The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S1E3 - Le Grand Oiseau D'Or

Mariko, the fisher girl

As the girls are trapped in the Condor Estaban does his signature move and calls forth the sun (I don't recall if they ever did that in season 2) and Zia is able to guide the plane to the kids can get away. On their way they head over the rice field (if they found it on the way to the castle or knew where it was I don't know, but I get they wanted to show Mendoza and the others they haven't abandoned them). Mendoza and his pals are digging around the airship while Ambrosius try to fix the ships engine while trying to get back his things that the lord confiscated as he was captured.

Flying the condor have the ethereal synthesiser sound from the original and now we get the kids harassing the lords forces so that Mendoza can spring all of them and run away in the forest. The kids have to leave them since they can't land and goes north I gather toward Mount Fuji and a shrine where the mirror shield is located. I assume it's one of the three sacred treasures of Japan. The kids fly against time since there is supposedly a ceremony that only happens once every year and it's next morning, but they arrive at nightfall and see the shrine is guarded. So they look for an alternate way in and find a fallen tree that they can bridge the river that surounds the shrine. And of course Estaban falls into the water as he's the last on it while being afraid of heights. And the episode ends on a cliff hanger.

At the same time Mendoza and Co runs through the forrest with the plan to join the portuguese ship, but as they are hunted by the lords forces Pedro gets an arrow in his arm. Ambrosius tells them to continue while he lures the troops away. I get that he believes he has the upper hand since he is trusted by the lord and Mendoza don't trust him so when he gives himself up to the hunters he says he have interesting information to give them, implying he will sell Mendozas plan to them so that he can fix his ship. Or at least I think that was going on.

And the documentary was a bit about the lord himself. Apparently he is a historical figure and it's pretty much something similar to Pizarro from the first season.

So far the series is definitely better than the second season. The music is on point. But it feels a bit formulaic in that each episode so far ends on a cliffhanger that within 5 seconds of the next episode is resolved. And then it feels like a subplot that have been present for the current episodes is that it was revealed that Zia also was a descendant of the people of Mu at the end of the second season so they reveal it to Tao that gets super happy about it, but he drones on and on about it. I don't know if I'm lucky that I can't understand it or if that is the reason why it nags on me.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - Season 3 - Episode 2 - Le Daimyo Shimazu

Always fun to see a familiar face

Second episode starts out with the children being attacked by the guardian of the orichalcum thing, but after he spotted their medalions he stopped and instead showed them where they could place them. This allowed the machine to fill with water, opening it and forming some kind of women of the water atop of it. I don't know what she said, but I gathered it had something to do with a mirror shield being the key... key to what I would assume another city of gold.

Then we see Gaspard training the lords troops in rifle combat and almost killing the lord. He's only saved by a peasant informing about the crashed airship at the rice field. The lord, Gaspard and militia arive and captures Ambrosius who is thrown in the same cell as Mendoza, Sancho and Pedro. Ambrosius is called to the lord that believes him to be a spy, but Ambrosius is able to sway him and that he would help in their war against their neighbours if he could get help in fixing his airship. When questioned by the three spaniards I believe he sold them out as spies in order to get rid of them. I'm not sure by the subtitles, but if that was the case I really hate him now. And I still don't know why he tries to find the cities of gold.

Meanwhile the fisher girl from earlier arrives to her grandfather that as I said was the guardian of the orichalcum machine. Apparently it's believed to be a gift from the god of the sea and will protect them from something. Volcanic eruption looming? Anyway they head back to the village to get the condor, spot the fisher boy as he have been drafted into the militia and then discovered by Gasparard. Estaban lead him onto a goose chase while the other boards the boat and after knocking Gaspard out Estaban joins them. At the condor Estaban tries to swim to it, but is caught in the seaweed and struggles to get out... even though he have always been carrying a knife? Zia and the fisher girl jumps in instead as the girl have been catching pearls in the water and know how to avoid the sea weed. And it's a wonderful sequence with synthesizer music. And we are only in episode 2, last season it wasn't until the middle of the season we got good at the music department.

As Zia and the girl enters the Condor the cockpit have a pocket of air, but as they are about to lift the machine locks it self down. The others look up and the clouds are blocking the sun and at the same time several sharks are swimming around the condor, trapping the kids in it. And that ends the episode. Wow. Does the condor know before that the sun is going to be obscured? It doesn't really make sense.

The documentary was of the Castle of the White Heron, I don't know it's real name since the subtiles called it Jim, but you know the one. The white castle that is iconic for japanese fortresses. 

You know, this one.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - Season 3 - Episode 1 - Kagoshima

Finally!!!

So since there doesn't appear to be an english version out yet, even though the french version been out for 2 years, a desperate man have to do what he have to do. He looks it up on Youtube and rely on the automatic translator that the site provides with extremely small knowledge of the french language. 

So it starts of with a small recap of the last episode of season two and it starts with Ambrosius loading his ship, but he has three companions in hoods that help him, One is a female I gather from the voice. They also seem to load Estabans father from the ship to the Olmec flying machine... I guess since it looks like Ambrosius leaves without him. 

Meanwhile the kids and Mendoza have reached Japan and are nearing I assume Kagoshima (due to the title). The condor takes over and try to land in a forest, but since it can't find a great spot to land give back control to Estaban that fly them towards a cliff before the sun gets down. After making camp an earthquake happens and the condor falls into the water. They are picked up by some kid fisherman and his sister that have to take them to the local lord. Arriving Mendoza spots a portuguese ship and gets an idea. He proclaim himself ambassador of Spain for the townspeople and occupy the local guard enough so that the kids can get away and then gets on the ship and uses some law for protection between Spain and Portugal, but the captain of the ship is none other than Gaspard who somehow survived the ordeal at Eldorado and ended up as a portugese weapons dealer. They don't explain how or what happened to Gomez. 

