The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S3E16 - The Black Suns

I get that they have pseudoscience behind them, but it feels more like D&D and therefore more fantasy since wizards could have orbs circulating them for weapons at least for 4th edition

Esteban crashes into the village and they set off trying to get the sword out of the wing. Meanwhile Kokapetla arrives with the message from Anatos that confirms that the maharaja is drugged by some American herb extract that takes away someones willpower. Zia then begins concocting an antidote from the village healers supplies. At dawn Esteban gets the sword out with the elephants help and as Zia arrives they fly off.

In the meantime Mendoza and the others are taking the underground tunnel to arrive at the factory. They just missed Tao getting the final plan of Ambrosius laid before him after Ambrosius discovered that Tao visited Anatos. Ambrosius plan to create the weapons of the Mu empire and use them to conquer the world since the current rulers are not worthy since they aren't geniuses like Ambrosius or Tao, that Ambrosius sees as his heir. Tao is locked up in his cell after been shown the power of the Black Suns, orbs of oricalcium that is used with the telekinesis crown and able to fire beams of some kind, burning up coal at least. Mendoza and his gang knocks out the guards and as Esteban and Zia distract the guards at the fort, they free Tao and heads for Anatos cell. They are intercepted by Laguerra who have been looking for a rematch with Mendoza and after Mendoza hands Tao a purse the duel is on. Zia drops off Esteban that goes straight for the maharaja to cure him with an antidote dart so that they can get the palace guards on their side. But Ambrosius had anticipated this and awaited in the throne room with the crown and Black Suns ready to kill Esteban.

The documentary was about elephants and motorised rikshaws as modes of transportation, both ancient and modern.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S3E15 - Ambrosius' Secret

Is this the dark suns they talked about?

Turns out Pedro was awake after all since everyone escaped up the trees. Of course one of the kids fell from the tree and was rescued by Mendoza. Strangely enough Laguerra saw him, and yet didn't tell the others. She mentioned already in the last episode that she didn't find the thought of kidnapping children for slavers as a very pleasant idea so one wonder if she has a change of heart? After they leave the others discovers that Zia and Esteban is missing and goes to the temple. As they meet up they form a new plan. Zia and Esteban will distract the guards with the Condor while Mendoza, Sancho and Pedro will use a canoe to sneak into the fort and rescue everyone. Mendoza sets off and the children gets to the condor where two alchemist stands guard. Funny enough one of them have been the apprentice of Leonardo da Vinchi. The monkies returns and Zia ask them to distract them. They get on and flies off, but one of the alchemists is able to attach his sword in the wing, making it impossible to fly as it should and they are about to crash into the jungle.

Meanwhile Ambrosius brings Tao into the factory he have constructed below the fort and where the parents work. Tao is given back Kokapetle and asked again to join the Order of the Hourglass as he is presented with Ambrosius own constructed medallions. The orichalcum matrix he stole from the second city of gold in season two and gave to Laguerra in the beginning of season 3 continuously produces orichalcum for them to use and enabled them to create the medallions in order to bypass the need of the chosen ones. But for some reason they start to emit electric charges and disintegrate, making Ambrosius nearly cry at the failure and looking for why it failed, giving Tao the chance to escape to Atanos and receive the message so that Kokapetle can bring it to the others. He is seen by Laguerra that have returned home as he walks to his room with Kokapetle, but she lets him continue after asking how Tao got his bird back. As Kokapetle flies off the episode ends on him resting on a tree while a snake approaches him.

The documentary was about the inspiration of the temple that guarded the underground river and a bit about the sacred monkies that helped the children as they also are sacred in India, apparently overshadowed by the cows.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S3E14 - The Order of the Hourglass

Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition

As Tao is captured he is brought back to the forth and as the title implies, we learn more about the secret order Ambrosius leads. Apparently it was founded by Ambrosius, Dr Laguerra and Atanos, Esteban's father. Somehow their friendship dissolved, and I would assume that it has to do with the methods Ambrosius and Laguerra was comfortable using in getting what they wanted compared to Atanos. Ambrosius claims that his goal is to uncover the secrets of Mu and revive it to the betterment of mankind. Anyway, since he as a soft spot for Tao he offers Tao to join him, Tao gets locked into a tower, but steals with him a screwdriver he uses to unlock the door and find Atanos. Atanos tells him to rescue Kokapetle that was taken captured and used as leverage to make Tao cooperate (really great way to earn someones trust Ambrosius). Meanwhile Laguerra brings two magicians and four soldiers to the village in order to capture the children.

While that went on Mendoza and everyone else sat up traps and escape ropes in the trees in preparation for the incoming attack. As Mendoza and the kids tries to figure out a way to get inside the fort, Pedro retells their story about the monkey temple and the scary monster hiding in the cave to entertain the village children. Zia figures out that it must be a subterranean river and must be the source of the water for the fort and the lake that Esteban escaped from. Since nightfall approaches the girl leader declares no one leaves the village at night due to the soldiers and wild animals. But Esteban gets the oldest boy to show him the way and Zia follows. Meanwhile Pedro stands guards. At the temple they are almost attacked by the monkies, but the one Zia saved from the Memorial Temple intervenes and stave of the attack so that the kids can get to the underground river. The last shot of the episode is at Pedro sleeping at the centre of the village as Laguerra and her soldiers arrive.

The documentary was about Indian dancing. It ties in to that the maharaja was watching some dancer while Tao and Ambrosius was eating with him. Interesting tidbit, but really weak connection to the story in my eyes.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S3E13 - Laguerra

She at least looks nicer than Dr Laguerra

Esteban is chased of by Ambrosius and run into the female magician and she continues to chase him until he is cornered and climbs out of a window, which just happens to be the same tower that his father is imprisoned, but as she continuous to grab him, he falls into a water reservoir. As he climbs up the shore she jumps after him and uses a whip to catch him. At this moment Mendoza steps up and begins a duel, noting that the whip and sword-techniques reminds him of someone he knew from the Americas. She answer that she was trained by her father (and a stupid cliché like ever, Mendoza thinks she is a boy), Laguerra also known as the Doctor who together with Marinche was another antagonistic team they fought in the original season. Laguerra and the other was last seen leaving the Olmecs base and falling into a crack as the mountain exploded in the aftermath of the reactor-incident. They escape when the guards arrives and prepares to evacuate the children to protect them from Ambrosius.

Meanwhile Zia and Tao are chased around by tiger which kokapetle stops at times, until Zia begins to speak with it telepathically. She seems to get the best deal of powers compared to Esteban who haven't gone further than his sun-calling. The tiger is apparently guarding her cubs and Zia assures her that they aren't any threat so they can begin decoding the messages on the wall. As the sun goes down and they are about to leave they are surrounded by the magicians and Ambrosius airship. Esteban and the boy arrives on an elephant rescuing them, but as they climb on to the back of the elephant, Laguerra exits the airship and grab holds of Tao as it rises to the sky.

The documentary was about the Memorial temple Tao and Zia was in together with the holy cows of India.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S3E12 - The Memorial Temple

I can't hep but start singing tunes from the Junglebook

Of course it was kids, and I wasn't wrong about Temple of Doom reference since they pretty much referenced that plot point but with the adults missing instead of the kids. Our heroes decide to team up with the kids to save their parents from the magicians, the group of alchemist that Ambrosius leads called the Order of the Hourglass. The girl leader also tells Tao the name of the region which means the land of the sun and is the name of the capital of Mu, indicating a connection to the cities of gold and why Ambrosius have his base of operation here. Also Zia seems to still possess the power of telekinesis even without the crown as she moves a normal rock while sitting by a river. The next morning they split up with Mendoza, Esteban and one of the older boys scouting out the fort, Zia, Tao and the girl leader looking for a temple the order have taken an interest in an Sancho and Pedro been taken to a temple in search of offerings, which turns out just to be food and feathers, but the temple is home to a pack of monkies that chase them into a hole which seems to connect to a larger cave system, but some monstrous sounds scare them away, to the two children's delight.

Esteban is able to sneak into the fort by hiding in a passing cart and run into a side-opening where he is able to find Ambrosius and follow him to his laboratory in the ground. Ambrosius have discovered that the crown is able to make the wearer to lift things with their minds and connects them to something called the black suns, and the order begins constructing them, going as far as attempting to gather up children as workers as well since their parents aren't enough. Ambrosius sees Estebans reflection in a potion bottle and screams out his anger.

