Welcome to another gameplay post with my little lights! I have been steadily taking you on many of my gameplay journeys and the result so far is .. a bit so so! I am having fun and have a lot of games to explore in terms of people liking and interacting with the pots! But I am having fun! Recently I started a little Romhack of Final Fantasy VI .. called Return of the Dark Sorceror which retells the story of my favourite game with other characters. Last time I discovered this game was kind of weird, meeting characters like Cloud and Mr Meeseeks.. what will I find this time?! Well let’s find out
Serin and Ronan
The second session with this game fills me with a sense of .. I do not know.. I really wanted to play again.. but now I booted the game up I can’t help but feel… meh?! As the novelty of a weird Rom Hack has already lost a bit of shine and in a way it does. at What used to be Figaro castle but now called by yet another name feels… dry.. and not just because it is in the desert. Nothing new is really being done here. Serin is just a king.. though they say he is an alchemist. He also has a brother.. but the change made is that he is a half brother. The dialogue with Kefka is virtually exactly the same as before. The first minutes of my second sesion feel a bit like a deception..the weirdness is gone and instead these are just name swaps. It is a bitter pill to swallow after taking the extra effort to get my characters here.
The tale of Serin and Ronan is told through a cutscene where the dad is dying of being poisoned and we see the classic events unfold.. but here I think it would have been rather easy to change it into something a bit newer and more impactful. The majestic theme of Figaro Castle has been replaced with something a bit more generic and peppy! It feels pretty Final Fantasy … but there is no weight! … In the first game I could feel Edgar’s pain and Sabin’s as well.. here though because these characters are not someone like Cloud.. and they lack that tongue in cheek humor.. I feel they are more weak imitations of the originals. I might have preferred it if they were the original characters… Let’s hope the events coming can change my mind.
Serin wakes up later that day and smells smoke! He immediately thinks.. the cook has set fire to the castle again. Which apparently is a thing because as soon as he talks to a guard about it the guard takes it rather seriously! Not this time sir.. it is Kefka he set the castle on fire with some spells! It is time to escape the submerging city! Serin asks a guard to hide his magazines before some called Elenor finds them. It’s Funny enough but a lot of Dialogue is still repeated and the music that plays while the castle is burning is really a miss! It’s tonally totally off! Of course I do like the fire animation and stare at it for a while.. but hey.. I need to press on!
The Zombie Cave
The Escape scene once again has some pretty bad music.. that is NOT this Rom Hacks strength, but we do get a nice extra battle against some Magitech armor .. it is pretty challenging and I get to see Serin in use for the first time.. it turns out he indeed does play like Edgar.. but with other abilities based on “pills” with him being an alchemist. He can for now use a bow Weapon much like Edgar could.. but he can also confuse enemies, which is a lot more helpful early on than Bio Blaster. Aurora learns the spell Virus to cause toxic damage so this is a nice way that the two don’t overlap! Kekfa is left with his face in the dust as things seem to proceed fairly normally for now! Making my way to the caves goes pretty easily as I do know this game pretty well and we get a new sort of event. Apparently this cave is filled with beings that can cast the Zombie status…that’s fast! Also a random guard called Hector joins the team! He is Allergic to Chocobo’s so he is always late! Hey I got a friend who is always late.. perhaps she is allergic to her car! The game also commits a grave sin! They REPLACE the Chocobo theme! Boooooo! Inside the cave Zelda music plays.
That is not all they have in common though! The creepy wall hands also show up as enemies and some creepy voodoo dolls! Now I am beginning to like this stuff again! I do like the creepier music vibe here.. as we use the Zelda Dungeon music remixed in a much more ominous version! That is the better way of sound design..my head screams dungeon now and the tone screams dark which is reflected by the enemies.. of course they are also kinda hard to deal with! The Wall Crawlers can leap up and walk across the wall.. making them untargetable for a good while. The voodoo dolls want to cast horrible spells on me but seem to always be low on magic.. maybe I need to remember these things because at a later level they won’t be so weak?! We encounter a lot of enemies and struggle on.. eventually making our way through the caves.. in the final room Hector decides to leave us saying it is lucky we did not encounter any zombies… Apparently Jinx is a Final Fantasy spell now.
