Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Movie)

Crack that whip!

Well, I watched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in cinema back in the day, would be a waste to miss this one so I went together with my parents and sister while I was on vacation during the summer of 2023. And I enjoyed it. Starts out at the end of second world war as Indiana Jones together with a friend is looking for the Spear of Longinus, also known as the spear of destiny, that is said to have pierced Jesus Christ as he was crucified and the nazi's wanted it to rule the world. First heard about the spear when reading Phantom comics as the Phantom in the 17th-century found the hidden ruins of Lemuria and together with his brother-in-law picks it up, but the spear curses the brother-in-law to become a monster as he want's it's powers to rule the world. Then it appeared in Castlevania and other stuff as a normal occult item, Gabriel Knight 3 also mentioned it for example.

Some occult things at least goes on since they deep-faked Harrison Fords face to look like he did back in the 80's and its uncanny. Still sounds like an old man, but the looks. My sister said at times she got out of it as it wasn't seamless all the time, but I kinda enjoyed it. The spear is taken on a train and Indy's friend gets taken by the nazi's. Indy saves them, finds that the spear is just a fake, but they find one part of the dial of destiny, an item said created by Archimedes that could predict the future. It belonged to a nazi officer and played by Mads Mikkelsen. They stop the train and rescues all the artefacts and treasures in it as the allies comes in. Now we skip to 1969 and Indy is retiring from his professor job when his friends daughter shows up in search for the dial part Indy have hidden away after his friend went mad over studying it. But with it follows CIA goons that are working for Mads Mikkelsen that helped the Americans put man on the moon. 

Turns out Mads Mikkelsen is still a nazi (who would have thought that, he looked so nice?) and is looking for the dial in order to use it to travel through time back to before the war and replace Hitler and make the nazi's rule the world. Indy together with Helena (his friends daughter and his god-daughter) travels across the Mediterranean together with her child friend Teddy in search of map to the second piece that sank on a roman galley which they need the help of a Spanish diver (played by Antonio Banderas). They get it, but at the same time the nazi's catch up with them and kills the crew off their ship. They get away with the map and deduce that the second piece lies in the grave of Archimedes back in Syracuse. Teddy gets kidnapped and escapes on his own while Helena and Indy gets to the treasure with the nazi's right behind. Indy is shot while the other heroes escape. Mads drag Indy to the airfield where they fly away on an airplane while using the dial to pinpoint a wormhole through time. Helena gets on the plane while Teddy gets another plane and follows. 

Now, the portal doesn't take them to Germany circa 1939, instead they end up in Syracuse during the roman siege of the island. Apparently the dial was sent out by Archimedes to get help. The nazi plane is shot down by the romans and Helena and Indy parachutes down. The planes scares the romans away and is hinted about as a tale of dragons seen in a puppet show earlier in the film. Nice touch. They meet Archimedes and Indy is determined to stay since his relationship with Marion is failing after Mutt died while enlisting in the army. Helena knocks him out and drags him back to New York in "modern times". She also ensures that Marion comes by and Sallah (which helped Indy earlier in the film) ending the movie on a happy note and the series as well.

As said, I really liked this movie. The beginning felt like the old movies (shoddy CGI non-withstanding) and it felt like references to other Indiana Jones media. Saw one person on Twitter that shared a picture from Fate of Atlantis that also had a boat sequence looking for Plato's texts. Now, I recall another diving segment from an Indiana Jones comic when Indy looked for treasure and is attacked by an octopus that kills pretty much the whole crew (that deserved it since they where on mutiny to kill Indy and the captain and a mutual friend). Something like the Sea-Devil or whatever. The Spear of Longinus was also a sequel story to the Last Crusade where nazi's are looking for the spear in Ireland where Henry Jones Sr. gets involved. Seeing Sallah and Marion is nice (although we saw Marion last time as well). The only thing missing is a fisticuff battle with the main muscle of the nazi's, but I assume Harrison Ford can't really do those stunts anymore. It's also somewhat more gruesome with deaths (and that's coming for a series where the heads melts of, hearts are ripped out and so on). The death of Indy's coworker was abrupt, same for the diver crew and I would say the drowning of the muscle is somewhat worse than being dragged into an ant-nest. Probably the last Indy movie we will see, waiting for the blu-ray release so I can have the whole collection.

