Category: Platform

Soul Reaver [2] – The Sanctuary, Kain and the Cathedral

February 28, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

Exploration

After getting my now abilities to pass through barred gates, I spent about thirty minutes exploring every place I’ve already been to and I’d say it was worth it. I got a total of four health pieces, meaning I need only one before I get an actual health upgrade. I also got my first spell, which is something I completely forgot exists in this game. The spell basically knocks back everything around me, which doesn’t seem extremely useful at first, but if I’m next to a body of water and surrounded by enemies, it becomes extremely useful.

I got a few of these.

The Sanctuary

Eventually, I got tired of the exploration, so I went to the Sanctuary, which was the huge locked building half way between the huge whirlpool and the Elder God’s lair. To enter, I had to use my new ability, but other than that, the area was pretty straightforward. Soon enough, I got to the throne room surrounded by the corrupted Pillars of Nosgoth, where Kain was waiting. There was a short conversation where Kain basically hinted he knows something Raziel doesn’t and then the fight started.

Again, I love the voice-overs in this game. They are of extremely high quality.

One hit from Kain was enough to push me into the spirit realm, so I had to be really quick on my feet. He did manage to “kill” me a few times before I landed my third hit on him, but once I did, the fight was over and, through a series of events, I got hold of the Soul Reaver, both in its material and spiritual form. It only appears in the material plane when my health is full, so thanks to my skillful play, this basically means I don’t have it most of the time, but it makes the spiritual realm extremely easy, so getting killed is now just a minor nuisance.

With Kain gone, for now, it was time to go to the next area of Soul Reaver – The Silenced Cathedral

The Silenced Cathedral

“Once a testament to mankind’s defiance of Kain’s empire, this towering cathedral now stood derelict, the humans who worshiped here, dead for centuries. Its architects conceived this tower as a holy weapon against the vampire menace, a colossal instrument of brass and stone. The cathedral’s pipes, once tuned to blast a deadly hymn, now stood silent, and these vacant spaces whistled their impotence.“

The Silenced Cathedral used to belong to humans, but is now under the occupation of the Zephonim – the clan following the vampire Zephon. I haven’t seen Zephon yet, but I’m guessing he’s some sort of a spider, since his vampires look and sound very much like spiders. They can climb walls, use webbing and have a tendency to respawn quite frequently, which I found extremely annoying.

Lot’s of puzzles like this one in the Cathedral.

The region consisted of several huge areas with puzzles mostly involving climbing and activating various machines to create air flows which allowed me to get to higher-up areas. Probably the hardest one was near the end, where I had to find, get to and activate three different valves and fix three pipes before I made the air flow strong enough to lift me up to the main area of the Cathedral.

Also a lot of enemies like this one in the Cathedral

Once there, I had to break the shielding on four more switches, activate those and then do some other thing I can’t remember right now, because this is about where I stopped playing. What I do remember is that there were three block puzzles where I was constantly being interrupted by enemy respawns, as well as a couple of secret areas where I found more health pieces. Yes, this means I got my health upgrade.

I also had to fight some human enemies, which I’m guessing are vampire worshipers, since I can’t think of any other explanation on why they would be there. In any case, human enemies just mean free health, so I wasn’t bothered by that.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver [1] – GOG.com Wins Again

February 27, 2013 by Nikola·3 Comments

The Soul Reaver series was on sale recently on GOG.com. This series is one of those that takes me back to my childhood even though I never actually played most of them. In fact, I only ever read about Blood Omen, played the Soul Reaver demo once in my early PlayStation days and actually started my blog with Defiance, but ended up abandoning it due to a game breaking bug. I remember being sort of scared of the Soul Reaver demo and having a hard time figuring it out, but I also remember how cool it was to throw a spear at an enemy or impale it with one.

I wish prerendered video cut scenes would make a comeback.

As I said, I abandoned playing Defiance, but I liked the style of the series, so I decided to give it a shot with the first game in the Soul Reaver series, after finding it on sale. I know Blood Omen is the actual first game and I know it’s supposed to be awesome, but it seems to be quite different in style to the other ones, so I decided to skip it for now.

Does Soul Reaver work on Windows 8?

Short answer? Yes, yes it does.

A slightly longer answer would be that it runs fine, but it has some issues. The GOG version runs in full 1920×1080 resolution and my generic DualShock rip-off controller works, but it has issues with analog controls, so I have to play with the d-pad.

The sound also sometimes has issues where it stops working or works on a delay, bit this only happens after lengthy playing sessions. Other than that, the game works nicely and the experience is very enjoyable, provided you don’t have an issue with graphics.

It can look nasty up close, but most of the time, the game looks nice enough.

Actually, I’d even say the graphics are fine, even impressive, considering the era. The models are of low fidelity, of course, and there are no facial animations, but this is offset by extremely nice voice-overs. The soundtrack is amazing and very atmospheric. It fits the game perfectly. Raziel’s wing animations and the shift between the material and the spectral realm are also very nicely animated. I wonder if the game looked as good on the PlayStation as it did on the PC, because I don’t remember it.

