Not advanced much. Went to yet another dungeon (admittedly, they’re very pretty to look at) to get another McGuffin that’s needed for the heroes’ plan that is basically… finding a way up to where the main villain is. And suddenly we stop the story so Luca can… sing to her friends? Right, it isn’t like they are in a hurry to save the world or anything. Still I liked it because it showed how much her non-party member friends care about her. But I still can’t see why Reisha couldn’t have been there too.
And I’m really getting pissed about Jacqli. The others are suspicious about her but still allow her to stay in the group, and now she just admitted to Shun that she destroyed another world (this is true, since she’s really Myr, the Boss of the first game) but he still accepts her anyway!! (then again, I don’t totally trust him either.) It’s not that I don’t like the idea of having her in the game, just that the way the characters accept her is just not believable.
DQIX: Well that time I ended up with both the game’s top bow and top hammer and all in the same run. Also picked myself up a Metal Slime Sword which means I’m a gauntlet and a second pair of boots (for quest purposes) away from being satisfied with the rank 9 chests.
LttP: The Pegasus Boots don’t really open up that much apparently. However I now have a 7th piece of heart that I didn’t have before thanks to the fact that there is at least one obstacle that only the boots work on (i.e. those piles of rocks). Also a Bow and a Pendant/quest item. It’s really interesting to see just how much of the game is open to you at the start and how much isn’t. Much like LA in that sense.
Edit to the Post: Now with the Power Gloves I can get to the first half of Death Mountain and the Waterfall of Wishing/Zora’s Domain. Although the Power Gloves themselves can only help me get 2 pieces of heart and both the Magic Mirror and the Flippers as well as letting me reach the monolith for the Ether Medallion (but I can’t really do anything there yet). The Flippers on the other hand allows me to score my first upgrades to my existing inventory (save for the Mushroom = Magic Powder) the Magical Boomerang and the Magical Shield. Additionally they open up the waterways allowing me access to the island in the middle of Lake Hylia as well as an additional piece of heart and the fairy fountain for expansions to my bomb and arrow capacity.
And while I said I was going to to collect every item as soon as it becomes available for this maximalist playthrough, I’ve just got to make a single exception for the Moon Pearl just to see how long and far I am able to go without it.
Edit’s Updating: Without the Moon Pearl the only things I can get are 2 pieces of heart and an extra bit at the end of Sahasrahla’s “Welcome to the Dark World!” speech amounting to “I told you so!”. With the Moon Pearl but without the Hammer I can get an extra piece of heart and the Quake Medallion.
Double posting to the let ya’ll and the world know that I’ve just scored 10124 points in a single game of solitaire that took only 74 seconds to complete thus giving me a bonus of 9450 points to my score.
EttP: Now with the Magic Hammer Time I’ve gotten access to most of the Dark World and the rest of the Light World (i.e. Eastern Death Mountain). Technically speaking I should only have access to the marsh south of the Bomb Shop and the minigame alley but thanks to the Kakariko Village warp I also have access to the rest of the Dark World low lands save for the Swamp of No Return and what that it entails. Ultimately I’ve finished up my nosing around with the Bombos Medallion, the Shovel (for all of ten seconds), the Flute (as an upgrade to the Shovel), the Bird, the Cane of Byrna, and the 1/2 Magic Power curse as well as 2 pieces of heart. Or at least that’s without using the Kakariko Village warp as with it I also acquired the Magic Cape and 3 more pieces of heart. Now the hard part, figuring out which dungeon to go to next. As per the rules of a maximalist playthrough I must access as much as I can as early as I can but it’s not quite as fun running through level 2 dead last with the Golden Sword and Blue Mail. I guess I can see how many dungeons I can get through without either the Hookshot or the Fire Rod.
