#outofexp

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For the first time in years (especially considering the years I left tumblr), I got around to adding a new character. Well, technically two.

Mastemon from the Digimon series. Of course, the "two" I referred to being Angewomon and LadyDevimon. By default, they're not wild Digimon, but do have a human Partner. I may also add their separate Megas one day, too; Ophanimon and BeelStarmon.

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I forgot I had a handful of unused screenshots when I took A Look At Second Circle. I figured you guys might like them.

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Since I finished Stranger of Paradise, allow me to share some advice; things I picked up while playing. Note that this is only what I picked up and some may not apply or work for you.

Get Sage as soon as possible. Sage gives access to both White and Black Magics. You lose Raise, but gain Ultima.

Don't rely solely on Soul Shield or Block. Soul Shield gives some invincibility frames, so use that to get away.  Block is good with multi-hit attacks, but it still chips at your Break Gauge.

Tonberries can absolutely destroy you. Chef's Knife as a high chance of killing you, no matter how much health you have.

But Chef's Knife can be blocked with Soul Shield.

If you're stunned or staggered, they'll usually use Deathwish to close the gap and get close enough to use Chef's Knife.

Magic, most notably Firaga, is good at dealing damage, also stunlocking them.

Don't try and purely Soul Shield or Block Everybody's Grudge. Block, then dodge.

Cubes automatically activate when you get close to them, so if you die before actively interacting with them, you'll respawn at those same Cubes.

While Cubes restore your HP and MP, you lose whatever Instant Ability you had on your. Also, enemies respawn when you touch the Cubes. With exceptions being ones spawned from Dark Vents. And any objects you interact with to progress the dungeon, either destroying a wall or unlocking a door, won’t reset.

Speaking of Dark Vents, defeating enemies they spawn lower its Break Gauge. But also, destroying the Dark Vent will instantly destroy any enemies they spawn.

Most bosses have 2 phases, separated by a Soul Burst cutscene. If you drop a boss' HP to "0", or where the line in its HP bar is, they'll instantly be staggered. But if you manage to lower the boss' Break Gauge and stagger them, you'll instantly end the current phase. The latter is actually how to defeat Tiamat's second phase.

The 4 Fiends more of less maintain their weaknesses from FF1. With the exceptions of Lich and Tiamat.

Tiamat has no weaknesses (at least from what I experienced) but you can lower her Break Gauge by destroying her heads. Best option is Thundaga. 

For her second phase, she uses Wind Blast and Tri-Disaster. The former can be Soul Shielded, but the other has to be avoided, as it's a multi-hit ability. Merely wait until just before she fires to avoid either ability. And trust me, Tri-Disaster can and will absolutely destroy you.

Marilith is weak to Water. Just be cautious and aware of her. If you’re not attacking and she’s targetting you, be always dodging and/or blocking.

Lich is weak to Holy and Wind (I only used Holy), so use Dia or Paladin's Radiant Aura/Holy Fang for Holy or Aeroga for Wind. You can also have your allies fight the Lich's minions while you focus on the Lich himself.

You can also just use Soul Burst to finish a minion off to get MP or Soul Shield Lich’s attacks.

During his second phase, he'll occasionally use Putrid Ground, which leaves him idle for several seconds, so just spam magic/Dia/Aero.

Kraken is weak to LIghtning. Just keep moving and you should be fine. You can also stun it with Thundaga.

In the Ancient Castle, you'll be introduced to a horse known as the Nightmare. I have no advice except good luck. They're very aggressive and have no weaknesses. Most of you time fighting with them will be spent dodging and blocking. But I hear you can stunlock them with Berserker.

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I finished Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin and now I’m sad.

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Where you have to go in the Fifth Kalpa to get the fabled Uber Pixie. Fair warning, bring a Demon with high strength and another with high magic. And no, that doesn’t include artificial growth, such as using Mitamas or Incense. I think it has to be at least 25. However, once you get Uber Pixie, her stats are all high enough to open any door the requires a Demon with a high enough stat.

Also, don’t evolve her. If she evolves into High Pixie, she loses a massive amount of her stats, only keeping her high Agility and Luck.

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Now in HD.

Side Note: This is a callback to another tumblr post that had the same screenshots for the original SMT: Nocturne. Sadly, I couldn’t find it.

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A Look At Stuff You Probably Never Heard Of: Archie Sonic Online

I meant to work on this sooner, but I’ve been both distracted and exhausted. But better late than never, I suppose. Today, we’ll be taking a look at... Archie Sonic Online!

