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Crimson Shroud |OT| Matsuno fails saving throw, relegated to eShop release

Yuterald

Member
Man, I can't help but laugh every time that upbeat piece of music starts playing. It's so out of place.

Yeah, it sounds like nothing he's ever composed before. Totally threw me off when I heard it too.

By the way, the sound effect that plays when you can either initiate a battle or avoid one is my favorite sound on the planet. Reminds me of a sound an enemy would make in Vagrant Story. Lich, maybe? Basiscape sounds are my favorite sounds.
 

lobdale

3 ft, coiled to the sky
Game is awesome. I just know it's gonna be over before I'm ready though.

We really need more of these kind of "tabletop" video game RPGs.
 

Aeana

Member
Yeah, it sounds like nothing he's ever composed before. Totally threw me off when I heard it too.

By the way, the sound effect that plays when you can either initiate a battle or avoid one is my favorite sound on the planet. Reminds me of a sound an enemy would make in Vagrant Story. Lich, maybe? Basiscape sounds are my favorite sounds.
Nah, he has written stuff like it before. He wrote a pop album a couple of years ago, Lia's Colors of Life. Here's a track from it!

Also, I feel kinda dumb. duckroll had been hyping up the chapter 2 thing, so I was fighting those enemies over and over again without realizing that I had gotten the item I needed long ago. I just didn't pay very close attention to its description. That's like 40 minutes down the drain!
 

Boney

Banned
So I think I'm not approaching this the right way. I barely managed to beat chapter 3's boss, and the super dope encounter at chapter 4 totally kicked my ass.
What am I supposed to do with the magic scrolls? Fuse them with the weapons? i guess that'll allow me to use the magic with the weapon equiped..
Also my magic attacks are fairly weak so I have to relegate the girl just to healing, so idk what's up with that.
I'm also buffing ny characters fairly often, perhaps sometimes taking too long to attack.

So I guess I'm asking for general tips cause this difficulty spike just completely threw me off
 

duckroll

Member
Also, I feel kinda dumb. duckroll had been hyping up the chapter 2 thing, so I was fighting those enemies over and over again without realizing that I had gotten the item I needed long ago. I just didn't pay very close attention to its description. That's like 40 minutes down the drain!

See! Learn2read! Trolled by Matsuno even though you thought you were prepared! Lol! :D
 
D

Deleted member 20920

Unconfirmed Member
So I think I'm not approaching this the right way. I barely managed to beat chapter 3's boss, and the super dope encounter at chapter 4 totally kicked my ass.
What am I supposed to do with the magic scrolls? Fuse them with the weapons? i guess that'll allow me to use the magic with the weapon equiped..
Also my magic attacks are fairly weak so I have to relegate the girl just to healing, so idk what's up with that.
I'm also buffing ny characters fairly often, perhaps sometimes taking too long to attack.

So I guess I'm asking for general tips cause this difficulty spike just completely threw me off

Meld them to your equipment and they will always take (overwrite) the second magic spot.
 

Quote

Member
I guess I'm bad at RPGs. I got a bit flustered with the Zombie Minitaur, but changed my tactics and managed to beat him.

Things that bother me: not being able to see what rebuffs I have on an enemy, which makes me have to pay attention to their moves more, which is kind of fast. Second, not really seeing a rhyme or reason why some buffs will overwrite another one. I get you can only have up to 3 but it's weird. I notice it on Lippi the most so far. Enhanced Avoidence and something else do it to each other.
 
What a strange little game. Feels like Vagrant Story 2, sounds like Vagrant Story 2, looks like Vagrant Story 2...but it's not Vagrant Story 2.
 
Most pleasant surprise of 2012 for me. Didn't think I would like it that much although I used to play tapletop RPGs back in the days. Really, really great game so far. Didn't have problems with the dreaded chapter 2. I thought it was relatively obvious and apparently
due to sheer luck the first mage dropped the required item - I thought it was a 100 % drop before this thread
.

Man, I can't help but laugh every time that upbeat piece of music starts playing. It's so out of place.
Haha, this so much.
 

Oxx

Member
Well, £25 eshop card get. I can't be bothered to run the sums right now, but hopefully that's enough for this, Pullblox, and Fallblox (or whatever their Euro names are).
 

Yasawas

Member
Just what everyone else said - it's unusual, it's great, it's got a hell of a lot going on for a £7 downloadable title.

I'm just up to that bit now and it's taken me two and a half hours, feels like it's taking me a while to get anywhere but I'm not complaining. I love how every battle is important and demanding of my attention, there hasn't been any encounter yet where I've felt like I could flatten what was in front of me.
 

duckroll

Member
I just got fucking owned by the final boss. My first game over so far. Gotta reconsider my equipment carefully before trying again, lol.

