Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

The James Bond of video games

The first Metal Gear-game I played... or maybe not completely true since I watched the neighbour play Metal Gear for the NES when I was a kid, but this was the first one I played and finished for myself. Got it as a birthday present... or maybe Christmas. Hard to keep those apart with only a couple days difference. I used to watch the preview clip that came with the Super Play magazine when it come out, together with the other Metal Gear Solid-games and I really liked the cinematic experience, but we never got any game for the Playstation 2, even tough as we bought it it could have included Metal Gear Solid 2. Got two controllers and Final Fantasy X instead. So the Metal Gear debut didn't happen until this game. And it was mind-blowing.

It's a nuclear-equped walking battle tank... and a cyborg ninja!!! AWESOME!!!

It might be totally ridiculous plot with nano machines, shamanistic giants, cyborg ninjas and a walking battle tank, but it's so fun. You play as Solid Snake, hero of former covert operations that stopped Big Boss, the former hero turned traitor that tried to create an eternal war for the soldiers to continue to fight without the "dirty" politicians corrupting the warrior spirits of the soldiers. Snake retired, but is pulled into action to infiltrate an American base on Shadow Moses Island that was taken over by Snakes old group Fox Hound during a military training and demonstration with a governmental official and the head for one military contractor. They threatens to launch a nuclear missile so Snake is sent in by his old boss Colonel Campbell (who I recently found out is voiced by the guy that voices Max Tennyson from Ben10). Objective to rescue the hostage and see if the terrorist can unleash their plan. So they send you in with a submarine and launches you on a torpedo into the base. Sneak in and rescue the first hostage, the DARPA chief and he spills the story. The government had a black ops building a new weapon, a Metal Gear, the same machine Snake fought two times before. And then he dies in a heart attack.

And of course the black guy dies first, how typical.

You get out and meet Meryl, the only soldier who didn't join the terrorists who apparently is Campbell's niece. You get deeper into the compound and discovers the other hostage tied up to explosives, but are put on a revolver duel with... Revolver Ocelot. The fight ends with the aforementioned Cyborg Ninja cutting of Ocelots arm. The hostage spills the beans and... he dies of a heart attack. Gotta be a coincidence. Before the death he tells you to contact Meryl with the code on the back of the box... what box? I think I was able to run back and forth at least two times  over the areas I've already been too before the helpful codec-conversation told me where to look, on the back of the game box... damn fourth wall breaking. So basically the plot has shifted to determine if Liquid Snake, the leader of the rouge agents, have accessed Metal Gear and if he has, be able to stop it. Also the Ninja appears to be a Frank Jaeger, Grey Fox that Snake saved in the first game and later fought in the second game. And the plot only gets more complicated, the rouge agent gets killed one by one until Meryl is caught and with her Snake. Snakes tortured and it is revealed the DARPA-chief have been dead for a long time... which I guess would clue in everyone that the first was a decoy, which is later proven right by another rouge agent before he is eaten by his ravens. Also depending if you withstand the torture or not affects if Meryl will live or die in the end of the game. First time I actually missed how to input the right commands which caused me getting the "bad" ending.

Before the ending I just have to finish of REX

Epic battle where Grey Fox sacrifice himself to save his old comrade. After the battle there's a one on one between the Twin Snakes. Also revealed that they are clones of Big Boss and that Liquid has a real inferiority complex. You beat him and either escape with Meryl or Otacon, the scientist that helped build Metal Gear REX. After a long drive with a pursuing Liquid that fires at you leave the base and prepers for yet another showdown when suddenly, Liquid dies in a heart attack. Earlier it was revealed that the nanomaschines that was injected in the start of the game also contained some sort of virus that simulates a heart attack in the right DNA-coded people. This is the reason people been dying around Snake. Snake and either person following him travels across the snow into the unknown future as the virus within Snake has some unknown parameters that could prove deadly for Snake as well. And then you either get a bandana for unlimited ammo or a cloaking device. And then you replay the game again. I really liked this game. The over the top acting is cheesy fun, the ridicules plot is worthy of a Bond-movie (and in some cases probably are more grounded in reality, I mean, the West willingly giving espionage information to China and Russia? I mean come on!). A pity it took forever after it to get to play another Metal Gear, next one was actually Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3 which caused some problems following the continuities in the games in-between.

Asdivine Hearts

Now we are talking JRPG:s dime of dozen

Got this game for the Wii U since it was one of the few fantasy JRPG:s to the system and after the modern Tokyo Mirage I wanted the old good vs evil gods, shadow vs light and the paragon of light hero standing up for the right cause and so and on. And it's really nothing special. The story is one of the more basic ones, but it satisfied me through it. It start one year after some mysterious light across the heavens and the world have become more dangerous as monsters have increased in numbers. You play as Zack who together with the obvious love interest Stella are heading out in the forest to release the wild-cat Felix that they took care at the orphanage they grew up in. While in the forest a mysterious light appears and try to hijack Stella's body, but Zack intervenes causing the light to enter the cat. The light is the light deity that have been pushed out of the heavens by the shadow deity (which caused the light in the sky one year prior). So you guessed it, it's out saving the world with your obvious girlfriend and the pet cat.

During the journey through Asdivine you will encounter the mysterious Uriel who follows Zack after he somehow saved her when her village was destroyed by monsters, but he can't recall the event and the oracle Celine who works for the Queen of Gutemburg Castle. And all girls have a crush on Zack... even the cat... who was the light deity who of course is female. Why not. There's actually a mechanic in that if you get a certain heart rating you get together with that girl in the end of the game. I maxed all up since... why not, but it still went for the ending with Stella, which was nice. Although I thought one could get all the girls, since Zack was such a charmer, but apparently it didn't work... maybe the fact that I changed difficulty from Hard to Easy to speed up the battle sequences and get to the end affected that, but since it only took less than 30 hours to play through the game it was rather nice just cruising through a game for a change.

You travel the world and enters Phantasma to confront the Shadow Deity. You find him, beat him and suddenly find yourself in another world, Revierie. I kinda guessed it since Uriel didn't know anything about the world which hinted on that she couldn't have come form Asdivine (also a prince from Gutenberg have been gone for a year and haven't been seen which also points toward that). You also meet this worlds Zack and Stella, some con-artist and thieves making a nice contrast to the hero of Zack and Stella. You travel this world and enters the final dungeon, climbing the Tower of Sephirot (is it a reference to Final Fantasy 7 or does the name have some important meaning in Japanese?) and learns the truth. Due to people stopped believing in the Deitys (especially the Shadow Deity) they are on their way to disappear. Lumiere the Light Deity didn't understand the threat and was the reason she was cast down. You now have to return to Asdivine where the Shadow Deity have taken over the Queen so you have to exorcise him from the Queen and finding the two servant legions of the Deity. As they commit suicide in helping Lumiere and breaking their vow to the Shadow Deity they summon Phantasmo, yet another otherworldly dimension. Getting through that and we are on the ending showdown with Noctademus and fight of his two forms. During the ending portion it is also revealed that Zack is somehow the light progeny, some kind of manifestation of light as a human... so like Jesus. So when you defeat Noctademus you also get it that light and shadow need to balance each other and since Zack is proficient with light he assumes the role of the new Light Deity as Lumiere take on the role as the new Shadow Deity with her experience as a Deity. And with enough points with Stella you show up to her after a couple of years since you had to stay in the heavens to master your powers.

Is it the end? No, by starting the save again you can fight Noctademus again and not use a certain item in the battle which makes him survive and occupy Stella's body (since she apparently is the Shadow Progeny) and another Deity shows up, the creator Deity... which was probably guessed as well since I think I saw it in the sequence that Lumiere was thrown out of the heavens and the game has 3 different magic teaching, normal, light and shadow. This one isn't as nice since it finds human evil problematic and want to take away their emotions to stop this to happening. Our heroes aren't happy so you traverse the two worlds and find yet another dimension. And damn, it's the worst cause they placed a mini-secret-boss that you have to fight to reach the end where I had to grind for 6 levels before beating, the damn cheater. Not only did he do two attacks in a row (some attacks damaging all party members for over 6000+ damage) but he was so fast he almost attacked after one of my characters could react. But I beat him and pushed to the end. Beat the boss that was a sprite swap of Noctademus final form and he concedes that humans heart maybe should be allowed to continue to feel emotions in that they even can challenge a god. He leaves and the game ends with order back to normal and beliefs in the deitys back as both Lumiere and Noctademus have regained their places. Stella and Zack hooked up. The End!

