I've been pressing forward in my Dragon Quest II play-throughs. I believe I will finish my project in time for the holidays. I'm taking a vacation starting the 23rd and I want to finish before then so I can take my Game Boy with me.
I don't remember if I mentioned that my Dragon Warrior I/II cartridge won't hold a save file, so my Game Boy (Advance SP) has has been on with the game running the entire time I've been doing this challenge. It stays on the charger in a corner of my bedroom where it won't get bumped. I carefully take it off the charger for only a few hours at a time when I play to make sure the battery doesn't die on me. (I recently realized that I don't think I can get the Water Robe (Water Flying Cloth), as it involves a game reset that I can't do without starting all the way over.)
I'm anxious to finish the challenge so I can play Dragon Warrior Monsters on my system, and, if I can find my copy, Dragon Warrior III.
On my Famicom and NES challenges, I have finished the sea cave and am ready to begin the road to Rhone/Rendarek. I am over half-way through said cave on my Super Famicom file and expect to finish it on that system and possibly also on my Game Boy tonight. If I can finish it on my Game Boy by the time I leave for work tomorrow morning, then I can do the smartphone version during my commute and/or my lunch tomorrow, and proceed tomorrow evening to the dreaded labyrinth that leads to the game's final areas.
The Full Moon Tower and the Sea Cave were not as difficult as I expected on my two challenge play-throughs. I had read a rather old post on the game's message boards on Gamefaqs.com from someone who tried this challenge where they said they abandoned the challenge in this zone of the game due to its difficulty. However, although I did die a few times, I was able to get through both areas on my solo challenge with no more difficulty than I have had in previous areas. And unlike most of the dungeons, I could actually fight a majority of the battles instead of running all the time, since I had the Shield of Strength to heal my health. Of course, there were still numerous encounters where discretion was still the better part of valor, but more often than not the risk of fighting the battle is actually less than the risk of trying to run and failing. The Sea Cave takes a little more endurance as the dungeon is longer and you cannot walk off the edge to get out quickly. Fun fact: the Water Flying Cloth negates damage from the fire tiles in this dungeon. (I think it also negates damage from swamp tiles, but I'm pretty sure it does NOT negate damage from the barrier tiles such as those found in the final dungeon, though Erdrick's Armor will protect against those.)
Of course, on my NES no-equipment challenge, my characters were already highly leveled from getting the "Open" spell, so the battles weren't to big of a challenge spamming Defeat, Firebane, and Explodet in each battle. At that level, I had plenty of MP to finish the dungeons with liberal spellcasting, although I did have to make a few trips into and out of the Sea Cave due to the monsters that dance their strange jigs in there. The dungeons have also posed no particular challenge on any of my remake play-throughs. Another fun fact: in the remake versions of the game, Firebane's power is greatly increased to almost rival Explodet in the original game, making battles in this stage ridiculously easy. I do not yet know if they tweaked Explodet to be more powerful still. Interestingly, in the smartphone version only, Firebane (or Sizzle as it's called there) has been changed to be a one-group spell rather than all enemies, one of the few changes I've seen that actually makes things slightly more challenging than the previous remakes.
That's all for now. Maybe by the time I post next I'll be finished with Dragon Quest II, or nearly so.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Friday, November 25, 2016
Open, Shield of Strength, and the Water Flying Cloth
Well, I've been plugging along through the month. On a good day I might get an hour a day to play on a home console, and many days I don't have time at all to play. So even though a month has passed, I am still not finished with my Dragon Quest II playthroughs.
I finished my typical ocean exploration and visiting the different towns, comparing the dialog and item names. Most of it was pretty straightforward, but I found one exciting and notable translation difference that I will talk about in a minute.
I created an outline of my progress before starting, which I've been keeping to more or less, but which I had to revise when it came to the tower where the Star Crest is. I couldn't remember for sure whether you needed a key to get through. I had created a pre-gold-key and post-gold-key section in my outline, and had initially placed this in the pre-gold-key section. But you do in fact need a key. Although the silver key works as well as the gold key, to keep the outline consistent among all of my playthroughs, I moved this down to the post-gold-key section.
The reason I made pre-gold-key and post-gold-key sections at all is because on my NES playthrough, I'm attempting to beat the game only using items that can't be avoided. As it turns out, this means I'm not using either the silver key or the gold key, or the jailer's key. Instead I am using the "Open" spell to open doors. So I set up my outline to do as much as possible without needing a key before working on getting that spell.
I've long thought about what the game might be like without getting any keys. In fact, long ago, I tried to do this when, as a child, I couldn't find the Watergate Key. Although I didn't succeed in even learning the spell Open before I finally learned the location of the key in Nintendo Power, that attempt was misguided, because the Open spell will not open the watergate in Tuhn. Nevertheless, I've wondered may a time about trying to beat it without the other keys.
I had finished my pre-gold-key outline on all my files two weekends ago, except for the Star Crest tower. I realized two things while trying to get through: first, that you do need a key to get through, and second, that I stood little chance of beating the gremlins without having four herbs, little chance of getting to the gremlins with four herbs, and actually, less-than-desirable odds of beating the gremlins even with four herbs. (I'm not using "backpacks," meaning the inventory spaces of my dead companions, so with a weapon, sword, shield, and helmet, I can only take four herbs.) These two realizations were enough to move the tower further down on my outline, so I could come back with upgraded equipment.
This left me with the daunting challenge of learning the spell Open on my NES game. After some online research, I learned that the spell is learned at level 23 by the Princess, which corresponded to 220,000 experience. I was at level 16, which corresponded to 50,000 experience. The best levelling spot I could find was outside Beran, where battles gave me between 50 and 400, but the average seemed to be around the upper 100's range. I quickly realized that this would be a daunting grind.
It wasn't long into my effort before the Prince of Cannock learned Firebane. This was a big boon as I could finish many of the battles in the area quicker. But the real game changer came nearer the end of the week, when the Princess learned Explodet.
Once she learned that, I changed my experience grinding area to outside of Osterfair castle. (Incidentally, I long erroneously thought you could not save at Osterfair. You obviously can't until you get the Moon Crest, but even then, you can't save on the NES until you leave the castle and return. But since there's not much to do there after getting the Moon Crest, I wasn't in the habit of returning.) The average experience per battle is higher there, but I judged that the duration and difficulty of the battles was proportionally higher than the experience yield, and so concluded Beran was better. However, with Explodet the duration and difficulty of the battles was severely reduced, so this became a prime place to level. Soon after the Prince of Cannock also learned Defeat, which also sped up many battles considerably.
The hardest thing in the area is the Gas enemies, which appear in large numbers and cast Stopspell and Sleep, disabling my magic users, and also cast Surround to slow down your non-magic attacks. They have high physical defense and it takes a while to kill them if you can't get Defeat or Explodet off before losing your chance.
