A look back at: Pokemon Scorching Scarlet

Featuring: Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Lost, Arrow, Castle, Smallville, Sliders, Roswell, Riverdale, The Music Man, Desperate Housewives, Three's Company, The Big Bang Theory, Full House, One Tree Hill, The Odd Couple, The Three Stooges, Samantha Who, Gilmore Girls, Friends, Glee, The Nanny, Smash, Sex and the City, Jessica Jones, Quantico, Beauty and the Beast, Home Alone 2, Forever, I Love Lucy, The Newsroom, How I Met Your Mother, Kyle XY, iZombie, Life UneXpected, Pretty Little Liars, Once Upon a Time, I Dream of Jeannie, Dexter, House, Vampire Diaries, Ally McBeal, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Eastwick, Chuck, America's Sweethearts, Agent Carter, Veronica Mars, 90210, Two and a Half Men, Alias, The Catch, The Timeless, The Scorpion, The Greatest American Hero, Scream, Charmed, Psych, How to Get Away With Murder, and Scandal

Phew, what a mouthful. It's no secret the creator LatiosAzurill really likes sitcoms, and Scorching Scarlet is a rom hack that incorporates the Hoenn region as a huge crossover of sitcom worlds. So Rustboro is NYC, Lilycove is SanFran, Pacifidlog is the island from Lost, etc. And many known characters from the sitcoms can be trainers, like Chloe from Smallville is a gym leader, as is Doyle from Buffy. You also battle known villains from some of these series like Queen of Hearts Cora, Black Fairy Fiona, Eli "Rowan" Pope, and Tom Riddle. Getting to be on the cops' side of things by helping out S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as Clark Kent as they investigate a possible murder, and even stopping Lex Luthor's plans and such. Warping through numerous locales with the kooky detective Castle can get you lost a lot, and a lot of places are initially not available due to guards, Wingulls, or Azumarills just blocking the way. Annoying, but you do unlock everything eventually.

Gameplay-wise, Scorching Scarlet plays a lot like the Grass Jewel games by the same author, the level curve is generally much higher overall, and those Lv100 elite trainers are naturally saved for last and are quite numerous in many places. It's not an Emerald hack, so there's a lot less trainers to battle, thankfully. Progression is a bit all over the place, doesn't follow the traditional routes in general. The idea of actually becoming a gym leader in this game by defeating Eric in Hawaii's elite gym though, it's actually a bit cool. Particularly due to facing a few familiar trainers from the series such as Wally, Phoebe, Winona, and Wallace, all who take the challenge! Apart from difficulty the game does offer the incentives of cheaper things to buy and rarer encounters being much more common, and it's still very enjoyable overall.

Doom Musings: Soundtrack rankings: Doom

The idea behind this particular post came from a recent playthrough of Super Mario World. Then, I viewed a blog post that actually ranked every single level in that game. Strange how it's probably the only one of its kind, but I really do like ranking posts, even though there's bound to be some controversial decisions based off of author opinion. So I decided to make my own, this time using soundtracks from the Doom games and many PWADs. I plan to rank each song in Doom based off of their overall sound, how well they fight into each of the maps they are in, and, well, that's pretty much all there's to it. Amazingly enough, I really don't like hearing IWAD music that much anymore. I've heard every single IWAD track too many times to the point where I install my own music wad whenever an IWAD track shows up. That's what happens when you're like me and have memorized everything. And with that, I think it's time to stop yawning and see where each of the 23 original Doom tracks by Bobby Prince fall on my scale of likeyness.

23. Title

Well, obviously this track being only about eight seconds long will rank last. That being said though, it definitely will pull players into the game because DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN........... If you ask me, it's honestly the best of the title tracks for the IWADs for that matter, even if it's the shortest.

22. Sweet Little Dead Bunny

Again, since this will only play in one particular endgame cutscene, this one doesn't get that much popularity aside from one surprisingly scary appearance in Plutonia's Hunted. Not a bad track by any means though. It sounds un-Doom like and peaceful on purpose before the scare factor comes in, giving the obvious sequel hook. To be frank, aside from Hunted, I don't think I've ever seen this music track get reused ever.

