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Ikusa Megami Zero Discussion (Untranslated VN Reading Club)


Chronopolis

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All story discussion for Ikusa Megami Zero goes here. If you see a post that marks the week's check point, any posts below that could contain spoilers up until that point. Conversely, don't post spoilers of anything past the stopping point.

 

Info:

Week 0: Install VN. Get to the first check point by next Tuesday. (11/25/2014)

Week 0 Check point: Finish the prologue (about 1-3 hours).

 

Resources:

Comprehensive Mechanics Guide:
http://hazama78.net/megami0/tips.html
(the most important things probably being how physical attacks and magic damage are calculated)

Attribute Effectiveness Table:
http://eushully-ikusazero.wikidb.info/%E5%B1%9E%E6%80%A7/
Formation Information:
http://hazama78.net/megami0/form.html

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I'll be here to serve solely as an adviser, on non-story issues (to be blunt, it is a straight path for the story, so there is no reason to need advice for that).  Chronopolis's estimate of progress time is a bit optimistic, because while it isn't as hard as Dies Irae, it is definitely harder than the average VN.  The average reader (just got beyond beginner level) is probably only going to be able to manage about two to three hundred lines an hour... meaning he might get to five hundred... but the average reader will probably only manage three to four hundred in a two hour period (assuming something close to full comprehension).

 

If you want to ask questions about the setting, feel free... I know as much as most, lol. 

 

Recruitable Characters: Celica (protagonist), Darnos (temporary), Satia (temporary), Kaya (temporary), Haishiera (temporary/temporary protagonist), Rekshumi (first is temporary second is permanent), Shamara (temporary), Abelus (temporary), Hakuginkou (first is temporary, second is permanent), Amdusias (permanent/summon), Peruru (permanent/summon), Pazmo (permanent/summon), Ri Kutina (permanent/summon, healer), Rita (permanent/summon/optional), Naberius (permanent/summon/optional). 

 

Summoned characters in this game extract a penalty from the protagonist's max hp/mp/sp in exchange for having them in the party, and if Celica is killed in battle, they disappear.  As such, it is wise to keep at least one of the non-summon characters other than Celica in the party when possible.  Because Celica's stats dwarf those of the other characters in the game, the loss is relatively minimal and unnoticeable.  Naberius and Rita can only be obtained if you fulfill certain conditions during the course of the game (check the g-seeker/foolmaker walkthrough).  Naberius is the most powerful of the destructive mages, but she has no non-magical attacks.  Rita has powerful physical attacks... but they charge slowly and overall her charge time is broken in a bad way.  Nonetheless, since she is a canon character for the successive games, you might as well recruit her.  Ri Kutina is your permanent healer... you will keep her in the party at all times when it is possible (for obvious reasons).  Her attack magic is weak and she doesn't possess a physical skill set... but her raw physical attack with the serpent sword is more than sufficient for dealing with mob-enemies for all but the endgame.  Pazmo is fairly worthless, simply because his low hp and weak attack skills make him a handicap more than a help past the early game.  Keep him in a support role.  Peruru... has some powerful physical attacks, but no real magic power.  If you want to make Amdusias truly useful, you'll want to spend some time leveling her skills in the endgame (she is a very late acquisition). 

 

Kaya, Darnos, and Satia are only available up to Chapter 3, for reasons that will become obvivous.  As such, while keeping them leveled to levels adequate to deal with the enemies in those chapters is a necessity, there is really no need to focus on them excessively (except leveling Kaya's holy magic to deal with the forest level early on). 

 

Magic/skill levels, including the weapon levels that allow you to wield more powerful weapons, are leveled through use rather than simple gaining of experience levels.  They do, however, level faster the higher your level.  To be blunt, don't even attempt to level anything past D or C if you don't have a lot of patience before you pass level 150.  During battle, you can enhance the impact of skills by increasing the level at which they are cast (1-5) by sacrificing casting speed and a proportionately higher amount of mp/sp.  Generally speaking, though, this isn't worth it unless you know a boss is weak to or has no resistance to a particular type of skill or elemental magic. 

 

Celica does not level automatically, unlike the other characters.  Rather, you allocate his stat points based on a system where you literally add them one by one or five at a time.  Unless you intend to get to max level before beating the game, I recommend choosing a particular build (magic or fighter) and leaning your stats about 15-20% in that direction (if your character has a minimum of 100 in all stats, have 115-120 in the 'focus' stats, as an example).  Overcompensating will leave Celica vulnerable, which will cost you during the parts of the game where Celica dying means a game over (because all your allies are summons). 

 

Two resulting stats you really, really need to pay attention to are the number of attacks (literally, the number of times you can possibly hit an enemy in a single physical attack) and accuracy...  While a highly-armored enemy needs more raw attack power, those enemies are relatively few in number.  Most of the time, a high attack number and accuracy (because more of the blows will hit) will let you more efficiently obliterate the enemy.  There are going to be times when it just isn't worth it to wipe out the enemy with skills, and at those times, your physical attacks are going to be your one reliable tool. 

