The enemy is felled by an intensely powerful blow! Climbing the Dark Spire.

[JBear]

I'm a bit behind on updating, but I've been keeping notes as I go!

• After a bit of chasing down dead-ends, I found that the pirate ship is back, and empty. Also, it is originally swan-themed, which the pirates have been trying to disguise with a dragon make-over.
• I took the magical swan boat for a ride down the tunnel. These guys literally stole a tunnel of love and started calling themselves pirates. I love it.
• Seems as if it was a one-way trip, so presumably I'll find a way back.
• ...Like, say, almost immediately. It costs 800 gold, though!
• Floor 3, here we come!
• We are not in Kansas anymore. Judging by the music and the decor, I'd better brush up on my MOBA skills, because we junglin'.
• A one-way door onto the new floor so I can't run away if I'm in over my head. Stay classy, Dark Spire.
• Looks like all of the doors here are one-way!
• "People are arguing and it's best not to get involved" is novel as far as plot gates go. Guess our quest will have to wait so we can avoid any social awkwardness.
• I just found an animal trap missing bait, but I seem unable to bait it with nuts to catch a squirrel, much to my disappointment.
• An enemy just dropped a "frilled codpiece". It gives -2 AC, so strap me in!
• Looks like there's a few new things for sale in town now. The innkeeper is also selling molotovs? That's quite the side-business.
• Alright, I bought some jerky in town on a hunch (the enemies on 3F had dropped it, which made me suspicious), and sure enough, the trap can be baited with jerky. It says to "come back later", so I guess I'll have to wait until my next trip to see what I get for my trouble.
• I... think I just stumbled into a teleporter that shunted me back to 2F somewhere?
• Good thing I have a navigation spell prepped. What an... oddly arbitrary spot for it to drop me. Seems like a good opportunity to bail-- the encounters on 3F are still quite taxing for me.
• I just found a tree... time to teach someone tree climbing, mayhaps?
• Update: Much to my disappointment, my dreams of climbing a tree and befriending a squirrel didn't work out, and I also don't seem to be able to cut it down with either of the available axes. Whatever I need to do here, I can't seem to do it now.
• I just found an herb garden. Maybe a place to circle back to once I've taught someone Botany?
• My trap gave me a tusk, which I leveraged to gain an audience with the "shrine maiden".
• Our party was given poison wine, and now I'm fighting kidnappers, accompanied by some kind of beast person.
• The beast person (werewolf?) feels like the closest thing we've had to a full-on boss so far, and provided a good opportunity to try out my single-target lightning spell. It was very effective!
• There seems to be a magic barrier in the room we woke up in after being poisoned.
• The werewolf dropped a ring! I... am hesitant to try it on. Maybe later.
• We found a gourd, which, according to the description, "is also known as a 'fairy's pillow'. In folklore, placing it next to one's pillow will result in pleasant dreams."
• Floor 4! That was quicker than I anticipated.
• Given the music, the decor, and the lighting on 4F, I'm thinking... vampire mansion?
• Apparently the Amazons had offered us as a sacrifice to the "Messenger of God". The sacrifice is always "outsiders" or "slothful men".
• Oh. The messenger is apparently not a werewolf. The werewolf and his cronies are stealing the sacrifices to their actual God, a Hydra. Yikes! I'm reasonably certain that the hydra is hiding in the sealed cave I found earlier.
• The first trip to 4F is pretty short. Note: Goblin Majors are spellcasters!
• I don't think I've mentioned this before, but status effects are very potent and important in this game. Silence in particular seems incredibly effective, and I have yet to see it wear off.

An updated pin list:

Basement
--

• Room with blizzard crystals (3E, 20N)

F1
--

• Collapsing hallway (4E, 0N)
• Guild of Commerce Secret HQ (4E, 3N)
• Generator Room (13E, 6N)
• Doll Room (21E, 20N)
• Sir Emerald Lightning, who sold me an Important Item (7E, 4N)
• MP recovery fountain (13E, 17N)

F2
--

• Gambling Hall (3E, 18N)
• Gambling Nobleman (4E, 19N)
• Rum-soaked nuts (14E, 7N)
• Paper wishing tree (14E, 15N)
• Capsule machine (20E, 15N)

F3
--

• Spring & Chopping tree (1E, 3N)
• Herb Garden (5E, 19N)
• Sunflower Seeds (11E, 9N)
• Magic Barrier Cave (9E, 2N)
• Gourds (18E, 1N)

F4
--

• "Crowley's Palace of Amusment" (8E, 4N)

Outstanding mysteries
--

• Getting to the other side of the collapsing floor
• What to do with the many random key items in my inventory.
• Fixing the power generator (need feed and a squirrel)
• Fixing the elevator (may be the same thing)
• Meaningfully interacting with the Guild of Commerce
• Figure out what to do with Scrap Metal so I can free up inventory space.
• Figure out what to do with the spring and tree on F3.
• Revisit the Herb Garden with Botany.
• Figure out how to enter the sealed cave.

 

[Torzelbaum]

An enemy just dropped a "frilled codpiece". It gives -2 AC, so strap me in!

