Stream - Page 3
Blood Skelter Mode Mechanic Explanation
So it's confirmed. Blood Skelter mode works exactly like in the first game, they discover it by coincidence when Little Mermaid goes in that mode and start attacking Otsuu and Hameln. She is reverted by Jack's blood that was splattered on her when he protected Otsuu from being hurt. I guess that's why they had Jack transform as a nightmare, if he was a human he would jeopardize the protagonist role of Otsuu, but he has to be around the group because the key mechanic of the game goes through him.
Now my thoughts go to Alice because she went Blood Skelter too earlier in the game before the group separated, is she still in that mode clashing around somewhere in the dungeon? Surely nothing bad can have happened to her right?
Now let's continue exploring the aquarium area, it's apparently the area from which Little Mermaid appeared so I wonder if it'll be just another tutorial explaining how to defeat the Nightmares and they'll leave new characters to a future zone...
Osvald Ch.3 Conning Creek - Revenge continue
Chapter 3 (Conning Creek) continues with Osvald's story and gives us more info on the conspiracy that caused his family to be killed and him being imprisoned in that accursed island. Captain Stenvar helped Harvey to kill Osvald's family, put the fault on Osvald and then steal his research to send it to Montvale. He even killed the husband of Lady Clarissa (the assistant of Osvald) to silence him as he was snooping around.
Clarissa said that revenge brings to nothing, but well...revenge is going to be served one way or another and I'm happy with that. Osvald is not going to stop at anything from the looks of it.
Apparently Montwise is an important city because it's where Osvald and Harvey first met. Osvald seems to suspect that Harvey left the trail for him to find so he knew that the prison wouldn't stop him from coming back, but why? It doesn't make sense to lead the way to someone who want to take revenge on you unless...there's something else...
Temenos Ch.3 Crackridge route - Moonshade order
Completed Temenos Chapter 3 Crackridge route and as expected it all checks out. Everything seem to be centered around two "individuals". The first is the Lord (a "god" I'm assuming) that the moonshade order is revering. The second one is the leader of their group who ordered the attack and destruction of the Kal people to "heed the Lord request".
In order to bring chaos to the world they wanted to get the Book of Night (some magical book needed for a ritual apparently), but few pages were stolen by various individuals which matches the murder that Vados committed. It was all to recover these pages which means now they should be very close to their objective.
Now we need to go and interrogate Vados at Stormheil, but things won't be easy. I'm suspecting the commander of that fortress that we saw briefly in the previous chapter to be the real culrprit and the leader of the Moonshade Order. I want to play the next route of this, but level 37 so I need to take a detour first.
Temenos Ch.3 Crackridge route - Not a good start
Temenos Chapter 3 Crackridge route seems to be focused on some backwater village with extremely suspicious people living in it. They seem to transform into non-welcoming towards him the moment he mentioned wanting to visit the ruin near the village.
Now they seem to be wanting to assault him during the night, quite a welcoming he's getting. Still can't see how are they connected to the Keepers of the flame that caused the murders of the bishop and the others. They seem to mention that Temenos and them worship a different flame, but I don't recall any other flame in the story...maybe a different sect? Or maybe linked to Galdera?
Unrelated note, I'm back at playing now and should be seeing more of these posts in the coming days. Passed the last few days optimizing the site to make it a better experience for everyone visiting. There's still some more work to do, but it's in a good state now.
Suou is oblivious to the yuri around her
This was an interesting scene that really shows how particular Suou's character is. Despite her intelligence in deduction and reasoning, she was completely oblivious to the fact that there were other classmates, who like her, love girls in her class. In this case there was Tsuwabuki that was irritated because Suou was hogging all the attention from Rikka with her mistakes in the student council and warned her. Ringo and Erika had to literally spell it out to her before she even considered that to be a possibility...
By the way, I really liked how Erika (before realizing it was just a love quarrel and backing down) was like "tell me who said something to you and I'll strike them down" with a very angry and serious voice. She really got attached to Suou during these months. I remember back in the first game when she was more of a trickster trying to avoid getting connected with other people and man, she sure changed a lot for the better.
