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Hell, it’s about time…

 
I cleared half the levels of the gallery yesterday, and the other half this morning. It took me about one to two hours to do that. Then it was time to fight the genie. He kicked my ass, several times. I could only attack his hands that rose out of the ground for a second or two and only with one element, indicated by a symbol on the hand. He takes more than half my health with each hit, and I can hit him for about 100 or so damage. I believe I took close to 3000 and still nothing changed.
 
This is way I’ve spent most of the day leveling my weapons up. I did some fishing until I ran out of bait, exchanged the points for gems, then went and cleared some of the back levels of the Shipwreck for more gems and Abs. points. It took me the entire day to level Toan’s sword into a 7th Heaven and to level Ruby’s Crystal Ring to a Secret Armlet. I pretty much maxed out all of the attributes on most weapons. I did this from around 10 in the morning, to about 30 minutes ago (17:00).
 
My second attempt against the genie went much better. I sold all the gems I had left and spent it all on premium chicken and repair items. It turns out the genie had three phases in total. The first one with the hands was where I noticed the nice change. Instead of doing 100 damage at a time, I did around 1100.  It took me just a few hits to go to phase two. The genie stopped attacking me with his hands and instead started shooting some giant beam from a third eye on his forehead. I had to dodge the beam and shoot at the eye when the beam stopped.  A few 1000 damage hits later, phase 3 started. He turned into some giant insect like thing and summoned to skeleton monsters. First I tried to kill the skeletons, but then their corpses kept blocking me and he resurrected them again. I decided to ignore them and focus on the genie. He would send a shock wave in my direction by stomping his foot, so I had to dodge that. Right after the shockwave, he opened his mouth and something came out that I had to hit. Every now and then he would also shoot a tracking laser beam at me, this time a bit stronger than in phase two. A few hits at the thing in his mouth, and he was dead.
There was a big ending scene where I resurrected the king’s wife and then Toan disappeared. The credits started rolling and after that there was a scene of Toan running towards his village where a party was happening. I got the “The End” screen and a notification about unlocking a new dungeon. I guess the point of that one is to do more grinding, but that is not something I’m looking forward to.
So, what do I think about the game? All in all, I would give it a 6-7/10. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun game. Some of the humor was decent and the weapon system looks good on paper, but there were a lot of things that could’ve been done better. First of all, the controls are really bad. The camera spins like crazy and it’s really hard to hit anything properly from melee without taking damage. Most of the difficulty in this game comes from bad controls. Also, the forced grinding is just bad game design. All the other bosses in the game could be killed with minimal leveling in advance, but the last one took 6-7 hours of grinding before I could kill him. The fact that the last dungeon had 25 levels instead of the usually 16-17, including levels where you were forced to use each of the characters is not even worth mentioning.  The story itself could have been good, but the presentation was just bad. At times I wasn’t sure if the game is supposed to be funny, serious, bright or dark. It’s just completely inconsistent.
 
All in all, if you like grinding and don’t care about the story to much, go for it. Just don’t expect that you will like it nearing the end just because you liked the beginning. The game tricks you like that. Oh well, they say Dark Cloud 2 was way better, so I will try that one next.

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I acquired a bunch of indie games a few weeks ago, so, since I’ve completed some of them, and hated others, this one got its turn. I think I can objectively say it’s bad. They advertise it as a city builder game with a twist, but it’s nothing like it. You control your ODD Boy and do quests for various other members in the village. The quests include getting them an item, then building them a building in three stages, each stage requiring a gathering of various materials from nodes and monsters on the map, and then getting another item from them which you can then give to the next villager and start the process over. The graphics look nice and even the story is cute, but the game is just repetitive, slow and boring.
 
That being said, I’ve still completed it. I’m not sure why, but something just compelled me to do it. It didn’t take long, a couple of hours at most, but I still consider it a waste of time. There are also some achievements built into the game, of which I missed only two. I am not planning to go back to those. 

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This is basically a simplified Settlers game. Each level is a different map with different goals. You get slots on the map, but some of them are hidden until you build buildings close enough to reveal them. You have to build defensive, economic and population increasing structures in order to reach your goal. Depending on how fast you do this, you get a medal. I have managed to get a gold medal on every level as well as unlock all the achievements in the game in basically one go, so the game really isn’t that hard. Still, it was fun while it lasted.

