A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Hunt for Cubes (part 5)

 

It lived to ambush the characters another day.

We return after 2 month hiatus in real time. And since they still complain that it takes to long time I pretty much used all the other people we have in the balloon to scout out the place and indicate 2 shrines for them to check out. The first shrine being Froghemoth Shrine. And they obviously suspect something with the pool outside and the statue in the middle, but since they have 2 pieces of the rod of law they have access to the spell Arcane Gate so they just transport over it. And then they are stuck at the shrine entrance and a missing key. They got a thief, but they don't lockpick the door... sad. They figured the key was in the statue in the middle of the pool so Immeral used Shadowstep to get there and search the statue and finding the key in the mouth. I then sprung the Froghemoth on them by grabbing him with the tounge in order to bring him to it so that he could be swallowed up. And I roll a damn 1. So it bit its tounge allowing Immeral to Shadowstep away after being slimed and drenched in the murky water. But they got the key,

Behind the door they reached a room with spikes and beams across so that they are supposed to jump across the beams to avoid falling unto the spikes. Which Immeral sidestepped with the shadowstep ability... I feel a bit cheated on that. They also figured out that the message on the door about give what you take meant that they have to do the Indiana Jones thing with exchanging the cube on the pedestal with something of similar weight. Since they already have a cube they fix a bottle with oil that weighs something like that and Immeral intends to do the switch. She fails this time so I just wing it that the bottle slipped and rolled of the pedestal forcing the mechanism to activare, locking them in the room and then releasing poison gas. Destinova and Freya gets poisoned and takes damage. Hope lockpicks the door and is able to open it so everyone can get out. And then Immeral Shadowsteps everyone across the pool.

Onward to the Kamadan Shrine (jaguars with snakes on their back). They push open the door and goes into the shrine. They figure they need four spears to put in the statues inside the arena so they continue round the corridors until they stumble upon the trap that activates the 4 chultan warrior statues that they fight until they are destroyed. They take the spear, put them in the statue's hands and then the cube reveals itself. They take it and is attacked by 2 kamadans. One of them is putting Destinova to sleep so that Freya have to slap him awake so that he can use his magic on them. It isn't that hard for them even though they fought another battle just before. And with that they leveled up to level 10. Gotta remember to tell them that besides the abilities they also gained more HP.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)

Girl Power!

So this game came late to me. Damn postal service couldn't get in on Thursday so it didn't come round to Monday the week after. Made it hard avoiding spoilers since many channels I follow on Youtube decided this is the game to stream. Tough luck for you, I won't watch it until I finished the game, which took me to Saturday the same week. Gonna be interesting to see things I missed.

So the big thing about this game, that was spoiled at the release so nothing missed there is that the first 5-15 minutes you start at Link fully decked out and after fighting Gannon Link gets trapped in a rift and Zelda has to step up to fight for Hyrule. On her journey she has the spirit Tri that helps her mend the rifts and create echoes that she can use to traverse the world, fight monsters and solve puzzles. During the adventure you get Links items, sword, bow and bombs that you can use during a fighter mode that you can use to fight of monsters and such for a short time. 

So arriving back at Hyrule castle Zelda tells her father that gets swallowed up by a rift and out comes an imposter that sends the guards after Zelda. Escaping with the help of Tri and Impa Zelda ends up in Suthorn village, the home of Link. From there you mends the rift near you, then either Gerudo desert or Zora river. I choose Zora first and then Gerudo. After that I traversed the world to get heart pieces, stamps and smoothie ingredients before tackling Hyrule Castle again, rescuing the King. 

