[granblue fantasy] Having reached chapter 54 of the main story, I continue my rush towards What Makes the Sky Blue by diving into the side stories! ...Not that I need to do this to play the event, but I want to get the start of the story and pick up a playable Lyria so we begin!
I'm told this one is from before they got good at storytelling, but that just makes it that I might get a decent chunk in before I have to leave on the hour for meeting up with a friend. (Leave being an exaggeration since we'll be on Discord.)
I already watched the opening back around the time I got back in with the Many Lives of Cats, because I thought it was a limited event. When I found out I could do it any time, I left while working on other things.
I actually already have a Therese, as she’s one of my lucky number of SSRs. But I would never have realized they were the same person if I wasn’t looking for the opening of the story by checking Lyria’s field notes:
It’s either the classic anime meet cute or one of them is a pickpocket.
oh my god the music. the fires of passion holy crap.
oh my god
Sturm and Drang!! Maybe they can save it! I’ve liked Drang at least since the moment I saw him, but they’re currently riding extra high off where I was in my story liveplurk.
(I like to link my liveplurks together so I can follow them back down a trail, because when I start liveplurking, it tends to go on forever.)
If Lyria’s happy, it can’t be all bad. Lyria running around excitedly wanting to drag Katalina everywhere while Katalina is the responsible big sister will get me as long as there’s any basic competence in the writing.
I’m amazed there are any other shops in the world with how well Siero runs her business empire.
I’m making decent time, because I’m not even bothering to listen to the full voice acting some of the time (I know I have a lot to get through first), but I’ll admit the later main story has built up enough endearment to these characters that I occasionally smile at little things like this.
My (Granblue) poker-playing eyes light up.
It is pretty suspect... I wonder if it has microtransactions.
That might be a bit too meta, though.
Lyria, I’m glad you have Katalina around to keep you out of trouble sometimes.
Making a story team when it seems this takes place before we recruit anyone makes making a story team more difficult. Maybe since it's in Port Breeze, I'll assume that Rackam is around somewhere. Maybe Io, too.
I guess it was too much to hope for a minigame....
Of course. And we look less armed-to-the-teeth than usual. Since I’m in the Superstar class, Katalina’s the only dangerous-looking one.
Ten times the amount you can win, huh.
The voice actor literally started it with “SHOCK!”
First day on the job as a friend of justice, huh.
oh of course
We’re Yu-Gi-Oh! now, my friends.
Yeah, I didn’t expect I needed my actual water team.
Ah, male pride. “Let’s take it outside. Leave it to me.”
Did it?
Is it ever? I guess she doesn’t have as much experience trusting her instincts at this point.
But it’s still only chapter one.
I used the meme too soon already. Now I have nothing left to say.
This is literally the only reason I have even the slightest interest in this.
The game read my mind.
And this is nothing like a good love story. (I probably shouldn’t be so hard on them already, but I am certainly sighing, so I might as well make jokes by exaggerating my dislike.)
She’s on a boat right now dude
I don’t suppose I can get it as a reward.
I guess they don’t particularly like being ignored.
...Lyria, I know you like the primal beasts, but maybe it’s not a bad thing that they don’t have to appease it every year.
Prepare for trouble and make it double.
I realize they might mean, like, a scheme, but I like the idea of “there’s a plot to this eventually! hang in there, players!”
That guy told her right in front of you.
No, you should stay back as I, a card shark, crawl around in the bushes.
...I don’t even need to look at him to know he’s staring at me.
Rare monsters seem to happen more often than the name implies.
Yeah Richard just kind of sucks all around
He’s not even a good unit
That slow clap. You drama king.
RandomProphet: It didn't take long upon meeting Richard to go "ah, I see why Ran didn't enjoy this one."
The one upside is that I get to see Sturm and Drang basically be Team Rocket for an event, except releasing monsters instead of catching them.
I’m glad she didn’t say it must have been her imagination again.
...please tell me that the reason I have to play this one first isn't that Richard keeps showing up.
He shows up very briefly in What Makes the Sky Blue because it contains cameos from the first couple events, and that’s why you have to do them
...hey, Lyria, I know you like a love story, but can I kill this guy? Just a little?
He is a Gatcha character though
I’m going to push you over a railing of the Casino Liner.
I’ll accept briefly.
He’s going to find out what makes the sky blue early when I drop him into it.
Surprise, it’s me, ready to murder Rich.
I guess this guy does more chin-ups than brawls to get those muscles.
You, I’m cool with. Let us begin jolly co-operation!
We don’t get to see Battle Drang very often. I’m taking a picture to remember it by.
Well, you don’t have to feel sad about Phoenix anymore!
Okay, I expected communicating with the Phoenix would be a little less direct.
My desire to fight this guy just evaporated.
I guess my ability to trade for treasure in the side stories is a little limited.
Yeah you have to grind the boss fights you unlock when you finish the story a lot to get enough currency
They do sometimes have half AP and half treasure cost events for side stories though
They used to not give you a free summon and free weapon when you finished the side story, so you had to grind for individual copies
Oh, they open up the boss fights? Then that’s fine.
I was just worried that this was all I’d get when I was getting to “ending” with no unlocked boss fight.
I can do this at my leisure.
Yeah they give you two or three repeatable challenge quests every time you finish a side story
I still love that Lyria was so sad for the loss of a beautiful primal beast, and then we meet them and they’re like this all the time.
drops dagger, throws hands up in the air, walks away
Come find me when you’re done watching, Lyria.
I guess at least they’re both happy. I don’t know why.
Oh, wait, she was talking to us. ........did we ever save her from anything she was in any danger from?
Thanks for helping out Lyria, Vyrn. I cannot.
I. I’m so happy. It’s a happy ending. It’s all been worth it.
RIGHT THAT’S THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT RICHARD
He asked her out on a date when she was asking if there was anything she could do in return for his supposed bravery. I would have been so unhappy if she hadn’t shut him down.
But she destroyed him. I’m over the moon.
waving a flag that says GO THERESE on it
Oh hey! It’s my first ever SSR!
If Richard doesn’t show up again it’s because I’ve put him in the Enforcers’ prison.
Anyway, I did both fights once and now I’m going to bounce. But I’ve got other things I need to do, so coming later: The Cowardly Hero and the Captive Princess!
.........is it a primal beast or a dragon
I’m sorry, but the way your sprite is standing compared to the very polite and proper tone...I can’t stop laughing.
And the titular princess who looked like your classic damsel on the title card having her first real appearance in this looking so peeved. There’s nothing at all wrong with this scene but I’m giggling my way through.
As usual, Granblue picksa classic trope, but it’s a fun one.
The princex and their guard romance, with the princex wanting them to be closer while the guard knows they have their duty...not bad. it’ll be better than the love story in the festival
This princess has some fun expressions. She looks over so sharply when there is a new knock on the door.
I really like the characters in this story
They've both made good first impressions. I have deliberately not screencapped the random, unnamed Servant because it's my least favourite villager model. (The skimpy black leather outfit that I'm like "why is this a thing.")
He looks so miserable being stuck between love and duty.
When the room started to shake, my first thought was a visual representation of the princess’s anger over his continued formality and running away.
I find that having the princess-kidnapping primal be a woman is refreshing on some level.
Since he’s asking this, I assume there’s no gaping hole in the ceiling or walls, so I guess it teleported in? That’s going to make this primal hard to track down.
........did she not notice the shaking??
Well, that’s a little unnerving. Nice touch with the scream coming from inside metal in the recording.
Not going back in the Jar of Greed yourself?
Enterprise, two to beam up. (When things shook and it looked like smoke came out at the bottom, for one wild moment I thought she was going to take off like a rocket ship.)
I can’t tell if she sounds panicked or pissed off. I’m going to say both.
Given how solid and strange the Jar of Greed looks, I’m going to say, not intended to be unkindly, that you probably won’t just yet.
I was doing it, Lyria! The game just crashed over a network error! (Oh, yay, I can get peeved princess! I doubt being peeved was intended to be her primary character trait, but first impressions count for a lot.
Why is playable Aliza positioned like this in her art (I KNOW, I KNOW)
I’m a rocket man burning up his fuse up here alone
There was a delay followed by a very quiet “my lady.” He sounded like he was in shock and couldn’t believe his eyes. My heart went out to him.
This just isn’t your weak, Port Breeze.
I just adore Djeeta’s Hermit outfit (if we’re supposed to use fire, I got given some MLB fire staves so it was that or bishop).
......wait the Phoenix they gave me at the end of the event was fully uncapped? Oops, I bought another one thinking I’d have to finish it up,
Lyria’s voice acting proves she never learned not to speak with her mouth full.
Vyrn, how can you deny that face. We can just call her if it’s a Primal Beast.
Ah, the teleporter is up to further mischief.
I guess your pancakes were always doomed.
Stan screams like a pro. That was bloodcurdling.
Skilled fighter or not, trying to take on a group of monsters all on your own was perhaps not strategically sound. But now you’re not alone!!
I’m glad we took him at his word even though we found him screaming and at the mercy of monsters. Anyone can get outnumbered.
And the word we are now taking him at is “no.”
Thanks to Lyria's recordkeeping, I realized I have a Stan already and I can put him into this adventuring party. He doesn't need to worry about contributing, because Lyria and I can clear a room with a White Rabbit/Aether Blast combo, but it's the thought that counts. Maybe I'll regular attack to let him contribute.
Please don’t start. You’ll give me flashbacks to Richard and that’s not fair to you just because you’re blustering.
That’s, uh. ...well, come to think of it, that’s what we did, but it wasn’t on purpose.
That sort of thing sounds like the sort that has a 90% chance of dying or permanent injury, 9% chance of fumbling your way through, and 1% chance of...us, I guess.
I shouldn’t have said anything.
...he’s not even planning on having us help out, huh.....
Well, there’s your danger. Feeling any stronger?
Well, that makes this a lot more straightforward.
Huh. For one of those battles, I got something related to calling a goddess. If that turns out to be an event currency, then the kidnapper...hmm.
I'd speculate farther, but they've not really told me a lot about gods/goddesses in this world. I guess a primal beast could get worshiped like one easily enough.
....fair. I’ve met one and I have zero clue what he’s ever thinking.
...so this is a recurring problem??
That sounds like the idea of a sensible person. Meanwhile, this crew.....
I’m more scared now that they have disappeared. What did they want and did they accomplish it?
Out of all the people you run into, it happens to be a crew of primal beast specialists.
.....oh yeah. I suppose, now that you’ve mentioned it, we probably don’t want to be announcing it to the world while we’re being chased by an army mostly for the reason that she can....
This guy must feel so overwhelmed and out of his death. “We’re just on the run from an expansionistic empire, no big.”
Or he can be really optimistic about it.
This is going to be a recurring theme, isn’t it?
Thanks to a double attack, party Stan got to finish off an enemy that Lyria started!! Good job Stan!!
Meanwhile on our side: oh, good, they’re staying still so we can deal with them.
Vyrn, not everyone has a “primal beast of the week” show format for their lives.
...Vyrn, buddy, he’s getting his butt kicked by regular monsters.
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget what most people would think of them.
I mean, on one hand, we have experience, but also the only special one here is Lyria, really, and maybe Katalina for her fame. Rackam’s special skills rarely are used in battle. ....well, okay, Rosetta is also special.
Well-earned fame, I should underline. I’m more thinking about her famous skill with a sword than just popularity.
....well, okay, Rosetta talks like we have a magical destiny, but.....
Oh good grief, now Lyria’s I’m on it, too. You’re going to get this guy killed, you two.
I think Lyria must have been spending a lot of time with the Black Knight.
She’s so cheerful about it.
Vyrn, you’ve been berating this guy for not wanting to encounter the primal beast all afternoon.
Djeeta, looking up from unfolding the picnic blanket: Huh? Oh, I guess.
Stop...standing around discussing whether to take a break?
And I guess that’s where we leave our heroes for tonight, because I nearly fell asleep on the couch.
I like her goggles.
I was joking about the picnic blanket, but apparently I got the right impression from how Vyrn and Lyria were talking.
Holy crap.
Those poor kidnapped people!
Am I the only one reacting to “there are kidnapping victims who have been trapped for years”??
Eh, you didn’t fire it. Good enough for me.
Stan’s got the idea.
I’m coming to really like Jessica.
She seems very sensible.
Alas, this time I don’t have a copy to put on my team.
She must be jacked under those sleeves....
She’s perfect.
She’s using a cannon as a club. Or maybe a battering ram.
(It doesn’t show up in screenshots, but there’s a loud crash between those last two and what sounds to me like rock splintering.)
On that day Lyria committed to a regimen of pushups and sit-ups.
She says it so casually that I can’t tell if being able to drive off a primal beast is normal or Jessica is just unstoppable.
I mean, it would explain how we managed to fight our first primal beast so early on in the adventure.
...so she can fight off the beast but she gets lost trying to actually release her brother. Okay.
...Not saying a word.
The sound effects of her casually swinging around her giant gun are excellent.
No, you’re wonderful. Poor Stan, though.
Please be better about this than Vyrn and Lyria, please.
SEE? THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT.
Not “how dare you not fight a god head on! you mustn’t care enough!,” it’s “here are the reasons you can do this as long as you don’t get discouraged.”
Jessica please come to me one day.
I LOVE YOUUUUU I mean yes, I agree with this.
I admit to a similar tendency when I hear something is secret I REALLY WANNA KNOW NOW!!
!!! She’s recruitable in the shop!!!
“Mostly in circles.”
......good thing most of us are ready to confront this beast because I think they’ll know we’re here,
Jessica is very good.
Big fan of this county’s ideas of the breadth of potential princess activities.
They were childhood friends...the trope gets even better.....
“The writers didn’t think that far beyond introducing someone to encourage Stan when the main characters wouldn’t.”
Cute....
I’m so...happy......
That’s kind of a long term solution for a problem being encountered deep in the lair of his final boss.
You fool. You clown. You absolute boob. You have dug your own grave.
Jessica’s brother is a gatcha character actually. I hope you pull him because his fate episodes are a wild ride
Fingers crossed!
Once I get his name at the end of this, I'll keep an eye out.
I don’t remember if Jessica ever says his name in this event so if she doesn’t I’ll tell you
I’m pretty sure that at least part of the “joke” in the minds of the writers is the idea of a man being less strong than a woman and that suspicion makes me inclined to lineface, but I will take the acknowledgment that Jessica is buff as hell.
I'll let you know if I don't find that info!
Based on other things in this event I think it’s mostly BUFF LADIES ARE GOOD
Oh, the event is getting serious. Some enemies don't die in one hit from Djeeta.
Tell that to Vyrn and Lyria two chapters ago.
Hi, Jar of Greed. I guess we’re in the right area.
I mean, you’re not wrong.
Oh, so the jar is a primal itself?? Interesting.
I appreciate the ?
Alas, just short of being able to bring Jessica along to the final battle.
....how is the jar going ...!
Not inside there, I hope. Fighting a teleporter is tricky business.
See, Lyria, this is a love story that’s worth watching.
So we can just stand back and — oops.
OW the noise they used to demonstrate the thought hitting him was EAR-PIERCING.
applause
I guess my initial impression of her that “peeved” is a large character trait of hers was not incorrect.
RandomProphet: You have a good point! I was perhaps being uncharitable due to great cynicism of media.
My thoughts exactly.
Aliza turned this kidnapping into an extended roleplay session with her boyfriend.
And he never let you know? Dude.
Aliza doesn’t appreciate being called out like this.
Stay with us forever.
ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKES ARE ON ME, LYRIA.
She sounds so boisterous! I love it. (Please stand differently.)
Oh! There’s more after this! I thought the mention of problems in the Valz Duchy was just placing this pre-Io.
I love you, Stan, but shhhhhh her near-screaming is delightful.
Perhaps that’s a little excessive.
YOU’VE DUG SUCH A DEEP GRAVE FOR YOURSELF STAN
Please learn your lesson this time, Stan. (I really want to see Aliza and Jessica spar, though.)
.......good question. I didn’t make the connection, but I didn’t think Valz had royalty.
A...proto-duchess???
Good enough.
The leadership of the Valz Duchy goes to whoever has the strongest martial arts? Io, your teacher is even more amazing than I thought.....
Wait, let the rest of us in on this. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I knew Lyria would be excited.
!!! I have enough treasure to get Jessica!! ...but given where we’re going, I’ll let Aliza join the fighting.
But SOON.
switches class to join in the punching
Uh oh. The wifi seems to have stopped working. This may cause a delay in finding out why the sky is blue.
And the wifi is back! Aliza and I have identical reactions.
Every time Aliza laughs, it sparks joy in me.
I guess lunch is going to be late today.
Boy, Lyria really makes mystery-solving easier.
Oh. That’s why it matters that they weren’t from Valz. Of course.
I was like “well, we’re between two islands,” not thinking more deeply.
...how’d he get control of a primal beast? I guess he didn’t know about people escaping.
Why is this the thing you choose to be humble about after a handful of instances of bravado about things you didn’t do?
“STOP CALLING ME OUT ALL THE TIME!!!”
Lyria cannot be stopped when she thinks she’s doing a good thing.
(That is cute, though. Even though it would be more efficient the other way around, they seem happy about it.)
Oops, he can’t read the mood to save his life.
...THAT WAS CENTURIES AGO.
Why do the writers hate uncles so much
Somewhere in our party, Io is screaming.
But his martial arts are too powerful.
I’d say that that should raise some concerns from a dissatisfied passed-over heir, but then again the duchy trains its heirs in martial arts so I guess it’s no more dangerous.
Ah, that was the missing information.
Well, that’s quite the shift from where we started. Aliza is going to be pleased, I bet.
Today the part of Yosie is played by Lyria.
I’m enjoying Lyria idolizing all of the buff ladies in this chapter.
It took me at least a half dozen tries to catch an image of Aliza with the speedlines.
She moves so fast.
Stan your girlfriend is so cool!!!
1) This guy has the smuggest expression this side of the skydom.
2) Freesia would chokeslam you through the stone floor if she were here.
1) What a big mouth.
2) Isn’t a big part of Freesia’s point that Erste’s robots were basically the best military technology in the word pre-Astrals?
She’s basically screaming so I think this guy is going through that wall before the end of this story.
He snapped his fingers and brought forth a monster as though we haven’t fought like twenty on our way down here.
This is.
The silliest dealmaking I’ve ever seen.
If Aliza loses her position because of her uncle’s plot that she’s personally overthrowing and thus loses her personal guard, that just means he doesn’t have to waffle about his duty. They’re still childhood friends and Aliza has been trying to get him to close the distance between them every time they meet.
Like the top there was always the more likely outcome to him succeeding, which WOULD get in the way of them hanging out.
Wait it takes us four more sections to finish this guy off?
Like I enjoy this story so I’m giving it a pass on this but that was the silliest deal I’ve heard in my life.
I love that they ended the last chapter on the classic taking a blow for you, and it immediately starts the next chapter with “come on, I’m a martial artist, I know how to take a blow right.”
Complete with the sound of the monster getting stuck in the ceiling while the screen shakes. It was worth learning a way to take faster screenshots to capture the monster being launched into the sky.
Finally, a story that takes a realistic approach to a trained warrior taking a blow for someone.
This woman is unstoppable. I love her.
“So why didn’t you talk to him about raising only deadly attack monsters?”
SHE’S USING HER WORDS!! SHE’S SURPASSED 90% OF MEDIA COUPLES!!!
I’m picturing this being said as she holds either side of his head with her hands and yanking it so he’s looking at her.
I guess Aliza and Stan would be unhappy if we just quietly beat this guy unconscious in the background and didn’t let them participate. But I want to for that interruption.
....oh my gosh, after all his big words he just books it out of there. That’s hilarious.
You’ve got a long road ahead of you, Stan.....
I guess getting surrounded is kind of your thing, huh Stan.
he just left
Come on, that’s something to be proud of, not embarrass —
Okay, I see your problem.
I’ll put in a good word for you.
bloodgates: “YOU’LL BE THE ONE WHO NEEDS HER FINAL WORDS” ZOOMS OUT THROWING MONSTERS BEHIND HIM
...I wondered why I didn’t know your username had changed. I’m glad I haven’t been paying that bad of attention.
I’d never.
I haven’t screenshotted them, but the last two sections have had things like this, of “he went that way!!” as he continues to jog to victory.
I WISH I COULD RECORD THIS AND SEND IT TO YOU ALL BECAUSE THE VOICE ACTING SOUNDS LIKE I DO IF I TRY TO RUN BECAUSE I’VE ALSO NEVER BEEN IN RUNNING SHAPE IN MY LIFE.
After our last confrontation, I expect this to be followed by LOOK OVER THERE IT’S THE ARCHDUKE and then making a wild dash out of there.
I forgot I was in my murdergame plurk until I hit the enter button.
But luckily I couldn't mistake you for anyone else.
Hazy flashback screen effects....
That's true, that's why I picked this display name!
It was not worth the half hour I spent learning how to turn an image into sepia tone in GIMP but it's done now.
This guy is a complete crown. How do you think that’s what’s going on here??
*clown. He THINKS he’s got a complete crown.
WE’RE IN A DIFFERENT ROOM HE SCAMPERED OFF AGAIN.
Oops.
Though, again, he’s using Erste’s martial stuff.
Also, I didn’t screencap this at first, but:
APPARENTLY THIS YAKETY SAX AFFAIR KEPT UP UNTIL WE LITERALLY KILLED ALL THE MONSTERS HE BROUGHT WITH HIM.
APPARENTLY THIS YAKETY SAX AFFAIR KEPT UP UNTIL WE LITERALLY KILLED ALL THE MONSTERS HE BROUGHT WITH HIM.
True Erste Empire power.
Good grief. The other people we could see them inside, but here he’s just a mecha now.
WE’VE SPENT LIKE THREE HOURS RUNNING UP AND DOWN STAIRS AND YOU STILL WANT TO TALK SHIT
Io got the final blow, which feels pretty right. The actual people in this story would have been better, but her teacher is now safe because she punched the dark essenced usurper’s lights out.
Oops.
The monster just slowly backs away when she brings up the idea of getting rid of them.
MAKE SURE IT INCLUDES PANCAKES. WE HAD TO DENY LYRIA PANCAKES TO SAVE YOUR BOYFRIEND.
We’ve come full circle.
I enjoyed it more with you here, but also I wish you hadn’t slipped into “background supporting character” instantly after you joined us.
I like Jessica a lot, but also her role in this quickly turned into “gently push Stan along and then comment how he’s becoming a man” instead of, you know. Anything of her own.
I was honestly assuming she was coming here to say that she’s joining my crew because she’s going to be bored at home.
In fairness to Stan, I’m reporting on how he wasn’t their only delay.
Honestly, I’m starting to think you’re doing this on purpose, Lyria.
Okay, I guess I was right.
Apparently I need to trust my first impressions of her at every moment.
The world better watch out.
...I guess I should uncap you now that you’re max level, huh.
...I guess we’re all in trouble unless I level you up, huh.
There she went after the opening cutscene. I thought she’d have to be here when it stopped looking like she’d be in the story.
And now I’m done with this event. I need to have lunch and I really need to do the laundry, but then I’ll be back for the last side story before I can discover why the sky is blue:
OH COOL THEY ADD MORE DRAWINGS AS I FINISH SIDE STORIES
googles can I delete richard
googles can I delete richard
Getting an SSR summon on the first day of free draws really changed my expectations for the draw. Not complaining, though.
Jessica’s brother’s name is Ayer and he’s a very interesting boy... I feel like she kind of gets the short end in that relationship too because Ayer’s got some serious shit going on
I’m sad that I’m not surprised the woman gets the short end of the stick, but I still like her so I’ll focus on that.
Looks like I don’t have him right now, but now I’ll know if I do.
We open on an Erste imperial operation on the island our friend Eugen was protecting.
The mood is set instantly.
The mood is set instantly.
Sorry, Monika. Sorry, Jennifer. I have new favourite characters.
Can Jick and Harper be the event character (I nearly said Servant)
We meet one every other island.
I still don’t get why she’s not the captain. Outside of “you look like a protagonist.”
Farrah! She did kind of fall off the story after that one scene. Glad to see she’s all right — well, sort of, with an imperial soldier finding her.
You look...incredibly boring. I’m sorry, I’m sure I’ll warm up eventually.
Skyfarers, huh? I was just thinking about skyfarers, what a —
....Katalina, did you not see the imperial soldier right in front of you?
Katalina, you’re not really on top of your game today.
I stand corrected.
Not untrue.
I don’t think you’re going to find fewer people who just go and do what they want whenever they want outside the army.
Katalina sounds so kind and big sisterly here. Who wouldn’t want to leave the army if they had Katalina’s help with it?
There is a gatcha version of Juri that includes his unit
Not even a little nervous!
I was a little meta-suspicious if his offer, knowing what he’s thinking, but fair, he really WOULD want to avoid running into anyone who might not be immediately able to capture us.
.....that sounded more like a meow to me.
oh good grief seriously?
One of these people is not like the others.... (I considered wearing the Holy Saber outfit to fit in, but this seemed funnier if Juri figures out Djeeta is the captain.)
He’s going to have a crash course hanging with us between the first two and the last. But...revolution?
If the Black Knight mentioned it (which she might have — I forget why the royal family died), I’ve forgotten it.
I mean, Katalina stuck around long enough to be placed in charge of Lyria for months.
.....the army conquering their homeland or their own island’s army?
......I can’t believe what I am watching with my own two eyes.
Awkward.....
I bet Farrah regrets bringing it up.
At least senpai is nice.
At this point, I thought that Katalina’s hidden passive Lesbian Magnet was at work, but at least in this instance I got different context in the full:
Kidnapped primal beasts, dark essence...thanks for giving us basically the perfect example of “maybe the Erste Empire’s up to some shady shit” to point Juri at.
sparkles menacingly in the background as I play deadly songs on my harp
“Imagine if I praised the organization I’m pretending to leave! How embarrassing that would be.”
“I’d better be extra careful not to slip up (slip up) (slip up) (slip up)”
This is a good direction for making me like this guy. He’s an enthusiastic, unthinking fool.
Lucky for him that Katalina took it at face value.
Being popular with women can have its troubles. (distant Vira laughing)
I want Katalina to be my senpai, too.
It’s not just the kouhai who is troublesome.
When my crew believes in a goal, they can work together as one.
They’re all really organized.
Don’t horn in on her territory, Juri!! ...Even though she put him in this position!!
I guess this is frowned upon in armies.
And so it begins.
.......And I checked with a friend and there’s just over two days left to Wha Makes the Sky Blue 2 so I guess I’ve failed in my quest and have to just rush the event story. I’ll be back one day!!
I’m sad I’ll be missing these but at least I got to see Rosetta likes puns.
HITTING THE SKIP BUTTON ON SO MUCH STORY FEELS SO BAAAAD
Added to Lyria’s journal: The Black Beast
I take it things are going well.
I take it things are going well.
I guess???
I took a detour off into Fate episodes for skills, because this is the second time in a row an event has wanted me to use my Light team so I guess I better use my light team.
I was going to comment on this, because since this is an SSR, it has voice acting and Lyria sounds like she’s barely able to speak between laboured breaths, but then the game did it for me:
Sometimes, this game gets me. Sometimes, I think that if I weren’t trying to make sure my friends know who I am, it would be better to give this a different name so not to end up in odd places with answers I have to give.
See, this is more what I want the game to let me to do rather than coming in at the last second to deflect a sword. I’m happy to let my more awesome companions do that, like Katalina. I just want to be able to be supportive when my companions are having a hard time.
Oops. This sounds more likely on my end.
Things are looking bad for our heroes since apparently I set out with just me and two semi-non-combatants.
I’m more than fine watching other people be cool instead. I guess that’s why I play so much FGO since that’s it, that’s the game.
There’s something about that “heh” before his introduction that makes me become overcome with giggles over how much he’s “the cool guy.”
It’s especially hard to believe when the only frontliner nearly fell off a cliff and left the two supports surrounded by monsters.
For anyone who takes their player character seriously, this must be a frustrating scene.
I SEE WHAT KIND OF FANTASY THIS IS TO APPEAL TO.
If this was between Albert and an established female character like Lecia or Io or something, I’d find this tiresome, but given that Djeeta is supposed to be a self-insert for me, I’m about halfway between enjoying it and being unable to stop laughing at it.
I imagine that particular aspect would be unchanged if it was Gran too
Vyrn, meanwhile, is absolutely on board with this.
RandomProphet: Oh yeah if it was with Gran as an actual character I'd be 100% fine with it.
THE MUSIC CHANGES WITH A STIRRING OF FLUTES WHEN HE CATCHES HER
I can’t stop laughing and I don’t know why I’m finding this entire scene so funny.
OH MY GOSH ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW WITH THAT QUICKENED HEARTBEAT FROM THE PLAYER CHARACTER I CAN’T TAKE THIS SCENE SERIOUSLY EVEN A LITTLE RIGHT NOW.
