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Genocyber
Jun 4, 2012

For me Mallow is the standout character of this game, even if most people ignore him in favor of Geno. Aside from the fact that he has an actual character/character development, he's also really useful for random encounters which is what you're going to be fighting the majority of the time. Even towards the end of the game he's still pretty useful thanks to his ultimate skill.

Scalding Coffee posted:

I think you could kill Mack's group if Mallow had more magic attack boosts. I think the Thunderbolt attack powers up by the end of the animation or after the sound.

I've internalized the prompt as right when the lightning strikes the target. And yeah, if you fight all the (non-infinitely respawning) Shysters Mallow should be strong enough to take out the entire group with an active timed Thunderbolt. I think that's the intended strategy, actually.

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Krumbsthumbs
Oct 23, 2010

2nd Place.
1st Loser.

Scalding Coffee posted:

I think you could kill Mack's group if Mallow had more magic attack boosts. I think the Thunderbolt attack powers up by the end of the animation or after the sound.

I think if you press the button right as the lightning hits for the last time, a thundercrack happens and the attack deals more damage. I forget the exact timing because it has been quite a while.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."

Krumbsthumbs posted:

I think if you press the button right as the lightning hits for the last time, a thundercrack happens and the attack deals more damage. I forget the exact timing because it has been quite a while.

For whatever reason I find it easier to use the audio queue for Thunderbolt, which is why it's hard for me to try and explain it to other people. I always just hit the button about half a second after the first thundercrack sound effect happens, and then if you do it right another thundercrack happens.

Genocyber
Jun 4, 2012

[Regarding the latest episode]

Nooooo don't use the Pure Waters! You're supposed to hoard and then sell them!! They go for like 50 coins a pop!!!

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."

Genocyber posted:

[Regarding the latest episode]

Nooooo don't use the Pure Waters! You're supposed to hoard and then sell them!! They go for like 50 coins a pop!!!

Oh dang, I never realized how much they sold for. That's a pretty penny.

Also sorry for being late with getting the post up, I'll have it done later today.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 06 - Fancy Plaids


It's time to head into the Kero Sewers on our way to Tadpole Pond. As you might expect, the Kero Sewers have a very "World 1-2" vibe going on, though unlike Mushroom Way the music is not a remix of the old Underground Theme.

One thing you definitely want to do before heading to Kero Sewers is to buy Antidote Pins from the item store in Mushroom Kingdom. The rat funks in Kero Sewers can and will poison you and it's best just to not have to deal with that.

Picking up the Trueform Pin from the Mimic Pandorite in Kero Sewers is also super important. We definitely want this for the boss to come, and it's just a useful accessory to have in general.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead

Genocyber posted:

[Regarding the latest episode]

Nooooo don't use the Pure Waters! You're supposed to hoard and then sell them!! They go for like 50 coins a pop!!!
They are a common enough drop to consider spending that money on the most expensive stuff and then resell that when you need more money.

Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!
i dunno when i played this game i rarely used FP at all except for healing; beyond that i favored the bruiser approach where i just beat the hell out of enemies physically and only used attack spells in edge cases.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 07 - Do Re Do


It's time for another big 'ol boss battle as we take on Belome! Belome has the "S'crow Funk" ability that can turn your party members in scarecrows (have I mentioned how much I love the status effects in this game?). When you're a scarecrow, you cannot use normal attacks and can only use specials. This is why we wanted the Trueform Pin for Mario (Mallow's basic attacks are nothing to write home about anyways).

Beating Mallow treats us to the Midas River mini game! As far as mini games go, this one's not too bad. Just follow the path I outlined going down the waterfall if you want the best haul on the first run, and the barrel pattern is pretty straight forward once you get the hang of it (one top, three bottom, lather rinse repeat).

After Midas River, we finally make it to Tadpole Pond and reunite Mallow with his grandpa, Frogfucius! We get a touching (but not very surprising) scene between Mallow and Frogfucius, and then we get the first bit of the Toadofsky mini game! I would never have been able to figure this mechanic out as a kid without the guide, but the rewards are well worth the trouble. If you're thorough, you can find all of the melodies that you need to play for Toadofsky throughout the game. The first one is Frogfucius' Suite No 18, which is right behind Frogfucius in the previous screen.

Here are the scans of Belome's and Frogfucius & Toadofsky's pages:



Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
The joke about Belome besides saying his name fast enough, is that he turned into a Dungeons and Dragons nerd.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 08 - Geno!


Our first order of business it using our fancy new Alto Card at the Juice Bar! We can now but Elixers for 42 coins a pop. It's kind of expensive, but an 80 HP heal to all party members is great especially considering we won't be getting Toadstool's Group Hug for quite some time. We also want to sell off Mario's Hammer. Unlike many JRPGs, there is no benefit to hanging on to old weapons and armor. With no bank storage and a very limited inventory, hoarding equipment can be very detrimental.

