Castlevania Season 1 (TV-series)

Love the homage to the game covers.

A little Christmas special as this goes up (although a bit early for Halloween as of writing). So I got my hands on the blu-ray dvd of the first season of the Netflix series (since I don't have Netflix and are a bit old-school that way) and watched it an early Sunday morning. Great decision. It begins as Lisa, arrives at Castlevania and wants to speak with Dracula about the secret knowledges he possesses and almost like an homage to the Beauty and the Beast-movie (animated of course) she seems to like a person with a big library... I clearly need more book shelfs in my home.

Cut to Lisa burning at the stakes a couple of years later and Vlad Tepes going berserk promising retribution on the people of Wallachia if they don't leave within a year. They don't listen so all hell breaks loose. Meanwhile we are introduced to Trevor Belmont being hounded by some locals in the countryside until he beats them up. Arriving at the last town standing he saves an old man being harassed by priests and it turns out that he is the leader of the seekers, a nomadic people gathering knowledge, but like the Belmonts being blamed for the demons overruning the land. One of the seekers have gone missing and Trevor reluctantly agrees to help. Apparently there is some legend about a saviour beneath the city sleeping and they try to awaken it. Trevor find the seeker turned to stone and defeats the cyclops and its Sylpha. They return and Trevor gets taken to the bishop who was the one that burned Lisa at the stake and ask him to leave town as the seekers shall all be killed for causing this... according to him. Trevor don't take lightly to this news and evacuates the seekers to the chamber he found Sylpha and then awaits the church move.

He kicks their asses until he is cornered on a town square, but Sylpha shows up using her magic to allow him to escape and turn the people on the church right before the demons attacks. Fighting them off Trevor and Sylpha falls into the catacombs and ends up at a tomb, where Alucard sleeps. Trevor and him fights for a while until Alucard finds them worthy on the quest to kill his father that wounded him as Alucard tried to stop him from unleashing the demons. 

Awesome shot!

I really liked this series, just waiting for the blu-ray release of season 2 this November (when I'm writing this, while you read it I probably already seen it). The visuals are amazing, and the voice actors... fantastic. The music is good for its purpose with the Gregorian chanting and such... but I would like something like the game music for the action scenes. But I'm hooked now.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Switch)

This ship pulled in without a sound
The faithful captain long since cold
He kept his log till the bloody end
Last entry read "Rats in the hold.
My crew is dead, I fear the plague"

Continuing my Castlevania adventure with the third game in the series on the Anniversary Collection and it's a return to the first game with how the game plays. Playing as Trevor Belmont a 100 years before Simon Belmont, you are the last of the Belmont family to make a stand against Dracula's armies after being exiled from Walachia due to the Belmonts super-natural powers, but eastern Europe is being overrun so the church have no other choice. On his quest he meets Grant Danasty, a pirate that was turned into a monster that you had to defeat in order to save. His abilities is that he can climb on walls and such making certain portions easier to traverse. Next they meet Sylpha Belnandes, a sorceress that have been turned to stone by a cyclops and when freed joins up with her different spells. 

Now, in the game you can only have one companion with you (Trevor is permanent) and I don't think you can meet all in one playthrough since depending on which route you take you either get Sylpha or Alucard, the fourth companion, the son of Dracula and the protagonist from Symphony of the Night. I've never got him since it's the harder route I gathered and this game is hard enough for me. Also, I would have missed the ship if I didn't get Sylpha.

See, it fits the lyrics!

Mostly I preferred to play as Trevor since he is a Belmont and play like most of them. This game is hard. Dracula has 3 forms, and the ending form demands that you run back and forth avoiding beams from the count while jumping on floating floors to reach his hit zone and since the floor is flying around there is bottomless pits under you if you miss, or more likely, gets shot of the platform. Thank God for save states. Hey, if the game cheats so can I! I don't feel as much for this. Technically it's more replayable with the choices you can do while traversing the world map and the different companions you can gather differing the gameplay due to the different characters and their abilities. I would never have finished this as a child. Music is good, graphics looks pretty much like the other NES games, maybe a bit more refined. This game is also the inspiration for the Netflix TV-series... which gives me an idea!

Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (Switch)

Why do the princes have flying googles?

Continued with the second game in the series released back in 1987, the most important year ever. It starts off with a retelling of the first game and that there is 100 years since the warrior Niklas defeated the draconlord and went travelling with his princess and founded several other kingdoms where his lines rule the land until this day. Now the forces of Hargon attack the castle of Moonbrooke where the king sends his daughter princess Peronel to safety and one lone soldier to warn the King of Midenhall before the whole castle is destroyed. The king of Midenhall sends his only son, Prince Niklas (yes, I named him after myself... again) and you are off. First by finding his cousin prince Randolph and with his help finding the mirror of Ra and using it to break the curse on Peronel so that she is turned back into a human after being turned into a dog by Hargon. Together the three sets out on a quest to find the five sigils that allowed them to speak with the goddess Rubis and get the eye of Rubis and then finding the False Idol and together with these items charged at Hargons castle and defeated him and the demon Malroth. So now I know what was up with Dragon Quest Builders 2. 

Overall I liked this game, more fun with a party of three compared to alone and therefore some strategy. Mostly no problem figuring out what to do, but in the dungeons and towers I usually used a map from the internet since I can't really bother with it. And when they threw in trap doors at the cave to the final area, I really can't stand it. Also, really problematic finding the star sigil and the sunken treasure that allows you to get the echo flute. Problems that still exist is the limited inventory and the end was just walking up the castle over and over again until I've reached a high enough level and getting by without getting attacked that much so my resources aren't all spent. But **** those kamikaze monkeys that one shot the whole party regardless of the health level. Fun enough and probably more fun to replay since there is more plot, and it's just not grinding for money and levels compared to the first game and it's bigger. So big in fact that it have most of the original world within this one (minus most towns and caves).

Civilization VI (Switch)

L'État, c'est moi.

I was a short time obsessed with Civilization, played the original with my best friend in school, and then I read about the fourth game in the gaming magazine Super Play where two of the writers reported about their game against each others. They never finished it but it caught my attention and then I asked and got Civilization IV for PC for my birthday/Christmas. As usual when playing games that actually needs a bit of thinking there is a learning curve that for IV took me a long time to get. Maybe I was to young (or rather to stupid) at the time, think it took the second expansion getting out that I bought before it really got fun since I then discovered how to change which tiles each city was supposed to use to boost either production, gold or population. Rather important since I before that just let the cities go on auto and if you wanna beat the AI, you gotta prioritise. 

Now, the fourth game was fun, it had Leonard Nimoy as the narrator. Then I heard Sean Bean was the narrator for this game and then that the expansions where heading for the Switch so I caved in and got it. First off, getting to know the controls was a bit weird, but playing it in handheld mode allowed me to use the touch screen so it helps. Secondly, the game is working pretty much as the fourth one so not that hard to adjust. The problem is probably all that is new and more subtle that I probably need to get before making a fool of me. At least I notice certain differences. Like, no more water transportation ships just to get settlers, soldiers or workers across the islands if you start, say, in Japan. Also, the workers are limited to a minimum of 3 actions before disappearing. Forcing you to constantly make new ones... and I have no problem with that since it limits it instead of the 10 workers you had in IV just waiting for the next city being founded or finding a new discovery that forces you to build a mine on a farm or changing all roads to rails.