The other difficult thing is the absence of a House of Healing. When one of my characters died, I would have to sail all the way to Leftwynn to revive them.
I had also considered levelling closer to Tuhn or Wellgarth. After a few trials I couldn't conclusively determine if the average experience yield was significantly higher, but the danger involved was definitely higher, so I decided it was better to stay clear. The enemies are more difficult and there is no save point or inn nearby.
I also found one alluring aspect of the area around Osterfair was the occasional appearance of eight Metal Slimes. Right after my Princess learned Explodet, my Prince of Midenhall was able to regularly do 4 or 5 points of damage to a Metal Slime, which was frequently enough to kill it when coupled with a hit from one of my other characters. Once my Prince of Midenhall gained another level, he could sometimes beat one on one hit, and after one more level still, he could usually beat them in one hit. I find killing metal enemies in Dragon Quest games to be unusually fun, so I got a morale boost every time I was able to kill a few. I could usually get two or three, and occasionally four for over 900 experience. Once or twice I almost got five, but could never quite finish the fifth one.
It took the bulk of the week, but I finally made it last Saturday after several hours of on and off play. I must say, after all the effort I put into it, I got a little bit of a thrill as I went to each of the major towns and cast the spell Open to get in, laughing at how they couldn't keep me out even when I had no key. Even though the nature of the challenge made most of the gold doors unnecessary, I still went to all of them so I could compare the dialog with the other versions.
Once I finished opening doors in all my files, it was time to attack the Star Crest tower again on my Famicom file. I had planned on getting the Staff of Thunder and selling it to fund myself a Shield of Strength. Those familiar with the game know that you can get multiple Staffs of Thunder and sell them repeatedly to generate large amounts of gold. I fall into the camp of people that are squeamish about using this trick, which feels like an unintended exploit to me. I also don't know for sure if the trick works on the Famicom version. But regardless of any of that, there's no reason to have any qualms about getting the Staff just once and selling it. However, after thinking about it I decided that the Staff would be useful against certain enemies such as Goopies, and I decided not to sell it, or even get it just yet.
Grinding at Beran, It took less time than I thought earn gold to buy it, especially after using the Gold Key to upgrade my shield and armor at no cost and selling the old equipment. Before actually doing the grind, I went a little bit out of my way to gather up the ingredients to make a Water Flying Cloth, which appears to have the same defense rating as the Gaia armor but added defense against breath (and, I believe, magic) attacks. This was useful grinding at Beran, where the most lucrative experience comes from fighting groups of Dragon Flies. Even groups of five are quite beatable solo if you have the Water Flying Cloth.
As it turns out, with the Water Flying Cloth, the Shield of Strength a Dragon's Bane, and the extra experience I had gained getting them, the gremlins in the Star Crest tower were pitifully easy, even without taking any medical herbs with me. I also finished the gremlins easily on my highly levelled NES file. I will finish that segment on my other game files when I return home from Thanksgiving break.
My last note, which I mentioned above I would comment on, is a revelation I had about Dragon Quest IX, after viewing the new translation for this game on the smartphone version. A minor spoiler follows:
After beating Dragon Quest IX, you can obtain and complete a quest in Port Llaffan to gain access to the Starflight Express and fly around the map. The quest involves collecting a Watermaul Wand, a Silver Shield, and a Flowing Dress and wearing them to summon and fight Leviathan.
Now, without having seen the Japanese dialog for this game, it appears from playing the Android remake of the first game that the Silver Shield is the same as the Silver Shield from Dragon Warrior I, which I think has been in every, or nearly every, Dragon Quest game (I can't remember for sure if it was in IV). It's one of the strongest shields in each game, and it's not easy to come by in IX. I believe you can buy it for a large sum, but I made mine with alchemy.
I also made a Flowing Dress with alchemy. One of the ingredients is an item called the Celestial Skein (I actually didn't know this, but Skein is a work meaning thread or yarn). It took me a little bit of time first to alchemize a Celestial Skein, and then to alchemize the dress.
The dress, aside from being an important quest item, was also the best armor at the time I could equip on my wizard, so I got some good use out of it. But I now appreciate the item even more for its value to the series as a whole, after seeing its name in the smartphone version of Dragon Quest II.
For those who have been long time fans of the series but have had to deal with multiple translations versions, you may find this as interesting as I did. The Flowing Dress is none other than the Water Flying Cloth! This item, I believe has been in every game since II, and one of the best armors of its class in each game. Furthermore, the Celestial Skein used to alchemize it in IX is none other than the Dew's Yarn, of the ingredients used to make it in II, the game that introduced it. I was shocked that I had obtained and used both of these items for an important portion of Dragon Quest IX without ever knowing that they were these familiar items.
I finished my typical ocean exploration and visiting the different towns, comparing the dialog and item names. Most of it was pretty straightforward, but I found one exciting and notable translation difference that I will talk about in a minute.
I created an outline of my progress before starting, which I've been keeping to more or less, but which I had to revise when it came to the tower where the Star Crest is. I couldn't remember for sure whether you needed a key to get through. I had created a pre-gold-key and post-gold-key section in my outline, and had initially placed this in the pre-gold-key section. But you do in fact need a key. Although the silver key works as well as the gold key, to keep the outline consistent among all of my playthroughs, I moved this down to the post-gold-key section.
The reason I made pre-gold-key and post-gold-key sections at all is because on my NES playthrough, I'm attempting to beat the game only using items that can't be avoided. As it turns out, this means I'm not using either the silver key or the gold key, or the jailer's key. Instead I am using the "Open" spell to open doors. So I set up my outline to do as much as possible without needing a key before working on getting that spell.
I've long thought about what the game might be like without getting any keys. In fact, long ago, I tried to do this when, as a child, I couldn't find the Watergate Key. Although I didn't succeed in even learning the spell Open before I finally learned the location of the key in Nintendo Power, that attempt was misguided, because the Open spell will not open the watergate in Tuhn. Nevertheless, I've wondered may a time about trying to beat it without the other keys.
I had finished my pre-gold-key outline on all my files two weekends ago, except for the Star Crest tower. I realized two things while trying to get through: first, that you do need a key to get through, and second, that I stood little chance of beating the gremlins without having four herbs, little chance of getting to the gremlins with four herbs, and actually, less-than-desirable odds of beating the gremlins even with four herbs. (I'm not using "backpacks," meaning the inventory spaces of my dead companions, so with a weapon, sword, shield, and helmet, I can only take four herbs.) These two realizations were enough to move the tower further down on my outline, so I could come back with upgraded equipment.
This left me with the daunting challenge of learning the spell Open on my NES game. After some online research, I learned that the spell is learned at level 23 by the Princess, which corresponded to 220,000 experience. I was at level 16, which corresponded to 50,000 experience. The best levelling spot I could find was outside Beran, where battles gave me between 50 and 400, but the average seemed to be around the upper 100's range. I quickly realized that this would be a daunting grind.
