Final Fantasy II (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

So fortune shine your light on me and my dog
'Cause we need some security
While other folks are living high on the hog
I'm the black sheep of the family

Continued with the second game, the black sheep of the original games. Still find the story rather interesting, the gameplay... felt worse somehow. I just boosted everything, HP goes up after an amount of battles, easier to grind abilities and stats, they don't do negative growths, but... was the encounter rate always this high? Same problem with money in that everything was so expensive, but the ability to stop encounters make it palpable. They also seem to have added extra musical tracks since it doesn't correspond to the Famicom track list, but that might have been since any rerelease. I would also say, one thing to have made the whole forcing you to grind every single person more easy would have been to do it like in Grandia, you get an orb with the experience to give to a new character (to speed them up as actual replacements) or give it to one of the remaining players to specialise them in magic or weapons. 

Still, no extra content with the dead characters which is a pity since this version I might have geared them out just fine and been able to grind their stats a bit. For example, in every pixel remaster you can just press Y in combat and the game goes into auto-battle doing the same actions the character did last time meaning it's perfect for this game where you had to use every spell or attack to get good at it. Getting Esuna up? Just spam it for a character and it will go up in no time. I noticed though that the weapon levels seemed a bit... strange, they hardly went up except after some bosses if I used it, did they limit it or something? Or was it always like that, but adding a fast grinding ability didn't make it work? Also, seems to a something like 10 levels for spells (I got cure up to 15 and the enemy highest seemed to be 16). 

PSOne, GBA or Switch? PSOne has the cutscenes and that's it. Probably finish it sometime to get it over with. But GBA has that extra mode with Scott, Minwu, Joseph and Richard. And they are likeable characters so I feel inclined that one day I should probably play through the version legit and make sure I don't shaft them on the gear side like I done every other playthrough (penny pinching is real if everything cost this much, that's why Minwu didn't get any mithril gear... on the other hand the switch version seemed to give me the former party members gear so maybe I've just been an idiot all these years).

Update 2024-11-05: Well, I tried playing the Origins version and guess what? If you try to use warp points, the game freezes on me if playing on the PS3. Apparently it also can freeze if you try revive party members in the church and crossing a bridge after getting the sun flame trying to play the cutscene off Hilda getting overtaken by the Dreadnought. So my game is unplayable as of the moment. That sucks! At least it confirms it's last place status.

Final Fantasy I (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

Where it all started!

Finally got the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster for the Switch. Ordered it from Playasia back in April before the release and it came 20 June of 2023. Perfect timing for my vacation that started 2 days later. So this is the latest release of the original Final Fantasy-games and that means I can play I-X, XII and XV all on my Switch. Played the first game recently back in 2018 when I just had moved in my apartment and that was the GBA-version. 

Took me something over 10 hours to play through, of course I used some Quality of life improvements, I gave myself 4x Gil and after getting the class upgrade I even gave myself 4x EXP. This at least showed me how the game is balanced. I didn't grind or anything until the class change and it happened around level 33 like my old playthrough, but I found out that the limiting factor in the game wasn't my levels, but my lack of resources to get weapons, items and magic. Probably should avoid getting some spells in future playthroughs since I don't use any of the status effect spells, save the gil for armour instead. I also changed my team so that is was Niklas the fighter, Aang the monk, Tara the white mage and Imaginos the black mage. Aang probably the MVP of the group with that damage output. He is a bit squishy though and bit the dust once, but in the end I find the monk class probably the one to keep.

So, is it the definitive version? Graphically and musically yes, especially when you can toggle the old and new music (some songs are just a bit better if they are scaled back, but choruses are always appreciated). Probably beating out the PSOne version since the only thing that version has is the cutscenes... so I might actually playthrough that version after finish of this collection. But the GBA? It has more stuff, although ease of play is rather important, but since it's a GBA I can save anywhere and it's portable if I want that plus with the Retron-5 I can play it on the TV. On the other hand, I got a bestiary and music player with the music, a gallery with concepts art as well as constant running and taking away encounter making the game play so much faster or just quickly check if I forgot something which the map helps with since you can see how many items and treasure chest there is in any town or dungeon. I assume I will get this problem for every game. Well, maybe not the original version I have for Wii Virtual Console or the NES Mini... but then again, listening to the Final Fantasy Retrospective makes you appreciate the original graphics and the way they used the limits of the original console for example to create white mountains and with the scan lines of the old TV:s make them out of crystals instead of the boring grey mountains we have now... I hope I don't get so into these games that I play those as well.

A DnD Tale: Waterdeep - Dragon's Heist - The Beast of Many Eyes

 

You can lie for yourself and your minions

You can claim that you haven't doth qualm

But you can never run from or hide what you done from the eyes!

