Hero-of-Time Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 These past few days i've been continuing my play through of Shining the Holy Ark and i'm 20 hours into it now. Over the weekend I came across a bit of a roadblock. I had to make my way through Enrich Dungeon for a second time and face off against Rilix. This boss is stupidly hard for whereabouts in the game it is. You have to fight 2 spirits and then after defeating those, Rilix goes and revives them and you have to fight them again but with her in tow. At this point in the game you don't have any widespread healing spells, so you have to do your healing one character at a time. The problem is that the enemy gets 3 attacks and most of the time they cast spells that hit everyone and do insane amounts of damage. I tried a few times but I just kept getting killed. I had a quick look on the net and many say that this is the hardest boss in the game and I have no doubt that is the case. I decided to just stop trying to beat her at my current level and I went and farmed a bunch of exp. I went back to the previous dungeon and found a corridor that kept spawning enemies in the same spot. They were high enough of a level to give me some decent exp but low enough so that they didn't take long to kill. I spent a couple of hours just running up and down this same corridor, getting in to battles and levelling up my squad. Fun times. It was worth it though because I was able to change the class of each of my characters. This gives them higher stats, changes the armour they are rocking and allows them to get better spells quicker. If i'm honest I completely forgot you could do this and a couple of my team could have changed classes a lot earlier. Whoops. With my levels being a lot higher and better spells at my disposal, I went back into the Enrich dungeon and proceeded to wipe the floor with Rilix. Stupid hag didn't know what hit her! My more powerful spells wiped out the 2 spirits that she had previously revived pretty quickly and with the odds being in my favour (4 v 1) I managed to defeat her. After that ordeal I haven't really had any difficulty issues....probably because I was pretty over levelled at that point. Speaking of being over levelled, last night I came across this guy...(not my pic) It's essentially a Metal Slime from the Dragon Quest series. He appears and you have to defeat him pretty quickly otherwise he sods off. Like Metal Slimes, the amount of exp you get off him is insane. Where i'm at in the game I usually get around 150-200 exp per battle but this guy drops 3333 and around an extra 300-400 with the pixies I use to attack him. Needless to say I spent a good while just farming the spot where it spawns. My levels now 16-17 mark ( they reset back to 0 when you change class ) and I have steamrolled through everything since I spent the time farming. I think then end is in sight. I'm pretty sure I have only got around 2-3 more dungeons to go and I imagine i'll have to done and dusted either before or over the weekend. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 (edited) 21 minutes ago, Happenstance said: I'm happy enough with the quality that I think I'll order some more from the same guy. Need to get boxes for: I seen on ERA over the weekend that you were looking for a seller that sells multiple boxes rather than just the one. Did you manage to find one? I found one that sells 5 for £8.95 if that's any good to you? eBay I quite like these ones. Blue Boxes Edited March 20, 2019 by Hero-of-Time 2
Happenstance Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: I seen on ERA over the weekend that you were looking for a seller that sells multiple boxes rather than just the one. Did you manage to find one? I found one that sells 5 for £8.95 if that's any good to you? eBay I quite like these ones. Blue Boxes Lol, wish I'd seen this post before I ordered 4 more. Still though, it cost a bit more but I'm happy enough with the Comix Zone one that it's ok if I spent a bit more, especially as it takes away the hassle of finding the high quality covers and then printing them.
S.C.G Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 56 minutes ago, Happenstance said: Also the copy of Castle of Illusion arrived from @S.C.G so thanks again for that! You're very welcome. I'm glad to hear that it reached you in good condition and it's nice to know that it will be going into your collection to be played and enjoyed. On the subject of replacement boxes, I ordered a box only for Street Fighter 2 Special Championship Edition because I already have the cart and manual... ...which was inside the box for Cadash which is a rare Genesis game but I didn't want to pay a huge amount to complete that one. I did find a seller was selling a reproduction copy but it is one that looks like it's from back in the day (from the '90s) as I have a copy of Snow Bros. cart only which is similar. Also got some lights to go on my Sega Shelf as where it is, it's so dark that you can barely see the games, so I've got a few sets of those, you get two and an IR remote for £25. Very pleased with them so far, I'll post a pick of the shelf once everything is done but, after shining a light on it all... I think I need to do a bit more dusting and sorting first.
