Final Fantasy I (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

Where it all started!

Finally got the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster for the Switch. Ordered it from Playasia back in April before the release and it came 20 June of 2023. Perfect timing for my vacation that started 2 days later. So this is the latest release of the original Final Fantasy-games and that means I can play I-X, XII and XV all on my Switch. Played the first game recently back in 2018 when I just had moved in my apartment and that was the GBA-version. 

Took me something over 10 hours to play through, of course I used some Quality of life improvements, I gave myself 4x Gil and after getting the class upgrade I even gave myself 4x EXP. This at least showed me how the game is balanced. I didn't grind or anything until the class change and it happened around level 33 like my old playthrough, but I found out that the limiting factor in the game wasn't my levels, but my lack of resources to get weapons, items and magic. Probably should avoid getting some spells in future playthroughs since I don't use any of the status effect spells, save the gil for armour instead. I also changed my team so that is was Niklas the fighter, Aang the monk, Tara the white mage and Imaginos the black mage. Aang probably the MVP of the group with that damage output. He is a bit squishy though and bit the dust once, but in the end I find the monk class probably the one to keep.

So, is it the definitive version? Graphically and musically yes, especially when you can toggle the old and new music (some songs are just a bit better if they are scaled back, but choruses are always appreciated). Probably beating out the PSOne version since the only thing that version has is the cutscenes... so I might actually playthrough that version after finish of this collection. But the GBA? It has more stuff, although ease of play is rather important, but since it's a GBA I can save anywhere and it's portable if I want that plus with the Retron-5 I can play it on the TV. On the other hand, I got a bestiary and music player with the music, a gallery with concepts art as well as constant running and taking away encounter making the game play so much faster or just quickly check if I forgot something which the map helps with since you can see how many items and treasure chest there is in any town or dungeon. I assume I will get this problem for every game. Well, maybe not the original version I have for Wii Virtual Console or the NES Mini... but then again, listening to the Final Fantasy Retrospective makes you appreciate the original graphics and the way they used the limits of the original console for example to create white mountains and with the scan lines of the old TV:s make them out of crystals instead of the boring grey mountains we have now... I hope I don't get so into these games that I play those as well.

A DnD Tale: Waterdeep - Dragon's Heist - The Beast of Many Eyes

 

You can lie for yourself and your minions

You can claim that you haven't doth qualm

But you can never run from or hide what you done from the eyes!

So the battle with Xanathar continues, they have him bloodied and after two turns he is passed his health, but I make him escape instead since he is a bit important to the world. They dive into the fish tank to get the chest out and inside they find the stone of Galoor. They follow a tunnel out, grabs the statue of the gnome that lead them here and bluff their way out with being on statue duty and putting it in the room with statues. After that getting back and do their days till they have attuned with stone, after writing a contract between the three of them (Ulf have left since my sister had a fallout with the player at work) sharing the treasure between themselves, Parker and an extra fund making it an even 100 000 split.

Freja is chosen to use it and gets in contact with the aboleth Galoor. She is bestowed with another cantrip spell, but she also have an an aura of death killing any plants she touches with her necrotic touch. Galoor shows her where the door is and that they need three skulls to open the door. Freya and Hope goes to the door which they find below the theatre. They don't get any clues there so they go to Vincent Trench if he can help them about the skulls. He knows the gold skull with emerald eyes since the gold is something the Cassalanter is into so it is there, they pay him 100 gold to look for the other two.

They get to the Cassalenter and gets to serve at the Founder Party at Midsummer which is two weeks away. And there we pretty much ends. Not much this time, but that is due to the players pretty much skipping the Guild dungeon. Next session wont be until September 2023 (meaning when this is released we have gone forward some sessions). 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)

 

Da-Dadada-Da-Dada!

The latest Zelda-adventures 6 years after Breath of the Wild and long hyped game. A massive game with hundreds of hours to get into the game, I finished it after 180 hours and I still had things to do afterwards. The game begins with Link and Zelda exploring under Hyrule Castle finding murals depicting the founding of the kingdom and the war against the Demon King 10 000 years ago. In the depths they find a skeleton being held back by a hand as it seemed to sap the life out of the skeleton, but as they approaches the hand falls off and the skeleton begins moving talking to our heroes. Turns out it is Ganondorf, the Demon King that was sealed 10 000 years ago by Rauru, the first king of Hyrule and one of the Zonai. He causes the Upheaval where islands in the skies begins falling upon the land, Hyrule Castle is lifted up into the sky and all weapons are degraded by something called the Gloom and the Master Sword shatters and Links arm is corrupted. As Zelda falls off a cliff he leaps after her but before reaching her she disappears and Link is saved by the arm that grabs on to him and seemingly teleports him away. And here I think there is a time skip for an unknown amount of days... maybe months? As Link awakes yet again in a chamber, but now with longer hair and his arm replaced with the one that saved him. Belonging to Rauru it begins teaching Link how to traverse the lands with new abilities. Gone are Bomb, Glacias and Magnesis, instead we get Ultra Hand that works like Magnesis, but you can attach things together, then there is Ascend that allows you to swim through roofs (or ceilings) which is instead for Ravali's Gail. There's Recall witch allows you to turn back time for certain objects and Fuse that allows you to add things to weapons and shields to counter the Gloom-effects on weapons. And then things that unlock later like Camera and Quick Build. You get through four shrines across the the islands in the sky and then jumps back to Hyrule.

