Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 23: Goddard

<- Previous: Gold Fort

We are in Grangold territory, thanks to help from Alma Elma.

Unfortunately, we no longer have the queen succubus in the party as she went off to fight Astaroth and Morrigan in order to buy us time to escape.  We also appear to not be able to use Harpy Feathers, Warp spells or even summon the pocket castle while we’re here as the country is covered by some kind of anti-magic field.  No fast travel for us then.

The monster girls roaming these parts are a mix of old and new.  The basic scyllas and medusas from the original series make a return.  They were always in the category of okay, but forgettable on the ecchi scale if I remember right.

What would you like wound around your dick...

The new girl looks like some sort of butterfly girl and – on the surface – seems moderately less terrifying than the other insect girls we’ve come across so far.

Some sweet butterfly girls

Her Bad End is to grab Luka from behind, wrap her wings around him and then insert her proboscis down Luka’s urethra to get a good suck of his “nectar”.  Where this proboscis comes from I’m not entirely sure.  I think it might be her mouth.

Luka, the human milkshake.

It feels really good and Luka comes again and again until butterfly girl has sucked up the entire contents of his balls.  Beyond the End is a not so Bad End as she decides she likes the taste so much she’s going to keep Luka.  He doesn’t mind too much as he gets to experience ecstasy once a day when she syphons off his sperm.

Our target destination, where our next contact is waiting, is the nearby village of Goddard, which is fairly easy to find as it’s right next to the Gold Fort here:

The village of Goddard

There’s not much of interest in Goddard as it’s under the influence of the powerful ‘lust’ field smothering the whole country.  Everyone is horny and babbling on about how much they love the queen.  Everyone’s behaving like gender-flipped fans of [Goes to insert name of popular boy band, realises said boy band are about 20 years old and haven’t been a thing since the ‘90s.  Tries to think of modern equivalent.  Realises he can’t because all he listens to is Black and Death Metal.  Is Justin Bieber still a thing?  Feels horribly old and fuddy duddy.  Fuck it, let’s bail on this analogy right here and pretend we never made it.]  Everyone’s incomprehensibly stupid, so there isn’t much in the way of background info that can be gleaned.

There are two merchants that will sell stuff (in between babbling about how much they love the queen).  The blacksmith is too blissed out to do anything.  There is a battlefucker, but she’s locked herself in her house and won’t let anyone come in.  Rather interestingly, there are a couple of rafflesia flowers planted outside her house.  Is this what she’s using to counteract the malign lust cloud infecting everyone?

Even the battle fucker is scared to come out.

Something for later.  For know the only thing we can do is follow the main quest strand.  That involves going to the pub (always a good start).

We're not here for drinking...

Speaking to the barman and selecting the 2nd option (which I believe is ordering chicken dinner, which is obviously some sort of code as the place doesn’t serve food).

Or chicken dinner...

And then going upstairs to meet our contact.  Who is...

Or Nero... hey, wait.  What's he doing here?

...not Nero.

Nero is here, but he’s not actually supposed to be the contact.  The contact is currently over in the corner after Nero neutralised him with some kind of Taoist seal.  The contact was also under the spell of the lust cloud and wouldn’t have been any use anyway.

In game terms, Nero is technically our contact, as you need to speak to him in order to advance the storyline.  It’s also useful to talk to him as he gives us a useful device that negates the jamming field preventing fast travel (and pocket castle access) within Grangold.

He also gives us the information on where to go next.  The way to the capital is through the Marching Hills to the north.  Currently that way is blocked by a large force of golems.  We need to go to the Great Poison Swamp first and meet yet another contact, who’ll be able to get us past the golem army.

Seems straightforward enough.  Off to the Great Poison Swamp we go.

-> Next: Great Poison Swamp

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Succubus Summoning Art - Nÿte by RaidouZERO

Some more lovely Succubus Summoning art by RaidouZERO.  This piece is of Nÿte.


I'm not sure if that's one of her prized skulls or a fresh victim about to be dropped onto her pile of "trash" skulls.  I like how her head wings seem natural and seem to fit in this picture.  I usually advise artists to leave them off, but they work with this style.

Here is RaidouZERO's original version on DeviantArt (where he also has links to some alternate versions with slightly different horns).  He's also done some lovely pictures of Nurse Honey and Verdé.

Thank you to Jude Duval/LudedWolf for commissioning the piece and RaidouZERO for creating it.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 22: Gold Fort

<- Previous: The Ruins of Lima

We have the heavenly knight and succubus queen Alma Elma in the party.  As much as there’s a temptation to lock ourselves in a bedroom with her all day, we have a world to save.  The armies guarding the gate of Gold Fort have been lured away by a decoy attack, so this represents a perfect opportunity to sneak behind enemy lines and work out what the hell is going on in Grangold.

