There has to be something here I can hit...Let's Play The Sword of Hope

Theo is currently carrying (and can USE):
- 7 each of Barley, Wheat and Herb (restore HP and MP)
- Key M, Key S, Key C (keys to each of the domain gates)
- Ruby (the magic charm that hurts vampires)
- Magitext (lists our spells)
- Trtfruit (Treant's fruit, restores all HP and MP)
- Doll (Sometimes gives a strength boost in battle)
- Spore (Puts enemies to sleep in battle)
- Ring (Talk to images in ponds)
- FairyLmp (Who knows?)

USE the RING to talk to the doors?

FairyLamp or cast Grace?

Sword of Hope Post #19 – The Underground

They’re just as unpleasant as you remember. BAGEFIRE does nothing, LIGHTNG gets reflected. ARCTIC works, but they have around 100 HP, so it’ll still take three castings to down them. And they have a ton of stamina, so physical attacks are fairly ineffective, even at level 21.

Because of Druids and a general need to be at a higher level for later parts of the underground, I opted to do some grinding in between sessions. Camu’s domain is a great place to do that once you’re armed with the Wish sword and Platinum armor, because nothing is a big threat and you can kill big groups quickly. (Battles rarely took more than two rounds, many only took one.) The group of two SHADOWs and an ORC is best, because it gives 70+ experience.


Level 20 means Theo learns RECMAX, the most powerful healing spell and a critical asset in the final areas.


Level 20 stats.


Level 21 teaches PILLAGMP (which we’ve already seen monsters use), which steals MP and gives it to the caster. Part of the key to having sufficient longevity for the final sequence is learning what monsters to cast this on. (It works on DRUIDs, but they’ll beat you to death while you’re trying to recover MP from them, so it ends up being a wash. Single MYCONIDs are generally the best target.)


Level 21 stats.


Interim password.

Back to the underground!


This is a HAG. They can cast RECMED and PILLAGMP, the former making it a pain to beat them to death, the latter costing you precious resources. And they repel your PILLAGMP spells, in case you got any clever ideas. You can kill them with physical attacks easily enough, though.




If only I had any use for gold at this point in the game, and/or I didn’t max it out so quickly.

(Indications that parenthood has destroyed my brain: I’m filled with desire to say in a cutesy voice, “Where’s the gold? There’s the gold!”)


Nope.


Double Nope.


That’s the ticket!

(There’s so much good stuff here. The fact that using the RING to cause the doors to talk was apparently what we expected. The fact that random doors in a cave can talk at all. The fact that Theo/the narrator calls out the noise as the problem with having such doors in your home, rather than the squickiness of being propositioned by your doors!)

Now, the north door is, in fact, the correct one, but we’ll explore the other paths first.


Going west leads to this closed-off room.


These rocks LOOK suspicious.


I can break them with a solid HIT.


The path leads to this chest.


I’m going to need to find some ivy seeds to get past a closed gate somewhere.

Going east from the talking door room leads to this cave network.


North is another of these rooms.


But smashing the rock reveals nothing.


Further east is a four-way room.


Following the path north leads to a chest.


Which hides a black marketer. He sells healing items at inflated prices, though you’re close enough to the forest shop at this point that you really have no need to buy from him.

Here’s another bit of support, incidentally, that life in Riccar continues even under the oppressive rule of the evil king: Apparently enough people traverse this underground path to make running a black market operation profitable. (Presumably there are other entrances to it besides under the old man’s mill.)


Going straight south from there leads to a second chest.


This one contains a yellow fruit. Protip: Don’t eat the yellow fruit.


Returning to that 4-way and going south leads around a similar-looking screen and then warps us back to the talking doors.


As I said before, going north is the correct choice. It leads to a cave.


Continuing north leads through several more screens of cave. We can go east here, but it’ll just warp us back to the talking doors again.


Go all the way north, then west to find this two ivy vines.


Here’s a map of the area, courtesy of the Nintendo Power player’s guide.


And here’s our current password, after a DRUID kills me and I need to go heal up.

There are two important things here: ONE, there’s something we need to do that I’m hoping you can guess. TWO, we need a vote as to whether we climb the R VINE or the L VINE. This will determine what we encounter through the next segment of the final dungeon.

L VINE or bust! Anybody but R VINE 2014!

Also, try HITting the vines to see if we can get ivy seeds from them.

