Breath of Fire: Tale of Two Thirsty Towns

 So I'm in town for the weekend and decided to scratch my RPG itch. So here are the results. I didn't get too far, but some nifty stuff happened and I wanted to show ya.

After picking up the controller I just went to playing. While in Wyndia I checked out the shops to make sure all my equipment was up to date and took off to the south. Wrong move, ME0. I was supposed to go into the castle dungeon and use their secret tunnels. It was only after I wandered around, going back to zombie-ville, levelling up a bit, until I realized I should probably check the blog to make sure I was going the right way. Good thing about blogs is, its a journey journal, and I should have checked it. So, I went ALL the way back to Wyndia and used the stupid tunnel to get across the humongous bridge to the East. Once across I found a copse of trees that said I couldn't enter because a big tree was blocking my way. So I went further south until I came upon a couple of towns.

They're called Tantar and Tuntar

One was full of wolf humanoids called The Forest Clan. The other seemed to be regular humanoids. Turns out, these guys are suffering a drought caused by a damn built by the baddies. The villagers say that there's a big Robot that can help out, but only the chief knows what to do. However, the chief said he had no clue. So I was confused and interrogated (pressed A when adjacent to) a bunch of people and one guy let let slip that he saw the chief go into the Forest of Despair, but the chief was in his house...odd?

Went back to Tantar (wolves) and the blue haired chief was pretty adamant about some kind of treasure that they didn't want to give to the Dark Dragons.

 So that didn't help the current problem.

 And neither did this guy...

That was when I found the blacksmith. A big dude in the wolf clan. He said he'd give me a Saw if I gave him an I.Ore. Which...for some odd reason, I apparently had...

And I'm not questioning it.

Then I made an immediate trek to the Forest of Despair.

Ryu Used Saw

It's Super Effective!

The forest was pretty creepy, and I must say I HATE the enemy called "Stool". For those of you who aren't  familiar with my hatred for poison, please go back to here: http://16bitwarriors.blogspot.com/2011/12/its-not-safe-to-go-alone-take-300-gold.html

So I weaved through the dark and spooky trees, trodding on many skeletons before coming across a stone building. Inside was another basic maze-like dungeon, but this one had sneaky floor drops in the middle of hallways. By the end I defeated three guards and saved the "Chief". The "Chief" took us to steal the bad guy weapons and locked us in a room. This is where the "Chief" said Pog would have a nice tasty snack.

Not so bad...

WRONG!

Pog and I went at it, and it took almost all of Nina's AP worth of healing, but we killed the sucker. The "Chief" could believe it and he was getting pretty angry but then this guy showed up...

It's Bo, yo!

Just in the nick of time, I got a sweet, range weapon dude to join me in a battle against...

The General!!!!

I currently forget if this guy had real significance. He very well coulda been the dude who fought Sara at the beginning? I'll read back and probly regret writing that...oh well. So the General went down pretty easy, seeing as Bo had some powerful moves (Frost is my fave) and I just got Nina to either heal or use E.Key. He had a few things to say about it though, and it wasn't even cliche...

I lie.

So that was that, the real chief was there now and said he'd try and figure out a way to move the rocks in the damn...but I already know the answer...oh well. Bo tells me he's go beef with the Dark Dragons, so he joins me.

 Breath of Fire is about diversity.

And we made it back through the spooky dungeon and the spooky woods. On the outside world, I quickly realized that characters beneath the top level of the party quickly advance due to speedy battles. So I leveled up a little and went back to Tantar and Tuntar. Wolf Chief still won't shut up about his treasure, and other chief seems to have failed on the new information thing...

Robot secret is in another castle.

And proceeds to add another step on this side quest. Oh well, at least I got a wolf-faced archer added to the group. Got one more slot before I get full-party action.

Keep on gaming gamers!

-ME0

ME0: A Real Life 16-Bit Warrior

 Greetings Gamers!

I just wanted to let you know that JO3 and I are still alive. In fact, a few days ago we had a lovely night out for steak and followed up with several hours of video gaming (like we do). I'm currently on the road performing a puppet show, and I just had some time to sit and think about my blog recently while showing a friend the video games we've been playing.



