Part 55: Episode LI: Gleeful Laughter
Episode LI: Gleeful Laughter![](1-gleefullaugh_(11).jpg)
The key to the Lion's Shrine reveals... a near-identical hallway but with way worse lighting and a save point. I'm not sure why we needed a save point here since Victor was the only boss. Annoyingly, there are still random battles in this hall and the corridor leading up to this one. That stupid loser Victor can't even place his boss battle properly.
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Let's head in and see what villainy Rasputin is getting up to...
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NEW Music: Serious Mood ~ Unrest (We're hitting all the moods and this one is villainy.)
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You know it's an important cutscene when they bother to have all the warriors rendered. Especially poor Blanca, who drops out of existence with troubling regularity during cutscenes.
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Anastasia rushes Rasputin in a rather ballsy move. However, her advance is halted by the knife-wielding Veronica.
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Yuri immediately goes for it with a series of haymakers and roundhouse kicks to Rasputin, but all of his blows are blocked by an invisible electric shield.
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Music: Flame of Strain to Blaze ~ Tension
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Hey! I remember that place! It's Kuihai Tower which was effectively the end of Disc 1 in that game. Remember that time we ditched Alice for a week in there getting tortured in favor of a Hong Kong field trip? Ahh, memories...
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And that's the Calios Mental Hospital where Koudelka got tortured for years and ruined Yuri's life by yelling into his head to go punch villains and become a Rude Hero.
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And that's the Neam Ruins. The uhh... first one. Not to be mistaken with the Neam Ruins with the floating box puzzles we explored earlier in this game's adventure. They're like a quarter-mile away from each other. C'mon. Completely different. There's no ziggurat for summoning alien gods in the newer one.
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Yuri flops onto his back unconscious.
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Rasputin is LOVING this shit!
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Joachim fucking goes for it trying to just dropkick Grigori Rasputin while he's busy being evil. Unfortunately...
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Yeah... that shield that Yuri had trouble with is just a passive ability and Rasputin no-sells the attack.
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Good boy Blanca too tries to go for it. However...
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Yeah... Rasputin just has Force Lightning like he's Emperor Sheev Palpatine (that's the stupid first name they gave Palpatine by the way) on top of the super cutscene shield. It does not go well for Blanca either. Lucia and Gepetto opt to just not even bother attacking. There's a reason they're on the bench until further notice.
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Music: Serious Mood ~ Unrest
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Rasputin turns his attention to Anastasia.
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Rasputin casts a spell on Anastasia which causes her to fall into a dazed stupor as her mother had been in earlier.
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Veronica hands her dagger over to the bewitched Anastasia. Ms. Vera sure has made quite the jump in villainy the last couple of chapters going from cartoon villain dropping off monsters of the week before running off to now boning Rasputin, helping with a coup and promoting child murder.
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Finger snap.
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Music: Flame of Strain to Blaze ~ Tension
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Alexandra shoves her daughter out of the way and runs up to her son.
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Apparently, Rasputin just glued the knife to Anastasia's hand since she struggles to get rid of the dagger and just gives up in favor of crying. Dick move, guy.
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Four identical guards storm the room and draw their swords.
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Despite being still mildly jacked from his latest curse flaring up, Yuri is still able to skillfully dodge any of their blows and bodies two of them with a shoulder check. Rasputin better hire better goons if his coup does succeed. These morons are embarrassing even for interchangeable mooks.
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At this point, Yuri and the gang decide to book it since this encounter with Rasputin clearly isn't going in their favor.
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Joachim decides that perhaps leaving Anastasia with a sorcerer actively trying to kill her and her family while being framed for attempted fratricide on the table PROBABLY should stay here alone, so he scoops her up while they flee. Your heart is in the right place, Joachim. But you did just abduct a princess and that's not going to do wonders for our already plummeting street cred in Russia.
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I'm not sure if I follow Rasputin's plan at this point what with revealing his intentions immediately to the only people trying to stop him, drugging the entire palace for an evening, framing Anastasia for attempted murder, blaming it on the party and then... letting them escape? But whatever. Dude is having a good time either way.
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Video: Episode 51 Highlight Reel (You should always watch Rasputin being an evil shit.)
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Prince Alexei Concept Art - Much like how Anastasia should be 14 at this point and looks/acts around 11, Alexei is supposed to be 10ish at this point and looks about six years old tops.