You've pre-empted two of the games I'd earmarked for next year's May Maturity playlist, though to be fair they were plucked from the remaining dregs in my Steam library and I wasn't too hot on either to begin with. Might still give Drakensang a spin, but I suspect I'll have already maxed out my German CRPG tolerance after an inevitable Gothic III playthrough. (Maybe instead I'll make next May's theme "CRPGs that only look like they're twenty years old" and put Eschalon III and a few other Indies on there...)
Anyway, my thanks as always for being the proverbial canary in the coal mine for these bad (and/or tedious) boys.
I hope you consider another run at the doll mansion with two more assistants in a future stream. Between the four of you, you should be able to take down the Shufflefoot Spectre and avoid any cross-dollination.
Sometimes I wonder if the only reason we don't have a Wizardry 9 is because Ultima 9 and Might & Magic 9 exist. Unless you're Final Fantasy or Tales, 9 is one too many.
Man, I hope Ys 9 is good...
(Dungeon Hack was a real weird, potentially fun idea but I wish they'd balanced it for a party. It does get a bit tedious just having one guy in a D&D setting, even if you make them a Fighter/Cleric/Mage.)
@thesquarepear: Maybe apropos of nothing, and I was going to mention it in the blog but didn't find a good place to squeeze it in, but I've noticed a few adventure games of this particular type (heavier on characterization/story, lighter on puzzles) adopt sort of a "serial drama" aspect where it takes place in the same location over a series of days, and you can observe various side-stories slowly move forward along with the main plot.
Night in the Woods follows this structure, hence why most of my time with the game has involved running/jumping around Possum Springs seeing how minor characters like Selmers or Germ are getting on after another day has passed, and it's also present in Firewatch (which builds upon the protagonist's dull routine and eventually subverts it, like another interesting narrative game I played recently called The White Door (it was in that Racial Equality Bundle, if you wanted to add to your list)) and Mutazione (which features a tight-knit community with various ongoing concurrent dramas).
I think this structure is an overall net gain in how it makes you care about these characters by spending a week or more with them and watching them evolve, but it also means a lot of repetition as you hit all the stops on each "daily constitutional." It's what's made NitW feel considerably more drawn out than other adventure games of a similar size and scope, though I do take some culpability due to the slightly OCD way I'm approaching it.
Update 3: All right, one final update and then I'm done.
Spirit Temple was kind enough to gift me the Hookshot, finally, as well as the Minuet of Forest. Both of those together are my ticket into the Forest Temple.
Literally the first Hookshot-only gold skulltula I find, above the Sacred Forest Meadow maze near the Forest Temple, gets me the Longshot. There's not a skulltula I can't reach now.
I already found the compass and boss key for the Forest Temple, so I'm feeling good that I'll complete it. I forgot how creepy the music was though.
Forest Temple got me the Golden Gauntlets. I think I use these exactly once? Outside of the final dungeon, anyway. Sadly, Forest Temple's a linear dungeon and I don't have all the keys for it yet, so I'll have to come back later.
(I believe the Golden Gauntlets and Longshot are what randomizers call "progressive items": that is, items that have multiple instances where you'll start with the weaker version and work your way up the chain regardless of what order you find them in. E.g. had I found the Golden Gauntlets in the Forest Temple before the Silver Gauntlets in Mido's House, the Forest Temple pair would be the Silver Gauntlets instead.)
The Golden Gauntlets open the way to the Ganon's Castle Great Fairy. She normally gives you the half damage upgrade, which would've been an amazing boon to get early in a randomizer. This time she gave me bombchus. Gee, thanks.
Forest Temple and Fire Temple are now both stymied by a lack of keys. I've at least defeated Volvagia, but as long as there's still chests/skulltulas in there I can't stay away just in case one of them has something vital inside.
The Fire Temple revisit (with the Longshot) did net me something big though: the Adult Wallet. I can fill up on some rupees and hit the Carpet Merchant.
The Carpet Merchant in the Haunted Wasteland has the second most expensive item in the game at 200 rupees (joint with the Goron Tunic), but it's usually bombchus so it's supposed to be a rip-off. However, the randomizer changes everything, so now it's... oh, still bombchus.
A Spirit Temple revisit (which meant going through the desert with no Lens of Truth again...) unexpectedly netted me Ruto's letter, so now I can finally visit Lord Jabu Jabu and finish off the young Link-exclusive dungeons!
Lord Jabu Jabu is the MQ version, which means lots of fun with wallcows. I also grabbed the Iron Boots here which, in conjunction with the Zora Tunic I found in the Spirit Temple, means the MQ Water Temple is next. Can't wait.
Since it was on the way, sorta, I completed the smaller Ice Dungeon as Adult Link now that King Zora had moved. Worth it, as I got the Requiem of Spirit. No more trying to memorize the very specific speedrunner route through the Haunted Wasteland's "Phantom Guide" section, hooray.
With that, and a few more Boss Keys I found along the way, I'm now all set to complete the four remaining Temples. That is, if I find enough small keys.
