Explosions get the blood flowing!

Jade Empire is so far a really interesting game, and most likely a rather long one. So far I saved a forest from evil cannibal creatures (not really cannibals since they're not human an more), stomped a town full of pirates, and currently clearing out a haunted mine, and all this just to get to the next area.

The game play is sort of a mix between KotOR and a beat 'em up, the characters are so far quite interesting, and the graphics are better than some early 360 games.

Well that's nine down...

I decided to stick through the frustrating game overs and get this game done today.

All told the game took just over 12 hours to finish, but like Mass Effect it's meant to be finished 3 times to see the true ending (which i just watched on line). The game was good but it seemed like all of the difficulty and horror elements went away as soon as I was able to heal my health and sanity with magic, so the whole trick with "Sanity Effects" rarely come up with a full saint bar.

The main down side is that when the character does die it's normally from some really cheap monster out of nowhere. So I would be blowing through a level with full health, then WHAM, I'm dead and have to reload from the start of the level (since I saw no reason to save on an easy area) and have to watch the unskipable all over again. Which after a while makes me want to stop playing for a bit.

Tomorrow it's on to Jade Empire: Limited Edition (which I had barley even started before).

Red > Green > Blue > Red

Progressed a few more chapters in the game and it's starting to get easier as I gain magic.

Basically the magic works with a rock/paper/scissors set up, so if my current weapon is charged with colour that beats the monster I do double damage. Also there are spells to regain health (so I don't die) and sanity (so weird stuff doesn't happen), and the magic to cast these is quickly regained by running. So, as long as I'm in an empty room I don't have to worry much about dying.

As for the weird stuff, some things I've seen include:
- The TV volume adjusting
- The TV going mute
- The screen powering off (which looks odd on an LCD)
- Upside down rooms
- The character shooting the screen
- Rooms full of ammo turning out to be a hallucination
- The character's limbs exploding in a hallucination
- A "Full game coming soon" screen as if it was just a demo

So far there hasn't been the dreaded "Save file corrupted" screen I've heard about.

I always feel like somebody's watching me...

Finished what I think is the 3rd chapter (of I have no idea how many) in EDSR, and the mind messing has just started.

So far it's just random knocking coming from doors leading to empty rooms, or creep voices from out side of the house, or a slight tilting of the screen, but I heard it gets much more extreme (like randomly swapping characters or fake memory card errors).

The actual game play is pretty straight forwards, like Resident Evil but with a less locked down camera and better fight controls (like you can target bod parts).

Last thing I did today was find chapter 4, so that's were I'll start tomorrow (I just need to not play this late at night).

Well that's eight down...

Turns out that Future Shop doesn't take returns on the 26 and 27th so I spent most of the day finishing off Mass Effect (exchanging Dragon Age tomorrow).

At 5 days it was one of the shorter games I played so far, but then that's more likely due to a combination of already being 1/4 through when I started, having more time in the past couple days to play it, and that the game is meant to be played multiple times.

In the end I also managed to complete every side quest in the game that was now reserved for different background or renegades. Also I got nearly half the achievements including the one for taking more shield damage than physical damage(surprising since I barely made it out of most fights). The remaining achievements were mostly for using skills my character didn't have, using other part members on different play troughs, and finishing the game multiple times.

It was a really fun game and if it wasn't for the pile waiting to be won I would go right on for a 2nd play through. For now it's on to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem tomorrow (which I think I'm 20% through already).

X-Boxing Day!

It's boxing day today and that means once a ear deals on games...

The assorted great deals I couldn't pass up were 35$ off Dragon Age (which I have to exchange tomorrow since I accidentally got the french copy), 25$ off Fable II (I once saw it for 25$ but figured it wasn't worth it, but 20$ is), 5$ off Assassins Creed (it was cheap so what the heck, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers for full prince (First day out, need to support GOOD FF games, not like 13).

Counting the 2 games I bought last month, I now nearly have as many games yet to finish as when I started this 3rd edition of my blog... At least Mass Effect is coming along quickly, and several shorter titles coming up later. While adding the new titles to my list I found that some of the rankings of certain games (like Pikmin 2 or MAdWorld) have changed from when I first made the list, so I also re sorted them also and remade the title bar image. So far FF:CC:CB (how's that for and acronym) has mostly average reviews (only Nintendo Power gave it 8/10) so despite buying it the first day it is way down on m list currently.

As for Mass Effect, I completed all the side missions available so far and also finished another of the main story mission.

I also got Shadow Complex on XBLA since it was the deal of the week, but since it takes up no shelf space it doesn't count on my list.

Merry Gethmass!

Finished off today the side missions I collected yesterday and also finished off a bunch of new ones I got today.

Since I'm not going for all the achievements, some are just way too hard, I'm just going to go through the game once (Ding ever side quest I can) and just get any achievements I come across.

All in a days work

spent a lot of the day doing the various side quests that I had previously gathered up in Mass Effect.

I'm getting the feel of the combat a lot more, now I just need to remember to save often... >_<

Cars can jump but people can't?

Gradually getting back into Mass Effect, the last time I played it I only got about to when you get our own ship and took out a outpost of plant controlled people.

To start off slowly I decided to do a mission that I picked up earl on, following up on a report of an odd cult. When I got there I found out that the leader of the cult was the former commander of the protagonist, and that he's gone off his meds and had his followers kill some federation officers. So I head down and on the way there find some items and get some exp, and then get completely stuck between a rock and some debris...

After reloading I decided to stay in the land rover more since it, unlike the protagonist, can jump out of being stuck in places. I collected the items up again and went to check on the cult, surprisingly I was able to talk the leader into surrendering without an bloodshed. Feeling good about the speedy outcome I went around the planet looking for an thing else interesting, and I found it...

A giant sand monster that destroyed the land rover in 1 hit!

So reloading again I killed the sand monster first, then got all the items, then finally talked the guy into surrendering again.

Now I'm in a heavily armed pirate base and greatly outnumbered, we'll see how that goes tomorow.

Well that's seven down...

Beat Metroid Prime Trilogy with a total time of about 55 hours (including finishing Prime 1 earlier), not exactly a speed run but fun!

Finding the missile I was missing turned out to be easier tan I thought it would be. It wound up being in the same room I had to go into to complete the next stage of the story an ways, so I actually saved a bit of time in finding it!

After I got the last missile and the 3 remaining items to get 100% (Omega Ridley was a joke of a boss) I figured "what the heck" and went for the end of the game.

The final fights with Dark Samus and Aurora Unit 313were alot easier than the final bosses of Prime 2. Particularly Dark Samus, who I just needed to shoot for a couple minuets straight (no silly charge cannon trick needed).

So tomorrow my Wii gets a rest and it's back to the 360 for Mass Effect.

Missiles away!

Spent today collecting up all the remaining items before the final charge of the pirate home world, and b m count I'm 1 missile short... and I have no idea where it is!

