Escape From Monkey Island

So I had to continue the series, but how to do it without using ScummVM? Well, thankfully a sister project was the ResidualVM project that are focused on the 3d point and click adventure games, like Myst 3, Grim Fandango and of course Escape from Monkey Island (hopefully they supports Gabriel Knight 3 so I somewhere in the future can play that series as well).  At the moment it isn't 100 %, but it is playable and I could finish it, although some small bugs here and there, but I have a faint memory that they are in the code itself. Also irritating is a bug in the Lua bar on your second visit to Melee Island. If you run across the steps inside while someone else is crossing you risk getting stuck and have to restore. When it happened this time a faint memory emerged when I played this game as a kid and I stupidly had to replay the game up to that point since I saved over my game while stuck in hope of a restore would fix the problem. It doesn't. So save before entering and pray that you don't get stuck. Lucky me I just had to play 10 minutes again to get back to the bar.

So what to say about this follow up to in my eyes one of the best adventure games ever? It looks ugly as hell. 3D graphics in 2000 wasn't the best although I must give credit for at least making some of the characters look like there earlier form while other suffered from it.

Stan, what did they do to you?

Musically I can't complain, the tunes are there and harkens back to the original which is a nice touch. The dialog on the other hand... feels less fun. At times there are a funny line here and there, but not like the other games. Somehow they kiddied it down since the word Hell has been replaced with Heck and it gets a bit grating since it's obviously a censor thing. Earlier games had no problems with the word hell, so way this? And the voice acting isn't as top notch as before, together with a graphical let down that takes away the charm of the reaction in Curse of Monkey Island. Speaking of voice actors, they mostly make a decent job, but they changed Elaine Marley voice actor (although she came back for the special editions and Tales of Monkey Island) and while she sounds a bit like her it throws me of at certain times and then Stan, also another voice actor. This one sounds like how he looks, speaking through his teeth I would guess.

Stan, what do you sound like?

Gameplay wise is also a let down since it's no longer a point and click game, instead being played with keyboard or joystick, which make me guess it was intended for a console release primarily. This possess a problem since you don't know what you can interact with since Guybrush has to see it and at certain angles the command doesn't come up or you must stand exactly right for it to trigger. Reading through The Adventure Gamer I can't but help thinking that this was the reason the Scumm engine was created. 

Storywise, Guybrush and Elaine returns to Melee Island after a 3 month long honeymoon finding out that the Carrabien is being bought out by a Australisn tycoon, a politician named Charles L. Charles is grabbing Elaine's governor title and her mansion is being wrecked. This will lead Guybrush across the Carrabien to search for a legal contract to stop the demolition and then the discovery of an Ultimate Insult and the true secret of Monkey Island all the while LeChuck rears his ugly head again. The secret by the way is that the giant monkey head is in actuality the head of a gigantic monkey robot! How that worked since it is clearly shown in the original being the skeleton of a real giant monkey is beyond me.

Where's the steampunk stuff to make it work?

Is it hard? No not really, but to many puzzles for my taste are based on timing in where you set something in action and has to pull of the right move before the time passes. Sadly one of them is in the Lua bar which makes the glitch kick in. And as a kid I was stumped at this point since you need to stop a moving tray with a flaming ship under a painting and when the chef leaves the kitchen you sneak in, and empties a can of grog in a container causing the ship, for some reason beyond me, to be warm enough to melt a wax painting revealing a map. And they say Gabriel Knight 3 killed the genre. Replaying it I noticed another such puzzle I had forgotten, but I found this one rather fun. You have three trenches in a cliff and a pile of rocks. Three exit at the bottom. Two exit is just putting the rock in respective trench, the third is the puzzle. So you have to time the rocks so that they push one of them into the last exit. Now, the earlier timed puzzle had no fixed clue when to stop it, you had to try and memories the best position to stand and when to execute the action. This one on the other hand had branches where the rocks passed by alerting you to perform an action. A visual clue which made it rewarding to observe and try out until you solved. It might also be enjoyable since the bug wasn't present here.

Overall I'm rather mixed about this game. Still the lingering memories about the let down it was to play this after years of anticipating, how ugly it was, the irritating controls and the less than stellar writing. And yet there is moments when I can't but smile at certain jokes or allusions to the older games. To see a 3d version of Melee and Monkey Island trying for a complete copy of the settings from the first game (almost, several important places are gone or shuffled around, but they at least tried).  To see Carla, Otis and Meathook again, the return of Herman Toothrot and Murry, the evil demonic skull. It's all rather nostalgic still.

