A look back at: Final Fantasy II

 

Surprised that I would play this again? Even I am. Words cannot express how confused I was at this game initially. You'd think it'd be just another Final Fantasy game, but then it throws you for a loop as there's no regular level gaining, and it's all about stat growth. In a way, the second Final Fantasy game predated the SaGa series. Neato. In any case though, good lord, there's gonna be lots of grinding, and in some ways it's all counterintuitive. Yes that's right. Attack a lot to gain strength. Get hit a lot to gain HP and endurace. Use magic to up MP and Intelligence or Spirit. And since you can hit your own characters, this all paves way to some ludicrous stat growth for the most persevering of grinders. But never bite off more than you can chew, because the super strongest enemies won't even be scratched at low levels. There's also weapon and spell mastery so you're basically talking LOTS of usage of particular things to get things up to snuff. Impatient players will just use the PAR codes.

I'll also gladly admit, the enemy encounters are annoying. I mean the actual encounters, not the enemies themselves. Combine the high encounter rate with twisting dungeons with lots of enemies and one dungeon can take more than an hour. Plus, seeing as this is an old FF game, there's an item limit. It's still tough, even if I played on the PSX remake of the game.

At least Final Fantasy games are good enough in storyline. This isn't the best as far as story goes, but it's still engaging, you get these neat characters in your fourth slot to help often (well except Gordon who sucks all around) but also see story scenes that will drive the narrative of "stop the evil empire". Deaths of Josef, Minwu, and Ricard/Gareth are definitely sad, while getting Leon back in the party is a great way to get the game back on the feet for the endgame. The experimental nature of this game is its main downside, and the main reason I came back to it is of course, there've been much more complex stuff than this, so it's time to revisit and actually get through it now that I know what to really do.

Doom Musings: Ephemeral, the most interesting map in the world

 We interrupt this regularly scheduled Doom Musing to bring you...

...well, that image could have been better.

There we go, that's better. Ladies and gentlemen, the most interesting Doom map ever conceived in the world (thus far). This is Ephemeral, which is MAP32 of the recently-released 1000 Lines Community Project 2. This year so far has been a true year of the community megawad, so there's a whole lot of mixed quality to find with each release, and of course, that one showstealer. But WOW, this is one that steals the show in more ways than one. You've probably played your fair share of Doom maps to the point where you've seen it all, yet this not only combines old gimmicks with new, but presents them in such a way that makes you completely say "screw it" and hit that "give up" button, which frankly 99.999% of players will end up using after the frustration and tediousness this happened to have. The map doesn't look interesting from automap view, but looks are very deceiving.

So where to begin? First off, I've made a musing on gimmick maps already, so that should get us started just a bit. I've touched on the idea of stealth maps, and talked a bit about Doom 2 Reloaded MAP18, where the main draw there was all about not making a sound and avoiding enemies, because if you shoot, a bunch of arch-viles teleport in and make the map unwinnable. That sort of practice happens here, so if you want to ensure a victory in this map, don't shoot, or else nearly 200 archies spawn in to screw a complete victory.

But wait, those three imps at the start won't move away. What to do? Well this level has several locations that completely block sound, which are easily identifiable dark sectors with purple borders. These you can shoot the imps (and later other monsters) with and not get the archies to spawn in in turn. Believe it or not, this is also not new, as this sort of thing was featured in the 2019 WAD Entropy, in a small secret area. Basically to do that one better you gotta stand in specific sectors and shoot, and it's hard there as it was here. Yet in this map, being in the purple-bordered sectors more or less mitigates the initial monsters for the most part.

In the area just past the imps, you've got these yellow arrow signs which actually constitute a series of walkways you can raise or lower. These come into play quite a bit, and again, is a practice that is actually not new as there've been a few wads that puzzle the player with setups similar to this. But at the same time, it's still freakin' hard to remember where they are in respect to just about everything else and you gotta keep raising and lowering them as they should be fit. Then you combine that with what's described in the next paragraph as well as just about everything else the level offers.

