Beyond the Beyond: Update 110: Act 5 Bonus Material, pt. 2

[ladyabaxa]

Beyond the Beyond: Update 110: Act 5 Bonus Material, pt. 2

In this update the bonus material rolls on! There's a lot to cover this time so buckle in.

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To start I'll cover some additional scans from the game's manual. Up above is the manual's introduction to the game's plot. I've already included the transcript of these two pages but here it is again. If you want to follow along open up that image link in another tab or window.

Two Kingdoms Clash!

Long ago, in the mists of a forgotten age, a disastrous battle raged between the Beings of Light and the Warlocks of the Underworld. All lifeforms above and below the Earth took part or became victims of the cataclysm. It seemed certain that the world would be destroyed.

As the planet approached the brink of annihilation both sides came to their senses. A truce was called and a treaty devised. The Beings of Light would stay on the surface of the Earth. The Warlocks would inherit all regions below the ground. Both sides vowed never to interfere with each other and to respect the separate domains set by the treaty. The Kingdom of Quamdar was chosen as the boundary between the two realms.

Now after centuries of peace, the world grows uneasy. The people of the Common World have seen strange beings in the countryside. A foreboding cloud settles over Quamdar as mysterious sightings and inexplicable happenings become more frequent.

Finn, a youth in training for knighthood has come to Isla to stay with his guardian Galahad. Finn and his friend, the dragon Steiner, are about to embark on a treacherous quest. They must stop the evil powers that have broken the treaty and invaded the Common World.

Take up your sword as the young adventurer Finn. As you travel and fight, you will gain friends to battle at your side. You will become more powerful and find ever fiercer weapons. You will learn of a world of magic and deadly spells that increase as your powers grow. You will risk everything...even your life...to save the world from destruction!

I'll cover the story implications of those pages later but one detail I did want to point out is the screenshot in the lower lefthand corner. The manual has a bunch of these tiny, grainy screenshots that appear to have been taken during localization. Alas there's no name weirdness to find as either the localization quickly settled on names for everyone or these screenshots were all taken after they were finalized. The shots are either from a starter team or, as seen above with Annie wrecking a Necromancer for 57 damage (something I thoroughly approve!), a higher end team from the late game. I've played Beyond the Beyond enough to know that Finn, Annie, and Edward having 50+ LP takes quite a lot of work.

The other thing I wanted to point out is that whoever put together the manual took great care not to spoil Lorele's existence through the screenshots.

 

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I'm including this one because the Guidelines for Success section gave me a good chuckle. Thus I'll share it with my comments between paragraphs.

Guidelines for Success
You and those who join you will explore many realms during the journey. Throughout the adventure, you must fight many battles, solve increasingly complex riddles, and find hidden treasure. These guidelines will help you:

You start out with only Steiner at your side. Throughout your quest, you will be joined by others who want to help save the Common World.

If the screenshots weren't making it obvious enough this isn't a solo mission for Finn.

Talk to everyone you meet to gain vital clues and hints about what to do next. It's up to you to figure out which facts are important, and which information might be misleading.

There isn't much in the way of misleading information in the game. It's more that the hints are so vague and easy to misunderstand that they can send players on wild goose chases.

You begin with 150 gold pieces. Use these to buy supplies in town. Once you've gathered supplies, rest and information, leave the safety of the town. It is in the country that you do battle and increase your powers.

I'm wondering how someone is supposed to gather rest. A better way to put it might be "Once you've gathered supplies and information and have rested if necessary it is time to leave the safety of town." That's longer though and there's not much room for more text in that list. Oh and I suppose I'll go ahead and nitpick the grammar of "use these to buy supplies." Changing 'these' to 'them' or 'that' would have better flow with the preceding sentence.

You begin lightly armed, with the strength of a Level 1 swordsman. When you encounter enemies, you automatically enter Battle Mode. Each combat victory makes you stronger by increasing your skills, attack power and gold.

Winning battles does reward the player with gold but attack power is only going to come with level ups and those aren't going to happen with every battle. Oh sure it also goes up with better weapons but I've done enough sequence breaking with a level 4 swordsman Finn to know that the swords Finn is able to equip with that class can't make up for his low level. As for building skill with each victory that comes down to how one defines skill.

You guide your friends in battle. Learn their strengths and weaknesses so you can anticipate the outcome of a battle. Some attacks will weaken you so much that to stay and fight means certain annihilation. If that's the case, you should run for your life. But avoid running too often, because you must fight battles in order to increase your abilities.

The downside of having to use character turns to attempt to run is that if an enemy is kicking your behind it's probably due to powerful attack magic and those monsters also tend to be speedy devils. Thus issuing run commands to party members - commands more likely to fail when the party is underleveled - is a risky proposition. That last sentence about needing to fight to "increase your abilities" has it right. Run only as an absolute last resort. Yes, the game has a high encounter rate in some places. Just roll with it, making hasty retreats from the area/dungeon if need be, in order to earn enough experience so that advancing to a new area doesn't mean getting stomped on by new foes.

If you're struggling to fight random encounters in whatever area the plot wants you to explore you're just going to be even deeper in trouble if you rush ahead.

In some areas, the Underworld forces are so strong that you can't defeat them until you have more battle experience and more powerful weapons. You must fight lesser enemies first to gain that experience and the gold to buy better weapons.

This is the almost-mandatory warning that enemies will ramp up in strength over the game's course. This is an RPG. Grinding experience is required.

When you enter towns or villages, rest at an inn. You will also want to buy supplies and better weapons from local merchants.

This is basic RPG 101 level advice. I suppose for a total novice this is essential but just by talking to every NPC they see they'll figure this part out on their own pretty quick. This probably should have been merged with article 4 on the list so that all of the "what to do in town to prepare" stuff was together.

 

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These two pages talk about what happens after winning a battle and changing class. The first thing I want to address is that while the left page does say "Characters who are dead at the end of a fight do not gain any experience points" it neglects to mention that not only is the same true for characters in groggy status but that after experience is awarded groggied characters auto-recover with no possibility of using the APS. Both of those are kind of important tactical considerations.

