Gaming in COVID, Chipping Away

Well, a lot has been going on since March, in the world in general and in my life. I've been in the interesting position of working from home. In theory, that gives me more time for things I enjoy. But it's been a stressful time. And I find that gaming for stress relief versus gaming for fun is different. Somehow I seem to end up playing fewer games with fewer accomplishments on those games while taking more time, and enjoying it less. And, as I've said before, during the stressful months it's hard to write here.

I finished my Dragon Quest III minimalist challenge. Once my wizard hit level 35, the rest of the game went very quickly. I took her to level 40 outside Samanao and then changed her to a priest. Even at a low level, with high-level Wizard spells I still breezed through dungeons and bosses. I had already done everything outside the Necrogond before I even had changed my Goof-Offs to Sages. I had to level up a little for the Necrogond cave and Baramos after, but it still wasn't much time overall.

Zoma was the part of the challenge I hadn't quite figured out. I levelled till I had all spells for my two Sages and my Wizard turned Priest turned Fighter. I still couldn't beat Zoma with no equipment and no Sphere of Light at my HP levels, and set in for another long grind, before I had a flash of inspiration and discovered a strategy that didn't require further levelling. I made use of the Transform spell, spamming Lightning on Zoma. I did some math and realized that with the right sequence of commands, I could push the odds of winning with that strategy past 10%, and within half a dozen attempts I was successful. 

I've been working on doing Dragon Quest IV solo now. I did the first four chapters with the lead party member solo (Nara was the hardest, but I finally got lucky with the Silver Tarot Cards inflicting Balzack with Surround). I'm now up to Mintos in Chapter 5.

I'm giving in to an old semi-OCD play-style on this playthrough. Like I did in the solo Dragon Warrior III challenge, I'm stepping on every square. For reasons I'm not sure I can describe, I did this in Dragon Warrior I & II and found it an interesting way to mix up the level grind. By the time I started it in Dragon Warrior III solo, I had begun to tire of it but wanted to finish what I'd started. I actually started a solo Dragon Warrior IV around the same time and started off that way too, thinking it would help with the level grind. Once I finish this playthrough I won't do this again in another game.

But I had one other motivation besides mixing up the level grind. I thought it might help me in my search for Small Medals. The last time I played I made a list of the ones I found. Since the game doesn't tell you if you've found them all, I looked up the total number and learned I was missing three. Some time back I booted up the game just to play casually for a short time on my existing game file, and I just happened to search a conspicuous spot and find one I didn't have. I thought that forcing myself to step on each game tile might tune me in to check remaining conspicuous spots.

Small Medal Spoiler Alert: I've already found one that I didn't have, right in the town where I previously mentioned I'm at. So now I only need to find one more.

Once I finish finding them, I'll go back to my Japanese game file at level 99 and finish getting 100% of the items.

I also bought myself an import PS2 to play the remake of Dragon Quest IV. Unfortunately, the copy of the game my wife had previously gifted me wouldn't work on the system and I had to buy a new copy of the game. But I'll play the different versions side by side like I did with the other Dragon Quest games, once I finish my solo game.

I got Collection of Mana for my birthday and I've been playing Final Fantasy Adventure. It's a fun enough game, if a simple one. I've played it before (I have the original cartridge) but I don't remember it well. I just got the Rusty Sword and I'm expecting to finish it very soon. Then I'll replay Secret of Mana, a game I know I played through but which I also can barely remember.

I kind of stalled out on my playthroughs of Banjo Kazooie and Pokemon Blue, but I'll probably pick them up again before too long. I beat Super Mario RPG and have started Paper Mario, but so far I've only been playing when my daughter is around (debating on whether or not to just play anyway, because it seems really good).

I also finally beat Earthbound Beginnings. It's a very interesting game, but it would be a lot more fun if the encounter rate wasn't so terribly high. I didn't make good enough use of Repel Rings because I was afraid of spending too much gold and filling too much of my inventory, but I should have got them anyway. Most other items aren't terribly useful and you get way more gold than you can practically spend.

I want to replay Earthbound, but I need to get my hands on a working Super Nintendo. (I do have a copy of the game from way back when).