There is still a guard on the gate, but he’s a man and Alma Elma is a queen succubus.  The guard and Alma Elma vanish into the bushes over on the right and… well, you can guess what happens.

He never stood a chance...

She doesn’t kill him, though.  Alice checks on that when Alma Elma returns.  I have a party of killer, man(and monster girl)-eating blobs that have been devouring their way across the countryside, but Alice is concerned about a random guard.  It’s rather cute.

(Although it’s possible “devouring” works differently here.  Digestive juices count as pleasure damage and it is still possible to recruit a monster girl after “eating” her.  So who knows how things work in MGQ-verse.)

In the castle, Alma Elma departs from the main party as she takes care of the remaining garrison.  By “take care” we mean put everyone in a blissful post-orgasmic stupor in the blink of an eye.

They never stood a chance...

Everyone human, that is.  Alma Elma warns us when she gets back that there are a number of automata and ant girls roaming around that she was unable to affect.  Those form our random encounters for this location.  Two of them are the ant girls and automata girls we already fought in Lima.  They are joined by a brand new type of monster girl – Paizuri Doll.

Aw, adorable lickle titty dolls

Paizuri’s Doll speciality – unsurprisingly – is her large breasts.  Her temptation move is to bind Luka with her long blonde hair and drag him close enough to wedge his cock between her massive boobies.  She’s not very talkative, but her boobs are extremely expressive as she squeezes and rubs until we inevitably pop.

Titty Doll used Boobs.  It was super effective.

Her Bad End continues right from where she left off.  She keeps plumping those big soft boobs against our cock until copious amounts of white stuff are leaking out of her cleavage.  Eventually Luka loses consciousness from all his exertions.

Despite not being devoured or drained to a dried fish, it’s still an End for Luka.  The experience has left him so depraved, all he wants to do is go challenge titty dolls (and lose) over and over.

Gold Fort is a relatively small dungeon.  You can find Ilias imprisoned in a room on the righthand side.  She is still only accompanied by her loyal slimo and doggo.

You can recruit 4 party members you know, Ilias.  That might help prevent this from happening.

There is some good armour and a decent sword in the chests, but it’s no big deal if you miss it as any gear in this game is usually outclassed by whatever’s available in the next town or city.

The major lore/plot location is the general’s room on the second floor.  We find the general lying dead on the floor.

He definitely never had a chance!

At first Alice asks Alma Elma if she went too far, but it turns out the general has been dead for a couple of days.  You can find his diary at the back of the room.  From his entries it’s pretty clear he’d been brainwashed by the queen (and maybe daughter) back in the capital.  This brainwashing was wearing off with distance from Grangold, but before he could break free of it entirely, someone came along and offed him.

As for who offed him, a couple of likely candidates show up right as we leave Gold Fort through the North Gate.

They might - ulp! - stand a chance...

Morrigan and Astaroth.  I guess this means we’ll be losing Alma Elma here.

Sure enough, she detaches from the party to take on the two Lilith sisters and cover our escape.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

She’s done her job.  We’re through the Gold Fort and inside Grangold territory.  What delights await us here?

-> Next: Goddard.

Friday, November 24, 2017

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 21: The Ruins of Lima

<- Previous: Undine’s Spring

It’s time to invade Grangold.  Back in Grand Noah, Mephisto has cunning plan.

Wait, wasn’t Mephisto the double agent planted by Alice’s mother?  Who you uncovered to be secretly in league with the dastardly Lilith sisters.

Yes...  Well...  It’s complicated.

Mephisto’s plan is a decoy attack with everyone to draw most of the garrison away from Gold Fort.  While that’s going on, we’re supposed to go to the ruins of nearby Lima and meet with a contact who’ll then sneak us through the fort and behind enemy lines.  Once behind enemy lines, we’re supposed to find another secret agent in a village close to Grangold.  The overall objective is to get into Grangold and assassinate Queen Ant, who they think is manipulating the King behind the throne.

Sounds like a suicide mission to me.

Oh well.  I wonder who our contact is.  I’m guessing we’re going to run into another returning character in an unexpected role.

Lima can be found here:

Welcome to Lima.  Everyone's dead.

It’s a bit grim.  The inhabitants have been massacred.  Even children.  That’s Japanese games for you – all bright and colourful, then skeletons.

Lima is still hostile territory.  Random encounters trigger while walking around.  While Lima is a new location, the monster girl opponents are all returnees.  This time the Automata Girl and Ant Girls get to show up a little earlier than they did in the original series.

