Mysterious Cities of Gold S3E7 - Sword of the Samurai

Zia with the mentioned sword of the samurai

So after escaping from the castle Mendoza takes command of the ship and are about to throw Ambrosius over board for betraying them, but since he is the only one that fly the ship as they are about to crash into the ocean he is allowed to stear the ship. They find the kids and are finally reunited. As they discuss what they know, about the emblem Mendoza relises that the key must be the hilt of the sword of the samurai lord. So they concoct a plan where Estaban gives some food to Gaspared that that is looked in the ship, but breaking a glas that allows him to escape in the night by cutting the ropes. While he get the samurai, our heroes creates sleep gas, traps and whatnot in preparation for the army. As the army arrives everyone gets smoked, Mendoza fight the second in the command in a sword duel and Zia is the one knocking the lord of his horse and then gangsta style smoking him with the sleep gas and take his sword. Meanwhile Ambrosius tricked Tao to leave him alone so he could take a sword and the episode ends on Mendoza trying to get some information from one of the soldiers and Ambrosius comming up behind him to strike with the sword.

Now, that would have been a good ending if it wasn't for the snippets from the next episode where they clearly show both Ambrosius and Mendoza in the aftermath. Thanks show. This time I got the documentary, and it was of course on the japanese sword making skill. I don't think I got the whole episode, but still. They are kinda pointless when you don't get what they are saying.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold S3E6 - The Return of Zares

Finally, the villain returns

It started a bit weak as the Gaspard revenge scenario was pretty much twarted at the get go with him declining to attack Mendoza for some reason, so Ambrosius gave him a sleeping potion instead so that he could use the Zares-suit to kill Mendoza and get back his compass. But while he gets there Mendoza gets a visitor as the kid the children have been staying with have come as part of his watch duties and gives Mendoza a message from Estaban. Mendoza hands over the compass together with a written note on how they are about to escape. The kid gets to town and are tailed by Zares. Estaban gets there as well and after a short hunt is able to knock several logs of wood over Zares as they escape to the woods. In the woods Zares gets them again, knock the kid unconscious and retrieve the compass from Estaban, but are chased away by Zia and Tao who are looking for Estaban.

Reading the note Zares relises that Mendoza plans to escape with the airship so he hurries back (I think), knocks Gaspard unconscious again and tries to leave. Meanwhile Mendoza and Co escaped their cell by hiding under the floor and letting the guards open the doors for them. They climbed the roof and jumped on to the ballon as it began rising and flew away as Ambrosius escaped the caste.

Back at the kids home they tend to his wounds and the episode ends as Zia discovers that the emblem of the lord looks like the emblem on the mirror shield.

Decent episode, the music as the guards look for Mendoza and co in the castle sounded like some old tune from the first season. The story feels a bit slow, Mendoza episodes are more action oriented I feel, but the story take a back seat and it feels like its the other way around when the episode is kid centric and that make me actually appreciate the kids stuff more so far... probably more if I understood everything they said.

The Mysterious CIties of Gold S3E5 - Le bouclier miroir

Where we left off

The kids are now trapped in the cave with the mirror shield. Turning it upside down the medallions activate it somehow as golden liquid tentacles (for lack of a better word) emerges from the back of the shield, touch the medlions and from there active some scripture on the surface. All I got out of it was something about between fire and earth... and it means volcano. The next city of gold is in the volcano just out of Kagoshima. Turning the shield again they realizes that the front of the shield is a map and touching the volcano creates a symbol. The kids are interupted by Pichu and discover a way out by climbing up in the cave and finding the water that creates the waterfall outside so they ride it into the pond. They board the condor and return to Yoshi, the old man and his two kids where they are brought up to speed on Mendoza and friends.

Meanwhile Mendoza and co are waiting in their nicer prison cell. Sancho and Pedro eats the food while Mendoza are looking at Ambosius outside fixing the airship. Gaspard arrives to get Medoza to the lord. The lord wants his help in finding the lost city of gold... I think, the translator turns it into the golden fleece and it is hard to know if it is a mistake or the actual thing he is looking for. With it anyway the lord is aspiring to unite Japan with himself as shogun. Mendoza asks to think about it over the night. Gaspard have been given the right to take Ambrosius stuff back to him, but the lord ain't happy and Mendoza gets his eye on the compass. As he is escorted back by Gaspard he goats him enough so that he can steal the compass and with it cripple Ambrosius ability to track the condor and the childre.

