Final Fantasy I (GBA)

The first of many Final Fantasy

I’ve been moving into my own place which means I got to unpack all those boxes I’ve stored on my parents attics (yes, that is multiple attics). And guess what I found, my GBA/DS collection. Unfortunately I can’t find my DS Lite so it has to be somewhere in a box that I yet have to discover. It’s like a real life treasure hunt finding my own stuff, but I would gladly accept finding some kitchen utensils so I can cook something more basic that macaroni. Anyway, lucky for me I knew where my GameBoy Advance SP where, at my sisters place with all my Zelda games because my brother-in-law wanted a go at them at the closest original hardware he could get his hands on. Whats that? They gave it back to my sister that have been living at my parents house for a year and she never told me but put the games in plastic bag near her sleeping place? Well, glad I looked around for my things then since I got it back. So which game should I try first? Well, most GBA games I actually got on the Wii U virtual console so that is the preferred console I would say for those. I still haven’t found my GameBoy-games so no Ducktales 2 or Roger Rabbit (the rest is Mario Land 2 and 3 together with Donkey Kong Land 2 and 3 and all of those I got on the 3DS). So that leaves the Final Fantasy-games, I-II, IV-VI. I could play them on my PS3 with the PSOne-discs but first I don’t have a TV and secondly it seems I haven’t got the games with me either so Final Fantasy I it is on GBA. 

Now I'm playing with power

This one is a double pack game with both I and II in it together with some other stuff like extra dungeons or in II case a whole new story scenario after completing the main game, but I’m gonna focus on the first game only. It starts out like any typical fantasy RPG. The world is in turmoil due to the elements being out of balance since the four crystals of the elements have gone dark and there is talk about a prophesy about four warriors of light bearing their own crystals. So you name four characters and chose their respective class. I usually go for the fighter, thief, white mage and black mage.  Now, I brought back the names from my Quest for Glory playthorughs (which I probably should finish of some day) with the Warrior Roland and Black Mage Magus. I never played as a thief so I gave it my own name and the white mage I gave one of my middle names, Erik. So you arrive at Corneria where the knight Garland have taken princess Sarah hostage and the king wants you to save her and he will rebuild the bridge to the north if we do. Selfish prick. So I set out to town to stock up on supplies. And I can’t help that they must have made the game easier cause I could afford every weapon, armour and spell in town. I think on the PSOne I had to grind to get the things, like in Dragon Quest where you need to at least be level 5 to even attempt the starter dungeon. Anyway I set out the the Temple of Chaos where he hides and fight Garland, killing him and taking Sarah back to her parents. And then your off.

He's gonna knock me down (not in this version, but I recall that first time playing through the game)

Basically you travel from town to town solving their problems one by one and getting things so you can progress. The second town have an infestation of pirates so you clear that out, get their ship and sail to Elfheim where the prince have fallen under the dark curse of Athos, the dark elf prince. So for some reason I travel north to a ruined castle and the king there gives me a quest to search for a Crown in Marshe Cave. Do that and return and it turns out the King was Athos the whole time. Defeat him, get a crystal eye that you give to Matoya the witch that gives you a brew that awakens the elf prince. You get a mystic key that opens locked doors so you backtrack through towns, castles and dungeons to get all the stuff you couldn’t get the first time leading you to some nitro that you give to the dwarfs that blows up a channel so you can get out of the inner sea. The first town you encounter tells about the crystal of earth that is sealed in the earth cave to the south so you go there and defeat the vampire that have plauged the lands and you realise that something more sinister is behind that. You, for some reason got some ruby you bring to the giants cave so you can get to the Sage cave where you get a staff to dispel evil and you head back the Cave of the Earth and find some more floors locked behind a stone. Where you encounter Lich, the fiend of the earth. Blasting him and you have awakened the first Elemental Crystal. 

The Lord of Death

This is the first part of the game and is rather straight forward. And it’s usually here I failed to continue the game when I was younger (I finished the game ones before and it was on the GBA, I think it’s because I actually could play it alone without anyone bothering me for the TV or the possibility that I could save anywhere). From here you supposed to get to the Crescent lake, get the canoe and sail to the volcano Mount Gulag (sp?) where the fire crystal is held. But since I know somethings about the game at this point I ditch that story for now and head for the ice caves to the north of the volcano in order to get the levitate stone and then travel to the Ruyka (sp?) desert to the south to get the airship, then travel to the castle of trails to climb to the top and get a rat tail and then see Bahamut, the King of Dragons that gives me an upgrade. Roland turns into a Knight, Niklas turns into Ninja, Erik into a White Wizard while Magus becomes a Black Wizard. What I learned was that you should strive to get the upgrade as fast as possible due to the characters getting better stat upgrades for each level up and I did it, at the level 33. And here I believe the remake makes it self apparent again. I never grinded through the whole game. I went straight for the bosses and objectives and yet I reached level 54 at the end of the game and my characters had always the same experience points. Meaning I never finished a fight with a character down. And I recall grinding for hours to get spells, weapons and armours on the PSOne and I still never felt strong enough. So apparently they gave you more gil and exp this time around and it shows. I finished the game after 11 hours (taking into the account the restarts I did and so on). I checked the last save I did where my characters where level 93 and I put in 25 hours on that save. 

