A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation (14) - The Wardrobe, the monodrone and the hag.

 

Mike Wazowski

The adventure continues. Our heroes reaches the last gear where they can see five wardrobes and a portculis with an metal plate above it with 5 red crystals formed like blood drops. They study the wardrobes and decide to open the one with a clock in it. They peak inside and see gears and wheels turning, out falls a monodrone that tries to get up and return to the wardrobe but is hindered to do it. They adopt him and call him Mike Wazowski. They are supposed to kill him, but don't and then they can't open any more wardrobes. They go south to another room with a golden mastodon with a star indentation behind it's back. Freya heads over to Destinova to get the lever and returns with it and pulls it in. The statue starts to move and the floor erupts in flame. And different devils from the nine hells appear every turn.

At the start they are able to keep up, but the more devils that appear and more nasty attacks they get our heroes health diminish as fire envelops them. Mike Wazowski is killed by one of the devils. The final devil to appear offers them the chance to get rid of them for the exchange of a soul. Freya negotiate for the soul of the flying skull comedian hanging after them. After a good roll the skull is dragged to hell screaming by the devil and the other devils disappear. A man appears from the lingering smoke offering them a chalice and disappears. Exhausted they rest and then start searching the room, stripping it of every valuable they can get their hands on.

They return to the previous room and notice that one of the blood drops have ignited. They open another door with a hag on and two insectoid creatures appear that they kill rather fast. Then they open one with orcs in battle and several orcs appear. They kill them and we reach level 11. Finally. The session ends here.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Demo (Switch 1)

 

Here we go again!

Well, they are (or have as of release) remaking Dragon Quest VII, this time for modern console, including Switch and Switch 2. I've only played the first remake for the 3DS (Damn, almost 10 years ago... I'm getting old) and I recall that being a great time, although a bit long, but I've heard everyone else speaking about finish some of the early games like in 25 hours where I spend 100 hours so I might just be really slow. There's some buzz about changes like the casino being gone since that would net it an immediate 18 rating and that they changed how the class system works. 

The demo then, it starts from the beginning and ends before you can get to the second island, which feels like a logical end point. You get to try out some of the combat, how the story progression works and still leaves you with the mystery of why the world is what it is and leaves you on a cliff hanger. Pretty wise move. I don't recall how the 3DS version began, but I suspect that they threw in a battle a bit earlier with some spirits just so that people would get faster to a fight cause that is both a praise and complaint I've heard about the game, taking to long to get to the meat of the game with something like running around on fetch quest for 2 hours while other finds it interesting. I can find it rather ballsy.

Nothing much else to say. Beside the set up I provided for the 3DS version the first island's story is about a village of cowardly men where all women have been kidnapped and you try to figure it out. You met the warrior woman Maeve that was the younger sister of the town hero that was left to die hoping the townspeople would come and save him as he led the charge alone against the monsters of the island, but they didn't due to cowardice. And in turn Maeve turned into a vengeful spirit, but pretty much turns around when she helps this little kid that tried to protect his father. I guess feeling sympathy for him since he did pretty much what she did. And as the party storm the enemy the kid rallies the townspeople so that they actually show up for the final confrontation. It's short, it's sweet, it's a tear jerker... a great short story with tragedy. And that is what I recall from playing it all those years ago. As of writing it should arrive in four days. Can't wait.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Switch 2)

 

SAMUS! SAMUS! SAMUS!

Finally, a new Switch 2 game that I got on card for the console. Otherwise it has only been Switch 1 copies, and that's kinda interesting for a console where I prefer getting the older games. Apparently Nintendo as of writing in december 2025 is making some other game cards so that other companies actually put the f***ing game on the card to save on damn space. Hell I've ordered a Mario Kart physical copy just save in on 20 GB! Anyway, new Metroid Prime game. The remasters of 2 and 3 never appeared so wonder what happened to them. It clearly was a troubled production on this game so I wonder if they put all them to get this game out instead of giving us the other games on one console (or they thought it was better to use them on the GameCube Online thing in the future, who knows). Anyway again, back to the game.

Samus is sent to a research station that is under attack from the pirate leader Sylux that you encountered in Metroid Prime Hunters for the DS. They apparently found an ancient artifact and during the scuffle it activates teleporting Samus, some of the federation soldiers and equipment to an unknown planet, Viewrose. Traveling around you first rescue Mac, an engineer that helps you during the adventure with technical stuff. You also discovered that the planet used to hold an intelligent race of people that are no more due to the Great Tragedy, but they reward you with psychic powers to help you on your adventure.

During the adventure you meet more Federation soldiers, Sarge and Armstrong, the sniper Tokabi and a combat robot named V. They pretty much help you on each area and then they all come together for the final area where they seem to be lost until you finish up and it turns out they all survived. Your goal on the planet is to get 5 keys in order to open the central tower in the desert to get to a teleporter and get out. You also finds a motorbike to ride around in the desert collecting green crystals, finding upgrades and fight the same kind of enemies that roams the desert. After getting a mech for the robot to shatter the shield around the tower you head in and get attacked by Sylux... and here I got blasted away. I played it on normal until this fight, but I got blasted several times over... and it's not really me that get blasted. The Federation Troopers? They join you for this fight, but with that comes the fact that if they die, you lose.

