Dreadball - Azure Forest League - Week 4

Dreadball - Azure Forest League - Week 4

Hello Sports fans, thank you for joining the OSQDB network for the thrilling highlights of the Galactic tour series week four. My Name is Eddie Alba and I'm here in the Blue moon of Azure IX for the Azure forest league. 

This week we have a handful of MVP's are up for grabs.

A'teo Adysi - Joined the Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard in Pod A
Drake - Joined the New Luna Elements in Pod A
The Praetorian -  Joined the Wraith Children in Pod B
Dozer- Joined the New Luna Elements in Pod A
Reek Rolat- Not Hired
Gorim Ironstone - Joined the Major Nuggets in Pod B
Gabe - Not Hired
The Veteran - Joined theTeo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard Project in Pod A 

Big Mech - Joined the Eurocorp's Eugenics Project in Pod C

Week Four Pods

Pod A

Dwarves under the Mountain - Forgefathers

IRN Wildcats - Trontek Humans

Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard - Trontek Humans

New Luna Elements - Void Siren Humans

Pod B

Team Kappatate -  Teratons

Major Nuggets -  Forgefathers

Wraith Children -  Asterians

Dagobah Monks - Judwan

Pod C

Eurocorp's Eugenics Project - Zee

Hard Carries - Void Siren Humans

Barr's Girder Grinders - Trontek Humans

Silence - Judwan*  - Tip Tap went the Crab - Nameless

* the Judwan team Silence have had pull out of the Azure league, to be replaced by Tip Tap went the Crab - Nameless 

Pod A

Round one - Highlights

New Luna Elements V Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

IRN Wildcats V Dwarves under the Mountain 

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

  New Luna Elements 1 (2) v 0 (1) Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard

 IRN Wildcats 0 (0) v 7 (3) Dwarves under the Mountain

Round two - Highlights

New Luna Elements  V  IRN Wildcats

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Dwarves under the Mountain V Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

 New Luna Elements  0 (1) v 3 (2)  IRN Wildcats

 Dwarves under the Mountain 3 (2) v 0 (1) Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard

Round three - Highlights

IRN Wildcats V Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Dwarves under the Mountain V New Luna Elements

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

 IRN Wildcats  7 (3) v 0 (0) Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard

 Dwarves under the Mountain 0 (0) v 7 (3) New Luna Elements

Pod A final League standings

 Team name - League points - Team rating-  (Strike difference)

New Luna Elements  - 6 - 267 - (+16)

Dwarves under the Mountain - 5 - 309 - (+3)

IRN Wildcats - 5 - 257 - (+3)

Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard - 2 - 243 - (-11)

Pod B

Round one - Highlights

Team Kappatate V Wraith Children

Dagobah Monks V Major Nuggets

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

Team Kappatate  0 (1) v 3 (2) Wraith Children

 Dagobah Monk 7 (3) v 0 (0) Major Nuggets

Round two - Highlights

Wraith Children V Major Nuggets

Team Kappatate V  Dagobah Monks

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

Wraith Children  7 (3) v 0 (0) Major Nuggets

 Team Kappatate 0 (0) v 7 (3) Dagobah Monks

Round three - Highlights

Wraith Children V Dagobah Monks

Team Kappatate V Major Nuggets

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

 Wraith Children  0 (0) v 7 (3) Dagobah Monks

 Team Kappatate 0 (0) v 7(3) Major Nuggets

Pod B final League standings

 Team name - League points - Team rating-  (Strike difference)

Dagobah Monks - 9 - 230 - (+21)

Wraith Children - 5 - 196 - (+3)

Major Nuggets - 3- 226 - (-7)

Team Kappatate - 1- 231 - (-17)

Pod C

Round one - Highlights

Barr's Girder Grinders V Eurocorp's Eugenics Project 

Hard Carries V Tip Tap went the Crab
++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

 Barr's Girder Grinders  1 (2) v 0 (1) Eurocorp's Eugenics Project 

 Hard Carries 7 (3) v 0 (0) Tip Tap went the Crab

Round two - Highlights

Hard Carries V Barr's Girder Grinders

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Eurocorp's Eugenics Project  V Tip Tap went the Crab