Uh, is that good? Does this go by early D&D rules?

The beast person (werewolf?) feels like the closest thing we've had to a full-on boss so far, and provided a good opportunity to try out my single-target lightning spell. It was very effective!

"Do you know what happens to a werewolf when it’s struck by lightning?"

 

[Fyonn]

Yeah, it's uses thac0, so you want your AC as low as possible.

 

[JBear]

Fallen behind again, so here's a note dump:

• Looks like my party won't venture into the darkness on 4F because of "anxiety". Big same.
• Ooo, another (paid) teleport to the exit on 4F. That should allow me to probe a bit more greedily.
• I found a doll that I need to finish assembling. I'm confident that my blue ink is one of the items needed, but I don't think I have anything that could serve as "canned sand", so I'll have to come back here later.
• First party wipe in a while-- the fire-breathing enemies on this floor are a problem.
• Oh, hey, my Priest just learned an exit spell. Screw you, paid teleport jerks-- God is my taxi now!
• It seems like # of hits is at least partially a function of level, because I had never hit twice before, but now that they've hit level 10 both my warrior and thief are doing so routinely. I just showed my werewolf ring to a shady carnival barker and he seems to know something about it. It looks like maybe he's poaching?
• And now we're in a maze with teleporters and spinners. Rest assured, I am in my element.
• Someone dropped a Lightning Bow! I don't have my Thief on the back row, but maybe I should consider it...
• Okay, wow, yeah, we're keeping the bow. It shoots arrows of light.
• I really need to figure out how to fix this elevator, because walking up to the 4th floor every time is a pain. I've done it so many times I think I may legit be able to do it blindfolded. Since the elevator only goes to 3F, I'm worried that I may have missed my squirrel somehow...
• I got sucked into a mirror, and now I'm fighting a boss Jabberwock. That was sudden!
• It... dropped a spell book?
• I can leave the spellbook on one side of the mirror and then pick it up on the other side to change it into a necromancy book. I... don't know why I'd want to do that?
• Aaand... that's the stairs to floor 5. There's still more to explore on 4F first, though!
• I just found an "unbirthday" cake. The words "EAT ME" are written on it in colourful frosting.
• I et it, and it left behind some trick candles.
• I just found a small animal hole in the "costume room". To my frustration, none of the items in my inventory are luring a squirrel out of it.
• Well, that just happened. I found the squirrel hiding in the hat of an owl puppet, chased it into the hole, got it drunk on rum-soaked nuts, then let it fall asleep on my dream gourd.
• Text I did not expect to see in this game: "Erotic Panda: This way please." N...no?
• The panda was a stuffed animal. There was also a "hornless unicorn" (read: horse) and an "invisible man" (read: empty cage).
• An imprisoned Amazon just asked me to run an errand for her. I look forward to doing it via elevator!
• I just paid for a safari adventure and got teleported down to 3F, lol.
• Pretty sure I just met a Belmont. Seems like the head vampire needs to be killed with a "Purification Ritual" or "Blood of Absolution", which is to say purified Belmont blood.
• One of the new terrible 4F enemies dropped a new dagger, and I tried giving it to my warrior, and he sometimes kills things instantly with it? Seems good!
• Finally. The squirrel-powered generator, by which I hopefully mean the elevator, is online!
• And it has given me access to new areas on 2F and B1!
• Well, it looks like the imprisoned Amazon is the real shrine maiden, and I need to break her out somehow.
• She shrieked when I showed her my werewolf ring, but otherwise I don't seem to have anything relevant in my inventory. Presumably busting up the werewolf kidnappers will lead me to a way to rescue her then? Conveniently, the new part of the basement seems to be full of werewolves!
• ...The werewolves have poison claws.
• The enemies down here seem generally less scary than 5F, though, so I think I'm in the right place.
• Some goblins dropped a magic wand, and I was briefly excited to use it, but it broke after two uses and didn't actually work, so I don't even know what it was trying to do.
• My useless Rogue is suddenly failing to pick all of the locks down here.
• When I enter one of the rooms down here, I'm told that "there is an overwhelming sense of animosity" and then I'm kick right back out. Okay...
• The next choice of oath for my Warrior seems more consequential. My choices are "no items during battle", "always pray before entering the dungeon", "no changing equipment while in the dungeon", and "no aborting quests". Honestly, I think I could manage any of those, but I went with "no aborting quests", because why would I ever want to do that?
• TODAY I LEARN: the new skeletons in the basement have a chance of causing instant death with their breath attack.
• And one of them just dropped a giant wooden stake. Seems like something to maybe keep in my back pocket for vampires.
• It looks like spells are just quietly guaranteed to fail in the area I'm exploring now? As far as I can tell, there's no way for me to figure out how far the effect extends other than via experimentation.
• It seems like I can still cast inside the rooms, which would be more of a comfort if so many of them weren't filled with awful traps.
• I just found a room that says "Boost nullifier--" and nothing else. I feel like perhaps a description is missing?
• ...and I just got wiped by a bunch of coins in a safe after mapping that terrible area. So much for my wooden stake. Time for a break!