And worst part is? Sylax have attacks that cover most of the arena at once, nuking them. You can heal them, but when 4 of the team is down and you can only heal one at a time and he nukes them again, you die. So I lowered difficulty to just get it over with. Of course that made me miss out on getting the hard mode, but I have a suspicion that I won't be playing that any time soon. Overall, it was a decent challenge up until the end. The only time I looked something up was where to find the final piece of the mech in the jungle and the treasure bots that makes the map show where upgrades are. Best new thing for the prime games ever. And I don't get why it took them this long since the 2D games with maps have had markers on it since the SNES. 

Apparently it's a bit of online chatter about this game, but I found it enjoyable enough. 

Dragon Quest II (Dragon Quest I+II 2d-HD) (Switch)

Time for a new (old) adventure!

Well, it was just continue with the second game. Still have PTSD for the end-game with the kamikaze monkeys. The story is pretty much the same with some exceptions. For example, you get a fourth party member, the princess of Cannock. She first helps you looking for the prince of Cannock that elevated the early games and then when he gets poisoned she joins again, and more permanently after that, making the rest of the game a bit easier with another character carrying things and using magic. They also added an underwater section with mermaids and hidden depths. Hadn't I played it I wouldn't have noticed that all that was an add-on for the remake since it fits right in the world... granted, Dragon Quest-games tends to be rather easy to do this with since eventhough each game has an overarching story, it has a lot of small moments.

Is there more? Yes, they tie all three games together here, referencing each other and explaining better the relationship between, Hargon, the Dragonlord and Rubiss. There's also a hint of another adventure after beating Hargon. But to get that you gotta defeat the boss Octavian or whatever it's name was which roam the ocean in the ghost ship and let me tell you, that's a bitch to fight. Negating magic and attacks, healing a high rate every turn and dealing a lot of damage. I tried several times and then gave up... I could of course have used the lower setting to finish it off, should have thought about that before. Don't know if it's the big bad from the third game, but I'm quite content. And I got other games to play so I better get a move on.

So overall, it's a fun game, get a lot of backtracking and such to get every treasure chest after each key upgrade so I would have preferred a guide to diminish the amount of hours. But it's fun just roaming around, but after seeing the same towns and dungeons for the third game they can get a little stale, especially when there's a lot of empty treasure chests that I opened in the earlier games. As I saw someone writing, probably contender for the best upgrade on any game. Even the kamikaze monkeys aren't that problematic anymore. And 7 is on it's way as well, and then 12... wonder if we will see 4,5,6,8 and 9 as well. Although to much time seems to go RPG.

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Wheel of Choices (13)

 

Level 5!

So our heroes have now reached the fifth level of the temple. They hear the sound of moving metals and cogs all while grey slime oozes out over the walls and floors. They find a passageway that leads to a dead end that they search for a secret door to get into a new corridor. They head down and sees words written in blood on the ceiling, "Awaken Napaka". They recall that it is the name of the dead Omuan queen they found on the floor above. They find a statue with three arms asking for jewels that they in their greed won't give. They find a keyhole in one of the reliefs that they use the key they found with the queen. It leads to a crawlway that leads to another room with a gigantic Stone Juggernaut. They search around and find a shelf with a ruby they grab. Freya even climbs atop it and tries to awaken it with their two staffs. As she hit it it crumbles to dust leaving only stone and rubble.  

Back to the corridor they try to put the ruby in the hands of the statue, but nothing happens. I kinda wished they actually put three jewels in the hands to see them crushed and the reward is destroyed ruby. The go to the other end of the corridor and finds a room with some compost and greenery. Another room with grey ooze and then they find yet another room with some controls with a blue and red button, a golden star-lever and red and blue dials. The first thing they do is pull the golden lever that begins spewing more ooze into the floor that Hope have to disarm. Then they push and pull the blue controls. They hear rumbling and heads out and see that they are closed off from the rotating rooms. 

So they pretty quickly figures out how the rooms work so they start fiddle with the red controls. They turn the dial and suddenly is talked through a telepathic link with an unknown creature. It pretty much warns them from interrupting the arrival of the god of destruction. They push the red button and are locked in for an hour. They head back to the staircase and get to a pier with two boats and a wrench to get a cage into the water. Hope controls the winch while Freya gets in the cage and snaps up three crabs while the voice talks with her. They get out and rows around the lake and gets back to the door than now speaks and asks a riddle that they answer with feeding it with a crab. Now they begin thinking about the rotating room puzzles. They end up with Destinova staying with the controls and speaking with them through the voice that speaks with them. The others head for the middle room and it rotates, releasing poisonous gas in the room and then three shambling mounds awaken and attacks them. It gets intense since the mounds gobbles up our heroes from time to time and Hope is as low as 7 HP after some attacks, but when they begin to fall off it gets easier. Hope a smudge irritated that they had resistance to fire for being walking grass. 

