#not to mention that i have 0 clue where the original version of the game is. i found something calling itself the official version but

[spectruff]

checked out that sprunki thing, i don't really get how it has a fanbase? sure the designs are kinda cute, but it's one of the most barebones forms of "cute thing becomes FUCKED UP and SCARY" that i've ever seen. there's also not much scare factor outside of there being simplified gore and the music changing. 2/10

i have nothing against the dev, however, because it's probably the most they could really do with a mod for a music game. they seem to have potential, and i hope they can make better stuff in the future. i'm rooting for them

[synthshenanigans]

I'm curious as to peoples idea for what he'd do for the next power hour so

[These all being popular ideas or ppl he's mentioned]

This was all just a ploy to get you to read my info dump theory on the concept of a Chonny Jash Power Hour loser HAHAHA

Im joking tho. Not about my CJPH theory, that is very much real but I'm not forcing you to read it lol

However if you're curious, my inane rambles are further down :}

[Long Rant Post Below]

Okay so I'm gonna start with the basic idea I got it from; that being Nerd. Nerd already foreshadowed the THDPH & the WWPH [Even down to the last song for each of them] Not only that, but he references the stuff hes done in the past as well with a break/pause inbetween.

[This is what I mean]

The first three being all stuff he already did. BDG with Pocket, Tally Hall with Vol.1 & then Cage by Tim Minchin being the start the power hours.

The next two being the power hours he would do after this song [Memento Mori & Charlie's Inferno-Will Wood & That Handsome Devil]. But those are the only songs he would reference in Nerd, leaving no more clues as to what the last one would be. The only thing left in it is the video game references & Stairway to Heaven in the ending. [Which oddly enough also fit the pattern in a way. StH being about dying and the afterlife like Memento Mori & Chonny's Inferno and the video game references being all covers he made on his old channel]

While the VG refs could be a hint at a Videogame or Toby Fox Power Hour, I think at most, if its a clue at all, hinting at the next thing he does is recovering old songs.

----

Next, a couple of his songs reference his past stuff. Fine, I'm Fine has a good amount of lines that vaguely refer back to songs from the before [heres a post that goes more into it that's pretty cool!!]. And more importantly Dear Machine references Pocket, Dream (Outro from Calamity) & wings of wax. Pocket being later used in Nerd & the mention of Icarus coming back in Art. Not only that, but the voice in the very end Thermodynamic Lawyer is the exact same [if not very close to] voice filter/effect he uses in Dear Machine. Even down to the British accent he does in it. [Tho it is fairly normal for a music artist to reference their older songs in their music so it could be nothing]

Speaking of Dear Machine tho, quick thing to add about it is that it shows he not against covering his own songs. While yea technically its just a different version of Ode of the Cog, DM,HtC in a way counts as a cover of OotC. Same goes for bargaining/compromise & The Ballad of Dr. Jekyll.

----

Another idea with a CJPH is that in the CJFS discord theres a "Question of the Day" Channel. Where, as the name says, a Mod or Helper will ask a CJ related question & everyone can give their idea/imput on it. For Day 100, as a special fun lil thing, they asked Chonny if he wanted to give a question for that day. His question being:

And yes he does say that he doesnt plan on doing anything like that in future [if he even were to do it]. I fully believe he wasn't lying there & honestly I never saw him redoing any song ever until I had the idea of a CJPH [aside from stuff like Spring and a Storm & Storm and a Spring obviously]. But this is the best idea I could ever see him doing that. Also that question was from early August so a fair amount of time has passed. Whether thats enough time to equal "at least in the near future at all" I have no clue, but it is a thought.

----

One of my last points [that I remember atm lol] is on how he would end the power hours. Cos like, while yea he does whatever he wants & doesn't rlly follow what anyone says or asks [which I 100% agree with & is completely valid btw], I'd imagine he'd still want to end the PHs with a bang. Which is why I originally didnt think the recent one would be Will Wood.

He's stated a couple of time that hes one of his favorite artist & he definitely knows that a huge chunk of his fan base listen to WW as well. So why not end with that? Why not end with one of the most requested artist people wanted him to cover? Why wouldn't he end with a power hour of the artist that was his #1 on his Spotify Wrapped? What else could he do after that? Well maybe he'd go with his #2 artist? WHICH IS JUST HIMSELF BBYYYY

Plus, the name Power Hour already comes from this:

So it's very likely he's had himself play multiple times in a row & had a "Chonny Jash Power Hour".

Of course theories are just theories so there's always the chance I'm wrong & just insane. And again he does whatever he wants whenever he wants so who knows what it'll be. I just think id be an interesting idea for him to do.

As for how a Chonny Jash Power Hour would look? Maybe each song being a cover of a song from a past album or single? I'd imagine one from the before. & Covered in Discontent [maybe Gothic Whore?]. Like remake Pocket since its been referenced so much, tho that's still just a BDG cover so who knows. the before. would be interesting just to see how his perspective has changed since he originally wrote those songs. Gothic Whore he already has 2 songs that have a story version & a him version so I can see him doing another.

I HIGHLY doubt he'd do anything related to Vol.1 as its his completely separate thing & he doesn't rlly wanna touch any song that's TH/HMS related until whenever he feels like starting Vol.2 [which is valid lol]. If anything I could maybe see like TWWAY, Special or maybe Greener? Or go a different route with the og I'm Gonna Win or like a more outta the box one with like Just a Friend [only cos be did a 20 second "cover" of it in Mucka Blucka]. Again, I do not see him touching anything Vol.1 related but still something to entertain ig? [4th TME cover; The Chonny Electric when/j]

Tho maybe he'd just remake songs that he he fully made [like the before. or Gothic Whore], since those are more of actual Chonny Jash songs rather than the others just being covers. Would be very cool to maybe see a remake of some of his Majora's Mask song tho [no this isn't me coping over HEAL not being on spotify shush]. Or maybe he'd do songs from his old stuff like Don't Take it Personally? [also not me coping over wanting that song on Spotify too]

Idk these are just my thoughts on the idea of a CJPH [or even a Can of Soup Power Hour/j]. Either way I am gonna say idc what he'd do, BDG or Streetlight Manifesto are my other guesses, but anything he makes is always rll good & fun so I'll be interested to see whatever it is.

But ya know considering I typed all this out in the span of an hour & a half I kinda hope im not wrong PFFT

[purplefnafpasta]

Introduction

Aka, I finally realized that i didn't make an intro yet, so I'll make one now. (Below the cut because I dunno how long this will get)

Gonna put the DNI above the cut though:

Anyone under 16 DNI thanks.

(Also, here is my ToS with an extrended DNI, as well as any other thing you may possibly need to know about usage of my art, designs or fanart, etc)

A little about me:

Hello! My name is Sam. However, I also commonly go by Wolf or Purple online. I am 19 years old, and I am a hobby artist. I don't really do art with the thought in mind to get big and popular with it. I would rather just make art for myself and then post it online for anyone who is willing to look at it.

I am mostly active on Toyhou.se or Discord. However, if you don't have either of those, then I am most likely to be reached on Tumblr. Here are my other socials, though, for anyone interested.

Username origin:

I came up with my username at around 2020.

Purple = one of my fave colors (i have 3 fave colors, purple, brown, and black. However, purple was the one that sounded the best when trying to pronounce my whole username)

FNaF = fave game at the time (still fave franchise, though I prefer Hollow Knight as of right now)

Pasta = my favorite dish at the time (by now, it's ramen)

Nickname Origins:

Sam = is my name, not a nickname lmao

Purple = because people commonly use that for a short version of my user (who tf would wanna say/write my whole username, anytime I am mentioned in a convo, lmao)

Wolf = I can't actually 100% remember for sure where that nickname comes from. I just know that at some point, I always got called Wolf (mostly on Discord), so I just ran with it, i suppose. If my memory does not fail me, i believe it was some online friends on discord some years ago who called me Wolf because i pretty much only drew wolves back then.

What kind of art I'll post:

I am by heart an OC artist, meaning I draw and post mostly my own OCs, or art I made of someone else's OC(s). I rarely ever draw fanart, but who knows, maybe ya'll will catch me do some fanart (on rare occasions).

I usually draw animals (anthro and feral). However, recently, i have been attempting to draw more human/oids to better my art skilly for those as well.