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

Hard Carries  0 (1) v 2 (2)  Barr's Girder Grinders

 Eurocorp's Eugenics Project  0 (2) v 0 (1) Tip Tap went the Crab

Round three - Highlights

Barr's Girder Grinders V Tip Tap went the Crab

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Eurocorp's Eugenics Project  V Hard Carries

++Unfortunately the Vidpix operator have been taken by a bad case of Jungle Sickness so no vidpix were taken++

Scores 

Score - ( )  league points

 Barr's Girder Grinders  7 (3) v 0 (0) Tip Tap went the Crab

 Eurocorp's Eugenics Project  0 (1) v 2 (2) Hard Carries

Pod C final League standings

 Team name - League points - Team rating-  (Strike difference)

Barr's Girder Grinders - 7 - 220 - (+10)

Hard Carries - 6 - 208 - (+7)

Eurocorp's Eugenics Project - 4 - 197 - (-3)

Tip Tap went the Crab - 1 - 155 - (-14)

Final League standings Recap

 Team name - League points - Team rating-  (Strike difference)

Pod A

New Luna Elements  - 6 - 267 - (+16)

Dwarves under the Mountain - 5 - 309 - (+3)

IRN Wildcats - 5 - 257 - (+3)

Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard - 2 - 243 - (-11)

Pod B

Dagobah Monks - 9 - 230 - (+21)

Wraith Children - 5 - 196 - (+3)

Major Nuggets - 3- 226 - (-7)

Team Kappatate - 1- 231 - (-17)

Pod C

Barr's Girder Grinders - 7 - 220 - (+10)

Hard Carries - 6 - 208 - (+7)

Eurocorp's Eugenics Project - 4 - 197 - (-3)

Tip Tap went the Crab - 1 - 155 - (-14)

Total League Points

 Team name - League points - Team rating-  (Strike difference)

1. IRN Wildcats - 26 - 257 - (+29)
2. Dagobah Monks - 25 - 230 - (+40)
3. Teo-Ti- Wakan Temple Guard - 24 - 243 - (+31)
4. Wraith Children - 22 - 196 - (+23)
5. New Luna Elements  - 20 - 267 - (+9)
6. Barr's Girder Grinders - 18 - 220 - (-3)
7. Dwarves under the Mountain - 17 - 309 - (-6)
8. Hard Carries - 15 - 208 - (-9)
9. Major Nuggets - 15 - 226 - (-15)
10. Eurocorp's Eugenics Project - 11 - 197 - (+9)
11. Team Kappatate - 7 - 197 - (-46)
12. Tip Tap went the Crab - 1 - 155 - (-14)

Next week we will check out the biggest cheers. So stay tuned and remember this was brought to you by the Exotic fragrance that is "Judwan No.5"

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

The Short

Pros

• A nostalgia trip down every single-player Final Fantasy game
• The Final Fantasy VI inspired sprites are a treat, particularly pixel-styled monsters from the later games
• All the original music is maintained, and it's great
• For a free-to-play game, you can get a lot of gametime out of it without spending a cent
• Great for short bursts of playtime
• Daily dungeons give you new stuff to try every day
• It's basically Puzzle and Dragon but with Final Fantasy. If you like that, you'll like this.
• Dr. Mog is probably not a real doctor, but that's ok.

Cons

• Horrible UI and constant load times mar the experience
• Not a whole lot of strategy until the dungeons get really hard
• To unlock most characters you have to wait for bi-monthly events
• Black magic is worthless until way later, and after you've invested tons of time into the game
• Mithril gets painfully scarce after the initial run. If you try and use real money, prepare to get ripped off.
• Not totally void of strategy, but the real meat of the game requires several weeks of playtime

Get yo nostalgia on.

The Long

Square-Enix sure likes to milk it's fans nostalgia for the Final Fantasy series. Starting with Final Fantasy IX, which one could argue exists as a nostalgic throwback to the I-V style of games, in more recent years the pandering fanservice has become more apparent. When not squirting out Final Fantasy VII spinoff games (or the upcoming remake), they've made a ton of crossover style games to try and lure old fans back into the franchise. Some of these are good (Dissidia) some are really good (Theatarhythm) and some are abominations (All The Bravest). With Record Keeper (which is an awful name, by the way), does Square finally hit pay dirt on the nostalgia train? In particular, do they finally release a new mobile game that isn't awful and/or completely overpriced?

