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Let's play Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light! (Done, yay!)

Should I go crawling through the four optional 100-floor towers even though I haven't really got tim

  • Nah, what for? That's just 400 floors of tedium, without any story or lulz whatsoever.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, who cares about being an obsessive completionist in a Final Fantasy gamey?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes, an LP should be as complete as possible!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes! Nothing like seeing the poor bee suffer! I'm sadistic like that.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • UUKRUL!!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .

Crooked Bee

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Part 6. What gain with Odysseus, or, A curse of stone

Due to spekkio having summoned a certain Horse to aid him in his uneven battle against my glorious LP, I now find myself in the middle of a life and death struggle for finding a via media that would bring peace, harmony, and prosperity to this thread. Meanwhile – so you could all follow this game's wonderful, totally non-cliché plot – a new, I'd even say newfangled, update is in order. No combat, no rage, just pure magic of storytelling. And some new design decisions stolen from neighboring LPs. :smug:

...

Anyway, let's get started. Who's this guy!?

Witches, witches never change. Just when you think it's finally over, just when you're about to enjoy a celebratory ball – the evil grows new roots and lo! multiheaded mischiefs arise from the deep. You may disdain the witch for going down so easily; the joke, however, is on you. Your victory is without glory, and your peace is without quiet.

Last time we left our company of heroes engulfed by the light of a mysteriously talkative blue crystal. They may have defeated the witch, yet what lies in store for them? And what's going on, already?



"The world cannot be allowed to fall into darkness! Heroes of Light, set forth on your journey!"
"Forge new hope from the light of the crystal!"


Volly: I-I must be hallucinating... SMA, do you see this, too?
SMA: Er, yes. At least, I think I do...



"As the Dark flows from the hidden world within, our would-be savior stands helpless, bereft of power."
(I wonder what "would-be savior" is it talking about?)

"O, children of hope!"
:blah:
"To thee I grant this gift of Light, upon thy head a crown of might."



Looks like we have obtained our first "crown", i.e., an equippable and upgradeable class.
:yeah:

"Enter the magic circle now, and to safety you shall fly. Go forth, Heroes of Light, and seek your adventure!"

What magic circle, you ask? This magic circle:



Oh my, it's pink!
First, however, time to do some talking. We hear SMA wonder:



Volly, unsurprisingly for a pretty princess, suggests we make her our main character:




And BRO argues that a crown is good for you:



We see that we have a new option "Crown" in the menu:



So let's have a look at the crown we've been presented with:




Looks like it grants a new ability, Runaway, which gives us a chance (not 100%, though) to escape from a battle, and makes recovery items more effective. It doesn't alter Volly's stats at this point, though, which is a mystery to me, since, as we'll see later, it will alter both Codexer's and SMA's stats a bit further down the road. Still, we equip the Wayfarer crown on Volly and make her our main controllable character (everything for our pretty princess!):



This done, we step into the magic circle and get teleported right outside the Witch's Mansion...



... and enter the North Caves to make our way back to the village:



Along the way, we easily deal with two Lizardmen and two Blood Bats, looting a ruby and a Phoenix Down. North Caves B1 is a tutorial area now, in which SMA, BRO, and Codexer teach Volly the way of the crown:





To satisfy our piqued curiosity, we try to upgrade our crown...



...only to find out that, even though we've got enough rubies to fill the upper slots, we don't yet have any of the square-shaped gems required to fill up the rest:


:rpgcodex:
Bah. We'll have to play the game of upgrading later, then.



Moving on, we get ambushed by a pack of 4 blood bats. Weak suckers. 4 exp. And 2 gems as loot. :thumbsup:
Upon getting out of the caves back onto the world map, however, we stumble upon a new type of enemy - a group of four imps:



Imps are very weak, and hit our characters for just 1 damage per attack. Meh. Nothing to talk about much. Defeating them, however, allows our BRO to level up:


:bro:
BRO goes from level 7 to level 8, gaining +3 hp to his max health, and nothing more. :(

We finally arrive to the village, safe and sound:



Yet something is afoot here. Something strange and horrible. Something not to be taken lightly.

...

An evil curse! Laid by a witch, nya! :roll:

And so the heroes who had cheated death in the Witch's Mansion faced another, greater evil. The wicked witch, in her moment of defeat, laid a curse upon the land, a crooked curse of stone. And so the town of Horne was forever changed.




Even the local shopkeeper's been turned to stone, so we can't buy anything from or sell anything to him. Only our Codexer's parrot is alive and well, so maybe it was the bird that laid the curse?



This bird is the root of all evil, I tell you. :M
Our heroes, however, think that the witch must be involved.

SMA: What's going on here? I though we had defeated the witch...
Codexer: Is this happening because we fought the witch?
BRO: Could this have something to do with the witch's contract?

Even the local sheep are afflicted:



:x We shall revenge you, sheep!
I guess we should visit the castle and demand some answers!

