Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD (Switch 2)

 

Love in the Crossfire!

I thought I had written about the original game since it came out in 2014, but apparently I didn't began writing my synopsis on finished game until half a year later in 2014 so I never did it. The closest when I was writing about the follow up demo for the second game, Bravely Second. Still haven't finished that main game so might continue with that, but that will be a while since the first game has a tendency to overstay it's welcome. And I had hoped just writing about the differences from the 3DS version and skip the story and such. 

So basically the story is that the great chasm swallows Norende, the pastoral town where Tiz Arrior lives together with his brother. His brother dies in the Chasm and Tiz wakes up in the nearby capital being saved from drowning in a river. He returns to the Chasm and meet Agnes Oblige, the vestal of Wind that looks into the Chasm together with Airy the Cryst-Fairy. They are being hunted by the Eternian forces that are intent on destroying any believers of the Crystal followers. They meet with Ringabel that have lost his memory and joins them after following instructions in his journal. They also meet Edea Lee, daughter of the Grand Marshal of Eternia that switches side after the cruelty shown by the Eternian forces. Together they travel to the four crystals to awaken them and banish the darkness.

The story is pretty much callbacks to Final Fantasy I-V. The order of the crystals is reversed from Final Fantasy I with wind, water, fire and earth. The class system is brought over from Final Fantasy III and V. Braev the Templar looks a bit like paladin Cecil (and Artemis looks like his dark knight version, but that looks like all dark knights in the series) from Final Fantasy IV. The other classes looks a bit like other classes from the games. The magic system is basically the same as Final Fantasy and so on. The biggest difference being the summons that are unique and looks like modern things like planes and trains, but stylised to look like summons so like the plane looks like a bird and so on. Had they done them like in Final Fantasy with Raruh, Bahamut and so on togheter with Moogles and Chocobos it would be the continued series if they hadn't done VI and so on. 

So you get the crystals awakened, fight the asterisk bearers to get the classes and some story bits. Each country is being undermined by the Eternians in different ways so you have to clean it up. You also meet the Sage Yulyana that helps you and then Lester the vampire. After defeating them all and fixing the crystals a pillar of light appears that you enter, Artemis Dim, the dark knight follows you and after defeating him his face is revealed showing Ringabels face and then you are transported back to the beginning of the game. The game is in a time loop like the original Final Fantasy as well. SO you fight the bosses again to awaken the crystals and get more story bits. You do this five times and is in one way kinda admirable for them to stick to it, but it gets repetitious since the dialog repeats as well, making you wonder do they remember what happens between each jump? Especially when the game pretty much spells out the plot for you, Airy is a lying fairy (which at the reveal shows up on the title screen as well). She pushes our heroes to go through this since she is in actuality a demon from the abyss that helps her lord Ouroboros to connect 10 000 worlds to release Ourobors from his prison and invade the celestial realm. I got it and the numbers on her wings showing how many there is left is kinda neat when you notice it, but the characters didn't seem to get it.

You defeat Airy and then fights Ouroboros on a stage that looks like the battle with Chaos from Final Fantasy I and he begins destroying world after world (if you where a bit more social on the 3DS or Switch I have the feeling they would have named the worlds after that compared to "Someone World". Our heroes almost gives up, but then heroes from other worlds helps out (named after my AI buddies since I'm a very anti-social person). Our heroes stand up for a final battle and the background have my mii in the background (Ouroboros hints that a celestial is in Tiz and on the 3DS they used the camera to show the players face making it kinda obvious that the celestial realm is our own). You defeat Ouroboros, everyone returns to their own world (meaning Ringabel went back to the world prior to the starting world).

It's a fun game, but the endgame really drags. In both versions I maxed all jobs and levels. It doesn't make you overpowered, you still need to figure out how to break the game and I don't know if I did it on normal on the 3DS, but I got to the final subplot battles in chapter 8 and tried to go directly to Airy but got beat up so bad. That's when I needed a break with Minish Cap, but after that I just lowered the difficulty to easy and ran through the game as quickly I could. On the 3DS I spent over 100 hours and on this I was something like 90 hours and it's to much. The classic games take something like 20-30 hours and at the 40 hour mark you enter the pillar of light for the first time and would have been better if you maybe had done 2 passes, but no, 5.