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I managed to complete this one on normal difficulty. I have also finished allot of the various mini games and unlocked all three of the Zen gardens, as well as the three of Wisdom or whatever it’s called.  I have managed to reach the night time pool level on the second difficulty. As far as I can tell, the difference in difficulty is that I get a few more zombies and Crazy Dave is picking three plants for me on every level. I find that if I adjust to what he picks for me, I can do pretty well.

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During one of my many train rides, I actually managed to complete this game on the third difficulty level. This means I have unlocked the Elite Beat Divas. Their difficulty isn’t much harder than Sweatin’ when it comes to the necessary clicking speed, but the buttons are much smaller so it takes way more accuracy. I managed to complete a few levels on this new difficulty, but I have yet to complete it entirely or unlock the third bonus song.

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I must admit, I was getting a bit tired of playing the same old Pokemon games. Yes, they are fun, but it’s always the exact same thing. Are you a boy or a girl? Boy? Great, here is your monster, now go defeat 8 gym masters, beat a Team Rocket Clone on the way and become a Pokemon master. This is why I decided to try this challenge. As far as I understand it, the challenge was thought of by Ruby, the owner of the Nuzlocke Comics blog. He decided to play Pokemon Ruby with this set of rules and drew a comic while doing it. The name Nuzlocke came from a character in the comic (heavy Lost references). Anyways, his, and the other challenge comics he collects are really fun to read, so I heavily recommend those.

There are many variations to the rules of the Nuzlocke Challenge, some easier and some harder. Being new to this, I decided to try one of the easier set of rules:

  • Can only catch one Pokemon per route
  • All floors of the same cave count as one area
  • If a wild Pokemon faints before I catch him, I forfeited that area
  • After I get the first Pokeball, I have to catch the first Pokemon I encounter on every route. No rerolls.
  • Once a Pokemon dies, I need to either release him or put him in one of the PC Boxes, never to be used again.
  • Pokemon from trades or acquired by methods other than catching in the wilderness are not allowed

The game that I decided to try this set of rules on is Pokemon Fire Red. I prefer the first set of Pokemon and the graphics in this remake are a major improvement from the original. Also, since I am playing this on an emulator, I plan to use the fastf orward feature heavily to save time on loading and battle scenes. The rewind feature is, of course, disabled. After saying all this, I think it’s time to start the game.

Pokemon Fire Red Cover

Let’s get it on!

Session Start 15.6.2010, 00:15

I named my trainer Red in the style of the original comic, and my rival Dick for the fun of it. As my starter, I chose Charmander and nicknamed it Libby. Following the regular story, I went to the next town to get a parcel for professor Oak and got it back to him. He gave me the Poxedex. I got 5 Pokeballs and caught Rattata on Route 1. I named it Kate.

I decided to train both Kate and Libby to level 8 before continuing. This included lots of trips to the Pokemon Center, but thanks to this, Kate learned Quick Attack which will be really useful. I proceeded to route 2 and, what a surprise, I caught another Rattata. This was another female, so I named it Clare. I trained her to level 8 as well.

Next, I proceeded to Viridian forest where I caught a Kakuna, which I named Rousso. All that Rousse knew was Harden, so there was really no point training it for now. In the forest, I raised Kate and Clare to level 10 and Libby to level 14. Arriving to Pewter City, Rousso was level 6.
Pewter City is the location of the first, Rock type gym. I foolishly decided to just go for it and lost Libby and Rousso. They will both be mourned deeply (well, more Libby than Rousso). May they rest in peac

It was time to move on to the next town. I proceded through Route 3 and Mount Moon, catching a Pidgey called Missy and a Zubat called Sally on the way, respectively. As you can see, it was here that I quit with the Lost naming scheme because I was getting an unusual amount of females. I wish it was the same in real life. Being quite late in the night, or early in the morning, depending on how you look at it, I decided to end my session here.

Session End 15.6.2010. 00:59

Session Start 15.6.2010. 10:55

Starting this session, I have cleared Mount Moon completely and got the Dome fossil. Proceeding on Route 4, I caught another Rattata, this time a male and named it Charley. I was finally in Cerulean city. This is where I unexpectedly stumbled into Dick and was forced to battle him. Sadly, I lost Clare in the battle.

Pokemon - Rattata

I was sure to get this one.

Being shaken up by this, I decided to do some training. I trained Missy and Sally to 22. Sally evolved to a Golbat. This being Fire Red, for now this was the final stage of her evolution. Bolstered by training I went on to defeat the second gym leader, Misty, a water trainer. I suffered no losses and earned my second badge.

