Dreaming of Doppelgangers- Let's Play Nightmare of Rebellion - Ran! (Hiatus)

[Serela]

Hmm... chaser + elemental slash + two spells + element wall is sufficient for the high grade elementals, it seems (Sylph, Undine, etc. Could use just two spells if I had two powerful magicians, but one is... not powerful :V) but the bigger issue is in the later areas (desert, even the snowy ones) I have really, really big stuttering issues on the overworld (aka, moving around when not in battle). I dunno why. I messed with all the settings in the launcher but the only one that changed anything just made it way worse. I have very minor stuttering in the early snowy areas but that was pretty much it and it was totally ignorable. On the later ones it's like, screen freezing for a couple seconds when I start moving. Gross z.z I can deal I guess, though, since nothing I try seems to help... not sure why this is happening, I have a vaguely modern video card and zero issues playing, well, anything else. Weirdest because I have no issues in the earlier areas of the game, even going back to them now. The hope is that it should only be certain places so once I get past them I'm theoretically fine?

In other news, now that weapon skills are getting really nice, the game is getting funner. :D Not that it wasn't already fun. But, you know, options fleshing out and party configuration maturing, etc. I've got all the lv30 and under skills except type 8s ('cept for the gun's 8, which is earlier to learn), which I need 1 more skill level on each party member to get. The physical last words were really easy to inspire, too, I got all of those a good while back. Bows and spears don't have a lot of truly strong skills, so exploring the options is important there >.> Bows have like... Random Shot (from tier 1) and maybe Deadly Arrow so far, so I'm hoping Agincourt will be nice.

[Validon98]

Late update provided to you by a light-headed Validon (allergies hit me hard this morning, so I ended up napping and feeling super out of it when I woke up). Also holy crap I've been doing some of the expansion content for further updates and I forgot how brutal the Dream Corridors are in the expansion.

Nightmare of Rebellion Act: Part 3- I Dream of Mengniang

I'm not being subtle with that title, am I?

Cutscene: The Dream-Eating Youkai Who Oversees Reality... for Real This Time

Well, here's Mengniang again, but according to her, this is our first actual meeting. The Mengniang we saw back in the Castle of Dreams? Merely an illusionary copy with a fraction of the power of the original. Well that's not good. Another thing she mentions is that while she is helping the culprit of the incident, the two don't share a goal. The battles before, including the one about to happen, are all "cogs in a machine" for her, and this battle is yet another cog towards the incident's ultimate resolution. All she cares about is seeing how the final battle plays out. Whether the culprit or we win doesn't matter, as long as there is a conclusion. Yeah, because that's real fun for us, especially since whoever the culprit is certainly isn't messing around like before.



So... Mengniang, the real one this time. She'll basically spam everything she has at us. Dream, Dream Bite, and Bakuki Veda will be at play from square one, and her powerful magic is still in the forefront. This time, at least, we have MDEF buffs, and way more powerful physical attacks, so get buffed up and hit her as hard and fast as you can. It's ultimately a damage race before she wears you down.



And... yeah, a death happened. Apparently only one but I don't actually remember how many times I reset. I definitely had only one death, though.

Boss Fight: Rematch Vs. Mo Mengniang

I... melted her. Holy crap even I impressed myself.

Cutscene: One Must Fight Against Their Own Fate

So... we defeated Mengniang, for real this time. Impressed, she lets us go, only leaving Yukari the words "One must fight against their own fate," before vanishing. With this in mind, Yukari believes she has finally figured out who the culprit is, but keeps it to herself. With nothing else but forward to go, it's time to head to the next part of the Tower of Babel.



Dungeon Theme: The Tower that Challenges Heaven 2 (Child of Are)

Okay I really love this song, it's probably one of my favorite dungeon themes of the game. Still don't know what part of it is Child of Are exactly, but I can sorta hear it a little more than with the first version?
Anyhow, this next part of the dungeon has no boss, but is completely a puzzle section all about Barrier Stones. This is the final usage of them in the game, so let's get through it, eh?



Shadows and a Velociraptor show up at first. Shadows... not really bothersome as per usual for these kinds of enemies, while the Velociprators still have that dangerous HDD Crash, so getting rid of it with Electric might be a good idea.



Valkyries! They... sorta have no weaknesses, buff themselves up quite a bit, and then rain all kinds of sword attacks on your face.



Nice, first try get! Valkyries have a decent combination of offensive buffs, attacks, and Physical Deflection. Combined with the Crazy Undine... you'd probably get a lot of Deflection. Can you say "never get hit by physical attacks half the time"?



Eesh, a Mind Flayer Lord and Hell Stairs. Not much to say about the Mind Flayer Lord that isn't already apparent, but Hell Stairs can use Death Slip to stun you and can use Damage Net to prevent escape. A lot of wipes in my original run happened because I was underleveled and constantly running from enemies, only for these guys to screw me up. Weak to Electric, of course.



So many armors to get!



Oh hi there Ryu Hayabusa... or just a Ninja. Weak to Light like the Genin, they're fairly dangerous and can inflict Instant Death with their regular attacks, but otherwise if you target their weakness, it shouldn't be too bad.



Oh hi there straight up Adamantite. There's another piece of Orichalcum around here to match this one.



Hi there Yin-Yang Orb, you're here already.



At some point I went back to grab a Magical Hat from the Sorcerers from earlier, since they're a REALLY good mage accessory, that upgrade to a Rune Hat. It boosts the Element Power of all magical elements, which in other words means you hit weaknesses much, much harder. It's a +30 boost when upgraded, which is like... either a mid-level Rumia or a high level Patchouli or Utsuho.



Chandras are fairly dangerous Magicians. Though weak to Dark and Gun, if you don't wipe them out fast enough, they'll pepper you with high power Mystic attacks like Cosmic Liner. They are recruitable, of course, but have that 1/64 curse that most doppels... actually ALL doppels from here on out have. Which is an issue for rarer enemies.



The Enkidu there is kinda problematic if you let it live long enough. He'll throw all kinds of sword attacks at you, but as a Giant, he's weak to Light and Slash.



Well, here is a dais. Should come in handy?



The Dullahan in the back... I think it uses some of the Zapper-type attacks but it's not too bad if you can murder it with Light quickly enough.



That Great Basilisk is fairly dangerous to let live, having all kinds of nasty stuff, particularly Poison Breath. Light once again can take it down quick, so get off Divine Gate or Starburst or something.



So this puzzle in general, since I'll skip a decent amount of the pictures I took tied to this, is that there's a certain configuration of daises you need to put Barrier Stones on, WHILE having another Barrier Stone on you before getting to a certain room on the third floor of this section.



Gelatinous Matter, a familiar face... kinda. While it doesn't exactly drop Ostracon like in DoD (speaking of, apparently the drop rate got increased in Banquet... on top of all the boss buffs holy shit why did they buff Zhuli when she's painful enough to beat?), they still got the nasty things like Strong Acid and Digest, kinda like the Slimes from before. Weak to Fire, not sure if they are weak to Electric though.



