Undertale pacifist ending high playthrough

Finished the Pacifist route while high...

Most of it was the same as my first playthrough, but I did a little better and didn't kill Toriel, and petted Lesser dog a lot and made his neck huge... and did the Undyne's house cooking scene this time (I skipped that on my first playthrough cuz I didn't know about it), and this unlocked the Undyne+Papyrus phone conversations, where they say something different in every room in the game. Before then I went back through the entire game and listened to all of those phone conversations, and kept doing that throughout the Hotlands and Core... that was really fun...

Starting from the beginning of the CORE... I got high and tried to play through the rest of the pacifist route... I underestimated how much of the game was left. After dying from Asgore, I went back to buy some stuff, and got a call from Undyne telling me to come over to Papyrus's house... and also talked to the new CORE NPCs that showed up.. I totally wasn't expecting the whole "True Laboratory quest after that... this was the quest to make Alphys into your friend...

After that, I got teleported back to the End area, and this time when I started the battle with Asgore, Toriel and all the other boss enemies came in and interrupted, telling us both not to fight... then Flowey came in and absorbed all the monster's souls, turned into a soulless Asriel, and fought me...

I was able to save Asriel's soul and turn him back to normal... It was pretty much like the EarthBound final boss except way less subtle...

Asriel explained the plot with him and the human who's named after what you named your save file... and the human you're playing as introduces himself as "Frisk"... then Frisk decides to give all the monster souls back but before he does, he destroys the barrier, freeing everyone. Then I'm at the end area with all the main monster friends there with some more dialog, and they all eventually suggest I go back through the world and re-talk to every NPC again...

I went literally through every room and made sure to talk to everyone... Talked to Asriel way back at the beginning of the game, and couldn't convince him to come with me... that was pointless... then I walked all the way back, taking shortcuts, and finally finished the game...

Shantae: Risky's Revenge playthrough log

Oh wow, this gameplay is so much smoother than the first game... I really appreciate how the death pits are clearly marked with death clouds floating up out of them. The attack items are now tied to magic instead of inventory, so you can actually use them now. also this game has the same sorta thing as Wario Land VB and Kirby TD, where you go can through multiple layers of the Z-dimension.

But the biggest improvement is... This game actually has a built in overworld map. Just that is enough to make me want to play this completely blind without a walkthrough... If it turns out I'm missing some hidden stuff I'll use a walkthrough after beating the game to get everything.

11/11/2015

I started to notice this game was gonna be very short and easy compared to the first one... If there's really only 3 seals to collect and that map of Sequin Land covers every area in the game...

The first labyrinth was expectedly easy. It had the monkey transformation (which has much better controls now), and I think I got all the magic jams in the level. You need magic jams in addition to gems in order to buy all higher level magic powers.

The 2nd level wasn't actually a proper labyrinth.. It has you exploring a desert with lots of bottomless pits, and a fairly complex network of caves... Before going here though, the characters back in town hint you towards going to see the mayor who is currently near the lighthouse at the beginning of the game...

Shantae playthrough log

Reading the manual for the first game now... it seems kind of interesting. A looping overworld section leading to 5 separate town areas, a day/night system, and labyrinths (the game's dungeons) which are locked until you do some specific story tasks. The pause screen is very Zelda-like, showing a bunch of optional hidden collectibles as well as required story items.

One of the optional collectibles, warp squids, give you different warp dance powers that warp you to a certain place depending which warp room you returned those warp squids to.

Shantae has dance powers. Magical dances that give her different abilities. The dancing mechanic works kind of like playing the ocarina or conducting the wind. There's also a secret dance you can only learn if playing the game on a GBA.

Wow, this game is tough... not only is it tough to just survive (enemies ambush you constantly), it's also tough to find your way around... In particular I got kind of lost at this huge waterfall area on the way to the 2nd town, and the respawning enemies and pitfalls make it very inconvenient to explore...

Undertale blind playthrough log

I first heard a bit about this game on a retsutalk video... it has a really cool battle system where you can either reason with/manipulate your enemies into quitting the battle, or do a sort of danmaku fight against them.. and you can do a "genocide run" where you fight/kill everything and the music/atmosphere and characterization of your character becomes entirely different.

It starts off a bit slow... that dumb goat woman (named "Toriel", heh get it) keeps mothering you and tries to keep you from heading into danger, and literally holds your hand through the whole thing... it seems like there's a lot of variations in dialog options but I'm not sure what it all means. In order to proceed past this tutorial area, you have to fight the goat woman and defeat her.. so far all the battles could be won without killing, but this battle I couldn't figure out what to do so I ended up killing her... the scene was kind of sad...

The next section of the game was really fun. These two retarded skeleton brothers keep trying and failing badly at capturing me... there's some really funny and cute dialog here... I made it all the way through the snow forest section and into the first town before stopping there.

I did the date thing with Papyrus, then I ran away from Undyne and went through the waterfall area... that section was kinda creepy, especially when the flowers started talking and shit... then I ran away from Undyne again, and managed to spare her and run away to Hotlands... it got kinda hard here but I still had no trouble mostly...

The atmosphere got really heavy as soon as that lizard girl told me that in order to cross the border, I'd have to kill the king and take his soul... Sans met me at the hallway leading to the throne room, and gave me some speech about the whole "EXP = Execution points" stuff... I was only at lvl 7 by now, so I guess that's why he let me go without too much trouble.

King Asgore was just a male version of Toriel from the beginning... their houses were even exactly the same... except for the fact that Asgore's house had golden flowers everywhere, instead of those sausage plants.

As I was walking around, a bunch of monsters that I

Mother 1 high playthrough part 5 (finale)

After going back to magicant to get Teddy fully equipped... used a guide to find out I had to "check" the dragon in order to wake him up and fight him... For some reason I only tried using telepathy before and it did nothing... Got the 6th melody from the dragon...

- Holy Loly Mountain -

I know this place is called "Mt. Itoi" in the original translation...

Got everyone's best weapons in this first maze section. enemies are kinda tough here but not bad with lots of PSI... Franklin Badge blocks some Starman attacks...

Levels are now at: 41, 31, 28...

Now on Itoi Cliffs / Holy Loly Mountain outside F1/F2... A tree trunk is blocking the way... Telepathy does nothing... Check... Danger Seems to be lurking nearby... Oh of course, I can just walk around it.

