Koudelka

[oak agate]

SMT Nocturne vibes

[peak ether]

James with unarmed:
https://youtu.be/qPEbA5FI1tk?si=xnveqjsWDSe9HINj

[regal jackal]

Can someone tell me what to do at the beginning of disc 2? || I fell into a hole and it seems I can't do anything there||

[peak ether]

||inspect the piles of bodies until you get a comment about bodies, then go interact with the bars.||

[dry edge]

Depends on the user's strength stat.

[vapid bolt]

I'm reading the lore and apparently this game is set in the same universe as ||shadow hearts||

That's crazy

Oh ||koudelka is literally in the game lol||

[fluid wraith]

Yes

[vapid bolt]

Oh is this common knowledge

I never played either one

[fluid wraith]

It is if you’ve played them.

Otherwise I could see how you could miss it.

Shadow Hearts was fairly niche and Koudelka even more so.

[sand sorrel]

I keep trying to pick this one up but the first 5 minutes haven't grabbed me - tell me it's worth it so I'll actually play it

[fluid wraith]

It’s worth it.

[sand sorrel]

Alright sweet

[fluid wraith]

I thought it was pretty good. It is slow moving throughout, though.

[steel grotto]

Although being slow I am quite enjoying it. I wish the animations were like 2x as fast and that the loading screens didn’t exist. But so far the story is enjoyable and the voice acting is incredibly good for the era

[vapid bolt]

I'm an hour in and it's definitely better than its first five minutes

I wish it didn't marinade itself in PS1 survival horror but hey what can you do, gotta make money

[fluid wraith]

I stated feeling more invested in the story and gameplay by time you get the 3rd party member.

[vapid bolt]

I like how the characters seem to hate each other

[fluid wraith]

I think they handle that well. The characters all have reasons not to trust each other but have to team up to survive.

[vapid bolt]

Yeah i feel that. It's a good dynamic

[sand sorrel]

Y'all are doing a great job selling it

[fluid wraith]

The story isn’t incredibly complex or anything but I feel like it respects the player’s intelligence and doesn’t over explain things and lets you make your own judgments.

[sand sorrel]

Is it pretty linear / obvious where to go next, or more time spent on exploration / figuring it out?

[fluid wraith]

There’s a bit of figuring out where to go and what to do involved but I’d say there’s less of that than the Resident Evil games.

[vapid bolt]

Speaking of which I guess I'm gonna try hooking it up to the TV and see if I have better luck navigating the environments that way

(don't take it from me though, my sense of video game direction is extremely bad)

[jovial galleon]

I wish the map showed which way you were facing. It can be hard deciphering which door is which a few rooms.

But I really liked this one. It does have flaws, but the good stuff is done really well. It has its own charm that just resonated with me. One of my favorite discoveries I’ve made so far in this server. Up there with pirates gold.

[solid lintel]

Same, this one was a favorite despite it's warts

[sand sorrel]

Wait, I can LOSE stat points on level up??

[versed tundra]

Had the same reaction. You can't, it's just showing you your current stats, as affected by gear and innate bonuses. The only thing you gain on a level up are those 4 points you distribute.

[sand sorrel]

Oh thank god

[rustic gulch]

I don't know why the game thought I would have seen the ||Daniel's Arm|| item without a guide

Just walked my ass halfway back through the game to find it 😂

[rustic gulch]

Got the bad end. I think that's good enough for now

[hidden plover]

Ditto the same feeling. I played now for 2.5hrs and starting to get into it. I just beat the mummy. I still dont have a clue what is going but its like having resident evil + FF7 gameplay elements all mashed in with high quality voice acting

[jovial galleon]

The good ending is worth it, imo. Well, the alternate one is my favorite, I think. I’m not sure which one is the official cannon one, but one is quite a bit better than the other I’ll say.

[stark ridge]

I don't want to get too spoiled, is it necessary a whole playthrough to get the different endings? Do they depend on little things along the game or they are a sum of multiple complex actions?

[runic crypt]

You can miss the bad ending by picking up a key item, but the normal and good endings only differ in your performance during the final battle

[twin anchor]

The camera focuses on it for an unusual amount of time during the cut scene ||when the chandelier falls on you|| that’s the only reason I went around clicking to try and find it

[twin anchor]

You could aim for the good ending and keep your save just before you encounter the final boss for the first time (via cut scene)

Then you can get the bad ending by ||dropping a key item before that encounter|| or the cannon ending by ||deliberately loosing to the final boss in the final battle||

[vapid bolt]

Lmao ||the game lets you drop key items then penalizes you for it||

[twin anchor]

There’s a safety net ||they tend to get “returned” to you as one of the random encounters becomes a rat who drops the items when defeated, but if your heart is set on dropping the items, the game will let you||

[steel grotto]

Is that ||right after the chandelier drop?|| I feel like that cutscene makes it very explicit that it’s there

[stark ridge]

Does it the game ever hangs to any of you? Maybe there's some setting to prevent this? It has happened twice that in mid combat the game does not respond to the controls anymore, music and animations keep playing though

[narrow storm]

Don't worry, I did the same thing lol

[runic crypt]

Oh wow I didn't know that. I was hurting for inventory space late disc 1 until I finally got to use those stupid key items in disc 3. Could have used that I guess

[peak ether]

This happens to me occasionally, though it lasts only couple seconds so I don't know if it's the same.

[runic crypt]

Surprised multiple people missed the hand. It stuck out I thought

[twin anchor]

I did exactly the same. Only looked up the guide after completing . I breathed a lot easier after like 2 item drops very close together

[runic crypt]

This game doesn't seem to play well on less accurate emulators like the ones in RetroArch. If you have a device that can do Duckstation, use that

[twin anchor]

This depends on the emulator. People have tended to have better experiences with duckstation (no hangs) than with psxrearmed

[runic crypt]

The worst offenders for stupidly hidden items I thought were the second part of the 4x4 grid puzzle (the symbols hidden at the top of the stairs) and the stained glass mural behind the ||doppelganger|| fight that had the lockbox code for the guard's diary. The mural was already used as a save point. There's no reason why I would try to continue walking towards it

[stark ridge]

will check into that, thanks!

[twin anchor]

I missed 2 things: the ||stained glass window you mention|| and the ||statue with the creature behind it||

I was playing with no guide though

[regal jackal]

The opposite here. I wish it didn't try to be rpg for whatever reason. It totally ruins the pacing of the game. Everything but the combat is interesting. But you have to suffer through all these fights every 5 seconds. I feel like I'm back in the day when internet was so slow that it loaded 5 secs of YouTube video at the time. So you would have to wait, watch 5 secs, wait, repeat. As an rpg, it's the worst I've ever played. But I keep going cause I like everything else.

[stark ridge]

oh, disc 2 already? that was fast

[tall saddle]

Actually took me a long while to find ||a piece of stained glass I had missed||, turned out it was pretty near the area I needed it. I had just simply missed a room

[steel grotto]

It happened to me 2-3 times early in disc 1 but I haven’t run into the issue since, it was weird

[stark ridge]

back in disk 1 ☠️ 🤣

[vapid bolt]

Yeah I know what you mean there too

Hooking up to the TV definitely helps mitigate the navigation issues Im having

Still don't like the "camera angles" and not excited to hit the inventory limit

[steel grotto]

I’m at least half way through disc 2 and I haven’t hit the limit yet

[vapid bolt]

Haha actually I might feel better once I hit it

Right now every item I get is tainted with slight dread

[hidden plover]

This. The random battles happens often especially when you aimlessly walking around the room and pressing x on everything to ensure you haven't missed anything. I enable turbo speed for battles and find them more bearable

[steel grotto]

I actually find the encounter rate to be pretty low, I had to do a ton of walking between battles when I was trying to grind. Encounter rate may be room dependent

[rustic gulch]

Ah, I was probably distracted then. I've been half watching TV some of the nights I play

[rustic gulch]

Hah, I'm glad I'm not the only one

[rustic gulch]

I might check it out tonight. I just didn't want to go through that sequence of battles again right away

[twin anchor]

I think you might have got the middle ending. The bad ending is you know, obviously bad

[rustic gulch]

Okay, I was going to say, it seemed like it ask worked out okay

[jovial galleon]

It’s a || giant red stained glass mural, and you literally just picked up a chunk of red glass in that exact same room. I was on my way to investigate when the boss fight interrupted and surprised me. I don’t see how that’s missable if you pick up the red glass piece.|| it’s also an optional reward anyway.

I missed the || bottle of blood in the cauldron somehow. Got the statue prompt and figured I might come across some blood later or something since I missed it. Then I forgot all about it.||. I’m like 3 items short of having the optional item pickup achievement. So close, but I must have missed a few hidden things.

[runic crypt]

||Having a piece of the mural in the exact same room makes it seem like that's just adding story as to why there's a piece of red glass in that room||

[twin anchor]

Dunno how I missed the ||stained glass window|| but I did

Again was playing with no guide and just letting nature take its course

[jovial galleon]

Same. I didn’t use a guide until near the end. Was just trying to make sure I was picking up items. I knew there was something I was missing near the end of disc 3. I knew I needed to || light candles, but for some reason I couldn’t get them to light. Didn’t know I had to climb up on the altar. || that was the first time I looked at a guide. Some stuff does blend into the environment pretty well, so I did adopt a press x on everything attitude, bust most things didn’t surprise me when they were interactive. The || stained glass one was just obvious to me immediately. ||

[steel grotto]

I am going to get whatever ending I get honestly

[jovial galleon]

It’s super easy to get all three. Takes like 10 minutes, as long as you did one thing right.

[weary lintel]

I think I picked the good ending ||I just died on purpose on the last boss||

[twin anchor]

There’s a better ending than that, although yours is the shadow hearts cannon ending

[rustic gulch]

I do like canon!

There are more games in this series? I had no idea

How are they?

[runic crypt]

Shadow Hearts games on PS2 are in the same world. Koudelka is the janky game, the Shadow Hearts are supposed to be much better

[rustic gulch]

Oooh. I really enjoyed Koudelka but the jank kept it just shy of being great (for me personally). I'm curious to try shadow hearts now

[weary lintel]

Are there resident evil esque puzzles in shadow hearts like there was in koudelka? If so I’ll pass

[jovial galleon]

Better is debatable. I like the one he got better.

[twin anchor]

Better as in more positive outcome - maybe just imho

[jovial galleon]

And it was harder to get for me. Took forever for the boss to whittle me down. 😆

[twin anchor]

One of us one of us

[twin anchor]

Winning the fight was a SLOG for me

[vapid bolt]

||you don't have to beat the boss for gotm credit?|| Yoo

[steel grotto]

Damn the cutscene with ||Edward shooting the thief|| (Disc 2) was definitely the most well voice acted cutscene so far

[weary lintel]

As long as you see an ending cutscene, and credits start to roll

[weary lintel]

That’s what impressed me most about this game, was the voice acting, it’s like we are watching a stage play

[steel grotto]

Absolutely!

