Tintin Reporter: Cigars of the Pharao (Switch)

 

First proper Tintin Adventure!

Saw the teaser for this game on a Nintendo Direct and just had to get it, you know how much I like Tintin. I preordered the Limited Edition and then just waited. Took forever for them to release it on the Switch, so much that the physical was delayed for me since it couldn't be shipped until a couple of days after it was supposed to arrive. And in the meantime I heard some not good news about it. Apparently a mobile game they spruced up and upon release on consoles before the Switch it didn't work properly all the time. So I had lowered expectation going in.

Putting it in the first thing I hear is the theme from the 90's animated series and I just have a big smile on my face. And then the game starts, and it's album accurate in that it begins on the cruise as Tintin chase after a papyrus that this Egyptologist lost. And they just threw you out there without explaining the controls for the Quick-Time Events. And they just went on and on. I was not happy. Bad impression. It gets better after you left the ship escaping the Duponts and all that. The tomb of Kih-Oskh was a real highlight with just great amount of puzzles. A bit many stealth sequences overall that can go on my nerves followed by chase scenes in the rest of the game. Story is that on a cruise toward Shanghai Tintin gets roped into looking for a lost tomb of the pharao Kih-Oskh which turns out to be the headquarters for an opium smuggling operation. Tintin follows the lead toward India and helps a Maharadja stop the smugglers from extorting his people. All the while Tintin is hunted by the Duponts since the smugglers have implicated him as an opium dealer.

Overall a mixed bag. I enjoy it since it Tintin, but if I didn't know anything about it, it would have made for a irritating game to play through, and I wonder if some of the things you were supposed to do only works by reading the comics first. At times though it feel better paced out story wise since I can see and get the hints of the different smugglers. Mostly since we have more time with them. Graphics wise, they look like what they should look like, but I can see that the game hardly can work at times, throwing in textures a bit to late, first scene with Snowy really didn't work. Also, Tintin looks rather worse than other characters, Rastapopoulos probably looks the best for some reason. The game also crashed on me once while playing and the last Snowy sequence was a nightmare in trying to find your way around a mountain getting the final stone to push. Maybe they will follow it up with Blue Lotus, but I can understand if there's no follow up on this series. 

Ys X: Nordics (Switch)

Invaders!

Finished yet another Ys game, the latest released and it take place... between II and IV? Well, that screws over the timelines overall, but apparently a remaster of III is coming next year (that is 2025 I might add as of writing, not 2026 at the posting of this... post). So Adol and Dogi is traveling with a cruise ship on the Balta sea (which I assume is the Baltic... but since there is a volcano here I would guess we are somewhere in the north Atlantic with Iceland maybe being Balta Island). Suddenly the ship is attacked by Norman vikings belonging to the Balta Seaforce lead by Princess Karja Balta. And after the battle Karja decapitates the captain as he hasn't paid the dues and this is his second warning. The Normans take them to Carnac, an island under the Seaforce protection. The citizens and the Normans have an uneasy alliance and while Adol and his friends wait for another ship to continue their journey he walks around the shore and finds a seashell. The seashell belongs to a water spirit named Lila that grants him the power of Mana, meanwhile Karja shows up and wants to spar with Adol again. Both uses Mana and suddenly Karja and Adol is shackled together by a Mana link so they can't leave each others side. 

But the bad luck begins piling up. Griegrs attack the town, undying monsters that can only be killed with Mana. After trying to save the townsfolk the whole town is raided and Karja and Adol escape with a ship and Grenn, the mayors son and friendly militia guard who leads the Youth Brigade. As they are followed by the Griegrs the Seaforce finds them and destroys the Griegrs. They are brought to Balta Island and joins the Thing led by Jarl Grimson, Karja's father. They draw up a battle plan to fight this supernatural threat. Adol must take a test to become Karja's Shield brother so that they can set up and patrol the seas. They also encounters a puppet griegr which turns out to be Dogi, cursed by one of the generals leading the Griegr. So you basically travel the sea, looking for griegrs to fight and save the townsfolk you can find. So a bit like VIII and the rescuing of the shipwreck survivors. 