21. Facing the Spider

Doom has many rocking tracks to it and Facing the Spider isn't any different from the big rockers. It definitely tries for the crazy thrash metal vibe, which is fun, and I guess it fits for the boss level. For Dis though, it's a bit too crazy for the rather lackluster spiderdemon battle, and got more mileage in say, Plutonia MAP12 (funny too, since there's no spiderdemon there).

20. They're Going to Get You

Ambient, spooky, but in my opinion, other atmospheric tracks do it way better. Plus if your volume is too low you probably wouldn't even hear much of the music. On a side note, I have to wonder if the title makes this track seem like a sequel to the Wolfenstein 3D track "Get Them Before the Get You". You can definitely plod through stuff while both tracks are playing, though this one is gonna be quieter.

19. Nobody Told Me About Id

A track that has some pretty odd mileage. Only used once in Doom, twice in Plutonia, gets used in PWADs on occasion (Community Chest 2 has two levels that have this track, both are long and Go 2 It-y in a way too). It's a showmanship that you're up against something fairly regal in any case though, whether it's hoards of monsters like in Go 2 It, or big old cyberdemon in the Tower of Babel. Fairly nice.

18. Intermission from DOOM

If anything, this is a continuation of the doom and gloom feeling the title track got, before crescendoing into the grungey rock riffage which makes this a popular intermission track. That being said, it's fairly strange as an actual level track, especially in Refinery. It don't really fit well on that level IMO.

17. Deep Into The Code

Heavy, rocking soundtracks go well with nonstop action. E4M3's usage of Deep Into The Code is great, the level is frantic with action all around, as does Plutonia MAP09. E3M3? Not so much. This is a track that fits an action-packed level, but definitely not something with less action.

16. Kitchen Ace (And Taking Names)

Probably the easiest of the Prince tracks to learn on a guitar. The riffs are generic, but the song as a whole seems to do okay in just about any kind of level. Not much else to really pinpoint.

15. The Demons from Adrian's Pen

A long time ago I had this as my favorite track. Nowadays, I really don't like it all that much anymore. It's definitely got the atmosphere going, and sort of feels like a combination of Suspense with Nobody Told Me About Id. Those doots are memorable and swanky, drumming is great, rest is actually quite awkward in hindsight.

14. Sign of Evil

This is a very difficult track to rate. I'm not a fan of those weird doots in the beginning, but the synth that comes in is a definition of atmospheric. As are the guitar lines, but then again the droning guitars could be seen as a turnoff to some. Drumming is nice. It's a track that works better for long levels, and I think Alien Vendetta MAP11 has the best use of this particular track.

13. Untitled

Honestly, the worst thing about this track is the fact that it's just called "Untitled". Not sure if Bobby just couldn't find a good name for a track based off of Pantera's Mouth of War or otherwise. That being said, this is still an interesting track that fits just about any Hell level there is. Yes, even Hell Keep.

12. The End of DOOM

"Dadadada-da" The sound of the end-of-episode music track is brooding to show that despite the marine's best efforts, there's doom and gloom to come each and every time. The End of DOOM indeed in some cases when you finally finish off that last episode, or Plutonia MAP30, or such and such. It's just a great haunting track and feels like it can go anywhere.

11. Suspense

The fact that Suspense barely misses the top 10 will have me getting tomatoes lobbed to my face. But my first memories of listening to Doom's soundtrack had me almost forgetting this track exists, due to it sounding so quiet. But it's often considered the best of the atmospheric tracks for how quiet it sounds, even with the background hissing of the cymbals there. It's quite brooding. I guess the main melody is a bit repetitive too.

10. At Doom's Gate

Starting the top 10 off with At Doom's Gate, the Hangar track. It gets the blood pumping, and the blood will pump with this map on UV for sure. Very memorable riff, while the completely random guitar solos after every eighth riff or so just seem like cake icing. Use it for action-packed levels of course, it's made for such. And interestingly, there is zero conclusive evidence on what this music track was inspired by. Real strange!

9. The Imp's Song

It's those bass riffs, man. An atmospheric opener, followed by bass riffs that basically have you plodding through stuff. Is there really much else to say? The second music track works great, shame it's only used once in the original Doom, as it's a true favorite.

