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I do like how Alec and the other villager's weird levity surround Hiwana's death is balanced with Flint's irrational rage. I sympathized with Flint a lot more and was really getting annoyed at Alec's attempts at humor. At least, up until you beat the mecha-drago and her baby comes out to defend her, and Flint readies the fang to kill it anyway. The whole arc is set up really well. Also having the ending crawl explain how things are taking a turn for the worst while the camera is fixed firmly on Claus' body face down in a ravine, so close to Flint yet so far, is so goddamn  . This game really knows how to establish mood.
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Aug 20, 2014 04:31
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Sydin posted:Also having the ending crawl explain how things are taking a turn for the worst while the camera is fixed firmly on Claus' body face down in a ravine, so close to Flint yet so far, is so goddamn Yeah, this moment right here hit me so much harder than Hinawa. I was feeling pretty nervous the whole time, wondering if Lucas was the main character instead of Claus for a reason, but I didn't really think they'd keep twisting the knife that hard right after we had that whole sequence about Hinawa's death.
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Aug 20, 2014 05:03
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It's worth pointing out that the magypsies' names come from modern musical theory, particularly the seven diatonic modes. These modes are, in order: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of musical theory could point out some interesting facts in relation to this and the game, but I just thought I'd throw that out there.
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Aug 20, 2014 06:17
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Bifauxnen posted:Yeah, this moment right here hit me so much harder than Hinawa. I was feeling pretty nervous the whole time, wondering if Lucas was the main character instead of Claus for a reason, but I didn't really think they'd keep twisting the knife that hard right after we had that whole sequence about Hinawa's death. And yet at the same time you can't even call it unexpected. What did you really expect a little kid armed with nothing but a homemade knife to do against an animal which is famously vulnerable only to itself?
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Aug 20, 2014 06:24
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Ionia looks familiar.
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Aug 20, 2014 11:29
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Dr. Buttass posted:And yet at the same time you can't even call it unexpected. What did you really expect a little kid armed with nothing but a homemade knife to do against an animal which is famously vulnerable only to itself? Well, the strange ladymen also gave him magic brainpowers. Assuming nobody knew those existed until the Magypsies spilled the beans, it could be also not too bad against a drago I guess?
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Aug 20, 2014 11:58
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Fister Roboto posted:It's worth pointing out that the magypsies' names come from modern musical theory, particularly the seven diatonic modes. These modes are, in order: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of musical theory could point out some interesting facts in relation to this and the game, but I just thought I'd throw that out there. Sure - the easy way to get your head around the modes is to think of using just the white keys on a piano. If you start from C and just keep going up in order, you get the C major scale: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C But if you started from A, you'd have the A minor scale: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A Even though they use the same notes, the different order means that different chords and intervals get emphasized in a song, so they end up sounding different. The other modes aren't used nearly as often, but they work the same way: Ionian: starts from C (MAJOR) Dorian: starts from D Phrygian: starts from E Lydian: starts from F Mixolydian: starts from G Aeolian: starts from A (MINOR) Locrian: starts from B I don't know too much about the other modes or how this might tie into their characters at all. But we can see so far that Aeolia, named after the well-known and very frequently-used minor mode, seems to be fairly important in this group. She's the host of this big gathering, and the one who taught Claus a special PSI power. Also, just using this type of theme naming ties in well with Mother 3's musical battles.
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Aug 20, 2014 13:00
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:Is this the right theme? For some reason I remember the Crag Lizard's music to be a bit different from this. You have a good ear, because it's actually this theme:  They sound similar, which is why I made the mistake in the first place, but the "Toppling March" theme (which is correct for the tree enemy) is a bit more "messy", to show my utter lack of knowledge of music terminology. I'll go ahead and fix that and try to listen better. I think there are also slight variations of themes when there's more than one enemy, but I haven't been able to tell the differences for those.
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Aug 21, 2014 00:34
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Themes are based on the lead enemy when battle starts, and I think you got several others wrong too.