Unfortunately, everyone in the castle is turned to stone, too, and the king's throne is empty!




A strangely-looking fella's standing in the middle of the throne room, though, so we chat him up:



Head of BMIU: I'm sorry to report that Horne has been stricken by an evil curse.
Head of BMIU: For your own protection, we can take you back with us to Liberte. You would be much safer there.

Once again, we get a fake choice between agreeing or protesting. Naturally, we protest. This makes our BRO turn on us, however:



You're NOT a true bro, BRO! :cry:

Codexer: But what about the people here? We have to help them!
BRO: WE don't have to do anything, but YOU are welcome to do what you like.
:retarded: Where's the love, BRO? :?
SMA: Erm, I hate to impose... but would you please take Lady Volly with you to Liberte?
(SMA looks at Codexer.)
SMA: I must stay in Horne, too. I can't help thinking I'm partly to blame for this.


They leave with all their items! : x Heh.
Looks like we're stuck with SMA for now. Oh well.

Head of BMIU: It's much too dangerous here in Horne. Who knows what will happen next? You'd best leave, and soon!




No BRO love, it seems. BRO, I am disappoint. :/
Still, BRO'll get Volly to safety. So we forgive him. And after all, "what gain with Odysseus"? The safer the better, right, BRO?

Walking around the castle, we meet a few more Baneful Magick Investigation Unit members:



BMIU member #2: What on earth happened here? Is this the curse of a witch?
BMIU member #3: Did the king really enter into a contract with a witch!?

That king really is some bastard, entering into contracts right and left!
If only we could find him...

BMIU member #4: If we can just find one member of the Horne royal family...



Neither have we! We aren't told where to go next, imagine that! Clueless, we walk out of the castle.



I ask you, Codex: WHERE'S MAH HANDHOLDING!!!?
Hint: in the next post. So stay tuned!

*Clears throat* War, war never changes...
 

Crooked Bee

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Continued from the previous post...

And so our remaining heroes, not having chickened out and fled to the safety of Liberty, walk clueless out of Horne's castle. Two things are puzzling them. Where has the king disappeared to? And what should they do next? Perhaps the village of Horne may provide some answers.

Before going back to the village, however, we equip both Codexer and SMA with the Wayfarer crown. Not to make recovery items work better (we almost never use them), nor to be able to flee from a battle (this ain't an option!). No, we want to upgrade our stats a little:





We see that equipping this crown has different effects on SMA and on Codexer. Unfortunately, I can't explain the way it's supposed to work yet. Why hasn't Codexer's intellect improved, whereas SMA's has? :itisamystery: There must be a kind of pattern behind all this; I hope we'll figure it out later.

Arriving in the village, not only do we witness SMA's resolve...



...but we also find Baneful Magick Investigation Unit members everywhere around the area and get two important hints from them.
The first one is that there's a mysterious city - a place of great magic - buried underneath the sands of the desert to the east, potentially able to provide a cure to the stone curse:





The kingdom we seek is to the east, and yet it's hidden. Downright mysterious stuff!
The second hint is even more vague:



BMIU member: They're long gone now, or so I hear...



It points to a no less mysterious, or just secretive, potential foe - or ally - living - or dead - in that same desert.
Gripping! Thrilling! Riveting! Storytelling at its best!



Both hints point to the desert, so that's where we should go next, it seems. Eastward, ho!



Is this handholding?
Well, I'd say no, not really. I'd say it's somewhere in the middle, which is a good thing for a game like this. We're told to go east, but not more than that. As we'll see later, the mysterious eastern city of Guera is really hidden, and we'll really have to wander around the desert for a while to figure out where to go next. And the mysterious ghost stranger isn't at all easy to find, and is in fact no less easy to miss altogether: he/she/it really does appear only during the night - which is the first, but not last, meaningful use of the day/night cycle in this game. We aren't really given any precise hints to his/her/its whereabouts; to boot, he/she/it doesn't appear automatically, the minute you arrive to the desert at night. You have to patiently scan the desert if you want to find him/her/it. I'd say there's a great chance an 'average' player will miss him/her/it, and will have to crawl through the next dungeon without a third character. At least that's what I almost did. :oops:
:incline: ? Who knows.
As to the king, I haven't been able to find any trace of him, nor any info on where he might be.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The village shop is now operated by a BMIU member, and they now have antidotes in stock that may come in handy in our desert trip. So we stock up on them. Also, we deposit the excessive phoenix downs for safekeeping; I'm positive we won't need them. :smug:




The inn, however, is no longer in operation.



We find out, luckily, that we can rest at our home...



... which is of course what we do. We wake up at dawn...



...ready to go on with our fantasy adventure. The desert wasteland awaits. To the glory, Codexer! :salute:
 

Cenobyte

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So you can equip the same crown on all of your characters?

And hmm, cute hats :D
 

Crooked Bee

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Cenobyte said:
So you can equip the same crown on all of your characters?

