Part 39: Update XXXI - Recruitment Drive
Update XXXI - Recruitment Drive
♪ BGM: The Sewers - EvilChoir.mid ♫
Alright, so this time we'll be finishing off the sewers and opening up the world.
We head back down to where Jinnai was chillin' and save. Guess I might as well take a stab at the boss without leveling up to level 9.
And then, when we head over the bridge...
I think he's starting to like this place!
Nonsense. I hear something bubbling.
Bubbling?
His brain is starting to liquefy. We should wait in the meantime, Alaine!
Asgar!
Something's coming!
Oh shit.
♪ BGM: Stronger Enemies - VD2Kampf3.mid ♫
Alright, time for our first real boss.
Water Monster 1:
Recommended level: N/A
HP: 800
BP: 0
Attack: 100
Defense: 10
Intelligence: 10
Agility: 80
Behavior List:
- Attack
- Transform into "Water Monster 2"
- Transform into "Water Monster 3"
- Attack
- Bubble Slime (Water elemental spell, effect rating of 20, hits the entire party)
- Attack
Going by the stats, this guy isn't all that tough. However, the devil is in the details, or in this case, the behavior list. You see those two transformation behaviors? Well, we start out by trading blows, but pretty quickly, it changes forms.
Water Monster 3:
Recommended level: N/A
HP: 700
BP: 0
Attack: 200
Defense: 800
Intelligence: 10
Agility: 80
Behavior List:
- Attack
- Transform into "Water Monster 2"
- Transform into "Water Monster"
- Attack
- Attack
- Attack
- Attack
This guy is a bit more of a problem. When he turns red, do not do anything except defend. He has resistances cranked up to the max, so he's immune to spells, and his horrendously high Defense will turn any attacks into zeroes. And if you don't defend...
...this happens. You get your shit wrecked.
After wrecking our vampire lady, the monster then shifts into its other form.
Water Monster 2:
Recommended level: N/A
HP: 700
BP: 0
Attack: 100
Defense: 999
Intelligence: 10
Agility: 80
Behavior List:
- Attack
- Transform into "Water Monster 3"
- Transform into "Water Monster"
- Rage Slime (Status spell, inflicts Rage on one party member at a 50% base chance)
- Attack
This form also is incredibly vulnerable to spells - it has the maximum vulnerability to all elements. With that, we've seen all three forms, and with that we know how to deal with the boss:
- Blue form: Attack
- Yellow form: Spells
- Red form: Defend
Simple as that. Of course, when you'd normally be playing the game, it might take you a couple deaths to figure this out.
So with that plan worked out, we go on to putting it into action, making sure to revive the vampire lady with an Eternity Potion along the way - our additional party members only die permanently if they're dead by the time the battle ends, if you'll recall.
Ultimately, the fight wasn't all that tough, but again, I had the advantage of knowing everything, which is a pretty good advantage to have.
♪ BGM: The Sewers - EvilChoir.mid ♫
The creature then fades away, shaking the screen while it's doing so so I can't GIF it.
Sewers are the biggest filth! I hope the thief is worth all this trouble down here! Let's keep searching. I want to leave this place as quickly as possible!Well, first, let's head back to Jinnai to sa-
...balls. Oh, whatever, let's just press on. I'm sure it'll be fine.
Vampire Stone obtained! That's generous. I'll be sure to think of this generosity when I sell this crap to buy more mercenaries. Now, we move on to the next part of the sewers.
Basically just more maze-like wandering through the sewers, running into more regular enemies along the way.
But before that, a trip back home! I'll admit, I have no idea why I did this again. I guess I wanted some free heals?
♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid ♫
While we're there, we do some torturing, and actually get another success with Asmos!
Uhhh, let me go! I don't know anything...
Nonsense! You are one of their leaders! Where is the highest ranking leader of your Clan? You will never find Sir Aaron! He even destroyed Pharaoh Ustra! And he's going to destroy you, as well!
