Hmm. Some of the flaws are starting to show in this game now. The map isn’t as easy to navigate as in Circle of the Moon, especially in the way that there are rooms which serve no purpose than to slow you down. No baddies, no spikes, just a poorly laid out room to navigate. They’re not hard, just annoying. Then there’s the structure of the bosses. You don’t seem to have to do them all in a specific order, …
Well, now you can! We’ve got a Samsung VHS-to-DVD recorder at work, and on some of the on-screen menus you’re asked to press any key. Helpfully, the remote includes an Any Key for those people who wish to take the request literally.
And so it’s out with Circle of the Moon, and in with Harmony of Dissonance. I’ve played it for almost an hour and a half already, and I’m enjoying it. There’s something not quite right about it, though. Maybe it’s the way Juste (your character) has a bizarre blue glow and shadow trails. Maybe it’s the fact I had to start again completely powerless. It could be that L and R perform dashes rather than special moves. Or perhaps it’s …
After trying several times to kill Dracula, I gave up. The final boss has two phases: one where he appears and disappears, and has three attacks – poison clouds, laser beam, and meteor strike, and after that he flies around a lot, then turns into a load of bats and a giant eyeball. The first phase was easy, especially if I used the DSS card combo that effectively grants you double energy. The second, however, was not. Dodging Dracula flying …
Damn that Devil thing! I either get past it unscathed and then have my HP demolished by the Dark Armours, or the thing kills me. Thankfully, I found a fantastic way of killing Hugh without me losing much energy at all – shoot a load of crucifixes away from him, then jump over him and them as they come back, they all pass though Hugh and Super Damage ensues. Aces. So after a couple of attempts with this tactic, he …
I’m getting near the end now. I can smell it. That, and I’ve uncovered more than 80% of the map and have only one “magic power” left to obtain. Killed Camilla, who was actually very easy once I took my time about it and actually dodged her attacks rather than blindly trying to whip her. My axes proved very useful too. My power-up gained was Roc’s Feather (isn’t that Link’s power-up? Hmm…) which lets me jump very high indeed. Then …
Spent about an hour playing online, and managed to get the Complete 50 Games Online achievement. Had some decent games, with no restarts like yesterday. I just wish people would think a little more about what they’re setting up – Walls mode with the full map and only three players simply doesn’t work. You have very little chance of even seeing any walls by the other players, let alone being forced into colliding with one.
Off I went to the bit where the acid water was, and as expected, it became normal water again. I then worked my way through quite a few lizardmen, ice women things, and some witches, before finding a huge ice demon thing which killed me. So I tried again, took a slightly different route, and found a save point. Just past that, was the next boss – Camilla (who is the woman right at the start of the game who …
I chipped away at the Pro goals for a while, managing to bump about four Ams to Pro. Still at Rank 6 though. I still can’t see how to get to the goal in the Slums either. I then spent quite a while playing online, partly to get the Complete 50 Games Online achievement, but also as something else to do in the game. Most of the games played were Trick Attack ones (which are dull), but got in a …
I was going to have a go at completing a few songs on hard, but decided against it and and went straight in to Quick Play instead. Improved on my Easy and Medium scores on about 5 tracks, and set scores for the first time on another 5 or so. I even managed Ziggy Stardust on Medium missing just one note (which I don’t think, technically, I missed – it just failed to register). Bah!
I felt the need to play some Tony Hawk, so I dusted this off with the intention of bumping my rank up from 6 to 5. Of course, I didn’t. I got Pro for one goal I previously had Am for, and found about 8 more gaps. Also got another Owned goal. And that was it. There are at least two goals in the Slums area I can’t even get to, which isn’t helping me get at least Am for …
Shock! I bought a new console! OK, so it’s an old console, but it’s one I’ve wanted for absolutely ages. Someone on rllmuk was selling it with four games and some, uh, “backups”, for a not-to-be-missed price, and lo – it arrived this afternoon. And it really is very nice. To look at, it’s like a giant Sega Saturn, and the interface is almost identical to the MegaCD. The joypad is like a big version of the NeoGeo Pocket stick …
One of today’s Virtual Console downloads was this. Well, it would be rude not to download it, yes? So I did. Firstly, the graphics look a lot better than I remember. This could be because I’ve more recently played some of the N64 game’s tracks on the DS version, and the DS isn’t quite up to N64 standards. However, I was surprised at how sparse the tracks were. Of course, once I get to Wario Stadium I’m sure things will …
I downloaded all the expansions for this yesterday, and had a go with some today. Firstly, was the new Heavenly skin thing, which was nice but as it was just one skin, it kept looping over and over and I got a bit fed up with it. Then I tried Advanced Mode, which seemed easier than Base, although I didn’t get anywhere near the high score I had on Base. Then I tried Base again, and unlocked two more skins, …
Just a few random plays on this. Took part in bowling, golf and tennis training modes, but didn’t really improve on my high scores. Tennis is a bit hard, isn’t it? I then moved on to doing Fitness Mode, and got an age of 58. Rubbish.