Tao and Zia finds the temple, releases a monkey the order put up against tigers and observe as they crack open a slate from the temple wall (I assume to bring to Ambrosius to translate), they are spotted and one of the magicians follows them into a corridor, but returns on the call of the other since they got what they came for and should warn Ambrosius. The kids returns to the place to look what was stolen and behind them a shadow of a tiger appears.

The documentary focused on the inspiration of the fort from the Jodhpur region in India and the fort Mehrangarh. The last segment was also about Hanuman, the monkey-god that was the central statue of the temple Sancho and Pedro visited. It was unfortunately cut short by 12 seconds by the recording so that was a bit of shame.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S3E11 - The Shadows of the Jungle

It's only a model

So, right when Ambrosius is about to attack Mendoza the volcano erupts, disturbing his aim so that Mendoza can escape and then they are separated by a chasm. Both parties fly off. Our heroes visits Yoshi and his family and the lord have gone to war with their neighbours and the grandson have been called into the army. The next morning they leave and tells of the plane. Since the lords symbol is attracted to the pearl they gave it to Ambrosius and they switch out the condors control panel and it begins following them, after they put it in the right way. A flying montage follows until they reaches India. Ambrosius lands at a palace (which looks like the one from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). There he gives his spoil to some robe clad figures that put it in a vault which apparently blocks the condor from finding it. Meanwhile he visits the maharaja that he supplies with migraine medicine, but the captain of the guard is suspicious. By the talk it sounds Ambrosius gets free rein for him and his group to gather citizens working in a factory and what not, so long as they supply the maharaja with the medicine. Although it can also be the medicine creating the addiction for it. He also meets Esteban's father and reinforces that they known each other for a long time.

Our heroes meanwhile have to land when the pearl is put away. While Mendoza gathers wood the kids runs off looking for berries and such while Sancho and Pedro tries to catch some fish. The kids feel like they are spied upon and they are attacked by shadowy figures looking like kids to me and they are hunted to a town where they are surrounded. Mendoza comes back and wonders where the kids are and spot some figure running away in the jungle. He follows with Sancho and Pedro and the episode ends on him catching the person, who is a girl or woman by the sound and shape of the shadow.

The documentary seems to be the last focused on Japan and is about the cherry-blossom tradition and gardening.

Mysterious Cities of Gold - S3E10 - Sundagatt

Love the design of Sundagatt.

Well, apparently I was way off with the name of the city. The only thing you get from googling that name is to the show itself, so they probably made it up themselves. Anyway, it turns out that the crowns for some reason enables the wearer to with their mind use the orichalcum blocks to move around as shown by Zia taking over creating different shapes and figures. Sancho and Pedro fights over who is able to use one to carry out as many blocks as possible. I can't help but notice that they are severely less capable than Esteban and Zia. Esteban runs off to get Tao who have hid himself on the Thallios, crying over his feelings of self-doubt. Esteban comforts him and have concocted a plan by taking the pearl that the daiymons emblem was attracted to. On their way back they find a room filled with the orbs from the beginning of the season and a opposite waterfall were the water went up instead. Tao figures out that it is some kind of escape pods (foreshadowing).

Mendoza, Sancho and Pedro finds a throne room and while the others goof off, Mendoza approaches it and discovers two new medallions for Esteban and Zia to pick up. Meanwhile Zia has another premonition of the erupting volcano and she meets up with Tao and Esteban. and tries to get the others. Mendoza tells them about the medallions so she goes after them while Tao, Sancho and Pedro runs for the Thallios. Mendoza tries to get Zia, but gets one of the water lanterns over him. Esteban helps him out and then goes after Zia. Zia have picked up the two medallions and somehow activated some kind of holographic sphere and is then picked up by Esteban. Mendoza swims badly wounded toward the Thallios and is drawn into it by Pedro. Thinking that the others have drown Mendoza takes over the controls of the ship and tries to escape while the city is walled off again. An intense escape scene later and they are at the surface. The music, the feeling of sadness and the use of the sound effects were amazing. As they looked back at the city walled of thinking the others have drowned, the sound effects cuts off and just the sad music plays, until the final rock entombeds the city once again with a single crash. LOVE IT.

Of course, since they already hinted about it, Zia and Esteban escaped in the escape pods. Zia have now figured out that the medallions are encoded with information and their mission is to get the final piece. For what end is unknown. Also, they notice a ship approaching so they enter the Thallios and dive towards the volcano to pick up the condor and who is on that ship if it isn't Gaspard. Pretty funny sequence. On the island they see Ambrosius ship and confronts him. He grab the crown from Sancho and Esteban hands over the pearl (which apparently is part of his plan). Ambrosius tells him that it isn't over so he will keep Esteban's father as leverage. And then he points his dartbow on Mendoza with the intent of finally get rid of his greatest obstacle.

Amazing episode. The documentary was about the volcano again and its latest eruption, as well as some of the precautions the area have for new eruptions, like a evacuation drill with ferries, children wearing hardhats and so on.

Mysterious Cities of Gold - S3E1-9 English Recap

Jump for joy!

Guess what? The show finally has been released with an english dub... in Australia. Thankfully the world is tied together with the internet so I was able to get my hand on them. Hopefully it won't be that long until the show gets a proper DVD release in the Europe. Still wonders why it took 2 years before it came into english. So I got to watch the whole season again since I need to see (or hear) what I missed.

Episode 1: Its funny how correct I was in my first watch through it. The only things I missed was that the fisher kids talk about the fact that they are forced by the law to turn them in to the local lord. Also, I didn't mention that Zia tells Tao that she also is a descendant of the people of Mu. And the documentary was more about the volcano that is still active today than about Japan in general as I gathered the first time. Also, Ambrosius handed over some kind of orichalcum matrix to the woman as well as Esteban's father. And by their discussion it seemed like they knew each other from before. Also, the fact that Zia can feel natural disasters before they happens are shown here the moment the condor falls into the water. Maybe I didn't notice it because it could just have been the birds and such flying away that warned her, but since it come up multiple times since then maybe it's something more to it. At least they are smart enough to say that it might just be a coincidence or it might actually be a real power, comparing it to Esteban's own sun calling abilities that might or might not be real. And it seems Mendoza's full name is Juan-Carlos Mendoza which he identified himself to the japanese.

Episode 2: Pretty much accurate this time as well. The water image didn't say anything special other than that the mirror shield was the key and apparently was supposed to be in the orichalcum capsule, but as Yoshi told the kids, was given to the lord of the lands that put it in the sacred temple at Izumo (I think its the place they are talking about). Also Ambrosius did indeed sell out Mendoza and Co as spies. The documentary was as described about the White Heron Castle and also about the fact that you have to take off your shoes in Japan... which is a strange thing to make notice of for a Swede that have the same custom. I know the Americans don't always do it, but does the french as well?

Episode 3: Nothing different really. It was clarified that the kids happened to fly over the field of rice with Mendoza and the others. What I don't get is the geography of the place. They start in Kagoshima that is almost the most south-western part of the country. They travel to Izumo that is north-east of there, but they somehow see Mt. Fuji which is even further east? That doesn't make sense really. So I checked where the mirror shield is located in real life, and it's supposed to be Isuzu and yes, it aligns better with Mt. Fuji and is probably in viewing distance since it is the highest mountain in Japan.

Episode 4: Another episode where the dialog really didn't matter so I got most of it the first time around. 

Episode 5: I actually understood the riddle on the mirror shield and that the key was missing from its place on it this time around. Also the daiymons plans was a bit clearer in his aspiration for the shogunate and wanting Mendoza to hand over the Condor and the city of gold in order to achieve that, The documentary was cut in my original viewing of the show, but it was about the tea ceremony and a bit about the real temple that the mirror shield was hidden in together with a short bit about the existence of Kappa.

Episode 6: Understanding Gaspards motives are pretty interesting since it seems that he isn't that stupid. Since he knows the dayimon needs Mendoza he isn't willng to upset the lords plans by killing him. I like that. The documentary was about the smithing process of the katana, how they fold it and hammer it under running water while hot and so on and a small bit about the japanese clans different emblem and how they appears all over the place in buildings, clothing and what not.

Episode 7: Pretty much the same, probably due to it being action focused. The documentary was more about the sharpening of the katana and then it was more about the different parts of the katana.

