Phantasy Star 3 came up in the threads this weekend and I was annoyed to note that while this exists, I couldn't find one with the mothers. So I made one.
I'm not sure I understand what's going on but... shouldn't there be two lines in the lower-right corner, or did that blond guy marry his sister(?)/identical genderswap twin thing?
Mothers definitely matter, especially in that pic! Those dads have a LOT of recessive features, and the kids look just like the moms. The only paternal trait I see in any of the kids is that blue-white haired dad with brown-haired mom makes froggy-haired kid.
Oh hey, another opportunity to talk about my favorite mildly obscure tactical story-based visual-novel-like JRPG.
So in Agarest, the mother is pretty much -all that matters- in terms of determining a lot of the traits, including the physical appearance of the next generation, as well as affecting their stats, and what sorts of weapons they use. Yeah. Also it may be affected by the love rating. ("Let me quantify my love for you on a scale of one to five, dear... with SCIENCE!") And depending on the specific matches over the generations and the hero's lineage you'll get different results. This mostly just tends towards annoyance, however, like when the second generation hero uses freaking knuckles despite his father using a sword and his mother wielding a spear. And his own portrait still showing him with a greatsword. Rrrr. Well, four dollar budget, but still.
Visiting the folks today! Barbeque, awww yeah. And I'll be going with them to vote in a primary tomorrow. We're pretty much going to march in lockstep with the list published in the local labor rag about the candidates that are friendliest towards labor. So, we're union thugs then, and happily so, since I'm not personally as familiar about the local stuff as I should be.
Also we've got a state constitutional amendment coming up about Obamacare and socialism and Kenyans and stuff, and it's worded confusing to trip people up since that's the sort of ethical behavior Republicans love if they can get away with it.
Just watched a cool TV show about Jules Verne, too. It was called like Prophets and Science Fiction and boy, they weren't kidding. First TV programming to catch my interest in a while, partially because I don't have it at home. No point with the internets, and the internets are much cheaper in any case. I've been inspired to write today! It's just one of those things. Write as often as you can. Throw it out if it's bad later but for now just make that commitment to put electrons on the paper.
"Let me quantify my love for you on a scale of one to five, dear... with SCIENCE!"
I lol'd.
You ever play Star Ocean 2? Several hundred possible endings, each minutely determined by the way each member in your party feels about you (and EACH OTHER) on a Friendship Scale and a Love Scale. I ran through many/most of the endings by manipulating the scores directly. Phew.
I'm now amused by possible PS3 fan fic exploring how utterly ridiculously impossible it would be to determine adultery-through-genetics in this world. Since the children all universally favor their mother, apparently.
I would also like to note that I both love and loathe "pick a spouse" games. I feel SO GUILTY for not picking everyone.
I have that problem with Harvest Moon, too. (Thinking of Back to Nature, specifically. But all of them, really.) I always pick Popuri so she won't skip town with her Alternate Boyfriend and make her mom and brother sad. FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY.
...hey, I'm not alone in enjoying Harvest Moon: Back to Nature! That was a very fun game.
What I really want to see is someone take the idea of games like Agarest War and run with it: Not only does each choice affect who the PC's of the next generation are, but it also changes the entire story!
Assume the hero married the princess or duchess or whatever: We cut to a new generation where his son is a soldier in his uncle's army, before eventually having a change of heart, joining the resistance, gathering his brother and sister from random parts of the region and taking on their uncle!
...if you instead marry the witch, your daughter will be a wanderer hoping to make a quick buck and find a safe place for her younger brother to grow up. They will battle with sword and spell to fight the persecution against those with their powers, that never would have happened had the father stuck with his royal influence.
And so on. Something like that would be fun, but would definitely get complicated after five generations or so. But it would be a great deal of fun, nevertheless!
I know what you mean. I get seized by this huge feeling of indecision. For the first two gens I don't have much a problem; I've got clear favorites. Gen 2 is particularly one where I only see one choice for me. Gens 3, 4, and 5, though? We might have to get polygamous up in the hizzle before the story ends. That's what I did in frustration with Skies of Arcadia's love triangle business.
