When the Pixel Remaster of I came out, I grabbed a Nintendo Power guide and set aside chunks of time to finally get into this series after decades gone by. I was absolutely dumbstruck at how much of that game was very directly modelled on D&D. Like you pointed out with the Mindflayer, they don't even change the name of the monsters! All in all, this was an exciting find. That final boss though... the Pixel Remaster got me thinking I was playing a cozy game, and then that jerk puts the brakes on things right at the end. I still haven't finished it! Once I found out I had so much more grinding to do just to beat that one boss I kinda noped out for a while. I still want to figure out a side-view VTT setup someday, it would work great for theater-of-the-mind combat.
The final boss is wild. Apparently the Pixel Remaster adjusted his difficulty level up from other versions of the game, which is a strange choice. The fact that he can heal himself for his entire HP in one spell feels pretty uncool. It took me 5 or 6 tries to beat him, and when I finally got him, it's because his RNG wasn't quite as fortuitous as it had been -- he did a lot of buffs and single-player attacks as opposed to AoE spells and heals, so I could keep pace with him more easily. It feels a little cheap that my victory was based purely on what the CPU decided he would do but I didn't want to grind it out any more either, haha.
A side-view VTT would be really rad. Have you seen the Fabula Ultima TTRPG? It's a Final Fantasy tribute and is specifically designed for that kind of side view combat (the rulebook even says don't measure distance precisely, just think about relative positioning)..
Yeah, I think I rage quit after attempt 4. Maybe I should have given it more goes, just hoping he rolls badly. But yeah, that shit felt incredibly unsatisfying when he'd just fully recover while you're fully drained.
I hadn't seen Fabula Ultima! I've got some reading to do. There have been some interesting video game projects lately (Dungeon Grand Prix for DCC, and Netcrawl by James A Pozenel Jr) I keep thinking it would be fun to embrace the gonzo video gamey mechanics in a tongue-in-cheek way and put out a Nintendo Power inspired zine.
Dude you are speaking my language. I would grab that in a second.
Something that's currently in my brain is trying to make the exploration part of my tabletop games more exciting, inspired by Tears of the Kingdom, but then I get frustrated that that would probably take me a long time to figure out how to build a world as good as that game does, haha.
I just looked it up and there's so much to that! You can craft vehicles?? Did you see that zine for DCC called Overworld? I wonder if that has anything that can be hacked into or out of that. Sounds awesome and ambitious.
I actually bought Overworld haha. It's basically a Monster Manual but is really cool. Definitely gives me inspiration for creatures to populate the countryside if nothing else!
When the Pixel Remaster of I came out, I grabbed a Nintendo Power guide and set aside chunks of time to finally get into this series after decades gone by. I was absolutely dumbstruck at how much of that game was very directly modelled on D&D. Like you pointed out with the Mindflayer, they don't even change the name of the monsters! All in all, this was an exciting find. That final boss though... the Pixel Remaster got me thinking I was playing a cozy game, and then that jerk puts the brakes on things right at the end. I still haven't finished it! Once I found out I had so much more grinding to do just to beat that one boss I kinda noped out for a while. I still want to figure out a side-view VTT setup someday, it would work great for theater-of-the-mind combat.
The final boss is wild. Apparently the Pixel Remaster adjusted his difficulty level up from other versions of the game, which is a strange choice. The fact that he can heal himself for his entire HP in one spell feels pretty uncool. It took me 5 or 6 tries to beat him, and when I finally got him, it's because his RNG wasn't quite as fortuitous as it had been -- he did a lot of buffs and single-player attacks as opposed to AoE spells and heals, so I could keep pace with him more easily. It feels a little cheap that my victory was based purely on what the CPU decided he would do but I didn't want to grind it out any more either, haha.
A side-view VTT would be really rad. Have you seen the Fabula Ultima TTRPG? It's a Final Fantasy tribute and is specifically designed for that kind of side view combat (the rulebook even says don't measure distance precisely, just think about relative positioning)..
Yeah, I think I rage quit after attempt 4. Maybe I should have given it more goes, just hoping he rolls badly. But yeah, that shit felt incredibly unsatisfying when he'd just fully recover while you're fully drained.
I hadn't seen Fabula Ultima! I've got some reading to do. There have been some interesting video game projects lately (Dungeon Grand Prix for DCC, and Netcrawl by James A Pozenel Jr) I keep thinking it would be fun to embrace the gonzo video gamey mechanics in a tongue-in-cheek way and put out a Nintendo Power inspired zine.
Dude you are speaking my language. I would grab that in a second.
Something that's currently in my brain is trying to make the exploration part of my tabletop games more exciting, inspired by Tears of the Kingdom, but then I get frustrated that that would probably take me a long time to figure out how to build a world as good as that game does, haha.
I just looked it up and there's so much to that! You can craft vehicles?? Did you see that zine for DCC called Overworld? I wonder if that has anything that can be hacked into or out of that. Sounds awesome and ambitious.
I actually bought Overworld haha. It's basically a Monster Manual but is really cool. Definitely gives me inspiration for creatures to populate the countryside if nothing else!
I hope they include some FF1 characters to the FF and magic the gathering crossover
Wait is that happening? Holy crap.