Suou and Erika yuri scene?!
Whoa, yuri scene between two main heroines Suou and Erika? I mean, I know it's just some small skinship between friends, but the scene is so surprising that it made me jump from my seat when the CG appeared.
Erika helped Suou with her search (related to the main plot) and was like, with her usual mocking joking tone, "if you really want to thank me, let me use those thighs". Suou answered confused "what?" and Erika doubled down with a "Lap pillow! Let me!" leading to a surprising Suou saying "Sure, here you go".
That left Erika completely speechless as she wasn't expecting Suou to actually agree to give a lap pillow.
Plus now they're basically flirting with Suou going "you're so beautiful" to Erika. I know that I wear my yuri-tinted glasses often, but this is so blatant that it must not be just me!
Apparently it's the first time Suou gave a lap pillow to anyone (she didn't do it to Mayuri), but she got it multiple times done from her grandfather.
Sword Seeker Chronicles Event
I'm going through the Sword Seeker Chronicles event of ZZZ (at the last minute as usual). Seems like it's the journey for Ye Shunguang to become immune or at least resistant to the effect of the Qingming Sword by learning from old swordmasters in a magical world. I thought it was weird they ended the main story without a real resolution to the problem of the memory erasure that she was facing. It's a bit weird that they left this important part to a non-main story related event, but hey thankfully I always complete my events even if a bit too late.
We're getting close to the release of the idols Sunna and Aria in the new patch that will get released 6 February 2026 with patch 2.6. I already prefarmed the materials for Sunna and I'm quite excited to see them in action as I quite like their character design. Hopefully the story will go back to the usual Urban Fantasy feel that I liked of this game in the new 3.x segment...
Yaegaki Erika's deep voice is so damn good
Yaegaki Erika's deep voice really is a boon to this world. There's something about that defined husky-like voice that simply puts me at ease whenever I hear it. You had to imagine my surprise when I read that Ayane Sakura (the seiyuu voicing her) also did a role as Mika in Psycho Pass. It does make sense when you focus on the two voices, but still it was surprising...
I had to upload this small comedy scene with Erika and the other girls complimenting Suou for her winter uniform looks because I don't have enough recorded clips of Erika (my favorite character of the entire franchise). I need sometime to go back and record some scene between Erika and Takasaki Chidori from the second visual novel.
Story now seems to be entering the winter period, the last season and the title of this fourth game of the franchise ("Le volume sur hiver" translate roughly to "Winter volume"). The goal is set (recovery Mayuri), but the road is still uphill as we don't know why is she confined in that room.
Mayuri is WITHIN the school building?!
Mayuri is WITHIN the school building and just talked to Suou through the wall! What the...between all the possibilities this wasn't even something I was considering possible. The voice was muffled by the wall so it could've technically been someone impersonating her, but Suou recognized her so I'm going to trust the gut instinct of Suou here.
Mayuri seemingly wanted Suou to forget her and move on with her life, but things aren't going down that easily now that Suou that her beloved is within reach. The questions I have just exploded though now.
The school clearly said that she left the school, but that was a lie in which even the Dalia participated into. What else are they lying about? Because clearly things are a lot more troubling now. That explains why Yuzuriha was so reluctant to talk about this topic to Suou, she probably knew something and was instructed to keep silent...but by who? And for what reason?
Suou's deduction process is always nice to see
Suou is going through her usual deduction process and it's quite interesting to see how she's trying to piece together the mystery. Everything seems to go around the figure of Shion Basquiat that was buried near the school in an inconspicuous place.
Suou wondered if he was the adoptive father who took in Dalia at young age, but from the records of the school no other Basquiat was present at the school at anytime aside from Dalia herself.
So who was he? Why is he buried near the school? And why is there an angraecum flower right next to it? it's technically a special flower according to Suou in the school, the only one that is maintained by the teachers and not by the students and it means "prayer".
