Part 24: Special Especially Long Post-Hiatus Update Special

Update 18 - Story: Special Especially Long Post-Hiatus Update Special
Alternate Title: Avan Sucks, This Game Sucks

Time for another update about assorted high school drama and guns. Last time I self-inflicted the horrors of fanfiction upon myself. It was an interesting time and I regret nothing everything.

This time we'll hopefully not do that, but it still gets worse somehow.

This update's a bit story packed, but that's all fine with you folks, right?


TITLES EARNED:
Supernatural
Bandits
Warlords
Title Lovers

...Two of those don't belong.


Eh, anyways. Let's get to it then.

---

Music: Everyday Life of the Class




: Mm? Hey, you're Randy, right? What brings you here?
: What do you mean? I'm on the student union board.


: VP?

: What, are you new here? Randy Hamsun is student union vice president.


Yep, classic Avan, our hero- protagonist- character.





: The president stopped coming about two months ago.
: He said he'd sooner eat glass than come back. Really, I'm disappointed.

: Oh, I'm sure he has his reasons. Try not to judge him too harshly for it.


Yeah, it kinda just jumps to this sentence. It feels a bit out of place, but I guess it isn't.

: Then student council will finally be back to normal. Plus we all love Randy!

: Ha ha! I'll try my best not to let you guys down.
: Well, I should get back to the classroom, guys. See you around!
: Sounds good, Avan, and thanks again for bringing those papers by.


: ...Mm? Aw, dang it. I was supposed to turn in this form, too.
: Sorry, Randy! There's one more paper I--
: Huh? Somebody's sitting in the president's chair, but they said...

Music: Theme of the Rebels
Using this here on out every time the unknown "dark theme" starts playing.





*The door is heard opening.*


: R-Randy? What were you talking about just now?
: What?!



: Thank you again for your help, Avan. I'll see you tomorrow in class.

Music: Everyday Life of the Class


: No, I must have just imagined the whole thing. That has to be it.



...So yeah, that's Randy's thing. He's basically a cartoon villain.

Change of pace/tone? Yeah, I can do that.


~* Back Alley - Coleen's First Event *~




So this is a lot different than Sofia's first event already.


Damnit Avan, are you spying on people again?


Cripes, now you've got Cosette doing it too.


: It's not like that.
: (...Psst, Cosette. Isn't it, like really bad for us to be here right now?)
: (Shh, shut up! If we get up and walk out now, we'll make a scene!)

: I feel better that I told you how I feel though. Thanks for listening.

: Phew, they're finally done!
: (Ack! Will you keep your voice down?!)


: Sorry, Coleen. I swear we werent' trying to eavesdrop!
: No, it's fine. It's my own fault for not realizing we weren't alone.

You're surprisingly chill about this.


: Second what?
: Boy asking her out, dummy! Gosh, you sure are slow sometimes.
: I wonder why they always feel the need to do this.
: What? Isn't it because they want you to know how they feel about you?


: I wish I knew. I'm not good at this stuff.
: Oh yeah? So there's nobody you're sweet on?
: Not really, no. So when these boys ask me out, I don't know how to respond.
: I guess that makes sense. It'd be silly to force something you don't feel.



*She walks off.*

: I'm kind of surprised to hear Coleen's so unsure in the love department.
: I'm right there with her. I don't get it at all.


: ...Why do I feel like I just got insulted?

It's because you did. This was the first bit of actual perception you've showed in forever.

Also:



--

I can't say I can relate very much to that at all- I've never had anything even remotely close to something in the "love department". Though, if you met me in person, you'd probably see why.


Egad, what's this? More Coleen? Did shooting a few tanks count for this much?

...Well, no. What happened is that her event was supposed to show up in a much earlier update, but I somehow forgot. This means you get a double dose of high-school romantic issues this update!

Wow, aren't you glad you waited 3 weeks for this?

*Dodges various rotten vegetables and unfinished fanfiction scripts, retreating behind the screenshots*

--



*Obvious lead into exposition to attempt to lessen awkwardness*


: Pretty romantic, huh? All the girls are talking about it.

I mean if Harvest Moon and its spinoffs taught me anything, people will like you back for most gifts.

This sounds more like a middle school thing, honestly.


: You girls sure eat stuff like that up, don't you?

*Casual prejudice*


: I guess I'll just go off and give you ladies a bit of privacy.


: Whoooa! Really?!



: I feel this need to talk with him more. To get closer to him...
: But when I'm with him, I can't form a sentence. Do you think it's love?


Sounds like typical anime love to me, but then again, what do I know?


*Screenshot intentionally captured mid-blink on Avan*

: As it stands, I can't even sleep at night. I have to do something.
: Hmm, you'd probably know best about what's right for you.
: But generally, I'd say the next step would be to tell him how you feel.


