Tales of Zestiria

The Tales of King Arthur

Back in the Gamecube days I bought the Tales of Symphonia game and found it rather enjoyable. I got the sequel to the Wii and actually never finished it. Didn't get a Tales of game until Tales of the Abyss for the 3DS. So as you notice I only got the Nintendo releases even though I got a PS3 and there been like 3-4 games and the first I bought was the HD collection of Tales of Symphonia which I wished was released for the Wii U but no. And then I read that LittleKuriboh was one of the voices for this game so I got it instantly. And then I learn that Kirbopher is one of the major voices... sweet! And what do you know, celebrities draw sales apparently cause after finishing the game I say it's the weakest Tales of game in the story department I've ever played. The premise is that it is the Age of Chaos caused by the Lord of Calamity who causes strife in order to create hellions, creature born out of the Malevolence in the peoples heart. To combat this a Shepard shall emerge from the humans and together with the Seraphim bless the land and purge it of Malevolence.

Meet the Shepard Sorey

Sorey, raised by the Seraphim leaves his home with his best friend, the seraph Mikleo, to warn Alicia, a knight they found in the ruins they were excavating and being hunted by an assassin. On his journey he will take up the mantle of Shepard from the fire seraph Lilah as he is pure and will rid the world of all Malevolence. As standard the interactions between the characters are fun, informative and well acted. Sadly the main character is boring, a goody-two-shoes that more or less is a Loyd, but lacks the great villain to compare him to. Heldalf is no Mithos Yggdrasill for sure. Of course Abyss didn't have a strong villain either, but Lukes journey and depth was something that made that game stand out. Here... nothing. And maybe it isn't the main focus of the game. You have very little environments and it's more focused on dungeons. A dungeon crawler. Action, battles and treasures. And it works. The armatize functions work well enough and unleashing the Mystic Arts are really satisfying. Sadly they even revamped the weapon system for a loot based economy where you gather weapons to synthesise and combine for better effects. Sadly this means you either spend 100 of hours gathering items, synthesising and taking notes of what does what... or you buy a guide... or read a FAQ, but it's busy work and I can't tell if a weapon is better or not due to all the skill bonuses. Just tell me if it's better Attack or Defence and I'm fine alright?

Well, apparently some people don't need clothes

So I'm a bit underwhelmed with the game, the only thing I can't say a bad thing about is the music which is made by Motoi Sakuraba, he who made the music for Golden Sun and you can tell. Certain themes sees eerily familiar and with an easy four element set up I feel right at home. Other things that are fun is they incorporated a discovery system where you find relics, plants, creatures and monuments that reminds me of Skies of Arcadia... doesn't help that Sorey begin with the same color-scheme from clothes to hair, all that's missing is an eye-patch.... oh, here it is in Fashion. Sadly that is all discovering you do since the overworld map is gone and we have a smaller world with a few settings. Sadly that feels like most RPG's are heading and I guess with more technical power you push more detailed environment, which feels big and looking across the whole area is fantastic, but the continent feels small in comparison to the two worlds of Symphonia or the one world of Abyss. Also there is several problems with the story. The malevolence angle, while understandable, gives the sense that you can't do anything without causing hellions. Lie, malevolence. Feeling sad, malevolence. Denying, malevolence. Really, an ascetic monk would probably be the only one not be affected or as they pointed out people really determined that they do the right thing, which somehow causes no malevolence. Right, I just need to believe in what I do apparently and it doesn't care if it is good or evil. No, I might play Tales of Symphonia Chronicles after I finish the DLC in this game.