On the surface, this looks a hell of a lot like the awful All The Bravest. However, if you only read one thing in this article know this: Record Keeper is NOT All The Bravest. It's much better (thank goodness). How much better remains to be said, but compared to that atrocity, Record Keeper looks like god's gift to video games.

So...does it stand on its own? Or is Record Keeper not worth recording? Or keeping? Puns? Read on.

I'm here to get nostalgic and play video games. And I'm all out of...well, neither.

There is actually a story to Record Keeper, albeit a stupid one. You are a record keeper (fancy that) named whatever you want to be named (so, "Barf") and apprentice to Dr. Mog, who is obviously a Moogle. Apparently all the stories from the Final Fantasy series live in some kind of Moogle archive in...space? The moon? Cocoon? The Esper Realm? Who knows. Point being, something happens and all the stories get screwed up, so it's up to you, Barf, to go back and fix them. How do you do it? By recruiting characters from the games and reliving the most poignant battle scenes and moments, of course! How ELSE?!

This is portrayed through text descriptions of events in the game, with a few screenshots. Unlike Theatarhythm, where you got little movies representing the stories, in here it's just badly granulated jpegs. The images they choose to use are also pretty baffling; Final Fantasy VI uses the SNES graphcis, but Final Fantasy IV's story screenshots are from the 3D DS remake (ugh) and Final Fantasy V's are from the RPG Maker looking android/iOS port (double ugh). While the pixelated stuff looks ok, the 3D stuff looks weirdly SD, even worse than it probably looked on the PS1/PS2. I dunno, maybe I'm being too picky, because I just skimmed the stories anyway. Point being: if you haven't played these games in a while, this does a decent job at reminding you of the general flow, and it's fun to unlock plot progression across multiple Final Fantasy games at once.

Limit break!

Gameplay is pretty much Puzzle and Dragon, except replace the monster fusing/sacrificing with doing the same thing for character equipment. If you haven't played Puzzle and Dragon, then I'm gonna explain it anyway, so don't freak out.

Basic gameplay is in the traditional ATB Final Fantasy combat, meaning you have a meter that fills for each character, you issue instructions, it takes a moment for that command to execute, and it moves on to the next person. In a weird twist that I actually like, spells and abilities are done more in the style of Final Fantasy I, with a charge system rather than MP. All abilities have to be crafted (more on that later), and have limited uses in a dungeon based on how much you've "honed" them. All these and your HPs reset after a dungeon run, so no worries there.

Essentially, you pick a realm (being the numbered Final Fantasy game) and then a particular event. In that event, you have 3-10 dungeon "events"  you have to do in order to complete the dungeon, with the last usually being a boss. Within each event you have 3-4 waves of enemies to fight. If you back out of a dungeon, you keep your loot but have to start at the beginning, same goes if you fail. So don't fail.

And there's quests. We'll get to that.

In order to do dungeon events, you have to spend "stamina." Stamina is automatically generated over time, and you have a pool of it that can grow as you clear more dungeons. Stamina generation is actually pretty fair: you get 1 point every 3 minutes, and your starting pool is generous. Dungeons get more expensive the harder they get, but you usually have enough to do one or two dungons, then be done for an hour or so, then come back and play a little more. I imagine not having stamina would allow people to grind through the game in like a week, so it's understandable. I actually like this system, as it encourages me taking breaks.

Clearing dungeons gives you loot in the form of equipment, crafting materials, gil, and XP (and Mithril, but only rarely). There is a ton of equipment in this game, pooled from all the Final Fantasy games. To upgrade it, you "feed" other equipment into the equipment you want to level, destroying the food equipment and paying some Gil to make it happen. Max upgrade a weapon and you can combine it with one of the same name, upping the max level and quality. Quality ranges from one to five stars, with anything three and above considered pretty good. As you can guess, you get a ton of junk gear which you then use to feed your higher ranked stuff. Additionally, characters can only equip certain types of weapons, which I'll get to...right now.