 

Attack magic and weapons are generally split into physical, earth, fire, lightning, ice, almighty, darkness, and light/holy.  There aren't many enemies who are strong against almighty, but in exchange there aren't any that are weak against it... still, weapons with almighty are your best choice most of the time.  Darkness... obviously, there are an absolute ton of enemies who are strong against this.  I sometimes begrudged the fact that this was one of Naberius's schools.  Light is only really useful against undead and certain types of demons, though it is otherwise about as effective as almighty (except on holy-element enemies).  Ice... has some of the same problems as darkness, in that the undead tend to be strong against it, though humans tend to be weak against it.  Lightning/wind magic tends to be wide-area effect and moderately powerful... it also has the advantage of being relatively low-cost, though it is still high.  Earth magic is only useful against non-undead and enemies that aren't flying.  Fire is probably the most useful of the elemental magic, though when an enemy is strong to it, it can be painful.

 

There are a few special types of magic... like Celica's Tantric school, which lets him charm, instant kill, or suck the life from enemies to heal himself.  Another is Satia, Haishiera, and Celica's summon spell, which lets them summon an allied unit into a support or battle position.  Haishiera and Celica also have a second summon school which lets them call certain beings in a manner similar to that of pre-X Final Fantasy, to inflict damage, most of the time. Another special type is magic that damages the will to fight rather than hp.  The will to fight is marked by a gauge beneath the hp/mp/sp gauges that goes down when you recieve damage, goes up when you give it, and can be damaged greatly by certain types of magic and skills.  When you have less will to fight, your characters hit less hard, are less accurate, and take more damage... the same is the case on the other side.  For non-bosses (both enemy and ally) losing all will to fight causes the characters to retreat from battle.  The last, and most important, is healing magic... to be blunt, healing magic is only on two characters in the entire game... Hakuginkou and Ri Kutina.  In the endgame, these two are probably going to end up being permanent fixtures in your battle party.

 

That's about it for my advice for now...

 

Edit:  Forgot Sora no Yuushi... she's the most powerful raw physical attacker in the game and another optional summon character.  Get her and make her a permanent battle-party character once you've taken the time to level her up.  She has average defense, relatively low build-up time, and really high physical attack.

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Well, finished up the prologue. Not sure how many lines that was, probably around 500. 

 

Takeaways:

 

There is rape in this game. 

 

Dungeons are done well. Least aggravating dungeon crawling experience I've had so far. 

 

陵辱 -> new word, mhm. 

 

Don't have much difficulty following the text since it appears I'm familiar with this genre. Remember one part I was a bit confused about though. 

 

Quotes:

 

“力なき存在”は“力ある存在”に食い物にされる。この世界を縛り付ける、厳然たる規則。

人の多くは“力なき存在”であり、この世界には人間族の遠く及ばない脅威がいくらでもある。

 

Skipped the h-scene, so not entirely sure if anything that happened there is important. 

 

Protagonist doesn't like killing things, even if they're monsters. 

 

Kaya is kind of annoying. 

 

Music is nice. 

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I'll be here to serve solely as an adviser, on non-story issues (to be blunt, it is a straight path for the story, so there is no reason to need advice for that).  Chronopolis's estimate of progress time is a bit optimistic, because while it isn't as hard as Dies Irae, it is definitely harder than the average VN.  The average reader (just got beyond beginner level) is probably only going to be able to manage about two to three hundred lines an hour... meaning he might get to five hundred... but the average reader will probably only manage three to four hundred in a two hour period (assuming something close to full comprehension).

 

If you want to ask questions about the setting, feel free... I know as much as most, lol.

Thanks for the pointers, Clephas. It's unfortunate that you read them (well you could say you've been through the ride already) and your guidance is heartily appreciated . Everyone three cheers for Clephas!

I'd say most of the readers in the group are ... intermediate readers at least, people at least 5 or so japanese VN's under their belt. That's why I didn't stray away from intermediate to on-the-hard side VN's like Rui Tomo, Hello Lady, Tokyo Babel. If 2000 lines a week is too overwhelming, we can always adjust it.

 

Edit: Finished the prologue. Actually read the tutorial. As someone who hasn't really played gamplay VN's, the gameplay itself is a big change. I can't wait for the setting and characters to develop. Immediately the setting is different from all the VN's I've seen so far (non-gamplay). I wonder what the interaction between gods and the heros are. Eustia had some backstory, but it wasn't any expansive like nordic legends, etc. Kizuato had some lore to it, but they were more like urban legends, folk lore than dieties, age of gods, the grand type of lore.

 

I liked how the narrative at the end the prologue wasn't just throwaway lines. The rape, and how they took it fairly seriously afterwords, kinda set a serious/harsh tone. Eustia also depicted a harsh side, but using the thief Caim beat up, guys getting killed, beggars, and people who in the same way have lost the light in their eyes, instead of rape. Of course, the perpetrators are different here, but I'll just chalk the difference in choice and the fully present H-scene to the gameplay-eroge effect.

 

--Edit---

Info:

Week 1 Check point: Finish Chapter 1 (11/25/2014)

Anything below may contain unmarked spoilers up to the end of chapter 1. If discussing anything beyond chapter 1, please put it in spoiler tags and mark it.

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  • 4 years later...
  • 3 months later...
On 12/12/2018 at 7:08 PM, Benji Price said:

Now with the english patch I have a question about the summons... I did get Rita, but not Peruru, which should be before. Did I do something wrong ??

Just be aware that there's a reason the patch isn't listed as "complete" on VNDB.

Edited by sanahtlig
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Thing is I had already finished the game, but since I changed my hard drive lost all my savefiles. So i'm starting all over again.

I'm having issues remembering some minor details about items, which i took from that website before (with some help from google translator).

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