Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 5)

     It's been awhile, sort of a long weekend with my daughter, and also shaking off somewhat of a cold.  I did get time here and there to play the game, it's sort of taking much longer than I had thought, and the game is a little bigger than I had anticipated.  That's not a bad thing though.

     Last I left off, I was grinding to deal with a guy named Mad Muscle.  Taking my sweet ass time and going in circles around Freeza paid off pretty quickly, and I was able to get better weapons and level up with ease.  After picking up a few flamethrowers and getting better armor all around I went back and paid Mad Muscle a visit and this time was able to kill him in only a few rounds.  Once he was dealt with I was rewarded with my very own ambulance!  At first it seemed like a light car, and I just envisioned a minivan, but it was actually better than the army buggy, to my surprise.

That's right.

     Back to Freeza, I had more to deal with.  See, the town of Freeza is a set of buildings with the main one being in the middle of a frozen lake.  The biggest pain of it though, is that once you step onto the ice, you and your vehicle spin out of control, causing you to slide forward till you hit an obstacle.  It makes getting from shop to shop sort of an irritating puzzle, just not one that's of any real challenge, which made me question why they bothered with that setup at all.
     Talking with several of the NPCs about town I learned that: A- Some guy and his wife ran off with everyone's explosives, and B- Under the town is a monster.  Some guy was going to have to wait, and I was off to the lower reaches of the main building to find said monster.  Lucky for me, there was an elevator which allowed me to take my tanks downstairs, and I prepared myself for what I figured to be an easy fight.  Searching about there, I found what appeared to be an elephant in the ice.

Tarkus?

     It actually was a pretty easy fight.  I ran back and got my bounty cash and upgraded the tanks some more.  (The tanks really are fun to deal with)

     More exploring, more fighting loads of things.  Loads of things.  It's actually something in the game that I'm not liking so much.  I do realize that it's necessary, but it just gets to tedious at times.  I know I have to level up, and I need the constant flow of money, it just seems that I cant walk 10 feet without being harassed by something.  I was able to find a few more interesting things.  To the southwest of Freeza was an abandoned subway tunnel, and I was able to find some sort of "auto-escape" thing for my characters computer.  I have no idea what it does.  To the northeast I found a series of desert passages with a cave and a supply station.  The NPCs at both locations both went on about a tank in a nearby cave, and that I needed a metal detector (which I had) to find it.  It wasn't that far and I was able to find a new tank, an engine, and a tank computer without much hassle.

Towing the new tank

      When you find a new vehicle, and everyone in the party already has a vehicle, you get the option of actually towing the 4th vechicle.  This allows you to get back to a town where you can drop off a vehicle for later, and outfit the new one.  Pretty cool how they did that.
     After taking care of the new tank, and dealing with the engine and weapons and hauling weight, I went back to the dunes for more exploring and accidentally came across the next "boss".

Volkswagon got sick of the girl-car stereotype

     Beetla was also a very easy boss.  A few piercing shells and he wasn't able to attack me, save for flashing his high-beams at me (seriously).  I'm starting to wonder if I have taken the grind thing to the extreme, as the last 2 bosses were now much easier than both Mad Muscle and Dr Rafflesia.  I'm thinking it's got to be the tanks that making the difference, which would make sense.

     Further to the north of where Beetle was at stood a skyscraper.  I wasn't able to take my tank inside, so I figured the next boss fight would be on foot, and be harder.
     The building had about 21 floors to it, and I did way too much exploring.  There was a girl there who kept insisting that I was there to kill her, but gave that up once I chased her down and found that the game would not allow me to kill her.  It turns out that she was the wife or now daughter (?) of the guy that ran off with all of Freezas' beloved explosives, and that the guy was on the roof.  She also wanted me to help him.  Fair enough.
     Once on the roof, he explained to me that his plan was to use the explosives to blow up the building and cause it to fall to the west, creating a bridge to the next island over. (Made sense, actually)  He said that he needed my help, but all I really did was follow him about.  He told me to go park my tanks outside so they would not get destroyed, and to come back when I was done.  Ok, fine, did that.  I was then greeted with a small cutscene of sorts of the man blowing up the building, die-hard style.

