Suikoden (PS1) (PS3)

 

Now I get it, the painter painted the cover of the game!

Well, I was waiting for the Suikoden remaster to come for the Switch, but for some reason as of writing it has gone two weeks and it seems to be stuck somewhere. Didn't really bother since I'm waiting for the Xenoblade Chronicles X to come out this following week and that is a 100 hour commitment at least. So I decided to continue the playthrough I started in 2024, but never finished (don't recall why, but it didn't take me 8 hours to finish). Was recommend this by the one driving me to work at the saw mill back in 2013 so I got them for the PS3. Konami's own RPG-series.

So your the son of a high-ranking General in the Empire. The Golden Emperor Barbarossa have been turning evil for some reason and his closest advisor, the sorcerer Windy is whispered to be behind it. One day you meet up with Ted, a friend and after some mission to check the taxes of a northern village Windy intercepts you and kills Ted since he carries the Soul Eater Rune. Before being killed Ted gives the rune to you so now you gotta escape the might of the Empire. You join up with an resistance group lead by Odessa Silverberg and Flik and Victor. After a mission your hideout is found out and Odessa is killed. The rest gives leadership to you so you start the Liberation Army.

So you have to gather the 108 Stars of Destiny in order to stop the Emperor and Windy. It's a fun game and is not only an RPG, but also a base builder and strategy game (although the strategy is kinda minimal). Yes, a strategy game where you take control of the Liberation Army and have to lead them to victory by choosing the right attack or use special things like Ninja's to get information on the plans of the enemy, Merchants to make the enemy army turn to your side and so on. Fun distractions, if it wasn't for the reason that your 108 Stars of Destiny can die in the battle for some reason (seems mostly RNG). 

Really, the most trouble with the game is probably the 108 Stars of Destiny. You gotta collect them all, but of course some of them are missable or hidden behind side-quests and so on. So I used a guide through it all. Maybe when I replay it on Switch I might play it more legit, since it was so slow on the PS1 with reloading and so on. Actually, I spent most of the time gambling with Gaspar to accumulate enough gold to keep the Stars of Destiny you could take with you upgraded in armor and equipment. A pity that the max amount was only 999 999, but it at least forced you to constantly use it since the end-game allows you to hit that amount fairly easy just by battling monsters. 

Cause that cost a lot. Also interesting in that level grinding isn't really a thing in the game. Characters get EXP depending on how tough the monsters are according to their level which allows you to easy level up a character that have lagged behind, but the cost to sharpen the weapons is really step at the end and matters more. But just save/restore the save if you succeed on the gambling and since each time you win you can gamle it all the winnings add up really fast.

In the end I had fun, but as the end credits roll and each of the 108 Stars of Destiny gets a small note like in Skies of Arcadia I just can't feel for all of them since frankly, I've forgotten most of them. Skies of Arcadia only had what, 22 characters in your crew? That's manageable, 108 isn't. Especially since very few of them has any story beside joining. A bit of waste I think. Well, some returned for the sequel which I also have, but I might not finish it since as mentioned, in 4 days Xenoblade Chronicles X is supposed to be released and this took me 26 hours and I would suspect that Suikoden II would take the same amount of time. 

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Management Don't Approve (Part 9)

Let's speak to the manager!

And the trek through the tomb continues. We start of were we left of, fighting the mummy. Only takes one attack to kill it off from Hope and Freya picks up the mace of terror, and fails her saving throw allowing her to be possessed by Wongo, the Su-Monster. Makes her very rash and violent without care for the others. They only have one room left on the first floor so they head there finding a corridor with a demon face and through the mouth they can see a room with yet another sarcophagus. Now, Freya just jumps in and Destinova follows. Hope pushes Immeral through due to the aversion of the Obo'laku possession. The trap of course works and the mouth champs down on Immeral. It misses so he gets through and Hope follows. Meanwhile Freya have seen a crystal monter with a flameskull inside and gets curious. It begins talking through telepathy and seems to be a lost child who wonders what's happening. She find that boring and is more interested in the sarcophagus which she opens. The others realize that Immeral is gonna be a problem with the hyper cautious attitude so the other gangs up on him and forces him to touch every item in the sarcophagus trying to get him possessed by another god. This one fails and Destinova is pushed to take the staff of the python to get possessed by the jaculi god Moa who always tells the truth.