Just wanted to let all of you know that the blog isn't dying or going on "permanent hiatus" or anything like that. J03 is in his final throws as an acting student, and I'm on a really busy tour. Come April, we'll be alive and kicking. But I assure you, gamers, that we'll be trying to post as often as we can.

Gaming's already our life, so its a no-brainer that this blog is the least stressful thing in the world when it comes down to it. So, expect to see more of us, and I'm looking into making some sweet aesthetic changes to the site as well. Thanks for your patience and your viewership.

More 16-Bit Adventures are coming!

OH, and I found this on the internet, it might be a bit old by now, but I just thought..."Wow, THAT is a real life 16 Bit Warrior. Proud of you buddy."

Oh, and if I can get my funds in order this summer, I'll be attending Comic-Con and E3. I'm thinking my costume choice is pretty obvious....Steampunk Link!

See you soon, gamers!

Game ON!

-ME0

Mega Man X: First of the Last

So, it was silly of me to think that it was just going to be the last boss right away, I OBVIOUSLY was going to have to go through his mystery hideout and fight legions of baddies, and then take on old bosses again. Why didn't I think of that? Tsk, tsk.

Anywho, it started with meeting up with big ol' Zero. I don't wanna say he's a cocky bugger. But. He's a cocky bugger. "Don't worry X, I'll handle the big guys." "Don't worry X, I'll go first so I can destroy all the big guys who might give you trouble." "Don't worry "X, I'm just viscerally better than you in every way, no big." I'm not bitter.

Ya, that's always a good idea.

So, I make my way, tearing through some robo-turtles. Leap on some floating platforms and make my way up along this floating path, careful not to fall to my doom. I enter Sigma's fortress and begin blowing apart some baddies. Nothing too out of the ordinary here, just had to blast away. I started to realize that I had so many different powers that I could totally start using them to ease my way through the levels. The cyclone power is SO FREAKING SWEET. It protects me from things coming at me, and rips apart any bad guy infront of me, cuz it hits them so many times.

I made my way up to this ladder area and had to deal with some rather annoying moving turrets. I popped up through the ladder though, and Purple-Jackass popped down and was ready to get an ass-whooping when Big Red shows up being a 'hero' (even though I'M the hero of this story... Right?)

You jackass, let me do my own dirty work!

So I follow after them and hear the sound of some charge shotting, and a >thunk<, and I'm thinking "Oh shit, Zero got pwned!" And I hurried forward, and I was mostly right.

Oh, so I guess you aren't so ALL POWERFUL are you, Zero!? Hah!... And I resent your words, Purple-face.

So, Purple-Face managed to get IN his mech and trap Zero in a very short amount of time. After some banter about how I can defeat him, and how I know I can't defeat him, the battle began. However, there was no health bar for Big-Purple-Mech so I didn't get the feeling I was supposed to win again. I was right. When I got me down to near dead he paralyzed me AGAIN, and then picked me up to bring me over to the other side of the screen for... Some reason.

He laughed, and said I was helpless. Then Zero did a big ol' "BUT I'M NOT!!!" And broke free of the prison and exploded them both.

... Well shit, he saved me.

However, Zero only destroyed the mech, leaving Purple-Man for me to deal with. Out of nowhere, I broke out of the paralization and was restored to full health. Baddie says "Where did that energy come from!?" I dunno. Still don't. Plot hole anyone?

Anywho, without his mech, I could easily jump over Purple when he charged, and I could damaged him with all my attacks. I didn't really pick a defined strategy, I just charged up my buster, or switched between powers, and just shot the hell outta him. And thus he died.

Not so tough without your big mech, eh? I tore through you, boi.

So, I washed my hands of Big-Purple and continued on my way, only to find Zero's body... And from the looks of it, his legs were gone. He told me I was stronger than he ever imagined, and then said that "Maybe you can defeat Sigma..." And, I still have NO IDEA who that is! So he faded away and died.

Now I feel bad for those bad things I said. Why'd you have to go and die?

