Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl (3DS)

 

There can be only one!

I got this game back in April 2015 as a portable RPG I could play while not having my own place, but renting a room in someones apartment while traveling to the nearby town for unemployment stuff and then work as I got my current job in august the same year. And now 8 years later (as of September 2023) I finally finished it. 86 hour... what was I doing? I recall that I maybe restarted the game at one point while traveling the ruins since I got stuck, but still. 

The game, the things I remember at least, is that you are the Highlander. No, not the one from the 1986 movie, this Highlander carries a spear. You end up in the town Etria that lies in the outskirt of the Yggdrasil labyrinth. Travelling through the stratums he encounters three other travellers, the Magician Arthur, the Healer Simon and the Knight Raquna. Together you find some ruins and in it the girl Ricky that have slept in suspended animation for a 1 000 years, hence the title. You form a guild and explore the labyrinth and ruins to uncover the secrets.

Apparently the world is a post-apocalyptic Earth where for example Raquna is a noble from the kingdom of Ontario. In the middle of the labyrinth is the Yggdrasil core which threatens the world and the ancient world sent Ricky into the future to stop it from destroying the Earth together with the computer AI M.I.K.E. It gets a bit hazy here, I recall fighting Gungnir, the machine that was plan A, which would have destroyed all life as well. Final stretch was the fifth stratum which was the ruins of a modern city... I guess in Japan due to the name Shinjuken or something like that. That was where I ended the last time until now where I was able to get through the floors and fight the final bosses. I pushed through when the recommended level was 50 and I was at 63. It was 4 damn boss battles (lucky with rest between some of them). I was clearly suboptimal leveled with my skill points, too diverse, should have a focussed on some skills and should have gone for the passive skills. 

But the ending battle was epic. So, even if it took me 8 years I found it rather fun. Probably should have read a guide on the skill levels to avoid spreading the skills too thin. I got Untold 2, 4, 5 and Nexus on the 3DS and the HD collection on Switch so I have a lot to catch up with. The gameplay is actually rather fun, you map out the map yourself and put in hints here and there so that you can get through it. Some problems though is that certain icons are supposed to represent certain things, but if you don't see them until the final floors you might use it for something else. And there's also a limit on how many you can have so suddenly, when I'm mapping out all poison flowers on a certain floor I hit the limit so I have to use another colour to indicate danger which irritates me a bit. Same goes for teleportation markers, I assume that was what the numbers where for, but the one floor that has them have more teleportation points than numbers so I improvised the symbols to fill the map. Small nitpicks.

The rest is fight monsters, gather items, solve quests and so on. Only a couple of weeks before finishing it I learned that you could auto-battle making traversing older areas a bit better. Might even have speed up my game if I knew that. The items you gather you sell and unlocks more weapons, armours and items. Love the idea, but since that is coupled with "use fire on this monster to get this item" or "use a slash attack to get this item" instead of just pure RNG I need to recall all this... and that is hard when you play a game across 8 years. 

Look back on the Mysterious Cities of Gold

So now it has ended, a series that started 40 years ago finally finished. Still open for continuation if someone picks it up, but we finally have seen the seven cities of gold. I wrote about my first memories of the series back in 2012 when they announced the continuation series. Saw them on cable TV back in the early 90's, but only had memory of one episode as the kids climbed the golden condor in the episode that introduced it, and then in the early 2000's dad found the VHS we had recorded the last episode on. I watched it several times and it had Eldorado, the solar reactor and the tale of Mu and Atlantis destroying each other in war, pretty much a commentary on the cold war and the threat of world war 3. The images of that particular scene was haunting. And at university I could watch the whole series on Youtube back in 2006-2007 and then in 2007 they released the DVD collection which I still got.

And in 2014 me and dad discovered that they would show the second season on Nickelodeon that we watched after work or in my case the day at the assigned unemployment centre. Being poisoned by black mould, having no job, having a depression and being forced to move back into my parents house was a pretty downer feeling. That sense of childlike nostalgia and wonder helped me through that dark period. Season 3 and 4 obviously don't have that emotional connection (although, I've watched season 4 at a tumultuous time at my job so it might be after the fact). 

They might have sparked my interest in pre-colonisation civilisations of South America, it talked to my interest of history and the ideas of Eldorado and Atlantis have always have interested me, just look at my enjoyment of The Journeyman Project 3. It has it flaws and it's clear the first season is a completely different thing than the others and the retcons is not the best (If you needed artefacts from all the cities... what was the purpose of the first city? It had the reactor, but I don't think they got that from the tunnel, maybe should have used it as the engine for Ambrosius ship if they had thought it through and bring it from there giving a reason to bring back Mayuka), but with the emotional connection I have with series and the ending being decent enough (it's no Rise of Skywalker at least) I feel it's worth the watch. 

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E26 - End of the Adventure?

 

Yeah, they must have messed up the colouring of one of the yellows, but we know that King in Yellow, Queen in Red.

So, Esteban, Zia and Tao discuss the place they found with the cities, but Tao makes them promise that they won't go there until after the meteorite has been dealt with... which I feel is strange since if there is some people who would now anything about the meteor and the solar cannon it would the sages of the cities that seems to exist in this almost other dimension? Anyway, one night Nostradamus and Kokapetl observes the arrival of the meteorite in the sky... which is like Tintin and the mysterious star... it's even in the title!

The next day they begin firing up the cannon, but before they can fire it malfunctions, the cracks in the stone seems to divert the power so that it can't create the energy beam. Tao has only one option... going to Ambrosius in the dungeon... or maybe speak to sages? I mean, they built every city, wouldn't they know how to fix it? NO, we go to the bad guy, but of course he won't do it to save the world, he needs to be payed. We don't see what it is, but when the kids tells Mendoza he's furious of the demand and walks away from it. He's released for a short while and creates another black sun that Tao uses in the cannon that seems to fix the stone, but now there is a storm so Esteban, for the final time, uses his powers to summon the sun, powering the cannon. The cannon fires and obliterates the meteorite...

Wait, that's it? Where's the doom and gloom? The screaming public, both Thundersub and the Belvision Tintin captured the sense of dread from people at flying meteorites. Well, the king announces his decision to seize all the artefacts to protect it from Spain and England. The children protests until the adults go away and then they set their plan into action. Gaspard, Sancho and Pedro (that have awakened from his coma thanks to the Chinese alchemist Esteban's father brought) takes the artefacts to Zimbabwe while Leguerra and Mendoza frees Ambrosius and take him to the Olmecian Flying Machine while the kids deconstruct the 7th city and turn Chambord back into it's original and current form. They say good-bye to Ambrosius and then runs trough the gate of the elders and back in Zimbabwe they take out the medallions and lock the gate for the soldiers of Francis I.

So, at this moment our friends separate. Esteban and Zia decide to explore this other world which only they can enter with the medallions so they say good-bye to the others. Tao is given the golden condor and together with Mendoza, Leguerra and Gaspard are to travel to India to set out the Order of the Condor to protect the artefacts from Mu. Mendoza releases Sancho and Pedro from his service, Pedro now have the princess and Sancho... gets to hook up with the nurse that nursed him back after his coma... feels like time went short here. Sancho is a bit thrown under the bus here I feel, since my perception from the first season he was more important and loyal than Pedro and here is just given a girl with no name actually. Esteban and Zia unite their medallions, leaves the city and meets the other sages and as they walk down the stairs, Esteban and Zia runs after them, hand in hand... The End!

The documentary was a bit of summation of what they have been about from season 2-4. And that's it. Hopefully we get an official release on DVD/Blu Ray with actual translated subtitles or an english dub. I'm a bit miffed about the ending, the Chinese alchemist only purpose was curing Leguerra and Sancho and I expected a call to arms from all people we had seen. I don't think Ambrosius earned that ending either, he has killed people and almost doomed the world for his own greed and ambitions, yeah, he's right that you can't trust the kings, but he's no different. And probably more panic before they destroy the meteorite would have been advised. But overall, it's a workable ending and it's bitter sweet to see it after... well 30 years for me, but 40 years for the whole series. I might have two more posts after this, one personal reflection on the series overall and an unknown date of the video game based on the second season.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E25 - The 7th City of Gold

 

Apparently a solar cannon.

