What Does God Need With a Magnus? Let's Play Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean [VLP]

[Artix]

Part 9: Sheliak, the Castle Town

Now that we've made it to the castle it's time to save the day! ...With some minigames. Sort of. Don't think about it too hard.

[NGDBSS]

When I tried playing this over a decade ago I got to Sheliak and...the game crashed. I dunno how, perhaps I bumped the hardware at a bad time or my (used) disk had a ding in just the wrong spot. Either way I haven't played since, so nearly everything here is new territory. All I know are broad strokes from the Wikipedia plot summary.

[Artix]

When I tried playing this over a decade ago I got to Sheliak and...the game crashed. I dunno how, perhaps I bumped the hardware at a bad time or my (used) disk had a ding in just the wrong spot. Either way I haven't played since, so nearly everything here is new territory. All I know are broad strokes from the Wikipedia plot summary.

That's really unfortunate! The battle system is just starting to get good at this point and the plot...well, it goes places, that's all I'm gonna say for now.

Part 10: Castle Elnath

And speaking of going places, today's boss is a giant crab tank piloted by a woman with jetpack shoes. I'm sure that's what you all had as your guess, right?

[OOrochi]

Ahh, it was Lyude! All I could remember of this was that a party member had a gun-trumpet-thing. Gotta give this game credit for varying the weapon types at least.

[Commander Keene]

Kalas and Lyude sound very similar to my ears. Like, just remove the snark from Kalas so his voice is a little softer and you've basically got Lyude. I'm sure the low quality voice samples aren't helping there.

[Kibayasu]

The gun horn needed for more toots for me to take it seriously as a gun horn.

[Artix]

Part 11: The Shrine of Winds

Now that we've thwarted the empire's plans (for now, anyway), it's time to claim another End Magnus. Definitely. For sure.

[Nemryn]

I think the reference you're looking for is Exodia, not Dracula.

[Commander Keene]

Look, it's like Windows 98, or Final Fantasy 7. There was too much essence to fit in one Magnus, so you had to split it into multiple Magnuses (Magni? Is Magnus its own plural, like moose?).

[LPFinale]

I think the reference you're looking for is Exodia, not Dracula.

I think Exodia's more fitting for cards, yeah, though for comedy's sake I greatly appreciate how Dracula was split up so haphazardly in Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest to the point where one of the parts was literally just one of his teeth

[Commander Keene]

It's Tooth, Rib, Nail, Eye, and Heart, IIRC. They're obviously not all of his body, so I assume it's just the parts they needed to revive him? Still a bit of an odd selection of parts.

[Shei-kun]

I like to assume the rest of the parts were already there and the ones who took those bits away were following directions by Dracula to troll Simon.

Alternatively, Simon's hate for Dracula let him resurrect him from the only bits he could find just so he could kill him again.

[Nemryn]

It's Tooth, Rib, Nail, Eye, and Heart, IIRC. They're obviously not all of his body, so I assume it's just the parts they needed to revive him? Still a bit of an odd selection of parts.

It's probably symbolic or something. A rib to give the body form, an eye to let him survey his demesne, a heart to let the warm blood flow, that sort of thing.

[XainZero]

You now prosess Malpercio's Eye.

[Artix]

Part 12: Komo Mai, the City of Flowers

Having now lost two of the End Magnus, the gang decides to blow off some steam and go to a big party. ...And also slander a world leader directly to their face. All in a day's work, you know?

[Nemryn]

Some random thoughts:

* Why are those student witches dressed as snails?

* We didn't even need to break into the Queen's room; there was a guard right there and he just let Kalas saunter in

* The 'astral spirit' conceit actually gives us a reason why we can see cutscenes occurring out of the party's view

* There are only three types of female party members allowed in JRPGs: the Gentle Maiden, the Tough Chick, and the Perky Kid

[Kibayasu]

Nice outfit Geldoblame. For a clown to wear. At the circus.

[Artix]

Part 13: Ancient Library of Magic

Today we're headed to the abandoned library, in search of a witch to aid us in our quest. Mind the undead, the history section is a bit of a pain to navigate with them in the way.

[Weeble]

Do you at least get extra exp/drops from those drawn out fights?

