Let's Play: Willow! part two
(EDIT: I've been informed that there was an unclosed italics tag here, but now it's fixed.)
Having watched the introduction and backstory, We choose "Start," and are
greeted by our hero, Willow Ufgood, in the form of an 8-bit sprite:
And behind the stalwart Nelwyn, we see his family's modest farm hut. Let's go in, shall we?
Here is Willow's family, wishing him a safe voyage and offering free
cookies and tea any time he decides to drop by.
As we go through the game, I'll be transcripting dialogue in italics
as follows:
Oh, my dear Willow.
If you get tired during your trip
Come back here, you will be able to regain your strength.
Before you begin your trip you should talk to your neighbor, the High
Aldwin.
Be careful.
Yeah, let's go visit the High Aldwin right now!
This is his home, easily distinguished from the others in the Nelwyns'
village by its size.
The High Aldwin, played in the movie by my favorite "little person"
actor, the late Billy Barty. (Seriously, three of my favorite movies
feature him.)
Ah Willow, Nelwyn's man of prophecy.
Take these magic acorns with you, they can turn anything to stone so it
can't move.
"You have the Magic Acorns!"
If you come back here during your trip I will recharge your magical
powers.
And so, we get our first magical item, and one of only three that are
canonical to the film.
This is different from the other places you visit during the course of
the game, in that you have to visit two different places to restore HP
and MP. Also, when you recieve the Acorns, you're granted MP to spend. As
I've never attempted it, I don't know what happens if you skip getting
the acorns.
Now, let's explore the village and see who else has anything interesting
to say!
To get to the village of Dew, you must go through the rugged forest
just north of Nelwyn.
Hmm, so Nelwyn in this game is the name of the village rather than the
race of dwarfs that live there? Interesting.
I have heard rumors that a demon is in the village of Dew, just north
of here, and has been terrifying the villagers.
A demon, eh? I guess I will investigate when I get there!
Please note that despite the resemblance, these are two different people
telling me this.
Oh crap, it's a daikini in the village! Who is he and how'd he get here?
Oh, it's not a daikini at all, it's another Nelwyn with a deceptively
large sprite.
Did you meet Vohnkar, the best swordsman in the village?
He should be preparing the finest weapons for you.
In that case, I'll see him right away! ...after talking to more people.
You must be Willow! Weapons and magic items must be in hand in order
to use them, so be careful.
Sheesh, in tiny villages like this, everyone's supposed to know everybody
else! Also, standard RPG advice. Just about anyone playing an RPG knows
this, but it's traditional to have someone remind you anyway.
A house this lopsided MUST be important! Let's check it out!
And here's Vohnkar!
Welcome Willow.
My name is Vohnkar.
Please take
This long sword.
"You have the Long Sword!"
It may be heavy and hard to use at first, but you should get used to it
after a few fights.
And so, we get our first weapon!
And now, to equip it.
Here is the game's menu, displaying Willow's stats at the start of the game:
And with the sword equipped:
That's right, baby, my sword is *long!*
*ahem* That out of the way, let's leave town and get to exploring the
great, wide world...
It's another Daikini! D:
No, it's another misleading sprite.
You should be able to get to the village of Dew if you keep going north on this road.
I pretty much knew that already, ma'am, but thanks anyway.
Oh, there's one last house to visit.
Willow.
To stop Bavmorda's magic you must dispel the curse she put on Fin
Raziel.
Ah, and now we have a clue as to the main quest of the game!
So, off we go!
We depart from the village, and almost immediately encounter...
Slimes! It's just not an RPG without them! Fortunately, they're more like
Dragon Quest slimes than Final Fantasy slimes, and a coupla whacks with a
sword each put them down, giving me 10 XP each. Not bad!
Going northward at the three-way crossroad lead me to...
A terror dog!
These guys are damn strong, but fortunately they can only move a little
before they have to pause, giving you an opportunity to run in and stab
'em in the head.
After a couple encounters with them, I was starting to feel the hurt, and
I realized I'd forgotten to do something: I'd never equipped the Acorns!
And so, we do so now.
Tada!
Next, we encounter our first flying foes:
Skulls!
