Burn Out

Can you tell I'm feeling it yet?

There have been longer breaks between games lately. I've also been writing a lot less when I do. Some of it is because not much is happening in these niche games, but a lot is because I'm kinda just sick of this. It's become a symbol of relief when I don't have to update at night, and I enjoy the relaxing nature of doom scrolling. It's been over three years and nearly 900 posts, so this has lasted longer than I thought. I'm actually quite impressed with myself. But I don't hate this.

Yet.

I still like writing about my adventures and plan to continue, but things need to change. I'm not leaving my bread and butter, but I have to switch up how and what I write more often. It's boring to read, boring to write, and it's clear my writing style isn't evolving much. I'm not happy about that either... Rather than force it, making burnout worse, I'm going to lower my output and add in some new things.

I'm changing up what I write! I love music. But who doesn't, so that's a dumb exclamation. But I listened to 104 albums last year, and I never wrote about any of them until the closing days of 2023. That's a shame because so many of them were amazing, and I keep coming back to my bangers playlist. So, in between video game write up, I'm gonna talk about new albums. Since I can't grow as a writer, maybe expanding my horizons will do something. So expect growing pains here, which I think are better than stagnant sufferings. I don't know exactly how I'll talk about them, but I'll figure something out. Should I go track by track or discuss the album as a whole? Should I write up a rubric like I did for my games? There's no way in HFIL I'm writing about all of them, though. There was so much mud last year that it would amplify my burnout.

I'm already up to six albums this year, but I don't know if any are worth talking about. I don't even know what is or isn't worth talking about? I'll find plenty of "breaks" this year, so I can always loop back to this Saxon album. Get ready to see me type "bangers" a million times! 

Also, I kinda want to write (and finish) a book. 

But I've reviewed exactly ninety nine games since July 2020. It'd be weird to not get that 100th out first, right? And it's gonna be something else, let me tell ya.

I wish the combat was good.

Ex Trokia wasn't the final dungeon. There's some stuff you can find if you head down to the first floor and can figure out the puzzle, but I'm through with this game. I headed up. We'll have to deal with space elevators that only make it part of the way up. The first one has an excuse, though. We're attacked by one of Rival's underling birds, Nu. I'm cheating and have no strategy, but this guy has two forms.

We'll take more Xenogears Babel cars across similar areas, some of which will require you to kill all enemies in a room, until we finally reach a strange sight. We're at a city? Cosmo is filled with robots who kinda make me sad. They're waiting for their masters to return, but it's been so long. They clean in preparation for their return. There are some humans running the shops and inn, but we never learn what happened to the others. Actually, before Cosmo was Rival's underling dog, Diablos.

In the back is Grand Knott Station. After a stupid conveyor puzzle that randomly changes the course, we have to explore Grand Knott again. It's filled with the same annoying enemies as before. I think the puzzle might be the same, too, but I spent an hour trying to get all the elevators to floor four. I don't understand... We'll fight through more of the same until we reach a teleporter. Rival knows we're here and brings us to her, knowing she can't run any longer.

There's some scaffolding we'll need to hover across while avoiding the wind dragons and red...teleporting demons, who are the worst mobs in the game. These garbage guys single handedly made me want to quit the game. They're the perfect embodiment of why I hate Blue Sphere. They attack too fast, run away the whole time, and have a long range beam blast to push you back when you get close. That causes paralysis or knocks us out. I hate it.

But we eventually reach the room of our rival, Rival. Blah, blah, blah; the final battle.

Rival sucks. She transforms into three other creatures at will, and she resets her HP when doing so. And all of these creatures are annoying. There's the fast hugger, tanky...mech, and Lenneth Valkyrie from Valkyrie Profile, complete with her signature attack, Nibelung Valesti. So you gotta kill them in one go. I had to use bubble lotion and a crit bottle to speed this up. I think I screwed up Ashton's skills because he's 100 levels under Rena...

Rival is glad? Her plan worked. This entire thing was a ploy to lure strong people to Ediface for one purpose. Rival is a being created by a computer, Mother Ediface, to make sure humanity wouldn't destroy itself. Mother Ediface was created off world. But Rival would prevent the civilization from reaching a certain point. One day, she realized that destroying mankind sorta destroyed mankind. It's so obvious when you say it out loud! So she hoped powerful entities could liberate this planet. And now we have. Rival dies, and we walk towards the final confrontation.

Mother Ediface can't fight back. I had Rena hit her for the fun of it. And with that, we saved the world!

