lets do it baby lets play melty blood for the Plot

now im playing reACT first because ive been told it contains all of the story from the original Melty Blood plus additional arcade mode sequel stories. however it does not seem to have the original op, which is crunchy as fuck and im in love with

[remembers i dont know how to play fighting games] everybody shut up i gotta read the manual

[reconfigures the controls] [reconfigures the controls] [reconfigures the controls]

okay i think i got everything figured out, lets go. i hope shiki gets hit by a car again in this one

i was not fast enough to take a screencap of NIGHT on the BLOOD LIAR but i guess thats the sub-sub-subtitle of melty blood: TSUKIHIME: if CRAZY DREAM

okay this redone version of the tsukihime title track theyre playing has the same like.......wavery sound effect that's in the back of the fate stay night title track and i think its neat

ohhhh okay okay okay. now i get it. all dead apostle ancestors are dead apostles, but not all dead apostles are dead apostle ancestors

OKAY, YEAH, I REMEMBER THESE NAMES.............so zelretch IS a dead apostle. kagetsu tohya made it sound like he'd done battle with brunestud but i wasnt sure why--wait why is brunestud on this list. isnt she by definition a true ancestor. wait. wait

im not even 5 minutes into this game and im already getting my lore all fucked up

sion just hacks your brain with wires i guess. the implications for fgo are startling

okay so the atlas academy is for alchemists but theres also the Central Association Of Alchemists, where they study elemental transmutation..........okay. sure

theres no text log function in this game as far as i can identify so i cant WAIT to lose track of the shit people are telling me

sion: yeah previous members of atlas worked really hard to try to build their ideal future but these days we only build weapons. some people say we pivoted when the Director finally predicted the future, only to see one he felt compelled to deny
me:

shes telling me all atlas alchemists are required to learn how to partition off their brains like you do with computers so they can run multiple logical processes at the same time and im just. i am just sitting here

starting to understand why they decided to bring her into fgo

make me do math one more time i fucking dare you

OH NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN

im losing every single fight but its fine bc this game works on the shadow the hedgehog branching map system so i'm still getting to see one of the story paths

so the events of melty blood concern "tatari," a formless dead apostle whose entire existence is predicated on the implementation of "rumor" into "reality"............i hate this sentence i hate this franchise

NANAYA ?????

oh my god i finally got my first KO. shoutout to nanaya for having like 0 range

LETS GO BABY WE'RE CHANGING FATE

so the party was going great

nasu shut the fuck up this doesnt even mean anything

sorry, sorry, i should say this in a way that complies with the style guide. "words without meaning. future without promise. the reversed shadow of "eternity" is--"

starting to think tatari might be kind of a freak

wait i just fucking bodied this fight too. starting to think they might purposefully make the sion fight on the first node hard to block you from deeper parts of the story on your first run

oh here we go with the apocrypha again

hey sion? what, and i say this as respectfully as possible, the FUCK are you talking about

[googling "knights of the shield" to see if that's a real thing or if nasu's just making shit up again]

hmm

oh i see. okay. its all coming together. tatari made a dead apostle of sion and thats why shes so desperate to find a cure for vampirification

tsukihime remake lookin great, staircase really got a glowup

shiki started a part-time job as a flower seller.............shiki and cu should hang out

wow stacked loadout

oh here we go theres that screen missed. really normal subtitle

hang on. im good at melty blood now

every time sion says "this is relevant to you, shiki. you once knew someone who was turned into a vampire, did you not?" i want to die. justice for yumizuka

oh, wait a minute. i glossed over this the first time. sion, the woman whose [apocrypha] you used........the woman buried three years ago...........i see

the way shikis eyes go completely dead in response at least makes me feel better

the swoopy dramatic track they keep playing during night scenes is really good imo

me struggling through ost tracklists to find this while trying not to spoil myself

the tidbits theyre feeding me about the circumstances of sion's turning are............oh geez

okay but they keep fucking showing me this bloody smiley face thats SO early 2000s creepypasta and im not fast enough to screencap it

if the distinction between alchemists and mages is that alchemists primarily turn to alchemy because their magic circuits suck, then whats going on in the atlas institute of fate/extra universe, wherein all mana is already depleted anyway

oh hang on theyre giving me a visual representation of sions partitions. now this is multi-track drifting

experimenting with the visual novel format even in your fighting game, huh

wowwww get fucked aoko

sions on the run because she broke the one and only sacred rule of the atlas institute, which is to never reveal the details of your research or share your methodology with others...............[thinking abt fgo] uh-oh scoob

oh arcs theme kinda slaps actually

with the way tatari blends rumor and reality, it kind of feels like the most dangerous nasuverse enemy ive encountered so far.........what are you supposed to even do about something that can use even the slightest thought against you..........?