It wasn't long into my effort before the Prince of Cannock learned Firebane. This was a big boon as I could finish many of the battles in the area quicker. But the real game changer came nearer the end of the week, when the Princess learned Explodet.
Once she learned that, I changed my experience grinding area to outside of Osterfair castle. (Incidentally, I long erroneously thought you could not save at Osterfair. You obviously can't until you get the Moon Crest, but even then, you can't save on the NES until you leave the castle and return. But since there's not much to do there after getting the Moon Crest, I wasn't in the habit of returning.) The average experience per battle is higher there, but I judged that the duration and difficulty of the battles was proportionally higher than the experience yield, and so concluded Beran was better. However, with Explodet the duration and difficulty of the battles was severely reduced, so this became a prime place to level. Soon after the Prince of Cannock also learned Defeat, which also sped up many battles considerably.
The hardest thing in the area is the Gas enemies, which appear in large numbers and cast Stopspell and Sleep, disabling my magic users, and also cast Surround to slow down your non-magic attacks. They have high physical defense and it takes a while to kill them if you can't get Defeat or Explodet off before losing your chance.
The other difficult thing is the absence of a House of Healing. When one of my characters died, I would have to sail all the way to Leftwynn to revive them.
I had also considered levelling closer to Tuhn or Wellgarth. After a few trials I couldn't conclusively determine if the average experience yield was significantly higher, but the danger involved was definitely higher, so I decided it was better to stay clear. The enemies are more difficult and there is no save point or inn nearby.
I also found one alluring aspect of the area around Osterfair was the occasional appearance of eight Metal Slimes. Right after my Princess learned Explodet, my Prince of Midenhall was able to regularly do 4 or 5 points of damage to a Metal Slime, which was frequently enough to kill it when coupled with a hit from one of my other characters. Once my Prince of Midenhall gained another level, he could sometimes beat one on one hit, and after one more level still, he could usually beat them in one hit. I find killing metal enemies in Dragon Quest games to be unusually fun, so I got a morale boost every time I was able to kill a few. I could usually get two or three, and occasionally four for over 900 experience. Once or twice I almost got five, but could never quite finish the fifth one.
It took the bulk of the week, but I finally made it last Saturday after several hours of on and off play. I must say, after all the effort I put into it, I got a little bit of a thrill as I went to each of the major towns and cast the spell Open to get in, laughing at how they couldn't keep me out even when I had no key. Even though the nature of the challenge made most of the gold doors unnecessary, I still went to all of them so I could compare the dialog with the other versions.
Once I finished opening doors in all my files, it was time to attack the Star Crest tower again on my Famicom file. I had planned on getting the Staff of Thunder and selling it to fund myself a Shield of Strength. Those familiar with the game know that you can get multiple Staffs of Thunder and sell them repeatedly to generate large amounts of gold. I fall into the camp of people that are squeamish about using this trick, which feels like an unintended exploit to me. I also don't know for sure if the trick works on the Famicom version. But regardless of any of that, there's no reason to have any qualms about getting the Staff just once and selling it. However, after thinking about it I decided that the Staff would be useful against certain enemies such as Goopies, and I decided not to sell it, or even get it just yet.
Grinding at Beran, It took less time than I thought earn gold to buy it, especially after using the Gold Key to upgrade my shield and armor at no cost and selling the old equipment. Before actually doing the grind, I went a little bit out of my way to gather up the ingredients to make a Water Flying Cloth, which appears to have the same defense rating as the Gaia armor but added defense against breath (and, I believe, magic) attacks. This was useful grinding at Beran, where the most lucrative experience comes from fighting groups of Dragon Flies. Even groups of five are quite beatable solo if you have the Water Flying Cloth.
As it turns out, with the Water Flying Cloth, the Shield of Strength a Dragon's Bane, and the extra experience I had gained getting them, the gremlins in the Star Crest tower were pitifully easy, even without taking any medical herbs with me. I also finished the gremlins easily on my highly levelled NES file. I will finish that segment on my other game files when I return home from Thanksgiving break.
My last note, which I mentioned above I would comment on, is a revelation I had about Dragon Quest IX, after viewing the new translation for this game on the smartphone version. A minor spoiler follows:
After beating Dragon Quest IX, you can obtain and complete a quest in Port Llaffan to gain access to the Starflight Express and fly around the map. The quest involves collecting a Watermaul Wand, a Silver Shield, and a Flowing Dress and wearing them to summon and fight Leviathan.
Now, without having seen the Japanese dialog for this game, it appears from playing the Android remake of the first game that the Silver Shield is the same as the Silver Shield from Dragon Warrior I, which I think has been in every, or nearly every, Dragon Quest game (I can't remember for sure if it was in IV). It's one of the strongest shields in each game, and it's not easy to come by in IX. I believe you can buy it for a large sum, but I made mine with alchemy.
I also made a Flowing Dress with alchemy. One of the ingredients is an item called the Celestial Skein (I actually didn't know this, but Skein is a work meaning thread or yarn). It took me a little bit of time first to alchemize a Celestial Skein, and then to alchemize the dress.
The dress, aside from being an important quest item, was also the best armor at the time I could equip on my wizard, so I got some good use out of it. But I now appreciate the item even more for its value to the series as a whole, after seeing its name in the smartphone version of Dragon Quest II.
For those who have been long time fans of the series but have had to deal with multiple translations versions, you may find this as interesting as I did. The Flowing Dress is none other than the Water Flying Cloth! This item, I believe has been in every game since II, and one of the best armors of its class in each game. Furthermore, the Celestial Skein used to alchemize it in IX is none other than the Dew's Yarn, of the ingredients used to make it in II, the game that introduced it. I was shocked that I had obtained and used both of these items for an important portion of Dragon Quest IX without ever knowing that they were these familiar items.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Conversations With and Without a Princess
It's becoming increasingly apparent that I won't be able to update this blog as regularly as I had originally envisioned. Life is just plain too busy. But as long as I have things to write about I'll surely keep returning to it.
I've been plugging away on my Dragon Quest II challenges. The Moonbrooke continent definitely showed a divergence in the difficulty of my play-throughs, as my solo game got dramatically more challenging and my no-equipment play-through actually got quite a bit easier, and surprisingly not far off from my remake playthroughs in difficulty. Although the no-equipment challenge was harder to start off, once you gain your allies and their magic spells, your characters begin to perform surprisingly well compared to fully equipped characters.
I quickly encountered an unfortunate problem with choosing the Famicom version for the solo challenge: in the original Famicom version, with no battery save, the password does not record the state of your party. That means that every time you start the game back up with a password, your party is at full health--including the party members that were deliberately killed off! So I had to come up with a system that would result in them dying without otherwise impacting the game or challenge.
