EarthBound high playthrough log part 3

Reading the recap of part 2 now... the guide describes the happy happism people as "Pokey's friends"

The guide also mentions the egg->chicken money making strategy I learned. and it suggests doing the 2nd melody after rescuing Paula, like I thought...
Stopped reading after the page that tells you how to get to Threed.

- Threed part 1 -

Someone at the hotel warns you about the monsters outside... it's especially dangerous at the graveyard.
Someone outside the hotel:

There's a rumor that there is an underground path at the edge of the graveyard that takes you somewhere. When you get through the path, you'll meet a dirty, stinky, ugly powerful monster.

Everyone is hiding out here at the center of town.. near the circus tent that is the HQ of zombie relief corps.
lol this guy in this one house... a double agent for the zombies, gives lore/spoilers on this zombie creator named Belch, who is a follower of Giygas, who "is female, I think."

Hmm, exploring the town is the obvious next priority here... I checked out a bit of the south graveyard, fought some zombies, found a photo...
Then went around the upper right gated graveyard and found a hint house... and a teddy bear in a trashcan... score!
The hospital has a sign saying the cure to being bitten by a zombie is to bite back... but this theory hasn't been tested.

lmao I love this dialog this game is amazing

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...