Wait... this is an early 2000s jrpg, I already know the answer.

[Kibayasu]

Incredibly strong "too cool for any of this" energy coming off of Folon.

[Nemryn]

Man, Folon's VA is not nearly hammy enough for lines like "one-way ticket to hell".

[Kibayasu]

Man, Folon's VA is not nearly hammy enough for lines like "one-way ticket to hell".

He's too cool for effort.

[Artix]

Part 14: Holoholo Jungle

We're off to the jungle to follow our mysterious savior and...well, this sure is a dungeon that exists. It's not the worst in the game by any means, but the visual gimmick sucks and the enemies are obnoxious.

[Nemryn]

Supplemental material: prominent VG translator Tomato has an article that briefly discusses these kinds of forests.

[Admiral H. Curtiss]

I believe the brightness-in-combat thing with dark/light cards actually affects the photos you take in some arcane manner.

[The Flying Twybil]

I believe the brightness-in-combat thing with dark/light cards actually affects the photos you take in some arcane manner.

It in fact does affect the photos.

I didn't really know when to bring this up, but it's for a minor mechanic, so I might as well.

Photos taken in neutral light (brightness +/- 0) are more valuable than ones taken at any other brightness level as the photo contrast is better. The trick being that some environments don't start at neutral light to begin with, and some bosses love spamming one or the other element, so getting perfect pictures is surprisingly far more complex than it should be for a simple money drop replacement mechanic.

I bet you never expected that Baten Kaitos: Lost Ocean was actually, in fact, the rather advanced sequel to Pokemon Snap.

[Artix]

Correct, there's other factors that go into what makes a "good" photo but the brightness is both the most obvious and the easiest to control. We go into a couple of the others in video...16?

[Kibayasu]

At least this was a relatively short JRPG dungeon combined with Lost Woods dungeon.

I believe the brightness-in-combat thing with dark/light cards actually affects the photos you take in some arcane manner.

It in fact does affect the photos.

I didn't really know when to bring this up, but it's for a minor mechanic, so I might as well.

Photos taken in neutral light (brightness +/- 0) are more valuable than ones taken at any other brightness level as the photo contrast is better. The trick being that some environments don't start at neutral light to begin with, and some bosses love spamming one or the other element, so getting perfect pictures is surprisingly far more complex than it should be for a simple money drop replacement mechanic.

I bet you never expected that Baten Kaitos: Lost Ocean was actually, in fact, the rather advanced sequel to Pokemon Snap.

That is needlessly ridiculous.

[The Flying Twybil]

That is needlessly ridiculous.

Baten Kaitos, in a nutshell.

But isn't it just great

[Nemryn]

That is needlessly ridiculous.

Excuse me, I believe you mean "wonderfully ridiculous".

[Artix]

Part 15: Opu, the Waterfall Village

We've made it through the jungle, and now we can finally meet our savior for real. At least, once we help a girl by getting her some cookies. What's the worst that could happen?

[Artix]

Part 16: The Celestial Tree

Well I guess said child could climb the forbidden sacred tree as we attempt to track down End Magnus #3. Surely this one will go our way!

[Shei-kun]

I can't wait to see how we lose this End Magnus.

[Weeble]

Peacock Lady..... Alright then.

My money's on the kid shanking us to take the End Magnus.

[Artix]

Part 17: Heart of the Tree

It's time for part 2 of this enthralling showdown, in which we encounter the dumbest twist. Strap in kids! We're headed to Mira next.

[Weeble]

Okay then, Savyna's the best.

[The Flying Twybil]

Okay then, Savyna's the best.

This is pretty much indisputable fact.

[Kibayasu]

You know never mind that yes getting into the empire is probably too dangerous but if the card is there then they probably already have it! They seem to know where to find the others already. But I'm taking this too seriously.

[Artix]

Part 18: The Trail of Souls

Anuenue is gone, and we're off to Mira, assuming that one simply goes to a city in an alternate dimension.

[NGDBSS]

When the group was stranded I was idly wondering, "hey is the Great Mizuti going to show up here?" I did not expect to actually be right. Like I said upthread, most of this is new territory...but Mizuti has a reputation. Dunno what this is yet but I guess we'll see!