Well, yes and no. Think of it this way: to "equip a crown" means to choose a class (or a job). Once a class is available, any character can choose it. However, there's an important limiting factor to this system, supposed to make class management more meaningful: all upgrading is done individually. So that if, say, Codexer and SMA have the same crown/class equipped, and if we upgrade Codexer's crown - so that he could have access to more "advanced" abilities within his chosen class - SMA's crown won't automatically become upgraded as well; we'd have to upgrade SMA's crown separately. Taking into account that we've got but a limited amount of gems, and that each upgrade (it seems) requires more and more gems, it becomes more practical - and even necessary - for every character to "specialize" more. You can't just swap crowns between characters.
(This may become even more fun if you try, as I will do - provided the game keeps me interested long enough - to avoid unnecessary grinding.)

You can think of this in terms of an all-encompassing skill tree. Available classes = available branches of the skill tree. "Equipping" a class = choosing an "active" branch (only one at a time, you can't be a "white mage" and a "black mage" at the same time). Once a character chooses an "active" branch (a class), he gains access to its basic abilities (in case of the Wayfarer crown, it's the "Runaway" ability). Upgrading a class = putting points into the skills on the respective branch; this distribution of points ("gems") is done individually. We may say that the overall skill tree is both common to all the characters (in that they can freely choose between its branches) and individual, in that the choice of one or several classes to specialize in is up to the character. In other words, basic abilities of a class are common to all the characters (whoever chooses to "equip" this class); advanced abilities, however, become available only individually, in the process of "upgrading" one's class.
At least that's the way I think (so far, I'm not far into the game) it's supposed to work.

(As a result, a character can multiclass, i.e., upgrade several classes at once. In a battle, however, he'll be able to use only one of his classes, meaning that he'll need to equip the class he wants to use prior to the battle - depending on the enemy he's gonna face, the enemy's weaknesses, tactics, etc. This is probably similar to FF5, but I don't really remember the specifics of its job system.)

Cenobyte said:
And hmm, cute hats :D
:smug:

Edited. Not sure if I'm making much sense here, but meh.
 

Crooked Bee

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As a teaser, I’m gonna post the maps of the two main quest dungeons I’ve already completed, which I’ll hopefully cover in the next couple of updates.
Not sure if we need any maps in this LP, but why not post them? Keep in mind that these dungeons are very early in-game.
I drew the maps myself, in Excel; there’s no automap in this game. :incline: All in all they should be more or less accurate, but naturally I did mess up them a bit. And they give no indication of an area’s size. However, I hope to at least give you an idea of the design.

The first dungeon (or rather tower) – upcoming in the next update – is pretty basic.
It consists of five floors, 1F to 5F.



S = the place you start
A, B, ..., J = stairs (those leading up are greenish, those leading down are blue-ish)
Grey squares = treasure chests
Black squares = columns or other barriers
Red square = objective

1F and 2F, taken together, have an easy puzzle-like layout. At the very start of this dungeon, you find yourself on 1F, a large perfectly symmetrical room with four corner exits. You needn’t really explore it all to be able to get to the objective (5F), it can be done by trial and error I guess. However, in that case you're likely to miss out on some great loot, such as one in a hidden room on 3F. And good weapons/armor, with different elemental effects, are pretty much required, from what I've seen so far, to beat this game in an efficient way.

Now on to the next, more advanced dungeon (castle).



Orange areas are quicksands – if you step into one of them, you fall through the ceiling down to the previous floor. This isn't just a nuisance, however - you actually need to fall through some of these quicksands (marked Y and Z) to get to some important treasure chests. So, to get to treasures Y and Z, you have do to some thinking - you need to properly figure out where exactly you're gonna land once you fall through this particular quicksand.
Without sketching some kind of map, it could really be a pain in the ass - with my weak memory at least - to remember where each passage/quicksand leads.
Also, there's a hidden passage in this castle (marked X on 2F) that can only be opened if you have previously completed what, as far as I can tell, is a totally optional dungeon (and in a different location on the world map). In other words, in order to 100% "solve" this dungeon, you need to "solve" another, optional - and very easy to miss - dungeon beforehand. And to solve that optional dungeon, you need to make use of the day/night cycle. Which is nice.
 

lightbane

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Nice, I find strange to find a "recent" Final Fantasy game that actually requires to use your brain a bit (fuck you Cutscene Fantasy 13 and the horrible rape-tastic abomination Kh series :decline: ).
 

Crooked Bee

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Part 7. Enter Sandman

This is gonna be a very short update, and again light on combat. I'll try to post the next update as soon as I have the time, maybe even later today.

And so Codexer and SMA hit the road! The task is twofold: to find the magical kingdom cursed and buried under the sands of the eastern desert - and to make acquaintance of the mysterious stranger who roams the desert at nights, forever alone :cry:. In other words, mysteries abound. And we've got no fucking clue as to what's going on.

