Knowing that I really need to practice the presentation for Gobble-Con, but being lazy at the same time, last night I struck a compromise and ran through the audio part of it, IE what I want to say. I’ll have to do some more of that in the coming weeks if I really want to get this down to the point that I’ll be confident at the convention itself. Hopefully I get there.
Over the last few Sundays, I’ve been streaming Phantasy Star II at my UStream channel. It’s been fun replaying it, even if I had kind of forgotten where one of the towns was located (I’m using dungeon maps from an aborted speedrun attempt, which makes it quite a bit easier.).
So to up the challenge a bit, as I mentioned before, I’ll be letting the members of The Speed Gamers Community decide my party configurations from week to week. I know what the optimal configurations so to speak are, but most of that community probably doesn’t (The game is older than a lot of its members, heh), and that’s honestly the way I like it.
If you want to try and influence my party, first go sign up for the TSG community, and then go to my stream topic and cast your votes!
-EE
Woo-hoo, a fan! :D
Part 6: In Which Nothing Much Happens
The group returned to the first floor, and kicked the crud out of Murphy’s Ghost, repeatedly, for what seemed like forever. The main effect of this was to increase Emptyeye’s level. Rocky and mahel042 also leveled up.
After the three warriors purchased Gloves of Copper, the party conferred at the Tavern once again.
Emptyeye: “Hey guys, have you noticed that I seem to be advancing slower than the rest of you?”
Nyperold: “Sort of, but really, besides you, Xanatos and Zudak don’t seem to be advancing as quickly as mahel and myself.”
mahel042: “Not only that, but relative to his actual strength, it seems like Rocky is advancing more quickly than any of us!”
Rocky: “What can I say? It must be the additional training I do in the snowy mountains during group downtime.”
Emptyeye: “…right. But I think I may have a short-term solution to the problem, in as much as it is a problem. Hey, Willy, come here for a second.”
Willy: “Yes? Got more stuff you need me to identify?”
Emptyeye: “Actually, no. But I think you’ll like this anyway. We’re taking you into the dungeon with us. We’re gonna go to our favorite strength-building spot.”
Rocky: “Mount Midoriyama?”
Emptyeye: “No, the southeast corner of…wait, what?!”
Rocky: “You thought I was joking about that mountain thing?”
Emptyeye: “I…but…I…gah! Anyway, Willy, you’re coming with myself, Xanatos, and Zudak down to the first floor of the dungeon. mahel, Nyperold and Rocky, you guys can relax for awhile.”
Willy: “Awesome, thanks!”
(LIVEBLOG NOTE: The actual reason for the discrepancy in experience is that some classes need less experience than others to go up levels—Thieves need less than anyone, followed by Fighters, Clerics, Mages, Wizards and Samurai [Who have the same requirements], and finally, Lords, then Ninjas [To say nothing of the experience required to get enough stat boosts to be able to upgrade to Lord/Ninja in the first place]. But that’s no fun to narrate. Also, I found out that the fighting classes [Fighter, Samurai, Lord, Ninja] get additional combat hits every 4 levels. I had some idea of this, but wasn’t sure of the exact mechanics.
..and yes, I know “Mount Midoriyama” is not a real mountain, nor is it located in Llylgamyn.)
The newly short-handed crew trekked down to Murphy’s Ghost’s resting place…
Zudak: “Hey Willy, look around that statue, you’ll like what you find.”
Willy: “Okay, let’s see what’s arrrrrAAAAAH!”
Murphy’s Ghost: “ROOOOOAR!!”
Zudak: “Ahahaha, that was priceless!”
Willy: “…”
Emptyeye: “Okay, yeah, that was amusing, now can we kill him…err, re-kill him and increase our power?”
Xanatos: “Good idea.”
And the group did so, roughly 20 times. This was good enough to further increase the spellcasting abilities of Xanatos (Who could throw blades at an enemy, oddly enough) and Zudak (Who could attempt to suffocate enemies, and instantly destroy any group of undead foes), as well as grant Willy Cleric spells, plus some more Mage spells. He also made enough money to purchase a suit of Padded Leather.
Willy: “Despite your apparent love of practical jokes, I have to admit I’m liking this increased power.”
Emptyeye: “I knew you would.”
Next Time: More Fourth Floor!
Awesome Bonus Commentary!
Typo Alert! I misspelled “trekked” as “treked” initially.
Xanatos is pretty silent here, as this is more of a half-chapter, to be frank. Something I don’t mention here at all is that Willy’s Identification ability improves as his level does, hence why I took him down here in the first place. In-story, Zudak was quite happy to spring the Murphy’s Ghost surprise on someone else. Out-of-story, one of the more annoying things that can happen is that Murphy’s Ghost can surprise you and get a free round in battle. It doesn’t really make the battle any harder–my party is long past the point where the Ghost is a threat–but really, I’ve searched that square hundreds of times by now…there is no way I should be surprised that he’s there.
-EE