I'm fucking loving the story though. This is EXACTLY the sort of story I want from Matsuno, more so than what he did for FFXII. I think his larger scale stories are good and all, but it's also more common out there, even though he does it better than most. It's his more personal stories about an individual character exploring a mystery which stands out as something unique which pretty much no one else does in RPGs. Mmmm...
 
I thought the final boss was
really easy, she didn't do enough damage to ever put my party in danger. With haste up, my party simply had way more turns than her. The doppleganger fight before that was much more difficult.
 

Ricker

Member
Ok,started this last evening,I like it a lot so far but I am still very early and there's a few things I would like to make sure of...first can you see the health bar of the goblins for example with numbers? the meter I see just stays full all the time it seems and second,I am not sure about the dice bonus thing in battle...I click on the goblin,then if I go down where the number of the dices are,I can have one pop out a bit but to get back up on the goblin to confirm,the pop out just goes back down...so is it working or not?...I have like 5 dice numbers down there...do I have to click them all?
 

duckroll

Member
I just beat the game. OMG that was really fucking good. Classic Matsuno all the way to the... end(?). I suspect that's not the true ending though. Especially if there's more content unlocked in the NG+ loop... :)
 

Yasawas

Member
Click A once to select the dice then move up a wee bit to choose whether to apply it as a damage modifier or to increase the hit possibility percentage, then click A again. From there you can repeat this and use more dice, or press B, confirm the enemy you wish to attack, and then proceed.

I think. It does seem a wee bit unintuitive. What is Dice Lure incidentally, I can't see it explained anywhere?
 
Ok,started this last evening,I like it a lot so far but I am still very early and there's a few things I would like to make sure of...first can you see the health bar of the goblins for example with numbers? the meter I see just stays full all the time it seems and second,I am not sure about the dice bonus thing in battle...I click on the goblin,then if I go down where the number of the dices are,I can have one pop out a bit but to get back up on the goblin to confirm,the pop out just goes back down...so is it working or not?...I have like 5 dice numbers down there...do I have to click them all?

You can cast Reveal (single enemy) or Reveal II (multiple enemies) to see a monster's health and mana.

Adding dice is a little clunky. Once you've selected a die, you have to move it over either the damage or accuracy rating, then press A. You'll know it's working because the number will turn blue. After that, you can add more dice if you want, one at a time (you can use up to 6 of them). Once you're done, press X to move the cursor back up to the enemy selection.

edit: Beaten, haha. Dice Lure increases the quality of the dice you're awarded when performing a combo. For example, if you'd normally get a 1d4, you'd get a 1d6 instead; if you'd normally get a 1d6, you'd get a 1d8; etc.
 

duckroll

Member
Using bonus dice is much more intuitive when using the touch controls. You just use the touchpen to drag the dice you want into damage or accuracy, and then tap the target selection again when you're done.
 

Matsuno

Member
I just beat the game. OMG that was really fucking good. Classic Matsuno all the way to the... end(?). I suspect that's not the true ending though. Especially if there's more content unlocked in the NG+ loop... :)

In the credits there are artworks on ancient walls?
 

Phenomic

Member
I just beat the game. OMG that was really fucking good. Classic Matsuno all the way to the... end(?). I suspect that's not the true ending though. Especially if there's more content unlocked in the NG+ loop... :)

Glad to hear it's decent about how long did it take you to finish it? Thinking of picking it up but I still need to finish VLR and a few other things. Sort of want this to take priority because it seems like less of an en devour.
 

duckroll

Member
Glad to hear it's decent about how long did it take you to finish it? Thinking of picking it up but I still need to finish VLR and a few other things. Sort of want this to take priority because it seems like less of an en devour.

It took about 7 hours iirc. But I hear there's lots of new content in the NG+ loop.
 

Yuterald

Member
Nah, he has written stuff like it before. He wrote a pop album a couple of years ago, Lia's Colors of Life. Here's a track from it!

Also, I feel kinda dumb. duckroll had been hyping up the chapter 2 thing, so I was fighting those enemies over and over again without realizing that I had gotten the item I needed long ago. I just didn't pay very close attention to its description. That's like 40 minutes down the drain!

Ah, I see. I've never listened to his non-game stuff before. Interesting.

Meanwhile, I just got annihilated by the
doppelganger
boss(es). They hit hard! Time to double check my gear and shit, I guess.
 

