I
It was hard to breath, the very air around me pressed into my skin. Like it weighed hundreds of times it's normal mass.
But my focus drew somewhere else, the intense gaze pierced my soul. The blood, and the scent of iron drafting through the heavy air.
The sun set drawing a warm orange accross the contrasting bloody field. The fight, no. The massacre that laid infront of my blood stained sword was the friends and family i'd come to know over my years as a mercenary.
And their killer, a man draped in pearl white, stained by blood and iron. His azure blue hair waved in the wind as he dragged his sword out of a corpse.
Anastasia.
Her body dropped to the ground lifeless, a gaping hole in her chest where her heart beat, as I could only stare in a mix of hopelessness and rage.
"The end of this farce has come."
His words made me choke on my struggled breaths, the air grew heavier. My hands were clammy with sweat as my grip on my sword tightened.
He stepped near, swiping off the blood from his sword as he approached. The air swirling from his presence alone.
His sword raised as the sun reflected of the edges, showing it's crisp sharpened blade.
Suddenly the sun was rising, the world shifted and I saw an upside down world.
'Oh, I died.'
In a motion swifter than I could possibly see I was beheaded, my vision darkened as I was swallowed by darkness.
-:-?-:-
Psk!
A soda can popped open, as soft chugging followed. The creaking of a chair and the dim light of a moniter showing off the movement of a man leaning back in his chair, chugging the soda while staring intently at the message on his screen.
[GAME OVER]
"Damnit, another bad ending."
He leans forward into the light, eyebags present under his black eyes. His bangs slightly drapping over his face as he looks in annoyance.
"How long does it take to 100% this damn game, I can't keep doing allnighters like this."
A heavy sigh echoes, rubbing his eyes and face around out of annoyance he clicks his screen ready to start anew.
[Restart?]
-:-:-
"How many has this been? Oh right, it's 247 now."
The total calculated full playthrough time is 37 hours, specifically 37 hours, 22 minutes, and 4 seconds. That was my record, and I have a little too much time on my hands.
'Well had, because all of that got taken up by this damn game. '
[Beyond]
'A single player rpg game that's been out for quite a while, it's not very big but it's still my favorite as of current.'
The monitor brightens a bit showing off the main title screen, one that I was far too used to. The disk case reflecting some of the light around, giving my messy room some presence.
'The reason I loved this game wasn't because of something stupid like graphics or the girls.'
I mean sure it did have pretty good graphics for it's time, but the cubic figures shown otherwise as I took a gulp of my soda.
[Beyond] released in the year 2000, only officially being popularized in 2012. Though I started playing it since launch.
"15 whole years and this is what I got."
A list of the many endings presented it'self on screen, 3,000 bad endings and 2 good endings. 2,780 bad endings cleared, and 1 good ending cleared.
'Thankfully not every bad ending had you restart completely. This would have taken a lot longer.'
I clicked through the many different screens until I finally reached the character selection screen. The blocky pixelated characters lined up, each wearing different outfits and different stat menu's popped up.
I've played all of them, and my favorite so far was...
[Would you like to select Lucy?]
The characters black hair and girly name showed prominent. Him being the only character to posess such a color.
"He's so ass."
I looked at his stats and only stared in amusement.
Const - 4
Dex - 3
Wis - 2
The other selectable characters started off with stats around 20 or so, compared to them this is just an unplayable character. Yet he was the character with the most potential.
His early-game was ass, yet his end-game was unparralled.
'Yet I keep losing.'
[Yes]
[Loading...]
[Loading complete]
[Please choose a starting intrinsic skill]
"My favorite part."
Intrinsic skill, a skill given from the start of the game. To put it simply you had a gamble of starting off a playthrough with a broken skill.
I say gamble because-
[Randomly generating skills]
In total there is 765 skills in the game, each put through a randomizer and thrown out for a gamble. The player only allowed 3 rerolls per playthrough.
[Skills generated]
[Loading...]
[Loading complete]
Clicking through the menu 3 skills appear on the screen, a reroll button sitting underneath marked by the number 3.
[Chaos]
[Breath]
[Swordsmanship]
"Oh?"
'This is actually a really good roll.'
The three skills in question were mostly good in their own rights.
[Swordsmanship] being pretty face front, as it gives the user the ability to use a sword instinctively.
'A skill that can be learned in-game, but is still damn good to have early on.'
[Breath] a skill that boosts the concentration and focus of the user through controlled breathing.
'Sounds minimal in text but actual use increases accuracy and will in-battle. This game's pretty cryptic with it's stuff.'
And finally, one I wasn't sure about.
[Chaos]
In all the time i've played this game i've only heard this skill mentioned by other people. It was an odd skill that most deter against since the activation conditions were unknown.
'The skill itself was rare as hell, but it's pretty ass if I don't know what it does.'
I stared at the screen, contemplating my decision. [Swordsmanship] was the obvious go to here, but yet [Chaos] stuck in my head.
"A virtually unknown skill and a missing good ending."
I smirked, something had to be adding up.
'Seeing as the other good ending could only be achieved by playing [Sam] and marrying the final boss, there had to be a specific condition for this one.'
[Would you like to select chaos as your intrinsic skill?]
[Yes]
[Loading...]
[Loading complete]
"Alright."
I crack my knuckles, and stretch, fixing my position in the chair.
"Playthrough 248 is a go."