New Moderator
I got to the sewer alternate path as I wanted and died there to a swarm of peeping eyes. The second time, Richter did not jump as far as I asked him to and fell into the water as a result. I made it through on my next attempt and fought the alternate boss, Bone Golem. It has three forms. My first fight, I got through the first form and died to the second. The second fight, I got through the first form without being hit (a skeleton centaur of sorts with four arms), got through the second form with half my health left (flies and is annoying), and beat the third form without being hit at all (pile of bones that tries to rush you, but you can stand on it, so lol). Second stage is done!
Stage 3 decided to troll me as a welcome. I got hit by a moving gravestone twice and then by a bat that killed me. Thanks! Game Over number four!
Trying again, I managed to do a better job of things. With Epyon's advice, I pushed aside a gravestone to get a heart, an axe, and a 1-Up from some candles. The other candles had every sort of subweapon you could get, but Epyon had told me I needed the axe to unlock Symphony of the Night, so that was what I kept. That and the axe is a good weapon.
Moving on, I saw a cutscene of a giant skull with three eyes coming. My thoughts: oh no, a miniboss already? My answer: one axe killed it, so apparently not. What a loser. I moved on and got a tasty pork chop from a wall to heal my bat damage.
Again with some advice from Epyon, I found a wall that I could break to get to a lower path. A red skeleton barrier that would not stay dead was there. I took the stairs down and found the first of three maidens, Tera, who believed Richter was God and had come to save her. What. At least she gave me Tera's Necklace, which lets me destroy the red skeleton barriers. I have to save all three maidens for the good ending; since there's no point in getting the bad one, I'm just going for the good ending. (No unlockables from the bad or anything like that, I mean.)
Moving on, I nearly got killed by a kung fu farming skeleton. You heard me right. That thing has a bucketload of HP and is annoying to dodge. I climbed a staircase to find a red skeleton barrier. Destroying it got me CD 22, one of the main collectibles in this game. I then died shortly after to a fireball. With the previous 1-Up I had gotten, I still had a good amount of lives to keep going.
Trying the pit jumping again, I fell down once but luckily only landed on a previous floor instead of dying. I got to the other side to open a door and saw a pit with ghostly hands reaching from it, which was weird but apparently nothing special. A bat then killed me. Stupid things.
When I got to the next floor I saw the platform with vines that needed to be cut with the axe for Symphony of the Night but ignored it since I had lost the axe when dying. Near it was a skeleton dragon neck (white dragon is its name in future titles, not sure about here). While fighting it, I accidentally cut the vines with my cross (which I had just picked up), showing me that I didn't need the axe. But the dragon killed me, so I had to go back up. It killed me again when I reached it, but the third time was the charm. It soon died and I managed to cut the vines with my cross.
This platforming section was annoying. To get to the item, I had to make several accurate jumps. If you fall, you thankfully do not die, but you have to go back to the start to try again. Getting back to the start involves wading through mud (makes you slower) and dodging a... drill of some sort (you have to sink into the mud to avoid it). After several tries (I'd say around ten) I finally got all the way across and grabbed Symphony of the Night. Then I died to another skeleton dragon neck and head due to my low health. Game Over number five!
Thankfully, even with a Game Over, your items are kept and the maidens remain saved, so I can still play Symphony of the Night whenever I want. But I want to beat this first, so after checking my menu to make sure all was in order, I went back to the third stage.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Epyon had told me ahead of time not to take the alternate route in this stage if I wanted the original Rondo of Blood to be unlocked. Hilariously, I wound up finding that route by accident. I hit a spiked ball above a pit while trying to smack a regular dragon head (know those towers of dragon heads that spit fire streams and balls? I mean them), and then fell down the pit. Then I fell down ANOTHER pit to land in a dungeon area. Oops. I decided to keep going and play the stage again later.
The alternate boss here was awful, especially since I had fifty hearts and an axe subweapon. Dogether is basically a giant eyeball with a mouth (huh how) and I won without getting hit at all. Even his final strike (bosses often have a final attack when they die that can't kill you but hurts a lot) missed terribly. Third stage is done!
Stage 4 had a nice way of saying 'welcome to our game mechanics'. I tried to jump on some stairs that were over the water and fell right through, giving me a quick death. Goodbye axe and hearts.
Epyon was informing me on how to get the second maiden because the chances of me figuring it out on my own were really slim. You have to avoid getting on a raft and continue through the stage normally. Then you have to find a blue frog and lure it to the right, where there are six frog statues and an open pedestal. You have to lure the frog on the pedestal to open a pathway some distance back, jump down it, and wind up in an underwater cavern area with mermen all over the place. Seriously what the heck.
After making some jumps, I got to the other side and found the second maiden. Iris has a strange voice actor but is thankfully far less creepy than Tera. After she bandages Richter's wound up (and doesn't recover my life bar at all, confound it!) she gives me Iris' Charm and leaves to get to safety. Her charm allows me to break ice barriers, so I broke the one just outside the room to get CD 25. Then I got killed by a merman and booted back to the raft area, which saved me some time truthfully.
This part was rather lol worthy. First I tried to take the raft down. It looked like I landed on it, but I must have just barely missed it because I plunged into the water below to die. The second try, I got on it successfully and was fine for the entire ride. Two birds come by with chests you can hit for items, skeletons on rafts chase you that you can kill easily, and there's a crow near the end to off. Shortly after the crow, the raft... went right into a pit, taking Richter with it. Oh. So you have to jump off. Thanks game.
On my third attempt, I managed to jump off in time. A ferryman was waiting for me and said, "Shall I guide thee across the river?" when I jumped onto his ship. Apparently he wasn't taking no for an answer because he took me across. I platformed my way to the boss door... and then jumped into the water from my safe perch and died. How the heck did I manage to do that? Game Over number six!
I made my way through the level from the start without a problem. This time, I got a key subweapon from a candle and used it to unlock the door to the alternate boss. The hallway before had lots of candles and I got a holy water subweapon to use.
This boss, Carmilla, was also very easy. She had a pink-dressed woman under her possession that could suck hearts out of Richter, but this is countered by simply jumping onto a ledge near the door out of her reach. Carmilla herself is a demonic lady on a skull who flies back and forth to throw fire at you that is easy to dodge. I stayed on the ledge and kept smacking her when she came near me. When she was nearly dead, she suddenly broke out of the skull to become a small and quick woman. I tried to use Hydro Storm to kill her immediately but mistimed it, so she took no damage. Then I threw one vial of holy water and killed her anyway. Hurrr. Fourth stage is done!
Next up will be the fifth stage!
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
The rest of the first part went smoothly. Ghosts were annoying, but I walked by them and went into the haunted ship. While fooling around by attacking walls, I found one that could be destroyed, and then a crate that could be shoved to reveal a hole in the floor. I dropped down and blew up a nearby machine thing for a 1-Up. Pretty cool. Going through this route caused me to meet several skeletons with rifles that shot laser beams, which was certainly random and rather annoying to get around until I learned their pattern. The end portion had a red skeleton wall to destroy, and I got CD 31 as a reward.
When I came out of the path, I had low health, so I died shortly after to a skeleton archer. Because I started back at the beginning of the ship portion, I decided to take the normal path this time, after finding a hidden pork chop I had missed before. It's shorter but more difficult in my opinion. You have to enter a room and fight a bunch of floating weapons. They only take one whip hit to drop, but they're small and annoying to hit, and I lost a lot of health trying to do so.
After passing by the skeleton archers, I came into a room with a suspicious looking picture. Epyon confirmed my 'this is sketchy' mentality by saying the picture kills you instantly if you touch it. So I threw crosses until it went away and continued on.