I remember living in utter dread of these creatures when I originally
played this as a child, because they came at me from all directions. Now,
of course, I know the secret to defeating them lies in moving so that
they'll all go to me from the same direction, and hammering on B until
they're all dead. Simple!
Just a little further on, I encounter more slimes. But these ones are
different! You stab one, and...
It divides into four smaller slimes! The mini-slimes are faster, but
apart from that they're not much more dangerous.
As you can see, between these two screenshots, I gained a level.
After a bit more fighting, I manage to get down to the point where I wish
you could get potions or herbs, when suddenly, a defeated enemy leaves a
strange object behind:
And walking onto said object produces the following result:
Hooray for health drops!
Now, after much strife and struggle, I come upon a new area, bedecked
with orchids!
This must be that Dew place everyone kept mentioning.
The homes look different, too! Stone hovels instead of straw! Take
*that*, Big Bad Wolf!
So, you have come from Nelwyn.
Please rest as long as you need to.
Woohoo, free inn! ...Not that that makes any difference, since you never
get any money anyway.
Also, I notice that this man is one of the few we've encountered so far
who actually uses commas. I wonder if Bavmorda is hoarding them all, and
her final speech will be heavily punctuated.
As I explored Dew, I noticed a few places like this where the houses are
completely inaccessible. I wonder if the programmers threw them in to
taunt obsessive players.
The demon Bogarda takes all of the fruit
Grow in our village.
And our gold and silver, too!
Aha, information about our most immediate subquest! Let's find the
village chief's home and see what he has to say.
I am the chief of the village of Dew.
Who are you?
Outsiders
Must leave immediately.
Friendly, isn't he? Let's talk to more people.
Heading immediately north from this man just leads to a dead-end. Nice
job, mister NPC!
I have heard that Bogarda is the father of the chief of this village,
and he was changed into a demon by the wicked magic of Bavmorda.
Hey, it looks like you could use this shield!
"You have the Wood Shield!"
You should hear the story from the village chief.
The plot thickens! Also, it's about time I got some defense against the
monsters roaming the countryside with impunity. Let's equip that mother!
I won't comment, except that it looks like a funnel cake. Perhaps the
monsters are so enticed by the powdered sugar and fruity toppings that
they don't attack Willow as much anymore.
With this new item in hand, let's go visit the reticent chief again.
The story of Bogarda is true. My father was a corageous and just
person before being put under such
Wicked magic.
The villagers have
Been put through such misery...
I will give you this magic Healmace.
This is a valued treasure of this village and is a symbol of a spirit
protecing us.
When you are tired from fighting, just clutch the Healmace tightly and
say the magic word and you will regain your strength.
"You have the Healmace."
Man, that was a long speech.
But on the plus side, HEALMACE! Fuck yeah!
It takes a whopping 20 MP to use, but it restores a nice amount of HP, so
hooray!
Thus equipped and with our mission clear, it's time to head out!
New enemies! I call them "dogflies." They're pretty fast and come in
large enough packs that it's tough to kill them all before they leave.
Yes, unlike enemies we've encountered so far, these ones will just fly
around for a short while and then fly off the screen. I guess they don't
care very much whether they finish the job.
Venturing further onward, we come upon...
A mine entrance guarded by a skeleton! Fortunately, instead of attacking,
it just stood there, so I decided to engage in some small talk.
You want to see Bogarda!
If that's the case, find and bring back
The gold statue that the villagers hid in this forest.
Ha ha ha!
I like to imagine him doing a Krankor laugh here.
So, Bogarda wants me to fetch an item for him? Okay, I'm game. This is
pretty unprecedented in a video game, so I'll go along with it for now.
A short time later:
Oh shit, a lamia! One that spits fireballs, at that!
It took a bit of work to stab him into submission, but I made it, and
kept going, only to discover...
Dammit, not another one D: Fortunately, when I actually got to him, I
found I could just bull-rush past him, which lead me to my goal:
A chest!
"You have the Gold Statue."
"It is a golden image of a human face."
"You have the Light of Life."
An apparentley psychic chest!
