Part 3: Ninja - Update # 2 - Escaping the castle?

Fuck my computer. It's not even the LP curse - I just bought a shitty laptop at the last moment before flying off to Canada and there are no local people at whose head I could throw it (and then demand they fix it). Anyways... do you guys prefer big updates, or shorter bite-sized ones? I'm kinda into the first, but that does carry the danger of an update being eaten in yet another crash... I have essentially written out a huge update, but I'm breaking it up into small portions and getting some feedback as to what does or doesn't work (this should also cut down on the huge breaks between updates)

When we last left Obama, he just rescued the mysterious "political prisoner" Ryoma from an insane blond undead priest type. Blondie has conveniently dropped this:



I'm no sure if that's a reference to Virgin Mary or something I'm missing, but if Obama has to cross-dress for that defense bonus, then that's a sacrifice he'll have to make.



Note the new stairs at the bottom of the screen - that's the way out of the death pit.

: Are you planning to free my fellow prisoner?

: Did you know that I was considered "most likely to eventually learn from his own mistakes" ninja in my graduating class?

:

: He stays in the cage, and we avoid a pointless fight. Simple. Now, if my calculations are correct, this door here:



: Should lead to the moat.

: The moat!?

: A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence.

: ...
Right. I mean, do you have a plan for getting us through the moat? Can we use your invisibility thing, or just speed through it?



: Apparently... not. Can't hide or run in the water. No problem though, I killed pretty much everyone here.

: My, that's highly impressive. I can see the Shinobi have sent the best.



: Well,, if I have the skills to take down weird priest type there, then I have the skills to deal with any other ninja that might be lurking around.

: You... only encountered ninja in this moat?

: Yeah. What of it?

: BACK TO THE SECRET DOOR BEFORE IT'S TOO



: damn



: The HELL is that?

: Don't just stand there staring, FLEE, YOU FOOL!

: Oh no, that's not how that works. You might see a giant scary carp, but all this shinobi sees is a huge sushi portion. Ninja-slice!



: 'k, we might want to give that "flee" thing a cha-



: Crap.



: No no not doing this no no no run away grab the shinobi and run away



: This is my special run away song so I do not get killed by scary fish.

Tappity-tappity-weeeeoooooow. (Do tell if that's the wrong sound effect here)



: Right. The other way it is, then. And we shall never speak of this again.



: It's not as though-

: Never. Again.



: You know what? Never mind the old man and his chests. We're just heading out with no distractions to stop us.



: Except for that. That might be somewhat difficult.

This is a nice demonstration of the difficulty curve. If we fought our way here, we went from fighting regular footman guards, to samurai in training (without the signature hairstyle) to ninja and regular samurai. If we snuck here, we're now confronted with several roaming guards - some moving in specific patterns, others homing in on us. Like the one here:

: Do you think you can cross swords with me?



Kinda tough, but we'll still use him as nothing more than a way to demonstrate the effects of our attacks.



Shinobi slash is basic meelee.





Cross slice is a meelee attack on everything around you.







Blazing firefly (demonstrated here with Obama default "spell-casting concentration" pose)



Creates a fire field. It doesn't really do much damage to enemies that aren't vulnerable to fire,



and we'll have better fire spells by the time we run into those. So, this is basically the last you'll see of it.



: Guard = down, way to the exit = clear, RUN!



: Since we're never coming back, that's not much of a problem. All we have to do is go through two depopulated buildings and we're done.

You might remember this locked door as the spot where Obama had to figure out wall running. The door in the building to the right can be opened now, but we don't need to go in yet. Two uneventful buildings latter...



: VICTORY.



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