Allow me to complain about one issue this game has that really, really bugs me. If you pause and then hit Resume, which is X, the same button you use to jump, Richter will jump as you come out of pause mode. I paused to make a comment on the level, unpaused, and he jumped right into a skeleton rifle laser to die. I love you too game.
On the ship's deck, I tried going right first and found it was a dead end. Before I could head left, an eagle with a fleaman ran into me and threw me into the water. Glorious. I went left next time and managed to get through the course of enemies without much issue. The boss room had some nice candle drops and a pork chop hidden.
So the boss this time around was Death. I failed horrendously the first try. I tried to jump and whip him, but wound up overshooting and leaping into the water below. Oops.
I tried again after, cross in hand from a candle (previously I had brought a cross from a different location). His first form tends to fly away quickly and throw a ton of miniature scythes at you. They can be gotten rid of by whipping them, so that was easy. At half health, he goes into the background and fires five skulls at you. You can avoid these by briskly walking across the battle field. Death then transforms from a skeleton with a black cloak into a brown-robed old man or something with a large scythe. As 'awesome' as this is, he managed to kill me by smacking me with his scythe and causing me to fall into the water. Game Over number seven!
Rather annoyed at being cheated out of boss fights from water deaths, I wasted no time by continuing... and then walking into the water immediately. *Facepalm* I ran through the stage without issue now that the enemy patterns were known. I got the 1-Up again to replace the life I stupidly lost and soon reached the boss room again.
This time, I only got hit once by Death before he turned into his other form, yelling, "Face me, boy!" I faced him all right. He went down very fast when I wasn't standing near edges. His scythe flew into the air after the last hit and chopped off his head on the way down. lol what. Fifth stage is done!
Stage 6 is one of the shortest in the game. There's only two rooms, one before the boss and the boss room itself. I took Holy Water with me and entered the next room to see Shaft doing evil things. I guess. It just looked like he was surrounded in purple smoke but whatever. He opened a gate to Hell or something and a giant bat came out. Oh boy.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Second try, I realized that you can hit the homing fog to dispel it, so apparently the game just didn't like me before. The other attack the bat does involves it drilling into the ground, which is easy to avoid due to the ledges in the room. Also, its huge wings do not do collision damage, so that was great. I wound up killing it and getting a bunch of hearts. Then Medusa appeared. **** boss rushes. She smacked me with her tail and I died.
Third and fourth try I jobbed hard by continuously jumping into the bat's body while trying to whip it. Attacks? Easy to dodge. Hitting the thing without being hurt? Apparently not! Shaft trolled me on the Game Over screen by saying, "That takes care of that nuisance." Hate Shaft. Game Over number eight!
Since my main problem was jumping issues, I decided to fight the bosses I had missed in the previous stages for practice. Stage 1's alternate path was first. While going through the level, I noticed a sign I had missed my first time through. It says, "A L J I B A". A password of some sort?
Epyon told me I need to destroy a wall after a ninja skeleton (it makes sense in context) to hit the alternate path. I misunderstood how to do it and wound up backflipping into the water to die. Then I succeeded and managed to destroy the wall, drop down a pit, destroy another wall, and walk through the door to reach the pre-boss room.
The first stage's alternate boss, Sea Serpent, is one of the easiest ones, though it is a bit more tricky than Wyvern (not that that says anything but really). I did die my first try due to low health and misjudging its third attack. Its first is to circle the bridge you are on, trying to hit you and failing if you are competent at all. The second attack is breathing blue fire, which is again easy to dodge. The third has him wind around the stage several times, and I got a bad idea of what I needed to do to avoid that and died. Second try, I used Hydro Storm to take off half its health and then whipped it to death. First stage is cleared again!
Alternate stage 2 isn't bad. You are walking along the walls of a castle and fighting enemies along the way. You get an axe subweapon early on and it can slaughter most of the enemies. About halfway through, I came across a bridge that was made of a spine. Stepping on it caused it to collapse after a second, and I fell through into a lower area to get CD 18. Then I jumped into the water and died. Half my deaths are through hit collision, one fourth is through water, and one fourth is a combination of trolling and legitimately decent bosses.
After fighting my way through several headcrabs (they sure look like them anyway), I came to the boss, Werewolf. He promptly killed me. Game Over number nine!
Deciding to leave Werewolf for later, I went to take the main path in Stage 4. Absolutely nothing of event happened on the way (though I did kill the blue frog this time, stupid thing) and I came to the pre-boss room soon. Walking inside, I found it was Dullahan. First try, I got slaughtered by him throwing his homing head at me constantly (you can't whip it away) and then I jumped into his lance. Go me.
Second try, I figured out how to dodge his attacks quite nicely. He has a lunge that you can jump on a ledge to avoid, his jump-to-impale move can be walked away from, his homing head can be jumped over and then moved around to avoid, his icicles from the ground are almost impossible to get hit by unless you're retarded, and him hitting the ground to cause rocks to fall is avoided by standing under a ledge. Unfortunately, figuring that all out left me low in health, and I died when he had just a centimeter left of his own bar.
Third try, I was a total moron and jumped into his icicle attack multiple times to die, probably due to frustration. My fourth try, I used previous knowledge to finally win. Fourth stage is done again! That led me to the fifth stage, which is no different than if you took the other route, so I went back to the title screen.
This is where my PSP ran out. So when I return, I'll either try to deal with Werewolf, fight the third stage's regular boss, or do the sixth stage again.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Stage 3, the normal version, wasn't bad even if it had some annoying moments. The first part, I had to walk down a hall while dodging attacks from above to get to a platform so I could access said top part. I found a pork chop near the stairs before climbing up. The next part was another hall with Tarzan skeletons swinging in or something. It wasn't difficult at all.
The third section would have screwed me over if I wanted to fight the giant eyeball again. It has fleamen on railings, which is annoying but not fatal. Then you get to the hallway with platforms that flip you down, and there are medusa heads everywhere. One froze me and sent me crashing through a platform. Fortunately, that's what I actually needed to happen to reach the normal third stage boss, so I continued... and died trying to climb a staircase. Curses!
After I got through a section with tons of stairs, skeletons, and lanterns, I came to another hall section. While hitting a fleaman, I accidentally uncovered a pork chop, which was nice. I also found CD 19 behind a red skeleton wall. Nothing else of event happened until I reached the pre-boss room, where I uncovered a pork chop that looked more like a roast due to its huge size.
The normal boss here turned out to be Minotaur, a bullman with an axe. He had several different types of lunges with the axe and what looked like fire breath, though Epyon informed me it turns you to stone (I never got hit by it so I wasn't sure). I was pretty low on health near the end, but I managed to use Hydro Storm to kill him. He hit me with his finisher to drop me to one, but I won without dying! That's something, at least. Third stage is cleared... again/for the first time!
Stage 4, the normal version, is pretty trollish but not difficult. It had a bunch of traps that were, for the most part, easy to get around. First of all were swinging blades that could be timed to walk by. Then there was a wall that shot spears when you walked on certain parts of the floor. The sprite of Richter walking around with three spears sticking out of him was worth the pain though. I decided to go right past three spiked pressers, ignoring a staircase. This led to a section with fleamen on iron balls rolling down stairs. I died by jumping into a ghost while here, mainly due to injuries from other areas.
Attempting the room again, I found a new item, a purple potion. It makes you transparent for a few seconds and provides invulnerability, which is quite nice. I got through at last and found another hallway, this one with many bones, skeletons, an axe armor, and blood. More importantly, there was a red skeleton wall to destroy, and I got CD 24 from it before going up another staircase. In this new section, there was another trap, a spiked chain with a spiked ball that went in a circle to make it hard to get by. I tried ducking under it so I could make a mad dash to get away. Turns out ducking doesn't make you short enough, and I died as a result.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
Staircases. The bane of Castlevania heroes everywhere.