He destroyed Ustra? Nonsense! WE destroyed Ustra. Back then in his pyramid!Well, "back then" being "a whole lot of time in the future". Technically. This world shifting thing is weird.
Sir Aaron is a hero! He will come and save me! You shrimp! This information isn't useful to us! If you carry on like this, I'm going to tear off your head immediately! Sir Aaaaaarooooooon...
He's passed out...So, this wasn't really that informative to us, except for dropping some hints that maybe there's something more to this Ustra fellow than what we learned about him in the first game.
Next up, we drop by Syrahs to sell some loot and suck some blood, but I'll just skip over that since nothing important happened. This will probably come up a few times over the course of this game - I just go out and do things in a certain city that's basically going to be mentioned in one line and that's it. After that, back to the castle.
Ongoing Costs: 19900 + 5000 = 24900 Filar
More mercenaries for the mercenary god.
Since a bit of time has passed, we head back to torture some pe-
-oh fucking hell.
5 Elras end up killing 5 mercenaries.
Mercenaries Lost To Global Domination: 89 + 5 = 94
We'll be into triple digits very soon.
Ongoing Costs: 24900 + 1600 = 26500 Filar
With some more tax income having come in, we drop some more cash into mercenaries right away, partially to continually bolster our invasion forces, but partially to also replace our losses. Keeping our defenses topped off is going to be important.
So with that, it's time to drop a whole bunch of guys on another castle and hope like hell we don't overextend ourselves.
♪ BGM: Castle Battle - VD2Burgkampf.mid ♫
We get to deal with another fairly strong group of knights, similar to the one we fought at the other castle. We're going to win this, the question is with how many losses will we win this.
The answer is with losses of 34 mercenaries.
Mercenaries Lost To Global Domination: 94 + 34 = 128
We can now no longer express the number of our losses in six bits! Go us!
♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid ♫
But yeah, with that we've reduced the Clan's territory to a single castle. Of course, that one is going to be a bitch and a half to take over, as it's the one with the most manpower by far. But territory is not the only thing we have gotten with this attack!
Excellent...We have another torture ta-
-fucking hell! You can't even let the text box disappear?
Six knights attack, taking out 8 mercenaries.
Mercenaries Lost To Global Domination: 128 + 8 = 136
Then Ronak telling us about the mage happens again because the event was interrupted by the attack, meaning the switch that tells the game this has already happened was never flipped. RPG Maker!
And a new guy to torture means another round of torturing, and hey, we have another success with Asmos!
Uuuuuhhh, let... me... Give us more information, you worm! Arrr, please... I have... found a magical helmet... Well, well, go on. I found it... it has... magical powers... Where is that helmet? I... have hidden it... in Castle Johlar... on the second floor of the central tower... under the dining table in the southeastern corner of the room... That's more like it. Surely, you must know a few other things that you want to tell us... I... uaaaaarrrrr.... He's passed out...Well, that's certainly interesting. Any sort of item we might not be really supposed to get at this point in the main plot (since we're deliberately rushing through the conquering part) would definitely be a lot of help. We'll have to check that out once we can. Anyway, that's it for Asmos - he has nothing left to say to us. The next time we succeed at torturing him, we just get a quick thing that basically is just there to tell us "this guy has nothing left to tell us", so I'll just stop trying, since that saves time.
And not only do we get something out of Asmos, but the mage as well!
ARRR, curses, what do you want from me!? Where are the keys to the magical barriers inside your castles!? I... don't know! If you don't want to suffer eternal agony, you better become a bit more cooperative! Please... no more torturing!
Where are the keys? Arrr... one of them is hidden inside the Forest of Spirits! Where is the Forest of Spirits? Southwest of... Castle Rakar! On a small peninsula! And the others!? AAAAAAHHHHH... He's passed out...So this will be what we get from the mage - we need to torture the locations for the keys that unlock those magical barriers that keep us from the stone tablet pieces out of them. We would not be able to find the keys otherwise - even if we did know where they are, the areas don't unlock until we get the information out of the mage.