Episode 8: Another action oriented scene. Most fun to listen to the insults Mendoza throws at Ambrosius during their duel. Also the documentary was about the scabbard of the katana and about Seki, a japanese city with workshops for the modern day katana-makers.

Episode 9: Apparently the inscription on the submarine was Thallios and Tao told everyone. Also the script on the statue at the third city was the name of that city, Soundgata or something like that. Googling it led me to this wikipedia page about the founder of the Mali empire, the empire that had so much gold that it almost destabilised the economy of a country they visited on a pilgrimage (I think the legend goes). Now, I don't know if it was supposed to be that word or such, but that seems to be a huge coincidence. If that's true the city names have meaning beyond what I could imagine and have to go back to season 2 and find what the name was. I don't think the first city got a name beyond Eldorado, but I don't think that was its Mu-name. The documentary was about the real world inspiration of the rock formation that hide the city of gold and the discussion if they were man-made or natural phenomena. Also talked about the spider-crabs that attacked our heroes.

This concludes the recap of the first 9 episodes so then we're back to our normal viewing schedule, but without me complaining about not understanding what they are saying. I also gotta mention the voice acting. I still think that Esteban sounds more like a girl than a boy, but I'm probably getting used to them by now. And maybe that's the reason for the delay, since it sounds like the voice acting been tweeked and I don't know if its due to looking at a better version of the show, but the music sounds better. Just something I thought would be worth noting.

Mysterious CIties of Gold S3E9 - Le Thallios

Told you it was a submarine

So they climb the mountain and as the kids and Mendoza reach the top and try to figure out what the orb in the water is, Sancho and Pedro climbs a lot slower and somehow the crabs are disturbed and are travelling en masse up the side and as our heroes jumps to the orb they are under attack from the pincers of the crabs. Here the 3d animation really enhance the experience since it could pan around the heroes as they fight of the crabs on the orb. Tao and Zia finds a symbol on it and after pushing it and turning some kind of lever they escape into the machine. Mendoza triggers the control panel and as they use the symbol they got from the samurai as a key it activates. The ship sinks to the bottom and as they take control they pass through the water. The music is amazing, the animation fantastic as they do more circles around the submarine and they really got creative with the underwater scene. Fantastic. After travelling some time the machine goes on autopilot into rift and another city of gold, caught in a stone coffin. Zia's medallion triggers it to reveal the true city of gold. They enter an airlock, dismiss the water and can walk around. The statue that signals the docking point looks a bit like the feathered serpent which was an important figure in the original series. Although I can't recall if it was the name people gave Estebans father or if it was some ancient person describing the way to the cities of gold.

The kids active another stage of the city and walk around it, finding water pillars like Morpha in  the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time just dangling around. Tao stays behind since he is depressed about Ambrosius betrayal and thinks back to him over and over again, even when it came to the name of the city, which I can't understand what they call it. Sancho and Pedro finds a huge cube of orichalcum (I assume since it is established that Mu and Atlantis used that material due to its conductive properties, and that it is a fantasy element you can do whatever you want with) and as they touch it smaller cubes from it fly around them and they fill their pockets. Zia and Esteban meanwhile finds some crown/tiaras laying around and as Esteban puts one on his head, fooling around a bit, the flying cubes starts to surround him and the episode ends.

I'm really into it at the moment. I just wish they would release it internationally with english subtitles since I suspect that from here on out you really need to understand what the hell is going on. I'm also too much attuned to the series and its ideas as well, since I had a notion that I mentioned solar powered submarines before, and lo and behold, I did so during season 2 when they found Shangri-La and the mass producing condors. I'm so into this series. 

Mysterious CIties of Gold S3E8 - Quand le masque tombe

Tell Your Sister you were right, Luke!

So I was partially right, Ambrosius tried to attack Mendoza, but got distracted by Sancho and Pedro so Mendoza was able to hit him so hard that compass flew out of the bag, revealing the fact that he got even though Zares supposedly had taken it. Being cornered by everyone, he threw a flash bang that blinded them, stole the sword from Zia and got back his compass and tried to escape with the airship. Mendoza followed him and climbed the airship while it flew off and the others chased after in the condor. Mendoza cornered him in the cabin as Ambrosius went to the chamber where he had the Zares suit. And the whole scheme is laid bare for our heroes as the fact that Ambrosius is Zares is shown. An epic swordfight between Mendoza and Zares culminates when Mendoza goads him to strike at the machinery and bring the fight back up to the deck. He is able to make him lose the sword and with some help from the others on the condor he is able to get it for himself and jump on to the condor. Awesome scene, great non-synthesizer music that just feels like an adventure movie as Mendoza glides to the cockpit of the condor while in flight.

Ambrosius chrashes into the water after fixing the leak, and then tries to follow them. The others reach the volcano and walking toward it Sancho, Pedro and Estaban are fuming about the betrayal of Ambrosius and that he had kidnapped Estaban's father while Tao is broken by the trust into the old man, even defending him at times. Entering the volcano they are able to find a gate they can enter by pushing two stones at the same time. Walking through the orichalcum corridors the synthesizer is in full swing. After walking they find some crabs that lead them to an open area where an overgrown pyramid lies surrounded by water and by larger crabs. They all walk up the stairs and it ends on Estaban seeing what lies hidden on the top.

Mysterious Cities of Gold S3E7 - Sword of the Samurai

Zia with the mentioned sword of the samurai

So after escaping from the castle Mendoza takes command of the ship and are about to throw Ambrosius over board for betraying them, but since he is the only one that fly the ship as they are about to crash into the ocean he is allowed to stear the ship. They find the kids and are finally reunited. As they discuss what they know, about the emblem Mendoza relises that the key must be the hilt of the sword of the samurai lord. So they concoct a plan where Estaban gives some food to Gaspared that that is looked in the ship, but breaking a glas that allows him to escape in the night by cutting the ropes. While he get the samurai, our heroes creates sleep gas, traps and whatnot in preparation for the army. As the army arrives everyone gets smoked, Mendoza fight the second in the command in a sword duel and Zia is the one knocking the lord of his horse and then gangsta style smoking him with the sleep gas and take his sword. Meanwhile Ambrosius tricked Tao to leave him alone so he could take a sword and the episode ends on Mendoza trying to get some information from one of the soldiers and Ambrosius comming up behind him to strike with the sword.

Now, that would have been a good ending if it wasn't for the snippets from the next episode where they clearly show both Ambrosius and Mendoza in the aftermath. Thanks show. This time I got the documentary, and it was of course on the japanese sword making skill. I don't think I got the whole episode, but still. They are kinda pointless when you don't get what they are saying.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold S3E6 - The Return of Zares

Finally, the villain returns

It started a bit weak as the Gaspard revenge scenario was pretty much twarted at the get go with him declining to attack Mendoza for some reason, so Ambrosius gave him a sleeping potion instead so that he could use the Zares-suit to kill Mendoza and get back his compass. But while he gets there Mendoza gets a visitor as the kid the children have been staying with have come as part of his watch duties and gives Mendoza a message from Estaban. Mendoza hands over the compass together with a written note on how they are about to escape. The kid gets to town and are tailed by Zares. Estaban gets there as well and after a short hunt is able to knock several logs of wood over Zares as they escape to the woods. In the woods Zares gets them again, knock the kid unconscious and retrieve the compass from Estaban, but are chased away by Zia and Tao who are looking for Estaban.

Reading the note Zares relises that Mendoza plans to escape with the airship so he hurries back (I think), knocks Gaspard unconscious again and tries to leave. Meanwhile Mendoza and Co escaped their cell by hiding under the floor and letting the guards open the doors for them. They climbed the roof and jumped on to the ballon as it began rising and flew away as Ambrosius escaped the caste.

Back at the kids home they tend to his wounds and the episode ends as Zia discovers that the emblem of the lord looks like the emblem on the mirror shield.

Decent episode, the music as the guards look for Mendoza and co in the castle sounded like some old tune from the first season. The story feels a bit slow, Mendoza episodes are more action oriented I feel, but the story take a back seat and it feels like its the other way around when the episode is kid centric and that make me actually appreciate the kids stuff more so far... probably more if I understood everything they said.

