#also i suppose new Nippon as well though just in the beginning

[sceptile11]

Well this chapter was long to write last month since I have no experience writing an actual cardfight but here is Chrono and Tsurugi have a full cardfight (did skip forward a bit to speed things up a little tbh. Also yes Tokoha and Shion are there basically to bully Chrono for not taking it easy considering how well they developed into strong fighters at the end of G)

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 108: Nippon Safes, Inc. – Introduction

Written by Torch

Doesn’t look very safe to me

Two years after my first ever playthrough for The Adventure Gamer, I’m finally up for another. Quite the gap, but – surprise! – we’re still doing games from 1992! We sure are taking our time here, or perhaps 1992 was just a particularly bountiful year. Either way, the next game up is Nippon Safes, Inc. This game was developed by Dynabyte software, an Italian game creator. I couldn’t find a lot of information about this company, but running a couple of Italian wikis through Google translate helped a little.

Dynabyte. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that it’s a portmanteau of dynamite and byte

Dynabyte made 6 games in all, of which 3 were adventure games. Nippon was the first in 1992, followed by Tequila & Boom Boom – a cartoonish western themed adventure named starring anthropomorphic animals – in 1994, and finally Big Red Adventure in 1995 ( 1997 on Amiga ).

Can you spot the KGB agent? ( It’s a trick question. They’re all KBG agents )

Big Red is a direct sequel to Nippon, but I doubt Tequila is related. Not sure how they’d make that work… In 1997 they either changed their name to Ludomedia or disbanded and then created a new company named Ludomedia, I can’t tell for sure. Either way they went out of business the same year, so I guess it doesn’t matter much.

Logos from ‘95-97 Can’t put my finger on it, but it’s like they didn’t fully commit to the new company name

That’s pretty much all I could dig up about Dynabyte, so if any Italian readers see this and know more, please feel free to chip in.

So let’s get back to the game at hand. I read about Nippon Safes Inc. in an Amiga magazine many years ago, and the cartoony graphics kind of caught my eye, but that’s the extent of my familiarity with this game, so I’ll start off by checking out the manual, to see what I can expect.

The story begins like this: “In the most disreputable parts of the Japanese metropolis of Tyoko,a shady character wanders around looking suspicious. What can this mysterious person be up to?”

Talk about suspense building.. To help me learn more about this mysterious character, I will be able to control the dynamic trio of….

“DOUG NUTS. He is an electronics genius who uses his knowledge for not exactly a lawful purpose (with meagre results). His career as an electronics engineer at Oxford ended abruptly when he was caught fiddling the results of the exams stored in the faculty computer. After moving to Japan, the homeland of electronics, he has problems with the law each time one of his breaking in gadgets doesn’t work quite like it was meant to.”

“DINO FAGIOLI. A former boxer of Italian origin, basically a good and honest soul,often falls into the traps set by people taking advantage of the fact that he tends not to think very hard. After a series of defeats in the boxing world, he boarded a ship bound for Japan as a deckhand. After getting into the umpteenth scrape he was thrown off the ship in Tyoko, where he is trying to make ends meet.”

“DONNA FATALE. A variety actress, she abandoned a promising career as a ballet dancer to follow the path of the glittering world of show business. She arrived in Tyoko dazzled by the promises of a self-styled impressario who, after having squandered all her possessions, left her to a life on the border of legality.”

Ok, so brains, brawn and… show tunes? How’s that for diversity? According to the manual, these guys are linked together, and I’ll be able to play them either one at a time, or I can alternate between them. This is referred to as something called the “Parallaction system”. Yes, “parallaction”. As in… “parallel action”. These Dynabyte guys seem to have a thing for wordplay. You may also have noticed that the name of the city where the action takes place is “Tyoko”. That’s not a typo ( or a tyopo – sorry, couldn’t resist ). The manual states that the city of Tyoko is located “somewhere not better identified half way between Tokyo and Kyoto as the crow flies.”

Easily one of the safest mountains to climb

In general, the manual has a certain… let’s call it “Lost in translation” vibe to it. In addition to character introductions, it also contains a test quiz, to help me decide which of the characters I should play. Hmm.. I thought I’m supposed to play them all eventually? Anyway, here’s an example question:

1)YOU ARE ON STAGE.YOU MUST CHEER UP THE EVENING.WHAT DO YOU DO?

I bring out all my artistic gifts. NA Nothing.I would feel out of place. NE Ever heard the one about the airship? WA

It doesn’t say how this helps me decide on a character though. Each answer corresponds to a 2-letter combination, and there are 6 questions so I can end up with a “word” like NARAKIWANAHO. I have no idea how this will help me with such an all-important decision, but hopefully we’ll find out when I actually start playing the game.

Lastly, the manual contains some information (fun facts) about Japan that may or may not be related to copy protection, including but not limited to Japanese written language, the geisha, fish, public baths, hotels and railways. This is actually a fairly interesting and a fun read, both for its content and for the sometimes strange English. Take this section about the subway trains:

To understand just how crowded they are, you should know that most stations have “oshiya”, or throwers-in. These are people charged with pushing the passengers inside the carriages. Each passenger is determined to get in, in order to reach his place of work on time, but the doors of the carriages will not work until until everyone has either got in or out. Since the other passengers are far to well-bred to interfere, these “oshiya” with their impecabble white gloves, help the poor devil make up his mind.

Having read through the manual, I feel ready to take on the game itself. The game is listed as working in ScummVM with a “Good” support level, but in for authenticity, I’ll be playing in Dosbox.

Tough call, but I’ll probably go for japanese engr… soll…sorry! English!

So join me next time as I make my way through the thriving metropolis of Tyo… wait, what?

So it WAS a tyopo after all

Anyway, prepare for a barrage of “safe”-related puns ( or maybe it’s better to Nipp(on) the whole thing in the bud ) as we explore the cartoony world of bank robberies and who knows what other crimes in an imaginary Japanese city.

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it’s an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won’t be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It’s also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-108-nippon-safes-inc-introduction/

[63824peace]

Friday, 25th of november 2005

Female detective Sunny Randall is the heroine of Robert B. Parker's latest novel, Melancholy Baby. During the course of the story, she consults the lovely psychiatrist Susan Silverman. Silverman has also appeared in Parker's series of Spenser novels.

Sunny learns that her ex-husband lately re-married, and the knowledge instills her with a suffering sense of loss. She has a dream one night, and she asks Silverman about the dream's meaning.

"What are our dreams?" Sunny asks. "Do they reveal our desires?"

The psychiatrist answers her without digging deeply into Freudian dream analysis. "Sometimes dreams exaggerate the circumstances of the dreamer's waking life."

I cried out from another nightmare this morning. I felt emotions and stresses like those felt during the dream that I recounted in my October 2 blog.

I always forget good dreams, but I remember all my nightmares.

I don't know whether the dream's circumstances were good or bad... but I was about to accept a tremendously prestigious award. Imagine some combination of the Emmy Awards, the Grammy Awards, and the Academy Awards. Multiple entertainment media qualified-movies, music, and games could all compete equally.

The ceremony would start soon. I needed to head over to the ceremonial hall, or else I would arrive late. I didn't understand why, but I was still fixing an anime clip that I had planned to show at the ceremony.

I don't know why it was specifically anime. I only knew that I needed to edit a segment from the footage --- no, I needed to edit several scenes! The presentation had screwed up somehow.

I hastily tried to correct each scene, but my anime support staff was slow. They were positively inflexible. The corrections shouldn't have taken long, but my staff worked at a snail's pace. We could have edited everything digitally, but everyone insisted that we shoot from animation cells. They couldn't understand the concept of digital editing -- and all of the studio's technology was over ten years old.