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Aug 21, 2014 00:48
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There was an amazing blog post a few years back where this guy analyzed some of Mother 3's songs in detail, but it seems to have vanished. He looked at some of those songs that sound very similar, and pointed out how the music purposely fucks up the rhythm or adds glitchy pauses and things just to make the combos more challenging. So it's like you've got an easy mode and a hard mode. Or some of them are hard to begin with. One song's "easy" version is frustratingly close to nice, normal 4/4 time, except every other measure it just shaves off an eighth note from the end. So to transcribe it accurately without changing the time signature literally every measure, you'd need to lump those two measures together into one big one. This big measure would have 15 eighth notes instead of 16, giving you the fun time signature of of 15/8. The hard version shaves off just a little more - it goes up to an eighth note plus a half, or 3 sixteenth notes. So now to transcribe it accurately, you've got to count it at the unit of the sixteenth notes, and you end up with 29/16.
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Aug 21, 2014 02:28
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I'm kind of surprised Flint didn't smash any of the Pig-Masks' stuff. Maybe he's saving it for the Drago?
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Aug 21, 2014 04:10
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Mega64 posted:You have a good ear, because it's actually this theme: That's how I remember it, yeah. The Crag Lizard's theme has a constant, set rhythm, and tapping in time with that can get you a huge combo. However, the tree's theme is Toppling March, in which the rhythm repeatedly trips over itself and your combos suffer accordingly unless you skip beats and occasionally tap faster to keep up. When I played this game, I made an effort to learn the rhythm for each enemy, and the result was that I ended up remembering most enemies for how simple or infuriating their music was to keep up with. So when I see a tree I see a total rear end in a top hat, both because it explodes and because the rhythm is nearly impossible to figure out. Edited to add: Another little detail about the timed hits is that every character has their own associated musical cue that plays on each hit. Not sure if it's been talked about, but Flint's cue is that he belts out a few sax notes on every combo step. Boney just barks. Both of them do it in time with the music too, with Flint speeding up or slowing down depending on how long it is to the next tap. Pittsburgh Lambic fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 04:22
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Bifauxnen posted:Music Stuff So in other words, gently caress combos. I like that they're there, but they don't seem particularly necessary anyway. Especially if this is like other RPGs where the end game will mostly consist of strategic skill use rather than just normal attacks.
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Aug 21, 2014 14:12
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Bifauxnen posted:There was an amazing blog post a few years back where this guy analyzed some of Mother 3's songs in detail, but it seems to have vanished. He looked at some of those songs that sound very similar, and pointed out how the music purposely fucks up the rhythm or adds glitchy pauses and things just to make the combos more challenging. So it's like you've got an easy mode and a hard mode. Yeah, I remember that blog. It was pretty awesome. I think the guy ended up getting a job with... someone (I want to say, Harmonix?) and probably went silent and took the site down. Which is a shame. Mother 3 is like irregular time signature heaven. Or hell, depending on your interpretation and/or ability to play along. The best part is that almost every battle theme has two versions, one regular (or, at least, less difficult) and one "hard" version that introduces tempo changes, skips, pauses and added or missing beats just to gently caress with people who try to memorize all the patterns. My favourite track (for a sort of balance of interesting and not-too-assholishly-difficult-ness) is this one that's a completely consistent 4/4 all the way through, but gradually and continually increases the tempo to like four times the original speed before suddenly returning to normal at the end where it loops. It's fun.
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Aug 21, 2014 14:31
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There's only really one fight where the combos are actually really hard to pull off because of constantly changing time signature, and that's because that's literally the whole point of the enemies you're fighting there. It's not hard to listen to a piece of music at the start of a battle to get a feel for the rhythm, even with some bars tripping you up. Getting a feel for building combos with each enemy type isn't any different than developing strategies for different enemies in other RPGs. And I think the combos are great; mastering them made the game and optional fights a lot more manageable and, if I recall a VLP of this that some guys tried to post here last year, they kind of are necessary. They never figured out that the combos were tied to the beat, only hit enemies once per turn, and as a result, got to a point where they assumed that the game wanted them to grind enough levels to be able to properly deal with enemies.