MQ Water Temple was as unpleasant as I remember. Didn't have any (randomizer-related) issues clearing it out, though: I think it only needs two keys and so it only took one visit to complete in full. If I'm being honest the first thing I did was defeat Morpha, since its boss door is right in the starting central column area, because I was flirting with the idea of not even touching the rest of the dungeon.
As I ended up with the last Gemstone after the Morpha fight, my trip back to Hyrule Castle as Young Link was suddenly interrupted by Zelda's escape from Ganondorf.
The Ocarina of Time is a nothing item, turns out, since its sole purpose is to teach you the Song of Time (which I already had and used to open the Temple of Time).
Likewise, the randomized song I gained from finding it was the Serenade of Water: the warp song for the dungeon I'd just completed. I don't have any reason to return to Lake Hylia either.
All the same, Young Link had a mission: complete the other half of the Spirit Temple, as well as net the last few seed-related items in the Desert Colossus area.
Though I had to bounce between the Fire, Shadow, and Spirit Temple a bit for keys, the rest of the game was smooth sailing.
Of the few major items I had left, I managed to find most of them: Light Arrows (very important) and Farore's Wind from Spirit Temple, and the final Quiver and Bomb Bag upgrades from Shadow Temple.
Also, I'd received the Water Temple Emblem from the Spirit Temple, which triggers the "Burning Kakariko Village" cutscene. This normally gives you the Nocturne of Shadow warp song, but instead I received the Song of Storms.
The Song of Storms, in addition to opening a bunch of secret holes, lets me access the Bottom of the Well dungeon as Young Link, which had almost all the remaining dungeon items I needed for the last three Temples.
One of those items was the much appreciated Double Defense upgrade. Too bad I didn't get that way earlier when I was taking on adult dungeons with four heart containers.
And, most importantly, the Bottom of the Well had the Boss Key for Ganon's Tower, obtaining the last vital item needed to finally beat the game.
Of course, Zelda decides to give me the compass to the Fire Temple (it's normally the Light Arrows in the dramatic Sheik reveal scene), which would've been useful a few hours ago.
When it was time to face Ganon in his tower, I'd amassed almost my entire inventory and every upgrade. Not really a threat at that point.
When the dust finally settled, I had two missing heart containers and only 97 of 100 Gold Skulltula tokens. Also missing: the Giant Wallet, one Fire Temple key, and the Spirit Temple map.
Since the run was successfully over, I took the liberty of perusing the Spoiler Log (generated with every seed) to figure out where I'd forgotten to check. You know, in case I ever wanted to put myself through all this again.
The last ¼ piece of heart was with the Five Froggy Tenors: a mini-game I was ill-equipped to handle with this Steam controller's lousy touchpad subbing in for the C-buttons. (Seriously, playing with the Steam Controller was a mistake for this and for many other reasons, but that's my bad for not using something better equipped for the task at hand.)
That last Fire Temple small key required completing the Mask of Truth side-quest, one of the longest and most involved in the game. No thanks. (The other long trading quest, for the Biggoron Sword, would've netted me 20 rupees in the end. Glad I skipped it.)
The Spirit Temple map was in... the composers' grave? Huh. I wonder how I missed it. (Turns out I needed Din's Fire to light some torches, a tool I lacked on my first visit.)
The Giant Wallet was on a Golden Skulltula, which of course was the one behind the locked door in the Fire Temple.
Or two, I should say, since there was another up there with the last Heart Container. C'est la vie.
As for the Golden Skulltula tokens, one was definitely from the advanced Horseback Archery mini-game. I had no idea there was a second reward for it. No clue about the remaining two: OoT has a lot of "freestanding items," as the log calls them, which are just out in the world instead of in chests, and therefore don't appear on maps. Some are even buried under rubble and crates, so I imagine a missed a number of them.
That's going to do it for this randomizer run. It really demanded a degree of competency over this game I didn't think I could muster, but it's surprising how your mind works when you're cornered and desperate. I recalled stuff about this game I thought long buried; dunno if that says more about my perspicacity or just how memorably designed Ocarina of Time was. Only thing I needed to check was the non-Lens route through the Haunted Wasteland (and the game glitching away my Lens was some real BS) and the locations of some of the secret holes in the ground.
My final advice for other rando-runners? Do NOT mix in the Gold Skulltula Tokens with the general item pool. But also keep in mind that some necessary items might be tied up with the Gold Skulltula rewards anyway, so you might as well keep an ear out. Also don't do Keysanity for your first randomizer run through the game; that's just dumb, c'mon. Also, also, Ocarina of Time is still amazing and I can't wait to watch a professional take on the randomizer when it shows up at SGDQ 2020.
Thanks for sticking around this far! (I wonder if The Wind Waker has a randomizer yet...?)
@arbitrarywater: I believe we still have that simultaneous Tales of Graces F playthrough to consider eventually. Not sure it's dubious enough to qualify for your wheel, but I might have space in the near future for it. Gonna have to work it around my Yakuza 6 playthrough though; I've been looking forward to that.
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