[blog] Siver's Backlogging Adventures

Weekly Game Update Dec. 08 – Dec. 14

Bit of a lowkey week for playing and I’m behind on itchmas now. Now I’m mildly sick, just enough to be very annoying and blah.

That said The Game Awards were this week. I had been considering skipping them this year, but I was feeling pretty cruddy that day, so figured I might as well distract myself with them and I’m glad I did actually. It was definitely a better show than last year with some good speeches—applauding Swen Vincke especially, go off, sir. And the Astro Bot winning speech was gracious and sweet. Announcement-wise there weren’t many things of interest to me personally, but I expect that going in. HOWEVER, there was finally a showing of genDesign’s new game! They’re cooking something! I have no idea what to make of it, but I liked Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and loved The Last Guardian. And then freaking Okami sequel! I still need to finish Okami—I’ve started it 2-3 times but never finished and I don’t know why as it’s up my alley in so many ways. Maybe next year. But Clovers studio?? Kamiya directing again. I’m just daydreaming how freaking gorgeous it could be. Never saw that one coming.


New/Added Games:
The Whispered World (GOG giveaway)

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Started:

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Finished:
Sort of Trails into Reverie in that credits were rolled… but post-game so not considering done yet.

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Currently Playing

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Switch)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (PC, Steam)
Fields of Mistria (PC, Steam)
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (PC, GOG)
Return to Monkey Island

Daily
Sunday: Fields of Mistria
Monday: Trails into Reverie
Tuesday: Quest for Glory IV, Fields of Mistria
Wednesday: Quest for Glory IV, Trails into Reverie
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: Fields of Mistria

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Progress:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie


We finished! Sort of! Long ending stuff but I’m way more satisfied than I was with Cold Steel IV, so that was nice and welcome. I’m glad Rufus’ arc went about how I was hoping and that he didn’t die. And they managed to endear him to me which I did not expect. I was not happy finding out C was him before we started the game, and then oops now I'm compelled. I’ve seen it said he should have died in the tower and I heartily disagree as that would have flown in the face of both his arc and Rean’s. Don’t sacrifice yourself has been a point hammered home and Rean FINALLY got it, so then having him do it and die would have damaged that. And now Rufus has to live with what he’s done. He has to start over. And NOT just going back to what he was doing like Richard...Lechter...Claire...Crow basically (don't even get me started on Crow; I've been cranky about how everything around him was handled, or not, for ages now) way too many cases of that.
He has to actually live and figure out that lifelong identity crisis. Dying would have done nothing. Can't do anything more when you're dead. Besides it would have devastated Lapis and Jusis and we can’t have that. Go learn how to just be, guys, and be okay with that.

There’s still more post-game stuff for the Reverie Corridor which I assume will answer…what’s up with the Reverie Corridor among some other things. I’m not totally thrilled with the structure of the game in that the main plot stuff was way more compelling to me than Corridor stuff, so the corridor stuff always felt like an interruption and now we have a satisfying ending but need to jump right back in for further answers. It makes things a bit disjointed annoyingly. But there’s still more daydreams and answers to get and I don’t want to miss those, so back in we go.

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Fields of Mistria


Fall fall fall! I love fall. I’m enjoying the new music and I love the outfits changes on the NPCs. I have three chickens now along with my two cows. I’m getting close to finishing the General Store upgrade and getting close to opening the next set of mine levels. New seasons means new gaming and activities on Friday nights at the Inn and those are fun to see.

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Backlog: 164

Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Part 6
The Adventurer’s Log

It was night after a failed visit to the gypsy camp. Nothing else to do but keep going forward. I encountered my first necrotaur.



I found a strange fountain…



That’s totally safe. Nothing suspicious here. I had options to drink, take a taste or jump in. Jumping in just got me scolded by the narrator, and sipping and drinking led to the same result. Cinder Win didn’t win and passed out.

And I saw a…fairy? Forest spirit? Elf? (depending on whether elves and fairies are considered one and the same here).



Yeah I have much to learn like not taking drinks from strange fountains in the middle of forests at night? Besides, what was I gonna do, NOT take a drink? I have the power of saving on my side! Still, the number of interested parties here seems to be growing… And I still don’t know why I was brought here in the first place.



After waking up, all was well shortly after and I continued. In a night that was quickly turning very eventful I ran into a ghost.



I greeted her.



She was lost and wanted to go home. She wasn’t aware she was a ghost and I could offer to help her and guide her home but I wasn’t sure how to actually do that. She seemed to just keep disappearing. She was also really slow to come to me. So, my thought was that I’d need something to… entice her? Convince her she was a ghost? Hold her somehow to bring her back to town? I’m assuming this is Anna, so bring her back to Nikolai?

Hopefully something will get clearer and I can tackle that better…

I found my way back to town anyway, and the pumpkins were jack o’ lanterns!



Also, Katrina was there.

She scolded me for not taking better care at night and gave me a healing potion.



Displeased huh?

Then she intended to teach me a lesson for not listening to her warnings which sounded very menacing but actually resulted in her teaching me a new spell, Frostbite.

I don’t know what to make of her and I couldn’t even talk to her about every available option before she left.

I levitated over the closed gate and went to get some dinner and bed. It wasn’t as late as I thought, but I wasn’t in the best shape in all of health, mana and stamina.

Bad news when I stepped out in the morning. The trio of chatty villagers that are normally in the inn in the evenings were gathered outside. Igor was missing, oh no! They caught a gypsy just outside town while searching for Igor and are insisting he’s a werewolf and ate Igor. Make him talk and bring him to justice and they were all basically one step away from bringing out the pitchforks. The Burgomeister thankfully wasn’t having it.



We need to figure out what actually happened here. Igooor.

They kept being insistent and think they ate the innkeeper’s daughter too.



The Burgomeister wasn’t having that either. Tanya… now I know who she is anyway.

He tried to get the others to stop riling themselves up with tales of werewolves–he himself doesn’t believe in them–and to go home. He would also appreciate my help when offered in proving one way or another what actually happened to Igor. He doesn’t want to blame someone for a crime that may or may not have been committed.

You know, the Burgomeister didn’t trust me but I didn’t fully trust him either. He could have been corrupt. He seems to be proving otherwise now. Appreciate him trying to keep things from flying off the handle here anyway and even accepting my offer to help despite previous grumbling at me.

But Igor! Now I had an investigation to add to my plate. I was gonna be making the rounds around town anyway and now I had even more reason to.

I went inside and talked to the Burgomeister a little more. He was skeptical in general, maybe a bit overly so given everything that is going on around here, but I appreciate him being grounded about this missing Igor situation. He really didn’t believe the gypsy is responsible but was uncertain of what to do. I’m here for the rescue! Somehow.

I went to talk to the gypsy in the cell who’s the same guy I talked to at the camp. He refused to say anything and seemed disbelieving when I offered to help and then the Burgomeister got after me for just standing around talking.



I was just appreciating you, sir! Talking is part of my investigation! But fine, I’ll go leave and do stuff. Like talking to more people.

And as I left I think I just got put on a time limit…



So I’ve got today before they go after the suspect…

Olga didn’t have much of use, just ready to burn that werewolf before it eats them all.

I tried talking to Nikolai on my way to Dr. Cranium in hopes of some clue of what to do about the ghost I assume is Anna, but no luck there.

Dr. Cranium had nothing about Igor either, however, he thought he came up with a way to make a Rehydration Solution. That would certainly help with the dried-up Domovoi. I had to give him the elements of the formula and he requested some Grue Goo.

With nothing helpful in town, it was time to go hunting for clues about poor Igor.

I went to the cemetery first.



A groan. A fallen tombstone over a previously open grave. Igor got trapped, didn’t he?

I couldn’t move the tombstone by myself, but an Open spell worked to my slight surprise, and sure enough, up came Igor.



With messed up colours. A lightning bolt struck right around this point so I don’t know if it was because of that or just glitched. He thanked me anyway and wandered off, hopefully back to town. That was easier than expected.

Back in town, everyone was cleared out. The prisoner was released and the Burgomeister thanked me for finding Igor. He didn’t want to burn the prisoner at the stake.

Then I went to see Igor who considers me a friend now! Aw. You’re my buddy too, Igor.

I told him about the townspeople worrying about him.



“Igor now morgue happy than ever!” That little graveyard humour heehee. I’m genuinely growing rather fond of him and his graveyard humour. The gnome may be… that, but Igor’s got my back!

I asked about the crypt key which he was happy to give me now as a friend. Not that I needed it with magic, but good to have.

I couldn’t remember if I’d asked him about Erana’s staff before so I did again: Erana’s staff has been in town for a long time. Dmitri’s grandfather brought it. So, Piotyr is Dmitri the Burgomeister’s grandfather huh.

With Igor safe and sound I figured it was time to go search for some Grue Goo for Dr. Cranium. There was all the goo near the cave I came out of but I needed to find my way back there. I also stopped by Olga, but not too much to say beyond some general horror at the gruesome fate of being trapped in a grave so it was a good thing I found Igor.

I was having trouble finding my back to the cave area. I certainly hadn’t mapped at all at that point and my mapping efforts have been somewhat haphazard in general.

I found a deadly bush! Joy of joys!



A bush with eyes.



This had to be the bush Leshy’s last riddle referred to.

It was an elderbury bush. I got too close by accident and it killed me. Buried me perhaps.

After some failed experiments including throwing a sandwich at the bush which did make the eyes dive down into it, I was able to use force bolt to knock a branch off then fetch the branch to get some elderbury berries.

I did find the starting area again. I’d been going in the wrong direction. For some reason I thought it was more to the east even though I’ve been to the swamp recently which is westerly and mostly a straight shot south of town. I even knew the swamp wasn’t far from the cave. I’m good at directions! (I’m really not). But goo acquired.

I brought it back to Dr. Cranium who was thrilled and gave me the Rehydration Solution which seems suspiciously like water.



I’m coming Domovoi!

I saved the Domovoi in the Monastery who thanked me and warned me of the dangers of this place. I needed to destroy the guard or feed it for a secret passage down.



I assume he means something in here. There is a hexapod statue decoration thing over the hearth I could fire spells at, but before I do anything further in here I wanted to talk to the Inn Domovoi again. Generally get more information… Which meant I had time to kill before midnight.

With the berries from the bush I tried going to the Leshy again, but I guess that wasn’t enough of an answer…

I tried for the camp again, but the wolves blocked me and there was no sign of our former prisoner.

With everything else failing on me, I tried for the ghost and confirmed she was Anna. When I talked to her again she asked why I left her behind but she was the one who kept disappearing. Every time she tried to follow me she’d find herself back in the same spot again. I had to keep talking to her and leaving and coming back to nudge her into starting to realize she was a ghost.



She remembered she was walking home when something chased her. She tried to run but something knocked her over and everything went black. She remembered her name and the place she lived in town. She remembered Nikolai and asked me to talk to him about her. She doesn’t want to leave without seeing him again.

This is sad…

I was gonna try some wandering or finding something to do while waiting then I realized I was nearly out of MP and I didn’t want to wander around at night with no MP and not much of a goal or get stuck outside of town without the MP to levitate over the barred gates. Yes I have the magic fruit, but not many… I need to remember to return to the garden to get more.

Instead I slept until midnight and went to see the Domovoi. He was very pleased I saved the dried up Domovoi and that Domovoi is now living in the Burgomeister’s place! I hope I get to see him again… and maybe his presence will somehow help the Burgomeister? And my inn friend here was ready to help me with more information. I would need to help people and be “plenty big hero” here.



I would need to be very powerful, skilled and smart.

He told me a story about Tanya, Bella and Yuri’s daughter. Time to find out about her at last. She was taken because of a doll he thinks.

Tanya was a very sweet child who liked everyone. One night Bella had a terrible dream that Tanya was taken away and Bella got scared. She stopped letting Tanya play outside or have friends. Tanya was scared of the dark and spent many times alone at the back of the inn. Then one day a big and friendly monster came to her window. He talked to her then she wasn’t afraid of the dark and they became friends. One night while she was very unhappy the monster came and took her away. It wanted to make her happy. Now she was gone; now she was gone to the castle. No one except the Domovoi saw this and he couldn’t help her.

As for the doll: one night Tanya got a beautiful doll that she’d never had before and she loved it very much. Bella and Yuri didn’t know where it had come from or from whom and got scared, so Bella took it away and locked it in the cabinet which made Tanya very sad. The Domovoi told me to take the doll to Tanya and maybe I could help her when I become a very powerful hero.



He told me not to tell Bella or Yuri. Tanya needed a hero not dead parents. He told me not to show the doll to Bella–it would make her very scared and unhappy.

So I needed to keep helping people for now which I’ve been working on. I’m still not sure how this all ties together between Katrina, Ad Avis and Tanya. Unless Ad Avis was the one to take her for some reason? Only seemingly a monster and hypnotized her like he did to me? I don’t know!

I went to bed, and got more voices. This time, judging by the subject of their talk–trying to get a clear view through a crystal ball, and most of all by their bantering nature, I think it was Erasmus and Fenrus.



I guess they weren’t having an easy time of it.



“Either you are mystically rusty or your crystal is dusty.” Yeah, this has to be them right…?

Regardless I woke to a new day.