It really feels like the ending was a bit rushed or maybe not planed since the creator deithy almost comes out of nowhere... I say almost since there was one discussion about it, but out of nowhere Stella is pushed as a Shadow Progeny and nothing really comes out of that. Also, the ending enemies are atrocious since they take forever to kill and when the damn dragons appear, expect 10 minutes of just attacking to take away all the damn health. It still has its moments. I really like the interaction, especially between Zack and Felix although I don't know if I should see it as animal abuse. All in all nothing special. I also think it has some problems, for example, it didn't always register my direction input on the controller and that could be due to the game originally being an IOS title. If you like fantasy RPG:s and want something short, go for it, but as stated it's nothing special. One thing I found irritating is that there is no map over the dungeons, just for the overworked. Nice to know where I'm supposed to go, but finding my way around the final multi-level dungeons can be irritating as I sometimes forget if I was walking up or down and sometimes have a hard time remembering where to go to get out. Found it really irritating in the end.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

The game that really pushes the J in JRPG

This game... a game I wasn't gonna get, but as the release date came and went I looked at some reviews and after watching one trailer that had some really amazing music I couldn't resist so I got it. And immediately starting playing I wondered if I've made a terrible mistake. I knew getting in that it was a JRPG set in modern Tokyo so no problem there, although I prefer the more traditional fantasy setting, and as follows the kids are 18 year old high-school students... that are getting in the Japanese idol business. I assume my sister would find this game more enticing than me. But it is colourful and the music is really amazing. And as I play I realise that this is one of the best social commentaries of our modern world I've ever seen. It's even subtle. So basically the story starts as Itsuki (the main character) is hanging out on some kind of department store and waiting for his best friend Touma. Suddenly he is caught in a stream of kids all ages that are gonna try out some singing contest and there he spots Tsubasa, a childhood friend of his. He follows, she sings and suddenly the announcer is possessed by some ghost and kidnaps Tsubasa and take her into what we later learn is an idolashpere. Some kind of shadow place of the area we are in. Being the hero Itsuki jumps in afterwards. The idolasphere is dark, even creepy, filled with cloaked shadowy creatures roaming the corridors. He is attacked by one of them and... for some reason are able to infuse some strange light into the shadow and it appears it's Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening. They form a pact and rescue Tsubasa by infusing yet another shadow that turns out to be Shiida from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (the remake of the first game in the Fire Emblem-series). Touma appears to save them and it's revealed he had infused himself with Cain, the red knight from Shadow Dragon. They escape and Touma brings them to the attention of the president of Fortuna Entertainment, an agency for singers, actors and models.

... nice to meet you, miss President!

Itsuki and Tsubasa get hired and we launch Tsubasa's singing career while Itsuki does... support I guess. Really, it never fells like Itsuki is the main character of the game. It's mostly Tsubasa in the beginning with her search for her sister that disappeared 5 years ago  (that we rescue not long after) and her budding idol-carreer. Then it switch over to the last character to join the group, Yashiro. Yashiro is a male superstar that after some confrontations during missions joins their agency as he sees the best option to find out about his father that disappeared 5 years ago as well and his vengaence on the mirages who did this. The shadowy cloaked figures are mirages and are from another world. Images of the former heroes Fire Emblem, so besides those already mention there is Virion and Tharja from Awakening and Draug and Navarre from Shadow Dragon. As you can see, most characters are from Shadow Dragon and Awakening, but there are other references to the series. For example the waitress of the cafe in Shibuya is Illiyana from the Radiance-duology, the jeweller-sales woman gotta be Aime from the same game and both sales woman at the Ho He Mart is Anne that appears in several games in the series. Real satisfying when I realised that. Several of the games weapons are referenced and many villains of the series makes a return here. This is the setup, so what's the story? Gharnef, the evil sorcerer of Shadow Dragon has bonded with a human on earth and are about bringing forth the Shadow Dragon (from Shadow Dragon and Awakening) by stealing the performa (I would say something like talent and inspiration) of the humans and use it to resurrect Medeus. He failed 5 years ago due to Tiki's interference (the manakete from mentioned games) and are now doing it again. So you gotta stop him from stealing "performa". And here the subtleness of the game appears. It might be a sleazy contest holder that is corrupted, or a model photographer, or a TV/Movie director. People that some people put their trust in that can sometimes abuse that. The photographer example the easiest to remember due to that it originally was supposed to play up the "girls in bikini"-angle which they toned down in the west due to censoring over sexualization, of course taking away the message that you shouldn't always trust those that promises easy ways to stardom. Anyway, after figuring out who it is you decide that the only way to stop Gharnef is using the Opera of Light: Fire Emblem to counter the Opera of Shadow. You head in to a idolasphere of Tiki's memories and receive the powers of the ancient heroes that defeated Medeus before. Except the soul of Marth that Gharnef combines with his own in summoning the dragon. All seems lost, but Itsuki won't get down with a fight. They climb the final idolasphere and prepares to do the Opera of Light in hope that the stolen soul of Marth still would be triggered. And then...

WHOA!!! Did not see that coming!

If you can't see it's the reveal of Medeus and the first thing he does is fire a laser at Itsuki that kills him. We didn't even get to start the fight. Of courses friends mourn him and the soul of the other heroes emerges and attacks the dragon, releasing Marth's soul, turning Itsuki into Marth as they defeat the dragon and saves the world. Everyone become a giant star within their field and Itsuki takes over as president of Fortuna Enterprise since miss Maiko returns to her life as a model... well, she sure looks the part. It took me 70 hours to play through this game. And it's really mixed if I like it or not, I like the gameplay, fast and satisfying in battles, the music goes from awesome to so cheesy I can't help but like it, especially the songs they put in. And don't think I didn't notice the Splatoon reference in the game. Both songs and visuals. And as noted I liked the nods and references to the Fire Emblem-games, but the story. I liked the social commentary, and it's standard good vs evil, but the personal problem of the idols are boring as hell. It's about understanding "cute", "sexy", "how to be a hero", one has to learn about eating. Really, Yashiro don't get the concept of eating in regular intervals since that was what is assistant took care of. All I can say is that these character at least get character development from aliens and robots to somewhat functional humans. The only one that hardly get any is Itsuki. He's always the good guy or I at least I played him that way... with maybe a bit of flirtatious behaviour. Then again, he's constantly sexual harassed by Maiko so I don't know, maybe I played him with a bit of bad taste. Speaking of bad taste:

Goddamit Barry!

The most embarrassing character of the whole game. On one hand we have this death metal guitarist, former mirage master and the coach for everyone in Fortuna Entertainment. And the other hand... it's Barry Goodman. I don't mind his obsession with an animated kids show, hell, I've obsessed about nostalgic shows for me, but somehow Barry even grates on me. Then we have the love interest. It's obviously Tsubasa x Itsuki. But they don't get it, but everyone else see it. Doesn't stop every other girl for crushing on Itsuki. And the worst part? It actually feels like a better choice in some of them. Take Eleonoras side quest which is she needs help playing a young high-school girl that falls in love so she need Itsuki to go on a date with her so she can method act the role. The final side-quest is you doing those things again, but she quizzes you if you remember what you did. As to see if Itsuki actually played attention to her. And that is really sweet. I actually started to feel they belonged more together than Tsubasa and Itsuki. Sure, Eleonora was irritating at first with her "Hollywood" talk and boasting about her superior knowledge of the movie industry. But I still grew to like her and it really felt bitter-sweet that her dream become realised, she will go to Hollywood, but she will leave Itsuki behind.