Nevertheless, we somehow finished the corrections. I ran to the ceremony hall.

I couldn't find my outfit when I arrived at the dressing room. I asked someone where to find it, but he explained that he couldn't open the suitcase that held my costume. He didn't have the key!

I noticed the gigantic suitcase in the corner. It looked large enough to have held a few corpses.

"Why is it in the suitcase?" I asked. "Who has the key?"

"Well," said the fellow, "The guy with the key left for the airport."

"What?! The airport!?"

I couldn't go onstage in casual clothes. The event had a dress code. Everyone had to dress formally for the live broadcast, even the camera crew.

"Hey, come on! You're up!"

A man opened the dressing room door. I could only see his upper body. He pressured me to come onstage. He had a foreigner's face, but he spoke perfect Japanese.

"All right, we're running out of options," he said. "Put on anything, just hurry!" Strangers surrounded me. They dressed me in a costume covered with patches.

Someone pushed me from behind, and I appeared on-stage beneath dazzling lights. I could still see the faces beyond them though.

The audience stirred. They seemed surprised to see that I had dressed like a street performer, or a vaudeville comedian. The MC froze on the spot.

A musician was supposed to have handed me the trophy... he looked like Mick Jagger. He whispered into my ear, "What the hell kind of costume is this? Is this some kind of joke?!"

He slandered me with words that sounded as though they had been translated, and then he laughed out loud. The ceremony hall's audience erupted into a storm of booing.

They threw all sorts of things at the stage. Something hit my head…

And I suddenly awoke.

It hadn't been a frightening dream, but it was definitely unpleasant. I've had these types of dreams before... dreams wherein I lose or forget something, or I can't proceed according to plans, or all my teeth fall out.

"What sort of dream is this?" How would Parker's Susan Silverman respond? Was this merely a menagerie of "exaggerated forms of circumstances from the dreamer's waking life?"

I ate a combo plate for lunch at Del Sol, followed by a double Macchiato. I looked into my coffee cup and saw the shape of a heart. I stirred the surface to erase it. I don't need any more hearts... hearts are troublesome.

I'd rather fill myself with something more substantial -- something more stable.

We left the restaurant and headed back to the office. On our way, Kenichiro found a provisional booth selling lottery tickets. Was this fortune?

"What's up?" I said.

"I thought that I'd like to buy some lottery tickets."

I hadn't seen one of those booths until yesterday, and then I remembered. They start selling End-of-the-Year Jumbo Lottery tickets today.

"Do they usually sell winning tickets here?"

"Well, I wouldn't know. I'm generally lucky at the lottery."

I looked more closely at the booth. The sign above it read, "Sister shop to Yuurakucho Daikokuten, seller of many big winning tickets!"

"Ha! Looks like it's the sister of the real winning booth."

"Well, that's hardly persuasive, is it?" said Kenichiro.

"We'd better get tickets from the real seller instead of its sister."

"I don't even need to buy them. I'm just that lucky with lotteries." Kenichiro recounted his many lottery victories as he walked away from the booth.

I've never won the lottery -- and what's more, I usually lose games like rock-paper-scissors. I never draw a winning raffle ticket, and I've never won a game of Bingo. Consequently, I don't expect gold to rain upon me. I never gamble or take huge risks... I'm better suited for work that requires steady, serious pacing.

Kenichiro, on the other hand, seems to have good luck.

I've theorized that everyone has received an equal distribution of luck, and each person's luck has a limit. You'll run out of luck if you squander it on lotteries and gambling. We're not like Fortune from MGS2. We won't have luck stored for important things like work if we use it excessively.

If I win the lottery, then I've spent that piece of luck. I try not to use my luck frivolously since I want to save it for my games.

Kenichiro boasted that he always wins back what he spends on lotteries, even though he's never won the big prizes. I said, "Don't you think that's why you've never made a hit game?"

"What are you talking about? I've already done that."

"For example?"

"You know… that game!"

"Oh, that," I conceded. "That was definitely luck."

"I'm lucky with women."

"Same here."

Neither one of us could laugh at that.

I've looked for Masaki Yamada's book Magic Opera since yesterday. It's printed by the Hayakawa Publishing Corporation. I finally chanced upon the set of books today at the Aoyama Book Center.

Mr. Noriyoshi Ohrai made the cover, of course. His composition and layout are fascinating as always!

Magic Opera is the second book in a trilogy. I started with the first book, Mystery Opera, which I had bought back in August. I've just read Magic Opera's first sixty pages, and the story has already captivated me. It looks interesting.

Mr. Masaki Yamada's most notorious recent work is Kamigari-2. Russian Roulette isn't as popular, but I still found it outstanding and interesting. The Opera Trilogy is his newest saga; it's part of the Kiichiro Midashi series that started after the Kami Trilogy. I'm looking forward to its narrative development.

I learned that he'll title the third book Final Opera.

Mr. Masaki Yamada contributed an article for the limited release of MGS: The Twin Snakes on the Gamecube. He always responds whenever I mail him my impressions of his books. He is such a remarkable, intellectual man.

I first discovered Mr. Yamada's writing when I read his novel Agni-wo-nusume. I was either a junior high or high school student back then. Agni-wo-nusume was an adventure novel. Some salary-men had been deceived, and then they received company orders to infiltrate a Himalayan fortress. They risked their lives at the fortress, fighting against the CIA and the special assault team.

I have read so many books published by Hayakawa Publishing Corporation. I might say that they practically raised me. They have really bustled for their sixtieth anniversary. Since the beginning of the year, they've released a variety of reproductions and reissued books.

This month they distributed a short story collection by one of their more unusual authors. They've only done this once before. Hayakawa Publishing Corporation's line-up included Theodore Sturgeon's collection titled One-Horned Beast, Many-Horned Beast. They also featured my much-loved Richard Matheson's collection, 13 Shocks.

They've reissued the books in the B6 standardized publishing format, so we can carry the books around more easily. We can also read the larger print more easily. So many interesting books remain in this world... I'd like to see the good, older book reprinted more often.

I bought the mook-book for the film that I saw yesterday, Always: San-cho-me-no-yuuhi. Nippon TV published it, and they included a pair of red and blue 3D glasses in the back. Solid Eye ought to recall memories of the Shōwa Era now!

Later in the day, Tojin the sound director burst into my work booth. "Director! Can you spare a moment?"

I looked up at him. "What is it? Another problem?"

Tojin wore a huge smile. "I registered my marriage on November 22! That's the day of Ii and Fuufu!" Ii and Fuufu are the old-style Japanese numbers. They have double meanings: Ii means "good," and Fuufu means "married couple."

His face didn't betray any self-consciousness or embarrassment. I could sense the willful pride of man who has taken a wife.

Well then... Ii Fuufu, eh? A good married couple?

Tojin's romance was dramatic from the start. He and his new wife met on top of Mount Fuji, at the eighth and highest checkpoint. She had loved Mount Fuji so much that she chose to live and work in the hut at the top for the summer.

Tojin would climb Mount Fuji just to see her. In other words, Tojin had climbed the whole mountain again every time they shared each other's company. I wonder how many times he climbed Mount Fuji that summer.

One day he realized that he had become an expert at climbing Mount Fuji. He hadn't even paid attention to his growing prowess! He has organized every summer trip up the mountain for the sound team because of his experience. Unfortunately, I had to miss it two years in a row.

I'll never forget the time when he proposed to her.

