Laniequest: The Blog

Special abilities: Vampire touch, time.

Weapon of choice: Camera, cogs.

Chelci’s camera serves two purposes: Freezing time and temporarily blinding the player. The camera can be used to snap a picture, which freezes the image it takes in time. If the player has their picture taken, time will stop and they will be unable to move or attack. They are released from this moment when Chelci rips the picture in half, dealing heavy damage to the player. Another use for the camera’s freeze-frame ability is to use the player’s own weapons against them. There will be certain times during the battle where Chelci will be positioned out of melee range, and can only be hit with ranged attacks. If she is able to snap a picture of the attack before it reaches her, the thrown item will be removed from the battle field and kept in the photo she has taken. Destroying the picture releases the item from time stasis, so if the player is in front of the item when it is released, they will be hit.

Chelci will need to continually reload the film throughout the battle to use her freeze-frame ability. If at any point, she forgets to reload the film (which will happen randomly), the player will not be frozen in time, but the flash from the camera will still go off, potentially blinding the player for a short period of time.

Another method Chelci uses to inflict damage is her vampire touch ability, in which she saps health from the player to replenish her own. This can be avoided by maintaining a safe distance, but doing so will require the use of ranged weapons, which can be used against the player if they are not careful. 

Lastly, Chelci will sometimes throw clockwork cogs at the player. They don’t deal a lot of damage, but getting hit by one will stagger the player, making them more likely to be hit by more cogs and/ or leave them in a position that will allow Chelci to snap their picture to deal more damage.

Weaknesses: Chelci’s vampire status leaves her vulnerable to fire damage. Lightning does not do as much damage as fire, but she has a very low success rate of capturing lightning in a picture, so it can be used as an effective ranged attack. Chelci does not fight with any melee weapons, leaving her defenses lowered against melee attacks, but this will also put the player in range of her vampire drain ability.

Most effective strategy: Avoid letting her take your picture by moving and jumping around as much and as quickly as possible. Try to stay behind her when using ranged attacks to prevent her from using freeze-frame on your attack. Getting behind her is most easily done when she is reloading her film. Melee attacks do a lot of damage since she can’t defend against them, but watch out for her vampire drain. Again, she is most vulnerable when she is reloading her camera, so strike her a few times, then jump away. Defeating her relies more on agility and creativity than brute force. Stay in constant motion and keep your attacks varied, and she will be defeated easily.

Prince Sarah: ANYWAY, HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT MOST OF OUR CONVERSATIONS

Prince Sarah: ARE SPECULATION ABOUT CREATIVE THINGS

Prince Sarah: AND NEVER ACTUALLY PUTTING THEM INTO MOTION

Chelsea: It’s definitely a trend.

Chelsea: When we’re not complaining about something.

Prince Sarah: YEAH

Prince Sarah: I THINK IT SAYS A LOT

Prince Sarah: ABOUT OUR PERSONALITIES

Prince Sarah: WHICH IS TO SAY

Chelsea: lol

Prince Sarah: WE HAVE REALLY GOOD IDEAS

Prince Sarah: BUT ARE ALSO REALLY LAZY.

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I was struck by the inspiration monster that is Meredith when we were discussing LanieQuest earlier. They made a passing comment about summons, and the following wall of text is what came into my head immediately.

First of all, summons work sort of like how they work in Kingdom Hearts, except they’re actually useful and don’t suck. They’re like a cross between summons and guest party members like Auron or Beast or Mulan.

The similarity to KH summons lies in the fact that summons come into battle and act on their own while you continue to control your character uninterrupted, but they are only allowed to be on the field for a certain amount of time before they have to leave.

The similarity to KH guest party members comes from them actually attacking with their own moves and actually being useful, and also from the special move ability that each character offers. So in Kingdom Hearts, if Beast is your guest, you have the Stalwart Fang ability that can only be used between Sora and Beast. Each of your friends has their own special move that they bring to the battle, but the summon aspect comes back into play by limiting the number of times you can use that ability in battle.

In the beginning of the game, your summoned friend leaves as soon as the special move is used, but you can choose when to use it. So if you cast the ability as soon as they come on the field, they won’t be there very long, but if you wait until a couple of seconds before they’re supposed to leave anyway, you will still be able to use their special attack. Kind of like in FFXIII when you summon an eidolon, you can have them fight alongside you until time runs out, or you can send them into gestalt mode as soon as they arrive. 

The more you level up, the longer your friends will be able to stay on the field, even after you use a special ability. This allows you to use a special ability more than once per battle, but the remaining time they have on the field is cut in half each time the ability is used.

Also, as you level up, you can unlock more slots to have up to 3 friends on the field with you, instead of just one. Each combination of friends brings their own special abilities to the table, and you can choose which combination of friends to use. Meaning if you have Rob, Charles, and Chelci on the field with you, you can choose to use the special ability between just you and Chelci, or you, Chelci, and Charles, or the ability used between all four of you.

For each friend that you add to the special, the attack is more powerful, but more time is taken away from their time on the field. If you use the 4 person special, all summons will be dismissed as soon as it ends, regardless of how much time is left. Late in the game, there will be a sidequest you can go on to increase the amount of times you can use the 4 person special. The limit will be increased to 3 instead of one.

Lastly, in the final battle with the King of Games (me), you realize that I am not the real King of Games and you’re only fighting my image. The real King of Games has been manipulating all of your friends to fight against you the whole time, and your real friends would never be that cruel to you. Once you realize this, my game spirit is freed from the King of Games and my summon power becomes yours. 

Gaining my summon power unlocks your full summon potential, and you’re able to summon all of your friends at once to fight alongside you to defeat the King of Games (who is a real mofo, and you’re going to need all the help you can get). With all of your friends on the field at once, you can no longer use group specials and are limited to only doing special attacks with only one other friend, but for the rest of the battle duration, you work on building your “friendship power” to perform a massive special.

When you get the King of Games’s health all the way down, a reaction command will appear to trigger the mass special, which is cutscene power to the max of you and all of your friends delivering an enormously powerful attack to finish the King of Games for good with the power of friendship.

I’m really proud of my summon system.