I may also draw my spin on what the Warrior Cats look like. Because why not, I love the book series. (meaning i won't stick to drawing realistic cats, since i just design em what i vibe with, but i'd explain that in detail in my first warrior cats design that i'd post)

I may attempt drawing some more complex/detailed chars (like robots or smth). However, i also aren't too great with that, so please bear with me and my (slow) learning progress. (Yes, I am a slow learner)

What can you DM/PM me for?:

Commissions (if they are open, however I prefer taking that to discord after the initial DM where you ask to commission me!)

Trades (if they are open)

Asking for toyhou.se invite codes (if i still have some left, which I do currently btw. please use the codes i send you within 48 hours, or i'll give it to the next person who asks, i don't wanna have to wait months for someone to just make an account- i can see when a code is used and when not btw!)

Asking me about my art or my ocs (be aware that I easily drift off and start to rant though, lmao)

What should you not DM/PM me for?:

Touhou.se coding issues. I give away invite codes. I have absolutely 0 clue how to code, so I can't help with that, you can check in Toyhou.se forums for help though, I am sure there are quite a few who are willing to help you!

Asking me to message someone who had blocked you for you. (I am sure the person who had blocked you had their reason, and I do not feel comfortable acting as an extension for you to message someone who blocked you.)

Venting/ ranting about something. Just do not, please. The only exception is, if I know you already.

Can I send you an ask?

Yeah, go for it. I just can't promise when I'll see it.

How can we find your art easier between all of the reblogs you make?

I will try to implement the "PurpleFNaFpasta's art" tag to all of my art pieces, so if you wanna find my art between the reblogs, you should be able to find them with that (hopefully).

[Edit from March 18th 2024]: i have also implemented a new tag as well, if you are looking for random funfacts about my oc's, this tag is where you will find them: "Purple's Random OC Funfacts" [Edit from September 16th 2024]: Changed my age from 18 to 19 in my intro lol. Birthday moment xd

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

“After the disappointment of the Andrew Garfield-led Amazing Spider-Man movies, everyone’s favorite wallcrawler has been having a renaissance. Entering the Marvel cinematic universe in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the webslinger fully redeemed himself with well-crafted live-action film in Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

 Yes...okay...that was definitely what Homecoming was....

 “and a wildly successful spin-off film Venom, ”

 I mean financially successful sure...

 “In the midst of all his success, Spider-Man has quietly become one of the most inclusive and socially conscious superheroes of today.”

*raises eyebrow*

 Okay...go on...

 “Last week, it was announced that Spider-Man: Far From Home would feature two out transgender actors playing trans characters, the first big-budget superhero film to do so. Spider-Man: Homecoming also featured a queer character, as well as numerous people of color.”

  Wait who was the queer character in Homecoming?

 “It’s also worth mentioning that Spiderverse included a Jewish version of Peter Parker, who is typically portrayed as either secular or Christian.”

 ....ehhhhhhhhh....yes and no.

 In media adaptations barring maybe one (the 1994 show cos I do not remember where he got married) Spider-Man is portrayed as...I guess secular but really it’s more that they just don’t say anything.

 It’s not that the character is not a believer in a faith per se, especially if you go by older adaptations during times when hardly anyone was secular. It’s just that they, understandably, aren’t saying anything.

 In the comics Peter is some kind of Christian but probably a Protestant (unless you go by Amazing Grace where he is an atheist but that’s hot trash we don’t talk about) but we don’t really talk about it that specifically.

 We just know that he and his family celebrate Christmas and very, very occasionally Aunt May references going to church and that she, Peter and MJ believe in a monothetistic deity they refer to as ‘God’.

 And really apart from the Church thing there is no clue to Peter’s religion and Marvel probably (wisely) would rather keep it that way. He even got married in a civil ceremony!

 However in the SUBTEXT...he’s Jewish. And it’s basically an open secret that he is and always has been Jewish.

 “The Spider-Man video game also featured a wonderful easter egg for queer fans by having a giant rainbow flag, as well as several smaller ones, scattered around the game’s fictionalized New York City map. ”

 I mean that’s wonderful but I wouldn’t call that an Easter Egg so much as...it’s just what you’d find in modern NYC.

 “Even the Venom film got in on the fun, with fans shipping Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and the titular male alien-symbiote after the two kissed in the film. Sony even encouraged the pairing, releasing a romantic comedy-esque trailer for the film to promote the home release. While some complained of queer-baiting, most felt that it was all in good fun and included queer people in on the joke, instead of making us the target.”

 Again, good for them but I don’t think that was the movie actively trying to be positive towards queer people.

 Brock and Venom kissed when Venom was bonded to Brock’s ex-fiance and had a pronounced female form, being an adaptation of a character literally called She-Venom.

 And it was based upon a script written in the 1990s so really it was more the movie did it and then people took it as a thing that was shipping Venom and Brock (even though Venom is sexless). Brock and the symbiote have been shipped numerous times in the comics but the subtext has always been that the symbiote, if any sex, is female. In the Spec cartoon it is referred to as Symbi (a pun on Cyndi) and in the Spider-Girl comics it is marked out as female (granted this happens after it’s bonded to a woman).

 And again, headcanon away but like...that probably wasn’t intentional at all Sony were just being goofy or unintionally made something people took a certain way.

 “Indeed, even in the comics, Spider-Man has always been a fairly inclusive hero. Miles Morales was introduced in the early-2000s, taking over the mantel from Peter Parker for several years. ”

 Okay, this is so weird for me to be correcting such a praising point but lets really look at this.

 First of all Miles didn’t take over Peter’s role for several years he did it permanently.

 Second of all Miles is from 2011 so that’s not the early 2000s, that’s the early 2010s, but okay maybe that was a typo.

 Third of all, is it really all that logical to say this franchise that began in 1962 has always been fairly inclusive and then cite a character from 2011 as proof of this? Wouldn’t examples from during the FIRST quarter century have been more apt?

 Fourth of all...eh. Has Spider-Man been fairly inclusive from the start? Yes, no, its complicated.

 Look there were exactly 0 LGBTQ+ characters in Spider-Man until maybe the 1990s and even then I couldn’t off my head tell you who they were. Felicia Hardy is bisexual but we didn’t find out until the 2000s and it was most prominent in an AU. Really the most significant LGBTQ+ character who’s had the fact that they are queer be more than a one off reference was Max Modell and he debuted 2011 and IIRC wasn’t established as queer until 2012. In defence of Spider-Man the Comics Code literally FORBID any character be anything other than straight until the 1990s and even then it was relatively rare, even in X-Men which you’d think it wouldn’t be.

 If we’re talking POC again this one is a bit complicated Glori Grant, Joe Robertson, Randy Robertson are frequently appearing POC characters but not in every run and they aren’t usually as prominent as like Jameson, Aunt May, Harry Osborn, MJ, etc. Characters of other ethnicities are even less frequent and I don’t even know what we should make of Puma/Thomas Fireheart. I mean A for effort, they wanted a Native American character who wasn’t really a villain and wasn’t exactly a sterotype so there is that I guess.

 Again though...most other Marvel franchises decade by decade weren’t much better with this and we should give credit where credit is due to the same guy who created Black Panther writing a nuanced scene where 2 black people in the 60s separated by age discuss different approaches to civil rights with neither being proven right or wrong.

 When it comes to disabled people, outside of evil insane villains, forget it, there is nothing before Flash Thompson in 2008 unless you count Aunt May’s chronically poor health.

 “Spider-Gwen quickly became one of the highest-selling female superhero comics. Spider-Woman was a prominently featured bisexual character, and the female Asian-American hero Silk also had LGBT supporting characters, Rafferty and Lola, who were in a healthy relationship. Additionally, many view vampire villain Morbius, who is getting a spin-off film starring Jared Leto next year, as a metaphor for those suffering during the HIV crisis of the '80s. ”

 Again...Spider-Gwen and Silk are 2010s characters so that’s not ‘always fairly inclusive’.

 I don’t even know if Jessica Drew is bisexual, I’ve never heard that but I don’t think she is.

 Morbius as a metaphor for HIV...MIGHT be true if we are specifically talking about his 1990s solo-book which I’ve never read. But the character as originally created 100% was never about that because he was created in the 1970s before HIV was known about.

 “Unlike his Marvel counterparts Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, Spider-Man’s world has accurately reflected real world diversity for years.”

 ....Not really.

 I’m not even saying Spidey maybe haven’t been comparatively better at it than those guys but he’s deffo not been accurate.

 Plus to be fair to the other guys, Captain America and Iron Man have had at least one major black supporting cast member and in Cap’s case he was fairly candid about social strife and issues.

 And with Thor it’s not that fair to throw shade at him for not reflecting the real world given that 90% of this characters and stories are literally pulled from fantasy and myth. I don’t even know if there are any queer figures in Norse myth let alone poc.