The ending scenes play out as our characters delve into the philosophies of these actions.
Claude is looking over Scout as Rena runs up to him. Claude is struggling with the UP3 and believes they wrongly interacted with the planet. Rena reminds him that Rival brought them here to liberate Ediface and nothing else. This appeases him.
Noel wants to thank the Aquans, but they, like everyone else, don't like him. Noel returns to the ship as he hears them say the words he hoped for.
Opera and Ernest are overlooking regular Knott, thinking about Rival's sentience. They wish they could have met her sooner.
Bowman is in the jungle outside Aba, lamenting how Mother Ediface created another Energy Nede, another planet that can't evolve. He worries about being scolded by Nene and Eris, the daughter Nene was pregnant with two years ago.
Dias and Chisato, who are apparently lovers, are elsewhere in the jungle. Chisato thinks Dias believes Rival's actions were stupid because she died.
Leon is trying to repair the spaceship, but Celine is bothering him.
Precis is annoyed all her friends are late as Ashton informs her the repairs are complete. She's still stuck on the tardiness, while Ashton is glad everyone's back together for the first time in two years. Everyone returns to the ship, and they return to space.
The screen is black while text boxes of our characters are displayed. The game can't handle four sprites, so twelve would probably crash it. But they all think about going home before someone suggests a quick, relaxing party. The girls want to visit hot springs, while Leon just wants peace. There are some party poppers, but they all decide to do something fun.

Précis' spaceship is floating over Ediface as we finally see the words I've been waiting for:

"Fin"

---

I don't want to write a separate review. I want this to be done.

Plot: 5/10. None of the playable cast felt vital. Rival got max points, but the overall story of Blue Sphere was pretty bland. It's a gameplay game. Unfortunately...

Gameplay: 5/10. Exploring is fun, and item creation isn't terrible, but combat is awful in every way. Enemies are so much faster than us, run away all the time, and push us back with an attack we can't defend against. Killer Moves and offensive magic don't seem worth it, as damage is inconsistent. And that assumes you can even learn new moves! Why the hell is there a stamina system? Having your characters run out of breath and just stand there sucks in a game that already sucks. Every character being different is cool, but they're equally useless in this important mechanic.

Sound: 8/10. I'm shocked, too. But I was able to look past the 4 bit MIDI bloops and found some fun things in here.

Art: 6/10. Portraits are pretty, and there's a lot to see, but a Gameboy Color can only do so much.

Charm: 4/10. NPCs are short lived, but the game is too long. Thirty hours with this combat was awful. Too bad, too, as there were some fun ideas here.

Negatives: -4. Combat deserves to be here again, as does the confusing skill system. Why did they make it so you can soft lock stats?

Put all that together, and Star Ocean: Blue Sphere is a deserved 25/50. I'd like to see a remake of the game, as it could fix a lot of my issues. I know there's a mobile port, but that's old and only in Japan, so who cares? There's something here if Square could refine it... a lot. As is, though, this was awful. It might be one of my least favorite games ever.

One more night...

Grand Knott is a mere four floors in length and is pretty easy to navigate through. Each floor has a gimmick, which is cool, and most are pretty simple.
Floor one is a quasi maze. Some rooms warp you around the floor, and you need to find the correct path.
Floor two involved killing everyone for reasons I don't remember.
Floor three is sorta tied into floor four with a strange elevator puzzle.
Floor four is optional, but there's great stuff on each wing.
Throughout the whole place are some end game armor from Star Ocean 2, and I also found the (so far) best weapons for Precis, Ashton, Celine, and Leon.

Rival is waiting for us, and the conversation quickly goes into a battle. Ashton one shots her... Rival then says that this leading actor's time is up, and she poofs away, defeated. The door behind her opens up, and Rival walks out of them. Ashton is confused, but the thing we just killed was a clone! The real Rival starts to charge an attack to kill us, but we suddenly disappear.

We're before the Edificians in Aqua. They brought us here to save us. While they did that, Rival took Grand Knott to a giant tower called Ex Trokia. ET is an orbital elevator that reaches space! Rival will use this as a jumping off point to whatever her plans are. Rival also calls forth two of her minions, who'll wait for us on the tower. The not mermaids worry about us climbing the tower, but everyone knows it's pointless, and Aqua turns into a mobile fortress (presumably) and brings us to the base of the tower. Ex Trokia is...I'm not going to assume anything. ...

...tomorrow.

This has to be the end. Right?

