Twillight's playings

[Capo]

Try a solo run in Pillars of Eternity!

[twillight]

I don't have 50$ fora game I never even heared of.

[twillight]

For Watcher's Keep Level 2: bring with you Mazzy's sword. Its prevention of stun works miracle against the snake in the poison room (also consider using a prot from poison scroll), and its prevention of slow is useful in the ice room.

As I can't beat the Chromatic Demon the way I want to, but neither criples me beyond belief if I hold progress here, I move.
Also, as the Stronghold don't provide anything invaluable, and I'm just done with Event 6/8, I'm moving from this too.
Onto the rescue!

The demogorgon statue: ANY summon is good here, so no reason why bring anything else than Ras.

Silver Dragon: I hate this thing. First cast prot from cold and hardiness. Start the battle - you'll be wingpushed away. It can do this whenever feels like.
Has a #&@ attack dealing massive damage (anything between 50-150). When it does it AND wings you away, heal by potions. When going back try summoning Ras, so that'll take the heat next time. Whirlwind it to oblivion.

Stuff you can use, but not supposed to:
- Rod of Resurrection is applicable (has use in a ToB quest). Although you might consider it not magical, but divine.
- Gauntlets of Crushing: you're not a monk, but still.

To defeat the Chromatic Demon:
-assemble the Crom Faeyr
- no need to be proficient with it
- wait until changes to shambling mound form
- have Ras summoned as diversion
- release demon
- profit.
This is how the Chromatic Demon works:
- every time it changes form gets full heal
- it is probably 100% resistant to any elemental damage except its current weakness
- it has 90% resistance to any physical damage type (you can only hurt 1-2 HP per hit)
- it has 0% resistance against current weakness.
Staff of Striking does NOT work here.

Areas you likely won't visit (no gain for pain):
- beholder city
- illithid city
- tavern duels of Ust Natha
- the imprisonment machine of the Underdark
- lvl 5-6 of Watcher's Keep (I got maximum exp even before fighting the Chrmoatic Demon)

Bhaal's Tears:
- Wrath: wisdom and charisma has no use for you
- Greed: sure, Blackrazor is nice - only problem it did not work in the original game, thus not even worth considering
- Pride: you don't need exp anymore
- Fear: immunity is better.
- Selfishness: this is the tricky one. If you play hardcore, thus refuse to touch magic, then go for magic resist. If you are ok with abusing design errors, avoid it like plague and go for the AC. Why? The amulet gives 10% magic resist.With the natural MR of Wizardslayer, plus 5% from Lum's Machine you get 99% natural MR.
If youare ok abusing exploits, don't forget to wear magic boots, magic helmets, and the Claw of Kazgaroth,as well as Gauntlets of Crushing!

The bad side of longsword prophiciency:
- while there are a lot of long swords, and with useful abilities, they also don't realy go above +2 enchantment, what is problematic, given how many things demand +3 stuff to be hit (not to mention even stronger optional things)
- there is no negative plain protectin (leveldrain immunity) from swords, which given we're talking mainly about wizard slayer is a hugh problem. Sure, there's Angurvadal, but that's ATSENDAI'S LAIR, which point you passed EVERY SINGLE leveldraining monster I assume. Who designed this shite?

For ToB:
- I pocketsleep more then I used to with other chars, but who cares?
- in case you're frustreted tohave 99% MR just wear Enkidu's Plate. It is a -2 AC plate with 5% MR, way cooler for many characters than the overhyped Ice Dragon Plate.
- I did not have the WIS this time, so had to kill Spectator (beholder). Fortunately he's returned in ToB either way.
- couldn't bother going for the BMU first, so did Sendai w/o it. The Slave Passage caused some problems, which I solved by releasing at the first 1/3rd Ras, and Spectral Brand at 2/3rd to hold up the crowd.
- oh, and you don'teven have to bother with the Deck of Many Things, as you'll likely wield Angurvadal after its upgrade, which pumps your STR to 22, which means 24 STR with Evil Wrath Tear.

I'm yet to find a belt WS could wear, a second ring,and a cloak. Otherwise lazy coding über alles I think. I put allinfo on available equipment here (http://baldursgate.wikia.com/wiki/Wizard_Slayer).

Personal story:
- Ogremoch somehow activated some trap (remember, I play WS, which don't lay traps) and got banished by it?
- somehow True Sendai managed to hold EVERYTHING (including its summons), so died at the 2nd whirlwind. Easiest victory ever.
- I dunno 'bout u, but for me Draconis was a giant middle finger. Here is all I could figure out:
a) cast prot from acid beforehand
b) stand outward,so its transformation-wing-buff will push you to semi-safety
c) as it is primaly a caster (who don't realy care about the miscast debuf, neither the thac0-debuff from Answerer) use the Grandmaster armor for speed (or just use Boots of Speed abusing the coding)
d) cast mirror image afterthe transformation pushed you
e) he somehw can onehit Ras, but not Spectral Brand
f) don't bother with the stalkers (if you're immun to +1/0)
g) use Rod of Reversal when it appears first time,or it managed to recast stone skin or such (check the battle log constantly)
h) when it is close, use whirlwind
i) when it runs away (innate ability invisibility) do NOT runafter,as it'll remain invisible. Instead drink a megapotion.
j) hope for the best.

[Smiling Spectre]

I don't have 50$ fora game I never even heared of.
It's Kickstarter game from the famous Obsidian (yes, authors of BG1-2, Planescape and Fallout 2). Check on Steam for their games. :)

Speaking about that, SteamDB (https://steamdb.info/app/291650/) clearly shown that game is $30 (without DLC though) and can be bought for $15 on sale. :)

[Mystvan]

Try a solo run in Pillars of Eternity!


Capo :poke: (not Japo :king: nor Paco :paco:) had already mentioned this game previously, in this same thread:

Do Pillars of eternity solo :OK:

Well, we could assume twillight is not so hungary :hungry: for that kind of game...

[twillight]

With ALL dlc (aka. the complete game, not some demowith missing features and half the story) costs at the moment 43.47$ without pesky steam-connection to ruin your life consuming all memory of your computer and infesting your life with advertisement on GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_definitive_edition).

I'll finish my other stuff before investing that much. And trust me, I have tons of stuff on my head.

At least I know I'mlearning from all this bullshit Baldur's Gate playthroughs. like the difference between power, preparation and tactics. Barbarian, bard and wizardslayer respectively.

Talking about this, WS made more progress:
- Abazigal is another middle finger. It don't have spammable "there goes 50%+ of your HP" breath attack, but instead it is immun to Answerer, always hasted, AND immun to Flail of Ages' slowing effect.
For preparation cast prot from lightning, hardiness, mirror image, and when transforms hit it with rod of reversal. Still a gambling, but whatever.
Oh, I failed to mention, the blasted dragon's fearbypasses the magic resist, so there. Get the dragonslayer sword offhand for this.

At Balthazar have to mention, I prefer sequenced programming instead of this "if Creature X rolls random and spamms the I Kill Button zounds then you are dead no matterwhat" crap.

The Ravager... Ye, I suspectif it spams its wingpuff, which it has despite not a dragon, you're as good as dead.
Either way, your best chance is to hop into BMU, summon the earth elemental, the air elemental, 3 fire elemental, cast mirror image, hardiness, enter, and as soonas start cast whirlwind to get close asasp and start whacking.
When you start to run out of summons (which only function is to hold back the mordekainen swords) pull out Ras. Somehow this encounter eats Spectral Brand like it had Hp, so don't try that. This means leaving out a whirwind, but whatever.

This leaves Melisandr only. And I did this the hardcore way: no cloak, no belt, no rings (despite you could), no amulets (despite you could), no magical boots (like the nonmagical would do something, lol), no magical helmets, no magical shields.
Although for maxium fun, I'd recomend putting up all magical equipments. It is a trying, but fun kit. OK, most of the time it is weak as a kitten,and you have to rely a lot of metaknowledge and experience, but hey, I DID find this a fun experience.
WS deinifitely sux though. And that's a fact.

Oh, and in case for some strange reason you wanna identify the Sword of Gram, you CAN'T get out through the maingate. But you can leave the area sideways, go to another place, come back, get into the medical facility, and identify it there.
Just so you know.

PS: technicaly WS solo shouldn't be able to do the game. Because in Abazigal's Lair must use Breath Potion. Which is a magicalpotion, what the WS can't use. Fortunately it is enough to have it in the inventory.

[twillight]

Better than the 2nd one.
It has a massive playtime, and the puzzles are practicaly always logical.

Too bad the remastered adition did not sharpen the contours of the characters (the background was fine all along), and not made lipsink on the speech-windows.

The biggest flow is though, that as the story goes along, the puzzles/the next action becomes more and more... Just Because We Can, and not integrate, logical move comiing from the story.
Like when at the cathedral, the hints literaly say "yes, the story brought you here, but you should be elsewhere Because Plot Convenience".
Then again at the cathedral when there's the clow-juggler-joungler you obviously have to getdown the sewers. I mean obviously, because there's the serwer lid, and there's literaly no other option else to do anything in the game. But otherwise there's no narrative reason to do it.

The peak of frustration though came in the mausoleum. There's an open window, and a large stick. Obvious thing to do: close the window with the stick.
But the program does not allow this until you futily try to lighten the candle in the room, which obviously gets blowned by the air coming through the open window. I knew that fuckhead. Why did you now allow me to do my stuff, he?

[twillight]

I have no life, and this is totaly something none ever did, so F you, this is my contribution to humanity.

In Candlekeep summoned familiar.Can't fall there anyway, as if attacking anyone the whole place turn hostile (including Gorion to start with).

Right after leaving Candlekeep there's a guy who will not jump. Killed him.
Then there's a bartender/merchant-fattso - also killed him. The reputation fell to 5, just enough to be fallen. This is independent from starting reputation, so just go for pseudodragon (miniwyvern by the look of it) instead the puny fairy dragon (they're totaly the same except FD has worse stats).

E of Candlkeep, S of Friendly Inn, Friendly Inn cleared.

Death: Silke (blast her lightning bolt)

https://i.imgur.com/wCzRJyd.png

Done areas: S of Beregost, N of Nashkel, NW of Nashkel, Nashkel, High Hedge (the two flesh golem delt with - they are hostile before talking with the mage).
Finaly my reputation reached average - only for this technical reason gender is male.
Primaly using quarterstaff +1.

Danger: flesh golems

https://i.imgur.com/UXTQLvr.png

When felt ready to go to the Bashkel Mines already done mostof the areas. Sadly made no exact notes, but here are the places not visited yet:
- Larswood/Peldwale (related to Bandit Camp), Anything directlynorth from Durlag's Tower (and the tower itself), the Archeological Dig
Last visited the Firewine Bridge. Before that went to Ulgoth Beard, but skipped fighting ankeghs. AC realy bad you know. Just had to follow the seashore. Bought there staff +3, cloak of eyedamage. At least I'm popular now.
Used a mindshield potion when gaining the CON-Tome, and an Oil of Speed when in the area protecting that cow. Also a scroll of prot from undead to clear the Nashkel Mines exit (makes life easier).
Because of low CHA got no Boots of the North, neither prot from magic scroll and reputation when finding the dead cat.

https://i.imgur.com/WQTyHcT.png

[Capo]

Nice avatar :OK:

[Mystvan]

I have no life, and this is totaly something none ever did, so F you, this is my contribution to humanity.

In Candlekeep summoned familiar.Can't fall there anyway, as if attacking anyone the whole place turn hostile (including Gorion to start with).

Right after leaving Candlekeep there's a guy who will not jump. Killed him.
Then there's a bartender/merchant-fattso - also killed him. The reputation fell to 5, just enough to be fallen. This is independent from starting reputation, so just go for pseudodragon (miniwyvern by the look of it) instead the puny fairy dragon (they're totaly the same except FD has worse stats).

E of Candlkeep, S of Friendly Inn, Friendly Inn cleared.

Death: Silke (blast her lightning bolt)

https://i.imgur.com/wCzRJyd.png

Done areas: S of Beregost, N of Nashkel, NW of Nashkel, Nashkel, High Hedge (the two flesh golem delt with - they are hostile before talking with the mage).
Finaly my reputation reached average - only for this technical reason gender is male.
Primaly using quarterstaff +1.

Danger: flesh golems

https://i.imgur.com/UXTQLvr.png

Norway! :wacko: :tease: If I were not digitally reading the stats of the character, I would swear she would be female and not male! :sick:

In the beginning, when I saw the avatar, I was getting digitally hungary, :drool: but now, with that great disappointment, I am really in spain... :crybaby:

Well, at least there is a person, you know who, :sneakrete: who would not be disappointed, because that Maiden :grandma: loves to change (switch) the gender of users... Why is it? :mhh: :sneakrete: :woot: :hypno2:

[twillight]

Actualy, the avatar is robotic, thus sexless. Uhm, this turned out pretty weird. Better consult with someone with a degree in genderism.

And the character is practicaly an excuse to use clubs. None use clubs. Given that in the BG1 part without Enchanted Edition there are absolutely zero magical clubs, and trilogy/weidu implemented the BG2 system on the BG1 game, that's pretty understandable.

---------

Danger: when exiting the Nashkel Mines AIM THE LEADER of the bounty hunters! She casts Hold Person, and it'd be useless to drink Invulnerability Potion even! So drink a STR-buff potion and a Potion of Heroism for hits (at least I did), and aim for the casters first!

In the Bandit Camp I got pretty wounded (ca. 50%), and the head honcho outside decided to charge me while I was busy sniping the archers (with boots of avoidance, girdle of piercing and cloak of ulgoth beard you're pretty much invulnerable aside critical hits). So said, WTH and drank a Potion of Heroism. As I still had more than 40% HP, drank a couple oh healing potions and went in the main tent. And won.

Btw, bought all potions from Nashkel, Beregost and the Friendly Arms Inn at this point... I'm running dry. Technicaly I could use the Elixir of Health potions of course...
Btw,yet to find a wand of polymorph, but aside that the only wand seen been able to use is Wand of Sleep.

As I knew from last time they suck, went and killed the red wizards.
In Gulleykin used an oil of fiery burning against the headhunters.
Oh, before I forget: around the 2nd screenshot the familiar became Permanent Resident of the Backpack. It no longer had enough HP to not be oneshotted. Interesting thing is, it can be a good diversion against Flesh Golems with its ridiculously low AC. And it can stand 1 punch, so can use it.
In Cloakwood Forest II used a potion of freedom (had 3, got lucky), a scroll of prot from poison, and inside the cave an oil of fiery burning.
In CWF IV used an antidote. Not because of the wyvern, but for a random spider. The irony!
At the CWMines got lucky and could separate the warriors one-by-one, thus not used potion.
CWM IV: "death" by the mage. To beat the horrors drink a Potion of Frost Giants Strength, a Potion of Invulnerability, and a Potion of Heroism. This was good, but against the mage you still need another Potion of Invulnerability (that Dire Charm is strong), and a Potion of Freedom (I managed to fail against his Hold Person still, and the only Ring of Freedom can only be aquired if you can't steal if you kill that guy in Ulgoth Beard, but that'd make half the town hostile - so need potion, which I did not know, so did not bring, so I reloaded instead of CLUAConsole, or doing a trip back to the town, which I totaly could have).

Up till now bought every single Healing Potions, and never left an area without dealing with all "local issues" (aside the ankeghs). The result is, only 14 healing potions remained on me. (All temples - Gullykin, Nashkel, Beregost, Firendly Arms Inn - sells 20, High Hedge gives 3.)
Any level of a dungeon counts as "another area", so I was allowed to leave if I felt to. This is just a self-imposed rule what made things a bit spicey. Baldur's Gate itself pose no problem related to this (I assume) aside the doppelganger-fights, and has plenty of new shops to restock the supplies.

This shot is after I reported to Vai after the CWM:

https://i.imgur.com/eYeHp9N.png

Following the Lothander quest all areas were made accessible. First did the section E, then NE, then W, N, SE, C, SW, sewers. Because of BUG Aldeth never shown up to open the Merchant League of his, and I got suspicious. Yes, he got "stuck" in CW1. Killed him there, and his brother shown up at least. S.
At the Iron Thron's Big Boss Battle I useda potion of Firebreath (found in the building I think) to kill the casters ASAP because they pose a DANGER of stun/hold you. Rigid Thinking is a joke, I either end up running away in Boots of Speed, or whack them like nothing happens.
Did the basilisk area, then finaly the ankeghs. After that NW, where used a Potion of Defense and Potion of 19 STR to beat the things Degrodel had - effects lasted till giving back the quest, so all was good. Damn, I'm behind shedule for a blackout.
No matter, passed Candlekeep, thatbeing an easy area, of course had to use a Potion of 24 STR to get all the good stuff.

WhyI not show my exact exp is, aside that I just didn't want to remove equipment (hey, ring of freedom was in the Iron Fist!), is the strange fact, that the sheetstill counts Racial Enemy. Does this mean even when fallen, I get these bonuses? I checked with Cavalier, and its resistances go away when falling you know.

https://i.imgur.com/GGPk1m7.png

DANGER: Durlag's Tower, lvl -2: Love casts Dire Charm, and that sux.

[Mystvan]

Well, it is an off topic issue that addresses gender bender or gender change.

I will only mention a few titles, perhaps known to somebody, who were perhaps “pioneers” in their respective forms of entertainment:

• Cartoon: Ranma ½;
• Comics: Ranma ½;
• Games: Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender-Bender;
• VN / BG / EG / HG: XC series.

[twillight]

Well, it is an off topic issue that addresses gender bender or gender change.


I'm more familiar with the western culture. From there:
- Glen and Glenda (1953, crated by Ed Wood!)
- Boys don't cry (1999)
- Transamerica (2005)
- Big Mouth (season 1, episode 3, 2017)

From asia I can only name two things:
- X Change (1997, and I'm hentai is hentai, sry)
- Sailor Moon (power to Sailor Uranus! Crap, getting the french dub totaly improved this character making the gender ambiguous, especialy as hungarian lacks constantly adding the gender-pronouns. The series started in 1991, but only got here in 1998)

------------

Aside that, went further in Durlag's. Don't forget that right after dealing with the throne room on lvl 3, to the right is the Master Control Room, so you don't have to bother with all the puzzles of doors opening and closing, you can simply set all doors open :mischief:

Oh, back on lvl 2 a pro tip: you'll need (at least with this char) antidotes. There is a sixpack in one of the barels at the four dwarf guardian, so run there first.

One of the greatest advantage to have is regeneration, so you don't have to rely on potions anymore, that much. DUHM is precious. But even with your buffed stats you need a potion of speed to conquere the air aspect on you-know-what-level (lvl 4).
Against the Fission Slime the cheapest solution is fire arrows.

To win the chessboard drink a Potion of Invisibility, and a Potion of Absorption, then just walk around until everyone is dead.
BEWARE: if you get on the chessboard, there's no turning back! Well, you know what I mean. Ialso question howcould you come down again if you decide to go out.

In lvl 5 if you brought a scroll ofprot fromacid, cast it. FIRST GO IN THAT AREA, because it has such potions as Antidote, so you'll have stuff to use when fighting the spiders in the room at the start. Why wouldyou fight them? For exp! I have the trilogy merged into one game, so 8 million is the only exp limit!
But as we depend even if only slightly from that scroll (actualy we don't), and the game is very generous at this point with potions, I suggest bottoms up!

To get the Staff of Striking you again need another STR 24 potion. Darn. But it is stylish if you manage to land the finishing blow on the demon knight while it fights its counterpart, and to assure that names staff is perfect, especialy as you thac0 will be great if you do this with name dpotion sill active (use potions of healing to regenerate back the HP lost when opening the chest of the staff).
The Mirror Fiend mirroring you somehow blasted hard to hit in melee, but hurts you like animal, but using bow (+1/fire arrows) finishies it quickly. The Mirror Knight disappears with the original.

https://i.imgur.com/ZR99uEE.png

A note for other times: if you talk to Shandalar BEFORE doing the thieves quest (and killing his daughter), he makes no fuss about it anymore.

In the Iron Throne HQ get to a sideroom until you finish off the ogres. Darn, I miss shorty saves.
Then just because I could and had the resources I thought, I sipped an Oil of Speed and Potion of Heroism, cast DUHM, and stormed the palace. THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I realised why sometimes the surviving duke/s don't respond: there are the staris which I though doppelgangers might flee when panicing. Actualy BENEATH the stairs is a door, to the royal treasury, which even has its own cinematics!
After this took my time to check if the Flaming Fist is withdrawn, or the porting is just some cheap trick to avoid programming removing them. And they were gone! Ahoy!

On Werewolf Island (I can't believe I'm doing this!) go by babysteps. Always sleepheal to full, follow people from the edge of the fog-of-war and so on.
Things to bring: Potion of Defense (5), Oil of Speed (5, although you find one on the island, in the house of the chieftain if you want), LOTS of healing potions (I had a crapload this point, so no fuss), +3 weapon (yes, that's the quarterstaff for beatmaster), Potion of Heroism/Potion of Power as many you can afford, but as for the others use only 1 slot.
For the bottom level run into a corner, so only limited enemy can reach you.
Second level is tough, but only an of Defense (and maybe healings) needed.
Third deck can almost be called easy, and it has a potion of 23 STR! Perfect, as I don't want to ditch my last 24 STR potion (btw, there are 2 of these on the island, I suggest grabbing at least one, preferably both). But I suggest after buffing do everything quickly and heal up by potions, so you can use the effects lasting to leave the island for good! So let's deal with Mendas!
Where the game will TROLL YOU! Wassisname-he-turns-to is IMMUN TO quarterstaff +3 (unlike his pal)! The ONLY way I found to survive here was, to first cast all crap on me (oil of speed, potion of defense, potion of heroism, DUHM),dispose the other-loupe-garou ASAP, then turn on the Big Bad Wolf - with "The Victor", aka. Energy Ring. You have to run around (to avoid being damaged), and cast regularly from the ring (and its magic resist gets in the way occasionaly). Dunno if it has regeneration or what, but it gives up to the rays (requires quite a lot of charges, so if you found this with few charges recharge it by shop out of necessity - don't forget that their islandlacks both shop and medic institute!).

https://i.imgur.com/wi2qgNs.png

The Archeological Dig ... was somehow way easier then with the previous char. Didn't even sipped a potion,and it went down smoothly.
Now, should I try my luck against the demon of Ulgoth Beard?

https://i.imgur.com/jqDToNM.jpg

Hm, this was easy. Only did this once, so was kinda surprised by the commitee at the gate. Who cares, drank a Ption of Defense for starter, then Potion of Heroism. Some Potion of Healing for flavour, but as I was not sure what comes, and the village has no medical center... Whatever, onward! Got surprised again what the doorguard summoned for help, but whatever. But just to be sure took an Oil of Speed. These again had a crapton of Potion of Heroism. Who cares.
Inside killed all (starting with the mage). Drank a bottle of invisibility, went down. Went to the backand started bowing the cultists. The stars might have been right, but I saw in their light where to aim...
The last being down took a scroll of prot from magic, AND (and it is important) a dose of Potion of Mirrorred Eyes (need another dose because expires). Fast disposed the summoner, then started to run around shooting the demon. The cultists costed me a surprising chunk of arrows (like 70, and I only brought like 25 acid arrow + 80 fire arrow = 105, plus 11 piercing arrows), so I was a bit worried, but somehow I shot it easy. Well, that's why I'm an elf I assume. And it is a demon, and probably the racial enemy (don't go into this!) DOES work. Because sure as heck the spells I can cast despite being fallen!
The pesky dwarf did not give reward - sure, because I'm an elf I assume.

Ah! I can memorise spells, but not cast them!

The fight against Sarevok&Co went ... more smoothly than I thought. He was still the stronger. But I had the Unholy Grail of the Durlags, so muahaha!

https://i.imgur.com/pu1277P.png

[Mystvan]

On games:
- DiviDead: ye, that old erotic manga-game, which came on CD. Not to this miniscule country here of course, and noone have "adult" section nowdays. Man, I grew up on those hentai games, darn. Given it is a "porno" game there isn't a let's play for it either :( I'd settle for an uncenzored let's play actualy.


Just to warn you that this game has some dialogues without voices. I presume the producers have forgotten this, since there are innumerable dialogues. :wacko: :tease:

And the other games of this Producer also have the story confusing, mysterious, but it does not even come close to the FFVII in which the facts seemed to be conflicting, many unfathomable mysteries (at least 10 years ago when the internet was still developing). :woot: :hypno2:

I'm more familiar with the western culture. From there:
- Glen and Glenda (1953, crated by Ed Wood!)
- Boys don't cry (1999)
- Transamerica (2005)
- Big Mouth (season 1, episode 3, 2017)

From asia I can only name two things:
- X Change (1997, and I'm hentai is hentai, sry)
- Sailor Moon (power to Sailor Uranus! Crap, getting the french dub totaly improved this character making the gender ambiguous, especialy as hungarian lacks constantly adding the gender-pronouns. The series started in 1991, but only got here in 1998)

Now, regarding the XC series, you have been able to decipher my codes... :o :omg: Just to remind you that PeaPri has also released spin-off of this series.

[Smiling Spectre]

Now, regarding the XC series, you have been able to decipher my codes... :o :omg:

Well, I know _only_ X: Change in this vein, and VN went right with it, so nothing too hard for Twillight too, I believe. ;) EG and HC went along too.

But I still puzzled about BG. :)

[Mystvan]

I was once an active user of the Erotic Games English Official Forum (Eroge or H-games) translated into English (PP, JAST USA). I may be outdated since then... :old:

As far as I know, the people there do not really appreciate this expression “Hentai” (perverted) / H / Ecchi and prefer other terms like Dating-Sim games, Bishoujo (“Pretty Girls”) games, Visual Novels, etc.

If you like games with deeper and more complex content like Divi-Dead, I can point out more similar games and avoid known games, but with very weak, superficial stories. If you are interested, you can contact me via PM. :PM:

Well, I know _only_ X: Change in this vein, and VN went right with it, so nothing too hard for Twillight too, I believe. ;) EG and HC went along too.

But I still puzzled about BG. :)

Wow! Cool! I hope some old members of PeaPri BBS (now JAST USA Forums) are members here as well. :OK:

Regarding the term BG, this means Bishoujo Games (“Pretty Girls”) (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?p=482019#post482019).

Now, regarding the term DSG, to the great misery of Neymarla :old: fans, this does not mean Darius Saint-Germain, but Dating-Sim Games. :sucks:

PS: I wonder why Neymarla :old: is so *ahem* *cough* *cough* “popular” in Brazil... :banned:

[twillight]

I never fully got the difference between ecchi and hentai. I know it's some cultural thing, and stuff...

Either way, as despite the limited equipment supply for Beastmaster seems this will be a bit more interresting then I thought, here is some update:
- got out of ID (lol, just struck this) without sleeping. That's always nice.
- because there are only 2 clubs in SoA,and 1 in Watcher's Keep, I bought the Staff Mace in the Adventurer's Mart. And a simple club, as I had better things to do then bring out what found in the dungeon.
- did the Circus. Nothing much there. But then decided, wth, why not use my potions and do Peblecrusher? So I went in, sipped an oil of speed, put a potion of firebreath on the berserker sword-one, used the flames to destroy the mage and the imp (run behind the bed to do that), charmed the thief both to not run away and meatshield (this was the hardest part), and done.
From their stuff changed Protector the Seond (leather +2) to Hide Armor&Ring of Protection,which for the moment seems better than that Studded Leather +1. The goal is Aeger's Hide, but thatcosts a lot of money.
Either way, the potion lasted until I did the robbers and the duel in the Slums (bought Glasses of Identification too), so so far so good.
Freeing Hendak gave me enough gold to buy Aeger's Hide. Was important to have 2,000 gold left.
Took the potion of Freedom I had, and went into the sewers for Lilarcor. Look, I know I can't use it, but it's exp, and money, and aslong as I can, I'll stick to the clear-all method.
Up to the slaver drank the Potion of 22 STR, because sooner or later I'll sleep, so I didn't need that. With doing everything proper, the P of Freedom held out until the last group of slavers, so that Hold Person was washed off. Nextwas important to kill the human mage, then the fighters starting with the archers, and only then the dwarf mage.

Next time: between-areas and the docks (at least that's the plan)!

-------------

During working for the Shadow Thieves/Maewar bought Boots of Grounding and Staff of Striking because I could, and were the first items to come across. Also realising Cloak of Non detection don't worth squat if not sneaking but invisible (death: Cowled Wizard), bought the nymph cloak too, even if I end up not using it.

To get the Spider Figurine (of course I'm working for Bodhi again) used a prot from poison scroll, and a Potion of Defense.

As I did not forget to hold back taking the final rewards for the Circus and freeing the slaves, my reputation never suffered.

Practicaly cleaned Amn (killed even Anomen, did not forget) except the sewers and the Bridge. Planis to clean the Bridge, then go to Trademeet first.

Hey, noticed another Staff Mace available in the Talos temple!

Against Valiera&Co used a Potion of Heroism + Oil of Speed. While they lasted added a Potion of Invincibility and disposed Dennis the Menace.While all these lasted delt with the tanner's allies. And because it still had duration, disposed Tarnor in the sewers. Actualy they have some nasty spells, so mark another death for them (I managed in the end lure them thin, and the casters remaining back wasted their ugly spells on the spider figurine). The heroism still could have last if I don't forget trolls die by fire, so had to crawl back for a bow from a slain creature, lol. It didn't matter in the end, all my hits landed. Bah, unlike others he seems to not worth exp? Or just not came the message? Whatever. Let's sell his stuff.

Freeing Haer DHalis from the planar space was... Well, it was rough to start. The key was, to summon the berserker at the left mage to prevent it stun you (also DANGER: it has a finger of death). And an oil of speed + potion of heroism helped too (I suspect backstabbers). Probably some AC-potion would have been more simple, or not, but I'mlazy to buy potions (aside that magic blocking one to get the berserker).

What remains in the city are the liches, some +3 undead in the Unseeing Eye's lair (btw, there again had heavy use of the summons: spider, berserker, air elemental, and still was problematic the cleric group, so count another death), and the illithids behind the windspear hill's key's gate. Oh, and the rogue stone doorway.

https://i.imgur.com/DBBRexf.png

[twillight]

Haha, joke on me, Amulet of Pow-err does not work on any warrior, not just on fighter. And thatwas the only source which could have protect me from leveldrain. Oh man.
Of course I won't have Ras or that other invincible flying sword either.

I don't think I'll manage.

Cleaning the Shadow Thieves Hideout was left, so done it (obviously), then thought about the liches, but there's some problem with that. Namely the Rogue Stone Doorway. Idealy I'd quaff a Potion of 24 STR and use its duration to dealwith stuff, casting prot from undead along the way (by the way don't cast it until the beholder is down, as the shield don't reflect its dispel-ray), but there's the problem that the mage summons some +3 demon. And my weapons are only +2. And no source of prot. from evil either. I should get the !2 staff from the shop either way, eh?
Ye, that was a good idea. Beastmaster is pay-to-win.
Btw, don't forget to bring Helm of Charm Protection, 'case the Aeger's Hide usualy protects from such crap (confision, charm, chaos etc.), they cast some special spells which bypass that :sick:

Accidently solved the Genie Embargo both ways. Attacked the gaurd outside for the bottle, and when enter clicked right on the boss, which inisiated the all-well conversation before the'd turn hostile, and then poof, they were goner. Nice. Not that I ever use the bottle, but still.

exp I'll not get: did not go for the pockets in the Planar Prison. Will not go kill the noble houses of Trademeet (if you enter their home after giving themantle to the major, they are hostile). Will not go back to destroy amnishsoldiers at the Silver Pantaloon Hostage. Will not (not that I could) fight the cowled wizards arriving for casting magic.

Tested out that the ranger do NOT loose its stronghold for giving booze&guns to youngsters. That was Fake News all along. So the only thing to watch for is to not kill the Shadow Lord before dealing with Irenicus. Because doing the stronghold (finishing all stronghold quest) restores the fallen status. Which I plan to rebalance by doing the Tears the evil way. The alignment shift in theory makes you fallen when transiting to ToB.

Until then, here is a semi-fake picture for you. I just played with the character skins change button combination (then reloaded). If I remember correctly you actualy can't have a statue inslayer form.

https://i.imgur.com/aOeOmZw.png

To kill dragons shop-recharge staff of striking, and greater whiirlwind the beast with simultan simlacrum.

I'm ready to leave Amn due to no other things to do:

https://i.imgur.com/AG05Buu.png

Next time pick it up in the Underdark: did you know adamantite don't count as metal?

Doing the tavern monster duels not justmaxed my exp, but also made more sense why Phaere sends me dealing with the beholder. Buttoo bad now I won't mess with Drizzt. You know what I mean.

https://i.imgur.com/3axyl65.png

Btw,watch out as bothe the adventurer group, and some mad magey from the imprisonment machine has maze/imprisonment.

Right before going down to the Tree/Irenicus went back to do the Stronghold quests.
The first one went smoth, but for the second Delon never shown up, if I spawned him only did the original UmarHill Trouble monologue. Didn't find how to initiate the 2nd quest (it worked when I made the test-run to check the effect of the Idle Hands of Imnesvale), but found the more important 3rd quest's command lines to initiate, and thatwas the important piece:
CluaConsole:SetGlobal("RangerProtector","GLOBAL",3)
CluaConsole:SetGlobal("UmarPlot","GLOBAL",1)
The result is the Moondog Figurine, and my status restored (not that I want to use it).

https://i.imgur.com/URul1Ux.png

As I sad I'm playing Fallen:

https://i.imgur.com/ef2RuuD.png

[Smiling Spectre]

Sorry for offtop, twillight. Mystvan, I think, it's went too far from theme, so I'll move your reply from here to there (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=46129).

[Mystvan]

Sorry for offtop, twillight. Mystvan, I think, it's went too far from theme, so I'll move your reply from here to there (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=46129).

Norway! I am sowwy, twillight, if my off-topic posts caused you spain in any way.

I just thought that twillight would be very hungary :hungry: for more information.

I apologize digitally. :kosta: Pwetty pwease? :kitty:



https://media.makeameme.org/created/pwetty-pwease.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/b1b5/i/2014/060/d/5/pwetty_pwease__by_catmeowington123-d78fyn7.jpg



Have a nice Caturday! Meow! :kitty:

[twillight]

I am sowwy, twillight, if my off-topic posts caused you spain in any way.
Have a nice Caturday! Meow! :kitty:

Oh not at all! I feel the new topic was considered so worthy, they opened its own topic for it!

------------

Now on the Selfishness tear. Playing these odd characters truly shows its worth.
Most tears are nobrainers:
- why'd you want +2 CON at Fear? First, make your character roll proper (I much better like set points to distribute because of this), second it only means a couple of HP and even that for warriors only. And if you need regeneration desperatly, why don't you just get an item? Heck, youcould even just murder the owner of the Adventurers' Mart for his ring, as this is the bloody endgame, so you don't go back!
- Greed is a nonissue in the vanilla games, because the Blackrazor simply doesn't work. And even then I bet it don't do squat on the important characters (Irenicus, Melissan, The Five). Even then you probably planned your character proper,and Blackrazor being an item you likely know wether you want it or not at the very beginning, so atleast no dilemma. I mean saving throws are nice, but in the end worst case you just reload.
- Pride: seriously. Exp as reward at this point?
- Wrath: 99% it is a nobrainer. First:CHA. Charisma is a dumpstat,and from this point even in ToB you won't by squat, and/or you'll have infinite money anyway. And there's the Ring of Human Influence.
Second, WIS. Wisdom is again a dumpstat, as its effect on Saving Throws are NOT IMPLEMENTED. So this only effects divine magic users,and you probably know how much melee you do with your character, right?

And finaly there's Selfishness. Sure, for a regular character it is a nobrainer, because the regular character either does not melee (like mage, or backstabbing thieves), or wears the mega-armors and reach bottom AC. And yes, AC does count even in ToB, you'd know this if you'd played with and without it in Sendai's Lair to be particular.
But take a character with serious item restrictions, like barbarian, wizard slayer, beast master and whatnot. Here this becomes a question. Because actualy how much you can rely on the particularly exclusive magic resistence?
Sure, barbarians can, but there is another question: they have very high resistance anyway, so should they go for Absolute Immunity, or settle with Minimal Risk? And the others have no inherent magic resistance, so even dressed up, how much that extra 10% counts? The AC suddenly sounds attractive if you give some thought to it. Especialy as you don't loose stats for it.

Btw, the creativity to "cheat" always astound me. Here people came upwith half a dosen solution to not loose a companion if choosing evil. The still-standing version is Mazing the one, as they figured out the choice is constant, not random. This is just amusing.

Wow, I didn't even had to wait for the transition to ToB! Simply being Selfish tore my class!!!

https://i.imgur.com/p8BJMGr.png

This also cause the Moondog Figurine to not be usable. If it was in your quick item slot it remains usable, but it returns to the backpack unfortunately.

Aquick note on weapons:
- while Gnasher says it does +2 dmg for 4 rounds, I found this very unreliable. It many times do only +2 dmg along the hit-damage, if at all (it seems to be physical damage, so StoneSkin works against it, AND does not count as another hit), and remains only a +2 weapon. So I ended up switching to Bone Club from Brynlaw (buy the +3 club in Saradush!).
- the Unlimited Ammo Fire Crossbow which is sold at the Watcher's Keep is super-poweful in every way, especialy as it though "fires +2 fire arrows" hits as +4 weapon (not upgraded)!

On the fight with Irenicus: beware, as he can cast Maze. Also worth to brin an unenchanted club/quarterstaff (club is easier to use in practice), as the slayer is not immun to normal weapons, so simply switch there if he casts immun to magic weapons.

Notes on armor: somehow red dragon and blue dragon armor are "metal", but shadow and white are "leather". Don't ask.
Also, being Fallen, the ranger-specific Montolio's Cloak is not available. Darn, that's a good item. But still being somewhat-ranger, fighter-specific items, like Helm of the Rock is also not available. Darn!

Now, I have a little gem for you people. I made (not as precise) notes on what was - according to the game - strongest monster I defeated. In order of power until now:
#1 diseased gibberling
#2 dire wolf
#3 ogre
#4 Silke
#5 flesh golem
#6 Kahrk
#7 Davaeron
#8 greater basilisk
#9 demon knight
#10 bone golem (this must be joking)
#11 unseeing eye
#12 Kangaxx, the demi-lich
#13 Firkraag

Saradush:
- no sidequest aside the mage shop helps you, so skip 'em.
- in the mage shop buy the second potion bag, the greenscrolls, and possibly another scroll case. I hope you brought Restoration Scrolls in the dozen, I feel you might need some.
- to bash open the Barrack you need 22 STR (with the +2 STR from wrath tear and some belt this is easy).

Why could I use Scimitar +3? (no prof in it, so no use)

Forest of Mir: I know, this has some fun-factor, but better not get leveldrained. Use up one of those Scroll of Cheese.

Next time: Watcher's Keep! Aside Gromnir's helm in Saradush we only need stuff from this place as equipment.
Sure, there're the two bows which could use the Bowstring of Gond, but they work without it (one cast of Imroved Speed, and even-faster-walking), and you can make an Improved Cloak +2 (found in Soa, scrolls can be bughtin Saradush, also only gained for Improved Speed cast), but aside these only the White Dragon Scale, the Staff of Ram (forGreater Whirlwind) and the Club of Detonation plays. Bowstring of Gond is at Sendai, way beyond the point you use any ranged weaponry.

-------------

I think I never did this maximum lvl, but came asap. Funny how different the monsters are, and their number incrised (when not plot-related, aka. the elementalrooms on lvl 2 are not changed). Number of statues on lvl 1 doubled, there were giant trolls as random monster instead of shadows...
Good news is, the local shop cures leveldrain as needed.
Against most monsters I'm immun (baal's tear immunity) though, so lol.

Got STR-incrise from Deck of Many Things. Tip: as this charis suseptible to leveldrain, let the succubi transport you, and right there step through the portal to the wraith, which isa leveldrain encounter. Spare with those restoration scrolls.
Otherwise the level was very easy. Serious difficulty drop.
In the end got the Gauntlet and the club. Not bothering with Demogorgon, as the Most powerful Vanquished does not upgrade I think.

Currently in Amethran. Mostly using the Human Flesh armor, but at the giants needed Ice Dragon Armor.

[Mystvan]

See, you can write whatever you want. But people do factcheck on your claims at times, and then you get into trouble.

I found this link (http://blackstrider.net/Archive_Forum_Bioware/bg1-full/baldurs-gate-1-no-reload-challenge_page-1/forum.bioware.com/topic/124374-baldurs-gate-1-no-reload-challenge/page-409.html) (oh howI have the beamdogs forum being filled witharrogant trolls, bulklies and cheaters!).
Let's go through the claims,shall we?

- The posts are NOT useful. Saying something like "Progress has been mainly standard - Shoal to get level 3, Beregost tasks level 4, basilisks level 5 & 6." is anything but informative.
And I doubt that amount of exp can come at that point, though basilisks do give hugh exp...Still would welcome DETAILS to measure.
- "He's [the character] just finished in the lighthouse area."- Ye? You weren't even in theNashkel Mines, and already doing the Syrens? Huh!
Sorry, overquoting edited

What a pity, as Westwood have the chance to overcome the failures. Well, at least Civilization V seems to be good, because my brother liked the game. XCOM series as well.

Now, I am not sure if it would be possible to accomplish the mission in advance. I will explain more clearly: For you to get the Ruby of Truth from the Ruler of amphibian people, you need to eliminate an enemy monster. But what would happen if you had eliminated the monster before by using bows, crossbows? For the monster is trapped by sort of a mud marshy.

You still have the option of getting the Ruby of Truth without a fight. If your Rogue skills level is high enough, you can steal without the Ruler realizing it.

Déjà vu... :mhh: I had seen something like this in the past. I remember that I was an active user in IC Company Forums on the King’s Bounty and Fantasy Wars.

I’ve seen lots of funny posts, but that one was the best.

During missions in Fantasy Wars, events such as cut-scenes and encounter with NPCs happen when something happens or you get to a certain place.

The problem is that players who used cheats to complete the mission ended up not finding a key NPC for future missions. The people posted complaining about bugs and the 1C Company Staff said this is due to not finding this key character.

But I even understand these players who have used cheats, because the missions are very laborious. Not to mention that the same type of unit can evolve differently. What a headache to select new attributes and abilities. :wacko: :tease:

I never finished the game. I really hope I can find the endings of the game on YouTube.

[Smiling Spectre]

But I even understand these players who have used cheats, because the missions are very laborious. Not to mention that the same type of unit can evolve differently. What a headache to select new attributes and abilities.
Never ever touch Japanese Tactical RPGs, Mystvan. :) I just had to abandon Disgaea, because every single character attributes depends on level, all current equip and trained skills - and there are literally over hundred playable classes.

(But I abandoned it just because heard that Disgaea 2 is essentiall the same, only with different plot... and I am not fond of plot of this game. So why bother, I better get latest installation. :)

[Mystvan]

Never ever touch Japanese Tactical RPGs, Mystvan. :) I just had to abandon Disgaea, because every single character attributes depends on level, all current equip and trained skills - and there are literally over hundred playable classes.

(But I abandoned it just because heard that Disgaea 2 is essentiall the same, only with different plot... and I am not fond of plot of this game. So why bother, I better get latest installation. :)

Fortunately, I did not have many opportunities to play J-RPG. I prefer the Western RPG style.

If it is like Japanese comics and cartoons where there is a lot of angry screaming and shouting, quite unlike Japanese phlegm, I am really out of Shounen-like style a la Super Sayajin. :sick:

Western-style games are less emotional, more attractive, and more feasible to me.

And as Grand Micronaut marko River ........ :zip: said, the quality of games, as well as comics, cartoons, movies have fallen, appealing more by the difficulty, dexterity, special effects and beautiful girls. :drool:



By the way, if you are interested in RPGs with more adult content, there are the Brave Soul (chibi characters or super deformed / SD) and the pretty old Knights of Xentar (Dragon Knight). I know there is at least one more game (Lightning Warrior Raidy series), but I had already stopped interesting and attending the Forum there.

http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/2b2192b8.gif (http://s511.photobucket.com/user/Mystvan/media/2b2192b8.gif.html)http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/6f5d39c7.gif (http://s511.photobucket.com/user/Mystvan/media/6f5d39c7.gif.html)http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/257a0a01.gif (http://s511.photobucket.com/user/Mystvan/media/257a0a01.gif.html)http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/6608494f.gif (http://s511.photobucket.com/user/Mystvan/media/6608494f.gif.html)http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/34c0ffa4.gif (http://s511.photobucket.com/user/Mystvan/media/34c0ffa4.gif.html)http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/95eb926f.gif (http://s511.photobucket.com/user/Mystvan/media/95eb926f.gif.html)

So lame, Photobucket!? :sucks: Those pics from BS are from my Albums. I guess I have to upload them to TinyPic! :headslap: :palm:

http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_2b2192b8.gifhttp://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_fdd4904e.gifhttp://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_6608494f.gifhttp://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_257a0a01.gifhttp://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_34c0ffa4.gifhttp://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_95eb926f.gifhttp://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_0b6bbc5c.gifhttp://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_9fb2918d.gifhttp://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s351/Mystvan/th_420252ba.gif

Aha! I’ve figured out a way to circumvent this annoying restriction from Photobucket! :sneakrete: :mischief:

[twillight]

Ok, make a move.

The Second Trial started with invisibility form me (sneak on Tomoko), otherwise just whirlwind.

Draconis: I hate dragons and their breath.

Aaand done. At balthazar the monks don't see the invisible. At MelissanI had onl 3 hardiness, so the first had to go down real fast. Otherwise all were just whacking with Staffof Ram. Against Mariliths used Rod of Reversal. Duringthe 3rd Melissan used (before Final Seal) used Simulacrum for extra whilrwinds. Potions also help, and so does Gargoyle Boots.

[twillight]

Another issue whyI hesitate about Pillars of Eternity aside its price is, the developer-company, aka. Obsidian Entertainment simply don't do good games.
At least as far as I remember, they did a crapton of open world games, all boring, lacking plot, with bad mechanics, and notoriously (2you wentthe wrong direction, therefor you die "attitude".
I might be mistaken...
But until they give the nice 75% discount, I doubt I'll even consider buying.

[Smiling Spectre]

Another issue whyI hesitate about Pillars of Eternity aside its price is, the developer-company, aka. Obsidian Entertainment simply don't do good games.
I believe, you mistake them with someone else.

Obsidian core team was the core of Black Isle. I.e. it's them who made Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale.

As Obsidian they made, between others, KOTOR2, NWN2, Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas and South Park: The Stick of Truth.

Are these all bad games for you? I, personally, did't play anything after Black Isle, but this games universally praised by RPG-fans, as far as I know.

[twillight]

I might mix itwith Oblivion, both being department of Bethesda. Which did Elder Scrolls, Morron-Wind, and such?


---------------


What to do in Discworld, as the game says:
- visit the archcancelor
- get book of (title)
- need imp (from alchemist), staff (from old wizard), dragon breath (ah, mirror. Required looting everything not nailed down, but cathed upon it), "metal container" (frying pan), spring (from barber - this was stupid)
- needed some book, joining the cult in the past, so then find gold objects at them.
I thought the octopus needed to grow, never came to mind it needs love potion (custard). And I thought custard is some pudding (didn't pay attention to the witch, shame on me). Also stumbled in some pixelhunting at the chimney sweep (I knew what to do, but clicked on "fireplace" instead on the fog-and-fireplace-hidden keg).
- Now I'd need to get rid of the dragon, but beats me how. I could look up a walkthrough, but where's the fun in that?


--------------


Ok, got rid of the dragon, now have to again. Walked around, collecting everything not nailed down, but for what purpose?
Btw, stupid thing is you have to neter the dump-machine to make the with appear on the square.

Similar the no indication of the boogeyman. The conversation says there should be popping bits, but there's none. Still found it, but still.


Come to think of it I know I should silence the dog, but no idea how.
Know have to find the Templke ofOffler but no idea how.
Know should transfer the boogeyman into the Drum's cellar, and to that need to bring light into the cellar, buit no idea how. Lighting the lamp with matches don't work.
At least the "how to build a hero" is a real math-problem, not a guessing-game.
Still, the only sword in the game seems to be the amazon's, and that's not available.
And what about the moustache? No idea.


For this last part the puzzles don't just go from hard to insane, but involves a lot of pixelhunting, tons of random stuff, not to mention Act 4 lacks a clear indicator, and the quest is bugged, you can constantly just resupply yourself from crackers and don't collect the flamables otherwise. Meh.

[Smiling Spectre]

I might mix itwith Oblivion, both being department of Bethesda. Which did Elder Scrolls, Morron-Wind, and such?
Can be. It's Bethesda indeed, and they specialized on open-world, semi-procedural-generated games. Elder Scrolls are Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim so far. And Elder Scrolls online. And as they bought Fallout license, they made Fallout 3 and 4 nicknamed "Oblivion/Skyrim with guns". :)

[Rogue]

LOL,

And I was thinking this topic was about famous Twillight collection for PC. (Back in 90s, Holland group that put together games/programs for PC on cds and later DVDs)

Nice collection of played games. Today I use Steam to keep track of games I completed. I used to have excel list for emulated and PC games before.

Getting steam achivement is fun, but some of them are quite bad and hard to get.

[Smiling Spectre]

I have first 100 of Twilight collection discs - it was uploaded once on one of sites. ;) Even if CD-part is somewhat damaged.

[Rogue]

I have first 100 of Twilight collection discs - it was uploaded once on one of sites. ;) Even if CD-part is somewhat damaged.

They are still available because they are archived. :OK:

There was similar collection from Russia, can't remember name. I know I have ISOs somewhere.

[Smiling Spectre]

Two collections even, but much less in scope. Classic Fond (~60 CDs) and Crazy Collection (~25).

And five metric tons of derivatives that "borrowed" design and often games from two above. :)

[Rogue]

Two collections even, but much less in scope. Classic Fond (~60 CDs) and Crazy Collection (~25).

And five metric tons of derivatives that "borrowed" design and often games from two above. :)

Yes, it was Classic Fond.

It is available as well.

Sorry to derail your topic, twillight. Carry on. :OK:

[twillight]

You are a lazy person, who wants to do half the work, but double the money?
Ever considered if the endboss would be a common enemy on lvl 1?
Do you want to include "more item" to ensure the player gets something REALY shitty instead of getting more powerful?
You want to be cheered as innovative while being the worst?



Just call your product "rogue like"! That'll teach 'em!

[Smiling Spectre]

You are too harsh. :) While BoI (in it's last incarnation at least) can be quite unfair, in most cases it's still totally playable, solvable and enjoyable. :) Don't use random modifiers, if you want to play for sure (and found what items means in the first place by trial and error). :)

[twillight]

You are too harsh. :) While BoI (in it's last incarnation at least) can be quite unfair, in most cases it's still totally playable, solvable and enjoyable. :) Don't use random modifiers, if you want to play for sure (and found what items means in the first place by trial and error). :)


What "random modifiers"?


9 out of 10 times I get small rooms with hordes of enemies, total lack of healing, and to be honest the design of enemies/rooms are entirely lacking, blurring things like "ye,you do stuff, whatever". Entirely lack feeling of progress.
The fact that the random is also present for the story told in the cutseensmakes the whole thing a joke.


You get no description of any of the 1,000 items makes them a big middle-finger, and the item-effect is like not even present. Sure, 1:100 chance for a +1 lifebulb item (for one of the unlocks you need to collect these random shits 7 times in 1 game - good luck with that), but the others are just nothing.
Your weapon does not get improved.
The active items are just plain shit (I saw 1, and only 1 useful stuff, it revealed the map of the level, still no help for fighting).
The consumables are at leas half the times are only cosmetics, and most didn't even made into the game's wiki they are such shit.


So the enemies/rooms don't differ, you don't get stronger, and by conept everything is a pile of shit. Did I miss anything?
If I could at least keep my items, but noooo, that'd be like doing progress! Youget 3 lifebulbs, and you have to pass 13+ times this unfair pile of crap, like the intention was to make Ghosts'n'Goblins 2!

[Smiling Spectre]

What "random modifiers"?
Um, there are several rooms where you can exchange current items for something random. Terribly random. Not my sort of gamble, but sometimes, when you have extremely sucking equip, it works.

Which version do you play? Because your explanation badly discrepant with what I can see.

Steam has:
Binding of Isaac (https://store.steampowered.com/app/113200/The_Binding_of_Isaac/) - original (actually, like, 3rd incarnation of original, with twice rebuilded engine).

BoS: Rebirth (https://store.steampowered.com/app/250900/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Rebirth/). New engine, new "big" rooms, rebalanced items, ton of new stuff.

BoS:R - Afterbirth (https://store.steampowered.com/app/401920/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Afterbirth/). Technically, add-on to second one, but it heavily rebalanced game and add many random/special stuff. Not recommended for novices. :)

But any of them not exactly matches your description.

9 out of 10 times I get small rooms with hordes of enemies, total lack of healing, and to be honest the design of enemies/rooms are entirely lacking, blurring things like "ye,you do stuff, whatever". Entirely lack feeling of progress.

Um, no. Initially you have quite low amount of enemies, and every level rises difficulty slightly more. Things become really struggling somewhere about L10 and up. And I have terrible reflexes, mind you.

And there are _a lot_ of healing. Red hearts replenish a life, and omnipresent. Blue hearts works like shield, quite common, and limited to 20, I believe. White hearts works like blue, but can "regen" to full red heart, if not damaged for level. Black hearts the same as blue, but "blown" on destroy, damaging everyone around.

One thing, maybe: game intended initially to play from keyboard - one hand for moving, second for firing. Gamepad, added lately, works perfect with it too. Mouse highly NOT recommended. Too hard to fire.
The fact that the random is also present for the story told in the cutseensmakes the whole thing a joke.
It's not story. It's "lore", maybe. Story is almost non-existant, if not count intro movie and boss wins. (_Real_ bosses, I mean. At the end of walkthru).
You get no description of any of the 1,000 items makes them a big middle-finger, and the item-effect is like not even present.
Umm, no. In-game encyclopedia have short description of every equip item you found. _After_ you wear it, unfortunately. :) Active items are described too, but more cryptic way. Pills are randomized, so no description. Tarot is fixed, but haven't proper description anyway - memorize or write it. Jingamabobs gives the same subtle effect each time, but it's supposed that you'll figure effect by yourself (or check wiki :).

Anyway, you can change everything, except equip, almost anytime, so it's not really too bad.
Sure, 1:100 chance for a +1 lifebulb item (for one of the unlocks you need to collect these random shits 7 times in 1 game - good luck with that), but the others are just nothing.
Um, I haven't game in hand (it's at home, and I am at work), but I am positively sure that it is about metric ton of +1 life. And why all this weapons, effects, shields, etc. you treat as "just nothing" is mystery for me.
Your weapon does not get improved.
Wrong. You can change weapons quite often. And there are a lot positive (and sometimes negative) modifiers from equip. Try to press Esc during game. It shows attack-damage-speed of character, and I am sure, you'll found how exactly it changes from different equip.
The active items are just plain shit (I saw 1, and only 1 useful stuff, it revealed the map of the level, still no help for fighting).
Um, "active" items are right from weapon in original, upper-left corner in Rebirth, they charged for each won room, right? From memory I can remember time-limited hero transformation, free lives, free tarot card, randomized teleportation, bombs... No, I cannot remember _totally_ useless items, even if half of them are niche using, or not very useful due randomization of effect.
The consumables are at leas half the times are only cosmetics, and most didn't even made into the game's wiki they are such shit.
Yes, as I remember, consumables falls either in pill category (terribly random, and randomized each game) or tarot (not in wiki). Tarot is very useful, actually - if you know what cards do.
So the enemies/rooms don't differ, you don't get stronger, and by conept everything is a pile of shit. Did I miss anything?
Looks like you missed half of this shit. :D

1. Every level has guaranteed 3 special rooms: free upgrade/weapon (beyond locked door though); store where you can buy something for coins; and boss room (another guaranteed upgrade/weapon). So you most probably will rise in power with each level. There is also often (maybe always) hidden room with additional prize, but if you haven't full map upgrade, you can only guess it's position.

2. Bombs broke stones. Some stones (specifically marked) have prizes and chests. Your fire kills fires (unintuitive, I know), and destroys shit - there can be prizes here too. You can try to blow up other things too, and see for effects... ;)
Youget 3 lifebulbs,
Actually, if you unlocked different characters, you can get more than 3 lifes... :)
and you have to pass 13+ times this unfair pile of crap, like the intention was to make Ghosts'n'Goblins 2!
Um, basically, yes, intention of almost every roguelike is finish the game in one pass. :) And _accumulating_ stuff (that BoI does) actually is step back, to mainstream... :)

Anyway, checking side-by-side original BoI and Rebirth, I think, you'll be happier with Rebirth. It's much more forgiving, and gives you more, right from the start. It have more modifiers too and streamlined the weapon.

[twillight]

Except you live in a misconception-world.


1) BoI is an amateur level proto-version of the complete game. Afterbirth+ is the complete, finished product.


2) I don't know what you played, but there are only 5 stages in story mode, and I guess 1 stage for Greedey mode. There is no "level 10". Especialy that the character does not level up.


2) a) There's also they fact that even at Stage 1 you constantly run into 10enemy headspawn smell rooms, or lirger but full or rocks room with large amount of shooting enemies, or even vortexes. Not fun.