 “While it’s a seemingly simple idea that any of us can be a superhero, it’s sadly still a radical concept in a endlessly growing film genre that has predominetly centers straight cisgender white men. ”

 Well that’s mostly because the comics the movies adapt are about those types of people.

 “That is because relatability and inclusion has always been core to Spider-Man’s appeal and message. It’s why the late Stan Lee decided that, unlike other superheroes who expose parts of their faces, Spider-Man had to wear a full-face mask.”

  Stan Lee only speculated that that was part of Spider-Man’s appeal, he never had any input on that design choice it was all Steve Ditko...who frankly was unlikely to have been thinking about that...

 “Even further, Spider-Man isn’t the king of a country, a billionaire, a woman out of a Greek myth, or a brilliant scientist. He’s just an average high-school kid from Brooklyn who always strives to do the right thing even while struggling to balance his everyday life and hiding a secret identity.”

 WHOA there buddy...Spider-Man isn’t routinely ‘a kid’ nor is he from Brooklyn.

 MILES is from Brooklyn but Peter, as evidenced by that great big caption in Captain America: Civil War, is from QUEENS.

 “And it’s the idea of balancing a secret identity with everyday life that has always allowed Spider-Man to connect with queer audiences long before comic writers were allowed to explicitly include LGBT characters.”

 ...I’m not denying this necesarrilly but whilst i’ve heard stories from poc who connected with Spider-Man I’ve never heard this about LGBTQ+ fans of Spider-Man.

“Indeed, perhaps the strongest part of Spider-Man’s inclusivity is the subtlety to which it has been done. While Black Panther, Black Lightning, and Wonder Woman rightly put issues of identity front and center, Spider-Man’s quiet diversity allows audiences who typically cry “SJWs are ruining my favorite characters” to actually see diversity showcased without it being overt.”

 Errrrrrr...sure....*represses memories of when Miles Morales was first announced*

 Lets um...wait and see what happens when those trans characters show up in the movie this year okay.

[juanz85-blog]

Kibo Code Review and Bonus

Is Kibo Code Worth $2,497?

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Hand-pick a product. Here, you are instructed in how to pick preferred products that not just offer well, however are highly versatile to social media sites systems, have high revenue margins, an approachable rate factor, etc. Instance items to market as well as to avoid are shown. Mount your shop. "Examination beds" are discussed as a way to test items for their potential to generate income. Fundamentally, you set up "rough-hewn" test websites and examine their traffic and also conversion prices early. The internet sites with the best numbers are kept and also the others are junked. Recognize your buyers. You determine your target demographic for your product and then craft your ads to that demographic. The program additionally presents you to the 'Audience Matrix,' a tactic for recognizing that is probably to acquire your product( s). Start Website Traffic Equipment. Below, you stabilize the expense of your advertising versus product sales and also discover the ideal formula where you invest the least advertisement cash for the most product sales. A "top-secret, number-crunching advertising super-computer," called Vulcan, is introduced. This is also the "ace in the hole" mentioned previously, as well as one of the bottom lines of the Kibo Code revamp for 2017. Maximize conversions. You maximize item sales by attempting different selling methods, including making use of various pricing/shipping designs, attempting various ad types and also retargeting, improving the target audience, testing various site designs, leveraging the customer email checklist, etc . Release your super funnel. The incredibly funnel, as explained by the program, consists of introducing enhanced sales web pages to your target market that capture its attention and also budgets. Rinse as well as repeat. Below, the program informs you that you ought to aim for a "moderate" goal of making $8,000/ month. That comes out to over $100K/year.

So, can this program deliver on its pledges?

Pros and cons of Kibo Code

The Kibo Code program does make a lot of bold claims regarding just how you'll be gaining countless dollars weekly in simply a couple of days.

There is likewise the assumption that, as long as you choose the appropriate items and maximize your products and also ads, you should be making thousands of dollars each day.

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Has any individual tried Kibo Code?

$2,497 is a little as well high to throw down just to review an item, so we are opening up the discussion flooring as much as you people in the comments listed below. Please, if you have tried the program or have eCommerce experience, let us hear it. https://thekibocodereviews.org/

[aesarctic]

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

It’s been a while since I’ve written a full-scale review. Sorry, guys!

Read on Goodreads

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

FOR THE SUPER NON-SPOILERY PEOPLE: Ready Player One is definitely a book that I'd read the back cover to. Maybe that's not your thing, but I find that some books are better going in knowing nothing, and some books you need to know a bit about. This is one of the books that I'd definitely read the back-of-the-book-blurb. I can tell you right now that any spoilers you may think are in it aren't actually spoilers. This book is also definitely five-star potential. Don't be put off by my four stars. FOR THE NON-SPOILERY PEOPLE (hidden for the SNSP): Expanding on what I said up there, anything in the back-of-the-book-blurb that you may think is spoilers is said within the first chapter. It's not even labeled "Chapter 1." It's labelled "Chapter 0." You're fine to read it. I really liked the concept of this book, and I when I finished it, I felt accomplished, but I also wanted more. Shout-out to Mark Vaders (mjvaders) on Spotify for a Ready Player One playlist of every song mentioned in the book. That's super cool. https://open.spotify.com/user/mjvaders (The User) https://open.spotify.com/user/mjvader... (The Playlist)