More tutorials follows, several people have began building up Hyrule town as a base of observations and monster controls lead by Purah that sets you on the quest to look into wether phenomenas near Rito, Gorons, Zora and the Gerudo. Before leaving you meet Josha and Robbie (Josha being a new Sheika scientist, and the new child genius since Purah have aged herself up to look something like a 20 year old). They began looking into the chasm that have appeared and leads into the dephts, a dark underworld where you gotta find lightroots to bring light to the underworld (and each lightroot corresponds to one of the shrines on the overworld so finding one can help you find the one in the other map. At least the quest tells you there is ruins and abandond mines below, mostly allowing you to mine zonite, a new material that powers your batteries mostly. Of course the gloom effect is the limiting factor since if you get hurt by monsters with gloom they not only give your damage, they also blocks the hearts so you can't regain health until you get into sunlight (either from leaving, standing under a lightroot or eating meals that undoes the damage, preferable sundilions). 

The game is actually pushing you to do the four phenomenas first, then Hyrule Castle where you follow an illusion of Zelda that makes yo fight Phantom Ganons together with the sages you rescued. Here they reveal that Ganondorf hides beneath the Castle in the depths, but you are encouraged to find the fifth sage and the Master Sword that disappeared after clearing the tutorial area. The search for the fifth sage should lead you to Kakiriko village where you have ring ruins that tells you to go to the Faron Woods where you help some researchers and unlock an island cluster above that was hidden in a storm cloud that shows you a mask that takes you to the depths and a factory that puts together a robot vehicle with the conscious of the sage of Spirit, Mineru that was the sister of Rauru. After that travel across the world to find the dragons tears that lies in glyphs that looks like the Nascau lines in South America. The tears tells the story from Zelda's view as she apparently travelled back 10 000 years to meet Rarau and Sonia, the first king and queen of Hyrule. Apparently she awoke as the sage of time and she watched Ganondorf appearing and getting a secret stone that turned him into the Demon King and the final battle between him and the six sages and Rarau which ends with Rarau sacrificing himself to block Ganondorf for 10 000 years until the start of the game when Zelda and Link found them. And Zelda took her secret stone and the part of the Master Sword, that was sent back in time too Zelda as well, and turned herself into a dragon with the Master Sword on her forehead and dropped the tears across the lands. So now you gotta fly up to the sky, land on the light dragon and pull the Master Sword from the Dragons forehead. Amazing! Now, eating the tear and becoming a dragon I believe is actually a Chinese folk tale about a rice farmer that finds a pearl one day and to keep it from the tax collector eats it and that turns him into a dragon since it apparently was a dragon pearl. Neat how small factoids from my childhood comes back like this.

Now, did I do that in intended order? No, I first traveled the land to get the lookout-towers so I had the map, then taking so many shrines as possible to max stamina as fast as possible and then I just happened to get through the storm cloud to get to the mask, but was blocked since you needed more hearts, but that was quickly solved and then I got to the Spirit temple with the construct, but got beaten up by the boss so I began doing the tears collecting and it just happened to lead to the Master Sword. Then I started the weather phenomena. The first being the Rito wear a snow storm have taken hold so you gotta find a flying ship by jumping on other flying ships together with the Rito child to the Rito that helped you with the divine beast in the last game. On the ship you then had to fight a flying monster by diving through his weak points. Great first boss, and you don't need any weapons at all. Then I went to Gerudo where a sandstorm have taken the whole desert and Gibdos walked around. Got help from the chieftain and found a temple where we fought the Queen Gibdo by firing arrows at heras Riju summoned lightning. Then to Death Mountain and the Gorons that have been brainwashed by some rock food. You save Yunobo from the last game and uses his help to fight a monster in the volcano and then jump into the depths where you find the Gorons ancient city and has to fight a Gohma encased in rock. Then over to the Zora where the water is contaminated by sludge so you and Sidon finds a water temple in the sky and fights the most irritating bosses of them all that jumps around in mud. Hate him. After that lighting up the depths and after that trying to find the sage's will so I could level up the sages and mostly finishing side quest like finding every cave and the wells and the clothes. With something like 5 caves and 8 wells left I just went for the end. 

