EarthBound high playthrough log part 2

This "Strategy" part of the official guide is written like a travel guide brochure that kinda spoils what happens when you go through the game... it's very well written. it doesn't even feel like I'm reading a strategy guide, but rather just reading more material that would fit right in as in-game content. The first few pages of each section don't actually spoil all that much, it just gives you the general gist of what happens in the game, in the style of a travel guide or newspaper column...

There's a little column section about the mysterious "Giant Step" that has some sort of psychic power emanating from it... and an add for real-estate that ties into that useless NPC near the west cliff of Onett... Then there's a flyer section telling about all the attractions at Onett.. There's a lot of real-life photos of areas being used as Onett pictures.

Every so often on this version of earth a fanfare breaks out and a black-coated photographer drops from the sky.

lol I love how the canonical explanation of the photographer is exactly what it looks like... he literally just drops in out of nowhere and then takes a picture and flies away.

There's a side-column that lists the exact steps needed to get through this first chapter of the game...

Woah, I didn't know about this... that kid who asks if you want to take his place guarding the clubhouse, but then takes back the offer... you can go into that clubhouse hidden in some trees. The trees show an opening where there usually isn't one as a clue... you can get a free Baseball Cap there.

Oh and if you stay at the hotel, you can get the newspaper read to you while you're there... I probably missed some extra dialog in chapter 1 before defeating the gang.

Next is some more detailed instructions on the steps that were given just now.. still in the format of the Onett brochure. It also gives you detailed info and strategies on all the enemies you can encounter here...

And now I'm at the page that shows the linear path between Onett and Twoson, where you can get an Exit Mouse. The part that I'm just about to play through myself...

- Twoson -

Damn these mushroom enemies gave me "mushroom" status. It literally puts a mushroom on your head and makes your walking controls randomly flip around, so you have to rotate your controller to orient yourself...

A nice lady at twoson tells you about the town... east of here is Peaceful Rest Valley, and after that is Happy-Happy Village... gotta find a healer, this mushroom is really annoying... lol someone at the hotel has a mushroom on his head... he asks you if there is one there. "Yes". he says he finds it fun having messed up controls so he's leaving it on.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly - Hard Mode playthrough log

I decided to start a new game plus, on hard mode... I realized you can now skip cutscenes with the 1 button, awesome, that helps a lot. There's a lot of vanishing ghosts in the Osaka house in chapter 1 that are kinda tricky to get, even when you expect them. I ended still missing a couple ghosts in that chapter now because I wasn't following the guide closely enough. I then started chapter 2, and already missing 1 ghost in a group of 3 vanishing ghosts that appear at the same time... but that's fine I can leave these few stragglers for a 3rd playthrough.

Ghost list is now 66% complete.. I played for 3 hours and this playthrough is now at about 1 hour of game time...

Monster World IV playthrough log

This game is quite a bit different from the previous one... Monster World 3 was linear, but this game is even more linear. There are very few junctions that you have to decide between, and most of them are just small side paths that lead to a dead end with a chest. there's only one central hub town, and doors that lead directly to the 4 main "levels" of the game. There's no interconnected overworld like the previous games.

The RPG mechanics are also very simplified...there's still weapons, armor, and shields you can buy in town, and little blue gemstones that are scattered around the levels and town that increase your hearts by 1 for every 10 you collect... but that's it. There's no magic abilities, and it doesn't seem like there are any metroid style things where you need to backtrack when you have some new ability...

I kinda like it though. The levels are much longer and more difficult in exchange for being more linear. The blue "pepe" thing that follows you around can be used to glide, double jump, or activate switches or do other stuff to help you get around obstacles, and often you NEED to make use of these abilities to progress.

All the pepeloos in town are yellow... and when I hatched a special blue one, the villagers commented and said this one is very rare... one of them even said this blue pepe is a bad omen...

The library in the palace has some interesting references to the heroes of previous games in the series...

Metroid Fusion high playthrough log part 4 (finale)

Sector 5 - ARC - Part 3

an explosion caused by a dangerous creature that was being kept here as a bioweapon, and is now probably infected by the X... holy shit lol this place has so little security precautions against parasitic lifeforms, considering how many dangerous creatures are kept here.

many sections of this area are now blocked off due to the structural damage, and some parts are now flooded and have tougher enemies that shoot plasma beams... a new section is opened up.. there's some paths that I need the gravity suit to get through, and a boss door to a data room that I'm guessing contains the gravity suit data..

yikes.. this boss that warps gravity.. is really hard... your missiles are too heavy to reach him and you have to run under him to get a charge shot in while he's in the air, and then run away before he lands on you... and then his last phase he starts chasing you around and is really hard to avoid.. and whenever I stop to try and get some hits in on his face, he corners me... even using really careful space jump maneuvers I still can't keep him from cornering me, it's like you can't avoid getting hit most of the time.

there... I found out the best strategy for defeating that boss's final form was to lure him into going back to his "shooting at you while slowly moving toward you" phase by standing in the bottom left corner when he is at the furthest point away from you... and then hang on the ladder overhead and pour as many missiles into his face as you can (going rhythmically, so you don't waste missiles in between invincibility frames), and don't even bother to get off the ladder to avoid getting hit, just allow yourself to get hit and take advantage of those invincibility frames to get a few more shots in before he goes back into chasing mode...

