I picked up Octomania on impulse when I snagged my copy of Baroque, remembering my early curiosity about how the game was played. Well, I understand that now, but there is much about the game that is otherwise baffling to me. I mean, when I first powered the game on in my Wii, this is the first thing I saw (in 480p widescreen, no less):
The only difference between this and the US version opening is localized text. The song is the same, in all its hideous piercing glory. Tako tako, takoyaki takoron, koron koron koron...
Now the game... actually, it was interesting reading Sardius's take on Yoshi's Cookie in his Virtual Console round-up, because Octomania's prime dysfunction as a puzzle game is quite similar to Yoshi's Cookie. There is a level at which the gameplay descends into ridiculous, arbitrary madness... but is actually kind of fun because of that, and weirdly compelling.
I finished the main Table Mountain quest of Shiren the Wanderer DS about two weeks ago, while taking a little break when finishing up another assignment. I don't clearly remember exactly what it was at the moment, but my memories of the battle against Tainted Insect and the ending sequence are crystal clear. It says perhaps too much about my personal priorities.
I left myself a list of notes about what levels I was going through and what happened in them, but most of it before level 30 is was so sparse that I can't make any more sense of them. So, I'm just going to finish off the diary with my general impressions of how to survive the last Table Mountain levels, and my recollection of the battle with the final boss. Aren't you excited? It all starts behind the cut.
Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
During a Brawl break earlier today, we finished up all of the unlocks of stages and characters for Brawl. I'm not "done" with the game-- are you ever really done with a party game or a fighter?-- but I feel like talking a bit about what I've played so far. Spoilers ahoy if you look at anything after the cut!
I played through the vast majority of SSE in co-op. There were roughly three levels, platform-heavy ones, where it wasn't viable at all to have a second player active. Those were solo'ed, and then the Great Maze and the final boss were defeated in co-op mode.
I was warned countless times by friends that the Great Maze was horrible and the death of fun. Actually, it's probably the stretch of SSE I enjoyed most, since it seems to be the part of SSE actually designed with co-op play in mind. Granted, we played with Kirby, Metaknight, Dedede, and Pit, and so spent most of SSE just flying over obstacles and annoying enemies.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Sorry these fell off for so long, folks. Blame old Game Boy games and Brawl. I haven't forgotten our intrepid Wanderer, though, who I believe I last left in the depths of Table Mountain.
I don't have a usual diary to share with you, because... well, remember what I said about progress becoming incremental? I've only made it two or three levels past the Stream Village, and not in any sort of fashion worth writing about. I started dying a lot in ways that weren't worth reading about. So, go read this new @Play article about newbie mistakes. It's excellent and if you're struggling, it is going to be able to tell you exactly what your mistake is. (Mine was "Kept wasting good equipment on killing Skull Wraiths in level 26.")
After getting that "Wow, I'm not playing this game right at all" feeling, I decided to go focus on a feature I'd been neglecting for awhile to try and regain focus. So I've set aside the drive to Table Mountain for awhile to focus on a feature I had previously been ignoring: rescues.
Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
I've had really good luck with this run, but I expect you guys are tuning in to see it just as it peters out. I've unlocked the all-important Melding Jar by advancing Gaibara's subquest, and gotten the restaurant at the Mountaintop Village going. My big problem is food-- while the Armor Ward is wonderful for improving survivability, I'm not getting enough in the way of Big Riceballs on this run to keep myself from starving. If the lack of food doesn't end up killing me, it's going to be taking my shield off that does.
It's a shame, because my shield now is pretty awesome. I've melded together the Gold Shield that doesn't rust with an Armor Ward and a random Wood Shield with a +2 bonus to create an incredibly potent piece of defensive equipment. I've shredded through the game thus far, but I expect that a lack of good weapons on this run is going to catch up with me as the Table Mountain monsters get nastier. Let's see if I'm right about how I'll die this time, shall we?
I thought my luck couldn't possibly have improved after the blessed run I had last time that went abruptly sour, but things actually got quite a bit better. One of the features of Shiren is that certain chains of events that you initiate tend to pay off on down the line, after a series of deaths. One of those chains of events unlocks an adventuring partner for you, named Blinding Oryu. True to her name, she can blind every monster in a room at will, and can powerfully punch her way through monsters.
I've had Blinding Oryu in my party for awhile now, and the result is that I'm sitting at level 11 and have gone through very few items in the course of picking off the enemy. It helps that I have a Polearm+5 and am carrying an Armor Ward, a powerful shield that also causes you to burn through food more quickly. At this point, the remote possibility of running out of Riceballs and starving to death is really my only worry. Anyway, let's pick up at floor 14, shall we?
Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
A run full of good luck has taken back to where I last managed to get myself Death Reaped, the depths of the Old Mine. This is a tricky part of the game that can quickly turn lethal, but usually doesn't give me much trouble. Under ordinary circumstances, I should've utterly cleaved my way through this part of the game, but... well, as you'll see, the status quo is the last thing you should count on in Shiren the Wanderer.
Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
Everybody, even the Washington Post, likes Brawl. There's a good chance that even your girlfriend likes Brawl, because it's just so easy to pick up and play.
So how are the character tiers shaking down in your homes? Who are the favorites and the anti-characters? Where I am, Samus and Zelda are frequently treated as "too good" characters; being able to effectively swap movesets mid-combat between their two forms seems to dominate the game. No one's really trying anti-character stunts yet, but Metaknight is pretty popular when desperation sets in.
I'm especially wondering if you're noticing any characters handle SSE's platforming sequences better than others. Right now Kirby seems to have an easier time ferreting everything out of a stage than anyone else. Which makes sense--a lot of the SSE level design is very similar to a Kirby game, and just runs into the problem of most characters not being Kirby.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
When we left Our Hero, he was dead in a ditch. The magic of roguelikes is that you immediately get better and get to have a second go at it from the start.
Things have gone pretty well since my last crawl. I've been able to advance some NPC quests, gathered up some decent gear, and had better luck. So, I've passed the Mountain Stream area that killed me next time, and gotten into Mystery Dungeon's next town.
Now, you may think "Ah, this is where she will save her progress, so now she can start over in this town," and you are completely wrong. The towns are basically just waystations, and I'll have to claw my way back here upon death.
Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
I love Shiren the Wanderer DS. I'm not especially good at it, yet, but I also never played the popular fan-translation of the SNES version. If you want to read Shiren diaries written by a more advanced player for the SNES version, go here. Just bear in mind that some of the SNES tricks don't work now.
What I want to demonstrate here is Shiren's amazing depth. This is a game I expect to be playing, off and on, for the next year or two before I "beat" it, insofar as beating Shiren is possible. So I'm just going to recount what I do and accomplish on a single Shiren the Wanderer DS run, and ramble a bit about the game mechanics as I go.
While I have a DS screencap unit, it, uh, dislikes retail carts, so I do not have screencaps for you fine people. Sorry! When I do my inevitable Baroque diaries, I should be able to take actual screens.
Anyway, let's get started...
Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
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