Dayyālu
Arcane
DEEP BUMP
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Completed Let's Play Cthulhu Saves the World LP
- Thread starter baud
- Start date
DEEP BUMP
Part XXVII: R'lyeh, phase 2: Water Boogaloo
We continue to explore R'lyeh.
Doesn't this statue make me look fat?
New staff for Dacre, but is worst than the previous one. At least it's not interesting for the way I'm using Dacre, which is as a healer and buffer. This staff would be useful if I'd use Dacre to hit the enemies, but that's not his role, since he hasn't the stats and skills for it.
The decoration is a bit repetitive. I think it would have been better for it to be used a little more parsimoniously.
Another change that would have improved the game would be to differentiate the dungeons in distinct areas, like one part is a temple, other is more sewer, another living space for the creatures living here and so on. Instead there's just a handful of props that are reused at random; the only exception being the UFO, where the first level is a cargo bay and the second is more living area for space cats.
That dragon went down just as easily as Death. I find that in that game, fight against groups can be harder than against a solo enemy. Or it's just that I'm usually more careful against a boss than a group of mooks.
A good book for October, but I don't even know if I'm going to use her for the final boss, so it's not very useful.
That chest was lame, unless there's a merchant with the best gear waiting just before the door of the final boss.
Another bridge. The architecture of this place is really fucked up. On the other hand, it fits the theme of a Lovecraft "adaption".
Death is met another time and killed even more easily than last time, on account of the levels we've progressed; it's a common problem in the dungeons of this game: the difficulty of the enemies does not increase enough between the levels of the dungeon to take into account the leveling (and looting) done there.
I don't think I've used more than a few potions. I've only used them when I needed to respawn a fallen companion in fight, but it hasn't happened in quite some time.
This bonus allow to restart a lost fight. There are useful when the fight is winnable and the last save was some time ago. Again I've haven't used many.
I find it cool to have something that's useful to everyone and is not an OP piece of equipment. Also I like this kind of stats improvement.
Last random fight of the dungeon. In that game, the number of random fight is limited in a dungeon and I've found that the encounter rate is rather well-balanced, since I usually finish the random encounters as I finish the dungeon.
The level exit. We've already been through here a few time to get the last chests of this level.
And we've reached the top! It's like the fourth time the dungeon boss is found at the top of the dungeon.
I switch my party in boss fight configuration (Dacre for heal, DEM and Sharpe for damage).
For the sake of the world, we must win!
The Golem goes down in three turns. It was a little anti-climatic.
Beam us up Azahoth!
Welcome to my domain! Come to me if you dare!
So we're beyond angled space, which is another Cthulhu reference and a nice idea. I wonder how the devs are going to spoil that one.
Even in Azahoth's domain, we can teleport to the cities of the game.
We can still reenter the dungeon, go back to the top and the golem is still there to teleport us, but without a fight. It's just useless since there's nothing to come back to in the cities and it takes too much time to go back to the top.
We continue to explore R'lyeh.
New staff for Dacre, but is worst than the previous one. At least it's not interesting for the way I'm using Dacre, which is as a healer and buffer. This staff would be useful if I'd use Dacre to hit the enemies, but that's not his role, since he hasn't the stats and skills for it.
The decoration is a bit repetitive. I think it would have been better for it to be used a little more parsimoniously.
Another change that would have improved the game would be to differentiate the dungeons in distinct areas, like one part is a temple, other is more sewer, another living space for the creatures living here and so on. Instead there's just a handful of props that are reused at random; the only exception being the UFO, where the first level is a cargo bay and the second is more living area for space cats.
That dragon went down just as easily as Death. I find that in that game, fight against groups can be harder than against a solo enemy. Or it's just that I'm usually more careful against a boss than a group of mooks.
A good book for October, but I don't even know if I'm going to use her for the final boss, so it's not very useful.
That chest was lame, unless there's a merchant with the best gear waiting just before the door of the final boss.
Another bridge. The architecture of this place is really fucked up. On the other hand, it fits the theme of a Lovecraft "adaption".
Death is met another time and killed even more easily than last time, on account of the levels we've progressed; it's a common problem in the dungeons of this game: the difficulty of the enemies does not increase enough between the levels of the dungeon to take into account the leveling (and looting) done there.
I don't think I've used more than a few potions. I've only used them when I needed to respawn a fallen companion in fight, but it hasn't happened in quite some time.
This bonus allow to restart a lost fight. There are useful when the fight is winnable and the last save was some time ago. Again I've haven't used many.
I find it cool to have something that's useful to everyone and is not an OP piece of equipment. Also I like this kind of stats improvement.
Last random fight of the dungeon. In that game, the number of random fight is limited in a dungeon and I've found that the encounter rate is rather well-balanced, since I usually finish the random encounters as I finish the dungeon.
The level exit. We've already been through here a few time to get the last chests of this level.
And we've reached the top! It's like the fourth time the dungeon boss is found at the top of the dungeon.
I switch my party in boss fight configuration (Dacre for heal, DEM and Sharpe for damage).
The Golem goes down in three turns. It was a little anti-climatic.
Beam us up Azahoth!
So we're beyond angled space, which is another Cthulhu reference and a nice idea. I wonder how the devs are going to spoil that one.
Even in Azahoth's domain, we can teleport to the cities of the game.
We can still reenter the dungeon, go back to the top and the golem is still there to teleport us, but without a fight. It's just useless since there's nothing to come back to in the cities and it takes too much time to go back to the top.
The devs have a design document on their site (here), which contains an original design and changes made during development and I'd say that the original design was better. So it would seems some of the shortcoming of the game were more from devs aiming above their means and then scaling back their ambitions, since I find that some of issues with the game weren't present in the original design.
The intended to traps in (at least) one of the dungeons, a story line that seemed to be better, for example:
Still, in the original version, there was dating sim segments (but without choosing who to romance?), so I'm not dissapointed at having escaped that.
For the LP, before facing the final boss, there's another optional dungeon, which I'll do before.
The intended to traps in (at least) one of the dungeons, a story line that seemed to be better, for example:
- having the NPCs being hostile until Sharpe is recruited,
- knowing about the UFO in Dunwich and thus having a reason to go from Dunwich to Providence,
- having all the problem in the world being caused by cultists of Dagon instead of random shit, which would have added some coherence to the succession of missions
Still, in the original version, there was dating sim segments (but without choosing who to romance?), so I'm not dissapointed at having escaped that.
For the LP, before facing the final boss, there's another optional dungeon, which I'll do before.
Part XXVIII: Soulcaster cave
So we teleport from the front door of the final boss.
Then we go try to find that last dungeon. From what I've seen of a world map, it's on southeast corner.
But since it's far from the main island and the map loops in both direction, it's a little fiddly to find.
Ok, here we are!
The soulcaster cave: for the optional dungeon that must be the harder to find, since it's in the corner of the map far from the rest of the game, there's no incentive to go far from the main island and there's no in-game clue to its existence, the dev used unique props and unique music that's not reused anywhere else in the game. That's a weird choice, especially since the other optional dungeons used color-flipped assets mostly.
Apparently, it's a reference/homage/asset reuse from another game, called soulcaster:
I think most of the monsters are reused, perhaps even from Zeboyd's previous game, with some re-colored (not the only time the devs did this)
Haha.
The rat is from soulcaster:
.
Second floor, with a tileset change. I think it's the only time the tileset has changed during the dungeon, in both mandatory and optional dungeon, with the exception of the UFO.
The skeleton character of Breath of Death 7, the previous game of the devs, stayed silent. But it only gave more time for the other characters to speak...
Or the dev didn't want to create more objects.
The dungeon is quite short.
Nice view.
The wizard sprite is also taken from soulcaster.
From what I've seen of soulcaster, the player controls the titular soulcaster, whose only power is to summon the other three characters to fight for him.
The first time, I didn't have my usual boss-killing team and struggled a little, using a bunch of potions. Still, by killing first the alchemist, which had a powerful attack damaging all my party, then the soulcaster, which could heal all his party, it was doable.
After victory, everyone went up like 4 level.
I redid the fight with the usual team, it was easier with the heal and buffs (+25% to all stats) from Dacre and overall more HP, but I still lost once.
Of course I won't be using that save to kill the final boss, since I already did without any difficulty, but without the 4 additional level-up. And also because I don't want to find my way up in R'lyeh again.
So we teleport from the front door of the final boss.
Then we go try to find that last dungeon. From what I've seen of a world map, it's on southeast corner.
But since it's far from the main island and the map loops in both direction, it's a little fiddly to find.
Ok, here we are!
The soulcaster cave: for the optional dungeon that must be the harder to find, since it's in the corner of the map far from the rest of the game, there's no incentive to go far from the main island and there's no in-game clue to its existence, the dev used unique props and unique music that's not reused anywhere else in the game. That's a weird choice, especially since the other optional dungeons used color-flipped assets mostly.
Apparently, it's a reference/homage/asset reuse from another game, called soulcaster:
I think most of the monsters are reused, perhaps even from Zeboyd's previous game, with some re-colored (not the only time the devs did this)
Haha.
The rat is from soulcaster:
Second floor, with a tileset change. I think it's the only time the tileset has changed during the dungeon, in both mandatory and optional dungeon, with the exception of the UFO.