The Plot

The story of the game is that Kain doomed the world of Nosgoth by not sacrificing himself to restore it. Instead, he raised a bunch of vampire lieutenants and basically besieged the entire world. Now, vampires mutate over time, gaining new abilities, etc., so Raziel, the protagonist, somehow managed to develop actual wings.

The Elder God is a “Cthulhuesque” creature.

In an act of jealousy, Kain tears of Raziel’s wings and throws him into the Lake of the Dead, a large, natural whirlpool. Since Raziel is a vampire, the water kills him, but some time later, he gets resurrected by an entity calling itself “The Elder God”, as a soul reaver – a creature that feeds on souls like a vampire would feed on blood. Apparently, the vampires threw the flow of souls out of balance, so it’s now Raziel’s job to kill his brothers and restore the balance.

Killing Melchiah

The first part of the game was sort of a tutorial. This game was quite complex for its time and it introduced a few very original elements, so the Crash Bandicoot style of introductions was pretty much out of the question. Still, the game doesn’t consider the player completely incompetent, so quite a lot was left for me to figure out on my own. This caused me to get stuck on some puzzles along the way, but also made it feel so much better when I finally did figure it out.

The puzzles up to now were mostly leaver and block based.

Eventually, after familiarization with the realm shifting feature, some relatively easy block pushing puzzles and a lot of fighting with zombie vampires, I got to the area belonging to Raziel’s former clan. I got all the way through it, circled back and unlocked a shortcut to the back area by pushing a block on top of another one and creating a new route, I got really stuck.

I couldn’t find any way to continue. Every single new route I found and tried ended up needing another ability to get further and the Melchahim clan lands seemed to be fully explored. I actually ended up wandering into the human city and took note of a lot of items I’ll be able to pick up later, but I wasn’t able to advance the story any further.

Eventually, though, I did figure it out. The shortcut in the Melchahim area wasn’t a shortcut. I was supposed to move the two blocks to the side a bit to unlock a whole new route, which lead me to a larger block puzzle. After using some braziers to collapse a whole floor, I finally opened the gate to Melchiah, Raziel’s brother and the first boss.

Melchiah is not a pretty guy!

Defeating Melchiah was another puzzle. I had to lure him under a bared gate and drop it on him. After that, I needed to do it with a second gate and finally lure him into the cage in the center and drop a huge grinder on top of him.

Defeating Melchiah gave me my first ability. I could now pass through bared gates in the spectral realm. Nearby in the area, there was a gate like that which lead to a room with an item that increases my health, so I collected that soon enough. I need to collect five of those to actually get an increase, though, so there wasn’t any change in my stats yet.

The Elder God let me know where to go next, but for now, I think I’ll do some exploring of the areas I was already in, to see if there’s anything else I can collect.

By the way, did I mention the music in this game is awesome?

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDIuxzYjmjM” width=”400″ height=”255″]

Grandia [6] – Pirate’s Island and the Virgin Forest

February 25, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

Pirate’s Island

Last time on Grandia, a very nice moment with Justin and Feena was ruined by Justin being an idiot after meeting a pretty girl in peril. It was extremely obvious the girl was luring Justin into a trap, to anyone except Justin, apparently. In any case, the location to explore now was called the Pirate’s Island.

The island part was all the way at the end though. I’m not sure what I was walking on most of my time in the area, but I’m guessing it was sand, or maybe magical sea foam or something. In any case, it was a maze of white, floaty, sandy stuff with a lot of twists, turns and dead ends.

That’s a really weird beach if you ask me.

I did my best to explore all of it before finally getting to the island in the center but there’s still a strong possibility I missed something. What I’m worried the most is that I somehow missed a mana egg somewhere. I also think I’ve spent far too much time grinding in the past, because the enemies here weren’t giving a lot of experience in any category.

Eventually, I got tired of walking in circles and got to the island at the center Apparently, the pretty girl in peril has a bunch of identical siblings, because identically looking pretty girls seemed to be the islands only population. They managed to convince Justin to get inside the cave and “beat the pirates” and then the obvious thing finally happened. The cave contained the monster behind the illusion – a giant angler fish with a lure in the shape of a pretty girl.

A trap! Who knew!?

The boss took a while to beat, since I only had two people in my party, but it wasn’t hard in any sense of the word. I have to say, though, it’s a very creative-looking boss. Enemy design is one of Grandia’s strengths.

The Virgin Forest

The island sank and I soon landed on the shore of the new continent, or a new part of the old continent, to be more precise, since the sea was described as “The Inner Sea” earlier in the game. Just as with the island, the Virgin Forest contained enemies that gave me very little experience, so I actually tried avoiding some battles. Of course, I ended up just getting ambushed because of it, so the exploration probably took longer than it should have.

New enemies and a new battle theme!

I soon met up with Guido, the talking rabbit I already met in Dight, so he used the opportunity to relieve me of some of my money by offering shelter and bed and then asking for payment after it was all done.
Again, I took some time exploring, but I didn’t find any mana eggs. At this point, I’m almost certain I missed at least one in one of the last few areas, because it’s been a couple of hours since I’ve last seen one.

