Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Music

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

With the cult dealt with I have some time off which I spend at Mirroria where I moonlight as a bodyguard for a young DJ who in turn moonlights as an animal rescuer. I also go on patrol with a rookie cop which eventually leads to her in a coma. LOL. Fortunately the two previous comatose victims, Ruby and her mom, are now fully awake and since Ruby's birthday is fast approaching Lin asks that I help her assemble a band and act as their manager for a surprise performance for the kid. Members include the most unlikely of choices (wasn't I in the middle of chasing one of them?) but after a low effort quest line the performance is actually pretty cool.

Afterwards I bid farewell to the crew for its back to Innars for me, and actually back down to the active volcano where the abyssal rift remains open. Scanners sent in detect a new land that it bridges to and I'm sent to investigate, popping out in Domain 9 which basically is China - if China was made of islands floating in midair. I help the inhabitants here fight the gray entities too, which they refer to as "the Darkness", and it looks like this set is led by some strange, flute playing lady.

Magical floating leaves can support the motorbike so it must be safe!

Most of the darkness is sealed up in an underground vault but the Domain 9 master reveals the power that keeps it that way is dwindling quickly. In preparation for the coming war they have begun research and development of combat capabilities for Smart Servants - AI Companions of the cute chibi variety you can bring around with you. And that unfortunately is where I leave Tower of Fantasy for now at level 51 as I've consumed all the main storylines. Maybe I'll revisit again in a year or so. :)

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Abduction

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

Hykros sends me to follow up on a weapons order they put in at Banges but its being delayed by the resource slow down at the nearby Crown mines which in turn is caused by two problems. The first is easily solved as its just a large presence of thugs led by an overweight queen that harass the miners regularly, which translates to simple vermin clearing for me.

The second is a strange illness spreading through the miner camp, causing them to strike, and the ineffective medicines being provided to them. It turns out both the disease and the "cure" are just experiments being conducted by the cultists who have paid the mine leaders for this easily accessible batch of test subjects!

Once I find this group of cultists I chase them all the way out to the snowfields I first encountered them at and wreck their factories and raid their fortresses, rescuing many of their abducted victims including robo-Shirli who reveals the cult plans to build some sort of time reversal device to try fix the world. Ironically this is the same thing Hykros attempted which wrecked the world previously but whatever... This is also the excuse they use to "wall" off high level zones to lower level players: you are too low level to withstand the radiation and take continuous damage over time.

Surprise bullet hell stage.

Anyhow, the cult leader and his elite guard manage to escape to attack the Tower of Fantasy, but we pursue them up there and after some oddly placed puzzle solving and jumping tests, we kick their collective butts outta there and force them back into hiding. We're not going to hear from them again any time soon.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Deception

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

Instead of continuing the pursuit, Lin calls me back to Mirroria for an urgent mission. The doctor who we saved from the Abyss has come out and in of her coma just enough to warn everyone that the gray space entities are amassing in the grand sea, and as communications to the city there has recently been cut off we're tasked with investigating the relay stations in the marshlands between.

Sure enough the marshes are full of the more animalistic gray spacers and the paths trapped with a tangle of explosive webs. While one rookie staff member is rescued at her outpost, the remained are being used as birthing pods for egg laying creatures.

As each relay is also destroyed it soon becomes evident that this was an inside job and the rookie we rescued is actually being used as a puppet by the voluptuous abyssant that has its long digits deep inside her. We slay the creature and then call for the engineering teams to repair the communications and tunnel passage that leads to the grand sea.

While waiting for that I'm tasked with assisting a floating carnival, run by robotic children and a single tech, to deal with some low level raiders which is easy enough. It is then revealed the tech is working on subduing robo-Shirli for the cultists who have abducted her!? I would have given chase but then this awesome song started playing with fireworks and everything and I was mesmerized. Apparently if you are in the right spot in the right in game time you get treated to a light show and some awesome tunes.

No warning, no cutscene, and no doubt one of the best experiences in the game.

Anyway, the cultists escaped with Shirli and the tech escapes punishment as apparently Hykros higher ups have history with her.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of the Abyss

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

That's a handsy enemy.