I'm sure nobody was inside.

     Nice.

     After taking the new "bridge" west I immediately ran into the town of Il Migra.  I had collected a large amount of cash from the bounties, and also remembered a building to the east of Audry town where some guy was trying to sell an Abrams tank.  I also discovered that between Il Migra and the building that I just watched blow up was the next "boss".   He had to be easier once I had 3 tanks.  Turns out I was right.  After haggling with the tank salesman over a price, I was pleasantly surprised by its crazy powerful cannon and heavy duty engine.  I went back to Il Migra and just began bouncing back and forth between the town and the "bridge", and realized I had forgotten to stop towing the new tank and drive it.  Then I was attacked by a horn section.

Yes, horn section.

     Once again, easy "boss".

     The game seems to have 2 kinds of bosses.  There's the major ones, that have bounties attached to them, and there are minor ones, that are just parts to small snippets of stories that are parts of different areas.  For example, south of Il Migra is another town, (Junta?), and it has been overrun with bandits that all look like The Fonz.  They also have special attacks like whistling you a tune, and blowing you kisses. (Yes, seriously)   Next to the town is a ferry that will take you to yet another island, but to do so you first have to fight the leader of the Fonz Army..

How the hell is Fonz getting in that?

     If you kill the Fonz, the APC spits out another, clown-car style.  So I had to focus on the Pink APC.  Once again, easy work, especially since piercing shells seem to castrate any armored vehicle.

     And that's where I'm at now.  Killing Boss Fonz allowed me to take the ferry to yet another island, and to the east of the where I was dropped off, was a city called Sol.  I saved my game, and took another break.

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 4)

     Grind, grind, grind.

     After yesterdays triumph over Dr. Rafflesia, all I really could do was just explore, which is ok.  To the north of Audrey was another town, Rocco, and to the east was a series of small buildings on some man-made overlooks on the coast.  In one of the buildings I found an NPC who sent me to another room where I had to deal with this:

Wait, what?

     He was actually pretty tough, killing one of my other guys, but after beating him and going back to the NPC, he coughed up a key to the next room over.  Inside I found a device that would unlock locked doors, so that was helpful.

     After that, more exploring.  Just west of Rocco was another hidden camp of vendors with more upgrades for my tank, and to the north of there was an old hospital.  People in Rocco had warned me of the hospital, but I had forgotten why.  Inside was another NPC who kept running away from me, I didn't really register that this was not a good thing, as he eventually stopped and confronted me.

This cant be good...

     It was Mad Muscle, the next monster bounty (In other words "Boss") that I had to deal with.  This guy was pretty damn tough.  Each hit seemed to drain about half the hit points from anyone he hit, and he got 2 hits per attack.  To make matters worse, if you hit him, he fell back into an ambulance where you could not hit him, and healed himself.  After two of my party members got killed I was all like "screw that" and fled.

Just before my ass beating.

     SO, right now I'm just exploring more and trying to level up.  Getting better gear and whatnot to be able to fight this guy without getting trounced.  To the northeast of Rocco on a beach was a cave that is only accessible sometimes (when the tide is out), and from there you can get to another island that's to the north.  There I found another camp, and another town to the north called Freeza.

     Hopefully over the weekend I'll have more time to explore further and deal with Mad Muscle.

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 3)

     Dr. Rafflesia is a serious douche.

     Ever play a game where something will come up that's just unusually difficult, to the point where you actually feel as if the game itself is, well, cheating?  It makes no sense, a machine has little reason to do so, but you still feel as if that's the case?  That's where I was at with Dr. Rafflesia.

That's the doctor.

     First off, you have to fight him on foot.  He's located in a bog that your vehicles cannot access.  He's also not in the same place, so you have to randomly bounce about to find the guy.  Second, hes got this ridiculous gas attack, and once you've fallen asleep from it, which is right away, it's open season for him on your sleeping body.  I did have towel items that I was able to use before his attacks that made my team "ready" for the gas, but it did no good, and I died.