The Mysterious CIties of Gold S3E5 - Le bouclier miroir

Where we left off

The kids are now trapped in the cave with the mirror shield. Turning it upside down the medallions activate it somehow as golden liquid tentacles (for lack of a better word) emerges from the back of the shield, touch the medlions and from there active some scripture on the surface. All I got out of it was something about between fire and earth... and it means volcano. The next city of gold is in the volcano just out of Kagoshima. Turning the shield again they realizes that the front of the shield is a map and touching the volcano creates a symbol. The kids are interupted by Pichu and discover a way out by climbing up in the cave and finding the water that creates the waterfall outside so they ride it into the pond. They board the condor and return to Yoshi, the old man and his two kids where they are brought up to speed on Mendoza and friends.

Meanwhile Mendoza and co are waiting in their nicer prison cell. Sancho and Pedro eats the food while Mendoza are looking at Ambosius outside fixing the airship. Gaspard arrives to get Medoza to the lord. The lord wants his help in finding the lost city of gold... I think, the translator turns it into the golden fleece and it is hard to know if it is a mistake or the actual thing he is looking for. With it anyway the lord is aspiring to unite Japan with himself as shogun. Mendoza asks to think about it over the night. Gaspard have been given the right to take Ambrosius stuff back to him, but the lord ain't happy and Mendoza gets his eye on the compass. As he is escorted back by Gaspard he goats him enough so that he can steal the compass and with it cripple Ambrosius ability to track the condor and the childre.

Ambrosius is furious that the compass is missing and decide to get rid of Mendoza the best way is to give Gaspard a gun he have hidden and the episode ends on Gaspard doing some tricks before pointing at the camera. That is all, and the documentary wasn't part of the episode I watched, which is a bummer since it's part of the experience.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold S3E4 - La colère du Naï No Kam

It's again airborne

Been a while, but now we're back with more episodes of the Mysterious Cities of Gold. As I stated last time, 5 seconds later and they saved Estaban from the water, but one of the guards at the temple entrance notices something and begins tracking them while they are in the temple. Hiding from the guard they are trying to wait for the parade of the mirror shield and listen in to some local story about putting a rock on a piece of paper and if it connects you will marry the one. Of course Zia puts it in thirst and Estaban and Tao try their best to get their own piece of paper in the pond. Nothing happened in this episode with that so I won't know if it will come back. The ceremony starts, but as they try to keep up Zia feels something and believes that another earthquake are coming. Now, usually in these type of shows one would have seen signs like animals acting weird or running away, but out of the blue it seemed like she felt it, making me wonder if they are hinting that she also possess some (as of yet) unexplained powers? If Estaban is connected with the sun and sky, is she connected to the earth? Well, she warns the people moments before the earthquake erupts, they are caught by the guard, but break free and after saving Tao from falling into a crack created by the earthquake they follow one of the guards that have taken the Shield and hidden it in its safe place. They hide while the guard closes the room and approaches the shield and the episode ends on them finding it.

Meanwhile Ambrosius and Gaspard joins forces to stop Mendoza and get the airship working again. Mendoza and Co are hiding in the village and waiting for the right moment to board the portuguese ship that is guarded by the daiymo's men. The earthquake happens and the guards scatters, but as they are about to board the ship a mother cries out about her two children trapped in their burning house. Mendoza tells Sancho and Pedro to board the ship and he will join them later, but they follow him instead. He position himself in the doorway and holds it up with his own body while Sancho and Pedro grabs the children and run out. The daimyo's second-in-command that have patrolled the town for Mendoza arrives and witness the scene just as the house gives way and buried Mendoza in the rubble. And I like this scene as it just shows the faces of the people standing there in shock and then a close up on Mendozas cape that flickers in the rubble, and then, like freaking Hercules emerging from the Hydra in Disney's Hercules Mendoza stands up, pushing the rubble away from him. And then they get captured and the daimyo himself appears wondering why they didn't just leave, but risked their lives saving some strangers they didn't even know. Sadly I didn't catch what Mendoza answered due to the language barrier. They are arrested again, but treated better this time around.

So no cliffhanger this time around. Nice. The mini-documentary was about the temple and the customs we observed during the episode. I even think it's the same temple that Soma Cruz entered in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow to enter Dracula's Castle. Mostly it was the stairs that looked the same. I really wish there was an official english version (or I even take a proper english subtitled french version).

Wild Guns Reloaded

Västerns hjälte Lucky Luke, kommer på sin häst,

Rider genom staden, vad ska ske här näst?

So I got the remake of Wild Guns for the switch. I played the original on the Wii U (although never finished it since I suck at it). Pretty much a normal shooter avoiding enemy fire while mowing down hordes of enemies all across the screen. Story is that Annie is seeking revenge on the man who killed her family together with the bounty hunter Clint (who looks a bit like a buffer Clint Eastwood who I assume he is named after) so you battle your way through 6 different stages fighting cowboys and mechs. Yeah, it's another anachronistic steam punk game. Cool.

Tuffast utav alla, drar och skjuter snabbt!

It's not much to the game really. I played through it in one hour on the simplest difficulty just to get past the bullet hell. It's strenght would be the multiplayer action that allows up to 4 player to play locally (2 players in the original) and control the constant barage of enemies and bullets better. I assume that is since me moving out of my parents house I don't have the docking station for the switch with me while meeting my sisters so I can't just hook it up. But maybe I make the effort to bring it with me for Christmas.

Skjuter skott på skott, träffar alltid nåt

Hans namn är Lucky Luke

It has great graphics and the music is really good, but the difficulty is hard. Still waiting for the Sunset Rider remaster with 4-player co-op.

Swedish Election 2018

Boy oh boy, a four year chaotic period is finally over and the Swedish people have elected... yet another "no winner" set of parliament. And now even the Sweden Democrats (SD) can't be that happy with the result since they were well and above 20+ % and the spot as the largest or second largest party and instead they ended up third with just at 17% and the Moderat (M) party at 19% (close to 20). You could tell that all the fear and anxiety that have been building in all the parties pretty much died around 22:00 on election day. The Green Party (MP) didn't leave parliament, the Left (V) and Centre (C) parties had some really good results, but compared to the above 10% they were polling with 7-8% as the result are a bit disappointing. Contrast that with the Social Democrats (S) that expected under 25% and falling from 31% to 28% was kinda good. The only one genuinely happy would be the Christian Democrats (KD) that not only made their best result in 20 years, but also showed that even though they polled 2% in the beginning of the year you couldn't count them out. And us Liberals (L), well we gained 0,1 so we went from 5,4 to 5,5%. First time we got a better result than last election for 12 years. Gotta be happy for those small things.

So what happens now? It's to close to call (red-greens 144 seats (V+S+MP), alliance 142 (L+C+M+KD) and the Sweden Democrats 63 seats) so everyone awaits the recount at the County Administrative Boards of Sweden were all pre-votes, foreign votes and at first glance disqualified votes are counted together with every other vote and it might or might not change some swing seats. For example one seat I saw was only given to the Sweden Democrats from the Centre party with a margin of 7 votes. Usually the ca 50 000 foreign votes are leaning more heavily to the bourgeois parties so that could be beneficial. Not enough for a majority, but if the Alliance get more than the red greens and maybe snatch 2-3 seats to be the biggest block there is more likely that they can dethrone the Social Democrats. Which I would prefer anyway, but what are you gonna do?

So how will the future government look like? The alliance can't create a majority without leening on either the Social Democrats or the Sweden Democrats. The Social Democrats won't since they will not get the prime minister post and the Liberals and Centre parties have trouble getting support from the Sweden Democrats. So I think that the Moderats will create a minority government with the Christian Democrats and get the Liberals and Centre to support the budget and get passive support from the Sweden Democrats while making a deal with the Social Democrats on "fixing" the migration issue and get supported by the Sweden Democrats, and with it expelling the question and hopefully bring it back to economical reforms of the Swedish economy, workers rights and housing issues. Why do I believe this? Because if all the promises each party have done, that is the logical conclusion. L and C can't sit in government supported by SD, and they won't support a red-green government (S+MP), SD have also said they can't support a government with MP or C (and I would assume V and L, but that haven't come up). S won't support any other than themselves, MP is to small to support the Alliance and the Alliance don't want support from V and KD and M have said they will bring down S no matter the cost. And that is the reality. If no one breaks their promises we will have a M+KD government in a couple weeks. And I'm OK with that. 