So the battle with Xanathar continues, they have him bloodied and after two turns he is passed his health, but I make him escape instead since he is a bit important to the world. They dive into the fish tank to get the chest out and inside they find the stone of Galoor. They follow a tunnel out, grabs the statue of the gnome that lead them here and bluff their way out with being on statue duty and putting it in the room with statues. After that getting back and do their days till they have attuned with stone, after writing a contract between the three of them (Ulf have left since my sister had a fallout with the player at work) sharing the treasure between themselves, Parker and an extra fund making it an even 100 000 split.

Freja is chosen to use it and gets in contact with the aboleth Galoor. She is bestowed with another cantrip spell, but she also have an an aura of death killing any plants she touches with her necrotic touch. Galoor shows her where the door is and that they need three skulls to open the door. Freya and Hope goes to the door which they find below the theatre. They don't get any clues there so they go to Vincent Trench if he can help them about the skulls. He knows the gold skull with emerald eyes since the gold is something the Cassalanter is into so it is there, they pay him 100 gold to look for the other two.

They get to the Cassalenter and gets to serve at the Founder Party at Midsummer which is two weeks away. And there we pretty much ends. Not much this time, but that is due to the players pretty much skipping the Guild dungeon. Next session wont be until September 2023 (meaning when this is released we have gone forward some sessions). 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)

 

Da-Dadada-Da-Dada!

The latest Zelda-adventures 6 years after Breath of the Wild and long hyped game. A massive game with hundreds of hours to get into the game, I finished it after 180 hours and I still had things to do afterwards. The game begins with Link and Zelda exploring under Hyrule Castle finding murals depicting the founding of the kingdom and the war against the Demon King 10 000 years ago. In the depths they find a skeleton being held back by a hand as it seemed to sap the life out of the skeleton, but as they approaches the hand falls off and the skeleton begins moving talking to our heroes. Turns out it is Ganondorf, the Demon King that was sealed 10 000 years ago by Rauru, the first king of Hyrule and one of the Zonai. He causes the Upheaval where islands in the skies begins falling upon the land, Hyrule Castle is lifted up into the sky and all weapons are degraded by something called the Gloom and the Master Sword shatters and Links arm is corrupted. As Zelda falls off a cliff he leaps after her but before reaching her she disappears and Link is saved by the arm that grabs on to him and seemingly teleports him away. And here I think there is a time skip for an unknown amount of days... maybe months? As Link awakes yet again in a chamber, but now with longer hair and his arm replaced with the one that saved him. Belonging to Rauru it begins teaching Link how to traverse the lands with new abilities. Gone are Bomb, Glacias and Magnesis, instead we get Ultra Hand that works like Magnesis, but you can attach things together, then there is Ascend that allows you to swim through roofs (or ceilings) which is instead for Ravali's Gail. There's Recall witch allows you to turn back time for certain objects and Fuse that allows you to add things to weapons and shields to counter the Gloom-effects on weapons. And then things that unlock later like Camera and Quick Build. You get through four shrines across the the islands in the sky and then jumps back to Hyrule.

More tutorials follows, several people have began building up Hyrule town as a base of observations and monster controls lead by Purah that sets you on the quest to look into wether phenomenas near Rito, Gorons, Zora and the Gerudo. Before leaving you meet Josha and Robbie (Josha being a new Sheika scientist, and the new child genius since Purah have aged herself up to look something like a 20 year old). They began looking into the chasm that have appeared and leads into the dephts, a dark underworld where you gotta find lightroots to bring light to the underworld (and each lightroot corresponds to one of the shrines on the overworld so finding one can help you find the one in the other map. At least the quest tells you there is ruins and abandond mines below, mostly allowing you to mine zonite, a new material that powers your batteries mostly. Of course the gloom effect is the limiting factor since if you get hurt by monsters with gloom they not only give your damage, they also blocks the hearts so you can't regain health until you get into sunlight (either from leaving, standing under a lightroot or eating meals that undoes the damage, preferable sundilions). 

The game is actually pushing you to do the four phenomenas first, then Hyrule Castle where you follow an illusion of Zelda that makes yo fight Phantom Ganons together with the sages you rescued. Here they reveal that Ganondorf hides beneath the Castle in the depths, but you are encouraged to find the fifth sage and the Master Sword that disappeared after clearing the tutorial area. The search for the fifth sage should lead you to Kakiriko village where you have ring ruins that tells you to go to the Faron Woods where you help some researchers and unlock an island cluster above that was hidden in a storm cloud that shows you a mask that takes you to the depths and a factory that puts together a robot vehicle with the conscious of the sage of Spirit, Mineru that was the sister of Rauru. After that travel across the world to find the dragons tears that lies in glyphs that looks like the Nascau lines in South America. The tears tells the story from Zelda's view as she apparently travelled back 10 000 years to meet Rarau and Sonia, the first king and queen of Hyrule. Apparently she awoke as the sage of time and she watched Ganondorf appearing and getting a secret stone that turned him into the Demon King and the final battle between him and the six sages and Rarau which ends with Rarau sacrificing himself to block Ganondorf for 10 000 years until the start of the game when Zelda and Link found them. And Zelda took her secret stone and the part of the Master Sword, that was sent back in time too Zelda as well, and turned herself into a dragon with the Master Sword on her forehead and dropped the tears across the lands. So now you gotta fly up to the sky, land on the light dragon and pull the Master Sword from the Dragons forehead. Amazing! Now, eating the tear and becoming a dragon I believe is actually a Chinese folk tale about a rice farmer that finds a pearl one day and to keep it from the tax collector eats it and that turns him into a dragon since it apparently was a dragon pearl. Neat how small factoids from my childhood comes back like this.

