LP Beach

A quick question for the thread: is Sunday a good day for updates, or should I switch to another day? (LPbeach doesn't support polls, and even if it did, I'd probably just make it way too complicated by including an option for every day of the week.)

I've got no problems with Sunday.

Sundays are fine.

Whatever day you would like is fine.

It always comes down to one giant monster but I don't think even God of War made the gorgons a giant monster. So one up on God of War.

It's always several days before i get around to watching anything so the day doesn't really matter to me.

Kibayasu wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 11, 2020 4:12 am

It always comes down to one giant monster

Oh just you wait

Listen up, MercurySteam. We have the perfect video game idea.

Please never stop doing video edits.
Anyhow, this video demonstrates pretty well why I don't like the Dracula's Castle parts: it is 100% filler. LoS1 had all that horribly overwrought exposition that nonetheless gave some direction and sense of purpose to your journey, here you're just wondering aimlessly. That would work in a metroidvania or just something with more non-linear progression but most of this game is a series of corridors.

e: At least from what I remember from playing it way back when.

If I may suggest future adventures in Dracula and the Rotating Lava Catwalk, Phil Collins and Genesis seem appropriate:
IIII can't dance. IIIII can't talk. Only thing about me is the way I walk.

Well, that and the blood magic, and the remaining sparks of being God's Champion, and ...

Oh god, but if Woolyvania is before Lords of Shadow 2, does that mean they'll have to recreate the titty demon?

I guess the elevator fights are there because of the skill experience. Unless there's another repeatable way to fight enemies in which case ?

Yes, this is canon.

I'd just like to point out that "Pig son of a bitch" is an extremely improbable insult. I love these games' writing so much.
e: Never give up modifying the music.

The US does have a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There's no usual wreath ceremony every year, though most of the time the President will have them set up one on Memorial Day and or Veterans Day, and sometimes veterans or other special groups will contact Arlington cemetery to dedicate their own wreath for whatever reason. However, the tomb is guarded by a special honor guard who patrols the length of the tomb continuously, with no breaks, until they are relieved. At no time is the tomb ever left unguarded.

I spoke too soon, as it were - I dislike the factory level, but I really like this portion of the modern day setting. The city has a great aesthetic, and I'm a sucker for a good abandoned mental asylum/hospital setting.

Meanwhile, I see Mopey Dick's point regarding the Castle. The Castle looks great, but doesn't look fun to traverse.

Once again, I love Zobek's digs.

Plot-wise I was surprised to learn whatshername was made ugly by the disease - that seems like something to check before setting it loose. I'd assumed that was her natural form, and she could choose to look human.

I'm definitely confused if Satan has already managed to kill God and the rest of the Trinity. If he can do that, seems like he'd have broken free completely by now?

Satan probably just found his own Gabriel who went on their own quest to find magic relics and kill God/Jesus. If it can happen to the evil gods why not others too? It's just a thing that can happen.

Gabe and Zobek mostly no-selling all the petty insults was pretty funny.

As a quick heads-up, Monday is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, so the next update will be on Tuesday September 29th.

Lords of Shadow 2 continues its trend of almost having great ideas.

Hmm... Probably not Alucard since he's already in the game as the little boy/wolf. Probably not Simon since he likely died several hundred years ago. Who's next in the Castlevania lineup? Richter. It has to be Richter. Considering some of the voice tells and the physical stature of the mysterious bodyguard, the "gotcha" answer would be Maria. Maybe Satan's minions have turned Richter ala the brainwashing by Shaft in SotN and she's working with Zobek to get him back?

Albu-quirky Guy wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 30, 2020 12:50 am

Hmm... Probably not Alucard since he's already in the game as the little boy/wolf. Probably not Simon since he likely died several hundred years ago. Who's next in the Castlevania lineup? Richter. It has to be Richter. Considering some of the voice tells and the physical stature of the mysterious bodyguard, the "gotcha" answer would be Maria. Maybe Satan's minions have turned Richter ala the brainwashing by Shaft in SotN and she's working with Zobek to get him back?

That would be assuming everything that happens in Dracula's castle is entirely real. Seeing it now, I would interpret as the little boy as a sort of a manifestation of Gabriel's human side, guiding - or manipulating - him to some end, so far mostly by reminding him where he left his various powers all those hundreds of years ago. Thing is, when we last saw Alucard, he was a]an adult, b]a vampire. Also the bodyguard's helmet looks a little bit like it has pointy (wolf?) ears?
Of course, that's the problem with fantasy - you know demons are real but ghosts are just loaded with symbolism and could really work either way.