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Aug 21, 2014 14:56
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I never managed to get the hang of combos when I played, and I never needed to grind.  They're a nice bonus for people who get it, but they're in no way necessary to ever get through anything.
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Aug 21, 2014 15:05
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Cool, another Mother 3 LP. Good stuff. I like Earthbound more in every way except for difficulty, but Mother 3 is definitely worth playing. As for combos, they're not nearly as important as stat buffs. But if you master combos and combine them with offense buffs, it certainly makes things easier.
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Aug 21, 2014 18:43
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Y-Hat posted:Cool, another Mother 3 LP. Good stuff. I like Earthbound more in every way except for difficulty, but Mother 3 is definitely worth playing.
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Aug 21, 2014 18:54
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Dragonatrix posted:I never managed to get the hang of combos when I played, and I never needed to grind. Don't you get a huge boost if you manage to complete a full combo? I remember when I played through I didn't get them often but when you got a full combo it was something like 2*base damage + combo damage for 15 hits
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Aug 21, 2014 19:01
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I think the highest combo I ever pulled off was 8 hits and it didn't impact that much, maybe 1.5x the damage so I imagine at 15 it would be 1.75 or 2x. Helps but not integral to the games fighting.
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Aug 21, 2014 19:42
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I think a full combo is essentially double damage? It's great if you can pull it off, but combos are definitely not vital to playing the game, just a nice little thing added in.Arcade Rabbit posted:So in other words, gently caress combos. I like that they're there, but they don't seem particularly necessary anyway. Especially if this is like other RPGs where the end game will mostly consist of strategic skill use rather than just normal attacks. Yeah pretty much. If you're having trouble with fights, combos aren't really gonna help all that much if your strategy sucks, or if you're horribly underleveled.
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Aug 21, 2014 19:49
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EllEssDee posted:I think the highest combo I ever pulled off was 8 hits and it didn't impact that much, maybe 1.5x the damage so I imagine at 15 it would be 1.75 or 2x. Helps but not integral to the games fighting. Dr. Fetus posted:I think a full combo is essentially double damage? It's great if you can pull it off, but combos are definitely not vital to playing the game, just a nice little thing added in. The last hit of the combo does bigger damage, I remember that specifically. Think: 50 + 4 + 4 + .. + 4 + 35 (I made those numbers up, though- I don't remember what it works out to be, but my memory wants to think it's the full damage of the original hit)
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Aug 21, 2014 20:09
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If my memory serves, the first hit does the most, then the 8th and 16th hits do decent chunks, with the other beats being minor pokes.
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Aug 21, 2014 21:06
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ProfessorProf posted:If my memory serves, the first hit does the most, then the 8th and 16th hits do decent chunks, with the other beats being minor pokes. Ah yeah this sounds right.
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Aug 21, 2014 21:21
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Fedule posted:My favourite track (for a sort of balance of interesting and not-too-assholishly-difficult-ness) is this one that's a completely consistent 4/4 all the way through, but gradually and continually increases the tempo to like four times the original speed before suddenly returning to normal at the end where it loops. It's fun. I love that one! It felt really satisfying to keep up with the speed-up just like I was playing along with a regular orchestra doing an accelerando. But then it often threw me off when it reset.
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Aug 21, 2014 23:53
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Would someone be able to Avatar-ize the Mecha-Drago roaring here for me? I am having no luck. I am glad that they made the game beatable without requiring use of the combo system. I was terrible at the combo system. I think I managed to get a 4 hit combo once. Maybe.
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Aug 22, 2014 14:39
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I somehow missed the combo system until very late in the game the first time I played it.
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Aug 22, 2014 14:52
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Love this game. Love this LP. The Mother series has such a wonderful, quirky charm to it. I'm glad to see others love it just as much as me.Seravadon posted:Would someone be able to Avatar-ize the Mecha-Drago roaring here for me? I am having no luck. Oh, I just may be able to do this for you. Well, I hope it's what you want at least. 
