A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Death of Many (12)

 

Time to join them.

So it was a while. We couldn't get a game going in september 2025 so it was October instead. And it continued from the room with all the statues. How was they gonna leave the room? There was three runes of teleportation and of course they couldn't go into the same rune, they instead split up. Freya went into the western rune and ended up at the room with the destroyed mirror. Immeral went into the northern rune and ended up at the same place, but caught in a magical explosion due to the malfunctioning rune. Hope and Destinova went into the southern one and was polymorphed into quippers, some kind of fish. The others put them into vessels of water to carry them to the other companions. None can help them since they are warriors. Instead Immeral uses the last two charges of the ring with stored spells that have the dispel spell stored.

Returning to humanoid shape they head to the final rooms of the fourth floor. They enter the corridor and ends up at a door with a riddle above the door. They are supposed to feed the serpent statues blood to allow the ghouls hidden in the wall to open the door. They don't get it so go into the corridor leading to a treasure chest just standing in the opening. They see a room beyond it, but the treasure chest is more important. Of course Hope unlocks it and open it and a boulder starts rolling from above the stairs. They run into the room and the floor below them crashes down. Hope and Freya is able to catch the edge while the others fall into the acid pit trap. Biff Longsteel dies immediately and dissolves into the acid. The others are damaged, but with the help of Freya and Hope that climbs up and get the rope to get the others out of the pit. Freya heals them with a mass cure wounds.

The others check the room and finds a sarcophagus that changes colors every 6th seconds. It has a keyhole so Hope returns to the broken chest and finds an invisible key. Doesn't help them so they look into the mural above the room. Freya touch the mural and ends up in a magical maze which opens the secret rooms with 10 skeleton minotaurs out for blood. Since they all are up on the stairs Hope, Immeral and the woman warrior blocks the stairs so that Destinova can fry them with fireball. Zaal the minotaur enters the maze to help Freya. Freya is able to find a gold key after something like three rounds and returns to the sarcophagus with skeletons all around, but just the next round they all been defeated. They wait for Zaal to find another key until he gets the purple one and returns as well. Immeral gets the gold key and uses it as it turns gold, unlocking and opening it. He's granted the power smell precious metals and gems for three days (they don't know how long, just that he can) and is branded with a demon head on the chest. 

He also picks up the robe with the slime pouring out of the pockets and gets possessed by Unkh. They also find a passage from one of the hidden rooms and find a clock that they open and grabs the jewel at the tip of the pendulum. Of course not later than that it strikes which ages Freya and the warrior woman 10 years. After getting the jewel it stops and they realizes that it's the Navel of the Moon that the tabaxi searched for. They head back to the door they couldn't open and after a bit more searching they find the blood and get Zaal and Freya to give enough blood to open the doors. There they see the murals that the blind dwarfs are painting about the things happening in the dungeon, one doing the leader of the Yellow Banner while the others are busy with our own adventures, being attacked by the beholder, being crushed by the chest and so on. They notice the throne and the scepter. They don't touch it, but finds a hidden door toward another sarcophagus with a sun revolving around it. They open it and finds the queen Napaka that oversaw the destruction of Omu. They just steals from her and then finds the scepter which they switch with the one at the throne. Nothing happens so they take both scepters which unleashes the necrotic gas that kills Zaal. The warrior woman stays with her queen and our heroes continues on and find yet another hidden door that leads to a staircase down to level 5. We end here since everyones getting tired and sleeps to heal up. 

Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter (Switch/Switch 2)

 

Wonder what skies have to do with anything since you walk most of the time.

I've heard about the Trails-series for a long time since I played Ys, being part of the Legend of Heroes-series that appears to be Falcoms biggest series beside Ys. The one thing everyone said was that it was a fantastic to get into, but there was 13 games in the series and where do you start on a game series that started out on the PSP? Well, you wait for a remake on the newest consoles of the first game of course. 

As usual I got it for the Switch since then you at least saved on the space on the console, and then just upgraded to the Switch 2. Apparently they are gonna update it to 1.05 any day forward, but I already cleared the game so some of the things I won't be seeing I guess. Story is that the country of Liberl was attacked by it's neighbor the Empire, but after 100 day was freed due to Colonel Cassius Bright who devised the plan to repel the invasion. He then joined the mercenary group the Bracers and trains his daughter Estelle. 5 years after the battle he finds a boy Joshua he brings home and adopts and 5 years after that the kids are doing their Bracer entrance exams and then starts doing jobs while Cassius leaves. An airliner is attacked by air pirates and the Bright kids gets involved since Cassius was on the liner.

From there they travel all around Liberl uncovering a conspiracy from within the Royal military of Liberl to seize power by brainwashing certain targets, for example the air pirates, a mayor here and several military commanders. You also meet several other Bracers that help you on your journey like Zin the Unmovable, Scharezard the whip-wielding drunkard, Agate the red-headed swordsman, Tita the genius, Olivier the imperial minstrel and Kloe the schoolgirl. You also meets people like the reporter and photographer of Liberl News that gives you hints on the overall story or Professor Alba getting in trouble all the time at the towers scattered across the land. 

It's a bit slow in the beginning since it took something like 10 hours leaving the first town, but when it gets going it gets going. The story always calls back with persons reappearing in a chapter after the one they introduced and you also gets some in between stories between chapters keeping the mystery pulling you along. Spoilers ahead, but nothing is what it seems and the bad guy is actually someone you can understand. His reasons for doing what he does is logical, and then in the credits pretty much it turns out someone was pulling his strings. Which I didn't see coming. The story is also interesting in that it has a female main character. Estelle is the main character and seems to be in the following two games as well and that is rather fun since she is a fun character to follow. Her goofiness and naive nature make sit fun to watch her collide with others or such things. Funny how no one talked about the woke agenda in this game with the other main character Joshua dresses up in a dress and maid outfit. One character even talks about bringing down the patriarchy. Damn posers in the gaming community.

Graphics are fine, but I noticed a flicker one time, but that was it. Music is alright and you have good voice actors like Matthew Mercer and the guy voicing Doggi and Doug. Interestingly enough the voice lines are kinda inconsistent. There are scenes when when side characters have a voiced line, but the main guys aren't voiced. Maybe it has to do with actions that affects the scene so they didn't voice them, but it feels kinda weird. The second game is on the way and I might have to get my hand on the other games in the series.

Dragonsbane: Betrayal (Drakar och Demoner: Sveket)

And now it's snakes, wonder what the third book cover will be.

Well, I had to read the continuation, only took me a year. I read the first two chapters and just had to stop since Tamea did the most stupid thing ever and I just couldn't handle it. Verven and Gizma have been doing some shady things to provoke fights to get money from people. This time it goes awry and they are set upon by the city guard and Tamea can't help herself by showing them Verven's gold coin, you know, the greedy corrupt guards that have no qualms taking from the people that we where shown earlier in the chapter? I just tapped out from reading it that time. I could also have been that I got some games worth playing that just took my interest as well, but it took some time getting back, and then I read the rest in two evenings.

The most interesting question on everyone's mind, how was the writing? Much better, there was only one instance in the whole book with an english word, "sorry". The rest perfect. So story after the early debacle is that they are helped out of the prison the guards threw them in by a duck crime lord that task Gizma with bringing her the head of Tamea's mother. She was last seen in the forest of Verven's elven clan. They go there and not to be killed they have to kill the elf-ear hunter in the tower out in sea. They get there and it turns out that the orc shaman living there isn't an ear hunter, but Verven's true father  which unravels all the lies his mother told him about his birth and such. His father seems to kill himself in realisation that his love he waited 18 years for wanted to kill him. They return to the elves and all hell breaks loose since it turns out Tamea's mother is still alive, but the Verven's mother tried to kill her son since the union of an orc and elf is the chosen one to begin the end of the world as he is destined to awaken the sleeping dragon and when that happens the demons will awake as well.