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
Epyon alerted me that after beating the fifth stage, you could go back to fight Carmilla again for an alternate fifth stage. But since that sounded annoying, I went for the sixth stage again, hoping to finally clear it.
Stage 6 always started with me grabbing the holy water subweapon and then getting all the hearts possible, which added up to 23, so you have an idea of what I went into the boss rush with.
My first try, I got hit by the bat several times, with one of the worst being when Richter backflipped despite me not trying to input that command. When the medusa came out, she killed me with a homing snake that she threw. I was not aware they homed, so that was a new lesson.
My second try, I lost about half my health to the bat, then medusa hit me with her tail for the kill.
My third try, I only lost one fourth of my health to the bat. Each time the bat dies, it gives around 20 hearts, so when the medusa came, I spammed throwing holy water at her. It hits her multiple times for good damage, so she died quickly thanks to that. After her came the third boss, King Tut-oh, my bad, it's a mummy. He shoots bandages from his arms that hit at close range, fires three blocks you have to jump over (or be crushed), and fires bandages that go all over the place while you try to get around them. Despite how annoying this looks and sounds, I had him almost dead before finally dying to the bandage spam.
My fourth try, I beat the bat with four-fifths of my health intact. I backflipped into the medusa's tail by accident once, but otherwise beat her easily. Then I hit the mummy to low health before using Hydro Storm to finish him. He dropped a pork chop for me, how nice. The fourth boss of the rush appeared though, which was... Frankenstein's monster. BAH. (Probably called The Creature here.) With only half my health and no idea of what he could do, I got choked and then hit by electricity to die. His other attack was to cause stones to fall from the ceiling, but by standing to the very left of the room, that can't hit you.
"So much for the legendary hunter." Screw you Shaft, you're only getting to be snarky due to your cheating ways. Game Over number ten!
My fifth try, the bat went down with my health at four-fifths again. I took a lot of unnecessary damage while fighting the medusa. Due to being wary of the mummy's damage because of that, I stayed on the second stone block he fired for too long considering what to do next. Wound up getting crushed as a result. Whoops! Didn't matter, I would have died shortly anyway.
My sixth try, the bat cheated by hitting me with his wings while drilling the ground while I was on a ledge. That never worked before, why did it now? I beat him with four-fifths of my health though. Then I killed the medusa without taking any damage. The mummy did a bit with his bandages, but I hit him several times and then used Hydro Storm for the kill and took a pork chop. When the creature came, I whipped him while staying on the ledge to avoid close contact and tossed holy water until I had no hearts left. He finally went down with my health at half. Shaft showed up, being the final boss of this rush, and he killed me with a homing attack.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Stage 7 is our beloved clock tower stage that every Castlevania must have. The first part was a long bridge that collapsed underneath Richter as he walked across. Lots of big bats attacked while I tried to get across, leaving me with low health when I got to the door.
Epyon had warned me of the third and final maiden being in this level, so I followed the instructions needed to get her. While climbing up an area with water and gears, I found a red skeleton wall to destroy and a switch to stand on. Upon reaching the top of this section, there was a cog to hit multiple times to open a sealed door. Going through that door revealed a hawk with a key. I killed it to get the key as a subweapon and found a pork chop by destroying the hawk's nest with eggs in it. ???
Moving on, I went down a section with annoying harpies and appeared in another upward section. There was a cell door with a lock, but that was a fake; the key would not work on it. So I went up until finding an ice wall, which I destroyed and then pressed the switch it was guarding. Dropping down again, I found a staircase next to the fake door that led to the real one, and used the key to get inside. The third maiden, Annette, was waiting there. She and Richard had a nice little reunion. She asks about Maria, and Richter explains what happened with her. Then he tells her to get away until he can kill Dracula, and she agrees, so long as Richter comes back to her alive and in one piece. I hope she doesn't know how many times I had Richter killed to that bat... And when I got out of there, I jumped into a medusa head and died, so lol.
After the clock tower portion, most of the enemies consist of skeleton dogs, large knights with big swords, and skeletons that have stretchy necks and spit tons of bones as an attack. I don't even know. At one portion, I found two statues to whip for turning purposes. After turning them both to the screen fully, a pedestal came out with CD 40.
While jumping over pits in the next part, I deliberately dropped down to land on a lower portion that could not be reached otherwise. I found a hidden pork chop there. Moving on, I found a location with a fireplace of all things. Soon I made it to the pre-boss room, which had another hidden pork chop to get.
The boss here was Shaft's Ghost, who is strangely harder than Shaft himself. He has three attacks that I saw. One is to summon a bunch of small bats, which is barely worth worrying about. The second is to bring out an undead behemoth that charges through the ground. This caught me by complete surprise my first fight, but after that it was easy to dodge, you just have to go to the right of the room and jump over it. The third is what screwed me over. He brings down an undead wyvern, and every time he does it, I'm in the middle of a jump. So I run into the wyvern's claws without having time to react. This killed me once, and then again. Game Over number eleven!
I don't think I'll have much trouble my next run. I'll give it another try tomorrow.
Oh, Epyon linked me to what happens if you fail to save Annette. She gets turned into a vampire and tries to make Richter one. It's... tragic, I guess, but pretty hilarious with the voice acting IMO. >_> At least I got the good ending.
</spoiler>
[Spoiler for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, click to show]Since I wanted my Mognet letter and to do some grinding, I popped this back in. I'm using Cloud of Darkness in the second colosseum now. She started at level 52 and is now 53. Amazing.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, click to show]Yesterday, I trained with Cloud of Darkness until she reached level 83. During this time, I got the accomplishment A Fistful of Gil (earn 5,000,000 gil).
Today, I finished with Cloud of Darkness's leveling by having her reach 100. I got an accomplishment along the way, Battlegenesis Does (Battlegen an item from each character).
Next up was Garland. I went to the lowest colosseum with him since I needed trade items and I suck as Garland anyway. He started at 39 and reached 100 in short order.
Now I am using the Emperor in the third colosseum. He started at 60 and is now at 77. I was about to get seven levels from a max Firion boss, which was awesome.
Now that I have 78% of the accomplishments, I thought I'd list what I still need.
16: Battle 'Em All: Use every character in battle.
27: Test One's Mettle: Deliver at least 30,000 Bravery attacks.
33: Impenetrable Defense: Block 5,000 attacks.
35: Artful Dodger: Dodge 5,000 attacks.
40: Rejuvenation: Regenerate 1,000,000 HP.
43: Earth-Unfriendly: Damage the stage 20,000 times.
60: Veteran Duelist: Participate in 100 matches in Lunar Whale.
61: Time Attacker: Clear Arcade Mode time attack within 1200 seconds.
67: On the Level: Have all characters reach level 50.
84: Productive Battling: Get five Battlegen items in one battle.
86: Bull in a China Shop: Break 10 accessories.
125: The Day the World Ended: Clear Inward Chaos.
126: The Crimson Soul: Battlegen the Red Gem.
127: The Saffron Soul: Battlegen the Orange Gem.
128: The Canary Soul: Battlegen the Yellow Gem.
129: The Viridian Soul: Battlegen the Green Gem.
130: The Cerulean Soul: Battlegen the Blue Gem.
131: The Azure Soul: Battlegen the Cyan Gem.
132: The Tyrian Soul: Battlegen the Purple Gem.
133: The Ivory Soul: Battlegen the White Gem.
135: Vengeance of the Fallen: Lose 500 battles.
136: The Directionless Truthseeker: Earn 1,000,000 experience with level 100 characters.
