|
Episode 18 - Gird Your Loins   Turns out I've got two episodes for you guys because I forgot I edited two episodes in one week. Whoops! Anyways, we're continuing our traverse up the deadly Booster Tower. The first thing we encounter is a little puzzle involving Booster's lineage. If you remember in the last episode, we passed portraits of the previous Boosters in order from oldest to youngest in the lobby. Now we have to inspect these jumbled up portraits in that same order (653124). Our reward is Bowser's first weapon: the Chain Chomp! Bowser has some of the best weapons in this game (both stats and aesthetics) and I just love the fact that he chucks a chain chomp at enemies. We also encounter a room filled with coins! Both regular coins and frog coins populate this room, but there are invisible encounters all around. Unless you're looking to do some quality grinding (which isn't necessarily a bad idea. The enemies here have a high drop rate of Lucky! flowers) I wouldn't bother with the regular coins. They're only worth 1 coin each. One last thing, this marks the first episode after we switched to using RetroArch and the SNES9x core. Which means, no more menu freezes! This is truly a momentous occasion.
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2018 17:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 14:15 |
|
|
Episode 19 - Jump! We're just about at the top of Booster Tower, but before we reach the princess there's a quick mini game we have to do. It's very simple and you can't really fail it. If you get spotted behind the curtains you just have to start that chunk over again, but they always go in the same order so you should get it without too much trouble. Unfortunately, Booster absconds with Toadstool before we get a chance to stop him. Knife Guy and Grate Guy block our way and we've got to take them down before we can give chase. There's really not much to this fight. Focus down Grate Guy first, then unload all the fireballs on to Knife Guy. After the fight, we're rewarded with another mini game! Again, you can't fail this one (I don't think you can fail any of the required mini games) but you can get some sweet sweet max FP upgrades out of it. You can play this mini game again later for a chance to win some frog coins, but you only get one shot at getting flowers. EDIT: Here's the scan! 
Ceraph fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Feb 11, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2018 20:17
|
|
|
Mario has two reactions when you say "no" when saving the game 10 and 25 times. You stick to one save slot. I got about 8 tabs during that game.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2018 20:53
|
|
|
Episode 20 - The Suite In today's thrilling episode of Super Mario RPG, we stay in the suite! ... A lot! It's expensive at 200 coins per night, but for your first stay you get a Flower Tab, and for your third stay you get a Flower Box! A permanent FP upgrade of 4 for 600 coins isn't a bad trade in my opinion. I also just love staying at the suite, and the room service is one of the few places you can buy Kerokero Colas (albeit at quite the steep price). Mario singing / whistling in the shower is such a great touch. There are so many little things like that in this game, you can tell it was a labor of love. We can also upgrade some of our equipment at the shop (conveniently located at the inn as well). You should probably be more careful about what you buy than we were, though. Turns out the Masher is amazing and won't be replaced for a couple towns yet. Also because of how relatively little defense Geno's and Bowser's armor gives them, the Work Pants are actually still the best call for now. Don't bother picking up any Happy equipment for them. EDIT: I missed this one earlier, but here's the scan for Marrymore and Chef Torte! 