I’M DYING AND I STILL DON’T KNOW WHY IT’S THIS SCENE THAT HAS ME LAUGHING INTO MY HANDS THE WHOLE TIME.
It’s not like this game is ever known for being subtle, but I’m just. I don’t know what it is about this one.
Albert: WAIT I THOUGHT YOU WERE ALL INCOMPETENT. WHY IS THIS GIRL SO POWERFUL.
...thanks for waiting until after we defeated the monster to pull this stunt, Albert!
Albert are you really in a position to be saying someone else has weird powers
You’re not very good at interrogating anyone who’s even a little nervy, are you, Albert?
I hope that’s supposed to be “start” or else we’re going to have issues.
Do you know whatever the local sign language of this world is or are we going to have to do charades?
Lyria is such a good child.
We kind of do this from time to time.
I’m apparently not supposed to be so lackadaisical about it, though.
I don’t think I’m ready for the next Albert cutscene until I have calmed down and examined the reasons behind my half-nervous (I have some ideas), half-genuine (when I think the game is pushing Lyria as a romantic interest, I generally roll my eyes) laughter.
Because I just couldn’t stop laughing through the first half of that cutscene and it made it hard to be in the right mood for the second half.
As I continue to not do what I should be up to, I went back to the first side story to grind for the Fury Stones in the shop.
(I need 14 Fury Stones and a few Fury Pebbles to get my first Revenant Weapon to skill level 10 if I don’t want to use one of my extra Many Lives of Cats SSR weapon, so I’m grabbing some from the shop even though I could just grind tokens in the current, nearly over event like I should be.)
And I was punished for my sins:
Noooooooooo.......
Noooooooooo.......
First thought: when did Rackam get hot
I've managed to get more or less everything I want out of the current event, but I'm taking a detour from returning to the story by seeing if I can make a team strong enough to at least try the battle that unlocks the ability to get Monika Arcarum, so my first attempt is going to involve finishing the skills on my survival-based Light characters.
Oh no he’s so cute.
I CAN’T TAKE HOW CUTE HE IS
I COULD DENY YOU NOTHING MY CHILD. I was thinking that even though my light team is currently my strongest, I don’t really have a lot of characters I’m super into on it, but I guess I have one at least.
WELL I KNOW WHAT I WANT TO SAY RIGHT NOW
WAIT NO I HAV REGRETS
*have
Vyrn saves it but also I’m going back.
I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER gosh I love this boy
I will protect you with everything I have.
So my commentary is about to get really repetitive.
I will destroy you.
A dead man.
Who’s the heck is this and what are you wearing
Well, you’ve got good taste, at least.
I love youuuuuu
ah, that shadowy figure is one of the special characters you have to do some crazy forging shit with the revenant weapons to do
also elta shows up in song of serpent island!
100% crediting him with the return of the sun.
HIS HUMMING IS BEAUTIFUL I’M DYING
it continued and I ascended to a higher plane of existence
He’s too pure. Too good.
RandomProphet: OH YEAH NOW I REMEMBER there’s a music Eternal. I was a little mmm because her outfit is...hmm, but if she likes Elta maybe I’ll try to get her.
They were in an event together last year, so maybe it'll get a rerun at some point
That sounds excellent! I love Elta and, like, it's not like her outfit's the worst or anything. I just feel like the Harvin are intended to be childlike rather than just short, which makes me judge outfits harsher. But she seems nice.
(Also while I'm resetting the story to screencap something I missed, I should out of fairness note that it turns out the guy I threatened the life of had good reason to be grumpy and he just left when Elta explained what he was up to and invited the man to join the group, so I will not, in fact, follow him home and destroy him.)
I'm gathering up a bunch of screenshots in a row because his expressions are too good to just summarize the words and HE'S SINGING AND I'M DEAD.
I COULD LISTEN TO THAT FOREVER I NEED TO FIND AN MP3
See I feel like "childlike" describes a lot of Harvin but I also feel like there are a few characters where they managed to evoke "this character is an adult with different proportions because they're from a race of basically hobbits" successfully for me
Yeah, I had just instantly dismissed the Eternal as being from part of the childlike race, but having to look at her for longer in the cutscene, I was thinking just that: she actually looks like a short adult.
I might aim for the harp next Unite and Fight.
Yeah, I like her, she's cool
but yeah I think it's cool that they managed to do harvins who look like short, differently-proportioned adults
I feel bad for dismissing her at first, but I keep getting more things in my way with trying to upgrade the bow, so I still have the materials, haha.
It’s a difficult skill when a lot of animation can’t make women over five feet look like they’re their real age.
Anyway, he got asked how he could make such beautiful music and I basically screencapped everything after:
I’m so touched.
I’m so touched.
I’m so touched!
Don’t worry, Elta. If by my life or my death I may protect you, I will.
oh no.. he's so cute....
You flatter me. The crew’s pretty great, though. Mostly.
HE’S SO GOOD.
bloodgates: RIGHT HE’S SO GOOD.
If anyone deserves the gift from a god, it’s Elta.
A GOOD BOY.
Yay, we got to hear the song!!
Please go out with me — I mean, what? Hahahaha, I said that it’s so nice out...
Ah, he wasn’t listening. Phew. ....nnn.
(Be quiet, Vyrn, don’t tell him!!)
What a good boy. I was supposed to be going for groceries like an hour and a half ago but this boy!!
I better hold off on his skill episode or I will never leave.
I say that and yet.... I’m not logging the cutscenes so I ever leave.
I can’t sleep so we return to the blade of the young champion, where Juri considers his options for luring the skyfarers into a trap before he is labeled a traitor himself.
What a mood.
What a mood.
(Particularly for students who aren’t ready for their class presentation.)
Maybe one day Juri will actually be able to sound like a willing deserter.
So about that “before he gets seen with the skyfarers and labeled a traitor” plan.....
Meanwhile the other half dozen crew members probably standing around this one soldier are looking at them like “are you for real.”
“Hey no fair that this group of wanted criminals I walked through to declare my intent to kill these two specific members are able to hold me down.”
“(Not even a little.)”
He makes such indignant OIIII sounds. It delights me.
I’m glad Farrah has been doing well since she appeared and vanished dozens of chapters ago even from where I am in the story.
Because I see her around Lyria all the time, this statement feels weird, even though she’s definitely shown prickly sides around the Black Knight or that argument when escaping an island. She’s just so good to Lyria at all times.
I wonder how much of that prickle was there during her academy days, or whether it was life in the army that made it harder to show the kindhearted side to her strictness. That is to say, I wonder how much Vira’s dearest Katalina was different when they met up. They probably said it but I have been shotgunning story so I can’t remember.
All right, eyes getting heavy. Let’s see if I can trick myself into sleep before that happens again.
I haven’t really used Farrah before this. Wow, she’s loud and excited-sounding.
Me, idly: I wonder why they bothered to specifically point that out in the story.
Oh.
This smile sparks joy.
Oh no, they’re both dorks. My favourite.
I realize that she was clearly a loyal soldier when we met her in the main story, but it still kind of surprised me to read that she was so enthusiastic about it. On the other hand, why am I surprised about Farrah being enthusiastic about anything?
Idolizing Katalina is relatable content,
I really want to know more about this revolution. Either I’m forgetting it entirely or the Black Knight glossed over it.
Or, I guess, it could just be the official story behind the shift to empire. Freesia spent 10 years making up the emperor for the power, after all. (Or at least thinking. I’m guessing Loki slid into the spot more recently, but I don’t know for sure.) This hasn’t been the most transparent of empires.
Well, this took a sad turn. I guess they didn’t want his dad tying Juri back from leaving on top of everything else.
According to best boys Jick and Harper, BEACH VAYCAY!!
...I guess he thought he could trap them by lunch time.
Such serious danger music for what I’m sure is just “I HAVE TO GET TO MAKING LUNCH BEFORE SENPAI DESTROYS US ALL.”
Orrrr maybe not! I guess the serious music WAS warranted.
I love her.
YOU COULD BE ONTO SOMETHING what is the point of roll call if you have to discover someone is missing by suspicion rather than the roll call.
I guess the guy we left tied up on the beach is from a different division.
Juri belongs to the best unit in the empire. I love all of them.
They have to outsource counting to ten to children. Can I adopt all of them??
They scream this in a cacophony of distinct voices and pitches. I love them.
SO I CAN SLIP AWAY TO SNEAK INTO ROLL CALL.
I’m so happy that we’ve demonstrated already that we’re capturing rather than killing soldiers at least for today.
I don’t want to hurt these poor folks.
As someone who grew up in a fairly small community, can confirm.
What were you even going to say right in front of Farrah and Katalina?
farrah has another event where she's pretty central but yeah, side characters in the story who aren't added through story progression generally show up more in events
Though at least it sounds just like someone who wants to defend his decision to desert.
I’m not surprised they would be! I hope I get to see that event, because I’m growing quite fond of her.
.....weren’t there like nine of you. Is a company 5 people.
Okay, the commander at least is a little less lovable.
Headcanon that Jick and Harper are in the pile of unconscious bodies we left from the “first company.”
Okay never mind they’re the best imperials in existence.
I love them, but I can scarcely believe this unit have an elite anything.
Apparently there are more than the 9 of them now. Unless he’s the entire third company.
No wonder Juri thinks the empire are the good guys.
I love you all.
They’re working under the Pomeranian.
Thanks for recruiting Juri for us, Pommern. What a pal.
Wow, news really does travel fast around here!
In case Juri needed the point underlined even harder.
.....wait, does Pommern get his plan??
I didn’t even know Pommern had a quiet setting.
This segment of the army is way smarter than I ever gave them credit for.
Doing this side story post-Yggdrasil Malice is kind of hilarious.
But this did unlock just after we recruited Eugen in chapter 12 so fair.
Well, that’s a useful opening for a newly briefed saboteur.
Juri: We might be able to sneak into the fortress.
Djeeta: I’ve got just the thing.
(I’ve been leveling it, but somehow I suspect there are better outfits right now. .......oh well!)
How convenient!
“Huh, the screenshotting is being finicky. Maybe if I delete the screenshots I took now that they’re uploaded up to today’s batch, it will run more smoothly.” after several rounds of deleting Granblue screenshots “So that was about 2.4k screencaps.”
I snorted in surprise. I did not expect Farrah to say something so on the nose.
Man, Juri is going to get destroyed in the crew Old Maid tournaments.
(Lyria wins 9 times out of 10 because her poker face is just as bad but few in the crew feel able to look at her unhappy face when being about to pick something other than the old maid so they just pick the one that makes her happy. Or at least that’s what Katalina and I do.)
Wow, we really need Rosetta to join up badly.
Funny that.
Juri: master of the undercover operation.
Lucky for him we’re all fools.
But how likely could that be?
We’re all so incredibly competent.
The soldier voice acting in this is impeccable. This one is hissed out in a whisper like they think they can still hide.
The voice acting for terrible acting is amazing. This is such a good event.
As the soldiers say the same thing simultaneously.
Given how all the grunt soldiers are the best characters ever, I’m so glad that we’re underlining super hard that we don’t kill people before we meet the Black Knight. This bodes well for the enforcers.
Generations of spies and soldiers will read about this day and study the intricate strategies employed by both sides.
I love everyone at this bar.
Our charge attacks run the gamut of cool. Djeeta unleashes the Lullaby of Eternal Sleep. Juri, bless his heart, has as his charge attack “Triple Attack.”
We may all be fools, but Farrah’s instincts are at least on point.
I know water is vital, but if this were their real plan with Poseidon, it would be a little overkill.
........JUST MAKE SOME MORE BARRELS.
..........wait. They wouldn’t put something that unnerving to Juri in a fake report, would they? Are they seriously trying to control a Primal Beast with a god complex to install on a ship as a water fountain???
Honestly, based on our usual dealings with the empire, I think it’s an improvement that the destruction of an entire inhabited island is just a potential unintended side effect of their plan rather than a key component of it.
Of course he was.
Sorry, Juri, but...yes, absolutely, like a fiddle. ...wait, that’s played, not dup —
Rackam’s probably around here somewhere to talk about Port Breeze’s citizens being trapped on a Primal Beast storm-hit island.
“Okay, now I’m defecting, but for real this time.”
(It’s a high compliment to the guy that he’s so angry at himself for keeping his head in the sand about the empire’s wrongdoing. It’s an easy trap to fall into and a hard one to admit you fell into.
Like, this is a well done serious scene, but after all the ridiculous stumbling on ambushers I can only laugh when that soldier pops out with that line.
There are further similar lines that I’m not screencapping. Basically since he realized what’s going on, he’s been shouting nonstop. For good reason and with good things to shout about!
This is serious, but I’m laughing so hard.
Oh good, you aren’t planning to kill us, then.
nods in Canadian approval
Maybe it’s because the document you left to baitthe trap, which didn’t have to be real, described war crimes?
Pommern until you shape up I’m not giving you any more Valentine’s chocolates.
Pommern, you are being real unkind. What would your wife/potential future wife think? (Since I know nothing about her beyond Pommern doting on her, for all I know it could be “well done, husband, now grab the girl with blue hair, too.”)
.....he passed away recently in an accident, huh...... (cupping hands around mouth) Elta! Get those magic mind-healing strings of yours ready! We got another patient incoming!
...okay, this was not the trauma I expected to see here.
Okay, never mind. This is EXACTLY the trauma I expected.
Pommern is taunting Juri.
Recommended summon: light.
Recommended summon: light.
I’m not your pal, friend.
hand on juri’s shoulder You’ll get used to this soon enough.
I guess this hasn’t become routine yet in this part of the timeline.
Not yet, you haven’t. Let’s find ourselves a god. Lyria, I’ll be counting on you!
I wonder if she’s think about her own time in the imperial army when she says that?
*thinking I’m making so many typos in these plurks.
Given where we’re at in the island’s destruction? I imagine so.
...that one’s new, though. I wonder...maybe because Juri has been on both the side of the people capturing them and the ones that fought them?
That’s too silly of a mental image for me to not want to laugh.
“All right, tough guy.”
Where’s the Sand Guardian, guardian of the sand when you need them?
So basically “all right, tough guy.”
So, are you talking about flooding the island or dropping it into whatever is below the skydom? I imagine the former, but when I thought of a Primal Beast destroying an island, I thought the latter.
Not that I have any idea why the islands float when people fall.
...you’re really up on current events, huh.
Man, this is going to be a hard journey for you, then. (Also wow, we fought the soldiers in the village around lunch and now the sun is setting. Long day.)
Fair enough.
“True Friend.” What a nice title.
Wait, aren’t the mortals supposed to say that to the god, not the other way around?
