Well, I mentioned in a previous post that I had recently begun to pick up Final Fantasy XI. An unfortunate side effect of that is that it has effectively kept me from updating my new blog for a while. Although I definitely want to write somewhat on my experience with that game.
But first I want to bridge just a bit with my experience in the weeks leading up to my previous blog entries, which were occupied by another old favorite, classic series, The Legend of Zelda.
Actually, I had mentally toyed with the idea of replaying various old games nearly since getting my Nintendo 3DS several years ago. I saw some old favorites available on the virtual console, and thought to myself that they would make excellent portable games. But our finances got very tight not long after that, and I decided to forgo it for awhile. But a little while ago, I think for Christmas of '14, I got an E-Shop gift card from my wife, and I decided to use it. Unfortunately, I misplaced it. I actually found and misplaced it a couple of times leading up to the time when we moved last March, at which point I lost track of it again. But a few months later while cleaning and unpacking my wife found it again, and I finally kept track of it long enough to use it.
I purchased the first two Zelda games on my 3DS and played them through. It sure brought back some memories. I didn't spend a whole lot of extra time with them, as there's not much I ever wanted to do with them that I hadn't done. But I enjoyed reintroducing myself to a series that gradually got away from me in my adult years.
After finishing those two, I found my Game Boy Advance copy of A Link to the Past and used it as my next mobile game. By the time I finished it I was primed with excitement to move forward. As our finances have stabilized a bit, my wife has instituted a "chore chart" incentivized with small amounts of money. I was quickly able to amass enough money to purchase Link's Awakening for my 3DS. Unfortunately since moving I have been unable to locate my physical copies of the game (I own one each of the original and the DX versions). Around the same time, having set up my Nintendo 64 for the first time in many years, I played through the opening of Majora's Mask and then started playing through Ocarina of Time in preparation to more properly enjoy its immediate sequel.
While at home I played Ocarina of Time, while on the road I played Link's Awakening. I actually finished them at nearly the same time. However, I decided I was not done with Link's Awakening. I finished missing two Pieces of Heart and I knew I had not found every Secret Seashell. And I was sure I had never found all of each kind. I couldn't quite remember whether I had previously found all the Pieces of Heart, but I was sure that I had reason to believe there were more Secret Seashells.
Some years before, while replaying the series after my mission, I had made the determination that I could not consult a guide to find them until I had exhausted every effort on my own to find them. I had made a pretty thorough search, but near the end I ran out of steam, and didn't finish my thorough effort. Not remembering where I had left off, I decided to start it over. But to motivate me to be as thorough as I had to be, I decided it would be easier to start the game over yet again (meaning after I had just completed it a few months ago).
There were a few things I wanted to be thorough on. Firstly, I used a shovel on every space in the game where it's possible to use it. There are several secret seashells that are found by digging, but most of them are in conspicuous places. There is one that, arguably, is not so conspicuous. It was found near the beginning of my search area and drove me to compulsively check everywhere else. I actually didn't find any other seashells by this means, but it felt good to thorough with it.
Another thing I did was dive underwater in every spot possible. There is one Piece of Heart that can easily be found this way, in a conspicuously otherwise-empty underground cavern. As it turns out, one of my missing Pieces of Heart was in another spot underwater that in my opinion is very inconspicuous, and therefore difficult to find without this type of thorough approach,
Lastly, my approach involved holding out my sword against any cavern wall that ran against the edge of the screen, or any dungeon wall (also at the edge of the screen) where there wasn't a door. This process was done with volume up, to test for weak walls that a bomb could destroy. There are several secrets in caves that can be found in this manner. Most of them can be found by looking for suspicious places. However, after a very thorough search I found two of them that didn't have anything to suggest a weak wall might be there, so without this type of approach I would have missed them. This was how I found the last Piece of Heart that I was missing. I was actually surprised that I didn't find any of these spots in the dungeons (ones that the game doesn't hint at).
I was very pleased that I was able to find all the Pieces of Heart on my own, as I did years ago with A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. I may also have done it years ago with Link's Awakening, but I genuinely could not remember whether I had (though after finding them I felt like a small bell rang in the back of my mind, as though I might have both had and forgotten the experience of finding them).
As for the seashells, I ended up two short, after all my efforts, and I finally ended up searching through information online. It turns out, there are 26 in all, two of which are only available at certain points and unavailable if you miss the opportunity. Furthermore, once you have 20, if you go to the seashell mansion and get your reward, all of the remaining seashells disappear from the map. In fact, the two I had missed ended up being in places I had searched, but because I had traded in my others they didn't show up. Even though I ended up looking this up, I decided I was satisfied with the results of my playthrough.
Meanwhile, after I finished Ocarina of Time, I started an earnest playthrough of Majora's Mask, which I had been rather excited to replay, I began a notebook to keep track of where I'd found pieces of heart, gossip stone locations and messages, and other notes. Majora's Mask is one of the most fascinating games I've ever played, and I was having a great time with it. Unfortunately, I had an unlucky streak one week. One downside to the game is that you can't do a hard save without also restarting all your progress in an area. In a few days time, I experienced a power outage, a game-stopping bug that froze my controller input (twice), and my daughter pulling out the cartridge mid-play to replace it with Super Mario 64. These all happened while trying to complete the same area. I got frustrated and ended up putting the game down awhile. This also happened the same week that Final Fantasy XI was offering 10 days free to former players. As I had a strong desire to start playing that game again, I decided to take a break from Majora's Mask, and I haven't gotten back to it yet (though I think about it every weekend).
This brings me to the latest chapter of my gaming experience, which will merit a decent size blog entry of its own: my recent experience with the MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI.