Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2024

[pierrot]

Nice job!
I have 3 quests left (one side and two main) in Fable and then I'm going to start Faxanadu. Once you start if you have any tips please post them.

The main tips for Faxandu are:
- Toss out Faxanadu ('cus it's faux-Xanadu).
- Download Revival Xanadu: https://www.amusement-center.com/projec ... ct_id=1455
- (Alternatively, one of the original versions of Xanadu, for maximum sweat: https://www.amusement-center.com/projec ... ct_id=1837)

I'm kidding, but also I'm not. There's a reason Xanadu was the best selling PC game in Japan for over 30 years, and Faxandu was met with massive backlash there. It drives me nuts that the availability of the games in the Dragon Slayer series make them borderline impossible to recommend despite how massively influential they are.

Anyway, I do actually hope you two have fun with Faxanadu.


Update:
I'm in the final stretch of DQ9's main story. Basically just tearing through the Generals that have given me all kinds of trouble in their coin-boss forms in DQ10.
After some searching, I found a few server DNSs for DLC and DQVC for the Japanese version of the game. So I could probably get the extra quests and things, but I'm still not sure I feel like bothering with post-game stuff that much. After getting a few classes to lv 40, and grabbing their tomes for the special abilities, I realized that they can't be used without the character being on that class--which I find stupid, since even weapons can be made usable on all classes. So my dream of a Sage with (fuckin' 0 mp cost!!!) Hustle Dance, party-wide elemental Forces, and a party-wide Baishion has gone up in smoke. orz
That honestly killed a lot of my motivation for creating super destroyers, when my party is already highly destructive.

On a somewhat unrelated note of weird coincidence, I've been working through actually completing the Myth story in DQ10 (base game's original end-game that basically has no value now, so I never really touched it) while I was in doing some of the timed event stuff, and there was a section where I had to get some Dragon Firewater. Literally the next day playing DQ9, I was tasked with taking some Dragon Firewater up to a dragon. Seems to be the only two instances of this quest item existing in the series (outside of Joker 2), which I was just surprised to have randomly overlap in a short period of time.

[Hardwired]

How far are you into the game? I’m not a great FPS player, but I still enjoyed Half Life quite a bit. Don’t worry too much about getting a “perfect” run through a section. I found the game gave me just enough healing items to get through tough sections, even if I played a previous section pretty poorly. In fact, I think not playing perfectly enhances the experience somewhat by making me feel more like I was in constant danger. (Gordon Freeman is in a pretty tight spot, after all!)

Despite really enjoying Half Life, I’ve never picked up the sequels. I really should remedy that someday…

I'm in Gonarch's Lair, so pretty close to finishing I believe. I have noticed indeed that healing is available pretty nicely, almost every time when it gets tough. I didn't change my playing style at this point, but I believe I could try replaying this at some point without using quick saves at all, just relying on the auto saves that the game makes.

[SpaceBooger]

Bioshock (PC) Switch 5/30
Faxanadu (NES)
Beyond Oasis (GEN)
Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
Fable (oXBOX) 6/10
Final Fantasy Legend 2 (GB)

Fable (oXBOX)
I purchased this when it first came out played it... got confused... forgot about it. I have been listening to a history of video games podcast and they had a whole episode on the Fable series and that motivated me to give it a second chance and put it on my list this year. I really enjoyed it. I usually am anoyed with the morality system but I enjoyed this one.

Next up - Faxanadu

[Ack]

Rome: Total War

The Roman Senate decided to make my decision for me. Just as my troop ship was reaching the Strait of Gibraltar, I was ordered to sack a Carthaginian settlement on the northern shore. The Carthaginians are a proud people, and while my military assault was highly successful, the town refuses to be held. Rioting is common despite my large garrison and improvements to infrastructure, and once already the citizens have rebelled to rejoin Carthage, only to be crushed again.

My frustration has led me to full scale war. Of their five cities, three have fallen into my hands, giving me control of large sections of North Africa, the northern coast of the Strait, as well as their namesake city Carthage. Those dogs the Scipii also joined in like hyenas, taking the fourth city and putting a buffer between my lands along the Southern Mediterranean.

The Carthaginian devils now cower in their final stronghold on Mallorca. I have their port under blockade. Whatever remains of their pathetic naval forces hasn't bothered to make an appearance. I want that island and their total annihilation, but no armies are currently available in proximity, and the Senate is crying for me to attack the Spanish next.

I have already positioned assassins and diplomats outside of Rome. The Senate is pushing me into needless invasions far afield, diverting my forces while the other Houses profit and take the crumbs that are rightly mine. It may soon be time for the empire to have a new emperor.