Remember that whole "rare enemies with 1/64 chance to become a doppel" thing I said earlier? Well, this Crocell is a prime offender. The best Water doppel in the game, but otherwise a rare and hard to kill Foreign God who can murder you fairly hard with Water attacks. Thankfully, she's weak to Electric and Light, so both Marisa and Mamizou can get in on the fun.



Not sure how I survived this one, but I got the Ninja. He provides a variety of special attacks like Law of the Jungle's Final Strike, etc. as well as a chance to inflict Instant Death with regular attacks. Not bad for your physical fighters just for the stat boosts, to be honest.



This is that room you need a Barrier Stone for. I didn't remember how to do this before, so I had to solve it all over again. It's not a particularly hard puzzle, but compared to the prior ones, it requires a little bit of care.



ACALA SWORD YAAAAAAAAY



RARE DROPS YAAAAAAY



YUKKURI SISTERS YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY~!!!

Like in Devil of Decline, they drop your HP quite a bit, but grant resistances to EVERYTHING. The HP penalty drops as you level (from -50% to -33%), and the resistances are really good (☆ to magical elements, ◎ to physical ones). They go on Reimu for the rest of the main game, and are actually still on her right now despite being like... 1/3rd through the expansion or so?



There we go, last floor achieved!



Death Riders are undead with fairly dangerous spear attacks, but can be taken down easily with Light and Fire attacks.



Genbus are yet another turtle-like enemy. Which means Benevolence Wall. All the time. Prepare to have your offenses screwed up pretty bad due to these guys. Weak to Water though, if you can preempt them.



Metal Shisas are thankfully less annoying than their regular cousins, in that they won't spam Moonlight Mirror every turn and screw you over. They will use Starlight Barrier and other buffs I think? Weak to Fire like before.



Ah crap... a No Life King. Resistant to practically everything but Light (but not weak to Light), they're like worse Liches. You might just want to run from them the first time you find them, they're not worth it until it's a little easier to deal with them.



We just need to get a Barrier Stone here and the puzzle's over and we're done.



Also, I have to say, it's kinda cool this area is certainly on the outside of the Tower, where the construction is like... half finished near the top. We must be pretty high by now.



Finally made it through. There's no boss though, this place is just a puzzle dungeon.



This teleporter will take us to the top, the final area of the game. Next time, we'll deal with it and prepare for the final boss.

Summary:

New Doppels: Valkyrie, Ninja, Yukkuri Sisters

Doppel Levels: Otohime (Spell Seal; ☆ Temporary Stat Drop; EVA +3; Healing Water, DEX +2), Succubus (POT +3; Magic Heal, DEX +2), Dominion (LGT Power +12), Backfire (FIR Element Power +20; INT +8; FIR Element Power +25), Traveling Schoolgirl (POT +2), Lesser Vampire (Regen +50), Donner Meister (ELE Element Power +25), Taisai (Variety Barrier, VIT +1; Mist, DEX +1; Physical Barrier, AGI +1; INT +1; One Million Volts, POT +1; STR +2), Komachi (IND +20), Utsuho (LGT/DRK/MYS Power +25), En-no-Ozuno (RES +4; Variety Casting Speed +7), Patchouli (FIR/ELE/WTR Power +25), Yukkuri Sisters (HP -49%, HP -48%; HP -47%; Detonate), Mokou (PATK +3), Crazy Undine (Acid Storm, Physical Deflection +25), Ninja (Poison Mist, AGI +1; Law of the Jungle's Final Strike, STR +1; AGI +2, Samidare Slash; Normal Attack Instant Death Chance +7, Curse), Hipporit (Concrete, IND +10)

Major Equipment: Hercules Longbow, Kutune Shrika, Beam Pistol, Magical Hat, Lost Eyesight, Invisible Guarder, Oboro, Kishin Axe, Laser Rifle, Folgore Guarder, Satan Amulet, Yahweh Amulet

Synthesis Recipes: Vajra Robe, Ignis Dress, Glacies Dress, Fulmen Dress, Variety Inspector, Permanent Inspector, Quick Inspector, Evil Death Goliard, Mistral, Light Full-Body Armor, Dark Full-Body Armor

Synthesis Done: Restraint Amulet (Marisa), Barrier Earrings +3, Sniper Anklet +3, Gale Boots +3, Launch Goggles +3, Rune Cap (Marisa), Duelmaster

Sparked Skills: Critical Thrust (attack that inflicts Instant Death, Yukari), Silent Fortress (inflicts Silence, Saya), Surging Wave Spear (row attack that inflicts PATK down, Yukari), Blitzkreig (Penetrating attack that reduces resistances temporarily, Yukari), Deplorable Hit (high-powered single target attack, Saya), Whirlwind (attack that inflicts Stun, Yukari), Poison Serpent (inflicts Poison, level of Poison increases per negative Variety on the enemy, Yukari), Dimension Slash (increases power of Slayers on hit, Reimu), Acala Sword (single target ranged attack that ignores defense and always hits, Reimu), Devil Guillotine (Dark elemental attack, Saya), Quick Fire

Update Death Count: 1
Total Death Count: 22
Update Reset Count: 0 (1 because once again I forgot to turn back on combat effects, but once again it's not an actual rage quit reset so it doesn't count... screw it let's make it a new counter)
Total Reset Count: 3
Update "I Forgot to Turn Combat Effects Back On" Count: 1
Total "I Forgot to Turn Combat Effects Back On" Count: 2

So many counters now.

[Serela]

Pfft the counters.

Also I spoke too soon, Sylphs are still nightmares. I might need to turn Saya into a full-out magician after all. I'm sorry, bows, I'll come back for you.

[Your Everyday NEET]

I think I know who the culprit is. This LP title is Dreaming of Doppelgangers, the real perpetrators must be a doppel... made with a dream. Or is it the other way around?

Spoiler:

Also, Yukari as a main character? That's like... A dream come true isn't it?

[Validon98]

Technically speaking...

Spoiler:

Yukari was a main character in DoD as well, if you chose her, and even if you didn't, she joins you near the end anyhow.

[Your Everyday NEET]

Whooops..... Forgot that Yukari's also one of 4 main characters in DoD.

[Serela]

I actually had a lot of trouble with the sphinx >.> Every time I had Chen just about dead, I was entirely out of POW, and the magician head kept reviving before I got a turn to damage Chen at all on every fight- especially if she was one turn from death. Only won the last fight because I got Sukima Strash to deal 6k to that head (Annwn for weakness~) and get it the hell out of there whilst I was on my last turn's worth of POW. @.@ Plus it turns out the feet do dumb stuff like cast Toreno Levin to more or less instant kill an entire row, if you let them get a turn, jeez. :T

And that triple rematch fight is coming up now... along with the decision of "Okay, I can kill undines and sylphs, am I going to bother actually recruiting them?" They've got a pretty high encounter rate in one of the dream corridors, so I suppose it wouldn't be too bad...

