Let's Play Earthbound, Part 2

Cultists, giant moles and a possible copyright infringement on the Blues Brothers.  Oh my!

Let's Play Phantasy Star, Part 7 (Finale)

After a last-minute grind session, all of the best equipment in the game is now ours.  We ascend the Baya Malay tower, acquire its last precious treasures, take flight to Lassic's castle and lay down some sweet vengeance.  But there's one final foe waiting for us afterward, one whose omnipresence won't be explained for another two games...



The Phantasy Star Compendium pages with a chronology of events leading up to the first game: http://www.pscave.com/other/compendium/page61-65.shtml

Let's Play Phantasy Star, Part 6

We see all that there is left to see on Dezolis, scoring the last two Laconian items as well as two more items that are absolutely necessary to finish the game.



Next time:  We grind for a bit, we buy Alis' top-tier armor, then we launch a full-scale siege on Lassic's airborne fortress and slay the tyrant.

Let's Play Phantasy Star, Part 5

The hunt is on for the four Laconian treasures.  We come across two of them on Motavia and make a brief stop at Dezolis to buy some top-tier equipment for Myau, Odin and Noah.

Next time we take the fight to Dezolis, where several items essential to game completion (and the last two Laconian treasures) await.

Let's Play Earthbound, Part 1

I would say "in celebration of Earthbound's announcement for a release on the Wii U Virtual Console, we're going to play through it!", but that'd be a lie since I'd already planned to Let's Play the whole trilogy.  So instead, I'll say this.

"By happy coincidence, we're playing through Earthbound next, which has recently been announced for a release on the Wii U Virtual Console after many years of absence and in spite of countless fan campaigns to get it re-released."

Now for the requisite history.  After passing on a release of the original Mother game on the NES in the early 90s, Nintendo later opted to release its sequel in North America under the name "Earthbound".  Despite  reception to Japanese RPGs still being relatively low at the time Nintendo went all-out with their marketing of the game, launching a heavy ad campaign for it and giving it big-box release containing a full player's guide and several extras like scratch-and-sniff stickers.  In spite of all that, the game met with average reviews and mediocre sales.  However, its unconventional nature, quirky charm and unique sense of humor quickly earned it a handful of devoted fans, and over the years it's become THE definitive cult classic for the Super Nintendo.

By that same token, it happens to be one of my absolute favorite video games of all time.  It takes all the unique ideas its predecessor put forth, adds several new ones of its own, and refines the overall experience into what is probably the closest thing you can get to a perfect JRPG.  I have nothing but great memories of it, and I hope by playing this I convince you to pick up a copy on the Wii U and create some memories of your own!

Let's Play Mother (Earthbound Beginnings), Part 6 (Finale)

In which we endure an unending, hellish onslaught of Demonic Spiders to acquire the last two song pieces and repel our alien invaders.

Sorry, make that THREE song pieces. The emulator somehow reverted my most recent save to an earlier one, so I had to grind out levels again off-camera and re-fight the Dragon before we could move on to the end-game. Pain in the ass...

Let's Play One-Shots: Startropics

A pretty solid NES action-platformer that culls some elements from the Zelda franchise.  Interestingly, despite being created by a Japanese development team, the game remains unreleased in Japan to this day.

It also gets exceptionally difficult in the later stages, as you'll see.



A copy of the letter enclosed with the game, complete with hidden message.

Let's Play One-Shots: Snail Maze

What is Snail Maze?  Why, it's a hidden mini-game buried within the Master System's BIOS.  To access it, all you have to do is start up the system without a cartridge in it, then press both buttons and Up on the control pad at the same time.

The gameplay's pretty self-explanatory.  There are twelve stages and each stage you complete adds some time back onto the timer.  Finish all twelve without letting the timer hit zero and you win the game.



Snail Maze is only present in the original model of the Master System. Later versions replaced it with Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Master System II models) or Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System III models, which were only released in Brazil and parts of Europe).  Several versions of the original model also have additional games built-in; these include Hang On, Safari Hunt and Missile Defense 3D.

Let's Play Phantasy Star, Part 4

In which the game ceases to be a linear dungeon crawler with lots of gold farming and becomes an open world item hunting adventure.  We start by collecting Noah's ultimate armor and Odin's ultimate shield.

Well technically the best shield he can equip is the Laconian Shield, but Alis needs the defense more than he does, so...

Let's Play Mother (Earthbound Beginnings), Part 5

We venture across a swamp into Ellay, meet Teddy, and then get put through the wringer by the hellish difficulty of Mt. Itoi.

Let's Play Phantasy Star, Part 3

In which we learn that woodland creatures carry around flashlights.  All of them.  We also find a spaceship or something.

Let's Play Mother (Earthbound Beginnings), Part 4

In which we learn that Repel Rings are provided for the continued sanity of the player.  also, planes, tanks and giant robots.