Boney

Banned
Phew just beat it as well. Loved it. Had to grind a bit to get over that cool ass chapter 4 encounter, so at the end the final boss was a pushover even if Giaque wasn't even dealing damage because his Knight Sword wasn't really working against it.

Story was great, a few of the dialogue choices were a bit questionable but overall the localization was fantastic. It being a short story format really allowed it to lose all the dead weight most rpg's have regarding the story, really happy with it.

Battle system also was pretty fun, apparently I just wasn't melding enough weapons, so once I got a bit +2, +3 equipment I was tearing it up. The special battle conditions, mainly short or long ranged attacks getting nerfed were the most annoying cause they made battles go longer than you'd like, and sometimes certain weapons are useless and you can't change equipment mid battle. But buffing and debuffing worked great, and the skill + other action like TO works great. Chaining elements also adds a bit of strategy if you want to go for it.

I've never had any experience with table top rpg's and that stuff, so even though I guess it's not really representative, it really brought a lot of new stuff to the table, at least for me personally.

Will dig in on new game + later this summer
 
Nah, he has written stuff like it before. He wrote a pop album a couple of years ago, Lia's Colors of Life. Here's a track from it!

Another dagger in the heart of "EVRTHANG HE RITES IS DA SAME!!!!11" meme.

You can cast Reveal (single enemy) or Reveal II (multiple enemies) to see a monster's health and mana.

Adding dice is a little clunky. Once you've selected a die, you have to move it over either the damage or accuracy rating, then press A. You'll know it's working because the number will turn blue. After that, you can add more dice if you want, one at a time (you can use up to 6 of them). Once you're done, press X to move the cursor back up to the enemy selection.

edit: Beaten, haha. Dice Lure increases the quality of the dice you're awarded when performing a combo. For example, if you'd normally get a 1d4, you'd get a 1d6 instead; if you'd normally get a 1d6, you'd get a 1d8; etc.

I load up on Dice Lure. It and the buffing system makes me think of P3/4 mixed with an adapted Crono Cross element system.
 

duckroll

Member
Phew just beat it as well. Loved it. Had to grind a bit to get over that cool ass chapter 4 encounter, so at the end the final boss was a pushover even if Giaque wasn't even dealing damage because his Knight Sword wasn't really working against it.

There's a trick to that.
The attack itself does only 1 damage, but the weapon skill Holy Strike does substantial damage to the boss. Casting mana regen on Giauque and then using him to attack anyway to gain more MP works wonders on doing even more damage to the final boss quickly.
 

Boney

Banned
There's a trick to that.
The attack itself does only 1 damage, but the weapon skill Holy Strike does substantial damage to the boss. Casting mana regen on Giauque and then using him to attack anyway to gain more MP works wonders on doing even more damage to the final boss quickly.

That's exactly what I did actually! But even still, Lippi was doing more damage with his Hunter Bow I think, both with regular attack and it's attack skill with even less mp.
 

Reveirg

Member
Nah, he has written stuff like it before. He wrote a pop album a couple of years ago, Lia's Colors of Life. Here's a track from it!

Also, I feel kinda dumb. duckroll had been hyping up the chapter 2 thing, so I was fighting those enemies over and over again without realizing that I had gotten the item I needed long ago. I just didn't pay very close attention to its description. That's like 40 minutes down the drain!

I don't know which track you 2 are talking about (haven't played the game yet), but Sakimoto only wrote 18 of 40 tracks for Crimson Shroud.

I picked the game up yesterday and going to start playing it tonight... can't wait, love Matsuno and it's nice to see great first impressions from people here!
 

JKTrix

Member
The game mentions something about each die having a special way to roll it in order to always get a high score. There's even apparently one method for all of them together, too.

Anyone managed to come across it for any of them yet?
 

Yuterald

Member
I don't know which track you 2 are talking about (haven't played the game yet), but Sakimoto only wrote 18 of 40 tracks for Crimson Shroud.

I picked the game up yesterday and going to start playing it tonight... can't wait, love Matsuno and it's nice to see great first impressions from people here!

Fart, really? It's the track that plays during/at the end of Reminisce scenes. Well, that's only where I've heard it in the game. So, I just looked up the OST records and there were 5 composers for this game, interesting. I'm eye balling their resumes and I see a lot of other Sakimoto games like Odin Sphere and Wizard of Oz listed. Pretty neat. I always seem to forget that there's other people at Basiscape, lol!
 

duckroll

Member
Also Kyoko Kitahara is involved, she is in the Crimson Shroud credits. Alexander O. Smith in the Japan credits is credited with special thanks.
The developer is Nex Entertainment.