     Death is actually pretty forgiving.  What happens is you end up back in the first village, with your father bringing you to some mad scientist guy who shocks you back to life.  That's it.  I didn't seem to lose any money, items, or experience.  That's all good with me.

     After I got my shit back together, I decided to go and try leveling up some more.  Exploring further northeast of where the Dr. was brought me to a field where I was under mortar fire.  Beyond that was a land bridge of sorts where there were 2 big-ass cannons.

Big

      You can load out your tank with "special" shells that will help you with this type of enemy.  Some are blast, poisonous, or in my case, piercing.  That helped out a ton, the piercing shells seem to damage the internal parts of mechanical enemies, causing the cannon to miss many attacks.  This worked out great.  After taking the first one out, I "dogged" back to Pobre Obre and restocked and repaired my tanks and went back for the second.  Why were these easier than Dr. Rafflesia?

     More exploring, winding past where the guns were, and past some cottage of old people that gave me shit about taking out the cannons.  I found another camp called Isaac's Spring, but the people there would not let me in, and suggested that I go north to another town.
    
     Taking the hint, I followed the direction to a place called Audrey, which was made up of 3 buildings.  There I found loads of tank shops, with one allowing me to modify the parts that I had, such as the on-board computer system.

Nice

     I also found a bar that was filled with thugs.  It seems that the town was being run by a crimelord type of dude named Caesar, and he has henchmen running all over.  Also at the bar was a girl who asked me to buy her a drink.  What the hell.  Sure.  At that point she got up and started mocking the thugs, and telling them that I was making fun of them, and that they should fight me.

Great.

     My slow ass then realized that this was the 3rd NPC that would be joining me, so, actually, that all worked out pretty good.  Earlier on my guys had discovered 2 UZI guns while exploring some cottage near Pobre Obre, so we actually killed the thugs pretty quickly.  After that we got thrown out by some guy named "Red Wolf", who happened to be the famous monster hunter guy from the first village, and who helped me get my tank.

     After dealing with that, the girl then properly joined up, vowing to beat up the Red Wolf guy.  I'm getting the feeling that the "end game" is going to involve fighting him.  But screw that.  Dr. Rafflesia was next on my to-do list.  See, Audrey had a vendor there who happened to sell Gas Masks, and I made extra sure to have all 3 get one.  Furthermore, I now had 3 with guns instead of 2.
     Once they were geared up I "dog-systemed" back to Negi looking for the Doctor.  I managed to find him again pretty quickly and this time kicked the living crap out of him, beating him in just 2 turns.  After that, I needed a break.

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 2)

     I have to say, I'm really digging this game, even though I feel there's way too much emphasis on grinding away in the same areas just to level up.  I really should go on more about the game iteself before I get to what I did now.

     The Metal Max games started on the NES back in 1991, and are developed by Crea-Tech.   (This one that I have been playing, Metal Max Returns, is actually a remake of the original.)  They also released Metal Max 2 for the SNES in Japan in 1993, and Metal Max 3 (as well as a remake of Metal Max 2) for the Nintendo DS in 2010.

Metal Max 3

      The game is related to the Metal Saga games, and was renamed due to licensing issues.  (I'll probably get to Metal Saga in the future, and will expand more on that then.)

     The game series has switched several hands for publication, mainly due to Data East running into problems that resulted in them going bankrupt in 2003.  (The latest publishers being Kadokawa and Enterbrain.)

     The game really has not seen much in the way of US releases.  The only "love" it seems to get here is from translation groups.  Aeon Genesis ( http://agtp.romhack.net/ ) also translated the original for the NES, and had been working on a translation for Metal Max 2, but it's unclear as to when the latter will be completed.