2 nite 2 sided dungeon

It took four hours to figure out ten puzzles. I had finished a few of them during my first time in jail, but the Lavibor Ruins were a tad too long. I was also stumped and bumbled into a few solutions. Not all of the floors are contained to itself. There are a few where you'll need to trigger something elsewhere.

Besides those, Ernest will need to use his special field skill, Room Analysis, to open a secret room, and Rena will have to use her Rebirth skill on a broken switch. She can also revive some random dude at the top for a rainbow diamond, but I don't know if that's vital to this operation.

A lot of water puzzles, mazes, keycards, floor switches, bosses, and easy fights all impede your path. Most of these are obvious and easy, but remember that you can fall in a few places if you get stuck.

I got so lost that Ashton and Rena are over "level" 200, and Precis isn't far behind.

But we'll conquer all ten floors and gather their unique card things. We'll place them in Matrix human battery pods to unlock the door to Grand Knott. Rival expected us but admits we got here faster than she thought. To think I almost gave up! But she doesn't want us here and attacks us with a chimera robot. It dies. We approach her 1950's alien spaceship, and Rival tells us she'll be waiting on the fourth floor. I hope this is the final dungeon so I can end this game...

...tomorrow!

There's a lot of game in this game, so that's fun!

The beginning of the end.

Two warp points in Aqua lead to other sea based subdomains. I took the left warp first and was taken to Ax. Don't do that. Head to Azul.

Azul is a strange maze with one way doors and locks. We'll need to warp to other areas to find three spheres. Nero is waiting for us, and he has one final test. It was a battle against one of those awful mobs that likes to shrink into its shadow and pop out to randomly attack. I'm glad I'm cheating because this sucked. Hella unfun. But we'll win, and Nero will return to Aqua.

The camera cuts to Rival at her castle of Grand Knott. She plots her next move: the destruction of Aba. Suddenly, she hopes we show up to stop her...

Axe is a two part dungeon. It's got another similar maze structure, but there are five "hidden" doors to five towers. Those towers are filled with moving pitfalls. Only one has chests inside, but all have "minibosses" at the top. They're just named field encounters, though. But they do have personality and let our characters show off some of their own. Precis has a fun argument with the King of the Sea's Surface about the stupidity of the title. I don't know if they're mandatory, but the fifth tower is located in what would be B2 on a grid. Climb up, and you'll come to a door puzzle. If you enter the wrong door, you fall. The GameFAQs map is wrong. The path is left, right, right, left. The Edifician there will congratulate us and say that her test was passing Nero's test. They'll also return to Aqua.

The camera cuts again to Rival as she shoots a laser out of Grand Knott. Aba, the man, tried to shoot her down, but I didn't even see them try. The cutscenes were pretty well done for a Gameboy game!

The party returns to Aqua, and the three, probably not actually mermaids, inform us of what happened. Rival totaled Aba, but she landed at the prison ruins to recharge Grand Knott's power. While she's grounded, we can reach her. But the three Edificeians will need to combine their powers to help us. They can manipulate spirit energy, which is the power that Rival uses. So we'll need to return to prison and explore the floors we couldn't before. And I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

I think this is the penultimate dungeon, so we're nearing the end!

How did I not see this coming!

Ya got me, Enix!

Screax is a strange location. It gives me post apocalypse vibes, and the mobs aid in that. Carnivorous plants and carrion birds roam the cliffs and caves. There are teleporters in those caves, and they take you around the area. If you see one, don't take it. You'll just get lost. If you see two, though, take the left (?) one. You'll be taken to a tower that has the best music in the game, which is also our destination.

Beyond Serpent Tower is Lung. Lung wraps around itself, but it only has three loops. The bottom is a dead end, and there are the usual town amenities between you and it. I finally upgraded Precis' armor! As we try to reach the top, we're confronted by two guards and escorted to the guy in charge. Wrex, I think his name was.

Wrex talks more about the demon the cicada spoke of, but it's Rival who commands the conversation. She knows that the cicada was sent by Lung to attack her. From here, things get weird. I think it's a translation issue, but the cicada was sent to lure Rival out as a test if she lives. I got more confused, so I can't build up to this exciting reveal. Rival is the demon! She wants to destroy the planet for some reason, and she's also the cause of Ernest and Precis' ship crashings. As she says this, she mentions our other friends are here.

The camera cuts to another ship around the planet of Ediface, and it's Claude and Rena. Sadly, they fall to our same fate. Rival then reveals that she's come here for a reason. There's a seal over something that she needs to break. And that seal is Wrex, who she promptly kills. I wish I remembered what this seal was, but this scene was presented in a rather questionable manner. But Rival teleports away, and we have our BBG.