The kids leave town as an ash cloud hits the village and wander the forest until they find some sort of orichalcum orb at a spirit gate, guarded by some old man in a mask (I would assume its the fisher siblings grandfather they mentioned earlier in the episode) following them closely and then jumping out while Tao pushes some kind of button that activates the machine.

At the same time Ambrosius have reached Japan and Kagoshima, but he flew through the ash cloud that destroyed his engines so he crash landed in a rice field. I know that was what happened since volcanic ash clouds have that effect on machinery which the whole world learned when the Icelandic volcano erupted a couple years back.

And the documentary at the end talks briefly about Japan and the spirit gates.

I gotta say it's hard following what happens when I can't fully understand them, but at the moment I get the gist of everything having some understanding of the cultural and historical setting of Japan and some familiarity with certain elements like the crash explained above, but the intrigue between the japanese lords and what not is gonna be a problem.

Final Fantasy II (GBA)

The sequel

Just like Final Fantasy II I got this also on PSOne, but as stated, no TV and not available to me at the moment so let's play this. 

First enemy of the game, I'm f***ed!

So it begins when the Empire attack the kingdom of Flynn that forces Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon to escape their home. Maria and Leon is siblings and Guy is a "nature child" who was raised by animals while Firion is some kind of best friend I believe. After the intro attack Firion, Maria and Guy wakes up in the rebels hideout. Leon is missing. Firion & Co want to join the rebels, but princess Hilda says no, so you sneak into Flynn anyway. There you meet Scott, one of the princes of Kashuan at his deathbed as he protected everyone fleeing the castle during the attack. Returning to the rebels with Scott's ring you get aloud in and tasked with checking up on some mythril deposit in the north after talking with Josef from Salamand. With that you know have equipped the rebellion so they can fight back, but unfortunately news reach them that the Empire is finishing of the construction of the Dreadnought, a gigantic airship. 

I feel like playing Empire of Steel again

So you have to head to Kashuan to get the Sunfire to drop in the engine to blow it up. Scott's brother Gordon tries the same thing, but joins up with you at the castle. Returning the Dreadnought have captured princess Hilda riding on Cid's airship (Cid is a recurring character in every Final Fantasy game, often having something to do with airships). So a rescue operation is on the way. You rescue the princess and blow the ship up. But it wasn't the princess but a lamia disguising as Hilda. So off to the arena to rescue her. Meanwhile Minwu the white mage that saved you in the beginning have been missing in the search for the spell Ultima. Following in his footsteps you get eaten by the leviathan where you meet Ricard, the last of the Dragoons and together you climb a tower where Minwu uses his life force to break the lock on Ultima. You return, take back Flynn, but the Emperor summons a cyclone that wreck havoc on the rebels. Firion & Co awakens the last wyvern and storm right in fighting the Emperor at the top ending his evil reign. But it's not over since the Emperors Dark Knight have taken over. So you look for Cid who is dying of the wounds from the cyclone and hands you the airship so you can enter the Empires capital from the air. Battling to the top the Dark Knight is... Leon, but before you can do anything the Emperor returns from Hell and only with the sacrifice of Ricard does Firion and the others escape. Leon joins you and you know have to travel to Hell to fight the Emperor. 

And this one didn't come to the West?

You beat the Emperor and the End pretty much. The story is really good in my mind. Characters you meet during the adventure dies left and right. They incorporated a buzzword system so you could learn certain words and then ask them to get more information. So why is this regarded as one of the worst games in the Final Fantasy-series? Because they also implemented a new way to "level up" by removing it and focusing what you use is what you get. Including different spells and weapon types. Again they have refined it in the GBA game since I didn't grind anywhere. Although you have to go out of your way to use magic since MP hardly goes up due to being so limited at the start and then the spells doesn't get effective until something like level 5. And some enemies need to be attacked with magic. Doesn't help that originally it was also a thing that if one stat went up, another went down. Opposing stats that is so magic went up and strength down I believe. Also since it's so long between playthroughs I forget what spells are worth putting time and effort in. For example Haste, Berserk and Osmosis. All protection spells are worth it and I must put time in on Esuna since it never work that well for me. This is basically a reminder to when I get to the PSOne version where I can't save anywhere. I recall save scumming through the end portion of the game last time since I got hammered then, but this time no problem, which apparently is due to me not grinding for 5000 HP and 500 MP giving the magic defence and agility skills opportunity to raise to decent levels making the game much easier. And now I got the extra mode to play through.

I saw this a lot playing that mode

So I screwed up the leveling... again. Minwu and Scott hardly survived the first enemy and Josef didn't add much. Ricard was the only one that stood a chance and appropriate for the end game. So after reaching the town I gave up. So you are supposed to be the dead companions (plus Scott that looks like Gordon who was one of two companions two survive beyond the four main) and travel through another kind of Hell (or it might be heaven) to fight the Emperors "good side". For those that really liked those dead companions (and Ricard and Minwu are the best). This mode doesn't exist on the PSOne version so we will see if I ever finish it.

Overall I personally liked this game. I liked the "leveling up" system and it at least wasn't random like in Legend of Legacy that randomized the stat upgrade (game was made by the same people). The story might be cliched, but as proven time and time again, I can get down with it. And if you are gonna play one version this is probably the best due to the player friendly alterations they did for a modern audience. The music, while not abundant with tracks, is at least enjoyable. I especially like the boss theme. Now, if that is exclusive to the remakes I don't know.