Eventually, I got to the third area of the forest, where I met a new playable character and one of the final four party member – Rapp. Now, I think I already mentioned Rapp in one of these posts, but I also think I called him Ralph or something like that, so I apologize for that. I’m pretty sure I also said that Rapp doesn’t start with any magical elements, but it turns out I was wrong – he starts with the Fire skill already learned. It’s at a very low level, but this still means I need one less mana egg than I thought I would.

Rapp is involved in a sort of a “lost boys” situation.

Rapp uses daggers, swords and ranged weapons, so Sue’s Bow book will boost his strength quite a bit. He also has a lot of ranged skills, so I guess that’s supposed to be his focus in the game. Of course, I still want to teach him all the spells and other weapon skills, provided there’s enough mana eggs left in the game by now.

Anyway, Rapp leads a gang of kids and he thought Justin and Feena were bad guys so he trapped them in a pit. Soon after their encounter, though, one of his “apprentices” gets attacked by a monster, so I get the chance to prove Justin’s good intentions. Rapp invites Justin and Feena to his village and soon after takes them to the Petrified Forest, the next area.

Next up – The Tower of Doom

Apparently, a tower was built next to Rapp’s old village, by some people looking a lot like Justin (i.e. humans). Right after the tower was built, the village somehow got turned to stone, which is how the Petrified Forest came to be. The survivors built the village of Cafu and Rapp promised himself to destroy the tower sometime in the future. When Justin saw what happened to Rapp’s old village and his family, he immediately offered to help Rapp destroy the village, so this takes us to our next area.

Oh, and I finally found a mana egg at the Petrified Forest. I think Rapp will learn Earth or Wind next.

Pokemon Crystal [8] – How to Get all the Pokemon Ash Caught in the Anime

February 24, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

This is not Pokemon Yellow. I feel like this should be said. Pokemon Yellow is the only game in the Pokemon franchise that even remotely tries to follow the plot of the anime, so it’s the only game where you can even get close to being Ash from the anime. Even there, it’s not the same. That being said, there’s always the “as close as reasonably possible” goal you can go for, so this will be the guide on how to reach that goal in Pokemon Crystal.

How to Transfer Pokemon from Generation I

To put it shortly, you can’t, not really. There is no tool which can simply transfer Pokemon or any other data on the PC. If you have the hardware, you could do some trading, but with emulation on the PC, you can’t do it.

Another part of the challenge completed.

You can do two things, however. You can edit your saves and copy the data manually, which was buggy for me, or you can use cheats to catch the same Pokemon you had in generation I and then edit the saves to copy EV and IV data, moves and PP levels. This is what I did. I tried just editing the saves with PikaSav first, but this caused the game to behave strangely. Instead, I used some Gameshark cheats in Visual Boy Advance to make Pikachu appear in the wild, caught him, and then edited the save to change his stats to the levels from Pokemon Yellow. The tools I used for this were

The important cheat here is

The cheat to catch any Pokemon – 91xx04d2

You need to replace “xx” with the number from the list on Supercheats for the Pokemon you want to catch. When you enable this cheat, the Pokemon you chose will be the only Pokemon to appear in random battles. For Pikachu, the “xx” is “19”. Once I caught him, I saved my game and loaded up Pikasav. First, I opened up the Pokemon Yellow save to write down Pikachu’s stat and move information and then opened the Pokemon Crystal save to set the information for the newly caught Pikachu to those values.

I only bothered getting Pikachu. It takes to long to transfer everyone.

I did this only with Pikachu at first and simply used Pikasav to add all the other Pokemon I caught in Yellow to the Pokedex. The procedure was simply too tedious for me to do it with all my other Pokemon. Later on in the game, I also used this method to get Kingler back into my team.
Depending on how much patience, time and willpower you have, you can do as you please.

How to Follow Ash – Violet City, Flying Gym

Route

New Bark Town -> Route 29 .> Cherrygrove City -> Route 30 -> Route 31 -> Violet City

The Anime

In the anime, Ash Catches a Heracross and a Chikorita well before the first Gym. He also tries using Chikorita in the first gym and fails.

How to Follow

Chikorita was the starter I picked, though it sucked during the first few gyms.

You should probably pick Chikorita as your starter, though the other two are also valid choices, since Ash gets them later in the anime and you won’t be able to get them any other way. Sadly, this means that you’ll have to pick between one of three Pokemon Ash eventually catches. As for Heracross, you can’t get him yet. He only drops from trees in mountain areas, so you need to get Headbutt from Illex Forest first.

How to Follow Ash – Azalea City, Bug Gym

Route

Ruins of Alph -> Route 32 -> Azalea Town

The Anime

In the anime, Ash leaves Charizard, though he’s able to call back on him later. He also catches his Cindaquil.

How to Follow

You can’t do much, really. If you picked Chikorita, you can’t get Cyndaquil, and if you went with Cyndaquil, you already have it, so you can start using it now. If you transferred Charizard, it’s time to put him in the PC, probably.