jesus

oh, no. nononononono. no. no. we are not doing this. you are not doing this to me again. absolutely not. dont even fucking start, sion

sion begging shiki to be prepared to kill her if tatari fully manifests because a dead apostle cannot go against their own progenitor..............okay. shits getting real

sions mentioned a couple times now that shiki is the first person her age shes ever interacted with, which makes me wonder what the fuck is going on at the atlast institute, and also how old her friend (?) in the shield knights (?) was

i hate this fucking game. i just yelped HELLO? but of course its just tatari again. oh shit this means im gonna get to hear jouji do nvrnqsr lines when the fight starts tho

OH NVRNQSR OP AS FUCK

dont talk to me abt how im spelling nrvnqsr wrong im busy fucking reeling from him just beating the shit out of me

HUGE FUCKING WORMS, HUGE, WHAT EVEN WAS THAT

AND I SAID HEY WHAT'S GOIN ON

me when this game reveals another new piece of lore

eating shit against red arc on whatever node this is. G? i think its G now. im on my last continue bro this sucks im gonna take a shower

HGEAUHGH FINALLY................yes i finish every shiki fight with a low kick no i dont wanna talk about it

oh geez

aw GEEZ

NO WHY ARE THEY PLAYING THE TSUKIHIME TITLE TRACK AGAIN I HATE THIS

bro what? she just summoned a shade of akiha to attack me, what the fuck

i HATE this

BRO I HATE THIS

okay well that was dramatic. thats two endings down. im gonna do my best to gun for the all-victory ending next, i just cleared the ciel fight i fucked up last time

okay. okay. okay okay okay [mind clicking rapidly like a rubiks cube]

theres a segment missing here between the 3rd/4th caps but it boils down to "other methods of forcing information out of people, like a vampires hypnotic gaze, can damage the information playback and definitely damage the victim" leading into the "rip to them but we're different"

this must be important because sions said it twice now

nasus protags need therapy so bad

oh? oh??? okay

so tatari is "the night of walachia" which just makes me think of walpurgisnacht

"oberon" okay sure whatever! why not

theyre in an elevator talking over how tatari is very similar to roa in that he not longer exists just as a physical body, but more as an enduring concept, in tatari's case an existence that will continue so long as the conditions are met somewhere sometime

good thing shiki can "Kill" anything, up to and including conceptual existences

what is "the arcane secret called the Sixth" that he struggled to obtain. what is it. is it the sixth true magic? is that what he wanted, to become a true mahoutsukai like zelretch? [banging my head on the walls]

BRO WHAT IS "THE SYSTEM"? THE ROOT? ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE ROOT? ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT MAGECRAFT AS A WHOLE?

oh, yeah, okay

OH? YEAH? OKAY

this is my second time seeing the tatari orb but it still looks so stupid lmao. they really tried

they keep bringing up the knight who saved sion but her name is "reeze baife" and i dont know, i just cant take that seriously, it feels like the back end of a bofa deez nuts joke

oh? oh? zepia jpg??? true form????

sion is so fucking lonely. this makes me so sad for her in fgo, having never met shiki (? i assume, im given to understanding tsukihime and fate universes dont overlap)

i want to know what the fuck it means that sions last name is "sokaris" in fgo. this game tells me her last name is "atlasia" because they appointed her atlas institue director candidate and external ambassador before she bounced. obviously that didnt happen in fateverse so

three out of eight endings..............not bad for one night

back at it again with a little bit of this. gee kohaku, hisui, how come you guys get to be ONE unit.......the music for the mansion fucking slaps btw

incidentally, dont think ive posted abt this yet, but the prebattle intro roll for these matches is so wild. it goes, and i quote, "on the edge - Crimson night & Celsion moon. misfiction. not save the Player is Prayer, yes, Dance Romanesque and unfinished Romancia"

im not allowed to ever complain about nasu saying words that dont mean anything ever again because those are the most not-meaning-anything words ive ever read

hey uhhhhh tohno mansion basement lookin straight out of Shivers (1995)

i feel like this is another tsukihime track redux but the bg music would also fit right in as bgm in shivers

