hocheplays

[hocheplays]

She starts with a Tojiko, so I switch in for Taiga. Her Tojiko can't do nothing to Taiga.

Then in comes her Lv 19 Miko, star of the show. But Mutsu resists all her moves and has a super effective move in Westerlies. The outcome is decided easily.

After this, she swaps in for Futo, and I swap Taiga back in. Futo has a 4X weakness to electric. You know what happens.

Finally, we have to deal with her Saki, a mod-only mon. Taiga could probably kill it with an Electric move, but she's likely faster, so we switch Mutsu in instead. She's weak to Wind...

And it's a clean win. No losses. If only this were a Nuzlocke!

"My two strongest Puppets are hanging by a thread. I dunno if I would count that as losing badly."

"You think so, Crown Prince? Well, I shall not defy your command, then! Sanae, Hikari, I am afraid I must impose upon you, though rest assured, I shall prove a most useful and beneficial companion!"

"H-hold on a minute, you can't just add companions to our group like that!"

"Actually, you should probably just go along with it, Hikari. If I have my guess right, since that was a command from her Crown Prince, even if you say no Futo will tag along anyway."

"Thou hast the right of it, but thou shouldst not speak in such a disrespectful manner, Sanae. I did not speak any falsity - you will both find my companionship of great benefit."

"Well... all right. What's our next step, anyway? I guess we go back to the village and get this book read?"

"Such great stamina, to win in battles against all three of us and still have a desire to keep moving. But it is my recommendation that we rest here for a time. Besides, I will need to obtain a few important treasures from my quarters before I am ready to embark. Surely thou needst not rush."

"I suppose we're resting here for now, then. I don't suppose my old room is still unoccupied?"

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae #enthusiastic hermit ~ futo #and that's where we'll finish off chapter 2 #chapter 3 will start in the human village with Kosuzu

[hocheplays]

"Oh my god, she was serious about the cheerleading thing."

"It's her thing... let's just go in. You've beaten both of her wives, so there's no way we can't get an audience with Miss Toyosatomimi now."

"Right, let's... huh? Wives?"

"Goddamn, place is fancy. I could live here."

"Hey, I'm not that greedy."

"She's just saying that because you came here for material reasons."

"!!!"

"Guess so. Lucky for me it's a way I like too!"

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae #enthusiastic hermit ~ futo #time for the first actual difficult battle of the game #I did not do much leveling so I could be swept

[hocheplays]

(Futo, or, how long can I make this sentence?)

#ooc

[hocheplays]

(I couldn't find a picture for this, but just imagine Futo leaping off the roof and landing in front of them. Please.)

"Gah! She came out of nowhere!"

"No, she was watching up there the whole time. You just weren't looking."

"Spoil not the mystique, maiden of Moriya. Regardless of the circumstances, I am here, and shouldst thou wish to speak with the Crown Prince, thou willst need to defeat me in a duel of these manikins--"

"Um, actually, I'm just keeping Hikari here safe while she does the Puppet fighting. All my Puppets are back up at the shrine."

"...Ah. Well then. Allow me to make another attempt."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm only getting every other word. Can we fight now?"

Naturally, Shou swept her entire team. Fear the power of Bishamonten.

"...So you're gonna be her cheerleader? Did I get that right?"

"Thou hast a cheerleader of thine own, dost thou not? 'Tis only fair that the Crown Prince be allowed one as well. That way this duel can be perfectly even and fair, with a witness on each side to attest to the results! Just as in the old style!"

"...Still not used to that way of speech. Even after all these years."

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae #enthusiastic hermit ~ futo

[hocheplays]

A short training montage later...

"All right, I think you'll be fine. Thankfully this place has healing facilities, so you can go all out. If your puppet faints, I'll make sure they don't die, okay? Good luck."

"What's all this talk about dying...? Not like that's gonna happen, right? Well, anyway... let's get started."

"Actually, I'm just here to talk to Miss Toyosatomimi about a book she's got."

"Miss ghost, I dunno what you're talking about, but that was kinda rude..."

"Now that's language I understand though! Let's do this!"

She didn't stand a chance against Shou, naturally.

"Yeah, that's what sore losers say. Can I see the Toyosatomimi lady now."

"There's no way that one's going to let you pass without another fight..."

"Thou art correct, former student of mine!"

#tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #tpdp game posts #there from the start ~ sanae #enthusiastic hermit ~ futo

[hocheplays]

"Okay, Hikari. You need to be serious for this one. These aren't small fry like those Team 9 people you went out and fought earlier. I've trained under them before, and they take training seriously. I'm sure they take Puppet training seriously too, so... I think you should get at least one more Puppet on your hands."

"What, you don't think three will cut it? I mean... I suppose it couldn't hurt. I don't know how Puppets got into this place, but any that are here should be pretty cool, right?"

"Also what's a Team 9?"

"...I'll explain while we're looking."

A short while later...

"This one looks pretty strong. Is that an onmyouji outfit? I'm gonna catch her."

"Go for it... by the way, how's your archaic Japanese? I just want to check to be sure."

