Super Mario Odyssey

Game of the year!

Pre-ordered and ready to go when it was released. Three days on a total of 27 hours the end credits roll. Most fun I've had since Breath of the Wild. And still only has just above 500 power moons as of me writing this. The story is that Mario must save Princess Peach from Bowser that travels around the world to get different things for the wedding, like a wedding dress, cake, flowers and so on. On the adventure you got Cappy, a morphing hat that wants to save his sister that Bowser is using as a bridal diadem. With Cappy you can possess things and monsters and even use him as a jumping point and even attack blocks. And pretty much everything else work like the old games, jump, triple jump, backflip and so on. 

Really, the best is how fun it is both for some weird nostalgic reason (as well knowledge of the series overall) together with just a good game. I was able to find a portrait that lead to the mushroom kingdom before you can access the whole world and I can see the castle and it just look like I imagined my 10 year old mind would have thought Super Mario 64 looked like. And I read a sign telling me about Yoshi. And don't get me started on New Donk City where one part of the world emulates the original Donkey Kong game where the people are shouting "jump, man" as a nod to Mario's original name. And that is not even mentioning Pauline. And the fun game, which other game can you enter a door, find a scooter in an alley and as you start driving a T-rex falls behind you and starts hunting you?

One thing I could say as a bit negative is that it feels rather easy. The only time I had some problem was the end fight with Bowser. Mostly because I was forced to memorise patterns and do it perfectly... or rather until I bite the sour apple and went back to an earlier kingdom to get the extra 3 HP mushroom. With the extra health I was a bit better. And most bosses are rather simple and normal for Mario games, but then they throw a mother f***ing dragon at you. Or a boxing match with Bowser, thankfully I played ARMS and was well prepared for swinging the JoyCons. And the music, especially the forest kingdom is amazing.

And after you finish Bowser you can visit the Mushroom kingdom and revisit all the other kingdoms again for new and harder challenges to get even more power moons. And you can have 2 players, but I haven't tried it. Still, best Mario for the moment.

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned

A vampire angel?

So after the two first games I got the third game as a christmas present and I gotta admit, I was a bit confused playing it. It looked awful. I mean, really awful.

No one can say that this looks good?

So after getting used to the graphics I at least could enjoy the return of Tim Curry as Gabriel Knight, although he clearly changed the voice a bit. The game also came with a prequel comic detailing the events before the game starts which was a bit strange as well. The first game also had a comic, but that was a visualisation of the event when the Ritters lost the medallion to the voodoo cult. Apparently Grace and Gabriel been contacted by prince James of Albany, a descendant of the Stewarts of Scotland and been offered the job to look into something that appears to be vampire attacks. Mostly the prince is afraid for his newborn son and want the shadow hunter to guard him. Sitting in the darkness some kind of magic is at work as both Grace and the guard dog falls asleep as a vampiric shape appears and kidnaps the son. Gabriel follows suit and ends up on a train to Rhen-Le-Chateau. He gets knocked out and the game starts as he wakes up at the trainstation and meets the conductor that tells him where he is and then help him get to a hotel... and then the game starts at the hotel.

The suspects

So the story goes on for three days divided in time intervals which progress if you do certain activities or in some cases take to long. First day is Gabriel contacting prince James that send in Grace and two guards to help him. Meanwhile Gabriel gets to know the guests at the hotel that all could be the kidnappers, except his friend Mosley that are there on vacation for this treasure hunting trip. The area is supposedly filled with some templar treasure and everyone have that as an excuse. So treasure hunting, finding the baby and get to know the locals, which include a priest, a writer named Sinclair researching the templar and apparently a vineyard owner. As night fall Grace appears with two Scottish people that Gabe decided to spy on, revealing they are freemason and the local priest is Priory of Sion, the Sinclair guy is another templar and after that Gabe gives up. The next day Grace follows on the tour after researching the area and enters the vineyard for what she believes is a baby cry, but it turns out is a winepress, but the guy is still suspicious with all alchemy iconography and such so he gets on the list. And then they find the bodies of the scotsmen on the devils throne, a landmark made out of stone looking like a throne.