EU: I decided to tackle the levels as out of order as I could to see where I could go without level’s 2 & 3’s treasures. Level 4 is the given seeing how you need the Titan’s Mitts to open up the rest of both overworlds. Now I have free range of the land, I could get the Tempered Sword, the Fourth Bottle, and 5 pieces of heart. Then I proceeded to level 6 and quickly found out why I need to complete level 2 first as the first room has a pit that must be Hookshotted over (I’ve tried both the Bomb and the Pegasus Boots jumps and both failed due to the pit being too wide). So knowing that I would need the Fire Rod for level 5 I decided to go level 3 instead. Unfortunately I should have tried level 5 first since I decided to get creative with my inventory. Apparently, not only do you not need the Fire Rod at all in the dungeon (provided that you have the Bombos Medallion and enough Magic), but that the Bombos Medallion is actually the preferred weapon against the boss’s ice shield as it loving one-shots the shield. Additionally there’s one room in level 5 that requires the Hookshot, especially if you come at it from the side you’re supposed to, but thanks to the stage’s topography that particular room is entirely bypassable. Now onward to levels 2, 6, & 7 in that particular order.
provided that you have the Bombos Medallion and enough Magic), but that the Bombos Medallion is actually the preferred weapon against the boss’s ice shield as it loving one-shots the shield.
Really? As for the second dungeon, during my first playthrough I didn’t find the entrance behind the waterfall and left the dungeon only to return after I had finished all the rest. The boss takes two hits with the golden sword before waving goodbye.
Yep. You have to hit that ice shell 8 times with the Fire Rod, and in a minimalist run that’s all you get. I suppose it’s the fact that the shield checks only for Fire based damage and does not guard against the instant death (or debilitation) effects of the Medallions. Additionally, those flying blobs of water flying around in level 2 can be frozen and once frozen they don’t unfreeze until you leave the room (or destroy them I guess which results in the same outcome as dealing with them using the Sword). Obviously, unless you’re an ace with the Ice Rod, the Ether Medallion is very effective against them. Same with those water bugs in the deep waterway in the chamber before the boss.
The big thing I was pointing out though was that the Fire Rod is unnecessary outside of levels 3, 7, and 8. The most out-of-order order you can take the dungeons in without leaving to go through the next dungeon is 1, 4, 5, 2, 6, 3, 7, 8.
Additionally the only thing to that opens up past the Titan’s Mitts is when you complete level 6 (and 3 if you’ve completed 6 beforehand) with the Super Bomb showing up allowing access to the Dark World’s Wishing Well and both the Silver Arrows and the Golden Sword, and the final piece of heart that can only be reached in the Light World by traveling through part of level 7. Everything else is either dungeon related or common junk like Rupees, Bombs, or Arrows.
And finally, since I’ve completed my current playthrough of LttP (and the fact that most of my available systems are inaccessible at the moment save for my PS2) I’ve returned to Xenosaga Ep1 in hopes of having that stricken from my backlog finally. That game really should’ve been subtitled as “In space, no one can hear your awesome soundtrack.”. The game isn’t so much ‘painful’ as it is ‘boring’ with literally nothing going on save for you running through corridors with beeping and footsteps echoing about and maybe blowing a shit or two up. It’s debatable on whether its worse than FFXIII or not.
Update on my FF:4HoL playthrough: So now I’m at the halfway point of the game; this is mostly denoted by a bunch of changes and now I’m having to travel back to some places to collect the Legendary Equipment. Not quite really sure why I’m collecting it, but it’s good stuff. Only two I know of so far are the Shield of Light (good Def; blocks all Status Ailments), and the Lux Tome (White Magic; UBER buff on the party).
Also been having to play around with some party combos. I’ll list some of what I’m working with now.
Black Mage: You get it early, and it’s a friggin beast. Magic is really good if you know how to exploit weaknesses. It’s first two abilities jack up your magic and can stack leading up to more damage. 3rd ability is Mirror which puts Reflect on the party; pretty good for annoying spells, and the last ability is some sorta non-elemental spell that hits everything for big damage. Don’t have it yet. With the right setup, you can knock bosses down to critical health in one attack!