Naturally, she was caught without issues.

"You know, cause she's dressed like an onmyouji."

"I actually don't have any objections to that one. That's a good nickname."

"Not bad at all!"

#there from the start ~ sanae #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #tpdp game posts

[hocheplays]

Shall we continue here?

#ooc

[hocheplays]

"You can say that again."

"Don't go trying anything weird, Seiga. I'm watching."

"I mean, you said you'd attack us for no reason anyway, so... I guess that means we can go on now?"

"Oh, wow. I thought that tower was tiny but it really opened up into a huge space, didn't it? How... how could they pull this off? Some kind of magic?"

"I'm sure you can ask Miko when we reach her. Let's take a breather for now and then we'll make an appointment, okay?"

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae

[hocheplays]

One not-very exciting battle (that I forgot to screenshot) later...

"That was closer than I expected... Taiga almost got knocked out. But I can't go back and rest now. So, uh, have some crackers you two."

"Well, mausoleum's gotta be through this cave, right? It's the only thing the zombie was guarding. Might as well go in."

"...is this geezer just hanging out in a cave attached to a cemetery? Mega-creepy. Must be a youkai."

"Crown Prince? Who's that? Sanae didn't say anything about a crown prince. Tell me after I beat you up."

And so an old man's only puppet was beaten up.

"Hikari, waaaai--"

"Oh, you're fine. I thought you'd be in danger again, but I guess you're handling yourself fine for now."

"Oh, Sanae. Guess you caught up. This guy was talking about a Crown Prince, what the heck did he mean by that?"

"Oh, I guess I forgot to say earlier, didn't I? The hermit we're headed to, Miko, that's not her only name. In fact she's got quite a few. And one of them is, uh, Shotoku Taishi. Or at least so she claims, but there's good reasons to believe her."

"Shotoku... Like the Crown Prince that spread Buddhism over a thousand years ago? The one that could listen to ten people at the same time? *That* guy? But, wait... didn't you say Miko was a girl?"

"Well I guess that's the form she wanted to take in her new body! Don't ask me how it works, I don't know the details. Ask her when you see her."

"Uhh, maybe later... for now let's just get the book and get out of here..."

"Oh hey, a fancy door. This must be the entrance, right?"

"Oh, wow, this place is nice... I wasn't expecting anything like this at all after that cemetery and cave."

"I see someone up ahead who I really didn't want to see though..."

"Child? You mean.... no, I've actually got no idea who you mean."

"She means the jiang shi... the zombie. She belongs to the hermit you're talking to."

"And there goes my hopes of walking there without having to get past her."

"Relax Sanae, I've got this. I've got protag power."

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae

[hocheplays]

"So I know the sign said to make yourself at home, but isn't grabbing things off the table a little much?"

"Hey, you never know when this might come in handy. If it saves a puppet, they'll be happy, right?"

"So the path to the mausoleum is through a cemetery? That's kinda creepy, isn't it? I thought these guys were holy."

"They are, don't worry. But this is Gensokyo, everyone's a little weird here. That's just how it is."

"Yo Sanae. There's some girl with a weird umbrella over there hiding. Should we just go past her, or...?"

"Oh, Kogasa! She's a youkai like the rest, but she feeds on scaring people. I bet she's waiting to scare someone. You know... why don't you go over there and say hi to her? I'll be right behind you."

"Sure! You'll save me if I get in any trouble, right? Well, here I go then."

"...Okay, time to sneak off. Kogasa'll probably freak out if she sees me."

"You're ooon!"

"Hah-hah! Call that a shocker!"

"Sorry, but I'm not gonna be scared when I've got Puppets that can shoot lightning. You know how it is."

"Whoa, a zombie. Does she see us?"

"...Wait, Sanae? Where did you go? Sheesh, you'd better not be trying to prank me yourself! That said, I don't see any way else to go, and the zombie's not moving, so maybe we can just sneak past..."

"Gah, the zombie's attacking!"

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae #took a while to figure out what to do with Kogasa

[hocheplays]

"They can fire energy blasts. This one behind me shoots lightning bolts from her little lantern. Damn straight I'm letting them fight. They're way better at it than me."

Somewhat later...

"So you're saying that the last thing you remember is Sasori's death against Sakura? Oh boy, we have a lot to catch up on then... that's still really early in part II, if you didn't know. At least Akatsuki was still the prime threat at that point.

"So there's something that comes up bigger than Akatsuki, huh? Well, don't hold back, it's not like I can get these volumes myself anymore-- oh, wait, we're here."

"Welcome to Myouren Temple, home of Gensokyo's youkai buddhists. For reasons we're not gonna get into, they decided to place their temple right next to the mausoleum we're headed to, so to get there you have to go through the temple first. We should be fine, but let's go say hello first, it's only polite."

"There's no one here."

"How generous. But where do you think they all went? Are they out solving this puppet incident too, do you think?"

"They've helped with solving incidents before, but never all at the same time. This is kinda weird honestly. But... not our problem. Let's rest for a bit before we head to the mausoleum."