I've also been chipping away at unlocking things in old Smash Bros. games again. I finally looked up how to unlock Mewtwo in Melee, because nothing I did was working. I was trying to unlock each character without using the "Play xxx versus matches" method. Turns out (spoiler alert) you can't unlock him without playing versus. Both unlock methods are done with versus games.

I was able to determine that we had unlocked him this way in our older game files, so I was satisfied that I didn't miss out on anything here by looking it up.

There's probably more I'm missing. If I get the oomph to write again before long, I'll try and pick up the slack. I'm really looking for ways to make the whole experience of my games less solitary, and writing about it in a blog is one way to do that. We'll see what happens.

So Many Games

I've been playing a larger variety of games lately than I have in quite some time. I muse on it all the time. I thought it might be time to write about it.

First off, I'm much farther in to my Dragon Quest III challenge. My wizard has around 243,000 EXP, closing in on 3/4 of the necessary experience to learn the Open spell. I had a goal to get there by the end of the month, but I got derailed from it a bit.

I recently finished playing Luigi's Mansion. I thought I had played it through years ago, when it was still fairly new, but nothing about the game beyond the first few rooms has prompted any memories. I think I must have put it in my queue and then forgot that I never actually got to it. I played it through with my daughter as an audience, because it was her interest in the recently released #3 that prompted me to get this game from my little brother and play it through.

I'm also getting close to finishing Super Mario RPG on my Wii U Virtual Console. That's a game I downloaded a few years ago also partly for my daughter's sake, but fell off playing fairly early in. But I picked it back up a little bit ago and I play it when it's just me and my daughter in the family room. I've wanted for a long time to play through the whole list of Mario RPG's, and my daughter has become a fan of the Paper Mario games. So I thought replaying this would be a great starting point.

I've picked up a few games on my Wii U, which makes a good system to play when I'm watching movies or TV shows with my family. I finally finished off 100% on Super Mario 3-D World. I had done all the original characters and about half of the game with Rosalina before falling off of it, but I've beaten everything with her now also. Her little spin jump move was surprisingly useful on Champion's Road, and the level wasn't as hard as I thought it would be after so much time (though it still took me a few hours of trying to get it).

In the last couple of weeks, I've also settled down playing Earthbound Beginnings, which I downloaded some time ago on the Wii U but, again, didn't get far in before getting distracted. It takes a bit of time to figure out what you can do at the beginning while simultaneously getting your character strong enough to do it. I finally finished the Podunk town area and just got back there after detouring through Magicant and Merrysville.

And I've officially picked up playing Pokemon Blue on my old Game Boy Advance. I played this game when it was new, but never finished it. One day back then I booted it up and found my game file had been deleted. I always thought it might have been related to accidentally sending the game through the washing machine, but I think I remember still playing my old file for a few days after that before I lost it.

In any case, I restarted, but at some point the game stopped loading properly at all. Again, I always suspected it might be related to running it through the washing machine a second time, despite the fact that I gave it ample time to dry before running it. But I've learned recently that for all these years it may never have been a problem with water at all.

Last year I was researching game cartridge repair for a different cartridge, and I was inspired to try something. I took a Q-tip and some rubbing alcohol and cleaned up the contacts on my Pokemon Blue game. I was floored to find that it booted up fine. After all these years the only thing that kept me from finishing the game was dirty contacts!

After all these years, I had planned to start over, but after looking at my file and the Pokemon I'd caught and named, I couldn't go through with erasing it. Instead I found a good Let's Play video on Youtube and watched it up to the point that it caught up to my file, which was shortly after the S.S. Anne. This morning I was on my way through the Rock Tunnel when my GBA battery suddenly died (it's an SP model with the rechargeable battery). Sometime soon I want to get a Link Cable and Link with the Pokemon Yellow I bought for my daughter last year in anticipation of my playthrough. I think she'll get a kick out of that.

There's more to say, but I'm out of time. I'll try and to another entry before long.

Dragon Quest, Christmas, and More

Not long ago I finally finished Dragon Quest XI. It's quite an amazing game. Even after just one playthrough, I think it may be the best game in the series. It's got a great story and some amazing characters. The battle mechanics and character development system are engaging. It evokes nostalgia while still moving into new territory. I loved it.