Could be due to her being the most normal sized girl of them all around... the chest area

So the characters is hit or miss and their relationship between each other is mixed as well. Otherwise it's fun to play, and I really like the animated music videos (and most of the music ain't bad). Is it for everyone? No, I have a hard time myself with the modern world and the focus of the idol industry and frankly the idolaspheres mostly are dark and moody. They don't get better until the end when we finally have some forest and ruins that doesn't go in the colours black and purple. Still, would have preferred a more fantasy setting since there ain't no RPG for the Wii U in the west... can't wait for the Dragon Quest VII release.

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Greed is good!

The second sequel and instead of Mario we play as Wario, the final boss of the last game in our search for enough gold to buy our own castle. But since since we can't earn it the honest way we steal it from a pirate gang for our own selfish need. I played this game a lot and finished it almost 100 %, was one treasure I believe I couldn't find for some reason. Does this mean I'm super good at this game? No, I cheated the hell out of this game by pausing it, pressing the select-button 16 times and upgrade my hat and give me more time and gold. Nothing better than flying across the sky with the jet-bunny upgrade. 

How come Wario has the better looking villains?

So you battle the pirate gang until you defeat their female pirate captain (or rather her genie), the castle crumbles and you escape with the genies lamp and watch as the rubble reveals a giant golden statue of... Peach... or maybe Daisy? And who comes around if not Mario in a helicopter (where did he get that and where is it now?) and he steals the statue away from Wario who honestly got it... or maybe it was paying of the redecoration bill that Mario had commenced after booting Wario out of his castle. Wario summons the genie and depending on how much money and treasures you gathered the quality of  your castle will shift. Really, I really like playing through the game... with some help of course. Maybe I should play it legit sometime. This was also the final Mario land game since Wario apparently got so popular he took over the whole series and also the final Mario/Wario land game on the Game Boy, only colour from now on. And I still wish we could get the colour filter on the 3DS virtual console thank you very much.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Great, he's once again facing left!

The sequel game starts of with Mario back from one of his adventures (or is it right after Super Mario Land 1?) and his castle has been taken over by his evil cousin Wario. So Mario had a castle? Didn't know saving the same princess over and over again was so lucrative so you could get a castle on an island. The 6 golden coins in the title are the reward for defeating the bosses in each are and are used to unlock the gate to the castle so you could defeat Wario. Oh, and one of the bosses is Tatanga.

Relegated to just a normal boss and you don't even defeat him with a plane this time, talk about humiliating.

The music feels a bit more Mario and just looking at the sprites I can tell that it is Mario. This wasn't my first Mario Land-game, but the second. I got Mario Land 3 first and frankly, it probably spoiled me a bit since while fun to play at times, I actually prefer that game. Not much else to say,

Super Mario Land

 

Well, best adventure might be overselling it

Seems I've stumbled from a Zelda-retrospective to my Game Boy collection instead. Let's get on with it. Super Mario Land was one of the first games for the Game Boy. It stars Mario ditching the hunt for a kidnapped Princess Peach/Toadstool by Bowser/King Koopa and instead focus on the hunt for the kidnapped Princess Daisy by the space alien Tatanga... and I thought the original games were weird. It's not much to say than that. You run and jump for 12 levels and try to stop Tatanga. The difference being that you don't have the fire flower, but the Super Ball... which ain't that super. It works well in areas with ceiling and floor, but other wise it's horrible. The thing is that Mario throws it down on the ground and then it bounces upwards. So in areas with both ceiling and floor it ricochets all over the place. More often then not you throw it to early and the ball flies over the intended target and you get hit and loses the ability. And we are not talking about trying to hit enemies above you with this mechanic. 

Whatever happened to Mario's plane?

Other mechanics is that they introduced Shoot-em-up stages, once in a submarine and another in a plane. Really fun segments. A bit strange for a Mario-game, but it is rather fun shooting down Tatanga in his space ship with your own plane. And then you rescue Daisy who was relegated to Luigis potential girlfriend and just a side-character in party games. Only played this game at my cousins and didn't get this game until the 3DS virtual console release. But... I read some of the comics in the swedish version of Nintendo Powers, the Nintendo Magazine. And as in the game, the most awesome one is using his plane. And decks it out with  military equipment like machine guns and missiles and blast the aliens of a tropical island. 

Highway through the Danger Zone!!! (Yeah I stole that joke from Linkara's review, but I would probably made the same joke if I've ever seen Top Gun or associated the song with planes other than references in reviews that went over my head. Catchy song though!)

Really, the comics made the game more awesome than it really is to play it. The graphics are not really that good and it's frankly hard to see that it is specifically Mario instead of some clump of pixels. Music is catchy, but maybe not as memorable as the main games. And why the Egyptian sound? Fun to play maybe once and afterwards I only find it funny to play the arcade sequences.

Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them

Best Harry Potter-movie ever!

Since it was my sisters birthday she wanted to see this movie so you have to participate in the family homecomings. And I gotta say, it was a good movie. Taking place in 1926 it follows Newt, a British wizard who arrives in New York with a suitcase filled with strange animals and beast as he tries to protect them from both the muggles and wizards. Unfortunately he arrives at a time when New York is gripped by attacks from an unseen monster which the wizards (looking like a 1920's FBI, but with magic) tries to hunt down when the muggles believed it to be some kind of gas leaks or unstable buildings. By accident a muggle named Jacob switches his own suitcase with Newts and unleashes some of the beasts inside and one even happens to bite him. Newt on the other hand is arrested by Tina, a discharged aurora for breaking the laws of the American wizard community and risk them being outed for the humans. These three tries to get the animals back (together with Tina's telepathic sister) as well as find what is causing the destruction in New York.

For me probably the better Harry Potter-movie. First, the characters felt competent. Not a single one did I feel did something stupid out of character just to continue the plot, not the good guys, not the villains. I really started to dislike Harry Potter after listening to the books several times over and  every time I begin to feel more and more how stupid he was, obnoxious and stubborn that caused more problems then saved them. My other sister might complain that the American auroras killed of the main bad guy for the movie and chalk it up to Americans being stupid, but I can rationalise it. An obvious threat, murdered two people and another bad guy was looking to take control of him and his actions are a direct threat to expose the wizarding world, so obviously that was the only rational course of action. The beast was nice to see, and many good scenes with the fantastical element. Jacobs character was really good as a surrogate for the audience and you really feel for him making the ending emotional. 

The bad guys then, they begin with mentioning Grindelwald, the wizard that Dumbledore fought before Voldemort. I didn't get the beginning first as newspapers shows up about his attacks in Europe and then suddenly we see some wizards walking toward a castle and a wall of light blows them away, and I bought it was supposed to be a beast, but no, looked like judge Doom from Roger Rabbit. And in the end of the movie it made more sense I believe since it was Grindelwald who I guessed took the place of the main aurora boss Graves. Most of the movie I believed Graves to be a supporter of Grindelwald due to the talisman he gives and the hints about tracking down the other villain (and probably use it for his interest). But no, he is Grindelwald and played by Colin Farrell that turns into Johnny Depp. The other main villain is someone under the influence of an obscura (sp?), that is when a wizard suppress their magic and that takes a life on its own causing destruction and as known kills its host at 10 years age at the latest. And they build it up to be this girl in the anti-witches congregation where they are all adopted by the matriarch and beaten if they misbehave. But in reality it's this older boy who is shown being beaten, and Graves uses to find himself, but it fail. The ones killed have wronged him and the ending destruction is when Graves throws him away since he believes it's the girl. I liked that twist.

The ending is that after the auroras kills the boy and Newt apprehends Graves and reveals Grindelwald he uses the giant "thunderbird" he was gonna release to distribute a forget me water in a raincloud that showers the city and that includes Jacob. And here it is the emotional part since you feel that moment. But it still ends good for him since Newt gives him some silver eggs to get his own bakery and then Tina's sister decide to join him as well and hinting that his memory might not be completely forgotten. Then again an oblivion spell doesn't really erase it, but lock it away since in the fourth book the ministry women that Barty Crouch sr. put a spell on to hide his son from her still hold the memory since Voldemort could dig it back and use the information to gain another ally. 