No, I haven't dipped my toes into the Star Ocean series yet after sampling the latest offering and, uh. I liked how it was going in the beginning. When they crashed on the planet and I saw the ship's marines using guns, and the hero using a gun too, I had a bit of hope. And then monsters attack the crew, and they mysteriously manifest a force-shield that renders high-powered assault rifle bullets completely ineffective. The hero saves the day when they think to pick up an industrial cutting implement and use it like a sword, which of course completely defeats a barrier strong and fast enough to reflect bullets. I know it was just a reason to have the hero using a sword even though he's from the future, but. That was about it for me. Yep.
(I wonder if there's ever an answer for the mysterious animals able to summon energy shields specifically able to counter bullets but unable to block a hunk of comparatively slow-moving metal.)
I have to admit, that many endings is legitimately impressive for any game. How different were they? Is it like a 'how are they doing now?' thing or slideshow?
-Goes to scour the Youtubes for an LP of this Star Ocean 2-
One of my favorite things to do is save right before an ending with Choices or different outcomes and check them all out. Or just repeat the ending to a game over and over if it's awesome.
So there'd be 2^(generation, with the princess and witch as generation zero) possible lineages each generation at minimum. If there are some stories that are nearly identical (if the witch's daughter marries the priest or the princess's son marries the dragonman, their children will have to deal with the terrorist group that considers them the result of mingling pure and vile blood) than that's a more manageable level of writing, but still a very cool game if executed well. ---- I wonder if there's ever an answer for the mysterious animals able to summon energy shields specifically able to counter bullets but unable to block a hunk of comparatively slow-moving metal. Beneficial mutation? Even if it isn't protected against swords, a bulletproof critter is more likely to survive and reproduce in a habitat where there are guns about.
One of my favorite things to do is save right before an ending with Choices or different outcomes and check them all out. Same here. In games with dialogue choices that just affect a few lines of the script, I also tend to save before each one choice to see what happens if I choose each option.
Having the actual stories be nearly identical would be a problem. Just inserting a different face for the same story seems... lazy. Now, if each generation has a lot of the same underlying problems, and the same suite of locations and dungeons... that could cut down on time. However, just because the ancient castle is used by the princess's son and his cohort as a dungeon to clear out to gain a magical artifact, doesn't mean that that same location, in the farm girl's twins' scenario, can't actually become their Suikoden-lite home base... and not even encountered in the witch's daughter's scenario, because she has no reason to go there!
Then there's the fact that having more than one kid... either the other kids never had kids themselves, or that shouldn't be under the control of the "main" descendant of the generation.
Oh my gosh, how awesomely geeky is this thread? SO AWESOMELY GEEKY.
@Anthony, HARVEST MOON HIGH FIVEZ!
@Jonathan, [Star Ocean Spoilers]
If you stick with the game, eventually (and this is a LONG eventually) it comes back around to being a sci-fi story, but yeah the hero uses a sword for most (all?) of the game. I *think* there was something mineralogically meaningful about the sword, but it's been awhile.
But the endings. They *are* a "where are they now", but considering that some of the options include traveling across space-time and some of them include staying on an Always Medieval Fantasy planet and working in a junk yard, there's a lot of range. What impressed me the most was that it took friendship into account as well as love. So if Janet and Bob love each other, they'll return to their space exploration ways, but if Lacey is BFFs with Janet, she'll come along for the fun.
And there's enough dialog in each option to make them genuinely fun to seek out. I'm sure they're all on YouTube somewhere. :)
SUIKODEN! My favorite is 2, but I'm still terribly fond of 1.
3 I liked much less, partly because I didn't like being yanked into 4 different heroes, especially not every time I started to get interested. I ave 4 and 5, but haven't played them yet.
When it comes to that game, the last time I played it I went with Karen... and the one before that, the librarian girl. Really, a fun fun game.
Also, Suikoden. Great games as well! I miss playing 2... I really wish I had a copy, but I have never been able to justify the several-hundred dollar cost of used copies... I've been waiting for the game to go onto the Playstation Network ever since the first game was put on there, but so far no luck.