Talking about discoveries, they implemented national wonders that you can find around the world, doing certain things enables you to gain advantage for research and you can choose to research one discovery and if it needs something researched before it puts it in the fastest way to get there. Simplicity. I haven't played it that much since there isn't really a point since it's an endless game, you always feel the need for just one more turn. Mostly been playing the actual earth and Rome and Japan since it was the civilisations I played the most in fourth. Bit surprised that it wasn't Caesar and Tokugawa, but hey, more people to learn about. Also rather many new civilisations that I haven't seen before. Haven't played V so they might have been there. Game crashed on me once when I tried to check if it was me that offered peace or if it was Australia and I had to pay for it. It isn't that clear if they mean me or him when they use My and Their. Still, I just gotta... play one more turn.

Dragon Quest (Switch)

They say he comes for those whose souls are weak
and call his name upon the wind
The night is cold and thick with mystery
Oh I can feel his beating wings

As described before, I've played most of the mainline Dragon Quest-games, all released for the DS (and Playstation 2) and I've had this inclination to play the first 3 games as well (since those are the only ones I've hadn't played before) and lo and behold... they are all released for the Switch. Playing the first one, you can feel that it is a bit archaic. At least it's a bit mitigated in this version. It's based on the mobile port that is based on the SNES remake of the game that originally arrived on the Famicom/NES back in 1986, although not in Europe. So basically we get a better version with a graphical overhaul and a lot more gold and Exp. that hasten the game, I've read at least. And that is probably best since there isn't much in it and just to grind to get anywhere... we don't do that anymore, I still had to grind a bit to finish of the game, but I don't want to think about how much that would have been if I've played the original.

Basically you are a decendent to Erdick, this famous warrior and you now have to find Erdick's treasures in order to gain access to the Dragonlord's castle and save this land from his darkness. You need the armour and sword of Erdick, the harp of Galen the bard, the rain bow and sun stone to make the bridge appear that take you to the island where the castle is. And you also better save the princess of the land while you at it that is guarded by a dragon herself. There's something like 5 town (+1 one destroyed), 2 shrines, 3 dungeons and Tantegral Castle and the Dragonlord's Castle. 

A journey to the centre of the earth

It's really simplistic in its approach. Really, grind for level ups and gold so that you can take more punishment and dish out more damage in order to go further on the maps and dungeons. Some things are more irritating than others, for example the limited amount of space in the inventory that both have to deal with equipment, special items and items like torches, herbs and such. I guess that with higher levels you get magic spells that take away the need for some items, but why would I waste magic points on Glow instead of healing and attack spells? Especially since the torch is actually better than the Glow spell? Those are a bit weird. Then we have the magic keys that open locked doors... and then breaks so you gotta buy more keys and when you leave a town or dungeon where you unlocked a door, the door appears again and you gotta use yet another key. Also, the game crashed once when I put the game speed at the lowest, but lucky enough the game autosaved so I didn't waste the grinding from level 20-23. Then we have the cryptic nature of some things like finding things out in the overworld just by accident while walking over it. I guess the map forces you to walk over there, but it is missable and you need the item as far as I understood it. It was charming at least with the art work of Toriyama and the music while not as diverse as in later games at least works. I've at least played it now, not sure if playing it again would be high up on my priority list.

The Last Door - Complete Edition (Switch)

Recall the dream of luxor

How fluids will arrive

As if by call or schedule

Resume through the morning tide

Where entry is by seaweed gate

And plan the plan of dreams

To lose oneself in reverb

In all that is and all that seems

Been on some kind of Lovecraftian kick since my summer vacation where I listened through Blue Öyster Cults Imaginos cycle and also got a Lovecraft collection. And then Switch got this game and since it was published by Phoenix Online that did the remake of Gabriel Knight and their own King's Quest the Silver Lining I decided to take the plunge and I gotta say, it really sucked me in. Beginning with the suicide by hanging we are introduced to Jeremiah Devitt that have received letters from an old classmate and decide to meet his old friend. Arriving at the old manor no person is there to meet him so he wanders the house, getting keys and some disturbing images and ravens following him. Turns out that after his friends wife died he went mad and hanged himself leaving some clue toward Devitt and his school back in Aberdeen. Calling the police after finding the corpse Devitt visits his psychiatrist, Dr. Wakefield and then travels to the school that was turned into a hospital. People are dying like flies and Devitts old teacher, an old priest, are the head of the hospital. He stumbles upon some kind of ritualistic murder of the patients in a room under a class room. In the catacombs he sees a light from a room and as he enters I see the most ghastly thing ever. A bug that stop me from progressing. It took them over a month to fix it with an update before I could continue. 

After that setback I could continue with watching the priest burning himself to death after retelling of their experiments in school where he part took in an experiment to enter the Last Door that Devitt and his friends tried to do. Now, game is really good. It's not hard since it's just a puzzle game where you walk around and try to get keys to enter doors and such, but the atmosphere is uncanny. The music, the sound and graphics all build this sense of dread as I played through it. And I admit, I had things running on the computer besides me, but that probably was for my benefit since it felt uneasy. And to be fair it used a couple of jump scares and quick cuts to unsettle the player, but I liked it overall.

The real story is that Devitt suffers from amnesia and looks for answers to what happened and therefore tried to connect with his old friend. Which took him to Aberdeen where he is knocked unconscious by a serial killer and transported back to London in a coffin and after being released stumble upon another friend, Alexandre DuPre where he is injected by a serum to enter the veil once again. Then the game shifts perspective to Dr. Wakefield and a Dr. Kaufman. Wakefield tries to find his patient and Kaufman is a friend that have connections to the occult and helps in the search. First they try to find information about DuPre at an asylum. That leads to an officer that puts them on course toward Kaufman's old teacher Dr. Wright who suffers some kind of Alzheimer. Kaufman grows sick and eventually dies and leaves the final clue for Wakefield to an island where they are in the midst of pagan rituals, dressed up in masks and a child have gone missing... am I the only one that got the Wicker Man vibes of that chapter? Turns out that the island used to have a ritual to enter the other side by installing terror on people so that they enter the land of fog. Which Wakefield is submitted too and there he finds Devitt. Looking through the lands he is given a choice to either turn back or try to save Devitt. 

I'm Burnin' for you!

It's hard to tell the story since it's not that hard and as stated earlier, it's the atmosphere you want. Think about a late autumn night, alone and silence with only the sound of the howling wind. This game gives me that chill, but interesting enough I knew I never could die and that doesn't need to be. I highly recommend it for the Halloween holidays... that is, what, like 20 days ago... I blame the bug. If there something I don't like about the game it's that the ending... wasn't that satisfactory. They hinted about this custodian that like a spider guarded the last door and would hunt down anyone it found within the fog. I assume it might have been the creature you saw below the tunnels around the Wright mansion, but it wasn't giving me a final ending winning over it to get to the door. And then of course, what happened after entering the door? What is its purpose and why did they seek it beyond the mere curiosity of the the bored student that had to return? And what about the eye? Why does it exist? Maybe it's just the lovecraftian way.