Well, they escape and the hunt is on. I really like the book. A lot happens in 200 pages and it goes by fast. Lucky the third book will be released in September 2025 (August 2025 as of writing). Kirby the Forgotten Land for Switch 2 will be out in a week so we will see if I'm in a reading mood or if that will have to wait until next year when the signs align and the window of opportunity for reading opens up again.

The Adventure of Elliot: The Millennium Tales Debut Demo (Switch 2)

Not another fairy game!

Watched the July 2025 Nintendo Partner Showcase direct and as most people it wasn't that much to write home about, but they at least announced a demo for a new game from SquareEnix in the 2D-HD engine. So I got it and since there wasn't any other games at the moment in the wait for the Kirby game. So I started playing it and it has some similarities to games like the Mana-series with different weapons... no co-op though. Story is that this kingdom is protected by a barrier from monsters and some new ruins have been discovered so the king ask the adventurer Elliot to investigate the ruins together with his fairy companion (which after playing Bravely Default sends out some different warnings than maybe the creators anticipated... or I don't know really). So you go out and fight monsters till you reach a dungeon where you fight a boss and suddenly you stand before the Door of Time.

Now, what is the Door of Time (besides being named after the door of Time in Ocarina of Time)? Don't know, the game didn't tell me about it before but the fairy wonders if this is the Door of Time and Elliot seems to know what that entails. And after entering the demo ends. I'm driven more by story than gameplay loops, so I can't say that this demo did it for me, since I don't know what I should care about in this game. No one has told me what the importance of the ruins is, or the Door of Time. In the wilds there was no one to talk to except the fairy and they never commented anything important.

We will see if I get it, but since it's SquareEnix I assume a Game Key Card from the get go and since the storage is limited it might be digital and a sale before getting it. It looks great though and I like 2D action adventure games. I didn't find the scythe so wonder if that will effect anything.

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.

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD (Switch 2)

 

Love in the Crossfire!

I thought I had written about the original game since it came out in 2014, but apparently I didn't began writing my synopsis on finished game until half a year later in 2014 so I never did it. The closest when I was writing about the follow up demo for the second game, Bravely Second. Still haven't finished that main game so might continue with that, but that will be a while since the first game has a tendency to overstay it's welcome. And I had hoped just writing about the differences from the 3DS version and skip the story and such. 

So basically the story is that the great chasm swallows Norende, the pastoral town where Tiz Arrior lives together with his brother. His brother dies in the Chasm and Tiz wakes up in the nearby capital being saved from drowning in a river. He returns to the Chasm and meet Agnes Oblige, the vestal of Wind that looks into the Chasm together with Airy the Cryst-Fairy. They are being hunted by the Eternian forces that are intent on destroying any believers of the Crystal followers. They meet with Ringabel that have lost his memory and joins them after following instructions in his journal. They also meet Edea Lee, daughter of the Grand Marshal of Eternia that switches side after the cruelty shown by the Eternian forces. Together they travel to the four crystals to awaken them and banish the darkness.

The story is pretty much callbacks to Final Fantasy I-V. The order of the crystals is reversed from Final Fantasy I with wind, water, fire and earth. The class system is brought over from Final Fantasy III and V. Braev the Templar looks a bit like paladin Cecil (and Artemis looks like his dark knight version, but that looks like all dark knights in the series) from Final Fantasy IV. The other classes looks a bit like other classes from the games. The magic system is basically the same as Final Fantasy and so on. The biggest difference being the summons that are unique and looks like modern things like planes and trains, but stylised to look like summons so like the plane looks like a bird and so on. Had they done them like in Final Fantasy with Raruh, Bahamut and so on togheter with Moogles and Chocobos it would be the continued series if they hadn't done VI and so on. 

So you get the crystals awakened, fight the asterisk bearers to get the classes and some story bits. Each country is being undermined by the Eternians in different ways so you have to clean it up. You also meet the Sage Yulyana that helps you and then Lester the vampire. After defeating them all and fixing the crystals a pillar of light appears that you enter, Artemis Dim, the dark knight follows you and after defeating him his face is revealed showing Ringabels face and then you are transported back to the beginning of the game. The game is in a time loop like the original Final Fantasy as well. SO you fight the bosses again to awaken the crystals and get more story bits. You do this five times and is in one way kinda admirable for them to stick to it, but it gets repetitious since the dialog repeats as well, making you wonder do they remember what happens between each jump? Especially when the game pretty much spells out the plot for you, Airy is a lying fairy (which at the reveal shows up on the title screen as well). She pushes our heroes to go through this since she is in actuality a demon from the abyss that helps her lord Ouroboros to connect 10 000 worlds to release Ourobors from his prison and invade the celestial realm. I got it and the numbers on her wings showing how many there is left is kinda neat when you notice it, but the characters didn't seem to get it.

You defeat Airy and then fights Ouroboros on a stage that looks like the battle with Chaos from Final Fantasy I and he begins destroying world after world (if you where a bit more social on the 3DS or Switch I have the feeling they would have named the worlds after that compared to "Someone World". Our heroes almost gives up, but then heroes from other worlds helps out (named after my AI buddies since I'm a very anti-social person). Our heroes stand up for a final battle and the background have my mii in the background (Ouroboros hints that a celestial is in Tiz and on the 3DS they used the camera to show the players face making it kinda obvious that the celestial realm is our own). You defeat Ouroboros, everyone returns to their own world (meaning Ringabel went back to the world prior to the starting world).

It's a fun game, but the endgame really drags. In both versions I maxed all jobs and levels. It doesn't make you overpowered, you still need to figure out how to break the game and I don't know if I did it on normal on the 3DS, but I got to the final subplot battles in chapter 8 and tried to go directly to Airy but got beat up so bad. That's when I needed a break with Minish Cap, but after that I just lowered the difficulty to easy and ran through the game as quickly I could. On the 3DS I spent over 100 hours and on this I was something like 90 hours and it's to much. The classic games take something like 20-30 hours and at the 40 hour mark you enter the pillar of light for the first time and would have been better if you maybe had done 2 passes, but no, 5.

What did they add then? Since it's a launch game for the Switch 2 they added things to show the systems functions. They added two minigames that is mouse based. One is a rhythm game and the other is a game where you pilot the airship. By playing you unlock entries in the journal about people you meet and you also get flower points which you can use to get equipments and items. Played mostly Love on the Battlefield-theme, and by looking at the whole Linked Horizon concert the sound was taken from I learned that Motoi Sakuraba was the man playing the synths, you know, the Golden Sun music guy. Best song ever! I spent a couple of hours playing the rhythm game with the song the singer sings. It's rather good so that wasn't a problem, but I thought I could get several ribbons so I grinded up to over 150 points and turned out I could only got 1 of them from the store. There is another in the game, but that was the moment my carefully thought out plan went away and I stuck with easy mode instead. Still, I got a silver sword as fast I got to the mini games and that was useful at the very next part of the game since it was great against undead that was all over the next area. 

So, buy it if you are interested. I got it as a game key card and I wonder if it will be the only one I got like this. As I said, haven't finished the direct sequel and haven't started Bravely Default 2 either even though I have it for Switch. Will take some time before I play it though. The new Donkey Kong game comes out next week (in 2025 when I write this) so I will play something short in between.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Wii U)

 

The smallest of Links.

Thought I had written about this game, but apparently not. Been playing Bravely Default for the Switch 2, but just don't feel like finishing the end game and everyone that have played it knows what it is. So I watched Game Grumps playing the Minish Cap so just felt that it would be a nice break. Originally for the GBA and made by Capcom that also did the Oracle-games. I got it for the GBA, the 3DS ambassador program and the Wii U that I played here. Seems like I hadn't finished it before since the only save on the console was from even before Link leaves Hyrule town with the princess. Probably was bored at the time.

Story is that Link is the grandson to the smith and it's the Picori Festival when Hyrule celebrates the picori, pretty much gnomes that are really small and lives in peoples houses or in the forest. At the price ceremony the winner Vaati goes haywire and turns Zelda to stone, breaks the picori blade and releases evil upon the world. Link gets the mission to find the picori since he is a child and they only show themselves to children. On his way through the Minish Woods he finds a talking hat that is being attacked. He helps it and it tells him that he is Ezlo, a minish sage that was turned into a hat by his apprentice Vaati that stole the minish cap from Ezlo and intended to rule the world. So Ezlo joins Link and this is the origin of Link's green hat.