And now to some trivia. I have yet again been able to be caught on camera by the Swedish Television as they filmed the local election night watch parties. So you can spot me on the Alliance Watch party around 23 seconds in, but I wont tell where I am so for those that doesn't know me have to guess:

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/val2018/inget-block-far-egen-majoritet-i-nykoping

Happy Post-Election Day and see you on the other side!

Paper Mario: The Thousand YearDoor (GCN)

A fun adventure albeit a bit "thin"... hehe

So not finishing my cravings for the Gamecube I put in a more lighthearted RPG, Paper Mario. The first Paper Mario game I ever played since we skipped the one for the N64 for some reason. So it starts out with Princess Peach being on holiday (?) in Rougeport, a place of scum and villainy built upon the ruins of an old city that was destroyed 1000-years ago. There she gets a box that only she can open which reveals a treasure map she sends to Mario so he can help her find the treasure. So when he arrives the Princess have been kidnapped so together with new friends he must find the seven crystal stars and find Princess Peach.

All the worlds a stage and all the men and women merely players

It's basically go to a new place, find some upgrade and/or a new companion, defeat the boss, get the crystal star. Then it shifts to Princess Peach in the villains lair, the so called X-Nauts, befriending the AI computer TEC that for some reason falls in love with Peach so he helps her as well as uncovering a lot of the plot. And then it shifts to Bowser trying to find Peach and Mario and trying to get the crystal stars before everyone else. All in all it turns out the old city was destroyed by a demon and it was locked up  behind the door by the crystals star by four heroes (which is hinted at being trapped in the black chest that gives you powers like turning at the side, becoming a roll and turning into boat and a plane) and the X-Nauts are going to use Princess Peach as a vessel for the demon. So with your friends, the seven crystal stars and the prayers from the people all around the world you defeat the Shadow Queen and everything works out fine. 

Let's go Bastille day on this queen

Framing story is simple, but it's the moments that are the most fun. For example the arena Glitzpit where you climb to the top in a tournament fighting the RAWK HAWK, or taking the train to Poshley Heights and it is filled with murder mystery cliches. Certain chapters are more fun than others. The Boogley Woods I recall put me to sleep the first time I played it back when I got the game. Funny enough I still got my old save so I looked through it. I finished the game 2 hours earlier (at 43 hours this time) with 3 less levels and less Hearts and Flower Points in this new run, but I also finished all the troubles and found the secret companion and every shine sprite and 99 star pieces. The only thing I actually did in the old save I would like to do is finishing the 100 pit trail and defeat Bonetail, but I guess I would need some more resources since I can't have played the game as good like this time. Looking at the badges I just used more Hearts and Flowers with are rather useless compared to the right combination of badges so I learned something this time around.

It's a fun game (Bowser getting owned by Gonzales, Mario and Luigi in finding the crystal stars gave me a chuckle), a pity it was the last of it's kind... although Super Paper Mario is inbetween the old and current style of the game, but it changed a lot compared to the first two games. I can see why though, they probably had no new ideas to take the series forward in the same direction. The companions would probably have been repeats and the goomba and koopa show sign of this since they are just the same characters once again. Replaying it was rather fun and having played the original game as well since then I noted several call backs that I missed the first time, both to characters and locations. First obvious one is Kolorado who was an archeologist in the first game that was the father to the koopa of that game and his father showed up here... as a dead body after a fight with Hooktail the dragon, but it was fun knowing who he referred to. Also it's rather fun to see all the times the developers cramed in several hundred characters in the scene to show off the power of the Gamecube compared to the N64.

Star Fox Adventure (GCN)

I actually liked it

Since I was playing the N64 again I thought give the Rare games a spin since I don't own a console that can play those game at home (the one and only reason I ever is interested in a XBox One in order to get the Rare Replay... and maybe the Mistwalker games). Sadly my sister have taken the Banjo-Kazooie games that I first intended to play so I picked up Diddy Kong Racing instead. Never finished it and didn't do it this time either, but I got further and only have one single stage left before defeating the dragon boss for the second time. So I picked up Jet Force Gemini, still stuck at the double boss at Lupus stage. Picked up Perfect Dark and got to the end boss on easy, but got killed. Tried getting invincible cheat to finally see the end credits, no. Couldn't finish the first stage on hard and actually got out of the Datadyne Tower intro stages on medium difficulty, but not further than that. Put in GoldenEye instead, sound not working so I should probably try to clean the cartridge and couldn't finish the first stage. Then I put in Shadow of the Empire instead, finished the speed-racer and space station stages before the sewer did me in. Put on some Castlevania 64 and actually got to the castle for the first time, where I got my ass kicked and closed the game. Then I remembered another Rare game, Star Fox Adventure on the GameCube.  No memory card though since all of them was at my place so I played the first half of the game in one go and then restarted when I got home on my Wii with memory card plugged in.

I think the graphics looks nice 16 years after the release (compared to many N64 games).

Simply put the game starts with the fox girl Krystal arriving at Dinosaur planet following a distress signal on a pterodactyl (called Cloudrunners in the game) where she is attacked by a flying ship that belongs to general Scales, the tyrant that almost have conquered the planet. Her staff fall to the planet and she is able to esquape to Krazoa palace, a holy place for the dinosaurs where she finds a krazoa spirit and releases it in the temple, but she gets caught in a crystal (ha) by an unseen force. Cut to the Star Fox team that have lost Falco and gets a mission by General Pepper to investigate Dinosaur Planet since it threatens to blow up the whole system (since the planet is being teared apart by the magical forces in the planet when Scales took the four Spellstones that kept the energies in check). As Fox arrives at the planet he is tasked with finding the prince of the Earthwalkers (triceratops) that have been kidnapped by the SharpClaw clan (General Scales army).  Doing so put Prince Tricky as your companion that can help in certain puzzles. 

Escort Mission: The Game

So get the Gatekeepers to open the portals to the floating continents in space, fly there, get spellstone, take it to one of two force point temples, get a Krazoa spirit and take it to the Krazoa palace in order to release it, rinse and repeat. And I gotta say, I liked the game when it came out, I finished it several times, but playing it again... it's rather linear. There's hardly any sidequests and only thing is getting stuff you don't actually need. Mostly cheat tokens that hardly does anything or Bafamdads (1-ups) that you hardly will use after the first spellstone gives you an extra heart container, or Airwing energy-balls that you need a minimum amount of that you shouldn't have any problem with getting. Your progress is constantly determined if you can get item A or do quest B that enables you to get onward, either giving you a ability or giving you the ability for more money to get another item or pay your way past a checkpoint. Why? Why can't I explore and try to find the krazoas in between on my own? Is this Rare's commentary on the rail-shooter by doing the whole adventure on the same style? Well, the reason is that the development got cut short since Microsoft bought out Rare and they finished this as their final game for Nintendo. And it was even in development for the N64, but titles Dinosaur Planet and without anything Star Fox. Now, I know that some people would have liked to see the original intent (and I would lie if I wasn't curious at the time the gaming magazines reported on it) and some people seems to really hate this Star Fox game. I get it if you want a on rails-shooter, but to me this was much more fun than the rails-shooter. It had enough deep story (although now I would say there's some weird things story wise). Then again, I only played the original Star Fox game and not the N64 that everyone seems to love.

I really like the design of the Airwing in this

You get all the stuff and at the top of Krazoa Palace a mysterious force makes General Scales give Fox the last spirit and releasing that and freeing Krystal, Andross awakens once again (being the mysterious force that trapped Krystal and controlled Scales) so Fox follows him on the Airwing and after fighting of the first waves of Andross Falco appears giving you bombs so Fox can blow the brains of Andross once again. Day saved, pay check arrived and Krystal thanks Fox by joining the Star Fox crew. It felt a bit rushed in the end, especially that you never fought General Scales and Andross was a bit from the left field, although it can be chalked up to be the constant enemy for Fox... although he wasn't there for the next two games if I recall. Overall I still liked it, but it is a bit much gathering items that you hardly use (why do I need 31 fairies to light my way when it's only required twice or to have over 100 energy-balls when only around 20 is necessary to complete the game?) and the linearity of the game makes replays rather redundant. You can't really miss anything except things that doesn't help you in any way. Wish they were able to let it stew a bit longer, but sadly it wasn't to be, but it was at least over 10 hours to play the game, but I have forgotten much since I was perplexed several times over the solutions of the puzzles.