[Validon98]

Oh yeah no, the whole issue of POW is pretty bad in some fights. There used to be a Last Word Saya got for boss fights (Dawn Norito, which upgraded to Beginning Norito or Advent Norito or however you wanted to translate it) that not only made it so main doppels could be revived with you, but once it upgraded to Advent Norito, it granted a POW regen effect for the entire fight. It was removed as-of the expansion, which is kind of a shame, but I can understand why it was removed.

As for Sylphs and Undines... you can if you want to, but you can entirely skip that tier of FIR/ELE/WTR doppels if you don't feel like dealing with them, the Hellhound/Nashorn/Hell's Gatekeeper tier can hold you until the Tower of Babel, at least, and that's when you get the last tier of FIR/ELE/WTR pre-expansion anyhow.

Update is coming, I've been busy and will still be busy with IRL stuff so it's slightly delayed. I might actually post both the penultimate and final updates today, but the amount of video editing and uploading needed for the final boss and ending is going to take a bit, so if I do end up doing it, it's not happening until way later.

[Validon98]

Nevermind, I'm uploading the finale tomorrow. Whew though, so close.

Nightmare of Rebellion Act: Penultimate- World Terminus



Dungeon/Battle Theme: The Tower that Challenges Heaven 3 (Maiden's Cappricio, Child of Are, Necrofantasia

At last, here we are at the top of the Tower of Babel. Looks like the very top was converted into some weird pathway by the culprit. Let's chase her down!



Much like the theme of the Gorgon Barrier in GoS, the area theme overrides the battle theme, which is pretty nice. Less nice is this encounter with Zhuge Liang and a Queen Flayer. Though the idea of multiple of one of the Three Kingdoms' famous strategists being present at once is a scary idea, they're not too bad... unless they use Moonlight Mirror. Weak to Dark and Gun as you'd think. Queen Flayers, meanwhile, are just weak to Stab as per usual, but in addition to Mind Blast and their Instant Death inflicting normal attacks, they can use Time Stop, which inflicts Binding Curse (and yes, it does say "Binding Curse" in the description).



Man, a death already. This'll end well.



Ziggurats aren't really a big deal. They can use barriers on themselves to block magic damage, but otherwise aren't too bad to take down. Weak to Electric, as weird as that would be.



This Juggernaut looking dude is a Gold Sumi, and he actually possesses Magic Deflection, meaning most of the time magic spells will just bounce off of him, but the deflection isn't 100%, so you might be able to hit them with some. Weak to Slash and Light I believe. Also possesses some pretty heavy attacks, so watch yourself.



Like most Dragons, Lesser Dragons can throw all sorts of high power attacks like Tail Chop at you, and are otherwise resistant to the major three elements and have no weaknesses. LGT/DRK/MYS are pretty effective as a result, and some physical attacks are pretty good against them too.



Two more enemies, Gilgamesh and Lu Bu (oh crap). They both have a variety of physical attacks that can destroy your party in seconds, especially Lu Bu, since he has some fairly high speed. Both are weak to Dark and Gun, and the Lu Bu is recruitable.



Another recruitable monster, Ambivalences are immune to magic and weak to all physical attacks, but they can use Meteor, a powerful all-targeting Void attack that will probably one-shot the party with no MDEF.



Silver Sumis are the opposite of the Gold Sumis, possessing Physical Deflection, but otherwise works the same way. Weak to Light and Slash.



The Pangu here is another Giant who is weak to Light and Slash, and uh... I forget what it does. Mostly powerful attacks that punch you in the face, but they're not too bad.



In the back is a Beidou Xingjun (geez there's a lot of Chinese figures in this game), who is weak to Electric, but can throw some fairly dangerous attacks your way, including Cosmic Liner.



One more POW Extension to go.



This is the portal to the final boss, buuuut we're not doing that yet. Still a lot we haven't seen yet.



I still have no idea what the Falak is weak to, but it throws a bunch of Fire attacks at you, so it's prooobably weak to Water. Probably.



Huh, do Murder Licenses only drop here? Makes me wonder how you're supposed to upgrade the accessory it upgrades earlier.



King Jiangshis aren't too bad. They're so weak to Fire or Light that killing one will take no time at all. Barely a threat.



One last Dream Corridor.



Pain and suffering.



But some synthesis recipes to make up for it.



Inside the final Dream Corridor is mostly some palette swaps. Predator Dragons are stronger Locomo Dragons, Red Dryades is a stronger Dryades, and the Fantasy Taoist is a stronger version of that other Taoist enemy from way back at the Great Wall of China.



Niiice, some recipes for rare materials.



Genbus are I believe one of the best shield-based doppels, but I don't remember which skills they get other than Shield Wall.



And here's the final POW Extension, bringing us to our final POW maximum of 2000 pre-expansion.



Death Riders have quite a few good attacks, and grant some VERY high STR and HP bonuses, so they're good to put on any of your melee users.



In the back is a Ronin, who has quite a few dangerous sword attacks. Kill them ASAP or get killed yourself, Dark and Gun both work but I usually prefer Dark since Abyss exists.



Oh hey, some enemies drop Gold here. That's pretty rare, and that's really good since we can make accessories with them.



The Great Demon is the final major demon-type Foreign God, and the best Dark doppel. I kinda wish I could grab it, but alas, 1/64 chance on a rare enemy. I'm more likely to pick up a Royal Duke in the expansion since they're more common where they show up (speaking of, I have started running into those, and they're actually fairly easy with the setup I have, go Reimu and your stupidly powerful Light elemental sword). Weak to Light, it has some Dark attacks, but by this point they're not too bad.



Owwwwww. I think I ran after this.



Ryuus are kinda like Lesser Dragons, and they use breath attacks a little more, but they're also not too bad if you slam them with physicals and LGT/DRK/MYS attacks.



YUKKURI KINGS. The strongest type we'll see in the main game, they can run away as usual, but they also have Face Smash, which... well in prior games it's pretty harsh, but for some reason in this game, the ACC of Face Smash is worse than usual, so it doesn't even one-shot anyone. Them charging up for it will actually just give you a better chance to kill them. While they're fairly rare here, in the expansion they're more common in Dream Corridors (and can show up in groups of three). Also here, I somehow ran into three in a row. Don't ask me how.



Zhuge Liang has so far been the ONLY field-based doppel we've recruited up to now... somehow. We missed every other one (including the Cave Guardian, Fuguruma, and Magical Girl from earlier). His are mostly focused on Land manipulation and elemental boosting.



2s to 3s, and 3 Evasions to 4 Evasions. Not the greatest number of hits levels, but hey, it'll help the mages who have worse Evasion Chances.



NICE, I can make the High Garter Belt, which is a pretty good accessory.



I went back to recruit a couple doppels, including the Maogui (Byouki in the newest version of the patch). They have a variety of attacks, and grant a nice ACC boost.



Magical Girls are another field based doppel, who I get for the all-mighty Damage Net.