You need to find the four elements and fix the broken picori blade. Ezlo helps you by being able to shrink yourself to minish height. It is a fun concept especially when they take normal enemies and turn them into bosses, because now they are massive. The picori blade then turns into the four-sword that was introduced in the side-quest for the Link to the Past remake for the GBA (where Vaati also was the end boss). So it's a lot of origins here.

I finished it before, but the memory was that it was hard to fight the end boss. And it is, but I guess 20 years of video games actually improved my thinking. I never 100 % it though and as I played it I began to see why. You have the kinstone fusions where you fuse kinstones with people that you get in chest, or get from grass or enemies and so on. Which is fun since you get chests or enemies or open paths and so on. But several of the fusions are random, and people can be really picky on if they want to due a fusion or not. I actually was able to get all those, but the last one was a pain. Apparently a deku scrub that had it. And then it was the figurines. You collect shells (which I assume is a nod back to Link's Awakening) that you can gamble to get figurines of characters or enemies. There is 136 total and I got to something like 100, and I got that by abusing the save state while playing the rupee game to max the winnings. Maybe I should have bought more shells than kinstones. Too late now. And you need to get all figurines if you want to get all heart pieces. God dammit.

Overall, a fun game and I like the concept of the minish and such (having watched Gnomes as a kid). End boss was hard though and took me a minute to remember how to beat Vaati and there is three phases of the boss. Don't like that, especially when I'm forced to fight off 3 darknuts under a time limit. And then I spent 2 hours to get enough rupees to buy the shells to gamble on the figurens. All to get the final heart piece and 3 chests with 200 rupees each... what am I supposed to spend it on, the game is over?

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Unseen Eye (11)

 

I see you!

Well, started where we left off, fighting the invisible Beholder. Freya still hanging from her spear on the sphere in the air. This is a fight for their life. The invisible beholder firing eye beams every second he got and hitting them paralyze and such things. Freya even getting hit with a death ray once leaving her with only 3 hp. Destinova got in 2 fireballs until he got caught in telekinetic ray that put him in the anti-magic cone. He even got hit with petrification rays twice. Still, Immeral get the idea to get the cover back over the orb to release Freya from it and then put over a cape to both "see" the beholder as well as stop the anti-magic cone. After defeating it they slept and got all the treasures.

And now they headed for the 4th floor. They first went to the room with the mirror that trap people. Freya is the only one that enters the room. And she just shatters the mirror after seeing different shadows in it. Everyone gets released so a big fight begins. Our heroes fight of an invisible stalker and a troll while another person gets killed by a stirge, a woman and minotaur teams up and fights a gargoyle while a drow uses his magic to help them and lastly another person that just tries to run and hide. They make short work of the enemies and get the minotaur and women to join them together with the coward Biff. The drow just leaves.

They find a stone slab with the image of a person holding up his arm so Freya puts her hand there and the slab opens toward a "maze".  They find yet another headless skeleton and a opal crown. After deliberating (and me pushing that it seems to be worth at least 5 000 gp) they take it and here stone moving, two thumps and then some heavy breathing (I tried to emulate the regenerators from Resident Evil 4). Freya looks around and behind her two bodaks appears. They make short work of these, but as they try to leave they notice the slabs have returned to its original state, but the picture is now of a man missing his arm. The book hints that a person can put their arm in the sphere that exists in the mouth of the devils face. Their first instinct was to cut the hand of Biff since he is just worthless (not knowing that he is a doppelganger so he could probably grow his hand back), but they get the skeleton instead and cut its arm and uses that. I checked on the net as we sat there and people saw that as an alternative to open the doors. Which takes away some of the deadliness of the trap, but still.

Next area they discover another face in the wall where there lives a lizard that can talk and belonged to the Yellow Banners (that included Biff). He shows them a secret door that leads to a room filled with heat, our heroes enters and the doors closes. After some arguing they blow out the candle and ends up in the room without air. It takes a long time to get them to understand that they are supposed to take the bones of the aarakocra and suck the air inside them. I even hinted that they broke them loose and they heard the hissing of air. Their first thought was using it to light the candle on fire which only exists to waste time. They got very frustrated here and reading it the day before I deduced they needed time here so no point in getting a time limit, had it been a sierra game you just had to restore your game until you figured it out. 

With that they enter Shagambi's tomb, an area filled with terracotta soldiers and I heavy hint at the warning left at the balcony that talks about the sleeping army in silence. They figure they need to be quiet so Immeral just walks over the ceiling and gets to the tomb... and then just opens it, starting the trap that is just music box activating all the statues. They hobble up in a corner and uses Destinova to cast fireballs on them. The first one leaves most of them with only 1 hp. The second one gets all of them (mostly because I was tired since we neared the end of the session so I just hide that they succeeded on their dexterity save to just end it. They slept and we ended it here. I missed that they should have entered the tomb randomly by the teleporters, but I will see if I can still use it for them leaving the tomb when we play again in september or such.

Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness - Enhanced Edition (PC) - Magus Awekens

 

Feed Me Seymore!

Well, went out with the fourth and furthest game I've played in the series. I got the Enhanced Edition for this as well. It added another hour of narration from John Rhys-Davies as the narrator and added in the 9th wraith from the Bargov Crypt that was dummied out of the game, probably due to time (said enemy only have 1 HP so is a bit of a pushover and you don't get anything so it doesn't add much). As usual for these play throughs it was trying to go only on information I knew, but solving the Squid stone I think the only information you get is from Davy after you been put under a geas to get the rituals meaning the final three days of the game. At least the game acknowledge different routes. For example the Leshy's riddles, being a magic user I could bypass the whole rhyming scheme and talk to Bonehead to learn that it is Baba Yaga, but the Leshy tries to shame me for not validating the fact.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum... I have no shame.

Still, a great game to play through with the voices and such. The add-libs or what ever from the three townspeople are a joy to listen too, and actually a bit more funny than the text as written. John Rhys-Davies is great as the narrator. Some blemishes like Magda that have two voices or when John Rhys-Davies have to step in for some reason like with Funny Bones in one scene. And that Igor's fate is spoiled by the voice over by the three locals in their introduction. But overall a great voice cast, I can still mimic parts of Boris speech pattern.

Now, last time I had a bit of problems with bugs and whatnot. In ScummVM I couldn't get past the Squid Stone on my way out of the Dark Ones Cave for the first time so I used DosBox to get it working. This time ScummVM actually runs really great. No problems with the Chernoevoy in Swamp or such things. I encountered another crash though when I left the Rusalka one time, but that seemed to have been a coincidence. There was another more fatal problem though, each time I entered a screen with a Wraith Mound the game crashed instantly. And that is a problem since I was running out on funds. Looking around for a solution on the internet I found out that you can get money from a lantern in Erana's Garden for free so I got that which forced me to avoid meeting the wraiths in the forest. Now, before the wizard seemed to be have been the most bugged out class of them all, but now it was to my advantage, since I tried it with fighter and couldn't get past the wraith either. And to get the final Ritual you have to find it in a Wraith mound, except for the Wizard who has to get Erana's staff and fight the fairies for it. Praise be the wizards. 

I tried playing the vanilla version instead of Enhanced Edition and it still crashes for me there, both with wizard, fighter and thief. But, the Floppy DOS-version works... don't no why since it's the same files, but it works. A pity the save files aren't shared between version so I can't play it with voices, change over to DOS-version to fight the Wraiths and then turn it back. Cause if I continue with the replaying as the other classes during this summer, I probably have play the DOS-version from the beginning. It might also be that the latest update of ScummVM broke something and will be fixed in the future (maybe I have to even make a complaint myself since I see no one else do it and it is listed as excellent on their compability chart). 

