Heroes of Might and Magic III: In the Wake of the Gods

Here there be dragons!

My brother-in-law mentioned that they apparently was doing a board game of Heroes of Might and Magic III, and as I wrote before, I like that game. So I got a craving to play it again as I put in some cash to get the whole package when it releases in October 2023 (all 11 kilos of it). Couldn't get the old workarounds to boot the game so I had to check around a bit. My MacBook is now so old that they don't support it with updates anymore and I was on the verge to look into getting a new one (and have to choose if I'm getting a PC or Mac and what kind and so on), but I was able to crack it open. First I had to get a Heroes III Complete version from Gog.com. Then get a program called Osu (that they also have discontinued for this computer). And a side program to just update the version to allow it to run. Then pick the files from that installation within the wineskin and then use another program called VCMI to actually be able to run it. And it run fantastic as well with modded content. Some monster have changed appearance and others are new, different heroes appear, you know have a commander unit that levels up with the hero, there's a threat indicator for monsters on the map so that you can gauge if you stand a chance and I think they also added a quick way to see combiner artefacts so you know which to put together. And a lot of new maps.

So I played around a bit and satisfied my cravings for the game. It's been a while as well and this time the computer doesn't sound like it's powering a car while trying to get the game running. Small hassle is that I don't seem to be able to get sound to the intro or voices to the cutscenes (at least for Shadow of Death). But at least all campaigns are open without need to play through them all (some are really tiresome).

Thunder Sub (Space Carrier Blue Noah)

 

To Certain Death!

Well, went on a nostalgic binge so rewatched the anime series Thunder Sub (aka Space Carrier Blue Noah), made in 1979 in Japan and dubbed I guess in 1986. As I said before my parents had recorded the TV-movie that started the series. Of course, we had it on two different tapes. The ending part which I saw first was on a VHS tape I think we had recorded Raiders of the Lost Ark and a Bugs Bunny Special where Bugs tells the history of the US to his... nephew (?) followed by some road runner cartoons. The cartoon ends on Wile E. Coyote shrinking after running through a pipe, but he gets the roadrunner and realises he is so small that he holds up a sign where it says something like "you always told me to catch the roadrunner... so what do I do now" and as the Swedish dubber said the line it cuts to Thunder Sub and it sailing away on the attack on the first Death Force fort. The first part was recorded on a VHS with Spitting Image special on Ronal Reagan after he ended his run as president of the US, but the ending is cut off. 

Story is... well, depending on which voice over you listen to, it's either 2052 or the 22nd centuary and the world is at peace (see, clearly fiction!) and have colonised the planets of the solar system (or at least Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). The earth is one united federation and have created 9 scientific research centres around the world to help the exploration of the world and space. N1 being the most important one for this story and focused on Oceanography and placed in... well, the map shows Japan, but they dub it to Hawaii. 

Beside the N1 problem I also noticed there is no centres in Africa (maybe N5, but hard to see) or South America.

One night a meteor shower causes concern when one is studied by scientist and they discover spying equipment and reports of signals beaming out from Earth into space and no known transmitter. All scientist and politicians meet in Hawaii (aka Tokyo) to discuss this alarming news. From N1 head director Cromwell Colins meet his son Colin Colins (not much fantasy in naming really) who been accepted to the science academy. During the meeting the aliens causing the meteor shower attacks from their satellite Terror-Star with their army, the Death Force. Terror-Star is home to the Gothamites from the planet Gotham that is 30 light years away near the constellation Gemini. Their home was destroyed by a wandering black hole that devoured their sun and planet. In desperation they give dictatorial powers to General Zee who have the plans for the Terror-Star that will save 200 million gothamites. Colin with his two friends Chris and Jamie survives the initial attack and enter the conference centre where both Colins and Chris fathers is. They find Cromwell pinned under a large stone slab dying. He gives Colin his pendent and the task of going to N1 with the word "Thunder Sub" before passing away. They find a futuristic hoover craft and pick up their classmates like Jeremy, Robby and Fenton and some more unnamed ones before visiting their families. At Chris's house they pick up this girl Anna that seems shellshocked from the destruction and they leave, finding no other survivors they can help. At Terror-Star we learn that they placed themselves between the earth and moon and with it changed the poles. The attacks and disasters that follows kills 90 % of the human population leaving 600 million alive. Collin and his friends reach N1 and is sucked down a whirlpool to a hidden cave where they open doors with Collins pendant and at what looks like a ship bridge Collins utters the command input "Thunder Sub" and it awakens the weapon to save the earth!