I already combed over the maps for the first 3 planets, which thankfully have little markers where items were, and I couldn't find it there. So that leaves somewhere in the first section of the pirate home world, which isn't marked!

It looks like Tomorrow I'll be going through my checklist, and crosschecking it with other lists, to find that 1 wayward missile because I want to have at least 1 of these games at 100%!

Full armed.

Mostly just spent today collecting up various power ups from the various planets since I now have most of the power-ups needed to get to them. I'm now at about 80% done the item list so there's most likely not much left to the game.

Samus Vs. Samus

So far I'm at 51% completion on the items, but also now at 50% phazon corruption...

Samus' suit is getting to be more and more monochromatic with light blue highlights, it's not a good look for her.

Today I finished off the phazon seed on the sky world, and started on the Space Pirate home world, where I faced off against the shape changing bounty hunter Gandrayda. At one point she started truing into Samus, but Samus in her old orange/yellow varia suit so it was an odd contrast to Samus' current corrupted phazon suit.

Tomorrow it seems that I'll be going back to the sky world to pick up another Chozo power up.

I.C.U.

Went to see Avatar (not the Air-Bender kind) today so not much time for Metroid, but i did manage to get the grapple add-on for Samus' ship at least.

Good news and bad news...

On the Up side I got several new upgrades today for Saums' suit, like the plasma cutter and speed ball, and at 31% of the items.

Down side is that the stupid phazon suit is at 25% corruption and staring to mess with Samus' head...

Near as I can tell, Dark samus didn't just zap Samus and the 3 other bounty hunters with phazon, she put part of herself in them. So the reason why the are alive despite being walking phazon factories, is because Dark samus is keeping them alive until she can full take over them. A couple times Samus went into phazon overload, and there was a cut scene of her becoming Dark samus before the game over screen. Also when the bounty hunters die a ghostly dark samus collects up all the dark phazon that's left of them.

One odd thing about the game is that it seems doors take much longer to open than in the previous games, which means the areas on the other side of the doors are loading slower. Maybe it's because the areas are more detailed or something but it just gets annoying to wait 15 seconds for a door to open. Also, the game so far seems a lot more like a linear FPS than an open world platformer like the other 2. Maybe it's due to it being broken up into many small areas and not 1 big world.

Did I see that?

At 19% complete and fought the ice bounty hunter, but he kinda just disapeard when defeated.

Maybe it's just the phazon talking...

Phazon? In my power suit?

You save the universe twice from total phazon armageddon and this is how they repay you, by giving you a bloody phazon powered suit while you're unconscious! And what a surprise, this thing is unstable! Thanks a lot Galactic Federation! Ancient super advanced Chozo technology? Lets just slap some experimental radioactive material on to that to make it "better".

-_-;

I'm at around 8%, and being stuck with a buggy phazon suit, which is probably slowly killing Samus and/or driving her mad. At least I know it will be gone by the end of the game, since Metroid II follows this one, I just hope it's sooner than that.

I'm sure that the suit is useful and powerful and all, and that it's feeding off the phazon that Samus' body is some how generating, but it just comes across as a slap in the face! At least when the same kind of thing happened in Metroid Fusion (which came out years before) it was the 1 good metroid in the universe who's DNA was merged with Samus, show me 1 good phazon!

Well that's seven... oh, there's 1/3 left...

Finished Metroid Prime 2 today, and stated on Prime 3 (more on that in a bit).

After collecting up 99% of all the items (the stupid list I was using left off one!) I got down to the final boss battle with the Ing emperor (I think it should have been called the K-Ing). Just before it though the game makers stuck in 1 last wall jump obstacle, making it the 4th time in the whole game that annoying skill was needed.

The final Ing was a pretty good boss fight, with 3 forms, and the only down side was that Samus can't look straight up to see the tentacles of it's first form half the time. After the fight though there is another final fight with Dark Samus while there is a 7 minute countdown until the dark realm ends. This wouldn't be bad except that all Dark Samus does is run around wile invisible to all but sonar for the first 1/4 of the fight then hides in an indestructible ball as the time ticks by. After dying 4 times by running out of time, I looked on line and found that I had to collect some white energy off from the ball and quickly bounce it back at her... How was I supposed to know that?! Nowhere in the game is anything like that even hinted at, normal in Metroid games when a new skill is needed it's telegraphed in a message or a puzzle. Now it's just "You know that side effect of attracting items when charging your blast? Well that's what you use to win the game, surprise!"

Since I didn't get 100% on the items (grumble), I only got the good ending with Samus (with an odd looking face) in her Zero Suit for a couple seconds. I looked on line and found that the extra ending was just of Dark Samus forming in space for a second.

Progressing through Prime 3 is going to go even slower since not only am I going after every item and scan, but also all the "credits". This mean that whenever I miss a credit that is once only and time sensitive I restart from the last save and try again. I did the first battle sequence 8 times because of this until I saved all the marines.

One thing about Prime 3 that bugs me is the unnecessary inclusion of a bunch of Wii motion controls. Want to open a door? Well you have to first press A and hold it, then pull the Wii-mote away from the TV, then turn it counter clock wise, then press it back in! In Prime 1 and 2 you just shot or scanned the door to open it! They just added all these controls to show off the Wii-mote!

Screw ball

Got a lot done today in Prime 2, my scanned times is at 91% and my items picked up is closing the gap at 82% (that's even higher than i finished Prime 1 with).

I got the Light Armor, which makes the air and "water" in the dark realm harmless, and the Screw-Attack, which took quite a while to get use to, and a bunch of expansions for my current weapons and health.

Some of the puzzles to get power up items are getting really tricky, but it's good pratice for using the Spider Ball and Screw Attack (Wall Jumping is still frustrating though).

I figure I'll be finished by tomorrow...

Is there an echo in here?

I'm at 51% today, but my lore is over 80%, so I don't know if I'm nearly finished or only half way there...

Fought Dark Samus again, and since her scan was only at 50%, I figure she has 2 more forms to go.

Also picked up the Echo Visor and Power Bomb today.

An eye for an eyeball, and a spider for a spiderball

10 hours in and I'm now 45% done Prime 2.

Today I picked up the Spiderball, dark visor, grapple beam, and Gravity Boost items, also several energy and missile expansions.

Are we there yet?

Nearly 8 hours in and I'm only 32% done... This is going to be a long game.

I have one more temple to restore so I figure that will take me to about 60%. That means either the final area is huge or there will be at least 1 more mission I have to finish before getting to the final area.

At least I'm slowly getting Samus's arsenal back together, I think I just need to find the mega bomb, a dark and light beam, and maybe there is a screw-attack.

Stay still so I can kill you!

At 24% completion now.

The game I setting a lot harder, and I'm only about 1/4 done. I hope that I get some better weapons than just the light and dark rays, since they run out of shots too fast and the regular bean is not too effective.

The worst part is when in the dark area the air itself kills you even with the dark suit on. Normally when you get a new suit in Metroid it makes you immune to a certain environment, not just make it less deadly!