Got defeated by a couple of confusing/stoning scorpions...

Your friend Teddy was just brought in, and is still unconscious... Oh, you don't want to pay? Your friend could die you know.

Damn stingy health care system...

Okay this time I'm not messing around with these scorpions... either escape with Dimens. Warp or PK Beam Omega them with Ana to end the fight quickly. Found a doctor's house way up here... Teddy lets Ninten and Ana be alone in the room together...

Ninten... please stay with me. It's so quiet here. Would you like to dance?

*queue dancing scene, emotional music, more dialog with Yes/No flavor text options*

Ninten... Do you like me?

Teddy comes in to say it's time to go... suddenly a giant robot attacks.
Def Up Beta, PK Beam Gamma... nope its still futile even with our best moves...
Lloyd comes in on a tank to save us... Teddy still unconsious... you don't have any options except try to talk to Teddy...
Welp... Lloyd's still a wimp... but Ninten and Ana can pretty much carry the party at this point anyway...

Ugh this Brainger enemy is so much harder now
Brainshock... no effect on Brainger
Brainger danger...

Few... made it to the doctor checkpoint...
Really really tough alien enemies here... Lloyd is so useless... PSI Shield Beta and PK Beam Omega is really the best way to get through them...
Levels are now at: 43 34 36...

Found a boat at the lake dock, Holy Loly Mountain outside F2... Lloyd managed to get it running. Went straight into a whirlpool...
Is... this...
Oh nooooooooo!
It's the same sort of area as duncan factory... took a looong elevator down... this looks HUGE!!
Used Check. "No problem here"
oh,

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness - Cornell - high playthrough log

Legacy of Darkness is actually an expanded remake of the first N64 Castlevania game. It starts with a new werewolf character who has a different story that takes place before Reinhart and Carrie's stories. And then after you beat Cornell's story you unlock Reinhart and Carrie and their story modes are the same as they were on the original version. Also there's some overlap in the levels between the 3 character stories, but each character has at least 1 or 2 of their own unique levels that no other character goes through...

Oh yeah also there's a 4th character, Henry, that you also unlock after you complete it with Cornell. Henry's story mode is just a pointless little fetch quest where you have a limited time to save all the children, and he doesn't have any unique levels.

First I'm gonna play through all of Cornell's story while high.

high session 1: 10/09/2015

This was a GREAT first high session with this game omg...
I've played and beaten this game before, like about 7 years ago, and I'm really glad I decided to replay this while high.

Mother 1 high playthrough log part 4

To start with, I had to rely on a guide to know that the next area is the Desert, east of Santa Claus Station... I bet there was some NPC hint that would've lead me here, but I don't remember and didn't write it down...

- Yucca Desert part 1 -

This place is very big... I don't wanna get lost in this clusterfuck overworld again, so I'm just gonna go straight toward the dot. Found an oasis, someone camping out there with a little plane, says he can't find the last land mine he planted in this desert a long time ago...

So uh... do I wanna ride in the plane or do I wanna look for this land mine? hmmm... oh and I get to ride in the tank if I buy enough plane tickets.. okay sure.
Course A: it just flies around over the desert and lands back at the tent... this shows that there's there's a ruins area a bit farther to the east.
Course B: It flies west to the factory and past some houses I'm not sure if I've been to or not...
Can't carry all 10 stubs... sigh, gotta warp back to Magicant and deposit items...

Ugh, apparenly one of the melodies is hidden near some random cactuses in the desert that you pass by in the plane course A... may as well take this time to explore the perimeter of this giant area and try and see what's available... Oh wow, I can get all the way to Easter station. Which would've been the next stop after Santa Claus Station if the bridge tracks weren't broken. I guess I'll explore here for now before finishing the desert stuff.

- Easter -

Some creepy Lavender Town-esque music here...

Seems a lot of people have gone missing.

Bring my mommy and daddy back, please.

A big flying ship took all the grown ups away.

At the left side of this town is the house of a brother and sister and a strange baby.

Mommy told me this baby has a special power.

Oh hello there. My name is Tom Garrickson. Introducing myself is my hobby.

lmao

Used telepathy on the baby.

I am this baby's consciousness. I have psychic powers, just as you do. I possess the ability to teleport. With it, you can return to anywhere you've been before.

Learned teleportation PSI... sweet, now I can warp to anywhere, not just Magicant. in fact I probably don't even need to carry around the

Mother 1 high playthrough log part 3

Re-explored the Thanksgiving area to make sure I'm not missing anything... there's another dot just a bit north of the Duncan Factory, but I can't get there...

Also it seems like I can walk through the whole train track tunnel to the next town if I wanted to? Unless maybe the enemies in that tunnel are way too tough or something. There's a skeleton inside the tunnel:

You'll end up like me if you don't take the train.

Yeah.. that's not worth it after all.. the enemies aren't impossible, but they are hard, and the tunnel is VERY long...

- Snowman -

That pretty much covers everything I'm able to do here. Now off to Santa Claus Station, on the tracks north of Thanksgiving... If you go a bit beyond that, there's a weird maze of terrain that eventually leads to the area behind Duncan Factory, and you can see a cave but I can't see any way to get to it... oh wait, yeah, that was the first Magicant cave... And you can also explore a giant mess of trees and random terrain, that just seems to stretch out across the whole empty parts of the map where there are no towns or dots. and ultimately leads you nowhere... The bridge to the east is broken, so the train can only go to Reindeer, Halloween, and Snowman. all these seasonal themed areas...

I'll go to Reindeer first...
An old woman asks me to return a hat to a girl in Snowman. It has the name "Ana" on it. I don't really see any reason not to go there right now, so that I can get a new party member and start having some more inventory space... Reindeer exploration can be a bit later I guess.

Snowman is a very small self contained area... Here there's a couple that wants to go to Easter to look for their son, but the tracks are broken..

I heard the people of Easter were spirited away.

People telling me about Ana who lives in the church, and hasn't been to school.. also coughing at me and making my party sick...

Talked to the phone, and instead of asking me to save, Ninten's dad asked for my own name (as in me the player).

Ana says she saw Ninten in her dream.. and joins me to help find her mom in Easter.. she's very weak, so I just warped back to Magicant to train her... Oh wow..

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - high playthrough part 3

Went back to worlds 4-6 to get all the energy spheres I missed, didn't take long at all.

Dangerous Dinner

This volcano area has an amazing art style...
7-1... Used Snow Bowl ontop of a volcano... just barely beat the sphere doomer first try... had to shoot some heavy blocks at the dimensional curtain to push it back...
7-2... lava elevator... carrying a candle while floating across the water... a grey section with moving walls that crush you... beat the sphere doomer easily with Leaf power.
7-3... Weird cosmic area with sun/lava balls moving across... This art style keeps getting better....
The floor is moving in a loop... ceiling doesn't move...
Starting to get really tricky with these huge areas that expand vertically and horizontally... having Bird Kirby makes these parts way easier since you can fly a lot faster...

Metroid II high playthrough log part 1/2

Wow this backstory in the instruction manual is really good... looks like the enemy variety is very unique and huge compared to the first game...

In this you go to SR388 to destroy all the metroids... You start off with the long beam, the last game's high jump, and morph ball ability already.

- Level 1 -
- Metroid #39 down easily.. now the lava has fallen a bit, and this next area splits into 2 separate side areas.

- Level 2 -
- The first split path is a slightly complex Brinstar-like subsection with the bomb, 1 energy tank, ice beam, spider ball, some missile paks ... and 1 metroid... and a refill way up on the ceiling...
The spider ball is teased if you go to the dead end past the missile pak that you can't reach yet... have to back track here after getting it.

This game is deceptively linear... I'm gonna have to try doing a non-100% blind run while sober later on.

wow yeah... the spider ball makes exploring on your own way more fun... at the end of Level 2 you face 3 alpha metroids in a row with a bit of health refills (unless you grind)

- Level 3 -
omg this fortress submap is SO complex... tuuuuuubes

Wonder Boy in Monster Land playthrough log

Starting playing this while high... first read through the manual... it shows a drawn world map and names all the areas..
- Rack up points to get extra heart containers...
- an hourglass timer starts to remove health if it runs out...
- pause has Zelda-style status screen.. has slots for the hint items "Scroll to Catherine" and a "Letter to Betty" that you can find
- Guantlet and Helmet are like Link's Awakening powerups.. Wing Boots are like the Kid Icarus wings, guessing potion works like fairies..
- Flute, Star Charm, Hero's Emblem, Bell, and Ruby I don't know, the manual is very vague on what those do
- Shops become harder to find later in the game, and some shops become traps, some are even invisible to hide from the villains
- Boot upgrades allow faster running and higher jumping
- Some bosses have sword upgrades instead of the level exit
- Taverns flip the hourglass over to give you more time if you're running out... and something happens if you have 2 drinks apparently?

Playthrough attempt #1
Round 2.. found a guy hidden in the wall who tells me that the Emblem is needed to defeat the dragon... and he tells me to give a letter to Catherine in Boroboro.. that hint shows up as a reminder in the pause screen

wait really...? I died at round 4? the enemies there get kind of fast and hard to hit... your sword has very weak range.. and items/upgrades are expensive given what little money you are able to get (money doesn't respawn but enemies do)... I guess that was 1/3rd of the game?

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - high playthrough part 2

White Wafers
Slippery ice stages... Mega Hammer ability is fun
Snow Bowl... ice cream hat...
4-5 is non-linear... has weird waddle dee genies
Used Fighting Kirby (with some of Ryu's moveset) to beat the easy snow monster boss, got the ship's emblem back.

Missing 4 gears in this world... getting pretty hard now.

Bomb Challenge - Got bronze with 16230 points first try

Nutty Noon
6-1... omg this game looks AMAZING... there's something about these aesthetics, I don't know why I love it so much.
Cloud/beanstalk area... this part reminds me of the Triple Deluxe overworld...
When you get up high enough you can see the planet skyline in the background... wow... a tower that ascends into outer space...

Wonder Boy 1 playthrough comments

This is one of those extremely simple old platformers. I love this kind of simplistic, but tight platforming. Every obstacle is designed so there's a relatively easy way to avoid everything even when you don't have the hatchet attack... but if you do have it you can make things easier, or screw up and die while trying to do so...

The skateboard powerup is always useful to have when you can get it... You are way more likely to die by getting hit than by falling in pits in this game, and while the skateboard makes it more likely for you to fall off if you aren't careful, it also protects you against a single hit.

The Tawna bonus rounds you get from the accessories only appear once, and if you restart the level from a continue they're gone.

The bosses at the end of each level are all exactly the same, it's just a matter of hitting their head a variable number of times while avoiding their slow attacks.

This game starts out very easy but it ramps up in difficulty very consistently through the 10 worlds (called Areas). Area 4 is where I had to start being more careful. I was still keeping most of my lives at that point though... Area 8 is where the game starts to get serious.

Mother 1 high playthrough log part 2

- Magicant -

The bridge east of the zoo is the next place I went to check out. There's a strange rock in a mountain cave past here. You can use telepathy to talk to the rock, it just asks you about the god's tail.. I think you're supposed to bring the diary here with you?

That which was left behind by the ship that soars the heavens.

Suddenly I teleport to this strange magical candy land... the characters here have really strange dialog.

I'm a swimming cat. Have you heard of a candy that gives courage and strength weaklings? You're a strong boy, so I doubt you need any.

Also most of the villagers are witches?

I had a dream that Magicant vanished into thin air. My heart's still pounding, even now.

Heard about a fountain that turns items into magical items..

There's a guy in this one house (houses are seashells here) who imitates talking to your dad on the phone.

If you need to see a helpful old man, go to Mary's Fountain. He'll come if he hears a cry from the heart.

Deep in the forest there's a guitar player who likes solitude.

Outside? What is this "outside" you speak of?

Happiness won't just walk into your life on its own. But neither will unhappiness. So if you don't want trouble in your life... then you'd best stay still and never move a muscle.

This is so weird... some NPC asks you if you've seen the NPC who talks about happiness, and then says:

You can't part if you've never met.

...then another NPC asks if you've seen the "can't part if you've never met" guy....

I fixed a kid's spoon by unbending it, and he let me stay the night.. there's actually a bunch of places where you can heal.
This whole village is just surreal...

Exploring outside the town now...

I'm an unsinging monkey. But monkeys don't normally sing anyway. Any questions? You look kind of like Queen Mary, I wonder why that is.