[rustic gulch]

Yeah, I felt the same way. For me, that's where it shifted from being corny to legitimately impressive

[jovial galleon]

I think I did it in two rounds.

[twin anchor]

Jeez and I thought my team was overpowered

[jovial galleon]

I was like level 75 or something by the time I did the final boss

[weary lintel]

If I found out I forgot something and it was something all the way across the other side of the map, I’d turn off random encounters

[jovial galleon]

You can increase lock and it reduces random encounters quite a bit.

[rustic gulch]

Is that what luck does!?

[weary lintel]

I always thought the luck was drop rates and rarity

[steel grotto]

It also determines how often enemies will attack that character

[jovial galleon]

It is that to.

[twin anchor]

Oh man maybe that’s why I didn’t have too many encounters

[fluid wraith]

It also depends on whether or not you have the ||mask||. Keeping it in your inventory lowers the encounter rate.

I also think the luck stat might modify the encounter rate.

[jovial galleon]

it does.

I'm not sure if the mask lowers encounter rate or not. From what I can tell, most people seem to think the only thing the mask does is || makes scroll items possibly drop. Without the mask, they don't drop at all, apparently.||

but as for luck, the manual shows:

You get better descripitons pressing R2 on the level up screen though. It's much more detailed. Like the manual just says mind is for magic accuracy, but it also has an impact on healing magic like Heal and Revive

[twin anchor]

oh is that what it did. I assumed I'd not found the right use for it

[stark ridge]

I am in disk 2 still, almost every fight I level up; but I dish a shit ton of damage

some things are a bit strange in this game, like the fact that just a moment ago I got my first piece of armor; but otherwise enjoying it

[fluid wraith]

Armor isn’t extremely common but there are enemies on disc 1 that drop early game armor

[stark ridge]

||I got a scroll before having the mask||

can I drop it? ||I don't want less encounters||

[jovial galleon]

I don't think anyone knows what the mask does, or if it even does anything. Almost seems like some piece to a puzzle they removed but didn't take the mask out for it.

[jovial galleon]

I think it's safe to drop, unless you plan on taking on the gargoyle. Scrolls are very powerful, but really only needed for the gargoyle. You can easily complete the game without the mask.

[stark ridge]

so far I don't feel a drop in encounters anyway...

[jovial galleon]

https://tenor.com/view/nobody-knows-snl-washington's-dream-nate-bargatze-gif-1712690635348172944

[fluid wraith]

Maybe it turns you into a vampire.

https://tenor.com/view/dio-jojo-jojos-bizzare-adventure-anime-mask-gif-16624400

[jovial galleon]

I think it just upscales slightly.

https://tenor.com/view/squall-leonhart-ff8-reface-willem-dafoe-cosplayer-gif-26594762

[hidden plover]

Made it to the 2nd disc. Really enjoying the pacing of how the story is developing through the characters interacting with each other. The battles i put fast forward on to make them more bearable because i tend to have 3 battles min per room when roaming around and trying to see if anything that is interactable

[stark ridge]

in regards to the dialogues, if you struggle with language or volume or both, I found this: https://shadowhearts.fandom.com/wiki/Koudelka_(Game)/Game_Script so you can read what has been said

[twin anchor]

It’s wild that the Japanese version had subtitles, which they then removed. I didn’t know that

[stark ridge]

preposterous!

[vapid bolt]

Putting text in a game is hard :/

[twilit gale]

Just starting into this after lttp. As a horror avoider, this one seems manageable cmpared to fatal frame. Also this music in the first fight is a bop

[twin anchor]

Yeah there are like 3 jump scares in the whole game. Only one “got me” if you know what I mean.

And the music is top notch, the game was made by the dude who did JRPG music for square who left after they wouldn’t agree to fund him making his own game

[twilit gale]

Oh nice, that's great, yeah I'll see how it goes for me

[runic crypt]

Was it ||the mummy?|| The scares didn't do much for me in this game. The atmosphere from character interaction set the mood perfectly though

[twin anchor]

That is exactly the one that “got me”

[solid lintel]

Yeah not really spooky, but good atmosphere

Also the fighting theme didn't really fit with the aforementioned atmosphere, but it was indeed a bop

[final vortex]

partially through disk 3

the combat is holding me back

just so tedious

not even combat, but the movement in combat

also the "bop" fighting music is now irritating to me

like abruptly dipping into the halal gas station every 90 seconds when I'm trying to walk through a spooky castle

[oak agate]

that bop music annoys me. girl boss vibe also. isn't working for me

Can you not kill Valna and Vigna?

[twin anchor]

Not liking the girl boss vibe? Maybe that’s what put you off Metroid Prime and Fear Effect too

[oak agate]

She is a bitch and not in a good way. In a red flag way. I like Fear Effect. MP has no vibe.

[twin anchor]

Wow

[peak ether]

This game feels like Call of Cthulhu scenario and I'm all for it.

[vapid bolt]

Yeah she ||let Edward get poisoned||, not great

[fluid wraith]

He got better.

[oak agate]

Just like how you will get out of jail after they find out your psycho X is lying.

[jovial galleon]

I can't really say any of the characters in Koudelka are particluarly likeable. But the game is still fun and enjoyable despite that. Which is interesting to me. Not sure how they managed to pull that off.

[oak agate]

IDK what is fun here? Basic characters. Sloppy plot. Slow gameplay?

[jovial galleon]

I think most people her have enjoyed it. But it's not going to please everyone, like any other game.

[oak agate]

I am trying to find the good here. Only on disk two and spend like 30 mins trying every weapon and spell on those sisters.

Just to find out you just run

[jovial galleon]

there are a couple fights that you cannot win, but they don't just kill you either, which I appreciate. You do have to run. That won't be the last one. just a heads up.

[oak agate]

I think that is my most hated things in games. Going to just use a guide then

[solid lintel]

NB4 Jay gets pissed off at ||Gargoyle||

[jovial galleon]

Seemed fairly obvious to me they were invincible... I figured there was something I'd need to do and come back to it later.

[oak agate]

I wouldn't be pissed if the combat didn't take 10 secs for ever move.

[jovial galleon]

that is the biggest problem in the game, by far. The slow combat. But I didn't mind it as much thanks to FF.

[solid lintel]

Yeah combat is glacial

[jovial galleon]

I can't recommend you play legend of dragoon if you don't enjoy this one though. Not as bad, but also very slow, repetetive combat.

[oak agate]

I used FF but that is how I got stuck fighting those twins forever. I didn't release I was missing becasue of FF

[jovial galleon]

I know you're frustrated by it, but that's kind of hilarious too.

[oak agate]

I like legend of dragoon.

[jovial galleon]

I don't like the combat in dragoon. Neat idea, but man does it slow things down... and even with the skip animations setting, the transformations are far too long.

[oak agate]

It's ok to laugh. I was doing guideless but I will just pull up a guide. This game sounds like it needs one

[jovial galleon]

Nah. I played through disc 3 without looking at one. It's definitely not needed, but if you're not enjoying it, I'd say use one.

[oak agate]

Just to see what bosses need to be ran from. I think I can beat FF in one night. Will be the 3rd time playing it in 3 years

[jovial galleon]

I think the next one is even more obvious.

[oak agate]

I wish this game had subs. I hate the battle music but have to turn the volume back up during the FMVs

[stark ridge]

And done. It was fun, not perfect, but one of those forgotten games from old times

[fluid wraith]

If you like Legend of Dragoon you might like Shadow Hearts. The combat has some similarities.

And is you don’t the combat in SH at least moves faster.

And way faster than Koudelka.

[vapid bolt]

Can I get my magic to cast faster, speaking of which

Currently Edward gets like 3 hits in and ends the battle while I wait for koudelka to cast tornado

[oak agate]

still not voting for it next month

[fluid wraith]

K you do you

[vapid bolt]

As a wise person in this chat pointed out I now think bare knuckle is the way to go for physical fighters

No random resistances, no durability

James has never heard of atheism before

[harsh olive]

aaand howtf do I make EmuDeck only load the .m3u file for DuckStation, not the .cue files

it has five Koudelka entries in the ROM manager and doesn't tell me which one is the .m3u rip

[harsh olive]

OK yeah I have no idea how to get this thing working in Duckstation on the Steam Deck

EmuDeck doesn't let me import only .m3u files it's very inconvenient

[fluid wraith]

I just had a mess of bin and cue files and I survived.

[runic crypt]

What kind of barbarians still use bin and cue? Convert that to CHD immediately

[solid lintel]

Or .pbp for multi-disc

[runic crypt]

But then you have mixed filetypes. That's a big no-no

[harsh olive]

I thought I was supposed to use .m3u files for multi-disc games

[oak agate]

I use bin and cue because it’s point less to have in chd. Total waste of time. I just delete a game after I am done. So storage doesn’t matter.

[jovial galleon]

Convert cue bin to chd. Then use m3u for multidisc.

But yeah, if you aren’t interested in space, then converting to chd isn’t necessary.

[harsh olive]

The problem isn't space; the problem is that EmuDeck's ROM manager lists five entries for the game and won't tell me which one is the .m3u unless I'm blind

I could be missing some option to tell the manager "ignore .cue files thanks"

[jovial galleon]

https://emudeck.github.io/file-management/steamos/file-management/#how-to-manage-roms-with-multiple-discs
found this, but not sure if it has all you need.

[harsh olive]

gracias and apologies for my bitching and moaning

[peak ether]

I'm quite enjoying myself with this game. Yes, it tends to be slow but I don't really mind, it kinda adds to the anxious atmosphere the game has going on. My favourite part of this game is the characters. While they aren't the nicest people, they are entertaining and the dialogue hits that sweet spot between cheesy and serious. The story seems to be pretty much all over the place and the more I get to know about this place, the more I'm reminded of some ttrpg where the game master is trying to come up with quick and believable answers to the players' questions.

P1: "Wait I thought my character came to investigate an old monastery."
P2: "My character came to loot an abandoned prison fortress."
GM: "...yeah uhhhh it's both."

||P3: "Ed you blithering murderhobo! Why the fuck did you just suddenly shoot that thief in the middle of exposition?"
P2: "You kidding me? Did you see his gun? He just shot 30 times in a row, downing you two about 10 times each and didn't have to reload at all. I loot his pistol."
GM: "Yeah, here's the stats for it."
P2: "God damn it."||

[final vortex]

Combat system got super annoying by the end tbh

The last boss was just spamming magic buffs onto the bishop while he kept casting the good spell we got back on disc 1

He hit like 5000+ damage at one point, but then the boss healed for 4000ish and then did an AOE attack that almost killed my whole party.

[runic crypt]

Sounds like you didn't have enough PIE then

[fluid wraith]

https://tenor.com/view/skill-issue-urge-resist-cat-gif-25536160

[final vortex]

Gotx has taught me that PS1 RPGs had way more peaks and valleys than SNES RPGs

Also some of the devs were obsessed with FMV to the detriment of the actual game

[fluid wraith]

It was definitely their “experimental” era.

[final vortex]

The battle system was just, bleh

And it didn't lend itself to grinding, which is a bummer

[fluid wraith]

I didn’t find grinding very necessary.