Archie Sonic Online is an online webseries that functions similarly to Sonic the Comic Online, both being online continuations of Sonic the Hedgehog comics. However, Archie Sonic Online, rather than continuing where the official Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics ended, with being set in an entirely new continuity, Archie Sonic Online continues the story from the original continuity.

Technically, Archie Sonic Online was started on September 2015 where it was known as Sonic Mobius and aimed to adapt the the “Lost Hedgehog Tales”, a series of ideas written by Archie Sonic writer, Ian Flynn, but wasn’t able to use for various reasons. The project itself would be set after Issue 247, disregarding the crossover event with Archie Mega Man. However, the project would officially be known as Archie Sonic Online on February 1st, 2016 and abandoned adapting the “Lost Hedgehog Tales” and instead decided to continue the original story.

As stated before, the online comic series takes place right after the last main issue before the reboot. For a refresher, Princess Sally has been turned into Mecha Sally and used to fight against Sonic and the Freedom Fighters. Eggman launches an attack on New Mobotropolis while Sonic and the others deal with Mecha Sally, only to receive help from Silver, who once again returned from the future to track down the traitor that would lead to the destruction of the future; that traitor being Sally (albeit not of her own free will). He manages to short Mecha Sally out, allowing Sonic, Tails, and Amy to focus on the Death Egg Mk. 2.

At the same time, the Tails Doll is attacking New Mobotropolis, leading the newly formed Team Freedom (comprised of Rotor, Cream, Heavy and Bomb, and Big) to fight the creature, which had also taken out the city’s defenses.

It’s also worth noting that these issues are worked on by different people. And due to it being a non-profit project that’s still in its early states, new issues are very few and far between. Not to mention the art styles can largely vary from issue to issue.

Once again, the time has come for the Final Recommendation Never Let Go Of It||Get It||Hold Onto It||Try It||Consider It||Stay Away From It

This comic series is still in its early issues, so as stated before, updates are largely infrequent and there can be some odd, albeit minor quirks within some of the panels. And some of the dialogue can be read somewhat awkwardly at times. 

However, despite the minor issues, the passion is still there, trying to continue where the original Archie Sonic comics left off and finish the plotlines that were left unresolved when the official comics got rebooted.

I also want to mention that Archie Sonic Online does more than the mainline Sonic the Hedgehog series, but also Sonic Universe. They also did a very short-live Mobius Legends series, which are simply one-shot stories that have no affect on continuity or the larger story. In fact, the image above with Princess Elise and Blaze are from the Mobius Legends series.

Not to mention they’re also adapting the rewriting the Endangered Species arc. In the original comic, the story ended with Thrash the (Tasmanian) Devil throwing the Echidnas within Albion, both the citizens and Dark Egg Legionnaires into a Warp Ring to an unknown location, thus leaving Knuckles and a small handful of Echidnas left on Mobius.

All-in-all, I say to check it out, especially if you were a fan of the original Archie Sonic series. And while writing this post, I learned they also have the entire Archie Sonic series uploaded to their website. Not just the mainline Sonic and Sonic Universe series, but also the Knuckles the Echidna series, and even the Sonic Boom and Sonic X series.

If you want to read it, the website can be found here.

And with that, I’ll see you guys next month. I got a few things I plan on talking about, so until next time.

[party-of-rpg-muses]

A Look At Stuff You Probably Never Heard Of: E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution

Oh, boy. This one is something special. And in case this name seems familiar, trust me, we’ll go into that later. This may be one of the oldest games I’ve ever taken a look at. Today, we’re taking a look at... E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution!

E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution was a Japanese-only JRPG game released in 1990 for the NEC PC-9801, a Japanese-only home computer. There, it was known as “46 Okunen Monogatari ~The Shinka Ron~”, or “4.6 Billion Year Story: The Theory of Evolution”. It was developed by the Almanic Corporation with Takashi Yoneda as the head director, who also designed the famous ActRaiser game for the SNES/Super Famicom. And Enix (yes, the same Enix that would later merge with Squaresoft to become Square Enix) was the publisher.

The game itself is a fictional story based heavily around evolution, but with science-fiction elements.

The intro goes over the creation of life, from the Big Bang to multi-cellular organism. At the game’s proper beginning, the player takes control of a Thelodus, an ancient jawless fish that primarily inhabited the sea floor, having been found by other Thelodus. After exploring for a while, a bright flash sends the other ancient sea-dwelling creatures into a panic, some even turning violent, as the Elder kicks you out, believing you had something to do with it.