     Ok,...  where was I?  Oh yeah,

     I left off in MMR aimlessly wandering in order to level up more so that I could face Dr. Rafflesia.  While in Pobre Obre I had given in and actually rented a tank, despite that doing so would take half the gold I looted while driving it.  This actually helped a lot, and maybe too much, as wandering too far on a bridge to the left I actually ran into the 3rd "bounty monster", Dos Piranhas.

Easier than it looked..

     I was actually able to beat him pretty easily.  I guess the trick was to take out the 2 frog guy with him first.  It also helped that I had upgraded my tank with the best cannon that was available to me in town.

     After taking him out and continuing on the bridge I came to a warehouse full of conveyor belts that seemed to have no use whatsoever,  Searching the place yielded me with nothing but rotten fruit (that someone in town gladly bought), and rudeness from these 2 guys that were guarding a buggy "for the CEO".  I'll point out here that translation projects for older games like this are NOT rated by the ESRB....

He makes a valid point.

      These guys were all about floriculture for some reason.  I'm not quite sure what was up with that, but it didn't stop there, as when I finally found the CEO to ask him if I could take the buggy, this was his reply:

Fair enough.

     At first the flowers were not having any of my request, but after asking the same question a few more times they finally caved in and I got my second vehicle, the buggy.

     Once I was done with that I made my way back to town using something called a "Dog System" that you can buy for the tank.  This actually helps a ton, as it will transport you back to any town you have previously been to.  Once there I turned in the rental tank and collected the bounty for killing Dos Piranhas, which enabled me to load out both the tank and buggy with the best stuff available to me.

     Tomorrow I'll actually get around to killing Dr. Rafflesia.

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (SNES)

     This is a game that I am actually currently playing through, so this one be in parts as I play through it.  This way I'm hoping it will turn out more "in-depth" as opposed to the one-and-done dump of quick info that I did with Secret of Mana.

     Metal Max Returns is a game by Data East, and was released in Japan for the Super Nintendo in 1995.  Thanks to the totally awesome translation group Aeon Genesis, ( http://agtp.romhack.net/ ), we now have the ability to play this gem in English.  I am playing the game on a PC using the emulator Higan, ( http://byuu.org/ ), which is the best SNES emulator ever.

Yup.

     The game is an "open world" JRPG with turn-based combat, and seems to take place in a post-apocalyptic world.  It feels like someone took the game Wasteland, some things from Monster Hunter, and tanks and threw them all into a blender for a pretty unique experience.  I have to say, I haven't played many JRPGs that are comparable to this one (yet).  I have heard from others that the game is either a prequel to, or is related in some way to the PS2 game "Metal Saga".  I'll probably get to that one down the road.

     It opens up in the town of Leorad with your character basically chilling at home, eating dinner with your sister and dad.  At the table you have a very deep conversation with your father that goes something like this:

     You: Man, when I grow up I want to be a famous monster hunter!
     Dad: You're outta here!

     And so it begins, you're kicked out of your house and are off to...  do something.  Despite the fact that your father has kicked you out of the house for having aspirations, this does not hinder you from going back into the house, talking to your sister, and even sleeping in the house.  In any case, you are now free to explore the town and surrounding area.
     Right off I had to get used to the menu system.  It's pretty expansive, and only gets bigger once you acquire a tank. (More on that in a bit.)  That being said, it's not really that difficult to deal with, so it does not detract from the gameplay.  It helps with local maps, your stuff, and your arms/armor, leaving you to focus more on the ever-constant task of grinding away to level up.

     The beginning of the game is all on foot, with you exploring the town of Leorad and gleaning from the local NPCs a direction to take.  It seems as though there's a famous monster hunter in town, along with others, that are all clamoring about a nearby cave that is rumored to have an abandoned tank in it.  The cave was nearby, so it wasn't hard to find, but I did have to grind a bit to get good gear so that I wouldn't die 50 times.  This involved a lot of walking in circles, fighting stuff like...

A depressed gas tank.