FOR THE SPOILERY PEOPLE: I have five pages of notes, front and back. Let's go. The book opens on chapter 0000. It's a slow introduction, the main points being: 1) The OASIS is a thing 2) The creator, Halliday, died and made a scavenger-hunt-like contest 3) It's been five years, and no one has found the first key. Until now. But the thing is, it gives us the entire video. Why can't we have a summary of the video? It took me a while to get hooked into the book because the video wasn't the most fun to read. I'd also like to note that this was the only time footnotes were used. Why didn't we get more of those? Why were they necessary? Why were they necessary for only that specific chapter? I'd also like to note that there are a lot of sections in this book that reads like a history lesson, and I'm not sure these are necessary. I'll get to that later. I was not alive in the 1980s. In fact, Halliday is two years younger than my mom. There were so many 80s culture references that probably went over my head, but I was surprised at how many I caught and understood. I've watched a few of the movies mentioned (though, I personally am not a StarWars fan), and I've heard some of the music, and I've played a few of the games. Call me cliché, but I always go straight to the Pac-Man machine in arcades. Either that or Skee-ball. My favourite mention, though is at the very end, when they mention Voltron. (Pages 332 and 336 in my paperback copy). June 10th of 2016, a remake of Voltron was created, and I definitely watched it when it came out. Then I watched the 2011 remake, and a good amount of the 1984 original show. The only one I have not watched (and like to pretend doesn't exist) is the 1990s version. Anyway, anyway, I like Voltron. At the beginning, we get this nice glimpse into the real world, featuring Aunt Alice. She took Wade's laptop, and I still don't understand why he didn't scramble to hide it when he heard her coming. He said he had backups, but he also mentioned it was a pain to redownload everything. I would have tried to hide my laptop. One of my favoruite settings in this book was Wade's secret hideout. I love how he rigged it, and I thought that was super cool. I was very upset when he left it. It also confused me when the Sixers didn't realize he was in there? They said they had proof he hadn't left the trailer in three days, and that proof was video, right? How do they not have video of him going to his hideout? Or at least exiting the trailer? They said they saw him enter the trailer, but they didn't see him leave? I predicted that someone would find it, but no one ever did. Props to Wade. I had a hard time imagining the OASIS. I should be imagining real life, since the graphics are that good. I could have at least imagined a Skyrim-looking game. But, nah. I imagined something more like Overwatch. Art3mis. I should have known she'd become a little more important in the story, but as he was ranting about her blog, I literally wrote "I hope she doesn't have a big role" and I did not like her. Aech. I pronounced this as "Ache" at first, but Wade corrected us. I did not follow that. I should have, and I tried, but I still said "Ache" in my head. As someone who gets their name mispronounced a lot, I should have known better, but I did not and I am ashamed. I didn't like Aech at first. Eventually she grew on me, and I was incredibly mad when Wade totally dissed her for Art3mis. Ugh. I hate romance stories like that. I hate romance stories in general, but this one was bad. I hated how Art3mis was set up to be his girlfriend. No thank you. I like the setting for this book--meaning how the Real World was set up and how that affects the OASIS and why the OASIS is used because of it. I mean, I don't fancy the idea of a Great Recession, but it's a cool concept in theory. The copper key was found on page 84. This book has 372 pages. At least, that's what it is in my copy. That seemed really early for me, especially since he immediately knew what the phrase on the copper key meant, and I was worried that the book would have something strange happen at the end after all of the keys and gates were found. Luckily there was nothing wrong at the end (besides an unnecessary romance) and the book was dedicated to the scavenger hunt. Thank the gods. Speaking of immediately knowing what the message on the copper key meant, he described where the first gate was, and it's a game, you know, so my immediate thought was that the game wouldn't be there and someone had stolen it and there'd be some complication. No. Of course, we have to meet Art3mis. Kill me. I like the fact that Wade wasn't the first one to find the temple, though. That's cool. He was just the first one to complete it. "I wanted to propose marriage." --page 93 K I L L M E When he figured out the message on the copper key, Wade says, "I didn't think it would matter which copy of his hometown I went to..." and I thought that it would. I thought that it would totally matter, and he'd have to go through however many worlds looking for the correct game, and the game wouldn't be there, and he'd have to track it down, or something. It was weird reading something that went so right on the first try. He also totally skips out on school, which he had previously mentioned that he needed to attend to not get into trouble. I've attended two high schools, one that requires 24 credits, and the one I'm currently at requires 26. I currently have 24 credits, so theoretically I only need to pass two classes that total up to two credits, right? Wrong. Schools tend to require a certain amount of credits in each subject--I did a research project on this my sophomore year. I still need to take two language arts classes and one science class. Some schools require four credits in language arts, science, and math. Then three in social studies. That's what I've seen most often. How much did he double up to accomplish being able to flake his senior year? You only have a certain about of blocks per semester/trimester, and in today's world we can take more with online classes, but his school is an online school. How did his credit system work? If anyone has any input or corrections to make, please feel free. I don't know everything. Wade mentions that it was a "beautiful Midwestern Day" and as someone who is from the Midwest, I'd like to ask where? Okay, so Wade signs something with the acronym "MTFBWYA" on page 127 of the paperback. I know I'm dense, but what does that stand for? Why is he signing so many contracts and giving people models of his avatar? Doesn't he want to stay as secret as possible? Doesn't that mean not letting people know what you look like? I love Wade and Aech's friendship! At the beginning, anyway. Wade didn't want to tell Aech any of the information, and she was totally chill with that. She understood and they stayed best friends. At that moment, anyway. I'm salty. How did Wade not predict that recording would be prohibited in the place he met with Sorrento? I thought that the comic book stack falling over was a Sixer. I was ever so wrong. If they recreated Ludus to make Ludus II, wouldn't that also have the tomb with the copper key? There's a huge amount of time where Wade didn't mention Art3mis' blog, and I felt that that was a bit out of character. He was checking it all the time before all of this. The next time we get an update on it is after Art3mis dumps him, blocks him, and stops posting on her blog. Speaking of Art3mis, I still think that their friendship and romance developed in a very strange way, and I definitely don't like it. I hate that she replaced Aech. The author made a huge point that we have no idea what Art3mis looked like. I felt as if this was way too built up. Wade is a lot like Frank Zhang from the Heroes of Olympus series, by Rick Riordan. SPOILER: He totally buffs up, and I feel as if it's erasing a bit of diversity in a way. END SPOILER Some points from my notes: -Art3mis is clearly way smarted than Wade -My aesthetic is doing research to play Pac-Man -I love that Aech found the key while Wade was playing Pac-Man I felt as if the trophy place that Wade checked out should have clicked for him a lot sooner. He had that knowledge. He even had the knowledge of Zork. Why didn't he skim through his journal the minute he didn't understand the next clue? That would have gotten him there a lot sooner. This book has a very good balance of dead characters. I appreciate important characters dying. It makes the story interesting. So Wade had that one job, but we never see him going to it after that initial time. What happened there? So Wade makes this entire plan to sneak into the Sixer's place, and readers are left in the dark. It's so weird reading, and a lot of my notes say things like, "This plan had better be good." When Daito died, Shoto handed over that weapon the three of them earned. I knew in that moment that that was probably the entire reason those characters existed, and I was a little upset. I laughed at the phrasing "101 IOI Plaza" There were four people: Wade, Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto. Three people were needed. Obviously someone was going to die. So does "P.S." stand for "postscript?" I was told it was "personal secret." Don't believe everything six-year-olds tell you. Marrow: *appears* Me: HE KNOCKED OVER THE COMIC BOOKS Me: *turns the page* Wade: HE KNOCKED OVER THE COMIC BOOKS Turns out Halliday and Marrow were in a love triangle, and things ended because of it. Ugh. Aech and Wade are friends again, by the way! That's good! And we end things with Art3mis and Wade, and I want to die. So, around the area where Wade was finding the copper key, I was beginning to realize that this book is a lot like The Raven Cycle series, by Maggie Stiefvater. Warning: TRC spoilers from here on out. The Raven Cycle is set up like a scavenger hunt, but complex and very real-worldly. In fact, one of the things I love about TRC is how complex, 3D, and life-like the characters are, and how 3D the plot is, and the settings are set up fantastically. Anyway, the story has a lot of history to it, in a way. One of the main characters, Gansey, is on this hunt for a Welsh king who lived centuries ago. History, right? But we don't get a lot of that history. We get the basics: "There is a dead king somewhere. If we find him, we get a wish." In Ready Player One, there's a dead game maker, and if you can follow the clues, you get the prize of money. It's a really similar plot--I'm not sure I'm conveying how similar it was in my mind. Anyway, in Ready Player One we get a lot of unnecessary history that I felt could be summarized like I just did. Maybe not quite like that because Ernest Cline is writing a book, not an informal review, but you know what I mean. The history wasn't interesting to me--I didn't need to know Halliday's backstory. Not really. I just needed to know that he was rich and someone was going to get that money. By following clues. The history bits really annoyed me, and I'd go on, but I think I've ranted enough. Next I'll get into the character differences and writing styles, and it goes on. Basically I did not need to read all of that history, and I'm citing a different series as my evidence. THANKS FOR READING

[ciathyzareposts]

Morabis I: Won! (with Summary and Rating)

              Morabis I: The Dungeons of Morabis

United States

Independently developed and released as shareware

Several versions released for DOS between 1991 and 1992

Date Started: 2 May 2020

Date Ended: 10 May 2020

Total Hours: 11 Difficulty: Moderate-Hard (3.5/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

          Summary: A roguelite, Morabis blends Rogue-style gameplay with an Ultima-esque attention to map design. There are some interesting new features added, such as a targeting cursor for missile weapons and the ability to see and dodge incoming missiles and magic blasts. Overall, though, most of Morabis‘s changes from the traditional roguelike template make it longer and more frustrating than the typical roguelike. Bugs, misspellings, and version inconsistencies also hurt enjoyment.

*****

The second half of Morabis preceded much like the first half, except that with more difficult levels some of the game’s problems became magnified. The chief issue with the game is the level scaling that goes on as you descend further into the dungeon. Creatures increase in attack power and accuracy in proportion to the level you’re on, such that you never seem to “develop” as a character. Meanwhile, you’re constantly having to chase down new, improved weapons and armor to account for the greater monster power. Because their accuracy also improves, you spend a lot of time fleeing combat and waiting to heal before re-engaging. You spend an awful lot of time gingerly standing in doorways in this game, as if an earthquake is always about to hit.

      The search issue never went away, but it was magnified on some levels where large portions were initially occluded. I was also a bit irked by the sheer number of ways the author found for enemies to paralyze or confuse me. I swear that every enemy, even ones who had no special powers on earlier levels, were capable of one or the other during the last 10. Between enemies and traps, I couldn’t walk more than five steps at a time without being told I couldn’t move. Half the time, I had no idea why. And at least half my deaths were caused by walking the wrong way into lava when I was confused.

             Starving and unable to move sometimes feels like the default state in this game.

          Food was also a sporadic problem. It was quite literally feast or famine. There was one period where I had to save-scum for about half an hour until I got a couple enemies to drop food when I killed them; otherwise, I starved to death before I could get anywhere. Nothing is more frustrating than finally finding food and having it turn out to be rotten or poisonous, but of course Rogue had that, too.

The best times were when, for a brief time, I had a magic item capable of alleviating some of the game’s more powerful annoyances. I enjoyed a Ring of Trap Avoidance for a few levels. A Ring of Slow Digestion was also a godsend. I found a Scroll of Nutrition at one point with about 15 charges. That was a load off. There are supposedly Rings of Lava Walking and Rings of Avoid Paralysis in the game, but I never found either. Anyway, rings don’t last forever in Morabis, so at best they offer temporary reprieve.