Some chests will give you a Light of Life, which refills your HP. Pretty
darned handy if you get them at the right time.
Having found the McGuffin, I return to the skeleton.
Bogarda is in this cave.
As soon as you hand over the gold statue you must return here.
Ha ha ha!
With this, he buggers off to do whatever it is skeletons do on their
breaks.
We go in, and...
So this is what a cave looks like. Cozy. Also, the music is *badass*.
Within, we meet some more new enemies:
First up, some bats. Some of which transform into bigger bats! Oh noes!
Hornets! Cave hornets, I guess. They move forward a little, pause, move
forward, etc. They also have the annoying habit of going where you can't
reach and just staying there until you say "screw 'em" and walk away.
What's this? Another chest? Okay, let's have a look.
"You have the Battle Sword!"
"It is a solid and fairly heavy sword."
I also got a Light of Life.
Equipping it gives me another 9 points of strength, which is darned nice.
Unfortunately, that's not good enough for some monsters, especially not
this one:
I call them zombie wizards. You can't touch them with your sword, but
walking into them still hurts, and they have the habit of randomly
teleporting away and reappearing elsewhere on the screen.
And you never want them to do that when they're that close to you,
because this happens:
You're no warrior, you're a PIG!
Hooray, something from the movie!
I have to wonder if the Piggy status in Final Fantasy IV was inspired by
that scene from the movie. I mean, obviously both come from Circe in The
Odyssey, but still.
Thankfully, the pigginess wears off after several seconds (but you can
still get hurt and even die if you're not careful, and you can't leave
the screen while a pig). Seeing no way to harm these jerks, I decided to
just run away.
Eventually, after exploring and fleeing from more zombie wizards, I found
my man, err, demon, err, demon-man.
Ugly bastard, isn't he?
So it is you.
The youngster with
the gold statue.
What!? You won't give me the statue.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!
Do you intend to oppose me?
You pitiful creature!!
That's much more effective if you replace "youngster" with "peck," the
derogatory epithet humans use for Nelwyns in the movie.
Anyway, it's time for the game's first BOSS BATTLE!
It's nice of them to give us handy HP meters for Willow *and* the boss.
Anyway, let's look at Bogarda's tactics.
He'll move around a bit before throwing his little boomeraxe in your
general direction. Fortunately, it's a fairly simple matter to stand
close until he throws, then move out of the way and stab him before it
comes back.
After a healthy dose of stabbity, he goes down...
And gives enough XP to bring Willow up a level! Yaaay!
Also, beating the snot out of the oni changes him back to an ordinary man.
Oh! Where am I?
Oh yes, I remember now.
Please fight for peace.
I will teach you the magic of flowing fire.
It should be of help to you.
"You have the magic of Flowing Fire."
If you want to know more about Queen Bavmorda, go and talk to
Cherlindrea, the fairy who lives west of the village of Dew in legendary
Lake Cheef.
So, instead of being in the middle of the forest, Cherlindrea's moved to
a scenic lake. Okay...
Anyway, new spell! Hooray!
For some reason, it's called Fireflor in the menu. Shrug.
As for what it does...
It creates a ring of small flames around you that last for let's say half
a minute and do pretty nice damage to almost anything dumb enough to move
into it. And it damages the zombie wizards, to boot!
When I defeated one of them, it left me a shiny thing, thus:
Picking it up restored my MP, thus:
Of course, I'm not finished with the cave yet, and more exploring yielded
the following:
"You have the Ring."
"When you wear it your strength increases."
Fortunately, you don't have to do anything special to get the benefits,
just having it is enough to raise your attack power by some amount.
Immediately left of the ring is the statue I had to procure earlier and
forgot to get a shot of by itself.
BTW, when you use the Healmace, it makes parts of the screen light up,
revealing the neat background texture.
Anyway, let's mosey on back to Dew and see what anyone has to say now
that I've changed things.
First, the "inn."
Please rest here.
By the way...
Have you heard about the dragon scales?
It's said that they're proof of the fight between an adventurer and a
vicious dragon called Matanda.
I use to be a blacksmith in this village.
Just once I would like to make a magnificent sword with those scales.
If you find them, please bring them to me.
