#Right now I don't have better screenshots of the map conveniently.

[edwardos]

From my majorly incomplete abandoned CTM Freezing, which I worked on last decade. The castle in the background is called Woodfort, which I suddenly discover I have posted before.

[claire-starsword]

The Guardiana Magic School Run - Part 14

Before anything, did you know that if a game is lagging a bit it's recommended you stop using your decades old emulator and actually update to something better? Wild. This thing is running so smooth now.

It's time for Earnest's revenge quest except he's not valid in this run, so this is just the regular beating of another guy instead.

Also, now you know where you're supposed to get the Mermanbuster. The Deals section is absurd. Would be nice to get this bonus but after last battle I don't have much hope.

The convenient thing is that this map is so small I can screenshot basically every enemy in a single image, you're just missing an extra bat to the right. The inconvenient thing is that they'll easily block our path just like in the last battle. Usually when I play this casually Max is overleveled enough to tank everything, and they hardly go for other characters, but this time I did Max's promotion differently and I feel he got less defense as a result so I'm scared. The bats can also easily reach the frail characters from the sides as well.

Tao and Anri just so happened to start at the worst possible position so I'll try to cover them before anything.

Max is indeed not taking the 1 damage I know and love, but on other hand the AI gets ridiculous, several of these bats were in range to attack someone but they decided to line up like this instead.

Things are quickly getting dicey for Max now, this is surreal to me.

Narsha did manage to wipe out a bat and Domingo softened another one up, I wanted Tao to continue the AoEs there but it might be too risky, two bats ganging up on her would kill her, so I'm wiping out knights with her instead. I don't think there's a need to hold her back when bosses are often resistant to magic, and Balbazak tends to be a pushover due to not moving.

Arthur also continues to be absurdly good as long as he can hide behind someone else. Khris has healed Max so he can continue being this someone else for now. He could be an absolute monster if I cast Attack on him, but he's overleveled so again I'm unsure if I shouldn't do something else with Narsha.

Look at this mess. The bats are wonderful because by swarming Max like this they block the possibility the Hellhound can go for him, not to mention half of them skipped a chance to attack again. The Hellhound does go for Lowe doing almost half of his HP, but that's manageable. The Artilleries also have a lot of reach and are my main worry since they tend to go for weaker characters more often. It is very tempting to do more AoE with Anri but because of the Artillery I don't do that. She just Freeze 1's the nearest bat for some exp.

Domingo on the other hand has 5 more defense than Max and could do wonders, but doesn't have AoE spells yet, I bet he'll learn Freeze 2 as soon as he's out of MP for it.

Nevermind let's goooo, I don't think he gets more than a single use though. Also this bat survived at 1 HP which is sad, Anri's Freeze did more damage.

Narsha also has more defense than Max so I'm hoping she can help here in the middle. She defeats a bat and gets even more defense in a level up so that's promising.

Tao sadly cannot help against my worst enemy, the Hellhound, so she's stuck on bat cleanup as well, at least she doesn't have to waste MP since the thing survived at 1 HP.

Arthur lets me down.

I consider sending Max against the Hellhound because I'm worried about Lowe, Gong and Arthur, but I'm also worried about these Artilleries so he's gonna have to be bait a little longer, they are many while the hound is a single one.

i then misclick and attack a bat instead of them, way to go claire

Gong is gonna try to keep this thing occupied instead.

The thing is occupied to more than half of its HP, nice.

I'm still worried about Arthur so Lowe will stay where he is and hopefully not get any crits or second attacks.

Another scary turn but an Artillery decides to go for Narsha instead for half the damage so, lol. The Hellhound does get more damage on Lowe than last turn for some reason, which is scary.

I decide it's time to finally get spicy with Anri as we should be able to wipe out these Artilleries with all magic users, and then hopefully block the last one from advancing. The fact Max attacked this bat also means it's dying and thus more exp for Anri. So, you know, this was totally intentional and epic strategy on my part.

Turn 4. Domingo could do a very spicy AoE here but I feel like saving his MP for Balbazak and his friends. He can just stay here to block the path, and wipe out one Artillery that Anri softened up. The other has been healed by the priest.

Narsha however can destroy tanks in one hit, no softening up needed.

I decide to get spicy and let Khris attack too, which is objectively bad as I forgot Max needed healing. Arthur also doesn't quite redeem himself by not finishing this dog, I really should have cast Attack on him. I need Max to hit this hound or things might get bad.