The right page is good about pointing out that class changing is needed in order to equip "specialized equipment." That's a way of hinting that if the player wants to continue upgrading their gear they will have to class up. I do have to grimace every time the manual uses VPs, LPs, and MPs though. Yes I know it's because, for example, VP technically stands for Vitality Point but because those are almost always plural - as in, characters having 2 or more Vitality Points - from a player's perspective it quickly becomes ingrained to see the abbreviation VP as plural. It's the same way with games that use HP to stand for Hit Points. Using VPs thus sounds like pluralizing what is already a plural. It comes out awkward and stilted.

It does go on to outright say that class changing isn't entirely level dependent like it is in Shining Force. "When you reach a certain level, [sic] you must go to a specific location to perform a task. If you perform this task successfully, [sic] you can move on to a class that is one level higher and become even stronger." I suppose with the way that's worded it could be inferred that one character can class change multiple times but Beyond the Beyond isn't an RPG with such a class system.

What really drew my eye to this page though was this screenshot up in the corner. It's blurry and grayscale but it stands out when compared to all the other screenshots in the manual. This one clearly came from a version of the game before it was localized. Our resident Hero protagonist's name and the attack message are still in Japanese. In fact if I had to wager a guess I'd say this was probably snapped during play testing because Hero protagonist is alone in the Volcano (I recognize that background) with super high VP, LP, and I guess Attack Power if those are indeed numbers above Finn.

There's no way to have a solo-Finn party like this in the finished game. During playtesting, when debugging functions are still fully functional, setting this up can be trivial depending on how those routines are programmed. I have no idea why this particular screenshot made it into the English manual. It does show Finn as a Hero but because the text is all Japanese it doesn't really communicate that fact. Keep in mind that I've blown this up much larger than it appears in the manual. A screenshot post-translation of Finn as a Hero would serve this purpose better and I know the manual designer(s) had just such a shot because I show that page later in this update.

 

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I do love how Sir Galahad has a "I'm too old for this shit!" look in his character art. Alas, the plot has other plans for him. Of note on the right page the manual states that the game's Trauma Inns cannot revive dead characters. Nothing unexpected there for anyone with some experience playing RPGs. Then it points out that inns don't cure poison. (For completeness sake I'll mention the fact that staying at an inn doesn't cure a curse either.)

That is true and it makes me wonder how exactly does a poisoned character not die in their sleep of said affliction. Then I remember that poison only deals damage when characters take steps. If they're asleep they're not taking steps unless sleepwalking. But! (there's always a but, isn't there?) if that's the case what about characters whose health is so low they'd die before reaching their bed? Does someone have to pick them up and carry them there? Maybe they're so weak that the group just sleeps right by the counter - which would explain how the poison-suffer is at the counter the next day at full health.

Yes I do end up doing some weird mental geometry when trying to figure how things like that might work.

The real meat of these two pages however is the Tactics section on the left page.

TACTICS
During a fight, [sic] the main character's comrades will make decisions for themselves and fight on their own. However, sometimes they can get out of hand. Use the TACTICS command to give instructions to the characters. There are five commands to chose [sic] from, but only one command can be chosen at a time. Learn to use these tactics effectively depending on each situation, [sic] and change your tactics frequently as the fighting situation changes.

While it is true that the game starts out with characters other than Finn under AI control phrasing it as it does above is misleading because it makes it seem like AI is always in control. Not only is that not true but if it were Beyond the Beyond would be significantly harder. I should also note, because the manual doesn't, that the Tactics menu doesn't appear in battle when the party consists only of Finn so a player just starting out might be a bit confused by this stuff.

CHARGE: This does exactly what the word means: the character gives everything he or she has. With this tactic, [sic] the character uses the type of magic that inflicts the most damage. If you run into a strong enemy unexpectedly, use this tactic to get out of trouble.

If you're facing a tough opponent use MANUAL! I can't stress that enough. It isn't impossible for the player to sort of control targeting for AI controlled characters but at best it will be a highly random guessing game. Knowing which enemies to kill ASAP is a critical part of survival. Doing that is best achieved under MANUAL control. As far as describing what CHARGE does this one's pretty accurate. It's the Nuke It From Orbit option. It isn't all that helpful if attack magic isn't available.

FIGHT: This tactic is for fighting at a normal level. The character tries to fight the enemy effectively, without wasting efforts, by taking into account his or her own strength and the opponent's power. This tactic may be enough under normal circumstances since it balances both offense and defense well.

The game starts with this turned on so it is indeed the default. This is likely the closest thing to how enemy actions are determined.

RESERVE: This tactic disables the use of magic in order to conserve Magic Points. This is effective when a character is low on magic points and cannot afford to use even one point, or when you don't want to waste magic on a weak enemy.

As I showed through the early parts of the playthrough using this option isn't a bad idea. Conserving MP is vital and in the early game enemies with nasty (for that point) nukes aren't so common that MANUAL is always preferred. Keeping the rest of the party under AI control does reduce the number of inputs that have to be entered every round which speeds up fights that are just exchanging melee attacks.

GUARD: With this tactic, [sic] a character's main priority is guarding himself or herself from injury. Since the character tries to survive the fight unharmed, he or she may fight as aggressively as in a CHARGE tactic. The difference is that in GUARD, [sic] the character's moves are basically focused on survival. This tactic is effective in saving a character who is close to death.

If find it odd how similar the actions taken by GUARD and CHARGE are and how the manual points that out. I suppose the only real difference is that under CHARGE the AI places an almost-suicidal priority on dealing damage whereas under GUARD they'll drop out of attacking in order to heal. Both tactics burn tons of MP. While I might consider using CHARGE here and there I've never found a use for GUARD.

MANUAL: This tactic allows you to instruct each character separately during battle. Although you need to enter as many commands as there are characters, you can fight a more detailed battle. Consider using this tactic when care is essential and a single uncontrolled mistake could bring disaster!

And coming in at the end is the best tactic, the one that a player with any sense, is going to use for most of the game.

 

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There's nothing really snark worthy on the left page. It's just some basic information about how to use magic and items. Over on the right page however is that screenshot of Hero Finn's stats that I mentioned earlier. Spoiler alert, new player! Finn can class up to a Hero! Anyone who played any of the Shining Force games would already know it goes Swordsman --> Hero. The screenshot, however, shows Finn with the Dragon Blade and two pieces of Mithril armor. That might have been an intentional way of hinting that those items are obtainable.