But why is the yellow fruit so bad? Show us. USE Y FRUIT. Also OPEN the VINES. And yes, climb L VINE.

You probably should HIT something. HIT the MERCHANT. If he can survive somewhere with Druids he obviously has some sort of mad survival skills.

Sword of Hope Post #20 – The Choice(s)

Sorry for the delay, folks. Snowstorms and sick babies.




First things first, as per the clue in the chest, we’re going to need some ivy seeds. We can get them by (as Felix suggests) trying to OPEN either VINE.
And then, by majority rules, we’ll be climbing the L VINE.


Climbing the L VINE leads to this room. The R DOOR is too heavy to open.


North of there, we find these three dwarves.








Each of them have something to say, and you need to speak to the R and L dwarves to open the paths in each direction.


Hidden path? We’ll check it out.


As should be obvious by now, we need to HIT the rock to reveal the path.


That path leads around the corner and…




We fall and land back at the three doors. Heckuva hidden path, that is.

So we circle back, go right, and head for the abyss.




Down the hole!


If you head west from here, it leads to a ladder up a hole (with air blowing up the hole so you can’t go back down), and then back through the very heavy door just south of the dwarves. It’s a dressed-up one-way path.


So the correct route is to jump into the abyss, then head east.


That leads to the river.




LOOKing at SURROUND and the RIVER offer us six different options of how to cross.

There’s an optimal choice here, but I’d like to see what you folks vote for. I’ll show off whichever methods people want to see.

(Upon reflection, I wonder if there were supposed to be two different rivers, hence the two different sets of choices, and they were combined at some point for space reasons. That, and the working passenger ferry is…very problematic at this point in the narrative, given we needed to fight through a twisting maze and jump into the abyss to get here, and the only thing past here is the cursed royal castle. Apparently there’s enough commerce via this underground river to justify a ferry? Maybe it goes to other locations that the black marketers frequent?)


But for right now, let’s pretend that I just leapfrogged over that, because…


Up this corridor a little ways is another important choice.




This door is unusual and can be pushed or pulled. Which should I do?


Here’s the Nintendo Power map of the area we just explored. Smaller than it seems, eh?




Because eating it drains your MP. It’s the only item in the game that has a “cursed” effect.


You can also throw it at enemies in battle, though it’s not a particularly effective weapon.


Yes, he responds to my attempt to hit him by running away really fast.


He’s more talkative when I try to OPEN him, though.




Did I mention I gained a level? Nothing noteworthy happens at level 22, though.


Current password.

Okay, which way do we cross the river, and then do we push or pull the door? Taking all votes!

Swim, Pull

This is obviously the best option.

Caulk the wagons...err, Ferry!

Pull is obviously correct though.

Oh, wow, how did I miss an opportunity for that joke?

FORD THE RIVER!

Cross on the rocks, then try using the ring on the door before hitting it open.

Use the rocks

Pull/pulk revolving doors

Obviously you need to take the suspicious ferry in a land where the vast majority of the population has been turned into trees. Nothing can possibly go wrong!

After that we'll need to introduce some danger into our lives and hop on the rocks to get to the other side of the other river.

No matter what doors always move the opposite way you try, but I say push just for the hell of it.

Sword of Hope Post #21 – Entering the Castle

So, how are we going to cross the river?


We can try the suspicious ferry.


As Theo doesn’t have a ticket—and can’t lie about it—they make him work for passage. (Stone faced crew in the middle of nowhere…are they zombies? Zombie ferrymen?)


It’s really painful work. That zombie sailor really worked Theo hard, wink wink nudge nudge say no more.




How about swimming? Swimming not only hurts, but also doesn’t get us across!




The rocks are even worse!

Then we’ll try out aturtledoesbite’s suggestion:


That didn’t work so well, either.




The best choice is to use the boat. There’s no way to cross without any damage, but this minimizes it.


Next, we’ll PULL this door, as the majority of votes chose.


It leads to another winding cave.


If we go south, then east, there’s a chest.


Not very useful to me, though.


Going east from the previous room gets us to this door.


Which warps us to a central location.


Just south of the castle gate.


But it’s locked. How on earth will we enter?

Here’s what we can see in the area.


West of the gate and north is another black marketer, though this one is very well-positioned: If we’d burned supplies getting from the Old Man’s house to here, this would be a good time to burn gold to replenish them.




