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

Missed opportunity.

It really is!



Ok, right, Swordcraft Story 2 LP. How do I do this, again? I link the screenshots and write the words, right? Seriously, the last couple months have been pretty crazy and I'd like to apologize to anyone who's been dissapointed by the dearth of updates lately.

Ok, right, Aera and Dinah. Uh... what were we doing again?

Thank you, select button!


Yeah, she swings the other way, right right right?

Anyway, before we get moving I remember that I forgot something last time.

Score! This is, I believe, the last Leafwyrm Thorn you can get without fishing. Of course, the thorns are the cheapest fishing item anyway, so it's not that big a deal to get more.


But naturally on our way to meet up with Nina and Borgrim again, Tatiana stops us on our way through the Wind Fortress.


Playing Dragon Quest IX, mostly.


What? It's addictive!


Dinah almost spills the beans about Orin being hurt by ??? back in the last update.


Maybe they've been beaten up by ??? too!


Anyway, we head all the way through the forest and down into the caves again.

And promptly get an Aqua Ore off the first Mud Boxer we kill. Score!


And then Aera levels up!

And then we get another Aqua Ore! Is it my birthday?


Here's Nina! And she's worried about Orin, how sweet.


Hey you guys what might be a good idea? Some recapping, for those who may have forgotten the plot while I was busy not updating! Everyone remembers Ryouga, right? He's Aera best friend, or was until he made her drag him down to the Seal of Goura, whom he promptly tried to release. That's kind of a bad thing because Goura's angry and wants to kill, well, everyone. Starting with whoever the current Edge Fencer is (that's Aera). He's teamed up with a summoner named Gedharm who wants to control Goura because he's evil and that's what evil people do.

Aera needs to find the Daemon Edge so she can reseal Goura before he breaks out of the ruins. It's supposed to be in a fortress in the forest but apparently there's two of them, and we keep getting sidetracked by giant Borgrims and swordsmen in black armor and little sisters asking all kinds of questions and haven't quite gotten around to going there yet. Also there's a DOGGIE~ <3.


Finally, on with the plot!


...After we make sure to break all the boxes and cut down all the grass in the cave.


And level Dinah up.


And get a whole bunch of ore from fights.


And level Aera up too. So much for getting on with it.

Hooray!


See! I mentioned before that there was only one turn to make!


Great, the ghost girl's spooked by a scary light.


But Aera's all "pssh, I just busted up a freaky dude in black armor who almost killed my brother. I'm not worried about a stupid firefly."


Who needs careful when there's a health panel right there?


Here's the next fortress! Or rather, here's the next teleporter. We just got a whole bunch of materials and it's about time to put them to use.


There we go. The fastest way to rank up is to create a bunch of weapons you haven't made before. Even though I keep showing off all the weapons that can be made from a type of ore, most of them haven't counted because I load state after I get the screenshots.


Now we can do that Upgrade thing that the wandering merchant at the entrance to the cave mentioned. We take a material, but instead of combining it with a shapestone to make a weapon, we combine it with an already finished weapon to improve its stats and add special effects.


For example, the crappy little Iron Ore adds 1 def and 6 dur to a weapon.


Charged Ore or Aqua Ore will add a weak elemental effect to a weapon, increasing its damage against all enemies except those resistant to the element. AND they improve the weapon's stats.


If we use that Leafwyrm Thorn we got earlier, we can add the Paralyze Attack from the Grand Spear to any weapon of our choosing!

Smashing all the stuff in the caverns and turning in our stash of rare medals nets us two Beast Crests. We'd have a third if we'd broken ???'s sword instead of killing him, but seriously that takes FOREVER.


And new materials means a parade of new weapons! Most of them get Two-Hit Combo, but what's this "Drill Special"? Let's find out!


Oh! It's a supercharged version of the down+A attack! It does a little more than double the damage of that move and hits enough times to kill these Teruterus in one attack. In scientific circles, this would be referred to as "totally sweet".


Anyway, we're all done in town now so let's check out this creatively-named fortress.


Hey, it's Evily McEvilson. He's already cased the joint. No Daemon Edge in sight, what a ripoff.

I am totally okay with being a pain in his neck.


Dun dun dun!


Hah, the joke's on him! Aera's The Hero! The Hero never dies in an act of idiotic bravery, unless she does, in which case no she didn't she gets to load from the last save point it never happenend ok?


Hey I guess Angel!Dinah can do more than apologize after all.


A little too much comraderie for the devil girl to express?


Now he's making fun of a little girl's disability(?)! That's not even evil, that's just being a dick.


Never give up, blah blah blah. Trust your instincts

Oh snap!

