Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) (Wii U)

 

All Aboard the Crazy Train!

Thought about playing this after Phantom Hourglass, but other things got in the way and after playing through it again I can say I don't very much like the DS gameplay. Spirit Tracks is a direct sequel to Phantom Hourglass that followed Wind Waker. Story is that after getting his engineer degree to pilot a train, Zelda ask Link to take her to the Spirit Tower to investigate the disappearance of the spirit tracks across the land. Turns out that the chancellor Cole is a demon in disguise that kidnaps Zelda's body to use it for a vessel of the Demon King Malladus (meaning no Ganon in this story). Zelda's spirit follows Link around and after getting to the Spirit Tower they meet Anjean, a lokomo. Apparently the lokomos aided the spirits before the hylians arrived and trapped Malladus by using the Spirit Tracks, but after they eroded away the Chancellor saw his chance to release Malladus. So you set out to restore the spirit tracks by traversing the spirit tower itself and then finding the temples scattered around the land. 

This is the second time I play through it which makes it one of the Zelda games I've played the least. It came out in 2009 and I didn't finish it until I got a 3DS in 2011. Playing it again there is some really fun puzzles and it follows the Zelda-formula. I won't deny that it's quite interesting how they use all of the DS functions, you control Link with the stylus, you gotta use the microphone to play the pan pipes and tell this little girl if she is plain or cute... I don't have the heart to tell her she's plain so it was cute every time I interacted with her. But the stylus shows some real problems since it doesn't always correlate to what I try to do. The pan pipes is a nightmare to try to get working at times, especially the restoration song you need to time trice over each time. And it's even in the final battle with Malladus which makes it one of the harder parts. And the attacks with the stylus get's a bit weird at times when I don't draw the sword or when I try to roll but swing instead and so on. I prefer a normal control scheme thank you very much.

Also, like Phantom Hourglass you follow a set route, of course diminished in this game since you are restricted to the tracks that exists compared to the ocean, but no time limit in the main hub. Overall travel feels so slow compared to a traditional Zelda. There are teleportation points, but you have to pass through them and they are point A to point B. Wished the flute have had some teleportation songs like in the earlier games, but I assume that would be a problem with the transportation quests. Overall, it will probably still be one of the lesser played games in the series just by that. The Save Point on the Wii U at least helps with the minigames and traveling with people or transporting cargo.

On the other hand, music is a bit more distinct than Phantom Hourglass and I do like pan flute music after watching Mysterious Cities of Gold and listening to the Golden Sun Soundtrack.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Castlevania Dominus Collection) (Switch)

 

The moon rises yet again!

The final of the three DS games on the collection. And I've played it not that long ago after playing through the Advance Collection since I just wanted to continue the stories. Pretty much the same as last time, except that I actually had to play the game legit from beginning to end. And I recalled that in a normal play, the game is hard. Went through a lot of potions and meals I tell you. 

Overall, it get's better as the game went on, but it's a bit obnoxious. A lot of item and glyph grinding to finish quests or even get enough levels to stand a chance. Cause you gotta do the quest of the villagers to get useful items like the more effective potions and armors. At least the castle actually feels like fully explored compared to Portrait of Ruin. Nice with a lot of voice clips, both the intro scene, all the villagers and a lot more monsters having voices beyond the succubus.

So of the three, I actually end up with Portrait of Ruin the best. Didn't think that back in the day. It's more fun to play through and the choices of weapons and such is more interesting. 

The Dominus Collection then. It was really good. The main three games are good either way, I've only played around the Haunted Castle bonuses on there since it's bit much for me with the arcade feeling of it. One thing I was bothered with was that the three main games wasn't in release order of Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order Ecclesia. No they put it in Order of Ecclesia, Portrait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow. I get that they where going for in-game chronology order since Order of Ecclesia is 1888, Portrait of Ruin 1944 and Dawn of Sorrow something like 2036. You get art and music so it's all nice. Some people wished for Symhony of the Night and Rondo of Blood, and I would like that too, but hopefully there will be another collection... and I would like the 64-games as well to see if with a better controller I might get around it. Or Konami can give me a Mystical Ninja collection so that I can have Mystical Ninja 64 Starring Goemon at home.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Castlevania Dominus Collection) (Switch)

Time to break out the whip again!

Well, continued with the other game in the series, Portrait of Ruin. Nothing much to add from the last time I played it. I somehow enjoy this game a bit more than Dawn of Sorrow this time around. I actually almost 100 % the main game by grinding all items from the monsters and such, I got through the Nest of Evil around level 65 compared to the level 80 I was on my first playthrough. Probably got lucky since the Castlevania III cameos got into a loop where I could stand in a corner and whip Trevor until he died, beat Grant after that and Sylpha was rather easy after that moment. Didn't take 8 hours this time, but it was enjoyable enough. It might have to be due to the music, I prefer the music in this game than Dawn of Sorrow, it is more "forceful" here compared to the other game. 

That and the customisation of the main characters. It's fun to change sub-weapons and such compared to the soul system of the last game. The only one that would probably need some work though is Charlotte since it's a lot of changing around spells and such for her being good in special situations. Jonathan is a lot better. Maybe it's the fact it's a whip-wielding hero with options. Or that the quest system is actually rewarding in revisiting area beside grinding. Although, one quest I realised doesn't jive with modern life and that was to talk with Wind when it's between 12 and 1 (am or pm). I work or sleep at that point, I had to do that at midnight between Friday and Saturday pretty much expanding the game for a couple of days. My whole weekend was off after that... god I'm getting old! 

Some things I realised I like less with the game is the map, the castle map is so small, hardly any secret rooms and the left side of the castle map is empty. Usually the map covers the whole screen. And the paintings are pretty much a straight line with a loop back to the beginning. And the fact that the second half of the painting is just the same first maps again is rather boring. But it's a solid game, and there is no touch screen shenanigans that hold Dawn of Sorrow back... at least in the main game.

There is the sisters mode that exclusively plays with the touch controls on the DS. They did the stick option like the in Dawn of Sorrow for the ice breaking ability. It works rather well, I find that Loretta's Ice magic being the best option to traverse the castle since you only need to aim direction. compared to Stella's slash attacks where you need to mov the cursor back and forth. Didn't finish it, I thought I just needed to reach Brauner to finish the mode, forgot you needed to defeat the bosses in each painting in order to get near Brauners sanctum. Maybe I will play the alternate modes some other time when I play through all the games. Less grinding for most of them since there is no items to get.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Castlevania Dominus Collection) (Switch)

 

They are all here!

Well, I didn't think they would port the DS games when I played through them after the Advance collection, but here we are and I had to get them right after the Direct. And I finished Dawn of Sorrow three days later. And I had a better time it seems than last time. Is it that I played it on Normal Mode? Is it due to not having to use touch screen controls? Maybe the bigger screen? Who knows, I enjoyed myself greatly this time either way.

It's the same story so no need to add to that from the last time, so let's go on how the game play. And as mentioned there are improvements. The Magic Seals work using button prompts now, wish they weren't there at all like in Julius mode, but it's workable. Didn't have that much of trouble when I trained up some of the seal combos. They are also nice enough if you miss the first attempt they highlight which buttons to press. Thanks for that!

Then the screen, since it was a duel DS screen in the original they decided to put all three beside each other with the main screen being the gameplay and the others being a status screen and a map. Diminish the need to shuffle around the other screens. Played it mostly on handheld mode due to using the TV for other things. The screen is bigger than my 3DS so no problem with that. It works fine. You have the option to change the screens for example emulate the DS screen set up, but not a single lone screen. I don't know why, at times I would like to have the whole screen with just the battle, for example bosses since I don't need the map and mostly you don't need the status screen. A bit of complaint online about this as well.

I won't play Portrait of Ruin right now since Nintendo also released the next Famicom Detective Club the same week so that will be the weekend game, but I will continue the Dominus Collection after that.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS)

 

So, when will we save the planet?