8. Hiding the Secrets

This has to be the most harmonic of the rocking tracks, plus the riffage is fun to learn. Shame that those who avoid secret levels will miss out on this track, it's one of my guilty pleasures by a mile. It's funny how it shows up in Warrens too, the level that plays exactly like Hell Keep until the very end. Maybe first-time players will realize, "Hey, this isn't really Hell Keep!" from just hearing the music. So fun.

7. Donna to the Rescue

A rock track that tries to be slightly atmospheric with its instrumentation. Pretty strange, but another guilty pleasure track of mine. The beauty of it is the goofiness of the main riff; it's definitely unlike the riffs in the other rocking tracks. But it just seems to fit anywhere you put this particular music track without too much fuss, and especially Perfect Hatred of all levels.

6. Dark Halls

When it comes to exploring a dark and danky area that isn't Hellish but has the sense of a run-down base with little lighting and damaging liquid, Dark Halls is an almost perfect choice. Another great plodding track with the proper synth that makes it seem like more than the monsters could come to life to creep you out.

5. I Sawed the Demons

For the pure rocking tracks, I Sawed the Demons wins out for me. Although it took inspiration from a less heavier artist than Metallica or Slayer, this one incorporates the fun riffs from AC/DC's Big Gun and works with them to make a track feel great. While other tracks immerse you into feeling everything with the atmosphere, this one is here to remind you, you're playing a video game. It feels like a true video game song.

4. On The Hunt

On the Hunt screams urgency right from the first note. It just builds up well before it goes into that main riff, which is still plenty juicy to listen to as well. But the whole thing just feels perfect for true run-and-gun, and also feels like an actual video game song. It works well with levels that feel like gimmicks, if we're being honest.

3. Waltz of the Demons

Feel the power of the 3/4 time signature through those violins! A truly beautiful setpiece of a music track for the breather levels of Doom, and for any atmospheric-feeling level in general. Those xylophone bits are cute, and pick up well for each measure of the track. All while keeping the creepy feel.

2. Sinister

But for all intents and purposes, Sinister is much, much better for slow, brooding, atmosphere. A great buildup for a song with a super-sinister riff, almost as if it's telling you you better pay attention to the song title above all else. It's a showmanship to what's really sinister about Doom, and only the #1 track is better than it for its brooding atmosphere. Speaking of which...

1. Demons on the Prey

I really contemplated this decision quite a bit. I never really liked how repetitive this track was in Ultimate Doom considering it was used four times, plus it was used twice in Plutonia, and wasn't as rock-y or as atmospheric as the others. However, after some listens, this is the song that outright defines Doom. It builds up beautifully from the somewhat quiet beginning to some very harrowing and defining riffs, showing how doom and gloom it is while feeling very professional for both Hell and destroyed base settings. Sure, you'll probably get sick of it at some point, but you probably wouldn't change the music to something else when you hear Demons on the Prey because you just know it defines how Doom is supposed to be in story and such.

A look back at: Wizardry 8

 

Whoops, nearly forgot to post about this. Well, in any case, finally a finish a franchise apart from a few spinoff games that are somewhat different than this. But hey, no more of that lame grid-based movement, even though the game loves to give us the bonus dungeons with a fake grid. No random encounters either, things are pre-planned. There's a LOT of customization in Wizardry 8, moreso than any other game in the franchise. Lots of stats to tweak, races to choose, formations to tweak, equipment to utilize, spells to use, even those guest star party members can find some use. Oh yeah, guest star party members! Quite a good addition, especially Vi Domina. As well as numerous races we saw back in Wizardry VII making a return with lots of voice acting, and then there's the newer races like Rapax to consider.

Perhaps it's my experience with the previous Wizardry games being its own reward, but I gotta say, Wizardry 8 is the easiest of the Wizardry games. But of course, a game shouldn't be super hard to be enjoyable, as this game not only offers difficulty settings, but the game is of a decent length and will have its challenges to and fro. Having accidentally stumbled into an area I'm definitely not leveled for is par for the course, so I would save that and go for later.