137: The Broken Leader: Deal 25,000,000 points of damage to hit points.
138: Clash of the Valiant: Gain 30,000,000 points of bravery.
142: A Single Answer: Have all characters reach level 100.
143: He Who Covets Jewels: Break 100 accessories.
144: Now I Am the Master: Master 1,000 abilities.
145: The Ravenous Collector: Obtain every weapon.
146: My Road to El Dorado: Obtain every accessory.
147: Tamer of the Gods: Obtain every summon.
148: Something from Nothing: Have a trade accessory surplus of at least 1,000,000 gil.
151: Favored Customer: Get the shop to have 100% inventory.
Some of those are easy (I'm literally being held back on several just because I haven't used Shantotto yet) but others... oh boy. I especially hate 136. What a waste of experience.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
I decided to max Kuja's level next. He started at 29, so I went to the second colosseum course first. He got to level 70 before I left for the third course. He hit level 83 before midnight came, getting rid of my experience bonus.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
I'll probably do Kefka next, not that the idea thrills me.
</spoiler>
[Spoiler for Rondo of Blood (Remake), click to show]My first run mostly consisted of getting used to the controls again. I went to stage seven immediately and did horribly. My first life was taken by a water ghost spawning where I was standing, which was incredibly cheap. My second life was lost to a harpy that grabbed me with her talons, an attack I had never seen until now. My third life got stoned by a medusa head. My fourth life was crushed by a gate. Yeah really. Game Over number twelve!
By this point, I was back in the game. I got to the pre-boss room without losing any lives, though it was a close thing. The bat bridge left me with no visible health, but three hidden pork chops through the level kept me alive. My first try against Shaft's Ghost, he kept flying into me to kill me with collision damage. My second and third try, same things happened. Before my fourth try, I finally figured out that if you throw holy water at a wall (it's marked with the holy water vial but I couldn't tell until I looked closer), it gives you an axe, which is great against this boss. But I still lost, and he only had a sliver of health. =( Game Over number thirteen!
Again, I made it to the pre-boss room with no deaths. My first try, I died mainly because I had low health from the level. My second try, he flew into me several more times. My third try, he finally died. I nearly did too from a leftover bat, I would have screamed if it had actually killed me. Seventh stage is cleared!
Stage 8 is the final one. Like the sixth stage, it's just there for a boss fight, this one being against Lord Dracula himself! After some lulzy changed dialogue (thanks remake), Dracula came to fight me.
This fight, so far, doesn't seem as bad as the sixth stage at least. Dracula has three forms. His first may be the easiest boss in the game, no exaggeration. He only has two attacks: to throw three small fireballs and two big, black ones. Both can be backflipped over. I've only gotten hit once and that was because I hit the jump button once instead of twice. Hurrr.
His second form is also pretty silly, though it's at least somewhat competent. He turns into a big green monster that jumps around to try and squash you. You can get away from him or just walk underneath. He spits three fireballs at a time; the first and third have never come even close to hitting me, and jumping over the second works. He also can charge up a purple wall of energy to throw at you, which is avoided by ducking.
My first two tries, I actually died on his second form because he kept walking into me/I kept walking into him. But my third time, I beat it, and that revealed his TRUE FORM. WHICH MAKES ME FEEL DESPAIR.
This is... uh, interesting. Dracula has a bunch of wings and teleports by the power of splattering blood. His attacks aren't hard to dodge, but by gosh he has a lot of them, so the main problem with this fight is recognizing them all in time to get around. One is to release a bunch of bats from under his cloak, and I haven't figured out how to get around that yet. He can turn into a wolf to charge, which is avoided by jumping over him. He'll bring up three flame pillars in a series, but each one vanishes before another comes, so they can be walked around. Bloody spikes come from the ground, and those can be avoided since only a few at a time come out. He can also send down five big fireballs, but their range is pretty pitiful.
That all said, I don't think he's especially hard, but I'll probably die several times until I realize 'oh this is what he'll do I'd better dodge it'. I got to him on my third try and depleted half his health before dying to BATS! Game Over number fourteen!
Oh, before my second try, I was able to find an invisible staircase that Epyon had alerted me on. It led to a bunch of gold, CD 45, and CD 48.
This is the last thing to do to beat the game. I WILL SUCCEED DRACULA! EVENTUALLY! *Shakes fist*
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
First try, I got him to 1/3 of his health finally. He changed up his pattern and hit me with a fourth flame pillar, which I had not been expecting. Second try, I got him to 1/8 of his health before dying. Third try, I did the same thing, but forgot to use Hydro Storm and that cost me my life. Fourth try, I died to either a flame pillar or a spike, it was impossible to tell. Game Over number sixteen!
That was where I quit for the day. Today I tried again. First try, died to fire. Second try, I finally beat his second form without being hurt at all, but walked into a fireball when I thought I would be invulnerable from damage and died. Third try, got him to low health, and then used HYDRO STORM! He died and I backflipped into the orb he dropped for a stylish win!
My reward for beating the game was a short ending and some credits, and then a 'Thanks for playing' message. It was a fun game though. Most of the challenges were the reasonable kind, and I always felt good about clearing them. Beating Dracula felt awesome. =)
With it beaten, I decided to check out the path I hadn't yet. I did the default fourth stage since I had never actually cleared it. First try, I got hit by an axe armor out of nowhere (I had not taken the switch staircase before, trying something knew got me killed). Second try, I got past the bomb wall but died by jumping into an axe armor like a retard. My third try, I made it to Carmilla and trashed her. That opened the alternate fifth stage, which I will try next time.
</spoiler>
[Spoiler for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, click to show]I started the second colosseum with Kefka. He was at level 40, he is now 42. Exciting.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Won against a level 60 Terra maximum boss.
Won against a level 60 Kuja boss.
Lost to a level 60 Golbez boss.
Won against a level 60 Tidus maximum.
Lost against a level 60 Chaos.
Won against a level 60 Zidane varying.
I stopped at level 51 for the day.
</spoiler>
With February here and me wanting to watch Blood+ soon, how about keeping up the vampire trend by beating another vampire game this month? I'm moving on to the PSP port of Symphony of the Night in the Dracula X Chronicles.
For those who do not know, I have already completed the PS1 version of Symphony of the Night, so I know exactly what I'm doing. =)
[Spoiler for Symphony of the Night, click to show]I am very sad to admit this, but I died to Dracula three times. Well, not 'died', you can't actually die. But Maria will come in to save you when you run out of health, and I wanted to actually beat him. The main problem here? You can't backflip as Richter in this section. I wish you could but... =/
First try, the different controls threw me for a loop and I died after a bunch of fireballs in the second form (his first form still sucked). Second try, Dracula... jumped off screen (what?) and landed on me to kill me. Third try, I could not recharge from Grand Cross fast enough to avoid the fireballs he spat.
My fourth try, I finally killed him with only one hit. Grand Cross spamming was fun to basically say "screw you I'm tired of fighting you in Rondo of Blood and here".
*Insert narration about Alucard coming to stop Dracula*
Alucard jumps into the castle. With his godly equipment I tear through the first part of the castle halls. I leveled up on some zombies to get to level three and found a hidden pork roast and turkey.
Coming into the open caused Death to swoop down and tell Alucard to scram. Alucard basically says 'lol no' and Death says 'oh yeah well how about this' and steals all my good equipment. Jerk!
Luckily, the first skeleton I find gives me a Short Sword, so now I don't have to rely on punching. I also got a Red Rust Sword as a drop but it sucks. I found the relic Cube of Zoe to get stuff from candles, and then saved and quit.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Nothing really special to say about the Alchemy Lab. It has a lot of skeletons. Yay. Before the boss room was a save point, and above it was a room that had a glowing blue door on the other side. That couldn't be passed at the moment. I fit level five on the way.