The skeleton character of Breath of Death 7, the previous game of the devs, stayed silent. But it only gave more time for the other characters to speak...
Or the dev didn't want to create more objects.
The dungeon is quite short.
Nice view.
The wizard sprite is also taken from soulcaster.
From what I've seen of soulcaster, the player controls the titular soulcaster, whose only power is to summon the other three characters to fight for him.
The first time, I didn't have my usual boss-killing team and struggled a little, using a bunch of potions. Still, by killing first the alchemist, which had a powerful attack damaging all my party, then the soulcaster, which could heal all his party, it was doable.
After victory, everyone went up like 4 level.
I redid the fight with the usual team, it was easier with the heal and buffs (+25% to all stats) from Dacre and overall more HP, but I still lost once.
Of course I won't be using that save to kill the final boss, since I already did without any difficulty, but without the 4 additional level-up. And also because I don't want to find my way up in R'lyeh again.
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Another note concerning the design document and missed opportunities:
The biggest role of equipment pieces in the game is to improve the stats, which then increase the damage of the attacks and defense from enemy attacks. The dragon, Ember, has no additional pieces of equipment in the game, but in the document the dev talked about having some, called breath mint, which were not implemented. Except that it seems that the stat balancing of Ember was done while there was still planned equipments for it, which means that it's way weaker than any other character, with attacks that do far less damage than any other characters, except Paws (but Paws has an insanity spell plus a healing spell and a first strike spell, so he's way more useful regardless). Or the devs couldn't be arsed to make Ember useful. Or perhaps he's useful in higher difficulties? Edit: no, still completely useless.
Also regarding Ember, he has like two lines of dialogue during the whole game, which is a bit of a missed opportunity to have some variation in the characters, since he appeared to be a little more evil than the other characters.
The biggest role of equipment pieces in the game is to improve the stats, which then increase the damage of the attacks and defense from enemy attacks. The dragon, Ember, has no additional pieces of equipment in the game, but in the document the dev talked about having some, called breath mint, which were not implemented. Except that it seems that the stat balancing of Ember was done while there was still planned equipments for it, which means that it's way weaker than any other character, with attacks that do far less damage than any other characters, except Paws (but Paws has an insanity spell plus a healing spell and a first strike spell, so he's way more useful regardless). Or the devs couldn't be arsed to make Ember useful. Or perhaps he's useful in higher difficulties? Edit: no, still completely useless.
Also regarding Ember, he has like two lines of dialogue during the whole game, which is a bit of a missed opportunity to have some variation in the characters, since he appeared to be a little more evil than the other characters.
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Part XXIX: Beyond Angled Space
This is it! Time for the final battle!
Well, technically it's not the final battle since there is that secret super-boss.
Shh! That's a secret.
I wonder if that boss is supposed to be DEM or the Soulcaster which we beat in the last update.
This look good, but they could have used another object that something from the dungeon we've just exited.
There's no random encounter in this "dungeon".
The problem with this boss is that it's coming out of nowhere: there's no prior hint about his involvement beforehand and the events at the end of the previous dungeon do not seem to indicate that it's the ruler of the Outer Gods who is talking. I think it's another place that suffered from an original vision that was too ambitious, then suffered from later cuts, going by the design document.
Killed very easily in like 4 turns. At least the boss from the previous update was more of a challenge.
Cthulhu has saved the world! Which worl? All of them!
So the "heroes" has killed all the others R'lyehians
?
Many months pass. And now, behold the dawn of a new day. The final day.
It is time to go.
Come with me, Umi.
The end. Congratulation on completing Cthulhu saves the World!
By finishing the game, I've unlocked the bonus modes, including one with a slightly different story. The other bonus mode are : limited to one character in combat but with massive XP gain, start at lvl 40 to relive the story
negative and a score attack. The bestiary has been unlocked too, there's a bunch of monsters I've never seen, but I think there's some at least which are for the the other story.
There's also the dev commentary that I would like to take a look at, so I'll first check that (while playing on the hardest difficulty level) and post anything interesting that I come across, then I'll do that other story, in the same thread.
I wonder if that boss is supposed to be DEM or the Soulcaster which we beat in the last update.
This look good, but they could have used another object that something from the dungeon we've just exited.
There's no random encounter in this "dungeon".
The problem with this boss is that it's coming out of nowhere: there's no prior hint about his involvement beforehand and the events at the end of the previous dungeon do not seem to indicate that it's the ruler of the Outer Gods who is talking. I think it's another place that suffered from an original vision that was too ambitious, then suffered from later cuts, going by the design document.
Killed very easily in like 4 turns. At least the boss from the previous update was more of a challenge.
So the "heroes" has killed all the others R'lyehians
By finishing the game, I've unlocked the bonus modes, including one with a slightly different story. The other bonus mode are : limited to one character in combat but with massive XP gain, start at lvl 40 to relive the story
negative and a score attack. The bestiary has been unlocked too, there's a bunch of monsters I've never seen, but I think there's some at least which are for the the other story. There's also the dev commentary that I would like to take a look at, so I'll first check that (while playing on the hardest difficulty level) and post anything interesting that I come across, then I'll do that other story, in the same thread.
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The insane level of difficulty is hard, but unlocking the first good attack of Cthulhu (flame strike) made thing way easier since this attack can one-shot all enemies met so far (except the boss of course). I've done some grinding already.
One additional difficulty is that you can't really "clear" a dungeon of random encounter, unlike the other difficulty modes.
I've talked last time about enemies I haven't seen yet, here are some of them:
Part XXX: Beach cave & Miskatonia dev commentary.
The dev commentary adds question marks on the maps which can be talked to like usual NPCs.
I've reached Miskatonia, so I'll post what I've found so far.
Dev commentary: Beach cave
group of heroes serves as an introduction to combat. Basically, let the player have fun being very overpowered right at the start of the game to give them a good demo experience. After the battle, cutscene where it sets up the premise of the game (loses his power, has to regain it). In the end we scrapped this idea. With only 8 minutes for the trial experience (with the XBLIG version), we decided that it was more important to get the player into the main part of the game as soon as possible and so we created the opening that you can see in the game.
Speaking of the opening, we wanted to show our new map engine for Cthulhu saves the World in the demo, so we made sure that the player has to walk under a bridge in the first couple of minutes. Ooh! Multiple layers on a single map! Sadly not one review for the game mentioned the joys of walking under - all that work for naught.
Perhaps if the game hadn't been released in the 21th century, game journalists would have been impressed by multi-level maps?
tightly with the plot and making them a recurring element, but after I put them in the first dungeon, I promptly forgot about them. Whoops. The new Cthulhu's Angels mode rectifies this somewhat though.
I think I talked about the same idea after meeting the heroes for the second time in R'lyeh.
of MP (and perhaps forgetting to save as well since they were used to only saving at restore points), we fixed this and added restore points before pretty much every boss in the game.
I'm not complaining.
the engine and besides, there are few things more heroic than a squid man standing on top of a cliff with a sword in hand.
This image.
Dev commentary: Miskatonia
like volcano Town and Zombie City. Also we were originally going to name of the towns Arkham, however due to that name's use in other works, we decided we would be better off playing it safe and not including it.
Also I didn't get that reference. Here Shane is the name of the dog the boy is asking us to save, which then lead to the first optional dungeon.
of the music started. By moving this intro to the end of the song, the overall feel of the music changed from a ballroom dance theme to the small rural town theme we were looking for.
The music in question. The music were good throughout the game; at least I enjoyed them.
"sadly". For the dev, perhaps.
destroying it like the literature said he should. The cutscene would take place in an insane asylum, but Bill rightly pointed out that our world had no aslyu map in it and it was too late to put one in. In the end, we decided to scrap the idea.
It seems Dayyālu was right:
One additional difficulty is that you can't really "clear" a dungeon of random encounter, unlike the other difficulty modes.
I've talked last time about enemies I haven't seen yet, here are some of them:
Part XXX: Beach cave & Miskatonia dev commentary.
The dev commentary adds question marks on the maps which can be talked to like usual NPCs.
I've reached Miskatonia, so I'll post what I've found so far.
Dev commentary: Beach cave
Perhaps if the game hadn't been released in the 21th century, game journalists would have been impressed by multi-level maps?
I think I talked about the same idea after meeting the heroes for the second time in R'lyeh.
I'm not complaining.
This image.
Dev commentary: Miskatonia
Also I didn't get that reference. Here Shane is the name of the dog the boy is asking us to save, which then lead to the first optional dungeon.
The music in question. The music were good throughout the game; at least I enjoyed them.
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Part XXXII: Dev commentary: Ninja Burial grounds and Shrine of heroes.
The insanity mode kicked my ass a few time before I was able to finish the two dungeons. And even then I've yet to kill the boss of the Shrine of heroes.
The insanity mode kicked my ass a few time before I was able to finish the two dungeons. And even then I've yet to kill the boss of the Shrine of heroes.
The ninja burial grounds is an optional dungeon and the only one with a quest associated with it, where we are asked to save Shane the dog.
Lazy devs gonna laze.
optional treasure hunts.
