Together Retro: First-Person Dungeon Crawlers

[Ack]

Dungeon Hack

I took some time off from Dungeon Hack out of frustration with the 5th floor of my current run but finally got back to it last night. Wights suck due to the permanent level drain they can inflict, but the Ghost Warriors were the bigger problem since they hit so hard. As a result of dealing with these threats, I've gotten really good at hit-and-run, cornering tactics: lure an enemy around a corner and lay into their side before they can turn to face you. With faster enemies, this is hard to do, but it still effectively gives you a free attempt at a hit while keeping you safe. You don't want to be smacked for 15 damage when you have only 35 health.

Of course, Ghost Warriors do give a nice chunk of xp, so by the time I was done, I had doubled the amount of xp I had and gone up several levels in all classes. With more spells and hit points, I chose to start buffing myself after every rest with Aid and Magical Vestment. There were a few curve balls where the dungeon sudden made me take on a group of 3 Ghost Warriors at once, but I eventually found the floor down.

Surprisingly, the "boss" was in a different location. Each floor in Dungeon Hack has a tougher enemy type that is generally guarding the staircase to the next floor. Floor 5 broke this rule and had a mummy that was in a different section of the dungeon. Not far, mind you, but definitely not right in front. Still, I can take a mummy. They're much slower than Ghost Warriors.

Once I cleared floor 5, I went to 6, which was full of Wyverns and Grave Mist, a type of ghostly monster. The terrible thing about Wyverns is that they can poison you. The nice thing is that the Ghost Warriors had given me so much experience, I now have spells to neutralize poison. Wyverns and Grave Mist are also really slow, so I managed to clear the floor with little trouble. Only the "boss" of this floor gave me any trouble, a Sword Wraith, which is a fast, ethereal enemy with a nasty habit of draining strength. Thankfully, Flame Blade still works on them, and the stat drain clears up with rest, so when I finally went mano y mano with the wraith, I took some hits but beat him down.

I'm now at the start of floor 7 of 18 in my dungeon, where I am fighting Specters. I also found a really nice set of chainmail on floor 6 that has put my AC at -4, so that will help improve my survivability. With 5 behind me, I feel a lot better about my current progression, but I know Dungeon Hack has more tough scrapes to put me in. I look forward to the challenge.

[Exhuminator]

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain DS

I put two more hours into this last night, bringing me up to six hours invested. And I'm done here. I love the concept and premise, the great graphics and smooth engine are impressive for the platform, and there's some good ideas present. However, this little FPDC is one of the most unbalanced games I've ever played. And I mean unbalanced to the point of just not being fun. Clearly the developers did not playtest FF:TWoFM worth a damn. To put it simply, this game expects its player to grind an inordinate amount of time in order to make inches of progress. This was clearly done to artificially extend what would be three hours of content into a twenty hour slog. I can appreciate a fair challenge as much as anyone, but a contrived challenge? I'll pass, life's too short. It's not that I couldn't beat this game. Anyone with free hours of time to burn away killing a thousand orcs over and over, could beat FF:TWoFM by sheer level attrition. But that's not the kind of intelligent, skill-rewarding challenge I seek in gaming. You don't have to take my word for it. These two reviews are spot on: 1 2 Overall I'd give this one a 6/10 - I also realized FF:TWoFM is only nine years old today, meaning it's not even as "retro" as I prefer anyway! Moving on folks.

And this is what I'm moving on to:


Wizardry - Tale of the Forsaken Land

[Sarge]

So, I sunk a few more hours into KF4 last night. This one was all about going back and getting that missing Engineer's Key. Well, where would I find that? The Engineer's Quarters, I would assume. I dig around, and happen on a "door" that I'd only had one Release Stone, and didn't dig around well enough for the other one. Well, that's not actually true. I proceeded through the game, and used that Stone on another door, which means I circumvented some exploration wherever I used that one. So I had no clue where I missed the old one. I dug around in a guide (I know, I know), just to narrow down the area I thought it would be in. I get to poking around, and the area I found it in I could have sworn I explored, so I'm wondering if I missed saving the game or died or something. Either way, I get the rock, I get the Engineer's Key, and I continue apace.

The moral of all this? Explore thoroughly before moving on. Always.

