Board 8 > Hopeless Journey Playthough topic (spoilers as I go)

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a playthrough topic for the 2007 cult classic Hopeless Journey! It's an RPG Maker RPG. Are those still a thing? I did play it once 15 years ago but I don't really remember anything about the game.

So the game starts and I'm controlling a Lv1 Thief named Susa and we're in jail. We trick the guard into opening the cell and then promptly beat him up to escape. After that, we hide under a nearby cardboard box to sneak past the rest of the guards. Not that we really needed it to get past the sleeping one. "I FEEL ASLEEP". Shortly afterwards Susa is given a choice to save a girl or loot a treasure box. Naturally, I have Susa choose "Save the Girl". Unfortunately, she has amnesia and doesn't know who she is other than her name being Elena. In any case, she tags along with Susa to escape the prison but won't join in battles since she can't fight. I get to check the chest now and it's empty! So I made the right choice. The next room has a bunch of obnoxious instant game over traps. Bad game design. At the end, I meet an undead monster named Cervantes Montoya. I am prepared to die. He rambles off some nonsense before leaving us alone. At the end of the prison is a boss and I almost soft lock here. I have no potions, no way to grind exp and no real options but to attack. So I just reroll the battle until I win. Bad game design. Just outside of the prison we meet the king of Norjizeer. The entire prison escape was a sham! It was a test to find party members to be sent off to find the Avatar of Light. This is to fulfill the Ashera Prophecies:

"One day, evil will rise to conquer the land."
"Hidden under the guise of good, it threatens to destroy our world."
"The Avatar of Darkness and the Avatar of Light will do battle..."
"and the Avatar of Light will kill the Avatar of Darkness."
"But the Avatar of Light must first reveal himself, even though he himself does now know himself."
"Otherwise, the Avatar of Darkness will never reveal himself either..."
"...And all will be lost."

Susa has no choice but to agree to help. Elena stays behind. She wasn't part of the test and the king has no idea who she even is. So it's time to meet the other party members! We meet Ryoko who does not want to join our party and a bunch of other losers. Eventually, I get to the real party members: Albert Sadafals Deliavich and Karin Vivus. Since Susa is a thief, neither of them likes him very much. We head into town and get introduced to warp crystals. Instead of walking out on to the world map, I take a warp crystal to Mordur Isle. From Mordur Isle, I can take warp crystals to other places. So the first stop is to warp to Mordur. From here Al wants to go to the libraries in Vuja. But, Susa thinks that place has been tapped out for info since everyone goes there. He wants to go to Asharam, the town of thieves, instead. Al and Karin are suspicious but eventually go with the idea.

In Asharam, I hit up the bar for a story about a sphinx with a missing eye. We're told the innkeeper knows more about it. So we go there next. And it turns out the inn is actually a brothel run by BP. Karin is unsurprisingly peeved but ultimately agrees to spending the night here. During the night, Susa hears some fighting outside and heads to check it out. It turns out BP is a holy guardian and some debt collectors took his money and sight stone. "The girls in the brothel wanted to be there because they needed the money". This BP guy seems kinda shady. I don't think it was okay to say that even in 2007. >_> Anyways, we beat down the debt collectors with some help from the rest of the party who show up late. We get some more info out of BP. He's the guardian of the hidden dungeon and those thieves stole the key. BP says he'll lead us to the hidden dungeon. Also, as if we can't read the status screen, he tells us his name is Big Punisher.

BP opens the dungeon and says there's an item to help find the Avatar of Light in here. Looks like we have a lead! Along the way, we get trapped in an illusion based on Susa's past. When he was a child, some thieves killed his parents and took everything they had. This is why Susa become a thief himself despite hating thieves. Afterwards, Karin apologizes for her poor treatment of Susa and talks about how her grandfather was also killed by thieves. Going around the table, BP explains his past as being from a family of guardians. They weren't big on names so he was just called Big Punisher based on his fighting skills. Al's past is he is from a noble family obsessed with glory and honor. After this, there are 1v1 battles where everyone faces a reflection of themselves. Susa's is a big monster for some reason. Anyways, the party regroups and eventually reaches the holy artifact. As expected, it reacts to Susa. But, it's a fake out! The stone shows Al the true Avatar of Light! Al still needs to unlock his full Avatar powers but doesn't know how. So next stop is to find info at the libraries of Vuja. We also get the Sacred Orb which burns Susa but everyone else is okay to touch it. The scene cuts to team evil where Cervantes meets with Astrov, Flux and Silverwings. Magnus is also part of the group but not present. They say they have a plan to capture Al for some reason.