Meanwhile, after picking up certain artefacts or a just before death experience Adol seems to be sent to some limbo realm, Viewpoint Island, where you meet this old man who has lost his memory. Since we are in Scandinavia I thought it was maybe one of the gods, like Odin (or Harr as he is known in this game), except he haven't lost an eye or maybe Thor. He usually helps you unlock more abilities from your artefacts and then you return to use them to avoid certain death or progress the game. On the seas you also find runestones bearing the tale of Rollo of the Bloody Sea, a Norman Viking that sailed the seas 100 years ago that spread fear across the world, until he mellowed out, built the Duchy of Novgorod and then disappeared in the Great Calamity that seems to have drenched the whole world or something. 

So the plot is that the Trident, the three generals that is, is looking for a vessel for their liege, an offspring of Rollo. Turns out that it's the Balta family and since Karja is the only living member (since her father married into the family) she is the target. Killing the generals makes her absorb them and awaken a bloodlust and berserker mode hinting on Rollo's return. In the end you find Lila who is the one that made Rollo turn nice by purging the malice in him which created the Trident that she then sealed away. They somehow caused the Great Cataclysm and then was sealed of again, until they were able to escape by trapping Lila in the same prison. And that was something like 6 months ago that kicks off the plot. Rescuing Lila you are called to look for Viewpoint Island and it turns out the old man is Rollo and he survived 100 years ago and ended up on Viewpoint Island where he prepared for the day to be defeated to stop the Tridents to repent for all the bloodshed he caused. 

Adol and Karja kills him, a viking funeral later, Adol, Dogi and Dr. Flair (another traveler with them from the second game) is taken to Spain or France according to the map by Karja and the game is over. Plays mostly the same as earlier games I've played in the series. Naval combat is new and a bit of fun distraction. Played it on Normal and the game isn't that hard. Hardest boss was the worm you fight directly after the demo ends and that is due to the low resources you have. In the end you have so much bottles and lunchboxes it is hard to kill the main characters. I even succeed putting on an item that blocked experience and turned them into gold. Did it at level 70 and realised it before the fight with the super boss. I still beat him and got 4 levels right out of the gate. I then used the level and EXP boosters so that I could bridge the gap I've missed out. Still feels VIII is better, but the more colourful world places it over IX for me. Speaking of IX, in that game there was also viking gods and such... but they have changed the name for some reason. Grimnir is now Harr (which is Odin the Allfather) and I just don't get it? Why? Was it to close to Griegr or something like that? Well, gotta wait for III and then see if there will be a XI.

Final Fantasy (NES Classic Edition)

Deja Vu

I've just been to this place before

Higher on the street and I know it's my time to go

... I feel like I'm stuck in a time-loop! Again!

So I played through the Ys X: Nordic Demo in wait for the full release of the game on Switch, but I beat that and my copy of the Tintin Reporter game was late so I thought I could fire up the NES Classic Edition and play through the original Final Fantasy. I tried to mod the console to fix the bugs and make it a bit more working and faster, but my Mac didn't want to play with me on that regard so it was what I had in the box.

Somehow I feel that I can understand why people still play this version even though all the bugs and non-working things in it. It's just fun. Especially when I know a couple of things like Peninsula of Power, where to find the magical items and how to properly use some of the classes, like Monk where no weapons and armour is the way to go and what magic to go for. Still fighter, monk, black mage and white mage. 

Now, using the save state function on the console elevates a lot of the stress if you play it as intended. Pause in dungeons, restart directly beside bosses to try if luck is with you the second time (used that for every encounter in the Ice Caverns) and skip the problem with the house bug where they save before replenishing spell charges so in the normal game you have to use another tent or cottage (houses cost 3000 gil so no) to save after healing up. Funny enough I actually changed class at level 19 and beat the game on level 28-29. Don't enjoy having to buy a single item at a time.