Happenstance Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 Someone on Era is claiming they just got the shipping notification for their Mega SG! 1
S.C.G Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 (edited) 57 minutes ago, Happenstance said: Someone on Era is claiming they just got the shipping notification for their Mega SG! *Checks e-mail* Oh shi... ...totally hasn't shipped yet. Damn, I wish... still not long now! Edited March 20, 2019 by S.C.G
Happenstance Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 I need to step away from my PC otherwise I'm just gonna sit at my desk refreshing Hotmail over and over! 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 @S.C.G it seems the Panzer Dragoon games are being discussed at GDC. https://www.resetera.com/threads/info-and-photos-from-classic-game-postmortem-panzer-dragoon-pd-zwei-and-pd-saga-sega-saturn-development-delays-gave-pd-its-rich-world.106631/ I look forward to the video of the conference being released. 1
S.C.G Posted March 20, 2019 Posted March 20, 2019 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: @S.C.G it seems the Panzer Dragoon games are being discussed at GDC. https://www.resetera.com/threads/info-and-photos-from-classic-game-postmortem-panzer-dragoon-pd-zwei-and-pd-saga-sega-saturn-development-delays-gave-pd-its-rich-world.106631/ I look forward to the video of the conference being released. Oh nice! Always good to hear about Panzer Dragoon being discussed. Let us hope that the series truly does get remade properly, it deserves it. I'd love for all of the games to be playable on modern hardware, even if it ended up being exclusive. Obviously better that it comes out for all formats if this does happen but if not... ...Xbox One would be a good fit as it already has Panzer Dragoon Orta running beautifully. Edited March 20, 2019 by S.C.G
Goafer Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) So it seems that the Phantasy Star Universe Clementine servers are running and open to everyone now. For anyone wanting to give it a try, there's a good guide here: http://psu-clementine.net/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2044 Video guide here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPHItQPY-Y0 Despite the guides saying that you don't need to manually patch the game, mine wouldn't work unless I manually patched it, so here's a video guide for that too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWcFEHzgqdQ I played it for about an hour and it's running really well. The only issues I've found are some vendor greetings are still in Japanese and the game crashes when I try to go into my room. Neither of them prevent normal gameplay, so I'd say it was a winner. Edited March 21, 2019 by Goafer 1
Happenstance Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) Saw a nice copy of Adventures of Batman & Robin on eBay last night and decided I’d try and go for it, letting myself go up to £70. This morning it’s already at £98. Edit: It sold for £105 Edited March 21, 2019 by Happenstance
Happenstance Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 Second game from CEX that should have been Mega Drive but was Genesis
S.C.G Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 1 hour ago, Happenstance said: Second game from CEX that should have been Mega Drive but was Genesis What game was it out of interest? I really thought CEX had a policy about only taking PAL games, or at least the one I traded stuff into did.
Happenstance Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 6 minutes ago, S.C.G said: What game was it out of interest? I really thought CEX had a policy about only taking PAL games, or at least the one I traded stuff into did. I’m pretty sure they do have that policy. it was Rolling Thunder 2.
Hero-of-Time Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 21 hours ago, Goafer said: So it seems that the Phantasy Star Universe Clementine servers are running and open to everyone now. I could never get into PSU. I absolutely adored PSO and played it to death on the Dreamcast, Gamecube and Xbox but PSU never stuck with me. Something just didn't feel right. 3 hours ago, Happenstance said: Second game from CEX that should have been Mega Drive but was Genesis I'm surprised you still use them, especially after the faff on you had last year with the hardware they sent you. You're a braver man than me buying from them for your retro collection. I need to see what I'm getting before I put down the cash and ordering from CEX seems like it's potluck with what you actually get. On to another topic, I was sorting some stuff out the other day and came across a load of my old game soundtrack CDs. Here are a few that may be of some interest. The top 2 are Sega music collections. The blue one is all their older stuff, like Master System and Mega Drive, and the yellow one has Saturn and Dreamcast music on it. I've had the Saturn and Dreamcast stuff playing on the way to work. Sonic R, Burning Rangers, PSO, Sonic Adventure, Panzer Dragoon, NiGHTS....fantastic selection. I think I picked them up in the early 2000's from Lik-Sang. I used to order lots of stuff from them before they got shut down. 1
Happenstance Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: I'm surprised you still use them, especially after the faff on you had last year with the hardware they sent you. You're a braver man than me buying from them for your retro collection. I need to see what I'm getting before I put down the cash and ordering from CEX seems like it's potluck with what you actually get. Yeah all the problems from last year came flooding back today as I was thinking about this latest game. If I'm using real money I don't use CEX online, it's just the traded in credit I use so it only really happens rarely when I have a load of stuff to clear out. It's a shame though that they aren't more vigilant with their trade in policies because the price they sell retro games at is surprisingly fair.