Back to the party they head for Vuja. While we pass by Norjizeer, Susa checks up on Elena who still doesn't remember anything. In Vuja, we find a church and some gravestones. Someone vandalized the gravestones.

"RIP Kirby. kirby es dum"
"RIP Heroic Mario. Why did you close your account?"

Next we head to the church and there's a tie fighter inside. Pew pew. I find some mages, Mage 1 and Mage 2, with the Necromicon so we chase them and beat them up. Afterwards, Cervantes shows up. He reveals he somehow knows Al is the Avatar of Light. He isn't supposed to kill Al so instead he tells us to go to the Sky Tower. The party doesn't really trust him but decide there aren't any other leads to follow. So the first task is to go through Ridor Volcano to reach the Sky Tower.

The volcano is just a bunch of random encounters and some bosses. We get to an area that looks like someone was living in. After that we meet the Ancient Warrior. He was created to test the Avatar of Light and so we fight! The boss music sounds super familiar but I don't know where it is from. The track name is just "Confrontation" which does not help at all.

After the party wins, we leave the volcano and are finally at the Sky Tower!

Oh shit

Ah, the person responsible for this game is here. So, I have to ask. Why did you make it so the Mage bosses can OHKO Susa before the game gives access to in-battle revives? That made the battle a total pain!

Younger me tried to make things difficult-but-doable, and sometimes I erred too far on the side of difficult.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

out the inn is actually a brothel run by BP

THATS ME

Punnyz posted...

THATS ME

I don't think you're supposed to openly admit that!

Team Rocket Elite posted...

Ah, the person responsible for this game is here. So, I have to ask. Why did you make it so the Mage bosses can OHKO Susa before the game gives access to in-battle revives? That made the battle a total pain!

Dude, its literally called Hopeless Journey, come on.

The party heads to the top of the tower and find a crystal. That's when Part of Destruction shows up. He is with the Forces of Evil under the God of Destruction and wants to stop Al from becoming the Avatar of Light. He just demolishes the entire party with Megadeath except Susa who was immune. It seems like Susa unlocked some sort of power early? So it's time for Susa to be a badass with the power of friendship! "Get ready to die, god." Susa can now use Dark Swords and Dark Healing and forces Part of Destruction to retreat. After this, the rest of the party gets up and wants to know how Susa won but Susa has no idea. Al then goes up to the altar and gains the power of the Avatar of Light!

The party leaves the tower and heads back to the volcano to hide out for a bit. While resting near the top, Al suddenly wants to talk with Susa. Al corners Susa near the mouth of the volcano and accuses Susa of being the Avatar of Darkness! That's why the sacred orb burns Susa and where Susa's special powers came from. Karin shows up and she's in on this with Al. My guy BP shows up to defend Susa. Suddenly the volcano starts to erupt and Susa is trapped. BP wants to try to save Susa but it's no good. Susa tells BP to go say hi to Elena for him. With that the party escapes leaving Susa behind. Suddenly Flux teleports in and offers Susa power. That's not good!

The party is outside the volcano and BP is blaming Al and Karin for what happened. Then Susa teleports in. The reunion happened a lot sooner than I expected. Because of Al, Susa has become the Avatar of Darkness and joined the Forces of Evil. Susa challenges Al to a fight and Karin joins in but BP refuses. Susa just demolishes them. 5 digits of damage per attack. With that, Susa tells BP to take care of them and Susa heads off. The scene follows Susa where he meets with Elena and reveals the truth to her. Despite everything, Elena still thinks Susa is a good person. Back to Al's group. They are puzzled on why they are still alive. A person named Raziel helped heal them but if Susa was serious they should still be dead. The party needs a plan to deal with Susa who is a full power Avatar while Al still needs time to grow. The party decides to try asking the King of Norjizeer. BP tags along since he wants to try to save Susa. The new guy Raziel also wants in since this sounds like a lead on a missing person he is looking for. With that, we are off to see the king.