Convenient how beating them up seems to do that for Primal Beasts.
Wait, isn’t this like what just happened in where I am in the main story with Bob? (I know it’s not Bob, but I thought “it was a strangely familiar name to me in a world with mostly unfamiliar ones to me,” and I thought Bob before I thought Adam.)
......well, hello you.
COME WITH US I LOVE YOU AND YOUR UNIT
......sparkles in confusion??
On my what?
This class is great to have on during serious scenes.
I spittaked (spittook??).
1) My name in “one mighty blow to the head” is ridiculous.
2) Did I just step aside and bonk him over the head with my harp?
PULLS ON ARMOUR SLEEVE NOOOOOO COME WITH USSSS
Today the part of Yosie is played by Vyrn watching Juri’s fight request.
PLAYABLE LYRIA IS IN MY GRASP!!! MY STORY TEAM WILL BE VERY STORY-RELEVANT AT ALL TIMES!!!
Time to begin. (I’ll be stopping and starting a lot as it’s once I finish x amount of work I do y amount of Granblue).
And think I was just asking about this when Poseidon was going on and on.
AS, YOU KNOW, IT WOULD.
“Why, last time that happened was exactly three centuries ago!”
That’s where the “plan” part comes in. And then the screen starts shaking immediately after because of course it does.
“Maybe next time indulge my desire for a plaaaaann....”
Hope that wasn’t Port Breeze where the farmers were talking in an earthquake!
.....i...is that normal? Is the entire skydom like several units of measurement below where it was during the War? Like air slowly leaking out of a helium balloon?
And then the screen starts shaking immediately after because of course it does.
....wait does this have to happen post-chapter 54 because we’re just going to just go through every island we visited on our quest as someone talks about islands falling out of the sky and then they fall out of the sky? How long is this cutscene going to be?
I find it neat they decided to go with a meeting gathering the heads of merchant groups.
Later in the cutscene (I went ahead taking screenshots before deciding what to grab, because this one is a little long to keep refreshing to go back and grab what I need later), we’ll find that they were picked to ask for information, which feels to me like a neat and clever choice.
Normally I’d expect such a scene in fiction to be a council of government officials, but you know who needs to keep their ear to the ground to such a big shakeup as islands disappearing? The people who make money off those islands. These big time merchants who span the skydom...of course they’d have contacts. which is why they aren’t wearing glasses HA
I wonder what it’s like for these big time merchants having Siero just in the middle of this. Like now that I know about the Harvin, I don’t know if she’s a child like I initially assumed, but on the Harvin scale from childlike to short adult, Siero falls pretty far left for me.
What the heck.
Siero is definitely a grownass woman
Why are the islands buoyant? Are they normally affected by the wind currents? Do islands shift along the sky or are they fixed relative to each other?
The tetra-elements? I assume that’s fire/water/earth/wind, but what does it mean, they went haywire?
I’m just saying, what makes the sky blue is a lot more relaxing of a question than anything being raised here,
(It’s a really cool title, though. Don’t get me wrong.)
The retail mogul spends about a quarter of her lines in this scene needling the arms dealer and I can’t say that’s the wrong choice for her based on how enjoyable I find this.
So I probably will still be able to do those free quests in Port Breeze and the Valz Duchy as long as they aren’t on one of the small islands. Gotcha. Also I forgot to screencap it, but I think he was the one to share that observers looking across the Grim Basin are seeing it in other skydoms.
So not the best sign.
I enjoy that no one likes talking to the Empire. What pains in the neck they are.
How big do you think the Grandcypher is — oh, secure evacuation routes, not be evacuation routes. That shouldn’t be too —
.....hey buddy how you doing
RandomProphet: OKAY GOOD I didn’t know the Harvin were a thing when I first met Siero, so I thought she was a kid, and when I met her a second time and discovered she owned a shop outside Port Breeze, her age was not the biggest mystery about her to me until now.
I thought she was just mysterious teleporting whiz kid of business and didn’t think about it too hard
Anyway are we about to get this island falling thing pinned on us.
Until the other merchants started talking, I read that as a singular you and thought he’d dropped the district chief into a pocket dimension with him to talk.
Given these are the people hired to protect him from the kinds of people who want to own weapons, that’s not the greatest sign.
There’s no need to be an ass. Just drink your coffee.
...........oh, hi Sandalphon. So this is who is currently double on my light team between character and summon.
So...researcher who studies Astrals or researcher who is an Astral? This is a big distinction.
Hey, Shoephone (Sandal-phon), I like just opened up the Arcarum yesterday and, while I didn’t commentate on it at least yet, I literally went through this exact same ship with a painting. What timing.
Your place on my light teams is on shaky ground right now, mister, if you keep being a dick.
I’m glad he at least hasn’t killed them yet.
All right, look, you butt, I’m taking your character form off my light team until you shape yourself up!!
“Allies” IS HE, THOUGH???
THE REASON I STARTED SHOTGUNNING STORY and then What Makes the Sky Blue II came out and gave me extra reason. AND I DON’T HAVE TO GET ALL THE WAY THROUGH!!!
At least give us a Dewey Decimal System. Come on.
These sorts of things are really interesting but are probably also the sort of thing that it’s better not to examine too closely.
The first two literally plop to the ground as they say this and Katalina sounds amused but fond. It makes for a cute mental image.
Given the number of Fate episodes I have yet to complete, that’s probably a lot of area we can cover.
Given she usually goes 100% on instinct and insight, it’s interesting to see her start to try to apply some academic methods to this.
I mean, both are weird things that defy regular logic, so hey, maybe they’re connected. (Also because Lyria’s primaldar is going PING PING PING PING.)
That’s unsettling when we’ve probably been going every which way.
She’s such a proud parent.
THIS IS REAL COOL SINCE SHE’S BEEN A MAINSTAY OF MY LIGHT AND SURVIVAL TEAMS SINCE I STARTED THIS UP AGAIN.
It felt for a moment like it was almost personalized.
Ah, here’s our human Dewey decimal system. But she’s perhaps too effective.
INSTANTLY STARTS READING BECAUSE OF COURSE THAT WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE.
Okay, you I have no idea about, but you look like the sort that should be on this team.
He shows up in Footsteps on Sacred Ground
So, like, that’s fascinating, but also I promise I’ll bring you back when we’re sure it’s NOT about to crash to the surface and destroy the knowledge forever.
Okay, never mind, you’re on it.
Oh, so we’ll get an explanation for what haywire means?
...seems precarious, but I imagine a lot of things do when you look at it on a microscale.
I think we might need to get some workbooks for the younger set on the crew to use on long journeys (including Djeeta, probably).
So we’ve got a mixture of atomic theory and four element theory at the same time.
I’d criticize using the same word for the particles as for the magical alignments, but Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo, as they say.
And with that actually really clever way to get the term across, I should go if I want to eat supper before like 10 PM.
RandomProphet: Is that one of the side stories? Because I might put that up on the list of things I want to do, since I’m liking this dude already.
Yes
Heck yeah. Bookmarking it in my head once there’s a break in events and not enough to otherwise distract me.
I had this open in a land without internet, so I read what was already loaded. I discovered three things:
1) I never saw Ran’s comment about the gacha Juri with Jick and Harper. I desire them.
1) I never saw Ran’s comment about the gacha Juri with Jick and Harper. I desire them.
2) I’ve been rushing putting these comments out because doing it on my tablet slows me significantly and I have so much to say that this takes a ridiculous amount of time. The proliferation of typos is less bad than the several instances of not noticing I have uploaded the wrong picture.
The worst of these that I saw was when I thought I had uploaded a picture of Katalina noting that Furias had been involved in the plan that could destroy the island, so I captioned it with of course he was. I discovered that what I actually uploaded a picture of Juri asking if his father had been deceived by the army, which makes the caption
a lot more callous.
3) ...Did anyone ever go back for that soldier we left tied up on the beach?
3) ...Did anyone ever go back for that soldier we left tied up on the beach?
Anyway, I’m back to the discussion of elements and how the Primal Beast that Lyria is sensing everywhere could be affecting the balance of the tetraelements.
Honestly, once we got the Primal Beast of Boat I stopped thinking they have limits to what they can be.
Honestly, once we got the Primal Beast of Boat I stopped thinking they have limits to what they can be.
Even if all the Primal could do was drop an island from the sky on command, that’d be basically the nuke of the skydoms. Like a nuke, it’d be awful, but it would be a weapon.
WHY COULDN’T THIS BE A WEAPON well anyway I’m going to assume that they are correct in this line of thinking anyway.
Also, as I backed up to grab a screenshot, I saw one of my non-screencapped lines flash by. Katalina said something about being able to see Primals being used for more than just weapons of war. They might just be saying they could be either a weapon or not and that it’s better to spread a wider net when considering what they are.
Anyway, this could be the logical step of “genius boy already read all these books, so the most helpful thing to do is to find more,” but it could also be “GET ME AWAY FROM THE READING PILE FOR A MOMENT MY HEAD HURTS.”
Sounds like the former, even if the latter is hilarious to me. Please don’t wear yourself out, Lyria.
Given that the third thing Lyria did upon meeting Djeeta was summon a dragon from nowhere and the second thing was bind their lives together using powers none of still understand properly to reverse death by sheer force of will,
I don’t feel Lyria has ever been exactly lacking in that department. But hey, the comment of being a good influence flattering, so thanks!
On the other hand, it’s a little self centred of me to think of the beginning of the adventure as the first part I got to see. It could be argued that it really began when Katalina met Lyria, when Lyria was lying on a bed, listlessly staring at the ceiling because she had (understandably) given up on ever escaping the lab.
In that sense, okay, fair.
I hate that my first reaction was not, as I’d like to think, “look at Katalina being so fond of her little sister figure,” but was instead a startled, suspicious “she’s calling Lyria a ‘lovely young woman’ right after talking about the player character’ influence. what’s your angle here, game?”
But I have certain things about which I am an overly suspicious/cynical reader.
I’m tired just thinking about how much time was spent reading difficult books here.
LYRIA NEXT TIME PLEASE STOP BEFORE WE GET TO THIS POINT OKAY
......Arusha please get any sleep
I was kind of expecting the joke was going to be he was already sleeping.
Well, if he was, he probably isn’t any more. So, not the setup for a joke. That scream echoed from far away and sounded more scared than startled. Worrying start.
.....so that was really creepy to hear reverberating down stone hallways.
BUT DESPITE MY CREEPED FACTOR we shift instantly to “lighthearted moment incoming” music.
...oh boy.
I’m sorry, Arusha. None of it is secret now. He’s probably halfway through the archive.
All of my worry has drained out of me instantly.
Ahhh, a good boy who isn’t going to get Arusha in trouble.
Given how obscure the thing we’re trying to figure out is, I feel we should ask the king to at least let Arusha sort through them for things to bring to Johann. I mean, us, but also I really mean Johann.
Johann, you may be less good of a boy than I thought two comments back, but I still love you.
Me, instantly: SOMETHING IMPORTANT IS HAPPENING
(I wonder if I was actually the captain in this game how many times my “LYRIA IS LOOKING AT SOMETHING CURIOUSLY” reaction would have resulted in “oh, it’s 2 for 1 on pastries at that bakery okay.”)
That sure isn’t her standard ping, so I’m extra curious.
JOHANN YOU’RE SO USEFUL now I’ve really got to do your side story.
Wouldn’t being in bad condition for its age imply a certain level of fragility? (I thought he meant something less literal by got it, like “I figured out why Lyria noticed it.”)
........did we just find the Astral necronomicon??
Conveniently, Arusha’s scholarly librarian instincts have engaged and she’s forgotten about needing to ask the king.
It’s a silly saying, but they do say it’s easier to seek forgiveness than ask permission, so FULL SPEED AHEAD, SMART PEOPLE!!
Well, that’s sure interesting.
I just couldn’t let OPBs slide past the non-story reading people who for some reason want to read me talk even longer than the actual story script.
....it’s one of Shoephone’s peeps, isn’t it?
“At least one of them is a real big butt.”
And Lyria has been sensing a Primal Beast everywhere...hmmm.....
So my best guess is that it’s because they’re out of whack that it feels different from what is just...normal.
Or that.
“If it ain’t broke....”
Her laugh sounds so nervous as she responds to “well, let’s just beat up these godlike beings as soon as they get a face we can punch.”
Lyria picked up on that way faster than me. “Who went there? Was it Rackam? ......Do we have to take sky public transit if our pilot’s away?”
Wind makes sense, though.
.....that was a loud bang.
....oh hey, asshole. I’m meta-annoyed with you since I get to peek in on scenes that as a character I’d have no idea.
.....Okay now I’m in-universe furious, too.
A good choice here, though I imagine it was more based on location than “Katalina is Strong.”
It’s kind of weird that I get to go “well, she’s conscious because I am.” Downside it’s double chances to get knocked out, upside I get to make sure she’s okay.
Ah, there it is. Friendship corner.
...oh right, shouting in a room with a dangerous enemy. Oops —
......how’d I manage that one. All I got is a flimsy knife because I’m wearing my new Alchemist outfit for reading glasses and I don’t have good dark knives/guns.
Vyrn calls Katalina “ane-san.” That makes me happy.
Katalina, you’re wonderful.
...Wait, no, stop that.
Katalina, shhh, calm down. You’re panicking.
One thing I really like about Granblue that I’ve noticed lately: while I’d like to have more options for dialogue choices (I enjoy them, even though I know we aren’t allowed to change the path), I appreciate that Granblue usually gives somewhat distinctive choices when it does,
within the constraints of “they must return to the same point in a few lines.
Anyway it’s probably clear which one I’m going for given my commentary already, but I’m glad there’s also the option to be the sort of captain who does consider whether it’s worth the risk in a dangerous situation. (I hope our scholar friends are also okay.)
I bet that other choice makes Lyria super angry.
I love these two. And I love it when the game lets me taking on the role of supporting other people rather than just taking the spotlight.
(Apparently I want a mobage where I can be the supporting cast to NPC main characters. It probably is a niche market.)
Do you mind? We’re having a moment.
....Hope you loaded up a defensive summon this morning, Lyria!!
Woah, that’s even more sparkly than usual for Lyria doing powers stuff.
......okay apparently these are level 3. Maybe I can assume that’s a result of post-Lyria-doing-stuff or else it’s kind of odd compared to the cutscenes.
Well, they’re pretty tough for level 3. I’ll give them that.
I mean, Katalina and Djeeta are reckless all the time, but I guess they are professional recklessers.
I see why they kept talking about Lyria’s increased determination over time.
Same back to you! Thanks to Katalina’s priority list, we kind of ignored you two.