2) b) sry, I can't distinguish "piece of shit", "slightly bigger piece of shit", "burning slightly bigger piece of shit" and "burining slightly biggerpiece of shit wihich spawns a mini-shit when it dies" or "burining slightly biggerpiece of shit wihich spawns a mini-shit which shoots when it dies". They are for my eyes/mind 1 enemy. Even Mortal Kombat had the decency to add different colours to its ninjas.


3) In-game encyclopedia worth shit. It calls things "wassis", "whachamacalling" "thing", "thingy", "stuff" and so on. Not helping.
A REAL Encyclopedia gives ingame functions and stats. This is garbage. It is actualy scary some gamer tries to defend this habbit.


Btw, I've seen no shields. Seen no effect from perma-items, and 2:3 couldn't figure out what effect-items do (probably nothing).


4) Fact is,your weapon does not get improved. You have a chance, through items, to get some effect on your weapon (like twice rapid shooting for half the damage - thankyou oh-so-much you piece of shit for nothing), but it does not get better just because you advance in the game.


5) "I can remember time-limited hero transformation, free lives, free tarot card, randomized teleportation, bombs..."


Fuck your "transformation" (skin change, not even permanent), fuck your useless bomb, either case not seen any from 50 runs. My items made the screen purple, and little hearts floated from the enemy, which otherwise acted the same way, held up a vortex-sign for 0.5 second with no avail, and other entirely useless things, if at all anything.


"Tarot is very useful, actually - if you know what cards do." - but the game does not tell you. Perfect sign of holding a shitty game.


Oh, and fuck your store. Avarage I get 1 coin per stage, differing between 0-3. Items in the shop cost 1 key (always trouble to find any), and at least 5, at worst - as far as I can tell - 25 coins. The entire place is useless, and likely contians some shitty machine I tend to accidently bump into, taking my coins and hearts. Fuck them. Of course they give back nothing. Ever. What did I expect.



"Actually, if you unlocked different characters," - you get even less hearts! I unlocked 2 characters, and they are entirely garbage. All stats are weaker than Isaac, and their "special" is worthless.



roguelike = unfinished piece of shit, avoid like plague


PS: I saw 1,and only 1 "roguelike" which was playable - then they deleted its wiki. That point on it's like playing Super Pitfall, or Milon's Secret Castle. And those are shit.

[Smiling Spectre]

Except you live in a misconception-world.
Well, I can say the same about you. :D But I played AB, like, half-year ago. I'll try totally fresh run, especially for you, and will tell my experience. I am not prepare to deal with your experience right now, as it harshly different from what I remember. :)

See you later! :)

[twillight]

What makes this game rot, is the obvious factor of unfinished tasks.
Like:
- you get obvious hints you need to iron the ghost
- obviously established you need to make the boots more attractive for The Stench, that's why you get the dumphill, the River Ankh, a pile of corpses and such in the game. But they later decided against D1-lookalike quest.
- to get the honey you were supposed to get more protection, not get rid of the beekeeper
- not to mention the whole 1stAct was supposed to be choosing the difficulty-setting depending on what you do or do not collect (only sticks and mouse-blood, or glitter+stench too)
- in Act 2 certain puzzles lack indication, like getting the imp, or getting the seurajester (at least she's an original idea for the game)
- also I couldn't find certain entire areas, 'cause crappy game design


And why was I carrying around an undead mouse?

[twillight]

attic:
- push wardrobe before window: told in background story (Emily)
Btw, according to Edward's backstory he was supposed to start with a .38 revolver.
- you'll hear thumping, but the background music ruins this clue. Fortunately you have time when the trapdoor opens to push on it the chest, even when it is "open".
- Emily's backstory tells you about a secret drawer in the piano. This document is quit useless, only creates atmosphere
- there's another book with the story of Medusa, an indian cover, a rifle with 4 ammo, and an empty oil lamp here.


down the stars:
- there's an oil container (to fill the lamp), and a bow here


first room to the left:
- avoid the carpet as it summons a zombie. There's no indicator on this by the way.
- the local key opens a chest which has the old cutsword (don't use this as weapon)


rooms on the right:
- when enter ASAP close the door. This part is ruined by the stupid camera angles and clumsy controls. (face the door's surface to close it)

- when you pick up the vase containing a key you get attacked by a werewolf. 2 shots from the shotgun shuld do it, though the angle makes it a fuss. The key lets you pick up 2 mirrors (where's the medusa now?).
Oh, and there's no indication you have to smash the vase open.



second room on left:
- firstaid kit (+10 health)
- also a clue: there's no water here (obviously you'll need to find it later, because videogame logic)



top of stairs:
- someone confused succubis with medusas. At least it is obvious this is some kinda puzzle,as those things block your way. Unfortunately to the developers this is not some point-and-click adventure game.


next level: go down and get back to avoid the menacing armor while getting the other side. Enter the room:
- avoid the ghost (obviously), get shotgun shells, matchbook, poker (first constant melee weapon). And look, a picture of Uncle Jeremy (who cares)!



go left (avoid the armor like you did with the ghost - realy missed opportunity from the programers to transport via the stairs back&forth), enter 1st door:
- this room only has a book, so skippable in re-plays. But I aim to know all the clues. When you pick it up you get attacked by a werewolf, and man, this fight is frustrating. Not just for the angle, but also for the monster being able to jump through the bed (while I suspect your bullets are blocked by it). This text says there's a pentagram in the library,and a sacrificial dagger. Something with a fireplace? Is this a clue about avoiding the ghost in the previous room? Too bad you want the ammo from there to make the fight here.



2nd door:

- that thingamajig is invincible (nothing tells you by the way), so step in and search the wardrobe (+20 HP). Get out, wait until things settle, then run in for the jug, then run out. you'll probably be bitten once though (-5 HP)



3rd door:
- to be able to do things here you need a lit lamp (dn't forget to switch action to blow it out when you're done)
- there's a heavy statue and a book. This is the first time you face inventory-problem,so before going in put down stuff if you didn't already (empty containers mostly) to be able to pick up the statue.
The statue by the way destroys the armor. Because Videogame Logic.


one stairs down, door on the right:
- another matchbook, a pot of stew, 2 knives

sideroom 1: a key and a box of biscuits (+5 HP)
sideroom 2: when you enter a zombie spawns. This is ruined by too little distance, and sluggish movement (with good programing you could run tosafe distance and shoot from there). Otherwise you find water (finaly), and lamp oil (another 50 dose)



exit on the other side and enter (dining)room:
- run and put pot of stew on table (Videogame Logic)
next room:
- run in and take lighter, then back out
- run in and aim the other door


at the left side of the stairs by the newestkey youcanget to the cellar:
- there's some revolver ammo visible
- if you run to the other side you can free some barrels (do NOT go in, but this explains how youcanget out later), and a book on the shelves next to them (at the wall). You'll be bitten a bit by the (invincible) rats, but that's life.


Left from the front door (if you try to open it is instant death) is another door:
- kill the pirate with sword (no indication that anything else is ineffective. Unless he is told in one book, which talksa badass pirate,and swords are more badass than guns I assume). This is a VERY clunky fight.
- the pirate leaves a key, and there's another book. The key can be used right here, and provides alternate route to the ballroom.


With another way in (and another locked doors still) go to the sideroom with plants:
- search the statue for 3 arrows, then back away from the room.



Get back to the ashtray-room (which had the lighter), and pour water on the ashtray, because Videogame Logic.


Lacking any other option go up one stairs, go left,and open the remaining dor at the end of the corridor.
- cover the painting with the carpet (there is a semi-hint for this in the books telling the owner painted crazy pictures none wanned to see)
- use the bow to destroy the painting shoting arrows at you from the other end of the corridor. This is based on Videogame Logic.

- pick up the record (and a book, which definitely only exists to makea bridge between this game, and Shadow of the Comet)


There IS a door at the end of the corridor, so keep going. This part is realy shitty design.
- there's the False Book, which I don't get. Why does it matter which book you use? How do you know ADDING a book triggers the mechanism in the library? Aside Videogame Logic I mean.
- either way we found the ancient clock. As you can't search it, push it and grab the l00t. The text here gives you warning of Deep Ones,and a vague clue todefeat the library-monster.


library:
- run to find the secret door, open it with the False Book. Grab the l00t.
One book simply says youshould grab the talisman which you of course did, another whatdagger to use to get out.
- to read the Vermiis Mysteriis stand on the insignia, otherwise you die. The text is latin though, so when the game came out you had fatchance getting any use of it: "In the name of invocatoris, thou hast been sanctified if he does not, be careful. The vermis mysteriis is read and release the ball to the line, you have a great black stars Innominandum standards and ...", aka this is pretty useless anyway. Funy thing is, we find some "clue" (if you can call that) about the Heavy Statue, lol. Actualy, ok, it IS a clue,as conquistadors worn plate armor...
By the way you can find a series of books inside the library, but either do it on the sygil, or don't read the Necronomicon Extract, else you get a hugh damage (10 HP I think).


With the new unused key go to the ashtray-roomand open the door:
- l00t (includes record)

- put old sword up to trigger mechanism



Almost forgot the revolver. Pixelhunting is to get it. It mainadvantage is it has no recoil (handy at the first "bat").


I wonder if you can open the main door of the dance room and I just missed it.

[twillight]

Didn't play it, just watched a let's play of it.
Strangely this is more appealing than Syberia, which is likea zounds better graphic and I guess similar style, but somehow, even though I have it, I just realy don't feel to instal and play.


Not that after watching this I'd wanna actualy play AitD2, because it is nonsensicaly stupid at its puzzles, action heavy, and around halfway switches to a 4 years old to murder people. What's this, Hunger Games?
Actualy, the main reason this doesn't appeal to me to play is, it is very-very close to Resident Evil 2, only that had pretty ok controls, a crapton of game modes, and in genera lwas a more decent game.
Darn, I could bring insane short playthroughs with Leon A (only using the handgun, no upgrade, special outfit, infinite ammo implied, only herbs, maximum 3 saves).
I once even did Tofu, but that's way more hardcore than I wanna, so my fav mode was Hunk (same as Tofu, only with guns).

[twillight]

There just might be a pal who can borrow me Pillars of Eternity.


I'm very filled on the to-do list, but if someone gives me some clues what character to start if playing solo, I might re-evaluate my life.

[Capo]

Playing solo at the first run is worst possible idea, anyway i finished it solo with a barbarian, also paladin or wizard are good options

[twillight]

Well, the game does start, so that's news. The Main Menu looks pretty underwhelming though.


Meh, can't play it. Stupid lazy programmers made the thing consume as muchmemory, onlyy GoogleHQ canplay it 'cause they have their own powerplant.


What I can tell though is, it realy is cheap crap.
First, the character creation:
- half the crap is nonsense, and I see no difference between Aristocrat and Mystic to start with. They both get 2 lore, so what's the deal?
- you must roll through NINETY bloody pictures to choose from. No fast, manual chosing, just plain old "lay on the button" crap. Sry, I ment you can't evn do THAT,you have to click all the thousand times each. Why not gimme a selection screen like Mortal Kombat with this many?
Second the Tutorial Mission:
- your caravan gets downed one day from retirement oir what, and you getsome basic info on some soul-sucking stalactites, and some mushroom to make tea from (this basicaly suggest you're an addict), the next thing is you stuck with some annoying chick because you WANT, according to the cravan master some Magic Mushroom, which you actualy DON'T, you'd totaly be wanning go into town, thank you, you even get that in mission briefing.


Then you get control of what looks like a bad Diablo 2 ripoff which even feeds on RAM, then I found 2 bodies, one I could examine, the other I could loot. Which is nonsense.


Otherwise people on the net say play paladin, and have max Perception because otherwise you won't hit nuttin', intelligence is for pussies just like dexterity, and constitution is the dumpstat (basicaly max might and the bottom stat after perception, dump the remaining point into constitution - I got like average DEX too as that gives attack speed).
The obvious cult of paladins is the goody-good-shoes, we all know letting you get abused by NPCs equals more exp and better rewards and more quests. But the easiest way might be the Bleak Cabal which is basicaly "dead people don't cause trouble, hulk smash", so easy to max on devotion.


Btw, I'm totaly fed up with these games always forcing you into some sect or cult to sacrifice babies, or puppies, or baby puppies for one gawd or another. Gimme advantage for being an atheist already! And make clerics a rogue class, not healers.


PS: oh, and the game's basic difficulty is"Easy", not "Normal". That's ALWAYS a bad sign.

[Capo]

:lame:

[Smiling Spectre]

Hey, short walkthru of Binding of Issaac: Afterbirth here. New profile. Second attempt. (First was _extremely_ unsuccessful, I dead in the second room. :D

1. Room one. Start, three exits.
2. Room 2. Lost one heart, got back half-heart as prize.
3. Blasted my only bomb. Got locked chest and slot machine. No keys. :|
4. Got another half-heart.
5. Got nothing. Meh. But there is the chest in the room, only behind stones.
6. Got a key. There is blastable stone here, but no bombs.
7. Treasure room. 5 coins and card generator. (Used it, got 2 of hearts).
3-2. Unlocked the chest. Got a key back and another 2 coins. Used coin on slot machine, got 2 bombs.
6-2. Blasted a rock (accidentally spent both bombs), got another locked chest. Unlocked it, got a key, 3 coins, smiling detonated bomb and 1.5 hearts (not used).
3-3. Used slot machine again (0, 0, half-heart, coin, full heart, 0, coin, bomb).
5-2. Blasted stones for chest. Got bomb, 2 coins and key.
8. Used key for unlocking trader. Map (7 coins) and key (5). Meh. Wasted key.
3-4. Used all 5 coins for slot machine (heart, 0, half-heart, fly, 0). Blown slot machine with last bomb.Got bomb and three coins.
8. Boss. Used 2 of hearts - no effect (I suspect, it adds 2 hearts, but I had full life). Killed him, got another 2 hearts (so about a ten of wasted hearts remained on level. *sigh*). Got "Mom's coin purse" - stupid item that generated about five pills that I am afraid to use. Maybe it does anything else, as it not going away. But I am going to second level. :)

Level 2. I don't want to describe all level. I got Unicorn Stump instead Deck (stupid thing, gives invincibility and +28% speed for about ten seconds. Changed it back to Deck). There are three "trading" rooms here, one trades hearts for money (meh), two are locked. There is also sacrifice room, but I haven't extra hearts yet.

Killed the boss, got "Snack" (+1 max hearts) and 2 half-hearts. Got also Devil, and sacrificed this max heart for something... Ah, it was "Multidimensional baby" - minion that follows every my movement with delay. Useless, as most Devil's deals (but I didn't knew that at the moment of exchange) It doubles my shots, but only if catched with me. Not very useful. :)

Sacrificed 2 life, got one coin. Meh. But, well, I would lose all this hearts anyway.

On the third level I met mini-boss, killed him and got +2 max hearts. Unfortunately, selected wrong way after that ("spiky" door) that hadn't anything useful, but many monsters, and lost almost all life. And next room, with ton of bats, killed me - half-heart is too low for ten bats. :)

Am I need to continue? Game is quite easly on player who don't want to risk (I would be happy and alive if not gambling with devil and spikes). Yes, I didn't get extra weapons, but it was mere 3 levels. Nothing like horrors you described above. :)

[twillight]

Your point is, Spectre?


Either you implicate I'm lying - which I assure you I don't -, or
you got a different experience due to random. In which case your post is irrelevant.


So? I'm lying, or you're useless?
---------------


I reinstalled this piece of garbage, just for you!


1st run: Haunt boss killed me. Otherwise pretty easy. Found some mushroom, saw no effect from it. Also got a tarot-card which spawned a slot-mashine, which did nothing.

2nd run: 1st room had portal in inaccessible area (1 hex free space before thatpile of shit which every second spawns other pile of craps. Obviously, I ended up dead.

3rd run: 1stroom gives double portal, so I loose 1.5 hearts. Gives a pill, which we all know worth squat (seems blue ones refill health). Cast joker during bossfight, end up in what I assume dealing with the devil, dunno what I'm doing, end up with 1 less maximum health,and leaving bloodtrail (estatic otherwise does nothing). Lvll2's item-roomdemands a key, but saw no key in this run yet at all. Get another chance todealwith the devil, so I die because I do. Because this thing appears atrandom, and there's a character to unlock.


Speaking about characters:
- Isaac (basic char) has: 3/2/2
- Eve has 2/2/1. Friggin letdown. No idea what the special abilities would do. And she seems to be some kind of shapeshifter when loosing a heart or something. No idea,the game gives no explanation, clues, or tells anything ingame-terms.
- Apollyon: 2/1/1, aka. evenworse than Eve. Its speci alability is to show up a sign with the picture of a spawning-portalfor 0.1 second. Big fatno help.
- Azazel: -1/2/3. This sounds awesome: you need tocollect 2 hearts before the game starts, because youare already dead,so start is game over? By the looks of it, that's whatthe game tells! Well, the character is a piece of garbage, that's for sure. No attack skill, no life, only those grey hearts which can not be refilled. Wasn't worth unlocking this one eihter.


run 4: 2 entire level w/o any healing. Genious. The 3rd level has 50 locks, but still no key. 3 lvl and 0 keys found. There's alsothis room, which has 2 spawn-portals and some other monsters which shoot at me. And the portals spawn an infinite number of stuff which shoot at me. The only thing not shooting me is some giant thing which block the way,and is immortal. Of course the room gives no healing. And now one of my health is white. Dunno whatthatmeans, but probably no good. I betmy max HPjust got lowered by it, and won't get it back. Ah, so the blue pills NOT give max HP, but are random effect. No idea whatthe white heart did, nothing useful. Some creepo boss shots THREE lasers at me, and my weapon did not get improved since the beginning (aka. not at all).


run 5: lvl 1 boss is not in the boss-room, but onatiny corridor. Of course I die.


run 6: I have a straw, which does nothing. Boss is not even funny anymore. Neither this kind of room: (has 4 spiders + 2 mushrooms shooting at you)


https://i.imgur.com/wcxOdGB.jpg


The boss' room:


https://i.imgur.com/1Bd8R6X.jpg


Of course no healing, neither key, and the level's item is behind locked door.


ruin 7: 1stroom headspawns a circle of flies. Thank you game!
Here is btw the room the bosses supposed to be in:


https://i.imgur.com/vhHF1lP.jpg

And how canI loose with thatmany HP? Easy, because I got some crippling downgrade which tookaway my shotting skill!


ruin 8: activated some tarot,whichfilled the room with bombs,which resulkted in instant death.


ruin 9: ate some pills, the minimapgot cleared. Thx game, that was useful...


ruin 10: now I shoot sperm. Ok...
The next item makes me larger - that's a disadvantage if you don't get it. It makes you able to smash obstacles - but still a disadvantage, 'cause attimes it makes things headspawn on you from under skulls, rocks etc.
Cause of death: as usualgained no healing at all, and with 0.5 heart spawned in a room with a very thin passage, but hex takenby a speeder-maggot, charging me. By the way it is "fun" to note your shots don't cover an entire hex, but maybe 1/2-1/3 of it, somonsters easily pass your shots. Ah, wasn't any passive, active, or tarot/pill items either in this run. At all. You know: who needs upgrades?

[twillight]

Lacking the option of PoE, I digged up this. Not that I'm so excited about it, but whatever, it tends to crawl back.
Funny, but true: still the game with the longest buglist I've ever seen. And despite "patch releases" they don't fix ANY from the list, only do crap like "german language version's grammar improved" or shit.

Either way, this'll be a baba with berserk. Well, in time, as I'll use the respec option, and until that comes around, Bash will be the prime attack skill. WhenI have the mana. Which I usualy lack. Imagine.
I'm in Act 2, going in the snake temple. The merc did not die yet (A1 fire, it was free, so what). It has a bow with cold + poison dmg gems. Didn't find any quality bow, and won't use "extended stash".


For storing some items on the ground I lost a couple of goodies :( Had a good rare baba helmet for warcrying, and a helm for switching the merc to A2. Whatever.
Also, seems I wasted 3 PSkulls in my +2 BO helmet. They don't realy give the expected mana. Should have used Ith rune(s). Oh well, worst case scenario I'll run for a Hel rune or sg.


The merc first died in A3, and because of Cow Level had to buy tp-scrolls the first time.


On weapons:
- started with club
- switched to scepter (it's fast, and deals best early damage, every character ends up with 'em for melee)
- for a short time used a short sword
- switched to bardiche (was slow, but basicaly doubled my damage)
- then came an twohanded axe
- now using a war specter, along Stormshield. Found in Act2 too, first unique. Aside that found Cleglaw's shield 3 times as set, nothing else.
- back to polearms: found a volgue with manaleach. While its speed is less, the dmg is around the same, and allows to use Bash continuously. Its range also helps a bit.
- brandistock: strange name, and in spear category. It has manasteal, and ca. the same dmg as the volgue had, but a category faster. Too bad there are no ias runes. And that gem-shrines can't improve runes, at least in single player. Would switch to hammers.
- that holy fire pala sword
- steeldriver (yeah(


the stupidity of barbarian synergies

Barb is mostly uneffected by this crippling feature, but where it has it, it sucks as usual.
First: the entire Combat Mastery tab has no synergies at all.
Second: from War Cries only the middle tree has synergies. Shout-Battle Orders-Battle Command are a closed circle for some reason, but at least they are all useful (if no other factor is considered). Actualy, Battle Command does so little in itself usualy don't get any hard point in itself, so this actualy is a bad thing.
The main problem on this tree is War Cry. I understand by sinergy you make this a prime attack spell by concept. Whatever. But then, why synergie an AI-disabling ability with AI-modifying abilities? And as it is an AoE-spell, why combine it with a single-target spell? And if WC will be your prime damage spell, why bother with stat-lowering spell? If it'd get extended duration by it, I'd get it, but this why?

The most messed up of course is the Combat Skills tree. Well, the left side don't use the synergie-system either...

Bash gets bonuses from Stun and Concentrate, but both of those skills outshine Bash by several milestones, so why would you use Bash any time after you getaccess to those? Sure, it has more dmg than Stun, but while Stun disables the target, Bash simply has this annoying knockback effect. Concentrate simply puts Bash to shame in any department (AR, dmg, lack of knockback). And for the cost of the same 2 mana. They case is even worse, because this proves you won't use Bash either way if you have Concentration, and if you have, you won't put points into Bash, because how the synergie-system works!
Stun gets bnuses from Bash, Concentrate, and War Cry. The problem is obvious: why War Cry? Why the need of another stun-ability to your already existing stun-ability?
When it cmes to Concentrate, you'll have to realise you'll use either, not both. So, as you must choose,which is the superior skill in the synergie-system, which should make all/prior skill more available, aka. equal to later skills? Well, Stun though disables it target, it lacks the AR to land a hit, compared to Concentrate, which gives youdefense to keep you safe, and that works against all enemy around you, not just the one you hit. So this means you WON'T use Stun, which on top costs a lot more to use than Concentrate.
Concentrate though a nice ability, has its fair share of problems considering synergies, like:
why bother putting point in Bash, when thatonly gives half the bonuses as Battle Orders, which the same time gives me insane advantages by itself (not being anattack spell, and being the strongest melee/party skill in the game). Beserk works thugh, but serves only to slightly lessen the exclusivity of Berserk. Actualy the point it'd count (physical immun monsters) the 1% bonus is so weak, like it wouldn't even exist as magical dmg, could all go into physical, thus the traditional barserk-concentrate pointsink won't change.
talking about pointsink: the amount of skillpoint being limited as such, you won't have point to sink into the Bash-syn anyway, so there that goes.
Lastly, Berserk-syns suck too. You get bonuses from Howl, which is a viable concept I give you that, but why Shout? Berserk disables the defense stat, so why'd you want to sink points into anability which buffs defense which you won't have? At the very least they should have chosen Battle Command (wishing for Battle Orders would be obvious powergaming).

If you are interrested in the bugs-list, here is a good list (https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/massive-1-13-bug-list.754786/). On the other hand if you check the patch-notes (https://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Diablo_II_version_history), you'll see they don't actualy patch ANY of them since 1.13... maybe d.

The list is actualy not complete, missingeg. the asheara-bug, who is an NPC in Act 3, missnamed in the files, so every item it sells is an ilvl 1 item, which can be a problem if you plan on shopping -> crafting form there.

[Smiling Spectre]

Your point is, Spectre?
...
So? I'm lying, or you're useless?
My point is: as you have dramatically different experience from the same game, you are doing something wrong or miss something. I have no idea what, unfortunately, because nothing in your description indicates this.

And no, it's not random only. Or is _especially_ bad random for you. Because I played only once in last year or so, and got better results than yours. And I consistently got such results in past. I usually cannot win whole game in one run (or twenty, in that matter), but it's normal for me - I am learning, and (when I played) if one time was "up to L7", second most probably will be "up to L8".

I reinstalled this piece of garbage, just for you!
Thank you. I am appreciating it.

Well, I'll give some comments, even if I feel that you'll never run this game again. Just in case.

spawned a slot-mashine, which did nothing.
Um, every slot-machine does _something_. As I vaguely remember, there is one that collect money (even between runs) and do nothing else until threshold reached, but even it can be blown. And I recommend to do that with every machine - at least those who can give bombs back.

2nd run: 1st room had portal in inaccessible area (1 hex free space before thatpile of shit which every second spawns other pile of craps. Obviously, I ended up dead.
Um, can you explain? Portal? Inaccessible area?
Gives a pill, which we all know worth squat (seems blue ones refill health).
All pills are random between runs (but consistent in run). I.e. if you found that blue is good - it guaranteed to be good only this run.

- Azazel: -1/2/3. This sounds awesome: you need tocollect 2 hearts before the game starts, because youare already dead,so start is game over? By the looks of it, that's whatthe game tells! Well, the character is a piece of garbage, that's for sure. No attack skill, no life, only those grey hearts which can not be refilled. Wasn't worth unlocking this one eihter.
You answered it yourself. :) He hasn't "true" life, only temporary hearts instead. I don't remember - are his hearts blue or black? If later, they will hurt enemies for each heart break (with correspondent animation). Also, he have attack not worse than Isaac (if attack is 2, otherwise it's 1.5 times better).
And now one of my health is white. Dunno whatthatmeans, but probably no good. I betmy max HPjust got lowered by it, and won't get it back.
You are teasing, right? :D Actually, white heart is semi-permanent _extra_ heart. It will became permanent, if you'll live to the end of level and not lost it. (If you'll lost _half_ of it, it will regenerate to full white again).

Checked the rest of your runs. Looks quite ordinary, if you don't know what items does (like tarot) and have a little experience in dodging enemy shots. *shrug* But you are suspiciously absent of upgrades/keys/bombs now and again. Huh. I seen such thing once or twice, but not so often, and usually issue self-fixed after first or second boss.

Did you search for chests/treasures? There are quite many money under fires and dung (that can be destroyed with shots) and items can be got from blown slot-machines. There are also _special_ treasure stones that guaranteed to give you something (not necessary useful though) - you'll spot them if you'll look for them. And if you blow stone near chasm - from opposite side - you'll get the one square of bridge over chasm. But all of these are trivial, and you, most probably, found it all by yourself.

So I can only sorry that game appears so much not-fun for you. Maybe, simply "not yours" type. *shrug*

[twillight]

1) NONE knows what the items do, as they are all just random shapeless blobs, and there are a multitude of 'em.


2) portal. You know? fokin' force of nature thing. Spanws infinite number of enemies. Can't get in melee range because of the spawns. Many times can't hit from range 'cause passage is blocked. Some rotating whirlwind-from-above icon.


3) There are no blue hearts. There are only red, grey, and black hearts, black and grey being the exact same as far as I can tell.


4) Azazel actualy has ZERO (red) hearts, and 3 unregeneratable hearts. That-1 is misleading to the merrit you can start the game. Not much else though of course.


5) ye. I usualy did this method:
- look for chest
- grumbled, because have no key, and chest-room's door is locked
- look for boss' room
- die because some stupid mob, and because the item from the chest ruined my already weak attacking skills



6) fires and dung have 1 coin with like 1:10 chance. I'd need 55+ coins in one run to unlock a character, and 15-25 per level to buy stuff in the shop. I usualy die on lvl 3-4 with 3-15 coins.


7) this pile of shit is NOT a game. It is a half-assed product of a shithead, whose only distinction from people like katheleen kennedy that he/they don't call their customers racist-sexist trash.


8) fun fact is, I actualy won exactly 1 time. Of course it doesn't mean I won the game, as every time you win your nose is pushed in a tray of diarreha and says you only did the first X room, there are 13 minus the times you won rooms still unlocked you fokin looser, with winning streak -56.
The way I won was thanks to some fetus which provided a shitload of pills, and they were with a single exception good or neutral effect. If you could, like select what you start with, or have a shop where you can sell your garbage and buy whatever you want, you know, an ingame shop...
But all you have is shitty slot-machines which take away all your money and give nothing back. Fok gambling.


QUESTION: why none discusses Isaac's twin? Or was it a simple sibling? I suspect was a twin. Not sure on the gender department though (possibly female), but I suspect its corpse is ???. And it probably died of cancer. Maybe born dead? Maybe it was never a baby but a tumor, what only turned out to be at the birth?

[Smiling Spectre]

1) NONE knows what the items do, as they are all just random shapeless blobs, and there are a multitude of 'em.
Wrong. Unlike conventional roguelike, all your items, with one exception, does the same thing each time. This exception is pills - you need to ignore them or gamble, of course. Of course, _you_, as player, don't know what all this items does initially, and presumably it's enticed you to learn it all by experience. It works for me. It seems, it doesn't work for you. Sorry.
2) portal. You know? fokin' force of nature thing. Spanws infinite number of enemies. Can't get in melee range because of the spawns. Many times can't hit from range 'cause passage is blocked. Some rotating whirlwind-from-above icon.
Huh. Seems, it's latest addition. I extensively played first part, and moderately - second. Didn't play DLCs at all, because I was quite tired of the game already at the time. There wasn't any portals before. %) Ok, I'll look forward to see it.

3) There are no blue hearts. There are only red, grey, and black hearts, black and grey being the exact same as far as I can tell.
Matter of perception. I percept your grey as metallic blue. Same thing, of course.

As I said, they are different in matter of it's removing. Grey are simply shields. Black are explosive shields that hurts enemies each time they broke.
4) Azazel actualy has ZERO (red) hearts, and 3 unregeneratable hearts. That-1 is misleading to the merrit you can start the game. Not much else though of course.
I believe, it's really -1 (didn't pay attention though). In matter that first time when you'll add extra hearts, it will be zero for first one, and +1 heart only when you'll get +2. Wild guess though.

5) ye. I usualy did this method:
- look for chest
- grumbled, because have no key, and chest-room's door is locked
- look for boss' room
- die because some stupid mob, and because the item from the chest ruined my already weak attacking skills
Um, there are several types of chests: only gold requires keys, all others are not.
6) fires and dung have 1 coin with like 1:10 chance. I'd need 55+ coins in one run to unlock a character, and 15-25 per level to buy stuff in the shop. I usualy die on lvl 3-4 with 3-15 coins.
Actually, there are three types of coins, for 1, 5 and 10 gold per coin. While last ones are quite rare, +5 was fairly common for me.
7) this pile of shit is NOT a game. It is a half-assed product of a shithead, whose only distinction from people like katheleen kennedy that he/they don't call their customers racist-sexist trash.
As for me, it's quite standard roguelike game, with simpler and more transparent rule than usual though. I used to games where _everything_ you find is random.

I believe, you perceive it wrong. This game intended to entice exploring and research. This sort of games (roguelikes, I mean) assumes that you like diversity, like to explore new things and receive new knowledge. And like to experiment too. If you are not, well, you always can have Wiki (https://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Binding_of_Isaac:_Rebirth_Wiki) open and consult it with every found item - or not play, if it's not fun for you.

If you still want to give this game it's chance, I can add another advice not clearly mentioned: experiment. Blow up everything suspicious, from shopkeepers to unusual stones. There are also secret rooms here and there, discovered by some items or blowing at the possible exit. Check special rooms and unusual traps (sacrifice room come in the mind, with spikes in the center and nothing more). It's expected to die a lot initially, until you learn the rules - and it's expected to be fairly easy then. Well, at least initially. :)
QUESTION: why none discusses Isaac's twin? Or was it a simple sibling?
As first game shown, there are _a lot_ of possible siblings. Of course, all maze looks like Hell reference, but I imagine that all human-like abominations in cellars are mutated siblings - or Isaac incarnations from previous worlds. And one or several (I forgot :( friendly siblings too. Seems, Isaac was far from the first affected child of this infernal Mom. :)

[twillight]

1) Wrong. Because it is a halfassed pile of shit on the brim, it is not even "traditional roguelike", aka. roguelike, whereat least it'd tell what the thing does. Come to think of it, in "traditional" roguelikes the game don't tell you shit either about items, which goes back as far as Zelda, or E.T. on atari.
Those where a big bile of shit in themselves, although they had their excuses.
This garbage does not have one.


3) BLUE GREY



4) you can believe it sky-fairies, that won't make it true. I managed to find ONE health-up, and voila, red heart appeared on the character.
Funny howI know more of the game afterplaying for like 3 hours, than you.



5) you deliberatly misunderstand me, don't you? The specific chest-room. Has own icon on minimap.
Anything else is unreliable, thus doesn't play. Btw, the chest-stiuation also proves MANUAlS ARE A MUST. And they must come with the game, even if in the form of a link to a wiki, if they made a pile of shit and the info is not integrated to the game. And when the wiki goes away, the game becomes unplayable. As it happened with Dungeons of dredmor.



6) there might be a quadrillion type of coins, still doesn't help if you can't reliably find them. The game has a serious balance-issue with this, with items cost every level 15-25 coins, while a character-unlock happens at 55 coin, and in a go the player can only find 15 coins or such. It's bullshit.


7) roguelike was half-assed garbage evenat the start, and sank even lower. And people have no self-esteem if they accept this.



8) As first game shown, there are _a lot_ of possible siblings. Of course, all maze looks like Hell reference, but I imagine that all human-like abominations in cellars are mutated siblings - or Isaac incarnations from previous worlds. And one or several (I forgot :( friendly siblings too. Seems, Isaac was far from the first affected child of this.


Not possible. The game is an ever-incrising pile of shit, and obviously grounds itself in metaphores.
Also, considering the intro and the endings, the game does not play in Hell.


The game starts with Mom going slowsly mad, and start abusing Isaac with neglect, lockin, physical abuse. Also the game starts Isaac entering the trapdoor as escapism, not getting killed and get there passively.
And the endings show -after we do the fightings! - stations of Isaac's life. He tries to rebel aganst Mom (various hairstyles, starting with punk), but gets stuck in the chest (symbol of his room/life under Mom) still. Then tries to just survive, but that isn't enough (peanutt-butter). So tries/considers to commit suicide - obviously not succeeding (rope). That's the point he starts to REALY rebel and turn anti-christian (horns made of hanger). But Mom puts him in his place (arm). Than he finds the pills/tries to cook drugs, failing at start (vomitting ending), but later turning an addict (syrenge). He earnes some money (whatever). Next I think is clears the reason why he meets certain themed enemies. There are enemy themes, and eachenemy is randomly spawning, thus they are not fixed, thus they don't represent any concrete thing. There are Mom-related stuff, Mom's friends-sisters related stuff (eg. laser-vaginas), Isaac-related stuff, shit-related things, tumor-rlated things, and strange things like Gemini and fetus-items which just doesn't fit otherwise.

Here the endings start to fall appart telling a consistent story (because the creator is full of shit), so just take the themes: blue thing is ???, but is followed by ...aborted fetus? Then comes the original ending 11: acceptance of Mom's visions what he wanted Isaac to be. Dunnowhatthe pirate signifies, but the female is obvious (seen in the game), the emo-hair references an earlier ending (Isaac rebelling), and the devil-form Mom's murderous fantasy. Isaac then climbs into the chest, accepting he can not escape. In the next ending he sees himself as devilform, accepts is laconicly, and does NOT climb into the chest, thus no longer protects himself, obviously hinting he'll be killed by Mom.


Rebirth added a slimmer of hope, showing Isaac turning total "evil", and going "missing". He likely ranaway from home in this version.
We also see that Mom went crazy because Dad left the family, what is only backstory. Also, the last picture idicates maybe Mom got to his senses after Isaac ran,and their life got fixed

This of course is retconned in Afterbirth(+).


In A+ Isaac is still missing, and we see his bones - this relates to Psycho's ending. We get a lot more dark imigary, and NOw we see Isaac in the afterlife/Hell, alternating also between the realworld's events. He is shown slightering away, turning grey (NOT blue), turnng into a skeleton, while the postnote still claims him missing, THEN we see Isaac walking, thus he's clearly in the afterlife finaly. Because Mom killed Isaac in the very end, dug the body in the cellar, forgot it, and claimed AND believed he's only missing.

[twillight]

fiShX2pTz9A

Ye, that was it. Two line for brackets, and a dot for ball.


Was it good? No.
Was it a game? Yes.


Why people played it? Because this was one of the very first. You did not need some nonexistent, or imaginary friend even, you could play alone and could call it playtime.
Wasn't much, but was a start.

[Smiling Spectre]

3) BLUE GREY
Just for record: as for me, first is green.

And you are totally free to name this color grey:
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/250900/ss_008a76bd0ab314c8140dd1a7ec61090c122d1779.1920x1 080.jpg?t=1487291293

I still thinks that it's metallic blue. *shrugs* Blame my perception for it. Nothing to argue, I think.
7) roguelike was half-assed garbage evenat the start, and sank even lower. And people have no self-esteem if they accept this.
Let's stop here. You are too aggressive, as for me. I don't agree with you, but it seems, it's totally useless conversation from this point and up.

Thank you for your time.

[twillight]

Ye. Proven wrong, the right answer is to run away. Your welcome.
Don't even try to explain your position, just stay at religious parrotting.



-----------


wMocFmcL1a0


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMocFmcL1a0


https://i.imgur.com/rnaiZrS.jpg

This wasn't much improvement on Pong when you think about it, but damn, despite in idea it is the same game as Pong, it got the massive improvement of YOU being YOU, not some symbolic trash.
Also could go up-down towards the net, not just sideways.
And the best thing: it did not went just for top score! You could WIN! (Actualy that was very easy, lol)



By the way, my version was black&white only.


And yes, while Binding of Isaac is CRAP despite all the technical improvements, this was a GAME.

[twillight]

Simple times these were. Both games were logical puzzles, which ment finite levels. Solving the levels in themselves were the reward. As I said, simpler times, no expectations.


Both games were popular, but I liked Atomix way better.
Why?
Because that gave more leaway, more space to mistakes. With levels advancing the solutions became more complex of corse, aka. the game became harder.


Shokoban had more whatwe could call "game elements". To get to the stages you had to step in an elevator, press the number of the level, and do what you could.
Here I always missed the game did not keep track of what levels you already done, and when all got finished a nice "congratulation!" would have been nice...
And the game was like monocrome: babyblue and babypink.


_iZLe05aJuU


screenshots (https://i.imgur.com/RSy8gHc.jpg)

Atomix on the other hand was way more dynamic. And the time-limit was disabled, so we could play it w/o frustration.



Nl7UdzqlX2M


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl7UdzqlX2M


This screenshot is from the remake, but couldn't find some higher level shots all the sudden.


https://i.imgur.com/jTIxsVA.png


Of course neither of these games surrendered to your smile.

[Smiling Spectre]

Ye. Proven wrong, the right answer is to run away. Your welcome.
Don't even try to explain your position, just stay at religious parrotting.
Um, you didn't prove "wrong" anything for me, and stop to blame me in your personal problems, please. Each and every your reply is veiled (or not so veiled) insult, with one and only base: "I, Great Twillight decided so, thus bow to my orders!" It's the bad habit, and actually exactly religious behavior: you assuming, for some reason, that I must take your conclusions on sole basis that _you_ believe in them. And after that you blame me in "religious parrotting". Bah.

I stopped to argue because it's pointless if opponent (you) ignores facts, makes wild speculations and goes to insults if there is no more arguments. This, and only this the reason why I stopped first time. But it seems, you don't understand subtlety and need blunt and apparent arguments. Ok, you got it. Are you happy?

Well, stay dreaming then, I will not continue this discussion further.

[twillight]

Oh dear, now someone goes full passive-agressive, and still lack making an argument!
Look pal, claiming that "you're rubber I'm glue" is NOT an argument. Start coming up answers to the WHY you think a product which lacks level design, difficulty curve, ability for story development, basic informations for the player etc. should even be considered a game, and not just a demo.
Not this "you're racist even though you're not, therefor Luke Skywalker sucks green-slime milk if classic!".
How about that?


In the meantime look at these:


_u5dtBtG9yU


I think this youtube-linking feature is broken, thus as always the link in itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u5dtBtG9yU


https://i.imgur.com/Nn3ZJVw.jpg


This was a side-branch of gaming, consoles before consoles.
They were VERY primitive in what they offered, because pre-burned icons got filled with fluid to show the animations, so this is NOT ANYTHING like a gameboy was.
You always only fought against the highscore, and almost always only played for 10-15 minutes only. They were after all traveling devices.
Some had double screen, they had various shapes and forms, and the "good" ones in the end everyone settled were the hard ones.
They were probably the first games which demanded the use of the manual, which got lost, and handed down between players oraly.
Oh, and atevery move they beeped. Go left? Beep. Go right? Beep. Action? Beep. It beeped the heck out of you.
And if you rolled over after 1-3 hours the high-score (aka.maximum score it could present), you were the king/queen. And then someone took out the batteries, and the nice 99999 score got nullified, and you had to work your ass off again.

[twillight]

This was a very cheap game, but an improvement, as it wasn't just some ultraprimitive algorithm, but opened the possibilities on something long and complex.

kIMplupTJm0

Sure, it was primitive, but you were a SPACESHIP! Sure, it was a 1-screen game, but you could leave the screen and come back on the other side!
You could even warp!
And yes, technicaly you were shooting the same objects, and went for a highscore, but finaly the "enemy" came in different colours, and they always blew into smaller enemies! It really opened the way.


Being primitive also comes with certain advantages:
- easy to understand how to play
- easy to filter out any bugs. Of course "bugs" practicaly never appeared in these game. Sometimes the stuff did not load, but that was it.

[twillight]

Good old pacman.

-CbyAk3Sn9I

When you think about it, it's not much of a stepup from asteroids. though somehow it looks way better. Maybe because it is not just an empty space, but has definite level design.
You went ahead automaticly, and turned using justick. Will never understand why they left that controller behind.


https://i.imgur.com/DgPIunf.jpg


Either way, your goal was to eat all the dots, and not touch the "ghosts". You could eat the ghosts if you ate one of the flashing dots for a limited time.
The game had gradual progress of difficulty by the dungeon design. Had a set amount of maps (pretty large set), which looped in the end.
The AI was simple, so you could feel the algorythm, and theoreticaly play to infinity (you got bonus life per whatever condition).
Bonus items also appeared: fruits, which worthed extra score.

[twillight]

In concept very similar to Pac Man, but in many ways a hugh improvement.

bGTGLu1ziEg?t=28s

First, you didn't automticaly move.
Second, you could play two player. Ths feature though had design problems, namely:
- your shots did harm the other player, making cooperative problematic
- each map had only one "relatively safe spot".
Still made a pretty ok deathmatch areana if you wanned PvP instead of PvE. Then by agreement the winner made itself dead to restart.


The go alwas to eliminate all ~dragon from the screen. They started slow, and by time they sped up. And the timer spawned more enemies gradualy.
The levels' design grew harder and harder every time(aftera while there was just an empty room, no vover). Sure, it looped in the enc, but whatever.


You did gain extra lives at times, but could only have 4 as maximum.
You also could reisde for a while outside the dungeon. That was useful.
I also never had idea what you weapon was. Some kinda laser by the shots, but maybe flamethrower by the backpack-design.


Oh, and for extra, kinda like later the easter eggs, optional minibosses could appear. Ye, they were OPTIONAL.
there was the Pixie and the Wizard itself.
We had no idea if there was a backstory for a game containing lasers, space-dragons, evil pixies and wizards, but we sure thought it had to be awesome.

[twillight]

2oAl94bC5Cs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oAl94bC5Cs


Back then this was something of a curiosity. Around here anyway. We didn't have anything even remotly close until this time, or fora lot of time after, and only 1 person had it.
It looked like those quartz games, but evidently wasn't.
It had only quartz-graphic aka. black outlines, no colouration, but was not even remotely that pixeled mess like the other games.
By the way pixeled stuff was ok, because you got used to them. more on the issue as advancing.


It had a HUGH level, not even made of screens, continuous gameplay, friggin massively differentiated enemies,and we had no idea what this was, but the future was bright, unlike nowdays, where the future is made of shit.

[twillight]

h5eC_BDSfiQ


Ye, it was somewhat of a platformer. but it had all kinds of gimmicks running, like you could dispose the enemy robots, kill? pick up? loot? the furniture, pick up items and use them when you see fit (consumables), it had a crapton of levels all with their own design (and we strongly suspected the enemy and room combination had a random factor creating easy to insane difficulty).
We saw there was a timer, but didn't know why. We knew we got blobs from furniture, but didn't know why. The game had a minimap. It had each time 2 rooms with a synthetizator, and we didn't know why. We thought the goal was to for all furniture, but we never managed that.
Still, just as a random platformer it was fun, and we knew there must be some ending, and if we'd be dedicated enough, we'd be able to get there.


Dedication was a thing sometimes these ancient games demanded. There was only oh-so-many-things you could insert into a game after all. So the difficulty was to either speed up (like Wizard of Wor), mess with the random to cheat against the player (Tetris), or make it very precise, like Libra.


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Libra only had a couple of levels, which of course looped. The "ultimate" part was actualy that plant-vine, which had pixel-tight passage only for a fraction of a second even.
It was fun to find out all the puzzles (thinking on the tower you had to shot down).

[twillight]

Compared to eg. Monkey Island, this one had the advantage of cross-platform development.


9WVF0o9Lq2Q


In the video the colours look like the C64 version, but I think the music is somewhat faster.
The PC-version sucked dick in comparsion.


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Let's also mention around here PC was far from bein accessible, and in that time sucked dick in comparsion. But the ruskis didn't advance with the hardware, so fuck the space program, wether fake or true, we cared about everyday life, and USSR clearly sucked dick after while.


You should take note that
- we didn't have manual, although here we suspected we'd be better off with that to a margin

- we still played the game, even despite lacking idea on the language. We played with a big-ass dictionary on our laps
- there was no internet, so we had to guess out what each character does for starter. We never managed to develop the pictures, so there went the black guy. Surfer Dude sucked ass, that we noticed. Razor could use a ton of optional stuff, and she had a mahawk, so she was an alltime favourite. Bernard was considered essential. We wished we could swap Dave to Mr. Sunglasses.


Despite its complexity the game had no save, and we definitely wished it had. Oh ye, we did meet the concept of saves mainly through PC (more of that next time). Also, the telescope-puzzle killed us.
First: it was bugged, so half the time it didn't even work.
Second, you only had limited coins to mess with it.
Third: if you turned it the wrong way, that was game over, and you didn't geta tombstone either. And we only suspected this, for the better of the game, else we'd've said it was trash. But as we weren't sure, and could blow up a hamster in a microwave, this game though never solved, was considered badass. And it had graphic, and all kinds of puzzles in it, thus we loved it.

[twillight]

Ghostbusters was a ... that-time-fun movie-based game.


TLVGmvmNitg


The guy at the link has a different version than I had (which was C64), but mostly the same.
There were some annoying things in this, especialy lacking manual (I had original disc, but they didn't provide the manual). This was problem for the last part of the game, so I never got inside the Zuul-building, did not climb the stairs, and not defeated Ghozer.
You also had to figure out what the items did by yourself, and man, some were essential. Like w/o the googles the friggin ghosts in houses only could be seen through the windows! And it was very advantageous to be able to deal with StayPuffed,as each of its attack costed a ton of money.
And this is where save comes into play. C64 only used ROM, so anything running got lost when you turned off the machine. High scores, stages, whatever. But this game, if you got Game Over, gave you acode, which gave you the collected money, so you could buy the best stuff for the next go.
The problem was, the part to get into the zool-building took like forever, so after a while you gave up ever figuring out the ending.
The game was no shit though. It just demanded a manual.
Btw, there was a trick, that if you put you two guy at a house facing the same direction, on top of each other, the ghost did not move further, so if it was already above the trap, you sure catched it. Way easier this method.


Now Civilisation was a whole new level.


MVDdlFy-Cu0


It sure was complex. That attracted literaly everyone. Despite it being a pile of shit.
- you could not save.
- you never had enough resouces to build stuff.
- the AI massively cheated against you.
- the random tended to put you on the smallest island ever, so you were screwed.
- you couldn't tell what natural resources the current hex had, so positioning your city right was impossible. You got reckted by the game here too.
- bloody cavemen were enough to keep order in 300 century cities.
- anything but tyranny sucked.
- diplomacy sucked.
- the game ate ass.
But the game offered concepts never seen, so mention it here.



But there was an all-time shitfestever too: Sim City!
- you had no save
- your starting money was enough only for 1 small house
- there was no goal
- there were no enemies
- there was no score
- you could destroy everything you built in a week under1 minute by pushing one of the "catastrophe" buttons. this mean during the week you never turned off your computer, so it catched fire, or something.

What this piece of grabage was? None ever figured it out. It was worse than Elite, which everywhere got 10 out of 5 star reviews, but 9 times out of 10 refused to even start, and even if it loaded, the only thing it did was shooting lasers in space. And we tried every bloody key-combinations humanly possible.

[twillight]

So, there was this little game, which actualy got played when the 2nd game got into the store, but none had the computer to play the 2nd, so everybody played the 1st, which got good hearsay by then.


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By modern standar this is awfuly slow, and not much at all, but actualy back then it was the shining new age. The graphic back thenwas like nothing to compare with, the story was astonishing, and it SPOKE, and that helped us learning the language. It was funny, used the new icon-system, and you replayed it, because your pal got the rank of DemiGod at the end and you did not, or you got curious if there's a god-rank or not.
It no loingerwas "you and me", you had characters. Elves, orcs, mages, demons, those weakling elementals too just to mention...
And you also had different objectives. You didn't do the same thing over and over, but you had defend, destroy, and protect.
Then it turned by time to the hogwash WoW with its pandas, but who cares.

[twillight]

Ok, almost forgot this.
Sure, it was simple, especialy w/o manual, and convenience reasons everyone played it where you didn't have to switch tyres. So just laps after laps after laps.
And one of the three stables were agreeably shit.



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What it did offer though, was the feel of F1. It rly felt genuine the experience.

[twillight]

Some genres were never were anything but shit. But even they could have an accident and produce something playworthy. For this instance let's remember the text-advantures.



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Despite its title, it was a hungarian game. Someone should port it to english though. Despite it's highly offensive content. It was practicaly the most ancient school-shoter game to be blunt. I was not based on real even though, and is perfectly fine for a bloodthirsty 15 years brain. It was maybe even done by such person.


Textbased games always had the problem of figuring out the most obscure WORD to type in, and that was crap. Despite you doing all things right, with the right intention, if you didn't use THE EXACT phrase the developer had in mind, you got rected. And they didn't shame off from Moon Logic, and timed tasks either (limiting chances of tries and so on). Ye, I'm looking at you Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy!
Not being able to give anything aside text, this genre notoriously relied on nonsensical puzzles too.
Later, like for the Spellcasting series they gave lists of words, from which came SCUMMVM Lucastarts games, but nah. They were overly difficult.


Why I put this game so late? Cause this came very late. And was enjoyable. It actualy birthed 2 sequels - incrising in difficulty, declining in the violence which made this a mindless fun. Because the 1st was such goodness, people played the sequels for completion.


One bad thing though: the swearing is useless, it never gets involved by the story. Like the stamina stat in Diablo 2.

[twillight]

I had access to Doom1 too, but that was a piece of garbage. It was segmented, and you couldn't carry your stuff to the next segment, so fuck that.


GC0Kdx0tPgQ


It was the 2nd successful FPS as far as I can tell, and the first which kicked in the genre. The first wave was Wolfenstein. Nowdays everything is FPS, and they are a piece of shit. On the sidenote, they are made using a 3rd game's engine in the core, Quake. Quake was a piece of shit, because a) you tended to die by 1 hit b) the enemy friggin jumped away from your shots, trolling you. Doom had a much better concept if you ask me. Unfortunately Doom seemed kinda limited what the engine could do, because Duke Nukem used that engine, and it sucked, because it was just a cardboard copy of Doom 2. The nudity wasn't much either, as we had kinda good still pictures around for the porn-industry. The swearing was just obnoxious.



Not to mention these games introduced a new thing to humankind: COMPUTER SICKNESS. You could now get sea-sick on dry land! wooo!
Quake had a worse issue in this field too.

[twillight]

I'd focus on builds that are not just possible, but feasible. Also, the builds should not be behind a paywall.


Amazon is the proverbial medical horse:
- spearzon is your typical broken build. Its skills don't work with the other skills (Jab/Fend's extra strikes get crossed if dodge/avoid/evade kicks in), and the damage is laughable.
- poison javelin is not feasible with its single element, which is either way broken on the engine-level. And its damage is pathetic.
- the bow ama is borken. Too low damage, the skills even lower it. the synergies are pathetic. Costs way too much mana. The synergies broke it even further, preventing multielement usage. Strafe is suicide because plants to to spot, without HP, and the enemies are fast to run on you. Using Magic Arrow is not entirely impossible, but darn lacking behind.
- lightning java has the problem again being single-element. It can be worked arund - if you have a very deep pocket and ready tospend $$$.
- there's also passivezon, but better not talk about that.
0 build, 1 behind paywall.



Assassin is of the extremes. Either broken massively, or too strong (with problems). Shows very well a serious design-flow in the game's difficulty design.

- martial arts assa is... Well, half the skills are broken, and is too problematic and sluggish.

- shadow skills are useful, but none constitute a build.
- fire traps are suxxxor
- the only feasible assassin skill is the Death Sentry trap, which is so strong it can kill Nihlatak offscreen, failing the quest! The problem is, it is single-element, and relies on corpses to be real effective - which makes the character almost broken against Hell Ancients. There (in solo gameplay) you need some heavy investments in Shadow Master or Warrior for meatshield. Fortunately a shop sells assa spec items - most classes don't have this feature, resulting in imbalance.
1 build.



Necromancer looks cool on the character choice, but...:
-skeletons are "fun", but don't try them online, because it chrashes other people's game.
- skeleton mages are scum of the earth, weakling scums.
- revive was a good skill until they changed the game. Since then, they suck.
- golems suck entirely. To make a feasible golem-centered character you'd need more skillpoints than a god. To add to the fun: a) clay golems won't ever have damage b) blood golem can kill you c) iron golem costs $$$ d) fire golem has worse damage than clay golem!

- curses are useful, but don't constitute a build
- Bone Armor is possible build, if you want a meleemancer. The problem with that is the extremly low HP, slow gameplay, and either punishingly slow gameplay, or cost of $$$.
- poison necro costs $$$
- before the synergie the Poison Dagger necro was possible, albeit curiotsity. Since then it equals to every other poison necro, just you're playing it wrong.
- Bone Spear/Spirit necro are possible.
1 build, 1 behind paywall.



paladin offers a wide variety, most of them will die by Real Life Luck for low HP.
- sacrifice + prayer + cleansing is a fun-build. Its far behind a regular build, but for single player it is ok. Also interesting to put online as utility for group. It is a melee build though, so will likely 1HKO by a strong monster.
- zeal + holy shock is a cheap, but effective melee build. Will likely 1HKO by a strong monster, but there are less threat with its incrised resistance (so glows andlightning enchanteds are not a threat).
- holy fire/freeze are behind a paywall (freeze not?), and are melee builds.
- spirit hammer + concentration was originaly a bug, but they started to call ita feature. It is a ranged build, so it works.
- in theory Vengeance can also be base for a build, but there's a reason why none uses that.
3-4 builds, 2 behind paywall.

barbarian is the face of False Advertising. Although the character choice suggests axes, its the worst weapon class for it.
- concentration is a general all-around solo build
- berserk is mostly only possible online, because the source of mana for it is the Insight runeword
- WarCry is dumb, and behind a paywall
- you last seen a Whirlwind baba before the expansion (too risky, cost of mana is insane, Act 4 is just suicide)

- frenzy is a theoretical build, it is so fast none can control it (that's why you don't see any online)
- throwing is a possible build, but heavily item-dependent, meaning it is online-only

- mostly used online to cast BO on the party,and that's it.

3-4 builds, 2 are online, 1 behind paywall

sorceress is probably the only build who benefitted from the synergie-system, as from almighty all-element went to specialised versions.
- forget any armor-skills,starting with Energy Shield, becaiuse of the ManaBurn Bug.
- meteor is used to farm actbosses, for general PvM Fireball is the choice. Previously you went for Fireball.

- from lightning Static Field is a 1-pont wonder, like teleport, the later being very unfair when it comes to farming. Also, previously you could invest into Thunderstorm, but since expension that's not feasible. If any electric attack spell is used, that's Charged Bolt, and that's single player only for all-clear runs.
- from cold you go for the almighty Frozen Orb,and that's it. It kills everything,and doesn't require synergies.
- both of the nova-spells were dead fish from the start.
- and there's ranged enchantress, but that's behind a paywall.

Dual-triple element builds, 1 behind paywall.



druid was a fun-build when it came out. Sincs the synergie-system it is not a viable class.