And that WASN'T the ended of the level. I still had to fight some regular bad-guys and leap over some other guys. Again, same old same old. No new faces here. And then I came to a boss room, with an especially familiar face. KUWANGER!

When I entered the room and he started in with his phasing-in-out-dance thing, I was like: "Oh, I know how to deal with you." And he was exactly the same as I could tell. I switched to his weakness (missles) and blasted him away with them. Just for the hell of it, I waited when he was at low health to charge up my missle shot and...

I beat you already, bitch. Eat homing pirahnas!

And that wasn't the end of the level! I still had to continue on and fight more baddies, and lump up some walls, and get annoyed with some turrets and whatnot, but I made it to the NEXT boss in a short amount of time. And boy, was he annoying.

Enter Big-Spider-Robot. He has these four long poles in the room which he manuvers on, and when he exits the screen these little horizontal green bars appear in random patterns between them, somewhat hinted out how he'll approach next. That is sometimes difficult to judge. You think he's going to follow the descending path of bars, but sometimes he'll wipe around and come at you from the top. Other than simple charging down the poles at you, Spider only has one other attack. Which is to throw down four mini-spiders which run at you and are an inconvenience.

The only way I seems to be able to get him was to shoot the moment BEFORE he came to the bottom of his trip downwards, because he scurried up the pole very quickly upon reaching hitting you or not. And forget about hitting him if he hits you. Ain't gonna happen. I'm so glad I got the armor upgrade, because he was still hurting me quite a bit with his obviously excessive body weight.

Ouch. Scary robo-spider moves fast.

Also, he speeds up the more you damage him. Just thought you should know.

But he still dies like everybody else!

So I finally beat him by constantly doing a super-charge of my regular ol' Buster shot, as you can see here.

That was the end of the level. The game returned me to the boss screen again, with the same picture of that Sigma guy... So I'm guessing I'll have a few more levels, maybe 3 bosses per level from now on? I guess we'll see.

Catch ya later gamers!

Mega Man X: Shady Business

This was a really fun level; had interesting fights, different environments, and was just a damn good time to go through.

The level started in a forest, which was not really suprising to be honest. I made my way along and killed some hopping robots, and destroyed that guy with the axe who threw chunks of a pillar at me (See post: Penguin)! I blazed through the first chunk of the forest, and then came to a gap which entered into a large tunnel inside a large hunk of rock (Or 'mountain' as some would call it.)

I was hoping for an upgrade of some kind so I checked down the side of the gap, and the camera moved down with me, so I was hopeful. However, all that was there was a wall I could break with a wall jump, and then a really, really long gap. It was too far to jump over, and the camera also didn't pan down if you tried. Not sure what it's there for really. I sincerely doubt Mega Man gets the power of flight.... Or does he...?

Anyway, so I went the opposite direction (Up) in search of power, and a I was met with a mini-boss!

This guy took a LONG ass time to die, I'll tell ya. Mainly because I could only hit in square in the face with a blast to hurt him. He had two things he could do; either he'll jump through the air quite slowly, and land where you were standing when he jumped, OR, he lifts his arm signalling that he is going to reach out his hand to hit ya and then sends it out rather slowly. The only times I got hit were when I got a little impatient and kept jumping and shooting his head when should've just moved. He blew up none the less, and then I acquired new and improved armor! I now take 50% LESS damage! Whoot! I guess this Dr. Light or what-have-you knew how to build a deadly robot.

Now that I was suited up, I entered the mountain. There were falling rocks which turned into robot humanoids who threw rocks at me. Scary. This was over quickly, and then I hopped into a Mech!

Last time I was in a Mech (See again: Penguin) I complained that I was in it for too short a time. This gallivant was not 'lengthy' by any stretch, but it was longer. It may have been partly due to the long sections of mud which I sunk into and slowed my speed greatly. I could dash along the top of the mud for a bit before I sunk too low, as well as smashing anything that got in my way, including other mechs. After escaping the mud field I came face to face with the boss (yes there was a boss door.) Good ol' Sting Chameleon.

That missed.