Another hint of how the devs were thinking of doing a bigger game. Still I don't understand why they didn't do like in Breath of Death VII where the location of optional dungeons was hinted at by NPCs in cities.
The Shrine of heroes is where we meet and fight Sharpe the floating sword.
Here's the list:
automatically once you discover it.
I think it's a good idea, but their distribution of such items is a little uneven, with most dungeons not having any of those type of items. Also regarding the items, there's no way to buy potions or 1-Ups which allow to restart a combat, so it's another limitation. Perhaps it would have been better to replace the potion and 1-Up loots in dungeons by the stat-boosting items and sell the potions and 1-Ups in shops instead.
Still the interactivity in the dungeons was too limited, with maybe half of the mandatory dungeons and all the optional without interactives elements.
Lazy devs gonna laze.
Another hint of how the devs were thinking of doing a bigger game. Still I don't understand why they didn't do like in Breath of Death VII where the location of optional dungeons was hinted at by NPCs in cities.
The Shrine of heroes is where we meet and fight Sharpe the floating sword.
Here's the list:
It confirms once again what Dayyālu said:
I think it's a good idea, but their distribution of such items is a little uneven, with most dungeons not having any of those type of items. Also regarding the items, there's no way to buy potions or 1-Ups which allow to restart a combat, so it's another limitation. Perhaps it would have been better to replace the potion and 1-Up loots in dungeons by the stat-boosting items and sell the potions and 1-Ups in shops instead.
Still the interactivity in the dungeons was too limited, with maybe half of the mandatory dungeons and all the optional without interactives elements.
Part XXXIII: Dev commentary: Dunwich
I've completed the next mandatory dungeon, the zombie-infested city of Dunwich. We recruited there the fourth party member, the necromancer girl October.
It was easier than the last dungeon, I didn't have to (ab)use so much of the save anywhere feature and didn't had to go back to town via teleportation. I think that having three or four members instead of just 2 helps a lot to avoid a total party kill. Most of the fights were challengings for the first half of the dungeon, until the level-ups and additionnal party member trivialized them. Also this time I picked up the anti-undead sword before finishing the dungeon, unlike last time, which helped quite a lot. On the other hand, it was a bit of a slog with, in my opinion, too many fights, especially with most fights being trivial after the midway point.
hybrid zombies in the case of Molly). There's Epiphany in Spaaace where one of the storyline focuses on a zombie-like race. And of course, there's this game where an entire dungeon is focused on zombies.
What's next for Zeboy Games? Is it another zombie game? Stay tuned!
Molly the Were-Zompire is an interactive novel game by the dev, in which the protag is an hybrid of Werewolf, Zombie and Vampire. It was released on the Xbox Live Arcade, like Breath of Death 7 and Cthulhu saves the world. If anyone want to take a look and has a copy of Visual Studio laying around, the source of the game is available on their site. The devs likes this character so much they've reused her twice in other games. Spaaace is also a interactive novel, released on the Xbox Live Arcade.
cat? Hitting a bunch of random keys on my keyboard for the priest? Yeah, naming stuff isn't really my thing.
At least his names are simple and easy to remember. A bit like the black company.
the player switched maps. Switching maps happens frequently here with all of the buildings that the player needs to go through. In its earlu form, you could go through the entire city with only running into a couple of battles. Rather than reprogram the whole thing, I just lowered the required count to to run into an encounter in this one dungeon. If you walk back and forth, you'll get into battles much frequently here than in other dungeons, but if you explore normally, the rate is about the same due to the map switching.
This comment is interesting since it shows a little how the game works. But for me the number of fights seems still way to high (I fought like 55 time, compared to 30 time in non-insanity mode), especially since the map has some dead-ends, forcing us to backtrack into more fights.
the zombies turning good instead of disappearing. We saved a lot of time and I think the story ended up being funnier this way anyway.
The issue with this decision it's that it happens in the third mandatory dungeon and so give the impression the devs are just lazyass 3 hours in, made even worse by the fact that there are no dialogue changes for the people we can meet in the city, which stay with their 'we're going to die' dialogues. The easiest solution would have been to add one or two human villagers who just say 'Zombies are cool! Thank you for removing the evil creature controlling them!'
I've completed the next mandatory dungeon, the zombie-infested city of Dunwich. We recruited there the fourth party member, the necromancer girl October.
It was easier than the last dungeon, I didn't have to (ab)use so much of the save anywhere feature and didn't had to go back to town via teleportation. I think that having three or four members instead of just 2 helps a lot to avoid a total party kill. Most of the fights were challengings for the first half of the dungeon, until the level-ups and additionnal party member trivialized them. Also this time I picked up the anti-undead sword before finishing the dungeon, unlike last time, which helped quite a lot. On the other hand, it was a bit of a slog with, in my opinion, too many fights, especially with most fights being trivial after the midway point.
Molly the Were-Zompire is an interactive novel game by the dev, in which the protag is an hybrid of Werewolf, Zombie and Vampire. It was released on the Xbox Live Arcade, like Breath of Death 7 and Cthulhu saves the world. If anyone want to take a look and has a copy of Visual Studio laying around, the source of the game is available on their site. The devs likes this character so much they've reused her twice in other games. Spaaace is also a interactive novel, released on the Xbox Live Arcade.
At least his names are simple and easy to remember. A bit like the black company.
This comment is interesting since it shows a little how the game works. But for me the number of fights seems still way to high (I fought like 55 time, compared to 30 time in non-insanity mode), especially since the map has some dead-ends, forcing us to backtrack into more fights.
The issue with this decision it's that it happens in the third mandatory dungeon and so give the impression the devs are just lazyass 3 hours in, made even worse by the fact that there are no dialogue changes for the people we can meet in the city, which stay with their 'we're going to die' dialogues. The easiest solution would have been to add one or two human villagers who just say 'Zombies are cool! Thank you for removing the evil creature controlling them!'
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Part XXXIV: Dev commentary: Swamp of Despair & Ghost Forest
This part has languished in nearly finished state for a fortnight, I finally took the time to finish it today.
Swamp of Despair
The swamp of despair is the next optional dungeon. The commentary there was interesting and I am happy to have gone throught there for it, in addition to the loot and xp which made the next dungeon doable.
how many battles you had already fought there so that the monster groupings get more difficult later on. On the world map, we don't look at location at all (outside of which tile type you're standing on) - instead, we look how far you are into the story and select an appropriate group of foes based on that. Speaking of which, try fighting a battle in a swamp near the end of the game for a Breath of Death VII throwback.
This information is interesting, I've never realised that. I think not many people would spot it, since a) going back to earlier towns is useless and b) there's no need to walk back, since you can fast-travel from anywhere (including dungeons) back to any visited city.
On the world map, this mechanism works as kind of level scaling, but based on story progression instead of level. Still I don't really see the point, since the game is linear, all area are unlocked and visited in one order, so an area based enemy selection would have worked just as well; the only time the player have to cross older areas, they have access to the dragon, so random encounters are not a problem at this moment since there's no random encounters while flying.
It also remove the possibility to do some bare-bone world-building with enemy placement on the world map. Perhaps it was easier to program or balance during development? Or so that there's always leveled grind available, especially after we get the dragon, since at this point there's no linear unlock of areas as it was until that point.
It might explain the difficulty curve in the mandatory dungeons, where the difficulty usualy drop off quickly: with this system it would have been too inconvenient for players if the game scaled agressively, since if a player already has difficulties fighting the current monsters, going back to a earlier floor in the same dungeon to grind on easier fight would no work; opposed to a system where difficulty is based on floors, where it would work.
The throwback is a little underwhelming. I think it's a problem of moving a model to a game with a higher pixel count without upscaling the model, so it appear rather small. Also since I fought with an end-game party, it died in one or two turn.
Ghost Forest
So I hit a bit of a roadblock with the boss of the Ghost Forest, after a few attempts I had to grind a little to finish her. I think here the difficulty has a nice balance: hard for most the dugeon right until the end, then an even harder fight with the final boss. One thing that was causing my defeat the first few times was the fact that in all combat the enemies grow stronger as time pass, to limit the duration of the fights. And I was killing the boss too slowly and once the boss reach one-hit kills levels of powers, I was boned most of the time. Even the time I won, I was lucky that the boss did not killed my healer who had spent the last 10 turns reviving another party member at each turn.
dungeon from the south side, immediately exit, walk through the forest on the world map, enter the north entrance, and immediately exit to skip the whole thing. Needless to say, we fixed this before release.
Still story-wise why does this dungeon exists? I mean the only reason we cross the forest is because the party want to go to Providence, but we don't even have a reason for that yet. For Providence, talking ahead about the UFO might have provided a good reason, or an approaching reason (like a villager in Dunwitch hearing strange meteors near Providence, one of the characters is interested because of possible loot/astronomical research/crafting material). Especially since, according to their design documents, they intended that the player "finds out about an alien invasion in the 3rd town [Dunwitch] and sets forth, thinking that the aliens will have all sorts of powerful technology that might break the seal."
Or give a reason to go to the Ghost Forest, like dangerous cults there, or something else and once the forest is finished, just add some dialogue saying "let's celebrate/rest in Providence!"
Story-wise, it's just padding. In a 10 hours game.