No manner of luck...

I now have 14% of Prime 2 complete.

What are the odd of Samus responding to a random distress call of a ship that crashed while chasing dark Samus onto an isolated planet that has a secret base of metroid loving Space Pirates mining for phazon? I wonder if she ever has a simple mission where she saves some people from a mildly dangerous situation and then gets paid.

The pace of the game is odd, I'm only 14% done yet I have over 40% of the scanable items. There must be a big gap in the middle of the game where there is nothing new to scan.

Zombie Space Marines!

Started on Metroid Prime 2 of the Metroid Prime Trilogy today since I had already finished Prime 1.

So far the game is a lot like the first one, only with a very unwieldy options menu interface (3D radial branching menus).

According to the save file I'm so far 8% done.

Well that's six down...

Apparently 75 is the magic number of needed Shines...

I was playing and got up to 74 Shines and then the path to Bowser Jr opened up, then there was a short easy lava stage and BOOM I'm fighting a 30 foot Bowers in a slime hot tub then getting the last Shine!

After all the levels that were getting more and more difficult I figured I would have a huge castle to contend with before an epic Bowser fight (like in every Mario game), but no, the game just jumps to the final boss fight after the 74th Shine. I didn't even finish the last chapter of the area I was on.

The Boss fight was silly too (aside form the giant Bowser in the slime hot tub), the tub was shaped like a Shine and Mario just had to rocket slam each of the 5 points. I got it in m 4th try and it only took 5 minuets total! With the high difficulty of the previous levels the last boss fight was a joke.

The ending was another way the game was not really like a Mario title, but at least Bowser Jr has more personality and was more interesting than all the other koopa kids so far.

Tomorrow it's on to Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Purple + Yoshi + Fish = Floating platform?

Got up to 64 Shines today in Super Mario Sunshine, and still no sign of a path to Bowser Jr...

The game is getting harder, but also weirder. In one section I had to pop fruit out of a faucet and bring it to a Yoshi egg (of course it's the 1 fruit that you can't pick up)to get him to hatch. Then I had to ride him over to a platform way out at sea, but Yoshi is apparently water soluble since he melts when wet, so I had to figure out how to cross the gap. The only thing near by were some jumping fish, but Yoshi couldn't eat them or jump on them, then I discovered that if Yoshi spews purple juice at the fish they turn into large floating platforms that you can ride across! Makes perfect sense...

Tomorrow I'll be making my way to 80 Shines.

Ouch time...

I managed to get my total up to 50 Shines today, and that was a stretch!

The later levels (unlocked by Yoshi or the extra water nozzle) are much harder! For example, one level is covered with fire goo and Mario doesn't have his water pack. Now, I first though the water pack was a lame gimmick, but that's just cruel!

Also at 50 Shines there is still no sign of how to get to Bowser Jr., so I hope I can get to 60 Shines tomorrow...

"I'm-a tired!"

For some reason I'm really tired tonight, so I just got a couple more blue coins and traded them in for a shine.

I'll collect more tomorrow...

I think I'll step into the next room and have a nervous breakdown.

My Shine count is now up to 42.

The game is really fun, yet it keeps surprising me about how trick it is, particularly the "secret" levels. There are some levels were Mario has to walk along huge planks of wood, as they are rotating at odd angles, and then jump on to another turning plan at the opposite angle!

The Odd thing is that the game didn't really advance until I got the 40th shine, then suddenly Yoshi, the rocket pack, and the jet pack all become available. I don't know if that's normal or I just did the levels in the totally wrong order.

So at 42 Shines there is still no sign of how to catch up with Bowser Jr. who stole Peach, maybe tomorrow a new path will open up when I get 60 shines...

It's a dirty job...

So far Super Mario Sunshine is a surprising fun game. Despite the fact that it seems to have even less to do with standard Mario game play than Mario 2 USA (water pack, no power ups, no Luigi), there is some very strong platforming elements to it.

Also the game is surprising changeling, once I got a hold of the controls I found that some of the levels need quite a bit of skill to finish (like the sand bird). So far I have collected 20 Shines and just opened up a new area, though I have no idea how big the game actually is.

So tomorrow it's more hopping and stomping.

Well that's five down...

After 3 weeks and over 100 hours I finally finished off the last of Fallout 3 today. I completed the main story line, got the last bobble head, and finished the Brotherhood Of Steel quest (which wasn't really that large) to get 100% of the achievements, so now I'm official done with it.

I'm betting that this will be one of the largest games in my collection, since I don't see any others taking more than 100 hours to finish.

Tomorrow I start on Super Mario Sunshine, I only played a little of it before and I hope that I can get use to the odd water jet controls soon enough.

The circle is now complete...

Today I completed all the remaining side quests, "The Superhuman Gambit", "Head of State", "Trouble on the Homefront", and I also finished off the remaining Super Mutant Behemoths for the "The Bigger They Are..." achievement.

Then I went around and collected up all the remaining bobbleheads I could, so now I am only missing the 1 I have to get while completing the main quest.

Along the way I finished the "Waters of Life" part of the main quest, so I am now positioned in front of Little Lamplight just like the last time I played Fallout 3 on the PC.

Tomorrow I hope to finish the main quest, get the last bobblehead, and wrap up the Brotherhood Of Steel DLC. Then I'll be done with Fallout 3!

"I stole a baby! That's about as evil as it gets!"

I finished off the Pitt today.

After collecting the silver I had to fight for my freedom in an arena, but at level 30 with a 100% working "Man Opener" the competition was a joke. Then I had to go to the slave master's home and steal the "cure", which turned out to be a baby that was immune to radiation.

The fact that the cure was a baby was no surprise since I saw the achievement icon already, but I was more expecting that it was being experimented on and I had to rescue it. Turns out though that the baby was the child of the slave master (who is a retired Brotherhood of Steel member), and the lead scientist (who was putting the child's well being over rushing for a cure), and both loved the baby. So I figured "screw this!", since the salves that hired me just wanted the "cure" as a hostage and who knows what they would do to get the cure out of it, I left the baby alone and went back to tell the slaves that the deal was off. On the way back the slaves must have gotten wind of my change of heart and started attacking me with auto axes, but when I killed one I lost karma, so I had to avoid them all the way back (good thing I was wearing power armor).

So In the end I was able to use various speech perks to talk the slaves out of their kidnapping plans. Also the slave master explained that once they had the cure it would be given to everyone and the slaves would be freed so that the Pitt could grow as a normal city again.

All in all the Pitt DLC was not as large as Point Lookout, but the story line was much better than Operation Anchorage or the UFO.

I left the Pitt with 4 new achievements, 3 new perks, several unique weapons, and a bunch of neat Road Warrior style outfits. When I got back to DC I started to explore the west edge of the map, and got myself 2 more hobbleheads.

Tomorrow I finish off any side missions I have left and explore more.