Ant girls

The ant girls are by Niku Drill, which means they don’t really have Bad End scenes as such.  They’re also tough little buggers with a multi-hit attack that hits like a truck.  I’d feed them to the blobs and not feel guilty about it in the slightest.

“ANTS NOT TASTY!”

Undine and the Slimies disagree.  Nom nom nom.

In contrast, I remember Automata Girl knew a mind-boggling array of sexual tricks in the original series, and even had CGIs for most of them.  Out in the field she’ll try to tempt Luka with an ecstasy-bubble infused handjob, but all her other scenes can be unlocked back in the pocket castle providing you recruit her and figure out what the fussy bugger likes to eat.

Automata Girl gives a bubbly bubbly handjob

The contact is...

The mystery contact, revealed

Alma Elma.  Now, what’s a succubus like you doing in a place like this?

Joining Le Resistance by the looks of things.  She’s our contact and will help us get through the fort.  She joins the party and the first thing she does is fly off to attempt to recruit Tamamo.  Tamamo is still unhappy and depressed, but she’s not unhappy and depressed enough to go full betrayal, like Alma Elma has.  So, we leave her there.

In the meantime, the coalition of everyone else is marching on Grangold.

The decoy assault

This draws away the forces guarding the gate of Gold Fort.  It’s time for us to…

Wait.  If Alma Elma has joined the party, does that mean she’s also hanging out back at the pocket castle?

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

And if she’s hanging out back at the pocket castle, does that also mean she has request moves?

She does have request moves available...

Well, well.  I suppose we should, to satisfy inquiring minds and all that...

Alma Elma’s first request scene is a repeat of her coliseum Bad End.

At the second one, things get interesting.

It feels better than it looks

This is Alma Elma’s classic tailvore scene, where she sucks Luka up and massages/drowns him in ecstasy, but with new artwork.  She also spits Luka out (after emptying his balls, obviously) at the end, which is a pleasant surprise.

The third request scene is advertised as full sex, but it also comes with a warning.  Alma Elma asks us if we’re really sure we’d like to proceed.  Yeah, of course we’re sure.  Let’s get to it!

Should probably have paid more attention at that last choice...

Mistakes were made.

Alma Elma is not being evil, it’s just the code of being the succubus queen.  If someone asks her for sex, she feels obligated to show them the very heights of sexual pleasure that only succubus energy drain sex can reach.  Which coincidentally also involves completely and utterly fucking our brains – and everything else – out in the most comprehensive way imaginable.

Needless to say, Luka does not survive the experience.

But as Alma Elma says afterwards, he didn’t appear to have any regrets, so neither should she.

Well, I mean, it’s not as if death is a setback here.  A quick hi to Death in Hades, a jump in the glowing pentagram thingy, and Luka is right back at the gates of the pocket castle.  Where we can... mmm... do it all over again.

No, bad Luka, we’re getting side-tracked from the main mission here.

Time to head to...

Wait.  The game doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to fast-track us to the next location, and we currently have a level 60 engine of sex and destruction chilling out back at the castle and also available to fill a party slot.  I wonder what can be done with a level 60 engine of sex and destruction...

Hi, Sphinx.  Bosh!

Hi, Leviathan.  Bash!

Hi, Yamata-no-Orochi.  Cra—  Never mind.  A case of mistaken identity.  Sorry to bother you, ma’am.  (ow ow ow ow).

Unfortunately, you don’t get anything but an achievement for beating Sphinx and Leviathan.  Leviathan is tempted to go back to her wilder days of adventure on the high seas, but ultimately decides she has too much responsibility as admiral of the navy.

Yamata-no-Orochi kicked our ass, even with Alma Elma.  I suspect with a better party configuration or a few more levels it might be possible, but it already feels like what we’re doing is a bit cheaty.

If you want to engage in a bit of power-levelling and drag some of your lesser-used characters up a few levels, now is the time.  Alma Elma is as powerful as you’d expect for a heavenly knight and ridiculously OP for this part of the game.  So much so, I’m surprised the game allows this rather than sticking us on rails right to Gold Fort (where she’ll likely be taken away from us).  Whether it was intentional or not, it’s certainly fun to control Alma Elma and have her snu-snu her way through two continents of unsuspecting monster girls.

But alas, the story needs to push on.  It’s time (finally!) to enter the Gold Fort.

-> Next: Gold Fort

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Monmusu Quest: Paradox - When an artist goes too far?

Here's a bit of an ad-hoc bonus blog post inspired by an anon comment on the MQ:P playthrough post I made on Monday.

They suggested checking out the pictures folder in the game files as there's some interesting additional content for Gnosis's Bad End scene that was omitted from the main game.

