Dragon View - a Kemco joint

aturtledoesbite · #61 07-03-2013, 08:58 PM

Eh, go ahead and buy it. Mysterious bags always contain valuable rewards! Unless they're monsters-in-a-bag. In which case, the experience is its own reward.

Either way, it's a win-win, so buy it!

Guild · #62 07-04-2013, 02:13 AM

Update 8.1: The old man in the well.


Bag get! It increases some of our capacity, but not all. Yeah! Finally broke North Cave open. Worth five visits? Yes. Totally. Alright! Love this guy! With the Guardrak converted into the Soldrak, we can now open these chests from very early in the game. The dragons speak to us again. I've been to Neil before, and I heard a groan coming from a well there. I also found a stump outside the town leading to a cave called Old Well. Assuming that's my next destination, and now with the statue-pushing gloves equipped, I return there. Sure enough, progress is made. An illegible tablet, a mysterious dragon skeleton, and an HP upgrade! After about 10 minutes of circling around fighting, I finally figure out those things in the wall are arrows, and that it's a clue. I plunk an arrow into the dragon skeleton and a bridge closes the cap so we can progress. The old man is the one the letter Qunos wrote was addressed to. Katarina, it seems, is the descendant of the hero who, long ago, sealed the Mouth of the Underworld...

Guild · #63 07-04-2013, 02:22 AM

Update 8.2: Why Katarina?! and a fairy guide.


The fairy is an equippable item. When used, she appears and zooms around in the forest, showing us the proper path through the magical labyrinth of trees.

Guild · #64 07-04-2013, 02:48 AM

Update 8.3: Journey to the Mountain.


This sign warns us that taking the path without a blessing will warp us back to this sign. Mt. Badsel. I assume this is the final area, since the Mouth of the Underworld is supposed to be at the top.

Guild · #65 07-04-2013, 03:03 AM

Update 8.4: The tough climb to the Mouth of the Underworld.


The only new graphic while climbing the mountain are these two ropes we must balance on. Destroying certain rocks yields 70 jade. There's a new enemy atop the rainy mountan; a scythe-wielding demon who looks like a grim reaper. He tosses whirlwinds at us but we can 2 shot him easily enough. Previously I'd talked to a man who asked for an MP refill crystal. When I gave one to him, he laughed and disappeared in a puff of smoke. I was assuming we'd been ripped off and/or we'd be rewarded later. I was half right. New item, a heart container hidden in a tree (!! should have checked MORE trees?!), and more health. Love that health! This rock required a 3-star charge of Lightning to destroy. More health and MP. Rockin! There is a fire cave below I remember entering but it ended in a dead end. It turns out to be a quick return path to the main part of the island, and this area is both the way forward, requiring Fire Boots to pass through, and a way back. It's filled with old bosses which we use Hauza's special attack to defeat handily. Most of them are 4 to 5 shot kills. Giant scorpions, fire Djinn and the mace-wielding demons who talked of betraying Argos early in the game. Armor now level 4. And here we are at the Mouth of the Underworld, which the Forest Guardian showed Giza and his minion Argos passing through in update 8.3. I'm pumped up to invade hell!

Guild · #66 07-04-2013, 03:17 AM

Update 8.5: Death of a loyal friend, and his dying wish and final sacrifice to humanity...


The demon strikes Argos, who falls prone. Argos' scepter lands in the earth. Typo! Should say "accepted." IMHO This game is shockingly well written. Kudos to the localization team. The average game doesn't shock me with a typo because they're more frequent than this. /mood breaking editory's pedantry Argos' scepter transforms into an engraving that heals and saves our game.

Guild · #67 07-04-2013, 03:43 AM

Update 8.6: Katarina is dead.