A DnD Tale: Ghost in the Tower

It's Only Been an Hour

So we ended up with a bit more sessions to move the plot along. Awakening to a brand new morning they head into the town where they split up. The Silverhawks and Sphinx head for the dwarven smith to repair the sword... which they can't do due to the trade caravans not running since the roads are infested with bandits and the Lord Warden tries to fight of the threat. What they need is some dragon scales... which they could have taken from the dragons corpse, I'm an evil DM. Meanwhile the rest of the group have entered the wizards tower to get the letter translated. They do so and finds out that the Dark Lady is the vessel of Tiamat and operates from a keep near Winterhaven. Nimozaran warns them that they must stop this plan no matter the cost since the items she collected and ritual mentioned could be to let Tiamat roam this world once again, destroying all civilisations that exist in the wake of the chaos goddess. He also seems to recognise the tiefling in their company, but can't quite grasp where he have seen her. Not even his apprentice can help him. So they leave and head for the Silver Unicorn Inn to meet up with the others. They meet up and head for the Import shop to look for a job, but sadly, the caravans aren't moving meaning they have neither gods to send or caravans to guard. Although the store owner will contact them as fast as possible, he also hints them to the tower and the Upper Quays where a dwarf named Strongbeard can ferry them across. 

Since He Locked Her in the Tower

 The dwarf let one off his men ferry them across and the Silverhawks set up a camp outside the ruined tower. The rest goes in. The bottom floor has a ring in one of the stone slabs so the thief climbs to the top and uses a rope in a hook in the ceiling which they uses to pull open the slab, they tie it to a light stuck on the wall and climbs down to a secret room beneath the river floor. The floor is full of decayed corpses from the Bloodspear wars 90 years ago. Apparently the nobles hid below the floor, but somehow couldn't escape afterwards and starved to death. They find a hidden door and apparently footprints leading in and out. Barefoot human-sized to be precise. They open the door, illuminates the tunnel and enters... and behind them they hear a crash. Sphinx heads back as he guards the rear and the stone slab has fallen in place. There is only one way out as they know of and that is the secret passage. They walk for several hours until they reach the end of the tunnel. Another door, but this one radiates arcane magic. It's blocked by a spell which seems to have dwindled due to the passing of time, they deduce they must be back in Kobold Manor. They break the spell and enters the underground lake. All they hear is a gnawing sound. They try to be as stealthy possible, but it doesn't help and three grey wolves attack them. After a short battle they head back to town and stand in cue for the toll. The sergeant arrest them due to not existing in their register and they blab about how they crossed the river with the help of Strongbeard. The sergeant sees her chance and arrest them all for smuggling. They are brought to the dungeons below the Fallcrest keep and are soon joined by Strongbeard and the Silverhawks who just had come back from the island and was caught up in all of this.

The Time has Come

Apparently the roof gave way and the stone slab went back in place so they waited out the ferry since there is no support to lift it again. Strongbeard is furious and tells them that when he gets out of here they will have hell to pay. The guards arrive and bring them all to the throne room as the Lord Warden has returned. He takes payment from Strongbeard and let him go and ask the party how they were able to leave the town. Under much pressure they tell him about the secret passage below the tower. Kiera, the half-elven bard also mentions that she must get ready to perform so she and Despair prepares (Despair is bound to her with a magic collar so that she won't escape). The rest goes to bed as Kiera plays the night away in front of the towns nobles and important people.

A DnD Tale: Thief in the Night

He was a Magic Man

After almost 2 years the craving for a real dungeon crawl in DnD went so strong I was left with only one option... I roped in my three sisters and brother-in-law. So I went all in and wrote a short adventure that spiralled for all 20 levels and even godhood if need be. I probably won't reach that level, but let's see how far I can get them (which probably is a big fault from my side, but hey, it's my first time as a DM). Back-story is that my brother-in-law is a dragon born named Sphinx, son of Phalanx. A paladin of the Bahamut order sent to the mercenary company Silverhawks in Fallcrest for his training. Sarion, the eldarin wizard on a journey to Fallcrest to discuss some recently discovered relics from a long lost kingdom with the green wizard. Kiera, the half-elven bard entertainer that are travelling through and lastly Despair, the tiefling rouge trying to escape the slums of the town by stripping it down, even the smallest copper coin don't go free.