We had met with some creative staff members from outside the company. Right in front of our guests, Tojin whispered an apology into my ear. "I'm so sorry, but I need to go to the panoramic viewing platform at the Hills. I need to propose to my girlfriend. May I leave now?"

"You're making her wait?" I said. "As cold as it is tonight?"

"Yes, well... I thought about staying here until the end, but...." He was obviously worried about the time.

"You go on," I said. "It's better on the rooftop lookout point, by the way. They've got a heliport up there, and it's much less crowded. It costs five hundred yen to enter."

"Got it."

Everything was so serious that I couldn't keep it to myself. I explained the situation to our guests.

Tojin's spirit and determination had moved them too.

"Hurry on up there!" we yelled, bidding Tojin farewell. It seems as though it happened only yesterday.

It turned out that the rooftop had already closed, but I don't think we need to guess her answer. He's said everything by informing me about Ii Fuufu.

Congratulations, Tojin!

Today I led the MGS4 project meeting in the glass room. Only three of us attended -- Murashu, Rettsu, and myself.

Between the meetings I autographed the placards to send with the Subsistence gifts. These are totally different from signing the MGA2 cards. I have so many presents to send, it's no joke!

I just handled the cards for the Japanese version today. I had only taken care of one-third of the total. It was still some hard work though. Whew!

We received the sample Ghillie suit that we had ordered. We bought it in case we're unable to make one during training.

Toyopy tried it on. He looked like the monster Waiaaru Seijin from Ultraman.

In the evening, I had a small dinner party with Ms. Yamanaka and Ms. Miyamoto, KojiPro's assistants. I occasionally throw them a small party to express my thanks for all their support.

We're able to make good products thanks to them. If game-makers need to present an ordered list of people who deserve thanks, their staff and fellow workers come first, then everyone's families, and then the office assistants. Game-makers ought to recognize themselves last.

Kenichiro is Ms. Miyamoto's supervisor. We four went to a sushi bar in the Roppongi area. I drank a white wine called Sushi Wine, and I got pretty tanked.

I had a couple of sidecars in my Nishi Azabu hideout after that. The Kansai bartender doesn't seem to work there anymore.

I was in a mellow mood, so I turned my thoughts to last night's dream. I felt as though I were forgetting something about it... but I just couldn't remember what. I didn't get anyone's help explaining last night's dream -- no Susan Silverman for me. I decided just to find an answer myself.

If the costume had disappeared, then I should have just bought a new one. I think I got the hint that my dream had left me... "Get a new leather jacket this winter!"

I'll sleep well if I can keep thinking like this.

[crpgaddictreposts]

Game 303: Die Dunkle Dimension (1989)

           Die Dunkle Dimension "The Dark Dimension" Germany German Design Group (developer and publisher) Released in 1989 for Commodore 64 Date Started: 29 August 2018 When I decided my master list would include foreign games, as long as they were in a language I could easily type into a translator, I expected that I'd be translating a two-paragraph backstory, a one-screen ending, and a bunch of repetitive stuff like "you miss the skeleton!" in between. I wasn't counting on games that were so text-heavy, like Antares, Die Drachen von Laas, or Nippon. Now here comes another one, Die Dunkle Dimension ("The Dark Dimension"), in which I accomplished over four hours what would have taken me 35 minutes in an English title. Dunkle is a German Ultima IV clone, and unlike the author of most clones, the developer here did a good job retaining most of what makes Ultima IV so special, including the keyword-based dialogue system, the sense of exploring a large world, and the tactical combat screen. It lacks the virtue system, of course, and you control only one party member throughout the game. Still, it's a better clone than most. The setup even sounds like Ultima IV in its beginning: You, a person in the "real world," decide to take a walk on a warm summer day. You soon stumble upon a crystalline shard in the grass. Picking it up, you quickly learn that it's some kind of portkey, and within a few minutes, you're warped through time and space to another dimension. You splash down into a lake and swim to shore, just avoiding the jaws of a giant serpent. At first, you think you're in the past looking at a dinosaur, but then the dinosaur breathes fire, and you realize you're in another world. (Although: are we sure that dinosaurs didn't breathe fire? That would be pretty rad.) You set out to find out where you are and how to get home.           

Character creation sure has a lot of text to translate.

          Character creation is a simple and unnecessarily wordy process of specifying a name and then identifying a primary attribute from among four choices: strength, skill, wisdom, and charisma (I chose strength). You get to specify a difficulty level (I chose "medium"), and whether you favor attacking or defense (attacking). The game then determines your final attribute scores.

Gameplay begins where the story left off: on the shores of a lake with a serpent lurking nearby. You have to get away from the shore before he closes and attacks.       

Arriving in a new world.

         The interface is much like an Ultima title. Movement is with the bracket-semicolon-apostrophe-slash cluster (on a PC keyboard anyway; their analogues on a C64 are a little different), and actions are performed with single letters, such as (A)ttack, (K)ommunicate, (I)nventory, and (R)eady armor. The specific list varies a little depending on whether you're outside, inside, or in combat. In any event, it's relatively easy to master.            

The game came with a map. I believe the starting area is at the lake slightly southwest of center.

            Near the starting point is a cottage, so naturally I entered it. It turned out to be the home of a druid named Cerfak. Conversation with NPCs proceeds exactly as in Ultima IV except that you only type the first four letters of your keyword. All NPCs respond to NAME (same in both languages), GESUndheit (health), and BERUf (occupation). The rest of their responses are from keywords that they feed you or that other NPCs tell you to ask them. Occasionally, they ask you something that requires a (J)a or (N)ein response. Cerfak was extremely wordy, and he left me terrified that all NPCs would have as much to say. Fortunately, that isn't the case, because it took me almost an hour just to transcribe his conversation. It was important, because it includes a lot about the backstory and quest.

Name: I am Cerfak

Health: I am exhausted. Are you OK?

Yes: I'm happy for you

Job: I am a druid.

Druid: We druids are wise old magicians, but closer to nature than sorcerers. We see, we heal, and we help.

See: I see how evil conquers our world.

Heal: let me heal you (heals me)

Help: Ask what you want to know. I know a lot.

World: Evil has destroyed the balance of our world.

Balance: Are you from another world?

Yes: Once upon a time, our world was beautiful and bright. The people lived in peace and were happy. But the Evil One brought eternal darkness over us, and the creatures of darkness came out of their holes and overflowed the land. The sun will never rise again, because the crystal is broken.

Crystal: The Crystal of Light that kept the balance of our world. Carried by fire and air, it floats above the lava of the great volcano.  But the Evil One struck with all its cruel power, and the crystal shattered. A splinter broke off. The crystal turned black. With it went the sun [thus explaining the game's name]. The splinter broke out of the upper right corner of the crystal. Remember this point! The Evil One built an impregnable fortress in the form of a huge skull around the crystal. There he lurks and sends out doom. The splinter was cast into another dimension. When you touched it, a spell broke and the splinter and you were teleported here. Do you have the splinter?

No: (At least it's not listed in my inventory.) Go and find it; otherwise our world is lost forever. Go northeast. There you will come to the castle of the king. There, they will help you.

Splinter: The crystal and the splinter must be united!

Bye: My prayers go with you.

             The druid has a lot to say.

          The bit about the crystal, shard, lava, and mountain seem to be influenced by The Dark Eye tabletop RPG published by Schmidt Spiele in 1984 (on which the later CRPG Realms of Arkania was based). I don't know the game well enough to determine if the developer of Dunkle took any other inspiration. The character starts with no weapons or armor, and there's no obvious place nearby to obtain any. It's not long before robbers, zombies, forest demons, and goblins come wandering out of the nearby woods and start attacking. Fortunately, the character is capable of beating most of these combatants to death with his bare hands. He takes a large hit point loss doing so, but the druid heals for free.          