Final Fantasy (Final Fantasy Origins) (PSOne)

 

Deja Vu

I've just been to this place before

Higher on the street and I know it's my time to go

... I feel like I'm stuck in a time-loop!

Well, played through all games and gave the PSOne version another shot... good god it's hard going back. After 6 hours I defeated the Dark Elf Astos, and I was right, the limiting factor isn't levels but enough money to get supplies. Maybe should have taken the easy mode, but still, if the Pixel Remaster took me 10 hours this version took me something like 25 hours to finish and that is without counting the retries when I died. Should have finished it as a kid, but since it was a PS2 we played on it doubled as a DVD-player. 

So, recall how I mentioned that I class changed at level 30 and felt that it was very high compared to my original playthrough? Well, I played it at normal mode and guess what? Here the class change came at level 20. At level 30 I was on my way to the final confrontation with Chaos. I assume then that level 80 was a bit of overkill then in the Pixel Remaster. Thinking that a closer feeling would be playing the Pixel Remaster with 1/2x EXP. It was apparently doable for me, but I learned that easy mode actually works like Pixel Remaster with EXP 1x. Which is sad to learn that it means that as a kid I probably could have finished the game if I had played it on Easy instead of Normal, damn you prideful kid me!

It had it's moments though, I rage quitted first time at the March cave as I tried to get the final rooms after getting the magic key. Then I took two days of and did other things, but it was always in my mind so I continued and skipped it until I was a bit higher level. I tried to do Ice Cave before Mt. Gulug, but I got so beat up just going there I did the volcano first, got beat up there as well so then I went and did the Castle of Trails instead which gave me a healing staff, gauntlet and the ice sword. The healing staff and Gauntlet you actually could use as an item with heal1 and thunder2. Never knew that, that saved a ton of resources regarding healing and magic change how I played the game totally (wish for the auto-battle function of the Pixel Remaster since it was a lot of back and fourth to the item menu). Now the volcano was a breeze and I thought the Ice Caves would be the same. Boy was I wrong. Damn Dark Wizards pelted me with fire3, there was mindflayer looking guys who instakilled me by touching me, I think I did the run 3 times before going out with the levistone. 

Final party kill was in the water temple, but after that only Magus got killed from time to time (had to shorten Imaginos so I got Magus instead). Still, a bit unnerving traveling through the Chaos Temple or the Flying Castle knowing that if you die here it's back to the beginning. I think they would have made it less frustrating instead like (I think) Dragon Quest and sending you back to the latest visited Priest or so (I know Golden Sun did this at least) with half your money. Now, money is always the limiting factor here, but if I have 3 levels and have to redo them and being faced with the bad luck of an instakill in the early areas before being able to get the protection ring. At least give me something since the game is so random. Doesn't matter what speed your characters have, it's total randomness who goes first every turn, or that the damage really is between the highest and lowest possible without any actual explanation why it is at different times. Fun rolling in a physical DnD game, not so much in a video game when I can't get off a heal on the black mage in time before the slow moving snail kills him. That's what you have preemptive attacks and ambush attacks for.

No, Pixel Remaster beats this out of the water, but it was fun experience it. Sadly no cinematic cutscene, just stills from the introduction movie over the credits, meaning I actually already seen everything that was special about this release. Still, the rumble from attacks and cutscenes were also rather intense and they didn't see to replicate it on the Pixel Remaster either, and definitely not on the GBA. I don't think I ever will do Final Fantasy II on the PSOne though, seems too boring with the grinding and such.

The Shannara Chronicles (Season 2)

 

Better late than never.

Well, took me a year, but I finally went through the whole of season 2 of the Shannara Chronicles. Was a bit hard to get through since I pretty much lost interest in it. Really, they divert so much from the books that I don't know what to do with it. And really, it was gonna be hard to do the original trilogy as it is a generational gap between each book. So what do you do? You take bits and pieces from every book and mash it together.