As they do this the flameskull screams a cry that shatters the crystal case and and aggravates the spiders in the nest so they begin pouring out. They try to take care of them so Destinova nukes the spiders with a fire ball while the others wail on the flameskull. After defeating the first wave they hear even more spiders coming from the burrows around the room. They rush to get out and Freya jumps through first and then Immeral that gets chomped at again. This time it actually traps him. Destinova puts up a wall of force to keep the spiders out and Freya and Destinova tries to pull him out. Freya tries to break the mouth open from the other side with the mace of terror. They get him out and the mouth opens. Immeral shadowsteps across instead of trusting the mouth again. The other crawls through and gets out. 

They head back to the room with the tomb dwarves and tomb guardians to clear the room and find a magical lantern with the spirit of a moon elf named Starfallen that was brought by the Company of Yellow Banners in order find a certain jewel in order to resurrect the elf. They are all dead now and since she can wake up a character that's been downed Freya grabs her and intend to attune. They continue and have now found themselves through secret corridors that doesn't have traps in them. They enter the first room and there sits an old wight named Withers that acts like an amusement park engineer that constructs and keeps the traps working in this place. Freya and Hope begins robing him blind taking every that isn't nailed down... lucky Destinova didn't do the talking since he would probably have spilled the beans. Immeral meanwhile is tied up, gagged and blinded so that he can't try to escape or cause anything. They find some journal belonging to Withers, a spellbook belonging to a Blackflame or something, a manual on clay golem creation and a control jewel for a slaad. They also pull the mask Withers where and the black skull amulet, but they seem to have forgotten about it so I need to remind them next time.

They get to the room with the slaad and Hope uses the control gem to keep the slaad in check. Freya just walks forward and tries to open the sarcophagus, but needs Destinova for help. It's the tomb of Nangnang and they bring forth Immeral and pushes him to touch every item in it. The urn is wasted on Immeral since he just can will away charmed spells, but an egg inside releases the god and after a short tussle Nangnang expels Obu'laku and thank god for that. Nangnang is just cruel and selfish, but everyone prefers that over cowardly scared. They go back to the backrooms and head down to the third floor finding another Tomb Guardian and kills it in one round. They learn that it was standing guard by a lever that it was supposed to pull when people entered a room on the other side of a window starting it to rotate and fills it with gas and so on. They find what I assume is a ventilation thing that they take over to another room where they find a golden skull that Freya just have to touch which curses her with a dead wise-cracking jester that from now on will disrupt them doing anything unless they feed it 10 000 gold of jewels (which they don't know other than it being hungry for jewels). Of course at the moment it has just berated them and pulling bad jokes, but it will be better when it begins disrupting them for real. They searched the room and found a secret door into a corridor and fought two more tomb guardians. After that we quit cause we where tired after something like 4 hours of play.

Doom II (Switch)

 

Where's Doom Guy?

Finally played through Doom II after playing the first game back in... must have been 2020 or 2019. And... it's Doom pretty much. Overall I say this game is harder and not as fun as the original. Music is good, but not as iconic as the original game. Got lost in several stages and the only way I could get through it was using cheats to clip through walls. So yes I cheated. I played it normally until I arrived in a level where you start in a room with several door and you have to survive and figure them out one by one. I did that, but fell backward into a poisoned floor which killed me, so I had to restart but had none of my weapons beside the gun. I got some weapons back, but after being killed two times over I looked up the codes and started playing around.

30 levels and and in the end you defeat the Icon of Sin in order to stop the invasion of earth. A bit more enemies than last time. I got Doom 64 which I might play through since I'm waiting on Xenoblade Chronicles X and I don't want to start long RPG's since I know that will be a 100 hour commitment or I could continue Fantasian, but I still have a negative reaction to that game.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (Switch)

 

Down with the Empire!

Another Doom-clone I got in a sale and a Star Wars game at that. Never played before, but I did play the sequel, Dark Forces II. My friend had a demo of it and we played it a lot, but we couldn't finish it and mostly due to not understanding what we were doing. Then my neighbor got the full version so I borrowed it and played a bit with it. Got all these cheat codes as well which enable me to actually play other parts than the first level. Got stuck in a level since I didn't understand what I was doing there either. 

Well, this game then. Basically like Doom, run around and shoot enemies and find keys to complete certain objectives. A bit more story focused than Doom and the objectives aren't just kill everything (but that helps a lot), sometimes it's place this tracker or place this explosive and so on. Story is that the Rebel Alliance is hiring Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial Officer turned mercenary to first grab the plans for the first Death Star (which now is contradicted by Rouge One if I recall correctly). After that one of their secret bases is destroyed by some unknown force... The DARK FORCES!!! Kyle and communication operative Jan Ors is sent out to discover the secret of this new enemy. 