Liked this movie and would happily recommend, but if you haven't seen or read anything about Harry Potter it might be a tough sell, especially since Grindelwald is hardly explained within the movie and much you just have to make by face value. Still, an adequate film.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Original boxart, even though it follows the golden box and such I still prefer the black DX cover.

Well, let us just continue on the Zelda-game retrospective and we do it with Zelda 4, the first portable game in the series. Now, I never got the original black and white game since I didn't get a game boy until 1998 or something and just 2 years later I believe got the Game Boy Colour together with the newly released Link's Awakening DX. Basically an extra dungeon and the whole game in colour so it's obviously the supreme version, which is proven with the rerelease on the 3DS virtual console. Still, would have been nice if you could switch between B/W and Colour... that goes for all Game Boy-games. I played this game a lot as a child and it wasn't always easy. For example the 8th dungeon always make me lose my way in the labyrinth. The Eagle Tower (which is dungeon 6) is constantly annoying me. Doesn't help that the DX also gives me the choice of a blue or a red shirt which enhances defence or offence (a permanent acorn for either thing really) and I usually need the blue one for the dungeon since you already found sword-2 which doesn't add anything, but due to the nature of reaching the dungeon (resurrecting a chicken that follows you around) I can't enter the colour dungeon again to change. That really annoys me.

I really hate that boss

The story is that Link, after some adventure in foreign land gets into a storm in his ship and it sinks. He awakes on this mysterious Koholint Island in the care of Marin and starts his adventure to get out of here. It is a really interesting story since the island is overrun by creatures known as Nightmares and by defeating them they berate you for destroying this world. It turns out this is a dream world created by the Wind Fish, the creature sleeping in the egg at the highest mountain top on the island that the Nightmares keep in his sleep and only with the 8 instruments can you awaken him. The price for this is that the island will be destroyed. Including all it's inhabitants which you get to know during the course of the game. Now if you are good at the game and never actually get killed you will save one person, Marin. And of course I usually dies just once playing through this game, but I managed once to do the feat. And it felt rewarding.

She really deserved to appear again in Hyrule Warriors

Due to its portability its one of the more easier Zelda-games to play and bring with you (well, until Virtual console on the 3DS together with rereleases on the very same system). DX version had of course the extra dungeon with the two tunics that add defence or offence. Then we have the picture book that you could use with the Game Boy-camera, if it's unique for the DX version I don't know. Pity that one of the pictures is of Link stealing from the Item Shop meaning your name on the file gets changed to THIEF. It's a good game although the music have some noteworthy songs I actually think later Zelda portabel games have more memorable songs.

Kirby's Dream Land

Kirby looks a bit pale

Kirby is one of the Nintendo-series I never actually played as a child... or even was interested in playing. Didn't have much for him in Super Smash Bros either. But when you have a sale on most Kirby games on the 3DS and some cash to spare, why not try some out? So I got the Game Boy-game and played from start to finish. And it's not that big of a game with just 5 stages. Beating it unlocks a code for a hard mode so you get to play the game again, but harder. And I've had enough trouble getting why Kirby got so big. I find the game rather... boring. You go from A to B, fight a boss at the end and go to the next stage. Enemies are just obstacles that depletes your life and one of the more prominent features of Kirby is the ability to copy his enemies attacks to use and it isn't here. So why did it stand out so much to still to this day get new games released? 

Mech-suits? I can see that being interesting.

Maybe the story? *Starts reading the manual*. King Dedeede stole all the food and Kirby is out to get it back so that the people doesn't starve. That's it? You are stopping starvation? Is it a varied gameplay? No since it basically is dodge attacks, inhale enemies and shot them at other enemies. There isn't that many ways to play this game I feel. The copy ability might have extended gameplay to test the different abilities, but there's nothing here. So why did this become a classic? I don't know, but it might be since it was HAL Laboratories own creation they pushed him into relevance. One of the bossess become their own spin-off series, the Adventure of Lolo (which I've actually played the second game of). Or maybe the second game was so fantastic that it redefined Kirby into the superstar we know him of today. Well, I got that game as well so when I come round to it we will see.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past

Already wrote about 1 and 2 so let's continue.

The first Zelda-game I actually finished. Didn't play it until 1998 when we gave it together with a Super Nintendo and Yoshi's Island to my father for his 40 year birthday (in October). And the same christmas my oldest little sister got Madonna's Ray of Light-album. Which she listened to on the stereo. At that time I've had reached the Tower of Hera (I was 10 years old, I was bad at video games) so "The Power of Goodbye" is to me the soundtrack of the game. Took me probably around 2-3 years to finish. This is pretty much the game that standardised how a Zelda-game is structured as well as geographical with Hyrule Castle in the middle and Death Mountain to the north. And we get Kakoriko village, Lost Woods and Lake Hylia although they tend to shift placement between games.

Hyrule, in 16-bit!!!

So the game starts a rainy night when Link awakes to a telepathic message from princess Zelda that she is captured in the castle dungeon. Link's uncle apparently heard it to since he headed out first and told Link to stay home. Sweet, easiest game ever. They should have made an option for a bad ending directly like they did in Golden Sun if you declined the call to get the Emerald Stars back and left the sanctum. Since you have to you go up and heads out. Now, I've played several different versions of the game through the years, the original, Game Boy Advance version with added characters and the Four Sword-multiplayer game, and then virtual console release for Wii, Wii U and 3DS. The Advance version is pretty much the better version in the story department since it adds certain elements. For example, in the beginning the soldiers doesn't look like the soldiers you fight. They also gives a more creepy element to the overtake of Hyrule by Agahnim. Some of them have noted how the attitude of some soldiers have changed and they were actually afraid.  Really nice touches. Sorry for the side-track. So you go to the castle, find the uncle who give you your sword and shield, rescue Zelda, take her to a priest/sage that tells the story of the Master Sword, the Triforce and the Sealing wars that trapped Ganondorf in the Dark World. You set out and get 3 artifacts that lets you get the Master Sword. You confront Agahnim and surprise surprise he transports you to the aforementioned Dark World. So you get two worlds in one... which Nintendo have reused in several games.

Where have I seen this before?

The thing about the Dark World is that it transforms everyone who enters into what their heart really is. And Link is for some reason a rabbit. A pink rabbit. I have no idea why. Could be cultural differences of what a rabbit imply. So to counter this you picked up a mirror that transport you back to the light world and a pearl that negates the effect unless you get cursed. So you travel to 7 different dungeons and gathers the 7 crystals containing the descendants of the 7 sages that sealed Ganondorf and allowed Agahnim to get him out. The final one being princess Zelda and she instructs you to enter Ganon's Tower using the 7 sages. You fight Agahnim and again, surprise surprise Agahnim is actually Ganon who escapes to the pyramid you first entered the Dark World in and gets ready for the showdown. Now, I can't recall if any of the sages stated it, but you actually must have the silver arrows which you find in another opening of the pyramid that you blow up with a special bomb. I think some NPC's tells you about it, but that I see as a small fault of the game since it's easy to miss and that must be the reason in later games with the light arrows you either find in one of the final temples or Zelda pretty much gives you or uses it herself so you don't have to go on a scavenger hunt. You kill Ganon and makes your wish to the Triforce and restores Hyrule.

Well, until 2013 when they released A Link Between Worlds

This is probably my favourite Zelda-game since it was the first I finished, I like the graphics and playing this didn't overwhelm me as the 3D-games did to me in the beginning. Add great music and a rather new story... for its time and my age. And certain side-quest are actually gripping. You have the boy who lies sick and gives you the net (I actually thought he was dying), father who wishes to see his son again and the son actually is trapped as a bird in the Dark World where you get his ocarina back and he turns into a tree. There's a lot of those moments. The sage dies, kidnapped women and so on. It's a sad and dark world. And you have to save it. I'm really invested in this world and I actually dared entering it since I felt I had control of the world. Although it took me 2-3 years to finish it... and replaying it tops it out on 10 hours. 