Great, yet another episode that actually manually translated by a human. Well, Mendoza has a concussion, and Leguerra is poisoned so they go back to Zimbabwe to get to Chambard in order to heal them, but Ambrosius beat them to it, take the orichalcium maxtrix, blows it all up and runs trough the portals, grabs the medallions and lock it. In the attack Sancho ends in a coma. Esteban and Zia arrives too late to prevent it, but Leguerra tells them that Ambrosius medallions lie where they fought and Mendoza tells them where it is, but can't follow due to his injuries. At the ravine they fall in and grab the medallions, but are attacked by snakes. They put in the medallions and are transported to... I don't know but it seems to be place where the cities of gold exists beside each other. They end up in a room with several gates and find the one that take them too Chambard and as they leave one of the sages appear in the flesh.

Meanwhile Ambrosius have overheard Francis I talking to Esteban's dad about taking over all the artefacts, renegading on his promise to Leonardo da Vinci in that the Order would be independent. Ambrosius catches Nostradamus that take him to Tao, he injures Kokapetl, steals all the treasure and uses Tao as hostage. Esteban arrives and opens the gate to Zimbabwe and looks for his father, but sees the hostage situation instead. He uses an experimental crown to grab the stone from Ambrosius. He hunts down Esteban that drops the stone and a crack appears on it, but Mendoza intervenes and gets slapped around until they end up outside where a trap was laid by Pedro and Gaspard who dropped several bars of Orichalcium over him.

The documentary was about snakes and the serum from their venom.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E24 - Revenge

Won't he ever die!

It's a smoke bomb, but they clear it by opening the glass and Mendoza is able to push Ambrosius out of the cockpit and land on the wing together. Leguerra is able to make him loose his footing so he crashes into the jungle below. And then it seems to be a time skip since everyones working and the kids are back in Chambord until a message to Esteban and Zia leads them to visit the village with the freed slaves. Zia has another vision showing Zares, but with the faces of Leguerra, Mendoza and Tao, implying that he's gonna kill them I think? So they head back to the others.

Mendoza, Leguerra and Gaspard is hunting and Gaspard is tricked so that Mendoza and Leguerra can be alone. Gaspared gets attacked by a lion and the next shot is off Leguerra standing up and putting her belt back on with Mendoza lying on his cape. If that isn't a euphemism for sex I don't know what is, it's basically Kiera Knightly putting on her boots in the end of Pirates 3. Well, Ambrosius push some rock on them knocking out Mendoza and tries to kill Leguerra, but she is able to grab his medallions and chuck them away and he flees when Gaspard, the lion and a couple of hunters arrive. One of the hunters arrive and ask if she is ok, but she coils back as she just been bitten by a snake.

Documentary was more about predators on the savanna.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E23 - The Last of the Atlanteans

 

*sniff* Why does this show make me so sad now?

Well, the Olmec friend survived the shot, for the moment. He tells them to overheat the generator and destroy the security mechanism, and as parting words ask them to tell tell Esteban that he is the last of the Atleanteans and is the only one that can undo all the evil the Atlanteans have done. As Mendoza and Leguerra runs away after following his commands, he brings back his hologram machine looking at his loved one, the princess that was one of the sages and buried in the tomb in the 4th city of gold. And then he dies. Gaspard is about to be killed by the last Olmec but to his indignity is saved by Mendoza yet again. They escape the building and the leader Olmec awakens in the generator room, is only able to figure out what they have done to it and then the whole place explodes. After that follows scenes as they get away from falling rocks, steps and lava.

Reenactment with Arnold

The kids oversee the construction and then Esteban and Zia heads to Zimbabwe and gets the condor to the cave to pick up Mendoza and gang. While waiting they talk and reveal their feelings for each other and kiss. Only took them 40 years. And Kokopetl discovers Ambrosius that is hiding and while Esteban checks it out he runs out of the cave and disappears, at this moment Mendoza and the others arrive, they board the condor and flies away. During flight they hear a strange sound, Mendoza opens the back door and a ball rolls out and are about to explode or gas them.

More stuff about Zimbabwe, bird that are on the flag and coins and also a bit about the acropolis above the city, especially interesting was the fact that some of the corridors was just 25 cm wide and no one knew the exact purpose. Some guessed that it had to do with leading cool air through the structure and other thought it was used by different classes. And that is classes in the marxist sense or something like that.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E22 - The Gate to Hell

Doesn't get more heavy metal than this!

Mendoza's group infiltrates the Olmec camp and tries to locate the stone. They are spotted and pinned down in the hangar. Gaspard uses one of the flying machine to distract the olmecs and the other escapes through a hatch leading to the generator. They are stopped by the Olmec Esteban saved. He seems to have his doubt and seems to mourn a woman from before he was frozen down 12 000 years ago. As they explain the danger he agrees to help so he shuts down the generator and gives them the stone. The leader Olmec shows up fires a shot at him and Mendoza lobs his sword, both olmecs appears dead.

The kids meanwhile starts construction of the city and uses Zimbabwe as the orichalcum furnace to create the parts they need. They also recalls the condor factory in the second city and that orichalcum supposedly hardens by sound so they use drummers to recreate the sound.

Now the documentaries are on the tribe of Zimbabwe and hunting during the court of Francis I.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E21 - Hand in Hand

I won't cry! *sniff*

The heroes tries to tell Gaspard and Leguerra that the world is ending if they don't assemble the artefacts from Ambrosius, but Gaspard won't listen. Leguerra proposes a duel between her and Mendoza for either taking the treasures and build the 7th city or take the treasures to Charles V. While the dual is going on Pedro and Sancho is looking for food and angers an ostrich that hunts them and Gaspard away. The duel ends with Leguerre winning, but accepting that their quest is more important.

They get the treasures, but learns that the stone is still with the olmecs, and through the paintings in the cave they learn that the story of the shaman being kidnapped by the olmecs where the truth and that the cave probably is the end point of his escape from the Olmecs. Leguerra and Mendoza checks it out and believe it might lead to the Olmec base, but fail to notice the shadow of Ambrosius lingering around. Mendoza, Leguerra and Gaspard tries to get to the Olmec base while the others head to Chompard to begin constructing the city. At the castle Esteban is reunited with his father again that seems to be cured from his radioactive poisoning. He has to leave and assemble people he can think of helping them construct the city. Hopefully they save Mayuka that was imprisoned back in season 2 episode 1. Also, Nostradamus appears and informs us that the cataclysm will happen during the summer solstice, 3 months from the present day.

More Maasai documentary and a bit of the creatures of the savanna like giraffes and ostriches.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E20 - The Sacrifice

 

It's time to DUEL!

The adults are reunited with Gaspard and Leguerra and are to be brought to a lake for the sacrifice to appease the demons that have cast the locusts upon the maasai village. The sacrifice is a duel between to people on top of a rickety bridge over this lake of poison that I think turns them to stone or something like that. Mendoza and Gaspard is first and fight each other to settle their differences from the first season and onward.

The kids was able to locate them and finding a kid that have been around they learn that the demons appears to be olmecs that kidnaps children like they did back in the first season, the shaman being one of them that returned. They arrive at the sacrifice and Zia uses the crown from the fire witch to summon the locusts that chase away the shaman. They are all freed and sets out together.

The documentary is more about the maasai village and the women's role in their society as well as a bit info on locusts swarms.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E19 - Fallen From the Sky

 

Guess they saw the Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Gaspard and Leguerra is captured by the maasai tribe warriors and brought to their village. The shaman is ordering them as a sacrifice to appease the spirits that have sent the locusts toward them. They try to escape but are quickly surrounded. 

Our heroes are beginning to prepare the building of the city, but news from Zimbabwe is talking about disturbances (told you it was gonna be a riot) so the king, Mendoza, Esteban and Zia returns and is able to calm the people with a really empowering speech, I think, it sounded good and I think the auto-subtitles got the gist of it. Tao appears and tells them that to complete the city they need the artefacts Ambrosius had gathered and they don't know where he is. The princess tells them that the tom-tom (I assume it's a drumming system, like in the Phantom and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers) talked about a crashed ship near Kilimanjaro. Which explain how information could travel so fast over Africa. They leave and Pedro gets a kiss from the princess.