First jumping into the chasm beneath the castle and finding the cravece that lead to the area where you began, and then jumps to a tree where you fight of legions of monster together with the sages and then the battle against Ganondorf in two phases that ends with Ganondorf eating his secret stone and turning himself to a dark dragon and grabs you in his mouth. Zelda the light dragons appears and attacks him so he drops you and then you have to jump and land on the dragon to destroy all weak points and in the end push the master sword through his secret stone on his forehead (that seems to become a Zelda tradition). Zelda is turned back into... human? Hylian form? And as they fall down to Hyrule Link grabs her (which is a call back to the beginning where he missed her) and both lands in a lake. All sages gather, swear loyalty to Zelda and Mineru finally leaves. The End! Probably the most epic end for any Zelda game.

Amazing game, I spent closer to 200 hours and I still haven't done everything, but I begin to feel fatigue. I also might be getting the guide before finishing up since it's a bit hard finding the last caves and such and even if I could use the internet is a bit spotty at the moment. For example the easiest way to find caves is to find Koltin (Kilton's brother that wants the bubbelgem that you get from the shining monsters in every cave) and he tells you where there is a cave within specific areas where you find him. Now, I don't think all places where he is have been found yet since it's rather impossible to google up a list on them. And it can be irritating finding them. Same as the wells. Think I found every major settlement and some of the ruins so there gotta be some weird lonely well in the wild... doesn't help that the only help I get is "use the sensor", a pity it doesn't work across the country. A couple of amazing moments like getting the Master Sword, fighting the first boss and Ganondorf (all three phases). The depths are interesting and in the beginning the claustrophobic darkness makes it the place to explore and most akin to Breath of the Wild feeling of finding a tower for the first time. That is the problem with reusing the same map, but since they added caves and such there is things to discover at familiar places. And the new monsters are a breath of fresh air, like likes and Gleeoks are back, new monsters like horrorblin and Gloom Hands... especially the Gloom Hands. First encounter was in a cave where I just found a lot of illuminous stones and suddenly I see this patch of gloom coming toward me and several hands appear. First instinct is taking a photo, but they don't register and then it was just run and lucky enough I spotted a shrine so I got there and did that, saving me from the hands. 

Overall, would I play this over Breath of the Wild?  I don't know. In the beginning I thought all the stuff would make me not being able to handle it another time, but at the end after everything why not? Still hate we only have one save file (I know about different accounts, but I want just one since it track my time). A bit hard in the beginning getting used to the loss of elemental arrows since you now have to use add ons, and you have to do it for every arrows. The same with losing elemental weapons, but the fusing gets rid of that. Graphics looks the same like last time and it works and music is good, enjoyed the creepy music in the beginning, the boss music at the Wind temple and the final approach at the end game was really good and then the Gleeok battle theme. Best new songs I've heard in the game. Got some bonuses for carrying over the save file so all my horses followed and several people recognised me and hey my house in Hateno is still there... wait, where is my weapons stand? Wait, why is everyone talking about Zelda's house? She stole my house? Is nothing sacred?

To the Moon (Switch)

Fly me to the Moon!

Another game picked up on the Switch, To the Moon was a indie title that was released back in 2011 and what I've heard before playing one of those games with strong narrative that makes you feel things. Making you more human as is. And I enjoyed it for what it was, especially that it only took something like 4 hours and finished in an afternoon. Fills out the blog as well as diminish the back log.

So the story is that two doctors, Eva and Neil, from the Sigmund Foundation is going to help Johnny Whys with his final wish as he lies dying in his home. They use some sci-fi technology that allows them to enter his memories and trying to travel back in his memories to the earliest possible moment in order to implant the desire to make the wish a reality, at least in his dreams as he is dying. And that wish is to go to the moon.

Problem is, Johnny don't know why he wants to go to the moon, just that he wants to. His wife died two years prior and he lives like a recluse together with his housekeeper and her two children. So while Johnny lies dying you enters his memories and, like in the Christopher Nolan movie Memento, goes backward bit by bit. You see his final moments with his wife and her obsession with origami bunnies, how she has a terminal disease, but she wants them to put their savings in building their house near this lighthouse and restore it. Their friendships, Johnny reading Animorphs and his mother calling him Joey, how she was diagnosed with some kind of autism, when they got married, how they met and dated, until the earliest memories that seems to be blocked out.