Wrex's butler asks us to follow him into another room. In that room are a series of transistor tubes, but they're actually filled with a mermaid. She's the one who reveals we're on Ediface, which I know from Star Ocean 3. The nameless mermaid tasks us with saving the world from Rival. To do so, we need to meet with more of her kind. She gives us a rebreather, which was hers, and she dies. I think. Why did a mermaid need mechanical gills?

The butler tells us we'll need to descend another tower that's found near the entrance to Lung. We only need to find the Abyss, which is just off the first floor. We can explore the other few sections for some amazing SP and even better weapons. Precis and Opera get a couple of things. But swim through the first pool to find the Abyss and float above everything you can, all the way to the east. At the bottom is our destination.

There's a cliff somewhere in the middle of this grid, and we'll ask where the other Edificians are. Rather than get an answer, we're attacked by Leviathan, a shark. We'll win, so. Levi turns into a warp point. We're brought to the town of Aqua, and some guy tells us to speak to their leader. But I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

So we're just gonna ignore Claude and Rena?

PS: how 'bout dem Cowboys!!!

SURPRISE TWO PART UPDATE!

Tonight, I spoke to the Aqua leader, Vai, and he reiterated what the mermaid said. The mermaid was named Rose, by the way. Vai said that Rival keeps trying to destroy the planet, and we humans, with minds stronger than any other, must stop her. To do that, we'll need to speak with two other Edificians, Nero and Raux, who have their own subdomains called Ax and Azul. But we'll do that later because another mermaid suggested Claude and Rena were at the beach. I want my healer!

They're actually in Valens. Rena walks out of town  and is glad to see us. She needs to find a chemist in Knott because Claude contracted a deadly virus and is near death. She joins the team, and we head to the research facility. The chemist, Rush, says he needs a certain herb, which we can find near the final fall in the Abyss. We'll pick it up, he'll make the medicine, and Rena gives it to her husband off screen. Claude instantly recovers and joins the team. We're finally all together again. I'm pretty set with Ashton and Precis, so Claude won't be here this time. Rena, though, definitely became my third, and I spent some time exploring the catacombs to level her up. Why does she use knives in this game? We'll get back on with that plot...

...tomorrow.

Also, Vai cleared some things up. Rival killed Zika because he was the seal to Grand Knott, a Gift of untold power. And the mermaid, Rose, didn't need the rebreather to survive. She actually created it for us out of her own soul. So it was a sacrifice for the world.

Also, also, are Rena and Claude optional?

Plot!?!?!?

Oh, hey, I edited.

The heart of Gravis Forest is actually just a cave. But the gimmick is something I don't think I've ever seen before. We can see holes within the dirt that surround us, but there's rarely a path to get there. However, we can make our own way across the dungeon. In the same way we can cut down trees, we can rend the dirt before us. Usually, at least. We can't dig everywhere, and paths tend to be obvious, but there are plenty of secrets hidden down here. I don't know why, but there was something really satisfying about this. Our goal is across a giant chasm in the top left. A lever there opens the door in the room before it. More red beatles block our path, and they're joined by the cheap red dragons. I have thoughts about them, but I'll save them for the appendix.

We'll be invited into an ornate room in the back of the cave, but the door closes as we RSVP. In the next room is a giant cicada. And it's sentient! It likes to say that humans are stupid and deserve to die. It assumes we're working with that "demon." We try to get more information about this demon, but we're not well liked, so a battle begins.

Screw it, here's the appendix. Battles in Blue Sphere suck. The entire game is about getting in the first attack and then comboing that into a barrage. If you're unable to get the first hit or kill them within six attacks, you've lost. Enemies don't have a windup in their attacks like we do, and our directional inputs aren't consistent. They're just too fast and easily chunk our HP. I really hate this, so I'm turning on Infinite HP for the rest of the game.

But the cicada, who kinda looks like a human driven submarine in battle, dies. It offers us no further information. We return to Rival with the knowledge, and she can fill us in on the history of this planet. Long ago, a massive tidal wave destroyed the ancient civilization that lived here. No one knows how it formed, but Rival believes that source is the demon that survivors would know. But there's a way to further investigate. South of Knott is the land of Screax. Deep in that land is a teleporter to an ancient city that might answer everything. Rival joins us again but heads to the ship. She had a Tri-emblem!? I started the trek through Screax but wanted to revisit those Aba ruins. Precis learned to swim last night, so let's see what the reward was! Trash; it was trash. But I enjoyed the submarine sections. There's a lot of fun stuff in this game if you can overlook the battle system. But is the story worth it? We'll find out...