So, you're an old man with a flophouse *and* a blacksmith? Suuure.
Now, the chief.
Oh, what a courageous young man!
Thank you very much.
You're not very helpful, sir. Also, why are you apparentley older than
your father? WTF.
A random woman standing outside had a clue for me:
If you go west from here you will see
A road that goes through the rock mountain.
As you go further
You will find the entrance to the cave.
Sometimes you can hear a weird voice from inside.
Okay, let's move on!
Following the path as advised by that NPC, I did indeed find a road. And
what's more, it lead to a new environment!
Mountains!
And where there's mountains, there's Deadly Falling Rocks!
As usual with DFRs, the only thing to do is just get out of the way.
After moving forward, I reached a cave entrance. Perhaps this has
something to do with the "weird voice."
No, this is all that's in it. But what's IN the chest is what's
important, right?
"You have the Small Shield!"
"It is a strong shield made of metal."
It's green! And raised my defense by 9 points!
Sadly, there's only one shield and sword sprite, so no matter what you
equip, you look the same.
Anyway, the next new enemies I face are...
OH SHI TROLLS!
You can just beat them up with fair ease, fortunately. Their main deal is
that they jump on you in groups.
Ah, so here's where that skeleton from before went. And he brought a
friend! These guys have shields, so some amount of strategy is necessary,
though my favorite one is "get them pinned against a wall or the edge of
the screen, then hold down turbo B and wait for enough hits to connect."
Now, at this point, we start seeing palette swaps of earlier creatures,
in this case, turquoise, thus:
I'm not going to bother with showing them all, though.
Anyway, continuing onward, we meet a strange white squirrel thing.
I am Kchil of the Nail Clan. Our village is in the forest near Lake
Cheef.
When we went to the village of Dew looking for food, Bogarda put a
strange spell on the bridge so we could not get out, but thanks to you,
it looks like we can finally return to our village.
Thank you!
Yay, I'm helping people without even realizing it!
Well, let's go across that bridge!
Now, funny little thing time: I don't know if the screencaps have put the
idea across, but during outdoor fights, the grass, trees, and even the
bare ground dance as if to say "wake up, yo!"
I bring this up at this point because
Even the bridge gets in on this! I think I'd get dizzy and fall off the
bridge if that started happening to me, but Willow's far stronger than
that.
Apparentley, crossing that bridge took a good while, because it's
suddenly autumn!
After a little walk, we encounter something that looks like a... a bee,
maybe?
Oh, it's not a bee, it's just a really crappy sprite of the Brownies!
Shut up, or I'll BREAK your nose!
We are Franjean and Rool of the Brownies Clan!
Franjean:
Who are you?
Rool:
Who are you?
Franjean:
You come to see the fairy Cherlindrea?
Ha ha ha!
Cherlindrea is the fairy of beautiful Lake Cheef.
Rool:
She is.
Franjean:
If you do what we say, we can tell you how to get to Lake Cheef.
Rool:
We can.
Franjean:
If you go north from here through
Death Forest, there is a cave where a dragon called Matanda lives.
Defeat Matanda and bring the Crystal Ball of Life back to us.
Ha ha ha!
Rool:
Ha ha ha!
Alright, if that's what it takes, I'll get that crystal for you two shrimps.
Time to meet a new foe!
"Hey, wait a second!" I hear you shout. "Where's the enemy?"
Well, take a few more steps, and...
They spring to life and start spitting fireballs! Of course, it's
impossible to fight them, so just get away from them and move on.
After some walking, I came upon this stone hut:
Whoever's living there, their flowers aren't in very good shape :(
Oh, it's this old guy again. Thankfully, he's an "inn."
......,
What is this? Storming into someone's home unannounced?
Wait!
You're just in time.
My darling pet has run off somewhere. Won't you please find
him? His name is Po.
He is really cute.
You'll
Like him for sure.
Hold on, take these medicinal herbs in case he is hurt.
"You have obtained the Medicinal Herbs."
Take care.
Okay, old man, as long as you don't describe your various ailments to me.
The herbs! Of course, you can't really use them for anything.
Well, that wraps it up for this update!