What is new, and completely outside-the-box to the point where actually doing it is the most tedious part of the map is there's this red square that has a revenant or so, and you basically have to have it shoot at you, make sure the shot is homing, then have it go to a specific room and through this red laser grid (note: Doom Builder snapshot)

I mean an arrow points to it for crying out loud. But you yourself cannot go through it as its too small (and if you try to trigger the nearby arch-vile, so that it can make you jump over the grid, you'll find the line is impassable). Luring it in is a problem due to you using the arrows from before to raise and lower platforms, which create new obstacles, but once you get it through the grid you lower a red bar nearby. Okay, so what? Well, if you paid attention, there's an arrow not only pointing towards the grid, but the area where that revenant is also is a red square, with an arrow, and a laser above it. So luring the homing revenant rocket through the grid entails that it will lower the space where the revenant is as well, so you gotta high-tail it back there and get through the next area. As you do, make sure not to get near the hole or the revenant can punch you too.

Oh and don't even think about killing the revenant by entering the purple-bordered square on the other side, you'll be fighting limitless amounts of revenants by even thinking about it.

There's another of these grids a bit further up, and the same ideal is applied more or less, just opens a switch near it. This raises a block to the north, which yeah cool. Anyways, aside from that, you take a lift, use a switch, go through the left side, hey wait did you remember to raise the walkways at least once? Hope you did. Then you could possibly access that other grid. Assuming you head all the way east, you can head north, trigger another switch near two purple sectors, and use another switch to lower that aforementioned block. BUT WAIT, you'll have to head back down yet again to raise the platforms again, which will THEN entail more revenant rocket hi-jinks!

Well aside from that, the SW area has a cyberdemon guarding a pretty important switch. You've got a purple sector but not nearly enough space to safely engage it. So what to do? Use the north wall perhaps? Well archies are there. A good bet now would be attacking them while in the purple sector, then use the small teleporter where they're at to telefrag the cyberdemon and get the switch. Yeah, that works I'm sure. That switch reveals teleporters to the south sides, which are handy. Oh yeah, more revenant rocket hi-jinks too.

I really don't know what else to say at this point because I straight up will cheat by then, but at the east end on the higher platform are just a few monsters with nearby purple sectors. Oh wait, how can I kill this one hell knight blocking a small corridor? I'd imagine the best way to go around it is to get the archie on the other side to infight with the hell knight until he dies (then you should get rid of the archie by way of the purple sector). The switch at the end there is also timed, and well the walkways should be in place (don't wanna go to ground floor!) and you gotta get there quickly enough.

New switch, new enemies at the east side. One or two arch-viles at the east end, but also a cyberdemon in a super-small cage behind them opens up. A switch behind that cage? Except you're trapped for a period of time which is certain death at that point. Don't bother to kill the cyberdemon from the purple sector either as that will be replaced soon enough by another one. This part I had to look at the video and even it is perplexing how to actually do, so backtrack a bit NW to a teleporter you recently opened up? A bit east of where the revenant sector is is the solution, but first, raise the walkways three times. Then get to that area where there's a down arrow switch to lower the walkways as well as another switch. That one seems to reveal a cage with a hell knight, but what use is it? The solution is this: hit that switch, then the down arrow switch, then quickly get across the platforms to the west side, then through the teleporter to the other side, then to the teleporter that was opened in the room with two demons, which takes you to a sector that is purple and sort-of facing this switch in the distance, which you must shoot (the sector you teleport to is a purple-bordered sector so it's safe to shoot). That switch in question allows the revenant block to rise up, but also allows the hell knight from before to come in. Kill that one at least, but now that you have the revenant from before at the top, the goal is to lure yet another revenant rocket all the way to hit that cyberdemon and when its active and not actually firing, that will allow you to safely wait for the door to open. Holy crap this one is all save/loads at this point.

If you get past it by any means, then the worst is more or less over. Hit the switch near the cyberdemon and just wait at that point. At the end, the next few switches get you the red key.

Hey wait that's a blue door! Well crap, anyways, more revenant rocket hi-jinks and you gotta head back to the north end, but immediately turn to the west and open the red door. Kill enemies here, blah blah, press switch, wait for teleporter. Hey! Is that the arch-vile killer switch! Awesome! With that pressed you are now free to safely kill enemies left over.