         A “wraglor” degrades my armor just before he kills me.

          As I descended, I started to appreciate the author’s approach to level design a bit more. I corresponded with Michael Höenie, and he sent me some of the game maps as examples. (There’s no way to view the entire map of a level from within the game, unfortunately). Using handcrafted levels instead of randomly-generated ones allowed him to do some fun things with the terrain. Some levels suggested rough-hewn natural caverns, while others suggested fortresses or jail cell blocks. Level 24 is basically one long, thin causeway over lava. The final dungeon level in particular, Castle Morabis, had an almost Ultima quality in the map design. It’s just too bad that you can’t appreciate it from within the game. The 81 x 81 level sizes are a bit large, too.

         The final dungeon level, courtesy of the author.

           Every fifth level features a mini-boss guarding the way down: Fennel the Fire Lark on Level 5, Jahaÿ the Gobnor on Level 10, Ñehnor the hobnorlin on Level 15, and Nimlatch the Dragon on Level 20. They had more hit points than others of their class but otherwise weren’t terribly difficult.

There’s an odd special encounter on Level 18 with a roomful of unicorns. They attack you, but if you attack them, the game says, “Oh! Thou mustn’t hurt a Unicorn!” (“Thou-speak” is another borrowing from the Ultima series.) What you’re supposed to do, according to Höenie’s web site, is find some grass and drop it in front of them, then they give you a key necessary for the final dungeon level. I didn’t read this until I’d left Level 18 well behind me. The encounter isn’t really fair. Nowhere else in the game do you interact with creatures this way, and there’s no particular reason to think that the unicorns would want grass. 

         I can’t attack the unicorns, but they have no such compunction.

         As for keys, you find copious numbers of them on the way down–brass, pewter, tin, copper, steel, platinum, beryllium . . . so many that you run out of inventory space if you try to carry them all. They’re mostly unused until the final level, where it appears that every other door wants a different one. At least two doors require the one that the unicorns drop, and I didn’t have that. Rather than waste hours going back to Level 18, I hex-edited my saved games to jump across the door.

               Opening one of the final doors with a key.

          Level 25 is shaped like a castle. You start in the lower-center, and if you just move north from there, you come to the chambers of the demon lord. As I approached his chamber and he taunted me, the game called him “Satu’Javu,” but when I actually fought him, he was named “Satu’Nävas. Either way, I killed him in a few blows on my first try.

            The demon has two different names depending on whether he’s taunting me or dying by my sword.

           The Amulet of Sae’gore is found in a nearby chamber, guarded by a couple of “zelthorns.” I had hoped that when I killed the demon and picked up the amulet, the game would automatically end, but no, just like Rogue, I had to make my way back up to the surface. Also like Rogue, the game preserves the original difficulty level of the game levels as you ascend, meaning that it’s really no challenge once you get out of the bottom few.

Uninterested in spending this kind of time, I made use of an exploit. When the character dies on a level and you reload, the game always reloads you on the up-staircase of that level. Thus, through a boring but faster process of die-reload-up, I made my way to Level 1 and out of the dungeon. There, I got the concluding message:

            Congratulations!! You found the amulet and escaped with your life! Unfortunately, Lord Devnon, seeing your triumph, has escaped. Fleeing with only his life, he has returned to Valkner’s Keep. Peace will now reign in the land of Croon, at least for a little while . . .

                 Winning the game.

               This brief paragraph manages to confuse the story even more. The story in the manual is titled “your quest for the Amulet of Sae’gore” but doesn’t even mention the Amulet of Sae’gore, and is instead about the new king attempting to defeat Lord Devenon by finding the Scarlette Sword and the Armor of Power. Nether Satu’Javu, Satu’Nävas, the land of Croon, nor Valkner’s Keep are mentioned in the manual backstory, either.

On a GIMLET, Morabis I gets:

                1 point for the game world. What would normally be 2 is lowered by the tangled backstory.

1 point for character creation and development. Every character is the same generic adventurer, and the level scaling problem makes development feel futile at times.

0 points for no NPC interaction, although Höenie had plans for them in the next version.

         Fighting enemies while walking on a thin bridge over lava. One wrong step means death.

        3 points for encounters and foes. The enemies were satisfyingly variant in their special abilities, although not to the level of NetHack or even the original Rogue. I liked the mini-bosses at regular intervals.

2 points for magic and combat. The game features fewer tactics than traditional roguelikes, in particular lacking any spellcasting system. There’s also no speed differential and fewer useful items to employ.

         Sorting through a treasure pile after killing a dragon. I’m not sure I want to know what an “avocado wand” is.

            3 points for equipment. It has a roguelike’s variety but not quite as much variety as most. I found that wands were almost useless. There’s only one main armor type–no helms, gauntlets, boots, and the like. But what really killed this category for me was the lack of consistency between objects of the same description. Part of the challenge of roguelikes has always been discerning, through various clues and testing, what colors go with what potions and what descriptions go with what rings, scrolls, and wands. The difficulty of lower levels is eased slightly by the fact that you’re no longer wasting time probing each new item for its likely properties. In Morabis, with colors and descriptions assigned randomly to each individual object, that process never ends. The only mitigating factor is that Scrolls of Identification are relatively common.

0 points for no economy. You can collect gold, but there’s nowhere to spend it, nor does it count towards any score.

2 points for a main quest.

         Finding the Amulet on Level 25.

         2 points for graphics, sound, and interface. Pretty much any decent roguelike gets a 3 for its utility of graphics and its keyboard interface. I subtracted a point for the searching, the lack of an automap, and frequent artifact issues with the interface.

2 points for gameplay. For the most part, I found the levels too big and the annoyances outweighing the satisfying moments. There’s no real replayability inherent in it.

            That gives us a final score of 16, from which I subtract 2 points for bugs and needless confusion in the story and instructions. The confusion comes from Höenie being between versions when he gave up, the manual having been edited ahead of the game itself.

In e-mails to me, Höenie said that Morabis started in 1985 (when Höenie was 16) as a text-based BBS game. Höenie had been a dungeon master on a server for Scepter of Goth (1978), and when Scepter was deprecated, he set out to create a similar game. 

After he got some experience with offline games–principally, Rogue, Tunnels of Doom, and Ultimas I-III–Höenie began working on his own single-player roguelike, blended with elements from Ultima like the inability to see around walls. He originally called it Morabis II, but it soon became just Morabis. After he released it, Höenie got about halfway through Morabis II: The Quest for the Staff of Yar’Bore–which would have included a level editor, spells, and NPCs with dialogue and transaction options–but ultimately life intervened and he never finished it.

Höenie maintains a web page devoted to Morabis, on which you can find some instructions for further cheating the game by adding items.

The next game is supposed to be Moraff’s Dungeons (1993), the first time that I move prematurely forward in my chronological order, and I confess that despite how well I argued for this new development a few months ago, I’m now having second thoughts.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/morabis-i-won-with-summary-and-rating/

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 349: Dragon Warrior (1986)

But does he possess the Power of the Glow?

             Dragon Warrior

AKA Dragon Quest (original Japanese title)

Japan

Chunsoft (developer), Enix (publisher)

Released 1986 for MSX and NES (Japan); English version released for NES in 1989

Date Started: 22 November 2019

Date Ended: 30 November 2019

Total Hours: 17

Difficulty: Moderate (3/5), adjustable based on how much you grind

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

          Dragon Warrior tells the tale of a hero out to defeat an enemy called the Dragonlord. You have to visit two small castles, six small cities, and four small dungeons to collect a series of clues and items necessary to make your way to the Dragonlord and beat him in combat. The whole enterprise takes about an hour.

Oh, except for the grinding. Which took another goddamned sixteen hours. Before I played Dragon Warrior, I thought I knew what it meant to “grind.” I thought I’d done it, in fact, in games like The Bard’s Tale and Wizard’s Crown. I thought it could be kind of fun, allowing you to test out various attack and spell options that you might otherwise have neglected. I even opined on several occasions that I preferred games with a bit of grinding. All of that was before Dragon Warrior held me down and robbed me of my innocence.           

Get used to this screen.