Not being able to do that the doctors go ahead and instil a desire to go to the moon... but nothing changes. Whatever they do, the outcome in his dreams is still the same. They abort for the night and the next morning HQ have delved up medical reports that Johnny been given Beta Blockers that have affected his memory, and knowing this they devise a plan to bypass that and delve deeper into Johnny's memories. And what they find is that Johnny had a twin brother named Joey that his mother run over by accident. Which explains the beta blockers. And before that his first meeting with his future wife at a carnival where he gave her a platypus doll he won and she carried with her all through her life and where they promised each other that if they ever got lost, they will meet each other on the moon. And he doesn't remember it.

Now, the doctors piece this together and you get a clash of ideas. Eva decides that to fulfill their contract with their client they have to send him to the moon, regardless the consequences and Neil realises that it can only mean to erase River, the wife, from Johnny's memories so that he will join Nasa and therefore go to the moon. Here is actually an interesting character development I feel between Eva and Neil. The impression I got was that Neil was the immature goofball that didn't care really whatever happened, but here he felt that it was too far to get rid of River so you ended up with Neil at the end (or it could be that I choose Eva in the beginning and their roles reverse if you go at it the other way, but I got other games to play even if it only is 4 hours). Neil can't stop Eva and she brings back Joey in his memories and moves River out of their school. And it leads to Nasa... and River ending up as another astronaut candidate and from their they travel to the moon and then their life still ends up like in the real world, but better... and then Johnny dies.

I saw it coming, but there was something missing. People described it as emotional feels and I got a feeling when I pieced it together (beside thinking that the bunnies was a reference to the lunar bunnies in japanese folklore I heard was a part of the inspiration for lunar bunnies in Final Fantasy IV), but it didn't push me over the edge. I wanna cry damn it. It could be personal stuff that makes me more angry than sad. There is a sequel rather recently released I gather, will probably pick that up one day. There was one thing that triggered me. During the morning Neil acted weird by first telling the housekeeper he had to take a leak and as he bumped into Eva needed to feed his digital pet... why give to different lies and act all suspicious? Doesn't help that in the ending you see Neil in the "real world" get the same red flashes that indicated Johnny was a bout to die, he takes something and he continues and that's the end.

Worth it for a playthrough, great graphics and music. Maybe wished for a fast run button since it took some time walking around that felt a bit unnecessary, but maybe it builds atmosphere?

Advance Wars 1 (Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp) (Switch)

 

It ain't nothing but a heart-breaker
(War) Friend only to The Undertaker
Oh, war it's an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind

Another remake, the first GBA remake I can think of (well, beside the Ace Attorney-games). I've played all of the Advance Wars game released in the west (not finishing them all, but one day maybe). As traditions with this game it was off course delayed. First to fine tune some parts of it from its originally release in December 2021 so it was moved to March or April 2022... and then the Ukraine-Russian War started. Kinda ironic since the original was supposed to come out the week after 9/11 back in 2001 in Europe and they delayed it to the spring of 2002 instead. Well it's finally out and it was a breeze playing through the first game again. 

Story is that Orange Star, a country pretty much appearing like USA/Europe is suddenly attacked by Blue Moon by CO Olaf, a country modelled after... Russia.... Oh Boy! Orange Star only have you, the player, as an Adviser freshly sent from HQ to learn the works with Commanding Officer Nell. After some tutorial levels she hands you over to Andy, a relative new CO as you start to push back Olafs assault and push him out of Orange Star territory. During the journey Andy stumbles upon a pluton of Green Earth Soldiers (modelled after Germany I would argue, with the WW2 hats and blitzkrieg tactics) led by CO Eagle that after taking a beating accusing Andy for some war crimes. 

After that Andy gets reinforcements with CO Max, the strongest CO of them all, but lousy in indirect battle. Both of them push Blue Moon back to their own land so they continue hounding Olaf and his second in command Grit. After beating the Blue Moon army they meet up with Sami, the infantry specialist CO of Orange Star. They are again attacked by Green Earth and... for some reason heads over Yellow Comet (Japan pretty much) and constantly gets attacked, all the while the cutscenes tells us that they also have been attacked by Andy in the past. After beating Kanbei and Sonja it's over to Green Earth and meeting with Drake and Eagle. And during the battles it is revealed that there exists a clone of Andy that have attacked the other nations while Blue Moon was lead to attack Orange Star to keep them busy. All this is orchestrated by the Black Hole Army lead by Sturm, who likes to throw meteors on my most valued troops. You defeat him and all is well.