The swamp kill wasn't an option because there are no swamps near Moonpita/Hamlin/Moonahan. I resolved to enter battles and have my hero defend while my unequipped, level-1 allies would attack until the enemies had killed them, then run away from the battle and return to the town, and stay at the inn. This brings the game to a state identical to if they had stayed dead and I stayed at an inn. In general, this is identical to what it otherwise would have been, although if I stay at an inn before getting my password it sometimes results in some wasted gold. It's an annoyance, particularly since I have to frequently reset to avoid losing half my gold, but it's one I'll have to deal with to preserve the integrity of the challenge.
I have learned some interesting things along the way. Some of the English town names have been changed for the Android version. Hamlin is now Moonahan, which seems appropriate, because Moon was clearly a part of the Japanese town name, which is in the vicinity of and associated with Moonbrooke. Lianport is now Rippleport. The Japanese romanji for that is Rupagana, so it seems to reference the consonant sounds in Japanese a bit.
I also discovered something that floored me. There's some dialog in the game that I have never seen before, despite numerous playthroughs, and I strongly suspect its existence is not widely known. I found it as a direct result of the solo challenge; there are two NPC's in Rupagana/Lianport/Rippleport whose dialog in the Famicom version changes if you don't have the princess with you (i.e. if she's dead). I confirmed that this is true in both the Famicom and NES versions, although in both cases the NES dialog has been censored to something completely different.
First off is a man in the middle of town. In the NES he says "I have nothing to say to thee. That's right, nothing at all." In the Japanese version, he actually is drunkenly hitting on the princess, inviting her to have a drink. I think that xloto's translation on Gamefaqs.com is slightly off (though I'm not an expert in this and I could be wrong). He rendered it as starting out "nice behind" or something like that, but I think in this case "behind" was actually referring to the girl behind you. In either case, His dialog is truncated to only the first line if the princess is dead. And this is also true on the NES! He just says, "I have nothing to say to thee."
Of perhaps greater note to Dragon Quest fans is the woman in the lower left corner of town. In the Japanese, she pays a compliment to the princess, while on the NES, she says something bizarre about someone who can turn princes to tadpoles (although it's not entirely clear who she's referring to--no one in the town is otherwise implied to have any supernatural powers). What caught me off guard is what she said when the princess was not there. She asks you if you want a puff-puff.
When I saw that it took me off guard. Xloto's guide on gamefaqs.com mentions that this appears to be the only Dragon Quest game that doesn't have a puff-puff reference, which he found remarkable, and I certainly hadn't seen one on my first playthrough. It turns out the reference is there, in the exact same place you see it in the remakes, but you only see it in the Famicom version if the princess is dead.
Now, what was even more fascinating to me was to see this character's dialog in the NES version when the princess was dead, because she does in fact say something completely different: "Dost thou think I am pretty enough to be a queen?" If you answer yes, she says "Perhaps the great Prince of Cannock thinks so too." If you say no, she says "What's wrong!"
I'm sure there is many a Dragon Warrior II fan out there that has never seen this line of dialog, and it floored me to discover it.
That's my main story for this entry. I've progressed all my files to having explored Alefgard and met the Dragonlord's great grandson. I've had a few setbacks. My Super Famicom file got erased just before getting the Cloak of Wind, and I had to replay it up to that point. More recently, my daughter was playing with my camera and erased some of my recent passwords for my Famicom game, so I have to redo some of it. But overall, I'm still moving forward where and when I can, and enjoying it.
I've also been playing a bit of Dragon Quest VII, VIII, and IX on the side, advancing my characters on my existing files to learn what skills are available in the games. Particularly I've played IX, because it's available to play on the bus, on lunch at work, etc. I'm learning more about which spells and abilities persist through the series. It's all good.
Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to Google Nintendo Switch (formerly known as the NX). Dragon Quest XI is in development for that system, and the system looks very interesting.
I've been plugging away on my Dragon Quest II challenges. The Moonbrooke continent definitely showed a divergence in the difficulty of my play-throughs, as my solo game got dramatically more challenging and my no-equipment play-through actually got quite a bit easier, and surprisingly not far off from my remake playthroughs in difficulty. Although the no-equipment challenge was harder to start off, once you gain your allies and their magic spells, your characters begin to perform surprisingly well compared to fully equipped characters.
I quickly encountered an unfortunate problem with choosing the Famicom version for the solo challenge: in the original Famicom version, with no battery save, the password does not record the state of your party. That means that every time you start the game back up with a password, your party is at full health--including the party members that were deliberately killed off! So I had to come up with a system that would result in them dying without otherwise impacting the game or challenge.
The swamp kill wasn't an option because there are no swamps near Moonpita/Hamlin/Moonahan. I resolved to enter battles and have my hero defend while my unequipped, level-1 allies would attack until the enemies had killed them, then run away from the battle and return to the town, and stay at the inn. This brings the game to a state identical to if they had stayed dead and I stayed at an inn. In general, this is identical to what it otherwise would have been, although if I stay at an inn before getting my password it sometimes results in some wasted gold. It's an annoyance, particularly since I have to frequently reset to avoid losing half my gold, but it's one I'll have to deal with to preserve the integrity of the challenge.
I have learned some interesting things along the way. Some of the English town names have been changed for the Android version. Hamlin is now Moonahan, which seems appropriate, because Moon was clearly a part of the Japanese town name, which is in the vicinity of and associated with Moonbrooke. Lianport is now Rippleport. The Japanese romanji for that is Rupagana, so it seems to reference the consonant sounds in Japanese a bit.
I also discovered something that floored me. There's some dialog in the game that I have never seen before, despite numerous playthroughs, and I strongly suspect its existence is not widely known. I found it as a direct result of the solo challenge; there are two NPC's in Rupagana/Lianport/Rippleport whose dialog in the Famicom version changes if you don't have the princess with you (i.e. if she's dead). I confirmed that this is true in both the Famicom and NES versions, although in both cases the NES dialog has been censored to something completely different.
First off is a man in the middle of town. In the NES he says "I have nothing to say to thee. That's right, nothing at all." In the Japanese version, he actually is drunkenly hitting on the princess, inviting her to have a drink. I think that xloto's translation on Gamefaqs.com is slightly off (though I'm not an expert in this and I could be wrong). He rendered it as starting out "nice behind" or something like that, but I think in this case "behind" was actually referring to the girl behind you. In either case, His dialog is truncated to only the first line if the princess is dead. And this is also true on the NES! He just says, "I have nothing to say to thee."
Of perhaps greater note to Dragon Quest fans is the woman in the lower left corner of town. In the Japanese, she pays a compliment to the princess, while on the NES, she says something bizarre about someone who can turn princes to tadpoles (although it's not entirely clear who she's referring to--no one in the town is otherwise implied to have any supernatural powers). What caught me off guard is what she said when the princess was not there. She asks you if you want a puff-puff.