And the king betrays us. The king is working for the Forces of Evil and that's why he could openly search for the Avatar of Light without getting attacked himself. He has the entire army under mind control and has a soldier kill himself in front of us to prove it. That's messed up. The king is really Magnus Maruder one of the members of the Forces of Darkness mentioned earlier. For unknown reasons, the party is thrown into prison again instead of being killed. There's also an easy escape path out of Karin's jail cell. The whole thing is suspicious but there's not much to do about it. Al and Raziel are left behind while Karin and BP escape to find help.

2007? geez. i remember playing it.

Karin and BP end up in a cavern below the prison and have to beat up Mage 1 and Mage 2 from Vuja again to force them to retreat. The fact that they were even waiting at this location means that they already knew that Karin would escape this way. Once again, we are playing into their hands in an unknown way. We make our way to an underground town where everyone is afraid of us until with talk with Narrim and the elder. It turns out there was an ancient war between the east continent and the west continent of Norjizeer. This hidden town is guarding the warp crystal to the eastern continent. But, it turns out knowledge of the eastern continent was lost to Norjizeer long ago so there's no longer any interest in invading and thus nothing really to guard against. Narrim tells us that the main base of the Forces of Evil is on the eastern continent of Roharb. Our next goal is to get back to the surface. After the boss near the warp crystal, BP gets separated from Karin and Narrim and is forced to go in a different direction. BP ends up finding a fortress of some sort while Karin and Narrim head to the warp crystal.

Next we are back to seeing what Raziel and Al are up to. Apparently they can just break down the jail cell door and leave. So this is very clearly a set up. On out way out we run into Astrov who turns out to be Raziel's son! Raziel said that a demon cursed Astrov such that Astrov's powerful healing spells now hurt the target instead. This fact ended up driving Astrov insane and he can't help trying to heal people even though it really kills them. Raziel has been trying to find Astrov to put him out of his misery since Astrov can't be saved. That's so sad. After Astrov leave, Al and Raziel meet up with Karin and Narrim who just entered the jail to try and save Al. Next stop is try head back to Chronos Falls to save BP.

Back to BP who is exploring the fortress. He finds Susa inside talking to Magnus and overhears that the jailbreak was indeed a set up. This is to prepare our souls for the Necromicon. Magnus heads off and BP reveals himself to Susa. BP still believes in Susa and wants him to ditch the Forces of Evil but Susa said he can't. Then Magnus comes back which puts BP in a bind. Susa teams up with BP kill Magnus only for Flux to show up. Susa can't compete with Flux and Flux kills BP. RIP BP ;_; That monster then threatens Elena! Flux leaves as Al's team now coincidentally shows up. They think Susa killed BP and Susa just teleports off. As a result, Al then goes and threatens to kill Elena. Al is kind of a jerk! But, his plan sort of works. He successfully lures Susa back out of hiding to protect Elena. Elena asks Susa to take her with him. She still believes in him. With that Susa teleports both of them out. So the party is at a dead end again. Al declines to comment on if he would really have killed Elena or not. So our next task is to visit Al's house to gather supplies before heading to Roharb.

Al's place is the second last crystal on Mordur. There's a training area here but the opponents are too strong so I decide to come back later. In the manor, we find armors that attack us and a bunch of dead maids. Raziel recognize the banners on the manor as belonging to the Forces of Evil. All bad signs. At the end we find Al's father who is being controlled by Flux. Flux intentionally kept Al's father alive so that Al would be forced to kill him. That's pretty dark and unfortunately we do have to kill him. Al is just about ready to snap after all this but Karin interrupts and said she is worried about her hometown. So the party heads there next.

Karin's hometown is Aenima Village and it seems to be okay. I find the Honeybee Inn but I don't need healing so there's not much here. In the top left house there's a path blocked by three orbs. The first says "Ring of Board 8". I can't do anything here either. We go meet the elder and he's a total ass. It turns out Karin got kicked out of the village for only being able to learn really hard hitting thunder magic. The elder also casually reveals that Karin's brother died and he wished it was Karin instead. Wow. He tells the party to leave and I'm more than happy to oblige. We didn't really accomplish much here or at Al's place. It feels like both locations only really existed because the writer has a grudge with Al and Karin and wants them to suffer. In any case, it's finally time to go take the teleport crystal to Roharb!

BP nooooooo!

After a bit of travel, we reach the first town which is also named Roharb. I go around talking with people.