Before we can get to Rose Town, we have to make it through Rose Way. There's not really too much of note here. The only interesting thing is the 4 treasure chests with 5 coins each near the end that respawn every time you enter the area. To be honest, I never really used that as much to grind for coins as I did just killing the bandits over and over (each one rewards 10 coins when you kill them).

At the end of Rose Way is Rose Town, but things aren't looking too great here. Strange arrows are falling from the sky and people are getting frozen in place! In this sleepy little town hides Geno! The surprise fan favorite from this game makes his first appearance after a quick scene at the inn. The player's guide page has some spoilers about his back story, so I won't be posting it just yet. We do get a bio for Bowser and Gaz, though.




Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
Super Jump lets you keep jumping as long as you have perfect timing. Ultra Jump might do the same thing, but you jump on a random enemy each time. There might be a limit to Ultra Jump, or I've just always had terrible timing.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
They both last forever and can cause way more damage than Jump, with fewer uses.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Super Bonus 01 - Lost Episode 01


We had a bit of a recording mishap a while back and lost a few episodes worth of video from Kero Sewers to the Toadofsky mini game. I managed to salvage the video for the first episode, but we'd already re-recorded it so I just used the new footage earlier. I decided to edit the original footage and put it up as a bonus episode, so here you go!

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 09 - Reverse Santa


It's time to head into the Forest Maze and see what's up with all these arrows. There is an awful lot of treasure in here, both invisible and otherwise. You can also use the Forest Maze to stock up on mushrooms which can become especially useful once we unlock the mushroom guy in Seaside Town. I do like that there are just mushrooms popping out of the ground all over the forest. It's a nice treat, and mushrooms aren't exactly amazing items, so it's not completely broken.

We also get to show off the last of the bonus flowers: Lucky! Lucky treats you to an optional mini game after the battle where you can potentially double your experience or coins earned that battle. As far as I know it's completely random which one is which. Even when I'm not using an emulator I always play the game. There's only a 33% chance of a negative outcome, so statistically you should end up ahead.

Ceraph fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Nov 14, 2017

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
I think the menu only freezes when equipping stuff, but you are still using ZSNES.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."

Scalding Coffee posted:

I think the menu only freezes when equipping stuff, but you are still using ZSNES.

Very true haha. We're about halfway through what we recorded before switching our recording setup, but I am so excited to not deal with ZSNES anymore :v:

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 10 - Nya!


I realize now going back and editing the footage that we missed something in Rose Town. If you talk to the guy who got locked out of his house by his crazy disappearing stairs again, he tells you about a secret in the forest. The instructions are: Left, Left, Up, Right. This confused the crap out of me as a kid, because I assumed they were relative to the camera, not Mario. We get rewarded with a bunch of treasure chests, which apparently have random contents. They can contain 10 coins, FP up, or a recover mushroom.

All that's left is to follow Geno to the boss for this area. As you could no doubt guess, we get Geno as a party member! For the first time, we finally have a full party of 3. We will get more party members, but we can only ever have 3 people in active duty at once. Geno's page in the player's guide has some spoilers about his backstory that we don't learn until after this fight, so I waited until now to post it. One other interesting thing in this scan is the renders of the Thick Shirt and Thick Pants items. As far as I know there's nowhere in the game where you can see the new equipment that you buy, so I think it's cool that they include a bunch in the player's guide.



The boss this time is the extremely strange Bowyer! Contrary to what you might expect seeing people in town, he doesn't actually freeze party members in the fight. Instead, he freezes one of your 3 main button inputs. Because you can get locked out of your basic attacks, it's best to save your FP for when that happens. He can also put party members to sleep, so it's best to equip a Wake Up Pin to Mario and Mallow before starting the fight (unlike us).



Super Bonus 02 - Lost Episode 02


It's also double update time, as I got the second part of the lost episodes done. Unfortunately the video this time around was gone for good, but I edited the audio together so feel free to give it a listen if you like. It picks up after the last Lost Episode ended, right after Midas River.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
Bowyer is in blackface in the original version. You can sort of see him uncensored in the ending credits.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."

Scalding Coffee posted:

Bowyer is in blackface in the original version. You can sort of see him uncensored in the ending credits.

Oh... oh wow. I had no idea but now I'll have to keep my eye out for it.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
I am trying to find the image of black Bowyer and it is not easy to find. I was sure he got a palette swap.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 11 - Goomba Stomping


Before moving on with the main story, there's a couple things we want to take care of. First off, if we head back to Rose Town and go back to the inn, we get a scene with Geno and Gaz. Gaz gives us the Finger Shot weapon for Geno, which is great to pick up both early and free. Worthwhile to note that we can use the inn here for free now for the rest of the game (and if we do, there's an easter egg to boot).