Attacking a forest demon in forested terrain. A zombie approaches.

          Combat is again much like Ultima IV. When it begins, the action transitions to a tactical map based on the terrain you were standing on. You can use environmental obstacles to block and funnel enemies. You and enemies exchange turns, and during your turn you can attack, cast a spell, or switch weapons (I naturally have no spells or weapons yet). When hit, enemies progress from barely scratched (kaum angekratzt) to lightly wounded (leicht verletzt), wounded (verwundet), seriously injured (schwer verletzt), fleeing (auf der flucht), and then death. If an enemy successfully flees (which happens to my weaponless character most of the time), you get his gold but no experience points. If you flee, you lose some experience points. Animals provide no experience, which echoes Ultima IV's system by which it was unvirtuous to kill them.

I made some money hanging around the druid's hut, but I noticed my food depleting (you start with 50 rations) and I figured I'd better stake out for a town or the king's castle, as recommended by Cerfak. It took me a few false starts in which I was killed by an accumulation of combats on the way. Fortunately, you can save anywhere outdoors and reload.

          Arriving at the castle.

          The king's castle was a small, one-level structure with about a dozen NPCs. Collectively, they had only about as much text as Cerfak by himself, but it still took a long time to translate. Of course, there was a Chuckles analogue (calling himself a "harlequin") waiting for me in the courtyard. This was his joke:

Q: Do you know the difference between a king and a hippopotamus?

A: The hippopotamus bathes more often!

I'm not sure how that's supposed to be any kind of an insult considering a hippopotamus basically lives in water. I mean, you could bathe twice a day and a hippo would probably still bathe more often than you.

           Chuckles somehow has the power to annoy me across universes.

           Anyway, among the NPCs the king and queen had the most dialogue. King Casiodorus said he'd heard of my exploits even though I haven't done much. After a quick pause, he encouraged me to come back when I had more experience--clearly, I go to him to level up. Between him and the distraught queen, they related that there's a terrible dragon (lindwurm) who lives in the mountains to the east. Twice a year, always at solstice, he gets hungry for human flesh. To avoid him razing the countryside, the nation made a deal with him to supply him with virgins twice a year, their names drawn by lottery from all the eligible young women in the kingdom. Unfortunately, Princess Sheila's name came up in the last drawing and she'll soon have to be sacrificed. The king implored me to find a way to defeat the dragon. Not only is this the plot of 1981's Dragonslayer (in which Peter MacNicol is weirdly miscast as the hero), but the king's name is taken from that film. The forthcoming rescue seems to be what's depicted on the title screen.

          The king introduces himself.

          Torquill, the king's sheriff, also told me to ask the king about a thieving band that lives in a lair called Mubrak. The king is eager to wipe them out. So I left the castle with two quests which may be side quests or somehow related to the main quest.

Other NPCs included Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who had nothing to say; Dakteon the bard, who told me that no one can pronounce the name of the Evil One without burning alive, but that I'd somehow need to do it; Antonius the priest, who admitted that he doesn't believe in God, but "you have to make a living somehow"; and Theodorus the geographer, who asked if I wanted maps of all the game's dungeons and towns and, when I said yes, told me to send money to the German Design Group and gave me the address.

        A random maid asks if I'm there to save the world.

          In a corner, a swordmaster named Ator (from the Italian series of Conan-inspired films) said he could train me when I was more experienced. When you level up, you must get the ability to raise your attributes.

Unfortunately, there was no place to buy weapons or armor in the castle, so I left unsure what to do next. I ultimately made my way back to the familiar territory of the druid's hut, and I'll have to explore outward from there.

         The druid heals me for free as I slowly build my gold and experience around his hut.

         Other notes:

Magic, which I haven't had any chance to investigate yet, is apparently divided into white magic (healing and protection spells) and black magic (damage spells), a division that we'll see later in the German Dragonflight (1990). Casting them requires reagents, just like Ultima IV.

Also making an appearance from Ultima IV are bridge trolls (they have a random chance of attacking when you cross bridges) and patches of swamp that poison the character. 

             Bridge trolls are a little too tough for an unarmed character.

          Enemies can move and attack on the diagonal but you can't. This makes it impossible to outrun enemies.

From the manual's descriptions, horses, ships, and aircraft are due to make appearances.

The king's castle has something you don't find in most RPGs: bathrooms.

         There's even a toilet paper roll holder and a toilet brush.

       The primary author of Die Dunkle Dimension seems to be one Hendrik Belitz, who went by the pseudonyms "Silent Shadow" and "The Dark One." Belitz had a web site dedicated to the game as recently as a few years ago, but he seems to have lost the domain. I was able to retrieve it from the Internet Archive and get the files that were offered on it, including the game manual and map. Scanning the site and the documentation, I found it more than a little irksome that the author didn't provide any credit to Ultima, from which he'd clearly taken so many of the game's concepts. I never criticize clones for being clones, but I sure do criticize them for not acknowledging that they're clones. We'll talk more about the author, company, and legacy of the game in the final entry.

I'm nowhere near having translated the entire manual yet; I'm just consulting bits and pieces as I need it. This one seems like it's going to be slow-going but perhaps enjoyable in its own way.

source http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2018/09/game-303-die-dunkle-dimension-1989.html

[painterofthe-sun]

Topic: Ammy's Relationship with Waka (here's your reminder!)

send me a topic to write a meta about my muse on

   { Ah, thank you!! Sorta forgot about it last night, but at least I can write about it now thanks to this... So without further delay, let’s here me ramble about Waka and Ammy... }

          So, to start, I actually want to talk really quick about my first impression of Waka when watching Chugga’s LP... Mostly cause I feel it’s fairly important as a piece of his character? In a way? Hopefully you’ll see what I mean in a moment, aha.

         When I first watched the game, I honestly had no idea about Waka. Was he a good guy? He seemed so...suspicious, though!! Sure, he gave helpful prophecies, but he also got ahead of the duo to get the Serpent’s Crystal, watched them fight on a handful of occasions without lifting a finger... He purified a whole part of Ryoshima Coast on his own! He could’ve done that the whole time!!!!         I did like Waka, but I was DEFINITELY suspicious of his whole character first playthrough.

         And you know? That does say a lot about him, right there. To the first impression, without knowing anything about his character’s backstory and thinking more of his character, it’s hard to learn of Waka’s alignment. He flits here and there on what seems to be his own time; does things as he sees fit and lends a helping hand to the goddess on occasion. In the end, his questionable alignment does favor more towards the goddess, but I feel like that wasn’t 100% shown til the end of the game... Which was a pretty amazing reveal for me, at the time.

         Wanted to bring this up for it really speaks to his character...from before to then. (Though oops, gonna have to enter HC territory here for a moment.)         Where the Waka in-game is shown to skirt around issues (since Ammy doesn’t remember everything and the player needs to be walked down that route, as well), flit in and out, and generally play “big mystery”... I like to believe that before that, Waka was an open and bright character. Well, as open as a lunar prophet in the preference of a goddess could get, I suppose~

         One has to consider that current Waka bears so much guilt over what he believes that it’s altered who he was. 300 years of residing on the mortal plain to escape demons and imps who still want him dead on behalf of their leader, responsible for the death of the Moon Tribe and now murderer of nearly the entire Celestial race. He lived with that burden for 300 years. I can’t hammer that home enough.         So.... I suppose I’ll move along and actually tie this in to what I’m gearing for when talking about Ammy and Waka’s relationship. What does it mean, all of these things I’ve written about Waka?

