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[GUST] Games. Atelier Ryza is now out, post your opinions here.

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Posts

  • TangentialTangential Registered User regular
    They also put the Surge Concerto logo on the box art for god only knows what reason.

    This would be funny if it wasn't so incomprehensible and depressing.
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  • TakelTakel Registered User regular
    Very very VERY initial impressions:

    I'm not entirely satisfied with the localisation job. It's certainly not an incomprehensible engrish mess (and thank god for that) but the localisation doesn't have that much character in it. The meaning is pretty much there but I feel like they're trimming the lines way too much in places and I'm afraid nuances in the script may get missed.

    Steam | PSN: MystLansfeld | 3DS: 4656-6210-1377 | FFXIV: Lavinia Lansfeld
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    Donnicton wrote: »
    In today's episode of "how much can corporate PR downplay an issue"...

    http://www.koeitecmoamerica.com/shallie/#notice
    There has been a minor issue reported for Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea:

    The "Growth System" - unlocked when a player reaches level 40 (around 10 hours in)- freezes when opened. Gust is working on a solution to this problem but in the meantime it is recommended that players do not access this system when prompted and that they save their game after the completion of the tutorial.

    This has no serious effect on the player experience.

    Please keep checking our website and official channels for more information and updates.

    Well, they've officially crossed the line from "lazy incompetents" to "lazy incompetent assholes".

  • TangentialTangential Registered User regular
    After checking Japanese screen shots, I think I've figured out the problem with the Life Task stuff. They're mistranslated, but not in the way I initially thought. The tasks are either something they thought up, or descended from some previously thought-up task. The ones in the second category are 100% mistranslated so they look like something in the first.

    Example. A task like "Gather 10 food items" might be a prerequisite for "Kill 3 dragons" later. That second task will be called "Gather 10 food items" because that's the task that made them think about killing dragons (for whatever insane reason). It was like this in the Japanese version too, but it was more clearly defined as a parent task and not the current one. Still confusing, but by removing that, they make it even more so. If I was translating it, I'd have just renamed those tasks to be something abstract since you're forcing people into the descriptions anyway, but the lack of thought and QA throughout isn't in question.

    Short version is: ALWAYS check the second page to see what the actual requirements are, even if the task has what seems like clear and obvious instructions in the title.

  • TangentialTangential Registered User regular
    They've been posting these five tweets every 3 hours for the last eight hours.



    Who says irony is dead?

  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    Tangential wrote: »
    They've been posting these five tweets every 3 hours for the last eight hours.



    Who says irony is dead?

    I'm at least glad they've been admitting it was a serious flaw on their end. The localization is still pretty trash, and they need to be reminded about it often. But as SAO proved, people can tolerate a shoddy localization if the rest of the game works out.

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  • TangentialTangential Registered User regular
    Quiotu wrote: »
    Tangential wrote: »
    They've been posting these five tweets every 3 hours for the last eight hours.



    Who says irony is dead?

    I'm at least glad they've been admitting it was a serious flaw on their end.

    But they're not. It's a "minor issue" and "has no serious effect on the player experience."

  • vagrant_windsvagrant_winds Overworked Mysterious Eldritch Horror Hunter XX Registered User regular
    edited March 2015
    Tangential wrote: »
    Quiotu wrote: »
    Tangential wrote: »
    They've been posting these five tweets every 3 hours for the last eight hours.



    Who says irony is dead?

    I'm at least glad they've been admitting it was a serious flaw on their end.

    But they're not. It's a "minor issue" and "has no serious effect on the player experience."

    At least it can be patched.

    The only way to fully complete Ar tonelico 2's optional content and/or to get through the entire main game without nuking a boss in 3 turns before a hard crash in America is to a) play the European version on a modded PS2 b) play a fan-patched ISO or re-burned copy of the USA version on a modded PS2 c) use an Action Replay cheat device on the PS2 version to overpower your party to get past the encounter or d) play a fan-patched version on a PS2 emulator.

    vagrant_winds on
    // Steam: VWinds // PSN: vagrant_winds //
    // Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    I will be VERY surprised if they patch it.

  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    I will be VERY surprised if they patch it.

    Well truthfully they DID patch Ar Nosurge, and that was about as low key of a game release shy of them just throwing the game out there like Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and going 'Surprise! Enjoy the new game!'

    They didn't even talk about Ar Nosurge's garbage bag of issues, but they still fixed some of them, the ones that weren't on the Japanese retail at least. At least that tells you that if KT decides to sell garbage, it'll be equal garbage in the East and West.