It looks amazing!

N1 was in actuality built to create Thunder Sub as a weapon against a possible war between Jupiters moons and Earth due to Earths economical dominance... so much for a world in peace. At the same time another sub observes them, the Tempest Junior controlled by the Thunder Sub crew lead by Captain Noah. They board Thunder Sub and confronts the students at the brig. As they learn about the creation of Thunder Sub by Colins father they are spotted by Death Forces lead by Colonel Lupus that tries to sink her. They fire back and submerge and goes away. The student are drafted as the crew for Tempest Junior and taken on a two week training course where they discover a downed fighter jet from Earth with the pilot barely alive. Rushing him to the infirmary he says the words Point N9, Bermuda to Colin and Anna. Captain Noah informs them that Bermuda is where N9 is stationed, he also begin asking Anna about her brothers and it is revealed (to Colin, there was a scene earlier where Noah and Grogan, first mate and now skipper of the Tempest Junior discuss the kids) that Anna is Noah's daughter. Ricky and Jason didn't make it according to Anna since they where hit by a missile. Their relationship was also strained since Noah's wife died while he was working on Thunder Sub. 

With this Thunder Sub prepares its first attack on the Gothamites by destroying their Heavy Water Plant by using the Tempest to lure the forces so that Thunder Sub can attack them from behind and then go all out on the Plant. There's entangling bombs, a missile creating a whirl pool under Thunder Sub and other things, but the humans prevail and uses their Anti-Proton Gun that obliterates the plant, but Colonel Lupus and his superior officer Admiral Zogal escapes. At the Gotham Headquarters in the Sahara they ask for materials to fight Thunder Sub from Commander Gulf, but are denied so Lupus contacts General Zee himself and is granted the manpower and materials to build his own submarine. At Thunder Sub the N9 pilot have awakened is named Captain Domingo that informs them that N9 survived the attack and have completed the space engine for Thunder Sub. With their new goal they set out rescuing Earth from the alien invasion.

The adventure continues for 23 more episodes. You get ideas as space elevators, how best to protect the Earth, either focusing on the human element or other animals. They rescue locals and destroy most of the alien invasion force. The strange thing is that both sides knows information they shouldn't have until later. In the very first episode the humans know that the aliens squadrons are known as the death force and their satellite is the Terror Star and vice versa from episode 2 the Gothamites knows that the warship they fought are named Thunder Sub with the commander named Captain Noah. There is an episode where they interrogate a gothamite prisoner and learns about the command structure and history of Terror Star, but the prisoner exchange isn't completed that follows so the Gothamites shouldn't knew anything about this. Especially when Thunder Sub only was known to pretty much the crew and a handful of people, most probably killed in the initial attack (like the President of the World). Even more curious is how civilians knows about Thunder Sub when they are rescued from a slave colony and there is no communication between Gothamites and humans until they have the tongue twister from the interrogation episode.

And the tongue twister is a bit of other problem with the show. Any obstacle they face is solved by using another gadget they just happen to have access to. Is Thunder Sub under attack by kamikaze barracudas at 2 000 m below the surface? Let's try these experimental scubas we just happen to have here. Is the Tempest caught in a living water organism that is weak to ice? Use these ice bombs we have here. Some things like the battle copter I can accept since it looks like a different part of the ship. And since the show tries to look very scientific (everyone has a degree, scientist saves and dooms their respective planets) it feels like they might should have foreshadowed some parts more. The ending is rather short as well, but on the other hand, they at least don't bring out the Anti-Proton Gun 2.0... they just make it so it can fire more often since they have two engines which makes sense to me (who doesn't have a degree in natural science). Also, how many people where on the crew? They use fighter jets in the first episode, but who pilots them? They show Spencer and other pilots run to them in the episode following that, but I got the impression that the reason they hit the slave colony to rescue everyone was to get more people to man the ship? And where is the women? There are 7 women in the whole show, and that includes Colins mother that I assume dies in the first episode (and isn't mentioned at all compared to Colins father after that). And Gotham seems to have no women at all, and how could they have an army stationed after travelling for 30 years?