Regarding the cults,in the game all the cultists of Cthulhu have joined Dagon instead, as we learned about in Innsmouth: it might have been cool to add some foreshadowing, by having one conversation with the characters wondering where Cthulhu's cultists are.
Another possible development, more on the hero story spoof side of things: we could have a dialogue with the narrator stating that since the cultists weren't a danger or since there's no witness, Cthulhu is not more of a hero (since the whole point of the story is Cthulhu becoming a hero to regain his powers). Or more grimdark (and not quite in the tone of the game), have the narrator says "you just killed some peaceful cultists/persecuted religious minority". I mean a cultist forest is interesting, do something with it, damn it!
There's also the boss, but we'll get about this later.
The whole process required a lot of annoyingly difficult custom code to get working correctly and the end result wasn't any better looking than the other dungeons so we're definitely not going to do that again.
On one hand, this level ain't that bad-looking (even if it's yet another labyrinth without structure), on the other hand it would have been better to spend that time on adding some interactivity to the dungeon.
creature in existence.
Well the squirrel in this dungeon were certainly a pain in the ass, even at the end of the dungeon they were still a threat when they decide to attack all our party member for half of their HP.
The little fuckers.
The ape princess, as she appear in-game.
I didn't know at the time that it was a character from the Mythos, perhaps a reference that's too obscure for its own good; the players who don't recognize the reference will just think it's just another wacky idea of the devs.
In dialogue before and after the boss fight, which I've put in the spoiler below, Cthulhu reveal that he has dated the Ape Princess and Umi get jealous. It could have been used as a reason to clean that dungeon, with Umi wanting to remove a possible rival. It would have also given the opportunity to flesh a little more the characters, but considering the writing talent of the authors, or lack thereof, it's not a big loss.
The Ape Princess. Don't let the princess title fool you - this this is one princess you do NOT want to date.
Speaking from personal experience, Cthulhu?
Um...
Grr.
BOSS FIGHT
Was that thing that just tried to kill us seriously an ex-girlfriend of yours?
Girlfriend? No! We just had dinner once or twice. It was nothing!
Watch out! Umi is seriously angry!
Let's hurry on out of this forest to the next town!
Grr!
This part has languished in nearly finished state for a fortnight, I finally took the time to finish it today.
Swamp of Despair
The swamp of despair is the next optional dungeon. The commentary there was interesting and I am happy to have gone throught there for it, in addition to the loot and xp which made the next dungeon doable.
This information is interesting, I've never realised that. I think not many people would spot it, since a) going back to earlier towns is useless and b) there's no need to walk back, since you can fast-travel from anywhere (including dungeons) back to any visited city.
On the world map, this mechanism works as kind of level scaling, but based on story progression instead of level. Still I don't really see the point, since the game is linear, all area are unlocked and visited in one order, so an area based enemy selection would have worked just as well; the only time the player have to cross older areas, they have access to the dragon, so random encounters are not a problem at this moment since there's no random encounters while flying.
It also remove the possibility to do some bare-bone world-building with enemy placement on the world map. Perhaps it was easier to program or balance during development? Or so that there's always leveled grind available, especially after we get the dragon, since at this point there's no linear unlock of areas as it was until that point.
It might explain the difficulty curve in the mandatory dungeons, where the difficulty usualy drop off quickly: with this system it would have been too inconvenient for players if the game scaled agressively, since if a player already has difficulties fighting the current monsters, going back to a earlier floor in the same dungeon to grind on easier fight would no work; opposed to a system where difficulty is based on floors, where it would work.
The throwback is a little underwhelming. I think it's a problem of moving a model to a game with a higher pixel count without upscaling the model, so it appear rather small. Also since I fought with an end-game party, it died in one or two turn.
Ghost Forest
So I hit a bit of a roadblock with the boss of the Ghost Forest, after a few attempts I had to grind a little to finish her. I think here the difficulty has a nice balance: hard for most the dugeon right until the end, then an even harder fight with the final boss. One thing that was causing my defeat the first few times was the fact that in all combat the enemies grow stronger as time pass, to limit the duration of the fights. And I was killing the boss too slowly and once the boss reach one-hit kills levels of powers, I was boned most of the time. Even the time I won, I was lucky that the boss did not killed my healer who had spent the last 10 turns reviving another party member at each turn.
Still story-wise why does this dungeon exists? I mean the only reason we cross the forest is because the party want to go to Providence, but we don't even have a reason for that yet. For Providence, talking ahead about the UFO might have provided a good reason, or an approaching reason (like a villager in Dunwitch hearing strange meteors near Providence, one of the characters is interested because of possible loot/astronomical research/crafting material). Especially since, according to their design documents, they intended that the player "finds out about an alien invasion in the 3rd town [Dunwitch] and sets forth, thinking that the aliens will have all sorts of powerful technology that might break the seal."
Or give a reason to go to the Ghost Forest, like dangerous cults there, or something else and once the forest is finished, just add some dialogue saying "let's celebrate/rest in Providence!"
Story-wise, it's just padding. In a 10 hours game.
Regarding the cults,in the game all the cultists of Cthulhu have joined Dagon instead, as we learned about in Innsmouth: it might have been cool to add some foreshadowing, by having one conversation with the characters wondering where Cthulhu's cultists are.
Another possible development, more on the hero story spoof side of things: we could have a dialogue with the narrator stating that since the cultists weren't a danger or since there's no witness, Cthulhu is not more of a hero (since the whole point of the story is Cthulhu becoming a hero to regain his powers). Or more grimdark (and not quite in the tone of the game), have the narrator says "you just killed some peaceful cultists/persecuted religious minority". I mean a cultist forest is interesting, do something with it, damn it!
There's also the boss, but we'll get about this later.
On one hand, this level ain't that bad-looking (even if it's yet another labyrinth without structure), on the other hand it would have been better to spend that time on adding some interactivity to the dungeon.
Well the squirrel in this dungeon were certainly a pain in the ass, even at the end of the dungeon they were still a threat when they decide to attack all our party member for half of their HP.
The little fuckers.
The ape princess, as she appear in-game.
I didn't know at the time that it was a character from the Mythos, perhaps a reference that's too obscure for its own good; the players who don't recognize the reference will just think it's just another wacky idea of the devs.
In dialogue before and after the boss fight, which I've put in the spoiler below, Cthulhu reveal that he has dated the Ape Princess and Umi get jealous. It could have been used as a reason to clean that dungeon, with Umi wanting to remove a possible rival. It would have also given the opportunity to flesh a little more the characters, but considering the writing talent of the authors, or lack thereof, it's not a big loss.
BOSS FIGHT
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Part XXXV: Providence, Space Ship, Kingsport & Graveyard of memories
I already used that one, but I like it enough.
Providence
There's one spot in the inn.
influences so it seemed appropriate to me to give him a nod in our Lovecraftian RPG.
Space Ship
No author comment for the UFO, except one stupid at the entrance:
(to enter this dungeon, we have to interact with one of the cows)
It's bit of a bummer because it's the best-looking dungeon, each level has different props, there's distinct rooms. And it's also one of the interactive ones, with switches to open barriers throughout the dungeon.
The boss quick our ass the first few times and we again have to grind for a bit beforehand. Also the bosses seems heavily reliant on luck, regarding if they use their stronger attacks or not. For this boss, the time we won, we blinded him at the start, so all his standard attacks missed and he used mostly them instead of his special attacks. Had he used more of his special attacks, I don't think we could have won.
Kingsport
Finishing the ufo opens the way to the next optional dungeon and a new city, Kingsport. We first got to the city to pick up new equipement.
There's this room tucked in a corner of the city map.
One can see the dev saw only this room at the end, since there's no interaction with either the drawers or the bookcase, unlike all the other; I think he couldn't stand to do it one last time after writing it for all the others plus the tombs.
Also it shows some poor communication in the team, which doesn't surprise me.
The chest contains only gold, which is a bit of a bummer, they could have put a better reward since it's a little harder to find.
Graveyard of memories
This dungeon contains dozens of tombs, each with an unique message on it. If you want to remind yourself how bad it was, I've got a good chunk of them in this update.
Still, as fun as it was (not very), it's weird that they choose to spent time on this instead of the writing for the main quest, where it is lacking.
The boss of that dungeon kicked our ass a few times, it was accompanied by two minions that it resurrected each time we killed them but since they weren't immune to blind and seal (to prevent special attacks), we survived by avoiding their attacks; still I had to use a few potions, which can only be found in dungeons. In the next dungeon we'll recruit the healer, which might make future bosses easier.
I already used that one, but I like it enough.
Providence
There's one spot in the inn.
References in-game:
I don't think I've seen it so far, but it's just a color swap of the other snail.
I don't think I've seen it so far, but it's just a color swap of the other snail.
Space Ship
No author comment for the UFO, except one stupid at the entrance:
(to enter this dungeon, we have to interact with one of the cows)
It's bit of a bummer because it's the best-looking dungeon, each level has different props, there's distinct rooms. And it's also one of the interactive ones, with switches to open barriers throughout the dungeon.
The boss quick our ass the first few times and we again have to grind for a bit beforehand. Also the bosses seems heavily reliant on luck, regarding if they use their stronger attacks or not. For this boss, the time we won, we blinded him at the start, so all his standard attacks missed and he used mostly them instead of his special attacks. Had he used more of his special attacks, I don't think we could have won.