Gabriel meanwhile began sneaking in the other guests room and the local priest as he went with them. And as they meet up Grace begins looking into the treasure hunt while Gabe investigate the suspects. Grace finds that the place have a reconstructed Temple of Solomon under the ground built by the templars while Gabe uncovers that the baby they protected is a descendent of Jesus Christ and that the priory of sions and freemasons are fighting for power to put a monarch at the head of the European Union. An agent of the catholic church is present to stop them, the tour guide is a french secret service agent and Mosley is actually working for the CIA. Oh, and one of the guest is the walking jew that was cursed by Jesus to walk the earth until he returned. The third day is Gabe looking for a manuscript that follows the genealogy of Jesus that Sinclair been writing while Grace pinpoints the temple and another guest ends up the target of the vampires. And then uncovers that the old vineyard owner is a vampire that tried to drink the blood of Jesus as to awake Asmodeus, the demon king. And Gabe, Mosley and prince James bodyguard (who I get is some kind of holy protectors) enters the temple and fight it through until Gabe defeats the demon with a stab through the heart. And then it is revealed that the Ritter-family originated from the soldier Longinius that stabed Jesus to see if he lived and as to atone was granted the power to fight darkness. And then it ends as Gabe finds a letter from Grace who left after their relationship got a bit weird after a one night stand. And no more games after that.

This game come just at the right time for me cause I was so into the templar mythos and alchemy and so on. It took some time getting used to the free-floating 3D-camera and as stated, the graphics leaves a lot to be desired. Also, this game have the "cat hair moustache" puzzle that some says killed the adventure genre so certain puzzles was rather illogical. One of the harder one for me was entering everyones room as Gabe when they are out, mostly because it was so many steps that needed to be perfect in order to get right. The music is great and I really liked the story. Not the best ending since it pretty much ended on a cliff hanger and it doesn't even have a book or a follow up book. Which is a shame. Otherwise worth playing.

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles

Resident Evil 3.5

So me and my sister sat down and played her Resident Evil game and used her double wii zappers for best effect. It's just a rail-shooter game so all you have to do is line up and fire. Rather simple. The only bad thing about it is that you are encouraged to shoot at anything to find hidden emblems and gold by destroying the environment meaning that you constantly hear the gun sound. In instances where you can feel the horror atmosphere it's rather jarring to hear gunshots all the time. Not speaking of the inconsistency from the original games where you had limited ammo. And when the story bits along you can't hear them and instead make the best out of it by reading the text instead. So it's not recommended for its suspenseful story since the gameplay pushes you out of it. Doesn't help that there is no way to separate voices from the SFX in the sound option which could have alleviated some of the problem.

The story then is that you play as Leon two years before Resident Evil 4 as you and Jack Krausser is in an unknown South American jungle looking for a drug kingpin that have some connections to Umbrella. They find a girl that seems to control the B.O.W. and follow her into the jungle while Leon tells the story of his first day in Raccoon city where he met Claire Redfield (Resident Evil 2) and her continues adventure looking for her brother Chris (Resident Evil Code: Veronica). In the end Leon reach the drug lord and fights of the enemies and learn that the girl is the kingpins daughter that have been infected with the Veronica virus to stave of some other disease and it ends with Krausser hurting his arm and pushing him through his shift to the bad guys in Resident Evil 4.

Overall it's a good distraction when playing with two players as you can help each other and at the same time look for hidden treasures. A single player would have a tougher time I believe. Mindless fun for the most part. Makes me hope Capcom releases all the HD releases on the Switch. Can't wait for Revelations 1 and 2.

Metroid II: Samus Returns

She's back!

The remake of the second Metroid game. Original game was for the gameboy so the update was rather welcome. I played that one not that long ago, but I apparently didn't write about it here. So what do we have here? A great improvement in my mind. Music is fleshed out compared to the original one and the graphical update was really needed and they even added short cutscenes here and there, especially when meeting the evolved Metroids. Also some extra bosses are added and most of them I believe are completely new. One is even reoccurring one. You first meet this one as it blocks the road and Samus shot it out of it’s way. Then it head on destroying two chozo-statues and then using some kind of rolling drill to chase you through the tunnels and after some more delving into the planets inner core fighting it again and destroying it with a shot behind you. Samus is back!

