Wednesday, May 23, 2012

TEXT PLAY: Legend of Mana (PlayStation; 2000): Issue #10: Tutti Fruti Summer Love


Perhaps Gunther was singing about penguins in this video.

It's been too long since I've gotten to one of these, but I've been working like a fiend at other stuff lately, hopefully to some good end. So, I suppose it's a good thing that this one wound up taking place at a beach.

I wasn't quite sure which artifact I was going to use when I first sat down to get started on this issue, so I spent a minute cycling through the ones I had and settled on the Torch of Coral. This item has to be used on a section of the map that's by water, which makes sense, since this is a beach dungeon, after all. It generates a place called Medora Beach, which is a nice, tropical place, full of palm trees and sand crabs. I'd make a bad joke about this place giving me crabs, but I somehow remember there being some sort of reward for either avoiding all the crabs or stepping on them all, and I can't remember which. Either way, I only hit three of them that I know of, because there were palm trees in the foreground, blocking part of the play area, which means that I may have got more and not know. It's those trees that are at least partly responsible for my taking out two before I even really knew they were there.

Anyway, the first big story here involves David the Pirate Penguin and his feathery girlfriend Valerie. It seems this young couple is indeed very much in love and is considering tying the knot. At first, David wants to go back to the pirate ship with the Walrus Captain and the other penguins. But then Valerie hints at having laid an egg, with the implication that it's his. Beyond that it's an excuse for the hero to go running around on the beach, beating up monsters while trying to avoid as many non-enemy crabs as he can, I'm not exactly sure what that has to do with him. But anyway, once Valerie hints at her egg, she goes running off with David in hot pursuit.

For sake of a mini-game that I don't really understand and love that I've really got only marginal interest in, I guess I've gotta go after them. After a bit of beach combing and spelunking, all while trying to avoid sand crabs, I met up with the quest's boss, a giant sand crab that could use sleep and lightning magic. It managed to hit me with a little of each, but I still managed to beat the shit out of it on my own with little or no trouble. And there was some decent XP and Lucre to be had after as well.

After the giant crab goes down, the hero finally catches up with David and Valerie, this time coming at things from the opposite angle. David says he's ready to give up being a pirate so he can be with Valerie and his egg, but Valerie tells him to go live out his dream for her and that she'll raise the egg herself. David promises to come back after beating all the monsters, even if it takes him a hundred years. At the end, I talked to her and she said essentially the same thing as before, but gave me an artifact called the Rusty Anchor. I think that one's a sunken pirate ship, but we'll see about that later.

Back at the homestead, I had some stuff ready on the tree. The tree gave me a Spiny Seed when I talked to it, and I pulled another Boarmellon off it, as well as a Lillipod, which was something we saw in the Jungle, I believe, and a Needlelettice, which sounds like it would be awful in a salad.

I think I'm starting to figure something out about the seeds the tree gives us. I do believe it gives us a new one every time three fruits are ready to go. That's just a passing observation, though. Don't quote me on that.

From here, I'm not exactly sure where I'm gonna go in this game. I guess you'll know as soon as I do. What I can say for sure at this point is that I'm hoping to start getting these closer together again. I need to relax more, and believe it or not, doing this actually does help me relax. Well, writing in general does that, but combining it with game time seems to make it better.

Anyway, be looking for another Text Play issue soon. Sometime later this week, with any luck. And stay tuned for a little gaming news, too. See you then, folks!

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