Played through the third game in the series again. A bit later after the original games, and the reason being that there is no pull to play through this. At the time it has been 15 years and still no sign of an eventual continuation from the cliffhanger ending they left us in. On the other hand I have reconsidered my hate for Tyrell, so I actually find him rather agreeable somewhere like a quarter to half of the game length. Still a POS in the beginning since he needs to be to start the plot. 

Overall the plot works out for me, the graphics are a bit dated and I actually believe the 3d hampers it. Like many other games, it's the need for rotating 3d cameras and such instead of a quick action taking place. Which reflects that every attack takes a bit longer than in the GBA games. Interestingly it also gives them a bit more heft as you almost feel the heaviness of the weapons as our heroes swing them on the enemies. 

No, the worst part with this game is still the points of no return. Even with a guide at my side I still missed a djinn in one of the areas I couldn't go back to. And this reflect something that the game isn't as polished as the first games. You get mind read super late in the game which took away one of the most intriguing method of puzzle solving or finding information to progress or just lore of the world. And then by locking out several areas you diminish the workload even more. And that is what it feels like. Less passion in the game. They did put in the effort to show how for example Kraden's group could traverse the first temple, like they did in The Lost Age with Piers looking for his control gem for his ship. But there you could use your own psynergy to follow that path, here it gets locked behind the Point of No Return. It shrinks the world.

A fun thing is that I actually did the game for the first time as intended after leaving Belinsk on the ship, almost. You're supposed to go to Warrior hill to get the third eye, and from their to Izumo to use it in order to get Himi and then head toward Tonfon in order to get the Echo Gem to look for the Umbra Gear map. I usually find the map and the people carrying it before going to Tonfon and then wondering what the Echo Gem is doing in the item store. A pity that due to constantly creating points of no return I'm more inclined to go off the beaten path pushing me away from the narrative cause who knows what the game will lock out for you.

And the last part with the game was that since I forgot one djinn and realised it after doing everything you can do before fighting the final boss I switched file to the one where I had grinded to level 99 and gotten everything. Here I changed djinn around since the guide didn't have a class list and due to the very different structure of finding djinn meaning the carefully chosen class might be hampered due to the djinn you find since at times you will have a lot of a single element. 

At the end of things, it's a working game but their is a lot of missed potential and it just doesn't hit the highs of the older game. Not even the music compare really. It sounds like it should, but there is only two tracks from this game that really stand out and that is the Apollo Ascent and one of the outside dungeons track with the bells and bass. But there is no song like Elemental Stars that just sucks you in the mystery of the world. So it becomes a disappointment. 

So in a remake after they have to make it before going through the next part the only thing I would like is getting rid of the Point of No Return and why in the world is Crossbone Island set behind finishing the game? That is just irritating. 

Ghost Trick: The Phantom Detective (Switch)

 

So Supernatural!

After three Etrian Odyssey games I needed something different so I picked up Ghost Trick that have been on my shelf for almost a year. It's a remake of an old DS game that was made by Capcom and the same team behind Ace Attorney. I remember reading about the original in some gaming magazine, but I never got it. Maybe since I hadn't played any Ace Attorney games at the time and I frankly just thought the main character looked super weird with his spiked hair. Glad I got another chance to rectify that mistake.

Story is that you awake as a ghost after you have been killed. A lamp possessed by another ghost tells you have to do your thing and then your of to find out who you are, why you where killed and try to maybe stop that. Your power's consist of manipulating things, travel through telephone lines and go back in time when interacting with dead bodies to 4 minutes before their death to change their fate.

During your investigation you have to save the police detective Lynne that constantly get herself killed so you babysit her most of the time, but during this you uncover a strange tale of an innocent death-row inmate and former police detective that is about to be executed and the machination of "the Manipulator" that forces people to act against their will. And in true Ace Attorney fashion the story just staggers and staggers. There's a collective of spies from a foreign country, which also consist of robots for some reason. The Manipulator turns out to be a dead man from 10 years ago that was killed by a falling meteor that lodged a piece into him, pretty much making him immortal. And who's face is your own. You also meet Missile, the dog from the first Ace Attorney game that helped you in the final episode with Von Karma. 

I got hooked rather fast and I just ran with it. The story kept me engaged to the end and the twist and turns makes it a great story. The graphics are really good and especially the animation of the characters. Well, mostly Inspector Cabanela and his dancing movements. And then the music is amazing. The puzzle was manageable most of the time. Wasn't until chapter 14 I began looking up when I sat 5-10 minutes trying to get how to get it. Took me around 12 hours, I didn't 100%, for that you needed to finish the chapters on a first try pretty much and then you had some extra sliding puzzles to finish with moving pictures. I did one and tried a harder difficulty and just couldn't get on. You get concept art and such to look at, but I got other games to play.

Another Code: Two Memories (Another Code Recollection) (Switch)

Should've known that her crying on the cover would indicate what I was gonna experience!

Continuing with the puzzle games I picked up this remake of one DS and one Wii game from the middle of the 2000's. Never played them before, but as soon I saw the trailer for them I just got a feeling I needed this. So after a month I started playing. So it start off with Ashley Mizuki Robins that the day before her 14th birthday have been invited by her father which she thought where dead to meet him on Blood Edward Island... charming name. It's an old island with a mansion and an abandoned mine where you solve puzzles... haven't I already played this game?

Well, she's there with her aunt, the aunt goes missing so Ashley has to look after her. After a moment she meets the ghost boy D that hangs around the mansion for 60 years. Together they uncover everything from D's family the Edwards that lived on the island and what Ashley's dad (Richard Robins) have been doing all along as well as the reason for Ashley's mother's death. Apparently D died by an accident as he ran from his uncle Henry that had been forced to kill D's father Thomas that in desperation tried to steal the inheritance of the family. Ashley's father meanwhile was working on a machine together with Ashley's mother, a machine called Another that was supposed to be able to erase memories in order to be able to cure PTSD and other trauma's... what ever it does, it sounds really bad for what it can be used to, creating false memories and all that. Especially when we are talking AI deepfakes and such? Of course Richard's assistant Bob was prepared to steal the machine and collaborated with someone to do so. He even killed Ashley's mother 11 years earlier.

I liked this game, it was a fun puzzler and I finished it within 7 hours. Puzzles on the easy side since you can photo anything (even though a 10 photo limit, but you can really see what you are supposed to photo). The most observant thing you have to keep looking for are these origami cranes you need to scan to get some information about Richard Robins, which I got all of them. The ending is kinda sad, but I think I foresaw it pretty early and since D's death was an accident I really can't say I felt the emotional strings being plucked so to speak. All in all I got vibes from the Famicom Detective Club and like that, there is a sequel that follows directly in this collection.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Wii U)

 

"I'm a captain of a ship

My ship is charmed, and called Plutonia."

After Ocarina of Time I got a bit tasty for another one, but which one to play? I just bought the Wii U virtual console versions of the DS Zelda games since the eshop was shutting down so I gotta play it? Released originally on the DS back in 2007 I got it first day and played through it twice if I recall and nothing after that. I have very few memories of this game, mostly about sailing and collecting ship parts. Nothing about the dungeons or bosses besides the final boss and the Temple of the Ocean King... helps a bit that you constantly travels to it. 

Story is a direct sequel to Wind Waker where Link and Tetra and her pirate crew are sailing across the sea in search of the Pirate Ship that terrorise the ocean. They find it, Tetra jumps on it, disappears, screams and Link follows after but ends falling into the water. He dreams about Tetra being captured and wakes up on an island where a fairy named Ceilia takes him to her grandpa that tells Link how to fight the evil of the ghost ship to rescue Tetra. Collect three fairies corresponding to the triforce, Courage, Wisdom and Strength. 