           The basic setup of Dragon Warrior is that you start at a castle. Around the castle are slimes that earn you one hit point and one experience point. Eventually, you have to explore the entire land for the items and clues that will lead you to the endgame. This would only take you about one hour if there were no enemies. But the farther you get away from the castle, the harder the enemies become. At first, you care only about simple survival around the castle and its closest town, Brecconary. Soon, you reach a high enough level that those enemies are no longer a problem, but at that point you have to worry about surviving a trip through the ghosts and magicians that haunt the path to Garinham. Once that’s accomplished, you have to get good enough to defeat the scorpions and skeletons blocking the way to Kol. Every time you start to feel like a badass, the game rudely reminds you that some new, tougher pack of enemies is hovering just over the horizon.            

Alefgard, looking a lot like Britannia except that the enemy’s castle is on Buccaneer’s Den.

             Except for the imbalance between gameplay and grinding, Dragon Warrior plays a lot like (and was clearly inspired by) an early Ultima. We’ve got a game world shaped almost exactly like Britannia from Ultima IV, including the position of the castle and first town. We have an iconographic interface. We have a Lord British-like king, a Mondain-like enemy, and a bunch of NPCs in between who offer one-line clues. Beyond this, the developers added some original elements, but not enough to make up for the sheer number of hours that you have to spend fighting slimes.

The backstory is mildly amusing, starting with its redundant opening words: “In olden days of yore.” The realm of Alefgard was once cloaked in darkness–a darkness lifted when a brave warrior named Erdrick defeated “an evil being.” To accomplish this feat, “he used balls of light.” You might guess that the source of these magnificent balls was supernatural or heavenly, but no, they were simply “bequeathed to him by a friend.” When the balls had done their work, Erdrick gave them to King Lorick, who brought peace to the land. But during the reign of King Lorik XVI, the evil Dragonlord stole the balls of light from Tantegel Castle, “and once again the kingdom of Alefgard was plunged into darkness.” Enter the hero.          

“Right now. This minute. Like, the moment you press START on your controller.”

             Character creation consists only of a name; everyone begins with 3 strength, 3 agility (speed), 15 hit points, 0 magic points, 3 attack power, and 1 defense power.                    

“Character creation.”

            You and your GCLM start in Castle Tantegel (obviously a reference to Tintagel in Cornwall), speaking with King Lorik XVI, who does three things for you throughout the game. First, he tells you how many experience points you need for your next level. Second, he saves the game for you. The throne room is the only place you can save, which is a restriction I don’t mind and even encourage. Third, he resurrects you when you die, although it costs half your gold.          

I thought it was balls of light. Plural.

          From the moment you leave Tantagel, you can see the Dragonlord’s castle, Charlock, across the bay. Most of the non-grinding part of the game involves reaching his castle, made difficult because the world of Alefgard apparently has no boats.           

Castle Tantagel, Brecconary, and Castle Charlock.

          To reach Charlock’s island, you have to use something called the “Rainbow Drop” to create a bridge from another nearby island. The Rainbow Drop is a fusion of the Stones of Sunlight (which are different from the Balls of Light, apparently) and the Staff of Rain, and the old wizard who performs this fusion will only do so if you find Erdrick’s Token and thus prove that you’re a descendant of Erdrick. Both the Staff of Rain and the Stones of Sunlight have a couple of precursor quests, but in general you get the idea. NPC clues lead you most of the way.         

The end result of most of the games items and clues.

          There’s at least one major side-quest in the game, although come to think of it, I’m not sure how it can be a side quest. It involves the rescue of the king’s daughter, Princess Gwaelin, from a green dragon in a dungeon. You’d think her kidnapping would be important enough to mention in the backstory, but the manual doesn’t include it. It’s not a tough battle after Level 10 or so; later, green dragons appear liberally as random encounters.          

The dragon and princess.

           The rescued princess professes her love for the hero and gives him an item called “Gwaelin’s Love.” Whatever it is, it allows him to communicate with her from anywhere in the game, and she takes over Lorik’s responsibility of telling the hero how many experience points he needs for the next level. She also tells him where he is in respect to the castle, which I thought was fairly useless information until I got a clue to find Erdrick’s Token 70 leagues south and 40 leagues east of the castle. Still, I feel like I could have figured out the location without Gwaelin’s coordinates, so it makes me wonder what prevents me from winning the game without having rescued Gwaelin first. Since she shows up in the endgame, I assume something does.            

I feel like I could have accomplished this by just counting steps.

             Other than Erdrick’s Sword, which is found in Charlock, this is all you need to defeat the enemy mechanically. Defeating him functionally is a different story. You can’t hope to reach him, let alone defeat him, unless you’re at least Level 18. I defeated him at Level 19, but it took me four tries and I was abusing save states to “reload.”

This is where the grinding comes in. Level 19 requires 22,000 experience points, and if all you did was walk from city to city picking up clues and items, and then make your way to the Dragonlord, you’d only earn about 1,000 experience points from the random combats along the way. The other 21,000 experience points you must seek out for yourself.          

The hustle and bustle of a typical Dragon Warrior town.

          Combat comes upon you randomly as you wander across the landscape or through (most) dungeons, and it is more akin to Wizardry than Ultima. You only ever face one enemy at a time. He might surprise you and get a free attack, but otherwise combat begins with your options to fight, cast a spell, flee, or use an item. Running works often enough to get you out of a tight spot, but not so often that you can use it to pass through areas far above your level. The few items that you can use in combat stop being useful after the early levels. So most of the time, you’re fighting or casting.

Fighting does a modest amount of damage based on your strength and weapon. Occasionally, you get lucky with a critical hit or (as the game has it) “excellent move.” Occasionally, the enemy parries entirely.

Most of the strategy of combat, to the extent that it has any, is in the few spells. You acquire them in stages as you level up. “Heal” comes at Level 3 and greatly extends your ability to grind in between inn stops (resting at inns is the only way to restore all health and magic). “Hurt” (Level 4) harms enemies, and “Sleep” (Level 7) puts them to sleep for at least one round. “Stopspell” (Level 10) negates enemy magic, and “Healmore” (Level 17) and “Hurtmore” (Level 19) are super-powered versions of their weaker cousins.              

Fighting a harder enemy late in the game. I had him under a “Sleep” spell, but he woke up at the last hit.

            “Sleep” is pretty useful from the moment you acquire it, and if you’re lucky it will put enemies to bed for enough rounds that you can hack them to death. The problem is that when you’re grinding for a handful of experience points at a time, quantity is more important than quality. You want to stay in areas where you don’t have to resort to “tactics”–where you can just hold down the “Fight” option and plow through them. This means that for the first hour, you’re killing slimes, red slimes, and occasionally “drakees” around the castle for 1-2 experience points each.

Once you hit Level 5 (110 experience points), you can make it to the city of Garinham without dying. Then you’re stuck battling ghosts, magicians, and “magidrakees” at 3-5 experience points each for a couple of hours until, say, Level 8. From there, you move to the city of Kol, which is surrounded by skeletons and scorpions with 6-11 experience points each. By Level 12 (4000 experience), you can survive for long periods of time on the large southern island (accessible through a dungeon), where warlocks, wolves, werewolves, wolflords, and wyverns occupy you for 13-40 points each.             

The first level-up.

             The far southern parts of the map are swarming with enemies capable of casting high-level spells. They include wraith knights, starwyverns, magiwyverns, green dragons, axe knights, and demon knights. The most valuable has maybe 70 experience points. I never reached a point where I was comfortable mindlessly grinding through this lot, but after you pass Level 13, you have the “Return” spell, which automatically warps you back to the safety of the castle, so you can afford to take more risks. I finished the game at Level 19 with 22,500 experience points, but it goes all the way to Level 30 and 65,535 experience points. Who in the world would take it that high?

Leveling up has a palpable effect on combat difficulty, with each new level contributing a boost in strength, agility, maximum hit points, maximum magic points, and perhaps a new spell. But you’re not just grinding for the experience. You’re also grinding for the gold, so you can buy improved equipment. (There are a handful of chests in the game, but not enough to deliver significant gold rewards.) Early in the game, you earn gold at a rate of about 1 for every 2 experience points, but against higher-level enemies the ratio reverses, and soon you’re earning double the amount of gold as experience.          

The paltry selection in the first town.

          Gold is used to purchase weapons, which go in this order: bamboo pole (10 gold), club (60), copper sword (180), hand axe (560), broad sword (1500), and flame sword (9800). Armor progresses as follows: clothes (10), leather armor (70), chain mail (300), half plate (1000), full plate (3000), and magic armor (7700). Shields are small (90), large (800), and silver (14800). As you upgrade, the shop will give you half the value of your current items back to you, but it won’t let you buy the new item until you have enough gold without considering the buy-back. So when you go to upgrade from chain mail to half plate, the shop will offer 150 for the chain mail, but you can only make the offer when you have the 1000 needed for half plate on its own, not 850.