What did they add then? Since it's a launch game for the Switch 2 they added things to show the systems functions. They added two minigames that is mouse based. One is a rhythm game and the other is a game where you pilot the airship. By playing you unlock entries in the journal about people you meet and you also get flower points which you can use to get equipments and items. Played mostly Love on the Battlefield-theme, and by looking at the whole Linked Horizon concert the sound was taken from I learned that Motoi Sakuraba was the man playing the synths, you know, the Golden Sun music guy. Best song ever! I spent a couple of hours playing the rhythm game with the song the singer sings. It's rather good so that wasn't a problem, but I thought I could get several ribbons so I grinded up to over 150 points and turned out I could only got 1 of them from the store. There is another in the game, but that was the moment my carefully thought out plan went away and I stuck with easy mode instead. Still, I got a silver sword as fast I got to the mini games and that was useful at the very next part of the game since it was great against undead that was all over the next area. 

So, buy it if you are interested. I got it as a game key card and I wonder if it will be the only one I got like this. As I said, haven't finished the direct sequel and haven't started Bravely Default 2 either even though I have it for Switch. Will take some time before I play it though. The new Donkey Kong game comes out next week (in 2025 when I write this) so I will play something short in between.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Wii U)

 

The smallest of Links.

Thought I had written about this game, but apparently not. Been playing Bravely Default for the Switch 2, but just don't feel like finishing the end game and everyone that have played it knows what it is. So I watched Game Grumps playing the Minish Cap so just felt that it would be a nice break. Originally for the GBA and made by Capcom that also did the Oracle-games. I got it for the GBA, the 3DS ambassador program and the Wii U that I played here. Seems like I hadn't finished it before since the only save on the console was from even before Link leaves Hyrule town with the princess. Probably was bored at the time.

Story is that Link is the grandson to the smith and it's the Picori Festival when Hyrule celebrates the picori, pretty much gnomes that are really small and lives in peoples houses or in the forest. At the price ceremony the winner Vaati goes haywire and turns Zelda to stone, breaks the picori blade and releases evil upon the world. Link gets the mission to find the picori since he is a child and they only show themselves to children. On his way through the Minish Woods he finds a talking hat that is being attacked. He helps it and it tells him that he is Ezlo, a minish sage that was turned into a hat by his apprentice Vaati that stole the minish cap from Ezlo and intended to rule the world. So Ezlo joins Link and this is the origin of Link's green hat.

You need to find the four elements and fix the broken picori blade. Ezlo helps you by being able to shrink yourself to minish height. It is a fun concept especially when they take normal enemies and turn them into bosses, because now they are massive. The picori blade then turns into the four-sword that was introduced in the side-quest for the Link to the Past remake for the GBA (where Vaati also was the end boss). So it's a lot of origins here.

I finished it before, but the memory was that it was hard to fight the end boss. And it is, but I guess 20 years of video games actually improved my thinking. I never 100 % it though and as I played it I began to see why. You have the kinstone fusions where you fuse kinstones with people that you get in chest, or get from grass or enemies and so on. Which is fun since you get chests or enemies or open paths and so on. But several of the fusions are random, and people can be really picky on if they want to due a fusion or not. I actually was able to get all those, but the last one was a pain. Apparently a deku scrub that had it. And then it was the figurines. You collect shells (which I assume is a nod back to Link's Awakening) that you can gamble to get figurines of characters or enemies. There is 136 total and I got to something like 100, and I got that by abusing the save state while playing the rupee game to max the winnings. Maybe I should have bought more shells than kinstones. Too late now. And you need to get all figurines if you want to get all heart pieces. God dammit.

