Terrible RPG Dungeons: Part 4

Oh boy, more of these! And more Playstation guffawing, why not.

Steamwood - Brave Fencer Musashi

Repetition gets real boring after a while. How much fun would you have doing the same thing over and over? Even some fun things can be hard to enjoy after repeating them for so long. And speaking of, how many iterations can you handle? Steamwood isn't really a dungeon per se, but in Brave Fencer Musashi, you go through this machine not once, but twice. And it's a royal pain in the ass both times. Twice in this game the place runs out of control, and it's up to you to prevent it from exploding. Here's the issue, you've got to shut off valves in numerical order, and there's an annoying minigame in order to shut off each one. It gets progressively harder of course. And let's not forget the jumping as well as the waiting for lifts, oh did I forget that this is a timed dungeon? It is. The second time around, you have to find valve handles on the floor and bring them to their respective valves. Real nasty stuff.

Desert of Death - Breath of Fire III

Again, it's questionable to put something that isn't really a dungeon in this post, but screw it. The Desert of Death is an entirely new mechanic in a game with way too many required-to-get-through mechanics and minigames in it already. Basically you're walking the desert at night, cause it's too hot in the day, then you also have to worry about several other things. Miss out on drinking water from helpings, and characters have the Max HP reduced status. There's several tough monsters that show up in random battles at inopportune times, which screws with the final caveat, navigation. You gotta use the stars to get to the Oasis, and while you can deviate and get some rare and awesome equipment, they are much easier to fish for. Perhaps the thing that really puts this on here is that Horis, you're apparent guide, gives you very misleading directions. Screw him and screw this desert.

Ice Cave - Dragon Warrior III

Well, looks like I ran out of Playstation dungeons that are crap. Oh well. There's not a whole lot of terrible ones (even the worst Valkyrie Profile ones have some decent and enjoyable challenges to them). Onwards to Dragon Warrior III. The Ice Cave is a post-game dungeon, so it probably shouldn't be on this list. But it is because in all honesty, who really is arsed to get every single monster medal ever just to enter the main floors of this dungeon? The biggest issue with monster medals is that they are random drops, not common ones either, and you only get one each time. It's always a bronze the first time, once you get two bronzes, there's an even slimmer chance to get silver, and a considerably more slimmer chance to get gold. You need to get EVERY BRONZE MEDAL just to get past the first floor, and EVERY SILVER MEDAL to get to the end. It's ridiculous for the obvious reason that it's much more likely to wind up at Level 99 for fighting so long, or possibly beating the main game around ten times. The Ice Cave's biggest prize is the best sword in the game, but it's one of those "why bother" moments overall, since you'll steamroll the end bosses regardless.

Abyss - Wild ARMs 3

Randomized dungeons usually aren't too bad. You get a lot of replayability out of them, as well as explore every nook and cranny to make it all worthwhile. The Abyss makes a return in the Wild Arms franchise at 3, whereas it was a simple dungeon before and in its remake, it's a 100-floor complex filled with some of the nastiest monsters and no save points to offer. Wild ARMs 3's Abyss functions in the same way, except it is all randomized. In a way, this dungeon isn't entirely randomized the first time, because a guardian idol is required at one point and it's in the Abyss. There's even a considerable amount of mid-bosses in this one too. What you need to conquer the Abyss is A LOT of preparation, and that is A LOT. All the healing items you can muster, all of the good skills like status prevention and fire prevention (for Ragu), all the time you need to actually get through the whole dungeon, and some luck as well to avoid nasty attacks like Kirlian Buster or attacks that steal and flee at the same turn, kamikaze attacks from Brants, doppelgangers, the list goes on as the enemy list also goes on. Never go here unprepared.

Elemental Chambers - Suikoden Tactics

The Obel Ruins is a nice place to train your characters, you can just fight on the first floor, hope you get the pattern that respawns enemies, switch out characters who hit a good level, and that's about all there's to it. When entering it, obviously you can't leave until you hit the exit, and the enemies scale according to your current level, getting progressively harder the further you head inwards. On the fifth floor you gotta deal with some nasty golem enemies, and they have a ranged attack that can really hurt characters out of terrain. You know, I just sort of described every floor that isn't an elemental chamber. Getting to these things is the hard part. First off, finish floor 5 and eliminate the poison, then return there and finish that room again (you have to defeat all enemies on floor 5). Depending on what day it is, you go to the respective elemental chamber for some really difficult enemies. The elemental dragons are of course the nastiest, especially in the Mother Earth Chamber, but it applies in every chamber since they have a full set of magic, tough HP, and proper strategies. Big issue? Sidequest items for lots of neat stuff, especially if you're trying to get Dragon Meat or Dragon Fins. Simeon's little sidequest has you going into the Mother Earth Chamber especially, and this one might just be the hardest because despite its openness, there's a swarm of strong enemies right off the bat. For the sidequests, these may not be all that worth it.

