A look back at: Front Mission 2

Onto the Playstation, and onto the nonsense of one-on-one battle animations making battles take way longer than necessary that we basically have to disable them, and then make guesses to see if I've lost arms and legs on the wanzers. Front Mission 2 is an upgrade on the original game, but not really when you consider it. You can rotate your camera, you can do the same things you did in Front Mission 1, but now leveling is different and there's lots, and I mean, lots, of skills that you can't really get all of them on one character and their wanzer. But those skills are the bread and butter to kicking your opponents in the guts.

Best thing Front Mission 2 does is the swapping scenarios, honestly. The idea that Bangladesh is now Alordesh and through some revolutionary activity is remarkable in a dystopian future, but everyone's got some sort of role that's important to some degree. It's also quite weird, because even though two characters are mainline protagonists, Ash and Lisa, they talk less than Thomas, who doesn't get his own scenario but is central to the plot as a good leader. Ash is even less talkative than Lisa for that matter. And then there's Saribash, who's never playable, and somehow much more of a central character due to him, his daughter Lila, and Ven, the most central enemy of the game. But not the main one. It's so interesting. Ven and Saribash are the two most central characters and Thomas is like the third most notable. And Ven surprisingly never goes to the good side (his lieutenant captain Maylan joins the good guys though), he just gets fought over and over until a secret society basically kills him. The evil mad scientist also feels betrayed, though he also reveals that the OCU, the central allied power for the series, seems to have kill satellites to destroy all. Hey, that was somehow in Front Mission: Gun Hazard as well!

Anyways, all the battle animations, all the other things, it would be a nice game in general, showing how someone wants to flee but also how they still feel like the place is home. There's the issue of this being a fan translation that wasn't even finished, so there's only partial stuff translated, most of which involved the battle dialogue only, but not cutscene dialogue. This meant, of course, consulting a script online, not easy to find. In any case, I did finish this. I have no intention of trying Front Mission Alternative since there doesn't seem to be a translation of that PSX game, but we'll probably try another Front Mission game later on. 

Game/mod/ROM hack walkthroughs

It really does suck that we have lost the GBAHacks site. I guess due to the inactivities, broken links, and possible strikes, it had to happen. And I did have a number of walkthroughs for ROM hacks submitted to Knuckle San so that they can be of help to those who can't understand the crypticness of certain ROM hacks. In that case, I'll just have to post them on PokeCommunity and here. This post will of course be updated accordingly whenever I finish a walkthrough and a ROM hack.

Just to be clear, these are links to walkthroughs. I'm not here to distribute ROMs.

Full walkthroughs:

Pokemon Adventure Yellow Chapter + Blue Chapter + Gold Chapter + Green Chapter

Pokemon Altair and Pokemon Sirius

Pokemon Ash Gray

Pokemon Cloud White 

Pokemon Dark Cry: The Legend of Giratina

Pokemon Dark Crystal

Pokemon Dark Rising 2

Pokemon Dark Rising: Order Destroyed

Pokemon Dark Violet

Pokemon Gold & Silver '97 Reforged

Pokemon Grass Jewel

Pokemon Grass Jewel 2

Pokemon Hyetology

Pokemon Luria

Pokemon Metal Red

Pokemon Nameless

Pokemon Polka Aqua

Pokemon Polka Aqua 2

Pokemon Prism 

Pokemon Saiph  

Pokemon Scorching Scarlet

Pokemon Sky Twilight

Pokemon Snakewood

Pokemon Star Twinkle 

Pokemon Stigma

Pokemon Sweet

Pokemon TDT

Pokemon Ultra Fire Sun 

Pokemon Vega

Pokemon Victory Fire

Pokemon Voda Red

Touhoumon Cirno 

The Wooper Who Saved Christmas 1 + 2 

Partial walkthroughs/Pokedexs/Other stuff

Pokemon Emerald Seaglass (general walkthrough only)

Pokemon Liquid Crystal

Pokemon Mega Power

Pokemon Nameless (battle arenas/department guide)

Pokemon Resolute

Pokemon Sapphire in Reverse 

Pokemon Timeless Diamond/Spaceless Pearl (trainer guide) 

Pokemon Ultra Fire Sun 

And now for a new and additional bonus. I'm playing through ROM hacks of other games as well and will be writing walkthroughs of official games! Check the categories below:

Official game walkthroughs:

Turbo Turtle Adventures 

Castlevania (NES) ROM hack walkthroughs

Castlevania: Hell's Fury 

Legend of Zelda (NES) ROM hack walkthroughs: 