Day 6 I think and I’m just glad I got the Domovoi situation resolved as it was making me nervous. Onward to more tasks, helping people and uncertainty of how to handle some of them!

Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Part 7
The Adventurer’s Log

Starting a new day but before I get into that I wanted to ‘regroup’ in both going over what I do know and then a quick list of tasks I still need to do because things have certainly been thinging!

Information and involved parties I’m aware of so far:

The Chernovy Cult were fought by Piotyr and Erana outside the Dark One’s cave where I woke up. They presumably worshipped the Dark One. Erana sacrificed herself. Piotyr brought her staff back to the town of Mordavia. Staff is protecting the town.

Piotyr is Dmitri the Burgomeister’s grandfather.

There’s a monastery in town related to or created by the cult.

The Borgovs used to be in charge at the castle but no more.

There’s a new Master at the Castle who’s a she going by the guards at the castle.

We have Katrina - unknown motives - lurking around and sort of helping me but also maybe just using and manipulating me. Either way I’m feeling manipulated. She could be the Master?

We have Ad Avis the probable vampire. Don’t know what his goal is beyond probably some revenge. Maybe he wants to revive the Dark One. That cave is gonna matter again after all.

I had a dream that may or may not have been those two talking about me and plotting.

We have Tanya the innkeepers’ daughter taken to the castle by some kind of monster. The guards also referenced a kid, so that’s likely her.

And fairies judging my encounter with the fountain also want me doing things. Possibly just cleaning up all this mess for them? Again unknown motive.

And now Erasmus and Fenrus if I’m right about it being them were also trying to check in on me, but I imagine that was more of trying to find me what with the whole disappearing thing at the end of the last game.

Trying to connect threads but they’re not quite connecting yet.

I also wanted to list out what I still need to accomplish:

Talk to Nikolai about Anna
Find some kind of hat for Bonehead so I can see Baba Yaga
Fix the Gnome’s humour, sigh, but need to see Baba Yaga for that
Figure out the answer for Leshy’s berry bush riddle
Figure out how to actually talk to the gypsies for the help I was told they could give. Maybe the doll will help?
Open and check out the secret area under the Monastery
Visit the Domovoi in the Burgomeister’s place if possible (me being hopeful. Please?)
See the Rusalka again. I have no specific reason to, but it’s been a bit and she might have more info. And she did want me to visit.

I decided my initial goals for the day, aside from a quick check on all town NPCs as usual, would be to talk to Nikolai and then stop being a coward and check out the secret area of the Monastery. I wasn’t getting anymore info about it anyway, so just go for it.

Once I stepped out of the inn the Burgomeister talked to me to tell me the werewolf threat had ended.



I thought he’d already released the prisoner; it had sounded like it, but maybe not? That’d explain why he wasn’t at the camp when I tried before.

I greeted him even though we just talked but it’s fun and I got a new response: “You are a very polite person. Perhaps I should learn some manners from you for dealing with strangers.” I’m honestly not sure if he’s being sincere or just a little sarcastic.

He was glad the Igor situation was resolved and he can sleep better not worrying about the prisoner escaping or being killed. The prisoner returned to the camp.

And he sort of praised me. Kind of.



It started well anyway. I think he’s trying! He was also feeling more relaxed now he doesn’t have to worry about that 'annoying stranger’ getting into trouble as I’ve proven myself capable. For him that’s warming up to me, I think! I’ll take it!

Do you know you have a Domovoi with you now, sir? Do you? I want to see if he’s there at night but I don’t know if I’ll even be allowed in…

OIga next. She was still determined to think the gypsy is a werewolf and will eat them…



Slow road I guess…

I went to see my pal Igor. He ran into a woman that sounded like Katrina outside town.



She quickly left after he attempted some…flirting? Graveyard humour? A blend of the two… 'light his pyre anytime’. She wasn’t impressed and left. She just doesn’t have taste clearly.

Also maybe some new information about the Borgovs.



I’m not sure if I knew the last Boyar’s body hasn’t been found. Missing bodies are never a good thing.

Nikolai next… I told him I’d found her and tried to explain she was dead, but I’m not sure he was really getting it…



He headed off alone to find her. I tried to follow, but she doesn’t appear during the day so I’m not sure there even is anything I could do at this point and there was no sign of him. I decided to try again at night.

I headed back to town and ran into the gypsy. He thanked me for my help. He also said they weren’t werewolves–don’t believe the lies of the townsfolk. He invited me to come to their camp sometime.



Then he reiterated that they’re not werewolves–they’re shapechangers. Before promptly turning into a werewolf and leaving. So can’t entirely blame the villagers here for thinking there are werewolves. They’re still being racist though.

I did want to visit the camp, but first a quick stop by Dr. Cranium because I forgot to visit him before Nikolai. And then the monastery…

Dr. Cranium made progress with his Frankie after some recalibration on the M.E.S.S. He got the 'first traces of independent muscular coordination’. Frankie waved at me from under the sheet.



While I got to witness true genius at work – Cranium’s words.

I had the opportunity to tell him about Tarna.



Too primitive AND you want to meet Salim? Losing some points here Dr.

He was otherwise pretty focused on the Frankie experiment now. He’d named Frankie after one of his colleagues who’d done some preliminary research into tissue reanimation. He’s sure his success will make him one of the premier researchers at this year’s Scientific Ball.

Good luck I guess.

Monastery time…

The hearth had secret passage written all over it and one of the prongs? Holder of something? I don’t know what they are but side pillar things was something I could interact with. The wall decoration wiggled threateningly.



Obviously I tried again for the death.



Hector Hexapod…

The Domovoi said to defeat or feed the guardian. I tried one of my sandwiches but the hexapod only waved its tentacles at it–“Maybe it’s allergic to avocado?”

Candy failed. Garlic, to my slight surprise, worked though.



Happy Hector the hexapod’s hunger satiated by garlic.

I opened the secret passage and went down to the basement.



The description further hammered home the spookiness with a cold feeling and chills and a musty odor of mold and mildew mingled with a sickeningly sweet smell of decaying flesh. “Welcome to your nightmare.” Said very ominously.

Time to look around.

I didn’t look around for long before I found the “Cask of Amon Tillado” Heh. Had to get that in here, huh? “It is rumored to provide strange and mystical visions to those who taste freely of its contents.” It was dripping red liquid. Of course I took a taste.

Once again Cinder passed out after partaking of mysterious liquid. This is gonna turn into a trend. I was given a vision of a mountain that grew darker. The mountain split open revealing a large demonic creature.



The Dark One according to the description I got of the vision after waking up.

But it hasn’t happened yet!

Once I was up, a scroll formed where the liquid had been dripping.



The “Ritual of the Blood”. I can’t read it and I’m not sure who could, but that’ll be for later anyway.

There was a rolltop desk that was locked. I opened it with my spell. From a safe distance. There was a brief cloud of poison gas, but that dissipated quickly and I was able to find the diary of Amon Tillado. “Boy, was this guy whacko!” It had information about the Dark One Rituals.

First Ritual: “placed within the Mad Monk’s Tombstone, there to be forever guarded by followers.”

Not sure where that is, but the mad monks have been talked about. I might just need to go review some information.

Second: placed in the 'Stone of Squids’ and revealed by the light of a dead child’s soul.

That may be the pillar I knocked down near the cave? A dead child’s soul though…

Another: placed in the hollow of the Hangman’s Tree and guarded by the spirit of the dead.

That’d be the tree near Baba Yaga’s hut. The Burgomeister mentioned it too when asking about Mordavia (or rumours, one of the two) in general.

Blood Ritual: concealed magically within the Monastery and “only he who willingly seeks dark visions shall find it.”

Yeah, I, uh, found that already.

Mouth Ritual: placed in the Great Arch itself, under the Dark One’s Sign.

Probably the arch outside the Cave at the start of the game?

Heart Ritual: given to someone name Gregor for safe keeping. There was another note here in someone else’s handwriting “Gregor is missing in the forest and probably dead – yet where is the Heart Ritual?”

No idea about that one.

Now I’m not sure why I’d want to collect these. Keep them from the evil I guess? Use them myself to prevent something or open an area to prevent something?

Continuing in my exploration this statue got no respect.



It’s like an octopus centaur. An octotaur.

There was the symbol on the back wall and the alter too.



The symbol is the sign of the Dark One, but no idea what the letters might be for that starts at A.

The book is the Necrophilicon. I tried using it, by which I mean I tried to use the symbol but the game took it as the book. The book rose up and squished me between its pages.



Eaten by a book. Well, bitten anyway.

I couldn’t find anything else to do down there. I even tried to be a menace with my Trigger spell, but no such luck. Back into the fresh air.

I had time to kill until night, so I decided to visit the Rusalka and see if there was anything new there and then go to the gypsy camp.

She did have some new info for me. She warned me about the grasping hands and the Will o’ wisps in the swamp. You’ll be safe from the grasping hands if you stick to the grassy areas.

She made mention of some kind of tomb or very magical pillar over there. It’s guarded by strange guards she thinks were once human, but she doesn’t think or dead or undead.



Just scary. Maybe that’s where the first ritual is? Since that and the heart one are the two I’m drawing a total blank on right now. Thank you Rusalka! Sorry it took me so long to come back to visit.

Gypsy camp next. I found my way there so smoothly and not a single encounter. I’m learning this map even on my own!

They were much friendlier this time. He welcomed me right in.



And he took me to meet their leader.



She was also a fortune-teller. And she taught me a spell that would protect me from undead, Aura. I’ll be very glad to have that no doubt. Maybe it’ll protect me from that wraith in the castle that was slaughtering me when I finally do go back there.

Lots of options but I started with greeting–I’m very polite!–and telling them my name.



A good strong name? Hear that? Cinder Win is a strong name!

The guy I rescued is Davey, though he also has a true name but those should only be given with great care. In a place full of fairies and magic? Yeah!

I told her about how I got here and she thinks I ended up in that dark cave due to a summoning spell that went wrong as that cave has been interfering with all magic around the area. But then who did summon me and why…

I also told her about the gnome and she told me Baba Yaga’s hut was blocked by magic which I already knew. I need that hat or equivalent for Bonehead. She also added when I asked about Baba Yaga that her only weakness was her love of food so I’m sure that’s gonna come up.

The valley is a place of magic where many are drawn to. She talked about Erana but all things I know now. She refused to talk about the Dark Ones and hoped I’d never have cause to deal with them. Well.

I asked about werewolves. They’re shapeshifters. Werewolves are myth–they’re not tied to phases of the moon. She’s being more open with me as she knows my actions could affect them all.



With a little money I was able to ask for a card reading which resulted in some information about four different people and their possible influences:

A woman from the past with power but used selfishly and only cares for her own wants or how she influences others. She’ll be willing to aid me if I could satisfy her needs and vanity as long as there’s no effort required on her part. Baba Yaga maybe?

A dangerous old man who can’t be trusted or underestimated. Influenced by black magic. Has faced unexpected failure of some sort. Evil and bears me ill-will but prevented from getting revenge. For now. If he gains his freedom he’ll seek to destroy anything standing between his goal and himself. Ad Avis?

A woman of wisdom and love, kind, generous and virtuous. In touch with her magical nature. Gentle and loving but holding a great strength. Generates hope and help through her actions. Erana…?

And finally a woman of wit and skill but someone who’s suffered through terrible hardship and is marked by her suffering. Faces her sorrows bravely but with deep loneliness. A deceiver, or is deceived by her own beliefs. Also has a magical nature which is the strength that sustains her. Either surrounded by false friends or seeks to betray me herself. She is a victim or the villainess. That’s vague and flip floppy but I’m guessing Katrina for now.

And for myself… the Void. Which she wouldn’t speak of and needed to meditate on its meaning. That’s not alarming at all.



Once I left the wagon, I was invited to eat and party with them. I was given a warm welcome and a stew without garlic!



There was dancing and finally sleep.



The dancer turned into a wolf…



Wolf hug? We’ll just go with that.

Then I woke up the next morning to an empty camp. I assume they all wandered off for now. All well and good but that did kill my night when I had stuff to do at night, so I guess I have more things to find to do during the day while I wait for another night. Possibly go ritual hunting. Maybe I’ll find a hat. I haven’t really touched the swamp, so I could go explore that next time.

Nope, can’t get over it. That gypsy really does look like Gaston.

I feel like the whole gypsies + werewolves thing happens often in some stories. I was kind of expecting it when you went to the camp, but I’m glad they didn’t eat you! 👍

Nope, can’t get over it. That gypsy really does look like Gaston.

I feel like the whole gypsies + werewolves thing happens often in some stories. I was kind of expecting it when you went to the camp, but I’m glad they didn’t eat you! 👍

He DOES look like Gaston. I kept thinking it too every time I saw him

Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Part 8
The Adventurer’s Log

To the swamp! But Erana’s Garden first to get another fruit. I keep forgetting to do that. Plus I can water the bonsai tree. No idea if there’s any point in doing that but I like doing it.

Since I was headed to the swamp I also went toward the cave, since it’s nearby, to stop by the big arch to see if I could find the ritual under the Dark One’s sign. I didn’t find anything. Then again I didn’t when I first took the sign either, so I’m not sure what to do about that. Did it get taken?

Back to the swamp I glided my way across until I found the tomb and two Chernovy.



After a little spell slinging (yay reversal), they made it get dark and came to me.