I can actually recommend playing as is if you want too. I know some mention the guide in the manual as a necessity, but I actually think the game does decent at explaining what to do and you hardly need maps (I used them to speed up everything, I guess I would have a bit higher level if I wandered around a bit more). And with that I only have the Wii Virtual Console left to play of these versions and that one doesn't have save states so I guess when I play that version that will be the most legit run I will do, and maybe Switch it up with a fighter, monk, red mage and white mage party.

So, recommended over other versions? I like the graphics, but I miss the cut scenes they added in later versions. A bit hard getting what happened after giving the TNT to the dwarf that blew up the canal. This also enforces my thought that 1/2 EXP on the Pixel Remaster would be the better option (would have to try since they changed the stats for Chaos and maybe making a low-level run around 30 levels makes it a bit harder). Would I play this version again? Maybe if I mod the console to get a working version with all the bugs and such just to experience it. It's not unplayable by any means, the player just have to change perspective for a much slower and more methodic combat. Especially when you use people to heal with the heal helmet and heal staff to save on the potions while the damage dealers just wreck havoc on the enemies. 

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Hunt for Cubes (part 5)

 

It lived to ambush the characters another day.

We return after 2 month hiatus in real time. And since they still complain that it takes to long time I pretty much used all the other people we have in the balloon to scout out the place and indicate 2 shrines for them to check out. The first shrine being Froghemoth Shrine. And they obviously suspect something with the pool outside and the statue in the middle, but since they have 2 pieces of the rod of law they have access to the spell Arcane Gate so they just transport over it. And then they are stuck at the shrine entrance and a missing key. They got a thief, but they don't lockpick the door... sad. They figured the key was in the statue in the middle of the pool so Immeral used Shadowstep to get there and search the statue and finding the key in the mouth. I then sprung the Froghemoth on them by grabbing him with the tounge in order to bring him to it so that he could be swallowed up. And I roll a damn 1. So it bit its tounge allowing Immeral to Shadowstep away after being slimed and drenched in the murky water. But they got the key,

Behind the door they reached a room with spikes and beams across so that they are supposed to jump across the beams to avoid falling unto the spikes. Which Immeral sidestepped with the shadowstep ability... I feel a bit cheated on that. They also figured out that the message on the door about give what you take meant that they have to do the Indiana Jones thing with exchanging the cube on the pedestal with something of similar weight. Since they already have a cube they fix a bottle with oil that weighs something like that and Immeral intends to do the switch. She fails this time so I just wing it that the bottle slipped and rolled of the pedestal forcing the mechanism to activare, locking them in the room and then releasing poison gas. Destinova and Freya gets poisoned and takes damage. Hope lockpicks the door and is able to open it so everyone can get out. And then Immeral Shadowsteps everyone across the pool.

Onward to the Kamadan Shrine (jaguars with snakes on their back). They push open the door and goes into the shrine. They figure they need four spears to put in the statues inside the arena so they continue round the corridors until they stumble upon the trap that activates the 4 chultan warrior statues that they fight until they are destroyed. They take the spear, put them in the statue's hands and then the cube reveals itself. They take it and is attacked by 2 kamadans. One of them is putting Destinova to sleep so that Freya have to slap him awake so that he can use his magic on them. It isn't that hard for them even though they fought another battle just before. And with that they leveled up to level 10. Gotta remember to tell them that besides the abilities they also gained more HP.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)

Girl Power!

So this game came late to me. Damn postal service couldn't get in on Thursday so it didn't come round to Monday the week after. Made it hard avoiding spoilers since many channels I follow on Youtube decided this is the game to stream. Tough luck for you, I won't watch it until I finished the game, which took me to Saturday the same week. Gonna be interesting to see things I missed.

So the big thing about this game, that was spoiled at the release so nothing missed there is that the first 5-15 minutes you start at Link fully decked out and after fighting Gannon Link gets trapped in a rift and Zelda has to step up to fight for Hyrule. On her journey she has the spirit Tri that helps her mend the rifts and create echoes that she can use to traverse the world, fight monsters and solve puzzles. During the adventure you get Links items, sword, bow and bombs that you can use during a fighter mode that you can use to fight of monsters and such for a short time. 