I wish more games took the central mechanic of Suikoden, and worked with that. I bet there are places you could go with that whole "gather a large group of NPCs and PCs into an army" that would be even better. I don't feel like the concept has reached its peak, but nobody really does it.
Mary! I like Mary. I like all of them, but Karen is expensive to woo. Wine adds up.
Suikoden 2 is hundreds of dollars used?? That's... wow. If ever there was a need for a PS3 reprint, that would be now, I think. I wonder if the rights are in limbo?
I really liked the way 2 maintained the "army mode" but with an eye towards your individual units mattering.
There's a freeware game called Exit Fate that's Suikoden-esque. I can't personally attest to its quality because it's a Windows game and my computer-buying decisions were based on my college selling Mac products in the bookstore rather than my ability to play computer games, but it's supposed to be good.
Yes, sadly, it's one of the most sought-after video games out there. I almost had it for ten bucks in high school, and the price had already gone up for it even then... but I mentioned it to my friend, including how pricey and rare the game was.
So, I was gonna bring the money the next day, but my friend had the ten bucks with him then... and he bought it up from the guy then and there. And then sold it to someone else for profit. Because he wanted money, and because I wanted it.
I wonder if there's ever an answer for the mysterious animals able to summon energy shields specifically able to counter bullets but unable to block a hunk of comparatively slow-moving metal.
Beneficial mutation? Even if it isn't protected against swords, a bulletproof critter is more likely to survive and reproduce in a habitat where there are guns about.
Buut what benefit would it get from that shield being unable to protect against swords? The usual explanation used is that the shield works in such a way that it somehow only blocks high-velocity attacks.
So, I was gonna bring the money the next day, but my friend had the ten bucks with him then... and he bought it up from the guy then and there. And then sold it to someone else for profit. Because he wanted money, and because I wanted it.
There's no benefit from it being unable to protect against swords, but it's more useful than not having it. Besides, if it prevents things from moving about as slowly as a sword, than it would stop the critter from moving.
23 comments:
I'm not sure I understand what's going on but... shouldn't there be two lines in the lower-right corner, or did that blond guy marry his sister(?)/identical genderswap twin thing?
They're twins; I didn't want to mess up the straight line thing I had going on. :D
Mothers definitely matter, especially in that pic! Those dads have a LOT of recessive features, and the kids look just like the moms. The only paternal trait I see in any of the kids is that blue-white haired dad with brown-haired mom makes froggy-haired kid.
And that will here after be his name in my mind: Froggy Hair.
Yeah, I was gonna ask - is this a universe where hair color is primarily carried on the X chromosome?
Not officially, but if it didn't, then the love triangle outcomes would look identical. :P
Oh hey, another opportunity to talk about my favorite mildly obscure tactical story-based visual-novel-like JRPG.
So in Agarest, the mother is pretty much -all that matters- in terms of determining a lot of the traits, including the physical appearance of the next generation, as well as affecting their stats, and what sorts of weapons they use. Yeah. Also it may be affected by the love rating. ("Let me quantify my love for you on a scale of one to five, dear... with SCIENCE!") And depending on the specific matches over the generations and the hero's lineage you'll get different results. This mostly just tends towards annoyance, however, like when the second generation hero uses freaking knuckles despite his father using a sword and his mother wielding a spear. And his own portrait still showing him with a greatsword. Rrrr. Well, four dollar budget, but still.
Visiting the folks today! Barbeque, awww yeah. And I'll be going with them to vote in a primary tomorrow. We're pretty much going to march in lockstep with the list published in the local labor rag about the candidates that are friendliest towards labor. So, we're union thugs then, and happily so, since I'm not personally as familiar about the local stuff as I should be.
Also we've got a state constitutional amendment coming up about Obamacare and socialism and Kenyans and stuff, and it's worded confusing to trip people up since that's the sort of ethical behavior Republicans love if they can get away with it.
Just watched a cool TV show about Jules Verne, too. It was called like Prophets and Science Fiction and boy, they weren't kidding. First TV programming to catch my interest in a while, partially because I don't have it at home. No point with the internets, and the internets are much cheaper in any case. I've been inspired to write today! It's just one of those things. Write as often as you can. Throw it out if it's bad later but for now just make that commitment to put electrons on the paper.
