Skies of Arcadia Legends (GameCube)

 

A pirate I was meant to be!
Trim the sails and roam the sea!

As of writing it's the beginning of the summer vacation of 2022, a heat wave have just appeared and what better way to start is too cool down with high adventure in the skies as you battle the Valuan Empire as noble air pirates? One of my favourite games that I hadn't played for over 10 years if I'm correct. Plus the big summer game for 2022, Xenoblade 3, comes out the week after I'm back to work. Story is that a lone girl sailing through the sky at night is attacked by the Valuan armada, but is rescued by the air pirates Vyse and Aika, taking her back to Pirate Isle, Vyse's fathers Dyne's base of operation. The next day Vyse and Aika travels to nearby Shrine Island to get a moon stone that fell from the sky (which they uses to make weapons and power their ships and machines). While they are away the Armada returns and take all men prisoner and the girl Fina. Returning Vyse and Aika take up pursuit but their ship is destroyed by an unnatural big archwhale Rahknam. They are rescued by Captain Drachma that hunts Rakhnam to avenge his son Little Jack that's also the name of his ship. He takes them to Valua as he puts in a harpoon cannon and with the help of a valuan boy Marco they break out the air pirates from the Colosseum through the sewers and then get Fina from  the rail transport to the Grand Fortress. They all escape and Fina tells them that she is a silvite from the lost silver civilisation that are looking for the moon crystals scattered across the lands that controls the Gigas, ancient weapons that wrecked havoc on the old world and summoned the rains of destruction that destroyed all civilisations besides the silver one (this world have 6 moons). Valua is after them as well with Grand Admiral Galcian as the biggest threat.

That was the intro. You continue by traveling to the temple of Pyrynn where the red moon crystals is hidden with the help of a dancer, that turns out is the valuan admiral Belleza that summons the red gigas, Reculmen, that the Little Jack hardly can scrape. You solve it by defeating Bellezas ship instead since she has the crystal. After taking her engine you travel to the lands below the green moon, Ixa'taka, modelled after the native American civilisations like Inca and Maya and such. You rescue Ixa'takans from the Valuans that colonised them and used the slaves to mine for moon stones. You rescue the high priest that tells you the legends of the ancient capital that like Machu Pichu exists on the mountain tops. But the Ixa'takans had already found the crystal and uses it to summon Grendal the green gigas to push the valuans out of Ixa'taka. Of course admiral De Loco uses the same tactics as you and incapacitates the ship holding the crystal making the gigas run amok. After defeating them Vyse travels north back to Valua, but are intercepted by Rakhnam that Drachma must fight, but the Armada is hunting him as well after destroying several of their ships. This time by admiral Ramirez. During the battle they harpoon Rakhnam, but Little Jack takes heavy damage so they have to escape, but Drachma pushes the life boats out to go down with his ship. Meanwhile Ramirez starts firing on the life boats so that Fina and Aika is seperated from Vyze. The girls end up in Nasrad (the capital of Nasr, the main enemy of Valua and an ottoman expy) with the help of the air pirate Clara where they work as waitresses to get money for a ship and finding a map to the Island of Daccat, a famous air pirate. Vyse meanwhile is stranded on an deserted island where he also finds a part of the map and after some time is rescued bu the air pirate Gilder that helps him to Nasrad and onward to Daccat Island that after the trails of Daccat the parties are united with a single gold coin. Returning to Nasrad the Armada attacks and topples the kingdom of Nasr and captures our friends and take them back to Valua and the Grand Fortress. Gilder gets them out and after causing chaos and mayhem they try to escape and is helped by prince Enrique, the son of Empress Teodora, that can't stand the atrocities the Empire causes for its goal of world domination. He helps them to the newly built flagship Delphinus that they take and escape, blasting through the fortress with the moon stone cannon, the weapon built to rival the gigas.