After hunting some desert beasts at a nearby oasis to harvest residual radiation from them to act as a power source (because why not turn wild life into batteries), robo-Shirli is ready for action and even saves an expedition force against a particularly grabby abyssant. When its remains are brought into Mirroria for study there is an attack in the city which puts Ruby in a coma, and then I am promptly told to scoot because... I'm not high enough level. WHAT!?

Fine. I warp back to Astra Shelter and explore all of it, killing all the enemy camps until I'm interrupted by Hykros (the crew at the top of the Tower of Fantasy) to help them collect simulacra data that was stolen from them by some cultists hiding at some snowy place. This is all pretty easy with my new dual guns which is a big upgrade from the bow. Anyway, once I'm leveled up enough I'm called back to Mirroria to join Lin's squad to look for Ruby's "mom", a reclusive doctor who had a secret lab deep in some spider caves.

Apparently the lab wasn't deep enough as evidence points to her having ventured into the Abyss, the home of grey space entities, for research purposes. Where is this abyss? Right beneath Mirroria! For some reason the gaping chasm is actually what's keeping the city afloat? Anyway, its down down to goblin town (the gray space entities look a bit goblin like) and finally here's an unpleasant and difficult to navigate environment (I'm glad I got lots of practice in Mirroria) with quickly respawning enemies. We find the doctor has turned into an abyssant and so naturally we save her through BATTLE! Though I may have over done it, as now she too is in a coma. Greeeeeat.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Fan Service

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

Next stop is that floating pyramid!

As my mechanical companion needs more fixing we're sent to Mirroria, a flying pyramid city in the desert and are attacked en route by a giant abyssant worm thing but are saved by the local city defenders which includes one eyed Ruby and her guardian, the fan favorite Lin. I'm certain her super short skirt has nothing to do with that. With robo-girl deposited in the hands of a mechanic I'm free to explore the massive city interior which is freaking huge to the point that you can use flying cabs to get around (or wait for trains that never show up). That jet pack I got from Astra is also super handy here.

While I'm at it I also do the numerous side quests on offer, most of which are the "help find my lost xxx". The part time job at a game studio which lets you design a boss and fight it is pretty cool though, and has turned out to be my most difficult combat so far where I had to out archer a robot centaur. Now's a good time to talk about equipment too, this is not like your usual MMO where you walk up to a shop and buy stuff (well, for misc things like food yes). This is a GACHAPON game. What does that mean? You collect a variety of currencies while questing / exploring then spend them for A CHANCE at something. And it is literally beamed down from space for you! So... I got a bow. :P

Worse is that most weapons have a simulacra attached to them, which is a collectable, often female character who you can then use as your own character. Lin, Ruby and robo-Shirli are just three of the ones available. What happens if you get the same item from the random gachapon I hear you ask? Well, you get to combine the duplicates to make the item STRONGER. Yep. No crafting here, just gachapon away! If increasing your DPS isn't compelling enough then you'll be happy to know that improving said weapons also makes the simulacra have more (less) clothing options and abilities! But but but... what happens if you run out of currency to gachapon? Well, there's always the cash shop... and that's how this game is still afloat.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Pain

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

Waking up with amnesia is a cliche, but it does set the scene nicely for the "WTF is going on with this game" feeling that you experience upon being introduced to Astra shelter, which is basically a settlement built around a downed spaceship. Shirli, one of the natives, is most helpful in giving us the tour around the super colorful place, and I'm impressed at the amount of voice acted lines though the mouths moving don't match but I suppose that's a translation thing.

While combat against what seems to be the midgets from the Borderlands series is mostly a click fest, the game greatly rewards exploration - and that's why I think I'm quite hooked on it at the moment. It also helps that almost every surface is CLIMBABLE. What!? Anyway, I put the exploration aside to just push through the main story which feels like Shirli is just getting us to do her chores for her until she is injured in an attack and becomes infected with incurable aberrant energy and is well on her way to turning into a science-zombie: another common enemy in the area.

There's the titular tower.