HEY CHOTTOOOOO JUST A MINUTE JFK;LJHJGJFDKSJFKLDJKLDFJDFK;LJD

ZAWA ZAWA......................shiki watch your fucking fingers

okay so the lore for THIS route is that tatari doesnt have to impersonate kohaku. kohakus on such a perfect wavelength for tatari that its simply possessing (? manifesting in? giving its backing to???) her, so all her plans are going great, shes unbeatable in battle, etc

THEY WONT LET ME PICK SHIKI AND SHITS GETTING REAL DICEY

im not very good at this game so i have not had the opportunity to see very many special moves but i definitely just put shiki in ultra golden mode vs hisui and im pretty sure i watched him break a chair so im really glad they fit a reference to that iconic scene in

this move should be fucking illegal

thsi kohaku solo fight pissing me off SO bad

USED UP ALL MY CONITNUES TWICE ON THIS PIECE OF SHIT FIGHT..............GIVING UP

going to try this again tomorrow with the difficulty turned down dont @ me

difficulty is on 2 rather than 3 now. it's going great thanks

hey can we talk about nasu's giantess fetish for a second

unreal

why does this fucking joke ending have a string of literally the hardest fights so far?? im about to turn the difficulty down again

FUCKINGGGGG FINALLY............................the strat is to use heat gauge to heal literally whenever it's available to you

love that miyako's been both brought up and shown now but i havent gotten any actual lore on her. like okay heres the sister shiki was raised with when he was at the arimas, remember how she was totally a character in tsukihime? no? dont worry about it

maybe the lore's going to be in this route im abt to go down, maybe thats why they bring her up in the fight before ciel

thank you for letting me get back to the fucking plot

oh rip shiki

dont you think this line is a little too cool for you

okay i think this means i can get the true ending and the bonus ending now. lets go

OH I FINALLY GOT A SCREENCAP OF THIS..........creepypasta-lookin ass. hyperrealistic-blood-dripping-down-his-face-motherfucker

im keeping the low difficulty on because the key to getting this ending is winning every single fight and i do NOT wanna get roadblocked by some stupid shit like g-akiha again

"what is the Holy Grail War?"
"what do you mean, 'vampire'?"
"tatari? like a curse?"

okay so zepia IS the eltnam head from three generations ago. he is, specifically, the eltnam who made the family fall from grace after he left atlas academy to do external research, research which led to him becoming a dead apostle

good job fucking everyone over dude

zepia roasting sion for not realizing that she can't continue to use the eltnam family techniques if she begins to form her own sense of self........in order to slip into other peoples minds without disturbance, she must be empty as a receptacle

if she's not, then her attempts at mind access will become more brutal and obvious, as theyre forced to bring along the will of the one executing them--so walachia saved her not because she's an eltnam, but because she too is "someone who can exist only with others' information"

im writing this out so i can easily reference it later i know it sounds insane dont worry about it

okay hes absolutely gunning for becoming the Sixth Magician and he's using the contract he forged to become this "tatari" phenomenon to live a thousand years to try to achieve it. okay freak sure

OH, I SEE............this dumbass bet on the wrong horse in the vampire princess race

zepia getting BODIED rn

NOW PLAYING: DARKSTALKERS

open your eyes bitch

HE UNIRONICALLY FLOATS 2 INCHES OFF THE GROUND AND JUST GLIDES TOWARD YOU WHEN HE MOVES............DO YOU THINK YOU'RE SLICK DUDE???

this theme song ALSO fucking slaps tho. how come melty blood music is so good

oh hes got a nasty little fuckin laugh. anyway eat shit dude, fall off your [vampiric legacy]

this is the real [Freaks Channel]

oh. i see. i understand. the Atlas alchemists keep running into the madoka problem, where the harder you try to avert a disastrous future, the worse that future becomes

oh, okay, nasus OTHER favorite theme to keep trying, "I seek immortality for the betterment of humanity, but somewhere along the line i became so corrupted i forgot what it really was that i was searching for"

they couldnt figure out a way to truly convey this but i want everyone to know that immediately prior to this conversation zepia vomits up his entire accumulated hundreds of years of blood and his whole body shrinks up until this gaunt, smiling, crying mask is all thats left

melty blood final route is going great thanks

nasu really like "i fucking love bajiquan, every bitch in my games gonna use bajiquan"

her [whatever this chinese coat is called] started flying up when i hit her aerially and i was like wow guys really? pantyshots on her and ONLY on her? but actually it looks like shes wearing jean shorts

aaand Melty Blood/ReACT Story Mode: C O M P L E T E

all of that was insane. anyway, when you next see me in this thread, it'll be for arcade mode's stories