Of course you haven't. This is always how it goes.

: Hmmm, what do you think?
: Me?! I've never even thought about this kind of stuff before.
: But basically, what, you want to get thsi gross feeling off your chest?
: Well, then I guess I agree that the fastest way is just to tell him.


: Well, it didn't kill all the guys who told you how THEY felt.
: Yeah, but they were-- That's different! ...Wait, no, it's not.
: Right? If they can do it, so can you, Coleen.
: Um...

For some reason, I really want to make a "Quest Accepted" joke, but I can't come up with one.

: It may just be an urban legend, but it could give you some confidence.
: You finally found a guy who you think is special. It's worth the effort, no?
: And I really do think you should tell him. Don't you?




I make fun of it and find it kind to be terribly generic now, but I'll own up to it by saying that there was a time I used to read stuff like this all the time. I was a lot younger and less prone to being annoyed by waffling back and forth.



Did You Know?: Eagle-eyed readers, (or very bored ones,) would have noticed that we're 42 screenshots in (excluding the blank screen). Amazing right?

...We've still got about 3 more events to see before we get to see the actual combat section. Yeah.

Get comfortable folks.


~* Studio - Daily Event *~

Oh, hey, a Lotte based event. This'll be fun.


: For starters, I hit the campus for some cadet impressions!
: Let's hear what the buzz on campus was! Okay, uh...




: I heard that from a lot of you dudes. Here are a few more reactions:








: Hey, wow. How'd you know? I'm impressed, man!


Okay, that one was good if you ask me. Lotte's one of the few characters I can say I genuinely like the writing for, even if she's made entirely for the wacky side of the story and hinges on the seven mysteries thing.

I don't even say "dude" in normal life. I use it just in this LP because of how often she says it.

--

Music: Spring in Lanseal


Bam, level ups.

...Nope, no combat update just yet though, gotta breeze through the last mission again. Here's what happened that was interesting:



No, but really, at least a few things happened worth noting.


Chloe's main negative potential causes her lose her attack for the action. It's pretty bad, but isn't as bad as Stage Fright or Feeble Attack.


Mischlitt hit some dudes.



Coleen shot a lot of dudes with her lance.


...That was about it. I found a gun but I've forgotten to check what it is since. Probably sucks anyways, so whatever.


Hey, look its a new day!


Uh, that's a thing too.


Time for more events.

--




Me, most of the time.


Captain Oblivious here swapped his hat out to be Captain Obvious in this scene, then forgets what hat he's wearing. It changes little as result.


: If I didn't, I wouldn't be here! The prof asked me to drop some stuff off.
: What's your excuse for being hin here all the time but not painting anything?
: Your canvas is still as blank the last time I laid eyes on it.


Yeah, saw this coming from a mile away.

: Is it that you're having trouble thinking about what you want to paint?
: I'm not... Look, it has nothing to do with you!
: So that's a yes, then. All right! Let's find you a new subject then!






: If that doesn't inspire you, nothing will. Now, up you go!
: Oh, of all the... No!
: Oh, come on! You'll love it, I promise. Now, here we go!


Cripes, this event is nightmarishly relatable for me. Oh and *complaints about Avan excised*.


*MANY comments regarding Avan were excluded at behest of the author.*


: If you look at Zeri, and I mean real hard, like, squinting, he's handsome.
No, there's that many commas in that. I didn't change a thing.

: And he never changes his expression from grumpy. He'd be a perfect model!


: ...Weeell, I suppose I could be persuaded, if you really insisted.
: He's nothing like what I'd want to paint. Out of the question.
: Zeri's no good, huh? Yeah, I don't blame you. All right, next idea...



: If you painted a stew series, you'd have folks drooling, I guarantee it!
: ...I'm going home.



: Never did I dream there were people with tastes as out of whack as yours!
: So... you're saying I'm one of a kind? Is that a good thing?
: Let me think. NO. But... I suppose this was at least a distraction.





...Ugh, that was bad. If I remembered how bad Sofia's were, how the hell did I forget about this one? I think I if had any reservations towards not hating Avan, they might just be gone now.

This event was just that awful in my eyes.

Blargh. Can we have a palate cleanser, game? I know you're really bad at holding a tone, you can mix this up some can't you?

Music: Spring in Lanseal

~* Hospital - Daily Event *~



: Hey, c'mon, guys. Don't take it so hard.
Don't tell me this is what I think it's going to be. I've had enough for one day, game.


No, don't do this to me game. I just got back from a hiatus.


: !!!
: E-excuse me! Why are you in here, Avan?!
: What do you mean? The girls are done, so I figured we'd be next.


why

: Eeaaaaaagh! I don't want to hear that from YOU, you animal!

*She runs off*


: Was it? Dang, I'm so bad with this stuff.
: I never knew she was so sensitive about her height.