...tomorrow!

Or, probably, in a few days, actually. Also, where are Rena and Claude?

Another double feature.

All I did tonight was walk through the town of Vandis until I finally found the bar. Ernest asked a patron if he'd seen a woman with three eyes, and, as luck would have it, he had! Opera was last seen in another town to the south, Knott, hanging out with a researcher in some more ruins.

Rather than go there, I went spelunking! Aba's permit let me explore two ruins I haven't searched yet. Crane and Ralf both require you to transfer batteries to other engines. Alternatively, you can hover across the gaps. Crane also needs a character who can swim to fully look around, which I don't have. I didn't find anything worthwhile because of it. Ralf was even worse, but I didn't fully explore all the pitfalls. I also bungled up save states...

Lastly, I checked out item creation. Precis smithed up an amazing weapon for Ashton. This reminds me that I should start enhancing Celine's enchanting skills...

Anyway...

The Nusa Cave/Road to Knott is home to poisonous plants that are annoying and can cause poison. There's also the raptor mobs, who are just edgy owls. As before Valis, there are so many detours and secret paths filled with treasure. I don't remember exactly what they all were, but a few were really nice. It's worth the exploration! There is a cheeky dead end with a massive dome in the background. Actually, go ahead and run up to it.

Knott is another maze town that sucks to navigate. Get out of the way, NPCs!!! Seek the bar for confirmation that Opera is in town. She's been working with a scientist named Rival to explore the ruins beneath the Knott, where the giant dome we saw earlier is. Several other researchers are inside. One informs us that Opera and Rival have descended into the ruins.

There's a man down here who gives us a clue to the first third of this dungeon. The Knott Ruins are the old trope of the Lost Woods. Every direction leads to what feels like a random room. There is one correct path to follow, though.
The man leads us almost all the way to B2. At the end of his directions, walk back the way you came.
B2's path is to loop counterclockwise. Once you've gotten to the fourth room of the cycle, go right until you find the stairs down.
B3 is where we finally meet Opera and Rival. They've reached an impasse in their search for this place's Gift. It's protected by a strong guardian, and Rival is no fighter. The two women ask us for aid, and we agree to do the deed. Rival joins the team as a guest, and we can swap in Opera, which I do because I accidentally made two of her techniques, including her heal spell.
I don't remember the path here, but push the stone onto the left path. Depending on where it's placed, the layout of the floor changes. If you find the room with two missile launchers in it, take the south exit.

The Gift we're searching for is guarded by a big red dog but is represented by a plant in the world. I remember it being weirdly passive...

Rival takes the Gift and asks us to meet her in her room. I head there via the ship's teleporter, and Rival and Opera recount how they met. Rival was at the screen where you can see Knott in the distance. She saw Ernest and Opera crash and went looking for the site. She was attacked by a worm in the process, but Opera managed to save her! They've been a team ever since. But the Gift she wanted is a power source for the ancient civilization's potential spacecraft. Rival assumed it has existed but never had proof. While she can't confirm anything, this Gift is good enough for her. Rival then asks us to find someone back in Vanis. I don't remember why...

He's in the bar and answers what we need. We leave the bar, and a friend of Rival finds us. Rival asks us to return to her now. Somethings happened.

Knott has been attacked by beetles. We fight our way through them, saving the townsfolk as we do until we find Rival in her secret closet behind her desk. After killing her assailant bug, she tells us she found a way to the heart of Gravis Forest, from whence the beetles came from. Something related to the spaceship is there, so she asks us to take her secret path and explore. But I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

I'm so behind on editing. Also, the item creation mini games would fit in a Wario game, so there's another subgenre to add to the list.

This boss sucks.

Time for the cheats!

The second part of the forest is much like the first half. There are more surprise monkey ambushes, though. The strategy is the same, but these fights continue to teeter on being hella unfun.

Shout out to the tree for not giving in as a spaceship crashed onto it. When the team reaches the top, they'll see Ernest's ship just hanging out there. It is in pieces, mind you, but this canopy is solid. As they approach, another goddamn gorilla jumps out of the ship. This time, white ambush monkey. But something about this one felt impossible. For starters, it's a legitimate ambush battle, so it gets the first attack. This results in Precis dying every time. I thought I was getting used to the battle system, at least for Ashton, but I just couldn't connect with my attacks. It didn't help that I had no time to even begin my combo. I eventually said screw it and gave Ashton unlimited health. I don't care...