How to Follow Ash – Goldenrod City, Normal Gym

Route

Ilex Forest -> Day Care Center -> Goldenrod City

The Anime

In the anime, Ash officially gets his Totodile. He also leaves his Squirtle with the Squirtle Squad. Finally, he gets a shiny Noctowl. He’s luckier than I ever was.

How to Follow

Simple. If you picked Totodile as your starter, you have it. If you have a Squirtle in your team, leave it. Not much else to do there. However, since you got Headbut from Ilex forest, it’s time to go get your Heracross. For that, you have to walk all the way to before Azalea Town, to Route 33. I believe this is the closest mountainous route you can get to at the point where you get Headbut. You won’t be able to get Noctowl, not yet. If you want, you could catch a Hoothoot in Illex Forest and evolve it instead.

Heracross will probably be one of your strongest for a long time.

How to Follow Ash – Ecruteak City, Ghost Gym

Route

National Park -> Route 36 -> Route 37 -> Ecruteak City

The Anime

Nothing of note happens. Ash encounters a large amount of Pokemon, but doesn’t officially expand his roster. He does catch a Beedril and immediately gives it to a friend, though.

How to Follow

Do nothing, basically. You’ll just spend a lot of time cancelling the evolution of your starter, since the first one to evolve in the anime is Chikorita and that’s only after Ecruteak Gym. If you want to follow the story, catch and release a Beedril using Headbut. It definitely drops from trees back in Illex forest. I never did this. Oh, and it’s finally time to get that Noctowl, if you haven’t gotten a Hoothoot in Illex forest. You can find it on Route 37 at night.

Noctowl will be extremely valuable and you get it just in time for Fly.

How to Follow Ash – Cianwood City, Fighting Gym

Route

Route 38 -> Route 39 -> Olvine City -> Route 40 -> Route 41 -> Cianwood City

The Anime

During this time, Chikorita evolves into Bayleef. That’s about it for the anime.

How to Follow

Simple. Just follow the story and finally let Chikorita evolve. If you’re like me, this doesn’t mean you can stop cancelling its evolution, since its level will be high enough to evolve to the final form, which doesn’t happen in the anime. Note that you’ll go through Olivine City, which also has a gym, but you’ll have to return to that later, since that’s how the game story goes.
You might not have a Pokemon able to use Surf at this point, so it’s time to bring in one from your old team. I picked Kingler, but if you want to also follow the Whirl Islands part, it might be time to get Lapras. I didn’t bother.

Since you don’t have a Surf capable Pokemon unless you got Totodile, you need to bring in Kingler or Lapras.

How to Follow Ash – Olivine City, Steel Gym

Route

Route 41 -> Olivine Gym (or just fly)

The Anime

At this point, the Whirl Islands part of the anime starts and ends with the Whirpool Cup

How to Follow

I didn’t. The whirl islands are just an area in the game, not a region like in the anime. I just went back to Olivine and beat the gym.

How to Follow Ash – Mahogany Town, Ice Gym

Route

Mt. Mortar -> Route 42 -> Mahogany Town -> Route 43 -> Lake of Rage -> Mahogany Town

The Anime

Some major events happen in the anime, just like in the game and the Phanpy Egg hatches.

How to Follow

You can’t get a Phanpy yet, so you can’t really do much, other than going with the story and beating the gym.

How to Follow Ash – Blackthorn City, Dragon Gym

Route

Route 44 -> Ice Path -> Blackthorn City

The Anime

Again, not much of note happens here regarding Ash’s roster.

How to Follow

Play through it and get to Blackthorn City. You might want to catch a Phanpy on Route 45, south of Blackthorn in the morning before tackling the Gym.

Phanpy wasn’t very useful for me, sadly.

How to Follow Ash – The League

Route

Go back to your home town and Surf to the east, then go through Victory Road to get to the League.

How to Follow

At this point, you can forget about the anime. All you have to do is beat the game. None of your Pokemon will evolve further, nor will you be able to expand your team. Technically, Ash uses Larvitar for a while in the anime, but he never really catches it and you can’t get it in the game yet anyway.

Grandia [5] – To the PC and Back Again (The Twin Towers Freeze)

February 21, 2013 by Nikola·3 Comments

Last time on Grandia, I got seriously stuck. The EBOOT I’m using on my PSP turned out bugged, so it kept freezing at the Twin Towers animated cut scene. I tried using the PSP Go Pause Game feature to go around it, but it wouldn’t work. Well, I managed to navigate around it anyway, albeit in a very unconventional way.

How to Transfer saves from PSP to ePSXe?

You see, I have a PC and I’m no stranger to emulation. I dusted off my copy of ePSXe, updated it and got an ISO of Grandia with the same ID as the one I have on my PSP – SCUS94457. I know, I know, technically, this is piracy, but I paid 50€ for the German version of Grandia about 15 years ago, and that amount of money is around 8% of my current income, so sue me.

I’m kidding. Please don’t sue me. It’s totally a legal backup.

The two VMP files are the actual memory cards.

Anyway , I got the ISO, err, backup and loaded it up on ePSXe. I made sure the two memory card files in the memcard subfolder of ePSXe were created and then I connected my PSP Go to the PC. I found the original saves in PSP/SAVEDATA/SCUS94457 on my PSP Go and copied them to my PC.