Giza was a kind and powerful acolyte of Keire temple, where he met Argos. Together they mastered many forms of magic. When Giza's sister died, Giza fell into a madness and Argos, ever the empathetic friend, fell with him. His dying wish is for us to save his dear friend's soul, as well as humanity itself... After talking to the 8 dragons and converting Guardrak into Soldrak, every town on the island became wracked with plague. Many NPCs were missing. I intentionally kept this a secret until now. It was this phenomenon, a result of the foul winds of the Mouth of the Underworld blowing across the island, which snapped Argos out of his trance-like obedience to Giza, waking him up to the horrors of what they were sacrificing in their quest for ultimate power and immortality. Many are dead, and Argos knows he has been arrogantly myopic in following the insane wizard Giza. The Underworld is a dark place filled with nothingness and bones. Various palette swapped foes from the game make appearances. I waste no time with leveling; we are already powerful enough to 2 shot most enemies here. The center of the Underworld is a temple of evil erected by Giza for the sole purpose of transforming the Prime Orb into a weapon of mass destruction so that he can achieve immortality, his final revenge for the Gods who abandoned his dear sister and him when he needed them most. The area is filled with mage palette swaps who wield ice, lightning and fire and are nigh immune to magic, as well as imps. We can 2 shot all of them. There are whirling dervishes which take 4 shots with the sword to kill. Everything drops 3 items minimum, but our health dwindles and I'm forced to use all of our healing potions and most of our MP recovery items navigating this evil place. The major mechanic of this dungeon is the rainbow-doors which lead in dozens of dead-end directions necessitating nearly an hour of exploration and floors full of holes which warble and warp in phases, sometimes calm and other times vibrating distractingly. Falling in this dungeon while navigating these oscillating holes is tentamount to falling back to the start: It happens twice and I rewind both times, because screw that. We're in pretty bad shape as it is, almost out of healing items and barely surviving each room, squeaking by on the occasional heart drop and sometimes rewinding to refight a room for better drops. Here is an example of the two extremes of the warpy floors; I often fast-forward to when they are still to help us cross them. The physical landing spots don't warp, but their visual representations do. It's disorienting to say the least. We are pissed the hell off, out of healing items (?) and feeling our doom approach with every second spent in the presence of this psychotic madman. With nothing to lose, it's time to try Giza's strength in his hour of greatest power. There is no other recourse now. It's victory or the annihilation of all humanity.

Guild · #68 07-04-2013, 04:10 AM

Update 8.7: Giza again attempts to thrash us with his magic, but this time...


In our last confrontation with Giza he opened with this same attack. It is a level 1 fireball, but this time when he shoots it at us we deflect it with our sword easily. Like swatting a gnat. Giza launches what I can only assume is the level 3 fireball at us; a phoenix. Again, same as before, and again we neutralize the attack, this time by simply absorbing it harmlessly. We've grown immensely since last we met Giza. Oh really, Giza? We have allies now. Our fireball, a level 1 fireball no less, strikes Giza's light shield and a few tense moments of struggle ensue. It breaks through and Giza is blasted onto the ground! For the second time Giza attempts to levitate us and bash us into the ceiling and floor, but this time we spin free and land on our feet, ready to fight. Will our second attack land?! Stay tuned to find out, dear reader!

Guild · #69 07-04-2013, 04:28 AM

Update 8.8: Fruit saves the world... ?


Giza blocks us again and we flip over his head. He launches a unique fire spell at us but we shake it off, shocking him to the core. Screencaps don't capture the action accurately, but we slash him and he drops to his knees... The fight with Giza is immense. We have several MP refills left, but he is immune to all magic. Hauza's special attack is the only thing that can hurt him. My greatest failure in this LP is trying to screencap Hauza's special attack, a thing I promised to showcase previously. I'm so sorry! It's way cool and you should play this game just to see it. During the fight, even with rewinding and other cheaty shenanigans, I'm forced to rely on our 49 fruits to heal up. Here we have a situation that is incredibly ironic; previously we'd met a wizard at the top of Mt. Badsel who offered to trade us 50 fruits for an armor upgrade. While it may have made this fight somewhat easier, we had only 49 since trading for the bag (aturtledoesbite's doing!), and I wonder now if we'd have been forced to trek back down through the fire pits to the mainland for more healing items in order to beat Giza. By hiding behind the pillars at the top of the room from Giza's various charge attacks and missiles, I'm able to spam the fruits and regain health, barely surviving this fight (again, even utilizing rewind shenanigans, we barely survive) and ending Giza's reign of terror. Hail to the Forest Goddess and her bounty! Uhoh!

Guild · #70 07-04-2013, 04:40 AM

Update 8.9: Judgement and mercy.


Giza plans to convert all energy in the omniverse into the evil waveform, killing all sentience but allowing him absolute dominance over everything that has ever and will ever exist.

