Shadowgate (Switch)

It's Only A Model!

As mentioned in my post about Shadowgate 64 I was really interested in checking out the remake of the original game and lo and behold, they gave me the game on Switch to enjoy. And I played through it and afterwards it felt... I don't really know. Fun to get the story before Shadowgate 64 and characters like Lakmir, Jair and Talimar, but it might be inherit in the design of the old point and click games, but it was a lot of walking back and forth trying everything on anything to progress in the end. Not even the incorporated help of Yorick could help me so I caved in and looked up the solutions online. And I'm glad I did it at the lowest difficulty because adding a time-restraint as well would have made me go berserk. Now, problem with going for easier is that it doesn't give you the whole experience since they got certain event and puzzles (I gather by reading the guide since it mentioned a fifth mirror in the mirror room and different solutions to puzzles). 

Story is that Jair is summoned by the last wizard Lakmir, from the Circle of Twelve to the Castle Shadowgate in order to solve its puzzles and stop Lakmir's brother Talimar, the Warlock Lord who was thrown out of the Circle of Twelve and now attempted to unleash the Behemot on the world after taking over the castle and killed all denizens. As Lakmir guides Jair, he will uncover the truth of his own past and end up under the catacombs of the castle and fight off the Warlock Lord. Now, all the story about the different wizards, the history of the lands and such are real fun reading. I also noticed the shout-outs to Ridley Scots Legend and Dragon's Lair. 

For half the game the puzzles worked fine with little trouble (could also be that the Nintendo Magazine I had from my cousins were full with tips and tricks for the NES port of the game since it seemed to be one of the more played games and probably due to it being one of the few NES games that actually got a Swedish translation). But when I got to the Castle proper the game began to drag. It was up and down the towers and checking the different doors, trying to figure out the spells and much more. Could also be that I took 2-3 weeks break from the game there and was rather lost on where everything was or how I could use my items.

Overall, sitting with pen and paper and committing to the game on its rules would probably be the best solution. Also more people to share with it, like a kid, to get that childlike sense of adventure would probably help. Graphics are nice (certainly better than the N64-game), but the music is kinda bland (here the N64-game shines above the remake) so I don't get into the atmosphere like in the N64-game that oozed of it. Also, several times the game froze on me and rebooted me to the Switch interface. I don't know why, since I don't feel I taxed the game that much... maybe playing to long before starting over would have been a cause, but the first time was a couple hours into the game while the second time was randomly inbetween shutdown I made to the game. Reminds me of a game I bought for the Wii U that at a point constantly froze for some reason.

Shadowgate 64: Trails of the Four Towers (N64)

Time for an adventure

As you noticed I've been playing some Nintendo 64 at my parents place at the moment and I dug up this old game which I never finished. I get that it is a continuation from an old adventure game that had a port on the NES and I guess the reason they made this to the N64. I've never played that game, but I read about it in some Nintendo magazines. So story is that you are Del Cottonwood, a halfling that traveled in a caravan that got attacked outside of castle Shadowgate and brought to the dungeon by the thieves inhabiting it. So your mission is to get out. 

Damn, those graphics haven't aged well

It wasn't mostly blind, certain things I remember, but I never finished it and only got half-way through the game. So I played it only trying to find the solutions from the game it self. So I tried looking and talking to everyone. So, next to your cell you have an imprisoned wizard that tells you the deal of the castle. During the conversation the dungeon keeper arrives with some food that you devour and finds a bone. Looking at the bed of hay you find a sewer grate that you bend up with the bone and your out. And here I find the first problem. Right behind me behind a gate of iron (that you can't pass) there is a plank of wood and a floating bottle. You can't pick it up and the game doesn't tell you why since it can't clearly know what you look at since their is no cursor in this 3D environment. And you get bottles later on so that is just irritating. Anyway, you get out of the sewers and enters the tower of disiples where you met the apparition of Lakmir appears, the sorcerer that was one of the founders of the Circle of Twelve and ally and friend to King Jair, the man who I get is the main character of the original Shadowgate. Lakmir guides you on the quest to stop Belzar, the former apprentice that have turned to the dark side and intends to relase the Warlock Lord, Lakmirs brother Talmir and another founder of the Circle of Twelve. So I'm supposed to get to Lakmir's tower to find some magical artefacts I need on my quest. Problem is, I can't get out of the tower.

And get it, the exit is right behind you... if it wasn't locked.