Ceraph fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Feb 11, 2018 |
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2018 23:15
|
|
|
I'm rather sad you didn't show what happens if you sleep in the suite multiple times, particularly when you're out of coins.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2018 02:25
|
|
|
Nidoking posted:I'm rather sad you didn't show what happens if you sleep in the suite multiple times, particularly when you're out of coins. Oh no, I completely forgot that was a thing! For anyone who's interested, I found a no-commentary video that shows off what happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj5JCDjAfXI&t=205s
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2018 17:15
|
|
|
I really miss the old Squaresoft. Gameplay wise they made things easy and never went into great depth with their engines, but they more than made up for it with the fun factor. They were so good at coming up with fantastic worlds, fun goofy characters, creative enemies, and wonderful story scenarios. The journey through their games was always such a delight with so much attention to detail and fun little things to discover. I'm not upset that this game won't be getting a remake. Square-Enix is different and they don't make games like these. When they do add new stuff to the remakes it's such a contrast. They just can't capture or replicate that whimsical spirit that Squaresoft brought to the table.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2018 22:17
|
|
|
TheFattestPat posted:I really miss the old Squaresoft. Gameplay wise they made things easy and never went into great depth with their engines, but they more than made up for it with the fun factor. They were so good at coming up with fantastic worlds, fun goofy characters, creative enemies, and wonderful story scenarios. The journey through their games was always such a delight with so much attention to detail and fun little things to discover. I couldn't agree more about old Squaresoft world building. Every location in this game is just so fun and imaginative. At the end of the game, you can't help but just look back fondly at all the places you've been and the adventure you had. That's what I love most about this game.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2018 18:30
|
|
|
Episode 21 - Farting Around the Church We've wasted enough time enjoying the sights of Marrymore. Now it's time to bust into the church and rescue Toadstool from a most terrible fate! As you might expect, we've got a boss fight to get through first. This was always a big gear / level check point in the game for me. You can get by without really spending a lot of time leveling up and skipping some gear, but this boss can wreck you if you're not prepared. The combination of Sandstorm, Blizzard, and Diamond Saw can be devastating. Strategy wise, there's not a whole lot going on in this fight. Just keep focusing Bundt with Jumps and regular attacks. Once Bundt goes down you have to take out Raspberry next, but at that point you're almost there. After thrashing the living cake, we get Toadstool in our party! And she will never, ever, ever leave. Ever. There are things we can do later to make her the most broken party member, but even before that her Therapy and Group Hug abilities are fantastic. They heal massive amounts of damage and also cure status ailments. Anyways, here is the scan for Bundt/Raspberry and Taodstool! It also has a snapshot of the kiss we would have gotten if we collected all of Toadstool's accessories quick enough. I believe you have to do it before the candles in the aisle start lighting. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2018 18:33
|
|
|
Who is raspberry? When the cake entered the room, it had pizza on top.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2018 21:50
|
|
|
Episode 22 - Fuzzy Pickles Now that we're finished with Marrymore, we get an automatic return to Mushroom Kingdom. I guess the whole reason we set out was to rescue Toadstool, wasn't it? When we get back we're treated to a wealth of story scenes. Unfortunately, it's a lot of recap. This game does have kind of a nasty habit of explaining the whole Star Road thing a bunch of times whenever you meet new people. I appreciate the attention to detail that new people wouldn't know what's going on, but it can get a little tedious at times. At any rate, we got the band back together and next time we'll sniff out some clues at Tadpole Pond!
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2018 01:22
|
|
|
One other amusing thing you can do before leaving Marrymore is try to leave by the north road that leads onward to the next area of the game. If you keep trying enough, your entire party will eventually lose their patience with you.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2018 02:22
|
|
|
They talk way too much in this game. I always wondered the deal with those few humans being in the Mushroom Kingdom.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2018 02:44
|
|
|
Nidoking posted:One other amusing thing you can do before leaving Marrymore is try to leave by the north road that leads onward to the next area of the game. If you keep trying enough, your entire party will eventually lose their patience with you. aww no, I totally forgot about that! That definitely happened to me as a kid, because I just wanted to keep Toadstool in my party and not give her back. Scalding Coffee posted:They talk way too much in this game. There really is an awful lot of talking in this game, but we've been having fun hamming up the voices. The humans in Mushroom Kingdom thing has bothered me for as long as I can remember but I doubt Nintendo will ever give us a straight answer. Not that they really need to, honestly.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2018 21:08
|
|
|