         Remember, Amaterasu has lost her memory. Shiranui is but a vague memory to her, her life as a goddess what feels like ages away. She’s not as new to this whole “fighting evil” thing as the player is, but with her loss of brush powers, she might as well be.         Despite all of this, you still see Ammy’s unfailing belief in Waka. He says a prophecy and she tucks it away for later. Aside from their battles, she’s calm around him. He even knows her well enough to point out both Amaterasu and Queen Himiko knew what had to be done; they both understood that to succeed in getting to Oni Island, Himiko must die.

         Even after hundreds of years apart (for it seems obvious that Waka hadn’t been able to meet up with Shiranui; he only got to visit the statue and soothe the soul within with the sound of his flute), there’s still a trust between them. Even with an amnesiac Ammy!

         It just goes to show how deep their bond runs. That Ammy will stand by Waka’s words no matter what, even not quite remembering everything...for I like to believe even she knows how much she used to.

         Again, back into headcanon territory, but... Whenever I personally think of the two back on the Plains, it seems that they’ve likely known each other for far longer than the game tells. Our main hint to that being Waka escaping the fall of the Lunarians back on the moon on the Ark of Yamato. Evil slept within, unknown to Waka or anyone else... So it sounds to me that he would’ve stayed awhile on the Plains before Orochi’s attack and the downfall of the Celestials would’ve started.         So they know each other incredibly well (if not extremely so) and certainly had some time to get to do so; and this isn’t even counting the potential times when he might have visited as the Moon Tribe’s prophet! (For who’s to say that he didn’t take trips to the Plains with the other Lunarians?)

         ...I feel like I’m rambling and going here and there quite a bit, so lemme try to solidify my ramblings into something more coherent....         The bond that Waka and Amaterasu share... If you thought the one she had with Issun was sweet for their short time together, then please, PLEASE consider Amaterasu and Waka’s own. Whether you ship it or not, they are incredibly close, to a point few get with anyone...and I doubt shall ever be rivaled by another for any of them.

         Waka has someone who believed in him with such entirety, she- the Goddess of the Sun- tossed her physical form away TWICE (once falling to earth with Orochi, again as Shiranui) in utter belief of his prophecies. Even as an amnesiac, she trusted him near completely... Likely something that grew in strength once more as the journey continued. Where Waka believes of his downfall, his failure to the Great Goddess’ people and she herself.... Amaterasu doesn’t see the same; they’ve told her so and she herself never blamed him. It seems to show well enough that despite her weakness in the final battle, losing Waka pushed her to get up and begin fighting. Not only for Nippon, not only to get her powers back...but for Waka’s “sacrifice,” as well.

         Even with all of this rambling, I feel like I’ve barely even expressed it all. How much those two just...fall into place with each other without words. How it seems they could have an entire conversation without words. How I constantly imagine Waka trying to figure out why the Great Sun Goddess still looks upon him so favorably; him, the one who couldn’t save a soul of the people she so dearly cared about. How she listens to his words and believes them without a doubt. For it’s not that he could ever be wrong, but she has such a belief in them that he still can’t quite understand it. And yet, she looks at him and to her, it’s much like he is to sunlight like she is the sun, even though he is more associated with the moon; it tends to be the blonde hair that makes her think of such. (Can I also offer a blast to the past, where my Ammy once called a Waka her “moon angel”? Cause I think that’s a nice tidbit to add to that.)

         ....But I think this suffices enough, no~?

[ciathyzareposts]

Nippon Safes Inc. – Get smart (Won)

Written by Torch

I ended the previous post on a slightly slow-moving note, if I can call it that. For the umpteenth time, I needed to find 100 yen for a metro ticket. While I didn’t flag that post as a request for assistance, I nevertheless found myself unable to obtain the necessary funds for the duration of my next play session. So I went ahead and sneakily requested some hints in the comments section, and luckily, Vetinari yet again came to my aid. I’m not sure what to think about the solution to the problem, but at least it again confirms my theory that the game interface is doing its utmost to fool me at every opportunity

Consider the following screenshot

Looks like we’ve got ourselves a Mexican standoff. Only I don’t see any Mexicans

This is a screen I’ve visited frequently. The gentlemen pictured here are passers-by that randomly cross the screen in a set pattern. Not once in the game so far has there been any indication that these men could be interacted with. Not until I suddenly come carrying a hat. A hat that I acquired by accidentally pushing a guy off the top of a very high building.

Well, that’s about to pay off in a big way, because I can now use the hat to…. wait for it… beg for alms from one of the men….

Oh no, I couldn’t. It would ruin your suit

Yes, if I squint really hard, I can sort of see the game developers’ logic here, but why did I need the hat? Couldn’t I just talk to the guy and ask him for money? And why oh why couldn’t the game at least let me know sometime in advance that it might be able to interact with this guy at some point? Like “look”-ing at him and getting a “Looks like a rich businessman on his way to work” or something similar. It’s really annoying trying to figure this stuff out when you’re convinced they’re just part of the scenery.

Sigh, let’s at least hope it’s the last time I’m fooled like this. Rant closed. Moving on.

100 yen in pocket, I can now buy a metro ticket to Subu. Oh, by the way, as I receive the money, I get a new copy protection question, asking how long the city’s railway is. I find the answer in the manual and move on. After a short metro ride, I end up at Subu, where I’ve also been before.

It’s like deja vu all over again.

On the right we see Doug’s pachinko hut, and on the left is Donna’s beauty salon. This time, however, we’re going to Sento baths. I have a flyer for Sento, but it doesn’t seem to be a coupon or anything, so I probably won’t be walking out of there after my visit with a basket full of soaps.

As I enter, I find myself (or Dino’s self ) in a small waiting room of sorts. Attached to the door is a large gong, and Dino exclaims that one would have to be a Hercules to be able to use it. Well, he IS sort of a (stupider) Hercules, and he hasn’t punched anything since he ate those beans in the previous post, and – to jog your memory – Dino gets strong(er) from eating beans. So I punch the gong.

Seems like a mallet would be easier. How do beanless people get in?

And the door opens. Inside I see a lone man in a jacuzzi. The cursor identifies him as Mr. Y.

Thanks, but I only know that one song. The one that goes “GONNNNNNNNNG”

By talking to the guy, everything sorts itself out. He approves of Dino fighting Futotta, and tells me to go back to the arena and tell them that “The Sento man said yes”. So… no written statement or anything…? Well, ok.

Another two metro rides ( why can’t I go directly from one station to another without going through the main district? ) and I’m back at Kinza, where I talk to the aptly named “sumo man” again. After a short conversation in which Dino needs a couple of tries to remember what he was supposed to say, I’m allowed to wrestle. There’s only the small matter of a contract.

19%? But I know Donna gets all 50 000 yen. How does that compute?

Seems fair

Dino agrees to sign the contract, but as I already know from Doug’s chapter, there’s the issue of Dino not being heavy enough.

I wonder what 12 kilos of beans would do for Dino’s punching capacity

As I leave the arena, I bump into Doug (as expected), and the exchange goes the same as last time.

150 – 138 = 10 ( Well, it’s Dino )

In case you don’t remember, Doug needs a ticket for the match and promises to help Dino with the weight problem if he can get one. Ok, great. Now, to get Doug to uphold his end of the deal from this point, I needed to:

Travel to main district

Use a wrench to disassemble a radio at Doug’s house to get a speakermagnetthingy

Trade the wrench for a jar at honest Chan’s

Travel to Subu and enter the Pachinko house

Play the pachinko game, using the speakermagnetthingy to win a bunch of tiny balls

Put the balls in the jar to see how many it can hold

Travel back to the main district

Go to the restaurant in the park and enter it

Talk to the chef to “guess” how many balls are in the competition jar to win a voucher for free food

Travel back to Kinza and give the voucher to Dino.