From here you make the deserted island your base as you travel through the Dark Rift to get to Yafutoma, the Japan/China substitute where you rescue the kingdom from Valua as well as a greedy adviser. You pick up Princess Moagi that's fallen in love with Enrique and after stopping back at Cresent Island (your home base) you travel to the Ice Continent and find Glacia below the ice where you encounter Drachma again that survived the battle with Ramirez (who we also is told is another Silvite that went rouge in search of the crystals), but ended up stranded in Glacia with Rahknam that turns out to be the purple gigas in his final dying moments. They watch him die, takes his crystal and heads back, travels below the continent of Valua to enter the Maw of Tartas where the Yellow Gigas is sealed and after fighting him they ponder how to get Fina back to the Great Silver Shrine that apparently lies between the Silver Moon and Arcadia. Gilder tells them about a rumour that the Armada is building a special base and ship that apparently can go below the deep sky. Infiltrating the base they make of with the schematics of the ship, but are cornered by Galcian. To their aid comes admiral Gregorio, the oldest admiral and pretty much Enrique's foster father that tells them about Galcian's plan to use the crystals in order to usurp power for himself as he has taken complete control of the armada. Pushing them out of the way he faces Galcian alone to give them enough time to escape. Back at base they fix up the Delphinus and sets out again and sink below the clouds to find the ship Fina came in that was shot down by the Valuans in the beginning. At the depths they fight De Loco for the third and final time as his ship explodes after enough damage. Exiting Deep Sky Enrique leaves the party to travel to Valua and warn the Empress. Vyse returns to base where the Armada attacks and Ramirez reveals that the mission the elder sent them on wasn't to stop Valua getting the crystals so that they wouldn't be used, but so the Silvites could use them to once again cause the rains of destruction with their own Gigas, Zelos. 

Fire in the sky, all my castles are burning!

And to top it all of, all Silvites have a piece of the Silver Crystal inside them so Ramirez starts extracting Finas, almost killing her if it wasn't for Gilder firing his cannons from the Claudia to distract Ramirez. The armada gets away with the other crystals and the base is completely in ruins. Vyse and the gang flies off with Fina's ship to the Great Silver Shrine where you gotta run around in a maze until you find the chamber of the elders where they confirm what Ramirez said. They intend to destroy the world once again and reset it since they are on the brink of once again creating gigas or unleashing them, but Ramirez and Galcian shows up, killing elder Prime, the one that acted as a father for Fina and takes his crystal and leaves. Returning the base is back in order and you gotta stop Galcian before he removes the seal on Zelos. Back to the Armada base and fight of Admiral Vigoro and then take an elevator down below Deep Sky. 

He's wearing a goddamn codpiece! Vigoro needs to update his wardrobe.

You of course are too late to stop them and they raise the continent of Soltis and unleashes the rain of destruction on Valua, destroying the capital and killing admiral Alfonso (an uptight brat noble that you faced of against a couple of times and renegade Galcian in order to become Grand Admiral himself) and the Empress. Enrique was able to escape with the help of Belleza that was sent to Value to prolong their response to the Armada going rouge... and killing her of since Galcian noticed she wasn't that comfortable to kill all the innocent. All reunite on Crescent Island together with fleets of Air Prates that you encountered during your travels, theres the black pirate Baltor and Gordo you fought of, Centime the tinker you rescued in Ixa'taka, Clara, Gilder's ship Claudia, the Tenkou (air pirates from Yafutoma lead by the rouge prince of Yafutoma) and your father Dyne's new ship. With the pirate fleet you set off to face Galcian as he tries to bend the world to his knees. You corner him and fight him at his new ship the Hydra, a flying fortress. As you got him on the run he enters the command centre and flies away, but who turns up if not Belleza in her ship that crashes right into it taking it down and exploding with her. Ramirez loses it and intends to wash the world away with the rains of destruction, but as the signal fires away the Great Silver Shrine comes crashing down, stopping the rains and destroying the energy shield around Soltis. You board the continent through Shrine Island from the beginning. You defeat Ramirez, he merges with Zelos and you defeat him with the Delphinus and then he crashes on your ship and you fight him for a third time The fight over you head back, Enrique marries Moagi and starts rebuilding Valua, Vyse, Aika and Fina gets a new ship and continue to travel the sky. The end. 