The Juggling Lights spell is fun. Yeah, let me just put on a light show for ya. I mean it’s a practical use in cancelling their darkness spell but it’s also just fun to see. Then it turned into a fight.



And made me chew right through my MP so I’m glad I’d grabbed another fruit along the way. I had to resort to my dagger in the second fight, ew.

Once they were gone, I was able to examine the tomb? Pillar?



Of course the Dark One’s sign was used for the inset figure and I was given a puzzle with the arcane symbols to presumably mark in order.



I figured the order would be the same as the arch. That I had I just been examining. But did I remember the order? Of course not! Were the symbols all clear to see in my old screenshots? Nah. Did I ever note them down? No!

I didn’t want to glide my way all the way back across the swamp again and then have to do it again to get back, so I reloaded an old save and went to have another look. Remember, multiple saves can save your butt AND let you be lazy.

Anyway the order is: mouth, bone, blood, breath, sense, heart, and essence… which means just starting at mouth and going clockwise one symbol at a time. Oops easy! But also a good thing because I could still not tell what the symbols for sense and essence actually were. That got me the Ritual of Bone. I still don’t know why I’m collecting these, but I’m gonna need them at some point and it gave me something to do while waiting for nightfall.

I went back to town to see how things were going and get more healing and poison curing since I used one of each today. Plus the mana fruit. Look at me using my items.

As soon I entered the main area of town the Burgomeister told me Nikolai had disappeared.



And I didn’t go to find him last night because of the gypsy visit, so hopefully that’s not going to be a problem for me… erm. Tonight!

The last time the Burgomeister saw him he was looking for Anna and seemed so excited to see her. He’d like to believe they’re together again. I’m… thinking that may be the case… as ghosts… Agh.

There was also talk of werewolves sparking again with him missing but the Burgomeister put a halt to that.

He’ll miss Nikolai…



Oohhh… Tonight’s gonna be sad, isn’t it? Sadder. Or bittersweet I guess? I’d be more surprised if he was alive given the everything and dangers of the forest, but knowing that’s only fueling the little sad pit of dread.

Olga noted Nikolai’s absence too: “More missing people! Now old Nikolai is gone! What is this town coming to?”

Otherwise nothing new from her.

The innkeeper really had nothing new, not even anything about Nikolai, but I did have to pay for my next week of room and board. Against my better judgement I went to see Punny while there too.



“Did ya hear the one about the Vampire that underestimated his opponent? He didn’t know how much he had at stake.”

That’s better than the material he’s had so far… Otherwise he didn’t have anything for me either, which I was expecting.

Went to see Igor, but nothing there either except I was reassured that he’s “not tomb bad.” Who needs Punny Bones anyway?

Everything else in town may have been quiet, but it was an exciting day for Dr. Cranium. “Behold… Frankie!”



There she is.

He was very excited and certain she’d have all the necessary assets to become a premier laboratory assistant. And he’s a genius! None other have successfully created a Frankie like his!



He didn’t have much else. He didn’t want to talk about the experiments he and Frankie will perform as he thinks the world may not be ready for them. And Frankie is a little shy.

When I left he said he might not be available. That’s annoying for potion getting… I hope it was just talk.



Alrighty then. I don’t know if I want to know what those experiments will be either.

I went to go have a nap because I still had quite a bit of day left and my stamina and mana weren’t great. Especially the mana. Two hours did well for my stamina, but mana still wasn’t very good oh well.

Once night fell I went to go find Anna and yeah… Nikolai’s ghost too as expected.



They were very happy to see each other. So there’s that…



Together in death I suppose… They thanked me and vanished and I had to do the whole leave and come back again to get them to reappear. Unfortunately I went north and found an eerie mound.



It resulted in a wraith that destroyed me. When I tried again I still went north to see if it was a consistent thing or random and yeah, still there, but I managed to get away before getting completely killed.

Anna and Nikolai did come back to thank me, and I was able to talk to them. I didn’t get much in the way of new information that I hadn’t already learned or figured out by now. Nikolai told me about the secret passage from the crypt to the castle, but thanks to nosiness I already did that. He also mentioned the stranger that went to the castle, “the Dark Master”.

Anna also told me to talk to her old friend Olga (aw) for more information too as she was a good source. And I already do that too. I kind of feel like I was meant to do this earlier.

AND Nikolai gave me his hat. I have a hat! I’m coming, Bonehead! Not yet but soon. That was feeling like a bottleneck, so I’m glad.

Then they left… I guess they’re happy? They’re together and Anna’s no longer lost… Dead but clearly spirits are a thing so… Happy ending?

I fled back to town.

Thanks to the general activities of the day and that wraith encounter I didn’t have enough MP to levitate over the now-barred gate… I could use the spell but it immediately wore off so I had to rest until I had enough to get over the gate and the run back to the sweet sweet safety of the inn. Thankfully resting at the gate seemed safe enough.

I was not in good shape!



I got some dinner and instead of just delivering my food and leaving Bella actually stayed to talk!



She thinks Igor is a nice person and she always leaves out some dinner for him. He’s always polite to her though she doesn’t really understand his ‘graveyard humour.’

She was also glad I helped the gypsy. She doesn’t know if they’re werewolves or not and doesn’t care. They all have the right to live in Mordavia. She told me to tell the gypsy if I see him again that she and Yuri at least will welcome him in town. Yuri seemed a little more uncertain of this, but Bella seems in control here at the end of the day.

Time to end the day and what a day… Bed never looked so good.

And just as I was thinking, wow, a night with no interruptions, I woke in the morning to discover a note on my storage chest:



“Please meet tonight outside the town gates. I will be waiting, Your friend, Katrina.”

Is she my friend though?

Another night activity for me… but daytime means NPC rounds before finally going to see Bonehead again to deliver the hat.

Bella stayed again when she brought me breakfast and had more to say. Of particular interest were Erana’s staff and the Domovoi.

Staff: She said her mother would always visit the garden or her staff when unhappy and would feel better for doing so. She said tales said Erana was part fairy. She also suggested I sleep at the staff and I may have pleasant dreams. Another night task I suppose.



Domovoi: She used to see him as a child. She would sneak down in the middle of the night to try to find him and he would always laugh and laugh when she did. Awww. She doesn’t see him anymore as an adult but is sure he’s still there.

She also talked a bit about dreams and that they should be believed in. She’s always telling that to Yuri who seems less inclined.

Yuri had a dream last night about Tanya. He spoke of her going missing two years ago and that the gravedigger had seen a huge monster outside her window. Matches what the Domovoi told me. He was generally more chatty too and talked about the Domovoi and Rusalka but wasn’t sure if they actually existed or not. And there have always been rumours of vampires but it’s ill luck to speak of them.

Heading out and the Burgomeister was more open with me now too! He also didn’t have much to say about Vampires, just rumoured and that’s never heard of anyone actually being harmed by one.

I asked about the Dark One. It’s another subject of bad luck to speak of but he talked about how it was worshipped in the monastery and the members there mostly stayed there but were still feared in town. Then one day they were gone. They heard of the fighting at the Dark One’s cave, but only his grandfather returned with Erana’s staff.



People are being so open today! I guess I hit some threshold of doing enough good. He’s even telling me to be careful now, more nicely.

Nothing new from Olga or Igor. Dr. Cranium was trying to figure out his report on the Frankie.



I also told him about the undead. He just considered vampires and rusalki and wraiths to be superstitious nonsense. Tell that to the wraith that murdered me. Tell that to my friend, the rusalka who’s kindly trying not to murder me.

Time to head out and if I don’t get distracted by other matters, deliver a hat to Bonehead. Smooth sailing aside from a vicious rabbit encounter (vorbal bunny I think?), but they’re pretty manageable now.

I made my hat delivery and it looks pretty good on him I must say.



Baba Yaga was ready for me according to him, got a book ready and everything: “How to serve man”.

I had some looking around to do and there was supposed to be a ritual in the hollow of a tree here if I got the clue correct. If there was anything there I couldn’t find it yet. There was a large knothole but “knot” anything inside it. There was also a boulder nestled in the roots but nothing I tried with it worked either.

On to Baba Yaga’s hut…. but it kept walking away from me. Might be mad about the whole thing in Spielburg leading it to having to fly over here.



So according to Bonehead I gotta gift it something. We could be friends…

What about the rubber chicken?



Not its “type”. Fine.

Bonehead suggested thinking like a chicken to catch a chicken. So…

Corn?

Corn.



There’s a happy fed hut. I finally found a use for that corn from the beginning of the game!

Into Baba Yaga’s hut… Will I find useful information? Or will I meet a froggy fate?

Weekly Game Update Dec. 15 – Dec. 21

I started a long long term weight…plague…curse on my backlog, okay these are all way too negative, but a game that’s been started and stopped way too many times. Otherwise, I feel like there was something I had in mind to say about this week, but now I can’t think of what it would have been so onward.



New/Added Games:
Oddworld Collection (I don’t want to list all the games)
It’s a dollar deal on Fanatical, so 99% off. Incredible deal. No idea when I’ll get to any of them but finding out the first couple were puzzle platformers greatly raised my interest.

--

Started:
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (AGAIN!)

--

Finished:
The world had been sad since Tuesday (itch.io)

--

Currently Playing

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (PC, Steam)
Fields of Mistria (PC, Steam)
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (PC, GOG)
Return to Monkey Island (PC, Steam)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, emu)

Daily
Sunday: Nothing
Monday: Quest for Glory IV, Trails into Reverie
Tuesday: Quest for Glory IV, Fields of Mistria
Wednesday: The world had been sad since Tuesday, Quest for Glory IV, Trails into Reverie
Thursday: Quest for Glory IV, Fields of Mistria
Friday: Quest for Glory IV
Saturday: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Quest for Glory IV

--

Progress:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie


Post-gaming it up… 5th stratum is open. We did the daydream for the Brights. That was cute and sweet. It’s so good to see Renne thriving and hopefully she can Cassius can really warm up to each other. We have more daydreams to do, but we’re going to spread them out across doing stratums as rewards for doing said stratums as we’re both far more interested in the daydreams.

--

Fields of Mistria


Still plugging along in my lovely Fall of year 1. I have a red bull calf! So, three cows and three chickens. I want more colours. I want Hayden’s farm upgraded so I can get other kinds of animals.

I upgraded the General Store and now working on a bridge at the beach. Getting more friendship with people. Realized that Dozy the dog would OF COURSE love sticks, and by realize I mean Juniper mentioned it, so all I needed for a loved gift was a piece of wood. Just wood… All this time I’d been settling for just a liked gift in eggs.

--

A Link to the Past


THIS GAME. I don’t remember how old I was when I first started it, but I’ve never finished it. I have started it so many times over a span of 20-25 years across multiple systems. t’s absurd, it’s cursed. I’ve left a trail of unfinished files in my wake. THIS TIME will be the time.

Hopefully.

I’ve done the first dungeon getting the first pendant. I’ve gotten some heart pieces. I’m ready to head off to the desert palace for my second pendant.

I can’t remember where the farthest I got was. Something in the dark world I think. Unless I did get back out. I don’t know for sure! I just know that time I was also determined and then the desire to replay Chrono Trigger struck and that spelled the end of that attempt and no attempt since got as far.

--

Backlog: 171
My backlog was pretty stagnant for a while only moving one or two in either direction at most. Now it’s rocketing up… oops.

Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Part 9
The Adventurer’s Log

Baba Yaga time! What will she want from this time?

Well, it wasn’t frog time. Disappointing.

I walked in to get a bucket of water dumped on my head then she appeared and froze me.



There she is…

And here’s my herosicle.



She still remembered me, claiming I turned her into a frog. She was the one who cast the spell! I just reflected it. At least share the blame. She was mad.

“You turned me into a frog, didn’t you? Thought I wouldn’t remember you? ‘Let’s just visit Baba Yaga and see what we can turn her into today,’ you thought to yourself, hunh?”

And bitter.

Then she tried to decide between hero sandwiches or 'eye scream’, deciding to go straight for dessert if I didn’t have anything to say for myself.

Obviously I lingered silently first to get a death.



“Food for Thought?”

I tried to bring up the gnome. She wasn’t impressed.



She really does like her food.

I tried talking to her about other stuff and in the midst of that her bat buddy chimed in wanting Elderbury Pie instead according to her translations anyway. Then that made her want some. Batty saviour also reminded her I was the one to bring her the mandrake that made for some lovely mousse. So she made a deal with me to bring a fresh elderbury pie and she’d let me go. The way to her heart truly is food.

I have the berries and a pie pan. I wasn’t sure how to pie-ify it. Thankfully Bonehead came to the rescue again when I talked to him. He had the recipe for me:

Bonemeal - need to find bones and crush them

Grue Goo - I scooped more up last time I was around the Dark One’s Cave so that worked out

Elderbury Berries - I got those already

Pie Pan - I bought one way back

So I just needed bonemeal. I wasn’t sure where to get bone. No luck at the cave which is magically sealed or the cemetery so I tried for the swamp…

And glided straight into its loving arms.



I need add nothing more.

I did find some bones though! Then I needed to figure out a way to crush them.

I went back to town to get more corn in case I need to feed the hut again and maybe Igor could help with his tools? Igor was of no help. Maybe the hut could crush it?