Copying from the PSP Go to the ePSXe memory card is as simple as copying a file.

Then I got an awesome piece of software – MemCardRex. This tools allows you to edit different PS1 save formats, copy save slots from one memory card to another and even create new memory card files. It can edit and save a large amount of formats and read a few more. I loaded up my PSP Go save files in one tab and my ePSXe memory card file in the other and copied the Grandia saves. I was now able to continue my game on the ePSXe, so that’s what I did.

The Game

I got past the Twin Towers, since the dungeon ended as soon as the cut scene was over. What followed was the saddest part of the game and the second saddest moment in my gaming career, second only to the scene from Final Fantasy VII. The game was hinting that Sue was getting more and more exhausted since the End of The World, possibly even sooner, but it finally happened. She collapsed at the village of Dight.

I didn’t notice the hints on my first playthrough.

Justin needed a teleportation orb from the nearby Mysterious Vanishing Hill to get over the inner sea, though, so Sue did her usual grown up thing and sent him on his way. The Mysterious Vanishing Hill was a relatively short area, made even shorter with ePSXe’s ability to fast forward through battles by disabling the FPS limiter. I fought the two bosses there, got the orb and went back to Sue.

She decided to leave adventuring to Justin until she gets older. It’s hard to describe this, but it was a very touching scene and in the end, Justin decided to use the orb to help Sue get back to Parm. This means Sue wont be learning any more spells and I’m one awesome character short. On the game side, I got Sue’s skill books, so not all of it will be wasted, but story-wise, it was still a very sad moment.

Right in the feeler!

Since teleportation was out of the question, I needed a boat. Luckily, Gadwin had one, so he told me to meet him back at his house when we’re ready to leave. Getting there was a bit annoying, since the area was full of low-level enemies I couldn’t avoid.

I got to Gadwin and then it was revealed I’m gonna lose another awesome character. Gadwin challenged Justin to a duel and this time, I won. He taught me his secret Dragon Move and then said it’s time for him to go on his own Journey. Again, I got his skill books, but I still lost an awesome character.

Both battles are rigged, but it’s still a cool part of the game.

I went back to Dight and boarded Gadwin ship. Again, the game offered some touching moments during the voyage and Justin actually got serious for a bit, before a pretty girl ran into their boat, called Justin “her hero” and asked him to save her island from pirates. That’s where I stopped playing.

Justin really knows how to kill the magic.

Half way through, though, I transferred my save back to the PSP, because I prefer a bug and stutter free experience, which apparently, ePSXe is unable to offer, even after all these years.

How to transfer saves from PC to the PSP

Sadly, MemCardRex can’t save to the PSP memory card format, only read from it. In order to transfer my saves there, I had to go with a different route. I downloaded the CWCheats plugin for my PSP Go. There are different versions of the plugin out there, but not all of them work on the PSP Go, so I had to find the right one. This plugin basically allows for hex cheats in PSP and POPS games, but it can also replace entire memory cards on the fly and it also allows ePSXe save file imports.

In order to get to that point, I had to rename my ePSXe save file to the GAME_IDE-#.mcr format, which ended up being:

[code]SCUS_94457-0.mcr[/code]

I renamed it to that and then copied the file to the seplugins/cwcheat/mc folder on my PSP. Then I made sure the plugin was working and I loaded up Grandia. Once I was at the title menu, I pushed and held Select for a few seconds, which caused the cwcheat menu to appear. From there, I was able to import the ePSXe save from the Manage Memory Cards menu. If the file doesn’t appear for you, make sure you named it correctly. It needs to be named after the game ID, which you can also read from the cwcheat menu while the game is running.

Anyway, I got past the freezing bug at Twin Towers and now I’m able to keep playing my game on the PSP Go.

Tomba! [1] – A Challenger Appears!

February 18, 2013 by Nikola·2 Comments

As I already said, Grandia bugged out on me, freezing at a certain spot. My plan was to transfer the saves to my PC and continue the game with an emulator, but in the meantime, I decided to start a fresh game on the PSP, a platformer, of a sort.

This game really brings me back!

Tomba! is a very strange game. It plays and controls like a 2D platformer, but it’s way more complicated than that. The whole idea of the game is that you explore the colorful world, find obstacles and then talk to interesting characters and collect items to help you deal with those obstacles. Basically, it’s a platforming adventure game that plays more like a mix of equal parts Super Mario, Castlevania and Monkey Island, of all things.

It’s really hard to explain, but I found the demo, which is the only thing I’ve ever played as a kid, extremely fun and interesting. In fact, I found it so interesting I decided to put Tomba! on my PSP now and play all the way through it.

The 100 Year Old Man

The plot of Tomba! is simple. You’re some sort of caveman kid who likes to eat pork and have fun. Somehow, you run into a bunch of evil pigs who knock you out and steal your grandpa’s golden bracelet. You really like that bracelet, so you decided to save the world and destroy the evil pig empire to get it back.

The colors!

I started the game and talked to the old man at the beginning, which got me my first few events:

Grandpa’s Bracelet
Clear the Fog
The 100 Year Old Man

The first one will be with me until the game ends, but the other two, I’ll solve really soon.

