Emptyeye

Okay, that was a little bit dramatic.

I know I haven’t updated in quite awhile. Let’s see if we can rectify that.

Since moving into the new condo, and finally (more or less) finishing moving in, I’ve been trying to do three streams a week. The Tuesday night streams, at present, are trying to knock off the last few seconds before submitting a Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode run to SDA. Thursday nights tend to be practicing New Super Mario Bros. Wii, since I’ll be playing it for Awesome Games Done Quick 2013. I’m still about 10 minutes slower than I really want to be, although that would put me at not only marathon-ready status, but very close to, if not better than, the current SDA run.

The really interesting game that I’m streaming is the game I’m streaming during the weekends–the (In the US) cult-classic game EarthBound. This was the winner of the “What game should I stream?” poll that I ended, it turns out, a bit prematurely (I really should have looked at the Spree River map here before declaring myself done with Golgo-13; avoiding that ambush is why I continue working on getting the time even better). So far, I’m roughly halfway through the game.

One of the things about EarthBound that I didn’t appreciate as a teenager was the humor, the fourth-wall breaking, and just the motif of the game. The game take places in the modern-day, and you use weapons like baseball bats and frying pans to fight enemies like annoying revelers and abstract art (Yes, really). Gameplay-wise, the game had some very cool ideas too–if you’re strong enough, you can auto-win some battles, and depending on how you approach enemies on the world map, you can get in a preemptive attack (Or enemies can do the same to you). Earthbound, at least in the US, was one of the first games to have an encounter system that expansive.

One double-edged sword the game had was what I like to call its “Easy Button”. Basically, it’s a context-sensitive button that you push, and the game automatically decides if you were trying to Talk to someone or Check the area around you. A great idea, and one a lot of RPGs use today. The only issue is there’s one specific point where there’s a story trigger you have to “check”, near a person you can talk to…and the game decides that talking takes priority, even if you’re not facing the person the game decides you’re trying to talk to. It’s a minor thing in the big scheme of things, but that one minor issue briefly killed any love I had for the game to that point.

The other thing is that the game itself is sometimes less-than-totally-forthcoming about what to do next. Almost as if the game knows this, there are “hint” stations you can purchase hints from to get more guidance throughout EarthBound. I’m still not sure whether including the hand-holding in this fashion is brilliant commentary on the genre, or just a haphazard way of filling in the gaps in the narrative.

Still, I’m continuing to enjoy it, and will stream it again, probably next Saturday (Sunday is a Connecticon staff meeting). Tuesday, more Golgo.

-EE

So I have a computer I can actually stream from. No more kidnapping my wife’s computer to do so. Hooray! Later on tonight I’ll likely try a stream from this computer and see if it works as well as I hope it does.

Work on Hysterium slowly continues. I have to work out why some stuff isn’t saving exactly the way I want it to. I may have to actually save changes in the items database, now that I think about it.

I haven’t played much Phantasy Star III of late. That’s because I was busy successfully completing the main part of The Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta. You can see the final bosses here and here, and my victory over bonus boss Shinryu here. I eventually want to take out Omega, the other bonus boss in the main game.

And that’s about it, really. Next weekend is Connecticon!

So over the last week, I’ve made some decent progress in the Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta. I’m in World 2, with a party of Black Mage/Berserker/Bard/Chemist. While staying power is a bit of an issue, this is actually a pretty solid party. Chemist, by itself, is something of a “You Win The Game” class (A la Thunder God Cid/Orlandu in Final Fantasy Tactics) if you know what you’re doing with it, and the formerly spoony Bard is actually quite powerful as well. The Berserker is, well, the Berserker, and the Black Mage is my primary source of damage dealing. In short, I like the party. I hope to try and make a bit of progress in this sometime this weekend.

I’m still trying for a speedrun of Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode. I’m presently about 30 seconds from a run I want to submit. Theoretically, I could probably submit my 54:14 run and get it accepted, and perhaps I should for my sanity. But if I do that, it would be the second time in a row I would submit a run that I know isn’t the absolute best I can do. On the other hand, I get the feeling people are clamoring for me to start Ninja Gaiden II (360), so….