It takes one year after the first season and there is still chaos in the four lands. The elves are on the brink of civil war between the Crimson and the normal elves. I think the crimson are inspired by the military organisation the Federation from the Heritage of Shannara-series. I think at least. The traveller girl is together with Cogline, the ex-druid that had a larger role in that series as well, and gets visions from the tree-girl and sets out to find Will. Will is back in Storlock healing people and meets this girl that seems to be the daughter of Allanaon, which is a story beat from the book First King of Shannara when a woman thought she was the daughter of a druid, in that case Bremen, Allanons mentor. In that case she wasn't since it was thought she was actually conceived by a minon of the Warlock Lord. Allanon meanwhile is hunting the seer from the first season that have been looking for the codex in order to resurrect the Warlock Lord. That feels like the story beat from Wishsong of Shannara. 

And then it's betrayals here and there, blood squirting all over the screen and many dead corpses. They even have a giant white spider *shudder*. We also travel back in time so we can take some scenes from the sword of Shannara with Will's father Shea Ohmsford... I though Shea was his grandfather? And we have royal weddings between the elves and the human kingdom of Leah? What happened with Tyrsis? And here comes Garet Jax, the weapon master from Wishsong of Shannara... and he survives the whole show even though his arc is to die against the most dangerous creature in battle to show his abilities? And Will dies fighting the resurrected Warlock lord but somehow turns up in a field of furies circling over him and then to be continue shows up. There is no third season.

As noted, a hodgepodge of story beats with a lot of violence. Of course the original books didn't shy away from killing people, even main characters, but there is something special about the Warlock Lord ripping the head off the commander of the Crimson that have been torturing and killing people through the whole season. It really couldn't keep my interest. I would have liked seeing a season 3 just to see what they would have done to keep this story going, but I would prefer a redo and closer to the books. It looked a bit cheap at times, not a lot of actors and even though it was 2 000 years since the nuclear war, there seems to be a lot of modern housing and such.

Final Fantasy VI (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

Highest Acclaimed Game!

The last game in the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster pack, and this one was hard to play through (not only by being the longest game, but since I probably entered Final Fantasy fatigue as well as it was just a year ago since I played it last on the PSOne). 33 hours compared to V:s 25 hours and the others something like 10-15 hours. Still the fastest I finished the game compared to the 60 hours last time, and every level above 80. The boost option works really great and even allowed me to get pretty much every magic except Meltdown to every character. Which might have added to the fatigue by make the micromanagement of the level grind kinda irritating. If you don't know, you don't raise stats by normal level ups unless you equip an esper that grants one, and that is at highest +2. So, best strategy is running through the first part to get to Ramuh and get the first esper and finish the magitek factory and then equip specific esper before every level up. Kid me didn't understand that, but I do now and boy, is it fun to get several characters with magic 100 or strength 100, enemies don't stand a chance.

Did they change things? Yes, several parts in fact. The most talked about is the opera scene, actual singing vocals and instead of 2d they soar around the scene like it was a 2d-hd engine and that is only for that scene. They changed the mine-cart scene so I actually see what it is (unfortunately it doesn't give the same effect of car sickness looking at it and they slowed it down). Celes doesn't get punched in her introductory scene and some changes here and there to the script. Changes to enemy encounters at places, drops and so on. Mostly fixed things that was bugged out in the original (which they fixed in every release afterwards what I know). They also added motor sound to the airships and Deathgaze is no longer invisible on the map, but still a pain to find, but at least I can see him. And they changed the fish to Cid mini-game, I didn't even try and he got better, and I wanted the downer ending with the jump from the cliff!

Still a hard game though. I got beaten up by bosses I have not had trouble with before (or that be due to the change of grinding meaning I had lower levels at times which would help immensely in the end game, just need to get there). And most of them you can't just cue up the same attack patterns and just get a sandwich as the auto-battle plays out, no, here you have to carefully choose your attacks, otherwise the bosses will walk all over you, but I'm glad I can speed up the slow ATB-meter.

Now, the usual final question, which version to play? I don't need to play the PSOne-version ever again. GBA has some extra espers and an extra dungeon (which I haven't played through if I recall, it has the Kaiser Dragon in the Dragon's Den). Someone on youtube mentioned that they believe that all bonus will come as DLC and I almost hope so I can retire my GBA collection since I need more space in the bookcase. But there is problems here, at the 15 hours the game crashed and there is stuttering in the scrolling while walking around towns. I thought the game would crash more, right after finishing the game an update arrived as well. 