[final vortex]

I didn't until I got to that last boss phase

I'm glad I saved in game right before ||Daniel's arm|| because my save state was in the middle of the sequence

Edward just stopped doing damage in the 3rd phase

[twin anchor]

3rd phase was when I had max bullets for all guns so just let him shoot people. Which was remarkably satisfying

[final vortex]

Mine was a karate man up until then, but his sweet ass knuckle weapon broke and bare knuckles weren't cutting it

I ended up abusing reflect and then pumping up James as my magic attacker

Apparently the ||canon ending is that you get your shit wrecked|| so the difficulty spike makes sense

[jovial galleon]

I disagree here. You gain levels so quickly. Grinding is pretty easy. The battles are slow, but I think my characters grew faster than other RPGs because of how much XP they get each battle.

I gained like 11 levels in an hour of gameplay in the end.

[final vortex]

Yeah, but the clumsy combat system means you can't really do it mindlessly like other RPGs

[runic crypt]

Zu absolutely seething this month, in what I think is the best month we've ever had

[jovial galleon]

I’d rather spend 1 hours grinding than 4 or 5, even if the longer one is mindless, but that’s me.

[final vortex]

Seething?

Mild commentary on the combat system is seething?

[runic crypt]

Seeing your playtime is absolutely crazy though Liquid. Like 3x my time and 3x my levels

[jovial galleon]

This achievements. lol.

I recognize the game can be beaten easily in 10 hours, and probably even like 6 if you know what you’re doing.

But I never got tired of it, the 20 hours was full of fun.

[runic crypt]

You can probably 2HKO Gargoyle and the final boss

[jovial galleon]

I beat the final boss in 2 rounds. Haven’t tried gargoyle yet.

[regal jackal]

Jesus, Liquid played it for over 20h, I want to turn it off after 3 battles

I guess I have to accept this one isn't for me and retire it, gave it a fair shake

[solid lintel]

Yeah I grinded out to the high 60s for my team, pretty easy seeing how quickly they level up. Just gotta be willing to slog through those battles.

[hidden plover]

I made it to disc 3 and have broken level 30 with my characters

I’m getting worried about seeing the high levels and hearing that final boss does 4K one shot. My characters would die. What is expected lvl for the final boss?

[twin anchor]

I was about level 42 and had a long fight.

[fluid wraith]

I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

[twin anchor]

Yeah this, I wouldn’t worry about it much

[solid lintel]

||Technically you losing is canon|| so as long as you got the pendant you're fine.

[vapid bolt]

Ooh I hit disc 2

[jovial galleon]

I need to figure out how to actually get to the gargoyle. 😆

Can you get there quickly from Patrick’s chambers? Or do I have to go all the way around?

[vapid bolt]

I don't think I leveled James very well. Time to grind

Koudelka is killing it now that I've put a couple points into AGL though

There have been some good enemy designs on disc 2 so far. The headless corpse impaled with huge shards of broken glass, the swollen larva looking thing I just died to... Pretty creepy

[vapid bolt]

Is James stupid

[hot oriole]

Hearing the word desperado in this game felt strange

[stark ridge]

Yes, Patrick chambers connect to the outside of the church in the big room with stairs up in the middle

I didn't have problems in the ending, had level 30 something, but every single point in each character was focused in their role. Koudelka had 120 int by my endgame, Ed same but with Str, true that last boss hits hard but Heal L2 can cure the whole party if they are together, and it cured 5k HP

[obsidian crown]

How the hell do I save lmao

[peak ether]

There are two types of save points. Actual save points, usually after major bosses, that also heal your party and refills their MP. You can't really miss these as they ask if you want to save when you interact with them.

Other type is the temporary save points, that allow you to make a "temporary save" and doesn't heal the party. These are more common and recognized when you arrive in a new room. The room name will have this little "S"-icon next to it's name and when you press the menu button (Circle by default) it allows you to make a save.

If you're emulating, save states are also an option.

[obsidian crown]

Thank you, I wouldn't have figured out the S on the room name stood for save. I'm trying not to use save states for hardcore cheevos

[peak ether]

Took me a bit to figure that out as well lol

[peak ether]

||Fuck me that Elaine reveal creeped the fuck out of me.||

[twin anchor]

As it should

[oak agate]

stupid dragon statue took me forever to really find it

I think I am a little OP killed the Chimera with one hit.

[twilit gale]

Super late and maybe you figured something out. A weird workaround I found was to put all bin and cue files in a subdirectory, then prepend that directory name to the lines in the m3u file. The. you just have that file and a directory you can call whatever (files or something)

[harsh olive]

Thank you. That said, what I actually do will probably be to send the Deck in for repairs and play this game on... I think SwanStation on the RP3+?

[twin anchor]

I went for Duckstation standalone on an RP3+, but yea basically

[harsh olive]

Are SwanStation and Duckstation related?

[twin anchor]

Yeah, the person behind retroarch was a dick to the person behind duckstation so they refused them the right to use the name duckstation, so RA forked it and called it swan station

Swanstation is always a few releases behind Duckstation

[harsh olive]

I see

[jovial galleon]

Honestly, the whole scene is just a drama disaster. I don’t bother to follow at all anymore. Too many divas and egos and everything else on all sides.

[vapid bolt]

Woo, finally got to ||Daniel's arm|| and yes ||the camera does linger on it but if I didn't know I would never have thought "whoa severed arm I gotta pick that up!!!""||

Glad I read spoilers

[runic crypt]

Maybe there's something wrong with me then because I immediately thought "I want that hand"

[jovial galleon]

Just did this. It was incredibly easy at level 76-71-71. Edward was doing around 1300 a pop, and koudelka was doing 7k megalith. Just boosted her int with James. Took maybe 5 rounds? He only attacked Edward who healed himself the whole time with lifedrinker, so pretty straight forward. 😆

[twin anchor]

Same

[vapid bolt]

Gamer moment

Wound up stopping at the ||first bolted door|| last night. ||It loops around to right before I fell in the pit!|| Smart environmental design!!

[vapid bolt]

Fuck this guy with the gun

It's those black latex enemies from half life all over again

[steel grotto]

How I’m spending my time waiting for my wife to pick me up from work

[hidden plover]

Made it to start of disc 4. The boss at end of disc 3 was frustrating but managed to slog my way through it. The game has its charm and I can see why many rate it as a gem

[twin anchor]

If it helps any, the boss at the end of disc 3 was the boss I found hardest to beat

[royal tide]

Starting Disk 4. I got lost so often I’m steamrolling everything I come across. Praise fast forward.

[vapid bolt]

Grinding in this game is kinda awful but insanely satisfying

Those four points help so much

[solid lintel]

Yeah you get a lot of levels pretty quickly, and every upgrade is felt. Koudelka went from doing pittance magic damage to A TON pretty quickly for me.

[vapid bolt]

Yup. I've switched James to a mage as well because magic is just busted

[twilit gale]

what show?

[hidden plover]

When I started the game, the 2nd battle I turned on fast forward and I haven't looked back. Without fast forward, I would've dropped the game long ago

[steel grotto]

I started Jujutsu Kaisen yesterday!

[hidden plover]

A person of culture - great show!!

[steel grotto]

Not a man but thanks!

[hidden plover]

oops fixed 😄

[twilit gale]

Oh sweet, I’ve heard great things

[steel grotto]

So far it's been good, surprisingly little fan service for a shonen. Nothing too unique though, pretty trope-y, but well animated and the characters are pretty like-able

[twilit gale]

Good to know, Ill have to at least give it a try

[steel grotto]

I'm just happy to get in before it has 12 seasons and 8 movies to watch, it's the kind of show I wouldn't even start if it were that long

[royal tide]

As someone playing without a guide I’m very grateful for a surprise cat encounter near the end of Disc 4

[vapid bolt]

It's by junji ito right? Does the unearthly horror come come through at all? I'm trying to get myself to start watching it and it just seems too generic shonen to me

[steel grotto]

It is not by Junji Ito 😅

Uzumaki is the new show on Max by Junji Ito, now that is great (one of my favorite books)

[vapid bolt]

Yeah I'm watching that

Bold move to animate it in black and white

[steel grotto]

I thought it was a great choice. The book was drawn in black and white too

[vapid bolt]

Dunno why I thought ito did jjk 🙂

I agree, now it would be weird to see it colorized

They're doing a good job imo

[steel grotto]

It’s definitely inspired a bit by Ito’s work

[vapid bolt]

I want a tomie anime now

[steel grotto]

I agree

[solid lintel]

Ito is such a master at the suspense and then shock of the page turn. It doesn't quite translate as well to animation, but yeah it's pretty good.

[oak agate]

Please tell me I can kill Bacon at some point

[royal tide]

Why would you want to?

[solid lintel]

Nope, ||he's there all the way to the end||

[oak agate]

He’s super annoying and long winded. Plus he is super old and should die

[jovial galleon]

https://tenor.com/view/dance-off-bro-old-lady-backpack-dance-gif-7968349484003746585

[oak agate]

Ok think I just done the last FMV with him moaning. So off putting. ||Corse are batteries really ||

[oak agate]

Apostle is dead. What’s next. Also what an annoying battle.

[peak ether]

Yeah, that was the hardest boss for me. (Without challenging the Gargoyle)

Next up you should explore the church doors in the previous room.

[oak agate]

I guess if you watch his body you can tell what attacks to use but the coded misses

https://tenor.com/view/drinking-thirsty-nos-gif-9303750

Disk four loaded up fine. Home stretch

[peak ether]

Idk if it was the stats or the weapon I used, but I just kept missing on Edward, even out of the boss' invulnerability phase and had to endure with reflect and occasional spell that I managed to get through in time.

[oak agate]

I used the bow gun and I miss 3 times then hit. No matter what. Only took like 3 hits once I figured out not to use magic to heal him. I am way OP at level 50 with strength for Edward at 99

I should of put Koudelka tears in the jar not acid. Because she is a || fucking gypsy||

https://tenor.com/view/borat-borat-gypsy-give-me-your-tears-gypsy-gif-3555833741769900215

https://tenor.com/view/missile-fire-close-call-shot-gif-13420522

Take that door

https://tenor.com/view/aaaaaaaaah-arm-angry-broken-arm-gif-11967689

[peak ether]

I love how out of the left field that solution comes. I can see one of my Call of Cthulhu players go "||Ah yes, this door doesn't open. I shall make nitroglycerin and blow it open.||"

[oak agate]

Wow disk 4 is short

Done ✅

[twin anchor]

the fuck is this comment? this can't be seen as anything other than wholly unacceptable

[final vortex]

Or its a Borat reference?

[steel grotto]

I don't know if using slurs is acceptable just because they're a reference

[oak agate]

She isn’t a ||Gypsy?|| When is that a slur? She calls herself one. Did anyone play the game?

[steel grotto]

And I can call myself a lot of slurs, I wouldn't want other people to repeat those about me

[oak agate]

||Gypsy|| is a slur?