I also included it because it includes the brief explanation for Luck: success ratio. I'm inclined to think it sets the base rate for critical hits, double attacks, etc. but that's just something of a guess even after playing the game extensively. For all I know Luck could determine item drop rate or the character's ability to resist status effects or it might do absolutely nothing.

 

A Dirge For A Fate-Stricken Knight

Now the update moves on to something that got cut from the previous update because it got far too long! In fact this is the first update that includes a subpage. (That link goes to Google Drive because the subpage with its transcripts and comparisons aren't blog-friendly.) While certainly not the most elegant thing I've ever slapped together I felt it was necessary to keep what some might consider "page clutter" in this update down. I'll be referencing it throughout so go have a look and come back or if needed keep it open in another tab.

Why all that work? That's because the Black Knight, last seen back in Update 96, needs a lot more scrutiny. Given how Annie-centric both possible scenes with the Black Knight that I saw were I of course had to off her to see what the game would do.

Annie takes precedence when she's in the party regardless of whether Percy is spared or not.

But it is more complicated then that. After seeing many iterations of both possible outcomes the basic structure of events became apparent. This is tough to describe in the abstract so I'll just go step by step through the full sequence of events. I know this is long and laborious but it is necessary.

SCRIPT	NOTES
Black Knight: You people, I must defeat.	The event always starts with this and always without showing the Black Knight portrait. Text cannot convey one detail: prior to the battle the knight speaks in one or two words at a time with waits programmed between them. This means that regardless of message speed the game pauses for a second. This is to convey to the player that something is mentally wrong with the Black Knight.
At this point the screen darkens and Finn plays the shudder animation.	Animations are frequently paired with whoever is active speaker. It starts with Finn.
Finn: Huh?!
Annie plays the shudder animation.
Annie: Who?! Who are you?	While Finn does have a brief line of dialogue it is this line and paired animation which are the first "scene essential" in the script. By that I mean it's the first that the developers felt was so important that someone (who is never Finn) has to ask this question. It only gets skipped if Finn is alone. (And for completeness the same rule applies if I sequence break to have only Percy representing the party at this point.)
The screen pans over to the Black Knight.	Here's the reveal that the up-to-this-point-mysterious threat is in fact the Black Knight seen earlier in the game.
BK: You people, I must defeat. I will defeat all of you... Defeat.	More droning from the Black Knight. This is not the knight responding to the question asked. Once again, the game is trying to convey through the knight's words and the waits between them that something unseen is seriously wrong.
The camera pans back to the group.	Threat established, time to have the player's forces start reacting to it.
Finn: ?!	This is purely a Finn reaction shot. If he isn't around the game just skips this.
The Black knight advances a step. The player group retreats a step shuddering.	These actions happen concurrently. The developers do this sort of thing several times in the game to convey a sense of shock, horror, and/or fear on the part of the player characters. Given how many monsters (and by this point bosses) they've faced by this point in the game it can seem a little weird.
Ramue: Hehehe. Finn, you really want to get to Quamdar, huh? Well, it won't be that easy. The Black Knight will teach you the error of your ways.	Ramue gloats from somewhere offscreen. This is the reveal that she's the villain responsible for what is about to happen.
The group looks around for Ramue.	Not gonna find her...
Annie: Is that you? Ramue?! Where... Where are you?! [%Character]: Ramue, where are you? Don't hide. Come out! Lorele: That's Ramue's voice, one of the people who attacked my country, Barbaros. You hag! I dare you to come out!	Annie gets priority in this line so if she's present the game always uses her version. The second is something of a "default" if Annie isn't around. Edward, Samson, Domino, and Tont all use it even if Lorele is standing right there. That's a shame because Lorele actually has the most interesting of the three options but she'll only speak if the prior options aren't possible. I would prefer the priority of the second and third options to be flipped. Finn (and Percy!) never say anything What's most interesting is that Lorele recognizes Ramue's voice. Lorele doesn't react when meeting the villainous duo deep in the Abyss. Secondly, Lorele was locked in a small room under Barbaros Castle by her own father's order. Yet here we have Lorele stating quite clearly that she recognizes the voice she's hearing, correctly names its owner, and connects Ramue with the attack on Barbaros. So before she was shoved into that little room she must have not only heard Ramue but seen her as well. Is this super important to the plot? No but it does add a tiny bit more clarity as to what happened during the invasion of Barbaros. It is phrased in an awkward way. It could drop the reference to Barbaros or be reworded to "one of the people who attacked Barbaros" in order to flow in a more natural way.
Ramue: Rather than threatening me, you should worry about yourself instead. Hehehe!	This is Ramue's response. No overt, direct threat is made to Ramue but given the bad blood between her and Finn's squad an implied threat is embedded in asking where she is. It should be noted that even if there is no preceding line Ramue always says this. It's hard not to chuckle at her reacting to a threat that never happened. It would be nice if there was a variant for her responding specifically to Lorele but, alas.
The Black Knight advances.	Advances means takes a step forward towards the player team.
Finn: ?!	This reaction shot always goes to Finn if he's around but the devs apparently thought it super important and thus it passes "down the line" so-to-speak if he's dead.
BK: You people, I must defeat. I will defeat all of you... MUST!	This is the last line before the battle against the Black Knight begins and, being both essential and delivered by a character always present in the scene, it never changes.

As such that concludes the pre-battle dialogue. There really isn't that much variance dependent upon party make up.

The battle against the Black Knight only gets tricky when one or two characters are present. In order to do these tests I of course used savestates and, by no deliberate plan, some variables were apparently lined up to at times always get an ambush against the knight. (I had to reload the save file several times in order to reconfigure the party.) I wanted to point this out because it was helpful on tests where I had to kill the knight. I had a free round at the beginning to just attack.

And there's a before and after shot because I forgot to turn on the code to boost Annie to 999 Attack Power before initiating the fight. Hmm, 23 damage versus 395 - quite a big difference there! I know I've said repeatedly that attack has diminishing returns and boosting characters like this really shows that in action. I suspect the Black Knight has 300 VP because I saw a first turn 299 hit which wasn't fatal then later a 310 hit that was. So definitely 300 - 309 VP and just putting in a quick round number like 300 makes sense from a developer perspective.