He's a fast bugger, to be sure, he also rarely stops moving, which makes it kind of difficult to peg a shot off on him. He could turn invisible and when he did that I also couldn't damage him, even if I knew where he was. When he was invisible he could do three things:

1. Move into a corner and hurl three green spikes at me
2. Move towards me and flick out his tongue
3. Drop down to the ground and growl/attack

Needless to say, it was an annoying battle. I had to keep moving and have a charge shot ready for when he appeared so I could hit him with it. These didn't feel like it would be the easiest method though, so I cycled through my powers... Again, I did not have a power which did SUPER EFFECTIVE damage to him. However, I did find that the Missile power I just got from the Octopus sent out Heat-Seeking missiles! Which means I could launch them any direction and as long as Sting Chameleon wasn't invisible, the missile would flip around and hit him. Haha! Take that!

2 more bosses to go! And I'm guessing 2 more upgrades to go. I'm slowly changing from the plain ol' Blue Mega Man to the Mega Man X on the cover, with white and gold armor. I need a new helmet and a new buster cannon. I'm excited to find them. Catch ya later gamers.

Mega Man X: Flame

Alrighty, back into the groove. Demolished the Flame Mammoth. For some reason this level felt very quick, but maybe it was just in my head. I started off in this factory area, with conveyor belts which were dropping baddies down along. Some were robot dragon heads, and the if not them than they were the top halves of humanoid robot things which shot at me. I got hit by a stray blast, but I was alright. Pretty well right after the belts there was a drop, but across it was a little orb of full health. So that was awesome.

Then I came to an area that was very similar to the conveyors; except they were just bridges.

I'm going to take this moment to wonder why there are no humans in this game. As far as I can tell, this 'war' I am fighting is against robots, and I am guessing it is for the good of mankind. Why haven't I met any? Where are they? What are they doing if everywhere I go there is an onslaught of robot baddies. Just something I found myself thinking about... Back to the level.

I followed along the bridge, and then there were these robot mole-men miners or what not. They hurled pick axes at me. They threw them exactly where you were though. They were impeccably accurate.

Luckily they died just like everything else with some buster shots. I went in a straight line and killed them all, and then there was thing glowing pink heart under the bridge, so I went back and dropped to the ground level and got a wonderful health increase! This pleased me.

I did some wall jumping then up and up, and then dropped into this piped area which was dropping what looked like lava out of them. I could avoid them, but there were these little weird spikey spinning bastards which circling along the pipe and went back and forth, and I couldn't kill them! My shots would just bounce off of them. This sucked. Then there were these shield buggers. Couldn't shoot them either. They had a morningstar-esk arm, and when they shot it out at me I jumped over it, and then had to rapidfire them to kill 'em. So I had about half-health when I made it through that, and then I was at the boss door. Really short level.

So the Flame Mammoth as he's called is an odd guy. His boss room has a conveyor belt which is annoying. His attacks consist of shooting some fireballs, launching a blob of some dark red soot (I didn't get hit by it, nor did I step into the puddle it left; I'm guessing DON'T.) He also can leap into the air at you. This does ALOT of damage. I did not, unfortunately, have the power which was hit weakness, so I had to beat him down the old fashioned way; using all my different powers in various ways until he died. I would dash away from him when he leapt into the air, keep myself on the wall to avoid his shots. I used the rolling shield I acquired because it curved downward and it worked well. I also used the ice shot because I could should the opposite direction of him and still hit him because it would bounce to him. I finished him off with the rolling shield because it's just a fun power. I also didn't die, so... Ya, awesome.

Now which boss shall I destroy next? Catch ya later gamers.

Mega Man X: Armor Time

Alright, so it was a busy-as-hell day today, but I managed to squeeze in about 30 minutes of Mega Man time, which I used to beat the Armored Armadillo. Now, that may have sounded like it was an easy task, but it wasn't. That bastard bounces all the hell around like a mother-... Anyway. I ought to talk about my trip to said Armadillo before I go harping on him, now shouldn't I?