New map pins:

• 4F - Doll that needs "canned sand" (0E, 19N)
• 4F - Prop room (16E, 5N)
• 4F - Imprisoned "angel" (16E, 1N)
• B1 - "sense of animosity" room (17E, 11N)
• B1 - "Boost nullifier" (20E, 18N)

 

[Nodal]

I've been playing this as well. So far everything seems like a valid design choice for the aesthetic they're going for except for one thing: not having any idea what stats weapons have. As far as I can tell there is no way to get any information about this in-game.

 

[JBear]

I've been playing this as well. So far everything seems like a valid design choice for the aesthetic they're going for except for one thing: not having any idea what stats weapons have. As far as I can tell there is no way to get any information about this in-game.

Yeah, that is admittedly a pretty frustrating choice. I've been sorely tempted to just look at a spoiler list, but have been content to just experiment and see what seems to work best. In general, more expensive = better seems to be a good rule of thumb, and I always try out new enemy drops just to see if they do anything obviously new or special.

I'm also finding the opacity of secondary classing to be pretty frustrating, but that's still new, so maybe the game will have something more to offer me in that regard yet (although I'm not holding my breath).

As far as being a "valid design choice", though, I could see an argument for an overall intent of making the player experiment, whether that be through dungeon exploration, weapon choice, or class advancement. Or, conversely, another guiding principle of this game seems to be text > numbers, so maybe they just wanted to hide the math and rely on weapon descriptions, having the player engage with weapons as narrative objects rather than numbers on a stick. I'm not sure I agree with either of those, mind, but there must be some reason that they opted to hide this stuff. They certainly could have made that information available in-game if they decided that they wanted to.

Spoiler: Updates on my progress

• Cripes, that coin battle took some doing. It was several tries before I hit on a good strategy. That's easily the hardest fight I've encountered in the game thus far. It didn't help that all of my persistent party buffs had been wiped and I didn't notice. Not sure if it's the anti-casting properties of the area doing that, or a magic draining trap, or something else entirely.
• I found a well of flames. I threw the blizzard crystal that I found long ago down there to put them out, then sent my rogue to climb down (no idea if the game cared that he has Tree Climbing and Acrobatics skills or not), and he came back up with an hourglass, which sure sounds like "canned sand" to me!
• I just went through a room with a "deafening roar", and the solution was to use marshmallows as earplugs. I guess that's what all that stuff about them being good insulation was earlier?
• Um, a demon just crawled out of a portal to hell to attack me.
• Actually, not quite all of the way, I guess, as the description mentions that it is "protruding halfway out of a rip in space, trying to get through".
• For all of the bluster, it died before even hitting anyone. Okay!
• Whelp, looks like I've done all I can down here for now-- the only door forward requires a special key.
• Found an apple tree up on 5F, and it looks like that tree climbing skill is likely finally coming in handy. It might just be colour, but some grafitti implies that I can take extra apples if I'm "beautiful", and my climber has high Charisma, so I have him grab a few just to see, but nothing seems to happen.
• Just found a "significant-looking cave", which, when investigated, led to a boss battle with 36 killer bunnies.
• I take them out in a single turn with my Mage's new "Extinctio" spell. Seems good!
• I just found the "Grim Reaper Key", which will hopefully open some doors for me, both literally and figuratively!
• I just did a very silly quest in the training ground to unlock secondary classes, but completing it... doesn't seem to have done anything?
• I... think I see? It looks like I need to do a puzzle dungeon each time I want to advance someone to a secondary class? But it looks like they might need to meet the prereqs first, and the game isn't surfacing those at all? They're sure not going to make this easy for me, huh?
• I was able to finish exploring the basement with my new key, but it looks like someone in the party needs to know Necromancy if I want to accomplish anything more down here?
• There doesn't seem to be a necromancy skill available at the guild. Hrm.
• A-ha. But there are a buttload of quests to earn secondary jobs now. I guess I just need to enter the dungeon and then come back?
• Alright, so I passed the test, and unlocked the ability to become a Ranger... and I still have no idea how to do that. >_<
• I think I'm going to save up a bunch of XP to shove into class levels and skills so I can experiment and see what falls out.
• I found the steps to exorcism in the library. Looks like I need to "awaken the spirit" somehow after I create a barrier of fire (light my trick candles) and before I chant the exorcism spell (in my book of necromancy?)
• ...and I just found a "bell of the dead". That should do nicely!
• I just used a forgery writing robot to finish a contract written in disappearing ink that I think I'll be using to liberate an imprisoned angel? Video games!
• I can't coax the angel out of her cage, and when I go to visit the Amazons to see if they can help, they're now nowhere to be found. Frustrating!