Now, the solution was using a pixie flute at a certain area in order to shrink and climb down a rope you tied to a window. The thing is, I guess the name says what it does, but it only works at that one spot. And the book that are supposed to help you especially points out that he doesn't know how to use it. Thanks game. I got out into the graveyard and entered the cathedral finding my way up to the roof and into the tower of Lakmir. And here I was at my best. Using the books and text I found I was able to go through the whole tower and getting my hands on the three rings hidden away.

Wizards, magic rings, a dragon and a halfling? Someone been reading the Hobbit.

One of the rings give me the power of talking with the dead. So all corpses, skeletons and gravestones now can talk back. More information, but this time gotta remember it on my own. Damn you game. And now I gotta leave this place. After running around the graveyard, cathedral and tower a couple of times I looked it up and apparently I missed a key in one room in the tower. It was in the colour of rust at grey floor. If I didn't know the room they described I wouldn't have found it. So with that I could leave the two first towers and finding some actually living people. Running around solving errands for the dead and living I finally get to enter the third tower for the first time ever. I recall being afraid of some poisoned gas thing that would kill me going through this tower... that I must have imagined before entering the tower since it isn't here. Maybe I interpreted the two mazes as being that. One had a poison that made the game controls reversed and you had to go through a room with spinning blades (you solve this by using the blue ring you got with the red dead ring which have the same effect, but since you already affected it puts you back to normal). Another maze there is taking a burning candle to the other side before the candle burns out. After doing it some time I checked the solution since I spent to much time on it and it rather annoyed me). Entering the final room you stand before three mirrors and looking in each of them you need to decided who you really are and then walk backwards into the mirror (of course I choose the wrong ones every time and just reloaded so I didn't have to redo all the tower all the time). Behind the mirror was another ring, the ring of the Kingdom. With that you open the locked door in the towers of diciples to get the dragon flute so that you can enter the final tower, the dragon's tower. And you basically just walks around it. Pick up all the stuff and there is pretty much only one puzzle and it is a damn music puzzle. Listen to  a song and the recreate it with four statues by pulling the correct wing in the right order. I looked that up since I'm bad at this. And then you find a petrified dragon with a staff stuck in the head. Using the ring of the kingdom picks it up and you enter the end game. The dwarven soldiers of Belzar now looks for you so you put the stable on fire to distract them and run for the chamber Belzar is planning the resurrection of the Warlock Lord. Blocking your path is a man named Saul, who turns out gave Belzar the staff he believes to be the Staff of the Ancients that you picked up on the dragon tower. Showing him his mothers necklace you got from her dead corpse he sees his madness and helps you inside. While inside the chamber you see the fake staff and puts on a dragon eye from the dragon tower and hides behind a tower as Belzar appears and starts the ritual.

The graphics really are blocky

As he performs it the staff explodes killing him and the chamber crashes in. From the rubble Del heads out and find himself around the fountain area. From the chamber the visage of the Warlock Lord appears and Lakmir tells me it it up to me now, since he doesn't know what to do and he wish Jair was here. The thing is that in the fountain area a statue of Jair stands. Putting the Staff of Ancients and the ring of the Kingdom at the statue enables it to come to live and pierce the Warlock Lord by throwing the staff and the world is saved. Del rides away on the dragon and credits roll.

Moments before his death

It was atmospherical. Playing it again after all these years and actually understanding what was written in the books and papers made the world itself come alive. I got a real itch to play the original game now and maybe I pick up the remake on steam or such one day. There is problems with it though, for one, after checking the save time right before the end I just spent just over 5 hours on the game. It's short. As mentioned pixel hunt for items on the floor or knowing what you can interact with or pick up would need to be refined. The graphics overall could need an overhaul, but the music is nice at times. Fun to finish it for the first time. I definitely gotta use some of these things for a DnD campaign.

Asdivine Hearts

Now we are talking JRPG:s dime of dozen

Got this game for the Wii U since it was one of the few fantasy JRPG:s to the system and after the modern Tokyo Mirage I wanted the old good vs evil gods, shadow vs light and the paragon of light hero standing up for the right cause and so and on. And it's really nothing special. The story is one of the more basic ones, but it satisfied me through it. It start one year after some mysterious light across the heavens and the world have become more dangerous as monsters have increased in numbers. You play as Zack who together with the obvious love interest Stella are heading out in the forest to release the wild-cat Felix that they took care at the orphanage they grew up in. While in the forest a mysterious light appears and try to hijack Stella's body, but Zack intervenes causing the light to enter the cat. The light is the light deity that have been pushed out of the heavens by the shadow deity (which caused the light in the sky one year prior). So you guessed it, it's out saving the world with your obvious girlfriend and the pet cat.