We get in a fight with a ginger zombie.. and he immediately casts the status on Cloud. I know I have the items to heal it with me .. but since all these item names make no sense to me like Tulaberry Aqualine Echo Herbs and Karma Jolt.. I have no idea how to cure him.. I need to let him be a zombie and restore him once the fight is over. Annoying..there is no need to change the name of the potions! We make it through the cave and now it is time to look for the resistance! I know this game is fairly hard so I decide to head to “Not Sabin’s” Cabin to restore and I find Echo Herbs in the Field.. which cure Silence and Aqualin.. which cures poison. After sleeping in the hut a old man shows up and tells Ronan.. the not Sabin.. went away after Raditz…. has slain his master. OMG! OMG! OMG! .. Raditz Actually got a kill! I am so proud of him!
Spain!
Raditz is said to live up on mount Zephyr.. a mountain up north of where I am at now. I don’t see the town near or maybe I missed it as my mind is only focussed on one thing! Raditz! I am gonna fight Raditz! For those who don’t know , I am a big BIG Dragon Ball Z fan and I do love the character Raditz a lot so I would love to see how they did him in this game! I rush into the caves and discover some interesting new monsters. Like Ferocious birds, big swine.. and Vega from Street Fighter.. a lot of them! Would that be two Vegas or two Vega? I don’t know.. I just beat their scrawny touchie and I know just how they would sound like when they slowly fade away. Kind of like a seal dying I mean not that I would not know how a seal dying would sound but I could imagine it would be a bit like Vega’s death cry. As an immortal moth I don’t need a death cry.. but maybe I do need to work on a Kaiju cry?! I like Wrrrrrryyyy but that is taken already!
It doesn’t take too long before Aurora gets petrified by fighting a Cockatrice. Of course that is the one status that I don’t have a cure for! So while I am looking for a savepoint to use my Shelter that looks like Inky from Pacman .. I get attacked by a Predator! Of course he is here, he must have come with Raditz from outer space! I do manage to beat it with just Serin and Cloud and we find a save spot! Since Predator outlevels me I farm the caves dry for treasure to get a few levels as we go along! I have a shelter left before the Raditz boss fights anyway! Serin finds a new weapon! I also find a Moogle Salesman that sells me the cure for petrify.. instead of soft… it’s Tissues! Uhm.. sure?! I also picked up a nice blade for Aurora! It powers up strikes if you use MP and she is the only character with MP sooooo yeah! Then it is time.. I see a familiar long haired man with black and brown armor hopping about! Oh boy! It’s Raditz fighting time!
Raditz
However .. this game likes to throw me a curveball and Raditz summons two Saibaman saying that a real Saiyan can easily defeat these! Oi, YA know those things are the exact same power level as you right?! Raditz power level and that of the Saibaman both clocks in at 1200! Well I guess there is the boss then?! Nope! Raditz is but I bet you can guess what the function of these Saibaman is in a fight that takes place right before the Raditz fight! “Yay this Saibaman is super close to me and glowing like a lamp! I love it. I am gonna call it Ed and make it my best friend the whole wide…………BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Ouchies!” The Raditz fight starts and of course I can’t scan him.. because why would I! This means Raditz gets a free turn because I have to send Serin into Ether up Aurora who drained all her magic in the Saibaman Fight. Cloud bravely takes on Raditz.. but we weren’t strong enough! I wipe out and I see Serin crying at our graves! Oi! Why does the generic sprite swap get to live?! Luckily XP is retained so I go back.. buy the magic weapon again..but give it to Cloud this time.. he can’t utilize its effect but it has better stats then his current weapon.. he will be our main DPS. While fighting our way back he also learns the new Limit Break: Blade Beam.
Okay…so it’s rematch time! This time I managed to kill at least one of the Saibaman without it exploding in my face and I invested a bit more money in potions at the shop.. rather then buying those tissues right now. This means Serin can offheal if he needs to! I discover Raditz is super weak to the Virus spell.. I guess a weakness for viruses runs in the family! This time I luck out a lot. Aurora blocks a lot of Saturday Crashes so she can attack a bit more often. Raditz also attacks a lot more into Cloud this time around whom I can keep healed with Aurora. At one point though Raditz begins screaming about Saiyan pride and Not-Sabin shows up! Raditz uses a Double Sunday to blow away the party but . Ronan keeps standing. He fights Raditz as hard as he can..eventually realizing he has to use the Ki-Blast combo technique his master taught him. A big beam is fired and Raditz is critically injured..but he teleports out! The battle has been won.. and the journey to the resistance can resume! But that .. is a story for another time.
If you are reading this and are like “come on girl, play some actual games” well I have a Kofi that helps me buy real games! I am not asking you to support it.. I am just Saiyan!
If you like me playing through some of these weirder Rom Hacks though .. let me know in the comments! Comments are like my lamps! I love staring at them!
Pinkie's Paradise 