Max does comes through and now Gong is free to heal him. Again my strategy is flawless, as Anri can finish the Artillery Khris started and get more exp. I'm so good at this game.

Only a bat and a priest are left there, so I'm gonna start advancing towards the bosses, those things should be weak enough that characters wipe them out as they pass. And if the priest decides to heal themself instead and become an exp farm that's fine too.

One exception to this advance though.

We're heading to bosses so it's time I do something with Narsha. A thing I haven't explained yet is that Attack 2 is an AoE buff. I could with this position buff four characters at once by centering at Max. However, it gives only a +5 as opposed to the +8 of Attack 1. On one hand, I'm unsure how much difference 3 points are gonna make. On the other hand, I'm also unsure how much Max and Gong should be approaching Balbazak head on, my hopes here are that Arthur gets him from a distance with him not moving. Max should also be able to get a Supernova in. And Tao still has plenty of MP and her damage can be boosted by Narsha. So I think I'll do Attack 1 on Arthur. This is the magic school run after all, attacking from range only is fitting.

It is now turn 6. Only these three enemies are left. Domingo can get very spicy and use his final MP on a double whammy between Balbazak and the dog. The Blue Dragon however is immune to ice. And yeah, this thing isn't in the Mega Drive version, they decided to add some flavor to Balbazak being a Dragon Master. Obviously, it is at a much lower level compared to the dragons at the end of the game. Hopefully Domingo can survive a hit.

As expected Balbazak does not move to attack Domingo. I don't think he ever moves, but unlike most bosses he kinda has a reason, he wants to board the ship and flee. Either way it does make him a pushover at times. He also doesn't seem to resist magic too much, taking 8 damage from Freeze.

With that, I finally commit to a plan and cast Boost 1 on Tao. Unfortunately she can't reach anything this turn. Arthur could reach the hound and the dragon, but ahaha, I'm not sending him there.

Domingo proves himself my favorite magical blob and a fantastic tank by surviving even as the hound pulls a second attack out of its ass.

He's out of MP, but I can keep him around with a herb to tank more. I'm hoping Tao can obliterate the dragon, but I need to make space for people to attack the hound now.

UH OH

SHOULDN'T HAVE MOVED TOWARDS THE SHIP I GUESS

These are the last things you'll see as I hit image limit and don't wanna make another post.

Tao deals 23 damage to the Blue Dragon, which would have not been enough to kill the dragon on her own, but luckily Narsha moved first and did some small damage. We also get a Healing Ring from the dragon. I don't remember what that is, and I'm again in awe of how many drops there have been in this run.

The Hellhound continues to be the bane of my existence, dodging attacks from Max and Arthur. Gong can't even reach it so he heals Domingo.

We're now at Turn 8, and while I don't mind missing the bonus, I worry that trying to beat this hound instead of finishing the fight already may cause disaster. I'll start the Supernovas and other spells on him already, and hopefully the few melee fighters I don't want on him yet can do something about this dog.

Narsha does go for the hound dealing 13 damage, and then Tao and Arthur go for Balbazak dealing 21 and 18. He has 65 HP in total so coupled with Domingo's previous attack that's a lot. I didn't screenshot but he should be at less than 20.

Okay yeah Supernova should finish him off in style, I don't think the hound's exp is worth risking something to go awfully wrong here.

Sadly you don't get to see the style, not because of tumblr I just failed to screenshot the animation anyway. Supernova 2 deals a whooping 31 damage, meaning I never had much to worry about this guy. Maybe I could have tried to defeat the hound with Arthur instead. I don't really care though. By ending it here, we claim the Mermanbuster as well.

And that's it for Chapter 4, more exciting than I expected. We get into Max's beloved ship and head on to a peaceful voyage. Not sarcasm, I did mention Chapter 5 is easy.

Losses: 0 Deaths: 2

[the-book-in-the-mirror]

Mary Plays Pokemon Gaia - Part I: the beginning [Reposted from Twitter]

Hi! I'm @miyamoris and this is my blog for essays, let's plays and other more thought-out posts and conversations. To kick off the blogging, I'm bringing my Pokemon Gaia playthrough, styled after forums screenshot let's plays. (I'm not a video person. Sorry!)