Ack's List:

1. Marathon - COMPLETE
2. Command & Conquer
3. Rome: Total War - IN PROGRESS
4. Rage
5. Outlast
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
7. Thief II
8. Ultima IV
9. Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force - COMPLETE
10. Tactics Ogre: Reborn - IN PROGRESS

[alienjesus]

I intend to start game number 3 today with Faxanadu. My mission is to try and finish at least 4 before I move house on July 2nd, so better keep cracking on!

Nice job!
I have 3 quests left (one side and two main) in Fable and then I'm going to start Faxanadu. Once you start if you have any tips please post them.

I started my playthrough of Faxanadu yesterday and made it a decent way through I think. I cleared the first few towns, did a quest where I needed to replenish 3 springs to make a fountain run, and made it to a town in a misty area.

I don't have a huge number of tips to share, but I did accidentally find out one for later in the game when searching to see if the game had any softlock situations. Apparently there is an item called the pendant you can find later which is meant to raise your attack power, but due to a bug it actually does the opposite and lowers it. The flag for the attack boost is accidentally set to on by default and turned off when you get the pendant in the code rather than the other way round.

Some other general tips I've found:

- Hospitals are overpriced. Most towns also have a meat vendor and buying meat 2-3 times is cheaper than the hospital and has the same effect.

- Routes that you open with items will reseal themselves, so when you use one, commit to it. If you clear a dungeon and want to revisit it for any reason, you'll have to buy a key again.

- The second weapon you get, the long sword, has a different hitbox to the dagger you get at the start. You can hit the low enemies with it without magic even though it doesn't look like it. If you hit enemies up close it often registers 2 hits as you knock them back instead of one as well.

- Items generally get more expensive as you go, so stock up on a few red potions if you need them before you leave the town you're in, as they'll cost more in the next one most of the time. Same for keys and equipment.

[pierrot]

All right. I absolutely obliterated everything on the way to rolling credits on Dragon Quest IX.
I also got the DLC and access to the DQVC by connecting to a fan server for the Japanese version of the game. So I do have access to most of the post game stuff, now. I also realized I was wrong about the class tomes: I got bamboozled by the Thief one not appearing to work on a non-thief class (it actually does, though, just at a very low rate), and didn't do the obvious test of putting the Priest one on another character. So my dream of a Super Sage is still alive, but I still don't think I'm going to put a lot of effort into post-game stuff, since without knowing for sure that I can get the Masayuki and Kawasaki Rocker maps, I don't really see it as worth the time investment. (Doing all the 'post-game' in DQXI took a lot out of me.) I'd also kind of rather get back to other stuff with my handheld time.

Overall, I don't dislike DQIX, but it's kind of weirdly experimental. I can get the appeal: DQIII style party composition that the Japanese market is always hungry for; Lots of character customization (sorta); Multiplayer on the go. A lot of this is more novelty now, though. The story is kind of surprisingly solid--considerably better than the borderline garbage story of DQXI--although the events immediately following the final boss are a little abrupt. On the downside, the quests are mostly poorly implemented time sinks with little to no value in completing, outside of (some of) the last quests for class/weapon proficiency. Basically, in the same way DQVIII is just infinitely better (while being a similar style of DQ) in comparison to DQXI, there's nothing that DQIX has that you won't get in a better package from DQX.

So, DQIX definitely sits in the bottom half of the series for me (above DQII, DQVI, and DQXI), but for someone who's already played through the bona fide bangers in the series (DQ III, DQIV, DQV and DQVIII), I still might recommend DQIX, unlike those bottom three.


Anyway, I kind of don't know how much I feel like going straight into DQVII, since I know what people tend to dislike about it, and I'm not sure how much I want to deal with that. On the other hand, it's the last numbered title I haven't beaten, and I would like to get through that goal. Not really sure what the next one up on the list will be just yet.

[Ack]

Rome: Total War

Despite their rebellious nature, the Carthaginian resistance in my cities is being ground out. Only in Carthage do they still actively fight, but with a full garrison, horse races, and an arena being built, I expect they'll forget their old ways and submit soon enough. I have troops in route to their final city on Mallorca. Soon this people will be just another footnote in a history no one reads.

But that is the Western Mediterranean, where I wanted to be waging my campaign. Unfortunately, the East has demanded my attention; those damn fool Pontics launched a strike on my city in Rhodes. I assassinated their general and then drove them from the battlefield.