It's also a very long game. It took me significantly longer than even Dragon Quest VII, which previously was the longest single player RPG I'd ever played. But I enjoyed it all the way through. The further I got, the more the game drew me in. I'd recommend this to any JRPG fan.

After finishing the game, I decided I was ready to go back and revisit my minimalist challenge on Dragon Quest III. I've been chipping away at it for a few weeks. I've made it up to level 17. EXP-wise I am about one-fourth of the way to where I was when I accidentally erased my file, which is about one-sixteenth of the total amount needed to learn the Open spell. Moving forward.

I got the game Banjo Kazooie for Christmas. I have an extensive collection of Nintendo 64 games including most of the systems biggest hits, but this is one hit that I never got around to buying or playing back then. I was inspired to put it on my Christmas list after Banjo & Kazooie made it into Smash Bros. Ultimate. I've finished the first three levels in the game and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. But I think it's going to have to be a weekend game. Trying to get everything in a single level takes longer than I have on the weekdays.

I finished replaying Startropics on my Switch, a classic NES game that was a favorite of mine long ago but which seems to have become much more obscure than other contemporary Nintendo properties. I've started playing through Crystalis, which recently got added to the NES selection on the Switch and is also a classic that I very much enjoyed back then.

I decided for the New Year I need to really cut back on Tetris 99. I've spent way too much time with new game modes and trying to unlock new character icons. The game is quite addicting.

I also got Kid Icarus: Uprising, hoping to finish off the series. I've only played the first two levels. It's very different than the games it's supposedly based on. I'm a little disappointed by how different; there don't seem to be many similarities on the surface at all, and I really liked the old games. But it's really too soon in to judge it too much.

That's all for now.

Smash Nostalgia, Classic Games

This post is a little out-of-date, because I started it late September but didn't finish. I finished the Game Boy Kid Icarus paragraph mid November.

One consequence of playing a lot of Super Smash Bros. lately is that I have felt inspired to go back and play a variety of the games represented by it. It's a natural result of the nostalgia that gets evoked. I mentioned a few posts ago that I felt inspired to replay the NES Castlevania games, largely as a result of Simon Belmont's inclusion in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Lately I've decided to sample quite a few others.

A few weeks ago I asked myself the question, "What Smash-related games could I go back and revisit, or possibly visit for the first time?" One of the choices I decided to investigate was Kid Icarus, which has two characters represented in it. I was surprised to learn that since Pit's inclusion in Smash Bros., there has only been one Kid Icarus game made, making a total of only three games in his series. For some reason I thought there had been at least one more.

Well, I've played through the original Kid Icarus a few times in my life and have fond memories of it. A few years ago I purchased the Game Boy sequel, but have never actually got around to playing it. I decided it was the perfect time to revisit it.

First I played through Kid Icarus again. I played it on the Switch, as one of the many NES games available through the Switch Online service. It was a good way to do it, because I didn't need to use any passwords and I could easily play it in short segments as I had time. It's been a few years and because of the game's level diversity it was good to have a refresher.

I enjoyed playing through Kid Icarus of Myths and Monsters on the Game Boy. In truth, it's a very similar experience to the NES version. It's what you might call a cookie-cutter sequel. I've often seen that term used in a derogatory manner, but I don't mean it that way. It's a pretty faithful recreation of the overall experience of the NES game, with some improvements here and there. I think if one enjoyed the NES game, as I always did, they would enjoy the Game Boy Game.

Another game I've tried out is Punch-Out! Playing on the switch is a stark reminder of how brutally difficult this game was when I was younger. I finally got to and beat Mike Tyson when I was a teenager, but I think I only ever did it once. After a few weeks of practice, I finally got to Mr. Dream on this version (the white Mike Tyson that remained after Nintendo's licensing deal expired). But I ran out of steam before I managed to finish him. I'll have to pick it up again soon.

It's been quite fun to have friends and family over for Smash Bros. game nights in recent times. It really is a fun game to play, especially with friends and family. And it really drives home just the right kind of nostalgia.

Ultimate Gaming with Friends

I couldn't settle on what to play during my lunch break. I decided maybe it would be a good time to write a blog entry instead.