Overall, a fun game and I like the concept of the minish and such (having watched Gnomes as a kid). End boss was hard though and took me a minute to remember how to beat Vaati and there is three phases of the boss. Don't like that, especially when I'm forced to fight off 3 darknuts under a time limit. And then I spent 2 hours to get enough rupees to buy the shells to gamble on the figurens. All to get the final heart piece and 3 chests with 200 rupees each... what am I supposed to spend it on, the game is over?

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Unseen Eye (11)

 

I see you!

Well, started where we left off, fighting the invisible Beholder. Freya still hanging from her spear on the sphere in the air. This is a fight for their life. The invisible beholder firing eye beams every second he got and hitting them paralyze and such things. Freya even getting hit with a death ray once leaving her with only 3 hp. Destinova got in 2 fireballs until he got caught in telekinetic ray that put him in the anti-magic cone. He even got hit with petrification rays twice. Still, Immeral get the idea to get the cover back over the orb to release Freya from it and then put over a cape to both "see" the beholder as well as stop the anti-magic cone. After defeating it they slept and got all the treasures.

And now they headed for the 4th floor. They first went to the room with the mirror that trap people. Freya is the only one that enters the room. And she just shatters the mirror after seeing different shadows in it. Everyone gets released so a big fight begins. Our heroes fight of an invisible stalker and a troll while another person gets killed by a stirge, a woman and minotaur teams up and fights a gargoyle while a drow uses his magic to help them and lastly another person that just tries to run and hide. They make short work of the enemies and get the minotaur and women to join them together with the coward Biff. The drow just leaves.

They find a stone slab with the image of a person holding up his arm so Freya puts her hand there and the slab opens toward a "maze".  They find yet another headless skeleton and a opal crown. After deliberating (and me pushing that it seems to be worth at least 5 000 gp) they take it and here stone moving, two thumps and then some heavy breathing (I tried to emulate the regenerators from Resident Evil 4). Freya looks around and behind her two bodaks appears. They make short work of these, but as they try to leave they notice the slabs have returned to its original state, but the picture is now of a man missing his arm. The book hints that a person can put their arm in the sphere that exists in the mouth of the devils face. Their first instinct was to cut the hand of Biff since he is just worthless (not knowing that he is a doppelganger so he could probably grow his hand back), but they get the skeleton instead and cut its arm and uses that. I checked on the net as we sat there and people saw that as an alternative to open the doors. Which takes away some of the deadliness of the trap, but still.

Next area they discover another face in the wall where there lives a lizard that can talk and belonged to the Yellow Banners (that included Biff). He shows them a secret door that leads to a room filled with heat, our heroes enters and the doors closes. After some arguing they blow out the candle and ends up in the room without air. It takes a long time to get them to understand that they are supposed to take the bones of the aarakocra and suck the air inside them. I even hinted that they broke them loose and they heard the hissing of air. Their first thought was using it to light the candle on fire which only exists to waste time. They got very frustrated here and reading it the day before I deduced they needed time here so no point in getting a time limit, had it been a sierra game you just had to restore your game until you figured it out. 

With that they enter Shagambi's tomb, an area filled with terracotta soldiers and I heavy hint at the warning left at the balcony that talks about the sleeping army in silence. They figure they need to be quiet so Immeral just walks over the ceiling and gets to the tomb... and then just opens it, starting the trap that is just music box activating all the statues. They hobble up in a corner and uses Destinova to cast fireballs on them. The first one leaves most of them with only 1 hp. The second one gets all of them (mostly because I was tired since we neared the end of the session so I just hide that they succeeded on their dexterity save to just end it. They slept and we ended it here. I missed that they should have entered the tomb randomly by the teleporters, but I will see if I can still use it for them leaving the tomb when we play again in september or such.

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (PC) (GOG.com)

 

Where's the novelization?