The only thing Ernest could salvage was the power core. As we began to climb down, someone from the Resistance found their way up here. But it's with bad news. The attack on Aba began, but it was a trap. While the best fighters were away, Aba sent some of his robots to attack the hideout. The member requests our help and dies before our eyes. Ernest feels like he owes the group, so we're automatically sent to the base.

One of the four important members is outside, knelt down by the doorway. He's hurt but will recover. He tells us what the dead guy said and offers us a soma, which is a full heal. We need to clear out the base of the robot guardians, which are the bosses we fought back in prison. There's nothing in the offshoots, and there are two Atlusii before us. Another important resistance guy is fighting another new type of guardian. Sadly, I don't recall anything about it. Either way, we save the base. The two surviving members inform us that the assault group likely walked into a bigger ambush in Slave, so we opt to save them as well.

As before, we're automatically sent to the village. We can see the guards knocked out and/or dead, but the two other named guys are fighting a different new guardian. It's more powerful, and its AI is advanced, so it knows we're here to destroy it. Does it feel fear? It shouldn't since it whooped my butt the first time. A lot of mobs in Blue Sphere need a moment to understand their attack patterns. So this game is also a Souls like. Had I foreseen the long charged laser beam attack, maybe I wouldn't have died on my first attempt.

But we won, and the Resistance successfully reclaimed their hometown. The war isn't over, but our part in it is. They tell us we should go to the next town, which is accessible from a secret entrance south of them, by the wall, and then through the Nusa Beach.

There are several branching paths in these areas, and I took the north way first. It opened up a shortcut back to Scout, which is interesting. Enemies are a violent chicken named Bobo, lizard men, and a bird. There are also a couple of dungeons along the way that I didn't explore. The south route brings us to the next village, Vanis. We wonder where Opera is and decide to check out the bar first. But I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Along the way, I found a microwave. We can install this at the ship to help with cooking, so Blue Sphere is also a base builder.

This forest sucks.

The only thing I found in the jungle was a new whip for Ernest.

The Grantes Forest is a vertical wall. I think it's supposed to imitate coming to and leaving the foreground at points, but it felt weird. I won't condemn it, though, since it's something different, and it's a Gameboy game. I do wish that my controller didn't suck... It has d-pad drift somehow, so it kept pushing me off the branches. There are a ton of jumping off points by design and so many hidden chests. Most of them are just healing items if I recall.

In the second screen on the bottom to the right, an NPC tells us he's from the resistance against Aba. They're former residents of Slave. He tells us to follow the beatles to find their HQ. I went looking for small bugs but found nothing. I had a tough time even finding the Hercules beetles. Fortunately, there's a dude on GameFAQs who made maps of every dungeon in Blue Sphere. It took some deciphering, but I found the bugs, who can be kinda tough in a fight, and they led me to a house. Ernest knew where we were, and we were allowed in!

Inside are more survivors of Slave. We learn that Aba took control six months ago and killed so many people. But we're here for Ernest's ship. The guy in charge lets us deeper into the forest, but I was struck with a sense of IRL dread, so I ran out of time. So I'll find this crashed ship...


...tomorrow!


Getting tired or fighting these surprise monkeys and their long armed hurt boxes.

And a metroidvania?

Why aren't all prisons this easy to escape?

In order to free ourselves and prove our innocence, we need to kill another random monster prowling ruins. Talk to Dennis in the south room, which is also where the merchant and beds are, and he'll tell you that there's a dude in the east room who judges your combat power. He'll summon a mid boss type of robot that'll prowl the future floors we'll need to explore. Killing them will grant us access to their floor. This test exists because the prison complex is run by good guys. We'll get the option to explore five floors, but we'll only need to run through floor twenty one.

Besides that, the only mandatory one is the first one. The skill point drops are in the low twenties, and the green machine is easy to kill with Ashton's random combo. The other floors can't be completed yet, but I want the skill points and the miscellaneous items. But they're each gimmicked, and they're unique. It's simple but fun enough. Floor twenty one is a slide type section, and the boss is in the northwest. I accidentally went into the warp home point, and the elevators conveniently broke after we returned. Dennis is amazed we won and lets us leave. I'm glad the farce imprisonment ends with a farce sentence. Aba isn't home, so it's time to leave town.