Now, did I do that in intended order? No, I first traveled the land to get the lookout-towers so I had the map, then taking so many shrines as possible to max stamina as fast as possible and then I just happened to get through the storm cloud to get to the mask, but was blocked since you needed more hearts, but that was quickly solved and then I got to the Spirit temple with the construct, but got beaten up by the boss so I began doing the tears collecting and it just happened to lead to the Master Sword. Then I started the weather phenomena. The first being the Rito wear a snow storm have taken hold so you gotta find a flying ship by jumping on other flying ships together with the Rito child to the Rito that helped you with the divine beast in the last game. On the ship you then had to fight a flying monster by diving through his weak points. Great first boss, and you don't need any weapons at all. Then I went to Gerudo where a sandstorm have taken the whole desert and Gibdos walked around. Got help from the chieftain and found a temple where we fought the Queen Gibdo by firing arrows at heras Riju summoned lightning. Then to Death Mountain and the Gorons that have been brainwashed by some rock food. You save Yunobo from the last game and uses his help to fight a monster in the volcano and then jump into the depths where you find the Gorons ancient city and has to fight a Gohma encased in rock. Then over to the Zora where the water is contaminated by sludge so you and Sidon finds a water temple in the sky and fights the most irritating bosses of them all that jumps around in mud. Hate him. After that lighting up the depths and after that trying to find the sage's will so I could level up the sages and mostly finishing side quest like finding every cave and the wells and the clothes. With something like 5 caves and 8 wells left I just went for the end. 

First jumping into the chasm beneath the castle and finding the cravece that lead to the area where you began, and then jumps to a tree where you fight of legions of monster together with the sages and then the battle against Ganondorf in two phases that ends with Ganondorf eating his secret stone and turning himself to a dark dragon and grabs you in his mouth. Zelda the light dragons appears and attacks him so he drops you and then you have to jump and land on the dragon to destroy all weak points and in the end push the master sword through his secret stone on his forehead (that seems to become a Zelda tradition). Zelda is turned back into... human? Hylian form? And as they fall down to Hyrule Link grabs her (which is a call back to the beginning where he missed her) and both lands in a lake. All sages gather, swear loyalty to Zelda and Mineru finally leaves. The End! Probably the most epic end for any Zelda game.

Amazing game, I spent closer to 200 hours and I still haven't done everything, but I begin to feel fatigue. I also might be getting the guide before finishing up since it's a bit hard finding the last caves and such and even if I could use the internet is a bit spotty at the moment. For example the easiest way to find caves is to find Koltin (Kilton's brother that wants the bubbelgem that you get from the shining monsters in every cave) and he tells you where there is a cave within specific areas where you find him. Now, I don't think all places where he is have been found yet since it's rather impossible to google up a list on them. And it can be irritating finding them. Same as the wells. Think I found every major settlement and some of the ruins so there gotta be some weird lonely well in the wild... doesn't help that the only help I get is "use the sensor", a pity it doesn't work across the country. A couple of amazing moments like getting the Master Sword, fighting the first boss and Ganondorf (all three phases). The depths are interesting and in the beginning the claustrophobic darkness makes it the place to explore and most akin to Breath of the Wild feeling of finding a tower for the first time. That is the problem with reusing the same map, but since they added caves and such there is things to discover at familiar places. And the new monsters are a breath of fresh air, like likes and Gleeoks are back, new monsters like horrorblin and Gloom Hands... especially the Gloom Hands. First encounter was in a cave where I just found a lot of illuminous stones and suddenly I see this patch of gloom coming toward me and several hands appear. First instinct is taking a photo, but they don't register and then it was just run and lucky enough I spotted a shrine so I got there and did that, saving me from the hands. 

Overall, would I play this over Breath of the Wild?  I don't know. In the beginning I thought all the stuff would make me not being able to handle it another time, but at the end after everything why not? Still hate we only have one save file (I know about different accounts, but I want just one since it track my time). A bit hard in the beginning getting used to the loss of elemental arrows since you now have to use add ons, and you have to do it for every arrows. The same with losing elemental weapons, but the fusing gets rid of that. Graphics looks the same like last time and it works and music is good, enjoyed the creepy music in the beginning, the boss music at the Wind temple and the final approach at the end game was really good and then the Gleeok battle theme. Best new songs I've heard in the game. Got some bonuses for carrying over the save file so all my horses followed and several people recognised me and hey my house in Hateno is still there... wait, where is my weapons stand? Wait, why is everyone talking about Zelda's house? She stole my house? Is nothing sacred?