Shadowgate 64: Trails of the Four Towers (N64)

Time for an adventure

As you noticed I've been playing some Nintendo 64 at my parents place at the moment and I dug up this old game which I never finished. I get that it is a continuation from an old adventure game that had a port on the NES and I guess the reason they made this to the N64. I've never played that game, but I read about it in some Nintendo magazines. So story is that you are Del Cottonwood, a halfling that traveled in a caravan that got attacked outside of castle Shadowgate and brought to the dungeon by the thieves inhabiting it. So your mission is to get out. 

Damn, those graphics haven't aged well

It wasn't mostly blind, certain things I remember, but I never finished it and only got half-way through the game. So I played it only trying to find the solutions from the game it self. So I tried looking and talking to everyone. So, next to your cell you have an imprisoned wizard that tells you the deal of the castle. During the conversation the dungeon keeper arrives with some food that you devour and finds a bone. Looking at the bed of hay you find a sewer grate that you bend up with the bone and your out. And here I find the first problem. Right behind me behind a gate of iron (that you can't pass) there is a plank of wood and a floating bottle. You can't pick it up and the game doesn't tell you why since it can't clearly know what you look at since their is no cursor in this 3D environment. And you get bottles later on so that is just irritating. Anyway, you get out of the sewers and enters the tower of disiples where you met the apparition of Lakmir appears, the sorcerer that was one of the founders of the Circle of Twelve and ally and friend to King Jair, the man who I get is the main character of the original Shadowgate. Lakmir guides you on the quest to stop Belzar, the former apprentice that have turned to the dark side and intends to relase the Warlock Lord, Lakmirs brother Talmir and another founder of the Circle of Twelve. So I'm supposed to get to Lakmir's tower to find some magical artefacts I need on my quest. Problem is, I can't get out of the tower.

And get it, the exit is right behind you... if it wasn't locked.

Now, the solution was using a pixie flute at a certain area in order to shrink and climb down a rope you tied to a window. The thing is, I guess the name says what it does, but it only works at that one spot. And the book that are supposed to help you especially points out that he doesn't know how to use it. Thanks game. I got out into the graveyard and entered the cathedral finding my way up to the roof and into the tower of Lakmir. And here I was at my best. Using the books and text I found I was able to go through the whole tower and getting my hands on the three rings hidden away.

Wizards, magic rings, a dragon and a halfling? Someone been reading the Hobbit.

One of the rings give me the power of talking with the dead. So all corpses, skeletons and gravestones now can talk back. More information, but this time gotta remember it on my own. Damn you game. And now I gotta leave this place. After running around the graveyard, cathedral and tower a couple of times I looked it up and apparently I missed a key in one room in the tower. It was in the colour of rust at grey floor. If I didn't know the room they described I wouldn't have found it. So with that I could leave the two first towers and finding some actually living people. Running around solving errands for the dead and living I finally get to enter the third tower for the first time ever. I recall being afraid of some poisoned gas thing that would kill me going through this tower... that I must have imagined before entering the tower since it isn't here. Maybe I interpreted the two mazes as being that. One had a poison that made the game controls reversed and you had to go through a room with spinning blades (you solve this by using the blue ring you got with the red dead ring which have the same effect, but since you already affected it puts you back to normal). Another maze there is taking a burning candle to the other side before the candle burns out. After doing it some time I checked the solution since I spent to much time on it and it rather annoyed me). Entering the final room you stand before three mirrors and looking in each of them you need to decided who you really are and then walk backwards into the mirror (of course I choose the wrong ones every time and just reloaded so I didn't have to redo all the tower all the time). Behind the mirror was another ring, the ring of the Kingdom. With that you open the locked door in the towers of diciples to get the dragon flute so that you can enter the final tower, the dragon's tower. And you basically just walks around it. Pick up all the stuff and there is pretty much only one puzzle and it is a damn music puzzle. Listen to  a song and the recreate it with four statues by pulling the correct wing in the right order. I looked that up since I'm bad at this. And then you find a petrified dragon with a staff stuck in the head. Using the ring of the kingdom picks it up and you enter the end game. The dwarven soldiers of Belzar now looks for you so you put the stable on fire to distract them and run for the chamber Belzar is planning the resurrection of the Warlock Lord. Blocking your path is a man named Saul, who turns out gave Belzar the staff he believes to be the Staff of the Ancients that you picked up on the dragon tower. Showing him his mothers necklace you got from her dead corpse he sees his madness and helps you inside. While inside the chamber you see the fake staff and puts on a dragon eye from the dragon tower and hides behind a tower as Belzar appears and starts the ritual.

The graphics really are blocky

As he performs it the staff explodes killing him and the chamber crashes in. From the rubble Del heads out and find himself around the fountain area. From the chamber the visage of the Warlock Lord appears and Lakmir tells me it it up to me now, since he doesn't know what to do and he wish Jair was here. The thing is that in the fountain area a statue of Jair stands. Putting the Staff of Ancients and the ring of the Kingdom at the statue enables it to come to live and pierce the Warlock Lord by throwing the staff and the world is saved. Del rides away on the dragon and credits roll.

Moments before his death

It was atmospherical. Playing it again after all these years and actually understanding what was written in the books and papers made the world itself come alive. I got a real itch to play the original game now and maybe I pick up the remake on steam or such one day. There is problems with it though, for one, after checking the save time right before the end I just spent just over 5 hours on the game. It's short. As mentioned pixel hunt for items on the floor or knowing what you can interact with or pick up would need to be refined. The graphics overall could need an overhaul, but the music is nice at times. Fun to finish it for the first time. I definitely gotta use some of these things for a DnD campaign.

Mystical Ninja 64 Starring Goemon (N64)

Gambares oh Gambares

So I was home for a while and hooked up my family Nintendo 64, dug out the memory pak and played some Mystical Ninja. And boy did I have a great time. It starts with a flying peach ship enters above the town of Ode and turn the castle into a european castle stage. Goemon and Ebisumaru sets out to save the king and princess. Traversing mount Fuji to get a chain pipe they then enters the castle and defeats a giant machine and then can leave the town. Outside of town near the wise man's house they see it destroyed with only a seashell left. The guys that took the castle appears and summons a giant robot so you blow the horn and are taken up by Impact to the best song of the whole game:

BREAKDOWN

And now you fight a giant mech battle with laser beams. And I sucked at these as a kid. Which is no surprise, you can't train the moves and can only find them in the manual which I had to look up right before the battle. But I beat him and travelled to Zazen town where you meet up with the police ninja Yae. Leaving the town you pick up the lifeless robot Sasuke. You intercept a blue dragon that have been brainwashed to kidnap children and destroy the control mechanism. You save the kids at the next castle. Find some batteries for Sasuke and start him up. Find the third castle and learn that they are striking at an island near Japan. Getting there you meet the waitress Omitsu (who Goemon have a crush on) and as she enters the island the whole thing is transported into space. You travel north to meet the witch that summons a projection of the wise one that tell you of a stone ring nearby that can take you to space if you gather the four magical items who you now have three of. In the north sea of Japan you find a submarine with food and learn that the item is in Zazen since the commander dropped it on his holiday. You battle a giant water mech and then head back to Zazen and after some fetch quest finally get it. 

TOO SPACE

After battling through the hordes of the peach mountain shogun you find Omitsu and the wise men, who was alive and built the machines and robots for the peach mountain guys. In exchange for car magazines... that got blown up as his house exploded. Which is rather ridicules and goes together with all the other absurdity in the game, but I know there were some other kind of magazine which they censored out. Anyway, entering the final stage the best music of the game plays and you reach the main bad guys that decide to put on a show... and then disappear and turn on the self-destruct. Leading to the final Impact stage. A two-stages boss battle. I survived on the minimum of health left (which is better than the time we both reached zero life points and I lost, which is rather bullshit). Afterwards we travel back to Japan and is attacked by a horde of women who wanted to see Dancin' and Kitty Lilly (the name of the bad guys), blaming Goemon and his friends. Then credits. 

The whole gang

First time I finished it on 100 % so I got some extra mode where you only fight the mecha-bosses. I finished it once before and I checked the time now, 15 hours. Damn, that isn't that long. I really like this game. The music and setting is amazing, the humour is hit and miss, but there is some laughs at the absurdity of it. The camera can be a bit wonky and the hit boxes are weird at times. But it is functional. I wish they had ported it over to a newer system or even remade it for the 3DS or something like that. I have some strong memories from childhood from this game, mostly replaying the game over and over since I couldn't save without a game pak so the first part of the game is rather ingrained into my memory almost 20 years after playing it. 