No, but as soon as I arrived…oh yeah, the GIANT MORTAR AND PESTLE sitting outside her hut.



Right there. That I’d wondered about previously. So yeah, that worked and I used a flask to hold the bonemeal. Showed my disgusting finished pie to Bonehead and he told me to show it to their lead skull who then cooked it with those lasers they fire.

I didn’t even need more corn for the hut; Bonehead told it to sit down for me.

Baba Yaga being Baba Yaga couldn’t just let me walk in. She turned me into a hedgehog.



Who’s a cute little hero? I could just finish the rest of the game like this.

She was gonna eat me again until she was reminded I was bringing her the Elderbury Pie. It 'wouldn’t be polite’ to eat me now and I could be useful in the future. Everyone wants to use poor ol’ Cinder Win.

She did offer a reward for the pie once she changed me back: the gnome’s humour, a spell, or 'something’ useful.

I got a little panicky at this point because these all seemed to be things I needed as I tried different things with reloads. The spell is a hide spell and the 'something useful’ is the ritual that was supposed to be in the tree.

As it turned out when I tried entering again after making a choice, you can give her more food–garlic to get another reward. I’m just glad I happened to have two cloves and she was good with getting it twice.

I got a Good Humor Bar for the gnome.



He has been a bit pathetic yes.

I got my hide spell.

And I got my ritual. I also found out that the ritual could be used to summon a Dark One OR send it back to its own world. Finally an answer to why I’m even collecting these! I mean I’m sure an answer was coming and maybe I’m not doing things in an ideal order in terms of information, but good to know now. That said, she said it’d take a very powerful wizard to succeed at sending one away and didn’t think I qualified. Hmph. I’ll show her.

The Dark One’s Cave has been around for years and was the cult’s place of worship. They wanted to bring a Dark One to the world but failed. Dark Ones come from another plane and bring darkness, madness and destruction. So basically eldritch beings? She doesn’t want me messing with the cave as she doesn’t want to have to leave due to me ruining the neighbourhood. Thanks. As for the Dark One they were worshipping, it’s stuck in limbo now. So, I’m assuming it’s gonna get summoned and I’m gonna be sending it back.

But its magic aura is leaching into the world, thus all the fun dark stuff and undead and whatnot. It also affects magic so stuff like crystal balls don’t work well. And it’s what caused me to end up in the cave; I was summoned by the people in the castle but interference led me there instead.

And she also told me I should go to the castle sometime and that there was a secret passage. I’ll get there, I’ll get there.

Aside from wanting to eat me she was genuinely quite helpful. Good clarification on the Dark Ones, including that they’re basically a their own species and it was just one Dark One like I thought.

And now I could go help Punny Bones. Yay? Since I’ve also wholly completed elderbury berry related things, I thought maybe I could properly answer Leshy’s next riddle too.

I could and he had a new and final sounding one for me. “Watch out for the Faerie Queen.”



What is it faeries seek? I don’t know, but I’d like to find out for myself too! I wondered if I should try to find that faerie fountain that appeared at night, if it reappears anyway.

Onward back to town for now anyway. I gave Punny the Good Humor Bar and he was very happy. I’m not sure he was all that much better to be honest, and he was being a real jerk about dwarves.



But that wasn’t half bad I’ll admit. Not necessarily a major hit, but not bad.

He intends to give one last show then continue on his merry way. Before I left he told me the ultimate joke.



He’s gotten back the whole name rhyming thing gnomes have had anyway.



Didn’t share the joke with ME the player, oh no schmoe.

He advised using it on some big bad about to do me in then make my exit while he’s laughing. We’ll see I suppose.

I ate some dinner then napped for an hour which took enough time for it to be evening enough for Punny to give his final show here.



He made several jokes about the town and its people and it was better than the first show at least… It made some sense. He also gave me a shout-out for the help. And ended with a bow. He’s still no Keapon Laffin (even though the wordplay is very similar). I think partly it’s just his voice putting me off. It’s obnoxious… he’s obnoxious so it fits, but…



Return of the down joke which came up with Alichica in Shapeir.

He’s headed off to Silmaria next. Not sure how he’s intending to get there given I thought this valley was inaccessible now, but that’s his problem I guess. Gnome will out?

The innkeeper and farmer trio were certainly more appreciative this time.



Ya did something good, Punny, I’ll give you that. You could stop being such a jerk about dwarves though. More dwarf jokes–and they’re mean-spirited!–came up when I talked to him individually again.

Anyhoo, that was that. I was still waiting for full nightfall to see Katrina but a short nap took care of that. (And Punny really was gone, even his room was cleared out.)

I met up with Katrina and she gave me another healing potion. I won’t say no to those.

She works in the castle and that’s why she can’t see me in the day–someone might notice her absence. Is that the only real reason though. No one’s allowed in unless invited.



You’re making me uneasy, lady.

She had to go but she wanted to meet again some evening outside the castle gate as it’d be too dangerous for her to come here again. She also doesn’t want me to mention her to the gatekeeper or she’ll get in trouble for sneaking out.

Still making me uneasy.

I had a few other night tasks:

- the gypsy leader said will o’ wisps were said to be children’s souls so somehow getting one to the squid stone could get me another ritual and I haven’t even seen them yet
- find the faerie fountain again if possible
- sleep at Erana’s staff for a dream?

Will o’ wisps first, not that I was sure how I’d get one…

Found them!



They didn’t respond to my greeting.

But given they’re supposedly children souls I thought I could offer candy and it worked. It was put on the ground and they clustered around it. And if Zelda has taught me anything it’s catch things in bottles, so one of my many flasks came in handy.

That was simpler than I thought it’d be. I feel a bit bad though…

And the squid stone is in the next screen over. Using them made runes appear and I was able to use the Dark One’s Sign again.



Got another one of these point the sign at the right things in order puzzles. I recognized this as similar to the sign and letters down in the monastery basement, so I figured I needed those letters specifically and checking back on my screenshots the A had a notch indicating a possible start.



I tried going in order in both directions. Alzoov didn’t work, but Avoozl did.

A slot opened and I was able to retrieve the next ritual. I’m only missing two now, though I have no idea what to do about either one.

I couldn’t find the faerie fountain again. I ended up at Erana’s Garden and decided to try sleeping there. I’m not actually totally sure if Bella meant Erana’s staff or garden as she talked about both. I did get a dream.

It started well.



Then things took a dark turn. Trapped by darkness. Unable to breathe. Darkness tearing the warmth, life and magic away.



Then I woke from the nightmare the next morning, it still seeming perfectly clear like it had really happened. Yikes. Rough night, though I was still restored. Rough morning too because there wasn’t any fruit on the tree, at least not yet.

Another day and I wasn’t quite sure what to do now. I still need two rituals but no clues there. I need it to be evening to see Katrina again. So, let it be a talking day until something comes up. Gypsies first, then Rusalka then back to town.

I went to see the gypsy leader, Magda. She had a strange vision about me:



Strange yellow bird like a bird but not a bird? My…rubber chicken? Something to do with Leshy maybe? The elderbury bush? Some other bushy area? Baffling. I would like to find a use for that rubber chicken though. Maybe the hawk I sometimes see??

I also learned more about the undead here. Some stuff I knew already like the rusalka, but she also talked about vampires. Finally vampire talk.

A person drained to death will come back as Revenant. If the vampire shares its blood with the victim the victim will come back a vampire but a slave to its Vampire Master and can’t harm them directly. Sometimes someone won’t be drained completely and can live until a natural death and then rise from the grave.



Also some info about the Boyars. The last one was a strange man supposedly. His son apparently left the valley in shame and horror. The gypsies returned when they heard Borgov Castle was inhabited again, thinking the son had returned and they could trade again. They found out from the gatekeeper that the last of the Borgov family was dead and the castle owned now by a distant cousin who promised to protect the valley as a true Boyar. They were able to do some trading with the gatekeeper but never saw a sign of this cousin. Then the rains fell and they were trapped here.

I also got another card reading that summed up to some kind of master and apprentice turned slave relationship and bound man wanting revenge once freed. On me I’m sure. Vampires, it’s vampires. Is Katrina the can still live until dying naturally type Magda spoke of?

I headed out and stopped by the Leshy bushes, but no chicken luck there. Give up your secrets, Rubber Chicken.

Not too much from the Rusalka. She did talk about the swamp a bit more.



I didn’t have any trouble getting away from that tomb though. That said, enchanted swamp certainly fits.

I gave her more flowers too. Why not? She appreciates them.

Nothing much in town though the Burgomeister keeps telling me to please be careful now. That’s nice. And I bought some more garlic and candy just in case.

Dr. Cranium had a couple new options. I could ask him about his career after he said I’d make a good assistant if he didn’t already have Frankie.



Eh.

I could also tell him about Silmaria.



Maybe that’ll be in the next game.

I really wasn’t sure what to do now beyond kill time until evening so I could go see Katrina again. I’ve had plenty to do so feels a bit odd that I’m at a 'now what?’ state again. It may be castle time soon… I don’t want to try again until I’ve talked to Katrina, so I’ll just have to see what comes of my meeting with her.

I’m a constant saver if it means I won’t have to redo stuff. Even if it’s a tiny thing it gets annoying when I have to reload, so I’d say reloading to avoid doing a section twice makes plenty sense to me. It’s not lazy, just efficient!

Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Part 10
The Adventurer’s Log

Twiddling my thumbs. I decided to wander the forest, maybe get some stats up, try out my rubber chicken in various place. Maybe I’d find something. Maybe something more would come of the faeries since that’s still a loose end and a needed answer for Leshy.



I may not know what to do, but I got a good bush message anyway.

The rubber chicken lured the elderbury bush closer…



But what’s the point? Maybe just an alternative way to get berries?

Well, it can have my rubber chicken. It’s a gift. I hope it’s happy.

Evening finally fell after some napping and dinner and I met with Katrina again. She was missing her scarf this time.



I think she was trying to flirt with me. I also had the options to flirt, date or kiss, and I did try them all in a save, though they didn’t go anywhere.



I wasn’t considering it a date! And I didn’t keep any of the options in my canon save. We can be friends. If I trusted you more. Which I currently don’t.

Okay, based on Magda’s card readings I think we will end up allies. Maybe?

But I still don’t trust her.

A couple other things: she’s lived in the castle for many years now. She knows lots of magic and it’s always been part of her life. Perhaps she could sometime show me spells I’d never find at W.I.T.

Then she had to go again and wants to meet in three nights. Three nights?? What am I gonna do with all this time?? I wonder if I could have met her the first time outside town earlier in the game, if I hadn’t been a coward about going out at night.

I guess unless the next day brings anything, I’ll tackle the castle again… I have a lot more stuff and spells now, including aura and hide that both seem like they may be useful there. Maybe I can find Tanya.

Sleep time first though and I tried at Erana’s staff this time to see if I got another dream. I did.



It started well again, before the darkness came back. There was a voice of pain and death calling and growing closer bringing with it greater fear.



And then I woke up.



I wonder, is this something interrupting Erana’s pleasantness, or this some kind of channeling or experiencing something horrible she herself experienced?

A rough start to a possibly rough day for ol’ Cinder.

And then I remembered I wanted to see the Domovoi again so I reloaded. And then it turned out he wasn’t there boo. So back to it. Nothing really in town, so off to the castle…



Here we go again! Hopefully it’ll prove more fruitful this time…

Everything in this place makes me nervous! Not least the very creaky doors. I got back to the Great Hall which seems like a good starting place?



Then the bedroom again which made a wraith appear when I tried the chest last time. But hide or aura spells? If I hide and use my open spell…



Well, the hide spell failed, and it attacked me.



But I WON. …and used every last bit of mana to do so. But I have fruit.



The chest only had a healing potion and 25 crowns… not as progress-making or exciting as I’d hoped… I’ve barely even needed money these days.

I think I found the door to Tanya’s room, but guarded….



Nothing to do but open and see what happens!

Surprisingly, not lethal.



The monster just slammed the door in my face and the narrator said it didn’t seem to like me letting light in and I might have better luck at night.

Always needing it to be night…like it’s thematic or something. It was only around midday. So, I slept a bunch. On the stairs. Restful. I didn’t want to lose my way and this room though, so efficiency and good use of time be damned.

And I found Tanya…



There’s my first (obvious) vampire… Toby is the furry beast.

She had quite a bit of conversation, especially once I gave her her doll back. Her doll is named Vana and was given to her by Toby.

Everything used to be good and she got to go out all the time with her parents and stay up late to visit the various inn guests, until the rains came and people stopped coming. She wasn’t allowed out anymore because her parents were afraid the Bad Things would get her. She had to go to bed at night and was scared of the dark and her dad wouldn’t let her even have a candle in fear that would draw a bad thing to her.

Then Toby started showing up at her window and comforting her and telling her he’d keep the bad things away. Turned out “Aunt Trina” is his master and she sent him to her. “Aunt Trina” clearly being Katrina. She said she would be Tanya’s friend and Tanya would be her little girl forever and ever.



When her mommy found out about Vana she took the doll away and she was scared they’d make Toby go away if they found out so she ran away with him.

She has her own room now and can play and dance in the great hall with Aunt Trina and her hound, Cuddles. She’s not afraid of the dark anymore. She just doesn’t like the Dark Man that Trina brought in and wishes he hadn’t come. He’s mean. Toby doesn’t like him either.