Holy Fighter in an Ancient War

I used the training dungeon in the Dungeon Master's Guide together with the town Fallcrest as a setting to make it easy to adopt it. So three players are arriving at Fallcrest, the first is Sphinx that on the way to the Silverhawks company gets pick-pocketed and has to get help from their captain, Tyrell the Swift, an half-elven bard searching for a statue of Bahamut stolen earlier from the Temple. Meanwhile Sarion has reached the Green wizards tower where the wizard informs him that the artefact, a jewel rose has been stolen and he localised the thief with his crystal ball so Sarion and the wizards helper tries to find her (if you haven't guessed it it's Despair). At the same time Kiera enters the town and gets pick-pocketed immediately, but catches the thief in the act, but receives a fist in the face so the hunt is on. running through the streets they almost push Sarion to the ground, but recognising the thief from the crystal ball follows suit. They follow the thief to the lower quays where she enters a building and looks the door behind her. They bang on the door, but can't enter and instead attracts the attention of seven kobold minions surrounding them. After some slashes arrows begin firing from the roof-top. A dark shadowy creatures emerges and kills off five of them when the bard kills one of them with one hit while the last one runs off. The wizard mostly fired magic missiles all across the scene illuminating them. Down jumps a drow elf and starts picking the lock. Meanwhile Sphinx tried his luck with the leader of the River Rats, Kelson, but get laughed at for getting pick-pocketed at the first day on the job. He also mentions the most likely suspect is Despair, the rouge he more or less fired from the gang for sticking her fingers in the profit margins. They follow the clue to Sandercoots provisions where they open the front door, but the paladin armour scrambles so high that the sons of the owner comes down to rough up the intruder. It ends with Sphinx throwing one of the sons across the room, through the door and into the room where the owner haggles with Despair... which could have gone better. She got rid of most of the goods, except a pyramid of Onyx she stole from Kiera which she tried to bluff off as a treasure from the Lord Warden... which I spun as being extremely hot for the black market so she would have to pay me to get rid of it for her. Still, Despair got caught between the groups and ratted out by the Sandercoots as they felt the noose around their necks. All well that ends well... they thought. An explosion from the backroom where the goods are stored interrupts the party and they head back where they find the goods missing and a lot of dead kobold bodies from the explosion they set up. The Sandercoots offers some guiding help to the Kobold Manor and a map for some small compensation... the 2000 gold coins Despair had collected. After that they head over to the Silver Unicorn inn to rest as the darkness have fallen. Tomorrow they went for the Kobold Manor.

Only light in the darkness shining forever more

They enter Kobold Manor while the two Silverhawk members, Tyrell and Argent the Fallen guards the entrance and keeps their escape free. After hard fighting they kills off the guards in the first floor that they spend four hours resting up after to restore their strength. They break down the barriers to the second level. There they enter a grave chamber and fights off three skirmisher kobolds and unfortunately activates several of the dart traps immobilising all of them, except the paladin. Afterwards they breaks the statues being the source of the darts. After some nasty backfires of course. Meanwhile the paladin finds a Tiamat alter that he smashes. They enter the third area where the kobolds are invested in a game of Skull-Skull where they throw a wrecking-ball at four coffins... and any one foolish enough to enter. After an intense battle they take another long rest as two fell unconscious during the battle. The fourth area they sneak into listening to a mysterious lady berating the kobold for the measly treasures they offer Tiamat. She takes the rose, the statue and the pyramid and start to leaves but notices the heroes in the doorway and alert the kobolds before leaving through a side-door. The kobolds unleashes a rolling boulder trap that starts rolling down as two slinger kobolds climbs up from the middle area and starts throwing rocks at the party. The trap sadly backfires at the kobolds as the party tricks them into its path or the best part bullrush a flying drake onto the ground so it gets crushed. After finishing of the cultist leader they head for the secret passage and enters an underground passage with an ice covered floor. All they can hear is something breathing in the cave. Sphinx and Despair sneaks down the columns past the ice lake and finds a sleeping dragon. They detect a magic door on the side. but the rouge accidentally awakens the dragon. It starts off ice-breathing the two intruders, but the paladin avoids damage, but the tiefling takes it head on. In retaliation the rouge blinds the dragon that stumbles out on the ice lake where the wizard finally gets one hit and burns the dragon and the ice so it falls into the water. The dragon surrounded on all sides it crawls up and intimidates the wizard to inaction and bloodies the dragonborn. At this moment, after waiting over 9 hours, the members of the Silverhawks venture down the path wondering where they disappeared too and joins the fight. The Drow ready his bow for a sure shot attack. He fires and... miss. He re-rolls and... miss. He uses his action point and... miss. Just like old times. Anyway, the battle rages on for some time, several of the characters get bloodied (Argent accidentally shot Tyrell in the back one time), until Spinx smites the dragon with his flail. They search the cave and finds a chest with a letter they can read and several treasures (which I forgot to give them during the course of the adventure... oops!). They try to enter the magic door but it is sealed by a powerful magic spell, wrought by Tiamat. They get Tyrell to fiddle with the spell, but he unleashes the trap that send him and his two assistants across the room while the cave tumbles in over the door. The wizard Sarion restores the cave, but the door still stands, untouched. They decide to head back to Fallcrest. There they can't enter the town as the gates are closed for the night. They enter the inn just outside and are introduced to the owner and important noble tiefling. They gather information on some rather interesting tidbits happening in town. Apparently a ghost have been spotted in the tower in the middle of the river, the lord warden is away dealing with the bandits led by Wren, the draconian in the north, usual complaint of high taxes and so on. They talk bit about further plans to get their items back before going to bed.