When I saw that it took me off guard. Xloto's guide on gamefaqs.com mentions that this appears to be the only Dragon Quest game that doesn't have a puff-puff reference, which he found remarkable, and I certainly hadn't seen one on my first playthrough. It turns out the reference is there, in the exact same place you see it in the remakes, but you only see it in the Famicom version if the princess is dead.
Now, what was even more fascinating to me was to see this character's dialog in the NES version when the princess was dead, because she does in fact say something completely different: "Dost thou think I am pretty enough to be a queen?" If you answer yes, she says "Perhaps the great Prince of Cannock thinks so too." If you say no, she says "What's wrong!"
I'm sure there is many a Dragon Warrior II fan out there that has never seen this line of dialog, and it floored me to discover it.
That's my main story for this entry. I've progressed all my files to having explored Alefgard and met the Dragonlord's great grandson. I've had a few setbacks. My Super Famicom file got erased just before getting the Cloak of Wind, and I had to replay it up to that point. More recently, my daughter was playing with my camera and erased some of my recent passwords for my Famicom game, so I have to redo some of it. But overall, I'm still moving forward where and when I can, and enjoying it.
I've also been playing a bit of Dragon Quest VII, VIII, and IX on the side, advancing my characters on my existing files to learn what skills are available in the games. Particularly I've played IX, because it's available to play on the bus, on lunch at work, etc. I'm learning more about which spells and abilities persist through the series. It's all good.
Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to Google Nintendo Switch (formerly known as the NX). Dragon Quest XI is in development for that system, and the system looks very interesting.
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Dragon Quest II
I have begun an undertaking to accomplish several objectives at once regarding Dragon Quest II. I want to compile item, spell, and monster data in this game and others in order to track recurring elements of the series. I hope to eventually create a website devoted to documenting the evolution of the series. But due to differences in the localization of separate entries in the series, and their remakes, it's difficult to accurately track recurring elements just by looking at English resources. And my proficiency at Japanese is still small enough that it is very slow and difficult to look things up on Japanese websites.
Coupling this with a desire to play through the remake versions, and a desire also to try the game with the challenge quests I conceived while playing through challenge quests on Dragon Quest I, I decided that the time was ripe for an interesting undertaking. I committed to it last week, and have already made some headway. I am replaying, effectively all at once, all five versions of the game that I own, comparing items, monsters, etc. in each as I go. These are the original Famicom version, the NES version which I grew up on (these first two are essentially the same version in a different language, though the NES has a battery save), the Super Famicom version, the Game Boy Color version, and the Android version (these last two are based on the Super Famicom version and are very similar in content).
The remakes are more similar to the original than the remakes of Dragon Quest I were to it, as far as I've seen. But some of the mechanics are still different, such as different character stats, and the dialog has been changed in some cases (mostly added to, it seems--unlike Dragon Quest I most of the original version dialog still seems to be there, delivered by the same characters, but it has been expanded upon in many cases). I had played through half of the Game Boy Color version about 4 years ago while Savannah was a newborn in the hospital, but I lost my game file before I could complete it. Since then I have acquired both the Super Famicom and Android versions.
On the Famicom and NES versions I am doing my two challenge quests. On the Famicom, I'm doing a solo challenge. The idea here is to complete the game without the help of any allies. Although you can't get through the game without recruiting your two allies, I will let them die and not revive them and play through with just the Prince of Lorasia/Midenhall. I know the game can be complete this way because I read the account of someone on Gamefaqs.com who did it.
On the NES I'm going to try a minimalist challenge, where I attempt to complete the game without the use of equipment or items, beyond what is necessary for completing the game. This encompasses what they sometimes call a "naked" challenge, but it a little more involved. I did this on Dragon Quest I and want to try it here. I don't know if this challenge is possible, but I'm resolved to try. My gut feel is that it can be done,but it's possible it may require a good bit of luck.
The remake playthroughs will all be normal playthroughs. Since the three versions are very similar to each other, it will be a bit repetitive, but it will be interesting to compare the localization to each other.
I created an outline on my Google Drive of the game, dividing it up into each of the major events and sub-tasks required to complete it. For each "chapter", I am playing each of the five versions in turn.
I've already made some progress. On each of the versions, I have completed the Hero's Spring/Spring of Bravery and (excepting the Famicom) have recruited the Prince of Samarutoria/Cannock.
By far the most time consuming of these has been the minimal challenge. Without equipment it took some time to grind to a level high enough to feel confident in making it to the Spring and back. I was at either level 8 or 9, whichever one is just after 1000 experience. Even so, I ran from nearly every battle I could and still didn't make it on the first try due to getting poisoned. But with the new prince's help, I should be able to keep up better in the future on that one.
I just obtained the silver key on the solo challenge. I decided to hold off recruiting the other prince on that file until after getting the key, so that I can enjoy non-red dialog boxes for just a bit longer. My plan is to use some holy water and walk to the swamp to drain his HP, so as not to claim that killing him in battle protected my other character for that battle. Up till just before going for the silver key, the solo challenge has not been different from a normal playthrough. But I'll surely start to see the difference from here on out. It should be interesting.
Here's an interesting note on the journey to find the Prince of Samarutoria/Cannock. The NES version actually wrote out two different clues for finding him, and then appears to have mistranslated some dialog in a way that completely misleads the player. After visiting the Spring, the king of Midenhall tells the hero, paradoxically, that the other prince just left for Midenhall, leaving the player to wonder how he could leave Midenhall in order to go to Midenhall. The Japanese dialog says that when the other prince heard you had already departed for Samurutoria (Cannock) he left to follow you, implying that he was heading back to his home.
If you go to Samurutoria/Cannock in the Japanese version, the king there tells you that his son has not arrived there yet. This line of dialog is completely written out of the NES version, but it implies that you passed the other prince somewhere on the way between castles. The other line of dialog that was changed for the NES version is from the other prince's sister. In Japanese she says that he is someone who is prone to stopping along the wayside on long journeys--in the NES it was changed to say he'd gone to the Spring of Bravery.
It's not exactly difficult to find the other Prince regardless of these changes, but it's still very interesting to note. All three of these exchanges are preserved almost exactly in the Super Famicom remake, and they appear in the American Game Boy Color and Android versions. The remake versions also add a hint in Lorasia/Midenhall, where the person who offers directions to Ririza/Leftwynn mentions that it is a place where people stop to rest while travelling between the two castles--this part of the dialog is not in the original Famicom or NES versions.