Timecrisis: Fall of the Moon

Zelda Challenge: Outlands (1st Quest)

Zelda Challenge: Outlands (2nd Quest)

Super Monkey Ball 2 ROM hack walkthroughs

Monkeyed Ball (includes Forgotten Stages)

Monkeyed Ball 2: Witty Subtitle 

NGUU 1 

NGUU 2 

NGUU 1+2 

SMBDX in SMB2 

SMB2 SMB1 Style 

Super Monkey Ball Banana Bash Remastered 

Super Monkey Ball Dimensions: Shattered Reality 

Super Monkey Ball Gaiden 

A look back at: Fire Emblem Gaiden

 

I'm actually bedazzling myself with regards to my own commitments. I go through each thing I do, whether ROM hack or actual game play. Plodding along, once I notice I'm really close to finishing one thing, I sure as hell will rush through it at that point. Fire Emblem Gaiden is, in layman's terms, actually a much shorter Fire Emblem game than it's predecessor. No 25 chapters, just 5, but they are spread out alongside mechanics like "choose your location" world map, regular four-direction navigation in some places, and short locations for battlefields. The big selling point was crafting two different protagonists with their own separate parties, and they don't really meet up with one another until the very end. You still got the permadeath mechanics, and the headaches of grinding to gain promotions, plus new ones, but with some breathers in between.

The game at least tells you when you can truly class change after the required level-up. The Villager class in particular is outstanding due to it being versatile enough to be promoted to a number of classes, and most regular classes like Cavalier, Mercenary, and Archer can be promoted several times. But of course, the grinding to get to it is the big draw. At least here, you don't have as linear a structure as the chapter-based format of the previous game, you can enter a cave/shrine and battle monsters with characters until they get where they need. And you don't need to worry about finite usage of items anymore, each person has just one item to equip to increase stats and just a regular weapon more or less. Except mages, they have the incredibly dubious decision of having their own HEALTH be used for spells! This sucks, especially since enemies always want to go after them if they can't go after the main hero sometimes, and them being weak, and getting WEAKER FROM THEIR OWN SPELLS means they are the easiest characters to die in this game.

My guide that I used to get through Fire Emblem Gaiden wanted me to grind, grind, grind. Worst part about this was that it was necessary. Especially once you get to Chapter 3 and beyond, you want to enter those caves with the goddess statues for promotion, fight those monsters repeatedly, and then promote, and maybe grind some more. You come into a later enemy encounter unprepared, you'll certainly lose. My guide wanted to ensure that you had to reach Level 20 before promoting, since the stat gains are almost as important as the promotions if not more, and yes, there were characters that benefited way more than others. Clair and Python in Alm's team once fully upgraded were amazing, just like Alm himself, and the three Pegasus sisters that Celica recruits are the best characters for her to use. Speaking of, while this is a Gaiden game completely different from Marth's adventure, it's interesting to note the three Pegasus sisters from that game were the only previous characters to return here. All just to become a part of this game too.

Oh, and let's not even go to the point of accuracy. Let's just not. It's so often that misses occur, that you really just want to hope to be able to hit twice, if at all. Especially mages. Man these games can be rough. 

A look back at: Pokemon Timeless Diamond/Spaceless Pearl

First of all, I'm not actually done playing through this hack yet. I'm currently writing an NPC trainer guide, including rematch teams for post-game stuff. This is my first ever ROM hack dealing with Generation 4 though, so things had to be set up in detail. DesMuMe is not good at handling the WiFi stuff in the Underground, but thankfully I DON'T need to mess around with this too much. But of course, the nature of Pokemon Diamond (I went with Timeless Diamond for this) means there's a ton to consider. Anyways, I went through with a decent team: Raichu (a gift Pichu from a mystery gift password, with Surf and Volt Tackle), Crobat, Mamoswine, Lopunny, Gyarados, and Leafeon. Plus Bronzong for some time before I needed Mamoswine for Rock Climb (somehow the only one I could use that Rock Climb). My starter was Chimchar but I was pissed about how the RNG dictates both the starter gender and even the level and gender of the wild Starly I battled.

Gameplay and story of TD/SP is going to be the same as regular D/P. So nothing on that regard. What's important is what's improved. You've got the Platinum mons in the regional dex here, thankfully allowing for better use of those types, plus a few others added like Pinsir, Gulpin, Hoppip, Vulpix, and Smoochum for further variety. Version exclusives aren't a thing to worry about, you can actually encounter all Pokemon necessary in either version. This also does mean that trainers in the game not only have higher-level Pokemon after the first few routes, but much nastier teams to tangle with, to make the game better. After all, with more experience comes more challenge. But also perks. Ability to change HMs easily, unlimited TM usage, better surfing speed, an Advance Radar mechanic to mitigate the dual-slot cartridge issue, move tutors scattered about, wait what's this? Honey tree mechanic overhauled? Makes getting a Munchlax actually doable in this game! Yes!