I've heard about a man who was forgotten, but I forget what his story was.

I'm a cat that swims in the ground. Can you guess what I'm holding in my paw?

... uh... dirt?

Top of far left area.. found the guitar playing guy.

I was just in the middle of pondering philosophical questions. It's hard for me to focus with all this guitar music, though. Oh! Whoops! I didn't realize I was the one playing the guitar! How careless of me! ... This is a secret between you and me: come back here when you're stronger.

hmm... okay

Mother 1 high playthrough log part 1

Here's my unorganized thoughts and notes I wrote down while getting high and playing through the fan-translated version of Mother 1 for GBA. The town names and some other stuff are different from the official Nintendo translation. I'm mostly playing this version because it's a lot less grindy than the original NES version.

- Backstory -
In the early 1900's, a dark shadow appeared, and the married couple George and Maria disappeared. Only George eventually returned and started some weird research...

- Mother's Day -
In 1988, in the town of Mother's Day, Ninten's house started shaking and household items attacked. Inside his sister's doll was a broken melody...
The sister gives me unlimited orange juice...

Ninten's dad on the phone:

It sounds like a poltergeist of some sort. Your great-grandfather did study PSI at some point.

Some creepy horror movie stuff going on... Ninten's dad tells me about the checking ability, and gives me the key to the basement.

An NPC describes the people/animals attacking as zombies and animals gone mad.

GGF's diary:

The password... Where is the god's tail, that which was left behind by the ship that soars the heavens?

Pippi is missing, tell the mayor...

First enemy I encountered was a hippie and this was just hilarious...

Hippie is praying

Hippie used bullhorn and shouted "Your mother is calling you!" Ninten was not convinced. Ninten became angry. Ninten's offense increased by 12!

A smoking crow in high heels... I love the enemies in this game. It's even more humorous than the later games in the serious in some ways.

Guacamelee playthrough log

Started playing this on Wii U. It starts off a bit slow, especially if you're talking to every NPC in town and trying to find all the sidequests/extras before moving on...

But the game suddenly gets really good at the first "real" level. The platforming physics are fun and the various combat moves you learn throughout the game also double as agility moves that add to the platforming mechanics.

This game has a dual-world mechanic similar to LttP, with portals that seemlessly transition you between worlds. The game makes good use of this in platforming situations.

I also like how there doesn't seem to be anything like breakable/fake walls that are indistinguishable from normal walls. at least not so far. the level/map design is very fair about showing you all of the possible paths to take.


7/10/2015

Wow... I'm already near the end of the game. Only like 3 levels left on the world map that I haven't been to yet.. and 3 more abilities to unlock before I'll be able to go back through everything and finish up the game 100%.

I'm really liking the atmosphere of this game now... Starting with when I got turned into a chicken in the spirit world, that's when I noticed it... exploring the the spirit world versions of the towns really made me notice a lot of minor details too.

The game suddenly got way addicting once I gained the power to instantly transition between the worlds of living and dead. And it really is INSTANT, like there are tons of platforming sections where you you have to swap worlds back and forth mid-jump.

I like the story of the villain.. he used to be good, and then sold his soul to the devil, only to be betrayed. So he took revenge and turned the devil into a chicken, and took over as lord of the underworld, and now is trying to merge the 2 worlds together.

DuckTales Remastered playthrough log

I started playing this today because I don't remember much about the NES version, it's been too long... First I'll play through the HD remastered version by Wayforward, then I'll replay the NES version.

I don't remember this tutorial level at all, I'm pretty sure this is new. They also added a lot of cutscenes that interrupt the gameplay, but you can skip them easily.

Playing on Hard mode... The Amazon level is fairly long. Some parts have spikes on both the floor and ceiling and I'm not sure how you're supposed to avoid getting hit... also that part with the falling rocks is very annoying. I got game over the first time I made it to the boss, but he's not hard once you get a feel for when his shockwaves cancel your pogo.

Got over 1.6 million points on that stage. I'm pretty sure I found every treasure, but probably didn't get the max possible score. Took me over 30 minutes just for that one stage.

Ganbare Goemon DS playthrough log part 3/3

So, the guide isn't helping much on where to go at chapter 5, and when I checked this part in the video walkthrough, this is where they started going back to all the previous areas and doing sidequests...

I definitely won't 100% this game... there's so much dialog I'd be missing out on, and I'd have to follow this walkthrough so closely there'd be no point. even Goemon 3's sidequests weren't as tedious to do without a translation as this game's sidequests are.

I've stopped trying to pay attention to the story around chapter 5... the boss there is a dragon that jumps out of the water and sends out mini-enemies on a bridge... next there's a part where you have to knock on a mansion door exactly 4 times to talk to the person inside, and he gives Ebisumaru a fart stomp ability, that is used for pressing certain switches.

Next I have to find a bunch of dieties who are hiding in obscure places, like inside a bamboo log, etc.. there's a part where I have to use the stylus to draw the japanese character that's shown on the ground, it's very hard because the game is bad at detecting the correct pen strokes... and a part where you have to play whack-a-mole with an old man who pops up out of the ground.

Ganbare Goemon DS playthrough log part 2/3

Next there's a part where we find the imposters again, having lunch, and Ebisumaru goes and eats all their food and turns into a giant round ball. The imposters run away, and now I have to roll Ebisumaru across this narrow path, it's just as annoying as the watermelon stage in Mario Sunshine. If Ebisumaru falls in the water, he'll be warped all the way back to the start.

Eventually, we find a doctor who is able to turn Ebisumaru back to normal, and we also run into Yae, who joins the group, and get to a ninja town. There's this one guy inside a house filled with mushrooms who gives us a bit of exposition.. then someone dresses Ebisumaru up in a tutu.. this gives him the ability to drill into the ground. Using this ability, you can into this fortress level...

This place is really annoying. It's a sidescrolling platforming area, if you fall off once you die and have to start over from the beginning. One thing I noticed at this point, is that Yae's katana has ridiculously bad hit detection, you can't hit an enemy at all unless you are standing directly inside it after taking damage..

Ganbare Goemon DS playthrough log part 1/3

Full Title: Ganbare Goemon: Toukai Douchuu Ooedo Tengurigaeshi no Maki

This is the last game in the Goemon series that was ever made. It's more of an adventure style game, like SNES Goemon 3, except it's a lot more puzzle-y. The game controls with the d-pad and buttons, but you also have to use the touch screen to interact with the environment in various ways to get passed obstacles.