As I continued on, I manage to procure Serrak's Key, which is the last one I need to get all the Black Eyes in the forest spring area (the one with the golem). I wasn't entirely sure where I was supposed to use those, but I did open the "You're not kingly" door and beat the boss there. I don't remember what he dropped, but nearby is also the Passage of Light. I'd skipped that earlier in the game, because it felt distinctly like I wasn't supposed to be there yet. I think I was right, given the four-armed knights that I fought. At this point, though, they were pretty easy, much as all the other enemies have been. Turns out really good weapons and armor plus Earth Heal can get you through darn near anything. There's a door at the end of all this that requires all four eyes to unlock, so I do so, and I find a spring that restores an ancient weapon I've been toting around (the Lawful Blade) to its ultimate form, the Moonlight Sword. I have no idea if this sword is necessary to beat the game, but as I've already looked at the guide a bit, they apparently use it right up to the end. I don't know if the durability stays at 100, I haven't had much chance to use it before I had to go to bed.

I'm starting to feel it at this point. Having that early difficulty smooth out quite a bit has made things much more palatable, and I'm still impressed by how well everything interlinks. I just needed to remember which passages in the Central Tower went where so I wouldn't have wasted so much time during my backtracking travails. Oh well, live and learn. I think I'm getting quite near the end, the last thing I did was place the Icon of Water at the bottom of an area gated by a Serrak Door.

[Exhuminator]

Stop using a guide!

to its ultimate form, the Moonlight Sword

The Moonlight Sword is awesome, and it's in every KF game. It's basically FromSoftware's mascot (they've put it into many other non-KF related games - but it originated in KF1).

You're at least 2/3rds of the way through now, glad you're enjoying the experience. I'm very interested in what you'll think of the final stretch.

[Sarge]

Man, I was so stuck trying to find that Release Rock that I needed something to get me on track, or I was going to spend hours and hours retracing my steps. Ain't got no time for that. I knew I shouldn't have just kept pushing forward when I did... I've basically learned that you really want to explore thoroughly everywhere you are in a KF game.

For the most part, the guide hasn't been terribly useful. I've managed to suss out most of the secrets on my own, and definitely had more fun in the stretch where I just said "screw it, using a guide is worthless" for like ten hours straight.

[Exhuminator]

I've basically learned that you really want to explore thoroughly everywhere you are in a KF game.

Absolutely. The number one thing KF games are about is exploration. That's the crux of the experience. You gotta go slow and systematically explore all areas (finding secrets within secrets is not uncommon). The difficulty in these games doesn't come from fierce enemies (with a few exceptions), but rather figuring out what to do and where to go. I remember in KF4 the hardest thing for me was figuring out how to use its warp system. I did have to look that one up. Later on, I found out this warp system was carried over from previous KF games. So if I had played KF2 (which explains the system better), I would have already known how to use it in KF4. Anyway you're on the path to victory now man, you got this.

[laurenhiya21]

Coincidentally I also tried playing Madou Monogatari I for GG for this topic as it seemed simple and not too long. I didn't have that problem with saves though (mainly used save states but tried in-game saves a couple of times), maybe try using Fusion instead if you aren't?

Fusion is what I'm using already. Something with the in-game saves must have messed up somehow if that's not how if that's how they're normally supposed to work. Either way I'm going to just use save states for the rest of the game so that doesn't happen again.

[Sload Soap]

Morrowind update: At a point now where I can beat the main quest. I just need to grab Sunder (already have Keening and Wraithguard) and head to Dagoth Ur's quarters and kill him. This has been a pretty quick playthrough with only the Thieves guild being completed of all the many sidequests. As it's the GOTY edition I can travel to Mournhold and Solstiem whenever and at my current level and with my equipment I don't forsee too many issues. While being an archer/stealth class sucked in the early game, now I can pick off even high level Ash vampires before they even realise I'm in the same room as them.

With that in mind I'm probably going to set Morrowind aside for now and focus on Shining The Holy Ark. I've also ordered a copy of Wizardry V for the Super Fami and will give that a try when it arrives.

[Ack]

Doesn't Wizardry V on the SNES and Super Famicom have one glaring issue where it doesn't tell you how a certain puzzle is supposed to be finished, so you have to resort to a guide to beat the game? I recall that was a problem with one of the Wizardry ports...

[Sload Soap]

I think you're correct, at least going off Hg101. Will just google it, if I ever make it that far...