Giver of level ups

And the story continues with you finding each crystal and defeating the corresponding Fiend, Marlith for fire, Kraken for water and Tiamat for Wind. At the top of the floating sky fortress you can observe the world below you and see that the energy from the crystals are amassing at the Temple of Chaos. From the sages near Crescent Lake you learn that the fiends arrived during certain intervals in time, but they all came from 2000 years ago, and only by traveling to that time you can put a stop to this circle of violence. Entering the temple you travel back 2000 years and fight the fiends at each level once again until you reach the bottom floor and stands eye to eye with Garland, once again. As he died at the beginning he was sent back in time and when that happened he sent the four fiends forward in time creating the moment where the warriors of light appears and kill Garland starting the circle anew. Interesting concept. So the fight against Chaos starts. The battle rages on with Magus and Niklas boosting Roland and then Niklas so that they dish out the most damage while Erik heals the party. Magus then turns into nuking Chaos with the highest levelled magic spells. Then suddenly Roland falls and before anyone can act Magus throws a final nuke on Chaos obliterating him from existence and breaking the circle of destruction. Doing so undo the evils that plagues the world and so also the heroes own deeds since it was never needed. I like that story progression. It gives the ending a bitter sweet edge to it.

The Bringer of Pain

All in all it was fun playing through it, I tried going through one of the extra dungeons, but that was a at level 33 and I couldn’t fight of any single boss so I gave up on that idea. Doesn’t bring anything to the story anyway. The graphics of this version is very nice to look at, only wish I had the DS Lite so that the lighting is a bit more crisp, cause it’s hard to see in certain lights. I also believe they have added some cutscenes as well for certain scenes, like blowing up the channal, finding the airship and entering the sunken palace. The music was really good, and I’ve forgotten that certain themes are really pumping like the Cave of the Earth. Maybe it was on the easy side as noted, but if I ever get a TV we can see for ourselves with the PSOne if there is any major differences. 

Steamworld Dig 2

I smell treasure

The sequel has arrived for the Switch and the first game was rather enjoyable. It continues a time later after the first game when Dot, the girl robot from the first game arrives to look for Rusty after he disappeared. She arrives at the nearby town and starts to investigate some strange earthquakes and find this floating spirit named Fin that will be your sarcastic partner during the adventure. Rest of the game works like the first one, mine for minerals, get it back and upgrade your things and go even deeper. The game isn't only the mine and town this time around since you can travel to the left and right for even more things like a temple for some suicide cult and... another way into the main mine, but it at least feels bigger.

Mine Mine Mine All Day Long!

The game took me a bit less than 10 hours to finish and 74 % of all secrets found. The end game serves up a bit of a twist. Playing through it I believed Rusty would be the end boss, that he had been possessed by the evil machine in the last game. The game even encourage this theory when you meet mutant humans living at the bottom of the mine that tells you that Rusty built several machines that seems to correlate with the earthquakes. After disarming them the way to the humans are blocked so after entering their sewer system you confront Rosie that have taken Rusty and uses him to power her mech-suit. The machines Rusty installed was to siphon the energy from the core so it wouldn't explode. I had to do the boss battle twice since the first time I wasn't that prepared, but after changing cog-upgrades it worked a lot better. In the end the spirit Fin stays behind to teleport Dot and Rusty to the surface so that everyone can escape on rockets that was built during the course of the game... and then the planet explodes. I guess they are setting up the world of Steamworld Heist since that is in space and a destroyed planet usually fits the bill. I really need to finish that game as well. Overall a fun game.

The Darkside Detective (Switch)

I ain't 'fraid of no ghost!

Look, a pixel retro point and click game ported to the switch filled to the brim with 80's references. It was a fun diversion for a couple of hours to play through the 6 different cases given to you through the game. The framing story is that you are a Detective on the Twin Lake Police department working on the cases involving the Darkside, a parallel universe where people looks more like ghost and such. Togheter with officer Dooly you try to stop all the occultist and nightmarish creatures that invade "Lightside". 