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie

Or Realms of Revelation as it's known in the US

Dragon Quest VI, said to be one of the best and the last game for the SNES in the series, and pretty much for Nintendo for a long time until IX changed that.  It starts right of as you, the blue haired hero together with a carpenters son and some dancer charges Murdaw's castle, an evil demon. You reach the final room and... gets beaten and seems like turned to stone. Well, that was fast. You wake up in some mountain village together with your sister. A dream perhaps... or a vision of the future? Well, I already know since I've played the game. You are tasked to bring a crown for some important ceremony and heads to the neighbour town, but the crown maker is out so you follow him into the wild and appears near a hole in the ground where the crown maker is hanging on for dear life. You rescue him, but slips and fall into the hole. He appears to be in some strange world where no one can see him and eavesdropping he finds out about a well that apparently people disappear into. Jumping through he returns to his own world. Apparently he have discovered the Phantom World and in a vision is sent out to stop the evil that threatens both worlds.

Why does the japanesse hero almost always have blue hair? Either that or red?

Traveling to the Kingdom of Somnia he mets up with Carver, the carpenters son from his dream, but he don't know the hero... so was it a vision of the future? They enter the military and is told about Murdaw, the same they fought in the beginning and they travel to the Phantom World in order to get help fighting him. They find the girl from the beginning of the game, Milly and she helps them become visible, but Milly can't remember them either. They seek out an artefact in a tower where they meet Ashlynn a girl that apparently comes from their world as well, since no one else can see her. They fight their way to the demon lords castle, defeating him... or so they think. In reality it was the king of Somnia that have been turned into a decoy by Murdaw and the twist is revealed. The beginning happened and the hero and his companions were split between a dream personality and the real them. The game starts in a dream world where our hero is a loyal brother to a little girl, Carver is the fighter he always envisioned him to be instead of the carpenter his family tried to push on him and so on. Meaning not only do you have to defeat the real Murdaw, but also unite your true self. Our hero for example is the prince of Somnia, but his dream-self ain't. And what happened to their real self? The hero is actually now an amnesiac who live together with this orphaned girl who only wished for a family... manifested in the dream as the hero brother. Do you get how gut-wrenching it is to take away her only family? Again, Enix knew how to write emotional stories.

Milly, don't ask me what the bands are for

To reach Murdaws real castle you gather a ship from a town with a prophet called Neva who joins your party and fighting Murdaw again gives almost the exact outcome, but while you are brought back to the dream world, you uses the artefact you acquired and returns immediately and defeat Murdaw, but it's not the end since as in most Dragon Quest games, a darker power hides behind the first threat, the demon lord. You also meet Terry, a roaming sword-fighter you learn is Milly's brother that you can get to join after a series of quest, there's also the knight Amos that during full-moon (?) is turned into a monster and protecting this knowledge from him makes he join your quest (which actually goes against my honesty policy when playing the good hero, but they rationalise it that its the villagers wish to spare him the knowledge that he has been cursed since he pose no danger to them, but telling him would guilt him into leaving).

Carver with a purple mohawk

Anyway, you travel both the real and dream world which have certain differences between them. For example there exist a temple dedicated to class changes only in the dream world since the demons destroyed the real one, same goes for a kingdom of magicians that only exist in the dream world and is where Ashlynn hails from. There's also a realm above where the dragon lord sit, like in every Zenethian Dragon Quest game (game IV - VI with Zenithian armour and such) and basically an underworld where the demon lord exists. And I gotta say, that one is really creepy. A particullary place is where dead souls scramble to reach the bottom of a lake to get a chest, but they never reach it since their greed keeps them killing each other. Nightfall and the lake is filled with water and the dead goes to shore and awakens again and the circle repeats. Basically something inspired by Greek tales of the underworld like Sisyfos trying to get the stone up the hill and so on. All these are designed to drain them of hope and spirit that empowers the demon lord so by breaking the circle of hatred he is weakened. You then confront the demon lord and defeats him witch causes the dream world so separate. Since the hero, Carver and Milly found their real worlds they are free to stay, but if you noticed Ashlynn originates from the dream world and has to leave, and if you read the right party conversation she even confesses her love for the hero. God dammit, can't we keep the trend of happy endings of Dragon Quest games going?

Don't leave Ashlynn

Playing it the first time and figuring out what's going on is rather enjoyable and it actually took me by surprise since I'm more used to the vision of future story-telling. They also gets creative with it. Obviously I figured out that the hero is the prince of Somnia, they pull the exact same thing in Dragon Quest VIII with "Hey, you look like some royal person I know". In the real world the captain Rusty vouches for you as the heir of the throne, the evil chancellor sees his chance and ask what the prince sister was named. Well, I thought, and I guess it's designed that way, that the girl that lived with me in the dream world was my sister, but no. The chancellor have Rusty executed. Rusty's dream-self is still alive, Captain Blade who trained you when you joined the Somnia military and is the spotless soldier and loyal commander. What Rusty always envisioned... This gets me every time, and it's impossible to save Rusty. At least the king of Somnia imprisoned the chancellors dream-self as well so not even in his dreams he will escape the crimes he committed, even though it feels that the dream-chancellor was much nicer. Still, a problem with the game is, and this have occurred in IV as well, that there's to many characters. VIII and IX was better with a limited to just the standard party numbers since they are always there and I can listen to their story all the time. I guess it's replay-ability, but when each playthrough is 60+ hours for me, then it can get rather tedious I tell you. So I missed Ashlynn's love confession the first time around which really sucks, but then again, I replayed the whole game when I lost my chance to get Amos.

Unique for this game was that you could change classes (unique and unique, you could do that in DQIII, but it never came here anyway) and had to level up them one by one. Which probably explain the amount of time I spent here. You could also get slimes to join you, but already stated, when am I gonna use them with 6 ordinary characters, 4 slots to fill and Amos? The others at least have personality. And this was all Dragon Quest games I've played, well except from the Wii game since I've not finished it... maybe I've have time before they release VII. Dammit, cravings to play grow stronger.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

Yeah, show only the male main character when it doesn't matter if the hero is male or female

My second game in the series was Dragon Quest IV, which I've played twice, once as a male and the other as a female, since that is the only customisable choice you have in this game it can alter certain dialogue options or how you go around in one quest I believe. Originally the game was made for the NES, later remade for Playstation and finally remade for the DS and with that it even crossed over to Europe for the first time. And playing it gave me a huge interest in writing dialogue since the game was to me even more heavy on different dialects representing different countries within the world. For example you have a scottish nation, a russian one and even a french, and I could identify people from different parts of the world thanks to that. To me that was amazing, genuinely simple to get points across.

Only manly men wears pink

The story begin with a prologue as you are introduced in a small village with gives you the background, demons harass the world and you are the chosen hero, but must be in hiding due to being to young and need to train for the coming conflict, you are introduced to some towns people and the most important one being a shape shifter girl that is your best friend. Apparently you are the child of an angel and human. And that's it. Apparently this was in the newer version since the original game starts up with chapter 1 and you take control of Ragnar, a Burland warrior that is tasked to find the missing children of the kingdom. He teams up with a slime and discovers a plot by the monsters to find and kidnap the chosen child and the only way is for Ragnar to find the Chosen one himself before the monster does.

A fighting princess

Scene change and you now play as a princess Alena who want to fight evil, but are kept locked up by her father. She escapes, but are followed by her best friend/priest and teacher (?) and Alena enters an arena battle to become the champion. While fighting she hears rumours about Psaro the Slayer, a fighter beyond human strengths. As the final draws near and she is about to meet Psaros eye to eye. She waits... and waits... well, Psaros doesn't show up so she is declared winner by default. As her company returns home they find that the castle is completely empty and she has to set out to find her father and people.