You can hold up to jump in that direction while swinging on a branch.

The beginning part was in the demo, so I remembered some of it. I jumped on the wall of the building behind me and got to the other side of the fence, where i got the Furious Tornado from the mailbox. Then I jumped back to the front and climbed the first three to talk to a hungry monkey:

A Hungry Monkey

Soon enough, I got to the fog and used the Furious Tornado to clear it. On the way there, I also found a frog which I need to take home, but to do that, I had to get through a lengthy area without getting hit, which I failed to do. I continued to go right and soon got to a mountain and climbed to the top of it. On my way there, I destroyed four eggs and picked up the chicks inside.

Take Me Home
Inside the Kokka Eggs

At the top of the mountain was the house of the 100-year-old man, so that was another event I cleared. He told me all about the dwarves and their troubles and gave me the 100-year-old key, which opens a bunch of chests, so I went back to collect the treasures inside those. On the way to the old man, I also found the AP Box, which requires me to gather 50 000 AP.

Cartoon cutscenes!

Tale of the Evil Pigs
Dwarf Elder
The AP Box

I also gave him the chicks from the Kokka Eggs, so that event was over. One of the treasure chests I went back for contained the 100 Year Old Bell, which teleports me to the 100 Year Old Man’s hut upon use and it has infinite uses. I also found a pair of Charity Wings. These are a single use item that transports me to any location I already visited.

Tomba stores items in his stomach.

The Forest of 100 Flowers

Next up, I went past the 100 Year Old Man’s hut to the Forest of 100 Flowers. This is where I found my first dwarf and was told I need to bite a few of them to learn their language. This is what I did on my way to their village, so I was only missing one when I got there. I also discovered another event where I need to collect a certain amount of Leaf Butterflies. I got a total of six before I got to the village. At the village, I bit the last dwarf and learned the language. I also learned Seven dwarves as well as a dwarven child are missing. A female dwarf has also lost something in the forest and I need seven evil pig bags to defeat the pigs.

Beginner’s Dwarf Language
Save the Dwarves
A Lost Child
Evil Pig Bag
Leaf Butterflies

When I got back to the forest, everything was swarming with pigs and spores. I soon found a couple of the lost dwarves and discovered two new areas, where, after a while, I’ve found the rest of them.

Long story short, I got to the nearby mountain, found the dwarves, found the child, filled a bucket with water and doused some evil pig’s campfire. Then I fed the monkey, brought the frog home, rescued a puppy and went on to find some medicine for it (still looking). The dwarf elder gave me the first pig bag and I think I’ve found the first evil pig’s hideout with the telescope on top of the mountain.

The lair of the first evil pig?

All of this took me about an hour, maybe less. Next up, I’ll explore my current area for a bit to see if I missed anything and then I’ll go past the Phoenix Mountain to see what I can find there.

I got a bunch of event related items, but I’ve acquired some equipment upgrades such as the Jumping Pants which heighten my jump, as well as the wooden boomerang which is, I think, a stronger weapon. The hungry monkey tanked me for the bananas by teaching me how to run.

My first impressions of Tomba! are very positive. The game has aged really well and it still looks good, especially on the small PSP screen. The mechanics are unique even today, so It’s a refreshing change for me, after all these RPGs.

Pokemon Crystal [7] – The League Won!

February 17, 2013 by Nikola·2 Comments

Last time in Pokemon Crystal, I attempted the league with a level 45 party and failed horribly. It was obvious I had to train, so train I did.

As I already said, most of my Pokemon had it easy with training at the Victory Road. The cave mostly contained ground and rock Pokemon, with a couple of Golbats thrown in for good measure. My Pikachu simply destroyed everything with his Iron Tail, saving his Thunder and Thundershock for Golbat. Kingler handled it all with Surf and Crabhammer, once he finally got that awesome move. Heracross didn’t really have a super effective move to use, but thanks to his amazing power, he handled everything with regularly effective moves and the STAB bonus on his Horn Attack. Noctowl kicked ass with Confusion, but didn’t get to learn Extrasensory in time. Bayleef had it easy with Razor Leaf against the rock and ground types and a Headbutt or a Body Slam against Golbat.

The state of my final team.

The only Pokemon I had issues with was my Phanpy. It was getting more and more obvious I won’t get any use out of him in this game. He can’t evolve yet, since that only happens later in the anime. I got it late in the game, so his stats are low and none of his moves are really useful. In addition to that, his speed is low, so he usually acts after the enemy Pokemon, which means he usually doesn’t act at all. I tried giving him the Exp. Share, but that didn’t really help, since he would have to outlevel the rest of my group to be effective enough.

Kingler steals the last hit!

After about 30 minutes of grinding, I finally got most of my team (Phanpy not included) to about level 50 and then I gave it a few more attempts against the Elite Four. The first few attempts failed miserably, but this helped me learn which Pokemon the Elite Four actually have, so on my third attempt, I finally managed to get to Lance. After Karen, who used dark and ghost types mostly, Lance and his “dragon” types were easy. I say “dragon” because he used a Gyarados, a Charizard and an Aeordactyl, which Pikachu disposed of with a single hit of Thundershock. His other three Pokemon were all Dragonite, so I had some difficulty with them, but Heracross got rid of the first two and Kingler somehow managed to defeat the last one.