     After getting to the point where I could deal with the cave, and making my way into said cave, I started to become sort of put off by the amount of times I was being attacked.  It seems like you cant walk 10 feet without something else getting in your face.  While I realize it's a necessary evil, it just sort of wears thin, especially later on when you're somewhat strong and you're being harassed by ants.  Literally.
     Once you navigate through the cave you are then greeted by the first "boss" character, which, no shit, happens to be a dog with a rocket launcher on his back.  He's pretty strong too.  If you happen to survive one round of combat with him, the "famous" monster hunter from town shows up in his spiffy red tank and helps you out, only to be all condescending afterwards and leave you with the tank because "it's junk".

     In any case I now had gotten the tank, and felt all cool.  The tanks are pretty powerful, and do help quite a bit, as expected.  As I had said before about the menu system, you have more options once you obtain a tank.  You can now access things about the tank such as its loadout, weight and armor.  It's kind of cool as you get to customize the tanks with better weapons, armor, and even the engine.  With this though you do have to pay attention to the weight.  Different weapons have different weights to them, and different engines will allow you to haul more.  You also need to make adjustments to make sure your tank has a good amount of armor plates.  It sounded like a hassle at first, but it's really not that bad.

     After getting the tank and taking it back into town to fix, reload, etc, you'll start to get other info from the NPCs.  After doing more grinding, and buying better gear, as well as buying some sort of upgrade to my menu system, I was ready to monster hunt.  Around the town there are wanted posters, as well as a "hunter center" where some guy will give you bounties, tell you want is the monster of the week to kill, and then reward you for said kills.  The games plot seems to revolve around these wanted posters, with you having to kill each bad guy, and then grinding away in between them to make sure you're able to kill the next one on the list.

     Traveling north of town to another cave, I got to the next monster to kill, which was literally a pair of monkeys with flamethrowers called the "Salmonella Gang".  I actually beat them pretty easily, mainly thanks to the tank, as without it I would have been toast pretty quickly.  After dispatching them I headed back to town to do the whole restock and reload thing (The tank's man weapon has limited ammo, and must be restocked), and also got my reward from the hunter center.  I also got to bother my dad...

I'm adopted?...

     Now I was able to deck my gear out pretty well, and was able to travel further up north to a huge wall that I guess was sectioning off the lower level adventurer from the areas of the game where you'll be killed in one hit.  Once you talk to the NPCs there you'll be able to have a gate opened so you can see the world.
     I'm going to stress at this point that there's a lot of grinding to be done here.  A lot.  The point of the game seems to be just to kill stuff, and in any order that you're able to.  Doing so raises a "rank" that your character has, which at the start is "disowned son".  I think mine is still at that point.

     Over time spent exploring, I had traveled to 2 other towns, Negi, and Pobre Obre.   In Pobre Obre I had not only found a place where I could rent other tanks from, (which takes half your gold from looting for the duration you have it), but I found an NPC to join me.  (I think you can have 2 NPCs join you.)  I wasn't able to change his name, (it's random), which was a bummer because his name is "Humf".  Oh well.  At least I get 2 attacks now.

Lets rock!

     That's sort of where I'm at now.  I've been able to upgrade my tank more, with both a new engine, and an auxiliary weapon.  In this case, a machine gun, which has unlimited ammo.  This helps a ton when dealing with weaker enemies so I'm not constantly heading back to town to restock.   I've grinded a lot more now too, mainly to get my new recruit up to my level, and to get him good gear.  Once I grind a bit more, and explore, I can then take on my next monster bounty, which happens to be large flower with tentacles adorned with machinery.  He's also got a doctorate in something, or at least I assume since his name's "Dr. Rafflesia".   Can't wait.

HuckleCat

Backlog blowout #1 - Secret of Mana (SNES)

     Ok, first try at this.

     I had played this game so many times dating back to when it first came out in 1993.  This was back when Square, the developer, could do no wrong.  (For those that don't know, they were "Final Fantasy guys")  Due to the game sending me into frustrating rages at more times than I needed, I had never really had the patience to actually finish the game.  Despite this, I always really liked the game, and, with some help from a walkthrough, I finally completed it.

Close to the end....