An ordinary merchant that saves the world

Next is a small interlude as we follow Tallon, a buddying entrepreneur that wish for grander things in live as he works by selling weapons for the blacksmith. His wife and kids encouraging him to go out in the world and he's of. He begin by buying weapons in one town and selling them in the next, he starts lending money for enterprises that will pay a high return. He even comes across a village of foxes in human disguises. He sets up shop in another town and invites his family over and the next project is building a tunnel to the other side across the river to speed up trade routes. This is what I mean that Dragon Quest has a longer impact on people and people starts to appreciate the games more today. They have whole chapter dedicated to the sales person in an RPG, a merchant that works for his family's fortune and he is around 40 years old. It's pretty much unheard of. And it's basically Economics 101. I'm amazed at this, and it was in the original NES from the 90's? Not many modern games get this deep beyond brave hero of destiny or circumstance protect the world from evil.

Meena, the younger sister and fortune teller

Next chapter is about twin sisters Maya and Meena who set out on a quest to avenge their father that was murdered. Their father was a famed alchemist that tried to figure out the power of transmutation, evolving lead to gold, man to god aka the stone of sages (or I assume that is what they getting at). One is a dancer and the other is a fortune teller and they set out. First they locate their father's apprentice who can tell them that it was their fathers other apprentice, Balzack... should I censor that name? with this knowledge they storm the castle. It doesn't go as planned. Apparently he have been kidnapping maidens and is to much for the twin sisters as it turns out he evolved himself to a monster. The apprentice sacrifices himself so that they can escape and regroup (he doesn't die, but gets captured instead). They flee to a coastal town and journeys across the sea thinking about the next step.

And finally we return to the chosen hero. One day as he/she is training the townspeople hid the hero away under a building, the shape-shifting girl even go as far as impersonating the hero. Locked away underground the hero can't do naught than hear the battle and the victorious monsters that have attacked their hidden village, slaying the chosen hero that could have threatened them. Alright, motivation is vengeance. You set out and pretty much the first person you meet is your grandfather who condemned the love between his son (your father) and the angel. He lets you stay the night, but nothing else. Travelling the world you meet up with your destined companions. Maya and Meena you meet in the town they arrived in since the older sister used all their cash in the casino. You pretty much solve the problems they couldn't in opposite order as you played the game up until this point. The last one you get is Ragnar if I recall correctly. So what is the deal? The monsters are rallying under Psaro the Slayer as he seek revenge on humankind since they hurt his girlfriend who cried tears of rubies and finally killed her in their greed. That pushed him to seek out the power of evolution to become stronger . He entered the arena battles to slay the worlds greatest fighters so no one could stop him while his monster servants searched for the chosen hero of destiny. You travel around the world and even enters the sky to meet with the great dragon who lives in the sky palace surrounded by angels. And finally you and your comrades travels to the underworld where the monsters lives and confront Psaro in a long fight where he evolves in 4 stages I believe until he is defeated. And that is the game, Everyone is saved and peace is restored. The hero travels back to his desolated home town to look at once was, the hero stands at the grave built for the shape-shifting friend and suddenly she materialises and they embrace... does that have lesbian undertones if you play as female hero?

Of course there is post-credits content. You can actually recruit Psaro and fight another end boss, this time one of his lieutenants that actually gave up Rose's (the ruby elf) location, just so that Psaro would be pushed to exterminate humankind. So he is redeemed somewhat. He also looks cool in his white hair and black outfit. Overall this game is fun playing the different mode, especially when you pick up that it's not important to grind for cash, but instead weapons and armours that you can sell in the final chapter since that follows the characters, while money gets spent. I also recall casino token does and since we already know, to win you got to play the casino for the really good weapon and armours so we don't have to grind forever to reach a decent level. One irritating thing the localisation did, was removing the party conversation that really can flesh out the characters. Without them you miss certain hints like the priest/friend of Alena has a crush on her and so on. And it's really annoying when you have the command, but all they say is that none have anything to say at the moment. Before I read the explanation on the internet it almost drove me insane.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky

My introduction to the Dragon Quest-series

As the release date for Dragon Quest VII and VIII for the 3DS draws near as of me writing this I started reflecting of the other games in the series. I've already written a decent post about Dragon Quest V and I thought maybe I should write about the first game in the series I played, Dragon Quest IX. It may also be that I spent over 400 hours on the game and due to servers shut down I can't replay the story without erasing all extras so I won't even bother. The story start as you, an angel apprentice under Aquilla are on earth protecting it's people and collecting prayers basically. They gather them so that this tree will bear fruit and they can see the creator. As the starlight express appears their world in the sky is shocked as a beam of light flies from the world below them and it seems to strike against the creators palace above them. Your character falls down upon the world and everything goes black.

You wake up and it appears you are a normal human. You try to find out what happened and get back to the sky, but to do so you are guided by the fairy Stella in a quest to retrieve the fruits from the world tree that have been scattered across the world. A bit problematic since they often causes small friendly creatures turn into wild monsters. You get them back and discovers that an ancient empire that was destroyed long ago have been resurrected and are fighting you at every turn. Even an ancient dragon have been awakened and you meet up with the last light dragon and after the dragons quest (well, they needed to get it in there somewhere) are allowed to wear his dragon armour as you fly of to meet the dark dragon that he defeated a long time ago.

The reason for the armour? Since you can customise your character (hair, sex, skin colour and so on) they made you wear full armour so that only needed to animate one scene 

It doesn't go as good this time and the light dragon is slain and you end up captured at the capital of the empire. You uncover there the true twist of the game. Below the dungeons of the empire is another angel held captive. The master of Aquilla, Corvus, that disappeared long ago that Aquilla searched a long time for. Aquilla even shows up, happy to have find us both, but the happiness is short lived as all these years in imprisonment have made Corvus go insane, doesn't help that he believes he was betrayed by a human girl he met and loved (when it actually was her father who betrayed them both and was killed by the empire as thanks). Corvus has somehow resurrected the empire, destroyed the creator and now kills Aquilla. You hunt after him and defeat him. At this point a ghostly woman that have followed your adventure intervenes, it's the girl that loved Corvus. Apparently she was turned into a ghost, but suffered amnesia and wandered the world to find her love once again. The Master gives up and are reunited with his love and restores as much damage he could and then disappears from the world with his love by his side.

So the fallen angel was defeated with love, gotta listen to Black Sabbath's N.I.B. again

Of course, the game itself isn't over, since you can play other quest that flesh out the story or go dungeon crawling for resources to use in alchemy or just level up and so on since there is a lot to level up if you want to max every class. Thing is, I believe most of these are downloadable quest, meaning you can't play these today since the server is down if they don't remake the game. So even though I loved this game, enough to spend over 400 hours on it to finish it twice, it's not possible to play it. Otherwise it's like most other DQ games, although even more refined. You customise your party however you like in looks and class. Changing weapons and equipment changes the look of the person as well.  The music is classic DQ with some new arrangement like the theme in the sky which is melancholic and sad. Another thing with this game is that it also pushed the social networking idea. The idea being that you had the game on sleep mode and those who had the game as well could exchange maps and visits the inn with boosted the rewards you would get from the inn. Rewards necessary to finish certain quest as well (technically you could buy those items by connecting to the server special days and such, but you know, servers down) so what I really need is another game cart and DS/3DS so I can max the damn inn since no one else plays the game today... or at least not around me and with the stoppers functionality on the 3DS I can't have the game in sleep mode.... So SquareEnix, can you remake IX and get rid of the social stuff and let the players get everything on the cart as well as 2 saves so I don't have to erase 100+ of playtime if I would like to play the games story again? Cause some of us actually prefers single campaigns if you get my drift.