Here's the sequence for the curious.

Gnosis is one of the MGQ-verse's many fucked up angels.  The Bad End scene starts innocuously enough with a blowjob.


It's a Xelvy, so things immediately go all John Carpenter's The Thing.


Xelvy and Delphinus might both get flak for being just as effective at destroying boners as erecting them, but the horror fan in me delights in not knowing what the hell they're going to hit you with next.  Xelvy in particular.  Some of his scenes are just crazy.

I mean, just as you've got used to the unusual mouth parts, off worms the spiky tongue to places we'd rather not have spiky tongues.


(ow ow ow)

This is pretty much where the scene ends in the game.  Gnosis keeps on sucking up Luka's semen and life, and eventually it's fade to black and off to visit Death in Hades for reanimation.

If you check out the pictures directory in your game files (be careful, thar be spoilers), you'll see the art actually takes it further.


I think that might be Luka's testicle Gnosis is sucking up through Luka's cock.


And then I'm not sure.  Is that Luka's inside-out love-sac she's pulled up there, or maybe some representation of his soul/energy.  Whatever it is, Gnosis sucks on it like yummy candy.



It's interesting this didn't make the final cut.  I wonder if TTR looked at pics of Luka's inside-out bollock being dragged up the inside of his cock and went, "Thanks for that, Xelvy, but I think we'll give those last pics a miss."

This is in keeping with the overall tone of the Monster Girl Quest series.  There are many horrible horrible ends implied for Luka, but the truly icky stuff is kept off screen.  You'll never see his skin and flesh slough off after he's been dunked in digestive acids, for example.  And he never gets visibly mutilated.  Which makes sense - these are sex games after all.

(Hmm, I would appear to lack this common sense.)

It did get my little black cells thinking.  I'd like to write a fantasy-esque romp in an MGQ-esque world at some point.  A interesting angle might be to throw in a group of unsuspecting nerdy types from our world into a MGQ-esque world.  Maybe even have them aware of what monster girls are.  Of course we'd have some nice sexy fun times to start with.  Then it might be interesting to show what really happens Beyond the End for some of those Bad Ends.

In full graphic detail.

For the lulz. ;)

It reminded me of a book I read in my teens that was a brutal deconstruction of the whole Earth kids transported to a Dungeons & Dragons magical fantasy world plot.  The kids had the powers of their RPG characters, but then the thief got gutted trying to pick the pocket of a noble and the female cleric (or sorceress) spent most of the first book in a catatonic state after being brutally raped by some random mooks.  Things got better, but they bloody well had to fight for it.  I think it might have been Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series, but it was a very long time ago when I read it.

I'm thinking that might be a fun deconstruction of the MGQ world.  After all, you never really get to see the icky bad stuff the monster girls do to Luka (and each other!).  Definite potential to explore that angle, I think, although I'd need to be careful to avoid making it too cynical or grimdark.

I think I could have "fun" with this.

I'm a bad bad person. ;) 

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 20: Undine's Spring

<- Previous: Esta

Esta’s Tartarus region is a no-go area at the moment.  So, there’s nothing for it but to head back to Grand Noah.

But before then, Alice mentions Undine’s Spring is not far from here and it would be a good idea to take a detour and go and contract Undine.  I think Toro Toro Resistance is a pretty good writer, but this is one section where the plot gets a little sloppy.

If you try to contract Undine before Esta, she isn’t there.  Her appearance only triggers after Alice tells you about her after the events in Esta.  Thing is, this is inconsistent with what’s happened previously.  In part 1 the Tartarus regions were big scary unknowns and the advice was to contract with the nearest elemental spirit before descending into the depths.  It would have made more sense for Alice to suggest contracting Undine before investigating Esta’s Tartarus region.

There is better rationale for it, should you go straight back to Grand Noah first.  The preparations for invading Grangold’s territory are not ready, which does give an excuse for a side trip to Undine’s Spring.

Overall, the sequencing feels a little clumsy here.

I suspect it’s also because I’m a little tetchy at Undine’s Spring turning out to be one of the most disappointing locations so far.

Sexy slimy fun times ahead (warning: risk of absorption and digestion)

Slime Girls are up there with succubi when it comes to my favourite monster girls, so I was looking forward to seeing what new gooey goodness awaited us at Undine’s Shrine and there’s... nothing.

No new content anyway.  We have various combinations of UN_DO’s slimies.

Sexy Slimies

And the blob and jelly girls.

Jelly and Blob.  Avoid Blob.