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly part 5 (Normal Mode ending)

Chapter 8... when we went to the storehouse, Itsuki was there hanging from the ceiling... Mayu stands there crying... Mio inspects the place and finds a map showing where all the pinwheels are that are needed to unlock the tunnel leading out of the village, as well as Itsuki's diary...

This whole chapter is just going around revisiting a few areas of the village to get the pinwheel items... and you can also revisit some other places and get some extra cutscenes with Mio and Mayu... Mayu says that bridge area is nostalgic and they used to play together there... and a bunch more cool story bits...

I then went to that tree cave, which now has a spirit in front of it, and the picture of that shows me the inside of the Kureha shrine. Mayu is complaining about her leg as she follows Mio up the big staircase... I defeated the ghost there that was blocking the tree... and also found a ghost image of Sae and Yae going into that area at the back of the shrine, where that door is that is covered in talismans... I figured out that door is actually where the tunnel leading out of the village is... the twins were escaping at that point.

When I went inside the tree cave, Mayu got tired and had to rest... I couldn't do anything but leave Mayu there, again... I didn't want to though because I could see where this was going...

I then went to get all the pinwheel items without Mayu... I had to battle a bunch of ghosts, all of them refights... and got some more hide n seek ghost children in Osaka house... Then went back to Mayu... surprisingly she was still there. I used the pinwheels to unlock the exit... but then suddenly as we headed for the shrine, a whole bunch of ghosts chased us... Mayu couldn't run up the stairs fast enough, and she got caught...

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly part 4

Chapter 7 - Sae

Now I have to explore the Tachibana house without the camera... this part is really scary.. that Sae demon thing starts chasing you through the halls... I got away from her at some point, and then explored a bit of the house before running into Sae again. I felt so helpless at this part... having to hide in closets and hoping that Sae won't be there when I open the door... Then I had to do the Tachibana version of the doll puzzle. if you screw up twice then Sae catches up to you and it's game over...

Unlocked the path to the heaven bridge and crossed over back to the Kiryu house... Then I went straight for the earth passage to get the camera back... Now I can explore the Tachibana house properly.

This place kinda has a very similar layout to the Kiryu house, just with some differences in the interiors here and there... I keep getting pieces of lore about this person named Itsuki, and his twin brother Mutsiki... Itsuki is the guy who got locked up in the storehouse for letting Sae and Yae escape.. and they used these two twins as the replacement for the ceremony.. when that ceremony failed, the calamity happened, and the Sae demon took over the village and created a village of ghosts...

I see some crimson butterflies flying around now, and they lead me to where Mayu is... but when I come close to Mayu, she turns into Sae... There aren't anymore Sae chase sequences though, just cutscenes where you can't get caught by her.. I think when Mio goes around with the camera and starts shooting ghosts, Sae's influence gets weaker. That would be a pretty good reason as to why this game doesn't have infinite random ghost encounters, and eventually become completely safe (but still eerie)...

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly part 3

Chapter 5 starts to get a bit more mellow again, after you go into the Osaka house... although there are some kinda tough ghost battles now in really tight corridors or cramped rooms... Another path in there opened up, and I found the key to the door where Mayu is trapped...

Went back to Mayu... but on the way there, I encounter a really hard battle in that underground area with a well... two ghosts that have an aura of pitch darkness... the closer you get to them, the less you are able to see...

I heard Mayu's voice once I entered that corridor again.. but when I got to that door, it was already open and Mayu was gone.. went back outside, and saw Mayu up on that bridge that connects the two houses... when I try following her there, the door she went through is locked...

The prisoner guy tells me to go to the temple to find the key to the main entrance of the Kiryu house... and from the Kiryu house I can open up an underground passage into the Tachibana house where Mayu is...

The game starts actually getting hard now... I got caught by a ghost when trying to pick up the key in the temple, and got killed by the multi-ghost battle there... 2nd attempt I managed to avoid getting caught. I kinda have a feel for how to avoid those ghost jump scares now.

Chapter 6 starts when I enter the Kiryu house through the main entrance that was locked before... This is the same house that has the film reel room where you can see videos that you've found. This house is much more confusing than the Osaka house, but not as ominous as the Kurosawa house... There are a ton of non-hostile ghost appearances here... mostly of child twins...

And the lore I'm picking up here is getting really good... There was this one twin who was forced to kill her sister... and then the father created a doll of her sister to give to her... and later the doll became possessed and the girl was talking to it and stuff. The dad determined the doll was evil and must be killed, but the girl didn't want to kill the doll...

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly part 2

I tried out all 3 of the haunted house modes... That was really dumb. it's just a thing where you hold A to progress through an on-rails stage, while looking around and completing certain objectives and while also trying not to shiver or fidget... It detects your shivering from the Wii's motion sensor, I guess... but it seem very inaccurate... it automatically saves photos of the moments that made you shiver the most... it's really dumb.

Then I continued with the story... Got through Chapter 3 very quickly... At this point I'm more used to the Wii controls... I'm able to get Zero shots and Fatal Frame shots a lot more consistently now... After going through that haunted house stuff I kinda got a better feel for how the gyro works in this. It doesn't quite work as good as in Skyward Sword but I can manage, and it's definitely worth playing this version over the original PS2 version just because of the vastly improved graphics and sound.