- forget the summoning tab, that sucks. The damage is crap, the cost is high, demand in skillpoint is too high, physical damage only, wolves/bear gets rected by cold damage enemies.
- the vines are entirely useless. The life-leech is only good you think you're good, but then you forget to rise your JP, get hit big time, and you die.
- in theory you could make a shockwave bear or something, but it'll be either sluggish, or is behind a paywall.
- theoreticaly you could do a FireClaw druid, but be honest: have you ever seen it in real life? Point proven.
- feral rage is possible, but sluggish
- fury is both behind a paywall (needs ribcracker), and plants you to a spot which is suicidal.
- the fire skills are crap
- hurricane was good before synergies. Since then it suxx.
- there's the tornado-druid, but that's very unreliable, so let's say it is behind a paywall.
2 behind paywall.

So there wasn't ever many builds for D2.

[twillight]

It was ugly as shit.



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And half the puzzles were hamerd by Sierra's method of nonsense, but you could karate the stuff away, so none cared that much.
Sodespite the ugly look, the crappy control, the bogus puzzles, it still warned its name. If for nothing else, you could pass it w/o puzzle-solving, and the puzzles made sense at least when you retroengineered them.


It lacked bugs to be honest, and the controls proved not to be gamebreaking (unlike for AitD 3), and time proved 3D to not just be a waste of time from the developers, so duh, that's likely it got famous.

[twillight]

The first insalment sucked ass. Most of us had to settle for MK2 because we didn't have the hardware for 3.


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By any standard back then, it was Outstanding. The wide variety of characters, the casual violence, all the moves, the visuals were all top-notch.
Unfortunately MK3 only worked on a very sepcific hardware.
And all original MK-games suffered in the 2-player department, because it turned out if one player pressed a button, the other player could not use the same attack on its part. Eg. you press low punch, the other player could not dolow punch, or any special move which required low punch within the combination.
And the AI was punishingly hard, no advancement from "I loose" (begginer) to "you die" (any other difficulty).


But at least it wasn't all-bad as Street Fighter 2. Which didn't have a Street Fighter 1 stricktly speaking.

[twillight]

3D, but not as guly as Alone in the Dark, clunky controls, but if you're not stuck with the asian version you had autoaim which helped immensly.


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Face it, if there was a Golden Age for computer games, those were the late-nineties/early-2K.


This game didn't just was a good experience with all the mutants and zombies, and lore-documents, and puzzles-along-the-way (but you only needed the manual for the herb-drugs, maybe not even for that), but everyone knew we were ripping off the company with this sale.
The game came on 2 CDs, which was a good sign of actual content, but also:
- you didn't just got skin-choice of characters, but the whole game actualy got transformed according to that. I think there'd be more efficient way to code this, and this isn't in hugh demand to be honest, the skin-choice is already ok.
- there were a crapton of hidden lore-documents, and fan-service photos (nothing sexual) hidden around, which did worth looting everything
- there were hidden outfits and weapons during playthrough, and they were useful
- the game gave you a "cheat code" of infinite ammo. And it did not punish you for using it.
- there were 3 entire minigames as unlockable. One if you want a fixed path, one if you like randomly generated environment, and one for the hardcore (ToFu).

[twillight]

Then there was Fallout 2.


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It's not the racist-nacionalist-fascist "kill everything that's not pureblood huiman" Fallout 3-4-76,but the Fallout 1-2.


It is neither the carppy Ultima-Oblivion-Elder Scroll bullshit, but an open world game, which actualy works.
Although letting you finish the game in 30 minutes is maybe overdoing it.
But at least there's no artificial difficulty-wall to prevent you going somewhere (there's SNEAK for all sake to circumgo hard enemies), and the game has an actual story, and isn't just a "let's fool around, the engine is working, duh" crap.
This fucking bullshit is the pinacle of failing being a game:


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And Bethesda (and others) has this kind of nonsense for full price, not that garbage-bin-wannabe I just showed you.


Fallout 1 ye, did technicaly exist, but was so SMALL, and had sucha thin time-limit, and rly wasn't that different from F2, that I consider it a very sophisticated demo.


F2 on the other hand had everything. Mindless world-fooling, story-decisions, laying around with everyone, tiolets, more toilets, high-tech factions, aliens (no, I'm not speaking of the specialencounters, I'm talkin' 'bout the main game), animal protecion movement, human rights movement, slavery, fascism, terrorism, boxing, staring in a porn-movie, breaking down clans of the maffia, riding a car around, overdosing people, diggin up graves, digging up people burried alive in graves, and this guy:


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Oh, ye, by the way, you, a Shake Spear Villager just repaired an atomic power plant. How more c00l you can do? Maybe serving a top secretdata-disc to a superintelligent mutated rat with the intention of conquering the world? Because you can.

[twillight]

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Not a perfect game, I accept. Be honest, nothing can beat Fallout 2 in sum. But it can be beaten in certain aspect.
And by concepts, P:T wins. The Lady of Pain, the modrons, meeting the Letter O embodiment, traveling with a companion who has two portals to elemental planes open inside him and is around thousands of years since - it's just mindblowing.


The problem is, it is a very text-heavy game, and lacks sufficient action.


F2 had some bugs, P:T practicaly had none atleast. And F2's bugs were only theoretical. The main issue there was related to the car, where stupid people touched the car when it spawned in a different location they left it. I say they deserved what they got for that. Aside from that, there were some specialperks youshouldn't click on to see the description else the game crashed - not rly meaningful -, or if you friendly-fired Vic his AI broken down permanently (which could be annoying, as Vic was one of the best companions, but there were enough replacements, or you could just save&reload).

[twillight]

The first rogue-like game of major sucess, so early in case, the term wasn't even invented for years to come.


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Actualy, this is the story of Blizzard, and the game we actualy talking about is Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, meaning the basic game with the expansion, and all the patches.


The story started with the firstgame, which looked ass, and was a mediocre, ass-ugly, slow paced dungeon-crawler, which for obvious reasons didn't get much attention.


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You couldn't run, everything mashed together, and it was a very slow, be cautious progress, one of the very last "defense is the bestoffense" style game. Ye, the new wave "the glass cannon is the best build" thing wasn't the original style.
The game had another problem: you either could not access to the higher difficulties, or you could not get all the quests.The multiplayer option was also badly coded, so your could transport your character between the two, hack your character very easily (no hex-code was peresent even to hide your stats), and was generaly mediocre,
The game was also heavily marketed for competitive gameplay, so despite the easy customisation of the characters, soon appeared "best build", and I mean exactly 1 or 2 builds, considering skills, stats and equipments, independent from starting class.


Even D2 didn't stirr much water, because initialy it sucked ass just like D1.
The game got released unplayable, so much it got a patch BEFORE RELEASE.
Then there was the issue of trading. The game was heavily marketed to exchange loot between players - but failed to allow that in single player mode, and evenworse, gave no storage-space to contain extra items! And given the amount of collectibles (gems, runes, quest items, jewels, loot, base items for runeword etc.) even the doubled stash-size is still not enough! Far from it!


The next problem was the level-gap between difficulties. The game works this way: the monsters have levels, you have levels, and based on the difference the monsters give certain amount of exp. If you have too many (or too few) levels, the monsters did not give you many exp.
this issue got somewhat cared of by the expansion given new act (Act 5), but that brought new issues with itself...


And there were the ever-incrising list of bugs, the online gameplay, the single player gameplay, the balance issues... So D2 was full of promise, but failed miserably in every way - and it starts to show in Blizzard ever-declining reputation. They don't even come up with new titles anymore to deceive the customers again and again...



Let's take a look on the elements of the game, and see how many fails!
- single player gameplay sucksm because the drop-rates are too low
- multiplayer gameplay sucks, because the drop-rates are still too low. SOME items getaccessible IF you WERE on ladder, but nowdays there aren't any people there anymore, so fuck you. this means the majority of items were behind a paywall. Or were dupes.
Add to this, Blizzard was heavily against "muling", aka. characters existing just to store extra itemsfor future plays, or simply to auction them not-at-the-moment. See where this leads?
- and there were the bots. Blizzard CLAIMED they do everything to get rid of them, but the majority were sold BY BLIZZARD. Spam-bots were the basic issue, filling the WHOLE screenwith their advertisings, leading many players' death. And to prevent squelching them, Blizzzard regularly made you "lost connection".
Example (https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b&biw=1280&bih=867&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=3kFrW4DsDZKdkgXlkaG4Cw&q=diablo+2+spam+bots&oq=diablo+2+spam+bots&gs_l=img.3...748768.751074.0.751154.9.9.0.0.0.0.10 8.676.8j1.9.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.3.264...0j0i67 k1j0i30k1j0i8i30k1j0i24k1.0.i0D41NEnM9Q#imgrc=1HWw _Bk3mLnkBM:).

- and there was the hardcore gameplay. The prime issue was/is the player killers, because Blizzard was so dumb that if someone declared waragainst you you could not hurt them, but they could hurt you! Fuck yeah! There goes 5 months of legit work on a character.


Now look at gaming features:
- poison damage just worked strange, so you shouldn't rely it too much. It also ruined your character sheet's data. Many things did that.
- any skill which did per frame damage: the engine works counting per hit, so per frame skills resulted in negligable damage.
- fire damage: too many things are immun to it to rely on this element (and with the synergie-system you have to specialize!)
- cold damage: because it slows the target (negligable feature on hell difficulty) the amount of damage from this are many times negligable
- prevent monster heal: why this thing exists, none knows. The reason none knows is, any amount of poison damage does the same, and lasts longer.
- runes: far too infrequent anything above Lem, and the exponential requirement in runes and gems made the rune-upping system a joke.
- runewords: you couldn't know ANY of these w/o a walkthrough,most demand too high runes to be accessible, and the base items fall very infrequent
- set items: finding these are very hard, and cano nly be found on a level only higher then they are useful. You can't upp them either like uniques or rares.
- magical (blue) items: they are simply too weak for lategame.
- rare (yellow) items: there are too many possible attributes to ever find anything useful here. They can cover your resist-needs self-find, but that's it.
- crafted items: need to many stuff to make them work, and result in a very random item, because of the too big attribute-pool. Usualy in 20-50 tries you can end up something semi-useful for a single-player game, but imagine if you'd try that legit. Also, you need to know the recipe for them, which is impossible w/o the official guide.

- skulls: a sepcial type of gems, which are entirely useless. they provide too weak bonuses themselves, not used in any good recipe. One patch for a short period used them for "deadly crafted" recipes, but those were "too strong", aka. customers no longer bought hordes of duped items from Blizzard's spambot, so got removed.
- unique items got too strong and obvious to let any other type of items get intp focus.
- gold is both too frequent and too infrequent to have any use. It doesn't work as ingame currency because too easy to access, but can't use them at vendors either, because those prices are too high (gambling, or even buying stuff from the normal shop-window).
- stamina is an annoyance until lvl 10 maybe, then becomes a non-issue
- certain skills (eg. incrised stamina), or even entire character classes are entirely useless
- exceptional, and especialy elite items are way too infrequent to drop for their own good. Like 10-20%.
- hireling were a problem initialy because you couldn't even resurrect them. And their stats were too low to have any use anyway, so it seemed a blessing to be able to give them items and resurrect them. Ye, until the first corpse-eater in Act 4 ate it with its items permanently destroying it. Because of a bug. Though thatgot fixed, there's still the issue of the AI braking down after a while, neglecting the merc entirely (monsters are supposed to aim that instead of the player first).
- exp and character level: the game was designed to be able to overlevel the monsters in the hand of a weaker player. Then Blizzard said fuck you, we want more of your money, so if you want to be max. level you have to pay $$$, and skip all the playing the same time, welcome at the top of the leaderboard!
So now days you reach like lvl 45-50 on Normal (single player, p8, allclear), lvl 72-75 on nightmare, and lvl 75-80 on hell. And fuck you.
- guest monsters are buggedly strong. They simply don't work as intended. Especialy Nihlatak's snakes. Those rect you in the ass.
- stats: it is a dumb system. This should provide chance for customization, but big no. Mana: 0. Str/Dex: according to equipment, see a guide to learn what you must wear. Vitality: the rest.
- respec: the option was given only in 1.13d. enough said.
- quests: most of them are lies. They are not quests. They don't give you reward, story, sometimes there isn't even anyone to give you the "quest". Let's run through them:

[twillight]

Act 1:

Den of evil:
task: go to some dungeon and kill all monsters
reward: +1 skillpoint, 1 respec, better prices in the town

problem: 0

Sisters' Burial Grounds:
task: go to some place, kill miniboss
reward: free merc if you don't have one. Not even a dead merc. You can't get rid of a merc w/o buying a new one. So this got rected by the option of reviving mercs.
problem: acceptable, but obviously bugged
The Search for Cain:
task: go through some dungeon, get to special place, get special item, bring special item to special place 2, find NPC
reward: free identification for the rest of the game (every difficulty demands this quest), random rare ring

problem: the ring is RANDOM, and not relates to your level, need, or anything.
The Forgotten Tower:
task: go to special place, kill miniboss
reward: small amount of gold
problem: obviously, gold is ignored for obvious reasons, especialy in such small amount. The real reward comes from killing the boss (free semi-ok runes), but that's unrelated to the actual questing. Oh, and you can loose even this pathetic reward, if you keep pressing the "show items on the ground" button when the cloud from the Countess flies to the chest! But technicaly ye, we can call this a quest. Let's be generous this time.
Tools of the Trade:
task: go to dungeon, kill miniboss, get special item
reward: random rare item
problem: it is RANDOM item. That means 99.666 percent itwon't even worth gold! But be generous,and count this in too.
Sisters to the Slaughter:
task: go to dungeon, kill actboss
reward: unlock new act


number of quests in the act: 6 out of 6 (let's be generous. Otherwise 2 out of 6)

------

Act 2 - here start the real problems:
Radament's Lair:
task: go to dungeon, kill miniboss
reward: better prices in the town, +1 skill point
The Horadric Staff:
task: go to Dungeon A, get Special Item A, go to Dungeon B, get Special Item B, go to Dungeon C, get Special Item C, combine Special Item B and C in Special Item A. (special item A is preserved in all difficulties), bring Combined Item to Dungeon D

reward: you keep the Horadric Cube for crafting purposes, and as extra stash size, also obviously in Dungeon D is the Actboss, so unlocks new act
The Tainted Sun:
task: nothing
reward: nothing
problem: this "quest" is "solved" the same time as The Horadric Staff. Has absolutly zero consequence, unavoidable, includes no special items or lore, and although you just removed permanent night from the world, you'll be just sent into a casamate,so fuck that too.
The Arcane Sanctuary:
task: go to dungeon, get clue on how to continue
reward: none

problem: this is a horrendous cheat from the developer. First, you can't avoid this place at all. Second, the info is useless, because in a legit playthrough you'll need the exp, thus you'll visit all fake tombs. This just encourages leeching exp and rushing low level characters. There's also no reward whatsoever.
The Summoner:
task: none. You'd have to kill the bugger anyway.
reward: none
problem: this is the same "quest"as The Arcane Sanctuary pretending to be another quest. It is not. It is not even given by a questor, it just activates itself. You won't even know what's the Summoner until you find it. this is obviously not a quest.
The Seven Tombs:
task: nothing new
reward: nothing new
problem: basicaly this is the same quest as The Horadric Staff, only this only tells the end of that quest. Obviously a developer scam.


Quests in the act: 2 out of 6
--------------
Act 3 - things don't get better
The Golden Bird:
task: kill random unique monster, get special item, talk a lot in town
reward: +20 Hp
problem: you start the act without any quest, and the unique can sometimes be hidden in the fuck away
Blade of the Old Religion:
task: go to wherever, get special item
reward: free merc (if you don't have one, which is pretty unlikely), random rare ring
problem: the merc option obviously nolonger work, and the chance to get anything decent as the item is negligable. But I'll be generous again.
Khalim's Will:
task: go to places, get parts of equipment, cube them
reward: unlock new area
problem: i could use some actual reward here...
Lam Esen's Tome:
task go to place, get special item
reward: +5 stat point (equals 1 clvl in that regard)
The Blackened Temple:
task: nothing new
reward: absolutely nothing
The Guardian:
task: kill actboss
reward: unlock new act


Quests during the Act: 5 out of 6 (I'm VERY generous here, the actual numbers are 2 out of 6)

--------------
Act 4 - the developers obviously gave up
The Fallen Angel:
task: kill miniboss
reward: +2 skill point (equals 2 clvl in that regard)
problem: 0
The Hellforge:
task kill special boss, get to specialplace, use special item
reward: random rune, and high quality gems

problem: RANDOM rune. Only 1. And the highest possible rune is even very low rune. And you could piss on those gems at this point.
Terror's End:
task kill actboss
reward: unlock new act
problem: I rly could use some realreward for these act-boss-killings...


Quests during Act: 3out of 3 out of 6. I mean why don't we get 6 quests, even by name?
-------------
Act 5
Siege on Harrogath:
task: kill miniboss
reward: socketing item
problem: you can't tell how many sockets it'll give you, soyou can't use this to make a runeward base. Also, I'm getting tired of the "kill stuff" tasks.
Rescue on Mount Arreat:
task: resque 3*5 prisoner
reward: ral, ort and tal runes
problem: even on normal difficulty I could piss napalm on these runes by my ghostrider dick. You can easily fail this quest for no reason (have to restart the level and kill all boring stuff again to get the specified locations).
Prison of Ice:
task: rescue NPC
reward: better prices in town, +10resist all, random rare random class specific item
problem: again the random factors for the item. And gold is likely no lomger an issue at this point ever.
Betrayal of Harrogath:
task: kill miniboss
reward: rename item
problem: entirely trophy.purpose reward. But at this point i'mtoo let down to no grab for straws.
Rite of Passage:
task: kill 3 "mini"boss
reward: chunk of exp

problem: these buggers are simply said, too strong for their own good,especialy on Hell diff. And I could do with some REAL reward, thank you.
Eve of Destruction
task: kill actboss

reward: unlocknew difficulty, trophy title
problem: again,could do with some actual reward...



Quests during Act: 6 of 6 if I'm generous. 2 out of 6 if I'm not.



---------------------------------------


There's also the case of the Cow lvl, and Uber Tristram, but those suck hilariously, so fuck you.



Also, this piece of garbage tried to sell itself as "RPG" just for the stat-/skillpoint-system existing, and when that failed miserably they invented the "cRPG" title.
It was and is actualy a "rogue like" game, with:
- randomly generated areas
- randomly generated monsters from pool
- randomly generated items
- the fact you can't actualy get anywhere w/o the official wiki. When that wiki'll be gone, you won't be able to play this pile of crapany more. It is a very real possibility, happened with another rogue-like, Dungeons of Dredmore. One day the official wiki just been gone, and since then it's practial impossibility to play.


JhylkmIfRIM

[twillight]

V7apuW_2lIE


Actualy, I despised the series for whatever reason. But The Room (3rd game) got even my attention.
If you watch the video you cann otice how much the series was just a Resident Evil ripoff... Still, it managed to be its own thing for a while.
Unfortunately that part declined by later instalments, and they didn't find new audience with their first movie, for what none cared for the 2nd movie, which was a good movie actualy if you forget about the 1st movie, and according to the players, the games. So that didn't earn anything either.


These horror-survival-FPSs were actualy pretty widespread, and pretty close in quality as far as I'm concerned. The 1st Blair Witch Project game for example was pretty ok too, although far from being popular (likely because the movie was a cheap crap). But there were plenty of others too.



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Resident Evil survived. The others not so much.

[twillight]

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Part of the price of genious level games released was, the decline of effort and new releases, resulting in decline of quality, and what a decline it became!


Then showed up The Independent Developers. Actualy, I should've mention before this post another wave of this, but we'll be back to that.


Yahtzee created a serious of point&click adventure games. With retro-graphic, and still proved successful. He did his stuff, then I dunno, stopped?


The other was Krin, who managed to gather a large group of fans. He was part of the Flash Game Era.


xmP_bRf9pUg


Krin managed to build his fame on the Sonny 2 game, branching back&forth&sideways in time for his various projects.
Then he sorta faded out, because the promised 3rd Sonny game years afteryears of waiting failed to be developed. And after people stopped caring, the 3rd game DID come out, but was put entirely behind a paywall (previously 1 of 4 classes was only like that), and was a reboot instead of continuation, making the games he got his fame from obsolate, which pretty much killed any interest toward the guy.
Combined this with the original platform's (abandonia.com) incrisingly shitty service, straight lying, resulted that the 3rd game is now entirely free, and still none gives a shit.

[twillight]

Western Europe doesn't have a game-developing industry as far as my knowledge goes. Nationalism gets in the way, and the germans are too busy cenzoring all games on their own official market, not noticing global tendencies, like Gog and Steam where people simply shit on "no red blood" policy.


The french made some ok adventuring titles even through the 3D area (the Blair Witch Trilogy, Necronomicon, and so on), but the whole thing is pretty meh.


The Eastern part on the other hand is made of such small countries, they simply had to develop semi-internationaly, and if you lived in europe, you met with some of these titles, and they worth mention, apart they are for the most time pretty low quality, full of design-flows and so on.
One game was a pretty gem though, so let's mention Gorky 17. That's like Area 51, but in Poland or soemthing. Pretty much in the USSR area at least.


WJL5Wx--d-Q


It had some pretty ok puzzles included, and just Too Much Medikit And Stuff, which means you were pretty inclined NOT to use any for a proper playthrough.
The maximum challange is of course to not be hit at all, and yes, that's possible, I've done it.

[Capo]

Guess you never heard of Cd Project

[twillight]

Guess you never heard of Cd Project


Not realy.
Did my homework though, and searched for it. They have a single franchise under their name, The Witcher series.
That's not new info to my series, but I bet is a very decent game, like a couple of hundreds of titles.
I'm still glad to mention such a great famed thing from the area. Hungary did maybe some Myst-like tourism-ralted empty-town-lookaround to mention maybe (Myst was crap as fuck, I have the CD, and never played it after 30 min, I slept over the keyboard, awakened by the beeps), and half a handful probably-decent title, like S.W.I.N.E (I hated it, but was NOT crap), Imperium Galactica 2: Alliances, but I try not just to find good games, but point out turning points, or how I remember them, and show "outdated" games do better still than today's craps. Would see others' tale. Maybe their conclusion would be something else.

But hey, I found this, didn't know was hungarian, and in general forgot about it!

48Dz6Wtm1Go

This was one of the very first total-obscure-mechanics game, like those "how high you canclimb up" stupid casual dumdums.

[twillight]

One thing Diablo 2 was good for to finaly remove my constant grief for the joystick. That game rly needed a megaton of buttons for control-hotkeys.


Now onto World of Warcraft. It's a piece of junk, and always was. The game-mechanic itself I betis smooth, the problem comes from another side.
Like it is an online-only game, demands an atomic reactor like Maniac Mansion in your house to run at all, and youdon't even own the game, only rent it. Fuck you. The success of it almost collapsed the entire gaming industry by the way, as EVERYONE and their mother made games online-connection only. To make it even worse, that time mostly-stable INTERNET connection was a rarity, at least weekly shutdown FOR THE INTERNET was standard. Online only my arse.


uOpdyytB3OY


Btw, the song is pre-New 52, the Aquaman-reference is no longer valid.


Btw, I think this spinoff never got anywhere unfortunately:


K4eFGM-Zfnk


Oh, and WoW degraded to panda-hugging crap.


kdTW_2dz7Ps


Da fok is dat.

[twillight]

Both "games" mentioned here ar TOTAL GARBAGE. Not half-assed crap like Binding of Isaac or such, nooo. These are probably the absolute bottom of the barrel which just constitute for a "game" in a sense at all, but they're the absolute garbage.


6Lsz6FK0uIM


I can't totaly be mad on Candy Crush though. It's a tetris-like online "game", which sole purpose is to take your money. Form the gazillion levels only the first handful (30-50) can be done, and those already are frustratingly RLL (reallife luck) dependent. It's bullshit.
There's no variation in the levels, aside the random cheats against you more and more, and wants you to pay $$$$$$$$$. The cherry on the top is, there's no payoff either. You go ahead on that child-book-map, and there's no ending, despite the series is at the zounded release. Ye, there is CCS1, 2, 3, zounds. and even the 1st never reach any goal.
To annoy you further, you can't even reach the final level in these craps, because afters pending literaly thousands of dollars to this nonsense, the point you'd be on Level Tom Cruise in Scientology, learning the deepest secrets of Lord Xenu, here you can be sure just add 5000 more levels to fuck with you. Because making those levels is very, very easy, just trust in on the random generator. Finishing the levels on the other hand...


And there's Clicker Heroes.



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They call it 'idle gaming". The idea is YOU DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the game, and still win! It even works if you turn off your computer!
But why??? It's just... You know what? Fuck you.

[twillight]

Of course there were always plent more games. Some good, some bad, some total obscurity.


The Witcher already mentioned, still no personal experience with it:


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Then there was Operation Wolf, which could have had its own entry:


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Or there was Karnov, avery arcade-like game, the C64 had immensly better graphic than any other version, and it was hard as fuck, and had no idea how to play with all the optionalitems (I had the game from a shop, thank you).


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Then there was Firetrap, inwhich you climed a burning building as a firestarter, and up there the FRIGGIN SUN attacked you (the C64 versionhad again way cooler graphic, but this was the only versain found footage from):


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Then there was FireBUG too, which looked pretty sophisticated back then, but sucked ass hard it was:


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There was this stupid-ass game too, if you manage to beat the Pharao Mask level, I'd welcome the info how:


XIGRJouXha0

[twillight]

The story at this point pretty much ends. There are no longer good and innovative games made.


There are some titles getting famous from time to time, like the Counter Strike series, or the Assassins' Creed Series which is pretty much a CS-variant with swords instead of guns, or Grand Theft Auto which is CS with cars, or Halo which is CS with laserguns, or the Amnesia franchise which hid behind (like almost all 3D games did back then) behind an Extra Paywall of Video Card which is not required but demanded nontheless, or such halfassed crap like the Binding of Isaac, which could have been a game for a specific audience, but the lack of good games and hearsay made it a boost, and it managed to sell the same game as three different games and a bunch of DLCs. Which is just proves the game is a fraud.


To mention there's an Eastern European company, called Larian Studios, which makes the Divinity franchise, but for all sake, I don't know how they survive, because their games though become in the end pretty decent, they are at the initial release always full of bugs to the point being unplayable, and only by years of after-release development get to the state of being worthy. And every single release they perform the same crap.
Their customer service is top notch though. And they make multi-platform releases, so you CAN play their stuff.



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They are in a sense like whoever made Dink Smallwood (I think abandonia has this).


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There are also some games which I'd bet are crap, but are so far from my playstlye I'm not actualy sure I even understand them. Like this glass-cannon game, whichis 99% random, that's why I suspect it's actualy trash, but even if it would not be random I'd still not play it and hate it:


O7xDJBCra_M


A similar, but not random based game, which abhorrent feature is the time limit/limited necessary resources is:


bobFyxspqWM


Tells a lot that I wasn't able to find a playthrough, or anything after reaching the first town from this.


There's the Gears of War franchise, butI'm not even sure it was even made for PC, so who knows.


There was Portal, which is CS with gizmo.


Actualy, I once saw a very god snowboarding game... Dunno the title,and was some-console-only, so fuck that.


But what do we have? Sequels of sequels of the same shit.Like the entirely stupid Legend of Zelda franchise, which first actualy-good release was maybe Ocarina of Time?


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That's why people still keep as treasure games such as Might and Magic 6+. Though the later installments gradualy failed. 6 was the mostopen, 7 had a way linearly forced story with timed events and the teachers, tunel-areas... And the same time was easier because of badly implemented artifact-system, and the very beatable dragon at the start which provided infinite loot.
And in 8 you were forced to play a troll (race), because you couldn't hire them in reasonable distance, and the first area was bloody hard to survive otherwise.



OPa3HBVM4_E


kM0dQNe0z_w


Oh, and let's mention all the cheap knock-off crappy games, which were all of us' guilty pleasure, because they only costed 1$, so the worth/price ratio made them not to whip ourselves for punishment. Like this piece of crap, which got released at least in Hungary WITH THE FINAL KEY NOT IN THE GAME (fortunately you could put in the level-cheatcode to get around that):


5iWGe2JBocM


You actualy spent most of the time standing around so your HP/MP refilled. But it had absolutely solvable puzzles, so cool.



Or all the movie-based piece of trash, like Die Hard Trilogy (had 3 parts, each its owngame, and if you didn't have infinite lives you were screwed, maybe even then!):


JCvjnsbw7AI


Especialy the car-chase part was hard as fuck.


What else to say? Oh ye, therewere boardgames, like mahjong, solitare and minesweaper as windows addons, or even all kinds of chess...Archon Ultra was kinda worthy:


kCtYvldL-Y4


Oh, and again don't fall for all the hype of old games, Like Command and Conquer, the original had a mission for the good guys with a laser tower enemy and no air unite, so you were fucked for good. Oh,and no harvester, just1 very big tank (which worth not enough to destroy named tower).
Oh, and remember, this was considered "fun", and "good game so to say":


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It was crap and offensive, and we knew it, but didn't have anything else. So I say, if new games do the same shit, call them shit, because they are. And don't even start me with Minecraft. It suffers the Diablo 2 Hostility Design Failure. Remember all those nice, complicated stuff people showed they builded? Fuck those! Join the game, make a fire/explosive, AND BURN THE SHIT DOWN. Ye. Friggin crap. Fuck the players right in the #&@.


There is also the problem of Breaking The Pace. Diablo 2 has this if you pick Barbarian's Find Item. Which is totaly useless, if you rly want that shit get only Find Potion to destroy corpses. It's that bad. But there's a whole game I know of which suffers from it: Abe's Exodus.


o-oCyeBeZ4E


This was a very very good platformer, only 1 problem: for the True Ending you have to find more hidden places than your mom, and that should tell something. And there're no signs for them, and they're hideously frequent,and are commonly placed where there's absolutely nosense for 'em. It absolutely gamebreaking trying to find 'em all.


Oh, oh, I wanna show you a game I ragequitted. I got it dunnowhen, and could not play it for friggin many years, because originaly it only played if you plugged in friggin cables ina friggin specific ways, and only if friggin specific hardwares (CD players or shit) were also inyour coputer, and made special shit withspecial analprobes on realalien beings and shit, so Isaid fuck that. But oculdn't find what the actualy game was, because it was some 2nd grade shit, so it wasn't A, but wasn't trash either, so got shit from anyone. Then finaly got a new computer, put it in, played it for two hours or shit, then realised all my efforts for cleaning levels were wasted. Because enemies respawned. Maybe even loot (ammoand stuff), but at that point I just pissed allover that shitty shit which shitted on me. the Devil Inside. Fuck that game.


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Cmpare it to Shadow Man, which had its fair share of flaws, but I made it,and was the only game I suffered mapping myself for:


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That game told you whatit is, and reached to the expectations. Unlike for example Bad Mojo, which told you whatit is,but never got to the expectations:


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I remember getting it from Home of the Underdogs, and after a fair share of frustration by its size, got underwhelmed by it.


Come to think of it, there was yetanother total failure juststruckmy mind: Lure of the Temptress:


_wc2pF-hKWM


It was totaly fine, UNTIL you gota company, and had to divert the attention of the alchemist, send in the company with a specific range of instructions, on a trial of error basis, with a shitton of possibilities. Result: ragequit.


And before I finish for now, Floor 13 is another offender. Sure, you can be part of The Illuminati in this game, but it relies on RL-luck entirely. You canfail ALL cases if the random doesn't like you.


BZqS1T7_Vj0


Oh, andI forgot its title, was some freeware game or shareware, whatever the distinction. You played some hacker investigating after dolphins(?),and the basic method of your hacking was Random IP-search On The Whole Internet. Within the game of course, but that still had like thousands of results. Good luck with that.And to note, you could like suddenly jump to a later chapter, because its requirement was to find a specific IP. And as I said there was no restriction, or aim on your searches, just plain random on the whole database. When you realised that, you never tried that shit again.

[twillight]

With the market going downhill faster than a falling star, there came the trolling games.


geZU5zHMaQE?t=40s


Yep. These games made frustration fun. It's a weird concept, but at times can be satisfying. And yes, I know the video is not english, doesn't matter, mostly it's fuck-fuck-fuck anyway.

[twillight]

I got several of the best twohanded maxes, both unique and set (Immortal Kingl), so I have to make this comparsion.


Stuff:
- elite upped Steeldriver (found a Pul fully legit for this with my berserk baba, all items also from that character)

- IK Maul
- Windhammer


Any 2H maul with no IAS is dumpster, being too slow. 40% is ok. So while Bonesnap don't even play.
Bloodtree Stump while has probably insane damage, is very very slow, not even a Shael (20% IAS) would elevate it nice, sry.
The Black runeword alsodoes not give speed, and evenhas knockback what is annoying. Most other rws for a berserker demand hrs, so there those go.

If you'd pick Ribcracker (staff) you'd have to sacrifice Weapon Mastery, and AR is a problem untwinked.

Gravel of Pain is not good at all.
Earth Shifter is too slow for a Barbarian.
Steeldriver looks cool. The problem is, from execptional to elite variant (nightmare to hell) the base item does not get the same damage elevation as it got the first time (from normal to exceptional), what makes this, or to be honest any plain-damage item a lackluster.
The IK Maul is nice, and has 2 socket. In comparsion to Windhammer it has slightlly lower dmg, but deal way more to a crapload of enemies (undead and demon 200%, WH only has 50% undead). IK has 20% slower IAS, equal to a shael, which'd take a slot. Idealy I woudn't fill in a shael though, but a -15% req, 20-30% dmg rare jewel, and an Eth rune (-25% def from enemy).
Windhammer also has substantialy (10-15%) more Crushing Blow which is RAW DAMAGE. If I put on a Venomgrip (5% CB), and that 35% CB helm, that like a LOT (90%). In a normal play I'd craft to it a belt and boots Blood Crafted to make it 100%!

[twillight]

Some games still proved there were at least ideas still to come up with, and although delivered cheap, they at least told what they are and how to play them (unlike Binding of Isaac for example, where the idea is present, but the delivery is shitty).



Ws-yd9YPfdE


Of course in this case they skinned this fox to the bones, or even further, but that's another kind of problem. And at the very least later instalments of Freddy's were actualy new games, unlike what Binding of Isaac did.

[twillight]

Maybe, just maybe this might be something. Didn't play it, and my bet goes it has hardware requirement in the skies, because of Very Lazy Programming Skills, but aside that, it MIGHT be something. Let's give the benefit of the doubt.


n2eos3V7jTI

[twillight]

Most games are either not good, or simply interchangable with newer products. But some can be good suggestions for new players for one reason or another.


CkT-ZTzVF7M


This is an adult game, but those 99% aim pubertans. This has a good story, alternative endings, and sufferable gameplay. Also opens the gate to these "hentai games" as they were called back then, whatever they euphemised them for now.
This one is also not veryfar-fetched. No ghosts, tentacles, forced intercourse and other potentialy disturbing things.
And nowdays still pictures games aren't common to say the least, so broaden your horizon.

[twillight]

It is an isometric game... a wee bit similar to Jagged Alience, but real time, and a bit... cheaper. But at least it does not take forever to pass, especialy you can set the length of the game. As it, like X-com games, give the missions randomly for a pool.
There's some HQ-management, character management, and after a while it gains a strategic element too (you'll have to hold out preserving your facilities while the all-consuming enemy slowly but surly conquers the map, so choosing the missions by location beomes important).


Your characters are all technological superheroes. One can carry a mass amount, another is armoured, a third canshapeshift (the skill is a verybadly implemented camouflage skill, use the guy/gal who can turn invisible instead) and so on.


M58w8_fh2JQ


My only regret is, I lost my german copy. While I don't speak german, the voice-acting is just crazy there. Crazy good. "Die Brut kommt!" (The Brood Comes) should be a tagline, or on T-shirt, or something!
Ya, the backstory is, some world-ending, ancient-demon-alien-worshipping genetic-virus-releasing cult attacks everyone, like the Brotherhood of Nod in Command and Conquer.
It's just fun if you let your mind go with it.


#TotalyUnderrated

[twillight]

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It is a puzzle-platformer. To be honest can be VERY annyoing, as your equipment is needed to advance on the levels, and that means no use of bombs just to easy-kill enemies and such. SUPERannyoing.
But it is a very good mix of Prince of Persia and Shokoban, AND you have a gun. It's worth a try still. Back then this was top notch. Very solvable by the way, just needs some trial&error.

[twillight]

Seems the above is just a local title, otherwise it is Agent Gliniarz.



AV4FxAM-E9Q


In concept it is similar to Army Men, where your army was made of childhood's plastic soldiers, but their sorrounding remained the real world, so they fought on writing desks and things like that, point is, the items are giant size compared to them, and you could take advantage, like buildinga bridge froma linear, or barricade from a spool of thread and so on.
The claymation is also a unique selling point for this lighthearted aventure game, which never ever gets impossible.
It also has avery acceptable story to its demographic.

[Mystvan]

Not realy.
Hungary did maybe some Myst-like tourism-ralted empty-town-lookaround to mention maybe (Myst was crap as fuck, I have the CD, and never played it after 30 min, I slept over the keyboard, awakened by the beeps), and half a handful probably-decent title, like S.W.I.N.E (I hated it, but was NOT crap), Imperium Galactica 2: Alliances, but I try not just to find good games, but point out turning points, or how I remember them, and show "outdated" games do better still than today's craps. Would see others' tale. Maybe their conclusion would be something else.

But hey, I found this, didn't know was hungarian, and in general forgot about it!

48Dz6Wtm1Go

This was one of the very first total-obscure-mechanics game, like those "how high you canclimb up" stupid casual dumdums.

Ummm... :umm: I guess twillight is not so hungary :drool: :hungry: for Myst-like games... :hihihi:

Most games are either not good, or simply interchangable with newer products. But some can be good suggestions for new players for one reason or another.


CkT-ZTzVF7M


This is an adult game, but those 99% aim pubertans. This has a good story, alternative endings, and sufferable gameplay. Also opens the gate to these "hentai games" as they were called back then, whatever they euphemised them for now.
This one is also not veryfar-fetched. No ghosts, tentacles, forced intercourse and other potentialy disturbing things.
And nowdays still pictures games aren't common to say the least, so broaden your horizon.

I own the pretty old “JAST USA Memorial Collection” and “Milky House Memorial Collection”.

Well, at least those Collections worked on Windows XP without the need to use any kind of Emulator or Virtual Machine.

I had already finished playing all those old games except “The Season of the Sakura” since its Walkthrough was kind of generic and incomplete. :headslap: :palm:

[twillight]

I had already finished playing all those old games except “The Season of the Sakura” since its Walkthrough was kind of generic and incomplete. :headslap: :palm:


That's where you have like a dosen schoolgirls to fall in love with, eh?
Most of them only requires to focus on 1 attribute,and you'll get their encounter.
Only a completionist would want to get all the encounters in one game. I once did it, sadly lost the playthrough, because for that you need a massive amount of mapping for when (day +attribute) encounters can happen, and a crapload of replaying days for top-tear-gains in the early days.


It is a good casual onetimer for a 13-16 year though. The fun is mostly how the game reacts to you.

[Mystvan]

That's where you have like a dosen schoolgirls to fall in love with, eh?
Most of them only requires to focus on 1 attribute,and you'll get their encounter.
Only a completionist would want to get all the encounters in one game. I once did it, sadly lost the playthrough, because for that you need a massive amount of mapping for when (day +attribute) encounters can happen, and a crapload of replaying days for top-tear-gains in the early days.


It is a good casual onetimer for a 13-16 year though. The fun is mostly how the game reacts to you.

Yes, it was a complicated game to complete. I used Walkthrough written by Ben Woodhouse at the time. :wall:

Besides that game, “Three Sisters’ Story” was also a tricky one because depending on the order and the action, the result, or rather, the end of the game was quite unexpected. :headslap: :palm:

At least I managed to complete the game “True Love” with all the finals. :clap: Obviously with use of Walkthrough and Game Editor. :sneakrete:

Now, “Paradise Heights” series, “Love Potion”, “Fatal Relations”, “Amy’s Fantasies”, “Immoral Studies” series would be pretty mediocre ero-games in my opinion (boring and weak plot, storyline, etc.).

[twillight]

I'd recommend from your list the Immoral Studies series. They are good for a quicky. Takes like 5-15 minutes to pass, and are pretty immoral.


----------------


Current game is something that should have been shareware, as it is a satirical game criticizing the money-hungry game-developer industry. At the start you can only go right, so you have to pay for a DLC which allows you to go left. Then you become able to buy the next DLC to jump, and thus advance yet again in the game...
It's kinda short, and retro-graphic, but has 2 endings at least. Oh, and of course zombie-DLC is included too.



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[twillight]

But with a grain of salt. Because it is one of those games all promise, low deliver.


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It has similar awesome worldmap to the original Warcraft 1, and is a pretty good time-waster on this side, before it'd turn into a non-game.
Its main attraction is all the easter-eggs, half of which you should just read about, like the printer-messages. I mean who has a printer nowdays, and why'd you play the game the printer turned on anyway??
The game also suffers in the gameplay: Keeper is NOT the bes/strongest unit to have,and darn annoying to maintain. Grab a vampire instead. Also, if you completly wall-in, the enemy simply can't break in ever, what is ridiculous. They are few anyway. Lastly, most of the end-levels are about possessing one creature (a vampire), and massacring all the enemy in FPS-mode, completly destroying the RTS-aspect.


But still entertaining enough if you have the nerve, or new to computer games. At least for a onetime playthrough.

[twillight]

It is a mecha-simulator, combat-FPS, whatever you want.


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You build new mechas, repair existing ones, have a crew up to 3, you only control 1, the others controled by AI, but you can give pretty ok directions what they should do.
The terrains are pretty ok, and the mission-variety is funky: you have destroy mercs, destroy base, recon missions, defend base, capture building and so on, like piloting an aircraft.


The combat can be a bit monotous though.
The most obvious problem is, you yourself have barely any chance shotting down air units. So I advise bring crew whenever possible, and gives them some weak machinegun (those have ammo and range) to deal with them.
The next problem is, the AI isn't very clever, mostly just run towards you, and that's it. The level-design compensates for some of this issue, but could use some improvement. My main tactic is usualy put on 2+ heavy energy weapon (very short range), focus the shield forward, and rush to the enemy. Try to hit the legs, that disables the mechas while preserving raw material. When you run through the enemy, reset the shields 50-50%and turn around, wreacking havok.
Fun little casual game if you ask me, which doesn't realy need more graphics, and the voise-acting is cheesey-inspiring for the mission-birefings.


Ineterstingly the game allows you to fail missions - but I prefer reloads those times.

[twillight]

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What you see on the video is NOT the version I had. I never before looked this title up since the internet, because I had no reason to.
Because my version never ended. It was entirely infinite. No scores counted. The enemies were infinite, and who gave a shit,they were pathetic.
Why I mention it? Because the totaly empty "playtime",if we cancall it that. You could not die, you could not even fall, you justwent, and heared the monotonous white noise of the engine. It was relaxing for me somehow.

[twillight]

The previous and léater installments are basicaly crap. But this is a nice jrpg.


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Very good music, good graphic, the usual turn-based pokemon/finaly fantasy-system, tons of reasonable loot.
There are only 2 flaws: one: making a solid party. That probably will involve some respec (because inexperience with the game), what can seriously drain your gold resource, second: on the highest difficult the enemies gain cheap instant kill attacks, what is just annoying.
It has some optional bosses and badges though, so it's absolutely fine.

[twillight]

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Tired from Super Mario? Guhrl Powah fan? Time to try The Great Giana Sisters!
The franchise is even living today, and their games are not bad at all!


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I bet it is about the hair.
Btw, I ran past the final boss, never killed it, thought that's not possible.

[twillight]

This game has multiply stages.


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The goel is to dispose terrorist invading an embassy. And save the hostages if you can. I think you only got game over if you lostyour team, the time ran out, or ALL the hostages died (by your hand).


First you picked each member, and tried to reach the marked hiding spots, while avoiding the reflectors of terrorist snipers. This part is very very cool, you realy could do stunts with the limited resources.
Second you could adjust the starting position of your team on an upside-downminimap. This marked where your snipers start.
Thenyou used your snipers to pick down terrorists through the windows of the three sides of the embassy.
Then you lowered one of your strike team to infiltrate the building. If you entered a room with an evil person, you died. If you lost all three soldier, you lost.
Then came the indoor clearing of rooms,which was a bit clunky, and dangerous, so you better picked as many from outsiude by the snipers as you could.


And that's it.

[twillight]

For this the engine got perfected.


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It still had some unfortunate flaws, like some hirelings regularly forgot the action you signed them for, literaly saying "I forgot. I forgot again.", most probably encountering this at the beginning, whereyoudon't have the money for the crew youwant, so you work with everybody. The militia-guy who throws knives is effected. This leads to that you barely if ever use knives, because most units specialize in guns, or training militia to defend sectors of towns.


I say switch on the sci-fi elements (alien bugs come at a point, which provide a gloo to advance your armor beyond maximum), and the "many many guns" option is fun too.


But man, this game takes FOREVER to finish.


There was an "expansion" (Unfinished Business), which more was a sequel, which threw out most of the gameplay elements, and its start was hardcore hard (on normal setting!) even if you brought in your old crew. Imagine your chances with a fresh one.

[twillight]

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An experimental Lucastarts game. Perfectly fine to a point, as your options are limited, and although a lot of times you need Fairy Tale Logic, the puzzles are all solvable.
What kills the game is the ending, where you face a limited try, limited time series of events, where the save&load system's problems become very very obvious. This still isn't much of a problem, as it is a Simon Says game, but on the highest difficulty you get no visual clues, so that's game over for anyone not being able to properly play a real instument (and no, not drum, dummy).

[twillight]

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It is an action-puzzle solving game. Some controls are clunky, and probably they made similar fresher games, but I don't know those.
the characters are recognisable, though the story pretty much equals with a facebook-game.
Unfortunately my copy halfway missed an item, and I thought just i'm missing something, so never finished it. Still fond of the memories.
I was not impressed with the 1st installment though, because how it differs from this. That doesn't mean it'd be bad for you too.
The worst part the developers never had The Vision, so it never grew to a franchise.

[twillight]

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You get a drill, a minor backstory and at times new story-elements, but otherwise you dig to reach deeper, to the core of the planet.
And it is fun!


NOTE: it IS possible to beat the final possible level. The possible nuber of items on you is actualy infinite, you cankeep score on 'em manualy. If you mine enough, and buy enough amount of stuff, the fact that the later levels exponentialy rise the prices thus by time makes you unable to buy more items can be circumnavigated.
This is a challenge!

[twillight]

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The game is based on the most famous (but not best!) William Gibbson novel, and for the hardcore ones, it follows that pretty close. Fortunately you don't have to do that, as one part is very annoying (on the space station you constantly loose life outside the matrix, and your in/out of matrix HP are the same, so it is a pretty big problem). fortunately the game comes with an official, ingame-feature inside hack, which allows you to bypass matrix-zone bonduaries.
You absolutely CAN finish this game w/o a walkthrough, which of course can make things more convenient (the biggest help is the clue on which skill effects which AI).
It can make your scratch your head at times, but that's the fun, as it does not rely on moon-logic, or has limited interactions so you won't feel forever lost. Especialy if you don't bother much with the space station mentioned above. You still must visit it for some program upgrades, but no need to enter the lifesucking area.
This is as close to old fashioned games I'd allow myself considering the general experience (graphic, gameplay, design).
There isn't much to replay for though.

[twillight]

This is a french game.


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French games are not as polished as USA-games, but are pretty decent adventure games, with solvable puzzles, and at least two endings.
Ok, "solvable" means something different for Necronomicon. A third french game was the Blair Witch trilogy if I'm not mistaken.


This/These games have a noticably different idea when it comes to the story, or gaming, so if you give it a try it broadens your horizon. It's nothing weird or incomprehensible, but like sushi compared to sausage: the taste and culinari is noticably different.


The Time Machine has a solid balance between resources. Aside the usual one-time puzzle-items there are your skill-related stuff, namely: sandballs (heals HP), herbs (heals partial HP), black salt (heals MP), hourglasses (unlocks more maximum MP), spells. Some of the items can be traded for others on the list, sosometimes you must decide to get a new spell, or have more maximum mana, or be able to heal more. This is fine for the whole game, but where it can realy count, is the ending. There's the regular ending, and the S-rank ending u know. AndI do mean "S" rank,as it's hard to achieve.

[twillight]

I slowly reach Act 4 with myx barbarian. Up till now played under p8, which is highly advisable to lower to p1 in the latest 2 acts. Act4 "only" has the "gloam bug" where gloams can deal insane damage due to bad coding (which is multiplied in higher player number), and Act 5 has its own problems of guest monsters, gloams, nihlatak's snakes, magic immun frenzy taurs (other monesters for other characters of course).
And the exp just stopps coming. Got a single clvl in Act 3, and even that went beyond my highest single which was clvl 87 after beating Bhaal, and cow king, under the same conditions as this character. So definitely there are more monsters under the latest patch.

[twillight]

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I feel this is one of the better android games. It's a lot actualy like those old quarz games to be honest...
You start from the left, and your goal is to destroy the cave on the right, while overcoming incoming obstacles (monsters). You have various upgradable attributes, and every couple of levels are a kind of minigame of certain variety to psice things up.
There's also a second protagonist (in the full version), Darkdog, which plays a more active role, while the basic Paladog mainly lives from summoned woodland creatures.
It has some basic, facebook-game level backstory, but enough to make the game satisfying.
There's also a minor difference between the full/android release, and the PC release in terms of cutsceens.


It even had a very high quality promo-film, but the 2nd game only went to the asian market.


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Overall it is a pretty solid experience.

[twillight]

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Ye, they did at least one good live action videogame. Well, action is overrated, it was an adventure-game. And finaly not a "sit on sofa simulator" like Phantasmagoria 1, which had nothing to do with this one (aside being at the same company).
The game hasa good balance between mundane everyday tasks, and character's-life-infesting weirdness. And a milde, bit kinky nudity.
The puzzles are just hard enough to make yu experiment with the environment, resulting in finding bitty crazy elements which releave you from frustration. So it never gets boring.
And if you do get bored, the game has minigames hidden as eastereggs on the office-computers.


I totaly love you go from your appartment to the office, to a restaurant, to a BDSM-club, flirting with an openly gay character - and all that is just you mundane life, nothing special. The special starts when you find the door of John Malkovich, and the super-hightech secret project of your company doing in secret.

[twillight]

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Yes, this game was infamous. And as usualy the infamous games, pretty crappy in actuality.
The game, especialy the start,and pretty much anywhere on higher difficulties is insanely hard, to the point it becomes boring "shoot 'em offscreen" crap.
Still, if you never met with these kind of "highly offensive" games, goand try it. See what the fuss is about. It is all the leftist-rightist shouting factory, and if they just could take the hint of not giving a crap to what'd otherwise sink under its own weight, the world would be a better place.

[twillight]

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It is still a very good basic platformer, with optional parts, and puzzle elements. 'Nuff said!

[twillight]

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Just to get the feeling of oldschool adventure-games with crpg elements/puzzles/whatever.
It wortha shot. Unfortunately the later installments are time-restricted, which pretty much killed this game for me, especialy how clunky the controls are in QfG2. And a bad design-choice too for a "discover this world for your pleasure" setup game.
But the 1st one still delivers the experience.

[twillight]

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I don't necessarily avoid FPSs, though they do cause me comuter sickness most of the times.
This only hada mild effect on me, but more importantly, it has a pretty good story, and the ability-set is verrry nice.
You don't just go around with your arsenal from Doom, but you also gain supernatural abilities too, some useful in, some out of fighting. Some of these are: possessing an enemy (good for reconing too, as your spirit leaves your body, the transition is not instant), activating a temporal invincibility, or jumping/flying. You can also send locusts to eat the soldiers' face which spares you ammo and so on. Mana regenerates, ammo must be found.


What also makes this unique is how hard encounters can be. It's practicaly hopeless to try a hardcore run, aka. trying to never die. No. Here you'll reload until you manage to pass certain points. Which are many times certain spots guarded by heavy opposition, but sometimes simply your resources will run very thin.


There are a nice variety of areas too. In the beginning you as-peacfully-as-possible has to roam the streets finding some conact, then get into the sewers, then into the rebels' base (which is in a skyscraper hotel), then some high-tech lab, then a spaceport with very open areas, then inside a spaceship... Not to mention at times an underground-trainstation tunnel-web, or Hell itsels.


I say it is a hidden gem for FPS-fans.

[twillight]

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It's a flashgame. Quit big actualy, but neither level is long.
the basic is, you get a team, and try to kill all enemy, capture the flag, or grab the mcguffin and carry it home while preventing the enemy doing the same.
The level designs are mostly good, and there are 4 character type (2 mostly useless, 2 very good) to level up, and improve the inventory.
It has quite a good amount and designed badges from easy to hardcore difficulty to grab them.
There is one or two levels with insane reliance of random AND hardcore skill, but at least nothing is impossible.
Though the teammates are usualy a nuisance, and you'd be better off without them.


So it'd been better a bit more chiselled, but still a recommendable experience by a long shot.


I start to run out of the abc though.

[twillight]

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It is an android game. Because those exist too.
And it's entirely free.
Sure, there is the possibility of micro-transaction, but you never have to. It takes a while to upgrade yourself to be able to beat all the levels, especialy on the harder difficulty, but sure, it is possible, and isn't a chore. Also it is a convenience issue if you want to play whenever you want, and not wait until the energy bars fill up.

In addition it has several minigame-playmodes to spice things up and offer you stuff to do if you are full. My favourite is, where it rains weapons. You can't use your regular storage those times, but you finaly can reliably use such things as the A-bomb, which clears the screen, but you can only pack 1. On the "it rains guns" levels you can get 3-5 of those, what is hilarious.
It is a very well designed game, 5/5.

[twillight]

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This game is not epic.
Not even good, only mediocre.
But it is a solid flashgame, can be played casual, has an ok grinding-progression, and a pretty solid introduction to the "push the line" genre.
You coulddo much worse.


And I'm almost out of suggestions. 2 more entries, and that's it.

[twillight]

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It is "Diablo with guns". Actualy, there are a crapton of puzzle elements to make a clear distinction.
You are some freelance dude, crashlanding on a planet with precious minerals to smuggle, while there's a robot infestation ... probably from ancient times ... But that ship-AI is darn sexy.


It is a solid game, you probably did not played yet. If you find it, it can be a good bargain, and can last for a good chunk of hours.


Note though, that the final battle is .. problematic, because it involves a megaton of spawning enemies. I'm not evensure you can beat it on the highest difficulty. Until that, or on normal/easy diff it is absolutely ok, but on hard... Still, the AI is still sexy. You can feel like the Nostromo's crew in Alien fel to Mother, only this one is more like Space Hunter's android than a mother-figure.

[twillight]

Face it. There's no continuity between the games. The only constant is the mechnaics. What is totaly the same as ANY jRPG. So any game made by the RPG-Maker, is a jrpg, therefor is a Final Fantasy.
Because nothing says otherwise aside the stample, and I could care less for a company logo.

[twillight]

Face it, there you gather unrecognisable blobs by walking every hex of the map, doing countless random encounters, and they say there's a story too.
But what if I say you can play such game from the abandonedware library, with way better graphic, immensly recognisable stuffs, and with a clear start-to-finish setup?


So let's play Cobra Mission! See? there's even a pun in the title!


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Sure, there's the problem of hardware-made noises, so it's laud bleeps,which can't be silenced by a headphone, but hey, pokemon still costs top$$$, while this one is FREE for the moment, and even if like GoG would collect it, would still be mega cheaper.
Otherwise, it's practicaly the exact same experience. Aside that your characters don't implant CDs to their head.

[twillight]

Managed to find the emulated ROM ofr PC, so I make a check on this dying franchise.
Yes, I seriously think it is dying.
Well, I hope the anime is getting to an end, as people started to takenote how similar the pokegames are, and through that call the whole of Nintendo lazy - you can guess where that can lead to.
The company might be large, but face it, they failed to come up with a new masquot after Super Mario, and Pikachu for like 20 years, or more.With some good kick from XBox, and whatever other console-companies out there, they realy can make Nintendo disappear from the leading market.


So. The game runs. That's a plus. I have no idea what I'm doing, only know the buttons to smash. Not all seems to have a function though. Who cares.
I have no walkthrough, or whatever either, I'll just go in blind. I hope.
I didn't live in a cave though, so chose squirtle as starter. And beaten Assfart's bulbasaur! Oh yeah, I did it.
Managed to download a potion at home, and met another character who gave me yet another. no idea what it does, but I have it, so duh.
and that's where I am now. The "quartz game graphic" is ridiculous, and turns out Peta's minigame totaly used the same mechanics, so all the better for me.
I hope the game'll have some kinda tutorial though... I have no idea about moves, and effectiveness. Also no idea how and when pokemons get healed, which seems like important, as I ended up with my battle with 1 HP (4 after leveling up), and there is no pokemon centar (hospital) to heal my mon...
Ye, it was totaly fun: you pick your biological weapon, the other kid gets the one supposedly stronger, likely KO your pocket-godzilla, and there's no place to heal the bugger. Ye, I feel totaly safe in that Tall Grass now.


------------


Meh, it turned into a bad grinding-game.
To start with, for a good portion you don't have access to pokeballs.
Money is also scares, so don't even think about investing into supplies, just let your mons faint if the get some condition (at this point: poison), and go back to the pokecenter.
The main problem though is the scarcity of things to do. It really ISa quartz-game, but instead of pushing some button to "do fight" you have to mindelessly run up-and-down on a tiny patch of grass. Because in every direction you bump into hugh level-obstacles, and there's nothing to do but random-encounter-hunting.
The grinding is even worse that not your entire team gain exp, but you have to painfully bring out all mons each and every time one by one. That's some serious bullshit.
You're also cut from anything mildly interesting/useful by the first Gym, because if you try to pass by, the game grabs you by the ear, and throws you at it.