While looking for one last doppel, I run into a Kirin back in the Castle of Dreams. I don't even remember what it does, since I missed it the first time.



And got the Bunsha (Furugumi), another field-based doppel who also happens to have Fast Strike, which is something I want for a very specific reason.



Not a death, though.



This is why, the classic "Fast Strike to Damage Net" strategy. Unlike Devil of Decline, where Yukkuris would counter Damage Net with Regeneration and then run away right after, they don't counter Damage Net, leaving you to kill them at your leisure. Heheheheh... oh sweet, sweeeeeet revenge for all those escapes.



Yup, I jumped quite a few levels during all this. I got all the way to level 63 by the end of this, which I believe is actually higher than my original run. Niiice.



And one more death for the road. That's about all there was in terms of interesting stuff in the final area and my grinding for the final boss. Next time... we end this thing and prepare for the expansion.

Summary:

New Doppels: Genbu, Death Rider, Zhuge Liang, Maogui, Magical Girl, Bunsha

Doppel Levels: Togakushi Kureha (HP +20; STR +8; DEX +8), Youmu (PATK +8; Certain Hit +20), Yukkuri Sisters (HP -46%, HP -45%, HP -44%; Disintegrate, Mega Stroke, Zero Kelvin; HP -40%), Ninja (STR +2; AGI +3; Raise Dead, AGI +4; AGI +5; Normal Attack Instant Death Chance +10), Ran (SLA/STA/STK Power +18; PATK +15; SLA/STA/STK Power +20), Dominion (VIT +6; LGT Power +15; STR +6), Donner Meister (Refresh, DEX +4; ELE Element Power +35; empty level), Hell's Gatekeeper (AGI +5; INT +5), Sakuya (PATK +15; Slayer Power +20), Taisai (DEX +2), Nue (MDEF +30), Chen (EVA +15), Manuscript (MDEF +40; INT +8; STR +4), Sorcerer (empty level), Hatate (EVA +6; PATK +6; Tengu Field Cooldown -1), Closed Railroad Crossing (Sone Snare, ACC +10), Death Rider (Venom Zapper; DEX +2; Death Chase, STR +6; Death Zapper, VIT +2; STR +8; DEX +4; VIT +4; STR +10; HP +25), Succubus (POT +5), Backfire (Refresh, INT +10; FIR Element Power +35; INT +12), Zhuge Liang (Howling Spirit, INT +1; Fix Land, POT +1; Remove Field, INT +2; Raise Dead, MYS Element Power +10; INT +3; POT +2; INT +4; Healing Water, POT +3), Suika (Critical Hit Rate +10), Lesser Vampire (Accurate Weapon; Regen +60), Maogui (ACC +3; Accurate Weapon; EVA +3; Venom Zapper; ○ Variety; Heat Weapon; ◎ Poison; ACC +5), Magical Girl (Damage Net, INT +1; Regeneration, POT +1; Provocation, DEX +2; INT +2; Active Mental, POT +2; Auto-Revive +5; Refresh, DEX +3; INT +3), Bunsha (Fast Strike, MDEF +3; Breakthrough, AGI +2; Jackpot, MDEF +5; Magical Defense; AGI +3; INT +1; AGI +4; Element Shield Wall, INT +2; AGI +5), Yuugi (ACC +5; Critical Hit Rate +6; Critical Hit Power +10), Crazy Undine (DEX +8; STR +8), Patchouli (Philosopher's Stone Power +20; FIR/ELE/WTR Power +30), Utsuho (Mega Flare Power +30; LGT/DRK/MYS Power +30), Remilia (EVA +30)

Major Equipment: Masterpiece (Saya), Mephisto Amulet, HVD-ROM, Muramasa, Clarent, Soul Link Rod, Deicide Demon Hammer, Hrungnir, Husdrapa, Bountiful Kudzu Crossbow, Molecule Pulverizer

Synthesis Recipes: Magus Robe, Kerestes Dress, Dreadnought Mantle, Legendary Sailor Suit, Dragon Bone Mail, Antimagic Armor, Dragon King Armor, Drake Scale, High Garter Belt, Magic Thread, Nightmare Pillow, Dress Hem, Cursed Shell, Regenerating Cell, Light Alloy, Boost Stone, Clean Ring

Synthesis Done: Protection Anklet +2, Protection Anklet +3 (Reimu), Muscle Belt +2, Muscle Belt +3 (Reimu), Vengeance Mantle, Victory Mantle, Variant Mantle, Dreadnought Mantle (Marisa), Adamanatite, Orichalcum, Gravity Executor (Yukari), High Garter Belt, Murderous Mantis Gauntlet (Reimu)

Sparked Skills: Violent Tengu Rod (high power single target attack, Saya), Painful Demon Cudgel (row attack that inflicts Double-Edged Curse, Saya), Shooting Star Sword (high speed 3-5 hit attack, Reimu)

Update Death Count: 4
Total Death Count: 26
Update Reset Count: 0
Total Reset Count: 3
Update "I forgot to turn on combat effects" count: 0
Total "I forgot to turn on combat effects" count: 2

[Maple]

You know, i don't remember if you mentioned that you can enchant weapons for various effects.

Did you remember to do so, or did you actually forget entirely about that game mechanic?

[Validon98]

I have mentioned and do use that system regularly across the game, I just don't write down the enchantments I do.

[Serela]

As for Sylphs and Undines... you can if you want to, but you can entirely skip that tier of FIR/ELE/WTR doppels if you don't feel like dealing with them, the Hellhound/Nashorn/Hell's Gatekeeper tier can hold you until the Tower of Babel, at least, and that's when you get the last tier of FIR/ELE/WTR pre-expansion anyhow.

Yeah I figured so. I don't even use those much because the Sorceror learned the tier 3s early enough (since *cough* I killed 17 yukkuris in the train station) and I don't have Saya playing backup mage much (Although I might to make undines easier to kill in the cave, even if I don't farm them. First I'm gonna see how much damage I can squeeze out of Reimu with some synthesis... AUGH I'd need an exploding yin yang orb :T)

But do they learn like, anything interesting other than attack spells?  Even if I get them easy to kill, the 1/32 is... :T (I have a feeling I'll do it anyway because I have too much free time, I may as well stretch out the gameplay to satisfy collection desires) Not too much of a pain since they show up almost -too- often in the dream corridor next to the cave (Two at once, why?!), but still takes awhile. Whilst talking about doppels, I actually like Lesser Demon more than Izanami, Dark Breath is cheaper to spam so long as you've got fast casting speed, and I'm hoping those barrier passives get better. <3 Although Izanami learns her good moves significantly earlier and doesn't have light weakness and's got backup resurrection... so, not bad in the slightest.

Meanwhile, jeez, usually Saya is the one training priest doppels for me so her str is garbage, but if I give her a ranger Agincourt does land some serious pain (7 guaranteed hits). Bows have no single-target damage potential outside of their type 8 skills, but thankfully those pack a good whallop, it seems.