Ours is a long road, I think it's time to save our progress...



... as well as to stock up on some much-needed (?) items at the local shop. We ain't got almost no money, though, and so well sell 4 gems for 50 gold each.



Now we can buy SMA a new, trendy garb! A tranny girl has her needs, you know... :roll:




So cute! And so strong! :oops:
We already bought a couple of antidotes (20 gold per item). Looks like we're ready to kick some monster ass! Yay!

It doesn't take long after we step out onto the world map...



...for a group of challengers to appear!



Bah. That's just 4 Jack Lanterns. What're these monsters thinking, really? Think you can take on SMA and Codexer, you fork-wiedling beasts!? Well, think again!
They don't really get a chance to think again, though. We slay 'em all quicker than you can say "kawaii". :smug:



Two gems. Our moderately precious prize.

Meanwhile, our bold heroes continue on, day or night, rain or shine:





They almost make it all the way to the desert when suddenly more monsters appear, eager to avenge the death of their brethren:



Their insolense makes SMA rage greatly! She's soooo psyched up!! You can tell that just by looking at her:


Way to go, sis!

Finally the monsters are done with. We get a potion and three gems. Good. The journey goes on.



At last we arrive to the desert:



A more perceptive reader may have noted a tower to the north-west. We are, however, looking for a buried city and a mysterious stranger. What do we need the tower for? :M
Upon wasting some time wandering around the desert and - which is quite suspicious! - not seeing anything at all, our heroes - having now crossed the desert all the way to the eastern seashore - finally realize that the tower in the north is their only viable destination. Okay, tower, here we come! Who knows what we'll find there?

Let's slay a couple of nasty monsters first, though:



The cowpel thinks he can hide in the back row. Hah! SMA's mighty bow puts his silly thoughts - and himself - to rest:


:thumbsup:

The worm, however, is a strong fucker, dealing 9 points of damage per attack. SMA's normal attack damages him for just 6 hp, meh. Just our luck he turns out to be vulnerable to wind...



... and we finish him off in 3 turns. More than expected, but not that much of a problem, of course. A promise of problems to come? Who knows. :smug:
No loot. But we don't give up. We're moving on.

As you well remember, o reader, a stranger is said to appear in this desert at night. Well ... where the fuck is that fucker!!??
:x

...

After doing some scanning around the desert, we finally ... Hey!



Who's this? A vault sand dweller! I don't even...



We patiently explain the situation we're in.

Krinjh: I see. You seek the magic kingdom of Guera in the hope of lifting the curse that has stricken Horne.
Krinjh: Then you must go to the Moonlight Tower and collect the moonshards.
Krinjh: The tower stands in the northwest of the desert. Come. I shall guide you there.

(We already saw the tower, you little sand ninja!)



Meet Krinjh:



He's obviously supposed to be a sandnigger - I mean, living in the desert and all. But this game clearly is racist, and so his skin is white.
All Wapanese are white supremacists, as you well know. :M



Whatever.
Krinjh's level 12 and his stats are pretty good:




Moreover, it looks like he's got a class (crown) of his own - see that turban? - but I don't know if we're gonna get that class ourselves later in the game, or even what it's called. Krinjh's not only a swordsman, he's also a magic user with an Aero Tome and the ability to enchant his sword with the power of air (it's probably his class ability).



He looks like a tough guy. But what are his reasons, I wonder, what's his agenda? Why did he choose to accompany Codexer and SMA? Is he a bane or a boon to our party? :itisamystery:, at least for now.

The funny thing is, Krinjh is at least semi-optional, in that it's very easy to miss him. Maybe it's just me, but it took me quite long to actually find him. You can even enter the tower without meeting him at all. That's actually what I did at first. :smug:
Not having any reason whatsoever to explore that huge tower thingie, however, I decided to look around the desert a bit more. And it is only then that I came across Krinjh.
I wonder if we could actually complete the tower and collect the moonshards without his help? Well, I dunno, but somehow I doubt that. Even if we got to the top of the tower, we wouldn't even know we need to collect the shards and make a *spoiler thingie* out of them, right? Right?
Well, who knows.

But anyway. Good thing we listened to the NPC telling us about a ghost appearing in the desert at night; good thing we took his words seriously. In this game, as we're gonna see again and again - if this LP lasts long enough - NPCs are clue-givers. They're all about clues. And without clues we wouldn't have any idea what to do next, or would miss out on some pretty important stuff. NPC don't have much to say - this ain't a talking game - but what they say tends, so far, to actually matter.

It seems we finally have our reason to venture into the tower. Ready, set, let's go!
 

lightbane

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kirinju.jpg



Ugh, such a travesty... A non-black sandnigger that acts like he was a ninja and yet has green hair like some sort of elvish scum?? PURGE THE HERETIC!!!!!!