The path to Moleville opens up but we're gonna take a detour first. The path to Yo'ster Isle via the Pipe Vault is open as well, and we're gonna do some good old fashioned side questing! The denizens of the Pipe Vault aren't particularly scary (the Goombas here have the exact same stats as Mushroom Way). There is a mini game that's basically like Whack A Mole but with Goombas (which I guess is why they have a mole running it). The first score you need to beat is 20, and then he has you beat your previous high score by 2 every time. I believe the first three rewards are a Flower Tab, Flower Jar, and Frog Coin. The player's guide recommends just sticking to one pipe, which is great if you get lucky, but it very much leaves you at the mercy of the RNG.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
That goomba stomp game is not RNG so much as loving over the player. I tried to game it and there were times where no gold goombas would show up.
Mario has two reactions when you say "no" when saving the game 10 and 25 times.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."

Scalding Coffee posted:

That goomba stomp game is not RNG so much as loving over the player. I tried to game it and there were times where no gold goombas would show up.
Mario has two reactions when you say "no" when saving the game 10 and 25 times.

Yeah I'm pretty good with never playing that mini game again haha. I don't think I've seen that reaction, we'll have to check it out the next time we record.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 12 - Yoshi Racing


Yo'ster Isle is completely optional, but you can get some good items out of it. The racing mini game you have to win to get said items can be very difficult, though. I don't know if Jackie and I are in the minority, but I can never seem to get the "rhythm" they're looking for. Luckily Boshi doesn't move at a terribly fast pace, but seeing Yoshi hop up and down while you're trying to find the beat can be really frustrating.

For our victory, we get some Yoshi Cookies! In addition to summoning Yoshi and having him eat an enemy in battle (doesn't work on bosses), you can use the cookies as a form of currency and bet on the races. If we can come back later, we can even trade a bunch of cookies for a Red Essence (prevents damage for 3 turns), which is pretty sweet.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
There is a spriteless hint NPC behind a building on the left side of Mushroom Kingdom.

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

Ceraph posted:

Episode 12 - Yoshi Racing


Yo'ster Isle is completely optional, but you can get some good items out of it. The racing mini game you have to win to get said items can be very difficult, though. I don't know if Jackie and I are in the minority, but I can never seem to get the "rhythm" they're looking for. Luckily Boshi doesn't move at a terribly fast pace, but seeing Yoshi hop up and down while you're trying to find the beat can be really frustrating.

For our victory, we get some Yoshi Cookies! In addition to summoning Yoshi and having him eat an enemy in battle (doesn't work on bosses), you can use the cookies as a form of currency and bet on the races. If we can come back later, we can even trade a bunch of cookies for a Red Essence (prevents damage for 3 turns), which is pretty sweet.

Officially the WORST minigame. I don't know what the rhythm is supposed to be and I think nobody really does.

ikanreed
Sep 25, 2009

I honestly I have no idea who cannibal[SIC] is and I do not know why I should know.

syq dude, just syq!
Young designer pitching race segment

"You know what would be a great? A rhythm minigame."

"Go on"

"Okay, so the window for appropriate button presses will be 2 frames, and tied exactly to the downbeat"

"Naturally"

"And if course we won't have any particular instruments emphasize the downbeat, and the melody will be heavily synchopated and and"

The design lead has already left the room

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 13 - Mole Dwarves


After our brief detour to Yo'ster Isle, we arrive at Moleville! Moleville is home to the mole people who work the mines at Mole Mountain. Poor Dyna and Mite got stuck in the mines when one of the stars fell into Mole Mountain so it's Mario to the rescue! We can grab the absolutely wonderful Work Pants while we're in town, which will remain on some party members for quite some time. Some people like Bowser have equipment that has just absolutely awful defense, and takes a while to outscale the Work Pants.

There's not much to speak of in terms of the enemies in the mines. The Magmites have low magic defense while the Sparky has particularly high magic defense so use Mallow's Thunderbolt accordingly. It's also very advisable to track down all the bandits that are with Croco when he nabs your coins as you get ever wonderful Flower Tabs.

Unfortunately I'm on the road for work and don't have access to my player's guide or a scanner, so I'll have to get the scans of Moleville up when I get back home tomorrow. Edit: I'm back home and the scans are in!



Ceraph fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Dec 16, 2017

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
I am going with mini-games being determined on map load. You can always save state on the map and beat everything and save state before entering that map and kill everything.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 14 - Don't Touch Me


What's this? Two boss fights in one episode?! If you can really count Croco as a proper boss, anyways. He's not too different from his first fight. He is still vulnerable to fire, so have Mario use Fire Orb fairly often. He does get one new trick this time: halfway through the fight he will steal all your items, so make sure to leave some FP for Healing Rain when you need it.

