Monday, April 20, 2015

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox! part 27

San Ilia (Never trust a vegetarian librarian)

It's part 27 of the epic Monmusu Quest: Paradox playthrough (go back here for part 1) and we're off to a new city, San Ilia.

There are some new wandering monster girls in this area, including some predatory… watermelons?


That's going to make for an interesting post-loss evaluation.

Ilias: "And how did you lose this time, you pathetic masochist?"

Luka: "I was eaten by a watermelon."

Over-levelled as I probably am, I still managed a legitimate loss to a trio of melon munchers.  Sleep is quite effective when it knocks the entire party out and no-one wakes up before they've all had their HP reduced to nought.  Despite their appearance, the Bad End is surprisingly non-vorey.  The watermelon part does half swallow Luka, but it's only to get his cock shoved up in soft, squidgy flesh for a rather odd sex scene.


Very fruity, I suppose.

San Ilia, as with most of the city locations, is massive.  There's plenty of background and information on the surrounding area.  There's some kind of shrine at the Luddite village to the north-east of here.  The tunnel north of there is blocked because of the war.  I suspect the Paradox series will go more into that in the second chapter.  Also to the north is a haunted mansion (likely Chrome's mansion from the first series) and a forest region full of elves and fairies (likely the Forest of Spirits where Sylph can be found).  There are also mentions of two new areas – a holy mountain where everyone's a priest to the north and some slums to the west called Monte Carlo.

There are also warnings about new abnormal statuses and what needs to be bought to cure them.  Zombies can cause the zombify status and holy water is required to cure it.  Fairies can shrink party members and this needs a lucky mallet to fix.  Neither is likely to be relevant until we enter Chrome's mansion and the Forest of Spirits respectively.

In the inn there's a funny moment when we try to take something out of a pot in the same room as another party.  They all turn around and ask him what he's doing.  This is likely a continuation of TTR's in-joke about the kleptomaniac heroes of most RPGs.

The blacksmith can make Mithril weapons and armour, but as with Midas Village we have to go and find a chunk of Mithril for him to use first.

The battle-fucker can be found up in the northwest.  You can't miss her.  Hers is the house with all the crashed-out dudes outside the door.  And she's a…


…nun?

A very naughty nun at that.  We lose the first time.  Then I remember to remove the Desperate Training ability from Luka and…


…we lose again.  Hmm, I might have to re-evaluate that 'probably over-levelled' bit.

There's a big cathedral-type building to the north.  The two kitsune are staring at it in wonderment.  News of Luka's baptism (where Ilias herself came down) has spread and we're ushered straight through to the big guy on entering the cathedral.


The pope doesn't have any information on the White Rabbit, but he does have some possible news on Marcellus, Luka's father.  There was a sighting around the third Tartarus pit near Sabasa.  He also left a book in the library, but it's down in the lower level and that's overrun by demons.

Oh, we're in that part of the world.  Prepare yeself book lovers, you're about to be introduced to a more literal (and forceful!) interpretation of the term.

There are a lot of worshippers in the room next to the pope.  It's another of those areas where I suspect having Ilias in the party would be very funny.  As it is we have to make do with Promestein being very snarky to the 'truer' believers, and Promestein is an extremely snarky angel.

The way to the library is down a big set of stairs to the right of the main entrance.  A guard warns about the demons on the lower levels.  Candola, the candle wax girl, is quite excited by the prospect of setting a lot of possessed books on fire.

The upper level is full of more NPCs giving out helpful advice I don't understand.  The level below that is a conventional dungeon where Page 17 and Page 257 return from the original series to form the encounters for this section.


They're the only monster girls I encountered.  No new monster girls for this location.

The boss at the end is Page 65537.


As with Meda it looks like the tentacle rule has come into play.  Congratulations Setouchi, your creations are so alien the game no longer has to pixelate their naughty bits.


Again I muff up the translation.  In the previous series the demons were left here by Alice to stop heroes from finding out about the four elemental spirits and becoming strong enough to be a nuisance to monster girls.  Alice is surprised at Page 65537's behaviour.  I can't tell if it's because her mother (or the imposter of her mother) left the demons here, or Alice did and her mother/imposter overrode her orders to have Page 65537 guard this particular book.

