The Way Part #49 - Episode 5: Part 5: A Few Farewells.

Part 49: Episode 5: Part 5: A Few Farewells.

Episode 5: Part 5: A Few Farewells.

Oh, I didn't realise something had happened recently, and I planned on bringing next project of Luns up at the end of the LP, but its as good a time as any now... because...

In 2017, Luke Wacholtz and a team of other guys calling themselves Something Classic released a game on steam called Shadows of Adam. I don't think it got much attention and was quickly passed over. Got pretty positive reviews though.
Apparently back early this month (May 2019), they released a port for it on Switch where it seems like it's gotten a bit more attention than the PC release ever did.

Luke Wacholtz
Writer, Level Designer, Self-Appointed Voice of Reason

I do remember in the years before Shadows of Adam, Lun posted on his site about it occasionally. Towards its release, he said something along the lines of "Don't expect the weird kind of writing I did in The Way." or something like that. I haven't played it yet myself, though I did buy it.

Should get around to that. Oh yeah, and after 99% of his tweets were about Shadows of Adam for a great length of time, there's a few that do stand out in retrospect...

For gods' sake, I hope he makes a fucking remake but DOES NOT make it a 1:1 remake or I'll kick his goddamned ass. I don't mind if he goes with his original 7 episode plan or what we wound up getting, but both a fair amount of writing and gameplay design is in in dire need of fixing. Maybe he even has a whole new idea of how things would have ended by now.

Anyway, he barely uses his twitter as it is so it's not like we'll be likely to find out more any time soon. Plus those are pretty old tweets now.

This didn't take long. Anyway, with Kloe now in tow, our party heads back to where we met Dirk.

You might be thinking that this is a point of no return, but it's not. You can jump back up.

The encounters in the outer city are a bit nastier. Like, they can manage to KO a party member or two, perhaps even straight out defeat you in the right circumstances, such as overuse of their Hit-ALL attacks. The Blowbeaks have a hit-all that can stun, in particular.

In a very familiar building, we get some loot. The left chest has -two- Heart Stones, even. The black chest is locked and unopenable as far as the walkthrough and I know. There's a fuckload of loot in Estrana and the battles give so much CTP that we absorb almost all of it even as we go.

R.I.P

Wooo!

This encounter usually lasts long enough to give you the full taste of how nasty any of these three enemy types can be. Meshers are probably the least harmless and they can still do a decent bit of damage.

So yeah. Things are pretty bad.

And they just got worse.

I should have known we'd have such rotten luck.

Let's just keep going. There has to be a way out of Estrana somewhere.

Why don't we go through the western slums and exit out through the rear of the city?

Western slums?

Heh, you've never been there? They're really grand! Yes they are! Heh.

Where are these slums exactly?

In the west, heh!

Can you be more specific?

They lie in the shadow of the Arm of Estrana... The gateway to them sits behind the Shadow Inn.

That's good enough for me. Let's jump this gap and move on.
So we jump the gap and move on.

See that bucket? It has a Cross Stone but it's completely unreachable. There's a chest with a Cross Stone not far past this, too. I have a vague memory of getting this stone once but for all I know I may have edited a path in RPGMaker 2k. Or maybe you could reach it in the first public release.

Shadow Inn... We can't go inside cos it's on fire.

We maxed out Red Shine in one update! There's a A LOT of fights against high AR value encounters.

So here's our last unmaxed Pattern.

And of course, it levels from one more fight.

As we wind through the shanties and hovels, something goes out of its way to burst through the cobble stone so it can have the privilege of challenging us.

The Scyth is EXTREMELY weak to Weapon auras, which I haven't equipped in a long time. However, Rhue's single target attack that -doesn't- come from his equipped auras, counts as a weapon type attack and thus deals extreme amounts of damage. This is seriously more damage than Rhue and the rest could do in two turns all up. Maybe just under 3 turns even. So uh, yeah. The solution for this boss is have Rhue draw XL so he can use this every other turn. The boss fight goes rather easily in that case.

Woo.

Anyway, the party automatically enter this door when you use it.

Yea.

...

Was there ever any doubt? Heh, what do you people take me for? Heh.

Now I just want to get as far away from this place as I can.
Take one last look if you want, then let's leave.

Rhue only looks for a fraction of a second before saying this.

HARBRINGER: Correct.

This is the Vigilante side of the main hall. You're not supposed to be here.
I don't care what the circumstances are.

HARBRINGER: I'm sorry, I was merely waiting for someone. A murderer.

Sorry, but Dancing Violet seems to have escaped. She isn't here any longer.

Are you a fool?
All the murderers were held in the Arm of Estrana. If you were smart you would have gone there.
The monsters probably got most of the ones that weren't killed in the earthquake, but I'm certain some got out safely.
You're obviously not thinking clearly.

HARBRINGER: My mind is quite clear, thank you.
You see, the person I'm after hasn't been brought to justice yet.
I'm sure you've heard of them.

Heard of who?

HARBRINGER: Entrego.