A DnD Tale - Waterdeep: Dragon Heist - The Case of the Missing Noble and the return of the Black Viper

 

Everyone hates the sewers.

We continue the adventure in the sewers by cleaning out the rest of the rooms. Not much, the first room they check is a storage room with furnitures after hearing some scraping sounds. Looking through they find a coffer with rat bones. As they are about to leave they are attacked by the coffer that turns out to be a mimic. After that they are pretty much paranoid about every door and room. But since there isn't anything there they just waste time pretty much. 

Back out and the week is finally over so that they can get paid. The next day they head to Vincent Trench and ask him for a way to find the Xanathar Guild. They pay him and he leaves... I tried hinting that they actually have other connections to use like the Harpers, Emerald Enclave and Zentharim, but they liked Vincent, he was cool they stated. Glad to hear that, harder to improvise so I probably have to gather the information that all people have and give to them, maybe not the infiltrators since they haven't aligned themselves really with anyone. But I think I will have him appear on their day of and lead them toward one of the entrances and then leave them there, they don't really need more manpower at their high level.

Meanwhile they do the Zentharim quest and try to find Dasher Snobeadle that have disappeared. Ulf and Freya follows their lead to the Waymoot at Highnoon where they meet Dasher who has left his oppressing family that tramples on the workers shoulders to maintain their illusion of wealth. So he joined the gang Shard Shunners to fight against the capitalistic system that oppresses the poor. That and he turned into a were-rat. They return to the pub and continue their day. During the evening they get visited by Savra Belabranta, the leader of the Order of the Gauntlet that looks for help from Ulf since he was saved by them as a kid. He's invited to the temple of justice during the next day.

He gets the quest for stopping a fight in the Field Ward which Hope goes with him. After that he gets a quest to look into the reappearance of the thief Black Viper. Everyone gets involved as they look into a news paper editor that tells them about the Black Viper that disappeared 100 years ago after being cornered and apparently burned to death. According to the rumours it is believed to be a hidden sister to Ammalia Casstalanter who they meet in the presence of the Greyhounds. They get in and Freya is told that that is complete bullshit. They also goes to the prison at the castle to speak with Davil Starsong, but he can't really help them since he's in prison (they mostly resent the fact that since he was captured they haven't gotten paid as well). 

In actuality, the only reason why I forced these quest was so that they would have gotten more information about the Black Viper since she appears in the infiltration of the Cassalanter estate in search for the key to the vault. Or so it does in my version of the game. And with this everything is set to enter the Xanathar's Guild. Gotta prepare the maps for this one. 

Adventures of the Gummi Bears

 

And all because Michael Eisners son had a craving for gummi bears.

Well, continued the Disney afternoon shows with the Adventure of Gummi Bears. The story of the six last gummi bears living in Gummi Glen, as they protect the land of Danwyn from the ogre forces of Duke Igthorn as they hide from humans and try to contact the ancient gummies that left 500 years ago. Mostly an episodic show where the gummies either has to stop Ightorns plan or something magically happened that need to be fixed or finding a gummi machine or something magical from the ancient gummies causes problems. There is the grumpy gummi that builds everything, grammy gummi that is designated cook as well as the one making the gummi berry juice that allows the gummibears to bounce around while humans get super strength, the magician gummi that has a short memory, Tummi the fat one (what else is there to describe him really?), and the two children. Later they added the artist gummi with the talking bird, Artie Deco (I get the pun at least). I can't recall the other names since I was only familiar with the Swedish version... and the Danish version

Yes, my parents had recorded two episodes on VHS and those where in Danish, the Gummadoon episode with the ancient city that appears every 100th year and then the griffin and prankster-fairy half-episodes. I don't think I ever understood them until I just watched them now (maybe I watched them on TV afterwards, but I can't recall that). Then we taped a couple of episodes from the Swedish Disney Afternoon. The first one where they meet Cavin that give them the gummi medallion in order to open the gummi book, the Ursalia (Ursa being latin for bear, stargazing has a bit of advantage sometimes) episode with the barbarian bears, the golden armour episode which Toady used, the sir Tuxford episode. I can't recall any other episodes and it's rather interesting that it's all over the seasons. I recall watching the spider episode with the spinnster, but watching it now I have a completely different memory of the sequence of events in the episode. Maybe just the hint of a spider made me think that it was a two-parter and too be continue.

Looking through the series again... I enjoyed it for its fantasy elements. And sometimes the animation was rather good as well as great music, but I don't think some of the dialog sits so great with me. A bit too goody like and morals ending every episode. At least the first season. A bit of contrived setups and sometimes I just don't like the characters (especially the children gummies) when they get entitled. But it at least got a decent ending in the King Igthorn two-parter, although I would say that a secret weapon that is a termite feels rather underwhelming. Of course, I have a big problem with Igthorn's voice, I don't like that smarmy sound he makes and the Swedish dub at least made him sound angry with some omph behind it.

Metroid Prime (Wii)

Deja Vu

I've just been to this place before

Higher on the street and I know it's my time to go

Well, I couldn't stop playing Metroid Prime so after getting a serious beating from Meta-Ridley in hard mode I went back to my Wii version that I hadn't finished before and played through it from start to finish. Kinda easy when you learned every trick there is after three playthroughs before it. A bit harder to get used to the control though. And I don't know about it. Some say it's the best way to play, but too often for my liking I felt the controls not doing what I wanted to do. The camera controls especially. And then we haven't talked about the range of the sensors. I had to move the sensor bar in order to get a comfortable playing seating and I still wound up putting my legs in way of the sensors moving around. 