So how to finally exit? Well you need to raise the walkways four times, then use the blue door and you're more or less home-free, correct? Nice to give the BFG by then as a consolation prize.

Yes people, you are looking at the most interesting map in the world, and it was just released with a community project just days ago. Gimmicks old and new, but LOADS of tediousness and I still cannot fathom what to do. Gotta lure revenant rockets and make sure all your walkways are raised and lowered accordingly. A handful of combination gimmicks. It's enough for an entire Doom Musing to try and walk everyone through it.

A look back at: Pokemon Resolute

It's been more than a month since the last rom hack I completed, and I played this one primarily in the nighttimes, trying to get everything while following someone else's walkthrough. And Resolute thankfully has a walkthrough, but I decided to help out by offering a different guide, showing hidden items, evolution changes, and the overall dex.

Resolute is easily the biggest rom hack I've played yet. Three regions, the new Sylon, the familiar Tyron from Victory Fire, and even Johto. That's bigger than Glazed (Rankor in that game was just a bunch of islands). The storytelling is much better, especially given the split in Team Mirage's ranks, and Sylon as a region is actually quite straightforward. Plus there were better catches this time around, and apart from Castform I'd say every mon is catchable (although I still cannot evolve Snorunts for some reason). I liked how there were characters that I was familiar with showing up in this hack, showcasing this as a better sequel. Much of Tyron remains the same, though things are much easier due to less reliance on TMs. I like the nonlinearity in battling the gyms in this region and in Johto.

Still, Resolute isn't perfect. The level curve is like Victory Fire, it goes up too fast, and by the time you go through Tyron and Johto, every trainer tends to have Lv80+ mons and it's not exciting. I ran into events that restarted after a loaded save, which sucked. I had to re-battle Morty in order to get to Bell Tower yet again when I got ready to battle Ho-oh, and also another event at the Ruins of Alph restarted. I don't like Rock Climb as an HM, and Flash being a TM was a bit difficult for me to even find. Some familiar Johto stuff was unused, and I ran into menu issues in certain towns (plus the Safari Zone menu showed up at one point which was really stupid). I also kinda hate how I have to battle Uranium, the Tyron champion at that point, and Lance (who we all know by now) well before their champion battles. I got rather fatigued with battles at the end, so I didn't bother with the Johto Elite Four (which is still interesting though, because you fight four champions at once at the end) or the Battle Department (which is a weird tournament thing where you can choose trainers and gym leaders to battle). I hear that the final tournament is broken and not reachable too. Oh this definitely had quite some potential for sure, but that's mostly with its storyline.

A look back at: Wild Arms 4

 

It's been a very long time since I played any Wild Arms game, now I come back to the series with this. Again, RPGenius's blog played a big part in what I thought of the game when I played it, again I did not necessarily have high expectations. I gotta admit though, I wasn't really expecting to be done with this game as quickly as I did, and that's even with all the extra stuff like the arena and hidden bosses. Is it as bad as he says? Well...

There ARE some neat ideas, and many of them were so neat they end up being too weird. That hex battle system, honestly I guess it's fine, the only real problem is you can't move and attack at the same time unless it's Raquel. Speaking of, wow. Raquel is far too overpowered and makes the game way too easy, I was able to one-shot bosses with her, and the way experience gets distributed means she gets the most. Kinda problematic? Nevertheless, this battle system still allows for some serious strategy placement, especially given the elemental hexes (or ley points), as well as giving certain hexes statuses and buffs to do the important stuff.

Not too much of a fan of navigation. We really didn't need to have a "select destination" world map in hindsight, it's much less fun. Platforming mechanics aren't really that bad and puzzles are fine. The linearity of the game is quite a minus though, maybe this is the reason why it's too darn short. I actually did have an Alter Code F save, which, well, it just gives you more gella in chests and gives better starting levels for the characters (I sorta cheated with my ACF save because I wanted to get all Ex File Keys, and some require a character to be at Lv100 so what else but gamesharking to reach that, it then impacted the starting levels and power of the characters here in a way).