This is one of those moments in Paradox where it's clear that gains in complexity in some areas (the recruitment and party systems) have resulted in losses in others (the struggling against a dominant monster girl aspect of the original puzzle battles).  The original fight had multiple phases and multiple ways for Luka to be dominated.  Paradox is a much more complex and better 'game' game, but the fights lack the sexy edge the original and other battle-fuck games like ROBF have.

After beating Page 65537 she hands over the book she was guarding.  It's from Marcellus and addressed directly to Luka.  It tells him to seek out contracts with the elemental spirits.  Again this is a repeat of the MGQ storyline, but tweaked from a different angle.

Alice tries to recruit Page 65537 back into the fold.  As condition for joining the fold Page 65537 wants a slushy romance book, The Lover of Mrs Shirley.  One problem, the book is so popular it's sold out everywhere.  Fortunately – and rather conveniently – the prize for beating Naughty Nun Maria at a battle-fuck is that exact tome.

Back in the castle Page 65537 claims to be a vegetarian when it comes to gifts.  That means it's probably safe to check out her request moves.

At 10 Affection.  "This meat machine is an evil design for squeezing out men's lives.  One more squeeze will kill you."

Squeeze!


At 50 Affection.  "You're fortunate to experience this in safe surroundings.  This meat machine is an evil design for squeezing out men's lives.  One more squeeze would kill you.  Mmm.  I've changed my mind."

Squeeze!

At 100 Affection.  "This meat machine is an evil design for squeezing out men's lives.  One more squeeze will kill you."

Sque—

Nah, this time she lets us out.

Remember, always feed your monster girl plenty of mea—

She's a vegetarian.

Well that's us stupid for trusting her in the first place then.

Anyway.  That's all for today.  Tomorrow we're off to find some Mithril at the top of Saint Mount Amos.

8 comments:

  1. First: Alice the 15th was the one giving the order to protect the book, and our Alice is kind of pissed that she can't overwrite that order.

    After you beat Page [some high number], she complains that her order not only seemed pointless, but also impossible to fulfill, so from now on, she will only work for "a reason she understands", which apparently means "for reward", e.g. rare books. Like the one you brought her.

    "There are a lot of worshippers in the room next to the pope. It's another of those areas where I suspect having Ilias in the party would be very funny."
    Note, I may paraphrase a bit...
    First, for those familiar with the original MGQ:
    "There used to be a sword called the 'Grass-Mowing Sword of the Goddess'* in San Ilia Castle.
    It was supposed to be granted to a true hero, but...
    we lost it years ago. I think that's a bad premotion."
    Answered either by...
    Ilias: "In the end, the sword is just a symbol. Do not lose sight of the true goal!"
    or, the San Ilias King: "The secret was... it was just a mithril sword. It was a good sword, but far from legendary. How did it get a name like "Grass-Mowing Sword*? That's why we pretend to have lost it - it's stored in some dusty warehouse."
    *Note: The "Grass-Mowing Sword" is one of the three legendary treasures of Japan, along with some jewel and some mirror, IIRC.

    Rich Girl: "I don't like churches, they smell like poverty. This sanctuary is much better."
    Ilias: "Bitch, poverty is a virtue!"
    Promestein: "How do you bring this luxurous sanctuary and virtous poverty under one hat?"
    Ilias: (Damnit, I should have thought up a reason for that...)

    Man: "I get fired up when I get here!"
    Vampire girl: "I don't >.<"

    Boy: "I need to pray so my father's back will get better!"
    Succubus-Nurse from a dungeon after even Sabasa: "Your father needs bed rest, not prayers."

    Student: "Please let me pass my next exam!"
    Promestein: "If you have time to pray, use it to study!"

    Samurai: "I don't want to work!"
    Eva (she's a miniboss that forces herself into your group after you stop her): "Me neither!"