Anyways, I plan to write about my progress here in this blog. I'm sure somewhere there's some old-school Dragon Quest fan that will be interested in reading it.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Back to Dragon Quest
After finally completing Final Fantasy XII, after several years, and after getting a little burned out on The Legend of Zelda, my thoughts recently turned back to Dragon Quest. Before getting into my Zelda games on the 3DS, I knew I was approaching the final areas of Dragon Quest IX. About a month or so ago, I decided to resume my progress, and within a week or two I completed the last two or three dungeons and finished the game.
Dragon Quest IX is different at game's end than any single-player RPG I've ever played. The game saves itself, but rather than letting you revert to your last position before beating the boss, you load the game into a save where the boss is cleared and the final dungeon is gone. It's a true "endgame" scenario, where you're actually playing after the end of the game.
I considered putting the game back down at this point to focus on doing more with earlier games in the series, but I decided to keep at it, revisiting areas, completing quests, searching for treasures, and leveling my characters up in different jobs. I've actually found myself re-addicted to this game, and it is currently my portable game of choice. There's a lot that fascinates me about the game. When you visit Alltrades Abbey after the game's end, they tell you that once you reach max level, you can "revocate" back to level 1 to ensure you can earn enough skill points to learn all of the skills, revealing an added layer of depth to the job system. After the end of the game, there are still numerous areas on the map that are inaccessible to me. I never encountered a means to fly in this game, but wonder if there is one. Every Dragon Quest game since III has had some means of aerial transportation, so part of me guesses that this game does too but that I just haven't found it yet.
Meanwhile, the game has still inspired me to revisit older games in the series. I booted up Dragon Quest VII for the first time in a long time to see if I could work towards unlocking the Hero. I don't know the precise requirements, but the job unlocked as soon as I mastered the Dragoon job, after having also mastered Paladin and Pirate. In VI, I was under the possibly false impression that mastering any advanced job would unlock Hero for your main character. For anyone else, you need to master three specific advanced jobs, which would correspond, I believe, to Dragoon, Sage, and TeenIdol in Dragon Warrior VII. It's possible that your main character has to master one of these three jobs, not just any job, to unlock it. I suspect that is the case in Dragon Warrior VII. I also ended up unlocking an unexpected job called Godhand. I don't remember if this was in Dragon Quest VI or not. I decided to level Hero first, and I'll probably do the other later. But after mastering Hero, I decided to take a break from Dragon Warrior VII.
Seeing more of what was available in Dragon Quest VII and IX made me boot up VIII for a bit. But I couldn't figure a good place to grind, and realized how much I didn't remember already about the game, and decided to put that on hold for a little while.
Significantly, I finished my maximum playthrough of Dragon Quest II, finally obtaining the golden card. I had obtained every item besides this on my Famicom version a few years back, and with the help of the save feature in the NES version I worked out the reels in the lottery (each reel has its own repeating pattern which never changes) and tried to figure out the precise timing to get the suns. I couldn't find much concrete about it online, but I was eventually forced to conclude that even with precise timing, there seems to be a random element to how long it takes the reel to stop.
I gave up back then after getting bored, but I recently dug out my old notes to try again. Within an hour I had won the Golden Card on my NES! I was thrilled, but not satisfied, as it didn't constitute a 100% playthrough since this file didn't have other items I had obtained on the Famicom. I decided to try to get those items on the NES, but I made the mistake of switching out the cartridge between game sessions. I had trouble getting the game to load again after putting it back, and I must have hit it just wrong, because when I finally got it up I got the cursed music indicating my game file was lost.
I decided to try for the reels on the Famicom, despite having to redo lengthy passwords to try. I gradually hedged my bets more and more by getting rid of equipment that I knew I could buy or get back. I ended up with 10 free spaces for lottery tickets, and tried over and over. It took me several days, but the reels finally turned up right. Full of joy, I bought back my missing equiment, fought enough battles to earn my gold back, and marched on to beat Hargon and Sidoh knowing I had obtained one of every item in the game at some point.
I had been trying to decide just what to focus on next. I want to replay Dragon Quest V, and I want to max out my levels and finish item completion on Dragon Quest III. But as of this week, I am resolved first to focus on challenge-quest and remake playthroughs of Dragon Quest II, which I have started in earnest as of yesterday. More on that later.
Dragon Quest IX is different at game's end than any single-player RPG I've ever played. The game saves itself, but rather than letting you revert to your last position before beating the boss, you load the game into a save where the boss is cleared and the final dungeon is gone. It's a true "endgame" scenario, where you're actually playing after the end of the game.
I considered putting the game back down at this point to focus on doing more with earlier games in the series, but I decided to keep at it, revisiting areas, completing quests, searching for treasures, and leveling my characters up in different jobs. I've actually found myself re-addicted to this game, and it is currently my portable game of choice. There's a lot that fascinates me about the game. When you visit Alltrades Abbey after the game's end, they tell you that once you reach max level, you can "revocate" back to level 1 to ensure you can earn enough skill points to learn all of the skills, revealing an added layer of depth to the job system. After the end of the game, there are still numerous areas on the map that are inaccessible to me. I never encountered a means to fly in this game, but wonder if there is one. Every Dragon Quest game since III has had some means of aerial transportation, so part of me guesses that this game does too but that I just haven't found it yet.
Meanwhile, the game has still inspired me to revisit older games in the series. I booted up Dragon Quest VII for the first time in a long time to see if I could work towards unlocking the Hero. I don't know the precise requirements, but the job unlocked as soon as I mastered the Dragoon job, after having also mastered Paladin and Pirate. In VI, I was under the possibly false impression that mastering any advanced job would unlock Hero for your main character. For anyone else, you need to master three specific advanced jobs, which would correspond, I believe, to Dragoon, Sage, and TeenIdol in Dragon Warrior VII. It's possible that your main character has to master one of these three jobs, not just any job, to unlock it. I suspect that is the case in Dragon Warrior VII. I also ended up unlocking an unexpected job called Godhand. I don't remember if this was in Dragon Quest VI or not. I decided to level Hero first, and I'll probably do the other later. But after mastering Hero, I decided to take a break from Dragon Warrior VII.
Seeing more of what was available in Dragon Quest VII and IX made me boot up VIII for a bit. But I couldn't figure a good place to grind, and realized how much I didn't remember already about the game, and decided to put that on hold for a little while.
Significantly, I finished my maximum playthrough of Dragon Quest II, finally obtaining the golden card. I had obtained every item besides this on my Famicom version a few years back, and with the help of the save feature in the NES version I worked out the reels in the lottery (each reel has its own repeating pattern which never changes) and tried to figure out the precise timing to get the suns. I couldn't find much concrete about it online, but I was eventually forced to conclude that even with precise timing, there seems to be a random element to how long it takes the reel to stop.
I gave up back then after getting bored, but I recently dug out my old notes to try again. Within an hour I had won the Golden Card on my NES! I was thrilled, but not satisfied, as it didn't constitute a 100% playthrough since this file didn't have other items I had obtained on the Famicom. I decided to try to get those items on the NES, but I made the mistake of switching out the cartridge between game sessions. I had trouble getting the game to load again after putting it back, and I must have hit it just wrong, because when I finally got it up I got the cursed music indicating my game file was lost.