An updated pin list:

B1
--

• "sense of animosity" room (17E, 11N)
• "Boost nullifier" (20E, 18N)
• Altar & Casket (8E, 18N)

F1
--

• Collapsing hallway (4E, 0N)
• Guild of Commerce Secret HQ (4E, 3N)
• Sir Emerald Lightning, who sold me an Important Item (7E, 4N)

F2
--

• Gambling Hall (3E, 18N)
• Paper wishing tree (14E, 15N)

F3
--

• Spring & Chopping tree (1E, 3N)
• Herb Garden (5E, 19N)
• Magic Barrier Cave (9E, 2N)

F4
--

• "Crowley's Palace of Amusment" (8E, 4N)
• Imprisoned "angel" (16E, 1N)

F5
--

• Apple Tree (2E, 20N)
• Lycaon brotherhood door sealed by a force (2E, 11N)
• "Space bathed in mysterious light" (14E, 20N)

Outstanding mysteries
--

• Getting to the other side of the collapsing floor
• Meaningfully interacting with the Guild of Commerce
• Figure out what to do with Scrap Metal so I can free up inventory space.
• Figure out what to do with the spring and tree on F3.
• Figure out how to enter the sealed cave on F3.
• Figure out how to coax the angel out of her cage.
• Figure out how to perform an exorcism in the basement.

 

[JBear]

Another update on my progress. Nearing the end, I think!

Spoiler: Updates on my progress

• With the bell in hand, a friendly spirit showed up to help us use the necromancy book, and after a false start with the wrong candles, we successfully performed an exorcism!
• We then got to have a chat with a friendly plot dump ghost, who gave us an amulet to fight Duke Crimson (read: Dracula). Sounds like we're supposed to use the amulet on him, and then destroy his Crystal Skull, which will weaken him. Also, I'll have to remember to hoof it back here to talk to Mr. Plot Ghost afterwards, because apparently that skull has stolen his knowledge.
• It looks like none of my peeps can equip the amulet, so I hope we don't need to do that in order to use it!
• I released our vampire-hunting friend from a prison cell ...and he just joined the party. Whaaa? Looks like this game has guest characters!
• Ooo, an "assassin bow" just dropped. An upgrade over my lightning bow, maybe? (Update: Noooope)
• And we just thoroughly chumped Duke Crimson. I don't know if I was lucky or what, but we silenced him in the first round and then he spent the rest of the fight trying and failing to cast spells. Works for me!
• Quests for our final two secondary classes just showed up. Score!
• Alright, we've got 60-70k XP banked across the board. It's time to experiment and see if we can manage to promote anyone.
• Okay, so it looks like once you've met the requirements for a secondary class, it just shows up as a skill that can be learned for 10k XP. However, the requirements are anything but clear. At a minimum, it looks like they're linked to class level and base stats. Fortunately, I have a character with med-high base stats across the board who is making a good guinea pig.
• Addendum: Some of them also have skill requirements. Also, some skills have class level and/or base stat requirements (which I suspected, but hadn't confirmed until now).
• Alright, after thorough experimentation, it looks like all of my peeps qualify for at least one secondary class, although a couple are short on enough XP to actually learn the skill. I can't manage to make anyone a Ninja or a Wizard, though, for some reason.
• Anyway, it looks like my new party is going to be a Paladin, a Samurai, a Ranger, and a Druid. I've just got the Samurai and the Druid for now, but the other two should follow after a spelunk or two.
• Oh snap, my Druid can use the Assassin bow. That's a big upgrade from a quarterstaff!
• Huh, it looks like the Druid gets a special bonus to AC while wearing a robe, because I was all excited to upgrade his armour but he's having none of it.
• Floor 6 has opera singing. Not something I expected to hear coming out of my DS. The ceilings here are very high. It's a very effective visual. I really feel like I'm walking through a cavernous cathedral.
• I just got wiped out in a single turn by a pack of "venom dragons". I guess the kid gloves are off!
• It didn't take many battles on 6F to get enough XP to make my remaining two characters a Ranger and a Paladin. And my Paladin ought to be able to make good use of this "Saint Mace" I just found!
• Rangers apparently have access to utility skills that increase success rate of fleeing and increase likelihood of getting an ambush. Nice!
• Wow, that new mace is a ridiculous upgrade over literally every other weapon I've seen thus far.
• This new Dragon Lance ain't no slouch either, though.
• Huh, the game just froze/crash. Good thing I hadn't gotten too far yet.
• And after a reset, I'm seeing some corrupted visuals. Uh oh.
• Seems okay for now, though?
• I am only just realizing, after some 40 hours, that attack maneuvers are a function of weapon, not just player class. I think it may key off a combination of the two?
• My Paladin just did 200 damage with his Mace in a single attack. I can count on one hand the number of time I've done over 100.
• I just cut the ear off a giant I killed to sell to the store? Odd thing to introduce long after money has ceased to be a consideration.
• I just found a group of burly men having a caber toss competition, but I need to bring my own caber. I guess I'll have to figure out how to cut down that tree on 3F.
• Rapunzel just let us climb into her tower by letting down her hair. Okay!
• And there's a Tinker Gnome up here!
• Dang, I was hoping he would take my scrap metal.
• Hrm, another crash, on the exact same enemy type.
• Aaand I just had a trapped chest wipe out my whole party with a death beam. Fun!
• I brute-forced a passcode door and found a weird magic device with coloured gems and a conspicuous hole in the middle.
• Huh. And the map shows this tile as a warp tile. Interesting. That's either a bug, or heavily implies what this machine will do once I can operate it.
• I finally repaired the broken floor on 1F! We'll have this tower looking presentable yet.
• My way forward on 6F is being barred by a giant foot that keeps kicking us back into the previous room.
• I think I might be stuck again? Time to follow up on some loose ends.
• I just unlocked level 8 arcane spells with a quest, but they're still not showing up on my list? Maybe I'm not lawful enough.
• 16 STR still isn't enough to chop down a tree.
• Aha, turns out I needed help from our local not-Belmont to talk the angel out of her cage.
• And now she's back home with the Amazons, and we're going to go beat up a god with her as a guest character.
• LOL, it ambushed us and killed her before we even got to act.
• And then my Samurai killed it with a single attack before it got to do anything else.
• And now we have a magic black orb. I think I know a machine I want to try jamming that into.
• Oh, wow, it looks like this teleport machine is going to help us fill in the missing areas on previous floors. Time to start taking notes!
• No gems lit: 6F, new part. (21E, 17N)
• Green gem only: 2F, single tile exit-only room.
• Red gem only: 4F, interconnected single-tile spinner rooms
• trololol, it's a bunch of single-tile rooms with one way exits and spinners on every square.
• ...and traps.
• ...and teleporters.
• All to guard a room full of broken dolls, apparently.
• We beat up a bunch of creepy dolls and got a doll's eye for our trouble.
• Blue gem only: 5F, missing area
• Green + Red gems: B1
• I've already explored this part of B1, but I think this lets me bypass a floor switch that I was forced to step on?
• ...Ayup, I just netted two quest items in quick succession.
• I don't seem to be able to cast 8th level Arcane spells, but I can cast seemingly all of the 9th level ones!
• Green + Blue gems: 1F, middle unexplored area.
• Red + Blue gems: 3F, single missing tile.
• Aha, a bird feather. I bet this is what I need for that giant foot.
• I do believe I have now fully explored every previous floor. Nice!
• All 3 gems: ...Doesn't seem to work? Hrm.
• I've just met the "Goblin King", who seems to be a handsome human.
• Who tells me that the end boss is weak against fire?
• And also tells me his exact location. Looks like there's just one more floor to this tower!
• Apparently we need to "reverse the teleporter's polarity" if we want to reach the 7th floor, as there are no stairs.
• And now we've agreed to put down a goblin uprising for him.
• Some direction on where precisely to do that would be swell.
• Guess I'll just have to thoroughly re-explore the floor. Bah!
• Well, it took me forever to find (I had to use the teleporter to get there), but I do believe that's one rebellion quashed.
• And for my trouble: a white orb. Seems like we have another date with a teleporter!
• No gems lit (white orb): New part of 6F
• Blue gem only: 7F!
• All other gem combos: nothing
• I guess that's it! Onward, to the final floor!