Once that happens, the 4.6 Billion story begins. The player also meets with a mysterious woman named Gaia, who says the player has a destiny and will be keeping watch throughout the ages.

The Theory of Evolution is a top-down game with the player moving in four cardinal directions and when encountering another creature, a turn-based battle commences. In battle, there is a normal attack, Special (which has different abilities such as Defend and Recover, but other such as Stalk, which can stun an enemy, Jump to lower enemy defense, and a few damaging abilities), and an Escape ability.

As the player wins battles, they gain EVO Genes, which are used to upgrade your stats. Endurance increases defense, Attack increases power, Wisdom teaches new Special moves, and Vitality increases health. And upon reaching the limit of any one, the player will evolve and change into a different animal, moving either down or to the side of the Evolution Chart.

It is also worth noting that it’s impossible to move up the chart and there are several made-up creatures, such as the Theriarodon in the image above, which the game acknowledges to be made up solely for the game.

The game itself is divided into 5 discs, with the first having the intro cutscene and is needed to start the game, always being inserted into the first slot. There’s also quite a bit of music, ranging from upbeat and cheerful to mysterious and uncertain with each era having their own theme. But there are also some tracks that are repeated, like when entering a strange area or the battle music.

Now that we’ve reached the end, it’s time for the Final Recommendation: Never Let Go Of It||Get It||Hold Onto It||Try It||Consider It||Stay Away From It

Okay, let me knock a few things out of the way. In case it wasn’t obvious, this game is very similar to the SNES game, E.V.O.: Search for Eden, a side-scrolling game where you eat animals to evolve in something akin to a competition to evolve and reach Eden. However, they’re both developed by the same company, with Theory of Evolution coming out 2 years before Search for Eden. The development team for Search for Eden was also comprised of younger staff who wanted to make things more “interesting”.

And no doubt you’ve noticed some things that don’t fit with history and evolution, such as the “Evolution Rush System Control” from the second image, or the Neokawamatepis from the fourth. The game occasionally delves into science-fiction. In the game, it’s largely out of nowhere, but the manual gives a detailed timeline of the events from the Big Bang to the start of the game, with you as a Thelodus. Some of the images can be seen here. The game also has the likes of Lucifer as a major antagonist.

And yes, I used an emulator with a translation ROM. The project was done by a group known as “46 OkuMen”, who translated the game from Japanese to English and released the ROM online for anyone to use.

As for the ROM itself, everything seems to be in order, but there are issues with movement. As in you move very quickly, making it hard to make precise movements. It can be difficult to walk down a narrow path and you’ll have to make several attempts to line yourself up. And depending on the creature you evolve into, you could move even faster, making things even harder. And I couldn’t find a way to slow down my movements, only the text speed.

The game also possesses somewhat of a difficulty curve as after each chapter, you’re back at the bottom and have to work your way up. Thing is, in the first chapter, the ocean, there are initially two creatures; jellyfish and other Thelodus. But the Thelodus are way too strong for you, so you’ll have to fight jellyfish and avoid the other Thelodus until you can increase your stats. I also want to mention that there are times where you have to evolve to progress, like evolving into a fish that hand handle the depths of the ocean or fresh water.

Not to mention, as I stated, you’re back at the bottom at the start of each chapter. That also means you lose the Special moves you gained in the previous chapter, with the exception of Recover and occasionally Defend.

Another issue is that things are automatically done when you walk up to something; fighting an enemy, talking to an NPC, etc. However, it can be pretty easy to get locked in. Near the end of the game, you enter the home of Carnivorous Primates, who will repeat the same lines over and over again. And it’s not uncommon for one to start speaking right after he finished talking to you, especially if he’s going in the direction you’re standing.

And finally, there are a number of “bad endings”, attained when evolving too much in a certain direction; such as Endurance while already on the far right of the chart will cause a bad ending. But there are other ways, such as drinking from a disturbing pond until you evolve into a Slime or accepting Lucifer’s deal, causing you to become a demon.

Also, there is something I have to mention because it’s VERY important! There will be times where you’ll have to go over terrain that will damage you, like desert terrain or water. As you move, you’ll take damage and the screen will flash green. And that’s every step you take, so the screen will flash rapidly several times a second. So if you’re going to play the game, BE CAREFUL as there is a danger of epilepsy. If you want to play, turn the brightness of your computer down and don’t play in the day.

All in all? I say give it a try. I consider it to be a fairly enjoyable experience, despite the issues. And with that all said and done, I’ll see you all next month.