Monday, February 19, 2018

TEXT PLAY: Secret of Mana (Squaresoft; SNES, 1993): Issue #008: Grandma's Castle


My, it's been awhile since I've done any SoM, hasn't it?

I'd like to say I'd been doing something productive with the time, but between health issues and tech issues, I really haven't been. I've got a Final Fantasy Tonight post about that coming up that I need to get finished, so I'll save it for that post.

So, onto the game. As I said last time, I was hesitant to go forward with this part of the game because it's the first of quite a few areas and boss fights in the game where, at least in the version I'm playing, things can get really cheap, especially in favor of the game's AI. This is mostly because there are at least two Stun modes that can be inflicted on the player characters, and sometimes they're chainable or stackable. One is kind of a paralyze effect, oftentimes seen when a character is turned into a weaker form, such as the Moogle status that the Eye Spy monster can inflict. The other is a full-on Unconscious status ailment, where a character is plain and simple knocked the hell out, to paraphraze an old running gag we used to use on GlitterRock's Cap-Post Page back in the day. The Mushbooms in the various areas we've been to used that one from time to time.

All this leaves us where we left off last time. I was going to go have a word with the sorceress Elinee on behalf of the king of Pandora, who basically calls the party a bunch of noisy kids before sending Dyluck off to the ruins at Pandora because some guy called Thanatos told her to. Rose, of course, asks why, to which Elinee explains that Thanatos is the head of some unnamed secret organization that wants to overthrow the kingdom. She doesn't really explain why that is, so at least for the moment, it's pretty much the classic “Who's On First” routine. Once all that's explained, she sicks her pet tiger on the party. Officially, the cat's called Spikey, and he's the first boss that can really get cheap on us, but that'd be par for the area, I guess.

As it works out, I had to do this part four times before I got through it successfully. The first time, I got my party killed, but I'll chalk that up to my having not played in a month and having forgotten what I needed to do for prep work. The second time, I did that prep work and saved the game after stocking up on healing items and armor and actually beat the boss, and then the game glitched out on me, so I had to reset. I'm not sure if the game was like that originally or if it's because I'm playing a 25-year-old game on a system that's almost 30 years old at this point. The third time, I got my ass kicked again because the game's AI decided to have the damned monster pretty much bounce between the perches it had and spam ranged fire magic attacks on the party. That's really the best demonstration I've encountered yet of the game getting cheap on the party. The fourth time, I finally beat the thing without the game glitching out on me.

Beating Spikey gets us a Boomerang Orb we can use to reforge the Boomerang next time we see Watts the Dwarf. When we catch up with Elinee afterwards, she says she was working with that Thanatos dude because the magic herbs in the forrest had gone to shit on her and she was trading the people of Pandora for better herbs from Thanatos. Still doesn't really explain what Thanatos's plans are, but I'm sure we'll get there eventually. Elinee also says seeing us win has somehow convinced her of the error of her ways, so she's giving up her magic to live the rest of her days as a normal little old lady. She gives us her Whip, which is the last new weapon type of the game, and 50 gold. From there, she sends us off to the entrance of the castle.

Once outside, Rose says she's glad to know that Dyluck is still alive for the time being, at least. How she knows that, exactly, is beyond me. Just then, the hero gets a telepathic message from Luka, summoning the party to the Water Palace because there's an emergency. Rose says that she'll stay with the hero and Mickey because she knows she can't save her boyfriend alone now, so they'll have the honor and privelege of helping her save the guy after they deal with whatever's up at the Water Palace.

The neutral news here is that the closest save point to where all that takes place is at the Water Palace, which is, fortunately, not all that long a journey thanks to the ability to use the whip Indiana Jones style and a warp tile that takes us to very nearly the place we need to be. The downside is that in order to save, we have to talk to Luka, who tells us that her good friend Undine the Water Sprite is in trouble because the magic seal on the Palace has gone down. Luka thinks her pal might be in trouble as a result. I think I'm going to have to remind myself of the proper spelling of the character's name so as not to confuse it with a similar character in another RPG that at least used to be fairly popular in the recent past. We'll also finally be getting our first magic. Naturally, it's exactly the sort of thing that would have come in handy in that last boss fight.

But we'll get to that next time. Until then, stay safe, keep gaming, have fun, and DFTBA!

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