: I'll have to apologize to her later.
: Um... We weren't, er... We weren't really talking about our heights.

why is this a thing





--

...

...Sometimes I have to remind myself I've played and seen much worse than this. Avan's slow decline to being completely intolerable has sped up drastically, however.

Well, let's hope the combat is better.



Update 18 - Combat: Special Especially Long Post-Hiatus Update Post Special

Music - Briefing


That's the wrong class, Coleen. Super Vs. Armor is useless for mortarers. I mean, you're no match for the tank's damage output, but you could be the best lancer.

(I mean, beating Noel is going to be difficult.)


Could you two goofs just trade already?

...Oh, right, combat. Let's do that.



So if you just sat through all that anime hinjinks and you want some good tactical combat, I apologize because this one won't be that interesting either.

...There's also more hide and seek, I'm sure. Yay for me.

_{why, game, why}


I deploy a lot of people. This mission isn't hard and the rewards are pretty bad as well, given most crafted weapons suck.



The APC really does seem like it has some interesting tactics, but I'd like to re-iterate why I don't use it.


: "I-I...I j-just..."

damnit



Okay, so there was my point. They can't even take a frontal lance shot if necessary.

Also, since I'm pretty sure I haven't covered this outside of the character bios, but Coleen's Feeble Attack causes her to not shoot at an enemy when you hit the fire button. It's basically Susie's Pacifist from VC1.

It's worse than Chloe's Moody because at least with that you know ahead of time and is almost worse to me than Magari's Stage Fright.

At least it gets replaced.


I mean, this guy was already done for, Mischlitt. You're not letting me down, unlike a certain somebody.



: "Hostile detected!"

Well, they'll just have to wait.


: "Hah, this one's a done deal!"



: "Target neutralized, continue at this pace."

You think I didn't think you'd be there, didn't you?




Anisette clears the caves some.




...And some more. This is going really smoothly.




Until this happens. I don't know why I took this shot, I think I probably hit the button by accident, but the guy surviving with 1 HP only makes it more annoying.


And that was my last action for that round. Chloe's probably screwed.


Yep. Sorry about that, Chloe.


Well, there's the enemy ace.


Mischlitt remains credit to team by dodging these shots even though she would've just shielded them anyways.


Some dude shoots Avan in the shoulder a couple of times.


This dude duels Anisette, hoping the Attack Down debuff he's inflicting will help him.


This was a bad plan. It was 3/4ths of the way to success, but it was still a bad plan.


A smarter dude tries the same on Avan, who is somewhat less lethal.


Unfortunately for him, he ate too much interception fire to withstand the counterattack and Avan kills him with the last shot.


At this point, it's my turn. Anisette grabs that base again from underneath the feet of the Ace who captured it.

These bases being linked like this leads to all sorts of shenanigans.



Alexis stands in as Mischlitt is still busy and this is the perfect time for an Armor Tech.




OH FOR-


: "That was quick."

Thank you, Alexis. I didn't really want to use more AP than necessary there, but I guess complaining about 2 CP for 2 take downs is a bit much.


*Bap*


*Biff*


*Bop*

Mischlitt hits a few dudes. Her not triggering any potentials when I really need her to makes me use up a whole lot more CP than I wanted, but it's whatever at this point.



Avan shoots a dude.


The enemy turn passes in which they do very little aside from random shuffling. As soon as it's my turn, Mischlitt ends her melee combo.


: "Underway."

Due to Chloe being down and our engineers not having grenades, I bring in an old member of Team Anime.


He locates one of our cowardly enemy units and delivers a present just as well as a member of Team Santa.


It's not enough to down the dude, but that's fine. Helmut just runs for it.


Anisette can deal with it.


Finally. Ugh, I'm getting tired of having to search for enemy units.


As long as it's an A rank, I guess.


None of this will ever be useful, by the way. It's just assorted garbage for features I'll be likely ignoring.


Sounds about right. I can't remember even which one of you actually needs these credits, but I basically have no control anyways.


Well, there ends this slog of a fight. Hopefully next time is more interesting.

Truth be told, over the hiatus I was looking over my older updates during my spare time and noticed a giant decline in both attitude and quality. The realistic fact is that this game isn't fun for me anymore, and I'm not the type to find it fun to wade on through for another few months to a year.

I know that's not what most people want to hear after a 3 week hiatus, but it's the truth. The baseline is that I'm trying to avoid this (no offense intended). As I mentioned before, I've got the updates up to the end of month at least, but I'm probably changing out to the other one I've started up that's better for my attitude.

...I remember when I started out thinking of this game rather neutrally. Oh, how the tides have turned.


Next Time: We do character stories. Will it be better? Only time can tell. Will I get less curmudgeonly? I don't know the answer that.

_{No, I'm probably never going to be consistent with this ending bit.}