You pick up characters along the way. Each world has at least one to get, tying into the game you are in. Just a word of advice: named character (Cloud, Cyan, Steiner, etc.) are way better than the generic FFI characters (White Mage, Black Mage, etc.). Dump those guys, stick with the named ones. Each character has their own unique limit break and a handful they can learn from elite/rare gear, as well as their own class (usually ranged fighter, melee fighter, red mage, black mage, with summoners and monks being included in some of those roles). There are a lot of characters to collect, and seeing as characters get giant bonuses in their own worlds, it's good to even out your party with a range.

Dungeons vary in length.

The downside is that most characters can only be collected during special events, which Square rotates through once every two weeks. These require both a beefed up party and a lot of stamina, so expect to be stuck with Cloud, Barf, Kane, and Wakka for a while before getting anybody really good (Cloud is good, at least). If you miss an event, too bad; better hope it comes up again if you want Sabin and Edgar from FFVI, for example. This is a little obnoxious but it makes me keep coming back, so it's got that going for it.

And...that's essentially the game. Doing realms and dungeons unlocks more realms and dungeons to battle in, which get progressively harder. You use crafting materials to create and upgrade spells, with the rarer components making the better stuff. Square does everybody a solid by having "Gil" dungeons come up on the daily randomized dungeon rotation, which are basically dungeons where you get a buttload of money (seeing as all upgrades, combinations, etc. require Gil, it's good it is plentiful if you know where to look), as well as crafting material dailies and more. It's surprisingly lenient considering Square's history of free to play games. This game is very easy to pick up, play for a bit, do some upgrades, and put it down for a few hours. Which makes it a great phone game...in theory.

Let's talk about what's bad now. Like this UI.

The saddest part to me about Record Keeper is that the game's biggest failing comes in completely technical ways. First off, the UI is a cluttered mess in every instance. From the confusing scrolling banner, to the non-centered navigation buttons on the bottom with huge icons, to there being buttons freaking everywhere and look like they were designed for a smartphone in 2009, this game's interface is bad. To be fair, you get used to it, but some streamlining would really help this game out a lot. But that isn't even the biggest problem, which is: the load times.

Now, I usually don't fault games for load times. I mean, I loved Fable and the Xbox version of that game had 30-45 second load times for every freaking area. But Record Keeper is a mobile game, designed to be picked up and run through fast. Instead, literally (and I mean the literal use of the word literally here) everything you do has a load screen. Switch menu options? Load screen. Go to a realm to check your progress? Load screen. Load the quests interface? Load screen. Load a dungeon layout? Load screen. Load a battle? Load screen. Results screen? Yep, it loads. Hell, it even has a load screen just to show the Square-Enix logo fade in and out at the beginning, and then loads again for the title. Like...what.

To be fair, I've only played the android version, maybe the iOS version is better. But still...damn. If this game were better optimized, it would be much funner to just bust through every couple of hours.

We gonna win.

Another problem is the lack of strategy. Early on (by that I mean the first month you play), you can probably beat most battles by having an all-melee warrior team and hitting "auto battle." Healers? Who needs em! Black magic? Are you kidding? Black magic is essentially worthless until it's honed (as you have two casts of Thunder per entire dungeon at the start), which means using gil and crafting materials, which you get from battles. So Terra can't be that godly black mage until you've played a ton, so just...pick warriors and auto battle. Which means most of the game (except bosses) you just watch your guys murder everything and do nothing. Fun!

Bosses provide a larger challenge, as they're usually way harder than the enemies leading up to them. Dr. Mog will give you their weaknesses before a battle, but often times just beating them to death works. Twice per dungeon you also get to summon another player's character for a free Limit Break, and often times these characters are in their 50s+. Which means a "roaming party member" can insta-gib a boss most of the time early on. Again, not much strategy.

The game does get more complex once you start playing Elite versions of old dungeons, as well as your party getting fleshed out and better equipped. But ultimately, it's just a time waster for long time, which may turn a lot of people off.

Death to ugly birds.