Small nitpicks, the bigger problem is that they didn't dub the second-to-last episode where they kill the main bad guy and set up the confrontation between Lupus and Thunder Sub that have been anticipated since the very beginning. And missing out the plot point that General Zee intended to take the cells off the dead gothamites and recreate them on earth as a new race devoted to him and for that betrayal is killed by the commander of the death force. At least the commanders noble sacrifice in the final episode is shown. Although why it's him and not General Zee must have been curious for the watchers... did the other dubbers translate it? I found some episodes on the Swedish dub on youtube, but episode two is horrendous where they cut away the music every time someone speaks (and I happen to like the music) and I don't know, Åskbåten sound kinda childish. And that Gunnar Ernblad is like 5 main characters stretches the imagination. He's not bad, but the english is at least varied. And I think Jamie's voice actor also was in Batman Beyond as a minor roll professor and Colin Colins was Batman himself on some of the animated movies. Of course some moments was a bit weird, for example the first flash back to the death of Colins father must have taken another actor and Domingo in one scene almost sounded like his voice broke during the line read. And I don't like the clothes change in episode 8-9 without explanation. Before they had their blue and white shirts and after that everyone wore green. But Colin in total have 5 different clothes. Civilian clothes, academy clothes, the blue shirt, green shirt and space uniform. And that not counting the awesome black scuba gear and the underwater suit.

I would recommend watching it. Youtube have most of the series in english (missing something like 2-3 episodes), think I've seen the greek one complete. I got a boot leg dvd collection back in 2007, but the website seems to be defunct. Sadly the DVD's seems to have been dirtied enough to not been able to be read by my PS3 completely, but my DVD-drive for my Mac works fine. Tried to clean it, but I ain't able to get every speck of dirt so it might be scratched. Doesn't make it better that using the soap and water cleaning destroys the paper glued on top of the DVD. Commendable effort. This is probably to niche to get a whole sale release with commentaries and other things. A pity really since it was one of my first anime's. 

Pikmin 2 (Pikmin 1+2) (Switch)

Attack of the Lobster!

Continued with the second game in the series. Olimar returns home, but due to a shipment being destroyed by a lunar bunny according to Louie,  the other pilot for the Olimar's company, the company is now in deep debt. Their CEO has to sell Olimars ship, but Olimar drops a capsule cap that he brought with him from the Pikmin planet and it is apparently worth a lot of money. The CEO sends Olimar and Louie back to the planet to find treasures to pay off the debt. 

So back in action Olimar and Louie search the planet for stuff to collect and finding a couple new pikmins, the purple and white one. After getting enough treasure they head home. but oops, Olimar left Louie behind. Credits roll and afterwards Olimar pays of the company debts and the CEO and Olimar returns to find Louie. Which I didn't do this time. I cleared the last area and went through the final dungeon, but when I lost all but 5 pikmins I just got to the first out and quit pretty much. The newer games clearly is superior. The ability to replay a level of a dungeon if it went sour speeds up and don't cause as much stress, especially when you have to survive a bit of an ordeal to get to some of them with the respawning monsters. The fact that grinding white and purple pikmins is a hassle also add to the stress... or maybe more accuratelly, waste your time pretty much. I have more games to play!

Now, some might think I left Louie in the ditch, but really? Who likes Louie? That space bunny that ate the shipments? Was him all along! And then we have the damn dogs he sicks on me in 4, or when he stole all my food in 3. No, Louie can be left behind with no remorse. The CEO is at least symphatetic as he is hunted by the debt collectors and lives together with animals under a bridge.

Didn't get the Gamecube original, but got the Wii version and finished it ones, not 100 % since the dungeons is past my abilities it seems. So that concludes the reason people love the newer game is that it is easy enough and I prefer them.

Pikmin (Pikmin 1+2) (Switch)

 

Feeling Hungry?

Due to releasing Pikmin 4 they also released Pikmin 1 and 2 for the Switch and it also came in a physical collection... a month or two after the digital release, but I gotten a lot more patient. So I waited and played the first game again after what must have been 10 years. I bought the original gamecube version near release, and it was one of the first game I actually went and bought myself. Still have the copy. Got the game mostly from the hype around another Miyamoto IP and a demo they had on a Super Play DVD. It looked amazing for the day and I wasn't that averse to strategy games, I played Warcraft.

Story is that Captain Olimar is on his way home when an asteroid hits his ship the S.S. Dolphin and he crash on this familiar looking planet. He has 30 days to find at least 25 of the 30 parts to be able to travel back to his home planet and meet his family again. To help him he finds the local creatures called pikmin that sprouts from onions that can fly. In the original it was the standard red, blue and yellow pikmins.