I started this playthrough two years ago - it's hardly a long game but took me a while to finish it for... reasons. The first posts are reproductions from the original Twitter threads that I'd rather archive somewhere more reliable. The only thing I'll change is formatting so they flow better as blog posts. It's very likely the posterior updates will look different in style - instead of posting as I play like I did before, I have already finished the game and took a bunch of screenshots to organize while memory is still fresh. This is the first time I post let's plays on tumblr so I'm still discovering what works better.

For those who doesn't know, Pokemon Gaia is a Pokemon FireRed romhack created by Spherical Ice. Right now it's completed up to the Elite Four and thecomplete game with post-game and all is currently being overhauled as a Emerald hack. This hack is pretty popular for getting the exact feel of an official pokemon game plus some impressive technical achievements like perfectly reproducing the Mega Evolution system from gen VI into a 3rd gen rom.

Without more delays, let's begin. Enjoy!

[Original Thread]

let's goooo

-> #maryplaysgaia for my organizing and your muting convenience

Right off the bat, I already like the player sprite - it's visibly drawing from the FRLG sprite but it's well-done.

The Orbtus region map - the game seems to revolve strongly around archaeology (the professor in the intro says he's an archaeologist (typed it right on the first try!)) so it's unsurprising to find a lot of caves and ruins there.

Running shoes before even getting a starter! lovely game!!

I won't do a whole let's play-like thread summarizing every game bit but I'll try to keep threading the most notable game moments and whatever observation I have.

REALLY LOVELY GAME though tbh I am not sure if we even have gyms in this region

So for now an iffy lady asked back a book I got from the library, there's a lot involving earthquakes and instead of getting a mon in a lab, you meet the professor in a library.

Okay this is funny

The starters are 4th gen starters - this game has up to 6th gen mons and mechanics (updated type chart, physical/special split etc.)

Empoleon is easily my fave among those so I'm grabbing piplup. they tell you their nature right once you chose them too.

- there's no rival battle for now, it seems

- you don't see the exact pokemon IVs but they give you an idea how well the mon is faring there

...and yeah I ended up picking another piplup cause those E's were grating me. look, it only took five minutes.

Rival battles you (another neat sprite) after you talk to the professor and get a bunch of stuff and instructions. which is cool to me, cause I just got a neat taillow.😎

NOT CALM NATURE COME ON

Okay so there's the professor asking teens to help him investigate fucking earthquakes and a subquest about a missing weedle and I just got into this special room with a clefairy boss??

Girlboss team!

YOOOOOO

Ariados isn't too good but I could do a few things with this one in the early game.

Early game team: done ✅though I expect a few of these to stick around beyond that.

I just realized I've been writing this thread for nearly two hours and it's lacking a better overview of the game so:

- You're travelling through a region where an ancient civilization was supposedly wiped by earthquakes

- There are tremors happening again now so you're working with this region's ProfessorTM to investigate it. Your rival is very the May/Brandon 3rd gen type of rival (assistant that is pretty chill)

(Thread content will continue on the next post. Apparently tumblr does not want me to post more than 30 images. Ah well!)

[belleta]

The Forest - Part One

Consists: Supernatural, SKZ as different SN creatures, adventure, romance, drama, action, ......still trying to figure out all the details....lol XD

"Come on Y/N!", I was racing around the house. Trying to make sure I had everything for this trip. "Omg Y/N, let's GO~!" I swear to the universe she's going to thank me later. " I'm coming child!" I screamed back. Alrighty I just need my retainer. I bounded up the stairs and glided down the hallway with my cotton socks. Bursting into my room, I quickly scanned it for the sparkly emerald case. I caught sight of it out of the corner of my eye, "Boom!" I ran forward and snatched it off my windowsill. While leaping for my door, I paused and turned back to what I call my sanctuary. Call me paranoid but I'm kinda afraid of camping in the middle of the woods. Ever since I watched "The Blair Witch Project", I've been creeped.