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  • TangentialTangential Registered User regular
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    I will be VERY surprised if they patch it.

    Now that they've announced they are, I think they probably have to.

    But it's baffling to me that they say Gust has to do the work. That speaks to a pretty fucking major problem in their work process... and probably indicates how they keep breaking shit.

  • SwashbucklerXXSwashbucklerXX Swashbucklin' Canuck Registered User regular
    Nah, it's pretty par for the course that the developer has to patch things that go wrong in localization. That's who has the code, and it's also why we don't always get patches. Sometimes the JP developer just doesn't care. Luckily since KT owns Gust, KT can make Gust care.

    Want to find me on a gaming service? I'm SwashbucklerXX everywhere.
  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    Nah, it's pretty par for the course that the developer has to patch things that go wrong in localization. That's who has the code, and it's also why we don't always get patches. Sometimes the JP developer just doesn't care. Luckily since KT owns Gust, KT can make Gust care.

    It's really hard to tell what's going on this time around. Gust could be used to dealing with issues differently when they were working alongside NISA. Gust at the very least SEEMS to care, and KT at the very least seems NOT to care judging by the localization team they use. I am at least tentatively assuming the fault is with the publisher with the shit practices.

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  • TangentialTangential Registered User regular
    Nah, it's pretty par for the course that the developer has to patch things that go wrong in localization. That's who has the code, and it's also why we don't always get patches. Sometimes the JP developer just doesn't care. Luckily since KT owns Gust, KT can make Gust care.

    If the developer and publisher aren't owned by the same people and there are confidentiality and/or proprietary concerns, yes, but as you said, KT owns Gust, so there's absolutely no reason KT-America shouldn't have the tools and workspaces to create developer builds and test themselves.

    Of course, that assumes they care about product quality at all, and aren't just forwarding spreadsheets between Actil and Gust, which from their clear lack of QA and attention to anything they're localizing, they very well may be doing, but this is like, Informatics 101. You take the extra hour of work to get your shit set up right so you don't have to spend ten panicked hours later and who knows how much bad publicity fixing it. It's not a problem limited to KT by any means, but with nearly every single one of their localizations for the last couple years having these kinds of ridiculous problems, I don't understand how it continues to go unaddressed.

    Simply not giving a shit and nobody being held accountable, I guess.

  • SwashbucklerXXSwashbucklerXX Swashbucklin' Canuck Registered User regular
    Quiotu wrote: »
    Nah, it's pretty par for the course that the developer has to patch things that go wrong in localization. That's who has the code, and it's also why we don't always get patches. Sometimes the JP developer just doesn't care. Luckily since KT owns Gust, KT can make Gust care.

    It's really hard to tell what's going on this time around. Gust could be used to dealing with issues differently when they were working alongside NISA. Gust at the very least SEEMS to care, and KT at the very least seems NOT to care judging by the localization team they use. I am at least tentatively assuming the fault is with the publisher with the shit practices.

    Oh yeah, KT is almost certainly the biggest culprit here, and it's certainly not Gust's fault that the localizers managed to break something. I'm just saying that the logistics are probably complicated and I wouldn't be surprised if they involved a lot of spreadsheets being passed around.

    For a niche series with a partty small audience in NA, though, the Atelier localizations aren't half bad ("watar" aside). I'm happy we're still getting them at all and that the voice acting is still pretty decent since the KT takeover. I'm sure the company is cutting corners and I personally think Atelier could have a much bigger audience than it gets if it were actually marketed well, but it could be a lot worse. Hell, I just finished reviewing an RPG by a big ol' company that managed to get the grammar all right and the personality all wrong... including terribly wooden VA performances.

    I'll take Atelier's occasional typos and quirks over that... but not a broken system. That shit needs to be fixed.

    Want to find me on a gaming service? I'm SwashbucklerXX everywhere.
  • TangentialTangential Registered User regular

    For a niche series with a partty small audience in NA, though, the Atelier localizations aren't half bad ("watar" aside).

    The Atelier localizations are all rather abysmal. Text formatting errors, translation errors, optimization problems not in the original, translation inconsistency, crashing glitches, and taking an absolute butcher knife to the voicing have nearly all been present in all of them to some degree or another from even Iris, and they've gotten significantly worse since TK took over.

    You can be happy about getting anything at all, but let's call a duck a duck. They're doing a shameful job no matter the size of the audience and taking a very long time to even do that given the obvious lack of quality control and cutting out 90%+ of the voicing.