This is the Pitts

Before progressing into The Pitt I returned to megaton and dumped all my stuff off in my house, so I was going into the DLC with only the slave outfit (since m stuff would be taken anyways).

It didn't matter much since as soon as I got into the main area I had a .32 gun and the very powerful Auto-Axe, and as I collected the silver bars I gained even more armor and weapons.

Eventually I got all 100 silver bars and not only get the achievement but a large amount of unique armor and weapons.

So tomorrow it's on to the next stage of the Pitt, where I have to kill a bunch of people quickly before they (or the radiation) kills me.

Went to Pittsburgh

Yeah, that's about it. Been a long day, so I don't have much time for Fall out 3 tonight.

Tomorow I explore the Pitt more.

Sit, stay, fetch, crash?

Got a bit done today.

Finished the Agatha's Song quest, although I already had the violin so I finished it just after starting it. Exploring more from there I found the junkyard with Dogmeat, and when I asked him to find a gun the game crashed, so I now just keep him at home.

Looking around some more I found the Lock-pick bobble head in the Bethesda Ruins, Killed a super mutant in Evergreen Mills, and was roll creeped out by Andale.

More exploring tomorrow.

little alaska

Today I did the Operation: Anchorage ad-on content, all of it, in about 2 hours.

Compared to the other ad-ons that I did before, this one was super tiny. But at least I got 4 achievements, a perk, lots of loot, and power armor training from it!

For the horde!

Well today I finished Mothership Zeta AGAIN, this time with all the Alien Captive Recordings for the achievement and getting the Xenotech Expert perk. Also along the way I horded every weapon, armor, aid, and miscellaneous item that I could find, then once the quest was finished I began transporting my literal ton of loot back to my Megaton home.

Tomorrow I'll finish the next step of the main quest so I can finally use all those power armors I've been collecting.

Lets do that again!

Got a lot done today.

First I completed the Oasis quest by using the stuff to make Harold/Bob grow faster. For my efforts I got a new Power Armor that I can't even use (at least I also got a cool sneaking hood).

Then I continued on with the "You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head" quest, which I ironically completed by not killing any one (just got the keys and the ghouls took care of Tenpenny) and got yet another power armor I can't use yet. Along the way I made the last of the custom weapons I needed for the Weaponsmith achievement and hacked my 50th terminal for the Data Miner achievement.

At that point I had completed all the quests I had started except for the main quest and the DLC quests, so I went exploring the bottom right side of the map. I found in that area my 10th Bobblehead for the "Yes, I Play with Dolls" achievement, and killed m 300th person for the "Doesn't Play Well with Others" achievement.

Finally I decided to check out the Mothership Zeta content. While doing that quest I got to level 30, and by using the instant karma changing perks I got all 3 achievements without killing off megaton again. On the ship I picked up tons of unique loot, including 2 new power armors that I can't use (I really need to get into the Citadel).

Then after I finally completed the Quest I found out that I missed several audio recordings that I couldn't go back for, so now I have to go back and redo half of the quest over again!

His real name is Bob...

Finished the Reilly's Rangers quest today and then explored the northern portion of the map.

I Found Fort Constantine for the You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head quest, the radio tower for the Pitt quest, the Oasis, and several miscellaneous locations. I Also got to level 27 and took the perk that gives me instantly all the schematics at level 3 (so I don't have to run around for them).

Tomorrow I'll talk with Harold more.

what's the worst that could happen?

Saw 2012 toda so I idn't have much tome for Fallout 3, but I did manage to find the building that Reilly's Rangers are in, so I'm positioned to rescue them tomorrow!

Slow news day

Today I finished the Nuka-Cola Challenge, Strictly Business, Stealing Independence, and Rescue from Paradise quests.

After finishing the Strictly Business quest i killed off all the slavers and just freed the salves i collected. :)

You were eaten by a Grue

Today I finished the "Escape from paradise" and "Stealing independence" quests and progressed to level 23.

I also found the Reign of Grelok text adventure in the Hubris Comics building, a neat little mini game.

Tomorrow it's more exploring!

In town with a few days to kill...

Got to level 20 today and getting the good karma (my current play through), neutral karma (killed half of megaton), and evil karma (killed ALL of megaton) achievements.

I also cleared out the capital building, not for an quest but just because I was curious. After the swamp folk and reaver ghouls in point lookout, the super mutants are a peace of cake (1 or 2 VATS hits with the microwave gun and they're dead).

Tomorrow it's more exploring!

It's the yeast I could do...

Finished all the major quests and things to do in the Point Lookout area of Fallout 3 today.

It was a pretty fun section of the game, the most disturbing part is when I discovered part of my character's brain had been removed! For the most part while in the area I had the ghoul mask on (a real life saver against Feral Ghoul Reavers), so it wasn't until an NPC mentioned it that I took the mask off to see that my character's head was shaved and there as now a huge crescent scar! I guess that explains the images of bone saws and sewing needles during the hallucination...

Tomorrow it's more wasteland exploring!

Busy Day...

Did a lot in the Wasteland today.

I completed the Tenpenny Tower quest. I made sure I started the "It's only business", "Manhandled Manservant", and "Shoot 'Em in the Head" quests so I gold get the related things done before the ghouls took over.

I also finished the Replicated Man quest. I got the most rewards by finding out who was the android, then asking him if I could kill the guys after him, then I told those guys who the android was to get their reward and shot them in the back as the were running off.

I decided to complete the Power Of the Atom quest b disarming the bomb, even though destroying the town was a was source of negative karma, the main reason was that I wanted the space to store things in my new home.

And finally I finished the Wasteland Survival guide, getting the Survival Guru perk.

Along the way I got up to level 15, getting the 3 variations of the level 14 achievements.

I think tomorrow I'll check out Point Lookout since I found the boat location today.

Turnabout...

Today I completed the Blood Ties quest and on the way to vault 112 i found the hideout for talon company. I didn't have an quests involving talon company but I figured I'd pay them back for all the times the ambushed me.

After killing everyone in Talon Company I found vault 112 and freed my character's father.

Tomorrow it's off to do who know what else.

So that was rivet city, where to next?

Today I did what was needed to be done in rivet city, I got the next part of the main quest, found a home for the boy in the "Those!" quest, and found the information needed for the survival guide.

I also picked up the quest for getting the decoration of independence, and the android hunt.

Tomorrow it's off to find vault 112

Level 8, 8 ,8

Today I set off for Rivet City, but got a little side tracked along the way...

First on the way there I passed through Grayditch, so I started on the "Those!" quest, and eventual got to the part where I have to find the kid a new home.

While doing the quest I reached Level 8 and got the Good karma achievement for it, then I loaded from a save file and got the neutral achievement by killing a bunch of people in Megaton, and lastly I got the evil achievement by nuking all of megaton.

Then while continuing my journey to Rivet City I took a wrong turn and wound up helping some of the brotherhood of steel in a mini quest.

But in the end I arrived at Rivet City with 3 quests regarding it.