Got part of the way through chapter 4.. Just after a doll puzzle.

It's not quite as scary as the first game... Most of the ghosts so far are very predictable, and all the scariest stuff happens during cutscenes when you aren't in control.

I'm getting really into this story now... It seems like the real names of Mio and Mayu are Yae and Sae... it's still very shrouded in mystery, but I think these twins were originally supposed to take part in the crimson butterfly ritual, where the two become one in order to seal the gate to the abyss and stop a calamity from happening... Mayu is starting to regain her memory of this place, and says "we are responsible for all these people dying..."

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly part 1

Started playing the Wii version. Immediately I noticed a huge improvement in graphics over the first game... Instead of taking place in a huge mansion, this game takes place in a mysterious village...

The twins Mio and Mayu are hanging out in the woods somewhere, when suddenly Mayu (the one with a slightly broken leg) gets lured somewhere by red butterflies... Mio follows her and they come to a village with some kind of ritual stuff going on...

The first chapter has Mayu following you around as you go into one of the houses and find the Camera Obscura, and then get locked in while battling ghosts...

At the 2nd chapter Mayu gets lured away again by red butterflies... and some creepy female ghost character takes her in... Mayu isn't even listening to her sister anymore, it's like she's brainwashed... Mio goes around trying to find a way to get to her sister who is now on the other side of a locked gate... There's a male character trapped in a storehouse who calls out to Mio through the window, and calls Mio "Yae", and says you have to find "Sae" and get both of you out of here, before you two face the same fate he did...

Fatal Frame playthrough summary/review

Quick summary of my playthrough of this game...

Clear Time: 09:55:09
Total Points: 114547
Rank D

This game was really good. Even though it had a lot of that early PS2 era jankiness with the controls and you'd often get stuck on the walls, it was a lot of fun despite those flaws.

Got a rank D for my score because I missed a lot of the vanishing ghosts in the first chapter, and probably because of that I also wasn't able to fully upgrade my camera until near the end of the game, so I wasn't getting good shots on most of the enemies for at first also. A lot of the time I would just stun-lock them until they were dead but that used up so much of my film...

I was doing that for at least the first 2 chapters... The 3rd chapter was just entirely comprised of re-exploring parts of the mansion you've already been to, but with much, MUCH harder enemies. I barely made it through the 3rd chapter with like a sliver of life left and no healing items. By the end of that chapter I had most of the camera upgrades, and was able to start taking "Zero Shots" instead of stun-locking spam in order to save film and gain more points, but it was still hard.

The final chapter was kind of stupidly easy, it was like chapter 1 difficulty. It still had a really tense atmosphere though because I didn't know what to expect. The last boss was a joke too... I really liked the ending. The whole game has a really cool story.

Not sure if I'll move onto the 2nd game right away, or take a bit of a break from this in order to not get burnt out on the gameplay...

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness - Henry, Reinhardt, and Carrie playthrough log

Henry:

It is now 8 years later after Cornell's story ended... while Reinhart and Carrie are battling Dracula, Henry was sent to the castle to rescue the 6 kids trapped there, in 7 days...

Henry's objectives:
Silent Forest
Castle Wall
Annex to the Evil Castle
Underground Passage
Underground Waterway
Outer Wall

Henry is a generic armored soldier, with a gun with infinite ammo, and a sword... normal enemies and most bosses are a complete joke with this character. the only difficulty is in finding where the 6 children are and getting through the levels fast enough... I think I'ld like this better without the time limit honestly. All of the children are pretty hard to find.

in Silent Forest, the child is hidden in a tunnel behind a breakable wall, at a dead end pit where you normally wouldn't need to go...

Fatal Frame playthrough log part 3

Yep I was right... There are a couple more projectile-shooting random ghost encounters on the way back to the moon shrine, but I managed to escape them. Then I put the amulet back into the moon shrine pedestal, and a passage to the basement opened up... Down there I found another piece of the holy mirror... Then I got attacked by that crazy invincible ghost with a bunch of hands, the same one that almost got me at the end of chapter 3 (but then somehow I was saved)...

Night 4 - Final Night
This chapter is really short.. That one female ghost that always helped point out something for me... She is there now and helps me open the passage to the attic... I get a bunch of much-needed healing items and film... and eventually get to a prison cell where this helpful ghost girl is... This is where she was kept locked up until it was time for her to perform the strangling ritual.. there's a view of the atrium from there... The only link to the outside world...

I found yet another piece of the holy mirror here, as well as a bunch of diaries explaining that this woman met a guy in the garden and that guy made her more aware of the outside world and she became less willing to do the ritual... As a result, she failed the ritual and caused the calamity to happen...

After that, I got attacked by the mega ghost again... This time I had to run, because if he catches you it's automatically game over... The image is all grainy during this chase part... The path lead back down to the main floor, and eventually made it to the atrium... I don't even know if this is the right way to go, and I'm not even looking at the map, but my instincts lead me here...

When I got outside, that ghost finally stopped chasing me...