After the battle they enter the room at the top, finding a dead body from the company of the yellow banner that carried 6 jewels and a magic sword (which they don't know what it does, since it basically only allow them to speak draconian). We end the session here, No healing yet so we will see if we are as broken as last time. 

Dragon Quest I 2D-HD (Dragon Quest I+II 2d-HD) (Switch)

 

The beginning... and end?

And here the sequel... original... whatever it is, Dragon Quest I, but now in 2D-HD. I was a bit worried about playing this game again since it would be going back in progress compared to Dragon Quest III when you go solo against the dragonlord. But it worked rather well. Could be due to me using the qualities of life they added to the game, like allowing you to see hidden areas and chests on the maps so that it would cut down on running around. Yeah, searching every part of the world for some hidden area and then not be able to see it, but have to find it again afterward with improved abilities was a hassle. Much easier this way,

Took me around 24 hours and the story is basically the same. The evil dragonlord have kidnapped the princess of Tentagel so a scion of Erdrick appears and rescue her, defeat the dragonlord and brings peace to the land before leaving an settle a new kingdom for himself and his princess. I say basically since they've added a lot of cut-scenes. We get to see the princess fight of the dragonlord with the help of Rubiss and that the dragonlord kidnapped her to get the sphere of light that was given to Erdrick and then the king of Tentagel. You have actual characters like the three soldiers that hunt for the princess that you rescue, Robbin 'ood, Zalen the descendent of Galen the Bard and an adventuring party that you compete with in the beginning. So it actually feels like a post-Dragon Quest III-game. They've even added the mini-medals.

So it feels like a modern game. I will say that if I replay the series it won't be the old games I got since the game feels so much easier to play. And since they feel like a coherent story it is better to play III-I-II it seems and they even mention things after III like Erdricks longing to return home, but not being able to. Characters he meet on his journey that affected this game and so on. It feels like it should. Some people will probably complain that it feels bloated compared to the original with all side-quest and going back and forth on the map compared to the circle around on the original I believe, but since that was single enemy encounters this feels a bit more dynamic with several enemies at once. And you got Golden Golems, Metal Slimes and Liquid Metal Slimes that fastens the grinding process a lot. Especially when you get the metal boomerang for 38 Mini-Medal right before entering the Dragonlords keep where Liquid Metal Slimes can appear, meaning I got something like 3 levels right before fighting the dragonlord facing him at level 47. He was no pushover either, I had to rematch him 4 times before beating him. At least gather all of Erdricks equipment changed the look of the hero while equipped.

What I gather, beating the final boss and saving pretty much only opens up two more hidden areas so that you can find the final two Mini-Medals. No other post-game, but the hero spoke at least. Got all monsters, missed 10 things to get, but the 100 000 gold in my bank account will probably clear that if I was so inclined. So that leaves the second game.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2) (Switch)

 

All in time for the Galaxy-movie!

I continued with the sequel that I haven't finished on the Wii. It originally came out in 2010 which means it probably was the last game I got as a student at university, meaning I was rather depressed so didn't feel like playing anything... and then four years unemployment followed. Recalling this I actually got the version with a DVD on how to play the game. Sadly the package it all came in had been destroyed by water or corroded electronics. Great I put it on since now I can actually see that the graphics are much better on the Switch version. On the other hand the game crashed on me on the very second level so it might not be as stable.

So the story is basically a retelling on the first Galaxy-game with Bowser attacking Toad Town and getting Princess Peach, but instead of being picked up by the Cosmic Comet, you instead meet a Luma called Lubba that travels around space. It takes the shape of Mario's face for some reason. Some people on the internet speculate that had the game been released today it would just have been DLC for the original game and I can see that. Some stages are lifted directly from the first game, but Thwomps Fortress from Super Mario 64 showed up and that was nice. 

Changes to gameplay is that now, as you can see on the cover, you also can get Yoshi with you. He eat stuff and can use the flutter jump as well as using his tongue to platform even higher. In that way it feel a bit like Super Mario World with the first stage being in front of Yoshi's house and he being out. You used the wii remote pointer, but the Switch make you use the gyrocontrols instead. Seen as one of the reason why it wasn't on the All-Star 3D Collection, but since it works rather well here that can't be it. 

So did I 100%? Not as of writing, I ended up with 120 star and activated the green prankster comets that put in another 120 stars to collect which double the stars for each stage. Mostly they are hidden around the levels so you gotta find them. Not that hard since they give away the sound of a shimmering star when you get near so as long as you hear that you can deduce where they are. I got stuck at the third green star at the digging level in the first world where I found it, but couldn't get how to get to it. After some tries I gave up for another time. This is written right before Halloween 2025 which means I have four day weekend to look forward to, but Dragon Quest 1+2 comes this Friday or something like that which means the weekend is scheduled for that.