Kingsport
Finishing the ufo opens the way to the next optional dungeon and a new city, Kingsport. We first got to the city to pick up new equipement.
There's this room tucked in a corner of the city map.
One can see the dev saw only this room at the end, since there's no interaction with either the drawers or the bookcase, unlike all the other; I think he couldn't stand to do it one last time after writing it for all the others plus the tombs.
Also it shows some poor communication in the team, which doesn't surprise me.
The chest contains only gold, which is a bit of a bummer, they could have put a better reward since it's a little harder to find.
Graveyard of memories
This dungeon contains dozens of tombs, each with an unique message on it. If you want to remind yourself how bad it was, I've got a good chunk of them in this update.
Still, as fun as it was (not very), it's weird that they choose to spent time on this instead of the writing for the main quest, where it is lacking.
The boss of that dungeon kicked our ass a few times, it was accompanied by two minions that it resurrected each time we killed them but since they weren't immune to blind and seal (to prevent special attacks), we survived by avoiding their attacks; still I had to use a few potions, which can only be found in dungeons. In the next dungeon we'll recruit the healer, which might make future bosses easier.
Part XXXVI: Water shrine
one with water, one without.
In that dungeon, switch could be used to lower and raise water level in each part of the dungeon, opening and closing paths. It must be the most interesting dungeon interaction in the whole game.
I had few difficulties with this dungeon. I don't think I'm overleveled, since Dacre has joined our party at the start of the dungeon and he was the same level as our party. We'll have to see how the next dungeon goes.
The boss went down quite easily, but mostly because he kept poisonning on our party, which is useless beyond the first time, instead of attacking us. We finished with two members down, but didn't had to use any potion. Having a dedicated healer is quite helpful.
In that dungeon, switch could be used to lower and raise water level in each part of the dungeon, opening and closing paths. It must be the most interesting dungeon interaction in the whole game.
I had few difficulties with this dungeon. I don't think I'm overleveled, since Dacre has joined our party at the start of the dungeon and he was the same level as our party. We'll have to see how the next dungeon goes.
The boss went down quite easily, but mostly because he kept poisonning on our party, which is useless beyond the first time, instead of attacking us. We finished with two members down, but didn't had to use any potion. Having a dedicated healer is quite helpful.
Part XXXVII: Ice cave
The XP gains in the ice cave seems totally borked; I've already leveled 3 times and I've yet to kill the boss. I think there's one monster type in the dungeon that's giving 10 times too much XP and it's the weakest enemy of the dungeon, which I usually one-shot with an AoE attack.
But even with all the level-up, I can't kill the boss yet: every two or three turns, it's using a healing spell that restores 1/3 of its life, so I can't kill her, it'll just heal while I run out of magic points to revive my team members. And of course it's immune to status effects like blind and seal
. I used insanity on it, it used a spell that one-shotted my all team .
And what makes it worse is that I can't easily grind in the dungeon, since there's no point to refill my magic points, so I'll have to go back to town and cross again that dungeon.
The XP gains in the ice cave seems totally borked; I've already leveled 3 times and I've yet to kill the boss. I think there's one monster type in the dungeon that's giving 10 times too much XP and it's the weakest enemy of the dungeon, which I usually one-shot with an AoE attack.
But even with all the level-up, I can't kill the boss yet: every two or three turns, it's using a healing spell that restores 1/3 of its life, so I can't kill her, it'll just heal while I run out of magic points to revive my team members. And of course it's immune to status effects like blind and seal
. I used insanity on it, it used a spell that one-shotted my all team .And what makes it worse is that I can't easily grind in the dungeon, since there's no point to refill my magic points, so I'll have to go back to town and cross again that dungeon.
Well I ended grinding up in the dungeon, and with XP gains on some of the monsters being way too high, we got four more level quite quickly. And then we crushed the boss on our second try. Next I'll go to the main quest dungeon, the volcano.
Part XXXVIII: Volcano
I was happy that I've spent some time grinding in the previous dungeon, so I didn't had any difficulty in that one. Also I think some of the more difficult enemy did not appear this time, like this one. The boss went down on the first try.
on the world map to have a cave at the base of the volcano than at the summit.
Last time I did the dungeon, I missed a few reaction in the previous city, Alhazred. For once that that we get some reactivity:
Just a poor defenseless red dinosaur. No demon dragon here!
The dialogue even happen if the dragon is not in the active party.
And yet, I'm still not a true hero? What's up with that!
The standard for hero status is higher when you're a force of unspeakable evil.
That girl gets Cthulhu.
I was happy that I've spent some time grinding in the previous dungeon, so I didn't had any difficulty in that one. Also I think some of the more difficult enemy did not appear this time, like this one. The boss went down on the first try.
Last time I did the dungeon, I missed a few reaction in the previous city, Alhazred. For once that that we get some reactivity:
The dialogue even happen if the dragon is not in the active party.
That girl gets Cthulhu.
Part XXXIX: Astral Cave
World ended up taking nearly three times as long to create as our first RPG did.
Dunno about that; maybe they should have remove some of the padding (optional dungeons, the forest before the UFO, perhaps one of the cities) and concentrate on the rest or spend more time on the various issues.
Also this dungeon kicked my ass, with a lot of strong enemies that wrecked my shit the first times I tried the dungeon. I did some grinding, went back to the previous optional dungeon, the ice cave for some easier grinding, I went to the next city, Innsmouth, to buy better equipment. In the end, I finally reached the boss, who was much easier than the rest of the enemies and who folded like a wet blanket. But just after beating the boss, I got killed by a random encounter, so I had to do it a second time.
Dunno about that; maybe they should have remove some of the padding (optional dungeons, the forest before the UFO, perhaps one of the cities) and concentrate on the rest or spend more time on the various issues.
Also this dungeon kicked my ass, with a lot of strong enemies that wrecked my shit the first times I tried the dungeon. I did some grinding, went back to the previous optional dungeon, the ice cave for some easier grinding, I went to the next city, Innsmouth, to buy better equipment. In the end, I finally reached the boss, who was much easier than the rest of the enemies and who folded like a wet blanket. But just after beating the boss, I got killed by a random encounter, so I had to do it a second time.
Part XXXX: Innsmouth and the Gold Marsh foundry
several months. Using Innsmouth let us do a parody of the famous scene in The Shadow Over Innsmouth so that's a plus as well.
The scene from the game:
Thank you
Idiots! I was having a dream about taking over the world!
How dare you break into my room! You're only supposed to do that with outsiders!
My apologies, Lord Cthulhu, but Lord Dagon told us to attack everyone who came to Innsmouth, even your lordship!
Dagon is trying to take over my cult? The nerve! I'd better pay old Dagon a little visit. To the Marsh gold foundry!
To the foundry!
Um... where's that?
Lord Dagon can be found in the deepest part of the factory in the east part of town. I'll tell the guards to get out of your way.
Lovecraft's version, taken from here.
Not exactly the same style, isn't it?
The Gold Marsh Foundry dungeon is way easier than the optional dungeon I did last time. It look like that the expected order would be to first finish this one, then the optional one. Also I realize I did exactly the same thing last time, with the same results
.
Now I'm overleveled and it's getting (more) boring. It's not helped by the fact that some of the more powerful enemies don't spawn too, like the two on the left, which I didn't see this time.
Regarding the cultist, I've already said it, but I think there's a huge missed opportunity, by not introducing the conflict with Dagon earlier, or at least dropping some clues (or better clues than just name-dropping Innsmouth in the first town). Another issue is using a factory instead of a temple of doom full of cultists, sacrificial chambers and deep ones. Still it's mitigated by the fact the next dungeon is R'lyeh.
There's also a comment just before the boss, Dagon (which was killed on the first try without any difficulty).
get rewritten. The evil ending was by far the more popular ending based on the feedback we've gotten from fans. Still I'm glad we went with the traditional happy ending as well, if for no other reason than that it lets us do a sequel - Cthulhu in Spaaaace! The Unnnecessary Sequel!
As a reminder, here's the dialogue sequence:
Dagon has been destroyed.
Cthulhu gains 500 hero points!
Cthulhu has become a true hero! Cthulhu's stats increase by 50!
Is Cthulhu going to devour the world now?
All that work for naught.
I like cheesecake.
No!
Everyone is now insane!
Wait, what? You don't want Cthulhu to destroy the world? Don't be ridiculous! That's what Cthulhu does! He brings insanity to the world and eats his followers! Haven't you read the books?
Fine. Have it your way. I'll rewind and give you the super happy ending. Goodbye artistic integrity. Goodbye any last vestige of adhering to the source material.
I could reclain my forbidden power and destroy the world but I choose not to. My adventures have taught me the power of love, friendship and heroism.
Not included: the narrator summons R'lyeh for a last-ditch attempt at killing Cthulhu. (in that update).
I had forgotten to take the first screenshot for this sequence, so I've grabbed a frame from a YT video and added it.
And I still find it stupid. I wouldn't have minded the good ending but the devs wanted to bake their cake and eat it, with that idiotic bait-and-switch choiceless sequence, which they say is coming from the player, but without his input.