... Of course, if he's that powerful, the laws of jrpgs say that he's not a permanent character, sooner or later he'll abandon you.
 

spekkio

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You were lucky that this game turned out to be p. good, Neko-chan. If not, a blind LP could be a painful / short experience.
I am really surprised that Enix-Square still can into good games...

Keep up the good work!
 

lightbane

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Well, if I recall correctly the last good and non-final faggotry game from Enix Square was... Front Mission 5??? Of course, what could be called Jagged Alliance 2 with robots (aka the ultimate mech game ever) never came out of japan :decline:

Luckily it received a translation patch :incline: but for some reason my PS2 emulator doesn't work, even if my computer should be able to do so (nvidia geforce 9800, 4 GB of ram, a dual core cpu and so on) :rage:
 

Crooked Bee

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lightbane said:
Of course, if he's that powerful, the laws of jrpgs say that he's not a permanent character, sooner or later he'll abandon you.

The voices ... they're telling me you may be right.

lightbane said:
...for some reason my PS2 emulator doesn't work, even if my computer should be able to do so

Lame excuses. :smug:
 

Crooked Bee

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spekkio said:
You were lucky that this game turned out to be p. good, Neko-chan. If not, a blind LP could be a painful / short experience.
I am really surprised that Enix-Square still can into good games...

Just my luck. :smug:

But who knows what this gamie will bring next?

spekkio said:
Neko-chan

:roll:

spekkio said:
Keep up the good work!

I will, Mirror-kun, I hope I will.
 

Crooked Bee

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Part 8. Tower Crawlers

Having met our new pal Krinjh, it seems we finally have our destination: the Moonlight Tower to the northwest. Our goal, as stated by Krinjh, is to collect the moonshards, for reasons still obscure. As if we cared! As if we needed any reason for dungeon crawling and monster killing! Supposedly, that could help us reveal a way to the cursed desert kingdom of Guera, the place of great magic. It is there, in Guera, that our hero Codexer and our heroine SMA hope to find some means of lifting the wicked witch’s curse that has stricken Horne. For Codexer, it is a way of saving his mother and proving his worth; for SMA, noble deeds and killing things are all that matters. And so we press forward. Full speed ahead!



On our way, we get introduced to a new type of monster: a Basilisk! Lone one.




According to the Final Fantasy Wiki (ugh!),
FFW said:
Basilisks are recurring enemies from the series. They are giant horned lizards with bulging eyes, although in several recent installments they have become more Anacondaur-like in their appearances. Their common threat is their ability to Petrify characters using their stare. … Basilisks first appeared in the original Final Fantasy as a basic enemy.

In other words, a Basilisk is supposed to look like this:


(Hello, Final Fantasy 2 basilisk! Long time no see.)

In this game, however – for some strange, totally unexplained reason – Basilisks resemble some weird jelly birdies. :M Flying transparent jelly lizards? WTF? (Can't beat the Really Flying Mouse, though.)
Also, these new-fangled Basilisks do not petrify, they poison. Petrify or poison? Which is better and why?
But anyway. The Basilisk turns out to be particularly vulnerable to fire...



... and so we deal with the ugly thing in just one turn, getting 6 exp but, alas, no loot.
The battle won, we can finally enter the tower. To face the horrors awaiting us there. Or something like that.




We're on 1F now; the objective is to get to 5F.


(I think I messed up the number of columns - marked as black squares - on 1F. But meh, whatever, you get the idea.)

This dungeon is simple, yet obviously designed to encourage exploration. The first floor is a large symmetrical hall with four corner stairs all leading up to the second level. It can be pretty disorienting at first, if only due to its size. The second floor is divided into three enclosed compartments. Until you get to know your way around it, this kind of design basically forces you to either guess which stairs to take and get lucky to move on to the third floor – or explore them all to get additional rewards, but also additional random encounters. The rewards are pretty good, though, and the enemies are perfectly manageable, so exploring it thoroughly is of course a better choice.
Taking the stairs marked as D…



…we locate a treasure chest with a Tempest Spike inside:



Tempest Spike is basically the same thing as Wind Foil, so it's pretty redundant to us, especially since we want to keep SMA equipped with a ranged weapon. Still, it can probably be sold for a hefty sum once we get to a shop, which is a good thing.
After that, we get back to exploring the first floor:



The best next move would be to take stairs B – or at least C – to get to the next treasure chest. In our blind playthrough, however, we take stairs A first, thus climbing straight to the third level:



The third level has two stairs up, F and G. Taking G leads you to the objective on the fifth floor. We take the other stairs first, however, which turns out to be pretty awesome, since after crawling through a tiny fourth-floor roomie…



… we find ourselves in a hidden section of level three containing another treasure chest:



Yay! It’s a shuriken, a very good replacement of SMA’s bow.
We now have a shuriken-wielding girl in our party. What’s not to like? :roll:

Enemies in this dungeon tend to have two particular patterns. The first pattern is very straightforward: two front row enemies. Nothing to really talk about. The second pattern is like this: 1-2 stronger characters in the front row, and 1 weaker spell-casting enemy in the back row. The latter is the one who we should finish off asap, quite obviously. We let SMA keep her bow on – if you know what I mean. We may need a ranged weapon, just in case. (After we find the shuriken, it replaces the bow.) With Krinjh, it’s usually p. useful – in case of enemies who don’t go down in one hit – to waste a turn on enchanting his sword with the power of wind. This way, his attack becomes considerably more powerful. Codexer can do nothing but attack melee and cast Cure for now, so there isn't really much for him to do. We’ll be sure to make him a juggernaut of destruction later on, I promise.
:smug:

While exploring the tower we come across two new types of enemies. First comes Wight, a monster we encounter right upon entering the tower.



Wight is yet another enemy in this little spin-off gamie who bears the same name, but has in fact little to nothing to do with traditional FF monsters. Here, let me show ya:


This, boys and girl, is the original Final Fantasy Wight, a simple undead walking thingie causing Paralyze with his attacks.


In Final Fantasy X-2, Wight is a minion of death from the Farplane who casts Doom before attacking.


And this is the FF 13 Wight. Bleh!

In this game, however, Wight is a flying yellow (furry?) monster casting Flash – a spell that blinds you, no less. “Blind” status is temporary though; it wears off after several turns. Poison, however, is not – if we don’t cure it, it’s gonna suck our health out slowly but steadily while we go around exploring stuff.

Note how a Basilisk, who is weaker and casts Poison, is in the back row. Good thing SMA has a bow and can cast Fire; you may remember that Basilisks are weak against fire in this game. In another encounter, there’s a Cowpel instead of a Basilisk in the back row:



In this case SMA’s ranged weapon comes in handy. Cowpels are resistant to fire, yet weak against physical attacks. So we make it physical. :smug:



Winning in a couple of encounters like this one allows our Codexer to level up. Yay!



What he thereby gains is, HP +3, STR +1, and INT +2.

The stronger I grow, the more likely SMA is to fall for me!
:smug:

The other new enemy is Metal Flan, probably the weirdest among the ones we’ve met so far. It’s a metal slime, basically.



This is a really strange kind of enemy.
You meet this kind of enemies in JRPGs sometimes, you know. Call it a "lucky enemy" or, better, a "lucky loser". :M
You get a whopping 40 (!) exp reward for killing him, and a rare gem that can be sold for 2000 (!) gold to boot. And yet this monster has no more than 10 (!) hp and goes down in one (!) hit:



Yeah, I know, I know, that was a critical hit, but still. I mean, the fucker attacked SMA for just two points of damage:



It comes as no surprise, ergo, that SMA levels up after the battle (I mean, 40 exp, come on!):



And leveling up means: HP +3, STR +1, SPT +1, INT +1. All at once. Good. SMA’s level 10 now.
The girl sure is strong. Will Codexer be able to keep up with her? :roll:
Well, at least he’ll try to! After slaying two more Wights, it’s again level-up time for him. He goes from level 8 to level 9, gaining HP +2 and SPT +1. Still one level behind SMA, though. Meh.

Now that we have taken a look at our enemies in this dungeon, let me complain a bit, o reader. I’m gonna complain about my luck. Don’t be surprised though. The thing is, we got incredibly – unbelievably – lucky in this tower. Almost every time an enemy tried to poison or blind us, its attack missed the mark. Was this a bug? Or just a warm-up? Probably just my damn luck, though. At some point, this amount of luck actually became irritating. I mean, it isn't supposed to be this way! We are supposed to get poisoned, for fuck's sake! What the hell do we otherwise need all those antidotes for!?
:rpgcodex:
Okay, so much for my complaining. Feels better now.

While we were ranting, our courageous heroes made it to the top of the tower:




[Perception 2/2] There's a treasure chest in the top left corner! Let's have a peek.



1000 gil! We’re rich, bros! We’re gonna spend it all on booze and hookers! buy something really, really useful. Word.

Time to take a look at the mysterious contraption in the middle of the room we're in. Unsurprisingly, doing so initiates a brief session of blah blah blah...
:blah:



(See how they shine, yay!)



(So ingenuous…)

Krinjh: We just need to collect them…

(Aye, captain!)



Krinjh: Now you have the Merkmal, you can press the Y Button to find the town of Guera.

Which is of course what we do. Press it, baby!



I bet you thought we’d get an automap. :smug:
Well, you were wrong, my internet friend. This map is totally useless. As a map, that is. It is, however, totally required to advance in our main quest. You see, this thing should allow us to see what would otherwise remain unseen. The desert is cursed, the town of Guera is hidden beneath the sand for no mortal eye to see. With this compass thingie, we should be able to find it though.