I maybe didn't need to see Stan sgsin

Remembering Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (2)

So were's the sequel?

This time we tackles the story. The game is set 30 years after the Last Age and the world has been reshape due to the Golden Sun event and new places have appeared while others have disappeared. Meanwhile psynergy vortexes appears that causes havoc and every 10 year a really big one appear, dubbed the Mourning Moon. Apparently they suck the surroundings dry of psynergy. To combat this Isaac and Garet have set up camp to watch over the ruins of Mount Aleph while Ivan has helped them build a Soarwing so that they can access Sol Sanctum and speak with the Wise One. All this planning is crumbled as Garrets son Tyrell decide to take the machine for a spin and crashes it so Isaac's son Matthew have to lead Tyrell and Ivan's daughter Karis to Morgal to find Mountain Roc feather. 

Not even his father likes Tyrell

And here is the first problem with the story, I don't like Tyrell. As his father put it, he's a brat. He destroys the machine as he wants to fly, he almost burns down a store (which he burnt down before) and he's stupid. Yes, Garret was portrayed as rather dimwitted at times, but he was loyal to a t and followed Isaac when Isaac overruled him. He could argue against it and often grounded that in the task at hand (stop Felix for example). Heck, he has the same attitude here. Garett was reasonable, Tyrell you have to smack around so he doesn't do anything rash and the one that does the smacking is Karis. This makes Matthew just appear as a figurehead for the real brains of the operation that is Karis. Not to mention the kids are 16. Isaac and Garett was at least 17. Let's continue. So you set visit a couple of places which tells you what happened to Vale and Vault and how the survivors copped with this new world. You meet people like Carver and Patcher all the while reinforcing the story of the Mourning Moon and the destruction caused by the Psynergy vortexes and how the non-adepts perceive adepts and such. Great set up for something big. Meanwhile you have to follow Kraden to a ruin to reach Biblibin since the bridge at Carvers was destroyed by a vortex. Inside you are attacked by Tsuparang soldiers led by Blados who kidnapps Rief, Kraden's apprentice and son to Mia and brother to Nowell. There you also meet Arcanus who... it's Alex. It's freaking Alex, but let's assume we don't know that.

The Phantom of Weyard

So Matthew and co has to split with Kraden and rescue Rief. Meanwhile Blados blew up the exit creating the first PoNR. Hope you got the 3-4 djinni before exiting the cave. So now your objective is to cross the mountains to reach Morgal. To do this you must activate 2 alchemical machines hidden in these lands. The land being the former Lamakan Dessert, but no Xian or Altin. Here you meet the ruthless King Wo who wages war against Passaj and Ayuthay to establish himself before reclaiming his homeland Sana from the benevolent Emperor Unan. The cities being the homes of the alchemical machines that you need to fix in order to take the cloudpassage from Passaj to the Neox capital at Craggy Peak. They also pick up prince Amiti in Ayuthay who everyone believes to be a messiah, born without a father and such, but apparently a water adept came by 20 years ago fixing their machine and created an oasis paradise. Gee, I wonder who the mysterious water adept can be.

Hm... Same father as Heuy, Dewey and Louie

You get it running and traverse the mountains and enter one of the most interesting dungeons in the game, the Craggy Peak ruin. It has 12 rooms associated with the zodiac and you must solve all 12 puzzles to be able to leave. After that you reach a mountain village were you are "greeted" by two Sanan nobles, the younger one being a spiritual twin of Tyrell, boy, two of them. His story is that they fled the beastmen uprising in Morgal while there father, the governor and brother to Emperor Unan, was killed. His sister unfortunately was captured and he and his mentor tries to save her. Traversing yet another mountain ruin you encounter Sveta, the sister of the current Morgal king Volechek and she agrees to help you pass the mountain and gives you information of the Mountain Roc near Kolima forrest (that has moved for some reason). Here you also finds out that Eoleo, son of the Pirate leader Briggs who appeared in the last game has also been imprisoned and Briggs ask for your help to rescue him. No other choice you agree while on the way to Kolima forrest to see the elder Tret. So after saving Kolima... again you meet Tret who gives you information on to enter Berlinsk and rescue the prisoners. Also this little hint is dropped:

Amiti: "I am Amiti of Ayuthay. It is a great honor to make your acquaintance."

Tret: "Hmph. Charmed, I'm sure. Another relative of Mia's, right?"