 
While the shelter's MO is usually to simply execute anyone with these symptoms, Shirli is just too cute and likable so they make me take her to the titular Tower of Fantasy which serves as the base for Hykros a police/teleporter hub and through the magic of technology they save Shirli by basically throwing her into a meat grinder and convalescing her remaining parts into a cyborg-robot companion. Ok I'm a bit hazy on the details because it felt like there was a bit of a time skip ... Anyway, I like it when stories REALLY hurt their characters. One more reason to stick around. :D

Bioshock Infinity: Columbian Baptism

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

 

These guys are the best part of the early game.

Being launched from a lighthouse into the city of Columbia floating on the clouds caught Booker by surprise, but if that's what it took to do the job of getting the girl to clear his debt so be it. Mingling with the crowds during some sort of festival, his status as an outsider is discovered which puts him at violent odds against the local police force and "firemen", who actually start fires in this place. Luckily their guns aren't too different from those on the ground and he uses a machine gun to cut down all opposition while making his way toward a giant statue of an angel which ironically is also the prison of his target - a young lady named Elizabeth.

While she is hesitant to trust him, she has no qualms about getting out of there via a nearby airship. Alas, on board is also a most zealous nun (most of the populace are zealots believing in their local "prophet") who self detonates and sends Booker and Liz into the man made floating sea below. They somehow survive this and the armed forces that pursue them soon after with Booker needing to get creative with a shotgun since he lost his previous weapon in the crash, but the girl is unhappy to be with a murderer so she blindsides Booker and knocks him out to make her escape alone.

Booker awakes as a hostage of the Vox, the rebellious faction group of non-white Americans who are used and treated like slaves. Due to his appearance he is given a chance to "buy" a stolen airship from them, in exchange he just needs to get them a whole bunch of weapons from their Chinese gunsmith contact in Finktown. En route, Booker encounters a monstrous cyborg "Handyman" but escapes thanks to Elizabeth's intervention. She might not like him, but she admits that she will need his help to escape as there's a giant metal bird that keeps preventing her in doing so.

Alita: Battle Angel

In the future, there is only... motorball?

When a female cyborg is reassembled in Iron City she awakens with amnesia, and is given the name Alita (Rosa Salazar) by her repairman. Soon enough she learns that she's quite capable in a brawl and shares the dreams of many to earn the right to go to the floating city of Zalem above where "a better life awaits".

Better chocolate too!

Right off the bat, the CGI is beautiful - it has to be with a main character like Alita - and the plot pacing is on point which kept us glued to the screen the whole time. There are action scenes a plenty (as the title might suggest) though I'm more lukewarm on the hurried romance side of the plot.

Still a good action flick, but be warned - as it follows a manga, its ending leaves you wanting more (a second movie, specifically). I give it 4 out of 5 and would definitely watch it again.

Knights (1993 Movie)

What's worse than vampires and cyborgs? Vampire cyborgs!

Knights is a tale of one woman's revenge on a ruthless group of mystical vampire cyborgs led by Lance Henriksen who is either drooling or spitting while on camera, or is sporting an affectionate pet parrot who has no bearing on the story.

While the plot is ok, it is definitely on the low budget side of the track - making extensive use of fight scenes instead (reusing masked fighters and an obviously younger and more agile double for Kris Kristofferson's character). Fortunately Kathy Long makes a very watchable protagonist, and those old school stunts they do are quite cool / scary when you think about it.

Lots of acrobatic stunts in dangerous environments.

Not one I'd really recommend unless you enjoy B grade films, but strangely I think I would watch it again if given the chance. I give Knights 2 muddy pools out of 5.

Justice League

DC still has a hard time catching Marvel.

When a cookie cutter bad guy with no depth suddenly appears to collect dangerous artifacts it's up to Batman and Wonder Woman to assemble a small team of superheroes to save the day. The effects are great, the funny bits work well and bonus points for the music which incorporates bits of recognizable themes.

It's like Aquaman was an after thought. As usual.

Alas, there are more than a few plot holes here and while I get why this needs to be an ensemble team, some could have just been cameos rather than main parts. All up it's a decent enough action flick, but I feel it could have been better / done more with what they had and leaves an odd sensation that the entire movie was "filler", which it shouldn't be. For that I give it 3 parademons out of 5 and am not so keen on watching it again.