After that three more rifts appear, Eldin Volcano, the Wetlands and Lanurya mountain. Went into the wetlands first being locked up by Deku Scrubs and destroying Ghoma from creating cotton candy webs for the scrubs so that they get swallowed up by the rifts. After that Eldin volcano and their new Goron Elder that need your help. After that Lanurya mountain where I meet this snowman Condé that looks like the snowmen in the DS Zelda games or Twilight Princess. And I never felt this bad for the snowman that only want's to do good so that his big brother returns from his hot air ballon adventure after their father died. Damn! It was also this boss that gave me the most trouble, Schorchill. You're supposed to use fire attacks on his helmet when theres ice and ice attacks when theres fire. Now, I used the wizrobes, but they didn't seem to hit so I ran around a bit until I looked it up. After that they worked rather well. Miss that Tri doesn't give you a hint or something like the companions in the 3D Zelda games. 

Which probably brings us to the mechanics of the games. The echoes are fun for puzzle solving. Getting too high ledges or using the abilities to get a monster behind the bars in order to hit a switch is rather interesting. Battle on the other hand is either so simple you steamroll them, or it's a drag as the specific monster needs to do certain things in order to defeat the enemy, usually elemental monsters. Bosses is elevated by using the fighter mode, but take the final boss, Null. If you have enough smoothies you only have to run around so that Link can fight him off together with an echo of moblin level 3 or the lizard enemy level 3. So I spent most time running around since you can't attack directly anymore since you have given Link his items back and there isn't much puzzles in the boss fight more than recognizing patterns and avoid damage.

Null is also an interesting boss concept. He is a creature of the void that want everything to be nothing, but the goddesses appears and create the world to contain him and he in retaliation creates the rifts, but the goddesses sends spirits like Tri to contain them. And apparently Gannon is an echo from Null. His plan is forcing Zelda to get the Prime Energies (which is the Triforce, or the Golden Power or whatever they call it) so that he can steal it and therefore destroy the whole Universe. Which you and Link stops when you rescue Link.

It was a great game. Didn't have to much trouble, there's one chest I haven't figured out how to get and I'm missing like 5 heart pieces, 8 echoes and something like 9-10 might crystals that you use to upgrade Link's weapons. Somehow the short horse race gives me more trouble than the others. And there is some challenges left in the slumber dojo. The graphics looks like the Link's Awakening remake and that looks rather well. Music is ok. I can hear the melodies that they are going for like Zelda's lullaby and such, but I can't say that any track stands out for me. A bit short, it only took me something like 27 hours to get through and there is like 6 main temples, plus Hyrule Castle and the starter and final area. So 7-9 dungeons depending on how you see it. Link to the Past at least had 10 main dungeons, Hyrule Castle and Gannon's Tower. That is 12 dungeons to explore. Or maybe the Ship in the bay and Eastern Palace counts as well... have to think about that. Speaking of Link to the Past, the map is taken from that game and expanded so you go beyond what could see in that game explaining thinks like Gerudo, Gorons and Sea Zoras not existing in that game, as well as Deku Scrubs. Although the Deku Tree is not in the Wetlands with the Scrubs, but in the Lost Forest to the north. 

Civilization VI (Switch) Revisit

 

And Atlas shrugged! (Don't know if it said in the book since I've never read it, Objectionist theories never really vibed with me)

Decided to revisit the game in the wait for the new Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom. And I got all the DLC and such so it would be fun to try it out... and they just released the news that Civilization VII is on their way. So perfect time to try out to see what it is like if I would try the next game.

I tried starting the huge world map with fixed starting points and marathon mode. Slow as hell, each turn took a minute to load and such. Started as Japan and thought it would be rather easy as you where on an island. Worked fine until 2 barbarians galleys showed up and wrecked my fishing industries. So I restarted with the standard Earth without fixed starting points so suddenly the empire of Japan starts in the north of Italy.

Still a bit slow so I had to google up what one could do, so I limited the autosave and took away animations and such. Wished I could get still pictures of the other leaders, but hey, it worked a lot better, even if it's still a lesson in patience. So I began conquering most of Europe and from Spain bridged into Marocco and then Arabia lost control of one city that wanted to belong to me. And then I used my military might to conquer other cities that have rebelled so I had a bridge from Turkey to India. Meanwhile I sent settlers to Australia and from there taking every island I could get my hand of. I only lost one city which was Tokyo that I settled on Cuba, but they rebelled and went to Poland that had all of North America. 