An updated pin list:

B1
--

• Altar & Casket (8E, 18N)

F1
--

• Guild of Commerce Secret HQ (4E, 3N)
• Sir Emerald Lightning, who sold me an Important Item (7E, 4N)

F2
--

• Gambling Hall (3E, 18N)
• Paper wishing tree (14E, 15N)

F3
--

• Spring & Chopping tree (1E, 3N)

F4
--

• "Crowley's Palace of Amusment" (8E, 4N)

F5
--

• Apple Tree (2E, 20N)

F6
--

• Caber Toss (12E, 3N)
• Maintenance Gnome (3E, 1N)
• Teleport Machine (16E, 8N)

F7
--

• Final boss, allegedly (15E, 18N)

Outstanding mysteries
--

• Meaningfully interacting with the Guild of Commerce
• Figure out what to do with Scrap Metal so I can free up inventory space.
• Figure out what to do with the spring and tree on F3.
• Find something for the caber toss.

 

[Yimothy]

Earlier in this thread I mentioned getting outbid on a copy of this. A couple of years later I wound up getting a copy for really more than I should be spending on a video game and I’ve finally gotten around to playing it. I spent quite a while in character creation - decided to go chaotic, so no dwarves for me, though I made my mage an elf meaning they have to be neutral so they don’t get either the law or chaos exclusive spells, which seems like an odd limitation. My first character got quite good stats on the dice rolls, I think (14,14,12,12,14), so I spent quite a while thinking about whether or not to reroll given I didn’t know at the time what good stats looked like. Once I started the other characters I was glad I kept the initial roll - the others only got comparable stats through many many rerolls.

I got through the training grounds with no problems, spent a while tweaking my equipment within what my funds allowed, then hit up the dungeon. In my first encounter (4 bats) which I otherwise won handily, one of the enemies one-shotted my thief (probably should have been in the back row, but I’d hoped their 3AC, well below anyone else in the party’s, would protect them). I got out to town and realised I hadn’t kept enough money for a revival.