Video: Vs. Iron Horse
Another boss already? We just fought ???!
See if you can identify the three distinct stages in this fight. Stage one: understanding your enemy. Stage two: formation of an appropriate plan. Stage three: say "screw it" and just get someone else to do all the work for you.

Have I mentioned that attack spells are way way more useful in this game than in Swordcraft Story 1?


And beating it levels Dinah up again and teaches her the basic wind-elemental attack spell.
Not that we'll use it much.


So much for smashing her confidence to pieces. Her ego's bigger than before!


That is not how this works. Stop being a smug jerk, you smug jerk!


He could at least say "Impossible!" or "Inconceivable!" or something. We earned at least that much.


GAH DON'T DO THAT! Seriously, who sneaks up on people through the floor?


Well gee, thanks for the help.


Oh really? Maybe we could learn a thing or two. If we weren't busy with that whole Goura thing.

I'm going to guess, based on the fact that we have a Wind Fortress and a Water Fortress, but there's two more elements to go that there's no Daemon Edge here.

AMUSING SELECT BUTTON DIALOGUE TIME:

OH THAT CRAZY DINAH!


Anyway, screw looking around, we're gonna take a nap while Nina does all the searching. She wears glasses, that means she's smart, right?


Except she just sits here and says this. To continue we need to try to leave out the back door there.


Big shock there.


Only one? Sure there's not two more?


So it's safe to say it's the Lightning Fortress?


Sheesh, is she scared of everything?

Except the lightning flying around outside. And the giant robot centaur inside.


Anyway, we gotta head back to the Wind Fortress and pick up Tatiana. If you don't want to use the teleporter (and I'd like to see if my luck finding materials holds up), there's a small shortcut by riding this... mud... waterfall thing down the cliff Nina tried to lead us up earlier.


Woot!


Double Woot!


Multi Woot!


M-M-M-MONSTER W......

....awww....


Also Aera levels up again.

Enough of the caves, though! Let's skip ahead to the part where we arrive at the Wind Fortress! (Not that I have any more screenshots before that anyway)

Well everyone else is getting hurt these days, she thought maybe you'd decided to join the club.


Well, that's probably a good thing. Without having Protagonist Power, he'd probably just end up like Orin.


Time for a 'Told ya so!'

It's time for all the kids to run along home for dinner.


Day~um! Where'd a kid like Rocky pick up the green to afford a rock like that?


It's time for a lesson in thaumatogeology with Professor Xeride!


Maybe if we had one we could do that cool summoning trick with Dinah.


Candy? She made it herself!?

EPIC SLOW-MOTION NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!


He... he was so young. What a tragic end to such a short life.


Totally not what she is worried about.

Well fine it's not like there's anything else left to do today.


See, I TOLD you guys he'd be fine after a fade to black. He feels refreshed!


Aera! Ix-nay on the eaten-up-by-the-black-swordsman-bay!


Right! And we didn't find him! And he certainly didn't injure Orin in any ways that would worry a kid sister!


That's the story and he's sticking to it!


Man he loves to foist her off on us doesn't he?


(She certainly didn't treat any teenage boy's wounds, no sir!)

Turns out what we thought was honoras was actually oregano! We all had a good laugh about that. Except Blair, he died.


And the sun sets.


Bye Dinah!


Now is it Walking Time!


And naturally we can also visit Dinah up on the cliff or Tatiana at the square. And naturally I'll show you guys all four. But not right now, because this update is already like a hundred gazillion posts long.

haha dinah has the worst voice acting

I bet you could make a totally wicked axe with that. \m/

I'd never realized how much I liked this game until viewing over this LP. I guess I actually did have fond memories with it. I used the Aera/Dinah setup myself as well, and I believe I used drills for most of the game... I'm looking forward to seeing more of the happy times I'd forgotten. Maybe I should play through again with a different setup, but I can't imagine any of the others comparing to to clashing (and too-closeness) of the Aera/Dinah setup.

Yes! Walking Time is now Stalking Time! Although in a way I guess it always has been.


Aera, of course, doesn't take the hint.


Haha yeah humans are weird.


That's gonna need a little explaining. Is it a Sanary situation, where a rivalry goes horribly wrong when ancient slumbering evil is added into the mix?


Didn't mean what? I'm still more confused than anything here.


Aww, she likes us! She really likes us!


Hehe, halo hole. So if a halo is a toroid, is a halo hole like a donut hole?


For whatever reason, tonight's Walking Times are all on the short side. Oh well, makes my job easier!

Tatiana's up to her usual wishing at the Monument.


As long as it's not a weird demon hippo thing.


He may end up with a life-destroying Honoras addiction, but he'll be ok!


Girls like jewelry? Hold on, I need to take notes here.


Haha, she totally didn't even notice that Rocky's crushing on her!