Now... we were doing something, but I got distracted by... something else. What was that?
♪ BGM: The Sewers - EvilChoir.mid ♫
Right! The sewers! Anyway, the thing about this area is that the items aren't really worth it, and I'm actively dodging enemies again now that we've killed the one big roadblock enemy. So let's just head to the last part of the sewers.
En route there, Valnar gets poisoned, and I'm out of Serums. Thankfully, we just so happen to find one in a chest, so Valnar didn't have to live with 1 HP for the rest of the segment.
The third and final part of the sewers is... just as uneventful. Basically nothing happens until we make it to the thieves in the bottom right, so let's just skip there.
To me, it looks more like we didn't apprehend just one but an entire group of thieves. Female thieves, Valnar... we have to stay politically correct.OK, that one kind of falls flat in English. In German, we have a lot more gendered words, so Valnar talks about "Diebe" (thieves, masculine), whereas Asgar corrects him to "Diebinnen" (thieves, feminine) in the name of not wanting to discriminate.
And there stands their leader.
Dramatic reveal?
Oho, an entire women assembly down here! Give us the runes that you have stolen.
What are you talking about? Don't play dumb! The runes, please! Go away or this will turn into a bloody affair...♪ BGM: Megalomania - Laughter2.mid ♫
Uh, music... are you trying to tell me something?
I think she's not wrong about that!Oh dear.
Asgar, restrain yourself! But she's so young... so delicious... I can see her juicy veins pulsing rhythmically! You better hand over the runes now, or this will be your last day as living beings! Okay, girls. Now we're going to show them why it's better to leave us alone! Prepare your weapons!
I... can't resist it! BLOOOOOOD!
Damn it, Asgar, what are you doing? So tender...
Man, everybody in this world is a bleeder, eh?
He's sucking her blood! Asgar!
He just completely lost control of himself.
And now you will receive my precious saliva! Oh yes, she will make a good servant! Asgar, NO!
♪ BGM: The Sewers - EvilChoir.mid ♫
It appears you don't have any sense for reasonable actions.
You call THAT reasonable!? It's always good to have a capable thief in the castle. ... I'm sure we still have a lot of dangers ahead of us. That's when it'd be beneficial to get some useful items stolen from time to time. Not to mention all the Filar. Well, I hope you'll be right. I just don't want to be keep repeating myself. But vampires are dangerous! Just you wait. Then you will be thankful for my wisdom! We'll see about that... Yes, we will! All right. Let's see if the runes are here at least...Well, that chest there looks suspicious, for one...
Status Rune obtained! Fire Rune obtained! Rune Tablet: Bat Cloak obtained! Retreat Potion obtained! 300 Filar obtained!That sure is one awfully generous chest. Alright, now, I'd end this update here, but there's just one more thing I really want to show you. But before that...
Bat Cloak can go on any of the three main characters. I'll put it on Valnar because why not. We then use a Retreat Potion to get back.
♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid ♫
However, it only teleports you next to Asgar's castle, not inside of it, so we have to march up again. And you know what that means!
More letters!
Take as much time as you need for your game to make everything perfect. I am a huge fan, as I said, and I would wait another two [?, whatever ^^] years, and again, and again, and again... ^^ They took their time with starWars, too, so you can do that, as well.