Dr. Mario (Wii U)

The Doctor is in the house!

Got a bit of urge to play some puzzle game and started up my Wii U again and found Dr. Mario. And the search function at the blog states that I haven't written on it before so, new game finished after 30 minutes!

We got it the first time for the NES back in the 90's and the most fun thing about it is its multiplayer action that me and my sister had going trying to beat it first or at least not die first since we were hardly any experts on it. Playing it on its own... I prefer Tetris actually. I will give it that the music is good and it is satisfying in defeating the viruses as they plop and then the big ones in the magnifying glass wriggles in pain until each of the colours are gone and they just... poff out of existence. Now, I can't recall if there ever was any story beyond that you have to destroy the viruses, but in one of the Nintendo Magazines we had I could read about this comic advertising the game:

Wish I had all of the comics since it's just campy fun.

Life Force (Switch)

We meet again!

Got through my favorite Konami shooter once again, this time the arcade version. Helped a lot by the fact that I could turn up rapid fire for everything. Mostly the same as the NES port, but certain differences. Audio is better, you even have a voice both describing what happens, what you should do against the bosses and what power-ups you picked up. The stage shifts are nice since it just go into the next one by turning the ship. They also have arranged the stages a bit differently since stage 2 is stage 5 and vice versa and no Egyptian mummy head for end boss or a stage themed after that. 

Also, the power-ups doesn't work like on the NES since there you could save up and choose the ones you wanted, instead you get what you get. I assume the port was made to look more like the Gradius-series since it's a spin-off of that. Would I play this or the port? Doesn't matter really. Pretty much the same. Maybe slight benefit for the port with the Konami code giving me enough life to not need to save scum past certain parts. 

Scramble (Switch)

This seemed interesting

Buying up all those Anniversary Collections from Konami on the Switch I took the Arcade one and saw that it had Life Force that was ported over to the NES (and other consoles like TG-16). Life Force was a bit harder to beat without building up some reflexes I started looking on some of the other games. First of was Scramble, an arcade game from 1981 where you control a jet that is making a run for the enemy base. Basically fly past all obstacles while hitting the fuel stations so that the jet doesn't crash and then defeat the enemy base, and then repeat. Nothing special, but a small distraction that takes around 5 minutes to make one run.

The graphics looks like it came from the early 80's

It's nothing else to say about it. It's seen by some as the first Gradius and that's it.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

Feels like 1993 (or more accurate 1999 when the DX version was released and the first time I played the game)

As mentioned in this post I was waiting for the remake of Link's Awakening to drop on the switch and I got it after work on release date and finished it the following Sunday morning. A really beautiful remake and the depth perspective is really popping out in this environment. Take for example the dream shrine where you get the ocarina, I always assumed the bed was reachable by going down, but now I can actually see the intent was a plateau.  

I mean, can you blame me? (Now I can't even unsee it so I begin to wonder what I was thinking)

Overall, it's a pretty faithful. Differences is that the warp system have been improved with more warp points as well as the Mambo hooks you up to the network instead of taking you to one point making traveling around the island faster. You have bottles to store fairies making the game even easier actually. You have more buttons now so things like the sword, shield, pegasus boots and bracelets get their own dedicated buttons which diminishes the need for constantly pause and unpause the game to equip the right gear. I usually put the feather on X as a dedicated jump-button. New collectibles in figurines that you can place out in the houses of Mabe village and you win them in the crane game. Both the crane game and fishing pond is improved so that you actually have something to gain from using them (figurines and seashells).

The biggest changes is the inclusion of Dampé the gravedigger from Ocarina of Time that now allows Link to arrange dungeons on his own and then play them. Dubbed Zelda Maker after the Mario Maker games. For people who like those games this might be something to spend time on, but I only played enough to get the heart piece and sea shell. I'm usually to uninspired to create things by myself so I probably won't bother (just like I haven't gotten any Mario Maker game and Dragon Quest Builders just last till the end of the story mode). Also combat have been improved with Link have to outmanoeuvre certain enemies like shielded ones, or that the bomb-eating monsters now have a cool down and wont even eat the bombs first couple of seconds after a bomb prior (lucky they implemented that picking up the bombs pause the timer).

Is there some problems? I couldn't find any options to adjust sound and music. At some places the music was very silent and I miss the DX version when (although sharp sound) the game blasted Tal Tal Heights as I began traversing the mountain. To subdued here and no way other than to bring all sounds up. Another thing is the removal of the photograph mouse and hut (Dampé have taken his place). Gameplay wise it doesn't matter, and it was mostly something to sell the Game Boy Camera I gathered, but the scenes were funny and I would have loved to see the expressions up close that the photographs captured as well as keeping memories of the journey. 

I mean, look at them!

That is actually the only thing I miss in the game. Well, besides the heart container I gotta missed from a boss, cause I was one short and I had to go through all the dungeons again to be sure and I couldn't find it so I think that implies that if you don't get it it's gone for that playthrough. Which is weird (I suspect the angler fish to be the culprit). I would wish they remade the Oracle games as well in this engine since it looks amazing and the improvements to gameplay is fantastic and the reason I would probably prefer this version over DX. 

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Switch)

Only a woman can break his spell
Pure in heart who will offer herself
To Nosferatu

The second game in the series and takes place 7 years after the first where Simon has to travel the land of Transylvania in search of Dracula's relics spread out in different mansions in order to summon Dracula and kill him of and stop the curse that have been laid on Simon. In parts I actually like this game more than the first, mostly since I can see that if I had the game as a kid I might been able to win it. First of it's "open world", go where you want if you can handle the enemies. Secondly, it introduced RPG elements like EXP and levels rewarding defeating enemies so you can take more damage and survive the harsher environments. Thirdly, you can permanently upgrade your weapons and buy helping aids like laurels. And you can choose between your subweapons freely. All that makes it more likely that I could have won the game. Also the relics give Simon different abilities, of course better used in later games like Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance.

That said, there are problems with the game, better articulated by the AVGN, but take the cryptic nature of the crystals you carry with you and where to use them. I can see certain hints in the village, but the translation butchered parts of them and the other part is that the game gives itself an excuse to lie to the player with the corruption of Dracula. Still, with pen and paper I feel one should be able to do it. This time I even got the best ending that is determined by how many day/night cycles you go through before finishing of Dracula. To do this I skipped picking up certain upgrades for the whip since I didn't have enough hearts passing through (hearts are both the EXP and currency, also, after a certain level-threshold weaker enemies don't give EXP). That made traversing certain mansions and areas harder, but I still made it. The reward was a nice ending cutscene with Simon kneeling before the grave of Dracula and when the night comes, Dracula's hand raises from the grave.

THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED!

Music is decent, not many tracks at all. Hardly any bosses which feels like they run out of time implementing since shouldn't there be a boss at every mansion? And I think you can skip one boss since it doesn't do anything other than give you a certain subweapon and doesn't even block the way to the relic of the mansion. Like my fascination for Zelda II I probably would play this game more often than the other games in the series for the NES. First time playing it was the Wii Virtual Console, and I got it for Wii U and 3DS as well. Interesting that it is seen as a bad game, even though it pretty much laid the foundation for the GBA-games that I recall where loved by most people. I've seen Egoraptors point on that as well, and I can see that it might have some coverage, but still.

Castlevania (Switch)

Deep in the heart of Germany
Lucy clutched her breast in fear
She heard the beat of her lover's heart
For weeks she raved in dreams he appeared
From far Transylvania

So now I played through the original Castlevania once again, this time for the switch with its Castlevania Anniversary Collection. First time playing it was for the Game Boy Advance when it was released as one of the NES Classics and since I liked the other Castlevania games for the Game Boy Advance (Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow) I thought it would be fun. I was a bit disappointed actually. The furthest I got was to the Frankenstein Monster Boss and since their was no way to "cheese it" as the kids call it, I never finished it there. Got it for the Virtual Console on the Wii, didn't fare much better. The Wii U on the other hand with its save state functionality was the first time I pushed through the game, and another time on the 3DS and now this.

The game isn't bad, but when you expect something like the Action RPGs and get just an action game, my skills aren't really up for task. Since I haven't played it as a kid, I have to cheese it to not loose my mind since the muscle memory doesn't exist and I don't want to spend all those hours that I would need to play it legit. It's still fun to play through, the music is fantastic and even though I save scum to win, it's still hard to actually get to the end and fight of the bosses. The story as told before is that Simon Belmont is on his way through Dracula's castle, Castlevania in order to end the vampire lords rule over the land of Transylvania. You battle armies of bats, skeletons, armoured knights and several other staple of monsters. Then we have the bosses, a giant bat, Medusa, a pair of Mummies, Frankensteins monster and Igor, Death and Dracula himself.

This ain't looking good

It's not a long game, fun to play once and awhile. The action style of Castlevania games isn't my cup of tea, I prefer RPGs, mostly since I don't need to be super good at the gameplay.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch)

Prefered the alternative cover

I got the craving for another minecraft-esque game for a while and I could have popped in Dragon Quest Builders 1, but since they announced the sequel I couldn't say no. It's pretty much the same game as the original, but different story and a lot of quality of life improvements. I haven't played the original since I finished (since I got a lot of games to play through), but things like no breakable weapons like the original, you can create an armoury to equip the "soldiers" with the latest weapons and with a way to draft the citizens to help you in building from a blueprint. It makes the game more manageable since you can let the citizens build a structure while you go out and look for materials and turn them into building parts so that they can continue to build the structure. The builder also gets new abilities like creating water from a bottomless jug, a fishing rod, copying a structure, swap large areas with another material and so on. Also there is a bit more to the battle system, not much, but enough with some combos and such. 

The story is that you have been taken captive by some Children of Hargon on their slave ship, apparently one of their last since the heroes of Dragon Quest 2 have killed Hargon so they are a bit disoriented. While doing task for the captain you are attacked by a sea monster while the captain tries to protect all aboard... didn't think I would play two games this summer which begins on a ship that is attacked by a kraken. You end up in the water and then you wake up on a deserted island. You meet Malroth... which is the same name as the god of destruction the Children of Hargon worship... I guess he's friendly. You begin buidling things, meet Lulu another survivor of the ship and then is instructed by a Hammerhood to gather people on the isle of Awakening and build wonders. So you do that. Malroth and you travels to a an island to learn the basic of farming and have to create a tree to together with a pastor of Hargon, Pastor Al... HA HA. I love Dragon Quest humour. 

How are people so creative?

Second island is a desert island where you mine minerals to upgrade a golem to gold status so that he can fight of the Medusa that turned him into... a stone golem. Brilliant, and you create a copper bar, a silver bar and a gold bar (bar as in drinking establishment, but I love the pun) to boost the miners morale. Third one is building defences for a castle and end an eternal war between humans and monsters.  The twist is revealed that everything except the ferryman, you, Malroth and Lulu is an illusion in a dream world created by Hargon. Hargon's plan is to team up the builder and Malroth in order to make Malroth be overcome by destructive power and unleash the demon inside of him. So as he grabs Malroth you follow to Malhalla which is being destroyed and you have to save the monsters on it by creating a space ship and as they leave you have to fight the possessed Malroth and then end the fight as a space shooter. I loved it! Fun thing is that I cared more for the friendly monsters like the captain at the ship in the beginning, all of them in Malhalla and Pastor Al. Maybe due them not being as demanding as the humans. A bit short in the story department, but you got some content afterwards, but I don't feel the need. I know that the monsters from Malhalla survived due to a letters so thats fine. Got other things to do.

Final Fantasy IX (Switch)

Spoilers!

So I continued with the next Final Fantasy I had on the Switch and what do you know, there is a fast-speed option here as well, the 12 hour challenge gonna be a piece of cake... 

*12 hours later*

... wait, I haven't even cleared the first CD portion of the game... this will take a while I fear.

Back when this game was released I remember that they discussed this game on Swedish gaming review show on the public channels and I think that was the first time I heard about Final Fantasy and I remember looking at it and being enthralled by the visuals. They showed stuff from the first part up until the escape from the evil forest. We didn't have a playstation so we never got it until we got the Playstation 2 and my parents gave me this game (together with VIII, VI, V, IV, I and II) one Christmas/birthday (for the record as mentioned other times, my birthday is fairly close to Christmas, but not on Christmas so I have a problem separate when I got what). The intro music fantastic, graphics looks good and I played it until the desert palace which broke me. I restarted this game so many times due to getting stuck at different places. I've only finished this game once before and this time I did it with a guide to do stuff that I normally doesn't get. For example the Chocobo mini game and the Mog Central.  So let's get started.

The game begins with Zidane, human monkey (?) that together with his bandits friend are gonna use a theater play to get into Alexandria Castle and kidnap Princess Garnet. Meanwhile Vivi, a black mage, tries to get in to the Castle to watch the show, but he finds out he has a counterfeit ticket so sneak in with the help of some rat boy. During the play Zidane enters the castle with his friend Blank and stumbles upon the Princess that tries to run away. Steiner, the Captain of the Knights of Pluto are sent by Queen Brahne to find Garnet and tries to stop the kidnapping. They end up on the airship where the play is played out and after some hi-jinks escape, but not until their ship is badly damaged by the cannons of the castle. The ship lands in the evil forest where Vivi and Garnet has been thrown off. Zidane and Steiner tries to save them and as Blank comes to the rescue while everyone else from the ship have escaped the forest they run out, but not until after Blank was turned to stone with the forest after pushing Zidane out of harms way. 