They find the crash site and also notices the maasai warriors so the adults let themselves become captured since they figured they must be the footprints besides the survivors. The children follows in the condor, but as they are intercepted by another locust cloud they loose track of them and then they are completely engulfed by the locusts.

And the documentary was about the maasai tribe in Kenya and then cattle markets. Which makes me recall that I heard about maasai's as a kid, but I don't recall connecting it to an African tribe. 

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E18 - Beyond the Mirror

 

Calm before the whirlpool.

They head back to Zimbabwe and then onward to Chambord, running past the king and finding Nostradamus and confirms his predictions. As he runs away they investigate the salamanders around the castle which leads them to an F they push and it pulls the special staircase down underground, leading to a lake and some inscriptions on to slabs of stone with salamanders in pools of oils or whatever they burn creating the fire scenario from the prophecy. Next is the mirror and that is obviously the lake. Esteban is diving into it finding some structure, but Tao find some contraption that activates and drains the water, revealing a giant golden cube. Putting in the medallions reveal instructions gathered from all cities of gold.

At the same time Mendoza and the king of Zimbabwe is meeting with Francis I and as he show them the staircase they follow the children and witnessing the golden cube. Back in Zimbabwe Sancho and Pedro is snapped up by the princess, but they have given up hope and only talks about the end of the world. One of the guards overhears so I'm guessing we will have a riot or something.

At the same time Gaspard and Leguerra is wandering the savanna until another swarm of locust appear and they hid in a cave. After the locust disappear they discover that the paintings looks like the Mu pyramid and the olmecs, and as they look out of the cave they are surrounded by several warriors from the tribe that have been watching them.

The documentary focused on the staircase and the emblems of the castle.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E17 - Revelations

 

I assume it's the rainbow colours, but it looks like two yellow and is indigo missing?

The kids return as the city of gold reverts back, and the light bridge take form. As they are about to leave Zia gives the white gorilla the helmet, and they place it at the cave entrance and starts working up a frenzy, almost feels like 2001: A Space Odyssey. They tell the others about the meteor heading for Earth but they don't know how or when to stop it. All they know is that it has something to do with fire and that it seems connected to the image of the salamander. They decide to use the Gate of the Elders to get to Chambord and talk to Nostradamus as he as an astronomer might predict when it will happen.

Back at the castle he has indeed predicting the end of the world. The other in the Order don't believe him and then Francis I shows up reading the final line of the prediction about the enemy long thought gone is making a return and we are back at the Olmec base and Ambrosius climbs up and filled with rage against all who has betrayed him and a red light envelops his skin and he seems to have healed himself, probably due to bathing in the light of the philosopher's stone.

Back with Leguerra and Gaspard they finally have been able to fix the airship and is about to set sail towards Spain, constantly guarded by to African warriors, but they suddenly disappear and they are attacked by a locust swarm that they try to escape but they crash the ship yet again and this time it's probably for good.

The documentary was about the tree that inspired the city of gold, everything from living up to a 1 000 years, storing 10 000 litres of water, the healing properties and the food you can get from the tree as well as some candy made from it.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E16 - Orunigi

 

Getting Final Fantasy IX vibes... and they had two giant trees.

The storm forces them to crash land in the Congo jungle. There they are surrounded by gorillas who seems ready to attack them, but Zia uses her mind reading abilities to talk to them, but the smell of leopard on them causes the main gorilla to go berserk and is about to attack Mendoza when another, white gorilla intervenes and fight it off, and seems to react to Zia's medallion... I got two references here. First, Lovecraft since I read a couple of his stories by now and he seemed to have the idea of precursor humans that was more apelike and their reaction to this puts my mind toward that area. The second is that this is an homage too Tarzan with the white ape and the leopard hostility. Kinda clever, but no Phil Collin songs sadly.

Have a soft spot for the Swedish versions.

Zia gets the mask and the gorillas seems to go in a frenzy. The white gorilla takes them to a mountain by a ravine and points out the 6th city beyond the ravine. Zia puts on the mask and sees a golden path across, but Esteban's vertigo makes him unable to move on. As a call back to the first season Zia reminds him of the promise he made that he would always protect her and that now she will do the same. The gorillas prevents the adults from crossing with the children so the kids hold hands as Zia leads them with the mask, getting stuck only once as Estebans courage fails him in the middle of the light bridge. It's actually a sweet moment as he sits their shivering with tears falling and his friends supporting him to stand again so that they can continue.

When they get to the other side the mask shows them marking on the trees leading to a structure where they use the medallions to summon the 6th city in the form of a gigantic tree, and they call back to Tao's home on the Galápagos. Seems someone wanted to tie the whole series in with call backs to all seasons it seems. There they find a projection of one of the Ancients, and according to the translation it seems to be more Atlantean in this part of the world. The projection recap the war, but warns them off an even greater danger. The astronomer from Mu and Atlantis foresaw that a meteor was coming toward Earth and that it would take 12 000 years for it to arrive and might destroy the planet. Suddenly we're are in Final Fantasy VII!

The documentary of course focused on the Gorillas, but also giant ants. Wonder if that will show up. But this means 6 cities have been found and that they need to build the 7th one in order to destroy or alter the course of the meteor to save the planet. Which probably will destroy the city and leave the course of the world toward what we have today, explaining why none of the Atlantean or Mu tech was used to advance us into the future.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E15 - The Witch

 

The People Laughed Until She Said, "Burn"!

Tao and Esteban climbs down to the cliff where Zia is and she leads them to what she found, a shelter constructed by those that made the golden cities, seemingly being of both Atlantean and Mu heritage. They see the sages from the different cities they encountered in holographic form as golden statues and as they activate them they show a map toward the sixth city. They climb out and Kokapetl awakens and tell them Mendoza is a prisoner and need them to rescue him.

Meanwhile Sancho and Pedro is able to untie him and knock out several of the leopard men. Mendoza corners the queen in her channeling chamber by using water to douse her fire where she summons the fire leopard. With that he takes the mask. But the adults are surrounded outside with another fire leopard and the queen uses the mind powers to grab the mask and Mendoza's sword. Mendoza do what he usually does and start goading her with her inferiority toward a little girl with more powers than her that actually can wear the mask that she doesn't dare try on. As the fire leopard engulfs them the condor arrives and puts out the flame and then makes the queen lose her crown and Mendoza's sword. Mendoza corners her but in a last ditch attempt she throws the mask in the fire so that it can't be used by anyone. This makes her men lose faith in her since she destroyed it so they leave her leaving her powerless. Pedro investigate the mask and as the wood is burned away it reveals a mask of orichalcium that looks like the mask the High Priest of Eldorado wore from season 1. They fly away and follows the Congo River as shown by the map and Zia puts on the mask for more information as a storm suddenly appears. Which I feel is another retcon since I thought the condor needed constant daylight to fly and that it crashed immediately as the sun disappeared (or so I recalled it from season 1, but it might just have been entering a Mu ruin that dragged it to the ground).

The documentary was even more about the Dogon region the city was in and about the traditions of the elder who is made guardians of a temple and can never leave it, but is blessed with infinite knowledge from snakes that whispers it to them in their sleep.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E14 - The Spirit's Cliff

You know, this screenshot reminds me of King's Quest VII and Valanice in the well.

 Mendoza, Tao and Esteban is informed by Sancho and Pedro that the Leopard men was the one staging the attack and they spot them leaving the village so they run after. Mendoza duel one of them and is able to capture him. Esteban and Tao try to follow the others with the mask and Zia, but they can't keep up. In the morning after the fire is out they unmask the captive and he belongs to the village. The chieftain informs them that he won't talk since he is too afraid of his queen. She apparently sought Zia and the mask since with it she could hold sway over most of the tribes in the area and since Zia could use it she was a threat to the queens own powers. They notice a tattoo on the captive and a child mentions it looks like the one from the forbidden city in the mountain. The chieftain gives them the directions to it.