No new game + with this costume?

I love this game, it has everything. Ship battles, giant monsters, lost continents, space travel, the fricking Moonstone cannon. There's tragedy, romance and always an optimistic hero and the great soundtrack pushing every scene above and beyond. The whole world is inspired from earth's history around 1400 - 1700  with the conquering of the world by Spaniards, Englishmen and the Portuguese. Which probably also explains why there is no African expy since the scramble for Africa was in the 19th century, which with the caricature vibe that wouldn't have gone over that well, but still. I've played it several times since it came out for the GameCube back in 2003. Didn't know what I did back then so this was the first time I used magic in different ways, changed around the accessories to get the benefits from that (back in the day it was just defence and power that mattered) making some of the harder bosses a little bit to easy. I mean, last air battle against Zelos is a magic caster that you can silence. I never used that before. There's also side-quests like the bounty hunters, moonfish and chams to feed cupil, Fina's weapon. The moonfish rewards you with items and backstory for Ramirez. You can gather crew members for your ship and customise the base. And finding discoveries around the world which you can sell for gold that gives you tidbits about the world. It's amazing.

Playing through it though, the world is kinda small, There's only 7 towns to visit and Nasr and Valua have two towns each... doesn't feel like empires. Also, the game is long overdue a remaster or a remake, especially as this goes up it have been 20 years since the Legend version was released. The Legend version is the best way to play with the added content of the bounty hunts and more discoveries and lowered encounter rate. It is said it took a hit in the audio department, but since I never played the Dreamcast version I can't say if that's true. I also discovered I still have my own written lists of moonfish, chests and discoveries I got from the internet back in the early 2000's when I tried getting 100 %. Fun times, could have used it for the treasure chests since I missed a couple apparently and had to run through a couple of dungeons again to get the last missing moonfish.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (3DS)

 

Big Trouble in Little Beanbean Kingdom

Well, had to pick up these 3DS games before the eshop closes down. So I got the remake of the Game Boy Advance game Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga that started the other Mario RPG-series after Paper Mario. I got the original version on the Virtual Console on the Wii U. Not finished it, played maybe 20 minutes and then almost fell asleep so that didn't end well. Well, 20 hours later in this game and I'm finished. Main story complete.

So story is that during a diplomatic mission from the Beanbean Kingdom, Fawful (who that is is never explained) together with the... witch Cackletta (I assume as well since it's never actually explained where she comes from or why she does what she do) steals Princess Peach voice and escapes back to Beanbean Kingdom to get the Beanstar that will grant Cackletta her wishes. Mario and Luigi is called in to help and with the help of Bowser that finds it insulting that someone else attacked Peach, but his airship gets hijacked by Fawful stranding the Mario Bros at the mountain border between the Mushroom Kingdom and Beanbean Kingdom. Entering the kingdom and the Castle town the Bros drive out Fawful and Cackletta so that Queen Bean can help you together with Prince Parsley that you rescued from an egg at the top of the mountain. 

Well, that was apparently part of Cackletta's plan since she dumped the Bros to fix the plumbing in the castle that somehow released the security around the Beanstar, but when you tried to stop her the Beanstar fragmented into 4 pieces that you now have to get since it appears that Peach was kidnapped while getting to the Beanbean kingdom. Gather the star pieces, some shenanigans to rescue Peach as Cackletta now possessed Bowser and known as Bowletta that gathered his Castle and starts shelling Beanbean Kingdom. The Bros flies up to the castle and fight their way through the koopalings and I gotta say, this is where the game gets hard. It effing cheats. Damn Ludwig and Wendy, that made me put on the Easy mode since can't stand that damn timing attacks both to get to them and then the fights.  Gah, and then then finally you fight Bowletta, that ends with the bros being sucked into the stomach of Bowletta where you gotta fight Cackletta's... true final form I guess, some kind of elemental cloud.