I'm not into the whole theme of the plot and characters though. I just don't understand things, considering how the children and the adults are always at odds, we see these Gazel Ministry-like weirdos who are creepily obsessed with retrieving Yulie, but are then killed off by Mr Bishonen bad guy Lambda who's still pretty meh on everything. Jude acts like a spoiled child and Arnaud isn't anywhere close to smart in my opinion. Yulie and Kresnik's sibling relationship is cliche as heck, and Tony is an annoying underling. While I was annoyed at fighting the same bosses over and over in 3, the Brionac lieutenants had barely any character whatsoever and you fight each of them once before they end up dying in various ways. And Gawn, well he is the kind of character you wished would be playable because he seemed to be the only one aside from Lambda and maybe Farmel who actually had a "character" in some sense. Instead Kresnik tags along only to rescue Yulie at one point and then later when he and Jude get separated, and neither of those times are really that long to justify whatever he even does.

If anything, Wild Arms 4 is a very political game in all the wrong ways. Children just don't understand politics at all, as well as what's at stake in just about any known world. What do children do when things don't go their way? They whine. It's so similiar to how kids with social media accounts always whine about politics that don't fit their favorite things. Adults had the time to grow and realize just what is wrong with things on different sides. Some like Lambda take stupidly drastic measures as a "solution", which frankly is reminiscent of how politicians come up with "solutions". Others are just trying to make a living doing their everyday jobs no matter how they struggle, somehow these people are sidelined for the main plot of "this crazy political crap is happening and kids are trying to stop it".

Suikoden's worst recruits in each game

Can you believe I still talk about this game series? It's true. I love it to death. It's been a favorite RPG series of mine for a long time and frankly there's just so much I never want to forget about. Character recruitment is one of course. So what's the deal with it? Well there's always good and bad. Suikoden as a series is definitely about getting new characters and using and customizing them in ways. What this post will dive into would be the five worst recruits in each game. These recruits are "worst" due to whichever reasons I can think of, those being things like "way too much effort to recruit" or their overall character or something like "small recruitment window" it can be any number of issues. And I'll of course give reasons for each recruit being the "worst"

Suikoden I worst recruits: Antonio, Lester, Crowley, Mace, Clive

Honorable mention goes to Pesmerga and Vincent here. Honestly I'm surprised I didn't get them on the list, considering you have to go all the way back to the top of Neclord's Castle to get Pesmerga to join (which is a problem considering how big it is, how tough the encounters are, and you can't use Escape Talismans there). Same with Vincent, going all the way back through Moravia Castle, although it's probably worse since you see him there the first time but don't save him. It almost feels bad considering his character was annoying in the first game too. But they has no real recruitment requirement unless your castle is too small. Also honorable mention goes to Leon, who has a small recruitment window and hangs out in an unlikely-to-return place.

Anyways, the others? Let's start with Crowley. This game has some hidden passageways, and a winding hidden passageway in an out-of-the-way cave is where you find this guy. Well, you actually can find Crowley much earlier than expected, and by then your castle is not at max level. Gotta remember where this guy is for next time! Mace requires the player to have the previous four blacksmiths, then put them in the party then go out of the way to an area requiring dragon transport to reach. You have only a small timeframe to do it and can't do it before going through the final dungeon since two party slots get taken up by then and you need four total. For Clive, he's at the top floor of the Rikon inn, but he appears at random, and you actually have to leave town several times and come back to get him to appear. Then we have the cooks, Antonio and Lester. Requiring the player to talk to Marie several times to rest surprisingly takes money, but to get her to say she needs a cook (Antonio) may take a while. For Lester, you have to taste two stews and then find him in another person's house. What's infuriating is that you are outright lied to if you look at an old book which mentions him in Moravia Castle instead of Kirov where he's actually recruited. And neither of these cooks actually do anything in the castle. They can be party members, but they're not great in combat either.

