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Post by toei on Feb 12, 2020 23:02:46 GMT -5
Ex I did beat Fatal Labyrinth. I got lucky with food and weapon drops. BTW, did you know there's a town at the beginning of the game if you don't press any buttons at the start? You can talk to a few people before you head into the dungeon. I didn't actually realize this until after I beat the game. I want to check out Druaga. The Yangus game, I wouldn't play in Japanese. I'd love to see it translated, though. Yangus was my favorite character in DQ8. And yes, the first Torneko game is good, though a bit more basic than other Mysterious Dungeon games in terms of features - it was the very first - while the second one is more elaborate.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 12, 2020 23:03:31 GMT -5
Ex: Huh, I had no idea it was a remake of the SFC game. Cool beans.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 13, 2020 12:03:45 GMT -5
So I decided to learn a few more things about Dragon Crystal. By the way, the Game Gear version moves a lot slower than the SMS version, from the longplay I looked at.
The most interesting thing I learned is that even if you get level-drained, it doesn't actually impact your Power stat, it only takes away your life. And it takes off less of your life than you earn back on the next level up. So technically, you can actually be more powerful in the long run if you have enough opportunities to gain EXP back.
I also found out that there's a staff (I think the Drain Staff) that will prevent enemies' extra effects. That would have been nice to know fighting those blue snails!
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Post by Ex on Feb 13, 2020 12:10:26 GMT -5
the Game Gear version moves a lot slower than the SMS version Hmm, I wonder if they did that to compensate the LCD blur. Weird stuff like this is part of why I enjoy roguelikes. There's usually obtuse ways to min-max yourself. Plus items that have random effects each battle. Yep I really think you'd enjoy this one Sarge: I haven't beaten it yet myself, but I got really far once. Then I did something dumb, and perma-died. Impatience doesn't pay off in a roguelike. I also think because of your love for Dragon Quest, the Torneko themed Mystery Dungeon games would be fun. Those roguelikes are chock full of DQ flavor and charm (and death). |
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Post by Sarge on Feb 13, 2020 12:13:06 GMT -5
Heh, that's the Shiren game on DS I'd mentioned last night... and yes, I booted it up for a bit. Solid stuff, but I absolutely died. Apparently the most important hook is to leave items in storage so that if you die, you're not starting back from scratch.
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Post by Ex on Feb 13, 2020 12:50:56 GMT -5
Apparently the most important hook is to leave items in storage so that if you die, you're not starting back from scratch. That's what people say, but in my experience that tactic just serves to expedite the speed of starting over (to get back to where you were faster) not so much to help you with the endgame. You just have to play super methodically all the time, and get a bit lucky. It's amazing toei was able to beat Fatal Labyrinth without cheating (not using savestates). He must have had some super amazing luck going on at the end. I hate the ninjas in that game! I guess they resonated with him so were chill. |
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Post by toei on Feb 13, 2020 12:58:35 GMT -5
Heh, that's the Shiren game on DS I'd mentioned last night... and yes, I booted it up for a bit. Solid stuff, but I absolutely died. Apparently the most important hook is to leave items in storage so that if you die, you're not starting back from scratch. Not only that, but there's a blacksmith in town that can power up your weapons, I think once per visit. So if you bring back that same weapon every time, he can power it up more and more (there are ways to leave the dungeon without dying, ie with a scroll). The key to progress is building a great weapon - or two, because enemies in the last few floors might break or steal your weapon. By the end my weapon was like +16, both thanks to repeated visits to the blacksmith and various scrolls I found in dungeons, and I was slaughtering everything in sight. I might have overdone it, even. And actually it might not be worth fighting enemies in the final few floors at all, if you make it there with good equipment and a high level, because they're too dangerous. Just try to make to the end. That's how I beat Shiren, anyway. |
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Post by Ex on Feb 13, 2020 13:04:32 GMT -5
