Summary
: This update is going to start with a goddamn war crime.
: Now that we have control, we can take a spare Gale stellar from Capone’s office.
: “Before we go to Roswell, there’s somewhere I’d like to stop first.”
: “Where’s that? We’re kinda in a rush…”
: “Don’t be such a spoil sport. I just want to go see an old friend.”
: Purramount Pictures is where we get introduced to Mao’s upgrade gimmick, which, you know, might’ve been useful to have in that dungeon we just did.
: We’re not going to head there just yet. Instead, we’re going back to Alcatraz for a couple of items I missed and one we couldn’t get because this series loves backtracking.
: Eliot Ness is still sitting in Capone’s cell.
: And apparently, Smith’s escape plan backfired. I’m sure Frank would be willing to smash a hole in the wall for him.
: Back by the control room, there’s a passage to the right with a Dark Edge stellar in it. The other chest is just a Tent.
: If we go to where we fought the boss, there’s a big, sprawling area with nothing in it..
: Except a Ring Fragment hidden on a screen we would otherwise have no reason to go to. Let’s go turn that in.
: “Thanks, but.. try not to yell ‘Ring Spirit’ so loudly.”
: “OK. Umm.. is there something else I can call you?”
: “Hey, now that I think about it, I don’t know your name either… didn’t we introduce ourselves?”
: “Now that you mention it, maybe not…”
: This is all that’s left of Aya Brea after The Third Birthday. Actually no, this is the continuation of a long-running joke from Covenant.
: At one point in Covenant, Yuri asks the Ring Soul about his family, and the Ring Soul mentions he has a daughter named Aya. His wife’s name was.. Miyabi, I think? She probably would’ve been the Ring Spirit in Shadow Hearts 4.
: “That’s an unexpectedly normal name… I’m Johnny. Johnny Garland.”
: It’s kind of sad that I’ve read enough manga to know that she’s calling him “Johnny–kun” in the original Japanese without actually knowing what the original script says.
: “Make sure you call me by my name from now on, OK! Bye-bye.”
: If I was translating this, I would have made it “But wait, why does she keep asking about a raccoon?” and then Frank comes out of the background wearing a raccoon costume.
: We’ve got nowhere to go but Purramount Pictures, so let’s do that I guess.
: The first thing I thought when I saw this was “Wait, is that cat George Lucas?” followed by “Oh christ, that’s fucking George Lucas as a man-sized talking cat”.
: I’d like to point out that this game released in 2005, a full six years after Star Wars Episode 1.
: “Oh.. Master has so many friends.”
: “Master Meow’s not the only big cat…?”
: “What? Spit it out.”
: “The money I pilfered from Capone wasn’t enough?”
: “Oh, so that’s the problem? How silly of me. Well, if that’s the case, I’ve got to raise some Cat Coins.”
: “Uh.. Master Meow…? What have you guys been talking about?”
: “Can’t you tell by looking? A movie. This is America – Hollywood, no less. Without at least one silver screen debut, I can’t call myself a woman.”
: “Oh.. a cat in a movie, huh?”
: “For now, leave the money concerns to me. You continue listing and booking the actors.”
: Cat Touch is Mao’s first skill, which gives you cat coins if it lands the killing blow on an enemy.
: “That’s right. Boy, I’ll accompany you on your travels, but let me do what I want to do.”
: “Right.. you’re free to do whatever…”
: For Mao’s first skill upgrade, we need 5 Mackerel Coins. We could get these off the enemies in Roswell, but they drop off any enemy from the start of the game up until now, so I farmed the Grand Canyon a bit since we needed more Snaps anyway.
: The game does something kind of nonsensical with Mao’s fight scenes. Each fight costs coins, and if you lose, you have to pay the coins again.. except there’s a save point in the room.
: Mao’s fight scenes are more or less a rehash of the Great Gama fights from Covenant that Joachim used to get new skills.
: “A combat cyborg? Hmph, you’re just wearing sunglasses. Think that makes you tough?”
: “Huh. Children are just the result of being in heat. I shouldn’t have to die for that.”
: This fight isn’t too difficult provided you have Mao come in with full Stock and you have Red Nova equipped. As you can see from the turn order, the Meowmenator always gets two turns to start off.
: The Meowmenator hits for around 35 damage per turn, on top of inflicting Tight Ring. There is a way we could avoid this, but it would cost all of our money and Tight Ring isn’t all that bad.
: The trick to this fight is Red Nova, which allows us to nuke the boss’s Stock without having to pay any of our own.