We crawl back to the first floor and exit the tower. So long, tower! We’ve had our fun.
:salute:



A big worm is waiting in ambush for us here! He’s vulnerable to wind, as you may remember. We order Krinjh to enchant his sword with wind – and the vile monster is done with on the second turn:



130 points of damage! Thrilling!
Our heroes stand victorious:



With the Merkmal thing on, the town of Guera is now revealed to our eyes:



What will our heroes find there?
emot-iiam.gif

Let's hope the next update will make things somewhat clearer.

Until next time, then. Stay tuned, yay!

Edited: fluff.
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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Part 9. A Curse of Sand, or, As Luck Would Have It

This part is – again – all about curses, nya!

And so Codexer and SMA enter the Western, Christian mysterious, hidden town of Guera.
Looks like the promised land of Andhaira, amirite?



This is the same town we saw in a piece of concept art in the very beginning of this thread:



Yep, very sandnigger-ish.
The first thing we do is save our progress...



... and then proceed to sell a few now-unneeded items to make some money as well as some space in our inventory:



We sell our old steel sword for 40 gold...



... our Codexer's Togs :)salute:) for measly 8 gold...



... and SMA's old bow for 38g:



We won't sell the Tempest Pike right now. Maybe later.
We also notice that this shop sells some recovery items hitherto unseen by us in this playthrough: Eye Drops, Echo Herbs, and Animate Tonic.




Pretty standard stuff. This probably means, however, that we'll have to deal with some new status ailments soon. Good to know.

A bit further to the north is a weapon store:



They have some nifty thing for sale there, I mean, some really nifty ones.




It's highly unlikely we'll be able to afford them all since we do not want to sell too many of our gems, they're supposedly crucial for future class upgrades. And those Power Ring and Rock Shield sure are expensive! We don't yet know, however, what may really come in handy, and so we leave the weapon shop be for now. We'll be back.

We then enter the magikkk shop nearby:



You bet we do!
Hey, shopkeeper, what's shaking?



Yay, a Quake Tome!
Do we need one or do we not? We shall decide later.

And now, o reader, it's talkie-talkie time. :blah:
First we let SMA speak her mind:



Hey, SMA, I may get jealous!
And Krinjh is a good pal, sure, but he's, like, totally a fool. Just listen to him:



We are in Guera already, you silly! :roll:

And this is what your typical Guera house looks like:


Cute, ain't it? I wonder if Andhaira lives in a house like this.

Apart from listening to some introductory lines...



... and coming across an impenetrable barrier of urns - polished by some sick, obsessed towelhead - leading to a for now inaccessible area of the town (to the left of the urns) ...



... and meeting Black Cat herself, who says Nya! but otherwise ignores us...



... and climbing atop what looks like a huge pot...



... as well as atop a wall, where we meet another alt of Black Cat...



(What's all this climbing for, you ask? I dunno. For teh immershun, probably.)

... and coming across some hidden items...





(Funny how this game tries to come up with a rationale for all these hidden items: there's a fella in every town hiding treasure for adventurers to find.)

... as well as a mysterious locked building ...



... and staying at the local inn ...



... we get clues of three kinds from the local NPCs.
First we get to know about a horrible monster called Sand Devil




A curse, nya! Another curse! So that's what it's all about. Apparently, this Sand Devil guy is holding the whole town of Guera captive. Apparently, we'll have to kill him.
:thumbsup:

We also get a highly intriguing clue regarding water magic:



This, together with "you can't kill that devil with a sword", surely makes sense. :M
Something's fishy with this king, don't you think? What could it be? Take your guess!

And finally, we're told that the only way to go through the caves to the north is by seeking the fairies' aid:



Are there fairies around, I wonder? :roll:

It looks like we've done all we could in the town. Time to visit the palace. To see what the king's up to.



The guards tell Codexer to behave himself:


:P

Inside, beauty abounds
That king surely knows his way around women. :smug:



The fair ladies welcome us and tell us about the peculiar local means of transportation:



Perusing the teleporting device, we find ourselves in the next room. Another teleporter in front of us leads to the throne hall. Two corridors lead east and west.



We go west.




A closed passage? Hmmm. :? Suspicious. It probably leads to the caverns where "enormous magic power is concentrated".
Do you think that's where the king keeps the confiscated Water Tomes? Who knows. Not I. :smug:

Let's explore east now.
There, we get to know that it was Guera that invented spell-books, as well as the best possible way to defeat the Sand Devil:



As if we haven't guessed that already! :roll:
We also get a brief tutorial on stats related to White and Black magic:



So those characters who have by nature higher Spirit are more apt to be white mages, and those with higher Intellect, black mages. Nice to know.

Now we should pay our regards to the king.



The king sure is wrapped up in his towel!

After another tutorial tidbit...



... we strike a high-brow conversation with his majesty:



King Guera: I wish I could do something, but my kingdom is suffering under its own monster tribulations.

(Grrrr. Why doncha help us for free, you greedy kingcomrade!)

