RGR007 - The Tower of Gelve

Since there aren't many places to go just yet, and the dark smelly cave to the east scares me, I've officially made my way to the Tower of Gelve. Not that it's really much of a tower, with a whopping two floors. It is confusing though, as it appears to be fairly symmetrical, with rooms that will only allow you to pass in certain directions based on what direction you entered from. There are also three stone statues that you have to push to open certain passages. But given enough time and hit points, it's not too hard to make it to the boss, a tiny little dragon that just slowly moves toward you. With the Hyperspeed1 item and some arrows, I made such short work of him that I didn't get a chance to take a screenshot of him.

I then met the princess, who appears to have metamorphosed from the larval stage to the little girl with wings stage. Some hilarity ensued when the king pointed out my character's gender (I TOLD YOU!), noting that I couldn't marry the princess, but could marry him instead.

Once the laughter died down, the king ordered a soldier to distribute caviar to the townsfolk in celebration of the princess' return. Shortly thereafter, the townsfolk became ill, because the caviar, which the king bought from a mysterious masked man (really), was poisoned, and now everyone needs medicine from a town across the sea. If text could facepalm, it would right now.

Yep, that's a tower all right.

A fountain would look better here.

Ick, a giant bug! Kill it!

Oh, it's the princess. I knew that.

They don't make 'em like they used to.

Oh no, a plot twist!

I guess this means I have a new quest.

Seriously, who buys caviar from a mysterious masked man? And then serves it to EVERYONE?

RGR Game #007: Faria

Colon Co... *tee-hee*

Whoa, she has red eyes!

As promised, I've started on the next game, Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger! (henceforth known simply as Faria). The game is something of a hybrid action RPG, in that it has all the normal elements of a Dragon Warrior-style role-playing game, but the random battles take place in realtime, with you moving around and slashing at enemies a la Zelda.

From what I can gather (since the intro isn't much help), the story goes something like this:

Long ago, an evil Wizard (their caps, not mine) terrorized the kingdom of Faria. Countless warriors ventured forth to do battle with the Wizard, but none returned. Finally, a group of sorcerers combined their powers to create a Dragon which was able to defeat--but not destroy--the Wizard. They then used a powerful sealing spell to imprison the Wizard inside a magical sword.

The sword was passed down from generation to generation among the royalty of Faria, until the "One stormy night...." you see below. The Wizard was finally able to break free of the bonds of the sword to resume doing whatever it was he was doing before, which now involves the obligatory kidnapping of a princess.

This is where the game starts, with the player in the role of a mysterious warrior from a distant land who has come to set right that which has been set wrong. But there's a catch:

That mysterious warrior is a WOMAN! Imagine that!

In Japan, the game is labeled a "Comical Fantasy RPG", so you just know there are going to be some gender gags thrown in there.

And so my quest starts. After talking to the king and learning the identity of the princess, I was given permission to cross the bridge to the north, where the enemies are stronger and gather in larger numbers. In a wooded area near the town of Somusa, I encountered what appeared to be the princess, but according to a mysterious voice, was not. I get the feeling there was a joke there in the Japanese version that didn't make it across the Pacific intact. Oh well.

Wait, what?

Is that a cat on your bandana, or Totoro?

Ha, remember when you had to do that?

Oh, don't act all surprised!

Are you going to tell a racist joke?

Wow, that's progressive!

YA RLY

Eww...

She's actually kind of cute in person.

I've been told there are monsters of some sort in the Tower of Gelve to the north, so I'll be heading there once I've leveled up a bit. I'll bet the princess is there, too!

Quick Update

Yes, I'm still alive and online; we're taking our time with the move, but pretty much everything should be in place at the house this weekend. Then I'll start making proper game posts again!

Since the move took longer than I originally said, the next game poll has already closed, and I have yet to start on Dragon Warrior III. So I may just start on the winning game from the poll, Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger! (yes, that really is the title). We'll have to see.

Oh, and if anyone out there is looking to unload a 4-player coin door fairly cheap, I'm fixing up an arcade cabinet and could use it. I'm also looking for an official MultiJAMMA adapter, if anyone has one.

All right, that's it for now. New game updates start next week!