Also, that is seriously the entire scene. I told you these were short.

Hey, the rafflesia turns blue at night!


aww, is he homesick? I'd actually be interested to see what the summon creatures' planes are like.


Yeah, I can't imagine it smells much like the machine realm here. A little more nature, a little less iron.


Well, he is a DOGGIE~ <3.


Clearly, they realized they could increase their marketability 500% by recruiting someone with animal ears.


Oh my god, he's just fattening up the kids so he can eat them!


You know what else came out of nowhere? The end of this update.

Hail hail h'pthmus ftaghn

What time is it, Mr. Wolf?

Also: These LPs got me to pick up the Swordcraft games and I'm playing this one right now! I decided to switch it up and play as Arno, and he's (she's?) kinda weird. But fun and silly, kinda like Sugar was. Anyway, any chance we'll get to see any Buzzsaw Swords later on?

The weatherman did mention a high chance of Buzzsaw Swords. And occasionally Sniper Lances to boot! But there's no Ladles, of Fiery Doom or otherwise. ; ;




But it's more creepy than anything, what with the Aeracidal demon right on the other side of that wall.


Well yeah, it's not like it's her fault or anything. We'd be real jerks to take it out on her.


I'm sure we'll eventually find out that he's secretly been a good guy all along! Aera wouldn't have such poor taste in best friends, right? Right?


He fell down the stairs.


He fell down the stairs!


Sympathetic... right.


So argh? First Aera's sympathetic, now she's argh? What's that mean, anyway?


So Lynn gets migraines. That sucks. But with nobody else left to visit, Aera decides to go to bed. Whew! It feels like this day has lasted months!

Whoo, it's finally a new day!


Not like we have any other choice, right?


Haha, we're ignoring Tatiana again.


Oh yeah? What's this one like? Dresses in white armor and carries an axe? Maybe his name is !!!.


After you did such a good job checking it out yesterday? Are you a masochist by any chance?


Man, didn't we just have this argument yesterday? I'm getting some serious deja vu here.


Uh... we really DID just have this argument yesterday.


OH MY GOD IT'S YESTERDAY AGAIN!


It's a nightmare comes true! Aera is re-living the same day over again! But why?! What does this cosmic force that is capable of manipulating time want from her? Was there something she forgot?

Desperate for any insight, she consults Life Advice Guy. Anger and sorrow, and that path to the north, remind her of something.

Something... small and furry.


This! this is what was missing! I totally forgot to fight Rampage Rabbit!


One Drill Special.


Two Drill Specials.



Yay, another healing item we'll probably never use!


Yeah sure, he'll be stronger. But not strong enough!

But now the timeline's been made right, and we'll pick up on the REAL next day next time!

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

Sneak preview:

AERA KUN DENWA

You guys are great, you know that? Aera Murray scares me. A lot.

Alright! let's continue progressing along the arrow of time in a linear (not cyclic) manner! Let's go do new and novel things we've never done before! The possibilities are endless!


...That's it, I'm outta here. This LP is just going to have to go on without me.


There's no secret message here.


Oh hey, this at least is new. I like how he has to give Aera directions to the waterfall when she's only lived in this town her whole life.


That's one plan... I have a better one. One that gets us phat lewt.


Not that we can ever leave the house without getting stopped by someone.


Of course we don't know anything! He certainly wasn't beaten up by any swordsmen with punctuation for names.

I dunno about you guys, but I'm getting sick of all the lies and secrets.


Oh, well I guess it's not a problem anymore.


Oh, siblings! (Alternate comment: Don't make me turn this LP around!)


Because I will turn this LP around if I hear another peep out of either of you!


But not the cooking!


He's going to reveal that he was the black swordsman ??? all along! Mwahahahaha! Yes, he beat himself up just to keep up the disguise!

Anyway, we're free from cutscene hell now, so it's time to wander around and do sidequests!


Oh no, not his thing!


Hey this is a thing, maybe it's the kid's!


That was a waste of time!


We've been able to Create these since the start, but now we can just buy them. Hooray?


Thanks for the encouragement, Melodramatic Self-Help Guru!


That's the Chief's House, if anyone is playing along at home.


Callback alert! The Eerie Mask dropped off the Yasha Spider in the first game.


Wow, that's not a total ripoff or anything.


And upstairs in the Chief's House is the merchant! Gale ore can be used as an upgrade material to add Wind element to your weapons.

Or it can be used to make the Steel weapons. We create the spear.


Well, we're out of sidequests for now, so it's time to see what Orin's up to.


That's an unusual amount of maturity from a JRPG hero. Shouldn't she be blaming her defeats on her weapon or something?


Hahaha.


Reliving his glory days? Maybe he just wants to make Aera cry again.