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.

Star Fox Adventure (GCN)

I actually liked it

Since I was playing the N64 again I thought give the Rare games a spin since I don't own a console that can play those game at home (the one and only reason I ever is interested in a XBox One in order to get the Rare Replay... and maybe the Mistwalker games). Sadly my sister have taken the Banjo-Kazooie games that I first intended to play so I picked up Diddy Kong Racing instead. Never finished it and didn't do it this time either, but I got further and only have one single stage left before defeating the dragon boss for the second time. So I picked up Jet Force Gemini, still stuck at the double boss at Lupus stage. Picked up Perfect Dark and got to the end boss on easy, but got killed. Tried getting invincible cheat to finally see the end credits, no. Couldn't finish the first stage on hard and actually got out of the Datadyne Tower intro stages on medium difficulty, but not further than that. Put in GoldenEye instead, sound not working so I should probably try to clean the cartridge and couldn't finish the first stage. Then I put in Shadow of the Empire instead, finished the speed-racer and space station stages before the sewer did me in. Put on some Castlevania 64 and actually got to the castle for the first time, where I got my ass kicked and closed the game. Then I remembered another Rare game, Star Fox Adventure on the GameCube.  No memory card though since all of them was at my place so I played the first half of the game in one go and then restarted when I got home on my Wii with memory card plugged in.

I think the graphics looks nice 16 years after the release (compared to many N64 games).

Simply put the game starts with the fox girl Krystal arriving at Dinosaur planet following a distress signal on a pterodactyl (called Cloudrunners in the game) where she is attacked by a flying ship that belongs to general Scales, the tyrant that almost have conquered the planet. Her staff fall to the planet and she is able to esquape to Krazoa palace, a holy place for the dinosaurs where she finds a krazoa spirit and releases it in the temple, but she gets caught in a crystal (ha) by an unseen force. Cut to the Star Fox team that have lost Falco and gets a mission by General Pepper to investigate Dinosaur Planet since it threatens to blow up the whole system (since the planet is being teared apart by the magical forces in the planet when Scales took the four Spellstones that kept the energies in check). As Fox arrives at the planet he is tasked with finding the prince of the Earthwalkers (triceratops) that have been kidnapped by the SharpClaw clan (General Scales army).  Doing so put Prince Tricky as your companion that can help in certain puzzles. 

Escort Mission: The Game

So get the Gatekeepers to open the portals to the floating continents in space, fly there, get spellstone, take it to one of two force point temples, get a Krazoa spirit and take it to the Krazoa palace in order to release it, rinse and repeat. And I gotta say, I liked the game when it came out, I finished it several times, but playing it again... it's rather linear. There's hardly any sidequests and only thing is getting stuff you don't actually need. Mostly cheat tokens that hardly does anything or Bafamdads (1-ups) that you hardly will use after the first spellstone gives you an extra heart container, or Airwing energy-balls that you need a minimum amount of that you shouldn't have any problem with getting. Your progress is constantly determined if you can get item A or do quest B that enables you to get onward, either giving you a ability or giving you the ability for more money to get another item or pay your way past a checkpoint. Why? Why can't I explore and try to find the krazoas in between on my own? Is this Rare's commentary on the rail-shooter by doing the whole adventure on the same style? Well, the reason is that the development got cut short since Microsoft bought out Rare and they finished this as their final game for Nintendo. And it was even in development for the N64, but titles Dinosaur Planet and without anything Star Fox. Now, I know that some people would have liked to see the original intent (and I would lie if I wasn't curious at the time the gaming magazines reported on it) and some people seems to really hate this Star Fox game. I get it if you want a on rails-shooter, but to me this was much more fun than the rails-shooter. It had enough deep story (although now I would say there's some weird things story wise). Then again, I only played the original Star Fox game and not the N64 that everyone seems to love.

I really like the design of the Airwing in this

You get all the stuff and at the top of Krazoa Palace a mysterious force makes General Scales give Fox the last spirit and releasing that and freeing Krystal, Andross awakens once again (being the mysterious force that trapped Krystal and controlled Scales) so Fox follows him on the Airwing and after fighting of the first waves of Andross Falco appears giving you bombs so Fox can blow the brains of Andross once again. Day saved, pay check arrived and Krystal thanks Fox by joining the Star Fox crew. It felt a bit rushed in the end, especially that you never fought General Scales and Andross was a bit from the left field, although it can be chalked up to be the constant enemy for Fox... although he wasn't there for the next two games if I recall. Overall I still liked it, but it is a bit much gathering items that you hardly use (why do I need 31 fairies to light my way when it's only required twice or to have over 100 energy-balls when only around 20 is necessary to complete the game?) and the linearity of the game makes replays rather redundant. You can't really miss anything except things that doesn't help you in any way. Wish they were able to let it stew a bit longer, but sadly it wasn't to be, but it was at least over 10 hours to play the game, but I have forgotten much since I was perplexed several times over the solutions of the puzzles.

Shadowgate 64: Trails of the Four Towers (N64)

Time for an adventure

As you noticed I've been playing some Nintendo 64 at my parents place at the moment and I dug up this old game which I never finished. I get that it is a continuation from an old adventure game that had a port on the NES and I guess the reason they made this to the N64. I've never played that game, but I read about it in some Nintendo magazines. So story is that you are Del Cottonwood, a halfling that traveled in a caravan that got attacked outside of castle Shadowgate and brought to the dungeon by the thieves inhabiting it. So your mission is to get out. 

Damn, those graphics haven't aged well

It wasn't mostly blind, certain things I remember, but I never finished it and only got half-way through the game. So I played it only trying to find the solutions from the game it self. So I tried looking and talking to everyone. So, next to your cell you have an imprisoned wizard that tells you the deal of the castle. During the conversation the dungeon keeper arrives with some food that you devour and finds a bone. Looking at the bed of hay you find a sewer grate that you bend up with the bone and your out. And here I find the first problem. Right behind me behind a gate of iron (that you can't pass) there is a plank of wood and a floating bottle. You can't pick it up and the game doesn't tell you why since it can't clearly know what you look at since their is no cursor in this 3D environment. And you get bottles later on so that is just irritating. Anyway, you get out of the sewers and enters the tower of disiples where you met the apparition of Lakmir appears, the sorcerer that was one of the founders of the Circle of Twelve and ally and friend to King Jair, the man who I get is the main character of the original Shadowgate. Lakmir guides you on the quest to stop Belzar, the former apprentice that have turned to the dark side and intends to relase the Warlock Lord, Lakmirs brother Talmir and another founder of the Circle of Twelve. So I'm supposed to get to Lakmir's tower to find some magical artefacts I need on my quest. Problem is, I can't get out of the tower.

And get it, the exit is right behind you... if it wasn't locked.

Now, the solution was using a pixie flute at a certain area in order to shrink and climb down a rope you tied to a window. The thing is, I guess the name says what it does, but it only works at that one spot. And the book that are supposed to help you especially points out that he doesn't know how to use it. Thanks game. I got out into the graveyard and entered the cathedral finding my way up to the roof and into the tower of Lakmir. And here I was at my best. Using the books and text I found I was able to go through the whole tower and getting my hands on the three rings hidden away.

Wizards, magic rings, a dragon and a halfling? Someone been reading the Hobbit.

One of the rings give me the power of talking with the dead. So all corpses, skeletons and gravestones now can talk back. More information, but this time gotta remember it on my own. Damn you game. And now I gotta leave this place. After running around the graveyard, cathedral and tower a couple of times I looked it up and apparently I missed a key in one room in the tower. It was in the colour of rust at grey floor. If I didn't know the room they described I wouldn't have found it. So with that I could leave the two first towers and finding some actually living people. Running around solving errands for the dead and living I finally get to enter the third tower for the first time ever. I recall being afraid of some poisoned gas thing that would kill me going through this tower... that I must have imagined before entering the tower since it isn't here. Maybe I interpreted the two mazes as being that. One had a poison that made the game controls reversed and you had to go through a room with spinning blades (you solve this by using the blue ring you got with the red dead ring which have the same effect, but since you already affected it puts you back to normal). Another maze there is taking a burning candle to the other side before the candle burns out. After doing it some time I checked the solution since I spent to much time on it and it rather annoyed me). Entering the final room you stand before three mirrors and looking in each of them you need to decided who you really are and then walk backwards into the mirror (of course I choose the wrong ones every time and just reloaded so I didn't have to redo all the tower all the time). Behind the mirror was another ring, the ring of the Kingdom. With that you open the locked door in the towers of diciples to get the dragon flute so that you can enter the final tower, the dragon's tower. And you basically just walks around it. Pick up all the stuff and there is pretty much only one puzzle and it is a damn music puzzle. Listen to  a song and the recreate it with four statues by pulling the correct wing in the right order. I looked that up since I'm bad at this. And then you find a petrified dragon with a staff stuck in the head. Using the ring of the kingdom picks it up and you enter the end game. The dwarven soldiers of Belzar now looks for you so you put the stable on fire to distract them and run for the chamber Belzar is planning the resurrection of the Warlock Lord. Blocking your path is a man named Saul, who turns out gave Belzar the staff he believes to be the Staff of the Ancients that you picked up on the dragon tower. Showing him his mothers necklace you got from her dead corpse he sees his madness and helps you inside. While inside the chamber you see the fake staff and puts on a dragon eye from the dragon tower and hides behind a tower as Belzar appears and starts the ritual.

The graphics really are blocky

As he performs it the staff explodes killing him and the chamber crashes in. From the rubble Del heads out and find himself around the fountain area. From the chamber the visage of the Warlock Lord appears and Lakmir tells me it it up to me now, since he doesn't know what to do and he wish Jair was here. The thing is that in the fountain area a statue of Jair stands. Putting the Staff of Ancients and the ring of the Kingdom at the statue enables it to come to live and pierce the Warlock Lord by throwing the staff and the world is saved. Del rides away on the dragon and credits roll.

Moments before his death

It was atmospherical. Playing it again after all these years and actually understanding what was written in the books and papers made the world itself come alive. I got a real itch to play the original game now and maybe I pick up the remake on steam or such one day. There is problems with it though, for one, after checking the save time right before the end I just spent just over 5 hours on the game. It's short. As mentioned pixel hunt for items on the floor or knowing what you can interact with or pick up would need to be refined. The graphics overall could need an overhaul, but the music is nice at times. Fun to finish it for the first time. I definitely gotta use some of these things for a DnD campaign.

Mystical Ninja 64 Starring Goemon (N64)

Gambares oh Gambares

So I was home for a while and hooked up my family Nintendo 64, dug out the memory pak and played some Mystical Ninja. And boy did I have a great time. It starts with a flying peach ship enters above the town of Ode and turn the castle into a european castle stage. Goemon and Ebisumaru sets out to save the king and princess. Traversing mount Fuji to get a chain pipe they then enters the castle and defeats a giant machine and then can leave the town. Outside of town near the wise man's house they see it destroyed with only a seashell left. The guys that took the castle appears and summons a giant robot so you blow the horn and are taken up by Impact to the best song of the whole game:

BREAKDOWN

And now you fight a giant mech battle with laser beams. And I sucked at these as a kid. Which is no surprise, you can't train the moves and can only find them in the manual which I had to look up right before the battle. But I beat him and travelled to Zazen town where you meet up with the police ninja Yae. Leaving the town you pick up the lifeless robot Sasuke. You intercept a blue dragon that have been brainwashed to kidnap children and destroy the control mechanism. You save the kids at the next castle. Find some batteries for Sasuke and start him up. Find the third castle and learn that they are striking at an island near Japan. Getting there you meet the waitress Omitsu (who Goemon have a crush on) and as she enters the island the whole thing is transported into space. You travel north to meet the witch that summons a projection of the wise one that tell you of a stone ring nearby that can take you to space if you gather the four magical items who you now have three of. In the north sea of Japan you find a submarine with food and learn that the item is in Zazen since the commander dropped it on his holiday. You battle a giant water mech and then head back to Zazen and after some fetch quest finally get it. 

TOO SPACE

After battling through the hordes of the peach mountain shogun you find Omitsu and the wise men, who was alive and built the machines and robots for the peach mountain guys. In exchange for car magazines... that got blown up as his house exploded. Which is rather ridicules and goes together with all the other absurdity in the game, but I know there were some other kind of magazine which they censored out. Anyway, entering the final stage the best music of the game plays and you reach the main bad guys that decide to put on a show... and then disappear and turn on the self-destruct. Leading to the final Impact stage. A two-stages boss battle. I survived on the minimum of health left (which is better than the time we both reached zero life points and I lost, which is rather bullshit). Afterwards we travel back to Japan and is attacked by a horde of women who wanted to see Dancin' and Kitty Lilly (the name of the bad guys), blaming Goemon and his friends. Then credits. 

The whole gang

First time I finished it on 100 % so I got some extra mode where you only fight the mecha-bosses. I finished it once before and I checked the time now, 15 hours. Damn, that isn't that long. I really like this game. The music and setting is amazing, the humour is hit and miss, but there is some laughs at the absurdity of it. The camera can be a bit wonky and the hit boxes are weird at times. But it is functional. I wish they had ported it over to a newer system or even remade it for the 3DS or something like that. I have some strong memories from childhood from this game, mostly replaying the game over and over since I couldn't save without a game pak so the first part of the game is rather ingrained into my memory almost 20 years after playing it.