Spore: Steve in the Center

[Part of the Direbug Saga]

The unrelenting Grox sent wave after wave of fighters at the allied fleet, and at 85% to the core all his allies are dead and Buglybugs must duck onto a small moon orbiting a gas giant to hide from the pursuers - putting down a colony for repairs.

Evil cyborg space goblins!

Having used only under a third of the prepared supplies, he was in good shape though - and soon continued on the mad dash through the Grox Gauntlet. It was still terrifying with ever shortening travel distance allowances, but soon he made it... and the Grox all backed off.

There in the swirling core, Buglybugs met Steve (a human?) who congratulated him on getting this far, proving the Direbugs are worthy of advancement and gifting him the Staff of Life (instant terraform). Steve also mentioned to visit the third rock from Sol sometime, before vanishing and leaving Buglybugs the unenviable position of having to run the gauntlet in reverse to return to Pyrachs.

Project: Snowblind

Featuring a very acrobatic protagonist (in cutscenes only).

It is the year 2065 where graphics have a dated blocky look and villains still have stupid plans; providing many "save rooms" for protagonists to thwart them from. Apart from those anomalies, this is a decent shooter by Eidos. Enemies have decent AI and the maps seem to always have a stealth / alternate option to get through.

Some parts have no option but mass slaughter.

The augments and gadgets you get as the hero - cybernetically enhanced due to a "mishap" in the tutorial - are also cool. You can hack turrets and battle bots and make them work for you. There are also bigger mechs and vehicles that you (and the enemy) can freely pilot. That's on top of being able to see people through walls, turn on semi-invulnerability for take and hold missions, total invisibility for get from point A to B tasks, etc.

If it sounds like you are a walking cheat code it is because you are and the game does get easier as more of those powers become available to you. It still is a fun ride though, and one that might interest old game FPS enthusiasts. I give it 2.5 EMP grenades out of 5.

Skyrim: The Bottom of the World

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Stumbling around the dark we are surprised to encounter Llavados, the Dunmer cyborg who first brought us to Lull-Mor, and he is surprisingly sane. Apparently if I can survive the bottom of the world I will find what I need to defeat Archeron. Inspired, we look around and find puzzles that mostly rely on sending lights back to open doors. This is really cool, and sets the stage for a boss fight against a giant robot who can only be defeated by laser light beams.

Finding the light in the darkest places.

He drops the Lullian Shield, which has the impressive ability of being able to throw people around through bashing. After practicing on a wandering golem, I get to use it for real as Masscroft comes down from an elevator (to the bottom of the world... sure why not) to make sure we are dead. Fortunately there's a handy hole in the center of the room (to the bottom-est of the world?) and regardless of his god mode or invisibility potions, it's pretty easy pushing him into it repeatedly. Eventually he fails to crawl back out.

Taking the lift back to Lull-Mor, Medeliu Hammar tells us that Archeron has sent through his whole squad of immortal experiments into the dig which doesn't bode well for Numinar or his folk. Sofia and I give chase and thankfully the caves give way to lava filled chambers, the type that's just perfect to push god-mode enemies into!

Tossing god mode baddies into lava. I'm getting good at this!

Skyrim: Into Darkness

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

So that's what an undead cyborg looks like.

These undead cyborgs turned out to be random undead critters that lived in a really dark forest. Skeletal charrus and skeletal mammoths which were tough but killable. The were somehow led by a skeletal giant which Sofia easily slew, but his death caused a great explosion which knocked me out. When I awake, I am back in Lull-Mor with two strangers who supposedly helped drag me out of the rubble.

It's starting to get crowded down here.

I don't get to talk long though because Lull-Mor soon comes under a Thalmor attack! Fortunately these are the regular types of bananas who are easily put down, but after the combat the same people who saved me frame me as the Thalmor's inside man! Numinar has Sofia and I locked up before departing to claim the MacGuffin. Alone with the two strangers, they shed their magical disguises revealing themselves to be Justicar Archeron and Masscroft!