Guild · #71 07-04-2013, 04:51 AM

Update 8.10: A sister's love.

Guild · #72 07-04-2013, 05:04 AM

Update 8.11: Forgiveness and reciprocation.


Giza opens his cloak and his sister's soul disappears into it. A familiar voice rings out into the destitute blackness of our world...

Guild · #73 07-04-2013, 05:16 AM

Update 8.12: The future's looking bright, but suddenly...


over. (bad screencap) Can I just interject to again praise the localization of this game? I'm a little bit madly in love with Katarina after that line myself, if only because I'm at least twice as clueless as CODPIECE and totally relate to this moment. On the other hand, I'm totes into this game, so maybe my objectivity is warped here. The walls begin to shake, and it seems the entirety of the Underworld is in flux.

Guild · #74 07-04-2013, 05:29 AM

Update 9: Dragon View.


We are sucked into the orb... ...and returned to Keire Temple.

Guild · #75 07-04-2013, 05:45 AM

Update 10: Credits and epilogue.


After beating the game, I researched the chronology of the Drakken series a bit and discovered a few interesting facts: Katarina's ancestor was the hero of Drakken I, a wizard (?) who originally sealed the Mouth of the Underworld and saved the world from demons. CODPIECE is a hero prophesied to save the world at the end of that game (?). Together the lovers form a dynasty which rules over the surrounding land for many generations, and a new adventure is planned starring their ancestor, but I don't know as of this post whether or not the sequel was released. If it was, I doubt the same team was involved, and I'd be thrilled to play it and discover it was even half as good, but I can't find evidence it was ever made. Too bad! This was a great game, honestly. Just good all over. Anyway... Two guesses as to why I screen captured all the graphic designers. Both of them had better be right or you're BANNED from my next LP!!1eleven There wasn't a sequel, was there? Please tell me there was/n't. I'm not sure which answer I'd appreciate more, honestly.

Guild · #76 07-04-2013, 05:53 AM

Update 10.2: Epilogue cont.

Guild · #77 07-04-2013, 06:00 AM

Update 10.3: Epilogue cont.

Guild · #78 07-04-2013, 06:10 AM

Update 10.4: Fin.


I'd like to thank everyone who encouraged me, everyone who felt nostalgic for this excellent game and all the people who shared personal stories about this game during my LP, as well as all the other commenters. Thanks for reading, and please don't hesitate to post your thoughts... especially if you read the whole thing, whether your comments are positive, negative or otherwise, as feedback is all important in this medium. I did this because I love video games and YOU, dear reader! LP brought to you by ZSNES, Imageshack and Windows 7. All rights reserved by copyright owners. A Vector Productions joint.

aturtledoesbite · #79 07-04-2013, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Yep. The name of a hero. Most definitely.

Guild · #80 07-06-2013, 08:09 PM

This thread has been re-spoilerpopped for your loading convenience.

Lucas · #81 07-07-2013, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aturtledoesbite

Yep. The name of a hero. Most definitely.

This LP sure was a thing, but that moment right there made me laugh out loud at a terribly inopportune time of night.

Guild should do the original Drakkhen now and let us know if he considers it a worthy predecessor.

Guild · #82 07-07-2013, 08:45 AM

haha it made me laugh too

Hm. I think I *will* play it eventually and maybe add that LP to the end of this one maybe.

Sarge · #83 07-10-2013, 05:59 PM

Thanks for this! Now I'm tempted to go drag out that half-finished playthrough from a few years back and polish it off. (I've beaten the game twice before that, the first emulated and the second on the legit cart.)

Guild · #84 07-12-2013, 01:49 AM

You're so welcome, it was a pleasant surprise to enjoy this! This really is a great game. I'd rate it at least an 8.5/10 now that the glow has faded. Just super good.

Yimothy · #85 07-12-2013, 08:35 AM

Nice LP, Guild!

Guild · #86 07-15-2013, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yimothy

Nice LP, Guild!

NICE?! you didn't read it obvs!

Jk hahaha thanks! I guess I'll make a few more since they are interesting to a few people. If you want to read someone actually entertaining though, check out TE-Ryan's latest LP which is off to a great start and has awesome art so far. I'm curious as hell what the gameplay will be like.