So how does Square make money off this? Well, there is the usual two "top tier" currencies, in this case Mithril (which you can earn slowly by clearing dungeons) and Coins (great name...you buy these). Essentially, you can use either to revive a party on death (it's a waste, don't do it), refill your stamina (waste) or gamble for rare items (do this). For 5 Mithril you get a three star or higher weapon, but for 50 Mithril you get eleven, which I'd suggest saving for. You can also pay $1 for one draw or $10 for 11 draws, which is a horrible deal and a waste of money. With me saving 50 mithril, I turned my weak party into diabolical killing machines really easily, so don't put money in. I never did, and I got fat fast. Just saying.

All in all, Record Keeper is a fun diversion if you are nostalgic for the Final Fantasy series. It has a lot of technical problems, as well as some tedious starting gameplay, but for those who burn a few weeks worth of stamina on it they'll find a fun and fairly strategic Final Fantasy battle game. It isn't quite as good as I hoped it would be, but it's a billion times better than All the Bravest, so if you have a smartphone and love these games, you might as well give it a shot.

Just don't get too pissed off at the loading screens.

Three out of five stars. 

The Stygian Library Finished

So, the module is finally done. Here it is.
It's a project I started in June, first mentioned in this blog post. I've been working on it intermittently since, and finally got it done in a spurt of activity this month. It's out in time for halloween, too!

Really, this is a direct sequel to Ynn. The structure is exactly the same: you roll up locations as you explore deeper, building a map as you go. Some minor tweaks to this, such as the Progress score, minor alterations to running blindly, and what's on the Events table. But nothing huge. If you liked Ynn, you'll like this.
In terms of atmosphere, the Library is likewise similar to Ynn, with many of the same motifs appearing. Genteel yet dangerous environments, old machinary built into the space, mutation and madness. Things skew darker, though. Necromancy gets a big focus. Many of the monsters are ghosts of various forms, some of them the products of almost industrial processing. Other encounters are undead, or use the dead somehow. Similarly, many of the locations in the library feature magic that messes with the soul, and many of the library's machines use phantoms in the same way 20th century technology used electricity. Overall, when I've run it (or bits of it) you alternate between a sort of comfy 'English stately homes' feel, and a sense of subtle creepiness. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a horror game, but it has its spooky moments.
Mechanically, I've abstracted the process of finding specific information in the library to a running 'progress' score that accounts for navigating the place's layout, looking up references, putting facts together, and so on. Every time you read the right books, talk to the right NPCs, etc, you get a little bit closer to your goal. I've found that its fairly intuitive, since it mirrors the 'attrit away HP' mechanics we're familiar with: tot up numbers until you reach a goal.
There's books everywhere in the module. A d100 table for what a given shelf of books is about, and a couple of pages of special books that grant benefits to the reader. Bonuses to attributes in the manner of those old 'manual of bodily health' books, revelatory texts that let you switch class, occult works that let the magician or cleric add spells from the other's list to their own, that sort of thing. Rather than physical mutations, these books let you improve yourself through knowledge.
Lastly, there's a little class at the back, the Mummified Sage. Basically a scholar who's been in the library too long, died, and kept on researching without noticing. They get a little spellcasting (only one spell slot), some advantages for being undead, and a flat chance to recognise anything weird they encounter from their studies.

So, that's about it. Visually, it's a bunch of art nouveau and 19th century stuff mostly. All public domain. I think it works well together. The rest of the layout is pretty simple, with two collumns and big titles. It should work in play.

What now? I'm still hashing out and formalising the system I used to test it. I might bundle that system, this, Ynn and a hub location into a single omnibus. Howl's Moving Castle and Gormenghast are feeling like inspiration here, the players inherit an old magical mansion that they must explore, pacify and master, and which has portals leading to these two pocket dimensions.

So yeah. I'm happy enough with it, and I've had fun running it in tests. It's four bucks on DTRPG. You can get it here.

Excitebike: Track 4 - New World Record

After many resets I've managed to top the world record for Track 4 in Excitebike... This one is very frustrating and the run is bitter-sweet. Wow, just a very frustrating track, but still not the hardest!

Next up, the hardest track in the game! Track 5 is absolutely horrific to speedrun.

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