In the boss room was, once again, Slogra and Gaibon. Axes+ducking under attacks=lol easy fight. Gaibon died first, with Slogra soon following. At least they got me to level six, and gave me a life max up (all bosses give you that).
Next up was the Marble Gallery. This first section had... more skeletons. Oh and fleamen. Hate fleamen. The voodoo tables, on the other hand, are just funny.
When entering a room with a large clock face, Alucard got to meet Maria for the first time. Since Alucard isn't much of a talker, Maria asked him why he was in the castle, and upon hearing he wanted to destroy it, said she had the same purpose. She said they would meet up again later if he was a good swordsman and ran off. Well then.
By the time I reached the Outer Wall (after passing through a long hallway of creatures with women on their tails and plants that turned you to stone), I had hit level eight. I went upwards first and found a save room right before the next boss room.
I'll admit it, I completely forgot about this boss, Doppelganger, and how you fight him. I was trying to do fancy stuff since I thought he would copy my axe subweapon and such, but nope, he just tosses daggers. I quit the game and reset it to have a better match (I might have still been able to win but I didn't really feel like fooling around with it) and he got torn apart after that. Level ten was acquired, along with a new sword in the next room, Gladius.
After grabbing a life max up from a pot, I went to the Long Library. Notable enemies include skeleton knights without heads, fleamen, weeds (une), and possessed books. Okay. By the time I got to the room I needed, I was level twelve.
In the far room sat the Librarian. After Alucard persuaded him to assist by saying he 'would not go unrewarded', the Librarian opened a shop. I can now buy items or look at monster data. I bought Castle Map 1, Magic Scroll 1 (teaches Metamorphosis I think), and Jewel of Open (opens those glowing blue doors). On the way out, I found a Faerie Scroll, which allows me to call a faerie familiar if I want her. I got to level thirteen while leaving.
This time, I went down the Outer Wall to find an absurdly powerful enemy for this point of the game. It took like twenty hits to kill and could deal over ten damage each attack. The large, fire-sword knight went down though, and I entered the room it was guarding to find a breakable wall with a pot roast. I remembered that crouching where the pot roast was for about ten seconds would get an elevator to take you to a secret room (though it could be reached by using Mist Form later). I just went down now for the heck of it to pick up the Jewel Knuckles and Mirror Cuirass, both of which I equipped.
Before going to the next location, I took a detour to open a glowing blue door I had noticed in the Marble Gallery. Pressing the switch behind it opened two closed-off areas nearby. One just led to a library card and an attack potion. The other involves a whole new section which I left for the moment.
I also took an alternate route through the Marble Gallery to reach the portion before the Alchemy Lab. Doing so allowed me to get a relic, Spirit Orb (you can see damage you do to enemies), and a shield potion at the very end. The enemies in this route are normally pretty strong at this point, but the Jewel Knuckles made it easy.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
The Royal Chapel is a cool area, but I jobbed my first try here to a ton of floating swords. Got to nine HP, didn't want to do a run back to the last save point like that, so I quit and restarted back at it. Went through after that with little issue, killing skeleton heads, knights on stairs, and the floating swords. I found a Knight Shield to equip and stopped in the confessional room. Sitting in the chair caused an evil monk to try and spear me through the wall. I jumped aside though, so screw him.
More of that tomorrow. I am at level fourteen right now.
</spoiler>
[Spoiler for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, click to show]With a bonus day at hand, I was determined to take advantage of it. I went to the third colosseum despite being ten levels too low for it. Despite that, I was able to survive in it until hitting level 73. I went from 63 to 73 just off a level 90 Ultimecia, which was hilarious, but she killed me (that was my third loss) so I had to quit. My PSP ran out of power when Kefka hit level 77.
With it recharged, I was able to get Kefka to level 100 while my sister amused herself with Wii Sports. I battled a bit more to get some items and got the accomplishment The Broken Leader.
Next I'll do Ultimecia... in the first colosseum since I need Dusty Elixirs and she just stinks to use.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
what is wrong with you
In the boss room was, once again, Slogra and Gaibon. Axes+ducking under attacks=lol easy fight.
Pffft, axes are for chumps.
Throwing knives, now those are awesome.
I'll admit it, I completely forgot about this boss, Doppelganger, and how you fight him. I was trying to do fancy stuff since I thought he would copy my axe subweapon and such, but nope, he just tosses daggers.
See, once again, axes are for chumps. The Doppelganger realizes this.
This time, I went down the Outer Wall to find an absurdly powerful enemy for this point of the game. It took like twenty hits to kill and could deal over ten damage each attack. The large, fire-sword knight went down though, and I entered the room it was guarding to find a breakable wall with a pot roast.
Oh god, those knights...
If you think they're terrifying in SotN, never play CotM. They're basically the same, except they're some of the most common enemies in the game and have harder to dodge projectiles. The worst one shoots homing, poisonous clouds of dust. And you will never, ever reach a level where you can confront them without worry. I basically kept the Throwing Cross the entire game just to deal with these guys.
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
I really blame the remake on this one. After having fought that Dracula so many times, I went in on this one expecting to use the same tactics. No such luck, since I had no backflip and Dracula can now jump off screen (I still don't know what that's about).
You could also say I suck but that's details.
Pffft, axes are for chumps.
Throwing knives, now those are awesome.
The throwing knife is lame. <3 the axe. The curve it has when being thrown is so useful.
See, once again, axes are for chumps. The Doppelganger realizes this.
I think the fact that he's DEAD now kind of ruins that point.
Oh god, those knights...
If you think they're terrifying in SotN, never play CotM. They're basically the same, except they're some of the most common enemies in the game and have harder to dodge projectiles. The worst one shoots homing, poisonous clouds of dust. And you will never, ever reach a level where you can confront them without worry. I basically kept the Throwing Cross the entire game just to deal with these guys.
Well, they're not THAT bad in Symphony of the Night, they're just actually decent and have lots of HP while every other enemy sucks. As for CotM, I never planned on playing it anyway so 'lol'.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, click to show]I got Ultimecia to level 43 before stopping my colosseum run. Geez she is boring to use.
</spoiler>
[Spoiler for Symphony of the Night, click to show]I continued through the Royal Chapel, going upwards in several towers while fighting crows and winged skeletons. At the top of the first tower was a str potion, Silver Plate, and a life max up. The next tower held a Zircon. Had to fight some skeletons with halberds and bats in a couple of hallways.
I soon reached the next boss, Hypogryph, who was a complete joke. I walked up to him and spammed punching. He jumped over me, punched some more, jumped again, punched some more, he died. I leveled up to sixteen for that.
Right after the Hypogryph died, Maria showed up to ask Alucard if he had seen Richter. I get amusement out of how Maria's thought bubble has Rondo of Blood Richter while Alucard's has an older sprite (I think it's of Trevor but I don't make it a habit to memorize old Castlevania sprites). After Alucard agreed to tell Maria if he saw Richter, she ran off. What a shock.
After claiming a potion and Cutlass from the top of another tower, I made it to the next area, Castle Keep. There wasn't much to do here, but the few open areas had good things. I first used a warp room to return to the area before the Alchemy Lab. This place had a heart max up and a switch to lower a wall that previously blocked me from the warp room. I went back to the Castle Keep to take another route on a roof. After several flea men and eagles, I found one of the best relics, the Leap Stone. It allows double jumping. I used it to get to a ledge there with a Turquoise and broke a wall for a turkey.