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Aug 22, 2014 15:13
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Seravadon posted:Would someone be able to Avatar-ize the Mecha-Drago roaring here for me? I am having no luck.  How's this?
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Aug 22, 2014 15:28
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Akogare Zephyr posted:Love this game. Love this LP. The Mother series has such a wonderful, quirky charm to it. I'm glad to see others love it just as much as me. Dragonatrix posted:
Thanks a bunch to both of you. 
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Aug 22, 2014 15:45
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 The caption is what sells it. Congrats on the new avatar. LPs seem like the best place for those.
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Aug 23, 2014 10:31
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Fister Roboto posted:It's worth pointing out that the magypsies' names come from modern musical theory, particularly the seven diatonic modes. These modes are, in order: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of musical theory could point out some interesting facts in relation to this and the game, but I just thought I'd throw that out there. Modes actually go back to Gregorian chants and Greek musical theory, so there's nothing really modern about them. Although in today's compositions, some songs are indeed written around them and if they are, they are pretty much used like this: Ionian: Your run-of-the-mill major scale, sounds bright and uplifting Dorian: THE scale to use for funk and not-so-heavy flavors of rock. The major sixth takes the edge off the minor scale and gives it an almost major-like flavor. I think it's really interesting-sounding. Phrygian: The darkest and most dissonant-sounding scale out of the seven due to the flat 2 following after the root. Used in tons of metal songs, but also flamenco pieces Lydian: This is an odd one. It's basically a standard major scale with a flat 5 which adds a tad of dissonance, and I don't really know any songs written around it off the top of my head except a lovely, droning instrumental I recorded once. Mixolydian: This one is usually used to approximate Eastern-sounding music, as silly as it may sound. It's basically only a major scale with a flat 7, but the flat 7 makes it sound kind of -- trippy, if that makes any sense. Aeolian: The standard minor scale. It's, well, kind of sad-sounding. In my opinion, the "saddest"-sounding notes are actually the 2 and the flat 6. Locrian: Supposed to be the go-to scale when playing over a diminished chord. I think it sounds kind of strange and not all that dark despite the flat 2. There's supposed to be a Rammstein song that's written around it, but I forget which one it is. It doesn't seem to show up all that often in modern music save for jazz maybe. I've beaten Mother 3 once and didn't really notice any relevance as to the Magipsies' personalities. Maybe Shigesato Itoi got the idea to name them after the modes because there are seven of them, I'm honestly not sure. By the way, my favorite "hard" battle themes are the hard version of "Zombeat" which adds a really cleverly-placed bar of 7/8 and the hard version of the reggae tune whose name eludes me right now that I've not been able to figure out the meter of. Odd time signatures are such a beautiful thing. fixelbrumpf fucked around with this message at 08:43 on Aug 24, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 23:30
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fixelbrumpf posted:Maybe Shigesato Itoi got the idea to name them after the modes because there are seven of them, I'm honestly not sure.
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Aug 23, 2014 23:33
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Or going the Roman route and naming them Primus through Septimus. 
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Aug 24, 2014 00:03
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fixelbrumpf posted:I've beaten Mother 3 once and didn't really notice any relevance as to the Magipsies' personalities. Maybe Shigesato Itoi got the idea to name them after the modes because there are seven of them, I'm honestly not sure. You've got Phyrgian twice, in place of Locrian. I'd also argue that Locria matches her eponymous mode to some degree, though I won't say any more than that until we have a chance to get to know her better.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:30
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Yeah, I never had any trouble with battles, thankfully, and I'm either tone-deaf or just incredibly bad at understanding what exactly the 'beat' of a song is? Literally the only way I could get any combo WHATSOEVER was by haphazardly hitting the button in my mind vaguely shaped like an 'A'... An 'A Button', if you will. Regardless of which song, I just wasn't able to do more than the single normal hit without randomly tapping frantically on my GBA and hoping for the best. Highest I ever got was (I think) a 15-hit on one of Duster's bosses, on one of the faster songs. And even then, that was only because I lucked out and apparently the beat was the same speed my finger moved at. I imagine it'd be that much worse on an emulator, since I remember hearing there was a latency issue with the audio, or something like that. Next time I play, I'll have to look up some youtube videos and see if anyone's uploaded showing when to press to string up a combo.