During the adventure you rescue the spy Imperial officer that briefs the heroes in Return of the Jedi (oh and you get the mission by the lady rebel leader also from that movie), gets captured by Jabba the Hut, fights of Boba Fett and blows up some imperial bases. It's a fun distraction, but I wouldn't got around the game without using the cheats I found on the Internet to get past certain problems, mostly unlimited Ammo, Pogo and Invincibility. Started using them in the prison rescue since I couldn't figure out the elevator puzzle and short on ammo and I needed ammo to go between areas... I think this game might be a bit badly designed to be honest. On the other hand, I can actually jump and what a difference that make!

Still, it feels like Star Wars with the music, sounds and all the designs. Would love a remaster of the second game since there you have FMV and Jedi Powers... throw in Rebel Assault II... and Shadow of the Empire as well, but keep the Cutscenes from the N64 version. Might be a bit harder than I would like and some of the puzzles are hard to figure out I feel. Or I'm just stupid, but we now that can't be it!

Ys Memoire - The Oath in Felghana (Switch)

 

Wait... which Oath was it we took in Felghana?

Been a while as of writing. The usual winter slump so I haven't finished a game since december and as of writing we are one week from March in 2025. It's also due to playing a game I really had a big dislike for, which was Fantasian Neo Dimension. I got half way through and just didn't have any fun with it and after spending 1 hour fighting a boss to get killed I just gave up. Maybe I will come back to it, but I just don't feel like it.

So instead I went with Ys Memoire - The Oath in Felghana which I gathered is a remaster of a game from 2005 that was a remake of Ys III: Wanderers of Ys. It uses the same type of gameplay as Ys Origin and was a much better time. Much shorter as well with something like 12-15 hours of gameplay on Normal from start to finish. So Adol Christin and Dogi has arrived at Dogi's homeland, but monsters are running around so Adol gets to rescue Dogi's childhood friend Elana Stroddard. More trouble brews when the corrupt lord of Felghana, Lord McGuire tries to gather the 4 holy statues in order to take control of an ancient god. Helping the lord is Dogi's childhood friend Chester Stoddard and Elana's brother.

Fight monsters, level up, get money and Ravel ore to buy and upgrade your equipment and then of course you have to defeat the evil god yourself. There's revenge, betrayals, heartache, tears, laughter and Dogi crushing a wall. It felt amazing. And somehow Adol loses all the equipment I fought for, the sword I get since it's story reason, but the shield and armor? And level 1 again? I maxed him out both in Ys I & II as well as Ys X that take place before this. 

Overall, just what I needed. An relative easy and short experience. Dogi is the same voice actor and it was fun to discover that the voice actress for Elana is the voice actress for Colette in Tales of Symphonia. And the game ends with Dogi staying and Elana standing and waving Adol of as she cries... man, Adol ends every game with a beautiful woman crying over him. Makes me think of the Quest for Glory-series and makes me wondering if they like that series will end with a final series and the possibilities to meet people from all the games. Before that I still have Ys IV-VII to play. 

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Genie in a Bottle (Part 8)

 

The players are gonna be so pissed when they realize I already left this puzzle solved!

First post for 2026 (first post written for 2025... I can't seem to get into the groove to play games at the moment). A continuation of the last session. So, I prepared for them to clear the floor so I though it was enough to read only that... no, they of course decide to get down to the second floor immediately. I also recalled the fact that spells like teleportation or such things malfunctions and takes them to a room filled with rotten corpses and an eye stalk that they would appear like the trash-compactor monster in Star Wars (making them think that the whole chamber would crush them). Sadly I read up on it and it's only if they try to teleport out of the tomb, things like shadow-step and arcane gate works just fine. And they won't get to try the black hole lever. 

So on the second floor they find the second warning and also notices a skeleton with a decapitated head. In actuality they are trying to find the skeleton keys to open the door on the fifth floor (one key per floor), but I thought it would be funny if the keys are already taken and put into the door by someone, for example the one trapped in the chamber behind the final boss, for example Toby that would lead into the next adventure as he soloed the dungeon. Cause Toby is the best!

Still, they look around and find the door to the south the most interesting to enter. They hear the gurgling moans from some zombies that are chained to the door. Hope uses her sun sword to chase them away that opens the door... or that is what I interpreted the chains doing due to the second warning about the undead disliking sunlight. The less battles the faster the games goes anyway and they wanted faster games. 