Hmm, interesting! Besides that the Sanana noblemen joins you in climbing the mountain and at the top confronting the Roc to get the feather, at the same time as Blados and Chalis drops the hint that you must start the machine below Belinsk to save the prisoners. The Sananas steals the artefacts necessary from you and bolts. You follow them and enters the ruin below the city and meet up with Sveta and the Sananas as you start up this third alchemical machine. This one summons the Eclipse tower that cast an eclipse over a large part of Angara summoning monster that slaughers the innocent. Apparently Volechek had been duped by the Tsuparang as he was told it was a weapon he could defend his land from the Sanan empire and the power hungry Biblibin. So the party rescues the prisoners and flees on Briggs ships, but not before Briggs have been killed by the shadow monsters. And this is the third and last PoNR (the second one being Craggy Peak which you can't return to after leaving). You can't enter Belinsk, Kolima, Port Rago or Border Town or even the mountains again. Instead you can return to the south of Angara again and see what calamity the Grave Eclipse has caused. Which I really like. Consequences. People you met have died, important NPC's like the generals of King Wo actually died during their siege of Ayuthay. The people of Ayuthay and Passaj survived most of the destruction due to the alchemical machines that powers the Eclipse Tower and as you will find out they also powers the machine to stop it, the Apollo Lens. A gun powered by solar energy atop pretty much the great wall of Angara. But first you need to gather the 3 orbs to open the road and the Umbra gear so that Sveta can survive the intense light at the machine. Sailing the seas also takes you back to Izumo... kinda. Izumo was destroyed, but the villagers fled after a vision from their leader Uzume who died upon leading her people to safety. Makes me think of Moses for some reason. Here you meet Susa and Kushinada from the last game and their daughter Hima that has fallen in a coma which you wake her from with an artefact that gives her a third eye. So now the parties is complete, you gathered all the gear and traveled up to the Apollo Lens. Where you are confronted by Tsuparang again, but this time Arcanus helps you and unveil his true name Alex, although he still goes with the High Empyrors plans, but Blados and Chalis have betrayed Tsuparang and are from the Umbra Clan... which is what Tsuparang is and they turned Volecheck into a Chaos Hound and... fire the damn thing already!

Moonstone Cannon! FIRE!!!

So the tower is turned off, the blast caused human-born beastmen to turn into light adepts and Alex escaped while Sveta became queen. And our heroes got the feather and returns home. A job well done, although I can't help but think we forgot something, what could it be?

Oh... Oops!

And that is the end. No "The End?" or "To Be Continue", just "The End". On a freaking cliffhanger again. And that was 5 years ago and still no Golden Sun 4. God dammit. So, what was good with the story? The ideas of the Eclipse Tower, Apollo Lens and Alchemical machines. The set up of the psynergy vortexes and a more present antagonist compared to the last games were frankly they hardly showed up. The bad? The whole games main driving point is a fetch quest for a feather while you by chance stumbles upon the bad guys that decide to use you (if not somehow the Tsuparang are behind the vortex cutting the bridge at Carver's home and intercepted Kradens note as to know they were coming... dammit, if that's the case it would be a rather good twist). Even if the feather isn't a huge problem the fact that we did drop any hint toward the psynergy vortexes after the first dungeon and reintroduce it at the very end feels a bit... cheap? It sets up the setting so good, the continent has shifted, the psynergy vortexes appears and every 10 year a massive one erupts. Also, people complained that we didn't see any of the new cities in the last games, but I chalked it up to that they weren't important and the game itself states that due to the shifting landmass some of them came to prosper like Tonfon that lied on a mountain top, but now had fertile soil to grow into the Sanan empire (within a 30-year time frame, but somehow the game states they were both peacekeepers and warmongers although the former Emperor Ko established the empire and it was just recently Unan took over so how that worked beats me). But we shift story as we stumble around in the world trying to reach the Roc and then accidentally starts this domesday machine and has to fix it. It feels like two games was mashed together. The beginning and the end feels as if they are completely separate from the middle portion and it feels they were tacked on to try to explain why the middle happened. Other things that is irritating is that they still don't develop the characters. It's even less since Isaac at least felt he had to take responsibility, but here the fault lies with Tyrell and does he learn? I don't know, we don't mention it at least. And the silent protagonist. At least both Isaac and Felix spoke in either game while Felix also said some words in the end. I believe they tried to fix that with a 4 kind of emotional responses, happy, ecstatic, sad and angry. Fine, more than yes or no, but it's hard sometimes to see if what I'm responding to. Is it the question I'm given or the answer I'm giving? And it still doesn't matter for more than one or two lines.

So should I be happy due to winning or sad for using violence or angry to show some gusto? What does it matter better chose ecstatic than I'm both happy and have gusto!