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Aug 25, 2014 23:45
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That's what putting enemies to sleep is for.
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Aug 26, 2014 05:14
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      I'm not really sure what to say... What happened to Hinawa was a terrible tragedy... I can't say I know how you're feeling. Lucas has been crying at her grave ever since. His poor little heart seems like it's about to break in two...        Welcome to Chapter 2! For this chapter, we're switching over to Duster as our lead.      Remember the whole "Thief" stuff tossed about in the first chapter? It's actually going to get addressed now.   No, this is not something we have been looking forward to. I had hoped the time WOULDN'T come, if at all possible. But you and I have been constantly preparing for this day, in the event it did come. So it appears you finally have a chance to try out what I've taught you.  Saying no gives a bit more backstory, so I refuse to prepare.  Perhaps we would have been better off born in a different era. Or at least that's my vague recollection of it. It's all my fault... or so I seem to remember. If you want to hold a grudge against your father, grudge away. If that'll make you happy, you can begrudge me all you want. But... you don't get a choice in this matter. This is an order. Duster. I am now going to give you a mission. There, you will find a "certain important item" and bring it back here. As for what this "certain important item" is... No... There is no need for me to tell you. If a thief can't determine the value of what he steals, he's a disgrace to the profession. Of course I do!  I will say no more than that.  Well, whatever. Take them with you. They will prove useful during your battles with the enemy.And so we gain control of Duster. If you talk to Wess again...  Back when the king of Osohe still lived in the castle...Yes, I believe that's when it was. Anyway, back then, I hid this treasure where no one would ever lay eyes upon it. I felt it was too much for even the king of Osohe to handle... or so I recall, anyway. Under normal circumstances, this would be a job that calls for me, but... Duster... I feel confident that I've hammered every technique I know into you. So try to accomplish this mission yourself. I've hidden another Mystical Thief Tool-like item there. I refill the box every once in a while when I feel so inclined, so always keep that in mind.So Wess, despite his apparently bad memory, is having us use our thief skills to rob an important item that Wess himself planted there for some reason. Sounds fun enough, so let's start!  Take the Slightly-Less-Than-Seven Tools in the basement with you! There are only five tools in the basement, though Duster still has his Wall Staples from before to count as his sixth tool. These tools are Duster's whole gimmick. Duster doesn't have access to PSI powers, nor is he smart enough to fix and use powerful items like Jeff and Loid in the previous games. Instead, Duster uses the items available to him to mess with the enemy. Basically, Duster's role in the game is debuffing enemies, and considering he can use his tools as many times as he needs with no penalties, he's pretty good at that role. So, how about those new toys we'll get to play with?  The Hypno-Pendulum puts an enemy to sleep. Sleep seems to last one turn less than the Wall Staples' stun, plus attacks will wake an enemy up, so by all accounts the Hypno-Pendulum seems less useful than the Wall Staples. However, the Hypno-Pendulum has one extra trick that makes it pretty useful.   The Tickle Stick debuffs the enemy's defense, and the Scary Mask the enemy's offense. Useful for boss battles, of course.  The Smoke Bomb renders an enemy into tears, which reduces their accuracy. I don't think it wears off, so it can be pretty handy against some foes.  The Siren Beetle turns a monster around, just like if you got a surprise attack on them. I think it stops their current turn as well if Duster's fast enough to go before them.   It's time to go on our mission! But of course, it's not a bad idea to do some exploring first.  The Thunder Bombs from Chapter 1 are still here, and they still respawn as soon as you reach the crossroads area.   Oh, if it isn't Duster. I see you still enjoy your nigttime strolls. I'm not even going to bother asking what you're off to do this late at night, but you do know that Osohe Castle's drawbridge is up, right? That means you can't get inside. But there are rumors of an underground passage that leads into the castle. I bet Nippolyte the gravekeeper knows something about it.Of course getting into the castle won't be that easy. But we're a thief so no big deal.   (Say, what do you do for a living? Don't tell me you're actually a...)  All the houses and shops are closed, though the inn's still open.    I heard about that wall-climbing stuff you did in the Sunshine Forest.  I think my favorite is Tazmily Mystery No. 3: "Tall Mr. Beanstalk of Cross Road". Yeah, that's actually the entire story.    Sheesh! Lighter and Fuel are staying at the inn for now since their house burned down and all.   After all, there are four of us, and only one bed...  We used to live there and mooch off of them, you see. But this place is nice and comfy, too. Plus, Tessie is here. Heheh.  That... and I wish I could've been useful somehow.  I gotta start thinking about how I'm gonna rebuild my house now. Though everyone's either at the inn or asleep, Lucas is outside.   I'd suggest counting sheep, but there's only three so it probably wouldn't work so well.   They say that on Tanetane Island, across the sea, is a world of dreams and nightmares. But they also say that nobody knows the real truth about it. So then how do I know about it?Alright, let's get to that whole thieving thing.   Oh, pardon me. I wasn't paying attention.  Come now, little monkey. We should be off. That monkey gives us one last curious look before setting off. That's important, you see.  They take up the middle room that's currently rented by the frog. I bet that frog isn't happy to have room mates. Or maybe he is, I don't know how frogs feel about room mates.  Further up we see Butch, who we saw talking with the mysterious man last chapter.   If you promise not to tell anyone, I'll let you in on a cool secret. "Money"! There's "money" inside! Ever heard of money?! After all, we've never had it in Tazmily before. But apparently an "era of money" is about to start! Huh? What's an "era of money"?This doesn't actually get answered, and we end up segueing into a new line of conversation instead.  Oh, a traveler gave it to me in exchange for some pigs! Yeah, he took a real liking to my pigs. And then asked me in tears if I'd trade them for this. He's definitely a friend worth having! I don't want any ignorant people taking off with it, so I'm gonna hide it in this well here.  Welp.   ...You're not very good at this thieving business, Duster.  Alright, so FINALLY we'll head to the castle and    Looks like Osohe Castle's got more visitors.  I ignore that and instead go the forest path because why not. Gives a good opportunity to check out Duster's various new tools!   Where to begin?     Again, better on bosses or very buff enemies.   Smoke Bomb in action.   Again, versatile and simple in what they do.  Now, as I said, the Hypno Pendulum is kind of a worse version of the Wall Staples, except Sleep has one additional effect.    It lets you hear the enemy's "heartbeat." More accurately, it lets you hear the beat of the battle music, which is supposed to help you score music combos better. As far as I know, every battle theme in the game has one, and the rip I'm using has 57 different heartbeat themes, which should tell you just how much work went into the battle themes for this game. I'll try to include heartbeat versions of enemy battle themes the first time they pop up from this point on for those curious to hear the beat of each song. Can be educational!  Alright let's finally get to the cas-     I-I'm a...live...?   I want to live mooooOOORE!   Oh, my! Gggg... Is that you, Duster?! My, how you've gggggrown! Why, there's so much of you that I could eat for three days and three nights and still have leftovers! Gggeh ggeh ggeh!    The tricky part about this battle is the number of foes you're facing. Once one of the enemies die, the other Zombie Man will jump in. The Zombie Ladies have slightly less HP, but otherwise are pretty much just as tough.  The easiest thing to do is lob a Thunder Bomb at them to weaken them and kill a couple outright, then Wall Staple the rest before going to town with kicks.  The zombies have weak attacks and struggle to walk, but still, damage can add up and Duster hasn't had time to accumulate healing items yet.    That damage was 2HP away from killing the Zombie Man, and exactly enough to kill the Zombie Lady (with the other one also dying).  The other Zombie Man jumps in after the first Lady dies.   Otherwise, a pretty easy battle if you use a Thunder Bomb, and slightly less easy if you don't.  10% chance drop from both types of zombies. Something you probably shouldn't eat, but it has its uses later on. Anyway, zombies are no big deal, let's check up on old man Nippolyte.   