I decided to try for the reels on the Famicom, despite having to redo lengthy passwords to try. I gradually hedged my bets more and more by getting rid of equipment that I knew I could buy or get back. I ended up with 10 free spaces for lottery tickets, and tried over and over. It took me several days, but the reels finally turned up right. Full of joy, I bought back my missing equiment, fought enough battles to earn my gold back, and marched on to beat Hargon and Sidoh knowing I had obtained one of every item in the game at some point.
I had been trying to decide just what to focus on next. I want to replay Dragon Quest V, and I want to max out my levels and finish item completion on Dragon Quest III. But as of this week, I am resolved first to focus on challenge-quest and remake playthroughs of Dragon Quest II, which I have started in earnest as of yesterday. More on that later.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Catching up on Final Fantasy
At some point during the year, when I was tiring of Zelda and looking for something to play, I decided to finally pick up where I left off on Final Fantasy XII and push forward. I had started this game a few years ago, and was enjoying it fairly well. But right when I got my copy of Dragon Quest V, I started focusing all of my efforts on that game, and didn't let up until I had finished Dragon Quest VIII over a year later. Final Fantasy XII fell by the wayside.
At some point I had picked it back up and played for a little bit, then did so again at some point later. I had considered starting over, since after so much time I didn't have as clear a memory of the story at each break point as I would have liked. But I kept slogging on. When I picked it up at the last, I found I was surprisingly close to the end. After playing for a week or so, I found myself climbing a very high tower that felt a lot like a final or just-before-final dungeon, and the story felt like it was building to a climax. Sure enough, at the completion of the tower, I saved my game, and the next area I went to was the showdown with the game's final boss.
The boss took me several tries to beat. Each time I beat the first and second forms without too much trouble, but the third and final form was quite difficult. I felt like I did a little bit better each time as I learned the boss's attack patterns and prepared my party differently. But with the cutscenes preceding the battle and three boss fights (the boss's first two forms and one other fight previous, it takes nearly an hour to even get to the fight from the last save, so it took me probably nearly a week to fight the boss five times. I think it was the fifth try that I finally beat him on. I didn't end up having to level up past what I had when I first got to the save point, but it was a tough fight at that level and I wouldn't guarantee that a sixth try would also beat him.
The ending was very satisfying to me. I really like the characters in this game and their interactions with one another, and I thought that the ending was very fitting for each of them. I have since learned the ending song and decided that I really like it, as well. I ended up watching a long Youtube video afterward that contained all of the game's cutscenes, to tie up the parts of the story that I couldn't remember clearly. I hadn't forgotten as much as I thought, but a few details that I had forgotten really ended up making the ending chapters of the game more satisfying.
I got my hands on a copy of Final Fantasy XIII, and I have begun playing the game through. My brother, Bryan, has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't like this game, and I get the impression that much of the internet doesn't, either. But then again, I've never found that the internet as a whole has the same opinions of things that I do, so I've gone into it with an open mind.
So far, I think I am enjoying it. I actually think it improves on the thing that I disliked most about Final Fantasy XII, which was the combat. The gambit system on Final Fantasy XII was innovative to be sure, but I found it quite ineffective for fighting difficult battles and spent most of my time pausing battles trying to manually override gambits. Unless you spend a lot of time grinding, it is difficult to come up with a series of gambits that will fit all situations, but it is quite tedious to change the gambits for individual situations. I found the system very frustrating overall.
Final Fantasy XIII also uses an automatic system, and removes manual override for your supporting characters. But instead of setting gambits, it has something like a pre-defined gambit system for each character job role that you choose, which appears to be somewhat more sophisticated. Rather than setting gambits, you set "paradigms" to choose from. The paradigm consists of a set of job roles for each character in your party, and you can change them on the fly during battle with a quick button sequence. I have found it so far to be a much easier system to manage than FFXII's.
I'm not too keen on the notion that if your party leader dies, you automatically lose the fight, but at least they offset that by letting you redo the fight if you lose without reverting to your last save.
One complaint my brother expressed that is valid is that the game's exploration is very linear, perhaps more so than any other RPG I've played.There isn't really much actual exploration, as you're essentially confined to a corridor moving forward with very few short side paths, and the occasional fork that branches right back to the main path after a short distance. It helps keep the story to a more regular pace, maybe, but I think I would prefer actual dungeons or wider areas to explore.
But so far I really like the game's story. It starts at the end of a thirteen-day period, right in the middle of the story, as it seems, and gradually reveals the events of the past thirteen days through character flashbacks. I find it a very engaging way to learn about each of the characters and what brought them together. The dynamic works very well, and I am continually looking forward to the next cutscene or story element.
I also like the character development system so far, which seems to combine elements of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X (one of my favorite systems) with a Final Fantasy Job System element. It also has an element which limits development for certain sections of the game, without limiting the experience points you gain, so that fighting a lot of battles might give you only so much advantage in the short term, but might help you develop quickly when the restrictions are lifted and your grid levels up. I find that interesting, so far.
Patty took an interest in the game's story shortly after I started, so I'm currently playing it only when she is downstairs and not using the TV. (Meanwhile, when that TV is free and she's not downstairs, I'm picking away at Zelda Wind Waker.)
At some point I had picked it back up and played for a little bit, then did so again at some point later. I had considered starting over, since after so much time I didn't have as clear a memory of the story at each break point as I would have liked. But I kept slogging on. When I picked it up at the last, I found I was surprisingly close to the end. After playing for a week or so, I found myself climbing a very high tower that felt a lot like a final or just-before-final dungeon, and the story felt like it was building to a climax. Sure enough, at the completion of the tower, I saved my game, and the next area I went to was the showdown with the game's final boss.
The boss took me several tries to beat. Each time I beat the first and second forms without too much trouble, but the third and final form was quite difficult. I felt like I did a little bit better each time as I learned the boss's attack patterns and prepared my party differently. But with the cutscenes preceding the battle and three boss fights (the boss's first two forms and one other fight previous, it takes nearly an hour to even get to the fight from the last save, so it took me probably nearly a week to fight the boss five times. I think it was the fifth try that I finally beat him on. I didn't end up having to level up past what I had when I first got to the save point, but it was a tough fight at that level and I wouldn't guarantee that a sixth try would also beat him.
The ending was very satisfying to me. I really like the characters in this game and their interactions with one another, and I thought that the ending was very fitting for each of them. I have since learned the ending song and decided that I really like it, as well. I ended up watching a long Youtube video afterward that contained all of the game's cutscenes, to tie up the parts of the story that I couldn't remember clearly. I hadn't forgotten as much as I thought, but a few details that I had forgotten really ended up making the ending chapters of the game more satisfying.