"Have any blitzballs? I wanna be one when I grow up!" ~ Kid in town
"How about a book of non-cliche/overused jokes instead?" ~Merchant
"I wish I'd bought that when I had the chance" ~KamikazePotato

Eventually I get to the king who wants us to enter a tournament in exchange for being able to pass through town. There was an attempt on his life and the king needs to meet the winners of the tournament. The assassin could try to meet the king that way so he wants our party to be the winners instead. Al isn't happy, he never is, but ultimately agrees to join. Our team name is Atreyu and we beat up the Skullcrushers and Devil Trigger. Our final opponents are the Silver Wings so I assume one of them is Silverwings. We beat them up as well. That's when the mask comes off. Silverwings was pretending to be a weak fairy on the team. Narrim apparently knows her since he's an angel and Silverwings also used to work for the God of Creation. The boss battle music is Beat the Angel but we're the ones who are getting beat. Silverwings demolishes us but still doesn't kill us. She then walks up to the king and kills him. RIP unnamed king. With his dying breath, the king gives us passports to continue on our journey. Al continues to be a jerk. He doesn't care that the king is dead and just wants to continue the journey. He also thinks he is the sole person to decide where the party goes since he's the leader. Is this guy based on Luke? Although, I don't recall Luke getting this bad.

We head to the next town. Along the way we find a scroll that gives Karin a bunch of non-thunder magic spells. Considering she spent her life dealing with being unable to learn non-thunder magic, the problem got resolved easily enough. We also find a path to Silverwings's lair and Al wants to go for a rematch already. The rest of the party knows this is suicide and eventually talk him out of it. Narrim suggests looking for Ashera who is rumored to be near Zur instead. The scene then cuts to Susa and Flux shows up to tell him to look for Atreyu, the Sword of Tears. Elena is also here and is unsure why Susa works with the Forces of Evil and Susa said he has nowhere else to go. After that, it's back to the party heading to Zur.

In Zur I find a ghost in a well who said not to attack. So I don't. I get the Amulet of Board 8 from this! In town, we find Astrov. Raziel tries to talk sense into Astrov but it's no good. For some reason Astrov tells us that Ashera is in a near by forest so that's our next destination. In the forest we find a dungeon and at the end we find Ashera!

Ashera can see the future and naturally knew we were coming. Long ago he made a deal with the God of Creation to hide himself in exchange for immortality. The God of Creation did this because he didn't like how Ashera kept posting spoilers about the future. Although, Ashera says his accuracy is only 100% when he can see the future and right now he can't. He just said there's a chance we can beat the Forces of Evil. With that, Al has heard enough and runs off. The rest of the party follows except Raziel. Ashera says to him that the Avatars were named Light and Dark and not Good and Evil for a reason. Those who use Darkness are not necessarily evil and those who use Light aren't necessarily good. I always thought this scene was super cool and this is one of the things I remembered from when I first played the game. All things considered, the party isn't really much stronger than before but we're off to challenge Silverwings anyways!

Reading these names is unlocking memories

Silverwings's lair is another big tower. Also, I just realized that this game has 8 elements and they are all paired up Tales of Symphonia style. >_> On the way up there's a trap where the floor gives out trapping Karin. Karin manages to jump to safety while Al doesn't care and just presses on. Al is a jerk. Instant death traps are back in the next room. I read a sign which says I deserve to be blown up for reading a sign in a room full of traps. I promptly get blown up. Game Over. I reload my save. Eventually we reach Silverwings. She has a bone to pick with the God of Creation but won't elaborate on why because she's going to kill us anyways. Cue Beat the Angel but this time I win! Before she dies, Silverwings does warn Narrim that things are not what they seem. Cervantes then shows up to tell us to keep doing what we're doing before heading off again. So somehow the fact we are knocking off generals for the Forces of Evil is helping them. Karin is suspicious regarding if we are on the right track but Al just wants to keep pushing on. The next area to look at is south of Zur. We check back in on Susa and he found the Atreyu and is planning to hide from Flux but Flux is already on to him.

The next town we find is Crossroads. There's also an optional dungeon around here that I loot for exp and items. From the mayor we find out there's a Forces of Evil base around here run by Astrov. Before we go there, Al and Narrim have a chat. Narrim still believes in Silverwings and that she would have a good reason to betray the God of Creation. Karin meets up with Raziel. Raziel knows that Astrov can't be saved but part of him still hasn't given up and it hurts. He's also worried about Al's behavior and thinks Al needs to be watched to make sure he doesn't do something stupid.