Well, 8 years later and I finally replayed the third Gabriel Knight game. This time from GOG.com. Didn't work out of the box so to speak, but adding the vgvoodoo thing made it work. There is some graphical glitches like Mosley in one scene just getting stuck and then switching between bowing and standing. Grace flipping through some cards from Estelle didn't work either. Also, it really doesn't like accidentally going to desktop and back. Just save, quit and restore since it gets very sluggish and gets rid of the widescreen.

Fun thing is I learned this time that there was a subtitle configuration. Made some words easier to look for. Also interesting to see where it didn't follow the script that I noticed at least twice. Also a sound bite from Gabriel in the museum went off when looking at the devil with Grace. Kinda fun. Experimented overall much more with listening at doors and such so I actually experienced more of the game this time around.

Still like the mystery and now it's been so long ago I couldn't remember the solution for le serpent rouge puzzles so it was a bit like doing it for the first time. Although, I probably would not have solved it back in the day (since I had a guide with step-by-step instructions for it). Only got 928 points in the end so there was something I clearly missed, but I can't recall what it would be. Maybe not finding anything of worth in Wilkes room on day 3 or something like that. Cause I got all inventory items as far as I can see on some online walkthroughs.

Overall I find the game lighter than the two first games and it feels a bit more Agatha Christie. I mean you got two British ladies that stay together which feels a lot like plot points from the 90's adaptions of her work. You even get a scene where you confront a thief in the dining hall. The voice acting is heard better, but Tim Curry sounds... not as enthusiastic this time around? Can't complain though, it's still fun to listen too. 14 hours give or take. 

Some things I gotten more disappointed with over the years is... you hardly use Sidney for the clues (except Le Serpent Rouge). I gather all these fingerprints and I basically uses it for two questions, who stole the manuscript (which you see anyway if you happen to be there at the right time) and who gave you Le Serpent Rouge (which turns out to be a red herring). I thought I needed the mopeds tire track to keep track of where Prince James's men have been, but no. And there is only two places to use the tire tracks on, one with Chester which you saw anyway and the other at Chatau de Serra. Which leads into the last irk I have now, Montraux as a villain. It just comes out of nowhere or rather, he is the only one left and all you have on him is that he has some alchemical symbols. I couldn't get a scene where Gabriel wonders about their visit to Chatau de Serra or asking Chester why they would go there? Cause it seems we never go in that direction so their deaths gets just brushed aside. And the biggest tragedy is that there ain't a novelization of the book to explain all these things.

Nintendo Switch 2

 

Can it get any more black? Well, yeah obviously, but you know what I mean.

So it has finally arrived, 8 years after the original Switch I now have the Switch 2. Got it delivered and could pick it up on release day 5th of June 2025. A pity I had a political meeting until 20:30, but the store was at least still open so I could get my hands on it. Spent the rest of the night to install and update it. Getting a bit crowded in the console area so I had to get power from where I have the window lamps plugged in. Need more outlets I gather. 

A bit of a hassle to order. I got a preorder in at the same day they allowed it, but got the Mario Kart World bundle. I thought I would get it physical, but when I learned about the download code it was already sold out from my regular supplier. I did look around to see if I could find a non-Nordic version since I could save something like 150 $ or €, but the only places I found didn't export to Sweden so that a no. So stuck with my first order. Still a bit cheaper than other suppliers in Sweden so at least that was a plus.

And then followed bad news after bad news. The game key card debacle, the prices, the micro sd express memory cards and so on (some caused by the tariff war currently going on due to the US). I got one game key card and that was Bravely Default since I liked that game. Got the Zelda-duology as well so I can give my dad the Switch versions and save memory for me plus being up to date with patches and such. Turns out the Switch 2 versions work on the Switch 1 without hassle so that was an unexpected plus (even though I probably won't use it).

