Decided I'd gone a few too many text heavy posts without touching hitting an image. Bandied a few ideas back and forth but decided that going with something in the Ninety-Nine Nights vein would be most fitting, since I'm stowing the Anime-Commentary for another post.
[Picking up where I left off]
Aspharr in the demo was really what hooked me into the game, specifically his impale maneuvers. When Aspharr (or Ass-y, as Ian calls him) runs an enemy through with his spear, he's got a bevy of options at his disposal.
- Regular Attack -- Smashes the enemy from side to side (Think of any old cartoon, like Popeye flipping Bruno back and forth) battering other enemies.
- Heavy Attack -- Spiral with the impaled enemy like doing a shot put and hurl it into a group of enemies, knocking them away.
- Jump -- Leap aerial and front flip, crashing down Pike-first with the impaled enemy and landing with a shockwave.
- Charge -- Run forward extending the hapless enemy as a battering ram then hurl him into his friends.
- Other -- You can actually combine several of these Charge + Charge for better distance, Charge + Leap, Charge + Heavy and get even more amusing attacks.
Myifee (Me Fee)
When you first select Myifee the game tells you he's a mercenary however that's actually untrue, as the opening cutscene for him details when he joined and why. Myifee is perhaps the greatest story ever told, mostly because as best as I can tell, he joined up with the mercenaries because a pretty girl did before him. He ends up saving pretty much every major human installation during the course of his missions and in the very end, gets the girl Epharr (F R -- seriously) who was a former Orc slave and for that reason turned into a warrior. She's also one of those random RPG-esce types who has a mask, on her head even, but never wears it. When you down the Orc Chief Lieu she dashes in to deliver the killing blow, and then stands there panting exhaustedly. If you play Aspharr's campaign first (you unluck Myifee and him at the same time) you still get to see this part of the scene, which leave Asparr going "What was that all about" in a 'O....kkkkkkkkkkkayyyyyyy' kind of way. In Myifee's campaign she collapses crying and he the comfort hugs her.
Though slow as hell, Myifee has a suprising amount of armor for someone who's actual attire consists of pants and a massive dual-bladed sword on a string. I'd love to say psyche, but it's all true -- he really does have a Twin Blade that he whirls about like a yo-yo at times. He only gets one impale, and that consists of throwing his Blade through and enemy, recalling the weapon so it sits on his shoulder with the impaled enemy above it, and then lashing the weapon out again hurling the corpse. Myifee has fire as his element, so his most powerful attacks utilize him calling fire up from the earth rather than actually swinging his blade. His orb spark calls down a storm of meteorites to smash into the field ahead of him, and he can turn his focus, redirecting the subsiquent waves. The ability is battlefield carnage at it's best with random division of enemy troops being hurled skyward by the massive explosions.
Dwingvatt
Dwingvatt's a goblin who watched his brother die at Inphyy's hands protecting goblin civilians that she was attacking. Really, he should've just attacked Inphyy, but that wouldn't have created this anguished goblin figure. I'm not certain if you're supposed to identify with him, I certainly didn't. He's lightning fast, starts with the double dash ability and has several ninja-esce abilites, including smoke bomb teleports. Wields twin daggers but isn't very damaging. His Spark calls down a tornado, but it's not all that impressive as far as Orb Sparks go.
Klarrann
A Priest of the Church, Klarrann is the only character who can't jump, and that goes a long way towards tying him with Myifee for slowest character (Myifee can chain dash whereas the other characters suffer a delay after dashing, so while Myifee walks slower he can keep pace over distance). He wields a giant symbol of the church, which is apparently a long pole really that he bashes stuff with. Klarrann's campaign reveals that the King of Nights has gotten the Goblin King to try and fuse the Orb of Darkness with the Orb of Light, which would bring the land under 99 Nights of Darkness, at the end of which the King of Nights would reign supreme and the Ages of Man and Goblin would end.
Klarrann has as much variety with his impales as Aspharr did, only his impales are actually grapples. Klarrann can pick up a measly goblin with his free hand and: smash him around, charge him with holy energy, toss him into his buddies, pound his face into the ground, leap into the air and hurl him downward, or about a half-dozen other combinations of these. His Orb Attack state turns his Holy Symbol into a gigantic energy-sword that he swings around destroying enemies. Klarrann's Orb Spark calls down a torrent of bolts of holy energy in an area. I actually landed the attack directly on Pyurrot (Dark Elf Leader) in Klarrann's final mission and the damage not only obliterated her army, but left her at 1 hp (just goes to prove you can't kill a Boss with a Orb Spark).