As we near the exit, we hear a familiar voice. It's Ernest leaving the inn! Precis and he hang out at the restaurant and catch up on this adventure. He and Opera crashed just as Precis did, which they acknowledge as unfortunate... But Ernest joins the group (I replaced Noel because he seems vital to the next point), and our next destination is his ship in the forest to the south. It's beyond Slave Village... Ernest didn't mention it at the time, but he and Opera got split up in the crash.

Rather than going to Grantes Forest, I did some more item creation. Precis made an upgrade that gave Bobbie the ability to hover. This opens so many paths. There were a few things in previous dungeons that were unreachable until now. This includes a giant green dragon that I couldn't do any damage against in Mile. I would have kept exploring, but I had to shovel snow, so I'll finish...

...tomorrow!

The lack of fol might be a damning point for a decently fun game.

Tree tank

Last night, I explored Rupert Jungle. I got incredibly lost, and I really need to raise my defense. The monsters are strong and enjoy poison, but the poison poofs away after battle. The jungle is very large and winding, and paths take you to several dead ends, ruins, and towns. To venture into the ruins, a guard informs us we'll need a pass from Aba, the leader of Aba. There are two such ruins here. If you keep running past Aba, you run into Slave Village. It's aptly named and probably why Aba is a rich city. But there's nothing we can do here now.

Aba is a massive location, and the grand palace is in the back. We have to climb several flights of stairs to meet with Aba of Aba to gain the pass, but the frog man says it costs 100.000 fol! We don't have that, but there is another way. There's a monster in one of the ruins, Garp. Should we defeat it, we'll get the pass for the other ruins. I ran there and decided to try my hand at item creation.

The skill system is kinda confusing without a guide or flowchart, but I managed to learn a few things. Sadly, I was only able to have Precis build a way for Bobo to dash, thus making Dias obsolete.

Yes, that jungle took two hours, so consider this a two part blog update.

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Garp Ruins is another winding dungeon. I almost typed tower, but I think it's only three or four floors, two of which are basements. Either way, it's a mid game Zelda dungeon. As we enter, Ashton warns us that Gyruru and Ururun sense something. But that's for later, maybe? Either way, the shoulder mounted dragons can burn the excessive peat throughout the dungeon. They get mad and refuse, but they're just being fussy and will scorch anything and everything in our way. This is Ashton's field skill, and it can also be used to get the jump on mobs. It'll be of great use here because most of the creatures are passive. The poison snakes are old news, but the rhinos are new. They spin in place until they spot you, and then they charge! Or you can try to burn them from afar. I wandered around for an hour or so before I learned something fun.

After switching out Celene for Noel, as healing magic seems more important than offense, I had him jump across several floors that would collapse under us as we walked. After his parkour stunts, I found out we can climb on the thick, nonflammable trees that exist down here. They lead you to either great accessories or progress.

We'll eventually reach some flooded areas, which means one trap room beneath there is the final puzzle. It's a trap room where we need to find a switch on the back wall. After finding another person in the depths seeking the Land Dragon, we'll meet our target. I don't remember exactly what I did, as the combat in this game is weird button mashing, but Ashton's Hurricane Slash did a lot of damage. Land Dragon is a large target, so the traveling tornado hangs around for a while over him. The boss drops a scale, which we'll use as proof of our conquest. Before warping out, bomb the wall behind LD. There's more fun stuff there.

We'll return to Aba and talk to Aba. He seems unsure, but the scale is proof. Surprisingly, he follows through with his word and gives us access to the Ralf and Crane Ruins.

We'll leave town, but there's a situation in our path. A young girl waiting for her boyfriend is being accosted by one of the town guards. Ashton gets between the two, which annoys the guard more. Because the guards have absolute authority, and we're pacifists who killed god two years ago, he takes us to jail... We'll figure out how to Markarth our way out...

...tomorrow!

I actually wanted to grind tonight, but then I was in jail. They took our teleporter but left our weapons, so they're almost smart...

Blue Sphere in the Eternal Sphere

My third favorite game was rereleased back in November. But I don't own a Switch, and I was playing Legend of Legaia, so I couldn't play it. I replayed it back in February anyway, and I don't want to make this blog redundant yet. So we're gonna do the next worst thing and play the sequel!


"Star Ocean: Blue Sphere" is a direct sequel to The Second Story. It's a Japanese only GBC game, so I'm using the fan translation from several years ago. I know there was a newer one that was surprisingly recent, but it vanished before I could download it. I also don't fully understand how patching works... Regardless, let's play something I've been wanting to play since high school!