Transferred the saves and such things. Had to stop the console from downloading all my digital games since that goes around 600-700 GB and I have no extra micro sd Express card. I try to wait until they hopefully get cheaper and larger. I probably need 1,5 - 2 TB to be satisfied. And still only downloading things from physical editions I got left me with something like 60-70 GB out of 256 GB (mostly due to Konami's Metal Gear Solid collection that seems like a proto-game key card in hindsight since there isn't much on the card). I also already noticed that if I'm going to only go physical I would need to get Switch versions since of course the other companies go for game key cards on things like Dragon Quest I+II HD Remake and Final Fantasy Tactics (I getting a bad feel from you Square Enix). Well, apparently scratch that number since after some updates I pretty much hit the ceiling so I had to get rid of some software, like the Metal Gear Extra section that took over 20 GB of memory. I really need an Express Card.

Now for some positive, I really love how fast the eshop is now. No stagger crashes and restarts it feels quick this time. I can actually browse it and my wishlist without having to start over all the time. The console also feels very nice in my hand, I especially love the pro-controller even if the d-pad doesn't work as good. Not only does it feel great, but the earphone jack in it makes it really great to play at night to not disturb neighbors (or family or others if you don't live alone). A bit low on the sound until I found out how to adjust it to max. Bravely Default had some mini-games that used mouse support and I tried it. One was a music game where you has to use the mouse to align with bars or music notes to get a high score, the other game being a airship minigame where you control the airship with all bells and whistles to find a boss and then fight it. You use the mouse in order to steer and activate all the things in the cockpit like radio, fireworks and so on. Works rather well. The only issue I had was the music game when the pointers ende up on the wrong side which disoriented me, but that was it. Played it on my living room table in front of the TV and it worked as advertised. Tried it on my legs as well just to test it and it was responsive enough, but I didn't try any of the minigames so don't know how prolonged play would affect me. I haven't gotten Welcome Tour and due to that a couple of features will be unknown for me. Agree with others it should have been free with the console since it's a techdemo on the console, but here we are. 

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition (PC) (GOG.com)

 

What do you know about voodoo?

Got this together with Legacy of Time and I had to take the bullet some time so why not now right when I was all in on Sierra Adventure games anyway? So I began playing. First of, the game felt a bit off. The character models in 3D is a bit wonky and Gabriel had this black shadow over his arm and Mosley looks a bit odd and so on. Nothing much really. I maybe prefer the pixel art over 3D so that can be part of it. And then the voices. Better be careful here. They are clearer this time around with better technology and such, but I prefer the original voice cast. You can't really beat Mark Hamill, Tim Curry, Michael Dorn and so on. The new cast isn't bad, but I just prefer the original. Some side characters like madam Lorelai and Markus sounds better in this version though.  Music is also in the same category. It sounds better for the most part, but I noticed in the dream sequence for every day doesn't reaches the same frantic chaos than the original. Don't know why, but it also diminishes my experience.

Now, to the game itself and the differences. Basically the same game for the most part. Investigate the voodoo murders for inspiration to your book and suddenly you uncover a shadowy voodoo cult that is after you and your family heritage as a shadow hunter. They made the game linear so that certain areas is locked out until certain days. Meaning I can't clear most of the points on day one, but have to wait. This also causes some troubles when they keep to the script. For example, Magentia Moonbeam you are recommended by Dr John in the original game and she mentions that the doctor called on your behalf, but in this game I picked her adress up by a flyer, but she still heard from Dr. John I was coming over. Now, maybe Dr. John figured out I was on my way, but still. 

They also added puzzles like a machine at Moonbeam that you have to solve in order to get the code and they changed the police station encounter so instead of getting the officers go out for a snack you sneak in by the windows, triggering a scene that was described in the novelization. A great scene, it was creepier in the book since here it seemed the zombified police found out about you while in the book they where just stationary until someone entered the station. Still, a great addition. Mostly the new puzzles stumped me the most, especially when they added them to already established puzzle, like needing to find another 20 dollars to get the animal mask or finding the key to the crypt drawer (mind you, after finding the puzzle it was rather easy). Not bad really, more to do, but it breaks the game logic when Mosley somehow figured out the skull puzzle and hid himself in the drawer. 