South of there dumps us back at the vines.

That’s a pretty short update, isn’t it? Okay, let’s try an alternate route to pass some time.


Climbing the R VINE leads to this foggy path.




The rooms are very repetitive, and warp you around, too. Several of the south paths will drop you down into the ivy room.


It actually doesn’t have an exit, but if you go to the room that gives you this cryptic message…


You can use the FAIRYLMP!






The fairy from the spring—who apparently had been inside the lamp, something that wasn’t really clear before—is able to create a secret passage for me, and warns me about a door that I shouldn’t touch.


Not that this is useful advice. The secret passage leads to north of the river, near the push/pull door, which we have to touch.

This is the Nintendo Power map of the foggy area, complete with useful advice.


So, while we’re here, let’s PUSH the door!


Hunh, this is a similar area, but there’s a chest right in the middle of the floor in the next room.




GRIMROCK (or GRIMLOCK) is the last non-boss enemy sprite we’ll see. He’s actually entirely manageable—vulnerable to all the elements, not terribly strong, and wastes a lot of his turns stealing your gold. I have no idea why he’s a special encounter here—he doesn’t even drop anything.

Totally off-topic ruminations: I think what this game really needed was for the stat-altering spells to scale better, and it needed a Reflect / Silence / Protection from Elements spell (or spells) that you could use against Druids. (And other spellcasting monsters, but mostly Druids.) By this part of the game, most physical attacks don’t really scare you, but special attacks and spells are still a concern. I can chop down MYCONIDS, CENTPEDES and HAGS without much effort, but I’m running from any battle that includes a DRUID because they just aren’t worth the resources they cost me.


Anyway, this area is another small loop.


And if I go through this door…


It warps me to the same central point, just south of the gates, that PULLing the door did.


Here’s the Nintendo Power map of this area, too.


So now: How do I tackle these impenetrable gates?

ahaha the dysentery joke is the best

i love it

An Oregon Trail joke. I dun't believe it.

That's seriously what happens?

This game is amazing.

Yeah, wasn't expecting that at all.

Use the IVY SEED on the wall outside the castle gate.

Sword of Hope Post #22 – Mysteries of the Castle

…Perhaps I should fess up before this gets out of hand. The Oregon Trail joke? I made that. I edited a screencap the same way I knit together multiple screens of text. It isn’t in the game.

Apparently I’m pretty good at making fake screens, though!


So, first off, we’ve got the answer to entering the castle, courtesy of Qu_Marsh: USE the IVY SEED!


It needs a little coaxing. Next time your garden won’t grow, try threatening your plants.


We can climb up to the balcony. The castle is impressively large.


Just off the balcony is the throne room.


South is a cross-shaped hallway.


And west is the Queen’s room.






We can look at the SURROUND, the MIRROR and the CHAIR.


The CHAIR clues us in on what to do…obtusely. Remember when Camu said to “use the charm on site”? this is the site. We need to USE the RUBY.


Well, there’s a lot. There’s apparently a hidden land where my father is, “absorbed in evil”. I’m going to need to get there to find him.

As a side note, the fact they use the same portrait for Camu, the sprite and the Queen is perhaps the thing that annoys me most about this game. (I know—more than the grinding or DRUIDs or the badly-organized upgrades.) Would it be so much trouble to get even one more portrait, so there wouldn’t be confusion between the major female NPCs?


It’s also interesting, upon reflection, how much the game emphasizes that the king is Theo’s father, and Pascal is just “the old man.” Pascal raised Theo from infancy; King Hennessy has been demonically possessed and trapped underground for that entire time. The royal line of succession is pretty much the only thing Theo owes to Hennessy.

And as a father myself, that pisses me off. I HIT the CHAIR!


…yes, I had to do that regardless. We have a new spell that can only be used out of battle. Who knows what it does?


This living room, with a chair and mirror, is east of the cross-shaped hallway.


And north is Theo’s old room. Apparently a “self-portrait” (done in fingerpaints?) is here. Hopefully Theo would be more handsome than he could draw as an infant!

South of there is the bathroom.




If I OPEN the FAUCET, Theo gets a face-full of green water that heals 30 HP.


South of the cross-shaped hallway takes us downstairs, where there’s a large central area.


West is the dining room, and north of there is the kitchen.