Wanting to put my new ability to good use, I went to the Alchemy Lab to access some items I couldn't before. My trip netted me a Bastilard, a Cloth Cape, and Sunglasses. Then I went to the Royal Chapel to pick up the items in the big stair area along with one other nearby. I got a Magic Missile, Shuriken, Boomerang, Morningstar, and Googles.
Going to the Marble Gallery next, in a random drop I got a Morning Set from the floating tables. I found it oddly amusing! Then I went to where Maria had first been met, in the large clock room, and double jumped to an exposed area at the top left. I got a life max up for my troubles before entering a new area.
This location, Olrox's Quarters, is actually a bit too early to access I think in a normal play. As in, you could, but it isn't recommended. I did find a hidden room with cheese, an Onyx, and a Broadsword before going through a door to another area.
The Colosseum also seems not right to be at yet, but I did get to level seventeen fighting ninja skeletons. I also pressed a switch to lower a wall, making a shortcut from the Royal Chapel that I took to get back to, after much walking, the Outer Wall.
After using double jump to get a Garnet, I entered the Long Library again. First I bought a library card so I could use it for a quick warp to the library if I needed to buy something. I also got Magic Scroll 2 for the spell Summon Spirit.
The main reason I came, however, was to access a whole section of the library that couldn't be reached without double jump. I got up there to hit a save point before fighting headless skeletons and armored fleamen. I entered a room to get a Stone Mask, and then ran against a bookcase in the room until it rotated to let me through. That allowed me to grab a Topaz Circlet and a Holy Rod.
My PSP ran out of power shortly after saving, so more of that soon.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
IIRC, Hypogryph can be mildly irritating because there's no nearby save room. I think one playthrough I made it to him low on life, thought it wouldn't be a problem since he's such a push-over, died to him, and was infuriated. <_<
Wanting to put my new ability to good use, I went to the Alchemy Lab to access some items I couldn't before. My trip netted me a Bastilard, a Cloth Cape, and Sunglasses.
You can actually get the Basilard during your first trip through here. I usually end up equipping it and keeping it equipped for quite a while.
I got a Magic Missile, Shuriken, Boomerang, Morningstar, and Googles.
googles
The Morningstar is amazing. Just throwing that out there. Way better than any wimpy punching weapon. <_<
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
Hahahahaha.
You're right, there isn't a save room nearby, but seriously now. He never even hit me. >_>
You can actually get the Basilard during your first trip through here. I usually end up equipping it and keeping it equipped for quite a while.
I'm sure you can, but it was annoying to get the red skeleton to step on the switch when I wanted. I actually got a Basilard as a random drop, but didn't wind up equipping it because I had something better. Hm.
googles
That was quite a typo!
The Morningstar is amazing. Just throwing that out there. Way better than any wimpy punching weapon. <_<
Pfft. I never bother with the Morningstar.
Anyhow, updates!
I went further into the library to come to a boss, Lesser Demon. His main gimmick was summoning three different types of creatures: skeletons, ectoplasms, and mudmen. The mudmen are unique to this fight and have to be killed at least once for the enemy list, but otherwise it's a straightforward fight. I got to level eighteen after killing a mudman and beat the Lesser Demon shortly after. How's that for weird?
Moving on, I found three items beyond the Lesser Demon's area: a Takemitsu, an Onyx, and a Frakfurter. Yes really. There was also a grate that couldn't be passed without mist form.
Back at the Outer Wall, I found a warp room, a heart max up in a pot, and a lever that could be hit to activate an elevator below. That let me get Soul of Wolf, a relic that allows Alucard to become a wolf.
After taking a brief detour to the location where Death stole from me to grab a heart max up, I went below the Marble Gallery to reach the Underground Caverns. I grabbed a Zircon at the start of the level and killed some spear guards and skeleton archers to reach a heart max up at the left. Breaking the wall behind it led me to a Bandanna.
Going down led to a huge drop that took me from the stone area and into a wet location. After collecting a toadstool, shiitake, and life max up (guess which I cared about the most), I threw axes at an ice floor to break it and drop down. It led to a big stretch of water. Since Alucard is part vampire, he can't handle water well (it causes lots of damage when you stay in it), so that portion had to wait.
Going into a different room led me to fight the Scylla Wyrm, a mini-boss of sorts. It's just a snake creature that tries to bite you, I punched it into submission quickly. The room after was the problem. I thought the water would flow in and then recede, but it's actually a timed rising that you have to get through quickly or take a lot of damage. So with such low HP, I decided to quit and retry, knowing a boss was coming up.
After finding a pot roast in a wall, I fought the real Scylla Wyrm, a lady/wolf/snake hybrid thing that can control water. I made none of that up. It was hilariously easy. She hit me in such a way that I flew onto the ledge behind her, and since I was stuck, I began to hurl axes. In about ten seconds the axes had done enough damage to kill her, causing me to level up to nineteen. The room behind her had a Crystal Cloak, and with the water in her area gone, I was able to get a Resist Ice and Scimitar.
Taking the last possible path, I found a bunch of toads and frogs to fight. I got to grab a shiitake, and behind a waterfall I got a pair of Secret Boots. A life max up was hidden below it. I managed to jump up to get a toadstool before entering the important section of this path. Basically, the main reason to go down here is to meet up with the Ferryman, who takes you across a large body of water so you can grab a relic, the Merman Statue. Having it causes the Ferryman to appear at the water area you can reach by breaking the ice floor.
Before backtracking, I grabbed a shiitake and life max up while hitting a switch. The switch caused a wall to come down, making a shortcut to the start of the game area. I also briefly stopped by Olrox's Quarters to activate a warp room there for future convenience.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Symphony of the Night, click to show]Going under the broken ice floor, I found the Ferryman at the water's edge. About halfway through the trip, I caught sight of an item on top of a ledge. My idea was to grab the item (it was an Onyx) and leap back to the boat before the Ferryman went too far. It would have worked if not for a bat coming out of nowhere and knocking me away from the Ferryman. I managed to make it to the other side by leaping out of the water as much as possible, but my health was pretty low as a result. This voyage allowed me to get another relic, the Holy Symbol, which lets Alucard go underwater without being hurt. I took advantage of that to pick up the items that the Ferryman rowed over: an elixir, a life max up, and a Knuckle Duster.
Since I wanted to fill out more of my map from water areas and get some items, I decided to retread the path to the first Ferryman encounter. I rarely note random item drops, but I did happen to get some Ice Mail from a frozen shade, which was great. The items I found underwater were a Nunchaku, an antivenom, a life max up, and a pentagram (which was in rushing water, so it took longer to get to). I hit level twenty while killing fish heads, and jumping to the opposite side of the waterfall got me a shiitake. So many mushrooms.
The next location to hit was the Colosseum. Lots of goodies were lying around this area. I got a heart max up, green tea, a Blood Cloak, a library card, and the Shield Rod. The Shield Rod was a bit annoying to get since a ton of hard-hitting enemies were between me and it, but I managed to nab it. In addition, I hit level twenty-one after killing a horse rider (and got flung out of the room immediately after by another one, but oh well).
When I hit the boss room, Richter greeted me by calling himself the lord of the castle. Alucard is bemused at this since he can tell Richter is a Belmont by the scent of his blood, but he has little time to ponder that before getting attacked by a boss duo, Werewolf and Minotaur. The first part was lulzy. The Minotaur trapped me in a corner with my back to him, and when Alucard swings the Shield Rod, it goes back before forward. Cue hitting the Minotaur several times in a row without it getting to act due to its position, and then it died. The Werewolf crumpled quickly without its partner. The room past it had Form of Mist, a relic that allows Alucard to become mist, which is mainly useful for going past grates.