[steel grotto]

Yes

For the Romani people

[oak agate]

The term Gypsy, Roma and Traveller has been used to describe a range of ethnic groups or people with nomadic ways of life who are not from a specific ethnicity.

[steel grotto]

Per the US Department of State

https://www.state.gov/defining-anti-roma-racism/

"Many examples may be given to illustrate anti-Roma racism. Contemporary manifestations of anti-Roma racism could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

.
.
.
.

Using the term “Gypsy” as a slur."

[jovial galleon]

It's kind of new for it to be a slur in the USA, but it is and has been one in Europe for a long time. I don't think most people in the USA are aware it's a slur, to be honest. Disney used it quite a bit in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, for example, and that came out in 1996.

[stark ridge]

saying f.. gypsy it's at least questionable I think... I don't want this to become a witch hunt but just so everyone is aware this kind of comments will make some people unconfortable to say the least

[lucid yacht]

You’re right that acknowledging it’s a slur is relatively new in the US, but I find it funny that 1996 is almost 30 years ago

[jovial galleon]

It is, but also realize, I think, most of us are over 30 years old. 😆

And that was probably the first time many of the USA people became familiar with the word at all.

[steel grotto]

Finally have the map 📣

[steel grotto]

I wish I wasn't so lost in this game, I don't want to use a guide but holy I am very lost

[jovial galleon]

Give me some idea of where you are and I could probably get you pointed in the right direction.

[stark ridge]

as a very general hint, when a door is "blocked by an invisible force", normally beating a boss unlocks it (it's a bit of a lame excuse to control player's movement 😅 )

[twin anchor]

Yeah, I would have missed the first map if not for a comment in this thread, and it made my life so much easier.

I found disc 2 more of a logical corridor until the map turned up so that was cool too. I was also on team no-guide

[steel grotto]

I just ||got the map from the printing press, the wall broke open, went in there and the door is closed by a bad vibe. I started putting statues into another door but I only had 2-3. And I’m not sure where to backtrack to||

[steel grotto]

The issue I’m running into now is just that I don’t have time to keep trying to figure it out without a guide 😅

The lack of subtitles really limits when I can play, and I don’t want to just skip the cutscenes

[stark ridge]

Ah you are missing statues? I was also missing one. If I remember correctly: ||in the room where Alias shoots the lamp down, there are some boxes you can climb and you access another door. This one I was missing and I had to check a guide.|| Also, by now you should have the red key, have you used it?

[steel grotto]

I have gotten that one, and I have used the red key a couple of times, I think I discarded it

[stark ridge]

oh! then you have the difficult ones 😄

[stark ridge]

||did you see a wall with plaster and you didn't know what to do with that? ||

[steel grotto]

I think so yeah

[stark ridge]

then I am very confused

||and did you visit back the room where the caretakers tried to poison you?||

[steel grotto]

Yes

[stark ridge]

then I am super lost

[jovial galleon]

Hmm. You may have just not seen one to pick up when you were in the room. Do you know which two you used? We can tell you where the one you missed is if we know which one.

[steel grotto]

||I believe I used Dragon and Lion statues||

[jovial galleon]

You’re missing the || goat statue then. It’s in a save room. The one where you fought the boss with four tentacles. By the storage room.||

[steel grotto]

Oooh I must've missed picking up that item, thank you

[vapid bolt]

I hate this gun dude

He's ruining my life

Gained 7 levels and still can't hit him with magic lmao

[runic crypt]

He doesn't believe in magic so it doesn't hit him. Try poking him

[twin anchor]

The one at the top of the staircase or the one that walks on the ceiling?

||for the dude at the top of the staircase, take out the items he’s hiding in front of first ||

[vapid bolt]

Can I hit him with magic then? Nobody in my party has any STR 😬 I'm upping koudelkas VIT now

It's the one at the top of the staircase yeah

He's so annoying, especially when you fast fwd

[twin anchor]

You’re gonna want to address that, for some of the other bosses. There are some people you need to physically hit.

||try flaming the objects he’s hiding behind, that might work, but without one character who can hit, you’re gonna have issues later on||

[vapid bolt]

Yeah I'm raising Edward STR as well

Kinda frustrating that this game gives you complete control over your character progression

Like did they consider that I might be an idiot

[steel grotto]

I like it, but some characters benefit from some stats more than others, I don’t know where the game relays that information. It’s annoying

[hot oriole]

It's on the stats screen

There's a plus and minus next to each stat

[steel grotto]

Just lost a ton of progress again because of that freezing glitch

Fuck me

[final vortex]

https://tenor.com/view/no-thanks-no-thank-you-young-frankenstein-gene-wilder-mel-brooks-gif-13202386

[orchid viper]

So I just started this today.... Didn't realize theres a map, on disk 3 🤕

[jovial galleon]

Switch to swanstation (core) or ducktstation (standalone) and this mostly disappears.

[oak agate]

Duckstation is the only way I play PlayStation now.

[orchid viper]

Missed where the dolls went and used a guide for ordering. It felt almost linear and had hints for most everything. Many things are super easy to miss though. Stopped playing for today when I couldn't find where to use the blue key.

Any guesses on how much game percentage is left post Charlotte?

[jovial galleon]

You're nearing the end. I'd say 75% of the way through.

[steel grotto]

Can I switch cores without losing my progress?

[jovial galleon]

If you save to the memory card, then yes. Save state no.

[steel grotto]

That’s fine, I save at every save point and temporary save 😂

[jovial galleon]

you should be golden then.

[twin anchor]

If it fails you can always switch back

[jovial galleon]

it won't fail...

[vapid bolt]

Oh so I didn't miss it I'm just not there yet

[orchid viper]

I'm still not sure, it was mentioned by others.

[vapid bolt]

It makes sense, I'm on disc 2 and the mansion has just started to loop around on itself

[orchid viper]

I found that part helpful. Just missed a number of events that happened after other events. Have to carefully explore and tap the x button. It's sometimes not easy to know where all of the camera angles in a room are. I'd often miss something because it looked like the character couldn't travel there.

[jovial galleon]

You can get the map in like the 3rd room of the game. If you didn't get it there, you missed it, but there's another opportunity to get one.

[harsh olive]

Does Duck support retroachievements

nice nice ty

[oak agate]

yes

easier to read also

[harsh olive]

OK good

RA is my favored excuse for a "frontend" so I'll probably be using Swan but anyway

[orchid viper]

Adventure games for the facepalm. 😁. This one is not too bad.

[oak agate]

No reason to use Retro Arch for psx

[jovial galleon]

sure there is.

[oak agate]

Frontend?

[harsh olive]

As in I'm used to using RA (particularly in Ozone) as the way to launch my games so

[jovial galleon]

no, retroarch is a terrible front end. But having one single place for hotkeys and control mapping and backing up saves and such is nice. Less of a headache than figuring out another one. PS1 performance isn't much of an issue where standalone performance makes a big difference, which is the usual benefit of using a standalone. But that's me. Each person will have a different taste / opinion on this.

[oak agate]

I meant as in more 3rd party front ends use it easier. I personally avoid RA if there is a standalone with Retro achievements. I find RA backend more of a headache than anything a standalone has. Then if you uses some type of CFW they hide shit and it's just a huge process to me.

like rocknix or jelos likes to hide the undo a save state.

[jovial galleon]

You can undo that. That's not retroarch's fault, but the CFW peoples.

I'm not even sure what you mean by RA backend though.

[oak agate]

The menus or UI. Guess backend is the wrong word.

[jovial galleon]

The menus are confusing, but once you're used to them, you're used to them. Also kind of nice I don't have to learn a new interface for each system.

[oak agate]

IDK I been using RA for like 8 years and still forget where things are becasue it's so concluded. Duckstaion is so easy to use.

[orchid viper]

Anyone else running this overclocked at 125%? 100% speed on this feels super slow.

[jovial galleon]

I didn't try that. Just used FF. Everything outside of battle actually felt good to me. The run button is helpful though.

[oak agate]

FF when battle starts. Menus with no FF. Then FF when actions are happing. Just pay attention or you might fight a unbeatable boss for 30 mins not knowing.

[orchid viper]

125% is great. Music is more upbeat and movement speed feels right.

[steel grotto]

Huh I’ll have to try that

[hot oriole]

Still kind of funny to me that it took 30 minutes to question the fight in a game where everything dies in 3 hits

[oak agate]

I was wasn’t paying attention watching basketball on the TV at the same time. Oh well. Other bosses still took more than 3 hits. Even at the end being at level 4 with fire magic and 99 on magic stats. I couldn’t kill the vines at the end in under 3 hits. Doing 6k damage a hit

[hot oriole]

..so it took what, 5 hits

[oak agate]

About still more that 3. Sure the random enemies take 3 but the all the bosses took more

[orchid viper]

Were you leveled up enough to defeat || the gargoyle||?

[jovial galleon]

I was. Gargoyle was cake.

[harsh olive]

Hey do we have a quick and dirty leveling guide for this?

[twin anchor]

If you’re talking about what skills go where?

Edward: left hand side and luck only

Koudelka & James: Right hand side, vitality and the one that improves turn rate only

[harsh olive]

Gotcha ty

[twin anchor]

Basically:
Edward go punch
Koudelka: offensive mage
James: stat increase / decrease and heal

[harsh olive]

OK good ty

[steel grotto]

I'm rocking with Edward and James both being physical attackers, with James using a Spear with higher Piety, and Edward using fist weapons and higher vitality. Koudelka has Vitality and Agility, and then all right side stats

[oak agate]

I think I could of but didn’t go back for it because. I was kind over it

The retro achievements of have 22 encounters in this small area will get you OP fast. I think I did like 3 of them

[final vortex]

I made the Bishop into a black mage

[hot oriole]

Are you acknowledging the crimes of the church by that

[orchid viper]

Yes. Fast forward to at least 150% while doing this to save at least 3 hours or game time. I ended up leaving spells. Make sure you have multiples of weapons as they break frequently.

[harsh olive]

Isn't this also why people have Ed just punch things and also why magic is so good

[orchid viper]

Somewhat. Leveled up magic can still suck though. I leveled up monolith and with some enemies all that did was make the spell cost more. Level 1 spells of other types did the same damage. Leveling up weapons is crazy good though as it gives an extra attack per turn.

The area of effect that leveled up speed earn doesn't help much as there are normally only one or two enemies. Never made it to a level 4 on a spell. I cheesed the spell that adds vit and gave my team 5,000 heath at the boss so they were all just tanks.

Just use one weapon class though. I didn't know about how awesome the leveling benefits were so I just used what was there and switched weapon classes to where they stayed low until it all clicked for me on disk 3. Still never used or found out how to do the map

Mini spoiler... If you all want the "good ending" the way to get it is dumb and missable.

[twin anchor]

I got the good ending and didn’t find it to be dumb or miserable

[orchid viper]

Missable 😁.