So... is it bad? No, it's a decent game and Camelot still put in a lot of care and thought into it. And all of this might be salvageable in case a forth game ever continues on this and tying all this together. I think this game more was hurt by expectations. Everyone wanted a big game like the Lost Age, what we got was a retread of the first game with a bit of new settings in the old setting. We only saw what, a 1/5 of the whole of Weyard? The few things people wondered wasn't addressed at all like Sheba's heritage, Tolbi's leaders after Babi, did Dodonpa reform. Things I discovered in my last playthrough was also the hatred between Atteka and Hesperia that Felix speed up. Also, what become of Lemuria? Could Piers return or is he still exiled and how did they react to the unleashed Alchemy? One of the few things that was mentioned was Susa and Kushinada's son that would help Isaac one day which is mentioned when we meet them, but he already left and some speculate he is with Piers and Nowell, which frankly is setting up one way a potential sequel could start where you play as him as the main protagonist since he is a Venus adept. Really, of all of this we only answered one question and that was if Alex survived the Golden Sun. Now we have even more questions like the deal with Tsuparang, who is the High Empyror (really creative naming there guys), the umbra clan and the light adepts. Will anything of that come to play? Also of all the characters in this game, will Amiti figure out who his father is? And it's been 5 years already. There is some small talk about a 4th game here and there with a petition some years ago. I hope the series doesn't end like this, but I will probably be cautiously optimistic until at least 2 years... or 5 years... or 10 years... It will never end this pain of disappointment, will it?

At least Isaac was in Smash Brother! Right Guys and Gals?

The Curse of Monkey Island

The Curse of Monkey Island, the third game in the series and the first with voice acting. Really good voice acting as well. I played this game so much that many lines I still remember and especially how they were annunciated. Who can forget lines like "Damn you saucy female, what do you mean?", "You have been struck with the hair demon", "Beware the horrors of... SKULL ISLAND! It's a Duck!" and everyones favorite skeleton "I am MURRAY, evil demonic skull, turn back, turn back, darkness will envelop you! Bwahahahaha!!!". Many fond memories. They also reintroduced insult sword fighting, but this time on the high seas which meant you had to rhyme. Rather fun gathering insults. Also, the graphics in this game I believe is hand drawn animation and it looks fantastic. Compare to say King's Quest VII or Leisure Suit Larry 7 which also was in "cartoon form", but it wasn't as fluent as in this game. At least in my opinion.

Story then, probably due to the original creators leaving Lucasarts before the start of the game, we jump forward in time and Guybrush Threepwodd has escaped the carnival of the damned and is a drift the caribbean seas. He stumbles upon LeChuck laying siege to Elaines fort at Puerto Pullo and is captured and thrown in the hold. He manages to escape and by doing so causes LeChuck's FLAMING VOODOO CANNON BALL to backfire destroying LeChuck. At the beach at dawn he proposes to Elaine with a giant diamond ring Guybrush found in LeChuck's treasure hold. Of course it contains a "gastly, disfiguring voodoo curse on it" so it turns Elaine into a solid golden statue. So you have to free her from the curse. 

I love this game, maybe for nostalgia, but replaying the games in order I notice so many throwbacks to the first two games and it makes me crack a smile. The only boring part I feel is when you return to the Carnival of the damned. It's set up as the final confrontation, but before that you have to undo a similar curse from the end of the second game and then you have to figure out a way to destroy LeChuck once again. It just dragged on for me and stupid me got stuck until I checked a walkthrough to understand that I was supposed to make another hangover remedy. Again, since that is the closest we had for a voodoo spell I guess it makes sense, but still.

I feel you buddy!

Since I bought the trilogy pack I didn't start with this game so I could get the whole story, but when I got stuck in the others I usually changed game and I came the furthest with this before a walkthrough I believe. If that is due to being easier or greater design I can't say, but my guess would be easier. Then again, while I think about it, I think I got stuck in finding the Voodoo lady, since I needed to pull the alligator tongue and I seem to recall a memory when looking that up.... how embarrassing, that is like the third puzzle of the game. I seem quite lousy with these kind of games.