I’ve even managed to do a bit of work on Hysterium, essentially closing off the world into a tiny, self-contained portion of what I ultimately would like it to be. I also got some (not particularly elegant, but nonetheless functional) treasure chest code working for what is currently the one chest in the game. Hopefully, soon, I’ll have a very short, but still complete (In the sense that there is a quest, and something resembling an ending when the quest is completed), game.

More next week!

-EE

In the end, I proceeded from a faulty train of logic. Forgetting that Maya was actually Layan (And thus Ayn was a hybrid Orakian/Layan), I decided that I wanted to keep the bloodline as Orakian as possible, and elected to marry Sari.

Sari quickly put Ayn in his place, telling him “No more adventuring!”

Wow.

With that, I began the third generation. Ayn and Sari produced a nearly blond-haired offspring, Crys. The story so far: For twenty years after the end of the second generation, Ayn and Sari defended Landen from the cyborgs. But now Siren is back, and he’s pissed. Like “Hurl the Planet Into the Sun” pissed. This mad-scientist-in-a-bad-50s-sci-fi movie plot is made more plausible by the fact that the planet is not a planet at all. And cheesy or not, I wouldn’t like it if the Earth were suddenly hurtled toward the Sun either, so I took up the quest to prevent this catastrophe.

Finding myself back in Landen, I assessed the situation. Wren and Mieu, my faithful cyborg companions, were once again with me, both at Level 39 and with the equipment they had at the end of Ayn’s quest. Crys began at Level 1, with 145HP and 72MP, slightly stronger than Ayn. However, he needed close to 13000XP to reach Level 2, and worse, he no longer had his father’s healing magic. Doh! He did retain his father’s equipment (And possibly even some slightly better equipment–I didn’t remember giving Ayn Laconian Armor, but Crys had a Laconian Chest and Helmet), as well as any items I’d need to gain access to various places.

Plot-wise, I found out that besides the primary Siren threat, Lune was amassing a cyborg army to the west. I still don’t know who this “Lune” character is, other than he is apparently bad news. Armed with this information, it was time to explore the world.

The third generation’s world is different in that I could now access the half of Landen that was closed off to me before. Exploring, I found a deserted, bombed out castle, with no explanation as to how it got that way. Creepy stuff, so close to my homeland. More exploration yielded a cave that would take me to the next continent. This was a long dungeon, and in truth, I didn’t fully explore it. The fact that I lack a reliable method of healing everyone in the party made this a fair challenge, especially once I emerged from the dungeon, looking desperately for a town with no real clue about where to find one. A trek to the east yielded nothing, but finally, near the continent’s center, I came upon a town called Northern Divisia. And yes, there’s a Southern Divisia, but I haven’t gone there yet, electing to save and quit here. Apparently, a pilot awaits me there.

-EE

In the previous chapter, I noted that Lyle revealed he could change into a dragon and then he died (This grammar, by the way, is not much worse than what the game actually said.). I feel like this should somehow have had more time spent on it, since it was a pretty important plot point from the first generation and all. This was also the first time I really regretted the relative linearity of the game. Lyle, before he died, begged me not to tell Rhys of this revelation–but it’s not like the game left me much choice other than to keep it a secret, since I was trapped on the island Techna was located on. The only way to go was forward.

Doing that involved going through the castle to Sattelite (Despite what I may have written earlier, this is how the game actually spells the place I’m looking for)–a place that, despite the tales, was very much not peaceful. The totality of the dungeon was actually quite long. First, I had the passage to Sattelite proper. Near the end, I was told that the Power Topaz proved my worthiness, and to continue on to learn the truth about my world.

Which, as it turned out, wasn’t a “world” at all, but a giant spaceship! I’ll admit, I found this pretty cool. Sattelite, or Azura, was a similar ship. Once I got there, though, there was still Sattelite itself to traverse, plus a second dungeon beneath it. This wasn’t particularly difficult, thanks to my being ludicrously overleveled. Still, the sheer length of a dungeon with no way to recover fully did make me a bit nervous–and the multiple passages, only one of which was correct, didn’t help. This was actually the first time I didn’t make a complete map of every path, because it was that confusing. Nonetheless, I eventually found Siren, a pissed off cyborg who was aligned with Orakio before being forced onto Sattelite by Laya. And he was the toughest challenge to date, reducing my party’s damage to under 50 per attack (When I had been doing several hundred per attack on average). Fortunately, Wren played the hero, doing as much damage as he always did (About 130 per attack) thanks to his Pulse Cannon. Siren was soon defeated, and thus ended Generation Two.