  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    See, I'd understand the 'be thankful you got the game' mentality a few game generations ago... not in this age. This is the age of Atlus, XSEED, Level 5, Spike Chunsoft, hell even IF giving us some quality localized product. Sony took a sequel of a three generation old game in Orishika and localized it well.

    KT is living in the past, we've seen quality product come from even small publishers, and them not giving enough of a shit to put in an effort is growing old. I have no quarrel about moving to a different series where the publisher treats the West with some fucking dignity.

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  • SwashbucklerXXSwashbucklerXX Swashbucklin' Canuck Registered User regular
    edited March 2015
    Since I can't speak or read Japanese, I can't detect most of that stuff (and I've never encountered a crash glitch, having played all six PS3 Ateliers). What I've seen from an English speaker only perspective has been pretty par for the course for a series with as much text as Atelier, and better than some long-standing series like Harvest Moon under Natsume. Are there some excellent localization groups that could do better than this? Yes. Is the current localization and VA at least good at getting most information across accurately and presenting cool characters? Yup. I've played much worse, so I figure I might as well be reasonably happy with what we've got from a publisher that isn't exactly in touch with North American gamers.

    It all depends on what you want from your localization. I personally have zero concern over how true the game is to the Japanese original since I'll never experience that, anyway. I just care how entertaining it is to me. I think we have some very different gameplay goals and expectations.

    SwashbucklerXX on
    Want to find me on a gaming service? I'm SwashbucklerXX everywhere.
  • TangentialTangential Registered User regular
    edited March 2015
    Is the current localization and VA at least good at getting most information across accurately

    But this isn't true at all for E&L, Shallie, or even the redone parts of Ayesha+.

    These aren't isolated problems, but systematic issues; things that are easily spotted with minimal QA and are present through the entire game, or things with easily known values, like character limits and line sizes, but nobody ever bothered to look at them in game, or ask what the're supposed to be. Providing something accurate and looks like it was done by professionals is the bare minimum. Shallie's "Next" button is mislabeled as "Send" for fuck's sake. There are typos before you even SEE a main character. The dubbing is completely fucked up. This is just a mess.

    I had heard that aside from the crashing, there were fewer issues with it than E&L, but apparently that was a lie.

    Tangential on
  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    I think we have some very different gameplay goals and expectations.

    You'd have a point if this was the MO for the series the entire time. I'd be more acceptable of it if the quality stayed the same, but ever since KT took over Gust, the quality of the games have gone down. Drastically.

    I'm not expecting KT to be like Atlus when it comes to localization, but if they can't hit NISA levels of translations... that's pretty goddamn bad.

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  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    So put Shallie in and played it up until I could save last night, since last night I also succeeded in getting all 7 of Logy's endings and started NG+ with Escha. A few thoughts.

    I do think Shallie might be the Atelier game where I enjoy the music the most.

    That being said, the sound balancing just might be more atrocious than Ar Nosurge. Music is too loud, some people sound really soft while others blare their lines out. Yeah, I'm... not impressed, but I'll hold judgement until I get a good taste of the combat and character interaction.

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  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    Also a patch 1.01 came out for Shallie that fixes a few things, including the Growth System bug.

    So... yeah, that took a surprisingly short amount of time. Then again it was a VERY obvious bug that got a lot of attention.

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  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    Ohhhhh myyyyy.

    http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2015/03/20-1/sentai-filmworks-licenses-atelier-escha-logy-alchemists-of-the-dusk-sky
    Next in this week's string of Sentai Filmworks license announcements is Atelier Escha & Logy ~Alchemists of the Dusk Sky~. Adapted from the popular Japanese RPG “Atelier” video games series of the same name, this fantasy series is directed by Yoshiaki Iwasaki, with animation production by Studio Gokumi. A continuation from the previous entry into the “Atelier” games, this is the first game in the series to be adapted into an anime.

    Sentai describes the series

    The arrival of the “Dusk End” is at hand, and for those people in the western reaches of the Land of Dusk, time is precious and running out all too quickly. As the finality of their situation becomes a reality and fear and anxiousness sets in, an ancient art once called “Alchemy” is rediscovered, and in order to survive the Dusk End, great effort is put to the task of recreating this technology and gathering their progress in Central, where research into stopping the advance toward the Dusk End is taking place. Having learned the latest teachings in Central, young Logy makes his way to the woefully understaffed town of Colset to make use of his knowlodge. There he meets Escha, the local apprentice girl in the Research and Development Department. Logy, a seasoned user of alchemy, is astonished by Escha’s radical use of technique in her own alchemic endeavors. Though they may not see eye to eye on certain things, they both know why they became alchemists: to help the people of their lands survive and advance. Together they will discover new alchemy techniques and bring the quiet town to life in the adventure of a lifetime: Atelier Escha & Logy ~Alchemists of the Dusk Sky~!