It doesn't help that Jazzy forced us to watch the film, previous to this morning. I was drifting in the fairy floss clouds of my mind when a loud honk poured water on them. I sucked in a breath, blowing raspberries. Padding back over to my bedside, I grabbed my Ice Bear plushie. Giving it a quick squeeze and finally deciding that he's coming with me. Galloping back through the house, I made it out, locked the door and hopped in the back seat like a spring rabbit. "What took you so long?" I gazed up through my fringe at my girl bestie Jazmine. She had long beautiful honey blonde hair, and a mousy nose. Her blue eyes were alike with pebbles under a lake, with cheeks connected by a dash of light freckles. "I swear I just aged waiting for you" and Danny, our guy bestie. I've been best friends with Danny, since 3rd grade. Jazzy moved over during the 5th grade. All three of us have been with each other through thick and thin. Daniel was Hawaiian Japanese descent, had perfect colorful nails and absolutely gorgeous eye makeup. We were all dressed in casual, comfy clothes for the trip. Jazmine, or Jazzy as people call her, as the oldest. She was driving Danny's dad's truck. It was spacious and definitely was fit for the environment. Danny, second eldest was in shotgun and I, being the "baby", was in the back. "I was just making sure I have everything." The two rolled their eyes. Danny looked back at me "Girl, you need to chill. We've got everything and more" the boy stated. "I know, I know.....I'm just paranoid, you know.....being in the woods for a week" I looked down at my feet and played with my fingers to cover my embarressedness. "Awww, is the baby scared", Jazzy giggled, imitating a child. I swatted at her, "Let's just...finally go" I grumbled, reaching inside my bag to pull out my headphones. "Fine" they answered teasingly. While Jazzy was pulling out, I fastened myself and slid my headphones on. Bluetoothing them and unlocking my phone, I scrolled through my YouTube Music playlist finding the one named 'Bell Mix'. After that, I went back to the truffula trees and fairy floss. Just listening to my music and thinking about things. There were a couple times, where I thought I might get sick, but I had remembered my motion sickness bracelets. In your face! It's better to set out a little later, rather than having our vehicle reeking of my insides. 2 or 3 hours went by, or something. I'm not really sure, my brain doesn't really have a sense of time when I'm inside of it. We stopped to use the bathroom, get food and fuel at a gas station, maybe 2 hours away from the forest. "Can I, can I, can I, can I PLEASE?!?" I had been begging Jazzy to let me buy a bag of Haribo for 10 minutes now, and she was starting to break. I'm very persuasive as you find out, and I happen to be a very prominent weakness to many throughout my life. She finally gave in and I bounced away to the candy isle with glee and happily picked out a bag, promising to share. Jazzy just rolled her eyes and paid for our things. We trotted back to the car and continued our journey. It was nearing the end of 2pm when we finally arrived at the edge of the forest. It's lushes were absolutely perfectly splendid. The road continued for a hot minute, until it gave away to dirt and rocks. We didn't want to stray too far from the dirt road, so we slowly kept moving in until I suddenly exclaimed at the sight of a pretty little clearing. It had a few little bushes marking the edges, thick but soft looking grass, and a little dirt patch at one side that should be perfect for a firepit. We pulled over to take a look around, flattening a few bushes in the process. As soon as the truck came to a stop I shoved the door open and sprung down onto the flourishing forest floor. The first thing I did was take a deep breath to soak in the sweet scent of the untouched earth. I reached up, stretching and cracking a few of my bones in the process. Then I raced through the trees and undergrowth, toward the beautiful glade. It felt so nice to get away from civilization, I had always loved