Remembering Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (1)

The most anticipated game of 2010... for me

Boy, playing through this game has really torn me between if its good, passable or nostalgia driven. On one hand, it was so fun to play this and see all the nods to the previous games, the same music and graphics that very closely come to a real 3d creation of the 2d sprites of the original. To see familiar characters and places, solving puzzles again and explore more of the lore and settings of Weyard. They improved several gameplay features and introduced some new ones that enhances the game. Take the added unleashes for the weapons which you have to master by using. Feels more organic and a weapon can have several unleashes. Also if during a battle the target dies you just attack another enemy. Then we have the psynergy uses which also was improved in ways like you now light up what items can be affected by the psynergy you want to use and if you want to cancel it doesn't cost you any psynergy points (or PP). The game introduces even more psynergies as well and finally a different venus adept than the warrior and a different jupiter adept than the mage. All of these are good things with the game since it's nostalgic and at the same time gives me more to explore and use. If it would work for a newcomer to the series I wouldn't know since the references comes instantly to me, but they have a lexicon which are activated by words in conversation that you press with the stylus and the games give you an description. More good things is the added mini-map at the DS top screen where you also have stats and set djinni during battle so the battle screen isn't cluttered.

The main characters promotional art

So what is wrong with the game? Most are story related and I will cover that in Fridays (yes, it will be published on Friday) update. So in this segment then, what is the problem? First of, and a damn offender is the Points of No Return. In short there is parts of the game that get locked out after you pass a certain point. The old games had no such thing (if you don't consider the change from The Broken Seal to The Lost Age) and here there is 3. What this mean is that if you missed a djinn or such along before a PoNR you have to replay the whole game to get it (which isn't that long, the latest playthrough was around 25 hours for me). And there really wasn't necessary in my opinion. Yes, story reason was given and some of them I understand they kept as broken bridges so you wouldn't advance to areas outside the game, I get that, but they should have kept the broken bridges and let me go back to the earlier stages of the game. I fear they wanted to minimise NPC interaction in these stages to keep the word count small (which I guess is the reason we don't get this games equivalent of mind read until the last PoNR). Which is sad since the former games had that possibility, even for places were you couldn't access it meaning they took time and effort which showed a huge dedication of care and labor for those games. Then we have that all items, equipment and weapons that are basically copies from the last two games. Certain new forgeable, but the majority is the same. The same goes for the summons when we are only introduced to 1 new one. Also, they took away the gambling portions of the games. No dice game and no tickets (which seriously limits boots and rings to find and there is no shirt category whats so ever). Not even a lucky fountain to get really awesome gear. The new music is alright, although the main theme for this game is a bit subdued. I greatly preferred the Lost Age main theme. But it isn't bad in any means and the Apollo sanctum music is fantastic as well as the outside dungeons with the bells and bass line. The graphics... well, I see what they are and it is a decent 3d rendering, but still... it's not that appealing at times.

Kraden, what did they do to you?

So in all, the game plays better in many aspects compared to its predecessors, the graphics are so and so, the music is decent, but they took out certain features and hardly put in any new content leaving a lot of the overall opinion on the story and boy, do we have something to talk about. To give a perspective also on my own opinions. In 2010 when the game was released I've waited 7 years for this game. When it was shown in 2009 I spent several post on this blog with my speculations, hopes and dreams for this game. I bought the game on launch day and played it. Reading through my posts I seem to at least be satisfied with this game to still my Golden Sun cravings. Sadly, no new game have been hinted at or shown for the last 5 years and the craving is rising for even more of this series, to explore this world once again. So while scouring the net I stumbled upon this playthrough  of the first two games and find it intriguing that someone didn't like this marvellous series, but reading though it I finally saw many of the flaws that I never thought of. Mostly the writing, but also that pretty much every non-lighthouse dungeon is a freaking cave and that the battles are just spam normal attacks or djinni. Some complaints put forward I share with him, like that there is no motivation for the player to play the Lost Age to the end until after the midpoint of the game. But just like in How I Met Your Mother, if you really like someone, the flaws are easily over glanced. And I still love those first games.

Although Kraden was pretty much just saying what everyone else already said.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition

LeChuck's Revenge, the sequel that delivered on the wackiness and difficulty. More timed events and more wordplay that means that a non-english speaking native keeps you busy for days... or years if it wasn't for the internet. I'm especially referring to the Monkey wrench puzzle. The monkey wrench puzzle is that to open a secret tunnel behind a waterfall you need to get a banana to hypnotise a monkey and take him to the pump and use him as a wrench, aka a monkey wrench. Well good for you that gets that witty word pun, but for a non-english native that is almost complete gibberish. There's a reason why the safest strategy is to use everything on everything.

