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So now my home contains a JP Dreamcast and a US Dreamcast.  

I still want to gather these US released Sega CD titles:

Dark Wizard

Heimdall

Mansion of the Hidden Souls

Popful Mail

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective I + II

Shining Force CD

Wing Commander

Currently: The Tale of Don Mahone and the Water Flying Cloth

I mentioned previously that I was somewhat concerned with getting mixed up with the mob over stolen property, but as this is a sidequest in an RPG, it obviously needed doing.

Previously, on Twin Peaks:

I managed to locate Don Mahone's stolen loom down in Zahun, the town where all the women have boyfriends who live in Canada.  I dunno what's up with the wizard who stole the loom, because his house is totally empty except for two treasure rooms, one of which only contains an empty chest.  The thing is, he has chosen to floor his house only in electrified barrier tiles, so if you're not an accomplished wizard yourself with the use of the spell Stepguard, just going into this guy's house will land you a one way ticket to the toe tag motel.  I guess that sort of makes sense when you figure that the dude is away from home on a fishing boat approximately 100% of the time.  He just wants to protect his stolen property!

After dragging the magic loom back to Don Mahone, I found out that the guy was uninterested in taking it back until I could provide him with Dew Yarn.  After sailing across the world to the Yarn Shop in Tantegel Castle that is accessible only by opening a locked door, I found out that Dew Yarn was totally out of stock, but was advised I could find some for myself by randomly searching around the floor of the Dragon's Horn tower for it.

I was prepared for tedious gathering, but it actually ended up not being so bad.  I found some Dew Yarn immediately and took it and the magic loom back to Don Mahone, who proceeded to weave some Water Flying Cloth for me.

Clever Horii Yuji.  To get Don Mahone to actually give you the cloth, you have to save and reset and then travel back to Tuhn, so that "time passes."

I love little gameplay elements that he turns into puzzles.

NEXT TIME ON DRAGON WARRIOR II: To Catch a (different) Thief

Now Playing: Earthbound / MOTHER2

System: SNES

Developed By: Itoi Shigesato's crew at APE / Creatures & HAL Labs

Published By: Nintendo

So some of you may have noticed I've been a little quiet over the last couple of weeks.  Lots of stuff has been going on here, including my birthday, which happened on Sunday!  Also, my first nephew was born on my birthday, so it has in general been quite busy!

As part of my birthday celebration, I elected to replay one of my adolescent favorites: Earthbound.  I decided to play this game again because I haven't really substantively played it in years, but it is incredibly entertaining, very easy to learn to play, and very enjoyable to watch someone else play.

As if this game needs an introduction from me!  Everyone who has played Earthbound loves Earthbound.  It is as accessible as a Dragon Quest game, or perhaps moreso, because of the "modern day" setting of the game, which features baseball bats and fry pans as weapons.  In fact, Earthbound owes a great deal to Dragon Quest, as is immediately obvious to anyone familiar with the two franchises.  

Earthbound features a battle system inspired by the classic interface of Dragon Quest, and jazzes it up with its own idiosyncrasies  like its psychedelic animated backgrounds and the rolling HP gauge.  It is also an RPG filled with a great deal of humor, much like most every game in the Dragon Quest series.  Like a Dragon Quest hero, Ness gains a hero-only family of attack spells, as well as a full suite of healing spells.  The game also features Teleport magic very reminiscent of Dragon Quest's classic Return spell.

One of the most enjoyable things about Earthbound is the fact that you can, and are even encouraged, to rename all sorts of things in the game to make it a very personal experience.  Of course I've played the game with Ness using PSI Rockin and rescuing the lovely Paula, but this time, since it was a special birthday event, I named the heroes and heroine after myself and my friends, and we've been going on adventures together. (I named Ness after @duriel and his dog after our own adorable and wretched Jack Russell Terrier).

This game is full of hilarious moments, and even very small things about the game can make you smile or giggle.  It's just generally well-written, which is of course one of the reasons people find it appealing.