Tomorrow it's more boat fun...

Water of life? I guess my work is done...

In Fallout 3 today I managed to complete the GNR quest and get my character up to level 7.

An odd thing is that the expansion packs that come with the GotY edition is that they seems to be messing with Three Dog's dialogue tree. During the first few days in the wasteland he kept going on about how the brotherhood of steel had secured the water treatment plant 2 weeks ago, an event that should occur at the end of the main story quest. Also while doing the GNR quest he would start a news message about my character, but before he says anything he just repeats another news bumper message.

I hope that's the only issue that comes up due to the expansion packs.

So tomorrow it's off to rivet city get to the next step in my search, and to do the next part of the survival guide.

Hot potato

Today in Fallout 3 I completed the first 2 chapters of the survival guide, then the Following in His Footsteps quest, and got up to level 5.

I didn't finish the last chapter in the survival guide yet since it involves me going to Rivet City and going there may mess up the order I get the story missions.

Tomorrow it's the GNR quest!

Or, at least, some sort of hardy fruit

Started on Fallout 3 today(although as previously posted, I have played quite a bit on PC) and after getting out of the vault I headed to megaton.

I figure that helping Moira with the survivor guide would be a hand way of boosting my levels in a short amount of time, already irradiated myself to hell and back. So once I get as far as I can with that I'll get on to the search for my character's father.

Tomorrow it's off to the grocery store!

Well that's four down...

Today I finished Halo 3, and even though there were some things I would have like to finish in it (like getting some other skulls and the marathon man achievement) I don't really feel like spending another day just to get them.

So tomorrow it's on to Fallout 3: Game of the year Edition!

The Flood are icky!

Today in Halo 3 I finished stage 4, stage 5 (which was filled with Flood but was short) and half way through stage 6!

6 already had a tough point, like all levels seem to have, so after I finish that stage up there is only 3 left. I may even have it finished this weekend!

Not again...

I didn't get much further in Halo 3 today because I was out shopping tonight and bought Fallout 3 GOTYE and dead rising (both for great deals). unfortunatl now there is ever more games for me to finish on m list...

In halo 3 I got about half way through section 4 and not only found the gold skull but blew up a giant crab robot thing!

More Halo tomorrow.

Please step out of the vechile...

Well I finished stage 4 today, and again there was a segment that took me over an hour to finally finish.

The auto save stem seems really odd, in one area I killed a dozen guys, blew up a banshee and drove off in a warthog and at no point did it save, so when i died i had to do that all over again. Then in another area it auto-saved 4 times in a few seconds.

Off to stage 5 tomorrow...

This is my BOOM stick!

I advanced today to the 3rd section of Halo 3, just barely though...

I took me over an hour to get past the first section I started in, and I don't think I ever would have if the Brute Chieftain didn't get caught up on my energy shield, allowing me to pump several hundred rounds into him. After that it was easier going since I had a full charged gravity hammer, and when that ran out I found detachable turrets and a Beam Rifle.

I was also able to retrieve the 2 hidden skulls in the level (I need to go back to stage 1 later and get the skulls there).

Tomorrow it's off to kill more things in stage 4 (not exactly an engaging plot).

Why halo thar...

Started on Halo 3 today and got to the 2nd mission of the 2nd level.

I'm playing it on the hardest mode since I figure that I'm only going to play though this once it might as well be the extreme experience.

Well that's three down...

I finally finished KotOR today.

I never did find out who reason that m character went all crazy and wanted to take over the universe, but at least I think i figured out what the "Battle mediation" macGuffin was about. It appears to be a way to give a Jedi's precognitive awareness to everyone on a side of a battle, making then much harder to hit and know what the enemy will do next (although this is never explained directly).

In the end I brought Bastila back to the light side of the force (she seems to switch sides whenever she is roughed up) and had the final conformation with Darth Malak. The final fight had to be done in 1 go since I found the hard way that saving partway in the fight crashes m game on load. The fight was mostly whacking small parts off his health then running away until I was "out of the fight" so I could spam health packs (also taking out his human batteries) then repeating until one of us was dead.

And so I'm declared grand super saviors of the republic and tomorrow it's off to play Halo 3.

Come to the dark side... We have cookies!

Well the trip to the Star Forge didn't go exactly as planed, the defenses knocked our ship out of space and we had to crash on the nearest planet.

After helping the locals I shut down the defenses and finally got some answers:

-The star forge is a huge space station that uses dark side technology to draw the energy of a sun to mass produce ships, weapons, droids, and presumably cookies.

-Bastila has been turned to the dark side after being tortured for a week and learning that it makes her angry, then believing the same rubbish that Ankin did about "the Jedi are holding me back!" is the prerequisite to becoming a sith is to have the mentality of a spoiled teenager?

-Jolee Bindo is the only sane force user in the universe. He has seen first hand how extreme and stupid both side are and chose just to live his own life his own way. No stupid Jedi rules about being devoid of all emotion, and no stupid sith obsessions with conquering the galaxy.

So tomorrow it's finally off the the star forge and settle all of this once and for all (I hope). What I really want to know is why my character ever fell to the dark side in the first place, it better not be the same old "The Jedi just don't understand! I'm going to destroy them all and listen to Weezer!"...

Super light side Sith lord?

Well I completed my Sith training, and the only really changeling part of it was an optional puzzle that was a poorly explained version of a Tower of Hanoi puzzle.

So I got the last star map and found the location of the Star Forge, and on the way out of the Sith temple i had to fight the Sith Academy master and his apprentice. I chose to spare the apprentice and in doing so got enough light side points to max it to the top, so I'm now a graduate of the Sith Academy with a full light side disposition...

Before leaving the planet I was approached by the guy who not only killed Juhani's father but also nearly bought her as a slave. I stoped Juhani from ripping his throat out but the guy swore revenge, although unless he knows where the star forge his I don't think he will get much of a chance before i finish the game.

Lastly, I took a final trip back to Tatooine to see Mission's brother, and what a surprise! His scheme failed and he jumped planet to escape the local thugs. At least Mission has now come to terms with the fact that her brother is a deadbeat.

So tomorrow it's off to find out what exactly the Star Forge is and maybe put an end to all this!

Time for the lightning round...

Today I advanced in my Sith training.

After freeing a bunch of escaped sith cadets, I investigated several old sith tombs (like a force sensitive Laura Croft) which for the most part held little challenge. The easiest part being getting through an army of droids when all 3 of my Jedi could force explode a droid in 1 hit!

So I prove myself worthy to gain access to the area with the star map, but then I press the wrong button on a switch puzzle and die...

So Tomorrow I'll quickly get the last star map, then boot off to the star forge and maybe get the game done b the weekend!

It ain't eas being a Sith!

So my character has gone from super class Jedi master, to super class Sith Master, to generic soldier, to a Jedi apprentice, and now a Sith apprentice. My career path seems to be out of order...