Still wish the 3DS would support a colour palette

Story is the same as before. After the first game the galactic federation deems the Metroids to dangerous to keep alive with the space pirates running rampant through the galaxy. So they send their elite troops to their planet of origin, SR388. And as standard the federation loose contact with the team and there is only one person to send in, Samus Aran. Playing the game is improved since they gave Samus some new abilities like able to fire in 360 degrees, special moves like a scan pulse to show the map and make it easier to explore since it reveals every hidden item and secret area. Great for people like me, And then there is a slow down power instead of a run faster ability Also suits me better since reaction isn’t getting better with time. There is also some rapid-fire power and then a final forth one which I can’t remember at the moment. The rest are pretty much standard metroid weapons like the spider ball, bombs, super missiles and different suits.

Take that Metroid

So is there any new story? Well, they tie this one together with Metroid Fusion since they show the X returning after eradicating the metroids and it attacking the same monster that is the one that infected Samus at the start of Fusion. And as a bonus for finding 100 % of the items in each area you unlock Chozo-memories which tells the history of the planet when the Chozo arrived, discovered the X and created the Metroids to combat them. After that threat the metroids evolved to its other forms and attacked the Chozo and they were forced to push them back into the planet and lock them in there. And as another Chozo ship arrives the final memory shows how the Chozo are slain by their own kin in the memory called 2d/10. I can swear I’ve heard that before (I think it’s uttered at the attack of the death star in the original Star Wars), but I believe it hints on a future instalment of a new 2d metroid game since that would maybe be the 10th game in the series, the first 4 2d ones (Metroid, Return of Samus, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion), the 3 prime games, Other M and either Metroid Prime 4 or Metroid Prime: Hunters (but since Hunters is a bit of a spin-of I think they don’t count it or maybe the 2d game will be released before Prime 4… or it might even be Prime 4, what do I know).

A DnD Tale: Curse of Strahd - Kill the Witch

Todays victim

Alright, so the vinegary was back in the possession of the Martikovs, but all isn't well. 3 magical green gems have been taken from the area that enabled the grapes to grow and the Martikovs need the teams help to find them. They agree, but first they have to take Ireena and Ismark back to Kerzk with a wagon load of wine to get into the town. During the travels they are ambushed several times by wolfs and dire wolfs until they almost reach Kerzk when they tired and worn meets three vistani travellers having a good time. Also a skeletal rider has two times crossed their path. They finally enters Kerzk as the sun begins to set. They stay at the burgomasters house, but once again the monk and rouge decide to enter the night. They search the house and finds a fifth room that seemed to have been occupied by a teenage boy, but there is no one living there anymore. They sneak out and finds a family graveyard at the back where they can find desecrated graves, except one that have been made recently. Reading the gravestone they deduce that the burgomaster have lost four children, the latest just a few days ago.

Suddenly they hear the door from the cottage open and close. They follow the sound and see a cloaked figure move to the north as in a trance and they follow behind. At the pond near a gazebo the figure stops and a shape takes form in the water, a man who shines up as he see the figure and speaks to it and they hear the figure answer, but with two voices, hearing the names Tatyana and Sergei. The water forms a hand that stretches out toward the figure they realises are Ireena so they run after her to stop her from being dragged down, but the monk stumbles and accidentally pushes her into the pool. As she is dragged into the water the cloud gathers and they see the red eyes in the clouds and a angry voice crying out in the night and a blue bolt of lightning strikes the pond, pushing them back and destroying the gazebo. Shocked and despaired they sneak back to the cottage as the whole village have awakened and goes out to the pond. Sneaking back they entered their room from the window and then goes with everyone else to the pond where they can witness Ismark entering the pool and finding his sisters cloak. This is both the fun part of being a DM and the boring one. Playing I might have gotten the same idea as they that Ireena have been taken by Strahd or something, but as a DM I know she is perfectly safe, but how am I gonna tell them that in game? So I put them toward Madam Eve again. Also they have a new mystery on who Sergei and Tatyana is. So the night ends at midnight as the abbey's bell toll.