"Works for me! So anyway, after that whole arc finishes up, the next one starts, which involves going after Sasuke again, and they've got two new people on their team this time..."

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae

[hocheplays]

"Well, guess that's a good way to start off a journey, right?"

"If you give it a proper offering, sure."

"Before you say anything, I got this at that food stand you showed me."

"Weird thing to ask, but sure. I like dancing."

Somewhere else...

"You know, I don't get it. Some of the youkai are really creepy and then you have cute ones like this. I mean look at her. I wanna pet her."

"I know she looks cute, but she will still eat you if you let your guard down. You don't have the protection the villagers do. Trust me on this."

"Absolutely yes I do."

"What was that I just said about letting your guard down...?"

"Hey... Sanae. You can fly, right? I don't suppose you can..."

"It wouldn't be right, sorry. Besides, it's probably not anything important anyway."

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae

[hocheplays]

One more thing. I have added chapter views to the pinned post at the top of the page. This will include the current chapter and will allow you to see the posts in the order they're supposed to be in, oldest to newest, for each chapter. I hope this helps make things more navigable!

#tpdp game posts

[hocheplays]

I'm about done for tonight, these things actually kind of wear you out somehow lol. So why not finish things off with a poll about our new Shou friend? Just like before we've got a bunch of options on what style to put her in. We've already got one offensive Spread sweeper with Sanae, but another couldn't hurt... or maybe we could give Shou a different role. I'm down for either. And hey, it's something to do while I do things like sleep, and work, and eat.

Obviously you can ignore this if you want, but hey, why not, right?

#tpdp game posts #polls

[hocheplays]

"Oh, thank goodness. Maybe we won't have to deal with Seiga or Futo at all."

"What's so bad about those two anyway?"

"If we meet them, you'll see."

"And there she goes. Damn, should have got her number."

"Are you sure you've learned anything?"

"Sure I have. And to prove it, let's go find some puppets to expand our roster while we're finding this temple place."

"Oooh, I like your look. You are gonna be mine, little tiger."

"I'm glad you're expanding your team, but... you named the tiger girl Taiga?"

"Oh come on, anime's been doing it for years. I'm not the first."

"Oh damn, a two-sword samurai ghost girl? Absolutely want!"

"Perfection!"

"Much better nickname than last time, for sure. But you're setting kind of a high bar there, aren't you?"

"Don't worry, we'll fight hard and get over the highest of bars."

#tpdp game posts #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum #there from the start ~ sanae #and thus the party has expanded to three #will be four when we enter the mausoleum and catch Futo

[hocheplays]

"So, about the youma book..."

"Yeah, I kno-- wait, hold on. What do you mean 'characters humans can't read'? Are you telling me youkai have some sort of secret code?"

"You can read it... wait, but if humans can't read it, and you can..."

She's putting two and two together, and remembering what she saw in Kosuzu's hands earlier.

"You're a kamaitachi, right? Even I've heard of that kind of youkai. Sanae, did I get it right?"

"No, no... Kosuzu's human. I think. Pretty sure."

"Okay, so what about the book you were talking about before? What's it say?"

"Huh, you're right. This does sound like it was written by me. Everything matches up... well, except that I didn't get told I have to resolve anything. I'm still waiting on Reimu for that part. I wonder if she's done yet."

"It takes longer than that to resolve an incident, usually... well, once we know the culprit it wraps up fast at least. But we're not at that step yet."

"Sure thing. Now I should probably go see what the other lady wanted."

"Huh... where'd she go?"

"Oh, Akyuu. Did you see this lady with long brown hair come out of the shop...?"

"What the hell? You're a shapeshifter too? I thought... Jesus, I didn't see this coming at all."

"I did. If you already know what Mamizou looks like it's kind of obvious. But I didn't want to spoil anything. Hey Mamizou."

"Sure. Wow, for a youkai you're really helpful."

"She's Kosuzu's friend after all."

"I think lying is a sin..."

"And just like that we're past the gate. Awesome!"

#tpdp game posts #there from the start ~ sanae #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum

[hocheplays]

"So this is the bookstore, huh? Looks like a place for nerds."

"Yeah, she said you've got, like, a book that it sounds like I wrote?"

"Well, specifically it was a book about puppets, and it sounded like it came from someone exploring around. Sounds like you, huh?"

"And from the look in your eyes that's a really cool thing right? Hey, what if it's some sort of youkai book that writes itself?"

"Now hold on, let's not go joking about that."

"Who the--"

"Well, something like that! We haven't seen the book yet."

"Sounds fancy. Is it fancy?"

"I just hope she means Miko or Futo and not Seiga. I really don't want to have to deal with Seiga."

"My RPG instincts tell me a fetch quest is coming on."

"Well, I don't see why not. Sounds like it could be fun. And I get to do more of this puppet battling. It's a lot of fun, almost like I'm playing Pokemon."

"I like her. You think she's single?"

"...I will take that as a no."

#tpdp game posts #there from the start ~ sanae #thanks to Lis for the Kosuzu gif #tpdp chapter 2 - to the mausoleum