At its time it at least was better than the ocmpetition I assume, and was way more playable then like Zelda, but today...


-------------


Wuh, leveld up a bit mindlessly, and figured out all pokemon used share the exp from the fight, IF they don't "faint". This happens after every time you beat an opposing pokemon, NOT at the end of each battle with a trainer, like.
Brock, the first gym-leader only had 2 pokemon. I had 6. Didn't even needed to use my squirtle.
Currently going through some caves. Disappointed that Team Rocket didn't attack me until now. I expected Jessie and James. Either way, I like the cave, as I constantly get attacked. I duncare if those are just zubats, at least something is happening.

Also, seems if you overlevel your pokemons you can get screwed, as it seems you might not be able to catch new ones, as those are weak as a fig tree before Jesus.

Finding items is easy, as all look like pokeballs on the ground. They are not hidden like for Cobra Mission, which is somewhat a bummer.


My team currently is: squirtle, because it is the starter, and very few types are available. And most of them are bad. I catched everything possible until now I think, simply because there's nothing else to do. Ah, and squirtle is immun to sleep.

Second is my nidoman. Male nidoran. Immun to poison, and generaly seem to be able to hit the enemy (unlike weedle).
There's a pidgey too, because it makes the enemy miss with its special attack. That's handy.
I bought the magicarp, and put it in the first place, so I can remove it before the first move, and it gains exp. Ye, sure, the 500$ hurts, not that I'd buy things, though would be good to know how to make real money. It'll evolve into gyarados, and I want that ASAP.
Got a geodude for its high resistance or something, and I'm sure I have a 6th mon too, beats me what. I concentrate on nidoman and magicarp mostly, so duh.

[twillight]

Wasn't only my problem, so hope people can find this.


But first: there are many unnecessary texts in the game, and they come out sooo slowly, you start clicking to fasten the process, justto end up restarting a conversation. That's bad. Just like you have to click azillion times to end a turn. Why doesn't that just roll until your choice of action happens?


Then there's the problem of the Cerulean Gym itself. One: I give the developers, the lvl 30 limit seems absolutely fine, as I'm not even close to that, given how much exp is demanded for it. My problem though, why the liimit then at all? And what's my limit without the Cerulean Gym?
Two: I have no idea within the game what TMs are, and the game does not tell me. Neither tells me what are the conditions to "evolve" my pokemons, so turned out I could upp my nidoman with an item -and while I could catch adabra, grow it to kadabra, it was futuile effort, as I can not make it abrakadabra without trading, so there goes my full pokedex I assume.
The source I know the above is, 'case that stupid Artificial Rival I named Assfart traditionaly, keeps jumpscaring me, and it pulled out some psycyc mon, and had good levels, and whatnot, and I forgot to save like a long time, so had to do something about it.


The major problem with the gym is though, that every pokemon you can have there is a piece of crap. the gym only uses 2 mons, and they are incredily strong watermons, especialy the second one. There nothing helps but brute force, and you simply don't have any good move. From this I deduce the best starter is the otherwise weakes grass crap (as those are almost immun to water).
Lacking that I saw my options are:
- get a gyarados ASAP by mindless grinding in some nearby grasspatch (did this with the 500$ magicarp)
- overlevel my squirtle
- catch the only grass mon available, and overlevel that, a radish. It'd take like forever
- give that physical medium punch to my squirtle, but I dunno what moves it get later, so I went against that, still, seems a valid option


The even more annoying part is, after this you get a gazillion human fighting you, providing a hugh chucnk of exp, but they are blocked by this town.


To get out you must fill THREE conditions:
#1: win the gym
#2 get to Bill, and use the teleporter on him

#3 HAVE ENOUGH SPACE IN YOUR BACKPACK to receive an item from Bill. THEN the police-guarded house gets unblocked.


This latest took me a while to figure out, but in the end managed to remember this is an old piece of gaming, so that's why Bill got into inifinite loop with his conversation.


Btw, advice: do NOT buy any specialitems, they are useless, and fill in your backpack. Only buy pokeballs.


PS: after getting out the city, I got my very own 1 Million DollarWorth bycicle. That alone did worth all the effort this game required.


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[twillight]

The game, turns out, tells you what's the NAME of HMs and TMs, if you click on them. Does not tell though what they do. Also don't tell you can't just teach it to whatever you want.

The game also just mentiones there is type effectiveness - what are the types, and their relations does not.

The good thing of HMs is, they are not onetime items, so unless you dispose them, you should be fine.

Another thing to watch out for, is that you have to own 10 pokemon. This includes every pokevolution form ever at your possession. Trading with ingame characters can help.

You need (optional) 30 pokemon at the end of Viridian City, where the big ship is/was. I'm not sure how useful if at all that thingy you get is, especialy with manual activation, and only like 2 hex radius. Maybe 1.
You also can get a boost later on if you horde 50 "pokemons". Assuming this scenario: you get a pokemon, pokevolve it, pokevolve it again, then trade it to another pokemon. This nets you 4 pokemon where you only had 1 at any time on you. So it's not impossible. Given that many thingy only needs a lvl20 or below, it worth collecting everything untilyou gain that fifty, and dump exp on them to grow.

I'm still waiting though a reliable source of pokevolution stones. Not that I'm in a hurry, or a need at all, but on principle.

But all the elements make me form my group naturaly, and that's a good thing.
I have since long time a rattata which is a source of power, although normal attack only I think. There's my gyarados, which could use some levels for elemental attacks, but still strong. Squirtle I regret is not bulbasaur, but works - either way it'd demand lvl 36 for its second pokevo, what is a ton. Not as bad as gloom, which would not just demand a pokestone, but lvl 56 for the best moves if Bulbapedia is correct. That's what cuts for me. To use Flash had to insert Drozee, a psychic mon which I hate, but whatever, seems can work. Would change it to Abrakadabra if a source is available. And there's my trusted nidoman, which resist poison and electric attacks, and is still strong. We'll see how it turns out later.


Here is how to win on the slotmachines: I found you can win "big", exactly 0-2 times (might be random), each win-streak gains netto ca. 500 coins on each slot machines. I only pushed the action button, sospent 3 dime every time.
To find the right machine play a machine 3 times in a row, and if you have at least 1 win, play 1-3 more times. If you get a seond win, play further. You'll notice if this is a "hot" machine,as ypou'll keep winning over and over.
Basicaly 3 loss in a streak means it is NOT a "hot" machine, or the "hot" machine cooled down.
I'm not sure what resets the machines though. Might be walking out of the door and returning. Save&reload seems to not effect the room, or I just turned unlucky those times. It is also entirely feasible that the machines reset by a timer, or by rolls, or something like that. Sometimes they DO switch to "hot"-mode, that's for sure.

[Mystvan]

Face it, there you gather unrecognisable blobs by walking every hex of the map, doing countless random encounters, and they say there's a story too.
But what if I say you can play such game from the abandonedware library, with way better graphic, immensly recognisable stuffs, and with a clear start-to-finish setup?


So let's play Cobra Mission! See? there's even a pun in the title!


OKjAdUGmRzw


Sure, there's the problem of hardware-made noises, so it's laud bleeps,which can't be silenced by a headphone, but hey, pokemon still costs top$$$, while this one is FREE for the moment, and even if like GoG would collect it, would still be mega cheaper.
Otherwise, it's practicaly the exact same experience. Aside that your characters don't implant CDs to their head.

Wow! Cobra Mission and Knights of Xentar... :mhh: Good bye, Megatech... :byesad:

:umm: By the way, it is Pokemon or Poke-man :poke2: (Bonk! Bonk!)!? :mhh:



Face it. There's no continuity between the games. The only constant is the mechnaics. What is totaly the same as ANY jRPG. So any game made by the RPG-Maker, is a jrpg, therefor is a Final Fantasy.
Because nothing says otherwise aside the stample, and I could care less for a company logo.





Face it, there you gather unrecognisable blobs by walking every hex of the map, doing countless random encounters, and they say there's a story too.
But what if I say you can play such game from the abandonedware library, with way better graphic, immensly recognisable stuffs, and with a clear start-to-finish setup?


So let's play Cobra Mission! See? there's even a pun in the title!


OKjAdUGmRzw


Sure, there's the problem of hardware-made noises, so it's laud bleeps,which can't be silenced by a headphone, but hey, pokemon still costs top$$$, while this one is FREE for the moment, and even if like GoG would collect it, would still be mega cheaper.
Otherwise, it's practicaly the exact same experience. Aside that your characters don't implant CDs to their head.



Well, I believe that the only thing in common in these FF games would be the existence of the Chocobos besides the “turn based battles” mentioned by you...

I stated in one of the posts that FFVIII contained many very childish jokes involving the little girl named Ellone, Laguna and that eccentric scientist! :headslap: :palm:

Well, I think Grand Emperor Japodeis :king: (not Capo :poke: nor Paco :paco:!) deleted my post, but since I was very busy with Dropbox, I forgot to mention that just like Cobra Mission, Brave Soul also uses Chibi or Super Deformed (SD) characters. Only in Computer Graphics (CG) it would show the characters with “normal appearance”.

To be quite frank, I’ve never been much of a fan of the Pokemon or Digimon series , except for the Dark Masters (Machinedramon / Mugendramon and MetalSeadramon) who were really cool and powerful! :max:

[twillight]

To be quite frank, I’ve never been much of a fan of the Pokemon or Digimon series , except for the Dark Masters (Machinedramon / Mugendramon and MetalSeadramon) who were really cool and powerful! :max:

We agree on this.
From Digimon I only liked X-Wars.
From Pokemon maybe the Diamon&Pearl (to the swines) was a good period. don't ask how I know this later one, but I assure you, I'm not watching it every week-or-what 20+years straight. If anything, I'm an antifan of Pokemon to be honest.

I thought the pokegames are inaccessible to PC, and horrible nonetheless. Well, it's not perfect, but once I'll pass it. Not collecting all critters, just beat every NPC. And I'll do it (almost) without outsource help. Unless I getstuck, because then I declare it shit, and thus my point proven.

----------------

EDIT: The "only catching makicarp" problem is cause by using the Old Rod. Use the Super Rod to catch anything else (for some reason got that before Good Rod, which is obviously inferior).

Some problems:
- the storage space for items are friggin limited. But access to items is limited too. Infinite money would help, but that doesn't exist.
- a megaton of pokemon are still not available to catch. Dunno who deisgned this.
- I thought thing go fine and balanbced, then went to the "poison" gym. Which has psychic mons. That's the most anoying type, as there's no protection against them, so their hits hurt. Ghost pokemons are not an option,as their attack animation is long, and even seisure-inducing.
- facing absolutely unexpectedly a +10 lvl such mon doesn't help either.

- I checked out this dragonair, because it sucked. It sucks in every form, especialy in its basic shape which has no damaging attack. It has moves only with bad %-to-hit, and very limited amount of PP (number you canuse that attack). I though, based on the anime it's cool. It's not. Problem is, there's nothing to use otherwise.
- everything is problematic to level up at this midgame. Everything is lvl 30, and they stagnate until like lvl 50, which is a looong way, and even the buffed exp from enemy people don't realy help. The lvl 100 is just absolutely unreachable.
- the enemy people don't actualy give THAT much exp if you consider, and you realy have to work for it still. People start to throw at you 4-5 pokemonat once, and that just takes forver, especialy them all being poison type, which is not what you'd want to face, as poison kills you just by walking around. Given there's no infinite money, you're pretty much screwed doing long trips to the pokecenter.
- for like forever I carry around stuff I'd make Jurassic Park pokemons out. Literaly like since after the 3rd town. And only in the last-but-one town the items canbe used. That's ridiculous.

------------

Almost abandoned this. They had the nerve to put a gigantic, multilayer dungeon, in the midle of nowhere, I mean large pool of water what means you get attacked randomly every few steps like in the dungeons, WITH a whole-dungeon-puzzle.
Good luck mapping the place, while you fall down in holes, get away by the automatic, and generaly suck ass, while literaly every friggin step you get attacked by a random encounter.
But found a map (NOT on Bulbapedia, that sucks ass if you try to find the direction which way to go), deciphered it. And duh, done.
Also have the problem of friggin many items. I'll just trash 'em, you just see.

the worst thing that bother me in this: the lack of things to do. There are no sidequests, subquests, miniquest. You just go agead and grind yourself through all this shit.
And they have the nerve to release the same game FIVE TIMES: first two "alternate version", which barely differ if at all, and a "full version" like a year later. THEN another year later they make the expanded versions. And they dare to call this "pokemon multiverse". My ass.
And the later releases differ in... what exactly? You get a horde of new skins, some additional features - but there's still no story, just this "gotta catch'em all" attitude. How is this ever a thing?


EDIT: on Cinabar Island's Mansion had to use an Escape Rope. That's a teleportation device which brings you to the nearest town. I went through a doorway, which might have been a glitch, ended up in a locked room with no switch (all doors inside work by switches). If I hadn't found one inside, I'd've just lost 2-3 hours "progress".
Btw, there are "walkthroughs" around for the game, with such ridiculous statements like at this point your mons should be lvl 50+. Fuck that. I have no problem with my lvl 32-42 team. Average they're maybe lvl 35. Or I'm that fokin pro, lol. The most ridiculous thing is still, there are no maps of the area, only semi-scematics. Nothing like I'm used to.

[twillight]

Ye. Seems I missed a WHOLE CITY because of Vague Nintendo Clues, and Background Item Turned Functional. Friggin geniouses.


Also got doubly sure, the "fandom" of pokemon are lazy as fuck. Just like Nintendo. As the games are clones of each other, seems none of the players bother to mention the differences between the versions, so it took me literaly half an hour to figure out in the original red version you Granny Tea DOES NOT EXIST, instead you have to climb the same town's (town west of Saffron City) multifloor store, so on the top you can get drink instead to give it to the guard.
The same place you get the drink also has some NPC who for another drink gives you Ice Beam, which I heared is useful.

the neglect shows again with the Silph Co building. It'snot a hard thing, as you easily canget to the main stairs. Still, not listing all the teleporters, whil listing everything else,shows a very deformed mentality.

For this I made my "HM slave", because no mon of me could learn Fly. Gave it to pidgey. That looks a good 3 stage pokemon, but does nothing special, so that's why I don't have it premanent

I also missed the Power Plant, will have to backtrack for it.
UPDATE: did it. The place isn't the problem, althugh I suggest if you find an orb-mon, just run away to not face self-destruct. The real nuisance is the lenegdarymon, which said (unlike for articuno): "you missed with the pokeball". Da fok.
Seems it has ultra low chance to work on zapdos, so fok you. Well, there's a way to improve your chances: make the bugger sleep. Hope you grown a mon high enough to be able, and has enough lvl to make it to an attack...
This is realy just Frustrating Game Design.


----------


So, did all the things outside Victory Road/The Indigo League.
Instead of frtiggin presenting the event, the games throws youa dungeon-puzzle. Fok this crap.
Btw, Assfart's mons grew close to lvl 50. Most of the suxxor, but for me the gyarados, and above else the alakazam presented a problem. Against gyarados I could send in my gloom, made it sleep, then club it to death, but Alakazam is bad. There's no resistance against it is one thing. My psy-mon is underdeveloped, that's another. But this "Ican regenerate full health" thing is bullshit, and they even thrown ointo it that enemy trainers for a while started to use items. Yes, even friggin Heall All Damage potions too. So at this point the game loose all meaning. Just load on those potions yourself.


PS: If you ever need More Money, get yourself a Meowth, make it learn Payday, and punch in random battles.


PPS: Worry that your Meowth is low level? Stash it in the Daycare. Why there is only 1 Daycare in the entire friggin game, beats me. Once it is in there just bike around fora couple of minutes, and you'll have your mon lvl 100 in no time. Who needs battling, eh? This makes the whole GAME pointless.



PPPS: never, ever make your team learn ANY Hm-move. Why? Because you can't rmeove them.

[Mystvan]

In my humble opinion, the entire Pokémon Universe, in its most varied modalities (comics, cartoon, games, etc.), has no sense of existence... :wacko: :tease:

Unfortunately, Pokémon, Digimon, Dragon Ball, and Saint Seiya (see ya in Hell, Seiya!!! :mischief:) were transmitted to exhaustion on Brazilian Television... :sick: :hypno2:

There was an acquaintance of mine in another Forums, PeaPri BBS, who, noticing that I was an authentic Mysterious Poke-man :poke2: Bonk! Bonk!, created a GIF as a “tribute” to me, :blush: with the “infamous” pun to show Misty wearing a bra... :sneakrete: :hungry: :drool:

[Mystvan]

In my humble opinion, the entire Pokémon Universe, in its most varied modalities (comics, cartoon, games, etc.), has no sense of existence... :wacko: :tease:

Unfortunately, Pokémon, Digimon, Dragon Ball, and Saint Seiya (see ya in Hell, Seiya!!! :mischief:) were transmitted to exhaustion on Brazilian Television... :sick: :hypno2:

There was an acquaintance of mine in another Forums, PeaPri BBS, who, noticing that I was an authentic Mysterious Poke-man :poke2: Bonk! Bonk!, created a GIF as a “tribute” to me, :blush: with the “infamous” pun to show Misty wearing a bra... :sneakrete: :hungry: :drool:

I made an unbelievable mistake. :palm:

Since there is a Silver Saint, a man named Misty, I thought the villain was also called Misty. :headslap:

But in the Pokemon World, Misty is TrAsh’s redheaded female friend. In fact, my acquaintance made a “little” pun with my username, but also using the image of James wearing a bra. I do not know why he (James) used such underwear, but never mind.

[twillight]

I made an unbelievable mistake. :palm:

Since there is a Silver Saint, a man named Misty, I thought the villain was also called Misty. :headslap:

But in the Pokemon World, Misty is TrAsh’s redheaded female friend. In fact, my acquaintance made a “little” pun with my username, but also using the image of James wearing a bra. I do not know why he (James) used such underwear, but never mind.


First of: Misty if NOT Ash's friend. She onlyfollowed the guy around because he trashed her bike.


Second: in the Team Rocket Trio it is Jessie who wears the pants, and Meowth is the brain. Thus there's nothing strange about James' crossdressing.
To be honest, pokemon is NOT for kids. That show has sexual assault, attemted murder, sexualising 10 years olds, destroying private property, self-righteousness - and that's only by the "good" side.


---------------


Friggin last dungeon was annoying. Not enough that it is in the middle of nowhere, already annoying to get to, but literaly every 2 hex you get attacked by a random monster, which is only lvl 26, so fok you, you won't gain much exp of it.
The puzzles are also inconvenient, not to mention its pieces reset when you leave the current level (similar to the use of cut), making it extremly annoying.
And it is long, so prepare to walk in-and-out of it a couple of times.
Not to mention here is a legendarymon, which says "you missed it with the pokeball", which is already sheer annoyance, but it is also immun to sleep, so your best bet is to paralise it, as it also seems not catching poison.


My time until now: 37:24, which is kinda good for me considering all the deadtime I left it AFK.
lvls:
- lvl 51 dragonair
- lvl 40 gloom
- lvl 43 nidoman
- lvl 41 gyarados
- lvl 39 hypno
- lvl 44 blastois.
It feels cheating, but nothing seems to prevent me using the legendarymons against the Elite Four.


-------------


Forget my team,here is whatsequence you have to follow EXACTLY for the "final battle". As you are not allowed to move out aftereach enemy,and you cannot run during fights.
You'll need the following, unless you mindlessly leveled up who-knows-what:
- moltres
- zapdos (lvl 51, eat it a rare candy)

- articuno (lvl 51, eat it a rare candy)

- gyarados with hydro pump

- 2 other pokemon


1.:
- zapdos casts 3*1 thunder
- moltres casts fire spin until jynx dies. It is a multihit attack,and has a chance of failure, and critical hit plays an important place here, so you'll need revives and similar because moltres candie. If you have something better (with strong one hit fire attack), use that instead. It takes at least 2 casting from moltres,depending onwhat happens can be more.
- cast thundershick against lapras, and revive if you get critical hitted. Use thunder to finish the fight. This sequence prevents the trainer to heal lapras witha potion,so you spare on your thunder.


2.
- heal zapdos before entering the fights. Put gyarados to first place. Kill the onyxes with hydro pump. After this trainer feed it a max ether if you ran out of uses before you use this mon again.

- kil theother three by zapdos' drill peck


3.
- this one is kinda trouble. Only has one pokemon-weakness: golbat can be wiped by zapdos' one thunder. As the enemy is faster, and confuse your mon, let's hope that's enough, otherwise youmight need another ether here to replenish its PPs.
- for the others use whatever you have, but try not to use zapdos, or gyarados, or articuno. That leaves you with 3 against 5.
HINT: she uses an arbok, which is good target of physical attacks. It alsocanpoisonyou mon/s, so bring a status healing potion.


4.
- put zapdos to the first place
- against 2-5 use articuno. 4*1 ice beam will do.


5.

- put zapdos first place, as he starts with pidgeot
- nextis alakazam. Kill it ASAP, but try to preserve zapdos and gyarados from its grip. The AI is stupid fortunately. Try disabling moves too if you can.
- here comes a ryhorn. Kill it with water. My lvl 52 draginair shot first,and 1HKOd it with surf.
- as I started with squirtle nextwas gyarados. zapdos uses 1 thunder again.
- next was arcanine. Any water mon is good against it, so I could use either gyarados, or dragonair
- last was venosaur. I still had my moltres, so this was ridiculously easy.


Btw, if you have infinite time, or use a bug, or something, you might just give ANY of your mons infinite powerups. Another design flaw in the game.


Oh, and thatyou can go and catch Mewtwo? Ye, sure. You go there and throw the Master Ball to it. What a letdown.

[Mystvan]

First of: Misty if NOT Ash's friend. She onlyfollowed the guy around because he trashed her bike.


Second: in the Team Rocket Trio it is Jessie who wears the pants, and Meowth is the brain. Thus there's nothing strange about James' crossdressing.
To be honest, pokemon is NOT for kids. That show has sexual assault, attemted murder, sexualising 10 years olds, destroying private property, self-righteousness - and that's only by the "good" side.



You said everything!

Those characteristics mentioned by you would be some of the reasons I left to watch cartoons and read Japanese comics. Unfortunately, Shounen atill shows those features and more (cliches, rage of MC generating Super Power, etc.)... :headslap: :palm:

We know well that the old American cartoons are not so innocent either, but they have not come to that.

In addition to American (old) and Korean comics (Webtoons) have characters who behave more spontaneously and naturally, without such mannerisms as tsundere and the like. And unfortunately the same features of the Japanese comics could also be said to the Japanese cartoons. :sick:

[Mystvan]

You said everything!

Those characteristics mentioned by you would be some of the reasons I left to watch cartoons and read Japanese comics. Unfortunately, Shounen atill shows those features and more (cliches, rage of MC generating Super Power, etc.)... :headslap: :palm:

We know well that the old American cartoons are not so innocent either, but they have not come to that.

In addition to American (old) and Korean comics (Webtoons) have characters who behave more spontaneously and naturally, without such mannerisms as tsundere and the like. And unfortunately the same features of the Japanese comics could also be said to the Japanese cartoons. :sick:



Whops. I am forgetting to mention certain details. Maybe it is the rush or the fact that I am getting older... :old:

I forgot to mention that the adaptations from Japanese comics to cartoons do not have the same quality. And maybe the genres Seinen, Josei and Slice of Life still maintain the quality that we expected of them.

It would be basically the Shounen Action :sucks: (the Shounen Mystery depending on the title could be interesting) and Shoujo Romance :palm: that maintains a low quality standard of story, plot, consistency, reasonableness, etc., below the expected minimum quality.

It is just my humble opinion...

[twillight]

Naruto and Bleach were definitely the same worse in manga than in anime format.


And n, I wasn't bothered by Naruto's anime-fillers. Theywere mostly good. Mostly even better than the actual story. But the consistency of the story simply fell appart, and I was bothered that none ever realy died. With the Pain-Saga the series mostly died. Gotan acceptable ending, but...

[twillight]

My bow enchantress ISa bow enchantress, meaning primaly uses bow, not Frozen Orb for instance.


The aim is Demon Machine. This is a twinked themed build, meaning you need to import items to the character, but half of the fun is building up the character yourself.

Fortunately the russians have full catalogue of uniques, that's why I even started.


So, let's see my progress:
- spend the first SP ti Firebolt and get rid of the staff for a better weapon. You won't have the mana to keep up the firebolt, so high level higher cost is even worse. Use throwing knives when you find them. They are not a long term weapon, but better than your firebolt.
- keep pumping your Warmth. This'll give you some mana to sustain your pathetic slvl 1 firebolt, and is your prime synergy (aside Fire Mastery). While firebolt will be pretty useless soon, it'll relieve you using ammo, so use it when you can. Switch to Fireball when lvl 12. It'll consume ton of mana, but will finish mobs fast.
- don't forget to add 1-1 points to pre-skills, and One Point Wonders, which are: teleport (key skill), Static (it is good to have).
- your main skill will be Enchant, and you'll rely on Hydra for additional support. Hydra is not just good damage, but also semi-passive, and can check behind doors for enemies, which is kinda important with your pathetic HP.
- about stats: first add yourself 5 STR, so you can wear all starter armour. Then pump 25, then 35 your VIT asap to survive what comes. You'll need a blast many HP obviously, but you'll need a blast many STR too much later. Dexterity will likely be enough as items require. You'll use Buriza against fire immuns.
- around lvl 8, which happens n Cold Plains, throwing daggers will start lacking. You'll need to switch javelins whenever you can. Also keep an eye out for any decent bow.
- at clvl 15 you'll want Ravenclaw immediately. This pretty much takes away the need of DEX with its blastings, and in theory you're good for Normal diff.
- you'll want a cold rogue as merc first, then an Act 2 merc.

[Mystvan]

Yes, I remember the Diablo series... I was pretty addicted years ago...



I regret that the three heroes of Diablo I have had a tragic and very inglorious ending in the sequel Diablo II! And the people from Town of Tristan too!

The archer, my favorite of the Diablo I, was corrupted by Andariel and had to be exterminated. The magician, was considered a lunatic and megalomaniac, and also had to be destroyed! Already the third hero, the true and canonical of Diablo I, was possessed by the youngest of the 3 Prime Evils... Too bad I could not wish them to rest in peace...

As for Diablo III, I believe that the franchise had a somewhat exhausted and old storyline in my opinion... There would always be a way to perpetuate the existence of the youngest of the 3 Prime Evils in the world of humans or nephilims... Regrettably, this reminds me a lot of the Shounen style... :headslap: :palm: of course with some displeasure... :smugulon: :roll:

Prepare yourself, for there will be Diablo n, n → +∞... :yawn: :sleep:

[twillight]

I once liked Diablo 2 with LoD. After a while someone challenged me to a D1 run, and I easily passed. He couldn't believe. But that game is friggin slow, nothing to fear there.
Then I went multiplayed D2, and learnt to hate it for everyone killing me, everything being overpriced, and getting to the end w/o effort.
I also saw the "classic" version (how the game was like pre-expansion),and it was uttercrap.
I also realised D2 is utter mess of bugs.
And then came the Orange Runes patch. Thatwas revolting, and no new patch arrived, despite promised.
Instead they came out with D3, which proved me the Tyrael was behind everything, and wants to kill everyone. Also, people hated it, being a buggy mess, and the real money equipments.
Now they also released Mobile Diablo, also no plan for any continuation of the franchise.
In the meantime took a look at Bliizard's other products and related policies, and now I HATE Blizzard, and don't want nothing from them. And I'm darnwell will use that russiansite with all the unique items for single player!

------------

Enough of the rant. Because the game Harvester is a bloody good adventure game. It's weird as heck also. I'm not even sure if the storyboard makes any sense, but somehow it satisfied me.

At the start you wake up, with total amnesia. You tell this to everyone, and they all answer with "Good joke, you always were a prankster!"
For like very first you meet ... with mom? Who has ina crab your baby sister. So they say. Who eats a spider. Which'll have consequences later...
Then you meat the paperboy. Sry, that was an injoke. Not the paperboy part. The paperboy brings away the newspaper. Every day. And you better deliver, and not piss him of. Maybe good to point out, you can attack anyone anytime in this game. If you attack Paperboy, he pulls out a gun and shoots you. Repeatedly. Until you are dead.
You also better save regularly. Like when you casualy speak with the local militia, they might jokingly ask, if there's any reason not to shoot you. If you jokingly reply no, he'll shoot you,and accidently start nuclear holocaust.

Otherwise the game is very close to Stephen King's Needful Things. You go around, commit innocent pranks for a hoody guy asking... Then you either harvest, or will be harvested!

Sure, the controls for the fights are clunky, but just manage that. Worth it. Very strange game with very strange humour.

"Well, it wasa natural death. None can live without a spinal cord, and that's fact!" - investigation, Harvester Style.


2498

[Mystvan]

Well, to be honest, as I was heavily using the Save Games Editor, I probably was not so affected by the game bugs... I just had to edit DB1 and DB2 save games... :whistling: :sneakrete:

Regarding DB3, my brother and I played on PS3. The game was not as difficult as it was in DB2, but it had many annoying “innovations” and “surprises” such as the random results of the blacksmith’s weapons, the need to collect magical papers or runes (I do not even remember the usefulness of such items), the very uninteresting (boring!) “side quests”, random changes of maps already explored (Lost in WebSpace :sos:), etc.

Oh, and not to mention that Blizzard was very ruthless even in the very small or subtle changes of the characters so that the user was invited to withdraw permanently (banned) and through the back door... There would be something icy than Blizzard? Not even the blizzard would be so icy and cold that Blizzard itself... Absolute Zero! :cold:

I think there are far better RPG games than the old and tired Diablo franchise. :old: I was even interested in the background stories of the game, but that was not enough to make the Diablo franchise sequels better...

BTW, I bought it, but then I was not even interested in playing the expansion of Diablo 3... Ugh! Waste of money... :yawn:

[twillight]

Let's see what the GOG-version can do. So I started today a gifted/small frame 3/8/5/9/8/9/6 character I intend to level to 99, and do EVERYTHNG possible. Tags: speech, energy weapons, lockpick. I should have had steal instead of energy weapons probably, but I won't redo the whole temple thing for that.

Naturaly killed everything in the Temple of Trials, as well as deactivated all traps. This easily gave me my first levelup.
Stealing the temple key is the best option, as it nets you the same exp as speech, and also the item.
I barely have any weight capacity, but grabbed as much as possible, especialy the shovel. Also tricked Minoc to give a third spear. Somethow asking for the flint has some random factor, but whatever. Reload beats all.
Fixed the well, asked a buff for my unarmed skill (55% now), cleaned the garden - got healed after it -, rescued Nagor's dog, killed all gecko in the area and grabbed the available plants. Oh, also got the stuff from Elder.

I thought it'd be funny to do a throw-only character, with 1 INT to max all other stats, but nah. Still, sounds like a challenge. But could pick up 3 plant spike, and as they weight nothing, they are a keeper.

Got the direction to Klamath, so went there. I always arrive there at the start of the night...

--------------

Klamath
- went with Thor, but helped the Duntons, just to rescue Thor. Helping the Duntons is otherwise not possible! Don't forget tosteal a spiked knuckled form the Duntons.
- gave meat jerkey to dog
- properly refueled the still for 65$ (had random factor. The other pass gives 100 more exp, put you loose 30 karma in comparsion,andI bet negatively effects town reputation too). The random factor might be effected by town reputation/karma (that's why give meat to the dog first). As this is easier to do alone (sneaking through the geckos for quick exp), didn't get Sulik before finishing this.
- stole outdoorsman book from child (trapper town district)
- got key to rat area (drop key from dog to get a second key) and cleaned it (raat gking, fuel regulator)
- not getting the unarmed+melee because unarmed can be learnt aplenty first in San Francisco, and given karma is cheap to gain (or loose to an extent), I'll withold for challenge sake

Toxic Caves:
- rescued Smiley
- started to grow extra toe

Time to go to the Den:
- delt with the loan to Fred. I always give him 150/charge him only 50 to ensure the best result.
- unfortunately Derek only speaks with me during daytime (6-18 hours), and I arrived 10 minute too late, and the book doesn't appear until that. But Icheck, he'll speak.
- none can stand my speech skill, so I got into the church.
- delivered meal to Smiley from Mom.
- asked permission from Metzger, and freed Vic. With my zero STR, all hands are a help.
- read both small guns magazines I found, this made me pass midnight, so went and burried BOTH Anna's.
- found out Becky's still. Suggested she become the new supplier.
- helped Tyler against Lara. This provides better exp, and a special conversation option in Modoc. If you help Lara you get no exp, only 300$ more, and your karma will be too high.
- rolled to daytime and got the book from Derek
- scrapped (another) 1000$ and had free sex. Don't ask.
- as I had a dose of Jet, went back to Arroyo for the melee training. At the monent I'm thinking how I could get to SF ASAP, get the unarmed training from The Dragon, then lower my karma to -250 and get training from Lo Pan (I can only lower it at the moment to +86 by digging all graves - Den, Gologtha, Redding - and making Jo in Modoc to cut his finger off).

Next stop is Modoc, no doubt about that.

NOTE: By a second look, I could have taken 2 from charisma, and put it into endurance, as the only thing that demands 10 CHA is an otherwise nonfunctioning perk (Cult of Personality), which you can even get, AND then get the improved implants. No need to worry about companions, as youcanadd +1 to the pool by the Magnetic Personality perk.
Also in theory you COULD just go, dig graves right leaving Arroyo, get -250 karma, get to San Fran for the evil unarmed traing - but this sounds stupid, you could with the same effort grab the Enhanced Power Armor if you're at that, eh? Btw, this is the same reason I don't like Modoc. That thing is in the way, you're supposed to just stumble into it - but where's the fun in that? You could just do the Navarro trip with the same effort, basicaly. Oh, man.

[twillight]

mission 1, level 1: the main problem is getting used to the controls,as this is one of those games where up and jump use two buttons for any weird reasons. Tip: if you run out of ammo no worry,you have Infinite Ammo Basic Gun too.

level 2: this level is hardcore a bit. First problem is, the screen move old school, aka. when you reach the edge, not dinamic. Second: there are enemies shooting atyou bouncing projectiles, and it inclued some random factor, so they are VERY annoying. Some stuff also blocks your shots, just to make your life harder.
The key is to get to the top of the first tree, as somewhere there is a Temporal Invincibility item.
I also should look up some manual as those landmines are totaly useless, it'd be useful to switch to the grandes.
Tip: behind a tree jumping from the ground is a dose of super ammo. It can help, but as there's only 20, so it's very limited.
Note: there are some enemies jumping around meele,so keep your eyes open.

level 3: there are a crapton of items to collect, so you'll need a couple of goes. The colour code I have no idea where is, but the solution is 35241. I'm not sure about the Jumping Rockets, I feel you should be able to run close then duck to avoid them... But grenades or super ammo can destroy them too. The super ammo is better, as there was a rocket at the end I could not eliminate by grenades. Those green slugs also are not effected by Infinite Ammo, only super ammo and grenades.

level 4: the explosives are very limited, so pay attention if you go for max. score.

level 5: this is an enjoyably heavy level. There's also a secret level thingy above the rotating spiked rod. I found out the colour-coding solution: there'sa tiny box with the colour - only problem they are not distinct enough for me in such small size. Also: the maximum amount of lives is 9, so if you loose a couple, don't worry. Especialy as there's only level-saves.
The secret level had a megaton of extra lives.

6th has some falling platforms leading to some alternate route, but I could not manage that. Pro Tip though: although you die in water,m there are temporary platforms in the water under the skulls. Easier start thatway.

7th: it's a gauntlet, meaning there are respawning enemies and crap. Do NOT try to walk into blown up tanks, they case damage/instant death.

There are 2 bosses. For the skeleton aim for the head and try to dodge the hands. They hit you when they fall, but also just by flying aorund.
The final boss of this mission has a door you can teleport to a platform through and throw grenades, avoid its fire... Still not cakewalk, but very much ok. Thi introduces the next mission.
Unfortunately youcannot carry over levels your equipment,at least not in the GoG-version. Also you can not have more than 4 HP-bar. But the maximum lives seem to overflow, so that balances out. Also, as you can't carry over equipment, justsave and reload every level for a full heal :)

------------

Huah! Mission 2 is definitely harder. It starts with a tree-level what is annoying, although there are fewer platforms at least. When reached the ant level with wooden houses I got lost a lot, and for a looong time the start of the level is Infinite Pit With Temporary Platforms,aka. you have to reload if you fail anywhere, and it is easy to fail.
There's also boss, absolutely impossible to not loose a life or two, so get used to saving your progress. I wonder if I save ata waypoint that'd be saved or not. Should try.

There was a robot-boss. It's dumb. Just jump on the platforms, and when it is far jump lower and shoot. It helps that you can move the screen to see more with the pageup/down buttons.
On the level after that was a curiosity. Some beam transforms you to a slug. It CAN attack, despite how it feels. Try to mimic the AI-version's attack: jump in the air before striking for more effectiveness.
Then there's this "empty" level. Suspicious, eh? Don't leave after you put the crystal in its place but go back to the beginning. The secret level will make you loose a life, but will give back 4, so it's ok.


Need more life? Find a level which has "extra life" item, get it, save, reload, and you start with the extra life on you AND in the container again!


Note: seems the difference between difficult settings is the maximum HP-bar only. So as I play on Normal, 4 HP is correct.


The final level of Mission 2 is excelent. Isn't insenly hard, but makes you use all kinds of proper tactics, like duck&cover, move-the-screen-just-a-bit, hit&run, and even a well-places invincibility potion. Tip: the tanks at the start take 2 grenade (and sometimes a bit of ammo).
The final enemy is a bit tough, but there's a moveable block which gives you a safe place if you don't know where the boss is (because like falling down). The boss is not effected by the "target out of range" feature, so will follow you wherewere you are on the level, which is kinda amusing feat.

[twillight]

Wow, mission 3 is hard! If you do this on anything other than Beginner, all respect! I challenge you: do it on hard! I bet you won't be able to finish the first level!


There was a level (fourth?) with a gazillion robots flyin in a pattern. Friggin annoying as touching them was instant death, even if you were in the state of iinvulnerability by a hit from a regular enemy. Hint: don't walk the ground level when you don't have to.
After that came a miniboss, some robotank. It was interesting. You get a hint how to start at the previous level from the hostage, so go and pick up the stuff. Then onward with brute force!
The level after was boring. Youcan't make two steps without spikes, or those small, shooting snakes not attacking you, what makes progress tedious, thus boring.
The next level after that is hard, because of Invulnerable Enemies and Limited Supplies. Some enemies here can be only hurt by plasma (that single shot weapon), or grenades, and you probably won't be able to dispose all of them. At the start do a trip to the top shooting everything with normal ammo (you can grab the machinegun, it uses the base Infinite Ammo only no pause between shots). When that's done go back, and grab the plasma charge. Now start to eliminate the slugs you encounter, this'llmake your life much easier. Hold onto your grenades. On the other side of the map you'll start to encounter some etheral-goblins - that's where you have to learn ASAP how to grenade them down. They are fast, and come in groups, so they are very inconvenient.
There'll be some remaining slugs, especialy on the right ends - don't bother them, jump through, or wait grabbing a ladder until they pass.

The NEXT level has no healing, but fortunately the enemy is limited. There are pink caterpilars (basic enemy), those grey runners, some bots shooting but not moving, some mining carts (fast knee-high thingies), and a crapton of rockets.
To survive use the grenades only to remove any rockets standing by. Use your gun to eliminate all other threat. Don't bother with the left side, no key item there. If you have some HP left you can go for loot there too of course.
To get out you have to jump on that reactore core, then jump to the edge of the map. That was annoying.

Ah, done it! On the last level I learnt those pesky instant-death robots CAN be destroyed! Or just the programmers realised how unfair they made this. I almost did it first go w/o destroying them, but the last ring towards the exit was crap.

The final boss suffers the same problem as the caterpillars on their level: you CAN stand in a safespot and shoot from there. As this thing is ranged, you'll still use up a couple of lives, but whatever. Easy-peasy, old fashioned style!

-----------

Hard mode is even harder!
You pretty fast should just try to get over most level instead of a fullclear. You start with 4 HP (after save&reload), but you can only regenerate to 2. Enemy has double HP. Explosives and ammo only come in half packages.
Against the skeleton boss good to know thatyou can go around until you start shooting, so grab the stuff outside, then go and grab the gun on in the throne room, then climb up and get the minibot, which only lasts until you get hit, so make the best of it.
Start on the laft platform, and start shooting when it goes up. Don't forget to throw grenades when you can hit it with 'em. Jump and grab the ladder when the hands get close. Otherwise good luck, I lost 3 lives here.

Second you need help with is The Gauntlet, or whatever the name of the level is. It is where jets throw exploiding miniature bots at you, and there are 2 tanks on the way,and a lot of stompers.
Frist back to thelift to get some mines. They are only good against the stompers, and those jump around at random, but whatever. Then get the restof the stuff. Using your 4 HP run in, lay down 2 mines so the stompers kill tehmselves and not follow, and SHOOT the tank until it is dead. Let's hope it won't shoot you too many times, no minibots fall on you, neither will the ground under your feet burn... Ye, this is pretty much random and thus frustrating. Get to the waypoint ASAP, do your best against the stompers,and runaway the minibots (in theory you can run under a stomper, but only if it jumps high and does not turn back).
Run ahead like madman, and when you see the 2nd tank or something, start unloading allyour stuff (any remaining bullet, and grenades). Let's hope it blows up before you die. After that run past the minibots to the end. Beware, there's a stomper at the very end. If you beat that, wait until the occasional minibot self-destructs, and run to the portal (after freeing the hostage of course).

EDIT: The Queen Bee is bloody impossible. You have no ammo, it spawns infinite minions what are too tough on hard diff, you can't even reach all supply... So I just pressed "cat" for infinite ammo. Repeatedly.
But the Act2 final boss is easy. First grab the ammo under, then finish off the tanks with your remaining lives. Use grenades primaly. After that grab the invulnerability potion, and run through everything, hop the top, get to the endboss recruiting the minibot along the way,and just shoot it standing on the barrels.

[twillight]

Turns out you CAN do lvl 1 - the trick is you must be so hardcore to know about the secret stash. It's right above the last waypoint, contains an invulnerability potion, so you can run through the corridor of death.
lvl 2's key is to not explore. Use the grandes to remove uncomfortable mines, and be aware that everywhere turrets are layed, DUCK (and cover). When it comes to the stationary guard bots always check how far you can go w/o getting hit, and if you can see a blip of 'em, kill 'em. Note that you must wait the entire blowup animation or it'll remain there throwing bombs until that happens. Preserve your HP, because on the top floor you'll have to face one full frontal.
For lvl 3 you must do an S-route. That my hint.
For lvl 4 again do not eyplore, stick to finding the key. Do not use any speacial ammo until you absolutely have to.
Against the Goliath start with a jump to the switch, then go and gather supply. From the end of the top floor you can destroy a tank through an unmoving platform, just slosly drop on it grenades. I had 4 left when its delayed explosion animation kicked in. Then go back to the moving platform, and when you see the goliath run to the bottom of the stairs, duck and start shooting. Then immediately jump back to the top of the floor, because the normal tank is coming and that is the safe spot against that.


lvl "Mutant Attack" is bloody timewaster, because you have to wait. A lot. The green lizard-instects block your shots, which is annoying, the green slugs are even more so. Still, wherever you can leave the slugs alone, your resources are limited. Use only mines against them.
Beware of the spider-balls as they jump and like to jump one floor down mobbing on you. A horde is especialy dangerous with their hard-HP -> use autofire if you can. Main enemies are snakes though. You'll fast learn whatyou must do, there's only 1 place I try to give advice. You must be friggin lucky this to work. There is a smallish platform with 2 snakes with 2 moving platforms at it. You should in theory wait until they are on the right side (both of them), then jump to the left and put down 2 mines, not on each other. If you die, oh well, more important to kill the buggers. If you're done, try to get out by the platforms.
There are also places with large amount of monsters. Let's hope all visible ones get out on one side of the screen, then cautiously hop down and start to go the other way clearing your pass, so if you definitely have to you'llhave space to fall back to. Otherwise do NOT try to open every door and pick up everything and kill everything, this level is too dangerous.
Not to mention the next one where bloody cyborgs come against you. The fun in thatis, they shoot, you can't jump or duck their shots, and they appear in the middle of nowhere. Sure, fun. So you better have some lives to loose for that (I currently have 7).


The remaining levels are simply boring. Thereare plenty of waiting for the right time, or simply grinding down the enemy HP.
The finalboss is similarly frustrating, as you only have a chance if the conversation is triggered. But that's only possible the first time you load the save after starting the game. I'm neither entirely sure of its pattern, but the basic is to keep your distance, so you can jump when it crawls down - otherwise just crawl yourself. The random enemies are frustrating enough along, but the boss itself has a pretty large range (maybe all across the level), so you have to keep it on screen, what is stupid. Also there are mines.
Either way, I'm officialy done with this.

[twillight]

Not sure if I'll bother, but couldn't resist making the character.
The funny thing with it is, you are practicaly cut from the shops, as their prime use was to provide armor and bow/other missile weapons.
Btw, not sure why throwing knives and axes are not count as missile weapons. I don't think I'd use them.

And while kensai/mage (mage with a couple of pips in weaponuseage, but loosing the ability to wear robes, which hurt in BG2/ToB) or better kensai/thief (which doesn't sound that much better than swashbuckler, but whatever, it is a big cheat with Use Any Item and traps either way), I'll stick with pure kensai. I'd actualy do a thief/kensai with points in detect traps, but this is not possible of course.

Btw, the "kai" ability work 1 min IN GAME, so it's not that useful as it sounds.

To make this useful anyway, here is some tips:
- I always do Evil alignment for its benefits. As the shop turned out off-limits (can't even wear helmet, not sure why. Should only armors be banned) scrapped all gold (to loot one of the containers in the inn attacked - but not killed! - its owner in the room to make it go away, avoiding the police), and bought 1 reputation. So with my minmaxed character (WIS 3, CON/STR 19, DEX/CHA18, INT 9 - so I can use wands) had enough reaction to get the +1 dagger. I'd like to specialise primaly in daggers for this one. After the rep-gain did Phydia's quest and the witzard's quest too (the others have stat-independent rewards)

- as had only like 29 gold left, left Candlekeep.
- of course fighting the Ogre With Belts is out of option for the moment.
- used Kai to dispose the assassin at the Inn. I think the "hardest enemy" goes by exp-value of killed thing.
- in the Fedelpost Inn's 1stfloor all siderooms are off-limits except the middle on the left. 2nd floor is free-for-all, except the toom of the noble.
- I started with 1 point in long swords for slashing damage, 1 in onehanded weapons for its benefits, and the remaining 2 in daggers.

In Beregost:
- open containers are free to loot
- inside the Inns commoners don't alert the guards if you loot locked chests (Algernon on the other hand does, but he also walks around, so just wait)
- there's a trapped chest in a house with 2 woman on the ground floor,and a child on the upper
- if the guards yet to appear when you leave the scene, you're free to go. Even if they're summoned if you never return, your reputation is unharmed
- in Kagain's shop the bin right next to him is forbidden (you can of course run for it)
- there's an open chest at the right block with the smith, but it is empty, and you can run for it to avoid problems
- with 19 STR there's only 1 chest you can not bash open (neither the expensive gem in Candlekeep), still you can get a handful of money.

Your prime objective at this point is,after reaching clvl 3, to scrap enough money to buy the poisoned dagger, what is hilariously strong. You'll also spend money constantly on healing. The best source of coins for now is the diamond-in-nook, the ring of wizardy-in-nook, and the +1 ring from Mirianne. Also, finishing any quest independt from traveling time is a good source of income (I usualy don't like traveling days just to pass down a quest).

There's a +1 longsword at the smith (bash the chest open at night), but as slashing damage is demanded in BG1, Iwouldn't sell it until you find a replacement just to avoid trouble.
But you might also try to kill Basilus. He's usualy "for later", but with this character being fast (lower attack speed, with dagger you definitely attack first) you have the advantage against solo spellcasters. Beware though against the hobgoblin group the same place - your lack of armor makes them very dangerous to your health, so this time they are the ones who have to wait.


Nashkel:

- the peasants houses are supposedly off-limits, with the exception of the norther house's farherst chest. You stillcan run away of course.
- STR 19 does not bash open one of the chest in the miner's wife's house.

[twillight]

I found this adventure game. Sure, it has some shot-em-up part, but I could never bother for that, but even with the advanced puzzles it never was unfair (no pixel-hunting, sierra-logic, or any some such).
Watching a playthrough just doesn't feel the same thugh.

[twillight]

- in Nashkel Carnival the tent with the potion merchant is off-limits for loot (can flee), and one chest is stronger than 19 STR.
- on the sidenote, Kensai HAS armor in a sense. They gain as class-ability -2 AC, what is equal with wearing Leather Armor, without any damage type weaknesses.
- finally managed to kill Zergal. Needed clvl 6, or clvl 5 + minor healing (baalspawn ability) to not die.
- before finishing the Nashkel Mines clean up everything you can, especialy that particular area. As paralyzing enemies (ghouls, crawlers) are your bane for the no armor penalty, avoid them like plague. Protection from Undead scrolls are your friend in great need.
- the assassin-group at the exit of the mine has two annoying mage, so better being a potion of invulnerability (with some luck you can get away without it though, clvl 7). The potion of 21 STR found at Mulahey can also help. Oh, and better not forget to buy the Shield Amulet in the Carnival. I bet I'll even need to shop-recharge it at times.
- found the info that Teven (Larswood, 1500x2200) and Raiken (Peldwale, 4200, 500) do not appearif you don't immediately fight the Nashkel Mine Exit ambush group. Also true for the North of Beregost area bandits (their leader runs away before dying no matter what).
-at this point (tome of CHA used, exactly 20 reputation) decided to buy the Kazgaroth-items (and the sleep wand, and a couple of protection spells), then "get" Algernon's cloak. The reputation will come back eventualy, and the main shopping is done with this.
-against the group of red wizards a potion of magic blocking served perfect. Too bad such useful supplies are so rare. Have to think. Hulk weant smash.
- Teven has good ranged support, so that's a charge of shield amulet.
- Ba'ruk has annoying ranged support: a charge of Kazgaroth amu suggested.
- in the tome of CON a potion of mind focusing as usual. The use of kai was enough to dispose the golems, although a potion of defense sounds obvious.
- be on the surface in Ulcaster only during daytime to avoid ghouls. A potion of stone form was enough for me to dispose the undead special skeleton warrior on the surface, and helped during the first half of the dungeon.

- the "protect the cow" quest did not appear
- the hobgoblins in Ulcaster had no boots


----------


In the Bandit Camp used a charge of shield amulet when it came to the boss outside sorrounded by archers. The guy can be lured away, the archers don't like to move, but the charge last very long, so long I could loot everything and still lasted when entered the boss tent, where used a potion of firebreath (with 19 STR you can even find 2 in the camp, there are 3 chests though which did not unlock yet). This killed the melee troops. The mage feared me, but I had enough HP (before entering drank 3 healing potions to make use of the shield-charge), still, a Kazgaroth-charge I used to prevent his spells after. And that was it.


Maybe worth mentioning at this point the following areas are not cleared:
- the basilisk area
- Gullykin + dungeon
- the ankegh area, and anything north from it

- the archeological site (doomsayer) quest is not taken
- the Cloakwood Forest and Baldur's Gate obviously
- the TotSC areas


Currently being clvl 8, planning to reach clvl 9 before leaving BG1.


- it's stupid thing I only found it out now, but in the ankegh-area get to the ranger, get the "kill ankeghs" quest, kill the nearest ankegh (more if unfortunate), then immediately report back. You don't have to kill any more for the quest to be "done". Too bad this doesn't prevent random ankeghs spawning.

- in Tenya's house is a locked chest (unbashable with 19 STR I mean)
- the zombie-infested farm also has a locked chest
- same for the halfling village in Gullykin
- in the Firewine Dungeon (or Ruins) went in close to the mage (after defeating the ogre mage), and let it kill itself, and the two nearest smash-monsters (ogrillions, maybe golems). Same place was so crowded with fire arrow kobolds, a shield charge went in it. Against the assassination-group a charge of Kazgaroth was used because of their mage.


- crap, made a mistake. First: that sword-in-thechest at Beregost's smith is a bastard sword. Second: should have invest 1 point in bastard swords instead of long swords for the +3 weapon advantage (not that I'd happily go to Werewolf Island, that is).


- in CWF1 the chest is locked
- in CWF2 against the miniboss used apotion of stone form to avoid being eaten, 2 potion of fiery burning to decimate the spiders, and an antidote. Always have an antidote with you with this character.
- CWF3 only has like 2 baby wyvern, so they won't kill you, even if you didn't prepare. Still a good warning
- went back to buy that prot. from petrification scroll at the Carnival and go for basilisk hunting. Actualy, only want the new girdle, but if I'm there... You actualy only need to use Korax here. Make a circle down, as in the southeast (even marked on some maps) are a group of basilisks. Then make a big circle avoiding the adventurers, and aim to the Mutaman. Keep Korax out of it, let the mage charge you. Right there are 2 basilisks, and in the northwest corner 2 more. Around this time will Korax run out of HP, if not, then time, so if not dead, slash him down before turns hostile. Another hint for the adventurers: their wizard is pretty useless, the cleric is the dangerous one.

- for CFW4 useda potion of stone form. The extra thac0 this characterhas, rly goes a long way. And to be honest, have to tell, noticed half the monsters only work in gorups, as they can only hit you with like natural20 independent from AC.
- at CFM3 used up another shield charge, because who wants to enter to a room with full of soldiers unprotected. Not me, that's for sure. With boots of speed,yada-yada-yada passed ALL rooms now, and while some chests were locked, founda dose of potion of mirroring, and maybe even a prot from undead scroll? Can be a cursed thing, have to identify. Would be supercoll though.
- fortunately only 1 battle horror got activated on CFM4. As inside the mine found an 50% MR potion, used that to avoid being fried by the boss-mage.
- went to do the Doomsayer, and a potion of defense definitely helped, also drank a potion of heroism just to be sure although might not have been absolutely needed. No prot from undead proved to be necessary.

[Mystvan]

One good thing is that GOG.com has made Enhanced Editions available for both the Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale series. :OK:

[twillight]

- in Ulgoth's Beard the rule is, if they see you, better not touch it. There's also a locked chest at Mendas, and in the inn.
- buy the cloak of displacement, it'll help against the ankeghs on the ice island. So you don't have to swap in the boots of avoidance, and you even get +0.5 attack (making it 3) from the boots of speed. Oh, and if you go there, bring a prot from magic scroll, because that's always how I do it.
- against the 4 mages in BG-W 2 charges from that energy ring solved them.

You know, the "sections" of the game really does feel. There's a definite "re-planning" halt after reaching the Friendly Arm Inn, then when you try to do delay to go to the Cloakwood Forest (darn lot of travel), then when you reach Baldur's Gate.
In BG I especialy hate the timed quests: the geas/being poisoned crap, the rob-the-museum quest for starters. And don't even start with the chain-quests (the mages conquest, the stolen nymph, anything involving the umberlee temple etc.). And there's the Helm/Cloak of Balduran what is just bloody hard...
At least at this pointI can finaly wear the Claw of Kazgaroth as all the poisoning enemies (spiders, wyverns) are done. It's mostly melee, or damaging spells from now on. Of course could check out Durlag's Tower if I wanna... I wonder if I could beat that demon... Probably not, atlkeast would have to use some throwing daggers toi get rid of the cultists...

My problem with the Enchanced Edition is, their additional content, I mean expansions. Siege of Dragonspear, and whatever more they added. They add stuff where it does not belong. More exp and item between BG1 and BG2? What for? The strength/difficulty-curve is already built for the story, so it makes things too easy. Probably.

Back to the playthourgh:
- Sphene Gems are a rarity. Found none outside BG. The Umberlee head priestess had one on her (killed during the gease/poison quest). In theory the seer refers to the gemfrom the basilisk, so it is in theory a quest item, not a gem. Whatever.
- aganst the mob at Gorpel Hind had to use a potion of speed (kill order: cleric, mage, archers, melee). While that lasted ran against the ogre mage assassins with some charges from the Energy Ring. That worked.
- for looting around the city of BG is a nightmare. What container you may or should not touch is entirely random, so it's mostly falls back to whatever you open, prepare to run away through an entrance to prevent the soldiers showing up. Boots of spees recomended for this.
- I'm mostly done with the place, only the helm of balduran, the Iron Throne, and the Other Merchant League Infestation remains. Here is a tip: if you realy want to try to open every single chest in the city of BG, first solve ALL possible quests (18 STR from a potion should bash open every building for the very least), then quaff that 25 STR Violet Potion from the Nashkel Carneval, and makea run for it. Even if a section would take 1 ingame hour, you'll have 24 ingame hours to spend. And as every bitchy section has chests unbashable with 19 STR, this is sure the place to use that thingy.
- against the sewer-ogra mage's crawlers of course a dose of potion of freedom was required. These things realy come in small quantity.
-a potion of defense made life easy at Degrodel. This still lasted, so went to the Iron Fist, where in the first round disrupted things with a fireball potion (whatever the proper name), then continued with an aganzanar's scorcher potion.
- time to go to Candlekeep. Items to bring there: put down Claw of Kazgaroth somewhere if you have 20 natural CON, so sleep-heal is possible. 1 dose of Storm Giant STR potion. 1 dose potion of mirrored eyes. The antidote potion you got during the Lathander's Geas quest. Ring of Free Action.