Original version I get and apparently it's her soul

The Bros escapes the castle after defeating the soul and rescuing Bowser. The Bros together with Princess Peach and Toadsworth fly home in the plane with Bowser in tow, credits roll and everything is fine... well, there is another mode, Bowser's minions where the minions from Bowser's cruiser try to gather the troops and find their lord while trying to fight of Fawful and the kooplings that have been brainwashed by Fawful. Basically choose the right minions for the team to fight through 2-4 battles to get on. I played 2 and a half level and just stopped, it might be a distraction and a thing to get the time up to respectable 40 hours, but I'm not gonna do that. I have other games, but the banter between the minions are kinda fun with everyone pushing the main goomba as leader so that they don't have to, the so called aura of stupidity.

Main game is kinda fun, interesting puzzles and such. I wish there was some kinda quick defeat fighting enemies that clearly can't kill you and you will defeat in one hit. Why is Earthbound one of the few games that implemented that feature? Even Paper allowed you to equip a badge that did that. Well, time for another game and as of writing summer vacation is soon upon me with less than a week of working left. Thank god for public work where you get a half day of the day before midsummer

Laytons Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy (3DS)

 

Let's solve a Mystery!

The latest Layton game from Level-5... that was released 2017 for the 3DS and that I played for 5 hours in 2018... and then didn't pick up again until 2022 when I finished after a couple of work days. I really should stop playing games for 5 hours and pick them up some years later. As mentioned, latest Layton game, but Hershel Layton isn't technically in the game. He is mentioned, but you instead follows his daughter Katrielle, her servant Ernest Greeves and the dog Sherl O.K. Holmes (aka Sherlock Holmes). It begins with Sherl asking Katrielle to find his owner (she can speak with animals, which is strange since that was Luke Tritons deal). But they get sidetracked with other cases that emerges for Katrielle and her detective agency.

So instead of a narrative that binds everything together it's instead divided into 12 different cases. There is some overlap with characters appearing in them and the events being referenced. The cases goes from find a pet, to solve a theft of a golden statue, find the vigilante Ratman that disappeared (a case filled with Batman references, awesome) to a case where Katrielle has to prove that she didn't commit the murder of a owner of a hat store (which you saw previously in the case where you tried to find a present to Inspector Hastings, this games bumbling police officer). The first eleven cases builds up a bit about the 7 dragons of London, a group of wealthy millionaires that contributed to London in different areas. One is the mayor, one is a shipbuilder, one owns the biggest bank, one is the owner of a newspaper and so on. And then there is a backstory time on how Ernest and Katrielle met as she cleared him from being accused of stealing some research papers on his first day at the University.

The last episode is pretty much the closest to the older Layton gamed high stake mysteries. Katrielle and the dragons are invited to the Richmond estate, the haunted home of lord Richmond that died ten years prior, but Lord Adamans have found the treasure there inviting the participants to solve the mysteries or lose their fortunes with Katrielle as the juror of the game. The dragons fails and then Katrielle solves the mystery and figures out who lord Adamans is. Turns out it was a fake name and that it really was the grandson Miles Richmond that have comeback to exact revenge on the seven dragons that got started by digging up diamonds on a mountain that was owned by lord Richmond. Miles in turn turns out to be... Ernest Greeves, Katrielle's servant. Didn't see that coming. 

Like usual it's all a big misunderstanding and everyone ends on good terms. The Dragons had tried to find Miles during all this time since Richmond gave them permission to use the land since he himself was so indebted that any fortune would be going to pay his personal debt so he wanted them to use it for the betterment of London... so a really big scam to get away from his creditors then. Decent story, but I guess a clearly stated goal of the game was to bring the series down to reality since they felt it had grown out of hand with those world spanning conspiracies and such. Which is a bummer for someone like me who liked that. A bit of a problem though with the cases structure, I much prefer a mystery that follows you all through out. It also becomes a problem that we never find Sherls owner, or where Hershel is since Katrielle mentions looking for him near the last cases. I mean, there really wasn't a conspiracy to be found in the game.

