Vocab Sheet , thank you to everyone who has been helping with this.
We also have an arts sheet if you’re struggling with the in-game version.
Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.
Discussion Guidelines
Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
If necessary, include an explanation of any discrepancies in the Ebook page numbers from physical page numbers. If there is an easy shortcut for some ebook versions to relate back to physical page numbers, it would be worth it to include it as a third bullet here, or if you want to use chapter page numbers instead of volume page numbers, as is the case with some manga. For example:
Example
For the Kindle version of this manga, the page numbers and the location number are always 3 apart. If you subtract 3 from the location, this will give you the accurate page number!
OR
Please use the chapter page numbers, instead of the volume page numbers. These are located in between the panels!
Discussion Questions
What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
How’s the tournament?
What do you make of the information Nial got you?
Who do you think sent you this letter, and how?
Participation
Will you be playing along with us this week?
I’m playing along
I have finished this part
I’m still playing the game but I haven’t reached this part yet
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0voters
If you’ve already played this game but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”
Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!
Am I supposed to be able to explore the sewers in their entirety? There’s a lever I can’t reach and a bunch of chests left unopened, but I feel like I scoured every accessible area.
As an aside, dungeon design is really not a strong point of this game. It’s basically always the same dungeon experience with different textures and, if you’re lucky, a different soundtrack. This one is basically a bigger version of the Rolent sewers in the prologue.
I guess the military base in the previous chapter was unique.
I was about to add something about that in my post but no, I think parts of it are inaccessible right now. I had the same concerns but you get a second sewer key later.
グンナイ、マイ・スイートハーツ (spoilers)
Hanging out with Dorothy and then the pirates, then doing arena fights – this week was just handmade for me. We actually beat the bracers! They praise Jin so much and I feel like he was the least helpful in my fight anyway, haha. Joshua is so good.
I knew there was zero chance the pirates would win but I really wanted it. I think we’re winning the whole thing, now.
Entering the hotel room played a bird wing sound and the window is open so I think I have a good idea whose bird sent us a letter, heh. Interesting that this triggered Joshua being extremely suspicious, but it’s funny that the world’s most suspicious, terrible liar is like “how did you possibly know?”
What I have in my mind is both that marrying off the princess is part of a scheme for a power transfer, and also that the princess has to be Kloe, which is a little strange knowing she certainly can’t be on board, but I suppose the plan is to be able to exert control regardless of her.
Joshua and Estelle insisting that they’re noobs and got carried by Jin and Olivier when I basically one shot everybody with Joshua’s special attack while Estelle was healing everybody is amusing. Olivier is nearly useless and Jin is mid.
Olivier has spread damage, but too low damage points. Joshua not only a strong spread, but also one hit KO and delay attack etc. Estelle has stronger one target S craft, though.
Yeah I think Jin and Estelle would be good against a single, strong adversary. Joshua is insane against multiple targets however, and so far in the tourney it’s what matters most.
Yeah that didn’t go as I expected, but this is actually better, we got a new unique fight instead of a re-run of the pirate fight.
I like that the authors addressed the “why didn’t the pirates just denounce Estelle and Joshua to the army” thing I pointed out a few weeks ago. Still strange that it didn’t occur to our protagonists that it could have happened until they pointed out…
Oh I had the sound off at this point so I missed it. Interesting. But then I assumed it had to do with Joshua’s mystery past given his reaction? So I thought it would have been the masked Jäger trying to get it touch. Interesting.
It took me a while to figure out who you meant by Kloe (she’s called Croze as far as I’m concerned) but actually you’re almost certainly right and I feel silly for not piecing it together myself. While playing I was thinking “wow introducing this random princess wedding plot so late in the game is clunky”.
I’m concerned because so far I didn’t bother remembering who the various geopolitical actors are and the various power dynamics at play so every time they discuss alliances and conflicts my skim over everything without paying too much attention but clearly this is eventually going to become central to the plot.
In my defense the game has been teasing us without giving us any meaningful answers all along, so how am I supposed to care? Wow some mysterious thing is mysteriously happening between mysterious actors with mysterious motives using mysterious devices tracing back to mysterious civilizations. Enthralling!
Nooo he just wants to do his art Who’s the real 魔獣 here?
Speaking of, I just found out that Jin’s name in the English version is Zane. I can understand deriving Kloe from Kuroze, but Zane?? You know what I double checked and it’s Zin still weird!
Week 39
I really loved the pirates this week. They’re great frenemies! We probably don’t have time left in FC to explore their situation more, but I hope in SC we’ll team up and maybe see their hometown, etc.
When the marriage plot was brought up, I thought that maybe リシャール was plotting to enter the royal family by marrying into it. Just because word is that he’s looking for a partner for her doesn’t mean he won’t eventually be nominated himself. His actions so far seem power hungry enough to do it, and it’s a common evil plot
I missed the bird sound too and absolutely would have thought the intruder was the 少尉, due to Joshua’s behavior. So, the 親衛隊 lady? Man I wish I was better at remembering the names of minor characters. Anyway, we might be going on a クローゼ rescue mission in the near future yay.
The next time our guys regroup, I’m re-doing Olivier’s quartz loadout to focus on magic support for sure. In my fights he’s mostly been useful for freezing people with his aoe + 凍結の刃, which has worked great! But it’s also too RNG to be relied on. I got really lucky vs. the bracers, getting 2/4 frozen right at the start making it super easy mode.
It was Zane when the games were first localised! The update changing it to Zin happened while I was in FC, and that took enough getting used to. I recall hearing Estelle would sometimes be referred to as Esther before there was an official localisation, too.
Oh that one’s no good; I don’t like her being Esther at all.
It’s odd how they come to these decisions, especially when Jin is so easy. I’m playing Xenoblade right now and learned that a lot of them are direct シュルク → Shulk, ライン → Reyn, but apparently カルナ became Sharla.
I went with the English Kloe cause for some reason I can never remember her name so I had to check it anyway, heh.
Playing in Japanese, I would prefer to use the name spellings in the status page. (For towns and buildings, alphabetic names drawn on the sprite.) Still, not perfectly sure if the spellings don’t change for evo or other editions.
Who’s the real 魔獣 here?
still weird!