So I'm currently running around this Sith planet and trying to pass myself off as a Sith apprentice all because no one will believe that I'm actual the former Sith master. Atleas some one explained that Revan always wore a cloak and helmet and that's why no one ever recognizes me.

So I have to do a bunch of stuff that will I'm worthy of being a Sith... Again!

She exploded !?

I went to the Sith planet of Korriban today... And that's about it.

Saw Paranormal Activity and it unnerved me so I had to focus on happy thoughts, which didn't leave much time for KotOR.

Tomorrow I'll investigate Korriban and maybe get back to Manaan to solve that murder thing.

Conmen, murders, and assassins...

After finally getting back to Tatooine I was able to give Mission's brother those animal glands for his scheme. He said that he'll be bale to start paing me back soon and I should come by later (yeah, I won't hold m breath). Also as soon as I got to Tatooine some shady guy comes up and says he knows I'm the former sith lord and wants to do business with me. Boy word travels fast...

Then I went back to Manaan since I got and odd message on Kashyyyk that some one wanted to talk to me there. It turns out that after I killed Calo Nord it opened up a space in the ranks of super secret bounty hunter assassins. So to get into the assassins guild I had to show up alone and then kill a Rodian terrorist all quiet like. Killing him off though gave me a dark-side point and I'm trying to play though more or less good, so I most likely won't be doing more of those quests any time soon.

Also on Manaan I bumped into the wife of an old friend of Jolee Bindo, turns out her husband has been arrested for murder and she wants me and Jolee to help him out. after a preliminary investigation it seems that this case is much more than a simple set up and perhaps both the Sith and Republic had a hand in it.

So tomorrow it's time to solve a murder!

What a twist!

Well my plan to stop by Tatooine got literally hijacked by the bad guys!

En route to Tatooine m ship was captured by the Sith flagship, that just happened to be commanded by the guy who killed Carth's wife, and we had to blast/slice our way out.

To escape I first assigned Mission to break out and then find the rest of the crew, since she has the most stealth and computer hacking abilities, and it was kinda odd playing as just her since it was the first time my main character was not in the party. After joining up with everyone else the part switched to my character, Carth, and Bastila, and we made quick work of an sith or guards in our way. One bous was that the ship was littered with items and I'm now set for health packs and various spikes for the next 2 missions.

After killing the guy who killed Carth's wife we made our final escape but was stopped by Darth Malak who revealed that m character was... Darth Revan!
*Dun...Dun...Daaaaaan!*

yeah, I was spoiled to that ears ago, so no real surprise. So after slapping Malak around a couple of times Bastila jumps in and fights Malak so me and Carth can escape (kinda stupid since saving her life what started all this, since she was so important to the war effort). So after another space shooting mini game the crew gathered to talk over the big reveal and they all took it rather well, even revealing that Hk-47 was my old assassin droid (which I also knew already).

So tomorrow it's back to Tatooine to give Mission's brother his stupid glands...

From water to trees...

I got the Star Map for Manaan, and decided to blow up the Kolto harvester instead of killing the super shark. I figured that the could rebuild the harvester eventual, but if the ecosystem providing the Kolto is messed up with poison then everything is messed up for a long time. The Republic officals were not too pleased with this but at least the local Selkath were happy (after another trail).

So after ting up some lose ends with quests I left to go to Kashyyyk.

For the past few worlds I have been going around with a 3 Jedi army (Bastila, Juhani and myself) and not much could stand in m way, but since Zaalbar was from Kashyyyk and Mission needed some animal gland to bail her no good brother out i decided to take them into battle instead. Turns out though Zaalbar was kicked off the planet in the first place by his traitor brother (who was selling Wookiees into slaver) and so he was captured as soon as we showed up. So I swapped him out for Juhani and went out to clear his name and find the star map. along the way I met an odd old Jedi named Jolee Bindo who joined my party replacing Mission (so back to the 3 Jedi Army).

So in the end I got the star map, reinstated Zaalbar's father as the chief, drove off the slavers, and solved a murder. The only quest I couldn't finish was one about a shady trader, when I tried to find him again the Wookiees had taken over and he was nowhere to be found...

Tomorow it's off to the Sith home world (after quick stops overs at Tatooine and Manaan)!

Heeere fishy, fishy, fishy!

Today in KotOR I went to Manaan, the ocean world populated by the Selkath.

It seemd like the other plaets at the start, the sith was there and so was the Republic since the planet was neutral territory for the Kolto resources (super healing stuff). After killing off a much of Sith, and even going on trial for it, I progressed to the underwater area to find the star map and things got weird...

It seems that some huge alien shark was woken up and it's roar dove the Selkath there insane, so now the level is like some aquatic zombie game.

Tomorrow I have to either blow up the shark and risk killing the ecosystem, or blow up the Kolto harvester and hurt the republic war effort...

A dragon! A dragon! A dragon! *THUD*

Finished off what i had to do on Tatooine today.

First i kept being killed off over and over by a group of 3 Tuscan Raiders, until I pret much lucked out and managed to get them separated long enough to pick them off. I have no idea how Anakin took out a whole village of these guys by himself...

Then I found the krayt dragon cave that the Jawas said had the star char in it, and it just so happened that a local bounty hunter was setting up to kill the dragon when we came by. After borrowing some banthas from some sand people we had to kill, we managed to lure out and blow up the krayt dragon. After we got the star map though Calo Nord ambushed us and was not to happy about being left for dead on Taris. Oddly enough, him and his 4 goons were easier to kill than that band of 3 Tuscan Raiders...

So after a short stop back at Dantooine to drop off a stowaway, I headed to an outpost near Yavin out of curiosity. Turned out it was the home of a rodian who sells super high end equipment, and high end prices...

Tomorrow I'm off to find another star map!

I don't like sand...

killed a bunch of sand people today and rescued Mission's no-good brother, some Jawas (who gave me a lead on the star map), a bunch of miners (well all but 1 died in the attempt), and some idiot who ticked off his wife.

Have light-sabers, will travel...

Today in KotOR I finished up the things I needed to do on Dantooine.

First I settled a situation of feuding families, which had a predictable Romeo and Juliet theme to it (minus the suicides), and I get the feeling that it could have done better (the families still are divided) but it could have gone a lot worse (no one died).

Then while trying to get to the old ruins i came across the lead bunch of the Mandolrian raiders. It was a close battle (died several times), but I hit on the combo of me and Bastila cut down the grunts first while Mission held back and planted mines and shot at things. In the ends the mines really paid off since the jedi killing Mandolrian lived up to his reputation and killed me and Bastila, but Mission lead him through the impromptu minefield and that finished him off. For my trouble I got 2 new light-sabers, one red and one blue and a bunch of other supplies.

Then I found the old ruins and after a couple easy fights discover that the big bads were after a star chart for the "Star Forge" (I be it's something that can make stars). So I was tasked with finding the rest of the map to find this Star Forge and the Sith, now with the help of the former rogue Jedi that I helped in my party.