In the morning they send Ismark home with the two Martikovs that followed with the wagon while they took of to the destroyed village of Berez where the Martikovs believe one of the so called seeds are. They feel unnerved at once entering the ruins. 7 scarecrows stands in the ruins, a pen of goats with human skulls and across the river they see a light near some stone menhirs. They search the ruins and finds a strange tree in the middle with a floating skull near the front that they avoid, finds the burgomasters mansion and a statue of a girl named Marina that looks exactly like Ireena. They enter the burgomasters mansion and encounter the spirit of the dead burgomaster that tells the story of the village. Marina that was about to be taken by Strahd and the burgomaster and the priest killed her in order to save her soul and that Strahd destroyed the village shouting out that no one would take Tatyana from him, reminding them of the name image in the pond called Ireena. And that another threat have arrived in Berez, the hag Baba Lysaga that a few days ago came back with a green glowing gem and took it into her hut. They realise they need to take out Lysaga, but before forming a plan they head over the river to the menhirs and find a farmer girl who was sent out by the Martikovs to keep track on Lysaga, named Muriel. She tells them about Baba Lysaga as well, but she won't help them since she fears the hag more than anything else. So they start to think.

The plan they concoct are that they take 70 feet of rope, cut it into 10 feet pieces and pour oil on them and tie them around the scarecrows they learned from Muriel is a living construct and a early warning system for Baba Lysaga. Then they let Katrina attack one of them and draw the others toward her and escape across the river and hide near the menhirs (which I would let strengthen her magical powers somehow) and also force Baba Lysaga from her hut so the others could enter and search it and prepare an ambush on the hag. Katrina is able to destroy one of the scarecrows with two fire bolts and hide near the menhirs as Baba Lysaga take her time coming out and flying over as the other scarecrows gather around their burning brother. The others enter the hut unseen with the monks hiding ability and as they enter they see the green glow from under a crib with a child. Hope goes forward to push it away, but her hands goes through it revealing the green glow below the floor. Toby goes forth, swings his axe and breaks through, revealing the seed. Imiral picks it up and they feel the whole hut losing power. Imiral hides beside the opening aided by his pass ability, Hope hides behind the bed, Toby in a cupboard and Cygnus in a wardrobe. Now, I must have interpreted the rules wrong since Baba Lysaga enters and looks at the broken floor and they decided to quickly execute an ambush in succession. First Imiral attacks and draw her attention by hitting her with his staff and then let her fixate on the glowing gem. From the bed Hope stabs the hag in the back and that is followed up by Toby and Cygnus striking her with all they got. In one first strike round they bring the hag down to half of a 120 HP. They rolled all pretty good initiative so they keep wailing on her and when she finally gets an attack I wondered if I was gonna use word of command stun or the crown of madness. Had the stun been for all I would probably used that, but since it was single I used the crown on the monk, but Imiral made the save and then it was pretty much over as the party slayed the hag. Within 2 rounds. I must have done something wrong. When they meet old Woodsplinter there won't be anything holding back. And they were only 4 persons.

After releasing two swarms of ravens from cages outside the hut they reunite at the menhirs and Muriel thanks them before leaving, but at the same time wonders if they are out of their mind. As they leave the village they see a raven flying above them and then they witness a vision in the mist of a battle a long time ago and a dragon flying above them toward a mansion alone in the valley. They return to Vallaki and the Blue Water Inn where the wagon from the vineyard have parked and left its cargo. Ismark is mourning in the room he had last and the party decide to lay low, but then they notice the elven like character they were looking for last time, Rictavio. The monk and rouge decide to follow him around and they see him feeding his horse Drusilla and then walking toward his wagon in storage. Unbeknownst to them he notice pretty much that they follow him, with a passive perception of 17. So he sneaks in to the shop and disappears through a backdoor with the loyal storeowners who gets richly paid for his wagon. Imiral and Hope enters and begins to haggle for a component pouch for the monk (which I need to check up if a monk really need) and some rope and oil.