That as much as an overaching story you will get, since there isn't anyone. They make callbacks to the earlier cases, but it's more a commentary on the design of the game. Self-referential humour. So the first case is a teaching case and it's rather good. You been called in on a missing child case and it turns out she created a portal through the Darkside so you follow her, but before you can get her out the nanny knocks out Dooly and prepares her plan to push the child's parents through the portal and usurp the inheritance from the child as the last guardian of the child. You defeat her by tricking her to stay at the Darkside and then wipe out the runes creating the portal. I liked this case. And sadly it doesn't follow up. The next case is just you helping Dooly return a book to the library which have been overrun by ghosts due to a hidden occult library within. The next is a subway station that have switched trains between the Light- and Darkside. The third Dooly going missing while camping with the Bloodwolfes (a scout-like organisation) that turns out he just help a Loch Ness Like monster trying to avoid some reporter and the fourth being in the police station where some gremlins running amok. And they are just absurd situations. The fifth case goes up again as the town is overrun by zombies and it turns out some Darksiders have entered their world to rise a former mob boss from the dead and you gotta stop them. The sixth and final episode are apparently a holiday special since the credits rolled after case 5 and its just you and Dooly visiting the local mall to get some last minute presents and Doolys nephew gets turned into a troll by Krampus that you have to stop and then find the real Santa. The case is called Buy Hard and you end up in a white skirt, without shoes, with a lighter in the air vent. Most fun I had with that case.

A trip through the Darkside

So case 1 and 5 are the best, but the other has some humorous moments and most characters are fun to speak to. Although the self-awareness of being a game and such takes you out of it, but since it's shown right at the start instead of like the last minute (*host*Thimbleweed Park*host*). Felt a bit short and it was rather easy, most trouble was the last case and I got stuck at the puzzle to get some milk. Didn't get any clue that you could use the vaccum on the balcony above the eggnog wagon. And I think I found a glitch since I couldn't move on from the first screen of the vent until I restarted the game. Since the game saves apparently all the time no problem, but it was a bit irritating. Overall a fun experience, but I would like another game with a more overarching plot that ties each case together. 

Shantae and the Pirates Curse (Switch)

And I bought the game for a third time... help me.

And yet again I bought and played through the third game in the Shantae series. Not much to say than that it still holds up, but it feels that it was 3 years ago since I played it last. Many things still felt unfamiliar and it took me some time to figure out some puzzles. All in all it took me less than 7 hours to speed through it, and afterwards I played through the pirate mode just above 3 hours so I can probably cut some time, but I don't know if I will do it anytime soon. And when I do I probably will be as lost and confused starting this up, but it is fun to run through a game I at least know some things of when playing.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

The first Metroidvania

So I finally finished Symphony of the Night on my PS3. It was really fun playing through a classic Metroidvania game. Need to dig through my DS collection. Anyway, this game starts with a look back at the end of Rondo of Blood when Richter Belmont defeated Dracula. Afterwards it turns to Alucard, the son of Dracula rushing toward the castle as it has once again been summoned to this world. There he meets Death that takes his weapons and armour. Wandering the castle Alucard finds Richter being the new lord of the castle and Maria trying to save him.Behind the scenes lurks Shaft who mind controlled Richter to summon Dracula and it's up to Alucard to stop him.

The game is a mix of platforming, exploration and RPG mechanics. Grind for exp to get better stats, get items that help you in different situations and explore to find some lying around. It also allows you to play it differently to your liking. You don't have to use the armour that absorbs the damage from the optional hardest boss in the game, but to me it sure was welcome. One thing I didn't like was that the map was hard to see. I actually had to have a map on the computer right next to me to actually see where I was supposed to go since the TV-screen made it hard to see where rooms where connected and such. And my parents TV isn't that small. And it was even zoomed in. 

It was fun, and as noted the voice acting is so chessy, but everyone gotta quote it as some point. A pity that the second half of the game hardly have any cutscenes. Wonder what game I should play now.

Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse

The mouse is in the house

I had a Sega Mega Drive as a kid, which my parents got for me when I learned to bike and pretty much never touched a bike after that. I ended up with five games to that console during the years and one was Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse. Only beat it at easy where you only had to go  through 3 worlds and the evil witch gets away with the crystals, but Minnie is saved. My sister and I actually got to the end in normal and fought the end boss, but neither of us could get the winning blow. And then they remade it for modern consoles in 2013 and I had to get it. And I played it... and stopped after getting stuck at the second to last world. The damn licorice dragon irritated me due to the bad 3d controls I never finished it. Until now that is.