Johann is a practical lad.
.......well, that’s a bad sign. I thought it was just a case of continuing Shoephone’s interest in denying the spread of information like at Siero’s meeting, but I guess the library one was actually the least numerous.
Why Isn’t Katalina The Captain Part 76.
Arusha, you’re cute!!
He says as he casually takes out three. Johann, you’re also cute!!!
why isn’t Katalina the captain
(though I guess it’s good to have someone with the authority to tell her that she, the injured one, shouldn’t be the one to lure off the dangerous enemy when she’s not sure she can walk unassisted)
thrusts captain’s hat at Katalina
...I must say, this is something of a pickle.
...WAIT HOW ARE YOU JUST SUDDENLY INEXPLICABLY OKAY MY SUSPICION SHOT THROUGH THE ROOF though in-universe it’d be HI SIERO SO GLAD TO SEE YOU
AFTER THAT CUTSCENE AND NO MENTION OF ESCAPING IT I AM SO WORRIED WHETHER THIS IS THE REAL SIERO
No pressure or anything.
Though it’s true that Lyria is number one best positioned person in the world to do this.
Of course I’m the one who goes with her. I feel like Johann would be more important to bring along for his knowledge, but I guess they want someone who can frontline for Lyria and Katalina is the one with the experience of leading guards on a defence. And maybe Djeeta takes up less space, I dunno.
(I know the reason is “protagonist has to follow the story,” but in-universe reasons.)
I’m glad Lyria gets to take a leading, proactive role this event instead of supportive. It’s nice to mix things up.
There’s something about the firm handshake that is making me laugh. Maybe it’s because my name is the one there.
Hooray!! (Her dress is even more semi-transparent than usual and I continue to wish she had a better outfit, but setting aside longtime gripes: ) I’ve been wanting to let Lyria take a more prominent role in my main quest playing for a long time now!
She looks so pleased with herself to be able to add herself to the journal as a playable character. She’s real cute.
Given she can only use skills, those are some relatively long cooldowns, but also wow those are good skills.
She's fun to use, even if I rarely use her.
She seems really interesting! I’m looking forward to getting to use her more once I get her levels up.
The annoying part about Arcanum is that when I reach a checkpoint, I’ve usually used at most a quarter of my TP, and yet I have to stop anyway and wait for tomorrow.
Hard and Extreme have 50 TP so they'll probably be more your thing
I mean, it will at least not have the frustration of NO I CAN KEEP GOING but the limitation on when and how often I can play it will likely remain grating.
I'm taking advantage of my tired state to skip through What Makes the Sky Blue III's story so I can start the raids.
I plan to eventually read both II and III, but it may take me a while. In part, it's because the story is apparently EXCEEDINGLY LONG, and in part...I can't quite put my finger on why, but when I catch glimpses of the story before each skip combined with what little I've seen of the first one makes me think "this isn't my aesthetic."
I joked to myself that it's because the angels aren't cute, but in reality idk why.
Yeah, the more time I spend looking at this event, the more I go "well, this sure isn't my preferences. I'm glad my Sandalphon-loving crew captain is probably over the moon, though."
As soon as I say that.
My what is huh?
That just means you've spent a lot of AP last month
Don’t call me out like this, game.
So, I’ve been tossing a lot of stuff towards the premium gala, because I’d like to get Ferry (both because I like the character and she’s a strong Dark option). I’ve gotten some pretty nice things out of my pulls even if I have yet to be successful with my goal, but then today I was punished for my recklessness:
Noooooooooooo
Since Lyria’s ability is basically entirely wrapped up in her skills, I’m taking a moment to go through her Fate episodes.
Rackam wishes I wasn’t, apparently.
Rackam wishes I wasn’t, apparently.
Unexpectedly, no one’s particularly happy with Lyria’s Fate episode.
Reminiscing is turning into a competitive sport.
Meanwhile, in the background, everyone is dying of embarrassment over the things they did in the past
Uh oh. I’m next. Is this going to be a comment that I need to get bailed out a lot or something?
Fingers crossed for a martial arts action Lyria as a later unit.
Katalina, she who started the event where you first get Lyria as a playable unit by trying multiple times to sacrifice herself to protect Lyria, isn’t liking where this is going.
Nothing involving protecting me outside of, oh, reviving me from the dead.
No one is happy with how Lyria’s Fate episode is going except for Lyria.
Look, guys, I raced ahead to get to the side story that lets me include Lyria in my story team. I’m not going to tell her to butt out now.
See, Io gets it.
I love this. I knew I was in for a treat when the first part was called I Will Protect You!
The FGO America Singularity???
Anyway, sidetracking to a Fate episode ( haha ) preview, on to Lyria’s training!!
I’ve joked before about Lyria committing to a physical training regimen when inspired by buff women, but this time that’s literally what’s happening.
Apparently that is an impossible request.
...so the direction given to the actor must have been something like “give the least impressive scream you can muster.” I’m certain I’ve heard her sound way more fierce than this, but then she was using her magical powers instead of a physical weapon.
Aren’t swords supposed to be unexpectedly light to the point where people think it’s easy until they try to keep swinging it for more than a few seconds at a time?
...okay this level of waif is a little over the top. I was going to say to give this girl a sandwich, but no, it’s a common observation that she likes to eat. Summoning must just obliterate calories.
Lyria doesn’t appreciate being told that the art of the sword might not be in her wheelhouse. Again, being able to share audio would be great, because the sound she makes causes me to laugh.
If she can’t lift this, too, then non-physical strategy in the end or not, I’m going to make Lyria start doing push-ups.
Hypocritical perhaps, since in reality I’m really weak for someone without a health condition impacting it (beyond I guess depression), but my gosh I’m worried about her.
I’ll accept “not enough arm strength to aim steadily,” though.
Look, Lyria, you’re a natural. (There was a fun firing sound effect. I forgot to mention it, but Lyria’s comment on heavy swords is accompanied by the sound of the sword clattering to the ground.8
Lyria is entirely out of control and we’re lucky no one gets shot.
This is not just a rehash of “too weak,” which I appreciate.
I also appreciate Rackam got the situation under control before Lyria’s curiosity killed us all.
I’m not sure how that could happen, but I don’t know anything about guns, real or fictional.
Reaction 1) Rackam’s a good teacher.
Reaction 2) Don’t try to pretend you did this on purpose. You were panicking as much as the rest of us.
...or okay you did do this on purpose.
I wonder if this was just a lesson in firearms safety or if he deliberately decided to scare her off firearms because he’s worried about her shooting someone.
Setting aside how much love and respect she has for Katalina as a reason to try to learn from her first, I don’t know why we didn’t start here.
Well, I guess not all powers are general magic.
...what a curious way to describe the flow of magic.
Though I wonder if it might be affected by the dozen Primal Beasts she’s got on hand.
Does magic make fart noises, too?
Io suggests that the draining magic is attracting monsters and then, right before we fight them, she thinks this. They really are trying to scare her off the frontline. I can understand why they’re doing this, but it!s unexpectedly underhanded.
Wow, y’all, way to deep-six her self-confidence.
I know it comes from a place of love, but setting her up to fail as the method of discouraging her from this line of action seems mean. There’s got to be a way where you raise her confidence in what she does now rather than lower her confidence in everything else.
「ラブライブ！」2ndシングル「Snow halation」/μ's ショートサイズPV
.......feather halation....
..........shoephone what the heck are you doing here
I can’t make out a word he’s saying, but as usual, Lyria talks to him as though he’s speaking plain...whatever language they speak is.
Is this a flashback to when she........wait, a flash forward? Is Shoephone giving her a glimpse of the future where she flips out on these things?
So this takes place post-WMtSB, but during that event, knowing how I construct teams in story content, she’ll have been frontlining the whole way. Time is confusing.
Well, I think she’s topped Shoephone for the funniest way to refer to this grump.
Do we end up with some amount of amnesia at the end of that event?? I guess that would fix the timeline. Find out when I return to that quest maybe someday.
THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY TO DO THIS.
Anyway, she’s able to use her magic after this to protect an exhausted crew and reinvigorate them to finish the fight.
I mean, you give us directions and information when we deal with primals, we’re only able to stop their rampages more permanently because of what you do with them after we beat them up, you summon their powers to aid us in battle, and oh yeah you stopped me from dying using your own life force. But sure, first time helping. Well done.
How can you look at that face and not say that you’ll help her figure out how to fight by our side?
Ah, the game has been listening to me.
......if not now, when?
She’s real cute. I know that I have issues with some choices made with her character design, but I do like her if I set aside wider trends and some guesses towards developer intent.
Well, this is a fine start. “It’s not a haunted house! It just contains something more deeply cursed than some mobage art.”
Fix that attitude or we’re turning right around!
That’s a good thing to know before we grab it for her.
Okay, respectable.
This is at the end of one of those “the fact that you’re fighting so much is proof you’re friends” exchange, so yeah, I am.
So this is a highly plausible situation since Lyria is scared of ghosts (unless they turn out to be friendly), but the lack of Lyria response worries me.
Okay, I was overthinking it. I was worried she might have gotten hit by the curse and we were going to have to go find her, but I guess she really was just hiding around a corner.
Good grief. Sarah would be so disappointed in you.
.....I guess that worked??
Maybe we should have asked this before we got to the haunt — ancient church.
.....Hmm. This could be an issue.
Why me specifically?
Hey, uh. Can I join you back there? Especially since the curse is apparently laser-focused on me.
I mean, I’d normally believe that, but there’s no such thing as a rumour in this game.
....the curse is strong enough to be felt rooms away what are you doing to us de la Fille?
Okay, so I’m believing in this curse, too, but falling apart is just what old buildings do.
Okay, this level of superstitioning is making me take this less seriously as a threat.
AND NOW I’M IMMEDIATELY BACK TO WORRYING.
Well, maybe she’s right. Maybe it’s all a misundersta —
NOOOOOOOOOPE.
...to be honest, I thought she just really liked gems.
Too bad that means nothing because the SSR uncapping materials can’t be gotten just by sitting around playing poker long enough.
Is...is that a good thing?
I guess it is.
You know, I never expected starting this game that it would make me feel sorry for a jewel, but I guess that’s what happens when de la Fille is your first SSR.
I’m so flattered and filled with warm feelings that I won’t even mention that a minute ago this was filled with a curse that brought death and ruin to all who owned it.
Whoops, I also thought this. I misjudged her.
This was an unexpectedly uplifting story for being about a massively cursed jewel.
I would not have guessed I’d have heartwarming feelings about gems, but here we are.
So Lyria, who I got about two days ago, is now max level, with some decently high levels for my other recent acquisitions.
Some highlights from the pulls I’ve been doing lately after being inspired by a couple of friends:
Sumanai.
She’s posed weird, but I’ve lately been working with a sustain light team as my generic “this is haaaaarrrrrrd whiiiine” team.
Sumanai.
She’s posed weird, but I’ve lately been working with a sustain light team as my generic “this is haaaaarrrrrrd whiiiine” team.
So she should fit right in.
I know Shoephone is supposed to be strong, but he’s not cute so this one gets in first despite being an SR.
I know Shoephone is supposed to be strong, but he’s not cute so this one gets in first despite being an SR.
My Water team is really suffering despite loving the Sunshine team on there, so maybe his weapon will help. I should start grinding Leviathan a bit.
I know nothing about you but you’re pretty.
MY BOYYYYYY though I don’t have a huge number of interesting Wind characters outside of him so his light version might get more attention.
Me, looking up commentary on team building: Light and dark are not recommended for beginners to focus on. Wind is the easiest.
Granblue: Here! Have a quarter dozen maxed Wind weapons!
Me: .........you know, I think I’ll focus on dark! Secondary focus on light.
Granblue: Here! Have a quarter dozen maxed Wind weapons!
Me: .........you know, I think I’ll focus on dark! Secondary focus on light.
Why is the first Therese I got the only one who looks comfortable in the slightest
What a good ticket random ticket. A Dark character who can replace my support charge attack Lunalu during strike time? Thanks, game.
Also a handful of weirdly naked summons, but I guess I can use the increase in strength options.
You’re not Ferry. Now I have two of you. Mixed feelings.
Good: canon trans woman.
Bad: I know what kind of people you were designed like this for.
Bad: I know what kind of people you were designed like this for.
Honestly Cags is just too cool for me to take any issue with her design
I love her, she is an icon
If she was wearing a bikini i’d feel differently but she’s just cute
That’s fair! She is pretty hilarious.
HAVE I BEEN A GOOD CHILD THIS YEAR??
I’ve been grinding Celeste Omega weapons, but I don’t think I’ve gotten a claw drop yet.
UNTIL NOW.
I mean, I guess they’d be above legal drinking age given when they came to be.
Oh, she’s a Primal!
...An exceedingly up-on-current-events Primal.
......okay so a Primal who’s been hanging out outside our world. That’s...interesting. It’s not something I’m used to since I haven’t gotten very far in What Makes the Sky Blue.
...My heart almost stopped for a moment because I misunderstood her as meaning she was Akasha since there was a bit of time between reading the lines preceding it due to commenting on it, but I get now it’s the unopposable she was referring to.
(Also even with the sepia filter...gosh I love those colours on her. Her swimsuit is fun, too, and I know I have a very powerful character once I can build an enmity grid, but that aqua...real good! Alas, this one appears to be beyond my reach as part of a promotion.)
I guess I should take you along for What Makes the Sky Blue I, huh.
Welp. She’s going to make a good ally against the Erste Empire’s shenanigans.
Combined with a sound effect...well, that’s unsettling.
We very rarely say no.
The music suggests humour, but this just feels really sad to me.
I am now entirely convinced you have a name that is Zooey. (It’s sounding possible that she might actually have a name but it’s either too serious to get used casually or is unpronounceable.)
(Or she might have no name! The possibilities are endless.
“And that was how we met a being of unknowable power who became our ally against a world-endingly powerful entity that only we can stop from rewriting our history by a group of power-hungry villains. ....Anyway, beach day!”
“I just realized that as the captain I can just make this happen.”
Ahhh, these are just real good colours for her. I love the colours so much.
Anyway, the app was reloading every time I tabbed out, so I finished taking my pictures before including the commentary.
This is a charming way to put it.
LET THE DRAGONS HAVE SWIMSUITS!!
Oh no, one has a bow on their tail. That’s so cute.
It’s...kind of falling off.... (wait the bow is RIGHT THERE how is this coming as a surprise to me)
.......this raises SO MANY QUESTIONS for me about what that jewel with the gold wings is. I assumed it to be a part of the dress, but it must be separate. And I guess it has been glowing when she does her battle buffs. But I don’t see a chain for it to be a necklace...