Now, I finished it once before and I think I did that in something like 25 days, this time I did it in 20 days. Dandori skills through the roof. It was fun and even if the time constraints due to the 30 day limit it was decent enough. That I finished the whole final area in one day, including fighting the final boss is kinda impressive since I think I spent a couple of days last time. Overall I felt smaller last time playing than now.

A problem I encountered though was that the improvements made in later games greatly enhances the gameplay so going back is a bit archaic. I miss switching between different pikmin's just by clicking a button. Having several captains that you can order around makes the game easier since you can multitask, here you just have Olimar that have to keep track of everyone. I didn't get the sequel for some reason until it was released for the Wii, I wonder how that will feel.

A DnD Tale - Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist - Cult of Personality

 

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long years
Stole million man's soul an faith

So the day was finally here. It was the big midsummer festival and the Cassalenters have pulled no stops, hiring our heroes to cater food and drink to the masses. What our heroes didn't know was that the Cassalanters intended to kill 100 people and sacrifice 1 000 000 gold in order to release their children from a contract that would have turned them into monsters. So they show up at the party and make the excuse that they are checking the sound in the rooms for a performance. So they go around and check it all. They don't read the books or such so they don't get the clues, they don't attempt to get through the office of Vittorio so they can't get any keys and even though they find boxes filled with red robes and golden masks they don't know what they will do with them. They find a hidden dress belonging to a noble lady, but don't look for her. They are recognised by a guest whom they don't recall (which they now think is the Black Viper, but is actually a doppelganger from the Yawning Portal). They at least finds the poison Midnight tears and know what they do, they don't connect that the poison is in the lady's chambers and the party has an ending at midnight.

They find the hidden attic, but can't get in since they don't have the keys. So they go back down and through the cellar and finds the hidden vault that leads down to the Temple of Asmodeus. They hear chanting and goes down a staircase and finds the crypt of the Cassalanter. They find the tomb of the former Lord and as they speak with him he gives them a magical armour and mace, which only Parker can carry and use. They also notice the bearded devils standing guard so they go up again and find the balcony overlooking the chamber with 30 praying cultists and a statue of Asmodues carrying the golden skull they are looking for. They get Parker to use Control Water so that the river that runs behind them rises and drowns or sweeps away all the people for 10 minutes so that they can get the skull and then destroy the statue and fire beneath it. They at least left the golden skull replica they fixed in the last session.

And then they goes back to the party not to raise suspicion, says farewell to the hosts, toasts with them and then returns home without a care in the world. They hide the skull in the tower and then goes to sleep. As midnight strikes they awake to horrible pain as the poison course through their veins. In the morning they hear that over 100 people are missing and they suddenly realise that they forgot about the poison and what it was supposed to do. In the evening Vincent Trench arrives and gives them a hint about the whereabouts of the Jade skull. It belongs to Jarleaxle, the drow mercenary leader and the place where they know about drows is in the docks where they stopped the drow assassin. And with that the session ended. 

In my mind I had this great tale where they started investigating the Cassalanter mansion and would find this different clues, like the journal hinting them about the search for the treasure and why, breaking into the study and finding the Black Viper maybe giving them hints about the Asmodeus activities and the real truth behind their recent fortunes... and some clues about Jarlaxle hinting them toward the right place without me using Vincent as a crutch. I was gonna tuck their heartstrings about the transformed children and the desperate pleads from the parents, but alas. At least I had to use all my things to create maps in order to cover the temple and the mansion floors.

TaleSpin

Time for another TaleSpin!

Another Disney Afternoon series, this time based on the Jungle book. By some seen as the pinnacle of Disney afternoon adventure shows and probably the one with most focus on the characters motivation for the plots and not just random things happening and characters that need to be changed in demand for the plot... or so at least the fans says about it. Overall 65 episodes, mostly adventure focused and some slapstick comedies. We had some episodes taped from Filmnet on VHS, the Bermuda Trepaziod one where Baloo thinks he's dying, the parrot treasure, Daring Dan, Molly Cuddled, the Hollywood episode, the flying petrol stations and Baloo back to school to be able to go to a class reunion. Those all in english and then a couple of episodes recorded from the Disney time on Fridays from Swedish Public channels. Those I recall was when Baloo lost his memory, the Vandersnoot kid, the Frankenstein episode and when Baloo starts a Pizza operation. And some doubles like the treasure, Daring Dan and Petrol station. I recall seeing more episodes on TV, but for some reason we hadn't recorded them.