For those who want to play along, here's the password:
See you all tomorrow!
Having watched the introduction and backstory, We choose "Start," and are
greeted by our hero, Willow Ufgood, in the form of an 8-bit sprite:
And behind the stalwart Nelwyn, we see his family's modest farm hut. Let's go in, shall we?
Here is Willow's family, wishing him a safe voyage and offering free
cookies and tea any time he decides to drop by.
As we go through the game, I'll be transcripting dialogue in italics
as follows:
Oh, my dear Willow.
If you get tired during your trip
Come back here, you will be able to regain your strength.
Before you begin your trip you should talk to your neighbor, the High
Aldwin.
Be careful.
Yeah, let's go visit the High Aldwin right now!
This is his home, easily distinguished from the others in the Nelwyns'
village by its size.
The High Aldwin, played in the movie by my favorite "little person"
actor, the late Billy Barty. (Seriously, three of my favorite movies
feature him.)
Ah Willow, Nelwyn's man of prophecy.
Take these magic acorns with you, they can turn anything to stone so it
can't move.
"You have the Magic Acorns!"
If you come back here during your trip I will recharge your magical
powers.
And so, we get our first magical item, and one of only three that are
canonical to the film.
This is different from the other places you visit during the course of
the game, in that you have to visit two different places to restore HP
and MP. Also, when you recieve the Acorns, you're granted MP to spend. As
I've never attempted it, I don't know what happens if you skip getting
the acorns.
Now, let's explore the village and see who else has anything interesting
to say!
To get to the village of Dew, you must go through the rugged forest
just north of Nelwyn.
Hmm, so Nelwyn in this game is the name of the village rather than the
race of dwarfs that live there? Interesting.
I have heard rumors that a demon is in the village of Dew, just north
of here, and has been terrifying the villagers.
A demon, eh? I guess I will investigate when I get there!
Please note that despite the resemblance, these are two different people
telling me this.
Oh crap, it's a daikini in the village! Who is he and how'd he get here?
Oh, it's not a daikini at all, it's another Nelwyn with a deceptively
large sprite.
Did you meet Vohnkar, the best swordsman in the village?
He should be preparing the finest weapons for you.
In that case, I'll see him right away! ...after talking to more people.
You must be Willow! Weapons and magic items must be in hand in order
to use them, so be careful.
Sheesh, in tiny villages like this, everyone's supposed to know everybody
else! Also, standard RPG advice. Just about anyone playing an RPG knows
this, but it's traditional to have someone remind you anyway.
A house this lopsided MUST be important! Let's check it out!
And here's Vohnkar!
Welcome Willow.
My name is Vohnkar.
Please take
This long sword.
"You have the Long Sword!"
It may be heavy and hard to use at first, but you should get used to it
after a few fights.
And so, we get our first weapon!
And now, to equip it.
Here is the game's menu, displaying Willow's stats at the start of the game:
And with the sword equipped:
That's right, baby, my sword is *long!*
*ahem* That out of the way, let's leave town and get to exploring the
great, wide world...
It's another Daikini! D:
No, it's another misleading sprite.
You should be able to get to the village of Dew if you keep going north on this road.
I pretty much knew that already, ma'am, but thanks anyway.
Oh, there's one last house to visit.
Willow.
To stop Bavmorda's magic you must dispel the curse she put on Fin
Raziel.
Ah, and now we have a clue as to the main quest of the game!
So, off we go!
We depart from the village, and almost immediately encounter...
Slimes! It's just not an RPG without them! Fortunately, they're more like
Dragon Quest slimes than Final Fantasy slimes, and a coupla whacks with a
sword each put them down, giving me 10 XP each. Not bad!
Going northward at the three-way crossroad lead me to...
A terror dog!
These guys are damn strong, but fortunately they can only move a little
before they have to pause, giving you an opportunity to run in and stab
'em in the head.
After a couple encounters with them, I was starting to feel the hurt, and
I realized I'd forgotten to do something: I'd never equipped the Acorns!
And so, we do so now.
Tada!
Next, we encounter our first flying foes:
Skulls!