The Swedish version of this trolling is to utter the phrase "Får får får? Nej, får får inte får, får får lamm" (The joke being is that is says "Does sheep get sheep? No, sheep doesn't get sheep, sheep gets lamb"

Of course the biggest puzzle that stopped me from progressing the longest time was after escaping Phat Island jail. I couldn't leave since they had taken my map I needed to show the boat captain and it was gone. I restarted several times as a kid until I figured out how to get my stuff back. I just opened the envelopes that was in the prison with my name on it. How was I supposed to know that? Or I might just be that stupid. The special edition then, nice looks, great music and the voice cast superb. Problem is that they changed the control scheme again meaning I have yet to learn it again and the timing on certain puzzle makes me prefer the old graphics since I at least can pull that off. Especially at the end of the game as LeChuck hunts you in the tunnels.

Story, after besting LeChuck and losing Elaine Guybrush is searching for the treasure of Big Woop. This hunt takes him to Scabb Island were he encounters LeChuck's right hand man Largo Lagrande which sets up the return of LeChuck and a race to find Big Woop to escape his terrible revenge. He meets old friends like the Voodoo Lady, pirates of low moral fiber and Elaine while encountering new ones like Wally. Poor Wally. You steal his glasses, spits at him, get him captured and so forth. Poor guy indeed. Also, the ending is a real twist that puts the whole series upside down. A pity the original creators left after this, but the game following this was in my opinion the greatest of the original three games.

Remembering Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2)

And we begin the game with a text recap of the last game, which you can't skip!

Did I say Thursday? I meant Friday. So the story begins just before the climatic battle atop Venus Lighthouse and Jenna, Kraden and Alex are escaping the impending disaster following the lighting of the lighthouse. As they reach Idejima the beacon is lit and the shockwave throws the peninsula out of sea and Felix and Sheba are flushed upon the shore, somehow surviving the fall from the top of the lighthouse (either miracle or maybe a passive psynergy ability as the one shown in Kolima, then again Sheba survived falling from the moon so anythings possible I guess). Trouble ain't over since a flood wave appears and pushes them into the continent of Indra that itself been wedge between Gondowan and Ossenia. So You need to find a boat. Which Piers has, but he has been looked up as a pirate of Champa. He himself is a Lemurian that was thrown out of Lemura by the tidal wave so you decide to help this fellow adept. Which takes you from Madra to Alafhra confronting Briggs the pirate captain of Champa, then you round Ossenia meeting werewolves that gives you more depth of the working of Alchemy (the werewolves in this game are weaker jupiter adepts as they've been exposed to particles of psynergy stones from Air's Rock just nearby. This tie in to the last game were many people became adepts after being hit front and centre by a synergy stone from mount Alephs eruption. Anyway, you return to Madra and what do you know, the Black Orb that controls his ship is stolen by the Kimbombo in Gondowan and Piers gone after them. Great, a stealth mission, reminds me of Lunpa.

Be vevy vevy quiet, we've hunting crystals!

Meeting up with Piers gives you your new Mercury adept and after solving the Kimbombo troubles you are rewarded with a ship. And this opens up the game for your own exploration. You can tackle most places in any order, but to sum it up you need to take Gaia and Aqua Rock to learn the psynergies within in order to climb the three trident ruins and take the three pieces. With them return to Alafra, fix the ship and Briggs escape to Champa, confront him and get his grandmother to reforge the trident. With the trident you now have the weapon to defeat Poseidon which is guarding Lemuria in the labyrinth in the Sea of Time which you need Yepp's nursery rhymes from the village of Yallam.  And in Lemuria you finally get a reason to do this quest. The world is ending as a consequence of mankind sealing of Alchemy and the world slowly fading away with its nourishment. Finally, a reason to play the villains of the last game. I know that around here they also told us that Felix and Jenna's parents were alive together with Isaac's father. Great, halfway through the game. A bit late don't you think? I mean, I'm just told to continue the quest, but no one explains why. Especially important since I played the first game were I strived for the opposite. Great twist and all, but really. Doesn't help that the only reason we need to get to Lemuria is to get the psynergy Grind to reach the other side of the world. 