LIZARDs join the cast of enemies once you reach the castle, along with the MYCONIDs, CENTPEDEs, HAGs and (of course) DRUIDs we’ve been seeing this whole time. They aren’t a threat.




We can find Theo’s baby picture in the study to the easy of the entry room. South from there is a one-way exit back to the castle gate.


Here’s the Nintendo Power map of the Castle.

Afterwards, because we’re just short of the endgame, I warp over to Camu’s Domain to grind. At this point, the ORCs, BOGLEs and LIZARDs in the pagoda aren’t really threatening at all and give the best experience of available “safe” areas. (Anywhere there are DRUIDs—which includes all of the final dungeon areas—isn’t safe.)


Mimics by this point in the game all turn into D MIMICS, incidentally. They aren’t really threatening, though, as they mostly just hit you for minor damage or cast STRIPALL. I kill the one in the pagoda a bunch of times as I climb up and down looking for encounters.


Then I hit level 23, the last noteworthy level. This is where Theo learns his last spell, XPLOSION2, which blows up everything except him. It’s expensive but powerful, and might save you against a group of DRUIDs.


Level 23 stats.


Current password. I suspect I’ll grind bunch more levels “off-screen” just to make my life easier against the final boss.

What is the SECRET of the castle?

you shouldn't have told us

now i am sad

this is your fault

I don�t remember ever talking to Theos mother (or her ghost? Do we even know that she is dead?). I also don�t remember the kitchen at all. Strange, when I think about how I have everything from the outside world memorized.

They tried that in the second game. That resulted in the creepy girl with the bug-eyes. These people aren�t very good at drawing women.

Anyway, now that I have no idea how to proceed I can finally take a real guess. Maybe cast the spell SECRET in the room with the mirror? And can you OPEN or HIT anything in the kitchen? If yes, please do so.

Open everything in the kitchen, then hit it! You're not getting any food today, demon dad and the crazies you invited to the castle!

Cast SECRET in the room with the mirror, I guess, since that's supposedly where Dear Old Dad is.

Sword of Hope Post #23 – The Mirror, The Rose Garden and The End

I had been thinking I’d delay this a little, but then we had this snowstorm come through, and I’m going to have a crazy weekend, so you know what? Let’s put this bad boy to bed right here and now.

I’m going to admit, I didn’t think there would be so much excitement over the kitchen. I’m sorry you’re all about to be disappointed by it. It almost makes me want to fake up another joke event…but I won’t. (And I’m sorry for making you sad, aturtledoesbite!)


Here’s what we see in the kitchen.


LOOK at the CARPET. (Who has a carpet in their kitchen? That sounds like it would be hellish to keep clean.)


LOOK at the CABINET.


We can change the image if we OPEN the cabinet, but there’s nothing to find. (…Though it occurs to me to wonder if this changes if you aren’t full up on barley, wheat and herbs, which I was. Hunh. Hindsight.)


You can HIT the contents of the room, but it does nothing.


Just in case you wanted to see if the SECRET spell affected the queen’s mirror: It doesn’t.


There’s something strange about this mirror, though.


Sure enough, Felix and Qu_Marsh, using SECRET here reveals the truth—a hidden path behind the frame!


It leads to the Mirror World, aka the true endgame of Sword of Hope.


We can look around, but most of the rooms match the real castle.


Most of the chests are D MIMICs.


If you look at the railing of the balcony, you’ll fall into the mysterious black gas, which warps you back into the real castle.


Your mother’s room has nothing sentimental about it.

The mirror-kitchen is functionally identical and just as boring as the real one, except for this chest.


Which is full of totally useless gold.


The letters in the book are backwards, but you can’t read anything useful here. The mirror castle is mostly a space-filling area, not nearly as interesting as it could be. It would be nice if it more clearly reflected the warped worldview that the dragon has projected on the king, maybe with some crazed writings or “nasty” memories of Theo or the queen.


This is the Nintendo Power map of the full castle, including the mirror section.


When exit the mirror castle, instead of a gate, you find the rose garden.


It’s a repeating path of endless roses.






The roses can talk, too, just like the trees could. It’s not clear whether they were once people, though. My money is that they’re some sort of spirits created by the same magic that creates the mirror world.


These roses are filthy liars.


OPEN them to find that out.


Which leads to our final maze of caves.


Complete with one-way passages, of course.


And rocks you can HIT and break.