Saturday, June 9, 2012

Game 10: Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord (SMS) - Finished!

Well this was rather unexpected. I thought I was going to be stuck a bit longer than I actually was. Honestly, I was really only wandering around aimlessly going back through various towns searching for clues of where the other two keys were located when I decided the first key I found must be the first step.
Why is it so small?
From there I checked every square to see if something was hidden, heading west I found the next statue. North from that one was the third, and again to the west was the last. Looking at the map after adding these locations I realize I made a vital mistake. I assumed the instructions had a distance in days that were equal to steps. It turns out that a day is two steps. It's obvious now that I see the pattern (not obvious a day is two steps, but the overall pattern), but I wonder how many were completely stuck here like me.

I can't remember ever being told which town Medi is from, so the hint that Medi's town was once called Saria wasn't much help. Having the false statues definitely threw me off the idea that this town was the one to use as the starting point. There's also no clue about what kind of distance a "day" means.
Somehow I kept forgetting to take screenshots of the bosses
Once I found the statues, getting the last two keys was very simple. In fact, at this point, these mini-bosses were a cakewalk. I used Qycx to fight all enemies in both dungeons, never running, and he still only gained experience for half a level. At this point I didn't consider grinding necessary anymore, so I wasn't worried.
Here's the third boss, each one takes a chunk out of my fame, but it doesn't matter at this point
The final dungeon is the only one that includes more than one floor. The dungeons haven't provided much variety. One exception is on the second floor here, there are false stairs that lead to other dungeons or place the party in the over-world. The third floor is about as basic as it comes though.
All the dungeons in the game; the last three are the final dungeon
Terarin is waiting at the exit of the third floor. She's the final boss, the dark general attempting to release the dark lord. It was an extremely close battle. One misstep and I was a goner; I only lost once though. On the next attempt I made sure to not underestimate her attack power.
This graphic wouldn't fly on a Nintendo system
It took everything I had, and I do mean everything. Each of my companions gave their life to get in one last hit. I expended all of my magic items, which were maxed out for this fight. Qycx ended the battle by striking before Terarin could end his own life. I really wasn't looking forward to grinding out another level.
On the very edge of losing, but Qycx pulls through
The game ends with many of the NPCs and the companions wishing Qycx well, and thanking him for all he's done. It was fun through until the end. While very basic, I didn't expect much from an early SMS RPG. The game shares a lot of similarities with Phantasy Star, but simpler.
Surely the entire party was victorious; let's remember Guy, Medi, and Treo giving their lives

Session Time: 3h00m (Total Time: 17h00m)

6 comments:

  1. That boss has the most improbable breasts. I can only imagine what she looks like standing up.

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    1. They do defy gravity. If she were to stand, they'd probably cause he immense back pain, which is probably why she's hunched over.

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    2. I don't know about back pain, but they'd probably whack her in the chin!

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    3. Ha. Ha. I remember calling my friend over to show him the last boss and saying you won't see that on Nintendo when I was a kid. Kids will ogle at any breasts they can get their eyes on even even if they are green.

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  2. Actually, there are two hints for "1 day equals 2 cells":
    - "Thou art only about half big as Iason"
    - "Iason was twice as fast as normal man and of great stature"
    But these hints are not obviuos, yes. I realized what they mean only after reading this post :)

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    1. Ah, I must have missed those. They're obvious in retrospect, but easily written off when a random NPC says it. I've gotten into the habit now of noting everything down because random things like that turn out to be useful in a lot of these early games.

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