I assume it’s not attached to her skin. Does it clip onto her outfit?? We may never know.
I guess you’re being left with the bill, Vyrn. Good luck! (We actually take the time to pay before Zooey drags us out.)
I think it might be attached to her skin based on Stuff
Oh, huh! I assumed that it would have gotten mentioned by now if it was like that, but I can see where she mightn’t want to bring it up.
I don’t know why I assumed that given I keep carping on about how much the lifeforce linking was “it happened, don’t think about it too much.” That sort of thing would easily get overlooked even as we spent a spell on “let us discover Lyria’s identity!”
So we just ignore the large skeleton washed up on the beach. Maybe someone noticed it when the backgrounds were first used (I imagine they got used somewhere else before) or maybe the writers didn’t think it was a weird detail?
So our day is spent chasing after Zooey every time anything catches her attention as she immediately darts off,
The colours they used to show the sky here honestly tug at my heartstrings. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked out at the stars. And, really, I’ve never taken the proper time to do so when I was places without city lights.
This is tropey, but I like it anyway. Trying to balance how you feel you should appear to others and what you really want to do is a relatable —
......Is it just me or are these options really weirdly worded?
Given how much the plot revolves around Lyria being special, it’s kind of funny that this is Zooey’s baseline.
She attempts the “hawawawa” that Lyria sometimes does when she’s nervous, but Zooey does it like she’s announcing it to a large group.
I probably got a lot of practice with Vyrn. .......why do all small dragon names end in -yrn?
forges a dagger of bahamut
glares at the revenant bow that has repeatedly refused to get unlocked (though I think I’m going to switch over to the harp anyway)
glares at the revenant bow that has repeatedly refused to get unlocked (though I think I’m going to switch over to the harp anyway)
I’m sorry, Lyria, I’m sure you’re tired of me grinding, but it’s the right shape for the space in my head today so we’re continuing.
I’m a fool, but I’m a lucky fool.
Could Arcarum please stop reminding me how little investment by water team has gotten by throwing twenty fire enemies at me
Maybe I should just...bring my dark or teams to everything.
*dark or light
I don't think the gap has opened up enough yet to have a gap between my dark team and my teams that are super effective, but they're pretty close at the moment to being even when the dark team has no inherent advantage.
And since Zooey has a skill that deals superior (whichever element they're weak to) damage, she is almost on her own enough to tip it towards Dark.
Another case of getting an Omega weapon as a reward during these expeditions and they're both for the type I'm going for I have been a good girl this year.
So since I rarely do an appreciable amount of damage anyway, I’ve been doing raids with a couple of Rs out front for the prestige pendants. One of them is summer Lunalu, who doesn’t have the 100% accuracy or shortened cooldowns of my SSR doujin Lunalu, but can occasionally help with my bounty-stacking ways.
(Sometimes I come into raids where there are no bounty stacks at all! And I think “what are these people doing?” Thanks to the trophy, I know I’ve dealt over 8000 stacks of bounty in the...month, month and a half? I’ve been playing this again. Thanks for judging me as always, game.)
So to further help with that, I’m doing her Fate episode. And
thinks about SSR Lunalu saying “Inspiration” before her charge attack every time I use her which is most of the time
presses x to doubt
thinks about SSR Lunalu saying “Inspiration” before her charge attack every time I use her which is most of the time
presses x to doubt
I know this is setup for her desire to be a
But yes, this is now the second time they give you context if you haven’t seen the previous due to not pulling them.
Oh no. A big, silly hat. My true weakness!!
Chuuni lines are either super effective or completely ineffective against Lyria, depending on the intended effect.
.......I don’t remember them looking like that or being that size........
That’s very optimistic, Lyria.
.......wait, it totally worked. It just backed out of there. I should remember that next time we’re walking through a monster-infested area. (Read: everywhere in this bloody world.)
She’s been talking about a Prince Popol and a newsletter whenever she’s alone, so I think she’s talking about getting to see the view from the manga Prince Popol was in.
Look, I absolutely get it.
..............oh, okay, I see the sand on the left side of the picture. I was about to say it didn’t look especially beach-like.
For a moment, I thought we were going to a punchline ending, but she started into a moved speech after.
(I would have SO gotten that, though.)
The truest gesture of affection from a geek.
Me, every time someone suggests doing something that involves leaving my apartment, unfortunately.
I have more to say about the Fate episode, but I need to get some stuff done (read: eat supper and get to stuff that needs to be done by Friday), so I'm just screencapping and waiting for later. But then I went to Arcanum and...okay they sure meant it when they said "Danger."
I was a lot more calm about it before I discovered its charge attack goes through Zooey's damage nullification. I had to use up my bravery potion.
Turned out to be more than worth it, especially since I’m mostly working on my Dark team right now.
Not to kinkshame you, but do that in the privacy of your own room.
I’m mostly skipping the story for 000 at the moment since I haven’t read the previous event stories yet, but I occasionally flipped through some parts and:
1)
I’ve known the guy she’s talking to for like five seconds and this was still satisfying.
1)
I’ve known the guy she’s talking to for like five seconds and this was still satisfying.
What an annoying dude.
2) 
I’m glad they wrote “the captain” here instead of using the player name. With Djeeta, I know this trope. If it said “Yosie stops the blow that no one in creation should be able to counter,” I would have died laughing.
I’m glad they wrote “the captain” here instead of using the player name. With Djeeta, I know this trope. If it said “Yosie stops the blow that no one in creation should be able to counter,” I would have died laughing.
And 3) 
I wonder if this will seem any less silly when I have three events’ worth of context behind it?
I wonder if this will seem any less silly when I have three events’ worth of context behind it?
So I’m just sitting on screenshots since I have a lot of Fate episodes/general grinding to get done. I may come back to go through them or I might go back to picking and choosing what to comment on. But I have to comment on one thing:
Of course I got both SSRs of her and I think they announced one of her event welfare quests just now. Of course I end up all in on the homunculus, even if she’s not like the ones I normally coo over who are completely new rather than just the body. Of course.
Also I’ve got to get myself my own giant snake.
Anyway, back to grinding the birthday quest that gives a bunch of EXP to try to rocket up to rank 101 so I can unlock the pretty clothes.
I've been mostly doing that this weekend along with my usual "grind Celeste to buff up my Dark team." As of today I have enough SSR characters to fill a full lineup and enough weapons to make a grid of max uncapped Celeste weapons, though that includes a bunch of the spears that don't go in a proper grid. I'm on my way.
So I hit level 80 on Saturday and then I lost Sunday entirely:
Not as many from the story as Lyria would like.
Actually, funny, it’s like a quarter that one enemy from the campaign-exclusive quest that gives a lot of EXP.
THIS MUSIC ROCKS
THROWS MY BAG IN THE AIR TO CELEBRATE!!!
Why is Lecia's level cap lower than every other story character/SR????
The story characters originally only went up to 3* but they got further uncaps through story progression, and eventually some of them got up to 5
Lecia just... hasn't gotten that 4* uncap yet....
I am sad for her. She really was just Rosetta’s temporary replacement.
......wait I spent an hour on Twinkling Stars???
I MEAN... she keeps being a character in the story
at the very least
and she gets a grand version that's an SSR
I was starting to worry whether she did have one since they haven’t given her a fourth star even after a couple have 5.
So I'm glad to hear she's goth both of those things.
So, I was really happy to see this become a side-story, because I hadn’t known at a time that the final upgrade to the weapons required some event items that I didn’t save up, but it does mean the game forgot I did this, so I’ll get to them later.
I did want to reread the story now that I had any idea who anyone from Granblue is or what they’re talking about, anyway.
So let’s get Albert’s levels finally unlocked.
I did think this one was being understated about how hot he is comparatively.
I did think this one was being understated about how hot he is comparatively.
FGO has mostly prepared me for female characters who are designed specifically to appeal to a certain type (for all I commented on both Lyria and Rosetta). Male characters written as such are new to me.
And when Lyria notices something like this, you know it’s obvious.
Normally, we’re the ones getting this attention. ...You know, that may be part of what made me laugh about Albert: he’s so much more a protagonist than the player that he bends the world around him the way the player usually gets to.
Which I prefer! I’d rather be treated as being a bit less hyper-special! But it’s also really not what the game does almost everywhere else that it’s unexpected to encounter in this game.
Another thing that FGO has not prepared me for: “you’re not a tiny woman.”
I see his interrogation methods remain as complex as ever.
WOW HARSH. It works and undoes the transformation, but harsh!!
HE’S SO MUCH MORE OF A PROTAGONIST THAN ME.
I love him.
Old man sparky!!
“We always used to wonder why he dressed so dramatically, but we assumed he was just a goth and maybe a LARPer.”
bloodgates: OLD MAN SPARKY!! Which is voice acted as Biribiri-oujisan.
Oh hey, my friends were just talking about her when the Levin Knights came up for...some reason.
I’ve.....clearly missed a lot. Either other Fate episodes, an event, or the main story Lyria wants me to continue instead of leaving her on the outskirts of the Erste Empire.
OH MY GOSH YOU DRAMATIC ASSHOLE.
(Said lovingly. But this is Dantes level of overdramatic back posing.)
I didn’t think Mina would be pronounced “My-na.”
Anytime somebody isn't looking at the camera all I can think about is Dantes. Albert please
....my gosh, though. Her boobs are balloon missiles.
Everyone in the level cap raising are so incredibly serious and noble.
I know the ...s are intended to just show they’re being silent, but I can’t help but read it as being awkward after being caught after Juri’s side story.
bloodgates: RIGHT? If his battle sprite changes to be facing backwards, too, I will die.
“Albert, why are you running backwards?” “DON’T QUESTION ME I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING”
.......so the episode just ends with “we’re turning ourselves in” “you’ll have to beg for your lives!” > Albert can now be raised to level 100
It turns out that there’s a fourth episode once he reaches level 100.
1) Pssst, don’t let her ever meet Loki.
2) That...that sure is the uncovered curve of her bum sticking out from under that skirt, huh. Thanks be to the Astrals for her tabard.
So...basically everywhere.
(I know that’s not really true but still.)
Lyria, no, you’re going to end up revered as a saint.
The interactions between Lyria and Sophia are really interesting to me. I had thought Sophia’s skills with Primal Beasts was going to be entirely subordinate to Lyria’s skills, but they actually only have some overlap.
Lyria’s are probably stronger in general, but they’re entirely rooted in the present: she can detect the location of primals better than Sophia, and she can talk with and channel them unlike Sophia, but Sophia can see bits of the pasts of Primal Beasts.
Lyria can only guess at why a Primal Beast might be here from general feelings when she can’t talk to one, but Sophia just laid out its life story when she finished her work. It’s a more niche ability, but it’s a really strong niche that would come in real handy in the main story if we could have them working together.
Hey, we’re both looking for the same thing! Maybe we can work togeth — probably not.
Sophia, you are incredibly direct, huh.
Soldier: This time I brought reinforcements!!
Battle: identical number of enemies.
Battle: identical number of enemies.
That’s. That’s so many books to carry all at once.....
Truly the most noble mission we have ever embarked upon.
Ah, Arusha agrees with how cute the cat is. This mission shouldn’t be too ha —
Ah, yes.
Ah, yes.
.....does the hall of knowledge have nothing on allergies
So that’s why her charge move is Pas de Chat.
Oh no. People noticed me. People who speak Japanese.
(I’m posting this here as I’m going to try to decipher it on my computer.)
(Not decipher it well, but at least try to figure out if I can write it in a format I can copy-paste into google translate.)
They apologized for.... something to do with friends?
Maybe I accidentally sent them a friend request and they were polite about declining it.
So I’m enjoying Alchemist Astray, and not just because it gives me the number of dialogue options I desire. I still squint suspiciously at the decision to make her try to fluster the captain with fake flirting when she looks as she does, but I do like Cagliostro.
Also please, gods of RNG, grant unto me a Clarisse. She’s incredible.
How far we’ve come from her introduction.
....Well, I guess she’s still promising to kill people in both. Maybe we’ve only come a little far.
I mean. It’s still not an entirely inaccurate description of the founder.
Except I think the voice actor is saying “Mother!” twice here instead. Sorry dad.
waves hand in the air in my alchemist class outfit OOH OOH, I KNOW THIS ONE! No one messes with Cagliostro!
Finally I know what dark Cagliostro was talking about in her Fate episode. So this is where one of my first SSRs came from.
Welp. That guy’s dead.
“No. I see you wandering forever in order to not let the game reach endgame so the story might continue.”
It is now my greatest desire to see a high school AU of delinquent Therese (from the event) and rich girl De La Fille interacting.
I have to love my first SSR, De La Fille.
pounds fist on table WOMEN WHO LOVE AND RESPECT EACH OTHER!! GOOD STUFF GOOD STUFF!!!
QUEEN AND KNIGHT-LIKE INTERACTIONS. ALSO PLEASANT THINGS!!
I might ever do bunny-suit Therese’s Fate episodes if I get more of this. (Continued “why is the only outfit Therese ever looks comfortable in is in a three-person summon” whining.)
Wow. She sounds SO UPSET. eats this up
Raise the flags to let the world know I have a new ship.
Romantic or platonic, I don’t care. I just love them together.
.......Wow. I'm still really into this ship platonically as well, but the latter half of this episode was so gay throughout.
They reminisce about when they first met. Therese was depressed and had lost all confidence during her first years as a duelist, but when she saw De La Fille being threatened by ruffians she'd confronted (and was actually feeling fine about since she's got powerful magic), Therese just suddenly furiously destroyed all of them.
De La Fille watches Therese's next match and realizes that, unlike the magnificent rescuing, Therese in actual duels is too timid and nervous to get anything done, so she comes up to a sad Therese after. At first, she lectures Therese about how she was barely recognizable in the duel ring, and then....
AND IT’S THE SAME SWORD THERESE HAS EVERYWHERE.
The interrupted show that was going on in this episode before the crown was stolen, De La Fille was going to play the part of an earlier queen of the gem domain and crown the hero (played by Therese) to act out the scene that happened in the story they’re playing out.
And since Therese came to rescue De La Fille, De La Fille decided to do it anyway on the Grandcypher, as it was basically the same situation.
Me: I wonder if the crowning would suggest that the hero married the queen in the story, like often happens. Why else would it be a coronation when they already had a queen?
Me: I wonder if the crowning would suggest that the hero married the queen in the story, like often happens. Why else would it be a coronation when they already had a queen?
Granblue, reading my mind: 
A little gay.