Before leaving I finished off a quest involving a woman who was VERY attached to her droid, found a cave with some light-saber crystals, and talked with my party a bit (Carth is distrustful, Juhani is confused, Bastila shares my dreams, and Mission is just realizing that her brother ma be a jerk).

So tomorrow I'm off to explore Tatooine!

The greatest Jedi lesson? SAVE OFTEN!

I managed to become a Jedi Padawan today, and would have done so much sooner if it wasn't learning the hard way to save often.

The first time through the final trail I had passed a impromptu trail and talked a rouge Jedi back to the light side, but then I cam across some mandolorans who killed me and i had to do it all over again.

The next few times rouge Jedi killed me, and then a few more times with the mandolorans, and ever time having to do the trail over again... Finally i got through everything by saving ever time I accomplish somethign and then keep trying at the next step. I guess after the ease of the Zelda games I forgot how brutal some other RPGs can be when it comes to saves...

Tomorow it's off the the dark ruins and maybe some a family dispute.

Good luck with that promise land thing, and watch your heads...

Well I started today with KOTOR, and even though i was already 6 hours in it feels that I'm barely starting it.

Today i basically showed the underworld people of Taris to the promise land, saved Mission's wookiee friend (getting them both in my party), won a simple swoop race, "rescued" the Jedi I was looking for (adding her to the party), extorted a 2000 credit super droid form a woman for free (also adding it to the party), and stole the ship of the local crime syndicate boss just as the Sith blasted the whole planet to the ground (and getting a Mandorlian mercenary along the way).

So now I'm on Dantooine getting my Jedi training on!

Well that's two down...

Not only was I able to beat the dragon in the Sky city (man that dungeon was hard), but I went on to beat Zant in the Twilight Kingdom (actual rather easy), and then since I was on a roll I took on Ganondorf in Hyrule castle!

After a very long 3 stage boss fight I finally won the game! I was surprised that there was no "new game plus" kind of thing like in Wind Waker, the game just ends and after a short while starts up with the into.

Now it's on to Star wars: Knights Of The Old Republic!

Metal Gear Link!

Well I finally got to the Sky Town today, after much running around doing quests...

To track down how to recharge the command staff I first had to go the city at the base of the castle to find the expert on ancient Hyrule (big thanks to Midna for reminding me, the clever little imp). When I get there though it turns out that he just left for the town that Link's friends are staying at, and when I find him I had to then go back to the cit to deliver a letter for him!

Eventual after tracking down a smelly cat, killing some dead dogs, clearing out a western town full of goblins, and restoring Ilia's memories, I finally recharge the command staff! Then I had to go all over Hyrule looking for statues to move to find the password to open a room containing a Hyrulian style Metal Gear, and pay 300 Rupees to get it fixed, I finally was able to get to the Sky Town!

Looks like tomorrow I'll be fighting a dragon!

spEYEders!

Well I finished the forest temple today, it was a lot more puzzle oriented than the ice palace, with a lot less monsters too. The boss of the temple was a giant spider that had a huge eye on it's back that shot laser beams!

Along with the new part of the Twilight mirror, I also got a staff that allows me to control certain statues. Unfortunately, since the forest temple was actual in a time warp in the past the staff lost all power when it returned to the present.

Now not only do I need to find a way to re-chard the staff but I need to do it before I can get to the last Twilight Mirror piece in the sky!

Ice, ice, baby!

Well I finished the frozen palace area and got one of the twilight mirror shards today!

A couple differences I'm noticing with Twilight Princess from Wind Waker are how the levels are much harder (so many instant death monsters in the ice palace), and how the puzzles are much more complex (swinging chandelier->Sliding box puzzle->cannon ball relay->cannon to kill monster).

The levels are also a lot less forgiving. In WW, if You needed something like a bomb to solve a puzzle there would be a bomb plant in the room. In TP though, when I used up the 10 bombs provided in the castle I had to leave and buy more at the bomb store and then snowboard all the way back to the castle!

Along with the Twilight mirror shard I also got a very cool wrecking ball weapon/tool that kills most things instantly, break obstacle better than bombs, and triggers physics puzzles!

Tomorrow it's off to find the forest area!

7 years of Twilight luck?

Well today I started back on Twilight princess, I had played it a bit when I bought it but never got back to it.

I spent the entire time conquering the dungeon which holds the "Twilight Mirror" (after finally finding it), so that link can enter the Twilight realm whenever he wants, only to find out that the big bads have already broken 3 pieces off of it...

At least I got a nifty gear top tool, it should come in handy.

So tomorrow it's most likely off to the ice mountain realm to find one of the mirror peices...

Well that's one down...

Since today was a holiday I spent of of my time playing Wind Waker, and managed to get from the point where Link has to assemble the tri-force to the end of the game!
There's a lot of things I didn't get around to finishing, such as I only had 11 hearts, didn't have the camera, and never did find out what the skull charms were for, but i could always go back to it if i feel like it.

For now it's on to Twilight Princess!

Once more unto the breach...

Since my last update I have completed Oblivion yet have obtained a dozen more games... I have also run across a flaw in the way I had organized the list of games I was to finish.

The flaw is that with the random nature of the list I would be drudging through an average game when a much better game is gathering dust on my shelf. I came to this realization when playing Baten Kaitos, even though it's a very nice looking game for the GC, and found it to be as slow as hell (the poor voice acting didn't help either)!

So I remade the list including all the other games I bought and sorted them all by their score on gamerankings.com (since it's an average of all reviews). Surprisingly out of the top 10 games I have only 2 are for the 360, it's mostly Game Cube and Wii titles, and the 360 titles wound up more on the lower end of the list (so much for progress).

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Day 1

The emperor is dead, you're a mage/fighter/thief, gates to Oblivion are being opened, and your doing all you can to avoid stopping them...

I'm a bit of a ways into Oblivion, yet barely scratched the surface of the main quest, let alone all the other side quests and guilds...

My character is a level 14 breton with glowing eyebrows that wears light armor and a hood, is strong in magic but not so much with physical or archery. He's currently at Warlock rank in the Mages Guild, reached Apprentice rank in the Fighters Guild, and just joined the Thieves Guild.

I have completed several side quests (mostly regarding the Mage Guild), but I haven't touched the main quest past finding out the emporor's son is in the town with the Oblivion gate...

Today I chose to continue one of my several quest that I had already started, the one involving learning to summon a small monster (I think that's the result). The first step is to get a dark soul gem, and the only way I knew how is by placing a normal soul gem in an alter over night at a particular day of the week, but I didn't know when. So I left a gem in the alter and decided to just check back every few nights, and to kill time I looked around the area on foot.

I soon came across the Drakelowe farm, but only one around was who I assume is Ms. Drakelowe and she just told me to GTFO (might be a quest location later). In the same area though was an old mine and in it were about a dozen very well armed thieves...