Regarding the narrator wall breaking, it never changed anything in the game-world before, the only wall-breaking was Cthulhu discussing with the narrator. There was nothing to give the foreknowledge that it was possible: the possibility should have been introduced earlier, with perhaps something like that:
Even then, it would need to establish the power of the narrator has over the characters/world and his willingness to intervene directly like that, which is way bigger than anything he's done before, since he's doing a full personality transplant on the main character, without any foreshadowing. And the personality transplant is unneeded since it was already Cthulhu character's arc.
The scene from the game:
Lovecraft's version, taken from here.
After a long, dreary interval, and prefaced by a fresh creaking of stairs and corridor, there came that soft, damnably unmistakable sound which seemed like a malign fulfilment of all my apprehensions. Without the least shadow of a doubt, the lock on my hall door was being tried—cautiously, furtively, tentatively—with a key.
After a time the cautious rattling ceased, and I heard the room to the north entered with a pass-key. Then the lock of the connecting door to my room was softly tried. The bolt held, of course, and I heard the floor creak as the prowler left the room. After a moment there came another soft rattling, and I knew that the room to the south of me was being entered. Again a furtive trying of a bolted connecting door, and again a receding creaking. This time the creaking went along the hall and down the stairs, so I knew that the prowler had realised the bolted condition of my doors and was giving up his attempt for a greater or lesser time, as the future would shew.
The readiness with which I fell into a plan of action proves that I must have been subconsciously fearing some menace and considering possible avenues of escape for hours. From the first I felt that the unseen fumbler meant a danger not to be met or dealt with, but only to be fled from as precipitately as possible. The one thing to do was to get out of that hotel alive as quickly as I could, and through some channel other than the front stairs and lobby.
Rising softly and throwing my flashlight on the switch, I sought to light the bulb over my bed in order to choose and pocket some belongings for a swift, valiseless flight. Nothing, however, happened; and I saw that the power had been cut off. Clearly, some cryptic, evil movement was afoot on a large scale—just what, I could not say. As I stood pondering with my hand on the now useless switch I heard a muffled creaking on the floor below, and thought I could barely distinguish voices in conversation. A moment later I felt less sure that the deeper sounds were voices, since the apparent hoarse barkings and loose-syllabled croakings bore so little resemblance to recognised human speech. Then I thought with renewed force of what the factory inspector had heard in the night in this mouldering and pestilential building.
Having filled my pockets with the flashlight’s aid, I put on my hat and tiptoed to the windows to consider chances of descent. Despite the state’s safety regulations there was no fire escape on this side of the hotel, and I saw that my windows commanded only a sheer three-story drop to the cobbled courtyard. On the right and left, however, some ancient brick business blocks abutted on the hotel; their slant roofs coming up to a reasonable jumping distance from my fourth-story level. To reach either of these lines of buildings I would have to be in a room two doors from my own—in one case on the north and in the other case on the south—and my mind instantly set to work calculating what chances I had of making the transfer.
I could not, I decided, risk an emergence into the corridor; where my footsteps would surely be heard, and where the difficulties of entering the desired room would be insuperable. My progress, if it was to be made at all, would have to be through the less solidly built connecting doors of the rooms; the locks and bolts of which I would have to force violently, using my shoulder as a battering-ram whenever they were set against me. This, I thought, would be possible owing to the rickety nature of the house and its fixtures; but I realised I could not do it noiselessly. I would have to count on sheer speed, and the chance of getting to a window before any hostile forces became coördinated enough to open the right door toward me with a pass-key. My own outer door I reinforced by pushing the bureau against it—little by little, in order to make a minimum of sound.
I glanced first at the connecting door on the south side of the room. It was designed to open in my direction, hence I saw—after drawing the bolt and finding other fastenings in place—it was not a favourable one for forcing. Accordingly abandoning it as a route, I cautiously moved the bedstead against it to hamper any attack which might be made on it later from the next room. The door on the north was hung to open away from me, and this—though a test proved it to be locked or bolted from the other side—I knew must be my route.
As I thought of these things I looked out over the squalid sea of decaying roofs below me, now brightened by the beams of a moon not much past full. On the right the black gash of the river-gorge clove the panorama; abandoned factories and railway station clinging barnacle-like to its sides. Beyond it the rusted railway and the Rowley road led off through a flat, marshy terrain dotted with islets of higher and dryer scrub-grown land. On the left the creek-threaded countryside was nearer, the narrow road to Ipswich gleaming white in the moonlight. I could not see from my side of the hotel the southward route toward Arkham which I had determined to take.
I was irresolutely speculating on when I had better attack the northward door, and on how I could least audibly manage it, when I noticed that the vague noises underfoot had given place to a fresh and heavier creaking of the stairs. A wavering flicker of light shewed through my transom, and the boards of the corridor began to groan with a ponderous load. Muffled sounds of possible vocal origin approached, and at length a firm knock came at my outer door.
For a moment I simply held my breath and waited. Eternities seemed to elapse, and the nauseous fishy odour of my environment seemed to mount suddenly and spectacularly. Then the knocking was repeated—continuously, and with growing insistence. I knew that the time for action had come, and forthwith drew the bolt of the northward connecting door, bracing myself for the task of battering it open. The knocking waxed louder, and I hoped that its volume would cover the sound of my efforts. At last beginning my attempt, I lunged again and again at the thin panelling with my left shoulder, heedless of shock or pain. The door resisted even more than I had expected, but I did not give in. And all the while the clamour at the outer door increased.
Finally the connecting door gave, but with such a crash that I knew those outside must have heard. Instantly the outside knocking became a violent battering, while keys sounded ominously in the hall doors of the rooms on both sides of me. Rushing through the newly opened connexion, I succeeded in bolting the northerly hall door before the lock could be turned; but even as I did so I heard the hall door of the third room—the one from whose window I had hoped to reach the roof below—being tried with a pass-key.
For an instant I felt absolute despair, since my trapping in a chamber with no window egress seemed complete. A wave of almost abnormal horror swept over me, and invested with a terrible but unexplainable singularity the flashlight-glimpsed dust prints made by the intruder who had lately tried my door from this room. Then, with a dazed automatism which persisted despite hopelessness, I made for the next connecting door and performed the blind motion of pushing at it in an effort to get through and—granting that fastenings might be as providentially intact as in this second room—bolt the hall door beyond before the lock could be turned from outside.
Sheer fortunate chance gave me my reprieve—for the connecting door before me was not only unlocked but actually ajar. In a second I was through, and had my right knee and shoulder against a hall door which was visibly opening inward. My pressure took the opener off guard, for the thing shut as I pushed, so that I could slip the well-conditioned bolt as I had done with the other door. As I gained this respite I heard the battering at the two other doors abate, while a confused clatter came from the connecting door I had shielded with the bedstead. Evidently the bulk of my assailants had entered the southerly room and were massing in a lateral attack. But at the same moment a pass-key sounded in the next door to the north, and I knew that a nearer peril was at hand.
The northward connecting door was wide open, but there was no time to think about checking the already turning lock in the hall. All I could do was to shut and bolt the open connecting door, as well as its mate on the opposite side—pushing a bedstead against the one and a bureau against the other, and moving a washstand in front of the hall door. I must, I saw, trust to such makeshift barriers to shield me till I could get out the window and on the roof of the Paine Street block. But even in this acute moment my chief horror was something apart from the immediate weakness of my defences. I was shuddering because not one of my pursuers, despite some hideous pantings, gruntings, and subdued barkings at odd intervals, was uttering an unmuffled or intelligible vocal sound.
As I moved the furniture and rushed toward the windows I heard a frightful scurrying along the corridor toward the room north of me, and perceived that the southward battering had ceased. Plainly, most of my opponents were about to concentrate against the feeble connecting door which they knew must open directly on me. Outside, the moon played on the ridgepole of the block below, and I saw that the jump would be desperately hazardous because of the steep surface on which I must land.
Surveying the conditions, I chose the more southerly of the two windows as my avenue of escape; planning to land on the inner slope of the roof and make for the nearest skylight. Once inside one of the decrepit brick structures I would have to reckon with pursuit; but I hoped to descend and dodge in and out of yawning doorways along the shadowed courtyard, eventually getting to Washington Street and slipping out of town toward the south.
The clatter at the northerly connecting door was now terrific, and I saw that the weak panelling was beginning to splinter. Obviously, the besiegers had brought some ponderous object into play as a battering-ram. The bedstead, however, still held firm; so that I had at least a faint chance of making good my escape. As I opened the window I noticed that it was flanked by heavy velour draperies suspended from a pole by brass rings, and also that there was a large projecting catch for the shutters on the exterior. Seeing a possible means of avoiding the dangerous jump, I yanked at the hangings and brought them down, pole and all; then quickly hooking two of the rings in the shutter catch and flinging the drapery outside. The heavy folds reached fully to the abutting roof, and I saw that the rings and catch would be likely to bear my weight. So, climbing out of the window and down the improvised rope ladder, I left behind me forever the morbid and horror-infested fabric of the Gilman House.