Goemon and Ebisumaru get thrown in jail after Omitsu comes and warns them that some imposters dressing up as them have been going around robbing people. Yae busts you out, and then you get a tengu mask from Omitsu which lets you avoid fighting the Edo guards. Then you come to a temple, the first action area of the game. it's very simple, all of the touchable things have a glowing outline around them. The first boss is a walking candle that shoots flames at you, it's very easy to dodge. After that, you find the imposters, they're a couple of fat guys wearing barely passable disguises. They get away.. and then you have to go on a journey chasing them down. Also Goemon gets power gloves allowing him to push/pull big blocks.

Next there's a town where everyone is wearing tengu masks.. and to get passed one of the guards, you need to bring him a pot from the pottery shop, but you have to make the pot yourself in a touchscreen minigame. it's kind of difficult.

Goemon: Shin Sedai Shuumei (PSX) playthrough log

Wow, the graphics in this are certainly a step up from the previous game... Wait a sec, these characters are completely different!

Except for Sasuke, these are all entirely new characters who have replaced the main cast. This game takes place in the future, and these are the new versions of the Mystical Ninja cast. Goemon 3 also took place in the future due to time travel, but I think that was a lot farther in the future than this is. The opening cutscene actually older classic Goemon, with a broken arm and his face partly obscured by shadow, talking to the newer Goemon... So I guess what's happening here is people are asking older Goemon to help fight the new villains that have invaded Japan, but Goemon is now old and past his prime, so Goemon Jr. is now taking his place, using the pipe passed down from his grandfather... I dunno I'm just making this up.

The kid who took Ebisumaru's place is a little girl named Ebisu. Yae is replaced by a blue haired girl named Yui... and I assume Sasuke is still the same Sasuke, or maybe this is a different one made by the wise man's ancestor, who knows.

The gameplay is the same old formula of 2D platforming stages with the map style of Goemon 2... but there's a lot of differences. For one, obviously it takes place in the modern era, so the whole fuedal Japan aesthetic is gone. Inns are now large hotels, shops now have a cash register, etc.. Almost all of the iconic themed stuff like fortune dolls and tanooki statues have been replaced by stuff that looks like it's from a Megaman game.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - high playthrough part 1

A martian-looking dude crash lands in his flying boat in Dream Land, its parts/gears go flying everywhere, and he asks Kirby and his friends to go find all the parts and get them back for him.

Cookie Country
omg this game looks so awesome... the glass border around the screen gives it a really neat artistic flair...
Caves have snails and stuff shown underneath the ground, for aesthetic...

Ganbare Goemon: Ooedo Daikaiten (PSX) playthrough log

This is one of the last of the classic-styled 2D Goemon platformers. This game feels just like a carbon copy of SNES Goemon 2 and 4 and Goemon's Great Adventure... It doesn't try to do anything new at all, it's basically just more of the same, which is great. It's graphics are pretty good for a 2D PSX game with 3D polygons, but not quite not as good looking as the N64 games.

Each world follows the formula of 2 stages, then a town, then another stage, followed by a castle stage with a boss at the end, and every odd world has an Impact battle. Also the stages are timed, and there's no health pickups laying around or dropped from enemies. The difficulty is toned down a bit compared to GGA, and is more in the area of Goemon 2's difficulty level.

The towns all have guards blocking the exit, and you need to complete a menial NPC quest to get the pass needed to progress. Usually this just involves going into a certain house and completing a minigame or getting an item for a character in another house... it's just a pointless way to extend the length of the game which is already very short.

Bouken Jidai Katsugeki: Goemon (PS2) playthrough log

Ugh... this game is so boring. I could hardly get through it. I think it took like close to 10 hours to beat, and that's with ignoring all of the untranslated story.

This is the 3rd (and last) fully 3D Goemon game. Goemon is a teenager in this, and he doesn't yet have his trademark pipe weapon, instead he has various swords and magic spells that can be equipped.. The combat system is kinda like a worse version of Zelda OoT's combat, with lockon targetting and simple sword swing attacks, but there's no way to block or dodge. There's a leveling up system where you can choose which stats you want to focus on.. The platforming in this game is very awkward, ranging from easy to annoying.. Goemon has a double jump and can grab onto ledges, but the mechanics are very unpolished, sometimes it's very picky about when you can grab onto something.

It's basically a hacknslash action RPG with really poorly designed platforming and puzzle elements. At least graphics are nice, it kinda reminds me of Wind Waker with more of a Japanese look to it. The best thing about this game is the towns, they really nailed the whole fuedal Japan atmosphere here.. it's really too bad the game is untranslated, I think I really would have enjoyed exploring the towns and taking in the story. The game feels really barebones and empty without knowing what's going on.

The field areas in this game are just generic landscapes with enemies littered all over them. Some places have a teahouse where you can heal.. The overworld seems much bigger and more maze-like than Mystical Ninja 64's world, but it's not nearly as interesting.

Ganbare Goemon: Hoshizorashi Dynamites Arawaru!! (GB) playthrough log

This game is pretty basic, but good... It's gameplay is in the style of the SNES Goemon games, but the platforming is much simpler and more generic. It has an overworld map like SNES Goemon 2, and a few towns between levels to rest/save/shop.. the graphics are actually decent for a GBC game.

You only play as mostly Goemon and Ebisumaru in this. There's one section with Yae where you're swimming up a waterfall while shooting/avoiding incoming enemies, and another section with Sasuke where you fly and shoot horizontally, but the main game is only Goemon/Ebi.

The story starts off with Goemon and Ebisumaru separated, they both happened to be on a trip to different parts of the continent. Then, a cat-shaped UFO appears, and the villain Seikuushi Dynamite sends out his robot cat army to try and conquer Japan. You can choose to start with either Goemon or Ebisumaru and do their separate stages in a different order depending on which you choose, but you end up doing both of their stages anyway.. Ebisumaru's weapon in this game is a dust pan, but otherwise he controls exactly the same as Goemon.

Yae and Sasuke see the enemy attacking, but they don't do anything because Goemon isn't there... lmao so Goemon is like Goku now basically.