Still, I got it around 8 hours and that included scanning everything to get the 100 % logs. So practice makes perfect. Forgot to mention the logs last time as well. Quite groundbreaking for the series cause it gave the series some much needed world building. You have the pirate logs from the space pirates that tells heir scientific studies on the planet and their weapon development to try to take over the galaxy as well as stop Samus Aran aka the Hunter. Those are the most interesting when they begin to panic about Samus appearing on the planet and hunting them. Then is the chozo that tells of their settling of Tallon IV and the disaster with the meteor strike that poisoned the planet and let Metroid Prime almost loose on them. There is also small bits here and there that isn't saved for easy reading, but it works, as well as leaving hints here and there.

A difference with other versions is also the fact that you get credits for different things, like beating a boss or finding an artefact. You then use them buying concept art, music or special things, like the Fusion suit. Won't use it since I feel the remastered edges out with it's ease of pick up and play as well as saving in on using AA-batteries. That and I already got all credits for that game. Funny how they use different triggers for getting the soundtracks and galleries. Sadly, can't get everything since they obviously had to incorporate a system of friend vouchers to get some of them, and since you can't log onto the internet from the wii system when they closed that down it's locked away for ever, unless they put them in the rereleases. 

I went back and finished off the final stretch of the Switch remaster on hard mode. Meta-Ridley being the worst one where patience is more important as well as a trained trigger finger. I hope they don't put the last things behind finishing the hard mode on the rerelease of Prime 2 that surely be coming. I couldn't beat normal on the Gamecube, so will be interesting how far I can get on the Wii version. 

Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch)

 

A fresh coat of paint.

Had to continue the GameCube remasters for the Switch and had to get the physical version of Metroid Prime (so waited like 2 weeks compared to everyone else) and finished it off in a weekend. The remastered version of Metroid Prime as we await news for the fourth game in the series that have had no news since they showed the original screen with the number 4. Metroid Prime starts with Samus Aran investigating a distress signal around the planet Tallon IV where she finds a derelict space pirate ship and traveling through it learns about how the space pirates investigates the nearby planet and as the ship is beginning to explode she discovers Meta-Ridley traveling towards the planet so she has to follow.

While landing she gets signal from some chozo ruins that tells the history of how the chozo settled on Tallon IV and meet there end as a meteor struck unleashing the poison phazon that mutated the wildlife. Now the space pirates look for a way to unlock the impact crater the chozo locked away with 12 artefacts that lies scattered across the planet (or at least the areas you visit in this game). Travel across the planet getting items to enhance your armour and be able to travel to even more places and find the 12 artefacts and destroy the titular Metroid Prime at the centre of the impact crater. Game is hardest in the beginning when you have no weapons or reserves, but after the first missiles and energy tanks the game is rather easy (if you continue finding the upgrades in decent intervals) until Omega Pirate where the last bosses will be a bit troublesome (that of course until I met him in Hard Mode and learned that Power Bombs are the way to easily trigger the vulnerability phase). Meta-Ridley being the worst after that, the third phase when he goes on a rampage is more about avoiding damage until you can hit him. Metroid Primes first phase become easy when I began using the special beam weapons to deal max damage. 

I got the original back in the days for the GameCube (still got it as well as the Wii version) after getting into Metroid with Fusion as it was released before Prime in Europe. Watched a lot of the previews and got really into it, which makes it even sadder that this yet once again a game I took several years to finish, especially when I finished it in 15 hours this week as the first playthrough, and played through a second time during the same weekend (ended just below 8 hours) and the third run on Hard Mode ended around 8-9 hours. It could be due to the new controls which works fantastic, although some parts like morph ball jump is x while normal jump is b (doesn't help that I learned the ball jump at the end of my first playthrough while trying to get every item and looking at a video) and changing weapon needs to get used to (it was mapped to the c-stick in the original so a bit easier to change in the middle of battle). 

Overall, the game is great and the remaster is definitely worth it and shows what Tales of Symphonia should at least have been. There is something for the atmosphere to walk around on the planet alone, reading the lore of the chozo or the logs of the space pirates, especially when they begin panicking about Samus being on their tail. Taking your time and trying to get around on your own in the first playthrough is amazing. I would recommend though to have a spreadsheet that you can input every item and lore piece so that you can keep track on what you have got if you wanna look up what you missed. I missed two items (I think I know where one is, but the other is a complete mystery and I still checked every area again). I recommend the one I found here.

Hope we get the other two as well, especially since I never finished them, 2 especially since it was really atmospheric but the last boss is tough as nail. One minor nitpick is that they didn't add the fusion suit... or it's still there, you can't just get it. It was in the original and the Wii version, why not keep it? Some speculate it will be added later, maybe with the release of Metroid Fusion for the NSO. There is also a casual mode which I don't remember from the original (and looking at my original save, it was not mentioned there), great for a newcomer. They got rid of a couple of beehives that made it easier to get around and you take less damage and enemies dies easier. Got through Hard Mode as the last mode and got all extras. Just from the beginning I can say I had a lot easier time to fight the Hive Totem on the remastered version than the original in Hard mode. One thing in comparison with the 2D game I missed is the map function to mark where there is power-ups for a more easy time in backtracking.