Episode 23 - Sackit After a brief visit to Tadpole Pond we learn that the next star is at Star Hill! But first, we're going to take a detour to Yo'ster Isle. Now that we've finished Marrymore, one of the Yoshi eggs has hatched! The baby Yoshi will reward you with items if you give him Yoshi Cookies, but it takes a pretty huge investment before you get anything. To start, you have to feed him 30 cookies total. Once that happens, if you leave and come back he'll be outside the nest. Now, depending on how many cookies you give him at the same time he will give you different items. 21+ cookies guarantees you a red essence, while 16+ will get you a random item, including red essence, Yoshi-Ade, and frog coins. Yoshi-Ade is a pretty great item, which gives both the attack up and defense up statuses. Unfortunately it takes a lot of cookies to get there and I don't know if we'll have the patience to grind out that many cookies. Moving on to Star Hill, this is without a doubt the easiest area in the game. No tight corridors with lots of enemies, no bosses, just some wonderful easter eggs and a new Star Piece! I have to think this was done deliberately to give the players a break after the marathon of Booster Tower and Marrymore with no Star Piece to speak of. I love reading all the wishes on Star Hill. It really is a testament to the writing in this game that you can tell who all the wishes are from right away. Even the super minor characters have so much personality, it's one of the reasons why I love this game. Because we gave baby Yoshi all our cookies, there's something specific to Star Hill we weren't able to show off. The mole-like enemy that pops up around Star Hill is called the Mukumuku. If you get into a fight with one and use a Yoshi Cookie on it, it will turn into the Muku Cookie item. Using the Muku Cookie in battle will summon a Mukumuku and basically act like a Megalixer, healing the entire party.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2018 17:56
|
|
|
It can't be good for the planet if asteroids of that size keep crashing into it. One big wish and you have an extinction event.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2018 21:06
|
|
|
Episode 24 - Do The Thing We've finally made it to Seaside town, but something is clearly amiss. The "bad stuff is going down" music is playing and the townsfolk seem... strange, to say the least. The town proper doesn't have any equipment upgrades to speak of, but there is a friendly Shaman in the Sea caves nearby who will gladly sell us new equipment. Before we leave town, though, one of the most important merchants in the game hangs out in Seaside Town. Frogfucius' Student will trade you frog coins for some pretty spectacular items. We have exactly enough frog coins to pick up the Exp Booster, which will double the experience gained for whoever has it equipped. The Scrooge Ring is also fantastic for Toadstool and Mallow, as it halves the FP usage of the wearer, but 50 frog coins is a pretty hefty price. We'll see where we are by the end of the game, but we might just have to stock up on Honey Syrups instead. There is a Power Star in the first treasure chest in the Sea area. If you want to abuse the star respawning / death exploit for some quick EXP grinding, this is a good place to do it. We're doing just fine on levels, so we're not going to bother right now.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2018 00:34
|
|
|
I don't think I ever saw a SNES game where your characters use up as many characters as Peach.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2018 06:50
|
|
|
The B'Tub Ring doesn't half the damage of ALL spells, just the ones that have an element (Jump, Fire, Water, or Lightning). There are a surprising amount of non-elemental magic spells in the game. And the problem with Scrooge Ring (besides the cost) is that the top-tier accessories are so good that it's just not worth giving up some of their bonuses for 1/2 the FP cost. It's not like the spells you should be using the most (Geno Boost, Group Hug, Super Jump) are very expensive and Syrups are in plentiful supply throughout the game.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2018 07:14
|
|
|
Shiki Dan posted:The B'Tub Ring doesn't half the damage of ALL spells, just the ones that have an element (Jump, Fire, Water, or Lightning). That's a good point. Group Hug only costing 4 FP is kind of insane when you get right down to it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2018 22:02
|
|
|
Episode 25 - Trials and Tribulations To no one's surprise, the ghost ship is filled with ghosts! There's a lot of encounters here with 5+ enemies, so it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Also, like the Kero Sewers, there's a high drop rate of Pure Waters. We can use them in a pinch, but we're going to be hoarding as many as possible to sell. We also encounter Dry Bones for the first time. One thing I forgot in this episode is the fact that, while they technically have 0 HP, they will only be defeated by a magic attack. They're also nice enough to put the Shaman Merchant in the Sunken Ship area as well! There really aren't many times in the game they throw a merchant at you mid-dungeon and this one is very appreciated. We take the time to stock up on some equipment upgrades for the party and completely forget to sell the pure waters we're sitting on (shhh). I forgot to include this in the last post, but here are the renders of the Sailor items from the Shaman merchant. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2018 22:20
|
|
|
Those Greapers are a good enough reason to increase your magic boosts and you could have one shot enemies with fire. It did remind me how boring your equipment selection is when you don't have elemental resist or absorb armor.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2018 00:44
|
|
|
Oh yeah, the Amulet you got from Booster not only has all the same benefits of the B'Tub Ring (halves all elemental magic attacks) but also gives you +7 to all stats except Speed (-5). It's really quite good for a lot of upcoming bosses, but there's a secret accessory on the Sunken Ship which is even more absurd (nullifies ALL elemental magic attacks, all status effects AND instant death).