Now, I couldn't actually finish the game due to graphical glitches. First of, the Rada Drums was weird, but since I already knew what it says from earlier play I could brute force it, but there is a new puzzle in Rittersburg when you have to fix a shield and the graphics are so distorted that the panels changes every time I move them, and there doesn't seem to be anyway to get past it. I tried different graphical settings and compability versions, but no, same result what ever I do. Of course it's the damn library that screwed me over on the original game as well before ScummVM. So I can't continue. I even went so far that I charted out one version I could see on the web and tried my hand on that, didn't work since it seems that the shield is randomized... damn you game! I assume it might be the graphics card I have since it was mentioned that you should due some trickery with the ones you have... but it looks like I don't have one of the usual graphics cards so I'm stuck at the moment. So I replayed the original game instead, I also missed meeting the fortune teller the second day when she was possessed by the spirit so I was already on my way to a non-100% run. This is why I prefer consoles, do you have the hardware and software it's supposed to work. Hate computers. And of course I still wasn't able to 100% when I ended 3 points away from a full score and I have no idea what I missed (maybe showing Hartridge the voodoo murder photo is some of the points).

Doesn't look like this for me! And it's not really a hard puzzle if you can see! I even looked for a step-by-step guide to see if I could bypass it that way but the guide just mocked me for not being able to finish the puzzle! Could have told me it's randomized instead for wasting my time.

The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time (PC) (GOG.com)

 

Took a long time get past this scene.

Well, I seem to have been trapped into a computer game revival at the moment. I'm still playing through Quest for Glory V, but I got the itch to play Legacy of Time again, even though I had some problems getting it started last time. Well, this time I got it from GOG.com and... it didn't start. After some tinkering I got the game to start and show the intro scene and I got to when the actual game starts and... my cursor didn't show up. Back to the drawing board, did it again and now it didn't start again. I got my hands on some external things to fix the files, but that didn't work either (which also was a pain to get my hands of since the computer erased the files as soon as I got them). In the end I fixed it by lower the resolution and then I tinkered a bit again and didn't even have to do that. Still, cursor now leaves a trail over the screen and I can't see Arthur or the items I have selected at the screen, but the game works and I could complete it without problem. At least no disc swapping. 

Still a great game, if a bit easy now that I've played it so much that I know the puzzles by heart. I still learn a couple of things that I missed as a kid, the siddah for example was a reincarnation of the last siddah that couldn't reach Nirvana due to pride. I also tried to see how free I was about finding different disguises. The only one that forces you to get one I would assume is Shangra-La since you need the pilgrim. I also got the feeling that each artifact was closer to two of the six elements described in the game (earth, wind, water, fire, space and time) which I thought would mean water and earth Atlantis, fire and air El Dorado which left time and space for Shangra-La, but El Dorado pretty much used all four elements in protecting the artifact as well as a irrigation system that gives water to the top of the mountains. And the monks have their steam tunnels and such which is the only highly advanced thing they show I assume (beside the staircase or the ability of transmutation. 

Still, I hope they add the game to ScummVM some day since I would love for the graphical problems to be solved and I'm a bit spoiled by the ease of use for that program. Still, took me something like 5-6 hours and I recall that it took me a year to solve as a kid. I must have been a really stupid kid... or the fact I didn't know what they talked about might not have helped. Probably the scary steam tunnels that did the most, even though you probably get the map early and it shows where you are. Tried to play the game with information from the game and El Dorado and Shangra-La is rather straight forward, but Atlantis I had to make at least one leap. After getting into the temple with the gold medallion I got a bit stuck in thought, I thought there would have been a mentioned of the water effect and the need to visit the windmill, but no. I had to go there since it was one of the few locations I had (and that I need to get there to get into the tunnel in order to find the artifact).

Still, looks great (besides the glitches), might need a bit of clean up. Music is great. This might explain why I like the FMV games I've played, they are really focusing on atmosphere. Gabriel Knight 2, Phantasmagoria 1 and this really feels atmospheric, the first in their horror theme and this in mystery. The actors works great, but they are hindered a bit about the blue or green screen work.