Well, did some digging and the fact is that the Floppy version wasn't the same files, it was something I got from another source, which made me think a bit. Was it the GOG files I've had on my computer, or was it files from somewhere else? Well it turned out to be from somewhere else. I got the GOG version installed and checked, that worked so I grabbed those files and put them in the map for ScummVM and after some back and forth I finally got it all to work, Enhanced Edition and normal version both. Sadly my Magus files where corrupted, but the save for V was saved I hoped.

Still a great game, but I hate the combat, which also makes a remark I saw someone make that 1 & 2 you max out your stats, 3 you do the best you can and 4 you just do whatever. I can really see it. Max Mana, Magic and Intelligence and the only spell that maxed out was flame dart. Ended the game also with 5 points missing. Have no clue what that could have been, or if I rushed the dreams of Erana or readings from Magda. Hopefully I can get 5 working so we finally can see something new. And what do you know, it doesn't work. Well I be... time to look for some launchers or patches that can get it working.

Quest for Glory III: Wages of War (PC) - Enhanced Edition - Magus Awakening

 

The Sacrifice for the Gaming Gods!

Continued directly with the next game. This time I played the Enhanced Edition (which means a fan made patch was applied to try to fix things that wasn't working and bringing back things that was left on the cutting floor). Now, I'm not that familiar with this game since I've only played through it once before so I can't really say what is different other than a scene with Uhura in the Simbani village after the failed Peace Conference and that the meerbat you can get the glowing eye from is gone for mages and thieves since they are supposed to get it from the statue in the Lost City. And you actually can train magic in your room in Tarna, but if you do your honor takes a real hit so be prepared to spend a lot of commons on the drummer in the market.

Overall the game felt better paced than last time I played and I can't say if it was due to me actually following the story or that the patch fixed the order a bit. I somehow was able to max out Strength and magic as the only major attributes. Magic I was able to get flame dart and force bolt to max. This time the game didn't majorly bug out on me, don't know if luck or that the patch and ScummVM have ironed them out, but leaving the giant tree I noticed I just walked across the screen. Same thing happened back at the Inn, and I actually got stuck in a loop where I tried to leave but Magus went back into the Inn. I was able to get out by going through the other door. 

Replaying it... I feel this is probably the weakest of the four I've played. Very much walking back and forth and the game feels a bit empty. I gathered 20 dino horns, but they where totally worthless for me. I could at least have sold them to someone? As I said last time, Tarna felt very small and it just shows again since it only took me one day too play through it. I can see that it was made in haste to cover a stopgap between Trails by Fire and Shadows of Darkness, that once again is teased at the end of the game. 

Quest for Glory 2: Trails By Fire (EGA) - The Grind of Magus

 

Dawn of yet another adventure!

Continued onward with the second game, also playing the EGA-version. Gotta say, the map for Shapier I had printed out looked awful so I had to write the names beside the printed names to know what the streets was called. And I have a terrible hand-writing. Anyway, I can safely say that when the first game is a matter of preference between VGA and EGA, the VGA-version of the second game is obviously better. I expected stuff I thought was part of the original game like the acrobat or finding the Poet in a plaza and returning his purse, but I guess it was only the VGA-version (I've later checked and no, they are in the game, the acrobat you need acrobatics and the poet in the plaza I just missed). And since it can allow you to use both parser and point-and-click the grinding for future wizards should go faster. It allows it to be more stuff to do and train your skills a bit easier. But I gotta assume it's easier to become a paladin in the EGA-version since I did become it without reaching max score and using the X-ray glasses while helping... hrm, maybe I should keep quiet about that.

Well, I maxed out magic and enhanced it with a wish up to 250 so I'm prepared for the next adventure. Dodge, Weapon skill, Intelligence and Agility was maxed out for 200 and I used the second wish to get Strength to around 195 so I can get the stamina and health high enough. Magic skills was harder. I probably began grinding them to late and should have bought more mana pills earlier, but I maxed Flame Dart, Force Bolt and Open. Fetch something around 179 and Detect Magic around 187. Most other spells around 100 (from the last game) and the new spell Reversal was around 63 while Levitate around 44. Had problems finding a place to cast the spells, but when I realized I could stand in the streets it went better. Wish I had thought of standing outside Aziza from the beginning instead of W.I.T. 

The parser makes the game immersive as the first game, but due to the need to "greet", "thank" and "Say goodbye" to grind on the communication and honor skills it was a bit irritating since I didn't always knew if I did it correctly. Much easier in the VGA-version since you have options. Also since they expected you to tell things I was a bit more lost and I didn't realize I could ask about rumors or news until a week in the game. It's obviously better than the original, but makes it harder for me. And sitting and typing out the wishes for the ring djinn was absolut hell since "wish transport" or "wish iblis" didn't work and I swear I wrote "wish for transport to iblis", but it didn't take the first time and it made it hard to understand what I was doing wrong. 

I won't say it was a bad idea playing the original version, it's still a great game, but I might go forward with only the VGA-remake from now on (unless I want a fighter-paladin on the first try compared to the VGA:s near-impossible list. It's also fun to look at the ending when they hype Quest for Glory III: Shadows of Darkness which is the fourth game in the series. Especially since that version getting added to ScummVM making it so easy just let the saves lie in the same place and no care in the world. 

Overall, if I'm gonna compare the first two games, the game has at least more instances of music, but the time limit is a bit annoying at times. Nothing obviously bad, but still. Still, the endgame feels more epic than storming the brigands fortress. Stopping the summoning of Iblis feels threatening and the much better music drives it home.

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The All-Seeing Eyes (Part 10)

 

Grave robbing is always a risky business.

So we continued onward through the third floor. No preparations from my side, I just winged it as we went along since I had forgotten we were supposed to play. Still worked rather well. We continued from the last area and entered a room where there was a shrine with things and frescoes. Immeral, caught by the greed of Nangnang, began pocketing some gold coins and all that. My sisters couldn't bother trying to solve the riddle of the room so they forced Destinova to use the knock spell to open Kubazan's  sarcophagus . That of course triggers the trap that unleashes a prismatic ray on all the players. Destinova got it worse since he dropped 39 HP. Freya snapped up the treasure inside the sarcophagus. Some bracers that (I now realizes we never added the benefits from the actual item... oops!) allowed Kubazan to enter her and become pretty much the same as the other possession, but now more heroic. That and she got 23 in Strenght meaning the bard is now the most buff player of them all. 

Next room was just some tapestries and a boar head that enchanted Freya to put her head inside the boar head. Hope jumped her to keep her away from the boar while Immeral breaks open the head after seeing some treasures inside the mouth. They went back to the staircase and went to the northern corridor where they saw a jackal head were they witnessed a scene where a dwarf enters a room with a sarcophagus and promptly gets eaten by locust like in the Brenden Frasier the Mummy. Not being able to do anything they head to the eastern corridor. Turns out to be a corridor with running water. Freya finds to secret areas, one with an eye she pockets and another crawling space. Immeral meanwhile triggers the trap that floods the area and damages them all. They made Destinova use control water to get past the waterfall and find the other eye on the other side.

They then see the room where the dwarf died. Immeral enters alone, robs him and then walks on the ceiling toward the sarcophagus. Sucks to be him, they were forced to solve the riddle, which was basically realizing that at the door there was a mechanism that told them which floor to stand on to not trigger the trap until they reached the sarcophagus. And then it disarmed the trap. They found a horn belonging to I'jin, the rabbit god. No more evil and selfish. They continued and began looking into the crawlspaces. Freya headed in first and triggered yet another trap and was caught as the whole area rotated. After a while Immeral and Destinova headed in and noticed a body in the middle of the crawlway. Immeral rushed forward and triggered the trap again, releasing Freya.She got out in the water corridor and headed back to Hope. They went and got the gold sarcophagus of I'jin and heated it up to form it into a ball to use as a trigger of the trap so that Immeral also could get out. The body had an eye as well, and they begin to realize that they probably need every eye they can find. 

Next room they find is a room where Hope enters and there is a shadowy figure in front of her. They experiment until they realized that it was a mirror shadow of the first person that entered the room. They also got that the font with the green goo probably hid something, especially when they got it was an illusion. At least they also caused the others to get damaged by seeing the visage of the shadow figure, meaning Destinova now blacked out and was healed back to 17 HP. Great. In the goo they found another eye.