So the story is that Mickey and Minnie is walking in a forest when the evil witch Mizrabel kidnaps Minnie to take her youth. Mickey follows her to the Castle of Illusion and search the castle for the seven rainbow crystals to create the rainbow bridge and fight of Mizrabel. Differences from the original is that they made it in 3d and I can see the resemblance of the worlds and such, but they put in situation where you have to platform in a 3d environment which used to be 2d. For example the rolling apple in the first world. Or the boss fights which are all pretty much redesigned. And here is where I really dislike the platforming. The licorice dragon you have to jump from cake to cake in a 3d spectrum. With controls that aren't that precise to my liking. Or I might just suck. But I would have prefered the original game... which you could get as a download if you pre-ordered the game, but not afterwards. Big mistake from my side.

I mean, even the cover looks scarier

The game also added voice acting with the official voices of Mickey and Minnie and it enhances the game a bit. The problem is that the end battle with Mizrabel is scripted. And you can't skip the starting scene so the voice got to grate on me for far to long. And then it's a collectathon with hidden items and gems. Never gonna 100 %  because I'm finished with this game.

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

Look, a Chrono Trigger and Zelda combiner!

Originally for the Nintendo DS (and lucky enough I didn't import this one before the remake hit the shelfs even though I saw the original all over amazon). This one I got digital from the get go so I didn't have to wait and such and I probably was able to play it a bit more that way as I always could boot it up. So what is this JRPG? It tells the tale of Stocke, a master spy in the service of Allistel, a state freed from the Granorg Empire by the prophet Noah and they are basically brainwashed cult members. Stocke works for Heiss, the spymaster that one day give him a book, the White Chronicle. Heiss doesn't say what it does, but send him of on a mission together with Marco and Raynie, mercenaries that works for Heiss in his SI-division. The mission goes awry as their contact is killed in the field and the Granorg army's finest knight kills Marco and Raynie. Stocke in despair throws himself into a river to escape the enemy and awakens the White Chronicle that transports him to Historia where the two guardians await him and tells him how he can save his friends and change history. And the rest of the game is jumping between two timelines that splits if Stocke decides to stay in the SI or if he joins his best friend Roach in the military under Roach command and then back and forth to avoid dead ends in history.

That is an interesting concept and like noted reminded me of Chrono Trigger, but Chrono Trigger is more grander in scale and the existential threat of desertification isn't that prevalent compared to Lavos. The desertification that is the cause of the war due to destroying resources and land started a long time ago by this empire that collapsed and I get it was kept under control by the Granorg royal family doing the sacrifice to keep the mana flow balanced. It's mentioned all the time, but you as the hero only indirectly fight off this problem. And it bothers me a bit. Cause in any other game it would go like this that in the end you had to go back to the source of the problem and fight it off, meaning going back in time to the very moment the desert appeared and stop it. Chrono Trigger taught me that. Here it's just a setting for the real villain. And obviously it was Heiss.

I mean, look at the guy.

He got a really interesting story though. He is the brother to the late king Viktor of Granorg (who was a tyrant) and the sacrifice to stabilise the mana. To avoid death he escaped and later killed Viktor and then took care of his nephew that was scheduled to be the next victim after speaking up against his father. Heiss growing tired of the world then sneaked into Allistel and got the position as head of intelligence and then gave his nephew a new name and identity as Stocke the main character and as wielders of the black and white chronicles he hoped Stocke would join him in destroying the world since it was beyond corrupt. Which I agree with. Most people at the top were corrupt (like Hugo, Protea, Selvan, Viktor and Dias) and the people got either brainwashed, lied to or just killed off. Rampant prejudice and racism and everyone focused on the war while the world was on its way to destruction due to resource waste. Meanwhile the hope they had was priming a sibling pair from the Granorg royal family to use one as a sacrifice by killing it and then inhabit the soul of the other that to uphold the mana got their soul back, killing the host for good. I can see why he wanted to kill off the world.

In the end Stocke goes through with the sacrifice since he cared for his comrades and the hope he felt still existed in the world. And it's enjoyable since he was a bit of a loner in the beginning. I actually enjoy all the characters... except maybe Aht. She rubs me the wrong way in her selfishness and keeping important information away from the group since she has a crush on Stocke and believes telling him his real destiny would make her lose him. And in one way it reminds me of Tidus in Final Fantasy 10, but it works better since he actually is able to find another way without sacrificing Yuna (we wont mention that he sacrifices himself instead), Aht never does anything in game to find another solution. And this might be why the desertification plot feels bad, since we don't solve it and therefore must sacrifice the main guy. I don't like that.

Now, being a remake I can say they at least changed the sprites for the still-pictures of the characters just by looking at the pictures on the web. I assume they recorded new voices since they added a new character you can talk to that give you missions to get artefacts and give you some backstory. Other than that, I have no idea since I've never played the original. All in all a good game, but I might not play it again for some time. Might do it on easier mode since there you can just strike enemies before entering combat and kill them instantly. This actually have some Zelda-esque gameplay moments like moving boxes and bombs, blowing rocks up, turning invisible and like that. Fun things.