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2018 08:15
|
|
|
Episode 26 - Fried Calamari We finally get our last clue to the password door. It really isn't that hard to figure out given the clues and limited letter combinations, but little me was thoroughly stumped by it. The answer is, of course, "pearls". Before we can proceed through what is a pretty long dungeon, we have to beat the mid boss! King Calamari lies just beyond the password door. This fight is a little different than the others we've done thus far. There's 3 distinct phases to the fight. You have to kill 2 sets of 3 tentacles, and then the head accompanied by 2 tentacles. The tentacles can grab a character and toss them into the air, getting them out of the fight for a turn and then frightening them when they land. Mario, Bowser, and Toadstool is a pretty good team for this fight. We want Mario using Super Flame every turn that he possibly can while Toadstool heals and Bowser fills in with regular attacks. We also pick up Geno Whirl! Geno Whirl is a very unique move in that it has a frame perfect timed attack window, but hitting it will cause it to do 9,999 damage. It doesn't work on every fight, but if you're the kind of person who can do frame perfect inputs reliably, then it trivializes some fights. I, however, have never been one of those people and have only gotten it to work a handful of times. One other thing I wanted to mention, we've commented a couple times on how the player's guide is "wrong" with its experience values. I think we're just overleveled for this area and the experience scaling is kicking in, while the player's guide just has the base value. Here's the scan for King Calamari: 
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 06:23
|
|
|
I didn't really want to bring this up because it seems rude somehow but I suppose it's better to just say it. I'm enjoying this LP but is there any chance you could do something with your microphone setup to make it more directional? Or something with post-editing the audio? Thing is, the recording picks up your child's voice so strongly that I can't focus on the LP at all anymore. It's really extremely distracting to me. It would be great if you could do anything about that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 12:46
|
|
|
You should try to poison a boss, since it won't freeze the game. See how useful it is.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 19:15
|
|
|
I remember as a kid being quite frustrated that "Corals" wasn't considered a valid answer. It follows all of the clues 
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 03:10
|
|
|
The r doesn't come before the l.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 03:53
|
|
|
Scalding Coffee posted:The r doesn't come before the l. Yes it does.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 05:09
|
|
|
The a does.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 05:19
|
|
|
Scalding Coffee posted:The a does. So does the C, O and R
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 08:16
|
|
|
Stick around.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 17:15
|
|
|
Carbon dioxide posted:I didn't really want to bring this up because it seems rude somehow but I suppose it's better to just say it. No worries, sorry about that. I've tried to cut as much of it out as I can but I will be a bit more aggressive about the editing. Shiki Dan posted:I remember as a kid being quite frustrated that "Corals" wasn't considered a valid answer. Yeah, I guess it all depends on your interpretation of the "before the L" clue. It is before it, but it's not right before it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2018 22:59
|
|
|
I remember this part of the game. As a kid who didn't know english I was stuck in the password puzzle for well almost a year till I accidentally got the right combination. In fact, this game might have very well been the reason why I started to work harder in my english because there were many a point where the game straight out spells out what you are supposed to do and becomes completely impossible if you didn't get what they were telling you. Off the top of my mind surprising Croco in Bandit's Way, finding the way through the Forest Maze and charging together with the Sniffit to break through the doors in Marrymore where all roadblocks to me as a kid. Because of all of this, I ended up being level 30 by the time I finished Marrymore so the rest of the game was a breeze fightwise related.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2018 02:53
|
|
|