[twin anchor]

Oh absolutely my bad

If you’ve seen my spelling this a Dan problem

But also there’s a safety net in that ||if you don’t pick up the pendant, you encounter a cat battle which will reward you with the pendant||

[orchid viper]

All good, it wanted to autocorrect to that. I am rewatching the videos and get is a bit now though. Didn't realize || there's a hint in the initial cutscene ||.

[orchid viper]

Oh didn't catch that. That does help.

It's the part where is || has to be equipped too. ||. It's solid, so that's likely

[twin anchor]

Does it? I don’t think I did that intentionally

[orchid viper]

I think so, but that's a guide talking and not a test I performed. The catch here is I think this is the only point in the game where something like that occurs.

Or is required. After watching them, I think the bad ending is worth watching too.

[jovial galleon]

bad ending is better anyway.

[oak agate]

Isn’t the best ending behind being the game in a certain time?

[orchid viper]

It's not terrible for all , but it's not what Elaine wanted. To be honest, I'm not sure who the main player is. Should we root for the person the game is named after? Then bad (cannon) ending seems better.

[twin anchor]

No wait my mistake

[jovial galleon]

No, there are jus special items that get added to your inventory if you save at exact time stamps and such.

[orchid viper]

With three endings are they the good, bad and really bad? In that take bad isn't too bad.

At first, I thought the monastery was the main character as that was what brought the stories together.

[oak agate]

Looked it up I got the “good” ending. I should of lost || and got my face melted off||

[jovial galleon]

I think it's good, alternate, and bad, I guess if we're being technical. The alternate is the best one, then good, then bad.

which is weird since alternate is the cannon ending in the next games.

[oak agate]

Plus in bad ending I would not have to listen or see bacon again

The cheesy ending ||with the nickname|| being revealed. Was the one I got. Not sure which one that was.

[orchid viper]

Did you have || the amulet equipped || at the end?

[oak agate]

Yes

I think so. I just wanted it to be over by the end

[orchid viper]

That's when I figured what the point of leveling up was. It was getting fun then.

The three attack melee moves are cool.

But once that is figured out, there's not a lot of depth after.

[oak agate]

I didn’t like that it was use this thing and it will level up. At disk 3 all my magic was at 1 and had to do some grinding to get magic up but the damage didn’t go up much because the status were close to maxed out.

[orchid viper]

I landed a few 8,000 damage hits and then 800 damage hits and was never sure why.

That was with magic. With melee sometimes a leveled up attack would have multiple hits and sometimes not.

[oak agate]

I think if combat was a little faster it would of been great. The grid moving really doesn’t nothing to me besides waste time

[vapid bolt]

I think that's dex. Or luck. Or agi. Fuck idk

You can up your chances though

[jovial galleon]

it's agility.

[vapid bolt]

Oh perfect

[jovial galleon]

Everyone benefits and can use some Agility and Vitality. Everyone should have high agility. Edward needs high vitality, but you can't ignore it on koudelka and james either.

If ceiling walkers can 1HKO koudelka, you need to give here a bit more VIT.

[orchid viper]

Thought agility decided how often the turn came up for the character?

[oak agate]

VIT was for HP? Correct?

[jovial galleon]

Agility is turn speed, VIT is HP / physical defense.

[oak agate]

Luck also worked to make less encounters. When I was trying to farm those 22 encounters for RA. It was taking forever at the end

[steel grotto]

Duckstation isn't reading my memory card so I'm staying on PCSX Rearmed for the time being

[orchid viper]

Yeah, I think short for vitality

This game nails the look

For me, that's what I wanted more of, the game play was mid, story was good, art and acting was great.

[vapid bolt]

Too dark

Where are the horror games with bright cel shaded graphics

[jovial galleon]

Something like Mary Skelter?

[vapid bolt]

Maybe? That game kinda just looks like etrian Odyssey

Oh the video just said it's reminiscent of Kowloon walled city, I'm all in

Danganronpa probably fits the bill in some aspects

[vapid bolt]

Yesss finally killed that gun guy

I hope he doesn't have a redemption arc

Oh sick ||he's a corpse||

Serves him right

NVM he's not lol

Ugh I like him now

||Edward no!!!!||

[orchid viper]

This guy sucked. Only had one party member service this one.

[final vortex]

https://tenor.com/view/archer-you-what-huh-gif-19676334

[fluid wraith]

https://tenor.com/view/stealth-thorpe-park-rollercoaster-intamin-gif-31406542978241275

[steel grotto]

Hehehehehehehehe

[orchid viper]

He's talking about the boss with the rapid fire pistol and boxes guarding him. That happens after the chandelier drop. I had only on non knocked out party member at the end of that one.

[final vortex]

Everyone can see what you wrote son

[orchid viper]

I see the autocorrect though. Yeah.

Oh and now I reread that other post. Eeeek. Most unfortunate.

[final vortex]

[harsh olive]

I find myself wondering if there's a way to configure fast-forward for just one game

The fight music slaps

Fuck me for sleeping on this game till the end of the month

Aaand I do not know how to read the scaling numbers on the status screen

[dry edge]

Order goes like this.

Base stat (without gear bonus) -> +/- x -> Total Stat value after bonuses and negatives.

If they have a + next to their base stat, your total gets increased by that amount and signifies they scale better with that stat. If it's a -, the total gets deducted by that amount and indicates they scale poorly with that stat.

You'll notice Edward has like +6 in VIG (6 is fucking heaps)

[harsh olive]

I thought that different characters had different scaling for different stats? Or do they just have different starting values?

[dry edge]

Both

[harsh olive]

Is there a way I can see the different scaling?

[dry edge]

The +/- indicates their scaling rate while also providing a flat bonus to your total

[harsh olive]

I thought the +/- was about the weapon they were holding

[dry edge]

You don't get more or less but each point is significantly more potent for that character

Niet, weapon bonus are applied separately

[harsh olive]

...also where's the first save point

[dry edge]

After the first boss.

[harsh olive]

How far in is that? I'm at work

[dry edge]

You'll be made, almost insultingly, aware.

About 30-60 mins in.

[harsh olive]

Right so

If I take off weapons for both Koudelka and Edward

They show +/0 for all stats

[dry edge]

Protip you'll encounter rooms that will display the name of the room with an "S" inside a box to the left of the name, pressing O will allow you to make a temp save.

[dry edge]

Ahhhhh.... hmmm.... let me get back to you, I finished week 1 lol.

Could be confirmation bias.

[harsh olive]

'cause if it turns out they don't actually get different scaling I might be a maverick and make Koudelka my facepuncher because why not

[dry edge]

(Per Character Stat scaling is still very real)

[harsh olive]

Oh, fair enough

[dry edge]

It's obfuscated by BS "game of its time obscura", but my "scaling indication" explanation might be off.

[hidden plover]

||the trek to go find the acid was painful due to lack of usable map. Atleast I leveled up 3 XP levels||

[hidden plover]

||didnt have the pendant and got bad ending. FFS oh well. Still enjoyable game marred by tedious battle engine but cool story, voice acting and fmvs||

[twin anchor]

Did that mean you get end credits?

[hidden plover]

I got an fmv and game over

[steel grotto]

Am I screwed if I didn’t go back for the ||greek letters chest|| before encountering the ||Gargoyle?||

[twin anchor]

Was that the chest on disc one? If so i didn’t do it either - it only contains extra world building

But also (mildest of spoilers) ||you can get back to the previous map after the post- gargoyle sequence ||

[steel grotto]

Nah, disc 2. I got the book from the disc 1 chest

But thanks, I won’t stress about it then

[twin anchor]

The one in ||the library||? Yeah you’ll need to go back for that when able

[steel grotto]

Sounds good! 🙂

Glad to be onto Disc 3, feels like I’m finally making some progress

Disc 2 felt so much longer than 1, I swear it was like 2 hours, and then 6 hours

[twin anchor]

Disc 4 is like just a little more than the final boss sequence so it’s basically - the first 3 discs are 1/3 of the game then home straight

[steel grotto]

Niiice. I’m off 4/5 days next week, home alone, so I’m hoping to wrap this up on the first day, and then get through Fatal Frame on the next couple

[twin anchor]

I’ve literally just finished FF right now and it and Koudelka are possibly 2 of my 3 favourite gotm games this year, so I’m glad you get to do both

[steel grotto]

Yeah I’m excited for it! It’s a series I’ve always wanted to try

Is there a way to transfer my memory card from PCSX Rearmed to Duckstation? I am tired of the lockups and crashes

[twin anchor]

What device are you using? It might be easier to transfer to swan station within retroarch which should be the same

[steel grotto]

RG35XX SP

[twin anchor]

Which firmware?

[steel grotto]

MuOS

[twin anchor]

Ah, not one I’m familiar with…….

[steel grotto]

Swan station is also not reading the memory card

Oh well, I’ll just deal with the crashes

[twin anchor]

What format is the save in rearmed?

[steel grotto]

Genuinely no idea

[twin anchor]

Ok. This will be frustrating, but this will work.

Start the game up fresh in swanstation, get to the first save point and save, then put the rom sd card in a windows laptop and check the save file names and times

Swanstation station uses .srm save file format. There is another format called .mcr and if rearmed used that you need to convert

Also swanstation names the saves “koudelka(disc1)” or something, so if rearmed calls them “koudelka” you just have to rename

[steel grotto]

Okay good to know. I’ll try that when I get home from work later. It’ll probably save me time rather than continuing to deal with these crashes

[twin anchor]

Found this which suggests it’s just a rename which is needed, and that might be possible within mu

https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/s/WgJJQwqb99

(I know you’re not stupid but assume the standard backup the save first caviets )

[harsh olive]

I am suddenly not sure the characters actually do have different stat scaling

There's a mechanic where the higher a stat is, the larger the effect of each additional point, not diminishing returns

Since the characters start with different stat levels, the appearance of different stat scaling for different characters might actually be a function of that

Like right now, Koudelka and Edward start with similar enough VIT stats that you can directly compare the two, and at the same level and VIT, they seem to have the same HP

You do get a bit of a head start in certain builds tho. Especially Koudelka mage, given her much higher starting mental stats

[harsh olive]

Or maybe I'm full of shit idk

[steel grotto]

I’m working PSATs right now 🤮. But I’m excited to try when I get home

[orchid viper]

I don't believe so. This impacts the story some though.

[orchid viper]

Towards the end, James has massive MP. I think this is the stat scaling effect in action.

[harsh olive]

Are you sure it isn't just the increasing-returns effect? Because if his relevant stat is significantly higher than Special K's, it could be that. If it's at the same stat level then maybe it is character-specific

[orchid viper]

I think so. I had both around the same total number.

Went the mage route for two characters and the tank for Edward.

But the items do odd things too. I got as in depth to get through the game.

[harsh olive]

Oh well. In any case, the starting stat differences are big enough to make intended roles clear

If it were earlier in the month I might have played against type and reported on my results (sorry), but it isn't, so I should probably go with the game's intended flow a bit

[jovial galleon]

I am pretty sure you can realistically spec anybody as any role. There are just some characters that will be more effective at a given role than others. But if you don’t care about min/maxing and are just having fun, you won’t have any serious issues. The game is very flexible and it’s pretty easy to just grind and radically change a character in just a few levels even.