So arriving back at Hyrule castle Zelda tells her father that gets swallowed up by a rift and out comes an imposter that sends the guards after Zelda. Escaping with the help of Tri and Impa Zelda ends up in Suthorn village, the home of Link. From there you mends the rift near you, then either Gerudo desert or Zora river. I choose Zora first and then Gerudo. After that I traversed the world to get heart pieces, stamps and smoothie ingredients before tackling Hyrule Castle again, rescuing the King. 

After that three more rifts appear, Eldin Volcano, the Wetlands and Lanurya mountain. Went into the wetlands first being locked up by Deku Scrubs and destroying Ghoma from creating cotton candy webs for the scrubs so that they get swallowed up by the rifts. After that Eldin volcano and their new Goron Elder that need your help. After that Lanurya mountain where I meet this snowman Condé that looks like the snowmen in the DS Zelda games or Twilight Princess. And I never felt this bad for the snowman that only want's to do good so that his big brother returns from his hot air ballon adventure after their father died. Damn! It was also this boss that gave me the most trouble, Schorchill. You're supposed to use fire attacks on his helmet when theres ice and ice attacks when theres fire. Now, I used the wizrobes, but they didn't seem to hit so I ran around a bit until I looked it up. After that they worked rather well. Miss that Tri doesn't give you a hint or something like the companions in the 3D Zelda games. 

Which probably brings us to the mechanics of the games. The echoes are fun for puzzle solving. Getting too high ledges or using the abilities to get a monster behind the bars in order to hit a switch is rather interesting. Battle on the other hand is either so simple you steamroll them, or it's a drag as the specific monster needs to do certain things in order to defeat the enemy, usually elemental monsters. Bosses is elevated by using the fighter mode, but take the final boss, Null. If you have enough smoothies you only have to run around so that Link can fight him off together with an echo of moblin level 3 or the lizard enemy level 3. So I spent most time running around since you can't attack directly anymore since you have given Link his items back and there isn't much puzzles in the boss fight more than recognizing patterns and avoid damage.

Null is also an interesting boss concept. He is a creature of the void that want everything to be nothing, but the goddesses appears and create the world to contain him and he in retaliation creates the rifts, but the goddesses sends spirits like Tri to contain them. And apparently Gannon is an echo from Null. His plan is forcing Zelda to get the Prime Energies (which is the Triforce, or the Golden Power or whatever they call it) so that he can steal it and therefore destroy the whole Universe. Which you and Link stops when you rescue Link.

It was a great game. Didn't have to much trouble, there's one chest I haven't figured out how to get and I'm missing like 5 heart pieces, 8 echoes and something like 9-10 might crystals that you use to upgrade Link's weapons. Somehow the short horse race gives me more trouble than the others. And there is some challenges left in the slumber dojo. The graphics looks like the Link's Awakening remake and that looks rather well. Music is ok. I can hear the melodies that they are going for like Zelda's lullaby and such, but I can't say that any track stands out for me. A bit short, it only took me something like 27 hours to get through and there is like 6 main temples, plus Hyrule Castle and the starter and final area. So 7-9 dungeons depending on how you see it. Link to the Past at least had 10 main dungeons, Hyrule Castle and Gannon's Tower. That is 12 dungeons to explore. Or maybe the Ship in the bay and Eastern Palace counts as well... have to think about that. Speaking of Link to the Past, the map is taken from that game and expanded so you go beyond what could see in that game explaining thinks like Gerudo, Gorons and Sea Zoras not existing in that game, as well as Deku Scrubs. Although the Deku Tree is not in the Wetlands with the Scrubs, but in the Lost Forest to the north. 

Civilization VI (Switch) Revisit

 

And Atlas shrugged! (Don't know if it said in the book since I've never read it, Objectionist theories never really vibed with me)

Decided to revisit the game in the wait for the new Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom. And I got all the DLC and such so it would be fun to try it out... and they just released the news that Civilization VII is on their way. So perfect time to try out to see what it is like if I would try the next game.