And then there's the entire idea that all of a sudden, the plot of Wizardry 8 is literally all about becoming gods. As strange as it is, the temptation to do so with such powerful cosmic items, including the Cosmic Forge from the sixth game and the Astral Dominae from the seventh, still in the Dark Savant's hands, all the ideas for what could be done is basically the reason why these games in the Dark Savant trilogy have multiple endings and beginnings. The creativity of it all is a shining highlight. So you wanna turn evil? Join the Savant for good this time and make the races go to war! Or write the Savant out of the book, although you gotta fight the guy. Or go drastic and tear a page out of the book, make it seem like he's not gonna go anywhere with his master plans! I don't think this will make my top 15 RPGs, but I am extremely glad on how well of a high note the Wizardry series ended.

Doom Musings: The legacy of the chaingun

Well well well, what am I thinking of today? My brain is so wired with just about everything I know it Doom maps that I should probably check out something else. How about a weapon? You know, everyone already knows how badass the berserk fist, super shotgun, and BFG9000 are, and can appreciate the rocket launcher and plasma gun for crowd control and other stuff. But you know, the chaingun really doesn't get the amount of love that any of these other weapons have. I wonder why?

The chaingun, when you fire it, fires about 8 bullets for second. Seems pretty chaingun-y right? Well, not really. The chaingun in Doom cannot really be compared to chainguns or miniguns in other first person shooters. Wolfenstein's own chaingun has a higher rate of fire than Doom's chaingun, while the Build engine games with their respective rapid fire weapons also have slightly higher firing rates (especially Shadow Warrior's Uzis and Blood's Tommy Gun). Heck, even Doom's plasma gun has a higher rate of fire and more damage per second at the expense of being a projectile weapon more or less.

But Doom's chaingun really shouldn't be underestimated. While the fire rate is much less than other video game chainguns, it's great for spraying fire against multitudes of enemies in a line. Even though it'll take quite a lot of bullets to fell anything from a cacodemon up, it's still capable of stunlocking most of these foes. You eat up the ammo, but usually clips and boxes of ammo aren't that rare in most levels. And of course, they can be refilled by finding zombiemen clips or just taking out chaingunners and getting their weapons. Then, there's the incredibly strange mechanics of the chaingun itself. You see, the tapping the fire button will let out two shots minimum, but these are on target every time. Holding fire down sprays the bullets horizontally with small inaccuracies. This means that the chaingun is the ideal sniping weapon in Doom, as the player can position themselves far away from an enemy and basically burst fire until they're gone. Since it's a hitscan weapon, these bullets hit instantly, and are more viable for faraway targets that move often.

I've apparently learned that the chaingun is a surprisingly cheap weapon for deathmatch because of that sniping thing in particular. It can explain why the chaingun is less used in deathmatch when compared to the other weapons, including even the BFG. Of course it may depend on the level layout; the bigger the layout, the cheaper the chaingun could get if found and used. In any case most deathmatch maps forgo the chaingun or make it a rare find like the BFG usually is and focus on SSG/rocket launcher/plasma gun deathmatch. Very interesting how the odd sniping mechanics of Doom's very own chaingun end up being cheap for certain deathmatch playstyles and levels. No one really hates Doom's chaingun all that much, they just don't use it nearly as much as other weapons due to them simply being better. Though, any weapon with a good niche will always be used as some point or another. Give the chaingun some love.

A look back at: Pokemon Dark Rising: Order Destroyed

I think this will be the only time ever in which I have actually managed to finish two ROM hacks in a single week's worth of time. I know I finished Mega Power 4 days ago, and started Dark Rising: Order Destroyed, but honestly I didn't expect to finish with this ROM hack in literally only three days. That's a first when it comes to overall Pokemon ROM hack length.

But the gameplay of Order Destroyed is so much different that it encourages speedy play. I've heard of the Nuzlocke challenge, which I never bothered with because I'm a casual. The gameplay of Order Destroyed is somewhat like it, but not quite. The "faint = dead" rule is in play, but that seems to be the only real Nuzlocke rule. The other rules are that you must find Pokemon in certain places, and the worst thing is that there's only seven total (one of which is traded for another anyways), and also there's next to no place to do a full heal of the entire team. The only places this is possible are at "the machine" and by using Zinnia's Aster before the final battle (the latter is actually unimportant given the final battle is up ahead anyways and it is a hopeless battle). The idea of scrounging for items to keep your mons HP and PP up is very important, and you're always in more danger of encountering the rare high-level 2% encounters than anything else. One of the BIGGEST troll moments ever happens at the midpoint, where you find the machine, it works like a PC, but the guy you allied with earlier says to leave some mons in the PC because he detects something worse may pop up soon. Then you leave the area, find out you cannot come back, and that you've been tricked as he works with Hoopa. Yikes.