Ambrosius is furious that the compass is missing and decide to get rid of Mendoza the best way is to give Gaspard a gun he have hidden and the episode ends on Gaspard doing some tricks before pointing at the camera. That is all, and the documentary wasn't part of the episode I watched, which is a bummer since it's part of the experience.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold S3E4 - La colère du Naï No Kam

It's again airborne

Been a while, but now we're back with more episodes of the Mysterious Cities of Gold. As I stated last time, 5 seconds later and they saved Estaban from the water, but one of the guards at the temple entrance notices something and begins tracking them while they are in the temple. Hiding from the guard they are trying to wait for the parade of the mirror shield and listen in to some local story about putting a rock on a piece of paper and if it connects you will marry the one. Of course Zia puts it in thirst and Estaban and Tao try their best to get their own piece of paper in the pond. Nothing happened in this episode with that so I won't know if it will come back. The ceremony starts, but as they try to keep up Zia feels something and believes that another earthquake are coming. Now, usually in these type of shows one would have seen signs like animals acting weird or running away, but out of the blue it seemed like she felt it, making me wonder if they are hinting that she also possess some (as of yet) unexplained powers? If Estaban is connected with the sun and sky, is she connected to the earth? Well, she warns the people moments before the earthquake erupts, they are caught by the guard, but break free and after saving Tao from falling into a crack created by the earthquake they follow one of the guards that have taken the Shield and hidden it in its safe place. They hide while the guard closes the room and approaches the shield and the episode ends on them finding it.

Meanwhile Ambrosius and Gaspard joins forces to stop Mendoza and get the airship working again. Mendoza and Co are hiding in the village and waiting for the right moment to board the portuguese ship that is guarded by the daiymo's men. The earthquake happens and the guards scatters, but as they are about to board the ship a mother cries out about her two children trapped in their burning house. Mendoza tells Sancho and Pedro to board the ship and he will join them later, but they follow him instead. He position himself in the doorway and holds it up with his own body while Sancho and Pedro grabs the children and run out. The daimyo's second-in-command that have patrolled the town for Mendoza arrives and witness the scene just as the house gives way and buried Mendoza in the rubble. And I like this scene as it just shows the faces of the people standing there in shock and then a close up on Mendozas cape that flickers in the rubble, and then, like freaking Hercules emerging from the Hydra in Disney's Hercules Mendoza stands up, pushing the rubble away from him. And then they get captured and the daimyo himself appears wondering why they didn't just leave, but risked their lives saving some strangers they didn't even know. Sadly I didn't catch what Mendoza answered due to the language barrier. They are arrested again, but treated better this time around.

So no cliffhanger this time around. Nice. The mini-documentary was about the temple and the customs we observed during the episode. I even think it's the same temple that Soma Cruz entered in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow to enter Dracula's Castle. Mostly it was the stairs that looked the same. I really wish there was an official english version (or I even take a proper english subtitled french version).

Wild Guns Reloaded

Västerns hjälte Lucky Luke, kommer på sin häst,

Rider genom staden, vad ska ske här näst?

So I got the remake of Wild Guns for the switch. I played the original on the Wii U (although never finished it since I suck at it). Pretty much a normal shooter avoiding enemy fire while mowing down hordes of enemies all across the screen. Story is that Annie is seeking revenge on the man who killed her family together with the bounty hunter Clint (who looks a bit like a buffer Clint Eastwood who I assume he is named after) so you battle your way through 6 different stages fighting cowboys and mechs. Yeah, it's another anachronistic steam punk game. Cool.

Tuffast utav alla, drar och skjuter snabbt!

It's not much to the game really. I played through it in one hour on the simplest difficulty just to get past the bullet hell. It's strenght would be the multiplayer action that allows up to 4 player to play locally (2 players in the original) and control the constant barage of enemies and bullets better. I assume that is since me moving out of my parents house I don't have the docking station for the switch with me while meeting my sisters so I can't just hook it up. But maybe I make the effort to bring it with me for Christmas.

Skjuter skott på skott, träffar alltid nåt

Hans namn är Lucky Luke

It has great graphics and the music is really good, but the difficulty is hard. Still waiting for the Sunset Rider remaster with 4-player co-op.

Swedish Election 2018

Boy oh boy, a four year chaotic period is finally over and the Swedish people have elected... yet another "no winner" set of parliament. And now even the Sweden Democrats (SD) can't be that happy with the result since they were well and above 20+ % and the spot as the largest or second largest party and instead they ended up third with just at 17% and the Moderat (M) party at 19% (close to 20). You could tell that all the fear and anxiety that have been building in all the parties pretty much died around 22:00 on election day. The Green Party (MP) didn't leave parliament, the Left (V) and Centre (C) parties had some really good results, but compared to the above 10% they were polling with 7-8% as the result are a bit disappointing. Contrast that with the Social Democrats (S) that expected under 25% and falling from 31% to 28% was kinda good. The only one genuinely happy would be the Christian Democrats (KD) that not only made their best result in 20 years, but also showed that even though they polled 2% in the beginning of the year you couldn't count them out. And us Liberals (L), well we gained 0,1 so we went from 5,4 to 5,5%. First time we got a better result than last election for 12 years. Gotta be happy for those small things.