For some perspective on why I used attack boosting codes here's solo-Tont trying to kill the Black Knight with the power of his mighty summon magic. Keep in mind this isn't my end game Tont. This is from the save just after everyone was classed up. That Nightmare Queen dealt a nice 40 damage but the Ekidona opting for a critical hit for only 7 - which didn't even poison the knight! - was, uh, shall we say lackluster.

With only 5 MP left the strongest spell Tont could cast was Summon level 2. Figuring, what the heck I'll see how much damage one of those summons can deal I tried to cast it and that targeting (?) bug struck again! Wasted turn...

Anybody remember when High Elves were dangerous enemies able to wreak havoc? I do. This is not a story about one of those times. Instead it is a sad tale of a High Elf shooting a brainwashed knight for a single point of damage. Tont was carrying Mage's Potions and did use one (whoohoo, two more Summon 4 spells!). Alas Tont wasn't able to deal 300 damage in the time allotted.

And the moral of this story is: seemingly weak enemies might be surprisingly hard to kill.

One would think a lower level team, one without any magic resistance, would have some trouble defending the necessary length of time. Fire level 3 does hurt when it's hitting for 20 - 23~ish damage per target. However, as I mentioned in the last update, the AI is programmed to try to be a bit more efficient with its mana and that helps keep the Black Knight manageable. Take for example that screenshot above where Edward has just been hit by Fire 1. The result being the Black Knight, when he's not attacking (and he prefers to use magic) uses the weakest spell he can based on the VP of his target, going for a groggy or to drop the weakest character among the player's units.

And here's Fire level 2 targeted probably based on Lorele or Samson's VP. If Lorele weren't defending Fire 2 would be a groggy. The AI isn't able to take defending or magic resistance into consideration which means it ends up wasting time casting weaker nukes when one or two strong spells would suffice. It does seem able to discern whether or not a character is defending when it chooses a physical attack and will ignore those who are for those who aren't. For a battle with a hard time limit like this having the AI wasting turns is helpful.

	None of these actions actually does anything. They're just there to give the random variance in Confusion status something to do besides attacking.

Getting Confusion to stick was spotty, for solo-Domino in particular, but it turns out to be a safe and effective way to neutralize the Black Knight. Not only is this battle always against a solo enemy so the buggy turn-dropping function of Confusion is immediately in play but this doesn't break the knight's scripted retreat. I guess someone on the dev team realized that a player can cast Sleep or Confusion because when that time limit hits the knight will run off even if under Confusion status. It does not matter.

Of course I've always kept in mind that I'm playing the game in an emulator so I cannot vouch that this will work in a different hardware or emulator environment. I can only say with the way I have this set up it has proven to be consistent.

Well then let's get back to the script. I'll cover sparing the Black Knight first.

SCRIPT	NOTES
Upon coming out of the battle the screen flashes several times and a sprite swap is made for the Black Knight to remove the masked version and put the unmasked version in its place.
"The Black Knight's mask cracks."
[%Character] shudders	Samson has priority for this and the adjoined line that follows. If he isn't present then priority shifts depending on whether Finn is alive and whether Annie is alive. If Finn, Samson, and Edward are all missing it and the adjoined line are outright skipped and the game goes straight to Percy collapsing.
Samson: Percy?? Finn: !! Edward: Percy??	There's not much variance here. It's primary purpose to have something happen between the sprite reveal and Percy collapsing. The lines asking if it's Percy are, appropriately enough, only given by people who could recognize Percy on sight. Tont, Domino, and Lorele all join the party long after Percy makes his sacrifice and this is thus the first time they see his face.
Percy spins around and collapses.
Annie: Percy? My brother! Samson: I knew it! I knew it was you, Percy! Edward: It's you, Percy! Tont: ...?! Finn: ...!!	This and the next section of lines are all assigned to whoever is given highest priority. By default that is Annie. If she isn't around it moves to Samson then down to Edward. The fourth variant doesn't have any follow up lines and is just there to cover other possible party configurations. It's just a minimum level of reaction to express some confusion over what just happened. Given the flashing lights that's understandable.
[%Character] rushes over to Percy, shudders	I noted in the transcription all of the instances of sprites playing shudder animations for two reasons. First, these animations were helpful for me to identify where bridging occurs throughout the variants. Secondly, when these animations don't occur that's a solid marker that there are more variations of the script then the text alone would convey.
Annie: Are you all right, Percy? Samson: Are you all right, Percy?   Edward: Percy, are you all right [sic]	If the character who responds is Annie, Samson, or Edward this line follows. Otherwise the game pushes forward with Percy's next animation. For some reason Edward's variant lacks punctuation. It's such an odd mistake to make for a game that's done so well about closing all sentences properly.
Percy shudders twice.
Percy: Umm.. this... what happened to me?	You got drafted by the Vicious Ones through force of magic. That's what happened!
Percy shudders again before springing to his feet.
Percy: <Gasp> Finn! I remember now. After we were separated, Ramue imprisoned me in the tower of Marion Castle. Then, when Marion Castle was about to be recaptured, Ramue placed that ominous mask on me. Percy: <Gasp> Annie! I remember now. After we were separated, Ramue imprisoned me in the tower of Marion Castle. Then, when Marion Castle was about to be recaptured, Ramue placed that ominous mask on me. Percy: <Gasp> Sir Samson! I remember now. After we were separated, Ramue imprisoned me in the tower of Marion Castle. Then, when Marion Castle was about to be recaptured, Ramue placed that ominous mask on me. Percy: Oh... Prince Edward. I remember now. After we were separated, Ramue imprisoned me in the tower of Marion Castle. Then, when Marion Castle was about to be recaptured, Ramue placed that ominous mask on me. Percy: OH! You must be Finn's friends... I remember now. After we were separated, Ramue captured me... And [sic] placed an ominous mask over my face...	Every variant has Percy explaining how he came to be cursed by Ramue with him addressing Finn having the highest priority. What he's referring to is the scene the player sees during the liberation of Marion Castle but from Percy's perspective. It is helpful in reminding the player since it's been so long. I must note that the first three variants can't just be a %Character variable swap because it uses Sir Samson rather than just Samson. Sir isn't part of that character's name string. The variant addressing Edward not only has his title but also leads with Oh... instead of <Gasp>. It sounds so nonchalant. He's only addressing the sole heir of the king he swore fealty to. No biggy or anything, Percy. I suppose it wouldn't sound that way if it weren't for all those <Gasp> versions that press urgency and emotion. It's like Percy expected it to be someone else and is disappointed but trying his best not to insult the prince. As for the fifth entry it is again a catch-all version. It's also one of the only instances where the game uses Finn's friends but doesn't capitalize the word friends. I guess this is because it isn't a direct swap from Finn. Phrasing it as "You must be Finn's friends..." gets off to a good start then the script blows it blows that dynamic by stating "After we were separated" regardless of whether or not he's ever met the person he's talking to. As we will continue to see the script doesn't take that into account all that well. At initial glance I thought maybe, after that ellipses, it bridges into what Percy says in the prior entries but no, quite different text there. Thus there's really no excuse for not phrasing things a bit better. Just changing it to "After I was separated from Finn" would clean that up. Short, to the point, and gives the person he's talking to a bit of context. Finally, take note that in every variant here Percy says "ominous mask". That's a wording choice I will address later.
[%Character] shudders.	This and the following line are paired to one character. It can be Annie (who has priority), Samson, or Edward.
[%Character]: Percy, you were the one who saved us at Bandore, right? Though the mask controlled your mind, you were still resisting them.	This could refer to Percy tossing the gate key down to his friends, to his freeing Lord Kevins, or to both. It doesn't really matter which. Tont isn't on the speaker list which one might chalk up to him being an optional character but, well, wait until I get to killing Percy...
Percy shudders.	This and the line it is paired with only occur when Finn is present. There is no alternate.
Percy: Finn... I tried... to save Lord Kevins... but I, I wasn't strong enough. Please forgive me.	This is something that gets expanded on in the kill scenario
Finn nods.	Being a silent protagonist the only response Finn can give is an animation. I suppose a nod is adequate when asked for forgiveness.
Percy shudders.	This is the last bridge of this conversation line. If Finn isn't present this is where it jumps to. That makes a long jump if Finn, Annie, Samson, and Edward are all absent.
Percy: To save this world from ruin, we must defeat Shutat! Please let me join the party. I owe him...	Once the script reaches this point the only variance is the character who handles inducting Percy into the party. As with all other character join events it defaults to Finn. This seems to be where the game uses the team's %Leader.
[%Character] nods and steps forward.
"[%Character] nods and hands a piece of the Light Orb to Percy."
Percy: Let's go! But wait... if I join the party, there will be six people. We can only fight effectively with five in the group. Why don't you choose who to exclude?
Upon choosing Percy to exclude.
Percy: All right... You wish to leave me out. Then, I'll wait in town.
[%Character] steps aside.
Percy walks past them into the cavern.