    Some priest: "[Something about knights going away and there soon being a war, so the priests train to get stronger (as in, more muscles)]"
    A flesh-eating plant follower: "Hmm, sounds tasty."

    Priest: "We should lead the people, but we don't know what to do. We musn't let anyone know that.
    God is with us all the time and will respond to our prayers without fail."
    Ilias: "That's right! Just keep believing in me!"

    Sister: "At least once, I want to make a pilgrimage to Mount Amos, but my body is to weak."
    Sisscubus (Succubus Sister, found on Mount Amos): "Shall I take you with me?"
    OR: Bear Girl: "Just leave it to a bear and you'll be fine!"

    Knight: "I'm a palace knight! Girls love dem knights, I gotta look good!"
    Dark Elf: "Do you only care about how you look?"
    OR Flesh-Eating plant: "Y'know, you all look the same once I eat you."

    Knight, after you did Chrome's quest: "Thank you so much for saving our poor imprisoned knights! SOO much!"
    Chrome: "Oh, come on. They rampanged around in my house, so I locked them up for a bit. I took proper care of them and only studied their semen a little..."

    Guard at the entry: "Welcome to San Ilia Castle, anyone may come and go as they please."
    Eva: "As I please? I can start living here?" (She's serious - when you find her, she's living in a tent because she keeps getting driven away wherever she goes. Probably because she doesn't like work but likes attacking people and draining them to death.)
    Guard: "Living here would be a bit much..."

    Woah, I ran out of characters...

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    1. Continuation...

      In the library:
      Some guy: [Stuff about Sabasa, and how their royal lineage has monster blood]
      Sara: "Yah, and that's also the reason my family has poor eyesight." (Or possibly "an angry glare"... or something else with "bad eyes")

      And next episode: More plot! Also, Miss Lil.

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    2. Gah.
      Minor explanation:
      Promestein: "How do you bring this luxurous sanctuary and virtous poverty under one hat?"
      Sorry, I used "under one hat" in the german meaning of the phrase, as in, "how do you reconcile these things with one another".

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    3. It seems like there's a lot of variations. Promestein said some of the lines where doing X was better than praying for X. Other lines are different.

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    4. What I've posted was mostly just from the castle, and not even all of it. I'm looking at the game files directly using RPG-Maker, so I don't have to actually bring each and every character along =P

      Though I don't find *that* much from Promestein... maybe three or four snarks at most. Ilias doesn't really have snarks (only the one with Promestein), and otherwise a few coments about adding people to her "[lightning/thunder/lightningbolt/anger] notebook" (probably best translated as a Smite Notebook?). (She learned quickly that she can't just smite people anymore, but she /remembers/!)

      Christie, the Sisscubus you get from Mount Amos, gets more reactions, but most of them aren't funny - it's just her being serious about this "Worshipping Ilias" stuff. And at one point about having naughty thoughts in a church (she's very sorry and prays Ilias will forgive her).

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  2. One thing I'm curious about is how the peace between humans and monsters is being maintained as well as it is. I mean in MGQ there was the explanation that monsters that ate humans were rare and the threat from them overblown, and that if relations were better then they could be reasoned with to give up the behavior. Further, Alice's order was for monster to not kill humans save for in self defense. A number ignored the order but they were at least aware of it.

    But in this game you have hoards of monsters that eat humans don't you? Does Alice's order exist in this storyline? Admittedly the deadly monsters seem to be kept out of most human-inhabitated areas, but is any explanation given for why the safer monsters and humans haven't gone to war with them? I'm aware the explanation may be no more than "we need vore in this game" but I am curious if it is addressed at all.

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    1. They seem to function like bandits from what I've seen. I'd guess that makes large parts of the countryside dangerous to travel without guards. That seems to fit with the character accounts. Some areas are dangerous and Luka is warned about entering them. I'm guessing there isn't all-out war because the dangerous monster girls don't leave their caves/areas. Kind of fits the background - e.g. This mine is overrun with monster girls, so we don't go there. This route is closed down because there are too many monster girls along the way.

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  3. Casually brings back up Phil..

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