[vapid bolt]

Can confirm, was originally building James as str and now he's a decent second magic user

[junior depot]

Made it to disc 2. How many are there?

[steel grotto]

4, but the 4th disc is all FMV from what I’ve heard

[vapid bolt]

I was able to get the map on disc 2

I wonder if the other ways to get the map are different from how I got it

Anyway I don't know what I expected but this place is a bit of a mess. The map does a good job though

Why am I eating food I picked up off the floor in this place

[steel grotto]

Edward’s hungry

[vapid bolt]

Ugh it is Edward isnt it

He's got that vibe

James gets mad cuz he doesn't thank God for His bounty before eating it

[orchid viper]

4th disk is 5 boss fights and a lot of audio video.

[harsh olive]

Idk maybe I'll make Special K my frontliner just for shits and giggles and because no one else is doing it

idk should I do it? Or should I just lean into Mage Protagonist

[orchid viper]

It'll work either way. Easier to focus point is one area and specialize though. Would advise one character with higher VIT.

[harsh olive]

I've been putting points into VIT and AGI for the first couple levels, since I know everyone needs both of those at least a bit

[vapid bolt]

Man the more I play this game the more I'm starting to legitimately enjoy it

[vapid bolt]

Aw yeah

[runic crypt]

You're in for a treat early into disc 3! Amazing cutscene

[steel grotto]

Yeah that’s where I basically just got too!

[hot oriole]

At the final boss

Awesome boss, awesome remix of an already great track

[vapid bolt]

Hell yeah! I'm already lost in the new area!

[vapid bolt]

You were right. Holy shit

[junior depot]

Still on disc 2 and feel like I’m going in circles. Got a feeling I won’t finish this one on time.

[orchid viper]

Just guide it. Most things are close. There's a few that are hard to guess.

[harsh olive]

Isn't this game only like 12 hours? Or is it more like 12 hours if you're following a guide?

[vapid bolt]

I think it's 12 hours if you follow a guide, but I'm sure others in this chat will say wym this was straightforward and ez

[runic crypt]

I used a guide at a couple of points when I couldn't figure out how to progress. With a guide, game is under 8 hours

[vapid bolt]

There it is

[oak agate]

Disk 3 was where I started to like it

[vapid bolt]

Yeah more or less same. More areas accessible, story starts ramping up, even the battle system has kinda grown on me (on fast forward)

I could see myself replaying this in like... A year

Especially since ||I MISSED CHARLOTTES GRAVE||

It was right there!!

[junior depot]

My saves say I have 9 hours in. I’m hoping I’m near starting disc 3

[harsh olive]

Even with a bit of grinding for levels?

[runic crypt]

I didn't grind for levels. Finished around 35. I struggled to just make it to the final boss though

[harsh olive]

fair enough

[twin anchor]

I did it in like 10

(No guide)

[orchid viper]

14 hours with a guide, but overclocked at 125%.

[orchid viper]

This is impressive.

There's 1.5 hours of video or voiced sections of the game.

[twin anchor]

Do they count towards the in game time counter?

[orchid viper]

Honestly not sure, wasn't keeping tabs on it. It takes time in general to watch which IMHO including this time is a more accurate measure of how long someone needs to block off to get to the end of the game. They can be skipped though.

I botched a few things in the 14 hours and unlocked a few of the secrets. Missed where the dolls went, where to go after Charlotte, and what the scale value should be.

The combat was so slow, felt like it needed to go 125% to be playable. So many cuts back to the characters after they performed magic.

If anyone wants the "movie" version of the game, this is excellent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3exkOxSFNg8 . Soundtrack is on youtube as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UqXVvfvV2k&list=PLhPt7n-ALrSBtQabhFynFMDiGKmN2Ndky.

[twin anchor]

The two things that took my a little time were the step on the floor puzzle (someone here gave me the answer without me asking) and the scales (accidented into the answer when exploring the lab). Only the final boss and the boss at the end of disc 3 game me any trouble

[orchid viper]

Forgot about the floor. Missed the 2nd source of symbols there.

[vapid bolt]

I found exploration to be rough in this game at times

Almost missed the ||second doll in the red room|| because I didn't know there was a whole ass third screen

Stupid survival horror camera angles

I do like that the game doesn't mind letting you miss super important things though, brings me back to the old days of sierra adventure games

And I love how easily you can trivialize battles by grinding a bit. By the time I was level 40? I pretty much didn't have to worry about dying and could just focus on story/environment. Wish I could have skipped random battles after lvl 50 though

[orchid viper]

Did you try running away? That worked pretty well.

[vapid bolt]

That is true, I never had a problem running away

[orchid viper]

Doesnt' avoid the battle starting. That can be jarring.

[versed tundra]

Had to take a break, trying to finish by the end of the month

|| Wasn't expecting Edward to be so hardcore with that execution ||

[harsh olive]

Aye aye ty

[versed tundra]

Alright, onto disc 3, hopefully I can finish this in time

It turns out if you go to Disc 3 terrible things happen

[vapid bolt]

I feel like disc 3 goes by pretty quick

Maybe I just knew my way around better at that point

And yeah it's pretty much all bad

[junior depot]

Made it to disc 3

[versed tundra]

Been breezing through fights, got cocky went to fight || the gargoyle. Got immediately eviscerated. ||

[versed tundra]

Finished Disc 3. Technically was the hardest boss, besides the obvious, but Edward has a million health against anyone but that one enemy so he just face tanked

[jovial galleon]

What levels are you at?

[versed tundra]

Before the fight 36ish

[jovial galleon]

Hmm. I wonder what the recommended level for gargoyle is. 70+ is cake.

[versed tundra]

It ran over me at my level

[solid lintel]

I would think 50 minimum

[versed tundra]

I got absolutely stomped by the final boss

[solid lintel]

Surprising, final boss was a piece of cake using Type-92 film or whatever it was. Lol

[versed tundra]

Kal you're on the wrong thread

Unless you're trying crazy Koudelka strategies

[solid lintel]

Oh yeah, I totally am!

||Good thing losing to the final boss is actually canon for Koudelka||

[versed tundra]

|| I COULD say that's good enough but I want to win ||

[runic crypt]

Grind to level 273 like Kal and Liquid to||beat the final boss||

[versed tundra]

I did in fact back up a bit, grind for like 20 minutes, and then spammed agility down on the boss once James got it to level 3

[jovial galleon]

I think the final boss got 2 turns for me. I boosted koudelka's int and had edward whack it with an axe. It was over very quickly.

but getting to level 80 isn't really the best most efficient way, sure.

[versed tundra]

Went to 43ish on everyone

Got like 5 turns for every boss turn by the end, it was desperately healing

[hot oriole]

losing gets a cooler ending

James's part at least

The final exchange between Koudelka and Edward is the quip cringe of marvel, but a negaworld version of it

[versed tundra]

Ending is definitely better if you lose

[oak agate]

The good ending is not great to me. Alt ending is the best. Then bad.

[hot oriole]

a bit like the dialogue in the james bond films of that time i thing

[versed tundra]

But it's cool to see both, plus the satisfaction of winning

[hot oriole]

What bothered me in the ending where you lose is ||Edward asks what Koudelka's nickname means. But it's not her nickname, it's her real Rom name. I know he was drunk but way to listen||

unless i'm mistaken. I was also drunk for that cutscene

[versed tundra]

It stuck out to me too, but it's possible that || Koudelka is her real name and Romani culture just gives an alternative name at birth. Not 100% sure on that though (very possible scripting was just off) ||

I really liked the story overall though || It's more James's story and Koudelka and Edward tag along. ||

[hot oriole]

Did you guys read the experiment log ? I liked the writing, appropriately creepy.

[oak agate]

What really made the game to me.

[versed tundra]

The research notes?

[hot oriole]

yeah that's it

[versed tundra]

Those, and the cutscenes at the beginning of disc 3 and 4 heavily carry the story, but they're really good

[junior depot]

Starting disc 4. Think everyone is around level 37. Wonder if I need to grind some before continuing. No boss fight has been really difficult just dragging mostly

[versed tundra]

Last boss is a huge difficulty spike

[vapid bolt]

I read everything. The writing in this game is good

I like how it's always raining when Patrick writes. Does the rain inspire him to write or experiment? Is it always raining in Wales? Is ||Daniel scotus|| crying in heaven? Idk but I love that little detail

[junior depot]

Did anyone have trouble getting James ||to build bomb||? I got the ||acid|| and back in the lab but nothing happens. I am on disc 4

[versed tundra]

|| Disc 4 means you've already gotten the cutscene where they discuss the bomb?||

[junior depot]

Yea. He said he could build it but I didn’t have ||acid||. They mention building it at the door but needing to go to the lab and guide says I needed ||acid||

[versed tundra]

And you went down into the basement and got || the acid from the tank in the empty bottle||?

[junior depot]

Yep and bottle now says it’s full

Wondering if there is anything else needed in the inventory that I just don’t realize and missed

[versed tundra]

You should just be able to go to the lab || the room with fireplace ladder ||

[junior depot]

Yea. That’s what I thought but no cut scene. I’ve walked through the room spamming x…. I’m at a loss

[versed tundra]

hmm. Save messed up maybe? I'd check the locked door and see what dialogue it gives you

[junior depot]

I guess may also try visiting the ||acid tank || again

||tank||says it is empty…

[amber venture]

So, I have to leave for an event tomorrow and I don't think I'll finish this in time, BUT, this concept is pretty cool.
Resident Evil but in RPG form?
The battle system seems fairly neat from the first hour or so of playing. (I'm a sucker for slightly janky systems from the PS1)

I think I'll pick this up when I'm back after the first of the month

[junior depot]

The boss before the door isn’t defeated…?!? I guess something weird with the disc and have to do it again….

[versed tundra]

I really loved it, even the battle system

[twin anchor]

is it always raining in wales? As a man who'll be in Aber in 2 weeks my expectation is yes

[versed tundra]

Easily my "hidden gem" of the year

[twin anchor]

(aber = Aberystwyth, where koudelka is set)

[harsh olive]

Right, time for me to blaze through this. It's good I have very little going on the next few days

I'm mad at letting it go this long

[twin anchor]

honestly I don't think you'll regret it, it's GOTY for me

[harsh olive]

I just have really bad ADD in my defense

[orchid viper]

There is a boss past the door that you need to blow up.

[vapid bolt]

My man is making the koudelka pilgrimage

[harsh olive]

(it sucks but we figured out I'm not just lazy because I'm also bad at starting things I want to do rip)

[versed tundra]

Lots of regional bias going on here

[twin anchor]

I nommed koudelka in nov 23, and made some videos in aber to try and get votes (it didn't work) - there's a particularly good horror film festival there, I go every year

[versed tundra]

Koudelka is pulling into the top 5 this year, just hard competition

[twin anchor]

london to aber is kinda the width of the uk

[orchid viper]

The notes get freaky || October 14th 1896
Rain
Six bodies butchered in the morning. Five in the afternoon.
One after dinner.||

[twin anchor]

no other game made me want to never put it down

this year anyway

[versed tundra]

Ghost Trick/Metroid Prime/Fatal Frame/Half-Life/Cave Noire/Star Ocean 2

Also really enjoyed Wario Land 4 and Castlevanua Bloodlines

[twin anchor]

Koudelka, Project Zero, Metroid Prime here

[orchid viper]

Ghost Trick still #1 for me.