The adults go into the city while Tao and Esteban lands the corridor on the cliff and wait for them. Mendoza gets attacked and have a great action scene with his cape and Sancho and Pedro is able to knock out two leopard men and escape being captive. Mendoza isn't as lucky and is tied to a pole and Zia is dragged before him. The queen arrives and put on a crown like Zia used back in season 3 where she learned most of her powers. The Queen demands Zia tells her how see the visions and the secret city, but Zia refuses so the Queen uses her powers in order to manifest a fire leopard that are about to swallow Mendoza, but Zia seems more powerful and stops it. The queen order her to be taken to the cave of spirits without food or water to soften her up. Tao and Esteban notice her being taken to the cave and Zia finds another cave within the ave hidden by a statue with ancient markings, leading her to what I assume is the 6th city, but they cut away from it before reveal.

The documentary is about the inspiration for the cliff side city, which looks a bit like some native American city that I read about in a Don Rosa Scrooge McDuck comic. The one where the running gag is Donald getting stuck with a constantly refreshed contact glue, The Dutchman's Secret.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E13 - The Night of the Masks

Ooh, see that girl
Watch that scene
Digging the dancing queen

Halfway through the season. Leguerra and Gaspard is trapped and tries to get the airship floating again. The olmecs gets an Olmecian flying machine and are about to blow them up with a destruction ray, but with some bombs and the liquid orichalcium Leguerra is able to create a bomb that stops the olmecs machine, and with another bomb she opens up the gate and they can escape.

Meanwhile our heroes have been taking a nap on the savanna, talking about the creation of the 7th city and even namedropping the Solaris, a ship from season 1. Mendoza wakes up shouting Leguerre's name as he seems to have visions of her predicament. Lucky for them he is awake when the Leopard men attack so they can defend themselves from them. They set off and a montage in the style of what I assume is classical African paintings shows our heroes traveling different tribes to find the origins of the mask. They end up in a village that prepares the Night of the Mask where they will dance and in honour of the returning mask. They also knows for some reason that Zia can wear the mask without getting hurt... since the kids have the condor and travels rather fast with it compared to walking or running I find it a bit of stretch, same goes for the leopard men that shows up, first getting Sancho and Pedro, then putting a hut to flames and then snatching the mask and Zia. The leopard men seems to be seen as bandits lead by this queen. Don't get what they are about.

And then it ends pretty much on Leguerra and Gaspard crashing the airship since their is a hole in the balloon. And the documentary is about the different tribes and how there is a special hut for talking that has such a short ceiling that if one gets angry and stand up you bonk your head. Also, the translation was talking something about the bad guy Obama for some reason and I found that really funny.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E12 - Farewell Master!

 

He probably will be back.

Ambrosius starts up the philosopher's stone in a bid to get immortality. At the same time Gaspard and Leguerra finds the armoury and the frozen bodies off the olmecs. They escape the big muscle of the olmecs. Ambrosius gets taken hostages by the others. Apparently the stone used to belong to the Atlanteans but was stolen away by the so called pacifists in order to stop the war. The stone is really a conduit like everything else and is going to be used in order to awaken all the olmecs. Leguerra rescues Ambrosius and spill the beans about the olmecs plans and as they try to escape Ambrosius suits up and want to go back, but the others have had enough of his schemes and after a tussle he falls off, but when Leguerra is about to drag him up by his hook-shot, it fails and he seemingly falls to his death. Gaspard gets control of the ship, but the gate to base closes and they crash.

Meanwhile Zia, Tao and the boy returns with mask to the village and is told that the mask must be brought back to its home, this unknown city. To find it they must follow the patterns on the mask in reverse order since it has chronicled the journey of the mask. And as they leave the woman elder tells the boy yet another part of the story, that when the mask returns, the end of times is near. And then we see a city in a cave where a woman in leopard dress dances, a leopard dressed warrior appears and tells her that a girl is on their way and they head out.

The documentary was about the Ethiopian highlands that was the inspiration for the ravine where the Olmec base was hiding. With this I can't see another end that Ambrosius have to make a redemption sacrifice and die at the end saving... maybe Tao since he seemed closest to him. The Olmecs have clearly taken over the villain part of the show and it ramps up. Also, the first seconds of the episode amazing with the small hints of synths and the visuals of the base looks just fantastic. Gets vibes from the Burning Shield back in season 1.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E11 - The Bako

 

(He's Back) The Man the Behind the Mask!

And He's Out of Control!

Zia flies toward Mozambique and she also have a stowaway, the boy hunter that happened to be in the condor as well. They sneak in by the sewers and is caught in Gomez office as they have grabbed the mask. The boy tricks Gomez to put the mask on and as he does it shines with golden light and he screams and runs off the balcony and lands on the ground. Zia and the boy grabs the mask and runs back through the sewers and Zia tells the rats to attack the soldiers. Back at the condor she puts on the mask and is again granted a vision. This time on top of another city of gold as Sancho and Pedro is sobbing and Esteban tries to pull Mendoza away. Zia isn't able to speak and she sees Tao through a could off fog and as she runs toward him he is pulled back and then falls off and disappears from the city and then she wakes up.

With this fear of Tao's life she heads toward Zimbabwe and drops the boy of the king's sister that longs for Pedro and ask the king permission to use the gate now that she have both medallions since Esteban gave his to her before the duel to avoid injuries. She finds Tao and he tells her of da Vinci's clues and show her the Mona Lisa that seems to have inscriptions in the eyes. Right eye just a signature of da Vinci, but the other had a code that Zia translates to "build the seventh city", meaning that the 7th city doesn't exist, but they have to build it. so I was wrong back at the final of the second season about the cities, but right regarding the Olmecs at least.

Speaking of the Olmecs, back at their base they set out fixing the airship and Ambrosius goes away to experiment on the stone. Gaspard and Leguerra eavesdrop on the three Olmecs and they are on their way of getting rid of them since they only need Ambrosius. The one Esteban saved show some hesitation on what they are about to do.

There was also a brief scene in the beginning when we were back in India from Ambrosius old base where a girl from the village (can't recall if she was an important character in the last season) is taking some fruit where she encounters Estebans father Darth Vader style as he goes out from his healing chamber. I think they hinted at him knowing about Tao in Chambard. 

Documentary about how Saint Sebastian seemed to actually be alive during nighttime with markets and and other things and then a bit about the Mona Lisa and the mysteries surrounding the painting. Beside the usual I didn't know that some believed that it was sort of a hidden self portrait of da Vinci. Interesting!

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E10 - The Lady Who Smiles

 

Främling, vad döljer du för mig!

I dina mörka ögon!

Episode starts with Kokapetl getting kidnapped by an African boy who is doing some initiation rite and as Esteban shows up to rescue the bird he gets caught in the trap that was set for another animal. Zia shows up and they take the condor to follow the boy. They end up by a village that happens to be the village from where the people they saved from slavery belongs to and where Mendoza and the other had ended up. To get Kokapetl back Esteban and the boy have to duel which he wins.

Zia meanwhile finds the mask she saw in her dream from episode 2 and the woman they saved explained that they make copies from the real one since they want to take it with them as good luck charms. Sancho appears and tells Zia that he saw the real one back at Gomez place. Zia tries to tell Esteban, but he's so full of himself from the victory that he pretty much hurts her feelings when he boast that he could have gotten the stone from Ambrosius. Zia take the condor by herself and flies to Saint Sebastian.

Meanwhile at Ambrosius the nasty Olmec sabotage the engine to get Ambrosius to head back to base. I assume that it's because the stone that might be able to cure the Olmecs condition.

And as that is going on Tao wanders the castle with Nostradamus looking for clues from da Vinci and ends up finding the Mona Lisa... I was just kidding about the da Vinci Code. I gather also that they hint that da Vinci might be a reincarnated person, probably one of the sages, from Mu and that is how he got the knowledge, or someone told him about it.

The documentary was more about the castle how they prepared and emptied it for the king's arrival and departure and something about him only spending a total of 72 days there. And Kokapetl talked about the tapestries and their function as isolation from the cold.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E9 - The Stone of Eternity

 

A fate unknown, the Arkenstone
What was stolen must be returned

Sancho and Pedro is able to knock out Gaspard before he shoots Mendoza. Mendoza orders Sancho and Pedro to get Gaspard away together with the Olmec that seems to not be as violently inclined like his brethren. Zia is able to get back the medallions as well as the philosopher's stone, but as she does it seems the gravitation is set back for the stone so they plunge into a whirlpool down below. Mendoza joins and they are washed out into the falls. The same for the other group as the city is filled with water. The olmec that never entered climbs back to the airship and picks up Ambrosius.