I got my hands on a copy of Final Fantasy XIII, and I have begun playing the game through. My brother, Bryan, has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't like this game, and I get the impression that much of the internet doesn't, either. But then again, I've never found that the internet as a whole has the same opinions of things that I do, so I've gone into it with an open mind.
So far, I think I am enjoying it. I actually think it improves on the thing that I disliked most about Final Fantasy XII, which was the combat. The gambit system on Final Fantasy XII was innovative to be sure, but I found it quite ineffective for fighting difficult battles and spent most of my time pausing battles trying to manually override gambits. Unless you spend a lot of time grinding, it is difficult to come up with a series of gambits that will fit all situations, but it is quite tedious to change the gambits for individual situations. I found the system very frustrating overall.
Final Fantasy XIII also uses an automatic system, and removes manual override for your supporting characters. But instead of setting gambits, it has something like a pre-defined gambit system for each character job role that you choose, which appears to be somewhat more sophisticated. Rather than setting gambits, you set "paradigms" to choose from. The paradigm consists of a set of job roles for each character in your party, and you can change them on the fly during battle with a quick button sequence. I have found it so far to be a much easier system to manage than FFXII's.
I'm not too keen on the notion that if your party leader dies, you automatically lose the fight, but at least they offset that by letting you redo the fight if you lose without reverting to your last save.
One complaint my brother expressed that is valid is that the game's exploration is very linear, perhaps more so than any other RPG I've played.There isn't really much actual exploration, as you're essentially confined to a corridor moving forward with very few short side paths, and the occasional fork that branches right back to the main path after a short distance. It helps keep the story to a more regular pace, maybe, but I think I would prefer actual dungeons or wider areas to explore.
But so far I really like the game's story. It starts at the end of a thirteen-day period, right in the middle of the story, as it seems, and gradually reveals the events of the past thirteen days through character flashbacks. I find it a very engaging way to learn about each of the characters and what brought them together. The dynamic works very well, and I am continually looking forward to the next cutscene or story element.
I also like the character development system so far, which seems to combine elements of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X (one of my favorite systems) with a Final Fantasy Job System element. It also has an element which limits development for certain sections of the game, without limiting the experience points you gain, so that fighting a lot of battles might give you only so much advantage in the short term, but might help you develop quickly when the restrictions are lifted and your grid levels up. I find that interesting, so far.
Patty took an interest in the game's story shortly after I started, so I'm currently playing it only when she is downstairs and not using the TV. (Meanwhile, when that TV is free and she's not downstairs, I'm picking away at Zelda Wind Waker.)
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Five Months Later...
Well, I suppose it may be possible that I won't turn out to be a very regular blogger. Life is very busy and time is very short. When it comes to a choice between playing games and writing about games, I'll usually choose the former. But I've had the blog in the back of my mind here and there for a while now, and I thought that it might be a good time to update it.
I haven't played very much of Final Fantasy XI recently. I got a bit burned out on it, and started spending my time elsewhere. The games I have played in the last few months include:
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
- Final Fantasy XII
- Final Fantasy XIII
- Dragon Quest IX
As of this writing, I have beaten all of the above except for Final Fantasy XIII. I finished Dragon Quest IX finally a week or two ago.
Most of my video game time recently has been spent with The Legend of Zelda series. I figure that out of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest, Zelda will take the least amount of time to explore as fully as I would like to. My recent efforts include trying to get 100% completion in Wind Waker (not resorting to a guide, if possible), replaying Minish Cap, which I had rushed through years ago prior to playing Twilight Princess, and which I did not remember well, and playing through to the end of my several-year-old copy of Phantom Hourglass.
Playing through Wind Waker was, of course, amazing. It is easily one of the best Zelda games I have played. I had forgotten much in the 13 years or so since I had played it, but the game was no less epic than I thought I had remembered.
The only problem was that after I had completed what I felt like was a pretty thorough playthrough, I was still missing over ten pieces of heart and over half a dozen treasure charts, and had still not been able to figure out how to access the Nintendo gallery near the Forest Haven (meaning, I could get to the gallery, but couldn't figure out how to actually create the figurines--I couldn't figure out how to take color photographs). I didn't have the energy to search for so many missing things, so I put it on hold for a while.
That was a while ago. Since then, I have picked at it here and there. I found a few pieces of heart and treasure charts, but most importantly, I figured out the photos I needed to take to get the Deluxe Picto-Box and start taking color photos. It turned out that the Deluxe Picto-Box almost immediately helped me to get one treasure chart and one piece of heart (the treasure chart itself yielded an additional piece of heart). And then I got addicted to the figuring collection side quest and started playing quite a bit more.
Unfortunately again, after scouring the world and not finding enough figurines in certain areas, I was forced to conclude that there may be some figurines that are permanently missable--in other words, unavailable after a certain portion of the game is completed. For example, there is a character on Dragon Roost Island in the earlier stages of the game that disappears from the island later on, and as far as I can tell his figurine is unavailable at the end of the game.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to start the game over to see if I could capture some of my missing figurines. I just finished the Forbidden Woods and am going to do a quick once-over of each island in the sea to make sure there's no characters I don't remember that might disappear after getting the third pearl. I also intend to see if I can get figurines of Tetra's crew while they are on Windfall. I've been working on this bit by bit when I'm alone at home and don't have to share the TV.
During the early summer, I was working on the Oracle games. After I finished them, I learned about the Hero's Secret and how it was necessary for collecting all the rings. After a lot of time spent replaying the games again, I finally managed to get all of the rings except for the two GBA rings. Some day I'll get a working copy of Oracle of Ages (I have one of Seasons) and I'll use the password system to get the rings from those games.
After completing those, I jumped into Minish Cap. That was a delight. I did remember enjoying the game, but now I realize that it is one of the best 2-D Zelda games, nearly on the same level as A Link to the Past. It is very rewarding to play through. I just wish it were longer. But there's plenty of time to be spent trying to find all the secrets.
Unfortunately, after an exhaustive search, I was still missing two or three heart pieces and some amulet that is mentioned in game. I plan to start the game over and start documenting where I find treasures in hopes that it will help me find the rest. But I probably won't do that until I'm done doing that with Wind Waker.
The most recent Zelda game I played was Phantom Hourglass. That was another good experience. I had played it part way through when I first got it years ago. I even got probably about half way. I think it was around the same time that I was playing Skyward Sword and Final Fantasy XII. I didn't finish any of those games at that time, for reasons I've stated previously. It felt very good to finally complete the game. I found all of the heart containers, but I came up short on several spirit stones. It's another game I'll probably restart and document locations for treasure, to help me focus my search better. I might pick away at trying to get ship parts, but right now I'm taking a break from it.
That about catches me up on Zelda. I plan to write more later about Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
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