In short, what was this situation that I have found myself in right now? Itâs simple, really.
· Iâm back to running half-naked since I canât equip anything on my torso and legs.· Weak monsters are now going to avoid encounters with me.· The curse resistance may come as a pretty solid buff in the future.· Does that mean my character is no longer a beginner, but an intermediate or even advanced?
ăIsnât thatâŠâŠ something taken straight out of a shitty game?ă
What is this? Does this mean the gods of the shitty games have finally decided to smite me for my attempt at abandoning them in favor of a better game? Is that what this is all about? Was my godly ShanFro going to take a turn for the worst shitty game possible? No,no, no. Calm down, me. Think about this carefully.
In order to persevere through the shittiest of shitty games one needed three basic virtues: tolerant mind to suffer through even the stupidest of scenarios, patience to overcome the broken AI and a calm mind to withstand the saltiness of a sudden failure.
ăLetâs try to summarize the events thus farâŠâŠă\nFirst order of business: with fifty more ability points to dispense to my statistics, it was about time for some major upgrades. My current standing was a critical hit fighter with high luck and paper-thin defenses, so it may turn out that leveling up like that may become harder in the near future. Additionally, I donât think that the Curse Mark of Luukan is going to be a demerit only.
ăâŠâŠâŠ Now that I think about it.ă
What happened to that monster after the encounter had ended? Usually when monsters get far enough away from the player they are going to disappear and reappear after some time in their initial spawning position. But how great of a distance would that be? It was something to think about, since the Full Dive games didnât really have loading times at all, and are very closely resembling reality.
ăThatâs right.ă
Now it would be a good time to invest some of those points in my HP and Vitality. But not too much, since making myself a tank in my current position wouldnât be that efficient to begin with. Whatâs more important here is my ability to be able to catch up to any monsters that would try to run away from me from now on. My conditionâŠâŠ Overall staminaâŠâŠ Some skills would be nice as well, just to be on the safe sideâŠâŠ And yes, the fact that Luukan didnât finish me instantly and that I was left with only 1 HP must have been Luck-related.
\nNot to mention that both of my naked torso and legs were covered with dark bite marksâŠâŠ the marks of the curse.
Both the vest and the trousers got damaged and disappeared during the fight, as if itâs the most natural thing for them to do. No matter how many times I check in the status screen, the equipment slots taken by the curse marks are still there and are not disappearing.
Guess I need to accept the fact that I was going to look like a total creep and pervert for quite some time now.
ăOh well, not that I can do anything about it. What would you like me to do in the face of a hardship inside of the game? Lay on the ground and cry about it?âŠâŠ No thanks.ă
I must say, I am really pleasantly surprised by this game. With the goal of defeating the Night Prowler Luukan in mind, my determination skyrocketed.
This curse causes the protagonist to run around half-naked again, but generally there are three types of curses in ShangriLa Frontier.
First, there are âmagicâ curses which the magic casters and some monsters can use. They are more like actual magic attacks rather than real curses.
Next, there are âPlotâ curses, unique status effects granted to the player upon reaching certain plot points in the game storyline or while doing side quests. A good example would be a curse that activated during a quest like âInvestigate the Haunted Houseâ, which would continuously drain your sanity points for the whole duration of the investigation.
Finally there are the âCurse Marksâ granted by the unique monsters. It is a system incorporated to give some sort of gratification for getting parts of your equipment destroyed, but at the same time being a huge demerit that directly interferes with the game system.
However, the demerits hugely outweigh the merits, since for example some monsters might run away from you.
Technically the curse marks can stack their effects, but it is not wise to do so, since the popularity of your characters with the NPCs tends to drop tremendously while under the effects of them.
Even if some of the monsters may be treated as gods by the NPCs, the players that bear their curse marks are nothing more than objects of scorn and contempt.