 

[Yimothy]

I’ve played a bit more. On my first shot I got out of the dungeon with three of my characters at 599exp, one point short of being able to level up their main class, and the other a bit further behind from having died. I picked up a steel helm from an enemy drop which took my warrior to AC1. I got a couple of new bits of equipment and went back to the dungeon to put them on and save (is there a way to save in town? I can only seem to access the right menu from the dungeon), but it turned out my priest’s weapon was two-handed so equipping my new shield meant removing the quarterstaff so I put the staff back on and wrote off the shield as a waste. Then I explored a bit further, finished the graffiti quest, my thief got poisoned, I accidentally used my only antidote on the wrong character (these menus have a lot of clunk to them in my opinion so far), I used up all my healing spells trying to keep the thief alive before realising that their HP won’t go below 1 from poison while walking around, I got very close to the exit and then a random encounter started, the thief died of poison in the first round, everyone else followed in short order and then I realised that the thing with the shield and the quarterstaff had distracted me and I hadn’t saved. Argh.

Anyway, I picked up my original save again, had a bit of better luck exploring (no steel helm, though), got the levels for my team, and started saving much more regularly. I’ve redone the graffiti quest, fallen to the basement and died in the first encounter (I had saved at the sign saying the floor was unstable so no significant loss of progress), found a secret door, bought an important item that apparently teaches a lesson (I think the lesson is don’t buy stuff from sketchy dudes), found a statue and an elevator that each seem to function as dead ends for now, and reached the second floor. At which point I saved and turned off for the day.

 

[JBear]

lol, some of that sounds familiar:

It seems like I can only save in the dungeon? Odd. I'd usually expect the opposite. I think I'll stick to dropping saves at the entrance.

I consistently seem to have interface issues when using items. It always takes me two antidotes to cure poison: one to fuck up and remind me, and one to use on the correct target. I'm sure I'll get it eventually.

I honestly feel like I kind of memory holed this after I was done with it, but what a great game. Well worth the Too Much Money that I spent on it. (The first and only time I had to sit down and have a chat with my SO to vibe check and see if she was okay with me spending this much on a video game.)

 

[Fyonn]

By the time I seriously played this game, I forgot this thread existed. Otherwise you better believe I would have flooded it. Spent like 150 hours with the game and loved every minute of it. It reminds me of Hydorah in a weird way - it's a modern revisit of a classical format that gave me a much greater appreciation for the things that shine about that format.

 

[Yimothy]

I reread some of this thread before starting the game but started skipping over it to avoid spoilers. Frustrating play session today - I cannot manage either the basement or level 2. Every encounter I’ve faced in those levels has ended in running away or game over. I guess I need to stick to level one until I get another level, then try again, but I’ve explored everywhere I can get to on that floor (I think) so it’s just a grind. I put some exp into my thief’s trap disarming skill, which doesn’t seem to have made any difference other than increasing the time before I can level up again. Maybe I need to manually use the skill somehow?

 

[Nodal]

I reread some of this thread before starting the game but started skipping over it to avoid spoilers. Frustrating play session today - I cannot manage either the basement or level 2. Every encounter I’ve faced in those levels has ended in running away or game over. I guess I need to stick to level one until I get another level, then try again, but I’ve explored everywhere I can get to on that floor (I think) so it’s just a grind. I put some exp into my thief’s trap disarming skill, which doesn’t seem to have made any difference other than increasing the time before I can level up again. Maybe I need to manually use the skill somehow?

I started yesterday too! Ive never gotten very far in it and I'm just now starting to be able to survive in the basement. Almost exclusively due to getting level 3 spells from the wizard. I will say, the one thing that really frustrates me from a not wanting to look stuff up perspective is the equipment. I feel like there's a ton of hidden information that would be incredibly tedious to trial and error info for. I actually looked up the original manual because I was like well of course it'll be in there.

 

[Yimothy]

The previous owner of my copy, to judge from their 1 hour 42 minute save file, never got very far in the game either. I’ve got a bit over two hours on the clock now, though that doesn’t count the many attempts I made to survive a single battle in either the basement or the second level before I finally used my brain on the puzzle with the statue blocking the door on the first level and gave it a helmet. This opened up a whole lot more of the level, which allowed me to explore while fighting enemies I can actually manage, so after going as far as I could before attrition wore me out I’ve managed to get over a thousand gold and enough experience for everyone except the character I put a skill on to get to level three. Which will increase the cost of resurrection and staying at the inn if I’m not mistaken, making me a little reluctant to do it. For now I’ve saved at the exit to the labyrinth.

I’m not sure which way to go with equipment. I’m mostly getting my kills from critical hits, so I feel like the absolute damage I’m putting out doesn’t matter. Sometimes the cumulative damage from several attacks will finish off an enemy, but more often they are felled by an intensely powerful blow. But what influences critical hit chance? Dexterity, presumably. My copy of the game has the manual and I read it before starting, but maybe I should look again now that I have some familiarity with the game, see if it tells me some of this stuff.