And that’s if I had known in advance exactly what to do, and didn’t have to mess around.

Now, for Dino:

Enter Arena – Pick up ticket – Exit Arena

Looking back at the amount of frustration this game has caused me, I guess I shouldn’t complain when things are easy. As you know, I now have a voucher for an “all you can eat”-meal at the Kaizen-Sushi restaurant in the park, so I hop on the metro and get there in a jiffy ( do people still say jiffy? ). What happens at the restaurant though, is slightly anti-climactic.

Because.. onions

Right after entering the restaurant, Dino comes back out again, and the whole thing is apparently done. No eating animation or anything… Meh… But ok. I still have something to look forward to. Due to the order of the chapters, I’ve felt that the game has been building towards the sumo wrestling match. We’ve had sexcapades, overeating, jar ball guessing, etc. all in order to get this fight of the century to happen, so there had better be some serious payoff now.

I travel back to Kinza and enter the arena building, ready to witness this clash of titans. Will there be puzzles to solve or an action sequence to master in order to win the match?

It’s like that movie “Click” with Adam Sandler, only they skip the good parts

Or will the whole thing be over in 1 second with no graphical depiction of how this went down?!?!

This is seriously disappointing. Like at the restaurant, right after entering the venue, Dino comes back out, having won the fight, and Donna’s outside waiting for him. They just… skipped over the whole event. Groan….. We never even got to see Buta Futotta.

19% manager fee or not, Dino gives 50 000 yen to Donna, and the rest is history. Or rather herstory ( sorry ). Which means that Dino is pretty much done with what he set out to do.

The end. Thanks for reading…

… but wait. A familiar face suddenly shows up

Well at least one of us saw the match

It’s Dr. WooKi! He serves up a story about being from the Secret Service, and he needs Dino to steal a rare element from Mitsushita technologies. I guess the real mission is about to begin.

I head towards the Mitsushita office, which is where Dino first tried to apply for a job in his intro segment. On the way there, however, I notice a new item hanging on the newspaper seller’s booth. It’s…. A newspaper! I pick it up and read it.

Apparently the newspaper seller is so caught up in his metro ticket business that he forgot to charge for the newspaper

After knowing about the volunteer applications, I can now get into Mitsushita offices

Yes. I’m volunteering to…. steal stuff from you! *snigger*

Inside a quite garish looking reception area, I’m greeted by a receptionist who calls for a Dr. Buoz.

Maybe you should experiment on making a carpet cleaning device instead

He leads me in to a lab of sorts, where he and some guy who looks like Albert Einstein want to ask me some questions.

Please let the answer be “E=MC²”?

The questions are fairly simple, ranging from what’s 5×7 to what was the color of Napoleon’s white horse. On each question, I can choose the correct answer, a wrong answer, and a way off answer. If I answer them all correctly, they tell me I’m not stupid enough, so I can’t join the experiment, and I’m subsequently evicted from the premises. If I answer everything incorrectly, I’m apparently too stupid, and will also need to leave. Every time I fail, I can enter the building for a new attempt, as if nothing happened, so it’s just a matter of experimenting.

I end up answering the question “What’s your name” correctly, and everything else wrong, and they’re finally happy. They bring me in to another room and hook me up to a machine.

Um.. something something… cereal simulator. Got it.

They have a theory that the IQ of an individual is closely related to the electrical conductivity of his neuron synapses, and that by giving Dino’s head an electrical shock, they can increase this conductivity, thus increasing his brain capacity. Seems legit. And to top it off, the chance of failure is lower than 70%. If only more people knew.

At this point all I can do is watch them send a bolt of electricity into Dino’s head. After it’s done, the good doctor wants to know how he feels.

Sounds impressive, but it’s mostly due to the glasses

They seem happy with the results, and administer another “IQ test”, or as I like to call it, a quiz.

How does this help you to determine IQ?

There are a couple of math questions as well, but they’re also in the “either you know or you don’t”-category. Like “What’s the formula of Coulomb attraction?” ( I had to google it ). Contrary to the previous quiz, where I was evicted and had to come back to try again, this section just loops until I’ve answered all the questions correctly. By default, Dino guesses wrong on the last question, so the scientists determine that the machine is unstable, and want to keep Dino for a couple of days, for observation.

I’m moved to the previous examination room, where I’m now free to examine stuff (as one does). The room contains a computer, a printer and several drawers full of floppy disks. I can insert the disks into the computer ( after which they mysteriously disappear ). Most of them contain unspecified experiment results, but one contains some of developer Max’s adult entertainment:

But look at the size of those pixels!

One disk contains a Cray emulator. Cray was a line of supercomputers, starting with the 64-bit 80MHz Cray-1 in 1976. When I look at the computer in the lab, Dino says it’s an Oric-1. Ok ok, nothing out of the ordinary here, right? Wrong! The Oric-1 was a cheap 8-bit 1MHz machine, and would probably pass out from just being in the vicinity of the Cray. And that’s not even taking into account the newer models that would have existed in 1992! Pfft! Cray Emulator…

Anyway, there’s also a disk labeled “Copy Nippon Safes Inc.” This naturally won’t work in the computer, because it’s a pirate copy. And those never work. Ever. The last labeled disk is um.. labeled “COBOL compiler”.

The 4 labeled disks don’t disappear, but they also don’t produce any results when inserted. But then I noticed I can pick up the printer cable, and next to the door is a loose panel, that can be removed. Behind the panel I see what must be a parallel port, since I can actually plug the printer cable into it, thus connecting the panel to the computer. I can now insert the COBOL compiler disk, and Dino will write a COBOL program that opens the door. That’s what a little electricity through the brain can do for you, kids! It can put knowledge into your brain, that’s what.

The door opens and I can enter the reception area again. Rummaging through the filing cabinet, I find no files, but rather a flower pot, some fennel, a pack of spaghetti and a sack of bean seeds ( I think I can guess where this is going )

Hope they’re not has-beans

I go left again and find myself back in the electric chair room. The scientists are still nowhere to be seen.

Just about everything in this room looks dangerous in some way

I can remove a grid from the left door, marked “lab”, creating an opening too small to go through, and I also can’t reach anything inside. There’s a faucet to the right of the chair, that doesn’t register on a plain mouseover, but can be used to fill my flower pot with some sort of radioactive looking green goo.

I wonder if we can make a flying spaghetti monster

The contraption on the left wall hides a robot that chases me when I push a button that I can’t really make out, but that shows up on a mouseover.

What’s with the smiley face? Is that supposed to be scary?

At first, I run out of the room, and come back to see him back in his place, but after a few tries I realize I don’t have to react at all. He’ll just move back to his spot after a short while. I try to reach whatever’s behind him, but Dino moves a little bit automatically when the robot is activated, and I don’t have time to get behind him before he moves back.

Eventually, I discover another switch above the door, that turns on something in the chamber on the right, making it glow green. It’s called a reducer. When I click it, Dino goes in and gets shrunk. Like proper Alice in Wonderland-stuff. Walking around like this, he’s suddenly small enough to go through the whole in the door

How can you be re-duced if you’ve never been duced to begin with? Yes, I’m running out of caption ideas

At this point, I encounter a bug. If I click the lab door while standing in the green area, Dino does a weird graphic bug thing and teleports to the a bit outside the playing area at the bottom of the screen, and I can’t move him anymore. I find no other solution than to reload. The next time, I make sure to leave the green area first.