They are at the bottom of a valley and this world is special in that it is covered in mist which creates monsters, but is also the source of fuel for their machines. They have to climb to a mountain top where they find a town where they discover a black mage factory, since they apparently create them from the mist. They board a cargo ship and travel to Lindblum, the capital of airships. During the travel they have encounters with the Black Waltz, powerful black mages that have been sent out to bring Dagger (which is the undercover name for Garnet) back to Alexandria. In Lindblum it's revealed that Tantalus, the group Zidane worked with, was sent by the regent Cid to rescue the princess from her mother since the king died, queen Brahne became more eratic and was making deals with a weapon merchant that sold her the black mages. Cid unfortunately had been turned into an oglop (some kind of insect) by his wife Hilda when she found him cheating on her. Zidane hits the town and meets up with an old friend Freya from Burmecia that enter the traditional city hunt and Zidane joins her. After the hunt an almost dead soldier from Burmecia breaks in at the award ceremony. with news that Bumecia is under attack by Alexandria. Cid can't do much at the moment since he must gather his forces before he cam help. Zidane, Freya and Vivi decides to go, but at the bamquet before leaving Dagger put sleep weed in their food so that she and Steiner can return to Alexandria in order to stop queen Brahne. Zidane sets out and meet Quina, a quan from Qu marches that is this games weird character. At Burmecia Zidane overhears queen Brahne's plan to attack Cleyra, the sister city of Burmecia where the king of Burmecia went into hiding.  Kuja, the weapon merchant is there as well and when they protect one of the last Burmecian soldiers from Beatrix, Alexandria's finest general, they are left for dead as Kuja flies of on a dragon ending disc 1.

She hits hard

Now, in Final Fantasy VII the first disc ends on Aeris death. I gotta say, VII have a better start. More intense although they try here, but it just doesn't feel as important or dire. There are things I like more in this game though. The ability system is nice where equipment gives you different abilities depending on the character and if you get enough AP you can learn them permanently. Of course you gotta equip them from a limited pool of points each character have. This creates at least for me a reason to play every character since you don't get that unless you level up. Bad thing is, this took me between 35-40 hours to complete and then I had 3x speed on. I recalled when playing that I probably spent 120 hours to finish it the first time and the reason are the slow gameplay. They move like they walk in mud and the battles drag, but the reason for that is probably due to the player needing time to execute orders to counter the enemies attacks. I hardly needed to change speed playing VII, but here it was a good strategy to get things done without being steamrolled by the bosses. Also, sidequests suffers from the same problem as the condor strategy game, return again and again without knowing when it's supposed to. Especially the Nero family sidequest in the end. On one hand it was funny reading the lines, but the problem was that it took place during the endgame where after every story point you need to return outside and back to Lindblum (my guide said Alexandria so thanks for that) breaking the story. Also, you have 8 party members, 1 must always be Zidane, and only active party members gets EXP, meaning that some will always be left behind. Not even a trinkle down like in VII. 

Anyway, what's really going on in the story is that Kuja activilly tries to stage conflicts between the different nations and Alexandria and their grieving queen was an easy target. Plan was that Brahne wanted to rule all nations and was gonna use Kuja's black mages to get it together with the eidolons (summons) that Dagger possessed within her. Even going so far to sacrifice her. Zidane reaches Clerya which is destroyed by Brahne who was able to get Dagger and extract her summons. Zidane and friends escapes to the airship Red Rose and finds out about the order to kill Dagger so they teleport to the caste where they meet up with Steiner and Marcus, another Tantalus bandit that have the cure for Blanks petrification, that just escaped the dungeon. Zidane breaks in to a hidden basement and rescues a sleeping Dagger, but as they are about to leave are confronted again by Beatrix that subdues them, but when the order of killing Dagger comes she hesitates and questions the queen. She teams up with Freya and Steiner to give Zidane, Dagger and Vivi time to escape. This scene is awesome and the music on point. They escape by the secret tunnel that Dagger tried to enter the castle with and ends up near Lindblum where they meet Ramuh, the god of thunder that gives Dagger a stone that will teach her the summon Ramuh. They leave and at that time Lindblum is attacked and conquered by Brahne. Zidane reaches Cid that tries to keep the situation under control and they decide to strike at Kuja since without the black mages they can strike back. They reach Qu marches and meet Quina again and finds a tunnel to another continent where they meet dwarfs, find a village of black mages that awakened and hides from humans. Also the ruins of Maiden Sari, the city of summoners that was destroyed by a disaster 10 years ago. There Eiko, the last of the summoners lives with a bunch of moggles. She gets kidnapped by a mercenary that have harassed them on their way to the continent by the order of Brahne that wants the stone Dagger has. Another mercenary, Amarant frees her, but only because he wants to fight Zidane due to beng humilated by him some years ago. Zidane beats him and he joins them. They enter the Iifa tree and lears that mist are a byproduct from the tree as it siphons souls for some unknown reason. They defeat it and takes away the mist from the world. Outside Brahne's navy have arrived to fight Kuja since he is a threat to her dominance. As Alexandria summons Bahamut, the king of dragons, a giant eye in the sky appears (like the one that destroyed Maiden Sari), takes control of Bahamut and destroys the navy and kills Brahne.

You're the Queen? I never voted for you!

Dagger is to be crowned queen, but Alexandria is attacked by Bahamut, controlled by Kuja. Steiner and Beatrix (that seems to have fallen in love with each other) protects the people of the town while Dagger is drawn to a tower where the four stones of the kingdoms that Brahne gathered unleases Alexander, a summon that... is the castle? They never explained what it was, all I know it have wings that protected and destroyed Bahamut. The eye appears again and destroys the summon Alexander before Kuja can take control of it and we get to see Garland, the other big bad of the game. Zidane rushes up the tower and saves both Eiko and Dagger from the crumbling castle and they return to Lindblum. After turning Cid into a frog they set out to find Hilda since she is the only one that can return him to his self and they need him to build new airships to be able to continue search for Kuja. They travel to the black mage city where the mages have turned to Kuja since they have a limited life span and believes that Kuja can give them that. The last ones point to a desert and arriving imprisons all and Zidane have to go to Oeilvert to get a stone for Kuja. There it tells the story of Terra, a world destroyed and that they await to be resurected. Zidane returns, the others escape, Eiko gets kidnapped and rescued together with Hilda. Cid is restored and you now have an airship and can travel everywhere and the destination is Ipsen Castle where you get four mirrors and the location of 4 temples of the elements where the mirror needs to be placed in order to open the way to Terra. Done, enter Terra and it is revealed that Zidane is actually from Terra when they find the gnomes, other human monkies that are created the same way as the black mages and Kuja as well. Garland was created to ensure that Terra would survive by merging the planets, in that endeavor he created Kuja to wage war and siphon the souls so that Terran souls could take over the planet, but when Kuja grew to big for him Garland created Zidane, but Kuja tried to dispose of him and stranded Zidane on Gaia. During the confrontation with Garland Kuja takes control of the Invincible the airship that is the eye in the sky and uses it to overpower Garland and kill him. But Garland reveals the final piece of information that pushes Kuja over the top and that is that Kuja's days are numbered just like the black mages and gnomes he despised so much. Zidane evacuates all the gnomes to the black mage village and return to Terra that have been reformed by Kuja as he travels to the Crystal from where the universe sprang from in order to destroy all the universe as revenge. On the way you get an air battle with Nova Dragons as the sky fleets of Lindblum arrives and blows up the dragon while Beatrix and the knights of Pluto save the Inivincible with the airship the Red Rose. Zidane fights his way through different memories while the voice of Garland explains the story and fight of the four fiends that also guarded the different temples. You fight Kuja and then out of nowhere another boss shows up that want to bring the universe to zero appears that you still win over and then is teleported away. Cid picks up everyone up, but Zidane stays since he hears the voice of Kuja who was the one that teleported them back to Gaia and enters the Iifa Tree where the dying Kuja awaits and they reconcile since they both suffered as instruments of destruction.