After that you enter the Ghost Ship and finds Tetra, but she is now petrified into a stone statue, so you learn that grandpa is actually the mythical Ocean King that was sealed away by Bellum, the evil that controls the ghosts ship. To defeat it you need the Phantom Sword... which doesn't exist so you gotta get three ores that you then create the sword from. You get the sword, get to the bottom of the Temple of The Ocean King, defeats Bellum, Tetra awakens, Bellum merges with the ghost ship, you blast it open, Bellum possess Linebeck (the owner of the ship you have been using during the adventure), you stab him in the back and the games over, the end.

It was fun replaying it since it's probably 15 years since I played it so it feels like a completely new game. Problem was getting used to the controls again, but once I got a hang of it, it was kinda enjoyable. Interesting knowing that every gimmick the DS could hold was used for this game, you gotta use the microphone to talk to people, fight some monster (just like the original Legend of Zelda on the Famicom), the game is completely controlled with the stylus and the original at one point you had to close the lid on the DS to print a map onto your map, which they fixed by pushing the home-button on the Wii U. I played the screens separated for most of the time, except on the damn archery mini-game. Which I also used the save-function to get past it. Don't think I cleared the mini-game back in the day.

It might not have the amount of dungeons or such like the other Zelda's (just 7 dungeons, that's like Zelda II numbers), but it has a lot to do if you have time to spend. Collecting ship parts, salvage treasures, fishing, archery mini-game, cannon mini-game... mostly to get ship parts, but it can be fun to build your own ship, a bit disappointed to learn that the numbers of hearts only correlates to the numbers of parts from the same set. I also checked my old save and saw that I missed a heart and a couple of gems for the different fairies, but I had every single treasure collected through the game without selling it... cash bonanza!

Overall, a fun game. Is it in the bottom of the Zelda games? Maybe, the graphics are a bit rough and the music is pretty much just Wind Waker music recycled so it doesn't stand out in anyway. A bit small as mentioned with very few dungeons and such. But I like Linebeck so that is a plus. Was a bit worried when I realised that all items you had to change in real time against enemies, but since I just brute forced my way through the Temple of the Ocean King and defeated him even though badly hurt by the phantoms and such you can take some hits and being slow. So I should be able to play it again when I turn 50.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

 

Seems a lot like the characters from Bloodstained.

The final Castlevania-game for the DS and the last entry into the old lore of the series (besides Castlevania: Judgment, but that's a fighter game so doesn't count... and I don't have it as well) before rebooting it with Lords of Shadows. It was also a return for the art style they used on the GBA games and updated the sprites so it wasn't just a copy-paste of previous games.  It is also hard as hell playing from the start since the enemies pack a punch and you can't take anything. Great then to start the game from level 71 and pretty much every equipment and glyph taking away a lot of the grind making it a rather smooth experience.

Story is that since the Belmonts disappeared after the event of Symphony of the Night and Nostradamus prophesy predicting that they shouldn't return until the year 1999 and the final battle with Dracula different orders appeared in their stead to stop Dracula whenever he showed up in the meantime, one of is the Order of Ecclesia, led by the alchemist Barlowe. He has help from Albus and Shanoa, "step-siblings" that lost their parents to the darkness that swore to fight evil. They have created the Dominus glyph which will end Dracula once and for all, but at the night of the ritual Albus interrupts it and steals the glyphs for himself as he was promised to be the one receiving Dominus. The interruption makes Shanoa loose her memories and emotions as well her combat skills so Barlowe trains her quickly to get back the glyphs so that they can defeat Dracula.

Her travels across Transylvania takes her to the village Wygol who's citizens have been kidnapped by Albus and imprisoned in crystal. Rescuing them all and absorbing the seals is the way to get the true ending since by doing so Shanoa absorbs part of the blood that the citizens possess since they are in fact the Belmont Clan in hiding, but without any powers to stop the darkness. At a confrontation in an abandoned mansion Albus is able to absorb the three Dominus Glyphs after studying Shanoa, but is overtaken by the soul of Dracula which the Glyphs are powered by. Shanoa defeats him and get the glyphs back, but the soul of Albus is absorbed by the glyphs and tells Shanoa that he did this because Barlowe promised him that he would be the vessel of Dominus in order to save Shanoa and that the Glyphs are powered by her memories and emotions as well, meaning that Barlowe lied to them. Confronting Barlowe and he is shown to be in league with Dracula and as he is defeated sacrifices his life to destroy the seal upon Dracula's soul so that he can return and his castle shows up again.

Alone Shanoa braves the castle and its dark secrets. At the top of the castle she confronts the resurrected Dracula and as he is about to unleash one final devastating attack, Shanoa assembles the three glyphs of Dominus and defeats him, but to the cost of her soul. Until Albus soul intervene by finding Shanoa's memories and emotions, giving them back to her and then taking her place as the soul sacrifice needed. Shanoa is alive and can finally smile and be happy (and cry) and the game ends.

I won't cry... *sniff*

This game is rather good. Gathering glyphs can be a hassle and it's not always clear what they do by reading the name and description, but it is easy try it around and you got at least three different set-ups compared to Dawn of Sorrows two, a pity the armour isn't switchable in the same way. You finally got to travel the lands of Transylvania for the first time since... is it Castlevania II, III or Bloodlines... maybe Castlevania 64... Curse of Darkness? It has been a while at least. Villagers to talk to get quests and such is rather enjoyable, at least more intuitive than Wind blocking Jonathan from certain rewards that can be helpful to defeat Brauner and rescue his daughters. Also interesting tidbits like the demon possessed child Anne and Danielle the old vampire hunter woman that found vampires along her grandfather... might that have been Richter Belmont? Now, some of you might complain that I played it to easy what with level 70+, but I compensated by the no-hit challenge with bosses instead. If you are able to defeat a boss without taking damage, you get a medal. Equip the Death Ring that boost your stats through the roof, but a single hit kills you, then go to town on the bosses. First two just spam attacks before their first attack, but after that it gets harder, the crab boss being the hardest early boss since it's more about avoiding attacks until you can activate the elevator in the lighthouse to smash it. I thankfully forget all this to after that boss, up until I tired out in Dracula's castle with the shadow man and after that just raced to the finish. 

I recall really hate you the first time through.

Other content is an Albus mode where you play as Albus, attacking everything with your gun and that's it. A bit of a let down compared to the four different modes in the last game. You also get hard mode and such. Music is alright, the best thing though is that you have the option to play any of the tracks from the original Castlevania by buying records and playing them. A bit cumbersome since any room that is a passage between areas reset the music and it is a bit of hassle to go into the item menu and look it up. Still, I found it fun and the rapid flu glyph is amazing to speed things on.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

 

Well, New Generation works rather well for this game

The second DS game and continuation to the Mega Drive Castlevania: Bloodlines. And as of writing... and probably forever, the closest game in the timeline before the Battle of 1999, the event that destroyed Dracula for good mentioned in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow. And we're never gonna see it due to IGA leaving Konami and Konami... being Konami. The lore of these games was fascinating. In this game you play as Jonathan Morris, the son of John Morris that defeated Dracula in Bloodlines (who in his turn was son to Quincy Morris that stabbed Dracula in the Bram Stokers Dracula, which is strange since I recall that he was a suitor for Lucy and therefore didn't have any children?) and Charlotte Aulin. It's the end of the second world war and Dracula have appeared so the church has contacted Jonathan to investigate. Turns out that it isn't Dracula, but a vampire named Brauner with his two daughters that summoned the castle which he intends to use in order to destroy the world (he also looks a lot like count Olroc from the silent movie Nosferatu).

On this adventure you also meet Vincent the priest that sells you potions and such and Wind, the ghost of Eric Lecard, the other main player of Bloodlines that died while fighting Brauner in order to stop Dracula's resurrection, which caused his daughters to follow him into the castle and Brauner believing them to be the reincarnations of his daughter's that died in World War 1. Brauner is a painter and have trapped the castle as well as Dracula with his paintings that acts as portals to the worlds painted. You have 18th century english town, a derelict mansion in a forest, a pyramid in the desert and a gravity defying ruined town and circus. So the painting concept allows us to go beyond the usual castle interior that have been standard since Symphony of the Night or something like that. Nice change of pace, Sadly four more stages, which are like mirrored versions of the first ones. Kinda boring, but the bosses is Wolfman, Medusa, the Mummy and Frankenstein, the classic monster villains as well as a staple of Castlevania bosses.