I go through frequent periods of not writing here. I've said before that when it comes to dividing my time between playing a game and writing about a game, I will usually choose playing the game. But there's a certain, almost therapeutic aspect to sharing my experiences. When I was younger I shared my gaming experiences with my brothers and the few friends I had. But there aren't many people in my current regular social circles who have a large overlap in video game interests. So I'll share with the Internet and imagine that somewhere, sometime, someone will read this and enjoy it.

Lately, I've been devoting most of my gaming attention to different incarnations of Super Smash Bros. Over the last few months I've had numerous opportunities to visit with both of my brothers and other family members who I've been able to play the game with. I even hosted a Smash Bros. Ultimate game night at my house last month, and plan to host another one in two weeks.

Playing games with friends is something I always enjoyed immensely in my youth, but since becoming an adult and moving out on my own, my opportunities for doing so have been very sporadic. But, due to shifting life conditions, I see my both of my brothers a lot more frequently these days than I used to. I see some of my cousins and other extended family fairly often. I'm trying to reach out to old friends online more than I did. I think I'm realizing just how much I miss having people around to play games with.

Super Smash Bros. was one of our go-to staples for multiplayer gaming in our house on the Nintendo 64. Before we all moved out on our own, Super Smash Bros. Melee was the game we played most out of all concurrent multiplayer games. And during the rare times we got together or played online in the following decade, Smash Bros. Brawl was our go-to. But one brother didn't have internet and the other one I gradually lost touch with for a while despite technology. And the one without internet eventually sold his Wii to get an XBox 360. (Not something I would have done, but to each his own.)

I'm the only one of my brothers to ever get the Wii U and 3DS versions. I'm pretty sure neither of my brothers ever played the latter, and only my youngest brother ever played the former on my console. I got the game late in the Wii U's short life cycle, and none of us had much experience together with it.

We're having something of a renaissance with the Switch version. I've reconnected considerably with both of my brothers considerably in the past couple of years. And in the times we've visited, we've been able to put a good amount of time playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. together, like old times. Due to the game's large success, I also have more friends and family who have and play the game. So I've been having a lot of opportunities to play non-solo in recent months.

Plus, the game is just plain fantastic anyway. I remember in days gone by regarding Melee as a Nintendo nostalgic's dream game. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is similarly wonderful at evoking nostalgia in someone who has been a video game fan as long as myself. I recently completed the Adventure Mode. It's amazing how much care they take in making the Spirit battles remind you of aspects in past games, by using combinations of characters and/or conditions to approximate some character or event in a game from years ago.

It's been fun to get some of those obscure references. But at the same time, the series has grown so large that there are many represented games and series that I never played, and many references I don't get. So not only do I now want to go back and replay a lot of games, there are now a lot of games and series I want to try for the first time.

It all evokes a lot of emotion in me. It makes me want to share that emotion more. I really enjoy playing games, but I like sharing them too. This blog provides a great outlet to do so. So if I can find the time, I'm gonna try again to write here more often.

Dragon Quest Post-Game Stuff

Over the last few months I've been chipping away at Dragon Quest IV for the Nintendo DS. I decided to go ahead and play it ahead of Dragon Quest IV challenge quests I had, reasoning that if I wanted to do a similar comparison to what I did on the first three games I could do it with the Smartphone version, which I assume uses the same translation.

Over the weekend I finally finished the main game. I liked it, but as far as a remake goes it didn't feel as engaging overall as the Dragon Quest III remakes. The new town was in interesting mechanic, and the expansion of the mini-medals. I liked the Thief abilities added to Torneko and Bray. And it certainly feels nice to have manual control over all characters in Chapter 5.

On the other hand, I beat this several levels sooner than previous NES/Famicom playthroughs. I didn't even finish out my Hero's spell list before winning. Dragon Quest IV's original versions were already among the easiest in the whole series. It didn't really need to be made easier still. Several of the boss fights were made harder, but that didn't do a whole lot to make things more interesting.

The last few days I've been exploring the post-game content. I had gathered from stray comments and headlines on message boards and Google searches on the NES game that there was a Chapter 6. It involves a new dungeon and at least two new boss fights, similar to post-game content of other Dragon Quest games. It also involves unlocking a new player character, which I did today, but losing the dragon NPC that is with you at the end of the regular game (Sparkie is his name on the DS; I believe it was Doran on NES). It also adds some new story elements.