    Atelier Escha & Logy ~Alchemists of the Dusk Sky~ will be available soon through select digital outlets with a home video release to follow.

  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    So I'm through Chapter 5, the part with the first major boss battle, and I'm pretty sure I've seen most of what the game has to offer minus the growth system. Characters are in their 30's and haven't gotten to the Growth System yet. A few comments.

    The battle system will seem really boring until you hit that spot where you have a full front and rear row. By that point you'll be getting ultimate moves and variable strikes. It's E&L's combat, but only the rear row can assist, and they immediately take your place when assisting. Way more skills, way flashier moves, the Break system gives much needed tactics, and position is mercifully not a factor anymore. Personally I think it's a step forward from E&L's improvements; I've had the most fun in this battle system.

    Exploring is about the same, except they add environmental shifts to keep you from farming areas too much. Exploit an area too much and suddenly less monsters/pickings show up in the region, which means there's less items to buy at the shops. It's partially a way to push you to explore, and partially a way to keep you from doing too much of one activity for too long.

    There were some issues with the exploration part. Outlandish leveled bosses will just pop into areas after you clear them, and you'll have to just avoid them until you can take them on. Also, some of the monster events you can unlock in areas are unfair on a fantastic level. I grabbed a lvl 7 'waves of enemies' event when I was around lvl 25, and got wasted by an overpowered wolf in the 6th wave or so. Running from battles is like winning the lottery too it seems, so be SURE you want to fight before starting.

    The life quests basically make your free time open ended to a point. The MC's portrait will fill up as you fulfill requirements, and after doing enough of the three main activities (requests, alchemy, combat), it will prevent any non-story life quests from updating. At this point it will ask you to check out and end the chapter, but you don't have to. So you can continue indefinitely, but after that point you're mostly grinding for gear or levels, and it doesn't really affect your chapter score.

    The alchemy/imbuing is distinctly different, where the biggest concerns are the number of elements and skillslots in ingredients. The alchemy seems more of a slow and steady grind this time more than anything else, and it's not as streamlined as previous versions. I'm getting the hang of it, and hopefully will get it down like I did with Ayesha's later on.

    I am having serious fun with the game though, and I'm getting that Meruru vibe of 'I know you, and you, and you, and you' as I keep going. I just beat a practice enemy Wilbell summoned that had 150k HP... I swear that's just practice to use the Break system. I beat the shit outta that sheep for over 30 minutes before shaving all the HP off. Not much of a payoff either, hope something else happens later.

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  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    Chapter 9 now, second evolution of the battle theme hit. I can honestly say Stella and Sweep! are a few of my favorite battle themes now.

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  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    I should add in this thread that there's a few Gust games that are pretty cheap as part of the Golden Week sale. Atelier Rorona Plus, Escha & Logy, and Ar NoSurge are all on sale for $20 or less. All of them are pretty much worth that price at least, if you wanted to check them out.

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  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    So here's something I wasn't expecting.

    http://koeitecmoeurope.tumblr.com/post/118279262215/ar-nosurge-plus-ode-to-an-unborn-star-for-the

    Looks like Ar NoSurge Plus is coming to Vita in Europe July 1st, and to NA the next day. Some DLC is added, the costumes work, new purification partners, new tutorial, synth shop events have a menu now.

    Still unsure if I can recommend the game due to the absolutely wonky localization, but it's definitely a thing now.

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  • BonepartBonepart Registered User regular
    Quiotu wrote: »
    So here's something I wasn't expecting.

    http://koeitecmoeurope.tumblr.com/post/118279262215/ar-nosurge-plus-ode-to-an-unborn-star-for-the

    Looks like Ar NoSurge Plus is coming to Vita in Europe July 1st, and to NA the next day. Some DLC is added, the costumes work, new purification partners, new tutorial, synth shop events have a menu now.

    Still unsure if I can recommend the game due to the absolutely wonky localization, but it's definitely a thing now.

    I had plenty of issues with the game, but I think I'll have to pick this up anyway. Still a fan of the series!

    XBL Gamertag: Ipori
  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    I'll just be happy with no Delay Burst crash.

  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    Oh mah lawd, new game series being developed by GUST.

    Spoiler'd for size
    kPvyQUa.jpg

    http://www.siliconera.com/2015/05/12/gusts-new-project-announced-as-land-of-no-night-for-ps4-ps3-and-vita/
    While it’s not exactly the 14th of May in Japan yet, it happens to land on the day Japanese video game magazines publish weekly, and details are already available. This week’s issue of Famitsu magazine details Land of No Night, a new project by Atelier makers Gust. [Thanks, Game Jouhou]

    Keisuke Kikuchi, known for his work in the Deception and Fatal Frame series, will be in charge of the upcoming action RPG for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita.

    Land of No Night takes place on an island known as “Le Soir” (meaning “the evening” in French) and will tell the tale of the fate of two girls. Using magic swords and demon subordinates known as “Servan,” Land of No Night is described as an action RPG with a refreshing sense of cooperation.

    The protagonist is a half-fairy girl named Arnath [アーナス] voiced by MAO, and a saint named Rulitis [リュリーティス] voiced by Hiromi Igarashi. Keep in mind that we aren’t certain of the official romanizations for either of those names, since Japanese developers have a tendency to pick odd names.

    The general producer for Land of No Night is Tadanobu Inoue, who has been working at Gust after having worked at Falcom. Meanwhile, the development producer is Keisuke Kikuchi, and as previously mentioned, has worked on Deception and Fatal Frame titles.

    While we’ve yet to see any visuals for the game, the illustrator has been announced as Yoshiku. You can cehck out some of his artwork on his Pixiv profile and his official blog.

    Land of No Night will release in Japan on August 27, 2015 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita.

  • vagrant_windsvagrant_winds Overworked Mysterious Eldritch Horror Hunter XX Registered User regular
    It's so fucking pretty!

    // Steam: VWinds // PSN: vagrant_winds //
    // Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
  • TakelTakel Registered User regular
    It's so fucking pretty!

    Why yes, I think I will visit that pixiv profile...

    And hellooooooooo new phone background

    Steam | PSN: MystLansfeld | 3DS: 4656-6210-1377 | FFXIV: Lavinia Lansfeld
  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    Definitely have to keep an eye on this. Gust tends to have enough diversity to make more than just two series, so hopefully this allows them to branch out a bit, and with some fresh talent from the sound of it.

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  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    As long as there's no shades of pedophilia or rape jokes I'll get it.

  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    I joked a while ago that somehow Gust would link Ar Tonelico and Atelier as being in the same universe, even in jest. Now here I am playing Atelier Shallie and there's singing automatons.

    Oh Gust, you so silly...

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  • vagrant_windsvagrant_winds Overworked Mysterious Eldritch Horror Hunter XX Registered User regular
    Looks like Atelier Rorona Minus for 3DS bombed in Japan for the most part. Only 8k sales.

    Which makes sense. The original version for PS3 sold lots and the even better remake for Vita/PS3 sold more and after those come out they release a shittier 3DS downport as an experiment. They really should have gone for an origional game if they were testing the current Nintendo handheld audience again.

    // Steam: VWinds // PSN: vagrant_winds //
    // Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
  • BonepartBonepart Registered User regular
    The name itself tells you to stay away. Who thought adding "Minus" to the name of a game was a good idea??

    XBL Gamertag: Ipori
  • vagrant_windsvagrant_winds Overworked Mysterious Eldritch Horror Hunter XX Registered User regular
    edited June 2015
    Bonepart wrote: »
    The name itself tells you to stay away. Who thought adding "Minus" to the name of a game was a good idea??

    It's actually named "Plus", the same as the Vita and PS3 remakes. But it's clearly a downport so Minus is what the fans have named it.

    Here's a screen from the 3DS version for reference.
    8lyCpSg.jpg

    Now here's a screen from the original PS3 version (top) and the remake on Vita/PS3 (bottom).
    CB7JAZW.jpg

    vagrant_winds on
    // Steam: VWinds // PSN: vagrant_winds //
    // Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    Yeah, that looks mighty dumb, especially when you're up against games like Bravely Default, Fire Emblem, and Persona Q. The 3DS has less competition for JRPGs than the Vita, but their JRPGs don't fuck around. That's not the market to half-ass on.

    Also, hit Ch. 10 in Shallie. In the home stretch, and I notice in the last chapter they don't block the side quests during the main story. I would gather that beating the final boss simply ends the game like most other JRPGs and unlike most Ateliers. Got a few friendships to 100% still in that case.

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  • QuiotuQuiotu Registered User regular
    Alright, well they're not fucking around with this difficulty level. I've had some issues with bosses but could get by easy. I got to the end boss at lvl 75 and got slowly destroyed. That boss is all about speed on the harder levels, because once he has Water Prison up three or four times, there's no good end to that fight.

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