Game Progress Topic #8 CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/17/04 6:02 pm) Reply | Edit | Del All Game Progress Topic #8 Panzer Dragoon Orta... I've finished the game on easy mode, and I've done all but one of the imperial sub-scenarios. I completed the first level of the original Panzer Dragoon, too (it doesn't have a save feature, though). Next, I'll start playing the main game on normal difficulty. I'd also be interested in trying to improve my rankings on each level, but I'm not sure what difficulty mode I want to do that with. Here's some links to the previous progress topics just for reference... Game Progress Topic #1 Game Progress Topic #2 Game Progress Topic #3 Game Progress Topic #4 Game Progress Topic #5 Game Progress Topic #6 Game Progress Topic #7 CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/17/04 6:52 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 The original version of Panzer Dragoon didn't have a save feature either. Considering it wasn't that great of a game to start with, I've never even tried to finish it. Zwei, that's another story. After I get tired with Shining the Holy Ark, I should work on that. I haven't even played anything in the past two days, and I really should get on 1984 and Les Miserables. I need to have both of those read and some minor projects completed by August 16. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/17/04 7:50 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I had lots of fun with Zwei... too bad I can't remember most of it very well anymore, though. It doesn't make much sense to me why they'd include the original, but not the superior sequel. Anyway, based on vague memories and first impressions, I think Zwei would be the best in the series, followed by Orta, then the original. I just played the first two levels of Orta on normal difficulty, and it was a little more fun. There's a lot more stuff coming at you, making some parts of the stages less boring than they were on easy mode. I was able to beat the boss I had trouble with originally, simply because I'm more experienced with the controls now. Still haven't mastered the camera rotation in this game, though. In Zwei, I was okay, but this game seems faster somehow. I turn around to attack an enemy, and before I can turn back, there's five enemies attacking me from the other direction doing lots of damage. Not sure if it's something I'll ever fully get used to. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/17/04 10:51 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I was playing around with the XA files of Alundra 2 via Crawl's Goldfinger accessory, and I discovered that the game also has some unused Japanese voice samples still on it (apparently from the Japanese version of the game.) The weird thing is that they all appear to be the same message, and they're saying something about the Memory Card. I can clearly make out the words "Memory Card" in English; the rest is Japanese. What's weird is that the game's ISO still contains what I believe is the Japanese version of the End Credits song. But there's another song in the game that B.J. Ward sings in the pirate's town. Strangely, there's no Japanese version of that song on here. I guess if that song even existed in the Japanese version, it must have been removed completely from the American one. Either that, or it exists wherever the rest of the game's background music is stored. I was also thinking about the game's plot in preparation for a review, and I just realized something that I never realized before...I was thinking that one plot thread that was sort of left hanging was Mephisto's plans for the Arcanum Key, that accidentally got stuck on the back of the whale in the beginning of the game. He mentions something about needing it for "the creature", but since he assumes the key was lost in the ocean and never learns about the whale, he forgets all about it and just concentrates his efforts on the Star Key. I realize it wasn't all that important a plot point, but I thought it would've been nice to know what this "creature" was that he had in mind... The other thing I was thinking is that the dragon seemed to have been thrown in there as a necessary "gameplay" element, but didn't have a lot to do with the main plot... Then it dawned on me...Since the dragon was being held prisoner by Mephisto's robots on Dark Isle, the dragon must've been the "creature" Mephisto was talking about! It makes perfect sense. The dragon is the only creature big enough to require the Arcanum key, and why else would they have captured it from the volcano? So I guess it all did come together, after all! Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/18/04 12:27 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I wanted to talk more about the Magicant sequence in Earthbound. One thing I really like about this part is that it's one of the few times I can think of in a game where we really, truly get inside a character's head and see what's going on. The characters in Earthbound, admittedly, don't have a whole lot of dialogue. In some ways, I think it worked better that way because it makes the revelation in the Lumine Hall all the more shocking and disturbing. That event foreshadows Magicant. In Magicant, a dream-like world created by Ness's mind, we see that he's not only having doubts about whether his quest can succeed but the morality of it...the enemies that appear in his dream and complain about the pain and defeat they've suffered at Ness's hands indicate that he questions if he's doing the right thing or not. Does the end justify the means? It's also clear that despite everyone calling him a "hero" and always telling him about how he'll save the world and be famous and yadda, yadda, he'd really rather just be a normal kid. This is indicated when he talks to his mother in the dream, and she tells him he can just stay there forever, and when he talks to Pokey, whom he apparently [i]was[/i] friends with at one time. I also liked how little details were added to that are easy to relate to. Memories of a snowman he built in the yard, a bird he once heard singing in a tree in his yard, and even himself when he was younger. I believe that when he confronts the Mani Mani Statue (Ness's Nightmare), it's not really so much about defeating the evil in his mind as accepting the good and the bad and what fate had predetermined. One thing I still think the plot is a little unclear on is the connection between the Mani Mani Statue and Giygas. It certainly seems like Lier X. Agerate's unearthing of the statue is what set everything into motion, but the connection is never truly explained. The Hieroglyph at the Museum in Summers explains that people fought Giygas once before, about 1,000 years ago, but he retreated to the underworld to recover (where the Tenda had discovered him and thus sealed it off.) I'm guessing that the statue may have been something that contained part of Giygas or his "spirit", and perhaps was meant to either wake him up when it was discovered or spread his evil in his absence (or maybe both). (Which is another eerie Harry Potter similarity, because that reminds me of the diary in Chamber of Secrets.) I think it's safe to say that Shigesato Itoi was heavily influenced by Final Fantasy IV when he wrote this game's story. I think he was also influenced by Stephen King's It. I also think that one part of the game may have been influenced by Magic of Scheherazade - the fact that they had to go back in time to defeat Giygas is similar to how they had to go back in time to defeat Salamander in MoS. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/18/04 12:37 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I guess I'll have to get around to playing Earthbound eventually. It always sounds so interesting in message board posts, and so many people consider it one of the top SNES RPG's. But it's just hard for me to find the motivation to get started with it because of how different the style is. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/18/04 3:19 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I'm still having trouble with Orta... this game is hard for the wrong reasons. I've only been playing 4 hours total, but it seems like longer for some reason. This is a game where I'm impressed by a lot of the stuff they did with it, but I don't tend to have very much fun while I'm playing. Anyway, on normal mode, your health apparently doesn't regenerate as much from level to level. So by the time I reached Stage 4, I was starting at half health. This was frustrating, so I decided to start a new game on easy mode to practice some more. I'm trying to beat my old rankings, but it's really hard and kind of confusing. The categories are something like: Hits Taken, Score, % enemies destroyed, and Boss defeat time. Hits taken I can handle, and I can try destroying bosses more quickly. But some enemies are really hard to destroy before they disappear... and I think I'm not finding some at all. As far as score... I'm not sure what it means by that. It doesn't show score while you're playing... I guess destroying more enemies by locking onto a lot of them at once improves your score? The game is too vague on this stuff. I read the instructions, but don't remember this being mentioned. I haven't really talked much about the story and the graphics. The plot is almost interesting, but it's kind of vague as well. Important stuff happens, but then it isn't explained well... the significance of it, I mean, and there's very little dialogue all around. The narration thing explains stuff, but only the obvious. The ending is sad at first, but ends on a somewhat more happy scene. I thought it might change on other difficulty settings, but it seems pretty complete, so I don't think so anymore. Visually, the game is very nice. There are some beautiful stages, and some that are impressive visually for other reasons. And there are some boring looking ones, too. The dragon looks impressive, and as each form levels up, it gets a new design. FMV scenes are great looking, but aren't incredibly frequent. Psycho Penguin (7/18/04 11:41 am) Reply | Edit | Del ... I am 3 1/2 hours into Tales of Symphonia (all in one night) and so far it is one of the most addictive and best RPGs I have ever played. Time to go play it some more! CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/18/04 9:30 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Panzer Dragoon Orta = Frustration Okay, I've played a little more of Panzer Dragoon Orta, and I'm really starting to get tired of it. I guess I'm going to keep playing it off and on for the sake of getting some sense of completion... but there's just so many things that annoy me, keeping me from appreciating the things that are good about it. I'm up to level 8 of 10 on easy mode again (it only takes about an hour to play through the entire game) and considering trying normal mode again soon. I'm still unlocking stuff as I go along... there's various criteria for doing so more quickly, but accumulate enough time and you unlock the stuff anyway. 20 hours unlocks everything completely. I'm considering starting Earthbound soon, as I was saying before. Looks to be really long, though... and you know how often I quit playing when I find things too dull. But if I do play, I'll try my hardest to complete the game. CRAWLand1000 The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator (7/18/04 11:59 pm) Reply | Edit | Del I LOVE FO! Since I haven't played much the past few nights, I decided to try to get back into gaming a bit with a game I've already played before. So, I picked up a file of Final Fantasy IV on Chronicles. I had previously left off right after leaving the dwarf castle. Tonight, I entered the Tower of Babil and defeated the doctor, got the airship refitted, had Edge join my party, defeated Rubicant, and returned to the dwarf castle. Liontamer Dark Warlord (7/19/04 12:11 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I decided to try to complete my Pokedex in Pokemon Sapphire. I only have about 24 pokemon to go, but most of those are either stone-evolutions, ones that I have to trade with Ruby to get, or ones that I can't get until after I defeat the Elite Four. I'm also trying to catch and breed the hundreds of Pokemon that I need to deposit in Pokemon Box to get the last two special eggs it gives you. DEATHAMSTER O Solo Mio (7/19/04 12:45 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! I've made it as far as this "roulette" boss on the final level of Contra III. I've beaten the game before on Easy, but I'm trying to finish it on Normal, and eventually, Hard. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/19/04 3:30 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! On Shining the Holy Ark, I spent about ten minutes on one fight that I eventually ran from. It started as a trio of enemies, but it's one of those enemies that multiply. And they did it every other turn. What bonehead at Sega thought it was going to be fun fighting a enemies that multiply as fast as you kill them? Magical Yard Gnome Heavy Metal Chainsaw (7/19/04 9:56 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! I got Tales of Symphonia and have been playing that, I beat the Fire Shrine and right now I'm in the middle of a mountain pass. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/19/04 10:24 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! Woo. Got Rodi slightly leveled (my time on this game is over four hours, and my average level is only 8...), and his Brutal Fire powered up. Now it slams all the enemies. If only I was more leveled when I got into that fight with the regenerating enemies... I just got back into town, and found myself talking with a little girl who wouldn't shut up about this witch, then the witch comes, makes her skin do this gross quivering thing (think that one evil dude in Hellboy who threatened Hellboy with his pyrokinetic girlfriend's life), then they both vanished. That was kind of... um... Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/19/04 10:25 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! I wrote a FAQ for getting all 60 Puzzle Pieces in Alundra 2. Crawl and 1OOO The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator (7/19/04 11:16 pm) Reply | Edit | Del I LOVE FO! I got a game over in the sealed cave in FF4 (a trap door summoned a manticore-like enemy that killed us) Since I had Chronicles out anyway, I also played a little bit of Chrono Trigger on that. I rescued Marle (at the beginning of the game), escaped from the prison, and am in the future. I just went through lab 16. I think it's possible that having the disc speed set to fast reduces the load times for that game, but it does not eliminate them. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/20/04 12:12 am) Reply | Edit | Del Panzer Dragoon Orta improving... and Earthbound?? Finished Panzer Dragoon Orta on easy mode for the third time, and did far better in the rankings than with the first two attempts. I also had more fun, as I think I'm finally getting adjusted to the camera rotation and level design. I'm also aware of the best strategies for beating most of the bosses. I guess it's about time to play on Normal mode. The first attempt will be to simply beat the game on this setting. If I'm able to do that, I can work on improving my rankings on normal, which should get me the practice I need to eventually try hard mode. This is no easy game though, and I expect the game to be considerably difficult to beat on the toughest settings. The last boss in particular. I've been playing for close to seven hours now. Earthbound... I'm playing through the intro now. I think I'm finally ready to make a serious attempt to get through it. Lord Vyce All Hail King Troy! (7/20/04 11:51 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Panzer Dragoon Orta improving... and Earthbound?? Finished Mega Man 2 and 3 on the Mega Man Collection, Gamecube Edition. I forgot how difficult Mega Man 1 is. I beat Guts Man and Bomb Man, but gave up on the other stages. I've made it to the rotating wall boss in the second part of Dr. Cossack's Castle of Mega Man 4. That's as far as I ever got on the NES version. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/20/04 11:56 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Panzer Dragoon Orta improving... and Earthbound?? Quote: I got a game over in the sealed cave in FF4 (a trap door summoned a manticore-like enemy that killed us) Hot damn, how overleveled was I? I killed those Manticore enemies in two hits, and if they hit me in between then it barely did a scratch. As for Shining the Holy Ark, after I got out of the shower, I basically just went Pixie hunting for an hour. I actually came out very successful. I went from three or four to eight or nine. However, I'm still missing some. I don't have Pixie or the Fairy #1, I'm missing the second Leprechaun, and I'm sure I'm missing a few Incubi and Succubi (I have two Incubi and a measly one Succubus. I have the third Leprechaun and Pixie, although I'm missing one of each of those). Oddly, the first Pixie I ever got was the Incubus from looking in a dumpster. I didn't even know what it was when it appeared (guess who doesn't believe in reading manuals) cuttersDCut He don't say nothin' He just keeps meltin' (7/20/04 1:01 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Panzer Dragoon Orta improving... and Earthbound?? I have finally unlocked all characters in MvC2 and now I have to work on colors, stages, and galleries. Psycho Penguin (7/20/04 3:35 pm) Reply | Edit | Del ... Tales of Symphonia: Stuck in the Tower of Mana. NCAA Football 2005: Dynasty with Maryland, 1-0. Magical Yard Gnome Heavy Metal Chainsaw (7/20/04 5:28 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: ... I got to Palmacosta in Tales of Symphonia. I just got the recipe for Omelets! CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/21/04 12:34 am) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound begins... I played some more Panzer Dragoon Orta, but I still can't completely get used to Normal difficulty. I'm better than I was, but the enemies use so many more attacks, and usually attack from multiple directions at once. It overwhelms me, and I'm not so good at using the radar sometimes. That said, I'm still getting better at easy mode. I've done the first three stages again, with better results than ever before. I even got my first S ranking for a level, which is as high as they go. And on another level, I destroyed all but one enemy, something I never came close to doing before. I've also started Earthbound, and it's interesting enough so far. I finished the intro, and I'm now exploring the town. Ness is at level 5, I think, and I've been fighting those troublemakers by the arcade (forget their name) ... lost the battle with their boss, though. James FP Schmendrick's Nose Moderator (7/21/04 9:17 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound begins... I just went through the dragon in Paladin's Quest and got the Kormu Sword from his back. Magnus (or was it Junus?) wasn't kidding when he said that part was gross! I got flown to Sasquot. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/21/04 2:49 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound begins... I did some more work on Shining the Holy Ark. I decided to head back to where I'm supposed to be, and found a Pixie along the way. She was hiding in that lake in the Forest of Confusion. I then found a Succubus in a wall of Enrich town. I decided to head to the mansion, and just by luck, I opened a casket, found nothing, turned to the right, hit the examine button, and out came a Fairy. I now have two of each, except I have three Pixies, with a total of 11 Pixies (if you're confused, remember how in Phantasy Star Online there were three types of characters you could choose from, Hunter Ranger and Force, but everyone just called all of them "Hunters"? This must be where Sega got the idea to do that. However, here it's Pixie, Fairy, Succubus, Incubus, and Leprechaun, and they're all referred to in general as "Pixies") Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/21/04 9:50 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound begins... I'm about 3/4 of the way through an Alundra 2 review. The hardest part will be describing the gameplay. I want to do it in such a way that the review portrays just how mindblowing the game is without being overly descriptive or boring... Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/21/04 9:59 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound begins... Oh, last night I ABBA'd my way to the final boss of Ikari Warriors II, but there must be an "ABBA" limit, because I died twice there and it wouldn't let me continue anymore. Hobbes's Ikari Warriors II Shrine is one of the funniest things I've ever read. I have to agree with him, though, on how bad this game is. It may not be quite as bad as the first Ikari Warriors. The play control is *somewhat* better, you move faster, there are boss fights, and at least you can get through it much more quickly. That elevates it slightly out of the "completely unplayable disaster" zone, but the game is devoid of anything that would make it even just "good". As far as the graphics go, the enemies and characters are drawn much better than those in Ikari Warriors 1, but I hesitate to say that the backgrounds are even worse. At least IW 1 had that weird psychadelic final level. In IW2, every level looks the same, except for a slightly different color scheme. And there are many times where there are no more than two background colors on the entire screen - one solid color for the ground and another for little dots (which I'm guessing is supposed to represent sand.) There is even one level that's entirely black and white. Sometimes B&W can be used nicely for a stylistic effect (Kirby's Adventure) but here it's just plain ugly, and you get the feeling they only did that because, well, they did the green level, the brown level, and teh red level, so here's the black & white level. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/22/04 1:10 am) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, some progress... I played more Earthbound today, beating the leader of the Sharks, and his creation. It was a close fight, as I had to use the heal spell every round. For this, I got the key to the entertainer's shack, letting me advance to the next area. There's a cave there to explore, and the enemies give great experience. I might choose to level up some more before moving on. I'm at level 7 already, but I think it would be wise to go to 8 or 9. I also got a better version of the baseball cap from someone. I bet there's still some more stuff to do in town, so I want to look around some more to make sure I don't miss anything. And I think I was supposed to talk to that guy near where the meteor landed for something. Anyway, the game is pretty fun so far. I think I also finished another game of Panzer Dragoon Orta on easy mode, not quite beating my previous ranking due to some trouble with the later levels. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/22/04 7:13 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, some progress... "And I think I was supposed to talk to that guy near where the meteor landed for something." Go back and talk to him. You don't get any items, but you'll miss an important story element. What he shows you is what sets everything into motion. Magnus CROWE Snooze Alarm (7/22/04 9:55 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, some progress... I just downed two alka-seltzers, a glass of water, and dropped a bucket of fish on my head. Lord Vyce All Hail King Troy! (7/22/04 2:38 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, some progress... I just made it to the Tower of Mana in Tales of Symphonia. Excellent game! CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/22/04 11:55 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, some progress... I've had my fill of Shining the Holy Ark for now, so I unhooked my Saturn and hooked up my PSX (PS - No, Norse by Norsewest STILL has not come). I was originally going to restart Hoshigami (I got one of the chicks killed on the first level :uhuh ), but for some reason I decided to play Final Fantasy VI on Anthology. Are there any FMVs in the actual game, or am I wasting my time with this? Yeah, it's a good game, and I probably would have replayed it, but by "wasting my time" I mean this version having the thousands of seven-second loading delays I'm going to be running into. Because unless I either get something REALLY good for completing it, or some FMVs, I think I'd be better just starting a new game on the SNES version. I just got Terra turned into her Esper form by Tritoch, assembled my team, saved, then quit. Some things I'm noticing about this... For some reason, I was starting to swear with all the battles I was getting with Locke in his scenario after the split up. I never liked fighting with Locke. I just hate using him. However, I went thought Sabin's scenario, only swearing when I lost to that Piranha-like thing at the bottom of the waterfall, and had to refight the Ghost Train. When you have to defend Banon/Tritoch as the three groups, everything I've ever read on the game suggested putting one of the three strong guys (Edgar, Sabin, Cyan) on each team, then fill the rest with the others, making sure Celes is on the team you want to fight Kefka with. I personally found it easier (actually, TOO easy) to just put Edgar, Sabin, Cyan, and Celes all on one team and have them beat up everybody. Heck, I got Celes KO'd on the second or third Trooper fight, left her that way, and beat up everyone else with ease. Edgar's BioBlaster OKHOs the normal troopers. I left her KO'd until I defeated all the normal troops, used a Phoenix Down on her, healed everyone to max... and handed it to Kefka. I don't think I'm overleveled... only Cyan was at Lv. 15, and that was when I finished. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/23/04 12:40 am) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, next town... Yeah, I don't think FF6 on the Anthology has FMV's in the actual game. You unlock some after beating it though, if I remember correctly. Other extras, too. I don't know if it's worth the loading delays to see it, though. It's looking like I was wrong about Earthbound... I'm really starting to have fun with it now. I started exploring the cave behind the entertainer's shack, and reached level 9 there. In the process of actually getting through to the boss, I gained one more level. Then I lost, after making a stupid mistake during the battle. Found out that if you're fast, or maybe just if you have a command ready to go, you can act with 0 HP and save yourself. When I fought him again, I kept using the offensive Psi power (Rockin'?), hoping that the boss didn't have much HP. It worked and I won. I think I gained another level from that, too. After that, I reached the sanctuary location, then worked my way back out of the cave. I went through the process of getting permission to go to Twoson (sp?), which is where I left off. Oh, I also talked to the guy by the meteor like FO suggested. Kind of interesting. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/23/04 11:39 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, next town... You remember at the beginning of the game, you were prompted to put in your favorite "thing"? And the default is "Rockin"? That determines the name of that powerful offensive attack Ness has. So, if you put it "Power", it would be named "PSI Power". If you put it "Kitten", it would be named "PSI Kitten". If you put in "Turd", it would be named "PSI Turd". DOVEBLOB Bagel, Dammit! Bagel! (7/23/04 1:09 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, next town... I've made it as far as the giant plant boss in Gradius 3. I don't know how to keep from getting sucked in...I tried by staying in the spot above him in the top right of the screen, but then I get hit by bullets that I can't see until the last possible moment. I'm playing on "Easy", since the game is rather difficult. Magical Yard Gnome Heavy Metal Chainsaw (7/23/04 9:37 pm) Reply | Edit | Del 5 I just beat the water shrine in Tales of Symphonia. The boss slaughtered me the first time I fought it, but the second time it wasn't too bad, only one of my characters died. The boss has two "helpers", I think the problem was that the first time I went straight for the boss and ignored the smaller enemies. The second time, I started off by using a big unison attack on the boss and then retreated, then targeted the the smaller enemies and drew them away from the boss. Breaking up clumps of enemies is really helpful in this game. cuttersDCut He don't say nothin' He just keeps meltin' (7/24/04 2:29 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: 5 I have been cleaning up the streets of New York and defeating Rhino in Spider-man 2 Liontamer Dark Warlord (7/24/04 4:01 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 Quote: I have been cleaning up the streets of New York and defeating Rhino in Spider-man 2 How is that game? I've heard good things about it, but I'm usually skeptical when it's gamestore employees saying them. And traditionally, games based on comics and/or movies aren't that great. Also, do you know if the first one (based on the first Spidey movie) was any good? As for game progress, I'm now only 18 pokemon away from completing my pokedex in Sapphire. cuttersDCut He don't say nothin' He just keeps meltin' (7/24/04 4:23 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 It's very fun so far. I'll see how it does in the long run, but for the past two hours, it's been nothing but catching criminals for me. I haven't even advanced the story yet. Just swinging about the city is good for a rental. I never played the first Spider-man, but I heard it was stupid because you couldn't touch the ground. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/24/04 11:06 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I unhooked my PSX and hooked up my SNES. I tried out Lost Vikings. When I first saw them, I thought "Good heavens, THEY'RE CYBORGS!" Well, it explains what happened. They're not cyborgs, they just stole some stuff from one of Tomator's robots. Although... that doesn't exactly explain what's up with Baleog's arm being completely replaced by a Bionic one. Unless it's a magic metal, kind of like Samus rolling up into a ball that's far less masseous than she is. Well, it's charm isn't as great as the first Lost Vikings. Baleog looks really creepy in this one, and one of Olaf's moves is to let out a brown fart. Although the werewolf was awesome. Sad you only got him for two levels. The Game Over screen's nowhere near as cool as the one of the original. It's colorful, but that's the only cool thing about it. But the burning viking ship beats the winged chick in gold any day. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/24/04 2:45 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, inventions I spent a lot of time exploring Twoson. I'm assuming they gave this game less towns in total, so decided to make them a little bigger than normal. Anyway, I intended to walk to the next area to look for Paula, but eventually got stuck because of a giant metallic pencil blocking the path, but helping the inventors in town eventually got me a pencil destroying machine. I can see only one use for it :) CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/25/04 12:11 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, inventions I played the original Dragon's Lair for the first time at my local Arcade. I didn't play it for long. I normally don't judge games unless I've played them for a decent period of time, but I could tell right off the bat that putting in more quarters was going to be a waste of my time and money. And a SERIOUS waste of money. I guarantee that if I were to complete this game, I'd probably spend $20. Thankfully, they modified the machine to only charge a quarter instead of $.50. I can't believe they have this, but not a Waku Waku 7. I then read about two chapters in 1984, and I'm currently at the midway point of the book. I really need to get this book read. I have to do a small project for it (actually, I'd barely call it a project. I just list a bunch of things about the book, such as two examples of irony, and summarize the plot). And then I have to read that monster Les Miserables. I have three weeks to get this all done, but I should be able to do it if I read all day, perhaps playing a game in between so that I don't get overly stressed. I did two scenarios in CIMA. I redid the dragon one, and then I did the factory. The factory's boss was rather annoying. It bolts around the room while leaving a trail of fireballs, stops. shoots three fireballs, waits, then bolts around the room again. I couldn't exactly figure out its pattern, although I noticed it was running on the same paths a lot. I beat it, but now I'm almost out of Recovery items. At least I got the CRAWLand1000 The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator (7/25/04 12:17 pm) Reply | Edit | Del I LOVE FO! Quote: I then read about two chapters in 1984 That's one of my all-time favorite books. Anyway, lately I must still be on my Stephen King kick. I've been intermittently reading (because I've only been reading it at the library itself) Hearts in Atlantis. I guess it's supposed to be a collection of mostly independent short novels. I've finished the first story, Low Men in Yellow Coats (the story that was made in the movie - which I haven't seen - called Hearts in Atlantis), and I liked it a lot, on a lot of different levels. To name one specific thing I liked about it, there are parts where an old man is talking to a young boy about books. When the young man gives the kid a book the kid thinks looks difficult, the man says that a book is like a pump: When you first pump a water pump, nothing will come out. But you continue to pump because not only do you expect water to come out, but you expect that after you've primed it, it should come out easier than if you had to lift the water yourself. But if it doesn't, you'd abandon the pump. Point being, you might have to put some effort into a book to enjoy it, but it should eventually start rewarding you. He said that if you get 10% into a book before it starts giving something back, you can abandon it. I think FacilityPro once also quoted 10% as the maximum percent of a game before it should start getting up to speed. I read some negative reviews for this book on Amazon.com. Some of the one star reviews said they liked the first story (which, to me, would suggest the book deserves a little something more than one star) but hated the second. Well, I've only read a bit of the second so far, but I'm enjoying it. I guess it's something I can kind of identify with. (It seemed the reason a lot of people hated that story was simply because it wasn't supernatural). CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/25/04 2:16 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, Paula I reached the villiage of the Happy-Happyism religion after getting past that pencil blocking the way. I had to level up a couple times, though, and that was still an annoying area to get through. The enemies kept draining Ness's Psi Points and the slingshot weapon seemed to have a terrible accuracy rate, making battles take forever. I found a new baseball bat weapon though, and things got much better. In the villiage itself, the cult guys were really easy and gave great experience. I probably have Ness around level 20 or 21 by now. I found Paula in the cabin and got the item to reflect lightning. I then fought the leader of the cult and got the key to rescue her. I wonder what happens without that item... I mean if you get a standard Game Over or not when he uses the lightning on you. After Paula joined the party, I bought her new equipment and saved. She says to go back to Twoson, but I was wondering if I should explore the other cave in town first. I'll decide on that later. Game is still very entertaining. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/25/04 4:28 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Paula CB007, don't bother using the Yo-Yo's in that game at all. Even though they are slightly more powerful than the bats, they miss more often and you get more "SMAAAAAASH!" hits if you use the bats. I know it's very tempting to always use the most powerful equipment in RPGs, but I do just fine with the bats. (Also, don't use the Casey Bat if and when you get that far. It's a joke item and will miss 75% of the time.) CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/25/04 4:39 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Paula Thanks for the info. "...if and when you get that far" Heh. I actually have a feeling that I'll be able to play through this game. It's done very few of the things that typically make me want to stop playing an RPG partway through, and the story (or style of story) motivates me to find out what unusual thing will happen next. Also, I've always liked the Dragon Warrior battle system, and it's 90% unchanged here. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/25/04 8:30 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, second Sanctuary I decided to explore that cave in the Happy Happy village, and was glad I did so, since the second Sanctuary location was there. Paula had gained many levels just reaching the end. The boss was pretty easy. I used Rockin' B twice, then started having Ness attack while Paula used a Fire attack (the only Psi power she had that had any effect). After that, I returned to Twoson and saved. It's funny how I was strong enough to make the enemies in the cave run away, but the annoying ones in the valley kept attacking anyway. James FP Schmendrick's Nose Moderator (7/26/04 9:56 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I did a whole crapload of stuff in Paladin's Quest over the weekend. I went to Sasquot and got the Ropeway Station working again. Then, holy crap, this was like THE BEST THING EVER that happened: I had to sneak into the Palace of Zaygos (the game's main villain, though I haven't seen him actually do much yet), and to do that, I had to walk in with a traveling parade. It was a long line of party members, like 20 people in a row! And this weird Parade Music was playing the whole time. That was so hilarious, I made a save in an extra slot at that point, just so I can do that part over and over again. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/26/04 2:22 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I completed the Game Boy version of Ducktales yesterday. I'm not overly certain why I never bothered to mention I was playing this during the week or two I spent on this. There's a few annoying level designs, but I haven't played the NES version in so long I'm not sure if they're there too. - There's a complete leap of faith in the Amazon. You're in a narrow hallway with a hole in it that normally would be no trouble, but thanks to the low ceiling the gap's as long as Scrooge can jump. Thankfully, I found a hidden route that both keeps you away from this, but also saves you from paying the $300,000 to that statue to continue the level (the $300,000 thing is in the NES version, I remember that much But that's it). - Those swamp gaps African Mines that you have to bounce on the swamp creatures to get across. Once I figured out how to easily do this, it wasn't a problem (just pogo a little ways from the gap, then start moving to the right on your way up. The swamp creature will come up just in time for you to bounce it and make your way across.). But when I first hit it, I was using all my lives on these jumps. Strangely, it's only the levels that gave me problems. The bosses are all wastes of programming, minus Dracula Duck. Did I mention this game has three lives and no continues? I don't remember the NES version being that way. This morning I did another CIMA area. One thing I noticed about this game is the attack patterns of almost all the bosses consist of running around, attacking, then continuing to run around. The only one that wasn't like this was the bird-dragon at the end of Emmy's area, and that was actually one of the more clever bosses I've ever battled in a video game. He's not particularly difficult, but at least he was fun to fight. I wish the same were true for the rest of them. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/26/04 2:31 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 "That was so hilarious, I made a save in an extra slot at that point, just so I can do that part over and over again." Coincidentally, I think I have a save right *at* that same exact spot, too, unless I finally wrote over it. I think the reason is because I had trouble beating the Noi Gren boss in Zaygos's Palace. (Why don't I pick this game up and start it again?) CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/26/04 3:25 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, Threed and a change In Earthbound, I received the money to help the Runaway Five. This allowed me to get to Threed, which is an interesting enough place. When the townspeople talked about a passageway, I figured it would be a pretty straightforward part of the game. Wasn't expecting that the game would switch perspectives to the third member of the group in another location. I think his default name is Jeff... and he's had a pretty long intro so far. Starting at level 1, with only some basic equipment and no money, I wonder if I'll have any difficulty with this part of the game. I've also taken another look at Warcraft III, a game I'd love if I was better at it. I don't have the time now, but I want to give it another try eventually. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/26/04 9:50 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Threed and a change One thing I tended to do when I got Jeff was clobber a bunch of those cavemen people wandering around the Stonehenge ripoff. It got me lots of Picnic Lunches for recovery, but it also didn't make such a huge level gap between Ness and... everybody else. Yes, I actually replayed this game a few times. Once on an emulator to get screens, and once because of the Bottle Rocket incident I spoke of a while ago. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/27/04 12:21 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Threed and a change What incident was that again? I did a lot of Earthbound stuff. I finished the part where you control Jeff, which was probably the least fun part of the game so far. Nothing of interest happened the whole time. Except for what seems to be a slight glitch regarding the UFO thing you travel in. I went outside one last time, and when I returned, I found I couldn't enter it. Had to talk to Jeff's dad again, even though he didn't say anything useful or different, in order to make it work. After the party was reunited, I may have fought an easy boss (can't remember now) and was free to explore Threed again. I found out about the tent in the lower part of town, fought it (very easy with Rockin' B) and got something or other from it. Then I got a call and got some Zombie Paper, and used it to trap the Zombies in the circus tent, letting me through the passageway. I arrived in Saturn Villiage, or something to that effect. I've been having trouble remembering names of stuff in this game. Anyway, those creatures are interesting, but the weird text is really hard on the eyes. I found out about the password for the waterfall thing and saved after buying new equipment. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/27/04 5:05 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Threed and a change "Nothing of interest happened the whole time." You got to see Tessie and Stonehenge and fly in a UFO...and Brick Road and Dr. Andonuts will have important roles later. Codie saved in the final area, then replayed the entire game so she could use bottle rockets in the final battle. I actually was going to say something about that, but I felt like it was closing the barn door after the horse already left, but for future reference for those who haven't played the game that far yet: DON'T save in the final area. The last time I make a save is in Saturn Valley right before entering the Phase Distorter. That way, if you can't beat the final area and the final boss, you can still explore the world, level up, and buy more healing items. The last area is one of the shortest and very straightforward, so if you lose, you don't have to go through a whole lot when you do it over again. Even if you do save in the final area, it's not necessary to replay the entire game if you can't beat the final boss. Since the Phase Distorter can also heal, just level up by fighting the enemies in the final area. You also don't need bottle rockets, despite what Nintendo Power said, especially if Jeff fixed the Heavy Bazooka (it NEVER misses and does good damage). BTW, when I first beat this game, I reached the final boss at round level 70-74. I had a really hard time beating him, and I lost about 5-10 times to the first part of the battle alone, but eventually, through use of strategy and quick thinking, I did pull through. Now, I usually arrive at the final boss with levels somewhere in the 90's, and it's not difficult at all. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/27/04 5:37 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, Waterfall Yeah, it sounds pretty interesting written down, but I was just looking forward to getting back to Threed again. Plus, the single character fighting was getting on my nerves a little. I just made an attempt at the area behind the waterfall, but I lost to the boss (Belch, I think) there. I missed a lot of rooms, too. I'm not sure if I was underleveled (wouldn't surprise me) or just using bad strategy. The status effects were annoying, and I was almost out of Psi Points from healing after all the regular battles. I did some damage, and I have a feeling I was close to winning... unless there's some trick to it. I thought I should've used the Fly Honey to see if it had any effect on him, but I didn't want to waste a turn, and then I forgot all about it until the fight was over. I leveled up a few times though... seems there's no problem with getting Game Overs in this game, as long as you don't have a lot of money on hand. Whatever's in the bank isn't halved when you're defeated, just what you carry. I had fun... looking forward to making some more attempts at this area later. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/27/04 6:33 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Waterfall Actually, FO's only half right. Most of the irritation came from doing all that, then finding out I couldn't even use the damn things for what I wanted to (Giygas is unnaffected by Bottle Rockets or any kind). I didn't recall the Heavy Bazooka doing as much damage as the Multi-Bottle Rockets, which is what I went and stocked up on after replaying. But then again, I don't remember the accuracy of the Multi-Bottle Rockets. I don't remember what levels I was at, but I could've sworn I was only in the 50s or 60s and still breezed Giygas. But it's been so long, I wouldn't chisel that into a stone tablet. Did I ever mention that, despite disliking the game, I've been kicking myself ever since I sold my copy? As for my progress... Finished 1984. Crawl, could you answer a question for me, please? Did Winston die? My dad said he got shot, Julia too, but I personally couldn't tell from reading it. Although it did mention something about a needle in the back of the head. The way I saw it, he was in a bar, some kind of victory was declared, the high volume of the telescreen declaring victory was the needle in the back, and it ended there. Or is the ending all just a dream while he's being executed? I also did the Sky Palace in CIMA. This place's boss was also very interesting, and also more difficult than the bird-dragon. It's a bird-sorceror (notice all the "interesting" bosses in this game are half bird?) who circled around Ark, but at a distance that Ark could never hit him. He then attacked with fireballs, HUGE meteors, and boulders. In order to hit him, you had to either hit the boulder back in his face, or wait for a pair of meteors to land instead of a stream, then attack one of them like there's no tomorrow, causing it to explode and send boulders in all directions. I know he takes damage if one of the boulders hits him, but I believe if a boulder strikes the other meteor, the meteor explodes. And if the boss is around the explosion, he takes serious damage from it. I saw something like that happen, but I don't know if that's what happened. Because if you're not quick enough with splitting one of them, the meteors will automatically explode. And he did have a lot of red bars when after that explosion. I'd bet that the chain reaction theory I have is correct. And I don't know what happened, maybe it has something to do with my killing a bunch of CIMA in this one puzzle I got stuck on in the area, but when I got done with this stage, Halley's trust was 50, Emmy's was also pretty high, Yurald was already trusting me even though this was the level I saved him (the only other person who I exited a stage with their trust was Halley, and I think he comes trusting the player) and Vanrose's was only a -1. Doug still has a lot of hate for Gate Guardians, but I can't blame him. Such a shame the items Yurald can make suck (I've got Status Shields coming out the Ying-Yang already, and Eberle kind of renders the Restore useless). One thing I'd suggest to anybody who might be playing this game, is upgrade anybody you can whenever you can. Not only will you soon get more Material to upgrade Ark and anybody you like, but you'll never know who you might be running around as in the next level. Once I was running around as Halley. I neglected to upgrade Shelley's equipment after I got her, so when I was playing as her the CIMA were not going down easily. Know what's odd? Everybody kept talking about how the CIMA wouldn't come near Yurald, but they were attacking him. Psycho Penguin (7/27/04 8:25 pm) Reply | Edit | Del ... Started Disgaea. Did a bunch of practice maps to level up, gonna start the castle tonight. NCAA Football 2005 is progressing nicely.. I've given up 20 points in 3 games with my Northwestern dynasty (3-0 now), and bounced back from a stunning 24-17 loss in my maryland dynasty to beat the hapless Mountaineers of WVA 17-7 (2-1 now.) Tales of Symphonia progress has temporarily halted until I figure out how to get past this spinny square thing in a mine. CLOUDBOND007 Dragon Warrior (7/27/04 10:29 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, Desert Well, I was able to beat Belch using the fly honey. I later read that it was impossible to beat him otherwise... despite saying you were damaging him, he would be invincible unless you used the item. Once that was done, I ended up back in the Saturn Village... drinking the cup of coffee brought on an incredibly long bunch of text slowly scrolling across the screen, encouraging Ness and friends to continue. Another cave in the village was now accessable, so I followed it and found the third sanctuary location. The boss there was a really easy one. I had Paula use the Fire Psi Power (B Version) while Ness used Rockin' B and attacked a couple times. Lots of experience from that one. After recording with the sound stone, I went back to Threed and saw that it was restored to normal, and that I was able to take a bus to Fourside, which I did. Once the bus had to turn back at the desert, I stopped and bought new equipment again. I want to see if I'm able to head back to Threed again now too before I start exploring, as I wanted to see if anything interesting has appeared since the Zombies and stuff are gone. Ness is about level 31, while Paula and Jeff are only a few levels behind. I guess that's appropriate since I'm not having much trouble with anything, and I sometimes see enemies that run away from the party. I'm just now starting to get a feel for how long this game is. Only three sanctuary locations found, and this talk of reaching level 90 before the end of the game. Well, I'm glad I started playing. I'm not at the point where I could call the game one of the best RPG's around, but it's been very good, and unique in a lot of ways. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/27/04 11:07 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Desert I'm gonna forget about Jet Grind Radio for now and try something else. I wanted to play a game I hadn't yet played before, but this one's just irritating me, giving me a headache, and worsening my mood... Maybe I shouldn't play something like that right after having finished EarthBound and Alundra 2. I wonder if Jak and Daxter would be any good. I'd kind of like to play a 3D platformer, and one that actually gives you a chance to defeat your enemies instead of just eternally running away from them (and one that doesn't put a time limit on your exploration). Liontamer Space Pirate (7/27/04 11:25 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 Quote: NCAA Football 2005 is progressing nicely Maryland, huh? Have you played against Clemson University yet? If so, is their team any good in that game? I plan on eventually getting this game to play a Clemson (or maybe University of South Carolina) dynasty mode, and I'm curious if it's a good team in the game. As for my game progress, I'm only 12 pokemon away from completing my pokedex in Sapphire. I'm also to the Elite Four in the game. I made an attempt to beat them, but the League Champion's 3rd pokemon, Metagross, just destroyed me. Any suggestions on a good team (or particular pokemon) to take into the Elite Four, Codie? CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/28/04 12:24 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 The Elite Four in Ruby/Sapphire were actually quite difficult, I thought. It took me at least. Well, Metagross is a Steel/Psychic. His only weakesses are Fire and Earth. If you chose Torchic and raised it into a Blaziken and taught it Blaze Kick and is at a decent level, it should OHKO Metagross with Blaze Kick. Blaziken's fighting moves (such as Sky Uppercut) are also helpful against Sydney's Dark Pokemon. If it's fast and strong enough, it can also take on Glacia's Glaelies (sp?) and Sealeos. Don't pit it against the Walrein, though. Did you raise up one of those Milotics? If so, use it. It might have trouble with Glacia, but it's quite effective against everything else (it doesn't have anything strong vs. Metagross, but it's stats are good enough that you can just Surf it to death). If you're one to use Legendaries, Kyogre makes the Elite Four a quite a joke (I first beat them on Ruby, so I struggled a lot). Teach it Thunder, and combined with Drizzle, Thunder has 100 accuracy. Trade Hydro Pump for Surf. I busted in with Kyogre only at Lv. 50, and he slaughtered the Elite Four. Bring a few Leppa berries. You'll probably need them. Not to be nitpicky, but Metagross is actually Steven's last Pokemon in the lineup, although he'll often bring it out third. I believe it goes... Skarmory (Steel/Flying), Claydol (Ground/Psychic), Cradily (Rock/Grass), Armaldo (Rock/Bug), Aggron (Rock/Steel), Metagross (Steel/Psychic) Thunder Skarmory. Surf Claydol. Ice Beam Cradily. Surf Armaldo. Either Surf, Earthquake, or Sky Uppercut Aggron (the ladder two, Aggron has a double weakness to), Earthquake or Blaze Kick Metagross. cuttersDCut He don't say nothin' He just keeps meltin' (7/28/04 1:06 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Desert In Spider-Man 2, Doc Ock turned evil and now he is running amuk. I like how this game gives an alternate storyline, sort of, like how Doc Ock turns to Connors for help in the game. I love this game. Liontamer Space Pirate (7/28/04 3:30 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 Thanks for the advice, Codie. I saw the listing of Steven's Pokemon in my strategy guide; I just referred to Metagross as his 3rd pokemon because he pulled it out 3rd against me. I'm trying to make it through the Elite Four without any legendaries. I really had little trouble with the Four themselves save for a little bit of a struggle against the last guy who had a lot of dragons. I mightily struggled with Steven though. I took care of his Skarmony pretty easily, but the next pokemon he brought out gave me a beating. My team was Blaziken, Glalie, my shiny Linoone (it's level 73), Wailord, Salamance, and Electrode. His Aggron tore my team apart pretty bad. It would use Thunder to take out my Wailord, Earthquake to crush my Electrode, Blaziken, and Glalie, and Dragon Claw to take out my Salamance. I eventually weathered it out with my Linoone, but then Metagross beat everything to a pulp using Earthquake and Meteor Mash. I think what I really need to do is level up my Blaziken more (it doesn't even have Sky Uppercut yet) and probably look for a better Electric pokemon. I may substitute Milotic for my Salamance too. The good news is that I have plenty of healing potions and revives from carrying around Linoones for so long. Facilitypro Slow Daddy (7/28/04 12:04 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I've hit sort of a gaming wall. I haven't played anything in about a week. I popped in Vagrant Story before I disconnected my PSOne (and forgot how to change weapons), and played Mars Matrix for a bit after I wrote down my scores, but that's it. The main reason is that I have qualifying exams approaching (which are like comprehensives), and I've been studying for those for the past two months. August, too, will be spent studying. Between that and getting established in this new program (and town), I don't have any spare time to devote to gaming. A more game-related issue, though, is I've already played all the games that I seriously desired to play for the systems I have with me (PS, DC, SNES, N64). As most people here know, I keep most of my systems at my parents' house to play when I visit. (If not for security, so that I'm not distracted). This makes it easier to say "I don't have time right now," which is not a trend I want to get into. That happened with bowling, and now I don't really feel like bowling anymore. Moving into an apartment has hampered playing guitar and drums, and now I don't get urges to play music as much anymore. In short, life circumstances have led me to cut back on, and eventually stop doing, two hobbies I used to enjoy. I don't want that to happen with videogames. I'm still excited to play some games that I have back in CA (beating F-C in R-Type Final, for one), as well as some games that will be released by the time I come home for Christmas. (I have to admit, DMC 3 has me intrigued.) But I hope this isn't the beginning of the end of videogaming for me. I really do doubt it, but I've been in this spot before. Besides, I've been interested in videogames far longer than almost any other hobby I have. CodieKitty Kitten Pokemon (7/28/04 1:07 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 My next suggestion would be to level up. The first time I ever saw Metagross, I know I took it down with a Blaze Kick from Blaziken. I'd suggest dumping Wailord and bring in a Milotic. The only thing Wailord has over Milotic is HP, and what good is 500 HP when your Sp. Defense is so poor a Pikachu can knock it down to half with a single Thunderbolt? And Wailord doesn't learn Recover. Do yourself a favor and dump the Salamence. Definitely. Flying Dragons blow. Ground/Dragons aren't much of improvement, as they're also double weak vs. Ice. As for Linoole... well, don't know if it's any worse than Delcatty, but you have to have the right moves. Can Linoole be taught Ice Beam via a TM? I've never used one, so I don't know. You'll probably have to beat the Elite Four a few times to afford one (they can be won at the Mauville Game Corner. I normally just buy sets of 500 coins until I get 4,000 to buy the TM. 80,000 Poke for one Ice Beam TM. But after you start using the Elite Four to level up, you'll have more money than you'll know what to do with). But if it's Lv. 73 and still getting the crap beaten out of it, I don't think it's worthwhile. Not even my Delcatty was losing that bad. Either that, or the computer loves me and knows I love Skitty, so it makes my Skitty/Delcatty stronger than normal. Kairobi King Eldean Rebel (7/28/04 6:24 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I finally made it past that BLASTED caveman in E.V.O., but then got lost in the Monkey's Maze for two days. I made it to the end, beat the boss there, and that opened the stage that's just the final boss. It's a long multi-part battle, and I had a really hard time beating him, especially when he spits out the balls that turn into the giant Jellyfish and the giant salamander. So what I had to do was build up about 3000 E.V.O. points, and then grow a horn every time my energy went low to refill. I started Pocky & Rocky since obtaining it, and I made it past Level 1 and the Haunted House, and I'm up to the river with the Kappa enemies. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/28/04 9:53 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 All I did tonight was play a little Video Pinball for Atari 2600. I used to be so good at this game, I could roll over the score. Tonight, my highest score was only 111,000-something, which is about 1/10th of the way to a rollover. I remember years ago, my brother discovered a way to get the ball "stuck" in the point multiplier, and that was sometimes good enough to get the rollover. CodieKitty Ship Captain (7/28/04 10:11 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 Yup, just as I thought. Norse by Norsewest is just Lost Vikings 2 with an ugly graphic style, although I wasn't expecting the voices. OH MAN, Baleog is hideous in this game. But it has some other annoyances that caused me to like it less than Lost Vikings 2. For starters, Baleog and Fang can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn in this one. Yeah, Baleog can still hit things with the Bionic Arm, but not his sword. In the SNES version, they could both make their mark every time. Here, I kept getting Fang killed because he couldn't hit anything. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (7/28/04 11:49 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Warcraft III- online matchup I actually had some success with an online game of Warcraft III for the first time recently. Online play is supposed to match you up with someone of the same skill level, so a new player never gets matched with a veteran. It seemed to work really well in this case, and it was an even game most of the way through. Exciting. I haven't quit Earthbound, I was just curious if online play was still popular with Warcraft and wanted to experience it again. I usually just embarass myself, though :) Mercury Crusader Kore ga Saikyo-ryuu da! (7/29/04 12:05 am) Reply | Edit | Del ... I'm holding off on Pokemon until the release of Fire Red and Leaf Green (DAMN YOU, LEAF GREEN! GIVE ME WATER BLUE!), so no more Sapphire or Colossium for me for a while. I've been playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I have to agree with CB on the cool factor of this game. The story doesn't suck like, say, Neverwinter Nights, and it isn't as slow. It sparked my interest in RPGs again. My current character is a Scoundrel-turned-Jedi Counslar, leaning towards the light side, and while I did turn Jedi, I am trying to reduce my use of lightsabers. I'm sorry, but I was always more a mercenary/smuggler/bounty hunter fan myself. I need my blaster pistols! I'm waiting on another shipment of games I ordered from Amazon. Ninja Gaiden for the X-Box will be one of them, as well as Prince of Persia, Crimson Skies, and just for the hell of it, the X-Box Music Mixer. Yeah, it looks like I'm on an X-Box fixation for now, but with good reason. I can't stand to own a video game console and not own the "AAA top tier titles" for said console. It's difficult with the X-Box, since they don't have recognizable franchises like Nintendo and Sega have. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (7/29/04 12:17 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: ... I'm glad you're enjoying KOTOR more. Blasters and stuff are tough to use later in the game, except maybe with the XBox live content. But with the right kinds of force powers, you can probably use them most of the time and survive okay. Probably easier on a darkside game, though. How far are you so far? The game's story got better and better for me as the game went on, eventually becoming one of my favorites. Of course, it's not that linear for a good stretch of time, so you may experience the slow parts and good parts at different times. This is one RPG I think you definitely need to play through twice if you enjoy the whole thing, since darkside and lightside are so different. And the different classes, too. I've been considering a fourth playthrough myself once I get some more time. Liontamer Dark Warlord (7/29/04 12:44 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 Quote: As for Linoole... if it's Lv. 73 and still getting the crap beaten out of it, I don't think it's worthwhile Actually, it was the one pokemon on my team that could take a beating and keep on going. It was pretty much the rock of my team. It doesn't have the best moves in the world, but it did a lot better than the rest of my team. I didn't realize Wailord had such low special defense. I only took it into the battle because the official Nintendo strategy guide suggested it as a good pokemon to use against the Four. I guess I'll level up some and use your suggestions to tweak my team before I make another go at it. Thanks again for the tips. CodieKitty Ship Captain (7/29/04 12:23 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 On Milotic vs. Wailord... I looked up some of my Pokemon this morning. A Lv. 40 Wailord I have sitting around has a Sp. Def. rating of 50. A Lv. 22 Milotic I have sitting around in another box has a Sp. Def. rating of 63. So either Wailord's Sp. Def. stinks like a month old meatloaf, or Milotic's Sp. Def. is insane. Milotic's Sp. Att. is also higher than the Wailord's, despite being almost half the level. I can't tell anthing of the other stats. Milotic's Attack, Defense, and Speed were all lower than the Wailord's, but I don't know if that's just from the level difference, or an actual Stat difference. Now that I think about it, Milotic's HP can easily get over 300. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (7/29/04 10:43 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, Fourside and Moles In Earthbound, I went through the desert and reached the town of Fourside. It's an interesting place, and I'm glad it didn't take forever to explore. I saw the scene with Pokey, and talked with the Runaway Five. Now I have to go back to the desert to get gold, which involves a maze and five moles to fight. I found one, but that place is tough. Confusing layout, lots of enemies (some use status effects like poison), and the mole I fought (#3) seemed fairly strong. One of the annoyances of this place is that there's no hospital nearby, and the walk to (and through) Fourside is an annoying one. At least there's a place to heal, purchase stuff, and save right outside. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/30/04 12:07 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Fourside and Moles The Gold Mines is one of the harder areas in the game, strangely. That's where I first started having trouble on my recent playthrough. I kept losing Jeff and Paula, which I believe is what triggered Ness's homesickness twice. Didn't play anything today because Crawl and I spent the day at Cedar Point. Psycho Penguin (7/30/04 12:58 am) Reply | Edit | Del ... "Maryland, huh? Have you played against Clemson University yet? If so, is their team any good in that game? I plan on eventually getting this game to play a Clemson (or maybe University of South Carolina) dynasty mode, and I'm curious if it's a good team in the game." Clemson is ranked about 23rd in the game I believe, and they have decent power rankings. Plus it would be tough to win in the conference due to how good it is, so they are an excellent choice. NCAA Football 2005 - Maryland is 3-1, Northwestern is 5-0 after 18-14 thriller over Ohio State Disgaea - Holy hell, this game IS good.. already up to final battle in Episode 4. The gameplay is addictive as hell.. took me away from.. Tales of Symphonia - I was hooked on this game, but not now, since I can't progress past a spinny thing in some mine. NFL 2K5 - 44-10 win and 745 crib points in 1st game. :/ CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (7/30/04 1:09 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Fourside and Moles I haven't had a problem with homesickness in this game... I can only remember it happening once or twice so far. I'm not sure if you're supposed to call home as a preventative measure, as I've been doing, or only after homesickness starts. My problem with this cave is running out of Psi Points. It's something like 7 or 8 points to cure Poison, and about 5 to heal. I get poisoned in nearly every battle with the snake enemies.. and you can't just ingore it since it takes off 20HP per round. I found another one of the moles and barely defeated it using an item. I'm trying to level up, but it's hard to keep your party members alive in that place. At least there's a place to get seemingly unlimited (once per attempt) exit mice. Magical Yard Gnome Heavy Metal Chainsaw (7/30/04 12:33 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Fourside and Moles I've been re-visiting the element shrines in Tales of Symphonia so Sheena (a ninja) can summon the elementals in battle. So far Undine and Efreet (I'm surprised they didn't call him Salamando) have joined me. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (7/30/04 2:27 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound, Fourside and Moles... and Soul Calibur II I just tried out Soul Calibur II... this game has some of the best graphics I've yet seen. Seems to control pretty well with the Xbox controller too, something I was concerned about. This will be the game I work on when I'm not in the mood to make progress on Earthbound, or simply can't play it for one reason or another. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/30/04 7:15 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Fourside and Moles... and Soul Calibur II I switched the difficulty setting of Towering Inferno to 2. This mode lets you continue from the floor where you left off after you get a "Game Over". Unless you get extremely lucky, this is probably the only way you'd get much farther than the third tower. By the third tower, the number of flames in the upper floors is too great, and the time alotted to get the people out is too short for there to be much chance of success. One floor I tried about 50 times before I finally lucked out, had a clear path through the flames, and was able to get past. After that, I kept playing until the game looped back to the first tower, but it glitched a little. It actually looped to the first tower before I completed the last tower. So floors 8 and 9 of the last tower became floors 1 and 2 of the first tower. Somehow, the game corrected itself so that the first tower still ended with floors 8 and 9. It's an amusing little game, but it's not really great. If you own an Atari 2600 or 7800, it might be worth getting, but it's not a "must-buy-an-Atari-2600-and-play-it" game. There is no end to the game, and the tower changes color per round, but that's about it. (The colors went something like Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red, Light Blue, Purple, Green, Brown, then back to Blue again.) bjstrykes Who's going to stop me? You? Oh, please don't hurt me, little boy!! (7/31/04 10:58 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I had that Towering Inferno game for years and couldn't figure out what to do with it, either. Then, coincidentally, one day I had joysticks plugged into both sides of the Atari 2600 adapter for our 5200. I picked up the "wrong" controller by accident and suddenly I was able to move the guy around! I didn't even really know what I did at first, but after awhile I realized I was holding controller #2 instead of #1. Because I was on vacation, I haven't been playing much. I have to decide what game I want to pick up and play through. I might borrow Sethra's copy of Suikoden 2. I liked Suikoden 1, but it was a little short. Crawl and 1OOO The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator (7/31/04 12:53 pm) Reply | Edit | Del I LOVE FO! Sounds like Metal Gear Solid is nothing but a big old Towering Inferno rip off. CodieKitty Ship Captain (7/31/04 1:00 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Desert Crawl? I've got a question about 1984. I guess you didn't see it earlier. Did Winston die? My dad said he got shot, Julia too, but I personally couldn't tell from reading it. Although it did mention something about a needle in the back of the head. The way I saw it, he was in a bar, some kind of victory was declared, the high volume of the telescreen declaring victory was the needle in the back, and it ended there. Or is the ending all just a dream while he's being executed? Crawl and 1OOO The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator (7/31/04 1:23 pm) Reply | Edit | Del I LOVE FO! Sorry. I forgot about replying. I think it's possible that good books tell you exactly what you need to know. Whether Winston is shot at the end isn't the most important thing. Not only do we all die eventually, but near the beginning of the novel Winston says, "We are the dead", and later O'Brien says that sooner or later they will shoot him. What IS important is that Winston was really changed (in a way we probably did not, even could not, anticipate at the beginning of the novel) so that he really did love Big Brother. With that said, I think the "official" answer is that, at the precise ending of the novel, Winston has not yet been shot. From the perspective of our ideas of objective reality, Winston is still in the cafe, hallucinating. There are a few concessions to this in the novel: "Under the table Winston's feet made convulsive movements. He had not stirred from his seat, but in his mind he was outside..." "Winston, sitting in a blissful dream, paid no attention as his glass was filled up. He was not running or cheering any longer. He was back in the Ministry of Love..." HOWEVER, you should bear in mind what O'Brien was saying to Winston during their sessions, that whatever happens in the mind truly happens. The ending of the book is written in a deliberately dreamlike style to indicate that Winston no longer has much connection to what we would consider to be objective reality. For instance, Oceania's victory on the telescreen. It is strongly suggested in those closing passages that Winston is ALSO hallucinating that entire business (the way the battles follow the chess match and also how Winston wishes it to unfold). I think that this style would probably only work with the written word. It's literal enough so that you believe whatever you're told (and hence Winston's hallucinations take on a reality), yet you're not actually seeing what is being described, so there's some unreality, too. The way the movie (the one that was actually released in 1984, starting Kane from Alien) dealt with this passage was by simply depicting the "official" version: It just ends with Winston sitting in the cafe. It's a lame ending in its own right, and it completely fails in capturing the feel and ambiguity of the ending of the novel. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/31/04 1:37 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! I tried playing Atari 7800 Asteroids... Holy crap, how did these controllers make it past play testing?? They hurt the hell outta my left hand AND arm. Yes, the entire arm! I might try getting one of those NES-shaped 7800 controllers, but I'd have to import it from Great Britain, it seems... Mercury Crusader Kore ga Saikyo-ryuu da! (7/31/04 1:41 pm) Reply | Edit | Del ... I finally got my shipment of Xbox games from Amazon.com, so here's what went down: Ninja Gaiden: Holy crap, this game is so diffcult it ain't funny. This is great since most of the games nowadays are an easy walkthorough, so it's great to play a game that is challenging right off the bat. I'm stuck on the second stage. Wee! Prince of Persia: Happy fun time puzzle platforming goodness. Crimsom Skies: I haven't played a flight simulation-esque game since Star Fox 64, and since I like dog fights and propeller planes, this game fills my World War II-esque air fight needs. I kinda wish the game was actually WWII-based, because then I can use my all-time favorite WWII combat plane, the Junkers JU-87 Stuka. Ah, the Luftwaffe... Star Wars: KOTOR: Update! I haven't made much progress. Still on Dantooine. Wee... Red Clawbot Pirate (7/31/04 2:28 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: ... Crack open the champaign ladies and gentlemen, because I beat Megaman 2 yesterday!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! The real accomplishment: it was the first time I beat a game in months, even if it was just an easy yet delicious piece of cake. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (7/31/04 2:53 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- Runaway Five, Alien, and Moonside I finished the place with the Moles... I guess I gained a couple levels because it started getting much easier. I went back to Fourside, and helped the Runaway Five once again. Then, I checked out the department store and fought the alien guy. I lost the first time, since I had only Ness (the random battles were tough and I didn't do a good job keeping Jeff healed). Second time, it wasn't so bad. Then, I went to the cafe and ended up in Moonside, the place I've heard so much about. It was really interesting, and creepy, actually. I think it would've been better without the random enemy encounters, but otherwise, I had a great time exploring. Fighting the statue was easy... the second time. I just was lucky that it didn't use any of the really powerful attacks then. Now, it's back to the desert... Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (7/31/04 3:41 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Runaway Five, Alien, and Moonside Aside from the awkward 7800 controllers, Asteroids seems pretty much like an exact port of the arcade game, except the graphics are different. The asteroids look like spining round planets insted of vector lines. The Joyful kun (7/31/04 8:52 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Runaway Five, Alien, and Moonside Today I started playing a Japanese Nintendo Gamecube game called Paper Mario RPG. I learned how to use the RPG battle system and other tricks, but the discussions between Mario and Christinu in Japanese text on the Message box takes too long to end as it's not a big deal. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (7/31/04 10:05 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- Yogurt Machine, 4th Sanctuary, Summers That previous post was progress from yesterday. Played some more Earthbound today... I went through that place with all the monkeys you need to give items to. I thought it was going to be more of an annoyance than it was. I got the yogurt machine to give to the maid, and learned the teleportation spell. Next, I explored a new part of the Monotoli Building. I fought an easy robot boss, and then had to go back to Threed for the UFO. I took the UFO to Winters, where the 4th sanctuary is. The boss there was really tough, since it uses a kind of confuse spell. It took me three or four times to beat it, and Paula didn't make it through, missing out on lots of experience. She's fallen really far behind since being taken from the party earlier... Next, took the UFO to Summers, where I eventually got the magic cake, and the game put me in control of the future fourth party member. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (8/1/04 12:36 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Yogurt Machine, 4th Sanctuary, Summers I just beat Kid Niki: Radical Ninja. This game had some really strange bosses. One of the bosses was an old man in a dress who attacks you by yelling "FOOL". He has three separate attacks. One is to yell "FOOL" and as the cloud with the word in it passes overhead, smaller clouds with the letter "F" on them fall rain out of it. The second is to have a whole bunch of letter "F's" fly out of his mouth. The third is to have a big block of Kanji fly out at you. The final boss is a chicken-livered Kabuki guy that you chase across a rooftop and fight several times in a row. This game also has really fat, comical ninjas on kites. Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (8/1/04 3:45 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Yogurt Machine, 4th Sanctuary, Summers I beat Kid Niki again this morning, and then I decided to replay Super Mario 64 from the beginning. So far, this is my progress: Bob-omb Battlefield: Defeated the Bob-omb King Beat Koopa the Quick Got the 8 Red Coins Got the 100 Coins Freed the Chain Chomp Got the Star from the Island in the Sky Whomp's Fortress: Defeated the Whomp King Got the 100 Coins CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/1/04 4:29 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- Party complete, time to level? Does Poo get any weapons or armor in this game? Anyway, I have all four party members now, and I'm ready to go on the boat to fight Kraken. But I don't seem strong enough to defeat it right now, so I've decided to level up. I teleported to Winters, since the enemies there are more numerous than those in the desert by Fourside, and give more experience. I'm just going to work on leveling for a while, especially with Poo and Paula, since they're a bit behind the others. Bomberguy221 Hit and away is my style! (8/1/04 4:59 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Party complete, time to level? Poo gets a weapon, but you get it from an enemy, and the odds of actually getting it are 251 to 1, much like Ness's secret weapon. I'm not sure about armor. Pinky moved out of my village, and now I have to live with Pango. I don't think I mentioned this, but Olivia moved and Tiara came. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/1/04 5:17 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Party complete, time to level? Poo has exactly one item for each equip slot, and they all end in "of Kings". His only weapon is "Sword of Kings". The Sword is randomly dropped by Starmen in the Stonehenge dungeon. In the three times I've played the game, I never once got the sword. The armor is all found in treasure chests in various spaces (I know the cave leading to the Pink Cloud sanctuary has one of them) Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (8/1/04 6:20 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Party complete, time to level? I got the Sword of Kings once and only once, but I spent a long time trying to get it. I don't bother with it anymore. It's not necessary to have it to beat the game. Poo is more like an extra helping of magic points than anything else. In Super Mario 64: Bom-omb Battlefield: Got the star by winging Mario through the coin rings *** Area Complete *** Whomp's Fortress: Made it to the Top of the Fortress Got the Star from the Cage via the Owl Got the 8 Red Coins Cannon Shot to the Star on the ledge Cannon Shot the walls away *** Area Complete *** Cool, Cool Mountain: Won the Ice Slide Got the 8 Red Coins Got 100 Coins Returned the Lost Penguin to Mother Won the Penguin Race Got the Star from "Wall Kicks Will Work" Built the Snowman *** Area Complete *** Peach's Castle: Got both stars from the Princess's Secret Slide Got the Wing Cap Switch and Star Flying Omelette Sleeping Demon Administrator (8/1/04 8:36 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Party complete, time to level? Peach's Castle: Finished the Secret Aquarium Caught the Rabbit for the first time Jolly Roger Bay: Got the Star from the Sunken Ship Cannot Shot to the Stone Pillar Got the 100 Coins Got the 8 Red Coins Got the Star from the Eel's tail The Treasure Chests in the Cave Big Boo's Haunt: Beat Big Boo after the Ghost Hunt Got the 100 Coins Got the 8 Red Coins Beat the Merry-Go-Round Went behind the haunted bookshelf Beat Big Boo on the roof Shifting Sand Land: Got the Star from the Vulture I also beat Bowser in the Dark World. I'm currently working on the Vanish Cap Course. Liontamer Dark Warlord (8/1/04 11:43 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I made it through the Elite Four and League Champion in Pokemon Sapphire. Leveling up my Blaziken and using Milotic did the trick. Thanks for the tips, Codie. I bred a Feebas with Dragonbreath in order to have a Milotic with a good dragon type attack to use against the dragon types. I never even had to use my Linoone the entire time against any of the five bosses either. Now I need to get 11 more pokemon to fill my pokedex, and I need to work on filling up my boxes in Pokemon Box to get the last two special eggs it gives you. I also need to finish Pokemon Colosseum so I can get a Ho-oh and download all of the pokemon from that game into my copy of Sapphire. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/1/04 11:53 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- 5th and 6th Sanctuary Locations Well, I was able to beat the Kraken pretty easily after only a few extra levels. I think it has a lot to do with luck, since in the first battle, I was destroyed in about two rounds. This time, I didn't take a single HP worth of damage. Freeze attacks work great and sometimes stun it for a turn. I found out from the hint man that I missed a sanctuary location. That involved going underneath the dinosaur museum to fight a giant rat, which was pretty easy too. I also had to get some information from somebody regarding the pyramids. Next, I went to Poo's home... I forget how it's spelled. Anyway, using an item from the 5th sanctuary, I'm able to access this place, which I assume is the 6th sanctuary. I explored it a little and found one of Poo's equippable items. The Joyful kun (8/1/04 11:59 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Super Mario Collection (Jap NTSC) [Super Famicom] I was playing Super Mario Bros. 2/The Lost Levels on Super Mario Collection, the Japanese version of Super Mario All-Stars for Super Famicom and I've beaten the first 8 worlds without warping, plus world 9 and the last 4 worlds of A, B, C, and D still without warping. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/2/04 6:45 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Super Mario Collection (Jap NTSC) [Super Famicom] Super Mario 64: Peach's Castle: Got the Vanish Cap Switch and Star Got the Star from Toad near Hazy Maze Cave Caught the Rabbit again Got the Metal Cap Switch and Star Jolly Roger Bay: Got the Star in the Jet Stream via the Metal Cap *** Area Complete *** Big Boo's Haunt: Got the Star from the Eyeball in the Secret Room *** Area Complete *** Lethal Lava Land: Got the 8 Red Coins Beat the Big Bully Beat the Little Bullies and Big Bully Did the Red-Hot Log Rolling Got the 100 Coins Got the Star from Inside the Volcano Got the other Star from Inside the Volcano *** Area Complete *** Hazy Maze Cave: Got the Star from the "monkey bars" in the Emergency Exit Got the 8 Red Coins Did the wall-kick jumps after the falling boulders Got the star from the Sea Monster's room I just realized I forgot to get the star from the "Bowser in the Dark World" level. Now that I have the Metal Cap activated, that shouldn't be a problem. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/2/04 9:40 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- 6th Sanctuary, Pyramid, Submarine?? I finished that place in Poo's hometown to find the 6th sanctuary location. The boss there was no trouble at all... I used freeze spells frequently. Next, I went to the pyramid dungeon. It wasn't difficult, but it was a lengthy place, and my Psi Points were running low near the end. Luckily, you're completely restored when it's over, though Poo unfortunately leaves for a while. Next, I went to the Dungeon Man tower, which had lots of funny signs along with being extremely easy, and got him to follow the party south. I found out I need a submarine to go to the next area, and dungeon man says he's got one. I guess I need to go through the tower again. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/2/04 10:23 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Super Mario Collection (Jap NTSC) [Super Famicom] Did a lot in Super Mario 64 tonight: Shifting Sand Land: Got the star from the top of the pyramid Got the star from inside the pyramid Got the 100 Coins star Beat the Eyerock boss Got the 8 Red Coins star Got the 5 secrets in the pyramid star *** Area Complete*** Dire Dire Docks: Got the star from Bowser's submarine Swam through the Manta Ray's rings Got the jet stream star via Metal Cap Got the 100 Coins star Got the 8 Red Coins star Got the star behind the gate via Vanish Cap Opened all the treasure chests *** Area Complete *** Hazy Maze Cave: Got the 100 Coins Star Found the secret exit from the Hazy Maze Got the one that you can only get with the Metal Cap *** Area Complete *** Wet-Dry World: Got the 100 Coins Star Got the 8 Red Coins star Found the 5 Secrets Got the Express Elevator star Found the star at the top of the town Got the star from the arrow lifts Peach's Castle: Got the 8 Coins star from "Bowser in the Dark World" Got the 8 Coins star from "Bowser in the Fire Sea" I also beat Bowser in the Fire Sea. sethrashnoo I Look Like an Egg Moderator (8/3/04 10:02 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 Heh. This is kind of bizarre. I finished Earthbound awhile ago, then FO decides to play Earthbound. When I was done, I decided, out of the blue, to replay Super Mario 64, and now FO's playing that game, too. *cue Twilight Zone music* Anyway, I just got the Metal Cap switch last night. I completely forgot where it was, and I was kind of annoyed that I went in there because I was trying for the 100 coin star in Hazy Maze Cave, and going in there nullified that progress. They should have just put the Metal Cap course in the castle, like the other two cap switch courses. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/3/04 12:26 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I got the stickers off the case and game of Alundra. I'm not sure why I attempted the manual. When I realized how difficultly it was getting a section to start the peeling, I stopped. I then played it up to getting back to town after the bull thing blew a bunch of cannons into it. Why did Mephisto have to make the first boss out of his kitty cat? And couldn't they have at least left the kitty when you beat? And why did I beat it on my first try? I then read Les Miserables. I'm currently up to page 366, which is about 1/4 through the book. I seriously need to get to Pg. 500 by today if I'm going to finish this book on time (I go back to school on the 16th) Jumped on CIMA, beat that flower boss from Rick's scenario. Then I saved Diana. Y'know, one thing I liked about this game is even the "jerk" characters were likable. Vanrose is just a little high headed but he still had a lot of good in him, and Doug had every reason in the world to hate Ark and the Gate Guardians. However, Diana is a jerk character whom I don't like. Here's poor Rick, an easily frightened man who's trying to do everything in the world to please Diana, only to get her engagement ring thrown in his face because he triies to go stand on a switch with a huge CIMA standing right next to it. Even her bio in the train says she's a selfish woman. I liked the next scenario. Doug gets separated from the group, finds his wife, but is attacked by Falcken, the head CIMA who killed his daughter. Falcken knocks Doug out as Ark enters the room, so he leaves. You then take... Halley and Emmy's mother (damn, I can never remember her name) up to him, and you have to fight off a slew of CIMA that come out of a nest, practically three at a time. The boss is a set of three trains that you fight as Ark alone. I don't know why everyone gets so upset when Ark goes into battle alone. It's not like Ivy ever does anything except get in the way. Well, when she's following Ark, at least. And I actually enjoyed this battle very much. No Ivy, the third boss I've fought that was very interesting to fight, and the heartwarming scene afterwards. It was a set of three trains on a 4x4 or so criss-crossing set of tracks. There was also this hilarious translation error after you fought off that slew of CIMA after Doug got knocked out. When he gets up, he asks something like "Oooh, what happened?" Then Ark says "[Nurse woman] saved you, dear". I put the Game Boy down and laughed for about a minute after reading that. I'm certain it was supposed to be Doug's wife who said that. This game has a lot of translation errors. For example, in the area where Halley and Emmy get seperated, Vanrose says something like "We have no time to sit here and argue, we have to find them!" and Doug replies "I güss". But none as funny as Ark calling Doug "Dear". Oh yes, and I also finally beat Dragon Warrior Monsters. I thought you had to MetalCut the Metal King. I didn't realize it just wasn't affected by special moves. DEATHAMSTER O Solo Mio (8/3/04 1:52 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 If I can ever get past the final level of Contra III on Hard, I'll have to think about what I want to play next. But I'll be gone next week, so I don't really know what I'll be doing. This is the first time I've ever set foot out of Washington, D.C. and Maryland. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/3/04 5:25 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- Swamp, Strange Village, Return to Stonehenge After going through the tower and getting the submarine, I went to the swampy area. It was a little tedious getting through it, but not too bad. The boss, a stronger version of the one from earlier (with the fly honey) was very vulnerable to freeze spells. It seems almost everything in this game is. Poo returned and used an impressive spell to finish out the battle. So I reached a village with unusual creatures, but nobody would talk to me about anything, except for one. He said there were dinosaurs in an area underneath a boulder. But the other guy was too shy to remove the boulder, so I had to find a book to cure shyness. Apple Kid called about an eraser that erases erasers, but got kidnapped during the conversation. So it was back to Winters, where Apple Kid's mouse gave me the eraser and said that Apple Kid was using that book. The area under Stonehenge, reachable by the eraser, was easy at first. Starmen and other weird enemies that often attacked one at a time. Later on, there were large groups of stronger enemies, including annoying robots. I had a little trouble, and was concerned about the boss. Fortunately, it was no trouble. An even stronger version of the Starman (which I know not to use Psi attacks against). I used an offense boosting power, and fought and healed until I won. Apple Kid and the others were freed, and I have to go to Onett to get the book. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/3/04 5:31 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 "Why did Mephisto have to make the first boss out of his kitty cat? And couldn't they have at least left the kitty when you beat?" You don't see it, but I'm pretty sure the cat did turn back to normal. When you beat another boss, Alexia says something like, "It went back to normal, just like Mephisto's cat!" "And why did I beat it on my first try?" Are you playing on Normal or Easy? I first played on Normal and got the crap kicked out of me by that boss, but she's considerably easier on Easy. But then again, I also lost to Zeppo on the airship on my first try. It took me a little bit to get used to Flint's controls. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/3/04 8:40 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 Yeah, I'm a lame-o who started on Easy. The way you described it, it'd probably get a little frustrating for me later on in the Normal difficulty. I don't want to get turned off by the game from irritation (I'm an easily stressed out person). TWEETER911 I learned from both Jushin Lyger AND Mr. Pogo, you insolent fool! (8/3/04 10:36 pm) Reply | Edit | Del ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I defeated an officer. ....... Crawl and 1OOO The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator (8/3/04 10:36 pm) Reply | Edit | Del I LOVE FO! While FO was on the internet, I briefly went back to my old Super Mario 64 file on her cart (which I haven't played in months, and which I forgot just about everything I did). I had 37 stars, but I earned two more tonight! I beat the Penguin in the race on Freeze-Easy Peak, and got 8 red coins in Big Boo's house. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/3/04 11:16 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! I've gotten into the harder levels of Super Mario 64, so I expect my progress to slow down somewhat, as it will take more repeated attempts to get things done at this point. Wet-Dry World: Got the star that you need the Vanish Cap for *** Area Complete *** Tall Tall Mountain: Got the star from the top of the mountain Got the 100 Coins star Got the star from the monkey's cage Liontamer Dark Warlord (8/4/04 12:29 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 I used my Eon Ticket in Pokemon Sapphire to catch Latios and evolved a few more pokemon. So now I'm only 8 away from completing my pokedex. The question gnawing at my mind now is whether to use my Master Ball on Rayquaza or Latias. I was going to use it on Latias so I wouldn't have to repeatedly hunt it down, but then I read that Rayquaza is at level 70 when you capture it. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/4/04 12:34 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! I read some more of Les Miserables. Jean just got Cosette away from the people with the hotel, and there was a man by their door who the book said was Javert. One thing I noticed is that when the story's about Jean, I can keep interested, and also read fast. But when it's talking about Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo, not only do I start reading very slowly, but I constantly set the book down. TWEETER911 I learned from both Jushin Lyger AND Mr. Pogo, you insolent fool! (8/4/04 1:38 am) Reply | Edit | Del quick spot the movie line Rerereleveled everyone but 5 people in Sengoku Musou/ Samurai Warriors. Dunno why I keep resetting them. O_o' And...uh. Downloaded the Disgaea soundtrack. Mmmm mmm. This IS a tasty burger of a soundtrack. Maybe I should go replay that wonderful wonderful game. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/4/04 2:16 am) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- 7th Sanctuary, Dinosaurs I got the shyness book from the Onett library. And I wonder about why I had to go there and get it at all... seems like it would've been easier to just have Apple Kid give it to you immediately. Anyway, I got back to the village and used the book to gain access to the area below the boulder. The easy enemies there gave tons of experience, and I wonder now if I should've stayed and fought them for a while longer. Ness it at level 60 or above, so I figure I'm doing okay. The boss of this area had a Psi Shield and my freeze attacks were reflected back at me. But eventually, the shield went down, and the freeze spells worked as well on this boss as all the others. Easy. Found the 7th Sanctuary location. I reached the dinosaur area, and eventually found my way to the town. Talked to the boulder and found out that the 8th and final sanctuary location is to the southwest. James FP Schmendrick's Nose Moderator (8/4/04 9:17 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- 7th Sanctuary, Dinosaurs In Paladin's Quest, I beat Lokiarn in Zaygos's Palace, escaped the dungeon. I'm now in some kind of huge, underground abandoned laboratory. This, apparently, is where Gabnid conducted many of his experiments. I've been travelling around, getting the different items required to open the doors. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/4/04 3:45 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- 7th Sanctuary, Dinosaurs I hooked up my Saturn last night before Leno, anticipating Darius Gaiden to arrive (another game I had been looking for for a while that I finally won). Darius didn't come, so I decided to try out some of my other games. My copy of In The Hunt doesn't work. I just wrote the person an e-mail asking for another copy (it's a business-type place that has about ten copies of the game up for bid). I used my mom's e-mail account, since obviously he can't contact the e-Garfield one. Wipeout worked fine. The Wipeout series reminds me a lot of the original F-Zero. Extreme speed. Future of racing. Lack of cars. Inability to turn (although Wipeout XL did have turning ability). In fact, the only F-Zero I could ever turn in was Maximum Velocity for the GBA. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/4/04 5:04 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- All Sanctuaries Found, Magicant I finished the 8th Sanctuary location. Every since reaching the underworld, I've not had much fun. I'm really thankful that I'm finally done with it. The boss (Carbon/Diamond Dog) was tougher than some. It's first form was quickly taken care of because of a few Smash attacks. But the diamond form had a physical shield up, and Paula and Poo were very low on Psi Points by then. For some reason, I forgot all about using Ness and his Rockin' attacks. I basically just fought and kept taking down the shield. He put it back up a few times, but eventually stopped doing that, and I won. Ness is at level 70 now, and the others are behind him by various amounts. All the sanctuaries found, I reached Magicant and explored just a little bit. Looks like maybe there will be some interesting dialogue here. And I feel I'm approaching the end of the game somewhat soon. I can't believe I've been able to stick with it, considering my short attention span lately when it comes to games. Facilitypro Slow Daddy (8/4/04 9:36 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- 7th Sanctuary, Dinosaurs Set up my Dreamcast and, the day after after a brief Mars Matrix endeavor in which everything worked fine, it freaked out. Long story short, it's sort of working again, so I played GigaWing a few times. (It's a game where I can play for 15 minutes at a time a few times a day.) I'll stick with it for awhile to see if it grows on me at all. My current score is 1.8 trillion on stage 4. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/4/04 9:51 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- Nightmare Defeated, Final Dungeon I went through Magican and fought Ness' Nightmare... it was a little tough, but not terribly hard. I copied my save file to the second slot once I reached Saturn Valley, and proceeded to travel to the game's final area. There are tough creatures here, and I didn't do anything in particular to prepare. I'm hoping that gaining lots of levels will be enough to guarantee victory. I did reach the first stage of the final battle, but I had no Psi Points, and almost no HP when I did. If I can't beat it by leveling... that's why I copied the save file. Red Clawbot Pirate (8/4/04 10:00 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Nightmare Defeated, Final Dungeon Nah, the hell with it... Tonight, I'm going to take a break and go play a whole bunch of video games and eat a whole box of Little Caesar's pizza until I barf. Ah, the pleasantries of my lifestyle... CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/4/04 11:39 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Earthbound- Levels, Levels, Levels I've been fighting random enemies in Earthbound's final dungeon. They give decent experience, but they are on the annoying side. Like that robot that fully restores it's own health, or that of another enemy. But it's final attack is devastating, so you basically have to leave it for last. And sometimes, you get devastating combinations, like Final Starman, the above robot, and another powerful Starman. Ness: Level 82 Paula: Level 70 Jeff: Level 67 Poo: Level 67 I've made it to the third "room" of the place without draining my Psi points too much. But then I got destroyed by a random battle, because of some bad luck. TWEETER911 I learned from both Jushin Lyger AND Mr. Pogo, you insolent fool! (8/4/04 11:43 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Levels, Levels, Levels My Lil Ceaser's stopped delivery service because of crap like no one tipped, except me, apparently. I fucking hate this place. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/5/04 6:43 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- All Sanctuaries Found, Magicant I always run from the Final Starmen in the last area of Earthbound. There's not much of a point in fighting them. Super Mario 64 Progress: Peach's Castle: Got another star from a Toad on the second floor Tall Tall Mountain: Got the star from behind the waterfall Blasted to the Lonely Mushroom Got the 8 Red Coins star Completed the Mountain Slide *** Area Complete *** Tiny-Huge Island: Beat the Pirahna plants Got the star from the Top of the Mountain Beat the Wiggler boss Found the 5 secrets Got the 8 Red Coins star Snowman's Land: Solved the Ice Maze Beat the big Bully Got the star from the Snowman's big head Crawl and 1OOO The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator (8/5/04 7:43 am) Reply | Edit | Del I LOVE FO! Quote: My Lil Ceaser's stopped delivery service Yeah, I tried to order Little Caesars a couple of weeks ago, and I found out that none of them around here deliver anymore. Facilitypro Slow Daddy (8/5/04 9:37 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound- Levels, Levels, Levels Quote: My Lil Ceaser's stopped delivery service because of crap like no one tipped, except me, apparently. At least they stopped delivering instead of spitting in your food like that slob Loogaroo does. Kairobi King Eldean Rebel (8/5/04 10:05 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Fourside and Moles... and Soul Calibur II I made it to the Black Mantle, which I believe to be the final boss of Pocky & Rocky, but I'm having a really hard time beating him. It's difficult to dodge his attacks while getting in your own. Took me awhile before I could even figure out how to damage him. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/5/04 11:31 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Fourside and Moles... and Soul Calibur II Once I got a coupon for a buy one, get one free pizza deal at Little Ceasar's, only to find out the free one had to be plain cheese. Kairobi King Eldean Rebel (8/5/04 11:36 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Fourside and Moles... and Soul Calibur II Well, if it was free, I'd take it anyway. Little Caeser's makes the best pizza around here. I still like Domino's a lot, too. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/5/04 11:40 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Earthbound, Fourside and Moles... and Soul Calibur II Dion's kicks all their asses. As for local places I like... I just ordered from a place called Easy Street Pizza just two days ago. In terms of fast food pizza, they're almost as good as Dion's. Nana's Pizzaria has fancy pizza. I actually don't like this place as much as my parent's do. I always get a personal Pepperoni that's I have to eat with a fork. Peter Piper Pizza used to be good, but now it blows chunks. Kairobi King Eldean Rebel (8/5/04 11:53 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 They should have just put the Metal Cap course in the castle, like the other two cap switch courses. It took me forever to find that switch when I first played Super Mario 64. I don't know how I missed it, but I was also missing the star from that world for the longest time where you kick off the walls to get to it. It was one of two I got to the end of the game without. The other was the REALLY REALLY cheaply hidden one on the Princess's Secret Slide. There is no way I would've ever found that one without outside help. Oh, and I finally beat Blues in Yie Ar Kung-Fu on the PSX Konami Arcade Classics. I got as far as Pole on the second round. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/5/04 10:43 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Game Progress Topic #8 What a day. My brother took me to go mail out the return for In the Hunt, and while we were out my brother went to the mall. They had the Garfield and Friend's DVD, but I decided to wait until I had some cash of my own. We've had a stray cat wandering around our house for the past week. It would normally take off when anybody came near it, which was just as well. Nobody wanted any more cats. In fact, I was content with Simba, Einstein, and Arlene. Sukie and Dufie got dumped on my lap, although I really do like Sukie. Well, today I found the cat under my mom's old '86 Nissan Stanza meowing in agony. I noticed he was dragging his hind right leg, and we realized he needed to go to the vet. We thought his legs were broken. I thought he was going to have to be put down. I didn't even know the cat, and I was crying at this fact. I've always had a thing for kitty cats. I didn't know what to do. My dad was at work, and my mother sent me with my brother. Her motives were understandable, but I just couldn't do it by myself. Well, my mother finally came over and my brother left. I spent the next three or four hours crouched in a chair with a sick cat on the table. While we were there, we examined him and found out he was all male. He actually went to sleep, but it was obvious he was in pain. Trying to lift him got him hissing and making noises. We found out it's just a really nasty infection in his abdomen. He's at the vet right now on fluids. I guess this makes cat #6. We swear he's the brother of Dufie. He's a Maine Coon (although his fur is very matted), he looks about the same age, he has a very similar coat pattern, and he's gray. We can't say what shade of gray, because we don't know if it's just his fur that's dark, or if it's just dirt. Like I said, I was happy with just the first three, then Larry and Curly showed up. And now Moe. The Joyful kun (8/6/04 9:09 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Paper Mario RPG [GCN] - Gonbaba boss Today I played the Japanese version of Paper Mario 2 for Gamecube because the walkthrough for this game recently came out at GameFAQs. I have beaten the Gonbaba boss at their castle and got my first Star Stone. I also went through short storylines of Princess Peach and Bowser before saving my progress again for Mario and Nokotaro's next adventure. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/7/04 10:21 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Paper Mario RPG [GCN] - Gonbaba boss Super Mario 64 Progress: Peach's Castle: Got a star from a Toad on the third floor. Tiny Huge Island: Got the 100 Coins star Beat the rematch with Koopa the Quick *** Area Complete *** Snowman's Land: Got the star from whirling over the freezing pond Got the 8 Red Coins star Got the 100 Coins star Got the star in the igloo *** Area Complete *** Rainbow Ride: Got the 8 Red Coins star Got the star from "Swingin' in the Breeze" Got the star from the Tricky Triangles Got the star from the big house in the sky* Tick Tock Clock: Got the 8 Red Coins star Got the star from riding the clock hand Got the star from "roll into the cage" Man...the stars I'm still missing are the hardest ones in the game to get... * - Awhile ago, someone mentioned the "floating house" in this level of the game, and for some reason, there were replies to that post that indicated the person replying didn't believe there really was a floating house. Well, indeed, the game calls it exactly, "The Big House in the Sky". The problem I have with that house is that you can't really explore it. Well, you can get off the magic carpet and run around inside, but if you do that, you're pretty much stuck there with nothing to do. CodieKitty Ship Captain (8/7/04 3:28 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: Paper Mario RPG [GCN] - Gonbaba boss I finally finished CIMA. In the final dungeon where everybody splits up, there's a boss at the end of each path. Vanrose and Doug's bosses were a little hard, but once you figure them out they weren't much trouble. Rick's boss is hard at first, but extremely easy once you figured it out. However, Jean's was a MAJOR PAIN IN THE BUTT. Thankfully, I hadn't saved since the beginning of the dungeon, so I could work some stuff. I had some Material I found in the second to last dungeon, but as soon as you beat that dungeon's boss you're taken straight to the last dungeon. I thought "What the crap? I can't use this!", but I didn't realize that after everyone splits, you can go talk to Doug and he'll upgrade stuff. I gave it all to Jean, and after that didn't really have a lot of trouble on the boss. The final boss was actually fairly easy. I think I took more damage from getting poisoned than I did from his actual attacks. As for my comments on the ending... I really wish Ivy had died. By the way, that stray I mentioned? He's with God now. He had a serious illness, and he had to be put down. CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/7/04 10:27 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Final Fantasy 5- Why don't I like it? I don't know what it is about FF5 that annoys me so. It doesn't seem that much different from the rest of the series, really. The music is the worst of all, though. For some reason, I just can't stand listening to it... I've got to play some other music instead. Anyway, I started the game and played for about 25 minutes, gaining a couple of levels in that first cave. I'm just not sure I can take another attempt to play this one. The characters are so boring, the story is nowhere near as good as FF4 or FF6. I'm not even sure it beats FF1 in that area. Leveling up jobs is so much more dull than normal leveling. Just about the only thing good about the game is some of the boss battles. Crawl and 1OOO The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator (8/7/04 10:45 pm) Reply | Edit | Del I LOVE FO! I agree that FF5's story and music are dull, but I thought the game was okay. At one point I forgot where I was in the game and what I had to do, so I restarted from the beginning, and that didn't bore me, like it could have with other games. TWEETER911 I learned from both Jushin Lyger AND Mr. Pogo, you insolent fool! (8/7/04 10:46 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! When you say the music is bad....you mean all of it but the GILGAMESH music, right? >_> <_< CLOUDBOND007 Fated Swordsman (8/7/04 11:22 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! Can't remember that particular song right now. I admit a few of the songs are good... but far fewer than most other FF games. One that I do remember liking plays inside an enemy castle. I guess it's the castle of ex-death, but I'm not sure. It has been a while since I managed to play that far. From what else I remember about the game, the events of the first "world" weren't as interesting as those in the second. The game seemed to really be getting good for a while then, but the "combined world" stuff seemed to start a decrease in overall quality again. If, in the unlikely event I play to the end of the game, I'll see if I'm remembering that correctly or not. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/7/04 11:34 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! I've been thinking about what score Super Mario 64 deserves while playing through it. 5 stars is definitely out of the question. I'm trying to discern if it's a 4 star game or not. I think there are a few things that could drag it down: 1. I don't think the Bowser boss fights are very good. Ironic, because I think the Bowser stages leading up to the fights with him are some of the best in the game. 2. I don't really like how flying is handled in this game. But this probably should be considered a minor thing since flying isn't really used all that often and when it is used, it's usally just to be shot through some rings or something like that. The only stage that makes major use of it is the bonus stage, "Wing Mario Over the Rainbow", but that's optional unless you want all 120 stars. But that stage is so damn annoying, I'm tempted to get out my Super Mario 64 guide and plan a route for getting the 8 red coins. I don't like getting sent all the way back to the outside of Peach's Castle every time I lose at this stage. What is the point in making you re-enter the castle and run up three floors all over again? 3. I don't like the "momentum" factor of Mario's landings after a jump. It's probably meant to make the control feel realistic, but I'd prefer to be able to stop on a dime, like in Alundra 2. But again, I think this is minor, since it usually just takes practice 4. The camera angles are sometimes annoying. However, I don't think they're as annoying as the camera angles in Conker's Bad Fur Day. There are several parts in CBFD where the entire challenge of them is based on bad camera angles (like climbing the bat's tower, swimming through the catfish's vault, and escaping the bazooka-wielding teddy bears). I don't think any single area of Super Mario 64 relies so strongly on poor camera angles to derive challenge. Facilitypro Slow Daddy (8/8/04 1:37 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! GigaWing. Barely broke 2 trillion. This isn't the greatest game, but it's still holding my interest well enough. I'd be happy if I could make it to stage 5. This game combines the "spray bullets everywhere" format with the "aim at you" format. And that's all that's really relevant right now. TWEETER911 I learned from both Jushin Lyger AND Mr. Pogo, you insolent fool! (8/8/04 2:53 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! Koei released the trailor for Sengoku Musou Mushouden / Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends. I've watched it 40 times by now. LEGOairship Pirate (8/8/04 2:59 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! TWEETER You are so right. The gilgamesh theme OWNS. I have it on piano. And I can play it. :O CB, it gets better after you get teh ninja class. TWEETER911 I learned from both Jushin Lyger AND Mr. Pogo, you insolent fool! (8/8/04 4:36 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! I have the original version, the piano version, the Black Mages version (aka Uematsu's hard rock band version), and 2 fan remixes. ,.... Loooove it to death. Can't play it though, but, I can't play any instrument. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/8/04 9:25 am) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! Super Mario 64: Rainbow Ride: I got the star from the boat.* Got the 100 coins star** Got the star by shooting through the rainbow ring *** Area Complete *** Tick Tock Clock: Got the star from the pit and the pendulums. * - My memory of the later stages of this game isn't as good as my memory of the earlier stages. This is supposed to be the first star you get, but I didn't understand the clue "Cruiser crossing the rainbow", so I ended up getting every star except the rainbow ring star before this one. ** - This made me feel incredibly nervous, because the coins for this stage are spread out all over the place. And because this stage is up in the air, you can mostly only move in one straight line. All things considered, though, it wasn't really as difficult as I thought it would be. And I even discovered that the stage has far more coins than you need. I didn't even get any of the coins from the boat and I still made it past 100. Although I said earlier that I didn't really like the "collecting coin" goals in this game, one purpose I think they do serve is to make you feel nervous, because you have a lot more to lose if you fail. I guess one way of looking at that issue of whether the Bowser fights drag the game down from 4 stars is that I gave SMB3 a 5-star rating, and I don't think it's boss battles are among the best around, either. And Super Mario 64 has other boss fights besides Bowser. Though most of them are pretty easy (like the Wiggler), but I thought the Eyerock boss was okay. Flying Omelette Sleeping in the Rain Administrator (8/8/04 12:18 pm) Reply | Edit | Del Re: I LOVE FO! Tick-Tock Clock: Got the 100 Coins Star* Got the star from "Timed Jumps on Moving Blocks"** Got the star from the Thwomp *** Area Complete *** Peach's Castle: Completed "Wing Mario Over the Rainbow"**** Got the 8 Red Coins star from "Bowser in the Sky" *** Area Complete *** Then, I beat Bowser and won the game. * - This one made me even more nervous than the Rainbow Ride stage's 100 coins. Although this stage also has more coins than you really need, I missed one of the 10-count blue coins, and that set me back. At one point, I needed only 5 more coins, so I leaped to this ledge and h