 

Given the severe lack of having party members dead when a new one signs up I haven't had a chance to show the message the game plays when trying to swap out a dead character. It's actually the same message that pops up if the player goes to a character on standby and tries to exclude someone who is at that moment dead. The game won't allow such a trade so no shunting the dead onto the bench.

My team murder ways forced me to find a slight oversight on the developer's part. What's happening is that the game de-emphasizes windows by changing their palettes to darker "faded out" colors. In the screenshot two up the Who? window has been de-emphasized in this way while the game prints the error message. Then it gets swapped back after clicking out of the message and going back to the selection window. I have no choice but to pick Percy which prompts his dialogue about being left out. The game however doesn't re-emphasize the dialogue window and so his text is delivered in the dark colors.

This is a minor aesthetic thing but I figured I might as well show it. At least one dead character is needed to see this.

While solo Finn is forced to send Percy on his way - can't swap Finn out for any reason, after all - if any other character is the last person standing the game has no problem swapping them out for Percy. This could be a deadly mistake or it could be situationally useful for surviving long enough to reach Quamdar.

Before I tackle the Kill Percy scenario let's diverge to just addressing another matter with Percy. I of course had to find out how the game would react if I already had Percy in the party. For this update I'll only cover part of it. To start here's Percy at level 1 with a mere 10 experience points to his name. Obviously he has no hope of fighting the Black Knight on his own so he's received some help in the form of a VP boost.

Percy leaves the party loooooong before Steiner grows up so of course the little dragon is present. The game doesn't seem to know where to put Steiner save as a tack-on to where Finn would be standing if he weren't dead. It does make the little dragon face the right direction (probably something of a blanket script to turn all sprites associated with the player's party) so there's that. The game needs both sets of Black Knight Percy sprites - with and without the mask - and this seems to be the point when they are loaded. The Knight!Percy sprites are thus automatically flipped over to Black Knight!Percy.

Then the Black Knight appears as he normally would. Neither Percy nor Steiner have any dialogue for this scene and all parts of the script where a party member would speak or otherwise react are skipped.

Then Knight!Percy did his best to weather attacks from his evil self. If it weren't for that VP code the evil self would definitely win this battle. Mt. Ordeals this is not...

After the battle came a long staring contest full of heartfelt gazes and awkward indecision. It was so weird that Steiner just noped on outta there as soon as the battle ended.

Here we have a play in three acts.

Act 1: A man and his evil self reach a point in combat where there is nothing more to do but merge together and collapse as one in an exhausted heap.

Act 2: Just for the heck of it the man flops over onto his belly. He's more comfy like that.

Act 3: The man decides he wants to go over to the wall but standing on his own two legs is just too much of a burden. Instead he, with a weary sigh, rolls like a tumbleweed. When he slams face first into the cold, unrelenting wall he cares not.

Alas the damage from the concussion became apparent when the man stood up. He began to hallucinate that bugs crawling over the rocks were talking about his old friend Finn. In his diminished capacity he mistook them for mutual friends and began regaling them with the sad tale of how he came to be in his sorry state.

Then he passed a pebble from one hand to the other supposing as he did that he had been awarded a wondrous magical device.

Alas, deprived of friends he had no choice but to expel himself from the party that wasn't happening.

That's my story about how I created a dead party and I'm sticking to it. Alas the game immediately recognized there were no living members to carry on the mission. Bummer.