I landed safely on the loose slates of the steep roof, and succeeded in gaining the gaping black skylight without a slip. Glancing up at the window I had left, I observed it was still dark, though far across the crumbling chimneys to the north I could see lights ominously blazing in the Order of Dagon Hall, the Baptist church, and the Congregational church which I recalled so shiveringly. There had seemed to be no one in the courtyard below, and I hoped there would be a chance to get away before the spreading of a general alarm. Flashing my pocket lamp into the skylight, I saw that there were no steps down. The distance was slight, however, so I clambered over the brink and dropped; striking a dusty floor littered with crumbling boxes and barrels.
After a time the cautious rattling ceased, and I heard the room to the north entered with a pass-key. Then the lock of the connecting door to my room was softly tried. The bolt held, of course, and I heard the floor creak as the prowler left the room. After a moment there came another soft rattling, and I knew that the room to the south of me was being entered. Again a furtive trying of a bolted connecting door, and again a receding creaking. This time the creaking went along the hall and down the stairs, so I knew that the prowler had realised the bolted condition of my doors and was giving up his attempt for a greater or lesser time, as the future would shew.
The readiness with which I fell into a plan of action proves that I must have been subconsciously fearing some menace and considering possible avenues of escape for hours. From the first I felt that the unseen fumbler meant a danger not to be met or dealt with, but only to be fled from as precipitately as possible. The one thing to do was to get out of that hotel alive as quickly as I could, and through some channel other than the front stairs and lobby.
Rising softly and throwing my flashlight on the switch, I sought to light the bulb over my bed in order to choose and pocket some belongings for a swift, valiseless flight. Nothing, however, happened; and I saw that the power had been cut off. Clearly, some cryptic, evil movement was afoot on a large scale—just what, I could not say. As I stood pondering with my hand on the now useless switch I heard a muffled creaking on the floor below, and thought I could barely distinguish voices in conversation. A moment later I felt less sure that the deeper sounds were voices, since the apparent hoarse barkings and loose-syllabled croakings bore so little resemblance to recognised human speech. Then I thought with renewed force of what the factory inspector had heard in the night in this mouldering and pestilential building.
Having filled my pockets with the flashlight’s aid, I put on my hat and tiptoed to the windows to consider chances of descent. Despite the state’s safety regulations there was no fire escape on this side of the hotel, and I saw that my windows commanded only a sheer three-story drop to the cobbled courtyard. On the right and left, however, some ancient brick business blocks abutted on the hotel; their slant roofs coming up to a reasonable jumping distance from my fourth-story level. To reach either of these lines of buildings I would have to be in a room two doors from my own—in one case on the north and in the other case on the south—and my mind instantly set to work calculating what chances I had of making the transfer.
I could not, I decided, risk an emergence into the corridor; where my footsteps would surely be heard, and where the difficulties of entering the desired room would be insuperable. My progress, if it was to be made at all, would have to be through the less solidly built connecting doors of the rooms; the locks and bolts of which I would have to force violently, using my shoulder as a battering-ram whenever they were set against me. This, I thought, would be possible owing to the rickety nature of the house and its fixtures; but I realised I could not do it noiselessly. I would have to count on sheer speed, and the chance of getting to a window before any hostile forces became coördinated enough to open the right door toward me with a pass-key. My own outer door I reinforced by pushing the bureau against it—little by little, in order to make a minimum of sound.
I glanced first at the connecting door on the south side of the room. It was designed to open in my direction, hence I saw—after drawing the bolt and finding other fastenings in place—it was not a favourable one for forcing. Accordingly abandoning it as a route, I cautiously moved the bedstead against it to hamper any attack which might be made on it later from the next room. The door on the north was hung to open away from me, and this—though a test proved it to be locked or bolted from the other side—I knew must be my route.
As I thought of these things I looked out over the squalid sea of decaying roofs below me, now brightened by the beams of a moon not much past full. On the right the black gash of the river-gorge clove the panorama; abandoned factories and railway station clinging barnacle-like to its sides. Beyond it the rusted railway and the Rowley road led off through a flat, marshy terrain dotted with islets of higher and dryer scrub-grown land. On the left the creek-threaded countryside was nearer, the narrow road to Ipswich gleaming white in the moonlight. I could not see from my side of the hotel the southward route toward Arkham which I had determined to take.
I was irresolutely speculating on when I had better attack the northward door, and on how I could least audibly manage it, when I noticed that the vague noises underfoot had given place to a fresh and heavier creaking of the stairs. A wavering flicker of light shewed through my transom, and the boards of the corridor began to groan with a ponderous load. Muffled sounds of possible vocal origin approached, and at length a firm knock came at my outer door.
For a moment I simply held my breath and waited. Eternities seemed to elapse, and the nauseous fishy odour of my environment seemed to mount suddenly and spectacularly. Then the knocking was repeated—continuously, and with growing insistence. I knew that the time for action had come, and forthwith drew the bolt of the northward connecting door, bracing myself for the task of battering it open. The knocking waxed louder, and I hoped that its volume would cover the sound of my efforts. At last beginning my attempt, I lunged again and again at the thin panelling with my left shoulder, heedless of shock or pain. The door resisted even more than I had expected, but I did not give in. And all the while the clamour at the outer door increased.
Finally the connecting door gave, but with such a crash that I knew those outside must have heard. Instantly the outside knocking became a violent battering, while keys sounded ominously in the hall doors of the rooms on both sides of me. Rushing through the newly opened connexion, I succeeded in bolting the northerly hall door before the lock could be turned; but even as I did so I heard the hall door of the third room—the one from whose window I had hoped to reach the roof below—being tried with a pass-key.
For an instant I felt absolute despair, since my trapping in a chamber with no window egress seemed complete. A wave of almost abnormal horror swept over me, and invested with a terrible but unexplainable singularity the flashlight-glimpsed dust prints made by the intruder who had lately tried my door from this room. Then, with a dazed automatism which persisted despite hopelessness, I made for the next connecting door and performed the blind motion of pushing at it in an effort to get through and—granting that fastenings might be as providentially intact as in this second room—bolt the hall door beyond before the lock could be turned from outside.
Sheer fortunate chance gave me my reprieve—for the connecting door before me was not only unlocked but actually ajar. In a second I was through, and had my right knee and shoulder against a hall door which was visibly opening inward. My pressure took the opener off guard, for the thing shut as I pushed, so that I could slip the well-conditioned bolt as I had done with the other door. As I gained this respite I heard the battering at the two other doors abate, while a confused clatter came from the connecting door I had shielded with the bedstead. Evidently the bulk of my assailants had entered the southerly room and were massing in a lateral attack. But at the same moment a pass-key sounded in the next door to the north, and I knew that a nearer peril was at hand.
The northward connecting door was wide open, but there was no time to think about checking the already turning lock in the hall. All I could do was to shut and bolt the open connecting door, as well as its mate on the opposite side—pushing a bedstead against the one and a bureau against the other, and moving a washstand in front of the hall door. I must, I saw, trust to such makeshift barriers to shield me till I could get out the window and on the roof of the Paine Street block. But even in this acute moment my chief horror was something apart from the immediate weakness of my defences. I was shuddering because not one of my pursuers, despite some hideous pantings, gruntings, and subdued barkings at odd intervals, was uttering an unmuffled or intelligible vocal sound.
As I moved the furniture and rushed toward the windows I heard a frightful scurrying along the corridor toward the room north of me, and perceived that the southward battering had ceased. Plainly, most of my opponents were about to concentrate against the feeble connecting door which they knew must open directly on me. Outside, the moon played on the ridgepole of the block below, and I saw that the jump would be desperately hazardous because of the steep surface on which I must land.
Surveying the conditions, I chose the more southerly of the two windows as my avenue of escape; planning to land on the inner slope of the roof and make for the nearest skylight. Once inside one of the decrepit brick structures I would have to reckon with pursuit; but I hoped to descend and dodge in and out of yawning doorways along the shadowed courtyard, eventually getting to Washington Street and slipping out of town toward the south.
The clatter at the northerly connecting door was now terrific, and I saw that the weak panelling was beginning to splinter. Obviously, the besiegers had brought some ponderous object into play as a battering-ram. The bedstead, however, still held firm; so that I had at least a faint chance of making good my escape. As I opened the window I noticed that it was flanked by heavy velour draperies suspended from a pole by brass rings, and also that there was a large projecting catch for the shutters on the exterior. Seeing a possible means of avoiding the dangerous jump, I yanked at the hangings and brought them down, pole and all; then quickly hooking two of the rings in the shutter catch and flinging the drapery outside. The heavy folds reached fully to the abutting roof, and I saw that the rings and catch would be likely to bear my weight. So, climbing out of the window and down the improvised rope ladder, I left behind me forever the morbid and horror-infested fabric of the Gilman House.
I landed safely on the loose slates of the steep roof, and succeeded in gaining the gaping black skylight without a slip. Glancing up at the window I had left, I observed it was still dark, though far across the crumbling chimneys to the north I could see lights ominously blazing in the Order of Dagon Hall, the Baptist church, and the Congregational church which I recalled so shiveringly. There had seemed to be no one in the courtyard below, and I hoped there would be a chance to get away before the spreading of a general alarm. Flashing my pocket lamp into the skylight, I saw that there were no steps down. The distance was slight, however, so I clambered over the brink and dropped; striking a dusty floor littered with crumbling boxes and barrels.