Nothing new on the Bad Ends or requests either.  Blob girl’s Bad End was never that sexy to begin with – Luka sort of gets sucked up in a weird little opening in her side.  It’s disappointing because Setouchi* has done a pretty sweet piece showing blob girl getting her sexy gloop on, but you’d have to go digging through Tokinokogiri’s Monmusu Delicious Nom-Noms series to find it.  Then again, it probably would have been a wee bit naughty to swipe the art from someone else’s release.

*It’s possible I’ve got the wrong artist here, although it does seem pretty close to Setouchi’s style.

A "better" Bad End with Blob Girl

Overall, the lack of originality shouldn’t be that surprising.  MQ:P part 2 has been fairly consistent so far – new locations get new gals, old ones get returnees from the original series.  It’s unfortunate that this particular segment of the game has been a long stretch of old content (Yamatai, Plansect Village and now Undine’s Spring*).

*I forgot Mephisto’s School of Magic.  And intend to go right back to forgetting about it. *shiver*

Anyway, enuff bitchin’ ‘n’ whinin’.  We got a world to save and a water spirit to get all wet and squelchy with.

Undine’s Spring is the first place where I felt the game was catching up to my over-levelled characters in terms of difficulty.  Up to now I’d been levelling up various characters and switching them out at level 40.  I might have to raise that cap.  My first excursion into the spring saw the whole party taken out by an exploding blob girl and Undine became the first story (rather than optional) boss to wipe me without any dirty temptation shenanigans.

Undine does not hold back.  Bring waterproofs.

The boss fight felt like a legit difficulty spike.  She even took me out a couple of times when I tried coming back with a moderate ‘serious-business’ party.  Those AOE splosh attacks of hers do a ton of damage and she also has an annoying habit of raising her magic-reflecting aqua shield right before the party mage tries to zap her with lightning.

The best way to deal with Undine is probably a bit of Luka-bait cheese.  Have him in the party.  At some point Undine will absorb him and start doing all kinds of naughty naughty.  Don’t select the struggle option for Luka.  Instead have him lie back and think of England while your party healer casts Mega Heal on him every turn.  Eventually Undine’s pleasure damage will outstrip your healer’s healing, but this will give 5 or 6 turns of complete freedom to hit Undine with the other two party members.  And time Undine spends doing various creative wet and squelchy things to Luka’s nether regions is time she’s not unloading that ridiculous AOE water attack on the rest of the party.

The worst of it is that it isn’t even the worst of it.

Uh oh.  We have to fight Erubetie as well?

The relief of finally overcoming Undine is short-lived as Erubetie arrives on the scene before we can properly contract with Undine.  There isn’t even an option to save before we’re thrown right into a second boss battle.

Erubetie is kind of like a more powerful and pissed off Undine.  She also has silly AOE water attacks.  Her dubious (don’t ask) Neverland Frontier attack also makes a return.  In game terms it’s a party-wide debuff that drives the whole party’s stats into the floor.  I’m not even sure there is a way to remove debuffs short of having the character die and be raised again.

So yep, this fight is going to suck.

Ah, but she’s a proper heavenly knight, like Alma Elma.  Which means she’s probably around level 60.  There’s no way they’d sic a heavenly knight on us, going all out, right after that difficult boss fight against Undine.  So yeah, it’s probably one of those unwinnable story fight things.  It won’t matter if we lose.

Luka found out too late that Erubetie wasn't kidding around

Um, Erebutie.  This was just a test, wasn’t it?  I mean you’re not really going to go all out on our pitiful level 40 party.  Um, what are you... GLOOP.

Yup, it’s a proper boss fight.  Lose and Luka will get absorbed and probably dissolved right down to his pearly-white bones.

Fair play.  It’s been fairly easy to coast through MG:P so far.  The double difficulty spike right to the cranium does change things up a little.  Erubetie is – as you’d expect – vulnerable to lightning, so it’s not completely hopeless.  That Neverland Frontier mass debuff is still a bitch though.

After we (finally!) beat Erubetie, Undine points out that her heart wasn’t in it and that meant she wasn’t fighting at full strength (Dissolved-to-mush Luka from half an hour ago might disagree here).  Erubetie isn’t happy with what Alice’s mother is doing either.  So, of the heavenly knights, Alma Elma’s doing her own thing, Tamamo is sulking in her hut and now Erubetie is having doubts.

Can we recruit her?  Can we recruit her?

Nope, sadly.  She’s off to think things through.