Dracula and/or the dodo's employ the "if I can see it, it can't see me" kind of vision. Also I guess the riot cops are actual cops? Because despite their uh skin problems they would have to be if they are out fighting the monsters. Unless Brotherhood Inc. just wants to look like they're doing something.

Anyways, and not to be too flippant about it, its of course the same guy who briefly appeared right at the end of the first video and of course that was Alucard

The plot really kicks into gear with some massive twists that the game desperately tries to spoil beforehand - but not if I have anything to say about it.




Look, I know the lore post is seriously out of date, but I'm hoping that this week I'll have it updated. I don't have any good excuses for it; I just hate doing second-post updates.

I did not expect to see a Shaft callout like this one.

If you don't mind hosting the thread in two places, Lowtax officially no longer owns SA.

Kurieg wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 10, 2020 1:25 am

If you don't mind hosting the thread in two places, Lowtax officially no longer owns SA.

After giving it some thought, I think I'm going to stick to LP Beach for this and future LPs, at least for the foreseeable future. I'm averse to change at the best of times, and it took a lot out of me just to make the move to LP Beach in the first place. I know it sounds kind of wimpy, but I prefer to manage one thread at a time.


EDIT: Finally updated the lore post so it's up to date with video 9.

Gabriel knows that Marie doesn't want him THAT badly. At least Gabe is mad at the Brotherhood for what they told Marie and not at her for believing it.

I apologize for the lack of an update today - I've been fighting off a nasty cold. The next few videos are all uploaded already, but the thumbnails aren't made yet, and I just don't have much energy to make them right now. Hopefully I can get video 10 up tonight or tomorrow morning - it's one of my favourites in the whole LP.

Okay, so - what I said in the above post is still true, but in regards to thumbnails not being ready, I had forgotten that video 10 was already prepared. I still need to make thumbnails for the next few updates. Anyway, here's the next update, which is easily one of my favourites of the LP. You'll see why. Be sure to watch to the end

Roy has waited almost an entire month to post that. I can only imagine how happy he is now.

EDIT: This is meant for the post below!

Image spoiler tagged by The Academy. I'd like to thank them.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: these games have some amazing monster designs.

Mopey Dick wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:45 am

I've said it before and I'll say it again: these games have some amazing monster designs.

I absolutely cannot fault any of the art direction in the series, Mercury Steam was really on point in that regard. I may be gushing.

Mazes and Monsters would have instead been Tom Hanks' equivalent to Saving Private Ryan in this universe. Miller and his team of vampire hunters set off across medieval Europe to retrieve the brother of 3 others who died at Dracula's castle.

Anywho when you're synching with Rules of Nature you have a choice between something with the "Rules of nature!" line or the cut. I went with the latter because it works out way too well with the fall and ending. Just youtube multiplier because I wish I had editing skills. If everything completely go wrong with this start the music link at at 50 seconds and the LP video at 1922 seconds

http://www.youtubemultiplier.com/5f8b3b ... nature.php

Kibayasu wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 17, 2020 6:54 pm

Mazes and Monsters would have instead been Tom Hanks' equivalent to Saving Private Ryan in this universe. Miller and his team of vampire hunters set off across medieval Europe to retrieve the brother of 3 others who died at Dracula's castle.

I would have watched the shit out of that.

Well, we couldn't avoid the topic forever, I guess. It's time to talk about Lords of Shadow 2's nightmarish development.

A "don't break shields" trial feels completely antithetical to this game's combat, outside of using the screen clearing magic. There's already been points where the game can grind to a halt because because you run out of magic to break shields and can't get more magic because everything has shields. Deliberately doing that is just ugh. There's always been a certain level of perfection needed to Lords of Shadow that felt above the average of other games too.

A great boss fight, and a not-so-great fetch quest, await us in this update.

It does seem like to do the stealth section the "correct" way would be a very slow process. Waiting behind corners, shimmying along ledges, slowly... misting? across leaves.

A nice looking departure from the rest of the castle at least, colour's always nice. We better not have to start a chess match with those figures.

Kibayasu wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 29, 2020 3:32 am

It does seem like to do the stealth section the "correct" way would be a very slow process. Waiting behind corners, shimmying along ledges, slowly... misting? across leaves.

It is.
It really, really, really is.

This is really not the best way to find out about how the mist works in this one.

This was the part that broke me on my playthrough back in 2015. I didn't twig to the trick where you mist straight off a ledge to actually get to navigate, so I eventually fired up cheat engine, hacked in infinite mist time and just floated on through, every wispy tendril a flipped bird.