Goemon's Great Adventure (N64) playthrough log part 3/3

The 5th world, Floating Castle, has some really insanely cool looking levels. Took the bottom Sasuke-only path through Cloud Fortress, which lead to Sky Garden.. this stage has paths that twist around so much I have no idea which direction I'm going in most of the time.. Again I just kept to the bottom-most path with Sasuke, and found an underwater section that has tons of money pots. This is a great place to grind money for the last few passes or to stock up on lives. I dunno what else I'm missing with this level's other paths, but there's no alternate exit here anyway, only reason to go through other paths is to check out more of the level's scenery.

The other exit from Cloud Fortress leads to Wind Castle Wall. This stage involves going overtop of a castle wall, and has some windmill platforms that you can only land on while they're on a certain part of the Z axis. There's also a gold fortune doll near the end that Goemon can get, a convenient way to prepare for the last castle.

Then got to Floating World Town... That's a very silly name for a town. I like the music here... This is another huge town that's easy to get lost in. It has a really long circular outer path that borders the whole town and leads to a dead-end place with a tree.. and if you go there at night there's a ghost merchant who wants to sell his last item, a pass, so that he can move on from the earthly world.. Also there's a dumb sidequest where you have to deliver lunch to a speedy messenger guy who runs almost as fast as you.

Goemon's Great Adventure (N64) playthrough log part 2/3

This 3rd world... this is where I started having a lot of trouble with this game... The main thing that's causing me to get game over multiple times per stage is the new enemy introduced in this world, the lantern ghost.. These jerks start charging towards you as soon as they appear on the screen, and if you try and attack them like you normally would on reflex, they'll explode and damage you. It's the most unfair bullshit in this game so far. It seems the way you're supposed to deal with them is by jumping back out of the way to avoid their explosions.. But I usually get killed often enough by these things that I eventually memorize where they are and just shoot them from offscreen.

The 3rd town is "Spook Village", there's a cutscene with Wise Man.. he tells us about the great demon Dochuki who nearly destroyed the ghost world. Dochuki has been sealed for 300 years, and now Bismaru is trying to revive him. There's also a bunch of weird Iguana people in this town who give you a pass for doing a trading quest with them, and at night there's a fireworks minigame just like the one at the beginning of Goemon 3.

This world has 2 stage-based sidequests. One of them you're hunting roadside guardian statues and putting hats on them, but if you put a hat on a "fake" statue you'll lose. The "puzzle" to figure out which statues are fake is really dumb, but the main difficulty in this challenge is the time limit and the fact that enemies get in your way a lot here. The other sidequest involves hunting mushrooms in a stage with all enemies removed, and it's just a matter of figuring out the best route to take to get all of them in the time limit.

Ganbare Goemon: That other 3D platformer that isn't as good

The full title of this game is Ganbare Goemon: Kurunara Koi! Ayashige Ikka no Kuroi Kage

This is the 2nd 3D platformer in the series, after Mystical Ninja 64. This game pretty much pushes the PSX to its limits in order to try to look as good as the N64 game, but obviously fails and doesn't look anywhere near as good.


At least the opening looks really cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBRn4fq0ONg

Also the cutscenes also have full voice acting, and some of the music tracks are pretty good.

You can't instantly switch between characters any time in this, instead you have to go into a certain building in towns to switch characters. There's not much difference between each character anyway. They each have their main weapon attack plus a kick attack, and they can also learn individual combo moves later on (they are really hard to execute, I've only managed to do them by accident). Ebisumaru now has a frying pan as his weapon... I've noticed for a while now but I don't think I've mentioned it, it's kind of neat how Ebisumaru uses a different weapon every single game. He's a really indecisive ninja who can't decide on what weapon to use.

Goemon's Great Adventure (N64) playthrough log part 1/3

This is reminding me a lot of SNES Goemon 2, except it starts off a LOT harder. I'm getting game overs even in world 1. The movement is entirely 2D sidescrolling, but sometimes the 2D path twists and turns through the environment in 3D, which adds some depth to the stages.. I think the main thing that's making this harder than I'm used to is that the screen is way zoomed in, so I have to constantly take my time inching forward when I don't know what's coming up, otherwise I get ambushed by enemies and die right away. Also there seems to be some lag with your jumps and it's really easy to miss a jump and die.. It takes some getting used to this unforgiving difficulty, but it's very fun and each level is satisfying to beat.

Trauma Center: Second Opinion playthrough log

This is the Wii version of the DS game "Trauma Center: Under the Knife".

I think I prefer the Wiimote controls over touch screen controls, so I've started a playthrough of this version.

The first couple levels I did on every difficulty mode.. then I decided I would just stick with hard mode.

Got passed all of chapter 1, and unlocked the first Nozomi Weaver mission (the new content in the Wii version). It wasn't hard, just a different variation of the stuff you learned in chapter 1...

Then I tried 2-1... I tried several times but couldn't figure out how to beat it on hard. There's a lot of steps you need to keep repeating in a very short time, it's crazy.

2-4 was as far as I got when I played the DS version, and that one doesn't have difficulty modes.

6/03/2015

So after a few more tries at 2-1 hard mode, I decided it was bullshit and switched to normal mode. Actually, it's possible that you can use the "healing touch" power in other chapters where you're not supposed to use it, and maybe that's how you're meant to beat hard mode? regardless, that's bullshit, I've decided normal mode is good enough.

I got through all of chapter 2.. later it introduces the GUILT virus.. a man-made terrorist virus that lives inside organs and causes internal wounds. Dealing with these things feels like a boss battle.

Ganbare Goemon: Kurofune Tou no Nazo (GB) playthrough log

The North American version of this game was titled "Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon", but I don't like calling it that because this game is so bad, it's an insult to the N64 game that shares the same title.

This game is entirely in top-down perspective, just like the first GB Goemon game. However, it's worse than the first GB game in pretty much every conceivable way. The platforming is almost non-existent. Some screens just have a few holes on them which you can jump over without any problem.. most of the gameplay involves killing/avoiding enemies and playing minigames.

Also, you can't enter any houses other than shops/inns. All the NPCs are just standing outside their houses. Why? The first GB game let you go inside houses, this is some lazy shit.