I went back down to the basement, and there's a path further ahead... Had to fight 3 ghosts at once that were a bit tough... Got a bunch more useful items... Then found some diaries from Mafuyu (Miku's brother), saying he knew about Miku being there but couldn't manage to contact her, it's like they are trapped in two different versions of the mansion... Mafuyu says that the ritual sacrifice woman thinks Mafuyu resembles her lover... Eventually I get to the end, the place where the strangling ritual actually takes place... The door here is open, the calamity is coming out through it... There's the spot where the holy mirror goes...

That multi-hand ghost appears again. This time, I figure out that you can actually damage him if you have a full charge. and luckily, I have all the camera upgrades now except for the final charge level, and plenty of strong film... This boss battle was pathetically easy... He comes toward you at a snail's pace, is visible half the time, and only teleports a little bit to the left or right...

Miku's camera lights up and rockets out of her hands... It falls on the floor and breaks... The boss ghost isn't fully destroyed yet and is still coming toward me. That helpful girl ghost points to the broken camera. I go there and find the last piece of the holy mirror... then I insert the holy mirror into its place and that ends the game...

The holy mirror destroys the demon possing Mafuyu and the ritual woman... The woman then completes her ritual to close the door and keep it closed by having herself tied up in front of it... Mafuyu is in love with this woman now and decides to stay here with her...

Clear Time: 09:55:09
Total Points: 114547
Rank D

I guess I'll try out the alt costume and at least replay a bit of the first chapter...

Wow yeah, I'm much better at this game now... Although having all the camera upgrades helps a lot.
I got some of the wanderers that I missed last time, but I still just barely missed a couple of them as I played through like half of the first chapter in about half an hour... I don't think it's worth it to go for a 100% story clear.

Oh, and I just now noticed how the grey filter when the end boss is chasing Miku... That's the same filter as when you're playing as Mafuyu at the beginning.

Oh and there's also special "battle missions" that were unlocked... Just various ghost battles where you are given only a single set of film, no healing items, and ranked based on your score and time... I beat the first 5 missions with like rank C-D... I dunno I could see this maybe being enjoyable, but I'd rather just move onto other games.

Fatal Frame playthrough log part 2

These ghosts start to get really hard at the 2nd chapter... Especially the ones that constantly cry out "my eyes, my eyes..."

I found that I can kinda cheese them a bit if I keep taking uncharged pictures of them without giving them much of a chance to move... but I don't gain many points from that... I still need a LOT more points to unlock the camera's special functions. I'm at range level 3 now which helps a lot... except for those wanderer ghosts that run by really fast, too fast for me to react..

The puzzles aren't repeating too much. The 2nd chapter has some different puzzles that the 1st didn't have...

I'm getting really into the story now... I found out the story behind the ghost women crying out "my eyes"... they were sacrificed in a blinding ritual, where they had to put on a mask with spikes in the eye sockets...

I was stuck for a while, and got to the point where I now know my way around this mansion pretty well... I had to check a guide to see where to go next, and going there activated a cutscene so that I could find the next important item to open up the next new area...

Battled a really hard boss ghost after finding the mask of reflection.. This ghost constantly teleports away, and is only visible for a split second at a time... I was able to recognize the sound it makes when it teleports so that I know when to run away, but I still ended up losing some health items.

I'm really into this game now... enough that I can look past the early ps2 era flaws like bad hit detection on the walls and stuff...

10/26/2016

End of 2nd night - Demon Tag... I finally have the blinding mask that can open the door in that ominous demon mouth room...

Had to fight a couple of really hard ghosts before that.. an annoying teleporting one in an area where you have barely any space to run around, and a blind demon...

When the door opened, the girl got visions of another person also opening this door and then getting sucked in by a ton of ghosts...

When you go in, it's quiet at first... you see the dead person from your visions on the ground... He's holding another piece of the holy mirror... Then you get attacked by a bunch of ghosts and wake up somehow back in the demon room...

3rd night - Calamity

If you go back into that demon hallway, you can get a hidden ghost there, but if you go too far in you get attacked by multiple ghosts at once. I don't think you can kill all of them, you'll just die no matter what... Although maybe if I had more powerful (and more plentiful) film I might be able to get through it...

Actually, that multi-ghost fight in the demon hall is supposed to be beatable... They aren't very hard individually, but 3 of them together are a pain. Sometimes you can get a double shot or triple shot with all 3 of them in the frame for more points.

That hallway leads to a dead end... The girl sees her brother again, passed a caved in wall, but he doesn't respond when she calls out to him...

Other than that, this whole chapter contained exactly 0 new areas... and also almost no wandering ghosts at all (I think there was 1 total).

It did have a LOT of attacking ghosts though... They seem to appear randomly, but get less and less common as you fight them. or maybe there's a set number of them that randomly appear... A lot of these random ghosts are really easy ones like the ones from the 1st chapter, but sometimes you get this really hard traveling monk ghost that spins in circles really fast and shoots projectiles at you...

I basically just re-explored the whole mansion, collecting all the items that I could. I desperately needed more film and healing items. I tried not to use up too many healing items but the sheer number of attacking ghosts in this chapter made it impossible...