When I got Sari into the party, I had considered the fact that I may be near the end of this generation, and wondered how they were going to tie the marriage part into the plot. As it turned out, they didn’t really try. I was told that “Two women express interest in marrying Ayn”. And wouldn’t you know it, it was the two human women in my party that wanted Ayn’s hand in marriage! Here, I realized that the developers probably came up with the “Three Generations!” concept early on, and didn’t bother to try to make the transitions flow cohesively at all. Really, there was only a slight reason for Thea, Lyle’s daughter, to want to marry Ayn (In true old-school RPG style, saving someone from a dungeon means they must fall in love with you. See: The original Dragon Warrior/Quest). And there was, frankly, no reason at all for Sari (Lena’s daughter whom, you’ll recall, tried to kill me in combat before joining my party) to want to do so.

Still, I had to make a choice to get on with the final third of the game. Who did I choose?

…find out next time.

-EE

I have a number of gaming related things going on, and to actually do them all is going to require that I don’t spend hours watching streams. Let’s go over them all.

On the speedrunning front, I have to finish up Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode. Hopefully I can get that tonight when I stream my own play. After that, sometime in the future will be the sequel, Golgo-13: The Mafat Conspiracy. But again, that’s in the future.

Before that, I have to stream the winner of my poll. Currently, Ninja Gaiden II 360 holds a slim lead, presumably because people want me to suffer. Once I finish whatever game wins, I have another project I want to stream.

On the non-streaming front, I’m still working through Phantasy Star III (Watch for another installment in The Phantasy Star III Chronicles late tomorrow). Also, in late July, I’ll be taking part in The Speed Gamers Community‘s Final Fantasy marathon, playing through the Dawn of Souls version of the very first game in the series. Currently, I’m scheduled to lead off the entire marathon, although that’s subject to change. Additionally, I signed up for The Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, a challenge playthrough of Final Fantasy V, where you can only use some combination of the jobs given to you by Gilgabot, and people can pledge money to the Child’s Play Charity. While I was a bit old for the target audience, so to speak, when I was in the hospital, the idea of giving kids in the hospital a distraction from whatever treatment they’re going through is something that appeals to me.

Finally, I want to get back into the development of Hysterium, the game I mention in passing in this post (And several other times on the site). For now, I’m going to scale it way down, and basically turn the first quest into the game. I’ll then expand it at a later date.

So yes, busy busy. I’ll try to periodically update on the non-Phantasy Star III stuff as I make progress.

-EE

After entirely too long, I’ve resumed my playing of the third Phantasy Star game!

Being back on the first continent in the game, I wandered through a bunch of deserted villages, until coming upon the dungeon I escaped from way back at the game’s start. Within the confines of the dungeon, I came across Sari, Lena’s daughter. She had the Power Topaz…but wasn’t about to let me take it without a fight. Fortunately, I came prepared for this, and Sari and her army of robots fell quickly. After that, she, naturally, joined my party.

Sari has a huge amount of HP, 206. Her equipment at the onset was okay–mostly steel stuff–and she starts at level 1 with over 12000 EXP needed to get to level 2. Putting a Force Knife in her other hand made her a force (No pun intended) to be reckoned with.

At this point, I had a bit of an issue. I had the Power Topaz…and I had completely forgotten what to do with it since it had been so long since I last played the game. Making my way to Aridia, the pieces slowly began to come together. Making my way to the fourth continent and going down the Cape Dragon’s Spine–something I tried multiple times before, revealed a dragon that took me to Techna.

The game actually threw me something unexpected storyline-wise here, for possibly the first time. It turns out that, while I guessed Lyle was Layan, I did not guess that he could turn into a dragon–nor did I guess that he was the one who actually kidnapped Maia way back at the start of the game. I then was greeted with a bit more early-localization-effort translation, being told that “Lyle bid farewell to Lena and then he died.” Sure, game, sure.

Actually going into Techna, I found that it was an Orakian faction town, and that the cyborgs had taken over the castle. After purchasing a set of Laconian weapons for everyone who could use them (And a Pulse Cannon for Wren), I learned that the castle’s dungeon would take me to Satellite…and that Satellite was a place called Azura. I suppose this is supposed to be significant in some way. Either way, I feel like I’m close to the end of the second generation, but we’ll see.