Reducer and dissolver, actually

That last caption totally floored me

On the other side of the lab door, Dino automatically goes back to normal size. (I don’t know if that’s with or without the 12 kilos he had to gain to become a sumo wrestler.)

There’s some sort of weird water tank or something inside. Trying all my items at random, I find that I can plant the bean seeds in what appears to be soil at the bottom of the tank.

What has bean seed, cannot be unseed

Since not much happens after that, I try pouring my pot of goo on the whole shebang, and a tree rapidly grows before my eyes, sprouting a superbean. I kid you not. Just look:

Would you REALLY eat this?

The lab door opens from the inside, and after eating the superbean, I gain the by now customary punch action. After activating the sentry robot again, I now have the beans… sorry, means to incapacitate it

Recognize THIS!

The robot shuts down again, and I’m free to pick up whatever’s behind him. Which turns out to be the object I was sent here to retrieve, a magnet. Having fulfilled my mission, I leave the building, and…

Plants vs. dummies

And that concludes Dino’s chapter. Now this would’ve been a good time to stop if not for the fact that the “great” part of the “great final” clearly isn’t referring to its length.

The end is near, I promise. Let’s press on and get through this last stretch together.

But what if we’re expecting you to kill us?

Seems like the good dr. WooKi isn’t so good after all. Who’d have guessed? He thinks our heroes know too much ( debatable ), so he’ll have to get rid of them. But as any good villain knows, you can’t kill heroes without first antagonizing them with a boring monologue, where you provide a detailed explanation of your sinister plot.

Whaaaaa…?

Nippon safes inc. Now where have I heard that name before?

Ok, history lesson time. Nippon Safes inc. used to be one of the most famous safe companies in the world, and rich guys would come from all over the world to put their bling in them. WooKi’s partner was the real genius behind the safes, but one day he disappeared, and business went downhill. WooKi was a sort of business manager in the company, so he got in trouble when the safe creator was no longer with them.

But one day WooKi found a letter from his partner, detailing how to discover a safe containing a book with all his secret. It would allow the reader to open all safes built by the creator ( sounds terribly unsafe to me ). To open this safe, one would need three keys, each hidden inside a special item. Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you might guess that these items are the ones our three protagonists have sacrificed hours of my time to obtain.

After the rant is over, I gain control over the evil doctor. The safe door has 3 holes, and I have 3 items. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to issue a request for assistance to this puzzle.

So the Buddha shaped peg goes in the… sword shaped hole..? No, that’s not right

After putting all objects in their right place.. Wait, weren’t the keys supposed to be hidden inside the items? Oh whatever….

I still don’t think I’ve been told the name of this guy

The recording of the dead partner concedes that WooKi must be the smarter man, since he managed to find the safe and open it, that he holds no grudge, and that WooKi is truly deserving of the book. All that remains is for him to go in and grab it. Come on now. Don’t be scared. Go get your prize

Psych!

Mr. creator devoted his life to protecting honest people(‘s valuables – my edit), and he was certainly not about to help a thief like Dr. WooKi. Then the whole safe/trap falls down into a lava pit, uncovering a cleverly placed reminder of what game I’m actually playing. In case I’d forgotten.

Obvious product placement

After some light banter, Doug and Donna discover that Dino’s hands aren’t tied. The dr. apparently forgot, but Dino didn’t want to interrupt the story. Cute. We get some reminiscing about what our guys have been through. Doug’s going back to cracking safes, now that Nippon safes inc. has gone bankrupt. Donna has a marriage proposal to reconsider ( just.. don’t ), and Dino can’t remember how he got here.

Finally, all line up and smile for the camera. And end with a joke

Oh, that Dino

Ok, I guess we’re done…. But wait!

Sequel!

Ok, now we’re done. For everyone who made it through to the end, I appreciate it. Now I need to go back and think long and hard about how to rate this game.

Time played: 18h 40m

Tioko/Tyoko mentions (accumulated) Tioko: 13 Tyoko: 13 ( No way! )

Inventory: Well, nothing really, since I used all three items in the last section

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/nippon-safes-inc-get-smart-won/

[ciathyzareposts]

Nippon Safes Inc. – Been there, Donna that (Request for assistance)

Written by Torch

The perceptive reader will know that in my previous post, I finished Doug’s chapter. It ended with him being knocked out by a mysterious stranger as soon as he’d escaped with the Jade Buddha he was assigned to steal from the Saku-Rambo monastery.

This means that it’s time to pick a new character to play. And for the very good reason of “why not?” I picked Donna Fatale, whose most important character trait – as we learned from the intro – is being sexy.

Yes, this is the game’s description of Donna

She played a tiny part in Doug’s chapter, as a woman in need, who would gladly repay favours with a kiss. Hey Nippon Safes Inc! The 90’s called and wanted its stereotypes back! Oh, wait, this game IS from the 90’s. Never mind, then. Let’s find out what passed for appropriate female protagonist behavior back in 1992.

Before I get underway, I figured that having gotten through Doug’s chapter relatively unscathed, I was well prepared for whatever Donna could throw at me. Well, maybe I was, but I still managed to get myself stuck. Both literally and figuratively. But let’s start from the beginning.

Donna’s chapter begins outside the prison, as Doug’s did. Despite claiming that the prison guard is a good friend, he refuses to call her a taxi, which pretty much leaves me in the same situation as Doug, where I need to get transportation to the city. I have a feeling that I won’t be hotwiring phone booths using soda can tabs, though.

Um, I’m pretty sure driving a taxi is a type of service

Hah!

Well, let’s check out our options. I can access the same stretches of the highway as in the previous chapter, but all the trash cans are empty this time. I do find a jar of mustard in the “Last food” shack, and for some reason Donna has no problem ripping the “Tyoko” road sign from its post and adding it to the inventory.

So what can you do with a road sign? My initial thoughts are to play the hitchhiking game, hold up the sign, and hope that one of the cars passing by will stop to pick me up. I have no idea HOW to do this, though. It doesn’t seem like it’s possible to interact with the cars, although I’ve been fooled by that before. On the screen with the phone booth, it’s possible to interact with the road itself, but not when I select the road sign. Maybe I could put mustard on it, and …no, that’s just silly. Anyway, no cars seem to be passing by this particular stretch of the road. Maybe there’s a portal on each side…

I eventually stumble upon the solution, and this is definitely going on the list of stuff that annoys me about the interface. You see, if I select the sign, and mouse over a car heading east (where the city is), it says “Ask for a lift”, BUT THIS ONLY WORKS ON ONE SINGLE SCREEN. Several other screens have cars going both east and west, but in those others, the cars are non-interactable. There’s otherwise nothing special about this screen, to indicate that this is where one should be standing to be able to hitch a ride.

Well of course you wouldn’t be able to hitchhike without those trees in the background. They make all the difference.

Well, with that out of the way, I wave my sign ( and I don’t know what else ) around, and a car pulls over. The driver agrees to give Donna a ride to the city.

Ok, thanks. But I’m not playing monopoly with you.

I arrive on a similar stretch of highway, just outside Ti/yko, and the first thing I try is to pick up a road sign pointing towards the prison. Which works. Curious as to whether it’s possible to return to the prison the same way, I try to stop a westbound car, which also works. Aaaand it’s the same driver that pulls over. In a different car.

Nothing suspicious going on here, no siree.

Back at the prison, the road sign is back again, so I repeat the whole process to find myself back outside the city. Way to pad playtime. Anyway, now I know that I can return to the prison if necessary.