Also are we sure it's someone older than Dalia or maybe someone around her age? Suou didn't mention the dates present (if any) on the tomb.
I guess the next step is to try and ask Dalia in a roundabout way about it as she's the only one who may know something about it.
Rikka and Suou relationship improvements
Rikka and Suou relationship has developed so much since the first game. I remember how I was very near to hate her for all the blackmailing she tried to do to bind Suou to her permanently while distancing or even damaging Mayuri's life. After accepting the situation she smoothed out to be a much more nice girl (even though I still don't like her as much as the other heroines). Here they really look like Amitie, friends that share the current step in their life together.
On unrelated note, seems like the story still has the same "ghost story" element that we've seen prominent in the first game. Erika went through quite an interesting story about a "mysterious red rope" seen in an hospital (that turned out to be blood). It's quite a standard story told in these settings, but it was interesting to see Rikka frightened by it. I wonder if the actual mystery case around Mayuri has actually a "ghost story" element too.
Rossi Wulfgard introduction in Endfield
Rossi was just introduced in the story (member of the Wulfgard) and seems like she knows the Endmin since before the stasis and she idolizes her completely. Just how old is she? She looks in her teens, maybe 20 so it's likely she only heard stories from other people about Endmin.
I'm still a bit puzzled about the whole goal of the story so far, we're trying to expand the use of Originium in Talos-2, but that's exactly what Doctor from the first game was trying to avoid because of the consequences of using it (health related even if it seems they can mostly control the side effects in this world).
The Endmin lost his memories so we don't know the full details of his goals, but the two seems to be completely opposite. Many theories are surfacing online about the connections between Doctor and Endmin (alluding that Endmin might be connected with the villain of the original game), but nothing that is actually revealed in the story.
FLOWERS -Le volume sur hiver- OP Movie impressions
The OP movie of the FLOWERS -Le volume sur hiver- just played and time just literally stopped on its track for me. The music, the singing voice, the art and animation were just a work of art, way better than the already amazing OPs from the previous visual novels.
The title of the song is "Fairy Wreath" sung by Shimotsuki Haruka (霜月はるか). I'll probably end up putting it on repeat for months to come considering how good it is.
I went a bit ahead after the OP too and so far it's been mostly a bit of fun together with the existing charactersas a way to realize where they are after the events of the previous visual novels. Think of it as a sort of recap of who is connected with whom and what type of relationship they have. It's so emotional to see them back though...
Ichigo and Ringo are cute as usual, but my favorite remains Erika. She stunned me with her personality in the second visual novel of the series and she's still the highlight of each scene where she appears.
Mystery of the tomb of Basquiat
Yes, that tomb that Suou found in the snow with the surname "Basquiat" which is the surname of the teacher. Just exactly who is buried there and how does this connect to Mayuri is what they need to reveal now. I don't recall any connection being even hinted between the teacher and Mayuri, but it's been a while so I may have forgotten simply.
So far the story is back at the normal dorm life with Suou having tea with Rikka and Erika. It's kind of relaxing seeing some familiar face again, I kind of procrastinated in starting this fourth game mainly because I didn't want to leave the characters.
By the way the art of this visual novel continues to be absolutely stunning, but I'll refrain from posting all the pictures here as I need to save up some for the review I'll write in the blog at the end of this stream session.
Flowers Fourth Game Start of a Journey
Just as I promised long ago, today I'll start reading the final visual novel of the Flowers series titled "FLOWERS -Le volume sur hiver-". This is the fourth visual novel in the series and we covered the previous three in a post you can find at https://blog.emptyblue.it/impression/flowers-onward-toward-the-fourth-and-final-game .
The focus is back finally to the relationship between Kousaka Mayuri and Shirahane Suou and I'm excited to see what mystery goes around her disappearance from the school. Suou nearly found out something at the end of the last game, but it was never detailed about exactly what it means.
That tomb bearing that name was revealing and I'm curious to see exactly how it'll all fix out to give us our happy yuri ending.