Next area was south of the water corridor where they had floating platforms and I don't know if I read it correctly since with the push from Kubazan Freya just jumped on to the platforms while Immeral ran over the walls and pulled the lever after listening to I'jin which unleashes the winds of madness. Hope begins screaming and crying on the floor while Immeral passes out. It opens the hands of a statue that allows Destinova to get the eyes inside. Freya just stod at the platform... I don't get how she wasn't affected. She jumped over the platforms and turned the lever again. This time Destinova pulls out a rope to tie Immeral up since even in this form he is a liability. Next room... the golem pit. Immediately they begin turning one of the pedestals and summons the golem from the pit. It dies within one round so they can search the pit in quiet. Especially since Immeral can walk down the pit without using the teleportation pedestals. They continue through a corridor and finds a mirror and ten holes for the eyes they have been gathering. And here they spend the longest amount of time arguing what to do. They put in the eyes and notices their reflection getting sicker. This for some reason scares them so they begin thinking there must be a certain order of the eyes so they pull them in and out trying to see if anything changes. It doesn't and in the end Immeral grabs a cloak or something and holds over the mirror so that they won't see it while putting in the eyes.

Finally inside they notice the floating sheet, Kubazan urges Freya to attack it and with the scream "Kubazan have never failed me" she rushes forward with her spear and tries to pierce it, but the sheet flies away revealing the black orb that magnetize the spear to it and gets stuck as it lifts and rotates with Freya holding on for dear life. Hope and Immeral begins picking up some treasures and a voice can be heard in the room and an eye stalk appears and fires a ray at them. And here we ended the session.

Suikoden (PS1) (PS3)

 

Now I get it, the painter painted the cover of the game!

Well, I was waiting for the Suikoden remaster to come for the Switch, but for some reason as of writing it has gone two weeks and it seems to be stuck somewhere. Didn't really bother since I'm waiting for the Xenoblade Chronicles X to come out this following week and that is a 100 hour commitment at least. So I decided to continue the playthrough I started in 2024, but never finished (don't recall why, but it didn't take me 8 hours to finish). Was recommend this by the one driving me to work at the saw mill back in 2013 so I got them for the PS3. Konami's own RPG-series.

So your the son of a high-ranking General in the Empire. The Golden Emperor Barbarossa have been turning evil for some reason and his closest advisor, the sorcerer Windy is whispered to be behind it. One day you meet up with Ted, a friend and after some mission to check the taxes of a northern village Windy intercepts you and kills Ted since he carries the Soul Eater Rune. Before being killed Ted gives the rune to you so now you gotta escape the might of the Empire. You join up with an resistance group lead by Odessa Silverberg and Flik and Victor. After a mission your hideout is found out and Odessa is killed. The rest gives leadership to you so you start the Liberation Army.

So you have to gather the 108 Stars of Destiny in order to stop the Emperor and Windy. It's a fun game and is not only an RPG, but also a base builder and strategy game (although the strategy is kinda minimal). Yes, a strategy game where you take control of the Liberation Army and have to lead them to victory by choosing the right attack or use special things like Ninja's to get information on the plans of the enemy, Merchants to make the enemy army turn to your side and so on. Fun distractions, if it wasn't for the reason that your 108 Stars of Destiny can die in the battle for some reason (seems mostly RNG). 

Really, the most trouble with the game is probably the 108 Stars of Destiny. You gotta collect them all, but of course some of them are missable or hidden behind side-quests and so on. So I used a guide through it all. Maybe when I replay it on Switch I might play it more legit, since it was so slow on the PS1 with reloading and so on. Actually, I spent most of the time gambling with Gaspar to accumulate enough gold to keep the Stars of Destiny you could take with you upgraded in armor and equipment. A pity that the max amount was only 999 999, but it at least forced you to constantly use it since the end-game allows you to hit that amount fairly easy just by battling monsters. 

Cause that cost a lot. Also interesting in that level grinding isn't really a thing in the game. Characters get EXP depending on how tough the monsters are according to their level which allows you to easy level up a character that have lagged behind, but the cost to sharpen the weapons is really step at the end and matters more. But just save/restore the save if you succeed on the gambling and since each time you win you can gamle it all the winnings add up really fast.

In the end I had fun, but as the end credits roll and each of the 108 Stars of Destiny gets a small note like in Skies of Arcadia I just can't feel for all of them since frankly, I've forgotten most of them. Skies of Arcadia only had what, 22 characters in your crew? That's manageable, 108 isn't. Especially since very few of them has any story beside joining. A bit of waste I think. Well, some returned for the sequel which I also have, but I might not finish it since as mentioned, in 4 days Xenoblade Chronicles X is supposed to be released and this took me 26 hours and I would suspect that Suikoden II would take the same amount of time. 

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Management Don't Approve (Part 9)

Let's speak to the manager!

And the trek through the tomb continues. We start of were we left of, fighting the mummy. Only takes one attack to kill it off from Hope and Freya picks up the mace of terror, and fails her saving throw allowing her to be possessed by Wongo, the Su-Monster. Makes her very rash and violent without care for the others. They only have one room left on the first floor so they head there finding a corridor with a demon face and through the mouth they can see a room with yet another sarcophagus. Now, Freya just jumps in and Destinova follows. Hope pushes Immeral through due to the aversion of the Obo'laku possession. The trap of course works and the mouth champs down on Immeral. It misses so he gets through and Hope follows. Meanwhile Freya have seen a crystal monter with a flameskull inside and gets curious. It begins talking through telepathy and seems to be a lost child who wonders what's happening. She find that boring and is more interested in the sarcophagus which she opens. The others realize that Immeral is gonna be a problem with the hyper cautious attitude so the other gangs up on him and forces him to touch every item in the sarcophagus trying to get him possessed by another god. This one fails and Destinova is pushed to take the staff of the python to get possessed by the jaculi god Moa who always tells the truth.

As they do this the flameskull screams a cry that shatters the crystal case and and aggravates the spiders in the nest so they begin pouring out. They try to take care of them so Destinova nukes the spiders with a fire ball while the others wail on the flameskull. After defeating the first wave they hear even more spiders coming from the burrows around the room. They rush to get out and Freya jumps through first and then Immeral that gets chomped at again. This time it actually traps him. Destinova puts up a wall of force to keep the spiders out and Freya and Destinova tries to pull him out. Freya tries to break the mouth open from the other side with the mace of terror. They get him out and the mouth opens. Immeral shadowsteps across instead of trusting the mouth again. The other crawls through and gets out. 

They head back to the room with the tomb dwarves and tomb guardians to clear the room and find a magical lantern with the spirit of a moon elf named Starfallen that was brought by the Company of Yellow Banners in order find a certain jewel in order to resurrect the elf. They are all dead now and since she can wake up a character that's been downed Freya grabs her and intend to attune. They continue and have now found themselves through secret corridors that doesn't have traps in them. They enter the first room and there sits an old wight named Withers that acts like an amusement park engineer that constructs and keeps the traps working in this place. Freya and Hope begins robing him blind taking every that isn't nailed down... lucky Destinova didn't do the talking since he would probably have spilled the beans. Immeral meanwhile is tied up, gagged and blinded so that he can't try to escape or cause anything. They find some journal belonging to Withers, a spellbook belonging to a Blackflame or something, a manual on clay golem creation and a control jewel for a slaad. They also pull the mask Withers where and the black skull amulet, but they seem to have forgotten about it so I need to remind them next time.