Something I’m finding odd playing the game is all the empty rooms and seemingly pointless dead ends. I’m used to games where reaching the end of a path means getting something. I assume it’s the wizardry legacy. I haven’t played early wizardry but I think Bard’s Tale similarly had every tile on the map visitable but many of them empty. I have found a few things, though, most notably two doors, one locked by a mysterious force and the other by a mechanism. I was able to open the mechanism lock with a simple puzzle, beyond which I found a doll’s room with a doll by a hammer and a note asking me to destroy it. I backed out of the menu (prompting something in the room to call me a coward) and saved before deciding what to do, then smashed it. This got me a note saying thanks, and afterwards the other door, previously locked by a mysterious force, was mechanically locked. After reversing the previous puzzle, it opened, and inside I found the item needed for one of my quests.

I’ve also found a fountain which puts out carbonated water which might restore spell points (or I was wrong about my priest being out of MP before drinking but having one charge afterwards) and has something written on it in a language my party can’t read. Come to think of it, I’ve got my warrior at the head of the party for tanking purposes, and they seem to be the one doing the thing whenever there’s an event. I wonder if putting someone with a better intelligence stat up front would allow me to read it?

 

[Fyonn]

If I remember correctly, if there's a stat / skill check, it will ask you who you want to do the thing. If it's a skill check, it's possible it isn't asking because you don't have anyone with the relevant skill, and some skills won't even appear in your level up list until you meet the requirements.

 

[Yimothy]

Yeah, I went back to town, got a level for my mage, and an ancient languages skill opened up. On my next trip I could read the text, and it turns out I wasn’t imagining it giving me MP back, so I made that my base of operations for a while to explore some of level 2 without having to go all the way back to town if I got unlucky in a fight and had to use up all my spells healing.

After a little time in level 2 I took another look at the basement, which I think I’ve now fully explored, at least as much as I can from the entrances I’ve found. I got an ice crystal which I think is a single use attack item, a checklist that will presumably let me operate some machine later on, and a hidden door leading to the secret headquarters of the guild of commerce. I thought this might be where I needed to go to turn in my quest for the thieves guild since I’ve found the item, but I just get kicked out each time I try to enter. I was also expecting the lair of the grave robbers to be down there for the other quest I have open but no such luck so far.

I thought taking a level of warrior for my other characters would let me equip more stuff without penalty but it turns out it doesn’t. The manual talks about six classes you can access by combining base classes, but I guess that must open up later. I’m gradually getting used to the clunkiness of the menus (still wasting an item on the wrong character every time I try to use one, though), but I think they could be a lot better. I kind of like how not having the map on screen all the time forces you to think a bit, and maybe that’s what they’re going for by not letting you see what your characters have equipped on the shop screen or whatever, but it doesn’t work as well for me there. And man I wish I could use the shoulder buttons to move left and right without turning.

 

[Nodal]

I've made it a bit further: cruising through the fourth floor at the moment. My pain points are still mostly equipment related: I still haven't found any mechanism in game to get the info on what equipment does and what is better than what. I'm starting to suspect it might not exist which would be extremely bogus.

 

[Yimothy]

I guess I’m playing pretty slowly: still on the second floor, just found the gambling den. So long as my priest doesn’t get paralysed I can stay in the dungeon pretty well now. I’d like to give my mage a level or two of priest to get access to more status healing, but they’re an elf and so neutral alignment and can’t be a priest. In fact I think I made everyone neutral except for the priest, so nobody can do backup healing. Whoops.

On a side note, my DS’s battery has just gone into the red for the first time since I started playing, with six hours on the clock. I think I bought the console in 2006, and it’s been a couple of years since I used (and charged) it. The battery in there is so much better than any other device I own.

 

[Nodal]

I'm a bit stuck unsure how to progress on the fourth floor. I have some loose threads but none of them seem immediately easy to pull.
Basement: I found a blizzard crystal down here. I also have access to the other side of the elevator but the enemies seem savage.
Floor 1: I know where the Guild of Commerce is.
Floor 2: I found some blue ink, and a wishing tree.
Floor 3: There's a cave with a barrier I can't pass, and wormwood.
And finally on Floor 4: I made my way through the Labyrinth but I probably need to check it again since I didn't get anything.
I also have an unbirthday cake, some anxiety-causing darkness, a doll that seems to need an hourglass (and possibly the blue ink?) and a spellbook.
None of these things seem like they will help my current guild quests either. I guess I need to just poke around and see if stuff has changed since the last time I've been there.

Also Yimothy I know some gameplay stuff you don't, but I'm not sure if you want any kind of info.

 

[Nodal]

I went back to the Floor 4 Labyrinth and poked around: At the exit I found a secret door leading to an enormous hallway. Halfway through the hallway I found a spinner, that I navigated to the end. Looking at the map I determined there was another secret door there leading to a room. In that room...nothing. Absolutely nothing. This is absolute psycho behavior.

Edit: Ok I found the way to Floor 5... If you go towards the anxiety hallway and turn around, you can find a portrait that gives you the clues to make it there.

 

[Yimothy]

Also Yimothy I know some gameplay stuff you don't, but I'm not sure if you want any kind of info.

I will probably cave and end up looking at every FAQ before I finish this game, but for now I’m still trying to do it blind. Thanks for checking.

Edit: unless you know how to move left and right without turning, tell me that if there’s a way.