The olmecs with the others is knocked out and is saved by Esteban and he now according to the atlantean code of honour now lies his life to Esteban. Shocker! This must be a retcon since I thought it was clear that the olmecs just was a third ancient civilisation that survived the war by hiding, but apparently they are atlantean soldiers lying dormant in the wait to awaken. If the translation is correct there where 4 different sites around the world, and we know 2 of them... maybe three if the frozen olmec in season 2 was anything to go by. Gaspard ends up by the shore with a bunch of crocodiles and fight his way out until Esteban and the Olmec stumbles upon him. Esteban hides and looks for the others as the olmec covers for him.

Zia and Kokapetl wash up somewhere else with the stone and is then caught by Ambrosius that sends the olmec after her. After a tussle he's about to take the stone, but Leguerra shows up and take the stone, sets Zia free and returns to Ambrosius. Zia finds the golden condor and no one else.

Meanwhile Tao and the Order of the Hourglass looks into the paintings of da Vinci making it almost like The Da Vinci Code, but instead it is visions of the seven cities hidden in his paintings. Which tells us that Ophir was the fifth city and there are clues to the sixth city by da Vinci, and apparently a hidden seventh.

The documentary talks about the Zambezi river and the bicycle Tao was riding around the castle with. Apparently some believes that the drawing in da Vinci's books looked too modern and might be a forgery. Never knew that, only heard that is was a da Vinci concept.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E8 - Ophir

Looks a bit like Atlantica from Disney's Little Mermaid.

As our heroes are about to be killed by the olmec Mendoza hits a tile that shoots out a pillar pushing the olmec into the waters. According to the documentary it's the Victoria Falls (which I thought, but got stuck by the name Niagara Falls which I know is between Canada and the US). Ambrosius and the others start up the city of gold and search for the philosopher's stone. The heroes add their medallions as well and they notice that Ambrosius have gotten his medallions out which their's usually don't as they seem to be locked in place, almost as if they gather data from the cities themselves. 

During the fight with the olmec Mendoza was shoot in his hand and as they enter the factory part they see it creating diamonds (which would explain the Queen of Sheba's riches), but a laser seems to fire into it. Closer look into it reveal a DNA-helix which they don't know what it is. This cuts to Tao and Nostradamus in France discussing astrology and such as well this special staircase that I assume is formed like a helix and supposedly created by da Vinci. 

Zia drops one that Mendoza catches, and as he does it lights up and disappears, but at the same time his wounds are healed. Healing crystals. Meanwhile Ambrosius have found the room with the stone, but it flies in the middle of it, hoovering over a gigantic diamond and several rocks flying beside it. Leguerra is forced to get to it, but Esteban jumps in to get it before them. Ambrosius send the other Olmec and Gaspard to deal with the others and tries to follow, but the rocks start turning in circles. The others are attacked by the villains and Mendoza uses one of the laser things to keep them at bay so that Zia can run to Esteban and get to the middle of the room first. Mendoza have to save Pedro from being crushed by the diamond press, but it seems to shut down the whole city and below the waterfall the first Olmec washes ashore.

As mentioned the documentary was on the Victoria Falls and a bit about rainbows. Apparently the inspiration for the city was a local tribes deity of a fish god that protects them. Which is interesting since the city was built 10 000 years ago and never shown I thought. But then, how could the Queen of Sheba have the philosopher's stone? Or the treasures for that matter without having the medallions herself? Or was she the one that had the double medallions that Ambrosius now possess? 

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E7 - The Roaring Smoke

 

Tintin already did this with a hidden city behind a waterfall!

Ambrosius is able to find the place where the city of Ophir is hidden after Leguerra is able to translate the riddle about the smoke that thunders. Not a volcano as everyone thinks, but a waterfall. They land and is about to climb up, arriving at steps made out of orichalcum and a new riddle... which I don't understand what it is. According to the translation it was something about things that seemed to be together. Anyway, one falls move and a pillar of stone shoots out and may push you to your death. Of course, the ones that are pushed are saved, Leguerra and Ambrosius. 

Our heroes meanwhile have a bit of a problem. Tao has lost confidence in himself, again I would say and opts to stay in France and study under the Order of the Hourglass. Mendoza and Esteban clears the rubble, and Pedro is being pretty much hit on by the king's sister during the whole stay until they are allowed to continue their journey. Zia tells the whole story to the king of Zimbabwe who tells them about the waterfall they are looking for after getting the riddle, Francis I shows up and invites the king over to France and then they head off.

They arrive and is captured by one of the Olmecs and they join Ambrosius and Zia, with the stories Tao told her about the different animals and such is able to translate the pictures and take them toward the top where the City of Ophir hides. Ambrosius heads on and tells the Olmec to get rid of them.

The documentary was on the wall of the capital of Zimbabwe, rather interesting building since it hasn't cement or mortar, it was just stones laid on top of each other creating an interesting pattern.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E6 - The Founder

 

I am Nostradamus!

Do You Believe!

Esteban and Zia is brought in front of the French king Francis I that seems to be the protector of the Order of the Hourglass that Esteban's father, Ambrosius and Leguerra founded after their mentor, Leonardo da Vinci. And the scared priest or something was in fact also a member of the Order of the Hourglass named, Nostradamus... how interesting. Ambrosius in his Zares costume follows and attacks the children and the Order, seen as a traitor by the other members of the Order and is able to take the artefact the children found. He jumps back to Africa and is on his way.

Meanwhile Mendoza have infiltrated the airship and is reunited with Leguerra, but she stays behind since she must stop Ambrosius somehow. Mendoza returns to the city but is knocked out by Gaspard, but both gets captured by the city guards.

Sancho and Pedro lets the gold fever gets the better of them and is caught by the city guards, but they are able to escape and ends up in the hut belonging to the sister of the king that seems to take a very special interest in the two, so much so that they find it's safer to run to the guards. They are all brought before the king, but before Sancho and Pedro is given the capital punishment the king's sister intervenes and takes Sancho and Pedro away. Mendoza and Gaspard almost begins fighting until Ambrosius returns, leaves Gaspard behind and heads for the airship. Esteban follows, but is too late as he watches Ambrosius fly away with Gaspard having escaped and now hanging on for dear life on the airship.

And the documentary was on Francis I and Leonardo da Vinci and his inventions.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E5 - Gate of the Elders

 

I don't think we're in Africa anymore!

Our heroes are flying over Zimbabwe, which roughly lies where I thought the Drakensberg was supposed to be so I was clearly wrong. Instead we end up at the capital of the decendents from the people of Sheba. The Condor crashes into the walls of the city so the children allows themselves to be kidnapped in order for the adults to hide and come out during nightfall. They are shown to the king of the town and he, for some reason shows them around and when he notices Zia's medallion takes them to the gate of the Elders. A monument in gold (or probably Orichalcium) where the children places the medallions and open up a portal where they enter, ending up in the Chatau de Chambord, a French castle were another gate lies as well as a lot of other artefacts from all around the world. They scare a priest or something that calls the guards. Tao escapes and ends up in a room filled with the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci that also appears in his book (maybe hinting that Leonardo got those ideas from a Mu pyramid that seemed to have been stored there as well, which feels a bit reversal off non-European civilisations got their tech from aliens). Apparently some sources believe he designed parts of the castle as well.

Ambrosius picks up the Olmecs and travels to Zimbabwe and are quite shocked to see the Condor there before him and the children already passed through the gate. He already knew what the gate was for having seen the French one as well saved the people from an epidemic in Zimbabwe. He gears up and prepares to jump through the gate. Mendoza corners Gaspard that reveals that Leguerre is captured and that she works for Charles V, Gaspard is then knocked out. Leguerra finally breaks out of her prison (did it earlier in the episode but had to return when Gaspard came to tell her about the Olmecs).

The documentary was about Chatau de Chambord and the second part is about the unfinished part of the Castle in the show. Apparently it took 30 years to build it (sounded like a 100 when I tried to read the subtitles).