And that concludes my first couple of sessions as a DM. Maybe not the best, but I think I got the right story hooks. I'm just a little bad at getting them to talk between them and tell more of the setting. They seemed to enjoy it though. Next is levelling up and see if there will be some more play session before they leave... although since this happened during the Christmas holiday I will probably know. Also I put this on the video game Wednesday since it kept me away from completing video games during the holiday so enjoy. Also I played 4th edition since that's the one I've played and since I'm the only one experienced it probably was for the better. Plus it got all the extra material I can use compared to 5th edition... at the moment of writing that is.

Steel Empire

Or Empire of Steel as it was known in Europe

Finally after more than a year we in Europe could get our hand on this remaster of a classic shooter, Steel Empire. I got the original for the Sega Mega Drive and I guess it was the cover that grabbed me since I don't know why I would have bought it otherwise. I might have been into aviation at the time. That was a good buy I say. The visuals was amazing portraying this steam punk adventure and the amazing gadgets like trains, windmills and such. A pity the colour schemes have been changed for some of the enemies. I guess it was to adjust to a more "HD"-look as well the 3D which work nice and at least have some purpose in showing what you can pass through or not.Also the background visuals on some stages are amazing, especially the sky mission. Lastly the music is as good as I remember, but I think they toned it down from the original. Although they can't quite emulate the Mega Drives special sound so it might be cleaner, but misses the grit that pushed the original up and beyond.

They even showed the notes for the intro at the intro screen

So what is it about? The Empire of Motorhead, lead by General Saurlon (the l is silent) has conquered its neighbours with their machines fueled with coal and steam and only the republic of Silverhead remains and by equipping their last line of defence, the Reinhardt, with a bipedal plane and zeppelin capable of using the newly discovered weapon Lightning Bomb and attacking the Empire at its core, the Imperial Capital Damned. First you save your ally mining town, then stop the empire from attacking through some abandoned mines. You attack the empire head on at there sky fortress and takes a diversion through the imperial anti-air batteries at the coast. Sadly the ruse is found out and the Reinhardt is destroyed leaving you and your plane/zeppelin as the only hope against the capital. You take the capital, but Saurlon escapes to his mountain fortress which you climbs and enters and find a cannon capable of sending a rocket to the moon. You fly after him and after a long battle his rocket is destroyed.

Reenactment of Saurlons journey

How awesome is that? A freaking space battle on the moon surface with a plane/zeppelin firing lightning bombs. This would be an awesome cartoon series for at least 14 episodes. I finished this game once as kid and on easy, took me a whole lot of lives and maybe even a continue. This time one sitting 2-3 deaths, of course also on easy, but it feels like I'm better at this now. I really like this game and to me well worth the wait. I actually thought we never would see it here and then they drop the price right of the bat compared to the American release. Awesome, although I will have to get better to finish the damn achievement puzzle so I can see the whole picture.

Thunder and Lightning heading your way, Stormbringer coming, time to die!