Some time later we are back in Alexandria, Tantalus once again are gonna play the play from the beginning of the game. Dagger is queen, Eiko have been adopted by Cid and Hilda, Vivi has died but left a couple of kids, Steiner and Beatrix seems to have gotten together, Freya rekindled her love with her amnesiac boyfriend and as the play goes on Zidane is revealed to have survived and we get a romantic reunion as Dagger runs from her throne to jump into his arms. *sniff* I'm not crying *sniff*

*sniff* Alright I'm crying *sniff*

Loved the ending, except for the final boss. I must have power leveled a lot last time since I can't recall that it was this hard... or maybe I just leveled so much that I had enough Ability points to cover all statuses that are the biggest problem with the boss. Hate auto-death spells and apparently no armour to protect one self. Overall, a good game, it really charms me with all the references from earlier game like, Garland who was the first (and *spoiler* last boss) of the first game. The boss before Kuja looks like Chaos from the first game. The four fiends make a comeback and Dagger, a white mage is first seen in traditional Final Fantasy white mage clothes and Vivi looks like the old black mage. And the first complete party is a thief, knight, black mage and white mage, just beautiful. They referenced Joseph from the second game and one of the last dungeons are named Pandemonium like the one from II. Several items bear the name of important NPCs from III, I think the name of the last airship also is from that game. The two worlds and moons are from IV and the whole Clergya and Burmecia plot feels like the attacks on Damicya and Fabul. Also the dwarfs are back and the airfleet turning up to save the good guys at the end is the giant of Babel all over again. V... well, there is that boss that is a book, also travelling between the worlds and uniting planets feels a bit like the plot of V, but place four mirrors and enter a teleport was pretty much taken from I. A tree boss might be a reference to the final boss of that game. Could be that I haven't played through V all the way through in a long while since I jumped from IV to VII. Gilgamesh was mentioned in the game. I believe the scene where Kuja kicks Garland of the ledge is inspired by Kefka shoving off the Emperor of the floating continent. The name of a ring is named after an esper and I believe Terra might be not only another name for earth (like Gaia), but also one of the main characters from VI. You have an auction house and finally can get your hand on a model of an airship without a snot-nosed brat get his rich daddy to buy it from him. Now VII, they mention Cloud twice and for VIII you got the card game and one mention of Squall. Now music references, the volcano track is inspired by a track from I, I think Beatrix theme is taken from II and maybe the love theme is inspired by the same from VIII. Overall the music is fantastic.

I love this game with all it's references and call backs, especially now when I played all games. It's a bit slow in the gameplay department, but fixed in this rerelease. The mini-games like Chocobohunt was actually fun in the speedup version since they don't take forever and I think the games with that feature, but I like it. I actually got the card game as well this time and I actually won most of the games, but the guide mentioned that it wasn't that rewarding besides PS4 trophies... which the Switch doesn't have. The game was basically made for someone like me that liked the fantasy part in Final Fantasy and wasn't that keen on modern or cyberpunk final fantasy (which since finishing VII makes me rethink that point). Beside being a game that heavy romanticize the fantasy genre, it does have themes of being alive, having a soul and that life and death is part of it. Vivi tackles with the knowledge that he is a puppet creation, but have free will and that his time is limited. Zidane never thought of that until he is struck by the realisation he is also a construct. Even Kuja, but as the voice at the end mentioned. Kuja gave them hope in that he was the first that went against his purpose, akin to a Paradise Lost Lucifer who went against god. Also, friendship, but that is pretty much always a thing. If I ever do a run through all Final Fantasy games I might go for the cheats to speed up since who have 40 hours to spend on these kind of games anymore?

Final Fantasy VII (Switch)

I can still hear the music!

So I finally finished Final Fantasy VII. I bought this game originally for the PSOne back in the early 2000's when I was on a street fair at my grandparents town where they had this game and was the only one I didn't have of the Playstation 1 Final Fantasy games since all the others my parents bought me for Christmas and birthday present after we got our first playstation console (that being PS2). Now, I didn't finish it then. I got to the "final dungeon", but I didn't feel as confident at my capacity to win and everything else that you could do so it drifted away (mostly due to not being able to make time to sit and play since someone always wanted the damn TV). Then when I moved out and finally got myself a PS3 I thought I would give the game a whirl. I got to Junon and the military parade, but got stuck with my OCD-tendencies to 100 % it at a time since I was following a guide. And I returned to it some years after that and it wasn't worth it since I forgot how to play it, but now when it was released on the Switch I got the perfect opportunity as well as it releasing in conjuncture with my summer semester giving me 4 weeks to finish it off. Now, I finished it just after 1 playing it for a total of 25-30 hours.

It's regarded as the best Final Fantasy and one of the best games ever made and I can see it. It begins so strong with some random flower salesgirl walking in the city of Midgar as a train is on its way into a station. From the train the ecoterrorist group AVALANCHE attacks the guards and break into a Mako-reactor owned by the megacorporation Shinra and blows it up. You pay the role of Cloud Strife, a former SOLDIER (Shinra's private army) who turned mercenary and is paid by AVALANCHE to be their big muscle. AVALANCHE is lead by Barret, a one-handed black man supported by Tifa, Clouds childhood friend that put them in contact with each others. After escaping the explosion they head back into the slums of Midgar below the city and tries a repeat on the next day. They are caught in a trap and Cloud falls below the city into a church where he meets the flower girl who will guide him to his own sector if he acts as her bodyguard from the Turks, After finding Tifa who got information from a sleezy pimp about an attack on the pillar holding the city above their sector they rush back and find it enveloped in a firefight as Barret is on top fighting of Shinra's soldiers while the other members of AVALNCHE dies protecting the pillar. Cloud and Tifa runs up the pillar while Aeris (the flower girl tries to save Barrets adoptive daughter Marlene). AVALANCHE fails to stop the bomb being activated and the Turks have kidnapped Aeris and taken her to Shinra's headquarter at the tower in the middle of the city. Cloud and friends escape on a swinging hook from the destruction and climbs to the tower for revenge. They save Aeris and Red XIII (a sentient wolf) from the deranged doctor Hojo, but are captured by the president of Shinra. In their cells they are suddenly released and find blood trails in the tower leading to the presidents office where they find him dead with a sword belonging to the famed SOLDIER Sephiroth through his back. The vice president Rufus arrives and takes control and Cloud and friends escape the city in a motorbike and car and the hunt for Sephiroth starts.