Fortunately there's no game over in Beyond the Beyond so instead of being consigned to a miserable grave in the Sand Cave Finn awakens in Marion Town. That's one way to cross the world. This is so early in the game that losing half the party's gold is just a pittance. I wanted to go to Isla to pick up Percy but immediately faced a small problem. Since Finn cannot be swapped out I had to revive Annie. This would have been awkward if Finn ended up just short of paying that revival fee!

Over in Isla Village it turned out there was no way I could just add Percy to the party despite being below the party cap of five. The game was clearly programmed with the expectation that by the time Percy can be recovered the player party will always be full. It is unable to account for anything else. This is a disappointment because its cuts the party's ranks by a third.

Because I actually went through sparing the Black Knight the script to flip Percy from Knight to Black Knight was run. He gets a stat boost from his levels being recalculated for the forced class up but it isn't nearly as much as one might expect. Checking the stats from Update 97 I can see that this Percy got 3 more Defense and a whopping 5 more MP. In fact this Percy only has slightly less Strength and Speed. Everything else is equal or higher.

Oh and Percy really does get a Light Orb. One perk of being forced to have someone benched is that I can teleport around.

 

That diversion out of the way it's time to get back to work on the main purpose of this update. For those who want to see more Percy shenanigans worry not. There's plenty more. I just can't include them in this update for what should be obvious reasons.

 