Champion for all eternity!

With that, Pokemon Crystal was won. As with Pokemon Yellow, I failed on my first try, just like Ash did, but then I went and won it anyway, just so I can get some closure. I know it would have probably been truer to the anime to just give up and go with the next region, but it just doesn’t feel right to leave the game at that.

The traditional Victory Screen. I think I’ll save these for later.

Technically, I could now also go through the Kanto region to beat the local gyms and then finally face Red, the trainer of the first generation, but I really don’t feel like doing that, since it has nothing to do with the anime.

Time for Generation III!

Grandia [4] – Saving Gumbo Village

February 16, 2013 by Nikola·2 Comments

As I said, my next location were the Lama Mountains, where coincidentally, I believe I got another mana egg or two, unless I remember it incorrectly. The area was a bit lengthy and It took me even longer to get through it due to not playing through all of it in one go, but eventually, I got to the other side, to Gumbo Village, which has one of the funniest parts in the story.

Wind is the first element for Sue, but it probably won’t be the only one.

As we walk in, everyone runs away from Justin and Feena, thinking they’re a couple. For some reason, that’s a big no-no in Gumbo Village. Eventually, we get to the mayor and Justin volunteers both Feena and himself to be “the heroic couple” of legends because hey, it’s fun and the villagers seem to like the idea. Soon after, it turns out that the thing that makes the couple heroic is that they’re going to be sacrificed to the dragon living at the local volcano. The dragon is somehow stopping the volcano from working properly, causing the usually nice and warm Gumbo Village to get called. Since a couple needs to be sacrificed for some unexplained reason, everyone denies even liking anyone else, which is why the villagers are acting crazy.

You know it’s a big catapult when you have time for a talk in the air.

Anyway, Justin and Feena sort of find this out when it’s already too late, and they get catapulted into the volcano. This got me into the next area, where I soon regrouped with Sue and Gadwin and then spent the next hour or two, or three, exploring it and getting all the items. Again, it would and should have been faster, but I’ve played it sporadically and in short bursts, so I was forced to keep retracing my steps. Eventually, I got some nice accessories, one of which gives me an extra swing with my regular attack and eventually got to the boss. The dragon was easy to deal with and before I knew it, I was back at Gumbo Village.

The dragon was an easy fight, just like all of the others.

Justin and Feena had a nice moment and then it was time to go to the next area – The Twin Towers. The Twin Towers are ancient ruins located beyond the nearby mountains. Since the mountains were poisonous (I’m guessing the volcano has something to do with that, I had to go by boat. As soon as I got there, it was obvious the Garyle forces where already there. I explored the outer area and managed to get into the inner area thanks to Justin saying they’re local guides hired by the army.

Eventually, I got to the central chamber, where Justin and Gadwin had a clash with Mullen (and failed), before Leen, Feena, Mullen and Justin managed to somehow activate a teleporter pad and got transfered underground into the ruins. Justin got paired with Leen, while Feena was stuck with Mullen. For the most part, the underground area was simple and I would have gone past it by now, if it weren’t for a serious problem.

Mullen seems sort of decent here.

The game freezes at the end of the Twin Towers. This, in all likelihood, has something to do with it being a eboot conversion of the regular PlayStation game, but I tried all I could think off with no luck. I’m stuck at the moment where Justin and Leen activate one of those communication crystals. Liete says “Welcome” and is just about to say “he who carries the spirit stone” when everything just stops. I tried pausing my game (PSP Go) and reloading that state, but it didn’t help. I tried changing my ISO driver – nothing.

The game freezes a few seconds after this.

I’m afraid there will be no more Grandia on the PSP for me. All is not lost, though. I did some research and I think it’s possible to transfer a PSP save to a PC emulator, so I’ll try to load up ePSXe in a couple of days and finish the game that way. For now, I have to pick another game to play on the PSP. I think I might go for something that isn’t a JRPG this time, but I can’t make any promises. That is my favorite console genre, after all.

Pokemon Crystal [6] – To the Pokemon League!

February 13, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

As promised, my next goal in Pokemon Crystal was Blackthorn City and the local dragon type gym. The way the story goes is that the gym actually belongs to Lance, the cool NPC I helped deal with Team Rocket, but while he’s away, his younger sister Clair is running it. It also turns out she’s kind of bratty, since she “couldn’t believe I beat her” and made me jump through hoops to get the badge. I actually had to go clear an extra dungeon before I finally had eight badges.

Clair was mostly a pushover, thanks to Noctowl and Heracross.

Clair was easy to beat, by the way, even though she used dragon Pokemon. Her three Dragonairs weren’t able to touch me damage-wise and her Kingdra soon fell to Heracross and Noctowl. I couldn’t use most of my Pokemon, though, since the dragon type is highly resistant to most common types.