We head to Astrov's place and Raziel is told he doesn't have to come if he doesn't want to but Raziel decides to press on. Inside we meet what seems to be a ghost representing what remains of Astrov's sanity who said that Flux was the one who sent the curse demon that fateful day. But, he was already too far gone by the time he realized that. Flux had achieved his goal of turning Astrov to the dark side. At the end, we meet the real Astrov. Raziel makes a final attempt to try and win him back but it's no use. During the battle, Astrov keeps trying to use healing magic on us and it does damage. He has no idea what he's actually doing. ;_; In the end, Astrov falls and Raziel swears revenge on Flux. After this we get another update on Flux and he's talking with the God of Destruction himself. Astrov being killed is still part of the plan somehow. Flux is a bit worried that Al might become too strong but the God of Destruction is still confident since they have the Atreyu. They also seem to have some sort of plan for Elena to control Susa. It cuts back to the party figuring out when to go next. Narrim said there are only two more towns, Winters and Barsing Port Town. The next one on the path is Winters so that's out next destination.

I find a bonus dungeon on the way to Winters but decide to check out Winters first. On the East side of town I get ambushed by Mage 1 and Mage 2. After they get taken out again, they tell us the Cervantes is waiting for us at his base northwest of Winters. We also get their backstory. They were both created by Flux and forced to do evil by him even though they didn't really want to. They were told they would be set free if they beat the party but in the end they lost and this is where their lives come to an end. Before continuing on, I head back and complete the second bonus dungeon for more exp and items. I also find a place called "The Portal" near Cervantes's base. There's a deactivated teleport crystal here and not much else to do.

So finally the party arrives at Cervantes's place and what a place it is. There are windows in the floor and beds instead of healing torches. There's a midboss that insta kills your characters a bunch of times then kills itself. We're then forced to walk through a narrow one way corridor where spikes pop out of the ground and damage us with every step. It's a trippy place that I think is supposed to represent the suffering Cervantes goes through just for existing. At the end we meet Cervantes. He used to be normal before Flux experimented on him. This gave Cervantes the power to use dark magic but also stopped his heart. But, that's okay since his dark magic can be used to keep himself alive instead. He wants us to kill him. During the battle, Cervantes summons spirits (illusions?) of people who died on our journey and they all blame us for abandoning them. This includes Karin's brother Derek who we've never met before from a blatantly dropped plot line. In the end, Cervantes thanks us before disappearing. RIP Cervantes. Flux is a real monster, isn't he?

Afterwards, we check back in with Susa. Flux is there and Elena is missing. Flux said the whole prison escape was a setup. Flux was the one who wiped Elena's memories and placed her there so Susa would grow close to her. The end goal was so they could later use Elena as a hostage against Susa. If Susa disobeys order or if Flux dies, Elena also dies. Flux then has Susa hand over the Atreyu before giving him new orders. Back to the party and we head to the final town, Barsing Port Town. The town has been wrecked and there's no one here. What we do find is a teleport crystal to the Force of Evil main base! Before I head in, I backtrack to finish a side quest. The training area at the Deliavich estate is still functional and I complete the battle there to get the Ring of Board 8. After that, it's time to go after Flux!

The dungeon shows off destroyed versions of places we've been to. The God of Destruction said these are examples of what he plans to do in the future. Eventually we meet face to face with Flux himself and we finally learn what the Forces of Evil are planning. The God of Destruction was trapped in a mortal form by the God of Creation. They plan to undo that with the Necromicon and the Atreyu. The Atreyu steals souls of those who die near it and can be used to fuel the Necromicon to revive the full power of the God of Destruction. The plan was to intentionally make the Avatar of Light strong then use Al's powered up soul as part of the fuel for the resurrection. The party is rightfully pissed off and they want Flux dead now so we kick his ass only for him to retreat.

We follow Flux into the next room and run right into a trap! Al, Raziel and Narrim get trapped inside invisible walls. Flux, Susa and Elena show up. Flux forces Susa to attack the party inside the walls and Susa just flattens them. Susa is just crazy powerful at this point. From outside the wall, Karin tries to save them by shooting thunder magic at Susa but, Elena catches her and jumps in the way to protect Susa! It's a fatal hit. ;_; In her dying moments, Elena said she still never got her memories back and thanks Susa for spending time with her. RIP Elena. Without his hostage, Flux is now in full panic mode.