They get to the room with the slaad and Hope uses the control gem to keep the slaad in check. Freya just walks forward and tries to open the sarcophagus, but needs Destinova for help. It's the tomb of Nangnang and they bring forth Immeral and pushes him to touch every item in it. The urn is wasted on Immeral since he just can will away charmed spells, but an egg inside releases the god and after a short tussle Nangnang expels Obu'laku and thank god for that. Nangnang is just cruel and selfish, but everyone prefers that over cowardly scared. They go back to the backrooms and head down to the third floor finding another Tomb Guardian and kills it in one round. They learn that it was standing guard by a lever that it was supposed to pull when people entered a room on the other side of a window starting it to rotate and fills it with gas and so on. They find what I assume is a ventilation thing that they take over to another room where they find a golden skull that Freya just have to touch which curses her with a dead wise-cracking jester that from now on will disrupt them doing anything unless they feed it 10 000 gold of jewels (which they don't know other than it being hungry for jewels). Of course at the moment it has just berated them and pulling bad jokes, but it will be better when it begins disrupting them for real. They searched the room and found a secret door into a corridor and fought two more tomb guardians. After that we quit cause we where tired after something like 4 hours of play.

Ys Memoire - The Oath in Felghana (Switch)

 

Wait... which Oath was it we took in Felghana?

Been a while as of writing. The usual winter slump so I haven't finished a game since december and as of writing we are one week from March in 2025. It's also due to playing a game I really had a big dislike for, which was Fantasian Neo Dimension. I got half way through and just didn't have any fun with it and after spending 1 hour fighting a boss to get killed I just gave up. Maybe I will come back to it, but I just don't feel like it.

So instead I went with Ys Memoire - The Oath in Felghana which I gathered is a remaster of a game from 2005 that was a remake of Ys III: Wanderers of Ys. It uses the same type of gameplay as Ys Origin and was a much better time. Much shorter as well with something like 12-15 hours of gameplay on Normal from start to finish. So Adol Christin and Dogi has arrived at Dogi's homeland, but monsters are running around so Adol gets to rescue Dogi's childhood friend Elana Stroddard. More trouble brews when the corrupt lord of Felghana, Lord McGuire tries to gather the 4 holy statues in order to take control of an ancient god. Helping the lord is Dogi's childhood friend Chester Stoddard and Elana's brother.

Fight monsters, level up, get money and Ravel ore to buy and upgrade your equipment and then of course you have to defeat the evil god yourself. There's revenge, betrayals, heartache, tears, laughter and Dogi crushing a wall. It felt amazing. And somehow Adol loses all the equipment I fought for, the sword I get since it's story reason, but the shield and armor? And level 1 again? I maxed him out both in Ys I & II as well as Ys X that take place before this. 

Overall, just what I needed. An relative easy and short experience. Dogi is the same voice actor and it was fun to discover that the voice actress for Elana is the voice actress for Colette in Tales of Symphonia. And the game ends with Dogi staying and Elana standing and waving Adol of as she cries... man, Adol ends every game with a beautiful woman crying over him. Makes me think of the Quest for Glory-series and makes me wondering if they like that series will end with a final series and the possibilities to meet people from all the games. Before that I still have Ys IV-VII to play. 

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Genie in a Bottle (Part 8)

 

The players are gonna be so pissed when they realize I already left this puzzle solved!

First post for 2026 (first post written for 2025... I can't seem to get into the groove to play games at the moment). A continuation of the last session. So, I prepared for them to clear the floor so I though it was enough to read only that... no, they of course decide to get down to the second floor immediately. I also recalled the fact that spells like teleportation or such things malfunctions and takes them to a room filled with rotten corpses and an eye stalk that they would appear like the trash-compactor monster in Star Wars (making them think that the whole chamber would crush them). Sadly I read up on it and it's only if they try to teleport out of the tomb, things like shadow-step and arcane gate works just fine. And they won't get to try the black hole lever. 

So on the second floor they find the second warning and also notices a skeleton with a decapitated head. In actuality they are trying to find the skeleton keys to open the door on the fifth floor (one key per floor), but I thought it would be funny if the keys are already taken and put into the door by someone, for example the one trapped in the chamber behind the final boss, for example Toby that would lead into the next adventure as he soloed the dungeon. Cause Toby is the best!

Still, they look around and find the door to the south the most interesting to enter. They hear the gurgling moans from some zombies that are chained to the door. Hope uses her sun sword to chase them away that opens the door... or that is what I interpreted the chains doing due to the second warning about the undead disliking sunlight. The less battles the faster the games goes anyway and they wanted faster games. 

Inside they see transparent cauldrons with bones in them, a sarcophagus and four statues. They pretty much say f*** this and looks for something and finds a hidden door leading to a corridor that leads into another room. In that corridor they also finds a bottle. They inspect the bottle and it talks something they don't understand. Hope uses Comprehend Languages that allows her to understand that the dao in the bottle wants to be freed and will give them riches if they do so. Greed gets the better of them, they open the bottle and are in fact rewarded with several gemstones making the trek at least profitable (if they get out). They enter the next room and finds a pentagram in salt with a sarcophagus in the middle. In reality an invisible grey slaad hides in the pentagram, trapped by the salt and if you disturb the pentagram it will be released and attack. Since Immeral and Hope already met an invisible slaad I actually gave them a hint that they felt the same creepiness as back in the Amber Temple so they decided to avoid the room for now.

Back in the corridor they backtrack and enters the eastern corridor until they reach the intersection. They find the body to the north and get the journal and treasures (especially the staff of striking that Immeral intends to attune to so that Freya can get the magical spear without knowing that the staff curses the attuned wearer to become a half-goat, gonna be fun next session) and decides to continue and appears at the intersection again, but the body to the north is gone. They tie a rope and head back, but this time the rope is gone from the south. They go south and suddenly the rope appears in front of them and behind them. Destinova deduces that it must a dimensional gate here. So now the game halts for 15 minutes as everyone tries to grasp what this means. They decide to continue east at the intersection without the dead body where they find the room smelling with wine and a glittering chest in sunlight. As they check and find that the sunlight is an illusion Immeral uses their ring of storing with dispel magic to take away the light. I assume that works since it's an illusion and they open the chest with the words "drown your sorrow" and nothing happens... they are a bit disappointed with the room and head back. They go back to the staircase and check the northern passage that leads to the room with a mask on the floor... nothing else there. They go back and check the pentagram room and stumbles upon the bottled dao again and open it and gets a double set of jewels. Head back through the ring and the jewels disappears in a puff of smoke telling them that the dimension door isn't quite real and get that this is the "real world". They redo all the stuff in the wine room (I almost made them forget to turn off the sunlight) and since the same exact thing happened there was nothing there either. 

Now they went back to the first floor and headed north until they reached the room with the magnetized shield. First they see another decapitated skeleton and then Freya is the only one to fail her saving throw and getting slammed into the shield taking 15 damage. No damage to any metal equipment since she wasn't carry anything. North they find a fountain, no one dares drink the waters which is a shame. They go south and finds a dead end. Searching they find two hidden doors. They enter the south door first and finds a room which they saw earlier last session through a crystal window. You are supposed to cover the eyes on a bronze disk to avoid the wights awake and attack them and then use the masks to open the sarcophagus. I let them cover the disk while being seen since I just don't feel like battle right now. Hope unlocks the sarcophagus and they finally have a magical cursed item in their reach. Immeral picks it up and instantly gets possessed by the Zorbo god, meaning she's even more risk averse, but she got a ring of protection that boosts his AC and saving throws with +1. That and he can now attune to 4 magic items. They don't really have that many, but there is a couple to get in the tomb. They look around and find another hidden door made of flint. Freya opens it and it ignites a gas cloud that knocks her down a bit. They head back to the fountain and rests for the night.

They return next moring and look across the waters. First they follow the river till they reach a waterfall with a ledge across it and a treasure chest. Using their daily arcane gate they can reach it without jumping across. Since it's a mimic it attacks them as they try to see if it's dangerous so they say f that and return back to the origin of the river, finding another chest hanging across the pool of water. Hope hop upon Freya's shoulders and unlocks the chest and get everything from it without triggering the trap. They check the other hidden door in the corridors and see some dwarves creating a tomb guardian and decide that they better retreat. They enter the other northern passage of the first floor and avoid setting of the fan trap and finds another sarcophagus and three chests. After a while they figure out that they need put someone in a chest so that they can turn the key to make a button appear on the sarcophagus to activate a trap and the unlocking mechanism. Freya enters the iron rusted chest and since she have no non-magical metal on her she is pretty much fine. She then enters the onyx one, but survives the trap with 1 HP intact. Also kinda funny that Freya was 6 foot meaning she was a bit cramped in the 5 foot chests.