This section of the site WILL have spoilers so be aware of it. I'll make a final review in the blog side of the website once I complete reading.
Ochette Ch.2 Tera Route - Catch them all!
Just finished the Chapter 2 of Ochette's story on the Tera route (it's another of those chapters that are separated into two routes) and seems like the quest of Ochette to try and gather all the legendary beasts is going quite well. The first beast was already dead, but we got the child of it.
Now we managed to get the approval of Tera to give us support once the "Night of the Scarlet Moon" arrives.
Ochette's story so far has been the most traditional when it comes to story developments. She got the revelation of a big bad evil coming and she goes to gather the only entities that can stop him. That's something you must've heard a lot of time and yet with her quirky personality, charming voice and Akala acting as the straight man it comes out as extremely fun to follow.
Next for Ochette will be Chapter 2 Glacis Route, but considering it's suggested level 38 in the world map (I'm still average level 27) I guess I'll do some of the other characters stories in the meantime
Prologue Complete - Hameln get!
I just finished the first chapter of the story. After recruiting Hameln (she's now cosplaying as a hero and is even more cute than usual) we fought our way up to reach the liberation district, but turns out entire original Reimei group has been annihilated by a mysterious nightmare that appeared out of nowhere. Of course no body of the blood maidens was found so they should be still safe somewhere.
We don't know much about it yet, but from the small scene it seems to be related the Little Mermaid somehow as it uttered her name.
Now the quest is to gather back the original Blood Maidens and accumulate enough forces to fight back against the Nightmare. Similar to what happened in the original game, but from the a new point of view. The parallel universe theory is looking more and more likely now because way too many things don't match up in this world compared to the previous one...
What happened to Jack?!
Kept going for a bit further and the questions only keep growing. Jack was engulfed by some weird tentacles and transformed into a nightmare, but he doesn't seem aggressive and is actually linked to Otsuu to the point that she can use him in battle as a second attack (and is the only one who can fully understand him).
Is that going to be his permanent form in this second game? If yes, how do the girls come back from Blood Skelter mode? Is his blood still applicable to this?
As you can see from the video below, Hameln was introduced quite early in the game this time around. In the first game she was sort of a "bonus character" that wasn't really involved with the story much. She's still as cute as I remember her too with her continuous fumbling of words.
I'm not still sold on Otsuu character to be honest, way too tomboy-sh and her prince act feels a bit jarring at times. Let's see if it improves along the way as we get to know her better.
The story seems to have diverged from the first game...
The questions I have only increase instead of decreasing right now. We found the blood maiden and it was Jack and Alice from the first game, but we never met Little Mermaid nor Otsuu in the first game so things don't match up. The events after freeing her are also different as she goes in Blood Skelter mode and make the ground fall separating the team into smaller groups.
Is this a parallel universe to the first game? That would explain why the characters are the same, but events are different. I can't remember lots of the details of the original game so maybe there's something I'm forgetting as it's been over 10 years.
Now I'm with Otsuu alone in the underground trying to find back my way to join the others.
Hopefully we can go back at the base soon and start to learn more about the situation in the city too. That'll be the important part right now. Who are the other Blood Maidens available in the game right away?
Otsuu and Little Mermaid first impression
Seems like we got two new characters in Otsuu and Little Mermaid and they seem ultra yuri for each other which is always a nice thing. The issue is, while I do understand that Little Mermaid comes from the fairy tale with the same name, I have absolutely no idea where Otsuu comes from.
Maybe some japanese fairy tale I never heard of? Or something else altogether?
Oh and of course there's Red Riding Hood, but this time with long hair which makes her even more charming!
Right now going through the prologue which is us trying to save an unnamed blood maiden from being trapped. And of course going through the tutorial that is classic for these games. So far everything seems to be identical to the original, just that Jack isn't there to act as controller of the Blood Maiden.
Weirdly the "Massacre Mode" of the blood maidens that was "unrecoverable" in the first game seems to be recovering automatically after battle. Retcon or is there some reason for it?