Salve-Maker: Sorta like a Chemist class. However, these guys are crazy good! First ability (Dispense) allows infinite use of healing items for 4 turns. This is combined with the other abilties…the 2nd (Healthcare) allows you to use an item and split it amongst the party. This is pretty broken early on since you can use Dispense and then Healthcare using a Remedy healing the party for 100 HP and curing all status ailments. 3rd ability Poison Pill allows you use items on enemies dealing damage. Not so great early on, but damn good with Elixirs. They make GOOD healers.
Elementalist: Mostly a support class, but a DAMN good one. Their first two abilities allow you jack up the party’s elemental attacks. Good for classes that can take advantage of it. The third ability, Mysterio, jacks up the party’s elemental resistance. This stacks with any existing resistances, so elemental attacks can be reduced to very little damage, nulled, or absorbed. (Elementalists themselves passively halve damage from all elemental attacks; Mysterio allows them to completely null elemental damage or absorb it.) Incredibly fucking handy against annoying bosses that spam elemental stuff.
And speaking of annoying bosses, I finally managed to beat one today. Basically, this thing called Asmodeus is a nasty SOB, and aside from tossing out spells, loves to torment you with status ailments. One of his attacks hit the entire party while inflicting random ailments! Really annoying. This is top of him spamming spells and Break. Couldn’t use Mirror, since the status attack can’t be reflected, and your own spell bounce as well. Status stuff was getting me mostly, and the fact that you have to fight another battle right before it.
Haven’t had much time for gaming recently due to new puppy. However, I finally made it to the Fourth Generation of Record of Agarest War. I’m so ready to finish this game to start Dragon Age.
Update on FF 4HoL: So I’ve got all the Legendary stuff, and it’s apparently final dungeon time. However, I kinda had to take a time-out and upgrade my equips, since it’s supposedly pretty rough once you get in. Doesn’t help that it pulls some FF8-type stuff where it takes away your Crowns and you gotta fight previous bosses (powered up) to get them back.
Most of the Legendary stuff is pretty damn good. I’ll list some of the good ones.
Shield of Light: Good stats and immune to status ailments. Like a Ribbon, but better.
Cape of Light: Nice accessory that gives resistance to all elements. Combine with the above and Mysterio for excellent results.
Lux: Ultimate White Magic; basically a party-wide buff that buffs all your stats, gives you Berserk and Magick (increases attack/magic atk.), gives you Regen (10% max health every round), increases AP regeneration, and adds +50% total max HP to all your party members. Maybe some other stuff too. Also lasts until you die or the fight ends. Sounds broken as hell, but incredibly useful for those rough fights.
Desolator: Ultimate Black Magic; I had my doubts at first whether this was more powerful than Magic Might. Turns out it’s stupidly powerful. All hail the return of Meteor!!! Hits random enemies for very heavy damage about 3~4 times, then finishes with a large hit. Against bosses, it’s pretty much a super nuke, assuming it doesn’t outright kill them.
I wish I had more time for gaming these days (or that the trains were less packed), but I feel like I’ve been carrying around Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story forever. Come on, Christmas!
Ok, small update. Finished FF:4HoL today. Final boss managed to be an interesting challenge, as well as being visually awesome looking. Getting to it was a pain in the ass though, since the Final Dungeon is a bit confusing at parts. Also finished one of the bonus Towers, which consisted of 100 floors. Ended up getting the Ninja crown from that one and decided I’m not gonna try to trek through another Tower, since they get harder and massively annoying. On that note, the one thing I really liked about the game was the Continue/End Game screen that pops up everytime you continue or quit from Saving. Not much on it at first, but as you do the story stuff, more things get added to it, and ends up having a lot of things towards the end. Pretty neat touch.
I bought Mini Ninjas for the Wii because the intro chopped up by Unskippaple looked plain adorable. It’s clearly meant for kids but it’s got a nice, simple fun feeling about it. It encourages exploring even though the levels are fairly linear, but the exploring is seldom pushed upon you but wholly optional. It does help, though. Well, sorta. There are potion ingredients to find, but I don’t find myself needing potions that much. It’s not a very difficult game. Still, it’s pretty fun to see what you can find.