So what happens now? It's to close to call (red-greens 144 seats (V+S+MP), alliance 142 (L+C+M+KD) and the Sweden Democrats 63 seats) so everyone awaits the recount at the County Administrative Boards of Sweden were all pre-votes, foreign votes and at first glance disqualified votes are counted together with every other vote and it might or might not change some swing seats. For example one seat I saw was only given to the Sweden Democrats from the Centre party with a margin of 7 votes. Usually the ca 50 000 foreign votes are leaning more heavily to the bourgeois parties so that could be beneficial. Not enough for a majority, but if the Alliance get more than the red greens and maybe snatch 2-3 seats to be the biggest block there is more likely that they can dethrone the Social Democrats. Which I would prefer anyway, but what are you gonna do?

So how will the future government look like? The alliance can't create a majority without leening on either the Social Democrats or the Sweden Democrats. The Social Democrats won't since they will not get the prime minister post and the Liberals and Centre parties have trouble getting support from the Sweden Democrats. So I think that the Moderats will create a minority government with the Christian Democrats and get the Liberals and Centre to support the budget and get passive support from the Sweden Democrats while making a deal with the Social Democrats on "fixing" the migration issue and get supported by the Sweden Democrats, and with it expelling the question and hopefully bring it back to economical reforms of the Swedish economy, workers rights and housing issues. Why do I believe this? Because if all the promises each party have done, that is the logical conclusion. L and C can't sit in government supported by SD, and they won't support a red-green government (S+MP), SD have also said they can't support a government with MP or C (and I would assume V and L, but that haven't come up). S won't support any other than themselves, MP is to small to support the Alliance and the Alliance don't want support from V and KD and M have said they will bring down S no matter the cost. And that is the reality. If no one breaks their promises we will have a M+KD government in a couple weeks. And I'm OK with that. 

And now to some trivia. I have yet again been able to be caught on camera by the Swedish Television as they filmed the local election night watch parties. So you can spot me on the Alliance Watch party around 23 seconds in, but I wont tell where I am so for those that doesn't know me have to guess:

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/val2018/inget-block-far-egen-majoritet-i-nykoping

Happy Post-Election Day and see you on the other side!

Paper Mario: The Thousand YearDoor (GCN)

A fun adventure albeit a bit "thin"... hehe

So not finishing my cravings for the Gamecube I put in a more lighthearted RPG, Paper Mario. The first Paper Mario game I ever played since we skipped the one for the N64 for some reason. So it starts out with Princess Peach being on holiday (?) in Rougeport, a place of scum and villainy built upon the ruins of an old city that was destroyed 1000-years ago. There she gets a box that only she can open which reveals a treasure map she sends to Mario so he can help her find the treasure. So when he arrives the Princess have been kidnapped so together with new friends he must find the seven crystal stars and find Princess Peach.

All the worlds a stage and all the men and women merely players

It's basically go to a new place, find some upgrade and/or a new companion, defeat the boss, get the crystal star. Then it shifts to Princess Peach in the villains lair, the so called X-Nauts, befriending the AI computer TEC that for some reason falls in love with Peach so he helps her as well as uncovering a lot of the plot. And then it shifts to Bowser trying to find Peach and Mario and trying to get the crystal stars before everyone else. All in all it turns out the old city was destroyed by a demon and it was locked up  behind the door by the crystals star by four heroes (which is hinted at being trapped in the black chest that gives you powers like turning at the side, becoming a roll and turning into boat and a plane) and the X-Nauts are going to use Princess Peach as a vessel for the demon. So with your friends, the seven crystal stars and the prayers from the people all around the world you defeat the Shadow Queen and everything works out fine. 

Let's go Bastille day on this queen

Framing story is simple, but it's the moments that are the most fun. For example the arena Glitzpit where you climb to the top in a tournament fighting the RAWK HAWK, or taking the train to Poshley Heights and it is filled with murder mystery cliches. Certain chapters are more fun than others. The Boogley Woods I recall put me to sleep the first time I played it back when I got the game. Funny enough I still got my old save so I looked through it. I finished the game 2 hours earlier (at 43 hours this time) with 3 less levels and less Hearts and Flower Points in this new run, but I also finished all the troubles and found the secret companion and every shine sprite and 99 star pieces. The only thing I actually did in the old save I would like to do is finishing the 100 pit trail and defeat Bonetail, but I guess I would need some more resources since I can't have played the game as good like this time. Looking at the badges I just used more Hearts and Flowers with are rather useless compared to the right combination of badges so I learned something this time around.

It's a fun game (Bowser getting owned by Gonzales, Mario and Luigi in finding the crystal stars gave me a chuckle), a pity it was the last of it's kind... although Super Paper Mario is inbetween the old and current style of the game, but it changed a lot compared to the first two games. I can see why though, they probably had no new ideas to take the series forward in the same direction. The companions would probably have been repeats and the goomba and koopa show sign of this since they are just the same characters once again. Replaying it was rather fun and having played the original game as well since then I noted several call backs that I missed the first time, both to characters and locations. First obvious one is Kolorado who was an archeologist in the first game that was the father to the koopa of that game and his father showed up here... as a dead body after a fight with Hooktail the dragon, but it was fun knowing who he referred to. Also it's rather fun to see all the times the developers cramed in several hundred characters in the scene to show off the power of the Gamecube compared to the N64.