Next us is the fight against the daughters which can be skipped if you found the sanctuary spell and uses that to cure them off their vampireism so that they can help you unlock the Vampire killer. Brauner doesn't take that lightly, but he goes down easy and then Death shows up and kills Brauner and resurrects Dracula that you know have to fight both at the same time. Played it on normal and don't get how I could have so much problem with this as a kid. I mean, I finished it at level 43, when I think I grinded to level 80 or something like that. Maybe mostly for the Nest of Evil, a gauntlet of enemies and bosses from Dawn of Sorrow, and thankfully no stupid magic seal making them so much more fun to fight. There's also other modes, you can play as the sisters that search for their father, a Richter Belmont mode... which isn't that special when the main guy also is a whip wielder. There's also Hard modes and a Living armour mode. Get's overkill on it, but it has a lot to replay the game for.  Takes 8 hour as well. Mostly gets out of the game after 4 hour when I hit the Mansion and Circus level since they are the most boring. 

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)

 

At least better than the box in the box version

So, got an urge to replay Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow after playing the Castlevania Anniversary Collection with the game Aria of Sorrow that this is a sequel too. And since I already had a file why not play a New Game + version? Stupid me of course choose Hard Mode. Game starts out somewhere in Japan as Soma Cruz having a... date (?) with Mina Hakuba when suddenly a woman named Celia Fortner shows up and summons a couple of monsters to kill Soma so a new Dark Lord can be chosen. Arikado shows up and hands Soma a knife to fend them off. Celia disappears and Arikado mentions that she is the high priestess of a cult bent on resurrecting the dark lord to prove that... God is good? Well, obviously the cult is crazy.

So Soma with the help of Hammer tracks down the cult to their castle and apparently Arikado have appeared as well together with Julius Belmont and Yoko Belnades. Celia has found two more Dark Lord candidates, Dimitri and Dario and its Soma that gotta stop them. Dimitri is the first one encountered and he has the ability to copy others ability. And he seems to die and Soma absorbs his soul?

Well, that looks painful

Continuing across the castle you find Dario that have the power of fire and hides at the top of the castle. If you beat him here you get the bad ending since the trick is getting the Paranoia soul and use it to enters the mirror in the throne room to fight the demon hiding there to take away Dimitri's powers. With that you gotta confront Celia that seems to have taken Mina and sacrifice her to force Soma into the role of the Dark Lord. If you have equipped Mina's talisman Arikado for some reason appear before its to late and shows that it's a doppelgänger that taken the form of Mina, but this unleashes the dark soul that enters the Doppelgänger and Dimitri is reformed. They head to the abyss and Dimitri sacrifices Celia to gain dominion of a demon that backfires and turns him into an abomination. Which Soma kills, everyone gets out, the end.

I haven't played this game since I got my 3DS (which I can see since there isn't any note in the records of this game) which means that it gotta be at minimum 11-12 years since. Why is that? Mostly because like everyone else I dislike the forced touch screen controls. It's fine with breaking the ice and such, but the damn magic seal. It's so hard to know what you did wrong and there's also a damn time limit. Thank God the final boss didn't have it. Don't know how many times I had to use up potions that I shouldn't have to draw that stupid seal correct. 

I hate you!

It took me somewhere around 8 hours to play through (but then I got all souls before starting the game). Getting the second bad ending (failing to equip Mina's talisman before seeing "her" sacrifice) unlocks Julius mode like in the prior game where you run around as a classic Belmont whip wielding hero, but this time you can get Yoko and Alucard as well and the final boss is Soma that acts like Dracula. Noticed I had a save right before the boss and did some grinding and then defeated Soma. Just about 9 hours. I restarted and played a bit in the beginning of the game and it's kinda fun so that might be future playthroughs if I play through it again, especially since I don't have to use the touch controls. Also, the art is a bit of hit and miss. I've gotten used to it, but it was a bit jarring to go from the previous games art style to a more... I can't say "anime-esque" sine that is true of the GBA games as well, but a more... cartoonish look maybe? Music also... not that many good tracks actually, the wizard lab is nice, but otherwise it's the old tracks like Vampire killer and Bloody Tears that sticks out, as well as the final boss battle theme against Soma with Illusionary Dance as its theme.

Final Fantasy IV (DS)

Couldn't find the white cover that I have

So after III it was right over to IV and thank god it was on the DS so the lighting was superior. Doesn't hurt with some voice acting, improved sound quality and 3d graphics... well, 3d graphics have a tendency to be really weird at times, but it's alright for this game. I can see what they were going for compared to the original. Never played the SNES version (although I guess I have it on the Wii U virtual console), but like every other Final Fantasy game I got this one for PSOne, then GBA... and again for the DS. I never finished it at the PSOne, but once on the GBA and this is the second time on the DS. So of course I used the New Game + feature. It is rather weird though since it only works two times, then you have to restart... why? Well, I guess since part of the game is using abilities and transferering them across the players, more than three playthroughs breaks the game. 

A pity the SFX in the movies take away the purity of the music, especially in the intro scene

The game starts with the Dark Knight Cecil returning home to Baron after raiding Mysidia for their water crystal on the orders of the king of Baron. Apparently spilling the blood of mysidians in an unjust way. This creates self-doubt in Cecil who confronts the king and is stripped of his command of the Red Wings, the airship brigade, and is tasked to deliver a package to the village of Mist. Joining him in his banishment is Kain Highwind, son of Rickard (a callback to Final Fantasy II I believe, but are they saying that the games exist in the same universe?). Travelling to the village they slay the Mist Dragon that guards the village, but as they enter the package is a Bomb Ring that burns the whole village. Cecil and Kain finds a girl named Rydia who mourns her mother that died as "her dragon was slain", implicating that Cecil murdered her. As this was the last straw he rebels and together with Kain and Rosa (Cecil's girlfriend back in Baron Castle) tries to fight the mad king. Unfortunately Rydia is a bit upset and as Kain pushes her to much to leave with them since the village is burned she summons Gaia that causes a landslide with Kain on one side and Cecil and Rydia on the other. Cecil takes the girl to the nearby desert town and is attacked in the night by Baron soldiers who he fights back. In the same village they find Rosa that escaped Baron but is caught with desert fever which you need a sand pearl from the antlions den that the royal family of Damicyian guards. So you set of and meet the sage Tellah that is looking for his daughter that ran away with a bard. As they near Damycian castle it is attacked by the Red Wings killing most inside it, including Tellah's daughter Anna. The bard appears to be the prince of Damycian Edward and Tellah sets out to kill Golbez, the new commander of the Red Wings. Edward joins Cecil, gets the pearl, get Rosa and travel to Fabul where another crystal is kept (the second one being in Damycian and the reason for the attack). On the way they meet Yang, the master monk that is ambushed by monsters that are an advanced troop of Golbez. Saving him they reach the castle of Fabul and fortify it against attacks. After several battles Cecil is cornered in the crystal room as Kain enters. Apparently out of it he attacks Cecil relentlessly and would have killed him if Rosa didn't intervene. This forces Golbez to appear, take the crystal and Rosa and disappear. Those left behind gets a ship to attack Baron by sea. En route they are attacked by Leviathan and everyone falls off. Cecil ends up back in Mysida and ask for forgiveness from the elders. They send him with two twin mages on quest to become a Paladin by climbing the Mountain of Ordeals where he meet Tellah again on his quest for Meteor and the first archfiend that serve Golbez. Defeating him you enter a chamber within the mountain and is ordained by some light to a Paladin and by fighting off the dark knight within you taking the battle against darkness.