During the journey through Asdivine you will encounter the mysterious Uriel who follows Zack after he somehow saved her when her village was destroyed by monsters, but he can't recall the event and the oracle Celine who works for the Queen of Gutemburg Castle. And all girls have a crush on Zack... even the cat... who was the light deity who of course is female. Why not. There's actually a mechanic in that if you get a certain heart rating you get together with that girl in the end of the game. I maxed all up since... why not, but it still went for the ending with Stella, which was nice. Although I thought one could get all the girls, since Zack was such a charmer, but apparently it didn't work... maybe the fact that I changed difficulty from Hard to Easy to speed up the battle sequences and get to the end affected that, but since it only took less than 30 hours to play through the game it was rather nice just cruising through a game for a change.

You travel the world and enters Phantasma to confront the Shadow Deity. You find him, beat him and suddenly find yourself in another world, Revierie. I kinda guessed it since Uriel didn't know anything about the world which hinted on that she couldn't have come form Asdivine (also a prince from Gutenberg have been gone for a year and haven't been seen which also points toward that). You also meet this worlds Zack and Stella, some con-artist and thieves making a nice contrast to the hero of Zack and Stella. You travel this world and enters the final dungeon, climbing the Tower of Sephirot (is it a reference to Final Fantasy 7 or does the name have some important meaning in Japanese?) and learns the truth. Due to people stopped believing in the Deitys (especially the Shadow Deity) they are on their way to disappear. Lumiere the Light Deity didn't understand the threat and was the reason she was cast down. You now have to return to Asdivine where the Shadow Deity have taken over the Queen so you have to exorcise him from the Queen and finding the two servant legions of the Deity. As they commit suicide in helping Lumiere and breaking their vow to the Shadow Deity they summon Phantasmo, yet another otherworldly dimension. Getting through that and we are on the ending showdown with Noctademus and fight of his two forms. During the ending portion it is also revealed that Zack is somehow the light progeny, some kind of manifestation of light as a human... so like Jesus. So when you defeat Noctademus you also get it that light and shadow need to balance each other and since Zack is proficient with light he assumes the role of the new Light Deity as Lumiere take on the role as the new Shadow Deity with her experience as a Deity. And with enough points with Stella you show up to her after a couple of years since you had to stay in the heavens to master your powers.

Is it the end? No, by starting the save again you can fight Noctademus again and not use a certain item in the battle which makes him survive and occupy Stella's body (since she apparently is the Shadow Progeny) and another Deity shows up, the creator Deity... which was probably guessed as well since I think I saw it in the sequence that Lumiere was thrown out of the heavens and the game has 3 different magic teaching, normal, light and shadow. This one isn't as nice since it finds human evil problematic and want to take away their emotions to stop this to happening. Our heroes aren't happy so you traverse the two worlds and find yet another dimension. And damn, it's the worst cause they placed a mini-secret-boss that you have to fight to reach the end where I had to grind for 6 levels before beating, the damn cheater. Not only did he do two attacks in a row (some attacks damaging all party members for over 6000+ damage) but he was so fast he almost attacked after one of my characters could react. But I beat him and pushed to the end. Beat the boss that was a sprite swap of Noctademus final form and he concedes that humans heart maybe should be allowed to continue to feel emotions in that they even can challenge a god. He leaves and the game ends with order back to normal and beliefs in the deitys back as both Lumiere and Noctademus have regained their places. Stella and Zack hooked up. The End!

It really feels like the ending was a bit rushed or maybe not planed since the creator deithy almost comes out of nowhere... I say almost since there was one discussion about it, but out of nowhere Stella is pushed as a Shadow Progeny and nothing really comes out of that. Also, the ending enemies are atrocious since they take forever to kill and when the damn dragons appear, expect 10 minutes of just attacking to take away all the damn health. It still has its moments. I really like the interaction, especially between Zack and Felix although I don't know if I should see it as animal abuse. All in all nothing special. I also think it has some problems, for example, it didn't always register my direction input on the controller and that could be due to the game originally being an IOS title. If you like fantasy RPG:s and want something short, go for it, but as stated it's nothing special. One thing I found irritating is that there is no map over the dungeons, just for the overworked. Nice to know where I'm supposed to go, but finding my way around the final multi-level dungeons can be irritating as I sometimes forget if I was walking up or down and sometimes have a hard time remembering where to go to get out. Found it really irritating in the end.