Inside they see transparent cauldrons with bones in them, a sarcophagus and four statues. They pretty much say f*** this and looks for something and finds a hidden door leading to a corridor that leads into another room. In that corridor they also finds a bottle. They inspect the bottle and it talks something they don't understand. Hope uses Comprehend Languages that allows her to understand that the dao in the bottle wants to be freed and will give them riches if they do so. Greed gets the better of them, they open the bottle and are in fact rewarded with several gemstones making the trek at least profitable (if they get out). They enter the next room and finds a pentagram in salt with a sarcophagus in the middle. In reality an invisible grey slaad hides in the pentagram, trapped by the salt and if you disturb the pentagram it will be released and attack. Since Immeral and Hope already met an invisible slaad I actually gave them a hint that they felt the same creepiness as back in the Amber Temple so they decided to avoid the room for now.

Back in the corridor they backtrack and enters the eastern corridor until they reach the intersection. They find the body to the north and get the journal and treasures (especially the staff of striking that Immeral intends to attune to so that Freya can get the magical spear without knowing that the staff curses the attuned wearer to become a half-goat, gonna be fun next session) and decides to continue and appears at the intersection again, but the body to the north is gone. They tie a rope and head back, but this time the rope is gone from the south. They go south and suddenly the rope appears in front of them and behind them. Destinova deduces that it must a dimensional gate here. So now the game halts for 15 minutes as everyone tries to grasp what this means. They decide to continue east at the intersection without the dead body where they find the room smelling with wine and a glittering chest in sunlight. As they check and find that the sunlight is an illusion Immeral uses their ring of storing with dispel magic to take away the light. I assume that works since it's an illusion and they open the chest with the words "drown your sorrow" and nothing happens... they are a bit disappointed with the room and head back. They go back to the staircase and check the northern passage that leads to the room with a mask on the floor... nothing else there. They go back and check the pentagram room and stumbles upon the bottled dao again and open it and gets a double set of jewels. Head back through the ring and the jewels disappears in a puff of smoke telling them that the dimension door isn't quite real and get that this is the "real world". They redo all the stuff in the wine room (I almost made them forget to turn off the sunlight) and since the same exact thing happened there was nothing there either. 

Now they went back to the first floor and headed north until they reached the room with the magnetized shield. First they see another decapitated skeleton and then Freya is the only one to fail her saving throw and getting slammed into the shield taking 15 damage. No damage to any metal equipment since she wasn't carry anything. North they find a fountain, no one dares drink the waters which is a shame. They go south and finds a dead end. Searching they find two hidden doors. They enter the south door first and finds a room which they saw earlier last session through a crystal window. You are supposed to cover the eyes on a bronze disk to avoid the wights awake and attack them and then use the masks to open the sarcophagus. I let them cover the disk while being seen since I just don't feel like battle right now. Hope unlocks the sarcophagus and they finally have a magical cursed item in their reach. Immeral picks it up and instantly gets possessed by the Zorbo god, meaning she's even more risk averse, but she got a ring of protection that boosts his AC and saving throws with +1. That and he can now attune to 4 magic items. They don't really have that many, but there is a couple to get in the tomb. They look around and find another hidden door made of flint. Freya opens it and it ignites a gas cloud that knocks her down a bit. They head back to the fountain and rests for the night.

They return next moring and look across the waters. First they follow the river till they reach a waterfall with a ledge across it and a treasure chest. Using their daily arcane gate they can reach it without jumping across. Since it's a mimic it attacks them as they try to see if it's dangerous so they say f that and return back to the origin of the river, finding another chest hanging across the pool of water. Hope hop upon Freya's shoulders and unlocks the chest and get everything from it without triggering the trap. They check the other hidden door in the corridors and see some dwarves creating a tomb guardian and decide that they better retreat. They enter the other northern passage of the first floor and avoid setting of the fan trap and finds another sarcophagus and three chests. After a while they figure out that they need put someone in a chest so that they can turn the key to make a button appear on the sarcophagus to activate a trap and the unlocking mechanism. Freya enters the iron rusted chest and since she have no non-magical metal on her she is pretty much fine. She then enters the onyx one, but survives the trap with 1 HP intact. Also kinda funny that Freya was 6 foot meaning she was a bit cramped in the 5 foot chests.

They put Destinova in the final chest of silver and frost. He only took 39 damage so he didn't get bloodied, although that just 1 HP away. Pushing the buttons now make the sarcophagus to be transparent and crystaline. They see a mummy and a mace in it. Hope picks up her crowbar and swings at it and the whole sarcophagus cracks and the mummy awakens, ending this session. Next session they wanted some maps since they are really bad at localize themselves in their minds. Also, gotta get Immeral to feel itching to start the curse that transform him into a half-goat... hehe and Immeral wanted to get cursed, but that was by a were-tiger hehe, the player gets what she wanted! Hehehe!

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Entering the Tomb (part 7)

I think it was this face they saw in the tomb.