She’d like to see Mommy and Daddy again but Aunt Trina says they’d be scared of her now and she doesn’t want to scare them. She’ll never go back again. Toby would even bring her back to make her happy but doesn’t want anything to happen to her.

I asked about Vampires. Those are a scary thing and why they had garlic all over the inn. She used to have garlic but she doesn’t like it now. She has a necklace now.



That seems like it may be important…

So… Katrina had her brought here. And she brought the “Dark Man” here who I’ve been assuming is Ad Avis. What’s the motivation behind all this… And I feel like she’s baiting me around too.

And now what for me? Telling Bella and Yuri about this doesn’t seem like a good idea. I suppose it’s possible some kind of closure could come it? But she’s clearly a vampire.

I went back to the inn but there we no new options and the Domovoi just seems to be gone now.

I had another dream at Erana’s staff.



Then realized it wasn’t me doing this but someone in the past. So, channeling some of Erana’s memories here?

Then the darkness came again, with a voice calling out drawing me nearer and all warmth being flayed from me.

And I woke up with a scream.

Another day of not really being sure what to do with myself. I thought I might get more from another visit with Tanya, but needed night for that. I went to Erana’s Garden to get more fruit.

And I was playing with my Trigger spell, relighting the lamps. I tried it on the water and a closed tulip sprung out.



With my open spell I got it to open revealing a scroll that had a protection spell on it–provides some protection against physical attacks. Well, that would’ve been nice to discover earlier! I needed to experiment more. Thanks Erana.

Nothing more from Tanya. Another sleep at the staff. Another dream.



Someone there… but reaching out there was no one. And then I woke.

Tonight I would be able to meet Katrina again and hopefully get some direction.

I should have visited the gypsies again. I mean I still didn’t get a lot in the way of giving me something to do but Magda did have more to say.

She didn’t know of Katrina but said she wouldn’t trust her. Don’t worry, Magda, I don’t.

She had more important sounding stuff to say about Erana’s Staff. It protects the town from the undead. She had a vision in which it told her of its protection and the Destiny Spell.



So one person would die to bring another back.



Not sure what to predict on this particular point yet, but good to know…

Davy also mentioned he saw some tall dark man on the castle walls one night turn into a bat. So. Yeah. Vampire action. Just as an aside.

Kind of killing time. I tried to give the Burgomeister (maybe one day I’ll use his name, Dmitri) flowers but he wasn’t interested.



He wouldn’t take candy either, saying he wouldn’t take candy from strangers. I’m less of a stranger now! You’ve been friendly with me even! Let me give you gifts!

Right. New mission for the day. Give everyone flowers. Yuri wasn’t interested, but Bella liked them! “Oh, how lovely. I’ll put these in some water in the kitchen. Thank you so much. I love flowers.”

And Olga:



Nnnnope! I just got you and Boris back together I’m not gonna get between that!

Igor: “Pretty flowers. Look nice on grave.” He liked candy too! But not one of my sandwiches; he’s allergic to avocado.

And either some people aren’t taking or I had more flowers than I thought…

They were too ordinary and common for Dr. Cranium. “Bah. These are just common, ordinary Bellis perennis.” Then I thought to give him a magic fruit:

“That fruit is clearly scientifically impossible. Since it violates all known laws of chemistry, physics, and biology, I have no use for!”

What kind of scientist are you?

My gift giving was yielding highly variable results.

I went to go see Katrina again once night fell.

She needed my help but doesn’t entirely trust me and is worried about the danger. She wanted me to find some things for her, but too dangerous really…



I got a ritual in the swamp! Look look! I couldn’t show her any of them. I think I got a bit ahead of the game here. I could also only ask her about a couple things again before she left. So I was doing some reloads.



So I need more skill before seeing her again and she wants me to be very powerful before visiting Borgov Castle. She wants to be certain I can face all of Mordavia’s dangers first. Jokes on you! I’ve been there a few times! I mean… I haven’t run into the “bad man” but, you know. Visits happened.

I really think I needed to be meeting up with her earlier…

She left, disappearing into the mist despite a lack of fog around the area. I’d also tried giving her garlic but she couldn’t abide the smell. Vaaaampire.

My hope was that she’d see me again the next evening. I was really floundering here. Or I need to figure out the fairy riddle for Leshy but I have no clues there either. That and two more rituals are all I have left here. I’m running out of things to solve.

I tried levitating over the castle gate since there weren’t any necrotaurs yet. I lost access to my cursor and most of my menu… and nothing was happening. Might’ve broken it a little? This is why we save lots.

I went back to the castle thinking to visit Tanya again and I headed to the great hall, I was able to listen in on an argument. Progress! Things are thinging!



Katrina going full dark mistress and vampire. SEE?

And a dead-looking vampire Ad Avis. He thinks she can’t trust “him,” being me. That I’d destroy her as soon as finding out what she is.

She thinks I’m already attracted to her (while I’ve been avoiding every flirt, kiss and date option) and she wants me to act of my own free will and not be her puppet. If she wanted a puppet she could have just used Ad Avis. Heh.



He’s still looking to have all the power.

She wasn’t impressed by his posturing. He hated her from the moment they met and thought he could use her, but it’s she who’s always been the master and he the apprentice. Magda’s card reading alluded to this. He’ll never be the Dark Master–his pride overrides his thinking.

Still not sure what her aim here actually is.

I stopped listening and the great hall was freed up for me to enter.

Nothing new from Tanya and Toby but at least I’m learning my way around the castle.

I decided to try to go back to Erana’s Garden after a stop by the gypsy camp to see if anything was different at night–their fire pit was lit and there was a wolf that was all. I got lost trying to find the garden and instead found a magic staff. The staff disappeared when I tried to take it and fairies appeared.



Erana’s Staff may be claimed when a sacrifice is made: One life for another. I have to bring about that sacrifice. Once the sacrifice is made I’ll need to perform the Ritual of Release which will free the staff from its confinement. But won’t that break the protection on the town? She taught me the ritual and in return wants me to come back when I have Erana’s Staff.

Will this somehow free Erana? I kinda feel like she’s not exactly dead, but trapped. Or both…

The Ritual of Release was added to my spell list now.

And now I maybe have an answer for Leshy, unless I need to complete this first.

I found the garden, I was right near it and had another dream. It started in the wonderful place again but then there was the darkness.

I remembered dying and being overwhelmed with terror and running away. I was helpless and hopeless and remembered eternal loneliness. Then awoke again. Erana…

Next day I will go see Leshy and then see from there… At least I am still finding things despite my uncertainty.

Weekly Game Update Dec. 22 – Dec. 28

I hope you had happy holidays or just a good week! Had a very lovely chill Christmas with family. The kids were happy and it was generally a good day.

I got a finished game and more progress made this week. I am also quite saturated in Zelda.

New/Added Games:
I am feeling extremely spoiled. Christmas delivered a blow the backlog…
Switch
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Fantasian: Neo Dimension
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake

Steam
Plant of Lana
Neva
Animal Well
The Crimson Diamond
Beyond Shadowgate
Hohokum

--

Started:
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

--

Finished:
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
Finished! Two more posts coming out.

--

Currently Playing

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (PC, Steam)
Fields of Mistria (PC, Steam)
Return to Monkey Island (PC, Steam)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, emu)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)

Daily
Sunday: A Link to the Past, Quest for Glory IV
Monday: A Link to the Past, Quest for Glory IV, Trails into Reverie
Tuesday: Quest for Glory IV
Wednesday: Echoes of Wisdom
Thursday: A Link to the Past, Echoes of Wisdom
Friday: A Link to the Past, Quest for Glory IV
Saturday: A Link to the Past, Echoes of Wisdom

--

Progress:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie


Not much to say. Just working through the fifth stratum and completing more of the group missions.

--

A Link to the Past


I am now the farthest I’ve ever been in this game! I made it to the Dark World and I’ve done three dungeons. Funnily enough I think I had the easiest time with the Swamp Palace despite water. I got lost in the Dark Palace and the Skull Woods were annoying—wallmasters suck, not that that’s anything new but they were being particularly annoying to me.

I’m gonna try the digging game again for the heart piece there, and then it’s off to another dungeon.

--

Echoes of Wisdom


This game is so cute and charming and I’m having fun. I’ve done two dungeons so far, Southorn Ruins and the Gerudo place. That last dungeon to the fix the desert rift was kind of big actually.

I’m theoretically headed to the Zora area next if I don’t get distracted. I’ve also done several sidequests and have access to horses! They’re so cute too…

The echoes are fun and have led to some good uses, although definitely piling up.

--

Backlog: 178
Shooting up! The library grows

Wait until you reach the end-game of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, you'll have a full list to go through 😊 I used the sort option more often than the full scroll in order to pick my echoes more efficiently.

I see you've completed Trails into Reverie! That's exciting! I'm edging closer to that game little by little. I've just wrapped up Cold Steel II and I don't think the break between II and III will be very long for me, although other fun RPGs are calling my name now too! Decisions decisions! Are you diving straight into Daybreak after this?

Wait until you reach the end-game of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, you'll have a full list to go through 😊 I used the sort option more often than the full scroll in order to pick my echoes more efficiently.

I see you've completed Trails into Reverie! That's exciting! I'm edging closer to that game little by little. I've just wrapped up Cold Steel II and I don't think the break between II and III will be very long for me, although other fun RPGs are calling my name now too! Decisions decisions! Are you diving straight into Daybreak after this?

I haven't even looked at the sort options ^^; I should probably do that.

Daybreak next is the plan currently! Once we get through this post-game...which is a lot and we've been stalled on playing at all due to holidays and life things. If you've finished CS II you know about the Golden Reverie Corridor, it's something kind of similar to that, but much much more. But we should be able to go straight from Daybreak I to Daybreak II which will be very nice! And Trails in the Sky remake coming too...

Happy New Year!

2024 is over! That was a year. I was hoping it would be a bit more productive, but I did play some good things…and got in several replays. I’m going to go over my wrap-up for the year then talk about some loose goals for 2025.

Firstly everything I played but didn’t necessarily finish:

A Highland Song
The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure
The Curse of Monkey Island
A Tiny Sticker Tale
Donkey Kong Country 2
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Sea of Stars
Pilot Wings 64
Harvestella
Ocarina of Time
The Messenger
The Messenger
The Messenger: Picnic Panic
Mario Party 2
Mario Party 3
Link to the Past
Super Mario RPG Remake
Gargoyle's Quest
Kuru Kuru Kururin
Return to Monkey Island
Chrono Trigger
Donkey Kong Country
Pokémon Legends Arceus
Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster
Star Ocean Second Story R
Super Mario Land
The Legend of Zelda
Donkey Kong
Super Mario Bros.
King's Quest VI: Heir Today Gone Tomorrow
Quest For Glory 1 So You Want to Be a Hero
A Little to the Left
Metroid: Zero Mission
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster
Folder Dungeon
Day of the Hamster
Extreme Pinball
King's Quest I AGDI
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire
Sea of Stars
The Messenger
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
Quest for Glory III: Wages of War
The Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
The Curse of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island
Sandwich Quest
Fields of Mistria
Bug Fables
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness
Arcane Beak
Ghost Hunter
P.E. Noire
Tempres
Pipe
Lodge
Rental
The world had been sad since Tuesday
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Now everything I did finish:

January
A Tiny Sticker Tale
The Messenger
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
The Curse of Monkey Island (replay)

February
Sea of Stars
The Messenger (replay)
The Messenger: Picnic Panic
Super Mario RPG (remake)

March
Nothing

April
Nothing

May
Pokémon Legends Arceus
Super Mario Land
Donkey Kong
King's Quest VI (replay)

June
Chrono Trigger (replay)
A Little to the Left
Trails to Azure (replay)

July
Folder Dungeon
Day of the Hamster
King's Quest 1 AGDI
Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero

August
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure

September
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (replay)
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire

October
Sea of Stars (replay)
The Messenger (replay)
The Secret of Monkey Island (replay)
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (replay)

November
The Curse of Monkey Island (replay)
Quest for Glory III: Wages of War
Sandwich Quest
Tales of Monkey Island (replay)

December
Arcane Beak
Ghost Hunter
P.E. Noire
Tempres
Pipe
Lodge
Rental
The world had been sad since Tuesday
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness



The nothingness of March and April was due to a combination of eye issues and playing Pokémon Legends Arceus. I like how December always spikes thanks to itchmas.



My Favourite Games this Year
(that I played for the first time)

Sea of Stars

I played a normal run and a new game+ run. I really enjoyed it, and it felt very comfy to play, not a cozy game, but comfy. It looks and sounds great too. I’m looking forward to The Throes of the Watchmaker DLC this year.

The Messenger

The only platformer I’ve finished three times! It’s just so fun and feels great to control. I really felt my improvement each time as well. I still don’t want to go for all the power seals.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

Still playing but did roll credits, just post-game stuff… I had a lot of apprehension going into this one, but enjoyed it more than I was worried about. I have some flaws with it, but not ones that send me into long rants. There were some really good moments and I enjoyed the new characters. And get that presumably last romp through Crossbell…

Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness

My second favourite Sierra title I’ve played/watched now! I had a great time. Loved the place and liveliness of the characters and the narration and voice over. Just a really solid good time minus my usual issues with combat in the series.