...reading the update, the bunsha is recruitable!? I better grab that, -especially- if it has fast strike because that is one of the best utility moves there is. Also wow the yukkuris don't troll counter the field anymore... that's interesting. Is there a better place to get the Cave Guardian than the fire cavern? >.> It's not exactly common there...
Edit:Eh in the final rooms it wasn't so bad. Grabbed 'em both.
edit more:Got Undine on #20, they're super common in that corridor, but Sylph... actually not so much. I've found -some-, but more yukkuris than sylphs, and they're usually in Bad News battle sets. :T May as well go to the even lower encounter rate pyramid I guess. (Addendum:Dear god they're rare at pyramid's depths. Better off hunting in the first room instead.)
I have a problem:Guan Yu from the top floor of Dream Castle is recruitable? You've got to be kidding me. 1/32 chance too, despite his abysmal encounter rate. Does he appear later too or something!?
more edits:Ogre Lady has benevolence wall... oh my. Less abusable than in other games because POW murder, but still notable. Also grabbed the Backbeard. This just leaves Sylph and Hell Truck until I reach Toono Castle... which has *Counts on fingers* 6 more sub doppels. HO BOY

Okay, checked Guan Yu's skills on the wiki before I even bothered because jesus. And, welp... Rainbow Shield Wall, shield boosting field, Refresh, and up to +20 shield evasion rate passive. Not like "I'm gonna be sad I don't have him" level, but he's not lame.

edit:WHY DIDN'T THE SYLPH JOIN AFTER THE 32ND KILL?! It was a hype fight too. It did the one thing that screws everything up (Psycho Slayer on Reimu) and it took Child of Misaki -and- kedama's Immortal field reviving literally the whole party from Intense Lightning to win and it didn't even join what the heck.
e:or the 33rd... I checked and yes Sylph is definitely 1/32... ;_;
e:34th time's the charm guys... >.>;;; I think what happened is, those times I killed Sylph AND STILL game overed... it didn't count, even though it registered the kill in the bestiary.

[Validon98]

Late responses and stuff I know (last night was TTRPG night, power was wonky, and I was still trying to write up the finale), but uh... the Salamander/Sylph/Undine tier I believe learns a few support skills, but the only one I remember is that Sylph gets Rapid Stream.

I didn't even see Guan Yu in my playthrough... at all. There were a few I missed, the silliest of them being the Obelisk from the Pyramid (just... the fact you get attacked by a giant, living obelisk amuses me). But yeah, he's decent if you want the shield skills, but it's not "make or break the game" worthy.

Speaking of bows and whatnot, by this point in the game I've abandoned the idea of using them ever, but next playthrough (because after this LP with the English patch and everything, I'm completely up for a new playthrough on my own time), I'll try them out on like Mamizou or Saya for type 8 skills and the like. I was thinking of trying to do a "no main doppels" run just to see how it'd go, but I imagine the answer is "not well", so I think I'll skip out on that.

Anyhow, update has been written up, it's just the videos I need to chop up and upload. Roughly 35ish minutes of footage that need to be converted into like six or so videos. Fun tiiimes~.

[Serela]

Late responses and stuff I know (last night was TTRPG night, power was wonky, and I was still trying to write up the finale), but uh... the Salamander/Sylph/Undine tier I believe learns a few support skills, but the only one I remember is that Sylph gets Rapid Stream.

If Sylph gets RAPID STREAM, the god tier move, then this was worth it. @.@; Based on the edits (34 kills?!) you can see this was an... endeavor. Thankfully I had 13 kills before I even started and got up to 18 whilst farming Undines (even if it turns out that was actually only 16...!) I fought several obelisks trying to find Sylph in the top of the pyramid before realizing that, yes, no, the chance is abysmal and the first room is WAY better. Like I ran into a few Guan Yus and Kirins trying to find Bunsha before realizing it's basically only in the dream corridor, but super common there at least, thank god.

Agincourt is definitely strong enough to go full-beast-mode with Bows if you want to for bosses and stuff, you just have to dual-wield to get around it's 2 turn cooldown (granted it's not like you can spam it until you have Ran). Random Shot is great for earlier. MP costs are 2 and 1 respectively so it's spammable with some doppel skills between and/or Ran. I... might actually swap Saya and Mamizou's roles in bosses and let Mamizou be Sanae Support and let Saya be the offensive healer with Eirin.

I'm over halfway to level 42. :V You were at lv37 at this point. I'm pretty sure it rubberbands the party EXP because my main doppels get way more than me. At least double, but I didn't pay much attention... maybe more.

[Validon98]

...Man, it's Rumia day, the start of Tanabata, and my little sister's birthday today when I'm posting this, and my own birthday's two days away. What a date to post this finale on, huh?

Nightmare of Rebellion Act: Finale- Eastern Strange Rumorous Dream

My translation of the Japanese title is probably incorrect, but... well that's that...?



Finally... the final boss awaits. Let's not keep the culprit waiting, shall we?

Cutscene: The Nightmare of Rebellion

The ultimate culprit, in all that has happened, was... Yukari Yakumo...? Wait a minute... what, why, how...?
So, much gets explained here, things that don't make a lot of sense, but... bear with me here. There are actually, at this point in time, three Yukaris. The Yukari of this point in time, 100 years from the present, currently asleep in Gensokyo/the Yakumo Household. There's also the Yukari in our party... in reality, not necessarily the Yukari we know, but rather a "dream" of the future... if that makes any sense. While she still is our Yukari in a sense, she's a vision of the future the current Yukari is having. And then there's the third Yukari, the culprit of this incident, the "Nightmare of Rebellion"... a result of Yukari's lingering doubts about the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier and what that meant for youkai. Whether they were to be allowed to flourish, or simply corralled and kept like a zoo... thoughts like that, doubts like that, that formed into a nightmare. And from that nightmare came the dark Yukari we see before us.

Her ultimate goal in this incident is to merge this changed new world of youkai with the Outside World, to raise the status of youkai, and to challenge history itself, the history we know of Gensokyo's creation. If this were to pass, the results could be dangerous, and history is on the brink of irreversibly being altered. What would occur if this were to happen? Nothing good, clearly.

As a result, here we are, five representatives of "official history", here to dispel the "unofficial history" that the dark Yukari wishes to create.

Yukari Yakumo of the future, desiring to dispel her old nightmare.
Mamizou Futatsuiwa, who had promised Hakusen to let this come to an end.
Marisa Kirisame, representative of humanity, whose magic will dispel any nightmare.
Reimu Hakurei, Hakurei Shrine Maiden of the future, and resolver of any incident that dares threaten Gensokyo.
Saya Kurahinata, Kurahinata Shrine Maiden of the present, Hieda no Akyuu's past incarnation, and the current Child of Misaki, who bears the weight of Toono and Gensokyo on her shoulders.

It's time for the five of us to defeat the dark Yukari Yakumo of the past, the Nightmare of Rebellion!