In the end I was able to snag a diplomatic victory by paying 5000 gold to each civilisation that had an emergency which if you win grants you two points. I think the final point came from an olympic event after I put every city on getting champions. My enemies tried to negate it by voting for me to loose 2 point every Session of the World Governments, but they should have fixed their environmental problems and stop Global Warming... I guess this is the reason it's seen as "woke" by some groups on the internet. Still, I won on prince level without cheating... except when I reloaded a save before I declared war on Mongolia in protection of a city state and I got wrecked. Lesson learned, don't care about the smaller states unless you have a very big army.

Tried the huge world map with the fixed starting points so it worked a lot better. Sadly the volcano near Kyoto erupted 5 times within something like 10-15 turns so that was a very big problem for me. Overall it was fun getting into again. Took me a bit, but when I got into how to micromanage cities and such it became a very interesting game. But I might not feel like everything works fine, for example districts and that is mostly due to my inability to get rid of ones that doesn't work or is standing on precious resources. I had two damn oil fields being locked out as districts was on them. I mean, how was I supposed to know in the Middle Ages that my harbor in Scotland or Entertainment District in the Sahara would end up on oil fields in the modern era? Lucky two others was accessible, but that was on my new Australia colony. I think I lost another resource in the Ruhr Area, but I never understood what it was.

Overall, still fun all these years later. Will I be getting VII when it releases? Probably not, the Switch hardly can manage this game and no offence to the actress being the narrator, but I don't have the same relation to her as Leonard Nemoy or Sean Bean. Although Leonard Nemoy is still the better choice.  Lucky Zelda stopped me doing just one more turn.

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

 

The moon rises yet again!

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

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

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

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

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

Time to break out the whip again!

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

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

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

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

Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (Switch)

 

Do you wanna know how I got these scars?

Well, that went fast to get a new game in the series. And they are over 18 this time, boy I was on the money! Feeling less of the supernatural in this one, but it is a murder mystery at least. You're back in the Usagi Detective Agency. The MC, Ayumi and Usagi are investigating a recent murder with connects back to murders that happened 18 years back where school girls ended up strangled with a paper bag on their face with a smile on. The game is rather nice in just picking up my name from the saves from the older games so that saved me 1 minute in putting it in.

It gets creepy, it gets heavy. I enjoyed it. I've been just trying options at times to move forward, but I've played old point and click-games so it isn't something new for me. And at times the options gets a bit hard to understand what I'm doing. Talking to Junko Kuze, the officer put on the case it took me a hot minute in getting past her first question. Reading up there is interesting interaction and funny dialoge that one can get so there is a replayability aspect of it. And you're graded by a teacher character at the end for each chapter. Middle of the road for my evaluation. Not great, but not bad.

So to the story, spoilers beware. So a student is found strangled with some sort of cord at a pump station. He wears a paper bag with a scribbled smile on linking it toward three murders 18 years earlier. The Usagi Detective Agency is contacted, especially since Usagi himself was involved in the original case. The MC and Ayumi begin looking into it. Their are similarities with the earlier murders, like the bag is made of the same manufacturer as murder 2 and 3, but there are differences, like the victim is a boy this time with stumps our detectives. Ayumi meets up with an old friend that works as a teacher at the school. Don't like that guy, he gives me bad vibes, like always so close up and personal with everyone (no personal space there) and they point it out. Maybe bad feelings from the last game, but I suspected him a lot and I believe the game cheats on that since his smile sometimes seems to align with the smile on the paper bags (or that is my mind trying to frame him), or it could be that he seems to hit on Ayumi and that threatens the relationship with the MC... that is me.