"Let me quantify my love for you on a scale of one to five, dear... with SCIENCE!"
I lol'd.
You ever play Star Ocean 2? Several hundred possible endings, each minutely determined by the way each member in your party feels about you (and EACH OTHER) on a Friendship Scale and a Love Scale. I ran through many/most of the endings by manipulating the scores directly. Phew.
I'm now amused by possible PS3 fan fic exploring how utterly ridiculously impossible it would be to determine adultery-through-genetics in this world. Since the children all universally favor their mother, apparently.
I would also like to note that I both love and loathe "pick a spouse" games. I feel SO GUILTY for not picking everyone.
I have that problem with Harvest Moon, too. (Thinking of Back to Nature, specifically. But all of them, really.) I always pick Popuri so she won't skip town with her Alternate Boyfriend and make her mom and brother sad. FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY.
...hey, I'm not alone in enjoying Harvest Moon: Back to Nature! That was a very fun game.
What I really want to see is someone take the idea of games like Agarest War and run with it: Not only does each choice affect who the PC's of the next generation are, but it also changes the entire story!
Assume the hero married the princess or duchess or whatever: We cut to a new generation where his son is a soldier in his uncle's army, before eventually having a change of heart, joining the resistance, gathering his brother and sister from random parts of the region and taking on their uncle!
...if you instead marry the witch, your daughter will be a wanderer hoping to make a quick buck and find a safe place for her younger brother to grow up. They will battle with sword and spell to fight the persecution against those with their powers, that never would have happened had the father stuck with his royal influence.
And so on. Something like that would be fun, but would definitely get complicated after five generations or so. But it would be a great deal of fun, nevertheless!
I know what you mean. I get seized by this huge feeling of indecision. For the first two gens I don't have much a problem; I've got clear favorites. Gen 2 is particularly one where I only see one choice for me. Gens 3, 4, and 5, though? We might have to get polygamous up in the hizzle before the story ends. That's what I did in frustration with Skies of Arcadia's love triangle business.
No, I haven't dipped my toes into the Star Ocean series yet after sampling the latest offering and, uh. I liked how it was going in the beginning. When they crashed on the planet and I saw the ship's marines using guns, and the hero using a gun too, I had a bit of hope. And then monsters attack the crew, and they mysteriously manifest a force-shield that renders high-powered assault rifle bullets completely ineffective. The hero saves the day when they think to pick up an industrial cutting implement and use it like a sword, which of course completely defeats a barrier strong and fast enough to reflect bullets. I know it was just a reason to have the hero using a sword even though he's from the future, but. That was about it for me. Yep.
(I wonder if there's ever an answer for the mysterious animals able to summon energy shields specifically able to counter bullets but unable to block a hunk of comparatively slow-moving metal.)
I have to admit, that many endings is legitimately impressive for any game. How different were they? Is it like a 'how are they doing now?' thing or slideshow?
-Goes to scour the Youtubes for an LP of this Star Ocean 2-
One of my favorite things to do is save right before an ending with Choices or different outcomes and check them all out. Or just repeat the ending to a game over and over if it's awesome.
So there'd be 2^(generation, with the princess and witch as generation zero) possible lineages each generation at minimum. If there are some stories that are nearly identical (if the witch's daughter marries the priest or the princess's son marries the dragonman, their children will have to deal with the terrorist group that considers them the result of mingling pure and vile blood) than that's a more manageable level of writing, but still a very cool game if executed well.
----
I wonder if there's ever an answer for the mysterious animals able to summon energy shields specifically able to counter bullets but unable to block a hunk of comparatively slow-moving metal. Beneficial mutation? Even if it isn't protected against swords, a bulletproof critter is more likely to survive and reproduce in a habitat where there are guns about.
One of my favorite things to do is save right before an ending with Choices or different outcomes and check them all out.
Same here. In games with dialogue choices that just affect a few lines of the script, I also tend to save before each one choice to see what happens if I choose each option.