And so the final fight against Yukari Yakumo begins. Like with all Strawberry Bose final bosses, she's got more than one phase. This first one is relatively simple, she'll swap between elemental physical attacks and all kinds of nasty spells. MDEF and EVA buffs are a must, and resistance helps. I've gotten smacked about by an unlucky Lightning Stab or Flame Strike more than once in this phase. I believe she's weak to the elements, but her MDEF is sky high, so don't even bother with spells. Just whack at her with physicals, or elemental physicals if you can. She can also use Vortex to rid you of your buffs, so be wary of that.



Final Boss Theme: The Decisive Battle of Official and Unofficial History (Necrofantasia)

As for her second phase... it's a doozy. Yukari herself is pretty physically weak at first, but as time goes on, her aura changes color, and I believe her defenses swap from physical to magical, kinda like that one boss from Final Fantasy V in the Ronka Ruins. By the final phase, while physical attacks can still do a decent amount, magic attacks are a bit better. Of course, the entire rest of the fight sorta tricks you into thinking magic isn't good for this. Well, it is. Also, besides Yukari herself, there's several Hundred Demon Night Parades surrounding her, each with different attack types and weaknesses. All they do I believe is throw physical attacks at you, and I don't know all of their weaknesses and resistances off the top of my head (plus, well, no bestiary entries for any of these guys, sooooo yeah).

As for the major forms for this fight, the first one isn't too bad, when she first shifts, she can use her first spell card (which isn't too dangerous). Her second one is very dangerous upon going into third phase, and it revives any killed Hundred Demon Night Parades, but can be at least mitigated through stuff like MDEF buffs. I THINK Marionette Parrar from Alice also works on it. The fourth and last form is her berserk phase. If you don't kill her fast enough, she uses her ultimate spell card... which is fixed 7777 damage to everyone. Instant wipe, the ONLY thing that can block it is Mamizou's Last Word. I am not even joking, it's THAT bad.

You might think, by the way, "why not Yukari's Last Word?" Here's something I noticed... Yukari has a very high Last Word Chance rate in this fight, as if to goad you into using one... don't. Just don't. If you use Quadruple Barrier, Yukari (the boss, not your party member) will penetrate it regardless. Sukima Strash and Danmaku Barrier (her magic Last Word) are simply blocked by Reverse Quadruple Barrier. All of Yukari's Last Words are useless in this fight, so DON'T use them. Possibly using Sukima Strash or Danmaku Barrier MIGHT cause an AI override on spell cards, but I don't actually remember if it does. If it does, then those offensive Last Words, in theory, could negate her turn, but I wouldn't rely on my word here, I actually don't know if that's true.







Here's my death/reset collection for this... quite a few, even if I'm slightly overleveled for this fight. It is not an easy fight in the slightest, good god.

Final Boss: Vs. The Nightmare of Rebellion, Yukari Yakumo

I don't have much to say, other than holy god I think I barely avoided a wipe at the end. Yukari got the decisive blow against... herself.

Cutscene: Rebellion's Fading Dream

...We did it. We have proven ourselves superior to the wishes of Yukari's nightmares. As such, she allows history to progress as it should, and thus disappears, forever. It's not long before Mengniang comes back to finish things up, getting rid of the power of dreams that have engulfed Toono, and setting things right once more. After all, "official history" won. Plus, with that, the incident is over. And somehow, the four of us that were from the future get to return home... though that also means that Saya is going to stay behind, never to see any of us ever again. Well... here's to a last goodbye, Saya Kurahinata, Child of Misaki.

There's a lot of stuff going on in the epilogue, so I divided it up roughly into a few parts, and I'm just going to post the videos and not really comment on what happens, it mostly speaks for itself and at the time I'm writing up this update, I'm too tired to go into the files and figure out what everyone's saying in all the ending stuff. Anyone more willing to take a look, go ahead, the cutscenes are right there, otherwise I'll just briefly sum up what I understand for each video.

Epilogue

Seems like we're mostly wrapping up things that've been going on with everyone. Saya's back in school with Tomoko, seems like Arare has let go of her rivalry (which Hakusen's going to totally make fun of her over), Mengniang seems to be doing... whatever at this point, probably just going back to her actual baku duties now that the incident's over, Ino-Shika-Chou... well they've got not much to do, so why not mess around in Toono still, the rest of the party's back in Gensokyo in the present. All's well that ends well, right?

Credits

We get to see a summary of the game, in a sense here. Lots of stuff happening.

Cutscene: The Grave of Saya Kurahinata

...Of course, Yukari hasn't forgotten about Saya. 100 years later... Saya Kurahinata has long since passed away. Yukari pays her respects, before noticing her old flower hair ornament, which she takes and gives to Akyuu. Funny how that works... giving her next incarnation her old possessions. Possibly disgrace to the dead, but in a way, she lives on in Akyuu, no?



"All clear!" indeed... whew...



And that, everyone, was Nightmare of Rebellion... the main story, at least.



We got a neat little star on our file, and we spent... 69 hours, give or take like five for leaving the game running on accident, on finishing it. Not bad, a fairly decently long game, one I'm very glad to have LPed. But, alas, the fun never ends, for next time, we begin the expansion story, in the postgame act: Flooding Dream Act.

Final Results (Main Game):

Death Count: 28
Reset Count: 6
"I Forgot to Turn On Combat Effects" Count: 3

I synthesized a couple things too, like a Skill Stone, etc, but eh, we're good on that I suppose.

[Serela]

I did peek at a video of the final boss once, back when I thought that, y'know, I'd never get to play this game; based on what I remember, they did seem to use Yukari's LW on purpose a couple times. Might be some credence to it wasting a boss move. Can't say though, and now that I know what's going on I don't want to look at another video myself 'til I'm there struggling against nightmares on my own. ...I do recall they used a weird strat though. Moooostly normal attacks, a good chunk of Meso-cyclone and obviously enough support to not outright die, is all I really remember.

...I'm already at 42 hours. >_> A decent chunk of those were the, in hindsight, ridiculously unneeded Lesser Demon grind (I didn't realize it'd show up way more often later >.>) at the train station where I farmed a ton of yukkuris alongside. That took more time than Sylph took, at least, so Sylph wasn't... so bad? If you did it all in the first pyramid room, even going all the way to 32 kills would only take... a few hours if you killed a decent amount doing the pyramid normally. *cough cough cough*

[Validon98]

Huh, if that's the case with Yukari's Last Words, that's something for me to keep in mind for the Lunatic version of the fight if I end up doing it, which I might do if I like... get really high leveled. Given that right now in the expansion I'm level 80 (which uh... I didn't reach in my original file until the end, and yet right now I'm still uh... near the halfway point), I probably will end up doing that. Not the Lunatic expansion final boss though, that... I think I'll just let slide.

Also, I began another playthrough because I felt like it, with the intention of giving Saya bows. As if the game knew, I got a Short Bow off of one of the first Kedamas (which is somewhat of a rare thing), with like... an ACC and critical hit rate enchant on it. The game knows.