      The game is an action-adventure type with RPG elements. (Meaning you get experience and "level up" during gameplay) The controls are pretty well done, and the graphics are really, really well done.  It's a big game, and you'll spend tons of time playing it.
     
     The story is something like this: You're this kid, see, and one day when screwing about in the woods with your delinquent friends, you happen to fall off a bridge you were not supposed to be playing on.  You fall off into a pool at the base of a large waterfall and you start to hear a voice.  The voice is not the result of a concussion, but is a nearby sword. 
     The sword beckons you to pull it out, and, well, you do.

     Now, the sword has a background of sorts.  The story is something like this - The land is full of magic, or in this case, Mana.  There's a Mana Tree, and there was a Mana Fortress.  In the past, a "bad guy" had gotten control of the Mana Fortress and was out to destroy the Mana Tree because he wanted power and decided that being as difficult as possible was the best way from point A to B.  There was also a "good guy" who had used the sword, or rather, the Mana Sword, to beat up the "bad guy", remove the Fortress, and save the Mana Tree, and in doing so, also the world.
     Once this was done, he planted the sword in a rock, Excalibur-style, and the only person who can remove it is the next "good guy" who has to save the world again.

     Where it sorta gets me is that, after you pull the sword, bad stuff starts to happen.  Once you take the sword back to your village the NPCs there seem to explain that the whole reason things are going badly is because you pulled the sword.  After completing your first boss fight in said village, they cast you out, leaving you to a grand quest of basically cleaning up your own mess.

Oops...

      What follows afterwards is a massive sprawl of beautiful pixel landscapes and loads of colorful enemies and sometimes maddeningly-frustrating bossfights.  I really have to express just how good looking the game is.  I'm a big sucker for the pixel art, so it was right up my alley.
     As I said before, it is a pretty big game, and with a walkthrough it did take me several days to complete.  I really cant say just how long as I did take breaks and am just adding this game after the fact since I recently completed it, and am not playing through it currently.

     Things that I did not like about it - I did not like how the game sometimes felt vague about what it was I was supposed to do next.  I felt that without a walkthrough that my dumb ass would not have completed it.  I also did not like the magic system.  I mean, the system itself isn't bad, but in order to make many boss fights bearable, you'll have to spend lots of time grinding magic in order to level it up.  Later in the game as you gain access to more magic, the time spent grinding seems to increase.  This can get really boring, really fast.

     I did like the game though, and would recommend it to anyone who's a fan of JRPGs, regular RPGs, "oldschool" gaming, or pixel art.  That being said though, now that I finished it, I'd probably never play it again.

Spoiler alert...?

HuckleCat

My name is HuckleCat, and I like video games way more than I should. Probably.

     Ok, this is sort of a test post.  Sort of.  It's also a start.

     Ever since I was young I have been addicted to video games.  I don't see it as a problem really, but I know others who sometimes do.  It's my hobby.  From the time that I received my first game system, an Intellivision for Christmas (when I was around 7), I have been hooked. 
     Now, over the years I have owned many systems.  Some great, (Super Nintendo, and to me, the Apple //c), and some not so great, (Atari Jaguar, the 3DO).  Over this time I have played a lot of games.  A lot of them. 
     I started seeing other people's pages, and assorted blogs about their own experience and thoughts on gaming and I'd always sit and think to myself "I can do that... I should do that!", but I'd never follow through with it.  Until now.

     Recently, I have been going through a massive backlog of games that I never finished or even got around to playing.  What I'll be doing here is basically sharing my experience with these games, and also random stuff about other aspects of gaming.  I'll likely also ramble on about emulators quite a bit, as I am a huge fan of the emulation scene, and also of "preserving the past" for future generations.

     So, yeah.  There you have it.  I've never done anything like this before, and I hope I'm able to stick with it.  I've always hated the word "blog", and look back warmly to a time when the word did not exist, but what are you gonna do?

     Right now I guess I have to get used to the way this is setup.  Add pictures and all that jazz.

     Here we go...

HuckleCat