"Go to hell"

Susa drops a one liner and casually one shots Flux. So long Flux. You won't be missed. We're still not done, though. Susa tells us to go on and that the God of Destruction is just ahead.

We go meet the GoD and he tells us that Flux gave him the Atreyu and Necromicon so he's going to continue the plan himself by taking our souls. So we beat his face in too because violence solves everything. But, he's immortal so he won't go down so easily. He traps us while he goes to absorb more souls to power up before coming back here to kill us. The GoD heads to the throne room and Susa shows up. Since the Forces of Evil no longer have any hold over him, Susa plans to take out GoD himself. GoD doesn't see Susa as a threat so he doesn't care that Susa is openly betraying him. But, Susa has a plan. He always knew that the GoD would also need to kill the Avatar of Darkness as part of the revival process. So Susa stole a spell from Flux just for this occasion.

We go back to the party and the room mysteriously opens up again. So, whatever Susa did seems to have worked. We enter the throne room and see Susa but the GoD is nowhere to be seen. Susa said he drew GoD into his own body and wants the party to kill him to take out both of them. Al wants to know why Susa would go this far for a world that did him no favors. Susa responds that it's because he wants to prevent other people from having the same miserable life that he did. A choice comes up for whether Karin should intervene or not. I get Karin to stay out of it. As a result, the party ends up killing Susa and the GoD. Al, as usual, doesn't give a damn that Susa is dead but Karin is unhappy that things turned out this way.

After the battle, Al is hailed as a hero for fulfilling the prophecy while the rest of the party goes their separate ways. How everything went down left a bad taste in their mouth. A few years later, the planet would start dying and no one knew why. In the end, no one figured it out and all life ceased.

BAD END

I reload my save and this time I let Karin stop Al from killing Susa. She's always regretted that time she betrayed Susa and wants to take this as a second chance at being his friend. She believes Susa is a good person and can fight off the GoD. So Susa dives inside his own mind for a showdown with the God of Destruction. GoD said that death is permanent in this area which makes Susa happy because it'll mean the GoD is gone for good when Susa kills him. Susa is such a badass. There's a boss battle and Susa just trounces the God of Destruction. As the GoD dies, he hints that the world will still perish even if he is gone. I guess he's hinting at what happened in the bad end? In any case, Susa returns to the real world to report his success. The God of Destruction is no more!

The party splits up from here. Karin goes back to Aenima Village as a master of intermediate magic and a hero. Narrim and Raziel stayed in Roharb to help rebuild and Raziel is also looking for a new apprentice. Al and Susa head back to Norjizeer where Al is hailed as a hero. Susa's involvement is kept on the down low, though. He inherited Elena's house and wants to live the quiet life.

The next day, Al shows up wanting to talk with Susa. When Susa turns his back, Al knocks Susa out cold. Al is gonna Al. Al then drags Susa's body to The Portal where Susa wakes up and said he plans to kill Susa there. Why not kill Susa when Susa was out cold? Al said that the Ashera prophecies said he kills Susa but that hasn't happened yet. As such, the world has not yet been saved. Karin, who is not a stalker, shows up and tries to convince Al to stop. She refuses to abandon Susa again. But, it's no use. The battle between Susa and Al begins which ends up activating the warp crystal! Al runs off while Susa and Karin get teleported somewhere.

Susa and Karin appear to be a cave. If rumors are to be believed, this is the land of the dead. We explore a bit and find BP! He's a bit sad to see us since he thinks it means we died as well. We fill him in on what really happened and all the details from after he died. Now Ashera shows up! Out of all the possibilities he saw, this was somehow the best one. Ashera said that this place is a holding container for souls and is interfering with the cycle of reincarnation. This prevents new life from spawning on the planet which in turn will lead to its demise. Dealing with this problem means dealing with Al even though Al isn't the cause of the problem. That doesn't really make sense but we go with it. Finally, Ashera tells us about a warp crystal out of this place and apologizes to Susa before disappearing. With that, we exit the place.

Susa, Karin and BP arrive back at The Portal. Al, Narrim and Raziel are waiting for them. Al wants them to help take out Susa who Al claims is evil but Narrim and Raziel know what kind of person Al is and don't buy his claims. Al isn't happy with this. He tells Susa to meet him at the ruins near Crossroads before teleporting off. Since Al can teleport now, I guess. Susa wants to face Al alone since people who help him tend to get killed. Everyone else wants to help, but Susa won't allow it and teleports off himself. The party isn't big enough for 5 people anyways. So the party travels on foot to the ruins near Crossroads. I get a "point of no return" message when I try to enter the area. The end is near!