[twin anchor]

Ghost trick would probably be top 5, but I didn't love it like I loved the others

[orchid viper]

It'll never win, but Fatal Frame for best story 🙂

[orchid viper]

Bloodlines is epic

[versed tundra]

Best story will be interesting. Koudelka, Ghost Trick, Fatal Frame should be nominated

Half-life I think

[twin anchor]

These would be my top 3 too

[versed tundra]

Best Art should go to Ghost Trick hands down

[twin anchor]

Spent most of the year expecting Gaia to win

[orchid viper]

The Koudelka story got better as I read the notes and watched the online movie of the cutscenes again.

[twin anchor]

Metroid Prime for me

[versed tundra]

I hear that

[twin anchor]

Best sound: koudelka

[versed tundra]

Fatal Frame has best sound for me, if we're going by sound design

[jovial galleon]

Koudelka has good music... but I think overall sound should be Fatal Frame.

[twin anchor]

I'm including thw voice acting in my head cannon for "best sound" - fatal frame falls short there

[jovial galleon]

creepy japanese whispering, the tinkling bell stuff, kids laughing and running down the hall, everyone speaking at half speed for some inexplicable reason. It's great.

[versed tundra]

IF voice acting is included officially Koudelka sweeps

but that's included in story for me

[orchid viper]

That's fair. Voice acting in Koudelka was not bad at all.

[versed tundra]

Best PSX voice acting basically ever

Got chills at the beginning of Act 4

[orchid viper]

If people played this on a system with good stereo speakers, the sound became part of the game. I think it's why I didn't have as man problems as others tracking the ghosts. The deck was very good with this game.

[twin anchor]

best voice acting in a ps1 game? that's an interesting questions I must spend time thinking about

[versed tundra]

The first search result I got was a reddit post saying Koudelka

[junior depot]

Now I’m having to insert disc 3 again to immediately put disc 4 back in… I really screwed stuff up…

[orchid viper]

Did you blow up the door?

[versed tundra]

Oof, that's some messed up save files

[twin anchor]

save state soon my friend

[orchid viper]

IMHO, Koudelka's biggest flaw is the pacing. After overclocking it to a locked 125%, the game played a lot better. I set FF to 150% for the fights. There's some unintuitive things with combat and leveling that I should've read the manual first so that's my bad.

[junior depot]

Ok. James is bomb making

[versed tundra]

Best RPG should be Koudelka's best shot, though people are going to put Advance Wars there

[twin anchor]

oh the battles are way too slow. I was scared it would end up being "this year's vagrant story"

[versed tundra]

I liked the animations? They're really cool, and if you level up properly battles only take a couple turns anyways. Never had a problem

Only used FF to grind for the last boss

[orchid viper]

I used magic a lot. The post-magic cut back to the player who cast the spell got old.

[junior depot]

I often play with sound off or low. But Fatal Frame I refused to play without sound because it was such a huge part

[versed tundra]

That's probably the worst part, but it's like 1.5 seconds extra

It does add up, but I just didn't consider it close to a real issue

[junior depot]

I’ll agree with the overall opinion that voice acting in Koudelka is better than in Fatal Frame. However I still think overall sound goes to Fatal Frame

[amber venture]

Yeah, im sad I didnt have time.
New baby hitting their 6 month milestones and starting to crawl/need real food/family visiting for weeks at a time has taken up a lot of my free time currently for games (but in the best way)
However, shoukd have a pretty open evening november and this looks very fun

[versed tundra]

Worth the time sink. Most people fast forwarded, so that's also good to save time

[jovial galleon]

I wish the battle system had either just not had movement or utilized it more. there's only a few fights where positioning even remotely matters. that's probably my biggest complaint. I think the moving slowed things down a lot and wasn't necessary for the most part.

[orchid viper]

They tried to make it (movement and positioning) more meaningful with pinning characters. This allowed for a true tank that had to be defeated.

[twin anchor]

vote for it as a goty, and come back to it?

[versed tundra]

The grid allows the balancing to be the wat it is. Otherwise you'd have to sacrficie a lot of damage for health upgrades and battles would be way longer

Best Soundtrack/Sound Direction: Fatal Frame
Best Art Direction: Ghost Trick
Best Story/Narrative: Koudelka

Can we go with this?

[twin anchor]

Honestly, the underwater section of MP being a brethtaking as it was means that gets art direction for me

(story and sound both go to koudelka in my head)

[orchid viper]

About art 🙂 #1290460331285418046 message

It's going to be an interesting vote. Prime is gorgeous.

[versed tundra]

It's called compromise

[versed tundra]

If only the game had like 20% higher brightness

[twin anchor]

Compromise would have got Vagrant Story the win last year, not two for MGS - where were y'all then?

[versed tundra]

Not playing Vagrant Story because the combat was ass

[twin anchor]

the category is story nate.....

[versed tundra]

And I didn't know the story? You know why? Because I didn't play the game

I think I did actually vote for Vagrant because you asked though

[orchid viper]

For GOTY so far Ghost Trick was a better play through (IMHO of course). Prime fell apart after forcing the collection of artifacts. The bosses at the end just became a slog.

[twin anchor]

Well then that'll teach me and I should play on team compromise

Seriously though the fact VS was ONE VOTE behind MGS with it's "not the best story of the year" win

[versed tundra]

WAY more people played MGS

so being that close was impressive

[versed tundra]

I don't 100% agree but Ghost Trick will always be my GOTY, so full support

[junior depot]

Don’t think I’ll manage to get this one finished though I’ll have come close

[vapid bolt]

Nooo you're so close

[versed tundra]

You're less than half an hour away I'd say

[junior depot]

I’m missing ||Daniels arm||. My characters are only around level 43 which seems it may be to low. And running out of time I can take from other things to put in it

I might just manage if I’m that close…

[vapid bolt]

Can you still get that important item?

[versed tundra]

It's || in the room where the thief shot the chandelier at you, next to the wreckage|| that's the location if you want it

[junior depot]

I think so just have to travel back to its location.

[vapid bolt]

Yeah I guess it's not gonna just walk away

[versed tundra]

After that it's one puzzle, a couple of fights, then boss

[twin anchor]

I beat the game around that level

[vapid bolt]

If you do go back, make a hyper specific YouTube video called "koudelka: how to get back to the ||chandelier room|| f on the church after realizing you can't beat the game without ||Daniel's arm||"

Think of the good you could do

[twin anchor]

Honestly ||Daniel's Arm|| feels like a real test of who was watching the cut scenes and who wasn't

[vapid bolt]

Zamn called out

[junior depot]

I actually watched that one but I’m one who feels they just wander around pressing x everywhere to find about half the items

[vapid bolt]

Hooking up to the HDMI made this game go way more smoothly for me

[versed tundra]

Lots of small details on screen

[vapid bolt]

Also very dark

Hard to play in daytime

[harsh olive]

What's the overall GotY?

[twin anchor]

right now? Metroid Zero Mission

[harsh olive]

No, I mean, for this year

[snow wind]

The current GotY games are:
GotY:

1. Metroid: Zero Mission
2. R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
3. Harmful Park
4. DOOM
5. Metal Gear Solid
6. Fire Emblem : The Sacred Stones
   GotWotY:
7. Deadeus

[harsh olive]

Not the ones we play now but the ones we're picking

[twin anchor]

we decide at the end of the year

[harsh olive]

I mean I was responding to Nate

[twin anchor]

oh totally my bad

[versed tundra]

Ghost Trick

But I'm extremely biased

[harsh olive]

all right, first night down

gonna walk my dog and then play koudelka

because fuck this game man

[orchid viper]

43 is ok. Mine were lower, but I had a good strategy.

[orchid viper]

This is the Koudelka thread

[junior depot]

Thanks for the encouragement all. When I get a chance I’ll plan to give this a good final push.

[fluid wraith]

I am actually under the impression that it always rains in Wales.

[twin anchor]

Each november I spend a week in iceland and then a week in Aberystwth and basically the weather feel less hospitable in wales

[oak agate]

I read this as game story is very forgetable unless you string it all together at once.

[harsh olive]

I know. I'm going to play it tho

because fatal frame driving me nuts

[vapid bolt]

It just starts off so slow and the characters are so hostile to each other

I've tried to crack this nut before and barely met James before I said nope

[oak agate]

I know I beat it.

[vapid bolt]

I know. Im just arguing lol

[versed tundra]

They come together by the end, it's a nice dysfunctional family

[orchid viper]

There's some good arcs in this and reasons for how they are.

[vapid bolt]

Yeah I like them it's just a tough start. You're like hey, fuck these people and this games too dark

[versed tundra]

"Besides for your || condescending attitude, blatant racism, constant superiority, and utter stubbornness, you're pretty nice James." ||

[orchid viper]

Koudelka's arc and its parallel with Charlotte is kind of thrown in and kind of heartbreaking and awsome.

[vapid bolt]

I'm reminded of the old saying, "if your game has good parts, put those first"

[oak agate]

Koudelka is heatless and allows ||Ed to get poison.|| Yells at him and almost gets killed becasue she knows it all.

[versed tundra]

If you notice she's actually much more polite to James at the beginning. Correctly pegs Edward as a || thrill seeker. ||

[oak agate]

She is maybe one of the worse written Female protags

[vapid bolt]

Well yeah it is heartless. Why blow up her own spot to save some ruin burglar

It makes sense for her character. Survival of the fittest

[versed tundra]

She helps people who she thinks deserve help. Edward is a cocky thief, he doesn't deserve it. She won't let him die though

[oak agate]

Just the way she is. I found her irritating until she ||got drunk|| but we can't talk about that.

[vapid bolt]

Apparently they used mocap and you can really see it in that scene

[oak agate]

Ed should of let her die in the first 3 mins of the game.

[vapid bolt]

When was he in a position to do that though

[oak agate]

He has a gun on her and she was attacked.

[versed tundra]

Ed fancies himself an adventurer, he relishes saving a young woman from danger

It's like the best thing in the world for him

[oak agate]

Save her life and she repays him with letting him get ||poisoned||

She is a see you next Tuesday.

[versed tundra]

She repaid him immediately by healing him from a fatal wound

[oak agate]

If was fatal nothing she could of done helped. They both have the same level of healing.

[versed tundra]

He can't cast magic actually, he just does it for gameplay

[oak agate]

What?

Maybe another reason why the game is bad. Then.

[versed tundra]

There's no story reason he can, he never does it in cutscenes, I think by story rules he just uses a gun

[oak agate]

He uses magic in the game. Therefore he can use magic. Were the devs just to lazy not to copy and paste the skillz to every character?