They return to the inn and tells the rest of the party that tells them that maybe they should look into the room itself. They sneak up and lock pick the door and enters unnoticed. Looking through Rictavios stuff they only find a journal describing his journey and certain oddities he has found. Realising nothing is there they leave again, but notices a wind draft coming from the wall and finds a secret door that leads to the kitchen where the staff is in full swing preparing the dinner. They climb back and sneak out of the secret passageway, closes it and also locking the door to Rictavios room again before heading back. They stay and observe the different patrons of the inn and then walks to bed. During the morning routine they begin question Urwin Martikoff over the first lost seed that disappeared over 10 years ago. And all he can say that the event pretty much forced him out of the vineyard to Vallaki with his beloved and the only odd thing he can recall was that he think he heard a cat. Then they leave. And gets attacked by 14 wolves that knocks out Cygnus and Katrina within two turns and both Toby and Hope are bloodied.  Only Imiral was undamaged. And Cygnus had a AC of 19. Now, part of that was my fault since I recalled 4E of Prone be forced to use an action to stand, but here it halves your speed. So we wasted actions on standing instead of hitting. My bad. Meanwhile they continue to find bundles of cloth with either wolf fur and raven feathers travelling and twice have founded some trinkets lying around like a mirror with an medusa on the back and a flag from a ship lost at sea with the sign of Strahd on it. Earlier they even had found a ravens claw, but I think they threw it away. These things the monk saved on the other hand. Closing up on the vineyard they are cornered by 3 vallakian scouts on a search quest for some missing townsfolk. As they are busy with other duties they decline to help immediately, but they will keep their eyes open. Reaching their goal they hand over the seed to Davian Martikov and follows him unto the field where he digs a whole and plant it. As he covers it up they can see a pulsating green light emitting from the stone and flowing through the earth and by some magic the vines starts to heal and actually produce grapes. The vineyard is back in business for the moment... until they meet Woodsplinter that is, hehehe!

A DnD Tale: Curse of Strahd - The Wine Wizards

The place seems to have seen better days

They leave in the morning toward Kerzk stumbling upon wolves and druids they kill until they reach the walls of Kerzk. The villager are not friendly so they are pushed away to the Wizards of the Wine since the town is running low on wine and if they can acquire more they will let them in. And they continue. The sisters begin grumbling about Ismark hogging the experience and delaying the level ups and that they can't drop the free loaders of. Of course their numbers have saved them more than one time. As they approach the vineyard they notice that there is a hidden bundle of clothes under a bush in the woods. The only thing they notice is that it have fur on it. They leave it since they guess it is a werewolf. As they walk I remind them that they still touched it and would have made it possible for a wolf to sniff them out. They don't have much time to think about that since as thy approach the road to the vineyard a man beckons them to the woods on the side. Carefully with weapons on the ready. The vineyard have been overrun by druids and blights and stopped the production of the wine that the people of the valley can drown their sorrows in. So it's druid hunting time.

They get to look at a map of the house and decided to take a stealthy way into the house and go from floor to floor. So they head through the vegetation and stands before the loading area when suddenly they hear something move between the vines. 30 humanoid figures made out of vines walking toward them like zombies. They rush in and finds a broken door which they enter, Katrina mends it and they close and block it as they walk down some stairs to the basement. While there they notice a druid together with 5 of those blights walking behind a wine rack. After a short plan Katrina runs forward and blast all of them with the spell burning hands creating a cone of fire hitting the four blight right in front of her full force and the last blight and druid are able to block some of the imapct. Meanwhile Toby rush forward and push the rack on them and killing the most damaged blights while Cygnus slays the last blight with his sword. Imiral and Hope takes bottles of wine from the rack to save them. Imiral runs up the fallen rack and hits the druid with the quarterstaff and Toby lungs forward swinging his axe to slay it. Going through the basement they find a secret door they open and send in Katrina through. Sadly for them it's a room with brown mould that instantly freezes her and she falls unconscious. Toby drags her out and Cygnus heals her with his lay on hands.

Continuing after that interruption they return to the first floor and find the processing area for the wine as 4 big cask stands in the room. Several blights walk below the casks and a single druid stands at the balcony above pouring some potions into one of the vats. Imiral sneaks from below and uses his mage hand to knock her into the vat. As the blights scampers up to try to save her the team let Katrina throw fire bolts to burn blights and Imiral and Hope push the dead blights across the balcony and burning the rest of them. As well as dragging those who tried to rescue the druid into the vat with another mage hand. They continue the search through the rooms and they find another druid atop the winch above the docking area they entered first. They ensnare it in place and Cygnus brings the winch to the side where they can kill it, but not without it using it staff to suck 4 hp from Toby and regain them for himself. After slaying him they check the staff and realises it's part from the GArthias tree, enabling the druids to control the blights so the monk pick it up and breaks it upon his knee, destroying all the blights in a radius of 300 feet. They check the final floor and finds a lone druid rummaging through some clothes and attack her with vengeance. It goes quick as usual lately, but this one had skin of bark making it a bit harder to hit. I really need to get time to check out how to plan battles better, they are either to hard or to easy.