Final Fantasy IV (DS)

Couldn't find the white cover that I have

So after III it was right over to IV and thank god it was on the DS so the lighting was superior. Doesn't hurt with some voice acting, improved sound quality and 3d graphics... well, 3d graphics have a tendency to be really weird at times, but it's alright for this game. I can see what they were going for compared to the original. Never played the SNES version (although I guess I have it on the Wii U virtual console), but like every other Final Fantasy game I got this one for PSOne, then GBA... and again for the DS. I never finished it at the PSOne, but once on the GBA and this is the second time on the DS. So of course I used the New Game + feature. It is rather weird though since it only works two times, then you have to restart... why? Well, I guess since part of the game is using abilities and transferering them across the players, more than three playthroughs breaks the game. 

A pity the SFX in the movies take away the purity of the music, especially in the intro scene

The game starts with the Dark Knight Cecil returning home to Baron after raiding Mysidia for their water crystal on the orders of the king of Baron. Apparently spilling the blood of mysidians in an unjust way. This creates self-doubt in Cecil who confronts the king and is stripped of his command of the Red Wings, the airship brigade, and is tasked to deliver a package to the village of Mist. Joining him in his banishment is Kain Highwind, son of Rickard (a callback to Final Fantasy II I believe, but are they saying that the games exist in the same universe?). Travelling to the village they slay the Mist Dragon that guards the village, but as they enter the package is a Bomb Ring that burns the whole village. Cecil and Kain finds a girl named Rydia who mourns her mother that died as "her dragon was slain", implicating that Cecil murdered her. As this was the last straw he rebels and together with Kain and Rosa (Cecil's girlfriend back in Baron Castle) tries to fight the mad king. Unfortunately Rydia is a bit upset and as Kain pushes her to much to leave with them since the village is burned she summons Gaia that causes a landslide with Kain on one side and Cecil and Rydia on the other. Cecil takes the girl to the nearby desert town and is attacked in the night by Baron soldiers who he fights back. In the same village they find Rosa that escaped Baron but is caught with desert fever which you need a sand pearl from the antlions den that the royal family of Damicyian guards. So you set of and meet the sage Tellah that is looking for his daughter that ran away with a bard. As they near Damycian castle it is attacked by the Red Wings killing most inside it, including Tellah's daughter Anna. The bard appears to be the prince of Damycian Edward and Tellah sets out to kill Golbez, the new commander of the Red Wings. Edward joins Cecil, gets the pearl, get Rosa and travel to Fabul where another crystal is kept (the second one being in Damycian and the reason for the attack). On the way they meet Yang, the master monk that is ambushed by monsters that are an advanced troop of Golbez. Saving him they reach the castle of Fabul and fortify it against attacks. After several battles Cecil is cornered in the crystal room as Kain enters. Apparently out of it he attacks Cecil relentlessly and would have killed him if Rosa didn't intervene. This forces Golbez to appear, take the crystal and Rosa and disappear. Those left behind gets a ship to attack Baron by sea. En route they are attacked by Leviathan and everyone falls off. Cecil ends up back in Mysida and ask for forgiveness from the elders. They send him with two twin mages on quest to become a Paladin by climbing the Mountain of Ordeals where he meet Tellah again on his quest for Meteor and the first archfiend that serve Golbez. Defeating him you enter a chamber within the mountain and is ordained by some light to a Paladin and by fighting off the dark knight within you taking the battle against darkness.

Playing this the first time it took me a real long time getting through the fight, shame on me.

Back in Mysidia, sneak back to Baron, save a brainwashed Yang, fight another archfiend posing as the king and rescue Cid, the airship engineer that leads you to his newest ship, Enterprise. On the way you are about to be crushed by some walls (Star wars reference I presume) and the twin mages turns themselves to stone in order to stop the walls. Leaving on the airship another approaches, its Kain with demands for the fourth and final crystal in exchange for Rosa. Cecil and co travel and meet a bed ridden Edward that gives you a weed. Since the crystal have been stolen by the dark elf (who looks like the dark elf Astos from Final Fantasy I) who have hidden himself in a cave where metal paralyze you, so bring alternative weapons and armours. Fighting your way down the weed communicate with Edward who plays a song that makes the elf lose concentration on the spell that makes metal worthless and then you beat him up. Get the crystal, take it to the tower of Zot, fight your way to the top, and Tellah attacks Golbez with Meteor making Golbez release Kain from the spell while escaping, but ending Tellah's life. They save Rosa, fight another fiend and returns to Baron and are told there is a set of four other crystals that can be found under the surface that will help activate the tower of Babil. They find a way inside the core of the earth were they meet dwarves at war with Golbez. Cid stays behind working on the enterprise as it got shoot down. Apparently two crystals still remain, one behind the dwarf kings throne room, which Yang senses some evil from. Entering you fight some dolls, then Golbez appears killing of everyone except Cecil and then... Rydia appears helping you fight him off. He still steals the crystal. They attack the tower of Babil to get back the other crystals. On the way there Yang sacrifices himself by destroying the cannon room as it is about to destroy the dwarven army. The others leave and are dropped from the bridge and rescued by Cid as one of the Red Wings follow them. Cid jumps the ship and blows up the entrence to the core. They travel to Elban, the ninja kingdom that have been overrun by Golbez and search their diaspora and saves prince Edge. They end back up at the core and asked to get the last crystal. Before that I traveled to the world of Eidolons (summons) and then the Fairy cave where a comatosed Yang lies asleep tended to by the sylph. Then get the crystal, Kain falls back into the brainwash and takes the crystal. Returning to the dwarven castle Cid survived and installed a drill to return to the surface world. I saved Yang by meeting his wife and get a frying pan, went back and hit him over the head. He wakes, but have to rest so sylph becomes your new summon. And then you return to Mysida where they pray so much so that a giant space ship appears from the waters and you can travel to the moon.

TOO THE MOON

On the moon (or rather one of the two moons around the planet) you meet Fusoya who tells you that Cecil is half-lunarian, son to his brother Kluya who was the light on the mountain of Ordeals. Golbez is being controlled by a lunarian named Zemus that intends to summon the giant of Babil to destroy the life on the planet and claim it for the lunarians. They return to the planet but are to late as the giant walks forward from the tower. All hope seems lost, then... the giant is attacked by the combined forces of the Red Wings and dwarven tanks. Everyone is here, Yang, Cid and Edward together with the forces from the free kingdoms. The giant stagger and Cecil gets a chance to enter it, destroying the CPU and confronting Golbez again. Fusoya banish the influence of Zemus and it is revealed that Golbez is Cecil brother... named Theodore in a new cutscene for this version explaining how it came that Golbez turned evil (or more likely being suggestive to evil) and Cecil ended up at Baron under the kings guard. Cured Fusoya and Golbez travels to the moon to fight Zemus. Kain is back and joins you again. You gather all weapons you can get, summons and armours. Then travel back t the moon where you enter the longest dungeon of the game, get the best weapons and armours, fight several bosses and finally reaches Zemus. And Golbez and Fusoya kills him with a twin Meteor. Thanks. It's not really the end since dying only pissed him of so you can fight him in two forms as Zeromus. Beat him and the game is over. Edge becomes king of Elban thinking of Rydia, Yang, King of Fabul, Edward king of Damycian, Rydia back in the land of Eidolons and Kain walking some mountain to atone for his weakness. Then to the coronation of Cecil and Rosa as the King and Queen of Baron with every one but Kain attending.

It was fun playing it again. And the DS is the superior version although it's fun to play the GBA version where you can switch back to the other characters than the five ordained by the game developers. Although the compromise of having their abilities are a nice trade of, but why diminish it with the only three new game +? It's definitely easier than the older games with save points within dungeons (if you exclude the GBA insta-save feature). I had to grind more than the other games in the beginning and then I tried grinding for tails for the ultimate equipment, but I got nil. Instead I reached level 90 so something good with that. I liked the story and playing it the first time I got emotionally invested in the characters that died and returning to life. Of course, the first playthrough I didn't know Yang survived until the giant of Babil segment (and I think it actually works better).  The grinding is also much more fun and I would attribute it to the fact that I can see the progress bar after every encounter and can with just a glance guess how many battles I need to fight. And thank good for the bestiary function that shows every enemies data... all the time, in every battle. I don't have to memorise every enemy and I can gauge the attacks needed to off the monster. And they stay after every playthrough. Clearly superior version, but maybe I should put Final Fantasy on hold for a while since I'm getting RPG overdose after four games in a row.