He is involved, but not in the murder directly. A girl that knew the victim had fallen in love with the teacher and as he tried to steer her away, she had a fall out with the victim. And it's around here I start piece it together. Cause detective Kuze gets a visit from the Smiling Man and while in her apartment the MC find a tie that Ayumi then can confirm is the same as used in the school (thanks to the teacher I have to admit). With it was also a letter. MC doesn't look at the letter, but then it clicked, especially since I learned that Junko had a motorcycle and one was spotted near the crime scene. Her brother had also been gone for 18 years and after he disappeared no more Smiling Man killings. The boy was only 9 so he wasn't the murder, but I connected the dots. 

Obviously the male victim, wasn't murdered, but a suicide due to being crushed by falling grades and an unresponsive love. Junko Kuze found him by the road, but staged it as a Smiling man killing in order to provoke a response by Emio so that she could get closure on her brother. I figured all that out on my own! Of curse, that doesn't explain the Smiling man murders. No, that I followed with the game to the end, second-guessing my thoughts. I knew Junko's brother couldn't have been the murderer, but he seemed to still be alive, but with the name of a missing person that was of interest for the police 18 years ago, but I met a couple that knew that person back in the day and day swear on his sweet nature. So I was conflicted, but in the end is able to track the person to a lost village in the mountains, where I meet Junko Kuze that seemed to have followed the same lead as I and she tells me to quit the investigation. Here I was just gonna save the game, but I wondered over the command since it says "save/quit investigation" and for the one time in the game, it does that and the MC decides to leave. What kinda mind screw is that?

Well, two gunshots later MC returns and find Junko with blood on her standing above a dead body. As MC grabs his phone Junko pulls her revolver on him and spill the story (that I already figured out) and that her brother is still alive, having killed the Smiling man that threatened Junko and she now tries to protect him and the MC is the loose thread in this plan. But she can't do it and breaks down crying and then her brother shows up with a bloody machete ready to kill the MC, screen turns white and a gun shot is heard. And then you're back at the agency while Ayumi is back from the hospital where Junko's brother is after being shot by another detective that helped you in the investigation. Usagi returns from a trip uncovering the origins of the Smiling man legend and takes Ayumi out to lunch leaving me taking a phone call with the officer that saved me. No respect I say. Small scene revealing that Junko and the other detective got married and helps her brother regain himself. And then credits roll... wait, what happened with the Smiling man origin?

Well, turns out that Nintendo pushed that into an epilogue where you play through two scenes as Usagi questioning two villagers from where Emio came from, and then you watch a 30 minute animated movie about how it happened, how Emio grew up with his sister in an abusive family where they got beaten by their father, one day the sister drowns in a pond while trying to retrieve her things that the father threw in it which pushes Emio over the edge so he kills his father and is sent to juvenile detention. He gets released, moves to the city, meets a girl that also have an abusive father. After her father hit her one night, Emio cheers her up with a paper bag he cheered his sister with, and proceed to kill the girls father, which she isn't happy with either so he kills her as well, and then two other girls, a third girl escapes by laughing at him. Meanwhile he have given himself a permanent smile with some metal sheers (think the Joker in the Dark Knight). And then meeting Junko as a child and the scuffle with her brother that makes the brother get amnesia and triggering some sort of guilt feelings since the brother tried to protect Junko like Emio tried to protect his sister. And then he takes care of the boy for 18 years, no further murder until the game begins happening (well, he isn't able to kill anyone, not for lack of trying). That's really heavy, and I just saw season 3 of Young Justice where they have an episode about domestic abuse as well. Jesus!

It was an enjoyable game, it had tensions at times and it made me feel smarts so that is a plus. Not enough supernatural things sadly. The ending for the second game still the best ending just for the sheer WTF. The game is a lot more animated than the two remakes, shocker I know, and has several scenes that is just storytelling, Mostly Junko scenes. I hope they continue this series cause I like the main trio and it was fun playing as Ayumi as well.  And Usagi even if it was for two scenes in the epilogue.

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

 

They are all here!

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

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

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

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