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E4 - The Great Escape

 

Foiled again!

Esteban and Sancho stands face to face with Gomez and he confirms that he knows the location of the city of Ophir, Estaban and him makes a deal to join forces so he and Sancho heads back to the others. Gomez meanwhile asks his soldiers to tail them and capture them all. As the others are preparing the escape of the slaves Esteban tells the others about Gomez which alerts them to the soldiers following Esteban, Esteban and Mendoza stays behind while the others run off to enact the plan. Sancho, Kokopetl and Zia distracts a crew on a ship so that they can get their hand on gunpowder while Tao and Pedro buys up all rum they can get their hands on. Mixing them apparently creates a laxative of some kind which they plan to give to the garrison during the celebration, not of the wedding I thought in the last post, but birthday celebration?

The plan goes well and they rescue the slaves. Mendoza and Esteban meanwhile was captured by Gomez men and talk about the city of Ophir. Apparently Gomez have a map showing the city in a mountain straight across from Madagascar which by a map I pulled from Google seems to be named Drakensberg, which I guess means Dragon's Mountain... AWESOME!

Ambrosius meanwhile takes the airship to a ravine and a cave which leads to a hidden city and as Gaspard and Ambrosius leaves the airship three Olmecs appears and greats Ambrosius that hails them as old friends... It was hinted back in season 2 that they would appear again and here they are! Leguerra meanwhile spent her time trying to unlock her door.

The documentary was about how they built the fortress of Saint Sebastian with the ballast from the ships and the mini-documentary was about how you travelled through the city with tuk tuks. I guess, the auto-text is rather limited.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E3 - Chained Up

 

He's back!

Well, Ambrosius catches up to the Esparanta and as Leguerra notices that she accuses Gaspard, who insist he is innocent and Ambrosius confirms this and Leguerra and him have a duel until she is knocked out. Gaspard convince Ambrosius to let her live so she is locked in to the airship. Ambrosius and Gaspard attacks the Esparanta and fires a harpoon that catches on to the ship and then Ambrosius begins pulling the rope and... begins lifting the ship up in the air... I assume it might be that Gaspard at the same time is steering the airship so that it would work, otherwise I have a really time believing that could happen. After some fighting Ambrosius corners the captain and gets a chest containing the item Leguerra had and a letter addressed to Charles V. With this it's revealed... I think if Ambrosius just didn't jump to conclusion, that Leguerra is a spy working for the Spanish king. The item was a holder for liquid orichalcium that he uses to blow the Esperanta leaving the crew swimming in the ocean and flies away, effectively dooming them if no other ship sails past.

Meanwhile our heroes ends up in Mozambique and the Fort Saint Sebastian where the portuguese slave trade is in full parade. Seems to be a wedding ceremony as well. They split up with Pedro and Tao sitting at an inn trying to get information on the Portuguese, Mendoza and Zia helps some slave girls that tried to steal items from a black smith in order to break free some other slaves and Sancho and Esteban ask some ruffians and are lead to the Governor I think who turns out to be Gomez, one of the main antagonists from the first season and I thought presumed dead at Eldorado as Gomes and Gaspard's boat with gold collapsed as the world shock as the thermal reactor was on it's way to the Earth's core. Well, Gaspard survived so I shouldn't be that surprised. And the fact that the preview from the last episode clearly showed his coat.

The documentary was on the fort and its use for the slave trade and the second part was about cannonballs since it was used by the Esperanta trying to repel Ambrosius. Overall the close caption got worse since it's auto-generated and I fear from this way on then I assume. So the text only gives bit's and pieces.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E2 - Zia's Dream

 

She's sleeping on the job!

Well, had to continue sometime and I got the craving and there was still no physical release of the thing (or even streaming or digital release either) so I had to make it with the France dub on youtube. At least the english subs are fairly decent, except at some point. There's a point when Leguerra says canaille, which roughly translates to scoundrel, but it was translated here to fucker... I don't think this is what they where going for cause it's so out of place in a children show. And then I haven't studied French but I least I know that word.

Well, story continues where the last one ended. Tao and Esteban is trapped under the rubble from the earthquake and the others tries to find them. Zia uses her mind powers to speak with some mole rats (you know, Rufus from Kim Possible) and gets them to help locate the boys. The village elder helps with the digging and they are able to uncover the children, but another quake collapses the rubble over them again and then Zia turns super sayan and lifts all stones with her mind long enough so that they can escape and then she falls into a coma. And the music is back!

As the other stands guard over Zia the village elder tells them the story of the Queen of Sheba that lived during the age of Solomon and apparently lived in a golden city with a mine, the city of Ophir and apparently had the worlds largest diamond. Zia meanwhile have a prophetic dream and sees a mask in the sky and a vision of the city of gold. More musical callbacks... although the scene would have been better with some technicolor hallucinations like in the first season, although I suspect that it is a callback to that very moment. She wakes up and they set out looking for a Portuguese that have studied the city.

Meanwhile on Ambrosius ship Legueera seems ready to rebel so while Gaspard steers the ship and Ambrosius have hidden himself in his secret lab Legueere sneaks in and finds his Grimoire that tells us that the diamond that the Queen of Sheba have is really the philosophers stone, the stone that can turn lead into gold, cure every disease and thwart death itself. The stakes are high now! Another tussle between Leguerra and Gaspard also reveals that Leguerra had given an item to the captain of Esperanta back in the last season and as Ambrosius overhears that he plots the ships course and then decide to follow, eager to get the item back.

The mini-documentary is about the food the heroes ate in the Ethiopian village and I had actually eaten that in an African restaurant in my city, but they closed half a year ago or something. Fascinating taste of the bread, but maybe to sweet for my taste (and I'm frankly one who like sweet). And then it followed with the mole rats and that they actually had added fur to them since the designer thought they looked ugly which Kokapetle call bullshit on... here I think yet another translation problem arise, but this time I didn't know the word instantly.

Pikmin 4 (Switch)

 

Who let the dog out?

Latest Pikmin game and for the Nintendo Switch, last game for the summer 2023 although I got and finished it after my vacation was over, still work is so slow during those weeks so I could get home after 16:00 without problem. And my co-workers doesn't do anything but talk about gardening and this is the closest I will ever get to it.

Basic story is that Captain Olimar from Pikmin 1 is redoing his adventure and this time ends up in a house on the planet where he finds a radio transmitter that allows him to send out a signal to space. The signal is picked up by the intergalactical Rescue Corp that sets out to save him... and promptly crashes themselves. So they send out their latest recruit, you, the player!

And you set off rescuing the rescue corps with the help of the pikmin you find and a dog that will help you fight and traverse the areas. But you aren't alone, other travellers have stranded as well, there is a school class, some tourists and so on. And a strange leafling that runs around with a dog himself... the same dog Olimar had in the beginning... It's Olimar isn't it?

Yes, while trying to escape the planet he unfortunately crashed back to earth and to save him the pikmins did what they could to save him, they brought him to an onion and it spat out the leafling, more or less the bad ending of the first game. Now he's obsessed with efficency and tries to bring the other stranded people into leaflings so now you gotta do that as well. To cure them you need to do nightly raids where you play sort of a tower defence game as crazed beasts attacks some luminknolls that produce a sap you need to cure the leaflings with. For help you have glow pikmins that seems to be ghost-like pikmins that are created from crystals that the luminknolls use to spew out them. Or if you have rescued Dingo the Ranger he can auto-complete the mission for you if you fail (which I used on the final mission since I was feed up by that time). You save Olimar and are about to go home, but before entering the warp hole your dog grows sick and seems to have caught the leafling bug himself and you have to go back to find a cure.

So you look for a veterinary among the other stranded, but she have been kidnapped by Louie that have taken up Olimars leafling habits. Get the veterinarian back (which is a copy of Brittany from the last game, and copies of Alph and Charlie is here as well) and she confirms that you need the cells from an unaffected dog so you look for Louie until you find him hiding in a 20-level cave with a big dog at the bottom you gotta fight. Well, before that I had to do the Sage Leafs trails to get the onions for the white and purple pikmin to have enough to get through every levels (which made me think out solutions while showering, maybe I'm a bit obsessed at the moment). And then fighting the dog was almost a complete failure. Should have gone to the level before and had diversified my army a bit, or just use red, yellow and ice since that seemed to be the most dangerous phases, especially when I got in with purple white and blue. White helped when he ate them which killed him a bit faster, but it was a really bad deal, but I managed.