Suikoden II worst recruits: Gilbert, Jess, the animal characters, Tai Ho/Shilo, Gordon

Rather surprisingly II tends to be not too difficult with character recruitment. The most obviously hard one is Gilbert, whom you must damage in a war battle (most of it controlled by AI too) then hope he survives the battle instead of dying in it. Jess is here not only because of how late he is acquired, but because he's useless in the castle and is pretty hated because of how he handles Annabelle's assassination. It's tempting not to recruit him because of it. Tai Ho (to a lesser extent Yam Koo since he's also recruited with Tai Ho) and Shilo both require Chinchirorin to play but the game is much harder to win this time around. Finally there's the animal characters. Getting Mukumuku early is hard enough, getting the other squirrels is all about RNG and whether or not it's nice to you while wandering the world map. Then you have two listening crystals from Badeaux when you recruit him, only two though, and you'd want to get Feather and Siegfried. What about the octopusses? Well Abizboah is a star, okay, but Rulodia isn't. Then you miss out on the good ending of the game despite them having a kid and all. Not worth it. Gordon requires a bit of afterthought, trading at the new trading post mechanic until you've earned about 50000 potch in order to have him join.

Suikoden III worst recruits: Landis, Billy, Nadir, Jefferson, Gordon

Suikoden III really didn't have many hard or terrible recruits, as more than 3/4 do auto-joins. Billy requires you to win a card game against him, which is meh, but people probably don't realize he's inside your own castle after placing a large antique in a specific room. Nadir and Gordon have party-specific restrictions for their recruitments, with Gordon requiring an all-male group, your main and Augustine, or Chris with whoever. Nadir requires two females, a child, and three males. It can be hard to figure out those. Jefferson shows up at the entrance of the main castle when you have enough recruits, but also you need to make sure neither Cecile or Juan are with you for those, so it's a bit like Billy. Landis is probably the only hard one for this game, and it's similar to recruiting II's squirrels at best.

Suikoden IV worst recruits: Rita, Travis, Gau, Snowe, Keen

I almost put Jeremy here due to a potentially small recruitment window (before liberating Razril, but after receiving the order to do so) but nah. Gau is a random encounter in an out-of-the-way island (Hermitage) and can take a while. I don't know the best way of beating Ritapon, as innovative as it is. Keen's probably not too annoying, but you have to shuffle Sigurd in and out and pay a large sum of money. Travis is annoying enough to recruit because he's at the end of Obel Ruins, tells you to use the Escape Scroll, and then you gotta head back to get him. Snowe is quite obvious for most, as he's seen a lot in the game but stubborn to join. Basically, don't get to the endgame yet, recruit everyone else, visit an island near Obel who mentions a marooned guy (Snowe), then make sure you don't kill him (this can sort of be affected by Keen's confessions and how often you forgave people in that booth, which is another reason why Keen's here as a worst recruit).

Suikoden V worst recruits: Sairoh, Gavaya, Euram and Eresh, Murad, Genoh

Man, Suikoden V was the nastiest game as far as actually recruitment goes. Sairoh is the earliest, but then again, you gotta get salt at just about every place possible and you gotta check prices and rumors before you get the guy. Gavaya actually requires specific female unites, which may not be all too obvious. Murad should be talked to everywhere but he's generally stubborn on actually joining until like the fourth time. Then there's Genoh, who requires an old person to be more or less at the Prince's level and well-trained. Finally I put Euram and Eresh together for a reason, since they share the same star. Eresh is at an optional dungeon and joins after, but has no plot relevance and can be killed in battle, while Euram is met often in the plot as an enemy but turns around and joins you should he be redeemed more or less, except he's not a party member like Eresh. The biggest issue is how long it takes to get to the part where Euram can join, as Eresh can be acquired much earlier. At least you get a star of destiny in either case, the question is do you want an extra mage, or just some plot stuff?

Doom Musings: The legacy of WolfenDoom

 Again, I gotta say it, screw this new interface. My last published Doom musing is on 8/15, not 8/1, even though it says otherwise, and this one shall be published on 9/1 when that date comes around.