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

I think I preferred the orc looking at me

So this is the expansion of the last game. Mostly it adds two new units a hero per faction, a merchant building and a higher roof on max army. So you get 100 units of food instead of 90. The definite version. New maps added and a possibility to hire mercenary heroes instead of going with the heroes the faction you play. But let us look at the campaign, the story tying this all together. And we start with a scene of Illidan summoning some sea monsters, the Naga. Illidan doesn't look like he used to. He got horns and hoofs so the skull of Gul'dan can't have been that good for him. But we don't play as Illidan, instead his jailer, Maeiv Shadowsong, a night elf avenger. Swift and with the ability to teleport short distances she can reach places no normal soldier can. They brilliantly use it as an exploration point. Leaving the army behind you can climb waterfalls, reach islands just outside of reach and so on. She hunts Illidan to a small fishing village and out to the sea where some unknown islands have appeared. Searching around you realise this is the islands that Gul'dan summoned during Warcraft II in search of the Tomb of Sargeras. Seeking the same artefacts as Gul'dan Illidan must be stopped. As you reach the tomb and go through it you find the writing of Gul'dan who goes more and more mad until he presumably dies. You are to late however to stop Illidan who claims the Eye of Sargeras and raise the tomb, trying to kill you, but using the blink ability you escape, but sadly leaves your troops behind. They even had one of the huntresses named as well, Naisha. Escaping Maeiv sends for help from Malfurion Stormrage who comes toghether with Tyranda, the one person Maiev blames the release of Illidan for. Hunting him to Lordearon Malfurion has to connect with the spirits so Tyranda and Maiev are left alone. They meet an blood elf commander for the Alliance and agrees to help protect their caravan if they in turn will help hunt Illidan. They agree and after almost making it safely away from the undead Tyranda stays behind holding a bridge that collapses and drags her away. Malfurion returns and Maiev tells him that Tyranda was torn apart by the undead and that his only chance for revenge is stopping Illidan. You fight of Illidan and stops his plan on destroying Northern, the arctic of Azeroth. It's then revelled by Kael'thas, the blood elf commander that Tyranda might be alive. Furious Malfurion releases Illidan so that he can help locate Tyranda since he also cares for her. They locate her and rescue her with the help of the Naga (who is night elves that were corrupted 10 000 years ago as their great kingdom fell into the ocean due to addiction to magic. Illidan is let loose and he takes a dimensional portal away from Maiev who's still after revenge.

Elves, night elves, nagas and now blood elves... how many elven races are there?

The next campaign is the human/blood elven one. Kael'thas arrives to Dalaran where his commander, Lord Marshal Garithos, a racist bastard if I ever seen one, berates him and order him to repair some observatories to scout out the undeads movement. They detect a massive army heading there way, but Garidhos takes command of all human and dwarf troops and leaves Kael'thas with only elves. A nice touch is that this is basically the troops that Arthas fought in the last game. They even made the flying unit part of the human army and they actually mention it if you designed your own map and gave yourselves the elven builder. But that isn't enough so a naga witch that helped you before of more support with troops to bolster your army and Kael'thas have no other choice. He wins the battle, but Garithos arrives and accuses him of treason and imprisons him in Dalarans dungeons. Vashi, the naga witch releases him and they break out and through the portal that brought Archimond to Azeroth. They arrive in Outland, what's left of the Orcs homeworld of Draenor. You rescue Illidan from Maeiv and you fight side by side to take over the fortresses of the Burning Legion to bolster your forces enough so that you have a chance to strike at the Lich King who is captured on the Frozen Throne in Northern. All this commanded by Kil'Jaeden, another demon lord. You win and Illidan starts his campaign to rid the world of the Scourge.

Meanwhile Arthas have returned to Lordearon, he confronts the remaining Dread Lords and takes back power from the Legion. As he is about to round up the remaining humans in the land he is suddenly weekend as the Lich King calls out for help. Arthas prepares to leave, but the Dread Lords stage a coup, but he is saved by the banshee's under his commander Sylvanas Windrunner who now serves him as an undead ranger. Sadly for him it's all a ruse since the Lich King failing powers have returned free will to Sylvanas that wants revenge. Kel'thusad on the other hand appears and save Arthas that leaves for Northrend. Sylvanas meanwhile establish the Forsaken and reclaims the lands of Lordearon for those like her, undead that have been given free will. She accomplish this by teaming up with one of the Dread Lords she defeated and Garithos who she released from a mind spell by another Dread Lord and promising Lordearon back to the humans. She of course back stabs him, but no one really feels sorry for him. Meanwhile Arthas arrives at Northrend and fight his way past Naga's and Blood Elves with the help of a Nerubuian undead hero that leads him through a shortcut under the mountain (geez, I wonder if they were inspired by the Moria section in Lord of the Rings). There you encounter the surviving dwarfs of Muradin and some unknown horrors of the deep, and it all ends with fighting a tentacled monster. You arrive outside and has to stop Illidan from entering the Frozen Throne. Succeed and a short battle between Arthas and Illidan occurs where Illidan falls wounded to the ground and Arthas ascend the stairs to the Frozen Throne and claims the Lich Kings crown, turning him into the new Lich King. And that is pretty much it for the rts campaigns.

He looks a bit like Darkwolf from Fire and Ice

Of course there is one more scenario, but it doesn't play as an rts. Instead it works as an rpg, where you control Rexxar, a Mok'nathal, half-ogre, half-orc that ends up in the founding of Durotan, the nation of the orcs in Kalimdor under the guidance of Thrall. You begin by giving a message from a dying orc soldier to Thrall and as you do small task for important people in Ogrimmar, the capital, you begin to discover that humans are harassing the wild life and your own people. Since the only humans in Kalimdor lives at Theramore Island under the leadership of Jaina Proudmore, Rexxar is sent out to investigate. Apparently these humans hail from Kul Tiras and occupy Theramore under their leader Admiral Proudmore... yes, the Admiral Proudmore that was one of your commanders in Warcraft II and Jainas father. So fuelled by hatred the only way to stop him is invade Thereamore with orcs, trolls, ogres and Tauren allies that Rexxar has gathered along the journey and the battle is tough, but in the end you slay the admiral and peace returns to Kalimdor and the truce between Orcs and Humans remains under the guidance of Jaina. This scenario is really fun and I suspect that it plays a bit like the mmorpg would play later on. You can't really die since there is resurrection stones scattered around the maps and you respond from the last one you were near. You see Thrall, Cairne and Jaina and even get to play with them at full strength. Sadly no Grom Hellscream, although he is mentioned.

There is supposed to be a demo campaign as well taking place after the prologue in the first game and the orc campaign and is about how Thrall ended up on a mysterious island occupied by Trolls and Murlocs. The Trolls aid them, but they are taken hostage by the Murlocs that plan to sacrifice them to a sea witch. Thrall rescues them, but their leader is killed and he makes Thrall promise to look after his people. Meanwhile the island is sinking to the ground. They escape and continues to Kalimdor. Basically it tells the story how trolls appear in the horde as they arrive in Kalimdor, even though Thrall says they aren't part of the horde in the prologue. No voices though. I can't find it and I don't know if you are supposed to win the game on hard or if it's hiding in some folder, but I don't care really.

Overall the story doesn't feel as good since it end with Arthas winning... he who clearly is one of the bad guys. Also, the stakes feels lower. It isn't about stopping the demons from taking over the world. It's about rescuing the one responsible for it in the first place. The Night elves and Blood Elves campaign works fine, but then again the final real level is the orc rpg and that work. Proudmore was hinted as well in the map designer since his avatar was there. I also know someone used him as a stand in for Boromir I believe in a map based on Lord of the Rings. The thing going for the undead campaign is the Sylvana chapters as well as the trek in "Moria". Sylvana who I can sympathise with for being turned into the undead as well as killing of despicable people like Garithos and the Moria segment is rather suspensfull together with some interesting lore tidbits about the faceless ones and primordial demons. Arthas, however, is still unlikable. Really wish they made another rts cause I don't have enough time to play through more than 10 years of updates and expansions for the mmorpg.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Well, at least we moved away from an orc and human staring at each other... then again he's staring at me... maybe I'm the human?

I first experienced Warcraft III at my cousins house the summer it came out. We were there on vacation and as I usually did I stayed inside and played games. He had Warcraft 3 so I got the cheat codes and started playing... and what a play it was. The game is divided in different scenarios from the perspective of a hero or heroes of a different fraction. First scenario is the prologue were we are introduced to Thrall, son of Durotar and the warchief after Doomhammer. Raised by humans as a slave he escaped and rallied the horde and freed them from their internments camp and are know haunted by mysterious dreams foretelling the fall of all that he knows. A man called the prophet summons him and bids him travelling across the sea to Kalimdor in the west. Thrall heeds his words and assemble the horde, but have to save Grom Hellscream who has been taken hostage by the humans. After the rescue the horde steals the human ships and set sail.