Here's the intro story: "A mysterious group of bandits calling themselves the Black Ship Gang appears in a black ship and begins committing indiscriminate thefts."
Goemon: "Blast that Black Ship Gang! They're committing indiscriminate thefts!"
the first NPC you talk to: "Have you heard? The Black Ship Gang comes from the Black Ship!"

...yep, we're off to a great start.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64) high playthrough log part 3/3

After beating the 2nd level, the kidnapped kids return to Folkypolk Village and Zazen Town, and everyone in these towns has something different to say, but none of it's really all that interesting or funny, just weird...
That dog at Zazen Town creek though
"Do you want to know who I really am, arf?
In fact, I come from a Dog Star far, far away! I am none other than that famous dog movie star... Quick, follow me, there is a kid stuck down a well...
Just kidding, arf!"

One of the kids who returned to Zazen Town tells me that the door to Chikogu Region has been stuck all this time because of a magical door-stopper that he put there. But now the door-stopper is out of batteries, so the door can open.. wtf is with these weird locked door explanations

The first area of Chigoku Region is [Bizen / Kurashiki] This place still looks just like a town, with buildings and walls everywhere, but none of the buildings are enterable, and instead enemies roam the area... Isn't it weird how most of this game's environments are all surrounded by walls? Like, is this what feudal era Japan was really like, with every town and road being walled in, making it feel like you're in a building with no ceiling?

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64) high playthrough log part 2/3

After beating Benkei, he gives you a dead Sasuke with no batteries... The door behind Benkei leads to [Yamato], a large open area with no enemies and one of my favorite music tracks in the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQcV3s6_Mm8
For how big this area is, there's very little going on here. There's a tall house in the middle that you can't go in yet, an underwater tunnel that you can't go in yet, and 2 split paths leading into the forest. One of the paths leads to "Turtle Stone - Bamboo Forest", with a weird four directional rock puzzle. Pushing the rock in each of the 4 directions yields: money, a fortune doll, the key to the tall shrine in Yamato (which is a large platforming area with a couple fortune dolls in it), and a warp that leads to a tiny island out in the ocean with a fortune doll on it...

The other path in Yamato leads through the Bamboo Forest to [Kii - Awaji Island], which has another teahouse, and a travel agency that takes you to the next town by flying dragon. But the flying dragon has another of those Peach Mountain guys ontop of its head controlling it.. Beating that boss, the dragon transforms to her human form and introduces herself as Koryuuta. She says that the hot springs are where she took the children to when she was being controlled, and gives you a flute so you can call her any time to travel to any town or teahouse.

The place that you landed off the dragon is [Kompira Mountain], a huge stairway with a teahouse on the way up, and a shrine at the top.
- some guy: "I've got a really gloomy past, you see. Drifting for years, I've finally come to this place, you see.
...
...
Does that make me a nihilist?"

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64) high playthrough log part 1/3

This was actually one of the earliest 3D platformers I played, shortly after I finished with SM64 and before Banjo-Kazooie came out. So obviously I have a nostalgic soft spot for this game, and can easily overlook its early 3D era flaws... like for one thing, the camera control is awful, it likes to fight you all the time, and sometimes if you try to force the camera to move a certain way, it will just suddenly spaz out and circle around you constantly until you move somewhere else... I must've been used to these kind of flaws back then, but now that I've played so many other 3D games this flaw definitely sticks out now.

I can deal with the camera, though, because know mostly everything else about this game is amazing. For the most part I just try not to move the camera unless I have to, or just use the look around mode instead.

Here's the opening theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NQKAsvlKcE

In the intro cutscene, a shopkeeper yells at a half-naked Ebisumaru for trying to seduce him into giving a discount. Then suddenly a giant flying peach shows up in the sky, these 2 mysterious characters talk about their ominous plan, and zap Edo Castle, and turn it into a European style castle. After that, the game starts, and the first thing you'll want to do is talk to every villager, because the NPC commentary in this game is hilarious.

- some woman: "Just now, Oedo Castle was hit by a mysterious beam, turning it into European Castle. If that beam hit me, would it turn me into a model EU citizen?"
- some old guy: "What? A UFO? What do you mean? I'm 85 years old you know!"
- some guy: "That huge peach that just came flying... What in the world was that?! Who in the world is going to eat such a huge peach!"
- some kid: "The officer's duty is to defend the peace of this town. By the way, I have no job!"

Ganbare Goemon: Kirakira Douchuu (SNES) playthrough log/review

This game has the same world map format as the 2nd SNES game, but it's WAY harder, and a lot weirder too. It's also the first game where the main characters all get voice acting. It also carries over some things from the 3rd game, such as fortune dolls being health upgrades, and chain pipe grappling and other unique character abilities.

Story: Impact has his own planet now, and it's being invaded by a group of villains lead by Seppukumaru. Everyone agrees to help him, and the characters split off and go to each of the 4 moons of Planet Impact.

Most towns have fetch quests you need to do in order to get the character's special ability. There's this one weird part where Ebisumaru meets his rival, Obisumaru, and they have a competition where they have to collect the cute women around town while avoiding the old women. Yae's town sections are really annoying to do when you don't know Japanese.. There's a part where you have to become someone's "slave" and do his grocery shopping for him, literally impossible to do without knowing what he's saying or using a guide.

The action stages are all very challenging, mainly because of how unique and varied they are. This game just constantly throws insanely weird gimmicks at you all the time, you never know what to expect. These stages also have hidden fortune dolls, and some stages you can't get all the fortune dolls in until after you've beaten all 4 moons then you can freely switch between characters and use all the abilities.

Ganbare Goemon 3 (SNES) playthrough log

This 3rd SNES game is the first to emulate the Zelda-style overworld exploration gameplay. The game consists of two different styles, an interconnected overworld in top-down view, with towns and a maze-like path structure, similar to LttP. And 2D sidescrolling/platforming stages, but even these parts are much more non-linear and puzzle focused rather than the pure linear action style of the previous 2 games. The sidescrolling sections are more like Zelda II or Shantae-style dungeons.

You can now switch between characters on the fly, with the select button. Goemon's pipe weapon as good range, Ebisumaru is the slowest but has a hoola hoop attack that damages everyone around him, so he's the most useful to play as when there's a lot of enemies around. Sasuke is the fastest but his attacks are very short range, and his bombs are useless for offense... and now Yae is playable for the first time in this game. She's almost as fast as Sasuke and her katana has better range, so she's usually the best one to play as when exploring. She has the bazooka as her secondary weapon, but it's not as good as Goemon's coins or Ebisumaru's shurikens.