----------


So, done everything till theDucalPalace, for the Longtooth dagger. Then went to Durlag's Tower.
- getting in was no problem. And inside can sleep-heal.
- I actualy have 4 more prot. from undead scroll (2 used until now making it 6 in the game), so using one to avoid the ghasts. I'm not sure why I even bothering - ah yeah, the tome. The scroll lasted through the upper levels, and the first bottom level.

- note: battle horrors do not count as undead! (and half the supposed monsters tend to not appear occasionaly, what is good if they're ghasts)
- at this point I realised I odn't want to go TOO deep, or I'll have to figure out how to deal with the cult and the demon back in the city. Lol on me. I also don't remember what weapons I could use against the biggest-meanest werewolves.
- against the dwarven guardians (level -2) drank a potion of defense (just to be sure) and a potion of heroism (because I had plenty). Drank also some healing potions to be sure of it, and to preserve the 3 oversized pack of healing potions.
- what would be good to have, are items on the 5th floor: flametongue and the Cloak of Shield
- ah. Now I know youdon't have to bother with the ghasts, and the teleport at level -3. Now I know where the other connecting passage is. If you want to bother the ghasts,a scroll of prot from undead is reasonable though. Or you canpass with a potion of fire res (or wearing the ring, or casting greenscroll) as there are fireball traps on the ground and enough space to manouver.
- level -4 is a nuisance. If you want to clear it, here is what you'll need:
a) a charge of shield amulet to dealwith the skeleton archers
b) greater ghouls are not holding you, and the "sirens"around Bala's Axe do not charm you
c) in the air room a potion of defense is highly advisable. The fire room contains fire, obviously. To deal with the slime you need some fire damage potion. Strange fact: it dies from cold too. cold = negative fire dmg? Might be a bug, so be sure to use fire damage on it when near dead.
d) on the chessboard you need a potion of invisibility, and a potion of absorption.
*for the cold room took a shield amu charge along casting the special abilities (this was one of the rare cases where Kai is ok, but mostly talking draw upon holy might). Also some healing potions (I hada 5-pack on my belt). The air was left latest, took a potion of speed for that.

[twillight]

Decided to do the whole of Durlag anyway. After all, it shouldn't effect the werewolf-quest. And I don't remember how to get out from lvl -4.

At the spiders a prot from poison is best, also a potion of defense if possible.
A potion of storm giant STR (24 STR, potn07) is in demand to get the items at least moderatly useful (flametongue, staff of striking). While it lasts you should open the cloak of the shield's chest too. I wouldn't bother with the green rooms loots with this one, and it seems the crypt crawlers do not hold you (they do, I just forgot about my Ring of Freedom), so that's cool.

The problem with the Demon Knight is, it casts stupid spells. So use that mirror. But before that, drink a potion of defense, potion of heroism because of the mirror fiend. Also drink an oil of speed when possible. And healing potions when needed. If youstill have, a potion of 23 STR can also serve good.

Aside this, I checked what happens if you report Aldeth in this chapter. Well, you get arrested, you do not get exp reward, AND he disappears from the game. Crap.

Oh, either way, I want to nominate the vendor at Durlag's Tower the Most Useless Vendor In The Game title.

Went and delt with Sharevok's coronation. The usual consumables were taken: 23 STR potion, oil of speed, potion of defense, potion of heroism.

In Ulgoth's Beard immediately used a Shield Amulet charge (1 charge remains) to avoid instant death, then also an oilof speed when I saw I'm being punished. These lasted until killed every cultist outside Aec'letec's summoning chamber. The time includes buying and drinking healing potions. Figured I won't need them anyway, the running charges are better option. Funny, that I almost never used with this char healing potions. They are too minimal when HP-loss occurs.
Oh, for the cultist on the inside also quaffed a potion of heroism, because that head mage is annoying.

Decided to try Aec'letec. Preparation: prot from magic, 23 STR potion, potion of heroism, oil of speed. Use aganzanar scorcher potion on head cultist. Potion of mirrored eyes keep running. Run around killing cultists. Replenish expiring potion(s), drink healing potions for max HP. Use Kai and bash the demon. Run around for healing between kai-charges. (weapons: main hand: Longtooth, offhand: Poison Dagger)

-------

Prepare to Werewolf Island: bring all kinds ofbuffing potion, and a +3 weapon (that +3 quarterstaff looks welcoming, or maybe the staff of striking can work out, although later might find a +4 vs werewolf dagger which would be even better. If you learnt bastard swords instead of long ones, bring the +3 vs shapeshifters one).
A potion of power if you still have 2+ is a good idea. Also do not forget the Energy Ring as a last resort.
Also bring a Potion of Clarity if you want to mess with the sirens. (only found 3 of these in the game, and one was a bug-respawn in Candlekeep. the other was sold in BG's mage shop)

When entering the ship drinka potion for 0 AC (of defense, or invulnerability), and a potion of heroism. Get the 24 STR potion here.
For the seocnd deck cast Draw Upon Holy Might too. Get the Werebane dagger (if that's your proficiency too). Kai is a perfectly good ability here.

Deck 3 is a bit easier, so just kill stuff as long as it lasts.
Deck 4 is the main fight... As you can move to that doorway and make them attack you one-by-one, it's not that hard.
By the way,here realy shows how strong the Kensai's to-hit bonus is. Just murders everything.
Don't forget to AC0 yourself when fighting Mendas. There were a couple of good potions in the werewolf tunnel if you ran low.

On prophiciencies: of course your choice will be determined whatpart of the trilogy you are playing. Assuming the whole of it, speaking endgame, a twohanded weapon style canbe attractive. With the inherent bonus on weapon speed, these too go to almost nothing, AND you get 10% critical chance instead of 5%. Twohanded options also dealmassive damage per hit, and with greater whirlwind you'll dish out 10 attack per round either way.
I used 3 dagger (easily compeptitive for "best" weapon class in BG1 part, 1 single weapon style (critical hit chance and AC helps early game), 2 two weaponstyle (just pumped to 3), 1 long sword (because you always find a longsword, and it helped against oozes, especialy early-midgame).
Planning on maxing daggers (because why not), maxing flails (because I'm not entirely mad, and don't want to get stuck. So Falil ofAges + Defender of Easthaven is my powergaming optiion), and 2 point still remains to spend. With the Kensai's massive bonuses this can be spent however I want, like hammers (to kill golems, or just dish out massive electric damage on things like the chromatic demon), short swords (Kundane gives +1 attack per round to the main hand!), or just whatever.

Had to position right to prevent Sharevok's goons dispelling my preparation, also to get lucky and Tazok not bash my head, but yes, it's done.

2502


Oh, before I forget: list of "strongestmonsters defeated":
rat Shank wolf Tarnesh hugh spider Silke Bassilus flesh golem revenant Kahrk greater basilisk demon knight

and common items as questitems:
aside the trivial boks-for-the-mage there's only the sphene gem, an angel skin ring, and a history of the unicorn run

[twillight]

I just don't care anymore. I'm not even sure why. I always wanted to do this character. And for years, for like a decade I was a dedicated player.
Now it's all dust on the window sill.
It's a bit sad it doesn't even makes me sad. :lame:



Something similar is with Fallout 2. There the problem is, it lacks flowing action. And the continuous problems with the franchise do not help either. The tale is still good... But I know everything by heart. It's like a book you read over and over, and you're reading it so fast, you're 3 pages forward to where it is open :(

[twillight]

Let's start with a race/alignment related to items list:

- the only race-specific item is a dwarven throwing hammer

weapons
scimitar: one of Drizzt's is for non-evils only. Like anyone uses these.
twohanded sword: Carsomyr is only for non-evil (but who plays fallen paladin?), Soul Reaver is for non-good
axe: Azuredge is good only
dagger: Neb's Nasty Cutter is for evils
(there's some "holy sword of tyr" in BG:EE for goods if anybody cares)

armors
- leather: Human Flesh is for evil (only the upped version, the basic is for all)
- just to mention, females though "can compete in the Forgotten Realms' world", have no situation aside Anomen's romance to do something a male can't, while males have extra quests and free stuff.


other

- Mala's Soulstone: helmet, not for good.



timed quests in BG2
- The Mournful Paladin and the Little Girl is daytime only
- Wellyn the Halfling Ghost Child and his Teddy bear has both daytime and nighttime parts
- Buried Alive has a nighttime optional part (silver pantaloons!)
- Renal Bloodscalp, the Shadow Thief can only be done in Act2 BG2 if you side with Bodhi. Not just this, but the first part of Mae Var's quests can only be done during nighttime if you can not steal.
- Nevin's Not-so-dead Uncle Lester only happens during daytime
- the Tanner quest has a sidequest with Mrs Cragmoon. First,she can only be found during daytime, so if you plan on reporting him the Tanner, hold it until reporting this. Then you'll get a timed even after like 6 ingame days.
- there's another timed even at the city gate (5 days after first visit atemporary shopkeeper appears)
- oh, and just for completion, there's the promenade black market merchant every night.
- the Sir Sarles quest also includes a daytime element (the ore merchant only appears then)
- why I keep bumping into these... Jan Jansen can only be freed from prison during daytime.
- oh, and I think Bodhi only accepts/gives quests during nighttime (if you side her, which is the more profitable solution)
- and there's - if protagonist is not cleric - the Another Mission For TheTemple, which happens during night (it's a long thing until you reach here, so no fuss)


The Burried Alive is the quest that makes you loose some reputation, so do it ASAP. And it even gives you (if you're killing the criminals) the Boots of Avoidance, which takes care of the archer enemies.
Decided to do the Orog Random Encounter - had to drink a healing potion (obviously not the basic one).
Doing the killing for the harpers required an oil of speed, but didn't mind, because it helped during the Mae Var killing too (those pesky stone golems - my only weapon to hit them at this point was the short sword from the first random encounter). Against the mage himself timing was the essence: first buff with draw upon holy might and switch to a nonenchanted dagger for starter (dunno if prot from magic weapons prevents you to hit stone skin or not), then when he goes invisible use a charge of horn of kazgaroth to avoid his death and disintegration spell. And while the speed expired, but the defense lasted, disposed the pirates of the inn.
Running the timed quests mentioned above (darn, the visit to Watcher's Keep for that potion bag has to wait), and when have time, concentrating on killing Neb (picking up the mace of disruption will help) for his dagger. It sounds awesome killing things with tiny daggers.


NOTE: Neb's Nasty Cutter is bugged. Because it is a "charged" item, with 0 charges it stops working (can't attack with it). So it's worse than it looks. Of course I could just buy a +2 dagger in a shop, or something.


The next thing to make you stronger is the Vloak of Sewers (+1 AC). Every little bit counts.
I think I'll tank up on potions, and do Nalia's Keep for the stronghold and stuff. There's a dagger +2 amongst other things.
Another thing to keep in mind is the Firkraag dungeon. Not for the dragon, not even the dragonslayer stuff, but the mask, which everyone should be able to wear, and protects against critical hits, so a helmet to be worn.
Oh, and if you don't mind reloading, buy an 50% MR potion from the sewer-merchant, and get the berserker horn!


Using the berserker horn, and a potion of stone form,and an oil of speed, destroyed M. Peblecrusgher's branch. Simply because the MR-potion still lasted. Because THOSE lasted killed Anarg&Co, and Valeria's companion too.


As Neb's Dagger is bugged, there's this option for a (second) +2 dagger. Sure, it's a throwing one, but just do not throw it ever I say. For that the mercenaries of riatvain shall be massacred, but as this character can't cast limited wish, there's no dilemma. Naturaly for this you'll want to lower your AC to 0.

[twillight]

Tip: always keep on you 5-10 healing potions with a Kensai. Theyare aplenty anyway.

Had to realise the Boomerang Dagger is missile weapon, so no dualwield with it. I'm VERY tempted to just cheat in a +2 dagger.
Whatever. Drank a potion of invulnerability and an oil of speed, and killed the Boomerang Dagger party. Because the potions lasted, went for the Spider Figurine. There just to avoid complications used a prot from poison scroll, and a potion of firebreath.At this point realised I'll need to buy a Sword of Flame to be able to kill trolls (Nalia's Keep has some bad design on it, as not all kits can use bows, eh?).
Because I thought the effects still lasted, disposed Tranor the Hatchetman in the sewers. The effects ran out right when I arrived there, but thought whatever.

There seem to be 4 possible daggers for me at this point: a +2 dagger in the De'Arnise Keep, another in the Planar Spehere (sounds problematic), another at the Dryad Queen at the Firkraag Dungeon (needs force-kill they say, no idea for effect on reputation), and a +3 dagger when rescuing Haer Dhalis in that pocket dimension (again sounds trouble).

QUESTION: why did the illithids set up the Lilarcor-quest?

Hoped to Windspear Hills and killed the dryad queen. They never turn hostile, so you need to hit fast and hard to succed. Cast od draw upon holy might + oil of speed. And with that running, I said what the heck, and went for my helmet. Yes, Kensai can wear that mask.
Then went to Nalia, and to be honest it's just life-saving to wear the Defender of Easthaven, so duh.
At rescuing Haer Dhalis troupe used a horn of kazgarot charge to avoid the left mage's death spell.

Funny thing: never realised the beholders can't see what's invisible. This is good thing, because this character's only chance against them is the cloak in the shaugain city. Darn, I so hoped I don't have to bother with that this time!
The thing is, to solve the Unseeing Eye quest the ONLY chance for this character is, to use a bhaalspawn-ability on the demon-in-the-temple.
The Guarded Compound was though, at least the upper floor. Shield amu charge + draw upon holy might + kai + greater whirlwind. Go up on the right, start with aiming on the mage, then ASAP kill the katana guy (don't wait for the mage to die!), hop to the farther magling and kill it, then finish the first mage with elemental magic (flail of ages for me). The other two are strong, but very slow, so just run around healing up as needed.

equipments I worn:
- boots of avoidance / boots of speed
- dagger +1 -> dagger +2 -> pixie prick (never makes anyone sleep, but it's the strongest dagger for now) / dagger (to bypass prot from magic weapon) / flail of ages (if enemy has stoneskin)
- offhand: defender of easthaven / mace of disruption +2 / arbane sword / stiletto of demarches (to keep with the dagger-theme)
- girdle of bluntness -> belt of inertial barrier
- cloak of the sewer -> cloak of reflection
- mask of king strohm III -> pale green ioun stone (Kensai can wear ioun stones!)
- necklace of form stability -> 5% MR amu
- prot +1 ring -> prot +2 ring
- fire res ring -> ring of gaxx
- gauntlets of crushing (so kensai CAN use some bracers!)

dragon killing: potion of defense (or similar effect) + resist potion/scroll + oil of speed + potion of heroism + draw upon holy might + hardiness + greater whirlwind + kai + dragonslayer longsword in offhand.

underdark and other tales: kensai can wear the gauntlets of crushing,and even canuse drow crossbows. The real treat though is to do the aboleth's quest to gain a +4 dagger. It doesn't do much, doesn't doanything aside damage, but the +3's sleeping power isn't gigantic either. Also, the +2's dagger's hold (stun?) simply doesn't seem to work at all, so I just put that away now.
I can't bother to do the illithid city for 10% more fire res,so fok it.
And I'm just not into killing these days, so no fight with the silver dragon. Dang, I'd be curious if you have to have the flesh armor at you when you want it to be upgraded. After all, they don't askfor it when they send you for the blood...

At Bodhi her group of vampire dominated(?) me, what I don't remember from any other playthrough. Potion of Clarity, darn it. Only have 6 more.
Funny thing happened though. Thought I'll go through their big gate abnd go up where I usualy do in the cemetary. Though luck, allentrance disappeared. But some glowing red skeleton warrior wanned to mess with me? Strange.


2503

[twillight]

In the Rogue Stone Doorway the vampire again messes with you, so probably use a potion of invulnerability. Not that you'd need the place for anything.

2505

For Baal's Tears get +3 STR, immun to weapons, saving throws, whatever the black dragon gives for talking it, and the only dubious choice is the selfishness. But with the already crappy AC loosinga DEX I think would further ruin the situation, so I went evil. I mean the MR on this character isn't great either way. 25% now, would be 35% with the tear, and wielding the BG2-sword of balduran would give another +10%, but that's it.

EDIT:
Against Irenicus dran a Potion of Power, and Potion of Invulnerability, then started whirlwinding him away. When he casts his second mislead (along some mantle which makes him untouchable) is the time to turn to Slayer Form to avoid being imprisoned.I think this was the intended story (SlayerIrenicus vs Slayer Protagonist), only this was the first time I used this option.To gain back the reps, do some of the optional stuff at the start, like resurrecting that guy, helping the elves or the dwarves...

Hardest Monsters in BG2:
demon knight (from BG1) adamantite golem unseeing eye Kangaxx, the demi-lich Firkraag Bodhi
I think Irenicus and Gromnir only give quest exp, that's why. Gromnir is also bugged. At least he and his cohorts posed no problem.

Entering Marching Mountains: a shield amulet charge, hardiness, kai before entering, then whirlwinding everyone.
For the rest inside drink a potion of fire res, and use hit&run tactics. You'll still need Extra Healing Potions, but whatever.
Against the shambling mounds of Nyalee the longsword specialization proved useful, as they are only voulnerable to slashing damage (and two type of elemental damage, according to Flail of Ages +4). They are immun to piercing and blunt damage.


LAST EDIT FOR THIS:
Get the BMU, and you'll have -23 AC. At Sendai herself though, just use a shield amu charge.
There are some annoying parts left, like fighting mindlyers (INT-drain), Draconis/Abazigail (80 dmg breath weapon spam), Ravager (stun spam), against what no character can do squat anyway. At least Kensai kills everything fast. I mean realy fast.
I don't evencare to finish Melissan, because what's the gain there? I KNOW I can beat her, with ease, there's no challenge.


So, bard is the worst class, monk and kensai have problems at certain stages, other characters (like druid, cleric, thief) have certain problems but just get over it, and spam cheesy abilities like no tomorrow.
I'm done with this.

[twillight]

I just looked through all the games I have in my library as "should play it finaly", and darn, they are many.

1 - full throttle
2 - soma
3 - deathtrap dungeon
4 - divinity, original sin
5 - divinity, dragon commander
6 - cayne
7 - get medieval
8 - abomination, the nemesis project (if it works)
9 - warcraft 3 (I might entirely passon this one)
10 - my current BG2:ToB kensai run. Btw, I artificialy nulled my exp, so I'll be able to see "strongest monster defeated" proper. It doesn't seem to straight corellate to monster level, and Idoubt it is exp. I mean I'm at fighting Irenicus, and Bodhi is the strongest monster defeated, beyond Firkraag, who is already beyond Kangaxx...

------------

EDIT:
Ok, so Cayne and Soma are games to those who have time and patience to discover a world of lore, but if you want - you know - progress, doing stuff, these are not for you.
So hereby I skip for now. Maybe forever. Especialy on Soma what is a terribly depressing game, and I don't need that, especialy at the moment.
And Warcraft 3... To be honest the whole franchise just... lost its charm in time for me, I realized.
I'll likely drop any future attempt to Fallout 2 (I planed to do a full playthrough, anda thrower playthrough), Fallout Tactics (deathclaw solo), tides of numera/planescape torment, Abomination: the nemesis project (I wanned to make a wikia for it), Rage of Mages 2 (hard warrior playthrough), because these games take forever.

Let's see what I still consider to be on the list:
1. sanitarium
2. full throttle
3. distraint
4. deathtrap dungeon (but I might just settle for a let's play series)
5. the divinity franchise
6. get medieval

EDIT: yesss, Deathtrap Dungeon looks a bloody cool Doom-engine based game. But when was Doom popular? Riiight.
And it doesn't even has a story. It is a standard dungeon-crawler, with the individual levels/dungeons having their own story-cards. Nice to know this game, but is even more outdated than the gamebooks.
I fear I'll have a nervous breakdown.

EDIT: Distraint is a depressing short story about a weird circle of life (I mean greed). It feels very empty, certain elements mean nothing, lead to nowhere, things are out of place, or just simply unconstituted.
Two of the control-keys were never used.
The third day where you have to make the junkie move is very weird,and the mechanics are annoying (you have to smoke mushroom-drug to pass boarded doors in hard-to-map labyrinth,and the trips are timed...).

All in all, it's a waste.


EDIT: Sanitarium

There's probably an audience for this... Maybe... The meteor-alien-plant thingy overtook children-town is even interesting... But this isa moody game, nothing funny, the puzzles soon fall to those unsolvable algorythm-puzzles, and moon logic,and pixel hunting.

The game is also infested with clunky mechanics, like walk long distances slowly, and first you have to click on stuff to be able to interact with them with your cursor what looks all the same until you clicked on the right things.
There's also some hectic storytelling, meaning one part of the story canbe reached only certain part played, but you'd need those infos earlier because narratively you passed that point it talks about/wants you to interact with...

And what is with people making these hopeless, decaying world games? Real life sucks already, why bring it into our games too??
Full Throttle has the same depression-problem.

[twillight]

They say this game is like "The Gauntlet", whatever that was, only better graphic, and a bare minimum story at last.

You can choose from 4 characters, each has 3 lives, or each player has 3 lives. I didn't investigated this.

Resources:
- gold seems to just keep score, but maybe there's some characterlevel? At least the game at times say "level".
- gold keys need for chests
- bronze and silver keys open doors
- HP is actualy a timer, and bumpin into monsters take away hugh chuncks of it, so try to avoid that (character speed helps)
- scrolls are a screen-kill-bomb (first symbol at the key-bar, some shiney arrow marks it)
- skeleton key is on timer, so first kill everything, onlypick it up then, after that run through everything to open all gates
- hearts in blue containers give 100 HP
- hearts in green ocntainers give ? HP
- hearts in red containers give the most HP (I think 500)
- the Mask of Evil makes monsters runaway. Ranged monsters do not attack. In melee distance still not good for your health.

stats:
- there's movement speed what is noticable
- weapon speed is even atbasic is very fast, so never mind that
- weapon strength is... I have no idea where it counts. Maybe on structures (monster generators)
- the maximum stats are 5 (attack, defense), and those are reached pretty early. Did not see walking speed upgrade :(

other noticables:
- gates which must be triggered from a distance probably open in skeleton key areas
- I found a hidden warp-spot on lvl 2's first skeleton-key room
- the barbarian is voiced by Arnold Schwarzenegger (no idea if this is licenced, or just put there)
- there is some vampire-looking thing (extra fast, black cloaked enemy). Must be killed ASAP, else it nulls your stats. This gets gamebreakingly annoying with all the other enemies and obstacles around.
- chests and stuff will be destroyed by shooting them, so be cautious

The game has fun, but 40 levels sound very very too much, at least judging from how hard it becomes in dungeon 8-9. There not just the enemies are hoarding, and most of them are ranged, but you'll also need to solve the levels by trial and error (what opoens which door, so you don't loose unnecessary HP), and those levels become HUGH, dungeon 9 even relying on teleports to make it bigger. I wonder what is an outro-cinematic, but I don't think I have it in me to beat this. Well, at least not on the basic difficult, what is Hard. But I bet that's requirement to unlock the über-difficulty. Why do I care though???


What? there isn't even an outro??
v=9xyQW7Bf2Bs&index=54&list=PLAD7CE913D33D4C1A

[twillight]

difficulties:
- easy: HP doesn't deplet by time, monsters hit 50 HP
- normal: you loose HP by time
- hard: monsters hit 100 HP
- torture dungeon: ?

dungeon 1:
go from left to right.
enemies: spider (standard melee), bat (fast, can get over cretain obstacles, annoying), wererat (standard melee = SM)
Torture Chamber Tip: get used to the faster timer. Also watch out for monster-generators.
Warp Spot: in the NEern room of the map.

dungeon 2:
new enemies: spider (SM)
There is a skeleton key in achest in the SW corner of a room (you'll know it). These things are timed, so cleaneverything first, then hurry up. Run down,you'll likely step on the trigger stones which'll release a bunch of spiders, so be prepared to use a scroll. Run to unlock the other door too, and you might still have time to unlock the chests in the previously locked room which said "this door can only be opened from a distance" what means from a certain point of the dungeon (usualy stepping on a trigger-stone).
Don't forget to go back to where the spiders were released from, 'cause that has a warp-spot.
Torture Chamber Tip: acept thatyou can'tdo everything now.

dungeon 3:
I think this was where I started to run out of golden keys regularly, so use them sparingly, or something.
new enemy: lizard-people (ranged attacker (RA)
the warp-spot is above the bat-filled trap-room (don't step on the stones here, or almost guaranteed a large HP-loss, or a scroll-use). Or I could say at the edge of the map east of the exit.
The key to unlock the "from distance" room is to go right at the start, open the golden key gate, and step on the triggerstone under the generator.
The skeleton key inside its room seems a mere decoration with no real purpose (though makes you ableopen chests inside without spending gold keys of course).
Torture Chamber Tip: get used to avoiding chests.

dungeon 4:
there is a hub, and 4 side-dungeon. You only have to do the farthest (start going north) if you don't trust yourself.
the skeleton key is in the nearest (go east from start). It leads to a tp, where the idea is to use the skeleton keys of each golden key gate to unlock the chests inside. If youare curious, the skeleton keys open the farther doors from the other side, but there's barely any timer on them, so tough luck.
Torture Chamber Tip: learn the patter, and remember where and how much resources are left.
Warp spot: in the skeleton key maze go the other passage, and enter the seemingly blind alleys. The 2nd unlocks a door in the warp zone, the 3rd is the warp spot.
Hint: there's definitely a golden key shortage here.

dungeon 5: spider boss. First eliminate the monster generators. The boss is big, and shoots at regular intervals.
Oh, it has a dungeon too, where you have to go where it allows you. A lot of enemy are ranged. Also, beware that when you open the brass key door the final gate's side has 1-1 thief.
To use the Skeleton Key first go right, then down (both times only turn when the passage ends).
Note: if you collect all keys and open every chest, you'll be able to unlock all chests, but only 1 in the boss' arena.
Torture Chamber Tip: you must LEARN the level. Some polish youtuber did a let's play, including opening as many chests as possible - hint: on this level chests are useless. Blow them up. There's only 1 good next to a ratman-generator, gives 500 HP, and it is crucial. Also, some situations can only be solved by using scrolls. Accept it, and hunt for scrolls!
Warp spot: on the north side of the first gate in the east section. Has an aura of death powerup in the chest (has no effect on generators or bosses).
Note on barbarian: this character is bloody slow, barely can reach the skeleton key treasury.

dungeon 6:
I suggest be caustious, as I tend to run out of HP here.
Utilise the Mask of Evil fully (there is on on the north corridor, and one in the south (SE from the lizardman generator - use the remaining timer to eliminate the ratmen in the traproom for a miniroom of streage), do not stop picking up items for its durations.
Do the EAST corridor with the bronze key. This gives you a Mask of Evil, with which you should do the south corridor of no-key-gate. Step on the LEFT triggerstone in the trap-sideroms-room, then go to the just unlocked south miniroom. Pick up the Mask of evil (also step on the triggerstone there) and unlock the SOUTH silver gate key.
NOTE: if you go the east passage instead of sdouth you'll unlock the exist for the other silver key corridor. There's also in the final room's traproom-segment's south the warp-spot, but it isn't very important (has a scroll, but not much else, also no idea what opens the gate inside it).
If you die, your stats will be nulled, and that's bad.
New enemy: some kinda ranged unit. Looks like a bit like mouse? goblin?

dungeon 7:
if you can avoid it, do not touch chests, because they likely contan thieves, and that's not good. I suggest a reload if you get nulled. Shooting chests means the thief (and later curse) pops out anyway, and have to be killed. A strategy if you intend to open chests (they regulary have 500 HP) is, when you touch it, run back (obviously only works with knightess/elf) so you'll have time to react. he skeleton keys are there to let you open chests w/o using your resources (golden keys).
new enemy: thief
Torture Dungeon Tip: there are very few chests with HP, so it is easier to blindly go ahead shooting the generators as they are in alternating sequence. In the end I tend to run VERY low on HP, so used like 5 scrolls before the exit-room.

dungeon 8:
very annoying. First open the two melee rooms by going close. Pick up the golden keys. Leave through north. Ranged enemies do not discriminate, meaning you can make them eliminate a large portion of themselves for you. The HP is in the northern chest.
Second you should only step on the south and west tiles, those are safest. You only have to step on the south tile. The HP is in the west chest.
The exit from the third room is to the east. Use a scroll I say if you step on a trigger. The NW chest has HP, no idea on the rest.
Forth: use the SW tile to open south.
Torture Dungeon Tip: remember you have scrolls, also, get used to do the bare minimum.

dungeon 9:
this dungeon uses bloody many teleports. The way to exist (and there is no battle!): S, E, W, E, E, W, W (East leads stright to the exit, while west to 10 chests. 1 has a thief. Has good supplies. No key needed if running a skeleton key charge). The chest nearest to the tp has a thief (NOTE: thieves always drop a weapon/armor/OR SCROLL when defeated)

dungeon10:
pretty straightforward. Used the eastern teleporter at the end, which brought me to an ogre boss's treasure cove (general rule is, the other brings you straight to the boss). Here the two slower heroes will have trouble, being slower than the boss. The others should eliminate the generators first.
To get to the skeleton key hoard, go west as much as you can, and follow the diagonal passages when there is one. When in doubt, go down.
KEY POINTS: the first chest to the south has a Mask of Terror. Directly north of it isa scroll.
There's a room with not open area but ocnstant corridor. South of the 2nd twist is another Mask of Evil. Run, as the exit is near.

dungeon 11:
new enemies: liches? they go invisible(?) regularly. Also some knights (SM).
new item: curse of reversal (switches directional controls, making chests something to avoid at all costs). The effectis temporary, ca.30 seconds. Makes fighting very hard.
At the end there is a badly placed Skeleton Key,, so tough luck. Otherwise the place is pretty straightforward.
TIPS:
- In every room you practicaly have to destroy everything as you'll need a bronze and silver key to progress.
- in the 2nd room aim N when entering to destroya lich-factory, then aim the NW corner for another lich-generator, and the warp-point. Watch out, the SW chest has a thief.
- for the 3rdroom again aim NW. The coner has a lich-generator, but that's not the main point (actualy it is, it has the current silver key). The chest east of it has a Mask of Evil! Not that it'd save the world or something, but enough to go for the bronze key (in the middle). BEWARE as the easter side is cut off from the rest of the room by a wall, you have to pass to the gate going west, the following the north wall! Probably worth casting a scroll before the last bronze key gate, though can't shake the feeling you should be ableto use the Mask to get theskeleton key, and still last enough to open the skeleton key gate though.

dungeon 12:
The northern passage at the start has a bronze key... But the bottom one lets you forward. To be most effective open the eastern chest in the bronze key corridore before picking up the key, and RUN!
Second time the third from above lets you pass. (there are 5 passages,so it's the 3rd from below too) There's also a silver key (can be seen from the right, so get it from the 3rd hub). No need to fight (but they are melee anyway).
For the third again choose the bottom one (and run). The liches not just go invisible, during that time they are incorporeal.
With the skeleton key (in the middle, at the exit) choose south. You can open both, but north is a red herring. This dungeon will replenish your HP, so that's good news.

dungeon 13:
The second row from the top first teleporter leads you out. The other exist looks more profitable, but dunno which tp leads there. It worth trying to clean this place because you can get a megaton of scrolls. The other tp that leads out is in the SE corner, and has 500 HP in it.
Torture Dungeon Tip: you won't be able to clean the place.

dungeon14:
Straightforward.
TIP: there's a warp point NE from the exit. Also, the chests along the corridors are worthless, but at the end of the corridors the two chests will have 500 HP, and 2 times Mask of Evil.

dungeon 15:
you must trigger things by stepping the right stone. As there are too many, and the action is heavy, I won't go into which you need, but it seems you have to step one of the RIGHT room's tile on the north for the outer door, and the LEFT room's one for the inner of the middle section, which unlocks the exit. No idea what's the difference between the two portal there. I used the left one, which put me to 4 chests and a boss. It is a giant black knight. Nothing special.
With the skeleton key go up and right, or right and up. this time I had way enough on the timer.
PRO TIP: start from the right, as there's a Mask in a chest nearby, and the left room is a nuisance.
Also, the middle section has a speed-booster, which can be used to just run through the room.

dungeon 16:
At the first choice go right for the silver key.
Next choice go RIGHT, because in the 1st room in the south is a Ghost powerup. The problem with this strategy is, there is no silver key in this side, soyou must pick up the bronze key from here too, get back to the other side, keep running to the west sideroom (after eliminating the generators), there the triggerstone unlocks the room you need (and releases a bunch of nagas, so prepare to cast a scroll).
Next go right. On the hub-corridor the chest north of the knight-spawner is a Mask. Use it to run in on the north where the keys will be, and to get out asap.
Next left to keep to the algorythm (barely any enemy here).
new enemy: bat mark II, naga (RU)

dungeon 17:
the bottom teleport does nothing, the upper opens the bottom left cell. The northwestern stone opens the door to continue.
in the second hub-room you need to aim the norteastern room. I'm not sure the rooms here open by what factor. The chest next to the exit of the room has a ghost-powerup, but as powerups cancels each other out, get the skeleton key before touching this!
I don't think those skeleton keys here actualy do anything relevant.
The last door to pass is in the middle of east. But this time it needs a silver key. It is not far to NW from the SE corner (NW of the tp). TIP: just west of the entrance in chest is a Ghost powerup.
--
99 is the maximum amount from any type of items. HP max is 999.
This level sounds crap. You have to find the right room to go further, but you'll only be able to go further if you find the right way on skeleton key timer it seems. And 2-3 times in a row that. I think for the first I went right and up, and right and up and when that didn't work down for the second. The third had the exit, not stupid skeleton key.
Torture Dungeon Tip: stay on the edge, don't bother.

dungeon 18:
use the 2nd tp from the right, and get to the top along the west wall (stick to it).

dungeon 19:
the skeleton keys here are only cruel jokes. Get to the top on either side, then get around to the other to grab the keys. The center of the north lets you pass. Rinse and repeat.
Torture Dungeon Tip: You'll need to use up like 4 scrolls per room, 2 on each side to get to the keys. Hope for the best.

dungeon 20:
A brass key is in the center north, a ghost powerup is center south. NW brass gate has a silver key. Use the silver key on NE gate. Use the SE porter after that to get to the lich boss. Annoying for the electric traps. Oh, and the lich boss kills you instantly if it hits you in melee. As it tends to go invisible isn't it fun?
With the skeleton key go right, up, right, down, right, down, right.
Torture Dungeon Tips: first go and get the Ghost, then eliminate the bat-generators on both sides whil gaining the brass key.
In the NW brass corridor in one of a corner in the SE is a Mask, so don't blast the chest! It'll take you along distance.
Unfortunately HP is scarce, so not finished this yet.
SOLUTION: when starting the level, step EAST, and shoot the knight, and a bit behind it the naga. Then move SE, and when in position eliminate the bat-spawner.
Get to the south edge, and cast a scroll (unless youare total pro), and shoot the lich-spawner, unlock the chest, pick up the 300 HP, pick up the Ghost, go NW, shoot the bat-spawner, get back to the middle, go to the north edge, bump the chest, destroy the naga-spawner, GET THE BRONZE KEY (under the naga-spawner), pick up the scroll from the chest, pick up the 300 HP if needed (probably do). Go to the NE door, enter the tp.
Keep running until the Ghostlasts, then be a bit more carefully, but it still worth running.
Go semi-cautious until you can get the Mask, then star running again. Don't mind ANY spawner until you get to the north-going corridor, where RUN IN to destroy all spawner, AND KEEP going forward to the south. ELIMINATE EVERYTHING. The Mask should expire when everything is down in this part. You have to go on a thin corridor for a triggerstone. There's also a 300 HP chest along the way.
Ok, leave this area via the unlocked tp. Kill everything that rushes towards you, and run tothe NE gate. You tp to another room.
Run in a bit east todestroy the lich-spawner, then come back the west,so south to destroy a naga-spawner. Your goal is not to rush asap to the SE corner, avoid fight if possible.
Congratulation, you are at the boss.
NOTE: use scrolls whenever you feel necessary! This is a HARD dungeon!

[twillight]

dungeon 21:
straightforward. The optional side-rooms have bloody strong powerups.
on note of some items:
- "player is now amongst the dead" makes monsters indifferent to player unless melee range (ghost cloth)
- there's a curse which makes you only be able to fight in melee range
- there's hermes' boots/helmet which gives you superspeed

dungeon 22:
go to the right edge of the map, then down.
Turture Dungeon Tip: in the first room go SE, aim the naga-generator, then unlock the nearby chest for a Mask. Run to the east w/o stopping,you caneven reach the edge. Start going south cautiously, and eventualy (maybe 2nd room) you'll find a God Mode.
I have 39 scrolls now (TDdiff).

dungeon 23:
This dungeon is too long and deadly. Lost several lives, and you just can feel the lack of good defense stat what makes you die again, and again...
And to make things worse, there's a new curse which - hard to say otherwise - kills you plain and square. In theory you could maybe stop it by drinking a HP-consumable, but fat chance.
And the armor/weapon resources are scarce, you'd need a ton to grind these stats back, AND HP is never in chests...
SOLUTION: don't EVER step on traps unless you have to. ALWAYS visit the siderooms for special invincibility powerups. This means no shooting chests there (and preferably no touching chests at all otherwise).
First go west if you need HP, otherwise go south. In a sideroom (west) you'll get a "god mode powerup". Go south, then when that's blocked go west, then through the narrow corridor. You just have enough time to destroy everything here (hard mode). When in the room with two enemy filled room on the side step on the SOUTH triggerstone to get further.
Next there'll be a west sideroom (has an 500 HP chest and a 300 HP container, so worth the time) to a bronze key locked room. Do NOT shoot the chest in the northern room, thathas a "mask of evil" powerup. Reaching the next room step on the NORTH triggerstone!
Next you need a VERY PRECISE set of actions. When you get the Mask of Evil get to the next corridor. SHOOT the to chest at their start and DO NOT TOUCH the skeleton key. the nothern chest contains CURSE so be prepared and shoot it, or you'll be doomed. Next go up on the diagonal corridor preferably w/o touching any trigger stone (if you do either use the timer to thin them out, or use a scroll - I have more than 80 at this point!). Eliminate all monsters when reached the top on the corridor heading east until it turns north. Backtrack for the skeleton key, and run like heck to use it on the door at the end of the east-going corridor just mentioned. It'll have 500 HP and a ghost powerup. If you touched the skeleton key by accident, RUN, hope for the best, and definitely don't mind using up a scroll to get here!
Go up on north the corridor, and step on the WEST triggerstone.
Follow the corridor the a hub. Open the WEST gate. The skeleton key you'll see only opens a 500 HP room which also has a speed artifact - not that useful in these narrow spaces, so if you loose the key, don't mind too much, though prepare to use a handful of scrolls when your HP goes low. Actualy, try running in, usinga scroll to get rid of the enemy, you'll get it back. That sounds effective.
You'll reach a room full of black knights. The room's trigger will be slightly AFTER the room. I hate it. Use the north triggerstone to pass w/o opening this trap.
You get back to the starting hub with this. Go NORTH, run in (I think all traps release the traprooms), and use a scroll. Destroy the building, then open the chest for a godly-powerup. Don't panick and open the next chest too for 500 HP. STEP on the triggerstones on the diagonal corridor, it's a trick otherwise to loose some of your timer.
You'll reach the end of an east-going corridor which'll turn south. The chest in that corner provides a ghost powerup. Do not squander it.
You'll reach a skeleton key again - this is definitely an absolute waste of time, skip it. No powerup, not even HP in the room, so the key is a trap!
The next triggerstone to a south sideroom is again a trap - the room only contains enemies. Choose the narrow corridor instead.
This brings us back to the second hub-room. Go east to the exit (you collected 3 silver key by now to be able to leave in case you must know).
HINT: do NOTpick up HPs at the hubs ifyou can spare them when you reach there first!
NOTE: the dungeon is generous with scrolls if you paya bit of attention, so despite generously using them here, still have 38 of it.

dungeon 24:
this is infested with thieves to start with. The exit is on the north. To pass it you need 3 silver keys: 1 is in the NW corner, 1 in the SE, and 1 in NE. The best way to do this is to systematicaly extreminate everything going west to east, south to north. Use the many gates to your tactical advantage. There are a lot of HP laying around, so if you can avoid, don't touch the chests, and definitely don't mind them destroyed. Many have thieves in them, at least 2 has a "can only attack in melee" curse, and at least one "drink a HP consumable or die in 5 seconds" curse. Unlocking chests this way if you must: go backward - shoot if needed.
But if you finaly get robbed, because you 99% will, I say fok it. Ye, that was 80 scrolls or so, but... Crap, I could have just used those to dispose the thieves, right? Well, maybe not, as some disappear form screen VERY quickly, giving no chance.
We'll see how this mess turns out :( Wait a minute: the thieves take all your scrolls with them, so that's not an option, UNLESS you use the scroll BEFORE it touch you (hope you have trigger-fingers)!
Torture Dungeon Tip: go SE, NE, NW. Don't bother with the resources, although likely on the bottom you'll figure out some scroll-chests. Keep in mind freed HP, backtrack them as needed. Reaching NW is hard. The exit has 2*300 HP.

dungeon 25:
I'm afraid you have to kill everything here. The goal is to collect 4 silver keys, but the place is mega-hugh, and there are not even cool items to rely on.
Use the upper teleporter to leave this area to the naga boss.
With the skeleton key go left and down, and at the end NW follow the corridor.
SOLUTION: start from the south gate after killing everything in the hub and opening the two golden gate. Check the side-rooms in order. You'll find eventualy 2 silver key before you reach a tp which brings you to the other half of the map for the other two.
The golden-key-gates opened 4 rooms, they are in pair on each side. If you came as I suggested, the first you encounter will have an invincibility powerup, the ther a curse.
You probably will end up unlocking chests even by accident, or in hope for scrolls, and to be honest the thieves are killing me a lot here. Also, if you started from south when you enter the tp, in the right chest on the other side is a God Mode.
The naga boss is terrific by the way. The electirc traps are very bad news, the spwaner-buildings must be delt with ASAP, and that's very luck-based. The boss itself is a hugh problem with its ranged attack and plent of HP.
NOTE: curses now last 30 sec. Dunno if this depends on progress, or difficulty (I remember as medium diff had 15 sec timer for them). Powerups last 30 sec, except skeleton keys which have their own individual timer.
Torture Dungeon Difficulty Note: you'll have to rely on scrolls many times. Have to repeat this.
Torture Dungeon Difficulty Trick against the boss: do NO leave the treasury, but be aware that the boss can shoot through walls. Fortunately it has a pattern, shoots regularly. So stay behind the edge of the wall, not letting it passing the corner (using its size to your advantage), shooting just along the edge on it, while regularly moving aside - staying behind the wall - slowly chipping away its health. Don't forget the naga-generators willstill exist, and under production!
With the Skeleton Key: firstchance go north, second chance go all the way south. Follow that corridor, and you'll find a crossroad, follow the NW passage. There.
Scroll note: I still linger around 40.

dungeon 26:
start from SW.
new ~enemy: oozes. They don't hurt you, but slow you if stepped on. Move around in a pattern. Also some demon knights (MU).
The place is ginormous, and I suspect you have to know exactly which chest contains what, what is just absurd of course, but still looks that way.
SOLUTION: don't waste your keys on the chests. First go west, and when reached the edge go east, then around the room. The SE corner has an 500HP in the small room, and a scroll outside. Preferably don't bother with the chests having thieves and curses in them.
Go throughthe SW gate, the only one openable at the moment. At the end of the corridor before it bends is an 500 HP consumable, so pull out the enemy there until you don't have the chest onscreen to preserve it.
As you go south there'll be a chest with a god-mode temporary. Follow the corridor, and where it bends will be 500 HP in a chest.
The next north curve's east side will have a scroll in chest.
You get back to the hub,and the close room with the demon knights will contain a bare 500 HP in one of the chests. Step on the trigger-stone of course. NE is now open.
There's nothing to mention until you reach a tp, where is 500 HP and ascroll,so don't blast the chests.
On the other side of the tp use a scroll, and open the northern chest for a ghost powerup. Go north, open the northern chest for a scroll. You'll use it anyway in the eastern big room, which by the way leads back to the hub. Also, in the SW corner of it is 500 HP, and at its entrance's south has a Mask of Evil.
In the room south of this is a warp-point. Leave it until necessary.
To get further, use the middle north gate, unlocked by bronze key. Don't mind the side-rooms, go to the end. Unlock that room by a trigger-stone (it has only melee enemies). In the NW chest is500 HP, the middle has a scroll. Pick up the bronze key.
Go backwards on the northside, and you'll reach a ghoul-room opened. The left chest in it has 500 HP. The room west of this will also be opened, has demon knights in it, but has no useful resources.
Go back until the other bronze key door (leads west). It'll be shorter. Before you get in here, actualy, go to the warp-spot, and unlock a chest for a kill-in-radius powerup (both chests there has one if you're interrested), heh. Grab the silver key. Enter the tp, grab any healing you have left (if you have none, open the chest west of the tp for 500 HP), and finish the dungeon.

dungeon 27:
I'll be honest. I don't think these levels are possible above normal diff, because even if you don't die of thievery or some curses, can just barely keep the HP against the ranged, vanishing enemies. And they are a LOT, trust me.
SOLUTION: start going left. The demon knight spawner in the SW is our goal. Next to it is 500 HP. Step on the triggerstone.
Go north. If instead going further go a bit more east, there's a Mask of Evil in a chest. Leave that for later, and go in north, casting a scroll where the 300 HP is on the triggerstone (same where the brass key is). You'll have to trigger it for later. Eliminate the enemy here (ranged mixed) with a scroll. Before triggering the gates however, go south to unlock the brass gate, and trigger the stone there too. NOTE in this section are two mini-room with 2 chests, 3 keys. Each room has 500 HP. The brass-gate room also has 500 HP (in the south, so no worry).
The brass gate's stone opened a gate on the NW in the previous area. Go there with the Mask of Evil (it has a low duration or something, that's why).
North of that room beside a knight-spawner is a chest with a scroll.
East from there is the Silver Key Gate, and SE of it is a ghost temporary, but don't take it. Take instead the god mode temp north of the eastern miniroom (see above). With that go to the east side, and get a silver key. Hop in the tp, grab the other silver key, hop back, and go to the Silver Gate Key. NOW pick up the ghost temp.
Beyond the Silver Gate on the left siderom is 500 HP (south chest).
The following corridor is horrendous, so do your best. You'll reach a Very Dangerous Room, the middle of it has a chest with a god-mode temp. Its NE has 500 HP.
In the middle of the next room is a trigger-stone which unlocks the exit. Just go straight for it. (Currently I have ca. 15 scrolls, would be good to have way more, but I don't dare.)

dungeon 28:
There is a section with smaller square rooms in a row. The NW one you need most. Otherwise follow the passage.
Warp Spot: directly west from the start, has half a dozen scrolls, and a nopt timered Magna Scroll (scrolls destroy buildings too).
Useful chests: the one at the first tp. NE in the silver gate's hub has 500 HP, SW hasa scroll. N in the SW room of the Silver Key Room-hub. Next room is NE, then NW (Torture Dungeon Diff Tip: use a scroll to empty the room - remember, Magna Scroll removes generators too), so you ensure the 300 HP consumable is not lost). SE room, before the corridor bends, north side. At the end of that corridor, on the south, next to a generator is one with a scroll (if not told otherwise, the chests have 500 HP). In the next room's west side a god-mode.
Go to the east side next room, at the end of the corridor, in the middle is a ghost temp. North room there has the silver key, and in the NW chest a scroll.
Go east now to a new silver key gate. In the 2nd alcove on the north is a speed artifact (crap, don't take it, I forgot boosters don't mix!), and 500 HP.
There'll be a choice of corridors leading east. Choose the bottom one, because I know the chest right after the first generator has a ghost temp (beware, do not blast it!), and before the corridor bends, there's 500 HP.
In the next room there's another 500 HP, and a God Mode.
Next room's NE corner has 500 HP, under an attack, and under THAT a scroll. Then enter the tp, cast the scroll (not, if your God Mode is still running), enter the following tp, and finish the dungeon. Beware, the exit-room has 2 demon-knight in it!

dungeon 29:
at the end, the last silver key door there'll be a hugh rom full of enemies. Get fast along the bottom and open the chests to find a temp invincibility powerup
SOLUTION: start with stepping on any trigger-stone, so you have to fight less enemies. At the end of the S-shaped corridor (basicaly the starting room) the last two chests has 500 HP.
At the top of the next labyrinth, right south of the third spawner-building is a scroll. Go down the 2nd passage to get further. At the end of the labyrinth is 500 HP, also on the next part's beginning is a Mask of Evil.
You'll reach a closed door (north), it'll have 2 siderooms. While getting further is north through the bronze key gate, these shouldn't be ignored, because the east's south chests have 500 HP and a God Mode, and the west's north has 500 HP and a Ghost Mode.
The next room has 2 Golden Key Gate, both have 500HP. You have to do the eastern part for 2 silver key.
Then go west until you reach the 2nd Silver Key Gate. The room's south has 500HP and a scroll. The room on the other side is messy, so that's where you get the ghost powerup in its south.
NOTE: the oozes likely handled as other temporaries, so speed artifacts are nulled while effected.
Wasted a lot of scrolls here :( 37 remains.

dungeon 30:
if you get thieved/die, reload. There's a good chance for both.
Take the bottom tp out for extra resources. The boss is a demonlord (ranged, fading thing).
At the end with the skeleton key stay on the left and go down.
CHESTS: when it second goes south a chest has HP. Shoot easily froma distance all other chests, they are likely a problem. Next when it goes east at the end has a God Mode.
Next you'll reach a Dangerous Room heading north. The chest between the generators has 500 HP. This room by the way is just one annoying place with nothing but enemies in it.
The next room has two rows of chests, all useless except the 2nd of NW (Mask).
Next room is west, 2nd of NW has 500HP. Middle has Ghost (if you run for it, you can clean the first's room from generators while it lasts, and using a scroll right after that makes it a safe spot).
In the labyrinth go north, then the first chance east, then stay on that side and go north.
In the first room the chest in the east contains a thief.
Second room's east has a curse.
The third room's NE will have 500 HP, sry, rly there isn't more. So especialy on TortureDungeon Diff, keep in mind casting scrolls. East has a speed powerup.
On the last room (entrance from east)'s start is 500HP, although likely will squander it. The NW chest is deadly curse. The SW chest is a Ghost.
Found the boss easier for no electric traps, only oozes. Thugh the bad news is, you must fight it, no Trick of Smaug.
NOTE: wasted 2-3 scrolls here, still have 24.
Scrolls for Turture Dungeon go left: 27 (no scrolls in the skeleton key treasury!)

[twillight]

dungeon 31:
long as hack, but there are permanent powerups? I sawa speed anda magna scroll booster w/o timer.
To get to the speed start going east, than north, than Idunno, but going north you'll see a corridor with 2 chests and 300HP at the end, and that's there. Tha Magna Scroll is on a similar place, but way further, on a southward corridor,m at the NW corner of the dungeon, and is camouflaged as a normal scroll. The perma-boost disappeared when entering the next dungeon, so the speed artifact is definitely better. To know, in case you get lost like I did, the exit is in the NE.

dungeon 32:
bloody hard, because lack of ANY manouverability. There's a precise where-to-stand but that'd be hard to describe, easy to show, but I can't screenrecord. Important to know what chest has what because of HP.
SOLUTION: run in the middle, and cast a scroll,step some further and another (not if enemy not spawned). Unlock the chest east of the demon knight generator for a God Mode.
Go north two row, and under a generator (stay in the middle) you'll find the Silver Key. Leave the dungeon going north. The chest directly at the middle of the gate has a scroll.

dungeon 33:
you have to gather 4 silver keys by destroying monster generators. Ye, this sucks, especialy in your weakened state. Especialy as most chests do not contain HP, and even at least one contains a death curse, while HP on the open is not frequent either.
The necessary chests are: SE corner, blue generator NW from the corner.
At the east side, a bit more north, under a demon knight generator.
Under a demon knight generator in the NW corner.
Under an orc axe-thrower generator which you can reach going just a bit SW from the exit.
There's SOMEWHERE a God Mode, and a Ghost if you bump into it, get best use! Destroy every demon knight spawner, and any other spawner you come accross! If you find the Circle of Death, START OPENING CHESTS as it protects you from thieves and curses! Seems it also eliminate enemy projectiles - but does not protect you from headspawning (do not stand on a generator), neither from lightning traps, so watch out.
And hope the best. At the exit the NW chest has a scroll, the NE 500 HP.
Hint: try to be systematic, and "learn" at least for the beginning where the generators are. Do not blast the chests, try your best to store up resources by them, but only touch them when you have to. The best route is to clean the SW corner, then go to the SE corner, but don't necessarily stick to the wall, but seek and destroy for generators. There are some easy-to-remember 500 HP chests, REMEMBER THEM. Also, do NOt try to destroy the whole map going left to tight, right to left! STAY on the edge of the map! From theSE go NE, then NW (specificaly for the key, so if you find an invulnerability and can beeline, DO THAT and beeline to the exit!).

dungeon 34:
the same as the previous, but you start in the middle, and the resources are better, and I found no curses.
SOLUTION: first destroy the generators and eliminate their immediate spawns. Then go south, and get to an edge, like west. Then go east, and methodicly eliminate all generators. Once the bottom row is finished you'll only have to watch one direction (north), and can open all chests. Yes, there is at least one death curse. There'sa God Mode too, when you find it, you won (concentrate on the remaining generators).
Torture Dungeon Diff Notes: this thing is bloody hard, I especialy hate the fading blue lizardpeople, the spiders, everyone with ranged attack, the electrical traps, the curses... I hate everything here. First Try to establish yourself on the spot moving closer to ONE generator of the four initial, then start to move to the SE corner where is the warp spot, which contains 2 Circle of Death. It's pretty lame, but better than nothing, so I suggest move with the first west, then return and go north with the other. Always watch the timer, and use a scroll if you're sorrounded.

dungeon 35:
this dungeon is infinite and i hate it.
I suggest go towards the left, you'll finaly get to that which leads to the boss's store-room.
The boss is some friggin ogre (axe-throwing orc), ranged, very active, very big, and there are oozes to slow you down... Maybe just squishing it w/o running around would be best. Not sure.
No idea with the skeleton key.
SOLUTION: At the start in the chest is 500 HP if needed. At the first chance go left. In the west you'll see a double corridor, choose the northern one. Watch out, do not destroy the chest in the end, it has a God Mode.
Go out of the room where you came from, go south, and follow the edge of the map to the north. It'll make an L-turn to north: in the corner will be a chest when it bends back to east, and nearby a demon knight generator. That chest has a Mask of Evil.
Stick to the left edge of the map, and get to the tp. Note: at the corner before the last corridor is a chest with a scroll. The exist also spawns 2 demon knight, but remember, the boss's room has some HP.
The skeleton key pass: first chance go NE, then south. There'll be a corridor E, but continue S. The next chance go E. Next N, and stick to that direction.
TORTURE DUNGEON SOLUTION: run in and shoot the twoarriving demon knight, then eliminate the lizard-generator. Go in and destroy the spider-spawner, then deal with the demon knight and their generator. Aside the above mentioned 500 HP chest blast all chests, they are dangerous. To get in the west-leading gate open the door, wait until the electirc trap disables, castascroll, run in, blast the generator.
You're close to the GodMode (go west), no worry. Be cautious to not blast the chest (even for the price of a scroll)! With it get back, downabit, then west. You'll reach a room with demon knights, and two chersts next to each other in a suspicious manner. One has a Ghost, pick it up. Run, run, run to catch the Mask of Evil (described above). Keep running to the exit. For the last demon knight generator cast a scroll, believe me, getting rid of the minions is the key.
Lastly, beware of the two spawning from the exit: stay in the middle to avoid destorying the HPs, and shoot.
Torture Dungeon Scroll Situation: still has 30.

dungeon 36:
the goal is to get 2 silver key, both passages have 1.
the SW tp leads to the exit (needs the 2 silver key), the NE to some HP.
SOLUTION: start south. One of the chests'll have a Mask, but first clean the way to the next room. Pick it up and enter.
New Enemy: dragons.
You need the bronze key from the middle. I suggest just rush in with the Mask, there's plenty of HP for later, and I hate the room (lacks manouverability).
The SE corner of the room has a Ghost, keep it to when you leave, so you can eliminate the generators on the corridor with ease. Why care? The second from west (end of corridor, back to the hub) has another Ghost, so you can safely clean the next corridor. Unfortunately the booster on that corridor is simply a speeder, what is useless. Well, in theory you could run in, cast a scroll, and hope to rush-destroy all the generators... Sounds reckless. It is, but it can work. The other option is to bother with the room's very inconvenient layout.
scrolls at me: 41
Torture Dungeon Notes: beeline between powerups once you started the sequence. With the 2nd Ghost DO NOT STOP TO PICK UP THE SPEEDER, instead go in to the dragons' room, and start eliminating the generators. Use scrolls to remove the enemy when the timer runs out. This is your only chance.
Some more notes here: there's a Magna Scroll on the corridor leading to the 2nd key, sounds fun if you can allow to waste some scrolls. But also canhelp if you backtrack. Not just for HP, but around the central dragon generator there is a Circle of Death, if you didn't destroy it of course.
Torture Dungeon Scroll Situation: 27 left.

dungeon 37:
the NW tp leads to the exit, requires silver keys from the other tps (they also have HP refills), but those can only be gained by triggering some doors, so start wondering around where you are.
Start going right, go until you get close to a chest/see the enemy, cast a scroll. Open the chest, and you found a scroll temporary which makes your scrolls destroy buildings. Try to get the best of this as the place is very annoying, and the enemy is ranged. I suspect the other rooms have the same feature, but can't bother, too complicated there. Just stick to one side for those.
The south room has melee monsters, thus the easiest. The north has dragons, and that's somehow feels harder. The west has ranged orcs, and they are overwhelming. Chunk them out, and retreat to patch up as needed.
SOLUTION:
West: go in, cast a scroll, run further SW, the 2nd chest is what you need: a ghost. It has enough time to clean 2 rooms. Also, right in front of the entrance is a Mask. Preserve that for now.
Next shall be south. Activate the triggerstone, then go a bit east to a chest, which has God Mode.
Next go East. Trigger the stone,and go for the Mask of Evil.
Next go North, activate the triggerstone and get out. Enter all the tps, the NW has the exit, so leave it last.
Every room open the chests along the triggerstone as there are scrolls. Never open the chests in the tp-rooms as they have armor/weapon, thus useless.

dungeon 38:
very annoying one. Chose these: right, left, left, right, right, left. This latest is super annoying, I got hurt most of the times (but worth being patient). There are only fire-oozes on this level (don't try the other way, that's for noobs to suck).

dungeon 39:
similar to the previous, so it's annoying to map.
Melee stuff is easier, so open only those doors, and choose: SE, SE, NE, NW. Shoot the chest right north of you (has a thief in it, murder it - or try to avoid touching the chest at all). To two chest on the north has all the HP you can need in them.
Pro Tip: first open the current gate, then shot the generator, THEN cast a scroll.
Torture Chamber Difficulty Status: 28 scrolls, 950+ HP, max stats, 10 souls (whatever that is).

dungeon 40:
before each room you get resources. Hope you still have keys for chests.
first room is filled with ranged orcs restricted to the walls, so get along one side slowly amushing each. Stick to the west side for the silver key.
second room has eletric plates, but only melee fading monsters (suspect they start from the alcoves too), so don't panic.
third has dragons - if still has scrolls, why not waste them.
go through the silver gate's tp for the resource-chamber of the boss. Elimininate the generators, then finish the game. Beware, if the bos hits you, it has the same effect as stepping on a lava-ooze!
Actualy, if you have like 40 scrolls, you can use them to eliminate all threats. Very convenient, especialy in the 2nd room with the invisible enemies.
Smaug has no sequence. Its behaviour is, if you are right in front of it, it spits a fireball. To be able to hit is you must be ALMOST in front of it, only a little sideways. It'll continue flying towards you, but won't correct its direction, unless out of screen. Sadly there isn't many HP in its room, and the twospeed-artifact in the northernside-chests are barely any help (and a bit dangerous with the lava-oozes around).
TRICK against Smaug: lure it on one side at the north, then run in to the other. Smaug will be stuck in the treasury (only available if you used the Silver Gate Key), and you can kill it with zero risk!

