Still at it

Still playing Terranigma, at the moment. It's good fun!

I've restored the world with all the happy aminals (although, sadly you lose the ability to converse with animals and plants. It's a bit depressing now, because when you try all you get is a "...") and humans have returned to the surface world.

Now Ark has to progress the human race in terms of their technology. You start out in Tibet up in the mountains, and end up travelling through the Gobi Desert (after a little quest involving zombies!) and end up in the Balkans.

Yes John, they can still be zombies if their heads come off. They are "magic zombies"

Eventually Ark runs into a princess who is the spitting image of the girl he left behind in the underworld. Weeeeird. Hopefully we find out why this is. At the moment, I kinda feel like there isn't a huge driving plot in the game, apart from let's get the world rebuilt. Which is great, I guess, but there's no urge to go and fight something.

Also, I fought the most fucking annoying boss. Her name is Bloody Mary, and I kid you not, she is a hard one. When you go up against her, your attacks will do one or two points of damage. You have to shell out for a whole bunch of magic rings if you don't want the fight to last forever, because she has 300 hit points. Also, she hits like a truck, has these magical orbs that spin around her, and will take off her face and throw it at you.

After that fight through, you get to go to America! Yeah, apparently she was keeping Christopher Columbus in her basement, and once he's free he'll teach the Spanish sailors how to get to the new world.

Yeah, so I mucked about America for a bit, met Alexander Bell and Thomas Edison (who are named Bell and Eddy in the game, but I got the referances ^_^) and then ended up exploring a cavern at the Great Lakes.

The boss in there was pretty...cool I guess. I took a screenshot!

OMG Spoiler! The Hitorodon is good and it's the starfish that are evil!

Oh yah, after that you find that Wilbur Wright was stuck in the cave! Whats up with all these historical figures getting captured by bosses?

Anyway, we shall what awaits Ark. Although, I'm sure by now that goat is wondering if he's ever going to call her back.

Rebuilding a World

Everytime I talk about old RPG's that I have played, my friend John goes "Man, you know what RPG I liked? Terranigma, did you ever play that?"

And I have to say no. Because I hadn't.

Yesterday, I decided to remedy that problem.

Terranigma was a game released in 1996 for the Super Nintendo Console, and was produced by Enix, who also made Soul Blazers and the Dragonquest and Dragon Warrior games. It's an action RPG, so while you have hit points and armor and such, you attack enemies by pressing the A button. What I found really cool though, was the amount of different attacks you get. For instance, while running, if you press the attack button Ark will charge forward. If you press it while running and jumping, you'll do a pretty fancy (for 1996) divebomb.

I haven't finished the game yet, so I can't tell you what happens later, but so far I've learned that the main guy, Ark, is a bit of an idiot. He lives in village called Crysta, in a strange underground world. One day, he opens the door that should never be opened and finds a magical box and a strange creature called Yomi.

By opening the box a curse is laid on the village, and all the villagers (including the girl who fancies you) are frozen. The Elder tells you that in order to lift the curse you must journey to 5 towers and complete the trials that await there.

It's cool though, because inside the box you find an awesome spear and set out. The box acts as your inventory, and kind of exists in a pocket universe sort of thing. In order to access your inventory, you have to jump inside the box, which contains a whole bunch of rooms. I particularly liked this little touch, as it explains the vast amount of junk that Ark carries around with him all the time.

Anyway, you finish off the 5 towers and after every one a continent on the overworld is restored. However, these continents are all barren and void of life. So the Elder, ever confident in Ark's abilities, sends him to restore life to the freaking planet.

And thats where I'm up to. I've restored the plants, the birds and the animals, and right now I'm on my way to restore Humanity.

I'm going to leave now with a little story. While exploring Eklamata, the zone where humanity sleeps, Ark was caught in an avalanche and passed out. What happened next was a bit...strange.

Oh, did I mention that Ark can talk to animals and plants?

So, with my new friend, the Obvious She-Goat, I decided to explore the little cave we were in.

Only to find the carcass of her mate. Yeah...

Then it starts to get dark. Ark's friend the goat starts to look at him differently now that she's single. One thing leads to another and...

The next morning Ark wakes up to find the goat butting against the wall of the cave. Eventually, she manages to bust through where the ice is thin, but is stopped by sheer cliff. Ark however, has a pair of handy Sharp Claws (I got's em from some demon birds, good fun!) and just leaves his friend the goat behind. Just like that!


Yeah, this game has its moments.

It's the little things, Isn't it?

I have to avert my eyes every time he "harvests" his sheep.

I Forgot a Post Title

Been supremo busy lately. With work (that I am not allowed, upon pain of ass-monkeys) to talk about, and also like...other work. Enjoy this awesome picture of a black mage in the meantime.

Also, this game might be the hardest, funniest thing I have played in ages.

That's my ISP by the way.

Thanks John for the link.

Sworn to Secrecy

I've been pretty busy this week. A couple of nights working late, a couple of meetings with clients and when I'm not in an air conditioned environment I just want to close my eyes and sleep. I've been thinking about starting up a small freelance company, just to have a name to give to people when they ask me to do work for them and such. Finding the right name to put on it has been a little difficult.

Part of the fun of all this work though, is that I can't talk to you guys about most of it. Because of "confidentiality". What is confidentiality? Well, basically it's a way for people to cover their arses in business terms. It's a crazy competitive world out there, apparently.

I want to write a bit about women, but I've never been very good at that. Both writing, and women, so I'll just say that age old adage. Women, are complicated.

My father gave me several pieces of advice when it came to women, most of them delivered at sunset on the back veranda. His "approach" if you will, was insistence. Not like, continually pressing the point sort of thing, because that would be annoying. Just, be yourself, and not worry about trying to impress someone.

Because, if you're worried, then you feel that something's wrong with you. And no one wants to date a guy who has something wrong with him :P

Oh, and always make your intentions clear and honest. I think this was his way of explaining the "friend zone" to me.

I have to admit, that I haven't really been following his advice. And heck, the way things are going doesn't seem so great, so maybe I should try.

Anyway, enough of this, I think the heat is getting to my head. I'll leave you with a light hearted anecdote from this weekend.

John, Arjay and I are in Traps, which has just been renovated. They have a huge dancefloor in the middle bar now and space lasers all over the place (pew pew). Eventually, it came to the time where I really needed to siphon the old python. I make my way into the mens room, and step into a spaceship. I kid you not, they got their bathroom from a space shuttle. It's all silver and black and the button over the john is a huge lever thing.

I was so impressed that I rushed back to John, who was talking to a friend of his who recently got married. His wife was sitting next to him, and didn't seem involved in the conversation that John and his mate were having.

Me: Dude! Have you been to the bathroom yet!? It's totally a spaceship!

John: Uhh, yeah. Albert, this is (So and so) and (His wife)

Me: Oh, Hi. Congratulations. Have you been to the bathroom yet (so and so)?

So and so: Um, no. Not yet.

Me: You gotta check it out, it's the coolest bathroom ever.

So and so's wife: I've been in plenty of fancy bathrooms you know.

Me: Yeah, I bet you could tell stories.

*uncomfortable silence*

Mr. Eloquence strikes AGAIN!

Guardian

Sometimes I feel cheap using stock images for backgrounds. So I made myself feel better by filtering and blurring and texturing the shit out of these. Yes, I know it still looks pretty lame, but I had no idea what I was going for with this piece. I like how the knight came out though. So, yeah...