 

[Nodal]

I will probably cave and end up looking at every FAQ before I finish this game, but for now I’m still trying to do it blind. Thanks for checking.

Edit: unless you know how to move left and right without turning, tell me that if there’s a way.

No, I'm sorry, its with regard to how races and classes work.

 

[Nodal]

Ahahaha omg I just reread my old posts in this thread and I was complaining about the same thing!

 

[Nodal]

Still have old quests floating around that I never found the solution to. Wonder if that's preventing me from multiclassing- new quests haven't shown up in a while.

 

[Yimothy]

I’m progressing on quests but have been worried about missing them. Not sure if like the quests to beat various enemies can be completed before getting assigned the quest? If not, I worry I’ll have already explored the otherwise uninteresting area of map where the enemies lurk before I get the quest and will never go back and find them. I just beat the ghosts and got the coin assignment. I also finished the second thieves guild quest, which was a real brain twister for me navigating the teleport maze at the bottom right of level 2. I almost broke out the graph paper to make my own map before just getting a bit more systematic about it and figuring it out. It’s kind of annoying that you can’t see the original quest information after accepting it. My other quest at the moment is to retrieve an item of some sort for a noble of some sort. I think the original description which I can’t see any more said I’d have to gamble for it, but so far as I can tell I can only gamble for money. Maybe if I win enough times in a row I’ll get whatever it is? Or perhaps it’s a possible prize from the grab bag, though the two times I tried that so far I just got paper clips. Or I should buy the parrot doll (not sure I’m remembering correctly what this is) or the overpriced cutlass from there. Or maybe the item in question is the skull key I found in the casino scrapheap. Or the bracelet I got from the injured woman mysteriously alone in the labyrinth. Since I don’t know who I’m supposed to be giving whatever item this is to (maybe the noble at the casino who I don’t get given the option to talk to?), there’s no clear way to know if I have it already.

I’ve reached class level six, which required an oath from my Warrior. I went with not pulling the tails of cats, since not eating fruit seemed unrealistic, not eating dog meat risked running foul of whatever they’re serving at the in, and no climbing trees would make the tree climbing skill useless. And also pulling cats’ tails is cruel. Presumably at some point I’m going to need to catch a cat by its tail, and since my warrior is at the front of the party if the game doesn’t give me a choice of who does it then the oath will be broken. I’ve also tried out some of the group damage mage attacks, taking my mage from “basically useless” to “best character”, though without enough MP to be best character for long. And my priest has the spell that drops everyone’s AC by 3 for as long as you’re in the dungeon. I’ve changed formation so only the warrior (boosted AC of -6) is in the front row, and while the odd hit still gets through this makes my party near invincible. Presumably enemies who use group attack magic are just around the corner.

Very curious about how HP gains on levels work, but not yet curious enough to try save scumming the level ups for better gains. My thief went up like 17 points on the last level, my warrior I think by 2. If it’s as random as it seems I probably should be abusing the save system until I get good numbers, but I also wonder if it sort of balances itself out - if being behind on HP will increase the chances of a big gain at the next level and vice versa. I could probably also get a bit of extra HP by taking cheap levels of the other classes, but I have no idea how multiclassing works and I don’t want to mess it up.

 

[Nodal]

I can confirm re quests that you indeed can get the item before having the quest. Went back, found the ghost, and immediately could both turn in the coins as well as now pick up the secondary class quest, so it was in fact blocking me. I even have a third quest I can immediately turn in, I think. It's annoying having to go to the tower and leave for the new quest to show up.

 

[Nodal]

I broke down and looked up why I couldn't unlock a multiclass I wanted. It turns out I needed to slay the beast king, which was in an area I had already explored, in a spiked tile I knew about, but only if you went in from a different direction through a secret door I had been using to leave? If this was clued anywhere I missed it, but there are so many completely unclued things I doubt it.

 

[Yimothy]

That doesn’t fill me with hope for getting through this without looking stuff up. But for now, I continue blind. I seem to have explored everywhere currently open to me. I have two potential paths forward: fixing the elevator (I got some (sparkling) water from the MP restore fountain, but don’t have the food nor squirrel), or a locked door with a little window in it whose inhabitants need to be tricked into thinking I’m their captain. I have a fancy enough hat, but apparently my katana doesn’t look like the right sword. I think they’re pirates, so perhaps I need a cutlass. I wonder if the one from the shop in town will do or if I need the far more expensive one for sale at the gambling den? Speaking of which, the guy there mentioned some toughs near the stairs to level 3, presumably these guys. I like the flavour text when you claim to be their comrades - they seem to believe you but say that real comrades wouldn’t have run away. There’s a sad little story there.

 

[JBear]

That doesn’t fill me with hope for getting through this without looking stuff up.

I mean, FWIW, I did it, and given what I recall of your La-Mulana LP, I have confidence that you can too.

 

[Nodal]

I mean, FWIW, I did it, and given what I recall of your La-Mulana LP, I have confidence that you can too.

It seems doable: I could have just ignored multiclassing. But this is the sort of puzzle answer you only kind of stumble into.
It's kind of the difference between La Mulana 1 and 2 in that way.