SCRIPT	NOTES
BK: Annie... you all have... become much... stronger. BK: You have all become...much stronger... BK: You have all... become much... stronger.	There are three variants to this particular line. The first, wherein the wounded knight addresses Annie, has priority. The second is for Samson and Edward. The third is another lowest priority default. These variants are all clearly saying the same thing with only the formatting switched up between them. The only significant difference is that the second variant comes with the Black Knight portrait. The other two go with the "no portrait at all" route. An odd difference in coding there.
[%Character] shudders. OR The screen flashes.	This is the main branch with the character playing the animation the one who gets the line that follows it. However there is a variant where this animation and the screen flash are actually inverted position-wise. Annie, Samson, and Edward have to be missing for the game to switch to it.
IF branching The black knight sprite is swapped followed immediately by Finn shuddering.	The flashing always precedes the sprite swap.
Finn: !!
“The Black Knight's mask cracks!”	Yup, this branch puts an exclamation mark at the end of that sentence for emphasis! I guess the mask cracks extra loud or something.
ELSE Annie: ...Could it be... be... Percy? ...is that you? [%Character]: !!	Annie of course has priority with the reaction shot . The !! line can go to Finn, Edward, or Samson depending on the team make up. In this branch the knight hasn't been unmasked yet so this is someone's reaction to the sound of the knight's voice.
At this point the screen flashes and the knight's sprite is swapped.
"The Black Knight's mask cracks."
[%Character] shudders	Samson seems to have priority on this one.
Samson: Percy?! Edward: Percy...? Domino/Tont: Who are you? Lorele: Who... Who are you?	The first two lines are a variant of one major branch, delivered by Samson or Edward, as a lead-in for Annie. She must be present for it to execute. The other two lines are for the second major variant and this question is asked after the knight's mask cracks. As mentioned previously Tont, Domino, and Lorele wouldn't recognize Percy by sight or sound because this is the first time they've seen his face or heard him say anything.
Percy spins around and collapses.
IF Annie Annie: I knew it! Percy, my brother!	When Annie's present the following actions and lines take place. (I've abridged things in the interest of pacing this update.)
The team rushes over to Percy with everyone but Annie keeping some distance.	The character placement looks a bit odd. See the reference screenshots over on the sub page for their layout. The only thing I will note is that it gives a feeling like the rest of the group is either horrified by the sight of what they've done or they're being respectful of Annie. Possibly a mix of both.
Annie: Are you all right, Percy?
"Annie casts a Heal spell on Percy."
Percy: Annie, I... I don't have long to live.	Annie attempts to heal Percy but it doesn't work. Of all possible variations she's the only one who even tries.
Annie: Don't give up. I'll heal you! Don't say anything, just remain still.
"Annie casts a Heal spell on Percy."
ELSE 1 Edward rushes over to Percy.	Edward seems to get priority over Samson in this instance. I guess the purpose is to break up the lines because Samson will be taking it back in this branch.
Edward: You're... Percy... Annie's brother.
The rest of the team rushes over with Lorele hanging a step back.	In Annie's branch everyone keeps back but in other variants only Lorele shows such hesitation. Lorele doesn't have any lines in which to express why. When the player party doesn't include Annie all of them, except Lorele when she's present, close in around Percy in what seems to be a character-specified setup.
Samson: Hang in there Percy! We'll get you to safety.	Rather than attempting to heal Percy on the spot Samson's immediate thought is getting the wounded young knight to a safer place. Marion knights are probably not trained in the healing arts so moving wounded comrades away from danger is to be expected.
Percy: I don't have long...
Samson: Don't give up on us!
ELSE 2 The team rushes over to Percy.
Percy: Finn... I...
ELSE 3 Percy: Finn's Friend... I...	This sub-branch occurs if Finn joins Annie, Samson, and Edward in the "not present" category.
	It is at this juncture that all variants rejoin so that Percy can deliver a bit of a monologue.
Percy: After I was separated from you, Ramue captured me... and I was imprisoned in the tower of Marion Castle. When Marion Castle was about to be recaptured, Ramue placed that deadly mask on me... Percy: After I was separated from you, Ramue captured me... and imprisoned me in the tower of Marion Castle. When Marion Castle was about to be recaptured, Ramue placed that deadly mask on me... Percy: After I was separated from you, Ramue captured me... and I was imprisoned in the tower of Marion Castle. Then...when Marion Castle was about to be recaptured, Ramue placed that deadly mask on me...	I pointed out earlier that Percy refers to having an "ominous mask" forced on him by Ramue and said I'd return to it later. Well, later is now. As seen in Annie's variant, attempts to heal Percy not only fail but he is immediately aware of just how doomed he is. These lines do the same job they did in the sparing Percy scenario: they tell/remind the player of how Percy was captured and cursed by Ramue. This version goes a little further however with that one word difference. Why would Percy call the mask 'ominous' in the sparing route but 'deadly' in the death route? Because, I suspect, the mask's curse is the thing actually killing him. That would explain why the battle is so easy. Ramue expects him to win or to die in battle thanks to her curse. Hell she might very well have intended for the curse to kill him even if he won that fight. As for the three variants the differences are superficial. They say the same thing.
Percy: Then... with my own hands, I... Lord Kevins... Percy: Then... I... became a minion of their evil group.	The branching once again depends on Annie, Samson, or Edward being present. It's trying to say the same thing in both but not quite getting there. The first obviously is guilt over what happened to Lord Kevins while the second is a more generic "I can't believe I fell in with them!" type of statement. It's the difference between active and passive voice. The passive ends up sounding dismissive of his role with Shutat's bunch. Granted there's never any point in the game where Percy does anything evil on camera as the Black Knight. He's still sort of admitting that he was following orders by calling himself a minion.
[%Character] shudders. IF Tont variant then also nod.	For some odd reason the Tont version has him nodding. Annie, Samson, and Edward just play the shudder animation. Tont gets the nod on top.
Annie: No, Percy! You freed Lord Kevins, and he saved us. [sic] You're not a murderer. Didn't you help us in Bandore? While you were controlled by them, you still had the strength to resist. Edward/Samson: That's not true! You freed Lord Kevins and he rescued us. You're not a murderer. You were the one who saved us in Bandore, right? Though they controlled your mind, you were still fighting with your will, right? Tont: You were the one who saved us in Bandore, right? Though they controlled your mind, you were still fighting with your will, right?	Because of the variance in Percy's preceding line this direct response changes in meaning due to the context it's delivered in. For the first two this is a rebuke of Percy's guilt. The implication is that Percy's memory of what he did in and around Bandore has been corrupted to paint him as a miserable failure. These two are worded almost identically. The third is only delivered by Tont (Finn being silent and Domino and Lorele having joined up post-Bandore). He doesn't mention Kevins even though he can be present when the captured soldier is found in Bandore's dungeon. I will also note that Annie says Percy "still had the strength to resist" with the thing being resisted implied to be the curse. The second and third variants are worded "you were still fighting with your will" which doesn't mean quite the same thing. They're both trying to convey that from deep within his own mind, in a state sort of locked in by Ramue's curse, Percy struggled to overcome the magic warping his mind. It sounds a bit awkward because a person's will isn't separate from them, from their mind. Will is part of the mind. Thus if the mind is being controlled so is the will.
Percy: ... Thanks, Annie. That does make me feel... better. Percy: Thank you. Your words... help... a little... Percy: ...Thank you. Your words... help... a little...	After being told he isn't as evil as he had come to believe the dying Percy's reaction is one of relief. All three variants state as much directly. In fact the only difference between variants two and three is that version three leads with a set of ellipses.
Percy shudders.
Percy: Finn... please forgive me. I wasn't strong enough.	Percy and the resulting animation from Finn will only occur if Finn is present for Percy to apologize to. What exactly he's apologizing for he doesn't say. In the variants where he precedes this by apologizing for failing to help Lord Kevins this line comes off as a generic "sorry I couldn't break free" sort of thing. When that doesn't happen this apology becomes a stand-in for potentially everything that's gone wrong with Percy. And in the variant where he can't give an apology to Annie, Samson, Edward, or Finn the contrition part of the dialogue tree vanishes entirely.
Finn nods. Lorele steps forward.	If Finn's scripted position prior to this point didn't put him next to Percy it is at this point, before nodding, that he moves in closer. Lorele only moves forward if she's the only character hanging back. Thus she won't move if Annie is present because that branch moves the rest of the party in later.
Percy shudders twice. OR No animation from him.	In the second variant there is, for no apparent reason, nothing programmed where Percy plays the shudder animation in the other two variants. A strange omission or perhaps oversight on a developer's part. This omission does speed up that branch slightly because the text cannot continue printing until the animation is finished.
Percy: I... couldn't... stop them,...[sic] but I know... you can. Percy: I... couldn't... stop them... But I know... you can. Percy: I... couldn't... defeat them,...[sic] but I know... you people can.	The first variant, questionable punctuation and all, is for Annie. The second is for Edward and Samson. The third is for everyone else. There's no real difference between them. All three express Percy's dying hope that Finn and company will be able to succeed where he failed at halting Shutat's plans.
Advancing this dialogue causes Percy to shudder. OR [no animation between these lines]	There are a number of "advancing dialogue causes an animation in one of the characters" but if Annie isn't present the branch doesn't include these for Percy while he is saying his final words. It's just so odd why. It's not like it's something easy to typo during translation. This is a program call to a subroutine. Screwing that up during localization would easily cause the game to crash so I'm inclined to think such differences came from the original game. I suppose it's possible the localization went in and added those animation calls and missed some spots but that seems like a lot of extra work for little gain.
Percy: Shutat and his evil group... Please rid the Common World of them forever.
Advancing this dialogue causes Percy to shudder. OR [no animation between these lines]	If that prior animation isn't present neither is this one.
Percy: And... save this world from being... destroyed... Percy: And... save this world from getting... destroyed...	The "being... destroyed..." variant only seems to appear with Annie. Being destroyed has a better flow than getting destroyed and given that Annie's scenario seems to be the version most intended for players to see it getting a bit more polish isn't surprising.
As the rest of the group steps in close Percy dies. His sprite is removed from the screen through a death animation.	The closing ranks only occurs if Annie is present because of how the rest of the player team was previously spread out around Percy. Other variants have the characters move in close during the initial rush after Percy collapses and thus this step isn't needed.
All characters on the team shudder as one. OR [%Character] shudders.	There has to be more than one character still standing for any of the group-wide animations to actually be applicable across more than one sprite.
Annie: Percy! Samson: Percy! Edward: Percy!	Same line, three characters. Everyone else remains silent.
Annie turns and walks south, when she reaches her destination the rest of the group turns to face her Samson turns and walks towards the northern wall, shudders, when he reaches his destination the rest of the group turns to face him Edward turns and walks one step north, shudders Tont turns and walks one step to the right then turns back, shudders Lorele turns and walks south then turns back, shudders	Domino is apparently too cool to react by doing the slow walk away but I suppose to be fair this is the first time he's even seen Percy and the game makes it clear that he's no stranger to death. Finn cedes the scene to everyone else and has no reaction of his own. The direction and number of steps each variant takes is different because their starting positions aren't the same. Annie and Lorele head south because they were already standing by that open stretch of cavern. Edward and Tont conversely are constrained by starting near walls so they don't have as much space to work with.
Annie: My brother... Lord Kevins... the King of Barbaros and... all the others. Edward/Samson: ... Percy... Lord Kevins... the King of Barbaros and... all the others... Tont/Domino/Lorele: Because of them... so many people have been hurt. We must stop them to prevent this from happening again...	The first two are lists of specific characters harmed by the Vicious Ones. It should be noted that at this point in the plot the party still believes that Lord Kevins died in the volcano. While hearing the king of Barbaros's final words is required to advance the plot none of the three characters who mention him are required to be there. It just strikes me as a bit awkward because the third variant, which Lorele will use, is just a generic lament about how much damage Shutat's crew has done to the world. Given the fact that her father is among the List of the Dead it is a little odd that she has so little to say.
[Advancing this text causes the %Character to play an animation.]	For those who still have their back to the rest of the group this is the prompt for them to turn around. Tont, Domino, and Lorele nod even though they're just responding to their own dialogue.
Annie: For everyone's sake, we must... defeat Shutat... how cruel... I can't let this go on. Edward/Samson: For everyone's sake, we must defeat Shutat... We cannot allow these cruel acts any longer! Tont: For everyone's sake we must... defeat Shutat's group... these cruel acts shall not be forgiven. Domino: We must... defeat Shutat's group... these cruel acts shall not be forgiven. Lorele: For everyone's sake... we must... defeat Shutat's group... These cruel acts shall not be forgiven.	The game has a ton of variants for this specific line. A lot of work went into writing what are different lines saying basically the same. Domino's the only odd duck of the bunch. His version is truncated and doesn't bother with the "for everyone's sake" part. He just gets to the desire to kick Shutat's butt.
BRANCH [no animation between these lines]	This being used seems to depend primarily on Annie being present.
Samson: So true. We must get to them as soon as possible. Edward: That's right. We can't let them continue. Let's hurry up and find Shutat. Domino: So true. We must get to them as soon as possible.	This is a direct response to the prior line of dialogue. It only serves to reinforce what's already been said.
ELSE [%Character] nods.	This and the following dialogue require more then one character to still be standing since the character who adds this line is always different from the preceding speaker.
Edward: Yes, no more. Let's hurry and find them. Lorele: That's right. We must defeat them as soon as possible. Domino: We must... defeat Shutat's group... these cruel acts shall not be forgiven.