The Gold Marsh Foundry dungeon is way easier than the optional dungeon I did last time. It look like that the expected order would be to first finish this one, then the optional one. Also I realize I did exactly the same thing last time, with the same results
.Now I'm overleveled and it's getting (more) boring. It's not helped by the fact that some of the more powerful enemies don't spawn too, like the two on the left, which I didn't see this time.
Regarding the cultist, I've already said it, but I think there's a huge missed opportunity, by not introducing the conflict with Dagon earlier, or at least dropping some clues (or better clues than just name-dropping Innsmouth in the first town). Another issue is using a factory instead of a temple of doom full of cultists, sacrificial chambers and deep ones. Still it's mitigated by the fact the next dungeon is R'lyeh.
There's also a comment just before the boss, Dagon (which was killed on the first try without any difficulty).
As a reminder, here's the dialogue sequence:
Not included: the narrator summons R'lyeh for a last-ditch attempt at killing Cthulhu. (in that update).
I had forgotten to take the first screenshot for this sequence, so I've grabbed a frame from a YT video and added it.
Regarding the narrator wall breaking, it never changed anything in the game-world before, the only wall-breaking was Cthulhu discussing with the narrator. There was nothing to give the foreknowledge that it was possible: the possibility should have been introduced earlier, with perhaps something like that:
Even then, it would need to establish the power of the narrator has over the characters/world and his willingness to intervene directly like that, which is way bigger than anything he's done before, since he's doing a full personality transplant on the main character, without any foreshadowing. And the personality transplant is unneeded since it was already Cthulhu character's arc.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2013
- Messages
- 13,147
Are you ready for . . .
Hi all,
It's been a while since our last update. We're pleased to announce that our next game, Cthulhu Saves Christmas will be coming out later this month to PC.
Cthulhu Saves Christmas is a prequel to our earlier game, Cthulhu Saves the World. Join Cthulhu, the Snow Maiden, Baba Yaga-chan, and Belsnickel and build your R'lyehtionships, fight the League of Christmas Evil, insanify your enemies, and catch the Christmas spirit!
Here are some screenshots!
We would like to do some console ports to release at a later time, but that hasn't been finalized yet.
We've started an official discord channel for our games. You can join it via this link - discord.gg/DTZdVx8
Thank you for all your support! If you'd like to help spread the word and are on Twitter, please RT the news and announcements we've posted:
https://twitter.com/ZeboydGames/status/1204075214809763842
https://twitter.com/werezompire/status/1204075261676982273
Are you ready for . . .
Hi all,
It's been a while since our last update. We're pleased to announce that our next game, Cthulhu Saves Christmas will be coming out later this month to PC.
Cthulhu Saves Christmas is a prequel to our earlier game, Cthulhu Saves the World. Join Cthulhu, the Snow Maiden, Baba Yaga-chan, and Belsnickel and build your R'lyehtionships, fight the League of Christmas Evil, insanify your enemies, and catch the Christmas spirit!
Here are some screenshots!
We would like to do some console ports to release at a later time, but that hasn't been finalized yet.
We've started an official discord channel for our games. You can join it via this link - discord.gg/DTZdVx8
Thank you for all your support! If you'd like to help spread the word and are on Twitter, please RT the news and announcements we've posted:
https://twitter.com/ZeboydGames/status/1204075214809763842
https://twitter.com/werezompire/status/1204075261676982273
The art is more 'busy', I'm not sure it's better compared to the art of Cthulhu saves the world (well, at least I would stop to complain about how barren some of the levels are); of course a to form a definitive opinion, I would have to see in action.
Also why is everyone doing prequels? I mean they had the perfect sequel hook in Cthulhu saves the World: Cthulhu travels the galaxy with his waifu, going on fun adventures and all that!
Last edited:
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2013
- Messages
- 13,147
Are you ready for . . .
Hi all,
It's been a while since our last update. We're pleased to announce that our next game, Cthulhu Saves Christmas will be coming out later this month to PC.
Cthulhu Saves Christmas is a prequel to our earlier game, Cthulhu Saves the World. Join Cthulhu, the Snow Maiden, Baba Yaga-chan, and Belsnickel and build your R'lyehtionships, fight the League of Christmas Evil, insanify your enemies, and catch the Christmas spirit!
Here are some screenshots!
We would like to do some console ports to release at a later time, but that hasn't been finalized yet.
We've started an official discord channel for our games. You can join it via this link - discord.gg/DTZdVx8
Thank you for all your support! If you'd like to help spread the word and are on Twitter, please RT the news and announcements we've posted:
https://twitter.com/ZeboydGames/status/1204075214809763842
https://twitter.com/werezompire/status/1204075261676982273
The art is more 'busy', I'm not sure it's better compared to the art of Cthulhu saves the world (well, at least I would stop to complain about how barren the levels are); of course a to form a definitive opinion, I would have to see in action.
Also why is everyone doing prequels? I mean they had the perfect sequel hook in Cthulhu saves the World: Cthulhu travels the galaxy with his waifu, going on fun adventures and all that!
It's probably just a short Christmas adventure to remind everybody that they are still alive, though I could be wrong
Are you ready for . . .
Hi all,
It's been a while since our last update. We're pleased to announce that our next game, Cthulhu Saves Christmas will be coming out later this month to PC.
Cthulhu Saves Christmas is a prequel to our earlier game, Cthulhu Saves the World. Join Cthulhu, the Snow Maiden, Baba Yaga-chan, and Belsnickel and build your R'lyehtionships, fight the League of Christmas Evil, insanify your enemies, and catch the Christmas spirit!
Here are some screenshots!
We would like to do some console ports to release at a later time, but that hasn't been finalized yet.
We've started an official discord channel for our games. You can join it via this link - discord.gg/DTZdVx8
Thank you for all your support! If you'd like to help spread the word and are on Twitter, please RT the news and announcements we've posted:
https://twitter.com/ZeboydGames/status/1204075214809763842
https://twitter.com/werezompire/status/1204075261676982273
The art is more 'busy', I'm not sure it's better compared to the art of Cthulhu saves the world (well, at least I would stop to complain about how barren the levels are); of course a to form a definitive opinion, I would have to see in action.
Also why is everyone doing prequels? I mean they had the perfect sequel hook in Cthulhu saves the World: Cthulhu travels the galaxy with his waifu, going on fun adventures and all that!
It's probably just a short Christmas adventure to remind everybody that they are still alive, though I could be wrong
Perhaps. They release their last game two years ago, with ports on Switch and Vita (WTF?) last year. It look like they have a long dev cycle, since they're a two person team (going by the credits of their games).
Part XXXXI: R'lyeh
Before doing this dungeon, I went and recruited DEM, the skeleton. Unlike last time, he's 5 levels below the rest of the team and much less useful. Still he's got his +25% to all stats spell, so he was useful for the boss of the secret dungeon; the two boss of R'lyeh were cakewalks in comparison, so I didn't have to use it.
so we did a more traditional dungeon instead.
And that's a pity, since some dynamism in the dungeon would have been welcome.
I agree that those bridges give a good idea of being in an enormous place. And considering the quality of their dungeons, not being bigger is a relief.
keep that at the same level of power as they are at the beginning of the game. Plus it gives the player some perspective on just how much more powerful they've grown at this stage.
Considering how geometric the progression is, in a single dungeon we can already have a big progression, so it's not that interesting. And it also raised the question of how they climbed to this bridge, considering those heroes are like 40 levels too low to do it.
At least the devs aren't blind to the issues in their game.
eighty-five times.
No idea what it is. At least it look nice and doesn't overstay its welcome, since this dungeon is just a short walk from entrance to the boss, with no random encounter. TBH, the end boss could have just been put at the end of the previous dungeon.
After killing the boss, I went and did the "secret" dungeon. The dungeon itself wasn't hard, but the end boss kicked me around until I had grinded for a few more levels and even then the victory was close, mostly depending on enemy attack damage and which targets they'd choose.
Fuck this, I'm done.
Before doing this dungeon, I went and recruited DEM, the skeleton. Unlike last time, he's 5 levels below the rest of the team and much less useful. Still he's got his +25% to all stats spell, so he was useful for the boss of the secret dungeon; the two boss of R'lyeh were cakewalks in comparison, so I didn't have to use it.
And that's a pity, since some dynamism in the dungeon would have been welcome.
I agree that those bridges give a good idea of being in an enormous place. And considering the quality of their dungeons, not being bigger is a relief.
Considering how geometric the progression is, in a single dungeon we can already have a big progression, so it's not that interesting. And it also raised the question of how they climbed to this bridge, considering those heroes are like 40 levels too low to do it.
At least the devs aren't blind to the issues in their game.
No idea what it is. At least it look nice and doesn't overstay its welcome, since this dungeon is just a short walk from entrance to the boss, with no random encounter. TBH, the end boss could have just been put at the end of the previous dungeon.
After killing the boss, I went and did the "secret" dungeon. The dungeon itself wasn't hard, but the end boss kicked me around until I had grinded for a few more levels and even then the victory was close, mostly depending on enemy attack damage and which targets they'd choose.
Fuck this, I'm done.
Last edited:
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
why are you so critical baud
live, laugh, love life
i believe in you
live, laugh, love life
i believe in you
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