The graphics are nothing spectacular, but they are smooth and it all looks like you’re in an anime world. The controls are easy enough, though there are some finetuning that could have been done. For example, for some reason whenever you want to pick up an item like a flower or mushroom, you have to hold down A and swing the Wii remote. The swing seldom registers at once so you’ll have to swing it repeatedly until the ninja finally gets the idea to pick up the stupid herb. What’s wrong with a simple push of the A button? The swing is entirely superflous. Also, having played Sly Racoon I see how flawed the sneaking and rope walking mechanics are - as in, the sneaking hardly works because the enemy will spot you anyway, and it’s fairly easy to fall off ropes, while in Sly Racoon, at least the second and third game, where the same mechanics were present there was never any risk of falling as long as you held down square.
Characters… eh. There are character prologues about how each of the ninja came to their master as children to train, but that’s about it - and it’s not even part of the game, you see those from the main menu of the game. The villains get more characterization than that, but it’s not more than snivelling underlings getting yelled at by the big bad after you defeat a boss.
It’s a cute game though, and I’d like to see the series continued and developed. There’s definitely something there.
Sometimes I have a lot of games and play one; right now I’m actively playing several. I’m finishing Red Dead Redemption and New Super Mario Bros Wii, starting Donkey Kong Country Returns (world three what whaaaaat) and mingling in Halo Reach.
DKCR is the recent addition, and prior to that I picked up FF2 and DKC2 off the Virtual Console. I’m a busy little boy!
Things have been going very slowly due to me not being able to access most of my consoles at this time.
Since my last update, all I’ve really done was a chapter in FE7 and a bunch of farming in DQIX. At least I have almost a full set of Metal Slime items (though not due to this week’s DQVC which is Metal Slime themed), a few more top weapons (including the top whip which effectively renders the top boomerang useless), and a few new red orbs from Malroth (yay for the auto steal scroll).
As for Xenosaga Ep1. I’ve been too lazy to bother getting the side quests done for maximum game breakage.
Haven’t advanced much more in ATII. I had to stop to do a lot of written work (this is the busiest time of the year for me). I needed a break, anyway, I was starting to get burned out. This IS the longest I’ve played any single game, and I think I still have several hours left to go.
Current playtime: 120 hours.
BTW: I still haven’t caught all the IPDS, and I’m about to lose some areas of the game world. Does this mean I won’t be able to conclude that particular challenge?
Also, does the quest in Mikry Forest have any purpose later on? It seems incidental, the first such quest I find in this game.
After a long time playing it, I have decided to take a rest from getting 100% in persona 4 and got myself Genji dawn of the Samurai and Rogue Galaxy for the PS2 haven’t really started yet with either of them, I just need a small rest from all the MegaTen I have been playing recently.
… d’aaaw. Seriously, if you guys ever want to introduce a younger sibling or something to gaming, Mini Ninjas is a good place to start. Or if you want a wiff of nostalgic gaming. It was pure, cute, charming and simple fun throughout, and the final level was REALLY clever. The evil Samurai Warlord makes his entier castle a huge, uhm, castle monster and you have to climb through the wreckage inside it while it’s walking. Not for the easily motion sick people, but anyway. It wasn’t moving that much, but enough. While the levels are linear, there’s still secrets to be found and stuff to collect so there’s some basic exploration.
… it amuses me that this delightful, kid-friendly game was developed by the same guys who made Kane & Lynch. Oi.
Finished the main story of Dragon Quest 9, gonna try to do all the side stuff. Near the end of FFIV DS and playing through FFIII DS as well. Gonna check out FFXIV soon
Lately, I’ve been playing Rune Factory 3. Now I haven’t played the previous entries, so it was kinda interesting. But I gotta say, RF3 is a damn good game. I can eat up time like none other when playing it, and farming’s kinda cool.
Not quite sure how much left I got left on it, since I’m finished with the seasonal dungeons.
Also been toying around with Age of Empires III, since I got it for 10 cents during some sale MS had one Sunday.