[Your Everyday NEET]

Congratulations!!! You finally completed this game! Your final boss video definitely gonna get a lot of views.

Thank God I'm not the one who fight the final boss. JRPG final boss can be really scary at times.

I actually liked the fact that you set your avatar to darkened picture of Nightmare Yukari, it makes us speculate who the final boss' going to be

Spoiler:

(Although I already knew in advance)

.

Now I'm looking forward to actually play it myself, WHEN I get to buy it. This game is so pretty... and awesome... And hard... but mostly hard.

[Validon98]

Yeah, I felt like doing the thing with the avatar because, well, it's fun. I do think it's unfortunate that for people who have never played, the expansion title screen gives away Nightmare!Yukari's existence. Not necessarily that she's the final boss, but it's obvious even to a newcomer that she's important. It'd be like GoS's title screen having Lithos, or DoD's having Angra. Ah well.

...Also...



Okay yeah no the game REALLY knows I want to do bows with Saya. Also holy damn I didn't realize it really until I put one on, but crossbow-type bows are incredibly heavy compared to short bows (to compare, most short bows have a Weight of 0, while a Crossbow has a weight of 12, which is comparable to pistol-type guns and most "standard" weight weapons).

[Serela]

It'd be cool if you could actually see equipment weight. :T

Anyway, I just ran into this guy in the caves depths.

...with 2 yukkuri sisters I couldn't touch because he wasn't pathetic to kill like, say, the elec-weak obelisk. And then he dropped the exploding yin-yang orb I needed holy crud! Glass cannon supermage Reimu is more complete now. She moves first anyway so all I need is DAT DAMAGE. ...also, I think this is supposed to be a tarrasque.

edit:Oh... I just got the Basilisk? I didn't know that was recruitable either. >.>
edit:Made it to Toono Castle up to the Ran fight. Got the hippogrit (Is hipporit a typo?) and en-no-ozuno on the way through, over half the manuscript kills (You can tell you're expected to get this one... thank goodness) and a realization that if I want Virtue I'm gonna have one hell of a time trying to get it considering it keeps appearing with LICHES, maybe there'll be easier encounters in part 2. I can nearly one-hit a salamander just with Zero Kelvin because my Reimu's that good, but he also tends to keep very scary company. :I At least Shiisa is easy with Dark Breath that ignores reflection.

[Validon98]

I've decided to take a breather before doing up the updates for the expansion (I might actually just wait until I finish the expansion on my own time before writing up the updates, so that I'm in no rush to do daily updates), so for now I suppose this can be a general NoR talk thread in the meanwhile.

In the meanwhile, Bow Appreciation run is going better than I thought. I'm still not entirely impressed by bows, but I'm making them work (Saya having the High Class Sailor Suit, which I've NEVER been able to craft before due to Schoolgirl Soul never dropping, sorta helps). Also, I've been trying to actually swap in Priests into random encounters more, and otherwise cycle through all my doppels rather than just focusing on the ones I really like. So instead of my LP where like... Suwako, Yuyuko, and Eiki have no levels, now they're roughly at the same point as everyone else. Sorta like cycling through party members in GoS.

[Serela]

Bows... aren't particularly impressive other than the type 8 skills. They're more for fast-casting AoE status effects and a couple slayers than anything else. Even when hitting a slayer the damage isn't that exciting, either. >_> The type 8s are really the only saving grace for doing any more than statuses. At least when your bow user isn't a big attacker they can use it to annihilate yukkuris.

Just finished clearing out doppels for Toono Castle, thank GOD I was lucky; Virtue is not common enough and I could have spent several hours of more grinding if I hadn't gotten it on #10; I got Shiisa and Salamander before too long either (certainly before I found a tenth virtue), and the fragrant scarf from the behemoth. By the way, is there any recipe I'd want to save the scarf for, or should I just make the HP Up light armor with it right now? It seems like this game makes drops like these nearly item-exclusive a lot, but I'm not sure. Behemoth isn't that bad when I've got Reimu pumped up so much that Disintegrate does over 10k >.>

Same with the regenerating cell for regen armor, actually. I think it's even in the same armor tier. Wait holy crud am I really using the armor from like the second or third set of recipes at game start still (apart from 0 def +20% magic damage robe and the all-physical-resist light armor because sweeeet)

edit:Holy crud the Hakusen+Arare boss fight is hard. I can get them both down to critical HP but the first time I ran out of power with like 1k~ hp each, and on slightly more conservative runs I keep getting demolished by Arare using her water resist debuff card every other turn several times in a row and picking people off with Zero Kelvin in between. I guess I need to place water resist on everyone in addition to dark resist... magic barrier+ele shield wall+mass element shelter isn't sustainable enough for this onslaught ;_;
edit:Okay I did it. But there was an amazing failed attempt where only Akyuu was alive, she revived Yukari (who has star dark+water from izanami/undine) and they nearly solo'd the last 10k hp of each boss until Reisen's Mind Shaker slayed the concentration status and killed Arare just by a hair, ruining the fight. I almost won anyway because Hakusen concentrated, but Yuugi's Koi3S is somewhat inaccurate and flat-out-missed hakuren. rip.

edit: Fun fact, if you use a draining attack on yourself it'll kill your main doppel (Sorry Eirin~)... but you remain alive because of the simultaneous heal :V I guess if you REALLY wanted to swap to a different doppel class...
edit: I just sparked Starlight Arrow and holy crudmuffins is it powerful, all of the all-target bow skills were just depressing and then WHAMMO
edit:With Chen and a Skill Stone, using Chaotic Thrusting and Blood Lance is actually incredible for bosses... I never thought a spear user would be my boss damage MVP. She did like 6k with a lucky Chaotic on refight Mengniang, without a pdef debuff or weapon bless or dragon power or anything. e:Oh, I just watched your video of that fight... what the hell Saya?! I'm not sure how much that is the damage bonus from str and your equipment... actually, you did make an A.Muscle; I forgot to do this already, nor did I have str doppels or accessories on, needed resists. Okay, she probably coulda been hitting for a lot more.
edit:Okay, at the final boss... now it's just grabbing some doppels (I'll try to at least get a couple more of the 1/32 ones, the 1/64 top floor doppels are a bit lulz even if several of them aren't hard to kill) and finding the couple chests I missed in the top floor maze. With yin-yangs that shouldn't take long, already did the dream corridor.
e:I was not hunting for her but Crocell literally joined on the second kill holy crud thanks game
OH WOW SHE GETS A LOT OF PHYS/MAG BARRIER, it's already 10% at lv2 or 3
e:Lesser Dragon at 14 kills, Greater Demon within like the next half hour at 10 kills. Luck is real. I won't ever get Ambivalence though, will I? :V Just that left and Zhuge Liang... well, and Lu Bu, but semi-common with 1/32 isn't SO bad. NEVERMIND ZHUGE LIANG JUST JOINED WOW. Ambivalence get the hell over here you're the one I wanted the most anywayyyyy
e:Ambivalence joined after... 57 kills. I have a problem, I know. :C Killed 47 yukkuri kings. All my best sub doppels are lv14 now, one about to be 15. Party level 75. Characters are 43~44 weapon proficiency. The overlevel is real. I got an EMP Pistol, three kusanagi swords (GIVE ME SOMETHING ELSE :C), Murder License, five High Belts (AMBIVALENCE PLEASE), and the Keel. And a boatload of gold. Did I mention Ambivalence is definitely much rarer than every other encounter here 'cept Yukkuri King?!
e:Yukari can freely Last Word the final boss for damage if she's charging up a spellcard (at the least, her final card). Dao Fetal Movement will save you from uberdeath. I didn't try using Quadruple Barrier but, uh, I think that's what I saw someone do in a video for that attack, come to think of it... as an aside, Mach Stab did way more damage than Marisa was doing with swords (until the final phase needed Acala), so if you're willing to use Chen and a skill stone on your spear user they will murderize bosses splendidly just like the other weapons.
e:Based on Lunatic form of the final boss, using Yukari's LW attacks on the earlier cards will nullify them at the cost of making her immune to damage for that turn. ...without doing -anything- and just immediately rechallenging her from the end of maingame, I can get down about a third of her second form's hp, but I just don't have the damage output with maingame stuff to kill her before my POW runs out (plus she can kill people sometimes now) Since you keep sparked skills after game over you can learn lv70 stuff off her first form though lel