With the ability to become mist in hand, I went back to the Long Library to bypass that grate at the end. That got me Form of Bat, which is very useful as it allows Alucard to become a bat and fly as long as he has enough magic to maintain it. I used it to access a higher portion of the library and got the items there: a potion, an antivenom, and a relic, Fairy Card. I made a mistake last time; the Faerie Scroll shows names of the monsters while the card lets you get the Fairy familiar. So my bad.
The power of flight was what I needed to proceed in Olrox's Quarters. I flew up while collecting a manna prism, a resist fire, and a luck potion. The hallway I entered had an Estoc in it and led to a huge courtyard. A side room here contained the Sword Card, a relic for getting the Sword familiar. The path to the boss provided an Iron Ball. To actually reach the boss room, I had to use one of my forms to squeeze through a gap, so I picked wolf since it hasn't gotten to do anything significant yet. Poor wolf.
This boss fight was a bit more damaging than the others, but not hard. The first form would fling bats and skeleton heads, along with laser shots, and died quickly. Olrox then became a lizard that could shoot laser fire beams. It took several hits for him to finally go down. It also got me to level twenty-four. I picked up a relic for my victory, Echo of Bat, which was useful in a certain room later on. I got a heart max up in another room before leaving.
Wanting to take advantage of my flying, I backtracked to a couple of places. At the very front of the castle was a life max up and a relic, Power of Wolf. Then I went to unlock the most absurdly hidden room in the game. You have to run through a rock tunnel as a wolf to the left, and then fly through as a bat to the right to unlock it. I got a life apple and Jewel Sword for that. In an area above that was an armor piece, Holy Mail, which I equipped right away. The Alchemy Lab had two relics hidden, Skill of Wolf and Bat Card. The Royal Chapel had a Mystic Pendant, an Ankh of Life, and a TNT.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
But if you time it right you can hit an enemy twice with a single attack. Morningstar = super amazing.
I began to hurl axes.
stop using axes!
Seriously you have no excuse for not using Holy Water exclusively at this point!
Going under the broken ice floor, I found the Ferryman at the water's edge. About halfway through the trip, I caught sight of an item on top of a ledge. My idea was to grab the item (it was an Onyx) and leap back to the boat before the Ferryman went too far. It would have worked if not for a bat coming out of nowhere and knocking me away from the Ferryman. I managed to make it to the other side by leaping out of the water as much as possible, but my health was pretty low as a result. This voyage allowed me to get another relic, the Holy Symbol, which lets Alucard go underwater without being hurt. I took advantage of that to pick up the items that the Ferryman rowed over: an elixir, a life max up, and a Knuckle Duster.
Fun fact: I didn't realize this area (and, by extension, the Holy Snorkel) even existed until my most recent playthrough.
Don't even ask. I have no idea.
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
Right off the bat was a boss, Cerberus. All of his attacks could be ducked under, so he was very easy. I hit level twenty-five thanks to that. While going down further, I came across a relic, Demon Card. Using the Demon familiar caused him to press a switch that led me to an area with several items: a Ring of Ares, turkey, four peanuts, barley tea, and Power of Sire. Going further down in the area led me to a warp room and more items: two shiitake, a karma coin, and a Combat Knife.
The next area, the Catacombs, had several new but not very threatening enemies. I especially like the two skeletons that carry around a skeleton head that shoots huge energy balls. Even more items awaited: four monster vial 3s, a heart max up, a life max up, a Ballroom Mask, another heart max up, an Icebrand (which I'm still using), and Walk Armor. My treasure hunting was put to an abrupt halt at the arrival of the boss.
Granfaloon here, or as I like to call him, Legion, is a bit rougher than some bosses but not too threatening. He drops a bunch of corpses and protects himself with the bodies as a shell. Once the shell is broken apart, he fires lasers, and they're actually really painful. Hitting his exposed core multiple times took him down quickly though. I quick saved after winning and went to eat dinner. When I started the file again, my quick save data didn't kick in, so I wound up having to beat him again. It didn't matter at all. I leveled up from killing him to twenty-six.
My reward for trashing this disgusting boss was a sword, Mormegil. I backtracked to the other side of the Catacombs and reached level twenty-seven after killing a panther. Upon coming to a completely dark room, I turned into a bat to use Echo of Bat. It illuminated the room briefly to show where deadly spikes were located. After getting through and hitting a switch to light up the place, I found two Cross Shuriken, two karma coins, a Spike Breaker, and a hidden library card.
Having the Spike Breaker armor meant that I could get the first of two rings that I need to avoid a bad ending. I went to the Royal Chapel and, with the Spike Breaker equipped, ran through a spiked hallway with no issue. After turning into mist to get past a grate, I got to the room at the end to meet... Maria. How'd she get there? Alucard told her of his encounter with the Belmont, and she said that was impossible before running once more. I picked up the Silver Ring at the back of the room.
To get the other ring I need, I had to go back to the Underground Caverns and fly to an area inaccessible until I had bat form. I stopped by the big clock room first to fly up and grab a potion, hammer, and life apple. I also got a relic, Gravity Boots, which lets me jump higher. I found a Claymore in the Underground Caverns before my PSP battery died. Continuing tomorrow.
</spoiler>
[Spoiler for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, click to show]I got my Mognet letter and fought in the second colosseum with Ultimecia for one battle. Amazing.
</spoiler>
In other news, I got my first Japanese game. It's for the PSP and is called Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces. *Breathes* Main reason I ordered it was it came with a million and one awesome extras, including an adorable figure of Nanoha herself. But I do plan on playing this at some point. It's a fighting game, so the Japanese shouldn't hinder me too much once I figure out what buttons do what.
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
I'm sorta surprised you didn't own any Japanese games before this, though. I owned a copy of Pokemon Green when I was like... 9. >_>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
But really, that Nanoha game came with nine extra items: a PSP pouch, a towel, three posters, a cleaning cloth, an art book, stickers, and the Nanoha figure. Add in the game and it's an even deal; even though it cost a lot, it was a justified cost. I'm in love with the figure, she's so cute. =3
And yeah, the only Japanese games I've wanted are Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. Nothing else had caught my interest that wasn't coming over here, or that was reasonable. (For instance, what's the point in buying a game focused on story when I can't read Japanese?) This game was a good candidate because it's highly unlikely it'll come out over here and it's a fighting game, which isn't text heavy.
In the future, I plan on getting the PSP Fate Stay Night game that comes with the Saber figure in the red dress. Other than that, don't know if I'll be getting any more Japanese games. No point in getting the KH games unless I get a modded PS2...
I have some updates for Symphony of the Night and Dissidia, but I'll post those tomorrow.
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
I also found it interesting that Backloggery finally made their rating system one to five stars. Spent tonight changing around several of my rankings.
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
Oh god no.
Now I have to rerate everything.
This is horrible.
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
Anyhow. Last time I updated was what, February 4th? Atrocious. I have a lot to write up!
FEBRUARY 5th
[Spoiler for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, click to show]I got to level 69 with Ultimecia before getting kicked out of the second colosseum.
After playing some Symphony of the Night, I entered the third colosseum with her. Got her to 87 before I was kicked out.
</spoiler>
[Spoiler for Symphony of the Night, click to show]While continuing down the route, I found four meal tickets and a moonstone. Okay then.
The ending fork led to two save rooms. However, the one to the left was normal, while the right one had a purple coffin instead. By trying to 'save' in the purple one, it takes Alucard to 'Nightmare'. There he gets to see his mother before she's about to be burned at the stake by other humans. After some dramatic name shouting (MOTHER! ALUCARD!), his mother, Lisa, says that her final wish is for Alucard to kill humans. This instantly causes Alucard to realize that he's in an illusion of some sort, because his mother's last words were not those. The Succubus doing all this tries to fight Alucard. She is the most pathetic boss ever because I didn't even get hit fighting her. Then Alucard says her soul will wander for eternity because he's killing her in the dream world. 'Ouch.' Waking up, he finds the Gold Ring nearby.