[twin anchor]

Dude

You called her a slur and now you’re calling her the c word. This isn’t cool

Why do this?

Are you just honing down Justin’s “actually the c word isn’t offensive when I use it” route or do you have something else?

[orchid viper]

This also avoided suspicion from the caretakers.

[fluid wraith]

That’s how I took it. She didn’t want to give away that she knew it was poisoned so she just healed Edward afterward.

[junior depot]

17 hours… but looks like I’ll get it done. Should be able to post completion tomorrow

[harsh olive]

This game really likes to throw bosses at you one after another

disc 2 let's go

if they keep moving this quickly I shouldn't have too much trouble clearing this in a sane timeframe

if disc 1 is unusually short compared to 2 and 3 then idk

oh, poor girl 😦

OK, discs 1 and 4 are unusually short

also RP3+ has great battery life ngl

also I accidentally made Edward too good at punching things and now giving him an actual weapon is a downgrade

[earnest moon]

Hi everyone, not trying hijack, please continue on the chat. Just popping in to say I'm gutted I just found out about this Discord moments ago and had been saving for the right moment to play Koudelka 😱 Jealous of you all, but also happy I found the group!

[harsh olive]

you've got until Thursday evening

[earnest moon]

Yeah... true. Work's not that important, right? Surely I could call in sick and catch up before Oct 31 😂

Regardless. Looking forward to Nov's picks!

[orchid viper]

Welcome! Also, there's a game of the week if you want to grab half a point. https://discord.com/channels/741895796315914271/957342297270415480

[harsh olive]

OK, looks like I cannot beat ||the V-duo|| yet

[versed tundra]

Muuuuch later

Don't worry about it for now

[harsh olive]

Also, how conservative should I be with items like Listels? I had to use one after ||wasting a shitload of MP on the doll ghosts||

I have five left

I could just reload my temp save but I have a pretty long streak going towards the 123 monsters in one session achievement 😂

seems like HP healing items are common but MP healing items not so much

[peak ether]

I really didn't need them until the final boss. You might want to save couple high listels to top off on MP during the final boss, but otherwise I wouldn't worry too much about them.

[harsh olive]

OK, good to know

[solid lintel]

You get full MP when you level up, and as often as you level up I felt I didn't really need to bother with them.

[harsh olive]

Also, should I be leveling Luck? I haven't touched it

[versed tundra]

I never touched it. I think it affects drop rates for gear and random encounter rate? I got almost no armor, but it was enough.

[solid lintel]

Luck just decreases encounter rate, also didn't bother with it

[harsh olive]

...should I be freely using panaceas whenever Special K gets silenced, or should I be buffing her physical stats a bit so she can actually hit something when she can't cast spells? Because I feel like her magic is powerful enough already atm

[versed tundra]

Koudelka never hit anything my entire playthrough

Don't give her any strength or dex

[harsh olive]

Is there anything I can do to buffer her against silencing effects?

[orchid viper]

Not that I found.

[solid lintel]

Just gotta kill em fast or wait it out

At least statuses don't carry over

[harsh olive]

at least there's that, yeah. Though I think that's a wise design decision given that this game has no shops

I just double leveled off that boss what

[versed tundra]

Fun fact (as far as I can tell) XP is at least partially based off how long a battle takes

I spent an entire battle spamming heals to level it up and got 3 levels per person on normal enemies

[harsh olive]

that's amazing

[twin anchor]

If koudelka ends up being selected as a RH game of the year, you could play it in 2025

[twin anchor]

There are two types of items, food type that can only be used outside battle and potions that can be used in battle. While I needed the potions towards the end, I had the non-battle items coming out of my ears (especially as MP restored at every level up point). So go wild with that I reckon

[junior depot]

Finished though think it’s the bad (canon?) ending

[versed tundra]

Did you get the ||pendant||?

[harsh olive]

I am stupid overleveled

This is what happens with a game with this monstrous of an encounter rate and XP rate when you're not playing with a guide and the game is frequently coy about where the Thingie is

I am so goddamn overleveled I'm seriously considering starting to crossbuild these idiots

[versed tundra]

You wreck normal enemies in a normal playthrough, and even basically all the bosses. Only issue is the final boss is like a 5x difficulty jump

Plus an optional boss

[harsh olive]

Though at this point it wouldn't change much. Neither Special K nor James are ever running out of MP and Ed would take forever to do more damage with a nuke than with his bare hands

Hell his bare hands are better than most weapons I could give him at this point

Wait, normal playthrough? Is there an unlockable difficulty mode or something?

[oak agate]

If you up Koudelka luck to 45 plus you can go 5 screens without an encounter.

[harsh olive]

It has to be Special K?

But I'll bear that in mind. Put some points in Luck now that everything else is just... too much

Anyway if this game wins a GotY category, which seems likely, I might do it as my replay for the year. Probably making Special K the frontliner and James the black mage just because his casting animation is cooler than Special K's

(James has a great casting animation for a bishop tho)

Also is it just me or is there not actually a clear line between the black mage and white mage builds here, except that white mage can presumably get away with less MND and also what spells you're choosing to level? I basically have James as an off-blaster now

Since INT is necessary for healing and at a certain point you have enough MP that you can just kind of afford the points in MND

I've been leveling all of K's attack spells to 2, and working on leveling J's key buffs (especially DEX and MND) to 2 just in case I accidentally underlevel those stats due to not needing them to hit normal enemies at the moment

[oak agate]

Just depands on the weapon in your hands

[harsh olive]

I mean. They don't both use caster weapons?

[junior depot]

Yes I had it. But James had to ||go with Elaine|| I didn’t fully defeat final boss

[harsh olive]

Or should I be giving one of them some STR and DEX for guns or something?

[twin anchor]

I built them up in exactly the same way

but game them different weapons (to buff the stats)

[versed tundra]

I didn't even know this was an ending

[twin anchor]

Dex is response time / time between turns, right? I game everyone that

[twin anchor]

this is the cannon / not-good one

[harsh olive]

Also this game would genuinely benefit from a remake or at least a remaster. There's a lot of good stuff here, but it would benefit a lot from some tweaks to make the battle animations and etc move faster. Maybe some improvements to inventory or the map, or giving you some slightly better way to tell what bit of scenery you're supposed to click on

OK, I need to get ready for my appointment

Supposedly I'm very close to D3 tho. Hopefully I can knock this game out tonight and then finish Fatal Frame after that

[junior depot]

Oof. I’m learning I stacked my stats poorly since I generally assume luck is a great stat to invest in I made sure to put 1 point into luck every level up for every character…🤦‍♂️

I didn’t really struggle with any bosses though I skipped the optional boss and as I said didn’t fully defeat final boss

[harsh olive]

OK, I'm at the music puzzle

Before I continue, should I go back and grab certain items I left lying around? ||Like the mask, badge, or disc. I think I also missed St. David's arm because this game desperately needs to make it more apparent what's an item you can interact with and what's scenery||

Also I've got Special K up to VIT 40 before her mace. She is definitely not getting one-shot by any ceiling desperados

[orchid viper]

||the arm is mandatory||

[harsh olive]

all right all right. I've just been leaving those items and making notes of their locations because I've been starting to bang my head against inventory limitations

(I did manage to unload a bunch of glass pieces tho at least)

Also honestly even without an actual remake/remaster a rerelease of Koudelka that just, patches up some of the Bullshit would be nice, even if they don't improve the visuals or anything

The story is moving at a pretty brisk pace and the only thing holding it up is the slow and clunky af combat which is, like. fast-forward is a blessing

well, and all the backtracking and not knowing what the fuck you're supposed to click on, that too

[orchid viper]

I had the same inventory issue. Ended up ditching some of the less powerful firearms

[jovial galleon]

Firearms not needed at all, honestly. And then you don't need bullets either. They take up a lot of space for basically no benefit.

[earnest moon]

I'm really into game OSTs and, even though I haven't played this, I wanted to post. There's a couple of live renditions of music from the game. If you're into live performances of game music (and even if you're not), you might like it. Check it out:

https://youtu.be/sevYXfkySSg?si=r_U85Dbcv2awyyw_

[runic crypt]

I think a better term is just normal ending

[harsh olive]

aw fuck I just realized I never wrote down where the ||greek letter|| puzzle is

OK I see now

So is DuckStation the only emulator that runs this game well, or does Beetle PSX also do it? In case I want to stream it while talking to a friend tonight or something

[harsh olive]

...I found a grave

||Charlotte's. I said a prayer for her||

[jovial galleon]

Beetle will have black screen freezes. Stick with duck/swan station.

[twin anchor]

The people who’ve had a stress free experience have used duckstation or swan station. I think beetle was better than pcsx but not issue free

[solid lintel]

Yeah I only use Duckstation these days for PSX

[final vortex]

big Lulu energy

[oak agate]

It was to keep|| suspicion from the caretakers. Which just a weak. You end up killing one and you know they are super sus. You call out the guy holding a gun on you. Then yell at him for helping you. But you’re scared of two older people. Ten minutes later. ||Great story telling. Stellar job.

[twin anchor]

||“I would like to spy on someone and see what they do when they think I’m dead” ||does not equal ||“I am scared of someone”||

And straight up, who ||killed the caretakers? Coz you’ve got that wrong|| I very much think you’re misremembering

But props for criticising a game without using any offensive terms, I guess

[final vortex]

Dan did you make Koudelka?

[twin anchor]

If by “make” you mean “paid attention during the cut scenes”, go wild

[versed tundra]

|| The only time Koudelka got into a fight with the caretakers she got knocked out. Sneak attack and all, but still. ||

Crazy person strength

[final vortex]

just trying to figure out why you're vociferously defending the plotline of a middle of the pack 20-year-old PS1 game

[twin anchor]

Didn’t vagrants story as gotm teach you anything?

[final vortex]

https://tenor.com/view/we-dont-know-dont-know-bird-clueless-gif-12587825

[oak agate]

Ok fine||you don't kill them. She kills her husbands and then shots herself. || ||Maybe look at Apple TV working with the UK are doing. before you call me a racist??|| ||Blocked again||

https://tenor.com/view/lebron-dance-salsa-gif-21563887

[twin anchor]

You name yourself, I didn’t name you that

[runic crypt]

Zu and J are weird

[oak agate]

https://tenor.com/view/too-much-overwhelmed-sigh-a-lot-stress-gif-5987920037539735892

[twin anchor]

I never did get what the flag was trying to say, and now it’s gone, is it a thing that’s doesn’t translate overseas?

[harsh olive]

After going so ham to finish this one on time

I can see why there are people who like it and for its day it had some fresh stuff to the JRPG formula, but

...honestly it did not live up to the hype

[jovial galleon]

There was hype? lol.

Expectations can really ruin things. I try to go in with no expectations. Works most of the time. But if it’s one that I’ve heard a ton about for a long time, it can definitely ruin it. I don’t think I was ever more disappointed in a game than SotN when we played it, probably purely based on expectations.

[versed tundra]

I'm with Liquid on everything he said there, especially SOTN.