They put Destinova in the final chest of silver and frost. He only took 39 damage so he didn't get bloodied, although that just 1 HP away. Pushing the buttons now make the sarcophagus to be transparent and crystaline. They see a mummy and a mace in it. Hope picks up her crowbar and swings at it and the whole sarcophagus cracks and the mummy awakens, ending this session. Next session they wanted some maps since they are really bad at localize themselves in their minds. Also, gotta get Immeral to feel itching to start the curse that transform him into a half-goat... hehe and Immeral wanted to get cursed, but that was by a were-tiger hehe, the player gets what she wanted! Hehehe!

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Entering the Tomb (part 7)

I think it was this face they saw in the tomb.

Returning to look for the other 3 cubes in order to enter the tomb of annihilation. And I basically focused on going for the puzzles and skip the fights. I lure them up the waterfall to let them see the vision of Ohm being destroyed to add some mystery to the whole ordeal and then allow them to see the final shrines as they look out of the city. And they basically went on a straight line to get them all. First was the shrine of Nangnang the Grung (a frog like creature). It's supposed to be full with grungs that guard the treasure and if you haven't saved one of the sons of the leader there is a big battle, but that takes to much time so I just skip that idea. Right to the puzzle, how to enter the locked door. Well, the first obstacle is the first door where you are supposed to use strength in order to push it open. None of the characters have that so after two tries I just check my spell list and see that Destinova have Knock so I cast that spell to just enter. And then we have the puzzle door. You are supposed to figure out that one person have to gather the fake treasures in the room and from there go the door and let it open, If there is another people with treasure it doesn't open. We just used knock again since they aren't that smart so why bother?

Next was the shrine of Obo'Laka the Zebo. It was an interesting premise. You first enter a corridor with 8 torch holders and then in the next rom you find a pool where there is a sun in the roof, but a moon in the reflection of the water. After some speculating they jump in and ends up in a room with a moon on the floor, but a sun in the reflection of the pool. There's a door they enter and in there they find a another cube, but there is a petrified statue of a Thay Wizard standing beside it and 8 lit torches around the room. Here there is a problem which I get from reading the book. All characters in the campaign can use mage hand and since they don't get in direct contact with the cube, they won't be affected. You are supposed to deactivate the trap by finding a secret door leading back to the beginning of the shrine so that you can take the torches and put them in the first corridor, since they will extinguish in the water of the pool. To not trivialize the whole ordeal I made the pool water dispel the mage hand so that they actually have to do the puzzle. 

The final shrine was the shrine of Moa the snake. It was the most fun shrine in reading. First it stands on top of a pillar in a lake of lava, but they clear that with an arcane gate spell. Then they enter the shrine and finds a cube standing in the middle of a room guarded by stone archers. They grab the cube with mage hand and the statues begin rotating and firing arrows at them, they get back in the corridor and the trap floor activates trying to send them into a pool of green acid. All four clears the saving throw, they get out and the cube turns to a puff of smoke. They return, search the room again and finds a secret door which leads to a room with a broken snake statue. They grab the cube, once again get fired at from the statues, avoid the trapped corridor, gets out and... the cube turns to green smoke. I find this rather funny. They return and looks again and find yet another secret door and another room, this time with a whole statue. They get the cube and the traps don't activate. They now got all the cubes.

I hadn't planned this far ahead so it was a bit of improvising, but I recall most of the beginning traps, with the fake door in the beginning. They get to the obelisk, get the clue and finds the passageway and the tunnel. They also see the three gargoyles standing looking down on them. They enter the tunnel and see torches light up as they pass and even finds Unkh's statue and get the pendent that hanged around it. They go to the passageway and finds the trap, block the air flow for the gas and starts putting in cubes. I think it was a bad idea to do this in the afternoon with one of the players being out until way after midnight. She can be a bit... thorny when she hasn't slept properly and puzzles isn't their greatest forte. They try so many combinations on the first door and none work, they read the text on the obelisk over and over again so in the end I have to step in to point out that there seems to be something missing since their is only 8 holes for the cubes, when we in fact have 9. They go out again and as they pass the obelisk the pendent begins showing them to the hidden passageway. And here they get stuck again since they get that Unkh should be in the middle, they get that the other cubes should be oppose each others, but they just can't figure put that Unkh always should be in the middle (missing the diagonal cubes). So I have to step in and the youngest sister is so feed up with all this. 

They get to the next door, the timer shows up and Freya in panic pulls the lever and the floor opens and the other three falls down on the spike taking damage in different ways. They get out and enter the T-section with the poisoned arrows and trap plates (I assume they got this from Indianan Jones). They begin by meticously check for traps, reach the statue head and see the darkness. Freya puts in a stick and it gets destroyed by the monster inside the mouth so they decide to just leave it. They head right to the grand staircase, decode to back and finds the grate with the rushing water and then see the crystal window that shows them the room with the skeletons on the thrones. They go back to the staircase and from here we call it quits for today. 

Finally getting somewhere, but if my sisters don't get their sleep before playing the next time I assume we might never finish this module as everyone is angry at each other. I think on the other hand that we haven't that much time on our hand with the trajectory of all our lives, but that is just me. Happy New Year everybody, see you in 2026 (although as of writing it's only a couple of weeks away from 2025 beginning.

Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake (Switch)

 

The father of JRPG:s!

So the long awaited remake of the third Dragon Quest game finally came around. I played one version before, the mobile port they added to the Switch. I recall liking that so I was a bit itching to play it again, and this time in SquareEnix HD-2D engine they used for the Octopath Traveller games. It starts like normal, some personality quests and once again I got Lazybone... I mean, he only wants me to push the rock once, why would that make me lazy? I can also choose difficulty affecting how quickly you level up and how much gold you earn. Since this wasn't my first time playing the game and since I gotten a taste for classic challenges from RPG:s I went with the Draconian Difficulty (the Hard mode that is).

Glad I did since I ended the game with the Hero having a level of 54 and I can't say I grinded that much in comparison (maybe getting a thief from level 1 to 40 to check all the areas for treasure might have had something to do with it). Still, the game starts of as usual, get your party and head out. I chose the classic combo of Hero, Warrior, Mage and Priest. No class change. On one hand, a really good combo for battles since you have everything you need, but the additions of mini medals, secret areas and monster collecting makes the choice a bit harder. I should probably have taken a Hero, Thief, Mage and Priest since that allows you to find secrets, sneak up on monsters and using healing and attack spells like no other. 

They've also added the monster wrangler as a new class that has a very easy time getting the monsters since it bypass all the other problems, like using musk to hide your scent, evade to make yourself invisible and Padfoot sneak up on them. It's worth getting the monsters since fighting in the monster arena gets you great stuff (and finding things with the thief does as well, no problem with money this time). I didn't fight in the arena until the second world when I had pretty OP party. Got me through all the battles in the first world, couldn't get through in the second world. 

Played the game to fight of Zoma in 74 hours which is a bit longer than in the first version I played and there is much more, besides the other things I've mentioned you also have secret areas that doesn't show up on the map, but contain recruitable monsters and/or items the thief can help you find. And going around the world with a thief to find them all after the fact probably added up (I also trained the monk up to level 39 or so at the same time just to see it). You also can have a constant reminder where to go next which I believe activate when you here information to that affect, but I'm not sure. You also have a recall function where you press X and the latest conversation is recorded to look up in the menu, great for keeping track of hints in the game (wish I got that in the beginning and not when I ended up in the second world). 