--

Starting into the year my overall stats are looking like:
2024 Started but Unfinished Collection
Number of Games: 18
Backlog: 178 up from 155 at the start of the year - whooops. Oh well, the library of options grows!
Paused: 46 up from 42 – whoops part 2
Retired: 11 - unchanged
Completed 2024: 39
Completed Total: 248

I was hoping to hit the 250 milestone by the end of the year but that didn't happen, oh well. It'll happen soon!

Onward to 2025!

I have a list of tentative goals.

I’d like to actually beat certain games that are great games and yet have plagued my backlog for far too long. Far far far too long in one case. There are 4 in particular:

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana – this file will have taken an embarrassing amount of time, especially considering how much I was enjoying it, but is one I can continue and won’t need to restart

Okami – I’m gonna have to restart this. Again. This’ll be the fourth time at least? But I sure as heck don't really remember what I was doing...or how to play. I don’t know how I haven’t finished it as it’s up my alley in so many ways. This is also fueled by the sequel announcement.

Chained Echoes – I really want to pick up where I left off but it’s going to be harder to do than Ys VIII which at least had some sprinkling of playtime in there. I don’t want to restart it all again when I’m well into it either though, ugh. This one’s more tentative because of this and yes, I know, the longer I put it off the worse it’ll get, although maybe a restart will get more appealing…

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – IN PROGRESS. This is the one I most want DONE because I have started it countless times over the years. I don’t remember how old I was when I first played it, but I have left multiple unfinished files strewn across the SNES, emulation, 3DS, and NSO at least, possibly the SNES Classic Mini as well, and it’s absurd.

I would also like to end the year with my paused list being smaller than it was at the start. So less than 46, which means actually finishing some of that stuff and not dumping too many more in.

There are some games I’ve been thinking about playing sooner than later or replaying and just haven’t gotten to yet. There are also new games I just got I want to actually play through and not leave for ages. I’m gonna list these all too, not as a set goal but as something to look back on at the end of the year and see where I did or didn’t follow through on:

Heaven’s Vault (replay)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (replay)
80 Days
Sourcery!
Saltsea Chronicles
Strange Horticulture
Subsurface Circular
Shadowgate
Uninvited
Déjà vu

NEW STUFF
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – in progress
Fantasian – Neo Dimension
Dragon Quest III HD-2D
Neva
Animal Well
The Crimson Diamond
Beyond Shadowgate
Hohokum
Planet of Lana

And Trails through Daybreak 1 and 2 and hopefully the Trails in the Sky remake will happen too.

The Adventurer's Log
I can't predict everything and I could easily change my mind, but my current thoughts on the first few games of this year's line-up are:

Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire -> That is happening next of course to finish off the QFG series.
Discworld II Missing Presumed...?! -> I had originally intended to play this earlier this year but QFG happened instead
Day of the Tentacle -> Big ol' gap in my LucasArts history!

As always we'll see how things go. My specific game goals often don't pan out very well ^^;. But I WILL beat LttP! Here's to a better year I hope! Here's to good progress and a good time in whatever hobbies you have.

Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Part 11
The Adventurer’s Log


Leshy, Leshy can I answer your faerie riddle?

I could! But it didn’t give me anything immediately useful.



Unless the old leave and come back method works…

It got a result.

I got squished by his bushes and laughed at.



Not fatally squished and he thanked me for all the fun. Maybe in another day, since he did say come back in a while.

Once night fell I checked around for Katrina, but nothing yet and went to go see Tanya again. Now I was able to tell her about the Staff of Erana and that she won’t be a “Bad Thing” anymore, and explained to Toby about the sacrifice needed…

Don’t like this.

Tanya said Toby understands and asked me to take them there so she can be with Mommy and Daddy again.



And here we go… The rules of the sacrifice were clear…

No no no



Toby’s face :( :( :( He was given a few chances to confirm…



And the ritual and sacrifice were complete. He loved her so much :(

Then the staff became a part of me and can be summoned.

Tanya was cured but devastated… She wanted to protect Toby too. It’s good she’s cured, but… :(



And she finished with “I love you too, Toby.”

Took Tanya to her parents in some narration and they were overjoyed.



Another morning. Or mourning.

I have the staff now, so I guessed I could go find the fairy queen again… I had to wait until night though presumably as with the other couple previous encounters. In the meantime, did my town rounds, especially now Tanya was back.

She was there in the morning.



Yuri thanked me as soon as I stepped out.

I chatted with Tanya. I was able to ask about Ad Avis by name now. She didn’t like him; he didn’t like her. He didn’t like Katrina. They fought all the time but he had to do what she said which made him very mad. I’d bet.

She liked ‘Trina. She was kind to her and gave her lots of nice things and taught her to read and write. She’ll never go back to her though. She wanted to stay with her mommy and daddy.

Toby was her best friend and she wished he could have come and lived with them here.

She’s happy to be home though.



Yuri was happy to have her back and have her be her joyful self again. Is she entirely her joyful self though? Toby…



Yeah you BETTER give your love and actually comfort her from the dark and scary things. This was your fault too.

He wasn’t sure what to make of her stories of vampires, but he would gladly go to the castle and stake the one who took her from them.

In regards to Toby too: “He may have looked like a monster, but he obviously had a heart and mind of great kindness.”

Good. Recognize that.

Bella was overjoyed as well, if not quite getting the whole vampire aspect. She’ll never forgive the woman who stole her, but does understand her a little. She’d always wanted a child such as Tanya too.

The Burgomeister addressed her rescue as soon as I stepped out too.



I’m bringing all the happiness back! Kind of.

Still a little concerned that I took the staff that was protecting the town…

I got nothing new from Igor or Dr. Cranium.

I went to see Magda again and she’d had a dream of the staff speaking to her saying the sacrifice had been made. Davy went to investigate fearing I had been the one to make the sacrifice. They don’t normally worry so about outsiders, but I’ve become more than an outsider to them. Aw.

I told her about what happened and that I had the staff now. She was sure I’d angered some very powerful beings and warned me to be very careful wandering at night.

She also told me the only sure way to kill a vampire was to drive a wooden stake through its heart during the day. They’re too powerful at night and trying to do so would likely result in becoming their food.

I popped by the inn at night. Tanya’s been teaching Bella to read and together they want to teach all the women to read. Everyone is well.

The farmers told me Tanya’s been seen playing at the staff singing 'Trina’s in love with a human, which they think just has to be me. Oh boy.

Once night fell I went looking for the fairies. They always seem to show up in the same screen I think but it seems like there are some sides you can’t come in from or they won’t show.

Anyway I got them… Or they got me.



The Queen, Tatiana, has been seeking the Staff for a long time and tried to take it.



The Staff rather emphatically said no.



Tatiana said I had claimed the staff, but I dunno, I’m kind of feeling like the one claimed by it. She was pissed and she and her two buddies there attacked me.

The Staff granted me a Resistance to elements spell, while holding it, which certainly helped a lot, but it was still rough… really rough. I also died the first time. I used more healing potions I’m comfortable with, and no, not just one.

But I won, I won.



Tatiana left behind a paper that turned out to be the Ritual of the Heart, the one that had been given to Gregor according to the diary in the monastery, but he’d gone missing. It’d be nice to know a little more of what all happened there.

That’s 5/6 rituals to find now…

I went to the Garden to sleep and have another dream. I was with friends who were strangers and all was warm and joyful. Then I kissed the mage, Erana.



And everything seems well there now? Is she more at peace? Nothing dark came this time and I woke rested and feeling great.

I went to Magda again. She still didn’t want to talk about the Dark One but decided it was time to learn more about it now. Come back at a later time type thing.

The Leshy just seems to be gone now too…I hope I didn’t mess anything up and that was solely for points by the end. The only time I feel like I actually needed him was to get the info for getting into Baba Yaga’s area.

Some aimless wandering, fighting then bed time.

There was another note from Katrina in the morning. She wanted to meet tonight. We have much to discuss. Finally.

I spent the day doing a bit of magic grinding and sleeping then once night fell, I set off to see Katrina, but right before I got to the castle gate…



Heeey, Ad Avis, buddy ol’ pal. Friend.

I had the option to apologize to him. Courteously!



I killed him and ended his plans for world domination and that led to Katrina enslaving him. He wanted vengeance on us both.

I also gave him a cheery hello!

“I HATE cheerful people. I eliminated them in Raseir and I shall do the same here!”

Such a jolly fellow. This man is so petty.

After a bit of talk going nowhere he decided it was chase time and summoned a bunch of necrotaurs to chase me until they caught me. I actually made it back to town and got over the gate, but then I tried exiting again and they got me.

I was brought to a dungeon where he taunted me some more. He claimed the Dark Master was the cause of all that was wrong here. The Dark Master brought me here against his better judgement. She made him a Nosferatu and seeks to do the same to me.

He’d spare me though by ending my existence, my miserable existence. Then together with the Dark Master they’ll summon an eternal darkness and will be able to travel freely. They’ll create an army of undead and conquer the world.



Truly this man is a victim of his ego. Not only did he taunt me with telling me only a stake would destroy him, he left me alone in the dungeon with a stake and hammer just to torment me. So close yet so far. Chained up, sure, but come on, wizard here! Wizard who defeated you! What a maroon.

He did put me to sleep and I woke the next day as the sun was starting to set. I promptly used Open to unlock the chains.



Okay this could be a trap here, but I got the stake and hammer and, well, I needed to find a safe out but step one done.

Once I was done examining things like that mace. “It’s a grazing mace!”

I went to the door and overheard two guards talking and grumbling. They didn’t get why they were here. The Master said nothing about a prisoner. One thought Ad Avis (or Adda Bees) was trying to pull a fast one on her. But at least it gave them something to do.

I listened again for more.



Even a goon called out him leaving a stake with me! I want to say it’s some kind of trap, but Ad Avis might just be egotistical enough for this to be exactly as he said–leaving weapons just out of reach torment me.

More importantly, well practically speaking anyway I’ll take calling him out, they talked about a secret passage connecting the dungeon with the master’s room.



This guy didn’t think any good was gonna come of any of this and he’ll be no doubt correct!

I didn’t even have to search for the secret passage. Of course it was the iron maiden. Of course.

And it led to a fancy bedroom.



Katrina was lying in that coffin on the bed… Or okay, I see. Ad Avis wanted me to escape to kill her?

I opened her coffin and tried to wake her.



She was immediately pissed and thinking I was trying to kill her.

Which landed me back in the dungeon.





I mean… yes I did do all those things, but you were befriending me to use me, lady!

She was willing to hear me out. Give her one reason to not kill me. I explained about Ad Avis. She agreed that did sound like him and using me against her was his style and he also can’t harm her directly.

But I still stole Tanya from her. Back, I stole her back. You stole her first.

I explained my actions and she somewhat relented but only if I did something for her.

She wanted me to seek out the five missing Dark One Rituals. I guess that meant she had the sixth I’ve been missing. She was at the arch where it was supposed to be, when I came out… Or maybe she had it longer than that.

She wants them in order to summon the Dark One to bring eternal night to the land and then she’ll no longer be vulnerable to be killed by people like me.

The Dark One’s cave was not just a temple to it, but IS the Dark One. The rituals will bring it back to the world.

She wanted to make sure I did this and used a Geas on me.



I’m nosy and will pursue anything I find out about, so I already have them! However, I didn’t want to go back right away. I wanted to talk to Magda again and generally do a last round. Maybe a get a little more stat training in.

I went back to town and had another dream at the staff spot. The final battle for Erana…Battle screams, reaching darkness…



She was swallowed by darkness and with the last of her power used a final spell to bind the Darkness from within and send it back to the Chaos from which it came. She was taken with it.

And I awoke once again: Eranaaa.

Magda had lots to say and we did another card reading about Katrina. In summation:

Distant past: she was dominated and defeated. Some cruel event shaped her life. She was not broken and gained her freedom though her own actions. Her life was shaped by her own fortitude and determination.

Nearer past: has great power and self-confidence, or self-deception and illusion. She’s not grown beyond the past and is trapped by immobility.

Present: working toward a goal that’s yet to be fulfilled. Using power for selfish purposes and seeks a result regardless of the cost to others. But her present is influenced by affection for another. She’s falling in love with someone. I’m not escaping this, am I?

Overall: The World card representing the reward of all one’s actions or admiration of others. A symbol of eternal life or attainment of ultimate power and perfection. But another card was the card of illusionary goals. Her goal is a delusion. Her wants aren’t what she’ll gain through her actions. Should she accomplish her goal she will ultimately lose.

And over all that, the Void - The Dark One plays a part in her past and future.

And I was able to ask her about the Dark One finally. It’s a thing of Dark Magic seeking to enter here. Feeds on all living things. It’s too powerful for anyone to control. It wasn’t entirely driven away and dark magic leaks from the cave twisting the land and living things. Everyone is a pawn including me, including Erana.



To free Erana, the Dark One must be freed. Gotta free it and hope to be powerful enough to fully banish it this time.

I also found out the last Boyar was the High Priest of the cult worshipping it. He vanished during the Summoning. So that explains what happened to him. He might still be alive but trapped in there though he’s probably in a horrible state now.