The game is also well-constructed, in easy to digest bits.  Each of the towns generally features around three plot points one must complete before one advances.  It is generally pretty straightforward to figure out what the next course of action is, and once you've completed say, two towns worth of plots, you're usually ready for a break.

It is also a very forgiving game.  Like Dragon Quest, there is no real game over.  If you are KO'd in battle, you have the choice to return to your last save point with full health, zero PP, and half the money you were carrying in your pockets.  Even gentler than Dragon Quest is the fact that any money you earn does not go directly into your pockets, but rather into your bank account, meaning the amount of money you can lose due to being defeated is generally pretty small unless you're carrying a lot on you for a reason.

This is something like the perfect game to introduce people to RPGs, I think, and a particularly good transitional game for kids who've played Pokemon, but want to begin playing more standard RPGs.  It's too bad that the cartridge costs a fortune now because of its status as a collector's item, but at least the game is available on the Virtual Console can be played on emulators.

My copy is the same one I've had for years and years.

Currently:  It's a good thing that dog in Zahun showed us where she had buried the Golden Key, because we needed it to gain access to the underground city of Wellgarth.  I feel bad for that dude camped outside the door with his dog.  I hope they eventually let him in.

In Wellgarth we were treated to an awesome song by the town's friendly greeter.  After shopping around at the town's many shops, we discovered a shady merchant who sold us a shady item: the Jailor's Key!  HURRAH!

We also heard the first hints about the mysterious item "Water Flying Cloth," who some old dude insisted Don Mahone in Tuhn could weave for us.  I'm not sure we want to get mixed up with the mob, but whatever.  I guess a lot of things are simply necessary when you're trying to save the world.

Unfortunately, the trek to Tuhn is a pretty dangerous one, as you have to wander through a long expanse of wildlands populated by zombies, headhunters, and baboons.

We got there and found Don Mahone only to discover that someone had stolen his beloved loom.  

I'm all like "Wow.  That is some industrious thief.  Looms are pretty big.  That's like stealing a grand piano."

Anyway, although he couldn't give me much in the way of leads, he did mention that the thief smelled a lot like fish.

Gross!

I mean, I love fish, but when you're described as "smelling of fish," that ain't exactly a compliment.

Using my impressive intellect and vast skills of deduction, I figured somebody from Zahun probably stole the loom.  We made it back there in record time, and the only likely place for the loom to be hidden seemed like that crazy wizard's house.

This dude put barrier tiles all over his damn floor.  I guess he had mastered use of the spell "float" or something.  Anyway, Orfeo knows Stepguard so we managed to get to the locked room and find the harp of gold the missing loom.

We are currently on our way back to Tuhn to return Don Mahone's lost loom so he can hopefully weave us some "Water Flying Cloth."

Currently: In Osterfair the king challenged us to entertain him so we fought a fierce Saber Lion in the Coliseum for his pleasure.  We won that fight handily, and he presented us with the Moon Crest.  Score!  Two crests down!

After that we embarked on a world tour thanks to our fabulous boat technology.  In the fishing village of Zahan we met a dog who just wouldn't leave us alone.  For a while, we thought she might be another cursed princess, but it turned out she just wanted to show us where she had buried the Golden Key.

After that, we visited the World Tree and plucked a leaf for good luck (and to res Orfeo when he inevitably gets killed.)

Currently: After having a sociable visit with the Dragon Lord's grandson, who suggested we gather a lot of crests if we want to defeat the wicked Hargon, our intrepid heroes set out to do just that.

South of Alefgard is a tall tower, and our heroes spent many fruitless hours attempting to climb it.  Really.  The monsters here are a considerable step up in difficulty.  At the top of the tower was a gremlin who disguised himself as a ubiquitous helpful old sage and lured us into an isolated room with promises of the Star Crest.  Of course, then he sprung his trap and attacked us with four Gremlins. Little did he know that four Gremlims is a regular random encounter outside Castle Tantegel.  Still, we were pretty exhausted by the time we actually reached the top of the tower, almost entirely out of MP. Somehow we managed to defeat the Gremlins and claim the Star Crest.  Next Stop: Osterfaire!