Up next, I'm done with Playstation stuff! Let's try another platform.

A look back at: Dragon Quest III

Imagine that you're in an actual RPG with enemies all around the real world. Yes, the real world. That's Dragon Quest III. Okay, things aren't to actual size, scale, and name, but whatever. Dragon Quest III's world is like that, adding a new continent between Australia and South America while incorporating real-world geography like the Andes or the Himalayas to make it seem authentic. These guys seem to know their geography pretty well.

Regardless, if you ever play this game, go ahead with the GBC version. It's probably the best you can afford for this particular game. It's not the best, but it sure was a better playthrough than the first two games, rest assured. More fun spells like Transform and BeDragon, as well as the opportunities for class changes and customization, and there's even a segment where you can let a Dealer build a new town (basically where Jamestown, VA would be in the real world)! And there's a bit of non-linearness, whether or not you're in the real world or the dark world (Alefgard). The Pachisi tracks invite loads of potential save-scumming to get everything, and getting all the TinyMedals is quite the fetch quest.

The grinding aspect of Dragon Warrior 3 is thankfully reduced to something that is okay enough. Sure, sometimes it's gonna take a while to reach the next level, and the enemies still can be rough. And of course, trying to get those pesky Metalys (metal slimes) or Metabbles (metal babbles) seems to be the hardest thing to do. Really though, if there's grinding for anything, it's random drops, namely the Monster Medals. Yeah, have fun spending years getting every single bronze medal, then every single silver medal, then if you really don't have a life, every single gold medal. I tried to bypass this using the game's debug mode to enter the unique Ice Cave dungeon (requires both silver and bronze medals of all kinds) to no avail. All you get is the best sword in the game, but why bother when you already beat this game anyways? Yeesh. I've heard that later installments in Dragon Quest just so happen to take as long as this one, namely VII. Color me shocked when I get to those when I see how long they can take.

Terrible RPG Dungeons: Part 3

Hah, I've been doing lots of these haven't I? Well, get ready for another one. Yes, more Playstation crap as well. Read the first Terrible RPG Dungeons post for the main premise of these things.

Abandoned Mines B2 - Vagrant Story

I gotta give credit where credit is due. Vagrant Story is an excellent game. It's got to be one of the hardest action RPG games, with emphasis on difficult combat and puzzles. The game's areas are divided up into rooms each with different names and such, and usually each and every area is connected in certain ways. In the Abandoned Mines B2 section of the game, you first fight an Air Elemental boss, then after that is done is the Treaty Room, where it is highly recommended to save. Once you enter Way of Lost Children, that's when it starts. You have three minutes to race through an entire conundrum of rooms, filled with many baddies, some of which are dead end rooms that may contain treasure. The music is completely appropriate for this entire section, getting the adrenaline pumping. It's too bad this is terrible because combat in this game is rather slow and you could very well just be taken aback by encounters that get in the way. Oh and to top it off? An Earth Elemental resides in the second-to-last room and must be defeated, which will take up a lot of time. Miss the door and it's back to the Treaty Room. This belongs here because it is a timed dungeon.

Deus - Xenogears

Hah, and you thought I was done with Xenogears' most terrible dungeons. News flash, I'm not. To be fair, these two are out of the top five worst, but they are still bad. Deus, like many other final dungeons, is extremely fatiguing and you wish it would end already. The enemies inside are actually not too difficult, mostly boring to fight (this is a gear dungeon by the way). You get a map much like in Shevat Corridors or Nortune D Block Sewers, indicating that this is gonna be a long and arduous one. But due to its enemies not being that bad, well, the dungeon thankfully isn't that bad in comparison. But it's still a long and boring trek all the way down. The payoff for this of course is a nice and innovative boss rush, though.

Anima Dungeon #2 - Xenogears

A fun fact about the two Xenogears dungeons here, they are Disc 2 dungeons, while all of the ones on the previous post were actually Disc 1 dungeons. That shows just how annoying those dungeons really are! Anyways, Anima Dungeon #2 like Deus isn't terrible because of its enemies, which are really easy. It's terrible because of it's puzzles, specifically the first one, involving rocks falling. One in particular is a very loathsome pixel hunt. Then you got a neat little spike ceiling fakeout before another valve puzzle, the latter isn't really fun at all but better than pixel hunting. Oh, and the boss for this one...yeah if you want to get that Trader Card, he's definitely one of the harder ones.

Centra Ruins - Final Fantasy VIII

And lo and behold, another timed dungeon. This one is home to a fan-favorite summon, Odin. Naturally he's gonna give you a timer to beat him, but not only do you have a timer to beat him, but the same timer is needed to get to him. See where this is headed? Well, you don't have to get him of course, the dungeon is optional, but getting to him is gonna require at least 7 out of the 20 minutes or so to reach him, and that's assuming you have Enc-None junctioned, which honestly it should be. He's only got his signature Zantetsuken, which will instantly give you a game over should the timer run out. But he's not the real problem with this dungeon. The real problem is the Tonberry King, as well as slaying 20 Tonberries just to get him. A real nasty procedure, taking out huge tanks of one Tonberry at a time, especially if a timer runs out and especially if one gets too close or uses the Everyone's Grudge counter move. This sidequest was amazingly arduous and just made me hate Centra Ruins forever.

The Great Glacier - Final Fantasy VII

Whether or not you're willing to consider The Great Glacier a true dungeon or not, I don't care. This is a pretty bad place, but usually just for completionists. The gimmick is of course, it's freezing outside, and after a set number of steps, 544 to be exact, Cloud passes out. Luckily, he does so and gets rescued by a cabin-dweller living at the base of the next dungeon, so some will get the incentive to just move on. That's cool. But what about trekking through and getting everything? There's quite a few good things to get in the glacier, like an Elixir, a materia for the summon Alexander, a Safety Bit, and a few other good Materia. It's just that this is an RPG dungeon that forces you to take multiple trips. I'd rather be doing that on my own volition instead, damn you.

Up next, possibly more Playstation crap? I'm done with Xenogears dungeons by the way.

Terrible RPG Dungeons: Part 2

Hmm, I thought of five awful dungeons, but they are all in the same game. A game that ends up being rather overrated in the grand scheme of Playstation RPGs, but is honestly not all that good from a point of view I played on. I honestly should've titled this post terrible RPG Dungeons: Part Deus. See that last word? It's from Xenogears. Therefore, I will go over five awful dungeons in Xenogears. Of course, I can't say I hate this game, because it does have fantastic moments, but there's a lot of bad outweighing the good, especially in dungeons, so here they are below.

Zeboim

This isn't entirely that bad of a dungeon, but thanks to Xenogears' overall encounter rate, this mostly long dungeon feels pretty darn sluggish. It's got a few unique enemies to its name, like the Shellbelle, which puts everyone to sleep at first, rather annoying, as well as Phobia, which absorbs all attacks, meaning that you have to heal it to kill it, an out-of-the-box tactic. So what are some other reasons it's here besides it being long and arduous? Hmm, how about a boss fight at the end which isn't that tough, but backtracking all the way to the surface? Yeah, that's pretty boring. And then you fight Id at the entrance, and he's easily another of the toughest bosses in the game by far. Just yikes.

Solaris/Krelian's Lab

I guess I'll put these two together. The good news is that much of the stuff involving Solaris is pretty darn epic. But there's still plenty of bad things too. I mean, the stealth segments are unique, but stupidly annoying since unlike other games, even when the cube's back is turned, they can still spot someone on the same path they are on. There's much more waiting when that's involved. Going through Solaris once you're on the run means you'll fight nothing but Security cubes later on, and all they do is change their defenses, which means either physical or magic works, but not both, making you constantly strategize. Upon reaching Krelian's lab there's a few more interesting enemies, like the self-destructing Wels, a palette swap of Phobia, and the Bloody Bros, all of which qualify as "Demonic Spider" type enemies due to their overall natures. Yeah, I'm not a fan of this one, nor the elongated cutscenes either.

Babel Tower

Oh come on, you know this one would be on here. It's also the only Gear dungeon mentioned in this post. Babel Tower emphasizes verticality, especially in its early moments. You'll be jumping quite a lot, even rope swinging. The random encounters will make life hell though, as they can take precedence over jumping and can make you fall all the way to the bottom. It works so strangely here, and your camera angle can't be changed sometimes either. Somehow, when the game loads a random encounter, it allows movement, but not jumping. So you end up kinda silly just running off. But it certainly was enough to make Babel Tower a rather pissy dungeon. On the plus side, the enemies aren't tough, and the bosses are a nice but not too annoying challenge.