AND MORE TO COME nice.
a lot gay and i love it
There was only a bit of gay in the earth De La Fille, but I discovered that they have a cross-fate episode and I have both versions that unlock it, so I’m hopeful once I level event Therese.
But boy was SSR Therese’s gay to the high heavens.
Does anyone else find the tendency for anime to represent happiness over something a friend does for them makes it really easy to read these interactions as gay?
(It’s perhaps a bit loose to call Granblue anime, but I find it has some tropes that I, as a weeb from Canada, tend to only see in anime, so I do so without thinking.)
I know blushing is a general mood indicator of embarrassment (or anger or exertion if you just mean the face getting red), so it could happen under such platonic circumstances, but my brain instantly thinks romance when I see this between two people as we’re expected to see it when it’s between people of different genders.
spittake WAIT, IS THIS AS GAY AS I
Oh. Oh, yes, right. That is a reasonable assumption when I haven’t already been thinking about the gay interpretation of blushes.
And if I had any way of being sure in a medium like this that a young-looking girl who speaks childishly and is considered too young to go out by their companion is at all younger than the other person, who could be anywhere in her adolescence or early twenties because I don’t find it easy to determine anyone’s age here, especially with the female characters
......I didn’t get a screencap because it didn’t register in time, but why are Djeeta and crew literally spring here
...........I didn’t even see the pun in the title before I read the outline and discovered that this child is working to stop a three-way interspecies war, nano desu.
They explain it in the event but Lily's fate episode explains it
Djeeta kind of nullifies her unconscious ice powers so she's not as dangerous to be around, which is why she's "spring"
I see! I did kind of expect that I’d get the explanation, so it was more a rhetorical question, but that makes...well, some sense.
I look forward to seeing if they explain why she does.
(Ah, she calls Lyria “Lyria-oneesama”...cute. Also I guess she really is as young as she looks and sounds. What a concept.)
Lyria, are YOU going to be okay in the chill with your bare feet and your uncomfortably close to translucent short dress? Oh no, Lily also has skin-tone shading mixed in with her white dress. I wish I could unsee this. Why is it the kids??
This flashback does answer the question for me whether gacha Lily’s or event Lily’s Fate episode comes first since she’s dressed in gacha Lily clothes.
Big sis Lyria gives me life.
Oh! Huh. I went to her Fate episode and it seems to me like it implies any skyfarer could have been spring, since skyfarers “always have this warm smell on them.” It just happened to be Djeeta when Lily figured it out.
Whyyyyyyy does Lyria act threatened at first by a child attaching herself to Djeeta game stop doing this to me......
Gatcha Lily comes first, and she's a pretty early SSR
Doing her Fate episode, I’m realizing this with how short they are!
The wiki listed them backwards, so I wasn’t sure. I guess I’ll have to find a place that gives the release dates.
Also,
I know her words are sad, but this made me laugh.
I know her words are sad, but this made me laugh.
Hearing Lyria shout this so fast when I congratulated her for getting upgraded from “oneechan Lily is fond of” to “oneesama Lily is going to stick to like glue forever” also made me laugh.
Though I’m glad to know from starting the event story that Lyria warms up to being oneesama on just a slower timescale than her instant joy over being oneechan.
This doesn’t seem like the start of joining our crew.
Erin: I guess some parts of going outside would be fun, but I can’t stop thinking about everything that could go wrong, so I’ll just stay in and read.
Me: Ah. I found my most relatable character.
Me: Ah. I found my most relatable character.
Family resemblance.
I hope I’m the one they’re supposedly flirting with given how the game has noted how young everyone else at this table is except maybe Vyrn.
No offence to the rest of the crowd, but Milko is the only person in this tavern with any sense.
After dealing with the Erste “We Enforce A Quota Of Villainry For Every Soldier” Empire for the rest of the journey, this almost seems reasonable.
Hey, Milko, can I recruit you even just for as long as we’re on the island?
Never mind. Have a pleasant day!
Vyrn: Oh no, a fiery beast is attacking!
Lily, who has lived on this island with a fire-based beast race all her life: But that monster is —
Lyria: No time to talk!
Me: This is going to start a chain-reaction misunderstanding in a very tense political environment, isn’t it?
Lily, who has lived on this island with a fire-based beast race all her life: But that monster is —
Lyria: No time to talk!
Me: This is going to start a chain-reaction misunderstanding in a very tense political environment, isn’t it?
If this is about making a new generation of Crystalia, I’m out.
fortunately, event lily's fate episode suggests they reproduce asexually.
I'm glad we won't be getting into that. I was kind of suspecting that was the case as I realized that of course there aren't any beautiful, ethereal, crystal snow men and they aren't liable to conceive of a sexually reproducing species in any manner other than the human method, but there was always the chance that they'd be basically the Gerudo.
Not that I ever actually expected that it had anything to do with Djeeta, but the thought came to mind and I laughed at it.
I will bet you she will have a human form by the end of this event, but right now: we’ll done on the Snow Maiden not being a beautiful lady.
A morbid use of Lyria’s vaguely-defined powers.
So, like, do Souval usually turn to dust when killed, or does the fact the chieftain was burned sort of make it far more likely another Souval did it? Particularly when compared to the idea that the people who freeze their surroundings uncontrollably would have killed with fire?
Vyrn is just yukking it up this event, laughing about everything.
.......Am I just still behind the rock or what?
I’m also not really sure why, if we’re here to negotiate with the Souval, that we are all trying to hide other than Lily. Shouldn’t we, you know, make use of the fact that Lily has the crew guarding her and walk in openly?
It's never really stated why they assume he was murdered because of how he was killed but I think it has to do with what happens with the Souval when their lives are being threatened
I guess it would make sense for the fire dudes to burn up at the end, particularly if they were fighting.
What makes less sense is why Grueler stopped the archers in order to go “okay, kill them anyway, but with creatures they can fight without feeling guilty some different part of our army.”
Grueler, when calling for the core war beasts: We can’t underestimate them.
Grueler, five seconds later:
Grueler, five seconds later:
I’m glad that we’re keeping this in mind. (And now I’m “that human,” so I wonder if it was Lyria being overlooked even though she has the human trait and I do not.)
.....Vyrn, honey....
You know, most games might have characterized the red horned battle-loving culture as a bunch of jerks. Well done, Granblue.
Holy crap, we’re going into colonialism taking advantage of indigenous peoples in this event named as a pun regarding the prevalence of pies in the story starring a child. Unexpected.
right, though
Yeah! Like, they didn’t go all in on things like our history since there was that line about the settlers who started the conflict getting punished, but wow that was more realistic and nuanced than I ever expected.
A GOOD. BIG. SIS!!
Man, I just really love the writing in this. Lyria and Vyrn especially feel like more vibrant characters than I’m used to since I’m still relatively early on in the main story. I really like seeing Lyria’s big sister side and Vyrn has been showing such a big personality.
Oh, sweetie. It’s an entirely fair point when the townsfolk are like this. The Black Knight confirmed Lyria as human, but she sure does have different powers from most of them.
Rough concept to have to argue through.
This will probably come back to my demands of “fewer heroic moments, more comforting my sad friends moments” for Djeeta activity.
I did literally nothing that event. Though I guess it helped that Lily was less chilly during her ambassadoring.
Anyway, this was a real good event. I felt so completely uninvolved that Djeeta may as well have stayed on the ship, but everyone who DID do things were great, so who cares? (I care a little.)
I wanted to unlock Anne’s skill for the Nightmare fight of this set since it looks useful, and it was a long string of “I’m so glad Lonesome Dragon is a side-story now.”
thank you for reading the story, yosie
I see that your reading of Granblue story didn’t last long, Mira. I’m glad to provide this service.
I should note that there was one bit of info I screencapped but didn’t get around to plurking:
The Society bit is particularly interesting to me because the name popped up in dark-type Zeta’s Fate episode in a way that implies that it’s set at a time where the Society popped up in a more direct way and I’m looking forward to finding out once I get the time to catch up on other parts of the story (my main story and side-story progress has stalled).
Meanwhile, the Foe seems to be using bullets from the Astral war, which is simultaneously cool and kind of hilarious that they’re trying to use supplies of centuries-old ammunition.
If I hadn’t just played this event, I’d be so confused right now in Lily’s 5-star Fate episode.
(Lyria and Lily made up a nonsense song to raise their spirits and then insisted it become a part of the peace talks. I didn’t screenshot it, but there was a scene at the end where Lyria and Lily started the song over Grueler’s protests, and Grueler hesitantly sang his introduction line similar to this.)
I’m so delighted to get the chance to join in and even more so since I had the option to decline.
What a dork. (Not written down: he gasps, says her name, and makes a noise like he’s working up his nerve before he starts singing.)
Also, uh...autocorrect, are you feeling okay?
(Probably because I recently googled “Granblue water seal” after playing with the ninja class, but still.)
Spoken in Grueler’s deep, serious voice. He previously also joined in with his subordinates yelling “Delish!”
.........IT’S JUST GOING TO END THERE??
Oh right, Albert’s 5-star did this, too. I guess the conclusion requires a level 100.
Ah, they changed the journal layout!
I had forgotten that earth Cagliostro also has what I assume to be a level 100 Fate episode, because hers didn’t leave on an obvious cliffhanger.
(And it fit the pattern from dark Cagliostro of “last episode she goes on a laughing murder spree of some group of villainous alchemists.)
(I wonder if event Cagliostro will also get this.)
By making my main Water party consist of Grea and Anne, I don't think I will ever forget their names. Every time either of them do anything, they say the other's name.
It's great, but also like. It's literally every action they can take that they have a line for each other and there's only when their charge bar fills up that their conversation doesn't include at least one name.
When Anne uses Follow the Princess, both names are used, with something like "Grea, let's go!" "Anne, you're amazing!"
Oh, they actually have multiple lines for each thing, as Grea said something else this time.
While I’m more focused on getting through FGO main story, my goals being generally linked to getting cute clothes in Granblue means I have reason to return to the main story prior to getting back to side stories.
But good grief. In this time, I forgot 1) the Black Knight is still dressed like that HOW DID WEARING ARMOUR OVER THAT NOT CHAFE amongst other problems
and 2) how Granblue’s timeline timescales get me every time.
Like it’s not impossible, but it feels weird to me that, like. Centuries ago at least, Erste Kingdom was prosperous from the sale of golems (despite Cagliostro being born when it was a “tiny kingdom full of hillbillies,” but she’d probably say that even if they were the foremost country in military technology).
After the Astral occupation, they started a decline due to golems being less powerful than the Primal even though usages of Primals as weapons is vanishingly rare, but nothing appears to have changed until like a dozen years ago, when they changed to an empire.
And yet there are multiple people who are obsessed with the glory of the kingdom that was not glorious within living memory (I guess some people do this) and, more strange to me, they became a major power in those twelve years. And dark essence corrupting things only started a few years ago and the emperor being a thing happened like last week.
What the heck was everyone doing between the war and the generations alive today??
Ah yes, Sir Fuck Y’all Who Isn’t Orchis.
.......he has a point.
I’d say it sounds like a lie you’re telling us to get us to work with you.
It sounds like an advertising slogan.
.......welp.
It’s both a second Primal under empire control and it appears to be a possible way to bring back Princess Orchis.
Sounds right.
Uhhh. Hmm. Okay, didn’t see that one coming.
I can’t take this scene seriously when the Japanese I don’t understand gets broken up by a low, serious voice saying Deus Ex Machina.
How long was Cagliostro off by herself prior to the Astral invasion?
I...guess several years could mean more than 10. It’s one of the least precise words in the language.
glances at the Freesia SSR I pulled. I see a lot is going to happen between now and when this was released.
Given he knocked out a squad in one move, how many soldiers have come to arrest us?
And why did we have the full conversation in someplace in enemy control??
“failed creation” > is he a golem? > probably one of these soul ones > if he’s Princess Orchis I will be so happy.
One, I’m really happy to see the citizens friendly to the point of “eh, you guys stumbled into a restricted military area? no harm, no foul.” Two: boy I hope we’ve also been fighting with the backs of our swords against the soldiers.
For what I assume should be obvious reasons, I’ve not spent time examining the Black Knight’s hips in that awful outfit. But something struck me as odd and, after closer examination...wow, I never noticed how badly askew her legs are.
I know that a lot of drawn media are obsessed with the...I guess I don’t know if it’s completely fictional, but from my experience fictional concept of the thigh gap. The chapter I’m doing in FGO has Salter permanently posed to ride her motorbike in her casual wear. But wow that’s a really uncomfortable leg/hip system when I look at her.
I do love that she expresses gratitude by acting as a decoy while insulting us all the way.
She just left except they might mean return to the capital.
!!! SHE PUT PANTS ON AGAIN WELCOME BACK GOOD BLACK KNIGHT DESIGN YOUR HELMET LOOKS NOT AT ALL SILLY OR OVERWROUGHT
I. Strongly. Agree.
I haven’t been doing any major story commentary as of late, as I’m trying to tackle Granblue more relaxedly, but I just want to say my heart twists every single time I see Fenrir. Those chains, that lack of clothing, being lead around by an asshole.....
Lyria speaks for me as we discuss all this time travel/changing history stuff.
(It comes with a “but if everything is in danger of disappearing, we can’t do nothing,” but also I’m just forever confused by even normal Granblue history and setting.)
This is also her response when she gets a parking ticket, or someone bumps into her on the street without apologizing, or she gets asked for the time when she’s in a bad mood (always).
Oops I’m back to mild live-blogging.
Pictured: when the chair of a meeting she is in suggests they extend it by another fifteen minutes.
Five minutes from now, a third Adam is going to pop up and keep going with us with no explanation.
I see he subscribes to the “Pokémon rival” school of confidence vs. number of times they’ve won against the player.
(I will note that I lost due to playing around with the gunslinger class without understanding how it works.)
We’re all having A Time. (Offscreen: the Pommern redemption arc is in full swing.)
!!! My fave!!!
I LOVE MONIKA AND HER INTERACTIONS WITH LECIA!!!
What the FU
When did she get here???
Marked under “things I did not expect when we first met Pommern...or second met Pommern...or third....”
The Knickknack Shack: home to all of your castle-sieging needs.”
The level of concern for not killing possessed Furias says to me we probably don’t kill random soldiers (not counting the Black Knight in that we). Furias is the guy who most needs stopping aside from Loki.
(Speaking of Loki, Fenrir caring how he felt was super unexpected.)
(And frankly a little weird.)
I’m not in favour of this name.
......is the blue knight’s helmet a lizard head? (It’s still less silly to me than the Black Knight’s.)
Lecia’s dad, the friendly dinosaur.