The ring descriptions, when looked at, spell out 'wear in clock room'. So I went back to the location where Maria was first met with the two rings equipped. This caused the clock hands to move down to 6:30 and opened the floor. I jumped down to find a life max up and a heart max up, along with a save room. Then I used an elevator of sorts to go further down.
In the secret cube room below, Maria was waiting. I still don't know how she's getting around like this. She apologized to Alucard, saying that he was right, Richter was on the enemy side, but that he must be under someone's control. She asks Alucard to save him, and he says he can't promise that, but he will at least stop him. Maria asks if he's strong enough to stop him and then throws a cat at him. ...Wait WHAT?
Yeah, apparently this is a new fight. Maria throws kitty cats, doves, dragons, and can cause a lot of fire to come out towards you. She probably has her turtle to complete the set but I don't think I saw it in use. She's not really hard, but all of the stuff she throws can be chaotic. Since she was a new fight, I also lacked the advantage of knowing what to expect, unlike every other boss in the game.
Once Maria was defeated, she said Alucard had the strength to save Richter and gave him the Holy Glasses. Now that I had the item needed for the good ending path, I went to the last location I had left unexplored, the Clock Tower.
The first section was a big, open location with several collapsing ledges. Becoming a bat made those useless though. I got a Pentagram, Magic Missile, Ice Mail, Bekatowa, and Shaman Shield in this area. I also found the relic Fire of Bat, which lets me spit fireballs while being a bat. Hilariously random but useful since I had no attacks as a bat until now.
In the actual clock tower areas, I put on the Mirror Cuirass after getting petrified a couple of times by medusa heads. The first time I had gotten petrified, Alucard became a gargoyle, which I had heard could happen but had never seen. Pretty neat. I broke a wall to find a life max up and a heart max up in the rooms beyond it. I also found Healing Mail behind another wall further on, in a hallway location. Three walls in one room contained TNT, a shuriken, and a bwaka knife.
The boss that waited nearby was a crow man of sorts, Karasuman IIRC. Hard to decide whether he or the Succubus is worse, considering he also died without me being hit.
Going through the door beyond him led to the Castle Keep area again. I explored it thoroughly this time to find a Falchion in one room, and in another, a life max up, heart max up, life max up, heart max up, and a relic, Ghost Card. A bit more looking got another relic, Power of Mist, and then a heart max up later on. I flew over the broken stairs leading to Dracula's throne room to find the hidden staircase. It had a sirloin, turkey, pot roast, frankfurter, resist stone, resist dark, resist holy, and Platinum Mail. While I did equip the Platinum Mail, that was... rather underwhelming.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Symphony of the Night, click to show]After equipping the Holy Glasses, I went to see Richter in the throne room. Alucard asks why Richter is trying to resurrect Dracula, and his response? "I beat Dracula and then was forgotten about, so I want him back so I can keep fighting him and always be famous." No really. That has got to be one of the worst reasons ever. So if there was any doubt Richter was possessed, here you go.
The fight against Richter is rather silly. He was doing one damage a hit with his whip and subweapons. With the Holy Glasses on, a green orb floating around him was visible, so I attacked that until it shattered. Richter was immediately released from mind control while Shaft's voice said something like "Curses, foiled again!" Then he dropped an inverted castle on top of the one we were in. Shaft is the worst villain ever.
While Richter blamed himself for all this stuff happening, Maria thanked Alucard for saving him and said she would take care of Richter. Alucard left them to teleport into the inverted castle.
So what did I do first? Turn around and teleport back to see if Maria and Richter were there. They were, so I talked to them and then saved before going back.
The inverted throne room area had a Zircon, and then the hidden room had a Royal Cloak, heart max up, life max up, heart max up, life max up, heart max up, life max up, and a Bastard Sword. Much better!
The Inverted Castle Keep had a lot of treasure to pick up. Using the bat power frequently, I managed to find them. The Ghost Card room from the regular castle now had a high potion, resist ice, resist fire, resist stone, and resist thunder. Other sections had a library card, Lightning Mail, an iron ball in a wall, a Garnet, and a Sword of Dawn in a wall.
Entering the room where I fought the crow reject before, I found an almost equally lame boss, Darkwing Bat. At least it hit me a couple of times, but it still sucked. I killed it quickly to hit level twenty-eight and get the Ring of Vlad. But not a life max up. Boo!
The Inverse Clock Tower is a pain. It has a lot of strong enemies (for what level you probably are now) and spiked traps that try to drop on you. While going through it, I found a shuriken, bwaka knife, and TNT in the walls again (most items change, but some don't). I got a Moon Rod in the Healing Mail room, a pot roast in a wall, a heart max up and life max up in the same location as the regular castle, and a Dragon Helm to equip. I leveled up to twenty-nine from a bomb throwing enemy. I was lucky to get out alive though, considering one of the rooms is full of medusa heads and flying swordsmen that do a ton of damage. You can barely get a chance to hit any let alone get away. I did make it through alive though.
The Inverse Outer Wall was only briefly visited to get a save point and warp room, and find a Garnet. Then I entered the Inverse Long Library.
Apparently the Wizard of Oz took over here, because I got to fight scarecrows, tin men, and lions. Also schmoos. Yeah I have no idea what those are supposed to be, but I hit level thirty, and then thirty-one, thanks to them. A tin man got me to thirty-two. The librarian is not in the inverse castle, but there are three items: a library card, Opal, and Turquoise. In another room I found a resist fire, resist ice, and resist stone. A neutron bomb was in the bookcase room, and pushing on the bookcase got me a Badelaire. There was no boss where the Lesser Demon had been, so I used the mist form to get a Staurolite behind the grate and then left.
Back at the Inverse Outer Wall, I found a luck potion before the next boss. The Creature likes to roll around on the ground and try to hit you with a hammer. As you can imagine, he is another easy boss. Beating him got me to level thirty-four and let me obtain the Tooth of Vlad. Continuing on, I found a shield potion, hi potion, life max up, Dim Sum, Shotel, hammer, and heart max up.
Entering the Inverse Marble Gallery, I hit level thirty-five from a Jack o' Bones (yes really) and found an iron ball. Then my battery ran out. Oh.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Symphony of the Night, click to show]Battery now refreshed, I got a meal ticket before entering the Inverse Underground Caverns. All I did for the moment was explore the non-water/cave areas. I found a Zircon, life max up, Diamond behind a breakable wall, Opal, Shiitake, heart max up, five meal tickets, and peanuts. These items, seriously now.
Back in the Inverse Marble Gallery, I got a heart max up and life max up going down from the big clock. I hit level thirty-six from a gorgon and then found an antivenom, potion, and library card. This area had a lot of spiked trap panels that shot forward, which I initially forgot about and got hit by, lol. Lots of skeleton enemies in this area, including nova skeletons. They've got low HP, but they have a really powerful beam attack. It does over 100 damage, at least at that point. I did get a Terminus Est as a random drop from one though, which is a poisonous and strong sword. Equipped it when I got it.
Finally at the Inverse Castle Entrance, I got a Talisman, heart max up, life max up, hi potion hidden in a step, and a pot roast hidden in the stone path. Then I fought a blue venus weed, which was simple enough... except that she causes a lot of green vines to come out of the ground. Well, that hid a bunch of nova skeletons that proceeded to beam me to death. Angry at the incredible cheapness of that, I stopped for the night.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears