Dragon Age, part 5

As always, this post will contain spoilers. It’s also going to be short, because while I finished a major quest I actually started it well before I started this blog. As a result, I only played the last little bit of it.

I finished the quest to save Arl Eamon In Redcliffe castle. In this quest, an assassin blood mage named Jowan has tried to poison Arl Eamon, who is in a coma. Arl Eamon’s son Connor has also been possessed by a demon supposedly summoned by Jowan. I had already defended Redcliffe village from monsters, and killed every enemy in and around the castle. All I had to do now was figure out how to save Arl Eamon, his wife, and his child.

I have been trying very hard not to look up how to finish quests with the best possible outcome, and I didn’t do that for this quest. However, I was able to end up getting the best possible outcome. The reason I started this quest months ago and only finished it now was on a suggestion from my partner. I realize now it was because getting mages from the Circle Tower to help you was the only way to save the whole family. I had no idea until now, and I’m glad he helped me with that without spoiling anything!

In order to save whole family, I got help from a group of mages. My other options were to kill the child or allow Jowan to use blood magic to save the child, but killing his mother in the process. I did get help, and they sent me into the Fade again. I chose to go to the Fade as Wynne, because I thought she would be the most effective. I don’t know if that’s true, but she pulled off the mission easily. It was almost too easy, and the final fight was more tedious than difficult.

I spent the rest of my play time running around and finishing up sidequests. I guess I did enough sidequests that earned me money to unlock the Mercenary achievement. I also spent some time talking to the others at the party camp, and unlocked some companion quests. I unlocked Sten’s, but due to a bug I couldn’t finish it. I don’t mind too much though, because playing with Sten in the party reminded me of how much I dislike him. He kept bothering Wynne about how she’s not a proper woman because she’s going to war and generally being a sexist jerk.

Next I tried Morrigan’s quest, and I really hope she doesn’t find out I didn’t actually kill Flemeth. After hearing what she does in order to keep on living I wanted to, but I could tell I wasn’t going to win that fight. So I ended up getting her grimoire anyway and giving it to Morrigan, who likes me considerably more now.

I plan to keep finishing up little sidquests, because I want to do as much as possible before I get to the end of the game.

Pokemon Black, part 12

It’s been a while since I updated about my progress on this game! I have continued to play it, but have not had much to update about. The egg that I got from a random Ranger hatched, into a Larvesta. Between Emboar and Reshiram, I really don’t need any more fire type Pokemon. I still wanted to raise the Larvesta into a Volcarona so I kept him in my party with an Exp. Share. He’s at level 56, and will evolve at level 59. Once that happens, I really need to figure out who will be my sixth team member for my second Elite Four challenge. I may keep Volcarona after all, because a bug type would be useful. However, I am missing a grass type so I may bring back my Leavanny to take care of both bug and grass type. Either way, I have some grinding to do. The rest of my team (Emboar, Excadrill, Swanna, Musharna, and Zebstrika) are all between level 69-72. I’ve just been going to the Nimbasa City sports complexes and battling every day to level them up. Once I get them all to level 72-75, I think I’ll be ready to challenge the Elite Four again!

Dragon Age, part 4

As always, this post may contain spoilers.

I know I said I would post on Sunday, but I ended up playing until late into the night and was too tired to write. I also had a very long day at work, so I didn’t have time to write this post until now.

I was able to complete the Fade quest. I was surprised at how long it took, even though it was not particularly challenging. Taking on the different forms was very fun. My favorite was the golem form, so I could run around smashing doors and enemies. However, I will say that all the battles within the Fade were disappointingly easy. I defeated each boss, and each time thought “was that it?” I was happy to reunite with Morrigan, Alistair, and Wynne for the final battle in the Fade. I missed hearing their banter in the background! Once that was done, we went back to the real world!

Once there, we had to make our way to Uldred, who started the corruption of the Mage’s tower. That was pretty straightforward too. We only had to fight some drakes and dragonlings. Then we reached Uldred at last. He gave a rather villainous speech, and revealed his true form as a giant demon. While I felt that the battles in the Fade were too easy, this one was too hard! I think it took me about 20 tries to finally beat. I don’t know how many exactly because I lost count, but I do know I was trying for about an hour. I have an unfortunate tendency of ragequitting when I get frustrated, but I kept trying because I wanted to finish the quest and I wasn’t sure when I would have the chance to play next.

With enough tries, I finally mastered how to keep an eye on everyone’s health and stamina/mana so that only my PC Oberon and his summoned bear died, while Alistair kept smashing away at Uldred. Morrigan and Wynne stayed back and kept casting spells to attack Uldred and heal Alistair. I also had to master switching to Wynne so she could use the Litany of Adralla to keep Uldred from raising the slain mages as more demons to fight. As a result, I managed to save Irving. This was definitely that hardest battle I’ve fought in this game so far.

After defeating Uldred, I emerged from the tower with Irving and I now have the mages as allies for the final battle. I had a little more time to play, so I mostly just finished up a couple of little sidequests in Denerim. I’m satisfied with the progress I made last night!

Quick Update!

I received my refurbished Nintendo 3DS on Wednesday, and have been enjoying it since. Animal Crossing: Wild World looked amazing on it. I’m also looking forward to getting Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Pokemon X or Y for it. However, I’m not planning to write about those games here because I don’t think they are old enough to fit in with my theme of playing old games that I missed when I was younger. It will be hard to go back to my DS, but I’ll have to if I’m going to play Pokemon Fire Red.

I have played a little more Dragon Age, but not really enough to make an update on it. I plan to play a lot more this weekend, so I’m going to write a much longer update on my progress on Sunday. Thanks for reading!

Dragon Age, part 3

Once again, this will contain spoilers.

I have started playing through the Fade. Of the five areas that need to be cleared out, I have completed two. I now have the mouse form and the burning man form. I am really enjoying running around as a mouse or on fire, and I’m excited to see what the other forms are. However, the fights have been almost disappointingly easy so far. I’m guessing I won’t feel that way when I get to the final battle though!

I also miss my companions! Hearing them banter with each other was one of my favorite parts of the rest of the game. It’s motivation for me to get through this part of the game, even though I’ll miss being a mouse. Right now, I miss my teammates more.

Dragon Age, part 2

As mentioned in my previous Dragon Age post, I did not start tracking my progress in Dragon Age right when I started playing. I am already a good chunk of the way through the game, so I’m just keeping track from where I was when I started this blog. Also as mentioned before, this post may contain spoilers.

I finished up the Andraste’s ashes quest, which was definitely an interesting one. I was not expecting to have to answer riddles! Fortunately they were all pretty easy. I enjoyed the little challenge since I’ve loved riddles since I read The Hobbit when I was 11.

Next I had to talk to Tamlen, my friend from the very beginning of the game who was lost and is presumably dead. He said he forgave me for not finding him, and gave me a little present and told me to move on. It was some nice closure for my character.

Then I had to fight myself. My party was as usual Shale, Morrigan, and Alistair, and I didn’t realized before what a tough team we actually are. It took me a couple of tries to beat us.

Finally I reached an altar, which had an inscription about casting off worldly belongings. So I had everyone remove their equipment, which I thought just meant weapons and armor. To my surprise everyone ended up in their underwear! But I guess that was the right thing to do, because I got to Andraste’s ashes and completed that little quest.

I was going to begin the Mage’s Circle quest next, but first I took care of a little side quest involving Oghren the dwarf and Felsi, his long lost love. I had mixed feelings about bringing Oghren to her because it sounded like she wanted nothing to do with him, but he really wanted to see her and I figured I could intercede if needed. It turned out that she did want to see him, and their relationship depends on insulting each other. To each their own, I guess.

Finally, I began the Mage’s Circle quest. I was told it is going to be a long one. I joined up with Wynne, who I like a lot. I always like when older women get to be badass, because it gives me hope that one day I’ll be a badass too. I left Shale behind, so now the party is Morrigan, Wynne, and Alistair. We slaughtered our way through the Mage’s Tower, and made it to the Sloth Demon. I’m now alone, in the Fade. I have no idea what will happen next, and I hope my next chance to play is soon!

Pokemon Soul Silver, Part 3

I have been pretty busy this week, so I haven’t had much time to play and track my progress. This will be just a quick little update.

Since the last update, I’ve been through Union Cave and made it to Goldenrod City. Union Cave was really annoying, because even though I kept running into wild Pokemon, they were all around level 6 or 7 compared to my team’s 16 or 17. My current team is Totodile, Flaaffy, Hoothoot, Togepi, Ponyta, and Gible. Those last two were once again presents from my partner. I really need to catch him something nice for all the Pokemon he keeps giving me!

I know I’m nowhere near ready to face Whitney’s gym. I remember her Miltank from when I played Gold version, and that was a really tough battle! I’ll have to do some major grinding soon to get everyone up to level. I have poked around Goldenrod City for a while, The game at Game Corner is really irritating. I keep trying it in the hopes that I’ll get enough coins to get a Dratini, because those are one of my favorite Pokemon, but I doubt it will ever happen.

The Pokewalker has been a very fun addition to the game, plus I get to find out how much I walk for work. I knew it was a significant amount, but I walk 2-3 miles every day for work! Since I got the Pokewalker on Saturday, I have walked a total of 33,027 steps. I have caught Sentret, Wobbuffet, and Paras. I really want to catch a Kangaskhan for my partner because he really likes those, but they are rare and I haven’t found one yet. I’ll just keep trying!

On a slightly unrelated note, I found out yesterday that Nintendo sells refurbished 3DS for $95. The link is here if anybody is interested. I went ahead and bought myself one this morning. I can’t wait until it gets here!

Pokemon Soul Silver, part 2

I received my Pokewalker in the mail on Saturday and bought a new battery for it, and it works! So far I have used it to catch two male Nidorans and a Sentret. I put my Onix on it just to test it out, and I had fun imagining I was being followed around by a giant rock snake. I’m already a fairly active person, but since getting it I have been getting up just to walk around a little more. It’s a fun addition to an already fun game.

As for game progress, I saved the poor Slowpokes who were getting their tails cut off by Team Rocket. I also beat the second gym. It’s the bug-type gym in Azalea town. It was easy, since my party right now is Hoothoot, Togepi, Totodile, and Mareep. Hoothoot has Peck, so she took out most of the bug types easily until we got to Bugsy’s Scyther, who is also flying type. Mareep was useful with Thundershock, and she leveled up and evolved into a Flaaffy.

To be honest, I never thought I was going to get back into Pokemon very much. I felt pretty burnt out on them after playing Blue version so much growing up. The games do age very well though. When I was a kid, I just thought Pokemon were cool and just battle. Now as an adult, I enjoy the strategy of it. There’s a lot of thought you can put into choosing a team and deciding which moves a Pokemon should have. I ended up going back to that used game store and buying Fire Red version. I now have either played or will play Blue, Gold, Fire Red, Pearl, Soul Silver, and Black version.

More Games!

Sadly, I broke my phone last night. I dropped it and cracked the screen. I took it in to get repaired today, and as I was leaving I noticed a little game store nearby. I stopped in to check it out, and they had lots of Pokemon games! After consulting the staff, I ended up buying Pearl version rather than Diamond. I really didn’t intend for this blog to become mostly about Pokemon, but it’s happening anyway. I’m still going to post about other games though. It’s going to take some willpower to not buy more when I go to pick up my phone later. They also had Heart Gold, Diamond, Fire Red, Leaf Green, and Sapphire. Hopefully the repair cost of the phone will keep me from wanting to spend anymore money today. I might exchange Pearl for Diamond after doing my own research on them though. Best thing to happen from breaking my phone? I think so.