Of course, the waiting does still have its issues. Some trainers are only battled on certain days or times. Some swarm Pokemon only happen on random days, along with the daily encounters in the Great Marsh and all. Small prices though, as the game itself is a nice return to Gen-4 Sinnoh in a better limelight than what the original games held. Sure, Platinum also exists too, but this set of hacks is like the Legacy hacks, improvements to the original games that inspired it.

A look back at: Front Mission: Gun Hazard

 

This somehow took a lot longer to get through than the previous Front Mission, and honestly that's cause I did so many other things to close out this summer. I still do ROM hacks and walkthroughs for them, play the occasional mod every now and then, but also work and college courses got in the way more often than not. This game should have been finished earlier, but because of so many other commitments, I did things a mission at a time with Front Mission: Gun Hazard.

Side-scrolling action RPGs are quite the rarity, but they can be somewhat fun if done quite right. This one game is based off of Cybernator, but with action RPG elements. So you gain experience and money for each kill, and enemies often respawn with a bar at the NE end of the HUD. What this entails is that for each mission, you'll have some non-static enemy encounters coming from either direction and you can blow them all up before continuing, so I usually find a nice sweet spot to park my butt in and just grind on the enemies until they stop showing up. Then, finish the rest of the static encounters or get to the end. There are very, very few missions with constraints to worry about, like auto-scrolling, but there's not even any timed missions or so. Good playing does mean avoiding too much in damage, though I do say, with destroying enemy Wanzers or other mechanical devices, the lingering explosion damage is the source of most of my damage problems. As far as weapons go, the shotgun weapons are the best primary weapons in general, though I did use vulcans every now and then. The secondary weapons I usually avoided using due to finite ammo and having to always restock, but the knuckle has no ammo limit albeit having to deal with the annoying splash damage.

Front Mission: Gun Hazard also does a rare thing for action RPGs at the time and have a computer-controlled ally character that you can choose between missions. And all are different in many ways, they all can gain experience and levels just like Albert can. Though leveling Brenda and Kagemitsu doesn't really accomplish much, since one's a carrier pilot for calling airstrikes and the other's just a map robot. The ally Wanzers though are a challenge to keep safe from harm as you go through a level battling enemies. Emil and Clark I had the best overall time with, since they usually stay behind me, but Luven, Axel, Sakata, and Anita (I didn't use Rook once, I'll admit) have the annoying habit of getting in front of me, taking damage when they are the ones who are weaker than my main Wanzer (as a reminder, Albert gets most of the experience since you HAVE to play as him). It's not too much an issue with Sakata as he's got that invulnerability shield, but the others shouldn't get in front of me. Luven's the worst at this, since he also lobs the bombs that hurt him and you as well if not thrown right. And trying to keep the AI from walking into destroyed enemy explosions was also a challenge.

The game's plot is quite intriguing. That tower in the beginning is so strange, representing what could have been, but of course it's going to be the finale since someone eventually uses it as a beam weapon to destroy towns too distracted with each other in world wars. And while Albert gets caught up in the first few wars that are revolutions, coup d'etats, and whatever else, clearly some guy is running all the political strings, or should I say a "Society". That is in fact what it's called. This side story runs completely differently from the regular Front Mission games, but is still a decent example of why war seriously sucks.

A look back at: Pokemon Korosu

I must be on fire this summer, and more specifically, this July. While it took me a while to beat this compared to the much shorter Outlaw, that's cause I was cashing in the chips on the other RPGs I've been cooking, so at times I had those to play first. Anyways, I eyed Korosu when I first saw it, but because Outlaw had a lot of information that pertained to Korosu, that's why I had to play it first. And there's also Pokemon CAWPS, which also took place before Korosu, but had much less referential material, so I was okay with skipping it. My end team was Crobat, Ampharos, Magmar, Gallade, Lapras, and Golem. I did have a Shelgon and Heracross for certain points earlier in the story.