King Guera: Perhaps if you were able to solve our little problem...?



We get to freakin' choose again! We choose "No". :smug:



KodexKoolKredits.PNG

Yay!

With this, the conversation ends. :/
Starting it again, we choose "Okay" this time:




Tough as nails, this Codexer!

King Guera: Yes. IF you can rid us of that pestilent Sand Devil, we will be very much in your debt.
King Guera: In return, I will do everything in my power to aid you!

So the king first confiscates all water magic and now tells us to slay the sand monster? It is as if he didn't really want us to defeat the Sand Devil, amirite? :? This game is sure not as straightforward as it pretends to be. :smug:
Still, I can't find any way to lay our hands on any water magic. It isn't sold in the local magic shop, and the way to the caverns is heavily guarded. WTF should we do?
:?

:? :?

:? :? :?

Back in town, we talk to Krinjh:



We know that already!! But WHERE can we get some?
:x

And SMA is concerned again:



That's nice of you to say SMA, but I'm calling the shots here. Codexer will accompany you and Krinjh.

That's all fine and dandy, but we're at a loss, dear reader. We don't have any fucking clue as to how we could enter the caverns beneath the palace and snatch us a water magic tome. The entrance is guarded, and it's not like we can talk the guard into leaving. This ain't no Age of Decadence, ya know, and we ain't no Vault Dweller. :?

:/

Still no idea.

:cry:

Think, you silly bee, thinkity think!

:oops:

Nah, let's go outside for some monster slaying.




Big Worms are strong, but vulnerable to wind. We make Krinjh cast Aero...



... and then Codexer and Krinjh combine forces to finish the remaining fucker off:




Okay, good, but we still haven't figured anything out. :?

:cry:

We should probably go straight to the Sand Castle, then. Perhaps we'll find some water magic there? :?
First, however, we should return to Guera and stock up on supplies.

Meanwhile, a new night has fallen:



We enter the town at night:



And this, our friends, is where our unbelievable lucky strike begins!
:yeah:

You see, it turns out that NPCs have different things to say during the night. And different things means different clues!

:mca:

Among the various blah blah blah...




... we're told about a thingie that could turn the tide of events:


:thumbsup:

The day/night cycle is p. important in this gamey after all. Hardcore indeed. :smug:

And so we hurry to the palace:



The king's sleeping, but it's not like we needed him anyway.



Some NPC talking is in order!



The guy's talking 'bout our Krinjh!
Another one is sleeping and dreaming of doing nasty things to the Sand Devil:



Two would-be mages are studying so hard they've got no time for silly things like sleep:


(Heh, this game even tries to occasionally provide a reason for someone not sleeping at night.)

What shall we do next, I wonder? :roll:

:rpgcodex: You slow bastard! ENTER THE BLOODY DUNGEON ALREADY!!

Ah yes, I totally forgot.
The entrance to the magic caverns is now clear:



Water magic, here we come! Take that, you wicked king!
And thus we enter the cellar.



Congratulations! Thanks to our luck and intellect, we’ve found the optional dungeon that’s gonna make our life easy and effortless. :smug:

Time to pat meself on the back! And get back to doing something serious for a change.
 

Cenobyte

Prophet
Joined
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Messages
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Now that was rather unexpected. Good job at finding this secret dungeon (especially if there really was no hint whatsoever to visit the town again at night).

I take it that you can also reenter completed dungeons, right?
 

spekkio

Arcane
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
8,278
I've decided to check some GameFagz user reviews, and:
I will begin to say I don't hate this game, It does have Final Fantasy's insane difficulty level, like the first boss being difficult to beat, this game has nothing in common with other Final Fantasy games, none of the music is remotely similar and to be honest the music is crap, the characters look crap and so do the graphics, Final Fantasy 4 DS was loads better than this game, this is why there should not be spin-offs and random Final Fantasy games made because they are never good, this and Renevent Wings are games that the DS does not need, if this game had a good soundtrack and a nicer artwork design then that alone would be enough to keep me playing this game but since it fails to deliver I doubt I will continue playing it.
:yeah:

Bring back the Lionheart and Tidus you square bastards!
And soundtrack and nicer artwork design.

I would say "fucking console kiddies" but current PC-elite is the same. If not worse... :M
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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Cenobyte said:
especially if there really was no hint whatsoever to visit the town again at night

I don't think there are any hints like that. At least I didn't find any. Which is nice, yay!
(Edit: I think I posted every single piece of NPC banter I came across during my playthrough.)
I just got lucky, that is.

Cenobyte said:
I take it that you can also reenter completed dungeons, right?
Yep, right.
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
Patron
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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I most probably won't be able to post any updates in the next couple of days, sorry. Meanwhile, I'd be grateful if this thread could be brought to the next page. Pretty please?

Stay tuned, and I hope you're enjoying this little LP. :M
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
Less whining/emo-angsting and more posting. :rpgcodex: Also, bump.
 

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