Part 56: The Real Deal: Part 1: Intro

THE REAL DEAL: PART 1

Hi! If you're a non-goon reading this from the archives, or you just haven't been keeping up, let me explain what's going on here.

Most of the script you've seen so far hasn't really been in the game. See, this is a narrative LP, and for me, "narrative" means I comb the dialogue with my bastardising fingertips until I like it more. And sometimes other people like it more. Bonus. However, after my reckless opening of the feedback floodgates, it seems unanimous that updates revealing the original script are warranted.

This is the first. Of those. Everything here is 100% Avalon Code-farmed beef. Except for my comments, of course.

Reading these won't be necessary to understand what's going on, so feel free to skip them if you're not interested. Or hell, you can read these and skip the others if you think my take on it is rubbish. Whatever sinks your submarine.



So here's how the game begins, visions of the apocalypse, yadda yadda. This was all contained in screenshots, which is your guarantee of authenticity. Didn't touch this. The narration here was mine though, as is the rest of it.



Fade to black, and there's our main man catching some zeds.

I'm British. We say zed.

I mentioned this in passing, but to make it official, Yumil is a classic RPG mute protagonist. That means he doesn't speak, but other characters react as though he does. If he has a line in my version, I made it up.

For the purposes of these updates, assume he's smiling and occasionally nodding unless I or the screenshots indicate otherwise.



The game suggests he makes a habit of sleeping out here, and already we hit a logic quibble. Why's he trekking through monster-infested plains for a power nap? Even if he were a capable fighter at this point, he doesn't have any weapons. Maybe running screaming from giant stone hornets is his daily workout.



He catches Rempo's bookmark, monolith starts glowing, book appears, there's no dialogue here so let's skip to the knight showing up.



He's a slum kid, give him a break.

Now I did transcribe this part, but then something occurred to me. I've mostly been playing the game on mute while listening to music/television, and I completely forgot this scene is voiced! So I made a video instead. Enjoy.



I didn't like Rempo being surprised at Yumil not knowing how to use the book. Why would he know, and why would Rempo think he knows? Hasn't this happened before? Yes. So has he not had to explain to other people in the past?

Also tried the make the knight less "Mwa ha ha, I'm evil and probably working for someone evil" and more "Actually threatening." Close your eyes.

This leads into the minotaur fight and our fancy Genesis sword turning back to normal, which you saw in the tutorial video. Picking up from there:



Who, me? I'm Rempo. One of the Great Spirits written in the Book of Prophecy. I'm a mighty Fire Spirit that can incinerate anything!


And he explains about the things on his arms. Leaving that part out because we haven't hit it in the narrative yet, but I'll cover it later.


Oh well. Guess there's no point in talking about it. Just trust me! I'm the baddest thing out there!
Heh heh! You sure are honest, kid. By the way, I can't keep calling you "kid." What's your name?



Name entry! Yumil is the default, just in case anyone thought I made it up.



Now what? Another opponent? Let's do it!



This choice has no impact. If you agree, Rempo immediately says "Whoa, it's a human! Let's go before things get messy!" and you end up running away regardless. 'Cause I guess we have a problem with killing humans.

Even though we don't.

This applies to most dialogue choices. They only affect the next couple of lines spoken, if that. That's not Avalon Code, though. That's JRPGs. I suppose we can let it slide.



Who on earth...?
The tracks point this way. Should we follow, General Heath?
Have you forgotten? We can't tread any further into enemy lands. I'll go back to the border troops. You go report this to the prince.


I dunno I just really wanted Heath to rant about knight balls



Look! I think they've stopped following us.



Listen close, Yumil! The Book of Prophecy chose you. The moment you touched it, your fate changed completely. Everything that happens now...will become the stuff of legends.



Yumil, still smiling, blinks. Apparently that means he's blown away by all this, because...



This is awesome! Oh well. You'll understand someday. This world will soon be destroyed. That's why the Book appeared. This world will go, and another born. It's the order of things!
But before this world is gone, it is your duty to record in the Book of Prophecy things worthy for the new world!


Why weren't you expecting him to be shocked? And why is it awesome? The world's going to be destroyed. That's only "awesome" in the classic biblical sense, which is not how you were fucking using the word, don't even try that one on with us.

This might be interesting if they made something of it. Rempo is flippant about the impending apocalypse. That could say a lot about him. Maybe it's happened so often that it's all part of the job now, or maybe he's just an asshole spirit who wasn't created to care.

The problem is, Yumil doesn't seem to give a damn either. The end of the world isn't treated with any particular gravity. It's all "Hell yeah, time to have an adventure! Fiery legend!" *smile, nod* There's no contrast to Rempo's attitude, so when he says it's awesome that we're all going to die, we don't think "Wow, what a dick." We just think "Oh, is it? Okay. Whatever you say."



Anyway, he then explains about scanning, metalize tablets and codes in a standard tutorial sort of way. I tried to work a little flavour into it.



Particularly so in the goblin scene, which isn't at all tense. "Hey look it's a goblin, you should scan it, oh it's got a stone code, that'll increase its HP. Take it off."

I can't blame the writers for this, because what were they supposed to do? Yumil's mute. He's merely an avatar for the player. They weren't allowed to give him a personality. Still, I didn't like him adapting to lethal combat and basically becoming fearless before he's even got the hang of the book. Especially when he doesn't know why he's fighting so well. Speaking of which...



Blah blah blah concept of a sword blah blah blah


Remember that part?

Rempo does tell Yumil he can use any weapon from the book, (though it happens at a later point in the game) but there's no real reasoning behind it. None of this The Sword business. He just can. So why'd I go into all that detail?

It's tricky to explain at this point without spoiling anything. Suffice it to say, I was trying to patch what might have been a hole. You'll see. Eventually.



Again, standard tutorialy explanation of code scanning people here, although Rempo does tell us that nobody will notice being walloped with the book, so that's something. He doesn't say it until after we hit the soldier though, so presumably Yumil was expecting him to react and gaveth not a fuck.

I'd complain, but that's actually kind of cool when you think about it.

He also explains about code points, but honestly, I wanted to have as little in-character discussion of gameplay mechanics as possible. Code scanning, metalize tablets, those are acceptable since I can envision them in-universe, but anything with the word "points" in it (hit points, mystic points, code points) is too videogame-y for a narrative where I'm not making tired fourth wall jokes. For once.



When you go to Yumil's house, Rempo just says "Nice room. If you're tired, you could rest." Then you leave. The whole "I'm not sure about this, what am I supposed to do" conversation doesn't happen.

Also, the absence of Yumil's family is never brought up. Classic RPG protagonist again. They just don't have a family and you're just not supposed to ask, alright? God.

Hell, I don't think it's ever said that he's an orphan. It could be that he moved out early and his parents are still alive somewhere. Maybe the "Get the fuck out and get the fuck a job" age is lower in Kaleila.

That's all for now. Next time we'll go over our exploration of Rhoan. See what really happened in that training hall!



But we're not covering Vis, because I did not change a single one of his lines, I do need to stress that again

The worst thing is I think we're supposed to like the dude.