Still, even with all that I'm still too dense at times, like forgetting that the destroyed town should probably have something to say at night so I went back there several times wondering why I can't get the orb there. Or trying to traverse Soma's Castle and after almost giving up finding the hidden passage below the throne. Still, it is fun playing it and compared to the Final Fantasy games I've constantly have to wrestle with which version to play, this is the best version as of now. I heard there was some controversy since they put shorts on the female warrior (not mention that it isn't called male or female, but type A or type B). Now, I'm a man that can appreciate the exposed skin of 2D characters, but this scandal(?), is just in bad faith. I mean, I spent the final portion of the game with my male hero and his three supporting female characters all decked out in bikinis because those where the best armor for them. Why are then the Internet complaining about some shorts on the female warrior when I can use the "blessed bikini" on her? What's even the problem? Other people are ****ing insane!

The ending then, they put in a too be continued for the next games that will come in 2025 which I'm already waiting for and apparently they are gonna give you some bonuses for clearing the third game so I'm ready. They also made a twist in the ending with the dragon lord egg left by the dragon queen. Apparently it's protected by the priest Hargon... which was the big bad for Dragon Quest II... implying that the dragon lord in the egg might be the dragon lord you face of in Dragon Quest I? I'm excited. I wonder if they are gonna add the party system into the other titles or if they are gonna stick with the original intent of the games which is fine, but kinda makes the games less varied. Still dread the kamikaze monkeys in the second game. Anyway, I got the end-content dungeon to traverse in this game left to meet the Almighty and get some wishes. First encounter was no problem, the trolls I just brute forced, the second encounter went to hell with Barmosa wizards spamming Kaboom several times killing the party before I could react... this will take some time, but Fantasian Neo Dimension comes out next week as of writing. Choices, choices! Hope I don't have to finish the extra content to get bonus for the other games. If I would repay this game, I would probably go for a Hero, Thief, Mage and Priest line-up and after getting all the stuff for the the Thief class change it to a warrior since the damage is rather needed. Or should I do it the other way around since the Thief passive stealing ability is kinda useful for farming seeds... as stated, choices, choices.

Happy Christmas everyone! When this went up I was asleep waiting for Santa as it is Christmas Eve in Sweden and we celebrate Christmas the day before everyone else.

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Quest for Cubes (part 6)

 

The Dangerous Snail!

The quest continues in search for the cubes to enter the tomb of Annihilation. To speed everything along I again tell them the shrines as scouted out by the other companions that aren't main characters. First is the shrine for the eblis god guarded by crocodiles. They skip the fight by using an arcane gate... I might think they have to many powerful artefacts for these battles. They enter the shrine and stumble upon a chamber with six statues and a pedestal. They find a text written below the pedestal which contains a riddle, Immeral at once knows that it is shadows so they put up a light spell at the centre and can see that one of the statutes have a hidden corridor behind it that only appears when a shadow is cast there. They follow it and find a grid... and here they get stuck since they can't get that they should put the riddle in the grid. So I have to spell out that the grid has the same amount of bricks as the letters in the riddle so they begin jotting them down and sees that certain bricks are darkened, as if they are in shadows. Those letters form the words Cover The Eyes... so they stand a minute covering their eyes until Immeral points out that maybe it's the statues in the room prior that needs to be covered. They go back and Freya wonders how they are gonna be able to cover the eyes of the six statues when they are only four which makes Hope stare at her and just say we can use blindfolds. They do and the cube appears,

On the way back they can't use the arcane gate since they only can use it once a day so Destinova uses a lightning bolt that that kills all four. They wade into the water on the way with Freya carrying Destinova since he otherwise have the water up to his neck. Of course this have angered the mother of the crocodiles so they get attacked by a giant crocodile. It doesn't have time to do anything when the others just kills it, Destinova finishing it off with a magic missile and they head for the next shrine, the shrine of the su-monster (some kinda monster monkey). The shrine have 5 entrances and using light they see that the middle one seems to go to a middle room in the shrine so they enter. They find a statue of a su-monster and four masks that they can gaze into corridors so they realise that the other entrances goes into the others side. They go to the other sides of the mask and I'm able to lure each and everyone to look into different masks and in them they see a blue ray of light fall on different arms and legs and together with small riddles they get that they have to figure out which mask tells the truth. It's a basic logic puzzle and Freya had it from the beginning, but they begin overthinking it so they almost ends up with the lion, until they go back to it again. They figure it out, Freya pour water on the statue and a voice gives her a choice, either directly take the cube and be cursed or wait and fight some monkeys. I'm once again able to manipulate them into taking the cube directly and the curse take effect, all fail their constitution saving throw and Freya is turned into a lion, Hope into a boar, Immeral into a zebra and Destinova into a vulture. I'm so happy!

I allow them to be able to communicate with each other, but not the other companions if they headed back to the camp (maybe Eku would have understood them, but since they avoided the others that never played out) so with that they decide to see what the water crossing hides since everyone avoids it since they have seen a shadow on the roofs. They notice a very confused tabaxi, but decide to ignore him for the moment, they find yet another shrine, this one belong to a flail snail. They look in the side room and find a lot of keys, but figure out that the key they need probably is hinted about in the shrine itself. They shove open the door and enters the shrine. They find a statue of a snail and six keys hanging around the room and a keyhole. Freya argues that she should be able to pick the lock of the keyhole since she has claws as a lion and we have all seen cartoons where they do... so I agree to that, they fail and the trap is activated causing the statue to shine with light which burns Destinova and Immeral, which breaks the polymorph spell which allows Destinova to dispel the magic on the others. Hope begins pick the lock, that also fails and the statue shines yet again. Freya begin using healing on Destinova that only have 8 HP. Hope during that time tried to pick the lock again causing huge distress in the other characters, but she succeed this time and they can get yet another cube. What you were supposed to do was take the 6 keys and put them together to get the shape of a certain key that you then would have found in the work shop. But this worked as well. The 6th cube gotten, 3 more left.

Now back in their humanoid forms they decide to take care of the tabaxi. Destinova uses an invisibility spell that turns them all invisible so they are able to sneak up upon him. They intend to cast sleep on him so that they can tie him up, but the spell fails and he attack Destinova that appears before him and makes a lot of damage. The others attacks until he is bloodied and he gives up. He invites them to eat soup with him and they agree. The intent was to poison them, but since Immeral just pushed the wine canteen they got from the Amber temple that turns poisoned liquids to sweet wine. So I changed it on the spot. The tabaxi is named Bag of Nails and talks about the Naval of the Moon, a treasure, and how he is gonna use it to find his son, which we name Hammer of Nails since it doesn't appear to be here. The gang tells him if they find the treasure he can have it. I probably gonna kill him off of screen with the poison if they return to him. 

And that was that for this session. A lot happened and we are on the door step of the Tomb itself. We have one more session in 2024 and we might get all cubes, but in 2025 we will probably have problems with getting together since my far-away sister have less time since her kids are getting older and have their own friends and things to go to. And my youngest sister is moving from town so there is changes happening that might affect the game forward. But at the moment it will continue. Really looking forward to the shrine with the trap door into the green slime pit (which they can solve with Hope's sun sword).

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES Classic Edition)

Always loved this sword.

So I'm waiting on Dragon Quest III: 2D-HD Remake to be released in November 2024 so I prefer playing shorter easier games and the NES is perfect for it so played through Zelda II again on the NES Classic Edition. So long I got a save state function I can fix it meaning the last versions I have on the Wii Virtual Console and Zelda Game & Watch I probably won't be able to finish. I can probably get to the great palace, but since extra lives don't stack I've have a hard time both getting there as well as getting through the palace with the jumping chozo warriors they seem to populate the palace with. And the damn Thunderbird ain't no pushover either.

Up until that point it's a great game, the only other faults of the game would be finding the hidden town and realizing the flute open the way to the hidden palace. Otherwise everything works rather well. Went and got the magic jar and the first heart container as well as the jump spell without the candle, being the only sequence break I could do. It's a very linear game really since there's hardly any point going different palaces since you need the things in them up until the next palace, and going in there to snatch items and go to a different palace feels rather redundant.

I still find the game fun to play, but get a guide with maps for palace 4-6 and the great palace. I finished the game below 6 hours and with only 007 continues. Fun number, but I find the time interesting since I feel like as a kid I could spend 5 hours before even entering the first palace.