Only one area that I've been to before is now locked... That shrine in the atrium outside... I eventually found the key for it by solving a puzzle with the 4 buddha statues... and that locked door was another one of those matching puzzles, harder than usual... Inside the moon shrine there was now a bunch of button terminals. 4 of them... Each had a picture leading to one of the 4 big stone/grave monuments that I've been to in previous chapters... So I had to go to each of these 4 places and fight 4 priest ghosts, They are kinda hard... sometimes they remove their head so you can't take their picture but you can still see them.. and then they put their head back on right before they're about to attack.

Oh yeah that's a thing I've started getting better at now... Shooting a ghost when the reticle turns orange, when they are coming in for an attack, gives you bonus points and also pushes the ghost back.

I now have MOST of the camera upgrades... The guide says I should have all of them by now but I missed so many wandering ghosts in the first 2 chapters... I've gained enough points to buy the paralysis special attack... it turns out to not be that good. You have to be aimed on the ghosts when you use a special or else it won't work and will still use up a stone.

Went back to the mirror shrine after defeating those 4 boss ghosts... I didn't understand how you were supposed to interpret the puzzle clues but I brute forced it easily... That made some altar come up out of the moon shrine... but instead of a thing that was supposed to be inside it, there was a bunch of blood revealed by the camera... The blood trail lead me to a previous area in the mansion, and there I had to battle the samurai ghost... This guy was insanely hard. I was all out of healing items by now, and had to use my strongest film and just barely survived on the 2nd attempt.

I'm still not even sure if that was the last battle of this chapter... I hope so because there are NO healing items available anymore in this chapter. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to take this item I got from the samurai ghost back to the moon shrine next.

Mega Man X high playthrough log part 2/2

Storm Eagle's level is a bit scary... you're high up on a bunch of towers... but the latter part actually has a floor beneath it. Found the helmet upgrade capsule in Storm Eagle's level... had to use fire to destroy a wall...

the boss was pretty easy... only died against him once due to his wind knocking me off when I was on the wrong side of him...

went back to Kuwanger's level.. now that I know the boomerang can grab that heart tank... retried Storm Eagle's level again, and all those other fire door sidepaths I missed the first time are just for health/1up pickups. this level is actually kinda hard if you don't cheese it with missiles.

I'm pretty sure I'm at the point now where I've found just about everything I could on my own (although I kinda remember finding a few more subtanks in a previous playthrough before (I only found 1 this time), and maybe one or two more heart tanks...

Now I'm using a guide for the rest of the items I'm missing... I've probably never done this before which might be why I've never managed to beat this game yet.

Fatal Frame playthrough log part 1

I really like this atmosphere... at first you're playing as some guy coming here for research, and everything is grainy and in black and white.. The game teaches you the camera controls and stuff... Then you show up to the mansion as that guy's sister, a few weeks later... You find his camera and some notes from him.

The controls are really clunky and bad though. I'm really looking forward to playing the Wii U one which seems like a perfect fit for camera controls. Also I really hate how you don't get a prompt for any of the stuff you can examine... Oh well I guess all of the things you NEED to examine are highlighted at least.

wtf I am totally stuck already in the first section of the mansion. Every door is locked, and I've walked around everywhere several times...
Oh... so I guess there's certain hidden doors that you have to reveal by taking a picture of it...

10/22/2016

Holy shit, that really creepy effect that happens when you leave the screen paused... Bloody handprints showing up all over the screen... That is crazy.

Played for 2.5 hours tonight... Now I understand that when the camera icon turns blue, it means there is something nearby that you can take a picture of with the camera to reveal something that can't normally be seen... The icon glowing blue means that you are near a hidden object or stationary ghost that you need to shoot with the camera... The viewfinder gives you further hints about where that thing is... When the icon glows red, it means there is a mobile ghost nearby that you need to shoot... There's a lot to get used to, but it's fun once you do get used to it.

The 2 kinds of mobile ghosts are wandering ghosts that escape if you don't shoot them in time, and attack ghosts that chase you and attack you.

I'm really liking this game now. The controls take a bit getting used to, and I'm still often screwing up which button does what... I hate how sometimes you need to run away from the attack ghosts but there is literally no space to run around them and you just have to get attacked... The teleporting ghosts are especially hard, they are like boss battles...

The creepiest part yet was when I was in this room filled with expensive looking dolls on shelves... and kid voices kept calling out to me wanting me to play... and when I found the seal needed to destroy the talisman that was blocking a door in another room, at that point the children ghosts started crawling on the floor and coming toward me... Such ridiculously scary atmosphere there holy shit... Even after the ghosts were gone this room was still unsettling...

I also really like the puzzles... This kind of stuff is really addicting. it's kind of like Luigi's Mansion where you just gotta inspect everything and hope you find the object you need to open a passage in another area.. and sometimes you need to inspect with the camera... The wandering ghosts are sometimes really hard to get. They always appear within the viewing area of the screen, but not always within the viewing area of the camera in your current location.

I'm still on the Strangling Ritual chapter... I think I'm getting near the end of it though... I'm outside the mansion now, and just unlocked a torch to find some kind of key object that I probably need somewhere, and got to another outdoor area with a really hard boss ghost and a save point...

Metroid Fusion high playthrough log part 3

Sector 3 - PYR - Part 2

6 minutes until meltdown... I have to go to an area of the map that is still grey and get to the boiler control room by then... the way to get to that grey area is not obvious, it's an opening that is hidden from the map.. I was there before but couldn't go further down from there until getting the varia suit. fought a scientist that was infected by X and gained the "Wide Beam".