Playing this the first time it took me a real long time getting through the fight, shame on me.

Back in Mysidia, sneak back to Baron, save a brainwashed Yang, fight another archfiend posing as the king and rescue Cid, the airship engineer that leads you to his newest ship, Enterprise. On the way you are about to be crushed by some walls (Star wars reference I presume) and the twin mages turns themselves to stone in order to stop the walls. Leaving on the airship another approaches, its Kain with demands for the fourth and final crystal in exchange for Rosa. Cecil and co travel and meet a bed ridden Edward that gives you a weed. Since the crystal have been stolen by the dark elf (who looks like the dark elf Astos from Final Fantasy I) who have hidden himself in a cave where metal paralyze you, so bring alternative weapons and armours. Fighting your way down the weed communicate with Edward who plays a song that makes the elf lose concentration on the spell that makes metal worthless and then you beat him up. Get the crystal, take it to the tower of Zot, fight your way to the top, and Tellah attacks Golbez with Meteor making Golbez release Kain from the spell while escaping, but ending Tellah's life. They save Rosa, fight another fiend and returns to Baron and are told there is a set of four other crystals that can be found under the surface that will help activate the tower of Babil. They find a way inside the core of the earth were they meet dwarves at war with Golbez. Cid stays behind working on the enterprise as it got shoot down. Apparently two crystals still remain, one behind the dwarf kings throne room, which Yang senses some evil from. Entering you fight some dolls, then Golbez appears killing of everyone except Cecil and then... Rydia appears helping you fight him off. He still steals the crystal. They attack the tower of Babil to get back the other crystals. On the way there Yang sacrifices himself by destroying the cannon room as it is about to destroy the dwarven army. The others leave and are dropped from the bridge and rescued by Cid as one of the Red Wings follow them. Cid jumps the ship and blows up the entrence to the core. They travel to Elban, the ninja kingdom that have been overrun by Golbez and search their diaspora and saves prince Edge. They end back up at the core and asked to get the last crystal. Before that I traveled to the world of Eidolons (summons) and then the Fairy cave where a comatosed Yang lies asleep tended to by the sylph. Then get the crystal, Kain falls back into the brainwash and takes the crystal. Returning to the dwarven castle Cid survived and installed a drill to return to the surface world. I saved Yang by meeting his wife and get a frying pan, went back and hit him over the head. He wakes, but have to rest so sylph becomes your new summon. And then you return to Mysida where they pray so much so that a giant space ship appears from the waters and you can travel to the moon.

TOO THE MOON

On the moon (or rather one of the two moons around the planet) you meet Fusoya who tells you that Cecil is half-lunarian, son to his brother Kluya who was the light on the mountain of Ordeals. Golbez is being controlled by a lunarian named Zemus that intends to summon the giant of Babil to destroy the life on the planet and claim it for the lunarians. They return to the planet but are to late as the giant walks forward from the tower. All hope seems lost, then... the giant is attacked by the combined forces of the Red Wings and dwarven tanks. Everyone is here, Yang, Cid and Edward together with the forces from the free kingdoms. The giant stagger and Cecil gets a chance to enter it, destroying the CPU and confronting Golbez again. Fusoya banish the influence of Zemus and it is revealed that Golbez is Cecil brother... named Theodore in a new cutscene for this version explaining how it came that Golbez turned evil (or more likely being suggestive to evil) and Cecil ended up at Baron under the kings guard. Cured Fusoya and Golbez travels to the moon to fight Zemus. Kain is back and joins you again. You gather all weapons you can get, summons and armours. Then travel back t the moon where you enter the longest dungeon of the game, get the best weapons and armours, fight several bosses and finally reaches Zemus. And Golbez and Fusoya kills him with a twin Meteor. Thanks. It's not really the end since dying only pissed him of so you can fight him in two forms as Zeromus. Beat him and the game is over. Edge becomes king of Elban thinking of Rydia, Yang, King of Fabul, Edward king of Damycian, Rydia back in the land of Eidolons and Kain walking some mountain to atone for his weakness. Then to the coronation of Cecil and Rosa as the King and Queen of Baron with every one but Kain attending.

It was fun playing it again. And the DS is the superior version although it's fun to play the GBA version where you can switch back to the other characters than the five ordained by the game developers. Although the compromise of having their abilities are a nice trade of, but why diminish it with the only three new game +? It's definitely easier than the older games with save points within dungeons (if you exclude the GBA insta-save feature). I had to grind more than the other games in the beginning and then I tried grinding for tails for the ultimate equipment, but I got nil. Instead I reached level 90 so something good with that. I liked the story and playing it the first time I got emotionally invested in the characters that died and returning to life. Of course, the first playthrough I didn't know Yang survived until the giant of Babil segment (and I think it actually works better).  The grinding is also much more fun and I would attribute it to the fact that I can see the progress bar after every encounter and can with just a glance guess how many battles I need to fight. And thank good for the bestiary function that shows every enemies data... all the time, in every battle. I don't have to memorise every enemy and I can gauge the attacks needed to off the monster. And they stay after every playthrough. Clearly superior version, but maybe I should put Final Fantasy on hold for a while since I'm getting RPG overdose after four games in a row.

Final Fantasy III (DS)

First time in Europe

Continued with the third game in the series and as the only version released in Europe was the DS version there was no other choice. The game begins with Luneth (the main character) falling into a cave where he is guided by one of the four crystals. He returns to the surface and the village of Ur where the village elder wish him luck on his journey out unto the world since he have nothing that binds him to the town since he was an orphan that was cared for by the elder. Trying to say goodbye to his friend Arc that tries to stand on his own legs, Arc runs away to the neighbouring town that have been rumoured turned into a ghost town. The town have been cursed by a djinni and one of the ghosts are the airship captain Cid that allows you to use his ship to get to the djinni's cave. The ship already have a passanger in Refia, the blacksmith's apprentice. All three travels to the castle to look for a mithril ring that is said to banish the djinni that belongs to Princess Sarah. Arriving you found the knight Ingus that follow you to the cave and finding Sarah you battle the djinni and returning everything back to normal.

First boss of the game

After that you return to the crystal and gets what is the most important gameplay mechanic, the jobs. Each crystal you save will give you a set number of jobs that you can use to get different abilities or let you use different equipment. First is the classic classes from the original Final Fantasy: Warrior, Thief, Black Mage, Red Mage, White Mage and Monk. So I began with a classic setup that they even show in the intro movie, Warrior, Black Mage, White Mage and Red Mage. Also due to knowing what I need. For one, the magic in this game have secondary function outside of battle. Mini and Toad affects how you play due to shrinking your character or turning you into a frog to pass certain areas in the game. It's like Golden Sun in that magic affects the world around you. Unfortunately it's only used like 3-4 times. It also have the problem that mini causes normal attacks being worthless so you have to rely on magic... actually forcing your character to use jobs with magic. And due to not being any restorative items for magic (with exception of Elixir, but you want that at the end of the game so don't use it), magic need to be rationed. Golden Sun improved that idea by locking the characters in monster free areas for puzzles and the ability to regain psynergy points by moving around making it impossible to lose or restart a dungeon. Sad they never used the ideas of mini and toad spells.

Where is Golden Sun 4?

So after rescuing everyone the four set of out into the world trying to find the other crystals and help people they meet. Escorting Cid home to his wife in Caanan you learn of Daesh, a man that left his girlfriend while climbing a mountain and having amnesia. Climbing the mountain gets you caught my Bahamut that takes you to it's nest and you need to escape. Daesh joins you as you travel to the gnomish village and later the village of Vikings where you get a ship. Back to Caanan Cid tells you of king Argus that can help you turn the ship into an airship. He's gone so instead go to the village of Dwarves get to the Fire Crystal, but a whirlpool blocks the way out of the inner sea so you climb the tower of the ancients where Daesh remember who he is and sacrifices himself to stop the tower engine to blow up and casting the continent to the world (since it is revealed that it is a floating continent above the real world). The whirlpool disappears and you can get to the fire crystal and get more jobs. Like the scholar which you need since you arrive to a town under attack from the soldiers of the king Argus that kidnapped you and took you to the ancient fairy tree where you learn the king was betrayed by his advisor. He shift what his weakness is so you got to use the sage that have a free Libra move so you can see what it is. And as stated, magic need to be saved up. Defeating him lets you get the airship running and you can leave the island and at the same time learn from Cid that you all came from the world below right before it was covered in darkness. So first order of business is to undo that so you travel to a ship to get the priestess Aria to join you. You now can reach the water crystal where Kraken attacks and kills Aria as she saves Luneth so you kill him and get a set of new jobs. 