Well, to start, this appeared to be a cavern of some fashion. I imagined the insides of a mine. Probably due to the cart that I jumped upon at the beginning. The spikes on the front and back of the cart protected me from enemies on the rails themselves, while I occupied myself with shooting at the many, many robot bats who flew at me as I careened along. I thought it was to be

an on-the-rails level, but that was silly of me. The cart dipped into a gap and then bounced back and forth between the wall towards doom. So I leapt off and went flying with the momentum into a robot heron. That hurt, so I killed it with a few buster shots.

I ran for a bit, shot some things and then dropped down a hole to find this guy break through the wall after me.

So I ran away, with my dash boots I was able to get away from him rather easily. He chased me all the way along until I leapt over a pit of spikes which he promptly fell into and died. I chuckled and then retraced my steps back to where he came from and found an Energy Tank thing! It appears to store health I pick up when I'm at full so I can use it to heal myself. Nifty. I fought my way back through all that lovely jazz and jumped over more rocks and rode another cart, which killed more guys for me and then bounced down into another gap.

I was hurled through the air again and ended up dropping down another long fall where another smashy-smashy thing was waiting for me to tear apart some walls. I bolted along infront of it again and spotted a little glowing heart thing up above, so I did some wall jumping and grabbed it up. It game me more health! Awesome, right? Ya, pretty happy with that.

So, another cart, except this time, instead of flying down into a gap, it went hurling THROUGH THE AIR. I didn't know what was happening so I jumped right away, and flew onto the top of the cliff thing. There was a large thing of health sitting there but I couldn't go anywhere else. So I figured I'd slide down the wall, and then there was the boss door.

So. Armored Armadillo. Has armor. And can block by buster shots. That was annoying as hell. Also; he bounces around which is near impossible to continously avoid. He killed me so, so, SO many times. And everytime he killed me more than 3 times, I had to do the level over again. Yeesh. He has the bounce attack which can go on forever, he also has a little gun that pops out from his head and shoots a little dinky shot.

Anyhow, I remembered that the ice froze the one guy, and found it wasn't effective, HOWEVER, the lightning shot electrocuted him! And his armor fell off. Awesome, right? Now I could kept shooting him with the lightning shot. And he eventually died. I then unlocked the Rolling Shield, which is essentially a giant blue ball. I wonder which boss it'll pwn?... I also haven't decided which boss to strike next. So tired. Must sleep... Catch ya later gamers.

Super Metroid: Die alien vermin and space golems!

So I logged about an hour and a half on Metroid today. Most of it was spent going from my save point to the golem that's guarding the morph-ball bombs, dying, then doing it again. Finally, after I decided to stop sucking at fighting this mini-boss and use some real strategy I beat him. Then I got killed by wall-crawlies only a few rooms away, having to start from the save point all over again.

Now, about save points. I have played many games with this feature and most of them strategically place them so when you finish something really hard, you save, and you never have to face that horror ever again. Unfortunately, in Metroid, this was not the idea. The save points are more like off-the-beaten-path rooms that you have to go well out of your way to get to, so obviously you're thinking to yourself...well I have two full energy tanks, why bother saving. Oh wait, the giant plant eyeball boss is in your way!

PS: Here's my WTF of the day.

I don't know what this is about yet, but I have a feeling I'll figure it out later. As of now, it seems a bit early in the game for such huge mysteries. I might just be dumb, but I personally was weirded out by this monstrosity's appearance. 

Moving along. I did defeat the giant plant eyeball thing and I felt pretty good about myself up until I discovered the super missile and promptly got killed by those little egg sacks that spit baby egg sacks. Sending back to the save point quite a ways before the eyeball thing, but (thankfully) after the killer golem. So I saved and shut the game off, and shaking off my rust before getting back into it.

Oh, and another thing. I've discovered (due to all my deaths) that Super Metroid has got to be the only game in history to have a slightly positive twist on player death...

Yes...Samus's armor explodes and you get a brief glimpse of her in her bit-sized skivvies. I personally found this weird. I pulled the image off of this guy's blog, btw. If you want more extensive information on Metroid and it's history I suggest checking it out:

http://metroidgameculture.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

Anyways. Until next time, I'll be hoping for space pirates and killing stupid ceiling jumpers.