I bet this will not end with “let’s team up.” (Come with uuuusssssss Lyria will treat you so much better than that a-hole!!)
When did this happen? I thought I remembered her hating him and him treating her badly, but it could just be my memory being tinted by hating Loki and feeling awful for Fenrir.
Oh no, this is even worse.
The chains on her wrists aren’t the only chains Loki has on her, whether intentionally or not ($50 on “intentionally”).
Ah, yes. This is a fun moment for Rosetta.
Fuck. I hate this. I want her in the crew to be taught she can be whoever she wants to be. (Though eating people is perhaps something she should be discouraged from doing.)
It’s going to Djeeta and/or Lyria. We all know it.
I did wonder why she was the one wondering if it’s the power of the Astrals. Not that we could have pried any information Rosetta didn’t feel like sharing out of her with a crowbar.
Something tells me that this isn’t going to go in a positive direction. (I haven’t been plucking about Nier’s storyline, but I had actually thought on her first appearance that it was nice to see a cat-eared character in this game who has sides to her clothes, and then this flashback sequence happened.)
Oh right, just showing the dialogue doesn’t actually demonstrate this. Oops.
Present day Nier:
Flashback Nier:
Flashback Nier:
Uh oh.
Louder, for those in the back (or I guess have the sound off, though I feel the point gets across with tone alone.
.......well. That’s a line.
Well. That’s a line.
The voice acting and direction for one of the dying people in her closet is some effective on me. It sounded quite real from, you know, my limited experience with dying people behind closed doors.
I mean. This clearly was going to happen once the boyfriend appeared.
Though I was actually a little surprised that the boyfriend in the village Nier’s family commented on existed. When I read this, in the back of my mind I’m thinking that this is being set up to appeal to players who want to rescue the lonely, abandoned, love-starved girl with their romance (generously), with some yandere thrown in.
But I often expect that that sort of appeal to fantasy would come with “she’s never had any boyfriend (more generally, romantic partner) before she meets [player name here]” due to a societal obsession with being someone’s first whatever.
So I was actually mildly startled, even though it makes sense that a lonely person ignored by their family and afraid of being abandoned and with low self-esteem would seek out love wherever it could be found, particularly with how we exaggerate the importance of romance.
All of my chaotic evil Servants in FGO. (To be fair, they’re all pretty upfront about evil, but eventually they mostly end up doing fairly innocent or funny things.)
Oh, I see. This is just a different trope (the first one to accept her). I haven’t been able to put my finger on whether there’s something wrong with the trope or if it’s just not to my taste.
There was something similar in the Apocrypha light novel with Fran’s story, and it left a bad taste in my mouth, but it could just be because it’s not a story I’m interested in reading/telling in RP.
(And I might be overestimating how much the character was designed for wife culture. Maybe.)
Present Nier, we’re going to have to have a nice long talk about your moral compass.
So I am of course joking when I say this, given what a horrifying situation this guy is in, but as a reader of a fictional situation: read the room, man.
This isn’t going to end well, I say as though that weren’t an obvious conclusion.
It didn’t end well, but in a different way than I expected. (The mother seems to have realized that something is wrong even though Nier used trees instead of people for the magic.)
This guy has the self-preservation instinct of a lemming. “We have a transcription of the magic you learned without knowing it will work, and now we will dispose of you, magician with power over life who was required to be obsessed with something to the point of sacrificing anything to even read it.”
“Even though you will clearly do absolutely anything we ask as long as we show the minimum of affection.”
If that was your problem, why did you want the instructions on how to do that.
“A murderer? What would the neighbours say?”
Perhaps work on the unrepentant murderer aspect — what am I saying, when has that ever stopped me in a mobile game.
(Except I mostly like characters who have grown beyond that.)
I have concerns.
It’s going to be real silly, I just know. Especially with the ominous music.
I don’t think this is a reputation I want following us around if I want to live a relatively peaceful life.
I still don’t know why I’m the captain and not Katalina.
Ah, it’s even worse than I thought. The kid part alone would be bad enough.... (Which, as far as I can tell from people talking to Djeeta, would include both the captain and our Primal Beast expert.)
Someone likes the attention.
I did vaguely wonder how a basin, a feature of land, would affect travel in a world where, if there is anything below the sky islands, I haven’t heard of it yet.
Understandably. I’m barely starting the second story arc of an unknown number and I have yet to complete a side story that involves more than two islands.
If there’s an answer, I bet it will come in Why Is The Sky Blue, since the little of the first one I’ve done (up to the point of letting Lyria join in battle and no further because there’s a million content) involves Shoephone dropping things down below and the little glimpses I have of the sequels seem like they could talk about below and above.
If only because it’s definitely a “Japanese fiction often finds Christian imagery cool” + “someone on the writing team read Paradise Lost” sort of thing, and Christians tend towards a lot of below and above thinking.
I do wonder if we’ll ever get an explanation for the basin in its name. It could just be that it first came up in the early days when the writing, let’s say, had yet to reach its later potential, and no one thought that far ahead. It could be the name was originally in English and some mistake was made in the word choice, though EN isn’t against renaming.
Or it could have a reason. Like if there’s some consistent cloud formation, like a jet stream-esque thing that somehow carves a river basin of wind in the clouds. It could be leftover from a hypothetical pre-sky island name if the islands used to be tethered to a regular planet (though it’s have to be unfathomly long ago unless Cagliostro is playing
yet another hand close to her chest like “who’s a Lyria,” and I frankly would never put it past her. Or something else. Who knows?
Heyyyyyyy buddy. Long time no see,
...so this has to be possession or at least a disguise, or else we’d have a new sprite.
Oh hey, so the luminary knights can wear their armour but not their helmets. Isn’t that interesting, Black Knight?
I dunno, as friendly as he seems, the way he basically declared himself untouchable put me on edge all of a sudden.
Even before the game came out and said it.
...granted, it’s possibly because he was denying Monika, my favourite character in this game.
.....dad when did you turn into a prophet? Don’t tell me this was all according to keiaku.
Lyria: Let’s show him how far we’ve come!
Me: nods and pulls out a festival drum
Me: nods and pulls out a festival drum
(Perhaps I should have been in a different class.)
Those unpredictable huge attacks are a killer, literally.
.....okay, interesting. I’m glad half the crew is magical to avoid a total party wipe. (Djeeta is not, but she’s linked up with Lyria, who is all kinds of mystical.)
Also, yes, he beat me like a drum, so I went Glorybringer with Miserable Mist and got through.
At least it seems less targeted than it could be (and Monika remembers me, at least).
......Interesting. I wondered why he didn’t think he should be in Port Breeze if he didn’t know us.
OH HELL.
Starts writing memento notes on the back of my hand.
I had been starting to think that one of the requirements to be a female Luminary Knight was to be a rude asshole. (Not that I was complaining. There’s an imbalance of rude characters in the different genders.)
looks at the ridiculous gap in the side of her armour OF COURSE SHE’S ERUNE.
It turns out that Lyria and Vyrn and Rosetta and I hate each other and the entire crew. (I’m kidding.)
I CAN’T BRING MYSELF TO SAY THAT but I am certainly going to check it in the journal.
If you do say it, you get an even more explicit understanding of just how much the Luminary Knights know about the crew. Knowing Lyria and Vyrn and Rosetta are special is not strange, given the blue knight and red knight are old companions of Rosetta and at least one of them knows about the other two.
But it has been too long for me to remember if anyone outside of the crew knows about the life link. I don’t remember how obvious it was to Pomeranian when she revived me from the dead.
I wish I’d been told this BEFORE I constructed my team. Also don’t got Monika I respect you greatly
*go
I had to laugh at this response to Rosetta’s needling.
Katalina is worried for Lyria without remembering she exists. I’m melting.
I GUESS THAT’S ONE WAY A CHILD STANDS OUT IN THE DYDROID BELT
Hu...h.... Everyone else seems to remember what they did, even if they can’t recall any of their companions, but Io seems to have completely lost her memory post-Valz.
*Valtz
*Dydroit
If Monika is this close to panic, I’m concerned.
the islands have fated connections to each other I’m laughing.
“The sky floor” I guess you can call the ground that
Not how I expected my first encounter with this dude to go based on his appearance and what a big deal the Eternals apparently are. I’ve only seen one in passing in a Fate episode where she was mysterious and gave out magical strings. This one is just an antisocial edgelord.
(I’m glad that so far it seems Ladiva is not treated as a joke character as I feared she would be, even if I doubt they meant she’s nonbinary when she was listed under Other Gender in the journal, but I remain nervous.)
I know the game is talking about Djeeta, but since I put my internet handle there so my friends could recognize me, I feel like I’m being called out.
.....what the heck is this design I’m terrified
Alliah, watching the team group hug, Eugen ruffling’s hair as he puts her in a joking headlock, laughter echoing across the island: THIS BAND OF DANGEROUS CRIMINALS.
Oh no. The chestplate is bad and she seems to be a bad person, but I instantly fell in love. I can’t resist a woman carrying a cannon.
Yup, she’s a terrible person. I still love her, though. My FGO diseases are spreading to Granblue.
OH MY GOSH MY HEROES I LIT UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE!!
........oh, this is two teams of a Draph woman and an Erune man, except the chatty one and the monotone one have swapped. Wow, talk about your opposite number.
This guy has yet to interest me at all, but I wanted to demonstrate the above point.
When does Drang even get a chance to learn all the things he knows
Sturm: turning apathy into a threat since...chapter 2, probably.
Why does everyone with a mortar in this game use it as a blunt weapon?
Oops, I agreed with Drang.
Ah, this game has made me self-centred. I assumed they were here for me up until they said about “the legend.” In my defence, it’s my house and the gold knight was commenting on my crew.
And they call Lyria and Vyrn the problem??
Either this is missing info or he’s changed a lot from when Rosetta traveled with him.
I see it will take no effort to tell Orchis and Orchid apart.
Why is it always the horniest possible artists who draw the characters in prison?
Thank you for finally explaining how we can be getting sky map pieces and summonable Primal Beasts without dad running back to drop off the sky map pieces or kidnapping the gods of the islands.
Thanks for waiting until you filled in plot holes to clam up.
Get out the sieves. We’re going through the sand.
(The one benefit to having to fight Primals for pieces elsewhere is that we get this big beacon to follow for Lyria.)
I know it’s probably a way to demonstrate how Orchis is still quite young (it could have even been that it’s “over ten years from when I was alive before my resurrection”), but since I keep feeling like everything in this game happens either over a thousand years ago or within the past decade,
anything older than 10 years probably is from the War. The bakery is, at least, older than the Erste Empire.
“Except for that time when the entire royal family was murdered, leading to an empire that isolated this town from the outside world for a decade before the old government was reestablished like five days ago. What’s taking them so long?”
It’s been like two weeks. (Also, come on game, a princess is not just what you call a young queen. Orchis, as ruler of the re-established kingdom, is a queen now.)
They really went hard on this “we’re not an empire anymore” thing.
Rude.
(Also, what do you mean you don’t have the power to run the empire’s capital as well? Did we slaughter everyone in our way? Where did the government people beyond, like, the prime minister go?)
Adam, you tsundere softie. I like you.
An unusual point in fiction.
Okay, Granblue, you’re doing better at unexpected turns in the plot since your tropey origins.
Outsiders to your plan to destroy the entire world?
I don’t get how these people have such an unending devotion to an imagined past over a thousand years ago, but, to be fair, white people do that all the time.
Hooooookay I’m taking a step away from Adam.
...Lyria why were you trying to use Akasha’s power when the point is keeping it away from Freesia? (Probably for use in bargaining.)
And this is why you’re last on my list of the first four Seraphic weapons when I don’t get a halo as a random drop.
Though, granted, Gabriel is the one who makes me most nervous.
That is such a villain line, Gabriel.
That is such a villain line, Gabriel.
Raphael and Michael are so nice, though. Which works out great since I like my Wind team and I need my fire team to be less pathetic so I can grind Raphael.
(The Seraphic weapon requirements are real strict on how much you can grind them.)
(Please open up more Raphael tests while I’m looking, game....)
.......Granblue sure does love its psycho lesbian trope, huh.
Good gravy, she’s Gwen Stacy.
The rhyme was initially unintentional, but I rolled with it because it felt fun.
Isn’t. Isn’t her whole schtick that she wants to bring back the time when the Erste Kingdom was the foremost world power? You know, beyond the whole obsessive lesbian thing introduced in this chapter. (I mean, I can see the laying of groundwork earlier, but also she only talked up the historical bit.)
........why did Erste abandon it in the first place if they weren’t against oversky territories???
CELLLLLLLEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON!! (Oops I got the order mixed up.)
I didn’t know she had these emotions.
........for some reason Eugen stopped being voiced in chapter 72.
No one else has been affected.
Er, chapter 74.
YOU CHEEKY ASSHOLE i love him
The guards were not cartoonishly incompetent, but his plan was slightly less extremely cheeky.
“That’s not good. I think that’s an early sign of hypothermia.” ... “SHE’S CANONICALLY NOT EVEN WEARING SHOES”
Come on, game, you can put her in a school-esque swimsuit during beach scenes. Surely you can give her a cute fluffy winter outfit here.
THAT’S REALLY NOT ENOUGH AND YOU KNOW IT though it would be a start.
THAT’S REALLY NOT ENOUGH AND YOU KNOW IT though it would be a start.
Look, we’re freezing to death, but also this is exactly what I want out of this game half the time.
I’m not very physical affectionate in real life, but every time one of the characters Djeeta is close with is sad, I start to whisper “hug them, hug them, put a comforting hand on their shoulder, give me SOMETHING.”
Game Over: Indigo Prophecy (Bad Endings)
And here I thought I was overthinking it..
He’s cute and fluffy, but also overly cautious.
Like when we try to enter the Grim Basin and get obliterated.
Wow, you asshole. (He shows up just after, upon making it to the other side of the Grim Basin, we get sucked back in and tossed in every direction in the miasma cloud that is no longer parted.)
It turns out that we actually got tossed into the new skydom sans ship and sans Lecia, and we’re already making extremely optimistic new friends.
We got tossed around so hard that we fell into new assets.
Oh, and she held on to Lyria! What a good big sis.
This guy has the deepest voice I’ve ever heard.
NO. NO NO NO NOOOO. (Said out loud automatically.)
I don’t want you go away
HOW DID YOU GET CAUGHT UP IN THIS YOU POOR THING
.....Aliza, when did your boyfriend get hot?
It’s particularly weird to know this guy will be a protag later after the unceremonious disposal of the Code Geass crossover villains (at least one of whom was dangerous and evil, but also they were both incredibly broken people, so it left a bad taste in my mouth).