Archeron gloats a little bit on how he played everyone and decides to drop our hanging cages down a "bottomless" pit. Nothing I haven't done before. This time though, Sofia and I end up at the bottom of the world.

Looks like this world is built upon gears!

Skyrim: Lull-Mor

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

I guess this place is haunted...

The cyborg core tells us we need to reach the Wheels of Lull, which is accessible via a deep mine. Bandit refuses to enter due to her claustrophobia so I get her to guard outside while Sofia and I deal with the multitude of poltergeists within. Poltergeists that like to throw mine carts around, and join together to form a giant poltergeist! Sofia has some fun tearing that one into pieces.

I did have to help out a little.

Eventually we find elevators down to Lull-Mor, an technologically advanced outpost manned by more cyborgs: the Chronographers. Their leader, Numinar, is not so pleased to have us here but since there are problems with the other outposts he puts us to work on discovering who is behind these incursions. I'm surprised he doesn't ask the resident know it all, Medeliu Hammar, who is actually really interesting to talk to.

It's pretty cool that they offer to outfit us with guns, but since my bow is better I just purchase one for Sofia before heading out to investigate. And by investigate I mean put up some poles which discover that the Thalmor are behind all of Lull-Mor's problems. Numinar tasks me next to go undercover to the Bananas Thalmor experiment post to gather more data.

I am so calling them bananas now. :P

Skyrim: Disavowed

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

We finally reach the hideout of the Mythic Dawn and by luck, the moron we "saved" is related to the cult leader so we are instantly offered a low level "errand runner" position in the cult. Huzzah, now we can go fetch the troll fat, the illegal weapon supplies, crates of ale, etc. The good part about being in the logistics department is that we can come and go as we please, so obviously my first stop is to retrieve all my OP gear. :P

Bandit is really getting into the whole, pretend to be a cultist thing.

Anyway, the base is huge and crawling with an army of people. They are nice enough, apart from the fact that they're trying to open gates to Oblivion again, and I am soon tasked with eliminating their chief smelter who can turn silver ingots into daedric equipment - most probably because she's hacked. While that's easy enough to do, the rest of the quest unfortunately does not continue due to scripting problems or conflicts I suppose which leaves me only one course of action.

Kill... them... ALL!

You think?

It's not surprising that I am kicked out of the Agents of Stendarr after the massacre, and they don't want anything more to do with my bloodthirsty ways (which is pretty rich coming from them). Anyway, we are on the way to check on Rayya when a strange, and possibly crazy cyborg dunmer approaches us and asks for our help in saving someone. In an interesting twist, he "kills" himself so that we can take him (his core, which can still talk) with us.

"No getting stuck in walls" is a good bonus! :P

Feb-Report: Aldnoah Master

Hey all! How is your February going? For those of you who enjoyed the Darklands of Arkania, I have good news: the story will continue soon - after I put up a couple more reviews. Thank you to those who helped out Louie too. I always wanted to try setup a Gofundme page, but that was definitely not one of the reasons I had in mind.

Just finished watching a series called Aldnoah Zero and I've gotta say it's a very nice mecha anime, complete with good music and well thought out bad guys because the bad guys have all the awesome mechs and the good guys are basically using crap. The first season is especially well done, not sure what happened to the plot in the second. While it still is entertaining I can't help but feel it would have been better had they gone a different way. Still recommended with three out of five Versian counts, and one I'd watch again.

Thanks to that I've also been finding some cool youtube artists that do English versions of anime songs. This parody one in particular for the opening of Aldnoah Zero is one you should listen to. :)

Gaming wise, Neverwinter continues plodding along though the devs are doing a good job of getting players from both XBOX and PC riled up into rebellion, particularly about the game turning into pay-to-win and edging closer to share the same fate as its predecessor. I've personally felt it's always been pay to win, and imagine I'm one of the few who have never spent any money on it in the first place to be that upset.

Still, the grind is monotonous so I break it up with Helldiving among other things. Last night, I soloed the Cyborg Master (the easiest boss) and much like the Versian Kataphrakts (Mechs) in Aldnoah, it was all about finding his weakness and exploiting it.

It was cool. :)