And with this I finished the whole Pixel Remaster. I wish the Dragon Quest games would have gotten this treatment as well, but since they are working on a Dragon Quest III remake in the 2d-HD engine I have to wait for that (and they hinted about doing I and II as well). FF III the most interesting game in the collection and all is very nice, just missing the extra content from GBA releases.

Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

Go, mighty warrior... The kings of enchanted lands are awaiting your
victory! Ride on the wings of wisdom, ride beyond the middle valleys to
defeat the master of chaos in the name of cosmic justice. Peace and love
forever!

Now we enter the ones that I only played one year ago (as of writing) and I gotta be honest, this is still a fun game to play and due to the different ways to play there is a new way to play every time. And this version speeds up the end game a lot. I spent 5-6 hours at first chance in Bal Castle and just grinded out the Object d'art until I got every job mastered, meaning I could just focus on arming up the characters with double weapons with highest damage output. I still have to be strategic with bosses and environments since most bosses have something that stops them from being hacked to death, be it several enemies that auto-regenerate or something like that. Graphically I also noticed that some backgrounds in battles had moving parts like waterfalls flowing down. First time I noticed this in these game, don't know if it's due to being the first game that they did that or if I didn't look at the backgrounds in the other games.

Of course, I played the EXP and Gil counter on normal and the ABP on 4x and it wasn't a problem and before I grinded it out I actually tried different job combinations (with getting Blue Mage Learn ability first for all characters to make that easier). The game still played fine and had a decent challenge. Noticed though that the end game stops giving you EXP when you enter the final area... of course I grinded out to level 50 in order to get the super bosses this time around and I crushed Omega and Shinryu for the first time. I got two badges for that... a bit anticlimactic, but Shinryu also had Ragnarok hidden in that stupid chest he hid in. Damn cheater. They also had a lot of mentioning of Hell in this version. 

I also think the end credits is also the first that have a background beyond a black screen. I wonder if it's due to the actual one having something compared to the earlier entries. At least make it interesting to watch... and makes me wonder about the end theme since there is a lot more credited people in these rereleases compared to the original. Playing it so close also reminded me about things I missed like the summon near the lake in the second world and actually using beastmaster abilities in order to get some of the blue mage spells. I also started with the intention of getting every bestiary, but I somehow missed the Hydra in the Ronka Ruins so I gave up that. Same place actually gave me a reason to use 0.5x and 0 EXP to get some abilities like lvl 4 Gravity and so on. 

So, same question like the others, which is the preferred version? I finished the PSOne version and have no need to play that version again, this version is fun enough and the ease of play works fine. Discovered a glitch or something since I was in mirage tower and suddenly the game froze on me trying to open the menu so I had to close the software. Don't know the reason and that was the first time I got that. Could be that I played over 15 hours without closing the software, but that's just a guess. GBA? Still have the extra stuff like more jobs and a post-endgame dungeon that allows you to fight the big bad from 1 000 years ago that forced the heroes of that time to split the crystals and create the two worlds in order to seal the void that Exdeath was after. Since being level 50 and out-grinded on jobs made me defeat the super-bosses without problem it might actually be needing something more.

Final Fantasy IV (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

The Warrior Within!

Another ones bite the dust. Fourth game and it seems the fourth time I've finished the game. This is actually the first time I see they enhanced the cutscenes beyond mere upgrading the sprites. First noticed when Rydia burns away the ice and instead of a flame going through the obvious grid it actually melts the whole ice. And then when Leviathan attacks the ship it looks animated. I also discovered some things I didn't get from the original. For example, I've never used the bow and arrows since I found it cumbersome to keep track on the amount of arrows, but turns out that it's the best weapon for Rosa since it allows her to sit in the back and just deal a lot of damage. Helps a lot that they apparently changed it so you only need one arrow and not stock up on them. This and the 3D version used that while all other have the need to stock up on supplies. Another thing that used to bother me was that the monks looked like quarterbacks in American football with helmets and such, wasn't until this playthrough I got that it was marks like Aang in the Last Airbender on their heads. Makes sense now.