Shevat Corridors

Oh boy, THIS in front of Babel Tower? Hell, this is in front of a lot of other dungeons. This is easily the second worst Xenogears dungeon. It's sheer monotony in what you'll be dealing with, nothing but stairs, stairs, and more stairs as you descend during an emergency. Add to it that Maria is a party member, and she's absolutely nothing special on foot at all (apart from calling Siebzein in battle for god-knows-what reason). Really though, we've mentioned the random encounter rate, but ALL THREE enemy types you encounter here can be annoying enough. Gimmicks are probably the least and most annoying simultaneously. They can't be taken down by ether attacks, and they only take 1 HP of damage overall. Add up six weak attacks, and each one goes down though, so that's good enough. Tears will increase their attack should their partners be killed in battle. Finally, the Forbiddens are nothing to scoff at and should be killed quickly, as they can break free and unleash Mighty Blow, a percent-based attack that does the exact damage that they have so far lost, which can be deadly. Add all these things up, and you will see exactly why Shevat Corridors belongs on the worst RPG dungeons ever.

Nortune D-Block Sewers

And so we come to the worst of the Xenogears dungeons. Yeah, sewer dungeons are really REALLY bad in RPGs, and there's only one here. We're lucky there's only one, though. There's a map which helps quite a bit, since this'll be the longest and most tedious part of the game. You've got Rico, which is the big but slow guy, except slowness is an absolute boon in this game and makes him almost useless. The enemies like to give you annoying statuses, one of them likes to leave a character at 1 HP and run away. There's even sewer drains that hurt you if you touch them. Yeah, you can jump over them and all, but god, this dungeon is misery enough. And then there's Redrum, yes, an often memorable boss with more HP than two previous gear bosses combined and a whole slew of attacks, from a hit-all move, to poison and confusion, and his signature Murder, which is more than just a standard insta-kill but one that heals him the characters entire Max HP value. This guy was really bad news for many players, and making it worse, Bloody later on, as well as the Bloody Bros I mentioned in the Krelian's lab all use the same tactics. For these reasons, the monotony, Redrum, the annoying enemies and traps, and the actual fact that this whole thing is just one long subquest delaying the awesome battling mechanic, this dungeon tops the worst out of all the Xenogears dungeons.

Up next on Terrible RPG Dungeons, probably more Playstation crap.

Terrible RPG dungeons: Part 1

After having a lapse of activity and almost no new ideas to think of, I am now starting to think of good things to write about. How about RPG dungeons that are terrible? I guess that would work. Saw a few videos encompassing 8-bit and 16-bit RPG dungeons, might as well offer my thoughts on some of them. I'll do 5 per post, and will just select randomly. Yes, there are multiple parts to this, but why not. Anyways, let's see what we got here for terrible RPG dungeons. For this first part, I will look at terrible dungeons in Playstation and Playstation 2 titles.

Almost every dungeon in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

I really don't want to generalize. I really don't. Since Rhapsody is already an easy game, the dungeons are expected to be just as easy. That's not the problem. The problem is all the dungeons look incredibly boring and uninspiring. The caves all have one type of color and the exact same designs; simple passageways with some forks in the road here and there. The temple/castle like dungeons are pretty much the same way, even the final dungeon for crying out loud. They look slightly nicer than the caves, but that's pretty much all there is to them. The forest you go to at the beginning is probably the only exception to this one, since it has signs and other places connecting it. However, the rest of Rhapsody's dungeons look like they came straight from a dungeon randomizer from the looks of things. Unlike Growlanser 3 or Lufia 3, games that actually randomize their dungeons, Rhapsody's dungeons are NOT randomized. There really doesn't look like a lot of thought was placed in making these dungeons at all.

TerraTower - Chrono Cross

I mean, the game itself isn't TOO much of a slog, but there were certainly people that didn't really like TerraTower because it's almost completely a slog all the way through. You can't compare this final dungeon to the Black Omen, oh no. The encounters here are usually not tough, but more of a nuisance overall, and the enemies do actually chase you unlike most other ones. Furthermore, the tower has a whole lot of text dumps that most players really don't care for. Then of course, it's got boss rushes, where you fight six bosses before the final one and each of them have basic respective elements to use, meaning your strategies can overwhelm them at this point. There are some vague hints as to how to do the final boss correctly using the ChronoCross, but how many of us really did that on their first go?