Our hero for the next couple of chapters

We are then taken to Lordearan, the capital of the Alliance which is crumbling as the elves have left and several human nations as well. A plague is spreading in the north, but the king don't want to quarantine the people and the prophet once again appear urging the people to move west, the only way to save them. They says no and he disappears. Then we follow prince Arthas as he is sent out to stop an orcish raid with Uther the Lightbringer. The orc's are demon worshippers and warns the coming of the demons. Uther dispels this and and we cut to Dalaran, the home of the Kirin Tors, magicians, and Jaina Proudmore who overhear her master Antonidas dismissing the Prophet once again and she receives orders to investigate the plague since the king won't bother other then sending his own son to check it out. Travelling the lands Arthas and Jaina discovers a death cult of necromancer spreading a disease that turn people into the undead which after long battles with the undead forces leads to Arthas purging a town and following the dread lord Mel'ganis responsible to Northrend, the arctic of Azeroth. There he stumbles upon a dwarves expedition led by Muradin Bronzebeard, brother of the Bronzebeard dwarfs king. He is on an expedition looking for a fabled runeblade Frostmourn. The dread lords attack forces Arthas with Muradin's help finding the blade, and discovering that the blade is cursed, but Arthas have gone so far that he claims it anyway, leaving Muradin for dead in the snow as Arthas himself destroy the undead and finish Mel'ganis of as his own soul is claimed. Arthas is transformed into a death knight and returns to Lorderan and kills his father in cold blood, destroying what's left of the alliance.

Still our hero for the next couple of chapters

We then follow Arthas as he goes on a campaign to assemble the cult of the damned, raise their leader who will be his most trusted ally and destroying the elven forces, corrupting their Sunwell and go on to kill some of the remaining orc clans and the city of Dalaran to summon Archimond, the leader of the Burning Legion, the force behind the orcish invasions and the Scourge (which is the name for the undead forces). This causes a gap between Arthas who follows Ner'zhul aka the Lich King, aka the Warchief of Draenor who was captured by the Burning Legion as he tried to escape from them. Furious he plans his revenge. Meanwhile this scenario forced the player to kill people like Uther the Lightbringer, Antonidas and Sylvana Windrunner, younger sister of Alleria Windrunner. Of course you didn't really kill her, just turn her into an undead. To me one of the more boring once since I've never felt that good with the undead. Depressing music, everything is dark and death isn't that funny. Although I really like the necromancers raise dead tactics to overwhelm enemies.

The Iron Man of humans Nightmares is back

The next scenario is the orcs again. Thrall have just landed on Kalimdor and must gather his troops while trying to survive this new landscape. He befriends the tauren chieftain Cairne in their fight against the centaurs and their shamanistic beliefs. He points him toward Stonetallon Peak and the Oracle living their if he wants answers so he goes there, encountering Grom and the Warsong Clan in the middle of a conflict against humans. Grom seems to be caught by a bloodlust, disobeying Thrall's direct orders to leave the humans alone so he is sent away to Ashenvale forest to build a settlement, but that only escalates problems as he is attacked by night elves who don't see kindly to someone defiling their forrest. After building their camp the demigod Cenarius appears which forces Grom and the orcs to drink from a pool of demonic energies, a pool spiked with the blood of the demon Manneroth who once enslaved them and started the wars between orcs and humans. They defeat Cenarius, but are reigned into the Burning Legion. Meanwhile Thrall reached the peak and was reunited with Cairne as they battle the human encampments around the Oracles cave. They reach the top and sees Jaina Proudmore entering, the only human lord that headed the warnings of the prophet. They battle through the underground traps and monster and are standing face to face with Jaina when the Prophet once again show up, telling them that they must put aside their hatred since a new threat is upon them. The first plan is to save Grom and the Warsong Clan. Thrall and Cairne battles the crazed orcs and demons that spawns the battlefield and bring Grom captured in a gem to Jaina and a ritual is prepared that gives him back his free will. Grom tells Thrall that it was in fact he that drank the demon blood first and in doing so corrupted most of the orc clans and they did so willingly. Thrall and Grom then proceeds to confront Manneroth. And here its supposed to be a cutscene, and to my surprise it actually played. Glad for that since it is one of the more epic moments when Thrall and Grom confront Manneroth, he brushes Thrall to the side and taunts Grom that lets out a Hell Scream and proceeds to dig his axe deep into the flesh of Manneroth that explodes in a fiery inferno. Thrall holds his friend as the blood curse is lifted and Grom Hellscream draws his final breath. Epic!!!

The enemy of the Night Elves is really resource planning

This of course opens up the final campaign that is the Night Elves. As the humans and orc allied themselves they go deeper into Ashenvale forrest where they are harassed by the Night Elves who doesn't kindly look to intruders, especially those who have slain their demigod. Sadly for them the Burning Legion appears and for this new threat priestess Tyranda Whisperwind decide to wake the druids from their sleep, especially the Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage and her beloved. As they search for the druid of the claw they encounter a prison, a prison to keep the Betrayer under guard, Illidan Stormrage, Malfurions brother. Tyranda releases him and while he guards the forest Arthas approaches him and tells him of the Legions action. Apparently they possess the skull of Gul'dan, the artefact used by Ner'zhul to open the portals on Draenor, causing its destruction. At the moment it is the driving force behind the corruption of the forrest under guard of Thycondrius, the dread lord that gave Arthas his instructions under the undead campaign. Illidan take control of the skull, but instead of destroying as he originally planned he consumes its powers and turn into a half-demon that destroys Thycondrius as was Arthas plan. Tyranda and Malfurion confront him and banish him for the use of demonic powers that once doomed the Elven race. Malfurion is then summoned by a dream voice together with Thrall and Jaina. The Prophet appears and tell them who he really is, Medivh, the Last Guardian. Slain as he was possessed by Sargeras and brought the orcs to Azeroth. He tell them of Archimonds real plan, to take the World Tree's energy. So they muster their defences and endure a siege for 45 minutes as the Legion climbs the summit. And since I played the game legit it was one fingernail biting session. After 15 minutes the human line was overrun. The orc line hold for 30 minutes after that since it was closer to my own base so reinforcement was faster. But Thralls orcs was forced to retreat leaving the Night Elves alone. During the final stages I fortified the two entry points with guardian ancients that threw boulder after boulder. The fountains healing my troops as they fought wave after wave of undead and demons. Resources thin and reinforcement far away, Archimonde himself appears, breaking down the line. 8 seconds left. The final stand, thank god the AI is stupid so instead of reaching his goal he is occupied attacking whats left off my base while the final second turns. I survived the siege and once again surprised to see the ending movie depicting how the wisps that Malfurion summoned surrounds Archimonde and destroys him. The weakest unit in game destroys the Archdemon himself. Great storytelling.

This is probably the definite version of the Warcraft games (with exception of the expansion, but it's not much it adds compare to the difference between Warcraft II and III). Even though they limited the army size I can easily go between different units and even cast support spells on their portrait instead of trying to locate a damaged unit. Some spells even have auto-cast features. Also the story is better laid out since there is a focus with the heroes you have. The problem is that it's really good to know the shortcuts, but it might be too much with 4 different factions to remember each and everyone. We even have inventory to either boost the heroes power, summon reinforcements or support healing and such. Also, playing this game legit for the first time through I discovered things that I missed as a kid. For example in the Night Elf mission to get the druids of the claw I stumbled upon a hidden passageway behind some trees and suddenly a cutscene played where the Largest Panda in the World showed up and I was forced to slay it. I recall seeing the cutscene but without the monster, which probably indicates that the god-mode cheat enabled my troops to kill it before the cutscene started. I always preferred the Night elves due to being elves, but as playing it I realises they are one of the harder since they really need to use magic to distract and immobilise their enemies and I've never been good at that. Of course they are the best when dealing with flyers since their base troop is an archer. And one should really start with the Priestess of the Moon hero since she's the only one boosting attack damage for archers of the heroes. A pity the demon hunter is the coolest.