The new coat of paint is rather nice, although the pixel art has its charm, and the small changes too characterisation they made for some of the CO doesn't add up to me. Also, the quality of life improvements are wonderful. Restarting just a turn makes it so easier if you just did a wrong move (although it can be used to save scum through Fog of War maps). The casual mode (which was the mode I played through it in) is rather nice with a bit more soldiers and getting rid of fog of war in some maps (although I feel it makes it easier for the AI as well since I can't hide as well). And finally, the ability to pick and choose missions after finishing the campaign instead of having to replay the whole thing as well as getting rid of some of the criteria to unlock certain CO:s, as well as being able to chose the CO for the final battle however you want. No more playing X turns on the Kanbei missions to unlock him at the final mission, or playing Max stages to get Grit or Andy against Drake or Sami against Eagle. 

The biggest problem I have is that everyone said this was pretty much a 1 by 1 recreation of the original. Lo and behold my surprise that they cut out most of the tutorial levels. Now, some might say that it went on too long and that the tutorials still pops up when appropriate, but the story and the ability to delve into the POV of the Adviser gets lost. What do I mean? Well, the tutorial levels is where you work together with Nell for 14 missions. She is your CO, she lambast Olaf for his betrayal and gives hint on the relationship between the two and all that. Olofs overconfidence and blunders that he shows throughout the story. And Nell talks to you, congratulate you for your tactics and how fast you can beat certain stages like the mission Dogfights and Air Defence. Now, you pretty much disappears after the first missions. It could be that they wanted 1 and 2 feel like the same game and the advisor roll disappeared in the sequel and I didn't like it then, and don't approve of it now. It felt more immersive in the old game and it's sad it disappears. If they continue like this I hope they don't remake Fire Emblem for the GBA that released in the west since it will feel worse there. But overall it's a fun game and just nitpicking with my preferences. 

Octopath Traveler II (Switch)

Tomorrow will take us away far from home
No one will ever know our names
But the bards' songs will remain
Tomorrow will take it away the fear of today
It will be gone due to our magic songs

Got the sequel to Octopath Traveler and finished it in 98 hours time.  Great, then I'm all set for Zelda in a month as of writing. Like its predecessor it was a great game. Much improved actually so that I did finish it this time around... I still adhere to finishing the main game, you can't have the final boss be behind side-quests that don't seems to be leading to a finale. 

So the story like last time is that eight different travellers sets out for different reasons, ends up together and ends up stopping an evil lord of darkness. The first is Ochette, the beastling huntress from a tropical island. She is bestowed by her tribes guardian lion a spirit animal, either a fox or an owl that she will train with. I choose the owl. But all is not well as humans are expanding on the island and begins pushing the beastlings away, but one day a human child disappears and as the greatest hunter she follows it to some ancient ruins, but a monster appears that the guardian beast and Ochette defeats, but its arrival heralds the Crimson Moon and the dark forces that will overrun the island (and I presume the world) if Ochette can't find the three guardian beasts. She sets out alone, first looking for a water spirit, but that one had been killed by the dark hunter and plundered by humans. All that is left is an egg that finally hatches and the newborn follows Ochette. The second spirit is the sleeping fire beast Terra that fought a dark hunter to a stand still several years ago and now sleeps beneath a town as it slumbers stirs earthquakes around the town. The final one was the ice-bird Glacia that wreck havoc on a sacred mountain as her eggs was destroyed by the dark hunter. After calming all spirits she returns home and together with the beastlings and the guardian beast fight of the Crimson Moon and the monster they unleash, ending in a great battle with the corrupted fox from the beginning. After that the beastlings and humans makes peace and Ochette sets out again to find the dark hunter. 

Out on the sea Cassti Florenz, an apothecary is rescued by a ship but have suffered amnesia. At the first town a string of sick people lead her to investigate the water supply that have been contaminated by a creature emitting poison. After rescuing the town the hostile people opens up to her. Her clothing ties her to a group called Eir's Apothecaries that seemingly poisoned a whole town. One person seems to recognise her and tell her to look for her past by following a diary detailing her healing trips across the land. She ends up in a town called Sai where Cassti and the other apothecaries rescued people from dying during a border war. Returning the war still goes on, but Cassti focusing on the creed to protect brings the soldiers back both from the brink of death as well as chasm of nihilism. She rescue soldiers from both side after getting caught up in a antlion's den (feels like an homage to Final Fantasy IV actually?).

I hate sand, it's course, rough and gets everywhere.