-EE

Over the past few days, I’ve watched my pal Metasigma play through a Final Fantasy VI rom hack. Pony Fantasy VI, while it sounds like the sixth installment of a bestiality pornography series, is actually a rom hack of FFVI that turns the game into a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic-themed story. There are various balance changes besides the cosmetic/script changes–Luna, the Pony-formerly-known-as-Sabin, is pretty much completely overpowered thanks to being handed Air Blade/Kamikaze right away. Failing slots can also be a good thing, as you now recover obscene amounts of HP from Lagomorph/Best Pet. And so on.

But this is not a rant against My Little Pony in general (I have no strong feelings on it one way or another, and am probably the last person on the planet who can say that. If you were to take this picture and swap out the appropriate characters and words, I think I’m closer to the first panel in my philosophy RE: My Little Pony [Henceforth abbreviated "MLP"]. Amusingly, even though he’s the one playing the game, MetaSigma falls much closer to the second panel [Although I have no idea what he'd be force-feeding MLP fans. G.I. Joe maybe?]). It’s really not even a rant against this specific rom hack (A major MLP fan in Meta’s even acknowledged that what he had seen to that point was terrible).

This is, rather, a post about rom hacks, and more specifically, about rom hacks that change the story. Balance changes and the like are fine, but I have to admit I don’t see the point of taking a beloved game such as Final Fantasy VI and changing the plot around. Aside from my other issues with the hack (“WHY ARE THEY ANTHROPOMORPHIC?!?” was something I repeatedly asked the chat…while I don’t know much about MLP, I’m pretty sure that outside of talking, their mannerisms are more like proper ponies than humans-with-pony-heads), the issue you’ll always run into with a hack like this is people not being able to get the original game out of their heads. As an example (Spoilers for the hack incoming; FF6 is like 20 years old now so if you haven’t played it by now, too bad for you), near the end of the Floating Continent, Fluttershy, the Pony-formerly-known-as-Shadow, joins you and says something to the effect of “Thanks for waiting for me! I’m glad I won’t be left alone on this big scary island as it crashes into the ground!” I thought this was actually kind of cute, knowing nothing about the MLP characters. Someone else in the chat responded with “But Shadow isn’t cute.” And this, to me, was a perfectly legitimate reaction. I was capable of thinking of “Fluttershy” as their own character, but the person in the chat couldn’t divorce the hack from its source material, and I can’t blame them.

I suppose my first question would be “Have you ever seen a romhack that overhauls the plot of a game to something almost entirely different?” And the second question would be “If you have, were you able to accept it as its own product? Or did you find yourself unable to get the source material out of your head?”

-EE

I figure that with the sudden lack of updates, I should explain my absence of late.

In short, I bought, and then moved into, a condo. This was a time-consuming process, and truthfully, we’re still not totally unpacked (We may never be). But the good news is that the place is quite a bit bigger than the basement apartment I was living in previously. It’s also brighter, perhaps the direct result of not being below ground.

The other kind of positive thing is that I’m a bit more motivated to keep the place clean, seeing as I own it now (Yes, I know how mortgages technically work, that the condo isn’t “mine” until I’ve paid off said mortgage, etc). The fact that we have brand new carpets in here doesn’t hurt that fact.

The complex itself is called Sheltered Ponds, and it has…well, a pond (It seems, from the Public Offering Statement, that the pond was once two smaller ponds). The pond has two fountains in it, which is pretty nice.

So yeah, it’s been good so far. May it continue to be so.

-EE

Not much has happened since my last entry. Having successfully discovered the cave that allowed me to progress, I went through it, and discovered something that previous dungeons lacked: new equipment! Primarily, a Force Sword with enough power (I can do close to 500 damage on particularly weak enemies) that it made me abandon the dual-Royal Needler strategy, since the rest of my party has enough power that it doesn’t really matter. I also obtained a Force Claw for Mieu, which made her even stronger as well.

Exploring the rest of the cave and re-emerging on the other side, I found I was on the other side of a cave that was previous blocked in the first generation, and I ended up back in a village in the first generation. Next time, I’ll explore a little more, and try to find Lena’s daughter.

-EE