I tried starting the huge world map with fixed starting points and marathon mode. Slow as hell, each turn took a minute to load and such. Started as Japan and thought it would be rather easy as you where on an island. Worked fine until 2 barbarians galleys showed up and wrecked my fishing industries. So I restarted with the standard Earth without fixed starting points so suddenly the empire of Japan starts in the north of Italy.

Still a bit slow so I had to google up what one could do, so I limited the autosave and took away animations and such. Wished I could get still pictures of the other leaders, but hey, it worked a lot better, even if it's still a lesson in patience. So I began conquering most of Europe and from Spain bridged into Marocco and then Arabia lost control of one city that wanted to belong to me. And then I used my military might to conquer other cities that have rebelled so I had a bridge from Turkey to India. Meanwhile I sent settlers to Australia and from there taking every island I could get my hand of. I only lost one city which was Tokyo that I settled on Cuba, but they rebelled and went to Poland that had all of North America. 

In the end I was able to snag a diplomatic victory by paying 5000 gold to each civilisation that had an emergency which if you win grants you two points. I think the final point came from an olympic event after I put every city on getting champions. My enemies tried to negate it by voting for me to loose 2 point every Session of the World Governments, but they should have fixed their environmental problems and stop Global Warming... I guess this is the reason it's seen as "woke" by some groups on the internet. Still, I won on prince level without cheating... except when I reloaded a save before I declared war on Mongolia in protection of a city state and I got wrecked. Lesson learned, don't care about the smaller states unless you have a very big army.

Tried the huge world map with the fixed starting points so it worked a lot better. Sadly the volcano near Kyoto erupted 5 times within something like 10-15 turns so that was a very big problem for me. Overall it was fun getting into again. Took me a bit, but when I got into how to micromanage cities and such it became a very interesting game. But I might not feel like everything works fine, for example districts and that is mostly due to my inability to get rid of ones that doesn't work or is standing on precious resources. I had two damn oil fields being locked out as districts was on them. I mean, how was I supposed to know in the Middle Ages that my harbor in Scotland or Entertainment District in the Sahara would end up on oil fields in the modern era? Lucky two others was accessible, but that was on my new Australia colony. I think I lost another resource in the Ruhr Area, but I never understood what it was.

Overall, still fun all these years later. Will I be getting VII when it releases? Probably not, the Switch hardly can manage this game and no offence to the actress being the narrator, but I don't have the same relation to her as Leonard Nemoy or Sean Bean. Although Leonard Nemoy is still the better choice.  Lucky Zelda stopped me doing just one more turn.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Castlevania Dominus Collection) (Switch)

 

The moon rises yet again!

The final of the three DS games on the collection. And I've played it not that long ago after playing through the Advance Collection since I just wanted to continue the stories. Pretty much the same as last time, except that I actually had to play the game legit from beginning to end. And I recalled that in a normal play, the game is hard. Went through a lot of potions and meals I tell you. 

Overall, it get's better as the game went on, but it's a bit obnoxious. A lot of item and glyph grinding to finish quests or even get enough levels to stand a chance. Cause you gotta do the quest of the villagers to get useful items like the more effective potions and armors. At least the castle actually feels like fully explored compared to Portrait of Ruin. Nice with a lot of voice clips, both the intro scene, all the villagers and a lot more monsters having voices beyond the succubus.

So of the three, I actually end up with Portrait of Ruin the best. Didn't think that back in the day. It's more fun to play through and the choices of weapons and such is more interesting. 

The Dominus Collection then. It was really good. The main three games are good either way, I've only played around the Haunted Castle bonuses on there since it's bit much for me with the arcade feeling of it. One thing I was bothered with was that the three main games wasn't in release order of Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order Ecclesia. No they put it in Order of Ecclesia, Portrait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow. I get that they where going for in-game chronology order since Order of Ecclesia is 1888, Portrait of Ruin 1944 and Dawn of Sorrow something like 2036. You get art and music so it's all nice. Some people wished for Symhony of the Night and Rondo of Blood, and I would like that too, but hopefully there will be another collection... and I would like the 64-games as well to see if with a better controller I might get around it. Or Konami can give me a Mystical Ninja collection so that I can have Mystical Ninja 64 Starring Goemon at home.