You sure do love to walk around *huff* at night, you do. Welp, that's not gonna work.   (From nowhere in particular, you hear a voice. And that voice is mine! Watch where you're steppin', will ya?! I'm, like, standing right here! I'm an ant! Don't you dare step on me!) (Fights are all about rhythm! You know, like "boom boom boo-boom boom, boom boom" and stuff! When you're in battle, there's a very specific rhythm that matches the enemy's beat! Pick up on that rhythm, and victory will be yours! If you're really good, you can even pull off 16-hit combos!) Duster isn't as careful about ants as Flint has raised his family to be, so he almost killed this helpful ant that has just taught us about attacking to the rhythm in battles, in case you hadn't learned about them yet.  Meanwhile, Nippolyte has returned to his home. Our way to the castle lies in there.  But we've got new enemies to face!    I actually didn't bother fighting the front-facing version of the Zombie Dog since I just put it to sleep and beat it to re-death, so here's a sprite of its gruesome visage.      Mobile Graves are actually scarier than they appear.  And they look...kinda scary.    They can hit for a third of Duster's health.   I actually managed to run away before dying. Thanks again, rolling health meter! Offense Down probably would've helped a lot, though the Mobile Grave also has a lot of HP and high defense, so it's not really worth fighting.  And Zombie Men and Ladies will also spawn, but we already beat them up so eh.   Alright, let's get to the castle already.  Duster loves cheese, so he gets a nice 60HP recovery from this.  Push the bookcase to advance...   We've got a couple more enemies along the way.    Detached Leeches are simple and weak, and another one of those monsters that often appear in groups to make up for their fraility.      Spineless Lobsters are fun, in that if you stare them down on the map, they'll eventually turn chicken and run away.   They have a decent offense, but usually you'll have the drop on them so they're no issue.  I manage to get a drop on a leech, preventing the other two from joining it. Pretty nice.  We make it out of that short tunnel and end up right where we need to be.   (Allow me to discuss one of the main tricks to fighting. How you and the enemy come into contact can give you the advantage or disadvantage in the battle that follows. The truth is, you won't always encounter the enemy head-to-head every time. If you manage to sneak up on the enemy from behind or the side, you'll have the upper hand. The enemy will be facing backwards when you enter battle, you see. Conversely, if the enemy sneaks up on you from behind or from the side, YOU'LL be facing backwards at the start of the battle, putting you at a real disadvantage. When the upper hand is yours, you'll see the things in front of you turn green before battle, and when the enemy has the upper hand, you'll see red instead. When you're on equal terms, everything will seem blue-ish, for lack of a better term.) (So there you have it. Now to end this with a sparrow-like...chirp chirp chirp!)So one of those things I explained awhile back? Here it is explained in-game.  You made it through that underground passage without being done in by all them monsters? That's really somethin'. The gate's locked, and *huff* won't budge at all. Only way inside now is to climb up the walls.If only we had a way to scale walls...   Meanwhile, Nippolyte's using the castle courtyard as his own personal garden. Better than the zombie-infested graveyard, I guess.  Just checking.   No problem!  Alright, this seems like a good place to end this-  (Watch where you're steppin', will ya?! I'm standing right here, you know! I'm an ant! Don't you dare step on me!) (To really grasp a rhythm, you gotta learn the enemy's beat. Wait. You didn't know you can hear the enemy's heartbeat by putting it to sleep?) (...Don't worry, though. You can still fight just fine without doing any of this rhythm stuff, of course.) And with that, the update's over. No, really, it's over. You can leave now.
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Aug 27, 2014 22:10
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Also, today's the 20th anniversary of the release of Mother 2 (aka Earthbound) in Japan. So celebrate or something. I'll probably start replaying some Earthbound myself.
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Aug 27, 2014 22:12
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And Mother 3's music continues to be awesome. No surprise here.
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Aug 27, 2014 22:29
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