A ship is flying through space, but it's moving erratically. The camera cuts to the cockpit to see Precis losing control of her spaceship. She and Ashton are having a mild quarrel about the whys of the imminent crash landing, but that's not important. The ship is forced to make an emergency landing on the correct planet but not in an OSHA compliant manner.

Precis is fine, as are the other members of the team. Diaz and Noel are with her, and the three talk about what happened. They have no answers, but Precis hops aboard Bobo (not Robbie!) and checks on the other crew members. She passes the teleporter room and medic bay, neither are useable at the moment, and enters the storage. Celine is upset that she almost died but is easily soothed by the thought of adventure. Noel is also annoyed but is more interested in figuring out why the machines broke. Chisato is there. Bowman and Ashton (ft. Ururu and Gyruru) are in the engine room. Ashton is stuck in something. After getting him out, all eight members meet in the cockpit.

They came here looking for Opera and Ernest. It seems they're in trouble. But now they're in the same predicament, so they'll be waiting for Claude and Rena, who are late, to pick them up. In the meantime, the crew will seek out anything that can be used to repair the ship. We make a party of three and begin to search.

My party is Precis, the apparent main character, Ashton, the love interest, and Celine, the adult.
Exploration feels like Zelda, as every transitional area and dungeon gives off square room in a grid vibes. You can destroy various obstacles, and each character has a unique field action. To experience everything, you'll need to switch up party members, and we can always quickly warp back to the ship to do that.
Combat, though, is clearly Tales inspired. It's slightly better than Phantasia, but it's still pretty clunky. I'm not big on it. But pressing a diagonal button lets physical attackers do a slightly different move. Precis can thrust forward with a drill or shoot a long (and slow) laser from afar. It has its merits, but I don't like it so far.
Skills are back, and they replace levels. Now, every fight rewards several skill points that we can use on any character we want to increase their stats. This also opens up item creation, but I haven't delved into that yet.

But the opening area, Scout Forest, is home to fur balls and fluffy (and violent) kobolds. There are also hornets in the bushes you can destroy. Scattered here and there are ruins, but we can't interact with them yet. There is a switch to the south, but I don't know what it did. We can also find Bowman walking around, gathering herbs. He tells us about how he can compound stuff to make medicine. Walking through the woods has us saving a boy from a kobold. He asks if Celene is his grandma, which upsets our token "young girl." I wonder how this goes if she's not the lead character? We're just outside the village of Scout, so he invites us in to meet his grandpa. He runs the inn, so we can rest there even though we can always warp back to base to heal. But world building is nice. Lent and his grandpa suggest we travel east, but the area is blocked off by rubble, so we'll need to find a bomb. They also tell us Scout is home to the Mile Ruins, an ancient tower from a lost civilization. Inside are mechanical men and gifts, which are strange items from the past no one can use. The team thinks they can find something of use in Mile. Before venturing in, look around Scout for the fun of it. There's a merchant who gives us a Bunny shaped communicator that doesn't seem to work.

Mile Ruins is an apt name because this place is super long. Inside are the standard sandworms that have appeared in the first three Star Ocean games. There are also a lot of surprisingly weak robots. But this place is a maze. We'll need to navigate the dilapidated facility, and several doors require a key and power to operate. The destination is floor five, but don't be afraid to fall through some of the holes in the floors. We can find new weapons for Ashton and several new armor pieces. Fol is hard to come by so far, so all chests are godsends. Dias can be found in here, and Ashton will ask him if he feels weaker from two years ago. Dias says "yes" even though he's been training so hard, but that's life... I switched to him because Dias' field ability is to sprint. There are also a few fun things with vending machines inside the stairwell. As we climb, we (the player) see that Lint is following us. We'll finally confront him at the top when the Mile guardian, Guriguri, is about to kill him. I barely survived, so I have no strategy. Defeating him saves Lint, who returns home, and we find the new field action, Bomb. We can blow open two walls in Mile to turn on the power and reach the sixth floor, which has some interesting puzzles for gear. We only get the one bomb, so we'll have to buy more from the guy who gave us the communicator.

Explode the rubble to the southeast and enter the Rupert Jungle, the only thing between us and the port town of Aba. There's a dude here who informs us he's seen a man with a third eye in his forehead in Aba. Everyone knows that's Ernest, so we'll seek my least favorite character...

...tomorrow!

I need to get used to using skills and figure things out. I like the idea, but can it click with me?