By the end my weapon was like +16 Okay I think I get it now. Basically you level up a weapon, then before you die, store the weapon. Restart, get that weapon back, then level it up more, then store it, die, and repeat. You do that until you have a mega powerful weapon. I can see that tactic working, but wow would it suck to lose that weapon at the very end, after spending so much time leveling it up. |
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Post by Ex on Feb 13, 2020 16:32:47 GMT -5
Well I gotta bring us back on topic with: Phantasy Star Adventure is a Japan-only Game Gear adventure game. It was developed by Biox, and published by SEGA, in 1992. Aeon Genesis released an English fan translation for this game in 2001, and that's how I was able to play it in 2020. It should be noted that the password system built into this game was screwed up by the fan translation, so you'll have to use savestates to record your progress. The plot portrays the player as an agent of the Paseo government on the planet Motavia. You receive a letter from a prominent scientist (and personal friend) named Ken Miller. He has been conducting experiments on Dezolis, which is a different planet. The letter simply says: "How are you? I have succeeded in the discovery of the century. You must come and see it." You travel to the planet Dezolis, and visit a town called Carsonville where Dr. Miller's lab resides. Turns out Dr. Miller has invented a machine that can make human beings unnaturally powerful. Unfortunately while you were traveling to Dezolis, Dr. Miller was abducted along with his invention. It's now up to you to find and rescue Dr. Miller, along with his strange experimental device.   The game design is prominently Japanese-menu-adventure style. I'll be clear right up front, I'm not a fan of Japanese-menu-style adventure games in regards to their interface. I find this sort of interactive design to be tedious in execution. That isn't to say menu style is objectively less tedious than the western "point-and-click-adventure" style. But for my personal preference, the menu driven mechanics become tiresome quickly. Well anyway, you will use a menu to move, look, talk, take, use, as well as other commands to interact with the graphical scene in each area. There's nothing radically different here in that regard. Talk to folks, look for things, pick up things, use things on things, solve a simple puzzle, move further on. You have an inventory of items to interact with. We've been here before, this is basic adventure gaming 101. The only caveat however; there's a combat system in PSA. Yes, you do have health points, and you do find/buy weapons, and you do battle baddies. Battling is super simple and uses dice rolls. The better the weapon, the better your roll. HP getting low? Eat a monomate. Thankfully fighting is a relatively lesser part of the overall experience. Also I guess the fact that there's a shopping system is a little unusual as well.
  Graphically PSA is pretty solid for Game Gear, no complaints there. The OST is limited, but pleasant enough. Gameplay itself is a mixed bag, and that's going to boil down to your patience. If you don't mind wandering around solving simple puzzles, fair enough. In regard to how utterly asinine some Japanese-menu-driven adventure games I've played have been, PSA is surprisingly fair and logical. That's not to say this game can't be a slog at times, due to high amounts of backtracking. But for the most part, the flow of the adventure and its puzzles make sense. Despite that, I eventually got aggravated enough about 2/3rds of the way through, that I just started using a walkthrough to finish up faster. The reason why is I was more interested in the plot, rather than the milquetoast game design. I found PSA's presentation to be charming, and its plot fun in a Saturday morning cartoon kind of way. But the actual puzzle and progression architecture did nothing for me.   If you go into Phantasy Star adventure hoping for an epic journey through a Phantasy Star-drenched world, you'll be disappointed. There's not much here that really makes this game feel like "Phantasy Star". But, if you're in the mood for a cute and brief portable adventure snack, Phantasy Star Adventure accomplishes that much. Indeed, if you really like this game, you'd do well to look into the SegaNet Phantasy Star II-related text adventure games. Each of those has a fan translation by M.I.J.E.T. (check RHDN for the English patches). Those games are very much the same thing as Phantasy Star Adventure, although perhaps better? I don't know, I've not embarked upon those adventures just yet.
Ex's time to beat: 2 hours Ex's rating: 6/10
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Post by Sarge on Feb 13, 2020 16:38:20 GMT -5
I want to play through those PS2 games for sure one day. Nice that you finished this one off!
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