The puzzles then? Fine, I've gotten wiser on the gotcha moments when the answer is thinking outside the box. Apparently the designer behind the puzzles for the first Layton games passed away in 2015 and the game is dedicated to him and there is a new person on that, but it's fine. Feels like the other games. You also got mini-games like before, prepare the ideal dinner for a couple of characters, get Sherl to the end of the stage by pressing buttons and such and the last game being put jewels on display in order to sell everything in different stores. Small distractions, you can also decorate the office or get new clothes for Katrielle by finding red coins to exchange it for the clothes. 

Overall, works fine for what it is. There was a Switch release in 2019 of the game with something like 51 different puzzles, but not really enough to double dip in my opinion, especially when I can play all Layton games on my 3DS. Although, why it was released on the 3DS is a bit of mystery since it doesn't have any 3D-effects in it. Although I guess most games at the end of the 3DS era ditched the 3D. It's around 40 hours of total gameplay with the normal game and the daily puzzles which you earn points to unlock scenes and descriptions about the earlier games in the series. Well, time to get going on another game.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

 

Seems a lot like the characters from Bloodstained.

The final Castlevania-game for the DS and the last entry into the old lore of the series (besides Castlevania: Judgment, but that's a fighter game so doesn't count... and I don't have it as well) before rebooting it with Lords of Shadows. It was also a return for the art style they used on the GBA games and updated the sprites so it wasn't just a copy-paste of previous games.  It is also hard as hell playing from the start since the enemies pack a punch and you can't take anything. Great then to start the game from level 71 and pretty much every equipment and glyph taking away a lot of the grind making it a rather smooth experience.

Story is that since the Belmonts disappeared after the event of Symphony of the Night and Nostradamus prophesy predicting that they shouldn't return until the year 1999 and the final battle with Dracula different orders appeared in their stead to stop Dracula whenever he showed up in the meantime, one of is the Order of Ecclesia, led by the alchemist Barlowe. He has help from Albus and Shanoa, "step-siblings" that lost their parents to the darkness that swore to fight evil. They have created the Dominus glyph which will end Dracula once and for all, but at the night of the ritual Albus interrupts it and steals the glyphs for himself as he was promised to be the one receiving Dominus. The interruption makes Shanoa loose her memories and emotions as well her combat skills so Barlowe trains her quickly to get back the glyphs so that they can defeat Dracula.

Her travels across Transylvania takes her to the village Wygol who's citizens have been kidnapped by Albus and imprisoned in crystal. Rescuing them all and absorbing the seals is the way to get the true ending since by doing so Shanoa absorbs part of the blood that the citizens possess since they are in fact the Belmont Clan in hiding, but without any powers to stop the darkness. At a confrontation in an abandoned mansion Albus is able to absorb the three Dominus Glyphs after studying Shanoa, but is overtaken by the soul of Dracula which the Glyphs are powered by. Shanoa defeats him and get the glyphs back, but the soul of Albus is absorbed by the glyphs and tells Shanoa that he did this because Barlowe promised him that he would be the vessel of Dominus in order to save Shanoa and that the Glyphs are powered by her memories and emotions as well, meaning that Barlowe lied to them. Confronting Barlowe and he is shown to be in league with Dracula and as he is defeated sacrifices his life to destroy the seal upon Dracula's soul so that he can return and his castle shows up again.

Alone Shanoa braves the castle and its dark secrets. At the top of the castle she confronts the resurrected Dracula and as he is about to unleash one final devastating attack, Shanoa assembles the three glyphs of Dominus and defeats him, but to the cost of her soul. Until Albus soul intervene by finding Shanoa's memories and emotions, giving them back to her and then taking her place as the soul sacrifice needed. Shanoa is alive and can finally smile and be happy (and cry) and the game ends.