At first, I thought it would be a constant mental struggle whether to buy the next incremental upgrade or hold out for a higher level. For instance, do you bother to upgrade from chain mail to half plate, or just save your gold until you can go to full plate? But you can’t really move on until you have enough experience anyway, and getting to the requisite experience levels generally means that you have enough gold to hit every incremental improvement along the way. The only purchase that I felt was wasted was the magic armor, as I found “Erdrick’s Armor” shortly after I bought it. Erdrick’s Armor heals you 1 hit point every step you take and protects you against damage from swamps and magic barriers, and in an replay or walkthrough-assisted game, it would be worth a suicide mission, running from as many enemies as possible, as soon as you can plausibly hope to reach it.

The game has a few other usable items that are fairly clever. Dragon’s scales raise your defense temporarily; fairy water prevents enemies from attacking for short periods; herbs restore hit points; and wings cast the “Return” spell and warp you back to the castle. You also have to buy magic keys to fully explore the interiors of towns and dungeons.

Once I had the necessary items and Erdrick’s Armor, which generally assured I could reclaim my hit points between battles without wasting magic points, I decided to take on Castle Charlock. The first level has a throne but no occupant, and I had to fiddle around with search options to find a hidden staircase behind the throne.     

My armor protects me against the magic barriers as I approach an empty throne.

           Below the hidden stairs are eight dungeon levels, one of which has a chest holding Erdrick’s Sword. Fortunately, I found it before meeting the Dragonlord because I understand it’s necessary to kill him, yet I don’t recall getting any clue to that effect.              

That was lucky.

           The bottom level is a large one, but you ultimately encounter the Dragonlord in his “real” throne. He immediately offers you a deal: “To share this world and to rule half of it if thou will now stand beside me.” Of course I had to say yes the first time. He replied: “Really? [I think I had to say “yes” again.] Then half of this world is thine, half of the darkness, and . . . if thou dies, I can bring thee back for another attempt without loss of thy deeds to date. Thy journey is over. Take now a long, long rest. Hahahahaha . . . .” The screen turned red and the game was over.

I’m not really sure what happened there, but I think there was a glitch. “Without loss of thy deeds to date” is text from the king’s offer to save your game. I suspect something else was supposed to appear there that made it clear the Dragonlord was betraying me. Or else it was an ironic echo of the king’s offer.          

I mean, I would like to take a long rest. But the “hahahahaha” part makes me suspicious.

            Either way, I reloaded and said no. A battle against the Dragonlord commenced and ended after three rounds. But then, “The Dragonlord revealed his true self!” and turned into a dragon. I’d like to say this was a major plot twist, but he kind of gave it away by calling himself “Dragonlord.”               

It turns out he’s kind of racist.

             The dragon Dragonlord was much tougher, and as I mentioned above, it took me four tries to beat him. The issue was mostly that I needed to cast “Healmore” every two rounds, and eventually I would run out of magic points. (No other spells seem to work in battle against him.) If I had been playing without save states, waking up in the castle at every loss, I would have spent another few hours grinding. As it was, I just kept trying until I got a luckier sequence of random numbers where I only had to “Healmore” every three rounds instead of every two. That left me enough attacks in between to slice away his hit points.

Once he was dead: “Thou hast done well in defeating the Dragonlord. Thou hast found the Ball of Light. [I still want to know what happened to the other ones.] Across the land spreads the brilliance until all shadows are banished and peace is restored.”           

Was the Ball of Light really necessary as a plot point?

          I was teleported back to the castle, where the king said that the legends were true and I was the “line of Erdrick.” He offered me his throne, but the game had me automatically decline. “If ever I am to rule a country,” Chester said, channeling Conan, “It must be a land that I myself find.” One wonders how he’ll “rule” a place that has no other people, but we’ll let it go for now.               

“I will have my own kingdom, my own queen.”

            Gwaelin immediately volunteered herself as a companion on my journey. (Honestly, I didn’t mean to suggest I was leaving today.) The game offered me “yes” and “no” options, but if I said “no,” Gwaelin responded, “But thou must!” and I got the “choice” again. So I made her happy by accepting. “And thus the tale comes to an end . . .  unless the dragons return again.”             

Which they will, at least 12 times, in the main series alone.

              There was a nice animation of some trumpeters playing before the final screen. That puts me in mind to talk about the game music. Because I haven’t otherwise focused much on music, I don’t know what game first introduced the idea of multiple background themes for each major division of gameplay, including outdoor exploration, town exploration, dungeon exploration, and combat. The first that I can remember is Ultima IV, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Sugiyama took his musical cues from Kenneth Arnold. But where Arnold’s compositions are mostly homophonic, with one clear melody line supported by complementary chords, Sugiyama’s uses a complex polyphony (multiple melodies operating at once). I thought the complexity was utterly lost on the era hardware, but I admired it nonetheless. Of course, I turned it off after a few minutes, as usual, because I don’t like repetitive background music no matter how much I admire the counterpoint.           

The winning screen.

           As for the rest of the game, I found it trite and boring. The running-around-looking-for-clues portion is no more advanced than we saw in the original Ultima five years earlier, but instead of making a 6-hour game out of what they had, the developers of Dragon Warrior bulked things up with a lot of tedious grinding. However, the game is undoubtedly an RPG. It is probably the earliest console RPG (available in English, anyway) that we don’t have to qualify with prefixes like “quasi-” and “proto-.” On my GIMLET, it earns:           

2 points for a basic, uncomplicated game world.

3 points for character creation and development. Character creation is nothing, but development is rewarding enough–the one thing other than sound that’s more advanced here than in early Ultima.

         My character sheet a little more than halfway through the game.

           4 points for NPCs. This is the earliest JRPG that I can remember to include a healthy number of clue-givers and lore-speakers.

            NPCs offer a lot of one-line hints.

          2 points for encounters. Enemies aren’t much differentiated except for those with spell abilities and those without. There are no non-combat encounters.

2 points for magic and combat, both fairly primitive.

3 points for equipment. The linear progression of weapons and armor is balanced by some creative usable items.

4 points for the economy. It lacks complexity, but it sure does remain relevant for most of the game.

3 points for quests. In addition to the main quest, there are a few side areas. Notably, I forgot to follow a clue to a “Warrior’s Ring” that might have helped.

             This should be standard in RPGs, but without the subsequent betrayal.

           4 points for graphics, sound, and interface. I don’t like the graphics of this era in general. I would prefer the smooth, crisp lines and distinct colors of pure abstract iconography over the early console era’s attempts to depict complex things with limited hardware. (Graphics are credited to Akira Toriyama, better known as the creator of Dragon Ball.) The sound is occasionally fun but not in any way atmospheric. The console controls, infantile as they are, work reasonably well for the limited number of commands the game offers.

            When you’re bringing the princess home, the icon changes to show you carrying the princess–which is just a bit too difficult to convey using the graphics capabilities of the system.

           2 points for gameplay. Too linear, not replayable, and too long. I wouldn’t say it’s “too hard,” because that depends on how long you make it, but even for a moderate level of difficulty, it’s too long.

            That gives us a final score of 29, which is below my recommended threshold but in some ways still high given its place as the first incontestable console RPG. I could see it whetting a player’s appetite for RPGs, like Questron did for me, without being a great RPG itself.

Kurt Kalata covers the history of Dragon Warrior–or more properly Dragon Quest, as it’s known in Japan–in an article at GamaSutra. Developers Yuji Horii and Koichi Nakamura attended the 1985 Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco and were enchanted with Wizardry and Ultima but deliberately decided to simplify Wizardry‘s combat mechanics for the average console player. (I find it amusing that the “dumbing down” of console games, often argued by computer game partisans and contested by console partisans, is directly confirmed by the accounts of early console developers.)

In Japan, sales were slow but ultimately developed quite well. The 1989 North American release (the one that I played) featured some upgrades from the original, including the hero’s icon changing to match direction of travel and a battery save rather than a password save. It sold poorly and got mediocre reviews, as much more complex games had come along in the intervening period, but the game’s enduring fame was assured when Nintendo Power started giving free copies to subscribers.