The Law City of Zenebatos - The Legend of Dragoon

The premise is excellent, an ancient city where it's possible to change and make laws at a whim. It's got a legislation center, automated guards running around catching intruders and sending them to jail. The center of course is how you make the laws, but the complicated steps are sure to bore players. It's a lot of back and forthing, ensuring you first get a law maker from the legislation center, sneak past the guards, then getting a law output, then a law launcher. There's also a portion where you have to actually wait in line, at least this one can be changed via law, but still. You of course are required to do the law process at least twice, but a few other ones can be done to remove the guards, the random encounters (which are of course rather tough by the way), or to stop the waiting in line, or to remove all the shops which is something you probably will end up doing accidentally if you don't watch it. And the boss group you fight in Zenebatos sure pulls some annoying strings, a fast enemy with petrification abilities, an equally annoying one with an instakill maneuver, and both of whom have strong hit-all attacks. Just icing on the cake for one of the worst. Luckily, The Legend of Dragoon doesn't have a whole lot of awful ones besides this one.

Fort El-Eal - Suikoden 4

Like TerraTower, Fort El-Eal is a case of a final dungeon where players are likely to have ending fatigue. Or not, you really decide. Heck, Suikoden 4 barely had dungeons overall, and this being the final one at least makes it somewhat memorable. Helping matters is the fact that you get to play a dispatch party with Elenor in the lead to fight off Graham Cray himself, which is fun, while Lazlo's group has to fight the Giant Tree, which is lame. Despite the parties splitting up, it actually looks like you have to go through the dungeon twice, with the main party going even further. One of the things that ruins this further dungeon trek is that stupidly long staircase. Yeah, like anybody wants to climb up a large set of steps, especially giving the high random encounter rate this game has.

North Cavern - Suikoden 3

This is here mostly because of one enemy. Bone Soldiers. These things are tanks sporting 600 HP, which at the first time I fought them in Chris's chapter 2 my characters surely did not have that amount. The Bone Soldiers are not incredibly overpowering, since all they do is attack and that's basically it. They don't have special effects to inflict characters with and don't really have anything magical. But this cave had plenty of them, and up to six can be fighting in one group. Battles will likely take a long time to win because you are trying to snuff out up to 3600 HP total from a large group of durable bones. This was so problematic for me when I played Chris's chapter 2, especially since I didn't hone in skills for most of my characters at the time. I had a much easier time with Geddoe's chapter 2 and Hugo's chapter 3, but that's because they have more magically-oriented characters and better-skilled parties, a lesson I learned the hard way after getting repeatedly beaten in Chris's chapter 2. As for the North Cavern itself? It's straightforward, but it does have an annoying spiral section in the middle which takes too much time. It is also usually not too important in storylines most of the time, and is usually there for treasure boss fighting at the very end.

A look back at: Earthbound ZERO

The more I look back at Earthbound games, the more I realize just how UNPOPULAR everything that isn't Earthbound is. And yes, cult classics aren't really what are popular. Regardless, Ness, and then later Lucas, end up being in the Smash Bros series, with Ness from the very first game. And here I am playing the game involving Ninten. You know, these names are quite prophetic, Ness standing for NES in some ways, while Ninten, you can just go from there.

Earthbound ZERO of course is referring to a game known as Earthbound Beginnings, often also called Mother 1 due to being the first of its kind, the version I played is in fact called Earthbound ZERO due to its title, and the fact that putting this on also prevented copy protection from sticking its ugly head into people's business. And of course, the similarities to the Dragon Warrior franchise cannot be understated.

Honestly though, this game is basically an easier game than the Dragon Warrior games are, with the idea of a modern setting also offering something unseen at the time. Psychic abilities aren't the same as magic in this case, you run into modern enemies like primitive robots or aliens*. You have places in-game that really do resemble downtown areas.

Tidbits to note are the scattering of eight melodies to remember, the recruitable flying men characters who can only attack and can't be controlled at all (meaning they die permanently when killed), the actual inclusion of an enemy actually called a Mook (whereas the term is used for weak enemies, the Mooks in this game are quite powerful), some powerful robots, and a character-specific status ailment. These little tidbits are pretty nice touches if you ask me, although they aren't too amazing for the game as a whole. As a whole, yes, you still have to grind, but it's less arduous than Dragon Warrior, thank god. It's another RPG you can actually play through fairly quickly.

*Then again, this is semi-futuristic, since aliens and robots are more geared towards such settings. But it's not super futuristic or worse, a clash between fantasy kingdom and futuristic, so that's neat.