Cured the dog and went home, the end! Took me 40 hours pretty much and it was fun... it felt like they changed the timer for the days. I think it was 1 hour in the original, but I still felt I made more progress in the old game. You also have a mode where you play as Olimar that got 15 days to find the 30 pieces of his ship which tells how he got here. There is a remaster of 1 and 2 on the Switch and when I get the physical version I might play that. I actually did finish the original on GameCube, and the sequel on Wii, but there is apparently a bit of QoL improvements that might it even more fun. 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Movie)

Crack that whip!

Well, I watched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in cinema back in the day, would be a waste to miss this one so I went together with my parents and sister while I was on vacation during the summer of 2023. And I enjoyed it. Starts out at the end of second world war as Indiana Jones together with a friend is looking for the Spear of Longinus, also known as the spear of destiny, that is said to have pierced Jesus Christ as he was crucified and the nazi's wanted it to rule the world. First heard about the spear when reading Phantom comics as the Phantom in the 17th-century found the hidden ruins of Lemuria and together with his brother-in-law picks it up, but the spear curses the brother-in-law to become a monster as he want's it's powers to rule the world. Then it appeared in Castlevania and other stuff as a normal occult item, Gabriel Knight 3 also mentioned it for example.

Some occult things at least goes on since they deep-faked Harrison Fords face to look like he did back in the 80's and its uncanny. Still sounds like an old man, but the looks. My sister said at times she got out of it as it wasn't seamless all the time, but I kinda enjoyed it. The spear is taken on a train and Indy's friend gets taken by the nazi's. Indy saves them, finds that the spear is just a fake, but they find one part of the dial of destiny, an item said created by Archimedes that could predict the future. It belonged to a nazi officer and played by Mads Mikkelsen. They stop the train and rescues all the artefacts and treasures in it as the allies comes in. Now we skip to 1969 and Indy is retiring from his professor job when his friends daughter shows up in search for the dial part Indy have hidden away after his friend went mad over studying it. But with it follows CIA goons that are working for Mads Mikkelsen that helped the Americans put man on the moon. 

Turns out Mads Mikkelsen is still a nazi (who would have thought that, he looked so nice?) and is looking for the dial in order to use it to travel through time back to before the war and replace Hitler and make the nazi's rule the world. Indy together with Helena (his friends daughter and his god-daughter) travels across the Mediterranean together with her child friend Teddy in search of map to the second piece that sank on a roman galley which they need the help of a Spanish diver (played by Antonio Banderas). They get it, but at the same time the nazi's catch up with them and kills the crew off their ship. They get away with the map and deduce that the second piece lies in the grave of Archimedes back in Syracuse. Teddy gets kidnapped and escapes on his own while Helena and Indy gets to the treasure with the nazi's right behind. Indy is shot while the other heroes escape. Mads drag Indy to the airfield where they fly away on an airplane while using the dial to pinpoint a wormhole through time. Helena gets on the plane while Teddy gets another plane and follows. 

Now, the portal doesn't take them to Germany circa 1939, instead they end up in Syracuse during the roman siege of the island. Apparently the dial was sent out by Archimedes to get help. The nazi plane is shot down by the romans and Helena and Indy parachutes down. The planes scares the romans away and is hinted about as a tale of dragons seen in a puppet show earlier in the film. Nice touch. They meet Archimedes and Indy is determined to stay since his relationship with Marion is failing after Mutt died while enlisting in the army. Helena knocks him out and drags him back to New York in "modern times". She also ensures that Marion comes by and Sallah (which helped Indy earlier in the film) ending the movie on a happy note and the series as well.

As said, I really liked this movie. The beginning felt like the old movies (shoddy CGI non-withstanding) and it felt like references to other Indiana Jones media. Saw one person on Twitter that shared a picture from Fate of Atlantis that also had a boat sequence looking for Plato's texts. Now, I recall another diving segment from an Indiana Jones comic when Indy looked for treasure and is attacked by an octopus that kills pretty much the whole crew (that deserved it since they where on mutiny to kill Indy and the captain and a mutual friend). Something like the Sea-Devil or whatever. The Spear of Longinus was also a sequel story to the Last Crusade where nazi's are looking for the spear in Ireland where Henry Jones Sr. gets involved. Seeing Sallah and Marion is nice (although we saw Marion last time as well). The only thing missing is a fisticuff battle with the main muscle of the nazi's, but I assume Harrison Ford can't really do those stunts anymore. It's also somewhat more gruesome with deaths (and that's coming for a series where the heads melts of, hearts are ripped out and so on). The death of Indy's coworker was abrupt, same for the diver crew and I would say the drowning of the muscle is somewhat worse than being dragged into an ant-nest. Probably the last Indy movie we will see, waiting for the blu-ray release so I can have the whole collection.

Final Fantasy (Final Fantasy Origins) (PSOne)

 

Deja Vu

I've just been to this place before

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

... I feel like I'm stuck in a time-loop!

Well, played through all games and gave the PSOne version another shot... good god it's hard going back. After 6 hours I defeated the Dark Elf Astos, and I was right, the limiting factor isn't levels but enough money to get supplies. Maybe should have taken the easy mode, but still, if the Pixel Remaster took me 10 hours this version took me something like 25 hours to finish and that is without counting the retries when I died. Should have finished it as a kid, but since it was a PS2 we played on it doubled as a DVD-player. 

So, recall how I mentioned that I class changed at level 30 and felt that it was very high compared to my original playthrough? Well, I played it at normal mode and guess what? Here the class change came at level 20. At level 30 I was on my way to the final confrontation with Chaos. I assume then that level 80 was a bit of overkill then in the Pixel Remaster. Thinking that a closer feeling would be playing the Pixel Remaster with 1/2x EXP. It was apparently doable for me, but I learned that easy mode actually works like Pixel Remaster with EXP 1x. Which is sad to learn that it means that as a kid I probably could have finished the game if I had played it on Easy instead of Normal, damn you prideful kid me!

It had it's moments though, I rage quitted first time at the March cave as I tried to get the final rooms after getting the magic key. Then I took two days of and did other things, but it was always in my mind so I continued and skipped it until I was a bit higher level. I tried to do Ice Cave before Mt. Gulug, but I got so beat up just going there I did the volcano first, got beat up there as well so then I went and did the Castle of Trails instead which gave me a healing staff, gauntlet and the ice sword. The healing staff and Gauntlet you actually could use as an item with heal1 and thunder2. Never knew that, that saved a ton of resources regarding healing and magic change how I played the game totally (wish for the auto-battle function of the Pixel Remaster since it was a lot of back and fourth to the item menu). Now the volcano was a breeze and I thought the Ice Caves would be the same. Boy was I wrong. Damn Dark Wizards pelted me with fire3, there was mindflayer looking guys who instakilled me by touching me, I think I did the run 3 times before going out with the levistone. 

Final party kill was in the water temple, but after that only Magus got killed from time to time (had to shorten Imaginos so I got Magus instead). Still, a bit unnerving traveling through the Chaos Temple or the Flying Castle knowing that if you die here it's back to the beginning. I think they would have made it less frustrating instead like (I think) Dragon Quest and sending you back to the latest visited Priest or so (I know Golden Sun did this at least) with half your money. Now, money is always the limiting factor here, but if I have 3 levels and have to redo them and being faced with the bad luck of an instakill in the early areas before being able to get the protection ring. At least give me something since the game is so random. Doesn't matter what speed your characters have, it's total randomness who goes first every turn, or that the damage really is between the highest and lowest possible without any actual explanation why it is at different times. Fun rolling in a physical DnD game, not so much in a video game when I can't get off a heal on the black mage in time before the slow moving snail kills him. That's what you have preemptive attacks and ambush attacks for.