The name change in North America was due to the’ tabletop RPG DragonQuest (originally a competitor to Dungeons and Dragons but acquired by TSR in 1989), but I’ll revert to the original title in discussing the future. Dragon Quest II came out in 1987 for the MSX and NES (North American release in 1990) and Dragon Quest III a year later (North American release in 1992). Each stepped up the complexity of inventory, economy, and combat, and most of all allowed for multiple characters in the party and multiple enemies in combat. After that, the public got a new Dragon Quest game every two-to-five years, culminating in Dragon Quest XI in 2017. Dragon Quest XII is currently under development. The main series has kept the same primary team of developers throughout its history.

A spinoff series called Dragon Quest Monsters started in 1998 (last release in 2016), heavily inspired by Pokémon. The Mystery Dungeon series (1993-2006) were a quartet of roguelikes based on Dragon Quest characters and themes. One common enemy in the Dragon Quest environment, Slime, got an action-adventure series between 2003 and 2011. There were also board games, card games, manga, novels, and anime. The main series has continued to enjoy western releases, and Enix has been able to use the original title since 2003, when they registered Dragon Quest in the United States with no objections from the then-owners of the DragonQuest copyright, Wizards of the Coast.

I think only the most recent release, Dragon Quest XI, is on my official list, as it’s the only one to appear on the computer as well as the console. We’ll see if I ever reach it or get to any of the others. This week, Dragon Warrior was supposed to be a quick piece that I was going to hold in reserve in case I failed to make my publication goals on any of the primary games, but it took me so long that I had to publish it immediately instead of the next Challenge of the Five Realms entry. I should have learned a long time ago that I can never plan for a four-hour, one-entry game, no matter how primitive the mechanics. Such games do happen, but only when you aren’t deliberately counting on them.

Between Dragon Warrior, Bokosuka Wars, Deadly Towers, and the PC JRPGs that I’ve managed to play, I’m satisfied that I’ve covered enough of the early JRPG era and early console era. If I decide to try a console game again, I’ll feel comfortable leaping to one of the landmark games from the late 1980s rather than experiencing everything in between. But don’t look for that soon.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-349-dragon-warrior-1986/

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 342: The Forgotten Island (1981)

This is not the one they’ll remember him for.

              The Forgotten Island

United States

Liberty Software (developer); Crystalware (original publisher); Automated Simulations (later publisher)

Released in 1981 for Atari 800. Rereleased in 1982 as Escape from Vulcan’s Isle

Date Started: 23 October 2019

Date Finished: 23 October 2019

Total Hours: 2

Difficulty: Very Easy (1/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

I figured I might as well bang out one more from Crystalware while I had the company on my mind. (The next game on my list was 1992’s Arcana, which is an SNES-only game, so I’m not sure how I ever ended up on my “upcoming” roster.) The Forgotten Island was written by Marc Benioff, not John or Patty Bell, but it plays pretty much like Crystalware’s other titles. Benioff, who was only 15 or 16 when he wrote this game, went on to found Salesforce and to purchase Time magazine. You can read his Wikipedia entry. I think it’s safe to say that this is the first game that I’ve played whose author is now a billionaire.          

The brave vessel is dashed to pieces. And all the helpless souls within her drowned. All save one.

          There is no character creation process. Island starts with the unnamed character shipwrecked on a mysterious island from which he must escape. He begins with 5 gold pieces and 102 power. For every treasure chest he finds, he gains both gold and power. He gains additional 2 power for every day that he survives on the island. Days pass at a rate of about 1 per 4 seconds, so you can just stand still for a little while and amass a lot of power. This is just one of the many ways in which the game is “very easy.”             

No hostile headhunters here–just welcoming villagers.

            Island plays a lot like a less sophisticated version of Fantasyland 2041, which itself wasn’t very sophisticated. From the original island, you pass through a series of areas small enough that you don’t need to map anything. There are no puzzles. Commands are limited to movement, a couple of attack options, and checking your inventory. There’s a “Forgotten Village” in the opening area where you can spend your gold for a few items: a metal axe (which I guess improves combat), stringy rope, an old lamp, a small straw raft, and a first aid kit. I’m not sure what the first aid kit does, but the other items are all necessary in various places; for instance, you need the lamp to see in a cave, and you need the raft to cross a river.          

The few items for sale in the village. What do you suppose is up with those prices?

          As you explore, the game warns you about nearby enemies. When they finally acquire you, they rush up and attack. Where Fantasyland 2041 had both visible enemies that would run up to the character and invisible ones that attacked at random, Island only has the former. They spawn from central points on each screen, making them relatively easy to avoid. Even if they weren’t easy to avoid, they’re easy enough to fight. When you engage in combat, you can attack or flee. (Fleeing puts you all the way back at the shipwreck.) Attacking prompts you to hit the joystick button, at which point random numbers flash at the bottom of the screen for the number of hit points that you lose versus the number that he loses. They flash too fast to time your next button press, which freezes the current values and deducts them accordingly. Begin next round. I assume your power weighs the numbers. Although the values were all between 0 and 20, the enemy almost always suffered more damage.

Attacked by a “Harris” in some woods.

Victories give you additional hit points, and your health fully regenerates after each battle. Soon you have 200 hit points and you’re facing enemies with 20, and with the rolls weighted in your favor. Beyond the first couple of combats, you aren’t in the slightest danger of death.              

Fighting an enemy in a cave.

          The first major task is to enter some caves and find the diary of Alcemnon, a previous shipwreck victim who was eventually killed by “Harrises,” the enemies who roam the starting area. That must be some in-joke. Other than some generic mumbo-jumbo, Alcemnon has a clue to “try the other side!” He also mentions seeking Sarfon’s Cloak.            

Most of Alcemnon’s diary.

           Once you have the diary, you can enter the volcano and the Cavern of the Satyrs. Enemies change to satyrs but otherwise behave the same as the “Harrises” outside.

Like a lot of Crystalware games, Island suggests side-view graphics even in its top-down interface.

            You have to find the Tomb of Pan to recover Pan’s Flute and thus enter the next area: The Forgotten Gardens of the Shirrah Shirrith, a phrase for which this page will soon be the only Google result. Enemies here are “giant med flies,” but again not remotely dangerous.              

Anyone want to take a stab at the origin for this term?

         Another cave dumps you into the Forgotten Tombs of Safron. The game can’t decide whether it’s “Sarfon” or “Safron,” but it hardly matters either way. You can spend time exploring the tombs–enemies are generic “guards”–and find the magic cloak, but you don’t need it.            

An unnecessary part of the tomb.

          The tombs exit back to the island, and it’s at the exit that Alcemnon’s clue becomes important. If you choose the obvious “front” side of the exit, the area of the island on which you appear is a dead end. But if you wander around to the back, you head for the endgame.

The last area of the game is a small maze called “Alcemnon’s Home.” To enter, you have to pass some inert demons who kill you instantly unless you’re wearing Sarfon’s Cloak–or unless, as I found out the first time, you simply walk between them diagonally.            

These guardians mean instant death–unless you thread through them diagonally.

         Deep in Alcemnon’s Home, you find a flare gun. The moment you touch it, you get a message that you fired it. “Welcome back to San Francisco,” a screen congratulates before telling you your final score.            

But I left my heart on the Forgotten Island.

          The entire thing took less than an hour. I was astonished at how fast it was over, and I can’t imagine why any player would need take advantage of its save capability. House of Usher and Beneath the Pyramids were both at least somewhat replayable. The best I can give it on a GIMLET is 10, with 1s across the board except for NPCs (0) and quests (2).

Benioff wrote Quest for Power for Crystalware during the same year, plus The Crypt, The Nightmare, and The Bermuda Experience in 1982. He also ported several of John Bell’s games. At some point, the Bells must have sold their entire catalog to Automated Simulations (soon to be renamed Epyx), because new versions of the Crystalware titles were issued by Automated Simulations as early as 1982. Almost all of them were renamed. The Crypt became Crypt of the Undead; The Nightmare became The Haunted Palace; Quest for Power became King Arthur’s Heir; and The Forgotten Island became Escape from Vulcan’s Isle. The republished version has Epyx’s traditional production values; honestly, the manual, full of sound and fury and quotes from Dante and The Island of Doctor Moreau, is all a bit much for such a trite game. The game itself is completely identical except a different title screen and font.        

Escape from Vulcan’s Isle is the same game as The Forgotten Isle, just with a different publisher.

          If Marc ever makes it here, I guess I shouldn’t expect a life-changing Patreon subscription or “Man of the Year.” But his creation seems so much like Crystalware’s other titles–which are beginning to feel highly formulaic–that I wonder how he knew the Bells and ended up programming a game with such a similar look and feel. At least he didn’t suggest some greater mystery beneath the surface.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-342-the-forgotten-island-1981/