I don't know about the viking job

Now you get some boots to get to a gold manor to get the key to get back your airship back. Which quickly gets blown up at the kingdom of Saronia where there is a civil war enacted by the king to train the army. Well, of course he is brainwashed by his advisor so as you protect the prince you defeat the advisor, but not before the king dies so the prince is now the king. You now get a super quick ship called the Nautilus that allows you to reach Doga's Manor, one of the apprentices to the great sage Noah. Doga got the gift of magic, Unei the gift of the dreams while Xande got the gift of mortality. So he is the bad guy. Doga enchants your ship to travel underwater to get a lute to awaken Unei so you can get another airship, the Invincible which allows you to reach areas beyond mountains. Where you gather the last of four fangs you found during the adventure that is the key to open the four barriers that block the way to the crystal tower where Xande lives. Doga and Unei also sacrifices their mortal bodies to give you the keys you need in order to enter the tower as well as reach Eureka, the place where you can get the best magic and equipment. Which you need. 

Get used to your characters dying

To tell the truth I got all the way to the crystal tower with level 40 something and I got my ass kicked. So I got my old save where I was level 61 and did the dungeons I missed the last time I played when the game was released. I missed Bahamut's Lair, the treasure cave and the Saronia Catacombs, missing the most powerful summons (that I instead bought in Eureka). And with that I used two ninjas, one sage and one devout to get through the crystal tower, finding a mirror that locked me in place until Doga got the people I saved during my journey. Sarah, Cid, Daesh (who survived the engine room), the prince and one of the four old men you saved in a sewer. They help you so you can fight of Xande. Killing him reveals the true enemy, the Cloud of Darkness that intends to drag the world into the void. The Cloud kills you, but you are resurrected by Doga and Unei sacrificing (?) their souls. Entering the Void you fight four bosses releasing the four warriors of Darkness that saved the world a millenia ago when it was about to be destroyed by Light. With their help you now are able to fight of the Cloud and with that restore the world. Returning your friends and then traveling home (Ingus the only one getting the girl in Princess Sarah). The End!

Evil Woman (by ELO or Black Sabbath, both songs are ok)

Is that really the whole game? No, being on the DS it have some forced social aspects. You can use moogles to send letter to 5 NPC's and friends. If you send something like 7-10 letters you can get more letters from the NPC's letting you get access to a secret blacksmith and secret dungeon. No such luck for unsocial me, and now it's even harder since the server is down so you got to use local multiplayer... in Sweden... on a DS... great luck with that. So I'm actually looking into getting another copy of this and Dragon Quest IX to actually get everything... if I only knew where my DS Lite is. So back to the game as is. It's enjoyable but hard, especially with the forced 10 hours grind I had to do to finish the game (which I know by looking at my 35 hours finished file and the 20 hours save I used). It has nice mechanics with the job where you are expected to use different jobs in certain situations, but I ask myself why they even bother enforcing a couple of battles before the job is adjusted. Well, it's probably realistic, but the gameplay is hindered. For example I for some reason used Luneth as a thief in the new save racking up some rather high levels on that job, but you need that job to unlock doors until you get a third through the game and can buy keys. But the old save I've spent 0 levels on thief on any character meaning I walked by that. And the reason is probably I didn't use that class and never got that I could do it. Meaning thief, black mage, white mage and red mage at start and then shift red mage to monk and later scholar and then back to monk since the thief and monk are powerhouses in damage department (especially since the monk get claws well into the end of the game). Also the last jobs Ninja and Black Belt are great throwbacks to the original game. Which gives me inspiration for when I run through the first game on the PSOne and skipping fighter.

Anyway, you should have the ability to change without distraction since it discourage change in your jobs to see what situation they class fits. So you're gonna stick with the first classes that have the most potential since they reach level 70 before the end or even the max of 99 increasing effectiveness in attacks and such. Except when you have to, like the dragoons, dark knight, scholar and different magic users when using mini, but you don't get them much higher than 10 (or if you grind 25 according to my saves). The grind in the end is hard though and I believe maybe the sidequest would elevate it, but that would be for a different time. Otherwise grinding occured two other times for me. The first before the djinn cave since the first time through I got killed of by a griffin getting the wight sword... after 20 minutes of the game... and without saving. So I started over and grinded the character for a couple of levels. And then before the temple of Time, but after getting killed of a couple of times I went of doing some sidequest and dicovered the ones I missed the first time around. I'm glad I skipped the 10 hour grind though, but I wonder what I should do if I ever get the second copy. And why not have a New Game + where you keep the job levels? At least reward me for finish the game.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, 9 Doors (DS)

Finally, got my hand on the first game in the series

So I finished of the trilogy, just like in the series ending at the beginning. This one I had to import since it was never released in Europe, but thank god for the region free DS and a American copy. As with the other games you start trapped in a room and have to escape and from there you learn that a bomb is within in you and you have 9 hours to find the 9th door that will let you escape. Together on this adventure is nine other people, June, your former classmate/girlfriend. Ace, the cool collected old man. Snake, the blind know it all. Santa, the white haired pretty boy. Clover, the sister of Snake and the girl from the second game. Seven, the amnesiac African-American (I think). Lotus, the walking fan-service and the ninth man... who gets blown up the moment he appears pretty much. You yourself is Jumpei, the only character that have appeared in all three games. And June is Akane that he kept looking for in the sequel and then tried to propose to at the end of the third game. And since playing these out of order I know she was the one responsible for the whole game. I didn't know why until this game though.

So basically it began 9 years prior when Akane, Santa (her brother named Aoi) and Snake had been kidnapped by a pharmaceutical company for illegal experiment in order to find those that could transmorph information between people. Seven was a detective that was able to track them down and trying to save them while Ace was the CEO of the company together with the 9th man who created the experiment. Akane was captured again and by communicating with Jumpei across time and space was able to escape so Aoi and Akane recreated the experiment to get revenge as well as save Akane. Besides these people two other is on the ship as well. Ace right-hand man and the companies financier. Both who met gruesome ends. 

Now, had I gone in blind and went from game to game I might have enjoyed it much more since they really perfected the gameplay. I felt it at times unplayable. You can't jump between scenes, you have to go from the start to the end (you can of course restart any time, but you have to redo the puzzles nevertheless). You can't write down codes or such in game and not a single document is saved in playthroughs. In the end I sat with a walkthrough to redo the rooms I've done the quickest possible way. At least there isn' any game breaking bugs like in the second game. The story works though, although it confuses me a bit in things they hinted in this game and completely dropped in later instalment. For example Alice (the character from the second game) appears here first as hinted to be a mummified woman locked in ice that de-thaws and releases her. And then as stated an important character in the second game and then she is dropped, even though she was a huge deal for two games. And I don't get Lotus character. She really doesn't have any important story element to her and she is the only one that isn't connected or know the other people in the game. I can't help but feel she's there for eye candy.