If everyone thought like this, my mail account would be way emptier. About 90%... Greetings to you, honorable Marlex, or Alexander? *g* You're probably wondering why I'm writing you, or rather you don't even know who I am. Well, I am simply a fan of the Rpg-Games world, especially that of the maker. I really got into VD2. I love this game already and its predecessor was breathtaking. I myself can't work with the maker at all, I can't create graphics nor scripts. I can't do anything. It's not easy being a 16-year-old, but why am I even telling you all this now? ô.O" I seem to have digressed as I just noticed *ggg* my actual concern was that I just wanted to express my admiration for you, Vd and the maker scene. It is obvious that the game VD was the one that brought many to the maker and called attention to the general public. Also, I felt obliged to write you this mail, when I consider how many enthralling hours your game brought me, and how little I have given back to the maker scene and you especially. One of the nicest mails I have ever received. Thank you 
Yo Marlex my name is *** my friends call me **** i just wanted to ask you, since i am such a Vampires Dawn junkie i wanted to ask you if you can send me VAMPIRES DAWN2. Psssst, I have some VD2 here. Yes, here in my coat. Totally fresh! It'll give you the absolute kick! P.S. Have fun playing! Why did you guys ban me from the forum can't be a member again give me one more shance. No comment, because LOL hello, where is the hideout of the gang? it has to be somewhere in the ice. one more question: do you know eternal legends? if you do, what is better vd1 or eternal legends? I think Eternal Legends is better, there, I said it... P.S. Huge regards to Square! 
The pictures I sent you have one side effect. They don't work in the Maker. For risks and side effects, please consult your doctor or Marlex 
This, again, doesn't work that well in English - Marlex is quoting a classic German sentence here: "Zu Risiken und Nebenwirkungen lesen sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen sie ihren Arzt oder Apotheker" - this sentence is added on to every commercial about medicine of some type and has entered common parlance due to its prevalence. The basic translation would be "In regards to risks and side effects, please read the package insert or consult your doctor or pharmacist".
Anyway, that's it for the letters - we've hit the point that there are no longer any letters for us to read until more time passes! But that wasn't the thing I wanted to show you, oh no. What I want to show you is even more fun.
BEHOLD!
...alright, it's a tree. But it's a special tree! Because if you press ENTER when looking at it...
...the secret cheat menu is revealed! Now, there are a lot of cheat codes you can enter here. The codes work either with proper capitalization or written in all caps - all lower case won't work. Basically, there are two kinds of cheats - ones that actually do something, or ones that just display a cute little message. Now, here are all the cheat codes that either do nothing, or we will not use (for now):
- "Vincent": Increases the level of everybody in your party to 99.
- "Bender": Gives a message - "He will rule, believe me!".
- - - I don't get it. Futurama reference?
- "Essen": Gives you 2000 kilo of silver. And then turns it into Filar for you as well! This gives you 999999 Filar.
- - - Note: Remember that letter from a while back?
- "DAmore": Gives you 99 of every unit type in Asgar's castle. This code only works with the proper capitalization.
- - - Note: D'Amore is somebody that worked on VD2. He did a lot of the art assets. This isn't the only place his name pops up.
- "Marlex": Gives a message - "Yes, we all love him. That's why he will soon take over the world...".
- - - Note: You remember who this guy is, I hope!
- "Lachsen": Gives a message - "New battle system unlocked!". Then a two second pause, after which you get a second message - "Just kidding
".- - - Note: Lachsen is a member of the German RPG Maker community. He was responsible for Tara's Adventure (which I swear I brought up in one of these LPs at some point) and Velsarbor, two games that never got past the demo phase, but had incredibly sophisticated battle systems, despite being made in RPG Maker 2000.
- "Mama": Gives you 10 of each type of rune.
- "Asgar": Gives a message - "Interested in a great Asgar(TM) action figure? Message me at marlex*at*vampiresdawn.de".
- "Kelven": Gives a message - "Automatic RPG generator initiated...". Then we hear footsteps, a whip cracking, and a scream. Then, another message - "Yes, Kelven and his sla... uh, employees
"- - - Note: Kelven is another member of the German RPG Maker community. He made a total fuckton of games - the Makerpendium (a German RPG Maker wiki that is a great resource for historical stuff) lists 20 games as being made between 2002 and 2014, plus contest entries and demos that didn't make it to the full game phase. He's notable for games like Calm Falls and Die Bücher Luzifers, which are very popular horror games.