I remember living in utter dread of these creatures when I originally
played this as a child, because they came at me from all directions. Now,
of course, I know the secret to defeating them lies in moving so that
they'll all go to me from the same direction, and hammering on B until
they're all dead. Simple!
Just a little further on, I encounter more slimes. But these ones are
different! You stab one, and...
It divides into four smaller slimes! The mini-slimes are faster, but
apart from that they're not much more dangerous.
As you can see, between these two screenshots, I gained a level.
After a bit more fighting, I manage to get down to the point where I wish
you could get potions or herbs, when suddenly, a defeated enemy leaves a
strange object behind:
And walking onto said object produces the following result:
Hooray for health drops!
Now, after much strife and struggle, I come upon a new area, bedecked
with orchids!
This must be that Dew place everyone kept mentioning.
The homes look different, too! Stone hovels instead of straw! Take
*that*, Big Bad Wolf!
So, you have come from Nelwyn.
Please rest as long as you need to.
Woohoo, free inn! ...Not that that makes any difference, since you never
get any money anyway.
Also, I notice that this man is one of the few we've encountered so far
who actually uses commas. I wonder if Bavmorda is hoarding them all, and
her final speech will be heavily punctuated.
As I explored Dew, I noticed a few places like this where the houses are
completely inaccessible. I wonder if the programmers threw them in to
taunt obsessive players.
The demon Bogarda takes all of the fruit
Grow in our village.
And our gold and silver, too!
Aha, information about our most immediate subquest! Let's find the
village chief's home and see what he has to say.
I am the chief of the village of Dew.
Who are you?
Outsiders
Must leave immediately.
Friendly, isn't he? Let's talk to more people.
Heading immediately north from this man just leads to a dead-end. Nice
job, mister NPC!
I have heard that Bogarda is the father of the chief of this village,
and he was changed into a demon by the wicked magic of Bavmorda.
Hey, it looks like you could use this shield!
"You have the Wood Shield!"
You should hear the story from the village chief.
The plot thickens! Also, it's about time I got some defense against the
monsters roaming the countryside with impunity. Let's equip that mother!
I won't comment, except that it looks like a funnel cake. Perhaps the
monsters are so enticed by the powdered sugar and fruity toppings that
they don't attack Willow as much anymore.
With this new item in hand, let's go visit the reticent chief again.
The story of Bogarda is true. My father was a corageous and just
person before being put under such
Wicked magic.
The villagers have
Been put through such misery...
I will give you this magic Healmace.
This is a valued treasure of this village and is a symbol of a spirit
protecing us.
When you are tired from fighting, just clutch the Healmace tightly and
say the magic word and you will regain your strength.
"You have the Healmace."
Man, that was a long speech.
But on the plus side, HEALMACE! Fuck yeah!
It takes a whopping 20 MP to use, but it restores a nice amount of HP, so
hooray!
Thus equipped and with our mission clear, it's time to head out!
New enemies! I call them "dogflies." They're pretty fast and come in
large enough packs that it's tough to kill them all before they leave.
Yes, unlike enemies we've encountered so far, these ones will just fly
around for a short while and then fly off the screen. I guess they don't
care very much whether they finish the job.
Venturing further onward, we come upon...
A mine entrance guarded by a skeleton! Fortunately, instead of attacking,
it just stood there, so I decided to engage in some small talk.
You want to see Bogarda!
If that's the case, find and bring back
The gold statue that the villagers hid in this forest.
Ha ha ha!
I like to imagine him doing a Krankor laugh here.
So, Bogarda wants me to fetch an item for him? Okay, I'm game. This is
pretty unprecedented in a video game, so I'll go along with it for now.
A short time later:
Oh shit, a lamia! One that spits fireballs, at that!
It took a bit of work to stab him into submission, but I made it, and
kept going, only to discover...
Dammit, not another one D: Fortunately, when I actually got to him, I
found I could just bull-rush past him, which lead me to my goal:
A chest!
"You have the Gold Statue."
"It is a golden image of a human face."
"You have the Light of Life."
An apparentley psychic chest!
Some chests will give you a Light of Life, which refills your HP. Pretty
darned handy if you get them at the right time.