Looks good for a 40 year old

Apparently she was a mother to two daughters and they were used in the episode 9 years ago. I don't recall the game mentioning that? And she is also born in 1987... that hurts since every other character describe her as an old lady, but she is the same age as I will be when the game takes place in 2027. Well, at least that gives her a connection to the rest of the characters. Another thing that bothers me is that the abilities seems to shift in the other games. In those games the ability you possess enables you to jump between alternate timelines, but it seems more focused on shared information in this game. Certain characters store information in some kind of all-encompassing life force that other people can tap into anywhere and use it to their advantage or being mislead by the people send the information. It could be hinted that the ending with Jumpei saving Akane in the past hints on the larger scope, but it feels like the idea was evolving a bit. And now that is over. Now I got a real itch for a fourth game.

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie

Or Realms of Revelation as it's known in the US

Dragon Quest VI, said to be one of the best and the last game for the SNES in the series, and pretty much for Nintendo for a long time until IX changed that.  It starts right of as you, the blue haired hero together with a carpenters son and some dancer charges Murdaw's castle, an evil demon. You reach the final room and... gets beaten and seems like turned to stone. Well, that was fast. You wake up in some mountain village together with your sister. A dream perhaps... or a vision of the future? Well, I already know since I've played the game. You are tasked to bring a crown for some important ceremony and heads to the neighbour town, but the crown maker is out so you follow him into the wild and appears near a hole in the ground where the crown maker is hanging on for dear life. You rescue him, but slips and fall into the hole. He appears to be in some strange world where no one can see him and eavesdropping he finds out about a well that apparently people disappear into. Jumping through he returns to his own world. Apparently he have discovered the Phantom World and in a vision is sent out to stop the evil that threatens both worlds.

Why does the japanesse hero almost always have blue hair? Either that or red?

Traveling to the Kingdom of Somnia he mets up with Carver, the carpenters son from his dream, but he don't know the hero... so was it a vision of the future? They enter the military and is told about Murdaw, the same they fought in the beginning and they travel to the Phantom World in order to get help fighting him. They find the girl from the beginning of the game, Milly and she helps them become visible, but Milly can't remember them either. They seek out an artefact in a tower where they meet Ashlynn a girl that apparently comes from their world as well, since no one else can see her. They fight their way to the demon lords castle, defeating him... or so they think. In reality it was the king of Somnia that have been turned into a decoy by Murdaw and the twist is revealed. The beginning happened and the hero and his companions were split between a dream personality and the real them. The game starts in a dream world where our hero is a loyal brother to a little girl, Carver is the fighter he always envisioned him to be instead of the carpenter his family tried to push on him and so on. Meaning not only do you have to defeat the real Murdaw, but also unite your true self. Our hero for example is the prince of Somnia, but his dream-self ain't. And what happened to their real self? The hero is actually now an amnesiac who live together with this orphaned girl who only wished for a family... manifested in the dream as the hero brother. Do you get how gut-wrenching it is to take away her only family? Again, Enix knew how to write emotional stories.

Milly, don't ask me what the bands are for

To reach Murdaws real castle you gather a ship from a town with a prophet called Neva who joins your party and fighting Murdaw again gives almost the exact outcome, but while you are brought back to the dream world, you uses the artefact you acquired and returns immediately and defeat Murdaw, but it's not the end since as in most Dragon Quest games, a darker power hides behind the first threat, the demon lord. You also meet Terry, a roaming sword-fighter you learn is Milly's brother that you can get to join after a series of quest, there's also the knight Amos that during full-moon (?) is turned into a monster and protecting this knowledge from him makes he join your quest (which actually goes against my honesty policy when playing the good hero, but they rationalise it that its the villagers wish to spare him the knowledge that he has been cursed since he pose no danger to them, but telling him would guilt him into leaving).

Carver with a purple mohawk

Anyway, you travel both the real and dream world which have certain differences between them. For example there exist a temple dedicated to class changes only in the dream world since the demons destroyed the real one, same goes for a kingdom of magicians that only exist in the dream world and is where Ashlynn hails from. There's also a realm above where the dragon lord sit, like in every Zenethian Dragon Quest game (game IV - VI with Zenithian armour and such) and basically an underworld where the demon lord exists. And I gotta say, that one is really creepy. A particullary place is where dead souls scramble to reach the bottom of a lake to get a chest, but they never reach it since their greed keeps them killing each other. Nightfall and the lake is filled with water and the dead goes to shore and awakens again and the circle repeats. Basically something inspired by Greek tales of the underworld like Sisyfos trying to get the stone up the hill and so on. All these are designed to drain them of hope and spirit that empowers the demon lord so by breaking the circle of hatred he is weakened. You then confront the demon lord and defeats him witch causes the dream world so separate. Since the hero, Carver and Milly found their real worlds they are free to stay, but if you noticed Ashlynn originates from the dream world and has to leave, and if you read the right party conversation she even confesses her love for the hero. God dammit, can't we keep the trend of happy endings of Dragon Quest games going?

Don't leave Ashlynn

Playing it the first time and figuring out what's going on is rather enjoyable and it actually took me by surprise since I'm more used to the vision of future story-telling. They also gets creative with it. Obviously I figured out that the hero is the prince of Somnia, they pull the exact same thing in Dragon Quest VIII with "Hey, you look like some royal person I know". In the real world the captain Rusty vouches for you as the heir of the throne, the evil chancellor sees his chance and ask what the prince sister was named. Well, I thought, and I guess it's designed that way, that the girl that lived with me in the dream world was my sister, but no. The chancellor have Rusty executed. Rusty's dream-self is still alive, Captain Blade who trained you when you joined the Somnia military and is the spotless soldier and loyal commander. What Rusty always envisioned... This gets me every time, and it's impossible to save Rusty. At least the king of Somnia imprisoned the chancellors dream-self as well so not even in his dreams he will escape the crimes he committed, even though it feels that the dream-chancellor was much nicer. Still, a problem with the game is, and this have occurred in IV as well, that there's to many characters. VIII and IX was better with a limited to just the standard party numbers since they are always there and I can listen to their story all the time. I guess it's replay-ability, but when each playthrough is 60+ hours for me, then it can get rather tedious I tell you. So I missed Ashlynn's love confession the first time around which really sucks, but then again, I replayed the whole game when I lost my chance to get Amos.

Unique for this game was that you could change classes (unique and unique, you could do that in DQIII, but it never came here anyway) and had to level up them one by one. Which probably explain the amount of time I spent here. You could also get slimes to join you, but already stated, when am I gonna use them with 6 ordinary characters, 4 slots to fill and Amos? The others at least have personality. And this was all Dragon Quest games I've played, well except from the Wii game since I've not finished it... maybe I've have time before they release VII. Dammit, cravings to play grow stronger.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

Yeah, show only the male main character when it doesn't matter if the hero is male or female

My second game in the series was Dragon Quest IV, which I've played twice, once as a male and the other as a female, since that is the only customisable choice you have in this game it can alter certain dialogue options or how you go around in one quest I believe. Originally the game was made for the NES, later remade for Playstation and finally remade for the DS and with that it even crossed over to Europe for the first time. And playing it gave me a huge interest in writing dialogue since the game was to me even more heavy on different dialects representing different countries within the world. For example you have a scottish nation, a russian one and even a french, and I could identify people from different parts of the world thanks to that. To me that was amazing, genuinely simple to get points across.

Only manly men wears pink

The story begin with a prologue as you are introduced in a small village with gives you the background, demons harass the world and you are the chosen hero, but must be in hiding due to being to young and need to train for the coming conflict, you are introduced to some towns people and the most important one being a shape shifter girl that is your best friend. Apparently you are the child of an angel and human. And that's it. Apparently this was in the newer version since the original game starts up with chapter 1 and you take control of Ragnar, a Burland warrior that is tasked to find the missing children of the kingdom. He teams up with a slime and discovers a plot by the monsters to find and kidnap the chosen child and the only way is for Ragnar to find the Chosen one himself before the monster does.

A fighting princess

Scene change and you now play as a princess Alena who want to fight evil, but are kept locked up by her father. She escapes, but are followed by her best friend/priest and teacher (?) and Alena enters an arena battle to become the champion. While fighting she hears rumours about Psaro the Slayer, a fighter beyond human strengths. As the final draws near and she is about to meet Psaros eye to eye. She waits... and waits... well, Psaros doesn't show up so she is declared winner by default. As her company returns home they find that the castle is completely empty and she has to set out to find her father and people.