With that out of the way, I could finally go to the Pokemon League, but before I did that, I decided to go to the Tin Tower, since it was unlocked now that I beat Team Rocket. In there, after some trainer battles, I encountered Suicine, but I wasn’t able to catch it and instead ended up defeating it. I don’t think I’ll work on getting all the legendary Pokemon in Pokemon Crystal, since the only legendaries that truly feel legendary to me are the three birds of the first generation and maybe Lugia.

The entrance to the Kanto region is right next to the main character’s house.

To finally get to the league, I had to go to the Kanto region first, and the road towards it was right next to my house in New Bark Town. Soon enough, I got to the Victory Road. Compared to Yellow, the place was basically a hallway, which I welcome with open arms. I never liked long twisting passages in my dungeons. Give me optional areas, but let me know they’re optional areas.

Eventually, I got to the league and the training started. I took some time to get my entire team to around 45, which was simply with most of my Pokemon. Pikachu handled the rock types of Victory Road with Iron Tail, Kingler used Surf, Bayleef dominated with Razor Leaf and even Noctowl started kicking ass once it learned Confusion. Heracross and Phanpy had some difficulties, but nothing Exp. Share couldn’t handle.

Level 46 is probably the low end of the recommended level group.

My team was trained and I was ready. Or not!

Apparently, level 45 with my team composition was nowhere near enough to beat the Elite Four of Pokemon Crystal. I didn’t even get to see all of them.

Will, the first of the four used Psychic Pokemon, so I had to train up Pikachu to at least one-hit knockout some of them, but even so, Exeggutor and Jynx would usually ruin my team. Eventually, I got through it and after a few attempts, I was able to beat Will on a regular basis, but that didn’t help.

The Pokemon League building quickly turned into a respawn area.

Koga, the gym leader of Pokemon Yellow and a user of Bug Pokemon sounded easy, but I apparently have insanely bad luck with poison, so he would usually finish me off before I could get to Bruno, user of Rock and Fighting types. I actually didn’t get past Bruno yet. The Elite Four really are the Elite Four in Pokemon Crystal, apparently.

Next up, training. Lot’s and lot’s of training.

Pokemon Crystal [5] – Lake of Rage and Mahogany Gym

February 12, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

This time in Pokemon Crystal, as promised, I went straight towards Lake of Rage. Of course, I couldn’t fly there yet, so instead, I flew to Ecruteak City and went east, over Route 42, towards Mahogany Town. There was a Gym there, but I couldn’t challenge it until I dealt with the situation at the Lake of Rage.

To this day, the red Gyarados is the only “shiny” Pokemon I ever caught (and probably ever will), so I caught it again, just for fun. Of course, I won’t be using it, but it’s something I don’t mind keeping in one of my boxes.

The forest maze had some useful items.

The lake itself, I’ve managed to clear relatively quickly, but thanks to fast-forwarding everything, I missed the part where Lance tells me where to go next, so I spent some time wandering around the area, exploring the forest maze to the northwest and finding a hidden hut with a TM. Eventually, I figured out I needed to go back to Mahogany Town.

In a house there, Lance uncovered an underground passage to a Team Rocket base, so I spent the next twenty-or-so minutes fighting Rattatas and various other weak Pokemon. Eventually, I got through it and got back out, finally unlocking the Mahogany Gym.

This time, Team Rocket was more of a company than a crime organization.

The gym type was Ice, so Pikachu really kicked some ass. Overall, I can’t say I had any trouble with clearing it. I got my seventh badge and was ready to go to the next city. To get to Blackthorn City, I had to go through an ice cave filled with sliding and boulder puzzles. Luckily, the random encounters weren’t too frequent, so I managed to solve the puzzles and get through in a relatively short amount of time.

The Ice Path was actually fun to get through.

Once I was out, I got to the city, but I couldn’t tackle the gym yet. I had to unlock it by completely defeating Team Rocket. To do that, I went to the Radio Tower at Goldenrod City. Before that, however, It was time to catch my final team member – Phanpy. He appeared at Route 46 in the morning, so it took me a while to find one. Even worse, he has a tendency to run away from battles, so I had to waste a couple of Ultra Balls before I could finally catch it. I spent some time leveling it, before I finally went to Goldenrod City.

Pretty soon, the old canceling annoyance started.

Ash’s Donphan – Move List

Tackle
Rollout
Take Down
Defense Curl
Earthquake
Hidden Power
Hyper Beam

Phanpy won’t be evolving to Donphan in this game, but I plan to use the stronger moves anyway, since I have no idea which moves he used in his unevolved form. The move list isn’t very interesting anyway, so I’m not sure how much I’ll like this one. Still, the plan is to keep everyone in the same level range, so that’s what I’ll be doing.

I finally got around to bringing Togepi to the Professor – I got an Everstone for Bayleef.

The Tower was a huge area I had to visit twice to completely clear. First, I had to go to the top of the unlocked area to get a key to another dungeon at the Goldenrod Underground. Clearing that dungeon then got me a Key Card which unlocked the second area of the Radio Tower. Once that final area was cleared and the new Team Rocket boss was defeated, the Team Rocket side quest was finally over.

Next up, Blackthorn Gym.