A fine show, rewatching it I probably rank the amnesia episode as one of the best ones for me. Although rewatching any episode with Shere Khan is a delight, both in the ambiguity of the character and the voice acting of Tony Jay. Sadly due to the batch nature of the 65 episodes there isn't a finale that ends it on a definite end, like Gummi Bears or Ducktales. Music great and all that, still prefer Ducktales music and the animation in the first season of Ducktales also outshines this effort. Might be that I prefer the Ducktales mythos of Barks that makes me more inclined toward that show. Good then that two episodes was worked on by Don Rosa himself, the premier Scrooge writer after Barks... or maybe even before Barks. Unfortunately I don't find those episodes as interesting since he shines more in the comic format. 

On the other hand, a lot of episodes seems to copy Ducktales in several ways. We have one episode where a robot pilot is better than the standard pilot, there is the shrinking episode, there is two episodes copied directly by the same writes, jumping a day to get paid and the main character thinks he is gonna die when a doctor calls about a defunct machine (many of course probably standard tropes of series overall). Or that DuckTales and TaleSpin is pretty much the same idea for a name. Other problems is that I find the basic characters of Baloo is someone I dislike, always lazy and prone to lying. Kit is probably one of the better kid actors, but then we have an episode where he is so intent on flying he runs to Thembria and then just pesters everyone that he wants to fly and don't listen to anyone. I actually have more sympathy with the hounded Spigot in this one... then again, that might be my work as a state official shining through. I kinda find the health inspector in the Pizza episode and the inspector in the gasoline one to be very relatable as well. 

But aside from that it is an entertaining series, stories are rather fun with great voices and music. Would like a physical blu-ray release as with everything else. 

Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: Fafnir Knight (3DS)

 

I thought Fafnir was the dragon?

Had to continue the series so I started up the second Untold game. Being not so keen on playing another 86 hours over the course of 8 years I choose the picnic mode and guess what? 45 hours later and I'm done... and I actually recall the whole game! And playing it this close to the ending of the first game I can see that it's pretty much structured the same way. Explore 5 floors, fight a boss, go into this side dungeon (Ginnungagap in this game), explore till stuck, back to labyrinth for another 5 floors, a new boss and so on until you reach floor 20 and the twist is revealed, go to floor 25, defeat boss and back to final stretch in the side dungeon for the true final boss. Cap the level at 65 and you are good to go.

In between floors do some quests and gather materials and money to upgrade your equipment. Another side thing is gathering ingredients for helping your guild restaurant and deciphering the clues for the recipes, a bit like the alchemy clues in Dragon Quest VIII (the PS2 version that is). So that is the basic structure, what is the story? You, the main character and your best friend Flavio have been sent by the Midgar Library (where Simon, Arthur and Raquna came from in the first game) to escort Princess Arianne. She's been tasked with performing a ritual that's needed every 100 year to uphold a seal on the Calamity, another Yggdrasil core. Entering Ginnungagap for the first time you meet Chloe and Bertrand forming the last part of your Guild as you continue the adventure. 

Bertrand is probably the most interesting character. A former fafnir knight that lived over a 100 year when his princess took his place in the ritual to stop the calamity. Cause the twist is that the fafnir knight is doomed to die and that happens to be the main character, chosen by Arianne when you saved her as a kid. Due to having 2 fafnir knights the system breaks down during the final phase so you have to save Bertrand that was taken instead of you and then you have to find another way to stop the Calamity. So you gets hint about the Overlord living in the flying castle. You meet him, turns out to be some sort of computer program, kills him and have now the power to fight the Calamity. Back in Ginnungagap you meet the Calamity and defeats it, but during the celebration it awakes again, putting all your compatriots out of commission except Arianne that intends to spare you from your faith, but you take her place and her love for you (I think at least) awakens the dormant powers that the Overlord gave you after dying so you get a super powered form that destroys the Calamity once and for all.

After that someone is talking with the citizens you meet, explaining that a bright light shone from the labyrinth and a shooting star flew south. The guild left sad as they missed one of their members, pretty much hinting that you died. The final scene is the guild deciding to go south in order to try and find you as they believe you are still alive. The end!

It was a fun little adventure. Don't know if it's due to the easier difficulty or the fact I got the skill system better this time around. Passive skills for the win. Sadly the last Untold story and with it the more story oriented games in the series. I will probably play the Switch versions afterwards, both to compare and play through the third game before continuing with IV and so forth.