Throughout this I've used the term branch a lot and I want to make clear that I'm using it only in the sense of illustrating where these scenes differ. I'm not making a concrete statement about how Beyond the Beyond is programmed. It's entirely possible that there are several complete copies of these scenes with all the animation programming (or lack thereof) in them. That's certainly an option.

 

And now for some compare and contrast because these two scenes in the game mirror one another so much.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

1. Both start with Percy speaking from just offscreen.
2. This is the "identifying who it is" part of the scene. Both occur in two stages. Sir Galahad is the first one out of the house and yells to those inside. In the Sand Cave the Black Knight doesn't answer the question because of mind control so his identity isn't fully revealed until after the battle.
3. Is Percy all right? No, of course he isn't.
4. The Heal Glow commences.
5. An addendum to #4. Sir Galahad acknowledges that there really is visibleglowing. By the time the kids reach the Sand Cave they're probably used to seeing it.
6. The dying Percy finds whatever meager comfort he can from either the words of his friends or from seeing his family one last time.
7. Asking questions like "what the hell happened to you?" is rather expected given the situation. In the Sand Cave no one asks but even though Percy is dying he's still able to calmly spit out in complete sentences a basic summary of what happened to him. By that point he has already delivered a near-death monologue once so he's had some practice.
8. After reaching the point where those on scene generally accept that nothing can be done for Percy Annie's reaction shows a marked change in character for her. In Isla she's in deep denial - which works out for Percy - but by the Sand Cave she has enough composure and self-control to realize not only the limits of her power but what she can do to comfort her dying brother.
9. Annie, of course, doesn't give up easily even when, as in Isla, she has little control over the magic coursing through her body. Too bad nobody thought to bring Spirit Water on the journey. Would have been handy in the Sand Cave.
10. Gathering around the fallen.
11. After being healed in Isla Percy boldly states that he'd rather die than be called a coward. In the Sand Cave being a coward is the only way he can break Ramue's curse.
12. How could I not contrast Samson telling Percy that they'll get him to safety with the one time in the game a character is carried to safety... who happens coincidentally to be Percy right after his first near death experience.

 

This has been a rather somber update so let's end it on a silly note. Some games try to maintain the illusion of space by animating characters walking up stairs. Beyond the Beyond doesn't bother. It just counts on either sprites disappearing too fast for the player to notice or screen transitions to mask what happens. So of course I pulled the frame of Annie standing on the upper portion of the stairs in her family's house before the game could despawn her sprite. It becomes blatantly ridiculous when seen like this.

This is from one of my earliest runs at testing the Black Knight scene and was done while doing a sequence-breaking test recruiting characters handed out by the plot way out of order. I started with a Finn + Annie + Percy save in Marion Town, ran to Bandore to collect Domino, then picked up Tont and headed over to the Sand Cave. As seen previously the moment the Black Knight scene is triggered Knight!Percy's sprite gets swapped for the unmasked Black Knight. Strangely enough as the knight started to speak the game had Percy, Steiner, and Tont all facing the wrong way. I like to think we're just keeping watch for monsters.

Once the dimmer switch was flipped Steiner, who the game really doesn't know what to do with in this scenario, moved behind Finn without being turned around.

Then the Black Knight slew Percy. This wasn't planned. If I had I would have taken steps to make sure it happened. Several turns later Tont also died. For such an extremely low level group that isn't surprising.

Because Percy died in the battle the game does what it's supposed to and removes his sprite from the world. Dead characters shouldn't be walking and talking, after all. But since I didn't use any attack-boosting codes and this was a nearly minimal level team killing the Black Knight was impossible. Thus the scene that followed was all about the slain Percy surviving the curse.

That lad's got problems. That's what I'm saying.

 

Next time on Beyond the Beyond - there's still a lot to cover so bonus material shall roll on!

Update One hundred and nine | Index | Update One hundred and eleven