Susa and Al face off in the ruins and Susa kicks Al's ass pretty easily. Susa is busted strong and has been for quite a while now. The rest of the party then shows up and interrupts the battle so Al teleports out. Then teleports back in and backstabs Susa in the heart while Susa is distracted by talking to everyone. Al gonna Al. RIP Susa. ;_; The party is rightfully pissed off and picks a fight with Al before he can run off. Cue Invisible Full Moon. Al is trash and the party beats on him pretty hard. At the end of his wits, Al tries to suicide bomb the party but Susa gets up and stops him! Susa said that the wound Al gave him earlier was fatal. So, in his dying moments he's going to take down Al who is too dangerous to leave alive. Susa thanks the party for making life worth living and casts one final spell killing both him and Al. RIP Susa. ;_; Narrim then spells out that it was ultimately the Avatar of Darkness and not the Avatar of Light that saved the world. The party honours Susa's sacrifice and Karin wants to make sure the world recognizes him as a hero.

And we cut back to Susa who is meeting up with the God of Creation! Susa's soul was caught by the God of Creation's soul capture device and the GoC then brought Susa here to offer him a job as a servant. So the God of Creation is the one behind the device that eventually causes the world to end. The GoC was capturing souls to use as food to fight the GoD but it also causes the world to die as well. But, the GoC doesn't care since he can just make a new world after everyone dies. A world dying out isn't anything new to him. GoC wants Susa's help with this but Susa refuses. You know, this GoC guy reminds me of someone. The GoC said that unlike the GoD, he is a true god. He is both omniscient and immortal. But, Susa challenges him anyways!

"Today, we use our power to fell a god, and then seize our destiny!"

Not those words but close enough. Susa is victorious over the God of Creation! Before the God of Creation disappears, he wants to know if Susa is a god but Susa said it doesn't matter. He tells Susa where the souls are being kept but also said that it would take all of Susa's power to free them. If Susa does this, Susa will disappear and not reincarnate himself. After that, the God of Creation disappears.

Susa decides to leave a letter behind regarding the truth of the situation in hopes that someone finds it some day. "I write this so that people will know that they are free. That they are free from the shackles the gods put on them". Susa then walks up to the orb containing the souls and uses all of his power to destroy it before disappearing. Karin ends up finding the letter in Elena's old house. He said that he hopes to be remembered and ends it with "good luck, everyone". Finally, there's a shot of Susa's grave with an inscription that reads:

"Here Lies Susa. Avatar of Darkness. Savior of the World"

GOOD END

And that's it! There aren't any credits so the ending is super abrupt. I'm not quite done with the game, though. I still need to deal with the sealed house in Aenima Village...

I don't even remember writing some of these plot twists. I'm surprising myself.

I reload my save file and head to Norjeezer. I talk with the merchant there to get the Key of Board 8. After that, I head to Aenima Village and break the seals and head down the stairs. There's an entire town down here! I hit up the item keeper Janus_5000 who sells Megalixers. Dark Silvergun, TomNook7 and LastFencer920 sell armors and weapons. There are a bunch of NPCs around town. How many do you recognize?

There's wowthisishard, SA2Tails, Da_Guardian, Voldoman, X_Dante_X, Maniac64, Vengeful_KBM, Inviso (a female catgirl), SirRonaldWealey, mccheyne, CrimsonOcean (queen of Board 8), BlackMageJawa, stingers, Gadget_King, paperwarior, 1337, RougeAshaman, Bokonon_Lives, someone, GrandFool, calvinball06, Redtooth, RappinHobo9292, neonreaper, BlondeAfroHero7, WVI (a promiscuous dragon), DpObliVion, Lady Ashe, ThisIsAnOddName, Generic Loser, andymancan1, XIII_Rocks, Mershiness, Big Bog, Enoph, FigureOfSpeech, LambdaMax, Link the Midget, kangle541, MechaSolidSnake, ShadowAvatar87 and yazzy.

"Difficult-but-doable" boss Gadget_King has an attack that does 40000 to my entire party with no way to stop him.