A DnD Tale: Curse of Strahd - The Walk of the Land

Look, dire wolves!

After leaving the Vistani encampment they cross a bridge over a river when they are suddenly attacked by 3 dire wolves, two on the front and one in the back. After killing two the third escapes, one of them even rolled a nat 1 and fell upon the paladins sword. After resting up they continue to another gate in the middle of nowhere when suddenly 9 wolfs attacks, trapping them at the gate. And here one of my sisters get's more and more irritated. The wolves in the front charges at my paladin and getting a critical and knocking me out, and the rest goes on the monk. She gets pissed as she uses up all her Ki-points to dodge since she fears attacks more than the believe to make damage. And she rolls horrible all the time. Everyone is bloodied and the wolves are closing in. I pull out my secret weapon. Two more characters that waited at the top of the wall. A half-orc barbarian named Toby that spears one of the wolves with his javelin and then the human sorceress Katrina Bargov that blasts two of the wolves with magic missiles. Now one of the wolfs attacking the monk rolls a 1 so the monk is able to grab it and throw at another wolf killing both. Also, after studying the rules and choices of the monk I can tell her that the best strategy is probably to wield the staff one-handed and then get the bonus action attack. It takes some time for me to explain the benefit of more attacks that total up a higher damage value than just one possible stronger attack. A range of 6-14 is better than 3-10. Sadly for her that was the last battle for today

They arrive at Vallaki where they get into the inn and begans searching the town. They notice that there have been a festival and the people seems less inclined to talk to them. They also notice someone with a monster arm putting up posters for another festival at the end of the week. Most people eye them suspiciously since they are high-elfs, tie flings and a tall half-orc. They learn that there is another elven kind in town, some circus leader named Rictavio who also stays in the inn. They learn about the burgomaster and his festivals as well as the Wachter family and their dislike of the burgomaster. They install themselves in the inn and the thief and monk decide to go around town. They haggle at the only shop for information on the wagon parked outside with some kind of animal in it, but the owners are tightlipped. They walk around and enters the toy shop with the toymaker Blinsky. Its no fun, is no Blinsky! My sisters get the impression he would have designed the halloweentowns christmas toys in the Nightmare before Christmas. There eyes where especially drawn to a doll in the links of Ireena. After asking Blinsky about the doll they get that someone that Blinsky fears have ordered the same type of doll every month for a long time, but out of fear he won't say who, and as the push him for an answer they are pushed out of the shop.

They head back to the inn and mention this for the silverhawks that agree to look into it during a night break in. They sleep a bit to refill their spells and such and Imiral and Cygnus heads out as a scout party since they only need 6 hours sleep. They watch the shop and are joined two hours later by the others. Hope goes forward and lock picks the door to enter. And Hope falls as she walks inside, but Blinsky seems to sleep. Katrina goes up the stairs to prepare a sleep spell in case of him awakening while Toby and Cygnus guards the street. Imiral and Hope starts rummaging through the back and finds a accountant book, but it seems to have no mention of the buyer of that very doll. Although they can confirm increased spending each month. Imiral picks up the doll looking at it and when looking away, Blinsky's tame monkey grabs the doll and climbs the ceiling. Imiral silence it and grabs it with his mage hand. Suddenly Cygnus and Toby enters the shop and close the door whispering about town guards appearing. Imiral puts the doll back and they all enters the second floor and hides in a room. Spying out the door they hear the guards knocking loudly on the door and awakening Blinsky. He goes down and it's the burgomasters servant with the devil hand. As he takes the doll and Blinsky heads back to bed the team lets out the monkey in the corridor and jumps put the window. The monk and rouge makes the fall with grace while the Silverhawks lands in a pile. They head back and prepares for an early start in the morning.