I won't cry... *sniff*

This game is rather good. Gathering glyphs can be a hassle and it's not always clear what they do by reading the name and description, but it is easy try it around and you got at least three different set-ups compared to Dawn of Sorrows two, a pity the armour isn't switchable in the same way. You finally got to travel the lands of Transylvania for the first time since... is it Castlevania II, III or Bloodlines... maybe Castlevania 64... Curse of Darkness? It has been a while at least. Villagers to talk to get quests and such is rather enjoyable, at least more intuitive than Wind blocking Jonathan from certain rewards that can be helpful to defeat Brauner and rescue his daughters. Also interesting tidbits like the demon possessed child Anne and Danielle the old vampire hunter woman that found vampires along her grandfather... might that have been Richter Belmont? Now, some of you might complain that I played it to easy what with level 70+, but I compensated by the no-hit challenge with bosses instead. If you are able to defeat a boss without taking damage, you get a medal. Equip the Death Ring that boost your stats through the roof, but a single hit kills you, then go to town on the bosses. First two just spam attacks before their first attack, but after that it gets harder, the crab boss being the hardest early boss since it's more about avoiding attacks until you can activate the elevator in the lighthouse to smash it. I thankfully forget all this to after that boss, up until I tired out in Dracula's castle with the shadow man and after that just raced to the finish. 

I recall really hate you the first time through.

Other content is an Albus mode where you play as Albus, attacking everything with your gun and that's it. A bit of a let down compared to the four different modes in the last game. You also get hard mode and such. Music is alright, the best thing though is that you have the option to play any of the tracks from the original Castlevania by buying records and playing them. A bit cumbersome since any room that is a passage between areas reset the music and it is a bit of hassle to go into the item menu and look it up. Still, I found it fun and the rapid flu glyph is amazing to speed things on.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

 

Well, New Generation works rather well for this game

The second DS game and continuation to the Mega Drive Castlevania: Bloodlines. And as of writing... and probably forever, the closest game in the timeline before the Battle of 1999, the event that destroyed Dracula for good mentioned in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow. And we're never gonna see it due to IGA leaving Konami and Konami... being Konami. The lore of these games was fascinating. In this game you play as Jonathan Morris, the son of John Morris that defeated Dracula in Bloodlines (who in his turn was son to Quincy Morris that stabbed Dracula in the Bram Stokers Dracula, which is strange since I recall that he was a suitor for Lucy and therefore didn't have any children?) and Charlotte Aulin. It's the end of the second world war and Dracula have appeared so the church has contacted Jonathan to investigate. Turns out that it isn't Dracula, but a vampire named Brauner with his two daughters that summoned the castle which he intends to use in order to destroy the world (he also looks a lot like count Olroc from the silent movie Nosferatu).

On this adventure you also meet Vincent the priest that sells you potions and such and Wind, the ghost of Eric Lecard, the other main player of Bloodlines that died while fighting Brauner in order to stop Dracula's resurrection, which caused his daughters to follow him into the castle and Brauner believing them to be the reincarnations of his daughter's that died in World War 1. Brauner is a painter and have trapped the castle as well as Dracula with his paintings that acts as portals to the worlds painted. You have 18th century english town, a derelict mansion in a forest, a pyramid in the desert and a gravity defying ruined town and circus. So the painting concept allows us to go beyond the usual castle interior that have been standard since Symphony of the Night or something like that. Nice change of pace, Sadly four more stages, which are like mirrored versions of the first ones. Kinda boring, but the bosses is Wolfman, Medusa, the Mummy and Frankenstein, the classic monster villains as well as a staple of Castlevania bosses.

Next us is the fight against the daughters which can be skipped if you found the sanctuary spell and uses that to cure them off their vampireism so that they can help you unlock the Vampire killer. Brauner doesn't take that lightly, but he goes down easy and then Death shows up and kills Brauner and resurrects Dracula that you know have to fight both at the same time. Played it on normal and don't get how I could have so much problem with this as a kid. I mean, I finished it at level 43, when I think I grinded to level 80 or something like that. Maybe mostly for the Nest of Evil, a gauntlet of enemies and bosses from Dawn of Sorrow, and thankfully no stupid magic seal making them so much more fun to fight. There's also other modes, you can play as the sisters that search for their father, a Richter Belmont mode... which isn't that special when the main guy also is a whip wielder. There's also Hard modes and a Living armour mode. Get's overkill on it, but it has a lot to replay the game for.  Takes 8 hour as well. Mostly gets out of the game after 4 hour when I hit the Mansion and Circus level since they are the most boring.