2508

Hm, there IS an outro movie before the list of crew, but can't see anything because of coding. Oh well.
Btw, Torture Chamber Diff is unlocked:
for finishing the game not just Torture Chamber Difficulty isunlocked, but you can now choose at which dungeon you want to start you adventure.
TChD diff is the same as Hard diff (monsters cause 100 HP with no stat upgrade), only the HP-timer is like three times faster.
EDIT: also seems monster/generators have incrised HP, and the generators not just spawn stuff, but they do it continuously, so I think the whole thing is entirely impossible on this difficulty in the long run. And that length is not long. I did the first two dungeons, but...

EDIT:
Hard mode won:

2509

EDIT: Torture Chamber Dungeon Difficulty won (Smaug Trick):


2510

[twillight]

Barbarian being extremly slow, is very voulnerable to thieves. Best strategy here is to get back a bit from every chest, and cast a scroll if one appears. The scrolls on begginer - unless this game totaly not suits your style - are expandable.

On begginner the enemies are few,and the generators are slow producing, many times I simply walk over crowds w/o pushing the attack button.

Dungeon 6 has no golden keys, but the skeleton keys are more than enough.
the warp spot is at the start.


As all the levels on begginer are cakewalk to me (unlike to the polish woman), tried some of the cheat-codes, namely skipping to the next level (mpthewolf), and only did the maps with the bosses.
The later stages were harder, but again on begginner maps are chokeful with resources (namely HP).
rthe barbarian's only strategy is to stand and outdamage the enemy, and it works, with the exception of Smaug, where the Smaug Trick is advisable, but even there can only be pulled off by picking up one of the speedboosters (else it is too close and can circumgo the wall).
The generators at the bosses thus őéay no factor, or in case of Smaug will be slaughtered in melee.


Oh, and if anyone needs sources, here is the polish playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0hjysaGhwM&index=1&list=PLAD7CE913D33D4C1A


If someone manages to make the outro watchable, don't be lazy to show me! (the text for it is in the cast&crew list, the intro can be seen on youtube)

[twillight]

Your pretty usualy terrible freemium game sold in shops.


It'sno that bad on the starting difficulty, but right when you try out the next one you face the unbalanced, untested state it actualy is.


The problem is, you don't get stronger by progress in the game, you don't get stronger by the game's shop, and the game heavily relies on random, which just ruins the experience.


You CAN get a stronger - if you get a shitton of ingame currency, what you can get by infinite grinding... Heared the patch helps a bit (places fixed stuff on maps, gives your STILL RANDOM first weapon sooner - TO A RANDOM PLACE so good luck picking it up), maybe a lot, but nah.
The DLC gives even more useless random stuff to the game, so avoid it like plague if you even play the game (it could have been a good game, but in its current state it's miserable).

[twillight]

Crap. I dunno if it is some new compatibility, or my spare widescreen monitor, but it doesn't start. Crap.


I'd even play this with the english dub at this point.


It is about a group of cyber-psy-soldiers fighting some alien-mutant epidemic.
You have twice the allowed manpower (8 person, 4 available for every mission) of this supersoldiers. Actualy, they are mostly twice the same, and you should not use the crappy versions.
You have Pyro who is just invaluable as can damage without ammo at periods any monster onscreen, including through walls.
There's the Strong Guy, whatever the name, he can carry equipment for you. If I'm correct he's invincible too (I mean resistant to damage, what means a shitton of extra HP in practice).
There's a medic guy.
And there's Mr. Invisible. Sometimes useful. His alternate version copies the monsters with the same effect, but the enemies are slow, he can't copy the giant monsters, and thus the skill has no duration, he's the only one I totaly avoid.
There's some explosive specialist who I don't care either, those more I don't remember.


The game has a hugh amount of variety for missions (capture the flag, kill all monsters, defend vehicle, defend scientist, hold on for X minutes, place special equipment, disable timed bomb, eliminate all sign of infestation and more), and has a badass atmosphere through mission briefings, cutscenes, and the monsters.


It was a totaly c00l game, I won't give up the hope GoG will one day resurrect it. If they add the german dub optional, I'd even give it 20 bucks for the copy. 15 for english only.

[twillight]

Some problem occured...

The company underestimated the hardware-demand of their game for Dvinity: Dragon Commander, and my Win7 system (what is pretty strong in the 32 bit department) can not handle it. At least not when it comes to the actual combat. That's unfortunate.

I'm also in the complaint phase for Divinity: Original Sin (Enhanced Edition), because GoG made that seemingly 64 bit only, and forgot to tell aboutit. There's a vague hint that they can manualy change things somehow to 32 bit system... Awkward.

So I had to fall back on reading the story on the wiki, at least for Draogn Commander, and it seems they for the majority retconned the lore from Divine Divinity. No world-created-by-god-of-chaos, heck, maybe not even Seven Gods ever existed.
Of course no "original healer"-or-who ever mentioned again who gave the Helaers their powers, or created that magic-force-dome for the world the Healers draw their power from...
And I suspect the archmage/healer machinating in Divine Divinity got changed by name for Dragon Commander - at least the two look suspiciously similar, with suspiciously similar powers, significance, meddling, blurred origin and more...

Still a good series, and by the look of it Dragon Commander would bean ok-plus game after you decipher how to actualy play it... But I'd welcome some more consistent lore.


------------


Divinity: Original Sin
After some trouble with Enhanced Edition being 64 bit, the original edition being 32 bit, my system being 32 bit, managed to instal the game.
The character creation ... caused some problems as almost no walkthrough exists, and not even the manual contains any of the usual info, like what the skills are, what they do...
And the wikia is not prarticularly arranged either. More problems, that the differences between the two versions (original and enhanced) are not particularly listed. I thought it's only that with the original version you can't dual-wield, but no, skills/spells are either renamed or added, as could not find Regeneration...


Still, managed to make a physical attacker, and a semi-useful mage (has summon spider, some magic attack, and a healing spell), will use only 2 NPC, one being the crafter/blacksmith/barter/identifier, so the Utility Guy.


Crap, NOTE TO MYSELF: pick thePet Talk (speak with animals) perk when it'll be possible!


The good news is, the game in theory plays. Will look into the whole thing later.

[Smiling Spectre]

not even the manual contains any of the usual info, like what the skills are, what they do...
Um, didn't they explained right in game, during selecting it? (I forgot, it was too long ago...)
And the wikia is not prarticularly arranged either. More problems, that the differences between the two versions (original and enhanced) are not particularly listed. I thought it's only that with the original version you can't dual-wield, but no, skills/spells are either renamed or added, as could not find Regeneration...
Actually, you will get access to the Pocket Plane somewhere in the first third of the game - and it will allow you to re-arrange your skills/attributes as you want, as I remember. There are no fixed classes here for main heroes, only presets.

[twillight]

Um, didn't they explained right in game, during selecting it? (I forgot, it was too long ago...)

Actually, you will get access to the Pocket Plane somewhere in the first third of the game - and it will allow you to re-arrange your skills/attributes as you want, as I remember. There are no fixed classes here for main heroes, only presets.


No, unlike in the previous instalments, they didn't. And even previously you could only see the first unlocked tear.


Also, while the classes are not fixed (what is true, like for all the parts of the franchise), I read you loose all learnt spells etc., what is less than desirable.
And to be honest my style of gaming relies heavily on meta knowledge :p

[Smiling Spectre]

Also, while the classes are not fixed (what is true, like for all the parts of the franchise), I read you loose all learnt spells etc., what is less than desirable.
Ah, really. I forgot. (They removed this bit in DOS2, BTW). But it's spells only, I believe. And spells are only money. And you will not have shortage of money in second part of the game. ;)

[twillight]

Lol, accidentaly removed Diablo 2 from my comp. Solves thatissue.


Triedto install Diablo: Hellfire, but it had some weird bug where it wanned more free space on the virtual drive - another thing I won't touch ever again I assume.
Diablo was a stupid game anyway, and Blizzard obviously only picked itup afterall those years because of their many losses.

[Mystvan]

Lol, accidentaly removed Diablo 2 from my comp. Solves thatissue.


Triedto install Diablo: Hellfire, but it had some weird bug where it wanned more free space on the virtual drive - another thing I won't touch ever again I assume.
Diablo was a stupid game anyway, and Blizzard obviously only picked itup afterall those years because of their many losses.



To tell the truth, I do not believe / think you missed much of anything by “accidentally” removing Diablo from your Desktop...

It will save you from many bugs and waste of time. However, I suspect that my words and opinions are biased and not “valid” since I am a former fan of the Diablo series... *shrug* :dunno:

[Smiling Spectre]

Install now Path of Exile and waste a lot of time again. Mua-ha-ha.

[twillight]

To tell the truth, I do not believe / think you missed much of anything by “accidentally” removing Diablo from your Desktop...

It will save you from many bugs and waste of time. However, I suspect that my words and opinions are biased and not “valid” since I am a former fan of the Diablo series... *shrug* :dunno:


I don't think either. Itjust felt so comfortable knowing I could without fuss, in an instant pull them out again.
They are not just buggy, but primaly BORING as heck.


Unfortunately, Path of Exile I bet can not run on my system.


I'll at a time do a blind run with Divinity Original Sin I, but not sure when.
Aside these, I don't rly have any games in my library to play. Sure, would be nice to nkow the story of G.O.L.E.M. (last race/difficulty remained unplayed), and sure Bladies (for which I lost my saves, and I think even the CD) would be nice to play, although I know that's hopeless (stuck forever on Pharao Mask level).


I'll just read ancient Superman comics for a while I think.
And maybe rewatch Bionaic Woman (2007).
Oh, and I should progress with Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I did the 0, 1, 2 parts, but there are still 3700+ pages left...

[Smiling Spectre]

Unfortunately, Path of Exile I bet can not run on my system.
Well, this reply was for Mystvan mostly, but if you really intended to - try it. It's quite merciful to resources. At least it freezes on my system _orders_ less than D:OS2, and never grab so much processor times since new (3.0) build.

Drawback here is that it "starts playing" long before all textures loaded (easily detected by heavily working HDD and missing pictures in the inventory), so while it "works", actually it needs another minute or two to chew all data. But after that it quite light-loaded and responsive for all session. And it's info for a common SATA, not a solid drive.

Oh, and it's always online, if it matters for you, so sometimes can be unstable. Very rarely though.

[Mystvan]

Install now Path of Exile and waste a lot of time again. Mua-ha-ha.





Well, this reply was for Mystvan mostly, but if you really intended to - try it. It's quite merciful to resources. At least it freezes on my system _orders_ less than D:OS2, and never grab so much processor times since new (3.0) build.

Drawback here is that it "starts playing" long before all textures loaded (easily detected by heavily working HDD and missing pictures in the inventory), so while it "works", actually it needs another minute or two to chew all data. But after that it quite light-loaded and responsive for all session. And it's info for a common SATA, not a solid drive.

Oh, and it's always online, if it matters for you, so sometimes can be unstable. Very rarely though.



Ugh !!! Looks like a Nightmare! :sick: I appreciate your suggestion, but no thanks! :whops: :ouch:

I think the game should be renamed to Path to Hell. Or maybe the name is correct because it would be Path to Exile because the player / gamer would not have much patience and the game would literally be for Exile (uninstall) or Trash Can / Recycle Bin... :horse: :toilet:

[Smiling Spectre]

Well, it whole orders more involving than Diablo II for me. And you said you are fan of D2! Heretic! :P

Actually, it's easily can be finished in 2-3 weeks, on pace 1-2 hours per day, if you want the plot part only. But suit yourself, of course. :)

[Mystvan]

I'll at a time do a blind run with Divinity Original Sin I, but not sure when.
Aside these, I don't rly have any games in my library to play. Sure, would be nice to nkow the story of G.O.L.E.M. (last race/difficulty remained unplayed), and sure Bladies (for which I lost my saves, and I think even the CD) would be nice to play, although I know that's hopeless (stuck forever on Pharao Mask level).



Well, it is very unfortunate that some developers are so childish and stupid to develop games, phases, puzzles humanly difficult to solve. Is this fun and encourages you to continue playing such game? :wall: :hairpull: :headslap: :palm:

The last puzzle of Legend of Kyrandia II, before the end of the game, the last 02 puzzles of the Machinarium, some puzzles in Adventure game such as Syberia II, etc. are “complex” without Walkthrough.

Although, some gamers disagree with me, I am clearly in favor of using any means of circumventing these annoyances so that you do not get stuck in a phase. :wall:

It would be a lot of frustration, waste of money and waste of time when you can not finish a game. Well, that would be my personal opinion. *shrug*

Ugh... I managed to solve the damn Puzzle in Forest of Solitude (Chocobo Forest), a Side Quest in FFVIII, because I bought $$$$$ the “blessed” Walkthrough / Guide published by Brady Games years ago.



Well, it whole orders more involving than Diablo II for me. And you said you are fan of D2! Heretic! :P

Actually, it's easily can be finished in 2-3 weeks, on pace 1-2 hours per day, if you want the plot part only. But suit yourself, of course. :)



Yes, I’ve been a fan of Diablo and Diablo II, but there are better RPG games... ;) :OK: I hated it when you can not save the game when your character is in a place and needs to restart and face all those monsters again in Diablo II. :sick:

If at least the Diablo II save system was like Diablo’s (save where, when you stopped playing it) or save after a Check Point, it would be smarter and fairer in my opinion. :idea: Well, matter of opinion and personal taste. *shrug*

[twillight]

It would be a lot of frustration, waste of money and waste of time when you can not finish a game. Well, that would be my personal opinion. *shrug*


Well, I'm not sure what u refer here exactly, but let me share my 5 cents.
I rely (heavily) on walkthroughs because:
- most games (like 90-99%) which have quest-system rely on two things: a) high enough level from quests b) quests which conflict with each other if you don't do them in the right order, so Quest A cancels Quest B easily. This is obviously donetoforce you to buy "official guides" and crap, even in the Age Of Internet. It's dumb, but it exists.
Many times grinding is not even possible as substitute.

- I am a bad gamer. Or at least not good. Idefintely lkack the skills to win a first person shooter multiplayer game, or any other game built on the first Quake's method. Thus I have to rely on tried methods. Sure, I adapt the guides to my own liking, but I definitely need support. So the games for me transform into some kinda interactive novels instead of the intended games.
Which is in a way bad, but on the other hand I don't realy mind.


Now none of the games I mentioned fall into this category.
Baldies almost surely has nothing special when you beat the last level. Sure, as I consider myself a pro in that game that's kinda bad news, but to be honest, that game has like 3 strategies for a hundred level, so who realy cares?
And for G.O.L.E.M. I'd need a crapload of times to do the last difficulty, but that game rly has like 1 startegy for all the levels (only with minor variation in units), and in theory the three stories are probably intended to be independent... But I felt excitement to interwave them. But it's darn repetitve in all respect, so I just drifted away years ago.


the last game I tried to solve w/o walkthrough was Maniac Mansion, but it was complex, I didn't rly speak english, it was looong (timed events and crap), no idea of the use of characters, and it even had bugs and unsolvable turn of events (getting captured too soon, turning the telescope the wrong way etc.).
I had to solve games like Warcraft 1, or Total Annihilation kingdoms myself, but even Heroes of Might and Magic 3 I only went relying on myself until a beastmaster level which took me literaly monthes to solve (I got into a twofront war, transporting my entire army all across the map every stupid turn).
Then I realised Fog of War is a stupid thing, and I only have like 10 fingers, and my reaction time isn't that great (for normal life it is perfectly fine, I'm just not to the point of jet-pilot), and I notoriously avoid using extra programs (clickbots, maphacks, etc), which all culminates to falling back on abandonedware :ph34r:

[Mystvan]

Well, it whole orders more involving than Diablo II for me. And you said you are fan of D2! Heretic! :P

Actually, it's easily can be finished in 2-3 weeks, on pace 1-2 hours per day, if you want the plot part only. But suit yourself, of course. :)



Hmmm... :mhh: I think I would not even have to play Baldies to get baldie... :hairpull: :tease: Just playing this “blessed” game... :whops: :wacko:

I was a fan of the Diablo series because the story, the Characters interested me a lot. I kept reading the background of the Characters (NPCs), Religious Orders, Angels, Demons, etc. on The Arreat Summit (http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/) years ago.

But after Blizzard’s bad joke of transforming the Diablo into a Shounen character (Diablo III and Expansion), I was very disappointed. It was really a waste of money and time for me.





Well, I'm not sure what u refer here exactly, but let me share my 5 cents.
I rely (heavily) on walkthroughs because:
- most games (like 90-99%) which have quest-system rely on two things: a) high enough level from quests b) quests which conflict with each other if you don't do them in the right order, so Quest A cancels Quest B easily. This is obviously donetoforce you to buy "official guides" and crap, even in the Age Of Internet. It's dumb, but it exists.
Many times grinding is not even possible as substitute.

- I am a bad gamer. Or at least not good. Idefintely lkack the skills to win a first person shooter multiplayer game, or any other game built on the first Quake's method. Thus I have to rely on tried methods. Sure, I adapt the guides to my own liking, but I definitely need support. So the games for me transform into some kinda interactive novels instead of the intended games.
Which is in a way bad, but on the other hand I don't realy mind.


Now none of the games I mentioned fall into this category.
Baldies almost surely has nothing special when you beat the last level. Sure, as I consider myself a pro in that game that's kinda bad news, but to be honest, that game has like 3 strategies for a hundred level, so who realy cares?
And for G.O.L.E.M. I'd need a crapload of times to do the last difficulty, but that game rly has like 1 startegy for all the levels (only with minor variation in units), and in theory the three stories are probably intended to be independent... But I felt excitement to interwave them. But it's darn repetitve in all respect, so I just drifted away years ago.


the last game I tried to solve w/o walkthrough was Maniac Mansion, but it was complex, I didn't rly speak english, it was looong (timed events and crap), no idea of the use of characters, and it even had bugs and unsolvable turn of events (getting captured too soon, turning the telescope the wrong way etc.).
I had to solve games like Warcraft 1, or Total Annihilation kingdoms myself, but even Heroes of Might and Magic 3 I only went relying on myself until a beastmaster level which took me literaly monthes to solve (I got into a twofront war, transporting my entire army all across the map every stupid turn).
Then I realised Fog of War is a stupid thing, and I only have like 10 fingers, and my reaction time isn't that great (for normal life it is perfectly fine, I'm just not to the point of jet-pilot), and I notoriously avoid using extra programs (clickbots, maphacks, etc), which all culminates to falling back on abandonedware :ph34r:





I think I have “normal” (??) abilities, but I do not have the patience to keep repeating the same thing, phase, etc. several times. For me, it would be pure waste of time and nothing practical.

I would use Cheats such as Walkthrough, Cheat Codes, Savegame Editors, Trainers, as I have more interest in Plot, Storyline, Characters, Music, etc. than showing Dexterity, Expertise.

[Smiling Spectre]

The last puzzle of Legend of Kyrandia II, before the end of the game, the last 02 puzzles of the Machinarium, some puzzles in Adventure game such as Syberia II, etc. are “complex” without Walkthrough.

Although, some gamers disagree with me
You knew. :P
Yes, I’ve been a fan of Diablo and Diablo II, but there are better RPG games... ;)
It depends on what do you name "better". :) While there _are_ better games in different areas, Diablo established and D2 improved "standard" of what can be named now "Diablo-like RPG". I.e. main goal is the character and his loot. Monsters and even plot only secondary to it. And in this area not much RPG can overrun Diablo 2. PoE - can, easily.
:OK: I hated it when you can not save the game when your character is in a place and needs to restart and face all those monsters again in Diablo II. :sick:
Then no, you will not enjoy PoE, unfortunately. Monster respawn is the core gameplay (how could you get all this loot otherwise?), so cannot be removed.

...But all of them are quite weak monsters...
I was a fan of the Diablo series because the story, the Characters interested me a lot. I kept reading the background of the Characters (NPCs), Religious Orders, Angels, Demons, etc. on
Then you still _can_ enjoy PoE. There are _a lot_ of such info, as integrated into plot, as presenting in item lore, at NPC, etc. Again: stick to plot only to avoid too much frustration. :)

[Mystvan]

You knew. :P

It depends on what do you name "better". :) While there _are_ better games in different areas, Diablo established and D2 improved "standard" of what can be named now "Diablo-like RPG". I.e. main goal is the character and his loot. Monsters and even plot only secondary to it. And in this area not much RPG can overrun Diablo 2. PoE - can, easily.

Then no, you will not enjoy PoE, unfortunately. Monster respawn is the core gameplay (how could you get all this loot otherwise?), so cannot be removed.

...But all of them are quite weak monsters...

Then you still _can_ enjoy PoE. There are _a lot_ of such info, as integrated into plot, as presenting in item lore, at NPC, etc. Again: stick to plot only to avoid too much frustration. :)



Hmmm ... Yes, I remember that twillight mentioned the term “hack-’n-slash”, typical in Diablo series in which the MC (Main Character) needs to eliminate the monsters, loot treasure and items, and the respawn of monsters allows enrichment and increase of MC’s level and skills.

However, the Drakensang series, although focusing heavily on the plot / storyline, side quests, also allows the respawn of monsters except for bosses that have been defeated and related cut-scenes. :OK:

I do not remember if the Dragon Age series had these characteristics as well. I almost completely forgot the details of when I played (at the time I was not feeling well years ago :sick:)... And another thing, EA had made an Official Savegame Editor available to anyone who wants to use and cheat... Although some things do not work well as increase the affection of your companions for MC... Well, it can’t be helped... *shrug*

Well, I already played not using cheats when playing Action, Platform, Strategy and Simulators, but I preferred the method easier, faster and more practical now.

Ugh! :sick: I increased the levels and abilities of the Characters in the game named Brave Soul by playing for several hours :smugulon: :roll: (without using cheats except at the beginning of the game as the Editor or Trainer increased the level only partially) and added unavailable information (about Items) in Guides and Walkthroughs available at that time.

[twillight]

I always wondered how such a perfectly Free To Play game can exist.
You can win everything (if you pass some frustrating early grinding) without paying anything, and it is fun, and nice, and even the play-limiting charges last a long time (especialy considering battery charges).
Mentioning battery: it doesn't drain it like a hungry vampire, and if it deplets, you don't loose your progress, or your entire game (Plants vs Zombies 2 had such problem...).


The problem of the game is, it can not be extended indefinitely, because it doesn't rely exclusively on random and consumables (stuff you pay for), and most of the updates always were just putting more armor on the attackers.



But the latest update rly started to turn things into True 'Free' To Play, aka. Pay To Win.
The newly introduced Challenge Levels are damn annoying, the newest consumable is way too rare to find normaly, and doesn't even help in agood portion of those levels.
The newest shop-items depend on the Challenge Levels where you can not use them, and I'm not even convinced of their usefulness.


Not to mention the storyline was thin already, but these cutsy new animal enemies are making it paperthin. It can be they are the result of the ufos and the mad scientist's combined effort, but I'd need something substantial for this aside the bosses, pls.

[twillight]

This idea is dumb, so I like the challenge.
I pick the unit-strenghtening abilities instead of the obvious mana-centered build, because why not. Will give a full list later.
Also, will max the units before stepping further each time. This will be a bit convoluted as Darkdog has a lot of spells cast from food, but whatever.

Until clvl 12 I could max the chicken totem, and 10 point in Warry (it stuns the enemy in range at the moment for period).
Had to exp/itemhunt up for lvl 18 to clvl 16,and used in sum +5 food amulets, and a Flame Blade. Thor's Hammer ate too much mana, the Ice Sword didn't do enough damage.
NOTE: because Warcry is crappy, started to invest into Boar, when finished the level, had it on slvl 9.

At lvl 22 I had to rush and unlock the Whale to make my totems permanent. It's realy a problem the Boar can only have as much attack as the chickens, and the next two units are not attack unit, but a healer totem, and an instant spell. And the warcry is a lot useless. So I'll have to strech a bit as needed I think.Currently have 10 in Boar already as they can work as meat shield for a small time, while the chickens are ranged.

At lvl 2/11 could win wild combination what I have, but couldn't win by 3 star because of the hawaiian stone heads. This means I'll have to unlock and use the Blade skill already... The problem is for this, have to get an expanded food pool, which I got not amongst the options until now during clvl 24 (each lvlup gives you 3 random choice from the whole pool). So I'll have to go back lvling.

For lvl 2/11 needed chickens, lvl 1 Whale, lvl 9 Summon Blade.

2/18 done with 19 Warcry, 16 Boar, 10 Blade. (Equipment: +3 flame sword, +13 food)

3/6 was another wall. Had to unlock Earth Totem, and have 17 in Summon Blade (and luck) to succeed. Note for this: have 200 max food, whatis kinda important for buffer. base swordis +6, flame sword is +5. +16 food from jewelry.
Aside this my major strategy for this build is to put down zounds of chicken ASAP, support themwith 1-2 whale, and stand back. Works on ranged enemy levels too, only have to stand a bit further, so the enemy comes out of the cave and can be hit.

3/13 caused a lot of problem, but gave the advantage to buff up my skills.SummonBlade got maxed, Chicken, Warcry, Boar was already, Whale is 13, Earth Totem (Bull from now on) is 14.
This is one of the sucker-levels,wherethe time-limit for 3 stars are shortened.

For 3/19 I was worried lacking any real power on Darkdog itself. Despite this, I tried, and got ok until Isaw the end line. There I just panicked and started smashing buttons: summon allchicken, and some boar - the boar managed to very very slow the trojan horse, while Iswinged mindlessly behind the cover of a Bull. Also used Blade to eliminate threats. Darn, I'll never look back to this.

For 4/2 had to grind up again. Blade is maxed, whale 15 and bull are 18.

Crap. 4/5 seems beyond my attack capability. Will have to unlock Eagle.
When done whale was maxed, bull 19, fire eagle is 6. Btw, eagle DOES get healed by whale, only it has almost no HP (like third of chicken), so it is very voulnerable. And Idon't care it for the enemy being invincible. In a crowd chickens are invincible too.

To slow down the next trojan horse used boar, for damage used eagle. It requires to catch the rythm, but solvable. Don't mind the giant skeleton boss minion, let it pass. +19 food, +9 flame sword.

The fok? With 3:54 level 4/11 is still only 2 star worth! That's ridiculous!
And I don't even know how I achieved this. Seems I found two major problems with the units: the whales do not add up, and the eagle somehow gets hurt when stepping out of protection, and the whale only enough to keep its HP not dropping, but they can not regenerate them.
Well, taken some risks, all maxed, eagle 16, +25 food, managed to pass it for 3 stars.
NOTE: turns out the whales are just really shitty healers when it comes to the eagle. Have to keep 2 running simultenously to heal them proper. Seems they do add up after all.

For 5-13 had to start using the dragon totem. The spear skeletons are just too advanced. Not that it ment any trouble, eagle being already maxed out, and had some leftover gold for the purpose.
I wonder if I'll atall need the last skill with this one.

For 5-17 I needed lvl 8dragon totem. Or I was friggin lucky not needing more, or even the last skill. Those spammed footbal-zombies, and ghost-paladogs are friggin annoying.

5-22: had to lvl 15 dragon totem. No more was needed to finish the game.

[twillight]

So, because why not, I planned the ultimate challenge setup. Well, unless you want to duplicate classes in your group, in what case I meh you. Go ahead and do a full monk party using only unarmed combat!

So, this party would consist:
- knight, thief, monk, ranger. Prime factor was to eliminate all the super-cheesey spells, like invisibility, and town portal. Ranger still provides Water Walk, so could be changed to Paladin, but that's a good healer, strong fighter, and would mess with the balance of the party. Also, it has Protection From Magic, which means immunity to all conditions, so I'd just go with Ranger.
- evil party, because if I'm correct, good-doers at some quest has to use invisibility to avoid combat, and that'd be a nuisance.
- to spare need of skillpoints, and because the Loot The Emerald Island Dragon Trick, hire a scholar (ID item), and an alchemist (repair item).

Skills:
knight: spear, sword, plate, bow, merchant, learning, body building, arms master. Skillpoints in demand: 288 (more, if you don't hire alchemist)
thief: dagger, sword, leather, bow, merchant, learning, body building, arms master, disarm trap, alchemy. Skillpoints in demand: 279 (more, and less effective if not hire a scholar)
monk: unarmed, dodging, bow, learning, body building, arms master, spirit, mind, body. Skillpoints in demand: 270 + staff gm (dualwields with unarmed -don't ask)
ranger: axe, shield, chain, bow, merchant, learning, body building, arms master, perception, meditation, fire, water, air, earth, ID monster (Ik now it's a dump-skill). Skillpoints in demand: 261

Artifacts and relics:
knight: gibbet, puck, yoruba
thief: hareck's leather, old nick, corsair (this is why the character learns swords, otherwise go with two daggers)
monk: hand of the master, ania's selving
ranger: governor's armor, ghoulsbane (or amuck. Not sure which is twohanded), ulysses, kelebrim
~class independent: hermes' sandals, seven league boots, forge gauntlets (dwarf only, quest reward), lady's escort (female only), hero's belt (male only), cloak of the sheep (quest reward), twilight cloak (maybe), the perfect bow (quest reward, likely you're better off with a random magic bow)
Too bad of course there's that 13 artifact limit.


2511

From the possible skills Emerald Island does not teach bow, or chain mail. Neither spear or staff, but those're twohanded option, which I don't need with this party. And while armor skills come with their respective basic item, I just love merchant to get ASAP.
Also remember: the dragonflies respawn, the things in the dungeon do not, so start the mayhem there. The next thing is to get merchant to everyone, hire a Scholar, buy membership of the magic guilds. One of the wells heals you - if you run out of charges, go to the training center and trian ONE character ONCE. If/When you have to money, learn armor skills. When you have no other remaining option left, go and defeat and loot the dragon, then buy all possible skills, spells and whatnot to finaly leave the island.
I don't get the wand from the competitor, because I did in my first game, and found it useless and annoying.



I might not be able to play this game though, as I feel I get computer sickness (aversion of sea-sickness)

[twillight]

1: the common agreement is, get 1 from everything, sex and race don't come to play, for the first 3 places put the melee fighters.
I don't like the sound of this game because the way of healing is by resting, and that has a random encounter chance, what practicaly means your party is executed.
Also, casting using gems sounds stupid.



2: I heared a lot of pre-plannig is demanded, because thereare things only men or women can hit... Sounds too much fuss.
Has a random time travel element (random is always bad), gem-casting... Not attractive by modern standards.


3: there appear skills, and sounds like resting is mostly fixed? Still heared start with the pre-made party like all the previous installments, because the game at the beginning is harsh, and because all the random numbers it is hard to create characters manualy.
Still uses the stupid gem-casting system.


4/5 (World of Xeen): this finaly looks like how they all should.
The race-advantages seem obvious, and judging the class descriptions there is a normal and an advanced version for all slots. Like Barbarian is an advananced but more restricted (aka. specialized) version of knight, rangers are modified druids, etc. Though I wouldn't pick ninja, because the only way to max out on thievery is using a Robber. Obviously for the same reason keep sorcerer/cleric in any party if you don't go for challenges.


6: there are ... not that many differences between the classes. Also, you gain a heckaton of spell points, and the spells are rock hard, so schoose paladin over knight.
Cleric and sorcerer in any group are obvious choice, and with metaknowledge and pre-planning you'll get light AND dark magic for them. Better for the most part make each specialize in one realm of those two though (make a chart of skill point which should invest in which).
Because of skill point limitations and strenght of the light/dark spells druid infinitely sucks, while Archer is an ok support character.
the mostcommon Challenge Party Build is knight/knight/knight/knight, because of the lack of spells entirely. Some tend to do a "let 3 character die" run, but I find that stupid beyond measure.
Advantage ofthe game is, it is hugh, and feels epic.



8: ye, as this one is way easier to make the case than 7. The problem is twofold, aside the generaly poor design (what is mostly because rushed production). One: you start with 1 character, and have to pick the rest later, some of which are available very far in the game (especialy troll. you just get trolled by that). Two: you start in a heavily attacked area with constant, infinitely respawning, not weakling enemies, while firestormis even hailing on you. That sounds like you need a character with though skin and musclues RIGHT NOW. So start with troll, or you're most probably dead before taking three steps.

Also, the dragon while not a starter race (there are no classes anymore for some reason) is friggin overpowered with its no-mana AoE-attack and stuff.

The game is not entirely a waste, but is very straightforward, not fitting in the open world design of the series.



7: this has the most variations when it comes to party building.
The game itself is fun, but has SOME flaws. There is the problem of gaining Town Portal as bare minimum is very far in the story, because of a difficulty peak, what feels unusual after MM6. Then there is the Invisibility spell, what is while necessary, and narratively connected, just feels cheap. Then there is the first maybe third of the game where you'll face a ton of timed events, what just gets in the way constantly.
The preset party is probably the strongest, partly because spells are changed since MM6, so not that useful, and apaldins don't gain that much HP either. So a combination of cleric with knight is awesome, because the spell Shared Life is very overpower.
Sorcerer is again a powerhouse when it is not unconsious, and thief is like a glass cannon. Shields are no longer the best choice either, so dualwield for it and knight is advisable. Stealing is stupid though, not just because there's no indication of the chances, and always being a chance to get caught, but for the fact that MM7 shops don't have good stuff to sell unlike some MM6 shops. Also, that dragon is very much defeatable at the start,and you can loot it through your nose, and believe me, players do.
There is also the problem of advancing your skills, because the teachers are many times are behind difficulty peaks. So while certain classes seem viable alternatives on paper, like monks with their unarmed combat, they are a though choice to make because of that.
Archer pretty much don't have an advantage inany field, and Ranger is only there if you realy sruggle in the early phases.
And druid is just bad with all its lame promotionquests, bad weapon choice (youwant to give dagger to the thief, not the druid), lack of dark/light magic... Still ONCE picking it along the dark path is fun, for the dragon familiar. It does nothing (appears as an extra hireling if I recall correctly), but it's cool.

[twillight]

Thought I'll give another chance to pokemon trying a later installment - the latest I found was Diamon. Then I found out it got rmeoved, or otherwise unaccessible.


Well, I tried Nintendo, I tried. But I can't make myself to like your products.

[twillight]

Ok, so I found a later instalment, had to settle for this.

Man, this game is terrible. Not because it is bad, although it IS bad with its serious design flaws, but terrible because this is THE EXACT SAME GAME to the point of dialogues as the Red/Blue/Yellow versions. There is only 1 pokemon game, and many versions of it.

You want to build your own team? Fuck you, says the game, because you have very limited options.
The game is also very linear,youcan't just go around.
You also desperatly need meta-knowledge because of all the limitations.
There's no infinite money either, which for all random based games should be a must. Given that the items disappear after 1 use, this is again a crappy design.

Also, while this is supposedly a gen 2 game, two third you encounter early are gen1 pocket monsters. WHY?
The options for the crew is limited further by the available skills. I mean, why is it so hard to understand I want eg. an earth type with EARTH move?
There's also the vastly unfinished quest of the unowns.

The graphics is also the same as red/blue/green/yellow, only given some very ugly colouration.

Oh, and I didn't mention: there's a day-night cycle now! Ye, limit the accessibility of the already thin options further! That'll show 'em!

----------

Other problems here are:
- the game is way too simple, no backtrack, no fun
- some special moves are demanded very soon, so you either put in an HM-slave, or make the sacrifice. I use as starter chicorita, so I can do the sacrifice, lucky me (did not plan for this)

- there are some stupid local contest - on certain gamedays. I could care less keepinga tab on those
- there's a guy who makes free pokeballs. I have no idea what type of raw material does what, and I even forgot about the guy because it uses the daynight cycle toproduce the result, what is just stupid.
- half the game is actualy post-game. You heared right: you win the champion league, and you have an equal amount of game to play still. That's stupid. Well, betterthan going in some cave, and throwing the masterball on MU2...

With all the double-types, and limitations,and crap, I have no idea how good my team is. I currently use 4 pokemon, and carry a 5th in case of disaster: bayleef, machoke, graveler, pidgeot. I'll need an HM-slave to learn surf, because w/o the red gyarados the progress is blocked, and for that surf is demanded. That's stupid. And my surfer would be Sneazel, what is a gen 2 pokemon, but is in the post-game only, in the gen1 territory! That's just stupid.
My 5th pokemon will actualy be jynx, and the 6th against the elite4 likely after all the above crap the legendary mon. If I don't quit sooner of course.

Oh, the game notoriously strips you from your money too, and the ghost-gym just lubs to make all your pokemon sleep, then murder them. That's very stupid.

----------

So, the game is not even consequent. Not all items are one-times. The exp-share is continuous. But is an item which must be held. And it is also bugged, because it does not share exp if you only used 1 pokemon in the battel - then it multiplies the exp be 1.5. Genious. Oh,and itdoes not share exp for the whole group unlike gen1 games. No, it only shares between the fighter(s) and the holder!
Btw, found out umbreon is a thing here, so fok sneasel. But creating an umbreon is a pain in the arse.

Training my eevee diverted my attention, so my pidgey(ot) remained semi-low. Had to spice things up, and make it lvl 29 to beat the fighting gym on that island. Could have used just the stupid gyarados, but don't wanna. I'll probably suck, because that gyarados is overpovered again.


And that fokin' "friendship"-system is ultimately borken. Unless you get a friendship-ball, which I doubt appears in this game - ok, does, but fuck knows, and gaining it from all the acorns would mean a week or more doing nothing -you have just no chance. And if you are working with a shitty bought-in-the-shop pokemon, like eevee, then you're screwed for good to walk up-and-down for hours, doing nothing.
Ye, in theory you could go and level up your mon, but that'll ruin the gainable abilities, so fuck Nintendo.

-----------

As far as I can see the main problemwith these "games", is:
- there is no difficulty, only grinding
- 90-99% of the game you meet pathetic, negligable enemies who don't even count as filler
- sometimes you meet enemies the same level as all the other enemies, but they are 10 times tougher in every aspect than the others. And it's not about type advantage, or other bullshit, because you still have that by the charts
- oh yeah, these games heavily rely on serious amount of meta-knowlegde
- but the games don't come with a manual
- the games do not give you ANY informations about what to do. I mean how to win. I mean the stupid Elite Four and other final enemies. Given that the grinding is heavy, most of the exp comes from trainers you can't re-battle (where the average fight gives you 100 exp, a trainer-fight gives you 2,000 per pokemon!), it is realy shitty thing.

Comparsion of Red/etc. vs Gold/etc. Red has way more things to discover, and however annoying you do meet the rival at significant points, and crap.
On the other hand, Gold might have more reasonable puzzles.

Crap in Gold: one location of the transition houses (the bug garden's) takes away your bike. It's way better than Red/etc. which does this at each building of course, still, this is an oversight.
The Ice Path cave does not demand Flash. Another oversight.
Thias fokin' piece of shite gives you a lvl 20 ice stuff where your team is lvl 40, and the ice is the demanded type for the local gym. Just fok off game.
There's way too few EXP in the game, and let's mention you constantly have to use surf,and other crappy HM-moves, so likely can't go by full party mostof the times. Yes, there's anHM-remover NPC in the game, but itisn't as big a help as you can't just store your abilities in a pool, theyare a now-or-never offer at lvlups.
Oh man, Johto doesn't even has its own League. The League is again in Kanto. How lame. It is also fokin far away from anything, and there's nothing to grind you up aside pathetic lvl 10 wild mons, which feels like when South Park went WoW. So fok you game.

Yet another problem is, the game is highly luck-based, but w/o any pay-to-win variation even. Tostart with the legendaries, you either capture them as the first move (or have a fast pokemon which can make it sleep, and succeeds with it too, because those never hit 100%), or they are gone for good.
Then there's the fokin champion league. Every fight is practicaly a 1HKO match, and is randomised, and the things have such moves wich contradict all preparation - making the whole thing entirely luck-based.
Given the waypoint-system, distances, the number of fights and so on, your chance to win legit any of these game is negligable, maybe 2%, or less. Unless you seriously overlevel of course.


-------------


Well, with a lvl 40 (as average) team, beat it:


2513


The team when going in, and when leaving:
graveler: lvl 38/39, magnitude, rock throw, rollout, strength

umbreon, the Dark Lord: 41/45, quick attack, tail whip, faint attack, bite

meganium: 41/41, cut, flash, razor leaf, body slam

jynx: 40/41, lick (removed atlevelup for body slam), lovely kiss (was absolutely vital to beat houndoom and charizard, very cheap move), powder snow, ice punch

pidgeott: 40/41, wing attack, fly, sand attack, quick attack (this is a good finisher in desperate situations)

machoke: 41/42, rock smash, leer, seismic toss, karate chop


Status moves in this game aside sleep are not worth it. From the enemy the confusion effect was used,and that's annoying. Some burn also happened, almost negligable. Poison happens too, but way less than in the first games, so that's almost ok.



Aside the mons items used in the final challenge: a lot of healing potions and superpotions. Actualy all that I found in the game. Around halfway found a nice mapping what was not that much needed, but helped find the hidden items (which I mostly did not use). With 1-2 superpotion (50 HP) exception allwere used before the last fight.
Had to revive twice: that Foretress obviously blew up, and the gengar made a "we both die" curse. My HP not being way too high, did not use max heal/hyper potions to replenish those, only normal potions.


To be honest, I'm somewhat proud.


But the post-game... I looked it up a Let'splay, and it is completly empty, like the Dargon Cave, that other cave, the Unown quests... These all feel unfinished.
The post-game only has empty streets, another set of gym-battles, and a final fight against the previous game's protagonist, who has stupidly high (ca. lvl 80) crew, so fok that I say. Sure, even w/ the empty streets that's a challenge for the grind-baring dedicetd people, but could have been for everyone if they'd give enough exp there. Also, the majority of the pokemons are not found in the story-mode (although if you want some stuff from the Victory Road you can grab them as soon as you have surf, but nah).

[twillight]

As there is only 1 pokemon game, I don't want to invest in them any more, but I can check out some reviews how the series changed.
And I do mean the game series.
The anime has nothing to do with the games' canon, or progress, or mostly anything.

So, there was red/green/yellow/blue/pikachu/eeevee/firered/leafgreen. It was a grindfest, but the idea was good considering the technical limitations, it even delivered for its time, I think. The definitive version is Red. Despite obviously Red starting with a picachu after all, the yellow version's protagonist is Yellow, k?

Gold/silver/crystal/heartgold/soulsilver added a daynight-cycle, threw out the overcomplicated and struggling puzzles, modified the pokemon pool, gave a real postgame (throwing a pokeball on a mon in gen 1 was a joke), unfortunately took away a lot of happening for the sake of time-related events. They also threw out the "cath 'em all" slogan, here you don't gain enough EXP to lvl up and lead through all form-changes your mons, and there are no quests to encourage you to, trading pokemon with NPCs also lacking. Although I preplanned to not catch the stupid mons to be honest. The definitive edition seems Crystal, purely for the full pool, as the story does not differ, and Suicune was made part of the story there.

Ruby/sapphire/platinum/omegaruby/alphasapphire I heared threw out the time-related jizz fortunately, and integrated both version of evil team. I feel this was a good idea, making the experience of the split games athand of the player (at least on paper, no idea how it went in real). They threw away the continuity with gen1-2, so it is a reboot so to say. The pool got mixed of course, won't mention this any more. The definitive edition is emerald story-wise, sounds a bit letdown they changed the champion's character for that though.
Here they also added some more stupid randomization of stats (I never looked at the stats), and ... pokemon food? I never give my team any consumables if I can avoid, so limiting my options there doesn't help your case. The double fights just give even more real life luck factor, so big nah.
The post-game sounds fun.

Diamond/pearl/platinum: the definitive version is platinum? Well, the start was in gen 1-2 that "10 years Ash Katchum", and gen 3 "you saved me, here is a bioweapon, go fight terrorists", here found a mixed balance.
Sadly the double battles are still there. The strangest thing seems how the base motive for the enemy boss is changed from the games to the anime series.
The graphic is definitely updated.
The worst thing related sounds this gen games being slow. Slow walking, slow animations, slow story... Oh,and don't forgettocatch a beaver forHM-purposes they all say. Crap, it even has the real-time crap back :(

Black/white/black2/white2 - sounds a bit greedy, eh? Not just 1 merged version, but new versions of the originals? Can I take this as a sign of degradation? the franchise loosing its steam, hm?
The Enemy Team is not a shady organisation anymore. the gym-leaders have civil jobs too.
No optional areas, linear progress, to much story?

X/Y: too easy? still restricts on the main appeal, mega evolution forms?

Sun/moon: does not let you play. Feels like that Gorky17-look game with HoMM design, which had every turn every character blurped some randomness you had to click away to getdone with the turn...

...

pikachu/eevee: instant remote access to all cathced pokemon? new special hardware device restrictions to be able to play the game? Another gen1 remake? Leave me alone.

---------------

Yes, Black/White/black2/white2 were definitely cashgrabs. They tried to sell part 1-2 based purely on the story. Don't make me laugh.
There was also no improvement on the hardware. Seems every"generation" also ment a new console - except for this four. Lazy, lazy Nintendo.
So, I just found out b2/w2 are gen 5.5? b/w/b2/w2 are either not a new gen given no new console, or b2/w2 a completely new gen given their story is not identical to the original games...
b2/w2 seemed to even want to get rid of the "become a pokemon champion" theprotagonist simply fighting the local team of problem, showing no intention competing the traditional way according to bulbapedia.


PS: the b/w game(s) are the last existing on roms, and the next "two" generations exist on a new 3d-console,which of course no actualy 3d, but are using 3d textures. Well, Doom could do that, hack, even Wolfenstein could do that.
And to be honest, I'm nota fan of this 3D, makes seizing up the map pretty hard, and given the puzzle-mechanics you WANT to be able to see as much of the map as you can.

[twillight]

Just in case you want to know what moves are in demand for these games:

red/etc.:
1. cut (decent physical attack)
2. fly (this is fast travel)
3. surf (decent water attack)
4. strength (decent physical attack)
5. flash (decent chance to not get hit attack)

gold/etc.:
1. cut
2. fly
3. surf
4. strength
5. flash (in this game it never worked for me)
6. whirlpool (i think only for puzzles on water)
7. waterfall (i think only for puzzles on water)
8. rock smash (this is TM, ok rock move I think)
+1: some NPC said headbutt (I think regular fighting move) can be used to fish from trees. Did not try.
I suggest using a water HM-slave with surf + whirlpool + waterfall.

[twillight]

Ok, I'm weak.

To make this run I needed yet another emulator. It lacks the ability of instant save, multiple save slots etc., so gives a "real pokemon experience" . Darn them. The one used for the gold lacks memory to run it stable unfortunately, but might use that for the League, as it can run...

So for Red used: VisualBoyAdvance Emulator 1.80-beta 3
For Gold used: GBE+ 1.2
For Emerald used: No$GBA 2.8d (crashes if you press B-button, can't properly create fog-effect, so looking for a substitute). UPDATE: 2.9d seems to have the same problem.

The graphic is updated to the level of Baldies, though the size of the game got noticeably bigger.

No real idea about my team. Seems there are no given away pokemons anymore, and the charts just didn't help (unless I want the exact same group as before).

You can't name your rival, and the basic story is: here is a bioweapon, now go and play outside, amongst murderous beasts!
It will be a weird experience if you chose female as your gender, and named yourself Pussy. Things like "now I understand why my dad has en eye for you", or "I bet you have easy way with all the pokemons" get weird second meaning.

The game feels now less of a handheld quartz-game than some jrpg, without the rpg part of course.
The real problem here is, you don't get quests, so when the story and fighting parts follow each other, they don't feel intervowen. Needs better pacing next time. Also, the intro sectionat the beggining is the most annoying thing since a long time.

--------------

walkthrough:
- start with sceptile. It is an ok pokemon, and grass isn't common around while water is. And fire sucks.
- get yourself a Ralts if you are lucky, or have the patience. It is psychic, so by definition is a good pokemon.
- get yourself a lotad too, and level it in random encounters to lvl 14. It'll be your prime HM-slave, not even needed to upp it to its final form. Give it when it comes Surf, Waterfall, Dive, and one more from strength/flash/rock smash. Make it rock smash Don't be too hasty giving it moves though, I have no idea when HM-remove will be available. Wouldn't want to waste such a good slave.
- get yourself a slakoth as third. With lotad -> lombre learning surf, flash, waterfall, dive and slakoth learning cut, strength, rock smash, you only need to teach fly to your permanent team, what is the Fast Travel function, soyou want it on you!
- try to avoid two trainers noticing you, because double battles are problematic.
- don't explore too much, the exp-share (doubles the exp as usual) is near
- passing the 2nd city get yourself a nincada. It'll serve as slave for a while, as it can learn cut (not mandatory for now), and flash (first demanded HM).
- on the way delivering the letter, in the cave capture yourself an aron. It is a good pokemon for fighting.
- after delivering the letter, GO BACK TO PETALTOWN for the exp-share! Now you can backtrack if you want cutting trees.
- the electric gym is a problem. The mons are too tough, and deal hugh damage. Oh,and don't even hope to outlevel the buggers. If gen2 (Gold/etc) had EXP-problems, this gen has even more. I have a lvl 22/20/20 team, and there's nothing else to do!
Ah, I see what's the problem: THE STARTER YOU'D'VE NEEDED IS MUDKIP. Fuck this shit.
NOTE: managed tofind the quicksave feature, so fuckyou Nintendo. With that could avoid the fucking shockwave where it was cruical, and the fucking random factors,and the fucking criticals. Made the voltorb selfdestruct as first move, then got rid of the 2nd enemy, then for the last two my strategy was to send out my sceptile screeching and fainting, then with enough weakened my mudshot could eliminate the enemies. That ment revive on sceptile to be able to do its stuff on manectric. There some Soda Pop for healing was necessary too.
What you actualy would need here is a bloody ground type. Big news: there are only fokin' two up to this point: mudkip, or nincada. If nincada evolves, you getfokin' screwed, just tellin'. And it doesn't get any ground move which you're looking for to cause any damage until lvl 31, and believe me, manectric can hurt you hard with its quickattack whatis normal type damage! And no, there is no TM (teachable move) in the game in ground element, so you're fucked in the arse without lube.
There might be SOMETHING though. An easter egg. Fok it, I go and check it out.
SUPERNOTE: Seriously, I sometimes wonder if people played these games. So, what I did was lvl up my nincada to 20, which made my aron to almost lvl 30 (during the gym-battle it became 30). Took like 1-2 hour grinding, but it did worth it. What is important here is you get Sedinja, the 1 HP pokemon.

Coorection: ok, there's Geodude. There are maybe halfa dozen gen1 mon reappearing, I just couldn't care for those.


Here is how the gym-battle goes:
#1 Voltorb: it has rollout, and can blow up. I had a lvl 20 Sableye to hold it up, but it actualy doesn't matter. If it gets hurt, especialy if it got healed by a potion, bring in aron because it'll selfdestrruct, and that hurts ca. everyone but aron. The problemhere it can do rollout, what is super effective on Sedinja.
#2 it's a midle-diff thingy which you are not allowed to touch. This later part is the problem, because if you touch it'll paralyze you,what you don't want. Aron can deal with it pretty good with mudshot. Will likely get healed by a potion, but it realy isn't the hard part.
#3 this is a magnemite. Start here with sceptile. If you chose torchic, that's your fault. If you have the mud-thingy, this whole conversation never comes up, move along. Do as many screech as you can. Let sceptile faint, or if aron has enough HP (heal in sceptile's turns)/you have ton of supplies, just switch pokemon. Simplest thing is to let sceptile faint, especialy if your team is around lvl20. Then mudshot the bugger. It hits hard, and has some nasty tricks, but you should be able to defeat it after the screeches.
Do NOT bring in Sedinja yet, because it has a tendency to counfuse yourt units, and that's lethal.
#4 this is where you bring in Sedinja. Manectric can't do squat against your bug-husk-mon. And despite nincada had 2 HM on it, the remaining 2 slots were good enough: screech and bug-fury.

For the fire gym they told all kinds of strategies - mine was simple. Lvl 35 aron's 2nd form headbutt first. Has enough HP to survive the first overheat, just patch up via potion or something when that happens. This gym again has thatbuggy fog-effect, but that's why maps on the net are for.

Until now the puzzles practicaly missing with the exception of the annoying mach-bike feature. The rival is mostly missing, actualy every character seem to do its own stuff just like you. It is a bit boring, but I get the concept. Also seem to have some daddy-issue.Btw,daddy isa cheater. His linoon knows a lvl 53 move...
His mons are no problem though, only slaking which has immense amount of HP. So I sent out Sableye to leer to the point of fainting, then brought back aron. That mon practicaly carried me throw all the game until now!
My crew is at lvl 20 or below, except the main three. Gardevoir reached its final form, aron and sceptile are working on that.

NOTE: if you need some reasoned grinding,don't forget that the first two lute might be ok to have. Justdon't use repel. Never use repel.

pros:
- no day/night cycle harassment to the player

cons:
- the AI just luves to abuse superstrong items, like healing its mons from 1 HP to max, just because it can.
- the extra content, like making that kid laugh, fishing feebas, and other crap are waaay to random to have any interrest aside the most hardcore.
- super low chance to capture pokemons. There are 3-5% capture chance, meaning 1:20 ball average for those!
- not registering all the pestering NPCs is impossible. Deleting their annyoing calls is impossible. Good news though: they don't call that often as in gen2.

neutral:
- seems I can't get the poison status. But life isn't easier, as instead regularly get paralyzed.

[twillight]

Ok, who the heck is Steven?
There's the neighbour-guy who is kinda a rival, but more of a friend, and there's Wally (Monkey Island TM) who is a kinda mentored greenear. No idea about Steven.

With the Good Rod went and catched a Whailemer. A lvl 20 had both watergun and rollout what I looked for in case I'll use this mon. I have to start thinking of expanding my team, as my three sure start to all reach their evolution levels.
I catched quite a lotos interresting looking pokemon, just to be on the safe side, but I have no idea. There start to be too many stats. Previously it was enough to know the type, and a correction with double type, now the stats seem a bit important, and moves working with the team, and "nature", and all kinds of crappy minute detail, what'd madden an accountant even. The whole thing falls back to overleveling and button-smashing.

Oh, another excuse for grinding, though this'd've been best for the beggining: found only ONE trade-mon-NPC whowants a ralts for some negligable stuff. Still, if you need an excuse for grinding abit, there's that.