They might look a bit weird, but remember, late 90's PS1 graphics

That part of the game is amazing. First that compared to standard fantasy fair that it is cyberpunk in nature makes it look cool. The music and atmosphere is fantastic and the action of that part of the game is supreme. It helps that it only took me 2 hours to play through that part since a function of the Switch port is that by pressing the R-stick speeds up the game x3. Especially important when I decided to redo the first part at Don Corneos place since why not try to 100 %? You could also give yourself the advantage to always start with "the overdrive" attack or take away random fights. I didn't use those since it took away part of the game, but it was nice be able to quicken up the long summoning sequences. And that explains 25-30 hours instead of the 60 it would probably taken me on my original run. Now, that is interesting since I recall that in Final Fantasy IX to get some secret weapon or whatever you needed to make it to a certain location within 12 hours which was impossible on its original European release since due to the PAL format it would take to long. I wonder if I will be able to with the Switch version. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So what's different from other Final Fantasy games? Like Final Fantasy VI every one can learn magic, but only through equipping materia that you level up by fighting and gaining AP. How much materia you can equip depends on your equipment and also determines how fast they will grow (or at all). Equipment is simplified to weapon, armour and accessory. The materia system was probably another reason I didn't finish it since I didn't get it. Especially since I had a hard time realising that the best strategy is choose 3 main fighters and equip them and no one else. Saves money and materia, especially since maxing a materia creates a new one that you can level up as well. And I got the tips to sell fully mastered All-materia since that would ensure no cash-problems and it did. Feels nice finally buying the house in Costa del Sol. 

So what are the themes of the game? It starts with environmentalism which is all the rage these day. The planet is dying due to mankind sucking it dry due to the megacorporations greed and they treat other human lives as trash, and then the world gets a much more concrete threat in that a meteor is heading for the planet caused by Sephiroth and only Aeris, the last of the Ancients (a highly powerful lost civilisation). Which leads to the most iconic moment of the game which I think best is summerised by the Clan of the Gray Wolf:

I miss those guys

Yes, Aeris is killed and Cloud pretty much goes into depression since Sephiroth almost made him do the deed. And that's due to Cloud being injected with Jenova cells (like Sephiroth and other SOLDIERS), but Cloud was experimented on after the incident that caused Sephiroth go haywire and Cloud lose his memory and made him merge his life with the SOLDIER Zack, that was Aeris boyfriend and the SOLDIER sent with Cloud and Sephiroth. Cloud was only a red shirt that failed to become a SOLDIER and was so ashamed that when they returned to his home town he hid his presence from friends like Tifa. Cloud falls through the lifestream, the very life force of the planet so Tifa and Barret leads the group, but when they find Cloud strapped to a wheelchair due to Mako poisoning Tifa stays and Barret elects Cid, a pilot that aspired to be the first man in space, to lead the group. Cloud gets better after another trip through the lifestream together with Tifa that unlocks his memories and confirms that he is Cloud and not just failed clone of Sephiroth. And as usual this indicates the end game and I just move back and forth until I have enough and finished the game.

I don't have the extreme nostalgia for this game since it wasn't the first Final Fantasy game I played, and I played it way later than it's release. Still I see the fun in it. The first part is amazing, and it's still fine up to the point where Cloud falls into the lifestream for the first time. It gets into aimless meandering and pretty much stumbling upon the next story point. Like me just exploring the underwater section and finding a key. Apparently important story item that I was lucky to find. Obviously people would find it by searching the sea anyway. Also, certain side quest is irritating. Take the Golden Saucer where you can gamble and get the best items of all, but you need first to pay with gil to play and hopefully win GP that you can spend on playing in the Battle Arena to earn BP so you can buy items. I hate that. Dragon Quest got it with buying points in the casino so you could play and they also enabled you to buy items. I get that due to the ease in maxing All-materia and selling it for 1.4 million gil in one go that it would break the economy, but at least skip the play to win GP segment since I suck at it and the most I got was the 30 GP from the Mog adventure that you only can win once. Even though I won't buy a Playstation 4 (or 5) for the remake I hope they fix this mistake. It's annoying. Or maybe there is some scalper somewhere and I missed it. Another side quest is the Condor reactor where you gotta play some real time strategy game and this time it was fine since I had a guide that told me every time I needed to go back to fight off Shinra, but another tip for the remaking team is that they should use the telephone to warn players that Shinra is on the move since running back and forth without a guide to see when it's possible to play it is just obnoxious. My first run I played it twice, first time stumbling upon it and the last mandatory one since I always felt pushed forward and didn't think you could return to the continent until you got the Highwind. But overall satisfying finishing the game. 

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

Adol Christin is back!

While writing this I just started my vacation and if you are reading it at release I unfortunatly been working for 2 months, but what better way to spend your summer vacation with video games? And a game set on a deserted island, it screams of summer morning adventures. The latest game in the Ys-series, and I've only played Ys 1 & 2 as described here. It starts out at sea on the cruiser Lombardia captained by Barbarosa and you, Adol Christin, and Dogi work as sailors for passage over the Greekian sea. During the night the ship is attacked by what people would call a kraken and the ship is sunk. Adol ends up on one side of the island and later stumbles upon Laxia von Roswell... as she is taking a bath in the nude. Now, I won't deny that as a heterosexual man, it tries to cater to me and I don't mind that in particular, but... is the first thing you do as you washed ashore on a deserted island with several beasts on it, to take a bath? Admittedly, she had her rapier close at hand and was able to swipe at Adol as he approached... leading to her dropping her towel (where did she get that?) and exposing herself. What nagged me about this is that Adol got blamed for snooping by her, and she wouldn't let it go for the first part of the game. Which feels kinda unfair to me, I wouldn't know, but I at least wouldn't take a bath after being washed up on an island especially not alone. I've seen enough horror movies and others to know that isn't a good idea.

Besides that, you find the captain and start to look for other survivors to be able to build a camp and trying to find a way out of the island. You find some obnoxious nobleman, a doctor, Dogi, some kid and more. Meanwhile Adol, Laxia and the fisherman Sahad explores the island in search of materials and a way off the island. During the night Adol have dreams of a woman named Dana that was the Maiden of the Great Tree, a prophet of the lost empire of Eternia that ruled the island. Apparently evolved from saurian (dinosaurs) so basically reptile people. Eternia was destroyed in a Lacrimosa, a reaccuring natural catastrophe that resets the world by destroying the dominant species and you can pretty much guess that humans are next. So far it's pretty much the Lost World or other Jules Vernes work. And then it turns to Jack the Ripper. One survivor is a Romun officer in charge of apprehending the Ripper, a serial killer that was last noted aboard the Lombardia. And then the captain is attacked, then the nobleman and you have to find him... since the captain can identify that it was a man that called out to him. So the males of the camp is a suspect. There's Adol, the captain, the doctor, the nobleman, Sahad, Hummel (another playable character), the romun officer and the last person you found, a sailor with medical experience... it's the doctor isn't it? I got it 20 minutes before the game spelled it out. You fight the doctor, but he is able to fatally injure the captain, the nobleman i killed by the kraken as he tries to escape with a rowboat and the doctor is then killed himself by a freaking dinosaur. AMAZING GAME!