Returning to look for the other 3 cubes in order to enter the tomb of annihilation. And I basically focused on going for the puzzles and skip the fights. I lure them up the waterfall to let them see the vision of Ohm being destroyed to add some mystery to the whole ordeal and then allow them to see the final shrines as they look out of the city. And they basically went on a straight line to get them all. First was the shrine of Nangnang the Grung (a frog like creature). It's supposed to be full with grungs that guard the treasure and if you haven't saved one of the sons of the leader there is a big battle, but that takes to much time so I just skip that idea. Right to the puzzle, how to enter the locked door. Well, the first obstacle is the first door where you are supposed to use strength in order to push it open. None of the characters have that so after two tries I just check my spell list and see that Destinova have Knock so I cast that spell to just enter. And then we have the puzzle door. You are supposed to figure out that one person have to gather the fake treasures in the room and from there go the door and let it open, If there is another people with treasure it doesn't open. We just used knock again since they aren't that smart so why bother?

Next was the shrine of Obo'Laka the Zebo. It was an interesting premise. You first enter a corridor with 8 torch holders and then in the next rom you find a pool where there is a sun in the roof, but a moon in the reflection of the water. After some speculating they jump in and ends up in a room with a moon on the floor, but a sun in the reflection of the pool. There's a door they enter and in there they find a another cube, but there is a petrified statue of a Thay Wizard standing beside it and 8 lit torches around the room. Here there is a problem which I get from reading the book. All characters in the campaign can use mage hand and since they don't get in direct contact with the cube, they won't be affected. You are supposed to deactivate the trap by finding a secret door leading back to the beginning of the shrine so that you can take the torches and put them in the first corridor, since they will extinguish in the water of the pool. To not trivialize the whole ordeal I made the pool water dispel the mage hand so that they actually have to do the puzzle. 

The final shrine was the shrine of Moa the snake. It was the most fun shrine in reading. First it stands on top of a pillar in a lake of lava, but they clear that with an arcane gate spell. Then they enter the shrine and finds a cube standing in the middle of a room guarded by stone archers. They grab the cube with mage hand and the statues begin rotating and firing arrows at them, they get back in the corridor and the trap floor activates trying to send them into a pool of green acid. All four clears the saving throw, they get out and the cube turns to a puff of smoke. They return, search the room again and finds a secret door which leads to a room with a broken snake statue. They grab the cube, once again get fired at from the statues, avoid the trapped corridor, gets out and... the cube turns to green smoke. I find this rather funny. They return and looks again and find yet another secret door and another room, this time with a whole statue. They get the cube and the traps don't activate. They now got all the cubes.

I hadn't planned this far ahead so it was a bit of improvising, but I recall most of the beginning traps, with the fake door in the beginning. They get to the obelisk, get the clue and finds the passageway and the tunnel. They also see the three gargoyles standing looking down on them. They enter the tunnel and see torches light up as they pass and even finds Unkh's statue and get the pendent that hanged around it. They go to the passageway and finds the trap, block the air flow for the gas and starts putting in cubes. I think it was a bad idea to do this in the afternoon with one of the players being out until way after midnight. She can be a bit... thorny when she hasn't slept properly and puzzles isn't their greatest forte. They try so many combinations on the first door and none work, they read the text on the obelisk over and over again so in the end I have to step in to point out that there seems to be something missing since their is only 8 holes for the cubes, when we in fact have 9. They go out again and as they pass the obelisk the pendent begins showing them to the hidden passageway. And here they get stuck again since they get that Unkh should be in the middle, they get that the other cubes should be oppose each others, but they just can't figure put that Unkh always should be in the middle (missing the diagonal cubes). So I have to step in and the youngest sister is so feed up with all this. 

They get to the next door, the timer shows up and Freya in panic pulls the lever and the floor opens and the other three falls down on the spike taking damage in different ways. They get out and enter the T-section with the poisoned arrows and trap plates (I assume they got this from Indianan Jones). They begin by meticously check for traps, reach the statue head and see the darkness. Freya puts in a stick and it gets destroyed by the monster inside the mouth so they decide to just leave it. They head right to the grand staircase, decode to back and finds the grate with the rushing water and then see the crystal window that shows them the room with the skeletons on the thrones. They go back to the staircase and from here we call it quits for today. 

Finally getting somewhere, but if my sisters don't get their sleep before playing the next time I assume we might never finish this module as everyone is angry at each other. I think on the other hand that we haven't that much time on our hand with the trajectory of all our lives, but that is just me. Happy New Year everybody, see you in 2026 (although as of writing it's only a couple of weeks away from 2025 beginning.