Got an energy tank and a couple missles on the way back. There's still one more uncollected dot but it's out of the way, and I don't even know if I can get it yet or not.

Main Deck - Part 2

Commander theorizes that the X sees Samus as such a great threat to their species, they were willing to sacrifice themselves and SA-X to take out this station and everyone in it... he detected life forms in a part of the Main Deck I haven't been to yet, and restored power to that elevator so I could go there... the life forms were just the animals Samus saved in the previous game.. Commander says this confirms that all the crew members have been wiped out now... then he points me to the data room in Sector 5 to get the power bombs...

Kirby's Dream Land 2 high playthrough part 2

jeez... the secret item in 6-2... I have NO idea how to get that... that level forces you to get ice... and the only other things you can get after that are Rock and Rick... none of those can open the weird blocks with a line in them...

also this game has a really strange difficulty curve... really depends on what abilities you have at each section..

just found out you need to bring Kine the fish into 6-2 to swim against the current at that part where you have to blind jump to find a door in the water, to get spark from a miniboss... then go in that door again and go with the current to get Rick and Spark... fucking hell... I keep thinking I've got it all but then realize i've missed yet ANOTHER step... after you get Rick, then use the beam to free Coo, then swap for Coo so you can fly against the wind in the next section and get the cutter... jeez
anything else?...

Kracko was terribly easy with Coo + cutter... would've been easy with Coo + lightning too (just noticed that is literally the same as Kracko's main attack...

Kirby's Dream Land 2 high playthrough part 1

New characters that help Kirby in this game: Rick the Hamster, Coo the Owl, Kine the fish...

hamster is okay, just for the silly different versions of the transformation powers he does but nothing else... you can't float with him but the levels never really require floating...

owl is totally broken, but the levels that you're supposed to use him in at least have a lot of moving flying enemies and gordos to deal with...

fish has mostly less useful versions of each power, but they are actually more useful when you are underwater... and the levels you're supposed to use him in have a mixture of underwater and above water platforming...

I think of the little stars as 100% collectables, even though they don't do anything except give you a 1up for every 7, it's fun to try and collect all of them anyway... and there's also a hidden collectable in each world that looks like some kind of cosmic star item...

Super Mario Star Road (SM64 romhack) playthrough log

I started playing this spontaneously... Never played a SM64 romhack before, but I'm very familiar with the SM64 engine.

First I explored around a bit and found the outdoor pipe leading to Course 3. It's a grassy river area similar to the hub.. I had a bit of trouble at first getting that water cave star... I set the analog range to the usual 67% but I think I might need to adjust the controller's deadzone too.

Then I wandered into the tower and jumped into a realistic looking painting that is on an actual paint canvas... That is the proper world 1. it's a place with a king bobomb boss and a very odd layout.. you can't die from falling off, most of the time you'll just fall in the water... I got the 100 coin star and a bunch of others, and I'm stuck on the "top of the sunken ship" star on this world...

Then I went into a vase and found world 2... it's a floating resort where it's VERY easy to fall off and die.. the whomp boss is here, and getting around this place involves some puzzle solving and some pretty advanced maneuvering skills...

As soon as I gained 8 stars I went through one of the 8-star doors and entered course 5, a level with boos and SM3DW aesthetic, and I think SM3DL music though I'm not sure... here I found a grave that you can push to reveal a whole that leads into the hidden stage containing the blue switch on some rotating gears.. it seems like there's more to do at this stage but I couldn't figure it out at all... just died to exit... got another star at course 5, then went back to course 2 and 3 and got a few more stars there, including the 100 coin star... I'm a bit stuck at course 2, but could probably progress more in course 3 and 5...

I could've checked out course 4 now too, but instead I explored the hub a bit more, and found a pipe behind the tower that leads to a secret course. This place looks like some toad village.. you can race koopa the quick up a mountain... I raced him without even exploring the mountain yet, and just barely managed to beat him on the first try... That mountain path is really crazy, it's like the same difficulty as tall tall tower, and you have to hurry.

This secret stage also has 8 red coins... including one that was insanely hard to get to. I managed to get it by doing a divebomb at the peak of a triple jump... I'm pretty sure that's how you're meant to get it cuz I don't see any other possible way... also you can't get 100 coins in this stage.

Metroid Fusion high playthrough log part 2

Sector 4 - AQA

The commander tells me about Serris, the powerful creature being held here, that is probably now under the control of the X.. it has gone rampaging around and now the place is flooded with high voltage water... This place really is more maze-like than the previous areas up until now... even the grey/pink parts of the map require a lot of attention to block formations and stuff to figure out the way forward...

Eventually got to this water serpent monster, in Serris's breeding ground... is that Serris I dunno... it was a really easy boss fight.. it goes down in like <15 a="" able="" access="" all="" and="" appreciate="" as="" back="" backtracking.="" being="" bombs...="" boost="" br="" can="" come="" doors="" dots="" explore="" few="" for="" gained="" game...="" have="" helps="" here="" hidden="" hollow="" i="" including="" item="" level...="" lot="" lowers="" m="" map="" missiles...="" need="" new="" of="" on="" other="" paths="" power="" really="" regular="" s="" see="" seeing="" speed="" starting="" system="" terminal="" that="" the="" then="" there="" this="" to="" uncollected="" uncovered="" up="" ve="" water="" when="" where="" you="" your="">
back to Navigation room... commander guy says that I can get the (power bombs I think?) in the data room here, but it requires the red doors to be unlocked... he says that is the highest security level and they should avoid unlocking it until absolutely necessary...