Punchinello on the other hand is a little trickier (but still not too bad). Make sure to stay stocked on FP so Mallow can keep Thunderbolting all the Bob-omb adds. Besides that there's not really anything special about the fight. He's strong against Jump attacks so just have Mario and Geno wail on him with normal attacks.

Here's the scan for Punchinello, with some spoilery bits blacked out.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 15 - Minecart Madness


Hey everybody, sorry for the long delay on this one. Work and life stuff have been kicking my butt lately, but things should be calming down for a while now. As a result, I've got TWO episodes for you today!

First up, it's time to get Dyna and Mite out of these treacherous mines! We are treated to another mini game on our way out. Luckily, this time it's actually a good thing if you do poorly the first time around! After the first run, if you play it again you are rewarded coins for beating your high score. There is no absolute number you have to hit, so you can purposefully get a very high time and make it much easier to beat it. You can wager 30 coins to win 50 coins if you beat your score. It's not the greatest reward, but it's a decent way to make some quick cash.

After finishing the mines, we also unlock some things to do around Moleville. First up is the rare item shop! This philanthropic toad scours the world for rare items and sells them to you at a premium. We pick up the Lucky Jewel, which can be used 10 times to force the shell mini game to appear at the end of a battle. If used wisely, you can easily make your money back with it. The other items (Metal Plate and Mystery Egg) will be very useful to pick up as well, but he doesn't have them in stock just yet.

We can also take care of this trading mini game while we're here. Buying the fireworks from one of the mole men (it sounds weird when I say it like that) starts the whole thing off. If you trade the fireworks for a shiny stone, and then a shiny stone for a carbo cookie, you can get the small mole child to get off their bucket! Hooray! The bucket is actually a portal to Midas River, so we've got a shortcut back to that mini game now. Hooray? We'll want to revisit this trading thing later, but that should do us for now.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 16 - Teary Eyed Reunions


ZSNES rears its ugly head again in this episode (just a few more episodes to go before we never have to deal with it again). Despite that, we manage to make it through Booster Pass and on to Booster Tower! There's not a whole lot to Booster Pass just yet. There's a switch in Booster Tower that unlocks a passage in Booster Pass, so we'll be coming back soon enough.

We also are are recruited to the Koopa Troop recruit Bowser to the party! I absolutely love using Bowser. He doesn't get the best defense stats on his armor, but his base attack is pretty dang high. Realistically we will never be giving Bowser a Special level, though, as his Special Attack stat is trash garbage. It's a bit of a shame, because he does get a number of multi-target specials.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
Random trivia: That weird face at the door to Booster's tower, is on some sort of lift, so he is clipping through the floor. You can't use it, it is a programmer's trick.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."

Scalding Coffee posted:

Random trivia: That weird face at the door to Booster's tower, is on some sort of lift, so he is clipping through the floor. You can't use it, it is a programmer's trick.

As a developer, that trick makes me so incredibly happy. Why program some special behavior when you can just use platforming tricks that already exist?

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."
Episode 17 - Let Him Die


It's time to check out Booster Tower! I always liked this area, though I think the slammin' music is a large part of that. I also love Booster as a character / antagonist. He's not evil or even particularly malicious. He's just an insane man-child who has no idea how things in the real world work because he's had his servants tend to his every need his entire life.

We also touched on something in this episode that I haven't mentioned before. Every character (except for Geno) has one of the four playing card suit symbols show over them when they do a special attack. So far we've seen Mallow with the club, Mario with the spade, and Bowser with the diamond. I did some research online into the symbolism of the suits but I wasn't able to find any correlation that seemed obvious. If anyone knows definitely let me know!

Also, the scan for Booster:

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
I like how flat Mario doesn't look terrible compared to 3D Mario.

Ceraph
Feb 26, 2013

Say, "fuzzy pickles."

Scalding Coffee posted:

I like how flat Mario doesn't look terrible compared to 3D Mario.

It's true, on modern displays the crisp pixel art even looks cleaner. That just makes me think of how much I would kill/die for some sort of Mario RPG remaster. All the same stuff, just capture the stills of the models at a higher resolution.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
Knowing Nintendo, it will put up an updated title screen and nothing else.

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Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

Let's be real here - the reason Geno and Mallow never turned up in any other Mario game, except in the most vague of references, is because Square Enix holds the intellectual property of anything original in this game. After Square Enix and Nintendo grew apart, it became kinda impossible for either party to do something with it on their own, except for perhaps re-releasing it without any changes.

Unless they can find a way to cooperate on this again, a remake is very unlikely.

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