getting away like this. Being able to recharge away from annoying people and sounds, my fears of the night were long forgotten. I was two steps away from the grass when I suddenly tripped over something. Tumbling forward and scratching my cheek. I landed on my face, but on the bright side it was luckily with no rocks around. The dirt however spared me at nothing, crawling into my fresh scrapes, was a sharp and quick stinging as I grabbed my face. "Seriously Y/N, we haven't even completely left the car yet and you've already managed to hurt yourself" Jazzy declared. Danny chimed in, "Did you hurt yourself at all?". Quickly inspecting myself, I responded "Yes, a tiny bit on my cheek, hands and knees", I could hear them muttering to themselves about how reckless I was sometimes. They started toward me and as I waited for them to catch up, I decided to look around and figure out where to put things for these next few days. While ogling the decently wide stretch that was conveniently shielded by a mighty sugar maple. I thought I saw something in the undergrowth a few meters away from me. I grabbed my glasses and narrowed my eyes, but right when I thought I saw whatever it was, two flashes shot in the opposite direction between the ferns and disappeared. They were kinda hidden but I could sorta make out one of the shapes was darker and slightly bigger. The other was a little bit easier but still was difficult, it was kinda brown, or maybe reddish? At that moment I felt two hands on my shoulders, "Let me see", it was Jazzy. She inspected my injury. "It'll be fine, just wash it off", "Okie-Dokie-Artichokie", she laughed and ruffled my hair. I gazed back at where I saw the two shapes but not even the bushes were still moving. "Hey!" I cocked my head back to the voice "Can you help me?" Danny was struggling to unpack from the back. "Sure thing Danny-O" I quickly stood up, maybe a little too quick. My vision went funny and I almost stumbled. "Oh my god Y/N! Be careful!" Jazzy scolded, "My bad!" I was a little all over the place at the moment. Finally we were on this trip! I mean, I waited 6 months for this and it's finally here! I'm not all childish, I'm actually very 4D. I'm just really excited okay? I more carefully walked back to the truck, where Danny was struggling to keep ahold of what appeared to be the tent. Over the course of the next hour and a half we set up everything. Goofing around and laughing. Danny had been pulling too hard on our sleeping bags, to wedge them out of the trunk. And had accidentally fallen onto the slightly wet dirt, causing a very prominent brown streak across his gray sweatpants and sky blue tie dye hoodie. I was currently on my way to find the stream that is supposably close by, with a screenshot of google maps and a compass. Service wasn't exactly a 5 star out here, but I didn't mind too much. I brought a portable WiFi router with me, so if Jason Vorhees just decided to pull one, we could call for help. Every so often I would hang a wooden heart ornament on one of the tree's branches, so if this was the correct way then we would never get lost. Also so that I didn't get lost right now. I had been making these last night, for these exact reasons. I swear only dumb people don't mark their surroundings, this is one of the main reasons why people disappear and are never found or get lost. There are no traces of where they've been, like these fruit loops really-...... After about another 20 meters I started hearing the sounds of water. It became louder and louder really quickly. Is there a waterfall here? I pondered, while quickening my pace with curiosity. 35 seconds later I came across a thinning in the trees and beyond a clear water stream. I finally broke out of the shelter provided from the thick leaves, the sun kissed my skin with it's warm touch. I looked around and sure enough, there was a small waterfall that looked straight out of a fairytale. It had multiple uneven levels, with smoothed boulders everywhere. And to top it all off, it had little water plants scattered around it. Absolutely

beautiful.... I scanned around and spotted a few giant boulders poking into the stream. I carefully picked my way over to them, clutching onto Danny's muddy clothes. Hopping onto the sunlight warmed stones, I positioned myself perfectly so that I could reach the water but wouldn't fall in. I reached into my pocket for my zip lock of natural soap, of course I didn't want to hurt this literally untouched land. I leaned down to dunk the fabric into the stream's crystal-like water and kneaded the brown smudge. It was decently cold, just perfect for a stream. I turned back to the small bag with a green bar wrapped with brown paper and a little herb decoration. I unzipped it and reached for a tiny hand towel I brought with me so that I would have a better grip on the soap, even if I got wet. After dunking the clothes in I took the bar of soap and swiped it all over. I dipped it into the water once to help the bubble come, then I started aggressively rubbing it. Once the outfit was foaming with suds, I slapped it into the brook. Holding onto the sleeve I rub it harshly all over to get the stains out. It was relatively still easy because the events of cause were only moments before. I was starting to disappear into my thoughts, getting deeper and deeper and deeper....... And just then a crash and from the trees, followed by snarls and barks. I was so lost in my thought that this jolted me into the canal. The water suddenly became ice cold, my scream had been washed away. A surge of water filled my lungs from the way my mouth was open to yelp. I could still hear the sounds of fighting every so often, when I would surface. My head was hurting, my skin was stinging and my lungs were screaming. Someone.....please help..... It was hurting so much, I was trying not to panic. So I could find the surface and get back to shore. I would break through it's crisp arctic clutches every so often and would cry out for help but then get cut off by the now frosty darkness. I was giving up to the stream and submitting to the coldness. Letting it swallow me whole. I was numb, I couldn't feel my body being thrown around anymore, Is this how my story ends? No! I don't want to! I still have things to do! I need to graduate, and find my passion! I need to find a man who will love me as much as I do! I need to birth young and care for them! I want to grow old with my partner happily! I can't die yet! I just can't! But it was just so cold. I had stopped moving violently, so I guess I had been poured into a lake or something. I didn't care anymore. My blood felt frozen, I couldn't even bend a finger. That's when I felt a force near me, it parted the waters. Moving me in a different direction with its power. Then not long after I felt something grab hold of me in an awkward way. I was starting to be pulled into another direction, as the water streamed around, parting to let me and whatever that was saving me through. Then I broke through the surface and that was the last thing I felt before slipping into a comfy unconsciousness.