The Pontics control most of modern day Turkey, and while I would have been content to deal with them later, their stupidity has now cost them dearly. Three of their settlements have fallen, while I blockade the port of another. Their heir lies dead from my assassin's blade. But they still attempt to lay siege to their former lands and rebel, so now I must send troops from Rhodes, Sparta, and my territories on the western shore of the Black Sea.

Still, the war presents an opportunity. The last remnant of the Greeks sits in a lone city on the coast of the Aegean Sea, surrounded on all sides by my territory, their port held by my navy. I have bribed the last of their armies, so all they can do is hold. They are proud and refuse to become my vassal; I cannot fault their pride. But I also cannot suffer their civilization to live. Once the Pontics are done, it may be time to crush Greece once and for all.

And meanwhile, the Senate continues to be useless. I am training my assassin by murdering diplomats from warring nations. Also, a prominent general under the Senate recently died under mysterious circumstances. I wonder what could have caused that...

Ack's List:

1. Marathon - COMPLETE
2. Command & Conquer
3. Rome: Total War - IN PROGRESS
4. Rage
5. Outlast
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
7. Thief II
8. Ultima IV
9. Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force - COMPLETE
10. Tactics Ogre: Reborn - IN PROGRESS

[alienjesus]

1. Faxanadu (NES)
2. Phantasy Star Online (GC)
3. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
4. Mario Golf (GBC)
5. Dragon Quest V (DS)
6. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Switch)
7. Spyro the Dragon (PS1)
8. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
9. Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
10. Star Control 2 (3DO)

I sat down and played through the second half of Faxanadu this evening, taking down the third title from my summer list for the year.

I thought Faxanadu was a pretty good time. It definitely has it's faults - there's some moments where damage is unavoidable, a few tedious backtracking segments, the key mechanic is annoying and text boxes are way too slow. But all of it's faults seem pretty minor, especially considering the era, and the games difficulty is much more manageable than many. It also doesn't feature much of the cryptic or poorly translated text issues a lot of the adventure games from the era suffer from, meaning it's more doable without a guide than many of it's contemporaries (although I won't lie, I definitely used one for some of this game!). In terms of presentation, the game was OK, I think. It looked good and the music was decent but neither the visuals or audio really stood out to me - the drab colour palette and slightly high pitched and short looped music made the game feel a bit bland sometimes.

Onto game 4 next. I'm packing up many of my consoles now for an imminent house move, but I have time for a little more home console gaming before I pivot to my handhelds. To keep it simple, I'm going to pack all my consoles except the Wii, which means I can jump into DKC Returns and Phantasy Star Online whilst I get everything else ready for the moving van. I'll probably start with DKC.

[Markies]

Onto game 4 next. I'm packing up many of my consoles now for an imminent house move, but I have time for a little more home console gaming before I pivot to my handhelds. To keep it simple, I'm going to pack all my consoles except the Wii, which means I can jump into DKC Returns and Phantasy Star Online whilst I get everything else ready for the moving van. I'll probably start with DKC.

This has nothing to do with the Summer Game Challenge, but I just wanted to say Congratulations on moving into your house.

I remember you being at a University while around here and the Backloggery Streams, so to see you go from there to a job to marriage to now a House is really impressive. You have much to be proud of that you have accomplished!

Oh, also, Faxandu is a good game.

[o.pwuaioc]

Rome: Total War

The Roman Senate decided to make my decision for me. Just as my troop ship was reaching the Strait of Gibraltar, I was ordered to sack a Carthaginian settlement on the northern shore. The Carthaginians are a proud people, and while my military assault was highly successful, the town refuses to be held. Rioting is common despite my large garrison and improvements to infrastructure, and once already the citizens have rebelled to rejoin Carthage, only to be crushed again.

My frustration has led me to full scale war. Of their five cities, three have fallen into my hands, giving me control of large sections of North Africa, the northern coast of the Strait, as well as their namesake city Carthage. Those dogs the Scipii also joined in like hyenas, taking the fourth city and putting a buffer between my lands along the Southern Mediterranean.

The Carthaginian devils now cower in their final stronghold on Mallorca. I have their port under blockade. Whatever remains of their pathetic naval forces hasn't bothered to make an appearance. I want that island and their total annihilation, but no armies are currently available in proximity, and the Senate is crying for me to attack the Spanish next.

I have already positioned assassins and diplomats outside of Rome. The Senate is pushing me into needless invasions far afield, diverting my forces while the other Houses profit and take the crumbs that are rightly mine. It may soon be time for the empire to have a new emperor.

This is good stuff. I've always enjoyed the storytelling part of strategy games and consider it as important as the strategizing. Looking forward to Accius Historicus' continued narrative of the Scipionic war against Carthage and Pontus.