Welcome to Atlantis... I mean Mu... I mean Lemuria

So you now know why you are doing this and you now can reach the lighthouses. So you head off to Contigo where Jupiter Lighthouse stand, but you can't enter it. Now, by playing the first game I know that the Shaman's rod need to go to Hesperia, the continent north of Atteka. But they don't say anything about it, but they speak about the war between the two continents so that must be were I'm going. And when I find it... how do I know that by lugging the Shaman's rod with me will gain me another psynergy? Isaac and co knows since that what Hammet told me as I rescued him, but how do Felix and the rest knows? Hell, how does a player who didn't played the first game know? Anyway, I get it after humiliating the shaman leader in a colossi styled battle. And they hint that this will be a future strife between the people of Atteka and Hesperia. Of course we didn't see that in Dark Dawn. Back to Contigo and up the Lighthouse. And this is one of the better dungeons in the game. Really, both game have the lighthouses as great dungeons as you climb and figure out the mechanics of it and in this game you have to start them as well. Which again, could have been used for Mercury and Venus in Dark Dawn as we didn't see that. Anyway, after climbing the tower and open the beacon we again see Isaac and friends who we have heard all things about during the game as these great warriors. And this is the scene we see them again:

They were right to warn me of Garret's clumsiness in the first game

So I have to save them as they are attacked by Agiato and Karst, the proxian threat in this game. Really, if I had grinded my characters to 99 as planned this scenario wouldn't have worked either way.  Isaac entrust the Mars star to you as you head up to lighten the beacon. There Agiato and Karst steals the last star from you as they see me as a liability. Thankfully we beat them back, but they get away with the star. And now it's time for the reunion with the old gang. Eight adepts are out to save the world in their newly upgraded ship that has wings. A flying ship. Fantastic. Of course it hardly moves the plot since it just for backtrack and getting some cool items here and there. But you travel faster and neutralise the random encounters. A blessing. So why couldn't you go to the last area before? Because an ice wall which you need a cannon from the dwarves (yes, there is dwarves here) and a psynergy and magma ball from Magma Rock. And to reach Magma Rock you need lift that only Isaac and friends have. Time to bring the fight to Prox... oh right, all their actions were totally justifiable in saving the world. So we come in peace. And this dragon people are rather nice if you avoid all their warriors, although they seems to have misplaced your parents. Up the Lighthouse we go. And boy, this dungeon. It took me more time than necessary due to some mistakes from my part. First the damn ice block above a hole. Supposedly you would instantly think grind as useful here (I guess this is the reason they gave the Insight ability in Dark Dawn). The second one was due to me not reading the text after defeating Agiato and Karst dragon forms and therefore miss to awaken the Lighthouse before returning to the starting area so I had to go down there again. My fault. And then we climb the lighthouse and meet The Wise One again that will be our last obstacle... or rather the three-headed Doom Dragon. As Garret said "we already defeated a two-headed dragon what difference does a three-headed make?"

Oh, should have seen that coming

Yes, after the battle it's revealed that the Doom Dragon was Felix and Jenna's Parents and Isaac's father. More or less killed by there own children. That is pretty dark for a children's game. You still throw the Mars star in and ignite the Lighthouse. This causes the forming of the titular Golden Sun and grants Alex the powers he desired. Just before you communicate with the other three lighthouses that shows you that he Wise one isn't as cold hearted as he appeared and thanks to the light their parents are revived and (as told in the next game) the heroes themselves are granted longer life (and maybe greater powers?). You travel home to Vale and finds it destroyed due to the forming of the Golden Sun, but even here the Wise One saved everyone... well, except Alex, instead he body slammed his body onto the mountain peak so he couldn't move and almost was dragged into the earth. F***ING Amazing. 

Almost cried here

So why didn't I like the game as much? Looking through here I guess is that I don't feel as much for Felix compared to Isaac and he don't show up again until the last 3/4 of the game.  They don't motivate the character of Felix and he has a habit of knowing things me as a player don't know which is brought forward with Kraden all the time. The parents still alive is an obvious point and had they told me in the beginning I might have connected better and actually justify my actions. Gameplay is better, scope is larger and the world is even more fantastic, all accompanied with a fantastic soundtrack. Yet the main characters don't give me anything to work with. Isaac was given a mission (it was wrong in the end, but it worked for me) and tried to fulfil it, all actions could be measured to that goal... what was Felix goal before the reveal? Sad to say, Dark Dawn also had a clear goal, but they somehow screwed that up. Wonder how that experience will be, since I still had fun with this game, otherwise I wouldn't have put 40 hours into this game yet again..The others don't get off scot free either. Sheba waits until gaining the flying ship in order to tell us why she wanted to join us in our journey, that is to find out where she belongs as she fell from the sky in Laliviero. You get to know that she probably comes from Anemos, the city of wind adepts that took to the sky and become the moon. Jenna then, I guess they talked about her rescuing her parents and following her thought dead brother during the first game, but at least I could expect her to follow her brother for whatever reason, but I wanted more. Really, the only one that has a decent story arc is Piers. You know he wants to find his ship, then reach Lemuria and then tasked by King Hydros to lighten the beacons. Each step is explained and you can follow the logic behind his decision. You might have missed the reason he set out in the beginning, but that takes a backseat to him getting home. Really, he's mother actually dies in the game. He actually lost someone dear to him compared to the others who saw all their family survive. His only problem is that he doesn't get playable until 1/4 through the game. The games ace in the hole is the villain Alex... or is he a villain? He never killed anyone, he duped everyone and wanted ultimate power, but for what reason? Some point to him trying to destroy Vale at the end, but others point out that he might have known the village was abandoned due to the Wise One and therefore saw it as a harmless demonstration of his new powers. Really wished they explored more of Alex ideas and motivations in Dark Dawn.