One of my earliest memories with Doom WADs has to be trying to discover the WADs that were more than just simple levels, and of course I was drawn into WolfenDoom. This stems from playing Wolfenstein 3D a year before I first started playing Doom, and I was little at the time and was fascinated by this stuff. Anyways, yeah, WolfenDoom looked neat to me. Of course, it had to take learning how to play in a different port in order to do it, but luckily all of these WolfenDoom WADs play well in a ZDoom-based port like most other TCs.

So WolfenDoom, basically several Wolfenstein scenarios reimagined in the Doom engine. Quite neat in concept. Of course, those who are experienced know that the oversized Wolfenstein secret levels in Doom II are silly, so these more or less follow suit. All of these were done by one man, Laz Rojas, and because of this you will notice as you play Laz's mapping style. Arguably, Wolfenstein is sort of a maze-y game, which is a mark against it, but you'll probably roll your eyes at how the mapping design exemplifies loads of backtracking, which is a big minus when you think about how much you gotta do as you go along. As Wolfenstein is a very hitscanner-centric game, the meat of the combat is dealing with hitscanners, and the larger the area, the harder it is to deal with. Depending on the specific scenario, some of the boss enemies have changes to them to make them harder or honestly a big joke (specifically the ones who act like hell knights/barons but shoot invisible projectiles, which are still easy to dodge). Some of the DeHacked changes are decent, but others suck so bad. I think I'll use this time to rank the WolfenDoom projects from worst to best. Starting with the worst:

Operation Eisenmann: It is somewhat cool involving a mutant-centric plot. Levels are quite huge, but a lot of spacey and samey. A few interesting tidbits like many other WolfenDoom maps. MAP07 however is absolutely asinine. A few places to get stuck, it takes too long to get to BOTH bosses, and there are dumb 30-second doors against the final boss.

Operation Arctic Wolf: Design and dehacked work is top-notch. Well not sure on dehacked. Why would you make the SS, the most commonly used enemy here, have enough health to survive a direct rocket to the face? And what's with the complete lack of weaponry and loads of open spaces? Rocket troopers are extremely deadly out there. The whole thing becomes incredibly slow-paced as a result, and the backtracking is extremely horrendous.

Operation Rheingold Episode 2: Okay so it's got the overall best level design (less saminess even though there's still lots of backtracking), but it's only three levels long, three really large levels, but again, souped-up SS, plus other enemies which are high HP hitscanner tanks, and you can also walk through barriers which is dumb.

Astrostein trilogy: The concept of Nazis in space is pretty excellent. The Portal is somewhat decent for a prelude aside from the backtracking. The first Astrostein has LOADS of backtracking and gray, Astrostein 2 feels like an unnecessary continuum without much in ending, while Astrostein 3 does still have much of the same, although both the runway and the city levels are great. But it's fairly monotonous.

Die Fuhrer Die: An okay rendition of the third Wolfenstein episode that adds quite a few more but really doesn't hit a lot of strides overall.

Escape from Totenhaus: Not as bad as the others (other than the officer's health) but still fairly monotonous, loads of brown, but a bit easier than the others overall.

Treasure Hunt: I LOVE the concept here, infiltrate a base, get loads of treasure, go back through familiar levels and fight boss monsters. It's still not as well-executed though.

Operation Rheingold Episode 1: Hotel idea is pretty good, especially having to run out after you've been discovered. Compounded once again by the annoying SS health. The last level is great and frantic though.

Original/Nocturnal Missions/Spear of Destiny: Very faithful recreations down to the wire of the original Wolf3D mantra. Nothing else to them really, but it's like playing the real deal only more Doom-like.

Halten Sie!: Feels like a regular Wolf3D add-on overall, but of course Doom-like. Quite original and I enjoy that kind of thing.

Wolfenstein 3D 2nd Encounter: Finally the best one. 32 levels based off of the Mac/3DO/Jaguar/whatever console port of Wolfenstein. It's a bit like the Die Fuhrer Die thing in that the places are oversized and more enemies are around, but there's always lots of fun in these maps and they don't feel overdone.

And even though there's a lot of shortcomings, I still feel obliged to return to each of these. It's the themes and presentation that really sell WolfenDoom off in my opinion, despite their poor age. Even at their weakest, my boredom comes back to play these at times, and I still find myself having some form of enjoyment.