After MANY restarts I managed to clear the caves, and while all the chests just had a max of 52 gold apiece, the equipment of the thieves fetched me nearly 8K and a full set of light mythril armor I kept. In the process I also leveled twice and advanced in nearly all my skills, even reaching apprentice in several.
So in the end I didn't advance in any quests, but I did some very productive grinding!

Return and Restart!

As you can see from the new look and title, things have changed and this blog is getting a restart!
More info after the jump...

Since the last time I made a post here I have finished Persona 4 (Twice), bought an Xbox 360, and several new games, thus reaffirming the need for this blog before things get too out of hand!

I currently have on my game shelf 29 games I have not yet beaten (not counting the sequels I also have), and that isn't even counting my PS2 library (which has moved to a whole new area)! So I made a list of them and have randomized it somewhat, so I don't spend too long on one genre or console. Now instead of my old method of playing a different game each day (Before P4 took over the blog), which would mean a month before i get back to a game, I'm going to play each one every day to the completion of the main story (which is not really the end of the game in some cases) before I move on to the next.

Each day I'll also be writing in here about my thoughts and experiences in each game, but not to the detail of my P4 posts, and including game art and screen shots when possible. Although screen shots are trickier now with the 360 being HDMI and my Wii Component video, so I would have to conect up the composite plugs and replay any section I want to capture.

Lastly... As I mentioned before I have finished P4, and took screen shots all the while, with the normal end and then finished it again with FAQs to get all the personas, maxing out all the links, and getting the true ending (with screen shots). So I may be posting the rest of my P4 playthrough if i have time...

Now on to the list of all the games I'll be plaing in order:

1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
3. Beautiful Katamari
4. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
5. Crackdown
6. Enchanted Arms
7. Mad World
8. Blue Dragon
9. Rune Factory Frontier
10. Paper Mario: The Thousant Year Door
11. Sonic's Ultimate Genesi Collection
12. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
13. Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic
14. Jade Empire
15. Marvel Ultimate Aliance Gold
16. Tales of symphonia
17. Harvest moon: Tree of Tranquility
18. Shenmue II
19. Halo 3
20. Culdcept Saga
21. Ninety Nine Nights
22. Eternal Sonata
23. Harvest moon: Magical Melody
24. Blinx: The Time Sweeper
25. Mass Effect
26. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
27. Lost Planet
28. Fable
29. Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Persona 4 - Day 16

June 21st-25th
June 21st
Since Rise hasn't shown up yet in Inaba there isn't much that the team can do at the moment but wait, so Tokka goes to his drama club. Yumi isn't there again and Tokka goes to the hospital to find her, and surprisingly she's there to visit her father. It seems that she is starting to make an effort to reconcile things with him, and talking about it increases Tokka's social link.



Back at home it's raining and so Tokka checks the Midnight channel ans sure enough it looks like Rise is the next target. The video doesn't show her face since it's mainly focusing on her legs and chest...

June 22nd
Rise has arrived and is staying at her family's tofu shop in the shopping district, this results in the place being crowded and even Adachi is on hand to do traffic control. A few strong words though from Kanji and Adachi soon remembers that he has other stuff that he should be doing else where.

Inside the store they find Rise hard at work and being mistaken for the old woman who owns the shop (I don't see how with that hair). Once her identity is confirmed the group does a surprisingly intelligent thing and flat out warns her that her life is in danger. They tell her about the Midnight Channel, which she already knew about and said that the girl on there didn't have her proportions, and that all the people that show up there wind up being kidnapped.

She thanks them for the warning and even gives them some extra tofu, then shortly after they leave Dojima and Adachi show up to also warn her (and get some tofu). It seems that the police have also noticed the TV appearance pattern but have not yet found out about the Midnight Channel. They are surprised to hear that Tokka and his group were already there to warn here too and wonder how they know more then them. That night at a tofu dinner Dojima straight out asks Tokka what he was doing there and surprisingly Tokka was able to straight out tell him that it was because of the investigation. Dojima reminds him about staying out of trouble but before he can ask more about it Nanako stops the integration.

On the Midnight Channel that night the picture is the same but this time clearly shows Rise's face, confirming that she is the next target.

June 23rd

At the Junes food court the group talk about Rise being the next target and even wonder if the image that first appears on the Midnight Channel is not the real victim but the mental projection of the culprit, involuntarily projecting his thoughts. They decide that they need to keep a close eye on Rise and go to the item store to stock up on stakeout supplies, when there they bump into Adachi who's been assigned to stake them out.

After several hours of waiting they suddenly feel like they are being watched, then they notice a man hanging from the telephone pole beside the store. They try to talk to the man but he runs away, and after a brief chase down the street they catch him. Adachi arrests him in suspicion of being the killer but it's pretty clear that he's just a pervert trying to take pictures of Rise.

When they return to the store they find that Rise is no longer there, and instead of going straight to the TV to see if she's there they wait for the midnight channel to air that night. Sure enough Rise is on the Midnight channel, or rather her shadow is, and she is declaring that she's going to bare all on live TV!

June 24th

It turns out that even if they did go to the TV right away it wouldn't have done any good, Teddie's nose is getting even worse and he can't detect anything at all. Trying to lift his spirits, and even his hitting on the girls, doesn't help yet he thinks more information on Rise might do the trick like last time.

As the team is leaving Teddie stops Tokka and thanks him directly for trying to lift his spirits, and this starts the Star social link.

Back in the real world the gang tries to gather information on Rise, and Tokka finds a reporter that is willing to trade any information Tokka can find. After searching all over town though he doesn't find any new information for the reporter and then goes home to talk with Nanako (yet not raising their social link).

June 25th

While asking around at school Tokka finally finds some one with some information on Rise that the reporter can use! The reporter then tells Tokka that Rise has been rumored to being stressed abut her fake idol personality and that she left show business to find her true self. Some one with identity issues is defiantly in trouble in the TV realm!

The group goes into the TV to tell Teddie this information, and he emphasizes with Rise's search for her identity. With this increased connection Teddie is able to lead the team to a large dark room, then the lights flash on to reveal...

A strip club designed by Liberace... This place is filled with so much pink and ruffles and spot lights that it's the most effeminate strip club ever! Teddie takes this talk of strips and makes a zebra joke that goes over like a lead balloon.

On Level 3 the group runs into the shadow Rise, with her own overly elaborate TV show logo, promising to undress in the last level of the dungeon before running away again.

The team is stunned by this and Kanji sums it up nicely :). Another interesting detail of the level is that it's vaguely in the shape of a female symbol. The monsters in the levels are not all that unusual and are mostly taken form P3 or other levels. Yet there are some different ones like a shadow made up of double helices and the cop shadow in a trench coat.

Progression was going rather well but on level 5 the team narrowly escaped a group of shadows that cast light magic that could kill instantly. Since half the party was out of energy, and if the dungeon had 11 levels like the others then they were already half way, I decided that was a good time to leave. Back at home Tokka spent another quiet time with Nanako, still not increasing the social link.

Tomorrow I may try the other half of the dungeon.