RGR007 - The King is Stoned

Okay, so like I said, I finished mapping out the Tower of Broww and defeated the dreaded Scissor Monster, thanks to the Golden Stone I got off some crazy old man in a cave:

What are you talking about?

After a little experimentation, I figured out the ring I won from the Scissor Monster lets me recover hit points (and, strangely enough, arrows) during battle.

Upon returning to Highria, I received the Mysterious Seed from the old man who sent me to the tower to begin with. It's apparently the seed of some kind of rapid-growing bridge plant, which is nice, since the bridge leading to the next town happens to be broken. I took the seed and headed down to the broken bridge, where I may or may not have had a bout of hallucinations as the seed worked its magic. The ocean began changing colors, and I felt oddly at peace, and when I looked back at the broken bridge, it was whole again. Or maybe it was magic. I'm really not sure anymore.

The town of Riria has two medical centers (and creepy, depressing music); one sells a universal antidote (not that I've been poisoned at any recent point in the game), and the other sells the Wonder Capsule, a surefire cure for food poisoning. Yep, the game is pretty straightforward. I of course bought one of these capsules, and immediately headed back to Ehdo to cure the townsfolk. The music became cheery once again, and the people began to tell me stories of strange goings-on up north in Somusa, and I learned some shocking news...

Now, we finally get to the title of this post. While I was gone, the king had been turned to stone! I ran as fast as I could (which was roughly equivalent to a leisurely stroll) to the castle to find the king a lifeless statue, and the princess begging me to go find who or whatever did this to him, and commence with the stabbing. You know I loves me some stabbing.

I then stopped by Somusa to check out these strange happenings, and heard the tale of the guy who dropped his axe in the lake, only to have it replaced with a golden axe by the fairy of the lake. Since I already knew I needed a weapon of gold, I figured I'd try my luck with a golden bow. When I dropped my bow in the lake, some freaky old red woman showed up, took the bow and some of my money, and vanished.

So I tried again with some arrows (I was not about to risk throwing away my expensive sword), but this time, a cute little blue girl showed up and upgraded my arrows to golden arrows. Of course, I lost the 50 arrows I had just bought for the privilege, but thanks to the ring, I can recoup those in no time.

What kind of laugh is that?

All right, I'll take the seed and...

Oh noes, I made the ocean bleed!

Phew, I think I need a nap.

Ooh, a shiny new town...

I'm a foreigner! What are the odds?

How convenient!

That seems to be the theme here.

*sigh* Can't I get a break?

He looks fine to me. Just old.

............ to you too!

Can't someone else do this one?

No, I was trying to upgrade!

No, I lost those FIFTY arrows.

Now that I've got my golden weapon, I guess it's time to try that boss in the cave northeast of Somusa again. I don't like that cave. It smells funny. And my flashlight kind of sucks.

RGR007 - Another Tower Down

They had scissors back then?

I lose more towers that way.

Quick note: I've obviously been busy as of late, but I'm still slowly making my way through the game. As you can see, I've finished the Tower of Broww, where I won some sort of ring from the Scissor Monster (yeah, that's really its name). More to come!

RGR007 - The Tower of Broww...wwww...w.

I know, it's been over two weeks since the last post, but that doesn't necessarily mean I haven't been playing; on the contrary, I've done quite a bit of leveling up, and am currently making my way through the Tower of Broww. I'm level 17 now, and according to the manual, the maximum level is 30, so I think I'm doing pretty well.

Yay, another tower.

At least this one smells better!

And this one's for the naysayer(s) out there, claiming I don't really draw maps as I go along. I miscalculated the width of the tower by one screen, so the first floor map is a little off. The second image actually belongs inside the first, but I didn't make enough room. Floors two and three look pretty good.

As you can see, this is a complicated tower, especially since some passages are blocked in certain directions. But I'll get it figured out one of these days. I do appreciate how the map designers for the game kept within the bounds of realism when designing the towers; some games have areas that make no sense if you put the maps together, with towers that defy physics with offset floors and floors at the top much larger than the bottom floors. The maps here show that the towers are even circular! Kudos to Game Arts and Hi-Score, and their map designers.

RGR007 - To the New World

With the princess rescued and the townsfolk all presumably hunched over their toilets, I headed over to the local port to hitch a ride on a boat across the sea. You see, the medicine they need is, as you may have read, nowhere near here. No, it can only be found in a town on the western continent, which, up until recently, was unreachable due to magically raging seas.

The boat ride was very short, and the port was surprisingly far from the next town, Karuza. The people there kept calling it a tourist trap, even though the town didn't have a single shop, though it did have TWO inns. After a bit of exploring, I found another town, called Highria, that had an awesome weapon shop. I picked up a scimitar there, and also met a Lizard Man in the woods just outside the town. The people are afraid of him, but that's really only because he doesn't speak English. I think he's a nice guy.

Sneak Attack!

Wow, short trip.

I think you're missing the point.

That makes no sense.

So where do I buy souvenirs?

Really? Me too!

OHMYGODITSABEAR!!! Oh, hi.

Just any old green monster?

I know there's a tower around here somewhere, but I also know I need something I passed up on the other side of the sea to beat him, so I've got a little bit of backtracking to do.

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!