BIG CON:fishing was turned into a minigame. Finding a spot where you could actualy catch anything was a though call already, but now it is a blink-or-miss minigame, for what you have to press a series of buttons to start with. Also, betterrods don't necessarily make better options, as they can change the pool, cutting you from what you want. And the superrod comes way too late. The old rod still stinks though.

weird thing: the mimic-circle group is made by bug-users. In a place w/o any bug appearing...

annoying thing: certain parts of the game can only be reached by a specific type of bike. Given they are far away from the shop, and you can't fly until the endgame, walkthroughs should mention which to use when.
Until now the mach bike was needed in Dewford Town, and for/at the Mirage Tower. The acro bike only cames to play in route 119. No, you don't need special bike on Mt. Chimney.
These are all optional areas, but still.

Team Aqua is seriously stupid. I'd care for my business, but they blocked the way. From ONE direction. Not the way I'm coming from. And they don't let me pass. They are too stupid to win.

Btw, I swear for this game Ispent more time with charts than with the game itself. I start to come to the conclusion what I need is the "doubl" effectiveness chart, which tell what attack type is good against what being, then choose skills and units according to that. The type-comparsion charts only good to tell the type immunities.

Oh: decided that my remaining units will be: flygon (because it is immun to electric attacks, and can fly), sableye (because its immunities), and regice (because the ice department is lackluster).

After you get the Surf, you should go to the Flying Gym (#6), but before that goand surf through to Dewford Town with your weaker pokemons (maybe after you collect the first three flutes: blue, yellow and red as the enemy lvl is lower there). That provides good exp. My trapinch evolved there, so can learn fly.

GEN 2 MONS IN THE GAME:
- marill
- wobuffet
There are a couple of others, but only in the endgame, so who cares.
But there's a surprising amount (like two dozen) gen 1 mon too in the game. They arenot too relevant in encounters, but yes, they exist.

Beware, that if you want a cacleon, their number is limited (I think, because they are puzzle). So catch the first you come across. No idea why'd you want any unless filling the pokedex though.

Wow, there's a chance for a Master Ball every day. 1:100,000, but there is.
Fuck pokemon. #PokemonsR4Food

Now Mossdeep City: until now the puzzles were perfect. Hard, but not annoying. But this shitty island is in the middle of literaly nowhere. No border-rocks, no swimmer sign the way. Just who designed this??
Oh, fok whoever made the psy-gym double battle. I fortunately chose the right team to deal with this shite...
And the ALL Dive-area is covered with the bugged fog-effect, so I won't get those items.

TIP TO HELP DIVING WITH EMULATOR: dive down first, then immediately dive up. This makes you see the screen as intended. Immense help to get inside Team Aqua's hideout.

Tips on storing items:
The storage-system is weird at best. The main point is, you want to keep every item that has a special inventory place on you (like berry, TM/HM) because those places never fill up.
Second: you want every type of items in one big pile. So those you find multiply copies (potions etc.) you want to keep on yourself).

To get the the three Regi-mon: first fish yourself on route 129 while surfing a lvl 39- whailmer. I catched a lvl 38. Run away any encounter, don't want the grinding. Train this to lvl 40 to create a wailord. That'll need minimal grinding. Your other chance is same place, surfing, but thatonly has 1% chance for the right ... not-fish.

Get in route 124, and dive in the middle of west in the 1-hex spot. That place is filled with see-weed, aka. grass underwater, so you'll encounter wild pokemons. Relicamp is there. Let wailmer grind up here while hunting (if it runs out of moves, just give it the exp-shere which is no longer bigged in this game, aka. gives no extra exp).
Do the rest by the walkthrough on the net.

Capturing the legendaries (at least the regice) is even worse than a regular low catch-rate pokemon. 0.3% catch rate, no repeat chance w/o reloading, self destruct/flee possibility is just plain trollish. Even if you pull out 40 rounds and use aTimer Ball like I did, and the thing is at 1 HP, your chance's like 1:100, maybe.
TECHNICALY you could also go against Rayquaza at this point. It is lvl 70 though, so fok you hopes. Actualy, it is not that bad, if you have some ice-attack (Regice suffice), and some screech to lower its defences (my sceptile has it). Lower its HP,and wait until it puts itself in sleep. Yes, it can regenerate by sleeping. This is good for us now, because this gives immense bonuses to the catch-rate. And either way, it has double catch% than Regice.
PS: didn't went for the other regis, as they don't interrest me, but the other time don't want to waste them either, but can't bother catching them by reloading a lot.

Oh, aside the whole list of HMs, which are 8 in numbers, and all of it demanded at some point,you also need Dig as a 9th if you do the sidequests too.

The Victory Road is longer than anyone would imagine.

The last gym also has a trick in its purse: you MUST have surf on your party to get in. Stupidity on square.

My team when entering to the Elite Four: 50/50/50/49 (sceptile)/44 (don't realy care, because Sableye's prime purpose is to be immun and thus be safe -> important because of the ghost elite -> need lvl 50. Do NOT teach it shockwave TM 'cause its crappy stats! Teach that to gardevoir, so you have bigger puffer to avoid those stupid restoration potions). And if all else fails, I'll reload and swap in Rayquaza (lvl 70).
Also: grass is a pretty bad choice here as Milotic has too much HP AND knows ice attack, and wailord knows fokin hard ice attack! Obviously you were supposed to start with Mudkip, and bring electric pokemon in the team, and likely absol as your dark unit.
You absolutely need Ice Beam as an attack, and regice is a good user of it. Against Glaile you better have some steel move, so aron is a solid choice still. You need a psychic mon against tentacruel, and Gardevoir is a solid choice, which can do electric special attacks (buy the TM), and can make things sleep as last resort (60%, and can wake the next turn, but whatever, that's why saves are for). Kingdra is a big F U, try something that has some resistances at least against this overleveld piece of shit.


Ye, that's about the game.
For post-game you can overlevel in the Victory Road, and there's the Trick House's irrelevant last trick(s).
As single-player you can do the Battle Frontier (that was a good part of the anime), can get the other fossil (not instantenous, so counts as a bit of valid exp-grinding, can get all the remaining legendaries (any regis and rayquaza you didn't care, also groudon/kyogre), can beat up Steven yet again (who the heck is he?), can get a claydoland win every contest if you so much care, and that's it realisticly speaking.


PS: just to mess you with one more time, entering the Champion's room automaticaly starts the battle.

[twillight]

The interface is a definite improvement, don't mind me. Now you don't have to hassle to know what your TM/HMs do because every instance the game is telling you. The character cards are comfy. In the menus you still can't jump from top to bottom, but whatever. The graphic is definitely improved.


Then come the problems.


The Current Evil Group is just like the previous: wants to destroy the world, because they are stupid. The fact that the writing is inconsistent doesn't help.
There is no other character in the game. Ok, there's a rival, and that annoying champion-woman-or-who, but their appearance is very irregular.
The intro sequence is darn annoying, every half second interrupting you with a cutscene.
The majority of the game has nothing to happen in it. The whole thing feels empty, not just because it is empty without any event, but because the maps became quite simple. No need for backtracking, you don't have to memorize stuff, just go ahead in those hugh fokin places (so use a premade map, else you'll grow beared, women too).


There are too many environment-interacting moves, and you never know which you'll need, what leads to metagaming. Especialy because even w/o Flash you can actualy see a bit of sorrounding here.


And I dunno, but till the first/first two Gyms got insane amount of exp, like to be lvl 20-25. After that the 3rd felt like I stopped, only got two/three lvl 28-30 mon.


Oh, and I'm still not sure about my party. First is, the guides don't prepare against psychic mons, and they somehow mostly missing? Fire mons also missing. Electric mons seems punny mostly,although midgame a couple appeared, but hardly the threat as before.


To be honest for the first 2 gyms you could go with chimchar, and that's it. For the next 2 you can use Rotom, which feels a lot like Sableye, but with more powerful moves, but it seems to cover what I'm missing from the guieds, so it seems a keeper.
On the other hand the selection is thin, but also the exp isn't that great when I compare to the opponents' level - I can barely keep above them only using like 3 mons. Planned more, but I practicaly dumped them not finding any use for them, while struggling finding exp to pull them to my main(s)' level.


And I think I have a hunch why the games' quality decline despite the obvious improvement on the technical side.
First: what are the pokemons? "Charizard" stuck in my head as it is "a dragon". Pidgey stucked because it is a bird. And so on. But what are these new mons? Just shiney shapes. I can point at them, but otherwise they are just "things".
Second: too much online-multiplayer-area-restricted content. There are the contests, gazillion items, dozens of pokemons, optional areas (Platinum has an entire second map under its WORLDMAP!), events, who-knows-what features, pokemon-food-mixing, special items, whatever - I either can't access, more often don't even care! I'd get them if they'd be available, but this way they just deminish the experience because they are there, but I (the player) don't even care!

Third: the game's mechanics became too complex. There are pokemon types, move-types, natures, abilities, hidden abilities, breeding, egg moves, EV, friendship, move set, TM options, HM options, move removal, competitive gaming, post-game content, various randomizations, player ID-number related stuff, loaction-related stuff, day-, hour-, week related contents, importing between generations and versions, double types, stats, genders, held items, consumables, permanent statboosts, hit chances, feeding, clothes,other accesories...
It becomes overwhelming just to list them. The players can noloinger reverse-engineer the effectiveness of stuff, and programing/coming up with the rules is even harder! So I wouldn't expect the company be able to create a refined game, and if they would be able, it would be for naught, because the users couldn't solve their puzzles! So the whole thing becomes "button mashing", thus becomes easy for anyone who pays half attention - just like how the fans of the games reacted. The games became simpler by becoming too complicated.

---------------


For platinum you can just see they almost threw out the concept of "create your own team" by the look of it. Here this:
- the obvious best starter is Chimchar (fire/fighting variant). This beats the first 2 gym, and the majority of the game anyway.
- use only this mon, and your level will just be good to beat everything in your way, and neither your type will cause any problem (aside some rare water attack, where you'll have to back to the PC, because pokemon is pc, and the selfdestructing geodudes - none complained for this move ever?). Then you bump into Rotom. Which is immediately lvl 20, and will beat the 3rd and 4th gym, and is just a great addition in every sense.
- then you'll get the chance in platinum only for a gabite -> garchomp, a "semi-legendary" dragon type. And yes, it is a great type and hugh strength again to your party. You know what you're missing still? A grass-type. And with just 4 mon you practicaly could beat the game in theory. For this you get an eevee, and super-soon compared to all other options to it, you can change it to Leafeon. Only problem: there are no physical grass moves for it, but you see the tendency.
- you even get a free flying type to move around: togepi -> togekiss.
- you still have one more place in the team, and you guess what, you get a FRIGGIN LEGENDARY to fill the role. Sure, you get it late, at lvl 1 - likely you'd've get it a couple of lvl higher originaly -, but it is a FREE LEGENDARY.


So, very interresting design we have here.

[twillight]

No, I'm not done with platinum. But looked up some reviews as I do make progress. Just to get a second opinion.


Based on the reviewshere is how to chpoose which version:
- white 1-2 has tripple combats (3 mon fights simultanously). This sounds ridiculous, completly destorying the concept of type advantage, and gives you to the mercy of the AI.

- black 1-2 has rotation combat. It's the same problem as with white, because your mons randomly facing the enemy. Ye,sure, fokin' "great" idea. Maybe this appeals to competitive players if they don't exist just on paper... But everyone else will foked in the arse I say.
- the usual version-differences are there, and I couldn't give less fok
- actualy, there is the issue of friggin version-unique mons. White just has more appealing designs.
- also, if I remember correctly, White wasd the anime-compatible movie too.
- B/W 2 has a shitton of old gen mons. I could give less fok of those at this point. Give the people the old mons LATE in these games (if we can call them that), so they don't actualy use them, k?
- the map. B/W are linearin design - 1/2 is even worse.
- 2s give free legendaries to your hands and crap, suggesting to me it makes not just the passage linear, but unify the used units (why would you throw away your legendary über monsters?)


So if I'd ever touch one, that'd be white.

[twillight]

There is this part with Giratina. That's the local Satan if you care. In the anime the whole mon was meaningless crap, in the game it is pretty ingenious backstory.
But the part to get there ... Look, it is realy beautiful. Seriously. If you only had to pass it, in a "straight" line, it would have been a fond memory.
But nah, Nintendo created a giant puzzle out of this gigantic, monstrous 3D structure. Just what were they thinking?? "Pokemon games are for young kids" my arse! I'd do ZakMcKraken TWICE than this!


----------


I'll be honest. I don't care, and will never care for the post-game content for these products.
The issue here is, the Pokemon League in here IS POST GAME CONTENT. Once you deal with Giratina (I managed to oneshot it w/o a critical for thefirst time, lol, second time used a lvl 15 beaver to catch it, double lol) the game give you the champion-celebration, and says "by the way you can still do crap). But i don't wanna. there's an entire Gym even I didn't visit, the road to Pal Park, trying to swim to the post-game islands - and I don't wanna. Because they feel, look, smell like post-game content.

[twillight]

With the disappointment Platinum caused (from marketing viewpoint making the Elites semi-post-endgame is a good clickbait move to make people play the definitely-post-endgame content), I might give this a try.

Thought I'll this time choose whatever looks cool. Well, every time I checked those (digimmon-dragon, trash-heap pokemon, fetus-pokemon, robot "pokemon", 'I am cool" bug pokemon, modron) it wiki said: You Suck, Try Again.

Also turned out, White has some extra forest with previous gen mons, while Black has the more appealing more trainer fights. Well, fok this, I'll grind in the grass if I have to,but I'll stick with white,because... Well, I better not finish that sentence. Btw, PC stands for Pokemon Center, k?

Let's see... Filter out event mons, version exclusives, trade evolutions, the flying polarbear, post game mons, cartridge-specials, osawoth, possibly scraggy...
They also told smugleaf is shit, and oshawot is just coloured shit, so I'm considering dumping my starter here, because I didn't do that until now. And if I released a mon in Platinum, I can do this here!

Hm, maybe the fantasy about not catching a single pkemon, onlyworking with the starter, and gift pokemons, and forced legendaries? Looking at Larvesta: gained: late, at lvl 1. Evolves: lvl 59 (your max lvl is usualy lvl 50 w/o grinding). So no.
I keep bumping into walls...
Ah, also have to exclude any Feebas-like pokemon (only appears at1%, on Tuesday, if you stand on your head, with your tongue out, your hair painted green).

Wait. Gift pokemons? What are THOSE?
Nah, never mind them. Not enough, partialy post-game content (or unusaly incredibly weak).

Lastly for now: most even semi-interresting mons marked are "comes late", so...

-----------

They made things related to real life SEASONS. That's out of this world.
The EXP-system looks seriously nerfed. Ok, new mons cancatch up, but what's with my high lvl mons?

We'll see how it works out, but I planned this team: archeopterix, darumaka (this is some asian demon-thing), a flying mole, some dog which I could live without, but I needed SOMETHING to work with, some worm which evolves into an even bigger worm, and the ice-cone mon because it looks stupid enough. For the game the designseems fitting, for anything else not. It looks pretty weak btw, but why should I care?

Seems there are no running shoes, and the vibrating elements rly make me nauseous. We'll see ifI can tolerate that.
UPDATE: there are running shoes, only come a town later. Btw, these towns are boring, nothing is in them. And you're heavily fistcuffed to only advance as the programmers allowed you with very artificial boundries...


Either way, I stored my starter after finding a good dog-mon which never sleeps and has impish nature wich only hurts its totaly unused stat (special attack), so while not optimal, I said ok, let's go pikachu - ye, like I'd do such thing.


So, in the 2nd Gym things are though. The Leader's first mon is already evolved (I keep mine from it, going for Gige Impact for the luls), and the 2nd hits 100+ with each hit, 210 in the first round, and it is fast meaning it moves first... Unless you're even more overlevelled than me.
I have a lvl 17 flying mole and a lvl 24 puppy at this point, as well the free monkey (darn, I should have started with Smugleaf, so I'd have the Blue Monkey, which is an excellent HM-slave!),which was also needed to faint during the Gym Leader. Ye, my startegy isn't very nice to my mons, giving some credit to Team Plasma, Pokemon's PETA. Of course ca. allgames starts with "don't go into the grass or you'll be shredded to bits by pokemon", so ye, very much like PETA this organisation.
Oh btw, if you want to Grind With A Purpose, hunt for the 5% fighter-mon.


Seems one of the creators had in mind to encourage the player to use recoil damage moves, slow mons, and low% hits. The other made every damage HURT, so things didn't work out in the new direction - stick to the Old Reliable.


After puppy and mole (this needs lvl15 for Metal Claw to have a half-decent attack) got myself a poisonous worm with poison on touch attribute. That's funky. And it's not half bad form the point it gets poison tail.


That bridge though, and the following city... Darn, that was creative. I'd welcome such things in my games on PC.


The game is VERY easy, and feels small, the progress only being slowed down a lot by advancing little and the need to crawlback for healing. Seriously, first you get TWO starters, AND you are strongly encouraged to capture at least 1 mor mon, so you have 2 mon to be sacrificed in the gym like I did. Or you can pick up the strongly suggested fighting types in the vicinity.
The first gym is based on your capturing that mentioned extra mon, because it is type-opposite gym compared your starter, but they are punny otherwise.
The 3rd gym is a bug gym with a bug-filled forest right before it. I dun wanna brag or something,because I did not plan it that way, but if you catch the poisonous worm, you'll be pretty much invincible at lvl 20 (capture is lvl15 or so). So the tools necessary are given to you on a silver plate!
And yes, I checked: the next gym is electric, and the thin selection of mons contain like 3-4 gorund type to make you immun against them. You get your ca. single fire type in the game (there's too a starter, a crappy elemental monkey, a not-third-phase-mole crap, and some ghost coming very late), but it won't be able to hit nuttin' until lvl 35 (comes at lvl 18), so put the Exp-share on it, and move forward. Oh, and don't take the Zen Mode variant, because those are crappy. You had to either halve you HP for the game with it, whatis a BAD idea, or do a physical/special mixed attacker, but with only 4 move, and the stats being exclusive to the forms, it just sounds cery hindering.

[twillight]

I wondered what should be the mascot of the franchise based on what is appearing constantly in every game?

First, as in gen1 games later generations did not exist, any further candidate got eliminated.

Second, I eliminated all version-exclusives.
Third checked a Very Common Pokemon: Magikarp. It appears naturaly in every single major core game, so if a mon appears inany generation only by trading in from previous generation games, or a distribution-event, it is eliminated.


This still left a surprising amount of mons:
- jigglypuff, wigglytuff
- zubat, golbat
- horsea, seadra
- goldeen, seaking
- magikarp, gyarados
It is weird all of these are 2 step mons, but it is nice not all of them are water mons.
Now howto go further.
Well, aside the Major Core Games, bulbapedia lists other core games for whatever reason.
magikarp/gyarados does not appear in Colosseum and XD. Let's see how the others do.
goldeen does the same.
horsea ditto.
zubat appears in XD!

Thus, we have a winner. Who need pikachu when u have zubat?

----

I LOVE the Gym in Driftveil. What a showoff! Easy but effective puzzle! That's how it should be.

Thereare some weird monster-level issues, but overal this part is good. But changing the clock to winter, which according to Nintendo/Japan lasts October-December, just to get a table of chocolate, which must not be consumed but instead used to revive some special pokemon half a country away... Now that's Sierra level bullshit. I'm not sure if this is a curse-phrase or a compliment though.

-----------

Let's make a quick rundown on the series:
- gen1 was a very ambitious puzzle-game with a very strong collector-aspect. It was totaly buggy, but whatever.
- gen2 was a glorified expansion-pack. Mechanicaly it is the most obvious and clear game, as you literaly only have to tick the type-chart, and you're good to go. The "catch'em all" aspect was barely present.
- gen3 was a reboot. But despite being reboot, and its own problems (missing types, whatever), it was at least bug-free.
- gen4 was riddled with HM-hoarding, difficulty-issues, the pacing was horrible, the puzzles overcomplicated, but I can see an audience for such thing.
- gen5 is... Well, it creates continuity with the gen 1-2 games, so that's a plus. Has some very interresting design-choices visualy. The puzzles are mostly simple, unfortunately the backtracking almost disappeared. And to be honest, it looks bringing a 6 crew is needles, slows down the gameplay to frustration-level, and the choice of mons is a "bit" lackluster. But it seems going with only 1 mon is totaly dinamic experience. I started this as side-project, just to spice up the monotony, but I totaly abandoned my original crew (still have the savefile of course). The game, playing this way, feels ... small in some aspect. The catch-em-allaspect is totaly for the hardcores only, and even the teambuilding seems to disappear... Strange evolution of the franchise.


---------


It seems there's a Location Randomizer concerning items and trainers, so that gives the feel of exploration even if you have a premade map - which you obviously can't follow to the letter because of that. As a side-effect you'll have to make a mon learn Flash for exactly 1 (optional) location.
The HMs are a problem in this game though, given what you must learn to get everything, and in what distribution the mons can learn. Because in many instances you need a separate mon just to learn one friggin HM.
These are the useful HMs:
- cut (a lot of optional items, and a part of the story, probably mandatory)

- fly (fast travel, you want this as you can now just fly to the League if you visited it!)
- surf (an optional double-area, another optional area, and some other minor things)
- strength (some optional items, creating shortcuts, maybe mandatory?)
- dive (post game thing, no idea if it leads to anything interresting)
- dig (very convenient to leave some dungeons)
- flash (makes an optional area realistic to discover)
- waterfall (in Lostlorn Forest you can get 1 Rare Candy with it, and that's it before post-game, where it has 2 other location to use)


You know, by this I thought I compound how you should HM-slave. But that's a wee bit problematic, because if we exclude version exclusives, starters and starter based mons, as well as other choice-exclusive thing (eg. fossil mons), and we take account of accessibility, we end up with Basculin as our Waterfall-user, whatis stupid, because to get it you already must know surf... And you probably want to use Cut earlier, but whatever I think. At least it can (also) learn Dive.
But it goes well with Watchog, total early mon, which can do Cut, Strength, and Flash.
What we still need is a Surfer, which hopefully can also Fly. The perfect candidate is Ducklett. It's easy to get, there's no other mon appearing at its location which location is inevitable, and I think it comes at the right time.


The Elite Four here is very pathetic. No overlevelled pokemon (lvl 50-55-60), and they don't even have sixpacks!


Oh: White is the definite version as W2/B2 are just glorified expansions, and Black has some pathetic battle for this final fight with only 1 mon. That's stupid. Make the full battle against 6! On top of it, that Zoroark is a funny surprise.

[twillight]

Meh. I totaly steamrolled that gen 5 game, now what's next. I even did the majority of single player postgame, because the first bit contained a sentence telling "hey, this is the 2nd Sage (the Evil Team's leader) of the 7, let's go further and gotta catch 'em all!"
Of course this turned out bullshit, and with like 3-4 places still to go to (all had the same lvl enemies), and some stupid extra fights-per-day (rematching the Elite Four and crap, not much stronger by the way) I stopped. Still got to lvl 90.


But u know, there was a Weird Moment in the game. The story is basicaly thatyour Mom kicks you out to see the world and choose a profession, u know,medieval style, even make the local Professor (u know, like in Dr. Strangelove) give u a biological weapon, which works by cybernetic implants (hidden machines, technica lmachines) and shit.
Then u come across these PETA-advocates, who secretly want to Take Over The World, and this case intervines with your Journey. Here comes the Weird Part.
When you save the world, and beat the Champion, which'd make you the regional champion, but take notice it never does FOR THE PLAYER in the games, so you go home, and you have Double Mom Syndrome? Nah, that Other Mom is some interpol-agent. Oh, and your mom's name is actualy Mom. Ye, sure.
Then you get kicked out of the house to collectdata of all the possible biological weapons in the friggin1 world, or something, never to return I assume they assume.



Well, I say, this Weird Moment has connection to an other Weird Moment in Emerald (and its proto-version). That game starts with a truck bringing out furniture to where your character supposedly just moved. Ye, because kids are transported amongst the luggage. Sure, you got transported - FROM THE ANDROID FACTORY.


This is the point where the anime and the games intertwine. Remeber Ash Ketchup? We know the Pokeversum has some highly advanced tehcnology. They have cloning machines, matrix simulators, mechas... Yes, they have matrix. That was in the anime about Porygon, and in another instance a guy built a Mirage Machine or shit. Also, in the games when you get to the poke-centers the method of healing your biological weapons is not by medicine, but by RESTING. Nurse Joy can make them an 8 hour sleep IN SECONDS. Obviously matrix.
On cloning, we know clones age. Because we see the Nurse Joys growing up.
But what about the robots? Ye, robots don't age. That's why Ash Ketcham never ages.
And that's why Red never talks. But this is an interresting topic, because we know, Red is "silent", while later protagonists DO SPEAK. The protagonists' ability to speak is advancing within the franchise. Obviously by upgrades on the technology.


From this point such things like when in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum the same inetrpolice mentioned above do squat, and even send the protagonist to what'd definitely be his job, including taking MORTAL DANGER understandable: the protagonist is not a child, but a highly advanced android. A terminator. Becaue the Pokemon War, mentioned in Red by the Electric Gym Leader never ended, only went to a Cold War.
This War is led by the actual governmental figures - the Professors. that's why we never actualy see any government, because they hide themselves in plain sight. They work together when they must, but their prime goal is actualy World Domination. The anime prefectly depicts that the most advanced of them is Professor Oak, who was the first to send a Protagonist to a journey outside its own region. Maybe he even invented the whole Protagonist Project. We never see the other two rival who supposedly got 10 just like Gary and Ash for some Weird Coincident, because there never were another two. In the game Red/BLue/Yellow there isn't even a third one at all!


And that's why Red went and just stood on that mountaintop. Lacking further instructions, the Protagonist stopped functioning. In Gold/Silver/Crystal he/it is literaly dethroned by the new generation model (as the peak of the post-game).


Now I'ma bit sad I can't have access to the later games, because the games strenghtened my theory about Ash being a robot, the professors being evil manipulators, and so on. I mean, what's the deal with the Ultra Beasts? Pokemon isn't about pokemons anymore? Or there is further connection to the Conspiracy?

[twillight]

I tried to hunt down one of these games, and first had to face, Red is only available for the gen which has terrible emulators. Fotunately the same game Blue is available for the DS-console as well as Time/Darkness.


Time/Darkness asit turned out very similar to Red/Blue, but it has a certain lack of spark from it. It is a perfectly fine game, don't mind me, might even be more chiselled in some aspects, primalythe gameplay, but overal, it is justa good kids'-game. No problem there, but I just know better.


Because Red/Blue is better. It is very-very-very good storytelling. The jokes hit, the awkward moments are perfect, there's the emotinal tone, there isn't form the start a "save the world"-scenario, it is chiselled from the story-telling aspect to the point like there's a "dojo", aka. practice battles. No items, just mindless grinding in the middle of the town. The NPC tells you, "All the participants are volunteers. All they expect in return is, when they need, you go into the rescue". You know, 'cause the titleis "rescue team", and your role is a member (leader/subleader) of a rescue-team!


Gameplay-wise there are some not-so-good things though, like the dungeon-crawling gets old after not long, especialy as there's no difficulty-change between the levels.The backpack-limit is annoying as heck. I think there's some bugged fights, like Zapdos could fry my mudkip with electricity once, ot the Rock-dojo's "pinecone" just don't want to get hurt by water (it in theory should suffer 4*dmg from it), and the Water-dojo is just way too strong.
The "buy habitat" feature is also just to ruin your life, and the recruit method, and recruit-usage is just tedious and doesn't rly work. For me at least. Like you can have, dunno, 386 recruits, but they don't level with you unless you bring them to missions too? That's just stupid.


But if you can tolerate the bit dull mechanics, it definitely worth a go, as it is nice, and rly tells the story excellent.

[twillight]

'Course not played it, but found some videos about it, and later games (youtube 's offers once proved semi-useful).


Seems sy at the company looked out first time the office's window, and saw "hm, facebook games!" and started to transform the pokemon franchise into a portable facebook-games, because that requires barely any work, and can mean tons of money.


On the other hand I feel (and the fanbase seems to agree to a decree) that this is the same move as Diablo: Immortal (or that Command&Conquer mobile). Bringing a franchise to an oversimplified platform is bad for business.
For all sake, Pokemon in its core is a classic retro PUZZLE GAME. If you take that away, you remove your fanbase, aka. lead away your customers.


So, Pokemon is sinking, With the stable fan-made ROMs the console exclusivity disappears. I dunno what's the solution, but a renewal is begging to happen, else the whole thing can easily collapse.
Pokemon Go became a succes because of accessibility, not because of content. But with a franchise progressing, the customers expect content. Sure, you can milk your franchise dry like with the Saw movies, but think for a moment!

[twillight]

This game isn't THAT bad, but would be even better if it'd stop trolling you.

1) READ THE MANUAL. They give you the map of Dungeon 1-2, the majority of the overworld map, order of Dungeon 1-4. So that's cool.
2) They even direct you to the 5th Dungeon,and give hints finding Dungeon 7-9!
3) the ladder is horrendously implemented though.
4) the boomerang is useful, although I'm sure it does not stun certain enemies when returning. This is I think compensated by that it eliminates smaller things(small bats, small oozes).
6) most overwolrd enemies do not respawn until you enter a Dungeon, buy something from a shop or respawn. Thx for the unlimited Continue.
7) unfortunately the fish-thingies in the waters respawn instantly leaving and re-entering the screen. As well as a lot of Dungeon-creatures.
8) the manual straight out lies about defeating fish-thingies with the basic sword.
9) the 4th dungeon is trolling. You need max HP to pass the dragon, but the respawning hordes of bats, the traps in that dark room etc. ... I'd quit if the emulator hadn't have proper save!
10) for the 5th dungeon know this: you can use up all but 1 bomb in the two blue-knight room. You'll get after that a 12 bomb replenish!
11) knights are tedious. You can only hit them with the sword, and not from the front. That's hard, and mostly mean do it w/o any damage. Very sad the bow can not be used here either.
12) I thought can use the raft manualy. No, it is fully automatic.
13) the triceratops are badly designed. Ok, when you first meet them, youonly have 2 items to choose from, so that's not bad. But you mustfeed them 2 bombs? How am I supposed to figure that out? If it'd be 1 bomb, it'd be almost clever, this way it is BAD.
14) I'd need reliable source of bombs and helaing. Especialy healing in Dungeons. And for the 5th dungeon, where 1 room demands 6 bombs out of 8, some replenish would be welcomed u know.
15) as long as you don't care for the extra supplies, don't worry about finding hidden rooms. The Dungeons tell you where ALL rooms are when oyu pick up the current map. If you can't reach a room - THEN start blasting.
16) you don't get damaged by the bomb
17) when you mess with statues (obviously for hidden stuff), never touch them from below! That causes damage. Also, there's an 50% chance it'll be superfast, so prepare with boomerang.
18) use save when gambling to make sure you win! (the game originaly had save feature too!)
19) in the cemetaries the tombstones generate infinite amount of ghosts (1 per touch). This is to fuck with the player, who has to find the quest-related tombstone amongst the gazillion bad ones. GOOD NEWS: the extra ghosts summoned by touching,disappear when you leave/reenter!
20) hint with those thingies in Dungeon 6: they shoot where they see. They don't follow you. So just stand aside to a safe spot. (If it'd be this easy in every room...)

-----------

21) Someone messed it up when it cames to which old man tells you what tree to burn down for Dungeon 8, and I dunno who. The one near the ocean gives instead the letter to one of the old woman.
22) while the clues and red herrings are abit misleading for finding the last dungeon, it is ok.
23) you can only have ONE potion, darn.
24) things to use the arrow on: bunnies, crab boss, ganon
25) the magic wand "shoots swords". Or arrows, but for free. Sadly it doesn't work on knights, nor on wizards (the crateures shooting the same effect as the basic wand)
26) the upped wand just combines the candle-effect with the wand-effect. Still useless on knights.
27) would things please not be immun to damage? Also, if you perish, could you please get a FULL REFILL, not just 3 hearts out of 12+?
28) "food" (meat? bait?) is a ONE USE item. I mean you use it, you have to walk all the way back to buy another. Justdon't bother, as this is also a one-time quest item, and the bait-function doesn't work on everything (meaning: on nothing you want it to).
29) flame, including your own flame from candles or the upped wand CAN HURT YOU
30) there's such thing as 1/4 heart loss. It won't show up initialy, but if you get twice that damage, you'll loose 0.5 heart. With -0.5 heart you're a cripple who can't shoot swords, that's why this is important.


Btw, yes, I did the game w/o any help ... aside the manual of course ... Until Dungeon 7, maybe 6. And even there I only did that because of the HP-situation. Next time just give a full refill, Nintendo, ok?
Because progressing, leaving, crawlinf through half the map for a Fairy Fountain (should be called Lake), crawling back on the stumps the remaining of my legs after all this walking, is just killing the pace!


Oh, and Heart Containers are the thing, so when you raft to that island with the old man trying to scam you with a potion instead- laugh in his face!


Btw, the game is sexist. You can shoot the Old Men, but not the Old Women? Outrage!


For the final dungeon - which by the narrative has nothing to do with Level 1-8, which are created by Zelda(!), instead this is the hideout/fortress of Gannon - obviously using a premade map. And doesn't even try doing it in one go.
Instead first going to get the Red Ring for miniscule damage.
Second, going for the Silver Arrow.
Interrestingly, you don't even need to find the map here, as you suddenly gain automap! Why wasn't this implemented previously, I dunno.
Btw, I feel the clue about the Silver Arrow is more nice on paper than in execution...


Weird thing: even if you pick up a clock, daleks still go underground/rise!


Lastly, here is how to go in the 9th Dungeon:
1st: take the A-stairs, then head to the B-stairs (gains red ring)

2nd: take the A-stairs (from the initial area you can't get out otherwise), then C-stairs, E-stairs, F-stairs (gains silver arrow)
3rd: start with A, C, G, H. There's no alternative from the starting room, as B3's (from left and top)door does not open from this direction. From the end of C go to room left to E, but do not go down, instead go north one room, then left (still safe), then run straight ahead through the next room which has wizards. You'll end up in a room full of wizards you'll have to dispose to make the stairs appear. When you come up through those, run and blast a hole on the western wall - the room beyond is again considered safe (no ranged enemies, aka. wizards).
The stairs there'll bring you to a fly (annoying as depends on RL-luck, and this time you likely have to melee, but otherwise easy), than it's only the main boss! DO NOT drink a potion before entering the room, as I have no idea what's the factor to make the giant pig appear, and you'll get hurt a lot while waiting for a chance to hit!

[twillight]

Now THIS game is horseshit.


1) The backstory in the manual says Link is now 16. the ingame text says 16 years of peace passed (since the 1st game).
2) The manual says every town teaches at least 1 magic. Gives a map with 2 towns. 2nd town has no teacher at all, including swordmasters.
3) Why rename ruppies to "point"/"exp"? They have the same function,and not all enemies, especialy not the bigger ones give you this resource.
4) making it easy to perish, and those times taking away all ruppies? That's horseshit. Also, some enemy takes away your ruppies - sorry: give negative exp (when you get hit)! Just fok off, game.

I'll use premade maps for this reason.
5) "no enemy enemy encounter". Now that's horseshit. Also, what's with the flying fireballs/turds?
6) WHAT ARE THE CONTROLS?
7) "some npcs invite you in their house". Ye, if you can figure out the constantly moving clones, some do. The door is not left open though, and you have like 1 second to enter!
8) only I'm bothered by you can't check your adventure sheet?

9) those side-quests are bullshit, starting with the "find the mirror" one. Later dungeons will be horseshit too: passable walls, and all kinds of similar Sierra-puzzles. Also, citizens in town randomly turning to monsters? Bullshit.
10) the magic-system is horseshit too. The need select every time before casting, and that the playing-screen don't give you how much MP you have, only that mana-line...
11) the first boss... I was always weak in fighting-games, and that part is like that, without the bullshit "smash button rapid attack" street fighter 2 move.
12) the townfolk's "cryptic messages" are just boring.


+1) I have a question for the end: now, that Original Zelda is awakened, what'll happen to Current Zelda? Or Hyrule? Or a this?

[twillight]

I bet they are just fucking with you at this point. Only read the manual and watched the intro, but this much is obvious.


1) after you perish, you only get 50% HP. Because fuck reality.
2) there are a shitload of new functions now, so good luck.
3) better pull out a guid, because I bet everything is in hidden spots, because fuck you.
4) you think at least you can buy potions? Nah, that'd be rational. Bring in not just your ruppies, but also bring your own cup, I mean bottle!
5) I tried to read some roadmark-board, but instead our hero pulled it out. Tried to put it down, but he trashed it. Oh, man.
6) did I mention you DO NOT play as Link here? Sure, the guy looks like that guy, but this one is a different person, and his name is not mentioned, thus likely his name is NOT Link!
Also, no idea which Zelda is here.
7) the lamp/torch system/casting is really messy. I see what's the idea behind it, but that doesn't make me happy. I'd be more glad if there'd be able programming, and each torch-place would enlighten only a certain area, not the whole area temporarily.
8) the game is ... too easy? A lot of resources are there, and they respawn, most of them. That makes healing too easy?
9) u know what killed Sonic for me? That if you try to run, you'll be massacred. Here there's this when you hold down the use weapon button, and start to go forward (you can't change direction while doing this). This is mostly to cut down insane amount of bushes in hope of a secret. You don't rly care about ruppies and such because of the gambling house gives you free 200$ every time you enter the house. But two other things canhappen: a) a pokemon (i mean enemy, like a fully armoured knight) jumps at you b) you discover a planted LANDMINE. The fok?
10) the worm-boss is almost entirely luck-based, and the Dark Wolrd is tedious and too high difficulty-jump.

The game of course not without some good ideas, like pushing enemies into pits, or some of the sorroundings turning out to be (harmless) animals makes you feel the place. But it's not good to play more than 1-2 hours at a time.
I also feel cheated that using the Book of M... thebook of the ancients you don't learn lore. You read whatyou have to do, and that's it. Lame.


My biggest complaint is, the overworld feel small, the dungeons feel extra large, and the otherworld is too tough and crowded. Shouldn't everyone be trees anyway?

[twillight]

So, this is direct continuation of the previously released game. And finaly gives name to the hero: Link.
The platform is some gameboy, so it looks relatively small, what is good news I think.
the goal of the game is to commit holocaust to an entire culture, and that's why u r the hero. Yay!
And your reward is - to starve to death in the middle of the ocean! That was pretty grimm.

To add a bit, here's how the timeline stands at this point. No additional info made up by me, and all ingame/inmanual info is included:
the 4 games are in 2 pairs, 2-2 being direct sequels of each others. The question is though, which Zelda is present in the prequels: the Original Zelda, or a later Zelda. We have no idea. Likely the later, so I call her Zelda Y at this point.

PS: the ending is ripoff from Monkey Island 3, but as mentioned it creates a completly different feeling because how it is set up.

EDIT: Contradiction time!
So, The Adventure of Link said the Original Zelda's father had the Triforce, and put the three Triangles at three locations. Also, from that point on were every female descendant-princess named Zelda.
The problem is, in every game the princess (in many if not all games also descendant of the sages) is called Zelda.
But if the Triforce was broken to its pieces at the Original Zelda's time, then how did Ganon aquire the Triforce unshattered?

Opinion on continuity and the official timeline:
The first two games' continuity is dubious in the series, but the rest seems solid. Ocarina of Time's key moment is though that Gnaon CAN leave the Shadow Realm, and during the endfight, before he is sealed away finaly, does transform into his demon-pig form. So the whole time-split explanation is obviously made by someone not familiar with the actual games, or intentionaly neglected hugh chuncks of them.
Otherwise there IS a reason for the Three Timeline. The 2nd and 3rd you know is when Link wins. One is the timeline of Link, who travelled back in time, and the 3rd is for everyone else in the created alternate timeline of the future.
Those who complaint forget thatthere was ANOTHER time travel in the game, namely when Link traveled into the future to be able to use the Master Sword. The use of the Master Sword is by the way indicator Ocarine happens before Link to the Past. So there mustbe a timeline where Link is taken out of time, so there's no Link to prevent Ganon doing whatever he wants. As I said the problem with this is, that Link must fight Ganon to G be transformed into Demonpig.


Seems these games came in pairs, as Majora's Mask is continuation of Ocarina of Time.
The game has practicaly no relevance on the lore, as it plays inyet another world along the Light and Dark realms. No explanation how Link Z got there, probably just got lost in some woods.

[twillight]

This is a weird combo. The "true ending" seems to indicate it is the same story in two different alternate versions.
And if you check the solo playthroughs, you see while both game happen in some alternate realities, Ages also includes time travel!
Obviously these games can't happen on one single timeline. So this is either a split - or a merge!

Four Swords
Another independent adventure. The series rly started to show degradation at this point.

Wind Waker
Finaly back on track. At this point of the series The Hero of Time not appearing could happen for 2 reasons: one is the later official view that beacuse of time travel and alternative timeline. But it could have been (or is, if the office again don't know what they're talking about) that Link of Ocarina didn't appear, because was in that alternate reality hunting Majora's Mask.
Well, until you consider the world got flodded immediately after Ganon appeared yet again, so to fit it on an unshattered timeline, you'd have to dry the world after this adventure, which is pretty unlikely.
Also, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are direct continuation of this timeline, and otherwise pretty inconsequential for the series.

Four Swords Adventure
This piece of #&@ doesn't even have a backstory in the manual.
Inside the game our best clue is, that Ganon is in the Dark World, and there's a Shrine of the Four Sword which was built in the Four Sword game.
It starts to be very boring that Ganon is always resurrected, and even without any explanation how.

Skyward Sword
CONTRADICTION: Skyward Sword says the Master Sword was created that time. The problem is, the 3rd game said the Master Sword was created during the Imprisoning War, against Ganon!
Also remains the question what happened with the flying country.

The Minish Cap seems to be a prequel and the story of the creation of the Four Sword. Fine for me.
The problem is, the sole connection of the Vaati-story to the main story is a onetime appearance of Ganon, so placing the story is a bit problematic. Ganon being constantlybanished, imprisoned, resurrected, and maybe even reborn makes the clarification of this question a big fuss.

Twilight Princess seems well done to come on the Majora's Mask timline, but I can't tell if there's a possibe continuity for Four Swords Adventures w/o playing that game, what I won't do.


-----------


At this point I have the following continuities (Season/Ages has the same number 7 at me):


1 -> 2
11 -> 8 -> 10 with possible connection to other continuities
15
7 with undeterminated possible connections. My hypothesis at this point that it merges the time-split, so is wrongly placed on the official timeline.

5 -> 6 -> 12
5 -> 9 -> 13 -> 14
5 -> 3 -> 4


uninvestigated: 16, 17, 18

[twillight]

This is a good game.
Not great, you don't want to play it in one session, but a look is nice, the gameplay is smooth, it works on my computer (so you don't need gamer-pc), the amount of dialogue is toleratable and needed to make the otherwise slightly repetitive fights toleratable.


Also, the puns and humour is ctachable like flu even while clicking away the dialogue,and that the big shiny knight-robot is a she, made me smile.
Overal, a good, solid game.
Can't say anything about the prices, as living in a backwater country everything is too expensive for us, but by the look of it I say the price can be around right.

[twillight]

I'm doing it w/o any walkthrough.
It a perfectly fine adventure game (which likes to crash every 5 minutes, but whatever), which can mostly be solved by paying attention, and using videogame-logic. For example if they say the toothbrush got alive because of goo, dirt and neglect, it can be lured by bait. That's "obvious".

I just did the espresso, and so far only had a couple of "try everything" inventory puzzles (namely ballons with hook), and even less moon-logic. It helped that I made notes, most of the stuff made sense by adventure game standards, thus could eliminate most stuff, so the trial-and-error method got thinned to a small pool.

So far so good.


Aaand the game defeated itself at the pidgeon-puzzle. I don't just not like the puzzle there (I completly suck at those kind of puzzles), but it never got to me to mess with the cats, especialy that way. The achievements along this puzzle just make everything even worse. And there's no clue what to do. If the poster behind the post-bot was intended to be a clue - well, they fucked that up big time.

[Mystvan]

I'm doing it w/o any walkthrough.
It a perfectly fine adventure game (which likes to crash every 5 minutes, but whatever), which can mostly be solved by paying attention, and using videogame-logic. For example if they say the toothbrush got alive because of goo, dirt and neglect, it can be lured by bait. That's "obvious".

I just did the espresso, and so far only had a couple of "try everything" inventory puzzles (namely ballons with hook), and even less moon-logic. It helped that I made notes, most of the stuff made sense by adventure game standards, thus could eliminate most stuff, so the trial-and-error method got thinned to a small pool.

So far so good.


Aaand the game defeated itself at the pidgeon-puzzle. I don't just not like the puzzle there (I completly suck at those kind of puzzles), but it never got to me to mess with the cats, especialy that way. The achievements along this puzzle just make everything even worse. And there's no clue what to do. If the poster behind the post-bot was intended to be a clue - well, they fucked that up big time.



I missed your posts a bit. :( Deponia... I purchased several games from Deponia (on GOG.com, GamersGate.com), but theyt ended up being just Collection for me... *shrug*

[twillight]

it gives 65% off the price, and is available for 40 more hours.
in case anyone wants that. Oh, the code is for GoG.com

[twillight]

Let's see this game:

extra skills:
most of their purpose is destroyed them being single chois thingies, but whatever, right?
- self treatment, aka. regeneration: obviously your basic lifehack skill. You are beginner, or like to not loose at all cost? Pick this skill, and stand around healing between waves. Obviously the strongest skill in the game.
- vampire: I have no idea how this works, but most probably regeneration when doing damage. Seems the weaker cousin of the above skill.
- night vision: eliminates a semi-key feature of the game, aka. the constant darkness. You shouldn't need this with all the flashlights, and even night-vision googles. But if you don't want the regeneration, but still want an obvious advantage, pick this.
- economist, aka. more money: why would you want more money? You have to buy item (weapon) a single time in the game to be honest, maybe another for the very late game. On the other hand I doubt the money would be enough to always repair your stuff (I mean armor, drone, medikit supply. Weapons don't get damaged, and there are way too much ammo).

Talking about weapons: pistols suck - unless you preserve the cigarettes from mission 2 to the start of mission 4 and not sell them for a crappy +1-15 one attribute implant at the start of mission 3. Even the best implant even worth less then the midgame-pistol you get (worth 1000-1500 less gold than the pistol).
Oh, a crappy design choice: wondering in the HQ counts as part of the coming mission, so selling stuff is tedious. The good side is, if you underpack supplies, as the only save you have is restart mission, you'llalways be able to buy additional stuff. Still tedious.

Talking about implants: many of them give boost to your intelligence, what's only purpose is to wear implants, so it's a self-defeating attribute.

- analyst, aka. more exp. I think it doubles the amount you earn. Usualy the extra exp only means 1-2 extra levels in the end, so who realy cares? Still mean SOME advantage I assume...
- observer: gives more money? maybe highlight the secret rooms? Who knows, who cares.
- hypnotizer: the enemy comes closer. Why on earth would you want that??? They come close easy enough anyway.
- boxer: you can roll fighting barehanded. Any character can push the "0" button, but this can also roll with the mouse's gear. This is the ONLY stat that rises the fist-damage! STR does NOT incrise fistfighting's effectiveness! The monsters damage, number, speed, maid-lategame capability to shoot projectiles, and the fact you get in late missions infinite ammo gatlings, mostly defeats its purpose, but if you want a challenge in this game, you might give it a try.

stats:
- health: more max. HP. When investing in it, the actual HP rises (and falls!) too
- strength: more max. ammo. Usualy SMG-mags and shotgun-shells are aplenty, so either you can sell even when using these weapons, or rise STR to carry all. Also rises HP, I think by half like health directly.
- speed: walking speed gets faster. Pretty irrelevant.
- accuracy: I'mnot sure about this, as you aim too manualy. Maybe 50 in it is a good invetment if you use guns. Does not effect Boxer.
- intelligence: in theory some implants have requirements in this. I never seen that happening.

character creation analysis:
- you can start the game w/o spending your 3 bonus point by doiuble clicking the start-button! Each bonus-point either means 10 stat-point in 1 stat, or 1,000$.
- 1st male: has the least amount of statpoints (91), low money (ca.500 like mostmales), starts with pistol. He can still be a choice if you go Boxer, as he has 64 in strenght + health, but more in STR than HP though.
- 2nd male is a crappier version of the 1st male, only starts with a shotgun. It's not much of an advantage, especialy as shotguns have low shooting frequency, and you find similar shotguns soon enough. Avoid.
- 3rd male has the most statpoints (98), fopcus being on HP, while all the other stats are 10-15 which makes it a balanced jack-of-all-trades character, so it is a good pick for Boxer if you worry thatlater on you'll have to use guns eventualy. Also starts with the most amount of cash any male starts with (1100). Starts with a rifle AND a grenade launcher (slow, but at least hits on impact).
- 4th male has very strong Boxer-capability with 65 pont in HP + STR, plus another 8 STR from starting implant (which also means like 500-750 cash when sold).
- 1st female invested in implat-wearing, but I never actualy seen any demand of intelligence, and implants are expensive, and doesn't help that much. Her scores are a weak boxer's (57 in sum, but from those 15 is implant, so actualy only 42). Starts with 1500 cash.
- 2nd female is equaly crappy as the 1st, but starts with infinite ammo pistol (who cares, after the 1stmission you'll get the flare pistol anyway),and has 3500$, the most on any character. Also wears some leather armor.
- 3rd female has 43 in aiming, making her friggin obvious choice for any gun-user. Also has a leather armor. "Only" starts with 1000 cash.
- 4th female has balanced (15-20) all stats, 1500$, and a metal armor. Unless armors are über (they aren't), skip her too.
SUMMARY: the best choice for the regular gamer is the 3rd female. Males are only candidates for Boxer.

missions:
Here is a link to all(?) Secret Rooms (https://translate.google.hu/translate?hl=en&tab=wT&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcommunity.com%2Fsharedfiles%2 Ffiledetails%2F%3Fid%3D879683460).

- mission 1 is very easy. Only late-mission you face a single group of enemies, and there are healing supplies on the walls, each healing 20.
Monsters can randomly drop healing, or ammo or cash. They never srop other equipment (armor, weapon, drone etc.)
SW secret: found a shotgun
IMPORTANT NOTE: before entering the complex through the E secret, BLOW UP THE GATE WITH THE DYNAMITE, else you don't gain exp!
If you entered through the E secret room (in which I found an implant), don't forget to go outside to the inner court for loot (where I found another implant, and a pistol).


- mission 2 is easy. There will be monsters from the beginning starting here finaly. My advice is to never wear armor, as there are healing posts, which heal you to the max infinite times whenever you get hurt.
Starting here come some big-ass bipedal lizards (you'll know when you see), and they have a crapload of HP, aka. can't be onepunched with 55 in Boxer. I'm doing a boxer and will report the situation. My boxer does wear the armors unfortunately, because the game doesn't explain shit, and there are no guides in mind of this (everyone use guns). If I'll have to start over, as I'm not sure grinding is possible, I'll miss my flare-gun. The game randomly gives you weapons from its pool, what is an annoyance, and one of these is an infinite ammo flare gun, which canbe used as free flashlights, so it is pretty fun.
Ah, a gun is DEMANDED even for a boxer, to "open" crates, because some are exploding for no reason!
NOTE: I (meaning the above linked guid) miss a secret in this mission, only shows 16 of 17! NOTE 2: Ok, there it is. Where there are 3 actual room secret-room, there's also a destroyable wall as a 4th secret-room.
Details: found the flare-pistol in the base, also a basic flashlight (as looted this box a couple of times already, I think this item is fixed).
In Secret 4 (check link) is anarmor, and an implant. Agan, I think these items are actualy fixed.
Secret 6 has one of those +100 HPs.
Somewhere along found the mini-uzi, and another (way better/efficient) machinegun.
Secret 9 has another +100 HP.
Well, just loot everything, ok? I'll tell if something actualy significant is found/happens.
If Boxer, get +100 HP when joining the soldiers to be able to fight in the front row.
And when going for the exit-terminalat the end, get another, because it'll be a BIG fight. When you see the crew standing around DO NOT APPROACH, because when you do, the doors will close (for the fight).
Secret 11 has a third +100 HP, so if you did all right, you can leave by picking it up.

- mission 3 is still easy. There are medical posts too, and a note: do not enter the secret rooms unless you expect a big fight, because some have +100 HP which can go over the maximum. So best kept them for Big Obvious Ambushes.
Secret 10 has a leather armor.
Secret 5 has +100 HP - get it before trying to enter the mayor's office (two soldier will be standing there to cover you).
HQ: radar becomes available (not useful), night googles (best flashlight?) becomes available.


NOTE ON A BUG: the "secret room" mechanic is not thought through, as you CAN pass through WALLS, forcing you to restart missions occasionaly. Better stick to the secrets-guide above, eh?


- mission 4: aaand here is where the fun stops. The enemy starts to shoot, in hordes, thus you must abandon punching them. Nah.

[twillight]

Perk: Economist, because I think money will be important for advancing the weapons faster, and possible repairing armors. Obviously using guns. Made stat-count on the female characters, and Fem3 won by 105 statpoints, and a heavy investment in accuracy.
Impossible diff. has a very high price on aiming. Shotgun still works for obvious reasons.

Mission 1: Still boring with mostly no enemies. The enemies have a ton of HP, the pistol almost worth squat.
I think I'll need ASAP 25 STR, 25 HP, 50-60 aim, then max. economist or something to get the most out of it.

Mission 2:
HQ:
best pistol (the game lists "best weapon" with the most DPS): colt .45
best shotgun: slibert DM5
best SMG: HKMP5
best explosive: fly-2
best special weapon: laser pistol s50
best armor: metal II
supply: small medikit, radar, flaslight II (invest this - night google are too weak (produces a very weak emergency red light only), and flashlight III (which you can find very late btw) I found too bright)

Mission 3:
HQ:
best pistol: bittler G2
best shotgun: -
best SMG: steyr AUG
best explosive: RG-6 (a very bad weapon as the grenades do not expload on impact but on a timer)
best special weapon: GP53 laser rifle (laser weapons are better than flamethrowers if you ask me, as they have range, and don't burn ammo)
best armor: metal III
supply: small drone
Invest into: small flamethrower - without this you won't have a sliver of chance! Also, likely good idea to improve your SMG too to the best available.

[twillight]

Mission 4:
HQ:
best pistol: beretta L5
best shotgun: -
best SMG: AKM
best explosive: -
best special weapon: -
best armor: combat armor
supply: night vision googles (it sux), medkit
Invest into: radar

The mission sucks, because SMG-ammo is scarce (and its dmg is lacking), my shotgun sucks, the enemy is ranged and comes in hordes, AND on top of it there are no items or healing!
Prime weapon should be the pistol you just got for the cigarette (precise, hits hard), and the shotgun. I'll explain this below.
There's actualy a trick which can result even a Boxer be able to do this level: lure everything (especialy hugh mobs) to a stair. The fish-aliens can't shoot you when standing on dry land, but you can hit them (you have to stand close, so be cautious psitioning).
Also, be paranoid. If you think it moved, it probably did, so shoot it. The radar is ok to find bigger hordes, but you won't be able to spot moving single enemies, still worth the investment I assume.
Worth noting you can actualy leave the area and go back to HQ. This is good, because atthe commander there isa healing post. abuse it. There's another in the 2nd sewer-room.
Nowon the shotgun: you are outnumbered and outgunned. Some situation can be solved using the stairs, and by luring away minor groups, but thatwon't always be enough.
Oh, come to think of it: stuff seemingly random can blow up, especialy when entering the 2nd sewer-room - try to avoid that blasting any barrel you spot, and keeping your distance.
Oh, and don't trust to corridors, the isometric view hides half of them, so they are bloody dangerous (serious design-flow).
So, back on using the shotgun: when massive land-dwelling hordes appear, you can hide behind the other side of the fences. Maybe because hitboxes are not thatwell programmed, you can actualy shoot the monsters through the otherwise wall-like fences. This is especialy importans when opening the walves!

On bonuses: there's a single +100 HP - won't matter too much unfortunately.
Also, one of the secret rooms, only available after solving the mission, has a combat armor for you.

mission 5:
HQ:
best pistol: sig-sauer sig-pro
best shotgun: silbert DM50 (not sure when it appeared in shop)
best SMG: volcano G2000
best explosive: SL-1 (I think I had one on my other character, and it's slow and sucks)
best special weapon: G200 ion rifle
best armor: combat armor II
supply: big drone
Invest into: slibert DM50 (this is still "cheap", in the 20K$ category, but has the punch to repell the initial horde - exit the room during reload-time,and don't forget to heal!)

The mission starts in the HQ as usual, and the scientist gives you a random implant with 10-20 to two stat. Make this count, so prepare for reload. HP is excelent, STR is good, ACC is fine, speed might be acceptable if the other stat is awesome and you are bored, while intelligence is entirely useless.
My stats at this point, including this 19 HP 18 STR implant: 49/38/25/45/10/40. Preparing to bump economy to a lot.

I think you shouldn't wear your armor 100% of the time, spare it for big battles, and abuse the free healing in the HQ instead.
The 1st secret has a grenade launcher (it sucks, remove from the weapon slots).

BUG: you'll get control over unlimited ammo gatlings. The bug is, when you use them, your flaslight turns off.

The sad thing is, this isn't even a hard level. But as usual there are frustrating things. Like whenyou leave the initialarea and reach the turret, you no longer can go out, like to pick up the Secret Rooms with the end of the mission, or you got so used to spacebaraway the uninspired talks you can easily end the mission before looting the final secret room.

BTW: the radar is very useful here.

