Books and Bastards

I defeated the evil and dreaded Dark Fact at the top of Dharm Tower this week and, with that, traveled to Ys, where Book I closes and the second of the series begins.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Only after my defeat of Spinnyrockdudeballthing that Ys started to actually feel like an RPG and not just a running-into-things simulator with the occasional boss fight. As I progressed I met with another mirror-teleporter puzzle followed by another bossfight: two demon head guys surrounded by fireballs menacingly floating around the room.

A few failed attempts where I had done no damage made me realize I obviously wasn't doing things right. Only after finding a magical flame sword and a level or two of grinding – both things which gave the game more of an RPG feel – was I able to defeat the dastardly duo. The only way to damage the boss was by hitting the orange head and, when hurt, he'd instantly switch places with the purple. Overall a fun little boss fight which made me appreciate the movement in the game a little more as I weaved in and out of fireballs that changed their spinning direction as well.

Another boss down, I ascended a few more levels up the Tower of Dharm only to be faced with a strange door which took away half of my health every time I touched it and, true to Zeno's paradox, the door never killed me as I was unable to touch it an infinite number of times.

Conveyance became a slight issue here and I was left unsure of what to do. The Book of Gemma, the book of Ys received after defeating the rock boss, mentions a blue amulet used to ward off evil or something, but I was confused as I already had a necklace from an earlier portion of the game which had also been used to ward off "evil traps" and was blue. It was only after some mindless wandering and a deal of backtracking that I found out that there was a completely different item required to get through the aforementioned door which is given to the player by a man named Luta who, unsurprisingly, is from the Gemma family.

Now, maybe I'm just a little slow, but this problem probably could have been avoided if I actually had any sort of investment in characters and a reason to learn their names. Nevertheless, there's no excuse for the mindless and mundane backtracking involved in getting the amulet.

While on my adventure for the amulet, NPCs began to speak of a being known as "Dark Fact" and, BAM, out of no where I suddenly have an antagonist. There isn't too much of a buildup before you fight the guy and no relationship or rivalry is really established compared to other RPGs, but there's something ominous about Dark Fact and what little happens between you and him leaves you craving more and eager to continue onto Book II.

With eyes like that, they should call him DANK Fact. Dohohohoho.

For a final boss, he isn't too difficult. In fact, the hardest boss in the game for me was probably that damn splitting bat-demon. After a short monologue about how you're weak and pathetic and how he's really cool and powerful, he sort of just bounces around the screen as fireballs fly through the air, eventually splitting radially in a fairly easy-to-dodge manner. The floor does begin to break as you damage him, but, in all my attempts, it was never really an issue.

Following his defeat, you acquire the sixth and final book of Ys and are treated to a nice cutscene where Adol is transported from Esteria to Ys itself, where even more shit is going down. I haven't reached the first boss of Book II yet and am currently traversing some sort of mine where I have to return the books of Ys to these statues that tell me stuff. So far, the graphics have been nicer, the world feels more alive, and there's the addition of magic in the second part of the Ys Chronicles and I'm hoping for a much cleaner and less dated game overall.

On the topic of books, I finally finish George R.R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons which means I'm finally up to date with the Song of Ice and Fire series and no longer need to worry about spoilers around every corner. I enjoyed the book series even more than the show as it makes for a much wider world, isn't as necessarily sexualized, and provides a lot of interesting character development. Though I eagerly await Martin's next book in the series, The Winds of Winter, I only began the series this summer when it was pushed to the front of an already long list of books I've been wanting to read.

Though the Ys series is currently the focal point of The Back-Blog, there are a number of other games I play on the side. These include multiplayer-based games/games I've beaten but continue to play their multiplayer modes (e.g. DotA 2, Awesomnauts, and Serious Samuel), games I've "beaten," but play from time to time in an attempt to 100% them (e.g. Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, etc.), games which pass the time (Duels of the Planeswalkers and Magic: The Gathering in general), and, lastly, games which I have taken a metaphorical "nibble" of, but end up getting fulling engrossed by them.

This last category is currently occupied by Stealth Bastard Deluxe; a game which advertises itself as a 2D, side-scrolling, stealth game, but plays more like a platformer with some stealth elements. The game is quite fun, easy to play on-and-off for short periods of time, and comes fully equipped with challenges ranging from collectables to achieving S-ranks on every level. I can definitely see it going in the "games I've 'beaten,' but play from time to time in an attempt to 100% them" category in the future and recommend it to die-hard platformer fans and players in need of a fun, yet challenging game alike.