Tyurru
Tyurru is the second least varied of the characters, beaten only by the secret character. Accompanied by a spirit of water (complete with a -tan name) Tyurru learns the horrors of war as she fights. In the end she loses her master to her friend who's been corrupted by the lure of the Orb of Darkness's power and has to defeat her. She's a Water Magus and thus her primary attack launches a small bolt of water (about 3/4ths of screen length as default distance, though she'll auto aim the proper distance for up to twice that far if there's an enemy in the line) and her heavy attack unleashes a giant wave to wash over enemies. Tyurru's fairly weak in her damage en-masse with terribly low hp and armor, but she decimates heavier foes and can out-maneuver anything by floating on her magical staff (shaped like a key). For all of her missions you get Yesperratt, Earth Magus - that'd be her friend, to fight alongside you. Yesperratt also tends to be wide-spread though not massive damage. Tyurru can also conjure large floating balls of water and knock them around into enemies, but that's mostly a waste of time better spent just nuking them. Her Orb Attack just empowers her regular strikes. It makes the Bolts of Water piercing and fatal, which means she absolutely demolishes any army facing her with it, and causes her heavy attack to fire seeking globes of water that explode and hurl enemies everywhere (great for combo count, not so great for kills). Tyurru's Orb Spark calls out a Tsunami which destroys armies and washes them away, it's pretty good for massive Xbox 360 slowdown.
Vigk Vagk
VV's a "friendly Troll" who gets captured by orcs and turned into a weapon of war. He barely takes damage from anything, but has no variety in his strikes. The only saving grace is his ability to use the enviroment. As VV levels he gains new grasping abilities, expanding from nothing to including grabbing soliders (and later dual wielding them), logs, rocks, and entire trees. VV gets befriended by a goblin, who dies when they are sent to unsafe territory to fight, so as Vigk Vagk you end up fighting not only most of the Light side heroes, but also the Goblin army heroes as well. His Orb Spark is a gigantic yell that ends up working similarly to Tyurru's except VV's has an initial delay, blasts out to further away, and can absolutely stall the Xbox for 5-10 seconds as it processes all the damage and corpse movement.
Extras
I've actually been working on getting all 1000 points worth of achievements out of N3, just to say I did it, and thankfully getting my B Rank missions improved coincides nicely with leveling the heroes to 9 (I think I got Myifee that far, but only him). The game boasts a very impressive gallery of unlockable images, sadly I don't know of a way to get images there onto the computer, as some of them would make for spectacular wallpapers.
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Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Well, the title actually becomes meaningful in the last moments of the game, but this is one I don't intend to spoil. Beat the game with about 30 hours poured into it, which is less than I had anticipated, but on par for a Zelda game. I've got 9 out of 24 Bugs left to go, about 24 of the 60 Poes still to be hunted, and I believe 15 Heart Pieces (Definately have to find the 20 Cats, only one I'm sure I'm missing). Other than that, I'm done, unless there's some achievements to be done regarding fishing (besides the rolling game, which I haven't done, but will, out of completionary neurosis). Finishing all that might land me at 40 hours, but that's sorta stretching the concept.
I took out the Cavern of Trials on my second pass through it's depths. Ended up using 2 Faeries and a Great Fairy Tears (for the damage, not really the healing) which has the same effect as Grandma's Soup in Wind Waker only it's so much harder to acquire. Speaking of Wind Waker, the rule was in full effect most of the time I was playing. For those who don't know/remember, the rule goes basically like this "Oh my God, Colin, how can you suck so badly at this and still succeed?!?!". Essentially, I breeze through the complex portions of dungeons through a creative blend of fighting prowess and insight, but if it's something like standing still on a platform for 10 seconds or walking a straight line, you can expect me to fail disastrously at least twice.
I found it sorta dishearting to have the first Dungeon Item, the Boomerang, have a story and a personality and all the rest to just be what you expected, but not enough to sour my opinion of the game at all. But combining the Boomerang with the conventional "puts-out-fires" weapon was a good mixture, even if I completely neglected the Boomerang and the Slingshot
The Ball and Chain was different, but really I prefer the ease of use and similar power inherent in the Hammer. Plus, the beauty of Hammer + Spin Attack, or the infamously genius Hammer-Stunning a Room full of Chu-Chu Jellies simply outpaces the Ball and Chain. Plus, it was rarely used, mostly a gimmick item for the dungeon with little application outside of those specific enemies/dungeon.
The spinner, on the other hand, had all the impact of the suck jar from Seasons. It was a serious WTF, followed by a 'this is genius!' It had novelity and purpose (even if it's applications were limited outside of it's home dungeon) and was one of the cooler things that the game implemented. It's a rudimentarily successful combat weapon, aids you at moving over difficult terrain, and makes for some of the greatest jumping puzzles that have been designed. I mean, they could make a $15 spin-off minigame completely designed around the Spinner and I'd buy it (That idea is total gold, I know).
I need to find a way to integrate spoiler tags via HTML, so that'll be tomorrows project amid other stuff, then I'll post my feelings about the rest of Twilight Princess. Still to go, Resolutions and Anime.