Ok, back in the city I head straight to the Hot Sushi, where Dr. WooKi is waiting for me. As with Doug, he wants Donna to find a valuable item. In this case it’s a sword, more specifically the “Katana shinjuku”. I’ve heard about this before, in Doug’s chapter, where I helped retrieve a key for Donna in return for a letter of introduction to the monks in the monastery. The sword is in the possession of the emperor, as we also learned in the previous chapter.

Now why would Donna do this? Well, Donna has a dream about dancing on “Breadway”. Normally, I would think this is a play on Broadway, but when it comes to this game, I’m not so sure. It could just be yet another typo. Although they also mention “HollyWould”, so maybe I should give the translators the benefit of the doubt, for once. Anyway, the (probably not-so) good doctor claims to have contacts in the industry, and promises to help Donna get her showbiz career started if she brings him the sword.

Ok, so I’ll steal a valuable artifact from the emperor of Japan, and you’ll “ring a few friends”. Seems fair.

Donna is clearly desperate to get a foot in the stage door, because she agrees. Alrighty, I guess we’re officially on a new quest.

Before I leave, I check in with our friends Max & Kos, the game developers turned in-game characters that have taken up permanent residence at the club. Thinking they might point me in the right direction to get started searching for the sword, instead Donna asks them to lend her some money. They’re not the types to give out stuff for free, but promise me a tip if I bring them some hot dogs. Guess I’ll have to find a hot dog vendor. Oh, and they tell me not to forget mustard. So I’ll have some use for the mustard from the worn-down shack by the prison, that’s probably been standing out in the sun for months, if not years on end. Yummy. Since I don’t have any money to buy hot dogs with, they give me 500 yen.

I don’t find any hot dog vendors in the city, so I head towards the park. But on the way there:

At least their intercom is more modern than the one at the monastery

When I entered this screen with Doug, there was no hint whatsoever that this place had any special meaning besides being a fancy backdrop. This time I get a proper introduction. I guess this means that the house will play a larger part in Donna’s story. Which makes sense, since it’s the emperor’s residence, and I’m here to steal his sword.

The note on the gate says they’re looking for a new maid. I can use the intercom to call the staff or whatever, and ask about the vacancy. One of the criteria for getting the job is to be able to make tea. And probably not just any tea, but a super duper special traditional japanese emperor tea. Or something. And Donna does not seem to be sure she can satisfy that particular requirement

What exactly was your current profession again, Donna?

So I probably need to figure out how to make tea. Noted. Moving on to the park, I whip out the map I made for the previous chapter. The layout is still the same, but the punks are gone, and I find a saw hanging from a tree

Did you saw what I saw?

And tadaa! A hot dog vendor

Is everybody here named Chan?

Hot dogs are 250 yen a piece with mustard and 225 yen without. Since I have mustard, I get the ones without, leaving me with 50 yen to spare, then return to the Hot sushi, where I find myself unable to combine the mustard with the hot dogs…. It’s the same issue as before. I select the mustard, causing the inventory to close, then right-click to bring the inventory up again, only to see the cursor return to the default no-mustard-holding red arrow.

Maybe I was supposed to buy them with mustard anyway? Maybe Donna has the strength to steal road signs but not open mustard jars? I return to the hot dog vendor, but no. He’s out of mustard… I try several more times to mustardize the hot dogs, and suddenly they combine. It’s possible that the answer was to select the hot dogs first, then the mustard. Though I’m sure that yielded inconsistent results as well.

Ok, whatever, back to the Hot sushi. I deliver the hot dogs and get 50 yen for my trouble. With the other 50 left over from the buying mustardless sausages, I now have 100 yen, which is the price of an underground ticket. But to where?

You may have noticed some seemingly random people wandering around, among them a geisha. In Doug’s chapter she only appeared on the screen outside the Hot Sushi, where you could actually talk to her, but here she also appears on the screen with the newspaper/underground ticket vendor. I suddenly noticed that – unlike Doug – Donna can address her on this screen as well. I can only ask her about the time, and…. If she can point me in the direction of a tea house

You must be a hands-off type manager

One ticket purchase and a quick train trip later

No way she could have beaten me here!

When I talk to her here, Donna expresses a desire to enroll in a tea brewing class. Raise your hands if you thought it’d be that easy! Nobody? Good. Apparently there are 172 different types of traditional tea, each with its own special procedure for brewing. And I don’t know which type to learn. How about just learning them all?

Also the courses take place in the quantum realm, so you won’t have to spend any actual time attending them

Oh where would I get 50,000c? ( I presume they mean yen. Pointing out spelling errors in this game has become the equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel. Unless “c” also actually means yen. In which case, sorry (not sorry), game ). What did the poster on the sumo wrestling area wall say again..?

Oh what a coincidence.

Just as I read the poster, Dino comes walking in. We know from Doug’s chapter that he’s looking to enter the wrestling competition, but it seems what happens here precedes the interaction with Doug.

Oh no, Donna! What about your scruples?

Oh right

Our sexy chap makes up a story about a sick mother that needs money for an operation ( money surgery, perhaps? ). Dino buys it and agrees to enter the wrestling match to win the money for Donna. But he’s afraid the great Buta Futtota won’t accept him as a challenger. Well, Donna is confident she can take care of it. Which means I have to take care of it. And I don’t know how. 

Well, let’s head back to the main district, and see if anything’s changed there.

Walking around, I try visiting Doug’s apartment. It’s closed but the pile of junk outside is suddenly searchable, and I find a…. well, the game calls it a “bowl”, but it’s more like a perfume bottle. It’s empty, but it used to contain a perfume called “Vice”, which happens to be Donna’s favourite. How fitting. Oh, and the department store is finally open. 

Why do you have to place the heaviest objects on the top floor? 

I’m not sure what to do in there though. There are a lot of different items to look at, too many to describe really, but I can’t pick up anything.

Please comment if you have any idea what kind of product this is supposed to be

I do notice that they have the “Vice” perfume here, so I consider trying an Indiana Jones-style swap with my empty bottle for a new one, but I can’t interact with them in any way besides looking. I run around in here until I manage to get stuck on an escalator, so that I have to reload an older save. Way older, in fact. I discover that I hadn’t saved since before I went to Kinza district to visit tea lady.

Retracing isn’t too bad when you know exactly what to do, though. After I come back from Kinza, I notice there’s an interactable magazine on the wall of the newspaper stand. It’s a story about the wrestler

I don’t know about you, but I would NOT stay at a place called “Eternal rest”. At least not without a fresh batch of garlic and holy water.

So my next goal should be to go to the Tozaiku district to convince Buta Futtota to fight Dino, so he can win me 50 000 yen, so I can learn how to brew 172 types of tea, so I can get a job at the emperor’s residence, so I can steal his sword. Where else but in an adventure game?

But first I need to find another 100 yen for an underground ticket, and that’s currently where my journey has come to a grinding halt. I tried sawing down the second parking meter, I tried trading in my Kinza ticket again, sawing the hot dog vendor, trading in the saw at honest Chan’s. In general, I’ve tried a lot of things involving the saw.

Maybe I’m supposed to do something on one screen that’s only possible on that single screen and not on any one of seven other similar ones, but I’m a bit tired of brute forcing the game at this point, so I’d like to reach out to you commenters and request a hint or two. If you’re able to provide assistance, please put it in ROT13, and if possible, maybe start with a subtle hint, instead of spelling out the whole solution at once.

Time played 9h40m Tioko/Tyoko mentions Tioko: 10 Tyoko: 7 Inventory saw, Kinza ticket, empty perfume bottle

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/nippon-safes-inc-been-there-donna-that-request-for-assistance/