Having found the McGuffin, I return to the skeleton.
Bogarda is in this cave.
As soon as you hand over the gold statue you must return here.
Ha ha ha!
With this, he buggers off to do whatever it is skeletons do on their
breaks.
We go in, and...
So this is what a cave looks like. Cozy. Also, the music is *badass*.
Within, we meet some more new enemies:
First up, some bats. Some of which transform into bigger bats! Oh noes!
Hornets! Cave hornets, I guess. They move forward a little, pause, move
forward, etc. They also have the annoying habit of going where you can't
reach and just staying there until you say "screw 'em" and walk away.
What's this? Another chest? Okay, let's have a look.
"You have the Battle Sword!"
"It is a solid and fairly heavy sword."
I also got a Light of Life.
Equipping it gives me another 9 points of strength, which is darned nice.
Unfortunately, that's not good enough for some monsters, especially not
this one:
I call them zombie wizards. You can't touch them with your sword, but
walking into them still hurts, and they have the habit of randomly
teleporting away and reappearing elsewhere on the screen.
And you never want them to do that when they're that close to you,
because this happens:
You're no warrior, you're a PIG!
Hooray, something from the movie!
I have to wonder if the Piggy status in Final Fantasy IV was inspired by
that scene from the movie. I mean, obviously both come from Circe in The
Odyssey, but still.
Thankfully, the pigginess wears off after several seconds (but you can
still get hurt and even die if you're not careful, and you can't leave
the screen while a pig). Seeing no way to harm these jerks, I decided to
just run away.
Eventually, after exploring and fleeing from more zombie wizards, I found
my man, err, demon, err, demon-man.
Ugly bastard, isn't he?
So it is you.
The youngster with
the gold statue.
What!? You won't give me the statue.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!
Do you intend to oppose me?
You pitiful creature!!
That's much more effective if you replace "youngster" with "peck," the
derogatory epithet humans use for Nelwyns in the movie.
Anyway, it's time for the game's first BOSS BATTLE!
It's nice of them to give us handy HP meters for Willow *and* the boss.
Anyway, let's look at Bogarda's tactics.
He'll move around a bit before throwing his little boomeraxe in your
general direction. Fortunately, it's a fairly simple matter to stand
close until he throws, then move out of the way and stab him before it
comes back.
After a healthy dose of stabbity, he goes down...
And gives enough XP to bring Willow up a level! Yaaay!
Also, beating the snot out of the oni changes him back to an ordinary man.
Oh! Where am I?
Oh yes, I remember now.
Please fight for peace.
I will teach you the magic of flowing fire.
It should be of help to you.
"You have the magic of Flowing Fire."
If you want to know more about Queen Bavmorda, go and talk to
Cherlindrea, the fairy who lives west of the village of Dew in legendary
Lake Cheef.
So, instead of being in the middle of the forest, Cherlindrea's moved to
a scenic lake. Okay...
Anyway, new spell! Hooray!
For some reason, it's called Fireflor in the menu. Shrug.
As for what it does...
It creates a ring of small flames around you that last for let's say half
a minute and do pretty nice damage to almost anything dumb enough to move
into it. And it damages the zombie wizards, to boot!
When I defeated one of them, it left me a shiny thing, thus:
Picking it up restored my MP, thus:
Of course, I'm not finished with the cave yet, and more exploring yielded
the following:
"You have the Ring."
"When you wear it your strength increases."
Fortunately, you don't have to do anything special to get the benefits,
just having it is enough to raise your attack power by some amount.
Immediately left of the ring is the statue I had to procure earlier and
forgot to get a shot of by itself.
BTW, when you use the Healmace, it makes parts of the screen light up,
revealing the neat background texture.
Anyway, let's mosey on back to Dew and see what anyone has to say now
that I've changed things.
First, the "inn."
Please rest here.
By the way...
Have you heard about the dragon scales?
It's said that they're proof of the fight between an adventurer and a
vicious dragon called Matanda.
I use to be a blacksmith in this village.
Just once I would like to make a magnificent sword with those scales.
If you find them, please bring them to me.
So, you're an old man with a flophouse *and* a blacksmith? Suuure.