Episode 27 - 1v1 Me We're in the final stretch of the Sunken Ship. There's a couple more things of interest to pick up before we pick a fight with Jonathan Jones. First up, we have the safety badge in the mimic chest right next to the save point. It prevents poison and mute on whoever has it equipped, which isn't a bad option for Toadstool. However, in the room where you have to ride the whirlpool into the water, you can barely see the corner of a door behind a stack of barrels. In that room is the safety ring! This is the ring that Shiki Dan was talking about a few episodes ago. Unfortunately, we didn't know that at the time and the game is terrible at telling you what items actually do. Looking at it now, the guide has somewhat accurate information, but I didn't think to check it at the time. Up next, we have a bit of a gauntlet of fights. Luckily they give you a mushroom full heal between the first and second batch of Bandanna Reds. The fight with Jonathan is interesting and has definitely tripped me up in the past. Make sure to have at least a few mushrooms on hand, because once you get him down to half health, he not only gets a power boost, but also challenges Mario to a one on one duel. Needless to say, if Mario goes down here it's game over. Once Johnny hits 400 HP left he turns red and presumably gets some stat boosts. The guide doesn't mention any specifics but he sure seems harder on the tail end of the fight. If you just focus on keeping Mario relatively healthy while unloading as much as possible you should be fine. Here's the scan for Jonathan Jones: 
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2018 05:42
|
|
|
I think I heard somewhere that Jonathan only challenges Mario to a one-on-one duel if you defeat both of his helpers - if you manage to keep them alive while defeating him, you'll have your full party for the whole fight. I don't think I've ever tried it myself, but it makes sense. Can anyone confirm or deny? Also, from my experience, I'm pretty sure the Safety Badge protects against all status changes, not just poison and mute.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2018 12:26
|
|
|
Nidoking posted:I think I heard somewhere that Jonathan only challenges Mario to a one-on-one duel if you defeat both of his helpers - if you manage to keep them alive while defeating him, you'll have your full party for the whole fight. I don't think I've ever tried it myself, but it makes sense. Can anyone confirm or deny? It's a classic trick that absolutely works.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2018 14:33
|
|
|
Nidoking posted:I think I heard somewhere that Jonathan only challenges Mario to a one-on-one duel if you defeat both of his helpers - if you manage to keep them alive while defeating him, you'll have your full party for the whole fight. I don't think I've ever tried it myself, but it makes sense. Can anyone confirm or deny? SettingSun posted:It's a classic trick that absolutely works. Hm, so opening with a rock candy might not have been the best move. Good to know.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2018 23:40
|
|
|
The Rock Candy would have been a big help against the strong bosses. Why can't we have Jones instead of Mallow in our party?
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2018 23:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 14:15 |
|
|
Episode 28 - JoJo As I suspected last time, we're met with a cutscene as soon as we return to Seaside Town. The extremely normal townsfolk shake us down for our newly acquired star piece, and we can't just let that stand! It's worthwhile to note that if you hand over the star immediately and don't let the Elder get tickled he gives you a flower box. To reclaim our star piece, we have to fight Yaridovich! This was always one of the hard level / gear check fights in the game for me. Yaridovich has 1500 HP and can hit pretty hard with Meter Blast and Water Blast. He also uses his Mirage Attack to make a double of himself several times throughout the fight. His clone has much lower stats, so whichever one takes more damage is the one you want to focus on. That coupled with the fact that he's weak to Thunder make Mallow pretty useful in this fight. Now that we've freed the actual townsfolk, there's a lot of different shops we can check out. Among the most important is the Mushroom Shop, who will eat any mushrooms you have. If he eats a "special" mushroom (which is impossible to tell before hand and completely random), he'll give you a reward. These include maple syrups, flower tabs, and even rock candies. You can either stock up on some great items or make some sweet cash off of buying mushrooms next door and visiting this guy over and over. Side note, I can't tell you how sad I was that Here's the scan for Yaridovich. I find it kind of weird that they put his info on the same page as your first visit to Seaside Town (well before the Sunken Ship). I know it's a strategy guide and it's pretty obvious, but that's a pretty big spoiler right there. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 05:22
|
|