Hero-of-Time Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 After just shy of 30 hours I finished Shining the Holy Ark. Spoiler I absolutely loved playing through this again and even though it's been twenty years since I played it, I still pretty much remembered everything about it. Crazy considering that I had only played it the once. It goes to show you that the game did leave a lasting impression on me. The last bosses weren't that difficult ( I spent a while grinding that enemy that dished out insane exp ) but the fights did take a while. I had a healer and a stat booster ( Melody & Forte ) patching up and boosting the stats of Arthur and Basso. By the time I had set those things up the bosses were doing next to no damage and my two attackers were dishing out quite a bit. I also had a helping hand from the pixies I had been collecting... I made sure to collect them all and in doing so you get a nice bonus item called the Fairy Bell. When you use this every pixie you've collected gets unleashed at the same time and it does some amazing damage. You can only use it until it breaks but needless to say I gave the item a whirl when fighting the last boss and it came in VERY handy. While watching the credits I seen Treasure pop up. I never knew that they worked on the game. I wonder what input they had? After finishing this i'm tempted to fire up another Saturn game. I'm not sure what yet though. Shining Force III would be the obvious choice seeing as it has references to Shining the Holy Ark scattered throughout the game. I'll have a think about it. If I do decided to play another Saturn game then i'll bump the Saturn thread as to not clog this one up with my retro adventures. 2
Happenstance Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 Nope, time to move onto Mega Drive now so you can join those of us who should get our Mega SGs next week.
Hero-of-Time Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 My MD is packed away and I only have a handful of games for it. My Saturn is already out and ready to be played on.
Dcubed Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: After just shy of 30 hours I finished Shining the Holy Ark. Pic of end boss defeated (Reveal hidden contents) I absolutely loved playing through this again and even though it's been twenty years since I played it, I still pretty much remembered everything about it. Crazy considering that I had only played it the once. It goes to show you that the game did leave a lasting impression on me. The last bosses weren't that difficult ( I spent a while grinding that enemy that dished out insane exp ) but the fights did take a while. I had a healer and a stat booster ( Melody & Forte ) patching up and boosting the stats of Arthur and Basso. By the time I had set those things up the bosses were doing next to no damage and my two attackers were dishing out quite a bit. I also had a helping hand from the pixies I had been collecting... I made sure to collect them all and in doing so you get a nice bonus item called the Fairy Bell. When you use this every pixie you've collected gets unleashed at the same time and it does some amazing damage. You can only use it until it breaks but needless to say I gave the item a whirl when fighting the last boss and it came in VERY handy. While watching the credits I seen Treasure pop up. I never knew that they worked on the game. I wonder what input they had? After finishing this i'm tempted to fire up another Saturn game. I'm not sure what yet though. Shining Force III would be the obvious choice seeing as it has references to Shining the Holy Ark scattered throughout the game. I'll have a think about it. If I do decided to play another Saturn game then i'll bump the Saturn thread as to not clog this one up with my retro adventures. Oh wow! I had no idea that Treasure worked on Shining: The Holy Ark! I'm guessing that it was the Landstalker team helping out? Will play this game some day! How I pine for proper English releases of Shining Force 3 part 2 & 3 as well some day... Come on SEGA/M2! Make it part of the next wave of SEGA AGES releases!! Edited March 22, 2019 by Dcubed
Happenstance Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: My MD is packed away and I only have a handful of games for it. My Saturn is already out and ready to be played on. Easy fix for that is to quickly order a Mega SG and then head to eBay to build a collection 2
Goafer Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: If I do decided to play another Saturn game then i'll bump the Saturn thread as to not clog this one up with my retro adventures. There's a Saturn thread?!
Hero-of-Time Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 12 minutes ago, Goafer said: There's a Saturn thread?! General Thread Appreciation Thread
S.C.G Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 On 20/03/2019 at 3:41 PM, Happenstance said: Someone on Era is claiming they just got the shipping notification for their Mega SG! Oh shi... I just checked my e-mail and got my shipping confirmation, for real this time! Scheduled to arrive on Monday. Check your e-mail. yours will surely have shipped as well I hope.
Happenstance Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 1 minute ago, S.C.G said: Oh shi... I just checked my e-mail and got my shipping confirmation, for real this time! Scheduled to arrive on Monday. Check your e-mail. yours will surely have shipped as well I hope. Nope nothing yet. They’re working their way through the preorders though so I’m sure mine will ship soon. 1
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