I asked about the Rituals. Five were hidden in Mordavia–got those–one more is hidden in the Dark One’s Cave. She believes Katrina must have the Ritual of the Mouth and that’s how the cave was opened for me to get out. Makes sense. Thank you Magda!

There was also some stuff that would have explained how to get to the Ritual from the Squid Stone near the cave, but I already did that…

I will spend the day wandering, visit the garden and the Rusalka, fight anything I run into and grind some magic. Getting to the end-game now…

Aww, poor Toby. I would have liked for there to be a way to save him but it doesn’t look like there was. I cheated and looked up a bit about Katrina; seems now she feels about Cinder is determined by your actions in the game. Guess you did something right!

Weekly Game Update Dec. 29 – Jan. 04

Into the new year now and I’ve been feeling kind of rotten, but I did get some Zelda in both LttP and Echoes of Wisdom. We’re getting a little more snow again now too and that always makes me happier.

New/Added Games:
Nothing

--

Started:
More nothing

--

Finished:
Yet more nothing!

--

Currently Playing

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (PC, Steam)
Fields of Mistria (PC, Steam)
Return to Monkey Island (PC, Steam)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, emu)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)

Daily
Sunday: A Link to the Past
Monday: Nothing
Tuesday: Echoes of Wisdom
Wednesday: A Link to the Past
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: A Link to the Past, Echoes of Wisdom

--

Progress:

A Link to the Past


I only have Turtle Rock and any odds and ends left before the finale! I did the swampy place before the ice palace, which made the ice palace easier with the cane of somaria. I died once though because lots of enemies, ice, spikes and pits are oh so much fun! The boss was easy though; I may have now cheesed a couple of the bosses with the magic cape. I have the blue mail which is nice but I wish the hat was a better colour…

It’s interesting to see just how much from LttP got carried to future games, especially Ocarina of Time. Like, oh, maidens in crystals, Zelda getting trapped in one. I see you game.

I am going to FINISH this game!!
--

Echoes of Wisdom


I fixed the rift in the Zora area! The river and sea Zora are so cute. I loved getting a little musical performance too—I’m always a sucker for that. That's saved both Mninister Lefte and General Wright now. He's certainly exuberant.

I’m part way through the stilled castle. I didn’t appreciate having to do stealth sections again, ugh, but otherwise going pretty smoothly.
--

Backlog: 178

Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Part 12
The Adventurer’s Log

I had three nights or two more if the night Katrina sent me back out counted. Either way I spent the day wandering and doing last conversations. Nothing much to report there.

I slept at the staff mound again for a last dream. I wonder if it is the last one. Last one for me anyway.

I was looking for something and Erana was with me. I turned to her and felt her sorrow and loss. The darkness came for her again. The darkness was trapped between worlds.

And I got a vision of what looks like the Dark One sign.



Quite the start to my day of going back to the castle with those Rituals.

I went to the castle and castle gate was open at last for me.

Here we go.

I entered to the Great Hall to find Katrina, Ad Avis and presumably Cuddles the Necrotaur. Katrina was immediately passive-aggressive: “What a good boy you are. You would never do anything to hurt me, would you? Unlike some others I could name.”

Then she addressed me and took us all straight to the Dark One’s Cave.



She opened the mouth and then told me I had to do the rest. I needed to find the last Ritual with the High Priest and needed it before beginning the other Rituals. And she told me to be careful.

Ad Avis was snide and sneering. “We would hate for anything unpleasant to happen to you.”

I might have found the High Priest immediately?



I entered to see some kind of oozy creature anyway. With a gross description:



I did not need a cross between squid and chocolate pudding. The narration further added that something about its appearance suggested it was once human, so yeah I’m going with High Priest here.

And there was a book near it. I tried Fetch, but that’d be too easy. Critter just lashed out and stopped it. However a Calm Spell put it to sleep and then I could Fetch it. It was easy after all. The book was the diary of the last Boyar confirming that critter was him. The last page had the Ritual of Essence, so that makes all of them. I had to figure out how and where to use them…

I went to the cave where I first appeared as it seemed to be the only place I could reach and it had the altar. I had to get the lighting right, so I put back my trusty torch.



Sand was on the altar and there were lines in it like it had once formed a picture. I placed the Dark One’s Sign on it and formed an image of it in the sand. The Sign sunk into the sand and vanished. I’m finally rid of it I guess.

Then I used the Ritual of Bone, I’d say because this place is all bone, but it just happened to be first in my list… and only then it clicked for me. I was told this place WAS the Dark One. I’ve been waiting for the valves to open, so one ritual for each based on what they are…



Avoozl is said with such gravity and was said several times. I am having a little trouble taking that name seriously I admit. Don’t get me wrong, still all very eerie. Just… Avoozl sounds a bit silly especially drawn out a little. Avooozl.

I got caught in a bone cage after this Ritual was complete. Teach me to laugh at its name.



Open spell didn’t work–too much chaos twisting my spells. But a combination of Flame Dart, Frost Bite and Force Bolt broke them.

The next valve started wiggling more in the central room becoming available for me to enter.

Well there had to be somewhere hellish looking in here… in the more hot looking red sense that is. The whole place is kind of hellish after all.



By examining this altar, this one was clearly the Ritual of Blood.



Ergh.

After conducting the ritual acidy red stuff started flowing all over from the stone statue and blocking my way out. I had to freeze it with Frost Bite, to stop it long enough to get out.

Onto the next one and not sure what to make of this one exactly.



Tentacle flutes? Horns?

There were also bubble-like stones around.

I needed the Ritual of Breath this time.



Once complete I sensed an awakening, but also had the sense it was expecting something more. Trying to use the tentacles to blow into them just got me sucked in and killed…because I did the wrong ones. Follow the ritual words: right, left and centre. Though the structure is all a bit hard to make out in my defence.

That started a wind blowing like its breath coming through the now open door at the back and I got sucked in. A calm spell and then open got me out, but I think it was bugged or something the first time. The calm worked but the Open did nothing and I had to reload.

Next one was all dark.



Well, it was obvious this would be the Sense Ritual anyway. I could see me and my icon and that was it. I just walked whatever routes it would let me and as I progressed my senses came back one by one until the room was fully revealed with sight.



Once the ritual was complete the dendrite got lightning and I got zapped a couple times leaving. There was a probably a way to avoid that… but I survived and got out, so if it works it works.

And that just left the Heart Ritual for the centre.



Once the ritual was complete a passage opened above the stone heart.



A dramatic levitation up!

I entered an inner structure with a large crystal. Katrina and Ad Avis were waiting and Katrina commanded me to perform the final Ritual. Soon Darkness would return to the land and she would never be helpless in her coffin again. She taunted Ad Avis too calling him jealous of her triumph when he’d failed to summon Iblis thanks to my actions. Yeah, taunt the angry vampire man.

I recited the last Ritual which got very unpleasant.



Katrina was triumphant, but ya know things can’t be that easy even for the antagonists.

Ad Avis zapped me and I was left dangling.



They started fighting each other, but he couldn’t directly harm her. So he launched a spell at me.



Katrina threw herself at me in defence and a shadowy tendril of Avoozl took her away. Ad Avis knew that spell would attract Avoozl and she was lost to the Darkness.

That empowered Cinder Win though.



And I was able to get back up.

I summoned Erana’s Staff and he wasn’t particularly phased by that. He had protections against my magic. This took me a few tries to figure out as none of my spells were doing anything. I got some deaths.



And dying wasn’t enough oh no! I had to listen to Ad Avis gloat about taking the town and the peasants being his fodder now that they were no longer protected by Erana’s Staff. And then I got the rise of Avoozl.



It took me a few tries to figure out what to do before I landed on talking with options. Most of the options simply led to more disdain from Ad Avis.

Except one.

Oh one I was told about, but forgot. One I was told to use against a big bad trying to do me in.

The Ultimate Joke.



Ad Avis got to still be disdainful, but despite that he was compelled to laugh anyway.



And I force bolted him off the platform. Ad Avis meets his demise by falling again… falling laughing now. What a way to go.

I… I wasn’t expecting that and I had forgotten it amidst everything else. After a brief bit of reflection I did decide after all his pride and taunting me, there is something satisfying in taking him down like that.

I just…

I was essentially saved by Punny Bones. That’s harder to swallow. Quite a win for gnomes I suppose…. he’s still no Yorick or Keapon Laffin.

Things weren’t over quite yet. I had to use Erana’s Staff with the crystal and then Erana’s spirit was freed. Freed, she was able to drive Avoozl back to its dimension.



After four games there she is at last! Outside a portrait in the WIT (that was just Genesta…). Stories were that she was part-faerie. She looks fully faerie to me…

However, she was only a spirit and it would take more magic than she had ever known before we’d be able to be together again, so she could only thank me.



Everything resolved! I got a two weeks later message–nice to know my hero got a break–and a party was held for me in the castle.



A full gathering! With some other random people I don’t know too.

The swamps were drying up so trade would be able to reopen. The king sent word and appointed Dmitri as the new Boyar. Good for him!



I’m sorry I didn’t trust you at first.

One by one the remaining townsfolk and Davy thanked me for everything I’d done for them.

Still not over just yet. Erasmus finally got the crystal ball focused now the Dark One’s influence was gone. They could see me at last. Fenrus said it was either a reward ceremony or a lynch mob. Thanks buddy.



Silmaria is in need of a hero and “everyone knows a Hero has to go where a Hero has to go.”

I ended another game being teleported away. But at least I know by whom and why this time!

And I got to actually see Erasmus and Fenrus.

I was given my final character sheet.



497/500 points. Three points off! Oh well, that seems pretty darn good for a first time to me.

Maxed out intelligence and Flame Dart (of course).

Got congratulated for finishing the game along with the usual nudge to replay as a different class and to look forward to future Quest for Glory.

That’s Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness complete and what a ride!

–

Final Thoughts

My favourite of the series so far and my second favourite Sierra game of what I’ve played/watched. King’s Quest VI still comes on top for me.

I’ll get my negatives out of the way first.

Combat. I continue to not be fond of it in this series. I ultimately settled for strategy mode. Maybe I should have tried the more manual arcade version more, but eh. Just never got comfortable with it. On the bright side the combat rate is low, especially felt so after my frustrations with the third game, and running away doesn’t take so long freaking long, and there are various locations you can get to that’ll stop the thing chasing you anyway.

Some glitchiness. I didn’t run into anything game breaking for the most part except the possible lock-up when I got stuck in the lung hole near the end there, but a reload fixed that. There were some spots where the narration would cut out and a spot where the text zipped by. There was at least one spot where the wrong voice clip got used.

Now I’ve played through I also see where it’s possible to get softlocked if you don’t get the doll from the Domovoi since he stops showing up after a while. I don’t know if that’s actually a bug or deliberate or an oversight.

Now onto the good stuff.

The return of screen-by-screen exploring the map instead of the over-world. I vastly prefer that. It felt like a good area size too–big enough to feel like exploring, but not so big as to be a pain to navigate or feel pointless. There were plenty of areas of interest. Day and night really mattered. I also appreciated that when you’d examine the area the narration would provide some orientating directions. It definitely helped for getting around.

I enjoyed the overall atmosphere. It was darker in going for a more gothic setting, but there was still lots of humour around that gave it a nice balance. Never went into grim-dark territory though did get surprisingly sad at points. And the narration was superb.

I liked the music too! I can’t say most of the music in the series up to this point really stood out to me outside an exception or two, but I’ve been enjoying this one’s soundtrack.

Most of all: the characters! For a place full of darkness and fear it sure felt lively. It’s not a big cast, but that meant there was plenty to talk about with everyone. The villagers would actually refer to each other and it just felt more lived in. I loved how much people had to say overtime and how they’d warm up to me. Characters would react to things that happened. I really felt like I was making a difference. While I enjoyed my time in Spielburg well enough, I can’t say I got particularly attached to it. I got a little more attached to Shapeir. I didn’t feel at all attached to Tarna, or I guess Fricana in general. I do feel more attached to Mordavia. I’m a little sad to be leaving now.

It was also nice to have some threads continue and have some closure. I learned a lot more about Erana. It was fun to see where Baba Yaga ended up after she fled Spielburg. Ad Avis is hopefully really gone now. I even got a couple tiny doses of Erasmus and Fenrus.

I felt like I had lots to do as a magic user and didn’t even take as much advantage of some of my spells as I ought to have done. I’m the most curious about how the other classes are handled in this one. I felt very catered to and I hope the other classes feel that way too.

I had a very good time and it very much feels like a big enhancement on the first game specifically. I enjoyed the first game so having it but better is great.

My current rankings as stands would be 4, 2, 1, 3, but I think 1 and 2 are very close.

Next up Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire. I’m nervous but we’ll see how it goes.

Weekly Game Update Jan. 05 – Jan. 11

New/Added Games:
Nothing

--

Started:
More nothing

--

Finished:
Yet more nothing!