Final Fantasy III (DS)

First time in Europe

Continued with the third game in the series and as the only version released in Europe was the DS version there was no other choice. The game begins with Luneth (the main character) falling into a cave where he is guided by one of the four crystals. He returns to the surface and the village of Ur where the village elder wish him luck on his journey out unto the world since he have nothing that binds him to the town since he was an orphan that was cared for by the elder. Trying to say goodbye to his friend Arc that tries to stand on his own legs, Arc runs away to the neighbouring town that have been rumoured turned into a ghost town. The town have been cursed by a djinni and one of the ghosts are the airship captain Cid that allows you to use his ship to get to the djinni's cave. The ship already have a passanger in Refia, the blacksmith's apprentice. All three travels to the castle to look for a mithril ring that is said to banish the djinni that belongs to Princess Sarah. Arriving you found the knight Ingus that follow you to the cave and finding Sarah you battle the djinni and returning everything back to normal.

First boss of the game

After that you return to the crystal and gets what is the most important gameplay mechanic, the jobs. Each crystal you save will give you a set number of jobs that you can use to get different abilities or let you use different equipment. First is the classic classes from the original Final Fantasy: Warrior, Thief, Black Mage, Red Mage, White Mage and Monk. So I began with a classic setup that they even show in the intro movie, Warrior, Black Mage, White Mage and Red Mage. Also due to knowing what I need. For one, the magic in this game have secondary function outside of battle. Mini and Toad affects how you play due to shrinking your character or turning you into a frog to pass certain areas in the game. It's like Golden Sun in that magic affects the world around you. Unfortunately it's only used like 3-4 times. It also have the problem that mini causes normal attacks being worthless so you have to rely on magic... actually forcing your character to use jobs with magic. And due to not being any restorative items for magic (with exception of Elixir, but you want that at the end of the game so don't use it), magic need to be rationed. Golden Sun improved that idea by locking the characters in monster free areas for puzzles and the ability to regain psynergy points by moving around making it impossible to lose or restart a dungeon. Sad they never used the ideas of mini and toad spells.

Where is Golden Sun 4?

So after rescuing everyone the four set of out into the world trying to find the other crystals and help people they meet. Escorting Cid home to his wife in Caanan you learn of Daesh, a man that left his girlfriend while climbing a mountain and having amnesia. Climbing the mountain gets you caught my Bahamut that takes you to it's nest and you need to escape. Daesh joins you as you travel to the gnomish village and later the village of Vikings where you get a ship. Back to Caanan Cid tells you of king Argus that can help you turn the ship into an airship. He's gone so instead go to the village of Dwarves get to the Fire Crystal, but a whirlpool blocks the way out of the inner sea so you climb the tower of the ancients where Daesh remember who he is and sacrifices himself to stop the tower engine to blow up and casting the continent to the world (since it is revealed that it is a floating continent above the real world). The whirlpool disappears and you can get to the fire crystal and get more jobs. Like the scholar which you need since you arrive to a town under attack from the soldiers of the king Argus that kidnapped you and took you to the ancient fairy tree where you learn the king was betrayed by his advisor. He shift what his weakness is so you got to use the sage that have a free Libra move so you can see what it is. And as stated, magic need to be saved up. Defeating him lets you get the airship running and you can leave the island and at the same time learn from Cid that you all came from the world below right before it was covered in darkness. So first order of business is to undo that so you travel to a ship to get the priestess Aria to join you. You now can reach the water crystal where Kraken attacks and kills Aria as she saves Luneth so you kill him and get a set of new jobs. 

I don't know about the viking job

Now you get some boots to get to a gold manor to get the key to get back your airship back. Which quickly gets blown up at the kingdom of Saronia where there is a civil war enacted by the king to train the army. Well, of course he is brainwashed by his advisor so as you protect the prince you defeat the advisor, but not before the king dies so the prince is now the king. You now get a super quick ship called the Nautilus that allows you to reach Doga's Manor, one of the apprentices to the great sage Noah. Doga got the gift of magic, Unei the gift of the dreams while Xande got the gift of mortality. So he is the bad guy. Doga enchants your ship to travel underwater to get a lute to awaken Unei so you can get another airship, the Invincible which allows you to reach areas beyond mountains. Where you gather the last of four fangs you found during the adventure that is the key to open the four barriers that block the way to the crystal tower where Xande lives. Doga and Unei also sacrifices their mortal bodies to give you the keys you need in order to enter the tower as well as reach Eureka, the place where you can get the best magic and equipment. Which you need. 

Get used to your characters dying

To tell the truth I got all the way to the crystal tower with level 40 something and I got my ass kicked. So I got my old save where I was level 61 and did the dungeons I missed the last time I played when the game was released. I missed Bahamut's Lair, the treasure cave and the Saronia Catacombs, missing the most powerful summons (that I instead bought in Eureka). And with that I used two ninjas, one sage and one devout to get through the crystal tower, finding a mirror that locked me in place until Doga got the people I saved during my journey. Sarah, Cid, Daesh (who survived the engine room), the prince and one of the four old men you saved in a sewer. They help you so you can fight of Xande. Killing him reveals the true enemy, the Cloud of Darkness that intends to drag the world into the void. The Cloud kills you, but you are resurrected by Doga and Unei sacrificing (?) their souls. Entering the Void you fight four bosses releasing the four warriors of Darkness that saved the world a millenia ago when it was about to be destroyed by Light. With their help you now are able to fight of the Cloud and with that restore the world. Returning your friends and then traveling home (Ingus the only one getting the girl in Princess Sarah). The End!

Evil Woman (by ELO or Black Sabbath, both songs are ok)

Is that really the whole game? No, being on the DS it have some forced social aspects. You can use moogles to send letter to 5 NPC's and friends. If you send something like 7-10 letters you can get more letters from the NPC's letting you get access to a secret blacksmith and secret dungeon. No such luck for unsocial me, and now it's even harder since the server is down so you got to use local multiplayer... in Sweden... on a DS... great luck with that. So I'm actually looking into getting another copy of this and Dragon Quest IX to actually get everything... if I only knew where my DS Lite is. So back to the game as is. It's enjoyable but hard, especially with the forced 10 hours grind I had to do to finish the game (which I know by looking at my 35 hours finished file and the 20 hours save I used). It has nice mechanics with the job where you are expected to use different jobs in certain situations, but I ask myself why they even bother enforcing a couple of battles before the job is adjusted. Well, it's probably realistic, but the gameplay is hindered. For example I for some reason used Luneth as a thief in the new save racking up some rather high levels on that job, but you need that job to unlock doors until you get a third through the game and can buy keys. But the old save I've spent 0 levels on thief on any character meaning I walked by that. And the reason is probably I didn't use that class and never got that I could do it. Meaning thief, black mage, white mage and red mage at start and then shift red mage to monk and later scholar and then back to monk since the thief and monk are powerhouses in damage department (especially since the monk get claws well into the end of the game). Also the last jobs Ninja and Black Belt are great throwbacks to the original game. Which gives me inspiration for when I run through the first game on the PSOne and skipping fighter.

Anyway, you should have the ability to change without distraction since it discourage change in your jobs to see what situation they class fits. So you're gonna stick with the first classes that have the most potential since they reach level 70 before the end or even the max of 99 increasing effectiveness in attacks and such. Except when you have to, like the dragoons, dark knight, scholar and different magic users when using mini, but you don't get them much higher than 10 (or if you grind 25 according to my saves). The grind in the end is hard though and I believe maybe the sidequest would elevate it, but that would be for a different time. Otherwise grinding occured two other times for me. The first before the djinn cave since the first time through I got killed of by a griffin getting the wight sword... after 20 minutes of the game... and without saving. So I started over and grinded the character for a couple of levels. And then before the temple of Time, but after getting killed of a couple of times I went of doing some sidequest and dicovered the ones I missed the first time around. I'm glad I skipped the 10 hour grind though, but I wonder what I should do if I ever get the second copy. And why not have a New Game + where you keep the job levels? At least reward me for finish the game.