Another change is that they got rid of the developer room. It was nothing more than a fourth-wall breaking area where the devs put themselves in and you can interact and fight some of them. I found it rather fun first time finding it since it felt like a secret. But they got rid of it since they had to ask every person involved in the original and some things I get wasn't as PC today to say. Then again, you still have the dancing scenes with the showgirls. 

I played it with 4x EXP and Gil meaning I probably had the same level as when I grinded like hell for the GBA version since I knew some hard parts of the game (the dwarven castle boss fight the worst since it was two boss fights in a row). Of course, was it a walk in the park? No, this game reminds me why I hated the sylph cave with the damn malboros and toads. I find it even more funny that due to equipments and such I gather you are supposed to do that one before the land of summons, but it's just more easy to do that first meaning some equipments are just useless.

So, which version to play? Ease of play this one wins without a problem, although the auto-battle mechanic is a bit of a bother since at times you have to adjust more often than in earlier games and since I can't see what attacks they are auto-ed to compared to the earlier games it can be a bit bothersome. The DS have the 3D graphics and some extra story with Golbez and voice acting (but the 2D versions wins out there since you can hear the awesome music instead of someone talking over it) while the GBA have the changing character mechanic and extra dungeons. PSOne is obviously the loser in any of these beside the cutscenes before and after the game... which I probably should finish one day to just tick it off.

Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

Pretty much the jobs I used.

Third game and pretty much the most interesting of all these games since it's actually the first time we got the 2D version in Europe or US. I of course have the DS-version (two of them as well to one day fix the locked behind social connection dungeons and weapons) and I enjoyed that for what it was. Of course this version doesn't have Luneth, Arc, Refia or Ignus and the tied in story beats for these characters so I just reused Niklas, Aang, Tara and Imaginos. And used fighter, monk, white and black mage for the starter. It gave you access to the jobs much faster since you get it in the starting cave while on the DS you had to defeat the Djinn first and uncurse everyone. Monk seemed to be the master stroke since damage output is phenomenal together with Black Belt made Aang MVP yet again.

Having knowledge about what's gonna happen helped a lot.. or it would have if I hadn't forgotten the mini sequence early on. Didn't matter much this time around since they got rid of the adjustment period and I played this version legit. No boost in EXP or Gil (except EXP boost between level 3 and 4 since I tried out if it affected the job level up, didn't look that way so I quit that). In other cases, I kept Aang as a monk to level 99 and then a Black belt to level 99 and then a knight until I got the ninja class, occasional black mage during mini sequences. Tara white mage till 99 and then viking (which was rather good since the high defence allowed me to just attack with her) and then devout and sage when that came up. Used more potions for healing to get around that I didn't have a healer in the party. Imaginos a Black mage till level 99 and then a geomancer and then a Magus and then a sage for the end game. Geomancer worked rather good for the dividing enemies so I could handle that part of the game with just one dark knight. Niklas had to change the most. First fighter, then red mage, thief, scholar and then I stuck with dragoon as soon I got that until I got a dark blade after the Geruda fight so I could switch to dark knight which I held until the ninja class was found. 

I played it a bit slower as well. Instead of rushing to place to place I took a tour around the islands on boat and under water as well which probably helped with levels. I ended up with level 53 after almost 15 hours of play. And I finished the game that way. I assume they nerfed the end encounter a bit since I recall I had to grind to level 70-80 to get over 5000 hp to stand a chance against the particle beam, but it was nerve wracking fighting 6 boss battles in a row. I don't know if the crystals healed you in the DS, but thank god for that this time, plus I probably would have been ok with the auto-save feature sending me back so I could grind around a crystal if need be.

So... DS or Switch? Not gonna lie, the simpler version and auto-battle features are pretty nice... but there is the extra things in the DS version, a secret dungeon, extra sidequest and the ultimate black smith that rewards you for grinding jobs to 99. That is enticing (if it wasn't locked behind the damn mognet feature). And the small story bits with the named characters are better, since in the Pixel Remaster, there is pretty much only one character, Niklas who was character number 1 and got every connection with the other characters. In the DS version Luneth got Aria, Arc got prince Aura, Ignus got Sarah and Refia at least had her adoptive blacksmith father. It wasn't much, but it was something. At least there isn't any GBA or PSOne version.