Having the actual stories be nearly identical would be a problem. Just inserting a different face for the same story seems... lazy. Now, if each generation has a lot of the same underlying problems, and the same suite of locations and dungeons... that could cut down on time. However, just because the ancient castle is used by the princess's son and his cohort as a dungeon to clear out to gain a magical artifact, doesn't mean that that same location, in the farm girl's twins' scenario, can't actually become their Suikoden-lite home base... and not even encountered in the witch's daughter's scenario, because she has no reason to go there!
Then there's the fact that having more than one kid... either the other kids never had kids themselves, or that shouldn't be under the control of the "main" descendant of the generation.
Oh my gosh, how awesomely geeky is this thread? SO AWESOMELY GEEKY.
@Anthony, HARVEST MOON HIGH FIVEZ!
@Jonathan, [Star Ocean Spoilers]
If you stick with the game, eventually (and this is a LONG eventually) it comes back around to being a sci-fi story, but yeah the hero uses a sword for most (all?) of the game. I *think* there was something mineralogically meaningful about the sword, but it's been awhile.
But the endings. They *are* a "where are they now", but considering that some of the options include traveling across space-time and some of them include staying on an Always Medieval Fantasy planet and working in a junk yard, there's a lot of range. What impressed me the most was that it took friendship into account as well as love. So if Janet and Bob love each other, they'll return to their space exploration ways, but if Lacey is BFFs with Janet, she'll come along for the fun.
And there's enough dialog in each option to make them genuinely fun to seek out. I'm sure they're all on YouTube somewhere. :)
SUIKODEN! My favorite is 2, but I'm still terribly fond of 1.
3 I liked much less, partly because I didn't like being yanked into 4 different heroes, especially not every time I started to get interested. I ave 4 and 5, but haven't played them yet.
@Ana: I RETURN THE HIGH FIVEZ!
When it comes to that game, the last time I played it I went with Karen... and the one before that, the librarian girl. Really, a fun fun game.
Also, Suikoden. Great games as well! I miss playing 2... I really wish I had a copy, but I have never been able to justify the several-hundred dollar cost of used copies... I've been waiting for the game to go onto the Playstation Network ever since the first game was put on there, but so far no luck.
I wish more games took the central mechanic of Suikoden, and worked with that. I bet there are places you could go with that whole "gather a large group of NPCs and PCs into an army" that would be even better. I don't feel like the concept has reached its peak, but nobody really does it.
Mary! I like Mary. I like all of them, but Karen is expensive to woo. Wine adds up.
Suikoden 2 is hundreds of dollars used?? That's... wow. If ever there was a need for a PS3 reprint, that would be now, I think. I wonder if the rights are in limbo?
I really liked the way 2 maintained the "army mode" but with an eye towards your individual units mattering.
Yay Suikoden. Even though I've only played V.
There's a freeware game called Exit Fate that's Suikoden-esque. I can't personally attest to its quality because it's a Windows game and my computer-buying decisions were based on my college selling Mac products in the bookstore rather than my ability to play computer games, but it's supposed to be good.
Yes, sadly, it's one of the most sought-after video games out there. I almost had it for ten bucks in high school, and the price had already gone up for it even then... but I mentioned it to my friend, including how pricey and rare the game was.
So, I was gonna bring the money the next day, but my friend had the ten bucks with him then... and he bought it up from the guy then and there. And then sold it to someone else for profit. Because he wanted money, and because I wanted it.
I wonder if there's ever an answer for the mysterious animals able to summon energy shields specifically able to counter bullets but unable to block a hunk of comparatively slow-moving metal.
Beneficial mutation? Even if it isn't protected against swords, a bulletproof critter is more likely to survive and reproduce in a habitat where there are guns about.
Buut what benefit would it get from that shield being unable to protect against swords?
The usual explanation used is that the shield works in such a way that it somehow only blocks high-velocity attacks.
So, I was gonna bring the money the next day, but my friend had the ten bucks with him then... and he bought it up from the guy then and there. And then sold it to someone else for profit. Because he wanted money, and because I wanted it.
...Sounds like a wonderful friend.
There's no benefit from it being unable to protect against swords, but it's more useful than not having it. Besides, if it prevents things from moving about as slowly as a sword, than it would stop the critter from moving.
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