[Validon98]

Too many comments I didn't comment on to really answer them all, but... daaamn and I thought I was overleveling in the expansion.

And how did I forget that Dao Fetal Movement was a thing that basically is a one-turn "screw death". That would've avoided at least one wipe. Uggggh.

[Serela]

WELL NO ONE REPLIED FOR LIKE A WEEK, so they kept building up :V I just posted another comment about my go at the lunatic version of the final boss.

Spoiler:

Also holy shit mengiang and arare are silly. I think I'll let Reimu start sparking physical skills now that they exist (so I can see all the blunt ones!), and since she's at 32 proficiency and everyone else is pretty much -done- so they can afford to do magic.

...Ambivalence took literally almost an entire day of grinding. It's shameful. I don't even have the excuse I was grinding multiple doppels because I got literally every other one within a couple hours the day beforehand, miraculously.

[Validon98]

Yeah no, those two are incredibly silly and I'll be going over that a bit of course once I start posting expansion stuff. Speaking of, I think my break from this LP should be coming to a close soon, I'm starting to get restless about getting back to it (not to mention I really want to go back and recruit

Spoiler:

a Royal Duke at least, maybe a Yukkuri King

), so probably in the next day or so I'll finally write up the first expansion post. :V

Seriously though good job being able to partially rip through Lunatic!Yukari a bit. I guess knowing how to manipulate and block off those spell cards the rest of her attacks aren't too bad, all her power comes from those cards (in the second half at least)

[Serela]

Cosmic Liner is actually pretty bad. >_> Most of your resistance sources aren't gonna cover that one...

I'm just learning some weapon skills off refighting Lunatic!Yukari for now. It's pretty fast and easy with the button to skip the cutscene. I don't have quite enough time this morning to really get into expansion, so I'll stick with this for now.

Spoiler:

I also just noticed Kosuzu and Iku in my list, reward code doppels huzzah :D

edit:Picking up almost all the 70 tier skills (minus the ones that are "have this weapon or you've got 1% chance") was pretty easy, I surprisingly even got all the type 8 ones. I nearly killed Yukari's first form a few times pfft. She's just got... no defense at all, I think. That's one of the reasons I can't kill the second form; once it's def starts picking up, damage drops like a stone since I'm not actually using postgame weaponry. Ah well, easy weapon skill source. <3

[Validon98]

I never thought of using her as a weapon skill thing, but hey, whatever works (I just ended up fighting Death Ghosts in World of Dreams ~ Unexisting for the most part since they've got the same physical immunity that makes them perfect for weapon skill punching bags).



Also, still haven't gotten a Royal Duke. Yet I got its extremely rare drop after... 43 kills? So close to 64. X_X;

EDIT:



AAAAAAAAAAAAAA, 64 KILLS, NOW I'M LEVEL 87, WHAT THE HELL I WAS LIKE LEVEL 75ISH AT THIS POINT IN MY ORIGINAL RUN. KILL ME.

EDIT 2: I was curious, since both the regular and Lunatic versions of Yukari do not have a bestiary entry. Turns out she's level 95 in her first form and level 99 in her second form (all four stages), so she can be used to spark any skill, and I've gotten to the point where I can spark practically any skill I want. So hey, I can purposefully game over myself to learn the final tier that requires level 99 enemies. :'D

EDIT 3: Got Hyperdimensional Crushing Slash and Fermion Balancer (both final tier weapon skills) off of Yukari, so that should be good for now. I could try getting the 0.1% chance of getting Flying Wheel for Reimu, but eh, I think I'm good. Hyperdimensional Crushing Slash is already stupidly powerful, and it only requiring game over-ing once. :V

[Serela]

Yeahh, there's no way I'm going for 0.1% skills without getting their equipment first, even if I can TECHNICALLY  spark them right now  :getdown: I thought hyper crushing slash seemed underwhelming for what it is BUT that's probably just because I was fighting 0 defense yukari where stuff like shooting star sword does a bajillion damage.

I'm surprised Divine Barrier is still a thing when all the foreign god type sub doppels still just have physical barrier and magical barrier, but I guess that makes it less piercable, assumably. Either that or it's for stacking purposes depending on how it works, kinda like how they divvy'd up some of the deflection types so you can't hit nearly 100% physical deflection... (Or maybe they just wanted to make the equipment sound more varied. Meiling, I've found a purpose for you, lets see what happens despite how empty your jp wiki page is >:V)

[Validon98]

...I looked around on 4chan just now for something to help someone out with installing Nightmare of Rebellion (forgot how what the serial stuff you had to input was, it's been some time and I remembered seeing someone post a translation there), and I see people on there were talking in a thread about the translation efforts for this and DoD and the like. Wow, I... feel a bit weird now having my name being spread around on 4chan. I assume that was you, Serela? :V

Anyhow, LP-wise within the next week I believe I'll get cracking on doing updates. I've done most of the expansion by now other than the final dungeon (so there's like two more bosses and some other stuff), so I might just do it all and then do the updates after. I might, this time around at least, do the Lunatic version of the final boss as bonus, but I'm sure as hell not doing the Lunatic version of the expansion final boss.

[MewMewHeart]

Whew... Hagino was a toughie, but I managed to beat her thanks to using a somewhat carbon copy version of Validon's strategy, although she almost killed Reimu if it wasn't for the EVA buff and having Earthwall up. I'll give my two cents about the other two bosses soon.

Edit: Botan GAVE me no trouble once so ever... well towards the end after she berserk'd my three killers and ended up getting a rod to the face by Marisa which killed Botan.

Edit 2: FUCKING DEER BOSS IS GIVING ME CANCER HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!!!