Kirby's Dream Course log

I've never really fully played through this before. Now I'm starting over fresh, gonna get high on edibles and attempt to complete it. Started by reading this really nice concisive review: http://www.consoleclassix.com/snes/kirbys_dream_course.html

Then I watched the in-game gameplay demos that teach you how to play... there are 20 of them in total.. the first few just show kirby on linear straight courses to demo the ground/fly shots... then there's a demo with a dpad picture that is a full diamond-shaped course that shows how to aim your shots.

I really like how L and R are used to quickly adjust angle by an exact 45 degrees.

It seems like going for the middle of the power meter is what you need to land a straight unobstructed ground shot at exactly where the end of the guide is... but for fly shots you have to stop the first meter in the middle, and the 2nd meter at the top to land exactly where the guide shows... (er, actually it looks like you actually want both meters to land in wherever the white line happens to be... I just got confused by the redundant bar meter on the right, when you actually need to look at the crosshair meter where Kirby expands/deflates across both axis)

Ground curving seems pretty simple too... just the same as aiming except you have to hold B... the guide shows the exact curve you'll make if you stop the meter in the middle.

Metroid Fusion high playthrough log part 1

This intro story is really good...
Samus was sent a research mission to SR388, where she first met that hatchling, along with some federation people... she got attacked by a thing that turned out to be the "X parasite".. it made her unconscious and her ship crash-landed in an asteroid belt.. the federation people found her and tried to save her, but the parasite started merging her suit with her body, and they had to perform surgery just to get some parts of the suit off her...

finally they came up with a cure, injected her with a Metroid cell so that those cells could fight off the X parasite... now her power suit has become a part of her body called the Fusion suit... she also has a new ship now, cuz I guess the old one got destroyed in the crash.

Super Metroid high playthrough log part 5

just about at 6 hours of game time now... I tried Ridley again and beat him on one try while coming up on edibles. He's not that hard once you get into a good rhythm. I used up all my missiles first, usually only shooting 2 or 3 at a time... then I switched to super missiles, hoping to finish him off with these during his harder phases.. but ran out just when he was red... you really have to focus on making every super missile count... then I beat him with a few more charge beam shots after that. during his last phase, he gets really mad and mostly just stays near the bottom shooting and whacking you with his tail, not even trying to dodge you anymore...

Found an energy tank hiding in the empty room after Ridley... the path leading out of the Ridley part of Norfair, with another one of those fake walls you can't see with the Xray visor, followed by a bunch more xray visor puzzles.. the transition back to normal Norfair is very gradual... finally made it all the way back to the Brinstar elevator... that one blue area left in Brinstar where I needed the gravity suit, is the only other missing thing I can easily find before Tourian... there's another energy tank there...

I now have 12/14 energy tanks, 160 missiles, 40 super missiles, and 40 power bombs... the other stuff I'm missing, I have no idea where to look. I'd seriously have to use a guide or otherwise just literally scour the entire game looking for doors or xray paths I might've missed.

EarthBound high playthrough log part 1

I've played through this once before, but I was kinda just rushing through it back then, and a lot of the details never stuck with me. Now that I've done a playthrough of Mother 1 while high and I'm a lot more into the story of this series, I'm gonna do a full high replay of this game.

First of all, to get fully immersed in the game, first I gotta read through the intro part of the player's guide.
http://earthbound.nintendo.com/playersguide

lol this guide is great... even the description of the controls have a lot of charm and flavor to it...
the R button's only function in the entire game is ringing the bell when you're on your bicycle. the only use of the Start button is to start the game... the only use of Select/B is to cancel out of menus (also it shows your HP/PP/money when you're out of the menu)... L is the shortcut button for talking and checking... A is the open menu/confirm button... L also works as the confirm button, and since R is unnecessary and Select can be used instead of B, that means you can basically play this game with one hand... although you do need the A button if you want to access items/PSI powers outside of battle.

The 4 playable characters:
Ness, the balanced one with mysterious psychic abilities.
Paula, the famous psychic whose mother is a preschool teacher.
Jeff, the son of a famous scientist, a mechanical genius who can repair/use items that nobody else can use.
Poo, the prince from the east, very mentally, physically, and spiritually strong and has his own unique psychic powers and unknown weapon/equipment preferences.

oh cool, there's a chart showing all of the default name/fav entries for when you pick "I don't care"

Your "Guts" level is like "Luck" in other RPGs, it affects the frequency of critical hits
"Vitality" and "IQ" are kind of like Pokemon EVs... affect how much your HP/PP increase with each level
"Luck" is your accuracy. the rest of the stats are self explanatory...

Evil people can be distinguished because their faces will be blue... and the people/animals you defeat don't actually die, they become "normal" again and leave.