After that Adol tries to reach the north side of the island where the dreams of Dana takes place. The dreams become more real as you now get to play Dana as she lives through the end of Eternia with more saurian attacks, random weather phenomenas and as she gets visions of the future tries to guide Adol from the past by planting saplings that will keep ruins stable across the millenia or other "change the past" deals like moving a rock and so on. You also can do a special dungeon that tells the history of the kingdom. In the end Dana arrives in the future and it is revealed that the kingdom flourished with the help of the Great Tree that gave the eternians the power of essence, that is basically magic. That is part of the Great Tree's plan in causing evolution and rejection. It brings forth a dominant species and when it rules the world, destroys them and take one champion to continue warding the evolution. Four times before the age of man it have caused the Lacrimosa and reset the world. You enter the tree to release the caught spirits in the tree to power up your sword and after that beat up the tree. Adol wakes up and the castaways are preparing to leave. Dana is nowhere to be seen and everyone else have forgotten her. Adol travels to where the tree is supposed to be and finds a new smaller tree, with Gaia, the goddess of Earth explaining that she set up the tree to foster the evolution of all living things. And then tells them that they can meet Dana again by traveling through another dimension where they fight some creature and this for some reason brings back Dana as goddess fo Evolution and the bringer of the Lacrimosa if humans gets out of control and then they leave.

It was a fun game. While Tales of Vesperia dragged on in the end, this was fun from start to finish. It was fun gameplay with quick fights and grinding to get materials to get new weapons, armours or brew potions and other things. It had mystery about what happened to the eternians, the castaway rescue mission felt important and the characters gave me the feelings I was supposed to get. Sadly I gathered that if I had played Ys III-VII would have enhanced the game more since they constantly referenced events from other games and the only one I knew was Dogi the Wallcrusher since he appeared in the second game. Music great at times, the sad theme really got me in the end, and I think the captains death really hammered it in. Didn't help that all he talked about was his kid daughter he would see when he got home. *sniff*.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (Switch)

Main character pose

So in wait for the (hopefully) coming off the Tales of Symphonia to the Switch I can at least play through Tales of Vesperia since I never played that before. And a good sign is that they actually bothered recording the song for the intro, most other games just use an instrumental version. And they also recorded voice over for the skits as well. And I like the voices here as well. I even heard Liam O'brian from Critical Role, although sometimes the text wasn't what was said. And that took me some time to get since I wondered if I heard correctly. And the gameplay is pretty much improved from Symphonia. Things like automatic use of items by your party members that you can stop by pushing the right stick and a new skill system that feels like Final Fantasy IX. Bad thing with that is that the AI goes through TP like snow in summer, and tend to use up all my TP-gels. It also have an overworld you can fly around on in the end part of the game. I like all that, and the story... kinda falls apart in the end. 

It began great with Yuri Lowell, a former knight that just hangs around the lower quarter of the Imperial capital with his dog Repide until someone cons the people by stealing their new core for the water fountain. Trying to catch the thief Yuri gets taken by the guards since they mistake him for a thief (and he has a history of causing trouble so the knight keep an eye on him). While captured another inmate gives him a clue to escape and during the break he meets up with princess Estelle as she tries to warn Flynn, a knight that is Yuri's friend and he gets dragged into that as they stop an assassination on Flynn. And the story takes of as they try to warn Flynn, meets up with Karol, a mercenary guild-member that never sticks around since he's scared (being a kid and all), Rita, the genius mage that studies blastia cores, Raven, the old guild spy, Judith, the krityan dragoon, and lastly Patty, the amnesiac girl looking for her grandfather, the pirate captain Alfried that committed a massacre. 

During the course of the adventure we explore ideas of corruption in those with power or pretty much mankind over all. They set this up with Ragou the senator and a commander of the knights who conspire to gain power for themselves on opposite sides of the imperial powerstruggle (the knights vs the senate) if Estelle or Ioder should be the next emperor. And that is fine... until Yuri kills them as he sees that as the only way to stop them from abusing power. And I can understand that. I like the idea since it also mirrors him and Flynn who chose to stay as a knight and change the system from within (and they wear black and white). The problem is that happens at the halfway point and there is no main bad guy anymore. So you travel around and try to stop the guild Leviathan's Claw that was giving the others weapons, but they aren't really the bad guys, they just profit on the struggles between others. Behind them is apparently the imperial commandant Alexei that people say had some ideals that made him go over the top to take over the world by using a super weapon from the time of the ancients. Meanwhile the Entelexeia (sentient beasts close to nature) tries to kill Estelle since her ability to destille aer (mana but not really since it appears later in the story) without blastia is a danger for the natural order. Now, the Entelexeia is trying to stop the return of the Adephagos, an eldritch abomination from the stars that feeds on aer, but fail as Alexei in his misguided search for power opens the shield that he thought was a weapon, killing him and leaving Brave Vesperia (the guild they decided to form) the ones to stop it before Duke, a characters that shows up from time to time, uses all human life to destroy it. 

It follows the rythm of the other Tales game pretty much, but where Symphonias twists and turns felt natural and the end goal was pretty clear, here I don't know. Alexei turns evil the last quarter of the game and a bit after that the Adaphagos appears in the story and then Alexei dies and leaving the Adephagos. Which you don't fight. The last battle is with Duke who belives that mankind must be sacrificed to save the planet since it was them that called the Adephagos the first time and again and again almost summoned it until now. And I agree with him, to stop this from happening take away the problem. And Duke was always this mysterious character that showed up helping the main characters, but reluctantly. But I got him. But as the final boss? No, the story fell apart there. Thank god that the gameplay didn't screw over me in the final battle. I accidentally shifted character and they all went into auto-mode and I couldn't switch back as the auto-mode wouldn't disable. Lucky my party pushed through. 

I feel disappointed by this game. Symphonia had the best final boss and Abyss the best main character. I like Yuri and friends, but Yuri doesn't have the arc of Luke and as I said, the end goal changes so you don't have that and the true final boss you don't fight. Thinking through the main cast, only Raven and Patty is interesting. And Raven I guessed pretty quickly that he played both sides. Patty took me by surprise and I don't know if I found everything in her story. Cause can't figure out why she looks like a little girl when she is apparently quite older than the others. I played the game for 60+ hours and I don't feel like playing through everything. It's not a bad game, it works and it distracted me for a while, but I don't feel anything for it. That or the fact that I stopped and played other games inbetween since the backlog is growing and soon I bought all Wii U and PS3 games again just to have them on the Switch.