have a first name as a last name, why on earth would you give the kid that name as a first name too? Did they pick Nina as her middle name too?


"A building"? I bet it's a run down shack or infested with monsters or something.


Yeah, yeah, the summonite lights her up like a damn Christmas tree. We get it.


Seriously, this is the dumbest thing ever because we only need to make one turn.


Hey you know I'm starting to think that following a ghost through an unfamiliar cave isn't a good idea. Knowing Japan, they probably have a supernatural creature just like that, and when you're good and lost it eats your intestines or something.


So look forward to next time when Nina Nina gets Area lost and devours her intestines! Or maybe not.

I'll be honest: I was not expecting an Airplane! reference coming into this thread.

Sorry for the delay Swordcraft fans! Between being sick, being on vacation, and being addicted to Dragon Quest IX, I haven't been able to put in the proper work on the LP for the last several weeks. Also note that this update was written in pieces separated by weeks and multiple states of health and states of mind so if there are any sudden changes in tone or direction just pretend I'm crazy.

When we last left Aera and Dinah, they were being shown through a cave by a not-very-frightening ghost.


...Very poorly, I might add.


Dinah can fly? News to me. (Well, I guess we've seen her hover when she casts magic in battle)


Oh yes, PLEASE ask Dinah.


It's like Aera hasn't been playing the same game as the rest of us.


Damn, that's pretty harsh.


Well, I make it a rule to avoid upsetting ghosts. I still come across ectoplasm in the weirdest places from before I made that rule.


A maze of twisty little passages? Are they... are they all alike?

But first, loot!


A couple boxes in this dead end give up some suitably crummy rewards. Not pictured: 10 boam!


And the various chain chomps and crabs down here have been wreaking havoc on my spear so I take the opportunity to patch it up a bit before it shatters into a million pieces.


And more levelling up! We get some pretty decent stat boosts this level!


Heading back to the crossroads, we ignore Nina and head south instead, where we find this boulder. And how does one move boulders but by punching?


No seriously, this is what knuckles do on the field.


Heading left from the boulder leads to a room with a brand new sword shapestone! Now we can make two swords! If we had any reason to, anyway.


Oh dammit the Mud Boxers are back.


If you let them they'll pull off this move and engulf you, dealing a tiny amount of damage repeated very quickly. But you can just move away, and you'll have a free shot at them for a while.


Dinah even levels up and learns her first enchant spell. Note that back in the first game, Sugar learned Enchant Aqua a lot earlier; before Aqua Tornado.


And over to the east of the boulder is this platform and its strange discolored wall. Let's see, this could be an important structural element to the cave.


Since a cave-in sounds exciting Aera promptly takes her drill to it.


Well, the cave doesn't collapse, but the wall does fall away to reveal a room with another Rare Medal and an Axe Shapestone I may never actually use! (Because really who ever needs more than one axe?)

And a crab drops a Heavy Metal Ore! Guarenteed to be at least 50% denser than Light Metal Ore, or your money back!


Well, there's nothing more on the south branch so we head back to the crossroads and find Nina and I screw up taking the screenshot. She's just saying how she thinks we can get up that cliff by going this way. Let's hope we don't have to fly.


There aren't many combat shots in this batch so I'm throwing this one in for kicks. I'm killing a... something with a sword that's in desperate need of repair.


And Aera levels up once more, but doesn't get quite as much in the way of stats as last level.


Whoa hey what's going on here!?


Oh how kind of him.


Either that's a coincidence, or it's the most specific countermeasure ever; Nina's the only one we've met who can see spirity glowiness.


Well we'll have to file that advice in the circular file.


Video: Vs. ???
??? is our first weapon-wielding foe! Like in the first game, you get a bonus drop if you break an enemy's weapon instead of beating them to death, in this case a material for forging. However, due to the change that makes weapons more durable across the board, this takes like an hour so screw it. We'll be able to get his drop elsewhere anyway. ??? himself (herself?) is actually somewhat easier than the Grass Dragon was, on account of being stunnable and not having minions. The video also features Paralyze Attack (including me missing with it a half a dozen times at the start) and Aqua Tornado in glorious high-definition 240x160.


We're not going to be deterred just because some schmuch dresses up in dark armor and beats up our brother! Especially considering that whole bit about all of humanity being destroyed by Goura if we fail.


Uh... I guess he was just curious? He just asks and walks away when he gets an answer. What a strange fellow.


Wow, he must be in pretty bad shape if he couldn't even see who won that fight.

Seriously the directions to exit the cave are just "keep going this way and don't fall off the cliff!" We don't need to be shown around!


"What's up?" He sounds so concerned for his son.


And his next question is to ask about Tatiana? I think we know who the favorite is in that family!


Not that he seems to mind.


I'm digging on the implication that they're going to carry him up the stairs like a sack of potatoes.


Well, he's in bed now. Whenever we climb into bed, we get a fade to black and a box that says "HP/MP Restored!" So I'm sure he's fine now.


Good lord! Is this family dysfunctional or what?

Oh, right! He was half dead himself!


<House>Fever means infection. Start him on broad-spectrum antibiotics and interferon.</House>


Well, we're not 100% certain what we gave him was actually Honoras, considering nobody ever told us what it looks like.


Oh yeah, you're okay. People who are okay suddenly collapse all the time!


Oh fine you big baby, we just got done carrying Orin upstairs. Then you have to come all the back downstairs before you collapse so you can make us drag another body up the stairs. If you're gonna be like that, we'll just have Dinah take your left foot and Aera your right, and they'll get you upstairs like that.


Yeah, how was that? Got a headache now?


Right! Because it clearly worked so well the first time.


Score! To the Lynn-cave!


D'oh! Ok, think, where else would she be? Oh God I have no idea!

Five minutes of running around like a chicken with her head cut off later, Aera finds Lynn skulking around the Ruins.


Incidentally, nobody asked... (ellipses... over...load...)


Ain't got no time to feel calm anywhere, you gotta get in the kitchen and make some sandwichestea!


One scene transition later...


Man if only all our problems could be solved by a fade to black. Just leave town... fade to black... return with the Daemon Edge! I guess that would make the game kinda short, though.


The solid digestive waste is hitting the rotary air displacement device, that's what's going on!


Oh right, that whole 'find a sword' thing that we can't make any progress on because we keep getting interrupted every five minutes to save some relative from painful death.


Okie-dokie!


Even though Aera's worried about her family, she's got more important matters to worry about. Also she never took any ranks in healing nor levels of cleric, so she can't do anything to help anyway.


Wait, Daemon Edge? That's not the more important matters! The more important matters are that we've got two new types of ore in our inventory and we need to see what we can make out of them!

Heavy Metal Ore makes the Crevice weapons.


While Aqua Ore makes Hard weapons.

I'm going to keep my mind out of the gutter and leave it as an exercise to the reader to think of the jokes relating "crevice" and "hard."

And that's it for this update! Let's see if I can finish off the day in the next one!

The thread, maybe. But in the game itself?