There's a sign in town that lists fads that are no longer funny:
-Shadow Ryoko is a whore jokes
-Rickroll
-LUESHI
-jp is fat jokes
-*batteries die*
-CRAWLING IN MY SKIN
-Because you touch yourself at night.
-Pretentious people telling you what's funny and what isn't
-Nope, unicorns
-Resident Evil Gaiden

Can you guess what year this game was made in?

FigureOfSpeech is the mayor of the town. He gives us a key to the bottom right house in the town. Let's see what's inside.

-LusterSoldier-: "So someone has finally come! But you are too late to stop me!"
-LusterSoldier-: "I have found a way to create and unholy unity of durango and SDragonRocker5!"
-LusterSoldier-: "With their power, I will rule Board 8!"
durango: "Come on! This isn't fair! I'm not even that annoying anymore."
-LusterSoldier-: "Oh well! I've already chosen the name, and I like it! Rangorocker is and awsome name!"
SDragonRocker5: "Hey man, where are all the fine church hunnies you promised?"
-LusterSoldier-: "Silence, buffoon! You are going to be fused and you are going to like it!"
-LusterSoldier-: "Begin process!"
-LusterSoldier-: "Now, Rangorocker! Destroy them!"

It's an easy battle

-LusterSoldier-: "Nooooooo! I hate being a throwaway joke villain!"
"And so, the party was heralded as the saviors and heroes of Board 8, and given many parades and parties."
"At leats until next contest, when everyone forgot about them."
TRUE END

That's all there is. The game's story is as good as I remember it being. It feels like it takes a lot of cues from Earthbound but I guess that goes without saying when one of the towns is called "Winters". The third act felt pretty rushed. There was lots of text but no meaningful dungeons and the boss battles were largely jokes in terms of difficulty. Not sure if the game ran out of time, budget or the "Developer got bored". The God of Creation had barely shown up before getting his ass kicked. I'm not even really sure Susa needed to do that. The GoC felt mostly indifferent to the current world. If Susa just went up to the soul orb to break it, I don't think the GoC would have had much of a problem. He doesn't need those souls anymore since the God of Destruction is gone.

Al totally got screwed over. He was only trying to kill Susa because of the prophecy and killing Susa was unfortunately necessary to save the world. If Al doesn't do it, the world will die the same way as during the bad end. Also, the Bad End showed that Al wasn't really a threat to anyone after the prophecy was fulfilled. The party didn't need to attack him like that.

One thing I wondered is if there was more to Elena or not. Like we don't even find out what town she was abducted from and we don't meet any NPCs looking for her. It's rather sad if it turns out the people who knew her had their memories wiped (or more likely Flux killed them).

I liked Karin well enough. Her backstory about not being able to use non-thunder magic being resolved by finding magic items that instantly teach non-thunder magic wasn't really satisfying, though. It feels like there might have been more planned around her brother that didn't make it into the final game. But, I guess this isn't really her story. I did enjoy seeing her grow over the course of the game and how she went from Team Al to Team Susa.

Poor Susa. He got screwed over by life (aka the game's developer) right to the very end. Susa felt a bit too perfect a lot of the time. Like he decides where to go after the party initially leaves Norjeezer and it just so happens to be the right choice. Susa tends to get power boosts to always be just powerful enough to beat his opponent (except that one time Flux killed BP which didn't stick anyways). I think the one that stood out to me was when Karin accidentally killed Elena. Susa's like "No biggie, it's Flux's fault anyways". That's a bit too understanding! With that said, he was a fun character most of the time and had a lot of good lines. I hope the main characters in your future works have at least a slightly happier ending!

P.S. The best flavor of Starburst is not pink. It's orange!

Honestly kind of honored someone remembered this game at all, let alone replayed it on modern hardware. This topic was a nostalgia trip.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

"Difficult-but-doable" boss Gadget_King has an attack that does 40000 to my entire party with no way to stop him.

There's probably a gimmick but don't ask me to remember what it is!

It actually took me a while to get the whole thing to run. Even now, I'm not exactly sure why it works. But, it was worth it.

Wow, that's dedication. I'm curious - what steps did you take to get an RPG Maker XP game to work?

Ultimately what worked for me what installing RPG Maker XP RTP v1.04 and guessing that I needed to put RGSS100J.dll in the same directory as I was launching the game from. The guides I found online kept saying to mess around with running as admin or compatibility options and none of that worked.