Well, the story of Dark Rising 2 continues in this mini-prelude to Dark Rising 3 (the RPGmaker game), which is why it's so short, and you actually play as whatever you named that blond-haired, blue-wearing dude that was your main rival in this game. To play with his team was pretty neat, although I never found the guy's Yveltal at all. And Hoopa, of all possible evil Pokemon, screwing up the ENTIRE world, putting places according to everything the way he wants, good lord, that's an evil wet dream that someone clearly had to come up with. But to have two twin kids be half-human, half-Pokemon (part of Zygarde apparently)? Even weirder. Causing your character to be someone who has to kill zombie-like trainers to keep these kids alive makes this plot much colder than Snakewood's could ever hope for. Powerful stuff, short ROM hack. Still kinda mixed on these final battles in the DR series, especially considering that the final battle is one you're supposed to lose.

Oh and here's a walkthrough, because I am generous and always have these things at hand.

A look back at: Pokemon Mega Power

Woohoo! Another ROM hack is done. And it's another Wind1158 hack and frankly I gotta say I really am enjoying the way the storyline is in these things. So Pokemon Mega Power has Mewtwo as its mascot and seems to be about those mega evolutions. Heck, EVERY known mega evolution is here, and the author of this hack has retained the system he used for the select few mega evolutions used in Victory Fire and Resolute. It's an okay system that keeps your mons mega evolved, and is different than what I would probably have seen from the one that Pokemon Gaia used (which is basically how its done in the Gen-6+ games I hear). And honestly, I am genuinely surprised that the storyline can have a few branching points. Originally I had extra saves for these moments where the bad guys tell you that you can join them, but I found out through some videos that it doesn't seem to change the outcome nearly as much. It's the Normal Storyline/Special Storyline split where things get slightly more interesting. A bit of a detriment since you can't catch every legendary because of this split though, but to ensure you see the ones you know you're missing several opposing trainers will have these mons when you get to them.

Mega Power, much like Victory Fire and Resolute, has a Dark Rising-style level curve, which is perhaps its main detriment. Levels shoot up quite fast, and even out in the high-80s/low-90s for opposing trainers when you're all up in the Lande region. The author did put some new music though, which I can appreciate, and what's even better is it is possible to fly to the towns and locations in the Lande region and the Sevii Islands via a separated map. This was something I was annoyed with in Resolute, having very few places to fly in Tyron and nowhere to fly in Johto, while Western Tyron in Victory Fire had a couple endgame towns that were not flyable.

I've seen more than my fair share of time travel plots from Avengers: Endgame to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross and all sorts of movies, and I gotta say, the plot twists involving Mewtwo were kinda neat. Oh wait, Mewtwo is what you're experimenting on! Oh no, it turns hostile and wrecks the lab! Oh, this shady person can use it! Don't forget, it can talk too, and somehow acts as a trainer itself! But wait, there's now a future version of Mewtwo which is trying to save the player from its present self killing the player! It can be convoluted but I found it entertaining. I also am a fan of the subterfuge that continuously happens between the enemy teams of Team Delta and the Dark Workers, and some more plot twists every which way. Oh yeah, and the surprising reveal of the protagonist of Resolute and thier dilemma. Some battles are repetitive though, but even I can roll with these.

I'll give Allen Chingonzoh some credit for a detailed walkthrough of this as well. Heck, he made it two years ago, so that's a recent walkthrough. It does have a few shortcomings, such as a lack of gender differentiation (because The Shady just so happens to be the opposite gender counterpart, and has different mons depending on who your character is) as well as not getting every trainer in the Lande gyms as well as the potential randomness of both the Lande Skyscraper and the Tournament Castle. Not much to really say there. What also sucks is that I can't open the rom with Advance Trainer Editor or Hopeless Trainer Editor, so I can't get trainer information for my guide. In any case, I did compile the Pokedex, the Pokemon locations by area, and even hidden items. This is the doc. There's still some more things that need to be taken care of, but I am glad for what I managed to do after ensuring that I got just about everything.