We do get Undine though, so that’s quest complete.  I’d also recommend recruiting some of the other slime girls as well.  By this point in the game I was finding the enemies get a little bullet-spongy.  They don’t really pose a threat to the party, but they have so much HP it can take a while to kill them, especially if you’re trying to level a character up through one of the squishier support classes.  Slimes get around this.  Level them up in Carnivorous Slime and they gain the ability Blob Boa at some point (think it might be level 3 or 4).  This is an instant KO on any enemy with the “Digested” state.  Most slimes also pick up the “Melty Shot” Throwing skill, which has a good chance of giving the “Digested” state to all enemies (Carnivorous Alraune also have an attack that does the same thing).  That combo will wipe out most mobs in one or two turns regardless of HP and make grinding for XP/items a lot less painful.

Anyway, that’s it for Undine’s Spring.  By now the preparations should be ready back at Grand Noah.  It’s time to join the war against Grangold!

-> Next: The Ruins of Lima

Monday, November 20, 2017

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 19: Esta

<- Previous: Resolving the Plansect Civil War

We appear to have gotten all the various side quests out of the way.  That means it’s time to head off to Esta and maybe the first Tartarus trip of MQ:P part 2.  Esta is a village midway between Grand Noah and the border with Grangold.  As with Rubiana in part 1, there’s been a mysterious disappearance and all of the inhabitants are missing.  If you were wandering through this section of the world map aimlessly in search of new monster girls, you would have found the village off-limits.

Esta with the ominous Tartarus rift just above it

Now it’s open, and... things get a little weird.

The first time we enter Esta it’s hard to see what the problem is.  The village is far from abandoned.  There are plenty of people walking around.  Wasn’t everyone in this village supposed to have vanished?

There are plenty of hints that things aren’t quite right.  The first is fairly obvious – Luka is here on his own.  Our personal monster girl harem is not with us.

We also can’t leave.  The roads are magically sealed to prevent us from leaving.  The same applies to harpy feathers and warp spells.

The people here also seem a little too cheerful.

Ah, this would be why.

We're not in Esta anymore

Carry on walking to the east and the town gives way to fluffy clouds and angels.  And that explains what’s going on.  We’re not actually in Esta.  We’re in some kind of heavenly copy up in the sky overhead.

This also explains what happened to the people of Rubiana and Esta.  The angels abducted them and brought them all here.  They also seem to be running every aspect of the people’s lives, including changing people’s jobs to what they think will make the person most happy.

The Tartarus location in the lake also extends all the way up here as a pitch-black hole.  Currently there’s no way to get to it.

In the north of the village is a big cathedral.  When we first enter the village, the cathedral doors are locked.  One of the guards tells us that they won’t open until a bell chimes.  This isn’t a particularly hard puzzle.  The bell is either on a timer, or triggered by walking over various tiles in the village.

The cathedral

Once the bell rings, the game tells you, and you can go back to the cathedral.

Which isn’t a cathedral.

Walking through the door sends us into some kind of wibbly-wobbly cosmic space.  There we’re met by the angel Rafaela.

We don’t have long to talk before a demon – Sai-Shin? – teleports in.

Your choice is Angel Tits or Snake Tits.

I’m not totally convinced I got her name right, machine translation not always being the most reliable and all that.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s supposed to be Satan, or Shaitan.  She looks fairly familiar.  I think she might be one of the ‘Big 6’ demons Toro Toro Resistance posted on his website before Paradox came out.  She has a bit of a snaky theme going on.

Her and Rafaela have what appears to be long and involved metaphysical debate about freedom and choice.  Rafaela says her and the angels are making the humans very happy by controlling every aspect of their lives, so that the humans don’t make the mistakes that would fuck up their lives.  Sai-Shin counters by questioning whether the lives have any value if the humans have no control over them.  She argues that the humans need the freedom to make their own decisions, even if some of those decisions are the wrong ones.

Then they turn and ask us which of them we agree with.

Um, yeah.  Not going near that one with a ten-foot barge pole.

Is there a third option?  Yep.  Take the third option.

Then it’s back down to Esta where Alice lets Luka know he went nowhere and just spaced out for a few moments (similar to what happens whenever Luka visits the Hades location hidden in Ilias’s temple).

Real Esta is empty.  As with Rubiana, everyone has gone and various investigators are wandering around and trying to work out what happened.  We know the answer, of course, but I doubt anyone will believe us.

The angels abducted them all to a happy place up in the sky.

Right yer are, mate.

The one key difference between Esta Below and Esta Above is that Esta Below has a way to reach the Tartarus location in the lake.  There are rowboats moored up on a pier.  We grab one and row out into the lake.

We’re going to Tartarus.  What strangeness is waiting for us this time?

Nothing as it happens.  We get to the edge of blackness and there’s no way to go further.

Really?  After all those side quests through the Realms of Nope.  Fack!

