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...