Also this game introduces the special abilities for each character that were carried onto the N64 games. Goemon has his Sudden Impact, where his hair turns gold and has increased damage. Ebisumaru has mini-Ebi for getting into small areas. Yae can turn into a mermaid... Sasuke's ability is just an attack that shoots out in all directions, which isn't really that great.

Also, this is the first game where the cat/fortune dolls are used as health upgrades, rather than weapon upgrades. The fortune dolls are well hidden in the overworld and sidescrolling section, encouraging you to explore all the side areas.

Ganbare Goemon: Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu (PSX) playthrough log part 2/2

The 2nd half of this game was unexpectly really hard. Maybe not as hard as SNES Goemon 4, but the longer stages in this made it seem harder. I kept getting gameover at the bosses, and had to redo the whole stage again after grinding for armor/rice balls.

The bosses themselves aren't that hard once you know their patterns, but they do take a lot of hits even when you're maxed out on experience. Once you learn the bosses patterns they become more of a test of endurance, just repeating the same actions over and over.

I managed to find all but 3 of the fortune dolls in the game. The walkthrough on gamefaqs doesn't even say where all of them are.. hmm that's weird, oh well.

The last stage is brutal.. especially the parts where you have to grapple with Ebisumaru and there's electric moving obstacles that make you fall if you touch them... fortunately this level actually has a save point before the boss, so I didn't have to worry about redoing the stage.

Ganbare Goemon: Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu (PSX) playthrough log part 1/2

This game is similar to Goemon 3 on SNES, overworld exploration mixed in with large sidescrolling stages. However it's a lot more straightforward, there's usually only one linear path that can be taken, with a few side paths here and there. This is definitely one of the more Zelda-like Goemon games though.

The character sprites look good, but the rest of the graphics look kind of ugly. Two of the playable characters in this are new, and I think this game is their only appearance. That green haired guy is Goruku, he punches, smashes rocks, and pushes boxes, his attack range is better than anyone else's making him the best to use against bosses. I'm not sure why he joined Goemon's party, but he's there... That old looking guy with the glasses is Baban. He's a space pirate who crash landed in Japan, and is the main focus of this story. He can hover in midair for a bit, so he's usually the best one to use for platforming.

This game starts off really easy. The fortune dolls are permanently missable, but not hard to find. There's an experience points system, that goes up as you kill enemies.. as far as I can tell, I think gaining levels makes your attacks stronger. Sometimes the bosses take a LOT of hits to kill so I'm wondering if I'm supposed to be grinding to level up first?

Ganbare Goemon 2 (SNES) playthrough log

Wow... I LOVE this game's art style. It's so vibrant and pretty. I just couldn't stop taking screenshots while I was playing. Even though I couldn't read any of the text, this game does a great job of telling its story through graphics alone.

Gameplay wise, this has a lot of improvements over the first SNES game. Here's the main things that are different.

- Goemon can now charge up coins to turn them into flaming coins.
- Goemon's pipe weapon can now get upgraded to the chain pipe, instead of the dumb yoyo.. and Ebisumaru has his own attacks now that are wider ranged.
- This game introduces various giant robot vehicles, including the village-destroying Goemon Impact! At the end of some levels is an Impact section where you rampage through a village, followed by a first-person boss battle.
- Sasuke the robot ninja is added as one of the main playable characters, he has a shorter range attack but is more mobile.
- Goemon, Ebisumaru, and Sasuke all have different play styles. Sasuke is the most agile but his weapons have lower range and attack power. Ebisumaru has the strongest attacks but can't jump very well. Goemon is the well rounded character.

Ganbare Goemon Gaiden 2: Tenka no Zaihou (NES) playthrough log

It's another Dragon Quest clone. Pointless to play it untranslated since there's no way of following the story, but I played through this anyway just to see all the character/enemy designs and various things that were carried over to other Goemon games from this one.

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES) playthrough log part 2/2

The 6th level, Tengu Mountain, is a huge pain in the ass.. First of all, this is the one level in the game where you need to buy a pass for 980 ryo just to exit the town. I haven't been saving money at all since I was barely able to survive the previous level... but fortunately there's a good grinding spot with easy enemies on a bridge at the south-most part of town. Then you get to the sidescrolling section, with a bunch of monkeys and birds attacking you. The birds are almost always out of my reach so I can't attack them until they swoop down at me. I lost all my armor and pizza pretty quickly here. Then after a miniboss is this waterfall platforming area, where you have to go behind the waterfall via platforms that move in and out of the background/foreground.. I had a ton of trouble here too.

Almost thought I would need to grind money in town to learn one of those judo attacks in order to beat this level... I like the challenge though. The boss wasn't anything special, just took a few tries to learn his patterns, but I kept getting to him on my last

7th level, now we actually get to Izumo which is where the wiseman tried to send us in the first place, to look for this white mirror... This level has birds that drop bombs from overhead. The town area is so small and cramped with enemies it's almost impossible to earn money here to restock my armor/pizza.. but fortunately the sidescrolling section here is pretty easy. It's a water-based level, the water acts like quicksand so it's easy enough to jump out if you fall, and the bomb-dropping birds are much easier to avoid here. The boss here is a dragon, very easy pattern, not a problem at all.. after beating him Goemon finds the water mirror, which talks and says that Princess Yuki has been taken to Ryukyu Island.

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES) playthrough log part 1/2

I first played this on an emulator after I already became a fan of the N64 Mystical Ninja games, and I absolutely hated how the localization named the characters as "Kid Ying" and "Dr. Yang".. They've always been Goemon and Ebisumaru to me. Those localized names just feel so wrong... anyway, I only got a few levels in before giving up due to the difficulty and then never touched this game again for a long time.

This game is a major upgrade from the NES and GB ones, with fully developed 2D sections and towns with a lot more life/variety to them. A major thing this game added is... you have special "Judo attacks" that you can use with the X button while in a 2D section. They cost scrolls to use (which I've been getting a lot of along with money drops). But to gain these abilities, you have to go to a dojo and spend a lot of money to temporarily learn a single ability JUST for this one stage. I've never bothered with these because I never have any money left after stocking up on equipment.