Oh well, nothing for it but to row back to the village.  We manage to make it back to the pier before there’s a big crash behind us and Gnosis emerges from the darkness of Tartarus.

Gnosis, Angel of Nope

Uh oh.  She was the angel that killed Micaela in part 1.  She tells us that she’s calculated that history has diverged so far from the “correct” path she might as well kill everyone.

Not today, Gnosis.

Gnosis is not that tough, but takes an age to take down.  The HP of bosses seems to have ramped up a lot as we get deeper into part 2.  I might have to take a closer look at min/maxing some of my characters, especially the ones responsible for dishing out damage, as these boss fights keep taking a while.

Knocking Gnosis back makes her reconsider the whole obliterating us from existence thing.

(Just fucking kill the bitch, Luka.  She killed Auntie Micaela.)

Especially when she overhears Luka mentioning he’d spoken with Rafaela.  She decides she might have made the wrong call and we might be powerful enough to do whatever the angels are trying to engineer to stop the world being destroyed.  Then she flies off.

Remind me, why did we come to Esta again?

Looks like we might as well report what we know (ha!) to Queen Noah.  But before then, Alice mentions that Undine’s Spring is not far from here, and we should pop by to contract with Undine.

Off to the caves of slimy pleasures it is then.

But before then, we shall look into the alternate universe opened up through the wonders of save scumming, to find a Luka who did not fare so well in his boss fight versus Gnosis.

(Are we sure?  It is a Xelvy.)

Blowjob doesn't seem so bad...

Well, this doesn’t seem so bad.  Gnosis seals our movements with angelic power and then comes close for what I guess will be a bit of cock-slurping.  I’m fine with th—

!!!!!!

Grahh!

What the fuck is going on with that mouth?  That does not look a comfortable place to put my pride and joy.  It’s not like we have any say about it.  The ring Gnosis slaps over Luka’s cock to prevent him from coming also looks far too tight to be comfortable.

The ring apparently doesn’t stop us from pissing, which Gnosis makes us do, and then slurps up because sado-crazy angel or something.

Her mouthparts must not be as bad as they look, because after a few minutes of them vacuuming away on Luka’s no-longer-so-dangly bits gives him an urge to come that’s painful with the ring blocking it.  So it’s one of those classic Bad Ends where the femdom succubus/monster girls wants us to beg her to let us come.  Well, we all know how they end up, so we won’t be—

We beg her to let us cum.

Gnosis sucks out so much that Luka ends up going floppy.  I don’t think I’ve seen that before.  Maybe that’s true angel power.  Gnosis says that’s okay.  She has a means to give our drooping little man some support.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and: ow ow ow)

Graghhhwww!

Tongues do not go there!  Especially spiky tongues that look like they’re covered in barbed wire.

It works and that’s more white stuff for Gnosis to slurp up.  Unfortunately, there’s no Beyond the End and happy frolicking kittens this time around.  Gnosis keeps sucking until Luka is empty of energy and dead.

Don’t mess with the angels, Luka.

-> Next: Undine’s Spring

Friday, November 17, 2017

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 18: Resolving the Plant-Insect Civil War

<- Previous: Insect Mountain

The negotiations continue.  Currently we’re in the middle of a civil war between plant girls and insect girls.  Previously in MQ:P this would require picking a side and then that determined what new girls we’d get to add to the ‘harem’.  This time the game gives us a third option, which is finding out that neither the plants or insects are particularly interested in warring with each other, and brokering a peace between them.

After talking to Queen Bee, return to the Alraune Priestess in Plansect Village.  Again, there is the option to side with either plants or insects.  Select the third option instead.

Priestess hears out what we have to say on behalf of Queen Bee and it is acceptable to her.  They also want an end to the war.

So, that’s the end of it.  Quest done, right?

Not exactly.  The only reason this war flared back up again was thanks to the manipulations of Black Alice and her catspaws.  And now along comes the literal cat to express her disapproval at these peace negotiations.

The cat came back...

Priestess sends the three Canaan sisters after her and Tezzie boffs them into the lake without breaking a sweat.

Looks like it’s down to us then, Luka.  Boss fight!

Unfortunately for Tezzie, I was training up two characters in the Maid job at the time (to unlock the useful +50% Job XP ability), one of which was also a succubus.  Tezzie, despite being some kind of undead doll version of an ancient god, is still of the beast race and the beast race is rather weak to pleasure attacks.  An early use of the Ecstasy Massage skill puts her in a trance and after that she’s pretty much helpless as Eva sexes all her energy away.

However, should we want to see what Tezzie is capable of, if allowed to have her wicked way with Luka, there is always an option to replay the boss battle in Hades.