An ordinary merchant that saves the world

Next is a small interlude as we follow Tallon, a buddying entrepreneur that wish for grander things in live as he works by selling weapons for the blacksmith. His wife and kids encouraging him to go out in the world and he's of. He begin by buying weapons in one town and selling them in the next, he starts lending money for enterprises that will pay a high return. He even comes across a village of foxes in human disguises. He sets up shop in another town and invites his family over and the next project is building a tunnel to the other side across the river to speed up trade routes. This is what I mean that Dragon Quest has a longer impact on people and people starts to appreciate the games more today. They have whole chapter dedicated to the sales person in an RPG, a merchant that works for his family's fortune and he is around 40 years old. It's pretty much unheard of. And it's basically Economics 101. I'm amazed at this, and it was in the original NES from the 90's? Not many modern games get this deep beyond brave hero of destiny or circumstance protect the world from evil.

Meena, the younger sister and fortune teller

Next chapter is about twin sisters Maya and Meena who set out on a quest to avenge their father that was murdered. Their father was a famed alchemist that tried to figure out the power of transmutation, evolving lead to gold, man to god aka the stone of sages (or I assume that is what they getting at). One is a dancer and the other is a fortune teller and they set out. First they locate their father's apprentice who can tell them that it was their fathers other apprentice, Balzack... should I censor that name? with this knowledge they storm the castle. It doesn't go as planned. Apparently he have been kidnapping maidens and is to much for the twin sisters as it turns out he evolved himself to a monster. The apprentice sacrifices himself so that they can escape and regroup (he doesn't die, but gets captured instead). They flee to a coastal town and journeys across the sea thinking about the next step.

And finally we return to the chosen hero. One day as he/she is training the townspeople hid the hero away under a building, the shape-shifting girl even go as far as impersonating the hero. Locked away underground the hero can't do naught than hear the battle and the victorious monsters that have attacked their hidden village, slaying the chosen hero that could have threatened them. Alright, motivation is vengeance. You set out and pretty much the first person you meet is your grandfather who condemned the love between his son (your father) and the angel. He lets you stay the night, but nothing else. Travelling the world you meet up with your destined companions. Maya and Meena you meet in the town they arrived in since the older sister used all their cash in the casino. You pretty much solve the problems they couldn't in opposite order as you played the game up until this point. The last one you get is Ragnar if I recall correctly. So what is the deal? The monsters are rallying under Psaro the Slayer as he seek revenge on humankind since they hurt his girlfriend who cried tears of rubies and finally killed her in their greed. That pushed him to seek out the power of evolution to become stronger . He entered the arena battles to slay the worlds greatest fighters so no one could stop him while his monster servants searched for the chosen hero of destiny. You travel around the world and even enters the sky to meet with the great dragon who lives in the sky palace surrounded by angels. And finally you and your comrades travels to the underworld where the monsters lives and confront Psaro in a long fight where he evolves in 4 stages I believe until he is defeated. And that is the game, Everyone is saved and peace is restored. The hero travels back to his desolated home town to look at once was, the hero stands at the grave built for the shape-shifting friend and suddenly she materialises and they embrace... does that have lesbian undertones if you play as female hero?

Of course there is post-credits content. You can actually recruit Psaro and fight another end boss, this time one of his lieutenants that actually gave up Rose's (the ruby elf) location, just so that Psaro would be pushed to exterminate humankind. So he is redeemed somewhat. He also looks cool in his white hair and black outfit. Overall this game is fun playing the different mode, especially when you pick up that it's not important to grind for cash, but instead weapons and armours that you can sell in the final chapter since that follows the characters, while money gets spent. I also recall casino token does and since we already know, to win you got to play the casino for the really good weapon and armours so we don't have to grind forever to reach a decent level. One irritating thing the localisation did, was removing the party conversation that really can flesh out the characters. Without them you miss certain hints like the priest/friend of Alena has a crush on her and so on. And it's really annoying when you have the command, but all they say is that none have anything to say at the moment. Before I read the explanation on the internet it almost drove me insane.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky

My introduction to the Dragon Quest-series

As the release date for Dragon Quest VII and VIII for the 3DS draws near as of me writing this I started reflecting of the other games in the series. I've already written a decent post about Dragon Quest V and I thought maybe I should write about the first game in the series I played, Dragon Quest IX. It may also be that I spent over 400 hours on the game and due to servers shut down I can't replay the story without erasing all extras so I won't even bother. The story start as you, an angel apprentice under Aquilla are on earth protecting it's people and collecting prayers basically. They gather them so that this tree will bear fruit and they can see the creator. As the starlight express appears their world in the sky is shocked as a beam of light flies from the world below them and it seems to strike against the creators palace above them. Your character falls down upon the world and everything goes black.

You wake up and it appears you are a normal human. You try to find out what happened and get back to the sky, but to do so you are guided by the fairy Stella in a quest to retrieve the fruits from the world tree that have been scattered across the world. A bit problematic since they often causes small friendly creatures turn into wild monsters. You get them back and discovers that an ancient empire that was destroyed long ago have been resurrected and are fighting you at every turn. Even an ancient dragon have been awakened and you meet up with the last light dragon and after the dragons quest (well, they needed to get it in there somewhere) are allowed to wear his dragon armour as you fly of to meet the dark dragon that he defeated a long time ago.

The reason for the armour? Since you can customise your character (hair, sex, skin colour and so on) they made you wear full armour so that only needed to animate one scene 

It doesn't go as good this time and the light dragon is slain and you end up captured at the capital of the empire. You uncover there the true twist of the game. Below the dungeons of the empire is another angel held captive. The master of Aquilla, Corvus, that disappeared long ago that Aquilla searched a long time for. Aquilla even shows up, happy to have find us both, but the happiness is short lived as all these years in imprisonment have made Corvus go insane, doesn't help that he believes he was betrayed by a human girl he met and loved (when it actually was her father who betrayed them both and was killed by the empire as thanks). Corvus has somehow resurrected the empire, destroyed the creator and now kills Aquilla. You hunt after him and defeat him. At this point a ghostly woman that have followed your adventure intervenes, it's the girl that loved Corvus. Apparently she was turned into a ghost, but suffered amnesia and wandered the world to find her love once again. The Master gives up and are reunited with his love and restores as much damage he could and then disappears from the world with his love by his side.

So the fallen angel was defeated with love, gotta listen to Black Sabbath's N.I.B. again

Of course, the game itself isn't over, since you can play other quest that flesh out the story or go dungeon crawling for resources to use in alchemy or just level up and so on since there is a lot to level up if you want to max every class. Thing is, I believe most of these are downloadable quest, meaning you can't play these today since the server is down if they don't remake the game. So even though I loved this game, enough to spend over 400 hours on it to finish it twice, it's not possible to play it. Otherwise it's like most other DQ games, although even more refined. You customise your party however you like in looks and class. Changing weapons and equipment changes the look of the person as well.  The music is classic DQ with some new arrangement like the theme in the sky which is melancholic and sad. Another thing with this game is that it also pushed the social networking idea. The idea being that you had the game on sleep mode and those who had the game as well could exchange maps and visits the inn with boosted the rewards you would get from the inn. Rewards necessary to finish certain quest as well (technically you could buy those items by connecting to the server special days and such, but you know, servers down) so what I really need is another game cart and DS/3DS so I can max the damn inn since no one else plays the game today... or at least not around me and with the stoppers functionality on the 3DS I can't have the game in sleep mode.... So SquareEnix, can you remake IX and get rid of the social stuff and let the players get everything on the cart as well as 2 saves so I don't have to erase 100+ of playtime if I would like to play the games story again? Cause some of us actually prefers single campaigns if you get my drift.