Mission 6:
best pistol: GLK-P5
best shotgun: jackhammer
best SMG: disembowel
best explosive: vampir
best special weapon: plasma desintegrator
best armor: power armor
supply: mega medikit
Invest into: jackhammer (despite its lot of missfires - lessened by crowds being hugh - it is very strong and not too expensive)


Very though mission. Remove healing kits from the fast item slot (it means it takes effect automaticaly), and remove your armor. Heal in the HQ. Do this until you reach the teleporter room, where put your stuff on. Destroy the teleporters, then use the SOUTH teleporter. That room is smaller. DESTROY THE COMPUTERS TOO besides just blowing that stuff up with the dynamite. If you get hurt, the teleporter-room hasa healing post.

At the north room you'll probably be zeroed on the armor, so go to the nearby store-room for another (weaker, but whatever) armor. Again destroy the computers. Let's hope you don't run out of time.

[twillight]

Mission 7:

At the end of Mission 6 you could re-enter the HQ for shopping, but nah. Mostly, because you get an unlimited ammo gatling vehicle for the next one anyway.
Btw, the "1st secret room" (check link several posts before) is right where you turn down to the 2nd secret room! How much I've been looking for this!

Mission 8:

best pistol: - (all pistols got unlocked)
best shotgun: -(you find a double shotgun, which is a powerful weapon for any other difficulty)
best SMG: -(but you find an AKM here)
best explosive: -
best special weapon: -
best armor: -
supply: -
Invest into: mega medikit

Yet again you have the Plot Armor Car. So whatever.
This level is a lazy afterthought with zero secret rooms, but it has a shop. Just found out that supplies are limited to appear, so buy the ultra medikits asap. Or maybe not, nothing is explained, and maybe they accumlate in the shop.
NOTE: they likely accumlate. This mission is long as F, and midway you have to change from the infinite gun military car to an unarmed police vehicle, and youbetter get used to raming things, because there are half a dozen rocket-launcher/plasma-gun supermonsters to be rammed down!

Also, at one point you find a new set of combat armor, soyou don't have to worry that much about your old armors.
Also, soon into the next mission there'll be another shop, so if we need anything, we'll get access to it, until then the Jackhammer should be enough.

About stats: Economist special skill is pumped to 65, and that by the look of this source (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-agugqseyk) should be enough. I have no intention getting rid of all my weapons and stuff like he does though,and I'm not that reckless.
Incomparsion he has 40K$, me 137.6K, we both have the jackhammer, he has 1 extra life, me 5, ha has a disembowel while I have a crapload of items on me though he has a serious implant while I only a medium quality.
The game says I missed some monsters again - no idea what causes this, nothing moved on the map.

Mission 9:

Invest into: Vampire, mega-medikit, power armor

This is a long-ass mission similar to the previous missions, except this time you have no car. There is a shopand a healing post at the beggining. Spare your armor until you get out of the first complex. There first go ~north, wearing some leftover armor to remove some ranged monnsters. Go to where the road forks, then turn back. If you go ~south (Oor west if you prefer), you'll encounter a missle-mage-monster, but your reward is a free-of-dollar homing missile, which will be necessary later. Or will prove too weak, and will have to buy some expensive shite.
Whenyou delt with this street, when entering the building do NOT shoot the boxes!!! They contain two +100 HP buff, and you want to preserve those!!!!!

And aside this being a long-ass mission, it'll also drop on you teleporters, and just fok those shite.

TIP: if you have an implant with HP +ACC make that your combat implant. STR helps looting on the other hand.

[twillight]

Mission 10:

Rightclicking an equipment in your inventory will swap it for the current one.
Btw, this is another Walk To the Edge of the Earth mission :sick:

TIP: try to remember where extra ammo is, what kinda ammo is there, and try not to blast immediately every crate as they potentialy have +50 HP. Those do not overflow, but are your only source of realhelaing on this mission.

In one of the secrets you'll find a Combat Armor II. But while you should always be inarmor during this mission, you should still have plenty from the last Combat Armor, and the Power Armor too (this is our bestarmor currently, wear it last!).
Along the armor will be a free best-pistol-in-the-game too.

Mission 11:

best pistol: - (all pistols got unlocked, shop does NOT sell the tradable Mission 4 Prototype Pistol!)
best shotgun: Craft SP 200 (all shotguns unlocked. Shop does NOT sell Double Shotgun!)
best SMG: volcano
best explosive: -
best special weapon: -
best armor: -
supply: -
Invest into: mega medikit


Always wear armor and medikit. This is because until you filled the main objective, there is no healing. The mission isn't terrible though aside some half-hidden corridor, and the fact you see more of the screen horizontaly than verticaly, so use only the smallest medikits you found.


Current stats:
HP: 33 (base, +30 implant)
STR: 20 (base, +20 implant. This is way enough to carry around ammo, but in the nextmission the shop rolled a 50+, and that's definitely more thananyone would need)
Speed: 25
Special Perk, Economist: 66
ACC: 56, currently pumping it to 100


Mission 12:


best pistol: - (all pistols got unlocked, shop does NOT sell the tradable Mission 4 Prototype Pistol!)
best shotgun: - (all shotguns unlocked. Shop does NOT sell Double Shotgun!)
best SMG: -
best explosive: "Rain"
best special weapon: plasma minnigun (the shop DO sell the freezer, but I think do not sell PR-1500, which was available to be picked up in Mission 11)
best armor: -
supply: -
Invest into: mega medikit, plasma gatling




On implants in shop: determined when starting the mission. Restarting mission does not change them. Replaying previous mission might change them, but who'll take the effort for a reroll?
Either way, a 3 stat boost 80+ per stat implant is arund 80-100K $, if you care.


Reloading trick: changing weapon, then immediately changing back (using the mouse's roller is a miracle) reloads your weapon. Can be useful for slow reload weapons.


Notable items: you'll get a Flashlight III.


NOTE: whenever possible, let the drones get ahead of you, especialy when the lights are out (googles supposed to work, but my version definitely has them permanently disabled). On one corridor a BUNCH of mega-monsters reside, so you need cover. And while youwon't hit by your own blasts (so rocket launchers are 100% safe), I"m not sure about the bots, so energy weapons are pointed on.

[twillight]

Mission 13:

best pistol: - (all pistols got unlocked, shop does NOT sell the tradable Mission 4 Prototype Pistol!)
best shotgun: Craft SP 200 (all shotguns unlocked. Shop does NOT sell Double Shotgun!)
best SMG: volcano GP5500 (I think no improvement, but only noticed therearetwo volcanos)
best explosive: -
best special weapon: G5000 ion cannon (all specials unlocked, PR-1500 isNOT sold in shop)
best armor: advanced power armor (all armor unlocked)
supply: - (all supplies unlocked a long time ago)
Invest into: mega medikit, possibly advanced power armor, possibly 3-stat implant

No healing, tons of enemy, only a CombatArmor II is found, so buy that power armor. The advanced might be way too expensive to what it can do, so you might settle for the enhanced power armor, but whatever. Ammo for pistol starts todeplet, and isn't regularon this level anyway.
There are NO telepods though, no matter how that fells like sometimes.

There comes a free BT-13 SMG too, which is a definite improvement over AKM.

Mission 14:

No shop. But you get a tank, which is practicaly the game letting you trying out the ion cannon. But it kicks down all mobs, and let's you run over the mega-monsters, so it's fine. Also, gazillions of exp here.

Mission 15:

best pistol: - (all pistols got unlocked, shop does NOT sell the tradeable Mission 4 Prototype Pistol!)
best shotgun: Craft SP 200 (all shotguns unlocked. Shop does NOT sell Double Shotgun!)
best SMG: atom (all unlocked)
best explosive: NTRO-40 S1 (all unlocked)
best special weapon: - (all specials unlocked, PR-1500 is NOT sold in shop)
best armor: - (all armor unlocked)
supply: - (all supplies unlocked)
Invest into: mega medikit, possibly advanced power armor, possibly 3-stat implant, the N(I)TRO rocket launcher, the plasma gatling (if youdid npot buy earlier).

NOTE: grenades and rockets ARE different type of ammo, just like fuel and batteries. You need a matching weapon to be able to see the ammo type (and sell the ones you do not use).


The monsters come from teleporters, so keep pushing when you suspect you reached one. Expect mega-monsters regularly (only rocket-ones with exception of a pair).


Mission 16:

[twillight]

The AI is noticably dumber, and hits less. Any maybe your hitbox is wider too?

Done Mission 4 with Male 4 character. HP is key, especialy at the start, and abuse of healing posts.
Breather enemies are a problem, they eat your HP fast. I lost all my small medikits and my leather armor during misison 4. Thought getting out of the sewer control will be the most trouble, but getting in was more of a problem because of breathers.

EDIT: Done with the first car-level. Using the atuo-turrets is highly advisable with this build. The self-destruct stage was interresting, but you CAN punch down those rocket-monsters eventualy.
Stats for this build are mainly useless: INTis useless here anyway, ACC only helps weapons, STR is only to carry ammo (not even all items, but simply ammo, and those are not that expensive to make you invest in it!). Speed is moderatly useful, but you'll never have to sprint, there are many monsters, so there'll be things to punch. HP is mandatory, but it can be risen via implants, so go that path. Spend all your levelup-statpoints into your special skill for faster tearing down of the bigger things.

EDIT: didn't mention, but it is ok to keep the laser-rifle to safely and fastly blow up those greenmine-blobs.

Mission 10:

Forgot to buy the power armor, and I was down to my last armor, so it was though, and ate up a lot of medikit, but I think I did fine.

Btw, I forgot my ownadvice,and didn't finish the freezer-gun,shame on me. On my impossible diff playthrough I forgot to destroy all eggs during the final mission. I Don't rly care as long as I'm passing.

Tactic: againstlarge ranged corwdes, head-first is a good tactic,although try tostrafe a bit until you get to the edge of the mob. It'd be funny if I could win this.

Mission 11:

If you run out of armor, buy the latest model, and repair if necessary.
NOTE: when you'll have access to the highest tier armor, BUY those pieces, because in the very last mission (16, ok, technicaly it is the last-but-one) you won't be able to repair.

Also buy medium medikits. Otherwise it is funny to scramble through hordes of enemies w/o stopping because youhave to eliminate the ranged ones :)

In Secret Room#2 is a +100 HPwhich you'll likely need for #3 as it is filled with nasties.
Don't forget to use the healing post wen you're ready to leave.

Mission 12:

In the southern portion, between the 2nd and 3rd data-spot is a medi-post.

NOTE: Combat Armor is where your armor deplets faster than your life (that's a good thing).
NOTE: the AI's pathfinder routine is dumb, so bigger monsters can get stuck behind doors/corridors. Use this toyour advantage.
NOTE: when going toe-to-toe against mega-mons, try going around them. They seems to fire less frequently (and if you manage to get behind them, they don't shoot at all).

Mission 15:

This is where you fly from one telepod to the next. Problem is, each telepod has a rocket-monster ot two, or more. With htis epxerience I say buy not just big medicits whenever possible (they do NOTaccumlate), but along them also the medium medikits too.

NOTE: leveling up also gives a full heal, just so you know.


Mission 16:


So, with this done, the game could actualy be ended. But let's try the alien boss.
Although I think the creators mixed up the endings. Whatever.

[twillight]

I'm not sure if I canjust pass them away, but we might try.


The +5% is above what they discount at the moment.


Games are (crap, I have to recall these from memory?):
- hollow knight
- blasphemous
- grim dawn
- and probably 2-3 more.


I don't care for these (ok, I'd care for Blasphemous, but I have no 64 bit system), so if youneed them, until nov. 4. I think this sale goes. Throw a PM or post here if u r interrested, and I'll check whatt he actual games are,and give you the code in PM.

[twillight]

Currently doing a poverty run in Baldur'sGate 1-2-ToB (details on GoG's forum, basicaly I play a sorcerer), then I have some stuff stored, namely:

- Alone in the Dark: A new nightmare (yes, I still run only a win 7, 32 bit system, and with GoG's black friday I said, wynaught)
- Noctropolis (looks hilariously bad)
- Grim Fandango (never played, sounded badly programmed, maybe the remater helped it)
- Obscuritas (I don't even know why I have this, maybe it was super-cheap, and made an emotional purchase)
- Dragonfire: The Well of Souls (hope it works)
- Crypt Killer (hope it works, and gives some fun)
- The House of the Dead (hope it works, the only roller-shooter I played was Die Hard Trilogy's 2nd act, and I'm curious why this game got so famous - btw, I liked the Uwe Boll movie, and its sequel too)

EDIT: I'm doing some progress with Baldur'sGate 1(+TotSC)-2-ToB poverty, sorcerer. You can read it here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/baldurs_gate_series/poverty_run/page1
The important thing is the starting stats, where intelligence is dumpstat, and strength is more important then you'd think (some quest items are heavy, and yes, some story-relateditems toohave some weight),and as I do use limited wish, and wishseems to be a demand against Amelyssan, wisdom needs to be high too (though you get bonuses there).
Alignment is good to get a useful familiar (chaotic neutral is a nice thief/explorer),and that's kinda super-important with no gear on you, though mostly helps avoiding a great number of reloads.
As my game is merging all the "trilogy", exp-caps do not exist for me, so I might have some extra spells for the BG1 part.

Here is the spell list I found kinda demanded for such a play:

slvl 1:
1) find familiar (very convenient if it can stealth-explore)
2) identify (to use the Tome of stats, but you can pick whatever you want)
3) magic missile (essential)
4) prot. from evil (against summoned demons mostly)
5) prot. from petrification (it removes some important random rolls, especialy in BG1with all the basilisks,some being unavoidable)

slvl 2:
1) knock (locks are annoying, and I'm not entirely sure there are no story-related locked doors, especialy before Slayer Form what gives 25 STR whatis otherwise demanded in ToB fora story-related door)
2) melf's acidic arrow (justto have some more damage spell, if you feel like it you can pick something else)
3) mirror image (sometimes very very convenient, I strongly suggest this)
4) prot. from fear (very annoying if you don't have this)
5) ?

slvl3:
1) ghost armor (convenient early on, you might exchange it, but I hardly see a better alternative)
2) melf's minute meteors (essential)
3) skull trap (traps are overpowered at situations)
4) ?
5) ?

slvl 4:
1) improved invisibility (most mages won't even do anything if you have this,alsohelps against archers, avoiding fights etc.)
2) stone skin (essential)
3) spider spawn (cheap, effective summons, I love them)
4) ? (maybe minor sequencer for added casting number)
5) ? (maybe olulike's sphere, if it works on you, and doesn't prevent casting - unfortunately even yourself do a saving throw, most assuredly preventing the effect)

slvl 5:
1) sunfire (perfect offensive spell, though fire)
2) spell immunity (this can help imensly in certain situations. It can for starter win your fight against Sharevok in BG1, and later can protect from imprisonment/maze/charm from all kinds of sources)
3) ? (maybe cloudkill is a good idea)
4) ? (maybe protection from electricity - very convenient to have, unlocks the bottom level of Durlag's Tower if you want that, makes you avoid likely reload in the air room in Watcher's Keep, protects in thin trapped corridors, low level...)
5) ?

slvl 6:
1) death spell (convenient)
2) true sight (again convenient)
3) prot. from magic weapons (it is convenient and enough at times)
4) ? (maybe pierce magic)
5) ?


slvl 7:
1) limited wish (it is convenient, and has certain potentials)
2) mordekainen's sword (pretty good summon, although morea defensive thing than offensive)
3) sequencer (maybe. Added casting always good?)
4) ? (prismatic spray maybe, for the ToB drow tunnels?)
5) ? (maybe Khelben's wharding whip against infinite defensive buff enemies)


slvl 8:
1) ? (maybe pierce magic)
2) ? (maybe spell trigger for extra casting)
3) ? (maybe abi dhalzim for extra area damage,casting from cover of fog-of-war)
4) ? (maybe simulacrum)

slvl 9:
1) wish (because Amelissan pretty much demanded for the 1% chance for resetting HP and spells)
2) chain contignency for emergency casting if enemies ambush you at entering, also potentialy extra firepower (beware, that "when enemy sighted is NOT instantaneous when entering an area!)
3) ?
4) ?

[twillight]

Things got darn difficult for this one, need to sort my notes. So:


- you totaly can throw away that basic quarterstaff.
- the main issue is causing damage. So you'll use Magic Missle a lot, and even unarmed fighting. If youthrew away thatquarterstaff, you'll need Magic Missle as a finishing move!
- there aren't many damage spells, and the other problem is the casting speed.
- the damage magic progression is something like this: magic missile, mel'f acidic arrow as supplementary spell (because of FireTrolls in ToB it is even unavoidable), Melf's minute meteors, summon planetar. And that's pretty much it.

- energy blades are fine, with the exception they don't bypass magic resistance. I still needed them against Darconis, but probably that wasn't optimal.
- being a sorcerer/ess ganing enough spell slot, I mean number of casting is a nuisance.
- because prime source of damage is weapon-dependent, you better have high dexterity and strength
- strenght is desperatly needed to carry around stuff, and possibly to bash locks
- stealth (from familiar in my case) helps immensly in BG1
- you can circumgo saving throws various ways, mostly sending out summons.
- mordekainen's sword is mostly a defensive summon, and a good one
- spiders are cheap summon still
- there are many spells, but useful spells are a rarity
- there are always quests around with easier opponents.
- removing the exp-cap (I mean having only the 8 mill cap) is convenient
- skull traps are higly unreliable,and are magic damage,and somehow can hurt mordekainen's sword
- improved invisibility can break most fights against casters
- there are plenty enough gold quest rewards, no need to pick up any
- doing a poverty run is extremly straightforward, no option for diversity in whatyou are doing, so do this only if you start get bored by the game anyway
- the mind shield from deckof many things is NOT permanent
- poverty run shown how perfectly measured the stat bonuses in the not-EE edition were.
- the mainattraction of the game is the fixed variety it offers. Partymembers, gadgets and abilities allwait to be collected. All of them are fixed, at fixed places, and they come in great quantities.
- magic golems can only be hurt with nonenchanted WEAPONS? Nonenchanted DAMAGE is not enough? You can avoid these either way,and you only meet them 2 times.
- the Death Spell is very convenient, and I mean strong, but usualy you just do raw damage obviously instead
- might be interresting to do a holy caster based run. I don't think I have enough in me for that though. Wonder what the key factors there would be, but obviously such never-used spells like holy hammer, and its counterparts will come into play
- I have no idea why certain enemies gostraight for the protagonist (maybe they'd be ok with party members?)
- Updated spell list:
lvl 1: 1) find familiar 2) magic missile 3) (identify) 4) prot from evil 5) prot from petrification
lvl 2: 1) knock2) melf's acidic arrow 3) mirror image 4) resist fear 5) (blur)
lvl 3: 1) ghost armor 2) melf's minute meteors 3) skull trap 4) - 5) -
lvl 4: 1) improved invisibility 2) stone skin 3)spider spawn 4) - 5) -
lvl 5: 1) spell immunity 2) (prot from electricity) 3) sunfire 4) (cloudkill) 5) -
lvl 6: 1) death spell 2) prot. from magic weapons 3) true sight 4) improved haste 5) (true sight
lvl 7: 1) mordekainen's sword 2) limited wish 3) (khelben's warding whip) 4) - 5) -
lvl 8: 1) pierce shield 2) abi dhalzim's 3) (simulacrum) 4) -
lvl 9: 1) chain contignency X) dragon's breath X) summon planetar 2) wish 3) time stop 4) improved alactricity
- don't realy have any idea for the current run against Abazigail, the Ravager, Amelyssan, and I'm not sure about Balthazar either (maybe he can be occupied by mordekainen).

[twillight]

1) Monk, fighter, ranger, barbarian, paladin, bard, thief etc. rely way too heavily on company and/or items to be effective.
Yes, I think even monks are a no-go. Prove me otherwise. But monks lack the meat shields casters have, and I hold the belief based on evidence, they'd perish against things like Sharevok and other final bosses. I repeat: if you wanna debate this, do it in practice.


2) dualclass seems out of question, while multiclass might not. The main problem is, without items the bonuses extra classes can provide, are not that many. Extra points inweapon use? As summoned weapons don't use specifications, not worth a darn. Bonus AC? Sure,would be good to addition of armor, but poverty don't wear armor (aside the armor of faith, and necromantic armors of course).
Worthy additions might be ranger in the vanilla game for druidic spells (also stealth), and thief for various thief skills.


3) kits sounds as always the pure class way. But because of the circumstances their usefulnes changes.
Like priest of Lathender pretty much becomes useless, and priest of Thalos offers little. Helm on the other hand provides an easy solution to an obvious problem, namely the lack of enchanted attack source (holy hammer at best only rises to +3).
For druid, I'd probablypick Shapeshifter,as divine casters are slow casters anyway, so no direct battle spells I assume.



4) cleric alignment is better to not be evil, but given the very few (maybe only the first Forestof Tyr encounter) undeads in ToB, this playsno effect in the choice ofTears.


5) there's no bending the rules to get the Tomes with a divine caster.


6) druid dis/advantages:
- greater elemental summoning HLA
- slower and less variety in spells
- the extra useful-looking spells are: call lightning (outdoor only), summon insects, iron skins



7) cleric advantages:
- can multiclass, can pick race

- the extra useful-looking spells are: draw upon holy might (bashing locks, sleep-regeneration), spiritual hammer (that's +3 instead of the druid's +1, maybe +2 if shapeshifter form), animate dead (not that great, but comes sooner than animal summoning, which sucks either way right?), glyph of warding (it's not great, but still a trap), free action, restoration (devas can't do this!), false dawn (I know it is slow, so you need a meatshield to use, but still), gate (not a fan, but it exists)
- turn undead


8) cleric/mage won't be disucussed by me, asI think they are weak due to extremly slow leveling, and are mages anyway. One note though: evil alighment characters can create themselves an army of vampires through combining turn undead and limited wish.


9) only gnome and half-orc can be cleric/thief. Gnmes get -1 on wisdom what is bad (can compensate only in Watcher's Keep), but gain shorty-saves - but only to wands and spells. Half-orcs gain +2 max stat, but with Draw Upon Holy Might with minmaxed stats, that'll only mean +1 thac0 and +2 dmg,whilepoverty tries to avoid close combat.
Let's do proper math: 18 start (for gnome), +2 from Tear of Bhaal (evil path, vanilla game), +1 Machine of Lum +4 Draw Upon Holy Might => screw half-orcs by stat. Their advantage though is clear in mid-game for access to (more?) lvl 7 spells naturaly (info related to this is confusing, the restrictions might be eliminated by installing vanilla ToB, and in the enhanced edition of any kind).


10) cleric/thief still gains all the divine HLAs, so it's a pure bonus to multiclass.

[twillight]

I thought if I still use a 32 bit win 7 system, I might as well play this till it lasts.
Well, my initial impressions are mixed.


First, why people talk so rushed?
Second, why is there no save, only stupid Resident Evil Ink Ribbons?
Third, how should I know where to save if I'mfacing fake scares all the time?
Fourth: this is one of those weird french games with awkward controls,and weird camera angles.
Fifth: the game does no tolerate alt+tab.


All this points to picking up a walkthrough. It is realy a shame, because the game looks fantastic. But it gets crippled by the saving system. Gimme a map at least with all the bosses, or something.
Especialy as the previous games are notorious about their puzzles.

[twillight]

Without Alt+Tab I have to rely solely on the game. And that doesn't work here either.


Can't save whenever I want. And there are no waypoints. Why can't I just save as a normal person?


I can't see jack shit. There's no minimap, radar, the camera angles are weird, the area is HUGH, things pop out of nowhere, there are no clues whatdto do, and what there is is misleading.
I'll tell the whole story.


So I picked Carnby, because having a gun seemed easy mode for this. Starting the two characters at entirely different places was a very good idea considering replay-value.
The intro is... Long. And despite more than one scene, you skip the whole. At least it is skippable.
You start facing A DEAD END. Why? Who cares. Let's move on.
Is that a passage, or just bad level design? The answer is: YES. Ugh. There's some door that demands some code - my bet goes I'll have to return at the point I long forgot about it.
Whatever, move on. What are the controls? Who knows! Does my flashlight have infinite battery? It does! Then why can I switch it off? And why can I aim it? Pretty badly? Sure I confuse this aiming with the gun's...
Ah, girl radios to me. Why can I activate the radio by myself, manualy too? This leads to button-confusion, to the point even when I finaly learn the buttons, because the cutsceens don't have the wide screen feature implemented, I again think I messed up, and start to fiddle around, just to figure out I did nothing wrong. But the game teached me I did. This leads confusion, confusion leads to frustration, frustration leads to game abandoned.


I keep going still. Cutsceen says some dogs will attack me. Then cutsceen shows nah, some monster ate the dogs! So the dogs must be my friend, right?
Whatever the case, I WON'T go where the monster went, it looks scary. And I can't save. So, can I go another way? Yes, I can. Let's check out.
Wow, weren't these two dogs eaten just yet? Mustbe two other dogs? I sure have to shoot them! What? Not? These dogs are definitely friendly.
I pick up some ammo, and medikit, nothing to do but following the beastie. Well, maybe the unleashed dogs delt with it. There's a long stairs, so I'll definitely go up via cutsceen., Nah, that's for pussies. VERY slowly Carnby starts to emo up there. Where's the run button?
I get up there. I immediately get confused by the leveldesign. Why I dun have minimap? Why are dogs assaulting me? Is that dog hurting me, or stuck in the wall?
I shoot them down and move on. I have no idea what am I doing, but sure doing it. Radio alert. Did I misspress button again? Who cares, this time girly tells some clues. "Living shadows"? Well, justaround the corner I saw a transparent beastie, which after a time disappeared. I used some bullet on it, and didn't seem to get hurt... So maybe they are foreshadowing ghosts. Note to myself: do NOT shoot transparent beasties, they go away anyway, and can't be harmed.
Turning just the next corridor, a portal opens, transparent beasty comes through. Crap, it attacks me! I have noidea where I am, so try shooting? Hey, it got hurt! How much ammo it needs to deal with it? I meanduring the cutseen the girl shot twice, maybe thrice and obviously got away. Why doesn't THIS die, or what? Whatever, I shoot. Health-meter? Check, it's still blue. Beastie got up? How? Until now dogs (and this beastie) got stunlocked by being shot! What?! Life meter got red? What, I'm dead?


Just fok off, game.

[twillight]

This is a fun game. With appropriate tutorial, and intuitive gameplay.


Whatit lacks is achievements/unlocks, like finishing the game at set difficulty, or using X item. Also would have been nice to give the item stats on the city screen (after every mission you visit the city for 4? 5? items).
The obvious walkthrough will have to concentrate on the possible items.
The game is frecsh though, so no item list for now. Actualy seems you do not need a list of items if you don't go above insane difficulty, which is probably supposed to be the normal mode.


Otherwise the game has the big advantage of very clever writing, good graphics, nice faces (being a JRPG,you know),and decent animation, nice colouring... I could use a skip talk option of course.


The biggestcomplaint comes around early midgame, where you realise, the random fights are more mandatory,there are no fixed-location fights aside the bosses unfortunately, so the whole thing feels very gimmicky. But it's relatively cheap (10$), and came in a boundle, so I feel I don't realy have the right to complain for anything.
The replay value will demand that item guide though.


-------------


Other games I still have and canplay later, which I did not play ever yet:
- Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition (also titled Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, a Diablo-clone with interresting background)
- Dex (let's hope it works)
- Noctropolis (it sounds so-bad-it's-good, and was very cheap)
- Obscuritas (how bad can a puzzle-game be?)
- Toonstruck (some oldschool adventure game, we'll seewhat I can do with it)
- Grim Fandango remastered (can be a cmplete disaster, or can turn out to be fun, who knows)


And unless I upgrade my computer (not likely if I can avoid), that'll be it.
I'd like to play beyond Beyond Divinity with that franchise, and there's an arcade shooter (why can't you get good shot'em'ups nowdays?), and there's Postal 2 too, and Tower of Time looks attractive for a trial, but I simnply lack the hardware. And I don't rly get the need of more and more energy-consuming hardwares either to be honest. Friggin Space Invaders, the same game now demands 64 bit system with graphic card - just why?

[twillight]

When i found this, though ye, why not.


I was prepared the graphic glitching, and all kinds of nonsense - what I was NOT prepared for was the not infinite continue.
I mean, this is an arcade game. It was designed to screw you over for more coins.
Obviously I lost. And with that, lost interrest.

[twillight]

aka. Heretic Kult Kingdoms, according to the title screen.

It IS a Diablo-like game, with unusual control: rightclick to attack, and the enemies like to move, but unlike for Diablo you can't fix on the enemy... Also, you seemingly can't change the position of quick items, and it seems the quick item slots are simply the backpack slots...
And I'm not sure where if at all you can sell (and buy) equipment...
And the ability-systemis weird. With level up you gain probably 100 points, what is stupid, because 1 point in any skill costs you 100 point. Sowhy not gain 1 point? Even counting that you can pick up "essence" of defeated enemies (which might or might not disappear by time),which give you 10 point, and hex-point give you 50. Or something like that. The hex-points are realy just redisigned bonus-pickups.
Seems you gain, more precisly unlock new abilities by maybe wearing equipment with that attribute? Or maybe it is enough to find such item,and have it in the backpack.

At the start you pick 2 such skill/alignment/whateverthenameis, but seems you actualy have all six, but these two supposed to be active? But I didn't see any active when started.
The choosing of elemental affiliation also plays no role, probably that's why you gain no intel wth is happening there, you just get some minor weapon with that attribute.

So, the important thing is, to collect these skill-like things like pokemons by simply wearing items for a given time. Yay.

It looks ok, even decent, the control is ok, and generaly no complaint. Will refresh by advancing.

EDIT1: Well, in the 2nd area I got pegged with a barbate wooden dildo, and nobody likes that. Some enemy came and perma-paralysed me. I think I'll have to use ranged shit, but I didn't wanna!

Seems using a spare ranged weapon (bow or focus) currently is enough, but it's still forshadowing bad stuff coming.

Another problem is, you want like a B in you weapon of choice (ranged for bow, melee for traditional stuff, magic for focus). You start with a bow and melee weapons, but you won't find a focus until this second area (fourth, technicaly). Well, maybe in the previous, where you free the villagers (one of the giant bugs threw a mandibule).
Another problem is, you realy don't want slow weapons. Because they are incredibly slow. Unfortunately some skills cano nly be unlocked by those. And the armor! You find your first light armor, which is only half as good as being without it (because of a skill, which you WILL use for the moment).
And as everything makes you slower (armor, shield, weapon), you realy want Speed as your secondary stat.

Oh, there's no shop, so bugger.
You can also only rest in the village, I assume. I heared you must click on the fireplace, but that'll only work at best until you free the villagers. Then you can buy rest for 10 gold per occasion, what is totaly hindering. Rumour is, when you manage to find 1,000 gold (shekel to be honest, because this world is jewish, and try to prevent the return of G-d, because they are the Synagouge of S... - better not finish this thought), you can buy your very own house.

Ah, Attunments (misspelled Atonement?) work this way, by the look of it:
- if you find an item which has "0-0%" in its description, it has a yet-unlearnt attunment (skill) on it. You must wear it to learn this skill. But not just wear, there might be another condition to rise the percentage on it. When the percentage reaches 100% the inscription will change to the learnt ability.
The other condition might be using a certain element (this means your weapon musthave that element), or being in the Dreamworld.At the start the dagger(s) will have this later condition.
- the Dreamworld ability is actualy in demand, and you want it. The reason why is, you don't just spend a certain time in the Dreamworld, then ejected form it, then aftera while able to return and so on. The way it works is, there's some hidden charge-bar, which tells how much time you can spend there at maximum. The problem is obvious: returning to Dreamworld will make you spend there only seconds unless you spend some time in the real world, but you can't know how well youare recharged for the task. So having this ability is not just Easy Mode, but actualy mandatory, or you'll suffer from frustration.
Thus my suggestion is, start with Dreamworld and Serendipity (aka. find better items).

The game does not allow Alt+Tab, what is a minor inconvenience, but being what it is, it's not a serious problem.

NOTE on Bear Meat quest: the innkeeper will buy EVERY dose of meat from you, 50$/dose. So it's good to pick up any pork meat you find. This generates a good amount of income, for me was like 200 bucks from the Forest Guardian area. You CAN murder the pig right in the village too, and according to the official walkthrough that only changes the tone of the villagers and nothing else, so it's doable, but at least not do this the first time (you have to click twice trying to "speak" - mor elike interact then with it, then it turns hostile and can be attacked).

EDIT2:
- there's a shop (first?) in the Whatever Valley. If you manage to fill his store, just get out of the conversation (hit I, the inventory button), and some stuff will vanish. Mage staves have good price (multiple hundreds).
Actualy, there's an earlier shop I just found,right nextto "your" hour. It has the localsmith. I bought a boots there which I didn't find elsewhere, and it was cheap.
- you'll possible need 300K+ gold just to unlock certain abilities (one tree). So you'll need that shop.
- heavy armor just might work, but seriously use only normal weapons. Fastweapons are substantialy weaker.
- here are the atunements I'd avoid: those active with ranged weapons (there are only a few bows in the game), those which cast spells (these typicaly cast some spell periodicaly, and I prefer constant bonuses, though technicaly a ranged character of hit&run seems possible), those which active with two handed weapon, those active with no shield.
- the official walkthrough (what GOG gives as extra) has at least one mistake, namely the Rope Ladder is NOT in a chest, but you can buy from the vendor-smith in the village.
- never forget to backtrack eacharea in the Dreamworld.
- from a skill-tree only 1 can be active at a time. This means obviously, choose the highest numbered one.
- bags work by rightclicking on them in the backpack. They provide more space.
- after a while, like around you go out of the War Camp, unlocking all the items properties even on normal becomes a fuss. And believe me, starting the game on normalwas no small thing either. As unfortunately the areas are not big, and the enemies somewhatlack in number, the replay-value is not high. There's definitely the chance you want to play on hardest, but for that you'll want to know a lot about the items and item-progression, so you can focus on just the right atunments to unlock and use. For the moment lightning (air) sounds a safe element: good damage, fast/normal weapons. For armour, your guess is as good as mine, but deifnitely not without it. I think a fast weapon (fortunately thi midgame there's a fast air mace) with heavy armor might do the trick. Of course there's the option to change items' element... But that sounds a wee bit comlicated for now, especialy if it is not a weapon (obviously you'd want to change a non-weapon's element to change the requirement of unlocking).
Another thing about Air is, the Thunderblade ability. Yu can unlock this very early, and gives 50% extra damage. That's a lot.

[Smiling Spectre]

This is a fun game. With appropriate tutorial, and intuitive gameplay.
Just if you missed it - it's the second part of Cthulhu Saves the World (https://store.steampowered.com/app/107310/Cthulhu_Saves_the_World/).

[twillight]

Just if you missed it - it's the second part of Cthulhu Saves the World (https://store.steampowered.com/app/107310/Cthulhu_Saves_the_World/).


I think it is a prequel. 2nd game released, 1st on timeline. They makea reference to CStW at the begginning.

[twillight]

I got lost in the lore by the constant namedropping, and references, so restarted startingon top difficulty. Not that it makes too much difference, at least after you get out of the first area.


Btw, anyone knows why shields have no weight, but still slows you down, thus rises the question why weight is even shown on anything?

[burbigo1]

I don't know why is slows down a lot

[twillight]

I don't know why is slows down a lot


I experienced no slowdowns, and I'm playing through chapter 1-3 the third time (melee build turned out insufficient on nightmare diff).


Try to disable settings maybe? Smaller resolution? I also don't use the windowed mode.



What system do you use? I have a win7 32 bit machine with integral videocard (aka. none). Pretty ancient by current standards...
Also using the GoG version. When loading the game it seems to feed on a bunch of memory, but as soon as I get the title screen, I'm fine.

[bafanamusic]

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[twillight]

I don't know why is slows down a lot

Actualy, found 1 slowdown. When you switch element (aka. weapon), the game ... lags? freezes? Seems no part of the game moves, so it's mostly ok, and the thing is not constant if you do it a couple of times.

Hope this helps.


------------


EDIT: actualy, the pacing does slow down a ton. Compensating the lack of pure gaming length, you get loredumps,especialy when you arrive to the capital. The lore you get also contains a lot of repetition, so you have to filter out the new data and insert it to your previous knowledge.
This actualy creates a curious wayof mapping-need, where you map instead ofa physical maze a maze of information. And thatcanbe overwhelming too.


It doesn't help either that by Act 4 (practicaly quests hubbed in the capital) the tasks have requirements to pick them up and such, so it's no longer the simple "talk with everybody to not miss anything", instead goes the usual "talkeveryone in the supposed order".
It doesn't help either, that the official walkthrough contains misleadingand self-contradicting informations on accessibility of quests/tasks.

[twillight]

I thought, even if it's mostly bad, it has such a cheap price, I'll get it.


Seems it was a hugh mistake.


One thing is,the controls are clunky, like in Little Big Adventure. And the screen has small resolution (you barely can see anything, the characters etc. are too big).


My real problem is, I can't even finish the tutorial. Seriously. I went to Master Roshi Or Who, the Special Move Teacher. Helocked the door behind me, and I'm stuck now. Permanently. He's probablydoing all kinds of weird anime stuff to my character I bet.


Anyone knows how to progress? I tried opening the door, tried talking to him, and whacked with the firsts pecial move the dummy more times I care to count.
What do I miss?

[twillight]

After all the not-great to piss-poor experience with game, I went back the Baldur's Gate, and started a second Solo Poverty playthrough.

I made the first with a Sorcerer/ess, who is currently residing befor Abazigail. What means like 3 more battles, butI'm just doubting it, and got bored - you know the feeling.

This one is a Medic/Thief. Yes, I'm starting the movement of removing racism and biggotry from RPG again. Sue me. Point is, I'm kinda enjoying this character. With a ton of stat-requirement and min-maxing my chances, s/he has 3 charisma, so it is interresting to see what NPCs even if their life depends on it won't hire an ugly hero. The other fun thing is to use all the unused spells, like Barkskin, Shillelagh (which I still can't write down w/o looking up the spelling) etc.

The Solo Poverty Challenge by the way can only be taken a very selected few character.
Obvioulsy no character who is not a caster can do it. And the caster must be a pure caster to get access spells asap, and in large quantity. The only exception from this might seem to be the monk, although with its piss-poor conditions that'd likely fall back to South Park-style WoW-exping, exp-cap obviously removed (set to 8,000,000 of ToB). Its problem is Spellhold, where you MUST cause some ranged damage to get rid of goblins on pillars, and monk has no such ability, not even from HLAs.
And thieves' only real and above all lethal power is laying traps, what is not possible in every situation.

This leaves Sorcerer/ess, Medics, and Tree-huggers.

Hippis though get the short end of the stick with their spell-selection from the three. They have poor casting conditions (Call Lightning only works outside), sluggish casting speed, terrible stat-requirement (charisma as not-dump-stat?!? Good luck rolling.), questionable spell-advancement (they get their first summon/meatshield/attack power at 7,500 exp when Medics get at3,000!), and they can't multiclass. Their only advantage can be the Summon Elemental Prince HLA, but you have to reach there first.

Now Medics have the issue on theother hand, that they don't realy have a progress in High Levels. Not many abilities, no repeatable selection. They are also slow casters, and the class' biggest advantage, namely items that can buff them to outshadow pure fighters-without-whirlwind does not play in Poverty (aka. no use of any items). So it seems the ideal setup is running a Medic/Thief. I find 19 STR very useful for combat and bashing doors (and other locks), so I go with Half Orc, though for Shorty Saves you might choose Gnome, like this guy did:

qYM5-YC7SwY&

And on GoG's board someone pointed out a technicality. Mages in theory can start each section of the BG-trilogy separately. This means they can pre-pick a lot of spells, thus might not have to rely on scrolls to have a partitura.
Well, none tried that, and without looking up what this selection can be, I simply mention it.
But might turn out like Sorceress, which is far away from being overpovered w/o Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power (aka. the items which lessen casting speed), and have to have a very specific set of spells to succeeed:

Latest spell list:

lvl 1: 1) find familiar 2) magic missile 3) (identify) 4) prot from evil 5) prot from petrification
lvl 2: 1) knock 2) melf's acidic arrow 3) mirror image 4) resist fear 5) (blur)
lvl 3: 1) ghost armor 2) melf's minute meteors 3) skull trap 4) - 5) -
lvl 4: 1) improved invisibility 2) stone skin 3) spider spawn 4) - 5) -
lvl 5: 1) spell immunity 2) (prot from electricity) 3) sunfire 4) (cloudkill) 5) -
lvl 6: 1) death spell 2) prot. from magic weapons 3) true sight 4) improved haste 5) (true sight)
lvl 7: 1) mordekainen's sword 2) limited wish 3) (khelben's warding whip) 4) - 5) -
lvl 8: 1) pierce shield 2) abi dhalzim's 3) (simulacrum) 4) -
lvl 9: 1) chain contignency X) dragon's breath X) summon planetar 2) wish 3) time stop 4) improved alactricity

In brackets are spells I did use, or consider a good choice for later but actualy could (have) live(d) without it to that point, so can be changed. "-" means on that slvl I did not use any more spells from the selection, so can be inserted any from the tier. As this is/was a prototype character, Shadowkeeper was used to prevent me from the need of constant re-starting. Medics and Druids don't have this problem as they get access to all spells of their levels.

An additional note: I considered quest rewards as quest items, and tomes/manuals to be unanounced quests, and their use for quest purpose to consume them. It might be a bit of a stretch, but I thought that was ok, and as a price I included Identify to my spell-selection, so there.
My Medic/Thief does not use this ~exploit.

And before I forget, here is the Basilisk Area of BG1, so you don't have to waste time exploring. Blue means random monsters (gnolls and such), purple is the adventurer-group, grey are the basilisks (including Mutamin's group).


2531

[twillight]

Well, I pushed my Sorcerer/ess to Abazigail. Have no real interrest trying to push through the last couple of fights, I simply do not believe in this character, my joy gotkilled.


Also started a Monk. It was ok until the Save The Princes part I think, then realised,Sarevok will simply murder me unless I push the exp to lvl 20 to become immun to normal weapons. THEN I realised Monks can not pass Spellhold lacking ranged damage, thus I abandoned the character.


Then there's my latest Cleric/Thief. I don'trly mind the cleric part here, as I just pretend it is a Thief-kit. Either way prefer to call it Medic when I have to.
It lacks raw head-front power, but it's realy a new experience because of it. It lacks casting speed, so it falls back to the never-before used summoned gear (weapons, armor), summoned things (types I never used before as they are weaker than Planetar), and buffs. And Hidein Shadows/Sanctuary.
Yes, a lot of fights simply got skipped for lacking the power, or more often speed to deal with it. Fortunately solo characters are never short on exp.
I'd say, by the look of it, C/T is what's made for Poverty runs IF you consider Throne of Bhaal, and it is pretty solid for BG1 to. TheBG2part won't offer that much difference, might even be underwhelming for not being able to do the usual things, but for BG1 I recommend trying it for its uniqueness.
And wish me luck for ToB.

[twillight]

Tried to look up some mobile-games because why not, and:
- there is no arcade shooter category
- can't find Diablo Immortal! Not that I wanned to have anything with it, I justhad mobile device in my hand, and though look up how it goes for Blizzard. Seems not good.

[twillight]

1) Can you escape the 100 rooms - 50 rooms: this is some bullshit find item / point&click combination game, which just doesn't work. Theclunky, unintuitive controls are one thing. But imagine this: right in the first room there is an electrical padlock. There are 9 buttons on it. There are NO clues what you have to type in, how long the sequence is, howmany sequence you need to type in... You actualy have to GUESS like halfadozen combinations, which range from 7 to whatever button pushed.
This is just crap.

2) Shooter. Yes, that's the title. It's your generic arcade shot'em-up. That was one thing I was looking for. The problem is, like with many other mobile games of this kind, that itlags I assume. The plane does not follow your finger fast enough, and even slips from under it. That's just bullshit.
Then for this take into account that the powerups don't make you stronger in the normal sense, they make you BIGGER. Now that's bullshit in these bullet-hell games.

3) Exiled Kingdoms: this is an honestly pretty good RPG. I'm notsurehow RPG it is of course, but you get NPCs, timered skills, skillpoints, quests, areas...
Here is where my problems begin. In a PC-game you have pretty good hardware when it comes to that. On moblie your memory is VERY limited, andI assume very static, the world is not dinamicly created, meaning the whole area -wether you see it or not - is rendered.
Then the graphic: a bit lackluster, like PC decades ago had this quality.
So I think mobile is just not the platform for these kinds of games, especialy considering mobile devices feed on energy, you can't play 24/7.

4) Fallout Shelter: man, I need a manual. The texts are too many, go away too fast, things happen too frequently to read the instructions, and some darn forsight would be welcomed, like I built - as instructed - 4-6 rooms or so, only THEN the game told me, it'd be a good idea to build the rooms expandable. Thank you game.

5) Dark Sword: your average beat-em-up game, like Golden Axe, only simpler but with more abilities. It looks ok.
UPDATE: this is heavily currency-based, and to top it of, aside the highly overpriced shop, it doesn't play the adverts for the by the way miniscule free stuff. So my hopes are diminished. We'll see how far I get. I bet not far.
UPDATE: Well, this thing is crap. You don't get extra moves daily, or other regular intervals. Maybe monthly? So it's uninstall.

6) Swat And Zombies 2: obviously based upon Plants vs Zombies, and is obviously built as a money-thinker, but if I can figure out the monetary system, this might just be fine.

[kunleben]

Me i don't really fancy adventure games... i prefer Pes or FIFA!

[twillight]

Me i don't really fancy adventure games... i prefer Pes or FIFA!


I've never managed to figure out group-sports-games. And they obviously cheat a LOT. Sorry.

[DrWho42]

i'm fond of fancy adventure games personally

[twillight]

i'm fond of fancy adventure games personally


Ok, I'll pull out my adventure games from the pantry.


Let's mention that Im currently updating a gamebook which I was never satisfied with (for really bad editing).

[twillight]

As GoG gave a special discount in email, while the game was not even on sale (usualy it is +5% in comparsion of the sale-price), I took it. And with 32 bit really running thin, I'll have to upgrade to 64 bit, and then I'll maybe be able to play this.
It is the definitive edition by the way, so good for me. This might turn out to be my next classic-level game finaly.

[twillight]

GF is literaly ancient now. I have no idea about videocard-requirements and such utter &#@, but it not evenstarting is &@#.


---------------

Otherwise I think during the weekend I'll finish Kult:Heretic Kingdoms:Inquisitor, and these games wait on my backlog to atleastbe installed:


- toonstruck
- obscuritas
- noctropolis
- cosmic star heroism
- dex
- whispers of a machine
- mary skelter
- mable&the wood
- book of demons

[twillight]

In case someone is fan of this series, GoG is giving away 60% discount through email-cupon.


I have no idea why anyone would want them, since I've played with one and switched it off permanently (still have the CD though), but if in the next24 hours you manage to contact me for this, I'll give youmy cupon-code, or however it works.

[twillight]

Well, it is a platformer. Indie-hard one. Not hardcore, but hard


What annoys me in it though is the currency-mechanic. You loose it too easily, and you realy have to be hardcore to have any. For me, it's a partof the game like it wouldn't exist. And that's bad.

[twillight]

It's a shooter, where you see yourself semi-above.


The problem is, itisvery generic, and totaly dark.


There are 30 levels to grind through. With enough cash you can permaboost your stats (HP, DMG, crit, whatever), then you start with a weapon and a skill that lasts until you stop progressing.
That means the game will turn to be veeery long if you want to reach the final level.


But the worst thing is the overal darkness. You can'tsee the walls, you can't distinguish "thin wall" from normal wall, and I even found a room you had to blast through a bunch of practice-dummies in super-short time. Practicaly impossible.


It'd be ok, I assume, on the basic level, but not finding your way becuase you can't see squat is not fun.

[twillight]

I love this Golden Axe Heritage game.
I have no idea how to fight the bosses in this neither, I never had, but against the generic goons I got better, and that's something.
Not to mention, I don't see much competition in the Beat 'Em Up genre. And this still gave everything it could fit in it, and that's awesome!

[twillight]

Aaand the disappointment continues.

This'd be an FPS adventure game what I'd like, similar to Blair Witch Project Volume 1 Rustin Parr and other franch titles.

The problem is, the developer got waaay to lazy with their programming, and thus their product demand unreasonable hardware.

Not to mention, it'd be time to either get rid of the videocards as hardware, or standardize them. The current system is ridiculous.
1: the two major companies products (NVidia and GeForce) are not compatible on a very deep level as I've heared. Like their cards don't work with processors, RAM etc. compatible with the other company, or only on a shitty level. That's absolutely unaccaptable.
2: what does it mean XYZ card or better? Is there an officiallist somewhere? Does other hardware count, like a current day PC could work with the game of the original Thief for example?They definitely avoid numbering them to make things user-friendly...
3: bringing up the original Thief has another point. Like that game could run acceptably on that-day, non-videocard comuters BUT it was actualy coded to not do that. Modern day example would be the Amnesia-franchise. The games are hard-coded to NOT work properly on computers without the videocard. Like Thief worked fine - but gave negative pictures. Amnesia simply cut off the video output. This is violation of decent business ethics!

I seriously say it placed very good pressure on the industry when computers had limitations. They had to program stuff to make themaccessible, and not just shrug it off saying you can go to the store and build a computer as big as ENIAC was to run their shitty coded product!!!


-----------------


So, what do I have left?


To finish:

- kult:heretic kingdoms:inquisition
- Baldur's Gate trilogy: Sorcerer, poverty run
To play through:
- Chronicles of Mystara
- Baldur's Gate trilogy: Shapeshifter
To try out:
- Toonstruck
- Noctropolis
- Cosmic Star Heroin
- Whispers of a Machine
- Mary Skelter: Nightmares
- Book of Demons
- The Quest
WHEN I get a hardware upgrade try again:
- Divine Divinity Dragon Commander, Original Sin 1-2, Divinity 2
- of Orcs and Men (I mean I didn't try this, but by the look ofit, it is 64 bit, resource heavy)
- Tower of Time (I hope this was a GoG giveaway)
- Obscuritas
- Pillars of Eternity
- Grim Fandango
IF these titles become available again:
- Abomination: the nemesis project
- Blair Witch Project Volume 1 Rustin Parr
if I'll have absolutely nothing to do:
- DEX
- Torment: tides of Numeria
- Rage of Mages 2
I wonder if:

I've lost my saves for these, and maybe even their CDs, and they probably don't worth it, but you never know, so let's mention:
- Baldies, windows version
- G.O.L.E.M. Never got around to play through the third race/hardest difficulty.

[twillight]

Well, this thing works on Adventuregame Logic, but I wouldn't say it is Moon Logic. This means it can sometimes feel easy if you get the references, and obstructionly hard if you do not.

I also yet to learn how to use the telephone.

Sometimes you can do things justbecause you see the solution, and sometimes information will not be useful (likethe music boy making the king sleep), but I foundit attractive that trying to combine unfitting things can give you subtle hints - some of which won't do a singlegood thing nevertheless.

I'll try to do this w/o relying on walkthrough, but I'll use them if I get stuck.

What is a shame though, that the remake does not have the outlines of objects cleared out, they are in their original fuzzy way, whatis completly fine for the partialy live action cutscenes, but c'mon, the rest would have been updated!

[twillight]

This game is trash. Unfortunately not the kind of trash as Harvester, or whatever that puzzle-platformer-adventuregame its title now avoids me was.


Has a very clunky interface, and nothing that much weird is happening, what'd be the demand for a trash game. And the promo-pictures promises this misleadingly.


But as it was 1 buck or less, it's ok for that price.

[twillight]

I thought for nostalgia-sake I'll pick this upfor sales-price.
But it's really bad. The controls are unaccatably bad, the dungeon-design has nothing to do with the originals, the character-names are simply insulting, nomonsters orNPCs from the world of Titan show up... Also, the intro-movie does not play.

And my computer-sickness from FPS-games still arrised with full power, so it'll stay where it is as trophy.

[twillight]

It's just a silly thing to do, and well, thiskindof challenge exists, wand was done with almost all types (if you count double types, and all variants of the same game, meaning Red, Blue, Yellow, Leaf Green and Ruby Red).
So it is very likely that practicaly all solo mon is viable in one way or another, INCLUDING magikarp (of a special release).

Here are the let's plays:
- normal type (rattata): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHdqpqy9VbU
- poison/flying (zubat): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_0WQaz7Jms
- rock/ground (onix) (FR): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95IRkr7auuc
- psychic (abra): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R1oD6bau4g
- bug (weedle): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwC83pFtk60 (there's a paras run too somewhere)
- ghost/poison (ghastly): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWQMVm2agZc
- water (magikarp): this was actualy not done, but theorycrafted. The REGULAR magicarp can't win the game itself, but the UNIVERSITY magicarp in theory CAN. The difference is, UMK gets Dragon Rage on it. Only 20 legit ever existed, but with randomizers left-and-right obviously you can make your own.
Anyways, here is with squirtle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx83SUgD9Rk
- electric (pikachu): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5i5p83PT5w
- fire (charmander): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Uq4Waa_k4
- grass/poison (bulbasaur): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDqKt1-Xwd8
+1: missingno: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mrmfb1mGWI
+2: ditto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeWxEbl2kWQ

What this list lacks is 3 types:
- dragon (only dratini and its evos)
- ice (various)
- fighting

Strangely none did a fighting type. Dragon and Ice are in theory pretty strong, way stronger than the others, so my vote went on fighting. It likely can do anyway.
The selection for this is: mankey, machop (which can only max evo by tradin, so forget it), hitmonlee, hitmonchan.
Now what I want in a solo character in this game, is variety. And personaly I won't mind 100% hit chances.
Mankey/Primape is very limited, has only normal and fighting moves simply by existing, adding poison and electricity, maybe rock by TM. Not amusing.
Hitmonlee is generaly cosidered the better option over ...chan, but that's likely ina party. It can only do normal, fighting and by TM poison damage, and that sucks.
Hitmonchan on the other hand gets 3 elemental attacks. What I aftera while noticed only at lvl 30-40, but oh well. Doubles this problem, that its basic attacks only has 85% accuracy, and is one of those bullshit multiple attacks doing 2-5 hits randomly. But I can switch that to something else, so whatever.

Solo plays also have the problem of lack of PP (number of attacks can be done without resting), so gaining new abilities a lot later is again crappy news, but whatever. If allelse fails, there will be potions, though I'll try to not use any items during battle.

Oh, in case you wonder, there are special programs exclusively to switch the preset starters to something of your liking, so no problem there.

Now the first thing was to start the game. No problem, you don't have the type-disadvantage, so you win against the Rival.
Then the Rival appears again, that's better left for a bit later, as he'll have abit of levels under him, and we don't pick up reinforcements. But he's a pushover after Brock.
Brock needsa bit of grinding, but at clvl 16-17 can be done (if the random is not against you too much), just get rid of the Agility PPs,so when you run out of the punches you asap can start strougle. For some weird reason against geodude I constantly missed punches, but against onix I did reliably 4-5 hits per PP, and the onix missed me with bind almost all the time.
Note: grind in the forest, that gives the highest possible level ofenemies, and many can't even hurt back, not that it'd count.

On Road 3 catch a Spearow. Why? Because we'll need HM-slaves, and I'll want only 2 of them: Farfetched and Slowpoke. FF can be traded for a Spearow, and can learn Fly and Cut. SP can learn Surf, Flash and Strength. Heck, it can even do Dig if needed! Perfect.

Oh, all legendaries will be beaten for exp of course.

During the tunnel you'll get Mega Punch TM. Use it up for more (andmore efficient) PPs.


Hmpf. Forgot you have to catch 10 mon for one of the HMs (flash). We'll see, but sure you can find 2 Great Ball as "hidden item (https://www.smogon.com/oi/rby_items)". One of them is actualynot that hidden, as an NPC hints you on it, so that's more of a puzzle/miniquest-reward one.
And there's a regular ball as visible item.
And of course the starter comeswith its own ball.

And that's it. You have to buy the rest one way or another (thinking on the Safari Zone). I dunno when Flash comes to theplay for the moment...

[twillight]

So, with a brand new, 64 bit computer, I pulled this out.


So far I got it again that the fights did not become faster. I'll dedicate to solo as challenged (forgot who you were, could check back on the forum), but up to this point party is forced on me.
And I'm not sure exp does come form killing things. Not that'd prevent me, but whatever.


I checked the manual, for what it worth, but nothing's there aside some point what's during character creation, so I'm playing blindly.
I'll even roleplay, and will see how things turn out. For the moment I'm Benevolent.
The character is a fighter, because those don't rely on party-skills and tedious magic. It also has the advantage compared to a barbarian that it regenerates Endurance as passive, what is an advantage if planning solo.
Race is Godlike - what else. Firey one to compensate for the loss of helmets.
Didn't drop my abilities under 10, neither went minmaxing race/class, so I have some bonus on might, constitution, and that last stat is maxed to defend against magic (I hope I got it right).
Aside that, picked Explorer from the pirate-area, because that made a good backstory with the sub/race. Turned out what's in my head, matched the fire-diety's description too, so I'm good until this.


What I'm not good though is, the program lying to me. The fighter-chick left my party, despite sleeping was the option to keep everyone in the party, and moving on was to leave behind sooner-or-later the guy.
I'm actualy fine how things are, I'm better off with a thief-help than with another warrior. Still, the program lying always hurts.
AND another lucky/twisted turn of events is, the fighter-chick stole our water. The water though is a quest-item, so fuck you. Lucky me only rested at the exit, so I got the loot (a cloak), so fuck you game.