I proceeded to Route 24 where I caught a Catterpie. I forgot to name it, but it doesn’t really matter because, even though I evolved it to a Beautifly lightning fast, I also lost it lightning fast in a regular trainer battle due to a critical hit. At the end of Route 24 I’ve found Bills house, the creator of the PC system. After helping him with a teleportation issue, he gave me his ticket for a boat. I proceeded to Route 5, where I caught a level 15 Pidgey named Rodger (yes, typo, I know). I decided to put Charley in the Day-Care center because I’m getting swamped with Rattatas. I caught another Pidgey on Route 6. This one was level 16 and I decided to name him Mark.

I arrived to Vermilion City, where I boarded the S.S.Anne. I fought a bunch of trainers on the ship, including Dick again and I helped the ship Captain, who then gave me HM01 Cut in return. I left the ship early, not knowing it would leave, so I missed a few trainer battles. Cut was taught to Kate, so now I could enter Gym 3. This one was an Electric type and was won with no casualties.

I proceeded to Route 9 where I accidentally killed a level 9 Rattata with a critical Quick Attack. As far as I care, good riddance. I just hope I won’t lack any Pokemon later. Later on Route 10, I caught an Ekans and called him Paul. Next was Rock Tunnel where I caught a Geodude and called it Anna.

Session End 15.6.2010. 11:44

Session Start 15.6.2010. 15:45

I switched Rodger out for Anna, thinking a rock type would be way more useful. I arrived at Lavender town where I bought a bunch of Great Balls and restocked on other consumables. Lavender town is the location of the Pokemon Tower, which is a Pokemon graveyard. I encountered Dick again, but managed to defeat him with no casualties. After exploring most of the Pokemon tower, I encountered a ghost who wouldn’t let me proceed. I guess I need an item to clear this area.

It was time to leave Lavender Town for now. On my way through routes 8 and 7, I caught a Pidgey named Adolf and a Meowth named Mietzi. I arrived at Celadon City. While exploring it, I managed to get a Coin Case and acquire an Evee. Since I can’t use Pokemon not caught in battle, I stored it in the PC.

The Gym 4, a Grass type gym was located in Celadon City. I defeated the leader, Erika easily thanks to Missy. After this I proceeded to Route 16 where I managed to kill a Doduo with Quick Attack again. Also, Missy evolved. Somewhere along the way, I managed to get HM02 Fly and taught it to Mark. I’ve also found the secret hideout of Team Rocket where I fought and defeated Giovanni and got the Sylph Scope.

With the Scope, I went back to the Pokemon Tower and managed to catch a level 16 Ghastly who I named Casper. I calmed the Ghost at the top and it turned out it was a Marowak. Team Rocket was holding Mr. Fuji on the top so he gave me the Pokemon Flute for saving him. An old lady in Celadon City gave me some tea, which I then handed to one of the guard blocking the road to Safron city. He said he would share it with the other four guards so now all the routes are open.

Pokemon

Gotta catch ’em all, right?

The Safron City gym was blocked by Team Rocket, but there was a fighting dojo next to it, which I also managed to clear and got a Hitmonlee in the process. Of course, I had to send it to the PC. After all this, I went to Sylph Co. which was also being controlled by Team Rocket. I fought them for a while, but I decided it was still too dangerous for me, so I got out. I used the Flute to awaken a Snorlax, which opened another route for me. On Route 18, I lost another Doduo to Quick Attack.

I managed to get to Fuchsia city, which was the home of the Safari Zone. I decided catching Safari Pokemon was against the rules, since it doesn’t include a real battle. Fuchsia City was also the home of another Gym, this time a Poison type. It was a really tough battle, which forced me to use most of my potions, but in the end, I managed to win it with no casualties.

Session End 15.6.2010. 17:34

Session Start 15.6.2010. 20:07

Since I got my fifth badge, I decided I was brave enough to tackle the Sylph Co. building. This is a huge building with, I think, 12 floors weirdly connected with various teleporters and stairs. In the end, I managed to do it, defeated Giovanni again and also got the Master Ball.

Next I got to Gym 6 and defeated the psychic, Sabrina, also with no losses. Wing attack is an awesome attack! Since I had to learn Surf to proceed, I had to go to Safari Zone to get it. I did catch a few Pokemon just for my Poxedex, but they all instantly went to the PC. Since none of my Pokemon can learn surf, I have to catch one on a water route I haven’t been to yet.

Session End 15.6.2010. 22:37

Session Start 16.6.2010. 12:45

The water route in question was Route 19 and I caught an awesome Pokemon, Krabby, which I then named Rick. I’m not sure where exactly I managed to get the Good Rod to catch it, but I was probably a fisherman in some random house, like all other Pokemon games. I trained him to 28 and he evolved to a Kingler.