Speaking of Kyoko Kitahara, I was surprised to see her name in the credits. The soundtrack credits also list her as a Level 5 staff along with Matsuno, so it seems she left Square Enix to join Matsuno at Level 5. Now that Matsuno has left Level 5, I wonder if she left too...
 

Yuterald

Member
Whoa, I'm at the final boss. The story/reveal was so fucking perfect! GOTY central going on down here. This is the most tightly packaged piece of perfection I've played in the longest time. You're going down motherfucker!!!
 

duckroll

Member
Fart, really? It's the track that plays during/at the end of Reminisce scenes. Well, that's only where I've heard it in the game. So, I just looked up the OST records and there were 5 composers for this game, interesting. I'm eye balling their resumes and I see a lot of other Sakimoto games like Odin Sphere and Wizard of Oz listed. Pretty neat. I always seem to forget that there's other people at Basiscape, lol!

I just checked. The hilarious upbeat flashback track is "No Picnic for Me" and was composed by Yoshimi Kudo composed by Sakimoto, but performed on guitar by Yoshimi Kudo.
 

Yuterald

Member
Finished the game. Awesome/classy credits. Final boss was easier than I thought it was going to be. Fucking loved the shit out of this. I'm a little confused about the ending and some of the final moments. Anyone who's finished the game care to detail what happened exactly? I think I understood what happened, but...

Was the Frea that was talking to Flint the entire time the ACTUAL Frea or the Crimson Shroud? After the battle with the Shroud, were the Chasers trapped down there the entire time while the Shroud disguised herself as Frea and fooled Flint? It was all so abrupt, I'm not sure if I caught everything.
.

So, new game+ opened up, but I can't find any details online about what it entails. I see that everything carries over and I've read that the enemies are stronger, but is that it? Anyone know if there's new rooms or different scenes or perhaps a new ending? Regardless, this is definitely my GOTY. I would kill for a full fledged title like this from Matsuno again. I mean, I don't know, maybe it was better how small and concise this project was. I just want fucking more stuff from him, lol! =D
 

duckroll

Member
Finished the game. Awesome/classy credits. Final boss was easier than I thought it was going to be. Fucking loved the shit out of this. I'm a little confused about the ending and some of the final moments. Anyone who's finished the game care to detail what happened exactly? I think I understood what happened, but...

Was the Frea that was talking to Flint the entire time the ACTUAL Frea or the Crimson Shroud? After the battle with the Shroud, were the Chasers trapped down there the entire time while the Shroud disguised herself as Frea and fooled Flint? It was all so abrupt, I'm not sure if I caught everything.
.

The suggestion is that the Frea talking to Flint was Abigail all along, and she escaped from the palace by pretending to be a wounded Frea. It was Flint's soldiers who took her out. Her story lures Flint himself into the palace, and that's when she leaves for good while everyone else is trapped within. No witnesses, no warning, the world is doomed.

So, new game+ opened up, but I can't find any details online about what it entails. I see that everything carries over and I've read that the enemies are stronger, but is that it? Anyone know if there's new rooms or different scenes or perhaps a new ending? Regardless, this is definitely my GOTY. I would kill for a full fledged title like this from Matsuno again. I mean, I don't know, maybe it was better how small and concise this project was. I just want fucking more stuff from him, lol! =D

New Game+ definitely contains new rooms and items, and the enemies are balanced to be challenging even with everything carried over. Reviews and Japanese wikis also confirm that there are indeed additional story elements and a true ending to be eventually unlocked, but I haven't looked at the details because I don't want specific spoilers.
 

Yuterald

Member
The suggestion is that the Frea talking to Flint was Abigail all along, and she escaped from the palace by pretending to be a wounded Frea. It was Flint's soldiers who took her out. Her story lures Flint himself into the palace, and that's when she leaves for good while everyone else is trapped within. No witnesses, no warning, the world is doomed.

Fucking awesome. That's what I thought. God damn, Matsuno. So good.

New Game+ definitely contains new rooms and items, and the enemies are balanced to be challenging even with everything carried over. Reviews and Japanese wikis also confirm that there are indeed additional story elements and a true ending to be eventually unlocked, but I haven't looked at the details because I don't want specific spoilers.

Whoa, that's pretty banging! I'm going to have to go right back into New Game+. This game is way too cool to put off to the side right now. I almost figured there would be more rooms because the map is so big and you cover so little of it on your first playthough. Good stuff! Do you happen to know how many New Game+ cycles there are? Like, is the new content only for that one consecutive playthrough? I highly doubt they keep adding stuff on your 3rd game.
 
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