No, Pixel Remaster beats this out of the water, but it was fun experience it. Sadly no cinematic cutscene, just stills from the introduction movie over the credits, meaning I actually already seen everything that was special about this release. Still, the rumble from attacks and cutscenes were also rather intense and they didn't see to replicate it on the Pixel Remaster either, and definitely not on the GBA. I don't think I ever will do Final Fantasy II on the PSOne though, seems too boring with the grinding and such.

The Shannara Chronicles (Season 2)

 

Better late than never.

Well, took me a year, but I finally went through the whole of season 2 of the Shannara Chronicles. Was a bit hard to get through since I pretty much lost interest in it. Really, they divert so much from the books that I don't know what to do with it. And really, it was gonna be hard to do the original trilogy as it is a generational gap between each book. So what do you do? You take bits and pieces from every book and mash it together.

It takes one year after the first season and there is still chaos in the four lands. The elves are on the brink of civil war between the Crimson and the normal elves. I think the crimson are inspired by the military organisation the Federation from the Heritage of Shannara-series. I think at least. The traveller girl is together with Cogline, the ex-druid that had a larger role in that series as well, and gets visions from the tree-girl and sets out to find Will. Will is back in Storlock healing people and meets this girl that seems to be the daughter of Allanaon, which is a story beat from the book First King of Shannara when a woman thought she was the daughter of a druid, in that case Bremen, Allanons mentor. In that case she wasn't since it was thought she was actually conceived by a minon of the Warlock Lord. Allanon meanwhile is hunting the seer from the first season that have been looking for the codex in order to resurrect the Warlock Lord. That feels like the story beat from Wishsong of Shannara. 

And then it's betrayals here and there, blood squirting all over the screen and many dead corpses. They even have a giant white spider *shudder*. We also travel back in time so we can take some scenes from the sword of Shannara with Will's father Shea Ohmsford... I though Shea was his grandfather? And we have royal weddings between the elves and the human kingdom of Leah? What happened with Tyrsis? And here comes Garet Jax, the weapon master from Wishsong of Shannara... and he survives the whole show even though his arc is to die against the most dangerous creature in battle to show his abilities? And Will dies fighting the resurrected Warlock lord but somehow turns up in a field of furies circling over him and then to be continue shows up. There is no third season.

As noted, a hodgepodge of story beats with a lot of violence. Of course the original books didn't shy away from killing people, even main characters, but there is something special about the Warlock Lord ripping the head off the commander of the Crimson that have been torturing and killing people through the whole season. It really couldn't keep my interest. I would have liked seeing a season 3 just to see what they would have done to keep this story going, but I would prefer a redo and closer to the books. It looked a bit cheap at times, not a lot of actors and even though it was 2 000 years since the nuclear war, there seems to be a lot of modern housing and such.

Final Fantasy VI (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

Highest Acclaimed Game!

The last game in the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster pack, and this one was hard to play through (not only by being the longest game, but since I probably entered Final Fantasy fatigue as well as it was just a year ago since I played it last on the PSOne). 33 hours compared to V:s 25 hours and the others something like 10-15 hours. Still the fastest I finished the game compared to the 60 hours last time, and every level above 80. The boost option works really great and even allowed me to get pretty much every magic except Meltdown to every character. Which might have added to the fatigue by make the micromanagement of the level grind kinda irritating. If you don't know, you don't raise stats by normal level ups unless you equip an esper that grants one, and that is at highest +2. So, best strategy is running through the first part to get to Ramuh and get the first esper and finish the magitek factory and then equip specific esper before every level up. Kid me didn't understand that, but I do now and boy, is it fun to get several characters with magic 100 or strength 100, enemies don't stand a chance.

Did they change things? Yes, several parts in fact. The most talked about is the opera scene, actual singing vocals and instead of 2d they soar around the scene like it was a 2d-hd engine and that is only for that scene. They changed the mine-cart scene so I actually see what it is (unfortunately it doesn't give the same effect of car sickness looking at it and they slowed it down). Celes doesn't get punched in her introductory scene and some changes here and there to the script. Changes to enemy encounters at places, drops and so on. Mostly fixed things that was bugged out in the original (which they fixed in every release afterwards what I know). They also added motor sound to the airships and Deathgaze is no longer invisible on the map, but still a pain to find, but at least I can see him. And they changed the fish to Cid mini-game, I didn't even try and he got better, and I wanted the downer ending with the jump from the cliff!

Still a hard game though. I got beaten up by bosses I have not had trouble with before (or that be due to the change of grinding meaning I had lower levels at times which would help immensely in the end game, just need to get there). And most of them you can't just cue up the same attack patterns and just get a sandwich as the auto-battle plays out, no, here you have to carefully choose your attacks, otherwise the bosses will walk all over you, but I'm glad I can speed up the slow ATB-meter.

Now, the usual final question, which version to play? I don't need to play the PSOne-version ever again. GBA has some extra espers and an extra dungeon (which I haven't played through if I recall, it has the Kaiser Dragon in the Dragon's Den). Someone on youtube mentioned that they believe that all bonus will come as DLC and I almost hope so I can retire my GBA collection since I need more space in the bookcase. But there is problems here, at the 15 hours the game crashed and there is stuttering in the scrolling while walking around towns. I thought the game would crash more, right after finishing the game an update arrived as well. 

And with this I finished the whole Pixel Remaster. I wish the Dragon Quest games would have gotten this treatment as well, but since they are working on a Dragon Quest III remake in the 2d-HD engine I have to wait for that (and they hinted about doing I and II as well). FF III the most interesting game in the collection and all is very nice, just missing the extra content from GBA releases.

Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

Go, mighty warrior... The kings of enchanted lands are awaiting your
victory! Ride on the wings of wisdom, ride beyond the middle valleys to
defeat the master of chaos in the name of cosmic justice. Peace and love
forever!

Now we enter the ones that I only played one year ago (as of writing) and I gotta be honest, this is still a fun game to play and due to the different ways to play there is a new way to play every time. And this version speeds up the end game a lot. I spent 5-6 hours at first chance in Bal Castle and just grinded out the Object d'art until I got every job mastered, meaning I could just focus on arming up the characters with double weapons with highest damage output. I still have to be strategic with bosses and environments since most bosses have something that stops them from being hacked to death, be it several enemies that auto-regenerate or something like that. Graphically I also noticed that some backgrounds in battles had moving parts like waterfalls flowing down. First time I noticed this in these game, don't know if it's due to being the first game that they did that or if I didn't look at the backgrounds in the other games.

Of course, I played the EXP and Gil counter on normal and the ABP on 4x and it wasn't a problem and before I grinded it out I actually tried different job combinations (with getting Blue Mage Learn ability first for all characters to make that easier). The game still played fine and had a decent challenge. Noticed though that the end game stops giving you EXP when you enter the final area... of course I grinded out to level 50 in order to get the super bosses this time around and I crushed Omega and Shinryu for the first time. I got two badges for that... a bit anticlimactic, but Shinryu also had Ragnarok hidden in that stupid chest he hid in. Damn cheater. They also had a lot of mentioning of Hell in this version. 

I also think the end credits is also the first that have a background beyond a black screen. I wonder if it's due to the actual one having something compared to the earlier entries. At least make it interesting to watch... and makes me wonder about the end theme since there is a lot more credited people in these rereleases compared to the original. Playing it so close also reminded me about things I missed like the summon near the lake in the second world and actually using beastmaster abilities in order to get some of the blue mage spells. I also started with the intention of getting every bestiary, but I somehow missed the Hydra in the Ronka Ruins so I gave up that. Same place actually gave me a reason to use 0.5x and 0 EXP to get some abilities like lvl 4 Gravity and so on. 

So, same question like the others, which is the preferred version? I finished the PSOne version and have no need to play that version again, this version is fun enough and the ease of play works fine. Discovered a glitch or something since I was in mirage tower and suddenly the game froze on me trying to open the menu so I had to close the software. Don't know the reason and that was the first time I got that. Could be that I played over 15 hours without closing the software, but that's just a guess. GBA? Still have the extra stuff like more jobs and a post-endgame dungeon that allows you to fight the big bad from 1 000 years ago that forced the heroes of that time to split the crystals and create the two worlds in order to seal the void that Exdeath was after. Since being level 50 and out-grinded on jobs made me defeat the super-bosses without problem it might actually be needing something more.