onsdag 18 juni 2025

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch)

Throw a book at them!

Yet another GameCube-remake, this time of a game I actually finished... not that long ago either... 6 YEARS AGO? Boy, must have played it as soon as I got my home. Should probably play Golden Sun again so I can get a remake of that as well, but that was 6 years ago as well. Got nothing to add really since the last playthrough regarding story or so. Same story. They changed some lines, no catcalling goombas in the sewer and Vivian clearly a trans-character in this. Somehow this was controversial before the games release, but I don't really care, I get to send a shadow demon queen back to the abyss with jumps!

Mostly the remake have been upgrading is the graphics with what people speculate is the Origami King-engine. Now, I can't instantly see that the graphics have been improved unless someone shows me a side by side comparison. As someone said, it looks like I remember the game to look. Especially since last time I was using a small screen so it will probably look rather awful at my current setup. I now that they also added a match with Prince Mush, the former champion of the Glitzpit, which I haven't beaten, my attacks just stops working after passing 50 % health. I beat everything else like Bonetail, and every trouble, all star pieces and upgraded all characters. Which unlocks all the art galleries and music players. Best addition probably the increased coin purse sine it goes to 9999 instead of 999. Less need to use coins constantly and actually have a buffer for special occasions.

Game stills great. Fun and engaging. They also apparently added some shortcuts which minimise the traveling time between areas and thank god for that with the General White quest and side-quest. Hope this will make Nintendo do another adventure like this. The badge system is so fun since it gives you freedom to play however you want as long as you got the badges. I ended powering up Mario to max in jumping, even disabling the hammer for extra damage. Kinda fun hitting 7 damage constantly. If I was a bit more daring I might even have lowered the hp get more badgepoints to push danger (5 hp or lower) and critical (1 hp) extra damage. Of course, one hit and your dead so better be good at those super guards.

So I tried it for Prince Mush, and I got so close so many times. I get him down to 9 hp and then I have to time the damn super guard to be able to damage him. I make it in the beginning to get him to the second phase but after that I just can't seem to do it, and I use both simplifier badges I have. Either start leveling up for more bagde points or actually get good at the game... might be time to change game.

onsdag 11 juni 2025

A DnD tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Lost in Omu (part 3)

 

They dream of following the path of the setting sun that leads to El Dorado and the Mysterious Cities of Gold.

So back at it again our brave heroes heads of with their newly acquired airship on their way to Omu, cutting the 60-70 days of traveling down to 3. The crew of the ship tells them that their destination is very close to the place where they were attacked by flying monster that made their ship crash. And as they approach 10 gargoyles attack them from all directions. Since they have two people that can use Cone of Cold they make short work with them even if they have limited range attack. After the battle we also learn that the blood spear Immeral is carrying actually gives a +2 magic bonus to attack rolls and damage... which is kinda typical us, especially since we used the last session to just fix the characters sheet, make new characters in case of and look up things that was written. We missed that detail though.

After that they arrived in Omu. Freya, Immeral, Hope and Destinova goes alone into the city to check it out. They encounter a destroyed Thay encampment where wild dogs are eating the corpses and below the rubble they find a man, dying of exhaustion. They save him and he tells them of the nine shrines of the gods and the poem that tells them about the keys that will open the way to the tomb. The players get that they should look for the nine keys so they continue walking. Here I gotta say I'm a bit disappointed in the official map set for this module. First, all the maps needed to be larger, and the hex crawl really needed better lines between the hexes so that you could follow along. And the city maps probably needed indicators where things where better since it didn't help my players so they gave me a direction and I had to push them to the different locations. Better than nothing, but still. 

They found the first shrine they could find with the unicorn rabbit. One of the easier shrines actually since there isn't a death trap that instantly kills you. But my sisters are still too stupid to understand the riddles. I had the floor plan for this shrine printed out with the different symbols and such and they stare at it for 10 minutes and then roll enough to get the answer from Destinova (my DMPC). They didn't understand it was the floor, but thought it was a wall mural... even though I clearly stated it was the floor. At least they are getting a bit paranoid. They avoid being hit by one of the axes since I rolled a 1 so it jammed the mechanism. They got the cube and left.

Next stop was the destroyed encampment belong to the Company of the Yellow Banner where they found the note about them getting into the tomb, hinting again about the cubes and such. Then they found the destroyed wagon where they notice the stone below it where they can copy the old Omu text so that they don't have to use a spell to comprehend languages every shrine or so. We end here since its around 15:00 and my sisters doesn't wanna end up in a shrine to figure it out again or in a fight. Good for them since next up is the colosseum and the fight with the King of Feathers. So I can prepare that so we have a great battle!

onsdag 4 juni 2025

Eiyuden Chronicles: Rising (Switch)

Red and Blue, the main character colors

Decided to get the game Eiyuden Chronicles, but the physical game doesn't release until a month or so after the digital release so I got the prequel that was released a year earlier. Eiyduen Chronicles is supposed to be a spiritual successor to the Suikoden games where the first two games was supposed to be rereleased in 2023, but got moved to 2024 and as of writing (early may 2024) no words of when they are gonna be out. So I might play through them on my PS3 as I snapped them up on the Classic releases years ago. 

That game was a full on JRPG with battle mechanics, this game though is an action-rpg plattformer where you go through several areas to mine materials and fight enemies to help the people in this little town that have been struck by an earthquake. You play as the scavenger girl CJ (as we learn in the end credits scene means "Crown Jewels") who look for a bigger treasure than her father so that she can go home due to her homes rite of passage. You begin helping the town to get access to the Barrows that exists below the town. Together with the kangaroo samurai Garoo and the acting-mayor Isha, who can use magic without rune lenses (rune lenses grants magic for some reason), you explore the forest, quarry and barrows around the village. Turns out that the town is besieged by bandits that in reality are soldiers of the Empire that looks for rune lenses. 

The Barrow was also sealed long ago to stop an evil sorcerer from escaping and turns out that he still there, possessing Daksa, Isha's father and the lost mayor of the town. Apparently the sorcerer created a sigil that created rune lenses in people in order to harvest them, and this in turn created Isha's magic. She's not the first one from that town and it seems to be a curse upon the town with a person being born once in a blue moon with blue hair and magic and a rune lense in their body that will kill them before growing up. So of course you destroy them.

It was a fun game. Got really addictive with the gameplay loop of going through areas to collect resources, solving quest and upgrade the town to get more stuff. Mostly the story beats and some of the characters will probably appear in the main game. CJ, Isha and Garoo feels like a no brainer, as well as Melora the magic girl and the mercenary samurai that protects the village. And the imperial bad guy of course. 30 hours to 100 % everything. Might try Suikoden 1, heard some say it's only 8 hours.