It also explains how the battle command menu is different for each character...
Paula has the unique "Pray" command, it has mysterious unknown effects.
Jeff has a "Spy" command that tells you what PSI powers enemies are vulnerable to, if any... Jeff is not very strong and has no PSI command, but he's the best person to use items with and there are some battle items that only he can use.
Poo has a "Mirror" command that is like Ditto's transform...

Phones, ATM, Colds and medicine.. these all work just like in Mother 1.. although there are now pay phones that charge money.
Also in addition to just calling Dad to save the game, now you can also call Mom or Ness's sister Tracy... Tracy works for a delivery company, and you can get items delivered or picked up from wherever you are, instead of having to going all the way back home...
Doctors and Healers are the only way to recover from certain status conditions... Nurses are the only way to revive unconscious characters...
Hint Stands are like fortune teller shops in Zelda games...

Sometimes you can find butterflies out in a field or cave, that restores 20 of everyone's PP.. they're basically like the equivalent of healing houses that you'd randomly find out in the fields in Mother 1...

omg I love this player's guide

Wonder Boy in Monster World playthrough log

The 3rd game in the Monster World series, and the 5th game in the Wonder Boy series... This starts off very similar to Wonder Boy in Monster Land. It's the same starting area with the tree stump houses and everything... there's an old man in the first house that tells you about the town up ahead that is being attacked... you can buy faster boots at a shop... like in the 2nd Monster World game, the monsters give infinite money if you just keep respawning them, and in this game they respawn much faster so it takes no time at all to buy everything in every shop that you come across.

The next screen has a castle wall with the door blocked by guards... passed that is the familiar water platforming section... then you get to the first town which has mushroom monsters roaming around everywhere and all the villagers are hiding in their houses. The girls of this village all seem to have fairy wings, and one of them tells you to press UP in between the two fairy statues to go to where the fairy queen character is...

The fairy gives you a helper fairy named Priscilla, but you can only use it as long as you stay in this village. It doesn't seem to do much except sometimes make hearts appear when you kill enemies... One of the villagers says that the cave where the monsters come from have doors that are sealed by music, and she lost the ocarina in that cave... you can find it easily as soon as you go in there... then you bring the ocarina back to that person and she teaches you 3 songs that you have to memorize in order to open up all of the cave doors.

At the end of the cave is the first boss, a giant mushroom monster who jumps around and spawns little mushroom monsters.. it was really hard, because he jumps right on you and your current boots aren't fast enough to dodge him usually. I barely managed to beat it using the spear after using both my elixer and potion. I don't think there was any reason to go with the weaker sword and shield for more defense instead, since the spear can kill him that much faster.

After you defeat the mushroom boss, the village becomes safe again and all the villagers now have different dialog.. if you go back to the fairy queen's place, there's now a passage opened up in a hollow tree, and that somehow leads to an underground sewer passage... this game's geography makes no sense at all but whatever...

Wario: Master of Disguise playthrough log

I played this for the first time today... got through the first 2 stages in about 1.5 hours..

The gameplay itself isn't bad... but holy shit this game has WAY too much talking. I just want to explore and move on, but the game keeps on interrupting me with lengthy dialog scenes... and it's not like in a Paper Mario game where the dialog is actually entertaining. here it's just a really mediocre story about Wario creating a device that lets him go into a TV show and steal the spotlight from a thief character.. he steals the thief's magic wand that lets him transform, and then uses it to look for treasure. also the wand is a character who accompanies Wario and gives you tutorials on pretty much everything.

It's basically just a Metroidvania style puzzle platformer, with the world divided into several stages where you explore and collect treasure while finding your way to the main objective... Each treasure chest has a random minigame that you have to complete in order to open it. These are kinda like Mario Party minigames that use the touch screen, and they only take 30 seconds or so to complete. Some of the treasures you find will give you a new disguise power. You have to switch between disguises by drawing a shape ontop of Wario, which seems really pointless, it could've just been done with a pause menu.

Each disguise has its own ability that lets you get to places you couldn't before. The main thief disguise lets you jump high and tackle. The astronaut disguise lets you shoot lasers and have low floaty jumps... I hate the artist disguise, it makes Wario stand still in front of a canvas and lets you draw a block anywhere on the screen to use as a stepping stone. This ability is used a lot in stage 2 and it gets REALLY tedious when you are backtracking trying to find out where to go. There are also upgrades for each disguise that you supposedly unlock by collecting enough gems, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Even ignoring the annoying boring cutscenes, this game is nowhere near as good as the Wario Land games. The puzzles are very simple and just more of a time sink than an actual challenge.

Super Metroid high playthrough log part 4

Maridia part 2

The big middle sections of Maridia has some wall-jumpable skips... actually feels like these paths were intended by the developers...
holy shit that epic discovery... while wall jumping up some part (I'm a lot better at that now btw), I saw a crab enemy walk into an invisible morphball sized path that I wouldn't have even thought to look with the xray scope otherwise... they totally placed that enemy there on purpose. found super missile upgrade.

huh... there's a one-way shortcut back to Brinstar (the east Crateria exit) at an unmapped path at the northwest...

I'm actually really impressed with the design of this place... it just hits so many if my "amazing level design" things. The hidden paths are well hidden, but aren't unreasonable to find at all with all of the tools given to you at the point in the game that the developers expect you to be at...