--

Currently Playing

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (PC, Steam)
Fields of Mistria (PC, Steam)
Return to Monkey Island (PC, Steam)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, emu)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)

Daily
Sunday: Nothing
Monday: Trails into Reverie
Tuesday: A Link to the Past, Trails into Reverie
Wednesday: Nothing
Thursday: Trails into Reverie
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: Echoes of Wisdom

--

Progress:

A Link to the Past


I didn’t play as much as I’d intended. I got a little way into Turtle Rock but was lacking the wakefulness and patience to continue. That place is gonna be a menace. I’d used up the two fairies I had and while I still had a couple blue potions, I walked into a room, went NOPE and left to get more fairies and try again another day.
--

Echoes of Wisdom


I fixed the rift in Hyrule Castle Town saving the king! Zelda is free of being Wanted, but more rifts opened. Those could wait however as I had sidequests, especially getting my horse. So cute. I’m not sure which direction I’ll end up going first, but I’m leaning toward Faron.

--

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie


Still working through stratum… on the sixth now. And I still need one last gold stone so I can get Olivier! It’s taunting me! Give me my bard!

We’ve also done a couple more daydreams: we’ve seen the Grandmaster at last… and the new president of Calvard looks like he’s gonna be trouble. The theories are getting fuel but still not totally sure what to make of everything.

--

Backlog: 178

Weekly Game Update Jan. 12 – Jan. 18

I finished A Link to the Past finally! That was my big accomplishment this week. No more will it nag my backlog, no more badge of shame as a Zelda fan. That gaping hole is filled at last. No more starts and stops and starts and stops… So long have I had that "I should really finish the game" feeling and no more!

I had a good time, but other games in the series still hold my heart more. If I had played it through fully when I was younger I wonder if my feelings would be a bit different. It was interesting to see just how much carried over into the later games. I knew it was foundational for the series for a lot of stuff, but it was even more so than I thought with littler details too.

With that my list of finished Zelda games now contains:
A Link to the Past
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
Wind Waker
Twilight Princess
Breath of the Wild
Link's Awakening (Switch remake)
Minish Cap
Phantom Hourglass
A Link Between Worlds

I should get back to my Zelda 1 file at some point...

Also Switch 2 announcement finally. Not much to say there yet since we’re not getting the meat of anything until April, but it was nice to finally have it officially confirmed especially with all the leaks. And now people can stop being annoying about demanding it.

New/Added Games:
Nothing

--

Started:
More nothing

--

Finished:
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Dec. 21, 2024 – Jan. 18, 2025

--

Currently Playing

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (PC, Steam)
Fields of Mistria (PC, Steam)
Return to Monkey Island (PC, Steam)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)

Daily
Sunday: Trails into Reverie
Monday: Trails into Reverie
Tuesday: Trails into Reverie
Wednesday: Nothing
Thursday: Trails into Reverie
Friday: A Link to the Past
Saturday: A Link to the Past, Echoes of Wisdom
--

Progress:

Echoes of Wisdom


I’m working on the Faron Wetlands after having done some more sidequests—I got a cat suit! The Deku Scrubs are cute…and kind of foolish little snots. I’m definitely feeling some of the Majora’s Mask legacy in design and some of the attitude though. I could have done without another stealth section, but it was an easier one at least.

I’m on to dealing with the main rift of the area now. Soon none of them shall have their web cotton candy, ick.

--

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie


Onward to the seventh stratum! The KeA-like entity has been revealed now. I’m guessing this is connected to her changing the timeline in the Crossbell arc with saving the SSS, but we’ll see. Meanwhile working through some more daydreams. We’re currently in the middle of the Thors Open House one. It’s a long one but nice to see the students and school again. I’m still getting a little lost in there.

--

Backlog: 177

January 2025 Update
First month down! And a pretty blah month to be honest for various reasons, including getting sick, but I did get in an important completion. I didn’t play as much as I wanted in general though, especially with having gotten a bunch of new games at Christmas. Hopefully, February will be better there…

Gaming wasn't going the best, but reading improved again! 5 books read this month, which compared to how things had been going is good at least.

We're also getting some nice snow again. Part of the month was starting to feel like March which blech. I don't need warming it up and getting dirty and slushy and icy yet. March style weather needs to stick to March only. But for now, snow! Pretty snow!

--

New/Added Games:
Behind the Frame (Epic freebie)

--

Everything played throughout the month
Even games that I only dabbled in for a session or just a few minutes

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
Fields of Mistria
Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire
Donkey Kong Country 2

Games Finished:
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES): Dec. 21, 2024 – Jan. 18, 2025

--

2025 Started but Unfinished Collection
Number of Games: 6

--

The Adventurer’s Log Progress
I’ve been very stalled ugh. I’ve started Quest for Glory V but only barely. I will try to get things going properly again soon…

--

Currently Playing
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire
Return to Monkey Island
Fields of Mistria
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

--

Highlights of the Month


Da da da daaaa! The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Because I finally finished it! I’ve already talked about it before but man, it’s nice to finally count it as done after the sheer number of unfinished files I’ve left scattered across the SNES, 3DS virtual console, emu, possibly the SNES mini classic, NSO… I still wouldn’t count it among my personal favourites, but I fully recognize how foundational it was for the series and I still enjoyed my time with it.

So now I can say my completed list of mainline Zelda includes:

A Link to the Past
Link’s Awakening (Switch remake)
Ocarina of Time (and 3DS)
Majora’s Mask
The Wind Waker (and HD)
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess (and HD)
Phantom Hourglass
A Link Between Worlds
Breath of the Wild

I should get back to my file on the first Zelda at some point. I also have TotK and Skyward Sword started but unfinished.

--

February “Goals”
Get moving on Quest for Glory V
Finish Echoes of Wisdom
Finish Trails into Reverie
Play at least another game from Christmas! I haven’t touched anything from that batch except Echoes of Wisdom yet… And I have so many...

--

Backlog: 178
Paused: 46
Retired: 11
2025 Completions: 1

Weekly Game Update Feb. 02 – 08
I missed one or two of these between not having much to say, but I’m back with one. And a couple completions! And another start.

New/Added Games:
Nothing yet, but eyeing Wildermyth

--

Started:
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak (Steam)

--

Finished:
Return to Monkey Island (replay)


I’d been meaning to get to this replay for a while, then I started it, then I had a huuuuge gap before going back and progressing…with some more gaps. But it’s done! I played a big chunk of it yesterday to finish it off. After talking about it with a friend some more and thanks to her coming to the revelation of splitting Tales episodes apart I think my series ranking is tentatively:

Curse
Secret
Tales Ep. 4
Return/Monkey Island 2 – can’t decide
The rest of Tales I don’t know what order
Escape

Curse will always remain at the top and Escape at a distant bottom. I like Return but I’ve come to the conclusion that there are a lot of little good things and nice ideas but no moment that stands out as much as some of the stuff in Curse and Secret do for me and to a lesser degree Monkey Island 2. On the other hand it doesn’t have some of the things that bug me in MI2.

I wonder if it’ll change in the future at all. The first three games in particular are so entrenched in my brain. They’ve worn in their ruts. Return is still the newbie. It makes it hard to compare them for me.

-

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie


At last! I think the post-game could have stood to be shorter. Also, the final final boss was a lot easier than expected which I’m not complaining about, but was surprising. We might have been a bit overleveled. Still, I enjoyed it overall, especially after my grumbles with Cold Steel IV. Some of those grumbles might be a little alleviated now? Not all. There will one day be a future replay and I’m curious to see if any of thoughts might shift there.

Anyway. Reverie. I did have a good time as said, but did feel like the main story pre-credits and the Corridor weren’t as well-integrated with each other as they could be. I’m not sure what the best way to handle it would be, but it did add a disjointed feel. There were also sooo many characters. I know they wanted to give choice and players can make their dream parties, but… so many characters. That’s a lot of maintenance even with ignoring some of them and having auto equip as an option.

I know another three path system is coming in Kai, and I’m curious how that will go. I did enjoy it here, but I felt like they could have done more with it. So I wonder if it’s going to end up feeling like the prototype for Kai.

It was a long time coming due to the length of the game and not always being able to play but finished at last which concludes the arcs for both Erebonia and Crossbell! Where CS IV felt like the conclusion for Cold Steel, this one feels like the conclusion for Crossbell which darn well deserved to have a proper one.

Daybreak coming up! Calvard time! New country, new party, new arc! Exciting
--

Currently Playing

Fields of Mistria (PC, Steam)
Return to Monkey Island (PC, Steam)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak (PC, Steam)

Daily
Sunday: Nothing
Monday: Fields of Mistria
Tuesday: Fields of Mistria, Trails into Reverie
Wednesday: Trails into Reverie
Thursday: Donkey Kong Country 2
Friday: Return to Monkey Island
Saturday: Trails into Reverie, Trails through Daybreak

I’ve only been dabbling in and out of DKC 2 and very sporadically, so I’m not really including it anywhere. I’ll just quickly save that I’m at the boss of Gloomy Gulch.
--

Progress:

Fields of Mistria


I’ve now started year 2. Spring in these games always comes as a shock after winter—just slammed by GREEN. I’m working on expanding the inn, but need a bunch more wood and stone. I’ve on the second set of floors in the mine after breaking the water seal.

I have more animals! Cows, sheep, alpaca, chickens, ducks, capybara and rabbits. I also got the mistmare, so I’m not doing much walking anymore when I can ride. It’s cute you can make the mistmare take on the appearance of other large animals you have that are happy enough with you. I was riding a cow for a little while.

--

Trails through Daybreak


New Trails new Trails! It’s a special feeling starting a whole new arc in a new country with a completely new party. Of course, there are also new mechanics and system changes to get used to, which I think is a little harder to when you already have such a huge foundation of familiarity built up, but we’ll get there.

I’m already curious about Van and Agnés. We’ve been able to poke around Edith a little bit and I’m liking what I’m seeing. The family that owns the bistro next to Van’s office seem so sweet. Getting a bit of Crossbell vibes which is great in my book. It’s also nice to have a protagonist who’s already established and knows people.

We’re investigating an antique orbment that went from Agnés’ family. But there are already rumblings of a lot shady unberbelly of the city things happening. Our contact’s already been murdered—a death already?? That’s a change from Cold Steel heh. We’re continuing the investigation…

--

Backlog: 177

Weekly Game Update Feb. 09 – 15

Lots of Trails through Daybreak this week. Not a lot of anything else, but I did get in a bit of Zelda and finished a game. But a lot of Trails.

New/Added Games:

Nothin'
--

Started:

Not really started as I had already but trying to actually get going on Quest for Glory V.

--

Finished:

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest (SNES, NSO)



There was some rewind abuse or I never would have had the patience to finish this game, but I wanted to finally at least see it through after all these years. I’ve finished the first game a couple times but never came close with this one. It does good stuff. I appreciate it has more varied environments than the first game. Of course the soundtrack is fantastic. But, my patience for platformers is variable and easily worn down. This one was hitting my limits.

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Currently Playing

Fields of Mistria (PC, Steam)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak (PC, Steam)

Daily
Sunday: Trails through Daybreak
Monday: Trails through Daybreak
Tuesday: Trails through Daybreak
Wednesday: Trails through Daybreak
Thursday: Trails through Daybreak
Friday: Donkey Kong Country 2, Echoes of Wisdom, Trails through Daybreak
Saturday: Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire, Echoes of Wisdom

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Progress:

Echoes of Wisdom


I’ve finished off in the Faron Wetlands. I did most of the available sidequests but skipped the one that involved fighting Smog again. The first time was annoying enough; I didn’t want to do it again. The Deku Scrubs are cute doofuses anyway, also kind of snobby, but doofuses. Quite a combination.

I’ve treaded into the Hebra Mountains, but I’m not far in yet. I was all prepped with warming smoothies, and so far have just dragged a brazier around with me hah. I did meet Condé. He’s cute. Yeti friend!

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Trails through Daybreak


Oh boy. We’re onto chapter 2 now. The first chapter got intense. Various quick thoughts some from prologue too, all spoiler tagged:
We met Jin! Okay, not my favourite Sky character, honestly found him kind of boring, but it’s nice to a familiar face and maybe this will game will endear him to me.
New character! Hello Feri!
Creil is a beautiful village!! I love windmills… and the stone look… and just very pretty and it was great we got to see it at sunset and night too.
Of course there was a missing cat request. It’s a tradition!
Ugh Walter.
Van’s so pissed at him over his old truck?? This was great honestly. I’m so used to so much drama and tragedy that having it be that was kind of refreshing really. Not to downplay the loss. I get it. We were attached to our vehicle in Azure and sad to lose it (of course we also had the kitty pawprints paint job… that definitely helped a lot), but relatively speaking, it’s way more lowkey reason. I do wonder what the job was though…
Ew Melchior. Hated him immediately, so I’m glad they didn’t keep his evil slimey smarmy self a secret for long.
Ghouls… that was intense. And wow they killed another character. That was sad. I’m glad we did not have to see a 13 year old finish off someone she loved and considered a sister. Thanks Van… I guess? It was a Lot anyway.


Onto ch. 2 and we the players have been introduced to Aaron. I’m curious to see how things go with him. I know he’s another party member. We also saw Cao… yay… but I was wondering when we’d see some Heiyue presence.
Back to city rounds and requests! I’m really enjoying being back in the Rounds, Requests, Story rhythm. Also Old Town district is just so homey. I’m really liking Van. I wasn’t expecting to latch to him so quickly. Very happy with this game so far.

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Backlog: 177
I guess I didn’t actually have DKC 2 in my backlog for some reason because this didn’t go down