Doom Musings: The legacy of Doom II MAP02: Underhalls

Hmm, this will be interesting. MAP02 of Doom II is definitely a memorable level in lots of ways. It's got neat little waterway systems, introduces the barrel, super shotgun, shotgun guy, and demon, and is quite cramped in layout. It tends to get some flak for that last reason, particularly for players on Nightmare. It's also got strange music that seems odd for the game and the level, and is almost always seen after beating a single level PWAD, but that's besides the point.

So Underhalls in layout is much smaller than Entryway before it (we're talking like overall space here, Entryway should be much faster to go through due to what you can do to just hit the exit, but the optional areas give it more size). It's an interesting challenge to go from the somewhat small hallway in Entryway to the much smaller waterway hallways in Underhalls, especially when you factor the hitscanner usage. But these halls are small in length too, connecting the hub area which you start out in with three other areas, the super shotgun room, the red key area, and the area with barrels. It's quite interesting how the barrel and red key areas only connect once you finally use that red key to enter the canal on the left side, as well as the blue doors that connect back to the canal from the barrel area. Small as they are, these things basically change up the dynamic well for the second level in the game.

The way you're introduced to the new stuff, well, it's done rather casually. The shotgun guy first appears in the second room*, as a slightly more challenging zombie, but not so challenging as to ease you in to what to expect later. The next shotgun guy encounter, not counting the one behind the red bars, is behind a little alcove in the first canal, which could surprise unwary players. The red key area is rife with these guys inside the main building, a good chunk are in the secret megaarmor room that even includes a teleporter to the starting point. It's interesting how these particular shotgun guys can just sort of casually enter the teleporter and alarm players who use the teleporter as a shortcut back once they finish with the red key area.

The super shotgun room is interesting as despite being small, it's quite interestingly guarded. One shotgun guy sees you but the four zombiemen are busy looking at the walls. For fun, you'd get them to infight there. Then you have two more shotgun guys and more zombiemen before the big prize. The incredibly fun SSG finds its uses in this level, although the single shotgun may be more useful for when you're dealing with single enemies. Players on ITYTD/HNTR won't experience it, but there will be two demons in the level, one in a monster closet after the red key and another in the barrel area. These things have more health, more speed, but only a melee attack, but hey, that new SSG should be taking them out in a single blow at close range. Good practice and will remain good practice for levels to come.

Then there's the barrel area. The way the barrel gets introduced is a hallmark to the ferocity of barrels in general, which is better than the barrels just sort of littered around episode 1 in the original Doom. While they're shown in more-or-less spontaneous locations in the original Doom, Underhalls introduces it in a way players can more easily understand, assuming of course they don't know about it already. So there's this shotgun guy just sort of stuck to a wall without moving. You can kill him but there's the barrel nearby. What if you shoot the barrel? Yeah, he explodes into giblets. And this is what you see in the areas where the blue key is. You actually want to shoot all these barrels to maximize the damage done to the enemies down there. Of course, due to the cramped spaces it requires you to step back and snipe them, but doing this is nice and easy and makes this part of the level somewhat fun in terms of how to use them. Remarkable.

A short, quaint level. However, it is deceptive in difficulty. Underhalls is often considered a nasty level on Nightmare, as fast-shooting hitscanners who respawn are aplenty and this time the compact space of the map works against you as you try to speed through it all. There's not a whole lot of records of this being done on Nightmare for that matter. It's even more egregious as I remember a famous video on how this was one of the last maps done in the UV-Pacifist style (the other being MAP30 which I'm sure is impossible without TAS). Again, the compact spacing, not to mention the barrels and hitscanners, work against you for the challenge of simply not shooting, but surprisingly this STILL can be done. Never gonna try it myself, but man, for self-imposed challenges, no one expects the SECOND LEVEL of Doom II to be one of the more challenging levels out there! That's a true testament to this level's legacy. And that's not even getting into all the levels inspired by Underhalls compact layout. Temple of the Lizardmen 3, Plutonia 1024, and several other wads which pay lots of homage to Underhalls definitely mean it's got its legacy going for it well.

*Interestingly, this very first shotgun guy encounter is somehow also famous for the "sleeping sergaent" issue. Enter the second room but instead of killing the zombiemen to the sides (which will wake up the shotgun guy), go straight to him and he won't actively attack.