Next I went to the Seafoam Islands cave, where I caught a Psyduck named Erica. I explored the cave for a bit, but I think I need the Strength HM to continue so I got out. On Route 21 I killed a Tangela with curse. I Tried 3 Ultra Balls, but I didn’t manage to catch it before it died. Eventually I arrived at Cinabar Island.

There was a laboratory on the island so I left my Dome Fossil there to get resurrected. Next up was Pokemon Mansion, which was a tough area. I caught a Growlithe in there and named it Jessica. After the mansion, it was time to go to Gym 7, where I defeated a fire leader. I must say, Rick was an awesome asset here.

Pokemon - Kingler

Krabby/Kingler is kind off an underdog of the anime.

Outside the gym, Bill was waiting to take me to One island. For now I could visit the One, Two and Three islands. I managed to help some people there, but I also failed to catch any Pokemon, killing them by accident instead. Since all of this was for nothing, I decided to go back to Veridian city to tackle the final Gym.

This was a ground type gym so Rick was very awesome again. I won with absolutely no difficulties. This means I have 8 badges now, so it’s time to go to the Pokemon League. First stop – Victory Road.

Off course, before all that, I had to fight stupid Dick again. I beat him with no casualties, but his Blastoise was pretty tough. After solving lots of puzzles, I finally managed to get out of Victory Road and got to the League area. Since I can now fly from here and back, I decided I have to train my Pokemon before I tackle the elite four. First I tried grinding at Victory Road, but that got boring really fast. Then I decided to use the VS Seeker to do repeat battles with trainers I’ve fought before, but I couldn’t find any that were high enough level. Still, I explored a bunch of routes and areas I haven’t visited before, and caught a few nice Pokemon. Still, none of them were good enough to replace anyone from my main team. Among other things, I got a bunch of levels and evolved Casper. Also, Rick learned his Crabhammer attack.

Session End 15.6.2010. 17:13

Session Start 17.6.2010. 13:31

At this point, I was really short on time because exams were closing in so I decided to just go for the Elite Four. As it turns out it wasn’t that hard. I had a bunch of Potions, Ethers and status restoring items, so, with Rick being level 75, I managed to go through all four with no major issues. I was so happy about this I forgot that I also need to kick Dick’s ass for the last time. He wasn’t that hard either, at least for the first 5 of his Pokemon. Blastoise, though, was a bitch. I managed to lose two of my team members before Rick finally managed to finish him with the last of his strength. I entered my team into the Hall of Fame and Professor Oak managed to give a major scolding to Dick for, well, being a dick. I waited through the credits so I can save my game, but the emulator crashed at that point, I guess I won’t be playing the after game.

Session End 15.6.2010. 13:58

Final Words

Well, as you can see, I managed to complete my first Nuzlocke Challenge, and it wasn’t hard at all. I guess I will have to try some tougher rules next time, but for now, I can add this one to my completed list. I must say, playing the game this way was really fun. If you want to spice up your Pokemon sessions, I really recommend you to try this. Also, I promise to keep a more detailed log of my journey on my next attempt at a challenge like this.

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Instead of Pokémon, for which I was mostly to sleepy, I decided to play this one during my train rides. I finished Breezin’ during a single ride, and then proceded to complete Cruisin’ over the course of the next two. I also managed to unlock the first bonus song. I was a bit rusty, but you remember this game fast, so I’m now steadily progressing through the Sweatin’ difficulty.

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This one is free for a while due to a celebration of a Mac release. I downloaded it as soon as I found out, because I want the achievements. I completed it in one evening, again, and it’s still as fun as it always was. I got a few of the achievements, but I still have loads to go.

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After reading and watching some good reviews, I decided to try this game. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it allot and I think it’s really fun, but it’s also on hell of a crappy port. The controls are awful and the game is buggy as hell. It’s just not worth the annoyance.  This is another sandbox game that, in my eyes, failed on the PC. Oh well, they have to get it right eventually.

 

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I don’t like this one. It’s really simple. You have an objective to defend for a certain amount of time. If you manage to survive, you get some cash and experience, which allows you to buy new weapons and costumes in the main menu. This is all there is to the game. There is no campaign or story. You just repeat the same few levels to earn new upgrades. It looks nice, and it seemed like fun on paper, but after trying it out for a while, I just find it to repetitive. I’m not going back to this one.