She travels to Winterblom after this where she recalls helping a local lady fighting some disease that will kill her, but she needs to survive until her daughter come of age to inherit the estate so that her egotistical nephew doesn't take it instead. After some fight with local bandits that was hired by the nephew and sorting everything out you follow the lady's end and her daughter taking over. With that Cassti recalls her real home where the Eir's Apothecaries set out and a certain man. Returning home she finds the town destroyed, one traveller mentions that he spent 10 days burying every townspeople he found after they where killed by poison. The memories returns and Cassti lead the Eir's Apothecaries, but one of their own, Trousseau, became deranged, found a poison that he unleashed on the townspeople by rain. And to do that he lured them out in the poisoned rain by killing two children and hiding them so that people started looking for them. The apothecaries was gone on a trip, but returned right at the end and tried to stop it, but everyone succumbed to the poison, except Cassti that was put on a boat that explained where she began this adventure. And the person that put her there was the person that recognised her, but she was dead all the time... I've been Sixth sensed again! Trousseau revealed that his next target was the coronation ceremony in Timberain. Cassti gets there and together with the soldiers from her trip to Sai is able to stop him and kill him.

Throné Anguis is a thief in service of the Black Snakes, an organisation run by Father and Mother. On a mission that goes awry one of Thronés close friends are killed. This incident sets up several instances where a civil war emerges for the Black Snake as Father and Mother are looking for replacements for them. Throné wants out if it, but can only follow the steps of her "parents" as they have the keys to her collar. She finds them both and fights them of listening to their story and the reveal that they killed her mother and that her father is still alive, in a city long lost to time called Lostseed. There she finds her real father Claude... some immortal that pretty much have sired every person belonging to the Black Snakes. Yeah, it's pretty creepy. Although, I have a hard time grasping why? Claude just is and almost seems enjoying finally dying as if the years have driven all desire beyond continuing the eternal loop of the Black Snakes. 

Osvald von Vanstein, a scholar that is falsely accused of murdering his wife and daughter and sent to a prison island in the icy north. There he makes his escape and after getting ashore vows revenge on Harvey, his supposedly friend that betrayed him. First he returns home and finds his old assistant that tells him that her husband was killed as he questioned the charges. Furious he infiltrates the guard mansion where the local captain reveals that he was bribed by Harvey to point the finger of accusation against Osvald. Osvald burns the whole place down. Following in Harvey's footsteps he follows him to his underground laboratory where Harvey has experimented with the Seventh Source and created an abomination with the blood of Osvalds wife as she belonged to a family of light. And here it is revealed that Osvald's daughter is still alive, but Harvey escapes to a ruin in the northern mountains. Osvald follows and arrives at the closest town which seems overrun by darkness emitting from the ruins. He stops Harvey from killing his daughter and use her blood. During the fight Osvald unlocks the Seventh Source himself, the source of... LOVE? What sort of saccharine Sunday school game is this? Whatever, it's the best spell in the game that trounces Harvey and saves the day.

Partitio Yellowil, the merchant we follow from a little child to adult as he lives trough good times in the town of Orecrush and then the bad times as the townspeople are swindled by the landowner that took control of the silver mine that used to bring in the money to the town. After having enough Partitio beats up the landowners muscle and learns that the mysterious landowner was an old friend of the family, mr Roque, that built the town along them and then disappeared right before the economy tanked, setting out for the mysterious steam engine. He wanted Partitio to join him, but Partitios duty to the town and his father made him stay. After this betrayal he sets out to end poverty... it's Torneko Talon from Dragon Quest IV basically. You follow Roque to Clockbank and confronts him about his deeds, swindling Orecrush and pretty much making Clockbank a boomtown where the industry owner owns the town and its people in servitude. He even taxes them for working at the company... which was a joke in Ducktales 1987 when Scrooge travels into the future and Magica took over Duckburg. He also are on the brink of finishing the mobile steam engine and use that to own the world. Partitio forces him allow him the chance to buy the steam engine so that he can end poverty in the world. Roque agrees if Partitio can pay him 80 billion leaves (that's the currency). Ori the scriviner has followed Partitio and writes about his adventure in the local papers as he sets out to find someone that can help with that. Which he does in the nobleman Alrond, the worlds richest man. On the condition that Partitio can breathe life the in the slumbering economy of Alronds home town. So Partitio sets up the worlds first department store, gets the check and travels to Roques private island. At a press conference Roque tries to renegade on their deal as a check can hardly work since it's not the real thing. Lucky Alrond thought ahead and gathered every single leave on a ship and sails right up to the island. Roque wont relent so you beat him up on his armoured steam train and spreads industrialism and prosperity to all over the world, capitalism at its finest!

We bought too many games!

So now we gotta play them all!

So all aboard the steam train!

Cho-Cho!