- "Engel": Gives a message - "Unique." We then hear a kissing sound. This doesn't do anything else.
- - - Note: "Engel" is "angel" in German.
- "Vampir": Gives a message - "Vampire!? VAMPIRE? You'd love to be one
".- "Valnar": Gives a message - "This is blasphemy of the human existence! No, seriously!"
- - - Note: The first sentence is a quote from the first game, at least I'm pretty sure it is.
- "Abraxas": Gives a message - "He'll be back in VD3
".- - - Note: Remember Abraxas from the first game? Anyway, I'll hold you to that, Marlex!
- "Alaine": Gives us 10 Blood Elixirs, 10 Healing Elixirs, 10 Eternity Potions and 10 Vampire Stones.
- "Betatest": Gives a message - "Too late... way too late...".
- "Filar": Gives us 100000 Filar.
- "Square": Gives a message - "Play frigging Eternal Legends!".
- - - Note: Square is another member of the German RPG Maker community, known for, well, Eternal Legends. He never made much after that, but man, Eternal Legends was good.
- "WinniePuh": Gives a message - "My girlfriend likes him
".- - - Note: German name for Winnie the Pooh. Also, now you know why Winnie keeps making appearances.
- "UiD": Gives a message - "If you don't know it, you missed out.".
- - - Note: This stands for "Unterwegs in Düsterburg", another game I LPed. And yes, Marlex is right, if you don't know it, you indeed missed out. It's incredibly good.
- "Grandy": Gives a message - "This is an homage to him!"
- - - Note: Grandy is not only the name of the protagonist of Unterwegs in Düsterburg, whom we've already met in this game, but also the name the game's creator used as an online handle. He never made much apart from UiD, but much like Square, what he did make was incredible.
- "Aysha": Sets the soul costs for skills to one soul each.
- - - Note: I hope you remember her from the first game, too.
- "Ficken": Gives a message - "You dirty rascal, you!".
- - - Note: That's "to fuck" in German.
- "Zhoragh": Gives a message - "A new cheat is being created here...".
- - - Note: Zhoragh is a character from Dark Shadows. You know, that game Marlex apparently can't shut up about.
- "Redmoon": Gives a message - "You, too, can help Redmoon Games become successful! https://www.redmoongames.de".
- "Monster": Turns the random battles on the overworld map on or off.
- "CC": Gives a message - "CC is the man who can do anything. Like getting you a Save Crystal...". We then, indeed, get a Save Crystal, the infinite use saving item.
- - - Note: No idea who this is.
- "GSandSDS": Gives a message - "Great guy. That's why you'll get 99 souls
", We then, indeed, get 99 souls.- - - Note: Good old GSandSDS. We've already encountered him in Unterwegs in Düsterburg, and he makes another cameo here again. An important member of the German RPG Maker scene, not notable for working on games in particular, but for founding and administrating rpg-atelier.net - a German RPG Maker community that is still active to this day!
- "DS": This toggles the "few battles" / "many battles" option we got to pick in the beginning.
- "schicksal": This toggles the "few puzzles" / "many puzzles" option we got to pick in the beginning.
- - - Note: The German word for "fate".
NOW. That was a lot! But there are still two cheats left, that we are going to actually use. First...
- "Sex": Gives a message - "Dear children, please remember: If you have sex with a vampire, your blood can be used for the vivification of a Blood Spirit! That makes you the preferred victim of all the power-hungry vampires in this world! That's why: SAFER SEX! But since we're all a little perverted, there will now be more sex in the game
". This then toggles a switch called "UNCENSORED". I do not know what this switch exactly does - so far, I've found exactly one spot where it changes something, and that's a ways off. I'll bring this back up when it does something.And finally, the ultimate cheat.
- "Scheisse": Does something special.
- - - Note: Indeed, the German word for "shit".
What is the special thing it does? Well...
...shit.