Now, the chief.
Oh, what a courageous young man!
Thank you very much.
You're not very helpful, sir. Also, why are you apparentley older than
your father? WTF.
A random woman standing outside had a clue for me:
If you go west from here you will see
A road that goes through the rock mountain.
As you go further
You will find the entrance to the cave.
Sometimes you can hear a weird voice from inside.
Okay, let's move on!
Following the path as advised by that NPC, I did indeed find a road. And
what's more, it lead to a new environment!
Mountains!
And where there's mountains, there's Deadly Falling Rocks!
As usual with DFRs, the only thing to do is just get out of the way.
After moving forward, I reached a cave entrance. Perhaps this has
something to do with the "weird voice."
No, this is all that's in it. But what's IN the chest is what's
important, right?
"You have the Small Shield!"
"It is a strong shield made of metal."
It's green! And raised my defense by 9 points!
Sadly, there's only one shield and sword sprite, so no matter what you
equip, you look the same.
Anyway, the next new enemies I face are...
OH SHI TROLLS!
You can just beat them up with fair ease, fortunately. Their main deal is
that they jump on you in groups.
Ah, so here's where that skeleton from before went. And he brought a
friend! These guys have shields, so some amount of strategy is necessary,
though my favorite one is "get them pinned against a wall or the edge of
the screen, then hold down turbo B and wait for enough hits to connect."
Now, at this point, we start seeing palette swaps of earlier creatures,
in this case, turquoise, thus:
I'm not going to bother with showing them all, though.
Anyway, continuing onward, we meet a strange white squirrel thing.
I am Kchil of the Nail Clan. Our village is in the forest near Lake
Cheef.
When we went to the village of Dew looking for food, Bogarda put a
strange spell on the bridge so we could not get out, but thanks to you,
it looks like we can finally return to our village.
Thank you!
Yay, I'm helping people without even realizing it!
Well, let's go across that bridge!
Now, funny little thing time: I don't know if the screencaps have put the
idea across, but during outdoor fights, the grass, trees, and even the
bare ground dance as if to say "wake up, yo!"
I bring this up at this point because
Even the bridge gets in on this! I think I'd get dizzy and fall off the
bridge if that started happening to me, but Willow's far stronger than
that.
Apparentley, crossing that bridge took a good while, because it's
suddenly autumn!
After a little walk, we encounter something that looks like a... a bee,
maybe?
Oh, it's not a bee, it's just a really crappy sprite of the Brownies!
Shut up, or I'll BREAK your nose!
We are Franjean and Rool of the Brownies Clan!
Franjean:
Who are you?
Rool:
Who are you?
Franjean:
You come to see the fairy Cherlindrea?
Ha ha ha!
Cherlindrea is the fairy of beautiful Lake Cheef.
Rool:
She is.
Franjean:
If you do what we say, we can tell you how to get to Lake Cheef.
Rool:
We can.
Franjean:
If you go north from here through
Death Forest, there is a cave where a dragon called Matanda lives.
Defeat Matanda and bring the Crystal Ball of Life back to us.
Ha ha ha!
Rool:
Ha ha ha!
Alright, if that's what it takes, I'll get that crystal for you two shrimps.
Time to meet a new foe!
"Hey, wait a second!" I hear you shout. "Where's the enemy?"
Well, take a few more steps, and...
They spring to life and start spitting fireballs! Of course, it's
impossible to fight them, so just get away from them and move on.
After some walking, I came upon this stone hut:
Whoever's living there, their flowers aren't in very good shape :(
Oh, it's this old guy again. Thankfully, he's an "inn."
......,
What is this? Storming into someone's home unannounced?
Wait!
You're just in time.
My darling pet has run off somewhere. Won't you please find
him? His name is Po.
He is really cute.
You'll
Like him for sure.
Hold on, take these medicinal herbs in case he is hurt.
"You have obtained the Medicinal Herbs."
Take care.
Okay, old man, as long as you don't describe your various ailments to me.
The herbs! Of course, you can't really use them for anything.
Well, that wraps it up for this update!
For those who want to play along, here's the password:
See you all tomorrow!