Agnea Bristami is a dancer that wants to follow in her mother's footsteps and bring smiles to everyone so she sets out from her small village... and she pretty much does that. She end up in New Delsta where she teams up with a local tavern owner and dances there until the nearby theater chief decide to get rid of the competition by breaking some bones. Agnea gets pissed off and walks right up to him in his own theater and beats him up when the superstar Dolcinea shows up and chastises him for that petty behaviour. Agnea continues to Sai where she finds a statue of her mother raised by the citizens from the poor districts as she was there 20 years ago and gave them hope as well as Dolcinea that came from that town. Agnea helps another child that wrecks havoc in town and then drives Dolcineas henchmen out of town as she intended to demolish the whole district since she couldn't stand her roots. Agnea challenge her to a singing contest and Dolcinea agrees if they go to a certain temple area that is shaped like a theater. There Agnea is chased by thugs sent out by the theater manager and corners her right before the stage... until Dolcinea's bodyguard shows up and knocks him down so that Agnea can take the stage. They create the performance of their life and is praised to the stars. Dolcinea sees the errors of her ways and amends.

Temenos Mistral is a cleric that works as an inquisitor for the pontiff until the pontiff is murdered. Temenos tracks the murderer and capture him as he tries to recreate the death of the gods as some sacrifice to the dark god Vide that was defeated by them (this is another dark god than Galdera from the last game). He then tries to figure out why and stumbles upon a genocide on a people worshipping the sun in defiance against the Moonshade Order. He tries to confront the murderer in the Sacred Flames Headquarter, but the murderer have been killed by an unknown assassin. Temenos assistant discovers that it's the head of the Sanctum Knights but is killed before telling Temons. Temenos still deduces this and follows the commander to a temple on a tropical island where the beastling lives. The commander summons a dark flame in revenge of her peoples murder and is consumed by it until Temenos ends her life, but here starts the quest to find the Moonshade Order behind all this.

Hakari Ku, the second son of the Emperor has to flee from his kingdom as his brother Mugen kills their father as he intended Hikari to take the throne. Hikari seeks out the master tactician the Eagle of Ku, Kazan, that lives his days in an arena gambling for money. Hikari helps him and frees the gladiators that lives like slaves and they in turn decide to follow Hikari. Then Kazan sends him to stop a weapon delivery to defang Mugen. Then he travels to the Home of the Clan Mei and their leader Rai Mei and gets them to follow him as well. With his forces Hikari breaks through the royal cities defences and ends up fighting Mugen again, but during the travels Hikari had to fight an inner demon that seems to crave bloodshed and destruction. And after 4 boss battles in a row Hikari stands alone after defeating Mugens generals, Hikari's own demon and Mugen twice. He is then crowned king and the world is saved.

Well, not really. The travellers gather at a spot to enjoy themselves when the eternal night appears. The 4 flames of the gods goes extinct and monsters like those from the Crimson Moon event shows up. They travel too and light up them again and learns that while they have saved the world, the forces of darkness have worked right beside them. Kazan had fooled them all, together with Ori, the dark hunter and Sister Mindt that aided Temenos. By dousing the flames with blood from a sacrifice he was able to summon Vide, the dark god and only the travellers can stop him. Lucky for me it's just one boss this time and not a prelude of 8 bosses before the final one. Doesn't help the first time since my strategy was to just use three main characters (Osvald, Temenos and Throné) and a rotating forth. The main three are at level 70 and the others hovers around 45-50. Problem is that in the middle of the battle, Vide snatch my characters and push the B-team to rescue them... my B-team being 20 levels below the others and not equipped. Didn't last long there. So back 4 hours of the game and starting to grind the others. Did all the other quest (beside a quest to defeat Galdera again) and grinded a bit so that the others where at 65 instead and the main team at 75. And getting the side jobs and such and optimised the skills and such. Plus started out with the B-team. And it worked like a charm this time around... until the second form appeared. Damn cheating final boss! Still, cool to play with all 8 characters and lucky they weren't synced all the way with the cleric job and such. Took an hour or so, but I beat him... her or whatever, they?

It was really fun playing through it. I began with Osvald pretty much for the same reason as last time. Magic and the analyse skill unlocking the weaknesses of the enemies from the beginning. They added day and night cycle, the lead up to the real final boss worked better since they actually put them as a separate sort of quest and it needed two of the characters to interact off each other creating some sort of cohesion for them all. That little interlude before and after the final boss perfect. The 2D-HD engine still looks fantastic and the music is really good, I think Partitio's theme is the best one after playing through the game and I was sceptical in the beginning. Any problems? Pretty much the same like last time, even though it's better this time around with quests actually making them interact, some people don't fit in with the rest. Agnea and Partitio hardly have anything to do with the other story wise... well, Partitio had Ori, but that's a stretch. You could have had anyone else in that role as well. But Agnea is like Primrose in the last game, incidental to the rest of the game. Also miss references to the original game, or at explanation how we go from 12 gods to 8, how there can be new continents and no sign of the others as well as other version of "From the Far Reaches Hell" book Cygnus searched for and another placement of the Gate of Finnis. Lucky I finished it a month before Zelda so there will not be another mega-RPG for a while since I don't want to be distracted when that one shows up.

A DnD Tale - WaterDeep: Dragon's Heist - 20.000 Fathoms Below the Sea

We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine!

As of writing it's the last days of April and spring is finally appearing after the longest Winter... or more accurately the most winters in one winter. It was just snowing two weeks back. So what better than playing through yet another dnd session. I planned it all out for us to dive into the Xanathar's Guild and retrieve the stone of Galorr. But my player's decided to side-track. So Hope and Freya headed to the harbour and the Apparatus of Kwalish that Glindra left so they could investigate the harbour. The apparatus is pretty much a submarine in the form of a lobster. After getting in and figuring out the controls (and almost submerging it with the hatch open) they head out for a look. On their way they are suddenly attacked by the giant shark Obliteros, with the obvious appropriate music:

It becomes an epic battle as the two submariners duke it out with the shark. They attack it with their claws and tries to grapple it while the shark gets loose and tries to bite the submarine. During the fight Freya rolls a 1 on the attack so what's more fun than destroying the lever controlling the attack so they are stuck on grappling the shark that begins dragging them down into the depths. Hope brings out some pliers from her equipment bag to use as a substitute lever and and is able to damage the shark so that it reaches bloodied. And I already decided that the shark is smart enough to leave the prey behind if it it is too much of a challenge. The sub is a bit beat up so they head back and get Parker to fix it the next morning. Which he does with a mending spell and some elbow grease to bang his hammer on it to even out the bite marks from the shark.

The next day they begin thinking about heading out again, but to speed on the plot I return with Vincent Trench that have stalked out Xanathar's hideout and found the entrance and given them a map to use. He also warns them that Xanathar is dangerous and only listen to someone called Syglar. They head down and enters the place. Everywhere is blinking stone eyes watching their every move. In the first room they find a hidden door that they carefully open and finds a hallway lined with stone statues of different people and an insane gnome jester laughing and cartwheeling all around. They all say no and close the door. They look at their map and realise that that secret door is probably the best way to go around so they cast pass without a trace and tries to sneak up on the gnome. Freja approaches him and he's just glad to see someone, he will show her to the boss if she can answer his riddle. 

The answer to the riddle is laughter, but she get hang up on the "In Slaughter I rest" and we have to pause the game to explain it for her. She got the answer but interpreted that part to mean that if you massacre people it isn't fun and took forever to get that laughter is part of the word slaughter. And then he show her the way to Xanathar introducing her to a drow with a grell and then bringing them to the sanctum. There they see a dwarf feeding a fish in a bowl and hearing a voice complaining he can't tune to the stone since he don't dare untune to his magic rings.  She reads the dwarfs mind but don't get that it isn't Xanathar, but just a minion. So I reveal him as he turns the jester to stone (since he grown tired of the gnome). Freja begins playing for Syglar to keep Xanathar in the good mood while the others with the pass without a trace tries to sneak up on him to backstab him... don't think that would work and I'm really suspicious over that ability, but they are in for it now. Freja tries to mind read Xanathar to see where the stone is, but is blocked by his ring of mind shielding which I interpret must warn him that somethings happening... on the other hand, his gaze would mean she couldn't use magic so whatever. The battles starts anyway.

And it turns out to be the toughest yet. They try to attack him, but with an AC 18 they have a hard time hitting, and since I use a legendary action after every attack in retaliation I'm finally doing some damage to them. Immeral gets hit by a Death Ray that takes 45 damage. Freja and Hope avoid their disintegration rays while Ulf get caught in a telekinetic ray and lifted to the roof. Ott, the dwarf, grab Syglars bowl and runs over to the larger fish tank and dumps him in their and then run off. Freja talks to the coral plants in the tank to get them to catch and kill Syglar and then puts up an illusion that Syglar actually is dead to trick Xanathar... which just makes him pissed, but since the illusion dissipates at his gaze he just gets even more mad. Hope gets paralyzed by an eye beam and the floor turns into goo as the lair itself acts to stop the intruders. And here we pretty much had to end the session since others had to do stuff, they might have finished if they didn't try to use the submarine.

It still was a fun session and it feels like they actually affects the story. Thinking about letting Xanathar run away if he gets bloodied, but we will see what happens. I think they would appreciate the EXP since it's a lot. Need to see if there is some magic items that allows long distance conversation (I think I heard about it, but it could have been some homebrew thing).