It's been a lengthier process than other DQ games where I've finished or nearly finished the post game content, which makes it more interesting. But, unlike other Dragon Quest games, the post-game content appears to eventually close off the game's normal final boss and ending, making them unavailable after a point. I'm not 100% sure of this, but that's the appearance as of where I am. I'll test it on my next play session.

My interest in the post-game content of the various Dragon Quest games has been reignited lately. All of the main games from V onward have such content, and the remakes of III and IV have some added in. I've finished the dungeons and bosses of Dragon Quest V and VI, and finished just the dungeons of III and (I believe) IV. I didn't find all of the map shards to unlock new content in VII, but I'll get back to that search someday. I had gone through the content in VIII up to the home of the Dragovians. This last week I was inspired to go further. My characters in this game have a harder time making it through regular enemies in this dungeon than in other games. I got all of the chests in the first two areas, and I think I'll try pushing further tonight.

I'm really intrigued again into trying to figure out more on Dragon Quest IX, which I plan to dive back into very soon after at least attempting the boss on IV. I've always felt that there was more to unlock story-wise in the game's post-game, but I've failed to figure out how. There's a plethora of gameplay content in that game after the "end", but aside from unlocking the Starflight Express, none of it seems to affect the rest of the game. I know there must be something, for example, to do in the Tower of Nod, but I've failed to discover just what can be done there.

Well, I'm inching away at my quest to discover all things Dragon Quest related. I'll get there eventually.

Meandering through Multiple Games

I met with a spot of catastrophe in my Dragon Quest III no-equipment challenge a couple of weeks ago. As I loaded to the opening menu, I must have somehow hit the down button twice before making my first selection, because instead of starting my game file, I deleted it instead. Having been about 40 hours into it, I was pretty devastated by it.

Since then, I haven't found the motivation to pick it back up again, but have instead been trying to figure out what I feel most motivated to play. I think I've settled into Dragon Quest XI as my current main game. I played several hours into it after I bought when it came out last year for PS4, but I kind of burnt myself out on Dragon Quest in general late last year and put it down for a bit. I'm getting back into it, but it's a hard game to play in 10-20 minute game sessions because there's just so much you can do. With my schedule it's really hard to get into a groove on the game. Should have held out for the Switch version, perhaps.

I just got the ship in the game last night. I didn't have time to do much with it, but it looks like it just opens up the possibilities even wider. It may take a while before I start feeling like I've made any headway.

In the shorter moments, I've also been playing my old NES Castlevania games. Last year they released a Netflix original show, which I tried out the first few episodes of, based on the third game in this series, and also put Simon Belmont in Super Smash Bros. I experienced a wave of nostalgia and started playing the first one not long ago, beating it through after a week or so. I started both of the next two games and have passwords on my phone for both of them.

By the way, modern phone cameras make the perfect solution to the onerous task of jotting down NES game passwords. You can do it in an instant with no chance of transcription errors (although you do have to check that you didn't take a blurry picture), and you don't have to worry about losing the paper you wrote it down on (but be careful you don't delete it by mistake). Would that these had existed in my youth to circumvent endless frustration with NES passwords.

Another interesting aside: not long after I started replaying these old Castlevania games, Konami announced an anniversary package for modern systems, including the Switch, that has all of these games as well as the SNES, Game Boy, and Genesis Castlevania games, for around twenty bucks. I've put it on my birthday list and hope to be able to enjoy me some more classic Castlevania next month.

I've also been playing Dragon Quest IV for the DS. I just got to the area formerly known as Gardenbur Castle, now called Femiscyra. I'm cruising along and I think that when I finish it I'll also finally do my first full replay of Dragon Quest V for the Super Famicom.

Aside from that, I've booted up my Smash Bros. Ultimate a couple of times (partly to play as Simon after beating Castlevania). I also play a few games of Tetris 99 most days, as I have for the past few months. It's my latest bout of Tetris addiction that has grabbed me stronger than any other version since the original Game Boy. I win about one in six games on average.