That’s for later though (like bottom of the blog post later).  Right now there are more pressing concerns.  After Tezzie slinks off after her defeat, Priestess hears that the other fake god, Quetzalcoatl, is attacking the insect girls on Insect Mountain.  She temporarily joins the party and we’re teleported right to the top of the mountain where Queen Bee is under attack.  Time for another boss battle.

Quetzie is based off the legendary Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent.  In fighting she’s more feathers than serpent.  She fights like a giant harpy with lots of gale attacks and dance moves.  I’m also not exaggerating the giant part.  Quetzie is big.  Her temptation move is to squash Luka between her big titties.

This is usually done with the other head...

Her Bad End has her force us to fuck her and then spoil us like a baby.  It’s an excuse for more femdom baby-play fetish.  Or more big bouncing boobies, if you like that kind of thing.

Quetzie don't care about no size differences

(I’m sorry.  I failed to resist temptation.  Big boobies are my weakness.)

Oh well, that’s what the save and reload buttons are for.

No sooner have we defeated Quetzie than Tezzie puts in a repeat appearance.

Uh oh.  Looks like we might have to fight the two of them at once.

Or not.  As Tezzie launches right into Quetzie, for... reasons?

The Secret Alliance of Evil has a few bugs in need of ironing out

Um, Black Alice, I think your cat god doll might be a bit of an idiot.

Anyway, the two fake gods are too busy fighting each other to bother either the plants or insects of Plansect, so that would appear to bring this quest strand to a satisfactory conclusion.  All that remains is to pick up the swag – i.e. new recruits to the roster.

Both Priestess and Queen Bee return to their respective spots.  They are both easy to recruit.  Just go up and talk to them (I’m guessing that picking a side would have resulted in locking out one or the other).  Priestess has been a bit stressed out by all the war stuff, and thinks a bit of travelling and adventuring away from the pressures of ruling will allow her a chance to unwind.

A suspect her unwinding will involve a lot of this.

Alraunes need their relaxation breaks

The Canaan sisters can also be recruited, but they’re mercenaries, so you’ll need to pay them 10,000 gold.  Their presence in this game seems a little tacked on, as if Toro Toro Resistance felt obligated to include them, but couldn’t really find a good way to slot them in.  They also feel like a pre-built racial party trio with them specializing as healer, ranger and heavy respectively.  Maybe this is a nod to the Tribal Mode of the coliseum.  I do like the idea of training up race-specific squads.  I might play around with the Canaan sisters later to see what their synergies are.

In the platonic sense of playing!

Given how carnivorous they are, I doubt it’s safe to leave Luka in the same room as them without a full hazmat suit.

That’s it for Plansect apart from a couple of minor things.  It’s time to update Vanilla’s shop.  In fact, I’d forgotten about Vanilla’s side quests, so it might be a good time to do a catch up.

She wants to stock gold needles.  They can be supplied by the scorpion girl that lurks by the entrance to the pyramid close to Sabasa.

The next thing is grimoire pages.  Cornelia (Page 65537) has those.  Talk to her in the pocket castle library, assuming you’ve already recruited her.

After that it’s the bigger nature magic stones.  The supplier for these is the mermaid merchant in Plansect.

That should now bring Vanilla’s shop improvements up to date.

Next... are we finally going to Esta (and Tartarus)?

Oh, but before then I said I’d throw in Tez’s H-stuff.  As with all bosses, you can fight her again in the Hades room on the second floor of Ilias’s Temple.

Her temptation move is to use her cat tongue to give us a good lick (no prizes for guessing where).

Nya nya SUCK!

Her Bad End isn’t that icky considering her beast-centaur form.  It’s still horse cat pussy, but arranged in a way that doesn’t look like someone’s trying to sneak a bit of bestiality in under the radar.  She wraps her forepaws around Luka’s back and still has her extra set of arms to push his face into her tits.  Her pussy apparently feels like it’s full of tongues and she uses them to lick us to repeated ejaculation.

It's Kittens Ever After for Luka

This scene is translated, but I suspect it might have been by one of the enthusiastic volunteers rather than Dargoth or Rogue.  Whoever did it might have gone a little overboard on the nyas.  I know, cat girl and all that, but there is a thing as too much nya-nya.

Despite being one of Black Alice’s fake gods, Tez’s Bad End is surprisingly light on the Bad.  Luka’s ‘punishment’ for losing is that he’s forced to marry her and travel the world surrounded by their playful kittens.

Does not seem... Bad.

Quetzie just wanted to pamper Luka forever as well.  Maybe we should just let Black Alice’s fake gods take over.  They seem a lot friendlier than everyone else.

-> Next: Esta