Pokemon Korosu is Pokemon meeting Kill Bill. And Bill does get killed, although he is a completely minor character and isn't even killed by your character. But the gist is you're a girl who will fight her way out of human trafficking thanks to a Gastly to help out. The preamble to the whole game was weird enough, yeah, the opponents only have Fighting or Normal attacks, so Gastly has no struggles, that is until Sergi destroys you. And then Lance, you know, the guy who murdered his own Elite Four members in Outlaw, decides to save and help our girl protagonist. Atoning for his sins, or perhaps he was under control of CJ from the previous game, this guy essentially sets up our girl to destroy any evil doers. Biker gangs, a new team called Team Ice, a reformed Team Magma, a Team Rocket in hiding, and some weird company named X Inc. (no relation to THAT X), these will all feel the vengeful nature of our soon-to-be femme fatale. But none so much as the Salone crime family on Six Island (now known as Fortune Island). This all is the first half of the storyline in Korosu, and you're a one-woman army to eventually take those Salone freaks out. All of them.

But then the rest of the plot is just, I guess just going after other corrupt dudes. I mentioned the X Inc. corporation, that ended up being AFTER destroying the Salones. And it's a little goofy, for one, X Inc. is just a remodeled Silph Co. that is on Seven Island (named Quest Island here). Second, the employees are just genuine people with no crime activity. And three, yeah, Xandus is a magician, he's technically a bad guy from CAWPS (the only real reference to that game for the record), but man his team was stupid ridiculous for the point you battle him, yes, he's got some legendaries). And then the last half of the plot returns to Kanto. I love how you start in the Seviis and make a name for yourself, then return to Kanto. But when everything's open-ended, aside from getting the eight badges, you'll easily lose yourself. And it's not like the citizens got better since Outlaw, because the titular Outlaw decided to become an absolute ruler, what he hated the most. The place still has scum and villainy, and then there's the 64-person Pokemon tournament that felt like padding. Easy padding, no battling five elite trainers back-to-back cause you can rest between rounds. And for those who played and struggled with Outlaw, this nonsense about him not losing a battle, or even having his iconic Sandslash faint? Nonsense, I say! And after you dispose of the Outlaw, there's no postgame, well there is the one-time chance to get a Deoxys, but the rest of the game doesn't even recognize your girl protagonist as the leader. Basically speaking, the plot falls after you defeat the Salone crime family, with only one of those so-called "Sons of Salone" actually trying to avenge his kin. We don't even see the real results of the post-Outlaw demise, just our assassin girl killing anyone who tries to kill her. 

Again, no walkthrough from me because someone has already beaten me to it. The same one who made a walkthrough for Outlaw for that matter. Maybe someday I will get back to walkthrough writing for Pokemon ROM hacks again. 

A look back at: Front Mission

 

Fantasyanime and RPGClassics are two of the sites that I credit for showcasing loads of classic RPGs that I just had to check out. Of the two, Fantasyanime is a lot smaller (and lost its download links like years ago) but it has shrines dedicated to lots of games that I just had to play. And honestly, I think out of their catalog, there's only like 8 or so left, including this game's spinoff sequel. As for RPGClassics, their walkthrough did guide me in how to get through this particular Square game that initially didn't make it out of Japan until a Nintendo DS remake occurred. And it even spawned a whole franchise of sorts. So yay, Front Mission. This was a long time coming.

Mecha combat meets Fire Emblem-like tactical turn-based strategy RPG gaming. Player phases and enemy phases, grid-based movement, different weapon styles for melee, short-range, and long-range, finite shoulder-mounted missiles for sniping, experience for actions you take, it's certainly all here. Though no permadeath, oddly enough, even though it would make sense with the modern war-like setting and mechs blowing up. A huge chunk of this game was spent on spending money on upgrading mechas, I mean wanzers of course. Gotta have a durable body, arms, and legs, arm the wanzers with weapons that work well with multiple bullets or better hit percentages, but at the same time keeping the weight at most 100, so even if you have the money you might not have the weight. I do like that you can customize not just the parts and weapons, but also the name and paint job too. Grinding for levels and skills boils down to using the units that need the grinding, and the colosseum option exists in towns for individual grinding a la the Fire Emblem arenas (without permadeath of course)

Storywise Front Mission proves to just be a linear game, which is fine by me. You just progress across the island, sometimes not being able to backtrack, and each town has upgrades that the others don't. Most missions, as in all but like one or two, have your main objective be to just destroy all enemy wanzers. There's thankfully only a small couple of escort missions, and even then, if the escortee doesn't survive the game still continues fine with just a small penalty. The idea of fighting a war, a war that was caused by your main character, but also the horrendous problem of mad science in using human brains for wanzer computers reared into the plot. A lot of old games delved into that mad science, it's certainly a trope that has shown face many times. As a reminder, I didn't play the DS remake, meaning I'm missing out of the USN storyline which was added there, but I really don't care that much at the moment. It was a fun game and I'm going to try the others soon enough.