: “Thinking a robot could beat a living cat was your first mistake.”
: There’s exactly one other thing we can do before going to Roswell, and that’s trading some of our Snap Cards off.
: Most of the rewards are just extra stellars - we got a Rock Bump, a Gale Rod, and another Cure. This one, however…
: Gives us a card for an enemy we haven’t encountered yet. From the looks of it, this is a returning enemy from Covenant. Now we can move on to Roswell.. and immediately get dumped into a cutscene.
: If you played Covenant and did all of Joachim’s quests, you know that the pink bat is his sister, and another member of the Valentine family of vampires.
: There’s a running thing where the next game’s Valentine sibling shows up in bat form at the end of their sibling’s quest - Joachim shows up in the first game, and the pink bat in the Covenant.
: By the way, the bat’s voice is.. pretty annoying.
: And this would be Roger Bacon, a 700-year-old monk who stole the secret to immortality from the Vatican. He is the only character to be in all of the Shadow Hearts games (and Koudelka).
: The bat is the favorite character of people who speedrun this game, because of her gimmick. We’ll see what that is in the next update.
: I will say that I feel like Hilda would have been a totally different character if Oshi no Ko had existed in 2005.
: This coming from a guy who was in a coffin for several hundred years until Koudelka found him.
: I’d be more concerned if Roger wasn’t immortal. Anyway..
: The weird thing about this is that Roger Bacon had a working jet in Covenant. I’d almost say that this would be proof that Covenant’s good ending (which involves time travel) is canon, but it can’t be because that means Covenant never happened.
: “It couldn’t be.. a spaceship?”
: “No, not really, but.. what the heck is it?”
: “So.. it’s a real UFO?”
: Huh, there’s a sign next to Johnny. Let’s check that out.
: Oh shit, it’s a Frank cutscene!
: Frank understands how America works.
: “When you hear that, do you FEEL something, boy?”
: “Huh? No, I didn’t say anything… I’ve got a bad feeling about this, though.”
: “In all of America, I think you’re the only one crying…”
: Shut the fuck up, Johnny.
: “Mr. Bus Stop, you can STOP crying now. Ol’ Frank will mend your broken heart.”
: The only disappointing thing about this is that Frank does not get a skill to summon a city bus to hit the enemy. The bus would be named “Bushamut” and would have dragon wings.
: If we talk to the NPC nearby again..
: Like a lot of the other areas, I’m going to cut some of the NPC dialogue. If we go over to the left side of the hotel..
: The top prize is a Ring enhancement, but let’s go for it anyway.
: This stellar is hidden in a chest in the back corner of the hotel.
: Oh look, it’s Roger’s vending machine. This replaces Gerard and Buigen in this area. We should talk to it.
: The vending machine has new weapons for everyone - we already have Johnny’s, and we don’t need to bother buying Natan or Mao one but I do anyway and then reload to get the descriptions.
: Unlike Natan’s weapon, which goes the Lupin III route of making up countries, Johnny’s knife has actual history in the description.
: The Gurkhas were an actual British military unit consisting entirely of Nepali soldiers, who did in fact use khukris when they were first incorporated into the British military in the 19th century.
: I had not realized it until I saw these, but all of Shania’s tomahawks (at least, so far, and bar her starting one) are named after chiefs of the Lakota Sioux tribe, which is presumably the tribe Shania belongs to. Her previous weapon (which I’m not sure if I ever showed the description for) is called Crazy Horse.
: Wait a second.. a little girl.. named “the watcher?” Did I accidentally LP Drakengard somehow?
: That’s pretty much everything we can do here. If we go off to the right, we can see that base Uninquisitive Nex told us about.
: “Ah, excuse me. We’re looking for a man named Gilbert who we think might be around here.”
: I know, right? He should have recognized Frank as the protector of the STATES and immediately let him in.
: “There is no use talking to him, yes…”
: “Well, if we can’t go in the front door, we’ll just have to go in the back, huh?”
: “What? But that’s…”
: “That’s what? We snuck into Alcatraz, didn’t we? So don’t go getting all scared now.”
: If we go back to the hotel, there’s a guy who can get us in.
: “That truck? There’s a truck that goes in and outta the base?”
: “…You hear that?”
: “Hmph, that sounds perfect, doesn’t it? That’s our best ticket in.”
: Next time, we’ll sneak onto a military base and free Roger Bacon. Natan will get screwed out of being in the party again.