There is a reason why I use him as my avatar

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

The Secret of Monkey Island. I remembered when I got this game back in the late 90's or early 2000's at a sale for the Monkey Island Bounty pack containing at the time the whole trilogy. And how I played it. This time I played the Special edition version I got for my playstation 3 since it got the voice acting and really nice graphics if I must say so. It looks almost enchanting and the voice acting is superb with most of the cast returning from the third game which introduced voices to the series. Same Guybrush, same LeChuck and Voodoo Lady and even the return of the original Elaine Marley. And if you dislike the graphics you can with a push of a button return it to its original looks. Only unnerving thing is that it is really made for a computer since the controls aren't as optimal as a mouse. Especially when its demanded fast finger action that really could have used quick commands. At least I was able to still play the games, compared to getting it for my computer which hardly work anymore.

The story then is that you are Guybrush Threepwood who wants to be a pirate so he set out on the three trials, sword fighting, thieving and treasure hunting. His quest will take him all over the Caribbean facing of against the Ghost Pirate LeChuck and his undead crew while finding the love of his life, Governor Elaine Marley. I used to play the original all the time as a kid. Especially the Melee Island part since that was the Insult Sword fight. Playing through I also realise that I for the most part skipped the Voodoo Lady since I never realised you could go another frame in her house. This of course made it a bit hard to follow her character in the other games when she referred back to this game. All in all I remember that it was fairly easy to get to the sea and set sail for Monkey Island, but I got caught on the ship since I didn't get how to leave it. So I looked up a walkthrough for that. Today I can see the ingenious game design in letting the cannon be a necessity to get money at the circus and then reuse it to get to Monkey Island. This series were fairly good at introducing a concept early and then reuse it for a puzzle later. Sad thing is that if you like me took your sweet time you mostly had forgotten how this things worked. Rather different today when I was able to play through the whole game from memory.  

Remember Golden Sun: The Lost Age (1)

99, 100... eh, fudge it, let's continue the story

After 40 hours of play I finished of this game, and it still feel as satisfying doing it as when I did it the first time back in 2003. It was a long wait back then, but I was hyped, especially after getting a promo CD from an now defunct Swedish gaming magazine that had clips from all kinds of games, including this one and if I remember right it was this one:

Listen to that music. That bombastic intro alone sold me on that this game was a much have. And now I played it on the Wii U. 40 hours more docked into that game. So what is better? It's larger first of. The original was rather railroaded as you had little choice to get anywhere else than the plot demanded, here they allow you free reins once you get the boat to do the elemental rocks in any order you want or tackle the trident towers (or whatever they are called). I guess the preferred order from the game designers where water than earth to be honest due to some dialog choices and needed powers, but it really doesn't matter.

Look at this map and you only visited the northern continent in the first game

Other improvements was forgeable items with a smith in one of the towns (rng based as well so you could fool it to give you one of the better weapons in the game). Also a lot more items to get from random drops so you know what that mean, ring-grinding. Although I think the designers realised their miss since it is harder to get the desired monster to appear since you need to cycle through them. If you find a correct spot that is. Also a lot more psynergies to use and some really useful ones like teleport (which took me a play through to realise that you could use outside of dungeons as well to get to any town on the map you visited). Also the world itself felt deeper with the different stories and legends you uncovered together with the ruins of the ancient world, the titular lost age of man. One of the better introductions was also the New Game + future that allows you to replay the game with your ending level. It clearly beats playing from scratch and level grind the hell out of low level monsters. And playing through it I can't say I didn't enjoy it and in many ways far superior to the original. And yet there is still some things I find disturbing me enough that I prefer the original over this. And they are all story related so I will bring that up in the story post on Thursday so I can collect my thoughts and better present them.

Well, except for the password, damn thing is 6 pages long and you can't even use the link cable like the original, if you had both games, two GBA's and above mentioned link cable. And if you had two of one game you could even duke it out!